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Today in the 'fall of civilization'
Cartoon from 1921 - 🤡 DoJ Antitrust Probes Into Apple, Google Reportedly Delayed Due to Lack of Cash
- 🤡 Huge Asteroid Larger Than Big Ben Approaching Earth, Report Says
- 🤡 U.S. officials ask AT&T, Verizon to delay 5G wireless over aviation safety concerns
- 🤡 Executive at Swiss Tech Company Said to Operate Secret Surveillance Operation
- 🤡 Attack of the Cults - Conquest doesn’t always come by way of direct invasion and occupation; subtler methods, such as sustained psychological and spiritual warfare, have proven even more successful at suborning target populations.
- 🤡 Did the CIA write the hit that split the USSR? "A new podcast suggests the American intelligence agency was behind the Scorpions’ world-changing song 'Wind Of Change'."
- 🤡 Internet of Bodies (IoB)- Using CRISPR to electrically connect with and control the genome
- 🤡 Rockefeller’s Club of Rome - Limits to Growth Co-author - Dennis Meadows interview: "I hope it can be done in a way that is relatively 'equal'. I hope [depopulation] can be done in a slow way. That people 'share the experience'. That what lies ahead." (Related Thread)
- 🤡 Official German Government data suggests the Fully Vaccinated will develop Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) by the end of January 2022
- 🤡 Global ammonia prices surge on European natural gas cost push
- 🤡 Antarctic outpost hit by "Covid-19" outbreak 🧙♀️ 💩 👻
- 🤡 UAE bans unvaccinated citizens from leaving the country starting from 10 January - Appropriate reply on twitter: "IMF policies to maintain the dollar from total collapse. They are using "vaccine policy" as "economic policy" to slow the world to a crawl, centralize all resources they borrowed against, and control individuals based on vax status. It will collapse anyway. Prepare."
- 🤡 Whistleblower warns baffling illness affects growing number of young adults in Canadian province
- 🤡 Indiana life insurance CEO says deaths are up 40% among people ages 18-6
- 🤡 Turkey freezes assets of 770 individuals and a U.S.-based foundation
- 🤡 Media mogul Byron Allen sends open letter calling for McDonald’s president/CEO’s resignation
- 🤡 Have Regulators Really Defused The Year-End $230 Trillion LIBOR Derivative Time-Bomb?
- 🤡 Pentagon Retreats From Transparency At Guantanamo Bay, Builds New Secretive Room
- 🤡 Meat testing: A fifth of samples reveal unspecified animals' DNA
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web3, as it exists today and appears to be building towards, is actually more centralized than the web it seeks to replace. [...] The problem here is the profit motive: people who are working on web3 generally want to get paid for it, but it's fundamentally harder to extract rent from truly decentralized systems than it is from centralized ones. Because of that, people end up building systems that are centralized at their core, with some aesthetics of decentralization smeared on top, and call it web3.
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And that's a wrap...2021. Happy New Year!
Thank you for your continued interest in this blog! I very much appreciate your attention and support. It's been a great year for samim.io, with over 2590 posts published on a wide range of topics. Until soon!
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Comet Leonard (Lion Heart) photographed on Christmas eve by Michael Jaeger and Lukas Demetz using an 8 inch telescope in Namibia
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Plants 'talk to' each other through their roots
Plants use their roots to “listen in” on their neighbours, according to research that adds to evidence that plants have their own unique forms of communication. The study found that plants in a crowded environment secrete chemicals into the soil that prompt their neighbours to grow more aggressively, presumably to avoid being left in the shade.
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Herbal Therapy Is Equivalent to Rifaximin for the Treatment of Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth
Conclusion: SIBO is widely prevalent in a tertiary referral gastroenterology practice. Herbal therapies are at least as effective as rifaximin for resolution of SIBO by LBT. Herbals also appear to be as effective as triple antibiotic therapy for SIBO rescue therapy for rifaximin non-responders. Further, prospective studies are needed to validate these findings and explore additional alternative therapies in patients with refractory SIBO.
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Experiments suggests archerfish can differentiate between numbers
The researchers placed the fish in a tank of water and then placed a pair of disks over the top of it. The disks were marked with different numbers of dots. The researchers taught the fish to spit a stream of water at disks with a certain number of dots on them, such as six. They then showed the fish a series of disk pairs with different numbers of dots on them. They found that the fish would only spit at the disks with the number of dots that they had been trained to recognize. The researchers also tried changing the number of dots the fish had to choose from and found that the fish were still able to target the right disk.
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Olivier Jutel on Blockchain Imperialism
"For all the rhetoric of blockchain being a stateless technology, we have one government – that of the United States – actively pouring money into Tech Camps and other initiatives, all in order to turn the blockchain into the arch-solution to developmental problems. "
Thinking about crypto and web3, I’m constantly reminded about the ideological battles fought over the big digital platforms and Web 2.0. A decade ago, some of us easily saw through the hype promoted by the likes of Eric Schmidt or Mark Zuckerberg. But the reason why the ideological premises of Web 2.0 were so hard to dismantle was because for every Eric Schmidt, with his commitment to US-led global domination of the planet, there were five Stanford undergraduates who wanted to build an app to feed the hungry children of Africa or teach Syrian refugees how to code or stop violence against women.
Related Stats:
During 2021 Bitcoin consumed 134 TWh in total, which is comparable to the electrical energy consumed by a country like Argentina. Related CO2 emissions were ~64 Mt; enough to negate the entire global net savings from deploying EVs.
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Getting started with Qigong
Today a reader of this blog asked me the following question:
"I wanted to ask you, do you have a tip to get started with Qigong? Haven't been able to find any practitioners with experience close by and I am not sure if one can learn it by only mirroring a video."
I briefly formulated the following answer:
Hey journey_in_ai, great to hear from you! Practicing Qigong is a fantastic and very rewarding journey to go on. Mirroring videos is a solid way to get started that can be very effective. The hardest and most important part of such practices, is doing it regularly and keeping it up - even if its just 15min a day.
There are 4 foundational things to practicing Qigong:
- Movement: Proper body alignment provides the ways and means for smooth energetic flow. While there are countless best-practices and techniques to discover related to posture, here is an essential one: The Wu Ji Posture which is found in Qigong and Tai Chi/Ji. “Wu” means none, and “ji” (the same “ji” of Tai Ji) means extreme. Hence this is the way of standing that has no extremes. Wu Ji is easy to perform but takes a life to master. It is commonly used for beginning and ending movements.
- Breathing: Breathing should be natural, slow, smooth, even, and deep. Breathe from your belly: Allow the abdomen to relax so that it rises with each inhalation and falls with each exhalation. Do not use force. At the end of the exhalation, the body itself will initiate the inhalation. Always breathe through your nose.
- Awareness: Qigong is moving meditation. Like the breathing, the mind should be relaxed. At the same time, it needs to be focused because later mind intent will be used to visualize and guide Qi. Balance relaxation with alert curiosity as to what is happening in your body and with firm but gentle determination to maintain your attention and intention.
- Qi: If you keep practicing for a while, you will be able to feel/see Qi (vital force / life-energy / prana / etc.) and actively participate in its flow and cultivation.
There are many Qigong forms:
You will have to experiment a bit to find the right Qigong form ("set", "tradition") for you. Once you find a form that resonates with you, I recommend sticking with just that for at least a few month. Here are a few beginner friendly forms you might want to consider. I've included a few video links, but you can easily find many more.
- Ba Duan Jin (八段錦): Eight Pieces of Brocade: one of the most common forms of Chinese qigong used as exercise. Variously translated as Eight Pieces of Brocade or Eight Silk Weaving, the name of the form generally refers to how the eight individual movements of the form characterize and impart a silken quality (like that of a piece of brocade) to the body and its energy. The Baduanjin is primarily designated as a form of medical qigong, meant to improve health. - Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiVjiOM5WGs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwjLUk0wF1s - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwlvTcWR3Gs (simplified form)
- Taiji Qigong Shibashi (十八式): 18 Forms Qigong: A set of Qigong exercises which is based on the philosophy of Tai Chi and extracts some of the best movements from the Yang style Tai Chi Chuan. It places emphasis on synchronizing the 18 movements with proper breathing techniques. It is a gentle, beautiful and flowing routine that is both a joy to do and deeply relaxing. Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHQmY2sLhbI - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKhC3d3R-Uc - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32tH89vBtTs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6DUfLxz6wY (Shibashi has a total of 8 sets, each with 18 moments. Set 2 Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOENwWg3e2M)
- Daoyin Yang Sheng Gong Shi Er Fa (导引养生功十二法): 12 routines from Daoyin tradition: Dao Yin Yang Sheng Gong Shi Er Fa consists of 12 steps of exercises from over 50 routines of Daoyin health qigong developed since 1974 by Zhang Guangde, a professor from the Beijing Sports University. Based on the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine concerning viscera and meridians, yin-yang and the Five elements, and qi and blood. Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59p4Ho2flhk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYEb504TR68 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AnvEHj5Nzo
- Zhàn Zhuāng (站樁/站桩): Standing Like a Tree: A training method often practiced by students of neijia (internal kung fu), such as, Xing Yi Quan, Bagua Zhang and Taiji Quan. Zhan Zhuang is sometimes translated Standing-on-stake, Standing Qigong or Standing Like a Tree. It is commonly called a form of Qigong, despite the differences from other Qigong methods in Zhan zhuang's orientation. Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA1UphVWXks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg-BIt0y6T4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlXorC3__AU If it's to daunting at first, check out Pingshuai Gong
- Warm up: It is advisable, to do a brief warm up routine before practising qigong, to get your mind-body ready. Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4eOZp5SBtQ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1S78x0fOJo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdo4HfO2aX0
Once you have selected a form which resonates with you, I'm happy to point you towards more useful resources on that topic. May our practice and life be of benefit to all beings everywhere.
- Movement: Proper body alignment provides the ways and means for smooth energetic flow. While there are countless best-practices and techniques to discover related to posture, here is an essential one: The Wu Ji Posture which is found in Qigong and Tai Chi/Ji. “Wu” means none, and “ji” (the same “ji” of Tai Ji) means extreme. Hence this is the way of standing that has no extremes. Wu Ji is easy to perform but takes a life to master. It is commonly used for beginning and ending movements.
