Stem cell 'major discovery' claimed

BBC News, James Gallagher, Health and science reporter, 29 January 2014

Petri dishes filled with stem cells

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Stem cell researchers are heralding a "major scientific discovery", with the potential to start a new age of personalised medicine.

Scientists in Japan showed stem cells can now be made quickly just by dipping blood cells into acid.

Stem cells can transform into any tissue and are already being trialled for healing the eye, heart and brain.

The latest development, published in the journal Nature, could make the technology cheaper, faster and safer.

The human body is built of cells with a specific role - nerve cells, liver cells, muscle cells - and that role is fixed.

However, stem cells can become any other type of cell, and they have become a major field of research in medicine for their potential to regenerate the body.

Embryos are one, ethically charged, source of stem cells. Nobel prize winning research also showed that skin cells could be "genetically reprogrammed" to become stem cells (termed induced pluripotent stem cells).

Acid bath

Now a study shows that shocking blood cells with acid could also trigger the transformation into stem cells - this time termed STAP (stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency) cells.

Dr Haruko Obokata, from the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology in Japan, said she was "really surprised" that cells could respond to their environment in this way.

She added: "It's exciting to think about the new possibilities these findings offer us, not only in regenerative medicine, but cancer as well."

The breakthrough was achieved in mouse blood cells, but research is now taking place to achieve the same results with human blood.

Chris Mason, professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, said if it also works in humans then "the age of personalised medicine would have finally arrived."

He told the BBC: "I thought - 'my God that's a game changer!' It's a very exciting, but surprise, finding.

"It looks a bit too good to be true, but the number of experts who have reviewed and checked this, I'm sure that it is.

"If this works in people as well as it does in mice, it looks faster, cheaper and possibly safer than other cell reprogramming technologies - personalised reprogrammed cell therapies may now be viable."

For age-related macular degeneration, which causes sight loss, it takes 10 months to go from a patient's skin sample to a therapy that could be injected into their eye -and at huge cost.

Prof Mason said weeks could be knocked off that time which would save money, as would cheaper components.

'Revolutionary'

The finding has been described as "remarkable" by the Medical Research Council's Prof Robin Lovell-Badge and as "a major scientific discovery" by Dr Dusko Ilic, a reader in stem cell science at Kings College London.

Dr Ilic added: "The approach is indeed revolutionary.

"It will make a fundamental change in how scientists perceive the interplay of environment and genome."

But he added: "It does not bring stem cell-based therapy closer. We will need to use the same precautions for the cells generated in this way as for the cells isolated from embryos or reprogrammed with a standard method."

And Prof Lovell-Badge said: "It is going to be a while before the nature of these cells are understood, and whether they might prove to be useful for developing therapies, but the really intriguing thing to discover will be the mechanism underlying how a low pH shock triggers reprogramming - and why it does not happen when we eat lemon or vinegar or drink cola?"

Related Articles:

Simple way to make stem cells in half an hour hailed as major discovery


"Last Channeling of 2013" – Dec 15, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“…Yawee, let's talk about your invention, your most recent one. You described your guided stem cell protocol as a "go there and stay there" instructional technology to guide the stem cells directly to where they are needed. You "instruct" the stem cells to go to a place in the body and stay there where they can be used. Now, the ones sitting in the chairs today don't know anything about that. But you do and I do. And you know that you're either incredibly lucky, over and over, or you're dealing with something else. Because to guide a stem cell in a "go there and stay there" scenario is like a Human Being reporting to a city of a billion people, then standing on the outskirts and locating that one person they are looking for, right away, by accident! Somehow it works.

Your "go there and stay there" is a macro program accomplishing an incredible micro result. How? Trillions, if not hundreds of trillions of DNA molecules are all identical in the Human body. Somehow they "talk to each other" instantly. If one DNA molecule senses something, they all do. Science doesn't know that yet. They may have thought of it, but they don't know it. There is a mystery here of how DNA does what it does. Somehow it must communicate, yet there is no process of communication known to your science that could explain it. But they all "see" the intent of your program together as one and implement it as one.

We have told you this before, and we have written books about it. Your DNA has quantum attributes. It's not a quantum molecule, but it gives quantum instructions. Ah, but there's more. All the DNA I perceive in your body right now is singular, with only one allied consciousness. This is because the DNA in the Human body is in an entangled state with itself. It is quantumly locked in a way that it works as one benevolent union. This is a quantum physics attribute that is not yet fully understood and not yet applied to biology. It represents the smart body, the innate body, and if you want proof of that, it's everywhere!

What do you know about identical twins? You know that they have the same DNA and that they are the only Humans on the planet who do. What do you know about studies of identical twins? You know that they can be on opposite sides of the planet and both can have the same intuition at the same time about something that's happening with their family. Now, what does that tell you about their DNA? It's connected! In fact, it's connected within a particular quantum state. What do you know about quantumness in DNA? The answer is, almost nothing! So let me fill you in. It's beautiful. Let me fill you in, because it's going to temper everything you do from now on. ..”

South African traditional leaders attack graphic male circumcision website

Dr Dingeman Rijken, who set up website with detailed images to reveal dangers of ritual, accused of breaking cultural taboo

theguardian.com, David Smith in Johannesburg, Wednesday 29 January 2014

The website aims to reveal the "dark secrets" of the circumcision ritual undergone
by teenage boys from the Xhosa group. Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images

A Dutch doctor in South Africa has published graphic images of penises mutilated during botched circumcision ceremonies, angering community leaders who accuse him of meddling in their culture.

Dr Dingeman Rijken said he had set up a website to reveal the "dark secrets of the ritual" because traditional leaders had shown "shocking" indifference and incompetence to the annual toll of death and injury.

The leaders have condemned Rijken for breaking a cultural taboo and reported his site to South Africa's Film and Publication Board, demanding it be shut down.

Every year thousands of teenage boys from the Xhosa group embark on a secretive rite of passage in Eastern Cape province, spending up to a month in the bush to study, undergo circumcision by a traditional surgeon and apply white clay to their bodies.

While many initiation schools are officially sanctioned, others are unregulated and allow bogus surgeons to operate with unsterilised blades. According to Rijken, who works in the region, 825 boys have died from complications since 1995 and many more have suffered from what he calls male genital mutilation.

Explaining his reasons for going public, Rijken writes: "Winter 2012. Groups of young boys with white faces were brought out of a secret dark world into glaring hospital lights. Sunken eyes from dehydration, flaky skin from malnourishment, bagged eyes from sleep deprivation.

"Frequently you would smell the rotting when they were walking past. I spend many hours cleaning their wounds, trying to insert urinary catheters in their botched penis, battling to explain 17-year-olds that they had lost their manhood."

He adds that, following another "catastrophic" winter season in 2013, and with traditional leaders unlikely to make a positive change, he chose to go to the media and set up the site "to inform prospective initiates and the broader community about the dark secrets of the ritual".

Graphic images show severely disfigured, infected or amputated genitals on the website, ulwaluko.co.za, named after the Xhosa language word for initiation into manhood. Visitors are told: "Please be warned that this website contains graphic medical images of penile disfigurement under 'complications' and 'photos'. You may only enter this website if you are 13 years of age or older."

But critics argue that Rijken has betrayed their culture and should have handled the matter differently. Nkululeko Nxesi, from the Community Development Foundation of South Africa, told the AFP news agency: "That website must be shut down with immediate effect. He should respect the cultural principles and processes of this nation."

Patekile Holomisa, a former leader of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, took a similar view. He told AFP: "We condemn the exposure of this ritual to people who do not practise it. Women should not see what happens at initiations."

The Film and Publications Board has restricted the website for under-13s but ruled that it is a "bona fide scientific publication with great educative value".

It added: "The website highlights the malice that bedevils this rich cultural practice. It does not condemn this rich cultural practice but makes a clear plea for it to be regulated so that deaths do not occur."

Related Articles:

Female genital mutilation affects a fifth of young girls in sub-Saharan Africa

Jewish parents in US begin to question the need for circumcision

Israeli court fines woman for refusing to circumcise her son

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear and beloved Kryon: What should we know about "Brit-Mila" (Jewish circumcision)?

Answer: All circumcision was based on commonsense health issues of the day, which manifested itself in religious-based teaching. That basically is what made people keep doing it. This eighth-day-from-birth ritual is no more religious today than trimming your fingernails (except that Brit-Mila is only done once, and it hurts a bit more).

It's time to start seeing these things for what they are. Common sense is not static. It's dynamic, and related to the culture of the time. Yesterday's common sense about health changed greatly with the discovery of germs. It changed again with practices of cleanliness due to the discovery of germs, and so on. Therefore, we would say that it really doesn't make a lot of difference in today's health practices. It's done almost totally for cultural historic and traditional purposes and holds no energy around it other than the obvious intent of the tradition.

This is also true for a great deal of the admonishments of the Old Testament regarding food and cleanliness, and even the rules of the neighborhood (such as taking your neighbor's life if he steals your goat, or selling your daughter in slavery if you really need the money... all found in scripture). The times are gone where these things matter anymore, yet they're still treated with reverence and even practiced religiously in some places. They're now only relics of tradition, and that's all. If you feel that you should honor a tradition, then do it. If not, then don't. It's not a spiritual or health issue any longer.

Be the boss of your own body and your own traditions. Follow what your spiritual intuition tells you is appropriate for your own spiritual path and health.

Hairless hero: Iranian teacher shaves head in solidarity with bullied pupil

Ali Mohammadian's gesture, copied by his entire class of 23 pupils, stops bullying and attracts praise from all over country

theguardian.com, Saeed Kamali Dehghan, 28 January 2014

Ali Mohammadian and his pupils, who shaved their heads in solidarity with a
bullied pupil. Photograph: Bahman Shahbazi for Tasnim News

When Iranian schoolteacher Ali Mohammadian noticed that one of his students was bullied after going bald as a result of a mysterious illness, he decided to show solidarity and shave his own hair. In no time, his entire class shaved their heads and the bullying stopped.

Now, Mohammadian who teaches at Sheikh Shaltoot's elementary school in Marivan, a Kurdish city in the west of Iran, has become a national hero. President Hassan Rouhani has praised him, the government has offered financial support for the pupil's medical treatment and his story has reached the four corners of his country.

"I'm so happy that this has touched many hearts and people reacted enormously positive," the 45-year-old teacher told the Guardian by phone from Marivan. "Everyone in the school now wants to shave their head."

Earlier this month, Mohammadian posted a picture of himself with eight-year-old Mahan Rahimi on Facebook. "Our heads are sensitive to hair," he wrote on the social network in support of his student. "Mahan had become isolated after going bald, smile had disappeared from his face and I was concerned about his class performance. That's why I thought about shaving my head to get him back on track," he said.

Mohammadian's Facebook post soon caught the eyes of hundreds of Iranian web users. "When I logged in to my Facebook the next day, I couldn't believe the number of people who had liked it and shared it," he said.

Iranian media, including national TV, interviewed him and Iran's education minister, Ali Asghar Fani, soon invited both to Tehran for a formal thank-you. The governor of the Kurdistan province, Abdolmohammad Zahedi, also conveyed the president's message to him.

In a matter of days, Mohammadian's 23 other students in the class were inspired by their teacher's action and insisted that they, too, wanted to shave their heads. "I told them to wait until the winter's cold weather was over but when we came back from Tehran, they had all shaved," he said. "This Saturday morning I stepped into the class and everyone had gone bald."

Doctors at the Razi hospital in Tehran told the state television that Mahan had problems in his immune system but they were investigating the exact nature of his disease. According to the teacher, medics in Tehran have also sent samples to Germany for a possible diagnosis. "Mahan's classmates have since become supportive of him and a smile is back on his face," said the teacher.

Mohammadian has 23 years of teaching experience and has two daughters and a son. "In places like Syria and Iraq or Sudan, children are being killed every day and in places like Pakistan and India child labour is widespread. I'm extremely worried about the horrific ordeals those children face on a daily basis."

Australian Charged Over Jakarta Genital Mutilation of Baby Girl

Jakarta Globe – AFP, January 28, 2014

A mother holds her daughter’s hand as she is circumcised in Bandung in
this Feb. 10, 2013 file photo. (AFP Photo/Adek Berry)

Sydney. An Australian man appeared in court Tuesday charged over the genital mutilation of his nine-month-old daughter in Indonesia, where police allege she was circumcised.

The child was taken to Jakarta for the procedure between February and March of 2012, according to documents tendered Tuesday in Sydney’s Manly Local Court.

The incident didn’t come to light until six months later, when the infant’s mother took her to the doctor, the court was told.

She allegedly had her clitoral tissue removed and underwent a labial fusion, according to police documents in the case.

Her father, who has not been named for legal reasons, was arrested in December and charged with aiding, abetting or procuring female genital mutilation.

He is on bail and will return to court in March. It is only the second case of female genital mutilation to be brought before the courts in New South Wales.

Australian authorities say the practice, while often conducted in secret, is more common than the number of reports and prosecutions would suggest.

While no official data is available to measure the extent of the practice in Indonesia, it is common in the country of 240 million people, according to aid agencies.

Indonesia banned female circumcision in 2006 but backtracked in 2010, arguing that many parents were still having their daughters circumcised by unskilled traditional doctors who often botched the procedure.

Religious leaders and adherents say they are following the practices of Prophet Mohammed in having women circumcised so they are “clean.”

According to the World Health Organization about 140 million women and girls worldwide are living with the consequences of female genital mutilation, which is most common in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The procedure was banned by the United Nations in December 2012.

Agence France-Presse

Related Articles:

Jewish parents in US begin to question the need for circumcision

Israeli court fines woman for refusing to circumcise her son

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear and beloved Kryon: What should we know about "Brit-Mila" (Jewish circumcision)?

Answer: All circumcision was based on commonsense health issues of the day, which manifested itself in religious-based teaching. That basically is what made people keep doing it. This eighth-day-from-birth ritual is no more religious today than trimming your fingernails (except that Brit-Mila is only done once, and it hurts a bit more).

It's time to start seeing these things for what they are. Common sense is not static. It's dynamic, and related to the culture of the time. Yesterday's common sense about health changed greatly with the discovery of germs. It changed again with practices of cleanliness due to the discovery of germs, and so on. Therefore, we would say that it really doesn't make a lot of difference in today's health practices. It's done almost totally for cultural historic and traditional purposes and holds no energy around it other than the obvious intent of the tradition.

This is also true for a great deal of the admonishments of the Old Testament regarding food and cleanliness, and even the rules of the neighborhood (such as taking your neighbor's life if he steals your goat, or selling your daughter in slavery if you really need the money... all found in scripture). The times are gone where these things matter anymore, yet they're still treated with reverence and even practiced religiously in some places. They're now only relics of tradition, and that's all. If you feel that you should honor a tradition, then do it. If not, then don't. It's not a spiritual or health issue any longer.

Be the boss of your own body and your own traditions. Follow what your spiritual intuition tells you is appropriate for your own spiritual path and health.

Indonesian Worker in Taiwan Paralyzed After Alleged Abuse

Jakarta Globe, Markus Junianto Sihaloho, January 27, 2014

Indonesian worker Sihatul Alfiah.
 (Photo courtesy of Indonesia
Migrant Care)

An Indonesian migrant worker was left paralyzed and unable to speak after enduring torture at the hands of her Taiwanese employer, according to a member of the House of Representatives’ commission on manpower and labor issues.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Rieke Dyah Pitaloka, of Commission IX, said at a press conference on Monday that Sihatul Alfiah, 27 — from Banyuwangi, East Java — left for Taiwan in 2012 as a legal migrant worker through maid agency Sinergi Binakarya to work as a caretaker for the elderly.

But when she arrived in Taiwan, Rieke said, she was told to milk cows and clean a cowshed outside Liouying, Tainan City, in addition to her caretaking responsibilities.

She  cleaned the cowshed, which housed 300 cows, every day from 3 a.m. to 10 a.m. before moving on to her next job, which ran from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Rieke said that Sihatul was often tortured by her employer, Huang Deng Jin.

Sihatul reported the abuse, he said, prompting the agency to meet with her employer, which only exacerbated the problem.

“When calling us at home, [Sihatul] said that her employer often became outraged,” Sihatul’s mother Sutiah said, according to news portal Tribunnews.com. “When she was angry, she often slapped and kicked her. But I was informed that my daughter was in a coma because of her weak heart.”

On Sept. 21, 2013, Sihatul fell into a coma after being beaten with a blunt object, according to Rieke’s account. She was taken to Chimney Iyen Tainan hospital in Liouying, where a doctor found injuries on the back part of her head.

A month later, she woke up from the coma fully paralyzed and unable to speak and in the care of a nursing home.

Doctors informed the Indonesian government that her condition was the result of heart disease.

Suhandik, Sihatul’s husband, said that he did not know why his wife was no longer receiving treatment in a hospital.

“What I know is my wife has no history of heart disease, and she was often tortured by her employer,” he said.

The director of Indonesian citizen protection at the Foreign Affairs Ministry denied that Sihatul had experienced abuse.

After receiving a report by Sihatul’s brother, Saipul, about the alleged torture, the ministry asked the Indonesian Commerce and Economy Body (KDEI) to look into the possibility of abuse.

“There was a meeting between the employer, an agent and the police,” Tatang said. “No solution was found in the mediation because the employer denied that she had violated the contract.”

Tatang said that doctors found no evidence of abuse, contrary to Rieke’s and Sihatul’s family’s accounts.

Indonesia Migrant Care accused the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers (BNP2TKI) of circumventing the legal process in dealing with the employer and work agency through mediation rather than in court.

“BNP2TKI secretly conducted mediation between the family of the victim and the work agency and agreed not to involve civil organizations in this case,” Anis Hidayah, director of Migrant Care, said on Monday.

Anis said that Migrant Care had received a report that a BNP2TKI representative in Taiwan had tried to mediate privately between the victim and the employer, asking the employer to pay for hospital expenses rather than perusing charges through the local legal system, despite the fact that Sihatul’s brother had filed a police report in Taiwan.

“Therefore, we urge all sides to solve this case thoroughly,” Anis said.

Croatian Researchers Pioneer Use Of Robots To Diagnose Autism

Radio Free Europe, Ankica Barbir-Mladinovic, January 26, 2014

Related Article:

• Autism-Vaccine Study: 'Elaborate Fraud'

Four-year old Croatian boy Luka (left), who has autism spectrum has
developed an unusual friendship with a robot called Rene.

ZAGREB -- Four-year-old Luka is enthusiastic about his new friend.

"He can write. He can sit down. And he can drink water," he says.

The two also like to dance together.

But it is an unusual friendship. Luka is a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a developmental disability that inhibits social, behavioral, and communications skills. And his friend, Rene, is a robot.

They met thanks to a joint project of the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences and its Faculty of Electronics and Computer Sciences. The initiative aims to use robots to improve the diagnosis and assessment of children with the disorder, a process that until now has been highly complex and subjective.

The robot is intended to assist, not replace the clinician.

"For children with autism, the robot is a stimulus that is very simple and always the same," says researcher Jasmina Stosic. "Its eyes are always in the same place. Its mouth is always in the same place. People are rather complicated for such children because when we talk we make various gestures. And one day we'll wear a red t-shirt and the next day, a blue one. The robot is one constant stimulus, and the children don't need to think about so much different information and instead can concentrate on the essence."

Because of the difficulties of assessment, ASD children are often diagnosed quite late. In Croatia, most ASD children are only diagnosed and begin receiving specialized education and therapy at around 5 or 6 years of age.

WATCH: A Robot Gives A Demonstration Of Tai-Chi Exercises At A Zagreb Lab

Marija Cukelj, whose 4-year-old son Filip is part of the robot project, has experienced the frustration of trying to get specialist assistance for children who are younger than this.

"Filip started to close down when he was 14 or 15 months of age," he says. "He stopped looking people in the eye -- even us, his parents. Within about two months we started looking for help. Unfortunately, it took time because he was 1 1/2 [years old] and we were told: 'The child is too small, anything could happen. We need to wait and see.' It took a year between the time we told doctors something was wrong and when our son got a reliable diagnosis. We lost that time."

According to Cukelj, meeting Rene was a ground-breaking moment for Filip.

"The first time he saw the robot, he simply sat on a chair and watched it," Cukelj says. "For Filip, who is so energetic and who is calmed down by very few things, it was a great success to see him sit down and carefully watch something."

Positive Reactions

Researcher Maja Cepanec says that Rene has elicited positive reactions in trials with children so far.

"Children with attention-deficit issues, who have trouble making eye contact, react relatively well to the robot," she says. "They watch it and they are excited about it. So far, our experiences have been relatively positive."

Rene was made in France and several research institutions around the world have been using similar robots to work with ASD children.  The researchers in Croatia, however, are focusing on using the robots to develop a standardized diagnostic protocol.

Cepanec says the goal of the project is to use the robot to collect data on, for instance, recurrences of repetitive behavior, and to conduct uniform testing of particular behaviors such as drinking from a cup or addressing the robot by name.

"We believe that ASD assessment, empowered by advanced behavioral and social-signal processing, might become more objective and reliable," says Cepanec. This improved process would also include using objective quantitative metrics.

"The robot is equipped with a camera, microphones, speakers, and it can record things we might miss," says Cepanec. "It can code a child's vocalizations, his or her closeness to the parent, how many times the child initiates communication, how much eye contact the child makes, and so on."

In order to build on the project's promising start, the researchers are working with the Croatian National Science Fund and European sources in hopes of expanding the number of children they can include in their research.

Related Article:

Human Evolution –  27 Sep 2008 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

“.. What do you think the Human brain can really do? What do you think it's built to do? Let me give you an example of what your society has come to accept as an "unbalanced person." Some of you think it's a "sick person." Let me talk about the autistic one. Let us talk about autism in what you call the most severe case.

Blessed is the autistic one who has come to this earth to show you what future Human evolvement looks like! They spend a lifetime trying to figure out linearity and it frustrates them. Blessed is the savant who the earth looks at and calls unbalanced. For the Humans who do this cannot see what they don't understand. The autistic one is able to get up off the paper and be in color! Many of the autistic ones can do what your calculators can do on your desks, did you know that? And they don't need a calculator! Give them a problem - two digits multiplied by three digits. Now watch how fast they give you the answer. Because they're not linear! Ask them what weekday the 13th of August will be in 2012, and they'll tell you, and they don't need a calendar. You might say, "What kind of a mind can do that?" I'll tell you - a nonlinear one without the walls in the brain that you have.

Have you ever thought about that? The autistic have a nonlinear mind. The barriers are dropped. Can you imagine the frustration of this Human? Here he is in a world of black and white while he is in color. Not only that, you want him to go in a straight line when he is used to all directions at once. This also explains why the only energies that will work to calm him are interdimensional ones - music, art, and love. Does this start to make sense to you? (see below)

What is taking place, dear ones, for all to know and see and understand, is that very, very slowly you have the linearity of the Human brain starting to be reduced. Unlike the autistic, it will be in ways that will still be balanced and make sense. In other words, you will be able to move in and out of quantum thought any time you wish in order to live in a linear, 3D existence, but have quantum consciousness. It will be a return to a form of consciousness that Lemurians had, but with the wisdom of the ages that you have collected. This will not be fast, but the forerunners of that are already here.

I'm going to give you some attributes of Human evolution in a moment, but let's return to the autistic ones. Many reading this are very concerned about autism. You wish to know why there are so many autistics being born. You say it's beyond coincidence that there are suddenly so many! There's more autistic children being born today than there ever have been on this planet. Humans are scurrying around wanting to know what's wrong. Is it the chemistry of the food? Perhaps it must be vaccinations! Some are saying, without any proof, "Yes, that's it - vaccinations must be it." You are grasping at almost anything to solve the puzzle of why so many autistics are arriving.

Yet very few Humans, if any, have looked at the puzzle and said, "Perhaps we're evolving, and this is the first wave of what we're going to see?" Not mentally unbalanced, but nonlinear thinking! This is, indeed, the case. You are seeing a form of evolution and you are calling it odd and unusual. It's simply those who are coming in early with activated quantum DNA. This early forerunner has DNA activated in an uncontrolled way, and so learning is needed to know how to make sense of it all. This is what they are doing, and each generation of savant will have a better time of it, figuring out what is linear and what is not.

Watch the autistic child go through what they must do (autism in its most severe form). They are so nonlinear that there is incredible frustration in trying to linearize even the Human voice as you speak to them. They will do the same actions over and over and over, trying to linearize the nonlinear. The linear walls are gone in their brain, and they have to learn to build the ones that they need. Humans then see them as a problem, and it's not a problem. It's a form of gifted children who are helping this planet to grow. Blessed are those who come into Earth as the new wave of consciousness to show you where it's going. They are setting the stage for a new kind of Human. For this quantumness will develop in a balanced way where many will have the autistic talents where they want them, and the linear when they want that. That's what the Human mind is capable of - being quantum when they wish to be. That's a return to the way it was given to you.  ‘’

Family says brain-dead pregnant Texas woman has been taken off life support

• Judge ordered move on Friday

• Marlise Munoz brain-dead for two months

theguardian.com, Associated Press in Dallas, Sunday 26 January 2014

Erick Munoz stands with a photograph of himself with wife Marlise
and their son Mateo. Photograph: Ron T Ennis/AP

The family of a brain-dead, pregnant Texas woman said on Sunday that she had been removed from life support, following a judge's ruling that a Fort Worth hospital was misapplying state law in the case.

A statement sent by lawyers for the husband of Marlise Munoz on Sunday afternoon said she was disconnected from life support at about 11.30am CST (1.30pm ET). It said her body was released to her husband, Erick Munoz, and that the family is now looking to lay her to rest.

Earlier in the day, the John Peter Smith Hospital had said it would follow a judge's order to remove life support. In an order issued on Friday, Judge RH Wallace gave the hospital until Monday at 5pm to comply with his ruling.

Marlise Munoz, 33, was 14-weeks pregnant when her husband found her unconscious on 26 November, possibly due to a blood clot. Munoz was kept on life support because the hospital claimed it would be illegal under Texas law to withdraw treatment, since the fetus would die as a result. In court documents released on Friday, the hospital accepted that the fetus was not viable.

The hospital had based its case on a line in the Texas Advance Directives Act of 1999 which states that "a person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment … from a pregnant patient". Wallace, a district judge , ruled that the hospital had misapplied the statute. "Mrs Munoz is dead," he said.

On Sunday, the hospital said in a statement that it saw its role as "not to make nor contest law but to follow it".

Dutch designers win award for new condom

DutchNews.nl, Friday 24 January 2014

The Wingman is with one hand to do.

 www.wingman.com (Nos)

A design company from Delft has won a German design award for a new type of condom which is easier to put on, Nos television says on Friday.

The Wingman comes complete with a red plastic applicator so it can be rolled on with one hand. This also reduces the risk of tearing, the makers say.

The condom was designed by two Delft engineers, Paul Breur and Adnan Tunovic, in 2006 but production only started in 2012 after several years of research.

The duo will be awarded the iF Design prize in Hannover at the end of February.

Man with brain damage shows amazing math skills on Jiangsu TV

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-01-23

Zhou Wei demonstrates his talents on the show, broadcast on Jan. 18.
(Internet photo)

A man who was diagnosed with moderate brain damage has displayed his remarkable mathematics skills on Jiangsu TV.

Zhou Wei, 23, successfully solved the 14th root of a 16-digit number in a flash on a show called The Brain broadcast on Jan. 18.

Xu Zhenli, an associate professor at the Mathematics Department of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, posed three very complex math questions to Zhou, including a long exponentiation and solving for the 14th root of a 16-digit number. Zhou was able to solve the math problem quickly in his head.

The audience and the panel were moved to tears when Zhou's family shared the 23-year-old's story, reported the Guangzhou Daily.

Zhou was born healthy but was frightened by a pillow when he was six months old and developed a physical abnormality. He was later diagnosed with a chronic low blood sugar and poor mental development. When he was nine years old, his illness healed miraculously.

Zhou's mother held on to a glimmer of hope in Zhou's ability to perform simple mathematics equations. She begged schools to accept her son and he was finally invited to sit-in on a 5th grade class. He had studied in the first grade when he was 10, but could solve math questions designed for third-graders.

He unfortunately had to drop out of school as he found it impossible to fit in with his peers.

Zhou likes to read math books and is fond of using his calculator. He wanted to learn how to read when he was a child but no teacher was willing to correct his homework, which made him averse to a school education.

Some netizens were of the view that this was the first time they had been rendered so emotional after watching an educational show.

"I cried. It was so shocking and touching. He is a genius," an internet user said. "I can only imagine how many injustices he must have faced."

"We should never mock people that have suffered brain damage. Maybe those who are mocked are the next hidden genius," said another netizen.

Related Article:

Human Evolution –  27 Sep 2008 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

“.. What do you think the Human brain can really do? What do you think it's built to do? Let me give you an example of what your society has come to accept as an "unbalanced person." Some of you think it's a "sick person." Let me talk about the autistic one. Let us talk about autism in what you call the most severe case.

Blessed is the autistic one who has come to this earth to show you what future Human evolvement looks like! They spend a lifetime trying to figure out linearity and it frustrates them. Blessed is the savant who the earth looks at and calls unbalanced. For the Humans who do this cannot see what they don't understand. The autistic one is able to get up off the paper and be in color! Many of the autistic ones can do what your calculators can do on your desks, did you know that? And they don't need a calculator! Give them a problem - two digits multiplied by three digits. Now watch how fast they give you the answer. Because they're not linear! Ask them what weekday the 13th of August will be in 2012, and they'll tell you, and they don't need a calendar. You might say, "What kind of a mind can do that?" I'll tell you - a nonlinear one without the walls in the brain that you have.

Have you ever thought about that? The autistic have a nonlinear mind. The barriers are dropped. Can you imagine the frustration of this Human? Here he is in a world of black and white while he is in color. Not only that, you want him to go in a straight line when he is used to all directions at once. This also explains why the only energies that will work to calm him are interdimensional ones - music, art, and love. Does this start to make sense to you? (see below)

What is taking place, dear ones, for all to know and see and understand, is that very, very slowly you have the linearity of the Human brain starting to be reduced. Unlike the autistic, it will be in ways that will still be balanced and make sense. In other words, you will be able to move in and out of quantum thought any time you wish in order to live in a linear, 3D existence, but have quantum consciousness. It will be a return to a form of consciousness that Lemurians had, but with the wisdom of the ages that you have collected. This will not be fast, but the forerunners of that are already here.

I'm going to give you some attributes of Human evolution in a moment, but let's return to the autistic ones. Many reading this are very concerned about autism. You wish to know why there are so many autistics being born. You say it's beyond coincidence that there are suddenly so many! There's more autistic children being born today than there ever have been on this planet. Humans are scurrying around wanting to know what's wrong. Is it the chemistry of the food? Perhaps it must be vaccinations! Some are saying, without any proof, "Yes, that's it - vaccinations must be it." You are grasping at almost anything to solve the puzzle of why so many autistics are arriving.

Yet very few Humans, if any, have looked at the puzzle and said, "Perhaps we're evolving, and this is the first wave of what we're going to see?" Not mentally unbalanced, but nonlinear thinking! This is, indeed, the case. You are seeing a form of evolution and you are calling it odd and unusual. It's simply those who are coming in early with activated quantum DNA. This early forerunner has DNA activated in an uncontrolled way, and so learning is needed to know how to make sense of it all. This is what they are doing, and each generation of savant will have a better time of it, figuring out what is linear and what is not.

Watch the autistic child go through what they must do (autism in its most severe form). They are so nonlinear that there is incredible frustration in trying to linearize even the Human voice as you speak to them. They will do the same actions over and over and over, trying to linearize the nonlinear. The linear walls are gone in their brain, and they have to learn to build the ones that they need. Humans then see them as a problem, and it's not a problem. It's a form of gifted children who are helping this planet to grow. Blessed are those who come into Earth as the new wave of consciousness to show you where it's going. They are setting the stage for a new kind of Human. For this quantumness will develop in a balanced way where many will have the autistic talents where they want them, and the linear when they want that. That's what the Human mind is capable of - being quantum when they wish to be. That's a return to the way it was given to you.  ‘’

Pharmas face closure if they fail to meet Beijing's new regulations

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-01-23

Workers package drugs at a pharmaceutical company in Hangzhou.
(Photo/Xinhua)

Drug manufacturers in China that have not passed new regulations under the Good Manufacturing Practice for Pharmaceutical Products (GMP) will face closure until they pass the verification process devised by the new GMP regulations, according to the China Food and Drug Administration.

Chinese pharmaceuticals can be divided into two categories — sterile medical products and non-sterile medical products.

The administration stated that all the sterile drugs manufactured by existing drug manufacturers had to meet the requirements of the new version of GMP before the end of 2013.

As of Dec. 31, 2013, the number of sterile drug producers was pegged at 1,319, with 796 passing the new GMP regulation and 523 trying to meet the new requirements or waiting to be merged with other companies.

The administration stated that those who have not met the requirements of the new GMP regulation could continue operating after they pass, but those who fail to pass the exam would be closed or merged, according to the Shanghai-based Economic Observer.

Most drug makers who passed the new regulation are now facing idle capacity because their capacity had been enhanced to meet standards, said a worker at China Shineway Pharmaceutical Group.

For drug producers, trying to meet the new GMP regulation is exerting mounting pressure as a result of idle capacity, bank loans, development for new drugs and capital flow.

Non-sterile medical products, on the other hand, have to meet the requirements of the new GMP by the end of 2015, said the report.

As of Oct. 2013, only 778 out of the total 3,839 non-sterile drug manufacturers passed the verification process.

An official at the China Association of Pharmaceutical Commerce said that at least 1,000 non-sterile medical producers have to be shut down or merged with other firms after the deadline passes in 2015.

Market observers are of the view that China's pharmaceutical industry should be controlled by large pharmaceutical firms, which could help enhance quality, improve competitiveness and internationalization.

Jewish parents in US begin to question the need for circumcision

Growing numbers make changes to ceremony that takes place on eighth day of boys' lives and is one of Judaism's oldest rituals

The Guardian, Michelle Boorstein for the Washington Post, Friday 17 January 2014

American Jews having second thoughts about circumcising sons. Photograph:
P Deliss/Godong/Corbis

When his pregnant wife first challenged circumcising their son, Mike Wallach had a gut reaction: "That's what we do, we're Jews!" But doubts about whether the surgery was medically necessary and concern over his wife's opposition forced Wallach to confront some questions.

Can you be Jewish without Judaism's oldest ritual? he wondered. What does it mean to be Jewish?

Speaking with God, the 37-year-old screenwriter and grandson of Holocaust survivors explained he was using the "free will and brain you gave me" to reject circumcision. God, he concluded, wouldn't be impressed by the desire to do something simply "for tradition's sake".

"I wasn't at peace until I had that conversation," said Wallach, who grew up in Washington and now lives in Brooklyn.

Wallach is among a small but growing number of Jews who are slowly altering what has for millennia been considered perhaps Judaism's core rite. The Bible says an adult Abraham circumcised himself to mark the covenant between him and his descendants and God. Any male who doesn't circumcise, God says in Genesis, "that soul will be cut off from its people; he has broken My covenant".

Many of these Jews, according to rabbis and the ritual circumcisers known as mohels, are rejecting the classic festive circumcision ceremony, called a brit milah, or bris. For thousands of years, Jews have performed the ritual removal of the penile foreskin on the eighth day of a boy's life, sometimes at the cost of death during periods of antisemitism.

A very small percentage, including Wallach, are not circumcising at all. Others, uncomfortable with the joyous, public ceremony around an intimate surgical procedure, are circumcising their sons in the hospital and crafting new baby-welcoming ceremonies days or weeks later for family and friends. Some are having no public service at all.

Meanwhile, there is an unprecedented level of debate among friends, grandparents and couples about whether to circumcise and how. Given that the topic merges sex, religion, identity, culture, gender equity, health politics and antisemitism, such discussions can grow intense or acrimonious.

"What's a nice word for the Bermuda Triangle?" said Rabbi Shira Stutman of Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Washington's largest community of 20- and 30-something Jews. "Circumcision is at the nexus of everything that it means to be Jewish ... It's primal. It's deeper than anything we can understand rationally."

Sixth & I gets so many questions about circumcision from younger Jews that it will hold a class in early 2014, Stutman said. While the vast majority of Jews decide to circumcise, she said, "the days of being 100% sure and not even thinking about it are done". Stutman opted for a private ceremony when her son was born.

Several factors are fuelling the trend, including growing secular discomfort with the practice, mixed data on medical necessity and an American culture increasingly open to reinterpreting religious practices. The percentage of circumcision procedures among the general population is also dropping.

American Jews, on the whole, are now more immersed in secular culture and thus more apt to look askance at the idea of a tribal scarification ceremony. High education levels and a natural aesthetic are also prompting questioning among younger Jews.

"Because the American Jewish community is significantly educated, they're more likely to do organic and wanting everything to be natural, and a bris is sort of primal and ancient," said Julie Pelc Adler, director of the circumcision programme for Reform Judaism, the largest US denomination of Jews. "It's really different than the aesthetic of, 'Oh, let's bring this perfect new baby and swaddle him in perfection.' It's looking at this perfect baby and saying, 'He's not perfect, we need to do this one thing.'"

Rabbi Shira Stutman discusses circumcision at a class for converts to Judaism
 at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington. Photograph: Linda Davidson/
The Washington Post

Ben Rempell, 35, didn't consider himself particularly religious. So the USAid employee was surprised at the force of his reaction in November 2009, when one morning his then-pregnant wife, Danielle Rudstein Rempell, lobbed this question: "Isn't circumcision another form of genital mutilation?"

Rempell remembers "giving her a disgusted look" and becoming defensive and angry. He became more so when she raised the question with their weekly Sunday dinner group.

He began to struggle with it on his own, unsure why the rite was so important to him given that he was not a particularly observant Jew.

Ultimately, he discovered, his motivation was more tribal.

"It wasn't a Jewish thing, it was an identity thing, envisioning growing up and he sees me and I see him and he asks why he's different. A child's identity is their family," he said.

But isn't Jewishness part of your identity?

"It had to have something to do with Judaism. That's what we do. That's what I am," said Rempell, who now lives with his family in Honduras.

His secular-but-tribal argument for a son "who looks like his father" convinced his wife. They now have two sons, both circumcised – but with no ceremony.

Not all couples get on the same page. Several couples interviewed didn't want their names used, either because their disagreement was so intense and they wanted to put the issue in the past or because they were expecting and didn't want family and friends to be drawn into their private debate. They tell similar stories of angrily emailing American Academy of Pediatrics studies, painful conversations challenging each other's concepts of Judaism and even circumcisions ending in tears and fights.

Four statements from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the largest US body of children's doctors, have wavered back and forth a bit since 1979. Most recently, in 2012, the group said benefits outweigh potential risks but not enough to recommend circumcision routinely. Organisations that have done the most extensive polling on US Jews say there is no data on circumcision rates.

Binyamin Biber, a rabbi of the small movement called Secular Humanistic Judaism, is perhaps the only rabbi in the Washington area who advertises his willingness to bless a welcoming ceremony for a boy who is uncircumcised. Requests for his services are small but growing, from one or two each year in the past to four or five a year now.

He sees questions about circumcision as a natural product of a time when more and more families are interfaith and parents aren't sure about a ritual once rooted in special treatment for boys. The liturgy he uses doesn't mention God and emphasises bringing the child into a "human covenant for a better world".

"We live in a more cosmopolitan world and Jewish families have become very intercultural," said Biber. "For those families, a ceremony which regards Jewish males as privileged seems problematic, to put it mildly."

Rabbis who are engaging Jews' questions about circumcision are asking people to think about the ritual in a different way. "We do all sorts of things that hurt our children that help them for the greater good. We vaccinate them, we ground them, we take away their devices," Stutman told a wide-eyed class of adults converting to Judaism one recent night as she ran through the circumcision curriculum.

Several people in the class at Sixth & I gasped when she explained that even when circumcised men convert, they give a few drops of blood from the penis to represent their commitment. "Remember we are an earthy people! We don't pretend we don't have bodies!"

Adler said the circumcision issue is just part of a world of questions about bringing Jewish ritual and law into a new era. She fields questions, for example, about whether the male child of a lesbian couple whose birth mother is not Jewish – but whose other mother is – would be considered Jewish, or would the child need a conversion component of his circumcision ceremony.

Judaism generally was passed to children through their biological mothers. But in recent decades more liberal Jewish denominations have been recognising biological fathers as well.

When it comes to religious evolution, she asks, "where is the line? At what point is it no longer Judaism? Each choice distinguishes Jews, and it's a slippery slope."

This article appeared in the Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from the Washington Post

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Israeli court fines woman for refusing to circumcise her son

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear and beloved Kryon: What should we know about "Brit-Mila" (Jewish circumcision)?

Answer: All circumcision was based on commonsense health issues of the day, which manifested itself in religious-based teaching. That basically is what made people keep doing it. This eighth-day-from-birth ritual is no more religious today than trimming your fingernails (except that Brit-Mila is only done once, and it hurts a bit more).

It's time to start seeing these things for what they are. Common sense is not static. It's dynamic, and related to the culture of the time. Yesterday's common sense about health changed greatly with the discovery of germs. It changed again with practices of cleanliness due to the discovery of germs, and so on. Therefore, we would say that it really doesn't make a lot of difference in today's health practices. It's done almost totally for cultural historic and traditional purposes and holds no energy around it other than the obvious intent of the tradition.

This is also true for a great deal of the admonishments of the Old Testament regarding food and cleanliness, and even the rules of the neighborhood (such as taking your neighbor's life if he steals your goat, or selling your daughter in slavery if you really need the money... all found in scripture). The times are gone where these things matter anymore, yet they're still treated with reverence and even practiced religiously in some places. They're now only relics of tradition, and that's all. If you feel that you should honor a tradition, then do it. If not, then don't. It's not a spiritual or health issue any longer.

Be the boss of your own body and your own traditions. Follow what your spiritual intuition tells you is appropriate for your own spiritual path and health.