The Week's Leftovers ~ Race, LSD, HSBC.

I mentioned a few days ago, to my husband, that I was thinking of writing a blog post about possible reasons why black individuals, on the whole, surpass most white individuals in certain spheres (a) boxing, some athletics, many sports and (b)certain styles of dancing (especially by males). I had my solution ready, I thought: i.e. genetically, black races have more muscular strength and durability passed down via DNA, and more innate rhythm than white races. Husband surprised me by his response: "Good luck with that, but be ready for accusations of racism."

I'd be complimenting people of the black races (not only African Americans, mind you), not offending them for goodness sake! What is wrong in defining races by their talents? Could I comment that Jewish people, on the whole, seem to surpass in business, science, legal and entertainment spheres - and what talented lot they are, and I often wonder how that came about. Am I being racist? I'm being sincerely curious. White people, in general (which covers a lot of ground and many nationalities) tend to have a modicum of talent in most areas, often defined by their nationality's stereotype.

Dang!

I do not understand the racism thing which causes paranoia in the USA. I get that there are some remaining bigots and horrible throw-backs to darker times. They should be approached with all the contempt they deserve. Surely that doesn't mean we ALL have to tread with fairy feet because of them? The best and only solution to end racism is to consider all ethnicities on the the same level: as human beings, discuss all in similar terms, discuss their differences, their talents, their faults without fear of being accused of racism.

While watching an old film on Turner Movie Channel this week husband spotted a price tag in one scene, marked "3d" -



"What does 3 D mean?"

"Threepence, you know - that little yellow-coloured coin, the 'thruppenny bit' ".

"Huh?"

"Three pence, three pennies."

"D = a penny - why?"

"Ahem...let's see if I can remember! LSD - you know - pounds, shillings and pence, British currency before decimalisation in the 1970s. L=pounds S=shillings D = Pence - danged if I can remember why though!"

Looked it up - ah yes, now I remember it well!
Wikipedia:

£sd (sometimes pronounced, and occasionally written, L.s.d.) is the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies once common throughout Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, which was one of the last to change, as well as some other Commonwealth countries. The abbreviation originates from the Latin currency denominations librae, solidi, and denarii. In the U.K. these are today referred to as pounds, shillings, and pence (pence being the plural of penny).

This system originated in the classical Roman Empire. It was re-introduced in Western Europe by Charlemagne and was the standard for many centuries across the continent. The system was in fact used in much of the British Empire until 1971. Under the British system, there were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings, or 240 pence, in a pound. A penny was subdivided into four farthings until 31 December 1960 (when they ceased to be legal tender) and, until 31 July 1969, two halfpennies.

HSBC UK & me - all done, all gone! A while back I mentioned in comments that I'd had trouble being able to close my UK credit card account with HSBC due to a small outstanding amount which defied clearance for a variety of reasons. After e-mails, phone calls, letters and frustrations to boiling point I eventually received a phone call this week from a very nice lady at HSBC UK, apologising profusely for the absurdity of the situation, and telling me she had marked the outstanding 6 pounds 61 pence still outstanding on my credit card as now cleared. Ahhhhh! There are living, breathing, warm-blooded humans with common sense at the end of some communication channels after all. That was in the morning; when the mail arrived the same afternoon I received three letters from HSBC UK: two more boilerplate warnings about my non-payment of 6 pounds 61 pence, and one letter telling me that my credit limit had been cut in half - this in spite of my three or four, or five communications since October telling them I wished to close all accounts, including that attached to my credit card.

Earlier in the week I was at a loss to understand why a post of mine from June 2010 was getting beaucoup hits, day after day, this one: Lena Horne, Susan Hayward: Astrological Twins I checked around news outlets to see whether there was talk of an upcoming movie involving one of the subjects. No, nothing. It wasn't until I noticed, among a list of keywords involved in visits to the blog, mention of one Susan Agar. I clicked on the name and saw to my surprise, at the top of the Google page about Ms Agar (the daughter of Shirley Temple - her mother died this week) some thumbnail photos supposedly all of Susan Agar. One of the photos was of Susan Hayward, I had used it in my archived post. So, anyone clicking on it under the impression it was Shirley Temple's daughter, or Shirley Temple herself, got a surprise. Hits on the post are still coming too, from countries all over the world.

LSD - Good or Bad? And other, similar Compounds?

GUEST POST by Gian Paul

A young financial analyst, the Head of Finance at Sandoz, a major Swiss pharmaceutical company, told me that in future most drugs will be influencing the brain and then through the brain that body part which is creating health problems. And how right he was!

Dr. Albert Hoffman, a chemist at Sandoz, had synthetized LSD on November 16, 1938 for the first time, tried it himself on the spot and did not recall how he got home that night, and by bycicle!

Some two month or so ago, the American FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) authorized pilots to use tranquilizers while on service. I thought how terrible, especially after those two guys had overshot some airport by over 200 miles, if I recall correctly. And presumably they were not on tranquilizers!

The other day, internationally known Dr. Christiane Northrup, specialized in women's health and wellness, published some very interesting comments in Huffington Post about the ongoing excesses of usage of tranquilizers (Prozac & Co.) Furthermore she stated that most tranquilizers have no better effect than a placebo. And also that their use is mostly questionable, quote:

"To get over depression one must be willing to make some changes that will support healthy brain bio-chemistry. Otherwise, the depression is likely to recur".

In summer 1989 (see map), on July 13 exactly, I suffered a heart attack. A bit early to be comfortable when it happens before age 50, I was told. 20 years later I am still alive.

An American Professor treated me on the spot as he was visiting Geneva to promote some new cardio-devices. That was luck. The Swiss MD who then took over, however was less of a genius. He prescribed a solid dose of Beta-Blockers, then in fashion, to protect me from "strong emotions" (I was a portfolio-manager at that time).

The attached horoscope shows that on July 13, 1989 Neptune was at 10 degr. 43 Capricorn and retrograding. So was Saturn, at 9 degr. 51 Capricorn, conjunct Neptune. When I was back at work, 3 months later, mid October 1989, Neptune had gone direct and was transiting the spot where Saturn was when I had the heart attack.

I could feel that these Beta Blockers were interfering with my thinking and talked to my doctor about it. His reply was that I should not worry about that, even Formula 1 car racers were taking these pills!

As I could not detect an astrological reason for my heart attack, I was even more highly suspicious of the little pills I was taking. And without telling my doctor, I stopped taking them. And immediately I felt much better again, like being myself.

The horoscope of when Albert Hoffman discovered LSD (right) gave me a clue of a link between my heart attack, the Beta Blockers which I had discontinued taking and what is being now described here in this blog of my friend Twilight:

My heart attack happened when Venus was exactly
1) conjunct Mars in Leo, and
2) square Uranus in the horoscope
when LSD was discovered by Hoffman. 15 degr. Leo for the former and 15 Taurus for Uranus in the LSD map. Moon on July 13, 1989 was conjunct the Sun of the LSD
horoscope, in Scorpio.

After all, how else could LSD have become what it did, had it not Sun in Scorpio and Venus (R) conjunct it? Not to forget Moon conjunct Neptune in Virgo, the sign of matters of health!

Not unlike Dr. Northrop, I may sound skeptical about psycho-medicaments. What strikes me is that most doctors prescribe them and then do not know when to stop their use. I can believe that the Beta-Blockers I was taking had a positive effect immediately after the heart attack, but when would my MD have stopped me using them? Probably never as he knew what my profession then was!

If Sandoz (Novartis today) - and their competitors - derived many wonder - drugs (mostly, "profit-wise") from LSD and similar compounds, they may be responsible for many thousands or millions of people living in "sort of a haze", when in reality they could stop taking tranquilizers or similar, in my view stupid, drugs. Not only creating psychological dependence but costing often too much for what is their
return.

PS. In the years since my heart attack and having given considerable thought to the use of tranquilizers, I was able to help at least 3 people to stop using such. Simply looking at their horoscopes and finding a favorable moment for them to give it at try to liberate themselves from that dependence.

It's not complicated: In most people's lives occur periods of stress or feeling very down-beaten. But these phases also come to an end. A correct interpretation of transits on a birth-horoscope can help identifying a useful moment. And obviously also some convincing argumentation at that moment will help. To know these phases helps to sound convincing.