The Adventures of Flash Gordon

Flash Gordon — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:15:59 +0000

Approximately every two decades, federal policy shifts between a conservative laissez faire delegation of power to the states and a liberal, often paternal, centralization of power within the federal government. The latest development in the cycle, according to the authors of Forced Federalism, is the new federalism that began more than twenty years ago.

Corntassel and Witmer argue that forced federalism has arrived unnoticed, with most people thinking, if they think about it at all, that Indian policy remains as it was in the 1960s. Under Lyndon Johnson federal policy was liberal, and indigenous people were allowed a significant amount of self determination as well as a large amount of federal support. In the late 1980s under the new federalism, specifically in 1988 with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the federal government abdicated its role in Indian affairs and gave the states the responsibility for Native American populations. Indian nations are sovereign entities, comparable to the federal government, whose relations with the United States are set by treaty. Dealing with the states rather than the federal government as such produces a loss of status for Native American nations.

The entire review can be found here:

Flash Gordon — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:48:00 +0000

Writers of the Future Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Dark Fantasy Contest

1. No entry fee is required, and all rights in the story remain the property of the author. All types of science fiction, fantasy and dark fantasy are welcome.

More here: http://newgreatbooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/science-fiction-fantasy-and-dark.html

Flash Gordon — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:25:22 +0000

Travel Writers Can Change the World: Planet Earth 2010

Sustainable travel — eco-travel — green travel — cultural travel . . . what does all this mean? The current trend of travel experiences that enrich and fulfill the traveler while contributing to the welfare of a place and its inhabitants presents a grand opportunity for us as writers.

By choosing to focus at least some of our work on such topics as philanthropic travel opportunities; resorts, hotels and tour companies that operate sustainably; travel with a purpose; responsible tourism; and/or “cultural sojourns” (as described in the New York Times 2009 summer travel magazine), we become part of a new millennium crusade to appreciate and to save the planet and its inhabitants.

http://newgreatbooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/calling-all-travel-writers-to-enter.html

Flash Gordon — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:25:46 +0000

Videos on the indigenous peoples massacre in Peru.

http://indigenouspeoplesissues.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=823:videos-of-peruvian-indigenous-struggle-bagua-grande&catid=68:videos-and-movies&Itemid=96

Using Genetics to Determine Prehistoric Population Movements

Flash Gordon — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:47:21 +0000

The use of genetic data in forensic science, demographic and population history, archaeology, and a variety of other disciplines has been one of the most rewarding advances in recent times. Allowing for a level of detail and traceability not found in the other methods used by these disciplines, genetic data has provided a wealth of information on population movements, cultural histories, genealogy, and on and on. In fact, the use of genetics to study population history has recently reached a milestone with the study of large genome-wide data sets that provide a wealth of information concerning contemporary and historic population relationships. However, it is not without its faults and limitations, especially when used to understand cultural affiliation among indigenous groups, such as Native American Indians. In studies of cultural affiliation between contemporary and prehistoric populations, for example, there is a dependence on much smaller-scaled data, typically from either the mitochondrial genome of the female or the Y chromosome of the male. Similarly, the datasets from these prehistoric populations is often small and spans a wide chronological or geographic range.

http://www.bauuinstitute.com/Articles/GeneticDataAffiliationNatives.html

Indigenous Zapotec Indians Demand Transperance

Flash Gordon — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:42:40 +0000

PRESS BULLETIN FROM UNION OF ORGANIZATIONS OF THE SIERRA JUÁREZ OF OAXACA (UNOSJO, S.C.) – Oaxaca, Mexico

TO ALL STATE, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA SOURCES:

We kindly request that you publish the present bulletin in your respective means of communication.

Towards the end of 2008, the results of the research project México Indígena (Indigenous Mexico) were handed over to two Zapotec communities in the Sierra Juárez in the form of maps. Research had been undertaken two years earlier by a team of geographers from University of Kansas. What initially seemed to be a beneficial project for the communities now leaves many of the participants feeling like victims of geopiracy.

In August 2006, the México Indígena research team arrived at the Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca (UNOSJO, S.C.) to present research objectives and garner support to commence work in the Sierra Juárez region. At the time, the team included a Mexican biologist Gustavo Ramírez, an Ixtlán native well known in the area, who was responsible for initially approaching UNOSJO.

Project leader and geographer Peter Herlihy explained the project objectives to UNOSJO, S.C., initially stating that it was to document the impacts of PROCEDE [a Mexican Government program has had on indigenous communities. He failed to mention, however, that this research prototype was financed by the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) of the United States Army and that reports on his work would be handed directly to this Office. Herlihy neglected to mention this despite being expressly asked to clarify the eventual use of the data obtained through research.

Read more about indigenous Zapotec peoples and Oaxaca here.

Tribal Preservation: Tule River

Flash Gordon — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:39:48 +0000

The preservation of indigenous people’s history is a critical project in today’s world of rapid cultural and linguistic disappearance. As indigenous people are forced to change their lifeways, much of their history, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and oral traditions are lost. In an effort to preserve this knowledge for future generations, indigenous peoples – often in collaboration with authors, activists, NGOs, and even governmental and state agencies – are in the process of working on ways to ensure that this knowledge and history is maintained. In a recent article entitled “The Tule River Tribal History Project: Evaluating a California Tribal Government’s Collaboration with Anthropology and Occupational Therapy to Preserve Indigenous History and Promote Tribal Goals,” one example of how indigenous people are working to preserve their history is lucidly articulated.

In 2004, the Tule River Tribal Council undertook an innovative project to preserve the indigenous history of the Tule River Native American Indian Tribe. The indigenous Tule River tribe is comprised of about 1,500 enrolled members. Of these, about 500 members live on the reservation in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in Central California, about 15 miles from the city of Porterville. The reservation is in the San Joaquin Valley, about midway between Bakersfield and Fresno. The Tule River Tribal History Project, as this project came to be called, demonstrates a way that indigenous people can begin to ensure – and control – the preservation of their indigenous history and knowledge.

Native American Indians and Spaniards in Florida and New Mexico

Flash Gordon — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:56:27 +0000

Feast of Souls: Indians and Spaniards in the Seventeenth-Century Missions of Florida and New Mexico

Robert C. Galgano

2005

University of New Mexico Press

I am an advocate of comparative history, and the book reviewed here purports to offer a synthesis of the historical experience of natives living on Franciscan missions in Spanish Florida and New Mexico. The book has as its primary audience students; it also has, among others, the goal of translating history into teaching (pp. xi-xii). The author lays out the themes in the book in a short introduction, and then examines several chronological/thematic issues. Galgano provides an overly broad overview of native and Spanish religious beliefs, as one element of an interpretation that can best be summarized as mutual understandings, misunderstandings and accommodations that at times were less than accommodating. While there is a certain logic in comparing contemporary Franciscan missions in Florida and New Mexico, the author does not present a compelling reason for why he limits the scope of the book or why he does not examine the experiences of Franciscan missionaries and natives on other frontiers.

This short book (155 pages of text) is divided into six thematic/chronological chapters in addition to the introduction. The first chapter outlines, in a general way, the religious beliefs and practices of the major players in the story. This includes the Spanish and Franciscan missionaries, as well as the different native peoples the Franciscans attempted to convert. These were the Guale, Timucua, and Apalache in Florida, and the different Pueblo peoples in New Mexico. While Galgano attempts to draw interesting parallels between the belief systems of Iberian Catholicism and the natives of Florida and New Mexico, the discussion is too general to be of much utility, other than to provide a general sense of religious beliefs, without providing many specific details to distinguish between the practices of the Florida and New Mexico natives, or to explain how Iberian Catholicism evolved from the late medieval period through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As the author points out, religion certainly became a point of dispute during the seventeenth century, as seen in efforts to quash the kachina religion in New Mexico and the ball game in Florida–an athletic competition between villages that had religious overtones. Native leaders in Florida cooperated with the effort to suppress the ball game, whereas New Mexico natives took the kachina religion underground and used it as a point around which to organize resistance.

Maori Gain Traditional Fishing Rights

Flash Gordon — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 03:54:24 +0000

A new deal will enable Maori to ban other New Zealanders from some coastal areas and impose fines of up to $5000 if they don’t obey.

The Ngati Porou deal is the first under the contentious Foreshore and Seabed Act, and will allow some East Cape beaches to be closed to public access.

The new Government is to approve the deal this month. Both National and the Maori Party opposed the 2004 foreshore law for very different reasons – but now ministers from the two parties are set to sign off the deal in affidavits to the High Court.

New Maori Affairs Minister Dr Pita Sharples, co-leader of the Maori Party, expects to be briefed on his obligations tomorrow. His party was formed out of opposition to the law – now he will have to explain to his supporters why he is putting his signature to the papers.

Act leader Rodney Hide, the Local Government Minister, said Labour had left the new Government with a “ticking time bomb”. He described the deal as a “political and racial carve-up of the nation’s beaches”.

The deal was negotiated by former Deputy Prime Minister Dr Michael Cullen in August last year. Shortly after, the outgoing Labour Government reported to the United Nations committee on racial discrimination, which was concerned that the Foreshore and Seabed Act disadvantaged Maori. That report was not publicized.

Read more about Indigenous Maori Gaining Traditional Fishing Rights here.

Aphrodisiacs and 52 Sizzling Love Secrets

Flash Gordon — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:10:56 +0000

Throughout the ages, men and women have eagerly swallowed almost any substance that was called an aphrodisiac, no matter how unappetizing or bizarre. In our never ending search for better sex, humans have consumed such diverse items as oysters, eels, elephant tusks, lion blood, bull testicles, rhino horn, ram penis, pig genitals, marijuana, and the dried remains of the Mediterranean cantharis beetle, otherwise known as “Spanish Fly.” The sea is a rich source of legendary aphrodisiacs. Oysters, shrimp, clams, anchovies, and eels have been reputed since ancient times to increase sexual desire. Actually, the word Aphrodisiac came from Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love and desire, who herself was a gift from the sea. Many roots, vegetables, and fruits became known as aphrodisiacs simply because their shapes were designed by nature as a clue to their use. And the ancients were always on the look out for such secret signs. So, based on shape alone, they chose to eat asparagus, bananas, carrots, celery, cucumbers, dates, figs, and tomatoes among others in the hope that they would arouse passion and bestow vigor. Eating the genitals of animals noted for their potency, such as bulls and rams, is another historical practice meant to ensure virility. Are these substances of mythology really aphrodisiacs? As it turns out, some of them do work as sex boosters. For example, oysters are a prime source of zinc, one of the essential minerals for men. Semen is rich in zinc, and adequate zinc is needed for sperm production and hormone metabolism. Oysters also release testosterone in women.

Aphrodisiacs for Flirting

Chili Peppers – Gets the face flushing, heart pumping, pores sweating, & blood flowing towards the genitals.

Bananas – Contains bufotenine, a chemical that acts on the brain to increase happiness, self-confidence, & sex drive.

Carrots – Have strong fibrous ingredients that supercharge the body & lead to a feeling of strong sexual desire.

Damiano – This “lover’s herb” contains alkaloids, which stimulate blood flow to genitals & increase sensitivity.

Clary Sage – Is known for decreasing inhibitions with its relaxing, euphoric, mildly intoxicating effects.

Keep Reading or Get Dr. Ava’s Books on Aphrodisiacs Now!

Read more about the 52 Sizzling Aphrodisiacs and Sex Secrets of Dr. Ava here.