text:
Your source for original reporting and trusted news.
Scott Gottlieb
#Covid#African Nations#Omicron Covid#South African#European#White House
Omicron COVID variant: "Reason to be worried," but South African scientists feel punished for their good work
Durban, South Africa — The Omicron variant of the coronavirus that was first detected in South Africa has now spread to at least 14 countries. Some experts believe it's likely already reached the U.S., but as governments including America's race to impose travel restrictions, scientists are racing to figure out how...
www.cbsnews.com
foodcontessa.com
Dr. Fauci Said the U.S. May Propose Terminating Covid Isolation if a Person Has Tested Negative for the Virus After Five Days
According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading infectious disease specialist in the United States, the US is contemplating proposing that people who have been exposed to Covid stop being isolated after five days if they have tested negative for the virus. The change might come after the Centers for Disease...
U.S. POLITICS・ 15 DAYS AGO
healththoroughfare.com
Respected Scientist Causes Controversy by Saying Omicron Is "Not the Same Disease" as the Other COVID-19 Variants!
Earlier this week, a British scientist who advises the government of the United Kingdom on matters of life sciences grabbed a lot of attention by stating that the newest strain of COVID-19, Omicron, is actually "not the same disease that we were seeing a year ago" and that the pandemic death rates are "now history" as per the Guardian.
MEDICAL SCIENCE・ 11 DAYS AGO
Moderna's chief executive officer Stephane Bancel said the company hopes to have a combined flu and COVID vaccine ready for 2023, but virus experts speaking on a panel Monday poured cold water on the possibly of the pandemic shifting to an endemic phase this year. Bancel said in addition...
PUBLIC HEALTH・ 17 HOURS AGO
ABC Big 2 News
Omicron variant could be headed for a rapid drop in the US and Britain, scientists say
Weeks or months of misery still lie ahead for patients and overwhelmed hospitals even if the drop-off comes to pass.
WORLD・ 5 DAYS AGO
ABCNY
COVID Omicron News: Pediatric cases rise, scientists study new French variant
Scientists are tracking a new variant in southern France where at least 12 people have been infected. Doctors are calling it a "highly mutated" variant.
NEW YORK CITY, NY・ 13 DAYS AGO
Johnson and Johnson' COVID-19 Booster Is 85% Effective Against Omicron Hospitalization, South African Study Shows
Johnson and Johnson's (NYSE: JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine booster shot is 85% effective in protecting against being hospitalized by the Omicron variant for 1-2 months after receiving it, Reuters reported citing the head of South Africa's Medical Research Council (SAMRC). Glenda Gray presented the findings of an SAMRC study at a...
Health experts are warning that despite earlier estimates, the peak of Omicron infections in the US is likely still to come. According to The New York Times, US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy said that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus will continue to spread, peaking sometime in the next few weeks. He noted during an interview on CNN's State of the Union that due to the size of the US, the virus will peak in different places at different times, saying "we shouldn't expect a national peak in the coming days".In a bit of good news, the surgeon...
3 News Now
Scientists hunting for new variants amidst omicron surge
CHICAGO — The record-shattering COVID surge has proven new variants like omicron can quickly throw the public health response off balance. It's why scientists around the world are digging deep into the molecular structure of COVID-19 to stay ahead of what could come next. Scientists inside a level...
SCIENCE・ 11 DAYS AGO
FITSNews
Omicron Variant Causes Covid-19 Explosion In South Carolina
In keeping with the record surge reported last week, coronavirus cases in South Carolina exploded over the New Year's Day weekend – with state health officials reporting staggering increases over the first four days of January thanks to the emergence of the highly transmissible omicron variant of the virus.
PUBLIC HEALTH・ 13 DAYS AGO
Covid-19: Data suggests Omicron wave is 'turning around'
The continued drop in UK Covid cases indicates the Omicron wave may well be "turning around", a leading expert advising the Government has said.Prof Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), said that the latest case figures were "cautiously good news" and he hoped the country may have a "flu-type" relationship with the virus by the end of the year.The latest data shows a 38% drop over the last seven days across the UK in the numbers testing positive for Covid-19, with 70,924 new cases reported on Sunday.Prof Tildesley...
Knowridge Science Report
COVID-19 vaccines work against the Omicron variant to some degree
Phil Kerpen, a conservative opinion-writer and president of the "American Commitment," claimed that "there is literally zero evidence that these vaccines prevent Omicron infections" on Twitter. His tweet was posted on January 7th, as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on President Biden's vaccine mandate for...
PHARMACEUTICALS・ 6 DAYS AGO
From symptoms to transmission - why we must listen to South African scientists on omicron
'There are several things we don't know about omicron," a sombre Professor Sir Chris Whitty told the nation in the week before Christmas, "but all the things we do know are bad.". His comment puzzled many people at the time, given that scientists in South Africa, where...
SCIENCE・ 9 DAYS AGO
In recent weeks, as the omicron variant spread rapidly across the United States, Americans have found that the financial costs of the pandemic are increasingly falling on their shoulders. As Covid-19 cases have climbed, public health experts have urged people to dump their cloth masks in favor of higher-quality options...
MONDAY, Jan. 17, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The latest shipment of 1.1 million COVID-19 vaccines to Rwanda this weekend signaled a noteworthy achievement: The COVAX program, a United Nations-backed program providing poorer countries with vaccines, has now shipped one billion of the doses to combat the coronavirus in 144 countries. But still, that "is only a reminder of the work that remains," the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement. WHO has long pushed for rich countries and vaccine developers to prioritize COVAX. ...
WORLD・ 19 HOURS AGO
Seattle Times
Moderna working on COVID-19 booster that targets omicron variant, says CEO
An omicron-specific booster shot could be ready by the fall, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said Monday. The pharmaceutical company is currently working on a targeted shot for the newest COVID-19 variant, Bancel announced. The booster is about to enter clinical trials. On CNBC's "Squawk Box," Bancel said the shot could...
MEDICAL & BIOTECH・ 7 DAYS AGO
Hutch Post
Scientists: Omicron won't be the last coronavirus variant
Get ready to learn more Greek letters. Scientists warn that omicron's whirlwind advance practically ensures it won't be the last version of the coronavirus to worry the world. Every infection provides a chance for the virus to mutate, and omicron has an edge over its predecessors: It spreads...
SCIENCE・ 21 HOURS AGO
SHANGHAI, Jan 18 (Reuters) - China is urging people to wear masks and gloves when opening mail, especially from abroad, after authorities suggested the first case of the Omicron coronavirus virus variant found in Beijing could have arrived via a package from Canada. Authorities vowed to step up disinfection of...
PUBLIC HEALTH・ 53 MINUTES AGO
T-cells from common colds could help scientists make the "Holy Grail": A variant-proof COVID vaccine
London — T-cells generated as part of the body's natural immune response to the common cold may help protect against serious illness from COVID-19, according to a study carried out in the U.K. Researchers at Imperial College London told CBS News the findings could help scientists create vaccines that remain more effective against new variants of the coronavirus.
d1softballnews.com
Omicron 2, the sub-variant that scares Great Britain: first 53 cases, another 20 in Israel. "It could be more violent"
There Great Britain returns to under 100 thousand cases per day for the first time since 21 December, so much so that in London we return to talk about goodbye to the Green pass. However, to launch a first alarm on a sub-variant of Omicron is the United Kingdom's Health Security Agency which on Friday warned that it had traced 53 sequences of a sub-lineage of Omicron, called BA.2, which has been talked about since December, explaining that it will be monitored carefully. Because the first 53 cases come after that already Israel had detected 20 during the genetic sequencing of Covid patients. "This variant contains more mutations than Omicron and – according to the Business Standard – could be more violent." Although scientists are concerned about the new sub-variant – the British tabloid reads – little is known about the dangers it entails.
Republic Monitor
Virus Transmission: Scientists Suggest How Omicron Variant Behaves
Immunologists conducted an immense study of the Omicron variant and its behavior figuring out that it could have circulated in animal hosts before jumping into humans. There is an event we called a zoonotic event is when an animal pathogen starts to infect and spread among people. Also, reverse zoonosis is when such a virus passes down into an animal species. In addition, while it is widely assumed that the collection of the mutations found in the Covid-19 variants developed in an immune-compromised person infected with the virus, some scientist believes that the latest variant of concern, Omicron, may have acquired the unusual mutations that its spike protein makes through a different route. The presumption that the virus would other hosts and could have evolved in another animal species. According to this theory, the SARS-Covid-19 virus has infected a variety of animals, primarily rats, sometime in min-2020. In this new species, the virus evolved, hoarding roughly 50 mutations on the portion of spike protein before dripping back over into people.


text:
Q: Smarter code indentation I know we have the control-K indent-by-4 operation. Unfortunately that doesn't do anything about the often horrible indentation within the querant's code.
How Hard Would It Be to add a minimal "indent by delimiter nesting" operation to SO? Just doing dumb counting of { and } characters -- with minor additional code for quotes -- would handle the basics for languages which share that notation. Making it count all the paired delimiters -- even if it didn't actually distinguish among them! -- would handle many of the edge cases and some other languages.
Not perfect, but it would help querants help us help them. And it's surprising how often simply fixing indentation exposes a code problem.

A: All kinds of editors (and add-ins for popular editors) support code formatting of various kinds, so for the most part users already have the ability to solve this problem on their own.
Why duplicate that functionality so that people can have code formatted them in a way they don't like, which still doesn't guarantee it will help them spot the problem, or even the only problem (Cutsomer_ID is spelled wrong, whether the formatting hides other errors too).
People get mad when others edit their code to be readable, to remove horizontal scrollbars, etc.; imagine the onslaught of vicious complaints here when the system starts doing it automatically.
On top of that, given the effort it would take to implement a formatter that handled all the languages SO supports, and not massively screw over a single piece of code, what percentage of questions do you think would never have to be answered just because the site reformatted them as they were submitted? As I said above, fixing the formatting doesn't guarantee the OP will be any better equipped to solve the problem.
This happened just today and, while I made a comment about it, I'm not convinced that proper indenting would have made the problem obvious to the OP, nor am I confident that SO would want to spend time developing a code formatter that would undeniably make the problem obvious (and, once again, so obvious that the OP gets it). I think that indentation makes the problem more obvious to us, but not necessarily to the OPs of the world.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
Q: Переименовать тэг в XML Как переименовать корневой тэг?
A: Загрузите XML в string и используйте string.Replace('old_root_tag','new_root_tag')
UPD: @VladD абсолютно прав.
Тогда примерно так:
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.Load("путь_к_вашей_xml");
XmlElement root = xmlDoc.DocumentElement;
root.InnerText = "новое_имя";
xmlDoc.Save("путь_к_новой_xml");

A: Решение в лоб - с помощью подстрок, нашел подстроку - заменил (от второго < до пробела и в конце)


text:
Q: 'undefined local variable or method' for expects exported to method in helper Goal: Trying to submit empty register form fails due to validation errors. Expects are present in scenario as single line (method). Errors are being checked very precisely in terms of their placement. I don't want to use classical counting until that's the only way left.
def cant_be_blank_error_is_displayed(number_of_times = 1)
  expect(page).to have_content t('errors.messages.blank'), count: number_of_times
end

require 'rails_helper'
require 'email_helper'

feature 'register organisation', type: :feature, js: true do
  let!(:register_page) { RegisterPage.new }
  let!(:login_page) { LoginPage.new }
  let!(:organisation) { create :organisation, name: 'organisation_name' }
  let!(:owner) { create :user, email: 'user@example.com', role: :owner }
  let(:form) { register_page.register_form }

  before { register_page.load }

  context 'creation fails because' do
    scenario 'mandatory fields were left empty' do
      register_page.submit_empty_form
      all_mandatory_fields_cant_be_blank_error_displayed
    # expect(form).to have_content mail_blank_or_taken_error
    end

    scenario (...)
    end
  end

Method:
1. Define specific errors as elements in the page
class RegisterPage < SitePrism::Page
  set_url "/sign_up"
  section :register_form, :xpath, "//*[@id='new_user']" do
    element :email, :xpath, "//*[@id='user_email']"
    (...) # other input fields

# binding.pry confirms they appear on the page
    element :mail_blank_or_taken_error, :xpath, "//*[@id='new_user']/div[2]/span"
    element :blank_password_error, :xpath, "//*[@id='new_user']/div[4]/span"
    element :password_too_short_error, :xpath, "//*[@id='new_user']/div[2]/div[3]/p"
    element :mismatch_error, :xpath, "//*[@id='new_user']/div[2]/div[4]/span"
    element :blank_name_error, :xpath, "//*[@id='new_user']/div[2]/div[5]/span"
    element :name_taken_error, :xpath, "//*[@id='new_user']/div[2]/div[5]"
    element :wrong_format_error, :xpath, "//*[@id='new_user']/div[7]/span
    (...)
  end
end

2. Create error_alerts.rb helper to store expects in one method
def all_mandatory_fields_cant_be_blank_error_displayed
  [
    mail_blank_or_taken_error,
    blank_password_error,
    signs_limit_error,
    blank_name_error,
    blank_adress_line_error,
    blank_city_error,
    blank_country_error,
    blank_zipcode_error,
    blank_phone_number_error,
    blank_website_error,
  ].each do |validation_errors|
   expect(form).to have_content validation_errors
  end
end

Obstacle:
Errors are default rails ones, so they are not defined as translations, which I used in another spec in the same convention and everything worked flawlessly.
example:
def invalid_email_or_password_error_displayed
  expect(login_page).to have_content t("devise.failure.invalid", authentication_keys: "Email")
end

Failures: I get following errors.
1# my way - same issue occurs for each object from the |validation_errors|
1) register organisation creation fails because mandatory fields were left empty
     Failure/Error: mail_blank_or_taken_error,

     NameError:
       undefined local variable or method `mail_blank_or_taken_error' for #<RSpec::ExampleGroups::RegisterOrganisation::CreationFailsBecause:0x007fe56b336370>
 # ./spec/support/error_alerts.rb:63:in `all_mandatory_fields_cant_be_blank_error_displayed'
 # ./spec/features/organisation_registration_spec.rb:16:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'

2# classical expect
  1) register organisation creation fails because mandatory fields were left empty
     Failure/Error: expect(form).to have_content
mail_blank_or_taken_error

     NameError:
       undefined local variable or method `mail_blank_or_taken_error' for # <RSpec::ExampleGroups::RegisterOrganisation: :CreationFailsBecause:0x007ff02e7b9348>#./spec/features/organisation_registration_spec.rb:17:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'

Question: Is my way technically achievable after some modifications or the only solution is to use classical counting method? Can loop iterate through page's elements? Here's an example of its similiar use, though expects are strings and the loop itself is included in spec's scenario, instead of being exported to external method in a helper.
scenario "is successful" do
      all_ministry_memberships_page.create_new(ministry, cabinet, minister)
      [
        t("flash.actions.create.notice", resource_name: "Ministry membership"),
        "Ministry " + ministry.name,
        "Cabinet " + cabinet.name,
        "Minister " + minister.name,
        "Start Date " + (cabinet.appointment_date + 2.days).strftime("%Y-%m-%d"),
        "Created At " + ministry_membership.created_at.strftime("%B %0e, %Y %H:%M"),
        "Updated At " + ministry_membership.updated_at.strftime("%B %0e, %Y %H:%M"),
      ].each do |form_input|
        expect(form).to have_content form_input
      end
    end

A: This
[
  mail_blank_or_taken_error,
  blank_password_error,
]

means "call methods mail_blank_or_taken_error(), then blank_password_error() and put their results in an array". You don't have such methods, and that's what the error message tells you. If you wanted those to be strings, make them strings.
[
  "mail_blank_or_taken_error",
  "blank_password_error",
]

or
%w[
  mail_blank_or_taken_error
  blank_password_error
]

A: I found solution to this problem.
The method needed proper argument parsed and page_object reference
def all_mandatory_fields_cant_be_blank_error_displayed_in(form)
  [
    form.blank_password_error,
    form.signs_limit_error,
    form.blank_name_error,
    form.blank_adress_line_error,
    form.blank_city_error,
    form.blank_country_error,
    form.blank_zipcode_error,
    form.blank_phone_number_error,
    form.blank_website_error,
  ].each do |validation_error|
    expect(validation_error).to be_present
  end
end


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Listing courtesy of Maureen Mcelroy of Jamaica Hill Realty, Inc..
Disclosures Unit is Tenanted Through August 312019. Gas Boiler is Old.
Listing provided courtesy of Maureen Mcelroy of Jamaica Hill Realty, Inc..


Howdy all. We are contemplating going full time in about 2 years. Part of the downsizing is going down to just one vehicle. My truck is flat towable but the wife's car can only be trailer towed. She does not like driving my truck so you can probably guess what way we (she) is leaning. So my question is what pros and cons are there for towing an enclosed car trailer. Also for those who currently tow an enclosed trailer, any recommendations on brands or construction?
I was picking up a 1971 Porsche that I had purchased. The problems are as follows, unless you buy a trailer with a door on the left side of the trailer, getting in and out of the car being towed inside the trailer is tough. No room to open the door and you really have to squeeze to get in and out. The second biggest problem is most RV parks don't have the room to store the trailer and in many cases their pull through's aren't long enough to accommodate the coach and trailer.
Wind is another factor. Now instead of having 40' of slab side for the wind to push, you have 60+ feet.
My question is this, why not sell both vehicles and come to a compromise, maybe a SUV such as a 2 wheel drive GMC Terrain or Chevy Equinox or a Jeep Grand Cherokee with 4 wheel drive, all of which can be flat towed. If I was full timing and limited to only 1 vehicle, without a doubt it would be a 4x4 just for those occasions when you want to 'explore' Years ago, we towed a 4x4 Toyota 4runner with a 5 speed. The 4 wheel drive came in very handy when we visited Virginia City in Nevada. We found old mining roads that were incredibly steep and the 4 wheel drive made it very easy to negotiate those trails. Many other instances but no need to elaborate.
If you got a SUV or 4x4 you'd get the comfort of a car and the utility of extra storage once you're full timers. Of course the other option is a car dolly or, a drive line disconnect provided her car is a rear wheel drive car.
Agree with LJowdy...even if the pull through spot is long enough, most Parks place the utilities near the rear of the lot, so you would need power cord, sewer hose, and fresh water hose extensions.
With an all alunminum trailer 20 and a 4 ft v, 7 high front ramp door and a left side excape door.
have you seen this tread?
Momma not willing to give up her 2007 Benz (only 24K miles). Sits in the garage a lot.
Thanks for the link. Some great looking rigs there.
Back from a 300 mile trip.
After a few miles, I felt at ease with the length at 65 feet.
With 5 different cars then add a bike, a trailer works best for my needs.
What's is in the trailer will stay dry and clean.
Getting fuel, I was able to fit in a car lane, would be better in a truck stop.
My thoughts. With more and more cars becoming none flat towable more open and enclosed trailers will become the norm.
For an enclosed trailer , a side excape door, and extended toung, and a toad that can move the trailer if needed. Would be everything you need for an enjoyable travel.


profits usually through mass-production of lower-self desires.
for a worldwide mutual help in the search for divine wisdom.
are among the best antidotes to blind and negative suggestions.
themselves and thus act with power and knowledge.
The power of suggestion means many different things to many minds. It is coupled with the idea of hypnosis, where the operator is able to make the subject think, say, do, or imagine anything he chooses. That is possible through the abnormal condition of the subject. The means and methods of inducing this abnormal condition are not generally known, although some practitioners have hit upon various ways of bringing on hypnosis in some subjects.
But what is to be discussed is the fact of suggestion itself, generally considered, and as it affects all men. People are not aware that they act almost entirely under suggestion. From our birth we are surrounded by those who suggest certain ideas to us as true, and we follow these suggested ideas. There is very little original thought anywhere, and particularly is this true in those lines to which the public pays the most attention - that is, politics, religion, science. Whatever system of thought is presented to us, that we adopt. We follow the suggestion given, with no attempt to reach to the basis of that which is suggested. The foundation upon which the suggestion rests is taken for granted, even in the most important things in life.
Our religion, for example, is stated to be a "revelation". We accepted it in childhood, accepted it as a fact, without looking into it to see what it is and on what it is founded. Our powers of thought and action being based upon a false suggestion does not inhibit their exercise, but as a result all our possibilities of thought and action, all our mental creations, the whole super-structure of our existence, are false, because, thinking from false premises, our thinking will inevitably lead to false conclusions.
This is just as truly the fact as in the case of the hypnotized subject. He is thrown into an abnormal condition; he has nothing before his mind; the operator presents a given idea and with it the suggestion of a certain mode of action. Immediately the subject adopts the suggestion, goes to work on it, and will continue working along the suggested line cumulatively until the suggestion is changed.
Those who are born into any particular sect ought to know this. With our first sense of understanding, ideas are presented to us, instilled into our minds as absolute facts. We proceed from that basis, and however long it is followed, no true understanding or conclusion can be reached. What do we know of the truth or falsity of these ideas when presented to us in childhood? Nothing whatever. What do our parents and teachers know of them? Nothing whatever. They have merely passed on to us the suggestions which they received in childhood and which have operated in them cumulatively ever since.
We must learn not to accept statements, no matter by whom made, simply because they are made to us. We must get at the basis of whatever is presented, know what its principles are - whether those principles are self-evident. If they are not self-evident, how can they be basic?
The idea is common to everybody in the Western world that there is a Creator of this universe. What do we know about it? If it is true that a being created the universe and all the beings in it, then we are not responsible. In continuance of that idea other ideas follow it: that man is here but once, that this is his only birth, and that from here he knows not where he goes. We have followed the suggestion that a man lives but one life, that he is fundamentally irresponsible for his being here, and we have built up our thoughts and actions on that basis. Does it make us wiser, happier, while we live? Does it produce peace and happiness for others? Does it bring us to the end of life any wiser, any better off? For we know that when we come to the end of life we leave every earthly thing we have gained while here.
But this earth is only one of many earths. What of the other planets, the other solar systems with which space is filled? Have we any vital knowledge in regard to them or the reason for their existence under the suggestions that have been handed to us?
When our religious impressions are changed, when other suggestions are given us, are they not handed to us in the same way? Whatever they are - "Mental Science", "New Thought", "Christian Science", and so on - we adopt them, move along the lines suggested by those who give them to us, and what do we really learn? Nothing. We come to the end of life just as encased in ignorance, despite all the "revelations" ever given us. What do we know of their bases? Are they true or only partially so? We are never asked to look into their fundamentals, to see for ourselves if they are true, self-evident. No; we are asked to accept what is given us and go to work on that. That is suggestion.
Our municipal life, our national life, our political life, are all under suggestion, and few are they who try to go to the root of things and understand what the nature of being is, so that they can know for themselves and thus act with power and knowledge. As we look the field over, we find that we are all prey to the power of suggestion in every direction.
What is the criterion which we should apply to every suggestion presented to us? Just this: If we have the truth, it will explain what was before a mystery. And as we are surrounded by mysteries, the Truth must explain them all.
This power of suggestion must still be used, whatever line may be pointed out to us. If Truth exists and is possible to us - the Truth in religion, science and philosophy - it must first come to us by suggestion from Those who know. If it were not possible for this to be done, were not possible for us to avail ourselves of it, then there would be no use talking of these things. But when the true is suggested to us, there is always a means presented by which we may see and verify it. That means is not in anyone's authority or endorsement, but in the fact that we can perceive it and test it for ourselves. The final authority is the man himself.
There are many beings below man; perhaps some will admit that there may be, that there are, beings greater than man. None of these beings can be omnipresent, none of them can be the Supreme. What is that which is omnipresent and supreme in each and every being - in man, in the beings below man, in the beings above man? Is it not this Power to perceive, to think, to choose, to act upon the thinking and the choosing - upon the Intelligence which the being has? That Power transcends all beings, all conceptions. It is that Power which lies at the root of all evolution, and is the very Essence of every being. No one is separate from That. No one is without That. All are rays from and one with That. There is no possibility of any existence apart from That.
Man stands in the midst of a vast and silent evolution - the evolution of Intelligence, of Soul. All the beings below man must be coming up the ladder of being to our stage, and whatever beings may exist beyond man, they must have passed through our stage and gone still farther up the ladder. They are our Elder Brothers and have passed through civilizations before ours - many, many ages before ours - and have reached a point of development far higher than ours. It is They who have carried forward all the knowledge gained in that vast evolution which has preceded ours.
These Elder Brothers of the human family are not spirits in the ordinary sense of the word, nor are they hazy beings, "gods" or "angels". They are men, Mahatmas (Great Souls), who are perfected beings physically, mentally, morally, psychically, spiritually - who stand now where we shall one day stand, when we have perfected ourselves in the same way that They have done, through self-induced and self-devised exertions.
These Masters stand to us in Their knowledge and power, in Their ability and efforts to help and guide us, as the greatest and most powerful suggestion that could be made to any human being. They are willing and ready to help whenever and where ever we are willing and ready to receive. They never ask for anything; They are always ready to give to those who may be willing to follow the lines indicated, so that we in our turn may become as They are - may know for ourselves.
If we take Their philosophy as given to us in Theosophy, if we take it as a theory to be examined on its merits, we shall find that it explains. It explains why there are so many different kinds of people; it explains different natures; it explains why some suffer more and others suffer less. It explains why each one is born in a particular place, in that family, in that nation, at that time. It explains every inequality in life, every injustice, every mystery. It will enable a man to realize his own immortality, to live a conscious existence in Spirit, even while incarnated in a body here on this earth. At present we live in matter; we think that we exist in matter and are dependent on matter for our existence. We think in matter. Our religion is materialistic; our science is materialistic; our philosophy is materialistic. All this is due to the misuse of the power of suggestion and to our acceptance of ideas without investigation, without comparison, upon authority. We believe; we do not know.
There is no Divinity, save it has evolved as such from the One Spirit. Every Divine being is an evolution. Wherever divinity is spoken of it means an evolution of a being. All intelligence is based in the Power to perceive, and that exists in every grade of being. Intelligence is the extension of the power to know. This idea sets aside a great many suggestions that we have perhaps depended upon. It would be well for us if we did not depend upon anything save our own inherent power to learn, to extricate ourselves from our difficulties. All our powers are born with us; all our past experiences are with us, but they are crowded out by the suggestions given to us when we were children, and by the false ideas which we still entertain. Nothing but the Truth can ever set us free, and that Truth each one can find and follow, and thus come to know for himself.
 "The Power of Suggestion" was later included in the volume "The Friendly Philosopher", by Robert Crosbie, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, 416 pp., 1934-1946-2008, see pp. 320-325.