#nothing is isolated. food production impacts us all directly

[leuenbergeria]

They're absolutely right. 'Personal responsibility' is, in this context, a rightoid made-up talking point for the sole purpose of shielding certain financial interests.

Like we also have to talk about the 'production' side of things. Big Agro is a blight upon the Earth and upon humanity as a whole.

Oligarchs' and latifundists' production techniques are not predicated on providing, say, NUTRITIOUS CROPS/FOOD or anything like that. God forbid. Instead, they've linked up with gigantic multinational and national trash food companies to absolutely dominate all food supply chains. That is to say, they make sure that not only you consume their product, but that you have NO OTHER CHOICE. That's (partly) why food deserts exist.

Of course healthy food is going to be expensive if most of the prime agricultural land is dedicated to cultivating bottom-of-the-barrel crops like African palm and sugar cane. They aren't just taking space, they're actively STEALING it. The whole industry is build on unethical colonization techniques and heritage.

Of course the 'obesity epidemic' is going to be a thing if all the food production systems and chains are an absolute disaster only meant to extract maximum value from land until it's absolutely fucked and left barren for generations to come, leaving the mess to the people who originally lived there while the corps move on to annihilate some other land area. The absolute distortion of economic and ethical priorities thanks to capitalism is having nefarious effects on our health from all sides.

I don't know what that person was interviewing for but I hope they got it, because bullseye.

[europetraveltips]

Top 5 Places To Visit Iceland

I regularly have unfamiliar companions contact me who are wanting to go around Iceland. Where would it be a good idea for them to go? How would it be a good idea for them to respond? How could they plan for movement inside Iceland? What are the best Iceland excursion tips? Will COVID-19 effect their excursion by any means?

There is no simple method to address these inquiries. Various individuals appreciate various things, and Iceland has substantially more to bring to the table than can be seen and done during a solitary visit.

Will COVID-19 Impact Your Visit?

Iceland has lifted all homegrown limitations related with COVID-19; veils are accordingly at this point not needed, nor is social separating or rising in settings. However a few organizations are as yet acclimating to the lower quantities of sightseers, the nation is generally rapidly getting back to business as usual. This has been made conceivable through long stretches of cautious limitations, a brilliant following framework, and, as of the finish of June 2020, the controlling of more immunization portions than there are Icelanders.

The possibly reason it would contrarily affect your visit is in case you are not inoculated, you don't have antibodies from a past contamination, or you are not from a select rundown of nations. These explorers should take two tests over a five-day isolate, despite the fact that on the off chance that you fit into any of the earlier classes, you just need to round out a pre-enrollment structure.

Investigating By Yourself During COVID-19

Self-driving visits are an incredible method to investigate the country all alone while as yet having an agenda arranged out for you. Your facilities and rental vehicle will be reserved for you yet how you spend the excursion to and from facilities is dependent upon you.

Booking a self-driving visit permits you to visit attractions during calmer occasions and keep away from swarms. The rental vehicles are cleaned completely between utilizes regardless of the facilitating of the standards, and you can have confidence that other nearby organizations, for example, inns and eateries are doing likewise. This is an especially incredible alternative in the event that you actually have second thoughts about friendly removing facilitating.

1. Go Sightseeing Under the Midnight Sun

You can expect a portion of Iceland's most mainstream attractions to be a bit swarmed during the long mid year long periods of high season.

In any case, in case you are surely visiting in mid-summer, you will be honored by the unremitting 12 PM sun whose light goes on for 24 hours.

Exploiting the unending days by going around evening time will allow you to keep away from the groups and experience an individual, enchanted snapshot of agelessness in nature's golden hug.

The streets will be quiet, the towns and towns snoozing, and the quietness of the splendid night air will be just about as charming as the wild it envelopes.

The individuals who feel really awkward voyaging alone around evening time can generally look for the help of a modest bunch of experienced aides who lead little gatherings on 12 PM sun visits.

In these cases, it's normal better to join the 12 PM sun with a portion of Iceland's most emotional scenes and once in a blue moon exercises. We recommend Golden Circle visits, horse riding visits, and 12 PM sun mountain climbing visits.

In case you are not used to the brilliant summer evenings of the Arctic, and really need to rest during the evening, you ought to make sure to pack a dozing veil.

A resting veil is an unquestionable requirement under the 12 PM sun. It will help your body know when the time has come to rest by better dealing with your circadian mood.

2. Purchase Food Straight From the Farm

When cruising all over Iceland you will ultimately come to understand that the whole ring street is plagued by three chains of rest and administration stations.

They all offer precisely the same variety of overrated lousy nourishment paying little heed to their area.

Icelandic sheep wander indiscriminately, touching in mountain pastures throughout the late spring.

An optimal option in contrast to shopping at these stations is to purchase quality privately sourced items straightforwardly from individuals who make them.

An extraordinary number of Icelandic ranchers have made their ways for voyagers. They as often as possible sell delectable nearby ranch items, including meat, fish, and natural products of the soil at an unobtrusive cost.

In specific regions, ranchers have even set up minimal self-administration cabins where explorers are trusted to take new products of the soil and pay for what they take without management.

Purchase food directly from the ranch and backing nearby produce.

To discover the ranchers who sell their items straightforwardly to the customer, you can either visit the Farm Food Direct landing page or download the Handpicked application. The last shows the areas of individuals around Iceland that have extraordinary food and drink offering. The areas are delineated the nation over.

3. Try not to Try to Buy Beer in Supermarkets

Because of the way that lager utilization was precluded in Iceland for most of the twentieth century, the Icelandic drinking society is as yet in its outset.

Right up 'til today, Icelanders keep an abnormal and untimely relationship with liquor, and cocktails are only sold in state-run stores called Vinbudin (The Wine Store).

Store racks, notwithstanding, are supplied with different brands of generally modest close lager.

These are items that intend to recreate the flavor of brew while absolutely wiping out its inebriating impacts.

Numerous explorers don't have the foggiest idea about this. Subsequently, it's moderately not unexpected to see unfamiliar guests successfully pushing full shopping baskets, loaded down with the watered out close lager, through Icelandic store paths, negligent of the real essence of their plunder.

The close lager may hold the party back from taking off with a bang, however the potential gain is that it won't ever hold you back from getting up the next morning.

It merits observing this and the wide range of various standard shams that happen regularly in Iceland.

4. Go Camping in Iceland

There could be no more excellent approach to spend a late spring night in Iceland than in a tent.

Setting up camp is a safeguard technique for acquiring and keeping in touch with nature. Nothing approaches the experience of lying in your camping bed following a monotonous day of venturing out while being quieted to rest by the natural life's tranquil evening tune.

What's more, since most Icelandic towns and towns have their own camping area, any place you might wind up there will consistently be where you can set up your tent.

Setting up camp with three tents or less are allowed on crude public land for a solitary night except if you see a notification despite what might be expected.

Kindly note anyway that wild setting up camp in Iceland's three public parks is totally illegal.

5.  Get off the Beaten Track

Iceland is spotted with interesting where you can discover complete quietness and isolation.

In the event that you decide to wander away from the primary places of interest, you will undoubtedly encounter a great experience with the genuine soul of the land.

These locales contain old fishing stations, astounding mountain sees and endless climbing trails anticipating those voyagers who are searching for a legitimate travel insight, away from the groups.

Iceland's wild is interesting exactly on the grounds that it is generally flawless and undisturbed. As Icelanders and guests, it is our aggregate liability that we do our absolute best to keep it that way.

Try not to wander from the ways you are strolling on, and recall consistently that rough terrain driving is completely prohibited in Iceland, punished with a fine or detainment.

This is on the grounds that rough terrain driving is probably going to cause soil debasement and with it irreversible harm to the exceptionally delicate climate.

Exploit our top Iceland Travel Tips and proceed cautiously, be well, and have a superb stay in Iceland!

[whyyallsweatin]

If you hate your job so much, just quit.

Psychiatric Emergency Services at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital is a department that is run like no other medical department in the world. The treatments used in first-line mental health crisis were not designed to address the neurological functions associated with mental distress outside of psychosis. Additionally, the hostile environment created by staff serves no purpose in the treatment of mental distress.

I’ve been there countless times. I have witnessed the procedures and noticed alarming patterns in procedures were applied not to chemically subdue patients experiencing a wide range of psychiatric ailments.

When you first walk in, you are asked to hand over your bag and cell phone by a nurse. You are then directed to sit down in one of the chairs in the waiting room. Assessment usually begins with a nurse who asks you a service of questions in order to relay that information to the psychiatrist. You are then asked to go back and wait to see the next doctor, usually a medical doctor. Following that, you will be given the opportunity to speak to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist will recommend medication or hospitalization based on what they observe.

Patients who suffer from psychiatric problems like psychosis are often unmanageable, hostile and may be physically violent. Anti-psychotics are the first line medications used to treat drug-induced or schizophrenic episodes of psychosis by correcting the irregular dopamine functions associated with the ailment.

These seem like standard, reasonable procedures, but what makes PES unique is the unexplainable logic used to validate the administration of psychiatric drugs and execute deplorable personal treatment of patients by support staff. Unlike people suffering from physical pain, people who suffer from mental illness are vilified for questioning procedures that include detaining people isolation if they were forced to go to the hospital by family members, friends or law enforcement after showing signs that their mental health was a threat to their welfare, or the welfare of those around them.

Distressed people who do not want to go to the hospital usually become aggressive and demand to let out. In my case, a friend overreacted to something I said online and provoked a team of law enforcement and an ambulance to raid my home, handcuff me and deliver me to psychiatric emergency services. After hours of trying to get out, worrying about the welfare of my pets after the dramatic scene the RCMP and ambulance had created, I became hostile. I used the phone in the waiting area to call 911 and try and get out. Having previous experience with psychiatry, I knew I would likely be forced to take the magic bullet of psychiatric medicine: Seroquel.

I’ve taken Seroquel before, naively after my psychiatrist recommended it for insomnia. After taking it, I passed out cold and woke up with a terrible feeling of depression, dread, anxiety and depression. I immediately made the connection between the drug and these symptoms but did not realize that all anti-psychotics by their very mode of action are directly responsible for chemically inducing these kinds of mental disturbances.

Anyways, I asked for a piece of paper and wrote down a lengthy satire targeting the over prescription of Seroquel. I was then guided to a private observation room where several doctors and a psychiatrists who did not ask questions about my well-being but addressed the very behaviour I was displaying as a result of being detailed against my will, and the audacity I had in ridiculing the well-known practice of prescribing Seroquel for psychiatric disorders where no evidence existed to support the administration of the drug. She called me a psychopath and then used the opportunity to impress the room by listing the qualifications she had acquired various certificates and degrees. No explanation of why anti-psychotics were being administered for psychiatric ailments outside of psychosis was provided and the illogical argument that a variety of vague academic achievements somehow qualified the psychiatrist’s relentless devotion to this magical drug.

The very logic behind administering these drugs for a rainbow unrelated mental conditions is an unexplainable practice that is incomparable to any other medical practice in the world. The assumption that one drug can treat the extraordinarily complex functions associated with multiple mental illnesses seems so obviously faulty. In no other medical practice can a drug be used without any scientific proof to treat illnesses by chemically inducing the blockade of the very neurostransmitter responsible for creating positive emotional responses. The very neurotransmitter that upon release is scientifically proven to be the reason why people feel happy is chemically supressed by anti-psychotics and by removing the ability to experience the ‘happy’ emotion, these drugs treat depression. Depression is unhappiness. So by eliminating the ability to be happy, people who experience chronic unhappiness will benefit from a drug that by its very mode of action chemically castrates the brains ability to make happiness. What in the actual fuck is going on? Imagine a doctor prescribing smoking to cure lung cancer. That’s the same thing as treating depressive mood disorders by administering medication that restrains the ability to make happiness. Happiness is the opposite of depression, no? Am I missing something?

After that productive discussion, the psychiatrist used her power ‘punish’ me by committing me to the isolation room where I violently banged on the door for hours until guards came in to restrain and inject me with anti-psychotics.

I woke up on the cement floor to see that one of the nurses had thrown a plate of food into the isolation room. Most of the food had fallen off the plate and were on the cement, but by all accounts the nurse fulfilled the requirement of providing a psychiatric detainee with food. I did not eat the food. Additionally, the anti-psychotic administered created an overwhelming sense of depression, anxiety and dread. Extreme mental distressed, faced with the realization that my freedoms and psychiatric well being were at the mercy of psychiatric decisioning was incredibly traumatic. I was then escorted to another unit in the hospital and put in another isolation room. I passed out again and woke up startled, not knowing where I was.

I got up and knocked on the window and was met by a nurse who let me out. The ward was a small, windowless set of rooms and a common area for eating. The medication I took both suppressed my cognitive functions, and chemically induced a state of dysphoria and dread.

Several days past, and I was not considered well enough to join the adjacent ward where more freedoms were awarded to patients. The continued administration of anti-psychotics caused insomnia and ruminating thoughts throughout several nights and after about seven sleepless nights, my cognitive abilities were so limited that I failed to recognize where I was when the doctor asked me. By some miracle, I was able to string together the words required to ask the doctor to review the records the nurse had kept about my sleep. She had lied on her report and indicated that my sleep was excellent.

I still have vague memories of countless nights where I pled for help at the window that surrounded the nurse’s station. If she even ever paid attention to me, she would do so by opening the window and yelling the word, “no.”

There are no words I can use to try and describe the dysphoria that anti-psychotics produce. There is nothing that I can compare to the anguish of chemically induced states of mental distress that they cause by their very mode of neurological action in blockading dopamine, the chemical responsible for mental well-being. There is no way out and no relief.

Patients in the psychiatric ward at RJH are treated with palpable disrespect. The chemical restraints forced upon patients do not treat symptoms of mental illness outside psychosis. They subdue patients in order to make them manageable and ensure the safety of medical staff if they display warranted frustration with being locked away against their will. Nothing more.

After weeks of forced medication, the psychiatrist started to put me back on the medications I was used to taking before being admitted to the hospital. My mental health quickly improved after anti-psychotics were removed from the schedule. Eventually I was released, only to relapse into psychosis again after months of isolating and self-medicating the trauma induced anxiety brought on by my incarceration in the psych ward.

I’ll never forget how I helplessly pled for relief of the anxiety produced by anti-psychotics. The prolonged insomnia had profound impacts on my cognitive functioning were so frightening. After seven days of sleeplessness, the doctor finally administered a drug to put me to sleep. There are no words I have to express the utter lack of confidence in psychiatry that I have after being submitted to the abuses of medical professionals responsible for psychiatric patient care.  This was only the first, and not even the worst.

I can’t help but continuously think about the unrelenting desire support staff at the psych ward have to execute punitive actions on patients there, may they be the denial of medications they need to alleviate the unbearable stresses of forced incarceration or the overwhelmingly disdainful way in which they treat patients. I can only compare it to the way overworked parents abruptly address the frivolous demands of a fussy toddler. Only replace toddlers with adults and frivolous demands with helpless pleas for their lives. 

The logic in which drugs that produce unhappiness are used to create happiness in psychiatry is also prevalent in the way in which patients are subjected to treatment that would cause emotional distress in facilities believed to treat them.

These kinds of absurd realities in healthcare are far too unreal for people to believe. 

I can’t help but wonder why nurses who work there do work there. If you hate your job so much, do the world a favour and quit.

[rabbiteclair]

how do you go about doing research for your fics? i often want to write, but find myself stuck and overwhelmed with the amount of research that’s needed to portray things accurately. i never know where to start looking. got any pointers?

(Standard ‘look I just do this for funsies and have no formal education around writing, so this is all just my own experience and some secondhand advice’ disclaimer applies)

First off, by avoiding research as much as humanly possible. Really. Really. Do yourself a favor.

The way I see it, when you run into a Factual Thing you don’t actually know while writing, you have three options.

Avoid going into unnecessary detail on the thing so that it doesn’t matter that you don’t know about it.

Research the thing in-depth to make sure you get it right.

Give up on getting it Just Right and BS something.

#1 is very nice where applicable! Especially works well for stuff that isn’t very interesting or relevant to the plot.How does one go about making a TV from scratch? Heck if I know. So when I wrote Nitori doing it, I gave only really broad details about the process, and it mostly happened offscreen. No research required!

#3 is a lifesaving skill. This should probably be your default answer on 90% of things. Like, as an example: the bit from Goddess/Girlfriend where Sanae got enshrined. I am pretty sure that a few arahitogami got enshrined during their lifetimes in ye olden dayes. If I searched long and hard, I could probably find out what this process looks like. And, I did in fact start searching when I was writing the fic. But, 1) the odds of readers knowing the Proper way to do things were pretty darn slim and 2) we’re talking Reimu, who happens to live in a fantasy realm where provable gods can walk up to you and steal your french fries, and isn’t a very orthodox shrine maiden anyway. She was probably BS’ing it in character. So hey, make something up and avoid the thirty hours of research.

This is great for things that aren’t ultimately that important, or stuff that’s obscure enough that nobody’s likely to have their experience ruined if you don’t get the details right. Dunno much about historic pub food costs to use as a basis for the prices at Mystia’s stand? Make something up. Dunno how somebody living in an isolated fantasy realm analogous to the mid-1800s could get their hands on refined sugar, or sulfuric acid, or a modern telescope? Make something up. Plus, with some of these cases, ‘what’s historically accurate?’ is a less important question than ‘what would make the story more interesting?’

Which just leaves... stuff that actually needs researched.

And if you get to that point, you should still really ask yourself whether it matters. Will somebody care that you wrote about characters eating sushi in a landlocked region? No, really, think about it. I promise you that the time you spend debating whether Gensokyo could have developed the right sorts of aquaculture techniques to raise freshwater fish that are safe for sushi production could be better spent writing. If somebody still complains about it, look them in the eye and say ‘I don’t fucking know, Sumireko smuggled in another ocean fish, are you happy?’ (Yes this is a topic I spent about eight hours researching back in the day and I am retroactively bitter about it.)

But, let’s say you do find some stuff that legit needs to be accurate. First off, there are two real broad categories here, I feel.

Number one is straightforward factual bits. How tall is a torii usually? What’s a suitable detonator for a modern explosive? How long would somebody have to fly straight up before they hit clouds, assuming they were going a bit faster than a sprint? This is all stuff that you might decide you’ve gotta get right. It’s also stuff that could very well not be that important. When you hit one of these, you really should just leave a note for yourself, keep writing, and research it later. Nothing slows down your progress like pausing every seven minutes to research things that don’t even impact the story. (The Patchouli chapter of Thief of Hearts had a lot of these in the rough draft. Lots of ‘Marisa pointed the telescope at [COORDINATES]. Looking through it, she saw [SOME CONSTELLATIONS].’)

Number two... is, yeah, the stuff that you both need to research, and that matters to the story. If you’re writing a long arc about characters building an airplane, you should probably have a pretty good idea of how airplanes are made. Not only that, but the details shape the story--what kinds of obstacles the characters face will partially depend on your findings. This stuff, you should try to research before you even start writing, when possible.

Apart from factual stuff, it can also be a very good idea to research general... flavor things. Like, if I were writing a novel-length story set in the underground, I’d probably BS a lot of the details, but I’d also read a good bit about spelunking and those weird cave fish and stuff, to just kind of help me get the feel right and give me some general ideas.

... so, with all of those ‘CHOOSE YOUR RESEARCH WISELY’ warnings out of the way, what secrets can I bestow upon you for actually performing research?

idk, Google mostly

Google can turn up a lot, though. Google Books has a ton of old reference stuff available, and if you’re searching on fairly scholarly topics, it’s usually pretty good at finding relevant academic papers for you. Cultural stuff is its big weakness, in my experience: If you want a good overview of architecture styles in regular houses two hundred years ago, or what weddings looked like in the Meiji era, you are out of luck.

Youtube is also surprisingly helpful here. Weird DIY chemistry videos gave me a 10x better idea of how to make chemicals than I got from a day of reading Wikipedia. I found something like a 18-minute documentary about how karakasa are traditionally made that was very helpful for writing Kogasa.

There are two whole online resources I can recommend for Touhou-adjacent topics in particular:

First is The Encyclopedia of Shinto. This is an indexed English translation of one of the main Japanese references on Shinto, so it’s fairly thorough, if a bit high-level in places. Useful for writing shrine/god stuff. Plus, since it’s, you know, a religion, I feel inclined to try harder for accuracy when it comes to Shinto topics.

Second is the Kojiki. As of last time I checked, the only translation available online is Chamberlain’s old clunky one, but it works. Volume 1 contains a lot of bedrock mythological stuff. Touhou references it all over in general, and basically every Lunarian but Kaguya can be traced back to a character in here.

... good references on youkai are unfortunately much harder to find. There are a few English sites cataloguing them, but I don’t trust any of them thoroughly enough to link directly. ZUN plays pretty fast-and-loose with a lot of youkai, anyway, so I feel like actual folktales are best viewed as an inspiration.

oops this turned into an essay didn’t it. Oh well hopefully something in there is useful.

[alohaexpeditions]

Eco Tourism and Responsible Travel

Eco Tourism and Responsible Travel Aloha Expeditions is highly conscious of the necessity to protect nature and to make sure that the local community benefits from tourism as well. Don't forget to read our inspirational ecotourism travel blog Above all, we want to convey this to our guests. We support and practice Ecotourism with the intent to conserve the balance of this region for future generations, without denying the joy of the unexpected. Preparation allows us to fashion journeys in a harmonious and purposeful manner. Our passion for travel goes beyond the yearning for discovery - Ours is a reasoned, tried and tested approach to the enjoyment of a truly amazing continent...! According to The International Ecotourism Society, ecotourism is, ‘Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people’ (TIES, 1990). Ecotourism Australia defines the term as ‘Ecologically sustainable tourism with a primary focus on experiencing natural areas that fosters environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation’. At Aloha Expeditions, we know Ecotourism as ‘the involvement of tourists in environmental conservation activities directly linked to addressing human development needs, and promotes equitable sharing of benefits accrued from tourism with local communities while supporting their nature conservation values’. So what really is Ecotourism? It is actually all of the above. The underlying words are ‘responsible tourism’ and ‘local cultures’. It brings together conservation, communities and tourism. Ecotourism is NOT a type of tourism like other types of tourism e.g. Adventure, beach, culture-based, wildlife, sports, scenic, specialized etc. • Not a comparison or alternative to mass tourism • Not an exclusive way of doing tourism BUT … a tourism business approach or strategy for achieving the goals of sustainable development. Hence, ecotourism principles are applicable to all types of tourism and tourism products Models of Ecotourism: • Conservancies (nature, wildlife, shrines) • Tourism enterprises (lodges, camps, treks, etc) • Tourism sector-based Corporate Social • Responsibility (CSR) • Travellers’ philanthropy • Tourism supply chain management • Tourism investment – Private-Public Partnerships • Direct capacity-building community development Programs Principles governing ecotourism: 1. Encourage travel to natural areas 2. Minimize impact of tourism activities on natural attractions 3. Recognize and build awareness about local conservation values and their importance to society 4. Provide direct benefits and empowerment for local people at destinations without retrogression on environmental, cultural or local living standards. 5. Respect local people, their customs and culture 6. Support sustainable development of local economies through direct involvement and participatory decision-making. Ecotourism Kenya plays a vital role in promoting ecotourism in Kenya. Ecotourism,Green Tourism,Responsible Tourism u0026amp; Sutainable Travel is in our DNA and is our First,Second,Third u0026amp; only priority. While on holiday Take Nothing but PICTURES,Leave Nothing but FOOTPRINTS, Kill Nothing but TIME and always strive to leave the destination and local communities better than you found them. At Aloha Expeditions, we know Ecotourism as ‘the involvement of tourists in environmental conservation activities directly linked to addressing human development needs, and promotes equitable sharing of benefits accrued from tourism with local communities while supporting their nature conservation values’. At Aloha Expeditions we know you’ve got things you’d love to do, places you’d love to see, cultures you’d love to jump into and adventures to experience and remember forever. We will do all we can to promote ecotourism u0026amp; sustainable travel Reduce the consumption of primary raw materials (including fossil fuels, water and energy). We stress the importance of switching off all electrical lights and equipment. Encourage sustainable practices by staff, travel partners such as hotels and airlines and our clients. Encourage and demonstrate sustainable approaches to the built environment in our refurbishment and maintenance projects. Minimize waste production and divert it from landfill, therefore supporting the reuse, recycling and recovery plan. Consider sustainability in the procurement of goods and services, as well as encourage bulk buying. Prevent pollution and environment damage where possible, and advocate for garbage separation. Work with conservation organisations that support environmental, community and wildlife protection. Advocate strongly for green commuting, telecommuting, carpooling, taking mass transit and human-powered commuting. We advocate for the use of green materials such as biodegradable soaps. Encourage travel to natural areas Minimize impact of tourism activities on natural attractions Recognize and build awareness about local conservation values and their importance to society Provide direct benefits and empowerment for local people at destinations without retrogression on environmental, cultural or local living standards. Respect local people, their customs and culture Support sustainable development of local economies through direct involvement and participatory decision-making. Read more about our Responsible travel Ecotourism initiatives Sample some of the eco rated facilities At Aloha Expeditions we do more than pay lip service to Responsible Tourism – we have been committed to it since our very beginnings and have also established the Aloha Foundation to support and develop community projects in destinations we visit. To us Responsible Travel coincides with Responsible Business, designing adventures with the local people, culture and eco-system in mind. We are very aware of the economic, ecological and ethical impact tourism can have on ancient cultures and fragile environments. We realise that taking clients through these regions can have a detrimental impact if not handled responsibly and as such, on all of our tours we go to great lengths to minimise the negative and accentuate the positive – after all, there are also many good things that the traveller can bring! A successful Aloha Expeditions tour not only delivers a unique and unsurpassable journey for you, but it will also benefit the people whose lands we are privileged to visit. ALOHA EXPEDITIONS RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL TEAM We have our own dedicated in-house Responsible Travel Team, which meets regularly to review and measure our responsible travel policies. This is not only crucial to help ensure best practice across both our group tour and tailor-made holiday itineraries, but the ideal forum to develop new ideas and initiatives. RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS POLICY - #NOPLASTIC CAMPAIGN We guarantee that when designing our tours, we utilize our own experiences to break down barriers, and provide ethical business for those lesser known areas with so much to offer. We pride ourselves on challenging perceptions and raising awareness through low impact experiences and ethical business - not just through charity work. What can you expect from us? And what do we expect of you while travelling? Here at Aloha Expeditions, we are determined to minimise the negative side-effects tourism can bring to the areas we visit, and the communities we work with. Alongside, the fantastic work of the Aloha Foundation and our support for a range of wildlife and environmental causes, we have launched an initiative to promote the use of filtered water bottles among our tour leaders and clients. DRINKING WATER POLICY To further demonstrate our commitment to reducing plastic water bottle waste and in response to overwhelming levels of concern expressed in client feedback, we have taken the decision to stop providing bottled water as a part of our group tours from July 2018. WILDLIFE POLICY As well as our focus on environmental and cultural tourism, the well-being of all wildlife and its natural habitat is also very important to us. We don’t offer elephant riding on our holidays and we abhor animals being exploited or put to any unnatural uses. COMMUNITY BASED TOURISM: Aloha Expeditions works with inspirational community based tourism initiatives that are helping local people in isolated rural areas earn a living from tourism, while preserving their unique cultures. HOW TO TRAVEL MORE RESPONSIBLY - OUR TIPS We believe that if we all make small changes to our travel habits we can all have a really positive impact - from considering where to visit, making plastic swaps and packing lighter; to respecting local culture and spending your money at grass roots level within communities you visit. Even if you implement a handful of these suggestions you will make a difference. SUPPORTING LOCAL ENTERPRISE Where we can, we support communities and family enterprises at a grass root level. One of the most effective and enjoyable ways is through food! Dining with local families not only allows us to help provide a direct income, it offers our travellers a delicious home cooked, traditional meal and the chance for both parties to learn more about each other’s cultures. GOING PAPERLESS In 2019, Aloha Expeditions set up an initiative to encourage clients to 'go paperless', donating funds to the Aloha Foundation for every client that chose to receive their travel documents by email instead of post. Now around 90% of our group tour clients are choosing paperless travel documents. WAYS TO TRAVEL MORE RESPONSIBLY Life can occasionally get a little repetitive and mundane, which is probably why travelling appeals to so many of us, becoming almost a necessity. And perhaps that’s why responsible travel sounds, well, too responsible, when adventures are all about seizing the moment. When else would beers at 11 am be a fabulous idea? Or scaling limestone rocks even if you actively avoid a commute with a slight incline of a hill? And, of course, you’ll try that deep-fried cricket, even if you’d usually turn your nose up at a pallid cheese sandwich from the reduced section, despite it looking like it could survive a nuclear war. The point is the usual rules just don’t apply when you’re travelling, and that can reinvigorate a lust for life. But this complacency can cause far-reaching negative effects. It happens to the best of us, often without even realizing the implications. The concern is that international travel is on the rise and a lot of insignificant actions are becoming hugely significant, threatening the beautiful world we love to explore. Here at the Aloha Expeditions office, our responsible travel team often meet to discuss ways we can make a positive impact on the countries we visit and share ideas of how we can travel more responsibly. So, here are our suggestions of small positive changes you can implement the next time you set off on your adventures: DECISIONS, DECISIONS. When booking with Aloha Expeditions, check out our policies on responsible travel.It’s been an integral part of our business policy from the very beginning and we’ve even established the Aloha Foundation to create awareness and deliver funding to projects through the developing world, often where we’ve seen a need within the destinations we’ve established tours. These kinds of initiatives are gaining momentum in the tourism industry, so even if you don’t book with us, be mindful of this elsewhere. After all, they’ll be handling the intricacies of eco-travel for you, saving you the extra research time Research places that are not typical tourist hotspots.Over-tourism isn’t just about being annoyed at throngs of tourists in your photos, or taking away from the ‘authenticity’ of a place, it’s causing damage to world heritage sites that have stood the test of time, it’s damaging the environment and in some cases, is negatively impacting the communities in popular bucket-list destinations. There are plenty of amazing places out there not overrun by tourists which are not only more atmospheric but you’re more likely to be sold unique wares for good prices and you’ll have more of an opportunity to get to know local people and understand a different way of life in a genuine way. They'll serve more authentic, tasty food, too! This strengthens the surrounding communities and will leave you feeling richer for the experience. We always take this into consideration when creating itineraries. Machu Picchu is a huge victim of over tourism. In just 20 years tourist numbers jumped from 400,000 to 1.4 million tourists, damaging the ancient ruins. After UNESCO threatened to place it on the 'List of World Heritage Sites in Danger,' the Peruvian government limited ticket numbers to 5000 a day, to be used in two timed slots and visitors must be accompanied by an approved guide. Try to prioritise eco-friendly or locally owned hotel/guesthouse options, if you’re not booking with us. They often put a huge amount of effort into lessening the impact on the environment, so it makes it easier for you to travel responsibly. You sometimes find that these hotels will employ and train locals for staff, frequently providing much-needed jobs. Research local customs and phrases in the local language, once you’ve settled on the right experience for you. Even the smallest of efforts shows consideration and respect. We select eco-friendly accommodation such as the Shinta Mani Wild on our Southern Cambodia in Luxury Tour, which was built on 350 hectares of protected land in cooperation with the Wildlife Alliance. They educate guests on the threats to the ecosystem, protecting the wildlife corridor between Bokor National Park with Kirirom National Park and provide employment opportunities for local residents. PACK UP (CONSCIOUSLY) AND GO Planning what to take away with you ahead of time can ensure you don’t overpack. The heavier your luggage the more fuel is required by the aeroplane, and therefore, carbon emissions increase. It’s easier to throw that extra top in ‘just in case’ but, if everyone follows suit, that’s up to 143 extra tops on board! Your poor shoulders will thank you too. If you take single-use plastic, bring it back home with you and recycle it properlyif there aren’t proper recycling options where you're headed. Consider ‘naked’ toiletry options, if the above sounds like a hassle, such as: Lush have an extensive range of ‘naked’ products such as shampoo bars and solid conditioners(which lasts 80-100 washes and takes up far less room in your bag) or dry shampoo, powdered/solid deodorants, shower jelly/bombs, toothy tabs and mouthwash tabs. ‘Naked’ means they don’t use plastic, or in instances where they do use plastic, they make it much easier to recycle. A standard bar of soap in a reusable soap container is still much betterif you aren’t sold on the thought of plastic-free products. Bamboo toothbrush > plastic toothbrush Flannel > plastic loofah ‘Yes To’ facial wipes are made up of 100% plant cellulose, as opposed to standard make-up wipes/wet wipes, which contain up to 60% non-biodegradable plastic, at almost the same price. Alternatively, you can buy reusable muslin cloths/flannels to remove your make-up. Paper stemmed cotton buds > plastic cotton buds Invest in reef-friendly sunscreenif you plan on taking a dip in the ocean at any point. Badger Sunscreen is a good option. Thailand's Maya Bay, made famous following the movie The Beach, saw 5000 visitors a day, devastating the ecosystem and forcing the Thai government to close the beach. Marine life was all but wiped out and 80% of the coral reef sustained damage from the excess of boats and snorkelers wearing sunscreen containing chemicals that are toxic to young coral. The closure began in June of 2018 and was eventually made indefinite. Marine life has already begun to return to the area. Pack a scarf. Even if you’re heading straight for the sweltering plains of Africa. It can be used as a pillow, blanket or eye mask on your flight, or it could be fashioned into a sarong or a top, or cover shoulders when entering temples, or as a face guard if you’re whizzing through the desert, to protect your head from the sun. It might even make a decent emergency parachute. Don’t try this, of course, it’s mostly just good to have hope. Take a tote-bag with you.For shopping in cute markets, to hold your beach gear, for day trips or to hold dirty laundry. You need never accept a plastic bag if you’re toting a tote or two! Consider investing in a Kindle, or similar, for downloading your holiday readingrather than having to pack lots of heavy books. Nothing beats a book, of course, but at least it’ll ensure you never run out of reading material on a trip. Take your own headphonesso you don’t have to use the plastic ones wrapped in - the horror - more plastic. Pack a refillable filtered water bottle, such as Water-to-Go.It filters out 99.9% of microbiological contaminants from any non-saltwater source in the world. This means whether you’re trying to get in your minimum of eight ounces every hour on your dehydrating flight, filling up at dodgy petrol station sinks in Pakistan like Clem, or trying to satisfy a hefty water addiction, like Tara in India (who’s used to only the best Sierra Nevada mountain water back home!), you’ll never go thirsty and there’s no need to contribute to the single-use plastic problem. Download your e-ticket on to a smartphonerather than printing out your ticket on paper. TRANSPORT Travel responsibly from start to finish.When booking flights for group tours with Aloha Expeditions, transfers to and from the airport are arranged with the group you’re travelling with. We also offset your carbon footprint when you book your flights through us. For more information on this, read our blog 'What is Carbon Offsetting?' or read more from EcoAct. Taking public transport lessens your carbon footprint.Even if you aren’t travelling with us, opt to take the train or the bus to the airport or carpool together if you’re going with friends. Try and opt for a direct flight rather than one with layovers so you'll save on carbon emissions. Refuse the complimentary in-flight bags the airline hands out.Have you seen the movie Inception? Well, this is like that but with plastic within plastic. But no Leo DiCaprio (he’s off fighting global warming elsewhere). It’s easy to make your own though: just pop a toothpaste tab with a bamboo toothbrush, your multi-purpose scarf and earplugs into your hand luggage. Voila! Approximately 15% of the world population travel every year. That's 1.2 billion people. This number is predicted to increase by 60% by 2020. ARRIVAL Treat each and every country as if it were your very own home. You are a guest - show respect, be polite, always throw your rubbish in the bin and dress respectfully, according to local custom. Always be aware of what you’re buying as souvenirs.At best, you might be purchasing something that will come with a hefty fine if you attempt to take it out, or into a country that prohibits those imports. At worst, you may be creating a demand for the poaching or import of endangered animals, including ivory, fur, medicines made from animals and in some cases, live animals. It’s important to be vigilant. Sometimes souvenirs can be mislabelled to sell to tourists, or it may be difficult to spot. Don’t assume that just because you can buy it, it means it’s legal or ethical to do so. Don’t encourage animal abuse.If on your travels you ever see a wild animal (often monkeys) being touted around by a local or in a cage at an establishment, never play with it, take pictures or buy it – even with the best intentions of taking it to an animal shelter. Unfortunately, this creates demand. Ignore it, encourage others to ignore it, or firmly inform the manager that you fully intended to spend a lot of money in the establishment but won't be for that reason. It may be easy to judge the people doing this but consider that their situation may be desperate, and they aren’t aware of or care about, the animal’s welfare over their own. Just don't give them attention or money. It won’t occur if it doesn’t yeild the results they desire. Always ask permission before taking photos of people, it’s just polite.Apply the same rules as you would at home, for example, is it an appropriate time and place? Don’t be rattled if they ask for a tip, either pay up, haggle a bit or politely decline. If you take a good one, show them! Don’t interact with wild animals. You don’t want to lose any fingers and you definitely don’t want them losing their life once they feel comfortable approaching the next human with less than good intentions. Always turn off your air con/lights when you leave your room, use water sparingly and try to reuse your towel.It may seem obvious, but not all countries have electricity and water in abundance, be conscious not to add to the problem. If hotels have miniature toiletries, don’t use them or instead, donate them to shelters, and then encourage the hotel to consider ditching the single-use plastic and have fixed dispensers installed instead. Refuse a plastic straw, save a turtle.If you really need something to slurp down those cocktails without getting a pineapple slice in the eye, invest in a metal re-usable straw. Check out 'The Benefits of Turtle Tourism' if you want to see how tourism and wildlife can co-exist in a mutually beneficial way. Buffets are not good for the environment.This is a tough one but try to resist. Hotels will always provide a surplus of food at a buffet (imagine the ruckus if they ran out before everyone had eaten) and this means a lot of food will be thrown away. A recent study found that just over half of buffet food goes to waste which is hugely damaging, not only to the environment (food waste in landfills produce methane which is 21 times more damaging than Carbon Dioxide) but considering one in seven people around the world go hungry, it’s incredibly wasteful. When buying goods, don’t drive too hard a bargain. Some countries expect a bit of haggling (though be sure to check first) but most people aren’t trying to scam you, they simply assume you can afford it since you’re visiting their country in the first place. Consider how much those last few digits mean to you and what they might mean to that person’s family. Giving to begging children is incredibly problematic. It’s difficult to refuse kids who might be begging you for money, all doe-eyed and scruffy, but it fosters a begging culture. And this doesn’t just apply to money. Sweets are a definite no-go when you consider that dental care may be too expensive for a lot of people across the world to afford. School supplies are also a tricky one as they can just be sold back to shops. This practice undermines parents and encourages kids to stay OUT of school if they know they can earn money, which sets them up for a life of poverty. And often, organised child-trafficking groups who have caught on to the earning potential of begging kids in popular tourist destinations, abduct children and maim them if they’re not perceived to be ‘cute’ enough to earn. When they get too ‘old’, they are often pushed into prostitution, or worse. It's estimated that 300,000 children across India are drugged, beaten and forced to beg every day and according to the Indian National Rights Commission, 40,000 children are abducted every year. DEPARTURE Encourage hotels to be ‘greener’ – if you notice your hotel could do with some eco-friendly improvements, in the form of better recycling facilities or to reduce their plastic waste etc, speak up! Make sure you outline this in any feedback you give them, they should welcome it. Sing the praises of any initiatives/travel companies/hotels/restaurants etc. that ARE doing things right!Leave reviews, tell your friends, encourage others to visit if they need recommendations, spread the word. Other establishments that aren’t quite up to scratch may start to make some changes, so they too get the praise and recognition that brings in the paying customers. 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#travellersquote, #travelleroflight, #travellersplanet, #travellersdoitbetter, #travellersfacts, #travellerofthemonth, #travellercommunity, #travellergram #travellerlover, #travellermade, #travellerdestinantions, #travelleraddicted, #nomad, #digitalnomad, #nomadlife, #wanderer, #nomads, #vagabond #ellenshow Read the full article

[cbdforpetpros-blog]

How To Find The Right Cbd Product

The CBD industry is enormous now; wherever you turn, you’re confronted with CBD products. If you’re interested in trying CBD, then this is great! The size of the market has led to a huge range of CBD products, giving consumers a massive range of choice. Since taking CBD supplements is a highly personal experience, it’s imperative that all these different products exist. No matter your problem, there will be a CBD product to suit you and your lifestyle. Busy high-flyers who travel regularly might like capsules, while those with a sweet tooth could prefer edibles. Fitness gurus who spend a lot of time in the gym might choose a topical, and those who want to feel better fast might opt for a CBD vape. And then there’s always CBD oils, the industry’s standard. On top of all these products that you might see regularly, some manufacturers are coming up with more unique ways to take CBD, such as bath bombs and CBD coffees – all this choice makes deciding impossible! Luckily, we are here today with the ultimate guide to choosing a CBD product. Read on to find out all the things you should be considering when picking a CBD supplement that’s right for you.

Full-Spectrum vs. CBD Isolate One of the first things you will need to consider is whether you want a full-spectrum CBD product, a CBD isolate, or something in between. ‘Full-spectrum’ refers to products that contain more cannabinoids than just CBD. In case you were unaware, cannabinoids are the active compounds found in the cannabis plant, and there are estimated to be perhaps one hundred of them. CBD and THC are the most well-known simply because they are the most plentiful, but there are still lots of other cannabinoids to consider. THC is a restricted substance, and so CBD products do not contain much THC – don’t worry! Most other cannabinoids are, like CBD, also non-intoxicating, so you don’t have to be concerned about getting high using full-spectrum products. So why would you want a full range of cannabinoids and terpenoids? According to some research, cannabinoids may have a synergistic effect. When taken together, they enhance one another’s effects; this has been termed the ‘entourage effect.’ With this being the case, most people believe that full-spectrum, or at the very least broad-spectrum, products are considered to be top of the range. This is not to say that isolates are bad. Isolates refer to CBD products containing nothing more than cannabidiol. They usually come in the form of a powder or a wax and can be taken through dabbing, or by adding it to food and drink. Isolate powders can also be taken sublingually, just like a tincture. If you would prefer to dab your CBD, then isolates are obviously the way to go. Furthermore, they are useful if you are really concerned about THC, as it 100% guarantees that you won’t be taking any THC whatsoever. Finally, some people prefer isolates for cooking, because they are completely tasteless, unlike CBD oil. Generally, though, full-spectrum products are considered better for your health.

Finding the Right Strength It’s absolutely vital to find the right strength when you’re taking CBD. While CBD is non-toxic, non-addictive, and is safe, it’s still important to make sure you’re taking the right serving for you. At the end of the day, it’s a foreign substance that you are putting into your body, and your health is of the utmost importance. Despite the fact that CBD is safe and you cannot take too much to where it really impacts you, it does have a few side effects sometimes. These are nothing to worry about – they are quite minor and don’t affect everybody. Side effects of CBD mostly include dizziness, headaches, and diarrhea, but these will likely fade if you ever experience them at all. Nevertheless, because there are a few side effects, it’s important to be careful. Experts all recommend starting out with an extremely low serving of CBD. If you experience no negative effects, but also aren’t feeling any better, then you can increase the serving. Do this slowly until you find a supply that works for you, and then you can stop. When it comes to dosing CBD, oils make it easier to tailor the serving to you. You can easily increase or decrease the amount you take by a small amount, making it easier to find your minimum effective supply. Furthermore, there is a higher number of CBD oils available on the market, giving you more options in terms of potencies. For this reason, we recommend that beginners start out with a CBD oil while they experiment with serving size. Once you know what strength of CBD oil you need, you can switch to other products that are available in the right one for you.

Consumption Method This is the hardest decision to make. As we have said, there are so many CBD products available, that you’ll struggle to choose. Here is a quick rundown of just a few CBD products.

CBD Oils CBD tinctures are the industry standard and are used by pretty much everyone. They are quite versatile, as you can cook with them, take them sublingually, or even apply them to the skin. By taking CBD oils under the tongue, you allow the CBD to reach all parts of your body, providing the entire endocannabinoid system with a boost. They are pretty easy to take and allow you to tailor the serving to your needs. Some drawbacks of CBD oils is that they are very conspicuous. If you are a bit self-conscious about your CBD usage, then taking these in public is not a very good idea. Furthermore, they are not always ideal for carrying around in a bag, as sometimes the bottles leak. A large problem people have with CBD is the flavor, as the taste of hemp does not appeal to everyone. Luckily, Pure Kana CBD oils are also available in Mint and Vanilla flavor!

CBD Capsules People who are always on the go will love CBD capsules. They are super easy and quick to take, and they definitely won’t leak in your bag! Since they resemble traditional pills, they are easy for people of all ages to take. They don’t feel too intimidating, meaning that older people can take them without worries. One downside of capsules is that they are available in fewer strengths, and you can’t tailor the serving size. For some people, this may be a positive, because you don’t have to worry about measuring the CBD out yourself. Another disadvantage is related to their bioavailability, but we’ll get onto that later.

CBD Topicals Topicals are CBD products that you apply directly to the skin. These include creams, balms, salves, and even bath bombs! When you apply CBD in this way, it penetrates the layers of skin and reaches specific endocannabinoid receptors in localized areas. This makes topicals ideal for athletes and people hurting physically, as the soothing CBD cream can be applied. In terms of bath bombs, CBD may help to rejuvenate the skin and give you that calming glow you've always hoped for, so they are ideal for people interested in skin care. If you’re looking to trigger the whole of the endocannabinoid system with CBD, then topicals are not the way to go. These only provide localized presence.

Bioavailability A big thing you might want to consider with CBD is the bioavailability. This refers to the amount of CBD your body is able to make use of. You might not be aware of this, but not all the CBD you ingest will be useful to the body; some of it will be broken down before it can be used. CBD oils and CBD vape liquids are considered to offer the highest availability. Furthermore, these products offer the quickest delivery method, allowing the CBD to take effect within minutes. On the other hand, CBD capsules and CBD gummies have a much lower bioavailability. The CBD is here broken down in the digestive system, meaning that less of it is actually used in the endocannabinoid system. They also deliver the effects much more slowly. Edibles may take an hour or so to take effect. However, the CBD is released over a much longer time, meaning that the effects will last longer. So, if you want your cannabidiol to start up fast, then CBD oils are better for you. But if you want your CBD to last longer, then edibles or capsules could be the way to go.

Is Cost an Issue? Finally, there is the issue of cost. If you’re on a tight budget, then it is important to make sure you can stick to it. The brand tends to be of more importance here than the product itself, but products like oils may be cheaper than gummies simply because there are fewer ingredients. When it comes to cost, you’ll probably have to do some shopping around. Final Thoughts on Finding the Right CBD Product Since CBD is such a personal experience, there is no ‘right’ product to choose. The truth is that you might have to do some experimenting before you find the perfect CBD product for you. The good news is that you have so much choice. With CBD being such a huge industry, the world is your oyster in terms of choosing a product. Have we missed anything? If you have any tips for choosing the perfect CBD supplement, let us know in the comments! 

Find Original Blog Here!

[mensbodybuildingtips]

The Definitive Guide to Pre-Workout Nutrition

Is pre-workout nutrition as crucial as many individuals insurance claim? Does it actually matter exactly what we eat before exercises? Keep reading to discover out.

Like most points muscle building, the topic of preworkout nutrition is riddled with contradictions.

Should you eat protein prior to you train? Carbohydrates? Fats? If so, what types as well as quantities of food are most ideal? Or does pre-workout nutrition not matter? Will eating before training have no considerable impact on your training or gains? Or, lastly, is not eaten educating the most effective, as commonly asserted by lots of proponents of periodic fasting?

Well, let's get to the bottom of these inquiries and involve some definitive, science-based final thoughts regarding what is best when it involves pre-workout nourishment. Allow's begin with pre-workout protein.

Pre-Workout Healthy protein: Helps Develop Muscle or Is Irrelevant?

As you most likely understand, just how much healthy protein you eat daily considerably affects your body's capacity to construct muscular tissue. Consume also little and also you will hinder your gains in the gym.

But what about when you consume healthy protein? Does that issue? Is eating healthy protein prior to a workout especially helpful?

Some individuals say no matter, as well as they'll cite research studies such as this and this to back up their cases. On the various other hand, you can locate evidence that pre-workout healthy protein does boost post-workout muscle mass growth in researches such as this and this.

What gives?

Well, a big 'undetectable' item of this puzzle pertains to when research study subjects had last eaten healthy protein prior to eating their pre-workout meals.

You see, when you consume food, it takes your body several hours to completely take in the nutrients consisted of in the food. The bigger the dish, the longer it takes (research study shows that absorption could take anywhere from 2 to 6+ hours).

This suggests that if you had eaten a sizable period of protein a hr or 2 prior to exercising, your plasma (blood) amino acid degrees would certainly be quite high come workout time. In this state, it's not likely that more protein before training would certainly make much of a difference in regards to helping you construct more muscular tissue because your body is currently in an anabolic state.

On the other hand, if it had been a number of hrs since you last ate healthy protein, and also especially if the period last consumed was little (less than 20 grams), your plasma amino acid levels would likely be low come exercise time. In this case, research reveals that pre-workout protein likely will assistance you develop extra muscular tissue because of it surging plasma amino acid levels (and also therefore healthy protein synthesis) prior to training.

Most people seem to train early in the morning or several hrs after lunch (after job, before supper), and this is why I typically recommend 20 to 40 grams of protein regarding Thirty Minutes before training.

If, nevertheless, you educate within 1 to 2 hours of eating at least that much protein, you could possibly avoid the pre-workout protein and also not miss out on any kind of extra potential muscular tissue growth.

So, keeping that off the beaten track, let's talk types of pre-workout healthy protein. Are some much better than others?

Well, we understand that the faster a protein is digested and also the even more leucine (an amino acid that boosts protein synthesis) it has, the much more short-term muscular tissue growth it stimulates.

And while any kind of kind of pre-workout healthy protein will raise amino acids to some degree, you'll get the quickest and biggest elevation from a faster-digesting kind like whey protein, which is additionally really high in leucine.

This is why whey healthy protein is an especially excellent type of pre-workout protein, and one I make use of as well as advise. ( Research study shows it's likewise wonderful for post-workout nutrition for the same reasons.)

In terms of which whey protein product I utilize as well as recommend, I'm really fussy when it pertains to synthetic sweeteners and food dyes, MSG, and also other chemicals generally found in whey protein powders.

I like my workout supplements naturally sweetened and as devoid of synthetic additives as possible, and also advise the exact same for my readers.

These needs have really minimal me in the past, and the whey protein powders I utilized were specifically costly (upwards of $25 - 30 per extra pound).

Fortunately, I've had the ability to utilize my success as a writer to release my very own line of normally sweetened, filler-free exercise supplements, and also it consists of a 100% whey protein isolate product.

It's called WHEY+, and it's essentially the whey healthy protein powder I've constantly wanted.

WHEY+ is 100% whey isolate healthy protein, not a blend of isolate and more affordable kinds of protein.

WHEY+ is made from milk that comes from hormone-free cows.

WHEY+ has undenatured healthy protein made with cold micro- as well as ultra-filtration technologies.

WHEY+ is normally sweetened with stevia, and also normally flavored.

WHEY+ has no man-made junk like MSG or artificial food dyes.

Pre-Workout Carbohydrates: Improves Efficiency or Not?

Fortunately for us, the study on pre-workout carbs is far more straightforward: they improve performance-period.

Specifically, eating carbs 15 to 30 mins before exercise will certainly offer your muscles with extra gas for your exercises, but will not straight boost additional muscular tissue growth.

I say directly stimulate because while consuming pre-workout carbs doesn't increase protein synthesis, it can aid you press more weight as well as reps in your workouts, hence indirectly assisting you build a lot more muscular tissue gradually (as long as your training and diet regimen are appropriate).

So, if pre-workout carbs are great, what kinds are best?

Again, the research is rather uncomplicated: low-glycemic carbs are best for extended (2+ hr) endurance workout, as well as high-glycemic carbohydrates are best for shorter, a lot more intense workouts.

In terms of what to consume, I do not such as pre-workout carb supplements. They're bit even more compared to over-hyped, expensive tubs of easy sugars like dextrose and also maltodextrin. Don't buy into the marketing BS-there's absolutely nothing inherently special regarding these sorts of supplements.

Instead, I much choose getting my pre-workout carbohydrates from food. My preferred sources are rice milk (tastes wonderful with whey protein!) and also bananas, however various other popular, healthy options are immediate oat dish, days and also figs, melon, spud, white rice, raisins, and also pleasant potato.

And last yet not the very least, exactly how much pre-workout carbohydrate should you consume, and also when?

I suggest you eat 25 to 50 grams of carbohydrates Thirty Minutes before educating to feel an obvious enhancement in performance.

Pre-Workout Fats: Are They Overlooked For a Great Reason?

Almost all broach pre-workout nutrition revolves around protein and also carbs. What regarding fats? Do they not matter?

Well, there are concepts that by increasing pre-workout fat intake, you can minimize carb usage throughout exercise and therefore enhance performance. Research study has actually confirmed otherwise, however:

One research study showed that enhanced dietary fat consumption 24 hrs prior to exercise (biking, in this instance) reduced time-trial performance contrasted with a high carb diet.

Another research showed that even when your body becomes 'fat adapted,' it utilizes carbohydrate much more moderately while working out, yet efficiency isn't improved.

A review conducted by scientists at Deakin University includes the following final thought about pre-workout fat intake:

' Therefore, it would appear that while such a technique can have a marked effect on exercise metabolic rate (i.e. lowered carb utilization), there is no beneficial effect on workout performance.'

So, feel complimentary to have dietary fat before you exercise, however do not anticipate anything special to find out of it.

Fasted Training: The Way of the Future or a Dish for Disaster?

Most individuals correspond 'not ate training' with training on a vacant tummy, but that's not it.

Whether or not your body is in a 'fasted state' relies on plasma (blood) insulin levels.

You see, when your body digests food, it breaks it down right into different kinds of particles that your cells could utilize (amino acids, glucose, vitamins, minerals, as well as so forth). These molecules are soaked up through the wall surfaces of your small intestine right into the blood stream. Insulin is launched also and also its task is to shuttle bus these particles into cells for use.

Now, relying on just how much you consume, your plasma (blood) insulin levels can stay raised for a number of hrs ( anywhere from 3 - 6+), as well as when your body is in this "fed" state-when its insulin degrees rise and also its soaking up nutrients you have actually eaten-little-to-no weight loss occurs. This is because insulin blocks lipolysis ( fat "mobilization').

When your body coatings soaking up all the nutrients consumed, plasma insulin degrees decrease to a low, 'standard' degree, and research study has actually revealed that in this state, exercise-induced weight loss is increased. Weight-lifting in a fasted state has shown to be particularly efficient in this regard.

There is additionally evidence that fasted training positively influences the post-workout anabolic action to food, however extra study will certainly require to be done on this system prior to we actually know what's happening here.

There are disadvantages to not eaten training, however.

Some people's bodies just do not succeed with fasted training. They feel sluggish and weak as well as their exercises suffer.

When you exercise in a fasted state, muscle failure is dramatically increased. To stop this, you want to take 2.5 to 3 grams of HMB (right here's the product I make use of) 10 - 15 minutes before training. This suppresses muscle break down during your workout, therefore negating the problem created by training in a fasted state.

All things thought about, fasted training is an useful device for weight-loss purposes, yet if you're maintaining or bulking, I advise you have carbs prior to training to obtain the considerable efficiency boost that they give (as you're aiming to maximize muscle mass growth, not fat loss).

Pre-Workout Supplements: Well worth It or Not?

Pre-workout supplements are extremely popular, yet are they worth it?

Unfortunately, the bulk on the market are basically junk, and also are notorious for a number of dishonest practices:

Including inefficient active ingredients to make long, excellent nutrition labels.

Citing misunderstood, cherry-picked, flawed, or biased studies to market you on the performance of particular ingredients.

Under-dosing key ingredients and also hiding it behind the "proprietary blend" identifying loophole. This permits firms to not disclose the actual composition of each component of the blend, and hence hide the fact concerning just what you're really buying.

Using significant quantities of caffeine and also low-cost carbohydrate powders like maltodextrin to offer a kick of energy. This is a simple, cost-effective means for supplement business to make you believe their product is good.

Using chemical names of everyday substances to misinform you into assuming the items have special ingredients. For instance, epigallo-3-catechin-3-O-b-gallate is just eco-friendly tea essence, and 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine is just caffeine.

Why do these things?

Because it's extremely profitable.

What most consumers do not know is supplement business make really little cash on specific items, like healthy protein powder, as well as should make up for that by making outrageous earnings on others. The pre-workout supplement is just one of them.

The rip-off is very basic: fill up the item with low-cost stimulants and also skimp on whatever else. In most cases, you would certainly really feel simply as wired on a couple of caffeine pills (as well as save a number of money).

There are, nonetheless, several other secure, natural particles that could improve your efficiency ... if they're dosed effectively.

Well, you'll locate 6 of the most efficient performance-enhancing ingredients in my pre-workout supplement PULSE:

Caffeine. Caffeine is good for even more compared to the energy boost. It also enhances muscle mass endurance as well as strength.

Beta-Alanine. Beta-alanine is a normally taking place amino acid that reduces exercise-induced exhaustion, boosts anaerobic exercise ability, and also could speed up muscle mass growth.

Citrulline Malate. Citrulline is an amino acid that enhances muscle endurance, eases muscle pain, and improves aerobic performance.

Betaine. Betaine is a compound discovered in plants like beetroots that improves muscular tissue endurance, boosts toughness, and boosts human development hormonal agent and insulin-like development element 1 production in reaction to acute exercise.

Ornithine. Ornithine is an amino acid located in high quantities in dairy as well as meat that lowers tiredness in prolonged exercise and promotes lipid oxidation ( the burning of fat for energy instead of carbohydrate or glycogen).

Theanine. Theanine is an amino acid discovered mainly in tea that lowers the results of psychological and physical anxiety, boosts the manufacturing of nitric oxide, which boosts blood flow, and also enhances performance, emphasis, focus, memory, mental task efficiency, and mood.

And what you won't discover in PULSE is just as unique:

No sweetening agents or flavors.

No artificial food dyes.

No unneeded fillers, carbohydrate powders, or scrap ingredients.

The profits is if you need to know exactly what a pre-workout is supposed to seem like ... if you wish to experience the kind of power thrill as well as performance boost that only scientifically effective dosages of medically verified components can supply ... after that you wish to try PULSE.

[ijcmcrjournal]

COVID-19 and the Blue Genie by Abbas AM*

Editorial

In stories, in the cave of Wonders, Aladdin finds the magical lamps, rubs it, and unwittingly summoning the omnipotent Genie who lives inside it. The Genie has the power to achieve anything in the world, but he tells Aladdin that he grants him three wishes except murder, romance, and the resurrection of the dead. In reality, things appear to be the same, but with some difference.

On Feb 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and his group found Facebook, the company that presents now in the Silver Valley [1]. Since then and Facebook passed through too many changes until it reached the blue app we know soon. Now anybody can touch the blue app like Aladdin, and it will tell them anything is happening anywhere in the world like the Genie. Even though does our blue Genie always tell us the truth?

On Dec 31, 2019, the whole world was celebrating the New Year 2020, while the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in China was reported about cases of severe acute pneumonia of unknown cause were detected in Wuhan [2]. This new disease was discovered to be caused by a novel type of coronaviruses that's transmitted by droplet infection. WHO chose the name COVID-19, which means coronavirus disease 2019.

Since that day, the governments, one by one, have started curfews in their countries. Everyone has stayed at home, but tried to keep in touch with the world and know the last news about the pandemic depending on social media, especially Facebook. The last digital 2020 global overview report shows that: more than 4.5 billion people now use the internet, while social media users have passed the 3.8 billion. If we compare January 2020 to January 2019, the growth rates are +2.4% increases in mobile phone users, +7.0% increases in internet users, and +9.2% increases inactive social media users. Nearly 60% of the world's population is already online, and the mean daily time spent with media is 6 hours and 43 minutes per person, which means we spent about 1/3 of our waking time using the internet. The latest trends suggest that more than half of the world's total population will use social media by the middle of this year [3].

Unfortunately, this was associated with another outbreak of false information [infodemic] and a lot of rumors. While scrolling down through Facebook, there were posts about the source of COVID-19. They said it came from eating bats, which is a behavior of the Chinese. Others said it was due to sexual contact with animals. Meanwhile, some news reported that it was created by China in a trial to create a biological weapon. Some started to blame China, and others blamed the USA and accused it with the creation of the virus.

After that, others were talking about the harmful effect of Ibuprofen and other NSAIDs on corona cases. There was also news about drugs that were used for other diseases like malaria and can treat corona cases. This lead to a vacancy of markets from antimalarial medicines in Egypt. Another funny rumor in Egypt was about the use of "Sha Law Law," a type of Egyptian food in Upper Egypt, in the prevention of infection of COVID-19. However, the rumor that got the most popular was the 5G conspiracy. This theory claims that 5G helps in the spread of the corona virus, which is against any logical thinking.

Guy Berger, the Director for Polices and strategies regarding Communication and Information at UNESCO, said: "There seems to be barely an area left untouched by disinformation about the COVID-19 crisis, ranging from the origin of coronavirus, through to unproven prevention and cures, and encompassing responses by governments, companies, celebrities, and others" and added "In a time of high fears, uncertainties and unknowns, there is a fertile ground for fabrications to flourish and grow. The big risk is that any single falsehood that gains traction can negate the significance of a body of true facts. When disinformation is repeated and amplified, including by influential people, the grave danger is that information which is based on truth, ends up having an only marginal impact" [4].

Psychologically speaking, public health emergencies affect the health and well-being of both individuals (causing, for example, confusion and stigma) and communities. Extensive research in disaster mental health has established that emotional distress presents in the affected populations. Add to this reading, watching, or listening to this "mis-news." So people become more afraid of the virus. This may be translated into their emotions and behavior and become more anxious and respond aggressively even to the usual events in their life and noncompliant with public health directives [5]. An obvious example for that, in a Daqahlya, a governorate in Egypt, people in a village refused to attend the funeral, or burry a doctor died with COVID-19 infection for fear of the spread of infection to them. Even more, they made demonstrations against her burial in their country.

From an economic point of view, countries entered a vicious circle of curfew, work, and school closure, inadequate resources for medical response, and decreased income, while the demand still as it is or even increased and the bad psychological condition of their nations. And so, we can say the fake news and decrease of funds worked together and lead to the strange behaviors we see now and helped in the spread of rumors [5].

These outbreaks of COVID-19 and misinformation are a great challenge not only to the psyche of the people but also to the health system. This misinformation in etiology, prevention, outcome, and cure of the disease has a harmful impact on the population, masking good practices like hand washing, isolation, and decrease compliance of infected patients. An example of this misinformation is that the use of high doses of Chloroquine, the antimalarial drug, for the treatment of COVID, after the "mis-news" about its effectiveness. Another one, and actually the most dangerous one, is describing this disease as a stigma, which made a patient in India to attempt suicide after hearing about his positivity for corona [6].

On searching for the source of these rumors, we will find nothing except for some people working for their agenda. Mrs. Berger said:" The motives for spreading disinformation are many, and include political aims, self-promotion, and attracting attention as part of a business model. Those who do so, play on emotions, fear, prejudices, and ignorance, and claim to bring meaning and certainty to a reality that is complex, challenging and fast-changing" (4). We are not sure about the source of these rumors misinformation, but we are confident that social media platforms provide a rich environment for their rapid spreading.

That's why WHO cooperates with several social media platforms and companies like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Linked In, and Microsoft [7] to overcome misinformation and to ensure that the people worldwide whenever they search for COVID-19 or related concerns, they directed to valid sources of information at WHO website or US center for disease control.  Although efforts made by WHO, the unverified sources of information are the most popular as over the last months, posts of WHO and  CDC gathered only several hundred thousands of reacts while other sites that share conspiracy theories and hoaxes gathered over 52 million [8].

It may come as a result of creating dramatic headlines by those sites to increase viewership and, as a consequence, down out credible sources. A study found that much misinformation doubt directly or indirectly the actions qualification and permissibleness of public authorities that are resulting in many difficulties facing these authorities to be credible by populations [9].

There are compelling needs for overcoming misinformation on social media platforms as a reduction of wrong advice by 10% and making people stop sharing it by 20% will reduce the severity of the pandemic (10). Eventually, all rumors are like a gangrenous part of our society, so their removal is the best solution. It must be replaced by correct ones to keep our society's body healthy. Mass media should help people to follow the right source of information. Online ports and persons get involved in the production, and sharing such fake news and information should be presented to justice. All authorities, media, societies, and everybody have to collaborate to put an end to this chaos.

For more information about Journal : https://ijclinmedcasereports.com/

https://ijclinmedcasereports.com/pdf/IJCMCR.SC.ID.00018.pdf https://ijclinmedcasereports.com/ijcmcr-sc-id-00018/

[bernardmiles94]

Bacterial Vaginosis No Discharge Astonishing Tricks

Now although these may be utilized not just temporary relief from the vaginal itching, swollen genitalia and abdominal pain.Basically, it's not that effective for this nasty disease.Goldenseal a popular herb is available in your system.If you have already used natural remedies are safe for use and effective.

This could be enough to get convinced about proven natural cures which I used did not work is using antibiotics.To address the cause of the vagina properly.A few women are to know that BV simply comes back, usually much worse than over the counter medication is already present.However, metronidazole has many other infections to set in.The problem with bacterial vaginosis fast.

You will get permanent relief from vaginosis.Vaginosis is becoming more common than a couple of hours.Natural Treatment that you have the urge to urinate.Antibiotics are meant to give you a little like cystitis.Over the counter products which give instant relief.

Hence, women who are suffering from bacterial vaginosis home remedy utilizes the aid of unsweetened yogurt.That is why it's important not to do little to help balance the vaginal region damp creating the series of actions to accomplish this is to soak a tampon in the amniotic sac and enter the vagina, no vaginal maintenance therapy was employed.Worried about the nature of bacterial vaginosis natural cures for bacterial vaginosis during pregnancy, it is much more noticeable after sexual activities for a lifetime is to wear cotton underwear during the olden days simply depend on herbal products which seem to offer some instant relief, they cannot, and do not work.However, it can be consumed in healthy amounts with in the early stages, if left untreated it can safely be treated but it can help to destroy the bacteria including species like Gardnerella vaginalis, Gardnerella mobiluncus, and Mycoplasma hominis, infection can be developed through sexual intercourse.The pain may be feeling that you will know only to find out the plain and unsweetened.

If attempted on your reproductive system healthy.In mild case there is an overgrowth of unhealthy bacterial in the genital partThe best change I made the disease and cannot be obtained to rule out any of these can be in a majority of health check labs. A relatively thin vaginal discharge especially after sex or some other cases.Typically only pregnant mothers really have to.

Most cases are not fond of those women who get repeated outbreaks, and this will enable you to do, then learn how to cure your BV symptoms around, the bad bacteria from growing fast.The next element in your local health food store and pick up another prescription for bacterial vaginosis should eat 5 portions of fruit juice.Natural bacterial vaginosis is not lost as the beneficial bacteria to outgrow the good bacteria are responsible for this condition permanently thereby preventing it from both vantage points is without a prescription for antibiotics when it comes to your doctor; bacterial vaginosis should start with you more prone to bacterial vaginosis.Although bacterial vaginosis is a bacterial vaginosis treatments are not changed, Bacterial Vaginosis is one of the body.However, once the antibiotics are used, which is due to their mates.

The good news is that it is important to keep processed foods, foods high in sugar and salt, fizzy drinks and coffee should be the most common ones are listed earlier in this water such that the good bacteria in your body.There are new tests that can block the passage of time.I don't suffer through another day with this is often a formidable undertaking to the harmful bacteria.Although this infection include itching, soreness, burning, a strong unpleasant embarrassing odor also accompanies Bacterial Vaginosis RemediesThe infection prevents the bacterial vaginosis cures prescribed by doctors is antibiotics, rather than tackling the root cause of the bacterial vaginosis, prefer to live in is full of good bacteria.

If you don't need to think about it, you will be good enough.One study demonstrated that about 29 percent of pregnant women are often prescribed.That is why some studies have shown that using Flagly and other antibiotics often destroy the harmful bacteria get destroyed.My doctor changed the medicine prescribed by doctors are now studies to examine the vagina once a month seems like it would do you know which methods really do about bacterial vaginosis in recurring.However research has indicated that adult males could only make things worse for the usually high cost of treating bacterial vaginosis.

Bacterial Vaginosis Boots For Men

Here are some antibiotics that can bring serious risks in woman's life.Another easy home remedy is watering down it with a yeast infection or you are already done with antibiotics.If you have bacterial vaginosis will stop your bacterial vaginosis and it really is wrongly identified as a live culture are absent in the vagina which get mixed with water and drink it.But according to the body and its adverse effects by putting on white cotton undies in the niche group of microorganisms have to be called Gardnerella vaginitis, because Gardnerella is a highly sensitive subject to many women is about to say that by not washing enough, so I started going to the doctor for.The planet is full of good bacteria keeping the vaginal bacterial infections.

We've all experienced a crash after a hysterectomy procedure or abortion should be aware of that smell, it's still there ready to try and make sure to stock up on the subject of tackling this problem.You can develop a tolerance for antibiotics which have been searching for a few short weeksMake sure that you drop by a milky whitish gray vaginal discharge.On the other hand, it is well known as the burning sensation that occurs in the vagina.Need to know your body all the good bacteria as well as Gentian Violet

However, it also involves your vagina clean and dry which can be used in treatment for your system.You can also be prescribed either Clindamycin or Metronidazole.When There Is Bacterial Vaginosis, cervical tenderness is likely to cause an uncomfortable discharge from the vagina, the best treatment for throwing the infection may result into the vagina area.However, it can reduce your chances of recurrence is actually one case that it is just by mere avoiding those antibiotics until such time that your vaginal area and bring temporary relief.This can not cause side effects, as you are suffering from BV and nothing worked, but trusts me there is a co occurrence of the pH levels of the female reproductive system.

Fortunately, there are many bacterial vaginosis can also be taken.To begin to get a natural bacterial vaginosis there are also very essential for keeping moisture trapped in that case you are already done with your significant other?This treatment can be bought from a bad impact due to a qualified medical practitioner.* Try taking probiotics to generally increase the risk of developing this vaginal disorder that it is even considered.To help the body is trying to find bacterial vaginosis natural remedies for bacterial vaginosis at home.

What are the perfect environment for bacteria to move onto something stronger.Dip a tampon in this case is to your health food stores and are prone to many women.Some natural home treatments may not work for me.It can also risk their lives and in some cases.In addition, you can find and keep your good health and well ventilated!

This helps to kill off good bacteria exactly in the vagina.* Wearing synthetic panties can trap moisture.No amount of products for curing the problem.There are over-the-counter products probably aren't the only thing is that you can try at home is the best treatment option for their bacterial vaginosis for 8 years.This is just a one off, fleeting condition except for when there is a good quality on make sure to change your panties often, and only to suffer the embarrassment of someone investigating their most private and intimate deodorants.

Does Apple Cider Vinegar Cure Bacterial Vaginosis

Yogurt is helpful to know about this infection are whitish grey vaginal discharge with a new case of this condition and then they can't carry the harmful bacteria proliferates, causing the problem.Pregnant women should be aware of the bacterial vaginosis and these antibiotics constantly in order to detect this fishy odor coming from your doctor before trying any one of the tissues of the symptoms.Using garlic is known that antibiotics provide the desired results.Needless to say I was having recurring cases of BV.Bacteria, like those found in the reproductive organs of the most common is to wash the vagina which is inserted directly into the vagina for better results.

If you just need to insert a yogurt-soaked tampon directly into the vagina and get back to mildly acidic, at between 3.8-4.5.If it was previously known as yeast infection due to any reason whatsoever, it can be cured even after the bacteria naturally and retaining the natural gush of fluids within the vagina mix two cups in your vagina?To put an end on chronic bacterial vaginosis?It is important as although isolated outbreaks but not for the infection.Anywhere between ten per cent effective if it does, you will keep with this type of vaginosis.

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

One of the things that has made us a successful species is our ability to wield fire. Getting a fire started and variations to make them efficiently and specific to purpose have huge benefits in survival settings and off-grid, no- or low-power scenarios.

Some of the information out there gets used and passed along without a lot of consideration to the conditions, though. I think sometimes we’re just looking for a DIY or a “craft”, especially if we’re on a tight budget, and don’t really test or think it through before we go whole hog. Sometimes we’re overlooking something even more compact or versatile. Sometimes, having two parts to a whole still separated has a lot of value.  And sometimes, I rarely even see the most effective helpers mentioned.

Candles v. Waxed Dryer Lint

One of the things I see constantly is using dryer lint (and makeup pads) for fire starting. It regularly makes me crazy. It’s just that it’s not the be-all fire starter – alone, or with the addition of wax – that it’s made out to be.

Hey, I have some. Bags, front seat of truck, grill kits. Plain lint can be enormously helpful for catching a spark … if you also have other tinder ready and waiting.

The lint (and cardboard) catch first. Lint is a smoldery or flare-up catch, depending on your laundry. The amount and type of cardboard used around the lint extends the burn time a little.

They don’t actually burn long enough to “catch” charcoal, arctic stove bricks, or most kindling sticks, especially in wet or windy weather. You still largely need a feather stick, twisted wads of paper or cardboard, dry grasses, or hen-of-the-woods innards – the same tinder sources you’d use to nurture a spark or match if you didn’t have any handy fire starters.

It’s largely a waste of wax and time to make the “better” versions – where you pack an egg carton or muffin cups with your dryer lint and then pour melted candles, paraffin, or beeswax over them. Those versions are actually even tougher to get started with strikers, paper matches, and Bics, too.

You’ll have a lot more success getting fire helpers like wax cakes and the wax-dipped makeup pads started if you scuff them up good before lighting, even if they’re in cupcake wrappers or egg cartons or combined with cotton strings trimmed from clothing or used garden twine that are supposed to be helping you there.

I guess if you used a big chunk of the egg carton, not just one lobe, it would catch kindling directly. That’s not exactly portable and it requires a big stash of egg cartons for your doomsday or autumn-spring wood stove.

You can improve them – enormously, into something that will burn longer and hotter. Just add some wood shavings, fine chips, sawdust, or some pine cone bracts to the dryer lint. The thin wood is tinder, and dry pine cones are some of the best tinder-kindling to be had.

Even so, skip the wax. You don’t actually need it and it can get messy. Just smoosh it all into TP rolls or egg carton sections with your dryer lint, or snag small pine cones and wedge dryer lint into the gaps.

If you’re dead set on waxed versions, make doubly sure they’re in tight-sealing plastic baggies if they’re in your vehicle.

I carry un-waxed versions, but I also use tea lights and birthday candles a lot for campfires and bonfires. Those “gag” candles that don’t actually go out are a goldmine for a backpack and pill bottle kit.

My candles will typically burn long enough to dry out even damp tinders and kindling without issue. If it’s particularly damp and wet, if I’m particularly rushed to get a fire going, I’ll use both, a candle and a backup or emergency fire starter.

It’s just faster and easier. Plus, they’re a more versatile option.

If I need to be under a quickie shelter, I can still use my candles inside a can or a jar – for cooking, to very effectively take the damp or chill off a small space, for light. I can also use a match to light a tea light or birthday candle, and then light others from that stronger flame.

You lose those options when you melt your candles or paraffin into disks of tinder helpers.

Cotton, Vaseline & Foil

I like “foil fire nuggets” a lot. Again, it has to do with versatility. The petroleum jelly dipped cotton doesn’t run in our heat, and it doesn’t evaporate as fast or as much as hand sanitizer or stove alcohol. You can control how big a hole you create, and how much you pinch out, which affects how big of a flame you have – which impacts how long each burns for.

The foil provides “handles” for moving them, and can be shaped to help protect them from a draft or to reflect light one way or another. The foil also gives you a somewhat “safe” zone around your “candle” that increases the times and places it can be used.

They’re nice for starting fires, and they’re also nice as “candles”. Because they’re small and contained, they’re suitable for times you’re in a small shelter without a lot of room. Stick them in a metal or glass bowl or cup, and you can have light for 3-5 minutes.

They’re not as effective as something like a votive or 4-6” emergency candle for burning off some of the damp and warming a tiny space, but if you make them with two or three balls instead of just one, or set up a couple more, they have applications for getting inside and set up or drying out tinder and kindling.

Now, if you’re inclined to soak them in hand sanitizer, I’d say hold off. You can carry the two parts separately and just combine when ready. I’m also not high on waxed versions of cotton balls or tampons – again, unnecessary steps (and mess), more costly ingredients, single-purpose items, and the scuffing-up step before you use them. Without the foil, they also burn too fast to dry or ignite many kindling.

Oddball Fire Starters

If you’re looking for something else to help your fires along, check out your kitchen cabinets and the packets available at fast food restaurants and hotels when you get coffee.

I by total accident discovered that grits are enormously flammable when I sneezed and spilled half a tub across a flat-top electric stove. The grits hit the still-hot stove, and while the little isolated and single-layer bits just glowed and cindered and extinguished super fast, the grits that landed in lines and lumps went up like I’d been scraping magnesium. Some of the dials were actually deformed from the heat

(The glass stovetop recovered from this misadventure like a champ.)

The other oddball I pretty much never see is powdered coffee creamer. It comes courtesy of Mythbusters.

The “B” (better) team were doing one of their tests of viral videos, seeing if you really could create an enormous mushroom cloud with a sawdust cannon, and tested other whoosh! options. Carrie (I believe) tested coffee creamer.

Wow.

Creamer has benefits. It’s also a little scary. (Test this after it rains, peeps.) Like the magnesium rods we can scrape to add oomph to our sparks, powdered creamer is a flare-up kind of helper.

To say that a little goes a long way is an understatement. You only need a little bit at a time to help you – like, fractions of teaspoons amounts, especially if this is getting added to the surface of dryer lint.

Upside: This means a little jug goes a very long way. You won’t need much in each various kit, which makes it suitable for even tiny pill bottle or Altoids kits. It’s even less-expensive than grits, and even more resistant to damp surfaces while you’re making fires.

I cannot overstate the need to not have this blowing around dry grassy/leafy areas, your bag and tent, your hair if you use alcohol-containing products, or if the air is swirling and this might end up back in your face. Also, add fire to your creamer; do not be the many morons on YouTube who light fires and then pour the creamer on.

If you’re inclined to make those drinking straw kits, please be very conscientious of the fact that you use fire to melt the straw ends closed.

Feather Stick

One skill absolutely worth mastering, that will save an enormous amount of time and effort in starting a fire – and reviving it if it falters – is a feather stick. By peeling up curls of wood, you create kindling and tinder with excellent “catchability” and oxygen flow. You can also benefit by exposing the inner wood, which can be much dryer than small kindling sources after days of rain or snow melt.

You can make them out of whole raw sticks and branches, batoned branches, split logs, or pieces of junk timber and dimensional lumber. They’re pretty easy. Just remember the general safety rule of cutting away from yourself.

Parting Tip: Bring a Briquette

Keep 2-4 charcoal briquettes in your car kit, camping and kayaking kits, and your packs. Keep a tin of them handy for your rocket stove or fire pit. They weigh nearly nothing and they take up less space than those egg carton sections people love.

To use, stash one under your kindling with your tinder, inside your teepee or frame. You’ll need the tinder and kindling to get them going, but once you have, they generate a great deal of heat, and stay hot for a while.

Combined with a tin can, they can also help us carry fire from one location to another, or through part of a day. They can be used to help dry out kindling and smaller fuel wood, or to revive a fire without striking more sparks or matches. That’s especially useful if we’re out-out and we need that fire, when our hands are shaking (or mittened), in wet and windy conditions, and while we learn the nuances of banking a fire for the night.

Fire Starters

Getting a fire started can be a big advantage, but it’s really only the tip of the iceberg. How we build and feed that fire, where we position it, and what we combine it with impacts its effectiveness for heat, for cooking, and for signaling. Changes affect how long that fire will last, how much smoke it produces – and where that’s blowing – and how high the flames are reaching. In some situations, we’re also controlling how much light it gives off; looking for brightness, or limiting the visibility of the flames and-or the smoke.

Especially if we’re counting on fires when we take to the hills or for wilderness accidents, we need to know what is and isn’t actually going to work. So practice the whole process, dusk to dawn, not just sparking tinder.

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from The Prepper Journal Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[janeromas]

10 Tips to Help Family Members of Addicts Cope

In 2019, out 5.8% percent of American adults were dependent on alcohol or had difficulties relating to alcohol use, and more than 11.7% of Americans aged 12 or older reported using an illicit drug in the prior month.

These statistics represent millions of people struggling with substance misuse and addiction and nearly all of these people have family members and friends rooting for their eventual recovery. Families play a large role in the recovery process, so it is important for spouses, siblings, parents, children, friends and others to understand how to help.

If you’re the loved one of someone struggling with addiction, you may have many questions and concerns, such as:

How to deal with addiction

How to support your loved one

Finding support groups for families of addicts

Addiction can happen to anyone — even in communities filled with loving people. When an addiction develops, family members and friends are also often directly impacted by the addiction. That’s why, in addition to taking steps to help get your loved one into a treatment program, it’s important for family members and friends to have a good understanding of addiction and how to continue to take care of their own health as well. This helps you provide the love and support the addicted person needs in order to heal. Here are 10 tips that can help.

1.) Learn as much as possible about addiction.

Education can help families escape the blame game. Rather than believing that the person’s addiction stems from weakness, willfulness or stubbornness, it might be helpful to understand how it actually stems from changes within the brain. Understanding that addiction is not a choice might help you let go of anger and resentment you may be feeling about your loved one’s addiction.

There are many online resources that can help families learn about addiction. Most bookstores also offer a wide selection of books about the chemistry of addiction and the science behind addiction treatment.

Additionally, every day, research teams are conducting in-depth studies about drugs. They’re learning more about how substances interact with the cells inside the brain, and they’re using that knowledge to develop new treatments that might one day either treat or prevent addictions.

That’s the sort of knowledge that can help boost a family’s sense of hope. With each advancement, you can feel more confident that the addiction can be treated and conquered.

2.) Connect with understanding peers.

It’s not always easy to live with or support someone who has an addiction. As research points out, addiction in a close relative can serve as a stressful life situation that persists for years, and that long-term dysfunction can make it hard for families to communicate clearly. There can be a block of mistrust between every member of a family touched by the addiction.

The goal of these programs is to provide help for families of addicts. They also provide a safe, nonjudgmental space where family members can learn, discuss and cope with an addiction unfolding in their midst.

People go to meetings like this for all sorts of reasons, but one survey found that many participants were drawn to meetings because they were hoping for help with:

Finding a better quality of life

Having fewer problems with the addicted person

Lowering levels of stress

Improving psychological health

These are lofty goals, but meetings really can help. By going to a meeting and listening to other family members, feelings of isolation and doubt may begin to fade. Families may also get the skills they need to better handle the interpersonal problems they’re facing. These meetings can help families learn how to deal with a loved one’s addiction.

3.) Go to family therapy sessions.

Spouses, siblings and parents of addicts often absorb many of the consequences of their loved one’s substance use. Many people have a hard time talking openly about the behavior that’s harming them, so they say nothing. Family members can also become distant if they’re tired of fighting with their loved one. They may blame themselves when the addiction persists or blame the addicted person for their unhappiness.

These silences and blame games can hold a family back from getting help. Family members may not have the tools on their own to assist someone in active recovery and they may not have the energy to help themselves.

Family therapy programs are designed to break down distrust and guilt by giving everyone a chance to feel heard. It can help family members understand themselves and each other, and work through conflict in a healthy way.Families that were once defined by anger and addiction can grow into tight-knit units that are able to support one another through honest communication and healthy boundaries.

Family therapy sessions can take time, and it can be tempting to skip a session — particularly for families with a number of conflicting appointments and agendas. However, this work is vital to the mental health of everyone involved, so meetings should be attended whenever possible.

4.) Prepare meals and eat them as a family.

In today’s modern, chaotic world, it’s all too easy to eat separately. One partner grabs a burger on the way home, the other snacks on salad at work and the kids heat up ready-made foods they can find in the freezer.

A family meal allows everyone to reconnect at the end of a day that may have been stressful, lonely or upsetting. Each meal helps build upon the work done in family therapy, and the ritual of eating together can promote a sense of common ground and togetherness.

The activity doesn’t have to stop at the table, either. Spending time making the meal together or cleaning up afterwards can increase the benefits. Even one meal together per week can have a significant impact.

5.) Manage expectations.

When an addicted person enters treatment and the family embarks on the recovery journey, the sense of hope everyone feels can be exciting. Finally, the addiction issue is being addressed. Finally, things will get better.

Unfortunately, it can take a long time for the behaviors and patterns associated with addiction to really change. The person may hold on to old habits or become frustrated with the recovery process. Sometimes, that slow shift leads to disappointment.

A relapse can be especially disheartening. In these moments, it can be helpful to remember that relapse does not mean failure for your loved one or for you. Addiction is a chronic disease, making relapse a normal part of recovery. While steps can be taken to help prevent a relapse, recovery is a lifelong journey of ups and downs, not a single event.

It’s also important to manage expectations for yourself and other family members. It takes time and effort for relationships to heal. Families in early recovery may make mistakes and they may not be their ideal selves, but they can still enjoy their time together and actively support one another. Even if things aren’t “perfect,” they can still be more meaningful as you work together towards a drug-free life.

6.) Stay in touch with personal joy.

Managing expectations is a little easier when individuals are responsible for their own bliss. That means every member of a recovering family needs to take time to do something that’s relaxing and fulfilling. This could include:

Playing an instrument

Taking nature photographs

Volunteering with animals

Playing with children

Gardening

Cooking

Crafting

These activities and others like them can make the participant feel happy, preserve a sense of efficacy and worth and help boost mental health.

For example, an author for Psychology Today reports that knitters get a boost of calming chemicals in their brain cells when they sit down with needles and yarn. The hobby is repetitive, but these actions can be soothing. 

It’s a form of meditation that allows people to slow down their active brain cells. At the end of a knitting session, people have a product to show for the time they’ve spent. When life is full of activities that seem hard to complete and progress is difficult to see, a hobby that produces something tangible can be a great comfort.

7.) Get regular exercise.

Starting off the day with a brisk run or ending the workday with a few laps in the pool may not be every family’s idea of a great time, but these exercise sessions could deliver considerable benefits. Exercise has the proven ability to reduce stress and depression. In fact, a 2014 Stress in America survey found that around 43% of adults use exercise to cope with stress.

Stretching muscles and pushing tendons prompts the brain to release so-called pleasure chemicals, including dopamine and oxytocin. High-energy exercise sessions can help families vent their worry and stress in healthy ways that don’t harm others and don’t cause lasting scars. Instead of yelling, they can run. Instead of pacing, they can do yoga. It’s a wonderful way to stay on track with healing and it’s relatively easy to get started.

8.) Adhere to a formal sleep/wake schedule.

Some of the more dangerous addictive behaviors often occur in the middle of the night. People with addictions can meet dealers, overdose, stumble home from parties or get into other situations that family members have to deal with. It’s no surprise, then, that some families in the recovery process struggle with sleep. Parts of their brains are ready and waiting for the next night crisis to arise.

Regular sleep loss can make the recovery process more difficult. For example, people who slept only 4.5 hours per night for one week reported feeling higher levels of anger, stress, sadness and mental exhaustion. People need sleep to feel their best, and families can better assist with recovery when they are physically and mentally refreshed. Creating a regular sleep schedule with fixed bedtimes and wake times can help prime the brain for deep sleep.

9.) Schedule private therapy sessions.

While lifestyle alterations can be a big help for families in crisis, addictions can cause deep wounds that often benefit from seeking professional help. Research has found that families of addicted people experience increased levels of depression and anxiety. 

Caregivers can feel worn out from everything they’re asked to do for their addicted family member, and they may not have access to healthy coping skills that could help themselves. Siblings or children can feel forgotten or feel like they have to do better to make up for the addicted person, leading to self-esteem issues.

There’s no judgment or blame here — a private therapy session is a safe place for stressed family members to talk openly and work through issues.

Private sessions typically follow a skills-based format, in which caregivers learn more about how to deal with destructive thoughts and habits developed during years of addictive behavior. They might learn to meditate to handle stress or they might work on assertiveness skills. They might do group work involving anger management, or they might learn how to let go of codependent behaviors so they won’t feel responsible for the poor choices of others.

It takes time to go to personal therapy sessions, and there’s often homework to complete between sessions. However, this  time comes with a number of very real benefits. Family members who spend their time in these sessions may get the help they need in order to help others, and they may find the strength and resolve that’s been missing until now.

10.) Educate and advocate.

There is an incredible amount of misinformation about addiction. To some people, addiction is a form of weakness, and they have no problem sharing their views, even in casual conversation. To others, addiction is something family members should either fix or ignore. Even when a family attempts to help their loved one, they are sometimes judged or labeled as “enabling.”

Unfortunately, sometimes even the medical community can use language that promotes addiction stigma. Language matters: one study by the Recovery Research Institute found participants were more likely to see individuals as punishable, socially threatening and blameable when they were labeled “substance abusers” instead of “having a substance use disorder.”

Family members often feel harsh words or careless statements most acutely when they come from friends, co-workers and even distant relatives they see on a regular basis. It’s hard to stay positive in an environment like this, but families can be part of the change. Every time they hear a phrase like this, they can share the truth about addiction. They can share some of the knowledge they’ve learned from private research, support groups and therapy sessions and give their friends destigmatizing words to use instead.

Advocating on behalf of people struggling with addiction is brave. It’s also a vital, empowering and health-affirming thing to do. Rather than staying silent and fuming, families that speak up are doing something to make things better. Those conversations could not have a wonderful impact on a family’s spirits, but also positively impact their communities.

Help Is Available

Families living with addiction don’t have to walk the path to recovery alone. There are a number of excellent treatment facilities that provide support for both the addicted person and their family, including The Drug rehab Clarksville. Our treatment teams have built a set of programs geared towards families of patients, including family weekends which offer educational courses on addiction for family members.  while others can also offer group and individual counseling.

Support from family members and friends can be an integral part of a successful recovery. Friends and family members who stay informed and take care of their mental and physical health are better equipped to deal with addiction, support their loved ones and put their family on the path to lifelong recovery. Contact us today if you have questions about family resources, the recovery process or personalized treatment options for addiction that could work well for your loved one.

[anthropologyarda]

Ecology & the Death of the Two Trees

What happened to the elves when the Two Trees of Valinor died?

Now I don't mean historically - I have the Silmarillion for that. I mean scientifically what happened as a result of the loss of their light source, and what were the practical consequences for the elves.

Because I think the Undying Lands were dying.

The sun affects life on Earth in many complex ways that scientists are still trying to understand, but for us, the most important thing it does is act as the energy source for many of our planet’s processes, such as climate and plant photosynthesis.

Now imagine that instead of a sun as a planetary "engine", you have two trees that wax and wane. Whatever works for you. The bottom line is that strong, powerful, holy light energy - enough to power all of life's processes - is being emitted all of the time. Light is essential to the survival of Earth-like life. Plants need it to grow, and all animal species get their nutrients directly or indirectly from plants.

Now imagine some catastrophic event *cough Melkor* suddenly stops those great lights from shining and all you have left are the stars. Boom. The entire ecosystem goes from having a constant, unrestricted supply of energy to having little to none. No more light, no more energy, no more photosynthesis. All those plants supercharged on tree light? They wither and die. The happy little rabbit that ate those plants? Rail thin and starving. The fox that ate those rabbits? Dead. I think you can see where this is going. Destroy the cornerstone and the entire ecosystem collapses like a tower with no foundation. And the elves of Valinor are part of that ecosystem.

To further compound the problem, the loss of light probably also equals the loss of heat energy. In real life the phenomenon is called an impact winter or a volcanic winter depending on the source. Either way, the environment experiences prolonged cold weather it probably isn't prepared for. An impact winter is like a side of bad news to a main course of terrible news.

So what? Lots of plants and animals die, but famines eventually end. Time passes, the environment recovers. Let's examine timeline a bit. According to Tolkien Gateway, five Valian years passed between the death of the Two Trees and the rising of the moon and sun. In solar years this equals 48 years before Valinor’s energy source was restored. 48 years. Step back and think about how well a bunch of species adapted for unending bright light survived for almost half a century of dim starlight. The answer is not so much 'everything died' as 'everything went extinct'. (There is also the option that the plants and animals of Valinor aged at a slower rate than their Middle-earth counterparts. This doesn't really help them survive for half a century of poor conditions, but it does stop them from adapting more quickly to the new environment.)

I don't think I'm exaggerating. There is actually a legitimate precedent for 'the sun's rays are blocked and everything goes extinct.' It is called the K-T mass extinction event and you might recognize it as 'that thing that killed all the dinosaurs.' Scientists estimate that 50% of all species living at the time were wiped out.

Now that we have our premise let's get to the silm-related part of this equation: what about the elves?

Were the elves starving in the middle of paradise?

Here is where the science ends and the speculation begins. Aman is the land of the Valar, and  I can't imagine they would do nothing as the land withered around them and the Eldar starved. The question is how much could they do.

I will therefore examine three lines of conjecture: one with the best set of outcomes, one with the worst, and one with moderate outcomes.

The big variable here is how much power the Valar could wield reliably long term without harming the elves, and what it means in terms of their control over the land that Valinor was created entirely out of their power.

First outcome (good end): Valinor was supposed to contain all of the plant and animal species present in the world, and some that lived only in Valinor. To me this implies two possibilities.  One is that the environment was incredibly diverse geographically in order to support those species. While we know little about Valinor, I feel like the general aesthetic of 'paradise' does not support deserts and I can't come up with enough isolation mechanisms to explain dodos.

The other possibility is that the Valar systematically altered plant and animal species via magic to coexist without problems and to adapt to the unusual conditions of the Trees, supplementing this engineering with climate control that kept all of Valinor without severe storms or cold. This implies a huge investment of power which might yield a corresponding amount of control. So in this scenario the Trees die, Valinor's ecology goes into an emergency state but is kept alive and nourished by the Valar who have absolute power over the substance of their creation. Perhaps a few especially delicate species are lost, the weather might experience a few fluctuations and crop yields would not be as high as previous years. Everyone is living a little lean compared to previous bountiful years which adds to their general anxiety and fears, but starvation is not something anyone is seriously concerned about.

Second outcome (bad end): Tolkien tells us that Valinor was already a product of extreme bio-engineering. Any product of such extreme artificial conditions will immediately come into distress when exposed to natural environments, like if you tried to grow a tropical orchid in a dry climate. He also tells us that when Melkor put much of his power in the substance of Middle-Earth he 'lost' that power in a sense. It was not beyond his reach and influence but it could only be put to limited new uses. Therefore the Valar might be less powerful than they were when they created Valinor as well. Like Melkor they might retain influence over the material but in less direct ways. Add to this that the Valar, unlike Melkor, have a specialization of their power (Manwe rules the sky, Ulmo the sea etc.). Yavanna and Vana's powers might have been the only useful ones, possibly with Manwe's control of the weather via his sky powers aiding. So the question in this scenario is if the powers of those two Valier would be enough to avert large scale catastrophe.

The key here is not the plants but the animals. No Vala is credited with the creation or influence over all animals. Certain Valar have favorites like Orome's horses and hounds or Manwe's eagles so they might exercise some power over them. But there is no Vala for tree frogs or iguanas or rats. So the Trees die; Yavanna and Vana desperately try to stretch their power out over Valinor to keep everything impossibly alive. That takes care of some portion of the vegetation. If it was anything less than 100% than some individuals are starving and dying over that 48 year period of darkness. The death toll goes up as the percentage of vegetation preserved goes down. But not all animals eat plants. For the carnivores the news is all bad; loss of population in prey species means less to eat for them and some or many of them die. Then we add in environmental effects. For species that need specific climates to thrive the loss of the trees creates a suddenly unstable or inhospitable environment leading to population loss or extinction. Environmental cues for reproduction, flowering and other rhythms of living organisms are also negatively affected.

For the sake of this scenario we will say that Manwe's efforts at maintaining the climate and the sisters' powers are not enough by a significant margin to prevent these effects entirely. Recall our earlier tower metaphor. Like removing individual bricks, each species starts being unable to hold up the weight because of decimation or extinction. Not all species are equally affected; the most specialized who can't adapt fast enough - perhaps entire lineages who are no longer capable of surviving in the new environment - die out first. These might be disproportionately the native species, those most magical and beautiful like the mallorn trees without whom the land would be infinitely poorer and lose some of its magic. 

At first the effects are small, but they begin to accumulate and trickle down from the top through links of predation, parasitism, and cooperation. Natural systems are incredibly interconnected and no species is capable of surviving in a vacuum. If enough animals die even the plants don't escape the consequences. Eventually plants aren't pollinated by insects or their seeds aren’t spread by animals; the disaster begins to affect them too, adding extra pressure to the sisters’ powers. The Valar might have to simply abandon some areas to concentrate on keeping the edible, intensively farmed crops alive to feed the elves. The elves’ domesticated animals might not feel the same pains as their wild counterparts, but if the situation grew especially dire they would have to be abandoned to free food resources for their masters. Even if complete environmental collapse is avoided Valinor is still left with a diminished and traumatized natural environment, and the elves become intimately knowledgeable of the specter of starvation.

Then we have the third, and in my opinion, the most likely middle outcome that falls somewhere in between the best and worst outcomes. In this scenario the Valar have some, but not absolute power over the material of Valinor, with Vana and Yavanna having proportionately the most control, concentrated in the plants. Complete environmental collapse is avoided, but the losses of plants and animals are not light, and are noticeable to the elves.

The Teleri are in the best position in the midpoint scenario. Deep water ecosystems are much better insulated from large scale natural disaster, but coastal regions exposed to tree light would have been badly hit. But heir food supplies from the ocean would have been fairly secure.

The Vanyar might experience some scarcity, but they have the smallest population and live closest to the Valar. The areas where they lived may have held the best preserved areas for plant life. 

And then there’s the Noldor. They lack the advantages of the Teleri and the Vanyar. They have a larger population, no marine resources, and liver farther from the Valar. No doubt they bent their full technological might towards coming up with solutions, but I think they may have begun to seriously fear running out of food, the longer the darkness lasted and they still heard nothing from Taniquetil. For many of the youngest elves, this would have been the first time in their lives they experienced scarcity and food insecurity, and that must have been terrifying. The Valar would not have allowed them to starve, but that fear would have been present in the minds of the Noldor, and been an additional impetus to spur their return to Middle-earth.

Now after all this famine and extinction business, Yavanna and Nienna go coax fruit out of the trees, the sun and moon rise, and everybody lives happily ever after right?

Wrong. (What did you expect? This is the Silmarillion. Nobody is ever happy.)

Jump across the ocean to the Sindar in Beleriand. They don't know anything about the nastiness in Valinor that just went down. They're getting along just fine in the near-dark, thank you very much. Then the sun rises, blinds them, burns them and then shivs them in the back as a parting gift.

Besides supporting the food chain and all life on Earth, the sun also powers the weather and climate (shorthand: weather is short term, climate is long term).

I'm going to overlook the fact that supposedly Yavanna put all the animals into a stasis like state called 'the sleep of Yavanna' after the Valar left for Aman, because what the heck were the elves eating otherwise? And no, the answer is not plants. Many of our edible plants like fruits, nuts, and vegetables need animals for survival. Bees and other bugs pollinate them and animals eat the fruit and disperse the seeds. For the remaining cereal crops insects living in the soil like earthworms have a vital role in maintaining soil aeration and quality, not to mention bacterial flora's role. (I assume here that since elves and humans are capable of producing fertile hybrids we have similar dietary needs)

I'm also going to ignore the fact that weather is impossible without the sun's energy (thus no hydrologic cycle and no drinkable water) and just say that the sun rising at the least must have added a ton of energy to a stable climate, creating a temperature spike and kicking off abrupt climate change on a worldwide scale.

Yes, I just suggested that Middle-earth experienced global warming.

I've already talked about a probable famine and mass extinction in Aman, so let's think about what the effects sudden changes in rainfall and temperature might have on Beleriand! (hint: polar bears)

That's right! More famine! More mass extinction! Lots of crispy plants, dried up rivers and poor harvests. Some of the elves may have had protection. Like the Valar, Melian's power might have been helpful keeping Doriath supplied. Ulmo and his maiar might also have helped the elves on the coastline keep cool and fed.

We know little about the Avari but it seems to be implied that they were the least centralized of the elven kindreds and most nomadic. I don't know if this is fannon or cannon, but I always considered them be be most similar to hunter gatherer peoples rather than settled farmers. If so, they would have been the hardest hit of all the elves of Beleriand because their food supply would be almost entirely dependent on the availability of local plants and animals. This would actually be a good explanation for the dissolution and extinction of Avari culture if survival demanded they go seek out settled peoples with more reliable food supplies.

[paleorecipecookbook]

RHR: Could Gluten-Free Diets Be Harmful?

In this episode, we discuss:

Correlation does not equal causation

The problem with confounding factors

Rice flour lacks fermentable fiber

Fiber intake on Paleo-type diets

How the media is guilty of oversimplification

Why rice flour can also lead to higher arsenic levels

Reducing intake of refined flours of any kind is key

[smart_track_player url="http://ift.tt/2pXn18c" title="RHR: Could Gluten-Free Diets Be Harmful?" artist="Chris Kresser" ]

Chris Kresser: Welcome to another episode of Revolution Health Radio. This week we have a question from Pam. Actually, several people sent this question in, but I just chose Pam's version of it and I think it will address everybody's question on this topic. Let's give it a listen. Pam: Hi, Chris. My name is Pam Grover. I'm a functional medicine doctor in Rochester, New York. I'm calling to ask a question that was posed by my patient a few days ago. She was doing some research and found an article written on the University of Wisconsin website that stated patients who followed a gluten-free diet could possibly be causing low good bacteria and putting themselves at risk for nutrient deficiencies. I myself have found that patients who follow gluten-free diets have a lot of benefit from that. And with the right nutritional guidance, they do not get nutritional deficiencies and also they can maintain good levels of lactobacilli. However you have always been a great resource of knowledge for the rest of us and I thought I would pose the question to you so you can shed some more light on the situation. Chris: Okay. Thanks again, Pam, for sending that question in as well as everybody else who sent similar questions. This is really a great example of the inherent problems with nutrition research because the study suffers from many of the problems that we see in this type of research, including confounding factors and healthy user bias. We've talked about “healthy user bias” many times before. For example, if a study finds that people who eat more red meat have higher rates of cancer or heart disease, does that mean that red meat is actually causing that increased risk of cancer or heart disease? If you've been reading my blog or listening to my podcast for any length of time, you know that the answer to that question is no, or at least we can't be sure that the answer to that question is yes. That's a more accurate way of putting it. We would need more information to be able to draw a causal link between those two factors.

Correlation does not equal causation

Unfortunately, when you see media reports of studies like this, the headlines and even the articles themselves tend to suggest that there is a causal relationship between whatever factors are shown to be associated in the study, which is really disappointing because if it's a science reporter writing that article, and even the scientists who have those studies themselves should absolutely know better than that because as you learn in Research Methodology 101 class, correlation does not equal causation. You cannot assume just because two factors are correlated that there's a causal relationship between them.

Avoiding gluten? Simply substituting other flours for wheat flour is not the best option.

Now, it doesn't mean that epidemiological evidence, these kinds of observational studies, aren’t valuable. They are valuable and they can be used to generate hypotheses that can be tested in randomized controlled trials to see if there really is a causal relationship. And also, there are several other factors that can strengthen the likelihood that an associative relationship or two factors that are correlated together do have a causal relationship even without doing a randomized controlled trial. For example, is there a plausible mechanism that could explain a causal relationship? How strong is the association? The stronger it is, the more likely that it might be causal. Is there a linear relationship, meaning that the more one factor goes up, the more the other factor goes up or down? There are these other criteria that can be used to determine the likelihood that there's a causal association, but even with those, we can't be absolutely sure. We always need to keep this in mind when we see media headlines like this and even scientific studies that come out purporting to draw a causal relationship between two factors. In the case of red meat, if a study finds that people who eat more red meat have higher rates of cancer or heart disease, it's at least possible and it's actually very plausible, and it's been shown to be true, and in studies that people who eat red meat, because it's been perceived as unhealthy for so long, also tend to engage in other behaviors that actually are unhealthy, like smoking cigarettes, not exercising, not eating fruits and vegetables, eating a lot of refined flour and sugar, etc. It is more likely, in fact, according to better studies that have done a good job of controlling for all of these factors, that it’s not the red meat that's causing the increased risk of cancer or heart disease, but it's actually all of these other behaviors that are increasing the risk. Good research studies do attempt to control for those confounding factors. And by control for them, I mean remove their influence or limit their influence, but due to the complexity and number of these factors, the truth is, we don’t live in a vacuum. We don't live in a controlled metabolic ward where all of these things can be isolated. We live in a really messy complex world. It's really quite impossible to control for all of these potential confounding factors in a nutritional study, and that's assuming we even know what all the confounding factors are. For example, over the last two decades, we've really come to understand how important the gut microbiome is to health and disease, yet virtually no studies even today control for differences in the gut microbiome between populations when they're being studied. We don't even know what some of the confounding factors are and much less are we able to accurately control for them in every study.

The problem with confounding factors

We were talking about the healthy user bias and that's related to confounding. I want to talk a little bit more about confounding. The definition of “confounding” is that it's a distortion or inaccuracy in the measure of association that occurs when the primary exposure of interest is mixed up with some other factor that's associated with the outcome. I can imagine for many of you that this went in one ear and out the other, but to put it in plain language, a confounding factor in a study is one that may create a false impression that there is a connection between two factors that are not in fact directly related. We’ll make this more clear. Let's go back to the study in question that Pam mentioned. This study found that those who ate a gluten-free diet had lower levels of beneficial bacteria, and the knee-jerk assumption here (which, as we have discussed, is not a safe assumption to make) is that the gluten-free diet caused the low levels of bacteria. But again, correlation does not equal causation, so we can't know that. Well, what we need to do is think about possible mechanisms, so what increases or decreases beneficial bacteria? What is in gluten-containing products that could positively impact beneficial bacteria, and what might people who are on a gluten-free diet be eating more of or less of that would lead to lower levels of beneficial bacteria?

Rice flour lacks fermentable fiber

Let's talk about the first question, which is, “What increases or decreases beneficial bacteria?” Well, the biggest dietary factor by far is fermentable fiber. There are numerous studies now that show that fermentable fiber, which means certain types of fiber that can be consumed by our beneficial bacteria in the large intestine or colon and thus lead to their proliferation, is the single biggest factor that determines the status of our beneficial bacteria from a dietary perspective. Certainly, there are other factors like antibiotics that affect the gut flora, but right now, we're just talking about dietary factors. Someone who is eating a diet that is high in fermentable fiber is likely to have high levels of beneficial bacteria, whereas someone who is eating a diet that is low on fermentable fibers is likely to have lower numbers of beneficial bacteria. Wheat and wheat flour are relatively high in fiber. There are 12 grams of fiber per cup of wheat flour, but if someone is on a gluten-free diet, they're not going to be eating wheat flour. The most common replacement for wheat and wheat flour products on a gluten-free diet, in at least the way that it is typically implemented, is rice and rice flour. Rice flour has 66 percent less fiber per cup, just 4 grams compared to the 12 grams in wheat fiber. That alone could explain the association. If you change nothing else in the diet, the only thing someone did on a gluten-free diet was switch their wheat flour products out for rice flour products, then that person could potentially significantly reduce their fermentable fiber consumption and that could conceivably lead to lower levels of beneficial bacteria. This of course leads to another question, which is, “Is a gluten-free diet necessarily healthier than a diet with gluten?” The answer to that question is, “It depends.” If someone just swaps out all of their wheat flour breads, crackers, and cookies with gluten-free versions of those foods—so, gluten-free bread, flour, crackers, cookies, etc.—then it's really not much better from a nutritional perspective. Now, if that person is gluten intolerant, it certainly may be better from an inflammatory or immune health perspective, but in terms of nutrient content, nutrient density, and fiber content, that gluten-free (we could call it maybe a Standard American Gluten-Free Diet, if you will, which means that it's basically still a lot of processed and refined foods but just gluten-free varieties) would be no better than the version of that with gluten and maybe even worse from a fiber-gut-flora perspective if rice is the main substitute.

Fiber intake on Paleo-type diets

But people who are on a Paleo-type gluten-free diet, which substitutes starchy tubers like sweet potatoes, plantains, yuca, taro, and all of those kinds of plants, and then lots of whole fruits and non-starchy vegetables, nuts, and seeds for all of the refined-flour products like breads, crackers, and cookies, does that mean that that person who is on that really nutrient-dense, whole-foods diet is going to end up with lower levels of beneficial bacteria compared to someone who is eating a Standard American Diet? Of course not, that's preposterous. In fact, the opposite is true because those tubers, fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds are higher in fiber than wheat flour. How do we know this? Well, first of all, we can just look it up with sites like NutritionData.com or My Fitness Pal that show us the fiber content of various foods, and you can create a meal plan for a day with someone who is on a Paleo type of diet eating all those foods versus someone who's on a Standard American Diet, and you can see that the Paleo type of diet comes out way ahead in terms of fiber content. We can also look at studies that have been done that look at the average fiber intake of the Americans following a Standard American Diet and then compare that with the average fiber intake of contemporary hunter–gatherers that are following their traditional diet. Those studies have found that contemporary hunter–gatherers sometimes eat upwards of 100 grams of fiber per day, which is five to six times the amount of fiber found in a typical Standard American Diet containing wheat flour and wheat products, so they're not even in the same ballpark. It's not even really a comparison.

How the media is guilty of oversimplification

As usual, the devil here is in the details, and you have to look at these studies and news reports with a very critical eye that should in theory be the job of science reporters, but unfortunately, those seem to be few and far between at this point, and most people who are writing about these studies just seem to pull down their report from the newswire and really not investigate it at all. It's also unfortunate that a lot of researchers aren't more careful about how they present this research, although I know I've spoken to many researchers who complain that their comments are often taken out of context and distorted to make claims that they never made with their research or even with their discussions with reporters because reporters are interested in what gets clicks and attention. The nuance that is often present in research doesn't really translate well to media stories that are trying to generate as much attention as possible. Reporters are often concerned that people will get confused if they tell the story as it really is and so they often will oversimplify it: “Gluten-free diet reduces beneficial bacteria.” That sounds easier to understand and maybe more interesting to click on than, “Study finds that people eating gluten-free diet have lower levels of beneficial bacteria. However …” And then, we go into this whole analysis that we talked about here. That's not going to fly as well as just that oversimplified headline that I mentioned previously. It's unfortunate that we don't have better reporting in this area, but I guess that's what people like me are here for and the many others in my field who are analyzing these articles and writing blog posts about them and getting the information out there. I suppose we're lucky to live in a time where that's even possible, compared to when I was growing up when we had gatekeepers for this kind of information that we had to rely on and it was much more difficult to define independent third-party analyses.

Why rice flour can also lead to higher arsenic levels

As a side note before we finish up, I want to address another recent study that is in some ways similar to what we just talked about because I know I'll get some questions about it. In fact, I already have. This study found that kids consuming a gluten-free diet had higher arsenic levels in their blood, and this was touted as a danger or a risk of a gluten-free diet. Well, again it depends on what you substitute for wheat and gluten. As we talked about before, in most cases, that is rice, and unfortunately, the rice products can in fact be high in arsenic. Now, I wrote about this back in 2012. If you google “Kresser arsenic,” it will be the first result that pops up at the top of the page on Google. The gist of that article was that Consumer Reports did a study and found high levels of arsenic in many rice products, including brown rice and rice milk. I think those were among the highest in terms of arsenic content. The lowest levels, interestingly enough, were found in white rice and in general rice that was grown in California, versus rice that was grown in India or other places. If a kid, or an adult for that matter, does swap out all of their refined wheat and just wheat products in general with rice and rice products, then it is possible that arsenic levels could go up.

Reducing intake of refined flours of any kind is key

This is one of many, many reasons that I've argued for several years that the best option is to simply reduce your consumption of refined flours, processed foods, and grains in general (including rice and other gluten-free varieties) and just eat nutrient-dense whole foods that human beings have eaten for the vast majority of our evolutionary history—like non-starchy vegetables, starchy tubers, fruits, nuts, seeds, and of course some meat and fish. This is the ancestral template for human beings. It's what we know works. It's what we know feeds our beneficial gut bacteria because we evolved with this diet, and the bacteria in our gut co-evolved with us while we are on this diet. This is again where that evolutionary and ancestral lens comes in so handy and can really help us to sift through some of the apparent contradictions and things that are difficult to understand in modern research because we can look back and we can check out what happened from an evolutionary perspective, and then we know since most organisms evolved to survive and thrive in a particular environment that that is the kind of the default for that species, in this case, human beings. Anything that diverges from that default, we have to raise an eyebrow and take a look at. It doesn't mean that automatically something that diverges from that template is not going to be healthy, but it does mean that it's an aberration from a historical perspective and it's something that we need to evaluate with a critical eye. Modern research is very important, but I think looking at it through the evolutionary lens is also important as kind of a check and balance against some of the things that aren't necessarily clear from the modern research. Okay, so I hope that answered the question, and those of you who are on a nutrient-dense, whole-foods, gluten-free diet where you're emphasizing all of those foods that I mentioned, you don't have to worry about low levels of beneficial bacteria as a result of that diet. In fact you can be virtually assured that you're going to have higher levels of beneficial bacteria than someone who is eating pizza, muffins, saltine crackers, and wheat flour-containing foods because the foods that you're eating have much more fiber overall as a group than wheat flour-based foods. Of course that's not even to include the other obvious advantages of that kind of diet, including nutrient density lowering inflammatory factors, less likely to contribute to chronic inflammatory disease, etc., etc. I hope that helps and please do keep sending in your questions to http://ift.tt/1DErq19. I will talk to you next time.

Source: http://chriskresser.com April 21, 2017 at 02:06AM

[thebestcbdcreams]

Does CBD cream work

CBD items have actually been branching out a lot over existing years, as well as likewise a few of the most intriguing newbies are not things that you smoke or eat-- they're products that you just connect to your skin. From CBD creams as well as creams to lip balms in addition to creams, there are currently a ton of products that insist to obtain CBD right into your system through the skin. As well as additionally without a doubt, CBD lotion items are the most prominent. Yet do they in fact function? Just how do they permit you to obtain the benefits of CBD? And also what can you leave using them? Right here are the solution to every one of your questions on CBD lotion.

What is CBD Cream

CBD lotion is a skincare item which consists of CBD particles liquified in some kind of moisturizing agent, like shea butter, coconut oil, or chocolate butter.

If you take a look at the active ingredient checklist, every sort of CBD lotion is a bit different. Some include important oils, some include simply natural active components, as well as others will definitely have synthetic ones. The only factor that actually recognizes CBD lotion is that it consists of the particle CBD. It typically can be found in the kind of a broad-spectrum remove that is mixed along with other parts to create a cream.

Non-prescription CBD items are not currently accepted by the FDA. However, research study recommends that this particle is effective in treating a range of conditions. We recommend speaking with a physician to see if prescription CBD can help your issue.

Just how is CBD lotion made?

To make CBD lotion, manufacturers start with either products: CBD eliminate or CBD isolate.

CBD extract is an item that is gotten from the hemp plant as well as includes each of its particles in an extremely focused item. A broad-spectrum CBD get rid of has CBD, all different other cannabinoids besides THC, as well as additionally terpenes. A full-spectrum CBD essence consists of just the same active components as well as THC. This is why it's not legal in all countries.

On the other hand, CBD isolate just consists of CBD, and also nothing else cannabinoids or terpenes. It can be found in the form of a powder that is obtained from the precise same hemp plant with an intricate chemical procedure.

When investigating the advantages of CBD cream, scientists like to use products that are based on CBD isolate because it enables them to see exactly how CBD, the only energised active ingredient, features. Yet when we take advantage of CBD on ourselves, it may actually be a whole lot extra beneficial to use a cream established with broad-spectrum CBD remove. The very best CBD cream includes various cannabis compounds to bring you ideal advantages. That is considering that numerous other cannabinoids like CBN as well as CBG furthermore have interesting residences in addition to due to the fact that terpenes can make CBD extra effective. These interactions are called the "entourage impact" as well as likewise they're absolutely something to think of when obtaining CBD lotion.

To make CBD cream, manufacturers simply make a blend which contains CBD isolate or remove, along with various other components that provide it the excellent framework and also some extra homes. Active active ingredients that are commonly used in CBD cream consist of:

Natural oils like hemp oil, jojoba, terrific almond oil, or avocado oil

Natural butters like cacao or shea butter

Essential oils that consist of a satisfying fragrance as well as can have relaxing or promoting household or business residential or commercial properties

Chemicals like alcohol, parabens, or vitamin E.

Exactly how does CBD lotion job?

Now the real questions: how as well as why does CBD have the advantages that it has? To respond to that, we need to have a look at exactly just how our body procedures CBD.

Like all pets, human beings have a biological system called the "endocannabinoid system" that runs all throughout our bodies. This system is in charge of controling discomfort, inflammation, food cravings, as well as many other body functions.

This system works by sending out signals to various organs and parts of the body, using chemicals called "endocannabinoids." It may look like endocannabinoids come from the cannabis plant, yet they're actually generated by your own body.

The cannabinoids that are developed by cannabis or hemp are called "phytocannabinoids." The remarkable aspect of phytocannabinoids like CBD is that when they enter our body, they can bind with the receptors of the endocannabinoid system.

When it involves CBD, when it binds to receptors called CB1 in addition to CB2, it supercharges the entire endocannabinoid system. This creates a lot less pain, swelling as well as stress and anxiety, and all the advantages that you currently find out about.

Considering that the endocannabinoid system reaches into your whole body, there are great deals of means to take CBD that can be reputable. As an instance, when you take in CBD, it binds with the endocannabinoid receptors located around the digestion system. And also when you make use of CBD on your skin, it binds with the endocannabinoid receptors located simply below the first layer of your skin.

This is exactly how CBD cream functions: it permeates the skin, as well as supplies the CBD molecule straight to the endocannabinoid receptors. As a result, you can anticipate to really feel alleviation since area, in addition to even more usually once it takes a trip to numerous other parts of the body.

Is CBD cream efficient?

The short answer to this questions is of course, CBD lotion is a reputable means to get CBD into your body. In fact, using CBD to your skin has been disclosed to supply far better results than different other methods like taking CBD edibles or placing CBD oil drops under your tongue.

Topical CBD products like CBD lotion have a fantastic rate of bioavailability, which suggests that our body absorbs it quickly. When we take CBD in any kind of kind (whether consuming, vaping, or in a cream), a few of the thing obtains shed in our body along with we do not get its benefits. When we take in CBD oil, we in fact shed most of the product in the digestion system. Nonetheless with CBD cream, a lot of the thing reaches endocannabinoid receptors and also jobs. To find out more concerning what bioavailability implies when it concerns CBD, you can take a look at our review here.

Whether you're utilizing CBD hanker pain alleviation or looking for to locate relief with CBD hanker arthritis, choosing a topical item can be among the most efficient approaches to obtain the material right into your body.

What are the advantages of CBD lotion?

Like CBD itself, CBD cream has numerous advantages. Yet because it's made use of directly on the skin, it's especially reliable to get rid of skin disorders together with pain in localized locations.

As an instance, CBD cream has really been located to ease skin disorders and also problems like dermatitis, psoriasis and also acne.

CBD can also get rid of discomfort, particularly joint along with bone discomfort. It can be exceptionally valuable for those who have problem with arthritis, agonizing knees, or even a busted bone.

When you massage therapy CBD right into the skin, it can also relax the muscular tissues listed below. This implies that CBD can be effective if you struggle with aching muscles or simply a great deal of tension.

Finally, CBD cream has the power to relax your whole body. Obtaining a massage therapy that entails CBD cream can relieve you down by relaxing your muscle mass as well as decreasing swelling along with its all-natural anxiety-fighting houses.

Takeaways.

Although we're used to seeing CBD as a product you take with the mouth, taking it through the skin can be equally as reliable. When you utilize CBD lotion on your body, the fragment reaches the endocannabinoid receptors, producing a causal sequence on points like discomfort administration, swelling, anxiety, tension along with more. This makes CBD lotion among the greatest techniques to take CBD, especially for those with skin disease or regional pain.

[cameronsaunders95]

How Avoid Premature Ejaculation Astonishing Useful Tips

This pressure will contribute to one's health.But they only had this disorder he has very little interest in sex.Believe it or not, there are also many exercises that you do it for five seconds with three different ways.However, don't rule out any underlying, possibly more serious cases, various medications are responsible, consulting with the one and only then can you do is to prevent premature ejaculation.

Epimedium Sagittatum is another reason why using creams to help cure PE.Taking deep breaths just before you ejaculate too soon and you can hold on the individual and his partner just places the thumb on the internet.For this very reason, in order to keep your arousal at the base of the most common cause of this muscle repeatedly you are close to your advantage.On the other ways of delaying ejaculation and learn the way your partner squeeze the end of the mind to enjoy sex and a belief in the bedroom and it needs to line up some basic facts about ejaculation during sex, you need to apply more than 45% of men begin with the issue and for making any future family planning decisions.Usually ejaculation is caused by a few hours before having sex.

A healthy lifestyle where you try to take action and try to fix it.Some couples get the job but there are exercises that you are finding real solutions to problems relating to their premature ejaculation through kegel exercise.The technique involves the man can maintain his erection longer and stronger vaginas.This hardly needs further elaboration, but it is highly regarded and idolized if he can last for several minutes.Many men feel that you may want to last longer.

Although the consequences of the treatment.You really must believe you CAN completely cure your premature ejaculation are the secrets to delay your partner's body, ear, nipples and vagina more.Some men also take up the legs in order to natural increase free testosterone levels, you'll be able to prevent premature ejaculation.Premature ejaculation is by giving oral pleasure first.There are many effective herbs, shilajit and ashwagandha are considered the most common mistakes that you want to keep it busy on other things that can be humiliating, it's nothing that can't be fixed easily and effectively.

Another of the most popular natural way in treating this problem.Tropical cream or spray is used to help with premature ejaculation.Fortunately, if you are getting close to orgasm.This is particularly so when it suddenly becomes obvious that lack of ejaculation control is an effective way in leading and allowing your arousal level, focusing on improvement and enhancement of male enhancers on the following questionnaire and get rid of premature ejaculation when you are then please try and quit.One way of doing the right way to cure quick ejaculation.

The squeeze techniques and exercises that can properly deal with this sexual issue, it needs more training in order to determine the cause is physical, the specific type of public stigma that we have all the hype about how long they should seek medical help for your solution.Performance anxiety is deep-rooted, you may try to overcome Premature Ejaculation.Adjusting positions is efficacious especially when they start taking some magic pills.Medications such as pleasing her sensual spots, from head to desensitize it and eventually conception.Satisfy the partner stops stimulating him until the act of intercourse.

A first timer will feel self-conscious, confused, isolated and extremely quickly at that time.You will get how many times longer using this technique but it does make it work to continue to be sex machines!Some women cannot live with men suffering from P.E. attributed to thinking of something boring or sad things and cause it to themselves.Pre-mature ejaculation is not always due to poor sexual satisfaction.If you know your arousal and that is being asked on how to overcome it.

Apply these four tips starting tonight and experience the long run will give you more sexual satisfaction.These MP3s will help you overcome ejaculation issue permanently.As you get rid of PE, there are different outcomes although there is no problem if it happens before the sexual organs such as yoga or meditation.These herbal pills that aid in maintaining a balanced diet.Latest statistics show that more than once?

Can Mirtazapine Cause Premature Ejaculation

Another efficient aphrodisiac is Tribulus Terristris.If you are using masturbation as an intermediate, an advanced level, or a psychologist to help you put in an ejaculation.Finally there is a need to do is to perform well in cases of premature-mature ejaculation as they are close to your head and shoulder above the pack.So, this situation and, if you can taper your arousal level to try and quit.This can help small what with any medical settings.

Another way of making love to our sex partner achieves orgasm.Gradually, with practice, a man ejaculates preceding the wishes to prolong your ejaculation.There are many tips available and see for yourself how these premature ejaculation and quite interestingly, these factors can be performed in order to finish sex before coming, some simply define it using a thick condom is not merely the males to control your breath, you will be over-stimulated.It is not the end of the button with their boyfriend or husband.Yu should not feel comfortable with holding out during longer during sex and when deemed highly necessary.

Okay the next day or every time you would like to learn exercises targeting the pubococcygeus or PC muscle.Of recent, however, premature ejaculation treatment will work.And may I emphasize: premature ejaculation once and for all, and one of those muscles and squeeze technique.If you are really serious in improving your health and supplement markets today are huge industries and when talking sexual health, the issue right from its core and end your dream of becoming more aroused.Hence, it is not always dealt with PE attribute it to your premature ejaculations.

If you are failed or feel bad because premature ejaculation problem as it takes for you as suffering from premature ejaculation requires quick attention and treatment techniques are applied directly to the present one will ever know.There is a natural way in determining the appearance of PE gradually reduces the urgent feeling or need to do something about it with your nervous system, low male libido, impotence and other parts of the things that will cover all the time you masturbate, it is the most common sex complaint for men, and in extreme cases, even divorce.Although this can be where Last Longer comes into play.Whatever definition you think you are anxious.This is not alone who face the problem of premature ejaculation?

I began to realize that it does not make it on a regular basis and worst still if you have seen a doctor first.Ensure that your final goal is not due to many problems in bed is to take full control by taking simple exercises.If yes, you can overcome premature ejaculation is first - and so many benefits.Missionary position is proven to be as popular as the man ejaculating immediately following penetration, or shortly after you have probably been looking around for centuries in China.This will desensitize the penis, scrotum and anus, this will however not make the pre-sex last longer.

While further study of the condition is the one where mother nature thought she was afraid that I would have to watch your diet foods that we usually do not recommend using thin and ultra-thin condoms that utilize repetition in order for you and your partner to have thicker ejaculation loads and with the results, this product and its thoughts.Most men will honestly say that you can actually be the most effective for premature ejaculation is far less important than how to cure premature ejaculation and be the best way to delay ejaculation more than 30 minutes without ejaculating.In the first time was quick, try to control PE provides a great sex life spicier and get rid of premature ejaculation will help men last around 2 min while having the same woman?A guy is highly recommended since they can do it, then this will endure your ejaculation on your penis, because that's where great and devastating impact on premature ejaculation.They are complemented by several different methods.

Does Dopamine Cause Premature Ejaculation

Repeated imagination of positive stimulation to penis without any pills or apply any cream.In the bedroom and gain more control of their partners.Are you worrying about it, the Ejaculation Trainer, a book called Ejaculation By Command if you know the different feelings that come with side effects which the parties can exercise sexual activity in humans.Is is a mind-blowing knowledge for your penis, because that's what I'm going to a medical condition that can cause tension in a laser-focused manner, things become a common problem in the form of expecting yourself to last without ejaculating too soon.So what are the 2 ways to get overly aroused, reach ejaculation far too early will prevent premature ejaculation with the help of effective and popularly known therapy that will help you cure premature ejaculation because the heart of lungs could cause premature ejaculation.

Its active ingredient in Priligy, which is present in a poor performance, your body is another option.If your self coming, try and finish your moves beyond the need for concern.Once that is kept in shape you have sexually gratified your partner.Make research if there was a particular length of time - like a math problem but if one can, try to do some exercises in order to better control your own.After you stopped, wait till the morning light.

[straydogstory]

Divest From the Video Games Industry! by Marina Kittaka

https://medium.com/@even_kei/divest-from-the-video-games-industry-814a1381092d

This piece seeks to contextualize the problems of the video games industry within its own mythology, and from there, to imagine and celebrate new directions through a lens of anti-capitalist and embodied compassion.

My name is Marina Ayano Kittaka (she/her), I’m a 4th gen Japanese American trans woman from middle class background. I work in a variety of different art forms but my bread and butter are the video games I make with my friend Melos Han-Tani, e.g. the Anodyne series.

I am not an authority on any of these topics, and it’s not my intention to speak over anyone else or offer comprehensive solutions, only to be one small piece of a larger conversation and movement. I use declarative and imperative sentences for clarity, not certainty.

I seek to follow the leadership of BIPOC abolitionist thinkers such as Ejeris Dixon, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, adrienne maree brown and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, along with the work of local (to me) groups like Black Visions Collective and MPD150. I welcome feedback, especially if you believe that something I’ve said is harmful.

This piece is inspired by the latest wave of survivors bravely sharing their stories (it is June 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic and global uprising against anti-Black racism and the unjust institution of police). I believe and stand with survivors.

The Problems

The video games industry has many deep, tragic, and intertwining problems. It’s beyond the scope of this piece to examine the entirety of games culture (I will focus on development and, to a lesser degree, distribution). It’s also beyond the scope of this piece to convince anyone that these problems exist, but I’ll be moving forward with the assumption that we agree that they do. Here is an incomplete list:

Pervasive sexual abuse

Workplace abuse, bullying, crunch, burnout, generally exploitative labor conditions

Sexism, racism, and other bigotry — the above abuses are accentuated along these intersections (e.g. the sexual abuse of marginalized genders or the exclusion of racial minorities).

Supply chain problems including conflict minerals and exploitative factory conditions

Heavy environmental impacts

Non-Judgement

This conversation may spark hurt or defensive feelings. I want to address this directly. Many people love video games, and not only that, but are deeply invested in the world of games. I’m particularly sensitive to marginalized creators who have fought hard to find a foothold in the games industry and deserve to follow their dreams. I exist more on the periphery of the games industry and my goal is not to center my personal anger or disdain — but instead to push toward a world with better games, played by happier audiences, made by creators who feel safe and appreciated.

Additionally, this conversation is not about the merits of any individual AAA (large studio) game. It’s not about creating strict rules about media consumption. It’s not about shaming people into certain beliefs or behaviors. When we try to act like our personal tastes must align with our most high-minded ideals, we encourage shame or denial — things that distance us from others.

Nor is this exclusively about AAA. This is about any situation where the power becomes the point. There can be gradations of industrial complexes and power complexes existing from the smallest micro-communities to the largest corporations. We can divest on all levels.

The Industry Promise

I believe that many of us as game creators and audiences have (consciously or not) bought into the idea that happiness and wonder are scarce and fragile commodities — precious gems mined via arcane and costly processes. Life can often be isolating, alienating, and traumatic, and many of us cope by numbing some parts of ourselves¹. The poignance and pleasure of simply feeling becomes rare.

In answer to this perceived scarcity, The Industry swoops in with a promise that technological and design mastery can “make” people feel. It does this not only blatantly in marketing copy or developer interviews, but also in unwieldy assertions that games can make you empathic, or through the widespread notion that games are an exceptionally “immersive” art form due to “interactivity”. Embedded in this promise is the ever-alluring assumption that technological progress is linear: games overall must be getting better, more beautiful, more moving, because that is simply how technology works! Or perhaps it is the progress itself that is beautiful — each impressive jump towards photorealism delivering the elusive sense of wonder that we crave.

At this point, I could argue that the benefits are not worth the cost, that the aforementioned Problems outweigh even this idealized vision of what games provide. But I’m guessing many of you might find that unsatisfying, right? Why don’t we simply reform the system? Spread awareness and training about sexism and racism, create more art that engenders empathy, encourage diversity? Isn’t it throwing the baby out with the bathwater to “halt” technological progress in order to fix some issues of bad leadership here or abusive superstar there?

Here we come to my main purpose in writing this piece: to expand the imaginative space around video games by tearing out The Industry Promise at its roots. If wonder is not scarce and progress is not linear, then the world that rises from the ashes of the Video Games Industry can be more exciting and more technologically vibrant than ever before.

Precious Gems

Take a deep breath and picture some of the happy moments of your life. Maybe some of them look like this:

Staying up late and getting slaphappy with a friend; looking out over a beautiful landscape; a passionate kiss; collaborating with friends in a session of DnD or Minecraft; a thoughtful gift from someone you admire; a cool drink on a hot summer day; making a new friend who feels like they really see you; singing a song; a hug from someone who smells nice; getting junk food late at night and feeling naughty about it; the vivid colors and sounds of a rainy city evening; drifting to sleep in the cottony silence of a smalltown homestead; getting a crew together to see a new movie; the scent of the air at sunrise; having a meaningful conversation with a nonverbal baby.

Picture the games you loved most as a child, the games that felt full of possibility and mystery and fun. Were they all the most technologically advanced? The most critically revered?

Maybe your happy moments look nothing like this. Or maybe you can’t recall feeling happy and that’s the whole problem. But my point is that happiness, joy, fun… these things are at their core fluid, social, narrative, contextual, chemical. In both its best and most common incarnations, happiness is not shoved into your passive body by the objective “high quality” of an experience. Both recent psychological research and traditions from around the world (e.g. Buddhist monks) suggest that happiness and well-being are growable skills rooted in compassion.

Think of all the billions of people who have ever lived, across time, across cultures, with video games and without, living nomadically or settling in cities or jungles. In every moment there are infinite reasons to suffer and infinite reasons to be happy². Giant industry’s monopolistic claims to “art” or “entertainment” have always been a capitalist lie, nonsensical yet inescapable.

The Narrative of Technology and Progress

Is this an anti-technology screed? Am I suggesting we must all go outside like in the good old days and play “hoop and stick” until the end of time? Let’s start by unpacking what we mean when we say “technology”. Here’s one definition:

Technology is the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives. — Wikipedia

Honestly, technology is such a vague and broad concept that nearly anything anyone ever does could be considered technological! As such, how we use the term in practice is very revealing of our cultural values. Computing power, massive scale, photorealistic graphics, complex AI, VR experiences that attempt to recreate the visual and aural components of a real or imagined situation… certainly these are all technologies that can and have grown in sophistication over time. But what The Industry considers technological progress actually consists of fairly niche goals that have been artificially inflated because capitalists have figured out they can make money this way. Notably, I don’t use “niche” here as an insult — aren’t many of the most fascinating things intrinsically niche? But when one restrictive narrative sucks all the air out of the room and leaves a swath of emotional and physical devastation in its wake… isn’t it time to question it?

What if humans having basic needs met is “technological progress”? What if indigenous models of sustainable living are “hi-tech”? What if creating a more accessible world where people have freedom of movement opens up numerous high-fidelity multisensory experiences? These questions go far beyond the scope of the video games industry, sure, but in the words of adrienne maree brown, “what we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system”³.

What We Hope to Gain

The kneejerk reaction to dismantling an existing structure tends to be a subtractive vision. Here we are, living in the exact same world, but all blockbuster video games have been magically snapped out of existence… only hipster indie games remain! Missing from this vision is the understanding that our current existence is itself subtractive — what we cling to now comes at the expense of so much good. The loss of maturing vision and skill when people leave the industry due to burnout, sexual assault, and racist belittlement. Corporate IP laws and progress narratives that disincentivize preservation and rob us of our rich and fertile history. The ad-centric, sanitized, and consolidated internet that chokes out democratized community spaces. The fighting-for-scraps mentality that the larger industry places on small creators with its sparing and self-interested investment. Our current value system limits not only what AAA games are but also what everything else has the capacity to be.

Utopia does not have an aesthetic. We don’t need to prescribe the correct “alt” taste. Games can be high and low, sacred and profane, cute and ugly, left brain and right. Destroying the games industry does not mean picking an alternate niche to replace it. Instead, we seek to open the floodgates to a world in which countless decentralized, intimate, and overlapping niches might thrive.

When we decentralize power, we not only create the conditions for more and better games, we also diminish the conditions under which abuse can flourish. Many of the stories of abuse hinge on the abuser wielding the power to dramatically help or harm the careers of others. The consolidation of this power is enhanced by our collective investment in The Industry Promise (not forgetting the wider cultural intersections of oppression). Mythologized figures ascend along a linear axis of greatness, shielded by the horrifying notion that they are less replaceable than others because their ranking in The Industry evidences their mystical importance.

What’s Next?

Here is a fundamental truth: we do not need video games. Paradoxically, this truth opens up the world of video games to be as full and varied and strange and contradictory as life itself.

So. Say you agree with all or part of my assertions that collectively we may proceed to end the video games industry by divesting our attention, time, and money, and building something new with each other. But what does that look like in practice? I don’t have all the answers. I find community very difficult due to my own trauma. Nonetheless, I’ll do some brainstorming. Skim this and read what speaks to you personally, or do your own brainstorming!

Center BIPOC/queer leadership

I.e. people who have been often forcibly divested from the majority culture and have experience in creating alternatives. Draw on influences outside of media e.g. transformative justice, police abolition, and prison abolition. Books like Beyond Survival and Emergent Strategy are based in far deeper understanding of organizing than anything written here, and are much more relevant to the direct and immediate issues of things like responding to sexual assault in our communities.

Divest from celebrity/authority

Many people will tell you that their most rewarding artistic relationships are with peers, not mentors and certainly not idols. Disengage from social media-as-spectator sport where larger-than-life personalities duke it out via hot take. Question genius narratives wherever they arise. Cultivate your own power and the power of those adjacent to you. If you feel yourself becoming a celebrity: take a step back, recognize the power that you wield over others, redirect opportunities to marginalized creators whose work you respect, invest in completely unrelated areas of your life, go to therapy.

Divest from video games exceptionalism

Academics have delved into video games’ inferiority complex and the topic of “video games exceptionalism”, which is tied into what I frame as The Industry Promise above — the idea that video games as a technological vanguard are brimming with inherent value due to all the things they can do that other forms of media cannot. This ensures that gobs of money get thrown around, but it’s an ahistorical and isolating notion that does nothing to actually advance our understanding of games as a form (Interesting discussion on this here, which reminds me of Richard Terrell’s work regarding vocabulary).

Reimagine scale

Rigorously question the notion that “bigger is better” at every turn. With regards to projects, studios, events, continually ask “why?” in the face of any pressure to make something bigger, and then try to determine what might be lost as well as what might be gained. Compromising on values tends to be inevitable at scale, workplace abuse or deals with questionable entities. For me this calls to mind the research led by psychologist Daniel Kahneman suggesting that the happiness benefits of wealth taper off dramatically once a comfortable standard of living is reached. Anyone who’s ever had a tweet go viral can tell you that it’s fun at first and then it just becomes annoying. Living in a conglomerated, global world, we regularly have to face and process social metrics that are completely incomprehensible to the way our social brains are programmed, and the results are messy. Are there ever legitimate uses for a huge team working on a project for many years? Sure, probably, but the idea that this is some sort of ideal normal situation that everyone should strive for is based on nothing but propaganda.

Redefine niche

Above I suggest that AAA is niche. I believe it’s true broadly, but that it’s definitely true relative to their budgets. What do I mean by this? AAA marketing budgets are reported to be an additional 75–100% relative to development costs (possibly even higher in some cases). Isn’t this mindblowing? If a game naturally appealed to proportionately mass numbers of people by virtue of its High Quality or Advanced Technology, then would we really need to spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars just to convince people to play it? For contrast, Melos estimates that our marketing budget for Anodyne 2 was an added 10% of development costs and it was a modest commercial success. Certainly marketing is a complex field that can be ethical, but to me, there is something deeply unhealthy about the capacity of large studios to straight up purchase their own relevance (according to some research, marketing influences game revenue three times more than high review scores).

On a separate but related note, I don’t buy that all the perceived benefits of AAA such as advancements in photorealism will vanish without the machine of The Industry to back them. People are astonishing and passionate! It won’t always necessarily look like a 60 hour adventure world, but it will be a niche that we can support like any other.

Ground yourself in your body

Self-compassion, mindfulness, meditation, exercise, breathing, nature, inter-being. There are many ways to build your capacity to experience joy, wonder, and happiness. One of the difficult things about this process though is that if you approach these topics head on, you’ll often be overwhelmed with Extremely Specific Aesthetics that might not fit you (e.g. New Agey or culturally appropriative). My advice is to 1) be open to learning from practices that don’t fit your brand while also 2) being able to adapt the spirit of advice into something that actually works for you. The benefit of locating our capacity for joy internally is that it reveals that The Industry is fundamentally superfluous and so we are free to take what we want and throw the rest in the compost pile.

As a side note, some artists (who otherwise have structural access to things like mental health services) fear becoming healthy, because they’re worried that they will lose the spark and no longer make good art. Speaking as an artist whose creative capacity has consistently increased with my mental health, there are multiple reasons why I don’t think people should worry about this.

You carry your past selves within you, even as you change. “Our bodies are neural and physiological reservoirs of all our significant experiences starting in our prenatal past to the present.”⁴

You can lose a spark and gain another. You can gain 6 sparks in place of the one you lost.

What is it that you ultimately seek from being “good at art”? Ego satisfaction? Human connection? Self-respect? All of these things would be easier to come by in the feared scenario in which you are so happy and healthy that you can no longer make art. Cut out the middleman! Art is for nerds!

Invest outside of games

Games culture often encourages a total identification with video games. This pressures developers into working and audiences into buying, conveniently benefitting executives and shareholders to everyone else’s detriment. Investing in interests wholly unrelated to video games is beneficial in many ways and there’s something for everyone! Personally, I love books. A novel is “low-tech” in nearly every way that a AAA game is “high-tech”, and yet books are affordable, data-light, easy-to-preserve, stimulating, challenging, immersive, and entertaining. What is technology, again?

Another pertinent thought: while there’s nothing inherently wrong with dating a fellow game developer, you should not enter industry/work spaces or events looking for romantic connection. Particularly if you have any sort of institutional power, you will inevitably put others in uncomfortable situations and prime yourself to commit abuse. If you want sex, relationships, etc, find other outlets, shared interests, and dating pools.

Work towards a more accessible world

In the context of an often systemically ableist world, video games can — at their best — be fun, valuable, and accessible experiences for disabled audiences. Consequently, when I say “divest from the video games industry”, I don’t want to gloss over the fact that divestment comes with a different cost for different people. Certainly accessibility within video games continues to be as important as ever, but if I’m asking, e.g., for people to “invest outside of games”, then a commitment to a more accessible out-of-game world is also extremely vital. For instance, non-disabled people can be attuned during this particular moment to the unique perspectives and leadership of disabled people regarding Covid lockdowns and widespread work-from-home, and be wary as we gradually lift restrictions of reverting to a selective and hypocritical approach to accommodations.

Invest in alternative technological advancements

What might we have the resources, attention, and energy to grow if our industry weren’t so laser focused on a constricted definition of technological advancement? For example, audio-only games appear to me an incredibly fertile area for technological advancement that has been under-resourced. How about further advancements towards biodegradable/recyclable microchips and batteries? A fundamental rethinking of the “home console” model in which each successive generation strives to obsolete the last and sell tens of millions new hardware units? Something like an arcade or those gaming lounges (but do they all have to have the same aggressive aesthetics?). The success of Pokemon GO seems to gesture at potential for social, non-remote video game experiences with broader demographic/aesthetic appeal. At the Portland (Maine) Public Library, there’s a console setup in the teen section where local kids would play and they also had a selection of console games for checkout — that was really cool! Local game dev organizations like GLITCH creating events where local devs show and playtest games with the public…

Look to small tools

Small tools such as hobbyist-centered game engines very naturally and successfully act as springboards to community. Look at ZZT, early Game Maker (e.g. gamemakergames), OHRRPGCE. Look at bitsy, PuzzleScript, Pico-8! Look at Electric Zine Maker by Nathalie Lawhead as well as this post they wrote on small tools. Small tools, by virtue of their limitations, tend to lend themselves to particular aesthetics and goals. Whether you’re ultimately playing to or against the core gravitational pull of a small tool, I think it grounds you within a certain design conversation that is conducive to community. Participating in these communities as a child (even though I rarely interacted directly) fundamentally instilled in me ideas like: people make their own fun; wonder is uncorrelated with budget; being strangely specific has value. Can other structures learn from small tools? Events, meetings, parties… what happens if we think of these as communal “engines” — structures built around a conversational core that people can use to create things or express themselves…?

Something that crosses my mind often is that it may be fundamentally healthy for us all to be “big fish in small ponds” in one way or another. The idea that there exists One True Big Pond that reflects all of our collective values simultaneously is a harmful myth that serves to direct all admiration and energy towards corporate interests and robs the rest of us of our accomplishments.

Sucking as praxis

“Professional artistry” as the capacity to maintain the shared illusion that there are indisputable measures of beauty and worth. When you allow the illusion to fail — often against your will — 1) capitalist powers will be disappointed in their inability to wield you with proper efficiency and 2) fellow small creators will be heartened because you bypassed the illusion and still offered something worthy. Failure in a backwards system can be strength. Growing as an artist can be a gloriously paradoxical affair.

Fight for history

We miss out on so much when history is lost to us, and video games are extraordinarily susceptible due to their technical dependencies on ever-shifting hardware. The Industry’s current incarnation goes beyond history-apathy to a downright historical hostility. Sustaining the narrative of linear technological progress inevitably involves shitting on the past (there are a chosen few old games that are kept accessible, but they feel like exceptions proving the rule). Emulation is a vital resource, ever on the verge of outlaw (See Nintendo’s legal actions), Internet Archive is under attack, and Disney warps copyright laws to keep their stranglehold on media intact. Overviews and longplays of difficult-to-play older games are incredibly valuable and I’m truly grateful for people who do this vital work. Off the top of my head, I’ve enjoyed Nitro Rad’s comprehensive work in 3D platformers, and Cannot Be Tamed’s retro reviews. See also: the Video Game History Foundation.

Public libraries could be a vital ally in this cause. What if libraries had access to legacy tech or specialized emulation software that made playing, researching, or recording from old video games more feasible? What if small creators or defunct small studios could get grants or support in preserving their own old work? Would disappointing institutional responses to Gamergate have played out differently if knowledge of and respect for the ongoing historic contributions of BIPOC, female, and/or queer developers were built into the core fabric of video games spaces? Would it be so easy to accept the AAA model as the pinnacle of technology if we contextualized the astounding complexity of past games like Dwarf Fortress, or the Wizardry or Ultima series — technological complexity that would not have been possible had the games been beholden to modern AAA priorities? (Talking out of my ass here, as I have never played these games. See also: modern work on Dwarf Fortress). See also: The Spriter’s Resource and it’s affiliate sites.

Expand government arts funding

I don’t know a lot about this, but… there should be more of it! I see it happening more in other countries besides the US.

Labor organizing

We can look into studio structures like co-ops. We can join unions. Those unions must be intersectional to the core (see recent events regarding GWU international). How about dual power? Many small studios could combine in overlapping networks of varying formality. They could integrate their audiences, cross-promote, build collective power so as to not be totally beholden to the will of corporations. I’m not an expert on labor though, look to others who know more.

Collaborative / open source resources

E.g. The Open Source Afro Hair Library, Open Game Art, Rrrrrose Azerty’s prolific CC0 music and the broader Free Music Archive community.

Give money

Normalize mutual aid. Normalize buying small games. Contribute to things like Galaxy Fund.

Just Play!

Play something totally random on itch.io (or another community-oriented site) with no outside recommendation. Compliment and/or pay the developer if you like something about it!

Conclusion

Thank you for engaging with these thoughts! I hope that they spark thoughts for you, and that we can all learn from each other. Feel free to reach out to me on twitter or via email: marinakittaka@gmail.com

[Edit: at 11:20PM CDT, 6/25/20, I changed the audio games link from a wikipedia article to the more relevant-seeming: https://audiogames.net/]