#neither am i permitted to allow these breaches of human rights to continue

[eimearkuopio]

The kingdom of heaven will still need mole sanctuaries. But let's all stop living in one. It can be isolated by time instead of space.

[jordanianroyals]

Princess Haya: Dubai ruler had ex-wife's phone hacked - UK court

By Frank Gardner (BBC Security Correspondent), 6 October 2021

The High Court has found that the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, interfered with British justice by ordering the hacking of the phone of his ex-wife, Princess Haya of Jordan.

The phones of her solicitors, Baroness Fiona Shackleton QC and Nick Manners, were also targeted during their divorce custody case, according to the court.

Princess Haya said the discovery had made her feel "hunted and haunted".

Sheikh Mohammed denied any knowledge of the hacking.

He said the court's findings were based on evidence that was not disclosed to him, and that they were "made in a manner which was unfair".

The judgments are a blow to the sheikh and a further revelation as to his treatment of female members of his family.

'Serial breaches'

The High Court judgments, which were published on Wednesday afternoon, referred to the hacking as "serial breaches of (UK) domestic criminal law", "in violation of fundamental common law and ECHR rights", "interference with the process of this court and the mother's access to justice" and "abuse of power" by a head of government.

The president of the Family Division of the High Court found that "the mobile phones of the mother (Princess Haya), two of her solicitors, her personal assistant and two members of her security staff had been the subject of either successful or attempted infiltration by surveillance software. The software used is called Pegasus software and was that of an Israeli company, the NSO Group."

The court concluded that the surveillance was carried out "by servants or agents of the father (Sheikh Mohammed), the Emirate of Dubai or the [United Arab Emirates] and that the surveillance occurred with the express or implied authority of the father".

Difficult to detect

The extent of the hack is shocking in what data it gave the hackers access to.

NSO's Pegasus software, often referred to as "spyware", is able to track the location of the individual using the phone, read their SMS messages, emails and messages in other apps, as well as eavesdrop on their phone calls and access their contact list, passwords, calendar dates and photographs. In other words, it gives the hacker complete access to all the data they want to see in their target's phone.

It also allows the hacker to activate the target's phone without their knowledge, recording their activity and even taking photographs and screenshots.

Similar spyware is alleged to have been deployed by Saudi government agents, working on the orders of the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, against dissidents living abroad, including associates of the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

It is extremely difficult for a victim of such spyware to even detect that their phone has been infected with Pegasus.

'Very substantial amount of data'

In the ongoing custody case between Sheikh Mohammed and Princess Haya at the Family Division of the High Court, her legal team said the hacking took place with his "express or implied authority".

The president of the court concluded that "in relation to the mother (Princess Haya), it is clear that the [hacking] attempt succeeded with a very substantial amount of data (265MB) being covertly extracted from her phone".

Sheikh Mohammed denied any knowledge of the hacking and said he did not instruct anyone to use NSO "or any software in this way". His legal team said he was not prepared to enter into any debate in relation to what security systems the UAE might have.

The allegations against Dubai's ruler were supported by testimony given by an expert technology witness, Dr William Marczak, who is based in California and is a senior research fellow at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which researches digital surveillance.

He told the court he had no doubt the phones were hacked using NSO's Pegasus software. He also concluded "with high confidence" that the phones were hacked by a single operator in a nation state. He concluded with medium confidence that it was most unlikely to be any state other than the UAE.

Alarm raised by Cherie Blair

Princess Haya's legal team first became aware that they had been hacked after an urgent phone call made by Cherie Blair QC, the wife of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, to Baroness Shackleton. Mrs Blair acts as an adviser to NSO Group on business and human rights related issues.

A senior member of NSO's management team called Mrs Blair from Israel on 5 August 2020 to inform her that "it had come to their attention that their software may have been misused to monitor the mobile phones of Baroness Shackleton and HRH Princess Haya".

The NSO staff member then told Mrs Blair that those phones could no longer be accessed using NSO software and they asked for her help in contacting Baroness Shackleton.

NSO, which has previously been accused by human rights groups of enabling autocratic states to carry out intrusive surveillance of dissidents and journalists, has insisted in public statements that it only supplied its spyware to enable governments to counter criminals and terrorists.

NSO is believed to have terminated its contract with the UAE.

'Living in fear of her life'

The hack took place during a critical phase in Sheikh Mohammed and Princess Haya's divorce custody case at the High Court in the summer of last year.

The guardian appointed for her children said it "impacts crucially on the mother and her wellbeing. It is a very pernicious experience if the mother has been subjected to surveillance of the type that she understands that she has been".

Princess Haya's legal team told the court that "the mother has been living in fear of her life frankly, and in fear of the children's security since April of [2019]".

The court also heard how Sheikh Mohammed had attempted to buy a property in Surrey, Parkwood Estate, so close to his ex-wife's home at Castlewood, that "if anyone chose to use it, it is in prime position for direct or electronic surveillance".

Her legal team said "there is a powerful objective case as to why the mother should be genuinely in fear if the father has access to a property overbearing her own".

Referring to the proposed property purchase, Princess Haya told the court: "It feels as if I am being stalked, that there is literally nowhere for me to go to be safe from (the father), or those acting in his interests. It is hugely oppressive."

Hacked during 'significant events'

Princess Haya, a daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan and half-sister of King Abdullah II, fled Dubai in 2019 for Britain along with her two children after learning that her husband had ordered the abduction of Sheikha Latifa and Sheikha Shamsa.

She has since said she is living in fear of her life after receiving threatening messages from agents of her former husband.

Now her legal team is accusing agents of the Emirate of Dubai of acting on his behalf in hacking the phones of Princess Haya, her solicitors, Baroness Shackleton and Nick Manners, as well as her personal assistant and two members of her security staff.

The hacking took place in July and August 2020 "at a time of significant events" in the court proceedings when hearings were taking place over the welfare of the children.

The judgment concluded that "the allegations of hacking came before the court at a time when it had already made very serious findings against the father".

'Terrible life or death game'

During the long-running custody case at the High Court, Sheikh Mohammed has tried on several occasions through appeals to keep details of the allegations against him out of the public eye. But both in March 2020 and now, in October 2021, they have been made public, although he did not seek to appeal the most recent order permitting publication of these judgments.

Wednesday's ruling that, despite his denials, a sovereign ruler has interfered in the course of British justice by ordering the hacking of UK phones, including of a member of the House of Lords is both shocking, embarrassing and damaging to Sheikh Mohammed's international reputation.

Summing up the hacking allegations made by Princess Haya, her barrister Nicholas Cusworth QC told the court: "It is now clear, essentially, that the mother is engaged in a terrible game, a terrible life or death game of grandmother's footsteps in the dark. While she seeks answers about property purchases, hackers apparently get to work interfering with her privileged communications."

After the publication of the judgments Sheikh Mohammed said in a statement: "I have always denied the allegations made against me and I continue to do so. These matters concern supposed operations of state security.

"As a head of government involved in private family proceedings, it was not appropriate for me to provide evidence on such sensitive matters either personally or via my advisers in a foreign court."

He added: "Neither the Emirate of Dubai nor the UAE are party to these proceedings and they did not participate in the hearing. The findings are therefore inevitably based on an incomplete picture.

"In addition, the findings were based on evidence that was not disclosed to me or my advisers. I therefore maintain that they were made in a manner which was unfair."

Embarrassing as this is for Sheikh Mohammed, there is little or no prospect of his ever having to face any police questioning.

As Dubai's sovereign ruler, he remains a huge figure in the equestrian world, he owns extensive properties in the UK and has been photographed with the Queen at race meetings such as Ascot. The emirate of Dubai is home to around 100,000 British expatriates and both he and the wider UAE government are considered close allies of the UK.

The story is unlikely to get much coverage in the government-monitored media in the UAE, and here in London the UAE Embassy has declined to comment on the case, saying it is a private family matter.

The sheikh himself has sovereign immunity from any future potential prosecution.

[crayonlead2-blog]

Links 12/7/18

‘They were so full of joy’: Video of 200 dolphins swimming beside B.C. ferry goes viral CTV News

Global Carbon Budget 2018 Earth System Science Data. Important.

Texas and New Mexico shale basins hold 49 years worth of oil: USGS Reuters. Let’s leave it in the ground, so we always know where to find it.

For the first time, a major US utility has committed to 100% clean energy Vox. In 2050 – 2018 = 32 years.

Investors withdraw billions from US equity funds FT

Tesla Replaces General Counsel With Seasoned Trial Lawyer WSJ. Hmm.

Facebook’s 2018 Year In Review Facebook Newsroom [sic]. Not mentioned: “Cambridge Analytica, Myanmar genocide, a 30 million user security breach, and some other insignificant things.”

Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators (dataset) The World Bank. “The Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators (WWBI) is a dataset on public sector employment and wages that can help researchers and development practitioners gain a better understanding of the personnel dimensions of state capability, the footprint of the public sector on the overall labor market, and the fiscal implications of the government wage bill.” A lot to unpack there, but start with the framing of “state capability” as “bureaucracy.”

What the largest sex-furniture manufacturer in the US can teach America about trade Quartz

Brexit

Brexit uncertainty makes pound ‘impossible’ to trade FT

Brexit Deal Maze (diagram) Reuters. Beautiful diagrammatic visualization, but some of the end states (new Brexit referendum, new negotiations) are imaginary, unlike others which are real possibilities (crash out, canceling Article 50, May’s deal). Perhaps readers can make other corrections.

A second Brexit referendum may push us over the edge The Times. Well worth a log-in. “The polling shifts to Remain are still small, still within the margin of error, still dependent on non-voters deciding to vote this time round.” Surely the real issue is legitimacy? If Parliament were sovereign, not just in word but in deed, there would be no need for referenda, first or second.

How US billionaires are fuelling the hard-right cause in Britain George Monbiot, Guardian

High Court agrees to hear full legal challenge of Blighty’s Snooper’s Charter The Register

How France’s Yellow Vests Are Plotting Online Bloomberg

France’s Gas Tax Disaster Shows We Can’t Save Earth by Screwing Over Poor People Gizmodo

Merkel’s party votes for new leader, and new era in Germany Reuters

Syraqistan

Meet the Senators Who Took Saudi Money The American Conservative

China

‘Shocking’ Huawei Arrest Threatens to Upend Trump-Xi Trade Truce Bloomberg

US-China tensions played no part in death of renowned Stanford professor Zhang Shoucheng, family says SCMP. Oh.

A Week In Xinjiang’s Absolute Surveillance State Palladium (via Mark Ames).

The America hawks circling Beijing FT

While Small Dairy Farms Shut Down, This Mega-Dairy Is Shipping Milk to China Civil Eats

China prepares mission to land spacecraft on moon’s far side AP

Exploring the Ecosystem of the U.S.–Mexico Border Scientific American

Mexico’s New President Restarts Investigation Into 43 Missing Students NYT

Brazil future unclear amid opposing ideologies of ministers AP

Why voters should mark ballots by hand Freedom to Tinker. There is no good reason for any election official, of any party, to defend e-voting, let alone purchase electronic voting machines.

Exclusive: Emails of top NRCC officials stolen in major 2018 hack Politico. So Crowdstrike works both sides of the street?

Democrats in Disarray

AOC continues her on-boarding process:

Our “bipartisan” Congressional orientation is cohosted by a corporate lobbyist group. Other members have quietly expressed to me their concern that this wasn’t told to us in advance.

Lobbyists are here. Goldman Sachs is here. Where‘s labor? Activists?Frontline community leaders?

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 6, 2018

I don’t see how a good progressive like Nancy Pelosi can permit this.

Making Manchin the Ranking Member of Energy Committee Might Be a Compromise Too Far New York Magazine

Your Q Anon Exit Briefing Violent Metaphors

Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who is friends with Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, explained Vox

USA Gymnastics files for bankruptcy after hefty lawsuits over Larry Nassar CNN

A Mysterious Imposter Account Was Used On Facebook To Drum Up Support For The Migrant Caravan Buzzfeed. More at NC here.

A Business With No End NYT

Health Care

J&J pays $360 million for illegally using a charity to pay kickbacks to Medicare patients STAT

6 metro Detroit doctors busted in $500M opioid scheme Detroit Free Press

An Ancient Case of the Plague Could Rewrite History The Atlantic

Imperial Collapse Watch

At the CIA, a fix to communications system that left trail of dead agents remains elusive Yahoo News

Class Warfare

Marriott strike yields 40 percent pay hike for Westin housekeepers San Diego Tribune

The liberal peace fallacy: violent neoliberalism and the temporal and spatial traps of state-based approaches to peace Territory, Politics, Governance

Global Wealth Report 2018: US and China in the lead Credit Suisse

The European Youth Guarantee: A systematic review of its implementation across countries International Labor Organization (UserFriendly).

Damn It All NYRB

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Links on December 7, 2018 by Lambert Strether.

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

Post navigation

← Brexit: Corbyn’s Cakeism; Norway Rejects “Norway” The Inconvenient Truth about Climate Change and the Economy →

Source: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/12/links-12-7-18.html

[bestnewsmag-blog]

New Post has been published on Bestnewsmag

New Post has been published on https://bestnewsmag.com/obama-calls-on-lawmakers-to-show-courage-in-health-care-fight/

Obama calls on lawmakers to show ‘courage’ in health-care fight

Obama: Examples of Deceptive Speech

  Right here are some examples of deceptive speech from one in all former President Obama’s Press Meetings, interspersed with my personal essential remark. With a bit of luck, my refuting statements will seem to clarify and you may be less probably to be swayed with the aid of this kind of misleading speech within the destiny. I wrote it simply days after the event in 2013, but never posted it before, so in it, I deal with Obama as the modern-day president, for the reason that he became nonetheless in the workplace at the time. The factor of the item isn’t always primarily to vilify Obama but to clarify the shape of deceptive speech in popular.

The subsequent rates from President Barack Obama were taken from his Press Conference on NSA Surveillance on August 9, 2013.

Obama: I’m centered on my number one obligation as Commander-In-Chief, and that’s keeping the Yankee humans secure.

Me: Many could argue that the maximum basic responsibility of the President of the united states is to maintain, shield and protect the Constitution. What does he suggest by the word ‘secure’? And at what cost to liberty will this so-referred to as protection be won? When Obama and each different President took their oath of the workplace, they solemnly swore that “I will faithfully execute the office of President of us, and will to the satisfactory of my capacity, maintain, defend and shield the Constitution of the united states.”

And in a talk room communication I stumbled upon, a person (I could not inform what his or her name become) published The subsequent:

“just this morning I read a CNN opinion piece by means of Republican senator Sam Brownback arguing in opposition to closing Guantanamo. within the first sentence, he says ‘The maximum vital obligation for any president is the protection and security of the yank human beings.’ He makes use of this mistaken premise at some stage in and is apparently willing to justify any act as lengthy as it continues Individuals secure. Why is this guy allowed through the doors of Congress? I, like many Individuals, am inclined to give up my life in defense of yanked ideals and freedoms. I would alternatively die in a terrorist assault than see the Charter and the yanked beliefs embodied within it weakened or destroyed within the name of defensive me.”

This emphasis on the safety and protection of the yank human beings may also sound affordable, but until we recognize precisely what this word represents to the President, till we recognise what values and intentions are using his efforts to supposedly protect us, till we know especially what closing varieties of safety and security he envisions, and exactly what he considers the gravest threats we need safety from, we can not truly inform whether or not we should welcome it or oppose it.

The President then heads in the right direction with the aid of claiming that:

Obama: “We have to strike the proper balance between protecting our safety and preserving our freedoms.” [And a few sentences later,] “I called for an evaluation of our surveillance applications. Unfortunately, rather than an orderly and lawful manner to debate those troubles and give you appropriate reforms, repeated leaks of labeled information have initiated the debate in a completely passionate but no longer continually fully-informed manner”.

Me: Ha! Calling for a overview is hardly ever a courageous or reassuring act, and judging from the reality that Obama turned into no longer embarrassed with the aid of the statistics these leaks uncovered, it seems distinctly in all likelihood that an insignificant ‘horrific assessment’, hidden from public scrutiny, might have had even much less affect on his behavior and guidelines…

The leaks confirmed that our surveillance programs have been not lawful and orderly, to begin with, however, were grossly unconstitutional! This makes them no longer most effective illegal, but technically treasonous–a deep betrayal of our essential premises as a constitutional republic of legal guidelines which might be intended to use as much to the lawgivers as to the law receivers. This has not anything to do with ardor. It has to do with gross violations of his oath of the workplace.

Besides, if those leaks are accurate or actual, then how can these leaks in all likelihood save you an orderly and lawful process to debate them? Simply begin with the records gathered inside the leaks and pass from there. If what you really need is a lawful and orderly debate, not anything about these leaks can prevent it. In reality, these leaks can help assure the public that the debates are addressing the greater critical points and abuses we’ve got located to exist in mystery. In case your interest is really the safety and safety of the overall populace, you’ll probably welcome those leaks and thank Snowden for doing his very tough duty as a responsible American citizen defending the Charter. As an alternative, you persecute him. This is very compelling proof that your hobby in public safety, along with shielding our legal rights, isn’t among your top priorities–in actual reality.

In addition, there is, in reality, no such component as an ‘absolutely-informed way’. We are able to by no means, any folks, come to be ‘absolutely-informed’ about something, especially a massive and complex task. We necessarily have to act with incomplete and partial understanding and so does the President.

He then is going on to guarantee us how lots he has completed to make certain everything goes superbly well and enough safeguards are in the region, all the whilst ignoring the truth that his administration has been determined to be in direct, gross violation of simple criminal, constitutional guarantees.

He then stresses the importance of yank democracy and American openness. In truth, we are not a democracy (majority rule), however a constitutional republic (governed by legal guidelines that are supposed to apply to all of the humans no matter their ‘social elegance’ or ‘political position’). Some distance more critical to our countrywide health than ‘openness’ is our vigilance in defending and protective our constitutional rights and freedoms, irrespective of what all or any other countries within the global are devoted to or looking from us.

He shows what defines us is open debate and democratic procedure. Open debate? Wherein have any of the modifications his management initiated which have decreased our constitutionally assured rights and freedoms been subjected to open debate? And once more, our process is meant to rely on constitutional regulation, not ‘democratic method’. What does that simply suggest, anyway? Decided by means of the majority of the humans sitting in his closed workplace?

Then he makes many additional assurances earlier than listing The following four particular steps he goes to be taking shortly to “pass the controversy forward”. once more. What debate? The only in his mind? The only behind closed doorways? He’s assuring us He is making everything all proper again, despite the fact that he has admitted neither wrongdoing nor any breach of constitutional regulation. The primary of the four steps is:

Obama: “I can work with Congress to pursue suitable reforms to segment 215 of the Patriot Act, this system that collects phone data.”

Students, Faculty and Lawmakers Debate Issue of Guns on Campus

  Inside the wake of tragic shootings on the campuses of Virginia Tech and northern Illinois College, the debate has targeted on whether university college students and teachers need to be capable of bringing their own firearms on college grounds. At the same time as every kingdom except Illinois and Wisconsin allow some shape of hid handgun sporting rights, Utah is the only country that expressly permits college students to hold a concealed weapons on campus.

A collection called college students for hid Carry on Campus, presently counting about 8,000 students as members are arguing that scholars and school who are already licensed to hold hid guns must be allowed to do so on college grounds. The business enterprise is non-partisan and does no longer affiliate itself with the Countrywide Rifle Association or any other organization. One protest prepared through the organization had students from 110 colleges and universities going to class sporting empty holsters. Spokesman Scott Lewis said “We are not featuring to arm each scholar,” however those students who can already legally carry someplace else should be capable of achieving this at school.

Warring parties to the concept of weapons on campus factor to the differences among university campuses and different public places in which concealed weapons are allowed. At college, massive numbers of teens are residing in close quarters, coping with heavy instructional and social pressures at the side of the ordinary stresses of life. They are being used to being far from home and can be experimenting with tablets and alcohol. W. Gerald Massengill, chairman of the impartial panel that investigated the Virginia Tech shootings, said that the one’s issues outweigh the argument that armed college students may want to lessen fatalities at some stage in capturing incidents. A former head of the Virginia country police, he said he is “a robust supporter of the second one Change”, but that “our society has modified, and there are a few environments where not unusual sense tells us that it’s simply no longer a terrific concept to have weapons to be had.” Another worry of weapons-on-campus Combatants is that a taking pictures incident with a single shooter might erupt into a chaotic shootout between multiple events, probably increasing fatalities.

Utah may be the country to watch, as it’s miles seen what effects will arise from being the simplest country that permits hid guns on its campuses. The University of Utah, primarily based in Salt Lake City, banned firearms on its campus till that ban turned into struck down with the aid of the kingdom’s Preferred Court in past due 2006. That organization, sponsored by using all of the different universities In the kingdom, continues to be combating via the federal courts to reinstate the ban. In the meantime, nation legislators are thinking about a bill to modify the modern-day law to allow humans in Utah to hold loaded weapons overtly, not just hid. This would also include students.

To get a allow to hold a concealed weapon Within the kingdom of Utah, someone needs to be 21 years vintage, have no crook document of violent, immoral, or substance-associated crime, and be mentally capable. Those are among different qualifications. Utah nation Consultant Curtis Oda, who is sponsoring the invoice to permit for open sporting of guns, has stressed that human beings with lots in have long past thru rigorous assessments. “When you see someone with a gun, you are looking at some of the maximum regulation-abiding people Within the kingdom,” he said.

Evaluations evidently range among students in Utah. Non-public universities inclusive of Brigham Young College in Provo nonetheless have the power to prohibit weapons on campus. Almost about shootings, one BYU student referred to that “the humans that do it (shooters) need to dedicate suicide anyway,” so he felt weapons would now not necessarily forestall an ability killer. However, he noted that “it would provide college students a threat to protect themselves, and at Virginia Tech, it is able to have ended earlier than it did.”

Spirulina Health Benefits

  Entire healthful nutrition is becoming a primary challenge for lots of us. One of the reasons being the soil which is depleted of minerals because of over-farming and replenishing our soils with a handiest confined quantity of minerals. The alternative reason is our lifestyle in which we intend to compromise our fitness for time and taste. This results in nutritional deficiency and might result in health issues, some of them, chronic ones.

I’m writing this article so you can fulfill your dietary desires with ease the usage of this healthful alternative and are a great deal acceptable to our contemporary life. I wanted to can help you recognize about spirulina.

Spirulina is an edible blue inexperienced alga that has been used as meals for thousands of years for the high nutrients it offers. It changed into a part of some historical civilizations that loved its fitness advantages. I desired to highlight a number of the important nutrition facts that spirulina affords so you can also gain from it.

Spirulina fitness blessings Obama lawmakers health.

1. Spirulina is easy to digest – Spirulina cellular wall does no longer have cellulose which can not be digested by using our digestive gadget. Instead, spirulina cellular wall is made from mucopolysaccharides which can be easily damaged down and this makes the vitamins in the spirulina extraordinarily bio to be had which makes these nutrients quick absorbed in our frame.

2. Spirulina affords antioxidants – Spirulina offers antioxidants like Phycocyanin and phycocyanobilin. Both are very powerful antioxidants that combat loose radical that motive damage to our cells. unfastened radicals are recognized to speed up growing older technique and purpose chronic disease like most cancers. The phycocyanobilin is understood to shield kidneys from damage because of diabetes.

3. Spirulina gives protein – Spirulina incorporates about 60% protein by means of weight which very better than meat and hen. Protein is required for lots biochemical reactions within our body and needs to restore, regenerate and preserve our tissues. Scientist agrees with that Phycocyanin is a totally powerful compound and has a beneficial effect on the features of our coronary heart and mind.

4. Spirulina provides vitamins and minerals – Spirulina affords nutrition B12 which is needed via our nerves to be healthy. It also provides Gamma Linolenic Acid (GLA) which an important fatty acid that assists defend from eczema and psoriasis.

The above-noted blessings are some of the crucial health advantages that spirulina has to provide on your frame. Similarly to this, spirulina is to be had in tablet and powder form which is simple to consume and requires no coaching time. So my concept is you begin eating spirulina and fill your nutritional gap.

[readbookywooks]

[Of the inhabitants of Lilliput; their learning, laws, and customs; the manner of educating their children. The author's way of living in that country. His vindication of a great lady.] Although I intend to leave the description of this empire to a particular treatise, yet, in the mean time, I am content to gratify the curious reader with some general ideas. As the common size of the natives is somewhat under six inches high, so there is an exact proportion in all other animals, as well as plants and trees: for instance, the tallest horses and oxen are between four and five inches in height, the sheep an inch and half, more or less: their geese about the bigness of a sparrow, and so the several gradations downwards till you come to the smallest, which to my sight, were almost invisible; but nature has adapted the eyes of the Lilliputians to all objects proper for their view: they see with great exactness, but at no great distance. And, to show the sharpness of their sight towards objects that are near, I have been much pleased with observing a cook pulling a lark, which was not so large as a common fly; and a young girl threading an invisible needle with invisible silk. Their tallest trees are about seven feet high: I mean some of those in the great royal park, the tops whereof I could but just reach with my fist clenched. The other vegetables are in the same proportion; but this I leave to the reader's imagination. I shall say but little at present of their learning, which, for many ages, has flourished in all its branches among them: but their manner of writing is very peculiar, being neither from the left to the right, like the Europeans, nor from the right to the left, like the Arabians, nor from up to down, like the Chinese, but aslant, from one corner of the paper to the other, like ladies in England. They bury their dead with their heads directly downward, because they hold an opinion, that in eleven thousand moons they are all to rise again; in which period the earth (which they conceive to be flat) will turn upside down, and by this means they shall, at their resurrection, be found ready standing on their feet. The learned among them confess the absurdity of this doctrine; but the practice still continues, in compliance to the vulgar. There are some laws and customs in this empire very peculiar; and if they were not so directly contrary to those of my own dear country, I should be tempted to say a little in their justification. It is only to be wished they were as well executed. The first I shall mention, relates to informers. All crimes against the state, are punished here with the utmost severity; but, if the person accused makes his innocence plainly to appear upon his trial, the accuser is immediately put to an ignominious death; and out of his goods or lands the innocent person is quadruply recompensed for the loss of his time, for the danger he underwent, for the hardship of his imprisonment, and for all the charges he has been at in making his defence; or, if that fund be deficient, it is largely supplied by the crown. The emperor also confers on him some public mark of his favour, and proclamation is made of his innocence through the whole city. They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man's goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage. I remember, when I was once interceding with the emperor for a criminal who had wronged his master of a great sum of money, which he had received by order and ran away with; and happening to tell his majesty, by way of extenuation, that it was only a breach of trust, the emperor thought it monstrous in me to offer as a defence the greatest aggravation of the crime; and truly I had little to say in return, farther than the common answer, that different nations had different customs; for, I confess, I was heartily ashamed. (2) Although we usually call reward and punishment the two hinges upon which all government turns, yet I could never observe this maxim to be put in practice by any nation except that of Lilliput. Whoever can there bring sufficient proof, that he has strictly observed the laws of his country for seventy-three moons, has a claim to certain privileges, according to his quality or condition of life, with a proportionable sum of money out of a fund appropriated for that use: he likewise acquires the title of SNILPALL, or legal, which is added to his name, but does not descend to his posterity. And these people thought it a prodigious defect of policy among us, when I told them that our laws were enforced only by penalties, without any mention of reward. It is upon this account that the image of Justice, in their courts of judicature, is formed with six eyes, two before, as many behind, and on each side one, to signify circumspection; with a bag of gold open in her right hand, and a sword sheathed in her left, to show she is more disposed to reward than to punish. In choosing persons for all employments, they have more regard to good morals than to great abilities; for, since government is necessary to mankind, they believe, that the common size of human understanding is fitted to some station or other; and that Providence never intended to make the management of public affairs a mystery to be comprehended only by a few persons of sublime genius, of which there seldom are three born in an age: but they suppose truth, justice, temperance, and the like, to be in every man's power; the practice of which virtues, assisted by experience and a good intention, would qualify any man for the service of his country, except where a course of study is required. But they thought the want of moral virtues was so far from being supplied by superior endowments of the mind, that employments could never be put into such dangerous hands as those of persons so qualified; and, at least, that the mistakes committed by ignorance, in a virtuous disposition, would never be of such fatal consequence to the public weal, as the practices of a man, whose inclinations led him to be corrupt, and who had great abilities to manage, to multiply, and defend his corruptions. In like manner, the disbelief of a Divine Providence renders a man incapable of holding any public station; for, since kings avow themselves to be the deputies of Providence, the Lilliputians think nothing can be more absurd than for a prince to employ such men as disown the authority under which he acts. In relating these and the following laws, I would only be understood to mean the original institutions, and not the most scandalous corruptions, into which these people are fallen by the degenerate nature of man. For, as to that infamous practice of acquiring great employments by dancing on the ropes, or badges of favour and distinction by leaping over sticks and creeping under them, the reader is to observe, that they were first introduced by the grandfather of the emperor now reigning, and grew to the present height by the gradual increase of party and faction. Ingratitude is among them a capital crime, as we read it to have been in some other countries: for they reason thus; that whoever makes ill returns to his benefactor, must needs be a common enemy to the rest of mankind, from whom he has received no obligation, and therefore such a man is not fit to live. Their notions relating to the duties of parents and children differ extremely from ours. For, since the conjunction of male and female is founded upon the great law of nature, in order to propagate and continue the species, the Lilliputians will needs have it, that men and women are joined together, like other animals, by the motives of concupiscence; and that their tenderness towards their young proceeds from the like natural principle: for which reason they will never allow that a child is under any obligation to his father for begetting him, or to his mother for bringing him into the world; which, considering the miseries of human life, was neither a benefit in itself, nor intended so by his parents, whose thoughts, in their love encounters, were otherwise employed. Upon these, and the like reasonings, their opinion is, that parents are the last of all others to be trusted with the education of their own children; and therefore they have in every town public nurseries, where all parents, except cottagers and labourers, are obliged to send their infants of both sexes to be reared and educated, when they come to the age of twenty moons, at which time they are supposed to have some rudiments of docility. These schools are of several kinds, suited to different qualities, and both sexes. They have certain professors well skilled in preparing children for such a condition of life as befits the rank of their parents, and their own capacities, as well as inclinations. I shall first say something of the male nurseries, and then of the female. The nurseries for males of noble or eminent birth, are provided with grave and learned professors, and their several deputies. The clothes and food of the children are plain and simple. They are bred up in the principles of honour, justice, courage, modesty, clemency, religion, and love of their country; they are always employed in some business, except in the times of eating and sleeping, which are very short, and two hours for diversions consisting of bodily exercises. They are dressed by men till four years of age, and then are obliged to dress themselves, although their quality be ever so great; and the women attendant, who are aged proportionably to ours at fifty, perform only the most menial offices. They are never suffered to converse with servants, but go together in smaller or greater numbers to take their diversions, and always in the presence of a professor, or one of his deputies; whereby they avoid those early bad impressions of folly and vice, to which our children are subject. Their parents are suffered to see them only twice a year; the visit is to last but an hour; they are allowed to kiss the child at meeting and parting; but a professor, who always stands by on those occasions, will not suffer them to whisper, or use any fondling expressions, or bring any presents of toys, sweetmeats, and the like. The pension from each family for the education and entertainment of a child, upon failure of due payment, is levied by the emperor's officers. The nurseries for children of ordinary gentlemen, merchants, traders, and handicrafts, are managed proportionably after the same manner; only those designed for trades are put out apprentices at eleven years old, whereas those of persons of quality continue in their exercises till fifteen, which answers to twenty-one with us: but the confinement is gradually lessened for the last three years. In the female nurseries, the young girls of quality are educated much like the males, only they are dressed by orderly servants of their own sex; but always in the presence of a professor or deputy, till they come to dress themselves, which is at five years old. And if it be found that these nurses ever presume to entertain the girls with frightful or foolish stories, or the common follies practised by chambermaids among us, they are publicly whipped thrice about the city, imprisoned for a year, and banished for life to the most desolate part of the country. Thus the young ladies are as much ashamed of being cowards and fools as the men, and despise all personal ornaments, beyond decency and cleanliness: neither did I perceive any difference in their education made by their difference of sex, only that the exercises of the females were not altogether so robust; and that some rules were given them relating to domestic life, and a smaller compass of learning was enjoined them: for their maxim is, that among peoples of quality, a wife should be always a reasonable and agreeable companion, because she cannot always be young. When the girls are twelve years old, which among them is the marriageable age, their parents or guardians take them home, with great expressions of gratitude to the professors, and seldom without tears of the young lady and her companions. In the nurseries of females of the meaner sort, the children are instructed in all kinds of works proper for their sex, and their several degrees: those intended for apprentices are dismissed at seven years old, the rest are kept to eleven. The meaner families who have children at these nurseries, are obliged, besides their annual pension, which is as low as possible, to return to the steward of the nursery a small monthly share of their gettings, to be a portion for the child; and therefore all parents are limited in their expenses by the law. For the Lilliputians think nothing can be more unjust, than for people, in subservience to their own appetites, to bring children into the world, and leave the burthen of supporting them on the public. As to persons of quality, they give security to appropriate a certain sum for each child, suitable to their condition; and these funds are always managed with good husbandry and the most exact justice. The cottagers and labourers keep their children at home, their business being only to till and cultivate the earth, and therefore their education is of little consequence to the public: but the old and diseased among them, are supported by hospitals; for begging is a trade unknown in this empire. And here it may, perhaps, divert the curious reader, to give some account of my domestics, and my manner of living in this country, during a residence of nine months, and thirteen days. Having a head mechanically turned, and being likewise forced by necessity, I had made for myself a table and chair convenient enough, out of the largest trees in the royal park. Two hundred sempstresses were employed to make me shirts, and linen for my bed and table, all of the strongest and coarsest kind they could get; which, however, they were forced to quilt together in several folds, for the thickest was some degrees finer than lawn. Their linen is usually three inches wide, and three feet make a piece. The sempstresses took my measure as I lay on the ground, one standing at my neck, and another at my mid-leg, with a strong cord extended, that each held by the end, while a third measured the length of the cord with a rule of an inch long. Then they measured my right thumb, and desired no more; for by a mathematical computation, that twice round the thumb is once round the wrist, and so on to the neck and the waist, and by the help of my old shirt, which I displayed on the ground before them for a pattern, they fitted me exactly. Three hundred tailors were employed in the same manner to make me clothes; but they had another contrivance for taking my measure. I kneeled down, and they raised a ladder from the ground to my neck; upon this ladder one of them mounted, and let fall a plumb-line from my collar to the floor, which just answered the length of my coat: but my waist and arms I measured myself. When my clothes were finished, which was done in my house (for the largest of theirs would not have been able to hold them), they looked like the patch-work made by the ladies in England, only that mine were all of a colour. I had three hundred cooks to dress my victuals, in little convenient huts built about my house, where they and their families lived, and prepared me two dishes a-piece. I took up twenty waiters in my hand, and placed them on the table: a hundred more attended below on the ground, some with dishes of meat, and some with barrels of wine and other liquors slung on their shoulders; all which the waiters above drew up, as I wanted, in a very ingenious manner, by certain cords, as we draw the bucket up a well in Europe. A dish of their meat was a good mouthful, and a barrel of their liquor a reasonable draught. Their mutton yields to ours, but their beef is excellent. I have had a sirloin so large, that I have been forced to make three bites of it; but this is rare. My servants were astonished to see me eat it, bones and all, as in our country we do the leg of a lark. Their geese and turkeys I usually ate at a mouthful, and I confess they far exceed ours. Of their smaller fowl I could take up twenty or thirty at the end of my knife. One day his imperial majesty, being informed of my way of living, desired "that himself and his royal consort, with the young princes of the blood of both sexes, might have the happiness," as he was pleased to call it, "of dining with me." They came accordingly, and I placed them in chairs of state, upon my table, just over against me, with their guards about them. Flimnap, the lord high treasurer, attended there likewise with his white staff; and I observed he often looked on me with a sour countenance, which I would not seem to regard, but ate more than usual, in honour to my dear country, as well as to fill the court with admiration. I have some private reasons to believe, that this visit from his majesty gave Flimnap an opportunity of doing me ill offices to his master. That minister had always been my secret enemy, though he outwardly caressed me more than was usual to the moroseness of his nature. He represented to the emperor "the low condition of his treasury; that he was forced to take up money at a great discount; that exchequer bills would not circulate under nine per cent. below par; that I had cost his majesty above a million and a half of SPRUGS" (their greatest gold coin, about the bigness of a spangle) "and, upon the whole, that it would be advisable in the emperor to take the first fair occasion of dismissing me." I am here obliged to vindicate the reputation of an excellent lady, who was an innocent sufferer upon my account. The treasurer took a fancy to be jealous of his wife, from the malice of some evil tongues, who informed him that her grace had taken a violent affection for my person; and the court scandal ran for some time, that she once came privately to my lodging. This I solemnly declare to be a most infamous falsehood, without any grounds, further than that her grace was pleased to treat me with all innocent marks of freedom and friendship. I own she came often to my house, but always publicly, nor ever without three more in the coach, who were usually her sister and young daughter, and some particular acquaintance; but this was common to many other ladies of the court. And I still appeal to my servants round, whether they at any time saw a coach at my door, without knowing what persons were in it. On those occasions, when a servant had given me notice, my custom was to go immediately to the door, and, after paying my respects, to take up the coach and two horses very carefully in my hands (for, if there were six horses, the postillion always unharnessed four,) and place them on a table, where I had fixed a movable rim quite round, of five inches high, to prevent accidents. And I have often had four coaches and horses at once on my table, full of company, while I sat in my chair, leaning my face towards them; and when I was engaged with one set, the coachmen would gently drive the others round my table. I have passed many an afternoon very agreeably in these conversations. But I defy the treasurer, or his two informers (I will name them, and let them make the best of it) Clustril and Drunlo, to prove that any person ever came to me INCOGNITO, except the secretary Reldresal, who was sent by express command of his imperial majesty, as I have before related. I should not have dwelt so long upon this particular, if it had not been a point wherein the reputation of a great lady is so nearly concerned, to say nothing of my own; though I then had the honour to be a NARDAC, which the treasurer himself is not; for all the world knows, that he is only a GLUMGLUM, a title inferior by one degree, as that of a marquis is to a duke in England; yet I allow he preceded me in right of his post. These false informations, which I afterwards came to the knowledge of by an accident not proper to mention, made the treasurer show his lady for some time an ill countenance, and me a worse; and although he was at last undeceived and reconciled to her, yet I lost all credit with him, and found my interest decline very fast with the emperor himself, who was, indeed, too much governed by that favourite.