I have always been creating stuff in my life, always with low self-esteem. This book is a book of my journey from low self-esteem to confidence in myself. It has a lot of hints for you to use to release your creativity and become more confident in what you are doing.
You can buy it at Amazon for only $4.99 here; CREATIVITY
With "Fake News" and a bad reputation for the term, I think it is fair to ask: Has journalism been trusted again? So many years have passed that blurred everybody's vision. But thanks to some excellent reporters and cooperative news sources, we might have a chance. Will it be a good enough time? We will soon find out.
It's been more than four years since President Trump tweeted the phrase "Fake News" for the first time. Since then, this loaded phrase has appeared on his Twitter account over 1,000 times.
And yet, it seems that the term has lost its power.
It is now being used by Trump critics to deride false news stories and any news that they deem unfavorable to their plan, but even Trump himself has stopped using it as much as he once did. According to a report by The New York Times in late 2020, the use of the term dropped from a high of 15 tweets per month to less than one tweet per month by January 2021.
So what happened? In short: it became meaningless. When you call everything fake and everyone a liar, those words lose their meaning. When someone calls you a liar on Twitter, and you've called everyone else who disagrees with you a liar on Twitter, suddenly there's no difference between your lies and theirs—and if there's no difference between your lies and theirs, it doesn't make sense for anyone to listen to either of you.
Fake news may be a thing of the past, thanks to the presidential election. Following the election of Donald Trump in 2016, it was discovered that a Russian-backed political troll campaign had been running on Facebook and other platforms for months before the election, spreading fake news and disinformation to millions of voters.
Since then, social media platforms have attempted to fight back against this content, with mixed results. While Facebook has been able to identify and remove most of those accounts, they've also been criticized for not doing enough to prevent similar campaigns from taking place in the future.
What's more, there are still plenty of other sources for fake news: websites that deliberately spread misinformation about political candidates or issues as clickbait or for some other nefarious purpose. And even mainstream news outlets can fall into this category if they're reporting inaccurate information based on anonymous sources or speculation from experts who have no idea what they're talking about (see: Russian influence on our current President).
Is fake news a word from history?
Has journalism been trusted again with the most recent election of Joe Biden as the President of the United States that many people have on their minds? Since Donald Trump was elected in 2016, he has always accused the media of being unfair toward him. He once even went so far as to say it was the "enemy of the American people."
However, with Biden's victory and Trump's concession, people may have more reason to trust reputable news sources again. With this in mind, perhaps fake news will slowly fade away into irrelevance as we move forward into a new era.
Russia and Putin went another way.
As soon as Vladimir Putin became president, he began to put pressure on the Russian media. He realized that without control of the media, it would be impossible to consolidate his power. The structure and methods of state propaganda have remained almost unchanged for 20 years. In this article the author will look at the main stages of Putin's war with Russia's press and show some details of Kremlin propaganda.
Vladimir Putin has long been known for his firm grasp on Russian media. Under his leadership, the country's media has been shaped into a propaganda machine that benefits the government and paints an extremely biased picture of Russia to its own people. Leading Russian journalists have been maimed or killed for speaking out against these practices and for reporting the truth about Putin and his allies.
The Kremlin owns several major news agencies, including TASS, RIA Novosti, and ITAR-TASS. These sources often report on subjects such as the war in Ukraine, ISIS, and American politics. They are also known to employ fake news stories in order to influence public opinion on world events. If a topic is not suited to their narrative, they will simply ignore it. Putin also has control over many other major news agencies through oligarchs friendly with him who are willing to cooperate with his policies.
For example, when anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny published a video accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption, the Kremlin ordered all media outlets not to report it. However, Navalny posted the video on YouTube; then it became so popular that every source was forced to cover it anyway.
Wonder how the world would have been now, if Trump had won the election, and with Putin's war in Ukraine? A horrifying thought!
The world is changing fast. How can we trust a world that we see each day? How can we find a way to change our minds?
We have the ability to change this world, to make it a better place. Together we can find the proper course of action and bring a meaningful change.
There is no other way to survive. We need to start over, rebuild the world, and hope and work for a better tomorrow.
We are the future!
Creativity is something we all need to achieve something. At least if we want to create something new.
So what is this creativity, and how do we get that?
If you look it up in an encyclopedia, you will read something like this:
Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.
It's a bit boring and clinical to define the essence of creating something.
Creativity is something fun, and it fills you with the energy to go further on whatever you are working. Creativity is the motor that makes the process reach the next level
and makes what you do something new and more prominent than when you started.
Creativity is something we all have, more or less, but what holds you back is other things like poor self-esteem and self-confidence.
I can't do that!
It is too complicated for me!
And so we go on…….
There is no wrong answer in a creative process; that is the point. You've begun your journey. Many things can go wrong, but there are also many things that you learn even if something goes wrong.
That's creativity.
Learn something and make something new from what you learned.
But how do I make something new from what I learned?
When I get stuck in what I am doing, I often leave it behind for a while. It could be for a couple of hours up to several months. Instead, I focus on something else, letting my brain do its own thing. Sometimes, not always, but I have a new idea next time.
In history, it is one common habit among creative and known persons.
They had many unfinished projects underway at the same time.
Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa between the years 1503 and 1519.
Sixteen years it took, and I don't think he stood by the painting and painted and painted all those years. He probably put it away for a couple of years, went back to it, and then put it away again.
Unlike the highly composed music we hear today from Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, etc., these composers also made a lot of ordinary music between or simultaneously did their masterpieces. These more ordinary pieces have long gone unnoticed, and the best music pieces are the only ones we hear.
Experiment!
Try things with no known result.
I could be stupid things, but one thing leads to another.
I often say stupid things at my work, I can tell, but it sometimes makes someone else come up with a new angle and idea.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes and do things that make you look stupid in other people's eyes.
Don't go with the flow.
Or do that, go for a walk.
But not with the flow.
Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Beethoven, Virginia Woolf, and many other famous persons in history did all take a walk to clear their minds and let new thoughts grow.
Steve Jobs was famous in the area of Palo Alto for his long walks, which he used for exercise, contemplation, problem solving, and even meetings.
A study from Stanford University by Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz has found evidence that the process of thinking is much better for those who walk.
The investigation discovered that walking inside or outside also helped creative motivation. Walking itself, not the environment, was the fundamental variable. In all cases, innovativeness levels were reliably and altogether higher for those walking than those sitting.
The problem is remembering the "brilliant" ideas you get!
I always have to stop now and then and write it down on my phone. A cleverer idea from Marily Oppezzo is to have your headphones connected to your phone and record your thoughts, pretending you are having a conversation, and write it down when you get home.
But don't have music in your ear while walking.
Many people always have to listen to something when they're outside, it could be a pod, music, of course, a book, and that is a distraction. We need more silence around us.
Another thing I do, not so frequently now, but very much in the past, is meditation. Meditation is a way of training your brain to drop thoughts you have, let your brain empty all those distracting thoughts you get. Meditation doesn't have to be complicated either. You don't have to sit and stare into a wall to meditate. It could be sitting by the sea watching the waves or sitting on a stone in a forest hearing the wind blowing in the trees. But try to avoid having distracting sounds around you at the beginning. The goal is to rest in ourselves, and with distracting noise around you, it could be difficult initially. After a while of meditation, you can meditate almost anywhere. However, I prefer nature but have done it in crowded places such as airports and train stations while waiting for my plane or train.
Lastly, my recommendation is to listen to Tom Waits' "Walking Spanish" if you need music to help you relax.
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What is a world
Ruled by men
Old as hell
They don't have to live
With their mistakes
I can tell
Almost senile and sick
They make decision
They are tired and bored
With no vision
They don't have to
Live with it
They don't live the doom
Don't have to clean up
They will die
Quite soon
It is the young
Who should rule
They have a wisdom
For a better world
They have feelings
They have souls
They see further
They make goals
Putin, Biden, Boris
And more
Are they thinking future
Or is it
Just oue de couture
They have no future
Their lives is at the end
They only see
The next election
The next game
With them ruling
The world will
Be the same
So let the young in
They still have a will
To change the world
And don't fight and kill
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If you want to succeed in anything you want to work with, is there only one thing you need.
And what is that only one thing?
It is patience.
That is the only thing you need. Sorry I lied, you need two things.
Patience and hard work.
Once I worked with the famous photographer Lennart Nilsson for about ten years.
He always said, you only need three things to succeed.
That is patience, patience, and patience.
He kept repeating that all the time, like a mantra.
That has now become my mantra.
Patience, patience, and patience.
Those who think there is a shortcut to success, will never last for a long time, they could peak for a short time but it will seldom last. They have not to build patience in their body and will rush away to the next project, and next, and next…..
Trying to find that shortcut again.
Sometimes they could find it, but mostly not and that builds frustration in their body.
Always keep in your mind that it will take time, which will make it easier for you to work on whatever project you have.
One or another day it will pay off. Or not.
Many of those projects we worked with, when I worked with Lennart, we could work on for months and months until we realized that it wouldn't become anything.
So we dropped it, sometimes for good, and sometimes we let it rest for a year or two. Suddenly, after a time when the brain had processed it, we could find out a new way to manage the project. If you work with something for a long while, you often get stuck in the same problem and how to solve it. You think the same way over and over again. That doesn't change the way of solving the problem, if you drop it a while, and do other stuff, your brain purifies and processes without your knowledge.
So patience is the main thing you need to be successful.
The second thing is hard work.
With Lennart Nilsson, we could sometimes work until two, three in the morning. Constantly. Lennart was nearly 80 years old with no end of energy. I was often more tired than him, and I was 35 years old at that time. This was around 1996-97.
We could work with something sometimes for up to a week, it was mostly productions for television, and nothing was filmed. Lennart wasn't pleased with something, and suddenly he said, we tear it down and start all over again.
So never give up. Start all over again. Try it in a new way, a new angle. Don't think the first you do is the best, everything could be better.
That was something he also said often "everything is possible, nothing is impossible". Be consistent.
Understand me right, you also have a life to live. Working until two, three in the morning isn't healthy. No one should do that if you want a life too.
But if you want something, you have to work for it. You have to put some effort into it.
I always have five to ten projects at the same time. So when I feel stuck in one project, I just let it rest for a while and dig into another of my projects.
I have a couple of businesses I recently started. My goal for them is to make them profitable in about five years. It would be nice if it goes faster but I have no dream of that. They take the time they need.
In the United States approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years. Only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more.
I don't think it is only because of bad businesses, it is more of giving up. Having high dreams and less effort. People give up in their minds, and that's understandable but unnecessary.
However dropping one business would not always be bad either, you have to believe in it yourself, and your idea to have the energy to put into it. If you don't, the effort you do isn't worth it.
But you have perhaps and probably learned a lot on your way that might be useful in another project.
And, please, don't believe in those who have made "easy" and "passive" money.
It doesn't exist.
Whatever you want to do, you have to put hard work into it and a lot of patience before you succeed.
I am very grateful for those years I had with Lennart, he taught me a lot, obviously a lot of photography, but mostly a lot of how hard it is to succeed and that you have to put a piece of yourself into whatever you are working with. I am far from his success and will never be able to reach that. But that is not my goal.
My goal is to do things I think are fun to do. I think that is the best for my life.
If it brings me something more, it would be even more fun. One thing is sure, I would not be who I am today without those years with Lennart.
Lastly, don't forget the three most important things you need.
Patience, patience, and patience.
Earlier I have written about Hillsong Church and their use of people for their purpose to make money.
To be clear, I am not against religious beliefs in any religion, though I'm not religious myself, I am against communities that, use people and exclude people who don't follow all rules that the community has made and communities that have their laws and rules that are different from the rest of the society, or exclude you if you are homosexual or get a blood transfusion for example.
Now it is Jehovahs Witness's turn to be criticized. And yes, criticized, I have a low pardon with communities with a low insight and low humanity.
Jehovah's Witnesses is a great example of that. In Sweden, where I live, Jehovah's have state aid. That's insane, they have no insight and exclude people with other sexuality or for other reasons that the rest of the society has laws to regulate, because of people like them. Yet still, they have support from the government. That's crazy.
Jehovah excludes people they don't think have the right belief. And excluding means excluded from your family and your friends. If the family has contact with the excluded they risk excluding too. So most of them chose the Church before their children, relatives, and former friends. They are not allowed to have any contact at all.
Is that humanity?
They are in total control by the elderly in Jehovah's.
There is a lot of witnesses from excluded people who have been rejected because of their sexual orientation or if they have had a blood transfusion. And that exclusion is definitely. In Jehovah, blood is a symbol of life and that's why they don't accept a blood transfusion. So rather than being excluded, many of them have died when they needed a blood transfusion and neglected a transfusion. Isn't that to deny life?
The elderly have a big role in regulating members' lives and the rules they have to live by. Many rules depend on who is deciding what's right or wrong though they have a lot of written "laws" for all members.
I work with IVF and everyone who has been in contact with reproduction medicine knows that it isn't every oocyte that gets fertilized. A couple from Jehovah's made IVF at that clinic I worked on, and the elderly decided that only one egg should be fertilized. So we picked out 12 eggs and throw away 11 and fertilized one.
I can tell it didn't work.
Then we had Jehovah's from another Church and there the elderly allowed a proper IVF.
It is all depending on who decides.
I am a bit confused that the doctors listened to Jehovah's because it was treatment free of charge, paid by the tax. In Sweden, we have free IVF. And an IVF isn't cheap so I think if you are doing a free IVF you have to do a regular one with a chance of getting pregnant.
Women and children are subordinated to men. And all are subordinated to the Council and The elderly. Jehovah thinks the rest of the World outside Jehovah's community is satan and they shouldn't have any contact with the outside world.
The frightening feeling of being excluded from Jehovah makes them follow what the elderly desire. You are not supposed to have your thoughts about almost everything. They are not allowed to vote or have any political opinion.
To be a Jehovah's Witness is to live in the society, but not belong to the society, in Sweden, they get state aid and healthcare and so on, that seems ok for them. But still, they don't think they belong to the same society?
Men and women are not equal, and there is no democracy at all.
They have their interpretation of the Bible and a dogmatic sight of how to follow the Bible. They have been criticized for the mistranslation of the Bible. They also caution followers to stay away from independent thinking, believing that it was brought by Satan the Devil and would lead to discord. Those who openly disagree with the leader's teachings are labeled apostates with mental illness.
There are also witnesses of child abuse, silenced by the elderly. Due to Jehovah's it has to be two witnesses to prove the guilt! So nothing has been done to those facts. That is also a reason how dangerous it is when a community has no insight.
Religious freedom is important and to believe in whatever you want. But that doesn't mean that you have the right to have your laws and rules. And that you can reject and exclude people from their family and friends. And keep and silence members with intimidation propaganda. And act undemocratic and none equal.
Is Jehovah's Witnesses a sect?
I think so. Due to themselves, they are not, of course. They mean that a sect has to have a leader, and they don't, they have only one leader and that is Christ. I don't think it is true, the elders have a strong impact on the members and how they should live. Often with a subjective assessment. They don't collaborate with any other Christian society and that is also a sign of a sect.
To summarize, I think it is dangerous with religious communities like Jehovah's, most of all because of the undemocratic rules and regulations that members have to subordinate to. And the control of members by scaring them to silence.
In a modern world, it is obsolete.
The Wall of Fire.
Evil Xenu, the ruler of the Galactic Confederacy, transported billions of aliens to Earth and killed them in volcanoes using hydrogen bombs. After this, their immortal souls, thetans, ascended into the atmosphere where they were captured and placed in 3D cinemas where they were brainwashed using films (the so-called R6 implant). Then the thetans were released and have since clung to humans as spiritual parasites ("body thetans") and caused various problems. The goal of the higher levels is to free oneself from these body thetans with the help of auditing (from Wikipedia).
The piece above is not from a science fiction book. The text is from a "religious philosophy" book by Ron Hubbard, Scientology: A History of Man. This text is the most notable of the Church of Scientology's secret teachings and is said to have taken place 75 million years ago.
Ron Hubbart was the founder of The Church of Scientology; before he founded The Church of Scientology, he was a writer of science fiction, western, fantasy, etc.
Around 1950 he started The Church of Scientology based on an earlier dianetic theory.
In dianetic, they use something they call an auditing aid. An electropsychometer, E-meter, is connected to a person's body (by holding two cans attached to the so-called E- meter). By following a script, they have a hearing with ”patients." They keep asking questions repeatedly until the E- meter doesn't show any response to the questions.
A sort of brainwash.
These audits are pretty expensive, so most people have to borrow money to afford the sessions.
The Church of Scientology has connections to some lending institutions and helps people with loans.
To reach a higher level in The Church of Scientology, you also have to do some "education." These are also expensive courses, and people have to keep on borrowing money to reach these higher levels.
Some people have depths of $20000 and more to pay off.
If you don't afford the courses, you have to work for free at the Church. Often this work is to hunt new members. Their workdays are long and hard.
In October 2009, the Church of Scientology in France was convicted of organized fraud. According to the ruling, the church has systematically cheated its members of their savings.
In Sweden, the Church of Scientology has been embroiled in a controversy that began when Swedish Scientology critic Zenon Panoussis submitted a copy of the NOT documents ("New Era Dianetics for Operating Thetans") to the Swedish Parliament. The documents, which were copyrighted by the Scientology movement, thus became public. The Church of Scientology attempted to keep the public from reading the documents by having members sit and read them or simply sitting on the stack of paper during office hours. Between 1997 and 2000, the Church of Scientology attempted several times to have the documents removed from the Riksdag's office. Several attempts to classify them were unsuccessful. The documents were stolen twice.
The Church of Scientology denies any involvement, but critics suspect them. Panoussis was found guilty of copyright infringement and ordered to pay damages and legal fees in 1998. After three years of repeated attempts by the Church of Scientology to keep the NOT documents secret, the Riksdag passed a law supporting the documents secret in 2000. Several lawyers objected, claiming that copyright had taken precedence over Sweden's constitution. The documents, however, are still freely available online at Wikileaks under the title "Scientology cult New Era Dianetics for Operating Thetans."
As many of those "free" Churches, they have celebrities as members to reach people. In The Church of Scientology are names like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes well known. John Travolta and Elisabeth Moss are also names and members of The Church of Scientology. Probably well paid for their membership by the Church (my reflection, not confirmed).
And like many cults, such as The Church of Scientology, people criticizing the Church are not allowed to meet the believer. In the Church, a criticizer of the Church is called a suppressive person. That makes the believer cut off the rest of the world. I am probably now a suppressive person, I guess.
Many defectors have talked about the mental difficulty of leaving the Church. The brainwashing is so deep, and it takes years to normalize their personality.
The doctrine is dictatorial, and you are not allowed to criticize anything.
According to Dr. Poulter of Wikimedia UK, the Church of Scientology was the first organization to be barred from editing Wikipedia in 2009, after creating several accounts that all edited in the same pattern of deleting critical material and inserting Scientology propaganda.
That is the most dangerous with all cults, not allowing criticism, making you a scared person and constantly watching your tongue, afraid of what can happen if you say something improperly that makes your position wrong.
It is like any dictatorial government—management, controlling people's minds by fear.
Extended longevity is something that many people dream of. It’s not just about living a long life; it’s about living in a way that maximizes life. Longevity is a difficult thing to achieve, but people who live in the Blue Zones of the world have found a way to stay young and healthy well into their later years. We all want to live a long life, but what can we do to increase our chances? One way to do this is by living in a way that has been proven to have health benefits, as well as longevity benefits.
The term "Blue Zone" refers to geographical areas, the home to some of the world's oldest people. It is not a scientific term or mysterious place where life length is longer than in other parts.
It was coined by author Dan Buettner while researching areas of the world where people live exceptionally long lives.
Blue Zones are so named because when Buettner and his colleagues looked at these areas, they drew blue circles around them on a map.
Many countries have blue zones within their borders, but five places worldwide stand out more than others.
These five places are:
Okinawa (Japan)
Sardinien (Italien)
Nicoya (Costa Rica)
Ikaria (Grekland)
The Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, Kalifornien
People who live in those areas have almost the same lifestyle. How they live their life in the same way is more evident in nine points. Author Dan Buettner and a team at National Geographic researched statistical facts that are known. They searched for evidence-based common denominators among all places with the help of a group of medical researchers, anthropologists, demographers, and epidemiologists.
Those nine points are (copied from the site bluezones.com) :
Move Naturally
The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron, run marathons, or join gyms. Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it. They grow gardens and don’t have mechanical conveniences for house and yard work.
Purpose
The Okinawans call it “Ikigai,” and the Nicoyans call it “plan de vida;” for both, it translates to “why I wake up in the morning.” Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy
Down Shift
Even people in the Blue Zones experience stress. Stress leads to chronic inflammation, associated with every significant age-related disease. What the world’s longest-lived people have that we don’t are routines to shed that stress. Okinawans take a few moments each day to remember their ancestors, Adventists pray, Ikarians take a nap, and Sardinians do happy hour.
80% Rule
“Hara hachi bu” – the Okinawan, 2500-year old Confucian mantra before meals reminds them to stop eating when their stomachs are 80 percent full. The 20% gap between not being hungry and feeling full could differ between losing weight or gaining it. People in the blue zones eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening, and then they don’t eat anymore for the rest of the day.
Plant Slant
Beans, including fava, black, soy, and lentils, are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets. Meat—mostly pork—is eaten only five times per month. Serving sizes are 3-4 oz., about the size of a deck of cards.
Wine
People in all blue zones (except Adventists) drink alcohol moderately and regularly. Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers. The trick is to drink 1-2 glasses per day (preferably Sardinian Cannonau wine), with friends or food. And no, you can’t save up all week and have 14 drinks on Saturday.
Belong
All but five of the 263 centenarians we interviewed belonged to some faith-based community. Denomination doesn’t seem to matter. Research shows that attending faith-based services four times per month will add 4-14 years of life expectancy.
Loved Ones First
Successful centenarians in the blue zones put their families first. This means keeping aging parents and grandparents nearby or in the home (It lowers disease and mortality rates of children in the house, too.). They commit to a life partner (which can add up to 3 years of life expectancy) and invest in their children with time and love (They’ll be more likely to care for you when the time comes).
Right Tribe
The world’s longest-lived people chose–or were born into–social circles that supported healthy behaviors, Okinawans created ”moais”–groups of five friends committed to each other for life. Research from Framingham Studies shows that smoking, obesity, happiness, and even loneliness are contagious. So the social networks of long-lived people have favorably shaped their health behaviors.
Our lifestyle is, for most of the people in big cities, unhealthy. We live in a very sick and stressful way. We are running from one "important" issue to another, and between those, we do our training and "relaxing."Relaxing often with the help of alcohol in a large amount. We are frequently searching for a quick fix in our way to be able to live our lives.
People in the Blue zones seem to connect to themselves and the environment they live in. They also have control of their lives, nothing we can say about most of us.
Our jobs often have someone or something controlling the job situation. It could be a deadline, a boss, a market, something outside ourselves maintaining somehow.
And money is a highly stressful factor in our life. We have to pay our bills and depths. So we work harder to make more money to pay those bills and have some money left over to afford those things we need for "relaxing."
To achieve a better life, we have to rethink how we live. Is it worth it? The life we live is also a matter of the Earth's future. We have to change the use of ourselves and the Earth.
We have to think long-term instead of a quick fix way. We have to think about our children and their future rather than ourselves, and we have to slow down a lot.
We live in a way that is not so good for us. We have to rethink how we live and think if it is worth it or not. The life we live is not only a matter of the material things we have but also of the inner peace and quality time spent with our family and friends.
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