Katy Perry waves to the camera during her 72-hour live stream. Photograph: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

In 2017, there are myriad ways to approach an album rollout. Theres the Kanye way, consisting of a steady drip of promotional singles and a bonkers listening party at Madison Square Garden, after which, of course, you dont actually release the album. Then theres the Beyonc approach, in which said album arrives as a complete surprise usually with an accompanying film causing tectonic plates to shift as scorned lovers the world over revolt. Adele and Frank Ocean, similarly, dropped long-awaited records after extended hiatuses with minimal promotion. Lady Gaga, who once commissioned a Jeff Koons sculpture for the release of Artpop, now opts for more measured rollouts, sporting cowgirl gear for Bud Light-sponsored gigs at speakeasies and pubs ahead of her folksy record Joanne.

What Katy Perry did this weekend was quite different. Perry, whose album Witness was released on Friday, installed 41 cameras in a Los Angeles apartment for a Big Brother-style live stream lasting from Thursday night to Monday afternoon.

Do you see her, like, take a shit? a friend asked me in anticipation. Well, I wasnt entirely sure, though I assumed not. I had tuned in a bit on Friday Perry was doing transcendental meditation but didnt commit until two days later, on Sunday morning, when I woke up, had coffee, went on YouTube, and became a Witness along with thousands of others.

Katy Perry is asleep when I pull up the stream, which is a bit awkward because James Corden has stopped by for a visit and is wandering around aimlessly. Earlier, there was cooking with Gordon Ramsay, yoga with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, astrophysics with Neil deGrasse Tyson, and therapy with Siri Sat Nam Singh, all in 24 hours.

Perry awakes in funky blue pajamas with stars on them that I wish I owned. She greets Corden and they make their way to the kitchen, where an impressive food artist called Dan Blake is making pancakes with Perry and her friends faces on them. She thanks him and takes a bite, and theres one for her puppy, Nugget, too.

Perry says shell show us how she can make herself look like a frog

The event is, well, not exactly Perrys daily goings-on and the fact that its presented as such can get annoying, particularly in moments when all the necessary pre-orchestration makes itself glaringly known (Perrys assistant can be seen carrying around a face sheet, a sort of PR rubric of all the other celebrities who will be stopping by).

Perry and Corden play Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts, a game in which they choose to answer personal, gossipy questions or instead eat something from an artfully prepared tray that contains cow tongue, scorpion, pickled pigs feet, bird saliva, and a 100-year-old egg. Corden opts to take a bite of the cow tongue instead of saying whos the most boring guest hes ever had on his show. He also takes a shot of mayo when asked to choose between Justin Bieber and Harry Styles.

KP is the more candid of the two, probably due to her totally understandable aversion to eating a pigs innards. Corden asks her to list her famous lovers in bed from worst to best, with Diplo coming in last, followed by Orlando Bloom and then John Mayer. Theyre all amazing lovers, Perry says, and I would have sex with all of them when I get out of this place!

An hour in, I realize something: celebrities are as transcendently boring as we are. Perry says her goodbyes to Corden, and a 3D painter called Tracy Lee Stum stops by. In what looks like the houses courtyard, shes done a sort of panoramic piece in honor of Perrys album, the word Witness written across it. Its nice to see artists, whether of the pancake or graffiti sort, get access to a platform like Perrys, and thus far theyve seized the moment.

KP goes up to her bedroom, where an iPad is waiting for her. She goes to a different, FaceTime-y live stream to answer fan questions. The best part, as is always the case with public streams, is reading the comments as they pour in, which range from messages of unconditional devotion to requests for money or advice or sex. It made me vicariously uncomfortable to watch Perry read and sidestep the weird ones, and then I found my patience tested as she nobly spent 10 minutes giving shout-outs to commenters, repeating the phrase Hi (insert name) hundreds of times and then merely hello in different languages.

Perry says shell show us how she can make herself look like a frog. I didnt know what this meant, but I was nonetheless intrigued. Then, with the help of a secret neck muscle, Perry releases from under her chin what looks like a frogs vocal sac. I attempted to do this multiple times to no avail, but a few commenters chime in that they possess this strange, secret neck muscle, too. I figured out I had it when I was six, Perry says, before going off to shower.

With KP temporarily absent, the house starts blasting her new album and were back to the kitchen camera, where some of Perrys visitors are having their faces replicated in pancake form by our old friend Dan Blake. To pass time, the camera has assumed a cryptic, security footage-style view of the kitchen, where people I still dont know are still chatting and still eating pancakes.

Perry commences a remarkably meticulous skincare routine that goes on long enough to get through at least five songs off her new album, which she sings and dances to while applying nasal strips and deodorant and face cream and a few other things I couldnt identify. This, obviously, is not as grating as the fact that Mariah Carey supposedly gave birth and has sex to her own music, but watching entertainers dance to their own songs is not something Ill ever warm to.

It turns out she was readying herself for a makeup tutorial from the YouTuber wunderkind/makeup artist Patrick Starrr, whos now usurped Dan Blake as the best thing about the stream. Starrr tells Perry a bit about his path to YouTube stardom, how he doubted anyone would want to see a brown, plus-size Filipino do make-up, and hilariously briefs her on some niche lingo, specifically the exact cadence in which one should say: Girl, let me tell you. Then comes an uncomfortable moment as Perry talks about her cosmetics line for CoverGirl and its new initiative: to eliminate the stigma around PDA, public displays of (cosmetic) application. Starrr doesnt look impressed.

I revisited the Witness stream on Sunday evening if only to see how much longer Perry could keep it up. When I log back on, I find Perry, Margaret Cho, Caitlyn Jenner, Van Jones, Derek Blasberg, Ana Navarro and a few others deep in dinner conversation about politics, race relations, and Twitter followers. The best part of this conversation is the politically conservative Caitlyn Jenners reaction, an unsavory mix of scorn and shock, to Margaret Cho saying shes sick of white people.

Its almost 2 in the morning in New York, Ive got work in just a few hours, and things are getting a bit gratuitous on the Witness live stream, so I call it quits, emerging from the depths of internet tedium with an infinitesimally better understanding of Katy Perry and just how one disguises a 72-hour experiment in self-promotion as candid, plain-spoken fun.

See the article here:

A weekend with Katy Perry's live stream: meditation, James Corden and a dog called Nugget - The Guardian

Downtrodden Dalits found a better life when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi invited them to set up homes at the Sabarmati Ashram almost 100 years ago. Today, when the Ashram is gearing up to celebrate 100 years of its existence, these people who were once like family to the Mahatma are being treated like pariahs again.

While the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust has organised a grand fete to mark the centenary on June 17, Dalit families at the Ashram allege the trust is treating them like untouchables by excluding them from all celebrations.

BCCL/Representational Image

Forming a group called 'Harijan Ashram Bachao Samiti', they have listed their grievances and submitted a memorandum to the trustees. The families have also planned to stage a dharna on June 17. The trustees, however, refute the allegations, claiming that the celebrations are being hosted by Gandhian organisations including the Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust.

Shailesh Rathod (41), president of Gandhi Ashram Rehvasi Mandal and convener of Harijan Ashram Bachao Samiti, says, "Gandhiji came here with 99 Dalit families and called this place the Harijan Ashram. My grandfather Ukabhai was one of the families. We are the original ashramvasis but we have not been included in the celebration. We have no clue about the festivities to be held on June 17."

The memorandum presented by the Dalit families lists nine demands including information about the festivities, inclusion of residents in the activities and maintenance of all houses on the premises. Explaining this, Rathod says, "Gandhiji first established the Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust in 1934. Later, for various reasons, this was split into other trusts after 1951. One of our demands is that one of us should be part of these trusts."

Ashramvasi Hemant Chauhan (54), who works as a caterer, says, "We submitted a memorandum 10 days ago that the original inmates were being sidelined from this historical event. It is because of our families that Gandhi ashram has preserved its glory. We opposed several development schemes declared by the government that would have damaged this heritage site. Yet, we are being ignored while institutes like Navjivan and Gujarat Vidhyapith are a part of the fete." He adds, "The Ashram includes our houses too, not just the memorial. Yet, the trust has been using funds only to give the memorial a facelift while our buildings receive no maintenance."

BCCL/Representational Image

More than 200 families live on the Ashram premises, and most of them are Dalits. The families pay rent ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 200 a month for the houses. Most of them have jobs or run small businesses. As per the memorandum, residents demand waiving of rent. "We want the houses to be gifted to us. We also want to be given priority in jobs related to management of the ashram," the residents seek in the memorandum. The memorandum also demands a stop against sale of merchandise like kurtas, books, mugs and soaps as "it is against the trust's Constitution". "The trust is supposed to take care of the memorial not indulge in commercial activities," the memorandum states.

Meanwhile, refuting allegations, memorial trust director Tridip Suhrud terms celebration as a historical one. Admitting he received a memorandum from Ashram residents, he says, "We will address their grievances. The trust's secretary Amrut Modi and Harijan Ashram Trust's Jayesh Patel met them. Our trust's chairperson Ila Bhatt will meet them soon."

He adds, "No individual is involved in the event. It is being hosted by eight organisations and trusts associated with Gandhiji. Other than the memorial trust, these include Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust, Gujarat Vidyapith, Navjivan, and Majur Mahajan Sangh. These families live in houses rented by Harijan Ashram Trust that is part of the celebration. So, there's no question of ignoring anyone."

About repairs to houses, Suhrud says, "A committee has been formed to decide how to use government funds." While Harijan Ashram trustee Jayesh Patel could not be contacted for comment despite several attempts, secretary Modi confirms they met residents on Saturday. "They have not been sidelined. However, we will talk to them once more to sort out issues."

Gandhiji's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi will be the guest of honour at the centenary celebrations to be held at Sabarmati ashram on June 17. Memorial trust director Tridip Suhrud says, "Gandhi will dedicate 'My life is my message' gallery and Charkha gallery at the ashram. He will also plant a baval tree. This is significant as several meetings of the Majur Mahajan Sangh used to be held under baval. We will also have a Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava prayer as per the tradition of the ashram."

BCCL/Representational Image

1) Remove untouchability, give information to ashram residents on celebrations

2) Include ashram residents as part of all trusts that were formed by splitting original Harijan trust

3) Waive rent of residents Give priority in ashram management jobs

4) Khadi must for all ashram employees and office-bearers

5) Use government funds to maintain houses, not just the memorial

6) Memorial trust must stop selling merchandise

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Dalits Being Treated As Untouchables At Sabarmati's Harijan Ashram, Set Up By Mahatma Gandhi - Indiatimes.com

Iran has banned women from dancing, cycling, watching soccer matches, listening to certain music and now Zumba.

Thats right. The Islamic Republics Shiite leaders announced this week that, under religious law, the 17-year-old Colombian dance aerobics craze is forbidden.

Ali Majdara, the head of public sports in Iran, issued a statement Sunday banning Zumba and any harmonious movement or body shaking instruction. The ban applies to public and private gyms, clubs and classes. The announcement came just days after Majdaras Iran Sport for All federation provoked an outcry on Twitter by calling for the ban.

Critics took to Twitter as well, but to express displeasure and dismay using the Persian language hashtag #Zumba. Has Colombia summoned the Iranian ambassador yet? one Twitter user joked.

Unbelievable, said Zumba teacher Sepideh Abozari. The authorities are worried about a Zumba pandemic?

Tehran-based cleric Hossain Ghayyomi explained the reasoning behind the ban.

Any harmonious movement or rhythmic exercise, if it is for pleasure seeking, is haram, forbidden under Shiite leaders interpretation of Islam, Ghayyomi said. Even jobs related to these rhythmic movements are haram. For instance, since Islam says dancing or music is haram, then renting a place to teach dancing or cutting wood to make musical instruments is haram too.

While some have tried to justify teaching or listening to music as legal under Islamic law in Iran, he said, They could not change the mainstream of the clerical establishment.

Theres also the fear among religious leaders that Zumba is corrupting Iranian men, who can watch videos of classes posted online. Some Iranian Zumba instructors videos already have been deemed pornographic and blocked by authorities since the ban.

As Zumba has spread to more than 180 countries, it has been banned by other conservative Muslim leaders for being un-Islamic, including by a fatwa, or religious edict, in parts of Malaysia.

But Irans ban comes at a time when the dance fitness trend has gone mainstream here. In Tehran and other large cities, most public and private gyms offer womens Zumba classes. Many women, whose exercise opportunities already have been curtailed by the state, were aghast at the Zumba ban.

Abozari said the classes are incredibly popular, not just among wealthy women, but also among the middle class and the poor.

Even in low-income areas on the outskirts of Tehran where I live ... women pay as much as a month cash subsidy to participate in Zumba class to keep fit in body and mind and tune in to the happy rhythm, said Abozari, 38, who teaches Zumba in her spare time to children too poor to pay for lessons.

At issue isnt just womens rights, she said: Its about the economy. She noted that middle-class and wealthy women in north Tehran often pay for private Zumba classes at home, and those jobs where pay is negotiable and usually generous will now disappear.

Malihe Agheli, 38, a mother of two who works at a bank in Tehran, said the gym at her office already refused to offer Zumba or other rhythmic workouts. She has been paying a steep price, $50 for eight private classes a month. While Zumba classes still may be offered underground, she said, After being banned, it will be more expensive.

Zohre Safavizadeh, who has taken Zumba classes at her Tehran gym in the past, likes the music and the ambiance.

I feel wonderful the body rhythm and the music in background are fascinating, she said.

But as often happens in Iran, theres a political element, even with Zumba. Safavizadeh sees the ban as a backlash by hard-liners to the reelection last month of moderate President Hassan Rouhani.

The hard-liners want to undo what was promised by President Rouhani, she said, and as a result, We as women are deprived small happiness.

Rouhani won after promising to unite Iran. But terrorist attacks by Islamic State militants in the capital this month that killed 17 people gave hard-line Shiite leaders an opening to crack down. Some analysts said the Zumba ban may be the beginning of efforts by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other hard-liners to reexert influence and sideline Rouhani.

Tehran-based analyst Nader Karimi Juni wasnt optimistic that Rouhani will make much headway against the supreme leaders bans, including Zumba.

For the supreme leader, America and Israel are archenemies, the eternal foes, Juni said. So whatever lifestyle, tastes or athletic activities are associated with what he calls corrupted Western culture is haram and should be banned.

ALSO

North Korea releases American student reportedly in coma as Dennis Rodman returns to the reclusive nation

Corpses being dumped in Iraq show signs of torture, execution and Iraqi forces may be responsible

A Palestinian village was annexed by Israel after the 1967 war. Now it's behind a wall and orphaned

More here:

Iran bans women's Zumba aerobics classes - Los Angeles Times

Reprinted wtih the kind permission of Simmaron Research.

By Cort Johnson

For the second time this month, the loved one of an ME/CFS patient has dedicated talent and sacrifice to raise funding for Simmaron Research and awareness of the disease more broadly.

Michael Jasper met Terrys husband, Silvestre, 13 years ago and over time the two couples became best friends, even like family to each other but for a while they were a family with a mystery: Terry would mysteriously disappear at times. When the Jaspars were told she had something called chronic fatigue syndrome the explanation helped even as it obscured.

It wasnt until Michael and his wife Marie saw a screening of The Forgotten Plague earlier this year that they really began to understand what was going on. Terry wasnt just tired she was really sick! Theyd seen her only on her best days, which unfortunately were few and far between.

The Forgotten Plague turned out to be a line of demarcation for them. Theyd pounded Terry with questions about the disease after that. They now know the history, they know the neglect, they know the seeds of change that are sprouting now and they wanted to do something for their friend.

Several months later Michael asked for a meeting and when Terry was well enough Michael and his family broke the news: he was resurrecting his music career and wanted to dedicate the song Beachwalk to Terry and the ME/CFS community. Hed composed it years before, and when he and his daughter, Marissa, got to work on the album, it was the first song theyd worked on.

Michael told me that hed played in the greatest garage bands that never made it. Along the way, hed played and toured around the world with many figures in the music industry. Now as he re-emerged into the music scene he was putting those connections to good use having them join him on the new album he and his daughter who, having just graduated from college with a degree in music were going to release in December. Merging old and new his old-school R & B and funk roots with her contemporary pop and dance sound the album will have a unique sound.

Beachwalks melody described for him a simple pleasure that few people with ME/CFS could enjoy: a relaxing walk on the beach, the sun overhead, the sand in their toes a walk that left them relaxed and rejuvenated. Such an easy thing to contemplate for most people but just a dream for Terry and so many others.

For me I heard the keyboards, horn and guitar singing a song of triumph; a song celebrating someone finally making it to their beach after years of effort. It was an uplifting feeling.

Music for Simmaron

It was out of a vision of Terry, their good friend of many years, and others with ME/CFS finally taking their well-deserved walk on the beach, that Michael is donating 50% of the proceeds from the sale of Beachwalk to the Simmaron Research Foundation to help people with ME/CFS.

Please take a walk on the beach with Michael Jaspar, his daughter Marissa and other as they play for Terry Gilmete and others with ME/CFS to support Simmaron. You can find Beachwalk:

Millions Missing Rally & a Song in Sacramento on June 2nd

The problem, of course, is that people with ME/CFS arent able to walk far, if at all. Theyre largely missing from the rounds of daily life an absence dramatically evoked by the MillionsMissing rallies featuring ME/CFS supporters and their shoes.

This Friday, June 2, patients and loved ones will gather on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento for a MillionsMissing Rally and a live debut of the Jaspars Beachwalk.

The Sacramento Rally featuring Terry Gilmete, Michael Jaspar and others has a story all its own. The woman who organized it, Marilyn Yu, also created The Forgotten Plague screening which opened Michael Jaspars eyes and got him, his wife and daughter involved. In 2016, Marilyn, whos had ME/CFS for three years, got West Sacramento, Elk Grove and Sacramento to do proclamations of their own. Shes gotten the Sacramento City buildings lit up in blue for the past 2 years. The Sacramento Convention Marque featured May 12 as ME/CFS Awareness Day. Marilyn also created a virtual run last year in which she raised some money for Simmaron.

On May 18th, a number of California patients including Terry Gilmete and Marilyn Yu met with Senator Glazers and Moorlach to sponsor SCR-40 which proclaimed May 12th ME/CFS Awareness day and the month of May Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Month in California. Senator Moorlach passionately spoke of his friends daughter whos been disabled from ME/CFS for 18 years.

The striking and, in many ways, beautiful California resolution resolved that

WHEREAS, ME/CFS has been found by the National Academy of Medicine to be a serious, chronic, complex, and systemic disease that frequently and dramatically limits the activities of affected patients, leaving them with a lower quality of life than patients with multiple sclerosis, stroke, renal failure, heart failure, and other chronic diseases; and

WHEREAS, The lack of tracking for ME/CFS by the CDC and the grossly inadequate NIH funding for research based on disease burden have hindered progress in diagnosing and treating ME/CFS, such that there is no FDA-approved treatment for the disease; and

WHEREAS, ME/CFS is a tragic and disabling disease that destroys the lives of many patients and imposes a severe toll on their families, friends, and caretakers;

WHEREAS, The economic impact of ME/CFS in the United States is estimated to be $20 billion to $50 billion per year (CDC February 2016) and likely costs the California economy billions of dollars in health care costs, patient care, lost productivity, and lost tax revenues;

The Legislature hereby proclaims May 12, 2017, as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Day, and declares the month of May 2017, and each May thereafter, as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Month, to help spread awareness of the disease and the need for increased research funding, and to support individuals living with ME/CFS;

On June 2nd, Michael Jaspar, Marilyn Yu, Terri Gilmete and others will all be at ME/CFS Millions Missing Rally in Sacramento at the CA State Capitol Steps-south side on June 2 from 11:30-1:30. A shoe exhibit will be on display from 10:30-4. The music will be an inspiration all our own in the ME/CFS community.

When: June 2, 2017, 10:30-4:00 shoe display, 11:30-1:30 rally and musical debut

Excerpt from:

Making Music and a Difference for ME/CFS - ProHealth

The Flint Hills were alive with the sound of music during a breezy Saturday evening.

Thousands of people set up camping chairs in the middle of the prairie to listen to the Kansas City Symphony perform during the 11th-annual Symphony in the Flint Hills.

Country singer Michael Martin Murphey accompanied the symphony during part of the program, singing country songs like Rawhide, originally by Frankie Laine, and Happy Trails to You, originally by Roy Rogers.

During intermission, some people walked out into the prairie to take photos and observe the landscape, the vast hills their never-ending background.

Cheryl Mussatto, who has attended the concert for three years, said the event makes her proud to be a Kansan. Born and raised on a farm between Larimer and Herington, Mussatto said the event is a great way to show people not from the area how unique and beautiful the landscape can be.

Its an extraordinary opportunity for Kansas to really showcase what the Flint Hills has to offer, Mussatto said. To be able to listen to the beautiful symphony music sitting here in the beautiful flint hills as the sun sets you know it just is a fabulous experience.

Mussatto said everyone who gets the chance to attend a Symphony in the Flint Hills event should because its a one-of-a kind experience.

Julie Crawford, who is from Kansas City, has seen the Kansas City Symphony perform many times in the past, but never out in nature until Saturday.

She said the setting for the event is relaxing and almost spiritual because of the natural surroundings.

I love it. I think its so amazing you know the combination of the music and nature, Crawford said. Its really special.

This years theme was a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Chisholm Trail. The educational programs covered the history and importance of the trail, which ranchers used to drive cattle from Texas to Kansas rail heads after the Civil War.

Every year, the symphony prepares a musical program based on the theme of the event.

The concert ended with the symphony and Murphey performing Home on the Range, a tradition that started the first year of the event.

Go here to see the original:

The hills are alive - Manhattan Mercury (subscription)

A young girl's experiment turns into a lesson on the toxins in our food supply. Courtesy: Youtube/Suzanne Bartlett

There are no guarantees that the organic fruit and vegetables youre buying at a growers market are actually organic, because the industry isnt regulated.

MANY Australians are being deceived by food producers who call their products organic when they are not.

Its disgusting. You put your trust in them, said Gretchen Vidin, who says she was fooled into spending about $7,000 over the past two years by a market grower who advertised her conventional produce as organic.

She later found out the grower used chemicals that were so toxic most conventional growers stopped using them a decade ago. The grower also purchased limp fruit and vegetables from Sydneys Flemington Markets, passed them off as organic and charged up to triple the amount stallholders around her were asking.

Gretchen buys organic for health reasons, in line with the motivations of 51 per cent of organic shoppers, according to the recent Australian Organic Market Report 2017.

I had thyroid cancer and, for the past two years, have been juicing every day. Im trying to keep my chemical quota down to reduce the risk of getting cancer again, she said.

Gretchen found out the truth last month when an employee exposed the false promotion. Nothing much happened. The employee resigned in disgust and the grower did remove her organic stickers and signs for a month but reinstated them recently and continues trading, free of penalty, in the same CBD locations she has been selling for years.

THE TERM ORGANIC ISNT REGULATED

This case, one of thousands of greenwashing incidents around Australia, exposes a giant gap in the legal framework. The term organic is not regulated in Australia as it is in most other countries.

Daria Rydczak, a senior technical officer from Australian Certified Organic (ACO), said unscrupulous market growers are repeat offenders. We phone growers and manufacturers, point out their claims are fraudulent and they say, What are you going to do, sue me? They dont care.

The ACCC is not pressing on it hard enough. They would have to set-up a new department to deal with all the fraud that is going on at the moment.

The ACO has referred more than a hundred cases of suspected fraud to the ACCC in the past year. When the ACCC was asked why it had taken no action on any of these complaints it said in a statement, The ACCC is not able to make any comments in relation to conduct of the matters raised.

It pointed out that under Australian Consumer Law businesses must not engage in conduct that is likely to mislead or deceive or make false or misleading claims or statements. It cited two cases it had successfully prosecuted, concerning organic eggs a decade ago and organic water four years ago.

This is a prohibitively expensive remedy for most consumers however.

The widespread use of the term organic is not limited to the food aisle. The case of Organic Choice, a cleaning products range that has national shelf space at Coles supermarkets, was recently the subject of a complaint to the ACCC by the ACO.

The Organic Choice cleaning products sold in Coles supermarkets.Source:Supplied

The only ingredients listed as certified organic in the range are some essential oils, which typically make up a fraction of one per cent of the contents.

News.com.au asked Andrew Chaney, the Managing Director of Aware Environmental, the company that manufacturers Organic Choice, what percentage of ingredients in his products were organic.

I dont know the percentage. Why is that relevant? he replied.

We dont think were breaking any rules. If theres a letter of the law were breaking wed like to know, he said.

He said his products contained a lot more than 1 per cent, agreed to find out what percentage of ingredients were organic and let us know. That was a month ago and were still waiting to hear from him.

THE DARKER SIDE

Marg Will, CEO of Organic Systems & Solutions, says, This happens all the time and it is incredibly frustrating because its the consumer who suffers.

She said the problem had an even darker side. Lobbyists for multinational chemical companies are very active in trying to convince politicians to allow GMOs in food, a practice that is outlawed for certified organic producers.

There are a great many forces at work with more money than the organic industry, she said.

Martin Meek, an ACO director and partner in United Organics, a wholesaler and exporter, agrees.

I think the government is concerned that regulating the word organic would open a big scary door to regulation of other agricultural standards.

Every time we have tried to lobby, the government comes back and says the industry should self-regulate. The biggest competition to organic products are those pretending to be organic and we cant protect ourselves from that without legislation.

The term organic is, ironically, regulated in Australian export law.

Its insane that our export customers can be sure about the organic content, when our domestic market cant, Martin said.

INDUSTRY IS FIGHTING BACK

The organic industry is, however, fighting back. It is talking to the ACCC, setting up an online consumer complaints portal with a direct feed to the ACCC and has developed a new organic mark that will be making its way on to supermarkets shelves soon. This gives greater clarity as there are six certifying bodies in Australia, all with their own logos.

The organic industrys got to get better at telling people what it is, Martin said.

Were just too polite. We dont want to pick a fight but I think we need to start standing our ground a little bit more.

Read this article:

What you probably don't realise about 'organic' products - NEWS.com.au

"By the definite science of meditation known for millenniums to the yogis and sages of India, and to Jesus, any seeker of God can enlarge the caliber of his consciousness to omniscience to receive within himself the Universal Intelligence of God."

Paramahansa Yogananda

Wisdom, creativity, security, happiness, unconditional love is it really possible to find that which will bring us real and lasting joy?

Experiencing the divinity within our own souls, claiming divine joy as our own joy this is what the Kriya Yoga teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda offer to each of us.

The sacred science of Kriya Yoga consists of advanced techniques of meditation whose devoted practice leads to realization of God and liberation of the soul from all forms of bondage. It is the royal or supreme technique of yoga, divine union. (Read "What Is Yoga, Really?")

The illumined sages of India discovered the spiritual science of Kriya Yoga in the long forgotten past. Lord Krishna extols it in the Bhagavad Gita. The sage Patanjali speaks of it in his Yoga Sutras. Paramahansa Yogananda has stated that this ancient meditation method was also known to Jesus Christ, as well as to disciples such as St. John, St. Paul, and others.

Kriya Yoga was lost for centuries in the dark ages, and reintroduced in modern times by Mahavatar Babaji, whose disciple Lahiri Mahasaya (18281895) was the first to teach it openly in our era. Later, Babaji asked Lahiri Mahasaya's disciple, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri (18551936), to train Paramahansa Yogananda and send him to the West to give this soul-revealing technique to the world.

Paramahansa Yogananda was chosen by his venerable line of gurus to bring the ancient science of Kriya Yoga to the West, and it was for this purpose that he established Self-Realization Fellowship in 1920.

Formerly available only to a faithful few who renounced the world and lived solitary lives as ascetics, the great ones of India have now made the ancient Kriya science available to all sincere seekers worldwide through the instrumentality of Paramahansa Yogananda and the spiritual organization he established (SRF/YSS).

Yogananda wrote: "In bestowing his blessings on me before I came to America in 1920, Mahavatar Babaji told me that I had been chosen for this sacred mission: 'You are the one I have chosen to spread the message of Kriya Yoga in the West. Long ago I met your guru Yukteswar at a Kumbha Mela; I told him then I would send you to him for training.' Babaji then predicted: 'Kriya Yoga, the scientific technique of God-realization, will ultimately spread in all lands, and aid in harmonizing the nations through man's personal, transcendental perception of the Infinite Father.' "

One of the essential goals of Paramahansa Yogananda's mission was "to reveal the complete harmony and basic oneness of original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ and original Yoga as taught by Bhagavan Krishna; and to show that these principles of truth are the common scientific foundation of all true religions."

To the public at large, Jesus propounded a simple philosophy of faith, love, and forgiveness. He spoke often in parables, pregnant with timeless morals. But to his close disciples he taught deeper truths, truths that have their correspondence in the deepest metaphysical concepts of the more ancient yoga philosophy.

The full understanding of Jesus' original teachings including the fact that he bestowed on his disciples the esoteric techniques of yoga meditation is revealed in Paramahansa Yogananda's in-depth commentary on the Gospels: The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You.

Meditation Techniques of the Kriya Yoga Path

Paramahansa Yogananda provides a description of Kriya Yoga in his Autobiography of a Yogi. The actual technique is given to students of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons after a preliminary period of study and practice of the three preparatory techniques taught by Paramahansa Yogananda.

Taken together as a comprehensive system, these meditation techniques enable the practitioner to achieve the highest benefits and divine goal of the ancient yoga science.

1. Energization Exercises: A series of psychophysical exercises developed by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1916 to prepare the body for meditation. Regular practice promotes mental and physical relaxation and develops dynamic will power. Making use of the breath, life force, and concentrated attention, the technique enables one to draw abundant energy consciously into the body, purifying and strengthening all the body parts systematically in turn. The Energization Exercises, which take aboutfifteen minutes to perform, are one of the most effective means of eliminating stress and nervous tension. Practicing them prior to meditation is a great help in entering a calm, interiorized state of awareness.

2. Hong-Sau Technique of Concentration helps to develop one's latent powers of concentration. Through practice of this technique one learns to withdraw thought and energy from outward distractions so that they may be focused on any goal to be achieved or problem to be solved. Or one may direct that concentrated attention toward realizing the Divine Consciousness within.

3. Aum Technique of Meditation shows one how to use the power of concentration in the highest wayto discover and develop the divine qualities of one's own true Self. This ancient method teaches how to experience the all-pervading Divine Presence as Aum, the Word or Holy Ghost that underlies and sustains all creation. The technique expands the awareness beyond limitations of body and mind to the joyous realization of one's infinite potential.

4. Kriya Yoga Technique Kriya is an advanced Raja Yoga technique of pranayama (life-energy control). Kriya reinforces and revitalizes subtle currents of life energy (prana) in the spine and brain. The ancient seers of India (rishis) perceived the brain and spine as the tree of life. Out of the subtle cerebrospinal centers of life and consciousness (chakras) flow the energies that enliven all the nerves and every organ and tissue of the body. The yogis discovered that by revolving the life current continuously up and down the spine by the special technique of Kriya Yoga, it is possible to greatly accelerate one's spiritual evolution and awareness.

Correct practice of Kriya Yoga enables the normal activities of the heart and lungs and nervous system to slow down naturally, producing deep inner stillness of body and mind and freeing the attention from the usual turbulence of thoughts, emotions, and sensory perceptions. In the clarity of that inner stillness, one comes to experience a deepening interior peace and attunement with one's soul and with God.

How to Learn Kriya Yoga

Paramahansa Yoganandas SRF Lessons for Home Study

The first step is to apply for the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons. In the first year of Lesson study at home, students learn threebasic techniques of meditation (described above) and Paramahansajis principles of balanced spiritual living. This gradual introduction has a purpose. A mountain climber seeking to scale the Himalayas must first acclimatize and condition himself before ascending the peaks. So the seeker needs this initial period to acclimatize his or her habits and thoughts, condition the mind with concentration and devotion, and practice directing the body's life energy.Then the yogi is prepared to ascend the spinal highway of realization. After one year of preparation and practice, students are eligible to apply for initiation in the technique of Kriya Yoga, and formally establish the time-honored guru-disciple relationship with Paramahansa Yogananda and his lineage of enlightened masters.

If you have not yet enrolled for the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons, you will find on these pages some initial instructions on how to meditate, which you can use right away to begin experiencing the benefits that meditation brings.

Guru-Disciple Relationship

Kriya Yoga is the diksha (initiation) or spiritual baptism of Self-Realization Fellowship. By receiving Kriya initiation, students enter into the sacred guru-disciple relationship, accepting Paramahansa Yogananda as their guru (spiritual guide).

Learn more about the guru-disciple relationship.

Read More About Kriya Yoga

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The Kriya Yoga Path of Meditation

Norton Healthcare is building a new $38 million freestanding three-story state-of-the-art Norton Cancer InstituteBrownsboro in Louisville (Kentucky, USA) metro area, which plans to have a Meditation Room and will focus on care of whole person.

It will also include white/pink noise and music in key locations, healing garden and bistro. The projected timeline for completion of the 48,591-square-foot facility is October 2018. Kentucky has one of the highest rates of cancer in the nation, according to a Norton Healthcare release.

Hindus have commended the planned inclusion of Meditation Room in this upcoming cancer institute.

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, called it a step in the positive direction. A Meditation Room would help infuse spirituality into the atmosphere of this major cancer institute and would provide a place for meditation, reflection and prayer for the patients, their families/friends, staff and visitors; Zed hoped.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that meditation might be quite helpful in combating stress caused by challenges usually faced by patients, their families/friends and healthcare providers.

Rajan Zed explained that meditation was a condition of profound internal wakefulness; and added that ancient Hindu scripture Taittiriya Upanishad stated: Meditation is Brahman (the supreme being).

Zed further said that Lord Krishna told in Bhagavad-Gita: With mind and senses disciplined through meditation, bonded with the Self within, the seeker achieves tranquility and nirvana, the state of permanent peace and joy in me. Zed noted that Hinduism had been associated with meditation for ages; and there were various aspects of it, including pratyahara, upasana, samadhi, manana, dhyana, dharana.

Rajan Zed stressed that it should be made mandatory for all the new hospitals/healthcare-centers being built across the country to make provision for a Meditation Room.

Award-winning Norton Healthcare, founded 1886 and headquartered in Louisville, includes five large hospitals, 13 Norton Immediate Care Centers and 190 physicians practice locations. Its faith history includes founding organizations and other faith communities: Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church and Roman Catholic Church. Russell F. Cox and Donald H. Robinson are President and Trustees Chair respectively.

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Kentucky's new $38 million cancer institute to have Meditation Room - NewsPatrolling (press release) (blog)

Meditation is often described as a way to clear the mind and ease many health concerns, such as high blood pressure, depression, and anxiety. Meditation can also help individuals relax, reduce stress, be content, have inner peace and enjoy life more.

Carolyn Evans, Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT), Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) of Sat Nam Healing in Burlington, teaches a meditation class 6-7 p.m. every Tuesday at The Art of Yoga, 1104 Ave E, in Fort Madison.

Participants learn basic meditation techniques. The class includes gentle yoga stretching for major joints such as hips, shoulders, and the neck. Evans said they also do guided meditation, breathing exercises, body relaxation, and different methods on how to clear the mind.

Meditation is what grounds you. Its what keeps you going, Evans said.

Last Tuesday, Evans taught loving-kindness meditation which is also known as metta, as it is called in the Pali language. It is unconditional, inclusive love, a love with wisdom.

Evans said she does yoga because it reminds her to turn down the volume on her self and her critical mind.

Yoga teaches us to embrace where we are today, Evans said. If you are your own worst critic, I beg you to change that. The relationship you have with yourself is the most important one.

Evans said the group meditation class helps people feel like they are accountable.

Being in a group setting helps you focus a little bit better and helps you feel like youve got the routine down, Evans said.

Anyone, regardless of age, one can drop-in for a $12 fee. Evans said they have mats, blocks, and pillows, but she recommends attendees wear comfortable clothes.

The class will be open for participants until June 27. After June 27, the meditation class will be offered again in Fort Madison in August.

About Evans

Carolyn Evans is from West Burlington. She is a 2006 graduate of West Burlington High School. In her early 20s Evans was working in the service industry as a waitress and bartender when she first started practicing yoga and meditation as a way to ease her mind from being anxious. Evans was attending William Penn University in Oskaloosa to pursue a degree in human sciences, but after practicing yoga Evans was looking for something different. She decided that becoming a health and wellness instructor for the mind, body, and spirit connection was her calling.

I decided to follow my passion doing what I love, Evans said.

Evans attended the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe, Ariz. where she completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training course and earned a degree in massage therapy in 2012.

She worked at a variety of gyms and yoga studios in school and around the Phoenix area. In 2013, after learning different styles of yoga and meditation, she decided to bring back what she learned to Iowa. The name of her company, Sat Nam, means divine truth is my name or truth is my name.

Evans said she has been inspired by those at the Dubuque Yoga Festival. There, Evans learned how to make yoga classes accessible for all bodies with Dianne Bondy, who is a body positive movement yoga instructor. Evans said she teaches people to embrace the body that were in.

Evans main goal coming back to the midwest is to offer yoga and meditation classes to help bring together people in community.

I believe in working with your mind and what you can do to have a healthy body, said Evans.

Since October 2016, Evans, has been leading the Saturday morning Yoga in the Park sessions at North Hill Park in Burlington. She also has an introduction course in meditation at the Southeastern Community College Center for Business.

Evans works out of her office at Sat Nam Healing 400 S. Leebrick St. in Burlington.

If unable to attend the Fort Madison classes, Evans has classes in Burlington on Mondays, 12:30-1:30 p.m., and Wednesdays, 12-1 p.m., at Yoga for You, 217 Jefferson St. There is a $12 drop-in fee or a $50 for 5 classes package.

Evans will also have a Yoga Fest from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 15, at the Perkins Park in Burlington.

For more information about classes, workshops and information about Burlington Yoga Fest call (319)-572-3753 or e-mail at satnamcarl@gmail.com you can also checkout Sat Nam website http://www.satnamhealingtherapy.com.

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Burlington instructor brings meditation, yoga to FM - Fort Madison Daily Democrat

Two recent poetry books establish that singular aspect of poetry as a rewarding path for personal reflection. Both happen to be authored by senior Visayans who have of late been prodigious with their poetry in English.

The first is Partly Cloudy: Poems by Simeon Dumdum Jr., released by University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, while the second is Fire If It Were Ice, Ice If It Were Fire by Cesar Ruiz Aquino, published by Ateneo de Naga University Press.

Dumdum Jr. retired from the judiciary three years ago. A resident of Mohon, Talisay City, Cebu, he tends to special bushes, listens to sacred music, and spends the afternoons with his wife Gingging, also a poet, in a coffee shop by the sea, watching the movement of ships in the channel.

His ninth collection comprises 39 poems that unravel insights beyond mere curtsey to a radius of visibility. The introspection is often a response to observable objects, or what equally appear to be mundane around us, such as the weather in general, or the sea.

There where waves perish south of us/ Us and the whitest whitecaps there/ There can we find the when and where/ Where we may cross the crying waves/ Waves that know theyre about to perish/ Perish with tidings from the south/ South farther than we can think of/ Of which theres none but both of us. (By the Sea)

A covert smile conducts the exquisite musicality via metrical rhythm, cadence, end-rhymes and internal ones. Listen: We felt light, seeing there no bluer blue/ That morning and the sky, and too, coeval/ With it, the sea, which had as edge a few/ White egrets, heads held up in pure approval/ Of a day marred by not the least upheaval,/ All of which I took back, for all too quickly/ The sky had turned from clear to partly cloudy. (Seacape with Growing Raincloud)

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Poems such as Treading on Weather, Walking on Water, and The Sea Defines a Small Dogs Love partake of similar lyricism that leaps beyond levity, while pieces that purvey places gravitas (A Song for Paris, Hiroshima, Mamasapano) still arrive at an equipoise of delight. Heres another that claims this summary balance:

The land has claims on my umbilical cord/ Because I am lumad, a native fed/ With my own fathers corn and with his word/ And if they come and force me out of bed/ I shall not leave my home alive or dead/ My soul will silence them amidst their scoffs,/ A finger aimed at their Kalashnikovs. (A Young Manobo Speaks of War)

For his part, Aquinos lyricism may be said to be of the solipsistic sort, with the perennial conceit of love or desire itself becoming the muse, albeit he too recognizes the environment past and present.

God made the mountains/ and the oceans/ the clouds nimbus, cumulus, stratus// to remind me of the distance/ that divided us/ face to face (Title in Progress)

Limbo rock agility has this poet of Dumaguete often taunting the bar closer to the ground, with minimalist verses scoffing at the challenge of saying much with brevity.

The wind in Dauin/ on a dawn like this, I dont/ know if I miss it,/ with it blew a little bit/ say on your hair, imagine. (Love You Just the Way You Are)

Aquinos fifth book of poetry assembles 181 poems that also hop, skip and jump with frolicsome finesse over wide-ranging territory, at the center of which is often a girl or you. Personal circumnavigation suggests that a poet is raised by a global village, as peopled by Robert Graves, Demi Moore, Manuel Arguilla, Pynchon, Brautigan, Sandra Dee, Nastassja Kinski, Keats, Borges, Tom Jones, Quasimodo, Heraclitus, Duchamp, Hafiz, Rumi, Ava Gardner et al.

Word wizardry habitually spins arcs of mischief out of ruminations just as motlrey as the iconography, fantasized or implicitly recast as long-tooth memories gnashing at extrapolation. Jedi metaphors are of a cerebral sepia, as against any mocha type of symbolism.

This miracle has ever escaped us./ In an unambitious picture, girl/ perfectly replicates the stillness/ of the trees and objects behind her/ that seem to just momentarily/ keep still, for a pose, but are ready/ any moment to resume the whirl,/ the motion of everything thats there. (On a Chance Photograph)

For a reader, both collections offer mediation and meditation. Latin provenance cites, respectively, mediatus, or placed in the middle, and meditat or contemplated, from the verb meditari that suggests measure. Why, as sloganeered last summer at the Writers Village on Camp Lookout, Etymology, come home!

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Poetry as meditation - Philippine Star