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Not a day goes by in the virtual realm of social media that you do not see at least one post about "geo-engineering, chemtrails, HAARP, CERN, etc".
You might even be well versed in science literacy and/or in the correlating studies in this topic and therefore know what these terms truly imply already and therefore i hope you still understand there is some confusion within the general population about their meanings due to disinformation campaigns, propaganda and gullible ignorance. Or you might be part of the vast majority who are just about totally clueless as to this subject and/or why disinformation is being spread around within this topic just like the "flat earth" disinformation counter-intelligence campaign.
Either way we all see the posts showing scary looking chemical tanks on military planes, or the crisscrossing contrails being claimed as poisoning, or how HAARP antenna's are manipulating the weather, or how CERN is going to blow up the world or make a black hole or be a "portal" to another dimension, and so on.
Is there any validity and merit to these claims?
Let's figure it out:
First off let's point out that you can consider cloud seeding, crop dusting and aerial smoke displays as "geo-engineering", but that is not what is often implied when we are seeing specific claims of "chemtrails", or HAARP weather manipulation, etc.
It is safe to assume then that most of these people who make such claims seemingly just do not understand what this term "geo-enginering" actually implies.
What the term actually means:
Geo-engineering is the idea that, rather than deal with the insane amounts of pollution we are spewing into the air, people can just engineer a solution (which usually involves spewing other kinds of pollution) to solve global warming.
In August 2009 the Institute of Mechanical Engineers called for a ten million pound government project to investigate potential geo-engineering technologies. In September of that year New Scientist printed an opinion piece "Geoengineering is no longer unmentionable." It's interesting to note that the price-tag attached to some geo-engineering proposals lies within the range of eccentric millionaires, rather than world governments.
Geoengineering proposals range from ideas that could be feasible some day to "ideas" that wouldn't pass muster with the craziest Bond villain. While some use of geo-engineering may be necessary (and even then, we should study it further to ensure that the benefits outweigh the risks), claims by some that it will suddenly end the problem of climate change altogether are simply science woo; the environmental equivalent of snake oil. According to a recent study released in 2013, starting geo-engineering and then stopping could also "dangerously accelerate climate change."
The study also found that warming would be faster in the Northern Hemisphere compared with the Southern Hemisphere, and that if geoengineering were used to suppress an even more dramatic warming scenario — say, 2 percent annual increases in CO2 concentrations — the rapid climate changes would be even faster after an abrupt suspension of the experiment.
If such a scenario were to occur we might have not enough time to adapt to such drastic ecological changes.
In terms of adaptation, the rate of climate change might be more important than how much the climate changes, said Alan Robock, a climate scientist at Rutgers University who ran some of the models for the study.
"The ability of ecosystems to respond can be compromised if the changes are too rapid," the authors wrote in the study.
And for animals attuned to particular environments, the consequences could be particularly extreme even fatal.
Geoengineering comes with an encyclopedia of moral, ethical and legal questions. And although our current rate of global warming worries many scientists, it's also a warming we know a lot more about, can adapt to reasonably well and can predict with reasonable accuracy.
Right now, according to Ben Kravitz of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who also helped run some of the study's models, very little is known about geoengineering. Scientists don't yet know an SRM experiment that would actually work, for example, let alone what some of the secondary effects of such an experiment would be.
"Right now, in my opinion, there's no evidence that geoengineering is less risky than global warming," Robock said.
"If you could control it, you could gradually stop it and reduce the rate of emissions gradually over a decade or two; that would make the climate changes smaller while you were doing it," he added. "But that assumes that it could be controlled and it would all be done rationally. It might be much more rational to not do it in the first place."
The authors said one of the main messages to take from the study is that, if we ever do try geoengineering, don't suddenly stop doing it one day.
Now that we have the proper definition and application of that term we can focus upon some of the stuff pertaining to this subject that we often see on the interwebnets and attempt to understand what is actually going on.
The main thing we still see floating around social media, mostly with blind and arrogant vitriol, even though being thoroughly debunked, is the subject of "chemtrails".
The first few times I heard about "chemtrails", my reaction was "you can't be serious." But the people who spread this are seemingly very serious. They are generally people who have already accepted the conspiracy theory mindset, where everything that they don't like or don't understand is immediate proof of some big government conspiracy. And that is in no way to say that governments do not commit extreme atrocities and cover them up, they most certainly do, all the time.
But there's an even bigger factor at work here: science illiteracy. The first thing that pops in my mind reading their strange ideas is "does this person know how to use the Internet to fact check?".
The fastest rebuttal I give when I run into one of these discussions is: "Do you even understand the first thing about our atmosphere? Anything released at 30,000 feet will blow for miles away from where you see it, and has virtually no chance of settling straight down onto the people below, and be so diluted it would have no measurable amount of the chemical by the time it lands. That's why crop-dusting planes must fly barely 30 feet off the ground so their dust won't blow too far away from the crops!"
"The entire chemtrail conspiracy idea is a relatively recent one, and an idea that would not have become so popular without the ability of the internet to spread lies. As this site shows, it was an idea that was simmering among conspiracy theorists in the 1990s when one person in particular, William Thomas, made it popular back in 1996. By 1997-1999, he was trying to spread his ideas through interviews and media coverage and early conspiracy internet sites, and gotten many believers to buy in to his bizarre fantasy. Then in 1999, he was featured on Paranormal Central, Art Bell's show on Coast to Coast radio. If there is any fast way to reach the mob of UFO nuts, paranormal fanatics, and conspiracy theorists besides the internet, Art Bell's show is the place. Soon the phenomenon exploded far beyond William Thomas or Art Bell, and became a widely accepted idea among the people who tune in to the paranormal or the conspiracy mindset."
So what are these supposed "chemtrails"?
Allegedly, they are different from normal contrails produced by aircraft, and allegedly they contain some sort of evil chemical that the government conspiracy is trying to poison us with. Normal contrails are something we do understand, because there has been lots of research on them. Many aircraft engines leave a plume of hot gases and vapor from the hydrocarbons in the fuel they burn, and in the subfreezing conditions of the upper troposphere or stratosphere, those hot gases immediately condense to form long vapor clouds behind the plane as it flies. If there are high-altitudes winds or the jet stream is active, they disperse quickly, but often they remain stable for many minutes. Contrails were observed almost as soon as aircraft were able to fly at that elevation, and they are well documented in videos and photos of World War II aircraft, long before any of the current governments that are allegedly conspiring to do this were even in power.
As RationalWiki describes it:
"On days when cirrus cloud formation is occurring, there is more moisture in the upper atmosphere, and consequently, contrails may linger longer before evaporating. Since cirrus clouds often precede a general overcast or haze, the casual observer could easily assume that the contrails have caused the overcast, or become the overcast. The persistence of contrails varies with weather conditions: sometimes they dissipate almost immediately, but often they will persist for hours, with crossing trails sometimes forming gridlike patterns that stretch from horizon to horizon. The "chemtrails" label is usually applied to these longer contrails, with their very persistence put forward as "evidence" that they cannot be normal contrails."
So let's discuss exactly what a contrail is. A condensation trail, also called a vapor trail, forms at altitudes above 25,000 feet in temperatures below -40 degrees when engine exhaust condenses into ice crystals, creating an artificial cirrus cloud. Water is produced by hydrocarbon burning engines in about the same quantity as fuel consumed, and in the right conditions, this extra addition of water into the air pushes the water vapor past the saturation point, and condensation occurs. It takes a moment to happen, which accounts for the contrail appearing a short distance behind the aircraft, rather than immediately, like you'd see from a smoke pod on an aerobatic plane, or like when a crop duster releases chemicals. Contrails can also be caused at high altitudes by the extreme low pressure areas created by wingtip vortices, which reduce the temperature enough to condense the existing moisture in the air.
If you're not familiar with the term,"chemtrails" are what some conspiracy theorists call aircraft condensation trails. Most of them don't believe that conventional contrails exist, and that when you see one, you're actually seeing a trail of mysterious airborne chemicals sprayed from the aircraft.
Some "chemtrail" believers say that the population is being gassed with some unknown chemical for an unknown reason.
Like all conspiracy theories, "chemtrails" require us to accept the existence of a coverup of mammoth proportions. In this case, virtually every aircraft maintenance worker at every airport in the world needs to be either part of the conspiracy, or living under a threat from Men in Black.
If the goal was to drug or poison a population, you'd put the gas, chemicals, poison, etc where it could reach people, you wouldn't release a minute quantity into a jet stream where it's going to be diluted to undetectable levels and eventually rain into the oceans.
So far the arguments in favor of chemtrails don't appear to be based on any kind of logic. They appear to be based on nothing more than imagined conspiracies and sightings of visible contrails, which are well understood, and are being left by planes every hour of the day over every city in the world, and have been for over 50 years.
Often times in this discourse you get a wide spectrum of different kinds of misconceptions, misinterpretations, misunderstandings, and outright falsehoods. The oddest is that people seem to think that contrails are some sort of new phenomenon, when as I just pointed out, we've been seeing them in the sky since the 30's and have a photographic record of them.
The next problem is the ever-changing definitions of "chemtrails", and how you can tell one from a contrail. Each "definition" gets modified and redefined as soon as the last one is debunked, thus the logical fallacy 'shifting the goalposts' is enacted.
One the most widely used claims is that they are spraying barium, or aluminum, or any other number of chemicals supposedly toxic to us. As this site demonstrates, none of these claims are true. More to the point, spraying them from 30,000 feet would be useless, since they would dissipate over a huge area and when they finally landed, they would be diluted into non-detectable, non-toxic amounts—and with the high-level winds, the odds are they'll blow far away from where they are sprayed in the first place.
Aluminum is EVERYWHERE NATURALLY IN ABUNDANCE… LITERALLY... What a better way to scare the shit out of somebody than by telling someone the government is dropping Aluminum from the sky, everywhere you test you're going to find it… Any burning of fossil fuels and coal will spread Aluminum into the atmosphere…
Text –
"Aluminum has been identified in at least 596 of the 1,699 hazardous waste sites that have been proposed for inclusion on the EPA National Priorities List (NPL) (HazDat 2008). However, the number of sites evaluated for Aluminum is not known. The frequency of these sites can be seen in Figure 6-1. Of these sites, 590 are located within the United States, 2 are located in Guam, 3 are located in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and 1 is located in the Virgin Islands (not shown). Aluminum is the most abundant metal and the third most abundant element in the earth's crust, comprising about 8.8% by weight (88 g/kg). It is never found free in nature and is found in most rocks, particularly igneous rocks as aluminosilicate minerals (Lide 2005; Staley and Haupin 1992). Aluminum is also present in air, water, and many foods. Aluminum enters environmental media naturally through the weathering of rocks and minerals. Anthropogenic releases are in the form of air emissions, waste water effluents, and solid waste primarily associated with industrial processes, such as aluminum production. Because of its prominence as a major constituent of the earth's crust, natural weathering processes far exceed the contribution of releases to air, water, and land associated with human activities (Lantzy and MacKenzie 1979). The behavior of aluminum in the environment depends upon its coordination chemistry and the characteristics of the local environment, especially pH. The major features of the biogeochemical cycle of aluminum include leaching of aluminum from geochemical formations and soil particulates to aqueous environments, adsorption onto soil or sediment particulates, and wet and dry deposition from the air to land and surface water. Generally, Aluminum is not bioaccumulated to a significant extent. However, certain plants can accumulate high concentrations of Aluminum. For example, tea leaves may contain very high concentrations of aluminum, >5,000 mg/kg in old leaves (Dong et al. 1999). Other plants that may contain high levels of aluminum include Lycopodium (Lycopodiaceae), a few ferns, Symplocos (Symplocaceae), and Orites (Proteaceae) (Jansen et al. 2002). Aluminum does not appear to accumulate to any significant degree in cow's milk or beef tissue and is, therefore, not expected to undergo biomagnification in terrestrial food chains (DOE 1984). Similarly, because of its toxicity to many aquatic organisms, including fish, aluminum does not bioconcentrate in aquatic organisms to any significant degree (Rosseland et al. 1990). "
– http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/
So what do you think? A few hundred years of burning fossil fuels into the atmosphere isn't going to make aluminum concentration even higher than it's supposed to be? no matter where you test? Hhmmmm… Do you mean to tell me that if I want to do a "chemtrail" test that my data is completely messed up because Aluminum exists everywhere in abundance? That's right… Testing for Aluminum is not proof of chemtrails… There goes a few hundred videos debunked… While we are on the subject of testing… Lets go for Barium.
A coal plant may produce 1.4million pounds of Barium every single year, even though there is a push for decommissioning in 2012 there are still 572 coal plants in operation in the US ALONE… that's about 800 million pounds of Barium from coal plants per year in the US ALONE… Barium is not an indication of chemtrails, Barium has been a pollutant since the industrial revolution…
This list of additional weird claims and debunked hoaxes goes on and on, but ultimately it boils down to the question: if such a huge conspiracy really existed, and every country in the world, every military and commercial aircraft in the world, and every atmospheric scientist in the world is part of the conspiracy, why has it not leaked by now?
Like every other outlandish claim of conspiracy theories, they envision a world where clandestine top-secret organizations are constantly pulling the strings, and not once has anything leaked about them doing it, or anyone who knows of it come forward. This, despite the fact that we get constant revelations of actual secrets from the CIA and NSA and FBI and other organizations all the time, that no chemtrails were exposed in the Wikileaks affair, or any other person has come forward in an age where journalists are constantly digging for secret information.
Quote from Kyle Hill:
"The incognito infrastructure needed to conceal the chemtrail conspiracy would dwarf any other governmental agency. Millions of people—pilots, engineers, chemists, data analysts, and boots-on-the-ground hazmat teams—would need top-secret clearance for information that could never get out. If a chemtrail conspiracy were true, chances are you would run into a few involved in the cover up everyday. An effort to keep millions of mouths silent—to keep any information from pilots or participants out of the media—makes the NSA look like child's play.
A chemtrail conspiracy comes with collateral damage. Many mechanics that work on crop dusters around the world are routinely, acutely poisoned by the chemicals the pilots seek to spread. If any significant percentage of the legion of mechanics needed to keep the chemtrail fleet flying had the same risk, literally millions of workers would come home poisoned. Spouses and significant others rush them to hospitals across the US, and the cause of this nation-wide plague never raises any eyebrows. No doctors file reports or do studies on the mysterious poisonings, no journalists ever get wind of something awry, and no police officers think a serial contaminator is on the loose. Even though every American would have a consistent chemical profile from any blood test, no one is the wiser. Every single piece of paperwork finds its proper place, deep in a file drawer of some bureaucrat keeping the lid on the chemtrail conspiracy."
Given that we, as a society are lead and mislead and misdirected through manipulating our fears, Chemtrails are a leading contender of the list of misdirections within the "truth" movement as a whole, objectivity is required to interpret the information without fear.
It all started in 1996 when the military released a document called "Owning The Weather"
Two years later the psy-op disinformation campaign had begun. Given that a person has no idea what is going on all they have to do is come up with another assumption on why it's being done… Rather than actually figure it out… If it was being done in the first place…
Another point to bring up is the fact that each of the fuels used by most aircraft are made up of thousands of different chemicals. If they want to kill us… They don't have to add anything or deliberately spray, the military still uses JP8 fuel which is highly toxic… So all you have to do, is keep on flying.
As an example of fuel dumping…
Anytime a plane takes off and has any sort of issue right after takeoff it has to return and dump.
"Residents in the vicinity of Newark International Airport were complaining about the smell of gas Sunday afternoon after a Boeing 777 dumped 170,000 pounds of jet fuel into the air while preparing for an emergency landing. The plane, carrying 269 passengers bound for Tokyo, returned to the airport less than an hour after takeoff yesterday because of a "hydraulic problem." But before it could touch down, it needed to lighten up by emptying its fuel tanks over the Garden State."
– http://gothamist.com/2010/05/
10/ lots_of_jet_fuel_dumped_over_je rsey.php
Aircraft Pollution in tons per year over NYC alone.
Landing & Takeoffs (LTOs) 383,206 452,950
Volatile Organic Compounds 3,025 4,839
Carbon Monoxide 8,712 12,808
Nitrogen Oxides 5,729 9,574
Sulfur Dioxide 270 364
Excerpt taken from Popular science magazine in 1943:
"The assertion that the government is spraying noxious chemicals on its own people from high flying military aircraft needs some real substantiation than just reports of seeing contrails in the sky and claiming they are making people sick. While there have been reports of similar activity in the past, merely seeing a jet contrail in the sky does not prove anything.
Persistence of contrails is neither an indication that they contain some kind of chemical, nor that it is some kind of spray. As a matter of fact, sailors have known for years to look specifically at the patterns and persistence of jet contrails for weather forecasting. If a jet is flying through air at altitude with a low humidity, the moist air from the jet engine might produce a slight, short-lived contrail. These short-lived contrails are a sign that the weather will be fair. A thick, long-lasting contrail indicates humid air high in the atmosphere, and can be an early sign of a storm"
-Why Planes Make Vapor Trails
-Popular Science, March 1943. Page 55.
books?id=KCcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA55#v =onepage&q&f=false
Very simply "chemtrails" have yet to have any valid substantiation in the past few decades, and would seem to be a largely unnecessary and ineffective manner of executing whatever nefarious governmental population poisoning scheme the "chemtrailers" come up with to explain why the government would waste so much manpower and resources to poison a population with "chemtrails" as opposed to, oh i don't know, maybe the Water Supply of a population?
Moving on to the misunderstandings about HAARP, The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is a scientific research program designed to study the ionosphere of the Earth and its effects on communication.
The HAARP facility is essentially a large radio transmitter and antenna located in Alaska designed to operate in the shortwave band. The project began in 1993 and ran until roughly May 2013. It was initially funded by the Department of Defense in conjunction with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). In 2014, the Air Force expressed plans to dismantle the facility unless it could locate an alternate source of funding.
Some non-scientists have criticized HAARP because it's been used to conduct classified experiments, and they fear a similar device using more energy could be used as a weapon. It has also been criticized as a boondoggle costing many times more than its initial budget. But mostly, HAARP is a popular target for conspiracy theorists who believe that extremely low frequencies (ELFs) can be used for mind control and weather control — it's even been blamed for the 2008 Chinese, 2010 Haitian, March 2011 Japanese earthquakes and 2014 southeast Europe floods.
When, in December 2012, the famous (and famously wrong) pseudoscientist Richard Hoagland took his joke Accutron experiment to Chichen Itza, Mexico, he reported that he had detected that HAARP was being used to prevent the planet from tipping over. That was just before he was ejected from the place by site security — an event that was entertainingly captured on video.
Its attraction to conspiracy theorists, its overextended budget and its sweeping scope make HAARP crankery similar to that generated — more recently — about the Large Hadron Collider, and we will touch on that later in this article.
"The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) — a subject of fascination for many hams and the target of conspiracy theorists and anti-government activists — has closed down. HAARP's program manager, Dr James Keeney at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, told ARRL that the sprawling 35-acre ionospheric research facility in remote Gakona, Alaska, has been shuttered since early May 2013."
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) was initiated as an ionospheric research program, the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), a high-power radio frequency transmitter facility operating in the high frequency (HF) band. The IRI is used to temporarily excite a limited area of the ionosphere. Other instruments, such as a VHF and a UHF radar, a fluxgate magnetometer, a digisonde (an ionospheric sounding device), and an induction magnetometer, are used to study the physical processes that occur in the excited region.
Work on the HAARP facility began in 1993. The current working IRI was completed in 2007; its prime contractor was BAE Systems Advanced Technologies. As of 2008, HAARP had incurred around $250 million in tax-funded construction and operating costs. In May 2014, it was announced that the HAARP program would be permanently shut down later in the year. After discussions between the parties, ownership of the facility and its equipment was transferred to the University of Alaska Fairbanks in August 2015.
HAARP is a target of conspiracy theorists, who claim that it is capable of "weaponizing" weather. Commentators and scientists say that advocates of this theory are "uninformed", as claims made fall well outside the abilities of the facility, if not the scope of natural science.
The HAARP project directs a 3.6 MW signal, in the 2.8–10 MHz region of the HF (high-frequency) band, into the ionosphere. The signal may be pulsed or continuous. Effects of the transmission and any recovery period can be examined using associated instrumentation, including VHF and UHF radars, HF receivers, and optical cameras. According to the HAARP team, this will advance the study of basic natural processes that occur in the ionosphere under the natural but much stronger influence of solar interaction. HAARP also enables studies of how the natural ionosphere affects radio signals.
The insights gleaned at HAARP will enable scientists to develop methods to mitigate these effects to improve the reliability or performance of communication and navigation systems which would have a wide range of both civilian and military uses, such as an increased accuracy of GPS navigation and advances in underwater and underground research and applications. This may lead, among other things, to improved methods for submarine communication or an ability to remotely sense and map the mineral content of the terrestrial subsurface, and perhaps underground complexes, of regions or countries. The current facility lacks range to be used in regions like the oil-rich Middle East, according to one of the researchers involved, but the technology could be put on a mobile platform.
The project was originally funded by the Office of Naval Research and jointly managed by the ONR and Air Force Research Laboratory, with principal involvement of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Many other US universities and educational institutions were involved in the development of the project and its instruments, namely the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Stanford University, Penn State University (ARL), Boston College, UCLA, Clemson University, Dartmouth College, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, College Park, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MIT, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, and the University of Tulsa. The project's specifications were developed by the universities, who continued to play a major role in the design of future research efforts.
The project site (62°23′30″N 145°09′03″W) is north of Gakona, Alaska just west of Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park. An environmental impact statement led to permission for an array of up to 180 antennas to be erected. HAARP was constructed at the previous site of an over-the-horizon radar (OTH) installation.
In America, there are two related ionospheric heating facilities: the HIPAS, near Fairbanks, Alaska, which was dismantled in 2009, and one at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (currently offline for reconstruction). The European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association (EISCAT) operates an ionospheric heating facility capable of transmitting over 1 GW effective radiated power (ERP), near Tromsø, Norway. The Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility, in Vasilsursk, Russia, near Nizhniy Novgorod, is capable of transmitting 190 MW ERP.
According to HAARP's original management, the project strove for openness, and all activities were logged and publicly available, a practice which continues under the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Scientists without security clearances, even foreign nationals, were routinely allowed on site, which also continues today. HAARP hosts an open house annually, during which time any civilian can tour the entire facility. In addition, scientific results obtained using HAARP are routinely published in major research journals (such as Geophysical Research Letters, or Journal of Geophysical Research), written both by university scientists (American and foreign) and by U.S. Department of Defense research lab scientists.
CERN and the LHC
CERN, or the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is located near the city of Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is among the world's largest particle physics laboratories, currently employing approximately 2500 staffers. It is also where Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web (which should not be confused with the Internet).
As of 2010, scientists at CERN are currently using the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) to accelerate and collide particles, slowly pumping the power level up until it reached a massive 13TeV which happened in 2015. As a European scientific organization operating a lot of weird machinery, conspiracy theorists sometimes accuse CERN of various and nebulous nefarious activities. For example, a statue of the Hindu god Shiva as Nataraja was presented as a gift from India in 2004, and consequently was used as evidence for various batty claims — such as CERN trying to resurrect ancient "gods", and no, that's not a metaphor.
The Large Hardon Hadron Collider (LHC) is a kick-ass piece of scientific machinery designed to replicate conditions immediately after the Big Bang and also to search for other dimensions (as predicted by string theory), probe the existence of dark matter and search for the elusive Higgs boson particle (now found), which gives matter mass.
Guess what? It collides hadrons. And it's pretty damn large. There are also other smaller projects to be conducted along with the main research. The LHC is located at the CERN facilty and is contained within a 27-kilometre-long (16.7 miles) tunnel that straddles the border between France and Switzerland. The Large Hadron Collider is the most complex scientific instrument ever built and the most powerful energy particle accelerator in the world.
The lead-up to the switch-on was a cause for concern among people who didn't know all the physics. Some were worried that it would create a black hole and destroy the Earth. The black hole problem is potentially real, but cosmic rays that are more energetic than those produced by CERN regularly bombard Earth without ill effect. And just like all other matter, a black hole's gravitational force is proportional to its mass, meaning that a microscopic black hole would not be able to somehow consume Earth or even consume a grain of sand. Additionally, the smallest black holes, such as those the LHC would allegedly create, have absurdly small theoretical lifespans: they would shrink to nothing via emission of Hawking radiation in tiny fractions of a second, as black holes have temperature inversely proportional to their mass.
Others (who'd probably been watching too much Stargate playing too much Half-Life) posited an alien invasion via an LHC-created wormhole. Another fear was that the entire Universe would undergo Total Existence Failure, although this is "infinitely" improbable. and according to one Walter L. Wagner, a high school teacher from Hawaii, the LHC had a 50% chance to destroy the Earth: either it would, or it wouldn't. A further possibility put forward was that the Universe would vanish, to be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There are some, however, who think that this has already happened. The popularity of the TV series Ancient Aliens is potential evidence of this.
Manufactroversy – Manufactured Controversy: A manufactroversy, also known as a nontroversy, is a manufactured controversy.
A manufactroversy can be a form of denialism: pretending that a controversy exists over something which is, in fact, not in debate by anyone who has the slightest grasp of the facts, but which a number of people wish to deny for religious, political, or other reasons.
The usual motive for this is to attempt to give the appearance that the facts are still up for debate, à la anti-environmentalism. Another kind is the manufactured "scandal": blowing a non-issue out of proportion. Often related to the "tell both sides" method of reporting, where only one side has any evidence, so the reporter searches out a crank just so they can tell another side.
Common examples:
Most damaging –
- Intelligent design and other aspects of the creation–evolution debates.
- Various claims of vaccines causing harm.
- Climategate: leaked emails ostensibly showing climate scientist agreeing that global warming is a hoax
- Vince Foster/Pizzagate: The Clintons have murdered 40 people, but couldn't manage to take out Anthony Weiner before his laptop caused campaign hiccups. The "incompetent dictator" theory, in other words.
- Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime supposedly having WMDs
- The IRS supposedly targeting tax-exempt groups associated with the Tea Party
- No-go zones and the Ground Zero Mosque
- GMOs and Monsanto
- Racialism. One would've expected this one to die in the 20th century, but thanks to the alt-right, even phrenology is on the rise again.
Half-assed stunts –
- Obama citizenship denial. He produced his birth certificate, so they demanded his long-form certificate. When he coughed that one up, it was deemed to be fake. A double false flag operation, oldest trick in the Kenyan book.
- Benghazi, which while a real and terrible event, was vaguely-gestured at as a scandal without much attention to what the exact wrongdoing was.
- Chemtrails
- The War on Christmas
- Wind Turbine Syndrome
- Piggate, a rumor about David Cameron that lots of people wanted to be true but there was no evidence for
- Jeremy Corbyn's "treasonous behaviour" such as a tabloid scandal over his bowing technique (only in deferential Britain!) which mirrored the earlier Michael Foot donkey-jacket-that-wasn't non-scandal of 1981
- Non-issue yawners or other non-events being turned into the scandal of the week, particularly by 24-hour rolling news coverage needing to fill time when there's no real news from your locale and no desire to pay attention to the rest of the world.
- Any of many other moral panics, too numerous to list.
To take the first three examples, in order: evolution (together with common descent) is one of the best-tested and most successful scientific theories. There is no evidence that vaccines cause autism or any other harm, and overwhelming evidence that they save lives. Global warming is happening and can be measured, and the cause has consistently been proven to be human. However, how to mitigate it remains up for debate; interestingly, denialists tend to ignore this part.
Also to take into account is there is actual counter-intelligence agencies that spread disinformation and propaganda. There are numerous government agencies around the world who have histrionically and to this day still engage with disinformation and propaganda tactics to maintain domination, delusion and division among a population.
Where misinformation refers to inaccuracies that stem from error, disinformation is deliberate falsehood promulgated by design. Misinformation can be used to define disinformation—when known misinformation is purposefully and intentionally disseminated. Front groups are a form of disinformation, as they fraudulently mislead as to their actual controllers. Disinformation tactics can lead to blowback, unintended negative problems due to the strategy, for example defamation lawsuits or damage to reputation. Disinformation is primarily prepared by government intelligence agencies
The United States Intelligence Community appropriated usage of the term disinformation in the 1950s from the Russian dezinformatsiya, and began to utilize similar strategies during the Cold War and in conflict with other nations. The New York Times reported in 2000 that during the CIA's effort to substitute Mohammed Reza Pahlavi for then-Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mossadegh, the CIA placed fictitious stories in the local newspaper. Reuters documented how, subsequent to the 1979 Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War, the CIA put false articles in newspapers of Islamic-majority countries, inaccurately stating that Soviet embassies had "invasion day celebrations". Reuters noted a former U.S. intelligence officer said they would attempt to gain the confidence of reporters and use them as secret agents, to impact a nation's politics by way of their local media.
In October 1986, the term gained increased currency in the U.S. when it was revealed that two months previously, the Reagan Administration had engaged in a disinformation campaign against then-leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi. White House representative Larry Speakes said reports of a planned attack on Libya as first broken by The Wall Street Journal on August 25, 1986 were "authoritative", and other newspapers including The Washington Post then wrote articles saying this was factual. United States Department of State representative Bernard Kalb resigned from his position in protest over the disinformation campaign, and said: "Faith in the word of America is the pulse beat of our democracy."
The executive branch of the Reagan Administration kept watch on disinformation campaigns through three yearly publications by the Department of State: Active Measures: A Report on the Substance and Process of Anti-U.S. Disinformation and Propaganda Campaigns (1986); Report on Active Measures and Propaganda, 1986–87 (1987); and Report on Active Measures and Propaganda, 1987–88 (1989).
The word Disinformation first made an appearance in dictionaries in 1985, specifically Webster's New College Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary in 1985. In 1986, the term disinformation was not defined in Webster's New World Thesaurus or New Encyclopædia Britannica. After the Soviet term became widely known in the 1980s, native speakers of English broadened the term as "any government communication (either overt or covert) containing intentionally false and misleading material, often combined selectively with true information, which seeks to mislead and manipulate either elites or a mass audience."
By 1990, use of the term disinformation had fully established itself in the English language within the lexicon of politics. By 2001, the term disinformation had come to be known as simply a more civil phrase for saying someone was spouting lies. Stanley B. Cunningham wrote in his 2002 book The Idea of Propaganda that disinformation had become pervasively utilized as a synonym for propaganda.
Propaganda is information that is not objective and is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is presented. Propaganda is often associated with material prepared by governments, but activist groups, companies and the media can also produce propaganda.
In the twentieth century, the term propaganda has been associated with a manipulative approach, but propaganda historically was a neutral descriptive term.
A wide range of materials and media are used for conveying propaganda messages, which changed as new technologies were invented, including paintings, cartoons, posters, pamphlets, films, radio shows, TV shows, and websites.
Sadly it seems that many "truthers"and conspiracy enthusiasts seem to forget that disinformation and propaganda usage are a tactic used specifically by governments to keep the population in control, divided, and purposefully dumbed down and distracted by delusion.
There are numerous conspiracy theories going around that are obvious disinformation campaigns, if one can engage critical thinking skills, logical deduction and/or even just fact check using a online search engine, one can become aware to the facts and objectively verifiable information about a topic as well as the pseudo-science and debunk bullshit already known and/or proven as such, this way to avoid falling into the same mistake of being a victim of these counter-intelligence tactics as countless others now being used as unwitting voluntary pawns in their own subservient domination and unknowingly spread the stupid in doing so.
We use a method that avoids Human Fallibility, that method is called the scientific method.
Science is an ever-emergent process of information integration and growth.
Let me first clarify what is meant when the term "science" is used:
The Scientific Method – is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and/or the natural universe as we know it, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.
Consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, the formulation, testing, and modification of hypothesis.
Experiments need to be designed to test hypotheses.
The most important part of the scientific method is the experiment.
The scientific method is a continuous process, which usually begins with observations about the natural world.
Learn more about the scientific method here:
The Scientific Method
The Sciences consist of the STEM fields: (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics)
– many different fields and sub-fields, using the scientific method to gain an understanding through repeatability and measure-ability of objectively verifiable actions/information.
Science is seemingly only limited by the amount of information received, or the ability of societal operating methods that could potentially hinder any sort of inquiries..
Agreed not All can conduct the experiments needed for subjective experience, since the funding for most studies comes from corporate / government backing, it is understandable to then get confused about biased science.
Biased science is a thing, yes, But biased science includes the funding of a study of something that is false and trying to spin it as true, or the funding of a study and then only a portion of the data is used for a specific end, usually being a profit maximization agenda.
The issue is Not the information and data obtained by the scientific method, but how that information and data are spun to a specific agenda by those who "claim" "ownership" of said 'information' and/or resource/s being exploited/extorted, which such actions are inherent within the paradigm of capitalism.
Technophobia can be justifiable under capitalist modus operandi, but in the same regard, that technology can also get us out of the need to rely upon capitalism if used correctly.
The information the the scientific method obtains, can of course be used for malicious purposes, but then It is not science, but the socio-economic system that is the issue.
Without any form of "science" we would have next to nothing.
Capitalism exploits everything. science just gives verifiable information and data, the corporations choose to use it for a specific agenda.
If one is able to utilize Critical Thought, then one can be able to Understand the Information being presented and know how to discern Fact from Fiction.
Who really cares about who is saying what?
When it comes to actual "Science", opinions and Agendas mean jack shit.
When we use the term science, it is representative of a process, a method, a tool for understanding the "facts".
The theories/theorem that come out of scientific processes can then be construed as an objectively verifiable truth/s.
Now why is that important?
If we understood how to understand something, then we could have a foundation of knowledge not built upon ignorance, but physically referential and objectively verifiable information.
And thus we would be able to advance as a species instead of destroy ourselves in blatant willful ignorance.


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Interactive Lobby Furniture Design
Denver, Colorado: 2019
What does it mean to be an empathetic organization? Rocky Mountain Public Media hired The Exhibits Team to design a movable installation to welcome visitors to the region's public television and jazz radio station's new home. The design features red, sweater-clad ottomans and large, tiger-striped walls sections which invoke PBS's past and present heroes: Mr. Rogers and Daniel Tiger. Embedded in the wall's wood stripes are several different provocations, asking the building's guest to reflect and respond by writing on the translucent glass stripes. Over time, the wall will grow with the building— in both texture and meaning.

subset: commoncrawl


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Forever Light: Landscape Photographers Guide to Iceland
Forever Light: Landscape Photographers Guide to Iceland
Iceland's scenery is world-renowned and world-class. It is a place photographer's dream about visiting (and the dreams don't stop once you've been there). Until now, there have been no good in-depth resources on photographing Iceland's natural landscapes. Our e-book, Forever Light: The Landscape Photographer's Guide to Iceland, is designed to fill this gap. Forever Light contains:
- Information on more than 30 of the best Iceland photography locations, with detailed directions and GPS coordinates for each.
- Each location description contains sample photographs, seasonal considerations, and advice on how to approach and photograph the subject.
- Over 90 high-quality photographs to both inform and inspire. Technical information (including exposure settings) is included for every photo.
- Basic travel information, including lodging and transportation, seasonal variations, weather, and hazards to help you in getting started in planning your trip.
- Tips for choosing when to visit Iceland for a landscape photography trip.
- Recommended gear and gear considerations.
- 96 full-size high resolution pages, ready for viewing on your tablet, computer monitor, or phone.
This book is perfect for any photographer planning to visit (or re-visit) Iceland, and will also appeal to any non-photographer interested in Iceland's natural scenery. We developed this e-book to be the guide we wished we had for our first trip to Iceland.


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Play it again, Sam
The iconic song
from a beloved film,
signed by the actress
Well into the filming of Casablanca, the ending had still not been decided upon. Film critic David Denby writes that such uncertainty "enhanced Ingrid Bergman's anxiety, playing into her extraordinarily touching performance" in the film. Casablanca went on to become one of the most beloved films of all time, making stars of its cast and a classic of its key song.
Written in 1931 by Herman Hupfeld, "As Time Goes By" was not yet famous until it was featured in Casablanca, sung by the character Sam (Dooley Wilson) and played throughout as a leitmotif. The film's producer. Max Steiner, thought the song was terrible, but by the time he came up with an alternative, the scenes had already been shot. Ingrid Bergman had cut her hair for a new film project, making a reshoot impossible.
With an unforgettable ending and just the right song seemingly set by the fates, Casablanca was released nationally in January of 1943 to moderate success and critical review. Its popularity grew after it won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, beginning its path to becoming an icon of American film. According to Roger Ebert, Casablanca is "probably on more lists of the greatest films of all time than any other single title, including Citizen Kane" because of its wider appeal.
After Casablanca, Ingrid Bergman became one of the most prominent leading ladies in Hollywood, winning three Academy Awards, two Emmys, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. The American Film Institute ranks her as one of the five greatest female stars of all time. The institute placed "As Time Goes By" at No. 2 on a list of the 100 greatest songs in film ("Over the Rainbow" taking No. 1).
Material signed by Bergman relating to her role as Ilsa Lund in the historic film is extremely rare. Foxtail Books is pleased to present sheet music for "As Time Goes By" in a 1942 Casablanca edition, signed "Play it again Sam" by the actress. The previous owner approached Bergman for her signature in 1975 when she was in the touring production of the play The Constant Wife. She declined when the gentleman asked her to also write "Play it again, Sam," and originally only signed her name in green fountain pen. Bergman's manager, Kay Brown, suggested the music be left with her so that she could try to convince Bergman to sign the full quote, with no promise that she might consent. Several weeks later, Brown telephoned to say that she was successful.
"Play it again, Sam," oddly enough, is a common misquote. The exchange between Ilsa Lund (Bergman) and the piano player (Wilson) in actuality plays as follows:
The misquote was further popularized by the 1972 Woody Allen film Play It Again, Sam. Whether Ms. Bergman didn't want to sign a line that had never been a part of the movie to begin with or simply didn't like being directed in her autograph style, we will never know.
Preserved in a blue cloth folding box, the covers of the signed music (featuring an image of Bergman and Humphrey Bogart) are a little worn, and the original price is inked in the upper righthand corner. The original owner noted that the first two letters of Bergman's signature were traced over by the actress in a darker ink when she recognized the blue ink was too light and switched to green.
Rare and unusual, this 1943 sheet music, signed by Ingrid Bergman in 1975, is listed for $5,000.


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Queen Myra
jamaal barber
Acrylic on wood
40" x 46"
Use the form on the right to contact us.
You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.
123 Street Avenue, City Town, 99999
(123) 555-6789
You can set your address, phone number, email and site description in the settings tab.
Link to read me page with more information.
Acrylic on wood
40" x 46"


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on a beautiful June day, winter here but not really cold, I have started some new work. Drawing with coloured pencil is not something I have done much of in recent years. It's slow but this is just what I need to build up my drawing muscles again.
The subject are the incredibly patterned shells that I find with every walk on the beach. No two ever the same.


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Jared Leto is a top-notch American actor and musician, mostly known for his extreme method acting: after getting a role, he tries to understand the character he's portraying by acting like them, talking like them and almost, in a way, becoming them.
After his portrayal of Jordan Catalano in the tv series My So-Called Life, he debuted on the big screen mostly with secondary roles.
But after Requiem for a Dream (by Darren Aronofsky) came out, he has gained attention from critics.
Afterwards he superbly acted in some more secondary roles as well as collaborated with the directors in Fight Club and Panic Room, and he also had a role in American Psycho.
Other amazing movies he was applauded for are: Lord of War, Lonely Hearts, Chapter 27 and Mr. Nobody.
In 2014 he received a well deserved Golden Globe for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Oscar for the best non protagonist actor.
In 2016 he portrayed the supervillain Joker in Suicide Squad by David Ayer. This one portrayal was particularly criticized, especially by comic readers, but let's not forget that Joker's characterization, look and script weren't up to the actor.
He's a very versatile actor. He likes to portray different kind of characters although he is very selective when it comes to choosing a role. He's also famous for losing or gaining weight when the portrayal of a certain character requires it, or when it comes to fake accents (english, australian, etc).
His latest roles were in Blade Runner 2049 (which was applauded by critics) and The Outsider, a Netflix original show that wasn't very loved by his audience.
We have many iconic and superb movies in which Jared Leto does a great job in making us fall in love with the movie and his character.
He has always been a good actor, but the movies he's played in haven't always been great, and sometime the writers fail to develop his character well. There are two movies in which both the character development and movie quality as a whole come together to highlight how great of an actor Leto really is:
It was directed by Darren Aronofsky, who perfectly managed to show an addict's life on screen. Jared Leto is in the role of Harry, a cocaine addict who, just like his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) and his friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), would do anything to get some drugs, so they sell anything they can in order to get the money. However, Tyrone begins to suspect that he and Harry are in trouble.
There are quick shots of the drugs and of the characters taking them, showing the characters in a room together, but still on their own because their only reality is their drugs. When they are taking it they're satisfied, when the drugs are over their only thought is to get money and buy more.
Jared's portrayal is touching and realistic, he was the perfect actor to portray a story as dark and sad as this one.
Another heartbreaking story that was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. It had six candidatures and won four Oscars (one to best actor to Matthew McConaughey and another one for best non protagonist actor Jared Leto).
It was "inspired" by the real life of Ron Woodroof and it is about real life problems in our society, from discrimination against the LGBTQ community to the dishonest medical establishment and government.
Woodroof is a committed bigot, a misogynist and homophobe who believed only homosexuals could get AIDs until he was diagnosed with HIV and responded badly to the only medication that was legal at the time. He looked for other medication and then started importing drugs "for free" through a club. His way into the gay community is Rayon, a pre-op transgender person.
The movie walks on a thin line because it is about very delicate topics. But it is after all good to see a "realistic" movie which shows us a deeper look at the people diagnosed with HIV and at the people inside the transgender community, more specifically Rayon, who Jared portrays so tenderly. Ron's friendship with Rayon is just business, at the start, but we get to see the characters develop as the story goes on. Rayon is a tragic character, she wants to be beautiful and she wants to be happy, but nothing's ever easy. Jared even lost a lot of weight to portray her, but there's to say that some of her scenes in this movie are probably the saddest and they left a mark. It's a sort of "instructive" movie and perhaps it opens people's mind when it comes to such social matters.


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Policy on skills imports baffles refugee groups
Related Articles
- Salmeen. // Education Links;Summer2004, Vol. 68, p37
Presents an article about an Iraqi refugee in Australia. Social conditions in Iraq; Misconception of Australian people on Iraqi refugees; Reason for leaving Iraq; Impact of temporary protection visa on the life of refugees.
- Immigration Law. Curran, Liz // Legaldate;Aug2002, Vol. 14 Issue 4, p1
Examines the Australian immigration law and the number of refugees Australia takes in annually. INSETS: Tribunal found to be biased;The Tampa.
- What About Safety? Parker, John // Traffic World;9/10/2001, Vol. 265 Issue 37, p31
Focuses on the decision of the Australian government to deny the entry of various refugees aboard a Norwegian container vessel. Disappointment of the Baltic International Maritime Organization on the behavior of the international community; International obligation of Australia on the health...
- No Place Like Home. Markovic, Sasa // Transitions Online;6/21/2004, pN.PAG
Reports on the deportation of refugees from Germany to Serbia and Montenegro in 2004. Factors behind the deportation of the refugees; Reason behind the decision of some refugees to return to their own country; Problems faced by the returnees.
- What happens when claims are refused? // IBA Global Insight;Jun2012, Vol. 66 Issue 3, p46
The article reveals that 25 percent of the 250,000 claimants seeking refuge status each year are granted positive outcomes, with Portugal giving 100 percent positive decisions while Ireland gave two percent in 2010. It attributes the wide disparity in the handling of asylum applications between...
- As China cracks down, more North Korean defectors taking the Southeast Asia route. // East-Asia-Intel Reports;12/26/2008, p10
The article reports on the condition of North Korean refugees at the Laotian refugee camp. It mentions that many North Korean refugees were suffering in the camp due to extreme stress over the prospect of forced deportation to the North. It notes that 19 Korean escapees were arrested in Burma...
- Immigration Policy and Refugees. Amundson, Robert H. // America;2/6/1960, Vol. 102 Issue 18, p555
The article discusses the immigration-related policy in the U.S., namely the McCarran-Walter Act in 1952 and the National Origins Law of 1924. An overview of the National Origins Law, which supports the innate superiority of one group of people over another, is offered. It states that the 1952...
- Refugee camps under strain. Holt, Ed // Slovak Spectator;7/2/2001, Vol. 7 Issue 26, p1
Focuses on the condition of refugees in Slovakia as of July 2001. Tragedy experienced by Indian refugees who attempted to cross the Morava river into the Czech Republic on June 12, 2001; Fate of the increasing number of immigrants coming to the country; Legislative actions in Slovakia to keep...
- EESTI KODANIKE SUNDMIGRATSIOON ITTA AASTAIL 1941-1951: MÕNINGAID VÕRDLUSJOONI LÄÄNDE PÕGENENUTE LOOGA. Rahi-Tamm, Aigi // Acta Historica Tallinnensia;2011, Issue 17, p72
In September 1944, another seizure of power took place in Estonia. About 80,000 persons decided to set out and flee Estonia. Those who stayed at home were again caught by Soviet punitive policy - arrests, deportations, violence. Instead of restoring homes after WW II, the years ahead brought...


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Sandra Silberzweig Inspired Portraits
First, I want to say thank you to Cassie Stephens who came up with this project idea. I saw these over on her blog and just knew I had to do them with my kids. We already had the black glue made up from our stained glass projects and we watched Cassie's video to do the guided drawing. I love guided drawings, especially with the younger grades, because despite the fact that you are all drawing the same thing they each come out so differently! These were no exception. After outlining in black glue (which kids go weirdly crazy for), we went over analogous colors and chalk tips and technique. This project just happened to coincide with our school's 'Learn Alongside your Child' in ART' dates, so we had many parents come in to the art room for this part of the project. Many parents came up to me afterward and were impressed that they had really learned something about color theory :) and they all loved how unique these all came out. This project is really a showstopper :) Thanks Cassie!


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Tiny Plush Banana Catnip Cat Toy
Tiny Plush Banana Catnip Cat Toy
Vendor: Lola & Penelope's
Type: Cat
Tags: Cat Toy, Catnip,
Product Details:
Drive your cat bananas with this tiny catnip toy! Super soft plush is filled with a strong catnip that makes it perfect for playtime. Light enough for batting and wrestling with, the banana's little peel flaps are fun and great for cats that love to carry their toys around.
Available in one size measuring 4"


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Sandra MacGowan Massage Therapist 585-729-7072 6605 Pittsford Palmyra Rd Ste E9 Fairport, NY 14450-3405
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As the owner of DAAC, I provide you and your family the opportunity to endorse your holistic health through massage therapy. Because of my strong educational background with pediatrics and my massage background, I tend to focus more on child-health. I also have a personal background with working with children with disabilities, which enable me to understand the vast techniques needed for working with people with disabilities and their health needs.
Sandra is a Certified Pediatric Massage Therapist, Infant Massage Therapist and Treatment for Infants, MISP Instructor. Other courses Sandra has taken are Pediatric Myofascial Release through John Barnes and Massage and Bodywork for Autism through Upledger Craniosacral Therapy, Trauma: Body/Mind Considerations, Infant Massage: More Than Cuddling by Tina Allen, Massage for People Living with Cancer: Oncology Massage, MS: Fighting Back with Massage, Pediatric Oncology Massage, NICU Massage, and many more!
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The metallics look good but are annoying me!
Here she is sitting on her lily pad. I think the photo today shows up the colours in her really well 😀
October 17, 2010 at 12:19 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Joan Elliot Designs, Water Goddess
October 18, 2010 at 2:58 am
Great progress! She looks amazing!
October 18, 2010 at 4:33 am
Stunning! Oh I definitely agree with you on the metallics. Pretty to look at, a pain to work with.
October 18, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Beautiful, simply beautiful.


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I put an audio snippet from my audition for the Marvel Enterprises contest, "THE ULTIMATE VOICE TALENT SEARCH" (back in November).
Check it out here!
As a quick re-Cap (hah!), Marvel is making an animated DVD of The Ultimates (their modern incarnation of the Avengers), and are supposedly using the contest to find voice talent (Check out my original blurb here).
I filmed my audition at the Production Block in Austin, Lainie Frasier directed, and I mastered and mixed the audio, video, and soundtrack.
Speaking of soundtrack, you'll notice the music is from the Halo 2 soundtrack. The recent incarnation of this franchise consuming a chunk of my life, so I thought some tunes from Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, Nile Rodgers, and .. oh yeah, those Breaking Benjamin guys would really juice up the clips.
Video of the booth session coming soon (in theory) ...


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The New South Wales Blues are in total command heading into the final day of the JLT Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia at Perth Stadium.
The Blues were bowled out for 253 on Thursday with a lead of 316 and, in reply, the home side collapsed in the final session of day three to be 6/115 at stumps. They lost 6/64 within the first 15 overs.
Trent Copeland (3-54) continued his tremendous form with ball in hand this season and went to 23 wickets at 15.95 for the Sheffield Shield campaign.
Australian Test off-spinner Nathan Lyon has collected 2-34 from nine overs.
The unbeaten batsmen for Western Australia at stumps were Australian One-Day and, T20 International allrounder, Marcus Stoinis (52 not out) and Ashton Agar (20 not out).
Western Australian quick Jhye Richardson (3-58) completed his best match figures at the First Class level on day three. He returned 11-105 across both innings. Moises Henriques (48) top-scored for the Blues and was one of three batsmen to exceed 40 for NSW.
Eighteen-year-old Jack Edwards (47) and Kurtis Patterson, who followed his first innings century with a patient 43 from 123 balls, also made handy scores.
Copeland was on a hat-trick after he claimed the final two Western Australian wickets of the first innings in consecutive deliveries, and although he did not achieve the trio, the seamer achieved the next best thing.
He struck Will Bosisto on the pads to remove the opener for a fourth ball duck in the first over.
Seamer Sean Abbott (1-23) then claimed the crucial wicket of Shaun Marsh, in the next over, also for a duck. The Australian Test batsman was caught by Edwards at third slip and the hosts were 2/1.
The ball again found the waiting hands of Edwards in the fifth over to remove Hilton Cartwright (8) and Copeland had another.
The collapse continued when Lyon bowled his Australian Test team mate Mitch Marsh for 30 from as many balls.
Ashton Turner (1) and Josh Inglis, for a third ball duck, were the next two batsmen to head back to the dressing room and Western Australia was in dire trouble six wickets down, before Stoinis and Agar guided the hosts to stumps.
Earlier in the day, the Blues resumed at 1/32 and, added 82 in the first session for the loss of one wicket, opener Nick Larkin (29).
However, five wickets fell in the second session and the match was back on an even keel.
A 63-run stand between Patterson and Henriques was broken shortly after lunch by Stoinis (3-43) and it was the first of the five to fall.
Stoinis dismissed Patterson and then Jason Sangha (4), leg before wicket, in his next over.
Henriques, Blues skipper Peter Nevill (18) and Copeland (7) were the other three wickets in the second session.
Copeland was bowled by Richardson to give the 22-year-old quick his 10th wicket for the match. The visitors were 7/200 at tea.
Edwards took a positive approach immediately after the interval. He took 10 runs off the first over of the session.
The final three wickets added 71 runs to give the visitors a substantial lead in excess of 300. Abbott (16 from 12 balls) and Lyon (20 from 22) both made valuable contributions.
A stunning one-handed catch, low and to the right of wicketkeeper Josh Inglis, removed Abbott. It was the third dismissal for Stoinis.
Full scorecard here: https://bit.ly/2S92ziO


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On June 20, I resigned from my position at Apple and the next Monday started work at a software startup in San Francisco called Wallop. Whoa - I didn't realize how life could change so much. Here's a quick throwdown:
Apple vs Wallop, round I (ding!)
Offices vs One big room where everyone works
10,000 other people who do stuff vs 10 people who do stuff
Me thinking about doing stuff vs Me doing stuff
Silicon Valley suburbs vs. San Francisco
So you can see, after round I, it's a knockout for Wallop. The name does indeed pack a punch. So many other great qualities, too. Right now, I love my job. :-D
Check out an upcoming post where I will post our new company website - right now I'm working on it.
Along with my career move, Ari and I have taken the plunge and put away a car's worth of cash on a beautiful apartment in Noe Valley. Ok, maybe a cheap, used car's worth. Like mine. We'll be moving up to our new digs on August 8th.
And so, I've decided the blog must go on. Actually, after hearing lately that people actually read it, I have come to this realization. So thanks to Ajeeth Sankaran and his awesome wife (whom I haven't met but I'm sure is rad) and Nick Hoel for my kick in the butt to get going.
My motto this time: It's never too late for anything! Stick around for upcoming posts.


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The Chicago Science Writers joins the Field Museum on a field trip to the Music Box Theater for a screening of The Mummy! Ahead of the film, the event features a discussion with Cassie Pontone, an Assistant Collections Manager of the Anthropology Collections at The Field Museum. Cassie works closely with the local Filipino American community to co-curate The Field's collection of over 10,000 objects from the Philippines, connecting living culture to 20th century material objects. The Mummy is Cassie's all time favorite film—it's full of action, humor, historical inaccuracies, and it also provides an excellent opportunity to discuss cultural representation.
Tickets are $11, or $7 for Chicago Science Writer members. Food and drinks are available for purchase.


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Soldiers Memorial Commission
The Soldiers Memorial Commission meets bi-monthly to discuss and approve plans, events and other topics relating to the Memorial, in accordance with the meeting agendas.
Commission Members
Sondermann, Jim, Chair
Special Assistant to the Water Commissioner Water Division, City of St. Louis
Bardgett, Corinne (Col.)
Reserve Officers Association, Chapter 30 (Army)
Dunlap, Freddie
Public Safety Director's designee
Falls, Maurice
Director Community Affairs, President's Office, Board of Aldermen
Garavaglia, Jim
Asset Manager, Comptroller's Office
Gilmore, Tom
Korean War Veterans Association (Navy, USMC)
Hanses, Judith (Col.)
American Legion (Army)
Yampolsky, Bruce
City of St. Louis American Legion, Jewish War Veterans, Disabled American Veterans (USN)
Zeiger, Steve
Representative of the USAF
Upcoming Events
Sep 19Soldiers Memorial Commission Meeting September 19, 2019
03:00 PM, Soldiers Memorial Military Museum
View past events and meetings.
The Soldiers Memorial Commission meets at 3pm on the 3rd Thursday of January, March, May, July, September and November.
Meetings are at Soldiers Memorial Military Museum Building on the second floor located at 1315 Chestnut Street, St. Louis Missouri, 63103.
Meeting Materials
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Daily News
BoE Easing Off
Daily News
BoE Easing Off
20 December 2012
20 Dec 2012
BoE Easing Off
The BoE minutes of the last policy meeting, released yesterday, poured cold water on hopes that further asset purchases might be in the offing going forward, with David Miles being the lone contender advocating the stance of additional QE. Retail sales data just out has shown an improvement for November, affirming the "wait and watch" stance adopted by other policymakers in the committee. Meanwhile, high yield currencies erased their earlier session gains yesterday after the US budget negotiations took a surprising turn for the worse. The ongoing see-saw in the "fiscal cliff" talks along with the revised US third quarter GDP data are likely to provide sufficient news flow to keep market participants interested in today's session.
Pound Sterling – UK Markets
Receding hopes of additional asset purchases in the near future, following the BoE minutes and sticky consumer price inflation numbers, led the Pound to trade on a firmer footing against the US Dollar in the initial trading session yesterday. However, gains in Sterling soon dissipated following a dismal CBI Distributive Trades Survey, which showed that retailers were not too optimistic over UK retail sales volumes in early December. The US "fiscal cliff" talks turning sour also made matters worse for high yield assets. The Pound is trading in a tight range against the majors this morning, with markets keenly focused on news flow emanating from the US budget talks. Data just out has revealed that annual retail sales in the UK grew at a faster pace for November. This should provide some upside scope to the Pound against the majors in today's trading session. With little on the domestic economic calendar today, Sterling is likely to take cues from external factors to gauge market sentiment. Markets will also eye tomorrow's revised UK GDP data for the third quarter, wherein a confirmation of earlier numbers is expected.
US Dollar – US Markets
Following the initial bout of optimism surrounding the Eurozone and the US budget talks, the conflict in negotiations to avoid planned tax hikes and spending cuts in the US grew more heated, resulting in traders seeking shelter in the safe haven currency in the latter part of yesterday's session. The US President, Barack Obama, threatened to veto the Republican tax plan, which at best can be termed as political posturing. However, the souring of the "fiscal cliff" negotiations does not bode well for markets heading into a holiday season. Meanwhile, the heavy US economic calendar later today is likely to keep investors guarded following yesterday's mixed set of housing data in the US. The third quarter GDP data, which is expected to be revised upwards, coupled with a likely improvement in Philly Fed manufacturing index, should bring some cheer to market participants. However, the jobless claims data is expected to show deterioration, validating the concerns of the Fed over the labour market. With the US Dollar looking for further direction against the majors in today's trading session, developments in the US budget talks and a wide array of economic releases could prove decisive for its movement.
Euro – European Markets
The Euro moved close to the 1.33 mark against the US Dollar in yesterday's trading session, as worries engulfing the German economy eased following better than expected business confidence data. Additionally, optimism surrounding Greece was given a boost after the ECB allowed Greek debt as collateral, reversing an earlier ban made in July 2012. However, the gains in the Euro proved short lived after the US President made known his displeasure with the Republicans on the so called "Plan B". In absence of major triggers, the Euro is trading in a tight range against both the Pound and the US Dollar in today's session. The Greek finance minister opined that 2013 will be a "make or break year" for his country, eclipsing some positive news flow on Greece during this week. Apart from Eurozone consumer confidence data later today, there is little to distract investors on the European front. Markets should undoubtedly keep an eye on "fiscal cliff" negotiations and macro data from the US for further direction.
Other Currencies – Highlights
The Bank of Japan, in its much awaited monetary policy decision, expanded its asset purchase programme by ¥10 billion, while leaving its interest rate unchanged at current levels. With much of the decision of the committee already priced in, investors booked profits on their bets against the Yen, resulting in the Japanese currency gaining ground against the majors this morning. The movement in the Yen against the majors today can be best judged as a case of "buy the rumour, sell the fact". Additionally, the looming threat of US budget talks derailing also supported gains in the Yen against its major counterparts. The Japanese central bank also indicated that it would review its stance on price stability, which is seen as an attempt by the Bank of Japan to pacify the incoming Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who has called for unlimited monetary easing to achieve 2% inflation. With the monetary policy landscape wide open following the recent win of the Liberal Democratic Party, it remains to be seen how much the country will stretch itself to get its house in order.
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Sydney, 7 June 2016
This ground-breaking report on the rape and assaults on women on Nauru was written by Australian Women in Support of Women on Nauru (AWSWN) on the impacts Australia's detention policy is having on the lives and bodies of women on Nauru.
The report documents the Australian governments deliberate policy of sending women who have already been exposed to sexual violence to a place where they are exposed to further violence. It details the lack of serious investigation and lack of accountability in relation to this violence and the dearth of appropriate services.
It reveals the shocking damage by both the abuse and the lack of care and concern on the part of consecutive Australian governments.
The report is the result of a collaboration between women in Australia and the women in Nauru.
The report, Protection Denied: Abuse Condoned, outlines the evidence of abuse and exploitation and details the grooming the Australian community have been exposed to and lays out a set of recommendations to ensure Australia once again joins the international community and protects those who come to this country for protection.
The report makes an overwhelmingly compelling case to close detention centres that have become crime scenes for many of the women living in them and argues the nation of Nauru is not safe for refugee and asylum seeker women.
"Putting theses detention centres on Nauru has not only destroyed the lives of many women, it has ensured the democracy of Nauru itself is enfeebled," said Professor Carmen Lawrence. "The centres will close and when they do if we have not begun the work of building some resilience and capacity on Nauru, the people of Nauru will be again left exposed by Australia's predation," she concluded.
"This report is about protection denied by an Australian government which is calling for respect for women and an end to violence against women – in Australia. At the same time government policy is ensuring other women are left as prey in isolated, insecure housing on Nauru," said Pamela Curr, Asylum Resource Centre and co-author.
"Some of these stories are known to some people, but nowhere have these stories been bought together in the political and policy context of Australian life," said Julie Macken, co-author. "This report was written from the perspective of women on the issues of violence against women and is a first both nationally and internationally," concluded Macken.
Link to the report below.
Women of Nauru Report


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Hello and welcome to this exciting plog boast! Wherein I tell you that I'm going to be releasing weekly episodes of me reading my snazzadicce unpublished but oh so publishable cyberpunk novel TRIBAL MALFUNCTIONS!
The first installment is - surprise! - Chapter 1: The Ballad of FuturePop. Here we meet the young thug FuturePop in his element as he prepares to go to battle in the 21st century gang style.
It's read by me. All the music is by me - Cathode Ray Tube to be exact. I think you'll dig it. So dig in!


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If you've visited your dentist recently and have been prescribed dentures, then you might have concerns about what to expect. There are several questions first-time denture wearers have, but might feel embarrassed to ask.
This post is dedicated to answering some of the most common denture-related questions asked by first-time wearers.
- What are the different types of dentures?
There are two types of dentures – complete dentures and partial dentures. Complete dentures are meant for people who have lost several teeth or have no teeth left. They come in two types, conventional and immediate dentures. Conventional dentures are usually made and placed in the mouth 8-12 weeks after the teeth are removed and the gum tissues have healed.
Immediate dentures are ready-made dentures. They can be placed in the mouth immediately after teeth removal. However, since gum tissues shrink during the healing process, there are potential adjustment issues with immediate dentures. This type of denture should be considered as a temporary solution until your custom conventional denture is ready.
Partial dentures are meant for people who have one or more teeth in the upper or lower jaw in good condition. Also known as a dental bridge, partial dentures are either fixed or removable. They fill up spaces between teeth to act as a replacement for your missing tooth.
- Is there any pain or soreness with dentures?
It's not unusual to have soreness on your gums when you get new dentures. This mainly occurs because of adjustment problems. Contact your local dental office or dentist for help. Once your dentures are adjusted, you'll no longer have soreness or pain.
- Are there any challenges eating and speaking with dentures?
It takes a few weeks to get used to eating when wearing your dentures. It's advisable to start with soft foods. Take small pieces and chew using both sides of your mouth. When you become comfortable with eating soft foods, add other foods and gradually upgrade to normal diet. You must be careful when consuming shells or sharp-edged bones, hard or hot food. Avoid sticky foods, chewing gum and using tooth picks.
New denture wearers may feel strained in pronouncing specific words. However, you can overcome this difficulty with a little practice. If the problem persists, consult your dentist.
- Can you sleep wearing dentures?
During the first few weeks of placing the dentures in your mouth, you may be asked by your dentist to wear it even when you sleep. This is required to find out if there's adjustment issues with your new dentures. Once adjustment issues are identified and fixed, you can sleep without your dentures. Removing them at night allows stimulation in your gums and cleansing of the mouth through saliva.
- How to care, clean and maintain dentures?
To maintain your oral health, it's very important to clean your dentures properly on a regular basis. Use a denture cleanser and a soft brush to clean your dentures daily just as you would by brushing your normal teeth. When you remove your dentures at night, keep them soaked in water or a cleansing solution to eliminate harmful bacteria. However, be careful when you clean your dentures over a sink. Accidentally dropping them can cause a breakage or crack. Visit your dentist immediately if this happens.
It takes a few weeks and dental appointments to develop your custom dentures. Your dentist or prosthodontist determines the type of denture you need according to your oral condition. If you're curious to know about the denture development process, here you can find how dentures are made.
Dentures are made to resemble your natural teeth as closely as possible. A good dentist will provide you dentures that not only cover up missing teeth, but also help you achieve a fuller face that improves your smile and appearance.


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This continues, after a break, my series of posts on metametaphysics. The others so far:
Metaphysics, Verbal Disagreement and Talking Past (July 5, 2015.)
Metametaphysics and the Affective Significance of Temporal Ontology (July 6. 2015.)
Metaphysics and the "Stately" Home (July 10, 2015.)
The Metametaphysical Landscape, Anti-Metaphysicalism, and Not Buying (July 13, 2015.)
* * *
In philosophy, we don't just use all the concepts and language we think of. We put some at arm's length and scrutinize them. And that is what we need to do with a lot of the metaphysical talk being used now.
You could say that this is, at bottom, a practical rather than a theoretical difference.
Which questions do you give straight answers to, and which do you reject, or respond to with something other than a straight answer?
From Chalmers's paper in the 2009 Metametaphysics anthology:
The metaontologist may ask: is there an objective fact of the matter about whether numbers exist? The ontological realist says yes, and the ontological anti-realist says no.
It is uncanny the way questions can almost bully us.
The criterial objection to metaphysics can be resisted by pointing to ordinary, non-metaphysical language games containing moves for which we have no criteria, and yet make. (Ironically, a Wittgensteinian point.)
Again: in the metaphysical game, the parties do contradict each other.
Manley (in the introduction to the 2009 Metametaphysics anthology):
Thus, we need an account of verbal disputes that allows for real disagreement.
(He's talking here about two people quibbling about 'cup', but where, for Putnam-Burge reasons, we don't want to say they're just using the term with different meanings. One is misusing it, perhaps.)
Accounts of semantic deviation, designed to allow speakers to mean the same thing while deviating. Then verbal dispute is precisely that which only arises because of semantic deviation.
Accounts: take each speaker's dispositions etc. and imagine a linguistic community where everyone has them. Objection: Lewis's dispositions in the ontology room couldn't be shared by a whole linguistic community.
Then: Apply this algorithm to one speaker. So, a kind of fine grained idiolect. Now something like that may be quite plausible for the cup dispute. But plainly this is missing something as a form of metaphysical deflationism.
It might be right as far as it goes (I don't know yet), but then there is still the matter of saying what's distinctive about the metaphysical case and why it arises. Because the metaphysical case seems more ineradicable, and perhaps gets into 'what we should mean'.
So that you can't just clear up metaphysical verbal disputes by showing them to be verbal, since there will remain a potentially deep normative disagreement about how symbols ought be used. And this can plunge us into fresh, undiagnosed metaphysical trouble. (Crude example: we ought to use symbols so as to limn reality, OK we both agree with that, but what counts as reality? Or limn the fundaments - OK, but what are the fundaments, and what is fundamentality?)
A project: look for semantic deviance, or verbality of dispute more generally, in the metametaphysical or foundational issues which all the other disputes might lead to, once their non-verbal remainder is revealed to be about how symbol use ought to proceed, and when this is followed up we get the metametaphysical foundations.
So: how should we use 'fundamental', 'ground', 'explain', 'real'.
In Manley's introduction, he doesn't go from verbality to symbol use issues, but treats the latter as a separate account, Carnapian. Also, that one's different since it says that the disputes themselves are actually about how to talk. But my idea planned above was that the disputes are verbal, but conceal disputes about what we should mean.
But once at that point, he makes a point which leads to the point I just made:
Moreover, it is worth noting that even if this sort of deflationism were true, there would remain work for metaphysics to do in judging the various proposals for how to talk, given the goals of metaphysics.
So my point about this itself being subject to verbality and other difficulty is important.
Manley seems quite into this sort of idea. Later on after discussing an elaborate alternative to a quantifier variance deflationism:
But there is a problem with this response, which Matti Eklund raises at one point in his contribution.4² Assuming that Lewis can express all the intensions that van Inwagen can express, but not vice versa, does it not follow that Lewish is in some sense a superior language? If so, there is a loss of parity between the two ontologists (or the two communities), even if they are not disagreeing with each other with the sentences under discussion. For one thing, it would seem that a serious metaphysician like van Inwagen has a significant motivation to abandon his impoverished idiolect in favor of Lewish. But this causes trouble for the deflationist, in that it is hardly in the spirit of deflationism to grant that the Lewis [sic] is better off in his description of the world. For it follows that metaphysics still has an important mission: to identify the best language in which to take inventory of the furniture of reality.
The very idea of this mission - that's what needs criticising. Again, we might get to verbality and deep normative symbol use issues pertaining to the key metametaphysical terms.
The point is delicate. First, it is still a significant concession to deflationism.to grant that van Inwagen and Lewis are not really contradicting each other in the little dispute displayed above; or if they are, it is because at least one of them is misusing English words. And this concession would vindicate the traditional deflationist line that insofar as there is an interesting disagreement in the neighborhood, it is about how we should speak, and its resolution should have an entirely different flavor and methodology than the typical contemporary debate in metaphysics.
But that's not obvious, because it might as indicated above plunge one straight back in. And so lots of metaphysical debates could be argued to turn on some key ones, plausibly for the metaphysician. And these might not be verbal or misquided. But then there is room for a sort of deflationary reconsideration of these... how, or whether at all (in a certain sort of way), to use 'limn', 'ground', etc.


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This luxury safari features some of Kenya's best wildlife areas and most luxurious accommodations. With a night spent at the Ark tree lodge, two at the Mount Kenya Safari Club and two at the Fairmont Mara Safari Club, no other Kenyan safari offers a better combination of style, comfort and wilderness.
- Experience the classic charm of the famous Fairmont the Norfolk Hotel that has been existence since 1904 in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Stay at hotel deep in the Mount Kenya Forest the Ark and get to see the wildlife that visits its water hole.
- Stay at the famous Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club located right on the equator.
- Visit the beautifully laid Fairmont Mara Safari Club and watch the great wildebeest Migration from June to September every year.
Day 1: Arrival Nairobi
We will meet you at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport upon your arrival and transfer you to Fairmont the Norfolk hotel for dinner and overnight. First opened on the Christmas day of 1904, this hotel has evolved from generation to generation however, maintaining the old colonial charm and ambience. The architecture and décor echoes the "happy valley era" – wall pictures feature mainly the early hunters and the pioneers of safari. All rooms have private en-suite facilities and many of them overlook the hotel's courtyards where some vintage vehicles and farming machinery are displayed. The hotel has a number of restaurants and bars, a swimming pool and a health club with a fully equipped gym and fitness center. Welcome dinner is included at the hotel's main restaurant.
Day 2: Nairobi - The Ark
A full English breakfast buffet is included. Check out thereafter and with your Real Africa guide, drive to Mweiga town. It is a very scenic and interesting drive as you head north towards the town of Thika and onwards to the Aberdare Mountain ranges. Along the way the lush central highlands reveal themselves with numerous pineapple, tea, banana and coffee plantations as well as small farms.
You will arrive for lunch at Aberdare Country Club, the base hotel for The Ark. After lunch, special transport takes you to your Tree hotel. (Please note only an overnight bag is allowed, the rest of your luggage is stored at the base hotel and collected before departure).The rest of the day and night is spent viewing game from the lodge's terraces. Flood lit water holes and salt deposits lure animals from their hideouts in the thick mountain forests, affording visitors the rare chance game includes elephant, giraffe, buffalo, zebra, the rare black rhino, impala, gazelle, the rare bongo antelope, African hare, the hog family, waterbuck, lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena, with monkeys of all types including the spectacular black and white Colobus and many more species. Birdlife is rich with over 300 different species already recorded.
Day 3: The Ark - Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club
After breakfast you will take short drive to Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club, your luxurious home for two nights. This former retreat of actor William Holden was once the playground of such illustrious members such as Winston Churchill and Bing Crosby. There will be a stopover at the equator where you will witness a demonstration by the locals to prove the position of the equator and you will be awarded an "Equator Certificate". Spend this afternoon at leisure in the club.
High on the slopes of Africa's second highest mountain Mount Kenya, the Fairmont Mount Kenya safari club straddles the equator in a glory of luxurious cottages and elegant buildings set amid manicured lawns and decorative ponds. There are many recreational activities available: horseback riding, golf, croquet, a bowling green, table tennis, swimming, a beauty salon, an animal orphanage and much more. To be able to relax and appreciate the superb setting, the personal attention lavished on all visitors, the numerous activities and superb cuisine, one night at this resort is just not enough.
Day 4 : Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club
After a leisurely breakfast relax at the club. After lunch you will join your guide and drive to the Ol Pejeta conservancy for afternoon game drives. Visit the chimpanzee sanctuary and "Baraka" the tamed black rhino. This sanctuary is also home to all the 'Big Five' and many other species. Return to the club and enjoy a bush dinner by River Likii.
Day 5: Fairmont Mara Safari Club
This morning after breakfast you bid your Real Africa guide farewell and take a scheduled flight to Maasai Mara national reserve. Your hosts will meet you at the airstrip and take you on an introductory game drive en-route to your camp. The Mara as it's regularly referred to is Kenya's most visited game reserve and possibly the best in Africa. The reserve is world famous for its vast assemblage of plains' game together with their assorted predators. It is perhaps the only area remaining in the world where one may see wildlife in the same super abundance as existed many years ago.
Day 6: Fairmont Mara Safari Club
Your base for the Mara adventure is the Fairmont Mara Safari Club which lies in the north-west of the reserve, at the foot of Aitong hills. This camp is the epitome of tented luxury. It is positioned on an ox-bow of the Mara River, so that all tents have a view of the hippo-filled river. Today you will enjoy an early morning and an evening game drive in this area. Game drives, guided by the camp's experienced 'driver-naturalists', are by four-wheel-drive Land cruisers. At the camp there is a heavenly pool to cool down in between game drives, al fresco buffet lunches and nightly activities of Maasai dancing, slide shows and talks on the Mara's ecosystem and Maasai culture. All these add up to create a truly unique African safari experience. On the evening of day 6 you are welcomed to a special bush dinner by the hippo pool.
Day 7: Fairmont the Norfolk
An English buffet breakfast is included at the camp. You will then be transferred to the local airstrip for your scheduled flight to Nairobi. On arrival you will be greeted by our representative at Wilson airport and transferred to your hotel. Lunch is included at the hotel. In the afternoon you are at leisure to unwind and reminisce about the experiences you have just had. In the evening you will be transferred to the Carnivore Restaurant Nairobi for a farewell dinner. The Carnivore Restaurant is a popular spot for meat lovers.
No tour of Nairobi would be complete without a stop at this fantastic restaurant. Waiters carve sizzling cuts from huge roasts on long spears right at your table. The choice is yours and the quantities are unlimited. There is also a tempting vegetarian menu, and plenty of tasty side dishes, fresh salads, delicious desserts and hot mugs of flavorful Kenyan-grown coffee and tea.
Day 8: Nairobi - Depart
A transfer is included to Jomo Kenyatta international airport.