thelerner

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Everything posted by thelerner

  1. Vaccine

    Speaking of the Chinese- https://www.beijing-kids.com/blog/2015/09/18/protecting-against-disease-chinas-vaccination-schedule/Under Chinese law, all babies, Chinese or otherwise, born in a Chinese hospital must be injected with the hepatitis B vaccine (HBV) and tuberculosis-TB (BCG) vaccine immediately after birth. In 1992, China began the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) that involves a mandatory 11-vaccine schedule given to children from 0 to 6 years. The vaccination schedule is compulsory for Chinese citizens but optional for expats. That isn't because they're 'following the money' it's because they don't want to see the return of TB, Polio, and host of other easily preventable diseases that cripple and kill children and adults and can lead to outbreaks of epidemics. The leaders there looked at the science and made the rules based on it. Here's a paranoid country Russia, they vaccinate- https://www.nap.edu/read/11382/chapter/19 Not because they're beholden to U.S medical interests, no because they don't want to see epidemics and needless deaths and disease in there country. I could look at progressive countries, European, northern European but that'd be waste of time. I'm sure they have medical experts and serious researchers who care about the population's health and insist on vaccinations. We're beginning to see outbreaks of preventable diseases due to ignorance and fear. addon> actually I see that in Sweden it is voluntary but..https://www.thelocal.se/20160608/why-most-swedes-get-their-children-vaccinated An almost universal willingness among Swedish parents to vaccinate their children is keeping childhood diseases in the country under control, a new report shows. The study, carried out over the course of 2015 by Sweden’s Public Health Agency (FolkhĂ€lsomyndigheten) and Medical Products Agency (LĂ€kemedelsverket), shows that over 97 percent of toddlers in the country are vaccinated against the 10 diseases included in the national childhood vaccination programme. Most of these diseases are under control as a result, the agencies claim. Examples of diseases that are being kept in check are tetanus and rubella, of which there were no cases reported among Swedish children under the age of five in 2015. The bacterial infection haemophilus influenzae meanwhile had only one case reported among children from the same age group during the last year. The levels of whooping cough in Sweden have also fallen compared to 2014, though it remains at a higher level than between 2009 and 2013. A total of 45 children were treated in Swedish hospitals for whooping cough last year, with one fatality. Invasive pneumococcal disease meanwhile saw the lowest level of reported incidence among children under the age of two since a vaccine was first introduced in 2009. The general Swedish immunization program includes protection against ten diseases, including diphtheria, polio, measles, mumps and rubella. Children in specific risk groups are also offered vaccination against tuberculosis, hepatitis B and influenza. In its study, The Medical Products Agency said that it followed up on all adverse reactions to vaccinations reported in Sweden in 2015, and that their review showed that all vaccines were safe, with the most commonly reported side effects being fever and local swelling at the injection site.
  2. Vaccine

    There's other questions.. Will they be home schooled their entire life? Do you ever want them to attend summer camp?
  3. Vaccine

    listen to the science
  4. Animals are conscious, but maybe not so self conscious. Humans are very self conscious. In Western theology God is conscious; in Taoism is the Tao conscious or is more a set of rules? Is Nature conscious? Or a set of systems governed by rules?
  5. "Removed"

    Well, its the water that moves, but the gravitational effect is 'grabbing' the land too. Plus big as it is, the Earth is moving through frictionless space. Dollars to donuts, if it didn't circle us keeping the wobble in all directions, if it somehow was only one sided, it'd probably pull us out of orbit.. slowly. It's big, 20%ish 27% of our size and pretty close. If there was a good enough road, I could drive there.
  6. These days I don't have any nutritional 'systems', I probably don't have the self discipline for them. Rather I do recipes. Finding ones I like and making them my own. All the better if they're healthy and well rounded, plus its nice to have a big pot of something in the fridge. So I'll spend a month or two on chili, bone broth, paleo chocolate desserts or cassoulet.. The internet probably has almost as many recipes as it does porn, so if you're interested in anything, take a look at some recipes and go for it, experiment.. make'em your own. I blog about my cooking hopes and dreams here:
  7. "Removed"

    The moon is certainly shifting huge amounts of the ocean, ie tidal affects and causes the Earth to wobble a bit in its orbit. The moon circles us every 27.3 (synodic) days, so its always tugging and pulling somewhere. The study of Earth's wobble is fascinating and a little frightening- https://phys.org/news/2016-04-nasa-mysteries-earth.html Speaking of earthquakes, at first I doubted it but evidence is clear that Fracking can cause them. So far relatively mild localized ones, but it's not like there's decades of data on it. I'd add we've been digging deep exploring inside and around the earth for years, I'm sure there's much to discover but classic hollow earth theory has been put to rest by modern geologists. See Vice- https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywgexk/a-journey-to-the-center-of-modern-hollow-earth-theory
  8. Connections

    Hoping people can write about connections they've found. The likely and unlikely ones. Here's mine. I've been learning golf and recently started guitar and pool/billiard lessons. Pool really helped my golf game. During golf you go long periods without hitting the ball (for me looking for my ball), whereas in pool you're hitting pretty often giving you more actual practice time, with immediate feedback. Both are aim based and while the techniques are different the planning and concentration are very similar. In both the power of the strike, the focus is greatly helped by extension, relaxation, a feeling of freedom. In golf to get the speed it's good to feel like you're throwing the club itself far away. It's a simpler motion with the cue, but its a similar light yet snug grip and the teacher also said, feel like you're throwing it away. This relates to guitar too. I can't make good music, so I want to it away. No, that's not it. It's the strumming. You hear any tension in the hand. It's slows you down and the chords sound stilted. Only with the same 'throw it away' feeling do the chords play right, and that relaxation makes hitting the strings on the up strum easier. This is the same lesson I learned throughout Aikido, but without specific reminders it's easy to forget along the early learning curve. So guitar, golf, pool, Aikido.. all the same.
  9. Connections

    That reminds connects me to this..
  10. Making sense of "Yin" and "Yang" . . .

    I breath in.. yin I breath out.. yan I accept.. yin I oppose.. yan I spice up the stew.. yan I compliment it with simple peas.. yin
  11. Most Auspicious Orientation of Yin and Yang?

    I wonder what that would look like if spun quickly? I expect the black would blur, it could be at a certain speed of spin, you might get something close to the usual yin yan symbol. I like it for the emptiness, but seems like the world becomes a little black as it spins along.
  12. Acts 2:38

    Yesterday you had a bad thought. So saintly.. I had 2 bad thoughts just as I was reading this.
  13. Emotional

    I can't get seriously involved in philosophy of existence matters unless I've had a few drinks.. then they rock.
  14. Coming from a Shin Shin Toitsu Ki-Aikido background, chi was chi, or rather Ki. My sensei would give long lectures on it, starting with 'The Japanese dictionary has 2 pages of definitions on the word Ki..' Energy, life force, feeling, health .. In it's most practical sense we usually worked with Ki as intention and strong Ki being a vibrant expanding force. Different arts look Chi in different ways. I found it fascinating that Glenn Morris, an eclectic energy teacher and master in his own right, talked in terms of hot and cold chi. Hot was easy, cold harder and sought after for it balance. I believe he inferred woman had an advantage 'running' cold chi. His goal was getting into the state of Kan & Li. Other aspects.. some practices want to 'store/fill' chi, others say it's always circulating and the goal is to expand that circulation. So.. What do you think? River.. Ocean, puddle? Hot, Cold, Yin, Yan.. In your practice What is Chi and how is it worked with?
  15. Welcome, here are my thoughts. In my opinion there is fundamental work that comes before energy and psychological work. In this case Get some Sleep. A regular sleep pattern established. How.. well you got the internet, look around see what makes sense and try a few things, experiment until you get regular, which might take weeks or months. Check your diet too, being vegetarian is great but make sure you're getting good nutrition, nothing fancy, super foods and whatnot but good fats, enough protein etc., Allergies are draining, find pills that help, keep the cats out of your bed room, get an air cleaner etc., I've seen high level practitioners who burp like mad when they meditate so I don't know if that means anything. There are many meditation apps out there that set breathing patterns. Its nice to start short like 5 or 6 breathing in same number breathing out and over time work up. Slow breathing leads to relaxed mind and body. Mentally seems like you need to not worry so much. Easy, hard.. it's all just life. I'd recommend listening to a dharma(wisdom) talk every now and then. Look up Infinite smile (http://www.infinitesmile.org/) podcasts or something similar. There are dozens of them, soothing wisdom. I collect guided meditations. When I'm out of sort I'll listen to something like Kim Walsh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veETG-PczWk turning it into an mp3 for listening or something else uplifting. Lastly in fundamentals don't forget the value of connecting to other people. It's good that you're here but also make time with friends and/or new things and classes, from group meditation to beginning guitar and billiards, 2 things I'm working on now.
  16. hi from Chennai, India

    I look forward to your input. What kind of things do you practice?
  17. hello from prague

    Welcome, can't wait to hear some of your thoughts on philosophy here. Don't hesitate to create discussion threads dealing with subjects you want to explore.
  18. 玄牝äč‹é–€The secret door

    Very interesting. Can't help thinking I'm losing part of the meaning due to my lack of Chinese. Is 識焞 self-consiousness? Could you repeat the above without using Chinese characters? I find the concept that self-consciousness being the line between yin and yan fascinating.
  19. End of Seeking?

    I kinda think obsession is good, as long as you don't get trapped in it. If you want to go deep, sometimes you have to do something full on. Stop moderation and totally commit, go deep but stay there too long and you may lose perspective, lose a balanced life, which is fine for shorter terms, weeks, months.. a year.. but then its the time to keep the best and regain balance and perspective.
  20. Acts 2:38

    The last time I consciously did something bad was 4 hours ago. Ate an entire sausage pizza with onions and green peppers and washed it down with beer. Note, it was a small pizza and I enjoyed it. Will I correct it..? Why? Spent the weekend downtown Chicago, passed by dozens of beggars and wasn't charitable. Bad. A poor excuse is I was with another and followed there lead, and the beggars were 'professional' and in the same spot every day, not that it lessened there need, but there are times I consider it an 'act' for the many tourists and as a local I don't need to fall for it. Very self serving, rationalization.. but that's what I got. All I can say is at other times I am better. Still if bad is what tweaks the conscience then I've done 60 or 70 bad things this weekend. ** FWIW we donate canned food and makes dozens of sandwich bags (2 sandwiches, cookies & fruit) for the homeless twice a month. & volunteer to teach ESL 3 times a week (not me, my wife).
  21. Wanting to be right.

    Right or Wrong The World moves on and so must we
  22. sacred masculine

    Let's see how would I answer this- I'd put my hand up. I am a Man, due to birthright yet moreso to gradual development. Mostly in terms of taking on responsibility. Per my definition responsibility makes the man. Responsibility for my decisions, livelihood.. morality and willingness to defend those decisions. I am a man because I can put away childish things, make hard decisions, accept hardship and delay rewards. I am duty bound to protect woman, children and those unable to protect themselves and should leave the world a slightly better place. caveats* when I have time I enjoy childish things. I can help, protect and serve to the best of my limited ability and common sense but I'm no zealot. I'm reminded of a knife seminar I went to with the famous Aikido sensei Mitsugi Saotome, a fantastic teacher- who like Ueshiba, considered himself to have gone through Enlightenment. Early on he asked the large attendance Who is content with who they are? I was the only one who raised my hand. Maybe everyone else thought it was a trick question or something. In any case I got praise. (A little later on I was also one the few standing when during warm up rolls to standing, with sensei directing Up down, Up down, Up .. there was no down, but like Simon Sez most of the 60 people went down. But my sensei played that trick, and I didn't fall for it, not that time)
  23. Why live a Virtuous life?

    I've been taking classes in Mussar, an old Jewish wisdom/philosophy school on a more practical side, then say Kabbala. Much of it deals with soul traits. Positive ones.. charity, patience, forgiveness, equanimity, gratitude, strength etc., and negative ones anger. You spend time, weeks investigating your relationship with each soul trait. Generally the extremes are bad.. ie going to far. Say charity, its bad to bad to be stingy, but also hurting yourself to give everything away. You think about the trait and where you fall on its spectrum. You read up on thoughts (ie dharma speeches) of wise men.. contemplate where you should be then take actions that will get you there. Most of the time we do better with 'more' of the virtue, moving ourselves along the line, but not always. Each person is unique, you don't want to become artificial. Some need less of a particular trait to regain there balance. You have to be true to yourself, but find your best self. Which takes time and reflection.
  24. sacred masculine

    I don't know. Sometimes we need.. A break from ourselves.
  25. Plans Promises and Consequences

    Title: Politics of Weightloss Promise: Starting on Nov 1st 2017, I plan to lose 5#'s a month (relatively easy goal..at first) every month til I get down to 185#s. Plan: 5#'s from weight taken on first of the month. Avoid excess carbs(breads, sugars) Less Crap (fried foods, candy, pastry), Exercise more, Do 3 1/2 day fast end of month if not on track. Consequence: For each month weight loss hasn't been hit, I will pay $150 to a Trump PAC (negative) and $150 to Heifer Org. (positive charity) $300 in total. Addon> When I get to 185# I will pay $185 to Heifer. (positive goal reinforcement) Assumptions should take 4 or 5 months. I expect it to be easy at first, harder each successive month.. or not. I'll keep my notes within this post. Addon> Assumption this will run through February. Notes & Strategies: if successful consider extending a few months to keep weight off, ie similar PPC to stay at #185 or below. To answer Stosh below, you are correct, lose > 5lbs, still need 5lbs loss the following month. To Vajra Fist, yes I will do a 2 3/4 day fast (ala Tim Ferris) before giving money to a Trump PAC. Hopefully due to successful dieting and/or impeachment it won't be an issue. 2 days to go. Due to Chili party on Saturday, my house if full of leftovers, cakes, candy and liquor brought by kind but misguided friends. Thus been fattening up a bit. I hate letting Fannie May turtles go to waste.. and rumor has it genie's get trapped in opened wine bottles, and the only way to get them out is to finish it. So far no genie's but you never know. 1 day to go. After pool class hit the Tommy Nevin bar in Evanston. Fun place, they were doing Halloween trivia and playing cool music. Young Northwestern crowd. They have a pool table, but I didn't play. I did have 1 full Guiness, and a short one. I didn't want to eat, but it was Taco Tuesday with two buck Tacos. So I had 2. Bad.. that's enough of that. Though guiness is actually relatively low for a beer, lower then most craft and all IPA styles. Nonetheless, such things not allowed unless I'm having a cheat day. 11/1/17 Weight 207.6 (higher then expected) shouldn't be too hard to get to 202.6 by Dec. 11/8/ I'm sure there was decent weight loss until I went to Florida for 5 days. I tend to lose weight and also gain weight quickly. Five days of eating and drinking badly has resulted in 207.8#. No problem, just gotta buckle down a bit. 11/11/ So.. during 5 days in Florida I gained .2#'s, well probably more like 2- 3 pounds since I'd lost a bit before hand. Good news is in the 3 days I'm back I'm at 204.2 losing a pound plus each day (won't last). Mostly by eating cleaner, plus smaller portions. Breakfast one egg veggie omelet, lunch homemade beef barley soup, dinner fish or chicken w/ veggies. Plus I usually have one cheat a day. Yesterday happy hour dinner w/ one drink and seared tuna appetizer (plus slice of son's leftover pizza). 11/13 at 13 days in and latest reading is 202.8, within .2# to my goal. Yet what the dieting gods take away, they can give back even faster. I'm grading my meals(A+ to F), trying to keep things simple and repetitive. It'd be nice to get at or below 200# this month. Beyond weight loss the point is to gain healthy lifetime habits. 11/16 202.0 Grading each meal helps and is quick. From A+ down to an F based on calories, nutrition, also taste and satisfaction. Sometimes w/ a healthy salad, I can't get no.. satisfaction.