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Words of Wisdom

If enough of us choose to change even one small thing, together we have the power to change anything.

— Rick Hansen
"Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead."
- Lousia May Alcott

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Earth Hour

Don't forget Earth Hour is today, 29 March 2008 form 8 pm to 9 pm. Turn off the lights, computers and televisions (come on you can do it for an hour, I know you can)!

For more information check out the website:

http://www6.earthhourus.org/



Peace! C-

Friday, March 21, 2008

Empire Conference Day 4 - The Return.

I must say this was great experience. Thanks to Dr. P!

The remaining herd (which consisted of 5 of us) had a bit of a lazy start (we got to linger a little longer in bed than the previous 3 days). We had breakfast in the hotel (which was okay) before heading back north.

Our first stop was Napa Valley! It was beautiful (even though it was a bit commercial in some areas). We stopped at the V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena. They had a incredible store! Cheeses from around the world...Spain has some nice ones, fruits, pasta, breads, some touristy type stuff and of course wine (a nice selection by the way). Have of the group did some wine tasting, while Amanda and myself wandered around the shop. We found this great vegetarian Italian Cookbook, there is a local winery owner that has written a mystery novel, sounds interesting, t-shirts, hats, classical music Cd's and other things. We ate lunch in the picnic area before we headed to the CIA.

CIA? No not that CIA...The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone (CIA) it is located in an old monastery winery....the Brothers of something. Really nice building. I wish I could find more information about the history of the building....We did not stay very long, however I think it is worth a return trip.

After that brief, but fun stop, we headed back to the redwood curtain and to the edge of the world. We took turns entertaining Palo, sleeping and what ever else we had to occupy ourselves. As you can see this was a common sight....people using people as pillows. Here is Brandon asleep on Amanda's shoulder.


We got back around 6:30ish. Got home had dinner and crashed....by Monday evening I was feeling sick and Tuesday, I had that lovely fever...so much for catching up on homework over spring break.

Oh well.

Peace! C-

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Empire Conference Day 3 - Final Day

Another early morning and muffins for breakfast. Not a bad way to start off the final day of the conference.

We started off with a movie Little Saigon: Forging Identity. It was an interesting film. It started off with the protests in Westminster a few years ago when the video store owner put up a picture of Ho Chi Minh in his store. It continued with interviews of various people in the community and a couple of people who were from Vietnam and their children who grew up in the US. They did not talk to the video store owner. I would have liked to have heard his side. Besides that it was very good.

The next session was about "Imperial Fantasies: Space, Time, and Place" which included The Fantasies of Empire: American Liberation and the Case of Guam and Unraveling Britishness: “Identity” and women’s spaces of sociality in postcolonial London. I thought Unraveling Britishness was very interesting and well done. This project had been in the works for about three years and Rosie Cox and Yasmmen Narayan of University of London interviewed many women, mostly from a middle class back ground with a few exceptions. Of course every one's identity and view is unique.

Lunch was followed up by a Plenary talk Pacman's Migration to a Post-Sensenbrenner California: Latino Youth Navigating Mazes and Eluding Ghosts I think the title is self explanatory. I thought it was interesting.

The final session was called "Imperialist Policies" this included Disemboweling William Wallace: Capital Punishment and Imperial Expansion in Late Medieval Britain and Revisiting Imperial Medicine: The 1851 International Sanitary Conference as a European imperial Project the first one was quite interesting. Until then I never heard of William Wallace and apparently beheading was quite common. Imagine if that was still the case...no need for prisons.

On to something a little more positive...than again maybe not, depending upon your view point. My friend and I were able to attend Palm Sunday mass after the conference, so that was a relief. After mass the part of the herd (as Dr. P called us) picked us up and we went to the mall. That trip reminded on why I afford the mall. Honestly, how do people spend hours there? I find it boring. Anyway, enough of my ramblings. We spent about an hour there (and yes I was bored). We went to dinner afterwards, it was a bit late but that was okay. Restaurants have gotten better at splitting a dish in two. It is the least they can do since their dishes are so big to begin with.

Once back at the hotel it was packing and to bed.

Peace! C-

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Empire Conference Day 2

Sorry I am not at my best at the moment....see my twitter re: 102 degree temp.

Needless to say we did not get much sleep during the weekend, but it was fun! On first full day of the conference we had breakfast there (muffins and the like). The first group I had the opportunity to listen to was "Asian and Western Convergences Around Identity,
Culture, and Gender": we heard about Der Ling: Manchu Princess and Bridges or Breaches: Chinese Bloggers Writing in English. Both were interesting

The Second group was "Technologies of Culture, Power, and Liberation" ( I missed Dr. P's presentation but I heard it was the best one). In the one I saw we had The Megalomaniac vs. The Landscape: The Critique of Western Imperialist Politics in Mainstream Cinema and REMIX! Negotiating Assimilation, Identity, Secularism, & Otherness the Second Time Around: The subculture of Desi Music in Bend it Like Beckham and Born Confused both were interesting.

For lunch there was rice and beans with corn tortilla's (since it was a Friday during Lent none of the meat, that's okay, you know me I am not a big meat eater anyway).

The next session was "China as an Open Empire: Ideology, Network, and Knowledge about the Outside World" (lots of China! The finally presentation was what I wanted to hear). Following the Tracks of Yu: Discourses of Imperial Territory in Song China, An Open Empire: Ruling Ideology and the Cultural Network of Yuan China, A Ming China Key: Wang Zheng and His Cross-cultural Dissemination, and Constructing Empire and Nation: The Symbolic Importance of Tibetan-Buddhist Temples and Roman-Catholic Churches in the Qing and Modern Eras. most of these were presented by people from China, so that was fun. The final presentation of this section I wanted to talk to the professor, but nature called.....sigh.

The final group of the day was "Twentieth Century Explorations of Gender, Ethnicity,
Power, and Militarism". One of my fellow students, Heather, was presenting here :-). Imperialism and Gender in Italian Fascist Ideology and Propaganda, 1925-1926 and Women’s Networks of Resistance to Military Dictatorships in Argentina and Chile (this one was Heather's. She did a great job!).

Then dinner - for us vegetarians (plus it was a Friday of Lent) we had this great ravioli pasta with grilled vegetables and alfredo sauce plus a salad. For dessert it was cheese cake with strawberries.

And the final event of the evening (several of us students were excited about this one): “Russia: Challenges to the Post-Imperial Migration State” presented by Mikhail Alexseev. Dr. Alexseev is a Professor at San Diego State in the Political Science department (International Relations, Comparative Politics/Post-Soviet Studies; American Politics). For more info on Dr. Alexseev check out the following websites: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/polsciwb/people/faculty/alexseev_m.htm or http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~alexseev/Alex.html.

He was the best speaker of the day and he kept every ones attention. He was kind enough to sit with a small group of us afterwards and was able to answer a couple of questions before we got kicked out. :-) As soon as we got back to the hotel we were googling his name! Impressive resume. He has some books out, however, they are currently out of my price range :-(. I did find some articles though! I have found a mentor from afar....sigh.

Anyway. I should at least try to eat something and try to focus on my paper(s)....there is always hope....

Peace! C-

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Empire Conference Day 1 - Going, going...gone!

Well, I have been bad at posting lately haven't I? Sorry about that.

Anyway, this past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a multi-disciplinary conference at CSU Stanislaus in Turlock, CA. Talk about flat...I must admit it was nice not to have to climb hills and stairs for a few days. :-)

We met up at Dr. Paulet's house, loaded the kid (Dr. P's son) and a our stuff for 12 people in the van and Tony's car (bless him for driving his own car!). Most of it landed in Tony's car. Anyway, we had fun drive (thanks to Ellie (sp?) for driving). We slept, people listened to music and watch movies on their i-pods, crocheted (that would be me) and we played an interesting game, we based it on important historical people and events. For example: someone said "Abigail Adams", then taking the last letter of the last name (in this case 'S'), the next person comes up with another such as "Suez Crisis". Needless to say we kept getting stuck on "S" and "N" and after a while we were having a harder time of it.

We stopped for lunch in (I believe) Legget. We also stopped for gas a couple of times. We finally arrived at CSU Stanislaus around 6:00 pm. They were so sweet there...they waited for us to arrive! Seriously...one of the people running the show, told them to wait for the Humbolt students. Of course they wanted us to finish the food that was still there...hum...starving students? Indeed we were! After checking in and meeting a few people, we headed to our hotel in Modesto.

Well, it was 8 girls and 2 boys plus Dr. P and her family. The girls split into groups of 4 to a room and the boys got the third room with the fourth to Dr. P. Naturally people forgot things and we wandered over to (God forgive us!) Wal-Mart (shudder). After that some people were still hungry and decided to go to the Olive Garden (conveniently all these places were across from the hotel). Once back at the hotel some of the others went to the pool. Myself, Amanda and a few other stayed back in the rooms and crashed. Of course Amanda and I had to find a nearby church to attend a Palm Sunday mass, which we found in Modesto a parish called Our Lady of Fatima. In the mean time Dr. P was writing the paper she was to present the next day (and I thought I procrastinated).

Well, that was day one. I'll write more tomorrow...right now I have better start my paper!

Peace! C-

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

U.S. Government Concedes Vaccines Cause Autism

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently conceded the first vaccine-autism case.

This case was filed in the no-fault National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program as part of the Autism Omnibus proceedings in the U.S. Federal Court of Claims.

It was one of the first three cases chosen that alleged Thimerosal in childhood vaccines significantly contributed to a child developing autism.

Clifford Shoemaker, of Shoemaker and Associates of Vienna, Virginia, is the attorney of record in the Hanna Poling v. Secretary of HHS (case: 02-1466V).

Experts filing on behalf of the petitioner, Hanna Poling, included pediatric neurologist, Dr. Andrew Zimmerman of Johns Hopkins University, and Maryland geneticist and epidemiologist, Dr. Mark Geier of the Genetic Centers of America.

This concession shows the dishonesty of the continual media spin coming from public health officials and others who maintain there is no evidence that Thimerosal, or any other part of any vaccine, has ever caused autism or, for that matter, has harmed anyone in any way.

The facts are that the Vaccine Compensation Act has already compensated over 2,000 individuals who proved that they were harmed by vaccines, resulting in settlements of nearly two billion dollars.

Additionally, hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific/medical articles from some the world�s best universities have long implicated Thimerosal in vaccines as a causal factor in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism.

Furthermore, in 2003, the U.S. House of Representatives� Government Reform Committee, after a 3.5-year investigation, concluded that Thimerosal caused the autism epidemic and that the FDA and health authorities were guilty of �institutional malfeasance� in covering it up.

Evidence supporting the connection between mercury and autism include:

1. Published studies from the US and France showing that urinary porphyrins, a biomarker for body-burden of mercury, are elevated in patients diagnosed with autistic disorders (http://www.mercury-freedrugs.org).

2. A published study by researchers at Harvard University that found twice as much mercury and oxidative stress in the brains of those with an autism diagnosis as found in the brains of those who were normal.

3. A study from the US showing a significant relationship between increasing blood mercury levels and an increased risk of a diagnosis of an autistic disorder.

4. Numerous papers by independent researchers showing a link between increasing mercury exposure from childhood vaccines and the risk of a child developing an autistic disorder.

5. Several papers showing that adding low levels of Thimerosal to certain blood, brain, eye, immune, liver and/or muscle cells poisons their cellular mitochondrial pathways and can induce cell death.

Today, despite being banned in Europe and restricted in 7 U.S. states, Thimerosal-containing flu vaccines are still recommended for routine administration to pregnant women and infants, with little or no warning of the presence of this known poison in these and other vaccines.

Vaccines have and will continue to save many lives. However, an immediate ban and recall of vaccines and other drugs containing mercury compounds used in their production must be instituted immediately to stop the epidemic of developmental disorders, including autism, caused by the unsound use of mercury in medicine.

For more information, please visit CoMeD�s website:

www.mercury-freedrugs.org

Citation: http://www.newsmax.com/health/vaccines_cause_autism/2008/03/03/77315.html