Eat More Dirt!

Excerpt from a New York Times Article: "…In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of a healthy immune system. Several continuing studies suggest that worms may help to redirect an immune system that has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma…" FULL ARTICLE

Coal is good, too… "A 2 year study performed by the World Health Organization (WHO), suggests that poor people, including those who live in third world countries could survive by eating coal. The study, financed by caviar suppliers, comes at a time of heightened fears over the security of the global food supply and runs parallel to the explosive growth in the global population…" COMPLETE ARTICLE

Personally, I’d like to see the guys from WHO eat it…

Internet Privacy

A freeware program called Tor is a network of virtual tunnels designed to improve privacy and security on the Internet.

Use Tor to keep websites from tracking you or to connect to news sites, instant messaging services, or the like when these are blocked by local Internet providers. Tor also lets users publish web sites and other services without revealing the location of the site. Individuals also use Tor for socially sensitive communication: chat rooms and web forums for rape and abuse survivors, or people with illnesses.

Journalists use Tor to communicate more safely with whistleblowers and dissidents. Non-governmental organizations use Tor to allow their workers to connect to their home website while they're in a foreign country, without notifying everybody nearby that they're working with that organization. Activist groups recommend Tor as a way for maintaining civil liberties online. Corporations use Tor as a safe way to conduct sensitive business.

A branch of the U.S. Navy uses Tor for open source intelligence gathering; law enforcement uses Tor for visiting or surveillance of web sites without leaving government IP addresses in their web logs, and for security during sting operations.

So why would a private individual need this program?  It protects you against a common form of Internet surveillance known as "traffic analysis." Traffic analysis allows others to track your behavior and interests. Some attackers spy on multiple parts of the Internet and use sophisticated statistical techniques to track the communications patterns of many different organizations and individuals. Bottom line:  it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.

Available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android  Visit Site.

Additional Information:

7 Things You Should now About Tor

Whether you're a regular user of Web privacy tools like Tor and Tails, or you've just checked out their websites, the NSA could be tracking your online movements, a new investigation reveals.  The NSA surveillance program called X-Keyscore, first revealed last summer in documents leaked by Edward Snowden, has been found to contain selection rules that potentially add to an NSA watch list anybody who has not only used, but visited online privacy-protection tools such as the Tor Network for anonymous Web browsing and the Linux-based Tails operating system…. Read the full C-Net Report

 

So, now I’m probably on some watch list as a potentially dangerous threat to the US government.

 

 

What's In it?

The US Department of Health and Human Services website has a site tells you what is in many common household products as well as a lot of other potentially useful information.

LINK to site

Free Christian Material for Teaching Kids

This site has lots of material for faith-building Bible curriculums, Sunday School lessons, Christian skits, children's sermons, Christian crafts, Bible games, & object talks. LINK

Free Games

Here are a couple of free game downloads you might enjoy:

Sudoku
Sudoku Portable is the Sudoku puzzle game  as a portable app, so you can play on the go. You can place it on your USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive or a CD and use it on any computer, without leaving any personal information behind. Download from SourceForge

Texas Hold-Em Poker
This is a poker game with computer-generated opponents as well as network play against opponents all over the world. Download from SourceForge