Archive for April 2, 2010
Ethiopia’s Belated Eastern Celebration
Ethiopia's Eastern
‘American idol’ David cook in Ethiopia
David Cook
As part of “American Idol: Idol Gives Back,” Season 7 winner David Cook has been in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia, working with the United Nations and the Biruh Tesfa program to empower adolescent girls and help provide them with an education.
“When you hear ‘Africa,’ I immediately think impoverished,” Cook says. “But I came here and was completely shocked by this country, in an extremely positive way. The people here are so amazingly sweet. They’re so accommodating. The city is very lush, very green — it definitely has an infrastructure in place.”
Cook is currently in the process of putting together his next album and he says that the record will likely be heavily influenced by his experience in Africa. “It’d be really hard to fathom that this trip wouldn’t [find its way into the music that I'm writing]. For anybody that isn’t completely self-absorbed it’s impossible to come into this kind of situation and not be moved by it, not be changed by it.”
One girl in particular may find herself the subject of one of Cook’s songs. “She’s a 7-year-old girl named Magdas. Both of her parents have passed away, and she’s been at this school for seven months,” Cook tells us. “Forgive me, because whatever I say about this girl is not going to come across over the phone as well as it would if you were there to meet her. She’s one of the most vibrant, joyous girls I’ve ever met.”
“These girls genuinely want to learn,” Cook says. He notes that a donation of $5 through the “Idol Gives Back” program, which airs on FOX Wednesday, April 21 at 8 p.m. ET, can provide an underprivileged girl with the uniform and notebook required to attend school.
“It’s inspiring, to see a 7-year-old girl want to build a better future for herself. I remember being 7 years old and I didn’t have that kind of foresight. These girls are wise beyond their years.”
Cook is looking forward to coming home tonight and beginning his work to create awareness for the Biruh Tesfa project. “It’s something that needs immediate attention,” he says. “Girls that don’t get an education here are immensely more likely to fall into the sex trade or domestic servitude, and that opens them up to so many other things — HIV is one of the main killers here. To see that first hand, I would almost say that it’s a definite that I’m going to bring that back and it’s going to find its way into my career path.”
Source: Zip2it.com
How Do I Start Barefoot Running?
This guide will help you transition to barefoot running. This plan is universal; it is designed to be used by either novice runners or runners with years of experience. If you are a novice runner, simply begin the program as written. If you are currently training, you may continue your current mileage. Simply add the workouts in this program to your current running schedule. The idea is to replace some of your “shod’ mileage with the barefoot mileage. Some people have done this by simply adding the barefoot mileage at the beginning or end of their already-scheduled runs. I would recommend doing this at the beginning of a run so you will not be as fatigued. Once you reach Stage 5, you may decide to continue replacing barefoot mileage with your shod mileage until your running is completely barefoot, or you may decide to continue both shod and barefoot running. Both options should help reduce injuries.
Form
Form may vary greatly. There is no one “right” method. However, there are some general guidelines that seem to be fairly universal among barefoot runners. The most important is the way the foot impacts the ground. When wearing modern running shoes, most runners use a heel strike. The heel of their foot is the first thing that strikes the ground, and they continue to roll their feet forward and inward. With barefoot running, the ideal is to use a midfoot strike by softly landing on the outside half of the foot and rolling inward. The rest of your foot will then gently touch the ground (see video). This foot-ground contact should occur directly under your body, not in front as many heel strikers are prone to doing. After your foot touches the ground, you will lift it straight up primarily using your quads. It is analogous to riding a bike with your feet clipped to the pedal and using your leg muscles to pull up on the pedal. Sometimes it is beneficial to imagine lifting your knees or hamstrings instead of your feet. If done properly, there should be no pushing off, thus no friction. This relaxed, loose lifting motion tends to force the development of the other elements of good form.
Some other points- your knees should be slightly bent throughout your stride. You should have a very slight forward lean that originates from the ankles. Do not lean forward at the waist. Your posture should be upright without a forward hunch. You do not want to lean forward from the waist. Your head should be up with your eyes focused on the running surface in front of you. Your entire body should be very relaxed. The following is an excellent description of proper posture from PeaceKaren, a contributor to the Runner’s World Barefoot Forum:
“What works for me is to not think about leaning at all. I either think about pushing myself forward from the hips using my gluteus muscles (like my hips are in a race with my feet and I want my hips to win) or imagine being pulled forward from the hips. I sometimes visualize a cord running parallel to the ground, attached at the center of my hips (just below the belly button) and at the other end connected to a winch on a tree or telephone pole or some object directly in front of me. Then I imagine that winch winding in the cord pulling me forward from that center hip position. This automatically pulls my hips under me, improving my posture and causing the lean to happen naturally.”
The cadence (how many times your foot touches the ground) should be around 180-200 per minute. To achieve this, shorter strides are required. The strides will typically be shorter than the strides of a shod runner as you are not extending your stride ahead of your body. Some people have found an MP3 player with a metronome track to be especially helpful in learning good cadence.
Pain and Injury
One of the dangers of beginning barefoot running is doing too much too soon. Your feet have likely spent most of their active life confined in shoes. Shoes weaken the bones, muscles, ligaments, and tendons of your feet. The skin on the soles of your feet will not be used to the sensory input of the ground. In order to prevent injuries, it is important to begin barefoot running cautiously. Barefoot running feels wonderful! The urge to do too much before your feet are ready is very powerful. As such, it is important to follow a conservative plan even if you feel great in the beginning. Going too fast may result in a myriad of injuries, including tendon and ligament damage, excessive blisters, stress fractures, and other over-use type injuries. If at any time you experience pain, STOP! Add a second day of rest, then try again. Continue until you are pain-free. Do not give in to the temptation to “run through the pain”. The soft-tissue injuries that can occur during the foot-strengthening process can set your progress back by weeks or even months. Give this process time and the rewards will be great!
Barefoot or Minimalist Shoes?
“Should I begin transitioning to barefoot running by wearing a minimalist shoe (Vibram Fivefingers KSOs
The Plan
Stage 1 (2 weeks)
Walk around barefoot as many places as possible. Do not start running yet. This will begin to condition your feet and soles for more active barefoot running. This stage could also include barefoot activities such as hiking.
Stage 2 (2 weeks)
Begin running in place barefoot. The idea is to learn how it feels to lightly touch the ground and pull your feet straight up without pushing off. This will also begin the process of preparing the bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments of your feet to barefoot running.
Stage 3 (4 weeks)
Find hard, smooth surface without debris. Examples include new asphalt, smooth sidewalks, or running tracks. Begin running 3 times per week with at least one rest day after each barefoot run. Limit distance to 1/8 to 1/4 mile depending on running experience. Increase distance by 1/8th mile each day. Pace should be VERY slow, the focus is on finding a form that works well for you. If you experience pain, take an extra day off. If you develop blisters, slow down or reevaluate form.
Stage 4 (4 weeks)
Begin adding different terrain, including softer surfaces and hills. This can include grass, dirt trail, sand, etc. A good strategy is to run a hard surface one day, then a soft surface the next. At this stage, you should be running approximately 1.5 miles barefoot. During this stage, continue adding 1/8th mile per run. Continue going slow, your focus is going to be perfecting your form. Again, if you experience blisters, slow down. If you feel pain, take a day off.
Stage 5 (No specific time frame)
By this point, you should be running about 3 miles per run. You may begin experimenting with slowly increasing your pace, increasing your distance, or adding technical trails or hills to your routine. Only add one element at a time. Do not increase distance by more than 10% per week or speed by more than 15 seconds per mile.
By Jason Robillard
Source: barefootjason.blogspot.com
AIDS: The great medical con, explained
HIV does NOT cause AIDS. HIV does not cause anything. A staggering statement given the hype and acceptance by the scientific establishment and, through them, the public that the HIV virus is the only cause of AIDS. HIV is a weak virus and does not dismantle the immune system. Nor is AIDS passed on sexually.
There are two main types of virus. Using the airplane analogy, you could call one of these virus strains a “pilot” virus. It can change the nature of a cell and steer it into disease. This usually happens very quickly after the virus takes hold. Then there is the “passenger” virus which lives off the cell, goes along for the ride, but never affects the cell to the extent that it causes disease.
HIV is a passenger virus!
So how on earth did it become the big boogy man virus of the world? The person who announced that HIV caused AIDS was an American, Doctor Robert Gallo. He has since been accused of professional misconduct, his test has been exposed as fraudulent, and two of his laboratory executives have been convicted of criminal offenses. Tens of millions of people are tested for HIV antibodies every year and Dr Gallo, who patented his “test”, gets a royalty for every one.
Luc Montagnier, Gallo’s partner in the HIV-causes-AIDS theory, has since admitted in 1989: “HIV is not capable of causing the destruction of the immune system which is seen in people with AIDS”. Nearly 500 scientists across the world agree with him. So does Dr Robert E Wilner, author of the book ‘The Deadly Deception. The Proof That Sex And HIV Absolutely Do Not Cause AIDS’.
Dr Wilner even injected himself with the HIV virus on a television chat show in Spain to support his claims. Other doctors and authors come to the same conclusions, among them Peter Duesberg PhD and John Yiamouyiannis PhD, in their book, ‘AIDS: The Good News Is That HIV Doesn’t Cause It. The Bad News Is “Recreational Drugs” And Medical Treatments Like AZT Do’. That’s a long title, but it sums up the situation. People are dying of AIDS because of the treatments used to “treat” AIDS! It works like this.
Now it is accepted by the establishment and the people that HIV causes AIDS, the system has built this myth into its whole diagnosis and “treatment”. You go to the doctor and you are told your HIV test was positive(positive only for the HIV antibodies, by the way, they don’t actually test for the virus itself). Because of the propaganda, many people already begin to die emotionally and mentally when they are told they are HIV positive. They have been conditioned to believe that death is inevitable.
The fear of death leads them to accept, often demand, the hyped-up “treatments” which are supposed to stop AIDS occurring. (They don’t.) The most famous is AZT, produced by the Wellcome organisation, owned, wait for it, by the Rockefellers, one of the key manipulating families in the New World Order.
AZT was developed as an anti-cancer drug to be used in chemotherapy, but it was found to be too toxic even for that! AZT’s effect in the “treatment” of cancer was to kill cells – simple as that – not just to kill cancer cells , but to kill cells, cancerous and healthy. The question, and this is accepted even by the medical establishment, was: would AZT kill the cancer cells before it had killed so many healthy cells that it killed the body? This is the drug used to “treat” HIV. What is its effect?
It destroys the immune system, so it is CAUSING AIDS. People are dying from the treatment, not the HIV. AIDS is simply the breakdown of the immune system, for which there are endless causes, none of them passed on through sex. That’s another con which has made a fortune for condom manufacturers and created enormous fear around the expression of our sexuality and the release and expansion of our creative force.
Many deaths incorrectly attributed to AIDS
What has happened since the Great AIDS Con is that now anyone who dies from a diminished immune system is said to have died of the all encompassing term, AIDS. It is even built into the diagnosis. If you are HIV positive and you die of tuberculosis, pneumonia, or 25 other unrelated diseases now connected by the con men to “AIDS”, you are diagnosed as dying of AIDS. If you are not HIV positive and you die of one of those diseases you are diagnosed as dying of that disease, not AIDS. This manipulates the figures every day to indicate that only HIV positives die of AIDS.
This is a lie.
Many people who die from AIDS are not HIV positive and the reason that the figures for AIDS deaths have not soared as predicted is that the overwhelming majority of people diagnosed HIV positive have never developed AIDS. Why?
Because HIV has nothing whatsoever to do with AIDS.
Anything that breaks down the immune system causes AIDS and that includes so-called recreational drugs. The vast majority of AIDS deaths in the United States involve homosexuals and this perpetuates the myth that it has something to do with sex. But homosexuals in the US are among the biggest users of drugs which genuine doctors have linked to AIDS. Prostitutes who take drugs often get AIDS, prostitutes who do not take drugs invariably do not get AIDS.
The rise in the AIDS figures in the United States corresponds perfectly with the increase in the use of drugs – most of which are made available to people on the streets by elements within the US Government, including Bill Clinton and George Bush. In Africa, the breakdown of the immune system, now known as AIDS, is caused by ill health – lack of good food, clean water and the general effects of poverty. Haemophiliacs do not die from HIV-infected blood, they die, as they did before the AIDS scam, from a quirk in their own immune system. Their immune system locks into foreign proteins in the infused blood and on rare occasions it can become confused during this process and attack itself. Their immune system, in effect, commits suicide. HIV is irrelevant to that.
Yet how many people today who have been diagnosed HIV positive are having their lives blighted by the fear that the symptoms of AIDS will start any moment?
AZT is the killer. There is not a single case of AZT reversing the symptoms of AIDS. How can it? It’s causing them, for goodness sake. The AIDS industry is now worth billions of pounds a year and makes an unimaginable fortune for the drug industry controlled by the Rockefellers and the rest of the Global Elite.
“We can be exposed to HIV many times without being … infected… Our immune system creates [antibodies] within a few weeks, if you have a good immune system.” - Quote from Dr Luc Montagnier, the Nobel prize-winning virologist credited with the co-discovery of HIV, as stated in the documentary film House of Numbers
This article is reprinted courtesy of David Icke from www.DavidIcke.com
Source: www.naturalnews.com
