text:
Doesn't this offseason feel like it has taken an eternity to pass? Last year we at least had Olympic hoops to hold us over for a few weeks in August. This year, we have had to pretend to enjoy baseball for far too long. The Vikings have been an abysmal cesspool of ineptitude, which has provided no solace while in NBA purgatory. The Wolves are back, and hopefully ready to FINALLY enamor the city once again.
Since just about every iteration of every Wolves preview has already been published with a smattering of predictions that the Wolves will finish as a 7th or 8th seed team if healthy, will not be able to defend well, etc. etc. etc., I will attempt to spare the repetition. Maybe. Here are a few quick and hopefully different "keys to success" for the year, several of many, in an effort to not waste your time by repeating the obvious (e.g. Love, Pek and Rubio need to be awesome).
1. Myth: "Ricky Rubio needs to improve his jump shot." This, to me, is easily the biggest myth surrounding Timberwolves basketball (aside from the fact that this team isn't good). This miscast idea that Rubio's future success is hinged on him becoming a better outside shooter. A deadeye jumpshot would help, but it is not the main problem facing Rubio's inconsistent scoring contributions. Rubio has 3 point range. He can hit a few at a passable clip. What makes Rubio so difficult to watch when he is attempting to score is his inability to finish shots near the basket. This is what Rubio needs to improve upon in order to be discussed among the stalwart defensive/distributing PG's such as Rajon Rondo or Jason Kidd, his most commonly cited comparisons. Perhaps this is a bit of hyperbole, but Rubio's inside game is at a high school level of development, or lower. The moves are not there, the touch is not there. He can get to where he wants on the floor despite a lack of explosiveness, but when he gets near the hoop to attempt a shot, even on fast breaks, it is usually accompanied by an awkward, sliding fadeaway to the left that rarely goes in. Think JJ Barea's backdown move/fadeaway from about 2 feet south of the free throw line and the subsequent "Clang" off the front of the rim. Only with Rubio, there is a "thump" as the ball hits the backboard and nothing else, and creates one of several wasted possessions per game. It's bad. And as much as many of us fans are enamored with the kid, I think we can start to come to terms with this dreadfully underdeveloped portion of his game.
To rub salt in the wound, understand that Rubio's inside shooting percentage was 41% last season, which tied for worst in the NBA with former Wolves darling Randy Foye. This is a full 14 percentage points below the league average. He is horrendous in close. If you want an area for improvement, this is most certainly it. Especially considering a lot of Rubio's damage should theoretically be done in the open court on fast breaks, with him often times finishing the break with a layup. Let the jumper come naturally, as it will.
2. The Wolves need to stay healthy, and more importantly, play through some pain. "Wait, this isn't a unique idea!" I know, I know, but it is relevant enough, and too big of a factor to ignore, and related to the next two points.The injury conversation has been discussed ad-nauseum in the Wolves' corner of the internet. It has been the same song and dance for about two years now and if you are reading this, this paragraph is going to be far from insightful (probably one among many, but I had to whip this up quick). The season is once again dependent on whether our oft-injured stars can play more than half of a season. Oft-injured AK47 is out and has been replaced with the also oft-injured Kevin Martin. The story continues.
The good news is, just about everyone is healthy for opening night, which did not happen last year. But understand this: tonight will, in all likelihood, be one of the healthier teams we see at any given point in the season. Pek will miss time. Martin will miss time. Ditto Love and Rubio. These 4 just aren't a durable bunch and I highly doubt this changes much now, most particularly Pek and Martin. But one of the things Flip discussed when he was hired, was determining solutions for players to play through their injuries. It seemed anything as small as a papercut put a player on the scratch list for a week or more last season. The bottom line is, the elite teams of the league aren't guys who trot around the court injury and pain free. A sore ankle isn't something that should keep you out of NBA action. And last year, when little bit injuries like this happened, the lineups the Wolves trotted out were nothing short of unwatchable. Thus:
3. It is imperative someone make a "leap" from the bench unit. This should be Derrick Williams, but let's not hold our collective breath. It could be Shved. It could Barea having a healthy resurgence. Maybe Bazz plays his way into the rotation and continues his plot to become the next Lance Stephenson with his rebounding and inside game. But it has to be someone. Anything less is an instant trip back to the lottery. There are going to be plenty of nights this season where at least one of the "core 4" are out, and we just can't handle situations where the bench guys pull a Greg Stiemsma and get totally exposed while playing starters minutes. The mental toughness has to be there. An encouraging sign was the play of Shved and Barea in the preseason. Both played with their usual warts fully visible, but both shot the ball very well from outside, and Barea emerged as a shockingly efficient scorer in those games. Hopefully he sustains at least a somewhat favorable fraction of this production into the season. For if he doesn't, and the bench continues the deer-in-headlight routine in times of need a la last season, it could get quite ugly. Good teams have players who step up in times of need. For the past two seasons, the Wolves lacked exactly that.
4. The "Relative Depravity" bit among the fanbase. I have been casually reading Malcolm Gladwell's newest book David and Goliath which is an interesting read about why underdogs tend to succeed, and why we may have advantages in certain situations where we appear to have a disadvantage, and vice versa. One of the examples in this book is how high school academic prodigies attend Ivy League schools, and after a dozen years of academic triumph, develop feelings of inadequacy as a result of taking on the toughest and most challenging course loads in the world, and not seeing the success they saw in high school. As a result, certain folks in certain fields get overwhelmed with this false sense of relative inadequacy, and change to an easier major. The argument here is that this wouldn't have happened had they, say, attended a less competitive school, where the course loads are more manageable. This is called "relative depravity." Being an Ivy League graduate (if you make it through) may not appear to be as advantageous as one might think, vs. being one of the smartest students at a less prestigious university. Sort of like how Kevin Love blew up on an awful Timberwolves team a few years ago.
The key here, as it applies to the Wolves, is that the fanbase (me definitely included) tends to seem a bit more downtrodden and discouraged coming into this season than last year. So many injuries to this squad (which lead to actual starting lineups of Rubio, Ridnour, Gelebale, Cunningham, and Stiemsma in professional basketball games) have lead to a bit of a mischaracterization of this team as being not very good. Since we are so used to seeing awful lineups go up against healthy teams, we think we are worse than we are. Some seem to expect similar results, or modest improvement, this year even if the team is healthy. This just isn't true. Remember early 2011. This was pretty much the only time our "big 3" played together consistently and it was easily one of the most exciting times in T-Wolves history. These 3, with a vastly inferior supporting cast than we see today, beat teams like a then-good Dallas, San Antonio, and LAC on the regular. While the defensive issues will keep this team from getting very far into to the playoffs, with good health, the Wolves are absolutely poised to be the surprise team of the Western Conference. IF the health is favorable, and IF someone from the bench unit makes a significant leap in their game this season to help spell the inevitable, hopefully short-term, injuries that will occur. These are two big "if" statements, but there is plenty of reason to be optimistic and not think too deep into last season's almost comical barrage of injuries which is simply the only reason the Wolves ended up back in the lottery.
Tonight vs. Orlando:
So, all of that being said, we are finally here, and playing what should likely be yet another another exhibition-level contest against a team that is in the midst of a tank, and also began its season against the Pacers last night. Now, after being physically dominated by the Pacers, they have to play against what could very well be one of the most up-tempo teams in the league. I don't love the Magic's chances tonight.
Keys for tonight:
-Trap Jameer and Afflalo. Keep Jameer from distributing and deny Afflalo 3 point shot attempts. Luckily this isn't a game where Love and Pek have to work too hard defensively to deny their matchups opportunities, so keep Harkless from being active from the mid range, and stay tight on Afflalo from outside and the starting unit should have little difficulty controlling the game early.
-Keep Vucevic off the glass. Luckily there is nary a better rebounding duo than Pek and Love in the league ready and hungry to thwart one of Orlando's limited NBA advantages.
-Prevent Oladipo from having his first of many breakout games. Luckily his outside shot still needs work, and Turiaf has shown he can adequately and surprisingly defend well at the rim. Keep him out of the lane where he does his finest work and Shved hopefully won't look like too much of a defensive liability as the backup 2. It would seem VO is on a 20 minute limit to start the year, but if he comes in and lights up the Wolves bench early, he could be the x-factor for Orlando tonight in keeping the game close.
-Beat them offensively. This is going to be a common theme for the Wolves this season. All too common. The Wolves are armed with vastly superior offensive weapons than Orlando and the Magicians shouldn't fare well attempting to keep up with the Wolves on the scoreboards. This should be an easy win.
Final prediction….6th seed in the West. 50-32 record. Because why not be optimistic and bet high? The playoff picture never ends up how we imagine pre-season; the mighty fall (here is looking at you Grizzlies and Spurs, my "mighty will fall" picks) and the little guys rise. The Wolves are the Warriors of this season. I believe!


text:
Mayor's Office
Mayor Chris Beutler today announced two changes to his proposed City budget for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 fiscal years:
The Mayor presented his first biennial budget to the City Council July 9. The changes will be included in the budget resolution, the legal language the Mayor will submit later this week.
"The resolution will preserve the key tenets of my original proposal - no tax increase, no major program cuts and no inappropriate use of one-time monies that create budget gaps in future years," the Mayor said. "I strongly believe that a successful City Hall is one that listens, responds and strives to create consensus. The proposed budget changes are positive steps in that direction, but we aren't done yet. We will continue to work with the Council and the public throughout the budget process for the good of the community."
Under the new proposal, police officers would continue to investigate non-injury traffic crashes. Insurance companies and others who request the reports would be charged $15, the same fee charged by the State for accident reports. "The fee is a reasonable compromise that maintains a service but appropriately charges those who benefit from that service," Beutler said..
The Mayor said the Prairie in the Parks program has several advantages. The City saves taxpayer dollars by reducing the mowing of park areas not used heavily. And he said replacing existing grasses with native plants provides natural habitat for wildlife and restores the natural beauty of the areas.
But he said the transition has been challenging because it takes several years to establish native plants.
"Some park areas haven't looked good as weeds have competed with the native grasses," Beutler said. "Additional funding will help to better establish these areas and allow Parks to provide some limited additional mowing in areas where experience is telling us that we need to mow more frequently."
The resolution also will include a plan for additional sales tax revenue if that revenue exceeds the estimates of a four-percent increase each year. Additional funds would first be used to cover any losses the City may experience as a result of State changes taking effect January 1 for the City's telecommunications tax. Beyond that, additional funds would be directed into the Police and Fire Pension fund.
The City Council will meet at 3:30 p.m. Friday, July 20 to discuss tentative changes to the Mayor's recommended budget. The meeting is in Room 113 at the County-City Building, 555 S. 10th. Other upcoming budget meetings include the following:
These meetings will be in the City Council Chambers at the County-City Building. They will be carried live on 5 CITY-TV (government access cable channel 5) and will be available through video-on-demand at lincoln.ne.gov.
Information on the 2012-2014 City budget will be published in the Neighborhood Extra in the Lincoln Journal Star Saturday, July 28. Budget information also is available online at lincoln.ne.gov (keyword: budget).

subset: commoncrawl


text: IDC: Tech marketing budgets down 0.5% this year Published on October 03, 2013. Framingham, Mass.—Tech marketing budgets will be down 0.5% this year compared with last year, according to IDC's 2013 Tech Marketing Benchmark Study, released Wednesday during a conference call with IDC clients. The 11th annual study was based on an online survey of 90 senior marketers at technology companies, conducted between June 1 and Aug. 21. The respondents represent companies with average annual revenue of $9.1 billion. IT marketing revenue will be up 1.5% over last year, according to the study. The average marketing budget ratio (marketing spending/total revenue) is 1.9% this year. Software companies have an average of 3.9%, while hardware companies have an average of 1.9% and IT service providers have an average of 0.6%. While marketing budgets are down slightly, 51.0% of tech marketers plan to increase budgets compared with 36.0% that plan to decrease budgets. The rest will keep budgets the same. Most Popular In this article: BtoB


text:
JL Audio SB-B-X5/10W1v3
Stealthbox for 2000-2006 BMW X5
Get FAST answers from customers ASK a Question See questions answers
Subwoofer Features:
- One JL Audio 10W1v3-2 Subwoofer
- Power Handling:
- RMS: 300 watts
- Recommended power range: 75 - 300 watts RMS
- Wired to a 2 ohm load
- Injection molded, mica-filled polypropylene cone
- Rubber surround
- DMA-optimized motor design
- Elevated frame cooling enhances power and sound quality
- Patented "floating cone attach method" technology
- Vented Reinforcement Collar
- Insert Molded Suspension / Coil / Terminal Sub-Assembly
- Engineered Lead-Wire System
- Xmax: 11.0 mm
- Sensitivity: 83.9 dB
- Matching Amplifier: JL Audio XD300/1v2
- Authorized Internet Dealer
- 2 Year Manufacturer's Warranty
Enclosure Features:
- For 2000-2006 BMW X5
- Side-firing design
- Sealed enclosure
- Stealthbox® Installs in the passenger side rear cargo area behind factory panel
- Binding post terminals for secure and sturdy connection and installation
- Replaces OEM "subwoofer" system, if vehicle is so equipped
- OEM Color: All
- Color Match Grade: N/A
Check out the JL Audio SB-B-X5/10W1v3 Owner's Manual
Subwoofer Specifications
Round/Circle: This is the typical and common subwoofer design. They have a round cone and are a circle in design.
Square: These woofers are able to achieve a greater cone area in a smaller space. Because of the greater surface area, some square subwoofers will be louder than a round subwoofer of the same size.
Efficiency (1w/1m) is not an accurate indicator of a subwoofer's output capability and should not be used as a comparison to other speakers or subwoofers to determine which one is "louder".
Enclosure Specifications
Binding post terminals are a sturdier, more versatile type of speaker terminal. Because binding post terminals are are threaded, you can tighten them down against the wire or connector for a tight, clean connection. The most popular style of binding post terminals is known as a "5-way binding post". This type can accept bare wire, or any of the common speaker wire connectors. Binding posts with the option to be used with banana clips are even more versatile
Spring posts are a hybrid of the two. Instead of using a thread and "screwing" them tight, they use a spring to allow the wire to fit and tighten against the terminal.
Sealed - Sealed boxes are those that have no holes or vents in it. The only hole in a sealed box is where the subwoofer is installed. Smaller sealed boxes require more power than a larger sealed box. They provide a tight, accurate bass, while the larger sealed enclosures provide a "boomier" and louder bass.
Ported / Vented - Ported/Vented Enclosures provide an even boomier, louder bass, but less accurate then a small, sealed box. Ported enclosures typically require more airspace per sub and also less power output from an amplifier to perform correctly.
Bandpass - Bandpass enclosures make subwoofers perform efficiently, but loose. The bass is not as "boomy" as a ported enclosure nor as punchy as a sealed enclosure. Bandpass enclosures work well with lower to mid-level subwoofers.
Specials with this Item
Warranty and Return Policy
Summary of Customer Ratings & Reviews
Product Summary
Model Number
Internal SKU
Internal Product ID
Wiring Diagram Legend
Warning: The image depicted shows the resistance change when wiring multiple subwoofer terminals. Please refer to your subwoofer's owner's manual for the proper wiring of its terminals. Sonic Electronix, Inc. is not responsible for damage caused to your audio system or vehicle due to improper installation. Please call tech support at 1-877-289-7664 if you require additional assistance.


text:
Message Board
Kirk Russell Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Russell has written!
Author Russell's Book Reviews
Night Game
Morrow, Oct 2004, 23.95, 365 pp. ISBN: 081184112X California Department of Fish & Game Special Operations Chief Lieutenant John Marquez and his undercover team investigate poachers who are using torturous devices to capture and slaughter bears to sell body parts to healers. The violators are organized, professional, and one step ahead of the game wardens because they hacked into the law enforcement computers. No one interferes with this shadowy...


text: If you love dogs as much as we do, you've come to the right place. Petcha's Dog Breeds section is home to our comprehensive list of dog breed profiles, and is the best place to start when boning up (pun intended!) on the pup you're considering taking home. Here, our editors have curated the very best in dog breed basics, with the intention of giving you a crash course in your favorite breed's history, temperament, projected size and special needs. Sit, stay and sniff around a while.


text:
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- A Florida man who killed a vagrant with an ax and ate his brain and eyes has been committed to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital in Connecticut after being found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Tyree Lincoln Smith, 36, of Lynn Haven, Fla., was ordered committed Monday by a three-judge panel in Bridgeport Superior Court. The panel in July found him not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
Smith apologized for killing Angel Gonzalez, whose mutilated body was found in a vacant apartment in Bridgeport in January 2012, a month after he was hacked to death.
"I'm really sorry for what I did, that I couldn't be myself," Smith told the judges. "It really had nothing to do with the other person."
The apology surprised relatives of Gonzalez who were in the courtroom, the Connecticut Post reported (http://bit.ly/15SsdIE ).
"We waited two years to hear Tyree say he was sorry," said Talitha Frazier, who wore a T-shirt with Gonzalez's photograph. "What he said today caught me off-guard, but I feel he meant what he said."
Judges John Kavanewsky, John Blawie and Maria Kahn were urged by a prosecutor and social worker to protect society from Smith.
"He poses a significant danger to himself and the community," psychiatric social worker Julie Jacobs testified.
State's Attorney John Smriga added, "I am concerned there is an expectation he would do this to other people if he was allowed to be free."
Smith, who grew up in Bridgeport and Ansonia, Conn., was committed to the Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown.
His cousin, Nicole Rabb, testified in July that she saw Smith on one evening in December 2011 carrying a bloody ax and chopsticks and wearing pants that appeared to have blood on them. She said Smith told her he killed a man with the ax, ate his brain and eyeballs and drank sake in a local cemetery.
A psychiatrist testified that Smith heard voices that told him to eat Gonzalez's brain to better understand human behavior and eat his eyes to gain vision into the "spiritual realm."
Information from: Connecticut Post, http://www.connpost.com


text:
Select Newspaper
Compose Ad
Dates & Payment
Stop leakages in Bathrooms/ Terraces, Walls with 5 yrs warranty. German Technology. Best rate with Payment options. Call: 0000000000.
EX CID/Police/LLB solves movement of pre/post matrimonial cases, land problems, secret investigation and any other legal solution. (Agency Name): 0000000000/ 0123456789.
Termite, Cockroaches, Bed-bugs, etc. 30 years experience. Best Pest Control Services: 0000000000.
Interior Designing (Residential/ Commercial) at very moderate rates. Contact for appointment 0000000000.
(Name) Tank Clean Services at very moderate rates. Call: 0000000000.
Detectives: Get proof of your spouse/Employee cheating you, Shadowing, Missing, Any problem call 0000000000.
(Name) provides cleaning services like Carpets, Sofa, and Chairs, Wet & Dry Shampooing, Floor Scrubbing & Pest Control with Imported Material. Fully Automated Machines at doorstep.0000000000.


text:
Morgan Freeman Drops Truth Bomb On The Media's Push For Further Racial Divide
Race has been such a huge topic in the media lately and I believe there is a specific reason for that. If we look past the elite agendas seeking to divide humanity and create more hate amongst us, we see that the resurgence of racial tensions brings forth an opportunity to not only observe humanity's 'ego shadows' in action, but also work to move past them.
Yes there is still racism on this planet, and hate. We know that and can see that. But is it truly present to the extent that it's made out to be in the media? Is the purpose of so much coverage simply to create more drama and divide?
In a conversation with Morgan Freeman on CNN in 2014, Don Lemon reveals how sick he is of having to talk about race on the news and that, while he realizes it's an important issue, he believes it's being focused on too heavily — a belief he acknowledges he may be penalized for sharing on air. Morgan Freeman responds with something I used to say when I was a kid in my early years of school, that "if you talk about it, it exists. Making it a bigger issue than it needs to be is the problem here."
This is precisely how I've felt about so many things in my life, and it was only later in life that I realized such hype was strategically being put in place by an elite working to further divide humanity. I'm not suggesting we don't and shouldn't raise awareness about our challenges on this planet; I'm saying there is a vast difference between obsessing over it with pure anger and frustration and actually talking about it intelligently and productively.
The latter I believe we fail to do for most issues on this planet. We simply fight to decide who's right and who's wrong, arguing over who we can call a worse name, yet we never actually look at the core of why humans even feel the way we do about things. Instead of looking at the root causes of things, we try to force people to change by making them feel terrible about their beliefs. That, I promise you, will never change anything. We must begin to face our challenges from a place of love and understanding to pave the way for people to even feel welcome in questioning their own beliefs. If you don't agree with that, think of where we've come doing things the way we always have. Does it work? The hate, the war, the fighting? Has it truly stopped anything? No.
Back to the media. The news functions in a way that requires drama to maintain attention. The more drama that can be thrust into the news on a daily basis, the more viewers and therefore the more profit — it's quite crazy when you truly think about it.
So what does that mean? We see things over and over and over, to a point where we can no longer rationalize the scale at which something is happening — like terrorism, for example. You would think with the amount it's talked about and the level of security that exists, we were having terrorist attacks in North America every single day. But we're not, not even close. But this is the job of an elite-controlled media — to make it feel as though we are constantly under threat.
In the videos below, Morgan Freeman and Don Lemon chat about whether or not genetics or race affect income and success. There are several powerful points embedded here, and I believe it's very relevant today with all that is going on. It's a great reflection piece for us all to look at things in a different light.
An Uncomfortable Truth
Talking about race has become incredibly challenging, at least in part because so many of us are quick to find racism in every comment or action. Merely suggesting we need to take a new approach in evolving beyond the need for racism will often result in getting called a racist yourself.
My skin is white, and although I don't define myself by my skin or even my human body (I simply understand that I am a soul having a human experience), the very fact of my skin's whiteness means, for many people, that I can take no part in this conversation. I believe this type of thinking is another challenge we face.
As Morgan Freeman and Don Lemon suggest in the above interview, I believe we must take the approach of looking at how we can truly move beyond what we feel race defines for us in our journey on this planet. I'm sure we have all had a racially charged experience in one way or another happen to us. I know I have, regardless of the fact that I'm white. But as much as this is an uncomfortable truth for us, we have to begin to look at the point the video above is truly making: We have the power within ourselves to do anything we wish. Period. Regardless of race, gender, circumstance, etc. We do.
We can go on as long as we choose believing that the opposite is true, but the truth will remain. Why give up all your power to someone or something else when you truly have it all within you?
In the meantime, as we get ourselves into that knowing, yes, let's continue to assist one another in moving past whatever racial dislikes, frustrations, and angers people may have toward one another. It is still something we have to work through together here, but let's do it from a place of understanding, helping people to see how we could thrive in a world where these disconnected feelings are not present.
And if you're thinking, "Yeah well, try telling that to crazy white supremacists. They'll never listen or change." I ask: Are you going to let a small fraction of the people on this planet decide whether or not this entire planet can thrive? You're going to give them THAT much power? I certainly won't. I'm going to make it so they have to shift because no one is even paying attention. The beliefs and challenges they face within themselves will become so obvious to them that they will either evolve or simply be shut out of the world we are creating, and it will be their choice which path they go down — not anyone forcing anything on them.
We have an incredible amount of power within ourselves to do and become anything we choose individually and collectively. We simply have to remember to not give that power away so frequently.
CE Podcast Episode #18: Why We Get So Offended
We Need Your Support...
The demand for Collective Evolution's content is bigger than ever, except ad agencies and social media keep cutting our revenues. This is making it hard for us to continue.
In order to stay truly independent, we need your help. We are not going to put up paywalls on this website, as we want to get our info out far and wide. For as little as $3 a month, you can help keep CE alive!
Personal Development
The Barriers We Build Against Love
In Brief
- The Facts:
As children we needed to be loved. We were entirely dependent on the adults around us, so the way they acted towards us - and each other - has had a big impact on how we show up to love as adults.
- Reflect On:
What are some of the barriers you put up that stop you from feeling your own love? At what age were these barriers to love created and why?
"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." ~ Rumi
Many people are still looking for their 'other half', venturing out on more and more dates, casting the net wider until they find someone to complete them. And when it doesn't work out just as they planned, they jump back onto their smartphones, 'unfriend' the offending partner and swipe themselves another one.
And yet many of us also know that, deep down, another human being is never going to be able to make us whole and that the fairy tale of meeting our Prince/ss Charming is just that – a fairy tale. We understand that true love comes from within and when we love ourselves – fully – only then can we truly love another.
This is great, in theory, because for many of us, self-love stuff is still very much an intellectual concept that we strive to reach in the same way that some people strive to meet someone new when their last relationship hits a wall. Striving for self-love is not the essence of self-love. Discovering the barriers to love may well be what we need.
Barriers to love
Rumi is rumoured to have said that our task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within ourselves that we have built against it. It's likely that he knew a thing or two about life and love. Self-love can be tricky – sure, we get it, intellectually. We know it's necessary to "love ourselves" but aside from eating healthier, daily exercise and spending more time doing the things we love, it can be hard to get over that ultimate hurdle.
So what is it that gets in the way? What are these barriers that Rumi speaks of and why are they there at all?
We all have them. They're made up of the internal voices that tell us that we "don't deserve to be loved and happy". Or that there's something intrinsically 'wrong' with us. That we are somehow 'broken' and if anyone actually found out the truth about us they would surely leave us.
These barriers to love are constantly running in the background; a low hum that unconsciously speaks to everything we do, every action (and inaction) we take. Unlike the self-loving 'apps' that we consciously choose (weekly yoga sessions, salad and connecting with friends), these barriers form a part of our internal 'operating system' and are generally in shadow for us.
What you realize is, we don't need to go out and love ourselves, we already do, we simply need to take down the barriers blocking that.
We Are Not Born With These Barriers
Not one of us came into this world with pre-erected barriers to love; it's learned behaviour. We learned them from the adults around us at the time. We might have learned that 'love' was scary and shouty, or that if you love someone it should be dramatic. We might have learned that 'love' was silent, sulky and certainly not communicated through affection.
What was happening around you as a child has likely informed your decisions about the type of partner you choose as an adult. Repeating patterns are not always pleasant, but they're certainly familiar.
In addition to how we saw the world and what we learned about love when we were children, we were also extremely vulnerable. Something as subtle as having overly critical or emotionally unavailable parents can have a big impact on who and how you are as an adult. Through little eyes, the world can look like a dangerous place and it's likely that you employed protection strategies that may have stopped you from getting hurt, emotionally or physically.
Creating a tough outer shell or a sentinel-like vigilance may have been necessary when you were 3 feet tall, but how is that working for you now? How are the protective behavioural patterns you employed as a child serving you in your life as an adult?
In my own life, I have sometimes struggled to connect fully; to really let my partner in. My experience as a child taught me that loving relationships were not easy and they wouldn't last. So as an adult, it felt safer to never let anyone come too close, in case the same thing happened again.
All the self-loving actions in the world couldn't compete with my unconscious internal message that love was unsafe and ultimately destined to end.
Whilst it may sound quite depressing; on the contrary, I have found it to be massively empowering. As I now know this about myself, I can make a decision when I feel myself withdrawing, I can choose to come closer and to see this as a pattern that was created many years ago in order to protect me – it's not who I am. Because of this, I am now so much closer to my current partner.
Discovering your personal barriers to love
It's taken me many years to discover my own barriers to love and I'm still uncovering more and more layers of the onion each day. There's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to discovering what's getting in the way of you and the love you deserve, but there are proven tools and techniques that can help. My most recent 'ah-ha' moment came whilst taking part in an online workshop known as the Groundwork.
Collective Evolution readers get 25% off the standard price and you will get to learn more about some of the tools and techniques I used at www.dothegroundwork.com (use the coupon code: collective to get your 25% discount).
When you discover your unique barriers to love, know that you created them a long time ago with your own best interests and safety at heart. Dissolve them with the love they were created with; acknowledging and thanking the little one, that still lives inside you, for being there and for doing the best they could when things got tough.
'Black Jesus' Story Stunningly Corroborated In An Obscure Nexus Magazine Article
In Brief
- The Facts:
An obscure Nexus article from 2001 provides stunning details about the 'Black Jesus' story told by David Wilcock from an earlier article, and sheds important light on the brutality inflicted in Africa by Colonial powers and the Roman Catholic Church.
- Reflect On:
Does this information help make it clear that our mainstream perception of history and of other cultures has been a tightly controlled deception by Western powers?
One of our readers named Antonia, who had read my previous article 'The Incredible Story Of The "Black Jesus" From The 1960s,' was kind enough to send me a PDF file of a back issue from Nexus Magazine containing the article, "An African Messiah: The Third Secret Of Fatima?" (Nexus Magazine 2001 Volume 8, Number 5). Years back she had heard stories about this Nexus article from her uncle, and contacted Nexus in the hopes they could locate it. After a weeks-long process they found it and converted it to a PDF for her (there were only paper copies at the time). This article provided me with some fascinating corroborating details about the 'Black Jesus' story, in addition to some fresh insights into African history that I had never heard of or even imagined before.
In the excerpt from the article below, there is testimony that corroborates the idea that a man with supernatural abilities, pictured above and going by the name Simeon Toko, had been able to bring himself to life in front of astonished witnesses after having been slaughtered to pieces. Furthermore, while in my previous article David Wilcock recounted that those trying to kill the 'Black Jesus' were the 'cabal', this Nexus article more specifically identifies the Vatican and the Catholic Missionaries/Priests in Africa as having a big hand in this, and it was clearly not an isolated incident. Cruel and oppressive actions were typical of the Catholic Church throughout their forage into Africa, which provides us with a clear context for our story that is worth highlighting here:
The damage that Christian missionaries have done to the psychology of human kindness in Africa over the centuries is untold. Missionaries routinely accompanied soldiers who came to steal lands and loot for their home European country. The procedure went as follows: the missionary would stand and read aloud an edict in Latin to whatever villagers had gathered. The edict, completely incomprehensible to the villagers, ordered that each of them must at that moment convert to Christianity or be killed or enslaved. After it was read, the guns and swords were put to work. The soldiers felt justified in their murders through the benediction and authority of the Roman Church. Through varying interpretations of the works of Church fathers, the Roman Church developed a system of permissible murder and looting, and it was used routinely.
The missionaries would then go to work on the remaining people. The children were taught that their parents' intelligent, peaceful beliefs were "from the devil" and that they were to accept poverty "for the good of their souls", whereas the conquerers were supposedly blessed by God with superior might and wealth and so had to be obeyed.
The article also describes African culture in ways that were quite eye-opening to me, in that I didn't realize how much I had retained the brainwashing of Western propaganda in terms of my knowledge and understanding of the people and the character of African societies:
Much of the media news from Africa in the past 80 years has been presented as political rebellion and tribal warmongering or as a battle between "good" civilised countries versus "evil" communists over the souls of Africans who are still considered uncivilised, superstitious and too immature, individual by individual, to be left to themselves…what with all those raw materials and diamonds yet needing to be dug up. This is the general bias of news reporting from Africa as I remember it since my own childhood. It's not much different now. We tend to think of the African peoples with a distortion somewhere between a bouquet of jokes about banana republics and a vague, distant horror of unexplainable war and slaughter.
The first slave traders who came to Africa in the 15th century CE found an advanced society dominated by a monotheism with a powerful code of ethics. They did not find half-naked people in grass skirts with bones through their noses. They did not find rows of fat little stone fertility goddesses and voodoo fetishes. They found an intelligent, friendly, dignified people who had created beautiful avenues, pleasant buildings, well-regulated agricultural fields and fine clothing.
Because of the length of the article, I have divided it into two parts. This first part gives an important background to the life of Simeon Toko. Know that the writing is a bit dense and has many Christian undertones, but I think this is an important part of understanding the zeitgeist in Africa at that time, and is certainly worth your time and effort to plow through. You will find a link to second part, which describes the life and miracles of Simeon Toko, the 'Black Jesus,' at the end of this article.
An African Messiah: The Third Secret Of Fatima? (Part 1 – Background)
Few Westerners are aware of the spectacular religious activity that has been thundering with incalculable exuberance through the hearts of millions of Africans in our just-passed century. Men and women have been seeing vision after vision, sign after sign, and wonder after wonder. There are national holidays commemorating miracles—not from centuries ago by some old saint whose paint has long since peeled, but within the last few decades and witnessed by thousands of ordinary citizens still walking among us.
Religious scholars whom I have contacted as independent sources have been recording the activity with intense fascination. Relatively little is known, and scholars are quite eager to learn more. They may be gathering information that could eventually form a "new" New Testament. It may well be that we are viewing the beginnings of a new civilization formed around a new Christ, which, like the occasion that started our present one 20 centuries ago, remains relatively unknown in the world until some time after the events that then inspire so many millions for centuries to come.
This book extract featured here is primarily about a man named Simeon Toko, who died in 1984. Simeon Toko appeared before people in an apparitional body and in dream states while he was physically alive, and continues to do the same among certain selected people 17 years after his willing, natural death. At least one witness says that he, personally, killed this man—quite professionally, as a hired killer—and saw him alive again a few days later. Others still living at the time of this writing say they saw Toko physically slaughtered, and watched him bring himself back to life before their astonished eyes. There is a very large body of testimony, of which only a little has yet been recorded or written down from eyewitnesses.
Much of the media news from Africa in the past 80 years has been presented as political rebellion and tribal warmongering or as a battle between "good" civilised countries versus "evil" communists over the souls of Africans who are still considered uncivilised, superstitious and too immature, individual by individual, to be left to themselves…what with all those raw materials and diamonds yet needing to be dug up. This is the general bias of news reporting from Africa as I remember it since my own childhood. It's not much different now. We tend to think of the African peoples with a distortion somewhere between a bouquet of jokes about banana republics and a vague, distant horror of unexplainable war and slaughter.
The first slave traders who came to Africa in the 15th century CE found an advanced society dominated by a monotheism with a powerful code of ethics. They did not find half-naked people in grass skirts with bones through their noses. They did not find rows of fat little stone fertility goddesses and voodoo fetishes. They found an intelligent, friendly, dignified people who had created beautiful avenues, pleasant buildings, well-regulated agricultural fields and fine clothing. They found a people who practised the old Mosaic code, essentially (students of Mosaic law will note how much of it resembles the Egyptian code). They found a people whose language (Kikongo), linguists have shown, contains scores of words found in biblical Hebrew and in later European languages and thus pre-dates these. They may well have found what happened to the so-called lost tribes of the kingdom of Israel.
Except that the subsequent four centuries have proved out the following statement to a deplorable degree, we could otherwise be incredulous at a surmisal of the main difference between the "discoverers" of central Africa and the people they divided and traded like objects and cattle over the ensuing generations: the difference between the civilised dark-skinned peoples and their conquerors is measurable in intensity of greed and the will to murder to fulfill greed's endlessly wearisome demands. This behaviour has not ended in modern times.
Slavery still exists in Africa, for instance. Now, centuries after the first slashes into the belly of the African land and peoples, predominantly white-skinned countries still allow predominantly white-skinned corporations to assist insane warlords in killing each other, helping with helicopters and technology simply to keep company profits going. So reported Global Pacific News not long ago.
There is no question that the peoples of Africa, millions and millions of descendants of the ancient Ethiopians and Egyptians among them, have been methodically dehumanised for centuries. No peoples have met with such enormous psychological and material destruction in recorded human history. If they can be said to be blamed for allowing any of it, then their fault could only lie in a willingness to trust fellow men who come preaching principles.
The damage that Christian missionaries have done to the psychology of human kindness in Africa over the centuries is untold. Missionaries routinely accompanied soldiers who came to steal lands and loot for their home European country. The procedure went as follows: the missionary would stand and read aloud an edict in Latin to whatever villagers had gathered. The edict, completely incomprehensible to the villagers, ordered that each of them must at that moment convert to Christianity or be killed or enslaved. After it was read, the guns and swords were put to work. The soldiers felt justified in their murders through the benediction and authority of the Roman Church. Through varying interpretations of the works of Church fathers, the Roman Church developed a system of permissible murder and looting, and it was used routinely.
The missionaries would then go to work on the remaining people. The children were taught that their parents' intelligent, peaceful beliefs were "from the devil" and that they were to accept poverty "for the good of their souls", whereas the conquerors were supposedly blessed by God with superior might and wealth and so had to be obeyed.
Not long ago, Pope John-Paul II issued a public statement apologizing for the behaviour of the Roman Church during the Inquisition, centuries ago. Over a period of about 400 years, Church authorities humiliated, ostracised, tortured and murdered about half a million fellow Europeans over "matters of faith". As these atrocities in the name of God mostly occurred centuries ago, the apology seemed a little late in coming. However, no apology seems to have been offered yet to the estimated 100 million Africans who were categorically enslaved, tortured and murdered into submission in the 400 years that the Roman Church itself assisted this activity, quite officially, benefiting from it materially and politically.
One would wonder also why there is as yet no apology forthcoming from the Vatican for its role in intent to murder one Simon Kimbangu. This did not happen so long ago that the descendants have long been unaware of the wrong done and the property confiscated, as is mostly the case with the Inquisition. There were thousands of Africans alive at the time of this writing who remember Simon Kimbangu very well. Kimbangu's name is celebrated throughout the great expanses of central Africa, and his fame continues to increase. He stands as far more than a mere national hero. A short history of his life can be found in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He and his followers are also the subject of more detailed scholarly research.
Simon Kimbangu was a prophet. He was tortured and left to rot in prison, where he died in October 1951 after 30 years. There are Africans alive at this writing who were brought back from the dead by Simon Kimbangu, and there are people still living who watched him do it. The claim is that Simon Kimbangu healed the sick, made the lame walk, returned sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, and even brought back to life an infant who had been dead for three days. Kimbangu performed these miraculous deeds over a period of five months, from May 1921 through to 12 September 1921. Scholars do not dispute that this man performed these miracles. There is simply too much testimony about it.
On 10 September 1921, Simon Kimbangu gave a speech. He announced that the colonial authorities were about to arrest him and "impose a long period of silence on my body". He announced that one day a "Great King" of tremendous spiritual, scientific and political power would arise, and that he himself would return as a representative. Before this event, a certain book would be written that would prepare the people of Kongo (not "Congo") for this event. This book would be resisted, but slowly it would come to be accepted. Two days later, Simon Kimbangu was arrested by colonial authorities— on his 42nd birthday, 12 September 1921—and curtly sentenced to death.
The authorities for the Roman Church had recommended his execution, and so had various other Christian missions. According to noted scholar Dr. Allan Anderson, the Baptist mission alone protested the execution of this man whose apparent crime was to have stood in a village daily for five months and healed, consoled and revitalised people. The joy and the amazement of the gathering crowds had left the prophet open to supposed charges of sedition by jealous missionaries. Punishment for alleged sedition was death.
Just as Kimbangu had predicted two days before his arrest, he was instead given an indefinite prison term, a "long silence of his body". Each morning he was taken from his tiny cell and put bodily into a tank of cold salt water for lengthy periods in an attempt to hasten his death. His prediction that his body would be tortured and humiliated came true.
He had also predicted that day that Africa would be "thrown into a terrible period of unspeakable persecutions". For the next 40 years, Africans were indeed put through a terrible period of unspeakable religious persecutions. Hundreds of thousands were imprisoned, deported, separated from their families, subject to atrocious tortures and simply persecuted for new religious beliefs. These new religious beliefs, triggered by the few words of an African man who performed miracles among his own people for "only a little while", sent out great psychological rays of hope to a continent of peoples who had long become accustomed to misery and poverty under centuries of colonial abuse and deliberately oppressive religious instruction. These powerful beliefs are still in development and will reach around the world even in their beginning stages. The appearance of the book this essay reviews marks one of many such beginnings.
The title of the book this essay introduces is The True Third Secret of Fatima Revealed and the Return of Christ. The author is Pastor Melo Nzeyitu Josias, and additional research was done by Rocha Nefwani. Both men are native Africans, both highly educated.
I edited the book myself, here in America, and added a little general historical knowledge. The book was meant to be available on the 13th of May, to commemorate the first of six visits of the Lady of Fatima, Portugal, who appeared on that date in 1917. She was visible to the three shepherd children who repeated her words to the world, yet was invisible to the crowds of thousands who were drawn to come to see her. The Lady made astonishing predictions. Her two sets of predictions, made in 1917 about events of the coming decades, proved true. Among other things, she prophesied the fall of Russia to communism, the end of the First World War and the coming of the Second World War.
There was a Third Secret, however, which the Lady instructed Lucia dos Santos to reveal only after 1960, when certain events had passed which would have made it more understandable. It was read to Pope John XXIII in February 1960. When the Pope heard it, he fainted dead to the floor; when he arose, he ordered the Third Secret sealed up in a vault "forever". Are we in the "end of times"? Are we at the hour in which Jesus Christ has already returned and gone? It would seem that appearances of men acclaimed to be God incarnate have increased greatly in the past century.
Whether a human being can be said to be God made flesh, let alone whether a particular individual can be said to be this, can be debated into meaninglessness. Those few who are said to have become "god-realised" and who have made themselves known to the public for divine purposes and missions, seem to attract material fortunes from a public that is either inexpressibly grateful or is too gullible. Although some Hindu religious branches speak of "five Ascended Masters" who live invisibly on our planet, there are many quite visible gurus or proclaimed avatars, around whom devotees have formed practical organisations of high material worth.
Monies are collected and practical advantages, such as political contributions, these keep the organisations going, while their intent is to "enlighten" the masses—who, we must assume, are "endarkened" without them. Sincere or fraudulent, authentic or imitation, each event of the appearance of a man (usually a male) said to be God or godrealised represents a new bud of one size or another upon a very ancient vine. The vine would be human consciousness, and the bud would be civilisation. A civilisation forms through codes of knowledge and behavior that allow each of its members, relatively, the broadest opportunity for value fulfilment. The codes seem most often to have originated with a single man who is also revealed as God's prophet, if not God Himself in fleshly clothing. New knowledge, or interpretations of it, is added in that Man-God's name.
I wonder about the nature of the human experience itself, as I cannot think of any civilisation which did not attribute its foundations to a single man at its cornerstone. Even the "godless" communist attempts at a new and sensible kind of civilisation quickly became personality-worship cults. Nor should we forget Germany's abortive attempt to found a "New World Order" around Adolf Hitler. However, neither Hitler nor Marx nor Lenin nor Mao nor Kim could walk on water or rise from the dead.
Christianity, of all religions, has come closest to uniting the peoples of the entire world. The emergence of avatars in Africa in the 20th century maintains a continuity with the ancient prophecies found in the Bible. The True Third Secret cites biblical passages that make a case that Simeon Toko was Christ Returned—at least, different Christian ministers who considered the interpretations did not scorn their logic.
<End Part 1 of Nexus Article>
Richard's Note: You can continue with the second part of the Nexus article which details the life and miracles of Simeon Toko in my follow-up article 'This African Man Brought Himself Back To Life After His Body Was Chopped To Pieces'.
The Takeaway
I look at the realization of my own ignorance about the true nature of African civilization as a spark to amp up my search for the truth behind the lies and false perceptions that have been built by Western powers who have been labelled the Cabal or the Illuminati. Much insight can be gleaned from this article as to the role of the Vatican and the Christian Church not only in their own self-aggrandizement, but as part of a larger plan for world domination by the Illuminati.
The fact that I was alerted to this important information by one of our readers is really a symbol of what we are trying to do here at CE: endeavor to work together with the Awakening Community in order to share and proliferate the truth. I have benefited greatly from the time and effort my readers have taken to comment on subjects I have written about, giving me greater confidence in some of my points of analysis and offering me greater discernment in other points. I truly feel blessed to be participating in this great awakening in the way I have been afforded in my role with CE. Our CE team has already spoken here about how, as our fundraising continues to expand, we will be coming up with new and exciting ways in which our community can become more involved with us in our shared awakening process.
We Need Your Support...
The demand for Collective Evolution's content is bigger than ever, except ad agencies and social media keep cutting our revenues. This is making it hard for us to continue.
In order to stay truly independent, we need your help. We are not going to put up paywalls on this website, as we want to get our info out far and wide. For as little as $3 a month, you can help keep CE alive!
This African Man Brought Himself Back To Life After His Body Was Chopped To Pieces
In Brief
- The Facts:
An obscure Nexus article from 2001 provides stunning details about 'Black Jesus' Simeon Toko, including surviving having his heart cut out, stopping a plane in mid-air, and recomposing his body after it had been chopped to pieces by a sower.
- Reflect On:
Can we suspend our disbelief for a moment and consider these miraculous stories possible? If so, how does this impact our perception of reality?
(This is a continuation of the article 'Obscure Nexus Article Reveals Stunning Corroboration For The 'Black Jesus' Story,' which I believe provides essential context for this story, and should be read first if you haven't already.)
As I had mentioned in the previous article above, a back issue of a Nexus article from 2001 provided excellent corroboration and stunning new details about the alleged 'Black Jesus' that I wrote about in an earlier article 'The Incredible Story Of The "Black Jesus" From The 1960s,' where I retold a 'top-secret' story that David Wilcock had received from one of his insiders. The story described an African man who was able to come back to life after having been killed in increasingly horrid ways. Here is an example of this that you will find in the excerpt below:
One of the Portuguese foremen showed up and hailed Simeon Toko: "Hey Simeon, you see that tractor over there? There are weeds clogging the sower. Go clean them out!" Submissively, the docile prisoner crawled under the engine to fix it. When he was under the engine, the foreman, sitting in the driver's seat, started it up, which automatically activated the rotating blades of the seed sower. Simeon Toko's body was instantly severed in several pieces.
Terrified, Canhandi stood frozen to the spot, watching. The foreman shifted into reverse to back up and check the damage. A second foreman, who was in service that day, flashed a victory sign, indicating that they had succeeded. Then the unbelievable happened. Before Canhandi and the two Portuguese accomplices, the body of Simeon Toko recomposed itself! Simeon Toko stood up! Canhandi could not believe his eyes. The Portuguese ran away in terror.
Following is an incredible testimony of but a few of the miracles of Simeon Toko, and perhaps more importantly, a better understanding of our human history, including the tremendous efforts of those in power to distort and suppress information such as this based on their agenda.
An African Messiah: The Third Secret Of Fatima? (Part 2 – The Avatar Simeon Toko)
[Tom Dark* notes: The following is an excerpt I have culled from chapter VII of the book, with permission (some of the writing has been edited so as not to confuse the reader who will be reading this out of its context)]
Fragile Beginnings
Simeon Toko was born on 24 February 1918 in a village in northern Angola (the Tsafon of Psalm 48:3), portentously named Sadi Banza Zulu Mongo ("Village of the Celestial Mountain"). The newborn emerged from his mother's womb into a very hostile environment. For almost 50 years, from 1872 to 1921, this region suffered natural disasters. There were long droughts between short lulls. Northern Angola and the southern regions of the French and Belgian Congos were devastated. The resultant famines killed thousands; so, too, there were thousands of deaths brought by smallpox, typhoid, sleeping sickness, malaria and other diseases. These different plagues represent the fulfilment of a biblical prediction. None but a few people inspired by the words of the Lord recognised this.
And the dragon stood before which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. (Revelation 12:4)
The baby Simeon Toko was born mere inches from sickness and famine and plague and death, and many leagues from safety. There was not much reason for a baby to want to live, and much against it. The infant Toko caught smallpox. He was so badly affected by it that villagers thought the hand of the Almighty Father alone saved his life. He was left with the unpleasant marring of smallpox scars on his face. Compare this prophecy:
As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. (Isaiah 52:14)
Not long after Simeon's birth, a missionary at a Baptist Missionary Society, based in Angola, had a dream. He dreamed that a Great King had been born in the region under his ministry. He decided to go looking for this baby. Requesting guidance from the Holy Spirit, he came to the baby Simeon Toko. Staring at an infant so rachitic, like a "weak and tender plant", and with so blemished a little face, he shook his head. Doubt had come to stay. He asked one or two questions and left, feeling victimised by his dream and the voice that had led him there.
A Powerful Mission
In 1949, Simeon attended an international conference of Protestants in Leopoldville (currently called Kinshasa). During this event, the ceremonial masters asked three Africans from Angola to pray. Those selected were Gaspar de Almeida, Jesse Chiulo Chipenda and Simeon Toko. Simeon Toko asked in his public prayer that the Holy Spirit manifest in Africa to put an end to the abuses of the colonial powers. Toko became a dedicated member of the Baptist Church in Itaga. He formed a singing choir of 12 people. Instantly this choir became famous, and from 12 members it grew into hundreds. At each of the choir performances, whether at their church or while visiting another church, the Holy Ghost manifested with such a power that white missionaries suspected young Toko of possessing black-magic powers. Jealously, the missionaries summoned him to abandon his "dark practices". He responded to them by saying: "But if we are praying to the same God, how come when I pray, and there is a manifestation of the Holy Ghost, you accuse me of sorcery? Is it because I am an African that my prayers couldn't possibly be answered? Does the Holy Spirit discriminate against Africans, too?" (See 1 Samuel 10:10.)
But the missionaries were fed up with him and decided to exclude him from the church. Then what was meant to happen, happened. All those who had joined the church on the inspiration of Simeon's magnificent choir left the church with him. The question was whether Simeon Toko would abandon these followers or keep them with him. He decided to keep them with him, realising all the same that a very harsh duty awaited him. He decided to pray again to his Father, repeating the same prayer he had made three years before at the Baptist conference.
On 25 July 1949, Simeon and 35 members of his choir met on a street called Mayenge, at the house of a man named Vanga Ambrosio. The choir began to sing, waiting for the time to pray. Shortly before midnight, Simeon Toko lifted his eyes to the sky and he addressed this prayer to his Father: "Father, I know you always answer my prayers. Now look; consider these sheep you have sent to me. This duty is so immense that without the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, we will never be able to achieve what you intended. The prayer I addressed to you three years ago, didn't you hear it?"
At precisely midnight, a strong wind shook the house and the Holy Spirit possessed everyone at the prayer meeting, with the exception of a man called Sansão Alphonse, the choir leader. God let him remain in an ordinary frame of mind so that he could write down the testimonials and miracles taking place before his dumbfounded eyes. Many in the group were speaking in tongues.
Some saw heavenly light and heard celestial voices; others were able to communicate clearly with people several kilometres from where the prayer was taking place. The excitement about the miracles that happened at this new Pentecost led Simeon Toko's followers to spread all over town and start preaching the building of God's Kingdom. This attracted the attention of Belgian colonial authorities, who viewed the activity as a threatening commotion.
Within about three months, the police began jailing the preachers. They were jailed and prosecuted as promptly as were the Kimbanguists, the followers of Simeon Toko's Messenger, Simon Kimbangu—who himself was imprisoned from 1921 until his death in 1951. Some were beheaded, burned alive in their homes, drowned in the river or shot without being prosecuted. Finally, the colonialists decided to deport them. The wives, husbands and children were separated from their families and homes by hundreds and even thousands of kilometres.
When miracles started taking place among the new followers of "Kimbangu", the Belgian authorities tried to suffocate this new Messianic group at once. On 22 October 1949, Simeon Toko and 3,000 of his companions were put into two different jails, Ofiltra and Ndolo. After three months in the jails, a decree was passed to deport them out of the country. This is when Simeon Toko started revealing Himself.
The Belgian administrator of the jail in Ndolo was named Pirote. He abused the "Tokoist" prisoners, hurling racist insults. He always ended with: "Filthy nigger, you're going back to nigger country in Angola!" Tired of this abuse, Simeon Toko replied sharply to Pirote: "Know that if there is a stranger here, it is you! To show you that I am home, the day you make the injustice of deporting me from Belgian Congo, I'll have you carrying my bags alongside me!" Simeon Toko held up both hands, spread out his fingers, and told the abusive Belgian to count them. He said: "I give 10 years to the Belgians, not one more or less, to leave this country!"
No one at that time comprehended these sibylline words. However, the disciples of Simeon Toko understood later: the day they were deported, Pirote fell dead. He was gripped with an apparent heart attack while working in his office, and died as suddenly as though a bullet had struck him squarely.
As for the other mysterious statement made by Simeon Toko: 10 years later, in 1960, the Belgians were obliged to leave their rich colony of Congo. But to impel this event, Simeon Toko "unleashed his army". This incredible story is very well known throughout central Africa, and will be reported in greater detail in another book. The event was witnessed by thousands of people on 4 January 1959. Some of the author's own relatives were there, but so are there thousands of citizens of the city of Kinshasa, who witnessed it on that day, alive at this writing. January 4th is now a public holiday in Kinshasa and commemorates this event. Kinshasa was called Leopoldville. On that day, the "Cherubim and Seraphim" appeared and stood against the Belgian colonial army. The citizens of Leopoldville saw an army of about a thousand very small men, about the size of children or dwarfs, with very muscular, imposing bodies.
Each of these diminutive human-looking creatures showed great strength; for example, a witness saw one of them flip a five ton truck over with one arm! The Belgian soldiers fired at these little brown angels to no effect. Terrified, the colonial army was thrown into confusion. The little men disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared. One year after this amazing mass apparition, the Democratic Republic of Congo was a new and independent country.
More Persecutions and Miracles
After being deported and arriving in Angola, the real tribulations of the "man of sorrow acquainted with grief and sufferings" were to start. Never again would Simeon Toko rest. His life would be a string of nonstop attempts to kill him to prevent his Mission. Let us follow what he experienced, from Leopoldville, where he was unjustly incarcerated, to Angola. While incarcerated in Angola, the Portuguese authorities deported him:
- to the Colonato of Vale do Loge, in the municipality of Bembe, northern Angola;
- from Bembe to Waba Caconda;
- from Caconda to Hoque, 30 kilometres off San da Bandeira;
- from San da Bandeira to Waba Caconda again:
- from Caconda to Cassinga, Vila Artur de Paiva;
- from Cassinga to Jau, in Chibia's canton;
- from Chibia, back to San da Bandeira;
- from San da Bandeira to Mocamedes, in the municipality of Porto Alexandre, or, more precisely, at Ponta Albina.
- from Ponta Albina to Luanda, the capital of Angola.
All of these deportations took place in a 12-year period. Simeon Toko's captivity in these prisons and agricultural compounds lasted from three months, as at San da Bandeira, to as long as five years, as at Ponta Albina. The objectives of these deportations were to reduce Simeon Toko's influence and to dismantle his church. Contrarily, everywhere he and his followers were sent, they indoctrinated even more and more members into the belief of (what the Portuguese called) "Tokoism". In the end, the Portuguese authorities decided to use their last measure: "Simeon Toko d e l e n d a [must be destroyed]."
Thus, when he was sent to slavery in an agricultural field in Caconda in southern Angola, his head was offered for a price. Two Portuguese foremen, excited by the reward, decided to take their chance. They put a plan into action to murder Simeon Toko. During a stay in Angola in 1994, we collected the testimony of Pastor Adelino Canhandi, who was a cook at the Caconda agricultural compound. He saw what happened.
Busy with cooking, he heard a voice calling him: "Canhandi, Canhandi, come here." It was Simeon Toko. Once outside, surprised and curious, Toko told him "to stand there and be watchful. Once again, the Son of Man will be tested." Strange words in particular for Canhandi, who was not then a Christian and didn't understand the term or what Simeon Toko wanted of him. Curious, he watched.
One of the Portuguese foremen showed up and hailed Simeon Toko: "Hey Simeon, you see that tractor over there? There are weeds clogging the sower. Go clean them out!" Submissively, the docile prisoner crawled under the engine to fix it. When he was under the engine, the foreman, sitting in the driver's seat, started it up, which automatically activated the rotating blades of the seed sower. Simeon Toko's body was instantly severed in several pieces.
Terrified, Canhandi stood frozen to the spot, watching. The foreman shifted into reverse to back up and check the damage. A second foreman, who was in service that day, flashed a victory sign, indicating that they had succeeded. Then the unbelievable happened. Before Canhandi and the two Portuguese accomplices, the body of Simeon Toko recomposed itself! Simeon Toko stood up! Canhandi could not believe his eyes. The Portuguese ran away in terror.
From that day on, Canhandi believed in the Lord, and his entire family converted to the church of Simeon Toko. It was also that day that Simeon Toko made it known who he was behind that smallpox-marred face, purposefully behaving in accord with the following scripture:
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:17-18)
During Simeon Toko's stay in Luanda, the capital of Angola, while he was in the process of being deported for the ninth time, another event happened to show his hidden and true identity. We should say that when he came on Earth in Palestine, Christ referred to Himself in the third person, using the term "the Son of Man". This time, Canhandi was one of the rare persons to hear the Christ refer to Himself differently. Simeon most usually spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ, which meant to his followers that he, too, was a servant of Christ, like everybody else. Despite the miracles happening around him, he was just like a shadow; no one knew who he really was.
The Vatican and the Avatar
His followers were once again bewildered when they found out that two top-level emissaries had been dispatched by Pope John XXIII to Angola to meet Simeon Toko and deliver a personal message to him. One of the emissaries was unfortunate to fall ill with dysentery when he arrived in Luanda and wound up in a hospital. The other was received by Simeon Toko, and he said to him: "I am an emissary of Pope John XXIII, who personally mandated me and my colleague to come and ask you a single question: 'Who are you?'"
Let us bear in mind that the year was 1962, two years after the fateful date when the Vatican had instructions to make public the Third Secret of Fatima. John XXIII had read the message, kept it a secret, and very likely had sent his emissaries to Simeon Toko with a sinking feeling in his heart. Simeon Toko responded: "I am amazed that a high-ranking person like the Pope is interested enough about my being to make you travel 8,000 kilometres just to meet me. The answer that you should give your master for me is in the biblical scripture, Matthew 11:2-6." Let's now put ourselves in Pope John XXIII's shoes as he read the text suggested by Toko:
And now, when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him: Are thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them: Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. (Matthew 11:2-6)
Using a brief biblical quotation, Simeon Toko gave Pope John XXIII to understand that what the Pope had found in the note written by Lucia dos Santos was true. Indeed, the former Cardinal Roncalli could have picked any name as Pope, but he chose "John", so that now the scripture in Matthew that Simeon Toko sent him to read addressed him directly by name. Fearing who it was who was now living among the most disdained people on Earth, the Pope contacted the Portuguese dictator, Antonio de Salazar. On 18 July 1962, Simeon Toko was again arrested and deported; this time, not to some isolated corner in his native Angola but to Portugal—where his anticipated birth had been announced in 1917 in Fatima. [Tom Dark* notes: Tokoists contend that the true Third Secret of Fatima was in fact an announcement that Christ had returned to Earth, in the form of Simeon Toko.]
For Toko's deportation to Portugal, a Portuguese Air Force plane was waiting for him. The plane had state-of-the-art telecommunication and navigation systems. In the plane sat a Catholic priest and members of Salazar's secret police, the PIDEDGS, including the pilot and copilot. Their mission was to fly out over the Atlantic Ocean and, after about an hour's distance, push Simeon Toko out of the plane into the deep sea. This was the same inhuman treatment that the Argentinian military used years later against their political opponents. Supposedly the Catholic priest was brought along on the plane to counteract the magic powers of the African through praying. But this skilfully planned project was about to backfire.
The moment the PIDE agents rose to subdue him and carry out their murder, Simeon Toko stood up and ordered the plane to stop. The aircraft stopped in mid-air! It stood still, not advancing an inch nor rising or falling backwards. The crew was stricken by panic. The priest could hardly breathe, and hoarsely huffed out desperate prayers. They all started imploring the p r e t o [Portuguese denigratory term denoting "nigger"] for mercy.
Simeon lifted his eyes and hands towards the heavens and after a short prayer he ordered the plane to move again. At once, the plane started moving. Simeon Toko related this story himself. For those who are skeptical, we would remind you that the authority of our sciences does not determine all that is possible on Earth or in Heaven. This same Personality stopped a storm on a sea for a group of terrified fishermen 2,000 years ago. He also walked across the surface of the water and inspired the Sun to weave and dance gaily at Fatima.
Simeon Survives a Morbid Experiment
As an "exiled political prisoner", Simeon Toko was deprived of all human rights. We describe here one of the many murder attempts upon his body during his forced stay in Ponta Delgada, in the Archipelago of the Azores. He was assigned the chore of maintaining a lighthouse there. At a future date, we will publish a record of miracles performed by Simeon Toko, which were seen by eyewitnesses. Doña Laurinda Zaza is a v a t e [pronounced "vah-tay"]—a sort of prophetic trance medium—for present-day Toko followers. She experienced the following event as she saw it happen to Tio Simão (a nickname meaning "Uncle Simon") while he was in exile in Portugal. Simeon Toko confirmed the fact of this event later, and revealed the physical damage that the doctors had done. Over the years, thousands of people saw this scarring on his chest.
"You could almost see Toko's heart pounding in his chest through the scar; an almost unbearable sight," Doña Laurinda said. This referred to a most remarkable attempt by these astonishingly misguided men to kill Simeon Toko under dictator Antonio de Salazar's orders. This attempt, which would have been "first degree murder" if the victim were anyone else, took place shortly before his return to freedom in July 1974. [Tom Dark notes: Simeon Toko was not released by Salazar; the dictator was unseated by a revolution and Simeon was released in a general amnesty of political prisoners.]
A Portuguese doctor had been reading records about Toko's alleged "invincibility" and invited several doctors from around Europe to perform an operation on him—an autopsy, under the pretext of removing a tumour from his chest. The doctors had him taken to a local civilian hospital. They put him on an operating table, cut a jagged, mortal wound in the left side of the centre of his chest, reached into his chest cavity and pulled out his still-beating heart. The aorta and other arteries were severed by scalpel and his heart was removed. Simeon lay dead, his body covered with the warm blood that splashed out of his heart and chest.
The doctors dumped Simeon Toko's heart in a metal pan and took it to a laboratory in another room. They ran various tests on it—expecting to find what, they did not know. The gadgets and microscopes and probing showed there was nothing physically extraordinary or abnormal about Simeon Toko's heart. The doctors concluded that this purloined organ would not have been the source of his invulnerability—if it can be said that men can make conclusions about any such thing.
The doctors had unquestionably killed this man in this macabre experiment, but to their horror and bewilderment, Simeon Toko came to on the operating table! His heartless corpse was moving of its own volition. He opened his eyes, sat up and looked at them, the chest wound by which they had casually murdered him gaping open. "Why are you persecuting me this way?" he said to them. "Give me back my heart!"
[Tom Dark notes: If there are medical records available to confirm this event independently, I do not have them now but would like to see them. All of us involved in this project here in the US consider ourselves "doubting Thomases", to say the least, yet the stories of witnesses and followers have kept up our fascination.]
For now we will refrain from reporting many other significant events that happened that same day. We can let you know, however, that the exact time his heart was taken from him, Simeon Toko decided to give a finishing blow to Portuguese colonial power and rule over Angola. He returned to his native country of Angola on 31 August 1974, with the confidence his words would be fulfilled. A year later, on 11 November 1975, Angola gained its independence from Portugal.
A Departure by Choice
During the night of 31 December 1983 to 1 January 1984, when the death of Simeon Toko was announced by the media, thunderclaps of virtually seismic force and torrential rain burst the skies of Luanda. It had not rained in this area for several years. Meteorologists were mystified. For three days the rain fell continuously. The occurrence of this event was attributed to all the rumours surrounding the death of this great prophet. A certain politician was recognised as one of the toughest men surrounding Neto, President of the Republic of Angola. He was often called upon for delicate and confidential missions. The Portuguese, whom he fought during a 14-year war for the liberation of his country, had a good deal to say about him. His name aroused dread and awe. He led a resistance group specialising in chopping heads with c a t a n a s (machetes). This man was one of President Neto's army officers. His name was Comandante Paiva. After hearing the news that Simeon Toko had died, Paiva rushed to where the body lay exposed for public viewing. He fought his way through the crowd of tens of thousands of people. He was astonished at the sight of it. He stood looking at Simeon's body, and he asked to speak. He declared:
"It is not true that Simeon Toko is dead, because he is invulnerable!" To make such a public confession was blatantly incriminating. Seven years before, Comandante Paiva had orders to kill Simeon Toko once and for all. He told the public that this is what he and his men had done. He had Simeon Toko kidnapped and taken to a secret location; once there, he butchered him methodically, like a meatpacker with an animal carcass; he severed Simeon's head, then his arms and legs, then split his chest and abdomen apart. He stuffed the butchered corpse into a large bag, tied the top with a string and hid it in a certain location. After three days, he brought helpers back to get the bag and take it to the ocean to throw to the sharks.
By now the bag had disappeared. The men began to argue about its whereabouts. Suddenly, in the midst of their bickering about who may have moved it, a voice they described as sounding like "the sounds of many waters" (Revelation 1:15) overshadowed their own voices: "Who are you looking for? I am here!" It was Simeon Toko, in flesh and bone, alive, standing majestically. The men dashed away shouting "E o Deus, e o Deus!", which means "He is God, He is God!"
Paiva's butchering had been the last time that anybody dared to touch a single hair on the head of Simeon Toko. And now that Simeon's body lay discarded by its owner, by choice, Paiva refused to believe it.
<End Part 2 of Nexus Article>
The Takeaway
With stories like this, many people say that if it was 'true' then it would be common knowledge: 'we would have heard about it.' Yet this story itself is testimony of how systematically and ruthlessly the powerful group we have called the 'cabal' or the 'Illuminati' have worked throughout history to suppress the truth in order to control the perception people have about our history, about the nature of civilization, and about ourselves. The article tells us that there were countless many eyewitnesses to some of the miracles of Simeon Toko, but we have been conditioned to believe that these are just the superstitious imaginings of an uncivilized race of people.
Part of our coming to a greater understanding of the truth of our origins, our history, and our nature involves our discernment about things which we have previously understood to be myth, folklore, or religious fervor. Everything must be considered in the context of the belief system/paradigm of the writer and of the times, and, as in this case, the Christian perspective must be embraced fully in order to plumb to the depths of the story and evaluate whether things actually happened the way they are being told. We will probably be surprised one day to find that many stories of the past we have relegated to the domain of insubstantial myth or superstitious religious fervor turn out to have actually happened.
*(Editor's notes within the text are from Tom Dark, who was the editor of the book entitled 'The True Third Secret of Fatima Revealed and the Return of Christ by Pastor Melo Nzeyitu Josias that is the source of Tom Dark's Nexus article referred to here.)
We Need Your Support...
The demand for Collective Evolution's content is bigger than ever, except ad agencies and social media keep cutting our revenues. This is making it hard for us to continue.
In order to stay truly independent, we need your help. We are not going to put up paywalls on this website, as we want to get our info out far and wide. For as little as $3 a month, you can help keep CE alive!
Researcher Jailed After Uncovering Deadly Virus Delivered Through Human Vaccines
If you have been following stories in recent years of scientists and researchers who make discoveries that are threatening to...
Drone Footage Shows More Than 100 Whales Imprisoned In Underwater Jails
Recently, drone footage captured shots of over 100 whales trapped in secret underwater 'jails.' In total, 11 orcas and 90...


text:
Orietta Gianjorio stood in front of a dozen people at the first of seven classes she's teaching at Hutchins Street Square in Lodi and guided them through the label on a bottle of California-made olive oil.
Orietta Gianjorio stood in front of a dozen people at the first of seven classes she's teaching at Hutchins Street Square in Lodi and guided them through the label on a bottle of California-made olive oil.
"The back of the label, one thing where Americans concentrate their attention, is the calorie count and nutritional value. For me that should disappear from the face of the earth," said the Italian-born Gianjorio.
Although she recently became a naturalized citizen of the country to which she moved four years ago when she married an American, Gianjorio's mission is to teach people the ways of her old country. At least in the kitchen.
"I miss the approach to food as a pleasure," Gianjorio said. "Numbers are not pleasure. I'm looking at taste. We need to (stop) looking at food in such an un-passionate, sterile way. ... I'm here to make people understand eating and tasting is about giving pleasure, and being healthy by giving pleasure to yourself."
Gianjorio's enthusiasm is infectious. She prompted her students into taking sips of olive oil, swirling it around in their mouths and swallowing it.
She had to encourage them a bit, but she's living proof it wouldn't hurt anyone to test the oil.
She does it all the time as a certified member of the UC Davis Olive Oil Taste Panel.
A journalism graduate of Rome University, Gianjorio was writing a story for a Rome magazine about the olive oil industry in this country and visited UC Davis Olive Center. While there, Gianjorio, who has a diploma from the Italian Sommeliers Association, making her a trained wine professional, was invited to become a taster.
"One important factor was that my senses were already trained on wines," Gianjorio explained. "It's easy to switch to olive oil once your senses are on alert.
"Food and wine were always my hobby. My grandfather used to produce wine. He always had me taste, and I was introduced at a young age to cooking by my mom. I went to the sommelier association for fun. When I moved here I realized people are so curious about food and wine."
The curiosity, though, is always about recipes, Gianjorio found. And calories. And diets.
"Cooking and tasting is not about recipes. It's more than just that. You can't just look in terms of a numeric equation, how many grams of fat is in a tablespoon of this or calories in teaspoon of that."
A hand-made meal can't be quantified. It's an act of love, and it didn't start by putting the first ingredient listed on an index card into a bowl. Gianjorio is teaching this idea to American audiences, first on television segments - at San Francisco's KRON4 and other network affiliates - and now at Hutchins Street Square.
"My cooking classes are not so much for cooking, but so we can cook something and taste what we have cooked," she said. "It addresses cooking with a recipe, but beginning with ingredients and how we put them together, followed by food tasting and food and wine pairing. Cooking is an overall experience."
When she holds her next class - Making Real Bolognese Ragu - at Hutchins Street Square on Saturday, the emphasis won't be on some Italian recipe handed down for generations. The focus will be on stimulating the senses - touch, scent and vision - throughout the process.
"I really like everything to be fresh," Gianjorio said. "It's so important. What we eat is something that is part of us. It gives you a different passion if you think about it that way. I hear a lot of people around here talk about diets and calories and nutritional values. Even people who aren't on a diet will tell me a banana is good for you because it has potassium. Who cares? It's good for you because it has a sweet taste that you need when your taste buds have a desire for something sweet. Oranges are good for you because they have a sour taste. We should eat in terms of colors, aromas, flavors and touch. If you're thinking of a banana as points or potassium or calories, you're not on a path to being healthy."
Cooking should be an adventure, shared with loved ones, Gianjorio said, not a circus act so often seen in cooking shows on television. Those programs may be entertaining, but the recipes too often call for ingredients the average cook is unfamiliar with or isn't likely to find.
Simple ingredients can be just as effective. Like olive oil.
Gianjorio whipped through a PowerPoint presentation on how olive oil is made one Friday night last month. She explained that, unlike wine, oil doesn't improve with age. Oxidation and light are its enemies. With so many California companies now producing it, Gianjorio said she doesn't have a single bottle of the nectar from her homeland in her kitchen.
She led her class through the tasting process, teaching students to smell for grass, tomatoes, leaves, artichokes, eucalyptus, apples, peaches, tropical fruits and other green scents as opposed to unpleasant smells like gym clothes, manure, the sewer, paint, nail polish, cardboard, stale walnuts, and play-dough, which indicate oil has gone bad. The flavor could be bitter, sweet or sour, and the texture should be astringent, not greasy.
Three California oils met the standards for extra virgin olive oil, meaning it contained nothing but oil from olives and was not subjected to excessive heat in the making. A fourth sample, whicht was rancid, was a popular brand sold in grocery stores that Gianjorio had purchased that day. It was among several brands sold in the U.S. that the UC Davis panel determined in 2010 were fraudulently labeled extra virgin olive oil.
"I'm going to go home and throw out my olive oil," said Brian Barr, of Stockton, who took the class to improve the cooking he does for his family "You can't cook without knowing what products to use. I've always liked to cook."
Gianjorio wants cooking - and the final product - to be even more enjoyable.
Contact reporter Lori Gilbert at (209) 546-8284 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Diane Lane has been a respected force in Hollywood for over 30 years, but the Oscar-nominated actress (for 2002's "Unfaithful") — who got her start at the age of 14 in the 1979 movie "A Little Romance" — says the early fame was incredibly overwhelming.
"I wanted to hide like a mouse under a chair until it passed," Diane told Ladies Home Journal for its October 2010 issue. "It was like I was standing there and got hit by a lightning bolt. My fame was not earned."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Latest Star Sightings
The star of movies including "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "Nights in Rodanthe" moved to Hollywood as a teenager and immediately caught the eye of many of leading men, including Jon Bon Jovi and Timothy Hutton. Diane soon married Christopher Lambert (with whom she had her now 17-year-old daughter, Eleanor), but divorced six years later.
Being a single mom became Diane's favorite dating deterrent, but the screen siren said her plans were thwarted when she met Josh Brolin (her current husband) in 2002.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood's Lasting Relationships
"My thing was always, 'Stay away, I have a young kid,'" she says. "And [Josh] was like, 'Oh, yeah? Well, so do I.' It was like, 'Oh, okay. Come on in.'"
The seemingly ageless beauty admits that she's torn when it comes to the subject of plastic surgery.
"Some days I want to get the boob job, some days I want to get the eye lift," she confessed. "Then other days I'm like, 'Absolutely not! Have some integrity! … But it's all about what makes you happy."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: They Dated Who?!? Surprising Former Couples!
While many starlets soon fade into obscurity, Diane said she takes pride in her Hollywood longevity.
"I have a sort of lip-smacking gratification that I'm still playing in the game," she said. "I feel I have more to offer…and that I'm being allowed to. That's the biggest gift. It's wonderful being the underdog."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood's Smokin' Hot Couples
Diane can next be seen starring alongside John Malkovich in "Secretariat," the true story of a female racehorse owner, when the movie hits theaters on October 8.
Copyright 2010 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
PLAY IT NOW: 'Nights In Rodanthe' Premiere, New York
PLAY IT NOW: The Final 45 (September 8, 2010)
More from Access: [ Diane LaneJosh Brolin'Secretariat' ]


text:
With more than 105 million singles in the United States, or one-third of the population, the singles scene remains a competitive playing field. Match.com, the leading online dating network, has taken an in-depth look at the behavior of singles and uncovered new dating habits based on a groundbreaking study of more than 5,000 single Americans. This unprecedented research has found that, while some traditional dating do's and don'ts still exist, the playing field has definitely changed.
"The rules have changed," said Whitney Casey, Relationship Expert for Match.com. "It's time to update your playbook. This new study reveals the many questions singles are starting to ask in the modern age of dating – from texting to friending on Facebook."
Specific highlights include:
- Tradition Still Applies – Men, women still expect you to make the first move and ask a lady out, and although 41% of women would offer to pick up the check on a first date, a majority of men (37%) still feel they should foot the bill.
- Bailout Plan – Both men and women agree that 15 minutes into the date is long enough to tell if there is chemistry (31%). However, if the date isn't going as planned, only 12% of singles would actually call it a night and leave within the first 30 minutes of the date.
- Thanks, but No Thanks – If your date isn't getting the hint that you aren't a match made in heaven, most singles feel that honesty is the best policy. 52% of those surveyed agree you should politely explain you aren't interested, followed by 24% of singles who recommend being evasive about your future availability. However, younger singles are most likely to ignore your calls and send you straight to voicemail.
- Too Fast on a First Date? – Only 6.5% of singles claim they have frequently had sex on the first date, while 80% of singles disapprove of ending the date between the sheets.
- Making the Call – 48% of women prefer men to make thefollow-up call after the first date. A majority of men (68%) will pick up the phone between one to three days after the date, while 6% of men can't resist following up within the first 24 hours.
- There's No Place Like Phone – Although 64% of singles are open to having post-date conversations via text and email, more than 80% of singles still prefer conversations on the phone.
- To Friend or Not to Friend? – Younger singles (ages 21-34) think it's OK to add a date as a Facebook friend after 2-3 dates (26%), while 11% of singles between the ages of 35-44 wait to friend a date on Facebook until it becomes an exclusive relationship.
- Meet the Guys – Yes, it is OK to introduce your new romantic interest to the ones who know you best. Men are more likely to introduce someone they're interested in to their friends within the first month of dating than women are, regardless of their age group (nearly 50% of men vs. 35% of women).
Additional results and tips for the new rules of dating are available at http://blog.match.com/dating-rules