Love Quotes

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.

Honore de Balzac

The fact is that love is of two kinds, one which commands, and one which obeys. The two are quite distinct, and the passion to which the one gives rise is not the passion of the other.
Honore de Balzac

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.
Honore de Balzac

Love is the poetry of the senses.
Honore de Balzac

Nobody loves a woman because she is handsome or ugly, stupid or intelligent. We love because we love.
Honore de Balzac

 

Good-bye Dubai? Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Facilities would leave the Entire Gulf States Region virtually Uninhabitable

By Wade Stone

“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”― Friedrich Nietzsche

Every Spring and Summer, during a period of low pressure over the Persian Gulf, powerful winds known as the “shamals and sharqi,” sweep down from the north and north east into Saudi Arabia, whipping up ever more grains of sand as they head south and south west across the Arabian Desert. Frequently, these sandstorms become gargantuan in size – hundreds of meters high and kilometers wide and in length of dense roiling particulate, choking the lungs of those exposed, blocking out the sun completely and, by the time they are over, burying whole towns, sometimes even large cities like Riyadh, in a meter deep or more of sand.

 Sandstorm hitting Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2012

The wind speeds range from 30 to 300 kilometers per hour, and they generally take a semi-circular route, heading back out to the southern gulf and the remaining Gulf States. Indeed, on an annual basis all of the Gulf States combined – UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, suffer through literally hundreds of such sand and dust storms. And most often the winds driving those sandstorms originate from the north and north east (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and sometimes even Turkey).

NASA satellite image of typical shamal wind directions

Below is a map showing the location of Iran’s nuclear facilities and uranium mines. Now look again at the previous NASA satellite image and note the primary shamal wind direction.

Think “Fukushima x 10”: Bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities would leave the entire Gulf State region virtually uninhabitable.

Fukushima is, without question, the world’s worst nuclear disaster to date. In fact, many scientists believe, and with good reason, that the Fukushima incident, which is far from over, is the world’s worst environmental catastrophe.

“While the long-term repercussions of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are yet to be fully assessed, they are far more serious than those pertaining to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine, which resulted in almost one million deaths (New Book Concludes – Chernobyl death toll: 985,000, mostly from cancer” Global Research, September 10, 2010. For a full account of Fukushima, see “Global Research Online Interactive Reader Series, Fukushima: A Nuclear War without a War, The Unspoken Crisis of Worldwide Nuclear Radiation (Michel Chossudovsky, editor).

Now imagine several large nuclear reactors (Iran’s Bushehr reactor output, for example, is 1000 megawatts, compared to Fukushima Daiichi’s largest reactor which had an output of 784 megawatts), along with several uranium enrichment plants, and certainly military storage sites and quite likely even uranium mines, all bombed to dust within a matter of days. Moreover, unlike the Fukushima Daiichi reactors which suffered only partial meltdowns with much of the fuel rods and spent fuel storages remaining mostly intact, “all” of Iran’s nuclear fuel would be exploded into the atmosphere. And let us not forget that the US-Israeli military ordinances employed to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities would certainly be tipped with depleted uranium, and very likely would include some mini-nukes.

Indeed, in regards nuclear disasters and environmental catastrophes, Fukushima would absolutely pale in comparison to that caused by the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites. The nuclear fallout from such an event would be extreme, to put it mildly. Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of innocent Iranians would likely die within the first year of such a strike, while millions more would die within a decade or two of some form of radiation-induced cancer. And since a significant portion of that nuclear fallout would end up either immediately, or over the course of the next weeks and months in the Arabian Desert, where the winds, year after year, would gather it up along with the particles of sand and dust into gigantic roiling irradiated storms (remember, “hundreds” of such sand and dust storms annually), not a person living anywhere in the Gulf State region would be safe from exposure. The Persian Gulf, too, would soon be so irradiated and toxic and lifeless that it might as well be renamed the New Dead Sea.

Some statistics worth recalling: The half-life of cesium-137 is just over 31 years, while that of strontium-90 is approximately 29 years. Plutonium-239, the most dangerous of the above-mentioned radioactive substances, has a half-life of 24,110 years. And uranium, which is the primary target and which will make up the largest percentage of the fallout, has a half-life ranging between 700 million to nearly 4.5 billion years, depending on the type of uranium used—U-235 or U-238. It’s also worth noting that it takes an estimated 20 x the half-life years listed for the radiation from such contamination to dissipate entirely.

Of course, a lot of that radiation would also enter the jet stream, which would then carry it around the globe, depositing it as nuclear fallout everywhere. No nation, no body of water, would be spared. It takes but “one” inhaled or ingested “hot” particle to produce a life-threatening cancer.

Calling for, even so much as contemplating, such a genocidal event is madness; actually carrying it out would be insanity beyond description.

We must conclude, therefore, that the US-NATO-Israeli alliance is bluffing. Shortly before each and every scheduled P5+1 negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program, the corporate/government controlled mainstream media in the West ratchets up the threats, with Israel insisting that they will soon bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities if their nuclear program isn’t shut down. We’ve been hearing these same threats for more than a decade now. The very fact that the other Gulf States in the region are in support of the US-NATO-Israeli alliance also suggests that such threats are all smoke-and-mirrors, attempts to scare Iran into accepting whatever demands US-NATO and Israel want.

Surely, the Gulf State monarchs especially are aware enough to realize that, even if Iran is planning to develop a nuclear weapon (for which no evidence whatsoever exists), a nuclear-armed Iran would be far less of a danger to them than a bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, which would positively guarantee their demise. Even Israel, which is only 1100 kilometers away from Iran, and also experiences regular severe sand and dust storms, would likely suffer dire consequences as a result of the radiation fallout from such an attack.

Has such absolute insanity infected the minds of the Western powers to such a degree that they actually would attack Iran, and in so doing destroy the entire Gulf State region, further irradiate the entire planet and themselves, and quite possibly set off World War III? Or is it all just smoke-and-mirrors, scare tactics and rhetoric, and saner minds will in fact prevail?

Let us all hope and pray for the latter.

 

Quote of the day

“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men” : Voltaire.

 

The Most Haunting Photograph from Bangladesh

Many powerful photographs have been made in the aftermath of the devastating collapse of a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. But one photo, by Bangladeshi photographer Taslima Akhter, has emerged as the most heart wrenching, capturing an entire country’s grief in a single image.

Shahidul Alam, Bangladeshi photographer, writer and founder of Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, said of the photo: “This image, while deeply disturbing, is also hauntingly beautiful. An embrace in death, its tenderness rises above the rubble to touch us where we are most vulnerable. By making it personal, it refuses to let go. This is a photograph that will torment us in our dreams. Quietly it tells us. Never again.”

Akhter writes for LightBox about the photograph, which appears in this week’s TIME International alongside an essay by David Von Drehle.

I have been asked many questions about the photograph of the couple embracing in the aftermath of the collapse. I have tried desperately, but have yet to find any clues about them. I don’t know who they are or what their relationship is with each other.

I spent the entire day the building collapsed on the scene, watching as injured garment workers were being rescued from the rubble. I remember the frightened eyes of relatives — I was exhausted both mentally and physically. Around 2 a.m., I found a couple embracing each other in the rubble. The lower parts of their bodies were buried under the concrete. The blood from the eyes of the man ran like a tear. When I saw the couple, I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I knew them — they felt very close to me. I looked at who they were in their last moments as they stood together and tried to save each other — to save their beloved lives.

Every time I look back to this photo, I feel uncomfortable — it haunts me. It’s as if they are saying to me, we are not a number — not only cheap labor and cheap lives. We are human beings like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too.

They are witnesses in this cruel history of workers being killed. The death toll is now more than 750. What a harsh situation we are in, where human beings are treated only as numbers.

This photo is haunting me all the time. If the people responsible don’t receive the highest level of punishment, we will see this type of tragedy again. There will be no relief from these horrific feelings. I’ve felt a tremendous pressure and pain over the past two weeks surrounded by dead bodies. As a witness to this cruelty, I feel the urge to share this pain with everyone. That’s why I want this photo to be seen.

---

Taslima Akhter is a Bangladeshi photographer and activist.

 

Afghanistan’s legacy of child opium addiction

by Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK – A report just released by the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan states that there were 2,754 civilian deaths and 4,805 civilian injuries in that country during 2012. Unmentioned is a serious side effect of the conflict: the high number of opium-addicted children in Afghanistan.

The number has increased systematically the past few years.

The situation is not limited to Afghanistan. Children are affected in Pakistan as well. In Karachi alone, there are tens of thousands of child addicts most of who receive no care or support. New and more effective policies are needed to address this situation.

A study conducted in Afghanistan showed that in 25 percent of homes where adult addicts lived there were signs of significant drug exposure in the children tested, some as young as 14 months. The children exhibited typical behavior for opium-heroin addicts: experiencing withdrawal when the drug was removed.

Not only were opium products found in indoor air samples, but the concentrations were extremely high.

This suggests that, as happens with secondhand cigarette smoke, contaminated indoor air and surfaces pose a serious risk to children’s health.

The extent of health problems in children as a result of such exposure is not known. What is known is that the number of adult drug users has increased from 920,000 in 2005 to over 1.5 million in 2010, according to Zalmai Afzali, spokesman for the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics in Afghanistan. A quarter of those users are thought to be women and children.

If current trends continue, Afghanistan could become the world’s top drug-using nation on a per capita basis.

According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), no other country in the world produces as much heroin, opium and hashish as Afghanistan, a sad distinction for a country already ravaged by war. Control efforts so far have concentrated on poppy eradication and interdiction to stem exports. Less attention has been paid to the rising domestic addiction problem among children.

Among the factors leading to increased levels of drug use in adults are the high unemployment rate throughout the country, social upheavals caused by the war and those that preceded it, and the return of refugees from Iran and Pakistan who became addicts while abroad. In both of those countries, the high number of opium-addicted children is also a serious problem, particularly among street children.

Although Iran’s government has opened several shelters for street children in Tehran, many more centers are needed to care for them.

According to some estimates, there are 35,000 to 50,000 children in that city who are forced by their parents or other adults to live and beg in the streets or to work in sweat shops for very low wages.

These children are subject to all kinds of abuse. Many of them end up in organized prostitution rings as part of the sex trade. Children are often transported to other countries where they are obliged to work as prostitutes, while others simply disappear.

In Karachi alone, where tens of thousands of children are addicted to hashish, children addicted to stronger drugs present other problems. The increasing number of street children has led to more street crime as children become involved in drug trafficking in the city.

Those who inject drugs face the additional risk of HIV-infection by sharing contaminated syringes. “Drug addiction and HIV/AIDS are, together, Afghanistan’s silent tsunami,” declared Tariq Suliman, director of Nejat’s rehabilitation center for the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs.

The distinction between producing and consuming countries has now changed.

“Traditionally consuming countries become producers of synthetic drugs. In turn, producing countries become consumers. What remains is a shared international responsibility. No country should be left on its own this way,” said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the UNODC country representative.

There are about 90 drug treatment centers dispersed throughout Afghanistan, but most are small, poorly staffed and underfunded. The United States and its allies have the resources to rapidly expand and adequately fund such treatment and rehab centers throughout the country.

The great number of opium-addicted children in Afghanistan is one of the darkest legacies of this ill-fated war.

 

Gandhi’s Words

The supreme consideration is man. The machine should not tend to make atrophied the limbs of man.

Today machinery merely helps a few to ride on the backs of millions.

What I object to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such.

 

CARTOON OF THE DAY

 

 

Must Watch: The Amazing And Incredible Spirit Of Qian Hong Yan

A lesson of remaining Happy in difficult circumstances.
We must all be thankful for what we are ,and must always give hope & help those in need.

“Qian Hongyan lost both her legs in an accident at only three years old in 2000. Hongyan’s family wasn’t wealth enough to provide her with hi-tech equipment to help her walk, so they gave her a basketball to help her move. Hongyan used brushes as low-level crutches. She was able to travel to and from home and school by bouncing on the basketball. Five years later, doctors were finally been able to give her prosthetic legs.

The seventh national special sports-meeting was held in Kunming in May 2007. Qian Hongyan went to watch the games every day and seeing the handicapped players struggle in the matches deeply moved her. After the sports meeting, Qian Hongyan was determined to join in the special swimming club. She and her parents went to consult the opportunity with Zhang Honghu, a well known coach who has trained many handicapped swimming champions. Then, Qian Hongyan began her life in the swimming club and did professional swimming training.“Qian Hongyan studies hard. She never grouches in training although she was confronted with many difficulties at the beginning”, her coach said.

At first, Zhang didn’t pay much attention to Qian Hongyan. “The individual’s capability is important in choosing a player”, he said. “Qian Hongyan doesn’t have legs. It seems that a ship has no a helm, then the ship could work well for lack of a sense of direction”. In order to solve the problem, zhang made a special training plan for Qian Hongyan to help balance the shoulders.

Qian Hongyan swims for about 2000 meters in a day. She always does the exercises and sit-ups, dumbbells and so on carefully. After a short period, to Zhang’s surprise, he found that Hongyan was gifted in swimming. Zhang said, “Hongyan is a very good swimmer but it would be boring and take a long time to train her and repeat the exercises every day. I couldn’t ensure she would be a world champion. However, I can tell that she is definitely a promising swimmer. Our biggest wish is to train her to have a positive attitude to life”. Qian Hongyan’s dream is to take part in the 2012 special Olympic Games and become a world champion. She works hard to achieve her dream”. – Juesatta.com

 

Quote of the Day

“The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other.”

Bertrand Russell

 

Quote of the day

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” – Plato

 

Quote of the day

 

“My kind of loyalty was to one’s country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death”: Mark Twain

 

“My Gun Was As Tall As Me” – Voices Of Child Soldiers

300.000 is the estimated number of children under the age of 18 currently  serving as child soldiers in 30 countries around the world.

 

New Health Culprit Carnitine Found in Red Meat

By MELINDA BECK

Doctors long have assumed that saturated fat and cholesterol in red meat are what raise the risk of heart disease. But a study out Monday in the journal Nature Medicine fingers another culprit: c

Carnitine, a compound abundant in red meat that also is sold as a dietary supplement and added to energy drinks.
Carnitine typically helps the body transport fatty acids into cells to be used as energy. But researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found that in both humans and mice, certain bacteria in the digestive track convert Carnitine to another metabolite, called TMAO, that promotes atherosclerosis, or a thickening of the arteries.

The researchers, led by Stanley Hazen, chief of cellular and molecular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, examined records of 2,595 patients undergoing cardiac evaluations. They found that the more TMAO in their blood, the more likely they were to develop cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke and death.

Many studies over the years have linked consumption of red and processed meat to cardiovascular disease and some cancers. The Harvard School of Public Health reported last year that among 83,000 nurses and 37,000 male health professionals followed since the 1980s, those who consumed the highest levels of red meat had the highest risk of death during study, and that one additional serving a day of red meat raised the risk of death by 13%.
The new findings don’t mean that red meat is more hazardous than previously thought, but they may help explain the underlying risk, which some researchers have long thought was greater than the saturated fat and cholesterol content could explain.

Dr. Hazen speculated that Carnitine could be compounding the danger. “Cholesterol is still needed to clog the arteries, but TMAO changes how cholesterol is metabolized—like the dimmer on a light switch,” he said. “It may explain why two people can have the same LDL level [a measurement of one type of cholesterol], but one develops cardiovascular disease and the other doesn’t.”
One surprising finding, Dr. Hazen said, was how long-term dietary patterns affected the amount of TMAO-producing bacteria in the gut and thus magnified the risk. In the study, when a longtime omnivore consumed an eight-ounce steak and a carnitine supplement, both his bacteria and TMAO levels rose considerably. But when a vegan voluntarily ate the same combination, he showed no increase in TMAO or bacterial change.

“Vegans basically lose their ability to digest” carnitine, said Dr. Hazen.
The study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, didn’t assess how little red meat people could consume and still have elevated TMAO. Nor did it look at how long someone had to abstain from red meat to end the process. “We know it will be longer than one week, but shorter than one year,” Dr. Hazen said.
Trade groups for meat producers have questioned the link between red meat and cardiovascular disease on the grounds that studies that ask people to recall what they ate over long periods are imprecise.

As a dietary supplement, Carnitine is designated as “generally regarded as safe” by the Food and Drug Administration, but few studies have looked at its long-term safety. A 2006 risk assessment found no adverse effects when subjects consumed 2,000 milligrams a day for six months.

Ads for supplements promote Carnitine as helping boost energy levels, particularly in endurance sports, and assisting in recovery after intense exercise; some also claim that it helps reduce belly fat, shed pounds and improve brain function.
Duffy MacKay, vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group for the supplement and energy drink industry, called the Nature study “a new, emerging hypothesis,” but said the researchers were drawing large conclusions from small studies of mice, bacteria and human biomarkers.

“The concept that one component of your diet, or one molecular, is responsible for your health woes is questionable,” Mr. MacKay added.
Dr. Hazen noted that some energy drinks have more carnitine in a single can than a porterhouse steak. “I worry about what happens in 10, 20 or 30 years of consumption,” he said.
He said humans generally have plenty of carnitine in their diet, which also is found in small amounts in nuts, beans, vegetables and fruit, and don’t need to take it in supplement form.

 

Quote of the day

“Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth”

Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi

 

Conceived, equipped, funded and managed by the FBI

FBI stops a bomb plot – created by the FBI

Created – and stopped – by the FBI

 

Boston Terrorism

 

At least three dead, 130 injured after bombs explode at Boston Marathon

By Holly Bailey, Yahoo! News

At least 130 people are injured and three dead after two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday afternoon. The injuries include dismemberment, witnesses said, and local hospitals say they are treating shrapnel wounds, open fractures and limb injuries. An eight-year-old boy is one of the three known dead, multiple news outlets reported, and several of the injured are also children.

At a Monday night press conference, Gov. Deval Patrick urged Bostonians to be vigilant on their morning commute Tuesday, and to report any suspicious packages to the police. The FBI has officially taken over the investigation, and is treating it as a potential terrorist attack.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis stressed that the police had no suspect in custody yet. “I’m not prepared to say we are at ease at this time,” Davis said, when asked if the area was safe. Authorities found and dismantled five more more explosive devices in the area, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“This cowardly act will not be taken in stride,” Davis said. “We will turn over every rock to find out who is responsible.”

Davis said Boston police were not aware of any specific threat to the marathon before it began. Police said they had no one in custody and no suspects, but the Boston Globe reported that a “person of interest” who was injured in the blast was being questioned at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital Monday night.

 

Where The Mind Is Without Fear

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

 

Near Forty Years Ago, Viet Nam

by Roaddog Wolf

I have been trying to get out of here.
Away from this jungle’s seemingly inevitable death,
away from this war’s tormenting evil, hate and endless fear.
My soul longs to be free of this perpetual agony’s breath.

Our spirit’s are crying this wars bloody tears.
Is there no escape from this darkness we are shadowed by,
embracing the dying, holding on to life with death so near,
wandering with no direction, not lost, not knowing why.

Why do we live and for what is no longer clear,
we’ve become cold empty men, hungry exhausted and worn,
putting one foot in front of the other, we walk on or disappear,
in a war that rips and maims and leaves us tattered and torn.

Our hopes and faith fading with the stench of death so very near,
stumbling along the dark damp jungle floor not knowing where,
each of us trying to hold onto something our memories hold dear,
looking in our hearts for a way out only to find empty despair.

We look for that splinter of light or any sign to a path with hope,
but we only struggle in our minds through the depths of anguish,
our bodies through the sweat, blood and pain with which we cope
and our hearts agonize through the horrors while our memories wish.

The glory and honor is seldom ever what it may appear,
but in war, no matter the turmoil of it’s evil we must stand
and against all odds on the path of death, misery and fear
we stand and go on knowing life is not something we hold in hand.

I’ve been trying, for near forty years, to get out of there,
I can still remember their names and faces we left behind.
The human agony and missing souls, the eyes of men with an empty stare.
I left a part of me there, in Viet-Nam, that I still long to find.

The agony of wars never changes nor does the question, why?
War’s never end and peace is only a dream in memories of men.
Time turns to history lessons mankind has never learned by.
Seems we’ll never realize the price we pay, for wars that never end.

 

Quote of the day

I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one.
So you begin…I began. I picked up one person — Maybe if I didn’t pick up that one person I wouldn’t have picked up 42,000. Just begin…one, one, one.
— Mother Teresa

 

Police arrest goat accused of armed robbery

Wanted: Witnesses claimed a man turned into a goat to get away after an armed robbery (file picture)

By Mail Foreign Service

Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes seized the black and white goat, saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into an animal to escape after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

‘The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them.

 ‘However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,’ Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed said.‘We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody.‘We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat,’ he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation.

Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

 

That Picture broke my heart

“I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for the minds and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.,

 

Quote of the day

“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must of felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.
” Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, ‘Wait and Hope.”

Alexandre Dumas

 

Political caricature

 

Obama and Russia

 

Lymph nodes

Lymph nodes are body organs (not glands) spread throughout your body. Their function is to filter out all the dead bacteria, viruses, and other dead tissue from the lymphatic fluid and eliminate it from the body. They are also the place where the white blood cells (lymphocytes) spend much of their time. When the immune system is activated they begin producing large numbers of lymphocytes which causes them to swell.

There are about 500-700 lymph nodes spread throughout the body. Click on the diagrams below for highly detailed pictures of where the lymph nodes are located. Below the pictures you will find information about the proper size that lymph nodes should be, their names, and a quick summary of how they feel and what it means.

Before you panic about why your lymph nodes are swollen please read the following articles about the causes of swollen lymph nodes.

• Lymphadenopathy and Malignancy from the American Academy of Family Physicians
• Lymphadenopathy: Differential Diagnosis and Evaluation

Head neck nodes	Axillary nodes	Mediastinal (chest) nodes	Lung nodes
Arm nodes	Messenteric nodes front	Messenteric nodes back	Inguinal nodes female
Inguinal nodes male	Leg nodes front	Leg nodes back

Some of the common names of the lymph node locations you will encounter are :

• Cervical – Nodes in the neck
• Axillary – Nodes in the armpits
• Supraclavicular – Nodes along the collar bone
• Mediastinal – Nodes in the upper body behind the sternum and between the pleural sacs (lung sacs)
• Mesentery – Nodes in the lower body (abdomen) below the rib cage
• Inguinal – Nodes in the groin
• Femoral – Nodes in the upper inner thigh

Most normal lymph nodes are about 1cm in size (0.5 to 2.0cm) but that size varies depending on the location of the node, and what activity is going on. Infections, cancer and many other conditions can cause it to expand as the immune system reacts to the problem. Abnormal size is defined as:

• Epitrochlear Lymphadenopathy >0.5 cm
• Inguinal Lymphadenopathy >1.5 cm
• Isolated lymphadenopathy in children >1.5 to 2.0 cm
• Other lymphadenopathy >1.0 cm

Note: Epitrochlear in layman’s terms means near the elbow or funny bone

From the links about lymphadenopathy at the top of this page you will also learn that the texture of the nodes is important. For example:

• Being tender does not differentiate between normal and cancerous.
• Rock hard nodes are more likely from some other type of metastatic cancer not lymphoma
• Firm but rubbery nodes could be lymphoma
• Soft nodes are most likely infection.
• Shotty nodes (multiple buckshot size) are likely viral in nature

 

Quote of the day

Those who walk in darkness will burn from the sun, but those who walk in the sun are strong enough to look at their own shadow.

- anonymous

 

At Hobby Lobby

by Rosa Alcalá

 She tosses a bolt of fabric into the air. Hill country, prairie, a horse trots there. I say three yards, and her eyes say more: What you need is guidance, a hand that can zip a scissor through cloth. What you need is a picture of what you’ve lost. To double the width against the window for the gathering, consider where you sit in the morning. Transparency’s appealing, except it blinds us before day’s begun. How I long to captain that table, to return in a beautiful accent a customer’s request. My mother kneeled down against her client and cut threads from buttons with her teeth, inquiring with a finger in the band if it cut into the waist. Or pulled a hem down to a calf to cool a husband’s collar. I can see this in my sleep and among notions. My bed was inches from the sewing machine, a dress on the chair forever weeping its luminescent frays. Sleep was the sound of insinuation, a zigzag to keep holes receptive. Or awakened by a backstitch balling under the foot. A needle cracking? Blood on a white suit? When my baby’s asleep I write to no one and cannot expect a response. The fit’s poor, always. No one wears it out the door. But fashions continue to fly out of magazines like girls out of windows. Sure, they are my sisters. Their machines, my own. The office from which I wave to them in their descent has uneven curtains, made with my own pink and fragile hands.

 

Anxiety Symptoms

There are over 100 symptoms of anxiety.

Because each person has a unique chemical make up, the type, number, intensity, and frequency of anxiety symptoms will vary from person to person. For example, one person may have just one mild anxiety symptom, whereas another may have all anxiety symptoms and to great severity. All combinations are common.

 

Gandhi – His Triumph changed the world forever

Gandhi’s Talisman

“I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?
Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.”

- One of the last notes left behind by Gandhi in 1948, expressing his deepest social thought.

 

Quotes Of The Day

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” – Steve Jobs

“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.” - Ernest Hemmingway

 

Desiderata

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees & the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labours & aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery & broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

“Desiderata” was written in 1927 by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945).

 

16 Herbal Teas To Put On Your Grocery List

Herbal teas make for wonderful, low calorie and relaxing drinks.

Apart from having a beneficial effect on health, herbal teas are fragrant and appealing. Let’s take the mystery out of the herbal teas and discover together which teas are good for which symptoms.

You may want to copy and print these tips for the next time you’re in the tea aisle, so you can make a knowledgeable selection.

1. Nettle Is made with the leaves of stinging nettle, named for the tiny hairs on the fresh leaves which can sting the skin. Despite it’s rough exterior, nettle is one of nature’s best remedies for an assortment of ailments including anemia, high blood pressure, rheumatism, arthritis, coughs and colds, congestion, urinary tract infections, and kidney and bladder problems.

2. Chamomile Tea Chamomile is a popular herb that’s used in teas worldwide. Chamomile soothes the stomach and relieves bloating and indigestion. Chamomile also calms the mind and helps people relax and deal better with their stresses. Some people are allergic to chamomile and should avoid taking the tea. People who find it hard to go to sleep should drink a cup of chamomile tea before going to bed. Chamomile is known to fight insomnia by relaxing the body and the mind, enabling the person to fall asleep naturally.

3. Ginger Tea Ginger is an energizer and a simulator. Drinking ginger tea both stimulates and soothes the digestive system. Ginger has been known to aid people experiencing nausea. Arthritic people have found ginger tea helpful since it has anti-inflammatory properties.

4. Peppermint Tea Peppermint is a fragrant herb that makes for a soothing drink. Peppermint helps you digest foods better and also reduces flatulence and digestive issues. Peppermint is prescribed to people with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and gallstones in capsules. A cup of peppermint tea will ease nausea and vomiting, especially if you suffer motion sickness. If you have heartburn, don’t drink peppermint tea as this might aggravate your condition. Peppermint tea brings down the severity of herpes outbreaks. The natural mint flavor of the herb helps to freshen your breath. Other health benefits of this tea are control of muscle aches and chronic pain, clearing of congestion and mild coughs, mild asthma and reduction of stress.

5. Lavender Tea Lavender tea is made out of the dried purple, pink and white colored flowers that grow on lavender shrubs. Used as a scented herb for many centuries, lavender’s medicinal uses have been appreciated and documented for centuries. A cup of lavender tea can soothe your mind and body, inducing sleep. If you are feeling down and depressed, a cup of lavender tea can help uplift your spirit.

Lavender tea helps sooth and treat flatulence, colic, bowel infections and an upset stomach. Lavender tea can be used as a wash on the chest to help reduce cough, bronchitis, asthma, cold and other respiratory issues. For both children and adults, lavender is used to reduce body temperature during fever. Lavender also has healing properties; use a wash of lavender tea to help heal wounds, cuts, ulcers and sores.

6. Lemon Balm Tea Lemon balm tea is fragrant to drink and is a very effective tonic to calm nerves and anxiety. Cold lemon balm tea bags help relieve cold sores, or genital sores caused by the herpes simplex virus. Mix lemon balm leaves with valerian to treat anxiety, stress and insomnia. Lemon Balm contains several properties, which control herpes and also regulate the thyroid.

Lemon balm when mixed with peppermint can calm an upset stomach, sooth the digestive track and reduce flatulence. Drink lemon balm tea if you suffer from nerve pain. Drinking lemon balm tea also helps strengthen memory and brain functions and also uplifts one’s mood.

7. Rosemary Tea Rosemary is not only good for cooking but makes a healthful and highly beneficial tea. Rosemary can help your muscles to relax. Additionally, rosemary is an effective digestive aid as well. If you have gall bladder and liver complaints, drinking rosemary tea regularly will greatly help relieve your symptoms. Rosemary tea also relieves cough and mild asthma symptoms.

8. Hibiscus Flower Tea (Sorrel) Dried Hibiscus flowers are made into a tea that offers very high health benefits. Hibiscus tea is known to lower blood pressure, reduce high cholesterol and strengthen the immune system (it’s rich in Vitamin C). Hibiscus flower infusions have known to reduce hypertension as well, in people prone to this condition. A recent study reveals that hibiscus tea is rich in antioxidants, which protect the body against cell-damaging free radicals. Red zinger tea and sorrel tea contain hibiscus.

9. Green Tea Green Tea comes with such a host of health benefits, that it’s called the ‘wonder herb’ by tea drinkers and medical practitioners alike. Drinking green tea lowers cancer risk and also inhibits carcinogenic in cigarettes and other compounds when imbibed. Green Tea contains potent antioxidants called polyphenols, which help suppress free radicals. Green tea also stops certain tumors from forming. Green tea lowers cholesterol and triglyceride levels and thereby promotes heart health. Green tea also lowers blood pressure, prevents and fights tooth decay and dental issues, and inhibits different viruses from causing illnesses.

10. Cardamom Tea Cardamom is an evergreen plant that’s grown mainly in India and Guatemala. Both dried white cardamom flowers and the sweetly aromatic seeds are used to make tea. Cardamom tea has a pungent, sweet and aromatic flavor. Cardamom tea helps treat indigestion, prevents stomach pain, and relieves flatulence. It’s also helpful to drink a glass of cardamom tea if you are feeling nauseous. Cardamom tea fights pulmonary disease where lots of phlegm is present. It also works as a good expectorant and relieves coughs. If you have drunk too many cups of coffee, drink a couple of cups of cardamom tea to help detoxify the caffeine from your system. Drinking a cup of cardamom tea is helpful for women who experience mood swings during their menstrual period.

11. Milk Thistle When consumed as a tea, milk thistle herb, (not as in dairy milk) is a gentle liver cleanser. It contains properties that help the liver to regenerate and function at a higher capacity. “Milk Thistle can also assist in the production of bile, which can help with our digestive process.

12. Rosehip Tea Rosehips are the fruit of the rose plant and are one of the best plant sources of vitamin C, which is important for the immune system, skin and tissue health and adrenal function. Consider reaching for rosehip tea next time you need a health boost.

13. Lemongrass The citrusy tang that comes from the lemongrass plant is favored in cooking as well as tea. Lemongrass teas are often served as an after-dinner drink to aid digestion—primarily due to a substance called citral, also the active ingredient in lemon peels. Though typically enjoyed unaccompanied by other herbs, it can also be blended to create lemon-flavored teas like Lemon Zinger.<

14. Echinacea Is widely used to prevent or cure the common cold. It’s a powerful herb that contains active substances that enhance the activity of the immune system, relieve pain, reduce inflammation and have antioxidant effects. The leaves and flowers of the uppermost part of the plant are the section believed to contain polysaccharides (a substance known to trigger the activity of the immune system).

15. Blackberry Leaves Picked, dried in the sun and infused with boiling water, blackberry leaves are the essence of most berry-flavored teas. Studies suggest that the leaves contain a healthy dose of flavonoids, which are known for their antioxidant activity.

16. Hawthorn The leaves, flowers and berries of the hawthorn plant are used in a variety of peach- and berry-flavored teas. The plant is believed to contain flavonoid-like complexes that help improve cardiovascular health by helping to relax and dilate blood vessels, which increases blood circulation and lessens stress on the heart. Hawthorn berries are also believed to relieve water retention by draining the body of excess salt.

 

Quotes OF The Day

“Love can isolate us from everything around us. But in its absence, we can be filled with the fear that something comparable exists.”

“There must be something beyond slaughter and barbarism to support the existence of mankind and we must all help search for it.”

“You, yesterday, did the usual things, just as any day, You don’t know if it’s worth remembering. You would prefer to remember, there lying in the half-darkness of the bedroom, not what has happened already but what is going to happen. In your half-darkness your eyes would prefer to look ahead, not behind, and they do not know how to foresee the past.”

Carlos Fuentes

 

Quote Of The Day

Ghandi

Seven Deadly Sins

Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Science without humanity
Knowledge without character
Politics without principle
Commerce without morality
Worship without sacrifice.”

 

Daughters of the brothel

WRITTEN BY: Ashly Bloxon

INDIA. — Home to about 10,000 women and children, Chaturbhuj-sthan is a brothel in Bihar, near the border of Northern India. Historians believe it was first established during the Moghul era.

Prostitution has become a family tradition in Chaturbhuj-sthan, passed down from generation to generation.

After reading Jugnu, a 32-page monthly magazine written and published by the sex workers of the Chaturbhuj-sthan brothel, filmmaker Gautam Singh contacted the magazine.

The magazine had been created by a group of sex laborers, led by a girl named Naseema.

Born into Chaturbhuj-sthan, Naseema was abandoned by her mother and raised by a woman she calls her ‘grandmother’. Her ‘grandmother’ decided use the money she earned as a prostitute to raise Naseema and send her to school,  Naseema soon became the first girl in the brothel’s 300 year history to receive an education.

When Naseema returned to Chaturbhuj-sthan it was not to sell her body. With the help of local banks, Naseema established several small industries inside the brothel creating alternative forms of employment for the sex workers.

Naseema also sought to persuade the sex workers to send their children to school, now nearly every child in Chaturbhuj-sthan is receiving an education.

Over 50 former prostitutes now work with Naseema in her local endeavors as well as the maintenance of the magazine, which is sold across India. Naseema and the other women work to prevent others being trafficked, mainly from neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh, in the last year alone they have been able to send at least 20 new girls safely back home.

The former prostitutes have many enemies, and the work is extremely dangerous. Rani Begum,the chief of the brothel, has suffered a blow  financially as a result of Naseema’s activities. Her thugs have publicly harassed and beaten Naseema and the other women who work with her on numerous occasions. The former sex workers have also had to fight pimps, as well as some police officers and clerics.

This film chronicles the story of the former sex workers and the Chaturbhuj-sthan brothel.

 

Malala Yousafzai to have surgery to repair skull

• Caroline Davies and agencies
• guardian.co.uk,

Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old girl shot in the head by a Taliban gunman on her school bus in Pakistan, is to undergo surgery for what doctors hope will be the last time.

The teenager, who was shot in October after advocating girls’ education, will return to the Birmingham hospital where she underwent emergency surgery last year after being transferred from Pakistan.

She is to have a custom-made titanium plate fitted to her skull and a cochlear implant to help her recover hearing in her left ear.

She is expected to be out of hospital within “two to three days” of surgery, said Dr Dave Rosser, medical director at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. Once it was over she would finally be able to concentrate fully on her rehabilitation, he said.

She has already undergone surgery since her discharge from the Birmingham hospital at the start of the year to repair a facial nerve severed in the gun attack.

“Malala does have a weakness in her face so the left side of her face droops, but there is a good chance she will completely recover within 18 months,” said Rosser.

He praised her “great sense of humour”.

Malala is now likely to secure permanent residence in the UK after her father was granted a job with the Pakistani consulate in Birmingham.

Rosser described her as a “remarkable young woman” who had made great progress in her recovery.

She was fully aware of the threats the Taliban had made against her life, but said she would continue to champion the cause of women’s rights, he said.

“She’s not naive at all about what happened to her and the situation in terms of her high profile. She’s incredibly determined to continue to speak for her cause,” he said.

The schoolgirl has become a globally recognised symbol of girls’ education and other women’s rights in the face of Taliban oppression, and there have been calls for her to be nominated for a Nobel peace prize. She first came to public attention in 2009 when she wrote an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban in her home town of Mingora in the Swat valley, north-west Pakistan.

Doctors in Birmingham have previously described how the bullet hit her left brow but travelled along the side of her head and into her shoulder rather than penetrating her skull.

Both surgical procedures are expected to be carried out within the next 10 days, and will take about 90 minutes each. It could take “between 15 and 18 months” for any hearing to recover in her left ear but in time she is expected to regain normal levels of hearing, said Rosser.

Stefan Edmondson, principal maxillofacial prosthetist, said the titanium plate would be fitted over a hole in her skull that had been left by the bullet.

It was also revealed that the portion of missing skull had been implanted in Malala’s abdomen – where it remains – in case it was needed to repair her skull at a later date. But surgeons have now decided instead to fit the metal plate.

Rosser credited the surgeons who operated on Malala in Pakistan soon after she was shot for saving her life.

 

 

Quotes For The Day

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” – Albert Einstein

“The violent subjugation of the Palestinians, Iraqis, and Afghans will only ensure that those who oppose us will increasingly speak to us in the language we speak to them-violence.” - Chris Hedges

 

Quote of the day

 “There is no morality in war. Morality is the privilege of those judging from the distance. War is only death and destruction” (John Cory).

 

Tears of Gaza

Disturbing, powerful and emotionally devastating, Tears of Gaza is less a conventional documentary than a record–presented with minimal gloss – of the 2008 to 2009 bombing of Gaza by the Israeli military. Photographed by several Palestinian cameramen both during and after the offensive, this powerful film by director Vibeke Løkkeberg focuses on the impact of the attacks on the civilian population. Tears of Gaza makes no overriding speeches or analyses.

The situation leading up to the incursion is never mentioned.

 

Gandhi : Harmony of thought and word and deeds.

Gandhi may not be with us in body, but he’s with us in spirit and he will always remain our  source of inspiration.

Here are few of his inspiring quotes that are relevant in modern times and  reinforcing  the importance of living  basic human Values in our every day life.

• “Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.”
  

• “Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

• If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.

• “Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.”

• “To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.”

• “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.”

• “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

• Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.

• “Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.”

• “Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.”

• “In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.”

• “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”

• “Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.”

 

All children deserve a beautiful childhood

Source: DNA Mumbai  

Sixty-five years after Independence, millions of Indian children are yet to be freed from the bondage of malnutrition, child labour, lack of education and child abuse. Their wait to enjoy their childhood and realize their full potential seems to be getting longer with every passing anniversary of our Independence.

A look at where our children stand today leaves much to be desired. We cannot even claim to have provided bare minimum food, education and protection for millions of children during all these years of freedom. Unfortunately, the issues do not seem to figure as high on the national agenda as they should.

After 65 years of freedom, child malnutrition has assumed epidemic proportions. Almost every second child in India faces some level of malnourishment. Almost 40 per cent of Indian children are underweight, and 45 per cent are stunted due to malnourishment, according to the National Family Health Survey-3. The survey also reported that six out of every 10 children from the poorest households are stunted, and almost as many are underweight. Children from the SC and ST communities are also more likely to be malnourished, according to this report. The ministry of health and family welfare states that more than 55 per cent of the under-5 mortality occurs from complications resulting from malnutrition.

Neither has enough been done to make life easier for children who somehow survive malnutrition. They work in factories, handling hazardous chemicals, losing their childhood even before having a glimpse of it. Many are employed for household work in our cities and towns.

According to the NSSO’s 66th round survey (2009-10), there are 49.84 lakh child laborers across the country. About 13.3 per cent of children in the 10-18 age group are employed or engaged in some income earning activity. Of these, 42 per cent comprised casual wage workers and another 42 per cent were unpaid helpers in household enterprises.

Fortunately, millions of children now manage to go to school, thanks to the implementation of the Right to Education Act and several other schemes by government agencies and civil society. But ironically, this has led to more challenges.

Going to school may not be the most pleasant experience for a child in India. In fact, it is a nightmare especially if a child belongs to a marginalized section of the society.

Imagine children staying in school for eight hours without even a drop of drinking water, no toilets and in crowded classrooms where teachers teach two different classes of 80 to 100 students each. The growing number of enrollments which brings a smile to our faces doesn’t reveal these aspects.

 

Picture Of The Day By Morteza Katouzian

 

Slavery in the Chocolate Industry

 

The Road to Guantanamo

U have to watch this.

This movie emphasizes one truth. That truth is that there are thousands of innocent people behind bars.

The only crime they committed is that they are Muslims.

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
Mark Twain   

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
Mahatma Gandhi      

 

Morteza Katouzian Art Exhibit

The Mother and the Children

 

The Board Of Wisdom

Life is not Measured by the number of Breaths we  take

 But by the moments that take our Breaths Away !!

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.

The road to success is not straight. There is a curb called Failure, a loop called Confusion; speed bumps called Friends; red lights called Enemies;caution lights called Family. You will have flats called jobs. But, if you have a spare called Determination; an engine called Perseverance, and a driver called Faith, you will make it to a place called Success!!

 

Joke of the day

 

 

Mother’s Day