Falling Down the Energy Ladder.

This is an interesting read compiled by Viv Forbes from “Carbon Sense”, with help from volunteer reviewers. And, cartoons from Steve Hunter, Cartoonist  June 2016. To view the entire article and see the cartoons, Click here. - Werner
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When man first appeared on Earth he had no implements, no clothes, no farms, no mineral fuels, no machines and no electricity – his only tools were his brains, hands and muscles.

Everything that enables humans to live comfortably in a world where nature is indifferent to our survival has been discovered, invented, mined or manufactured over thousands of years by our inquisitive and innovative ancestors.

The history of civilization is essentially the story of man’s progressive access to more efficient, more abundant and more reliable energy sources - from ancestral human muscles to modern nuclear power. It is also the story of how to store that energy and deliver it with minimal losses to where it is most needed.
There are seven big steps on the human energy ladder –
1.    Stone age energy – human energy, fire, stone tools and geothermal energy
2.    Energy from farmed animals and plants
3.    Solar Power - wind and water
4.    Gunpowder and explosives
5.    Coal, steel, the steam engine and electricity
6.    Oil/gas and the internal combustion engine
7.    Nuclear power

Stone Age Energy.
Every person on Earth today is descended from a survivor of the recurring Pleistocene Ice Ages. They survived only because they were able to extract energy from a cold, dry, barren environment. Initially human energy was used to harvest the solar energy concentrated in animals hunted and plants gathered. Some societies multiplied their limited human energy by capturing and using slaves.

Ancient man’s first and greatest step up the energy ladder was discovering how to harness and use fire for warmth, cooking, hunting, metal working and warfare. This ability to ignite and control fire is the one thing that clearly separates humans from every other species.For centuries the main fire-energy fuels were organic natural resources such as wood, charcoal, peat, grass, animal dung and fats/oils extracted from animals and plants. As human population increased, these energy sources became scarce as the land and seas around towns and villages were stripped of their natural carbon fuels.

Moreover, when great ice sheets covered much of the northern hemisphere, trees and firewood were scarce. Also at this time, the large northern hemisphere land surface was absorbing less solar energy because of variations in Earth’s orbit, tilt and reflectivity. Keeping warm was very difficult. But there is usually more volcanic activity at the turning points of major climate cycles. Some lucky cave men discovered geothermal energy - they could bathe and cook in volcanic springs and hot mud, getting pleasure from the warmth, and health benefits from the trace elements present. Geothermal energy also allowed Stone Age people to harvest evaporites containing essential minerals like sulphur and salts of sodium, calcium, magnesium, copper and boron.

Early humans also discovered that stone-age sticks and stones could help them apply their muscle energy more effectively – with more force or at a greater distance.They used sticks for waddies, digging tools, spears, boomerangs, clubs and later bows and arrows; and stones for clubs, grinders, axes, knives and spear and arrow points. These tools increased their hunting ability, providing food, furs and feathers to generate and conserve body energy.

The Development of Farming.
The second step on the energy ladder was built when some smart hunter/gatherers discovered how to access more reliable energy by domesticating animals and plants. This lead to more permanent settlements where sheep, cattle, goats and pigs provided a steady supply of carbon-based food energy, and dogs, horses, donkeys and camels multiplied human energy for transport, hunting and warfare. Farmers also nurtured fruiting trees and grasses such as einkorn, wheat, rice, barley, oats, corn and sugar cane. These provided more dependable and abundant food energy for humans and their animals.

Farmers were soon producing surpluses, which lead to the development of farmers’ markets, which are energy conservation mechanisms. Initially farmers bartered with tool-makers and hunters, but the difficulty of matching the needs of buyers and sellers and the wish to store values from good seasons for use in bad seasons, led to the development of special stores of value/energy that came to be called money – shells, gems and eventually precious metals such as gold and silver were found to supply the best money.

Solar Power.
About this time humans ascended the third step on their energy ladder – the ability to harness wind/hydro/solar power for sailing ships, windmills, water-wheels, grain mills and drying food. The low energy density and unpredictability of these weather-dependent energy sources was obvious, even to our ancestors. Sailing ships and windmills could be becalmed for days and then have their sails torn down by violent storms. So the ancient wind-powered societies became keen weather-watchers. They read the signals of winds and clouds, waves and tides and carefully recorded the cycles of the weather and the solar system. Some who follow their methods produce better weather and climate forecasts than today’s computer models .

Gunpowder and Explosive Energy.
The fourth big step was the invention of gunpowder by the Chinese, which gave humans the first glimpse of the enormous power of concentrated chemical energy. The initial “black powder” was made by grinding and mixing naturally occurring charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre. Modern explosives such as dynamite and TNT were manufactured using acids and glycerine. There were many industrial accidents before safe methods of manufacture and transport were invented. The energy concentrated in explosives led to their widespread use for hunting, armaments, civil engineering and entertainment. Modern mining and quarrying is totally dependent on the use of explosive energy.

Coal, Steel, Steam Engines and Electricity.
The fifth energy step was gigantic, with three elements – coal, the steam engine and electricity. Coal has been used for centuries for cooking, home heating and black-smithing (when Captain Cook sailed up the Australian coast in 1770, he had a supply of coal in the hold of his wind-powered ship, “The Endeavour”.)

The real energy revolution was born in the 1760’s when James Watt developed a more efficient coal-powered steam engine. Then in 1829, Robert Stephenson developed a practical steam-powered rail locomotive. Suddenly coal-powered steam engines were moving trains and ships, pumping water and powering factories, traction engines and road vehicles. Early steam engines were driven by coal, but other hydro-carbons, wood, concentrated solar energy or nuclear power can be used.

Some coals convert to coke when heated in the absence of air. This was used as a cleaner fuel in homes as well as becoming an essential raw material to produce the iron and steel that built our modern world. Electricity generated by steam engines powered by coal was the magic tool for making clean energy available cheaply to city dwellers. Coal also provided the raw material for coal gas, which could be stored and supplied easily by pipe for heating and lighting.

Suddenly these two clean silent fuels, coal gas and coal-fired electricity, made redundant all the whale oil lamps, candles, kerosene lanterns, wood burning stoves and coal burning boilers and open fires that were truly polluting the air in homes and cities with smoke, ash, dust, sulphur, soot and at times, the deadly carbon monoxide. All of these real pollutants are removed in modern coal-fired power stations whose clean controlled emissions are mainly nitrogen, water vapour and carbon dioxide, all non-visible, non-toxic, plant-friendly natural gases of life.

Oil and the Internal Combustion Engine. 
The sixth step on the energy ladder also transformed our world - the discovery and extraction of oil and gas and the invention of the internal combustion engine. The mighty coal-fired steam engine still dominates electricity generation, but the compact and powerful internal combustion engine won the battle to power mobile machines. Suddenly cities that were choking with horse manure found relief in petrol-driven cars, buses and trucks. Being easier to store and transport, oil also replaced coal in ships and was soon powering the mighty British navy, and later still, powered civil and military air fleets.

Steam cars and electric cars got a good work-out over 100 years ago, but neither could compete with the oil-powered internal combustion engine. These two engines, the coal-powered steam engine and the oil/gas-powered internal combustion engine created the modern world and still provide most of our warmth, light, food, water, mobility and industrial power. The energy density and abundance of these two hydro-carbon fuels gave an enormous boost to human access to energy, and massively relieved the pressure on natural “green” fuels from forests, whales, bees and animal fats.

The transformation of transport was remarkable. Just 3-4 generations ago, a team of up to twenty bullocks took days or weeks to haul a wagon-load of wool bales, forest logs or bagged wheat to markets, and the bullocks needed fresh supplies of feed and water every night.
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My thought for today. - Werner
We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon. Konrad Adenauer

On the way to Smithfield, something unexpected happened.

This is a true story from my varied  life. I hope you enjoy reading it. – Werner

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“I’ll be back for lunch in twenty minutes,” were the parting words to my wife, Karola, as I drove off in my utility to the supermarket, 5 kilometres away, to check out a measurement for shelving at the Woolworths supermarket. While keeping my eyes on the road, my mind was preoccupied with all the work I had planned for the afternoon. What awaited me further up the road, or that I would be more than an hour late for lunch was something I could not have anticipated.

On the straight stretch of the road, on the outskirts of Yorkeys Knob, I could see four cars in the distance in front of me. Their brake lights were lighting up, one after the other, for a short time, but they kept driving on, and I wondered if there were some obstacles on the road. I soon discovered the reason for their braking. Beside the road a car with a trailer was parked, and the owner, a man stooped over, giving the appearance of being intoxicated, waved his hand frantically, beckoning them to stop, but they ignored him.

An article from Readers Digest, which I had read the night before, sprang immediately to my mind. The article gave an accurate account of a heart attack, the symptoms, and their manifestation. As I pulled up beside him, he opened the door and in a slurred, but anxious pitch in his voice, said to me, “Please call an ambulance!”

I immediately suspected a heart attack and recognized the gravity of the situation. To drive home, to the nearby petrol station or the nearest farmhouse, was out of the question as I figured too much time would be lost, as this man needed urgent medical attention, so I said to him, “I do one better, I’ll take you direct to the doctor’s surgery at the Smithfield Shopping Centre, please hop in.” I made sure his car was locked and that he had the keys and his wallet with him. “What is your name?” I asked him, as I drove off. “John Brewers,” he answered in a faintly hoarse voice and slumped against me on the seat. Further along the road I found out that he lived at Holloways Beach, the adjacent beach village, east of Yorkeys Knob.

I had to steer with one hand, using the other one to shake him constantly and pleading with him not to die on me. He managed to sit upright again, but in a somewhat stooped position. However, he kept slumping against me on and off. When I arrived at the busy T intersection (No roundabout then) of the Captain Cook Highway and Yorkeys Knob Road, and only 2 Kilometres from the doctor’s surgery, the traffic on the highway was extremely heavy. It seemed an eternity before I finally could cross into it and at the same time constantly shaking John and talking to him. I thought that if I get him to the surgery alive, I would be really happy.

I drove behind the shopping complex, which was the shortest way to the doctor’s surgery. (This was the shopping centre before the new development.) I helped John out of my Ute and put him prostrate on the footpath, then raced inside. On my way, I ran past Ann-Marie Whelan, a customer of mine, whose kitchen I had recently installed, but still had some work to finish there. I called out to her, “Sorry I can’t talk to you, I’m in a hurry.” This, of course, is something unusual for me, not to talk to people I run into, especially a customer.

Breathlessly, I said to the girl behind the reception desk at the surgery: “Please send a doctor out to the back. I left a man there, who I suspect has suffered a heart attack!” Two doctors overheard me, one ran out to where John was, while another got an injection ready for the heart attack suspect, and the office girl called an ambulance. I handed in John’s wallet and his car keys to the office girl for the next of kin to pick up. I let out a sigh of relief, for me, this had been a very strenuous and stressful 5 km drive.

I was just about to go into Woolworths, when I saw the ambulance arrive, so I walked to the back to see if John was still alive. He was, but only just. One of the doctors had injected a drug to stimulate his heart, but the patient’s face looked deathly pale. They put him onto a stretcher and then into the ambulance.

They were just about ready to drive away to take John to the Cairns Base Hospital. One ambulance officer jumped behind the steering wheel, while the other officer was about to close the tailgate of the ambulance when, all of a sudden, John had muscle spasm in his arms and legs. He clenched his fists, pulling up his arms and legs. This was followed by a big sigh, and he went limp. “Let’s give him shock treatment”, one ambulance officer called out to the other officer with great urgency in his voice.

With every electric shock John’s body jolted upwards, the fourth electric shock brought him back from the brink of death. He started to struggle violently and ripped off the oxygen mask; a doctor jumped into the ambulance to administer an injection, but was unable to, because the other officer wasn’t able to hold him still. Eventually, with one officer holding the head, the other his arms, one doctor and me holding on to one leg each, the other doctor kneeled on John’s chest and finally managed to give him a Valium injection, which calmed him down. The ambulance finally drove off and was on the way to the Cairns Base Hospital with its sirens wailing.

I could now finally go to Woolworths and do what I came here for in the first place. On my way home, I thought the first thing I had to do was to ring John’s wife or family, who by now would have been wondering what had happened to him. After all, he had only gone to the Yorkeys Knob rubbish dump to dispose a trailer-load of rubbish and was only six kilometres from home. I was browsing through the phone book, but could not find a Brewers at Holloways Beach, but then I thought the surgery would call the family, they had the wallet which would contain his drivers’ licence and other personal details. The reason I couldn’t find a Brewers in Holloways Beach, I found out later, was because the name was spelled Brouwers. John was of Dutch descent.

I couldn’t get John out of my mind, I wondered if the ambulance got him to the hospital alive. After some considerable time, it got the better of me. I couldn’t resist my desire to know whether John had arrived at the hospital alive, any longer. I had to ring the ambulance service. “Yes he made it and he is now in good care in the intensive care ward”, said the man on the phone. This was all I wanted to know for the moment, and now, I was able to relax.

Karola and I drove to the hospital in the evening and headed straight to the intensive care ward. A sister stopped us at the door. “You can’t go in, unless you are next of kin to a patient,” we were told. “Well”, I said, “I just wanted to find out how John “Brewers” was, the man brought in by ambulance around midday. I am the person who picked him up at the side of the road and took him to the doctor’s at Smithfield.”

“Oh, we heard about that, and wondered who it was. John is doing fine,” she continued. “Come on and have a quick look.” And she led us to the doorway. John’s bed was next to the door. He was propped up with pillows and was sleeping peacefully, a heavily sedated sleep, but his face had a much healthier colour than when I saw him in the ambulance. We left after a short while, but I experienced a wonderful feeling of satisfaction. It is hard to put it into words how I felt. Perhaps I could try. I was intoxicated with blissful elation at having saved the life of a fellow human. It was an assignment I hadn’t anticipated. This was an experience I’ll never forget.

Four days after I took John Brouwers to the surgery, I returned to Ann Marie Whelan to complete her job. I apologised for running past her in the supermarket foyer without taking time to have a chat with her. I told her about the man who suffered a heart attack on the road and that I was in a hurry to get help for him from a doctor.

“Oh, that was you!” she said. “They have been looking for you for the last four days.” “Who is looking for me?” I asked perplexedly. She handed me the newspaper and pointed to the personal column. In a small space was a request. It read, “Would the person, who picked up the man beside a yellow Suzuki car with trailer on Yorkeys Knob Road and took him to the doctor’s surgery, please ring this number.” I was astounded.

When I arrived home, I rang that number and a man answered. I told him who I was and why I’d rung. The man was a long-time friend of the Brouwers. He wanted to know what had actually happened, so I gave him an accurate account of what had transpired between the spot where I picked up John, and the Smithfield surgery. After a lengthy conversation, he thanked me profusely for saving John’s life.

We kept ringing the hospital daily to find out about John’s progress. When I was told that he was out of the intensive ward and was able to receive visitors, we visited him one evening. There, we met John’s wife, Pon, who is of Dutch Indonesian descent. John, of course, had only a very vague recollection of what had happened and he was extremely interested to hear the whole story from me. When we left, Pon followed us to the corridor and, with tears welling in her eyes, she gave me a hug and a kiss and thanked me profusely for saving her husband’s life. She went on to tell us that in a fortnight’s time they would celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, to which we would be invited. “If it hadn’t been for you,” she concluded, “this milestone celebration would have been denied to us.”

When John and Pon made a trip to Holland and Indonesia the following year, they sent us a postcard from both countries, and one sentence read, “Thank you again, if it hadn’t been for Werner, John would not have been on this trip.”

John was sixty-six years old when he suffered the heart attack. He had never had any heart trouble before or been seriously sick. In 2001, we were in Brisbane on our yearly visit to our daughter and family. As always, when in Brisbane, I buy our local newspaper, The Cairns Post, to keep me up to date on what is happening in our local area. Sadly, one day, we saw in the funeral notices that John Brouwers had passed away. But, beside the sad news, I felt somewhat elated. After all, I had given John eleven extra years of life. Being in Brisbane, we were disappointed not to be able to attend his funeral service.

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My thought for today. – Werner
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” ― Aesop

The avocado seed, there is more to it than meets the eye.

Avocados are often referred to as nature's own butter. We are lucky in North Queensland; they are grown at our doorstep, the Atherton Tableland, mainly in Mareeba and Tolga, and we get them fresh from the tree. The two main varieties are Hass and Shepard.   The Shepard avocados are grown on the Atherton Tableland and in Bundaberg, Queensland - the only places Sheppard avocados are grown in the world!

I love to eat avocados and their big seed was always a throw-away – but not anymore. I came across an interesting article, in which I learnt something I didn’t know about this otherwise nutritious fruit.  Source:  Danica Collins. So I thought to share it with you and I hope you find it as interesting as I did. I had my first smoothie with a quarter of an avocado seed which gave it a slight bitterness, but this was easily overcome with honey. As I always say: “If I haven’t learnt something new every day, I wasted a day”. Werner
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Did You Know that avocado seeds are the most nutritious part of an avocado?  These last few years, avocados have definitely been getting the love.  Studies have shown that the fruit of an avocado can help optimize heart health, calm chronic inflammation, and revitalize lacklustre skin and hair.  But you know that the most nutritious part of this fruit (yes, avocado is a fruit, not a vegetable!) gets discarded as waste.

An avocado seed actually makes up 18% of an avocado, and contains over 70% of the fruit's total antioxidant power.  In fact, Food Chemistry published a study that showed that avocado seeds have a "much higher antioxidant activity and phenolic content than the edible portions."

A recent Pennsylvania State University study confirmed the potent antioxidant capacity of avocado seeds.  Researchers found that antioxidant compounds in the seeds may help reduce cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and inflammation, and strengthen immune function. Research also shows that the seed are... Insecticidal, Fungicidal  and  Anti-microbial. It's time to stop throwing away the pit and start grinding it up into your diet, and Lower Disease-Instigating Inflammation.

Systemic inflammation is the cause of many chronic diseases, including arthritis, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer.  Avocado seeds contain high concentrations of catechin and procyandin antioxidants that help to lower inflammation and alleviate associated pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of joint mobility.  Catechins and procyandins have also been found to help boost heart health and blood circulation.

Optimize Digestion.
South Americans have used avocado seeds as a digestive aid for centuries.  They act as a palliative tonic for dysentery, gastric ulcers, constipation, diarrhoea, and other digestive complications.  Because an avocado seed has more soluble fibre per ounce than almost any other fruit or vegetable, it helps satiate hunger and keeps you fuller for longer.  So if you are trying to lose weight, don't be put off by the high-fat content of avocados or avocado seeds—avocados support your weight loss goals wholeheartedly!

Digestive health also influences your overall wellness, including immune function.  Here's an interesting fact: 70% of your immune system resides in your digestive tract. That means the healthier your gastrointestinal system, the stronger your immune system.

Kick Cancer to the Curb.
A 2013 study published in Pharmaceutical Biology from the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Columbia suggests that avocado seeds have some pretty powerful cancer-fighting properties.  Research showed that an extract of the seed and fruit of Hass avocados helped trigger apoptosis (cancer-cell death) in leukaemia cells, while leaving healthy cells unaffected. The secret weapon?  A phytochemical  flavonol, which has also been shown to inhibit the growth of cancer tumours.

Keep That Heart Healthy.
Avocados are high in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, and the seeds also contain amino acids and fibre that help lower cholesterol and prevent the accumulation of arterial plaque. Dr. Tom Wu, recipient of the "World Famous Doctor" award from the United Nations for his breakthroughs with diabetes and cancer, says: "This soluble fibre binds to the fat and excess cholesterol.  Then we can lower cholesterol and improve heart function naturally. Soluble fibre is tough to get in our diet. Oatmeal has some, but it cannot compare with the avocado seed."

Cracking the Seed.
You can split an avocado seed in two using a heavy chef's knife and then chopping it up into smaller pieces, which you can easily blend into a rich, creamy smoothie.  You can also grind up an avocado seed and sprinkle into your salads or on top of yogurt. You can even put the avocado seed in a bag and hammer it into a powder.  Just don't throw that seed away!

PS: I found that this is a hard “nut” to crack, and a hammer with the seed in a plastic bag is the best option to crack it. – Werner
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More reading.
12 proven benefits of avocado.
Images of the Atherton Tableland.
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My thought for today. - Werner
It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts. Harry S Truman
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How to post a comment!

Look after your liver and your eyes will benefit.

I’m all for good health and good nutrition, however I never knew that there is a correlation between the liver and the eyes.  My niece in Germany was recently diagnosed with holes in her retina, which needed laser treatment to prevent them from getting bigger. I have at present a friend with me from Germany who is a biologist, and very knowledgeable about health and nutrition. When I told her about my niece's eye problem, she immediately said: “Is her liver healthy?”

We discussed this subject at length, and then I went onto the Internet to see what information I could find.  I found the following and thought to share it with you. I know of a few other people with the same problem as my niece; perhaps you also know somebody, and this article may help them.
There is a proverb which says: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. So true! – Werner
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Look after your liver to protect your eyes.
Did you know that eye problems may indicate an unhealthy liver?  According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) there is a strong relationship between the health of your liver and the health of your eyes.  Improving the health of your liver can often help to prevent or ameliorate eye conditions.

According to TCM, liver blood deficiency can cause problems such as blurry vision and other vision problems, short-sightedness (myopia), dry eyes or floaters in the eyes.  Excess liver heat can cause painful, burning and bloodshot eyes.

According to Western medicine, the liver is the main cleanser and filter of your bloodstream.  Every toxic substance that enters your body eventually ends up in your liver, which attempts to break it down and prepare it for excretion.  Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant that is manufactured in your body, especially in your liver.  The production of glutathione requires several amino acids (cysteine, glycine and glutamic acid), as well as the mineral selenium.

The better your liver is at detoxification, the fewer toxins you will have in your body.  If your liver health is compromised, you will have a greater quantity of toxins running around your bloodstream, causing free radical damage and wear and tear to your organs and tissues.  The delicate retina and macula in the eyes are particularly vulnerable to free radical damage, and this can have a devastating effect on vision.  Free radicals can attack the retina and result in the breakdown of healthy tissue.

Cigarette smoking, a lack of fresh vegetables and fruit in the diet, heavy alcohol consumption, high blood sugar and the consumption of margarine and vegetable oil are all known risk factors for vision loss in people over the age of 50.  People with compromised liver health such as fatty liver disease, hepatitis, cirrhosis or alcohol induced liver inflammation are also at risk of vision loss and poor eye health.

What you can do to save your sight.
In many instances, people with compromised liver health are not aware they have a problem because they may have very few, or no symptoms.  However, eye conditions or eye discomfort can be a helpful early warning sign that you need to pay attention to your liver.  Nearly every one of our patients who completes a liver detox remarks that their eyes are looking noticeably clearer, they experience less discomfort and dryness in their eyes after staring at a computer screen all day; their eyes are less irritated by grass and pollen; they don’t seem to need their reading glasses as much, or their contact lenses don’t seem to irritate them as much.

Perhaps it’s time you gave your liver a helping hand! Recommendations for good eye and liver health: Eat plenty of raw vegetables and make raw vegetable juices regularly.  Vegetables contain a plethora of antioxidants that you cannot obtain any other way.  Try to include as wide a variety of vegetables in your diet as possible, as the different pigments that give vegetables their color are powerful antioxidants.  Fruit is beneficial too but should be limited to two pieces per day, as it is fairly high in sugar.  Lutein and zeaxanthin are two specific antioxidants found in large quantities in the lens and retina of the eyes.  Research has shown they help to reduce the risk of macular degeneration.  These antioxidants are found in kale, spinach, broccoli, corn and egg yolks.

Avoid substances that you know are harmful to your liver, such as cigarettes, excess alcohol, sugar, junk food and cheap nasty vegetable oil and margarine.  The healthiest oils to consume are olive oil, macadamia nut oil, cold pressed coconut oil and ghee.

Take a good quality liver tonic.  In today’s polluted world your liver has to deal with a far greater quantity of toxins than if you were alive 100 years ago.  Your diet will not always be perfect either; therefore a good liver tonic is essential.  Livatone Plus contains the powerful herb St Mary’s thistle.  This herb is an antioxidant, improves liver detoxification and can even help to repair damaged liver cells.

Drink green tea regularly.  Green tea contains powerful antioxidants and it helps to reduce the risk of developing a fatty liver. Take a selenium supplement.  Selenium is required for the production of the body’s own antioxidant glutathione. This improves detoxification and reduces the amount of toxins circulating in the bloodstream. Take care of your liver and you can be rewarded with bright eyes and clear vision.


THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FDA AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT OR CURE ANY DISEASES. Source.
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Also worth reading:
Is the food we eat, and the air we breath, making us sick?
Enzymes are an important factor for good health.
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My thought for today. – Werner
Health is not valued until sickness comes. Thomas Fuller

The Bandicoot, the lesser-known Australian marsupial.

When I arrived in Australia in 1954, I knew all about Australia’s best known marsupial, the kangaroo, but had no idea that there were other marsupials equally interesting in their own way. I discovered this only when I cut sugar cane in Mossman in far North Queensland. - Werner
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Once upon a time sugarcane fires lit the skies in Queensland, Australia, throughout the cane-cutting season. The cane was burnt to remove the dry leaves to make cutting easier, especially when the cane was still cut by hand. Today, this practice has been discontinued, and mechanical harvesters have replaced the manual cane cutter. To watch a cane fire, was a sight to behold, especially with the wind behind it, thirty-meter high flames were nothing unusual. Unfortunately, this spectacle also had a more ominous side to it. Many small animals, which found food and shelter in the cane fell victim to the fire if they were not fast enough to escape.  They were predominately snakes, rats and bandicoots.The latter is the animal I’m writing about.

It is highly likely, I guess, that very few people outside Australia have heard about this marsupial, the cousin of our better known and national icon, the Kangaroo - and much less ever seen one. Seeing them is not easy, because they are nocturnal and start to come out at dusk from their hiding places in search of food. The diet of the Bandicoot is, in the main, insects, grubs and worms, but they also eat some roots, fungi, and berries when in season. They move over the ground sniffling and snuffling as they go, and find insects by smelling them. They also have the ability to detect worms and grubs under the soil and quickly dig down with their narrow front feet. The front feet have three toes with long curving claws, so the holes they dig are narrow and pointed at the bottom, and the narrow snout fits neatly into the hole to get the worm or grub at the bottom of the hole. They live a solitary life, nest alone and spend the day hidden in a nest, hollow log or just under bushes.

The only time females tolerate the company of males is when in season, solely to mate. After that event the male is no longer welcome. The lifespan of a bandicoot is only about three years. When females are about three months old they start breeding, and this will be a continuous process from then on, to the end of their days. They are still suckling their young in the pouch while the next litter grows in the womb.

I can vividly remember when I first encountered this small, but interesting marsupial - mistakenly taking it for an oversized rat. I was cutting sugarcane in Mossman in far North Queensland in the late 1950s, when we burnt off a paddock of sugarcane which was adjacent to a field that lay fallow in the late afternoon. As the fire raged, a drama took place on the ground, as well as in the air. I exclaimed! “Look at all those big rats escaping the fire!” My Boss smiled, “Those big ones are not rats. They are bandicoots.”

“They are what?” I asked. This was my very first introduction to the word and the animal it represents. However, I have since learnt more about this animal as well as encountering them many times. Of course, for many bandicoots and rats that escaped the inferno into the fallow field and wrongly thinking it was their lucky break – unfortunately it wasn’t. A lot of them fell prey to the many hawks that circled above, eager for a meal. The hawks literally had a field day with gourmet food. I couldn’t help thinking of the English proverb, in reverse order, “From the fire into the frying pan” - it is indeed a cruel world out there. 

Bandicoot is the common name for any of 23 species of marsupials found inAustralia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. The Bandicoot ranges in length from 15 to 56 cm (6" to 22") depending on the species. They look something like a cross between a rat and a rabbit. The colour of the fur ranges from grey, to brown and golden brown. I was told by cane-farmers that the early European settlers called them bandicoots because they look like a pig-rat, or pandi-kokku of southern India, and the name has stuck. For the members of the group which have long rabbit-like ears, we use the name the aborigines gave them - bilby.

I will restrict myself in this story to the bandicoot I’m familiar with, the short-nosed northern brown bandicoot (Isodon macrourus) that is heavier built, has a shorter nose and smaller ears than the long-nosed one (Perameles nasuta) that is lighter built and has longer ears. (See picture above.) The long-nosed bandicoots live in areas that are more open and grassy, while the short-nosed prefers more wooded areas. Fully grown, they are about 250 mm (10") long.

As coastal cities are expanding, and bushland is lost, the bandicoot is squeezed out of their habitat. I was fortunate enough to live for many years, not among the gum trees, as the well-known Australian folk song goes, but among the bandicoots in North Queensland. They are generally considered useful little critters especially in sugarcane where they dig for the very damaging cane grub.

We lived for seven years at a place called White Rock, just south of Cairns. (Now renamed “Mt. Sheridan”) We had tall mountains as a backdrop, and our house was adjacent to a little creek, and surrounded by bush and sugarcane. It was the ideal habitat of bandicoots - and many less desirable creatures. We had the pleasure of getting acquainted with one that for a long time came at dusk to the bottom of our steps, and the kids fed it with small bits of meat. This was very unusual, to come so close to humans, as they are normally very shy.

We found, as intriguing as this little marsupial was, it also had a downside, if one lived in a country area. Wherever, there were bandicoots, there were always snakes around, as bandicoots are part of their food chain. But a more worrisome aspect was, they carried the deadly scrub tick, which dropped off their host onto the lawn after it had its fill of blood. From there, it could get onto domestic animals such as dogs and cats with dire consequences. It is said that bandicoots are immune to the tick poison. We lost two dogs to tick paralysis, despite the vet administrating a very expensive antivenin, which was fairly new in the 1960s. Besides being extremely expensive, the death resulting from tick poisoning is an agonising one.

At night-time, we always knew when bandicoots were paying us a visit. Their squeaky grunts could be heard all night. And if males fought with each other, there were prolonged squeaky grunts. In the morning, I would find to my chagrin, their instantly recognizable visiting cards that they left behind - the numerous holes in the lawn, which could prove very annoying to any proud owner of a well-groomed lawn.

Lets delve a bit deeper into the inner workings of this interesting little marsupial. Bandicoots have the shortest known pregnancy of any mammal - only twelve and a half days. The half-day has some significance. The female mates at night and the young are born in the daytime in the security of the nest. As with all marsupials, their young are very small and undeveloped, with no fur and unable to see, yet they are still able to find their way into the pouch. In the case of the bandicoot, the young are only about one centimetre long. But one of the most interesting aspects is that the pouch of the bandicoot opens backwards, and inside the pouch are eight teats and there are usually three or four young.
 

By comparison, the Kangaroo, which has only one young, has two teats and the pouch opens upwards. Each newborn bandicoot attaches itself to one of the small teats in the pouch, which then swells, ensuring that the young stay there. I pondered for long time, as to why the pouch would open backwards, and came to

the following conclusion. The bandicoot digs holes with their shorter front legs in search of food, and if the pouch opened the other way, it would fill up with soil and smother the young.

What do you think? I’m convinced that the designer of the bandicoot was wearing his thinking cap when he invented this fascinating little animal.
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My thought for today. - Werner
We have more to learn from animal than animals have to learn from us. Anthony Douglas Williams

A non-polluting car motor.

How often do we yearn for owning a car that would run on anything else than petrol or diesel? The good news is, a friend, Eddie Haring (See Picture) converted an existing car motor that runs on compressed air. Is this perhaps the answer to cleaner and more affordable motoring? When Plato said: “Necessity is the mother of invention”, he certainly didn’t think of exorbitant petrol prices, as the car hadn’t been invented then, but it certainly would apply today and a car motor that runs on air would certainly be a necessity.

A personal note. Eddie Haring was born in Germany and is an aircraft engineer (retired). He worked in this capacity in Germany and Papua New Guinea. Eddie also built his own yacht and travelled for 12 years around the world with his lovely wife Ute, and their three children.

Eddie got 2 Suzuki motor blocks, an “Alto” and a “Swift” and converted them to run on compressed air. (Patented in Australia) Eddie gave me a motor running demonstration of the “Alto engine on a test stand” and I was amazed and very much impressed by what I witnessed.

No radiator is needed and no starter motor for the „Alto“. The engine runs very quiet and the exhaust feels cold. This motor is environmentally friendly as clean air goes in and clean air goes out!  Air-pollution is avoided!

Eddie is hoping that a car manufacturer or somebody takes up this concept and develops it further. And hopefully we will get a car that will run on air, and doesn’t pollute, which would make us independent from oil producing countries.

• This invention can be applied to any existing car motor!

• No conventional air-conditioning equipment is needed, or cooling water, or a radiator.

• Neither is a starter motor required on a 3 cylinder engine. Compressed air will be refilled into lightweight carbon-fibre cylinders by solar panels via an electric driven compressor.

This invention can be applied to cars (any existing car motor can be remodeled in a short time if eventually a kit form is supplied). This concept would also be excellent for farm equipment, like tractors, spray and harvesting machinery, Mining-machinery, Buses, trucks etc…

Organic farming is improved as farm equipment/tractors/spray machinery does not emit toxic diesel-emissions or fumes!

 It took many years to develop car-motors as we know them today and equally, air-driven motor development will need time to become a reality and be economically viable.
Contact e-mail: Eddie Haring, euharing@gmail.com
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My thought for today. – Werner
The secret to success is to start from scratch and keep on scratching. Dennis Green

The Muslim dilemma and their conflict with Western Culture.

Have you ever wondered why we have problems with Muslims? If you read the following by Danish Psychologist you wouldn’t wonder anymore. He said in March 2009, “Integration of Muslims in Western Societies is not possible.” Unquote.

In short, they have a problem with our Western Culture, and we have a problem with theirs, which they want to impose on us. The question begs, why do they want to go to a Christian country? There is perhaps an ulterior motive to simply breed us out, and live on Welfare. For those people who have a problem with our Australian culture and are averse to assimilate, I have a simple message. “Just go away and find another country that is compatible with your culture, we don’t want you here”. - Werner
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An interview by Felix Struening. Danish integration problems with Muslims became public worldwide in 2006 when the newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. Exactly two years later riots broke out again because of the reprint of the Mohammed cartoons by all major Danish newspapers. Currently 70% of the prison population in the Copenhagen youth prison consists of young men of Muslim heritage. Is this recent violence and general violent tendency among Muslims solely coincidental, or is there a direct connection?

In February 2009, Nicolai Sennels, a Danish psychologist published a book entitled “Among criminal Muslims”. A psychologist’s experience from Copenhagen. In his book, Nicolai Sennels shares a psychological perspective of this Muslim Culture, its relationship to anger, handling emotions and its religion. He based his research on hundreds of hours of therapy with 150 young Muslims in the Copenhagen youth jail. EuropeNews interviewed the author about his book and its consequences on integration of Muslims in Europe. Picture: Nicolai Sennels

EuropeNews: Nicolai Sennels, how did you get the idea to write a book about criminal Muslims in Denmark?

Sennels: I got the idea in February 2008 during a conference on integration in Copenhagen, where I was invited as the first and only psychologist working in a Copenhagen youth prison. My speech at the conference was about the fact, that foreigners’ culture plays a significant role concerning integration, crime and religious extremism. I emphasized, that people from a Muslim culture find it difficult, if not impossible, to create a successful life in Denmark. This statement was met with great resistance from Danish politicians and also my own boss from the youth prison. I was quite surprised since I thought that my point is obvious: some cultures fit better into Western societies than others. All of Europe is currently struggling to integrate Muslims but this endeavour seems to be impossible. According to the Danish police and the Danish Bureau of Statistics more than 70% of all crimes in the Danish capital are committed by Muslims. Our national bank recently published a report stating that a Muslim foreigner costs more than 2 million Danish Kroner (300,000 Euros) in federal social assistance on average, caused by the low participation in the work force.

On top of this, we have to add many additional types of social welfare that unemployed people can receive in our country: expenses in connection with interpreters, special classes in school – 64% of school children with Muslim parents cannot read and write Danish properly after 10 years in a Danish school – social work, extra police etc. My statement resulted in a legal injunction, a kind of professional punishment, which stated, that if I ever repeat this, I could be fired. According to the Copenhagen authorities it is apparently permitted to state that the serious problems among Muslims are caused by poverty, the media, the police, the Danes, politicians, etc. But two things are definitely not allowed: 1) discussing the significance of culture and 2) our foreigners own responsibility for their integration in our societies. Unfortunately many very powerful politicians lack a clear understanding of the psychological aspect of culture and the influence it has on integration.

EuropeNews: What were the reactions in Denmark?

Sennels: The book was received with a great amount of attention, already before the book was officially published on February 24 2009. It was on the front page of one of the biggest national newspapers in Denmark, and I was on the radio and TV participating in debates with politicians and other experts on the subject. The first publication of the book was sold out after three weeks. Since then, there have been some big changes in Danish integration policy, which seems to have been influenced by the book and the attention it got. From my personal point of view, the widespread attention shows that my statement is true: there is simply a great need for a deeper understanding of how Muslims’culture influences their chances for integration. The very famous politician, Naser Khader, who is Muslim and the author of the bestseller “Honor and Shame”, wrote a review of my book and stated that it should be “obligatory reading for students, social workers and teachers.” Jyllands-Posten, the brave newspaper that first published the Mohammed cartoons, calls the book “an original piece of pioneer work”.

EuropeNews: Let’s have a closer look at the book. You talk about four myths of integration. The first one concerns the difference between the cultures of immigrants.

Sennels: What I discovered during my work at the youth prison was that people of Muslim heritage have other needs for social work than Danes or people of non-Muslim cultures. These different needs require more attention, and psychologists need to do more research on these topics in order to be able to create effective social politics. I completely agree with my critics that personal and social problems can lead to anti-social behaviour among both Westerners and Muslims. However, there is still extremely disproportional anti-social and anti-democratic behaviour among Muslims. The Danish Bureau of Statistics published a report (1 and 2) stating that Muslim countries take the first eight places on the top 10-list of criminals’ country of origin. Denmark is number nine on this list.

EuropeNews: So that means, we have to treat Muslim and non-Muslim immigrants in a different way?

Sennels: Seen from a psychological and also humanistic perspective, it is very clear that people from different cultures have different needs when they have or create problems. My own experience is that Muslims don’t understand our Western way of trying to handle conflicts through dialogue. They are raised in a culture with very clear outer authorities and consequences. Western tradition using compromise and inner reflection as primary means of handling outer and inner conflicts is seen as weak in the Muslim culture. To a great extent they simply don’t understand this softer and more humanistic way of handling social affairs. In the context of social work and politics this means that they need more borders and stronger consequences to be able to adjust their behaviour.

EuropeNews: That leads us directly to the second myth: it is often said, that the criminality of immigrants is caused by social problems, not by their cultural background. In your book you disagree and point to the religion of the Muslims as a source of criminality.


Sennels: Well, I would rephrase it as “Muslim culture” instead of “religion” because there are a lot of Muslims who don’t know what is written in the Quran and who don’t visit the mosques. But they are strongly influenced on a cultural level. And there we see that especially anger is much more accepted in the Muslim culture. One example: in Western culture and also in other non-Muslim cultures, like in Asia, you see aggression and a sudden explosion of anger as something you’ll regret afterwards, something you are ashamed of. It is completely opposite in the Muslim culture. If somebody steps on your honour – what I as a psychologist would call self confidence – you are simply expected to show aggression and often also verbal or physical revenge. So, aggression gives you a low status in our cultures, but a high status in the Muslim culture. There is however another and much deeper reason for the wide spread anti-social behaviour in Muslim communities and their strong aversion against integration – namely, the very strong identification that Muslims have with belonging to the Muslim culture.

My encounter with the Muslim culture has been a meeting with an exceedingly strong and very proud culture. This is certainly something that can ensure an ancient culture’s survival through changing times – Islam and the Muslim culture are excellent examples of this. A strong and proud culture unfortunately also makes the culture’s members almost unable to adapt to other values. In Germany, only 12% of their 3.5 million Muslims see themselves as more German than Muslim; in France and Denmark, only 14% of the Muslim populations respectively see themselves more as French or Danish than Muslim. Research among Muslims living in Denmark also shows that 50% of the 1st- and 2nd-generation immigrants are against free speech and 11% would like to see the Danish constitution exchanged with the Sharia law (more numbers from this research can be found in the printed issue of the newspaper). These high percentages are of course frightening, but especially disturbing is the fact that there are no differences of opinion on this topic among Muslims who are born and raised in Muslim countries and the opinion of their children who are born and raised in Danish society. When it comes to identity among Muslims, nationality does not count at all in comparison with culture and religion. The consequence is a powerful and growing opposition to Western culture and values in Muslim ghettos throughout Copenhagen and other major European cities.

EuropeNews: As you already pointed out, a lot of Muslims have a strong connection to their religious identity. The third myth you dismantle in your book is about the percentage of extremist’s and fundamentalists among Muslims. It’s often presumed that this percentage is relatively small. What is your experience?

Sennels: People hope that most Muslims are modern and accept Western values. My experience is different, and this has been proven by the statistics in Europe that I just quoted. In February 2008, we had some deadly serious riots by young Muslims in Denmark. Those riots were partly a reaction to the great focus by the Danish police on the steeply rising crime rates in Muslim areas. The other reason was the reprinting of the Mohammed cartoons in all Danish newspapers. This reprinting was an act of solidarity with the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose life was, and still is, seriously threatened. In these riots, we saw Muslims who don’t practice the Islamic religion in their daily lives standing up for their culture and religion in a very aggressive way. Copenhagen was smoking for an entire week due to several hundred of fires, and the police and firemen trying to calm the situation down were also attacked. A big part of the rioters ended up in the prison where I worked, and I therefore I had the chance to talk with them. Almost all of them were Muslims, and they all claimed that what they have done – starting fires, attacking the police etc. – was justified since Danish society, through its pressure on integration and through reprinting the Mohammed cartoons, has proven itself to be racist and against Islam and Muslim culture. The few Danish people among the rioters were completely different. Their explanation of their actions was predominately a search for adventure or excitement.

EuropeNews: The fourth myth is that poverty among immigrants leads to their bad social situation. In your book, you tell us that the opposite is true.
Sennels: You can formulate this important question like this: Do people get social problems because they are poor, or do they become poor because they create social problems? My experience is that the very low focus on supporting one’s children in school and on one’s own education and the lack of motivation for creating a professional career is a crucial factor for the poverty, which many Muslims experience in both our societies and in Muslim countries. On top of it, one fourth of all young male Muslims in Denmark have a criminal record. Poor reading skills, a strong aversion against authorities and a criminal record simply make it very difficult for you to get a well paying job. It is anti-social behaviour that makes you poor. Not the other way around.

Unfortunately many politicians see poverty as the main cause of integration problems. I think this is a horrible and one-dimensional view of poor people and of people in general. The idea that people’s behaviour is decided by the amount of money they have on their bank accounts every month is an exceedingly limited view. I myself, as a psychologist who graduated from the humanities department of the University of Copenhagen, would say that people have many more and stronger factors in their lives than money, which influence their behaviour and way of thinking.

EuropeNews: What is the conclusion on your research? Is the integration of people of Muslim heritage into Western societies possible?
Sennels: I would say that the optimists, the people who say that integration is possible, carry a very great responsibility. There is a very great risk that they are selling us hope, a dream that has no foundation in reality. This means that they will be the ones who are responsible for Europe looking away from and not addressing its problems until it is too late. There is simply no research in Europe that supports the optimists’ view. On the contrary, all the research that we have on integration of Muslims in Western societies shows that we are continuing to head in the wrong direction. So I don’t know how these optimists come to their conclusion. Maybe it is a vain and childish hope that everything will turn out well, just like in the fairy tales. Or maybe it is a pseudo-Darwinistic idea that everything will develop in a positive direction.

One thing is for sure: they don’t base their judgments on facts. Of course there are exceptions but for the largest part integration to the necessary degree of Muslims is not possible. Clever and compassionate people are working all over Europe on the problem, and they have spent billions of Euros on the project, yet, the problems still continue to grow. The psychological explanation is actually simple. The Muslim and the Western cultures are fundamentally very different. This means Muslims need to undergo very big changes in their identity and values to be able to accept the values of Western societies. Changing basic structures in one’s personality is a very demanding psychological and emotional process. Apparently very few Muslims feel motivated to do so. I only know a few who managed, but I also know that it was a long and exhausting struggle on an inner level for them and that they often pay a high personal price on the outer level because their Muslim friends and families despise and/or disown them for leaving their culture.

EuropeNews: But what we are going to do with the Muslims, who are already here?

Sennels: I see two possibilities. Firstly, we should immediately stop all immigration of people from Muslim countries to Europe until we have proven that integration of Muslims is possible. Secondly, we should help Muslims who don’t want to or are not able to integrate in our Western societies to build a new and meaningful life in a society they understand and that understands them. This means to assist them in starting a new life in a Muslim country. We actually have the  economic means to do this. As I mentioned previously, the Danish National Bank calculated, that every immigrant from Muslim countries costs 300,000 euros on average. With this money, we could help these people to live a happy life in a Muslim country without having to integrate in a society they don’t understand and therefore cannot accept.

Having enough money to support one’s family and live in a country where one feels at home with the surrounding culture would be a great step forward in the quality of their lives. And we should help them achieve this. Not only the individual Muslim, but also European societies will benefit. Muslims emigrating from Europe to Muslim countries will function as ambassadors for more free and democratic societies: due to their experience from living in a democracy with real human rights and their knowledge of the social systems in Europe, they will take very important ideas and values with them. In this way they can do what hopefully most of them dream of, i.e. help their Muslim brothers and sisters in their home countries by changing the poor conditions and from which they moved away from initially. 
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Nicolai Sennels, 33 years old, is a psychologist and has worked for theCopenhagen authorities for several years. From 2005 to 2008 he worked at the Sønderbro youth prison in Copenhagen.
Source. http://en.europenews.dk/Danish-Psychologist-Integration-of-Muslims-in-Western-Societies-is-not-possible-78171.html
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More reading about this subject.Denmark's Muslin dilemma.
Australian angst about Islam . .
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My thought for today. - Werner
We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon. Konrad Adenauer