How the Rich and Powerful Inherit the Earth

The more money you have in the bank, the more powerful you are. That’s been the case since we human beings have adopted a monetary system for purchasing what we want, rather than just clubbing each other over the head, and then stealing what we want.

Powerful people get what they want, when they want it.

Just ask the executives of a Toronto, ON., Canada-based hospital who somehow managed to “acquire” their H1N1 Swine Flu shots long before anyone else. Or the numerous sports celebrities in basketball, hockey, even baseball – which isn’t even in season – all who got their vaccines first. There are countless politicians, movie stars, and business executives who probably got their H1N1 Flu shots before us common folks.

Despite the shortages in some parts of the world – thanks to poor planning by all levels of governments – the rich and powerful have jumped the line, getting their medications first. Because we all know the world just can’t go on without professional athletes, movie stars, and ass kissing politicians.

The world would continue without ‘em?

Must be the money, the power, and the prestige. No, it’s just that the money gives these elite people the power to buy whatever they want, whenever they want it.

Even government regulators can’t stop these individuals. They make rules and regulations; and have law enforcement types wearing intimidating bullet-proof outfits armed to the teeth fending off anyone who tries to jump the line.

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But if you are lucky enough to have enough money, you don’t even have to stand in line – the doctor will be more than happy to make the house call and personally serve your every need.

“Oh I’m sorry, did that hurt? Here – take this ‘lolly’ – it’ll make you feel better.”
When was the last time your doctor made a house call, and offered you a lollypop candy as a distraction from the pain of a common medical procedure?

Nice to know that if the pandemic of H1N1 Swine Flu does decimate much of the world’s population, at least we’ll have the rich and powerful to re-populate and rebuild the planet.

Paris Hilton via last.fm

Just think, although your families genetic line could be wiped off the planet, Donald Trump’s would replace it. Imagine a world where everyone has bad hair, and likes to yell “you’re fired!”

Don’t like the Donald? Maybe Paris Hilton is more to your liking – with her massive brain power under that blonde bimbo exterior, the human race is sure to succeed.

Don’t think the world would survive on a diet of gossip, partying, and making really bad movies?

Don’t worry if you don’t survive the H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic because some famous basketball player got your flu shot instead of you, you won’t miss much.
You can’t dribble away the world’s problems with a jump shot.

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H1N1 Swine Flu Infections Rising in North America

It just had to happen – or at least that’s what medical experts have been predicting for some time. Another round of H1N1 Swine Flu is going around North America – and possibly the world.

Just yesterday, about 140 students in a Milwaukee, USA school were sent home and the school was closed, because most of the students, and some of the staff were suffering with symptoms of the dreaded bug. Several schools in the area have closed down, some with confirmed cases of the H1N1 Swine Flu, and in some of those instances, some children have been hospitalized with the H1N1 Swine Flu virus.

Local medical officers of health have publicly said that they believe all the infections are H1N1 Swine Flu, as they haven’t seen any outbreaks of other less severe flues in the area. They have collected samples and are running lab tests prior to confirming each infected site, but are leaning towards the H1N1 strain of flu.

Also yesterday, American Congressman Greg Walden (Republican) confirmed earlier reports that he has been diagnosed with the H1N1 Swine Flu. Walden sent a one-line message (commonly called a “tweet”) on the

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online micro blogging site Twitter.com this past Monday saying he had just arrived home from the doctor’s office with the diagnoses, and that he was going into “seclusion for a while.”

Hitting closer to home, here in Ontario Canada, a turkey farm was quarantined after it became clear the turkeys were infected with the H1N1 Swine Flu.

This is of particular concern, as the virus can further mutate inside a turkey, and then re-infect a person, creating a monster combination Swine/Turkey variant of the virus, which may be even harder for human beings to overcome.

Medical experts across the globe have been predicting a rise in the H1N1 Swine Flu – many suggesting the winter holiday season around Christmas and New Year’s as the timeframe. But it appears Christmas has come early for the virus, as it is making a comeback now.

Some are even going so bold as to not shake another person’s hands, for fear of catching the virus. Although proper hand washing techniques can shave off most colds and flu, it’ll take a lot more than avoiding a handshake to prevent catching the virus.

When a pandemic strikes, everything and everyone is a potential threat – even from the most innocuous everyday things.

Forgot to bring lunch to the office? Not an uncommon occurrence, so you figure you’ll do what many (including myself) do in times of hunger – go out for lunch.
Problem is, no matter how well you wash your hands, if the people prep

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aring or serving you your food are infected with the H1N1 Swine Flu, then you stand a greater chance of coming down with the virus too. And in low paying (often minimum wage) jobs such as in food services industries, people will often work regardless of how sick they are, because they need the money.

The same is true for another part of our food supply chain – grocery stores. Those apples may look perfect shining under the grocery store lights, but if the store employee who put them on the shelf in the first place was sick with the H1N1 Swine Flu, guess what? Yes, you too can catch the flu.

That’s the whole nature of a pandemic – it is when a disease spreads so easily from person to person, no matter how many precautions are taken, the odds are greater that most will eventually contract the illness.

You can minimize the impact of the illness if and when you do catch it. That’s what the flu shot is for, and it doesn’t hurt to take multivitamins to strengthen your immune system, and help you fight off colds and flu faster.

So the lesson here is simple – wash your hands, lock your doors and windows – or wait that’s advice for something else.

Wash your hands often, sneeze and cough into your sleeve (not your hands) to avoid spreading germs and get your flu and H1N1 Swine Flu shots when they become available in your area.

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Discovering Your Hidden Creativity

Whenever someone asks me what I do, and after explaining that I’m a writer, I almost always get the same response:

“WOW – I’ve always wanted to do that, but I’m not creative enough.”

Or alternatively, the other person’s eyes light up like a solar flare as they respond:

“I have a story that needs to be told, wanna write it?”

The later one is easy to dismiss – I’m no longer a journalist. I write this blog based on my thoughts and observations around me – which is what all writer

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’s do to an extent. Not that I easily dismiss another person’s story – we all have our amazing stories which we want to share with others. Just I don’t want to be the person writing about everyone elses lives – my life gives me plenty to write about thank you very much!

The first response is what today’s blog is all about – creativity.

We all have some element of creativity buried deep within ourselves – it is just a matter of digging within to uncover it.

Yeah, I’ve heard it a zillion times – “but I’m not a creative person.”

Without creativity, you wouldn’t be reading this blog right this very second. The first sign of creativity is a sense of curiosity – and it is that sense of “need to know” which drove you this far in this blog.

Curiosity drives us to do many things. From the simple, such as clicking on a blog and reading it through, to the more adventurous – reading a blog, becoming inspired

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to write your own, to the more – uh er – well you decide – tasting that mysterious brown clump of food that’s been sitting at the back of your fridge for the past six-months, to figure out what it is or was.

Provided you don’t get food poisoning from tasting mystery foods left in your fridge, creativity is driven by a sense of curiosity – interest in the people, places and things around us.

Unless you really live in a vacuum – which in of itself would be quite the tall tale – chances are you are curious about something.

So curiosity is one of the key characteristics – which we all have – of being creative. Still don’t think you are a creative person? What if I told you there really are only three elements to being creative – you’ve just discovered you have one, what if you have the other two?

Ask yourself: “If I won $35 million in the lottery today, what would I do with the money?”

Take a moment to salivate over your winnings – thirty-five million dollars is nothing to sneeze at!

What would you do?

Would you buy a new house? Get a red hot exotic sports car? How about take a trip around the world – no! Even better than a trip, a cruise around the world.

Just by thinking about what you’d do if you won the lottery, you just proved you have one of the other two characteristics embodied in being creative.

The first of the remaining two characteristics is the ability to imagine – using your mind’s eye to see other possibilities. Imagination is key to creativity, as curiosity drives us to imagine what it would be like to do something, be someone else, meet a celebrity, or win the lottery.

Our imaginations give us an alternative perspective on the world around us. At night, when we sleep, our imaginations power our dreams.

Psychiatrists, neural surgeons and other medical experts on human

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thought patterns and brain activity still don’t know much about how our brains actually work. They have told us that our brains are electro-chemical nerve centers, where each thought – a neuron of electronic and magnetic impulses – whizzes from one nerve center in the brain to another one faster than they can realistically measure.

But one thing most of these experts agree on is that our dreams are our mind’s way of sorting and organizing the infinite amounts of sensory data we collected since our last deep sleep. We imagine many things when we sleep – that’s our mind sorting out all the information into bits and pieces.

Very often we influence our dreams, by adding in our own wants, needs and desires. Maybe you wanted to say something to that mysterious person you ran into on your way to the office, but didn’t have the courage – but in your dreams, you are the boss – anything goes.

As your mind goes about its sorting and organizing of information, you dream a nice dream, where you tell that mysterious person what you wanted, and then the adventure begins. It is sort of like a play within a play – your mind is dreaming what you want, while cataloging al

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l the other information collected since your last deep sleep (to be scientifically accurate, since your last Rapid Eye Movement (REM) deep sleep cycle).

We all dream – even if we don’t remember our dreams. Unless you don’t sleep – ever – then chances are you dream. The average human being can only go for seven-days without REM sleep, before suffering nasty side effects – such as sleep apnea, depression, anxiety, and eventually death.

I take it because you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably had an REM deep sleep cycle within the past seven days. Which means you’ve dreamed. Which means you’ve now experienced two of the three key characteristics of creativity:

• Curiosity
• Imagination

Only one more key characteristic and you too will be oozing creativity.

Okay, the third key characteristic of creativity is the hardest one to acquire. You might as well stop reading this blog and give up now – there’s no way YOU could possibly have it – is there?

You might as well just point and click your mouse to the next web site you were going to check out before stopping here.

Still here?

Good.

You just proved you have the third key trait of creativity.

Determination – the will to complete something to its conclusion. The desire to see things through. The need to read to the end of the book, or in this case, blog.

You’re almost done! And you have all three key characteristics of being creative:

1. Curiosity – the driving force which compels us to seek things out.
2. Imagination – the ability to visualize alternative realities, paths, roads, outcomes.
3. Determination – the desire to see things through until the end.

YOU are a creative person!

Now go out there and put your creative juices to the test – do something – well – creative!

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New Scientific Discovery May Lead to Easier Way to Make People

The name Karim Nayernia may not mean anything to you today, but in a few years, you may know him as the father of the new test tube baby.

Nayernia is the British professor that led a team of stem cell researchers which were able to take embryonic stem cells and turn them into sperm-like cells. The research project, which is still in the early stages of development, involved scientists from England’s Newcastle University and the North East England Stem Cell Institute.

Although experts, including Nayernia and his research team agree the cells created are not normal sperm cells as produced by the human male -- that’s why they refer to them as “sperm-like” cells -- however these cells do contain

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all the essential qualities for creating life. They even have the moving tails which the cells use for insemination. Abnormalities noticed in the sperm-like cells include the shape and movement of the cells, but further research and testing is underway to investigate this.

Nayernia said in a statement that the technique they used to convert the stem cells into sperm-like cells could someday help treat infertile couples that want to start a family.

How’d they do it?

Stem cells are immature cells, which scientists have discovered, can be altered to develop into specific cell types. Think of stem cells as computers without any software, the scientists then install the specific software to use the computer (or stem cell) to do whatever they require.

The research team’s technique involves isolating specific stem cells with XY chromosomes, and then growing them in lab created cultures which forces the stem cells to develop as the sperm-like cells. The results of this experiment were recently published in the Stem Cells and Development journal, a medical journal for stem cell researchers.

This doesn’t mean you’ll be able to go to the sperm bank, and order a customized baby off the shelf just yet. But it could down the road, as scientists continue to work on figuring out the human genome, the essential building blocks which makes up human life as we know it.

Research continues into discovering all the elements which makes us who we are – from our physical characteristics such as our body shape, size, color of hair and eyes – to curing diseases before they appear, such as isolating

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genes which cause cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and many more. Stem cell research may one day lead to the elimination of one or more, or even all of these diseases from the human race.

Combine the study of our genes with this research on sperm cell creation, and one day you may be able to order your customized child off the Internet. Just allow four to six-weeks for delivery, and another nine or so odd months for gestation.

The controversy surrounding stem cell research is huge – especially with religious groups, as they see it as human beings attempting to “play God,” in the creation of living beings.

But, if stem cell research can eliminate even just one of the thousands of fatal or life debilitating ailments plaguing humankind, it is well worth it.

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