 | "There's Justice In The Universe" |
| Posted 5/16/2008 7:44 PM CDT
For the first time, astronomers have witnessed a supermassive black hole blasting its galactic neighbor with a deadly beam of energy. The "death star galaxy"could obliterate the atmospheres of planets but also trigger the birth of stars in the wake of itsdestructive beam. Fortunately, the cosmic violence is a safe distance from our own neck of the cosmos.
View:
http://tinyurl.com/4olmbm |
| Posted 5/13/2008 10:31 AM CDT Social Security Fairness Act (companion bills H.R. 82 and S. 206 in the current Congress). This vital legislation would restore duly earned Social Security pension benefits of Texas school employees, and other public servants in more than a dozen states, who have been targeted by unfair pension offsets because they also receive a state or local government pension. The Social Security Fairness Act would simply repeal these two costly pension reductions, the Government Pension Offset of spousal benefits and the so-called Windfall Elimination Provision. The Fairness Act has 338 co-sponsors now in the U.S. House and 36 in the U.S. Senate. Of the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates and the two Republican presidential candidates who serve in the current Congress, three out of four are co-sponsors of the Fairness Act. The only lawmaker still running for president who has failed to sign up in support of the Fairness Act is Sen. John McCain. Take Action: http://tinyurl.com/lh3sm Read more: http://tinyurl.com/5qrhfe |
| Posted 5/12/2008 5:42 PM CDT Remember the "Spinning Dancer" illusion?: http://www.maniacworld.com/Spinning-Silhouette-Optical-Illusion.html How does the Spinning Dancer Work? http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/the-truth-about-the-spinning-dancer/?em&ex=1209614400&en=102b0311a8d111bb&ei=5087%0A http://greengabbro.net/2007/10/20/the-spinning-dancer-and-the-brain/ |
| Posted 5/9/2008 4:19 PM CDT Because the Readers Blogs’ new arrangement is not suitable for my ‘As’TWere’ blogging, this will be my last posting of such. As’TWere involved my collecting current headlines and organizing them into pertinent groupings. The time required to assemble each As’TWere posting is such that the brief time exposure on Statesman.com makes it NOT worth my time & effort to continue. As my monthly As’TWere hits had been averaging 33,000+, I feel gratified that I’ve been able to contribute to my community in a meaningful manner. Please enjoy this last As’TWere posting… a collection of interesting web pages. [ Note: I’ll continue blogging, but only within my original AsISeeIt short format. However, I don’t know how long that’ll last because ‘positive feedback’ from readers is almost totally nonexistent & the new Readers Blog setup no longer provides me the number of hits my blog receives (essential for gauging the general receptivity of the Readers Blog audience & providing me with necessary encouragement).] Dancing Lady Illusion: Do you see the dancer as turning ‘clockwise’ or ‘counterclockwise’? Click on link: If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning counterclockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it. [My Comment: While I doubt the left vs. right brain postulation, go ahead and try ‘visually’ tracing the outer edge of the picture frame clockwise / counterclockwise to change the direction.] Other Illusions: A western diamondback rattlesnake sinks its fangs into a green jay. View Picture: Terry Fator Brings Ventriloquism To New Heights (he sings better with his mouth closed than most professional singers can with their mouths open): Looking Back At The Sixties (Music and script): Phone Salesman Amazes Crowd- View (03:36): Irish Blessing: Archeological Oddities: The examples of artifacts that describe various oddities of science collected in this interesting About.com article will, no doubt, amaze you. What follows is a sampling of these wonderful archeological finds. Click on the link below for the entire list & then have fun discerning between true oddities, hoaxes, and naturally freakish things. >A battery found in Baghdad that's at least 2,000 years old. >Artifacts from Central America and ancient Egypt that look like modern airplanes. >The discovery of hundreds of stone disks made as long as 12,000 years ago that resemble ancient vinyl records, complete with spiral grooves. After opening the following orange link, click on “Start Here”: 15 Can’t-Miss Ways to Declutter Your Mind: Feel Good Websites: www.Dailygood.org Claims to exist simply to spread the good and to inspire. www.DailyZen.com Hopes to make you less stressed and more enlightened. www.Dailystrength.org Support group chatboard for a variety of life’s conditions. 50 Practical Home Office Feng Shui Tips: Learn To Speedread: >Have a pen in hand to run under the words as if you were underlining. Your eyes are ‘hard-wired’ to follow a moving object & this will prevent eye regressions and double your reading speed. >Do not subvocalize (the process in which you hear the words in our mind as you read). If necessary, softly hum to drown out the subvocalization / you’ll soon stop subvocalizing. > Try these methods daily for 15 minutes minimum Investigate Charities Via The Internet Before You Donate: Four Top Blogs: “The Huffington Post” – Political blog “Lifehacker” – Full of tips, shortcuts, how-tos, etcetera for getting things done “Metafilter” – Lets users contribute interesting links “Treehugger” – Grassroots green blog / ranks among top 20 blogs in traffic worldwide Websites For Teachers: Websites For Tykes: While the following websites are preferable for use in entertaining little kids than TV, real play and concrete learning with appropriate social interactions is the best: Practical Tips For Happiness: What are you really looking for in life? Once you look deeper, beyond your desire for a bigger house or a fancier car, you will most likely discover that what you’re truly searching for is ‘not’ more “stuff,” but more happiness, more joy. It may seem some people are born with enjoyment for life programmed into their hardwiring, whereas for others finding happiness seems an elusive goal. But, like any programming, yours can be changed. Here are 30 simple tips: The 7 Energy Sinkholes (and How to Avoid Them): Energy sinkholes are situations that slowly but surely drain your energy and stress you out. These seven energy drains may not be immediately apparent because they rarely hit you all at once. Over time, however, they can leech life right out of you, leaving you stressed, depressed, and apathetic. Your best combat technique is to get a routine, and to have preplanned methods for handling each of these energy sinkholes. Here are a few of the biggest time stealers. For the complete list, don’t miss the full article: Strong Handshake, Strong Genes: The Science magazine indicates there’s evidence that the firmness of a man’s grip is a good indicator of physical health and aggressiveness. About 65% of grip strength is genetically determined & 35% related to exercise and overall muscularity. The Week Practical Psychology On The Highway: Australian traffic authorities report that a new road-safety campaign, which suggests that men who speed are compensating for having small penises, has been very successful. The ads show eye-rolling women holding up their pinky fingers as a man speeds past. [My Comment: The same ‘rule-of-overcompensation’ applies to those who drive oversized vehicles.] Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Recently deceased, Albert Ellis helped lay the intellectual foundations of cognitive behavior therapy. He wasn't always lauded by the mental health community. In fact, Dr. Albert Ellis believed most psychologists and psychiatrists hated him… my favorite quotes from him are: “No matter what the trauma, stop complaining and deal with it” & “Neurosis is a high-class name for whining”. ~Whining is anger expressed through a small opening.~ |
| Posted 5/9/2008 7:26 AM CDT Note: This posting is short because it’s all that’s left of my collected current events headlines. I quit collecting them when I found out that the Readers Blogs format was going to make sustaining my As’TWere format untenable. My next posting will be a collection of fun sites… and it’ll be the last of the As’TWeres. It’s Not The Baby Boomers That’ll Bankrupt Social Security: This year, the first of the ‘baby boomers’ (born in 1946) become eligible for SS benefits. And because of the particular way the funding was arranged by Congress in 1983 (a Trust Fund built from surpluses created by increased SS taxes & invested in government bonds), the Federal Government will not ‘run out of money’ until 2041. It’s ‘after that’ when a deficit will occur (unless changes are made prior). [Note: Most of the ‘boomers’ will be dead before 2041. So, it’s NOT the ‘boomers’ that will leave SS ‘short-of-funds’ --- it’s the long-term trends of increased immigration with its increased fertility along with overall increased life expectancy of Americans that’ll be the cause.] Related Articles: The federal government now spends $952 billion a year on Social Security, Medicare, and other benefits for the elderly, which comes to a record $27,289 per senior citizen – up 25% since 2000. About 35% of the federal budget is spent on seniors. USA Today Regional Differences In Health Costs and Care: Scroll cursor over USA map to compare cost differences between places. Another Unfair Situation That The ‘Social Security Fairness Act’ Would Correct: A Minneapolis police officer injured in the line of duty is only getting partial workers’ compensation after an injury left him permanently disabled. Dan Wulff was a dedicated Minneapolis cop with one of the most dangerous job on the force -- commander of the bomb squad. But three years ago, a shockwave from an explosion left Wulff with a ‘traumatic brain injury’. He is now permanently and totally disabled. Had he been killed or partially disabled, his widow would be getting 100% of his salary. However, because he's fully and permanently disabled, he gets only about 2/3rds. The problem is a quirk in federal law known as the Windfall Elimination Provision. Originally intended to curb fraud, it caps permanent total disability at 66% of the workers’ wage at the time of injury. The law affects not only cops, but firefighters, school teachers and millions of other federal, state and city workers in a variety of ways. Now, Democratic state and federal lawmakers are trying to change the law that affects millions of disabled government workers and retirees. Sign electronic petition. Three months after Oklahoma passed a law cutting off all public benefits to illegal immigrants and making it a felony to “harbor, transport, conceal, or shelter” them, many of the state’s 100,0000+ illegals have already fled the state. Chicago Tribune Hispanic Surnames In U.S.: For the first time, two Hispanic surnames – Garcia and Rodriguez – have cracked the list of top ten most common names in the nation. The New York Times |
| Posted 5/8/2008 11:03 AM CDT Undercover Ops By Humane Society of the United States (HSUS): After the HSUS released its videotape findings of the Hallmark Meat Packing Company, Americans were shocked by the appalling mistreatment of "downed" cows — those too sick or injured to walk. Such ‘downers’ are at a greater risk of being infected with disease and other harmful food borne pathogens that can jeopardize human health. School districts rushed to purge their systems of meat from the plant. Restaurants announced an end to purchases from the company. Political leaders across the nation denounced the shocking conditions at this slaughter plant. Donate To Finance Further HSUS Undercover Investigations (especially since federal watchdogs are asleep): National Disgrace: Puppy mills… have been around for decades. They continue to thrive because they prey on unwitting consumers who are smitten by too-cute-for-words puppies in pet store windows and on fancy websites. But behind the friendly facade of the local pet shop, the pastoral scenes on a "breeder's" website, or the neighborhood newspaper ad, there often lies a puppy mill. These canine breeding facilities house dogs in shockingly poor conditions. Life is particularly bad for "breeding stock," dogs who live their entire lives in cages and are continually bred for years, without human companionship and with little hope of ever becoming part of a family. These dogs receive little or no veterinary care and never see a bed, a treat or a toy. After their fertility wanes, breeding animals are commonly killed, abandoned or sold to another mill. The annual result of all this breeding is hundreds of thousands of puppies, many with behavior and/or health problems. Take Action: Tick Control: Realize that any furry mammal (e.g., deer, possums, rodents / rats and squirrels, dogs, cats) can carry ticks. Spraying of yards or bushland to kill ticks is NOT necessarily recommended, as the sprays will kill all insects in the area. Ticks will return to the area, in any case, on the backs of mammals, and will thrive without predatory insects and spiders to eat them. Keeping your yard mowed helps discourage their thriving. Using monthly canine Frontline (or Primers) on your dog is the most effective preventative and treatment…. plus understanding the life cycle and habits of ticks. Read: Why Cats Tolerate Humans: The house cat originated in the Fertile Crescent ten thousand years ago. Unlike other cases of domestication, cats didn’t become household companions through a process of deliberate breeding; rather, it was by means of ‘natural selection’. Genetic material gathered from nearly one thousand domestic and wild cats trace the house cat’s family tree back to its roots—and it’s no accident that the timing coincides with the emergence of agriculture. As humans made the transition from hunting and gathering to farming, they created concentrated, permanent stores of food. Stockpiles of grain attracted hungry mice, which in turn drew hungry feral cats. For a cat raiding a grain store in a primitive village, being “tolerant of humans” became an evolutionary advantage. Eventually, as villages grew, friendlier cats became more and more segregated from their wilder brethren. Is ‘Ball Moss’ A Tree Killer?: Ball moss is not a parasite or a true moss. It's an epiphytic bromeliad (Tillandsia) that gets moisture and nutrients from the air. Ball moss does not directly kill trees. But as the small gray-green tufts become dense, they shade developing buds. A small amount of ball moss is not harmful to a healthy tree. A heavy infestation in a weakened tree, however, is cause for concern. Ball moss forms rootlike structures, "holdfasts," that penetrate the bark. To gain control, cut, scrape or pick the ball moss out. Prune out dead and/or weakened branches covered in moss. Some gardeners treat it with a copper hydroxide product in late winter or early spring. Avoid drift, since it can burn foliage on other plants. The product also can stain. Consider hiring a tree service; most gardeners do not have the equipment to spray large trees. To avoid leaf burn or defoliation, do not spray after the tree leafs out. Apply at approximately 1/2 pound per gallon of water. The moss should die within weeks after spraying. It will turn dark gray and remain attached to the tree. The holdfasts will eventually decay. Fertilize and deeply water trees after treating. |
| Posted 5/7/2008 5:28 PM CDT As'TWere #104 will be the last As'TWere posting due to the inadequacy of the new Readers Blog format. Looking 7.5 Billion Years Into The Past: Even the faintest stars visible to the eye are merely hundreds or thousands of light-years distant. But staring toward the northern constellation Bootes on March 19th, even without binoculars or telescope you still could have witnessed a faint, brief, flash of light from a gamma-ray burst. The source of that burst has been discovered to lie over halfway across the Universe at a distance of about 7.5 billion light-years. Now holding the distinction of the most distant object that could be seen by the unaided eye and the intrinsically brightest object ever detected, the cosmic explosion is estimated to have been over 2.5 million times more luminous than the brightest known supernova. Sky Delights Over Sweden: This night was a sky enthusiast's delight. In Sweden, many a cosmic wonder was captured with a single snapshot. They are described here from near to far. In the foreground are nearby trees and more distant snow covered mountains. In silhouette, Clouds can be seen just above the horizon, and a careful eye can even discern the more distant green and red auroras which occur in Earth's upper atmosphere. Red emission nebulas dot the sky, including the Heart and Soul Nebulas, IC 1396 and the North America Nebula. Running diagonally from the upper left to the lower right is the majestic glowing band of our Milky Way Galaxy's central plane.. More distant than everything else, appearing as it did over two million years ago, is the Andromeda galaxy, visible above the horizon toward on the lower left. Our Universe Is Filled With Galaxies: Although distant galaxies move away from each other as the universe expands, gravity attracts neighboring galaxies to each other, forming galaxy groups, clusters of galaxies, and even larger expansive filaments. Some of these structures are visible on one of the most comprehensive maps of the sky ever made in galaxies: the APM galaxy survey map completed in the early 1990s. Over 2 million galaxies are depicted above in a region 100 degrees across centered toward our Milky Way Galaxy's south pole. Bright regions indicate more galaxies, while bluer colors denote larger average galaxies. Dark ellipses have been cut away where bright local stars dominate the sky. Many scientific discoveries resulted from analyses of the map data, including that the universe was surprisingly complex on large scales. Galaxy Wars: M81 versus M82 -- Two mammoth galaxies are locked in gravitational combat, as they have been for the past billion years. The gravity from each galaxy dramatically affects the other during each hundred million-year pass. Last go-round, M82's gravity likely raised density waves rippling around M81, resulting in the richness of M81's spiral arms. But M81 left M82 with violent star forming regions and colliding gas clouds so energetic the galaxy glows in X-rays. In a few billion years only one galaxy will remain. View Dramatic Photo: Milky Way Galaxy To Be Invaded: Our Galaxy is being invaded. In the next 100 million years, the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy will move though the disk of our own Milky Way Galaxy yet again . The Sagittarius Dwarf, shown as the extended irregular shape below the Galactic Center, is the closest of 9 known small dwarf spheroidal galaxies that orbit our Galaxy. Don't worry, our Galaxy is not in danger, but no such assurances are issued for the Sagittarius Dwarf. View: Dynamic Picture Of Colliding Galaxies: Linking spiral arms, two large colliding galaxies are featured in this Hubble Space Telescope view. They lie some 450 million light-years away… the picture spans over 150 thousand light-years. Although this scenario does look peculiar, galaxy collisions and their eventual mergers are now understood to be common, with Arp 272 representing a stage in this inevitable process. In fact, the nearby large spiral Andromeda Galaxy is known to be approaching our own galaxy and Arp 272 may offer a glimpse of the far future collision between Andromeda and the Milky Way. Two Galaxies Merging As One: NGC 3256 actually shows a current picture of two galaxies that are slowly colliding. In hundreds of millions of years, only one galaxy will remain. Today, however, NGC 3256 shows intricate filaments of dark dust, unusual tidal tails of stars, and a peculiar center that contains two distinct nuclei. Although it is likely that no stars in the two galaxies will directly collide, the gas, dust, and ambient magnetic fields do interact directly. NGC 3256, part of the vast Hydra-Centaurus supercluster of galaxies, spans over 100 thousand light-years across and is located about 100 million light-years away. Stellar Beehive: Globular star cluster Omega Centauri is some 15,000 light-years away and 150 light-years in diameter. Packed with about 10 million stars, Omega Cen is the largest of 200 or so known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. |
| Posted 5/6/2008 3:54 PM CDT As'TWere #104 will be the last As'TWere posting due to the inadequacy of the new Readers Blog format. Not Much Scientific Savvy In The USA: Only 20-25% of Americans are scientifically savvy. American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth’. At one time in our country’s pioneer history, this kind of ignorance may not have meant much for the nation's public life… but it does in today’s world with issues ranging from acid rain to infectious diseases. [My Comment: If you look at the ‘normal curve of IQ’, you’ll note that one in five people are classified as either ‘dull normal’ or lower. This explains a lot of things. It, however, does not explain the mental laziness of much the rest of the population.] Recycled Energy Falling Short: U.S. homes, offices, and factories account for more greenhouse gas emissions than cars and other transportation because of coal burned to generate electricity. Part of the problem is heat wasted at the coal-fired electric generation plant. Another is the regulatory barriers that make it illegal in many states for industrial facilities to generate electricity from otherwise wasted heat and to then sell it (use captured heat to produce electricity). If the industry can use all of the electricity they produce from captured heat on-site, they’re okay… what’s stupid is their not being allowed to sell their excess power. Thus, less than 8% of U.S. electricity is produced from captured heat, among the lowest penetration of the technology in the world. In contrast, Denmark has kept its energy consumption stable for 25 years while expanding its economy because 55 percent of its power is captured heat. [My Comment: Can we get any dumber than we already are?] McCain Is One Of Congress’ “Top 10 Fossil Fools”: The GOP nominee wasn’t generally known for an atrocious record on the environment until recently. While McCain has pioneered greenhouse gas legislation, last year he received a stunning zero rating on the environment from the League of Conservation Voters. The goose egg came because McCain missed every single environmentally relevant vote. And this year, McCain was the only senator who failed to vote on a version of the economic-stimulus bill that included tax incentives for clean energy…. the clean-energy bill failed to overcome a filibuster by just one vote. [Click on link to see whom his cohorts are. They’re not all Republicans.] Conservative Estimates Put Sea Levels Rise At 20 Feet By Century’s End: 124,000 years ago (between the last 2 ice ages), the Earth warmed as much as computer models predict we’ll see by the year 2010 (4 degrees F.). By examining ancient sea sediments, it is known that the sea levels were 20 feet higher then. [What we need to realize is that our computer models are based on conservative estimates of CO2 emissions, plus they don’t properly factor in methane released from methane hydrates.] With warmer temperatures and less snow cutting into profits, the number of ski resorts in the U.S. has dropped from 727 in 1985 to 485 today. USA TodayWorld Bank Vowed To Fight Deforestation, Yet Funds Rainforest’s Biggest Threat: The World Bank has emerged as one of the key backers behind an explosion of cattle ranching in the Amazon, which has been identified as the greatest threat to the survival of the rainforest. Ranching has grown by half in the last three years, driven by new industrial slaughterhouses which are being constructed in the Amazon basin with the help of the World Bank. The revelation flies in the face of claims from the bank that it is funding efforts to halt deforestation and reduce the massive greenhouse gas emissions it causes… fuelled by massive illegal ranches, Brazil has become the world's leading beef exporter Nature Conservancy In Texas: The non-profit conservation organization, The Nature Conservancy, protected 49,805 acres of Texas lands and waters in 2007 that provide important habitat for native animals and plants. Officials with the organization noted that the lion’s share of that land was conserved through voluntary agreements with landowners – called conservation easements – that limit development of the land while leaving it in private ownership. 37,000 acres of the land was protected through donations to the Conservancy of 15 separate conservation easements on private lands by willing landowners. The Nature Conservancy also purchased land outright or received donations of land totaling 6,945 acres in various parts of the state. To Read About More Details: To Join: Where Rape Is The Norm: In some villages in the Congo, 90+% of the women have been raped. It’s used as a weapon of war in the deadliest conflict since WWII, where more than 4 million people have died in the past decade and the number keeps rising. You probably haven't heard much about it, but to understand what is happening there, you have to go back more than a decade, when the genocide that claimed nearly a million lives in neighboring Rwanda spilled over into Congo. Since then, the Congolese army, foreign-backed rebels, and home-grown militias have been fighting each other over power and this land, which has some of the world's biggest deposits of gold, copper, diamonds, and tin. The United Nations was called in and today their mission is the largest peacekeeping operation in history. Note: It’s the story of ‘blood diamonds’ expanded to other mineral resources. View Video Report: Read Congo History To Better Understand: Take Action: Video About China’s African Connection: China's steady investment in Africa is largely overlooked in the US because of our government's total preoccupation with the Middle East. View: Olympic Greed Reveals Chinese Corruption: Corruption is a national problem in China. Surveys have found that 90% of the country's richest 3,000 people come from the families of Communist Party officials. Sweetheart deals and kickbacks are a way of life here. Any serious attempt by senior leaders to change that would devastate their power base. Thus, the biggest winners at the games will not be standing on numbered podiums with medals hanging around their necks. Instead, they will be sitting high above the athletes in plush VIP sections reserved for officials. American Construction Icon Bought By South Koreans: South Korea is buying Ingersoll-Rand's Bobcat division for $4.9 billion. Bobcat's loaders are one of the most versatile pieces of construction and maintenance equipment ever created. Their lift arms can be attached to a wide variety of labor-saving attachments such as backhoes, trenchers, and pallet forks. Bobcat also manufactures mini-excavators, telescopic tool handlers, and portable air compressors. If there's an outdoor job to do, there is a Bobcat that can help you do it faster, easier, and better. In short, Bobcat is an American construction icon. And it's a rip-roaring business that sold $2.6 billion of equipment in 2006. Red-blooded American construction workers weren't too happy to learn that Bobcat will be owned by foreigners. But they better get used to it because the Asians have a bunch of money and are going to keep buying businesses. [My Comment: Our trade deficit and our national debt (and even our personal debts) help make this happen.] Infiltrators On The Indo-Pak Border… are thinking ‘out-of-the-box’ in their efforts to make it across to India. It may look like an ordinary air pillow, but this seemingly harmless device is helping militants from across the border to sneak into India. Fitted with a small rubber tube, the improvised pillow works as a cheap oxygen cylinder, allowing its user to breathe underwater, and swim across the border. Army authorities say militants have found ways to even get across the border fence. And it's not all low-tech. Security forces have also seized instruments like palm tops with code sheets and maps, mobile television sets and solar chargers in the past. There are reports that silent explosives are being used to damage the base of the fencing pillars and high quality chemicals are used to dissolve the fence. |
| Posted 5/5/2008 4:03 PM CDT Mad Cow Disease Case In USA?: A Virginia woman is close to dying, and family says doctors believe the human equivalent of Mad Cow Disease could be the reason…. there has only been one other possible case ever in the United States. The Portsmouth Health Department is looking into the case because the variant form of the disease comes from eating infected meat, and the woman’s family says she’s never left the United States. The only way to definitively confirm it is to conduct a biopsy after death. MRSA Now In Pork: MRSA was recently found for the first time in live pigs in North America, confirming suspicions that it’d entered the food chain. In Canada -- a country that provides 80% of the USA’s pork imports – a strain of MRSA was found in 25% of the animals studied…. with a 20% rate of transmission to the pig farmers. USDA has found that food borne outbreaks have occurred due to contamination by food handlers who spread bacteria from pork products to other people. Veterinary Microbiology Resistant Urinary Tract Infections Linked To Meat Consumption: A new study indicates that women suffering from urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by drug-resistant E. coli bacteria reported eating more chicken and pork than women whose UTIs were easily treated with antibiotics. This study adds to the evidence that UTIs are antibiotic-resistant diseases originating in animals that can be passed to people through meat consumption. According to a UCS report, 70% of the antibiotics and related drugs in the United States are used to promote growth and ward off disease in livestock that are not sick. This practice creates an ideal breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant diseases. Read the study abstract in Foodborne Pathogens & Disease, or read more about antibiotics from UCS. Drug-laced corn flakes for breakfast? Fried chicken made from poultry raised on penicillin for dinner? Do we really know what we’re eating? Biotech companies are planting fields of corn, rice, and other food crops genetically engineered to grow drugs, hormones, plastics, and chemicals. Antibiotics are being fed to food animals that are not sick. These practices can have devastating consequences for our health, environment, and economy. How much do you know about the foods that line your kitchen shelves? Take Quiz: ‘Silver Lining’ In Food Cost Increases: While grocery shoppers agonize over paying 25% more for eggs and 17% more for milk, some critics of the American way of eating like the idea that some kinds of food will cost more because, as the price of fossil fuels and commodities like grain climb, nutritionally questionable, high-profit ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup will, too. And if American staples like soda, fast-food hamburgers and frozen dinners don't seem like such a bargain anymore, the American eating public might turn its attention to ingredients like local fruits and vegetables, and milk and meat from animals that eat grass. It turns out that those foods, already favorites of the critics of industrial food, have dodged recent price increases. Higher food prices level the playing field for sustainable food that doesn't rely on fossil fuels. The “food-should-cost-more” cadre wants to change an agricultural system that spends billions of dollars in government subsidies to grow commodities like grain, sugar, corn and animal protein as cheaply as possible. The current system, they argue, is almost completely reliant on petroleum for fertilizers and global transportation. It has led to consolidations of farms, environmentally unsound monoculture and, at the end of the line, a surplus of inexpensive food with questionable nutritional value. Organic products are not subsidized, which is one reason those products are more expensive... Here's a list of actions you can take right now to help build a strong economy, based on sustainable agriculture, while protecting your health and the environment! America’s Real Drug Problem Is Prescribed Drugs: While approximately 10,000 per year die from the effects of illegal drugs, an estimated 106,000 hospitalized patients die each year from drugs which, by medical standards, are properly prescribed and properly administered. More than two million suffer serious side effects…. adverse drug reactions, from "properly" prescribed drugs, are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. According to an AMA publication, drug related "problems" kill as many as 198,815 people, put 8.8 million in hospitals, and account for up to 28% of hospital admissions. In addition, the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections is in the tens of millions. Note: The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million. The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million. The total number of iatrogenic deaths (condition resulting from the action of the doctor) is 783,936. The 2001 heart disease annual death rate is 699,697; the annual cancer death rate, 553,251." Stop Pharmaceutical Companies From Colluding: Getting health care costs under control is a daunting challenge. But one simple approach could save consumers billions of dollars annually: stopping pharmaceutical companies from colluding with competitors to keep lower-cost generic alternatives to prescription drugs off the market. The Federal Trade Commission, which is entrusted with policing such anti-competitive practices, is trying to do exactly that. However, two federal appeals courts — in rulings that conflict with the analysis of a third appellate court — have found that a brand-name drug company facing a patent challenge is free to pay to keep a generic producer from entering the market until the patent expires. These rulings depart from the spirit of our nation's antitrust laws, and they harm consumers by subverting the competition at the heart of our free-market system. [ It’s time for Congress to act.] “Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act” Take Action: Go to www.Congress.org & tell your reps to Support the “Preserve Access To Affordable Generics Act”. ‘Malpractice Tort Crisis’ A Farce: The media has never reported the results of the exhaustive study done by Public Citizen, where the figures from the National Practitioner Databank demonstrate that the Malpractice Crisis was a manufactured hoax. See here, where one can read the true statistics--the actual value of payments has been declining; payments correspond to the severity of injury; and that less than one-half of one percent of malpractice awards is for an amount over one million dollars. So, "litigious" patients are not filing lawsuits and getting rich at the expense of the system. Nor did the media give any attention to the fact that the statistics straight from the AMA demonstrate that physician supply has grown at more than four times the rate of the general population growth. That statistic holds true even for the period of time that the insurance companies were claiming a "malpractice crisis," and also holds true for the "high-risk" specialties of ob-gyn and neurosurgery. Join: Carcinogen NOT Listed In Body Care Ingredients / USDA & FDA Allows Labeling Fraud: (06:42) 1,4 Dioxane Found in Leading Natural Brands (09:48) Organic Consumers Assc. reveals 1,4-Dioxane chemicals – ONE (08:31) Organic Consumers Assc. reveals 1,4-Dioxane chemicals – TWO (09:45) Organic Consumers Assc. reveals 1,4-Dioxane chemicals – THREE Babies’ “Nursery Water” Company Boldly Lies To Parents: The American Dental Association (ADA) released a recommendation advising that infants NOT receive fluoridated water for the first year of life. This was a striking recommendation, especially since it came from the most adamant pro-fluoride organization in the country. Prior to the ADA's recommendation, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) had ruled that companies selling fluoridated bottled water could not make any claims that fluoride benefits infants' teeth. However, despite FDA's ruling and the ADA's recommendation, a US company (Nursery Water) continues to market fluoridated water specifically for babies! As noted in a complaint filed last week by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), Nursery Water continues to claim in its advertising that the added fluoride will "strengthen your little one's teeth" and "prevent tooth decay." The company further misleads parents by stating that the water is "specially formulated to contain the ADA recommended level of added fluoride." [Note: 1/3 of kids in USA suffer from ‘fluorosis’... and it effects more than just teeth.] You Must At Least Watch The First Two Minutes Of Video: Read Complaint: Take Action: Why Women Need Better Sleep: Doctors are learning that poor sleep habits may make women more vulnerable than men to heart disease and diabetes. Men who had trouble falling asleep or reported interrupted sleep did not show higher levels of the risk factors and therefore had reduced chances of developing the illnesses…. testosterone is known to reduce levels of heart-damaging inflammatory proteins. Cell Phones Do Cause Sleep Disturbance: Radiation from mobile phones delays and reduces sleep, and causes headaches and confusion, according to a new study sponsored by the mobile phone companies themselves, shows that using the handsets before bed causes people to take longer to reach the deeper stages of sleep and to spend less time in them, interfering with the body's ability to repair damage suffered during the day. The findings are especially alarming for children and teenagers, most of whom use their phones late at night and who especially need sleep. Their failure to get enough can lead to mood and personality changes, ADHD-like symptoms, depression, lack of concentration and poor academic performance. The study is thought to be the most comprehensive of its kind. By the end of this year, for the first time, more than 50% of the world’s population of 6.6 billion will own a mobile phone. The Wall street Journal The average American’s radiation exposure has doubled since 1980 due to increased usage of CT scans / Computed Tomography Scan is a computerized ‘x-ray’ procedure that produces cross-sectional images of the body layer by layer. Although CT scans save lives by detecting cancer and heart disease, a person who receives two scans is bathed in as much radiation as if he stood two miles from ground zero at Hiroshima. The New England Journal Of Medicine Guarding Kids’ First Choppers: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a recent rise in childhood tooth decay, which now affects 28 percent of preschoolers. Here's how to protect your tyke: >Find a "dental home" early. Dental visits should begin no later than a child's first birthday so tooth decay can be spotted early or avoided through prevention. Some dentists may later recommend protective sealants for permanent teeth. >Brush, brush, brush. When that first tooth pokes through the gum, it's time for parents to start brushing. Beginning early helps instill good lifelong dental habits and ensures sufficient exposure to fluoride. >Shake off sugars. Decay-causing bacteria gobble sugar for fuel. That's why parents need to control how much—and when—their kids consume the stuff. Sweetened beverages are prime culprits, but even milk contains sugar, so bedbound youngsters shouldn't be given bottles. Dentists recommend that "sippy" cups, too, contain only water, except at mealtime. Also at fault are certain foods… opt for cheese which cavity-causing bacteria hate, or carrots, sliced apples, or celery. Probiotics Please Colicky Babies: Colic, which causes infants to cry and cry and cry, may be soothed by probiotics, those digestion-aiding bacteria that dwell within intestines. It has proven far more effective than gas-reducing medications. See your doctor. If he’s not aware of this, find a better educated pediatrician. Ear Canal Cleansing Solution (nonprescription): Mix 2/3rds vinegar with 1/3 rubbing alcohol in a bottle with an eyedropper. Tip head to side and administer. Ignore the use of anything larger than your elbow to clean your ear canals. This’ll take care of most any ear infection as well as cure ‘ear itchiness’. As'TWere #104 will be the last As'TWere posting due to the inadequacy of the new Readers Blog format. |
Posted 5/4/2008 7:05 AM CDT
Note: As’TWere #104 will be final As’TWere entry.
Starbucks -- No Coffee In Styrofoam Cups: The use of styrofoam allows “styrene”, the single-molecule form of ‘polystyrene’, to migrate into your food or drink when used as a container. An EPA study of fat biopsies from human subjects found styrene residues in 100% of the samples tested. If you drink water, tea, or coffee from polystyrene cups four times a day for three years, you have consumed about one Styrofoam cup-worth of styrene along with your beverages. The amount that migrates into solid food is dependent upon the fat content of the food (the higher the fat content the greater the styrene migration. The rate of migration increases with temperature (e.g., hot coffee absorbs the most). The health concerns related to this are numerous and readily available to read about on the internet.
Do NOT Put Your Hot Drinks In Plastic Cups: The amount of dangerous ‘bisphenol A’ (BPA) that leaches from plastic bottles into the drinks they contain is most dependent on the liquid's temperature. When both new and used polycarbonate drinking bottles were exposed to boiling hot water, BPA was released 55 times more rapidly.
The increased release of BPA continued even after the hot liquid was removed, meaning that even washing plastic cups or bottles in a hot dishwasher could lead to increased BPA content in cold drinks.
[BPA is an endocrine disruptor which mimics your body's natural hormones & has been shown to affect reproduction and brain development.]
Starbucks spends more than $200 million annually to provide health care to its employees ---- more than it pays for its raw coffee beans. The New York Times
A cup of coffee does more than just perk you up. People genetically predisposed to Parkinson’s disease reduce their risk when they drink 3 cups daily…. and caffeine combined with exercise helps the body discard precancerous skin cells before they become dangerous. The Week
Getting Bombed On Chocolate: Although Mayans were drinking chocolate 3,000 years ago, the Olmecs were brewing a bitter beer by pounding cocoa beans to a pulp and then fermenting them at least 300 years earlier.
The Week
What Happens To Your Body Within An Hour Of Drinking A Coke: Within the first 10 minutes, 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. This is 100% of your “allowable” daily intake, and the only reason you don’t vomit as a result of the overwhelming sweetness is because ‘phosphoric acid’ cuts the flavor. Within 20 minutes, your blood sugar spikes, and your liver responds to the resulting insulin burst by turning massive amounts of sugar into fat. Within 40 minutes, caffeine absorption is complete; your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. Around 45 minutes, your body increases dopamine production, which stimulates the pleasure centers of your brain – a physically identical response to that of heroin, by the way. After 60 minutes, you’ll start to have a sugar crash.
Note: Phosphoric acid, used in many soft drinks, has been linked to lower bone density in epidemiological studies.
What Is Diabetes / Watch 4 Short Videos:
Is Alzheimers A Third Form Of Diabetes?: More evidence has been uncovered that Alzheimer’s disease may actually be a third form of diabetes. Insulin and insulin receptors in your brain are crucial for learning and memory, and it’s known that these components are lower in people with Alzheimer’s disease. In your brain, insulin binds to an insulin receptor at a synapse, which triggers a mechanism that allows nerve cells to survive and memories to form.
Researchers have found that a toxic protein in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients -- called ADDL for “amyloid ß-derived diffusible ligand” -- removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, and renders those neurons insulin resistant. The findings suggest that ADDLs accumulate at the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease and thereby block memory function.
http://www.physorg.com/news110029762.html
Researchers have found that a toxic protein in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients -- called ADDL for “amyloid ß-derived diffusible ligand” -- removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, and renders those neurons insulin resistant. The findings suggest that ADDLs accumulate at the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease and thereby block memory function.
http://www.physorg.com/news110029762.html
The Eat Well Guide… free online directory (and much more) of family farms, restaurants, markets and other outlets that offer local, fresh and sustainable food. Visitors simply enter a zip or postal code to search for food that is free of antibiotics and added hormones, and produced by healthy and humane methods that include organic, pasture-raised and heritage. The Eat Well Guide does the research for people who want to find good food and support local, sustainable farmers.
Click on:
High Doses Vitamin E Supplements Linked To Increased Lung Cancer: Taking high doses of vitamin E supplements can actually increase the risk of lung cancer. A study of 77,000 people found consuming 400 milligrams of vitamin E per day increased cancer risk by 28 percent. Smokers were at particular risk… people should get their vitamins from fruit and vegetables rather than supplements. Vitamin E is known to be an antioxidant that protects cells from molecules called free radicals. But in high doses, it may also act as a pro-oxidant, causing oxidation and damage to cells.
Omega-3 Capsules Are Effective: New findings indicate that fish oil capsules and fatty fish do an equally good job of enriching the body with healthy omega-3 fatty acids. The researchers began the project assuming that fish would be better, but found instead that “whether you get your omega 3 fatty acids from a concentrate in a capsule or in fish ... they have the same effect on enriching the tissues with omega 3…. do encourage people to eat fish rather than merely relying on fish oil capsules… because fish brings with it proteins and minerals and other factors that are good for our health that the capsules don't bring.”
Why Fish Oil Is Good For You: Fish oil is known to play a role in preventing Alzheimer’s disease. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oil, increases the production of LR11, a protein that destroys a protein that forms the “plaques” associated with Alzheimer’s disease. LR11 is also found in low levels in Alzheimer’s patients, and since this protein helps prevent the toxic plaques that are thought to harm neurons in your brain, it is believed to be a factor in causing the disease. What’s left to be determined, according to the researchers, is what dose is most effective.
Females With Hourglass Figures Brighter?: New research suggests that women with an hourglass figure may “on average” be brighter and have more clever children. One possible reason is the greater percentage of Omega 3 fats found on the hips. The study examined 16,000 women and girls, and found that women with a greater difference between the waist and hips scored significantly higher on cognitive tests, as did their children. Fat around hips and thighs holds higher levels of omega 3 fats, which are essential for the growth of the brain during pregnancy. Fat around the waist may have higher levels of omega 6 fats acids, which are less well suited to brain growth.
Difference Between Dark Meat & White Meat: Simply speaking, ‘dark meats’ are dark because the muscles are used more. They have more myoglobin proteins, which help ship oxygen to your muscle cells. When dark meat is cooked, the myoglobins turn into metmyoglobins, which are very high in iron. While white meat contains glycogen, which is a polysaccharide of glucose, an animal starch. Animal starch is stored in your liver, and then broken down into glucose when it’s needed by the white muscle. Dark meat contains more zinc, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, vitamins B6 and B12, amino acids, and iron than white meat. Dark meats also contain more saturated fats, along with omega-3 and omega-6 fats.
If You Never Aged, How Long Would You Live?: Each year, American adults have, overall, a 1-in-1,743 chance of dying in an accident. That means that if health problems didn’t kill you & you never aged, you could possibly live to be 1,743 years old before a fatal accident got you. But you could do better. A 9-year-old child has much lower odds of accidental death, about 1 in 10,000. If we could keep everyone to this low rate (avoiding work and driving would probably help), we could typically live 10,000 years. About 37 percent of the population could do better yet, living on average to the ripe old age of 20,000.
How The Obese & Smokers Benefit Society: People who smoke and overeat, in the long run, are actually less costly to society than healthy people because they die younger and consume fewer healthcare dollars. Most healthcare dollars are spent on the frail in their final months of life. People who lived healthful lives cost a total of $417,000, while the obese cost $371,000 and smokers $326,000. John Hopkins University
World’s Slums: As the poor in Asia and Africa move to the cities, the population of urban slums throughout the world has grown to 1 billion. Of the children being born in the world today, one in three will be born into a slum.
The Atlantic Monthly
~If smoking trends continue, one billion people worldwide will die of tobacco-related illnesses this century. India and China now account for 40% of the world’s smokers.~ New York Daily News
