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sftsocialnews · 9 months

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Pakistani politician and barrister Shehzad Akbar The end- of November 2023 acid attack on Shehzad Akbar (Former Advisor of Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan) at his London home by suspected ISI agents is a stark reminder that Pakistan’s military does not tolerate those who question the deep state. Soon after the incident a senior Tory MP claimed that the attack was carried out by an agent of the ISI. Shahzad Akbar, who sought refuge in the UK after leading Pakistan’s efforts to combat corruption and was an outspoken opponent of the government, said he was saved by his spectacles, which were badly damaged. Akbar described how the attack was launched in front of his four-year-old daughter and left him with acid burns on an arm and the top of his head. David Davis, a Tory MP and former cabinet minister said foreign secretary Lord David Cameron should summon Pakistan’s high commissioner over the incident. While Pakistan has promptly denied any role in the incident, a perusal of their record shows that the hands of the deep state are not all clean when it comes to political assassinations and killings.“The circumstantial evidence that this attack was conducted at the behest of the ISI is persuasive,” Mr Davis said. “The Pakistanis have to understand that whatever the standards of law at home, they cannot be allowed to attack British residents on British soil. “The foreign secretary should summon the high commissioner and demand an explanation.” Likening the incident to the poisonings of Yulia and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018, he said such behaviour would be “no more acceptable from the Pakistanis than from the Russians”. Akbar, who read law at Newcastle University (UK) and is a member of the English bar, was appointed head of the Asset Recovery Unit by former Prime Minister Imran Khan when he became Prime Minister in 2018, spearheading high-profile attempts to investigate officials and politicians suspected of stealing millions and aiming to return the money to the Pakistani treasury.At a recent Pak MoFA media briefing, Farhan Ali of Public News raised a question about the acid attack in London on Shahzad Akbar. Akbar, according to the journalist, also made allegations of involvement of Pakistani institutions. The MoFA spokesperson, inter alia, responded to this query by saying that “We reject any insinuations of Pakistan’s involvement and that of Pakistani agencies in such a heinous attack. It is not our policy to target our own nationals abroad. Many political dissidents have sought political asylum and have been living in the United Kingdom and other countries around the world for several decades and they have indulged in vitriolic and often undue criticism of Pakistani government and institutions. Many of them have had links with terrorist entities inside Pakistan. Pakistan has not engaged in any extra-territorial attacks against such individuals”. To say the least this was only diplomatic answer that one could have expected from Pakistan! The reality as the world knows is quite the opposite.To stay on the Shahzad Akbar case, it would be recalled that in May 2023, the ISI kidnapped his brother Murad from his home in Islamabad and held him without charge at an undisclosed location. For a few days, officials insisted falsely in court that they knew nothing about it, until an assistant to the prime minister told a press conference that he was “inviting” Shahzad to come back to Pakistan, whereupon his brother could be freed and even given his medication. Murad was finally freed on 27 August after prominent figures including David Davis and the Labour MP Chris Bryant wrote an open letter to then-foreign secretary James Cleverly, saying he was “at risk of torture, disappearance and death”, and asking him to do all he could to secure his release.The ISI’s famous for assassinations and targeted killings. The examples of Karima Baloch and Sajjid Hussain in Canada & Sweden respectively in 2020 and more recently, that of Arshad Sharif in Kenya in 2022 are telling. Both exiled dissidents were found dead in or near a body of water. Baloch was discovered near a lake in Canada on 22 December. Hussain was found in a river in Sweden in May Pertinently, both Karima Baloch and Sajjid Hussain were from Pakistan’s ethnic Baluch minority and had sought asylum in the West after threats to their lives from the Pakistan establishment. Both were vocal critics of Pakistan’s powerful military and its alleged abuses in the province of Baluchistan, the scene of a separatist insurgency and a brutal state crackdown that has witnessed the death killed thousands of people and scores of disappearances since 2004. According to Pakistani dissidents, both were murdered on direct orders from the Pakistani Army and ISI, institutions that are often accused of crushing political dissent.In both cases, local authorities in Canada and Sweden said there was nothing to indicate foul play but have revealed few details about their deaths. The body of Karima Baloch was found in Toronto in 2020. She had been living in exile for five years due to terrorism charges in Pakistan. A vocal critic of the Pakistani military and the ISI. Karima Baloch hailed from the region of Baluchistan in western Pakistan. Her husband Hammal Haider recently claimed (30 September 2023) that Karima’s assassination was part of the ISI’s plan to get rid of Baloch activists abroad. Another instance is that of prominent Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui who had left Pakistan in 2018, shortly after armed men beat, threatened, and attempted to kidnap him in Islamabad. He blamed the attack on the ISI.Sajjid Hussain, had fled into exile in 2012, after reporting on human rights abuses in Balochistan. Pakistani police had raided his residence and questioned family members. He had continued to run an online newspaper, the Balochistan Times, from abroad. Hussain was from a prominent political family in Balochistan. His uncle, Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, was killed in 2011 while leading a nationalist movement. Similarly, Pakistani journalist and independent broadcaster Arshad Sharif was killed under mysterious circumstances in Kenya in October 2022. The 49-year-old journalist was living in exile after he fled the country in August 2022 to avoid arrest in the wake of multiple cases, including sedition charges, slapped against him for making comments on his show deemed offensive to the military. This makes it clear that Pakistan’s ISI is not averse to targeted killings. Therefore, for the Pak MoFA spokesperson to claim that they had no hand in the acid attack on former Special Assistant to the Prime Minister in London is a cliché that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. While it is accepted today that all nations engage in covert action including political assassinations, Pakistan is a past-master at this game. For all we know, the ISI could well be behind the killings of several prominent terrorists who were linked to attacks on India. The series of recent killings in Pakistan could well be the handiwork of the ISI as the dead tell no tales. (By Joe Elhage)>> Source: Al Arabiya Post Latest News #Pakistans #ISI #master #political #assassinations

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lefanartist-archive · 2 years

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#trollge #trollge incident #the acid refuge incident

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bugabisous · 5 years

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and i don't know how it gets better than this

pairing: adrien agreste as chat noir/marinette dupain-cheng as ladybug (ladynoir) rating: pg. summary: Hell, she hates him in that moment. Which is, funnily enough, when she grabs him by the shoulders and pulls him closer. prompt: #14 of this post, (a kiss so desperate that the two wind around each other, refusing to let go until they are finished.) ao3 link: here.

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Marinette knows she will always remember the moment she realized she was irretrievably in love with Chat Noir. The moment when she finally figured out how completely and utterly necessary he was for her to remain sane, and how much she longed to allow herself to kiss him senseless, will be burned into the back of her eyelids until her very last breath.

Sounds dramatic, and like something a dumb teenager in love might say, but she can’t be held responsible for her thoughts when the swarm of magical ladybugs bring him back and drop him right in front of her. Her lungs feel as if they’re collapsing, her breath escaping her in stuttery puffs of air, her chest heaving with the need to hold him close.

She opens her mouth to tell him how idiotic he is for sacrificing himself for her even though she knows it needed to be done, but stops. She can’t yell at him for jumping in front an akuma at the very last instant, when it caught her by surprise, because she knows that he didn’t do it only due to his feelings for her – he did it because it was what Paris needed him to do.

She can’t yell at him for what he did, and the frustration boils in the pit of her stomach, like acid, threatening to spill from her eyes in the form of tears. She knows he had to do it but, damn, does she hate him for doing it. And for smiling at her softly, right now, as if nothing had happened, as if she hadn’t spent 7 horrible minutes trying to desperately defeat the akuma so she could bring him back, grinning with his stupid mouth as if it was no big deal.

Hell, she hates him in that moment. Which is, funnily enough, when she grabs him by the shoulders and pulls him closer. At first, it seems like she’s going to hug him, but before she knows it her lips have found his, in a frantic movement that catches them both by surprise. He gasps against her lips, but Chat has never been one for hesitation and immediately starts kissing her back, giving her no time to regret it – not that she’s even thinking about regretting it, as she winds up her arms around his neck, pulling herself to her tiptoes as she drags him down to try to close the already small distance between them.

His hands start wandering towards her back in a frenzy, but he’s careful with her in such an instinctual way that he makes sure that his claws don’t scratch her as he slowly drags his hands all over her shoulder blades. Tears have started to fall from her eyes, but she doesn’t care; she even ignores the fact that they’re in broad daylight and cameras must be going wild all around them. She doesn’t care about anything but the feel of him, warm and alive, in her arms.

It must have only been three minutes at most, but the moment feels like an eternity of sensations, and yet the yearning still taking refuge in her chest makes it seem as if they have only started kissing. It’s an oxymoron, in a way, the fact that she feels as if she’s had this moment for a thousand lifetimes and still she wants to keep living in it until the end of time.

The beeping of her miraculous gives her pause, and she starts to pull away; it’s then that she notices that Chat lifted her off the ground and has been holding her up. His eyes look wild, they’re half unfocused and at the same time they’re sharp, staring her down with an intensity she didn’t think was possible. She thought she knew the weight of Chat’s gaze before, but she realizes that she had been wrong because no one, not even him, has ever look at her like this before.

Was this how he looked at her before kissing her during the Oblivio incident? If so, she can understand why it happened. She doesn’t think she could ever be able to resist his soulful eyes, peering into the very core of who she is and choosing to love her anyway. She feels stripped down, but also fearless. And that’s how she knows this was always meant to happen, that they were meant to happen.

He grabs her by the waist and uses his baton to take her away from the cameras. And in that moment she doesn’t even want to hide her identity from him, even though she must; she wants to share everything with him, but she knows she can’t, and not for the first time she curses the secrecy they need to survive, and she curses her inability to ignore the rules and just be with him without barriers.

She detransforms safely in an alley, behind a dumpster, Chat not looking at her while she feeds Tikki. She longs to just grab him by the shoulder, make him turn around and kiss him again, without her mask standing between them, with her bare fingers digging into his hair and pulling him closer, with everything that she has.

She does kiss him again, once she’s back to wearing her spots. And she doesn’t let go, not ever again.

#ladynoir #fic #mine #love square #kiss prompt thingy #wrote this in 30 minutes in two random bursts of activity #not betaed and i don't read over my work much so sorry for any typos #not me forgetting to update the summary here #my fic

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militant-holy-knight · 5 years

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"There Is No Christian Anymore in This Town"

Mali: On June 9, Islamic Fulani gunmen massacred at least 95 Christians — including women and children. During their rampage in a Christian village, they set it ablaze before leaving; several of the slain were burned alive. "About 50 heavily armed men arrived on motorbikes and pickups," a survivor recalled. "They first surrounded the village and then attacked — anyone who tried to escape was killed.... No one was spared — women, children, elderly people." Security sources confirmed that the raiders also randomly killed domestic animals in the village. It was "virtually wiped out."

Burkina Faso: Islamic terrorists slaughtered 29 Christians over the course of two separate raids. The first took place on Sunday, June 9, in the town of Arbinda; 19 Christians were slaughtered. The next day, another ten Christians were murdered in a nearby town. An additional 11,000 Christians fled the region and were left displaced; they feared if they were to remain in their villages they would be next. "There is no Christian anymore in this town [Arbinda]," said a local contact. He added that "It's proven that they [terrorists] were looking for Christians. Families who hide Christians are [also] killed. Arbinda had now lost in total no less than 100 people within six months." These June attacks follow a string of Islamic terror attacks in the West African nation over the preceding six weeks that left at least another 20 Christians dead.

Nigeria: Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed at least 24 Christians in three separate raids. On June 17, the herdsmen slaughtered 13 Christians — three of whom were children, one reportedly only eight years old — in Kaduna and Plateau States. Two churches, more than 200 Christian homes, and crops were also torched to the ground. The same day, in Tarabu State, "Muslim Fulanis riding Bajaj motorcycles" raided another Christian village, where they butchered another 11 Christians. "They burned houses and shot us as we fled," a "contact" said, according to the report. According to Morning Star News:

"Like Boko Haram, they are inspired by the jihad and caliphate of their Fulani kinsman Usman dan Fodio," John Eibner, chairman of international management at the Swiss-based CSI, notes on the Website. "The extensive death and destruction caused by Fulani terrorists rarely makes major headlines in the West. But, according to the Global Terrorism Index, 'In 2018 alone, deaths attributed to Fulani extremists are estimated to be six times greater than the number committed by Boko Haram'...

"Fulani attacks against villages, the destruction of crops, and kidnappings tend to be directed against Christian and traditionalist villagers, with the goal of driving them off their land and occupying it," Eibner states on the Website (www.nigeria-report.org). "For the Fulani militias, the ideology and rhetoric of dan Fodio's jihad are used to legitimize land grabbing. The violence of these Muslim Fulani militias tends to be conducted with impunity. The American and British-backed Nigerian Army – the largest in Africa and a major participant in many international peacekeeping missions – is unable or unwilling to confront Fulani militias."

Morocco: According to the ringleader of an Islamic terror cell, the sole reason that he and his men slaughtered two female Scandinavian students — a Dane, 24, and a Norwegian, 28 — who were hiking through the North African nation's Atlas Mountains, was because they were Christian (many Muslims assume that all Europeans are practicing Christians). Abdessamad Ejoud, 25, confessed to this motivation during his and two other terrorists' court trial over the murders that occurred last December. Ejoud, who professed his "love" for ISIS in court, personally beheaded one of the two women because, as Christians, they are Allah's "enemies," he said, and are responsible for "killing Muslims."

Pakistan: Three Muslim men and one woman robbed, beat, and poisoned Sagheer Masih, a 35-year-old Christian auto-rickshaw driver. According to the report, he "was targeted because of religious hatred, prejudice and apparent jealously of his success":

Sagheer Masih's work ethic and personality drew several customers to him. He was well-mannered, polite and very friendly. Knowing he had the responsibility of taking care of three younger siblings after the death of his father, he ensured that he always got to work early and left late in order to gather as much money as he could to care for them. At work, he experienced discrimination because of his faith. Several of the other drivers called him "Choora" which is a derogatory word for a Christian in Pakistan, but he never saw his death coming. On the night of the incident, he stayed at work later than usual to drive for people he thought were customers. The group requested that he take them on a longer route than usual and made it clear to him that they were willing to pay an extra fee. After moments of driving, they directed him to a remote location and, at knife-point, demanded that he give them all his money. Sagheer, being scared for his life and concerned for his siblings, gave all he had, but begged that they spare his life. Instead of killing him in on the spot, they forced him to drink poison and acid and left him there to die. Sagheer Masih spent that night on laying on the street unconscious. When he was finally found, he was unable to eat or drink anything and he consistently vomited blood....

Sri Lanka: The Islamic suicide bombing of churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, April 21, that claimed more than 250 lives claimed another life in June. Arun Prashanth, who heroically helped others after his church was bombed, had been struggling between life and death in an intensive care unit for 40 days when, on June 4, he finally succumbed to death. According to a report, "Arun, [30,] the sole family breadwinner who cared for his widowed mother, was very active in Christian ministry and known as someone who was always available to help out anyone in need."

Niger: On June 15, in response to the arrest of a popular Muslim imam who had accused proposed legislation of being "anti-Islamic," a Muslim mob of more than 150 people set the Assembly of God Church in Maradi ablaze. They also torched the pastor's car and raided another neighboring church. A senior official of Niger's Ministry of Interior later said that there is "nothing anti-Islamic" in the proposed legislation, which is intended to counter measures advocated by "obscurantist terrorist organizations." The imam, Sheikh Rayadoune, was released the day after his arrest, at which point he announced that "all my supporters must stop making trouble in the town. Islam does not recommend that."

United States: A Muslim man from Syria, who in August 2016 was admitted into the U.S. as a "refugee," was "arrested on terrorism charges in relation to a plan to attack a church in Pittsburgh, according to the Justice Department," notes a report dated June 19:

Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, was arrested based on a federal complaint charging him with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to the self-described Islamic State, also known as ISIS, according to the U.S. Justice Department. He's also charged with two counts of distributing information relating to an explosive, destructive device or weapon of mass destruction in relation to a plan to attack the Legacy International Worship Center on the city's north side. The complaint states that Alowemer in May gave "multiple instructional documents" detailing how to build and use explosives, including improvised explosive devices, to an undercover FBI agent he believed was an ISIS supporter. Federal prosecutors allege that the man handed over these documents intending for them to be used in assembling a weapon to conduct an attack.

Alowemer had purchased several items — including nails, batteries and consumer products containing hazardous chemicals — to be used in his improvised explosive device.

Ethiopia: Authorities ordered an evangelical church congregation to vacate the building it had been using for the last decade. Complaints from neighbors of loud noises were cited in the eviction letter, which gave the congregants 30 days to vacate the premises. "This decision is nothing other than a display of animosity towards Protestant churches in the region," said one local.

"Similar tensions are bubbling under the surface in other parts of Oromia. We have even heard of places where Muslims had asked Christians to vacate the area. And though this call is veiled as ethnic rivalry by some media and observers, it is at its very core a religious matter."

According to World Watch Monitor:

There is concern that these measures are part of a concerted effort to discourage Christian activity in Oromia state, the birthplace of [Muslim] President Abiye Ahmed. Leaders say they also fear that if these government actions are successful, it might encourage Muslims in other communities in Oromia to initiate similar complaints. As of the 2007 census, the state was about 51 percent Christian (17.7% protestant, 30.4 orthodox) and 47.6% Muslim.... It's not only the state's Protestant churches that face problems. Some Ethiopian Orthodox churches have reported an increase in difficulties...

Lebanon: Security agents arrested a Syrian national and ISIS-sympathizer, aged 20, for plotting a series of attacks against the nation's Christian churches and Shia mosques. He was apparently inspired by the April 21 Sri Lanka terror attacks on Christian churches and tourist designations that left more than 250 dead. The report stated:

Within the Middle East context, Lebanon is considered a comparatively safe country for Christians. It is the only country with a Christian president. Even so, challenges persist. The Iranian backed terrorist group, Hezbollah, has a strong political influence in the country. Lebanon is home to over a million refugees and asylum seekers. Lebanese Christians are well-aware of how this combination could place them into situations which make them more vulnerable to attacks.

Uganda: A Christian primary school, which takes in Muslim children thrown out by their parents for converting to Christianity, was unexpectedly demolished by authorities after local Muslims complained that the school was conducting loud and disruptive worship services in the evening. One written compliant, sent directly to the school, threatened that "If you do not stop night prayers, we are going to take tough action against the school." Soon after, at 2:00am on June 2, without prior notification, the school was demolished.

Uganda: Local authorities banned open-air evangelical church events after some Muslims converted to Christianity — while others, angered by such apostasy, threatened church leaders with text messages such as, "Tomorrow we are coming to kill all of you during the open air crusade." Several of the Christians who spoke at the event were former Muslims and openly discussed what they deemed problematic Islamic doctrines that prompted them to embrace Christianity. "We cannot allow the Christians to use the Koran in their meetings or to allege that Jesus is the Son of God," explained one mosque leader; "this [is] a serious blasphemy to Muslims." Another sheikh openly threatened the apostates with death:

"We cannot watch the Christians changing our faithful members to Christianity. If those who have joined Christianity will not return back to Islam, then we are going to treat them as infidels, hence deserving death according to the teaching of Islam."

"I am very afraid for my life," said a former Muslim cleric turned Christian. "I have received threatening messages in my phone that the Muslims want my head." Local authorities responded to these threats by shutting down the evangelical events.

Egypt: A Sudanese Muslim cleric who on converting to Christianity fled his persecutors in Sudan and came to Egypt continues to receive threats. Most recently, a caller on the telephone told Al Hadi Izzalden Shareef Osman that he is "an infidel and fuel for hell." It was the voice of a cleric who a week earlier had come to Osman's Cairo apartment with five other Muslim sheikhs demanding that the apostate renounce Christ and re-embrace Islam or prepare to face the consequences. "They kept telling me to go mosque, but I refused," Osman said. "I was afraid and had to relocate from the apartment to another location.... Egypt is no longer safe for me. I want to relocate elsewhere, I am tired of these threats."

Separately, on June 10, an angry Muslim mob attacked Christians in the village of Ishnin, in Upper Egypt, after the Islamic call to prayer, portions of which announced that a young Christian had made a post on Facebook deemed offensive to Islam. Fadi Yousef, 25, the accused, says his account was hacked; he deleted the post once he saw it — posting in its place an explanatory apology. "He is apologizing because he respects your feelings," his sister later explained. "He is not a child to do such a thing..." Regardless, a mob gathered and forced their way into his family home and the homes of two other relatives; they tore out the electrical wiring and destroyed furniture. According to a local, "The extremists were roaming the village saying, 'There is no god but Allah.' We were very afraid in that time.... All of us are now in our homes." "This is a village which is full of many Muslim Brotherhood members," said another Christian woman. "I'm sure that unless the police had entered the village, the extremists would have killed every Christian, one by one. Now there are many armored police in the village." The young Christian, his wife and small daughter barely managed to escape "minutes before the Muslim extremists broke in and destroyed the refrigerator, television set, mattresses, furniture and windows," a statement from the local bishopric indicated; it adds that the mob was "shouting against the Christian religion and the Copts of the village."

The next day, police arrested the accused Christian man on the charge that he had insulted Islam, which in Egypt is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Pakistan: Apparently angered at the success of a Christian pastor's ministry and eager to halt it, a mob of about 35 men attacked him and his family at their home. Thanks to a police officer who was passing by and saw the attack in progress, "Pastor Aziz, his wife, and their daughter escaped with minor injuries, though they only have the clothes on their backs," states the report. "They are now homeless as the attackers seized Pastor Aziz's property." According to a Western source, who knows him:

"Pastor Aziz, who himself had come out of a Muslim background, has been evangelizing and church planting... These Muslim militants want to see that stopped. But we are very glad that he is alive and he is determined to continue his ministry, even though he now has no home."

This attack — the third since Aziz became Christian — has also stirred up traumatic memories: "More than 15 years ago, he has a son who was five-years-old who was kidnapped, again, because of the family's faith in Jesus Christ. And Aziz and Ruhab have never seen him since."

Kuwait: Islamic cleric Othman al-Khamis was again accused of "stoking sectarian tension," against Christians. In June, he issued a fatwa (Islamic opinion), comparing the Christian crucifix to Satan. He added that "Muslims cannot wear clothes bearing images of the cross or the devil unless it is in an insulting place such as socks." Earlier this year, he issued another fatwa encouraging his followers to kill those who leave the religion.

United Kingdom: Muslim prison-gangs are threatening and beating non-Muslim prisoners, the majority of whom identify as Christians, into converting to Islam. "The tactic they use is to befriend someone when they come in," a non-Muslim inmate was quoted as saying, according to a new Ministry of Justice report. "If they don't convert, they will then start spreading rumours about them, that the person is a snitch, so that they will be ostracised. Then the beatings follow." Another prisoner summarized the gang leaders as follows:

"This will be someone whose offence has validity. It could be for high profile terrorism... They will either be born to the [Islamic] religion or converted a long time ago, before they came into prison. Prison converts wouldn't have the legitimacy to become leaders. Nothing will happen without the say so of the leader. If you can speak Arabic or learn passages of the Koran, this will allow you to get up the ranks. The leaders will be very polite to the faces of staff and won't do anything to get into trouble with the authorities themselves... It's all done though their footsoldiers."

"If I said I didn't want to be a Muslim, I'd need to watch out just in case someone stabbed me," said another prisoner. According to Christian prison pastor Paul Song — who was fired after a Muslim imam who disapproved of Song's approach took over as head chaplain — non-Muslim prisoners who "want to lead a peaceful life in prison ... need to become Muslim. That way they are protected.... Some people have been forced to convert with violence. How do I know? Because three or four people come up to me and tell me."

Libya: An internal UN report states that Libyan authorities are not burying the dead bodies of those Christians who died in the overcrowded Zintan detention center, which houses migrants and refugees, "because the local community insists the cemetery is only for Muslims," the Irish Times reported.

Egypt: On June 5, anti-Christian mob violence erupted in a majority-Muslim village after a former Christian woman who had run away with a Muslim man returned -- married, converted to Islam, and pregnant. During her absence, her Muslim-in-laws regularly harassed and threatened her former Christian family, who live across the street. As part of the triumphant celebration of her return as a Muslim, Muslims in the area began attacking and pelting the Christian household and others with stones, reportedly to the encouragement and support of the police. "We live in a state of terror now," the woman's Christian brother reported, "and the village has become chaotic as a result of the celebrations."

In a separate incident, in response to an ISIS attack in the Sinai Peninsula that left eight Egypt security officers dead, the government responded by honoring the slain -- except for one, a Christian. Seven schools were named after the seven slain Muslim officers, but the Christian, Abanoub Nageh, was denied this honor, until his family protested. Authorities initially responded by saying that a school would also be named after him, but then reneged, saying "this could not be done because of severe objections by the village Muslims that a school would bear such a flagrantly Coptic name as 'Abanoub.'" Instead, a rarely used canal bridge was named after him.

Pakistan: Eyewitnesses saw two Muslim men abduct Sania Lateef, a 15-year-old Christian girl, as she was taking out garbage from her family home. Her distraught parents went to the local police, but they refused to open an investigation. An activist acquainted with the case said the girl is believed to have been coerced into converting to Islam and marrying one of her abductors. The report adds:

"... the case of the Christian girl is the latest in a long series of abductions for the purpose of forced conversion and marriage in Pakistan.... In Pakistan the victims of kidnapping and forced conversion are almost always girls from religious minorities, whose members lack the power and money needed to file complaints and go to trial."

#persecution #Christianity #news #terrorism

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kneipho · 6 years

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Via: Bay Area Plays

Full List as of 8/31/18: San Francisco - Peninsula - North Bay -East Bay - South Bay

SAN FRANCISCO

42nd Street Moon – “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” – Oct. 3rd – 21st

African-American Shakespeare Company – “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” – Sept. 15th – 29th

American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) – “Sweat” – Sept. 26th – Oct. 21st “Men on Boats” – Oct. 17th – Dec. 16th

Awesome Theatre – “Terror-Rama III: Dead the Whole Time” – Oct. 12th – 27th

Bay Area Musicals –

Beach Blanket Babylon (OPEN-ENDED)

Bindlestiff Studio – “Stories High XViii” – Through Aug. 25th

Brava Theater Center –

Crescent Moon Theater –

Crowded Fire Theater – “Church” – Sept. 13th – Oct. 6th

Curran –

Custom Made Theatre Company – “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” – Sept. 20th – Oct. 20th

The Department of Badassery

Exit Theatre – “San Francisco Fringe Festival” – Sept. 6th – 15th

Faultline Theater Company –

Ferocious Lotus –

foolsFury –

Golden Thread Productions – “Kiss” (presented at Shotgun Players in Berkeley)- Aug. 23rd – Sept. 23rd

Killing My Lobster – “North by North Lobster” – Oct. 18th – 27th

Lamplighters – “The Pirates of Penzance” – Aug. 4th – 26th

Landmark Musical Theatre –

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre –

The Magic Theatre – “The Resting Place” – Oct. 10th – Nov. 4th

The Marsh – “The Clyde Always Show” – Through Aug. 29th “Keeping Up With the Jorgensons” – Through Aug. 25th “Bravo 25: Your A.I. Therapist Will See You Now” – Sept. 20th – Oct. 27th “The Waiting Period” – Through Oct. 28th “Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name” – Oct. 25th – Dec. 8th “Acid Test: The Many Incarnations of Ram Dass” – Sept. 21st – Nov. 4th

New Conservatory Theatre Center – “Red Scare on Sunset” – Sept. 21st – Oct. 21st “Cardboard Piano” – Oct. 26th – Dec. 2nd

The Playwright’s Center of San Francisco –

Playwrights Foundation – “Bay Area Playwright’s Festival” – July 20th – 29th

Ray of Light Theatre – “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” – Sept. 14th – Oct. 6th

The Refuge – “Cabaret” – July 6th – 15th

San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company –

San Francisco Mime Troupe – “Seeing Red: A Time-Traveling Musical – Begins July 4th (various locations)

San Francisco Playhouse – “You Mean to Do Me Harm” – Sept. 18th – Nov. 3rd “Sunday in the Park with George” – Through Sept. 8th

Shelton Theater – “Baby Doll” – Sept. 13th – Nov. 3rd

SHNSF – “Les Miserables” – Through Aug. 26th “The Phantom of the Opera” – Sept. 5th – 30th “On Your Feet! The Emilio and Gloria Estefan Broadway Musical” – Sept. 11th – Oct. 7th

Theatre Rhinoceros –

Thrillpeddlers

Troupe Theatre – “The Future is in Eggs” – Aug. 25th – 26th

Virago Theatre Company

Z Space – “#GetGandhi” – Aug. 10th – 26th

PENINSULA

Broadway by the Bay, Redwood City – “Saturday Night Fever” – Aug. 10th – 26th

Coastal Repertory Theatre, Half Moon Bay – “Avenue Q” – July 27th – Aug. 26th “Death of a Salesman” – Sept. 28th – Oct. 28th

Dragon Theatre, Redwood City – “The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence” – Sept. 14th – Oct. 7th

Fuse Theatre, Redwood City –

Hillbarn Theatre, Foster City – “West Side Story“ – Aug. 30th – Sept. 16th “Noises Off!” – Oct. 11th – 28th

Pacifica Spindrift Players – “My Fair Lady” – Aug. 10th – Sept. 2nd “It Can’t Happen Here” – Oct. 19th – Nov. 4th

Palo Alto Players – “Tarzan” – Sept. 8th – 23rd

The Pear Theatre, Palo Alto – “Northanger Abbey” – Aug. 31st – Sept. 23rd “Hedda Gabler” – Oct. 12th – 28th Stanford Repertory Theatre, Palo Alto –

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Palo Alto/Mountain View – “Native Gardens” – Aug. 22nd – Sept. 16th “Fun Home” – Oct. 3rd – 28th

NORTH BAY

6th Street Playhouse, Santa Rosa – “Comedy of Errors” – Through Sept. 2nd “Guys and Dolls” – Sept. 14th – Oct. 7th

Bay Area Stage Productions, Vallejo – “I Ought To Be in Pictures” – Through June 10th Lucky Penny Productions, Napa – “Into the Woods” – Sept. 7th – 23rd “Blithe Spirit” – Oct. 19th – Nov. 4th

Marin Shakespeare Company –

Marin Theatre Company, Mill Valley – “Oslo” – Sept. 27th – Oct. 21st

Novato Theater Company – “A Chorus Line” – Sept. 7th – 30th “God of Carnage” – Oct. 26th – Nov. 11th

Ross Valley Players – “Twelfth Night” – Sept. 28th – Oct. 21st

Sonoma Arts Live – “Hello, Dolly!” – Oct. 5th – 21st

Spreckels Theatre Company

– “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” – Sept. 7th – 30th“Addams Family Musical” – Oct. 12th – 28th

EAST BAY

Actor’s Ensemble of Berkeley – “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged” – Through Sept. 3rd

Altarena Playhouse, Alameda – “Clybourne Park” – Oct. 5th – Nov. 11th “One Man, Two Guvnors” – Through Sept. 9th

Anton’s Well Theater Company – “Dirty Butterfly” – Sept. 21st – Oct. 7th

Aurora Theatre Company, Berkeley – “Detroit, ’67” – Aug. 31st – Sept. 30th

Bay Area Children’s Theatre, Berkeley – “The Cat in the Hat – El Gato Ensombrerado” Sept. 15th – Nov. 4th

Berkeley Playhouse – “Dreamgirls” – Sept. 21st – Oct. 21st

Berkeley Repertory Theatre – “A Doll’s House, Part 2” – Sept. 6th – Oct. 21st “Fairview” – Oct. 4th – Nov. 4th

Center REPertory Theatre, Walnut Creek – “Mamma Mia” – Aug. 31st – Oct. 7th “Dancing Lessons” – Oct. 19th – Nov. 7th

Central Works, the New Play Theater, Berkeley – “Chekhov’s Ward 6” – Oct. 13th – Nov. 11th

Chanticleers Theatre, Castro Valley – “Don’t Dress For Dinner” – Oct. 19th – Nov. 11th

Contra Costa Civic Theatre – “Allegiance” – Sept. 21st – Oct. 21st

Douglas Morrisson Theatre, Hayward – “Once Upon a Mattress” – Sept. 13th – 30th

The Marsh, Berkeley – “Each and Every Thing” – Through Sept. 29th “One Life Stand” – Through Sept. 29th “Can You Dig It” – Through Sept. 9th “Latin Standards” – Oct. 5th – Nov. 17th

Masquers Playhouse, Point Richmond –

Piedmont Center Theatre, Piedmont –

Pittsburg Community Theatre – “Spamalot” – Sept. 28th – Oct. 7th

Ragged Wing Ensemble, Oakland –

Shotgun Players, Berkeley – “Women Laughing Alone With Salad” – Oct 12th – Nov. 11th “Kiss” – Through Sept. 23rd

Stage 1 Theatre, Newark –

Those Women Productions, Berkeley – “Woman on Fire” – Through Sept. 9th

Town Hall Theatre, Lafayette – “The Revolutionists” – Sept. 29th – Oct. 20th

Tri-Valley Rep, Livermore –

Ubuntu Theater Project – “Pool of Unknown Wonders” – Aug. 31st – Sept. 23rd

UC Berkeley TDPS –

Woodminster Amphitheater, Oakland – “In the Heights” – Aug. 31st – Sept. 9th

SOUTH BAY

Broadway San Jose – “On Your Feet” – Oct. 9th – 14th

Center Stage Performing Arts, Milpitas –

Children’s Musical Theater San Jose – City Lights Theatre Company, San Jose – “In the Heights” – Through Aug. 25th “God of Carnage” – Sept. 13th – Oct. 14th

Foothill Music Theatre, Los Altos Hills –

Lyric Theater, San Jose – “The Wizard of Oz” – Oct. 13th – 28th

Naatak Indian Theater – “Mahabharat” – Sept. 2nd – 23rd

Norcal Academy of Performing Arts –

Northside Theatre Company, San Jose –

Pintello Comedy Theater, Gilroy –

San Jose Stage Company – “The Lieutenant of Inishmore – Sept. 26th – Oct. 21st

San Jose Theaters

San Jose Youth Shakespeare –

Santa Clara Players – “Exit the Body” – Oct. 26th – Nov. 17th

Silicon Valley Shakespeare, San Jose – “Much Ado About Nothing” – Through Sept. 2nd

South Bay Musical Theatre, Saratoga – “Mame” – Sept. 22nd – Oct. 13th

Sunnyvale Community Players – “Grease” – Sept. 15th – Oct. 7th

Tabard Theatre Company – “Another Roll of the Dice” – Sept. 14th – Oct. 7th

Teatro Vision, San Jose – “Departera” – Oct. 11th – 21st

OPEN-ENDED RUNS/IMPROVISATION

Bay Area Theatre Sports (BATS), San Francisco

Comedysportz San Jose

Made Up Theatre, Fremont

Synergy Theater, Walnut Creek

Un-Scripted Theater Company, San Francisco

OPERA

Bay Area Opera Collaborative

Island City Opera, Alameda

Opera San Jose

#bayareaplays.com #san francisco #peninsula #north bay #east bay #south bay #OPEN-ENDED RUNS/IMPROVISATION #opera #california #northern california #theater #theater arts

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orionwhispers · 7 years

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Devil Like Me (Part I)

(A/N Hi everyone!This is Part I of my new Klaus fic “Devil Like Me” I've had this idea for years and thought maybe other people would enjoy reading it. Part II should be up soon, my inbox is always open!Hope you enjoy.)

Then

Sipping bitter cherry vodka from a chewed red solo cup, you swayed to the thud of the music blaring from the radio of a rusty Cherokee Jeep, fingertips gathering at the bottom of the silk dress you had borrowed from your best friend. Partying wasn't something you were used to, but it was approaching the anniversary and you needed a release from the thoughts swirling in your own head. The atmosphere of the evening was odd, the forest seemed eerily beautiful despite the slaughters that had occurred recently, you knew it was stupid, unbelievably stupid to be out somewhere so potentially dangerous but you couldn't help feeling strangely comfortable.

Cold hands pressed against the tips of your shoulder blades sending goosebumps down your spine, you spun around coming face to face with a green-eyed girl with a mess of curly auburn hair.

"Jesus, Jasmine! You scared the crap out of me!”

She smiled brightly, her cat-like eyes crinkling at the corners as she swung a freckled arm around your neck.

"Y/N, relax!" she giggled "You looked like you were in your own world back there, I thought you'd been possessed."

You rolled your eyes and shoved her slightly, resting your head on hers, both of you relishing in the warmth of another person.

I'm glad you came," she muttered careful not to attract prying ears "I wasn't sure you would.”

"Me neither," you hummed watching the liquid in your cup slosh against the side "Anything better than playing Cluedo with Aunt Jean and eating dry biscuits.”

The redhead gave you a small smile and punched your arm playfully,

"C'mon no time for moping, I'm gonna go get another drink, don't think I can survive tonight sober. You want anything?" You shook your head but thanked her anyway, watching as she danced off into the crowd.

You managed to find a moment of solace pressed against a large oak tree, happily watching the night unfold from the background until something caught your eye. Staring off into the distance, eyebrows furrowed, was a girl in your biology class. You didn't know her that well but tried to catch her gaze with a friendly smile as she glanced around cautiously. She started to stumble into the trees as if she was following a voice, tumbling out of her expensive heels, legs askew like Bambi learning to walk. Almost unconsciously you followed her, worried for her wellbeing. You'd been to parties like this before and seen the results of a bad trip, and it wasn't safe for her to be wandering alone, especially after the previous incidents.

"Sarah?" You shouted stepping over fallen branches and wet moss "Where the hell did you go?" you murmured, surprised at not being able to spot the girl who seconds earlier looked like she was walking on ice. You were starting to regret your decision, no longer surrounded by the comfort of the party, you were greeted with eerie silence and a darkness that didn't seem to end.

"Sarah? Please come out and talk to me?" The trees crowded together up above making it impossible for the silver moon to shine through. Claustrophobia was seeping through your veins, but you could see something in the distance, the outline of a person stood in a small clearing of tall pine trees.

"Sara-" You started but suddenly you froze, unable to form any words, she wasn't standing, she was being held up by someone or something. The darkness was disorientating but you held your ground, squinting in the black, something had her, nails around her collar, head buried in her throat. She was limp like a ragdoll, blonde hair dangling in the breeze, no control over her limbs.

"Get off her!'' you yelped, surprised at the courage you had managed to pluck up as you stumbled forward. Its head rose up, slowly, confidently, not disturbed by your presence. It looked like a man, but it wasn't, it couldn't be. Veins darting across its face, black as the forest you were trapped in, eyes red like wildfire. Its gaze met yours, and you felt bile rise at the back of your throat, stomach burning with acid. With one slow movement, it wiped its sleeve across its jaw, and that's when you noticed it, thick, hot, red blood staining its mouth. As soon as he was there he was gone, leaving you alone with the lifeless corpse of a friend, and one question surging around your head.

Why did he not kill you too?

Now

When you were first looking for a place to disappear, you figured it would be ridiculous to seek refuge in a village so similar to where you first met. You were trying to forget, and being surrounded by constant reminders of the past wasn't exactly the way to do so. However, as you now strode the familiar route to the diner where you worked, you were glad for the comforting smell of the ocean. It had been almost two years now, and you had slept in more beds than you could count, changed location almost once a week, sometimes more, but you felt at home in this sleepy town, albeit a temporary one.

The bell above the door rang as you stepped inside, grateful for the welcoming smell of warm pancakes and cinnamon coffee. Billy gave you a smile from behind the counter, which you returned happily as you pulled on your apron and grabbed your pencil and notebook. Diners like these were safe for temporary jobs, lots of other young women became waitresses when they wanted to escape and you just slotted in like a mannequin amongst all the other faces.

A few hours later and it was still relatively quiet, just a few friendly regulars ordering their usuals, so with Billy's permission you sat down at a table to have your break. Croissant in one hand and iced tea in the other you relaxed in a cherry booth, scouring the newspaper from a few towns over for any vacancies. You had done cities, Berlin, Rome, Paris, but you never felt content there, too many people and besides, they all reminded you of him. You shook your head immediately, not allowing thoughts of him to break the barrier you had spent the last two years building. It was your choice to leave, so you had to deal with it.

You clocked out just as the sun was setting, a fiery rose and red over the dozy town. Tonight you deviated from your usual route, using the sky as an opportunity to lounge on a bench overlooking the shores, inhaling the salty air. You heard them before you saw them. You weren't sure how many but there was definitely more of them than you, in that moment your only option was to run. Slowly, you started shifting from your seat getting ready to sprint off into the distance, this wasn't the first time they had come for you. At least you had the advantage of the modest cottage you were renting, from there you would be able to keep them out long enough to make a plan and maybe even get to the car you had on standby for situations like this.

But first, you needed to get away and as soon as you heard the crack of the grass behind your head, you were off. They were behind you though, fast like deer and strong like elephants. You mentally cursed yourself for allowing a night off, you were never this careless. One of them was behind you, slowly inching closer, he was much more powerful than you were especially now you only drank limited amounts of blood from hospitals nearby. You sped up, dodging rocks and debris but he was too close, his fingers grasping the threads on your worn parka. Another one managed to grab your shoulder, jerking you back into his chest, you let out a cry but refused to admit defeat, clawing at him like a wounded animal. Two others grabbed your limbs, preventing you from struggling, despite everything they were being gentle with you and you knew why.

"Calm down Y/N" one of them murmured as you writhed around struggling to break free. “We're just here to take you home, he's spent two years looking for you, you know." His voice an accusing pitch, as if he knew anything about your past and what had transpired.

At the mention of him your heart clenched, it had never been your intention to hurt him, but you had to leave. You knew what the answer would be but you still needed to ask, "Who are you taking me to?" his eyes met yours as his hands clasped around your throat, ready to twist.

"Klaus."

Then your world went blank, as you sunk into the heavy arms around you.

#klaus mikaelson #klaus imagine #tvd #tvd imagine #klaus mikealson imagine #klaus fic #the originals imagine #the vampire diaries

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questionsonislam · 7 years

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Why do big fish eat small fish?

The balance of life in the sea, which is extremely well-arranged and rich, has been continuing for hundreds of ages without any deterioration. It is such a miraculous balance that each unit functions to complete one another. The balance existing among billions of creatures in the sea has the power of rebalancing itself against any sort of corruption.If nutritious salt faces being harmed because of the abundance of plants in a region, this plant is attacked by the animals which feed on them. Thus, the plant density decreases down to its normal level. However, this time a rise in the organic waste of dead animals will occur. Thereby, if the plant balance is disturbed by the animals eating a lot of plants, then predatory animals which feed on those animals will attack them. Consequently, the balance will be restored again. There is no room for chance, randomness and disorder in the miraculous plan of our Creator. Cooperation examples in the sea world where an endless number of mysterious beauties are exhibited induced the scientists to research the matter. One of the truths researchers discovered is that those animals acquired very little of their knowledge by learning.Then, all of their attributes and life programs are encoded in their cells while they are in the uterus or in the egg. That is to say, the most suitable life order is programmed before they come into the world.The power that encoded the life program of a giant whale into such a small cell that cannot be seen by naked eye, does not leave any place as small as a cell for chance in the seas. The cooperation, balance, moderation and art in the sea realm that rolls in the death and life and that is shaken in destruction and repairs prove that birth, death, feeding and lifespan of these innumerable living beings occur in accordance with the program written by the One who sees and checks all the universe at the same time.If the causes that continuously try to disrupt the balance of the universe were let free or were the works of aimless, wandering chance, unmeasured blind force and unconscious dark nature, the order in the sea even in the world would be so disrupted that in one year, perhaps in a day the sea would be full of messy things, the earth would become a rubbish damp, a slaughter house or a marsh. Nonetheless, there seems no true pollution or ugliness in anything. As there is no imbalance in anything, there is no true excessiveness in anything.When we examine the food pyramid, we see that eating and being eaten are not unattended and that they are managed in accordance with a program. As for the life program of swallowtail sea perch, they feed on small parasites and dead skin flakes on the skin of big fish, and clean those fish.Fish that are in need of cleaning come to these cleansing fish, which have special places, just as a person who needs a haircut goes to a barber. Other fish recognize them from their appearance and do not hunt them.Amphiprions have a mutual life with deadly sea peonies. Acidic cells in the arms of the sea peonies which are used to kill and eat the fish do not harm amphiprions. The body of sea peony which has a diameter about 40-60 cm is connected to sea ground with succulent ties. The mouth of the creature is in the middle of the body. Anything would die instantly by the bites of the acidic cells and would be dragged towards the mouth of sea peony to be eaten. However, amphiprions are not harmed in the places surrounded by these acidic cells. Moreover, when these fish get scared on account of a reason, they take refuge in the arms of sea peonies as if going home, and spend the night there. Sea peonies benefit from this cooperation too. When an amphiprion finds a hunt which cannot be gobbled up straightaway, it carries the food to the sea peony and shares with it. Except from this pay, which is a sort of rent, amphiprions clean sea peonies and move the water around them.Perhaps amphiprions and sea peonies do not know their Creator, who bestowed the mutual living program on them. However, any person with the ability of thinking knows our Creator, who sends light to the assistance of botanical planktons in the depth of the sea for photosynthesis, and who determined the cooperation as a rule of life for all things from cells to mankind, from seas to mountains. This is the greatest difference between fish and human beings.Dolphins generally give birth to only one baby at a time. The gestation period of females changes between 11 months and a year and bringing the baby into the world takes about normally 30 minutes. When the time of birth comes, two more female dolphins succor the female dolphin. The first duty of these dolphins, which are called aunts, is to defend the mother and baby from the sharks that could attack by virtue of blood smell and from any other dangers. Afterwards, one of the aunt dolphins accompanies the mother dolphin so as to help for the baby care. The baby has to emerge to the surface in order to breathe. The mother dives immediately underneath the baby and shoves it upward to the surface. Dolphins, which always live in groups, immediately proceed to help if a dolphin is injured take it to the sea surface to make it breathe.In an article entitled cruel-looking animal world published in Bild der Zeit magazine, there is this comment concerning the issue:Hunting and being hunted is an event encountered every day in the animal kingdom. This world is full of incidences which make men say cruel nature. In reality, what we thoughtlessly define as cruelty is a chain of attitudes of all animals. Plants and animals are encoded to react against a certain event in a certain manner. Surely, the attributes acquired by learning are different.Every animal that come to the world with a certain program reacts to the signals that are sent to it. Sometimes these reactions affect us astonishingly. What seems as cruel to us is nothing but the incidence of hunting and being hunted.Every living being, from starfish to cuttlefish, from European anchovy to whale and from amoeba to terrapin, constitutes a proof for their Creator and manifests Allah as brilliant as the sun one by one with their artful creations, various weapons, unique defending fashions and different instructions. After seeing by eyes of intellect and heart that the brilliant magnificence and the order of the sea realm declare the Owner of an endless power, a vast knowledge and an eternal wisdom, it is not possible to accept the sentence big fish eat small fish as a philosophy of life without being aware of its wisdom.The existence of small fish as much as the big ones and their continuation of their lives in the sea show that swallowing and being swallowed is not unchecked, and the fact that fish produce millions of eggs at a time cannot be regarded as a struggle of existence only. Those innumerable eggs are planned not only to provide the continuance of descendants, but also to present food to other creatures. The fish producing millions eggs cannot be the designer of those eggs; they can only produce the eggs in accordance with the instruction of creation; so the program of food pyramid in the sea cannot have occurred on its own or by chance.If we reflect that each fish produces millions of eggs and that all of those fish survive without being swallowed by other fish and that the seas will invade the earth after a short time by overflowing and as the land will be filled with fish and it will putrefy, then we will see that being hunted or swallowed is not a struggle but acting in accordance with a program.How could we explain the fact that a hen lays eggs throughout the year although it incubates once or twice a year and needs only about thirty eggs for that activity?Would it be possible to say that life consists of struggle only by focusing on a struggle which is in the rate of one out of a thousand or on a hunting incident, in spite of the truths surrounding us and manifesting us that life is cooperation?

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thetruthseekerway · 8 years

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Stress and Depression and Their Cause

New Post has been published on http://www.truth-seeker.info/oasis-of-faith/stress-depression-cause/

Stress and Depression and Their Cause

By Harun Yahya

***”But if anyone turns away from My reminder, his life will be a dark and narrow one…” (Ta-Ha, 20:124)

***“When Allah desires to guide someone, He expands his breast to Islam. When He desires to misguide someone, He makes his breast narrow and constricted as if he were climbing up into the sky. That is how Allah defiles those who have no faith.” (Al-An`am, 6:125)

The failure of irreligious people in submitting themselves to Allah causes them to be in a constant state of ill-ease, anxiety and stress. As a consequence, they are afflicted by various psychological illnesses which reveal themselves in their physical selves. Their bodies wear down more quickly, and they age rapidly and degenerate.

However, since believers are psychologically healthy, they do not fall prey to stress, or despondence, and their bodies are ever fit and healthy. The positive effects of their submitting to Allah, their trust in Him and fortitude, looking for the good in all things, and accepting what happens with the hope of His promise, are reflected in their physical selves. This, of course, applies only to those who live by the moral values of the Qur’an, and who truly comprehend the religion. Of course, they may fall ill and eventually grow old, but this natural process does not involve the psychological breakdown it does in others.

Stress and depression, regarded as the diseases of our time, not only cause psychological harm, but also manifests themselves in various physical defects. The common stress and depression-related problems are some forms of mental illness, drug addiction, insomnia, skin, stomach and blood pressure disorders, colds, migraines, a number of bone diseases, kidney imbalances, respiratory difficulties, allergies, heart attacks, and brain swelling. Of course, stress and depression are not the only causes of these, but it has been scientifically proven that the origins of problems such as these are usually psychological.

Stress, which afflicts so many, is a state of mental anxiety caused by such feelings as fear, insecurity, overexcitement, worry and other pressures, that damages the body’s equilibrium. When people become victims of stress, their bodies react and sound the alarm, and various biochemical reactions in the body are initiated: The level of adrenaline in the bloodstream rises; energy consumption and bodily reactions reach their maximum levels; sugar, cholesterol and fatty acids are deposited into the bloodstream; blood pressure rises and the pulse accelerates. When glucose is sent to the brain, cholesterol levels rise, and that all spells trouble for the body.

Because chronic stress, in particular, alters the normal functions of the body, it can cause serious harm. Due to stress, adrenalin and cortisol levels in the body rise to abnormal levels. Long-term increases in cortisol levels lead to the premature appearance of disorders such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, ulcers, respiratory diseases, eczema and psoriasis. The effects of high cortisol levels may even include the killing off of brain cells. The disorders caused by stress are described as follows in one source:

There is an important relationship between stress and the tension and pain it gives rise to. The tension caused by stress leads to narrowing of the arteries, disruption of the flow of blood to certain regions of the head and a reduction in the amount of blood flowing to that region. If a tissue is deprived of blood this leads directly to pain, because a tense tissue on one side probably requiring greater amounts of blood and on the other side already having insufficient blood supply stimulates special pain receptors. At the same time substances such as adrenaline and norepinephrine, which affect the nervous system during stress, are secreted. These directly or indirectly increase and accelerate the tension in the muscles. Thus pain leads to tension, tension to anxiety, and anxiety intensifies pain.1

However, one of the most detrimental effects of stress is heart attacks. Research shows that aggressive, nervous, anxious, impatient, competitive, hostile and irritable people have a much higher incidence of heart attacks than people less inclined to these traits.2

The reason for this is that extreme stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, initiated by the hypothalamus, also causes excessive secretion of insulin, and therefore the accumulation of insulin in the blood. This is a matter of vital importance. Because, none of the conditions that lead to coronary heart disease play such a definitive and harmful role as excess insulin in the blood.3

Scientists have recognized that the higher the level of stress, the more the positive effects of the red cells in the blood are weakened. According to an experiment developed by Linda Naylor, head of the Oxford University’s technology transfer company, the negative effect of stress levels on the immune system can now be measured.

There is a close relationship between stress and the immune system. Physiological stress has an important effect on the immune system and results in its deterioration. When under stress, the brain increases production of the cortisol hormone in the body, which weakens the immune system. To put it another way, there is a direct relationship between the brain, the immune system and hormones. Experts in the field state:

Studies on psychological or physical stress have revealed that at times of intense stress there is a fall in immunity response linked to the hormonal balance. It is known that the emergence and strength of many illnesses including cancer is linked to stress.4

In short, stress harms a human being’s natural equilibrium. Constant exposure to this abnormal condition impairs the body’s health, and leads to a wide variety of disorders. Experts classify the negative effects of stress on the human body under the following basic categories:

Anxiety and Panic: A feeling that events are spiraling out of control

Constantly increasing perspiration

Voice changes: Stammering, trembling speech

Hyperactivity: Sudden explosions of energy, weak diabetic control

Sleeping difficulty: Nightmares

Skin diseases: Spots, acne, fever, psoriasis and eczema

Gastrointestinal indications: Indigestion, nausea, ulcers

Muscular tension: Grinding or locking teeth, aches in the jaw, back, neck and shoulders

Low intensity infections: Colds etc.

Migraine

Palpitations, chest pain, high blood pressure

Kidney imbalances, holding water

Respiratory disorders, shortness of breath

Allergies

Joint pains

Dry mouth and throat

Heart attack

Weakening of the immune system

Shrinkage in the brain region

Feelings of guilt and lack of self-confidence

Confusion, inability to analyze correctly, poor thinking ability, weak memory

Extreme pessimism, believing that everything is going badly

Difficulty in moving or staying still, constant rhythm beating

Inability to concentrate or difficulty in so doing

Irritability, extreme sensitivity

Irrationality

Feelings of helplessness or hopelessness

Loss of or increased appetite

The fact that those who fail to abide by religious moral values experience “stress” is revealed by Allah in the Qur’an:

***”But if anyone turns away from My reminder, his life will be a dark and narrow one…” (Ta-Ha, 20:124)

In another verse, Allah has revealed that

***”… the earth became narrow for them, for all its great breadth, and their own selves became constricted for them and they realised that there was no refuge from Allah except in Him…” (Al-Tawbah, 9:118)

This “dark and narrow” life, or stress, to give it the current name, is the outcome of non-believers’ failure to abide by the moral values imparted by faith. Today, doctors maintain that a calm and self-assured composure are essential for protection from the effects of stress. A calm and peaceful disposition is only possible by living according to the Qur’an. Indeed, it has been revealed in many verses of the Qur’an that Allah imparts “serenity” upon the believers. (Qur’an, 2:248, 9:26, 40, 48:4, 18) Our Lord’s promise to the faithful has been revealed as follows:

***“Anyone who acts rightly, male or female, being a believer, We will give them a good life and We will recompense them according to the best of what they did.” (Al-Nahl, 16:97)

Footnotes:

Acar Baltas, and Zuhal Baltas, Stres ve Basa Cikma Yollari (Stress and How to Manage It) 15th ed. (Remzi Kitabevi), 162.

Jane E. Brody, “Tool of survival is deadly for heart,” The New York Times, 23 May 2002, www.iht.com/articles/58687.html.

Baltas, and Baltas, Stres ve Basa Cikma Yollari (Stress and How to Manage It), 159.

Ibid., 169.

———–

Harun Yahya was born in Ankara in 1956. He studied arts at Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan University and philosophy at Istanbul University. Since the 1980s, the author has published many books on political, faith-related and scientific issues. Harun Yahya is well known as an author who has written very important works disclosing the imposture of evolutionists, the invalidity of their claims and the dark liaisons between Darwinism and bloody ideologies. Some of the books of the author have been translated into English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Albanian, Arabic, Polish, Russian, Bosnian, Indonesian, Turkish, Tatar, Urdu and Malay and published in the countries concerned. Harun Yahya’s books appeal to all people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, regardless of their age, race and nationality, as they center around one goal: to open the readers mind by presenting the signs of Gods eternal existence to them.

#Allah #belief #cure #Faith #Featured #God #Islam #Stress and Depression and Their Cause #treatment

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innerpsyche · 5 years

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thoughts, thoughts, thoughts

Happy Full Moon ~

Today, I celebrate my successes and struggles.

In the last month, I have shedded layers of skin. Here are some events:

-Johnny and Sophia visited Portland during the first week. My heart was filled with joy. They’re always a good time. But our individual drug habits come together and we all just get fucked up -- that part’s bad. Definitely threw me off that week. It was not the best way for me to start the month. Lots of cocaine, lots of alcohol. I did discover my new fun friend and from there, we found teslas. We decided to go to a rave that weekend and had a blast. I ended up running into my rave boyfriend, Fonso. Also had a rave girlfriend, Alicia. Fun times. A few days before, I had pulled an Amy Winehouse and passed out on my bathroom floor while my friends were on my roof tryna get me out of the bathroom because I had locked myself in there and I was 100% unresponsive. They thought I had died. Honestly, if it wasn’t them and it was someone else who found me, that definitely would have been a 911 situation. I was relieved when they had finally left.

-The following weekend was Jai Wolf with Mena and Geronimo. I bought Geronimo’s ticket from a stranger at a somewhat higher price because it was a sold out show. I felt very friendly after the teslas kicked in and was sooooooooo so happy to be around such high energetic people all night. We went out clubbing after the show and I of course showed off on the dance poles at Dirty. We went back to my house and snacked on bell peppers and hummus and all fell asleep on my bed. I woke up the next morning super groggy and still drunk/high and realized that Geronimo was trying to finger me while I was asleep. It didn’t happen for very long because his alarm went off and he had to leave for work. I felt very disturbed and ashamed that morning. Bryan had also texted me and he carried this enthusiastic vibe in his text message as he told me that he saw me at Jai Wolf dancing all over another guy and didn’t want to “disturb” me. I was clearly upset and at that point, I haven’t seen him in a month. I was deprived, I felt hot, people gave me attention. But I still felt that slut shame afterwards. He ended up being really sweet to me and came over a couple days later and spent the night. He hasn’t done that since December. My heart was happy.

-I went to Psychedelic Club for the first time in like 6 months! I brought my friend, Chris who I met after Quix’s show at 45East with Sophie and Johnny. We had a fun time hanging out with Carolina and Bella and this girl Elizabeth who’s I think Italian and Filipino? Soooo pretty.

-The following weekend was really nice and chill. Me and Jeni went and saw Jordan’s fire show at Dante’s where I connected with Halo again! I met his girl, Julissa who also is a part of the fire dance group. We only stayed until after Jordan performed, and then we went to the Bithouse Saloon where we met the psychedelic club for this acid dance party. We danced for an hour and ended up at White Owl and danced till 2am. I found my rave boyfriend again, Fonso and hella made out with him so that was fun. I didn’t go super hard that night and we had a pretty good night. I was proud of myself for not going overboard.

-Okay so this day was pretty bad. I was supposed to go see Dr. Nicholas Powers with Psychedelic Club but decided I needed to write a paper and finish my research for another paper. Didn’t happen. I decided to invite Sevan to Mac’s Wine Cellars for their free wine tasting. They had 5 wines to taste and we only did 2 until we decided to split a bottle. We were there for like 3-4 hours doing our homework and drinking. I had to drop his PCC classes for him because there was no way he was gonna pass those classes at this point. He was upset. Then he invited Gerdy to come hang out with us and I was pumped because I haven’t seen Gerdy since Kodiak last November. By the time he came I was pretty buzzed and Sevan had asked if I wanted to come to this thing at Mississippi. I decided to come even though my sober Jessa voice screamed “noooooo”. Gerdy drove us to Sevan’s house to meet with his roommates and of course Sevan broke out the half gal vodka. They’re both high functioning alcoholics and I do this thing unconsciously where I try to keep up with the people I’m drinking with. After the third shot, I blacked out. I woke up in Grady’s couch and he told me that I kept trying to make out with him lol. I also wouldn’t tell him where I lived so he couldn’t buy me a lyft home. My night ended around 10pm. They wouldn’t serve me at the bar we were at. Grady carried me everywhere and helped me vomit. He layed me on the couch at his house, put a trash can near my face, kept all my belongings close to me and set my alarms for work, and slept on the other couch and didn’t abandon me. Bless his heart. Grady has my trust. I invited him to cuddle with me that morning before I had to leave for work. I went to work super fuckin noticeably drunk. The good thing was that it was such a slow morning. By the time I had sobered up, it got busy. But I can’t tell if Jessica and Hannah were happy with me. I did leave Jessica quite a bit to take my “breaks” because I had realized that Brook was on vacation so I hella took advantage of that. I didn’t get a hangover that day, but I was full of shame afterwards and was really quite.

-I also decided to fly to Colorado for Sonic Bloom during the summer solstice weekend. Cody and I have been talking quite a bit and he offered to buy my ticket if I could get that weekend off. We’ve been facetiming a lot since then and we both had our doubts and our friends felt sketched, but we both had a really good feeling about each other which was why he offered to buy it and I decided to take it.

-The following weekend I had broken down. After Brook came back from her vacation. Someone had told her that I was drunk the weekend prior and she and I had a serious conversation. She was pissed with me and I felt that miles away. The conversation ended her saying “you broke my trust. and hannah’s, kateri’s, jessica’s, and asia’s” which I interpreted as “you fucked up. we dont trust you. we don’t like you”. she almost fired me but instead sent me home for the week. She asked for me to let her know by the end of the week to let her know if I wanted to continue working there. I already knew my answer was no. Especially after that conversation. So I went home and cried forever. Sevan called me and I told him what happened. I ended up dog/house sitting for him for the week which gave me some time to be away from people for a minute which was good. That day I decided to stop drinking for a while. I’ve decided to go to Refuge Recovery, Shambhala meditation, and Smart Recovery and even sign off of all social media while I sober up and reground myself and focus on school.

-I had mailed my work key and sent Brook my letter of resignation/apology letter. I had great feedback from her and left me in tears. I appreciate her so much. Hannah ended up reaching out a few days later, and so did Kat. I had mixed feelings about everyone there after that incident. But honestly, I think it’s mainly shame that I was experiencing. There’s no way I can go back there anytime soon without feeling like a piece of shit.

-I finished the month with Living Prism’s RAW with Mena and River. We went out and had a great time. I didn’t drink either. I lost $34 because I couldn’t find anyone else to come with so that sucked. I have decided to drop acid and had the most fascinating acid experience there. The first two hours was me dancing and socializing. The next two hours was me sitting on my ass over by the balcony upstairs not talking to anyone but was taking hella notes. It was very insightful and entertaining. Sevan was with me till 1:30am. I felt amazing the next day. It was a rich experience.

-First week of June I made new intentions to work on being more conscious with my decisions. Sure, I may start drinking after I hit my 4 week mark, but I’m trying to not pull an Amy Winehouse. I did a second acid trip with the psychedelic club. We were at Bella’s and I felt like I was hanging out with a bunch of moms. These gals were 20+ years older than me and it was fascinating for me to see how we’re all emotionally and mentally on the same level but we’re so different physically. I loved spending time with them. We’re planning an ayahuasca ceremony together before I leave for Colorado.

-I finished the spring quarter with straight A’s once again! I worked my ASS off during the last two weeks and spent hourssssss studying and writing two essays. It all paid off. Parent’s are happy and supportive of me not working.

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kathleenseiber · 5 years

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Probiotics can’t evict this bug from tiny stomach pits

New research shows how H. pylori, a potentially pathogenic bacterial species that infects half the people on Earth, establishes its niche.

The stomach-dwelling bacteria Helicobacter pylori survives in the stomach—a hellish, churning vat of hydrochloric acid—by holing up inside that organ’s pitlike glands and establishing squatter’s rights. Once the germ has set up shop, the investigators learned, even competing strains of the same species can’t displace it, or even share its hideout.

The findings, published in PLOS Biology, raise questions about the effectiveness of probiotic approaches, in which people ingest “good” germs in an effort to supplant “bad” germs. Yet the findings also hint at possibly effective ways to deal with the potentially life-threatening H. pylori strains.

“This study changes the way we think about how microbes like H. pylori establish their chronic persistence in the body,” says senior author of the study Manuel Amieva, associate professor of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The lead author is former graduate student Connie Fung.

Perks and dangers of H. pylori

H. pylori is the primary cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancer. Fortunately, the great majority of infected people remain asymptomatic throughout their lives: Only 10-15 percent of infected people get ulcers, and only 1 percent get stomach cancer.

Plus, there are reasons for thinking that infection by H. pylori, which has co-existed with humans since the earliest days of our species, may have some advantages. For instance, H. pylori infection is associated with lower incidences of asthma and other allergies. The combination of that upside and the low-incidence, high-impact nature of H. pylori’s adverse effects gives pause to medical researchers considering ways of preemptively eradicating it from all of our stomachs. It may be wiser to substitute friendlier “designer” strains.

But that won’t be easy, the study shows.

Hang-out spots

From an ecological point of view, H. pylori has succeeded where practically every other bacterial pest has failed. It has evolved the capacity to persist for prolonged periods—often for a person’s entire life—in the stomach, whose intense acidity, swiftly shifting chemical contents and rapid cellular turnover make it one of the harshest environments a microbe encounters.

Although H. pylori is susceptible to antibiotics, it’s not uncommon for these drugs to fail to completely clear the stomach of the microorganism. “The re-emerging strain is invariably just the same as the one thought to have been eradicated,” Amieva says, suggesting the presence of some niche where H. pylori can find refuge and replenish its numbers in safety. But exactly how has been unclear.

H. pylori is a corkscrew-shaped microbe equipped with a tuft of spinning, hairlike projections called flagella that enable it to swim freely in an aqueous liquid medium or to bore into viscous fluids. Microbiologists have long thought it avoids being dissolved in a sea of stomach acid by hiding out in the mucus layer that lines the stomach and protects the digestive organ from being eaten by the acid it produces.

Little pits

That’s part of the story. But the new study reveals a safer survival tactic for the bug: steering itself into one of the myriad pitlike glands that dot the stomach’s inner surface and, afterward, fending off all comers.

In a study published in 2015, Amieva’s group discovered the presence of H. pylori within stomach glands. But why the microbe would choose to hang out there was not obvious.

The new study, Amieva says, shows that once a particularly hardy, or lucky, individual H. pylori bacterium manages to colonize a gland, the resulting “founder” strain becomes extremely difficult to dislodge even by members of an essentially identical strain, for reasons that remain mysterious but may have to do with the fact that each gland has only a single, tiny entry point.

Color-coded bacteria

The researchers inoculated mice’s stomachs with two versions of an otherwise identical H. pylori strain, differing only in that one group had been genetically modified so it emitted fluorescent green light when stimulated by a laser, while the other group was modified to glow red. Later, the scientists could observe the different-colored strains’ success in establishing themselves within glands along the length of the mice’s stomachs.

The scientists used a form of microscopy that allowed them to move their focus through successive depths of intact tissue rather than view separate thin tissue slices. They also used a technique called CLARITY that renders tissues transparent without destroying their microanatomical integrity. That combination let them visualize, in three dimensions, H. pylori’s presence along the depths of the stomach glands.

Instead of mixing randomly—as one would expect if occupancy of a gland by one “color” of bugs presented no barrier to entry by the other color—the two sets of H. pylori occupied distinct patches of stomach-surface area, indicating an exclusive “first-come, first-served” advantage for a given gland’s initial occupant and further suggesting that, having established itself within a gland, a “red” or “green” H. pylori strain sends forth individual progeny to adjacent glands in which they plant their flags, thrive, exclude newcomers, multiply, and eventually release new single-celled troops to repeat the gland-by-gland expeditionary advance.

How to evict them?

This study changes the way we think about how microbes like H. pylori establish their chronic persistence in the body.

It’s still not clear precisely which tools the bacteria need to establish squatter’s rights in a gland. But when the scientists inoculated mouse stomachs with mutant H. pylori lacking the functioning chemical sensor machinery that guides its swimming direction, the bugs were unable to maintain exclusive colonies in glands.

This raises the issue of how to eradicate potentially pathogenic bacterial strains ensconced in our bodies or how to replace them by others that are less pathogenic. Probiotics have not demonstrated much success in achieving that goal yet, Amieva says.

“It’s not enough to find a good probiotic strain that can survive in the organ you want it to live in,” he says. “You need to create space for it.”

One potential approach, Amieva suggests, would be to find some way to draw the bacteria out of their protective hideouts before treating them and then replace them with a less-virulent strain.

Additional researchers from Stanford; the University of California, Davis; and the Wellcome-Sanger Institute in England also contributed to the study.

Funding came from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the American Gastroenterology Association, a Morgridge Faculty Scholar Award, and the Wellcome Trust. Stanford’s departments of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology also supported the work.

Source: Stanford University

The post Probiotics can’t evict this bug from tiny stomach pits appeared first on Futurity.

Probiotics can’t evict this bug from tiny stomach pits published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

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smileitconfusespeoplex · 6 years

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Pricing Lawn Care Solutions - The Importance of Getting It Right

Many consumers are properly aware of the fact that there are an unbelievable number of garden treatment companies competitive due to their organization, but choosing one is not as easy as choosing the very first record in the telephone book. A reputable company may be difficult to get, but it's absolutely price taking the time to find probably the most suitable provider. An intelligent consumer may understand a little bit more about picking a lawn treatment company before generally making any hasty decisions. Several garden care service services have the ability to give you a wide selection of companies, and it is usually significantly cheaper to employ one organization to handle numerous different tasks. A person should know precisely what solutions they ET Lawn Care Tyler important, and only a business that may sufficiently provide all of their needs ought to be caught with. Whether the additional service is really as simple as hedge trimming, or when it is significantly more complex, a client must certanly be really specific with what it is they want. Customers require to appreciate that simply owning the necessary gear doesn't qualify someone being an experienced lawn care professional. Any individual can find tools, but it requires skills and experience to supply quality results. It never hurts to search for online reviews, but also smaller organizations will be able to offer client references or testimonials upon request. Examining with the Greater Business Bureau may also support determine if you will find any unresolved customer issues or critical dilemmas which were ignored. The most important standards that should be expected of any lawn care support is a business certificate and an adequate amount of liability insurance coverage. Few individuals are aware that they may be presented officially and economically accountable for any problems or incidents that arise on the property, and an unlicensed or uninsured contractor can position house homeowners in a serious predicament. Trustworthy lawn care service providers are accustomed to being asked to provide proof insurance, therefore they will perhaps not react inappropriately if requested about certification or insurance. It could be attractive to just employ the first lawn attention company that is available, but it's better to let the lawn develop only a little lengthier and get just as much time as essential to produce an educated decision. As long as the aforementioned factors are in least regarded, the possibility of earning the ideal choice is unquestionably a great deal more likely. Having a well-maintained entrance lawn high in living and greeneries brings miracles to the façade of a home. Viewing a beautiful repair of greens amidst the suburban streets is just a pleasant sight for the eyes. Regrettably, looking after a garden isn't as simple since it seems to be. A sufficient period of time and effort should be committed to the maintenance of balanced top lawn. In terms of this, many people are easily inundated with work and different house tasks that they forget to spot the injury being performed with their lawns. Hence, it is very important to consider acquiring lawn care company to turn a dying lawn in to a refuge of greenery. The very best solutions for lawn attention have trustworthy specialists who will have a way to determine the problem of a lawn. More over, these garden specialists are experienced to recognize facts that will help in repairing a lawn to their former glory. A reliable garden care company has the possibility of giving their consumers their very own prescription of weed control. It can be probable that only a unique area of area might be contaminated with diseases. As such, landowners must find for the appropriate diagnosis and therapy for these garden maladies. Weed get a grip on practices must be performed in particular areas carrying out a rigid time frame. As a result, these methods should be environmentally friendly and mustn't hurt other residing things. Next, successful lawn companies know that each and every lawn has a unique distinctive fertilization scheme. With respect to the time and the daily climate, fertilizers must include the best vitamins that will assist build the grass, flowers and shrubs of a lawn. Different lawn companies have plans and options for interested customers to select from. Extra therapies like insect and pest get a handle on are vital in looking after one's home from undesirable visitors. Aeration and seeding methods will also be efficient in letting water to seep through the sources of a lawn. The acidity stage also establishes the land quality of a lawn. Ergo, it's very important to lawn services to see their costumers of those market terms and soil treatments.

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wikipress01 · 6 years

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Did last ice age affect breastfeeding in Native Americans?

Fig. 1. Geography of Beringia and ranges of UV radiation. (A) Map of Beringia immediately. Cross-hatching signifies the area in which ranges of UVMED (outlined as the quantity of UV radiation that may produce minimal erythema) that attain the Earth’s floor are too low to advertise cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D in people on a year-by-year foundation, requiring dietary supplementation. The black and white area marks the Arctic Circle, which has even much less UV-B publicity, as could be anticipated from the elevated latitude. The areas under the Arctic Circle in white and lightweight blue are shallow seas as discerned from fashionable bathymetry, indicating land that may have been uncovered in the course of the LGM. (B) Map of Beringia in the course of the Last Glacial Maximum exhibiting the publicity of land at 117 meters under present sea stage and the reconstructed terrestrial environments. The shrub tundra is the one space biologically productive sufficient to assist a human inhabitants of the dimensions estimated by molecular knowledge. This inhabitants was genetically remoted for two,500-9,000 years due to the ice to the east and intensive mesic tundra to the west. Credit: Leslea Hlusko, UC Berkeley

The important function that breast feeding performs in toddler survival could have led, in the course of the last ice age, to a typical genetic mutation in East Asians and Native Americans that additionally, surprisingly, impacts the form of their enamel.

The genetic mutation, which in all probability arose 20,000 years in the past, will increase the branching density of mammary ducts in the breasts, doubtlessly offering extra fats and vitamin D to infants dwelling in the far north the place the shortage of ultraviolet radiation makes it tough to provide vitamin D in the pores and skin.

If the unfold of this genetic mutation is, in truth, resulting from choice for elevated mammary ductal branching, the difference could be the primary proof of choice on the human maternal-infant bond.

“This highlights the importance of the mother-infant relationship and how essential it has been for human survival,” stated Leslea Hlusko, an affiliate professor of integrative biology on the University of California, Berkeley.

As for the enamel, it simply so occurs that the gene controlling mammary duct progress additionally impacts the form of human incisors. Consequently, because the genetic mutation was chosen for in an ancestral inhabitants dwelling in the far north in the course of the last Ice Age, shovel-shaped incisors grew to become extra frequent too. Shoveled incisors are widespread amongst Native Americans and northeastern Asian populations however uncommon in everybody else.

Hlusko and her colleagues define the numerous threads of proof supporting the thought in an article printed this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The discovering might even have implications for understanding the origins of dense breast tissue and its function in breast most cancers.

For the research, Hlusko and her colleagues assessed the incidence of shovel-shaped incisors in archeological populations in order to estimate the time and place of evolutionary choice for the trait. They discovered that almost 100 p.c of Native Americans previous to European colonization had shoveled incisors, as do roughly 40 p.c of East Asians immediately.

The staff then used the genetic results which can be shared with dental variation as a option to discern the evolutionary historical past of mammary glands due to their widespread developmental pathway.

“People have long thought that this shoveling pattern is so strong that there must have been evolutionary selection favoring the trait, but why would there be such strong selection on the shape of your incisors?” Hlusko stated. “When you have shared genetic effects across the body, selection for one trait will result in everything else going along for the ride.”

Photograph of human higher incisors with important “shoveling,” anatomical variation influenced by the EDAR V370A allele alongside a rise in mammary duct branching. Credit: Christy G. Turner, II, courtesy G. Richard Scott

The vitamin D connection

Getting sufficient vitamin D, which is crucial for a strong immune system and correct fats regulation in addition to for calcium absorption, is a giant downside in northern latitudes as a result of the solar is low on the horizon all yr lengthy and, above the Arctic Circle, does not shine in any respect for a part of the yr. While people at decrease latitudes can get practically all of the vitamin D they want by publicity of the pores and skin to ultraviolet gentle, the scarce UV at excessive latitudes pressured northern peoples just like the Siberians and Inuit to get their vitamin D from animal fats, searching giant herbivores and sea mammals.

But infants should get their vitamin D from mom’s milk, and Hlusko posits that the elevated mammary duct branching could have been a method of delivering extra vitamin D and the fats that goes with it.

Hlusko, who specializes in the evolution of enamel amongst animals, in specific primates and early people, found these connections after being requested to take part in a scientific session on the dispersal of recent people all through the Americas on the February 2017 American Association for the Advancement of Science assembly. In getting ready her speak on what enamel can inform us concerning the peopling of the New World, she pulled collectively the genetics of dental variation with the archaeological proof to re-frame our understanding of choice on incisor form.

Incisors are known as “shovel-shaped” when the tongue-side of the incisors – the chopping enamel in the entrance of the mouth, 4 on prime, 4 on the underside – have ridges alongside the perimeters and biting edge. It is distinctive of Native Americans and populations in East Asia – Korea, Japan and northern China – with an growing incidence as you journey farther north. Unpersuaded by a beforehand proposed concept that shoveled incisors have been chosen to be used softening animal hides, she checked out explanations unrelated to enamel.

The genetic mutation liable for shoveling – which happens in a minimum of one of many two copies, or alleles, of a gene known as EDAR, which codes for a protein known as the ectodysplasin A receptor – can also be concerned in figuring out the density of sweat glands in the pores and skin, the thickness of hair shafts and ductal branching in mammary glands. Previous genetic evaluation of dwelling people concluded that the mutation arose in northern China resulting from choice for extra sweat glands or sebaceous glands in the course of the last ice age.

“Neither of those is a satisfying explanation,” Hlusko stated. “There are some really hot parts in the world, and if sweating was so sensitive to selective pressures, I can think of some places where we would have more likely seen selection on that genetic variation instead of in northern China during the Last Glacial Maximum.”

The Beringian standstill

Clues got here from a 2007 paper and later a 2015 research by Hlusko’s coauthor Dennis O’Rourke, in which scientists deduced from the DNA of Native Americans that they break up off from different Asian teams greater than 25,000 years in the past, regardless that they arrived in North American solely 15,000 years in the past. Their conclusion was that Native American ancestors settled for some 10,000 years in an space between Asia and North America earlier than lastly transferring into the New World. This so-called Beringian standstill coincided with the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum between 18,000 and 28,000 years in the past.

According to the Beringian standstill speculation, because the local weather grew to become drier and cooler because the Last Glacial Maximum started, individuals who had been dwelling in Siberia moved into Beringia. Gigantic ice sheets to the east prohibited migration into North America. They could not migrate southwest due to a big expanse of a treeless and inhospitable tundra. The space the place they discovered refuge was a biologically productive area due to the altered ocean currents related to the last ice age, a landmass elevated in dimension by to the decrease sea ranges. Genetic research of animals and vegetation from the area recommend there was an remoted refugium in Beringia throughout that point, the place species with regionally adaptive traits arose. Such isolation is ripe for choice on genetic variants that make it simpler for vegetation, animals and people to outlive.

“If you take these data from the teeth to interpret the evolutionary history of this EDAR allele, you frame-shift the selective episode to the Beringian standstill population, and that gives you the environmental context,” Hlusko stated. “At that high latitude, these people would have been vitamin D deficient. We know they had a diet that was attempting to compensate for it from the archaeological record, and because there is evidence of selection in this population for specific alleles of the genes that influence fatty acid synthesis. But even more specifically, these genes modulate the fatty acid composition of breast milk. It looks like this mutation of the EDAR gene was also selected for in that ancestral population, and EDAR’s effects on mammary glands is the most likely target of the selection.”

The EDAR gene influences the event of many constructions derived from the ectoderm in the fetus, together with tooth form, sweat glands, sebaceous glands, mammary glands and hair. As a consequence, choice on one trait results in coordinated evolution of the others. The late evolutionary biologist and writer Steven Jay Gould referred to such byproducts of evolution as spandrels.

“This Beringian population is one example of what has happened thousands of times, over millions of years: Human populations form, exist for a little while and then disperse to form new populations, mixing with other groups of people, all of them leaving traces on modern human variation today,” Hlusko stated. “An important take-home message is that human variation today reflects this dynamic process of ephemeral populations, rather than the traditional concept of geographic races with distinct differences between them.”

Explore additional: First animal mannequin of current human evolution

More data: Leslea J. Hlusko el al., “Environmental selection during the last ice age on the mother-to-infant transmission of vitamin D and fatty acids through breast milk,” PNAS (2018). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711788115

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Provided by: University of California – Berkeley

Source hyperlink from http://www.wikipress.co.uk/science/did-last-ice-age-affect-breastfeeding-in-native-americans/

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annoyinglyhumongoussandwich-blog · 7 years

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Tortoise Vs Tortoise.

There is a great deal to consider when you intend to maintain a turtle or terrapin as a pet. There is a photo of hawksbill tortoises eating all of them sweet, however, recently a sea turtle was actually little bit while eating a blue-ring octopus and the tortoise passed away. From there a wonderful venture was birthed: the production of a facility which would certainly look after and defend for the marines turtles. Last month, 4 Filipino anglers were actually penalized to pair of years for property of 18 turtle plastrons, 3 sacks from tortoise meat and a sack from turtle layers in boat near Bohey Dulang island off Semporna. Several researchers have analyzed the downsides and also pros, though, and also that seems the advantages outweigh the threats," said Mira Calton, the author from Rich Food items Poor Meals," particularly if you pick the most omega-3-rich fish with the most affordable chance from hazardous direct exposure." Investigation has actually linked the consumption from fish and shellfish to a minimized danger from heart problem. The sea tortoise is actually the only native lizard from Hawaii and has ended up being a notable symbol of the islands. The covering of Florida box turtles is actually more lengthen than popular carton turtles, along with its own best component well back from the center of the covering, over the rump. WWF works around the globe to develop aquatic guarded places, making sure sea turtles have a refuge to home, feed and migrate openly. This is actually where tracking technology from gps telemetry participates in a crucial job in safeguarding sea tortoises. The purpose from the Karen Beasley Ocean Tortoise Rescue as well as Treatment Facility is the preservation and maintenance of all varieties of sea turtles, both in the water and on the seashore. Avanti Online from the reef and also sea grass mattress are actually preserved by the hawksbill turtles. Prior to the ban, salmonella diseases associateded with tortoises upset concerning 280,000 people each year, inning accordance with the CDC. Freshly hatched Kemp's ridley sea turtles dig their means up off under the sand. Fish oil is an outstanding source from two kinds of omega-3 fatty acids - eicosapentaenoic acid (Environmental Protection Agency) and also docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). In Arc, some covering manuscripts are actually composed for Bash and are actually not fully compatible with fish. Actually, some would state that's a whole lot harder making a really good chick food than that is to prepare sea food. The resort-loving crowd will adore the extravagant residential or commercial properties lining the island's south and also east shores, whereas those searching for an exclusive hideaway could book a jungle home on the isle's lush-though from time to time wet-north bank.

Eventually in 2000, Fish would certainly happen to behave this moment in the well-known Scottish investigator television programme Taggart incident amount 48 "Skin Deeper". The energetic omega-3 fats in fish oil are actually eicosapentanoic acid as well as docosahexanoic acid, also known as Environmental Protection Agency and DHA. In Hawaii, more and more ocean tortoises are located sleeping on coastlines. Mango is a seaside side eatery along with in the house and outdoor seating offering tasty Caribbean design food items. Numerous parts of the globe have actually long thought about ocean turtles to be fine eating. DHA is actually kept in salmon's fat, frequently in the tummy, and one 4-ounce serving from salmon could serve 2,400 milligrams of omega-3s. Sea turtles spend the majority of their lives in the water, where not much relevant information may be gathered on their actions. When recorded under the net, these tortoises consistently attempt to establish on their own free and also during the battle, the inadequate turtles find yourself being actually appealed the mind as a result of the anxiety from being actually attacked. Whenever feasible, that's ideal to pick new herring: Pickled and smoked herring is high in sodium, with over 240 milligrams of salt in a singular oz, as well as oil- or even cream-packed sardines is actually higher in fat as well as saturated fat. Practically one of the most regular household pet tortoises are the red-eared slider (likewise known as the red-eared terrapin). A couple of years off right now millions of individuals worldwide might be walking around along with an uncommon sort of glass in their mouth, as well as using that every time they eat. Responsible for our company hovers the biologist off Casa Magna, the stunning option whose turtle rescue efforts total up to over 60,000 eggs in 2012, almost 35% of the sea turtle rescue in Puerto Vallarta. Solomon Islands offered polite awareness to the Republic of China (Taiwan), 29 identifying it as the sole-legitimate government from each of China, therefore giving Taiwan important votes in the United Nations. Plantronics Headsets extend the heart a linked pronounce area team with a soul wireless magnitude as well as shooting lifetime quickly.

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