"Biology of Belief:" how to reprogram your mind

If you were able to tune in to Coast to Coast A.M. last night, you probably had an enlightening experience.
The Sci-fi-UFO-new-age radio program hosted by "night hawk" George Noory had an interesting guest on. His name is Dr. Bruce H. Lipton, who discussed his new book, "the Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles."
He revealed some interesting news brewing in the science and medical communities these days. The question is what actually causes the diseases, mental conditions, traumas or imbalances in our lives, that stop us from truly attaining peace and happiness. So many people feel they are bogged down by being an alcoholic, or a drug addict or depressed, because their father or mother was.
But Lipton said it doesn't have to be that way.
Lipton says that by tapping into a constant stream of consciousness, we are able to create "positive thinking," which can actually prevent these illnesses, once we "reprogram" our minds.
Sound weird? Well, let me explain...
He said more and more of today's biologists are turning away from the theory that genes control our destinies, and will in effect determine whether or not we will grow up to have illnesses, conditions and so forth.
For instance, he said he conducted an experiment with two stem cells, and later found out that the "field" or in our case our "mind," or our belief system, can actually affect whether someone will develop cancer. He said for example an adopted child actually began to have symptoms from that families blood line without even being related, but because they lived together and the child grew up to have the same beliefs.
Many people then say, well, you have the same problems like your parents, and so that is what they are told by the mainstream psychiatric world.
But Lipton said if our belief system does not change, than it doesn't matter how much therapy, medication or understanding we attain, because our unconscious mind will immediately begin to spring back into action like a "machine."
Our unconscious mind is developed at a very young age, from the age of birth to five years old. In fact in those very young years, he said, is when we only rely on a trance-like unconscious stream of thought, such as crying to get food or when in fear, or laughing when something is funny. But our conscious mind is developed about by the age of 7, and we are then able to decide and make conscious choices, but we still have an unconscious mechanism that we have to battle with.
An example he used is that when you fall in love, for instance, you are constantly living in a state of consciousness, to dress better, to feel better and to talk a certain way. You are very self aware at this point.
But after the honeymoon, and after the wedding, people often go back to their other stream of unconsciousness, allowing all the fears and negative thinking they learned as a child to take them over because there is nothing left to live up to anymore. And so many people will say, "wow, you aren't the person I married."
What Dr. Lipton says is that we can apply this simple theory of falling in love into our everyday lives and it doesn't have to stop after the honeymoon.
Dr. Lipton's Web site is offering a special for those who buy the book online until Sept. 8.

Talk wetlands with wine tonight!

Come join the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust for "Wine & Wetlands" tonight.
The event will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Gaslamp restaurant and bar 6251 Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach. The Land Trust will meet with the public the first Thursday of every month from there after.
Six tastings will cost $20, and there will be jazz by guitarist Frank Potenza.
The Los Cerritos Wetlands is an area of native marsh land, sustaining all sorts of coastal animals, birds and fish, even some endangered species.
The wetlands is located where the San Gabriel River meets the pacific ocean, sandwiched between Long Beach, Seal Beach and surrounding business development.
The land is home to herons, halibut, plovers, painted ladies, stingrays, crabs and cord grass according to the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust Web site.
The area has also been the center of controversy as land owners want to develop the land and preservationists continue to make strides in purchases to help salvage some of the last remaining wetland areas in Southern California.
Plans to build a Home Depot on one lot off of Loyns Drive, and Studebaker drew much commotion from not only environmentalists but neighbors who felt the proposal would add hundreds of cars to the already congested area.
However, after the California Coastal Commission deemed the developers environmental impact report flawed, the land owner had to go back to the drawing board and then eventually squashed the idea altogether, according to the press telegram. However plans are still moving ahead for possibly another type of development there.
Another high point of contention for the wetlands whether or not portions of the land are actually zoned for development or not, which can bring about a whole host of mitigation requirements that have or maybe have not been fulfilled.
Plans to redevelop the Alamitos Bay Marina and the near historic Marina Hotel off of PCH might also have an affect on the wetlands, but plans for that project have also stalled.

Arachnid meets reptile, or should I say eats!!!

Here is a photo of what looks like some type of a black widow spider that entangled a lizard in its web at my parent’s house in Westminster, CA.
The spider and lizard were hanging from an empty Jacuzzi, which is typically the kind of place these spiders hang out. Spiders, classified as Arachnids, are predatory invertebrate animals that produce silk, a thin protein strand that normally traps insects and then are able to inject poison with their fangs.
This lizard, classified as reptile, seemed to be paralyzed until my mom killed both of them with a broom.

JUNK makes it to Hawaii!!

The environmental duo who sailed across the Pacific Ocean at a snails pace aboard a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cessna 310, have landed at their destination: Hawaii.
After 2,600 miles of open ocean that they crossed in 87 days from the Long Beach harbor, Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal, arrived today, "safely, to a throng of cheering supporters, journalists, and videographers," according to their blog site.
The team that works with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, an environmental non-profit that conducts regular tests of plastic in the ocean and its effects on sea life, took off on the journey in June as a way to help spread the word about doing away with single-use and disposable plastic entirely.
Here is what the two had to say about their excursion:
"From our first week of sinking hopes on a sinking raft, through four hurricanes that swept under us, to the unbelievable chance meeting with Roz Savage in the middle of nowhere, we have had quite an adventure. We’ve collected 10 ocean surface samples using our marine debris trawl, managed to snatch a few large pieces of plastic debris that floated under us, and caught fish with stomachs filled with particles of plastic. Plastic is forever, and it’s everywhere."

Catalina bald eagles, foxes make comeback

Catalina's bald eagle and fox populations continue to make strides in survival.
This season produced six young eagles that hatched on their own. The eaglets now join four other baby balds that hatched without human help last year for the first time in more than 50 years, according to the Catalina Island Conservancy.
But the endangered birds aren't out of the woods just yet.
The conservancy states that the protected species still has to deal with potential natural hazards, along with the Island's fox population.
"Last week, two fishermen spotted a 4 1/2-month-old eaglet struggling in the waters at Empire Landing and notified the Bay Watch Patrol, who called the Conservancy. Arriving at the scene, a Bay Watch crewmember jumped into the water and made gentle waves to push the bird ashore.
Conservancy Ranger Dave Skoff received the call from Bay Watch and alerted his supervisor Lenny Altherr, who notified Steffani Jijon, research assistant for the Wildlife Institute.
Meanwhile, Conservancy Ranger Phil Lopez happened to overhear the radio transmission about an eagle in trouble. He called and Gilbert and Sherry Hernandez, who opened the gate so that Skoff and Jijon could get down to the beach where the bird had washed ashore and was being dive-bombed by seagulls," according to an article published this week by Kathy August in the Catalina Islander newspaper.
Bald eagles had disappeared from the Island in the early 1970s.
Their eggs, damaged by DDT residue in the San Pedro Channel, were too brittle to hatch naturally. And the Island fox population plummeted from 1,300 to about 100 in 1999 due to a virulent case of canine distemper, according to the CIC.
However, both species are making a comeback thanks to the efforts of the Catalina Island Conservancy and its partner, the Institute for Wildlife Studies.
Between 1999 and 2004, the Conservancy and the IWS, through the Island Fox Recovery Program, were able to save the species from possible extinction because of a particularly nasty bout of canine distemper virus that had infected the fox population.
Now, eight years later, nearly 600 animals roam the Island. Despite the success, the Conservancy keeps a vigilant eye on the fox population.
It is possible that the disastrous event that threatened the population in 2000 may have caused a “genetic bottleneck” increasing the chances of malformations or sensitivity to diseases in the recovering population.
Also possible—and a topic of current research—is sensitivity to factors such as ear mite parasites, or other yet-to-be-discovered cause.
Nevertheless, the Conservancy continues to be committed to the protection and restoration of these endangered and threatened species. Catalina’s unique plants and animals make the Island’s ecosystem especially sensitive to disturbances and catastrophes.

Long Beach rolls out bio-diesel fleet

The city of Long Beach stepped up its efforts to reduce the amount of smog in the air last week by launching the preliminary stage of using bio-diesel blends for a portion of its vehicle fleet.
Mayor Bob Foster and First District Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal, who helped spearhead the program, both announced the plan last Tuesday aboard one of the city’s John Deere tractors that replenishes sand daily by raking the beach.
For a city flagged for having poor air quality over the years, ten total vehicles, including all of the city’s tractors and skip loaders and a portion of bulldozers and dump trucks, will now be fueled with B20, which is made of 20 percent vegetable oil and 80 percent petroleum diesel.
The blend is most common for cities now using cleaner alternative fuels such as Santa Monica, which has used the blend for its vehicles for years, city officials said.
Larry Rich, sustainability coordinator of the Sustainable City Commission, said using bio-diesel will reduce particulate emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and smoke particulates.
Air quality has long been a problem in Los Angeles County because of port trucks and container ships that inundate the harbor and freeways.
“Using just the B20 reduces the amount we see,” Rich said. “That is a positive reduction, at very little cost differential not having to mechanically upgrade.”
Rich said the first step is to see if there are any problems with using the bio-diesel blend and then possibly using the fuel for all of its 250 addition diesel vehicles.
"The City of Long Beach is launching this bio-diesel program as part of our ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability. We are proud of our environmental record, and we are always looking for ways to expand it," Foster said before pumping bio-diesel fuel into a tractor and taking it for a demonstration spin up and down the Belmont Shore area.
Bio-diesel is a cleaner-burning alternative to petroleum diesel, and testing shows that bio-diesel poses significantly less of a risk to human health than petroleum diesel.
"The City of Long Beach was looking for better sources of fuel to improve the area’s air quality and health. Using bio-diesel is also the City’s way of taking the next step toward using more renewable resources," said Lowenthal. "It’s only been a short time since I brought the agenda item forward that initiated this bio-diesel project. I am eager for the results as a validation of its worth in terms of improving the air and, thus, the health of our community."
In using B20, it is more cost effective because there is no engine conversion needed and the vehicles can switch back and forth with either diesel or bio-diesel. He said using B100, or pure vegetable oil, would mean all of the vehicles’ engines would have to be converted.
If everything goes well, in the next few years, the next step commonly considered is using B50, a 50/50 blend.
Rich said the supplier of the city’s first batch of bio-diesel is Merrimack Energy Group, a broker of all fuels, and gets its bio-diesel mainly made from soy beans from US domestic sources from the Midwest and possibly Canada.
“As we go through this pilot program, we may be using bio-diesel from different sources,” he said.
The city council requested in January to start using the alternative fuel and city officials spent seven months trying to get a parameter, figuring out a way to use bio-diesel in one location.
The Port of Long Beach, however, is going a different route requiring new equipment, newer modern engines to clean up the fuel conditions. While the state is planning on regulating the type of trucks and the engines, to slowly be replaced with Liquid Natural Gas. The city will still have some diesel engines that can use bio-diesel at a cheaper cost.
The city is also increasing use of Compressed Natural Gas, propane, electrical and hybrids.

Wildlife service to further protect bald eagles

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published an environmental assessment last week regarding a permit program, designed to protect bald and golden eagle populations while working with property owners and businesses.
"This program would allow issuance of permits under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act authorizing activities that may disturb eagles, require nest removal, or otherwise result in the death of or injury to a bird," according to a USFWS press release."While the bald eagle was protected under the Endangered Species Act, the Service had the authority to allow landowners, under certain limited conditions, to undertake otherwise lawful activities on their property that could result in death or injury to eagles." A Notice of Availability regarding the draft environmental assessment appeared in the August 14, 2008, edition of the Federal Register. "The draft environmental assessment lays out the biological foundation for a proposed nationwide permit program, and examines the impacts of the new permit proposal within the context of all threats to eagles," the release states. "It proposes upper limits to how many eagles can be taken conditioned on increasing or stable populations."
Last year, two bald eagle chicks hatched on Santa Catalina Island on their own, without the help of humans for the first time since the 40s.
The eagles on Catalina at Two Harbors are taken care of as part of the Channel Islands Bald Eagle Restoration Project conducted by the Institute for Wildlife Studies and funded by the Montrose Settlements Restorations Program and donations, according to the Catalina Island Conservancy. Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife