Countering the Denial of October 7 Rapes and Massacres: The Israeli Witnessing Project

Witnessing the October 7 massacres in Israel.

Susan Sarandon denies the rapes of October 7 even happened. That’s the same as denying the Holocaust, and perhaps she does that, too, proving her anti-Semitic ignorance. In any event, there’s an Israeli group that began a few days after the October 7 genocide. That was when Hamas-led terrorists stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people, most of them…

View On WordPress

Schiergar wär's mr naus dass heit "Schwätz dâi Schbrôôch Daag" isch. Dees hett me daurâd. Noo ao ôâmôôl em Jôôr sott'e doch ao äbbâs Schwäbischs schreibâ. Geschdrd been'e no auf Rauhhaldâ em Wald gsâi. S'isch dr letschd sonnig Daag gsâi fiir de nääschdâ baar Wochâ, sagâd se, ond I hâô âôbedingt no â baar Bildle machâ miâsâ vo dem frischâ grêânâ Laub, suschd isch schâô wiidr romm. S'gôôht so lang bis dô môl Friâleng wuid ond kônne zwuâ Wochâ schbäädr isch Sommr. Abr so isch halt auf dr Alb. Leck me am Arsch.

English I almost forgot that today is "speak your own language day". Would've been a shame. I ought to write something Swabian at least once a year. Yesterday I've went to the forest to the "rough heap mountain". They said it was gonna be the last sunny day for the next few weeks and I had to get some pictures of the fresh green leaves or it'd be too late already. It takes so long for spring to arrive here and when it does it races to summer within two weeks. But that's what it's like on the Swabian Alb. Lick my ass (Swabian Greeting)

Cannabis und Kompostierung: Die Herstellung von nährstoffreichen Bodenverbesserungen

Zusammenfassung:

In diesem Artikel werden wir die Bedeutung der Kompostierung für den Cannabisanbau untersuchen und wie Sie hochwertige Bodenverbesserungen herstellen können, um eine gesunde und ertragreiche Ernte zu fördern.

Einleitung:

Kompostierung ist eine bewährte Methode zur Verbesserung der Bodenqualität und zur Bereitstellung wichtiger Nährstoffe für Pflanzenwachstum. Beim Cannabisanbau kann die Verwendung von Kompost eine nachhaltige und effektive Möglichkeit sein, um eine optimale Bodengesundheit zu erreichen.

Aurora Cannabisci Aktie und die Bedeutung von Kompostierung

Investitionen in nachhaltigen Cannabisanbau

Aurora Cannabis Inc. hat kürzlich in Technologien investiert, die den ökologischen Fußabdruck des Cannabisanbaus reduzieren sollen. Die Integration von Kompostierungstechniken in den Anbauprozess kann dazu beitragen, den Bedarf an synthetischen Düngemitteln zu verringern und gleichzeitig die Qualität der Ernte zu verbessern.

Cannabisarzt und die Auswirkungen auf die Bodengesundheit

Förderung der biologischen Vielfalt im Boden

Die Verwendung von Kompost fördert die Aktivität nützlicher Mikroorganismen im Boden, was zu einem gesunden und ausgewogenen Bodenleben führt. Dies wiederum unterstützt das Wachstum von gesunden Cannabis-Pflanzen und trägt zur Reduzierung von Krankheiten und Schädlingen bei.

Cannabis-Legalisierung aktuell und die Rolle von Kompostierung

Nachhaltige Anbaumethoden für die Zukunft

Angesichts der aktuellen Diskussionen zur Legalisierung von Cannabis ist es wichtig, nachhaltige Anbaumethoden zu fördern. Die Kompostierung bietet eine umweltfreundliche Lösung zur Verbesserung der Bodengesundheit und zur Reduzierung des ökologischen Fußabdrucks des Cannabisanbaus.

Expertenmeinungen:

"Kompostierung ist eine effektive Methode, um die Bodengesundheit zu verbessern und die Erträge im Cannabisanbau zu steigern. Durch die Zugabe von organischen Materialien können wichtige Nährstoffe freigesetzt und das Bodenleben angeregt werden." - Dr. Markus Müller, Agrarwissenschaftler

Real-Life Beispiel:

Beispiel: Lisa, eine leidenschaftliche Cannabiszüchterin, verwendet seit Jahren Kompost in ihrem Cannabisgarten. Durch die regelmäßige Zugabe von Kompost konnte sie die Qualität ihrer Ernten verbessern und gesunde, robuste Pflanzen heranziehen.

Potenzielle Gegenargumente:

Einige könnten argumentieren, dass die Kompostierung zeitaufwändig und arbeitsintensiv ist. Es ist jedoch wichtig zu beachten, dass die langfristigen Vorteile, wie eine verbesserte Bodengesundheit und Erntequalität, die investierte Zeit und Mühe rechtfertigen können.

Fazit:

Die Kompostierung ist eine wichtige Praxis für den nachhaltigen Cannabisanbau. Indem Sie hochwertigen Kompost herstellen und in Ihren Anbauprozess integrieren, können Sie die Bodengesundheit fördern, die Erträge steigern und einen positiven Beitrag zur Umwelt leisten.

Beliebte Fragen und Antworten:

F1: Welche Materialien eignen sich am besten für die Herstellung von Cannabis-Kompost?

A1: Eine Mischung aus grünen und braunen organischen Materialien wie Gemüseresten, Laub, Stroh und Kaffeesatz eignet sich gut für die Herstellung von hochwertigem Cannabis-Kompost.

F2: Wie lange dauert es, bis der Kompost gebrauchsfertig ist?

A2: Die Dauer der Kompostierung hängt von verschiedenen Faktoren wie der Art der verwendeten Materialien, der Belüftung und Feuchtigkeit ab. In der Regel kann die Kompostierung mehrere Wochen bis zu mehreren Monaten dauern, bis der Kompost gebrauchsfertig ist.

THE BRONX, New York -- The Montefiore Albert Einstein School of Medicine on Monday announced it has received a $1 billion donation which will allow free tuition for all medical school students.

The donation marks the largest made to any medical school in the United States. It was made by 93-year-old Dr. Ruth Gottesman, the chair of the Einstein Board of Trustees and a former professor.

The money came from her late husband's investment in Berkshire Hathaway -- an investment that is now changing lives.

"My mom's been a physician for 30 years," said first-year student Leeva Laub. "She's still paying off her for medical school. Like this is really, really life changing. I think people don't even comprehend how much it can change the trajectory of our life. We're really, really grateful."

San Diego County Office of Education

Today, SDCOE launched a new drug-prevention education video series designed to educate young people about the dangers of drugs and drug misuse. 

I Choose My Future explores the impacts of drug use on the developing brain; explains the dangers of vaping, marijuana, opioids, fentanyl, and other drugs; and provides strategies for handling peer pressure and getting help. 

SDCOE’s Rocky Herron, 31-year veteran of the DEA, along with doctors, experts, and families share their lived experiences of the destruction and heartache drug misuse can cause. The series includes six 10- to 20-minute videos, discussion questions, and engagement activities helpful to prompt reflection and dialogue in the classroom – but parents and caregivers also can use them to initiate conversation with their children. 

The video series launch was announced at a press conference Coronado Middle School to coincide with The Red Ribbon Campaign. San Diego County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Paul Gothold was joined by San Diego County District Attorney DA Summer Stephan; Coronado Unified School District 's Superintendent Karl Mueller; Dr. Natalie Laub, assistant professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego; Coronado Middle School 8th graders Owen Erlichman and Anna Thoms, and Rocky Herron, alcohol and other drug prevention ambassador at SDCOE.

Learn more at www.sdcoe.net/IChoose

I have been seeing a lot about “long Covid” (which, as an aside, I’m sorry but that is a ridiculous name) (or maybe Tumblr has just ruined me because ~l o n g  e~) and how large and ever-increasing numbers of people are now experiencing chronic/invisible illness for the first time as a result of having had a COVID-19 infection months ago, from which they have not fully recovered for reasons that are often are (as yet) unclear to medical science. Lots of the sentiment “we in the chronic illness community are here for you” which, don’t get me wrong, I love that, I’m here for that. 

I study illness and disability in part because I want to be better at helping people through the experiences I’ve had, and also to improve the systems and the culture around illness and disability. I know this is important, and in theory, I am well-positioned to be a person who does like, outreach and patient advocacy and what have you, even if it’s just informally by talking to people online or whatever.

But one of those people newly encountering a life of chronic illness (well, not entirely new, but definitely new to this level of life-altering physical symptoms anyway) after a COVID infection in late March is my current roommate, who is also one of my oldest and closest friends. And I love her, and I want to be there for her, and I can relate to a lot of what she’s going through. In theory, I should be able to be helpful, at least to be there for her and to be an understanding and supportive ear. With that plus my background with studying and discussing illness narratives and how to witness them, I should be uniquely positioned among the people in her life to empathize with what she is going through.

...except that hearing her talk about things like doctors not listening to her and/or not being able to help, having to give up things she loves, reckoning with the possibility that she can’t have the career she’s always wanted, having to newly calculate how she spends her now-seriously-limited energy... it all just triggers the hell out of me. 

She starts talking about something and almost immediately I just want her to shut up because it hurts. Even worse is when she responds differently to something than I would, (like for example, she’s much more likely to be angry and want to be confrontational about a doctor saying they can’t do anything for her and not doing any tests but then charging her hundreds of dollars for the visit anyway, and at this point I just accept that as par for the course, but tbh even ten years ago I never would’ve considered actually arguing with the bill even if I was upset about the lack of care) and I get angry because that feels irrationally like a condemnation of how I have chosen to respond to my own experiences. I try not to actually argue with her, but I’m sure it’s immediately obvious that I’m defensive, and it definitely fully prevents me from being supportive.

I had a roommate in undergrad who was also a friend (although not as close, and I hadn’t known her for nearly as long) and who had been chronically ill, with many symptoms similar to mine, for many years (way longer than me, actually) and living with her it was generally a relief that we had this thing in common, because she understood things about me and my life that most people don’t get. Even though we were very different in some ways in our approaches to life and to illness, she and I got along better for having had those experiences in common.

Maybe it’s because the thing we had most in common were the old callouses, the knowledge of how to just keep grinding on. With my current roommate the emotion is too raw because too much of it is new. Most of the fear has drained from my day-to-day experience of illness. I don’t have answers but I have a sort of status quo. And, of course, I’m doing much better than I was a few years ago. My daily life has stabilized immensely. But I hadn’t anticipated how much trauma I have from that time in my life, from the way it felt to be first in that limbo, when that unfathomable unanswerable “will I get better or is this just my life now” question haunted everything I did and every plan I made. I don’t know how to help, partly because sometimes there’s just nothing that can help, but I also don’t even know how to be supportive if, when she talks about her experiences, all I can do is shut down so I don’t break down. 

I don’t even really feel like I can tell her this, because I know her and I know she is a person whose greatest fear is being a burden on people. She already struggles to believe it’s okay for her to share personal (especially negative) things about herself and her life, and to believe she’s worthy of love and support. Of course she’s already sensing it in my response, already avoiding the subject, but I feel like I can’t come out and say “when you tell me about your suffering, it causes me pain” because even if I followed it with “but that’s okay, I still want to know, I am still your friend and I still want you to feel like you can share with me, I still want to do my best to be here for you” I’m afraid she wouldn’t hear that part because her guilt would be too loud. Every time she wanted to share something with me, she would worry about me first. I don’t want that to happen, I just want to be able to engage better, I wish I could just acknowledge my personal trauma and then set it aside.

I want to be strong enough to do that, and maybe there was a time when I might have been, but the world is already so much, so hard, so painful right now. My own mental health is holding on by a thread as it is. I’m back in school (virtually), which has a tendency to push me to my breaking point even when we’re not living on the precipice of a climate apocalypse and the fall of American democracy, in the midst of a pandemic that has also ripped away so many of my coping mechanisms and sources of joy. I don’t have the strength to fight this, too, when I’m already either on edge or completely run down so much of the time. And on top of that, all of this is happening with the person who is my only source of regular in-person interaction. Like, that’s a recipe for roommate tension all on its own, sharing an apartment in a time of social distancing. (She is basically my only source of in-person contact, but I am not hers. She has a few other people that she sees regularly, and in some ways that’s a whole other source of sublimated frustration, the fact that she’s not being as careful as I am with her pandemic precautions, but in most other ways I am grateful, because it means we are not constantly in this apartment together, and it means she has other people on whom she can rely.)

I didn’t mean to write this much, meant to end this thought at “I want to believe that I’m part of a welcoming and supportive chronic illness community, except that personally watching someone else live this triggers me” but ah, apparently I needed to get this out or something I don’t know

"The vast majority of people who join the military dont have a choice"

Can you prove this? All facts ive seen suggest this is just flat out not true. The poor are *underrepresented* in the military, not over.

The military doesn't track socioeconomic class on intake so there's no decent statistics on it.

The commonly cited CFR article A) doesn't provide it's sources other than "Source: Office of the Undersecretary of Defense" which is literally useless for verification, B) doesn't stratify by enlisted vs officer which makes a huge difference, C) ranks income by neighborhood instead of actual familial income (and doesn't even define "neighborhood"), and D) fails to account for other factors ie high cost of living areas. Simply put, it doesn't break down a complex issue or account for confounding variables

Luckily the basis of research is compiling sources and when you do that a clear picture emerges. In any case, never form an opinion on one source no matter how good it is. A healthy dose of critical thinking is also required.

"Therefore, among the working class, those who have served in the military have tended to come from poorer circumstances, while there is low representation of the children of the very rich. Indeed, additional analysis (not shown here) finds that the highest income quartile was significantly less likely to have served than the lowest" (Lutz, 2008)

80.4% of active duty enlisted members have a High School Diploma or GED as their highest educational attainment in 2019, which is down from 86.9% in 2010 (Department of Defense, 2019) and 92% in 2006 (Rostker, 2006). This is in stark contrast to the 38.9% of High School Diploma, GED, or lower in the average US population in 2019 (Census Bureau, 2020). Furthermore, since 1987 the military cannot legally enlist anyone without at least a GED and only 10% of first time enlistments are allowed to be a GED (Department of Defense, n.d.) so this gap widens as 28.3% of general population with a High School Diploma/GED (which would be military eligible) vs 80.3% of enlisted military, a huge overrepresentation. In fact, all higher educational attainment (including Associates degrees, which are relatively easy to get in the military but do not earn a commission) is underrepresented in the military. Low educational attainment is very well proven to be concurrent with low socioeconomic class (American Psychological Association, 2017).

52.3% of active duty enlisted members are 25 years old or younger (Department of Defense, 2019) while all first time enlistments are an 8 year obligation (DD Form 4, 2020) which means that 52.3% chunk are on their first enlistment only, while an unknown amount of the next category (26-30 at 20.7%) may also be on their first enlistment. This disproves the idea that most of the military is choosing to remain in. While this cannot talk for individual motivation, logic would say that incentivizing does produce recruits but that these recruits leave once they have their incentive. Other possible causes for low retention could include disillusionment.

"The military learned it had to offer money for education, bonuses to enlist in certain occupations, and enlistment tours of different lengths. It needed to develop career opportunities that has civilian relevance and were a good preparation for adulthood." (Rostker, 2006) The military knows they are preying on people without education, without money, and without career prospects -- recruitment is designed that way. Combine that with the automatic shelter, food, and healthcare and you've got a pretty attractive package to someone who's been disadvantaged their whole life.

There's also solid evidence of military recruiters targeting poorer schools. Kershner and Harding's 2015 article found "the example of two similarly sized high schools in two Hartford suburbs: Avon and Bloomfield. Army recruiters visited Avon High, where only 5 percent of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, four times during the 2011-2012 school year. Yet at Bloomfield High, where nearly half of students qualify for such assistance, recruiters made more than 10 times as many visits." Over 40 visits in one school year to a poorer school vs 4 in the richer school. That's targeting.

And this isn't new. "Military service in the World War II era provided American men from economically disadvantages backgrounds with unprecedented opportunity to better their lives" (Sampson and Laub, 1996). This has been the case for so long that it is engrained in culture that the military is a way to escape and advance. Familiarity with veterans is the leading indicator of joining the military for new recruits, while no college degree is also a fair indicator (Goldberg et al., 2018).

There are several programs to get veterans jobs post service including HIRE Vets, Veterans.gov, Federal Job Veteran Preference, Veteran and Military Transition Center, Hiring Our Heroes, state programs, individual company programs, and more. Many perceive military service as a lifelong career benefit since it grants access to this. It also interplays strongly with the hyperpatriotism in this country, but it's one of the only social sects with significant government assistance for job finding.

That's in addition to veteran assistance programs for food insecurity, homelessness, and medical care. There is literally socialism in this country for veterans where there isn't for the majority population.

To fix the military being a terribly corrupt set of war crimes in a red, white, and blue bow all you have to do is starve it. If we take the carrot dangled to recruit for the military (education, money, food, shelter, career opportunities -- things the military literally gives as joining promises) and give it to the general population we remove the desire to join for many. Which we should do anyway because all people deserve access to those things without having to be an unknowing corporate meat puppet with a gun.

Tl;Dr - The military preys on the disadvantaged so be angry at the upper echelon in the military and lawmakers, not the vast majority of the boots

American Psychological Association. (2017, July). Education and Socioeconomic Status Factsheet. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/education

Census Bureau. (2020, March 30). Educational Attainment in the United States: 2019. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2019/demo/educational-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html

DD. (2020). Form 4 - Enlistment/Reenlistment Document - Armed Forces of the United States. Retrieved from https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/forms/dd/dd0004.pdf

Department of Defense. (n.d.). Chapter 2 - The Recruiting Process. Retrieved from https://prhome.defense.gov/portals/52/Documents/POPREP/poprep99/html/chapter2/c2_recruiting.html

Department of Defense. (2019). 2019 Demographics Profile of the Military Community. Retrieved from https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2019-demographics-report.pdf

Goldberg, M. S., Cheng, K., Huff, N. M., Kimko, D. D., & Saizan, A. M. (2018). Geographic Diversity in Military Recruiting. Institute for Defense Analyses. Retrieved from https://www.ida.org/-/media/feature/publications/g/ge/geographic-diversity-in-military-recruiting/d-9079.ashx.

Kershner, S., & Harding, S. (2019, February 21). Do Military Recruiters Belong in Schools? Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/opinion-do-military-recruiters-belong-in-schools/2015/10

Lutz, A. (2008). Who Joins the Military? A look at Race, Class, and Immigration Status. Journal of Military and Political Sociology, 36(2). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/48912025_Who_Joins_the_Military_A_Look_at_Race_Class_and_Immigration_Status.

Rostker, B. D. (2006). The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force. RAND. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9195.html.

Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1996). Socioeconomic Achievement in the Life Course of Disadvantaged Men: Military Service as a Turning Point, Circa 1940-1965. American Sociological Review, 61(3), 347. doi:10.2307/2096353

Can Meditation Help Veterans With PTSD?

Research shows that this ancient practice can help relieve anxiety. Here’s what you need to know about how meditation can be used to treat the symptoms of PTSD among veterans.

By Laura McArdle Medically Reviewed by Justin Laube, MD

“Research shows that veterans are at an increased risk of mental illnesses such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression as a result of deployment and combat. To treat it, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD) recommends trauma-focused psychotherapies, including prolonged exposure, cognitive processing therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy. Medication is also used to treat symptoms of mental illness. But these therapies focus on the trauma, which veterans may want to avoid. The stigma of traditional psychotherapy approaches might also deter veterans from seeking help, as one study published in March 2016 in Annals of Behavioral Medicine found.

“The field of psychology is really pushing cognitive and behavioral psychotherapies that involve talking and thinking about what happened as well as challenging maladaptive thought processes,” says Bret A. Moore, PhD, the vice chair of the Boulder Crest Institute for Posttraumatic Growth, as well as a former active-duty army psychologist and Iraq War veteran. “These are effective interventions for a portion of veterans, but not all.”

Dr. Moore says that his field should focus on nontraditional interventions like meditation that are easy to engage in outside of the therapy room and avoid placing the veteran in the “patient” or “sick” role that is often associated with traditional treatments for PTSD.

And research finds a benefit to this approach. In a study published in December 2018 in The Lancet Psychiatry, researchers found that meditation worked as well as exposure therapy to ameliorate symptoms of PTSD in veterans.

Dan Libby, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist, yoga teacher, and the founder of the Veterans Yoga Project — an educational and advocacy organization dedicated to improving the health of veterans through the practices of yoga and meditation — who was not involved in the study, said that the symptoms of PTSD can often feel as if you’re trapped in a moving car without brakes.

“When you really look at what’s happening for someone who’s dealing with trauma, their mind has become an unsafe, unpredictable, and uncontrollable place,” Dr. Libby says. “And the external world seems unsafe and unpredictable, too.” He believes that many veterans could benefit from a more holistic, mindful approach to PTSD treatments. “As a clinical psychologist working at the VA, I found that veterans who also had a practice, whether it be meditation or mindful movement, had better outcomes,” he says.

RELATED: PTSD in the Military: Statistics, Causes, Treatments, and More

Different Forms of Meditation Studied in Veterans

Meditation is a technique or set of techniques that can help a person to focus their mind and bring it back to the present moment. According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, it’s been shown to help alleviate a number of health issues, from depression and anxiety to menopausal symptoms and even high blood pressure.

Here’s what the research has to say on how meditation may also help veterans manage PTSD.

1. Compassion Meditation

Compassion meditation involves the repetition of phrases designed to increase empathy and compassion toward others.

One common phrase used in the practice is: “May I be happy. May I be peaceful. May I be free from suffering.” Once you feel you have internalized the message, you can then move on to wishing the same positive thoughts to others: family members, friends, and even strangers.

Small studies show that practicing compassion meditation can lessen the symptoms of PTSD. An article published in April 2019 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress found that practicing compassion meditation for 90 minutes weekly had a greater effect on the symptoms of PTSD among veterans than a program consisting of psychoeducation, relaxation training, and sleep hygiene. Another study published in April 2019, in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, found that veteran participants self-reported a significant decrease in their PTSD symptoms and a high degree of satisfaction with the compassion meditation program. Yet another study examined the effects of loving-kindness meditation (a specific kind of compassion meditation) on veterans’ symptoms of PTSD and depression. Published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, it found that veterans who practiced a 12-week loving-kindness meditation course experienced a moderate reduction in symptoms of depression and a high reduction in symptoms of PTSD at a three-month follow-up.

2. Transcendental Meditation

Transcendental Meditation, or TM, is a form of meditation in which a person silently repeats a given sound, word, or short phrase in their mind for a set period of time in order to focus the mind and bring about a state of peace and relaxation. This word or sound is known as a mantra, and it doesn’t need to have any meaning at all — it’s only important insofar as it helps you to focus your mind on the sound of the mantra.

The Maharishi Foundation, which trademarked this form of meditation, recommends practicing TM twice a day for 20 minutes at a time — once in the morning, once in the evening. The foundation offers courses that can cost hundreds of dollars and stipulates that mantras can be assigned only by TM practitioners.

Studies seem cautiously optimistic about the role of TM in reducing symptoms of PTSD. For example, a study published January 2018 in Military Medicine found that TM helped reduce PTSD symptoms without causing veterans to reexperience their trauma. Another study, published November 2018 in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, found that veterans who practiced an eight-week TM course reported increased mindfulness and quality of life, along with decreased symptoms of PTSD and depression. While the results seem to indicate TM is effective for veterans, most researchers agree that this specific area of study is still relatively new and merits further research.

3. Mantra Meditation

Luckily for those who don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars learning TM, there is another form of meditation that focuses on repetition of a mantra — it’s called mantra meditation. According to the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, its purpose is to redirect the energy you may spend on negative thinking toward the repetition of a simple and meaningful mantra. Research on the topic is limited, but one study of 173 veterans published in 2018 in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that mantra meditation therapy was generally more effective than present-centered therapy for reducing some of the symptoms of PTSD.

4. Mindfulness Meditation

This type of meditation encourages participants to simply be aware and mindful of the present moment, allowing thoughts to come and go without judgment or reaction. There’s a particular emphasis on deep breathing, which may help to ease the symptoms of anxiety and depression, according to one study published June 2015 in Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. A study of 116 veterans, published August 2015 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that mindfulness meditation had a modest effect on the symptoms of PTSD, but a greater effect overall when compared with present-centered group therapy. And a review of a variety of mindfulness-based treatments for PTSD, published in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience in January 2018, concluded that thus far, the practice is moderately effective in reducing PTSD symptoms, and definitely merits further study.

How to Know if Meditation Is Right for You

Of course, as with many medical conditions, there’s no single cure for the symptoms of PTSD among veterans. Treatment for this disorder should always be discussed with a doctor, and where necessary, adjustments to sessions or dosages should be made.

“These [meditation] practices are an important and necessary complement to treatment for PTSD, not necessarily an alternative,” says Libby. “It’s all about which tools work for you.”

Moore also believes that the existing cognitive and behavioral psychotherapies can be useful along with complementary and integrative practices — and he emphasizes that getting the right treatment can lead to deep personal growth for veterans.

“Veterans with PTSD are not broken,” he says. “They are not dangerous. They are not unstable. They are brave men and women who are learning to manage some very difficult life experiences. They are individuals who are trying to make meaning out of what happened during their military service and take the lessons they've learned in order to improve their lives and communities.”

RELATED: 5 Ways to Practice Breath-Focused Meditation

Where Veterans Can Go for Help With PTSD

If you or someone you know is a veteran living with PTSD and wants help to manage the condition, there are a number of websites and resources you can use for help.

The NCPTSD website lists a number of ways to get help with PTSD, including information on finding a therapist and managing stress through self-help.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has an extremely comprehensive webpage devoted to mindful awareness, featuring a quick breath awareness exercise and plenty of studies on the effectiveness of the practice.

Through the VA, you can also download Mindfulness Coach — a free app designed to help veterans practice mindfulness through a gradual and self-guided training program. It’s available on the App Store (where it has a 4.7 star rating) and Google Play.

The Veterans Yoga Project Practice Library contains information and downloadable audio files with themes such as Breath, Meditation, Mindful Movement, Guided Rest, and Gratitude. It’s a great resource for those looking to start experimenting with different styles of meditation.

iRest is a nonprofit organization devoted to bringing yoga nidra to veterans. Yoga nidra is specifically designed to relax both the body and the mind together, and with a major focus on mindfulness, it has more in common with meditation than other, faster-paced types of yoga. iRest offers online courses and training for veterans across the country.

If you’re interested in exploring mantra meditation, you can find a list of simple mantras to try at the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation’s website. They also have a comprehensive FAQ section for beginners.

The Mindful Warrior Project is a nonprofit organization which holds regular events to promote mindfulness and empowerment for veterans based in the greater Los Angeles area.

MaketheConnection.net is an online resource designed to provide support and resources to veterans and their loved ones. They have over 800 Stories of Connection — a video gallery of veterans’ stories as told by the veterans themselves.

Mindful.org has a helpful webpage on How to Meditate aimed at beginners, featuring information on different types of meditation and plenty of audio-guided meditations for you to practice at home.

4 Ways Meditation Can Help You During this Pandemic | Infographic | 2020

Right now we’re all in a state of uncertainty as the world deals with coronavirus.

“For many people, this situation is not just about stress; it’s about life and death,” says Justin Laube, MD, an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine. “Given this pandemic, which is something many of us likely didn’t even have on our radar much at all until recently, and then looking at the rising statistics, it would be hard not to at least have our own mortality come up, however subtly.” While this is prime time for fear, Dr Laube says, “it also opens the opportunity for personal growth, reflection, and calibration on how we want to live our lives.”

Read article here : Www.namanexpress.com

REMINDER: This Thursday: Meeting of the Trauma Working Group in the NGO on Mental Health at the United Nations

REMINDER: This Thursday: Meeting of the Trauma Working Group in the NGO on Mental Health at the United Nations

Knowing and Not Knowing About the Climate Crisis: Through the Lens of Trauma and Dissociation Massive traumatic experiences often render our emotional and cognitive capacities ineffective and make it difficult to make sense of what is happening to us. My late friend Dr. Dori Laub described in his seminal paper, “Knowing and Not Knowing Massive Psychic Trauma” (1993), the various levels by which…

View On WordPress

Koronavirüs kaynaklı şikayetleri yatıştırmaya yarayacak 11 besin

Appell an Anlieger: Laub muss richtig entsorgt werden

Pressemitteilung der Stadt Starnberg:

Der städtische Betriebshof musste in den letzten Wochen leider vermehrt feststellen, dass Bürgerinnen und Bürger Laub von privaten Grundstücken oder von Gehwegen auf öffentliche Straßen und Plätze kehren.

Die Beseitigung dieser widerrechtlichen Ablagerungen verursacht nicht nur eine erhebliche Mehrarbeit für den städtischen Betriebshof, es stellt auch ein Risiko für alle Verkehrsteilnehmer dar. 

Zwei Mitarbeiter des städtischen Betriebshofes sind aktuell täglich von Montag bis Freitag mehrere Stunden mit der Kehrmaschine unterwegs, um die öffentlichen Straßen zu reinigen. Dabei wurde festgestellt, dass manche Anlieger das Laub auf die Straße kehren, sobald die Kehrmaschine zu sehen ist. Oftmals passiert dies auch, wenn die Kehrmaschine bereits an dem Grundstück vorbeigefahren ist, sodass, trotz der vorherigen Reinigung, eine verschmutzte Fahrbahn zurückbleibt.

Die Stadt Starnberg weist darauf hin, das Laub und Grünabfälle von privaten Grundstücken oder von Gehwegen nicht auf die Fahrbahn oder sonstige öffentliche Flächen gebracht werden dürfen und bittet die betreffenden Anlieger um Einhaltung diese Regelung. 

Die städtische "Reinigungs- und Sicherungsverordnung" (Verordnung über die Reinhaltung und Reinigung der öffentlichen Straßen und die Sicherung der Gehbahnen im Winter vom 19.05.2019) sieht vor, dass die Reinigung der Gehwege den Anliegern entlang des Grundstücks obliegt. Diese Übertragung der Reinigungspflicht ist im Bayerischen Straßen- und Wegegesetz verankert.

(Anm. v. dr. thosch: Da kann sich jeder selbst dazu so seine Gedanken machen.)

Anna Artaker, Uwe Bressnik, Cpt Olf, Nestor Engelke, Bea Fremderman, Matthias Kessler, Antje Majewski, Christian Kosmas Mayer, Werner Nekes, Jessica Rinland, Sensory Ethnography Lab, Naoko Oriane, Bartholomäus Traubeck, Lois Weinberger

kuratiert von Philipp Preuss

Der Mensch erscheint in der Welt im Holozän und diese Welt findet sich ein paar Steinsegmente später im Anthropozän. Eine durch Industrialisierung und kapitalistische Produktions- und Lebensweise evozierte Klimaveränderung, eine vom Menschen veränderte Natur verändert auch unsere Sichtweise auf diese Natur. Die Ausstellung „Natur retour“, die u.a. aus der Beschäftigung mit Teschows „Onkel Wanja“ entstand, versucht die sich durch diese neue Definition von Natur entstehende neue Sichtweise auf Zeit und Historie zu beleuchten.

In besagtem Cechov Stück gibt es die Figur des Dr. Astrow, der all die Verwüstungen an der Natur schon im 19. Jahrhundert luzide beschrieb und der konstatiert, dass "wer die Menschen schlecht behandelt, auch die Wälder schlecht behandelt". Natur, Gesellschaft und Politik und deren Ernte, also Geschichte, ist permanent verbunden, Natur ist Zeit. Nicht nur im Gären der Trauben, der Jahreszeiten mit ihren Comebacks und Loops, der Fade Outs und -Ins der Sonnen Auf- wie Untergänge, des Verglühens und Aufblühens der Blüten, den Zyklen von Vereisung und Schmelzen, dem fallenden Laub und steigenden Temperaturen, nein auch im historischen Sinne.

Natur ist ein Historiograph. Bei der koreanischen Künstlerfigur Naoko Oriane sogar buchstäblich. Sie sammelte für „Mother Watches" (2019) alle alten Armbanduhren ihrer Mutter und legt sie einem großen Baumstamm an; der Künstler und Musiker Bartholomäus Traubeck nimmt die Zeit als Natur ebenfalls wörtlich, in seiner Arbeit „Years" hören wir die Musik der Jahresringe von Baumstämmen, vertonte Zeit. Mittels einer komplexen Programmierung komponiert er aus Baumstammscheiben hölzerne Schallplatten. Parallel dazu sehen wir die kongeniale Installation von Uwe Bressnik „Bressniks 1210": Ein DJ-Set aus Zweigen, Rinden, Baumscheiben, Waldbeeren, das so zu einem natürlichen Artefakt wird. Der russische Künstler  Nestor Engelke schlägt mit der Axt aus dem Holz archaisch wirkende Skulpturen der Erinnerung, wie in seinen Arbeiten "Tape", "Boombox" oder "Portrait". Der Künstler Christian Kosmas Mayer wiederum sucht aus den Zeitmaschinen der eisigen Tundra alte Pflanzen, die durch die Klimaveränderung zu neuem Leben erwachen. In der Arbeit „The Life Story of Cornelius Johnson's Olympic Oak and Other Matters of Survival" begibt er sich auf die Suche nach einem Eichensetzling, den der afroamerikanische Olympiasieger Cornelius Johnson 1936 von Adolf Hitler bekommen hat, und findet diese Eiche in Koreatown, Los Angeles, wieder. Inzwischen hochgewachsen, spendet diese stilechte Stieleiche heute mexikanischen und koreanischen Immigranten Schatten. Im Reagenzglas klont Mayer die Johnson-Eiche für alle Ewigkeit nach.

Es ist nicht nur die Migration der Menschen und Saaten, es ist auch die Migration der Zeit, die ihre vorherbestimmten Grenzen verlässt., die Arbeit als visionäre Umwandlung totalitärer faschistischer Symbolpolitik in blühendes Leben in einer universellen Gesellschaft ad infinitum, hic rhodus hic salta. Franziska und Lois Weinberger untersuchten schon in ihren frühen Arbeiten die Parallelen von invasiven Pflanzenarten, Vergänglichkeit und Migration. Sei es in den „Portable Gardens“ (1994) oder in der Documenta Arbeit "Das über Pflanzen ist eins mit ihnen", bei der Lois Weinberger auf Gleisen des Kasseler Bahnhof invasive, nicht autochthone Pflanzensamen aussäte. Die Skulptur "Wild Cube", ein Stahlquader, der Wuchern und Wildwuchs im gut frisierten Raffelbergpark ermöglicht, zeigt dialektisch wie durch Territorialisierung Entterritorialisierung, durch Eingrenzen Entgrenzung, möglich wird. Die Natur hat keine Moral, das ist ihre Moral.

 Dr. Astrow bei Tschechow ist ein Naturschützer avant la lettre, ein "Kämpfer gegen den Wäldermord" wie die Figur Sonja in der Übersetzung von Thomas Brasch sagt. Es ist ein Zeichen einer aktualitätslosen Natur, dass Themen, die schon im 19. Jahrhundert verhandelt wurden, nichts an ihrer Dringlichkeit und Richtigkeit verloren haben. Wir spielen heute ein Stück der Vergangenheit, das eine mögliche Zukunft verhandelt, also unsere Gegenwart, die wieder über ihre Zukunft nachdenkt. Diese Gedankengeister spuken unsterblich vor sich hin, nicht umsonst schrieb der Pophilosoph Mark Fisher von dem neoliberalen System als einer Art "Hauntology."  Die österreichische Konzeptkünstlerin Anna Artaker zeigt in ihrer Arbeit "The Pencil of Natur" (2017) Naturdrucke von Pflanzen, die ebenso in dem berühmten gleichnamigen Buch von W. H. Talbot aus dem Jahre 1844 auftauchen könnten. Talbot ist der Erfinder der fotografischen Technik, die das Abziehen von Fotonegativen erst möglich machte und so die Massenproduktion von Fotografien in das Entwicklungsbad unseres medialen Realismus legte. Attakers Naturabdrücke wirken historisch, sind aber absolut aktuell, die Blätter werden für die Technik in Blei gelegt, das Resultat ähnelt historischen Aufnahmen, doch die Blätter der Natur haben eine längere Verschlusszeit, sie verändern sich nicht in dem rasanten Tempo der technologischen Evolution. So simuliert Attakers Arbeit Geschichte, die Aura simuliert, während die tatsächliche Aura der Natur im Verblendungszusammenhang unseres digitalen Realismus nicht mehr sichtbar wird und doch da ist. Ein Vexierspiel. Mit Mittel der etwas grausamen Ironie rekurriert Mathias Kessler auf das 19. Jahrhundert. In seiner Kühlschrankinstallation ist neben Feierabendbier auch eine 3D Druck Skulptur von Caspar David Friedrichs „im Eismeer“ im Eisfach. Wir erleben im Abtauen qua Konsum die Dekonstruktion unseres romantischen Naturklischees. Das Vergehen, Verwesen, Verfaulen ist prozessuales Abbild und eine eigene Zeiteinheit. Mit einer ähnlichen historischen Dramaturgie nähert sich Antje Majewski und Jessica Rinland dem Thema. Majewski zeigt Affiches als Hintergrundtapeten aus einem Buch ihres Großvaters, der als Förster über Borkenkäfer und deren Gefahr für den Wald schrieb. Dieser immer noch existierende Wald ist ein hoffnungsvolles Erbe seiner Gedanken und Sätze und ihr , eine Fortschreibung, wenn man so will, ein Epitaph in Waldform und ihr Video "Wald" eine Bestandsaufnahme von Erinnerung und Kontemplation. So wie das Buch die Metarmorphose eines Baums ist, so ist dieses Video eine Metamorphose einer Erinnerung. Ähnlich beleuchtet Jessica Rinland in ihren 16 mm Filmen "Not as old as the Trees" und "The Pond" unser Naturtheater. In anthropologisch-wissenschaftlicher Filmtechnik nähert sie sich dokumentarisch den Menschen, die selbst dokumentarisch und wissenschaftlich die Natur untersuchen, frei von jeder Wertschöpfung. Sei dies ein Mann, der bis ins hohe Alter auf Bäume klettert, sei es die emphatische Beobachtung der Natural History Society und deren phänomenologischen Aufzeichnungen über einen Tümpel in "The Pond".    

 Weitere Arbeiten zielen mehr ins Dickicht der Politik, Cpt Olf lebte zusammen mit den Waldbesetzern des Dannenröder Forsts und dokumentierte deren Widerstand gegen die Rodung des dortigen Waldes, die Waldbesetzer lebten auf und mit den Bäumen in solidarischer Symbiose. Antje Majewski zeigt ebenfalls wie Menschen mit Bäumen in komplexen Beziehungen stehen. In der Videoarbeit „Trees and People“ (2018) sieht man wie Menschen in China alte und sehr große Bäume wie den Ficus microcarpa als mit einem Gott verbunden ansehen. Gleichzeitig wird in der Region von Guangdong durch die Ökonomisierung Holz immer mehr zu einer säkularen Ware. Holz als Ware untersucht auch das Filmkollektiv Sensory Ethnography Lab. Der Filmemacher Alexander Fattal reiste in den brasilianischen Dschungel, um Holzfäller zu dokumentieren, während der Dreharbeiten zu „Trees Tropique“ musste er aber immer mehr die eigene Rolle als Filmemacher hinterfragen, der ebenfalls -wie die Holzfäller- aus der Rodung des Regenwaldes Profit schlägt. Wie steht die Kunst und die Kunstproduktion zur Natur? Wie umgehen mit der Zerstörung? Der Zukunft? Der eigenen Endlichkeit? Das Vergehen, Verwesen, Verfaulen, Verschimmeln, Verrosten und Vergären ist prozessuales Abbild in der Natur, ein Zwischenstadium jeder Metamorphose, die immer wieder nur ein Zwischenzustand ist und sie sind auch ein eigener, natürlicher Zeitmesser. Die US Künstlerin Bea Fremderman zeigt dies in wunderschön anzusehenden Textilskulpturen. Sie sät Samen in Jeans, Pullover und Socken. So schön es anzusehen ist, so sehr erinnert es auch an unsere eigene fragile Körperlichkeit und Sterblichkeit, Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras.

Der deutsche Avantgardefilmemacher Werner Nekes zeigte in seinem Film „Makimono“ von 1974 Natur als pure filmische bzw vice versa Film als natürliche Struktur, als permanenten fortlaufenden Moment, ohne Utilarismus, ohne Verwertbarkeit, ohne Nutzen. So ähnelt sich Natur und Kunst, also Ästhetik, letztlich in ihrer radikalen utopischen Zeit- wie Zweckfreiheit und der Wald wird für uns eine Heterotopie der allerschönsten Nutzlosigkeit. Oder um Shakespeare zu bemühen:  „And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything“

Solo exhibition at Goethe-Institut Bucharest,  Dec 2021–Jan 2022, curated by Frizzi Krella. With the kind support of Goethe-Institut Bukarest, thanks to Institute Director Dr. Joachim Umlauf & team.

LAST CHRISTMAS (of Ceaușescu) poses questions about the justice discourse in Romania and examines the dysfunctional dynamics and the institutional memory of the Romanian revolution three decades later. I visited museums that bear witness to the events of that time and questioned their transparency, or to what extent it is merely claimed. The focus is directed at the agency of things, at what they reveal or conceal, investigating constructions of power and the latency of controversy related to injustice and disorientation.

Dealing with the fall of the Romanian dictator Ceaușescu on Christmas Day 1989, three places are at the fore: Ceaușescu’s private house in Bucharest, the execution site in Târgoviște, and Casa Poporului, the never inaugurated ruler’s palace, for which an entire historical neighbourhood was demolished. How do they look back on us today? All three are ‘traumatised’ places, silent witnesses of an undead past, in which the echo of the personality cult still resonates today. During the 1980s there were rumours of a bathroom of pure gold that was supposedly to be found in Ceaușescu’s home. When I first entered it, I was immediately reminded of Lee Miller's photograph. From the empty bathroom, that can now be visited, the banality of evil looks back at the viewer.

Every year in the 1980s around Christmastime, my father had to register his typewriter and the imprints of each key to submit them to the police (miliția), who archived the profiles of every single typewriter in the country. But not at Christmas 1989. On December 22, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu are arrested at Târgoviște, of all places, the city where Vlad the Impaler alias Dracula once resided. On Christmas Day, the couple is sentenced to death in a brief show trial. The death sentence is carried out immediately. On December 26, the Christmas mass was broadcast live on Romanian TV for the first time. On the same day, the images of the execution go around the world.

30 years after the system change, an EU resolution was passed, calling on the Romanian state to officially process the past events. While the overthrow of the other East European dictatorships in 1989 was mostly peaceful, Romania’s Revolution ended in a bloodbath. Leaders called upon civilians to fight against nameless “terrorists”, leading to a great deal of friendly fire. The events of those violent days remain shrouded in mystery and intrigue, leaving the question: was it a people’s uprising or a staged coup d’état? “Romania’s failure to address the unatoned crimes of 1989 in a legal process weighs on the state like a curse. [...] The unexplained crimes still rumble underground. Perpetrators who have not been called to account remain a threat, like the undead, sucking the blood and thus the life-force of the living, as the vampire myth puts it." (from the essay In the Forest of the Impaled by Lotte Laub)

The eponymous photo book was published as a bilingual edition (De/En) at Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, edited by Frizzi Krella, with texts by Frizzi Krella and Lotte Laub. The monograph came in 2020 on the shortlist at the Athens Photo Festival, on the longlist of the German Photo Book Prize in 2021, and on the shortlist for the Photo-Book Award at the Belfast Photo Festival in 2022.

Poster Design: Marius Weber

Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum (WIT) Early Career Award 2021

Deadline: October 31, 2021

Applications are open for the Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum (WIT) Early Career Award 2021. This award, established in 2010, provides professional development opportunities for women working in wheat during the early stages of their career.​

The award is named after Jeanie Borlaug Laube, mentor to many, and daughter of Nobel Laureate Dr.​ Norman E.​ Borlaug.​ Jeanie Borlaug Laube has served as Chair of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative since October 2009.​ Recipients of the Jeanie Borlaug Laube WIT Early Career award will be supported to participate in the International Wheat Congress in 2022 in China.

Eligibility

The award is made only to women.

There is no age limit, but the award is intended for early career scientists ranging from advanced undergraduates to recent PhD graduates and postdoctoral fellows.​

Priority is given to women at the pre-professoriate level.​

Judging Criteria

Nominees will be judged on:

Strength of scientific abstract submitted to the BGRI annual technical workshop

Commitment to and passion for agricultural development

Leadership potential

Quality of written statement of intent

Application

To apply, complete the Application Form and submit along with a letter of recommendation from a supervisor, professor, or mentor that speaks to the applicant’s leadership potential. The application period is open until October 31, 2021.

Click here to apply

For more information, visit WIT Early Career Award.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/3k0HhTQ via IFTTT

The Loft 1/8

Back at the Loft for fun and games. We’re doing a monthly costume contest with a 1000L Prize, so get out there!

Robin Mckelle - Bei Mir Bist Du Schon Matthieu Boré - It's A Good Day Márcio Faraco - Paris Quadro Nuevo - Swing Vagabond Sugarpie And The Candymen - Lemon Tree Two Banjo's Jazzband - St. Louis Blues Walt Koken - Banjo Blues Peter Cincotti - Sway Dr. John - Shut D. Fonk Up Robin Mckelle - Eleanor Rigby Matthieu Boré - Carioca James Brown - Infatuation - Extended Version Torsten Goods - It's Still Rock'N'Roll To Me Frank Sinatra - Bad, Bad Leroy Brown Anna Elizabeth Laube - Time to Move On Torsten Goods - Crazy Little Thing Called Love Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - King Of Swing Pink Turtle - Sultans of Swing Rachael MacFarlane - Time In A Bottle Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Minnie The Moocher