Every one should watch this video. Allan Savory shows how to stop desertification using the ways of nature – by increasing livestock and moving them the way predators used to. By mimicking this natural cycle he has created lush pastures and forests from deserts.
The best side effect is that it creates enough meat to feed the world (Vegans won’t enjoy that part, but I don’t give a shit, because their massive mono-cropping of grain is part of the desertification process of our lands. Mono-cropping destroys the land and the wild life that lived on it, so vegans are killing animals by the tens of thousands each day – it’s just not animals they care about. like snakes, turtles and insects – many are endangered species)
Savory’s way works, I know that for sure. When I first bought my farm, about ten acres had been desertified by years of orange groves. I live in Florida where the soil is mostly sugar sand and refuses to hold water. After two years of having cattle grazing and moving the herd from one field to another, that land is now one of the most lush pasture land in the county. When I had the property appraised, the county rated my field as a meadow (A difficult rating to get), but that’s how beautiful it is – and it was all done by cattle – I did nothing but move them.
Livestock add carbon to the soil by tampering their manure into the soil. This creates a barrier which allows the soil to hold water and the urine and manure adds nitrogen and many other minerals and nutrients. Since the cattle improved the land, many other species of animals have made my pasture their home, gopher tortoise, indigo snakes and 400 other species which use the holes the gopher tortoise abandon. That’s natures way!
Savory’s plan would end starvation and turn every desert into a lush grassland, virtulally ending many wars over richer and more productive lands. But people will not listen, because assholes, like vegans, like to scream that cattle are ruining the atmosphere with their farts and would fight any attempt to increase their numbers – even though they are all city dwellers and know nothing about nature or science.
I advise you to watch this wonderful speech by a very knowledgeable and passionate scientist. He receives a well deserved standing ovation at the end. It’s well worth your time and his conclusion may be man’s only hope for the future. I hope we can spread his message.
(By clicking the button on the bottom right of the screen while video is playing, the video will play at full screen)
I would like to thank all those who have been writing me with concern for my health, It meant a lot to me and I was overwhelmed at the amount of readers that I have and surprised at the amount of people who have really missed me writing new articles. I did have a rough time the last few months for several reasons which I will explain in an up coming article. I have been answering comments the entire time, so those reading comments knew I was still alive. I will begin writing again. I am doing much better now. Thanks again.
On the other side, I have been saddened and tore apart by the comments and emails I have received from those that lost loved ones needlessly to colonoscopies and also from those who have lost their intestines and are dying on TPN and are in need of a transplant. I have been able to put some of those people in touch with my surgeon and hopefully they will get a transplant soon. This is one of the hard parts of what I do, because I know what it is like to lie in a hospital bed hooked up to a pump pushing TPN directly into your heart – doctors telling you every day you will die within months.
TPN feeds everything, because it is high in sugar, amino acids vitamins and minerals, so fungus and bacteria thrive on it. I suffered two line infections (very common) that went systemic while on TPN and nearly died twice as a result. Both times I went into septic shock with fevers above 105.5 degrees F and my blood pressure dropped below 44/28. I had no intestines at that time and TPN was the only thing keeping me alive.
Some people who have written are suffering the same thing, so it is urgent that they get a transplant. I am doing all I can to assist these unfortunate people, but this is all very emotionally taxing, especially given the fact the many people in the same group as me at Jackson Memorial Hospital and got transplant at the same time, have recently died. We had all become very close during our recovery, but I will write more about this in an up coming article.
I have missed writing for you and can’t wait to get back to it. I have been very encouraged by all the letters and comments I have received. Sorry I have been away so long and many of you were frightened that maybe I was very sick or possibly died. Not yet! I am doing very well – I am Wolverine! I bounce back from any injury. (It was nurses and doctors who gave me that name, they say I heal twice as fast as a normal person)
I have survived 4 bouts of septic shock, over 20 feet of necrotic bowels in me for three days, an intestinal transplant, followed by the worst septic shock, which put me in a coma for 2 weeks while simultaneously having a collapsed lung (punctured during intubation) and most recently, cancer (Multiple Myeloma, which is in total remission now). I will write more about this in an upcoming article. You can see that I have a lot to write about.
Love you all and can’t wait to get writing again. Thanks again for the wonderful letters of encouragement.
Thank you for the update and the thought-provoking and helpful blog post. Was wondering/concerned about you. #blessings
Thank you for the kind words and concern for my health. I hope to be publishing regularly again soon. I have received so many emails of encouragement, how can I not? I am so thankful to all those who have written – It meant a lot.
You are welcome. A voice of sanity and wisdom in this world is a rare and shining light and you were missed. So happy you are well after a recent healing crisis. #joy
You have no idea how much encouragement words like this give me to continue writing. Some of my lack of motivation is involvement in other projects, less times for health reasons, but mostly because some of the stuff I am compelled to write about is painful to have to relive, because many of that research was learned because I nearly died as a result of some medical error or biological problem. So I did a lot of research on it because for some reason I am not a person who can just say it’s the doctors job to fix me up, no it’s my job to not have to go near a doctor, they caused all my problems, so it somehow fills some weird drive to have to understand what happened to me and could it have been prevented or how can I prevent the doctors from compounding more errors on top, which they usually have done. Doctors frighten me worse than any zombie apocalypse could and that was even before they nearly killed me with the endoscope of a colonoscopy
Comments like yours make it all worth the effort, especially when I have helped someone else. Thank you so much for reading my often long-winded and off subject rants to find the message that do exist somewhere, if you have the patience to dig, because I was a biochemistry major (like nearly thirty years ago) and studied the arts, but was never trained in writing, which is painfully obvious.
So, I thank everyone who manages to read through my scattered-brain style, because I know the readers who leave legible and meaningful comments are intelligent people who realize what I lack in writing skill I make up for in experience at what I am writing about – few can match me in the experience of nearly dying in every way possible and probably have had every procedure and piece of medical equipment known to medical science used on me in some fashion. I had to literally come back several times from the grave to bring back this information, I am glad it is reaching some number of people.
See, here I am rambling all over your nice short and heartfelt comment. Now I beginning to notice when I’m writing an article and not a reply. But, what you wouldn’t know if I didn’t tell, is that I edited out a four page rant on the effect of sugar on cancer cells, so expect that as an upcoming article, something I learned a lot about with my recent bout with cancer, but at least you will now know you were the inspiration or at least the motivation for its writing when that article is published. Hope that makes up for ruining your reply by not giving a simple thank you to your kind words of encouragement and concern for my well being. Thank you.
Thanks you again for your vey kind words and concern, but most of all your patience with my bad habit of not knowing when to shut up 😉
So happy my comment is encouragement of your writing. I understand about pulls in many directions. I was thinking the other day that your blog posts would be great as part of a book. Your story, and I am sorry for the terrible pain it is to relive in the writing, has much inspiration, wisdom, and info that can benefit others. I don’t find your writing rambling or scattered, I find it powerful and personal (two things that great writing should be). I will look forward, very much, to the article about the effects of sugar upon cancer cells. Somewhere, I believe that I read that a research study showed a twelve hour elevated white count after the consumption of sugar (maybe 1 TBL, white table sugar). Much gratitude for your work…
I have been working on a book documenting my story, along with many other much larger projects, but it works, because I need stress relief from the book once in a while. The book is far more detailed than this blog, so it is so much harder to relive the events. Plus pouring over a two foot stacks of medical records for accuracy and to try to figure out what happened at times.
You know only TV doctors actually try to figure out what caused things, being a detective. Real doctors just try to stabilize the patient and really never care what happened or why. So, it’s not like there are clear answers in all the medical records.
Even considering everything I have posted on this blog, it does not cover a quarter of all the different bad things that happened. I spent 6 months without any intestines, 95% the time in hospitals because of a systemic infection from TPN. Then seven months in Miami (which is more than 4 hors drive from where we live, so my wife and I were relocated the entire time and I spent most of that time in the hospital, because it was one problem after the next, including 2 weeks in a coma.
It was the maximum amount of time you can be on a respirator. They brought me out of the coma because I was scheduled the next day to receive a tracheotomy and they wanted to see if I could come off the respirator before giving me that nasty scar on my throat for life – luckily, I was able to come off the respirator. They did know for sure, and neither did my wife and I, so they had a team there ready to knock me out and intubate me again if I went into respiratory distress. I don’t know if you can imagine what that might be like?
You’re welcome. Made me cry, that video.
Really appreciate the very specific response regarding probiotics and such (I learned much, though will have to re-read a few times to process it all and try to retain). Would love to have the link (or info) about the ceramic trough that you mentioned. #blessings
H. Raven Rose, it is a lot to have to absorb. There are several different brands of ceramic crocks, but the German brand, Harsch, is by far the most reliable:
http://www.amazon.com/Harsch-Gairtopf-Fermenting-Crock-Pot/product-reviews/B001QFGZ2U
They are also the most expensive, but worth the extra money for the many lost hours and lost food they will save you from brands with less reliable water troughs (because Harsch owns the patent on the deeper troughs, imitators are often too shallow and the water can evaporate, allowing yeast into your batch if not constantly monitored).
The ceramic crock was the way to preserve food before refrigeration, little did those people know they were inadvertently making the nutrients of “hard to digest” vegetables more bioavailable also, and were adding tons of beneficial cultures to their intestines, keeping their immune systems stronger and help preventing dysentery and diarrhea.
The design of the water trough around the lid allows the gasses created by the process to escape without allowing unwanted microbes from being sucked back inside. Yeast ruins the flavor and texture of the vegetables by making them slimy, rather than crispy.
I attempted making veggies without a crock (in mason jars) for the first couple months, just being cheap, but found I got an inferior product. Once I tasted non-contaminated batches from the crock, I would never turn back.
The fermenting also preserves the vitamin C lost in cooking. The ancient maritime practice of carrying sauerkraut by Vikings warded off scurvy, which plagued early sailors.
The money saved on probiotics alone will pay for a crock quickly for most people. I hope you get a chance to ferment your own vegetables, there are many good recipes you can find online for vegetable blends – it’s also fun and educational and helps involve you in the process of your gut health, so I find it very rewarding.
Because humans have sterile stomachs, we can not digest vegetation the way a ruminant animal can. The process of fermenting them in crocks solves this problem, emulating a rumen stomach, the vegetables are predigested for us, breaking down the cellulose we can not digest. It’s an ancient but still useful way to preserve food alo.
Glad to hear you are doing well! I love that TED Talk, btw. One of my favorites.
This my favorite of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21j_OCNLuYg
Anyway, lots of interesting stuff on the microbiome going on at Free the Animal, definitely worth a look. An N=1 in your situation could be really interesting 🙂 Be forewarned, the site owner is smart, but completely self absorbed and acerbic.
http://freetheanimal.com/2013/12/resistant-primer-newbies.html
Thanks Ali for your concerns and for the links. I will watch the video very soon and can rest assured I will enjoy it and learn something new (which I always love to do) – I am actually very familiar with Richard’s website and really don’t mind his brash personality, because he is so passionate in what he believes and much of his information is spot on. Thanks for providing the link anyway, because some of my readers may not be familiar with FreeTheAnimal and Richard Nikoley’s strong personality (If you don’t ind the company of truck drivers and sailors, but nes that are surprisingly intelligent, but still raw in their language). I advise them to check it out, unless strong language offends you, because Richard hold nothing back and would make a room of truck drivers and marines blush.
(I can’t crtitisize him because my language can get pretty foul on subjects that I am passionate about, especially the medical errors and buffoonery I witnessed, many which nearly killed me – The only difference is that Richard is just that way on every subject)
He’s either real pissed-off all the time (which I don’t blame him, because and who wouldn’t be once your eyes are open and discover the dietary advice we are getting from our supposed experts have been altered to fit corporate profits and pad pockets of politicians for the last thirty years and are mostly complete lies) or is he just highly passionate and excitable. I haven’t figured it out yet, but he is very smart – I’d say deceptively smart, because when you absorb his messages and get past the vulgar language and arrogant vibe, you realize that he makes a lot of sense and often clears up confusing issues. He is much more intelligent than he first appears comes off, I will agree with you on that note.
I think that when some people encounter brazen and shameless writing style, with a lot of F words, they instantly believe the messenger has nothing useful to offer – never judge a book by it’s cover – Richard has a wealth of good dietary information and solid science, most of the time. So, thanks for providing the link for other readers and I thank you again for the concerns for my health.
Wow–loved that. Cried. What wisdom and rational, simple truth. I aspire to be “normal” very soon. 🙂
Hi H. Raven, I am glad you enjoyed the lecture, I thought it was not only fascinating, but very believable from a scientific standpoint. Many now arid regions in the U.S. were once lush green meadows when huge herds of buffalo roamed by the millions.
There had to be some huge corporate greed behind the spreading of the lies that large grazing herds were destructive to the environment, bedsides bad science, which did not account for herd movement based on predation and and moving away from their own litter. It was when we began to put up fences and force the animals to overgraze the land that the destruction started.
You’d think early scientist would have accounted for that variable, so believe there was some greedy profiteering motivating those scientist. Probably agribusiness wanting to rid the land of herds so they could massively mono-crop grains and beans, which are far more profitable because of their longer shelf-life.
I understand your feeling about the incredible work Savory and others are doing, but I am a bit lost about what your aspiration to be “normal” soon is referring to? Sorry if that makes me seem thick, I must have missed something obvious here (not unlike me).
Hey Wolverine: I watched both videos and definitely found the Savory work scientifically just and true. Yes, greed, stupidity, and/or apathy probably obscured the truths, related to environmental conditions, until Savory felt so terrible about his wrong conclusion (and murdering 40K elephants) that he devoted his life to finding the correct answer.
My aspirations for “normal” comment is in reference to the Jon Jandai – ‘Life is easy.’ TEDtalk that Ali shared: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21j_OCNLuYg
Jon Jandai makes the point that a bird or a rat lives better than humans, we are so smart that most of us are terribly poor, without food, shelter, or clothing. His “normal” is for everyone to have a home, and not a home that they must pay off over 30 years during which they are unhappy and life is SO hard.
😀
As he did say, he’ll take that blunder to his grave. The worst part is he does love elephant and believed he was increasing their chance of survival by thinning out the herd. What they did was, and still his the main science taught in that regard. At least he gets an opportunity to somewhat atone for that action with what he is proving now.
It’s kind of a no-brainer on any problem, just mimic nature and everything will heal – the problem is knowing what nature was like prior to the destruction we may have cause in some places and knowing when we caused it or didn’t.
Yes, I felt bad for him–he obviously had great love for the elephants and was only doing what he thought–based on scientific research evidence–what he thought would work. I didn’t mean to seem as if I were hating on him. I was more mourning the loss of the elephants who died needlessly. His gift to the world, his discoveries since, are priceless in terms of the entire earth ecosystem. I have no judgement for him. 🙂
You didn’t come across that way at all, you seemed like you felt compassion and empathy for him, because we can all relate to being so sure of ourselves and doing or saying something so wrong and having to live with the results. Usually it is harmless, but it can be tough on us when irreparable damage is done.
I am very fortunate to have been given a second chance. I don’t believe anything you have ever written here came across hateful. You do not seem like a hateful person and I have encountered some hateful people even at this site. I feel sorry for many of them, because I can not imagine having to live in such an angry and foul mood all the time.
Thank you for your lovely response. Yes, I understand what you mean about some terribly hateful people. I always try to remember to be compassionate for them, as the critical ways in we treat others is so often a reflection of our own terribly negative inner critic. I am sorry that a vegan, or anyone at all, was hateful to you. #blessings
Very glad to see you back!
My husband and I have been looking around ‘panhandle’ Florida region, and found a lovely little 20 acre place that is perfect. Unfortunately, we are looking prematurely, as we won’t be ready to move for 4 more years. But what you say is intriguing as I am familiar with the very sandy soil in the Florida region, and how hard it is to get ‘meadow’ started, as simply walking on it stirs it up.
I’ve seen similar projects, albeit in far better base regions (Virginia, Vermont) where ‘chicken tractors’ have been used with great success to help land that has been overworked.
Thanks for posting this, Wolverine, I’ve been keeping an eye on your site with hope you’d have something up… Just happy you’re posting!
Fair Winds,
Cap’n Jan
Thank you so much for the kind words Cap’n Jan. Chicken tractors also work fine here in this sugar sand. Anything that will help bind that carbon to the sand and stop the evaporation of water from the topsoil, which is very rapid here with the more direct rays of the sun. Chicken manure may well work quicker because it has a far higher nitrogen content (only bat guano is higher in nitrogen than chicken scat).
I hope that your husband and you love it here in the sunshine state when you finally can make the move. I am originally from Maryland, but moved to Florida in 1979. It took a few years to adjust to the humidity (I can’t imagine how hard that acclimation would be to anyone moving here from an arrid western state, like Arizona or Colorado, but if they can tough out the first couple of years their body will adjust and they will no longer sweat buckets in midsummer. I thought Floridians didn’t have sweat glands when first moving here – I was drenched and they were all dry.
Some people repeat the myth that the blood thins to adjust, which is nonsense, only a high altitude will thin blood and not much or they’d die. The body compensates to the high heat and humidity index of topics and subtropics by enlarging the capillaries in the outer skin to work better at radiating heat away from the body and also holds less fat in the outer most layer. Problem is that the body gets so good at shedding heat, that we then freeze and can’t get warm if we go north during the winter. That’s my science lecture for the day (I always cringe when I hear people claim the blood thins – it’s an old myth that just won’t seem to die).
We welcome you here whenever you make your move and good luck reconditioning the land – animal herds or flocks are the way to go. Thank you for the concern for my health.
Wolverine! We have more in common than I thought. I was born/raised in Maryland (with all Summers spent in the Eastern Townships of Quebec). I loved that verdant, beautiful place. It is where I got my love of the outdoors and in particular, sailing.
They talk about humidity here in Central Texas, but they know not of what they speak! I lived in Pensacola for a couple of years and, dang! Humidity. I guess.
Yeah, I am more than a little amused by friends who tell me about ‘adjusting their blood chemistry’ (acid/base) via eating certain types of vegetables. If you change your blood pH they way they are talking about, you would simply drop dead. But, there may be some truth to eating leafy greens and meat. My husband and I have done as much ‘research’ as is possible to do and have concluded that eating a low-carb diet is the ONLY way to keep our health in balance. Thus I would like to grow more of what we eat. Beef in particular, chickens secondarily (they are far easier, and take much less land – I was the chicken girl on the farm. I held the power of life and death ;->)
We always talk of the blood thinning, but of course, as you say the idea that it actually DOES thin is bunk. I’d never thought about it being in people’s minds that blood would ‘thin’. But there you go, they obviously do.
And Wolverine, having never met you and probably of doing so is low, I really am concerned for your health. I ‘know’ you through your writing. Writing, is another facet of who we are. So I can say that I, at least, know that aspect of you. Both you and your wife are lucky people.
Looking forward to future posts… Best always,
Fair Winds,
Cap’n Jan
P.S. I was interested in your comment on TPN. I wasn’t aware of this ‘slow death’, but it points out, like so many other areas of ‘medicine’ that I have looked into, that we are at the mercy of politics and drug companies.
As a die-hard capitalist, this bothers me extremely. When one company can stop another company from producing a product that is superior – through political pressure, there is a big problem. But how to fix it? There’s the quandry. I do not want the likes of a pelosi, feinstein or clinton telling me what to eat – and worse, enforcing it. In particular, I do NOT want them telling me which drugs I must take. It is going to come a cropper, that I do know. When statins start showing up in the water supply we have lost…
Tina, It was a joke. Albeit one that I have a bet with my husband will someday become reality. Bottled water? After reading Wolverine’s piece on TPN’s you don’t think ‘they’ could mandate statins in bottled water? If they can keep out a perfectly safe (even benefical) form of lipid supplement for those on TPN, If they can take away legally purchased items in Connecticut. They can put statins in bottled water.
Distilled Water. But they you lose the minerals. But they probably aren’t worth all that much anyway. You will be able to go to your doctor (on assigned day for your for your required ‘invasive ‘safe’ procedures’) and get a prescription for minerals as they will no longer be available OTC. Unless, of course you are over 65, then… Well why would anyone over 65 need healthcare. They are no longer useful contributors.
Ah. Government. Don’t you love it. Glad to live in Texas now.
Sorry Wolverine, I see now… (Sometimes a little dense, but then I am one of those math geeks ;->)
Fair Winds, Following Seas!
Cap’n Jan
I have not forgotten you Cap’n Jan, I am working on the reply (I am always careful with the vegan stuff, which I will explain in my reply, but yes they are very frustrating most the time, or at least the noisy ones. I am not avoiding you, I had a lot of people write me in one day (including one whose brother lost his intestines and they needed information on transplants, but I want to give your answer the time it deserves, so hopefully tomorrow, just letting you know you’re still on my mind with a major run-on sentence. I will put the reply here when I get it done.
No worries, Wolverine! I am just so danged happy to see you posting again, and to see you, yet again, overcoming another problem!
We definitely have lots to talk about. As we have discussed, I believe in other correspondence, I am exceedingly suspicious of the vegan viewpoint. Having been young once (and only once as far as I know), and having followed the ‘vegetarian religion’ for a brief spell, I know first hand what damage it can do. I am a confirmed low-carb addict now. (With occasional forays into Ben and Jerry’s, but we do have our additions…)
Tina, I was certainly NOT dumping on your intelligence, which I have no actual knowledge of. I was referring to myself as dense, which I can be as I am a complete rationalist and as I said, a math geek. But I will say that your view is naive if you think that ‘they’ can’t do pretty much whatever ‘they’ want, as evidenced by the current administration (and the last one, and the one before that…)
Cap’n Jan
I think I owed you a reply on this. I don’t know I’m a little lost right now, been a long week. I think it was you or Jean Bush, so I’ll get to her next. We probably do have a lot in common,, but you said in one comment that you are a math geek, so we would be opposite there, I’m okay at math, but my brain is right side dominant for sure, because that is the creative/abstract thinking side and I am an artist and musician. I even do most of the cooking, because my wife likes my cooking a lot more. If it’s an art, I do it.
The left side is the analytical side where you math geeks excel. I did well at science, but only in the biochemistry/biology, rather than chemistry or physics, where math is at the core. It’s kind of a cheat, because I have a really good memory, like freak-show good, but that is because I think in pictures, so I remember everything because I associate images with it. I can’t cheat with math, because you can’t put equations into pictures, so you can either do it or not.
It all makes me a very weird personality overall and I even look like a freaky artist. My wife loves the arts and said she had always wanted to marry an artist, but then she learned about living with one. We have a whole different way of thinking than left brain people. Of course those who use a bit of both sides are the norm and what most people are used to dealing with.
The whole TPN thing is a nightmare. It is not just a capitalist thing, like most problematic things in the U..S. it is when the government is in bed with, rather than regulating, a commerce and few violate that rule more then the FDA and pharmaceutical companies. It seems like just an issue to most, but when your ass is the one in the hospital bed and the doctors are telling you that the stuff keeping you alive also destroying your liver, you want to fight back.
Like the intestinal transplants, we learned about it over the internet, because none of the doctors had heard of them or was up to date on the information. The Omegaven vs. the Intralipids were the same. We learned of Omegaven on the internet, the U.S. doctors knew the Intralipids killed liver cells, but did not know there was an option of one that didn’t, nor were they interested in learning about it either. The Compound Pharmacist for the hospital knew a lot about Omegaven, because he was allowed to compound it over at Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital.
We tried everything to get the Omegaven, just as many have tried before me. The compound pharmacists had told us he had seen miraculous recovery over at the Arnold Palmer Children’s Center from the Omegaven. Only children who have already sustained liver damage from Intralipids can get the Omegaven. So the FDA knows it works and is not only safe, but the only hope for such patients – It can actually reverse the damage done by the Intrlipids. The only side effect was the taste of fish in your mouth while it was being infused – I’d take that to save my liver.
The pharmacist said that he could lose his license if he ordered Omegaven for me. At this time, we didn’t know if I would get a transplant – we didn’t even know if they were successful or a bunch of nonsense we were reading on the internet. So we had to consider the option of remaining on TPN if the transplant thing was nonsense or I wasn’t eligible for one.
So we were fighting to get the stuff, but it was not possible in the U.S. and there are no medical reasons, it’s all about the FDA protecting corporate profits over the lives of patients. I keep up with the issue and it has gotten closer to becoming a reality for adults. It may be available for adults here in the U.S., but like with the children, it will only be for those who already have liver damage. This way they can milk this out for many more years and not let Omegaven take over 100% of the marketshare, but slowly over the next couple of decades before Omegaven is available to all those with short gut, even while they still have pristine livers!
I love the description of yourself and, no, I would not have described you like that. More like the masked man with a cape, obvious muscularity kind of Ahhhnold-like, going through the world Doing Good!
OK, so no cape, unless the long hair and beard could substitute, but still Doing Good. I’ll take that as a positive good thing.
I’m a musician too, so not just a rationalist – I play (gulp, forgive me father for I have sinned…) banjo. Well. I did, and professionally, but then a very active career got in the way of playing. I’ve thought of taking it back up, but don’t know if my hands would be up to it, at 64! Still, I did enjoy the occasional back-porch concert, and could get back into that. I won’t tell you my first instrument until and unless we become very, very good friends…
However, I’m no artist, I am confused by how to draw stick figures. Still, we have more in common than you might have thought!
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Cap’n Jan
I wouldn’t doubt that I have a lot in common with most people who read here on a regular basis, because we would obviously share a lot of the same core beliefs.
People with little in common with me probably would not return to read any more of what I have to say. Although, there do seem to be those strange people who continue to go back to blogs where they don’t seem to agree with anything the publisher writes – almost as though they like to get themselves fired-up.
Banjo is probably the one string instrument I never learned to play. I did have a banjo-player show me some basics, which was a bit strange, because it has an open G tuning. I guess that means that everyone can play at least one cord on the banjo.
I play seven difference instruments, but guitar was the first instrument I learned on, so I have the strongest background in it. In recent decades I have been more of a composer, than performer. I played in bands when I was a young man, but now I write and compose music, adding many tracks in MIDI. (one of the reasons I was not publishing articles for a while was because I remodeled my recording and animation studio)
Because of the modern technology, I can input data from a keyboard or even a guitar and play it back in string or horn section samples. This way I can record full orchestra soundtracks for my film projects.
Gotta love digital technology. Now I do sculptures I used to do for clients in the physical world (a lot of subtractive sculpture in very expensive materials, so any small mistake was costly) in 3D animation softwares.
Living in Orlando, my main clients were corporations like Disney, Universal and Viacom. For some reason the newest update of WordPress robbed the ability to place hotlinks here in the comments, so you will have to copy and paste this address into a browser to see a few samples of work I have done for these clients:
http://www.paladinproductions.com/html/3dsculpt.html
That is a very small sampling, because I have done literally thousand of character sculptures for the theme parks. I also worked about 17 years in television and films doing special effects and prosthetic make-up, Pictures of that work are not included on that page.
Great post, Wolverine!
You’ll like this one too – it’s in a similar vein
Argh – I tried to post a link to a video but I think the link was removed
Google “How wolves change rivers”
I watched that wonderful video. Another amazing video about how reintroducing a wolf pack bettered the entire ecosystem and changed the river flow (for the better), as well.
http://sustainableman.org/how-wolves-change-rivers/
Thank you for the link, great video.
You have me this link in a previous comment on one of your postings but I can’t remember which one or if I responded.
I did watch the video and it’s totally amazing. So simple and effective. He should be given the Nobel Prize for…um…saving the environment or something.
OMG! I just checked out your sculpture link. I’ve never seen anything like it. What an amazing talent you are.
What does the M in David M. Smith stand for, magical?? Haha!
Jean
Think about you every day – hope all is well. I’ll keep checking. Just want you to know that “You’ve got a friend” even if just a net friend.
I’ve need to go back through your older posts, particularly about ‘immune response’ issues with respect to intestines (not restricted to your issues with the transplant).
Fermented foods… Maybe an overall good for us with our original equipment intestines as well.
I wonder if beer (seriously) would be considered an overall ‘good’, that is, if it is homemade, thus retaining some of the by-products. When I was young, there was always a crock of ‘prohibition beer’ brewing in the pantry ;-> Still and all, I am not a fan of grains as food for folks or pets. But beer may be something altogether good. Just a thought. (I like beer.)
Anyway, again, wish you well – oh, and I LOVED the pictures of your work, I admire your talents!
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Cap’n Jan
Glad to see you again. Was notified of this one just now.
Been thinking of you alot, too. Beer is full of B vitamins and they used to drink a weaker version in place of water hundreds of years ago as town water was usually very bad.
Very cool post and very informative. I’m not a vegan yet I couldn’t help but notice your delusional generalizations of vegans and their arguments. For example I wouldn’t say that vegans don’t care about snakes, turtles, and insects, since they most likely care about all animals equally and wouldn’t harm one or wish one dead.
Also, you mentioned that you don’t eat livestock raised from grains which is definitely better than factory farming animals. Though you really can’t ignore the environmental impact of factory farming animals, you say vegans only think that it’s due to cow farts, but don’t you think there are a lot more variables to that equation?
There’s a lot of fresh water wasted to grow the crops and feed the animals, a lot of land space wasted cutting down entire forests for factory farming including the Amazon Rainforest which homes a lot of endangered animals, excess manure not going back into the land instead dumped into freshwater causing water pollution and creating animal waste lagoons, large amounts of land and water used to raise corn to feed the animals, etc. There are a lot of points that are wrong about factory farming, not only the cow farts which I agree is a little bit silly.
I think most people including vegans would be fine if factory farming and its cruelty were eliminated eliminated to be replaced with regular grass-fed farming but if only the animals were treated in a humane way and not consumed as often as they are being consumed now.
Plus you say you only met vegans that live in the city, but really how many ‘gangsters’ did you meet out in rural areas? How many Asian or Indian people did you meet out in rural areas? And keep in mind there are less vegans than gangsters or Asian and Indian people in Florida.
It’s better to be open minded and accept that vegans are definitely right in a lot of circumstances, people have cured their cancers, reversed their diabetes, dropped down to a healthy weight, lived a long and fulfilling life, etc, so saying vegans are all wrong just because you are different is rather foolish, and they do make a lot of good sensible points you can’t deny that.
Again I’m not a vegan. Just my ideas. Get well soon.
You say I’m delusional? Crediting weight loss, diabetes and cancer cures to veganism sounds delusional to me. There are absolutely no clinical studies to support such outlandish claims and there have been many people do the same on diets which contained animal products. You want to talk about not considering variables?
I have personally known more people to lose weight and sustain that weight loss using a low carbohydrate diet, rather than vegan diet. The same goes for diabetes. There are far more documented cases of diabetics getting off of their medications using a low carbohydrate diet than ever doing it the vegan way.
There are also far more people, in general, survive diabetes and cancer than a full intestinal transplant. I am living proof that someone can survive such an ordeal, which carries an extremely high mortality rate, and I did it without a vegan diet. I have yet to meet an intestinal transplant survivor who did it with a vegan diet. Because my bowels are transplanted, I seriously doubt that I could meet my nutritional needs with a vegan diet (transplanted intestines do not have the same efficiency as native bowels)
Yes, it is true that I cannot paint an entire group of people by the claims of some, but my readers are intelligent enough to understand that when I say “vegan”, I am referring to the militant vegans that we all know about. I am not going to take the time to write, “well, 98% of vegans think this, but there is this small 2% remnant who think otherwise”. The vegans that you are referring to are in the minority, if they exist at all. I get comments and emails all the time from vegans, especially on my article about digesting meat. Many of the comments and emails are so angry, hateful and obscene, that I do not approve them and mark them as spam.
You are in a very small minority. I know this because I was able to approve your comment. Though it still contained insulting language and an opposing opinion, it was civil — which is far more than I can say about your comrades. The typical vegan response to my posts go something like this, “You’re a fucking moron. I hope you die of cancer asshole!”. The only difference is they usually spell “you’re” as “your” and they copy and paste “fucking moron” about a hundred times in their post, which is why I send it to the spam folder — it would take up too much space. I would prefer not to censor any comments. Not one vegan so far has actually offered a counter point or opposing evidence, just insults and name-calling.
If you’re going to become vegan, you may as well get used to this, because there is a very loud faction within that community who love to embarrass you with their behavior. Was it not a group of vegans who hit Lierre Keith in the face with a cayenne pepper laced pie? Just because she wrote a book about converting back to an animal based diet from veganism because of her failing health? (so much for curing cancer) This is the same type of hateful attitude that I have experienced since publishing this site. I have gotten one single civil comment from an individual who is thinking about becoming vegan, as opposed to the hundreds of hateful, obscene comments from actual vegans and that is going to change my mind? When I get half as many civil comments as I do ones from vegans hoping that I die, I might consider it. Until then…?
You do not speak for the vegan community at large (though you seem to think you do). They do a very good job of speaking for themselves. They don’t hide their agenda. PETA, the Animal Liberation Front and other groups (who spend a lot on advertising, so there must be a large faction supporting them) are very clear about their goals, yet individual vegans spend all their time back-peddling away from those claims. What you have written is in complete contrast to what they want. You need to learn more about vegans if you’re going to become one. PETA even admits that they want full animal liberation, including no pets.
I have never supported factory farming and will agree with the vegans that any animal abuse is intolerable. I am very clear on my blog about eating only grass fed beef and other free-ranged animals. Not only is it more humane and better for the environment, it is also healthier for the human eating it. Animals feeding on grains have a much higher level of pesticides stored in their fat (from the spraying of the grains), not to mention that their fat shifts to a higher ratio of omega 6 fatty acids, which are highly inflammatory.
Thinking that you can feed an entire world on nothing but vegetation and not disrupt the environment sounds extremely delusional to me. These claims would obviously come from a person raised in a municipality and completely without knowledge of farming and mono-cropping.
What does Asians, Indians and “ganstas” have to do with anything? My point is that vegans are a product of civilization and the inner city. They typically have little to no knowledge of agriculture. Veganism would be quite impossible if it weren’t for technology. Without the pharmaceutical methods to create vitamin B12 and mineral supplements, a human’s health would fail very quickly on a vegan diet. The human species is not a herbivore, we are an omnivore.
I have read PETA’s page on the proof that humans are herbivores and it is the most unscientific pack of lies I have seen since the Creationist’s Museum. Their claim that humans have teeth like a ruminant is unfounded — an outright fabrication or lie. I assume this is because they looked at a horse and saw the incisors are similar, but they ignore the fact that over 900 different ruminant species of animal do not even have upper incisors!
Anyone who spent even a short time around farm animals would know this. Sheep, goats, cattle, deer and even llamas have no upper incisors, yet PETA claims they do. This is why I say that the average vegan is a city dweller. Yeah, I can’t say that EVERY vegan in the world lives within a city, but I know that the greater majority of them do by the uneducated things that they claim. I have met very few people with less knowledge about animals and biology than every vegan I have ever met. They spout some of the stupidest, uneducated things I have ever heard.
I am very open minded, but vegans have failed to prove their case. They are certainly not right in a lot of their claims — they are dead wrong in most of their claims. I don’t have to deny it, every science book written in the last 100 years proves most of their claims as pseudoscience at best. That page that PETA publishes does not have one biological fact correct. I don’t believe in ghosts, alien visitors to earth, Bigfoot and other pseudoscience, I guess that also makes me closed minded in your book? I don’t believe I am close minded, because if someone can present proof of ghosts, alien visitor or Bigfoot, I will believe. Same with vegans. Every vegan I have met has not exactly been the picture of optimum human health.
Thanks for writing and actually giving me an opposing view that I could approve. I hope that once you become vegan that you do not become as hateful and obscene as the majority of comments I get from vegans. Best wishes.
Dragon, a very detailed post; however, you should read: The Vegetarian Myth, a free PDF download. It will open your eyes.
Then comment again.
Thinking of you… Hope you are well and busy…
Let 2015 be a good year for you.
Cap’n Jan
Thank you for the thoughts Jan. I hope you new year goes well for you also. I am doing very well, all things considered and have been extremely busy. I hope to get a lot of the other projects finished so I can get back to publishing new material here. Thanks again and best wishes.
All the best to you, and many happy returns! Let 2015 be a good year for all of us!
Fair Winds,
Cap’n Jan
Just learned of your site and have been reading through it. I have to apologize on behalf of the medical profession for the terrible treatment you’ve received. What an incredible nightmare!
Your situation is the reason I am extremely conservative in my recommendations for medications and, particularly, invasive therapies. Though most of these procedures go smoothly, all too often, many things can go wrong. And when they do, disaster (for the patient) ensues.
All my life, I’ve pretty much been an early adopter, so during and shortly after my medical training, I followed the same course. I was always ready to prescribe the latest medications or recommend all kinds of procedures. But after having my patients’ experience some bad outcomes, I quickly reversed course and became a late, late adopter of new technologies. It would be one thing if it were my own health (or life) on the line, but I couldn’t countenance putting those who depended on my professional opinion at risk. I’ve waited for the tried and true for both my patients and myself since.
Hope you are doing well. I wish you all the luck in the world.
Thank you Dr. Eades for the kind words. I have been a fan of you and your wife (Mary Dan) for several years now. I adopted a paleo-type diet after my transplant, because based on my research, it seemed to make the most sense (according to evolution and known anthropology). I do believe it is the diet that humans evolved to eat.
I am confident that it has played a major part in my recovery. Of the 7 patients who had intestinal transplants at Jackson Memorial (Miami) in 2010, I am the last survivor, so I must be doing something right. Since transplanted bowels do not work as efficiently as native ones, I thought it important to eat food as nutrient dense as possible.
Transplant patients must have monthly blood labs done covering CBC, metabolic, biliary, albumin, pre-albumin, electrolytes and Tarcolimus levels (anti-rejection medication). Every 6 months, they run a full nutritional panel to check our nutrient absorption and they claim that mine is always the best numbers of all the intestinal transplant recipients.
Thanks for acknoweging the nightmare I lived, not everyone has the medical experience to understand what all I endured in those 14 months in hospitals. It is certainly something that nigtmares are made of. I lost all of my small bowels via 2 emergency bowel resections. During the next 14 months, I was in septic shock 4 times, spent 2 weeks in a coma, had a pneumothorax, a right lung resection and much more.
I thank you again for writing and commenting. I have found a lot of useful information in your books and website, which has helped me formulate a great diet. Please keep up the good work.
Glad to see you post, Wolverine! I understand you are a busy person, but I still keep track of your blog and, of course, wish you the very best… You are certainly an inspiration to me and I know, to others.
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Cap’n Jan
Thanks Jan. Have had a lot of distractions, including the deterioration of my father’s health. He finally passed away two weeks ago. Though it was sad to lose him, we were all happy he was no longer suffering. He continued to have multiple strokes starting in January and with each stroke, he lost more and more of his conative functions and memory. By the end, he could hardly recognize any of his children, grandchildren or great grandchildren.
This was a sad death hastened by doctors, of course. I saw this coming years ago as the doctors continued to drive his cholesterol levels down to inhuman levels. Strokes are an inevitible end to cholesterol deficiency. These doctors are insane, but they refuse to abandon their erroneous and outdated theories and treatments and I was unable to convince my father their treatments were more harmful than good.
I am still doing well, thanks for asking. There is only me and one other young woman who have suvived from the group of 7 intestinal transplants done at Jackson Memorial in 2010
Unfortunately, the other young lady has been hospitalized and in critical condition for the last 10 months. She rejected the organ and it has stopped working and is probably slowly dying. Her stomach has also stopped working and she is in desperate need for a second transplant, but the doctors will not list her because she has an active infection and is too weak to survive the operation. My wife and just drove to Miami (from Orlando is about 4 hour drive) to visit her. It helped to lift her spirits, but she is in awful shape. I can’t imagine how much longer she can go on without that transplant?
I hope you are doing well. I promise that I will begin publishing again, most likely in the fall. I have written a lot of articles, just haven’t done editing, proof-reading, created images and such to ready them for publishing. When I do start again, I should have a lot of articles go up quickly. Thanks again.
“Land, irrigation water, greenhouse gas, and reactive nitrogen burdens of meat, eggs, and dairy production in the United States”
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/33/11996.full
“Given the broad, categorical disparities apparent in our results, it is clear that policy decisions designed to reduce animal-based food consumption stand to significantly reduce the environmental costs of food production (55) while sustaining a burgeoning populace.”
That’s how some want to create menu for humans, they doesn’t care about our health at all.
Just attended the Savory Institute “Artisans of the Grasslands” conference….great work this organization is doing on all fronts.
I’m still checking in and will continue to do so – hope all is well. All good thoughts for you and your wife.
Cap’n Jan
Thanks for checking in Jan. I’m still hanging around and doing quite well considering. I math last survivor from the group of 6 who had intestinal transplants at Jackson Memorial in 2010. The last other survivor passed away last November from a bacterial infection in her heart. I am back in cancer treatments once again, but everything is responding well to the treatments. Have been quite busy. Unfortunately. not very active online or at this blog. I have several other projects I am trying to finish up. Projects I have procrastinated for may years, but very much want to complete them before my time is up. Sorry it took me a while to reply to your post, been having a rough time with some things lately. I really appreciate you taking the time to write and I will hopefully get back to publishing some things here at this blog. If not soon, I will be at least finishing a book detailing all that I went through to survive the things I have.
I’ve been over your site and still can’t find anything about cancer. It doesn’t seem right to ask about it, but what is your cancer diagnosis? After all you’ve been through, I’m so sorry to hear you’re also burdened with this.
I’ve been fighting my NP on the colonoscopy thing. I had an iFOBT positive for blood, so they’re all over me to get a colonoscopy. Idiotic. So many things can cause blood in the stool, and 99.999% of the time, it isn’t cancer. Can you believe the most recent NP even suggested I speak to a psychiatrist about it?? As though refusing a colonoscopy is a psychiatric issue! She meant well, but it really pissed me off. She also told me the blood immune-assay tests for more cancer markers than just blood, which I know is wrong. It’s just a human hemoglobin test; nothing more.
Anyway, I hope your treatment is going well and you beat this cancer crap too.
Karin
Hi Karin,
I appreciate your concern for my well being. It means a lot to me. I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in 2013 and was not given much hope,based on my immunosuppressed state. They do not call me Wolverine for nothing!
The cancer was caused by a drug called Campath which was necessary for the intestinal transplant to work. Unfortunately Campath carries a very high cancer risk. Also, the idiot doctor gave me two extra doses of that crap believeing I was in rejection twice and too impatient to wait for the biopsies to return, both times, the biopsies came back negative for rejection, but I had already been treated. Another reason I don’t trust endoscopes.
The diagnosis they based the treatment on was strictly their visual account looking through the scope. I saw them fail far more times than succeed when making a visual diagnosis.
I apologize for not publishing for a long time. I have been tied up in many other projects, including writing a book about my ordeal, finishing a musical album I want to,finish before I go and an animated series I am working on.
You seem far to smart to be taken in by these doctors. What a laugh! They want you to seek psycho therapy because you decline a dangerous procedure. Damn! They’ll try anything to make people comply with that useless, but dangerous procedure.
Continue to hang tough. There is nothing to gain, but everything to lose, as I found out. You are so right about 99.999999% of blood found in a fecal occult exam are from hemorrhoids or fissures, non life threatening conditions. Tell them to shove that tube up their asses.
Luckily, there have been new treatments coming out for Multiple Myeloma and there are many more in the pipeline. Although it used to be a cancer which killed within 3 to 5 years after diagnosis, many patients are now living 15 to 20 years and maybe longer with the newer treatments.
I plan to live quite a long time more. The transplant went well and I haven’t had any issues with it and the cancer has been well controlled, so far. I guess my biggest risk is an infection, which could take me quick, but so far, I have avoided that.
Thanks for writing and showing care for my cancer.
Stay healthy and away from colonoscopies.
David “Wolverine” Smith
Dear David “Wolverine”,
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for posting this site and all you have survived through.
I just today, discovered your website.
I am extremely happy to discover your most recent posting and that you are still alive.
As I read and looked at dates, I was concerned about your well being.
I realize you don’t know me… but, people in my life will tell you that I am one of the most caring, loving, concerned people on the planet.
I truly hate to see people suffer, especially as a result of the medical establishment.
I have forwarded your article about the dangers of Colonoscopies to my 80 year old Mother, who gets one “regularly” as the doctor prescribes them.
I hate seeing her have them … but, they scare elderly people … well, society in general into believing they need them.
Anyhow…
Are you familiar with the power of Green Super Foods and the Green Foods Bible by David Sandoval?
If not, I would like to share his information with you.
It certainly improved the quality of my health and my over all life!
I am compelled to share it with everyone.
Just as you have a strong passion to share with others your story and the REAL DANGERS of the medical systems “Protocol”.
I am passionate about sharing what I have learned about Gut Health, Diet and Nutrition from Dave Sandoval.
This is a link to an audio of Dave’s where he explains why he created his company.
http://www.puriumcorporate.com/purium1/php_uploads/audio/pk/052015-owners.mp3
This is about a 30 minute call he did, to his organization and contained in this talk, with “ears to hear” you can hear his passion to see people healed and create health and vitality in their bodies. And WHY he created his company.
Here are links to 2 of his videos:
[vimeo 103380535 w=640 h=360]
[vimeo 109738243 w=640 h=360]
I hope you enjoy the audio & videos and if you would like to have a further discussion about this, I would invite that conversation.
I wish you all the very best and a life filled with health and vigor.
Yours for Health & Wellness,
Allen Biles
Naples, Florida
Dear Wolverine
Just reading about your struggle and victory. What a inspirational sorry. May god bless u with healthunlocked life.
David,
I want to say how much I appreciate the work that you have done on this site. You can rest assured it is saving lives amoung those who have an open mind and listen.
My uncle at age 68 had a colonoscopy as a routine checkup and spent his last two years of life in the hospital and rehab due to a perferation.
I totally agree about the risk and the bassackward thinking that leads to random snipping of potentially cancerous tissue and allowing it to bleed internally. I have no intention of having this worthless risky screening.
Keep up the good fight and let me know when your book is ready I will want more than one copy.
Best wishes that the future years are kinder and that the breaks all go your way.
Tim
Hi Tim. Thank you for your kind words. I am very sorry to hear about your uncle, but I thank you so much for sharing his story here. Since I began this site, there has been hundreds of people who have shared similar stories of the destruction of lives and even death of loved ones who were injured by this procedure. I hope that those negatively affected by this barbaric and unnecessary medical practice will be willing to come forward and help to make the dangers of this profit-making scheme more public.
We will get no help from the mainstream media, I can guarantee you that. The US news media has become worthless to the citizens and works only to protect the interest of the corporations which advertise on their medium. Thank you again for leaving this comment and I wish you nothing but good health in your future.
David – I hope you are well, and are working away on your book and other projects. I keep an ear tuned to your site.
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Cap’n Jan