What expanded your mind today?

[Hollylane]

Gay Germany

Scene and Culture:

Homosexuality is widely accepted in Germany and this is reflected in such things as a low age of consent, legal prostitution and their same sex partnership legislation. Germans are also a very open people which means they don't have hang ups about sex. Public nudity is acceptable and laws on pornography seem quite liberal. There are for example nudist areas in parks in the middle of Berlin and Porno cinemas in airports.

There is a huge gay scene in Germany which is extremely liberal and caters to all tastes. In all the major cities you will find large numbers of bars, clubs, cafe, saunas and restaurants. For those seeking a slightly bolder gay scene Germany makes an excellent destination particularly Berlin and Hamburg.

Legal Notes:

18 years of Christian Democrat government hindered advancement on gay and lesbian rights in the 80's and 90's. Following the 1998 election of a Social Democrat-Green coalition government extensive gay law reform was undertaken. In 1999 immigration law was reformed, in 2000 an anti-discrimination bill was submitted and in 2001 Germany passed gay partnership legislation granting registered same sex couples rights and obligations in areas such as inheritance, health insurance, immigration, name change and maintenance. These rights were augmented in 2004 to include pension and adoption rights.

[StrongButch]

This meditation : Positive Affirmations for well being-hyptalk (you tube)

[Hollylane]

I just noticed this warning on a BBC News item...I don't know why this isn't done everywhere.

WTG BBC!




"Adverts are a major problem as they are trying to attract attention. One way is to make the material very active. Sixty per cent of photosensitive epileptics have their first seizure while watching television."

[AmazonWoman1]

I watched this today & was really entertained while I was informed.
http://www.upworthy.com/watch-the-te...-or-two?c=upw1

She talks about gossip being sociology & uses a gay Egyptian king to illustrate it*G*

[Jesse]

http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savor...te_change.html


Desertification of the world's grasslands, Allan Savory suggests, is the immediate cause of poverty, social breakdown, violence, cultural genocide -- and a significant contribution to climate change. In the 1960s, while working in Africa on the interrelated problems of increasing poverty and disappearing wildlife, Savory made a significant breakthrough in understanding the degradation and desertification of grassland ecosystems. After decades of study and collaboration, thousands of managers of land, livestock and wildlife on five continents today follow the methodology he calls "Holistic Management."

In 1992, Savory and his wife, Jody Butterfield, formed the Africa Centre for Holistic Management in Zimbabwe, a learning site for people all over Africa. In 2010, the Centre won the Buckminster Fuller Challenge for its work in reversing desertification. In that same year he and his wife, with others, founded the Savory Institute in Boulder, Colorado, to promote large-scale restoration of the world's grasslands.

[AmazonWoman1]

As I was reading a thread today it became apparent that it was in a way a form of mirroring to others what they can not see of themselves.A cheaper & quick therapy in a way.By posting comments about others comments it illuminated to the poster more about their value judgements ,prejudices etc.I thought it was fantastic people could grow from something so simple.Very cool for me.It made me have a deeper appreciation for what kind of tool threads truly were.When one of us expands our awareness this becomes a little bit better place to live.Thank you

[Hollylane]

Read the text here...

one of the powerful parts of this spoken word:

"to this day
kids are still being called names
the classics were
hey stupid
hey spaz
seems like each school has an arsenal of names
getting updated every year
and if a kid breaks in a school
and no one around chooses to hear
do they make a sound?
are they just the background noise
of a soundtrack stuck on repeat
when people say things like
kids can be cruel?"

[Zimmeh]

Several shows on PBS.

Zimmeh

[Hollylane]

Five days before Christmas 1943, a helpless American bomber pilot locked eyes with a German fighter pilot over the frozen skies of Europe. The German pilot spared the life of the American, and both men would reunite and become friends 50 years later. Franz Stigler and Charles Brown started the war as enemies, but during a tense wartime encounter, both men discovered a higher call.

The pilot glanced outside his cockpit and froze. He blinked hard and looked again, hoping it was just a mirage. But his co-pilot stared at the same horrible vision.

"My God, this is a nightmare," the co-pilot said.

"He's going to destroy us," the pilot agreed.

The men were looking at a gray German Messerschmitt fighter hovering just three feet off their wingtip. It was five days before Christmas 1943, and the fighter had closed in on their crippled American B-17 bomber for the kill.

The B-17 pilot, Charles Brown, was a 21-year-old West Virginia farm boy on his first combat mission. His bomber had been shot to pieces by swarming fighters, and his plane was alone in the skies above Germany. Half his crew was wounded, and the tail gunner was dead, his blood frozen in icicles over the machine guns.

But when Brown and his co-pilot, Spencer "Pinky" Luke, looked at the fighter pilot again, something odd happened. The German didn't pull the trigger. He nodded at Brown instead. What happened next was one of the most remarkable acts of chivalry recorded during World War II. Years later, Brown would track down his would-be executioner for a reunion that reduced both men to tears.

Listen to the story on CNN Radio Here

[KCBUTCH]

The degrading treatment of indigenous people around the world still
Seeing tribes go from free, to gathered and hunted for sport, and currently being used by wealthy tourist companies as caged tourist attractions
Money mistreats who it can to make more money
I knew all this but the subtle reminder in a documentary in my cultural anthropology class opens my mind again to those things

[Hollylane]

Obese heart patients 'do better'

Obese cardiac patients are less likely to die than their normal weight counterparts, say researchers.

This is despite them reporting worse health and being less likely to follow lifestyle advice, a study of more than 4,400 patients reported.

One explanation is that doctors treat the disease more aggressively, the University College London team said.

The British Heart Foundation also said that where people stored fat, not just general obesity, was important.

It is not the first time researchers have pointed out this paradox, that being overweight or obese - a risk factor for heart disease in itself - can actually lead to a better prognosis.

One theory has been that maybe such patients were fitter, despite their size - taking more exercise for example.

To see if this was the case, researchers from University College London looked at data from patients who took part in the Health Survey for England or Scottish Health Survey.

They found that, as with other studies, patients with cardiovascular disease who were obese or overweight were less likely to die over the next seven years than people of a normal weight who had the condition.

In all 31% of patients were obese - that is with a body mass index of 30 or more - they reported in Preventive Medicine.

Those patients tended to be younger but reported worse health and had more heart risk factors such as raised cholesterol and blood pressure, but were less likely to smoke.

The researchers found that those who took part in physical activity at least once a week and did not smoke had a lower risk of death whatever their weight.

But obese patients who did not stick to these healthy lifestyle recommendations still had a lower risk of death than normal weight patients who smoked or were inactive.
BMI a 'poor marker'

Study leader Dr Mark Hamer said they were trying to explain why obese heart patients seemed to do better by looking at lifestyle factors, but they found that it was not the case that obese patients were healthier.

"We don't yet understand this paradox and we would clearly not advise patients to put on weight.

"One of the more sensible explanations may be that when obese patients present to their doctor, they are given more aggressive treatment because they are seen as very high risk," he explained.

"We do know, for example with cardiac rehabilitation, that the thing that absolutely works is exercise - that dramatically reduces risk even though you don't necessarily lose weight."

Other work by the same researchers has shown that a certain proportion of obese patients have very normal health and are not at increased risk of heart disease.

"BMI is quite a poor marker of what's going on," Dr Hamer added.

June Davison, a senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "It seems contradictory that one of the risk factors for heart disease may improve survival rates.

"The reason for this link remains unclear, but it's possible that those with a higher BMI go to their doctor sooner and may be treated more aggressively.

"Also, this study only measured BMI. When looking at health risk it's not only BMI that matters, but where fat is stored.

"Carrying excess fat around the middle can produce toxic substances which can increase your health risk."