Wednesday, July 30, 2008


Second Wave Cometh



















Source - Financial Times

Tuesday, July 29, 2008


Food Additives

People spend a significant percentage of their food budget on processed foods, which contain a staggering number of artificial food additives, preservatives, colors and flavor enhancers. It’s virtually impossible to identify them all and ascertain their true impact on your health.

However, some we know more about than others. For example, there’s a substantial body of evidence backing up the claim that refined sugar, artificial sweeteners and MSG have a radically negative impact on your body.

As you may know, I wrote an entire book just on artificial sweeteners, called Sweet Deception.

Another recent article addressed other hazardous food additives that should be avoided, such as:

* Sodium nitrate
* Sodium Benzoate
* BHA and BHT
* Propyl gallate
* Trans fats
* Acesulfame-K
* Food dyes
* Olestra
* Potassium Bromate

Food Dyes and Preservatives That Make You See Red

The issue of whether or not food additives such as artificial colors contribute to behavioral problems in children has been disputed for many years. However, the tide is finally turning.

A carefully designed, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in the journal The Lancet last year concluded that a variety of common food dyes, and the preservative sodium benzoate – found in many soft drinks, fruit juices and salad dressings – do cause some children to become measurably more hyperactive and distractible.


The results of this study have prompted the British Food Standards Agency (FSA) to issue an immediate advisory to parents, warning them to limit their children's intake of additives if they notice an effect on behavior. They’re also advising the food industry to voluntarily remove the six food dyes named in the study by the end of 2009, and replace them with natural alternatives if possible.

The U.S., however, has not followed suit in issuing any similar warnings to American parents.

Beware of Banned Food Additives in Children’s Medicines Too!

Another thing you need to be aware of, as a parent, is that when an ingredient is banned for use in food, it is not automatically banned for use in other areas such as medicine. According to an expose’ by the British Food Commission last year, food additives that have already been banned for use in food and beverages are still used in a majority of pediatric over-the-counter medicines.

Their survey found that ALL BUT ONE medicine out of 41 contained an additive that had been banned.

The additives found in these drugs included:

* Synthetic azo dyes
* Maltitol and sorbitol
* Benzoate and sulphite preservatives
* Chloroform

This is just one more reason why it’s so important to question what your doctor or any other health professional may prescribe or recommend for your child, no matter what side of the counter it comes from, as many pediatric drugs can certainly be harmful, if not downright toxic to your child’s health.

The Bitter Impact of Added MSG


There are a couple of main reasons why MSG is one of the worst food additives on the market. First, as Dr. Blaylock explains in his book Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills, MSG is an excitotoxin, which means that it acts as a poison that overexcites your cells to the point of serious damage. MSG is non-discriminatory in its destructive path and can cause serious side effects throughout your bodily systems, including:

* Cardiac
* Circulatory
* Gastrointestinal
* Muscular
* Neurological
* Visual
* Respiratory
* Urological/genital
* Skin

Other studies have confirmed that early exposure to MSG and other excitotoxins can destroy neurons in a crucial part of your brain, which can lead to gross obesity.

The second part of the equation is that MSG can be literally hidden in food labels, under names like broth, casein, hydrolyzed, autolyzed, natural flavors, and more, making it extremely difficult to identify. has done a good job trying to uncover the many hidden references that MSG can hide beneath.


In the 1970’s, food processors "voluntarily" took processed free glutamic acid (MSG) out of baby food. But that didn’t mean it was entirely removed. It was merely hidden deeper.

According to Dr. Blaylock’s Wellness Report, a 1995 review of MSG toxicity by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) concluded that infant formula contained a dose of glutamate (the toxic ingredient in MSG) in the form of caseinate (cow’s milk protein) that can produce the very same brain injury seen in experimental animals.

MSG also finds its way into baby food in the form of fertilizers called "Omega Protein Refined/Hydrolyzed Fish Emulsion" or "Steam Hydrolyzed Feather Meal," both of which contain hydrolyzed proteins.

Battle Against MSG Goes Sour as Fresh Produce May be Tainted as Well

The use of MSG in food manufacturing and processing is so pervasive, they’ve even found a way to use it on fresh produce. A product called AuxiGro WP Plant Metabolic Primer (AuxiGro), produced by Emerald BioAgriculture (previously Auxein Corporation) contains both hydrolyzed protein(s) and about 29 percent monosodium glutamate.

AuxiGro is used as a desiccant, disinfectant, fertilizer, fungicide, and growth regulator to increase yield and prevent powdery mildew in various crops. It’s a “Metabolic Primer” that increases plant productivity by priming plant metabolic pathways associated with growth, plant disease resistance, flowering, and “quality characteristics” of the produce.

Despite a fervent online search, finding in-depth information on this product proved to be profoundly aggravating, as virtually all official links related to it were mysteriously broken… However, it wasn’t entirely fruitless. According to, AuxiGro has been sprayed on fruits, vegetables and nuts for at least a decade.

On September 12, 2000, the Auxein Corporation Web site gave the following information about its use:


As of 2002, AuxiGro was registered for use in California on tomatoes, almonds, apricots, cherries, plums, nectarines, peaches, prunes, grapes (including grapes to be used in wine), and onions. And in 2004 they requested approval to add cole crops (including broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, collards, turnips, rutabaga, mustard, watercress, and kohlrabi) to the list of crops approved for AuxiGro use.

Today, there is no known commercial crop that has not been approved for treatment with MSG by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Emerald BioAgriculture have also requested approval to use AuxiGro on ORGANIC CROPS, in all states. It does not appear as though their request for use on organic crops has ever been approved, per se. However, MSG-containing ingredients are not specified on the National Organic Program’s list of prohibited substances either, so it’s difficult to discern whether or not it’s being used in some organic farming as well.

To be on the safe side, I recommend purchasing your produce locally from organic farmers, and simply ask them if they use AuxiGro on their crops.

Behavior Modification Through Diet

Just as Dr. Blaylock recommends, an anti-hypoglycemic diet is your best bet when dealing with behavioral problems in children, as well as for the prevention of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Here are my best recommendations:

* Eat a healthy diet that includes lots of fresh, locally-grown organic vegetables and fruits
* Take a high quality omega-3 supplement such as krill oil or fish oil
* Avoid refined sugar
* Avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
* Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners
* Limit MSG intake by avoiding most processed foods

Source - Mercola

Saturday, July 26, 2008


USA - Police State











































Source - Salon

Thursday, July 24, 2008


Ban Chemotherapy



















Source - Natural News

Tuesday, July 22, 2008


What Makes Us Sick


One reason may be toxic metals like:
  • Mercury
  • Aluminum
  • Cadmium
  • Arsenic
  • Lead








How Do You Know if You’re Suffering from Heavy Metal Toxicity?


  • Sudden, severe cramping and/or convulsions
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Sweating
  • Headache
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Impaired cognitive, motor and language skills


  • Fatigue
  • Aching joints
  • Depression
  • Impaired blood sugar regulation

Sound like anyone you know?


Why is Your Diet so Important When it Comes to Heavy Metal Detox?



  • Eat at least one-third of your food raw.

As Dr. Daniel explain in this article, optimal nutrition is essential when dealing with heavy metal toxicity because if you are deficient in essential metals, your body will use toxic heavy metals as “stand-ins” instead. For example:

  • Manganese is replaced by nickel, which is carcinogenic.



Guidelines for Reducing Your Heavy Metal Exposure

It may seem like a fight you’re destined to lose, however I firmly believe you can reduce you exposure to heavy metals quite dramatically, thereby giving your body a fighting chance to eliminate accumulated toxins and restore health.

These guidelines can help limit your exposure:

  • Use glass, cast iron, carbon steel, titanium, and enamel cookware. Both aluminum and Teflon are well known for their toxic dangers, and stainless steel can expose you to carcinogenic nickel.
  • Avoid and remove dental amalgam fillings.

  • Avoid stainless steel orthodontics such as braces and palate wideners.

  • Avoid costume jewelry if you are sensitive to metals.



  • Avoid conventional household cleaning products.

Source - Mercola

Monday, July 21, 2008


Filthier Than Thou

A hereditary Hindu priest, Veer Bhadra Mishra is wont, shortly after sunrise, to totter down the stone steps of his temple to the Ganges river, and there perform a three-part ritual. He touches the sacred water. He dips himself in it. He cups it in his hands and drinks it.

Mr Mishra, 70, cannot make it down to the river every day. The steps are steep. And the river-level at Varanasi, Hinduism’s holiest city, where Mr Mishra is the eighth-generation custodian of a temple dedicated to the monkey-god Hanuman, has fallen. Diversion of the river-water, for industry, agriculture and dozens of upstream cities, is the cause of this. So, to save Mr Mishra’s creaking knees, his acolytes sometimes bring him a morning cup of Ganges water—a cloudy brown soup of excrement and industrial effluent—to relish.

Mr Mishra has contracted typhoid, polio, jaundice and other water-borne ailments. A hydrologist turned environmental activist, he reasonably assumes that his morning devotions are to blame. By official standards, water containing more than 500 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 millilitres is considered unsafe for bathing. As it passes Mr Mishra’s temple, at the upstream end of Varanasi’s 6.5km (4 mile) stretch of terraced riverbank, or ghats, the Ganges contains 60,000 bacteria per ml.

Downstream of the ghats, where 60,000 devotees perform daily ablutions in the river and 32 streams of raw sewage empty into it, the figure rises to 1.5m. Two cremation grounds along the ghats, which dispose, wholly or partly, of 30,000 corpses a year, do not help. (Over 3,000 corpses were reported bobbing in the river last year.) In places, the Ganges becomes septic: tar-black, stinking, without life. Mr Mishra fears that Hinduism, which reveres the Ganges as “the source of life”, will suffer for this. But the corporeal effects of foul water in India may be easier to measure.

By official estimates, India has facilities to treat 18% of the 33,200m litres of sewage its cities produce every day. In fact, it treats only 13%, because of shortages of power, water and technical expertise in its sewage plants. These figures may underestimate the problem: measuring the output of 700m Indians who have no access to a toilet is tricky. But it is enough to suggest why most Indian rivers, from which millions of Indians draw their water, are horribly polluted. Unsurprisingly, then, despite much progress in related areas, such as availability of safe drinking-water, an estimated 1,000 Indian children die of diarrhoeal sickness every day. In the words of Sunita Narain, a prominent environmentalist, mocking the tourist ministry’s slogan: “Incredible India, drowning in its excreta”.

As India rapidly industrialises, this invites a troubling thought. By 2020, according to the World Bank, India’s water, air, soil and forest resources will be under more human pressure than those of any other country. Undaunted, India plans to sustain its current high rate of economic growth without the environmental devastation that Western countries, and recently China, have wrought. Its democratic traditions, it is often said, including a free press, independent judiciary and vigorous social activism, will help prevent the damage. So should its voters: according to a survey last year by the Pew Research Centre, 79% of Indians considered pollution a “very big problem”. And yet, if India cannot begin to deal with its own excrement, how will it cope with more complicated, and politically contested, hazards?

After all, its rivers are noxious despite many excellent environmental laws and regulations. Nor is a lack of money the main problem. Since 1985, and the launch of an emergency plan to save the Ganges, India has dedicated 51 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) to cleaning its rivers, mostly by urging state governments to build sewage-treatment plants beside them. The Ganges and one of its main tributaries, the Yamuna, which runs through Delhi, were allotted over half of this cash. But less than half has been spent. And the sanitation it has built would be hopelessly insufficient even if properly used, which it is not.

In Varanasi, the state government of Uttar Pradesh (UP) has built three treatment plants with a total capacity of around 100m litres of sewage a day. But Varanasi produced 150m litres when they were built, and may now produce twice this amount. Moreover, the plants rarely operate at full capacity. During frequent power cuts, the sewage flows untreated into the Ganges. During rainy seasons—around five months of each year—the river floods the plants’ sump wells, with the same effect.

At least there is hope, in the shape of the activist priest, Mr Mishra. For over a decade, he has been engaged in a legal dispute with UP’s government over how to fix the problem. The government wants to build more of Varanasi’s current expensive and unsuccessful treatment plants. Mr Mishra, with support from the municipal government, wants a cheaper sort, designed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, which relies on gravity and naturally occurring bacteria and uses almost no power. On June 30th the ministry of environment, in Delhi, requested UP’s rulers to abandon their plan in favour of testing Mr Mishra’s.

Occasional victories by dogged activists, backed by the courts, are justly celebrated in India. A successful campaign in 2001 by Ms Narain’s organisation to convert Delhi’s buses and taxis from diesel to gas, and thereby reduce air pollution in the capital, was a cheering example. But these are exceptional cases amid a pervasive institutional weakness. Clueless local governments; corrupt state governments; feuding, overburdened central government: all three have played a part in the Ganges foul-up. To achieve relatively clean economic growth India will have to overcome these frailties, even as its capacity to pollute soars. Against such forces, the efforts of environmentalists to affect policies with powerful backers seem puny, and their triumphs short-lived. Alas, with 1,000 extra vehicles on its roads every day, Delhi’s air is now filthier than ever.

Source - Economist


Film Review - "Diva"

A case of style over substance? Perhaps. But more likely, it's a case of style is substance, for it's impossible to separate the two in "Diva," the delirious, highly enjoyable thriller, which represents Jean-Jacques Beineix's impressive directorial debut. This 1981 work is credited with the renaissance of foreign language films—particularly French--in the early 1980s. But "Diva" holds up extremely well, and remains impressive viewing a generation later, as was evident in a recent run at New York's entrepreneurial Film Forum.

A combo of thriller and fairytale romance, "Diva" draws on a diversity of genres, including mystery and film noir, with Beinex's cool approach recalling the early French New Wave, in style, subject matter-—and love of pure cinema. Beineix had spent years working as assistant director before he made "Diva," and it shows. In crafting an arty genre film, he has also made it his own, adding elements of fantasy, romance, and even a touch of existentialism.

Frederic Andrei plays Jules (a tribute to Truffaut's "Jules et Jim"?), a young moped courier who is smitten by an Afro American opera star, Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez). Since Cynthia has always refused to record her voice, Jules makes a high quality bootleg of the diva's performance for his personal enjoyment, only to be chased by copyright pirates who want to release the recording for profit.

When the tape is mistaken with another tape that's accidentally dropped into his carrying bag, it implicates a high official in a drug and prostitution ring. Pursued by copyright pirates and corrupt police, Jules turns to his mysterious new friends Alba (Thuy An Luu) and Gorodish (Richard Bohringer) for help; Gorodish is described at one point as "going through his cool period."

The mix-up and incrimination of the police force in racketeering and murder set the plot in motion. However, entertaining as it is, the plot is secondary to the charming if unlikely central couple and the film's contagious style. Though based on the mystery novel by Delacorta, at the time, some critics held that the casual, offhand plot was a parody of the Watergate Scandal, as well as Hollywood blockbusters such as The French Connection."

What we care about is not the tape-switch, or even the pair of psychopathic thugs (Pinon and Gerard Darmon) on Jules' trail, but the threat of turning Jules' obsessive dream of a romance with the beautiful, older opera singer into a nightmare.

Beineix and cinematographer Phillippe Rousselot have made a playful, visual work that uses to the max the unique properties of film as a medium. Indeed, one of the most exciting feature debut in years, "Diva" is unified by its inventive production design, extraordinary décor, and color schemes, which combine pop art with surrealism, placed against a more realistic milieu of contemporaneous Paris.
Click here to find out more!

Paying home to a staple of Hollywood actioners, there's a great chase scene through the Paris Metro. But Beineix has the smarts to contrast the action sequences with the languid ambience of Gorodish's loft and the romantic piano music of Jules and Cynthia's night walk through Paris. Beineix and Rousselot imbue the film with seductive neon hues.

Vladimir Cosma's opera-tinged score, which draws on Act I of Alfredo Catalani's "La Wally," is impressive, creating a witty, playful film that's highly diverting. With its distinctive touches, this exquisitely composed hybrid of genres (noir, neo New Wave, interracial fairytale romance) serves as a reminder of why we fell in love with the movies in the first place.

Source - Emmanuel Levy

Saturday, July 19, 2008


China - Emergent Evil

















Massive dams are being built, flooding nature reserves. The land is scarred with giant Chinese mines, with 'slave' labourers paid less than $1 a day to extract ore and minerals.









The result of China's demand for raw materials and its sales of products to Africa is that turnover in trade between Africa and China has risen from $5 million annually a decade ago to $6 billion today.







He can afford to. Mugabe is orchestrating his campaign of terror from a 25-bedroom, pagoda-style mansion built by the Chinese. Much of his estimated $1 billion fortune is believed to have been siphoned off from Chinese 'loans'.

The imposing grey building of ZANU-PF, his ruling party, was paid for and built by the Chinese. Mugabe received $200 million last year alone from China, enabling him to buy loyalty from the army.








The Chinese - who now buy half of all Sudan's oil - have happily provided armoured vehicles, aircraft and millions of bullets and grenades in return for lucrative deals. Indeed, an estimated $1 billion of Chinese cash has been spent on weapons.






In Congo, more than $2 billion has been 'loaned' to the government. In Angola, $3 billion has been paid in exchange for oil. In Nigeria, more than $5 billion has been handed over.
















Source - UK Daily Mail

Friday, July 18, 2008


Energy Shortages - The Blackouts Spread

Of the 266 distinct nations or entities on the world today, nearly 100 are now reporting continuing energy shortages, mostly in the form of inadequate electricity supply, but in a growing number of cases, shortages of liquid fuels and natural gas. The actual number of countries affected is probably well over 100 but there are dozens of isolated island-states scattered around the world that are rarely heard from and are almost certainly suffering in silence while waiting for the next oil tanker to come in.

The majority of these energy-short states are small, poor and play only a minor role in world trade. While we should feel sorry for the plight of their inhabitants who are, or shortly will be, enduring severe hardships from greatly reduced supplies of electricity, water, food and use of motor transport, the impact of their problems on the better-off OECD world is likely to be minimal for a while.

Shortages, however, are not confined to small, poor states, but, in an increasing number of cases, are appearing in large, relatively well-off and active states on which the OECD world of North America, Europe and parts of Asia are very dependent. Several of the countries having energy problems are actually oil exporting states that, for one reason or another, are not able to turn their increasing oil wealth into smoothly functioning shortage-free economies. Unfortunately, several major countries appear to be on the path to an energy shortage-induced economic and perhaps political collapse within the foreseeable future which obviously will have serious consequences for us all.



The next important pair of countries in terms of their impact on western economies is China and India, and although their situations are nowhere near as serious as the problems in Pakistan and Bangladesh, both are beginning to suffer from electricity shortages which will impact economic growth. China, which now has a shortfall of around four percent of its normal electricity production, is compensating by cutting back on production of aluminum and zinc which consume prodigious quantities of electric power. The recent earthquake has given Beijing pause in its ambitious plans to expand hydro and nuclear power production. If China cannot increase coal production rapidly enough to keep up electricity generation for its rapidly expanding economy, it is likely to increase imports of coal and oil keeping pressure on world prices.

So far there is no indication of an unusually large increase in Chinese oil imports as there was during the power shortage four years ago. The world price of diesel is simply too expensive to be used to generate electricity for industrial production these days. India's energy shortages are more serious than China's.

Its nuclear power plants are failing, hydro-power from the Himalayas is drying up due to global warming, and the costs of imported fuels are soaring. Over 85 percent of India's oil must be imported and coupled with the subsidies of oil prices the increasing costs are taking a heavy toll on the state budget. Although the situation in India is not yet as bad as in Pakistan, blackouts and liquid fuel shortages are being reported almost every day somewhere in the country. There is no end in sight to this situation and likelihood of an economic slowdown, coupled with water and food shortages, is increasing.

Several members of OPEC are having electricity and/or liquid shortages. In Nigeria, and Iraq where there are active insurgencies that have damaged the infrastructure, the shortages are endemic. Indonesia, which is just about out of OPEC due to lack of exportable oil, is beginning to face frequent power blackouts and fuel shortages. Even Venezuela and Iran have occasional electricity and fuel supply problems as they are trying to do without substantial foreign technical assistance. In Mexico, demand for gasoline has outrun refining capacity and the country is forced to rely on imports. There are now daily diesel shortages along the border as Americans cross over to fill-up on subsidized half-priced Mexican fuel.

Aside from the major oil-producing states, most countries in Africa, Latin America and Central Asia are enduring some form of energy shortages. In a number of important mineral producing countries such as South Africa, Chile and Zambia, they have already reduced production due to shortages of electricity and diesel fuel.

The global wave of blackouts and shortages is almost certain to get worse. Although most governments have announced optimistic plans to increase electricity production and bring oil to market within the next few months or years, these are almost certain to fail. The cost of building electrical generation capacity is soaring and finding affordable fuel unlikely.

In the OECD world, the effects of these shortages is likely to be felt in the form of much higher prices for declining exports from the energy-poor. For the citizens of the energy-poor world, life is going to become much harder very soon as electric lights, computers, motor transport, refrigeration, fresh water and imported anything become scarcer and scarcer.

Source - Tom Whipple

Thursday, July 17, 2008


Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Gas Prices To Double In Europe

The price of natural gas in continental Europe is to double in the space of a year as a result of the rise in oil prices, according to a leading consultancy.

Such an increase would put a further squeeze on hard-pressed European consumers and businesses, and add to the upward pressure on inflation in the eurozone, which has been estimated at 4 per cent in June.

It would also stoke concerns about the prevalence in continental Europe of long-term contracts for gas supply, which link the price to the cost of oil products such as heating oil.

European gas prices ­typically follow the price of oil with a lag of about nine months, so if the price of crude oil remains at record ­levels, the future price of gas can be calculated with a ­reasonable degree of ­confidence.

According to Cambridge Energy Research Associates (Cera), a US-based consultancy, the rise in the oil price from about $70 a barrel a year ago to about $145 today will result in the gas price rising from about $350 per thousand cubic metres at the start of the year to about $730 by April 2009.

Any rise in the price of gas would also push up the cost of electricity because gas is generally the marginal fuel for power generation.

Household energy bills, including for electricity, gas and heating oil, make up about 5 per cent of consumers’ expenditure in the eurozone. In Germany – the bloc’s biggest economy – the average is 7 per cent. Energy bills and food costs have been the main factor behind the rise in inflation this year across the European Union.

“As the eurozone’s exports slowed, people thought it would be compensated for by a consumer spending spree. But what’s happened has been a sharp rise in inflation that has hurt consumers’ spending power, hit their confidence and limited their spending,” said Howard Archer of Global Insight, another consultancy.

The higher gas price in continental Europe has driven up prices in the UK. Britain has a more liberalised gas market that is not formally linked to the oil price but it has become increasingly tied to the rest of Europe as North Sea gas production has declined.

Consumer groups argue that the link between gas and oil prices should be broken because it supports co-operation between large gas producers and utilities.

Jonathan Stern, of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said that there was “no reason why gas prices should be so high”.

“When oil was at $25-$30 we could live with that. At $60 oil we started thinking the gas price was a bit high. At $140 oil this is craziness: there is no way anyone can argue this reflects the balance of supply and demand for gas,” he said.

Demand for gas in the EU fell in 2006 and again in 2007.

Prof Stern said the justification for the price linkage – that gas was a substitute for fuel oil in power stations and heating oil in homes – had weakened as the use of oil in power generation in Europe had waned.

However, Shankari Srinivasan, of Cera, suggested the price link to oil was likely to persist. “An oil-linked price is not necessarily a higher price, but it is more predictable and can show less volatility than a pure gas market price,” she said.

The growth in liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipped in tankers is expected to strengthen the links between regional gas markets and potentially bring supplies to the EU that are not linked to oil prices.

But the ability to deliver LNG to where suppliers achieve the best returns has, generally, seen it shipped to Asia rather than the US or Europe. Japanese demand has been particularly strong since nuclear reactors were shut down following an earthquake a year ago.

The volumes of LNG shipped from the Atlantic basin and from countries such as Egypt, Nigeria and Trinidad to Asia have risen from nothing in 2005 to 9bn cubic metres last year, according to Wood Mackenzie, another consultancy.

Source - Financial Times