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If You Can Only Make Time For One Morning Ritual, Let It Be This
Morning rituals are very important, and a great habit to get into. The practice of Ayurveda often promotes several rituals to add into your day, and according to Ayurvedic philosophy the choices that you make in regards to your daily routine can either build up resistance to disease or, tear it down.
Some recommended Ayurvedic morning rituals include oil pulling and dry brushing. Both of these can provide some amazing benefits for you, and at the very least taking some time to do something for yourself and honor your body is a great way to start the day.
If you feel like you absolutely don't have time, there is a ritual that is fairly effortless and one you should be sure to include in your busy schedule; a mug of warm water with the juice of half a lemon, that's it and it couldn't be easier.
Benefits From Warm Water With Lemon
Boost Your Immune System
As you may already know, lemons are high in vitamin C and contain an average of 30 to 50 milligrams per lemon. Vitamin C has been known to fight colds, but did you know that research has shown that vitamin C can also protect from cardiovascular issues, cancer, stroke and aiding in eye health? Not to mention it boosts the immunity to live longer. (1)
Clear Skin
The vitamin C content in lemons can also help to decrease wrinkles and blemishes.
Aiding Digestion
The warm water stimulates the gastrointestinal tract, it is especially important to drink this lemon water before ingesting anything else in the morning. The lemons assist in loosening up toxins and other material in the digestive tract.
Assisting With Weight Loss
Because of the high content of pectin fiber in lemons, drinking lemon water can actually help fight off hunger cravings. Pectin has also been shown to reduce the amount of cholesterol being absorbed from food or bile. (2)
Balancing pH Levels
You may think of lemons as a highly acidic food, but inside our bodies they actually become alkaline, once it is metabolized by the body the citric acid does not create acidity within the body. Some people even swear by using lemon water for treatment of acid reflux and heartburn. (3)
Cleanse Your Lymphatic System
Your lymphatic system is responsible for removing toxins from your body, you want to keep this system hydrated and working properly. When you drink warm lemon water it hydrates the system and stimulates the elimination process. If too many toxins are accumulated, you may find that you are feeling pretty stressed.
With all these amazing benefits (and that's not even close to all of them) that can be achieved from something so simple, maybe its time you give it a go and see the benefits for yourself? It is important to use organic lemons, and purified, fluoride free water to gain the most benefits. Remember, just one cup of warm water with lemon every day in the morning, how easier could it be?
Much Love
1) http://homefirst.com/cms/images/Vit%20C%20Studies.pdf
2) http://www.journal.su.ac.th/index.php/suij/article/viewFile/48/48
3) http://gerd.s3.amazonaws.com/acidreflux/How-Much-Lemon-Juice-For-Acid-Reflux.html
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Long-Term Consequences of Mumps Vaccination: Many Unanswered Questions
This is Part II of a two-part series on mumps. Part I discussed how mumps vaccination and the flawed mumps component of Merck's MMR vaccine are fostering dangerous mumps outbreaks in adolescents and young adults.
It has been about five decades since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Merck's first mumps vaccine. The company began launching combination MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccines in the 1970s. Coincidentally—or not—an infertility crisis has been brewing over roughly the same time period, with dramatic declines in sperm counts and record-lowfertility levels. However, few investigators seem interested in assessing whether mumps outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations of teens and young adults could be having long-termeffects on fertility or other health indicators.
As described in Part I, childhood MMR vaccination has been an unmitigated disaster where mumps is concerned, deferring mumps infection to older ages and leaving adolescents and young adults vulnerable to serious reproductive complications. Public health reports show that the vast majority of mumps cases and outbreaks occur in youth who have been fully vaccinatedwith the prescribed two-dose MMR series, supporting a hypothesis of "waning immunity after the second dose." FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials even admitthat mumps outbreaks in the post-vaccination era "typically involve young adults," and that vaccination is failing to protect those who are college-age and above.
Myopically, many vaccine experts have called for a third MMR dose—or even "booster dosing throughout adulthood"—even though the FDA's and CDC's own research shows that MMR boosters in college-age youth barely last one year. As alleged in whistleblower lawsuits wending their way through the courts over the past eight years, Merck presented the FDA with a "falsely inflated efficacy rate" for the MMR's mumps component, using animal antibodies and other fraudulent tactics to fool FDA—and the public—into believing that the vaccine was effective.
When infection arises after puberty, however, mumps is no laughing matter, presenting an increased risk of complications such as hearing loss, encephalitis and inflammation of the reproductive organs.
Mumps after puberty is no laughing matter
Around the time that the first mumps vaccine came on the market, the 1967 children's classic The Great Brain humorously depicted mumps infection in childhood as a mere nuisance. The book's young protagonist goes out of his way to intentionally infect himself with mumps so that he can beat his two brothers to the recovery finish line—and he experiences no adverse consequences other than his siblings' annoyance.
When infection arises after puberty, however, mumps is no laughing matter, presenting an increased risk of complications such as hearing loss, encephalitis and inflammation of the reproductive organs. About one in three postpubertal men with mumps develops orchitis(inflammation of the testes), which can damage sperm, affect testosterone production and contribute to subfertility and infertility. During a mumps outbreak in England in the mid-2000s, mumps orchitis accounted for 42% of all hospitalized mumps cases; the researchers attributed this outcome—which was the most common reason for hospitalization—to "the high attack rates in adolescents and young adults" that occurred "despite high coverage with two-dose MMR." An analysis of a 2006 mumps outbreak in the U.S. reported that male patients were over three times more likely than female patients to experience complications, "due primarily to orchitis."
An estimated 5% to 10% of postpubertal women will develop oophoritis (swelling of the ovaries) following mumps infection. Oophoritis is associated with premature menopause and infertility, but mumps-related oophoritis has garnered little notice.
Mumps infections are often asymptomatic or produce nonspecific symptoms such as fever, while cases of orchitis may present with no other mumps symptoms. Nonetheless, public health officials advise clinicians that orchitis is an instant cue to test for mumps virus, and testing often reveals elevated mumps antibodies. In a case report of MMR failure, British clinicians isolated a novel genetic strain of mumps virus from the patient's semen two weeks after the onset of orchitis and found mumps RNA in the semen 40 days later; they also noted "the appearance of anti-sperm antibodies," with "potential long-term adverse effects on the patient's fertility."
In 2017, researchers who reviewed 185 studies conducted in Western nations found that sperm counts had plummeted by 50% to 60% between 1973 and 2011—an average decrease of 1.4% annually. Commenting on this work, one analyst estimated that 20% to 30% of young men in Europe and North America have sperm concentrations associated with a reduced ability to father a child. Given estimates that as much as 40% of reproductive problems have to do with the male partner, there is agreement on the importance of "finding and eliminating [the] hidden culprits in the environment" that most researchers believe are to blame.
An estimated 5% to 10% of postpubertal women will develop oophoritis (swelling of the ovaries) following mumps infection. Oophoritis is associated with premature menopause and infertility, but mumps-related oophoritis has garnered little notice.
MMR's and MMRV's potential to impair fertility never studied
Merck has not evaluated either of its two MMR vaccines—the MMR-II and the MMR-plus-varicella (MMRV) vaccine—for their potential to impair fertility. Whether such testing would unearth direct effects on fertility (as appears to be possible with HPV vaccination in women) is thus unknown. However, mumps vaccination undeniably increases reproductive-age individuals' risk of mumps infection and, in the process, increases the risk of fertility-altering complications. These facts alone should be attracting far more attention.
Unfortunately, because clinicians already tend to underdiagnose mumps infection and underestimate mumps complications, it is likely that they are failing to recognize possible vaccine-induced reproductive health consequences of mumps infection in their adolescent and young adult patients. In one university outbreak, "most physicians…did not suspect mumps," and even when they became aware of the outbreak, "diagnosing mumps was not always straightforward." Moreover, although differentiating between vaccine strains of mumps virus and wild types could provide valuable information, few clinicians have the capacity or inclination to perform testing of this type. A Japanese study of cerebrospinal fluid and saliva from patients with mumps complications found vaccine strain in nearly all of the samples and noted the information's importance in helping determine whether the complications were vaccine-related.
Those who have sought to understand mumps vaccines' poor performance point to a mixture of explanatory factors. These include waning immunity, the high population density and close quarters encountered in settings such as college campuses, incomplete vaccine-induced immunity to wild virus as well as viral evolution such that "the vaccine triggers a less potent reaction against today's mumps viruses than those of 50 years ago." However, some also quietly admit that individuals with "mild vaccine-modified disease" could be perpetuating the chain of transmission. This latter point ought to be raising questions about the logic and wisdom of administering further rounds of MMR boosters during outbreaks while ignoring the problems created by the doses already given.
… some individuals respond poorly to mumps vaccination and vaccine-induced antibody levels correlate poorly with protection from mumps infection, irrespective of the number of additional doses of mumps-containing vaccine they receive.
Most scientists appear to be either resigned to ongoing mumps outbreaks in vaccinated populations or actually accept periodic outbreaks as the cost of doing business. Publications by FDA and CDC researchers reveal these agencies' awareness that some individuals respond poorly to mumps vaccination and that vaccine-induced antibody levels correlate poorly with protection from mumps infection, "irrespective of the number of additional doses of mumps-containing vaccine they receive." Considering the effects on fertility, the generally abysmal track record of mumps vaccination and Merck's fraudulent claims about efficacy, it is hard to fathom medical and public health experts' complacency about current mumps vaccines and vaccine policies.
Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Children's Health Defense. CHD is planning many strategies, including legal, in an effort to defend the health of our children and obtain justice for those already injured. Your support is essential to CHD's successful mission.
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Alternative News
Legal Challenge Against Forced Vaccination Filed in New York City
On April 15, 2019, a legal challenge was filed in the New York State Trial Court by Robert Krakow, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Patricia Finn against the New York City Department of Health and Human Hygiene for their forced Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccination. The legal team asked for a temporary restraining order against the mandate that the Judge will likely review and provide an ex parte decision. Children's Health Defense is supporting these efforts.
Last week, Children's Health Defense reported that the NYC Commissioner of Health declared a public health emergency, ordering all people who live, work or reside in four Brooklyn zip codes to be vaccinated with the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine. Non-compliance with the order is a misdemeanor subject to criminal and civil fines, including imprisonment. Only those with documented immunity, medical contraindications or infants under six months are exempt from the vaccine mandate.
Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Children's Health Defense. CHD is planning many strategies, including legal, in an effort to defend the health of our children and obtain justice for those already injured. Your support is essential to CHD's successful mission.
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Magnesium Puts Psychiatric Drugs to Shame for Depression
In Brief
- The Facts:
This article was written by Sayer Ji, Founder of Greenmedinfo.com where this article first appeared. Posted here with permission.
- Reflect On:
Is the priority of our federal health regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical companies human health, or profit? If there are more effective ways to treat several illnesses, why do they never mention them?
Depression is one of the most widely diagnosed conditions of our time, with over 3 million cases in the U.S. every year, and 350 million believed affected worldwide.1 Conventional medicine considers antidepressant drugs first-line treatments, including the newly approved injected postpartum drug costing $34,000 a treatment, to the tune of a 16 billion dollars in global sales by 2023. Despite their widespread use, these drugs are fraught with a battery of serious side effects, including suicidal ideation and completion — the last two things you would hope to see in a condition that already has suicidality as a co-morbidity. For this reason alone, natural, safe, and effective alternatives are needed more than ever before.
While research into natural alternatives for depression is growing daily — GreenMedInfo.com's Depression database contains 647 studies on over 100 natural substances that have been studied to prevent or treat depression — it is rare to find quality human clinical research on the topic published in well-respected journals. That's why a powerful study published in PLOS One titled, "Role of magnesium supplementation in the treatment of depression: A randomized clinical trial," is so promising. Not only is magnesium safe, affordable, and easily accessible, but according to this recent study, effective in treating mild-to moderate symptoms of depression.
While previous studies have looked at the association between magnesium and depression,2-7 this is the first placebo-controlled clinical study to evaluate whether the use of over-the-counter magnesium chloride (248 mg elemental magnesium a day for 6 weeks) improves symptoms of depression.
The study design was a follows:
" An open-label, blocked, randomized, cross-over trial was carried out in outpatient primary care clinics on 126 adults (mean age 52; 38% male) diagnosed with and currently experiencing mild-to-moderate symptoms with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores of 5–19. The intervention was 6 weeks of active treatment (248 mg of elemental magnesium per day) compared to 6 weeks of control (no treatment). Assessments of depression symptoms were completed at bi-weekly phone calls. The primary outcome was the net difference in the change in depression symptoms from baseline to the end of each treatment period. Secondary outcomes included changes in anxiety symptoms as well as adherence to the supplement regimen, appearance of adverse effects, and intention to use magnesium supplements in the future. Between June 2015 and May 2016, 112 participants provided analyzable data."
The study results were as follows:
"Consumption of magnesium chloride for 6 weeks resulted in a clinically significant net improvement in PHQ-9 scores of -6.0 points (CI -7.9, -4.2; P<0.001) and net improvement in Generalized Anxiety Disorders-7 scores of -4.5 points (CI -6.6, -2.4; P<0.001). Average adherence was 83% by pill count. The supplements were well tolerated and 61% of participants reported they would use magnesium in the future. Similar effects were observed regardless of age, gender, baseline severity of depression, baseline magnesium level, or use of antidepressant treatments. Effects were observed within two weeks. Magnesium is effective for mild-to-moderate depression in adults. It works quickly and is well tolerated without the need for close monitoring for toxicity."
For perspective, conventional antidepressant drugs are considering to generate an "adequate or complete treatment response" with a PHQ-9 score "decrease of 5 points or more from baseline." At this level of efficacy, their recommended action is: "Do not change treatment; conduct periodic follow-up." The magnesium's score of -6.0 therefore represents the height of success within conventional expectations for a complete response, which is sometimes termed "remission." In contradistinction, conventional antidepressant drugs result in nearly half of patients discontinuing treatment during the first month, usually due to their powerful and sometimes debilitating side effects.8
To summarize the main study outcomes:
- There was a clinically significant improvement in both Depression and Anxiety scores.
- 61% of patients reported they would use magnesium in the future.
- Similar effects occurred across age, gender, severity of depression, baseline magnesium levels, or use of antidepressant treatments.
- Effects were observed within two weeks.
The study authors concluded:
"Magnesium is effective for mild-to-moderate depression in adults. It works quickly and is well tolerated without the need for close monitoring for toxicity."
Beyond Depression: Magnesium's Many Health Benefits & Where To Source It
Magnesium is a central player in your body's energy production, as its found within 300 enzymes in the human body, including within the biologically active form of ATP known as MG-ATP. In fact, there have been over 3,751 magnesium binding sites identified within human proteins, indicating that it's central nutritional importance has been greatly underappreciated.
Research relevant to magnesium has been accumulating for the past 40 years at a steady rate of approximately 2,000 new studies a year. Our database project has indexed well over 100 health benefits of magnesium thus far. For the sake of brevity, we will address seven key therapeutic applications for magnesium as follows:
- Fibromyalgia: Not only is magnesium deficiency common in those diagnosed with fibromyalgia, 9,10 but relatively low doses of magnesium (50 mg), combined with malic acid in the form of magnesium malate, has been clinically demonstrated to improve pain and tenderness in those to which it was administered.11
- Atrial Fibrillation: A number of studies now exist showing that magnesium supplementation reduce atrial fibrillation, either by itself, or in combination with conventional drug agents.12
- Diabetes, Type 2: Magnesium deficiency is common in type 2 diabetics, at an incidence of 13.5 to 47.7% according to a 2007 study. 13 Research has also shown that type 2 diabetics with peripheral neuropathy and coronary artery disease have lower intracellular magnesium levels. 14 Oral magnesium supplementation has been shown to reduce plasma fasting glucose and raising HDL cholesterol in patients with type 2 diabetes.15 It has also been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and metabolic control in type 2 diabetic subjects.16
- Premenstrual Syndrome: Magnesium deficiency has been observed in women affected by premenstrual syndrome.17 It is no surprise therefore that it has been found to alleviate premenstrual symptoms of fluid retention, 18 as well as broadly reducing associated symptoms by approximately 34% in women, aged 18-45, given 250 mg tablets for a 3-month observational period.20 When combined with B6, magnesium supplementation has been found to improve anxiety-related premenstrual symptoms.19
- Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality: Low serum magnesium concentrations predict cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.21 There are a wide range of ways that magnesium may confer its protective effects. It may act like a calcium channel blocker,22it is hypotensive,23 it is antispasmodic (which may protect against coronary artery spasm),24 and anti-thrombotic.25 Also, the heart muscle cells are exceedingly dense in mitochondria (as high as 100 times more per cell than skeletal muscle), the "powerhouses" of the cell," which require adequate magnesium to produce ATP via the citric acid cycle.
- Migraine Disorders: Blood magnesium levels have been found to be significantly lower in those who suffer from migraine attacks.26,27 A recent Journal of Neural Transmission article titled, "Why all migraine patients should be treated with magnesium," pointed out that routine blood tests do not accurately convey the true body magnesium stores since less than 2% is in the measurable, extracellular space, "67% is in the bone and 31% is located intracellularly."28The authors argued that since "routine blood tests are not indicative of magnesium status, empiric treatment with at least oral magnesium is warranted in all migraine sufferers." Indeed, oral magnesium supplementation has been found to reduce the number of headache days in children experiencing frequent migranous headaches,29and when combined with l-carnitine, is effective at reducing migraine frequency in adults, as well.30
- Aging: While natural aging is a healthy process, accelerated aging has been noted to be a feature of magnesium deficiency,31especially evident in the context of long space-flight missions where low magnesium levels are associated with cardiovascular aging over 10 times faster than occurs on earth.32 Magnesium supplementation has been shown to reverse age-related neuroendocrine and sleep EEG changes in humans.33 One of the possible mechanisms behind magnesium deficiency associated aging is that magnesium is needed to stabilize DNA and promotes DNA replication. It is also involved in healing up of the ends of the chromosomes after they are divided in mitosis.34
It is quite amazing to consider the afformentioned side benefits of magnesium consumption or supplementation within the context of the well-known side effects of pharmaceutical approaches to symptom
management of disease. On average, conventional drugs have 75 side effects associated with their use, including lethal ones (albeit sometimes rare). When considering magnesium's many side benefits
and extremely low toxicity, clearly this fundamental mineral intervention (and dietary requirement) puts pharmaceutical approaches to depression to shame.
Best Sources of Magnesium In The Diet
The best source of magnesium is from food, and one way to identify magnesium-containing foods are those which are green, i.e. chlorophyll rich. Chlorophyll, which enable plants to capture solar energy and convert it into metabolic energy, has a magnesium atom at its center. Without magnesium, in fact, plants could not utilize the sun's light energy.
Magnesium, however, in its elemental form is colorless, and many foods that are not green contain it as well. The point is that when found complexed with food cofactors, it is absorbed and utilized more efficiently than in its elemental form, say, extracted from limestone in the form of magnesium oxide.
The following foods contain exceptionally high amounts of magnesium. The portions described are 100 grams, or a little over three ounces.
- Rice bran, crude (781 mg)
- Seaweed, agar, dried (770 mg)
- Chives, freeze-dried (640 mg)
- Spice, coriander leaf, dried (694 mg)
- Seeds, pumpkin, dried (535 mg)
- Cocoa, dry powder, unsweetened (499 mg)
- Spices, basil, dried (422 mg)
- Seeds, flaxseed (392 mg)
- Spices, cumin seed (366 mg)
- Nuts, brazilnuts, dried (376 mg)
- Parsley, freeze-dried (372 mg)
- Seeds, sesame meal (346 mg)
- Nut, almond butter (303 mg)
- Nuts, cashew nuts, roasted (273 mg)
- Soy flour, defatted (290 mg)
- Whey, sweet, dried (176 mg)
- Bananas, dehydrated (108 mg)
- Millet, puffed (106 mg)
- Shallots, freeze-dried (104 mg)
- Leeks, freeze-dried (156 mg)
- Fish, salmon, raw (95 mg)
- Onions, dehydrated flakes (92 mg)
- Kale, scotch, raw (88 mg)
Fortunately, for those who need higher doses, or are not inclined to consume magnesium rich foods, there are supplemental forms commonly available on the market. Keep in mind, for those who wish to take advantage of the side benefit of magnesium therapy, namely, its stool softening and laxative properties, magnesium citrate or oxide will provide this additional feature.
For those looking to maximize absorption and bioavailability magnesium glycinate is ideal, as glycine is the smallest amino acid commonly found chelated to magnesium, and therefore highly absorbable.
For more information on natural solutions to resolving depression, download our free e-book on the topic "21st Century Solutions to Depression."
1) World Health Organization. Depression fact sheet no. 369 2012 [cited 2016 December 20]. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs369/en/.
2) Jacka FN, Overland S, Stewart R, Tell GS, Bjelland I, Mykletun A. Association between magnesium intake and depression and anxiety in community-dwelling adults: the Hordaland Health Study. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2009;43(1):45–52. Pmid:19085527.
3) Huang JH, Lu YF, Cheng FC, Lee JN, Tsai LC. Correlation of magnesium intake with metabolic parameters, depression and physical activity in elderly type 2 diabetes patients: a cross-sectional study. Nutrition J. 2012;11(1):41. pmid:22695027; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3439347.
4) Tarleton EK, Littenberg B. Magnesium intake and depression in adults. J Am Board Fam Med. 2015;28(2):249–56. Pmid:25748766
5) Yary T, Lehto SM, Tolmunen T, Tuomainen T-P, Kauhanen J, Voutilainen S, et al. Dietary magnesium intake and the incidence of depression: a 20-year follow-up study. J Affect Disord. 2016;193:94–8. Pmid:26771950
6) Eby GA, Eby KL. Rapid recovery from major depression using magnesium treatment. Med Hypotheses. 2006;67(2):362–70. pmid:16542786
7) N Engl J Med. 2000 Dec 28;343(26):1942-50. Managing depression in medical outpatients.
8) Damiano Piovesan, Giuseppe Profiti, Pier Luigi Martelli, Rita Casadio. 3,751 magnesium binding sites have been detected on human proteins. BMC Bioinformatics. 2012 ;13 Suppl 14:S10. Epub 2012 Sep 7. PMID: 23095498
9) G Moorkens, B Manuel y Keenoy, J Vertommen, S Meludu, M Noe, I De Leeuw. Magnesium deficit in a sample of the Belgian population presenting with chronic fatigue. Magnes Res. 1997 Dec;10(4):329-37. PMID: 9513929
10) J Eisinger, A Plantamura, P A Marie, T Ayavou. Selenium and magnesium status in fibromyalgia. Magnes Res. 1994 Dec;7(3-4):285-8. PMID: 7786692
11) I J Russell, J E Michalek, J D Flechas, G E Abraham. Treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome with Super Malic: a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, crossover pilot study. J Rheumatol. 1995 May;22(5):953-8. PMID: 8587088
12) GreenMedInfo.com, Atrial Fibrillation and Magnesium (5 studies)
13) Phuong-Chi T Pham, Phuong-Mai T Pham, Son V Pham, Jeffrey M Miller, Phuong-Thu T Pham . Hypomagnesemia in patients with type 2 diabetes. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2007 Mar;2(2):366-73. Epub 2007 Jan 3. PMID: 17699436
14) M de Lordes Lima, T Cruz, J C Pousada, L E Rodrigues, K Barbosa, V Canguçu. The effect of magnesium supplementation in increasing doses on the control of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 1998 May;21(5):682-6. PMID: 9589224
15) Y Song, K He, E B Levitan, J E Manson, S Liu. Effects of oral magnesium supplementation on glycaemic control in Type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis of randomized double-blind controlled trials. Cardiovasc Toxicol. 2008;8(3):115-25. Epub 2008 Jul 8. PMID: 16978367
16) Martha Rodríguez-Morán, Fernando Guerrero-Romero. Oral magnesium supplementation improves insulin sensitivity and metabolic control in type 2 diabetic subjects: a randomized double-blind controlled trial. Diabetes Care. 2003 Apr;26(4):1147-52. PMID: 12663588
17) F Facchinetti, P Borella, G Sances, L Fioroni, R E Nappi, A R Genazzani. Oral magnesium successfully relieves premenstrual mood changes. Obstet Gynecol. 1991 Aug;78(2):177-81. PMID: 2067759
18) A F Walker, M C De Souza, M F Vickers, S Abeyasekera, M L Collins, L A Trinca. Magnesium supplementation alleviates premenstrual symptoms of fluid retention. J Womens Health. 1998 Nov;7(9):1157-65. PMID: 9861593
19) S Quaranta, M A Buscaglia, M G Meroni, E Colombo, S Cella. Pilot study of the efficacy and safety of a modified-release magnesium 250 mg tablet (Sincromag) for the treatment of premenstrual syndrome. Am J Gastroenterol. 2008 Dec;103(12):2972-6. PMID: 17177579
20) M C De Souza, A F Walker, P A Robinson, K Bolland. A synergistic effect of a daily supplement for 1 month of 200 mg magnesium plus 50 mg vitamin B6 for the relief of anxiety-related premenstrual symptoms: a randomized, double-blind, crossover study. J Womens Health Gend Based Med. 2000 Mar;9(2):131-9. PMID: 10746516
21) Thorsten Reffelmann, Till Ittermann, Marcus Dörr, Henry Völzke, Markus Reinthaler, Astrid Petersmann, Stephan B Felix. Low serum magnesium concentrations predict cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Atherosclerosis. 2011 Jun 12. Epub 2011 Jun 12. PMID: 21703623
22) Andrea Rosanoff, Mildred S Seelig. Comparison of mechanism and functional effects of magnesium and statin pharmaceuticals. J Am Coll Nutr. 2004 Oct;23(5):501S-505S. PMID: 15466951
23) GreenMedInfo.com, Magnesium's Hypotensive Properties.
24) GreenMedInfo.com, Magnesium's Antispasmodic Properties.
25) Joen R Sheu, George Hsiao, Ming Y Shen, Yen M Lee, Mao H Yen . Antithrombotic effects of magnesium sulfate in in vivo experiments. Int J Hematol. 2003 May;77(4):414-9. PMID: 12774935
26) Afshin Samaie, Nabiollah Asghari, Raheb Ghorbani, Jafar Arda. Blood Magnesium levels in migraineurs within and between the headache attacks: a case control study. Pan Afr Med J. 2012 ;11:46. Epub 2012 Mar 15. PMID: 22593782
27) Mahnaz Talebi, Dariush Savadi-Oskouei, Mehdi Farhoudi, Solmaz Mohammadzade, Seyyedjamal Ghaemmaghamihezaveh, Akbar Hasani, Amir Hamdi. Relation between serum magnesium level and migraine attacks. Neurosciences (Riyadh). 2011 Oct ;16(4):320-3. PMID: 21983373
28) Alexander Mauskop, Jasmine Varughese. Why all migraine patients should be treated with magnesium. J Neural Transm. 2012 May ;119(5):575-9. Epub 2012 Mar 18. PMID: 22426836
29) Fong Wang, Stephen K Van Den Eeden, Lynn M Ackerson, Susan E Salk, Robyn H Reince, Ronald J Elin. Oral magnesium oxide prophylaxis of frequent migrainous headache in children: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Eur J Endocrinol. 2009 Apr;160(4):611-7. Epub 2009 Jan 29. PMID: 12786918
30) Ali Tarighat Esfanjani, Reza Mahdavi, Mehrangiz Ebrahimi Mameghani, Mahnaz Talebi, Zeinab Nikniaz, Abdolrasool Safaiyan. The effects of magnesium, L-carnitine, and concurrent magnesium-L-carnitine supplementation in migraine prophylaxis. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2012 Dec ;150(1-3):42-8. Epub 2012 Aug 17. PMID: 22895810
31) David W Killilea, Jeanette A M Maier. A connection between magnesium deficiency and aging: new insights from cellular studies. Magnes Res. 2008 Jun;21(2):77-82. PMID: 18705534
32) GreenMedInfo.com, What We Learned From The Accelerated Aging of Astronauts
33) Katja Held, I A Antonijevic, H Künzel, M Uhr, T C Wetter, I C Golly, A Steiger, H Murck. Oral Mg(2+) supplementation reverses age-related neuroendocrine and sleep EEG changes in humans. Pharmacopsychiatry. 2002 Jul;35(4):135-43. PMID: 12163983
34) William J Rowe. Correcting magnesium deficiencies may prolong life. Clin Interv Aging. 2012 ;7:51-4. Epub 2012 Feb 16. PMID: 22379366
Sayer Ji is founder of Greenmedinfo.com, a reviewer at the International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, Co-founder and CEO of Systome Biomed, Vice Chairman of the Board of the National Health Federation, Steering Committee Member of the Global Non-GMO Foundation.
For more info from Greenmedinfo, you can join their newsletter by clicking here.
Help Support Collective Evolution
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!
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Thursday, June 07, 2007
Attack Paper
This week I was asked to review a manuscript on a topic that is near and dear to my academic heart, so I agreed to do the review even though I'm a bit overloaded with reviews right now. It turns out that this manuscript is on basically the same topic on which I have a paper in press, in the same journal that asked me to do the review.
When I saw the subject of the manuscript to review, I felt very relieved that my group's paper is already in press, especially since my co-authors and I did not rush to submit our paper -- in fact, it took many years for us to do the work and think about what it all means and write it up. In the meantime, I gave numerous conference presentations on the topic, and this other group has been well aware of our work for years, including the specific data we obtained.
I suppose that it's both good and bad that I am so close to this subject: there's a fine line between having expertise in a topic and being unobjective. Even so, the editor is the same person who dealt with my recent paper, so he knew what he was doing when he requested the review from me and presumably will filter my review comments accordingly. Since I don't have any particular stress about being scooped on this topic, in theory I can be magnanimous about this manuscript, except..
.. except that the manuscript is a bizarre and obnoxious attack on my group's work. It is bizarre because their results aren't significantly different from ours, yet they work really hard to find things not to like in some earlier papers by my group on this topic. It's nice that they reproduced our results (old and new), but they discredit themselves by being so unprofessional in their manuscript, which reads more like an hysterical comment written by insecure and cranky people.
It puzzles me that this group didn't do a more thoughtful job with their criticisms. It is entirely possible to write a critical paper without descending into aggressively weird attack mode. What bothers me more than the personal attacks, which have no place in a manuscript anyway, is that this other group seems to have lost sight of the science. Ideally, a scientific paper will focus on the questions being addressed and the things being discovered. Criticism of other work can be succinctly and clearly stated within the broader scientific context.
In any case, the editor can sort it all out -- in my review, I will try to focus on the substance of the manuscript.
9 comments:
I have one "colleague" who always looks for disagreements between their work and others', and elevates them to significant discoveries proving everyone else is wrong. Even when they basically agree, they manage to find trivial differences that they make the main point of the paper. On top of that, they often ignore previous work in the field, work that I know for a fact they are aware of. Fortunately, over time, I have seen this person's reputation sink to the level I feel it deserves.
The sad part is that the person is, in many respects, a talented and productive scientist. If they could get rid of the chip on their shoulder they would be more successful and probably a happier person.
huh, I thought this happened mostly in the fluffier sciences. We just had this exact thing happen. Very bizarre. Complete mischaracterization of earlier work including deviously incomplete quoting. A subset of us (not including me) wrote a response, and their response to that was to argue what you are saying. That *we* had lost sight of science. I wonder if I am that blind to my own biases, except I am not that invested in being right (I'm rather junior). Puzzling.
In any case, the editor can sort it all out -- in my review, I will try to focus on the substance of the manuscript.
I dunno, it seems as if the editor is giving you an opportunity to say something along the lines of what you said in this post, i.e. the science is solid, but the tone is poor. Not so much because you're personally offended, but because it detracts from the thoughtful, critical paper that they could write.
- Female Science Professor said...
Yes, I'll definitely give my opinion on those aspects of the paper, but I don't want to appear so territorial and offended that I can't also give a reasonable evaluation of the content, such as it is. Getting the tone of my review right will probably take just as long as writing the comments..
- gs said...
...there's a fine line between having expertise in a topic and being unobjective.
A lucid formulation of a subtle point. I can readily believe you got those teaching awards.
- estraven said...
Funny. I am now precisely in the position of the authors of the paper you are refereeing: I have a paper with results similar, but in my opinion better, than those of another group who has submitted some time ago, and whose results we knew about and used as motivation.
So what we did is: before submitting, we sent a preliminary version to the other group, asking them to check our wording and make sure they get proper credit. We took two weeks working it out until we found a formulation we could all be happy with.
And then they asked us to submit the paper to the same journal, writing a joint letter to the editors and asking that, if accepted, the two papers be published back-to-back.
Maybe we are just better behaved in my field? Maybe it helps we're all friends of each other? You make me feel so lucky.
- Orhan Kahn said...
The contents of the manuscript is what intrigues me. (sorry if you've mentioned this before.. I'm new around here)
- Female Science Professor said...
estraven, I am impressed. That's how it should work!
- Ms.PhD said...
Ack. I'm sorry people like that exist. And that the editor bothered to send the paper out instead of just rejecting it outright and telling them they lost sight of the science.
On the other hand, pretty cool that the editor sent it to you first, so you have a chance to squelch it or at least politely point out to the editor which parts you think are inappropriate.
Sounds like most editors in your field (and estraven's) are your friends, or at least decent/smart people. I wish I could say the same for mine.

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Mormons and Blacks
When Mormon missionaries come to the doors of literally thousands of potential converts, they will assure the unsuspecting that they represent Jesus Christ and are preaching His Gospel. However, that is not the case on many accounts.
Mormons cannot escape their racist past. For nearly 150 years, The Mormon Church had taught that all blacks were cursed. Hence, the black Mormon male could not hold the highly regarded LDS Priesthood1 because of his dark skin. And since he could not hold this Priesthood, he could not enter the Mormon Temple. This doctrine in no way, shape or form is substantiated in Scripture. Only in LDS scriptures does this racist doctrine exist.
To determine official LDS doctrine from unofficial speculation let us read the statements that were made by the General Authorities of the LDS Church as well as citations from the LDS "standard works." So then, official LDS teaching cannot be evaded or denied as many Mormons (especially uninformed missionaries) often do.
Cursed in Pre-existence
But, before we read what LDS leaders have taught concerning the "cursed line," we will need to go back and discover as to why dark skinned people are cursed. Then we will have a better understanding of Mormon thought on this issue. Mormons teach that when the "council of the Gods" were planning how to redeemed mankind Jesus desired to save man by giving them their free choice, however Lucifer objected and wanted to force men to serve God.
LDS scholar Bruce R. McConkie tells us:
"When the plan of salvation presented and when the need for a Redeemer was explained, Satan offered to come into the world as the Son of God and be the Redeemer. "Behold here am I, send me," he said But then, as always, he was in opposition to the full plan of the Father, and so he sought to amend and change the terms of salvation; he sought to deny men their agency and to dethrone God" (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 193)
Therefore, the Gods rejected Lucifer's plan, which resulted in a war between the good spirit children, and the spirit children that sided with Lucifer (a third of them). But there was a group of spirits that were less valiant in this war. Hence, God (the head God) was very displeased with them so He turned their skin black. Tenth President Joseph Fielding Smith explains:
"There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages. The reason is that we once had an estate before we came here, and were obedient; more or less, to the laws that were given us there. Those who were faithful in all things there [pre-existence] received greater blessings here, and those who were not faithful received less There were no neutrals in the war in Heaven. All took sides either with Christ or with Satan. Every man had his agency there, and men receive rewards here based upon their actions there, just as they will receive rewards hereafter for deeds done in the body. The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits" (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, p. 61, 65-66; emphasis added)
LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie furthers this teaching:
"Those who were less valiant in pre-existence and who thereby had certain spiritual restrictions impose on them during mortality are known to us as the negroes. Such spirits are sent to earth through the lineage of Cain, the mark put upon him for his rebellion against God, and his murder of Able being a black skin Noah's son married Egyptus, a descendant of Cain, thus preserving the negro lineage through the flood the negro are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concern ." (Mormon Doctrine, p. 527, 528; 1966 orig. ed., changed in the current ed.; emphasis added).
Now, we can have more of a clearer perspective as to why the LDS would teach such blatant racism that Scripture never condones. Now we will read what LDS General Authorities had taught concerning the, what they termed, "cursed lineage," that is, dark skinned people (particularly Negroes).
LDS Presidents/Prophets
Joseph Smith first President, Prophet, and founder of the Mormon Church:
"Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species, and put them on a national equalization" (Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 270; History of the Church, vol. 5, p. 218; emphasis added)
"Thursday, 8--Held Mayor's court and tried two negroes for attempting to marry two white women: fined one $25, and the other $5" (ibid., vol. 6, p. 210)
" and the rebellious niggers in the slave states ." (Millennial Star, vol. 22, p. 602; emphasis added)
When Mormon Historians reprinted this in the History of the Church, they change it to read:
" and the rebellious negroes in the slave states ." (History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 158; emphasis added)
Brigham Young second President and Prophet:
"You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which was the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another cursed is pronounced upon the same race--that they should be the "servants of servants;" and they will be until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 290; emphasis added)
"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be" (ibid., vol. 10, p. 110; emphasis added)
Brigham Young stated that his sermons (as cited above) are Scripture:
"I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of man, that they may not call Scripture" (ibid., vol. 13, p. 95)
John Taylor, third President and Prophet.
" after the flood we are told that the curse that had been pronounced upon Cain was continued through Ham's wife, as he had married a wife of that seed. And why did it pass through the flood? Because it was necessary that the devil should have a representation upon the earth as well as God ." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 23, p. 304; emphasis added)
That the "curse lineage" (dark skin) is Satan's representation on earth, was taught clearly by the third President and Prophet of the Mormon Church, John Taylor. Taylor goes on to teach:
"When he [Satan] destroyed the inhabitants of the antediluvian worlds, he suffered a descendant of Cain to come through the flood in order that he might be properly represented upon the earth" (ibid., vol. 23, p. 336; emphasis added)
Wilford Woodruff, who became the fourth President and Prophet of the LDS Church:
"What was that mark? It was a mark of blackness. That mark rested upon Cain, and descended upon his posterity from that time until the present. To day there are millions of the descendants of Cain, through the lineage of Ham, in the world, and that mark of darkness still rest upon them" (Millennial Star, vol. 51, p. 339; emphasis added)
Joseph Fielding Smith, tenth President and Prophet.
In 1963, Look magazine interviewed, at that time, the leader of the LDS Church; Joseph Fielding Smith. Concerning negroes, Smith stated:
"I would not want you to believe that we bear any animosity toward the Negro. 'Darkies' are wonderful people, and they have their place in our church" (Look magazine, October 22, 1963, p. 79; emphasis added)
Smith also taught that "Negroes" were inferior to other races:
"Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became the father of an inferior race. A curse was place upon him and that curse has been continued through his lineage and must do so while time endures. Millions of souls have come into this world cursed with black skin and have been denied the privilege of Priesthood and the fullness of the blessings of the Gospel. These are the descendants of Cain. Moreover, they have been made to feel their inferiority and have been separated from the rest of mankind from the beginning we will also hope that blessings may eventually be given to our Negro brethren, for they are our brethren--children of God---notwithstanding their black covering emblematical of eternal darkness" (The Way to Perfection, p. 101-102; emphasis added)
And, as previously quoted, Smith stated:
"There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages... The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits" (Doctrines of Salvation, p. 61, 66; emphasis added)
LDS General Authorities
Orson Pratt, LDS Apostle:
"Among the Saints [Mormons] is the most likely place for these [pre-existent] spirits to take their tabernacles, through a just and righteous parentage [white parentage]. They are sent to that people that are the most righteous of any other people upon the earth The Lord has not kept them in store for five or six thousand years past, and kept them waiting for their bodies all this time to send them among the Hottentots, the African negroes, the idolatrous Hindoos, or any other of the fallen nations of the earth. They are not kept in reserve in order to come forth to receive such a degraded parentage [African negroes] upon the earth; no, the Lord is not such a being" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 63; emphasis added)
Mark E. Peterson, LDS Apostle:
"President Woodruff added, 'The Lord said, 'I will not kill Cain, but I will put a mark upon him, and that mark will be seen upon every face of every Negro, upon the face of the earth. And it is the decree of God that [the] mark should remain upon the seed of Cain, until the seed of Able shall be redeemed, and Cain shall not receive the Priesthood until the time of that redemption. Any man having one drop of the blood of Cain in him cannot receive the Priesthood' " (Race Problems-- As They Affect the Church, address given by Mark E. Peterson at BYU; emphasis added)
In the same address, Peterson goes on to say:
"Who placed the Negroes originally in darkest Africa? Was it some man or was it God?.. The Lord segregated the people both as to blood and place of residence. At least in the cases of the Lamanites and the negroes we have the definite word of the Lord Himself that He placed a dark skin upon them as a curse--as a punishment and as a sign to all others. He forbade intermarriage with them under threat of extension of the curse And He certainly segregated the descendants of Cain when He cursed the Negro as to the Priesthood, and drew an absolute line. Think of the Negro, cursed as to the Priesthood. Are we prejudiced against him? Unjustly, sometimes we are accursed of having such a prejudice
This Negro, who, in the pre-existence lived the type of life which justified the Lord in sending him to the earth in the lineage of Cain with black skin, and possibly being born in darkest Africa--if that negro is willing when he hears the gospel to accept it, they may have many of the blessings of the gospel. In spite of all he did in the pre-existent life, the Lord is willing if the Negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost.
If I were to marry a Negro woman and have children by her, my children would be cursed as to the Priesthood. Do I want my children cursed as to the Priesthood? If there is one drop of negro blood in my children, as I have read to you, they receive the curse There are 50 million Negroes in the United States. If they were to achieve complete absorption with the white race, think what that would do. With 50 million Negroes inter-married with us, where would the priesthood be? Who could hold it, in all America? Think what that would do to the work of the Church!.. Now we are generous with the Negro.
We are willing that the Negro have the highest kind of education. I would be willing to let every Negro drive a Cadillac if they could afford it. I would be willing that that they have all the advantages as they can get out of life in the world. But let them enjoy these among themselves. I think the Lord segregated the Negro and who is man to change it?" (ibid.; emphasis added)
George A. Smith, LDS Apostle:
"There is not a man, from the President of the United States to the Editors of their sanctorums, clear down to the low-bred letter-writers in this Territory, but would rob the coppers from a dead nigger's eyes, if they had a good opportunity" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, 110; emphasis added)
Bruce R. McConkie, LDS Apostle and prolific writer:
"Negroes in this life are denied the Priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty The gospel message of salvation is not carried affirmatively to them. Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned ." (Mormon Doctrine, p. 477, 527-528; 1966 orig. ed., changed in the current)
"Cain was cursed with a dark skin; he became the father of the negroes, and those spirits who are not worthy to receive the priesthood are born through that lineage" (ibid., p. 109; 1966 org. ed., changed in the current ed.; emphasis added)
" Cain, Ham, and the whole negro race have been cursed with a black skin, the mark of Cain, so they can be identified as a caste apart, a people with whom the other descendants of Adam should not intermarry" (ibid., p. 114; current ed.; emphasis added)
Is this Christian? Did Jesus or the Apostles teach prejudice on the basis of skin color? These racist teachings, which were clearly taught by the leaders of the Mormon Church, echo those of the Skinhead, K.K.K. and other destructive groups. This, is not Christianity:
"Then Peter open his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him" (Ac. 10:34; emphasis added)
" God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean" (ibid., 10:28)
Let us conclude by examining the LDS scriptures, which indicates plainly that dark skin was a sign of Gods curse:
Book of Mormon
1 Nephi 11:13 (Mary) "...she was exceedingly fair and white."
1 Nephi 12:23 (prophecy of the Lamanites) "... became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations."
1 Nephi 13:15 (Gentiles) "... they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people [Nephites] before they were slain."
2 Nephi 5:21 "... a sore cursing as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them."
2 Nephi 30:6 (prophecy to the Lamanites if they repented) "... scales of darkness shall begin to fall... they shall be a white and delightsome people" ("white and delightsome" was changed to "pure and delightsome" in 1981).
Jacob 3:5 (Lamanites cursed) " whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins ."
Jacob 3:8-9 " their skins will be whiter than yours... revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins ."
Alma 3:6 "And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion."
Alma 3:9 " whosoever did mingle his seed with that of the Lamanites did bring the same curse upon his seed."
Alma 3:14 (Lamanites cursed) " set a mark on them that they and their seed may be separated from thee and thy seed ."
Alma 23:18 " [Lamanites] did open a correspondence with them [Nephites] and the curse of God did no more follow them."
3 Nephi 2:14-16 " Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites; And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites and became exceedingly fair ."
3 Nephi 19:25, 30 (Disciples) " they were as white as the countenance and also the garments of Jesus; and behold the whiteness thereof did exceed all the whiteness... nothing upon earth so white as the whiteness thereof and behold they were white, even as Jesus."
Mormon 5:15 (prophecy about the Lamanites) " for this people shall be scattered, and shall become a dark, a filthy, and a loathsome people, beyond the description of that which ever hath been amongst us ."
Pearl of Great Pri">Moses 7:22 "...for the seed of Cain were black and had not place among them."
Abraham 1:21 "... king of Egypt [Pharaoh] was a descendant from the loins of Ham, and was a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites by birth."
Abraham 1:27 " Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood " (emphasis added to above citations).
The truth is: Mormonism doses not represent Jesus Christ or His Church. The LDS teachings of the "Negro" are not consistent with, as well as, contradict Scripture.
In 1978, the LDS god changes his Mind
Because of this racist teaching, the LDS Church was under enormous political pressure. Hence, June 8 1978, LDS President, Spencer W. Kimball, after spending many hours in the "Upper Room" of the LDS Temple, claimed that God had removed the curse. All worthy black men could now receive the Priesthood.
This, was a major doctrinal change. Mormons will usually argue: "But it was said that eventually the curse would be removed." However, this assertion cannot be found before 1978. Therefore, we will again, appeal to the official teachings of the LDS General Authorities.
What the LDS General Authorities did teach was that the curse would not be removed in this life. LDS Prophet Brigham Young explains, under, so-called, divine revelation:2
"How long is that race to endure the dreadful curse that is upon them? That curse will remain upon them, and they never can hold the Priesthood or share in it until all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood and the keys thereof. Until the last ones of the residue of Adam's children are brought up to that favorable position, the children of Cain cannot receive the first ordinances of the Priesthood. They were the first that were cursed, and they will be the last from whom the curse will be removed. When the residue of the family of Adam come up and receive their blessings, then the curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will receive blessings in like proportion" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 290-291; emphasis added)
Young was clear: "they [blacks] never can hold the Priesthood until all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood and the keys thereof." The time when the descendants of Adam (white men) are redeemed is at the resurrection, not in this life. According to Mormonism that has not happen yet. Keep in mind, Young declared:
"I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of man, that they may not call Scripture" (ibid., vol. 13, p. 95)
Mark E. Peterson, LDS Apostle agrees:
"And it is the decree of God that [the] mark should remain upon the seed of Cain, until the seed of Able shall be redeemed, and Cain shall not receive the Priesthood until the time of that redemption" (Race Problems-- As They Affect the Church, address by Mark E. Peterson at BYU; emphasis added; see above)
LDS Apostle, Bruce R. McConkie comments as to the duration of the curse:
"Negroes in this life are denied the Priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty The gospel message of salvation is not carried affirmatively to them ." (Mormon Doctrine, p. 477, 527-528; 1966 org. ed., changed in the current; see above)
As observed, and with most non-Christian cults, the god of Mormonism is a changing god. It changes its mind. The God of the Bible does not change:
"For I am the LORD, I change not " (Mal. 3:6)
"Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall parish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou are the same, and thy years shall have no end" (Ps. 102:25-27)
Even the Book of Mormon agrees with this point:
"Now, the decrees of God are unalterable ." (Alma 41:8)3
Mormonism teaches: "The gospel message of salvation is not carried affirmatively to them. Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned ." (McConkie, see above).
In the end, Mormons reject the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: Preach the Gospel to all nations (cf. Mt. 28:19-20), thus "all nations" certainly includes Africa.
1, In the Mormon religion there are two priesthoods: Aaronic and the Melchizedek. The Aaronic is the lesser of the two. To have eternal life (i.e., exaltation to Godhood) the "worthy" (and married) Mormon male must be ordained to this higher Priesthood (Melchizedek). This Priesthood is excluded from all females. Thus for nearly 150 years, the Mormon Church taught that dark skinned people (partially Africans) could not gain true salvation, eternal life (i.e., Godhood in the highest heaven: the celestial kingdom).
2, Just as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Peter, and Paul were actual prophets and apostles, in LDS theology the titles, "Prophet" and "Apostle" are literal. Thus, Mormons say that when they are giving sermons they are in fact, speaking for God.
Concerning the "decrees" of God, LDS Apostle Mark E. Peterson stated:
"And it is the decree of God that [the] mark should remain
upon the seed of Cain, until the seed of Able shall be redeemed, and
Cain shall not receive the Priesthood until the time of that redemption"
(Race Problems-- As They Affect the Church, address by Mark E. Peterson
at BYU; emphasis added; see above).
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Term activity allowance has a array of variations. Appellation was anticipation of as acting allowance and still is classified in that way by several individuals accurately those in that industry. The acceptance of the 20 year appellation action has affected companies not alone to advance this action but the 25 year appellation and 30 year appellation behavior as well. In contempo years, however, improvements to appellation behavior accept fabricated them accept to be absolutely abiding to abounding an allowance buyer. They accept lessened the premiums appreciably and in rear situations accept offered the owners of these behavior the another of continuing them adapted afterwards the end of the appellation timeframe about with a college premium. These kinds of advancements are acceptable to accommodate appellation allowance behavior a affectionate of sustainability.
Generally there are a lot of advantages to best appellation activity allowance quotations with 15, 20 or 30 year agreement if compared with abbreviate appellation policies, accepted and aswell accomplished activity allowance choices. A best action will accept lower premiums all-embracing compared to accepted activity and accomplished activity insurance, as the applicant will not be consistently renewing his or her contract. Age is a above agency in ambience allowance rates, so costs can be badly lower for behavior with continued terms. They can aswell accommodate a lot of abandon and can be akin with some added investments for a composed banking portfolio.
Yet, continued appellation activity allowance quotes are about added big-ticket as compared with the quotes for beneath policies, as allowance firms accept added of a accident by alms continued appellation allowance quotes. As a way to acquisition account affable quotations, it absolutely is advantageous to apperceive a little bit apropos how it works and to analyze as abounding choices as accessible above-mentioned to authoritative a decision.
Insurance providers apply assorted belief if ambience appellation activity allowance ante and these can absolutely accomplish a abundant aberration in premiums if affairs a continued appellation policy. Before purchasing insurance, buyers should try to accomplish abiding that they're in acceptable health. Age, health, occupation, area and gender are the a lot of important factors. The added aspects are usually a lot added difficult to manipulate, abnormally age. Maturing is acutely inescapable, yet for you to abstain spending acutely top costs if renewing a policy, barter accept to accomplish assertive that their action agreement are appropriate. Example, a 35-year-old activity allowance applicant who will not crave his/her advantage anon afterwards retirement ability go for a 30-year term, about a 45-year-old applicant will be accept with a 20-year policy. Advantage banned aswell accept an aftereffect on action premiums, so it's important not to overbuy. Abounding buyers accept a addiction to accept abounding advantage limits, but it's generally accessible to defended abounding banking aegis for a ancestors with beneath coverage.
When accepting any blazon of appellation activity insurance, it absolutely is all-important to verify altered companies' costs, as allowance factors aren't consistently advised in the aforementioned way. Internet sites with allowance quotations could be acute in acknowledging consumers acquisition cost-effective policies, back they will set up the best continued appellation activity allowance ante by premiums. Nonetheless, it is still up to the chump to abstraction estimates in adjustment to aces the best policy. It's capital to attending at the banking adherence of assorted allowance providers if accepting a longer-term coverage, about with a few quick online research, it should be simple to baddest a acceptable option.
Term Activity Allowance is admired as the adopted affectionate of Activity Allowance today which food advantage for a assertive amount of years. Afterwards all, that is what allowance is for: Aegis for yourself and your family.


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Mauer Chosen As Lone Twins' All Star
The American and National League All Stars were chosen Sunday and the lone Twins' representative is catcher Joe Mauer.
Mauer was picked by Texas Manager Ron Washington to backup Texas catcher Mike Napoli.
Mauer is batting .325 with 4 homeruns and 36 RBIs this season. He leads the American League in on-base-percentage at .416.
Twins' outfielder Josh Willingham and relief pitchers Glen Perkins and Jared Burton were both named as deserving candidates by Mauer.
Mauer says he's happy to represent the Twins in the All Star game in Kansas City this season.


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Minnesota Twins Home Opener Was a Fun Place to Be
A couple of weeks ago, my brother Carl called from Presho, SD and asked if I would like to go to the Twins Home opener. I asked if he had tickets yet and he did. So of course I did what every red blooded American would do. I said Yes!
Turns out he had 2 other tickets. He asked if I had anyone that might want to come along. After a perfect storm of scheduling, it turned out that our oldest son Jake was back in town (Truck Driver) and Logan was able to get out of work for one day and come along too. (Student at Northern State in Aberdeen, SD)
Logan was on the road and cut across from Millbank, SD to Minneapolis. Jake and I were on the road from Sioux Falls. Logan got to the seats about 10 minutes before the first pitch.
I know you won't believe it, but it was almost HOT sitting in the sun Monday in Minneapolis. We were out of the wind and in the sun most of the game. As you can tell, we had excellent seats. 9th row up 3rd base line.
The Twins lost, so that was a bit of a negative on the day. The only other hiccup was with the Twins. Yes they have an awesome ball park in Target Field, but they have some serious issues with the food service in the 3rd base dugout to straighten out.
A 20 minute wait for a hotdog?
Come on, it's opening day. Be ready for a crowd of hungry fans waiting to toss 6 bucks down for a hotdog already.
Other than that, you can see it was an awesome day. Cold beer, Peanuts oh, and a little cotton Candy too. My nephew Ayden thought that was pretty good!


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Costa Mesa High has two coaches in their first seasons with the boys' and girls' soccer programs. It would be hard to tell the two men apart, if you just listened to them.
Amos Hernandez and Tamiko Davila struck me as very positive and similar when I met them recently. Now, I know why.
Davila, the girls' coach, mentored Hernandez, the boys' coach. The two are part of the Newport Mesa Soccer Club, where Davila is the director of soccer and Hernandez coaches the 9-, 10- and 11-year-old boys' teams.
When Davila took the Costa Mesa girls' job in April, after longtime coach Dan Johnston stepped down, it was Davila who asked Hernandez if he was interested in the boys' position at the school. Hernandez was and he applied.
Since he was hired, he had lofty goals for Costa Mesa, a team that has only made the CIF Southern Section playoffs once in the last 10 seasons.
"My goal from Day 1, and I told [my players], was to win a [CIF] ring. That's what the administration brought me in for," said Hernandez, who played at Lakewood High in the late 1990s, coached as an assistant at his alma mater in the early 2000s, before he moved on to coach on the club level for programs in Long Beach, Cerritos and Newport-Mesa.
"I've had success everywhere I've gone. From the first day at practice … it wasn't about winning [the Orange Coast League], it was about winning a [CIF] ring. If I don't put it out there for them, then I don't think they could imagine it on their own. I think it has to be spoken, any dream, at any point in life."
Through the first four league matches, the Mustangs are unbeaten at 2-0-2 and in first place under Hernandez.
When you consider the team entered the season on probation for piling up too many red cards last season, Costa Mesa has done very well. Hernandez has changed the culture, stressing hard work and unity.
The Mustangs can wrap up the first half of league play without a loss on Wednesday, when they play host to Laguna Beach at Jim Scott Stadium at 6:30 p.m.
Is there a changing of the guard in Pacific Coast League boys' basketball?
Corona del Mar has won or shared the league title in four of the last six seasons. The team used to be tough to beat whenever it played host to a league game.
In the past three seasons, only one league team has been able to travel to CdM and knock off the Sea Kings.
Last week, Northwood became the second league opponent in four seasons to win at CdM. The Timberwolves controlled much of the game, until the fourth quarter, but they held on and won, 55-53.
Northwood's coach is Tim O'Brien, a familiar name around town. CdM Coach Ryan Schachter calls O'Brien the best coach in the league.
There was a time O'Brien was the top coach in Orange County.
O'Brien is the same guy who was in charge at Estancia back in the day for five seasons, leading the Eagles to a CIF State Division III title in 1990-91, a CIF Southern Section Division 3-AA title in 1989-90, section runner-up finishes in 1990-91 and 1991-92, a 110-42 record, and two league titles.
O'Brien now has Northwood as the favorite to win league. The Timberwolves are 4-0 in league, one game ahead of CdM, which is 3-1.
If Northwood can claim the league crown, it will be the first time CdM has gone two seasons without finishing at the top in Schachter's seven seasons at the school.
About two weeks ago, CdM guard Max Stone drained eight three-pointers in a game. I asked Schachter afterward if any player during his time with the Sea Kings had made more in a game.
He offered up Ramon Mejia, believing the guard made nine threes in a Division III-A playoff game three seasons ago. I remembered that night, and after a little research, Mejia hit eight threes in the Sea Kings' 67-48 rout of Santa Barbara San Marcos in the second round.
What's more impressive is that Mejia hit six of eight threes in the fourth quarter and finished with 28 points.
Stone never got a chance to add to this eight threes because Schachter sat him the entire fourth quarter against Beckman. Stone, who finished with 30 points, watched as the Sea Kings were on their way to a 79-37 blowout.
All this talk about Manti Te'o and his fake girlfriend had me thinking about how much he might drop in this year's NFL Draft because of his involvement in the hoax.
I'm hoping he goes dead last, so I can cover him during Irrelevant Week here in Newport Beach this summer. Te'o's pseudo girlfriend would be the ideal Miss Irrelevant.
Twitter: @DCPenaloza


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"The Sante Fe Institute, which I helped to found in 1984, gathers together mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists, chemists, neurobiologists, immunologists, evolutionary biologists, ecologists, archaeologists, linguists, economists, political scientists, and historians, among others. The emphasis is on interactive people. Many distinguished scientists and scholars yearn to stray outside their own fields but can't do so easily at their own institutions. We didn't want to locate our institute near Harvard or Stanford, where there's enormous pressure of received ideas - ideas accepted by a whole community and therefore difficult to challenge. In Sante Fe, we can think and talk freely, constrained only by the need to agree with reality."
MURRAY GELL-MANN is a theoretical physicist; Robert Andrews Millikan Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology; winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics; a co-founder of the Santa Fe Institute, where he is a professor and cochairman of the science board; a director of the J.D. and C.T. MacArthur Foundation; one of the Global Five Hundred honored by the U.N. Environment Program; a member of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology; author of The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex.
"The first thing that makes me respect Murray is that unlike all his contemporaries, including Feynman, Weinberg, Hawking, and all the other particle physicists, he saw that complexity is the next big problem. The kind of breakthroughs he made in the early 1960's in terms of impact on the world are not going to get made in that domain, they are going to get made in this domain. Murray recognized that, and has become more than just conversant with what's going on and with what the problems are." -J. Doyne Farmer
"There's nothing like having a Nobel laureate around to liven up discussions on almost any topic." -Christopher G. Langton
"Murray is the greatest living American theoretical physicist.


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Major Program Sheets 2013-14
Cameron School of Business
B.A. Economics
B.S. Business Administration, Accountancy Option
B.S. Business Administration, Economics Option
B.S. Business Administration, Entrepreneurship and Business Development Option
B.S. Business Administration, Finance Option
B.S. Business Administration, General Business Option
B.S. Business Administration, Human Resource Management Option
B.S. Business Administration, Information Systems Option
B.S. Business Administration, International Business Option
B.S. Business Administration, Management and Leadership Option
B.S. Business Administration, Marketing Option
B.S. Business Administration, Marketing Option - Marketing Strategy
B.S. Business Administration, Marketing Option - Professional Selling
B.S. Business Administration, Operations Management Option
College of Arts and Sciences
ANT: B.A. Anthropology
ARH: B.A. Art History
ART: B.A. Studio Art
BIO: B.A. Biology
BIO: B.S. Biology
BIO: B.S. Biology, Terrestrial and Freshwater Conservation Option
CHM: B.A. Chemistry
CHM: B.S. Chemistry
CHM: B.S. Chemistry, Biochemistry Option
CIT: B.S. Information Technology
COM: B.A. Communication Studies
CRM: B.A. Criminology
CRW: B.F.A. Creative Writing
CSC: B.S. Computer Science, Biology Concentration
CSC: B.S. Computer Science, Business Concentration
CSC: B.S. Computer Science, Chemistry Concentration
CSC: B.S. Computer Science, Digital Arts Concentration
CSC: B.S. Computer Science, Geographic Information Systems Concentration
CSC: B.S. Computer Science, Statistics Concentration
CSC: B.S. Computer Science, Systems
ENG: B.A. English, Literary Studies Option
ENG: B.A. English, Professional Writing Option
ENG: B.A. English, Teacher Licensure
EVS: B.A. Environmental Studies
EVS: B.S. Environmental Science, Biological Science Option
EVS: B.S. Environmental Science, Environmental Conservation Option
EVS: B.S. Environmental Science, Physical Science Option
FRH: B.A. French
FRH: B.A. French, Teacher Licensure
FST: B.A. Film Studies
GER: B.A. German Studies
GGY: B.A. Geography, Applied Geography Option
GGY: B.A. Geography, Human Geography Option
GGY: B.A. Geography, Physical Geography Option
GLY: B.A. Geosciences
GLY: B.S. Geology
HST: B.A. History
HST: B.A. History, Teacher Licensure
INT: B.A. International Studies
MAT: B.A. Mathematics
MAT: B.A. Mathematics, Teacher Licensure
MAT: B.S. Mathematics
MAT: B.S. Mathematics, Applied Mathematics
MAT: B.S. Mathematics, Operations Research
MBY: B.S. Marine Biology
MBY: B.S. Marine Biology, Marine Conservation Option
MUS: B.A. Music
MUS: B.M. Music, Music Education Option
MUS: B.M. Music, Performance Option
OCN: B.S. Oceanography
PAR: B.A. Philosophy and Religion, Philosophy Emphasis
PAR: B.A. Philosophy and Religion, Religion Emphasis
PHY: B.A. Physics
PHY: B.S. Physics, General Physics Option
PHY: B.S. Physics, Physical Oceanography Option
PHY: B.S. Physics, Electrical Engineering 3+2 (More info here)
PLS: B.A. Political Science
PSY: B.A. Psychology
SOC: B.A. Sociology
SPN: B.A. Spanish
SPN: B.A. Spanish, Teacher Licensure
STT: B.S. Statistics
THR: B.A. Theatre
College of Health and Human Services
ATR: B.A. Athletic Training
EXS: B.S. Exercise Science
HEA: B.S. Public Health Studies
HEA: B.S. Public Health Studies, Gerontology Concentration
NSG: B.S. Nursing, Clinical Research Option
NSG: B.S. Nursing, Pre-Licensure Option
PED: B.A. Physical Education and Health K-12
REC: B.A. Recreation, Sports Leadership and Tourism Management
RTH: B.A. Recreation Therapy
SWK: B.S.W. Social Work
Watson College of Education
B.A. Education of Young Children
B.A. Elementary Education
B.A. Middle Grades Education
B.A. Teacher Licensure in Secondary Education and K-12 Fields
B.A. Special Education, Adapted Curriculum Track
B.A. Special Education, General Curriculum Track


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Man In The Air
Live In Chicago
The Messenger
Shades of Blue
Close Your Eyes
Recording period between
One of the few male jazz singers from around the baby boom generation, Kurt Elling is an anomaly simply by profession. Given the depth and broad vision of his recordings and performance style, Elling is in a league of his own. Planning a career in the academic world, he discovered jazz and took to it naturally. Deeply influenced by singer and poet Mark Murphy, Elling began to develop his idiosyncratic scat style in the smaller clubs of Chicago (primarily at The Green Mill, sharing the stage with legends Von Freeman and Ed Peterson) and then throughout the Midwest. An Elling show can contain ranting beat poetry, dramatic and poignant readings of Rilke, and hard-swinging scat.
After sending a demo to Blue Note, Elling signed to the label and issued Close Your Eyes in 1995. He began to get attention from the jazz press, not only for his talent and original style, but also for his choice in sidemen, who included Laurence Hobgood and Paul Wertico for a time. His ultra-hip persona prevailed on 1996's Messenger, which was tougher and leaner than its predecessor, and along with hard touring and a taste for the theatrical and outrageous, Elling won over not only critics but jazz audiences from coast to coast. Elling was married that same year and chose, depending on your point of view, either to revise his hipster image or broaden his traditional base with a collection of standard ballads and love songs entitled This Time It's Love. The album won numerous awards in magazines and was nominated for a Grammy.
Endless touring and guest appearances resulted in Blue Note issuing Live in Chicago from three sets at The Green Mill, and 2001 resulted in Flirting with Twilight, his most ambitious and satisfying recording -- he opened the disc by singing a Charlie Haden bass solo. Man in the Air and Nightmoves followed in 2003 and 2007, respectively. In 2009, as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series of concerts, Elling released the live album Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman. Elling guested on Hobgood's 2010 and 2011 offerings When the Heart Dances and Left to My Own Devices, respectively.
He also re-emerged with his own album, The Gate, in 2011. The set was produced by Grammy-winner Don Was. Easily his most provocative offering, it featured a few modern jazz standards juxtaposed against a slew of pop, rock, and soul tunes that were radically rearranged and performed by an all-star band that included Hobgood, John Pattitucci, and Bob Mintzer, to mention a few. ~ Thom Jurek


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Today's Web development tools offer capabilities that go beyond basic HTML editing. I compared three Web editors for Linux -- Screem 0.16.1, Bluefish 1.0.7, and Quanta Plus 3.5.7 -- to determine how well they handle today's Web editing needs.
The three programs are similar in many ways. All three are primarily code editors with syntax highlighting, smart indentation, and other features to make writing and editing code easier. Screem is tightly integrated with the GNOME desktop environment, while Bluefish will run on KDE and GNOME. Quanta Plus is a KDE application distributed with KDE. It has visual editing features (what you see is what you get -- WYSIWYG) in addition to extensive code editing features. All three applications have features for working with HTML, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and other markup or scripting languages. Additionally, all three have features for managing Web sites and projects, including CVS support.
If these three programs have such similar features, what sets one apart from the others? For this review, I focused on how well a Web editor helps you write HTML code, CSS, and DIV tags to create flexible layouts. Each program offers additional features that may be important to you if you have specialized needs.
Screem handles much of the basic drudgery of setting up and editing Web pages. When you create a new Web page, Screem asks for some basic information and then helps you set up the basic page elements in the head and body tags.
I appreciated how well Screem facilitated editing. For example, when I changed the opening tag from an ordered list to an unordered list, the closing tag automatically changed. When typing code, Screem offers a pop-up dialog in line with a tag for choosing attributes, and then automatically closes the tag after you choose an attribute or type the right bracket. Screem has a good CSS style wizard for creating properties to either be inserted between style tags or to have in a separate style sheet.
Screem's clean interface includes just two toolbars: a main toolbar for basic operations like opening, printing, and editing files; and a wizard toolbar with buttons for nine wizards that guide users through inserting elements like colors, forms, links, images, and tables. There is also a sidebar on the left of the screen that can display five tabbed windows: files; a document tree; a list of attributes that change dynamically based on the tag you are typing; resources, which is a full list of available tags for the current document type; and symbols, which works with ctags if they are present for a Web site you are editing. I found the document tree useful for navigating through nested tags on a Web page.
Screem's simple interface belies a powerful HTML editor. I just wish it could more easily be installed in KDE. I tested Screem from an Ubuntu live CD to avoid compiling and loading the half-dozen or so GNOME-related libraries I would need to get it running on KDE. However, Screem is a great example of a tool that does its chosen task well with a minimum of extraneous features. If you use GNOME, Screem is a great choice. If you use KDE or another environment, it is still worthwhile to load the necessary libraries to use Screem.
Bluefish is in many ways more complicated than Screem, but also more versatile. It handles editing C, Java, Perl, Python, XML, and several other languages in addition to HTML and CSS. For HTML and CSS editing, it has many of the same features that Screem has, but it does not offer tag attribute suggestions as one types, nor will it change a closing tag to match a changed opening tag as Screem does.
Otherwise, Bluefish is capable, well-organized, and easy to use. Its Tags menu can apply opening and closing tags to selected text, or simply insert the tags if no text is selected. The tags in the menu are organized into nine broad categories (e.g., headings, format by layout, format by context, CSS, etc.). The Dialogs menu presents a series of dialogs for various tasks, such as inserting a link, table, form, or CSS style (for either an in-document style or a separate style sheet). The dialogs are where you provide, or choose from a list, the values for various attributes for tags, which Bluefish then inserts into the document. Through the dialogs you also perform the initial document setup of adding meta tags, linking to style sheets, and so forth. The menus are not context-sensitive; they still provide HTML-related functions even if you're editing a Python file.
Bluefish has a neat multi-thumbnail wizard on its toolbar that automates creating a page of thumbnails from images you select -- handy when you want to set up an online photo album. The wizard scales each image to the specified size or percentage and automatically adds the image and anchor (link) tags. However, it is still up to you to get the thumbnails into a workable page structure such as a table.
Bluefish is a capable HTML editor, especially if you do a lot of editing in PHP, JavaScript, Java, or one of the other supported languages. The menu-driven nature of Bluefish is not as attractive to me as Screem's ability to do many of the same things dynamically while I type. However, Bluefish's capabilities extend beyond HTML and CSS editing, and it runs easily in both KDE and GNOME.
Quanta Plus
At its heart, Quanta Plus is a code editor. It has some WYSIWYG editing capabilities, but they are not as useful as you might think. For one thing, the preview view did not always work for me. It stopped working after I placed a table in a small Web page I was using to test various features. This problem is especially odd because the preview worked fine for another more complicated Web page I loaded at the same time. But even when the preview works, it does not allow true WYSIWYG editing. For example, pressing the Enter key results in the insertion of a soft break tag rather than a new paragraph tag. That behavior is even more frustrating when you're typing a list, where pressing the Enter key still gives a soft paragraph break rather than the expected new line item. In short, the Preview view is aptly named; it is better used for displaying the results of the edits you make in the code than for visually editing a page.
That complaint aside, Quanta Plus is a tremendous code editor. Its interface is more complex than Bluefish's, but still mainly Web-editing-centric. Quanta Plus offers syntax highlighting for a staggering array of programming, scripting, and markup languages. Like Bluefish, its menus and toolbars do not change to match the language one is editing. Quanta Plus gives users the ability to create new language-specific toolbars to save, load, and even share.
Again like Bluefish, the best place to start with a new document is the Tags menu, which leads to the quick start dialog for filling out the initial meta tags, document title, and so forth. The Tags menu contains both simple tag insertions and dialogs for tags that need to take several attributes. More importantly from my perspective, Quanta Plus offer tag attribute and attribute value suggestions as I type. Bluefish offer neither, and Screem only offered tag attribute suggestions, not attribute value suggestions.
Another nice feature is that when one types a tag that usually has tags nested within it, Quanta Plus adds the nested tags too. For example, after typing the opening tag for an ordered list, the program automatically added one set of opening and closing line item tags, and then closed the ordered list tag.
Quanta Plus's handling of CSS is a little complicated because it requires two dialog boxes, but is easy to use and powerful. To create a CSS style, you first open the CSS Selector Dialog to identify the element to apply the style to: tags, division (div) or span IDs, or classes. Then, double-clicking on the CSS selector opens the CSS Editor dialog, which provides all the options and values that you can apply. The end result is perfectly formatted CSS code.
Quanta Plus is the most complex of the three programs, but also the most capable. Despite its complexity, which is really a function of its ability to be customized, Quanta Plus's interface is a joy to use. The program goes out of its way to assist users writing and editing HTML and CSS code. For people running KDE, Quanta Plus is an easy choice, since it comes bundled with KDE. GNOME users need to load some libraries and helper applications, but the results are worth the hassle.
My simple recommendation is to use Quanta Plus to edit your HTML and CSS files. The more complicated recommendations break down this way:
- If you use GNOME, use Screem. It's a fast, simple, and powerful tool for Web editing. However, it does not have the large feature sets that Bluefish and Quanta Plus have, especially for languages other than those directly related to Web page editing.
- If you use GNOME and need the more powerful features of Quanta Plus, load the required libraries and run it.
- If you use KDE and want a code editor, choose Quanta Plus. Ignore the WYSIWYG capabilities and take advantage of the tremendous editing capabilities, especially for CSS style sheets.
- If you use Xfce, Quanta Plus should run fine. Screem would still require loading additional libraries.
- Finally, if you use GNOME, find that Screem does not meet all your needs, and you don't want to bother with loading the KDE-native Quanta Plus, then load Bluefish. It is nearly as capable as Quanta Plus, but will run well without a lot of fussing with libraries.
It is encouraging that there are at least three modern and very capable Web development applications for Linux. Screem, Bluefish, and Quanta Plus are not quite as full-featured as Adobe's top of the line Dreamweaver, but they are close. Quanta Plus, especially, is Dreamweaver's equal for code editing. Given that Dreamweaver is expensive, and is not available as a native Linux application, these three applications represent excellent value -- not just because they are free, but because they quickly reward users with excellent results.