Study Shows Telepathy May Be Connected to Phone Calls, SMS, Emails

Epoch Times, Tara MacIsaac, June 28, 2014

The universe is full of mysteries that challenge our current knowledge. In "Beyond Science" Epoch Times collects stories about these strange phenomena to stimulate the imagination and open up previously undreamed of possibilities. Are they true? You decide.

A study by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake shows that modern forms of communication may be connected with a more primeval form of communication—telepathy.

He tested a group of people by asking them to guess who was calling when their phones rang. Each was given four potential callers to chose from. “The average scores were very significantly above the 25 percent hit rate expected by chance,” wrote Sheldrake in an article published by the Institute of Noetic Science earlier this year. Sheldrake has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Cambridge University and he studied philosophy and history of science at Harvard University.

Similar results have been replicated independently at the University of Amsterdam in Holland and the University of Freiburg in Germany. Statistically significant results have also shown a positive connection between telepathy and text messaging or various forms of Internet communication, according to Dr. Sheldrake.

The telepathic ability seems to come through especially clear in relation to people with whom the subjects have strong emotional bonds.

Dr. Sheldrake anticipates the criticism that a close friend or family member is highly likely to both be in a person’s thoughts and to call that person, and thus the chances of both events occurring at the same time are high.

“The only way to resolve these questions is by means of experimental tests that can be evaluated statistically,” he said. Referring to the experiments he has done along this line, he said, “These tests gave positive, statistically significant results.”

In an initial series of trials, 63 people got an average hit rate of 40 percent, well above the 25 percent rate dictated by chance. Throughout hundreds of tests, Sheldrake has heard from some subjects that they were more often right when they felt confident in their guesses, like their intuition had kicked in.

Sheldrake began also asking subjects how confident they felt about each guess. He gave the example of a female subject who had a hit rate of 85 percent when she felt confident and a hit rate of only 34 percent when she was not very confident. She had a hit rate of only 28 percent when she was just guessing without any feeling of intuition whatsoever.

Pam Smart, Sheldrake’s colleague, conducted experiments to compare the telepathic connection between loved ones versus the connection between strangers. She found the hit rate of 50 percent with familiar callers compared to a hit rate near the chance level of 25 percent with strangers.

Experiments to test for precognition and other potential extra-sensory perceptions came back with negative results, suggesting a connection specifically to the ability of telepathy.

So, do we form telepathic bonds with loved ones?

Dr. Bernard Beitman of the University of Virginia has found in his study of coincidences that people with close bonds can sometimes experience the same things at the same time, particularly distress, even when they are great distances apart. He calls the phenomenon simulpathity. Beitman had a personal experience of simulpathity that spurred him to study it. When his father was on his deathbed thousands of miles away,  Beitman started choking, apparently without cause. He later found out that his father was choking at approximately the same time.

This phenomenon has been known to occur between twins and others with close bonds.

Related Article:

"The Way Synchronicity Works" – Aug 24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)  - (Text version)

" ... How It Works in 3D

Here's how synchronicity works: You come to a meeting like this and you meet somebody for the first time. Perhaps you meet them in a place in the back or in the hallway. You get to talking and you find out that you have common interests. Often they have information you need or you have something they need, and you both leave with a connection you didn't expect. Then the connection leads to something else, for they know people that you don't know and vice versa. Later, you might call them or meet with them. Then, outside of what you originally thought about, you might find yourself working in an area you didn't expect to work in, which fulfills a lot of the things that you originally wanted.

Sometimes you arrive with no expectation at all, but you meet a partner of your life! This happens over and over to many, because they decide to come to where family is. Over and over, Human Beings have resigned themselves to being alone in life. Then they'll come to a meeting of like minds and they'll find somebody that fits them. Life changes, and there is sometimes romance and synchronicity. You didn't plan it! Do you see the difference?

The Human who steps out of the door on the way to this meeting does what? He shows up and has a great time, but all the while, he/she is open to synchronicity. "Dear Spirit, if I'm supposed to meet somebody, then let me have the signals within my intuition to at least look for it." Do you see the difference here? Synchronicity is planning for concepts that you cannot define.

I am sitting in a room of old souls and at least a quarter of you know exactly what I'm talking about. You're here because of it; somebody showed you something that perhaps made you look at things differently. It didn't give you a doctrine, did it? It only made you look. Can you put a price on that? It made you look into a place that showed you that you are divinely built, and perhaps biology has something more in it, something called innate. Innate is body intelligence and knows who you are. It works with the Human Being whenever asked. It is a consciousness within a consciousness, and it hooks you up with synchronicity. It does it way beyond the laws of average and way beyond the bell-shaped curve. So I just gave you the scenario that can happen over and over in meetings like this, in small gatherings, and in large gatherings. Now, let us talk about how it works. These are things that we have seldom discussed and never within a channelling like this. But first, we've got to talk about the majesty of the Human Being.

It wasn't that long ago that we gave you a channelling called the nine energies of the Human Being. It's what I want my partner to begin teaching soon. It's esoteric, it's complex, and it's time. There are conceptual parts of these nine attributes that go beyond what the Human Being is used to hearing and here is one of them.

The Human is Part of the Creative Source of the Universe

If it's true, dear one, that you are a part of the creative source, do you then logically understand that your soul is enormous and that only a piece of it is inside your 3D biology? If all of this energy was in your body, you'd vanish! You'd turn into light itself with more power than all the masters of humanity. You'd have that which Elijah experienced as the only Human to ever ascend while another watched and recorded it. According to the account, Elijah vaporized because the power of God cannot live in the Human Being at full strength. Do you understand? And if you understand this, you will understand that you are only experiencing a small portion of the God in you, which is the creator in your body. So here is what begs another question: Where is the rest of your spiritual self? It's with me, dear one. It's on the other side of the veil as part of the creative source. It never left.

Now, here is what is difficult for your perception in your 3D box. You carry around a corporeal identity that is singular. We have said before that you're really not singular at all. Instead, you are part of a very large group that is God. When you get to Earth, a piece of you separates out and becomes corporeal. It has one body with one face, and this is how you see things. But the rest of you - which is still you - stays with God.

Now let me tell you the revealed truth: You are a multidimensional being and part of you is on the other side of the veil. Get used to it. Your soul is not separated out, but in 3D it seems like it. There is not a soul somewhere with your face on it on the other side of the veil, tapping its toe waiting for the rest of it to come home. You are always together.

There are Humans, however, who believe in this separation, because all they can do is project their linearity onto the majesty of God. We've talked about that as well. So get used to the fact that there is a quantum God and a linear Human Being, and you cannot put them together easily in your mind. The truth is that you're part of the sacred soup of God and those sacred parts look down upon you and are always available, always available. Just like the parking angel, your soul parts see everything. Imagine! A part of you is available from the other side of the veil. Let's put this in your 3D perspective: It's a spy in the sky and it looks at everything all the time. It knows who you are and everything about you because it's part of you. It broadcasts information to you that you receive through intuitive thought. Are you here, are you understanding? It informs you to get up and go places, if you're listening.

It's a Divine System in All Humanity

Here is what you need to know: Every single Human Being on the planet has it because every single Human Being is a part of the whole. Do you understand that? What would happen, however, if there is a broadcast done, but 90  percent of the people don't have a radio? That means 90 percent never receive it. The broadcast is still there with their name on it, but they don't have a radio because they don't believe it.

Then, here comes you. Some of you got your metaphoric radio a long time ago and some of you are just getting it now. Believing it exists activates it. The "radio" is the pineal gland opening up into a multidimensional portal that tunes right into that which is you. This is difficult for a Human Being to understand. When you receive this broadcast from the "multidimensional you", it guides you left and right; it knows who you are; it's benevolent; it's part of God; it's part of me. It's hard to explain. That's why it feels so good, dear ones. Did you ever wonder why profound messages and meditations feel so good? It's you with you! It's beautiful! If you're part of the creative force and you are quantum and multidimensional, it means that these intuitive messages have your face on them and would never lead you into a place for other reasons other than benevolent ones. That's the system. ... "

Google executives visit Cuba to promote free Internet

Yahoo – AFP, 30 June 2014

AFP

Google (Xetra: GGQ1.DE - news) executive chairman Eric Schmidt visited Cuba this week along with three other top executives to promote "a free Internet," Cuban independent online newspaper "14yMedio" reported Sunday.

The four executives "met with officials," spoke "with youth at polytechnical schools" and, on Saturday, visited the University of Computer Sciences in western Havana, wrote the newspaper, run by dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez.

The two-day visit to the Americas' only communist-run country also included Jared Cohen, Brett Perlmutter and Dan Keyserling.

It was the first such visit by Google executives to "promote the virtues of a free and open Internet," said the new site, which was also contacted by the visiting team.

The visit by Google, which has been accused by Cuba of "scandalously" blocking some of its services on the island, was not reported in any official media.

The Internet giant has justified the services blocked under the full US economic embargo that has been in place since 1962.

In her blog GeneracionY, Sanchez described her meeting Friday with the Google team as "an online workshop."

"We didn't ask him any questions and we didn't want any answers, we just told him who we are and what we are trying to do."

US-based Schmidt confirmed the trip on a Google+ posting Sunday, saying US sanctions on Cuba defied reason.

"Walking around (Havana), it's possible to imagine a new Cuba, perhaps a leader of Latin America education, culture, and business," he wrote.

"Cuba will have to open its political and business economy, and the US will have to overcome our history and open the embargo. Both countries have to do something that is hard to do politically, but it will be worth it," Schmidt argued.?

An underwater cable connecting Cuba to Venezuela opened possibilities to upgrade Internet service starting in 2013.

However, Cuban authorities said financial limitations stopped them from increasing access, and continued with their policy of prioritizing use for universities, research institutes and state entities.

The only Cuban residents who can connect to the Internet from their homes are doctors, journalists and other professionals authorized by the government.

Havana accuses Sanchez, along with other Cuban dissidents, of being a US-paid "mercenary."

With new tech tools, precision farming gains traction

Yahoo – AFP, Rob Lever, 29 June 2014

Andrew Isaacson watches from a tractor in a corn field as screens show where

 he has fertilized at the Little Bohemia Creek farm on June 17, 2014 in Warwick, 

Maryland (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

Warwick (United States) (AFP) - At Little Bohemia Creek Farm, the tractor pretty much drives itself, weaving through rows of corn using GPS technology as it injects carefully dosed amounts of fertilizer.

Farm employee Andrew Isaacson sits in the cab -- his main job is to monitor computer screens that control the vehicle and sprayer.

"I just turn it around at each end," he says.

A trench made for injecting liquid fertilizer

 is seen between rows of corn at the Little

 Bohemia Creek farm June 17, 2014 in

 Warwick, Maryland (AFP Photo/Brendan

 Smialowski)

With computers guiding field operations "it makes it easier in some ways but at the same time it makes it harder. You have to put more information in".

The farm on Maryland's eastern shore is part of a growing "precision agriculture" movement that uses high-tech tools to replace seat-of-the-pants farming.

GPS auto-steered tractors cut down or eliminate overplowing and overlap that wastes fuel and time. Other technologies can sense just how much water is needed in a field to cut irrigation costs.

At Little Bohemia Creek, the tractor's sensors gauge the health of various segments of a field to deliver fertilizer and other chemicals more efficiently, which has an environmental benefit.

"This technology allows for more intricate data collection to make decisions," says Rich Wildman of the agricultural consulting firm Agrinetix, which provides technology advice at the farm.

This permits the farmer to "do more fertilization or seed planting to match the needs of a field within an inch variation," he said.

Various studies suggest farmers can save between 10 to 20 percent on fertilizer and chemicals, while improving yields.

- Farming in the cloud -

Little Bohemia Creek owner Jon Quinn, 48, is using for the first time this year the system called GreenSeeker, from California tech firm Trimble.

"I don't know if I'm using less nitrogen, but I'm putting it in the right place," Quinn explained.

If that holds true, the fertilizer will mainly be absorbed by the corn instead of running off into nearby rivers.

Paul Spies of the Chester River Association, an environmental group, said Quinn is one of a handful of farmers in the pilot project, which aims to show the benefits of this technology.

"You're asking farmers to alter what they have been doing for years," Spies said. "They want to see proof that it will work."

Quinn also participates in a "precision planting" project with Monsanto, using data from his field to determine how seeds fare in different soil types.

"I download it to my iPad, and it goes to the cloud so they can see it," he said.

These technologies mean farmers need to crunch big data.

A sensor that uses visible and invisible

light to judge crop health is used at the

Little Bohemia Creek farm on June 17,

 2014 in Warwick, Maryland (AFP Photo/

Brendan Smialowski)

"The real power is when you can take that data so farmers can see how different parts of the field yielded and think about (crop) management changes," said Joe Foresman, a specialist with the DuPont precision farming division Pioneer.

Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer, a Purdue University agricultural economist, said that in the past 15 years, technologies such as GPS and auto-steering have become the norm in mechanized farming in the United States and other countries, from Australia to Kazakhstan to Sweden.

"The economics are incredibly clear," he said. "You make gains either with higher yield or lower costs, and sometimes with improved quality."

Purdue researchers found more than 80 percent of US farm equipment being sold includes these technologies, which would mean hundreds of thousands of farms.

For newer technologies like soil and crop sensors, mapping and analytics, Lowenberg-DeBoer said the picture is mixed, because specialized training is needed to reap benefits. Just seven percent of US farm dealers offered sensor-driven equipment in 2013, Purdue researchers found.

"It will transform agriculture but it's not clear now exactly how it will do it," he said.

- Bring in the drones -

Also on the horizon is the use of drones to provide real-time data to farmers to pinpoint crop problems in time to fix them.

"We can detect plant problems before they are detectable through the naked eye," said Dennis Bowman, a University of Illinois crop specialist who tests drones for farm use.

But drone use is limited while US authorities study safety issues -- an issue clouded by the more prominent drone applications for military and intelligence purposes.

"We would like to see common sense rules that look at the situation in agriculture," Bowman told AFP.

While corn and other grains have been the main focus of precision agriculture, Florida-based AgerPoint seeks to do the same for fruit trees and vineyards, using laser scanning to give producers data on plant health, and early hints on diseases and other problems.

A sensor is seen attached to a tractor

drawn liquid fertilizer applicator at the

 Little Bohemia Creek farm June 17, 

2014 in Warwick, Maryland (AFP Photo/

Brendan Smialowski)

"This next generation of growers want real-time access to all the data on their crops," said AgerPoint president Thomas McPeek. "The more informed the growers become, the better decisions they make and the more money they make."

The advances mean farmers need to consider upgrading equipment like tractors and combines, which give them real-time data to view on smartphones.

"They're all skeptical at first," says Bryan Peterman, a sales manager at Atlantic Tractor in Delaware.

"But this is a generational issue. You have the younger generation who use smartphones and iPads who are quick to use this. But we have to show the farmers that it is user-friendly and that it saves money."

Dale Blessing, who farms on several thousand acres in Milford, Delaware, said he decided to add a harvesting combine with auto-steering which sends data to the cloud and makes it available to him in real time.

"It's just more efficient," he said. "You can make more with less."

Germany cancels Verizon contract over snooping fear

BBC News, 26 June 2014

German Chancellor Angela Merkel types on a smartphone

Related Stories

• Germany opens Merkel bugging probe

The German government has cancelled a contract with Verizon over concern that US firms may be giving data to US authorities.

Verizon has provided internet services to a number of German government departments and the current contract was due to run out in 2015.

The firm did not comment on the move.

There was anger in Germany over allegations that a US agency bugged Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone.

Earlier this month Germany announced an investigation into those allegations which were made by a former contractor of the US National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden.

There is no suggestion that Verizon was involved, but the controversy has put pressure on US technology firms doing business in Germany.

High level security

German Interior Ministry spokesman Tobias Plate said: "There are indications that Verizon is legally required to provide certain things to the NSA, and that's one of the reasons the cooperation with Verizon won't continue".

"Furthermore, the ties revealed between foreign intelligence agencies and firms in the wake of the US National Security Agency affair, show that the German government needs a very high level of security for its critical networks," he said.

Verizon is the second biggest US telecoms company after AT&T.

Related Articles:

Germany NSA's main target, claims ex-staffer

Steinmeier urges clearer regulations in NSA-inspired US-German 'cyber dialogue'

Germany opens inquiry into claims NSA tapped Angela Merkel's phone

US to extend privacy protection rights to EU citizens

China Said to Push Banks to Remove IBM Servers for Security

Russia, China to combine efforts in satellite battle with US

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-06-26

A model of China's Beidou satellite navigation system on display
at the Zhuhai Airshow, Nov. 14, 2012 (Photo/Xinhua).

Russia and China are likely to sign a cooperation pact regarding ground operation stations for Russia's GLONASS satellite and China's Beidou satellite, reports Huanqiu, the website of China's nationalistic tabloid Global Times, citing Sergei Savelyev, deputy head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Savelyev said that Russia expects an agreement with China, which will allow the countries to build three ground operational stations in each other's territory, with the number potentially increasing in the future.

At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum 2014 held in late May, Savelyev also said that Russia is preparing to discuss construction of GLONASS ground operation stations with both China and India and expects to reach an agreement of equal number construction by the end of the year.

The Moscow-based Voice of Russia reported that the number may be more than three, as China initially proposed setting up about a dozen Beidou stations in Russia from the Urals to the Far East, and to host a similar number of GLONASS stations.

A Russian researcher told Huanqui that China and Russia are highly likely to cooperate in a joint satellite navigation system, given that they share a common competitor — the US Global Positioning System (GPS). The wise choice would be for Beijing and Moscow to install each other's devices on the counterparts satellites, the researcher said.

During the 2nd Technoprom International Forum held in Novosibirsk in Russia on June 5-6, Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin said that cooperation between Russia and China in the field will not be limited to ground operational stations, but will also include reception devices and related infrastructure. "Our system is more suitable for northern, polar latitudes. The Chinese system is more southern. Their complementary natures would result in a biggest and most powerful competitor to any navigation system," he said.

Meanwhile, Sergei Ivanov, chief of staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, said that in addition to ground operational stations in China, Russia plans to construct 50 GLONASS ground operation stations with 36 countries. He said that negotiations with Nicaragua, Vietnam, Iran and Indonesia are underway, while agreements with Cuba and Spain have already been reached.

Roscosmos also proposed to construct six ground operational stations in the US, but the plan was turned down due to national security concerns, while the US has already set up 11 GPS stations on Russian soil.

However, Russia announced in May that it would suspend the operation of all 11 GPS stations from June 1 due to poor progress in Russia-US talks over the construction of Russian ground stations in the US. The GPS ground operational stations will be permanently shut on September 1 if the two countries fail to reach a consensus by then, according to Huanqiu.

US to extend privacy protection rights to EU citizens

EU and human rights and privacy groups welcome pledge, which follows pressure in wake of Snowden revelations

theguardian.com, Ewen MacAskill, defence and security correspondent, Wednesday 25 June 2014

Eric Holder, the US attorney general. Photograph: Gary Cameron/Reuters

The Obama administration has caved in to pressure from the European Union in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations on surveillance by promising to pass legislation granting European citizens many of the privacy protection rights enjoyed by US citizens.

The proposed law would apply to data on European citizens being transferred to the US for what Washington says is law enforcement purposes.

After the first Snowden revelations appeared in June last year, the Obama administration irritated many by insisting that while US citizens were protected by law from snooping by US spy agencies, this did not apply to non-Americans.

On Wednesday the US attorney general, Eric Holder, promised at a US-EU meeting of home affairs and justice ministers in Athens that legislation would be sent to Congress to extend the US Privacy Act to EU citizens.

The EU, as well as human rights and privacy groups, welcomed Holder's announcement but coupled it with expressions of scepticism, describing it as a vague promise.

Viviane Reding, the EU justice commissioner, said it was an important step in the right direction but added: "Words only matter if put into law. We are waiting for the legislative step."

Human rights groups said the US Privacy Act, in spite of being touted as a beacon for the rest of the world, had a relatively weak regulatory framework. They said Holder's pledge did not address many of the other issues raised by mass surveillance worldwide by the NSA and its partners, including Britain's GCHQ.

Speaking after the Athens meeting, the EU home affairs commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, said: "EU-US relations have been strained lately in the aftermath of the Snowden revelations but we have worked very hard to restore trust."

Holder said: "The Obama administration is committed to seeking legislation that would ensure that … EU citizens would have the same right to seek judicial redress for intentional or wilful disclosures of protected information and for refusal to grant access or to rectify any errors in that information, as would a US citizen under the Privacy Act.

"This commitment, which has long been sought by the EU, reflects our resolve to move forward not only on the data protection and privacy agreement but on strengthening transatlantic ties."

The US and the EU have been negotiating for three years over personal data protection, but the discussions took on a new immediacy with the Snowden revelations.

Emotions have been strongest in Germany, given the history of mass surveillance by the Stasi, and this was compounded when it was revealed that the US had been snooping on Angela Merkel. The German government has pressed Obama, Holder and other members of the US administration to set out how they would curb spying on non-Americans.

Over the last year Obama has made repeated overtures to Merkel and other EU leaders only to be rebuffed. European governments, as well as the European parliament, has called for concrete action rather than just soft words. Even a speech in January in which Obama said he had asked Holder and the intelligence community to develop safeguards for foreign citizens met with scepticism.

Holder said the data protection agreement under discussion related to personal data shared with the US by European countries for law enforcement purposes. He framed it in the context of transnational crime and terrorism, in particular fighters travelling to and from Syria.

"One consistent theme ran through all our discussions: in a world of globalised crime and terrorism, we can protect our citizens only if we work together," Holder said. "At the same time, we must ensure that we continue our long tradition of protecting privacy in the law enforcement context."

Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, said: "It is a good step forward. Nonetheless, there are three massive impediments to achieving equivalent protection under law. First, Congress needs to act on this and we haven't seen many positive steps on protecting non-Americans' rights."

Secondly, Hosein described the US Privacy Act as "an unfortunately weak legal regime" and, thirdly, he wanted worldwide privacy protections against what he said was the accumulation of massive amounts of data by US intelligence against non-Americans.

Cynthia Wong, senior internet researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: "It may be a small step in the right direction but much more needs to be done to address data protection in the US and to rein in the sheer scale of what the NSA is collecting."

Pope has most clout on Twitter: study

Cent News - AFP, Jonatham Fower, 2014-06-25

Photo Credit: Alain Jocard/AFP

Switzerland - Pope Francis has by far the most clout of any world leader on Twitter because he is so widely retweeted, a study of political use of the social network showed on Wednesday.

With 14 million followers for the nine different language versions of his @Pontifex account, the cyber-savvy pontiff boasts just a third of those notched up by US President Barack Obama.

But that it not the key measure, said Matthias Luefkens, who steers the annual Twiplomacy survey.

"It's not the number of followers which is really important, but the reach, the engagement," he said.

The real benchmark is tweets retweeted by followers to their own network.

Pope Francis wins hands down, with his Spanish-language tweets retweeted more than 10,000 times on average, and his English-language tweets, over 6,400 times.

Obama's 2012 election victory tweet -- a photograph of him embracing First Lady Michelle Obama and the words "Four more years" -- was retweeted a massive 806,066 times.

But on average, @BarackObama gets 1,400 retweets.

Obama's use of social media is credited as a key factor in his landmark 2008 election.

The @BarackObama account, created in 2007, has 43.7 million followers, but is not a US presidential feed and is run by his political campaign staff.

The official @WhiteHouse account has over 4.9 million followers, putting it fifth in the global pecking order, just behind the account of India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has five million.

@White House was narrowly overtaken on Wednesday by @narendramodi.

"Modi's seen a stratospheric rise," said Luefkens.

Modi, the 63-year-old son of a low-caste tea seller, distances himself from the Delhi elite.

But he is notably tech-aware and has won plaudits from Twitter-watchers for his strategic deployment of it.

Indian officialdom's social media use is a hot topic, as Modi seeks to promote Hindi as the government's official language online, sparking stiff opposition.

While he speaks mostly in Hindi, used by some 40 percent of Indians, Modi's tweets are always in English, preferred for business in a nation with 22 official languages.

Modi, elected in May in a landslide vote, scored 24,000 retweets for his own "India has won!" victory message.

Otherwise, he averages 557.

Huge impact

Luefkens is a social media expert at communications firm Burson-Marsteller, which produces the Twiplomacy study.

He said that while television remains the key channel to hit the widest audience, Twitter is an increasingly-powerful tool.

"It helps you to broadcast, and if you broadcast to the right audience, that has huge impact," he said.

The social network enables politicians to create a sense of intimacy and even to interact with one another in public -- sometimes in an undiplomatic manner, seen in a Ukraine-themed tweet fight between the Russian foreign ministry and leaders from Estonia and Sweden.

Twitter is also a tool for leaders to follow one another mutually -- a statement in itself.

France's foreign minister follows 91 peers and world leaders who return the favour via his @LaurentFabius account, putting him at the top of the Twiplomacy table.

Next was the EU's foreign service account @eu_eeas, with 71 mutual connections, and the Swedish foreign minister, with 68 via his @CarlBildt account.

The @WhiteHouse and @BarackObama only follow three peers: the prime ministers of Russia and Norway, and the British government.

Despite taking to Twitter with gusto, politicians are light years behind celebrities.

Top-ranked stars' accounts include @justinbieber with 52.5 million followers, beaten by @katyperry, who has 54 million.

jwf/nl/lc

Pope Francis poses with young people in the Church of Saint Augustine in Rome
on August 28, 2013 (Osservatore Romano/AFP/File, Francesco Sforza)

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The Internet  - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20,2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  1 - Spirituality (Religions)

Number one: Spirituality. The systems of spiritual design on your planet are starting to change. This is not telling you that certain ones are going to go away. They're simply going to change. Some of the largest spiritual systems, which you would call organized religion on the planet, are shifting. They're going to shift away from that which is authority on the outside to authority on the inside. It will eventually be a different way of worship, slowly changing the rules while keeping the basic doctrine the same.

The doctrine of the Christ has always been to find the God inside. The teachings were clear. The examples of the miracles were given as an example of what humans could do, not to set a man up for worship as a God. So when that has been absorbed, the teaching of the Christ can remain the teaching of the Christ. It simply changes the interpretation.

The teachings of the great prophets of the Middle East (all related to each other) are about unity and love. So once the holy words are redefined with new wisdom, the Human changes, not the words of the prophets. In fact, the prophets become even more divinely inspired and their wisdom becomes even more profound.

You're going to lose a pope soon. I have no clock. Soon to us can mean anything to you. The one who replaces him may surprise you, for his particular organization will be in survival mode at that point in time. That is to say that fewer and fewer are interested in starting the priesthood. Fewer and fewer young people are interested in the organization, and the new pope must make changes to keep his church alive. That means that his organization will remain, but with a more modern look at what truly is before all of you in a new energy. It is not the fall of the church. It is instead the recalibration of the divinity inside that would match the worship that goes on. It's a win-win situation. The new pope will have a difficult time, since the old guard will still be there. There could even be an assassination attempt, such is the way the old energy dies hard. That is number one. Watch for it. It's a change in the way spiritual systems work. It's a realignment of spiritual systems that resound to a stronger truth that is Human driven, rather than prophet driven. …”

3D printing technology used in surgery

English.news.cn   2014-06-25

CHANGSHA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese hospital has become the country's first to experiment with 3D printing technology in vascular surgery.

Huang Jianhua, director of surgery in Hunan Xiangya Hospital in central China's Hunan Province, said on Wednesday that 3D printing had been used in an operation to remove an aneurysm from a patient's abdomen. It was used to increase precision of the surgery.

He said the operation, which was completed earlier this month, involved a high level of risk because the tumor had swollen the patient's aorta from 2 cm in diameter to 6 cm.

The hospital contracted a 3D printing firm to make a 3D print of the CT scan of the patient's tumor and its surrounding blood vessels.

Surgeons used the printed model to set up intravascular tubes and remove the tumor.

3D printing is more popular in the manufacturing and construction sectors. Its application in the clinical medical field is still in an initial phase.

Editor: Xiang Bo

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New Microsoft-Nokia smartphone is... Android

Yahoo – AFP, Rob Lever, 24 June 2014

CEO of Nokia Corporation Stephen Elop presents the new Nokia X at the

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on February 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Lluis Gene)

CEO of Nokia Corporation Stephen Elop presents the new Nokia X at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on February 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/Lluis Gene)

Washington (AFP) - Microsoft on Tuesday rolled out its first new Nokia smartphone since acquiring the Finnish group's handset division -- using the Android operating system from arch-rival Google.

Microsoft said the Nokia X2, an updated version of a handset unveiled this year before the takeover was completed, was "designed to introduce the 'next billion' people to the mobile Internet and cloud services."

The device will be sold worldwide as a dual-SIM phone at a price of $135 (99 euros), Microsoft said in a statement.

While Microsoft has been struggling to get a foothold in the smartphone market with its Windows Phone operating system, the X2 "provides access to a world of Android apps and popular Microsoft services," the statement said.

Even though it uses the rival Android platform the X2 offers "a gateway to Microsoft services," including the Skype messaging program and OneDrive cloud storage.

The initial Nokia X was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, before Microsoft completed its takeover of Nokia's handset division in April.

The new version cuts the price of a phone which has had success in some countries.

"The Nokia X family is going from strength to strength, with the Nokia X smartphone achieving top-selling status in Pakistan, Russia, Kenya and Nigeria, while earning the third-best-selling smartphone spot in India,” said Timo Toikkanen, head of mobile phones for the Microsoft Devices Group.

"The Nokia X2 elevates the Nokia X experience with a stellar new design, ease of use and new Microsoft experiences. We're proud to continue to bring smartphone innovation to lower and lower price points."

With the Nokia X unveiled in February, Android applications work, but users cannot access Google's services, notably its applications store, Google Play.

Tuesday's statement said users would have access to the Nokia Store as "the place for finding the highest-quality Android apps" for the device.

Windows Phone has managed to get only around 3.5 percent of the global smartphone market, while Android has more than 80 percent, according to recent figures from research firm IDC.

'As many phones as possible

Roger Kay, analyst with Endpoint Technologies, said the Android phone makes sense in view of the fragile position of the Windows Phone platform.

"Google has the dominant platform and Apple is number two, so there is a question about whether there is room for a number three," Kay said.

He added that the Nokia unit appears to be maintaining some independence after being acquired by Microsoft and that "they want to sell as many phones as possible."

"Microsoft is hanging onto the phone business by its fingernails," he said. "One bump and they could be gone. You still have a whole phone business in Nokia so it makes sense to be on the dominant platform."

Microsoft closed the deal in April with some adjustments from the announced price of $7.52 billion (5.44 billion euros). The US company agreed to exclude factories in India and South Korea.

Nokia was the world leader in mobile phones until it was challenged by Apple's iPhone in 2007 and later Samsung.