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Being this is the first full moon I experienced living out in the country away from light pollution, I just realized it’s really bright. So bright, that it casts shadows. It’s almost like night and day from when the moon is not full, going from pitch black outside to illuminating about the same as a giant street light.

I was just reading Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual where Bill Mollison talks about the Anasazi people actually using the moon’s shadow to keep track of time. Employing nothing more than a spiral carving with perpendicular slabs of rock, they were able to predict the cyclical periods of flooding and drought, in style.

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Psychiatrists are simply legalized drug dealers, offering dangerous quick fixes to complex problems. Many major university professors are just in it for the cushy jobs. The combination of these two are not good for our health:

A congressional investigation has revealed that a group of Harvard psychiatrists, instrumental in pushing the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and its off-label treatment with antipsychotics, concealed from university officials the millions of dollars they earned in consulting fees for the companies that make those drugs… Biederman and Wilens had received at least $1.6 million from the pharmaceutical industry between 2000 and 2007, while Spencer had received at least $1 million. [Natural News]

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I have decided to quit the sociology graduate program at the University of Florida after my first year. I have definitely learned many invaluable lessons and grown immensely, but most of these were gained from my experiences outside the classroom. It seems many in academia are primarily in it just for the money, status, and cushy privileges. The classes were monotonous and far from challenging; the politics in the department absurdly immature and even down right nasty (there are still many ongoing repercussions of these articles). The students and faculty who I previously held some respect for their ability to critique, proved themselves to be hypocritical when some of us attempted to turn the gaze of sociology back on itself and stand up for the rights of all students to be treated with respect and dignity within the department.

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