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What Evil Web Washington Weaves in Syria
What Evil Web Washington Weaves in Syria
by Ismail Salami / July 26th, 2012
By a crafty act of political ruse, Washington has envisaged a taxing state of instability by fomenting and spearheading a civil war of attrition in Syria.
Instability is seeping through cities with prodigious rapidity and spilling into neighboring countries. Cleanly choreographed terrorist operations also deepen the crippling crisis in the country.
Although Washington seems to have decided to monitor from afar the developments in Syria without any military intervention by avoiding a Libya-style scenario, they are resorting by any means to expedite the collapse of Assad regime. During a press conference in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clearly stated, "So we're going to continue to press forward in the Security Council. We're going to continue to press the Russians because that is an important part of reaching a resolution in the Security Council. But it is worrisome that the violence is increasing, that it is more prevalent in Damascus and the suburbs. I believe – and I've said it before and obviously I can't put a timeline on it – that this regime cannot survive.â€
In fact, the collapse of Syria regime has long been on Washington's agenda.
Russia has slammed Washington's reaction to blasts in Damascus as an outright justification of terrorism. Earlier, US State Department had announced the terrorist attacks in Syria are not surprising in view of the Assad government's actions. The terrorist attacks which bespoke of calculated organization and planning killed some high-ranking Syrian officials including Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Assef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani in a meeting between cabinet ministers and senior security personnel on Wednesday July 16.
Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said, "This is direct endorsement of terrorism. How are we supposed to understand that? This is a sinister position, I cannot find words to express our attitude towards that.â€
The UN Security Council refused to condemn the terrorist attacks in Damascus. Further to that, the US permanent representative to the UN Susan Rice said acts of this nature in Damascus contribute to speeding up the adoption of a resolution on Syria according to the Chapter 7 of the UN Statute, which authorizes harsh sanctions as well as resorting to force.
With the increasing conviction that the Assad regime is breathing its last breath out, Washington has initiated a contingency plan by focusing on the chemical weapons which they claim Assad government possesses and will use against the rebels and the civilians alike if they are forced to. This has furnished the Pentagon officials with ample reasons to avail themselves of the generous contributions the Zionist regime can dole out to this end. It's long since the US officials have run out of novel ideas and well-wrought out plans and instead rely on threadbare excuses to push ahead with their plans. As it has been profusely pointed out by pundits, the 'chemical weapons card' Washington is playing reeks of their claim that Saddam Hussein was in possession of a huge arsenal of WMDs before they invaded Iraq in 2003.
Nonetheless, Pentagon officials have recently conversed with Israeli defense officials "about whether Israel might move to destroy Syrian weapons facilitiesâ€. An Israeli attack on Syria will be definitely a geopolitical blunder not because such a strike will be regionally viral but because it will, to the disappointment of the Zionists, gain sympathy for Syria and condemnation for Israel. Therefore, attacking Syria under the pretext that it possesses chemical weapons and that it may use them against rebels and civilians is a farcically banal excuse. Besides, this is not exactly what Washington and Israel wish.
As for Washington, they will hardly initiate such a strike under any discoverable pretext because they are already grappling with strangling economic meltdown, unbridled social unrest and national debt closing in on nearly USD 16 Trillion.
However, the US will instead instigate other sinister forces such as Israel which wishes for the collapse of a regime which is so antagonistic to its entity and Qatar and Saudi Arabia which have openly voiced their animosity towards Assad regime. According to a report carried by Reuters, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are paying salaries to rebels in fighting against the government of President Bashar Assad.
"The payment has been going on for months and the agreement was made on April 2 by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with logistical organization from Turkey where some Free Syrian Army factions are based,†a diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
A country of immense strategic significance in the Middle East, Syria is doubly important for Washington. Firstly, as the country serves as a conduit between Hezbollah and Iran, the collapse of Assad regime means the severing of this link. Secondly, Israel, a close ally of the US, will get rid of Syria which keeps planting roadblocks in the path of Zionism. So without bothering to side with this or that party in the Syrian crisis, it is easy to see why the US is so interested in establishing a 'US-friendly regime' in Syria and putting an end to or at least limiting the increasing influence of the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah.
It is sad to see that sinister forces are mobilized to accelerate the collapse of Syria with the ultimate goal of serving the imperialist interests of the US and the UK, strengthening the colonizing regime of Israel in the region and limiting the influence of Iran and Hezbollah.
All these vicious forces have helped turn Syria into a piece of votive beef in the hands of ravishing warmongers.
Dr. Ismail Salami is an Iranian journalist, political analyst and chief editor of Press TV website. His articles have been published on line in numerous publications including Dissident Voice, Global Research, andVeterans Today. Read other articles by Ismail.


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South African Journal of Animal Science
On-line version ISSN 2221-4062
Print version ISSN 0375-1589
S. Afr. j. anim. sci. vol.41 n.4 Pretoria Jan. 2011
Effects of dietary turmeric supplementation on plasma lipoproteins, meat quality and fatty acid composition in broilers
M. DaneshyarI,II; M. Alizadeh GhandkanloI; F. Sabzi BayeghraI; F. FarhangpajhohIII; M. AghaeiIV
IDepartment of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
IIDepartment of Medicinal and Industrial Plants, Institute of Biotechnology
IIICentral Veterinary Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary, Urmia University, Iran
IVDepartment of Horticulture, Urmia University, Iran
An experiment with 200 day-old male broiler chickens was conducted to investigate the effect of the dietary supplementation of turmeric rhizome powder (TRP) on plasma lipoprotein concentrations, and the meat quality and fatty acid composition of the thigh muscle of the broilers. The four treatments were 0% (F.TRP), 0.25% (L.TRP), 0.50% (M.TRP) and 0.75% (H.TRP) TRP in the diets. The pH and the fat, protein, dry matter and ash concentrations of thigh meat did not show significant differences between treatments. There were no significant differences between treatments in the concentrations of plasma triglyceride, total cholesterol and very low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (VLDL-c) at three weeks, and for plasma low-density lipoprotein (LDL-c) at three and six weeks of age. At week 6, the M.TRP- and H.TRP-fed birds showed lower plasma triglyceride and VLDL-c concentrations than the birds in the other treatments. At weeks 3 and 6 the concentration of plasma high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c) of the M.TRP- and H.TRP-fed birds was significantly higher than that of the F.TRP-fed birds. At week 6, the H.TRP-fed birds had significantly lower concentrations of saturated fatty acids (SFA) in the thigh and total cholesterol in the plasma than the F.TRP-fed birds and the other birds. Moreover, a significantly higher thigh vaccenic acid concentration was indicated for the H.TRP-fed birds compared with the L.TRP- and F.TRP-fed birds. In orthogonal comparisons, TRP consumption reduced the concentration of plasma triglycerides and dry matter of thigh meat, as well as triglyceride, palmitic acid and total SFA concentrations, but increased the thigh meat protein and plasma HDL-c concentrations significantly, compared with the control. In conclusion, supplementation of TRP in broiler chickens diets can decrease the concentrations of SFAs and triglycerides in thigh meat and improve the meat quality as a result.
Keywords: Turmeric rhizome powder, thigh meat, proximate analysis, cholesterol, triglycerides
Dietary levels of cholesterol (Hayes, 1995) and fatty acid profiles in lipid fractions (Blanch & Grashorn, 1996) are associated with the development of atherosclerosis and coronary artery diseases in humans. Dietary saturated fatty acids (SFA) increase the plasma cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c) concentrations, whereas polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) reduce the plasma cholesterol and LDL-c concentrations in humans (Aletor et al., 2003). Chicken meat is healthier than other meat sources for human consumption because of its low cholesterol and fat content (Ponte et al., 2004), but several studies have been used to decrease the SFA and cholesterol content of broiler meat.
Dietary inclusion of PUFA (especially n-3 fatty acids) sources such as linseed oil (Crespo & Esteve-Garcia, 2002; Bou et al., 2005) and fish oil (Lopez-Ferrer et al., 1999; Bou et al., 2004) in broiler diets have been used to manipulate the fatty acid composition and decrease the detrimental ingredients in meat. Recently, researches have focused on the beneficial effects of phytogenic substances in broiler chickens. Cholesterol and lipoprotein decreasing effects of alfalfa (Ponte et al., 2004), thyme (Bolukbasi et al., 2006) and garlic (Konjufca et al., 1997; Habibian Dehkordi et al., 2010) have been shown in broilers. Phenolic compounds are phytogenic substances that have hypocholesterolemic effects (Ikeda et al., 1992; Hirose et al., 1991). For example, phenolic compounds in red wine have been reported to lower the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in humans in France (Staley & Mazier, 1999). The mechanisms behind the hypocholesterolemic and other beneficial effects of dietary phenolic compounds have not been fully elucidated (Kamal-Eldin, 2000).
Curcuma longa is a medical plant that belongs to the ginger (Zingiberaceae) family and is a major source of phenolic compounds (curcuminoids). It is a perennial plant with a short stem and large oblong leaves, and it bears ovate, pyriform or oblong rhizomes, which are often branched and brownish-yellow in colour. Turmeric is the rhizome of Curcuma longa L. and is used as a food spice, and a preservative and colouring agent in China and South East Asia (Ammon et al., 1992; Mishra et al., 2009). In recent years, traditional Indian medicine has been using turmeric powder for the treatment of biliary disorders, anorexia, coryza, cough, diabetic wounds, hepatic disorders, rheumatism and sinusitis (Ammon et al., 1992; Mishra et al., 2009). Curcuminoids, such as curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin, are yellowish turmeric pigments and have antioxidative, anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, antihepatotoxic and hypocholesterolemic activities (Nishiyama et al., 2005). In addition to the curcuminoids, compounds such as γ-terpinene, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, betasitosterol, caffeic acid, campestrol, camphene, dehydrocurdione, eugenol, p-coumaric acid, protocatechuic acid, stigmasterol, syringic acid, turmerin, turmeronola, turmeronol-b and vanillic acid possess antioxidant capabilities (Duke, 2004).
Curcumin is the main phenolic compound of TRP that has an antioxidant effect. It inhibits lipid peroxidation, scavenges the superoxide anion and hydroxyl radicals (Ruby et al., 1995) and enhances the activities of detoxifying enzymes such as glutathione-S-transferase (Piper et al., 1998). Instead of antioxidant effects, curcumin has a hypocholesterolemic effect. It can reduce the concentrations of plasma low-density lipoproteins and very low-density lipoproteins and liver total cholesterol (Kamal-Eldin et al., 2000). Up to a 0.75% dietary inclusion of TRP has increased the concentration of high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c) and decreased the low-density lipoproteins of plasma in broiler chickens (Emadi et al., 2007). Increasing the dietary TRP to 0.2% has decreased serum triglyceride, total cholesterol and LDL-c concentrations in laying hens (Kermanshahi & Riasi, 2006). Both 0.1% and 0.5% curcumin in the diet have reduced the cholesterol in the liver and serum of rats (Rao et al., 1970). Although the plasma cholesterol lowering effects of TRP have been shown in broiler chickens, no study is available on its effect on the meat quality of broiler chickens. Therefore, the current experiment was designed to study the effects of dietary TRP supplementation on the triglyceride, proximate analyses and fatty acid composition of the thigh meat of chickens.
Material and Methods
In this experiment, 200 day-old male broiler chickens (Ross 308) were obtained and allocated randomly to 20 pens (1 x 1 m2, 10 birds per pen). Continuous light was used in the house. The birds were reared at 32 ºC during the first two days, and then the house temperature was reduced by 2 ºC per week up to week 5, when the temperature was kept at 22 ± 1 ºC until the end of the experiment (Daneshyar et al., 2007; 2009). All the birds received a mash broiler starter (from day 1 to day 21 of age) and a grower (from day 22 to day 42 of age) diet (Table 1), but they received different treatment levels of TRP in the diet: 0% (F.TRP), 0.25% (L.TRP), 0.50% (M.TRP) and 0.75% (H.TRP) TRP. The levels of 0%, 0.25%, 0.50% and 0.75% TRP replaced wheat bran in the diets, respectively. Fresh Indian turmeric rhizome (having 15.48 mg total phenolic compounds/g) was ground and mixed with the diets. At week 3, one chicken from each replicate pen (five per treatment) was selected randomly and marked for blood collection. Wing-vein blood samples were obtained after three hours of starvation at weeks 3 and 6. The blood samples were immediately transferred to anticoagulant tubes (sodium citrate, 3.6%). Then plasma was separated by centrifuge (3500 rpm for 15 min) and stored at -20 ºC for later analysis. At the end of the experiment (week 6), five chickens from each replicate (pen) were randomly selected and slaughtered. Three pieces of the meat of the left thigh were removed and used for determination of pH, proximate analyses, fatty acid composition and triglyceride content. The experimental protocol was reviewed and approved by the Animal Care Committee of the University of Urmia, Iran. The standard extraction method of Seevers & Daly (1970) was used for estimation of total phenols. One gram turmeric rhizome was crushed in 10 mL of 80% methanol in a pestle and mortar. The extract was filtered and centrifuged at 1000 x g for 5 min and the supernatant was collected and used for the determination of phenolic compounds, using the colorimetric method at absorbance of 720 nm with 20% Na2CO3 and in Folin-Ciocalteau reagent. Gallic acid was used as the standard.
Determination of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE) and ash contents was performed according to the AOAC methods (AOAC, 1998). The pH of thigh meat was measured using a digital pH meter (TitroLine Easy, Schott Instruments, Mainz, Germany) after homogenization in distilled water.
Plasma samples were thawed and the concentrations of total cholesterol, HDL-c, LDL-c, VLDL-c and triglycerides were determined using a spectrophotometer (Unico-2400, Unico-Japan Co. Ltd.) and commercial enzymatic kits (Pars Azmoon Co., Tehran-Iran).
Total lipids were extracted by the method of Folch et al. (1957) and measured gravimetrically. The formation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) was carried out according to the procedure described by Desvilettes et al. (1994). The sample was saponified with methanolic sodium hydroxide, and the fatty acids were esterified with methanolic sulphuric acid. FAME were analyzed with a 6890 N GC-FID (Agilent Technologies, Wilmington, DE, USA) fitted with a J&W DB-Wax capillary column (30 m, 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 mm film thickness), a split-splitless injector with Agilent tapered liner (4 mm i.d.) and a flame ionization detector. The initial column temperature was maintained at 100 ºC for 1 min and then raised at 25 ºC/min to 190 ºC and held for 10 min, and then raised to 220 ºC and held for 5 min. Nitrogen was used as carrier and makeup gas, at flow rates of 1.0 and 45 mL/min, respectively. The injector and detector temperatures were held at 250 ºC and 260 ºC, respectively. ChemStation software was used for online data collection and processing. Individual FAME was identified by comparison with known standards (Sigma-Aldrich Corps, St Louis, MO, USA).
Thigh meat lipids were extracted by the modified method of Hara & Radin (1978). Nine mL of extraction solution (hexane : isopropanol, 3 : 2 v/v) were added to 0.5 g of thigh meat and homogenized, using glass beads, for 8 h at room temperature. After homogenization, the organic phase was separated by centrifugation at 2000 × g for 10 min, dehydrated by saturated sodium sulphate and finally used for the triglyceride assay according to the method of Neri & Frings (1973). The triglyceride concentration in the thigh meat was measured on a spectrophotometer (Unico-2400, Japan) at a wavelength of 410 nm.
The data were analyzed based on a completely randomized design using the general linear model procedure of SAS (SAS, 2002). When treatment means were significant (P <0.05), the Duncan multiple range test was used to separate the means. Moreover, orthogonal contrasts were constructed to compare the mean response variables for turmeric fed birds with the control birds.
No significant differences between the treatments were indicated at week 6 for pH, concentrations of fat, dry matter and ash of the thigh meat (Table 2). A trend was observed in the protein level of the thigh meat (P = 0.056), but this difference was not significant. Furthermore, compared to the control diet, TRP consumption did not change the pH, fat or ash content, but decreased the DM and triglyceride and increased the protein content of thigh meat (P <0.05).
The plasma lipoproteins and triglyceride concentrations are presented in Table 3. At week 3 no significant differences were observed in plasma triglyceride concentrations between the treatments, but at week 6 the birds on both the M.TRP and H.TRP diets had lower plasma triglyceride concentrations than those on L.TRP and F.TRP. There were no significant differences in total cholesterol concentration between the treatments at week 3. However, at week 6 the H.TRP-fed birds showed a lower total cholesterol concentration than the birds in the other treatments.
Plasma HDL-c concentration of the H.TRP- and M.TRP-fed birds was greater than that of the control birds, but no significant differences in the concentration of plasma HDL-c were observed between the L.TRP-fed birds and other treatments. There were no significant differences in plasma LDL-c concentration
Table 4 shows the effect of dietary TRP supplementation on the fatty acid composition of the thigh meat in chickens at week 6. The H.TRP-fed birds had a lower (P <0.05) total SFA and trans-vaccenic acid (C18:1n7) concentration in thigh meat than the F.TRP-fed birds, but there were no significant differences for these indices between the other birds. Moreover, TRP supplementation reduced the concentrations of palmitic acid (C16:0) (P = 0.02) and SFA (P = 0.01) in the thigh meat compared with the control. There were no significant differences between treatments in the concentration of the other fatty acids and UFA (P >0.05).
No changes in serum total cholesterol, HDL-c, LDL-c and triglyceride concentrations have been shown in broiler chickens when receiving diets supplemented with 0.1% or 0.2% TRP alone or with aloe vera powder (Mehala & Moorthy, 2008). However, higher plasma HDL-c and lower plasma VLDL-c, triglycerides (by 0.5% or 1% dietary TRP supplementation) and total cholesterol (by 1% dietary TRP supplementation) concentrations were recorded in more recent experiments. Many papers have been published regarding the hypocholesterolemic effects of TRP or its compounds in human and animals. For example, higher serum HDL-c concentrations were observed when 0.25%, 0.5% and 0.75% TRP were included in broiler chicken diets (Emadi et al., 2007). Dietary supplementation of 0.2% TRP to laying hens resulted in lower serum triglyceride and total cholesterol concentrations (Kermanshahi & Riasi, 2006) and the inclusion of 0.1% or 0.5% curcumin in rat diets lowered the liver and serum cholesterol concentrations (Rao et al., 1970; Babu & Srinivasan, 1997). Moreover, dietary supplementation of curcumin decreased the plasma cholesterol, free fatty acids and triglyceride concentrations in female albino rats (Wistar strain) with alcohol induced toxicity (Rukkumani et al., 2003). Kamal-Eldin et al. (2000) reported reduced low plasma density lipoprotein and very low-density lipoprotein and total cholesterol concentrations in the livers of male Sprague-Dawley rats by dietary supplementation of 4 g curcumin/kg. Soni & Kuttan (1992) observed a significant decrease in serum lipid peroxides (33%), an increase in HDL-c (29%) and a decrease in total serum cholesterol (12%) concentrations upon curcumin administration (500 mg of curcumin per day for 7 d) to 10 healthy human volunteers. Furthermore, feeding the turmeric extract along with saturated fats and cholesterol (Ramirez-Tortosa et al., 1999) decreased the plasma cholesterol level and the susceptibility of LDL to oxidation in rabbits. Reduced plasma cholesterol concentrations of TRP-fed birds are possibly related to the altered activity of two effective enzymes in cholesterol metabolism, HMG-CoA reductase and cholesterol 7a-hydroxylase. Although the activity of HMG-CoA reductase was not investigated in the current experiment and in other published studies on TRP, Babu & Srinivasan (1997) suggested that a cholesterol-lowering effect of curcumin could be mediated by the stimulation of hepatic cholesterol-7a-hydroxylase activity. Therefore, lower plasma cholesterol concentrations in TRP-fed birds could be related to the stimulating activity of hepatic cholesterol-7a-hydroxylase.
As opposed to total cholesterol and VLDL-c, dietary supplementation of 0.5% and 1% TRP depressed the plasma triglyceride concentration in our experiment. This phenomenon may be due to the lowering hepatic lipogenesis effect of TRP, because triglycerides are produced in the liver by hepatic lipogenesis and are secreted into the plasma (Lanza-Jacoby, 1986; Herzberg & Rogerson, 1988). As a result, decreased hepatic lipogenesis possibly affected the thigh meat triglyceride and saturated fatty acid contents of TRP-fed birds. Neutral lipids (triacylglycerol or triglycerides) of muscle meat are rich in saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and found in the i.m. adipocytes located in the perimysium (Sanosaka et al., 2008). Adipocyte number and size increase with the total lipid content of the muscle (Mourot & Hermier, 2001; Wood et al., 2008). The predominant lipids in thigh meat are triglycerides (Gonzalez-Esquerra & Leeson, 2000). SFA and MUFA are the results of fatty acid synthesis de novo, whereas polyunsaturated fatty acids originate exclusively from the diet (Lanza-Jacoby, 1986; Herzberg & Rogerson, 1988). Therefore, a lower percentage of SFA, especially palmitic acid and C18:1 n-7 (a MUFA) in the thigh meat of TRP-fed chickens is the result of decreased de novo synthesis of fatty acids in the liver. Palmitic acid (C16:0) was the main SFA of thigh meat in a recent experiment. The same results have been reported for thigh meat of broiler chickens and of steers (Mapiye et al., 2011). Palmitic acid was lower in TRP-fed birds than in the control birds. Along with myristic acid (C14:0), palmitic acid is the responsible fatty acid to raise LDL serum cholesterol (Rowe et al., 1999; Muchenje et al., 2009a; b). Cholesterol can be both good and bad for food consumers. Abnormally high levels of cholesterol and abnormal proportions of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and high-density lipoproteins (HDL) are associated with cardiovascular diseases (Muchenje et al., 2009a). Studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between LDL cholesterol levels and human cardiovascular diseases and that HDL-c has an inverse relationship with the risk of cardiovascular diseases (Kwiterovich, 1997; Muchenje et al., 2009a). Therefore, a low level of palmitic acid in thigh meat of TRP-fed birds is desirable.
Yasni et al. (1993) observed decreased activity of liver fatty acid synthase, along with decreased serum triglycerides, phospholipids and liver cholesterol concentrations, and increased concentrations of serum HDL-c and apolipoproteins in rats given a cholesterol-free diet by Curcoma xanthorrhiza (Javanese turmeric, a turmeric species). These researchers indicated that Curcoma xanthorrhiza contains an active compound other than the curcuminoids that can modify the metabolism of lipids and lipoproteins and even liver fatty acid synthase activity. In another experiment they identified alpha-curcumene as the major component (approximately 65%) of Curcoma xanthorrhiza essential oil (Yasni et al., 1994). Addition of 0.02% Curcoma xanthorrhiza essential oils prepared by steam distillation to a purified diet resulted in a lower hepatic triglyceride concentration in rats, whereas addition of the hexane-soluble fraction (0.5%) resulted in a lower concentration of serum, as well as liver triglycerides. Rats fed the essential oil and hexane-soluble fraction had a lower hepatic fatty acid synthase activity. The fraction containing β-curcumene suppressed the synthesis of fatty acids from 14C-labelled acetate in primary cultured rat hepatocytes. They concluded that β-curcumene is one of the active principles exerting triglyceride-lowering activity in Curcoma xanthorrhiza (Yasni et al., 1994). Existence of 6.2% aromatic curcumene in essential oils of Curcoma longa has been reported by Jayaprakasha et al. (2002). According the results of this experiment showing lower plasma and thigh meat triglycerides concentrations of M.TRP- and H.TRP-fed birds, it seems those aromatic curcumene fractions is possibly the responsible compound of the declining effect of TRP on the fatty acid synthase activity enzyme and consequently lower thigh meat triglycerides and SFAs. Moreover, decreased plasma triglyceride, and thigh meat triglyceride, SFA and vaccenic acid concentrations of TRP-fed birds may be due to a lowering hepatic lipogenesis effect of TRP.
It was concluded that dietary inclusion of TRP in broiler chickens can increase the crude protein and moisture contents, and decrease the triglycerides and SFAs in thigh meat of broilers and hence improve meat quality.
We sincerely thank the Institute of Biotechnology for financial support of this study.
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Jayaprakasha, G.K., Jena, B.S., Negi, P.S. & Sakariah, K.K., 2002. Evaluation of antioxidant activities and antimutagenicity of turmeric oil: A byproduct from curcumin production. Zeitschrift fur Naturforschung 57, 828-835. [ Links ]
Kamal-Eldin, A., Frank, J., Razdan, A., Tengblad, S., Basu, S. & Vessby, B., 2000. Effects of dietary phenolic compounds on tocopherol, cholesterol, and fatty acids in rats. Lipids 35, 427-435. [ Links ]
Kermanshahi, H. & Riasi, A., 2006. Effect of turmeric rhizome powder (Curcuma longa) and soluble NSP degrading enzyme on some blood parameters of laying hens. Int. J. Poult. Sci. 5, 494-498. [ Links ]
Konjufca, V.H., Pesti, G.M. & Bakalli, R.I., 1997. Modulation of cholesterol levels in broiler meat by dietary garlic and copper. Poult. Sci. 76, 1264-1271. [ Links ]
Kwiterovich, P.O., 1997. The effect of dietary fat, antioxidants, and prooxidants on blood lipids, lipoproteins, and atherosclerosis. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 97 (Suppl.), 31-41. [ Links ]
Lanza-Jacoby, S., 1986. Effect of continuous and discontinuous intravenous or intragastric total parenteral nutrition in rats on serum lipids, liver lipids and liver lipogenic rates. J. Nutr. 116, 733-741. [ Links ]
Lopez-Ferrer, S., Baucells, M.D., Barroeta, A.C. & Grashorn, M.A., 1999. N-3 enrichment of chicken meat using fish oil: Alternative substitution with rapeseed and linseed oils. Poult. Sci. 78, 356-365. [ Links ]
Mapiye, C., Chimonyo, M., Dzama, K., Hugo, A., Strydom, P.E. & Muchenje, V., 2011. Fatty acid composition of beef from Nguni steers supplemented with Acacia karroo leaf-meal. J. Food Compos. Anal. 24, 523-528. [ Links ]
Mehala, C. & Moorthy, M., 2008. Effect of Aloe vera and Curcuma longa (turmeric) on carcass characteristics and biochemical parameters of broilers. Int. J. Poult. Sci. 7, 857-861. [ Links ]
Mishra, A., Jaitly, A.K. & Srivastava, A.K., 2009. Antihyperglycaemic activity of six edible plants in validated animal models of diabetes mellitus. Indian J. Sci. Technol. 2, 80-86. [ Links ]
Mourot, J. & Hermier, D., 2001. Lipids in monogastric animal meat. Reprod. Nutr. Dev. 41, 109-118. [ Links ]
Muchenje, V., Dzama, K., Chimonyo, M., Strydom, P.E., Hugo, A. & Raats, J.G., 2009a. Some biochemical aspects pertaining to beef eating quality and consumer health: A review. Food Chem. 112, 279-289. [ Links ]
Muchenje, V., Hugo, A., Dzama, K., Chimonyo, M., Strydom, P.E. & Raats, J.G., 2009b. Cholesterol levels and fatty acid profiles of beef from three cattle breeds raised on natural pasture. J. Food Compos. Anal. 22, 354-358. [ Links ]
Nishiyama, T., Mae, T., Kishida, H., Tsukagawa, M., Mimaki, Y., Kuroda, M., Sashida, Y., Takahashi, K., Kawada, T., Nakagawa, K. & Kitahara, M., 2005. Curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids in Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) suppress an increase in blood glucose level in type 2 diabetic KK-Ay mice. J. Agric. Food Chem. 53, 959-963. [ Links ]
Piper, J.T., Singhal, S.S., Salameh, M.S., Torman, R.T., Awasthi, Y.C. & Awasthi, S., 1998. Mechanisms of anticarcinogenic properties of curcumin: The effect of curcumin on glutathione linked detoxification enzymes in rat liver. Int. J. Biochem. Cell Boil. 30, 445-456. [ Links ]
Ponte, P.I.P., Mendes, I., Quaresma, M., Aguiar, M.N.M., Lemos, J.P.C., Ferreira, L.M.A., Soares, M.A.C., Alfaia, C.M., Prates, J.A.M. & Fontes, C.M.G.A., 2004. Cholesterol levels and sensory characteristics of meat from broiler consuming moderate to high levels of alfalfa. Poult. Sci. 83, 810-814. [ Links ]
Ramirez-Tortosa, M.C., Mesa, M.D., Agullera, M.C., Qulles, J.L., Baro, L. & Ramirez-Tortosa, C.L., 1999. Oral administration of a turmeric extract inhibits LDL oxidation and has hypocholesterolemic effects in rabbits with experimental atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis 147, 371-378. [ Links ]
Rao, D.S., Sekhara, N.C., Satyanarayna, M.N. & Srinivasan, M., 1970. Effect of curcumin on serum and liver cholesterol levels in the rat. J. Nutr. 100, 1307-1315. [ Links ]
Rowe, A., Macedo, F.A.F., Visentainer, J.V., Souza, N.E. & Matsushita, M., 1999. Muscle composition and fatty acid profile in lambs fattened in drylot or pasture. Meat Sci. 51, 283-288. [ Links ]
Ruby, A.J., Kuttan, G., Babu, K.D., Rajasekharan, K.N. & Kuttan, R., 1995. Antitumor and antioxidant activity of natural curcuminoids. Cancer Lett. 94, 79-83. [ Links ]
Rukkumani, R., Sribalasubashini, M. & Menon, V.P., 2003. Protective effects of curcumin and photo-irradiated curcumin on circulatory lipids and lipid peroxidation products in alcohol and polyunsaturated fatty acid-induced toxicity. Phytother. Res. 17, 925-929. [ Links ]
Sanosaka, M., Minashima, T., Suzuki, K., Watanabe, K., Ohwada, S., Hagino, A., Rose, M. T., Yamaguchi, T. & Aso, H., 2008. A combination of octanoate and oleate promotes in vitro differentiation of porcine intramuscular adipocytes. Comp. Biochem. Phys. B, 149, 285-292. [ Links ]
Soni, K.B. & Kuttan, R., 1992. Effect of oral curcumin administration on serum peroxides and cholesterol levels in human volunteers. Indian J. Physiol. Pharmacol , 36, 273-275. [ Links ]
Staley, L.L. & Mazier, M.J.P., 1999. Potential explanation for the French paradox. Nutr. Res. 19, 3-15. [ Links ]
Wood, J.V., Enser, M., Fisher, A.V., Nute, G.R., Sheard, P.R., Richardson, R.I., Hughes, S.I. & Whittington, F.M., 2008. Fat deposition, fatty acid composition and meat quality: A review. Meat Sci. 78, 343-358. [ Links ]
Yasni, S., Imaizumi, K., Nakamura, M., Aimoto, J. & Sugano, M., 1993. Effects of Curcuma xanthorrhiza Roxb., and curcuminoids on the level of serum and liver lipids, serum apolipoprotein A-I and lipogenic enzymes in rats. Food Chem. Toxicol. 31, 213-218. [ Links ]
Yasni, S., Imaizumi, K., Sin, K., Sugano, M., Nonaka, G. & Sidik., 1994. Identification of active principle inessential oils and hexane-soluble fractions of Curcuma xanthorrhiza Roxb. showing triglyceride lowering action in rats. Food Chem. Toxicol. 32, 273-278. [ Links ]
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text:
I had a chance to get up-close and personal with the Bad Boy CMY at LDI 2010 this year, having the demo from Chris Conti with PRG. I'm a big fan of the Bad Boy fixture, and I have been for quite some time – I posted about it from the last LDI, in Orlando in 2009. They've added the element of CMY mixing to the Bad Boy – I'm a fan of the quantum color mixing, but CMY is also very important to have available for a moving head for the obvious reasons.
Check out some images, I've got video coming soon!
The actual PRG booth – a replica of the 438 grid panels they installed into the National Convention Center in Qatar.
Big beautiful beams from the Bad Boy luminaire.
One of my favorite gobos, InLight Gobos' "Rubber Band Ball," that comes standard with the Bad Boy!
Check out a gallery of PRG/Bad Boy images – click on one image and a viewer will open up for your convenience!


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Click here to enter the current challenge.
Welcome to the second week of our Friend challenge. Just a reminder...you need to create a card or project which has a sentiment with the word "FRIEND" on it....
Here are the gorgeous creations of Team B...
Ali from The Crafty Dragon
Sandra from Crea-Sandra
Julie from Julie's craftyspot
Ruthie from Gotta find a cool and funky name
AND>>>>>our guest designer ASHA!!!!!! from Sunny Summer Crafts
We hope you have enjoyed looking at the inspiration and look forward to seeing your entries.....
This challenge will run until Tuesday, June 4th


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Split designs are so quick and easy to create.
Established in 2003, Five Star Fonts Embroidery specializes in Fun and Unique Machine Embroidery Monograms and Fonts, Designs and Easy In the Hoop Embroidery Projects!
Our designs have been featured several times in Designs In Machine Embroidery Magazine and Creative Machine Embroidery Magazine.


text:
26 million people don't have clean water.
26 million people don't have clean water.
That's almost half of the population.
8 in 10 people don't have a decent toilet.
8 in 10 people don't have a decent toilet.
That's 41 million people.
3,394 children under 5 die from diarrhea every year.
3,394 children under 5 die from diarrhea every year.
Caused by dirty water and poor toilets.
Keeping kids in school
Agnes Pius has taught in four different schools in Tanzania over the years. She's no stranger to truancy, but not for the reasons you'd expect. "Students would rather stay home from school than use the old toilets," she explains. "I felt sorry for children who used them."
More and more children are enrolling in Tanzania's schools, but the number of toilets and water points hasn't caught up.
With our local partner, we have built a new toilet block for Guse Primary School. There are water points too, accessible to younger children and people with disabilities. Girls can now manage their periods safely and privately.
"I'm happy," Agnes says. "Now we have healthy and clean children who are keen to further their education."
Delivering life at Kiomboi
When we first visited the maternity wards of Kiomboi Hospital in 2015 its piped water system had broken down. Incredible people like you helped raise almost £5m that winter, which means midwives like Juliana can deliver babies like Fatuma Paul in a safer environment.
Make a donation today
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text:
As suggested by its name, Domain-Driven Design is not only about Event Sourcing and CQRS. It all starts with the domain and a lot of key insights that are too easy to overlook at first. Even if you've read the "blue book" already, I suggest you read it again as the book is at the same time wide and deep.
You got talent
Behind the basics of Domain-Driven Design, one important idea is to harness the huge talent we all have: the ability to speak, and this talent of natural language can help us reason about the considered domain.
Just like multi-touch and tangible interfaces aim at reusing our natural strength in using our fingers, Eric Evans suggests that we use our language ability as an actual tool to try out loud modelling concepts, and to test if they pass the simple test of being useful in sentences about the domain.
This is a simple idea, yet powerful. No need for any extra framework or tool, one of the most powerful tool we can imagine is already there, wired in our brain. The trick is to find a middle way between natural language in all its fuzziness, and an expressive model that we can discuss without ambiguity, and this is exactly what the Ubiquitous Language addresses.
One model to rule them all
Another key insight in Domain-Driven Design is to identify -equate- the implementation model with the analysis model, so that there is only one model across every aspect of the software process, from requirements and analysis to code.
This does not mean you must have only one domain model in your application, in fact you will probably get more than one model across the various areas* of the application. But this means that in each area there must be only one model shared by developers and domain experts. This clearly opposes to some early methodologies that advocated a distinct analysis modelling then a separate, more detailed implementation modelling. This also leads naturally to the Ubiquitous Language, a common language between domain experts and the technical team.
The key driver is that the knowledge gained through analysis can be directly used in the implementation, with no gap, mismatch or translation. This assumes of course that the underlying programming language is modelling-oriented, which object oriented languages obviously are.
What form for the model?
Shall the model be expressed in UML? Eric Evans is again quite pragmatic: nothing beats natural language to express the two essential aspects of a model: the meaning of its concepts, and their behaviour. Text, in English or any other spoken language, is therefore the best choice to express a model, while diagrams, standard or not, even pictures, can supplement to express a particular structure or perspective.
If you try to express the entirety of the model using UML, then you're just using UML as a programming language. Using only a programming language such as Java to represent a model exhibits by the way the same shortcoming: it is hard to get the big picture and to grasp the large scale structure. Simple text documents along with some diagrams and pictures, if really used and therefore kept up-to-date, help explain what's important about the model, otherwise expressed in code.
A final remark
The beauty in Domain-Driven Design is that it is not just a set of independent good ideas on why and how to build domain models; it is itself a complete system of inter-related ideas, each useful on their own but that also supplement each other. For example, the idea of using natural language as a modelling tool and the idea of sharing one same model for analysis and implementation both lead to the Ubiquitous Language.
* Areas would typically be different Bounded Contexts


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China's passport propaganda baffles experts
China is issuing passports with a map of the disputed South China Sea labeled as part of China.
| Beijing
China's neighbors are seething with anger over new Beijing-issued passports that they see as the latest, underhand, Chinese jab in an ongoing regional row about maritime territory.
Beijing has infuriated India, too, with its e-passports, decorated with a map of China that shows disputed territories across the South China Sea – and Himalayan land that New Delhi claims – as belonging to China.
Vietnam is refusing to stamp the new passports with visas, for fear that to do so would imply acceptance of China's claims. The Indian consulate in Beijing is stamping its own map of the disputed border when it affixes visas to the new passports.
The quiet Chinese move has baffled even some Chinese experts.
"I do not know why they decided to do this," says Niu Jun, professor of international relations at Peking University. "It cannot resolve any of the disputes with our neighbors and we could expect a response from the other countries."
At Vietnam's border with China, Vietnamese officials are not pasting visas into the new passports, but issuing them on separate pieces of paper.
The Vietnamese government says it has sent a diplomatic note to Beijing asking the Chinese government to remove "erroneous content" from the new passports.
The Chinese government began issuing the passports, which contain an electronic chip with the holder's personal data, last April. It is believed to have handed out more than 5 million of them, but the map began stirring controversy only a few days ago.
The Philippines, engaged in a fierce territorial dispute with China over fishing grounds near the Scarborough Shoal, has protested to Beijing. Taiwan, which Beijing claims as an integral part of its territory but which enjoys de facto independence, has also complained.
"This is total ignorance of reality and only provokes disputes," said Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, the body responsible for relations with China, in a statement last week.
The map of China, on page 8 of the new passports, shows a dotted line to illustrate China's territorial claim to almost the whole of the South China Sea, which puts it in conflict with a number of its neighbors, such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei.
Washington has dismissed the map as irrelevant.
"Stray maps that they include are not part" of international standards that passports must meet, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.
"These issues need to be negotiated among the stakeholders, among ASEAN and China, and, you know, a picture on a passport does not change that," she added.
China has defended its new travel documents as being in line with international standards.
"China is not targeting a specific country," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Friday. "China is willing to communicate with relevant countries and continue to promote contacts."
The passport row is the latest flare-up of tensions in the South China Sea that are complicating Beijing's relations with several of its neighbors.
In May, China suspended the import of bananas from the Philippines until Manila backed down in a dispute over fisheries around the Scarborough Shoal.
In June, the state owned Chinese oil company CNOOC invited foreign firms to bid for exploration rights in an area close to Vietnam's coast. A month later Beijing announced that it was upgrading the town of Sansha, in the Paracel Islands, which it seized from Vietnam in 1974, to the status of a prefecture-level municipality and would soon station troops there.
China is also embroiled in a territorial dispute with Japan over three uninhabited islands in the East China Sea known in Chinese as the Diaoyu islands and in Japan as the Senkaku. Both sides have sent surveillance and coast guard vessels to patrol the disputed waters, raising fears of a clash.


text: High-profile French media websites went offline for a few hours Friday morning, prompting frenzied speculation about "unprecedented" cyberattacks -- but the hosting company behind the sites soon dismissed talk of a massive distributed denial-of-service attack.A number of sites, including those of daily newspaper 20 Minutes and online news site Slate, went offline or were difficult to access from around 10 a.m. Paris time.The outages followed hot on the heels of the overnight arrest of 12 people wanted for questioning about logistical support they may have given shooters in a series of deadly attacks last week around Paris. Twelve people were killed on Jan. 7 by two heavily armed men at the office of satirical news weekly Charlie Hebdo. Separately, a police officer was shot on the outskirts of Paris on Jan. 8, and the suspect in that incident then shot four customers in a supermarket on the edge of Paris on Jan. 9 before taking others hostage. He and the two suspects in the first shooting, by then holed up in a printing works to the Northeast of the city, died in shoot-outs with the police.Weekly news magazine L'Express, one of the sites affected by Friday's outage, speculated on the possibility of a link with the events at Charlie Hebdo. Threats had been made against French media and government websites by a group calling itself AnonGhost, under the banner "#opFrance," in reprisal against threats and attacks by the group Anonymous against jihadist websites in #opCharlieHebdo.From there, it was but a small step to assuming that the problems were the result of cyberattacks by jihadists. But the French sites affected late Friday morning were all hosted by the same company, Oxalide, which rents space in Equinix datacenters North of Paris.L'Express later updated its report to include an update tweeted by Oxalide that ruled out a DDoS attack as the cause of the outage.Oxalide first reported the incident via its Twitter account at 10.03 a.m. CET: "Incident in progress on our infrastructure - our teams are working on it," it wrote, adding half an hour later that the incident "affects the network core."Ninety minutes into the incident, the company announced: "The source of the problem is identified. Part of our services are operational again." Readers reported that the website at 20minutes.fr was working again.Some 40 minutes later, more than 90 percent of services were up again, although suffering from perturbations, Oxalide said."The first elements in our possession allow us to exclude the possibility of an external DDoS-type attack," the company said around 1 p.m. local time, before going on a few minutes later to say it was closing the incident and would provide a preliminary report early in the afternoon.Peter Sayer covers general technology breaking news for IDG News Service, with a special interest in open source software and related European intellectual property legislation. Send comments and news tips to Peter at email@example.com.


text:
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Use your NIE Campus Network Account.
(It is the same username and password used to access the NIE wireless network and the e-databases).
Hint: Your username likely starts with the letter N and end with an alphabet
Have you forgotten your password?
Please click here to reset your password
Still having trouble?
Please call the Service Desk at 6790-3033
or send us an email at firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Wolf Tooth 120 BCD Chainrings - 2018
120 BCD cranksets were introduced with SRAM 2x10 drivetrains and are excellent candidates for a 1x conversion with our patented Drop-Stop chainrings. These rings will allow you to convert your 120 BCD crankset, like the SRAM XX and others, to a 1x application! Compatibility: - These rings fit any 120 BCD crankset or spider. - For SRAM cranksets you must use the stock M8.5 bolts. These are not standard bolts and Wolf Tooth's bolts will not work with this chainring. Note that only about 3 threads will engage (same with the stock SRAM rings) - For the 36t chainring and non-SRAM cranksets you will need the M8.5 bolts from Wickwerks if your crankset doesn't already have them. These bolts actually have more threads engaged and will work better than the SRAM ones. - 36t is the smallest number of teeth that fits on a 120 BCD - For 1x9, 1x10, 1x11 and 1x12 drivetrains (including SRAM Eagle) - Compatible with all 10, 11, and 12 speed chains (Including SRAM Eagle) - If using a 9 speed drivetrain use a 10 speed chain (shifts and works well on a 9 speed drivetrain and fits the ring tighter for better chain retention).
Part Numbers
|120 / Black / 36T / 9-12


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Why You are Living the Life You are Living
October 23, 2013
Most people use memory to explain why they're living the lives they have. They arrange memories as if they're symbols, and the sum is: this is the life I have; no other.
If you could somehow take away all those memories and insert a whole new synthetic raft, people would arrange those to come to the same conclusion. And the same life.
So it is with the world. People look out at it and decide, on some subterranean level, that the world dictates what degree of choice and power they possess.
Put them in a different home, a different city, on a different planet, and they would eventually settle on the same assessment of their power: small.
In that sense (and many others), memory and the world are constructs the individual ingests, arranges, and builds to suit and fortify his conception of his "geometry": the shape of his life.
In previous articles, I've been making clear how THE VOICE narrates the story of our times through television anchorage.
The elite anchor is groomed to be able to induce a seamless hypnotic trance in viewers and make HIS voice THEIR voice.
There is power in a voice.
A voice can change reality.
Your voice is the voice that destroys the narrative that has been sculpted for us. Your voice is the voice that rolls over the voice of the elite anchor and the other elite leaders who speak for us.
When your voice become your VOICE, you connect with something oceanic that rips away false separations and false systems and false ideas and deserts of sand on which our fake reality is built.
We pretend to be small. We pretend to be whispers. We pretend to be confused. We pretend to be creatures living inside the space of this deluded society. We pretend to be clueless. We pretend to have such limited power.
We pretend.
We pretend that some overriding system or structure SUPERSEDES OUR OWN VOICE. We bow down to that system, and then we see what that does to our own power. It diminishes it. It makes our voice small. It makes our voice thin. It makes us into weaklings.
It makes us walled off from each other, from THE REAL EACH OTHER. The real each other is each one of us with power, with A VOICE.
The word "rant" is interesting to analyze. It originally referred to someone speaking in a completely unhinged way. Its recent online meaning was invented by tech heads, who adopt a "cool" attitude toward problems and answers. These cerebral types consider any outward display of passion or outrage to be a rant. For them, the "ranting voice" is suspect.
Try this experiment. Find a piece of writing you love that expresses great passion and poetry. Read it out loud while you're alone. Read it out loud 50 times over the course of a few days. Inject your own passion into the words. If you're not already lying in a coffin, something unexpected will happen to you. You'll find yourself coming alive in a larger way. You'll experience glimpses of your VOICE.
This has to do with BEING ALIVE.
You'll experience the absence of little structures and systems.
Keep reading that passage over and over. Put everything you have into it. Don't stint. Put more and more feeling into it.
Then, watch the evening network news. Listen to the tone of the anchor. Pay attention to how he establishes a continuity. No matter how absurd you thought the evening news was, you'll now comprehend that absurdity from an entirely new perspective.
As you expand your own VOICE, and as you EXPRESS WHAT YOU TRULY WANT TO EXPRESS—-YOUR OWN THOUGHTS, YOUR OWN IDEAS, YOUR OWN FEELINGS, YOUR OWN INVENTIONS—you are cutting away layers of stagnant consciousness. Each one of those layers says: "reality is THIS." Each layer has a different restrictive portrait of reality, and as it disintegrates and tumbles away into space, you become freer.
The VOICE.
A path to greater power, greater aliveness, greater empathy, greater engagement, greater self, greater community, greater wholeness.
Your voice, not the anchor's voice. The anchor's voice operates on behalf of the established corrupt order, as a mesmerizing tool. Your VOICE liberates you and others.
Many years ago, I was teaching a small class in a school in New York. The kids were all retreads from other schools, where they didn't make it for a variety of reasons.
They were in a constant state of distraction. Unteachable.
So I picked a short passage from a poem by Dylan Thomas. A few lines. A few great lines. I had each student read the passage out loud. Then we all read it together. Then we went around and around with each child reading it again—I urged more feeling, more expression.
It was like trying to break through an iron ceiling. Each kid read the lines in a monotone. It was eerie, as if they were all in a trance. But I kept going anyway.
Nothing doing. Nothing happening.
Then I said, "I'm going to read these lines like a newscaster would read them." I gave a pretty good impression of an anchor.
The kids cracked up. They thought it was very funny. They immediately grasped how ridiculous the anchor's voice sounded trying to give feeling to poetry.
The kids began reading those lines as if they were news anchors. They had a great time with it. That's what broke the ice.
"Now," I said, "stop conning me. Read the lines with your own feeling. Come on. Put something into it."
And they did.
Around and around we went. Each kid must have read those lines a dozen more times. They got into it. They shed their embarrassment.
The VOICES that emerged that day in class convinced me that everyone has a VOICE, and it cuts through layers of conditioning like a knife through butter, once it's unleashed.
These kids were titanic.
When we were done (I was reading the lines too), we all sat there and looked at each other in amazement. We knew. We knew we had cracked the egg. The spell of "flat reality" had been broken. We were all alive in a new way.
The famous lines we read?
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Although the overall sentiment of that poem might appear to be a kind of futility, when we read the lines over and over, WE came to a different place. A place where we knew that our words COULD fork lightning.
And then we read, from Fern Hill:
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daises and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
… the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the Sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.
To be astonished by something you see on a screen is one thing. To be astonished by what your VOICE can establish is light years beyond that.
VOICE is relentless life.
The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon Rappoport was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com


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During the summer of 2011, as Ben Bernanke and his mainstream propaganda arm convinced Americans that green shoots were cropping up all over the nation, warnings of the coming destruction of America's pension funds had begun to emerge.
Government employees may currently enjoy higher salaries and benefits than the private sector, but they have been given a false sense of security.
Whether you are a police officer, fireman, school teacher, or utility worker, you could have serious problems down the road.
Chances are that every major metropolitan area in the country is heavily in the red. This means that the jobs and retirement futures of millions of people are under threat.
[The only] option will be for ex-Federal governments to start reducing benefits and firing workers.
Just two years on we're seeing the warnings manifest in the real world.
Once again, we focus the microscope on Detroit, which to those paying attention, is America's canary in the coal mine signaling what's to come for the rest of the country.
With the threat of a city bankruptcy looming, Detroit city workers and retirees are pushing back against the state-appointed emergency manager, filing lawsuits to limit his options and refusing to accept demands to keep details of their discussions secret.
One lawsuit, filed in Ingham County Circuit Court in the state capital Lansing, seeks to stop Governor Rick Snyder from allowing the emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, to file Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. That lawsuit claims Orr's plan to significantly cut vested pensions would violate strong protections in the Michigan constitution for retirement benefits of public-sector workers.
In his June 14 proposal to creditors, Orr listed pensions as unsecured debt of the city. Payment on pensions, retiree healthcare and $641 million of general obligation bonds all would be made from the city's proceeds from $2 billion of notes Orr plans to sell as part of his restructuring plan.
The plan, if enacted, would be expected to result in significant cuts in pension payments. Although the city currently lists $643.7 million in unfunded pension liabilities, Orr in his report said the number is closer to $3.5 billion if "more realistic assumptions" are taken into account.
Pensions generally are considered off limits in bankruptcies, Nicholson said. "It's very, very rare for any entity to go after people's pensions because it puts people in the poor house," he said.
The push back from labor groups is a new front in a growing resistance to Orr's efforts.
Notice that everyone assumes the unfunded liabilities are $640 million, but in reality, once you start looking at the numbers, the city owes five times as much – $3.5 billion! That's a significant miscalculation.
It's very simple to figure out what happens here using basic arithmetic.
Labor unions and city employees can sue the city to their heart's content. This will not change the facts:
There's no money.
See, this is the problem at its root. The unions bargained in bad faith, either knowing factually or being in possession of enough information to know that what they were asking for couldn't be provided. It was fiscally impossible given the projected increase in cost over the retiree lifetimes.
They didn't care and they bludgeoned the city and its people into approving these "contracts" anyway.
The problem is that the only remaining options are to take some fraction of the original amount which can actually be paid or get nothing. And the longer they wait and the harder they push the closer to zero their recovery becomes, as the cost of litigation takes from the recovery and in addition the city continues to decay and will keep doing so until it is fiscally restored to a sound foundation with its taxes and spending brought both into balance and to a competitive level.
Kevyn Orr doesn't have to concede anything. He holds the whip hand in that the city is a wasting asset and the longer the unions keep screwing around and screaming the less they get.
Karl Denninger's Market Ticker
This is a nationwide problem.
If you are a government employee, a labor union member, or even a retiree from the private sector, you had better be looking for ways to protect your current retirement portfolio or find yourself a new source of income, because that money you've been promised is going to be wiped out.
The pain is coming and millions of Americans will end up in the poor house as a result.
We've discussed the coming wave of State and local defaults, and it appears that the end game is close…
Eventually, the Federal government will hit its (real) debt ceiling as well. That will happen when no one else but The Federal Reserve will buy the US Treasury's debt issues, at which point the retirement accounts, 401k's, savings and dollar denominated assets of every American will be completely and utterly destroyed.
No worries, right? Because they told you that YOUR retirement account is perfectly safe and those investments you've spent your entire life acquiring are in good hands.
Do you really want to keep pretending this isn't happening?


text:
Murwillumbah, Australia: February 7, 2004
Tridandisvami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja
This is the definition of pure devotional service:
anyabhilasita sunyam
jnana karmady anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanu
silanam bhaktir uttama
["The cultivation of activities which are meant exclusively for the pleasure for Sri Krsna, or in other words the uninterrupted flow of service to Sri Krsna, performed through all endeavors of the body mind and speech, and through the expression of various spiritual sentiments (bhavas), which is not covered by jnana (knowledge aimed at impersonal liberation) and karma (reward-seeking activity), and which is devoid of all desires other than the aspiration to bring happiness to Sri Krsna, is called uttama-bhakti." (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.1)]
When service to Lord Krsna is not covered by jnana, impersonalism, karma, fruitive activities, yoga or severe austerities, when it is continuous and performed exclusively for Krsna, by body, mind, words and soul, with moods up to madanakya-bhava (the mood of Srimati Radhika), that is bhakti or pure devotion. Our bhakti is surely not uttama-bhakti.
Some of you may have kanistha-bhakti, some sakama-bhakti, misra-bhakti or aisvarya-mayi-bhakti, and there will be many defects on these levels. Some of you have madhyama-adhikari bhakti.
Here we are giving examples of different stages of pure, uttama bhakti. Yesterday we explained that the bhakti of Dhruva Maharaja is not in the category of uttama (topmost, first class) or even madhyama (second class). It is not pure bhakti at all. The verse defining uttama-bhakti indicates that its devotees (bhaktas) are divided into five stages or categories: jnani-bhakta, suddha-bhakta, premi-bhakta, premapara-bhakta and prematura-bhakta. After this there are no "bhaktas"; rather, all are kaya-vyuha (direct bodily expansions) of Sri Krsna or Srimati Radhika. They are not called bhaktas; they are called eternal associates of Radha and Krsna.
First we are going to explain the jnani-bhakta. There are of two kinds of jnana (knowledge). Those who want to merge with the Supreme Lord are called jnanis They misinterpret the verse: "Sarvam khalv idam brahma - everything is brahman" (Chandogya Upanisad 3.14.1) They think. "Yes, everything is brahman. Even the trees, creepers, birds and animals are the Supreme Lord - Brahman." We do not like this idea. Every living entity is part and parcel of God, but it is not that everyone is God. On the other hand those who have tattva-jnana, knowledge of all the established philosophical truths - who know who is Krsna, who is Srimati Radhika, what is maya or illusion, what is prema or pure love of God, what is rasa or the mellows of that love - are called jnani-bhaktas. They are not jnanis; they are bhaktas who have knowledge of Lord Krsna\'s divinity and of the Divinity's unlimited opulence.
Sri Prahlada Maharaja is an example of the jnani-bhakta. He is a maha-bhagavata and an uttama-bhakta. Other jnani-bhaktas are Bhismadeva, the four Kumaras (Sanaka, Sanat-kumara, Sanandana and Sanatana) and Srila Sukadeva Gosvami in the beginning of his life. They are jnani-bhaktas, not jnanis.
Prahlada Maharaja was an unparalleled devotee and he was extraordinarily humble, pure and tolerant. If you want to be a devotee, you must follow him. First of all you will have to give up all your desires for sense gratification and have no other desire than bhakti. Your bhakti should not be covered by jnana, karma or other materially contaminated activities. You will have to engage in spontaneous service performed by the body and mind and by all endeavors of the senses, and also with a transcendental mood, called bhava or rati. Then your activities will be bhakti.
Prahlada Maharaja\'s father, the demon Hiranyakasipu, had a boon from Lord Brahma granting that he will not die in the air, on the earth, or on any planet. He will not die by any weapon, nor by any man, animal, bird or snake created by Brahma. He will not die in any month, nor inside or outside the house. Thus, he had a boon that he had become almost immortal.
Hiranyakasipu's son Prahlada was the youngest of his four sons, and Prahlada was sent to the school of Sanda and Amarka. Sanda means "bull" and Amarka means "darkness." Those who are like bulls and are always in darkness and ignorant of tattva-jnana are "sanda" and "amarka".
One day Prahlada came home from school, he was decorated by his mother and he was put on the lap of his father Hiranyakasipu. His father became happy to see his very beautiful and humble son. He kissed him and asked, "My dear son, I want to hear from you what you have learned from your teachers."
Prahlada replied:
tat sadhu manye 'sura-varya dehinam
sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat
hitvatma-patam grham andha-kupam
vanam gato yad dharim asrayeta
"O best of the asuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position and go to the forest [vana]. More clearly, one should go to Vrndavana, where only Krsna consciousness is prevalent, and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.5)
Hearing this from his son, Hiranyakasipu began to laugh, and questioned,
"Who taught you this? Your guru?"
Hiranyakasipu called Sanda and Amarka and asked them if they had given these teachings to Prahlada.
"Never!" they replied. "We do not teach such things."
"Well, what outsider came to the school, then?" Hiranyakasipu demanded. "Narada? Or any other devotees? He ordered his men, "You should keep a guard at the school to make sure that no devotee of Visnu enters the area of the school." He then ordered the teachers to return Prahlada to school and give him very good instruction on politics and diplomacy, on how to control subjects, and on how to conquer and become very powerful like himself.
After four or five months Prahlada's mother again decorated and brought him to the lap of his father. Again Hiranyakasipu was very happy to see his son, and he asked the same question: "What have you learned at school from your gurus?"
Prahlada replied:
sravanam kirtanam visnoh
smaranam pada-sevanam
arcanam vandanam dasyam
sakhyam atma-nivedanam
iti pumsarpita visnau
bhaktis cen nava-laksana
kriyeta bhagavaty addha
tan manye 'dhitam uttamam
"Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Visnu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words)-these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Krsna through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge." (Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5.23-24)
The nine limbs of bhakti, namely sravanam, kirtanam, visnu-smaranam (hearing, chanting and remembering Krsna or Visnu) etc. are not bhakti if they are not first offered to Sri Gurudeva. Gurudeva is also God, in the sense that he is His manifestation. He is asraya-bhagavan, a manifestation of God in the form of His servant. He is the supreme personality of servitor-godhead.
Lord Krsna will not accept your hearing, chanting or remembering about Him without it being offered first to Gurudeva. Rather than bhakti coming from such execution, false ego and many other unwanted mentalities will come. First go to a bona-fide, qualified Guru who has some realization of Krsna and who is detached from worldly desires and attractions. Go at once to such a Guru if you want to be happy. Surrender yourself to him, hear from him, and then perform hearing, chanting, and the other limbs of bhakti. Prahlada Maharaja had done this.
Hearing Prahlada's words, Hiranyakasipu became very angry. He threw Prahlada from his lap and loudly called, "Sanda and Amarka! Come here! What have you taught my son Prahlada?! You have not taught him duplicity or politics? If you have taught him about devotion to Visnu I will have to punish you!"
"We have not done this! We have not taught him these things!" Sanda and Amarka implored. "Prahlada naturally speaks in the way he does. It is his nature."
The demon Hiranyakasipu then turned to Prahlada and asked, "Who taught you this? These gurus - or who?"
Sri Prahlada replied,
matir na krsne paratah svato va
mitho 'bhipadyeta grha-vratanam
adanta-gobhir visatam tamisram
punah punas carvita-carvananam
"Because of their uncontrolled senses, persons too addicted to materialistic life make progress toward hellish conditions and repeatedly chew that which has already been chewed. Their inclinations toward Krsna are never aroused, either by the instructions of others, by their own efforts, or by a combination of both." (Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5.30)
na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum
durasaya ye bahir-artha-maninah
andha yathandhair upaniyamanas
te 'pisa-tantryam uru-damni baddhah
"Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or Guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Visnu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries." (Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5.31)
naisam matis tavad urukramanghrim
sprsaty anarthapagamo yad-arthah
mahiyasam pada-rajo-'bhisekam
niskincananam na vrnita yavat
"Unless they smear upon their bodies the dust of the lotus feet of a Vaisnava completely freed from material contamination, persons very much inclined toward materialistic life cannot be attached to the lotus feet of the Lord, who is glorified for His uncommon activities. Only by becoming Krsna conscious and taking shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord in this way can one be freed from material contamination." (Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5.32)
Now Hiranyakasipu became still angrier. Fearful, he instructed the commander-in-chief of his army to kill the young boy Prahlada. You have heard that Hiranyakasipu will not die from anyone created by Brahma, nor will he die in the daytime or at night, nor inside nor out, nor in a month. Still he became very afraid. He felt totally helpless and he was bewildered as to what to do.
Sanda and Amarka said to the demon, "Why are you fearing? All the demigods are afraid of you. We will return the boy to school for some time and bring our Guru and father Sukracarya. He will surely teach Prahlada all the necessary subject matters Don't worry."
Prahlada was thus returned to school to again hear explanations of duplicity, politics, hypocrisy and other matters. One day the teachers told the students that they were both going out for a couple of hours. Prahlada was the monitor at the school, and he was now instructed to look after all the boys in the teachers' absence. "You should not quarrel", the teachers told the boys. "Be peaceful under Prahlada's guidance, and soon we will return."
The teachers proceeded on their way, and the boys began to run around and play, very happy that their gurus were not there and they were not controlled. Prahlada said he had something to tell them, and he very humbly requested them to come and hear what he had to say. Even though he was only five or six years old, the boys had so much honor for him that he was able to control them. They assembled, and Prahlada began to speak to them.
He addressed them, "O my brothers, my friends, please listen to me. From the very beginning of your life we should meditate on the Supreme Lord. Nothing in this world can exist independently of Him. Some say that nature has created everything, and that by nature everything is manifesting, but what is the meaning of nature? Nature is the power of the Lord Krsna. Lord Krsna can control and create millions of universes, destroy them, and in a moment recreate them. He is very powerful. He knows all of you, but you don't know Him. I know something about Him, though.
"From the beginning of your life, don't waste your time. Old age and death are bound to come. What you collect in this life - wealth, reputation, position, and so on - you will have to give up. You cannot take a farthing from this world. Do you agree?"
The students replied, "O yes! Why not? You are telling the truth. We will also be old, and we will have to die."
Prahlada Maharaja continued, "From the beginning of your life, don't waste your time in politics, duplicity and hypocrisy. Remember that the Supreme Lord is Krsna. He is very powerful; He is causelessly merciful and He has invested all his power, beauty, sweetness and mercy in His holy names."
And Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu made these names are still more powerful by investing all His love and affection in them. So chant and remember these names.
Among the boys, one who was a leader said, "Prahlada, why should we chant the name of Krsna? Why not, while we are now young, play and be expert in making money and doing other activities by which we can be happy?"
Prahlada Maharaja replied, "Don't do so. Don't do so. Who knows whether or not you will have time to become old? Old age is coming; you will die tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, or just now." A thunderbolt may come and in a minute you can be killed."
You are going somewhere by airplane, and in a moment the machine can fail and all on the plane - seven hundred persons - can be killed. Where your body and bones will go, no one will know. And, if in case you can avoid this and you become old, then after eighty you will not be able to sit straight. You will not be able to chant, because so many groups of diseases will come. And your son and daughter-in-law will create many problems. Be assured of this - so you will not be able to chant and remember.
Prahlada Maharaja said:
kaumara acaret prajno
dharman bhagavatan iha
durlabham manusam janma
tad apy adhruvam arthadam
"One who is sufficiently intelligent should use the human form of body from the very beginning of life - in other words, from the tender age of childhood to practice the activities of devotional service, giving up all other engagements. The human body is most rarely achieved, and although temporary like other bodies, it is meaningful because in human life one can perform devotional service. Even a slight amount of sincere devotional service can give one complete perfection." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.6.1)
Sri Prahlada continued, "Try to develop Krsna-prema and Krsna consciousness from the beginning of your life, or whenever you have first received this knowledge by good association - whether you are fifteen years old or any age. By your previous sukrti (past spiritual pious activities) you associated with pure devotees and this knowledge may therefore come at an early age in this present life; so begin from then.
"We should not waste our time in sense gratification, which is also reserved for you in animal life. If you are a hog or a pig you can collect numerous wives, and there will be no need to spend any money. You will not have to divorce to enjoy many new mates. There will be no court case and no need of maintenance of children. In this life you can have only one son or daughter in a year - not more than that - and if twins come, you can have two, three or four. But hogs, pigs and dogs have eight, ten, twelve, or sixteen children at a time. They are superior to you in that. At any time, in any species of life, you can have sense gratification. Animals are more expert in sense gratification than you, so don't waste time worrying that you won\'t get it. Rather, from the beginning of this life you should chant, remember and meditate on Sri Krsna.
"As suffering and all kinds of problems - such as death, old age, disease, quarrelling with neighbors, and problems created by the government come without invitation or desire, similarly, if by previous fruitive karma you are destined to great happiness, it will also come automatically. So there is no need to do anything for that. Just believe in God. Whatever is destined by fate will come. Why are you so anxious for this? In this life, don't desire happiness and don't desire to remove difficulties. This is not the aim and object of our life. These good and bad situations will come forcibly and you will have to taste them. You are bound to taste them; so why are you wasting your time? Begin chanting the holy name of Krsna. His names are very powerful, merciful and beautiful, and they are full with all His sweet pastimes. Don't think the holy name is merely a name. It is very powerful and it is Krsna Himself. From the beginning, chant these names."
In the previous age, Satya-yuga, the human lifespan used to be more than one million years, and in some cases even more than this; some were immortal. In Treta-yuga it was ten thousand years, and in Dvarapa-yuga one thousand years. In Kali-yuga, due to uncontrolled life, smoking cigarettes, drinking whiskey and wine, eating meat and eggs, the lifespan is lessened; it is only one hundred years at best. There are diseases like tuberculosis and cancer, and so many kinds of new diseases like AIDS, that cannot be controlled in hospitals, by scientists or by anyone else. People don't realize that so many diseases are coming due to uncontrolled lifestyles.
Prahlada continued, "Now, suppose you have one hundred years to live. Half of that time is lost in sleeping, and if you are not controlled it is more than that. Youth, up until age twenty or twenty-five, goes in vain, in becoming expert in playing and studying. And the age from eighty to one hundred is useless, for at that time you can hardly even see.
This leaves ten more years. During these years you will have to marry, and not only one time. You will divorce and remarry - and again divorce and again remarry - and nothing will be gained from this. Children will come and you will have to provide for their education and so on. In the meantime you must have a car. You must have all the necessary equipment of a home - television and so many ever-new other apparent needs, and especially a computer. When will you do bhajana? There is no time at all."
"What should we do?" The students asked Prahlada, and he replied:
guru-susrusaya bhaktya
sarva-labdharpanena ca
sangena sadhu-bhaktanam
isvararadhanena ca
sraddhaya tat-kathayam ca
kirtanair guna-karmanam
"One must accept the bona fide spiritual master and render service unto him with great devotion and faith. Whatever one has in one's possession should be offered to the spiritual master, and in the association of saintly persons and devotees one should worship the Lord, hear the glories of the Lord with faith, glorify the transcendental qualities and activities of the Lord, always meditate on the Lord's lotus feet, and worship the Deity of the Lord strictly according to the injunctions of the sastra and guru." (Srimad Bhagavatam 7.7.30-31)
Feb 8, 2003
We have been explaining about bhakti, and I have been discussing its many stages. We have just about completed the discussions up to Prahlada Maharaja, who is in the category of a jnani-bhakta. He is a maha-bhagavata (first class devotee) and there is no anyabhilasa or even anyabhilasita in his devotional services. In other words he has no material desire in his natural state or even in an extraordinary emergency or dangerous circumstance. His bhakti is not covered by jnana, karma, yoga, severe austerities or any other activities. He is always praying and realizing parama-brahma (the Supreme Absolute Truth). He considers that Lord Krsna's incarnation Lord Nrsimhadeva is parama-brahma, and that is why He is unlimitedly powerful. No one can kill Him. He is transcendental and therefore He has no appetite and requires no service. Rather, He will serve us as a father and mother serves their dependent and loving children. He never tires, so there is no need to massage his feet. Prahlada always thinks about the opulence of his Supreme Lord.
There is something lacking, therefore, in the bhakti of Sri Prahlada Maharaja, and, with reference to the aforementioned verse on the definition of pure bhakti, that is "krsna-anusilanam". This fact is concealed. By reading or hearing the definition of uttama-bhakti under the guidance of one such uttama devotee, a person can understand that not all the symptoms are fulfilled by Prahlada Maharaja's activities. He cannot use all his senses in the service of Lord Krsna, because, according to him, his Lord never becomes hungry, thirsty, tired, or in need of anything. Therefore, he can only pray and meditate on Him. Even in his association, Prahlada Maharaja is always absorbed in Lord Nrsimhadeva\'s opulence, and thus he cannot use all his senses in the service of his Lord.
Transcribers: Bhadra dasi, Caru-candrika dasi
Editor: Syamarani dasi