New Warning About Olive Oil

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Dr. Rudi Moerck is a drug industry insider and an expert on fats and oils.

In this interview, Dr. Moerck discusses the ins-and-outs of cooking oils; the good, the bad and the ones to avoid like the plague.

via articles.mercola.com

If you cook with olive oil read this.

Vitamin B12 Helps Ward Off Alzheimers

People who consume foods rich in vitamin B12 could be at lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers analyzed blood samples from more than 270 individuals who showed no evidence of dementia. They tested for levels of vitamin B12 and for levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that has been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease, and then tracked the study participants for seven years.

Each unit increase in vitamin B12 reduced the risk of developing Alzheimer's by 2 percent.

According to CNN:

"The relationship between vitamin B12 and Alzheimer's risk is 'complex' ... B12 levels, particularly holotranscobalamin levels, likely play a contributory role."

via articles.mercola.com

This is worth the read.

‘Lizard Brains’ Redux: Huffington Repeats Analogy But Gets Exposed by TV Host | The Blaze

Last month Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington blamed support for Christine O’Donnell on people using their “lizard brains.” The insinuation being that only small-minded people would buy into O’Donnell and her ideas.

Now she’s at it again.

Appearing on Friday’s “Morning Joe,” Huffington used the analogy with host Joe Scarborough to describe why people would vote for Republicans next week:

People are operating out of fear and anxiety at the moment. And when they operate out of fear and anxiety, they operate out of what they call their ‘lizard brains.’ Lizard brains are not susceptible to rationality. That’s why the argument of, ‘you just voted them out and you want to vote them in’ isn’t going to cut it.

Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer explains what happened next when Scarborough called out Huffington:

“Lizard brains? Is that what Americans did in ‘08 when they elected a state senator President of the United States?” asked Scarborough. “Was that fear?”

“No, that was hope,” said Huffington, to some chuckles from the panel.

A couple minutes later, Scarborough summed it up: “When democrats win people are using the hope side of their brain, when Republicans win, people are using the lizard side of their brain.”

Did Scarborough just use his lizard brain to expose Huffington’s argument? I think so:

via theblaze.com

The power of common sense.

Issue on Bees Dying in Colony Collapse Disorder

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a disease which causes honeybees to become disoriented and die far from their hives, has kept scientists desperately seeking for the cause.

And no wonder, since honeybees contribute $15 billion in annual agriculture revenue to the U.S. economy alone.

One suggested culprit has been pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids, which kill insects by attacking their nervous systems. Their leading manufacturer, Bayer Crop Science, has been fending off lawsuits from angry beekeepers for years now. But recently, a front-page New York Times article pointed to another solution.

Running under the headline "Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery," the article reports that a new study claims the cause is actually "a fungus tag-teaming with a virus."

However, one fact that the Times article did not mention is the relationship between the study's lead author, Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk, and Bayer Crop Science. Bromenshenk has received a significant research grant from Bayer -- and failed to disclose the conflict of interest to the Times.

Fortune reports:

"The Times reporter who authored the recent article, Kirk Johnson, responded in an e-mail that Dr. Bromenshenk 'did not volunteer his funding sources.' ... Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist with the health group at the Natural Resources Defense Council, says that while the Bromenshenk/Army study is interesting, it fails to ask the underlying question 'Why are colonies dying?'"

via articles.mercola.com

Another conspiracy?... read on.

CAGW Launches New Nationwide Ad Campaign

Watch CAGW’s New National Ad Campaign here!

On October 21, 2010, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) unveiled a national ad addressing our country’s spending addiction, the dangers of relentless deficits, and the corrosive nature of our national debt.  

This new ad, which features a chilling look at one potential future scenario if America continues on its current destructive fiscal trajectory, is a 2010 homage to “The Deficit Trials,” a 1986 ad that was produced by W.R. Grace & Co.  For those who were able to view it, the ad caused a sensation; it was considered so controversial at the time that the networks refused to run it. 

J. Peter Grace, CAGW’s co-founder and the chairman of President Ronald Reagan’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (the Grace Commission), was alarmed about what the debt would do to future generations.  The national debt was $2 trillion in 1986, when “The Deficit Trials” ad was denied broadcast time; today the debt stands at $13.7 trillion and is projected to reach 140 percent of GDP in two decades, the time in which the new CAGW ad is set.

The new ad is part of an ongoing communications program in CAGW’s decades-long fight against wasteful government spending, increased taxes, out-of-control deficit spending, and a crippling national debt that threatens the future and survival of our country.   CAGW plans to run the ad on major cable networks throughout the rest of 2010 and into 2011.

via swineline.org

Frightening...

The News is Bad

The year is 2010.

More and more people are getting their news from the Internet. And many traditional media sources are greatly suffering as a result.

It's no wonder. Fresh information is constantly at our fingertips. I am puzzled why anyone would watch television news or read newspapers any more.

I NEVER watch television news. I NEVER buy a newspaper.

But I happened to be in front of a television the other day while waiting on my car at an oil change shop.

The local news was on, so I watched out of the corner of my eye while checking my email on my iPhone.

What I heard solidified my decision to tune out television news.

Here were the first five stories of the broadcast...

1) There had been a kidnapping in the city. No leads on who took the child.

2) A fatal car wreck claimed the lives of two young people driving an SUV.

3) A rare meningitis death took the life of a co-ed at Colorado State University.

4) A man was arrested in a "murder for hire" case.

5) One of the trapped miners didn't want to be rescued. It turns out his wife discovered he had a mistress while he was still trapped.

After ten minutes of this, I felt completely and utterly traumatized.

Bad news, bad news and more bad news. People are drawn to it like a moth to a flame. That's why the ridiculous tabloids sell so well.

The news is BAD! At least that's what the networks would have you believe. After all, bad news SELLS.

It's no wonder people are so depressed. If you consume this kind of "news" day after day, it will affect you negatively. That much negativity would depress anyone!

My advice?

Turn off the television. While you are at it, stop wasting your time on Ellen, Oprah and soap operas. I understand watching a few hours of television each week, but hours each day?

Do something with your life. Make a difference for someone else. Just stop allowing those only interested in your money to dictate how you think and feel.

Parents, get your kids away from the television set. They are being fed so many bad messages from the media. And the messages of consumption perpetuated by advertisers are even worse.

via joelcomm.com

Would you agree??

US Performance on Life Expectancy and Health Care Costs

America ranks 49th in life expectancy worldwide, putting it lower than a dozen other developed nations.

However, researchers determined that obesity, traffic accidents and a high murder rate may not be the main causes -- the U.S. didn't stand out as doing any worse in these areas than any of the other countries studied.

Instead, poor health care may be to blame. Factors such as costly specialized and fragmented care are likely playing a large role in the nation's poor performance.

Commenting on the study in Salon, Glenn Greenwald noted:

"It's easy to say and easy to document, but quite difficult to really internalize, that the United States is in the process of imperial collapse. Every now and then, however, one encounters certain facts which compellingly and viscerally highlight how real that is."

via articles.mercola.com

This will be a shock to many.

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM CELEBRATED

A Book Review By DICK MORRIS of The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America by Daniel Hannan

 

Published on DickMorris.com on October 26, 2010

 

From the clutches of European Socialism comes the warning cry of Dan Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament from Britain.  Hannan, who achieved celebrity in the United States for his pithy denunciations of statism, celebrates what is magnificent in the American example and warns us against letting it be subsumed by a growing government and Obama-esque socialism.

 

He takes the issues we wrestle with every day and points out how the Obama Administration is leading us down the primrose path to the extinction of the free market/free enterprise system.  Playing off the seminal work The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek, published in the 1940s, he puts our current battles with Obama into the context of the overall need to defend freedom.

   

But Hannan does a lot more.  He reminds us how unique America is.  He describes how our optimism, hard work, thrift, ambition, flexibility, and adaptability is without parallel in the world.  He itemizes our exceptionalism and warns against the leveling impulse of those who, like our President, neither perceive it nor want to preserve it

   

From across the ocean, Hannan really offers a modern day version not only of Hayek's work but of de Tocqueville's Democracy In America, his portrait of the early nineteenth century United States.  Just as de Tocqueville could use his European frame of reference to articulate what was special about the United States, so does Hannan.  The result is a book that reminds us that what we take for granted, we should not.

 

He underscores how socialism aims not just to change our economy, but to change us.  It seeks to make us into a timid, pessimistic, frightened, dependent people only to eager to sign away their ambition and freedom in return for three square meals a day and a roof over our heads.  He warns that socialism conditions us to be guilty and to rein in all that makes us, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, "the last best hope of Earth."

 

Next week, we go to the polls to determine if Hannan's fears are justified.  A reading of his book between now and then will make it crystal clear to everyone who touches his volume what it is that we are fighting for.

It Is Our Duty To Vote On Tuesday!

I believe that no matter what your political leanings that next Tuesday is an important day for this country.  So let your voice be heard.  If you don't vote you have no right to complain about the outcome.

Turns Out ObamaCare Really Might Undermine Employer Health Coverage | The Blaze

WASHINGTON (AP) — The new health care law wasn’t supposed to undercut employer plans that have provided most people in the U.S. with coverage for generations.

But last week a leading manufacturer told workers their costs will jump partly because of the law. Also, a Democratic governor laid out a scheme for employers to get out of health care by shifting workers into taxpayer-subsidized insurance markets that open in 2014.

While it’s too early to proclaim the demise of job-based coverage, corporate number crunchers are looking at options that could lead to major changes.

“The economics of dropping existing coverage is about to become very attractive to many employers, both public and private,” said Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn.

That’s just not going to happen, White House officials say.

“The absolute certainty about the Affordable Care Act is that for many, many employers who cover millions of people, it increases the incentives for them to offer coverage,” said Jason Furman, an economic adviser to President Barack Obama.

But at least one major employer has shifted a greater share of plan costs to workers, and others are weighing the pros and cons of eventually forcing employees to strike out on their own.

“I don‘t think you are going to hear anybody publicly say ’We’ve made a decision to drop insurance,’ ” said Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. “What we are hearing in our meetings is, ‘We don’t want to be the first one to drop benefits, but we would be the fast second.’ We are hearing that a lot.” Deloitte is a major accounting and consulting firm.

Employer health benefits have been a middle-class mainstay since World War II, when companies were encouraged to offer health insurance instead of pay raises. About 150 million workers and family members are now covered.

When lawmakers debated the legislation, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected it would only have minimal impact on employer plans.

via theblaze.com

Interesting??

A Place of My Own | Michael Pollan

“A room of one’s own: is there anybody who hasn’t at one time or another wished for such a place, hasn’t turned those soft words over until they’d assumed a habitable shape?”

When writer Michael Pollan decided to plant a garden, the result was an award-winning treatise on the borders between nature and contemporary life, the acclaimed bestseller Second Nature. Now Pollan turns his sharp insight to the craft of building, as he recounts the process of designing and constructing a small one-room structure on his rural Connecticut property—a place in which he hoped to read, write and daydream, built with his two own unhandy hands.

Invoking the titans of architecture, literature and philosophy, from Vitrivius to Thoreau, from the Chinese masters of feng shui to the revolutionary Frank Lloyd Wright, Pollan brilliantly chronicles a realm of blueprints, joints and trusses as he peers into the ephemeral nature of “houseness” itself. From the spark of an idea to the search for a perfect site to the raising of a ridgepole, Pollan revels in the infinitely detailed, complex process of creating a finished structure. At once superbly written, informative and enormously entertaining, A Place of My Own is for anyone who has ever wondered how the walls around us take shape—and how we might shape them ourselves.

A Place of My Own recounts his two-and-a-half-year journey of discovery in an absorbing narrative that deftly weaves the day-to-day work of design and building—from siting to blueprint, from the pouring of foundations to finish carpentry—with reflections on everything from the power of place to shape our lives to the question of what constitutes “real work” in a technological society.

via michaelpollan.com

Though I haven't read it yet, this looks like a fascinating book.

Avoid this Post Workout Routine if You Want to Lose Weight

A study conducted by Australian researchers concluded that cooling off with a dip in the pool after a good work-out may make exercisers more likely to eat than those who don't go for a swim after exercising.

According to the Chicago Tribune:

"Test subjects ate more after (two different types of) water immersions than they did after sitting in a chair.

Average calorie intake per person after the cold water immersion was about 489, and about 517 after the tepid water immersion. After resting in a chair, average calorie intake was about 409.

Researchers found lower levels of leptin and higher levels of ghrelin after both water immersion experiments. Following water immersion more carbs and protein were eaten as well."

Since the study included only 10 participants, researchers suggested that further studies be done with larger sample sizes. The study was published in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

via articles.mercola.com

Interesting article.

Demand Slows For H1B Visas - Finance and Accounting Jobs News and Advice

Many high-level engineering jobs here go unfilled for months as companies seek out workers with rare skill sets, many of whom are not American. Meanwhile, a growing number of people -- foreigners qualified to do those very jobs -- are choosing to return to their native country and work rather than subject themselves to U.S. immigration rules, according to those who represent, advocate for and try to hire H1B visa holders. That's true even for those who have been educated at U.S. universities.

"That's the shame of it, that we train them here and then make it extremely difficult to work here," said Peter Cleveland, vice president for legal and corporate affairs at chip giant Intel Corp., who lobbies for immigration reform.

Intel, Cisco Systems Inc. and other large technology companies have been lobbying Washington hard for years to raise the annual quota limits for workers applying for H1B visas.

Approximately 6% of Intel's U.S. work force, or about 2,900 employees, either hold H1B work visas or are former H1B holders who have since earned a green card, Cleveland said.

But that represents just a fraction of the number of foreign engineers that the company could hire if the process to bring them to the U.S. wasn't so "archaic and onerous," Cleveland said.

via it-jobs.fins.com

When is the government going to fix this????? (please read this article)

Still Under Cleopatra's Spell - WSJ.com

In Egypt, on the other hand, competence regularly trumped gender. Cleopatra followed to the throne a sister who had briefly succeeded in deposing their father. She could look to any number of female forebears who had built temples, raised fleets, waged military campaigns. And she came of age in a country that entertained a singular definition of women's roles. They inherited equally and held property independently. They enjoyed the right to divorce and to be supported after a divorce. Romans marveled that in Egypt female children were not left to die. A Roman was obligated to raise only his first-born daughter. Egyptian women loaned money and operated barges, initiated lawsuits and hired flute players. They enjoyed rights women would not again enjoy for another 2,000 years.

via online.wsj.com

2,000 years... amazing. This is a fascinating article about a new book by--
Stacy Schiff is the author of "Cleopatra: A Life," which will be published next month. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for her biography of Vera Nabokov.

Monsanto to Cut Prices on Their Genetically Modified Crops

Since the 1980s, Monsanto has become the world leader in genetic modification of seeds, succeeding in at least 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company -- and they showed no signs of stopping … until now.

It seems Monsanto's glory days may be coming to an end, which is a refreshing turnaround from last December, when Forbes declared this evil corporation "company of the year" -- for reasons that truly boggle the mind.

Now, the tide is turning, and as the Times pointed out, signs are suggesting that Monsanto's "winning streak" is over:

• Monsanto's newest genetically modified (GM) product, SmartStax corn, provides no greater yields than older products, despite being more expensive
• Weeds are growing resistant to Monsanto's Roundup
• The Justice Department is investigating Monsanto for possible antitrust violations

Already, shares of Monsanto's stock have fallen 42 percent since January, and earnings for the fiscal year are expected to be well under projections.

To say this news makes me overjoyed is an understatement, as this company represents one of the biggest threats to your future health, and that of the planet.

Monsanto Monstrosities Swept Under the Rug

Why is Monsanto top on my hit list of evil corporations? Here is just a short list of the many improprieties and outright crimes committed by Monsanto:

• Suing small farmers for patent infringement after Monsanto's GM seeds spread wildly into surrounding farmers' fields, contaminating their conventional crops
• Secretly discharging PCB-laden toxic waste into an Alabama creek, and dumping millions of pounds of PCBs into open-pit landfills for decades after PCBs were banned in the US for being a possible carcinogen.
• Being found guilty of bribery to bypass Indonesian law requiring an environmental assessment review for its genetically engineered cotton.
• Last year, the supreme court of France found Monsanto guilty of falsely advertising its herbicide Roundup as "biodegradable" and "environmentally friendly." Scientific evaluation discovered that glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, is acutely toxic to fish and birds and can kill beneficial insects and soil organisms that maintain ecological balance. Additionally, the surfactant ingredient in Roundup is more acutely toxic than glyphosate itself, and the combination of the two is even more toxic.
• In 2007, the South African Advertising Standards Authority also found Monsanto guilty of lying when advertising that "no negative reactions to Genetically Modified food have been reported."
• According to one EPA scientist, Monsanto doctored studies and covered-up dioxin contamination of a wide range of its products. She concluded that the company's behaviour constituted "a long pattern of fraud."
• In 1999, the New York Times exposed that Monsanto's PR firm, Burson Marsteller, had paid fake "pro-GMO" food demonstrators to counteract a group of anti-biotech protesters outside a Washington, DC FDA meeting.

This should give you a clue as to why I'm thrilled that Monsanto appears to be falling out of favor, at least in the stock market realm.

via articles.mercola.com

Monsanto is such a dangerous company - read the short list of improprieties.

Use this Common Device and Double Your Risk of Brain Cancer…

An epidemiologist and toxicologist who is an expert in environmental health has found evidence linking cell phone usage to an increased rate of certain kinds of brain tumors in young people who were heavy cell phone users.

In her book, Disconnect, Dr. Devra Davis talks about how she found evidence of studies, some decades old, showing that the radio-frequency radiation used by cell phones could have biological effects -- enough to damage DNA and potentially contribute to brain tumors.

As reported by Time, Davis also found that many of the studies debunking a link between cell phone usage and adverse events were mostly funded by the industry. According to Time:

"She found that other countries—like France and Israel—had already acted, discouraging the use of cell phones by children and even putting warning signs on handsets. …

"This is about the most important and unrecognized public health issues of our time," says Davis. "We could avert a global catastrophe if we act."

"Davis also said that industry resistance would make regulation "harder and harder," but that the good news is "simply using a wired headset should significantly cut down on radiation exposure to the brain, although Davis recommends that children—whose thinner skulls can absorb higher levels of radiation—avoid using phones altogether."

via articles.mercola.com

More from the same article.

Use this Common Device and Double Your Risk of Brain Cancer…

If you are in the habit of using a cell phone on a regular basis, or allow your kids to do so, please take this warning to heart: the phone could be increasing your risk of brain cancer, which may not show up for 10-20 years, or more.

It is easy to brush off the emerging and established evidence showing cell phone dangers because the devices are so convenient. I'm the first to acknowledge that the technology behind cell phones has changed the way many conduct business and interact with their friends and family on a daily basis.

But I'm also convinced, and suspect you'll agree, that these benefits are in no way worth it if they end up sacrificing your health to a brain tumor.

The research on this is not sketchy or preliminary … it is solid and ever increasing, and I urge you to take notice now, before it's too late.

The Research is Loud and Clear … Cell Phones are Dangerous

via articles.mercola.com

Everyone needs to be aware of this danger.

Find a niche for your small business and gain a competive edge - USATODAY.com

Years ago, I had a client who was an interior designer. When I asked which customers she was targeting, she said, "People moving from their starter homes to a bigger house, people moving from a bigger place to a smaller house, people moving into their first homes, even those moving into apartments."

"In other words," I responded, "everyone who lives indoors?" Like most small-business owners, she was making a critical, but typical, mistake — she wanted to serve everyone. After all, why not have every possible customer you can?

In fact, you can often be more successful — have more customers and charge more — if you narrow your focus. You've got to know your market, and by narrowing your market — choosing specific customer segments or niches — you make the most of your resources, and you create a clear distinction between you and your competitors.

via usatoday.com

Interesting concept for a small business.

‘It’s Insulting’: Juan Williams Slams NPR on O’Reilly Factor | The Blaze

During an appearance on Fox News‘ O’Reilly Factor Thursday evening, former NPR news analyst Juan Williams describes how he heard the news of his firing from National Public Radio (NPR).

O’Reilly and Williams speculate that NPR was pressured to fire Williams after he offered his opinion during a Fox broadcast earlier this week. Via RightScoop:

FoxNews.com also published a column from Williams Thursday in which he says he was “fired for telling the truth,” and describes how NPR tried to keep him from appearing on Fox News:

My point in recounting this debate is to show this was in the best American tradition of a fair, full-throated and honest discourse about the issues of the day. — There was no bigotry, no crude provocation, no support for anti-Muslim sentiments of any kind.

Two days later, Ellen Weiss, my boss at NPR called to say I had crossed the line, essentially accusing me of bigotry. She took the admission of my visceral fear of people dressed in Muslim garb at the airport as evidence that I am a bigot. She said there are people who wear Muslim garb to work at NPR and they are offended by my comments. She never suggested that I had discriminated against anyone. Instead she continued to ask me what did I mean and I told her I said what I meant. Then she said she did not sense remorse from me. I said I made an honest statement. She informed me that I had violated NPR’s values for editorial commentary and she was terminating my contract as a news analyst. …

I asked why she would fire me without speaking to me face to face and she said there was nothing I could say to change her mind, the decision had been confirmed above her, and there was no point to meeting in person. To say the least this is a chilling assault on free speech. The critical importance of honest journalism and a free flowing, respectful national conversation needs to be had in our country. But it is being buried as collateral damage in a war whose battles include political correctness and ideological orthodoxy.

via theblaze.com

Though I often disagree with Juan Williams, I have great respect for him. This is an outrage.

Tech Rivals RIM and Apple Wage War of Words - WSJ.com

Mr. Jobs made a surprise appearance on Apple's quarterly earnings call Monday for the first time in two years. After briefly highlighting the success of the iPhone, Mr. Jobs went straight for RIM, arguing that Apple had sold more iPhones in the latest quarter than RIM had sold BlackBerrys.

"We've now passed RIM, and I don't see them catching up," Mr. Jobs said. He then argued it was going to be tough for RIM to create a competitive software platform and convince developers to make applications for it.

The Apple CEO also criticized a slate of seven-inch tablet computers—one made by RIM— emerging as competitors to the iPad. "This size isn't sufficient to create great tablet apps in our opinion," Mr. Jobs said. The iPad has a 9.7-inch screen.

Mr. Balsillie responded in kind. "For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field, we know that 7-[inch] tablets will actually be a big portion of the market," he said. "We also know that while Apple's attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options."

The high-level sniping underscores the brutally competitive nature of the smartphone market. RIM's position near the top is under assault by Apple, whose iPhone is making inroads in the corporate market and whose iPad has been in stores since April. Meanwhile, Apple itself is being challenged by fast-selling phones built on Google Inc.'s Android software, which competes for the attention of developers with Apple's iOS software for the iPhone and iPad.

via online.wsj.com

Interesting when the big boys war in the open.

Rocco Mediate Wins In an Amazing Way!

Rocco Mediate holed out for eagle for the fourth straight day, hitting a pitching wedge approach from 116 yards that spun back into the cup on the par-4 17th hole Sunday en route to a one-stroke victory over Bo Van Pelt and rookie Alex Prugh in the Frys.com Open.

"Do you believe what just happened out there?" Mediate said. "I have a job again."

The 47-year-old Mediate won his sixth PGA TOUR title and first since 2002, finishing with a 2-over 73 for a 15-under 269 total at CordeValle. He earned $900,000 and a two-year TOUR exemption.

Mediate had a hole-in-one on the par-3 third hole Thursday, holed out from 160 yards Friday on the par-4 fourth, and holed out from 111 yards Saturday on the par-5 15th hole.

via pgatour.com

I know everyone does not follow professional golf... but this was unbelievable and a heartwarming story.

My New Blog

This is a new blog that I wanted to put up to tell friends and associates about cool and interesting stuff I find on a regular basis.  Check here regularly for new posts.