How Much do We Educate Young Adults/ Children.......

[firstlook]

About the True Nature of reality and the Wide aspects of Free Will?



I personally agree...

there should be an age requirement..

but..

perhaps this is something that could be put to the group?

how do we ALL feel about it?

Céline brings up one of the most important questions when it comes to creating real change within this life time onto the next generations. The Question of Age vs. Information is something very feared by adults and parents.

I'm going to address the concerns first so that I hope to present a balanced picture of the idea of Educating children about.......Things that might seem scary.

Its very well established that a growing child needs a safe and loving environment in which to develop characteristics that help reflect this environment but mostly so that the child can calmly experience his or her journey in a state of mind that is non-reactionary and allows logic and compassion to dictate actions and ideas.

Its the idea that we also allow children to freely develop their own personal view of the world around them and try not to indoctrinate them into belief systems that we as adults hold onto in order for a bit of a safety net.

We realize our own faults as beings, and yet we dont want to over counter those faults by pushing children in the opposite direction so that may not fall into the same patterns that we wish we didnt participate.

IMO, it truly is about teaching children to look at the world in a way where they understand how far each path leads when you make choices based on the service to self verse the service to others philosophy.

So how do we incorporate this idea when in comes to "education"? How much information is too much? And, What is the most effective way to present the human story in a way that is not necessarily Good vs. Evil, but instead in a more wide ranging notion that logically explains what works in creating a world that simply allows you to keep creating and continuing the cycles of life?

IMO, I do not believe that sites like Avalon, Camelot, etc...., should be "restricted" to a child who is willing enough to click the link and start reading threads. Now more then ever is the opportunity to understand that it is the LACK of information that has stifled our growth as children in the past, which lead to the somewhat ignorant functioning that we as individuals try to break free from more each and every day.

I believe Alex Collier said at one of his lectures (Might have been the Awake and Aware Conf.) that the Adromedans have a certain way of dealing with education. They make ALL available information and technology accessible to their children. Perhaps even more so then the adults. Because they realize that each new generation is improved by the ever expanding knowledge of our reality. The younger they start the better they can understand themselves, thus having a greater chance to improve life for the entire species. They have that little extra nudge that allows self improvement. IMO, its that self improvement in a creative and loving way that makes all species like this, Conscious creators of the universe. Its this step each generation makes in order to allow the universe to witness its awesome existence through our own perception.

So, when it comes to age restriction on Truth sites like this where us "adults" think we are the only ones who can handle the story of humanity in all its expanding sections and crevices, I ask people to think about what it means to Tell the "truth".

If anything, keep asking children questions about what they see around them. Most likely you will quickly observe what they are ready to hear. They will voice their opinions.

I think the age limit argument is solid for maybe legal reasons and for the minds of concerned parents, but when it comes to filling a mentor's role, Age restriction is highly illogical, but requires instead a more involved trust for newly developing minds. We have more patience and wisdom to offer then based on the idea of Group education beliefs. Each individual requires more examination about who they are and what they perceive, experience, and feel.

If someone can click a link and they use their free will to browse a site such as this, I have to believe it is something at their core that is driving this. I say nurture this information.

Also, on a side note, it seems a bit funny if you think about the idea of excluding youngsters from this forum. If we cannot create and environment for discussion where information is discussed logically and calmly, then it shows the areas we are failing at.

So keeping children out of here also allows us to push away these truths.

If anyone can judge the intentions of a "truth" community, its a child..........IMO. :)

Peace

[Flash]

I agree with you fondamentally. This site may be the best site to teach our children to have discernment, to evaluate, judge the thruth for themselves, take the pros and cons, because they do hear the usual media anyhow, and the knowledge or lack of given by their friends. However, we have to be present for questions, opened for conversations, and be ready to promote discussion.

In other words, I would not close this site to my daughter at all but rather guide her through it.

[Ahkenaten]

I really do not understand the "legal issues" related to people visiting this website or websites like it as we do not encourage people to use bad language, post information about sexuality, let alone post information of morally (specifically sexual) questionable content. There is some joking around in here but the generally people are pretty discreet and the mods and Bill do a very good job of reigning in anything that seems to be trending in an unpleasant or inappropriate direction. I wonder if there is some other underlying legal/ethical/moral issue related to "minors", i.e. people under a certain age which varies from country to country, that is driving this discussion?

[firstlook]

I think its interesting to consider Alex's description of Andromedan Society. I believe he starts at 47 minutes into the lecture and runs with this topic for a couple minutes.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR46QjXjLH0

[Flash]

I really do not understand the "legal issues" related to people visiting this website or websites like it as we do not encourage people to use bad language, post information about sexuality, let alone post information of morally (specifically sexual) questionable content. There is some joking around in here but the generally people are pretty discreet and the mods and Bill do a very good job of reigning in anything that seems to be trending in an unpleasant or inappropriate direction. I wonder if there is some other underlying legal/ethical/moral issue related to "minors", i.e. people under a certain age which varies from country to country, that is driving this discussion?

Yes there is quite a lot of differences amongst countries with laws related to children. For example, in Canada, advertisers do not have the right to adress directly to children. They may advertise children toys to parents, but not to children. They kind of find ways around, but it makes their life that much harder. They cannot manipulate children as much as wanted. Pharmaceutical cannot be advertised either and the use of subliminal is forbidden by law.

Céline is from Canada, her way of thinking about the 18 years of age goes with Canadian standards when relating to children.

However, the wider discrepancies amongst countries will be found around cultural values. Some of the language in this forum, even if very soft (relating to sex for example) would be forbidden around children in many Muslim countries for example. In some countries, adults are the authority and are to be obeyed. Discernment is taught later, when it is (when it is in any culture by the way, starting with North American). Imagine obeying some of the comments I have read on this forum!?!?

Much worst if you have people's heads chopped off, as some picture that have been taken off this forum.
Is this discussion driven by those discrepancies, my bet is yes.

How do I know: I am from and live in a country with 2 different cultures, me being from the minority, I have lived in the Middle East and in Central America and speak fluently at least 3 languages (tried Turkish - the fourth - as well but hit the wall, I can manage to ask for a taxi though, say hi and good bye, I am hungry, where am I - lol)

[Adrian86]

Alex Collier states around 48-49 minutes in, that we do not have the ability to remember past lives in great detail due to damaged DNA structures. He mentions that there is the possibility of correcting the damaged DNA structures through applied research and methods.

Has there been any advances in this direction that anybody is aware of? also, has there been any further discussion on this topic?

links most welcome!
~Adrian

[firstlook]

Alex Collier states around 48-49 minutes in, that we do not have the ability to remember past lives in great detail due to damaged DNA structures. He mentions that there is the possibility of correcting the damaged DNA structures through applied research and methods.

Has there been any advances in this direction that anybody is aware of? also, has there been any further discussion on this topic?

links most welcome!
~Adrian

Here is some talking points about the subject of DNA which will start you off in the right direction IMO.

http://s8int.com/dna1.html

:)

[write4change]

Firstlook,

I am glad for this thread. And I believe it has some synchronicity to it. I made a proposal to this site through the moderators, that I wanted to do a thread on sacred sexuality. I made the proposal to the moderators because I wanted the thread locked to members only. I also suggested running a parallel thread for comments and leaving the locked thread a educational presentation. My reason for this is there are always cracker jackers who think being clever is more important than in depth thinking.

So the first thing that greeted me this morning was notification that my proposal had been turned down. The reason sited was that we have kids as young as nine on the site and we do not want any trouble with the authorities.

I am ticked about it. Because first that means that what I have written here which is easily accessible has not established any credibility or trust. Second, that we are all considered children here in many ways. Third, that we talk about love love love and seem to have no clue what that really means. And then finally and most important, we are validating the current societal taboos and mores that are not working.

I have already written a longer commentary and asked for reconsideration. And if that does not happen, I have already been hit with a creative idea from the universe about how to do it anyway.

I do nothing impulsive and I wait to see how the universe unfolds. But this thread is the perfect place to tell this now and see if the issue is even important enough to anyone to get any real traction. The few comments so far have been well done. I need to do some things and will be back to see how this goes.

[Peace of Mind]

Children are smarter than adults in many ways; they actually raise the adults and not so much the other way around. They force adults to be positive examples. Adults actually dumb the kids down…unfortunately, when they become adults themselves, they will do the same thing.

A child practically raises themselves by watching others. Adults merely provide protection from the messed up world they created. If all adults were to vanish, I’m almost sure the kids will find a way to reach adult hood and create a much better world than we have now. The adults are the problem…not he kids. By nature, kids are brave, thinkers, compassionate, creative, curious, loving, forgiving, etc…
Adults are conditioned thinkers and most of the time they will only care about others when they see something in it for them. They have become their own worse enemy.

In today’s society…when a child ages...he/she are being broken down...their spirits hampered by false ideas of adulthood.

Peace

[firstlook]

Thanks for the post write4change.

As far as the argument for discussing topics having to do with Intercourse, I do understand the concern. But I also know exactly the type of responsibility you are advocating. All in all, its about how involved the Mods want to be on this topic in order to ensure a perfectly legal and respectable dialogue on the subject.

No doubt they are merely concerned with loosing control of a thread and having it go wayward. All I can say is for you to address other topics within this "education" thread and perhaps show links through scientific means and philosophical reflections. While you may not be aloud to discuss this topic outright in a supportive manner, you can indeed bring up questions. Questions and stories and events through out history.

I think you'll find this allows those who are responsible/intuitive enough to see the connections, will indeed make them.

I hope this helps in your search to express your thoughts and information.

As I said earlier in the thread, I find there is a balance of the way we explain things to children that allow their own intuitive nature to process ideas and make new connections that were not previously expressed in different ways.

I really do believe this is across the board for any subject that can be brought up. Its funny if you think about how we create possibilities for young minds, but we can also create concerns. Whats so great about the mentor role, is the patience in helping another learn things allows you to reflect upon your own characteristics unlike like any other activity I have experienced.

I also want to state that I do not have children myself, nor do I "work" with them. My interests in the "method" of education comes from growing up in a foster home where I experienced lots of different situations and the kids it effected. Somehow through all of this I was able to get past my anger and simply start to look into the subject of what it means to educate someone in a healthy way allowing their own free will to be the driving force.

I'll start to post some of the material I have been looking at lately that discuss the role of education.

Till then,

peace :)

[write4change]

Fristlook, one of the differences we share and that I saw more of prior to Charles is speaking to each other in sentences, paragraphs and pages. Seeking to express and be understood, as a part of the process to growth. You cannot raise vibrations by shutting down.

One of my problems with the atticus issues is the validating of prickly egos, failing to answer questions asked for and then getting up a stalking out of the room. This is not what I want children to learn and mostly it is how immaturity behaves.

[firstlook]

Fristlook, one of the differences we share and that I saw more of prior to Charles is speaking to each other in sentences, paragraphs and pages. Seeking to express and be understood, as a part of the process to growth. You cannot raise vibrations by shutting down.

One of my problems with the atticus issues is the validating of prickly egos, failing to answer questions asked for and then getting up a stalking out of the room. This is not what I want children to learn and mostly it is how immaturity behaves.

Can I tell you something. I am not usually use to expressing my thoughts in detail.

I have a membership over at the David Icke forums and if you really want to see immaturity, I have been this way many times.

So what I decided to do is start spending more time over on this forum, in order to focus on how i really feel about things. I want to be less reactionary as possible, because I can react without thinking very fast and it starts a chain reaction continuing into my life.

I guess my point is, all you can do is keep finding your true thoughts and feelings. Usually they are compassionate and tend to engage in not making your own point, but instead usually just help another to find his. I have noticed when this happens that it turns into a conversation that is one, and you get a plethora of wisdom and knowledge from it.

If we keep our patience, and its really only about being patient with how we use our words, then I have a feeling it will keep a strong presence in this forum. Something is seriously brewing among the truth community. I think we are all finding our confidence in longer and more confident strides. Which in turn eliminates the more reactionary expressions.

Adrian86 mentioned about DNA and the issue of recalling past lives. I think that ties in with the topic of remembering ourselves. We truly are just trying to remember who we are.

I do not believe that concept fails to entice even the most shut off person. After all its yourself that you have to live with.

:)

[Tangri]

I really do not understand the "legal issues" related to people visiting this website or websites like it as we do not encourage people to use bad language, post information about sexuality, let alone post information of morally (specifically sexual) questionable content. There is some joking around in here but the generally people are pretty discreet and the mods and Bill do a very good job of reigning in anything that seems to be trending in an unpleasant or inappropriate direction. I wonder if there is some other underlying legal/ethical/moral issue related to "minors", i.e. people under a certain age which varies from country to country, that is driving this discussion?

Yes there is quite a lot of differences amongst countries with laws related to children. For example, in Canada, advertisers do not have the right to adress directly to children. They may advertise children toys to parents, but not to children. They kind of find ways around, but it makes their life that much harder. They cannot manipulate children as much as wanted. Pharmaceutical cannot be advertised either and the use of subliminal is forbidden by law.

Céline is from Canada, her way of thinking about the 18 years of age goes with Canadian standards when relating to children.

However, the wider discrepancies amongst countries will be found around cultural values. Some of the language in this forum, even if very soft (relating to sex for example) would be forbidden around children in many Muslim countries for example. In some countries, adults are the authority and are to be obeyed. Discernment is taught later, when it is (when it is in any culture by the way, starting with North American). Imagine obeying some of the comments I have read on this forum!?!?

Much worst if you have people's heads chopped off, as some picture that have been taken off this forum.
Is this discussion driven by those discrepancies, my bet is yes.

How do I know: I am from and live in a country with 2 different cultures, me being from the minority, I have lived in the Middle East and in Central America and speak fluently at least 3 languages (tried Turkish - the fourth - as well but hit the wall, I can manage to ask for a taxi though, say hi and good bye, I am hungry, where am I - lol)

I worked disturbed children and assumed non- disturbed blind group.
Age limit was 8 to 16 years old.(with files 10.000)
If you meet any minor spending time at Avalon forum instead of texting to peers, surfing at face book, tweeter or playing PC games. I think they are not minor/immature as you expect it. If they are not getting bored what they read it, they mostly deserved to listen. I can defense this at every court.

[write4change]

Levent tonga,

Hooray for you. I have to go out for awhile but I intend to pick up this thread because most of all we are having a conversation and I have never met you or firstlook and I am already learning a lot and feeling welcomed to stretch out a little.

I read recently that humans are the only species that is allowed rather or not to choose to bloom. All other species are surrendered to the cycles of nature.

[Whitehaze]

I think there is no age requirement for the truth. When my child began school his programming began. After a few years of being on the PTA and volunteering everyday as an aid I noticed how heavy the hand of federal gov influence was in the school. Forcing things down their throats, teaching them to not feel or expand. It was when my son came home one day and asked me some questions about things he heard in the school. Things I wouldnt type here and a small child learned them in his school. I knew it was time to immediately change his path of learning. Now I teach him about the real history as I have come to know what it is.

He spotted his first UFO last week, what should I have told him? Oh it was just a flare or swamp gas? No, I told him the truth, we have visitors from other galaxies and possibly dimensions. He watches me read here, and asks many many questions. I cannot bring myself to hide it from him, or lie to him and tell him he cant handle it. I find the way to trickle it down to him so he can absorb it. I had to laugh when he watched the Charles interview with me, he said Daddy why does that man talk funny? lol I had to explain sometimes people talk funny from other places in the world. And his next question was who was Charles? So what was I to do? I explained how the world really works, and that I believed that this man who talked funny was trying to help.

He notices how many people are here at Avalon, and said do all these people think the same? I said no they all think differently that is what makes them special. I let him have a look around the site and he saw all the different topics, and peoples replies and comments. Why should I hide you all from him? Everyone here tells me they have his best interests at heart. So where would I want him? In a school where he is taught the program or here where people speak the truth?

We are angry that someone else decided we cant handle the truth. I cant be one of those that says my child cant handle the truth. So it is my responsibility to teach him the truth.

[Tangri]

Children are smarter than adults in many ways; they actually raise the adults and not so much the other way around. They force adults to be positive examples. Adults actually dumb the kids down…unfortunately, when they become adults themselves, they will do the same thing.

A child practically raises themselves by watching others. Adults merely provide protection from the messed up world they created. If all adults were to vanish, I’m almost sure the kids will find a way to reach adult hood and create a much better world than we have now. The adults are the problem…not he kids. By nature, kids are brave, thinkers, compassionate, creative, curious, loving, forgiving, etc…
Adults are conditioned thinkers and most of the time they will only care about others when they see something in it for them. They have become their own worse enemy.

In today’s society…when a child ages...he/she are being broken down...their spirits hampered by false ideas of adulthood.

Peace
Peace Thank you,
Adults are conditioned thinkers and most of the time they will only care about others when they see something in it for them. They have become their own worse enemy.
Usually I find my self out of the 80% of population. I am disagree with the majority. Once I found my self at the hockey game and became disagree with 20.000 people. It was a very scary experience for me.
I was wondering why monks keeping long stick with them and I had a chance to ask one of them. He said ;"some time, somebody needs it to wake up" I think, I need a stick to keep with me these days.

[write4change]

Hi everybody,

I am glad to see this thread picked back up. I thought it died. I have spent the last two hours looking up the profiles of all the mods, adminsitrators, and founders of this site. The reason: they are essentially functioning as a school board. So who are these people. For one like this thread, Flash and I, are the only women and of the 13 I can identify ten are men and three are women. So POV is heavily weighted in one direction.

Not only have I raised two children almost 20 years apart, I got to watch my grandmother raise 22 children and the results of that. My grandmother collected all the wounded of the family and gave them farm respite and redeemption. My grandmother had infinite patience and a slow sense of time from living with nature. Only one of you guys is raising a child and most men even good ones are not that involved with the nitty gritty of raising children. I am a firm believer that is does take a village and we are missing it.

One of the things I have noticed from researching who is speaking on this site and why is that those who speak the loudest and most often have the least information about themselves publicly available. What does that say?

I consider myself a profession educator sort of knowing since nine I would teach. You learn teaching from watching and experiencing good teaching. The only educational classes I took that were worth anything was audio visual aids back in the days of overhead projectors being cutting edge. LOL
I was also evidence to myself just how much influence a good teacher could have. On a whole, I had the ability to just ignore bad teachers and I considered that part of the learning of the teaching experience. One of the things wrong with the profession today, is many of the people in control of it -- think you can bottle or encapsulate good teaching and you can't. It is a creative process. You can teach art but you cannot teach creativity--it comes from within. Anything that is an art form which both medicine and teaching are---there are professions where the TPTB control and the creators are kept at the fringe or removed.

By the same token, you absolutely cannot teach what you do not know. We have far too many teachers who know very little about their own subject matter and its place in the big picture of things. This is because we have denigrated the teaching profession to the point -- the artists won't do it within the confines of the current program.

I also hate to tell you guys---did you ever read Lord of the Flies. Leaving adolescent boys with no controlling factors will not result in a better society. A recent study came out that was supposed to show how negative it was for working mothers to be away from home. But the results did not say that. It was a long term study on two parent families. It turned out the most important thing to the stability and the happiness of the family was the participation and the actual time spent by the father.

Adolescent boys by their nature play king on the mountain. A very simple of game of who can stand on the rise and not get pushed off. It is only within stable families that they learn to trade. The PTB have tried to say that all history shows that men always goes to war to get what he wants. Finally the ancient city of Coral was found, and it is older than all the rest so far. 7500BC and it shows no walls, no fortifications, no evidence of warfare but a city of trade and prosperity.

[firstlook]

When my child began school his programming began. After a few years of being on the PTA and volunteering everyday as an aid I noticed how heavy the hand of federal gov influence was in the school. Forcing things down their throats, teaching them to not feel or expand.

Here is some material about "unschooling" that I found pretty stimulating.


Stefan Molyneux’s “Libertarian Parenting” Series

Stefan Molyneux, of Freedomain Radio, has recently had a very interesting series of interviews on “libertarian parenting”. The three guests (so far?) were me, my fellow TLS blogger Gil Guillory, and just today, David Friedman. The MP3s for the first two, and the YouTube videos for all three, are below. All three had different perspectives but were all very practical and had tons of great tips and ideas. Gil Guillory’s mentioned several books and other resources he’s found useful in the instruction of his children. There was a critique of my discussion by one “Aaron,” an “unschooling” advocate, which was debated further on the FDR boards, and discussed subsequently by Molyneux on the FDR1698 Sunday Call In Show July 18 2010.

FDR1689 Libertarian Parenting – A Freedomain Radio Conversation with Stephan Kinsella – Two libertarian parents discuss how to best raise confident and freethinking children, including discipline without aggression, Montessori education, resolving conflicts and teaching skepticism and rationality.

http://www.youtube.com/v/7zWLMTzHaJE&hl


FDR1693 Libertarian Parenting — A Conversation with Gil Guillory

http://www.youtube.com/v/uh7YJh5-YG0&hl


FDR1699 Libertarian Parenting Part 3 – Professor David Friedman on Unschooling – Professor David Friedman talks about being raised by Milton Friedman, and how he unschooled his own children.

http://www.youtube.com/v/H9yO7TlCa7A&hl

[write4change]

Thanks I will make the time to listen to these.

[Tangri]

Write 4 change.

You wrote
I also hate to tell you guys---did you ever read Lord of the Flies. Leaving adolescent boys with no controlling factors will not result in a better society

I also hate to tell you, that book was written by an adult not by a child. it was not a good example. ( by the way Maybe some misunderstanding might happen; I am not an adolescent it was 3 decade ago. I am MD,( child Psychiatry)

[write4change]

Levent tonga,

I can tell you are not an original English speaker. I cannot determine what country you are coming from.

I could list a lot of American books written about men from their experiences of being boys. I think they write for catharsis. I stand by my experience of adolescent boys from years of teaching high school and middle school. I think there have been several experiments done at Stanford that does not say a lot about young men even college age.

I stand by my statement that an evolving society will not come out love and good will without centuries of long term work without guiding parameters. It is the position of archeology which is why we have so much hidden in that field that men naturally go to war when civilization arises to acquire more resources.

[Tangri]

Levent tonga,

I can tell you are not an original English speaker. I cannot determine what country you are coming from.

I could list a lot of American books written about men from their experiences of being boys. I think they write for catharsis. I stand by my experience of adolescent boys from years of teaching high school and middle school. I think there have been several experiments done at Stanford that does not say a lot about young men even college age.

I stand by my statement that an evolving society will not come out love and good will without centuries of long term work without guiding parameters. It is the position of archeology which is why we have so much hidden in that field that men naturally go to war when civilization arises to acquire more resources.

Sorry , I did not determine your real intent with this statement you wrote

I can tell you are not an original English speaker. I cannot determine what country you are coming from.

[K626]

Levent tonga,

I can tell you are not an original English speaker. I cannot determine what country you are coming from.

I could list a lot of American books written about men from their experiences of being boys. I think they write for catharsis. I stand by my experience of adolescent boys from years of teaching high school and middle school. I think there have been several experiments done at Stanford that does not say a lot about young men even college age.

I stand by my statement that an evolving society will not come out love and good will without centuries of long term work without guiding parameters. It is the position of archeology which is why we have so much hidden in that field that men naturally go to war when civilization arises to acquire more resources.

I'd imagine that's the hunter in the hunter gatherer bit.

Although personally I have some doubt whether how natural or learnt this is...I'd like to get your opinion on that..

love

K

[firstlook]

Nurture Over Nature: Certain Genes Are Turned On Or Off By Geography And Lifestyle, Study Suggests


http://images.sciencedaily.com/2008/04/080422150659.jpg
By studying gene expression of white blood cells in 46 Moroccan Amazighs, or Berbers -- including desert nomads, mountain agrarians and coastal urban dwellers -- the researchers showed that up to one-third of genes are differentially expressed due to where and how the Moroccan Amazighs live. (Credit: Image courtesy of North Carolina State University)


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080422150659.htm


ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2008) — Score one for the nurture side of the nature vs. nurture debate, as North Carolina State University geneticists have shown that environmental factors such as lifestyle and geography play a large role in whether certain genes are turned on or off.

By studying gene expression of white blood cells in 46 Moroccan Amazighs, or Berbers – including desert nomads, mountain agrarians and coastal urban dwellers – the NC State researchers and collaborators in Morocco and the United States showed that up to one-third of genes are differentially expressed due to where and how the Moroccan Amazighs live.

The NC State researchers, Youssef Idaghdour, an NC State graduate student in genetics and a Fulbright scholar, and Dr. Greg Gibson, formerly William Neal Reynolds Professor of Genetics at NC State and currently a faculty member at the University of Queensland in Australia, set out to study the impact of the transition from traditional to urbanized lifestyles on the human immune system.

They used the latest tools for characterizing the sequence and expression of all 23,000 human genes to compare the three Moroccan Amazigh groups. These groups were chosen because they have a similar genetic makeup but lead distinct ways of life and occupy different geographic domains. Thus, differences in gene expression profiles between the three groups would likely be due to environmental and not genetic factors.

The team uncovered specific genes and pathways that are affected by lifestyle and geography. For example, they found respiratory genes were upregulated, or turned on, more frequently in the urban population than in the nomadic or agrarian populations.

This makes sense, Idaghdour says, as urban dwellers deal with greater amounts of pollution in the city and encounter more difficulties with diseases like asthma and bronchitis. So it stands to reason that certain respiratory genes in city dwellers go into overdrive while staying quiet in rural and nomadic populations, he adds.

The NC State researchers also examined every gene in each of the three populations and found very few genetic differences, positing that these limited differences were unlikely to explain the large gene expression differences.

Although Idaghdour initially hypothesized that environmental factors would play a role in gene expression, he didn't expect such large differences. About 30 percent of genes were differentially expressed between urban dwellers and mountain agrarians.

"The most important implication of this study is that people with the same genetic makeup can be in different environments and have different expression profiles," Idaghdour says. "The same gene can be expressed in the city but not in a rural place because of the environment. So you must look at the environment when studying associations between genes and disease."

The article "A Genomewide Gene Expression Signature of Environmental Geography in Leukocytes of Moroccan Amazighs" by Youssef Idaghdour and Greg Gibson, North Carolina State University; John D. Storey, Princeton University; and Sami J. Jadallah, HRH Prince Sultan International Foundation for Conservation and Development of Wildlife, Agadir, Morocco was published April 11, 2008, in PloS Genetics.


********************************************************************************************

My view on the Nature verses Nurture issue is, that we are predetermined by nature to make choices. Some like to call this survival, but I would go deeper and say is simply manifest of existence. But of course Nurture is how we remember the laws of the universe. We make the choices but Nurturing those choices with synchronicity and harmony is absolutely the structure and outline that achieves the best results.

Alot of people in Mainstream opinion tend to be hesitant on this fact simply because its another choice you have to make. This philosophy like many others sustains itself through constant change and improvement. The Nature over nurture theory falls short simply because its static and not adaptive to the idea of free will and choice. Its not forgiving and therefore limits possible solutions that require faith. Not faith in something you cant see, but simply faith that people will choose something more sustainable, even when the risk is still their.

I'm still working out how to describe this view in a more concise and structured outline so that people who think its a question of "verses" see its really more about what system produces more progress and prosperity, not just for the individual but for everyone included in that individuals environment.

Peace :)

[firstlook]

A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention. - Aldous Huxley

We are all geniuses up to the age of ten. - Aldous Huxley

Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision. - Aldous Huxley

The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency. - Aldous Huxley