Whether you want to believe it or not, we like to watch sports for very different reasons than you may think. In fact, the real things that cause us to like sports are in every person, whether we like sports or not. What things can we learn about human nature by simply looking at our fascination with competition? The answers may surprise you. Not only are the answers interesting in themselves, but they may just help you in other ways too.

There are some fairly straightforward and obvious explanations for why we like sports to be sure. Sports teach us about loyalty, perseverance and honor. It gives us a way to bond, it's cathartic, and we identify with teams and players. We live vicariously through the players we watch. We have our favorite players, and there are teams we've grown up rooting for because our brother or dad used to love them, and now we still root for them today. Or we may follow a sport now that we used to play as a child.

But there are some deeper, more powerful and fascinating reasons too.

We're All Just Big Children

Whether you want to believe it or not, all adults are just big children. We're all just big kids. We just hide our true feelings and thoughts with highly developed skills (or at least most of us do). We still want to belong or be accepted by our peers, we all still want to be loved, we still feel emotional pain, and we still find ourselves giving in to immediate gratification when we know better. And yes, some of us still lie and cheat in our normal day to day lives.

We certainly hide things better and often successfully 'act' as if we don't care about belonging, or love, or pain, or whatever. Deep down inside we are a little more mature and wise, but basically still just children. We may not say it out loud anymore, but we still think to ourselves sometimes, "That's not fair!" We would rather play than work. Some may argue, depending on whether they pee standing up or sitting down, that this is especially true for men. Maybe that's why there are more men sports fans than women.

You see, watching sports gives us a perfect, safe and secure, black and white, little microcosm of life. Following a player, team or game allows us to experience ups and downs and a whole array of emotions, just like in real life, but we aren't actually affected.

And unlike life, sports and games are generally fair! There are rules and a crystal clear framework, or paradigm that all the participants and spectators know about. There are never any monkey wrenches thrown into a sports game, like the rules changing mid-game for instance. If rules are broken, the offender is penalized. They don't frustratingly get away sometimes like in real life.

At the end, there is an unambiguous winner and loser. We get to pretend that the game we're watching is life, where everything is perfectly fair, everyone plays by the rules and everything makes sense.

Children tend to think of things in much more black and white terms. It is only through living and maturing that we realize that all of life is a series of grays. But we all still long for a simpler and easier life. When things are only seen in black or white, things indeed seem simpler and easier, but life isn't so clear-cut.

This helps explain why politicians who break their platform down into simple sound bites and into terms devoid of complexity often do better than politicians who talk about life like it really is, a complex, interrelated world of nuances.

Watching sports allows us a temporarily safe and socially acceptable way to be more like our true nature, and our true nature is frighteningly childlike. So the next time you deal with a difficult person, remember that they are just a large child, like you and everyone else, and maybe that knowledge will help you deal with them a little more easily.

What do watching a horror movie and sports have in common?

Ever wonder why so many people, including maybe you, enjoy watching horror movies so much? They provide a safe way for people to experience high levels of suspension without actually being in any real danger. Sports can be the same way. Again, watching sports allows us to enter a perfect world where the suspenseful outcome has no bearing on our real lives (unless you have a nasty sports gambling problem of course).

People love drama, suspension, and resolution, which are all elements inherent in sports. In fact, the closer the game, the more suspension there is. If we identify with a player and he wins, we are vicariously happy for the success. However, if the player's team loses, we feel the defeat a little as well. But our lives are unaffected. And sports announcers usually only add to the drama and suspension.

A sports game is a sort of story. There is a beginning and an end. There is a protagonist (your team) and an antagonist (the other team). There is a scene and setting, the stadium at noon, and there is a plot, which is the action. Only after the games ends, and depending on if your team won or not, is it decided to be called a fairy tale ending or a tragedy.

Reptilian Brain and War

Whether you want to believe it or not, humans are a lot closer to nature and the animal world than most people like to think. We're not just close to nature; we're a part of it! Evolutionarily speaking, we are much closer in time to our unintelligent animal ancestors than we are to a transcended sentient species apart from nature. Our behavior is guided much more by our 'primitive brain' than our more recently developed neocortex, which is the seat of our intelligence. The primitive brain, or lower brain function, deals with fight or flight behavior, hunger, fear, and sex, among other things.

A common, yet erroneous concept is that the human brain is the result of billions of years of evolution. Our primitive or reptilian part of the brain is that old, but our brain's extra large neocortex, the thing that separates us from other mammals, came about only a couple million years ago, a mere drop in the evolutionary bucket. The neocortex has not had much time to develop, and so our primitive brain plays a significant role in our lives.

Our basic flight or fight mentality is manifested in sports. We can relate, on some deeper and unconscious level, with the guy running with the football towards the end zone and being chased by a pack of angry men. We can understand what it feels like to check another player in hockey and slam him into the boards. Or we can sympathize with the NASCAR driver who gets passed by a competitor, but throws it into a higher gear and chases after him.

Our primitive desire for dominance is represented in sports. When our team wins, we experience a sort of dominance over the opposing team and their fans.

Our predatory nature is lit up when we see a linebacker following a running back through a mass of football players, waiting for the perfect moment to strike his prey with a tackle. Watching someone chase the man with the ball in basketball, soccer, or baseball affects us in similar ways.

Our tribal instincts are fulfilled by sports. We all want to belong to something; it's a basic human need since we are such social animals. We identify with a team like our ancestors would identify with their tribe. This is especially true for the Western world modern man, where community has taken a back seat to independence.

Our primitive warring nature is satisfied by sports. There seems to be an innate desire for war, even in so-called 'modern' man. Indeed, look at the world today and how many current wars are going on, and you'll see how far we are to real peace. Pathetically, that last statement holds true for almost any time in history, regardless of when you're reading this. Again, this goes back to the fact that we are ruled more by our 'primitive', survival-driven, fight or flight brain than our reasonable and intelligent 'modern' brain.

Every sports game is like a tiny war between tribes, with an end and a declared victor. But there's one important distinction; unlike war, no one has to die in sports.

One of the reasons going to a game is more exciting than watching it on TV is that there is a kind of energy created when so many people get together and root for one cause. You might even liken it to a mob mentality. We don't have to look farther than our own stadiums where pandemonium has broken out in protest to a call or in celebration of a win. Sports strongly appeals to the gaming and struggle instincts of humans.

And since our modern lives no longer contain any real physical danger and all our basic needs are immediately taken care of, we now have a void that needs to be filled somehow, our primitive brain expects it. Sports fit the bill. It gives us the illusion of reality where there are no consequences. It gives us the illusion of battle, war, victory and defeat, without the consequences. And it gives us the illusion of being a child again, even if it's all temporary.

You may not like sports at all, but we are all a quite childlike inside. We all yearn for some level of drama in our lives. And we are all constantly affected by our primitive brain. Watching sports is one excellent way for people to reconcile these inescapable facts.

The Earth’s Nocturnal Age

In the time of torrential darkness, when the night was older than the sun-or so it gave the impression, for eons, within earth’s solar system, a period between space and time, that can’t be accounted for but was, when the earth brooded for the sun, and the moon had a miasma noxious influence, an anomalous night light creeping through the deep atmospheric cloud of earth, trying to penetrate its eldritch darkness, yawning to shed a tinge of graceful light upon earth, being but a few rays at its brightest moment and sharing but a tenth of that, at midnight was the earth’s nocturnal age.

During the closing of this period, earth`s demonic race was awaiting its one time ruler, Lucifer; but the heavenly battle was so harsh it disrupted the whole solar system; thus, came the nocturnal ages, one passing onto another. And therefore, little to nil, life in all forms had to barely survive the long night, which goes for earth’s foliage, and sea life, to include, among the left over legitimate parts of humanity or subhuman humanity, life that had survived in the leagues of blackness, they survived deep in the deep ebon hollows of caves and underground caverns; it was an underworld ocean per se.

As for the likes of three ruling demon of the time: Arch Devil Belphegor (King and ruler of five legions), Agaliarept, to be in time, Lucifer’s henchman, and ruler of three legions, and Amsodeus, more wizard than devil it would appear, from the black arts. All knew of the great battle in heaven, followed the news step by step as it sank, and drifted seemingly from the stars down to them, and those demon feeling God humiliated Lucifer once their commander and chief, and therefore, were awaiting to follow Lucifer at his every command, as did two-thirds of heaven’s angelic renegades, who were now exiled on the moon, for treason. Belphegor and his horde were a restless throng, but all the same loyal to Lucifer.

Where Lucifer was, no one knew but everyone knew on the day of light, he’d appear, with his angelic forces, and to meet his demonic forces.

Some of the inhabitants that lived in the underground world, at this period, alien, or whatever, had more robotic brains than normal ones, in that two cells inside their brains with two neurons, made decisions for them, such as one for hunger and one for food. They were called by the demon, ‘The Occupants’ they thought much like the snail.

The other branch of humanity, were naked beings, unnamed, with long beards, hair matted with slime, some tall, the elders with bent backs, idiotic in looks, they spoke in grunts, and gibbered unintelligible pauses, the more elite, with monosyllables. This was what was left of humanity’s degenerate remnant of earths’ past and present; both were becoming extinct.

During this period of earth’s dehydration, these nomadic conduit clans, ebbed deep into the bottom roots of earth’s crust, sought out underground lakes, fish, reptilian meats, worms, spiders, every form of insect, a nightmarish revulsion for mankind and demon alike, and for those angelic renegades left on Earth’s Moon, a tormented nightmare.

Amongst those rulers on the moon, were Azaz’el, who would in time, teach and did teach during this dark age, injustices, and there was Semyaza, who would in time be the great fornicator, and Asder’el, who taught of the planets, and was doing just that on the moon: teaching how the Universe was expanding as new bodies and current explosions took place, pushed the universe outward, as a fat man might eat until he is bloated. And he taught about Jupiter’s great cloud storms, its ammonia ice clouds. Other than that, they were all waiting on the moon, to finish their first order of penitence?

The Lunar Nocturnal Ages

God’s Son, now Commander and Chief, had fought with Lucifer, and Lucifer was cast off heavens cliffs, whereabouts on earth, he landed, who’s to say? And his following, angelic renegades were dumped on earth’s moon which was molten hot, at the time.

It was a time when the moon acquired massive bombardments, a time when asteroids, and comets brought chunks of their substances, debris, to the moon’s surface, when meteorites occasionally reached the moon making their way through the asteroid belt; inside these rocks, and stones were deposits of water, water-rich with carbonaceous chondrite, Moon-water, that sizzled and brought ferruginous dust, to those high ranking renegades awaiting. These primitive asteroids, created volcanic eruptions which caused volcanic rocks to absorb water, – within the moon’s pommelled molten rock. Inside those rocks were organic molecules. In essence, one might be able to suck the water out of the rock, and perhaps many did for want of thirst. But for the most part these smattering of waters were buried deep inside the moon, as time progressed, during this dark lunar nocturnal age, the moon became a more reasonable habitat for the angelic race, that didn’t need oxygen.

This was a time when God was moving Jupiter and other outer planets in place (after the great disruption in heaven), resetting their orbits, creating our Solar System anew, so as not to impact planet Earth.

In any case, let me go onto the premise of this Vignette.

A geochemist might and might not agree with this, but should they undo the tightly bound water up in moon rocks, a trace of water will emerge (magmatic – water). And so the moon was a habitual place for a moment in time, and an awful place to be sent to for imprisonment for treason, which is the case at hand for these renegade angels, along with a cosmic prison in some far-off nebula. But as soon as this age of darkness was to come to its end, Lucifer would show up once again, as would be the penitence for the renegades reduced to earth.

And so Lucifer swollen by the breath of his followers, awaited his stardom to appear in person, as his three Angelic Renegades combed Lucifer’s savage nature into his 200-million followers, with the secrets of heaven, only to turn them into dark necromantic secrets. And so one to another taught the crafts of all the known secrets of heaven to his following, and they all acquired much dubious knowledge, of the forbidden, as anon they would teach to mankind and the demons awaiting their arrival.

In time to be, -both demon and angelic renegade, and those among Adam’s heritage that followed this craft, they would be called wizards, amongst other things, for this was a stepping stone into the supernatural, even among the demons they could not hold the supernatural power of the Angelic Renegades without their consecrations: all such teachings to be kept in safekeeping, in some form of erudition editions, likened to black books of magic, which were to follow in times yet to be: to be buried for eons, in the minds of Lucifer’s followers, and then retraced, and then brought to light when light reemerged on earth and earth took on a more stable environment; that is to say, when God brought light back to the full earth, and allowed them entry.

Written: 6-2 & 3-2016 (#5256)

What? Am I actually advocating for TV?

Don’t panic. I haven’t gone to the dark side.

Television is a part of our lives. If you are like me, you don’t actually watch much television, but you probably consume at least some of the television culture via DVR or streaming services.

We all have different criteria for choosing what we watch. Some people I know choose their shows by the reputation of a director, producer or actor in the show. Some want to stay in touch with what is popular. Some choose by character or genre. Some like stories, others like reality TV, some like variety shows or comedy.

And there is a variety of ways to consume TV products too. Bingeing is fashionable – a whole weekend devoted to one season, story arc or show. Some like to stick to the traditional one-dose-per-week. Some prefer to watch TV on their own schedule and others are OK watching by the schedule set by the stations.

Any way you consume TV, my suggestion to you is to pay attention. Who are you inviting into your living room? Are the characters people you want to hang out with? Remember that we are the average of the 10 people we spend most time with! A good friend suggested an acclaimed show to me, but when I watched an episode I realized that I didn’t like the characters. They seemed shallow and too dark for me. I didn’t want them in my home.

Is the show you’re watching taking place in a world that you want to be part of? I have one friend who loves Downton Abbey because she admires the world in which everyone is waking up and trying to better themselves even through tremendous changes in their society.. Another friend cannot watch Downton Abbey because all she can see is the oppression of the working class; she can’t find anything at all to like in the “upstairs” world.

Pay attention to your body. How does it feel as you watch your shows? Are you relaxed, laughing, enjoying yourself? Or are you unpleasantly tense, agitated, and maybe eating mindlessly?

Pay attention to your emotions? Do you feel despair, like my friend watching Downton Abbey? Or do you feel solidarity with the characters? Are you rooting for the main characters or “loving to hate” them? Aside from dying to see what happens next, which is a carefully crafted manipulation that most shows intentionally promote, how do you feel when the show is over? Uplifted? Scared? Sad? Is this the way you want to feel?

Pay attention to your thoughts as you watch and after your shows. And pay attention to your dreams. We subliminally pick up the underlying values and perspective of the characters in TV shows – just like we subliminally picked up the underlying values and perspective of our parents, family, tribe, culture and species as infants. Your primitive mind does not know that the shows you are watching are not real. My great-grandmother, who grew up before TV, used to think of the soap opera characters she saw on TV as her friends. She wanted to take food over to them when they were suffering, wanted to write them letters when they were celebrating. Yes, we are certainly, on the conscious level more sophisticated than my great-grandmother, but our reptilian brains are not.

After an evening of television viewing, who are you taking to bed with you? Is this what you want?

Does this seem like I’m taking TV too seriously? Does it seem like this is too much work, just for a pastime? Does it seem like all this paying attention will ruin your ritual of relaxation? Don’t you have the right to just check out and veg in front of the TV?

It depends upon what you want out of life.

The human species has been sleep walking through life, uncritically admitting any entertainment that passes before our eyes and co-incidentally creating some hefty challenges that we could have avoided if we had been more wakeful: environmental destruction, run-away power of financial institutions and corrupt government, to name a few.

Now we are at a turning point. Mindless consumption of TV is a symptom of the general state of sleepiness that we have been living. Many people want to wake up, be more mindful, to think of the consequences of their actions on future generations. This can start with paying attention to our television habits and preferences.

Gandhi purportedly said that we should strive to “be the change we want to see in the world.” If we are that change, who would we be hanging out with in the evenings? Who would be going to bed with us to interact with us in our dreams? What kinds of thoughts would we be allowing to run in our heads? What kind of feelings would we be emanating out into the world? What kind of TV programming would we be supporting by our viewership?

It all starts with individuals making strong, pro-active choices about the world we want to create, applying our energy, money and time to strengthen the components of a world that works better for everyone than the one we have fallen into through mindless consumption. You can start today by paying attention to your television.

We all get angry, though most of us will instinctively deny the fact, for it's shameful to lack that sort of control. Some people anger is so well cloaked it lays dormant until just the right trigger exposes it, as they fly in a moment to incalculable fury.

Others are more even paced in the frequency and discharge of their frustrated emotions.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF ANGER

Behind the anger is fear; for whatever reason.

Anger, we should also know, is a substitute emotion. It presents when we've passed over the base emotion disclosing our inner, even childlike, fears. (We have, until the day we die, these core emotions of a child. Included here is our woundedness and our propensity for fun.)

Anger attempts to protect our fear, but the response is ironically awkward, unguarded, immature and rebounding.

Anger, then, is secondary to our inner fear, and the 'beautiful' very certain sign of what we've just missed. Even better to note the signs of these boiling emotions – registering interest in those intrinsic emotions before the vitriol spills over the edge in the effect of our noxious words and belligerent actions.

It is posited here that anger is predictable . We can cater for it before it's too late.

KNOWING THYSELF

This is where knowing ourselves – and particularly the length of our fuses – helps.

But not just that; we must know our triggers-to-anger and we should also develop re-channeling strategies so we don't miss the vital nuances of our child emotions.

It's the adult within that placates the child deeper inside us, not denying the child, but validating him or her, for emotions always present for legitimate reasons. The more adult we can be, the more blessed our life outcomes.

Knowing ourselves is accepting ourselves – it's not much more complex than that, really.

REVISITING OUR PROPENSITIES AND BOUTS OF ANGER

If we venture back honestly over our last week or fortnight, we'll have no problem identifying a situation where we either felt tempted to get angry, or we let fly.

Learning about what led to those emotions makes for intriguing intelligence. We can use such information to plan to prevent, or circumvent, the next time.

Noted with special interest is what fear drove the anger. This is an intriguing study.

If we became angry with an inconsiderate spouse, chances are we'd be fearful of becoming (or being) the doormat if we just accepted what they did. If it was children not doing their homework, the fear might be them failing academically and being disciplined or disadvantaged for it.

Predicting anger is planning for it; denying it's not helping anyone.

Our main objective should always be to prolong our deliberation, so our higher mind has time to rescue the reptilian brain from regretful action. If we're to get angry, let it be a reasoned choice … in other words, for healthier indignation.

Copyright (c) 2011 SJ Wickham.

Are you at home in joy, or is joy just a place you visit from time to time when the stars align and conditions are somehow just right? For far too many of us, joy is less like home base, and more like an infrequently visited vacation place, which we think of wistfully and longingly during the emotionally turbulent trials and tribulations of Earth life. But according to the way you are designed, you are intended to live in joy. Joy is to be your emotional “default setting”–the emotional state you naturally come back to whenever the highs and lows level out. Actually, the highs and lows aren’t a part of the state in which you were designed to live–they are unique to the current tumultuous reality state in which we currently dwell here on Earth. In the reality state in which we were designed to thrive, there are no lows–just degrees of joy.

So what is joy, anyway? Joy is your emotional response to higher frequency. It is catalyzed by being within the frequency range of your Spirit, the highest-frequency aspect of you. Joy is the feeling you experience when you are aligned with the Divine Design for Harmony and Wholeness, and is a sign that you are on the right track–a beacon you can use to navigate upward in frequency back to your true Home in the Divine Design. This “Home” to which I am referring is the blissful reality referred to in sacred texts as “The Garden of Eden.” It is the highest frequency at which you can manifest as a human being. When you are within range of it, you experience joy. When you drop in frequency below the vibrational range of Home, you experience “less-than-joy”–sometimes much less than joy!

If joy is our natural state, why would we stay out of joy for even a minute? Heaven knows, joy is certainly more pleasurable than less-than-joy! Until now, most of us didn’t understand that we had a choice to be in or out of joy; didn’t understand the “mechanics” of being in joy. We were victims of our emotions–but we don’t have to be. In a nutshell, here’s how you came to primarily reside outside the realm of joy. This is the selfsame story as the “Fall of Man from the Garden of Eden,” and can be summed up like this: “Adam and Eve were in the Garden and all was blissful until they disregarded what God told them in favor of what the serpent was telling them, and suddenly, they found themselves in a world of hurt.” That’s essentially why you are absent from the realm of joy, too.

In the story of the Fall, God represents your all-wise, perfectly aligned Spirit, whose motives are Wholeness and Harmony, and whose milieu is the Unified Field of Oneness–the realm of joy. The serpent represents your reptilian brain, the primitive brain structure whose motives are fear and separation, and whose milieu is duality–the realm of misery. The reptilian brain’s first lieutenant is your ego. Your ego dances to the reptilian brain’s dissonant tune, advancing its notions that you are a stand-alone entity, that there’s never enough, and that the world is out to get you. Not very joyful stuff! (And all lies, by the way.) The truth is that you are one with all Creation, you have access to unlimited resources, and the Divine Design is set up to support you completely. Definitely joyful!

Fortunately, the same free will that gets us expelled from the realm of joy can be used to get us back there. By doing the reverse of what Eve and Adam did in the story of the Fall, we can reclaim our tenure in the realm of joy. We can choose to stop allowing our egos to deceive us–stop allowing them to depress our frequency, and thus, our emotional experience. We can tune our frequency to our Spirits’ messages of Love, Oneness, and Harmony instead of remaining under the influence of our egos’ messages of fear and separation. We can choose joy! We can deliberately create the conditions that facilitate joy, and after we are practiced at doing this, we will find that our default setting is higher. The more time you spend in joy, the higher your emotional set point will naturally be. And the higher your set point, the more joy-enhancing the conditions that manifest in your life will be, and the easier it will be to stay in joy! Prime Principle, the law of attraction, makes this so.

About now, you may be asking “How? How do I choose joy?” First, understand that your Spirit is always radiating Love to you, always seeking to align you, always ready to restore you to harmony, always ready to pull you close, back up to the frequency level of bliss. Know that the Divine Design for Wholeness and Harmony is always in operation, ready for you to take your place in it. Since joy is your natural state, you don’t have to make joy happen, you simply need to allow it. Like a helium balloon that rises heavenward when you release it, all you need do is let go of trying to control your experience at the human, ego-dominated level, and rise up to take your place at higher frequency! Release your life and your affairs to the stewardship of God In You, listen to and obey your Spirit above all, and trust that with your Spirit in charge, you are always guided to greater and greater harmony.

The external confirmation of your increased tenure in the joy space will soon become evident, but at first, your outer experience may be anything but inspiring of joy. In order to turn things around, you have to refuse to be hooked into the ego’s evidence-based approach to sizing up the situation and dictating emotional response based on what it finds to confirm its fears. Instead, focus on that which is beautiful, that which confirms the integrity of the Divine Design, and connects you consciously with harmony and wholeness. Purposefully create conditions that support you in raising your frequency and experiencing joy. Do what you know from experience helps you access happy feelings–that supports a closeness with your Spirit and helps you feel more connected to the Whole. Put on some uplifting music. Meditate. Go out in nature. Play with your dog. Dance. Sing. Take a walk. Watch the sun set. Do something egoless for someone purely out of Love. Do all of the above! Whatever you love to do, whatever lightens and lifts you, do it–do it with the intention of rising to joy.

And be thankful. Gratitude is communion with your Spirit, and is a powerful tool for raising frequency. Whenever you feel even a hint of joy, go immediately into gratitude to your Spirit. Use gratitude like you’d use bellows to transform a spark into a flame. When you feel your frequency rising, use your breath and your gratitude to go higher. Say “Thank you, thank you, thank you” to your Spirit and feel your frequency soar! When ego threatens to pull you down out of joy and back into duality with its lower frequency messages of fear, judgment, doubt, or general disgruntlement, don’t struggle against it–let that be your cue to relax back into the loving, healing embrace of your Spirit and the Divine Design for Wholeness and Harmony.

By using this simple, but powerful approach, you will learn to consciously rise in frequency, raise your emotional set point, and spend a lot more time in your true home–joy. This is not just a blessing for you, it’s a blessing to all whose lives you touch–and, indeed, to all Creation, as when your frequency is raised, the frequency of the Whole is raised, and we are all that much closer to Home.

The pond experience is an alternative to turtle care. It basically consists of having a pond area and a nesting area. The concept is quite unique in that it separates the pond section with a large tank area for swimming and then provides a deeper section for burying eggs or just sitting under the heat lamp.

The design is such that it consists of a large tub that is molded out of one big piece of plastic. It is typically labeled a turtle tub or turtle tank. The placement of the unit is usually on the floor or on a counter top type setting.

Because it sits on the floor and can be put in a corner in an apartment or living room; it gives the turtle enclosure more a touch and feel to it.

This style of enclosure is called “the pond experience.” There are some issues however with the pond experience and they are:

– Small children need to be guarded when using this container. They can fall in and more seriously touch the critters in the tub and get serious debilitating illnesses such as salmonella.

-The tank is very large and not transparent (see-through) so it necessitates an over the top viewing for it to be useful. What this means is that it needs to be placed on the floor for optimum viewing, or it must take up counter space.

-Cleaning of the unit requires full evacuation of the tub so that it can be cleaned as one piece.

Turtles, red eared slider turtles or aquatic turtles require a large tank for swimming, so the pond venue works well for that; however, turtles that just bask and do minimal swimming do not need such an elaborate system, but really only need a pool to swim in and a basking area to get thermalized.

An alternative to the pond environment is the aquarium tank with wading pool, or moderate swimming pool. Typically a structure is developed such as a glass partition or escalating racks so that the turtle has a place to climb and bask, and then climb down and swim. These systems have their limitations and usually end with mixed results.

The most favored system is a basking area with an associated swimming pool. This is similar to the pond concept, accept it uses an aquarium with siliconed glass partitions, instead of fully molded tub.

The problem arises for cleaning the pools which can be a big minus from owning any reptile for that matter. The water must be cleaned almost daily in some instances and makes maintenance a labor intensive endeavor.

As with the pond environment cleaning requires a full evacuation of the unit.

A Solution You Might Not Have Thought Of

A final alternative which is to have the pool be separated and removable. Most will use a clay dish, or even a Tupperware container to facilitate the pool container. Trouble with these solutions is that they are ugly and not pet friendly when it comes to climbing in and out of the pool.

Some manufacturers have developed pools that have steps that ascend and descend into the pool. This helps aid the pet in and out of the water. Additionally some are even designed with rock serrated surfaces so they appear real and aesthetically uniform in the reptile environment.

The ideal size pool for most pets is around 3 gallons or more. Shallow pools are usually more suitable for smaller pets such as frogs and salamanders.

A word of final note: some animals are not smart enough to get out of the water and can drown if the water is too deep. Hermit crabs and even some frogs can be this way. Make sure you understand your pets behavior before committing them to a pool environment. Talk to your local pet store or your veterinarian for their basking and soaking behaviors.

First of all, let's begin by setting some standards. The first standard, if one actually knew how cancer is caused. Then it would make sense that that same person would know what actually cures cancer, and would be helping people cure their cancer at a 100% success rate. With this in mind let's look at what is currently known about cancer and learn about a technology that was recently discovered, that cures cancer, specifically stage 4 cancers, if caught two weeks before the person is scheduled to pass on.

Currently, most scientists think that cancers are caused by one's genetics (their genes that are passed from generation to another). This is true. In light of this truth most if not all scientists know that our bodies (our genes) make some cancer cells every day. At the same time, our bodies quickly remove them via our immune systems. However, some of our immune systems let these cancers grow via the genes allowing these unwanted cancer cells to multiply and become the cancers people are suffering from today. So the question becomes why do our immune systems allow some of our genes to continue to make cancer cells eventually becoming a life stealing stage 4 (terminal) disease? Is it the lottery of cancer? No of course not. Is it that their unlucky? Is it because they are a bad person? No. Then what is it? We'll answer this important question later. I will say this now our genes are responsible for making everything inside the body and everything the body is, every cell, every hormone, every chemical, everything your body is make up of. It's important to know this and remember this fact.

Now let's look at other "causes" others "know" that are causing cancer.

There are some people who think a bad diet, a diet of eating genetically modified organisms (GMOs) processed foods acidifying foods loaded with toxins such as pesticides, herbicides, hormones etc. cause cancers. If this were true the vast majority of people in the United States would presently be suffering from cancer. They are not. At the same time, the people who go on a wholesome clean diets full of naturally grown clean organic, alkalizing and alkaline whole foods would be cured of their cancers every time. This is not true. Changing one's diet is not curing every one of these well-meaning people. It helps, that's for sure. A good clean organic whole food eating diet does not guarantee the turning off of their genes making the cancer cells in the first place. By the way some people have actually cured themselves through a good clean organic diet; however, at the same time more than half of these have contracted their cancers again. There is something else that is making part of your genes to make their cancer again.

And then there are people who think stress causes cancer. This is a hot topic. Here's what they know stress is different for everyone. They also know stress causes people to eat sugary foods and other not so healthy foods that create a more acidic environment for cancer to live and thrive in. We also know that stress (the lack of love, the negative feelings stress causes) causes our bodies to become more acidic even when people we eat really well, meaning they eat very healthy whole organic foods. This is also why people who really eat well can still have and make cancer. Therefore, stress can't by itself cause cancer. At the same time, it does however play a part in the cure. I will bring more to light about this important topic later.

There are few people who think that it's a microbial infection in the cells that's causing a person's genes to make the cancer cells continuously. The reality is everybody has microbes in just about every cell in their bodies. The truth is healthy people and sick people have these microbes (bugs) in them. I will say this, the healthy (less stressed) people have less of them, but they still have them.

So what causes cancer?

In a word or two, your brain. Of course you don't consciously use your brain to give yourself cancer or any other disease for that matter. However, what if there was a more powerful part of your brain (a deep brain) that ran everything inside your body, including your genes? After all, you can not consciously make your heart beat while you're watching TV or your stomach digest your food or make your genes make happy and healthy cells, can you? No, of course not; however, there is something else that does exactly that. And that something is part of your deep brain complex.

A part of this deep brain that takes care of some of this is your Autonomic Nervous System. It has two equally very important and powerful parts that play a major role but not the sole role in the making cancer and the curing of cancer. The very well-known part is called the sympathetic autonomic nervous system also known as the fight flight (stressed out, not happy) part. Everybody is familiar with this part. The reason for this is simple. Most people live with this powerful part up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.

Lastly and most importantly there is the lesser known part but equally important part called the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system also known by my clients and patients as the rest and digest and healing and regeneration and making love and learning and in the zone part of the autonomic nervous system which is completely run and controlled by your deep brain.

Let's look at these two systems side by side for a moment. By the way only one of these systems is up and running at a time. The other part is slightly running waiting for its turn. Your deep brain controls this automatically based on what's programmed deep within it. Remember this fact you'll need it later. In any case, you consciously don't run this deep brain program; if you did you would immediately turn off fight flight part of the system your presently running and turn on the rest and digest and healing etc. system you need to completely heal your cancer. Further, the system that's not running is behind the scenes maintaining a low operation mode waiting and ready to go to back on and go to work.

Now, let's look at the more commonly known deep brain part first, the sympathetic autonomic nervous system. Its primary function is to shunt blood away from your outer part of your brain called the cerebral cortex and away from your digestive and reproductive organs in the main part of your body. It brings this vitally important blood and oxygen to your brain stem (the reptilian brain) and your muscles of your legs and arms to either fight or run from your learned (taught) danger. When you were very little you feared just about nothing, you were this little ball of love. Ask your parents. However, these well-meaning parents began teaching you (programming your deep brain) very early on about fear and worry about things in life. In other words, they taught you on a daily basis something less than love and well-being. They unknowingly taught you stress. For example, to fear strangers and then one day you will need marry one of these strangers to have kids and pass on this wisdom. How does stress make you feel inside? Do you think this programming automatically puts you a bit of an edge? Of course it does, it creates an ideal environment for only system to stay on continuously.

The second part is called the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system. Its primary function is to shunt blood away from brain stem (reptilian brain) and legs and arms and back to your cerebral cortex, the larger and outer part of your brain and to your digestive and reproductive organs. What part of your deep brain is responsible for telling your genes to make happy and healthy cells? Is it your brain stem part of your sympathetic autonomic nervous system, the fight fright part? By the way brain stem actually grows thicker when the fight flight system in on continuously. You can see this on MRIs. The same is true of their cerebral cortex part of your brain, it actually become thinner when this sympathetic (fight flight) part of the autonomic system is on all the time. This in part explains the high rates of dementia in our elderly. The part that is partially responsible for your good genes being activated in making healthy cells is your parasympathetic autonomic nervous system, the rest and digest and healing and regeneration and making love and learning and in the zone part.

Now, what is the last part, the most important part of the deep brain that runs and coordinates these two vitally important systems? Any ideas of what part of your brain runs these two? In reality the fight flight part should only be on a few seconds once in a while and at the same time the rest and digest and healing (your good genes activated) and regeneration and making love and learning and in the zone part should be on the rest of the time, almost 24/7/365.

The last part and most important part of your deep brain that runs these two deep brain systems is your frontal cortex. You actually have two cortexes, a left side and right side. That's all I will say for now. If you want to go deeply down the rabbit hole you can buy my book. However, you don't need my book or any book for that matter to change your destiny. What you do need is to change the deep brain programming in both sides of your frontal cortex that has your fight flight system continuously on. And turn on and keep on your vitally important parasympathetic (rest and digest and healing etc.) autonomic nervous system part. And when we do your body begins healing and regenerating new and healthy cells while your cancer disappears. And while this is happening you begin to feel a deep sense of peace and well-being, something that has eluded you for many years.

The Paradox: How We Teach and What Our Instincts Require

Note: I will being using ‘our’ ‘us’ and ‘we’ often; consider I am speaking on behalf of the majority of America and in reflection to the American system and culture.

**Please reread Summary, and then continue

The American Dream (AD) is an expression in which has evolved from one image to another. Arguably, it originated from the campaign and national desire for ‘slightly above’ mediocrity in living conditions; a house, white fence and two cars in the drive way, in a suburb. And for those times that image was wealthy living, compared to the majority of the world; which still is very much true. However, today the AD is more materialistic than it existed originally… A rich and leisurely life; house on the beach or apartment in a major city, a six figure income and a 100,000 dollar sports/luxury car – just to start the dream off! This expression the AD gives today, is the one I will reference from now on; the majority of Americans act as if they were rich or will eventually become rich. The above explanation will be discussed further in argument B. This part of the conflict, at quick glance, seems to contradict the idea we want to be sociable. However, evolutionarily, it proves to make sense of how the American Dream has also evolved.

I do not suggest ‘altruism’ in broad terms; the practice to do selfless actions of welfare for others. We have reasons for our want in aiding others; whether they be socially or individually influenced desires (nurture) -and/or- instinctual requirements (nature). The altruism I will discuss can be more refined as the following: the practice that is consensually accepted in/by a group as altruistic. A group can vary from a social circle of friends to international identities of a nation or continent. The fact there may be groups within groups could cause confusion; for this paper’s purposes the culture of America and the subcultures which exist in America are being referenced: majorly education [from media and school], but also fashion trends and thought movements both underground and mainstream. Example of group altruism: Participating in church events is deemed charitable by the church’s community members. My altruism definition is a parallel of social altruism – (as far as I am aware) coined by Nigel J. Barradale. The difference between social altruism and how altruism is normally viewed is mildly significant. Rather than assuming altruism means to be charitable in a general sense; the social altruism perspective seems to be more realistic. People tend to want to help those who will later help them in return, and this mutual payoff is seen majorly in dynamics of groupthink theory; which will be slightly referenced.

What follows is a more precise expression and explanation of social altruism from Barradale himself from his theory paper – Social Incentives and Human Evolution: “… behaviors are exhibited that benefit the group at the apparent cost to the individual, when the social incentives are excluded. This behavior is termed social altruism. As per the above, social altruism may be displayed due to: genetic predisposition; behavioral conditioning; awareness of intrinsic incentives; and awareness of social incentives. Of these, the first three may lead to behaviors that are costly to the individual, even when the social incentives are included. For example, genes may be selected because they encourage us to behave social altruistically, which has a fitness benefit on average; but those genes are unlikely to perfectly distinguish instances that are fitness enhancing from those that are fitness detracting, and so both behaviors are likely to be exhibited. This is not, of course, to suggest the ability to better distinguish between the behaviors would be socially desirable. Quite the opposite, in fact-the many instances when people behave altruistically at a personal cost is a wonder of human societies and may have been a necessary prerequisite for our evolution as a species” (Barradale). In section C. I will propose another reason why we do not have “the ability to better distinguish between the behaviors [that] would be socially desirable” but in fact behave in a manner that is only socially desirable to our sought out and indoctrinated groups. The reason being another cognitive argument; our reptilian brain complex being the cause for us to defend and protect our group thoughts.

A. Paradoxical Problem Finding

Barradale, in the above, has expressed some of the reasoning for the paradox’s conflict; as value forming involves both instinctual and social dimensions, it appears that there are conflicts of conflicts. These conflicts seem to involve majorly: i. the concern of what does the system/culture look like, in which is prepping people to carry out their metaphysical desires (of being altruistic) ii. as well as the irrational (or not necessarily rational) tendencies in which we are likely to appeal to groups. Ideally, after these conflicts of conflicts are illuminated, we can better find examples of such conflict in the paradox.

Concerning the first conflict of conflict: What/who socially creates the guidelines in which we are to react instinctual-ly? Or to be more specific; what is [/does] the foundation of our education [look like] in which we have to adapt to, in order to create values? We have this instinct to want to figure out how to be socially altruistic in order to benefit from certain groups, but also we are given the education of the American Dream. First of the conflicts within conflicts – involves our education system (although only apart of the entire education we receive).

Andrea Kuszewski in her article The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience crudely but accurately has summarized the methods of modern education systems. The methodology is listed as follows:

1. Encourage linear, single-solution thinking, rather than exploratory learning (rewarded for the single correct answer, i.e. standardized tests, conformity is expected)

2. Hinder creativity and discourage innovative thinking (once students have the answer, they aren’t motivated to look for alternate solutions; errors are not rewarded when resulting from a potentially beneficial risk)

3. Don’t measure up to other types of integrated teaching models in regards to the amount of information retained by students (less effective at actually teaching material)

4. Aren’t as motivating or engaging for the students (students report less satisfaction and show poorer attendance)

5. Really aren’t that much fun for the teachers, either (Kuszewski)

A troubling list to accept as accurate. Yet, for this paper’s purposes we will assume the list is accurate to most (if not all) primary to secondary education methods in the U.S. Is there is one systematic method to being socially altruistic to others? Is there only going to be one or a few group(s) in which we have to socially respond to? Absolutely not! Depending on the group in which altruism is being attempted for, depends also on the method. Also, this methodology of education in schools is not preparatory for how to respond to a variety of groups (how to join/associate). The contrary seems more likely; education that molding abilities to only be able to respond to one or few group(s) at most. Which can further stifle exploratory attitude formations. If these are early attitudes, no doubt will they be at minimal, partially internationalized. Perhaps there should be a method (or part of method) in which is open-ended enough to anticipate change in group dynamics as being the foundation of the lesson plan or as an entire class: Group Method!

The second conflict of conflict: What makes us appeal to certain groups and/or distance us from others? How much does nature entail where we are likely to be drawn to; as far as group identification? These questions are no longer limited to philosophic and literary critique (although resources should/do come from such), but science has something to say! Namely evolutionary paradigms of research; majorly biology and psychology studies in evolutionism. These very real factors of how we have adapted during our evolution over the course of history, should be taught in a class room; not directly but designed into the lesson plans to relate allow the material to be more relevant towards societal thinking.

Although scientific evidence would be great to defend the argument that the paradox exist; I don’t feel it necessary. One must be just open to the idea, we respond to groups in order to self identify. Seems common sense filled – so, I will appeal to such. The majority will do whatever is necessary to be accepted by the groups they choose to want to be apart of; in return to receive recognition. Exaggerated when I say ‘whatever’ maybe, but objectively what one may do to gain access to a group is not nearly as extreme as another would. For instance: is paying 40,000 dollars more of less crazy than giving 100 hours a week to a group to be a member? I feel this question is preference-based and variable depending on who we are discussing with. So, keeping the idea as general as possible can avoid vagueness while maintaining ability to argue; individuals will sacrifice in order to be apart of a group.

With that said; “what does an individual wanting to be part of a group have in common with how our education system is designed?” Well that is the gist of the paradoxical problem at hand. While we have this natural tendency to associate with groups, we also have to be educated within a system. Does that education system teach to respond to our natural desires to associate with others? No. Does groups tend to educate us within their social guidelines? Yes. So… We get educated from the groups we are associated with, but there are a lot of groups existing… How do we know how to respond to them? Are we forced to rely strictly on our groups to know how to respond to the rest? In reference to the number one method Kuszewski notes – linear thinking (one answer is best) is the normative in our education system. Does this overlap into our other educations? What else teaches us; which groups teach everyone?

B. Pop-cultural Paradoxes

As defined earlier the American Dream (AD) is the ideal of rich materialism; in a nut shell – celebrity idolizing, in both properties and personalities. The concern of being wealthy is a prime example of the fact our education outlets hinder the majority’s value forming; in schooling especially with their linear methods; one answer for every question. The idea of being rich is an easy thought to entertain; little to no work, anything you want and fun whenever one wants. This argument suggest almost directly; linear methods of education create the AD, in addition to the rest of American education.

The way in which our media demonstrates rich and luxurious lifestyles depict selfish attitudes, especially since the means of obtaining the riches does not usually involve bringing others into rich status as well. The AD does not have any intention of bringing others with the individual to achieve such a goal. There are no shows about charity, none about humanitarianism and definitely none about morality and ethics – besides the Jersey Shore. Perhaps the biggest source in which progressive ideologies are displayed are in our contemporary documentaries. Still overall, as far as public media goes, there is no source in which teaches multiculturalism, humanitarianism and tolerance – but, rather in the norm, display examples of materialization of people and possessions; people going to prison, people [re]decorating places and things, and people gossiping about celebrities (politicians, actors and artist).

“Well media and entertainment do not necessarily guide our values.” That is true but they are apart of where we take what we know from and can existentially be considered apart of the entire value making process. As a example of how media and entertainment can influence the population of America; yolo and swag. These words spoken five years ago would hold no significance. Yet, today, through the power of media they are standard used words in the young generation. Although this is not a value-based argument, it can still dictate clearly media does influence our perspectives with fades and fashions; in both thought and style of outfits.

What does the appeal to ‘celebrity-ism’ have to with groupthought and group-following? A counter question: What does the majority think is in fact popular and notable to discuss? Celebrities. How the majority of fashioned are formed appear to be lead by popular figures of our culture. Musicians particularly, but also authors, actors and athletes are apart of the pop-culture dominating American education. I would even go as far to argue they are central figures, which historically is no different than any other times, except today we idolize what they usually ‘do’ rather than ‘say’ more often than not. If we cared about what they had to say… I do not think most of the pop-icons today would be very popular.

Having noted the most powerful way in which we gain values as a national identity; pop-culture through entertainment. There still are unanswered questions: How does this effect our abilities to be altruistic with others? In what way does our linear education and the American Dream cause us to either good or bad at dealing with groups and others? Do these two ‘manners’ really conflict to the point of creating a paradox, if so, how does it alter our perceptions in value forming?

C. The Infection of the Paradox on Our Lives

Argument A. discussed how our education system uses linear methods of crafting our pursuits of knowledge, and how we are naturally prone to wanting to identity with groups. Then concludes the education system does not accurately prep children to associate with various groups; rather more likely does the opposite; encourages children to find safety in one or a few groups. Argument B. discusses that our pop-culture is a major form of our overall education as well as creating values of the American Dream. Concluding the majority gains their impressions of value forming from pop-icons and celebrities. So, how can we summarize all of this up together? As a nation, in the majority, we are terrible at forming collective values, but why? How can we naturally have an aptitude for social altruism, but still prove to be so individually selfish? Do we have a culture that inspires individualism? If we do, then, what causes us to defend these individualistic attitudes of selfishness? Perhaps the reptilian brain complex can help provide clarity of the above questions, but first let’s tie together what we have discovered so far.

Did we ever have a chance to be good at value forming? Between a linear education, the American Dream, the celebrities who we idolize, and lack of group-reflection… This all adds up to a sort of culture which is worried about self preservation and identity safety; a culture of individuals (inspired by Nick Tingle); which is the source of the paradox at hand. A part of any American, who has not stopped and reflected on the majority of what I have tried to argue thus far, has this paradoxical individualistic attitude. We had no ability to not be individuals in this sense of being worried about the AD in a linear scope of mind, because our nature and public nurturing conflict(ed) in such a way to form this paradox of values (which escalated overtime into our national identity). On the nature side; the desire to be grouped with others and to associate in order to be apart of something bigger than oneself (group-identity). The nurture side: our academic education system and our superficial pop-culture.

Since apart of our nature is to identify with others, we will automatically do so; this is without question. We will always require others in order to develop both individually and socially. And since we have no other environments besides our immediate ones, in which to gain resources, to satisfy our natural needs… The paradox manifests… A culture of individuals… A working, functional contradiction of a system – well at least seemingly functional. What keeps this absurd mindset going? This crazy aptitude of a national identity? Well, this is where our reptilian brain complex could come into the discussion, one of the three parts of the theorized triune brain, and may have something to say about all of this paradoxical conflict.

“The neurologist Paul MacLean has proposed that our skull holds not one brain, but three, each representing a distinct evolutionary stratum that has formed upon the older layer before it, like an archaeological site. He calls it the “triune brain.” MacLean, now the director of the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behaviour in Poolesville, Maryland, says that three brains operate like “three interconnected biological computers, [each] with its own special intelligence, its own subjectivity, its own sense of time and space and its own memory” (Kazlev). Interesting to consider, none the less, but what does this have to do with being like a reptile? “MacLean has shown… that the physically lower limbic system, which rules emotions, can hijack the higher mental functions when it needs to” (Kazlev) In essence, another argument in favor of a natural, evolutionary development in our thinking; our most primitive brain still exist and takes charge, as it is foundational for the entire ‘interconnected’ machine (ourselves); the R-complex or the reptilian complex is the base for the developed brain. This argument means nothing without the description of what the R-complex actually does for a number of animals, not just humans: “It is rigid, obsessive, compulsive, ritualistic and paranoid, it is “filled with ancestral memories”. It keeps repeating the same behaviours over and over again, never learning from past mistakes. This brain controls muscles, balance and autonomic functions, such as breathing and heartbeat. This part of the brain is active, even in deep sleep” (Kazlev). The reptilian complex is essentially what I am discussing as part of the natural reasoning for our paradoxical issues in this nation.

We, naturally, want to survive; no one can deny otherwise. The reptilian brain is worried about survival and is supported by instinctual drives. To connect this with our drive to be socially altruistic, it may immediately seem contradictory, but such incite couldn’t be further from the truth. What has and continues to allow us to survive is grouping with other people. So, at the core of our ‘rigid, compulsive, ritualistic and paranoid’ R-complex also exist the group mentality we used to survive through millions of years. Consider the group, and the individual in the group are not separate entities at this point! Our brain would not only evolve to worry about our survival, but the survival of our [pre]selected groups. Without reflection of who we group with, we will unconsciously follow the group over the cliff, because we instinctively already are apart of the groups we identify with. But, the cliff is not physical, it is a mental cliff, and falling off doesn’t kill you, it just keeps you unable to break through the nurture v. nature which creates your reality; how much do you allow your groups to dictate your thoughts?

How Evolution, Groups and Ourselves Clash

The above scientific concern seems to not effect how we educate at all, yet, this theory of the Triune Brain has changed many mindsets, in psychology, about how to look at the evolution of the brain, and it is time education specialist, theorist and politicians followed the mindset of thinking evolutionarily. This is available knowledge! Search engine anything I have said and one will find no fictitious information was used to argue with, but perhaps my conclusion will not be suffice enough for most. No matter, we are all able to understand our entire ‘self’ – the biology, the neurology and the spiritual/self-actualization. Yet, we don’t care to… In America, we could care less, not because we find the information useless, but because we do not have musicians composing lyrics about how the reptilian brain is the core of our thoughts, or a reality show about living as hunters and gatherers in the middle of a forest or jungle (w/ the theme of our dependency on others). It seems we meet our primitive needs on a more superficial level… A more direct and reflective level… We truly exist in an individualized culture; groups of people will believe their group is the best, and will reject working with others unless proven beneficial by group standards; usually the American Dream is the standard…

At this point, I hope the question going through your mind is: why, oh why, do we as a nation of over three hundred fifty million people continue to give into a system which proves to only stimulate our most primitive desires, and does not care to enhance our evolving social desires… ? Why are we so obedient to this system that predicates ideals of shallow-mindedness and non-divergent thinking? How? “Obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to. Some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living, and it is only the person dwelling in isolation who is not forced to respond, with defiance or submission, to the commands of others. For many people, obedience is a deeply ingrained behavior tendency, indeed a potent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct.” (Milgram) Because we were never given another option of a society to find authority with, because there was never an option, because these are the cards we were dealt (we were born into what we get)… This random occurrence eventually will be honored and defended our predestined live, without or little reflection, because that is our nature. Had we an education where we are taught to be divergent (many answers to a question), we would quickly see how our system of politics and public education are magnificently terrible, and reward winningly awful.

But that does not answer how the herd (the system) continually runs off of the cliff, for as long as it has, without significant notice of the general population. As if the herd are given blinders from subtle sources; I am not one to call conspiracy, but for over 60 years we have went from the world’s industrial leader to the world’s entertainment source. Either we as a nation unconsciously ingrained these paradoxical issues onto ourselves, or their may have been a bigger hidden agenda at hand. From who? I do not know, but, to go off topic for a moment… The first rule of Capitalist politics should be “follow the money” because that’s the reality of the philosophy in which Capitalism presents and practices. Who ever has the most to gain from a nation of mindless consumer zombies, may also have the most influence on keeping a nation’s mindset in the realm of linear dreaming (the primitve brain)… But that will not be the conclusion to this paper! Leave the conspiracy talk to the blogs and websites which already exist, this paper is worried about how to solve the problem, not to point fingers at who may have caused the paradoxical issues.

The main paradoxical issue I am concerned with is the poor value forming between what is -and- is not essential to being an average American; are charity, multiculturalism and tolerance our foundational values? Social altruism provides benefits to the individual from the groups, but in argument A. the idea of altruism was privatized towards selected groups; mainly probably immediate ones like family, friends, business patterns, churches, etc. Whether or not we are designed to only capable of being altruistic to a few choice groups or everybody we come into contact with – does not seem clear. Regardless, we still have this instinct, and if our instinct can guide us to naturally form relationships with people (as evolutionary psychologist suggest) unconsciously – I finalize my position, with the notion: alternatives to how education is presented can not only create a more well rounded human being, but, also a better nation in which we can be proud of, one void of superficial tendencies of wealth and singular positions of answer finding. And in place – social idealism; the pursuit of creating a nation where the abuse of others and the system is not wanted, because the desire to improve oneself and their groups (ultimately everyone) will become primary in our values. This social idealism would satisfy our natural intents of taking and giving back to groups, while not posing threats to our overall developments – both socially and individually.

Idealism of Group Methodology

Having suggested heavily that evolutionary issues are very real factors in how we perceive the world and respond to other people. I believe this is knowledge we should not ignore. Education systems need to take into account the very real psychological factors that exist in order to educate children to being better thinkers, learners and overall human beings. The reality in which the world works is not individualism; individuals get nothing done without the support of others. Anything one wants to do is dependent on a system in place, and the system is carried forth by a society. Our education as noted in argument A. does not educate in groupthought, but the contrary; education that the individual is the key to success and that one answer, is desirable. This singular/linear thinking does not allow for ‘surprise’ or ‘quick change’ and makes these moments in time more often scary than interesting. I suggest we educate in a manner that is beneficial to both the individual and to their future relationships with others, by educating in the mindset the will be doing just that.

A group method class for primary and secondary school – structured to challenge the normative natures presented here (namely group-following) by creating situations where children will have to consider the ‘checks and balances’ of picking either group, or picking to not pick either group. Basically the goal of the class would be to allow children to challenge the very natures that will guide them through their lives. Unfortunately, such a proposal seems very problematic in structure. Perhaps group method should be the backbone of other types of classes that impose critical thinking? Science Fiction Appreciation. Nonfiction Writing. Poetry. Basic Philosophy. Any of the above would be excellent classes to allow exploratory thinking to occur; creatively inspired classes (the design for each class are pending papers of mine). With a group methodology at the core, however, exploratory thinking may prove more than to spur creative juices, but also provide tools for practical everyday use. We are social animals after all; although, almost ironically, being social to multiple groups rather than a few selected ones appears to not be natural. So, we must allow education systems to nurture us beyond our short sighted attitudes of conforming to a few choice groups; beyond our reptilian brain. Educate in the pursuit of multiple consciousnesses, in another sense, and the benefits will be immense.

Put kids in groups! Give them assignments with roles for everything, not just a project once a year! Figure out how to allow them to configure with one another in order to succeed. An example of a project would be to co-author or group-author papers; assign a ten page paper instead of five for two kids, this way they have to collaborate on the paper and agree. I feel this value will be revolutionary, because there already exist co-authored books, and group authored – it makes sense; people tend to share the same thoughts and impressions but have two modes of looking at a problem; put two different minded people together on the same topic, the results can be amazing! Imagine a philosopher of mind (specialist) and a neuroscientist collaborating a book that explains to teenagers about their developing bodies, or their minds (in their level of understanding, w/ relative examples). To promote collaboration early in education will platform the rest of the students live; our whole lives are based on collaboration! Whether it be natural or nurtured.

A group method class could be organized to do so, and by doing so, individual grading is not done but group grades. One will argue, what about the kid who will not do anything? The rest of the group will scold him/her of course, but is that any different than the real world? Why must we protect children from how things actually are? We can only do so much for the bullying problems existing today, and direct attempts to resolve them seem to only make things worse. More group work will benefit more than there would be draw backs. Especially, objectively considering, how the rest of their lives will be most likely involved in group activity. Again, like the above suggest classes for exploratory thinking, the idea of group method is unheard of in academic training. Yet in the end game, after college, that is the reality of the situation; we will be immersed in groups forever – let’s start early in educating children how to be better at reacting and relating to others, because again, they will be doing it anyways one day. This group method, in either a class or a part of class, may (I pray) help our future of America destroy the current paradox we are in; this culture of individualism. The individual is not the future, you are not the future! The group – a nation, a religion, a movement – are the future, we are the future. Start acting like it, question where it is you gain your primary values from and question those values. If they are ‘good’ or ‘true’ they will last through inquiry, that is this writer’s promise to whom ever read this absurd paper. “What does it take to be entirely in control; with one’s own thoughts and environment?”

Many pet owners mistakenly think they can leave the water sit for days and days without repercussions to pet health.

This is most prevalent in cages where water changes are a real pain. Changing the water is very important for pet health in more ways than just one:

– Pets regulate their temperature with water.

– Pets drink the water

– Skin health is regulated by water softening and moisturizing

– Pets use the water to defecate

– Pets may swim and stay in the water for long periods.

Temperature Regulation

Temperature regulation is top on the list when it comes to a reptile. Because they are cold blooded, they do not have an internal mechanism to regulate their body temperature. So they step out of the sun light and hide under a rock, or if they need to cool down quicker they will jump into a pool. Some even use the pool as a temperature regulation device. Keeping the water heated to the proper temperature has a deep impact on the immune system in reptiles.

Metabolic Systems

Reptiles, like most animals need to drink water to keep their metabolic systems operating properly. But just as much as they drink, they also urinate and defecate. The problem can be where they defecate and that more often than not, cannot be regulated or controlled. They typically end up using their water source as their preferred spot to defecate.

Skin Care

The skin health for a reptile is maintained by water soaking. To keep the skin from getting too dried out they submerse themselves. That along with a good diet helps maintain skin health. All animals are different so make sure you know what they eat and what kind of water they should be exposed too.

Clean Water is Key

The key element here is that the water be clean and free of High Bacteria count. For example a turtle shell can literally rot off the turtle or become de-laminated and pose a serious danger to the turtles overall well being. Giant flakes of shell can come off due to the bacterial or even fungi type infections that result from bad water conditions.

It is not just turtles but other pets that must have clean water; otherwise they can inject bacterium or even parasites such as worms that will get into their digestive tracts causing eating and weight problems.

Clean water is the key. To clean the water it is best to remove the water, and clean the container thoroughly with a light solution of bleach. Every week is recommended, but every other day for larger animals is a must.

Cleaning The Water

The cleaning of the water can be accomplished by using aerators and filtration systems, but care must again be taken to not think that the water doesn’t need to be changed. The sides of the container can get build up which the filtration system does not address; so, filtered water systems must be changed at least monthly if not sooner. Be sure to check with your local pet store or your veterinarian.

To aid in changing water various systems have been devised. However, the easiest and low cost system is the removable dish, or removable pool. Even with these, however, especially with larger tanks, it might be advisable to use a siphon pump to get the tanks down in the water level. Try hefting a full 3 gallon pool sometime and you will get the point. Empty the pool partially first then remove it entirely. Invest in a low cost siphon pump, it will save you mega spillage.

To Recap

To recap, water changes are very necessary for your pet’s health. And secondly, it need not be a trying experience to remove the water from your pets water area; use a removable pool and if needed a simple water siphon to get the water out. Then cleaning your pool is snap, because it can be removed and cleaned in the laundry tub in the basement.

And that brings one final note…don’t clean your pets stuff in the kitchen sink. The bacteria they carry will be all over your kitchen sink guaranteed…and you don’t want worms, or salmonella poisoning…

Yutyrannus huali – Gigantic Feathered Dinosaur from China

Palaeontologists from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (Beijing, China) have published a scientific paper on a newly described feathered dinosaur. Over recent years, there have been many discoveries of new types of feathered dinosaur fossils in the Liaoning Province of northern China. However, this new dinosaur find, named Yutyrannus huali stands out for a number of reasons. Firstly, the specimens are very well-preserved and nearly complete, secondly, different sized individuals have been found, an adult and two juveniles, helping scientists to determine how these animals grew and developed and thirdly – Y. huali was huge. At something like nine metres in length and weighing over a tonne (estimated 1,400 kilogrammes), this dinosaur is one of the largest feathered creatures known to science. As if this wasn’t enough to get dinosaur fans swishing their tails and roaring with excitement it seems that this new feathered giant may have been a primitive member of the Tyrannosaurs, that famous clade of Theropods that include Albertosaurus, Daspletosaurus and of course T. rex.

Rivalling Gigantoraptor as the Biggest Feathered Creature Known

A number of websites have reported on this discovery, some have claimed that this new species is the largest feathered creature known to science. True, when compared to the likes of the Therizinosaur Beipiaosaurus (Beipiaosaurus inexpectus), a feathered dinosaur also from the Liaoning Province it is very big. Beipiaosaurus is estimated to have measured around 2.5 metres in length and weighed as much as eighty kilogrammes, but commentators are forgetting the enormous, Oviraptorid – Gigantorapotor erlianensis, discovered in 2005 by an expedition to Mongolia by scientists from the Beijing based institute. Indeed, some of the team that studied the eight metre long Gigantoraptor have also been working on this new giant feathered dinosaur. Gigantoraptor is estimated to have been taller than a giraffe.

Yutyrannus Related to Tyrannosaurus rex

Analysis of the skull material suggests that Yutyrannnus was a member of the Tyrannosaur family, a Tyrannosauroid, although it is not a direct ancestor of the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, it was carnivorous and most probably an apex predator in its environment. The name Yutyrannus means “beautiful feathered tyrant”, in recognition of the evidence of long, filamentous feathers that have been found in association with the fossil remains and the classification of this new dinosaur species as a Tyrannosaur.

Dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous

Yutyrannus huali roamed what was to become northern China approximately 125 million years ago (Barremian faunal stage of the Early Cretaceous). The Tyrannosaur family can be traced back into the Late Jurassic, Xu Xing one of the Chinese palaeontologists involved in the study of Yutyrannus was responsible for naming and describing Guanlong (Guanlong wucaii), a basal member of the Tyrannosaurs that lived something like thirty million years earlier.

Yutyrannus up to Nine Metres in Length

The adult skeleton measures about nine metres in length and indicates that this new dinosaur would have rivalled Gigantoraptor for the title of the biggest feathered creature known to science. The other two individuals are believed to represent immature individuals and not a second species. This has been determined by the Chinese researchers who noticed that a number of vertebrae (back bones) had not fully fused indicating that these fossils represent creatures that had not reached adulthood. Even so, these youngsters were already hefty. Each one would have weighed about as much as a fully grown dairy cow.

Evidence of Feathers

All three fossil specimens show evidence that these dinosaurs had feather-like filaments adorning their bodies. Some of the feathers were at least fifteen centimetres in length. In the adult, traces of feathers have been found along the tail, with the immature animals, the feathers appeared to have been along the neck and down the humerus (upper arm) in one specimen and near the pelvis and foot in the other. Taken together it can be speculated that a single Yutyrannus may have been completely feathered. Certainly, younger animals may have been completely feathered, the feathers helping to insulate this warm-blooded dinosaur. Older animals, with larger bodies, which can retain heat better (surface area to volume assessments), may not have been completely feathered. It is possible that as the animals grew the feathers become important not for insulation against the chilly conditions in northern China but for display or to show status in the “flock”.

This new discovery, reported in the academic journal “Nature”, suggests what a number of palaeontologists have thought for sometime, that even the biggest Theropods could have been feathered. Certainly, due to the size of these individuals these dinosaurs could not fly, but the feathers served another purpose – signalling amongst other members of the species or perhaps to insulate the animal against the cold.

The Chinese team are using microscopy and other techniques to try to determine the colours of the feathers, this may give the scientists more data on just what purpose the feathers served. Their discovery has re-ignited the debate whether other Cretaceous Tyrannosaurs such as T. rex were feathered too.

Although, extensive coal deposits found in the northern hemisphere (Canada and Siberia), which date from the Early Cretaceous suggest that the climate was warmer than today, the high latitude with which these fossils are associated with indicates that the environment in which these giant Theropods roamed could be decidedly chilly. Analysis of oxygen isotope ratios recovered from the teeth of Yutyrannus suggests that the climate in this part of China was remarkably similar to northern China today. It has been estimated that the average annual temperature was around ten degrees Celsius – much colder than in other parts of the world where dinosaur remains have been discovered. This finding adds weight to the speculation that the feathers helped to keep these creatures warm, insulating their bodies against the cold.

Irrespective of the feather’s function, the research team have concluded that Yutyrannus shows that a drastic reduction in plumage was not an inevitable consequence of having a large body size.

The Liaoning Province had provided a lot of evidence of small, feathered dinosaurs, so many scientists had suggested that it was only a matter of time before evidence of a big dinosaur with feathers would be found.

Direct Evidence of Large Feathered Dinosaurs

Yutyrannus huali provides direct evidence that large, feathered dinosaurs did exist. It offers new insights into the origins and evolution of feathers, which are in themselves highly modified reptilian scales. The fact that two juveniles have been discovered permits scientists to examine how these animals changed as they grew (helping with ontogenic studies). Described as a basal Tyrannosauroid, Yutyrannus is similar to other primitive Tyrannosaurs found in northern China, although unlike the later T. rex it had three fingers on its arms, which were proportionately much bigger than the arms of later Tyrannosaurs.