loveAble

5 Cara Jitu Bikin Motor Matik Jadi 'Ngacir'

2011-09-27T01:20:00.001-07:00

Belakangan ini sepeda motor matik menjadi pilihan utama bagi para bikers dalam menemani aktifitas yang dijalani sehari-hari. Tapi terkadang performa yang diberikan oleh motor matik ini dianggap kurang bertenaga dibanding motor tipe sport.

Lantas bagaimana cara untuk meningkat performa motor matik tanpa mengeluarkan biaya yang banyak?

Berikut tips jitu yang diberikan Arif Bibiw, pemilik bengkel Satria Jaya Motor di Pisangan Lama, Jakarta Timur.

Pertama, penggantian roller merupakan hal paling utama untuk mendongkrak matik Anda. Karena itu dapat memberikan performa tarikan atas dan bawah yang cukup bertenaga. Misalnya pada Honda Vario, di mana biasa melakukan penggantian roller standard dengan roller 10gram dan 14gram.

Kedua, adanya penggantian fanbelt pada matik Anda, dengan ukuran yang lebih tebal dan keras. Penggantian fanbelt akan membuat Anda merasakan tarikan yang lebih responsif pada motor.

Ketiga, untuk sektor pengapian, disarankan juga untuk mengganti busi standard, dengan busi yang memberikan pengapian lebih sempurna, sehingga pembakaran di ruang mesin jelas lebih baik. Anda bisa melirik busi aftermarket seperti merek NGK,TDR, atau sekelas Splitfire dan Iridium Denso.

Keempat. sektor CDI juga memili peran vital. CDI standard bawaan pabrik memang sudah baik dalam menyalurkan arus listrik. Tapi kalau Anda ingin lebih mendongkrak performa matik, tidak ada salahnya melirik CDI aftermarket seperti BRT, Shindengen, ataupun CDI aftermarket lainnya.

Kelima, mengganti koil pada motor matik Anda. Koil aftermarket yang berada di pasaran seperti Kitaco, TDR atau BRT patut dicoba untuk memberikan percikan api yang lebih maksimal pada pengapian anda.

"Mendongkrak performa tenaga motor matik itu mudah, tidak perlu repot dan hanya membutuhkan biaya yang relatif tidak mahal. Dengan modal uang Rp 1 juta, kita sudah bisa mendapatkan performa yang siginifikan," ujar Bibiw

http://otomotif.vivanews.com/news/read/248828-5-cara-jitu-bikin-motor-matik-jadi--ngacir-

Avenged Sevenfold - Seize The Day [Official Music Video]

2011-07-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

30 Seconds To Mars - From Yesterday

2011-07-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

MARIMAR

2011-07-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

Astrid - Ku Mau Kau Selamanya.mp3 - 4shared.com - penyimpanan dan berbagi-pakai file online - unduh - Astrid - Ku Mau Kau Selamanya.mp3

2011-07-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

Astrid - Ku Mau Kau Selamanya.mp3 - 4shared.com - penyimpanan dan berbagi-pakai file online - unduh - <a href="http://www.4shared.com/audio/iwklTaQk/Astrid_-_Ku_Mau_Kau_Selamanya.html" target="_blank">Astrid - Ku Mau Kau Selamanya.mp3</a>

PUMP IT by: black eyed fish

2011-07-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

WANNABE

2011-07-24T18:39:00.000-07:00

MOYMOY PALABOY & ROADFILL 'I CAN FEEL IT'

2011-07-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

moymoy palaboy (fake) baby - justin bieber

2011-07-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

Corinne Bailey Rae - Like A Star

2011-07-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On

2011-07-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

Train - Marry Me - (AOL Sessions)

2011-07-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

Radiohead - Creep

2011-07-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

Katy Perry - Firework

2011-07-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

Incubus - Wish You Were Here (Live)

2011-07-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are [Official Video]

2011-07-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song [Official Video]

2011-07-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

7 Beautiful Beaches on the Island of Bali

2011-06-23T02:35:00.000-07:00

Bali is tourism that is recognized by the whole world is going natural beauty and cultural richness that is very thick, the beach at Balipun is one of the 10 best beaches in the world, where and what are the most beautiful beaches of this retreat?

Padang Bai

The beach is located in the port of Padang Bai crossing Bali - Lombok namely Padang Bai, the beach is maintained cleanliness and beauty. For anglers and divers (diver) really like this beach. Because even adjacent to the harbor but the marine life is still very well preserved. But careful if you want to dive here, sometimes the current is very fast.

Legian and Seminyak Beach

It is located on the north coast beach Kuta has an atmosphere similar to Kuta beach, but beaches at Legian and Seminyak are distinguished by the Kuta beach is clean and the atmosphere is not so crowded. Legian and Seminyak beach is a favorite place of my sunset shoot, because the atmosphere of the sunset each day is never the same and very unique.

Dreamland Beach

This beach is very popular tourist tourists, white sand stretches very wide. And coral reefs of beautifying the beach, one of the white sand beach in Bali is very beautiful and exotic. Only love access to this place because it's rather difficult to enter the luxury housing complex and a very steep downward path, so be careful where they have the rainy season.

Sanur Beach

Sanur and the surrounding area one of the first growing tourist areas in Bali, we can feel the atmosphere of the village with peace than in other coastal areas. Since large scale renovation at Sanur beach is turning into a very beautiful beaches and friendly. The many activities and areas that are resort2 make Sanur Beach Sanur is one of the alternative beaches worth a visit.

Amed and Tulamben

Amed and Tulamben beach is the beach adjacent, almost like a second character of this beach. Amed beach but still very virgin and not a lot of domestic tourists who come here. Tulamben beach is very loved by the diver who wants to dive here. Because here there is a sunken U.S. warships and not too deep. So this beach is one of the beaches exotic retreat,

Lovina Beach

The famous beaches located on the northern island of Bali, the characters here is slightly different sand beach sand beach bali other woods because his black. Also very famous in Lovina Beach is every morning we could see a bunch of Fish Dolphin - Dolphins are playing on this beach, to see this dolphin dolphins we can hire a fishing boat that can be booked a hotel room or directly to the fishermen. Do not forget to bring a telephoto lens and wide, because it could have dolphin dolphins suddenly appeared beside you.

Candi Dasa Beach

To the east of Bali Island and two trips from Denpasar you will find a well-known tourist area of the temple Dasa, and beautiful beaches are very stunning. Many activities can be done on this beach, one of which is snorkelling and diving you can do here.

http://haxims.blogspot.com

Nekonayagi Cat,

2011-06-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

http://haxims.blogspot.com/2011/06/nekoyanagi-kucing-kecil-yang-mirip-maru.html

Looking For Atlantis

2011-06-22T02:29:00.000-07:00

Cities of the Deep
Is the Case for Atlantis Based on Real Evidence or Not? By William B. Stoecker

The legend of Atlantis has such a powerful hold on the human imagination that it has defied all attempts by the debunkers to eradicate it. We are told that continents cannot sink (true enough; see below) and that there were no advanced civilizations prior to our own, which began some 6,000 years B.P. (before the present). This is not true. Professional archaeologists and physical anthropologists used to believe (on the basis, really, of nothing) that fully “evolved” homo sapiens only appeared on Earth perhaps 50,000 years ago, which would make us by far the youngest of all large animals. Using their own timetable, then, it took us that long to reach our present level of culture. The problem is that Michael Cremo and other writers and researchers have unearthed evidence that our species is far older…perhaps tens of millions of years old. And even the professionals, the mainstream researchers, have been forced to revise their estimates steadily back from 50,000 to 120,000 years and even earlier. Most archaeologists now admit that fully modern human beings date back at least 275,000 years B.P.. Using their own earlier estimates, it is clear that there has been time for civilizations to rise and fall over five times.

But is there any generally accepted evidence of this? There is. We were once told that large stone walls and cities date back only to 5,000 B.P., but now it is officially admitted that the walled city of Jericho is 10,000 years old. We were told that woven textiles and fired ceramics date back only to 5,000 to 6,000 B.P., but now the professionals admit that both these technologies have been found in a site in central Europe that is an incredible 28,000 years old. . . about five times further back than the previously accepted date. We were told that humans did not develop agriculture until 6,000 B.P.; now they admit 12,000 B.P. We were told that people arrived in the Americas fairly recently and that people were not seafarers until, again, 5,000 to 6,000 B.P., but now a growing minority of the professionals think that people from Europe crossed the Atlantic and colonized North America well over 13,000 B.P.
In known historical but ancient times there is evidence of very advanced technologies presumably developed still earlier. There is the famous 2,000 year old Baghdad electric cell and the complex mechanical computer found in an ancient Greek shipwreck. Egyptian wall paintings depict what look precisely (no imagination required) like helicopters and submarines, and they have no resemblance whatever to anything else. In both Egypt and Columbia there are ancient models, “explained” as depictions of birds or manta rays, that more closely resemble airplanes. When these are duplicated in light wood or plastic, they function very effectively as gliders; they are fully aerodynamic. Ancient Egyptian statues sometimes have glass or crystal eyes containing precise, functioning lenses, thousands of years before lenses were supposedly invented.

And yet, one part of Plato’s story, if taken literally, cannot be true. Continents and large islands cannot sink under the ocean, not suddenly, and not even gradually. Continents and most large islands are made of granitic rocks; these igneous rocks have cooled gradually deep within the Earth. They have large crystals and relatively low density compared to the olivine that makes up the mantle (the layer beneath the Earth’s crust) and the basalt which makes up the deep sea floors. The continents literally float on the denser minerals, and no force can sink them. Even if a very large volcanic island were to sink it would take many thousands, even millions of years. If some totally unknown process could sink such a large island suddenly, the heat released would cause massive vulcanism. And while there is evidence of some increased vulcanism in the time period Plato described, there is nothing on that scale.

But Atlantis could have been submerged in a single day. Notice that I did not say “sink.” During the last ice age, so much water was locked up in the immense ice sheets that the oceans were lower than today, at one time roughly 400 feet lower. There was a period of rapid melting and sea level rise at 11,600 B.P., the exact time Plato gave. In fact, there were several climatic and sea level changes. The peak of the last ice age was about 17,000 B.P. Then the climate warmed for a period, with some rise in sea levels. At about 12,800 B.P. there was an event called the Younger Dryas, when the Earth suddenly reversed the warming trend and became colder. Some geologists have found evidence that this was caused by the explosion of a comet or asteroid over North America; the dust from that blocked some of the sunlight and chilled the Earth. This may also be the solution to the long-standing mystery of the extinction of such large animals as mammoths, camels, and lions in North America; and it may, in addition, have wiped out many of the European settlers and allowed the Asian ancestors of today’s Amerindians to take over. Around 14,000 to 15,000 B.P., the climate warmed rapidly (presumably the cometary dust had settled) and sea levels rose rapidly. There was another period of rapid warming and attendant glacial melting and sea level rise from 12,000 to 11,000 B.P., and another 8,000 to 7,000 B.P., a period when the Earth was much warmer than today, and, due to more evaporation of seawater and hence more clouds and rain, much wetter. In fact, the Sahara was, for a time, mostly grasslands, with riverine, mountains, and coastal forests.

A number of writers, like Charles Berlitz, pointed out long ago that if there were coastal, seafaring cultures out on the continental shelves (dry land during the ice age and submerged today), the rise in sea levels would submerge them and explain Plato’s story and the flood legends that are found in almost every culture on Earth. But even this, although the rise was much faster than previously believed, would not explain how such an event could happen in a single day. In my book, The Atlantis Conspiracy, published in 2000, I gave the explanation. We know that as the ice sheets warmed, immense lakes of glacial melt water formed behind ice dams. The scablands of eastern Washington show what happened, there and elsewhere, when these dams finally gave way. Immense floods, dwarfing anything seen in historical times, rushed seaward, destroying everything and everyone in their path. Striking the oceans, they unleashed mega tsunamis.

So imagine what would have happened in a coastal region. As the Earth warmed and sea levels went higher, the inhabitants of seaports, understandably reluctant to leave their homes, would stay as long as possible, hoping for an end to the steady rise. Then, perhaps at night, the tsunamis would strike, killing all who were not on very high ground or far out to sea. The buildings would be largely destroyed. When the ocean settled its level would be slightly higher, and the rise would continue. For a time the ruins would be in the surf zone, battered by the waves, and, finally, submerged to a greater depth, at least partly covered by sand and silt. It is no wonder that, until the modern development of SCUBA diving, side scan sonar, deep submersibles, and ROVs (remotely operated vehicles, or unmanned submarines), no major ruins were found. In his 2005 book, Underworld, Graham Hancock said exactly what I had said five years earlier and pointed out that the seabeds would also lower, due to the weight of the water added to the oceans, a process that would take thousands of years. So an island or coastal region that was just above sea level 17,000 years ago, could be up to 600 feet deep today, due to a 200-foot lowering of seabeds added to the 400-foot rise in sea levels. In some areas, due to a tilting effect, the depth might be even greater. In addition, the study of flat-topped, submerged volcanic islands called guyots shows that they were once above sea level; but, as their volcanoes moved down off ocean ridges, they very slowly sank thousands of feet.

Undersea ruins have, in fact, been found; and their depth, along with what we know of the rates of sea level rise, shows that some of them predate all known civilizations.

Off the Mediterranean island of Malta, where there are mysterious stone buildings dating back at least 5,000 years (and possibly much earlier, given the scarcity of reliable carbon 14 dates), a researcher named Dr. Hubert Zeitlmair claimed that divers he employed found ruins on the sea floor over thirty feet down. Graham Hancock also found and photographed underwater ruins there, including what look like wagon wheel ruts that continue up on land, a stone arch as described by Zeitlmair, and, at a depth of sixty feet, what looks like a man-made canal. When sea levels were lower, Malta may have been connected by a land bridge to Sicily, and Sicily to Italy. Unexplained underwater ruins have also been found elsewhere in the Mediterranean, off Egypt’s port city Alexandria, and they cannot be traced to any known ancient culture.

During the ice age, the islands comprising the Bahamas were much larger than today, and many were joined. The coasts of Florida (especially the west coast) and Yucatan extended much further out than today. In 1968 divers off Bimini, part of the Bahamas, discovered in fairly shallow water what has been called the “Bimini Road;” although, if it is artificial, it was more likely a seawall or mole. Other apparent ruins have been found in the area, including at Paradise Point; and some, investigated mainly with side scan sonar, are as deep as a hundred feet. Marble columns have been found and what appear to be stone anchors with grooves. Skeptics have pointed out that some of the stones could have been ballast from relatively recent shipwrecks; some sea captains were not above pillaging ruins in Greece or Italy for ballast stones. Other apparent stone columns have proven to be hardened concrete that had been in barrels on ships. Skeptics also claim that the other ruins are just naturally occurring beachrock, a kind of limestone that fractures along fairly regular lines, and point out that the sedimentary layers in the stones all point in the same direction, which is consistent with beachrock. Investigators like Greg and Lora Little from Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. (Association for Research and Enlightenment) point out that beachrock, logically enough, is often used in harbor construction, and that there are rectangular stones piled on top of other rectangular stones, which appear not to be natural. The debate continues, and there have been wild claims of underwater pyramids (not by the Littles), but, somehow, proof of this has never been made public.

In the Pacific, apparent ruins were found off Okinawa in 1995, and, in the summer of 1996, at depths of from 20100 feet, an immense and dramatic structure off the island of Yonaguni, near Okinawa. In 2001 divers from Taiwan’s Underwater Archaeological Institute found what looks like an artificial stone wall about 100 feet down off that island; possible ruins had been found in that area by a Japanese team as early as 1982. But of all these, it is Yonaguni that has captured many people’s imaginations. Geologist Robert Schoch has dived on the structure and thinks it is probably a natural formation; and Schoch, who has stated that the Sphinx in Egypt is probably over 8,000 years old, is a very open-minded researcher, not a debunker. However, he admits that he is not sure, and, given the problems with currents and often poor visibility, he was unable to investigate the entire structure. With its long, parallel straight lines and right angles, it looks decidedly man-made, and its bizarre geometry resembles pyramids I have seen in Peru. Hancock has pointed out that the ancient and fairly advanced Jomon culture began suddenly in Japan after a sea level rise about 16,500 B.P. (which would have driven them out of the now submerged coastal areas). Some of their pottery resembles 5,000-year-old pottery from the Moche culture in Peru. There are ancient megalithic structures in Japan proper and on Okinawa, bearing considerable resemblance to Yonaguni.

Hancock has pointed out that when sea levels were lower, much of the Persian Gulf was dry land; and he has even speculated that this now submerged region might be the location of the Garden of Eden. In India there are the usual legends of floods and drowned lands and cities. During the ice age, India’s coasts extended further out; India and Sri Lanka were once joined, and Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania were one continent. In 2001 in India’s Gulf of Cambay, the ruins of two submerged cities were found with ceramics and stone implements and the remains of buildings. Other ruins have been found off the coast of southeast India; and, in the west, submerged ruins (where legends stated that the city of Dwarka sank) were found, forty to fifty feet down. The two cities in the Gulf of Cambay, given what is known of the rate of sea level rise, must be at least 8,000 years old. The Indus Valley cultures of Harappa and Mohenjo Darro suddenly appeared 5,000 years ago, and may well be a continuation of these earlier cultures, just as the Sumerians of present day Iraq may have migrated from what is now the Persian Gulf.

Ruins have been found in the Black Sea. Some researchers have claimed that this was the origin of all the global flood myths, forgetting that the flooding of the Black Sea was just part of a larger, worldwide pattern.

But are there deeper ruins, many thousands of feet down? Rumors abound, and pictures of side scan sonar of alleged deep Atlantic ruins have appeared on the web. There are similar pictures of supposed deep ruins off the island of Cyprus; and there is a Russian account of ruins on the Ampere Seamount some 450 miles roughly west of Gibraltar, where Plato said Atlantis was. But these are all pretty ambiguous so far, and, except for the Ampere Seamount, whose depth might be explained by sea level rise and sea floor sinking, the alleged ruins are so deep that their sinking would be hard to explain.

Then, there are the possible ruins off western Cuba. Studied with side scan sonar in 2001, these structures cover at least eight square miles and are at a depth of 2200 feet. Supposedly they have been photographed with an ROV, and samples have been taken, and the stones are allegedly granite. Cuba, and, to the west, Yucatan, are limestone, and the seabed is basalt. If the ruins are real, their sinking might be explained by tectonic movement, as the area is said to be surrounded by faults. The submergence to 400-600 feet could have been due to the glacial melting discussed earlier, and there might have also been a slow subsidence over the last few thousand years; but there is no proof that this is possible, and the evidence for the ruins themselves is still rather weak. So the existence of truly deep cities is still uncertain.

So, does all of this prove the truth of the Atlantis legend, at least in a general sense? The evidence of advanced ancient cultures is very, very strong. There is no doubt that coastal cities were submerged; and there is at least a strong possibility that there was some kind of nation or empire on islands in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

© 2009 William B. Stoecker
http://www.dailyavocado.net/eureka/stumbles/743-looking-for-atlantis.html

Getting Educated

2011-06-22T02:16:00.000-07:00

I have absolutely no idea how the education system works in this country. My niece has just finished her Junior High School (SMP) and she is currently sitting her final exams. She wants to continue to the Senior High School at the same school. It shouldn't be too much of a problem, I thought, considering in the past three years she has always come in the top ten of her class and has been very active organising events for the school.

However, in order to go to a higher level, she has to pass an entrance test again, along with other aspirants who don't come from her school, as if she is a new pupil to the school and of course, have to pay the Senior High School fee. She has sat this test a few weeks ago and is now told that she does not qualify to be accepted for the Senior High of that school. She is given this news even before she sits for her finals in the said school.

Now, as she is stressing out doing her Junior High School exams, she has to think about what school she could go to for her Senior High. Whatever that school is, one thing is clear, she still has to sit a test in order to be accepted to that school. For a teenager who is already in the middle of a difficult phase in her life, all these tests and exams and the uncertainty of which good school she could get into, it is a trying a time.

And it is not just the school children, the parents also get into hysterics this time of the year as they ferry their children from test to test, spending a lot of time, effort and money in between, with more money to spend once the children are accepted into the school which, more often than not, is not of their choice.

May be there is a reason for all this, but if I were that school, it would be in my interest to see how far I've succeeded in educating my charges to develop their full potentials and encourage them to go to a higher level in that school rather than treating them as if I have never dealt with them in the past three years. Surely their performance and contribution to the school are better indicators of their eligibility to continue to a higher level than a short entrance test on a given day and open for anybody?

Unless of course, what the school is looking for is particular test results and the entrance fee from new students rather than being interested in the students themselves.

May be other schools work differently, but I get the impression that there is a lack of continuity between Junior High and Senior High so that pupils end up at having to go to different schools, have different friends, different teachers and different teaching methods that they need to get used to again. Studying is already hard work without having all these additional stresses to take on.

If state schools are highly competitive and each year have increasing fees, private schools are so exorbitantly expensive these days that parents practically have to fork out in entrance fees, monthly tuition fees and other necessary expenses, to the amount that is probably a lot more than what the average Indonesian employee gets in his monthly pay packet.

And this is just at the high school level. We are not even talking about university level, which could cost the parents an arm and a leg. All this without the guarantee of getting a well-paying job that would be able to pay all that investment back at the end of it.

Moreover, these days, employers are not satisfied with just a Bachelors degree, especially if the young hopefuls didn't graduate from the country's top universities. In which case a Masters degree is getting to be mandatory requirement. Otherwise, be prepared to join the queue of the unemployed or be paid a salary that wouldn't even cover a child's school fee at a national plus school in Jakarta.

For people of means where school fees are not a problem, the road to success for the child starts at pre-school all the way to private schools offering IB certificates and costly universities at home or abroad with high quality international level education. While for the indigents it is a lucky thing if they could send and keep their children at school instead of forcing them to labour. Theirs are worlds that are so apart they could be from different planets.

For the majority of Indonesian parents of so-so income however, who desire nothing more than see their children have a better future and more well-off than they are, the road to educating them is a long, expensive and arduous one. It is made even more painful when, after all the effort and the money, the quality of education is not geared for the benefit of the child's development and intelligence in order to ensure their success in the world, but only for the interests of the school.

I could only feel for my fourteen-year old niece. She's having a hard enough time figuring out who she is without having to worry about which school would accept her.

(Desi Anwar: First published in The Jakarta Globe)

http://www.dailyavocado.net/writers-block/92-writers-block/744-getting-educated.html

Birthday Present

2011-06-22T02:07:00.001-07:00

A young man wished to purchase a gift for his new sweetheart's birthday, and as they had not been dating very long, after careful consideration he decided a pair of gloves would strike the right note — romantic, but not too personal.

Accompanied by his sweetheart's younger sister, he bought a pair of white gloves; the younger sister purchased a pair of panties for herself.

During the wrapping, the clerk mixed up the items and the sister got the gloves and the sweetheart got the panties. Without checking the contents first, he sealed his package and mailed it to his sweetheart along with this note:
Darling,

I chose these because I noticed that you are not in the habit of wearing any when we go out in the evening. If it had not been for your sister, I would have chosen the long ones with buttons, but she wears short ones that are easy to remove.

These are a delicate shade, but the lady I bought them from showed me the pair she had been wearing for the past three weeks and they were hardly soiled. I had her try yours on for me and she looked really smart.

I wish I were there to put them on you for the first time, as no doubt other hands will come in contact with them before I have a chance to see you again.

When you take them off, remember to blow in them before putting them away as they will naturally be a little damp from wearing.

Just think how many times I will kiss them during the coming year. I hope you will wear them for me on Friday night.

All my Love,
Hollingsworth

P.S The latest style is to wear them folded down with a little fur showing.

http://www.dailyavocado.net/news/avocado-joke/654-birthday-present.html

An Examined Life

2011-06-22T01:49:00.000-07:00

I am reading the speech made by Socrates when he was tried by the Athenians with charges of ‘corrupting the youths’ and for which he was condemned to death by drinking the poison hemlock and I find it amazing how words spoken over two thousand millennia ago could still ring true today. Here was a man put to death because he was a ‘gadfly’ to the state, an affront to the ‘polite’ society who were suspicious of teachings considered contrary to the norm and who was seen as a threat to mores and values of the day.

And what were those values? Socrates was a philosopher whose life was dedicated to asking question and challenging assumptions people took for granted. He was accused of godlessness and yet he was a great believer in the spirits and divine beings. He dedicated his life to the pursuit of knowledge and the improvement of the self and for this the young followed him as a man of wisdom and a teacher who taught them about the need to pursue a life of virtue.

‘Men of Athens, I honour and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone whom I meet after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens , care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honour and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? Are you not ashamed of this? And if the person with whom I am arguing says: Yes, but I do care; I do not depart or let him go at once; I interrogate and examine and cross-examine him, and if I think that he has no virtue, but only says that he has, I reproach him with undervaluing the greater, and overvaluing the less.’
For Socrates a life unexamined is a life not worth living.
For the establishment of that time, and for any establishment interested only in maintaining the status quo, his constant questionings and criticisms were unwelcome and, as his influence was far and wide, a threat to the social order that valued wealth, honour and reputation than the search for truth and the pursuit of philosophy. When his appeal fell on deaf ears and he was condemned to death, he said, ‘I made up my mind that I would run the risk, having law and justice with me, rather than take part in your injustice because I feared imprisonment and death.’
Indeed, for the majority of people, in whatever century and in any society, life is so much easier when they could accept things as they are, unquestioned, unexamined and unchanging, even when those things are far from the truth or take them further from real understanding. Life is more palatable when everything is in their proper place, when people conform to the same ideas, do the same things and share the same shallow values that normally revolve around personal comfort, social acceptance and material wealth.

To think, to reflect, to dig deep into the human heart and seek out the truth about existence and its meaning is just too hard for a lot of people, and for those in power and who wield influence, too dangerous to tolerate.

Socrates was a dangerous threat for Athenians in power because he forced people to think, to examine their lives and not to accept truths unquestioningly. He was seen as the corruptor of youth because he taught them to think for themselves and to question authority: he was a ‘bad’ influence because he made the young critical of existing values.
And yet, it was Socrates’ ideas and philosophy that endure throughout the millennia because what he tried to do was reveal the truth. His was the force of enlightenment, answering the fundamental needs of human beings who thirst for knowledge and the improvement of the mind.
Far from being dangerous, Socrates’ philosophy paved the way for the unveiling of the darkness of ignorance and the evolution of consciousness from a state of unconsciousness. This evolution in consciousness a never-ending progress that continues up to this day and will continue in the future. It is the constant struggle between the quest for enlightenment against the fear of ignorance, resistance and denial.

For some the light of wisdom is too strong to bear, too fearful to contemplate and too difficult to attain. For a small number of people it is easier to cling on to a blind belief and fight the encroaching light tooth and nail. For the majority of the population however, it is more convenient to live an unexamined life of shallow values and lazy platitudes: a life of petty comfort and little responsibility.

When finally Socrates was condemned to death, he accepted his fate gracefully and without regrets. He lived and died remaining true to himself. ‘The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways -- I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.’

(Desi Anwar)

http://www.desianwar.com/writings/journal/110-an-examined-life.html

Less Meat is Better for your Colon

2011-06-22T01:47:00.000-07:00

Study: Red and Processed Meats Linked With Colon Cancer Risk
By Amie Ninh Friday, May 27, 2011

Burger lovers may feel disheartened as the case against red meat continues to grow.
Previous data have linked diets high in red meat, and particularly processed meat like bacon and sausage, to ill health and higher risk of death from cancer and heart disease. Now a new study adds to the evidence finding that people who eat more red and processed meats are more likely to develop colon cancer.
According to the report, which uses data from an ongoing project by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund, people who ate 3.5 ounces of red meat, such as beef, lamb and pork, every day had a 17% increased risk of developing colon cancer, compared with those who ate no red meat. People who ate 7 ounces of red meat a day had a 34% higher risk.
Processed meats, including ham, bacon and sausage, were associated with the biggest health hazard: people who ate 3.5 ounces of processed meats a day had a 36% greater chance of developing colon cancer, compared with those who ate none. The more processed meat people ate, the higher their colon cancer risk.
The findings suggest that eating less red meat and cutting out processed meat entirely could slash colon cancer rates. And by adding other healthy lifestyle behaviors to the mix, such as drinking less alcohol, eating more fiber, exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy weight, some 45% of colon cancers — or more than 64,000 cases a year — could be prevented, the authors said.
But rather than suggesting that people cut out red meat altogether, the data advise moderation. The study found that consumption of about 18 ounces of red meat or less per week was associated with very little increase in colon cancer risk.
Exactly how red and processed meats may affect a person's colon cancer risk isn't clear, but some speculations exist. WebMD reported:
Some research suggests that chemicals called heterocyclicamines, which are produced when meat is cooked at high temperature, may play a role. Processed meats are made by smoking, curing, salting or adding preservatives such as nitrates. The body converts nitrates into nitrosamines, which are known to increase risk of cancer.
No matter the reason, these findings may be especially important for those with a family history of colon cancer, said Alice Bender of the AICR. "If you have family history, it's more important than ever to follow these guidelines because they offer potentially some extra protection," she told WebMD.
Hard-core carnivores won't be happy being told to cut back on their meat-eating habits, but if you can't be convinced to eat less, at least try to add fresh vegetables and fruits and whole grains like brown rice to your diet. And while you're at it, you'd be wise to exercise most days of the week and limit alcohol to one or two drinks a day.

The current study can be found at the Continuous Update Project.
Find this article at:

http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/27/study-red-and-processed-meats-linked-with-colon-cancer-risk/
http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/27/study-red-and-processed-meats-linked-with-colon-cancer-risk/print/#ixzz1OZ6mWDNE
http://www.dailyavocado.net/avocado-world/avocado-body/757-less-meat-is-better-for-your-colon.html

Letting Go

2011-06-22T01:45:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest things in life that we must do is to say goodbye and to let go, whether to people, situation or even things. When we’re happy, the happiness is often tinged with sadness because we know that the moment will not last, and already we’re thinking of how much we will regret losing that feeling.

When I was a child I had a particularly sensitive nature when it came to the idea of loss, something that may be older folk would be more familiar with as they are a lot more prone to pangs of nostalgia than younger people. For instance, I remember vividly when I was around seven or eight years old, my mother reprinted some old photos that I had not seen before to stick in a photo album. Some had photos of me as a toddler.

Instead of being amused by the baby pictures, I was filled with an enormous sense of sadness so much so I actually shed tears copiously. The reason was, I could not recollect any of the moments captured in the photos and I was filled with regret there was a part of my life that I lost forever, even as I did not have any memory of it. Once upon a time, I was a little child, and now that child was gone. I was already a big girl.
I went to bed crying and my mother or my sister never figured out why I was so tearful, thinking it was just typical of me who was the family’s cry baby. But there it was. I was seven and my emotions were already full of nostalgia and regret like some old woman mourning her lost youth.

Another time that I could remember succumbing to a similar bout of sentimentality was when I returned home after a long weekend spent in Pangandaran beach, one of the most beautiful and memorable experiences that I had ever felt in my then almost ten years of existence. It was my first taste of real loss that would traumatize my tender emotions for years to come and when I was acquainted with the notion that nothing lasts forever and all good things must come to an end.

I had never been to the seaside before and the feeling of the sand between my toes, the salty smell that permeated everything from my skin, hair and the air that I breathed, the sound of the waves breaking on the shore in the evening, keeping me awake at night, they were new and poignantly beautiful experiences that I treasured during the three short days I spent there.

And then the moment was over.

Instead of savouring the moments and turning them into memories that would provide me with happy reminiscences, every night for over a week after that holiday I would lie in bed crying myself to sleep, upset that I had lost those happy days, sad that I was no longer experiencing them. I wanted time to stop, so I could frolic in the water, hunt for seashells, run barefooted on the soft golden sand, drink coconut from its shell and smell the grilled fish cooked over charcoals in the sunset, forever.

I had fallen in love. And then it was over. My lover was taken away from me and I felt the sadness of separation, the despair of a life incomplete and a happiness wrenched away from me. I had glimpsed paradise and I had to go back to earth. I even wished that I had not gone on that little holiday.

Over time however, the trauma of this childish experience taught me two things. First, is to appreciate the beauty of the moment, to enjoy things as they are without the fear of losing them, and second, to be able to say goodbye and to let go of things without fear and knowing that it’s not the end of the world.

Because at the end of the day, life is but a fleeting moment, a series of events that come and go, emotions that arise and disappear, feelings that develop and wane, moments that spark and fade. It is not a never-ending situation, a game without match point or the blowing of a whistle nor a perpetual film without the credit titles.
As such, life could only be about letting go, for in doing so we create the space for new things, new experiences, new people and new emotions to enter into our lives. Thus we are enriched. For when we hold on to old things, to stale emotions, to habitual thoughts and ageing beliefs, we allow ourselves to be in a constant state of death, of arrested development and of not living a fulfilled life.

As I grew up, I would enjoy the feeling of going away, leaving home to distant shores and delight in being under different skies and bask in unfamiliar surroundings. I would take these new experiences and store them as sweet memories, grateful for the opportunity to appreciate them. And I had long learned not to be sad on the way home, nor feel a sense of loss or regret that the moment has ended.

Instead, I cherish the feeling of wonder and excitement that allow me to develop a sense of anticipation for future journeys and more adventures. This way, life is not about endings, but about new beginnings. Death is not to be mourned or feared, but to be embraced as a necessary part of our constant rebirth.

http://www.desianwar.com/writings/journal/113-letting-go.html