Kindle is too expensive in Brazil

I have to buy an e-reader but the choices in Brazil are limited. We have one that is made in Brazil and three types of Kindle that are expensive:

Kindle Paperwhite com Wi-Fi=    USD$  212,54 in Brazil x 119,00 in US
Kindle Paperwhite 3G=                         265,79 in Brazil x 179,00 in US

I guess I'll have to wait.
What is strange is that an e-book is not a gadget to be used for pleasure or fun. This is what students and professionals in a very near future will use to study and read.

It will have to cost nothing because this will be the support of all reading activities. If prices don't fall governments will have to create a popular version. I hope they do it soon.
In the meantime we have to download the Kindle for PC. This way Amazon sells e-book but our back will hurt more.

Skipping Rope

Hat tip to Fun Inventors.

Freud on the death of psychoanalysis

"In the course of these years I have read, perhaps a dozen times, in the reports of the transactions of certain congresses and of meetings of scientific societies, or in reviews of certain publications, that psychoanalysis was now dead, that it was finally overcome and settled. The answer to all this would have to read like the telegram from Mark Twain to the newspaper that falsely announced his death:
 "The report of my death is grossly exaggerated."
After each of these death-notices, psychoanalysis has gained new followers and co-workers and has created for itself new organs. Surely to be reported dead is an advance over being treated with dead silence!"

Source: "The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement", Sigmund Freud (1914). Translation by A. A. Brill (1917)

African countries visiting this blog

I'm dedicating this post to the Africans that visit this blog. These are the visits until the middle of my day.
I love when I watch a flag from an African country when I take a look at the stats.
Thank you all.
(click at the image to enlarge)

Are you sure olive oil is that good for your health?

Whenever something becomes an elixir with numerous benefits do a research:

"Rarely does the media miss a chance to report that olive oil is a “good” fat. A recent 2006 study praised olive oil as heart-healthy – and extra virgin olive oil as especially healthy (1). The problem, though, is that many journalists do not fully dissect the scientific studies on which they’re reporting. Facts get distorted. Qualifiers disappear. Headlines turn sensational. And so does the truth about olive oil. In this article, Director of Nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center, Jeffrey Novick, MS, RD, responds to the hype about olive oil to help us better understand what’s true about this so-called “healthy” fat – and what’s not.

The Hype: Olive oil will protect you from a heart attack. The Truth: Olive oil is not heart-healthy. Yes, foods rich in monounsaturated fats like olive oil are healthier than foods full of saturated and trans fats, but just because something is “healthier” does not mean it is good for you.

Several human studies have questioned olive oil’s heart-health claims. When researchers from the University of Crete recently compared residents of Crete who had heart disease with residents free of the disease, they found that the residents with heart disease ate a diet with “significantly higher daily intakes” of monounsaturated fats (principally olive oil) as well as all fats.(2)" (keep reading and research!)

Alison Hymes: receiving life-threatening treatment in Western State Hospital, Virginia

It is outrageous that in America patients are imprisoned in mental institutions involuntary and are being treated in the most inhuman way with the help of court-orders.

She has been receiving treatments that are considered crimes against humanity since they only make the patients get worse and with more health problems than after the incarceration.
It was in the state of Virginia in 1914 that the first Eugenetics Sterilization Law passed (you could swear it was in German, couldn't you?)

'Advocacy in favor of sterilization was one of Harry Laughlin’s first major projects at the Eugenics Record Office. In 1914, he published a Model Eugenical Sterilization Law that proposed to authorize sterilization of the "socially inadequate" – people supported in institutions or "maintained wholly or in part by public expense. The law encompassed the "feeble minded, insane, criminalistic, epileptic, inebriate, diseased, blind, deaf; deformed; and dependent" – including "orphans, ne'er-do-wells, tramps, the homeless and paupers." By the time the Model Law was published in 1914, twelve states had enacted sterilization laws.
(continue reading)'

Is it the way this American state treat their citizens? It seems that not much has changed and the "insane" are still seen as evil that deserves the most hideous torture. What the state of Virginia is doing to Alison Hymes in criminal. Someone decided she had signs of "dementia" and there she is. As mental conditions are very subjective anyone can be treated like Alison Hymes is being treated. Remember the David Rosenhan experiment: "Being sane on Insane Places".

Once in a mental institution the person is depersonalized and dehumanized.  This is a fact all over the world.
Please, help Alison Hymes, a woman and a human being, that is living under life-threatening circumstances doing the follow:

ACTION ALERT to Free Alison Hymes!
Free Alison Hymes From Western State Hospital... We were asked to post the following updated alert for Alison by her friend, Frank. Please address any questions you may have directly to Frank at: nfla@mindfreedom.org.

 ACTION ALERT to Free Alison Hymes!

Resident and longtime MindFreedom member Alison Hymes, on Wednesday, 7/3/13, had a re-commitment hearing. This hearing marked the 6 month, 1/2 year point, in her imprisonment at Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia.

The result of this hearing is that she was given another 45 days in the hospital after which she will be given another hearing. The result could have been worse as potentially she could have had to wait another 6 months for a hearing.

The bad news, according to Alison, is that the staff at the hospital are not talking about releasing her. She wishes to return to her condominium, her community, and the life she was living before imprisonment at Western State Hospital.

Talking to her over the phone it is not always easy to understand what she is saying. Her words are slurred and garbled. She claims that this is so because the hospital staff won't return  her dentures to her. Dentures they took from her.

In a previous alert we claimed she was taking lamictal rather than a neuroleptic. Following a previous hearing with her treatment team this is no longer true. Apparently her doctor thought it necessary to put her back on the drug prolixin. She is receiving shots of prolixin, a long acting injectable, every two weeks. She is also still receiving a daily dose of anti-convulsion drug lamictal.

She had gained much weight since being put on seroquel, the atypical neuroleptic she was receiving during her last hospitalization, and she is very sensitive, as you can well imagine anybody would be, about this issue. She doesn't like the effects of the prolixin, she understands it is a harmful substance, with a potential for doing her a great deal of damage, and she wishes to be taken off it.

Alison was the recipient of a kidney following lithium poisoning after a previous incident of psychiatric malpractice. Her friends and allies worry that keeping her at Western State Hospital
for any length of time will only further endanger her health. She says the medical staff at Western say she needs an operation, on an ulcer, but that the hospital is slow to get around to operating.

Asked what she would tell other members of MindFreedom she said, "I need to get out as soon as possible. I need to get out."

Direct Actions

Please, contact the following state officials, and urge them to free Alison Hymes from her confinement and maltreatment at Western State Hospital.

James M. Martinez
Director, Office of Mental Health
VirginiaDepartment
of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services
(804) 371-0091
Jim.Martinez@dbhds.virginia.gov

Senator Tim Kaine
(202) 224-4024
http://www.kaine.senate.gov/contact

Senator Mark R. Warner
(202) 224-2023
http://www.warner.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?p=ContactPage

Delegate David Toscano
(434) 220-1660
DelDToscano@house.virginia.gov

Delegate Rob Bell
(434) 975-0902
DelRBell@house.virginia.gov

Sample message. (In your own words.)

I am writing (or calling) to complain about the forced drugging and false imprisonment of Charlottesville resident Alison Hymes at Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia. She is a danger to no one. She has been detained at the hospital for over 6 months now, and her continued detention serves no purpose. She is also being given periodic injections of prolixin, a powerful  neuroleptic drug, that is affecting her health in negative ways. Please, stop the abuse, release her from her confinement to Western State Hospital, and allow her to return home to her community, her life, and her friends.

Free your butter: leave it out of the fridge!

I was searching for what people are saying about leaving the butter out of the fridge and came across with this post. I left the following comment:

 My butter is out of the fridge because it doesn't get rancid. When I was a teen it was frequent to listen to:
 "Did I forget the butter out of the fridge?" "OMG! The butter is rancid! Who forgot to put the butter in the fridge yesterday?"
"Go check if the butter is in the  fridge."
It was an obsession because, yes, butter without all these additives get rancid and it smells and tastes terrible.
During winter it took two days to the butter get rancid. In the summer one day.
But now you can leave the butter out of the fridge without any problem.
It never, I said NEVER, gets rancid. OK?
Free your butter! Poor baby having cold and suffering without a coat in the fridge. This is inhuman.

The salt also helps to conserve the butter.

Gwen Stefani style: I bought jeans like hers?

I was going to publish a post about Gwen Stefani's style and the No Doubts items she sells at her site.
Now I was searching and found this post and... surprise, surprise: I bought a pair of black jeans that looks  like the one on the left.
Funny. I was a little afraid that the jeans was a little too much.
Now I can say: it is Gwen Stefani's jeans, OK? Any problem with that?lol
As always I removed all the labels. I'll do a label with "Hella Heaven" written on it and now I'm thinking about doing another with "Hella Good" or "No Doubt".

I love Gwen Stefani and her music is great! I can't buy any of No Doubt's items because I don't have a credit card.but I would buy:
 and a
.
T-Shirt.
I'll try to make a picture of my jeans. Shy... shy... shy.. Blushing, blushing, blushing...

Be right back

I'm having some stuffs to handle but always thinking about blogging.
Be back as soon as possible.
Take care.

Russia Today considers "nazi-regime" as offensive language

I wrote the following comment at RT and received the advice "Your comment contains offensive language. Please modify the text in order to have it posted":

"I'm Brazilian and lived under dictatorship because US wanted.
Now US government is treating their own citizens in the most totalitarian nazi-regime way.
Justin Carter, 19 years-old,is in jail because he wrote a sarcastic phrase at Facebook.
These are the cases we that are being exposed.
Don't delude yourself: American citizens are being put in jail, tortured and killed without without any trial.
That's how dictatorships are done and if you're not convinced that America is under a dictatorship you should stop reading the mainstream media and do a research.
Americans! Please do something to save your country!"

I did the comment without the "nazi-regime and it was accepted.
The image above was a test and again "nazi-regime" is considered offensive language.

I guess they accept "When Hitler was the president".

Hella Heaven in numbers: something must be good

Whenever I take a look at the numbers that this blog has reached I don't know what to think. Number of hits, number of followers... I don't know.
I think it is too much.
As I said... I don't know what to thank. Thank you very much for giving me a reason to keep going.

Hearing voices: recovery is possible

There are many groups of people who recovered from mental or emotional problems out of the mainstream treatment offered by health care.
When someone claims that is hearing voices they usually go to a psychiatry, are labeled schizophrenic and start having all kind of medications that don't help.
Some go straight to a mental institution a place where numerous crimes against humanity are committed.
There are other approaches and it comes from people who have recovered are dedicating their work to helping other. The outcome is usually far more efficacious than what psychiatry has to offer.
Rudus May explains at the video how he helps one of his clients using a puppet "Top Dog", He also heard voices and suffered at mental institutions. But, as many, he recovered and became a clinical psychologist.
He validates the voice and do make sense to what they are doing and, amazing, sometimes even the harsh words is a way the voices find to protect the one who listen them.

I found this book and copied a tiny part of the introduction:
Living with Voices: 50 Stories of Recovery.  Marcus Romme, Sandra Escher, Jacqui Dillon, Dirk Corstens, Mervyn Morris (Editors)

"From understanding the perspective of the voice hearer, we have observed that the attitude of mental healthcare researchers and professionals is one of regarding voices not as a source of information, but as a sign of 'non-existent' reality; it is the attitude that disables people from finding more adequate and helpful information about this experience.

Mental health care should start from the experience of the voice hearer.
Effective care should follow the same process as the voice hearers who have recovered. It begins with accepting the undeniable presence of the voices, proceeds to the necessary change of relationship with them, then to finding a fulfilling role in society again, and ultimately to recovery from the distress associated with the voices again, and ultimately to recovery from the distress associated with the voices. in various ways the voice hearers in this book have shown this to be the pathway to recovery.

With the fifty stories in this book we hope to help you realise not only how important the voices are in the process of recovery, but also the problems that lay at their roots. All the people in this book have had not only serious problems coping with their voices, but also serious other problems related to their voices.

As you read the stories you will see certain themes emerge. For example,  voice hearers who have taken their lives back into their own hands, not only have recovered themselves but have also used their experience to help other voice hearers with their own recovery process and, further on, have made a career in this area."

You can read a sample of the book here..

An American in Paris: Leslie Caron and Gene Kelly love ballet

I took some shots of the video and did this puzzle. I love this ballet.

Playing Bingo online

I played three times this game that I used to play when I was a girl.
It is boring but I keep playing.

Really Shiny Things That Don't Mean Anything by Ryan Gander

I loved it! Period.
I'm getting in touch with Ryan Gander's work so I'm still experiencing that great moment of not having the need to understand and writing those analysis full of words of the critic's jargon.

Dazzling. Period.

Brunette Marilyn Monroe

Google Doodle marks the 130th anniversary of Kafka's birth

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”

This is the first phrase of Kafka's most famous short story "The Metamorphosis" and this is the character Google did choose to mark the author's 130th birthday.

"The Metamorphosis" is available at project Gutenberg and can be downloaded here. "The Trial" also available to download
Reading an author is the best way to celebrate him and this story is a good one to start reading Kafka who created so many masterpieces.

He was washing his Ferrari

This is from Fun Inventors.

Think positive no matter what!

Source: my dear friend Mark.