Running and Triathlon Coach

With the mindset of wellbeing, inside and outside. Health, nutrition and awareness are the pillars of this blog.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

10 Signs That The Highways Of America Are Being Transformed Into A High Tech Prison Grid

10 Signs That The Highways Of America Are Being Transformed Into A High Tech Prison Grid

Michael Snyder
The American Dream
Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Once upon a time, the open highways of America were one of our greatest symbols of liberty and freedom.  Anyone could hop in a car and set off for a new adventure at any time and even our music encouraged us to "get our kicks on route 66″.  But today everything has changed.  Now the highways of America are being steadily transformed into a high tech prison grid.

All over the country, thousands upon thousands of surveillance cameras watch our highways and automated license plate readers are actually being used to track vehicle movements in some of our largest cities.  Many state and local governments have come to view our highways as money machines and our control freak politicians have established a vast network of toll booths, red light cameras and speed traps to keep cash endlessly pouring in.  If all of that wasn't enough, TSA "VIPR teams" are now hitting the interstates and conducting thousands of "unannounced security screenings" each year.  Driving on the highways of America used to be a great joy, but now "Big Brother" is rapidly sucking all of the fun out of it.  Eventually, it may get to the point where Americans simply dread having to go out on the highway.

The following are 10 signs that the highways of America are being transformed into a high tech prison grid….

#1 Surveillance Cameras

All over the United States, a vast network of surveillance cameras is carefully watching our highways.  The following is an excerpt from a recent article in the Baltimore Sun about this phenomenon….

The room is large and well lit, and it buzzes with activity even though its occupants remain seated.

The video screen at the front of the room is as wide as an IMAX, though not quite as tall. It consists of 64 smaller screens – 16 columns of four apiece – that monitor every inch of interstate between Great Wolf Lodge and the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. There is an emphasis on tunnels and bridges, and one corner screen is tuned in to a 24-hour weather report.

If you are driving on an highway in Hampton Roads, VDOT is watching you.

#2 Automated License Plate Readers

In a previous article, I detailed how automated license plate readers are being used to track the movements of every single vehicle that enters Washington D.C.

A recent Washington Post article explained that most people do not even know that they are there….

More than 250 cameras in the District and its suburbs scan license plates in real time, helping police pinpoint stolen cars and fleeing killers. But the program quietly has expanded beyond what anyone had imagined even a few years ago.

With virtually no public debate, police agencies have begun storing the information from the cameras, building databases that document the travels of millions of vehicles.

Nowhere is that more prevalent than in the District, which has more than one plate-reader per square mile, the highest concentration in the nation. Police in the Washington suburbs have dozens of them as well, and local agencies plan to add many more in coming months, creating a comprehensive dragnet that will include all the approaches into the District.

A lot of police cruisers are being outfitted with this technology around the nation as well.

So if you see a police car pull up behind you, there is a very good chance that a computer has already read your license plate and is giving the officer all of your information.

#3 Ridiculous Regulations

Some of the new "auto safety laws" going in around the nation are absolutely absurd.

For example, do you buckle up your pet when you go for a ride?  Well, in New Jersey you can now be fined up to $1000 for not having your pet properly restrained while you are out driving.

#4 Outrageous Fines

In many areas of the country, unpaid traffic tickets can rapidly become a major financial burden.

For example, the new tolls on the 520 floating bridge in Seattle are absolutely killing some commuters…..

Registered vehicle owners who do not pay their toll within 80 days or more will be mailed a $40 civil penalty for each unpaid toll transaction in addition to a $5 reprocessing fee.

WSDOT confirmed some tolls plus penalty fees have added up to more than $1,000.

#5 Oppressive Toll Roads

Toll roads have become one of the favorite "revenue raising tools" for our politicians.

At this point the tolls on some roads have become so incredibly oppressive that many people simply cannot afford to drive on them anymore.

And for some reason the toll increases are coming especially fast and furious this year.

A recent USA Today article summarized some of the oppressive toll increases that we are seeing all over the nation….

•California and Washington authorized high-occcupancy toll (HOT) lanes, where tolls rise or fall depending on traffic flow. Texas enacted laws authorizing private toll roads and allowing regional authorities to collect tolls. Indiana removed a provision requiring legislative approval for toll roads.

•Some Maryland tolls will double this year as the state seeks money to rehabilitate aging roads, bridges and tunnels.

The use of tolls on interstate highways also is spreading:

•Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, just won approval from the Federal Highway Administration to add tolls on Interstate 95 in his state. The state estimates that tolls on the heavily traveled corridor could generate $250 million over the first five years for expanding, improving and maintaining the highway.

•New York and New Jersey recently announced that E-ZPass commuters will pay $1.50 more and cash customers $2 more to cross bridges and tunnels between the two states.

•Georgia just created toll lanes on Interstate 85 in suburban Atlanta.

The toll hikes are more than chump change: Cash tolls on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge jumped to $4 from $2.50, and to $12 from $8 on all the New York-New Jersey Hudson River crossings.

Toll roads are one of my pet peeves.  Any time I see a toll booth it immediately puts me in a bad mood.

#6 Red Light Cameras

Red light cameras are another favorite "revenue raising tool" for the control freaks that run things.

Unfortunately, these cameras don't always work right so a lot of innocent people end up getting ticketed.

But politicians love them because they can raise a lot of cash.  The following is from a recent Business Insider article….

According to U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), nearly 700 U.S. cities and towns installed the cameras, which accounted for more than 90 percent of tickets issued for illegal right turns, or rolling stops.

In one New Jersey town, PIRG found 2,500 tickets were issued at one intersection within the first two months of installing a camera.

#7 Speed Traps

In the old days, speed traps were mostly about making the roads safer.

Today, they are mostly about raising money.

One police chief up in Michigan has even admitted that the nature of his job has fundamentally changed….

"When I first started in this job 30 years ago, police work was never about revenue enhancement, but if you're a chief now, you have to look at whether your department produces revenues."

Speed traps are becoming more common almost everywhere, but some areas of the country are worse than others.

A recent report from the National Motorists Association ranked how likely you are to get a speeding ticket in each of the 50 U.S. states….

After crunching the numbers, the NMA found that Nevada is the state most likely to issue you a traffic ticket, followed by Georgia and Alabama. In 2010 Florida took the top spot and Georgia and Nevada tied for second place.

The state where you're least likely to get ticketed is Wyoming, followed closely by Montana. These two ranked at the bottom in 2010 as well.

#8 Government Spying

It has been revealed that the federal government has been secretly putting GPS tracking devices on thousands of vehicles in order to track the movements of people that they are interested in watching.

Most of the time the people involved have not even been charged with any crimes.

The following is a short excerpt from a recent Wired magazine article about this phenomenon….

The 25-year-old resident of San Jose, California, says he found the first one about three weeks ago on his Volvo SUV while visiting his mother in Modesto, about 80 miles northeast of San Jose. After contacting Wired and allowing a photographer to snap pictures of the device, it was swapped out and replaced with a second tracking device. A witness also reported seeing a strange man looking beneath the vehicle of the young man's girlfriend while her car was parked at work, suggesting that a tracking device may have been retrieved from her car.

Then things got really weird when police showed up during a Wired interview with the man.

The young man, who asked to be identified only as Greg, is one among an increasing number of U.S. citizens who are finding themselves tracked with the high-tech devices.

The Justice Department has said that law enforcement agents employ GPS as a crime-fighting tool with"great frequency," and GPS retailers have told Wired that they've sold thousands of the devices to the feds.

#9 Extraction Devices

If you get pulled over by police, you never know what to expect these days.  Previously, I have written about how law enforcement authorities in some parts of the U.S. are using "extraction devices" to download data out of the cell phones of motorists that they pull over.

The following is how a recent article on CNET News described the capabilities of these "extraction devices"….

The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.

#10 VIPR Teams

If all of the above was not bad enough, now we have to deal with TSA "VIPR teams" terrorizing us on the highways.

If you regularly travel across the country, there is a good chance that you have already encountered one of their "unannounced security screenings".

The following is from a local news report down in Tennessee about how local authorities are working with VIPR teams to fight "terrorism" on the interstates….

You're probably used to seeing TSA's signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR).

"Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate," said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons.

Tuesday Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state.

TSA VIPR teams now conduct approximately 8,000 "unannounced security screenings" at subway stations, bus terminals, seaports and highway rest stops each year.

Are you starting to see what I am talking about?

All of this "security" is becoming extremely oppressive.

We don't need "Big Brother" constantly watching us, tracking us and fining us on our highways.

So do you have any examples of how the highways of America are being transformed into a high tech prison grid to add to the list above?

Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below….

Organized Shoplifting Rises As Economy Stays Weak (Miami one of the cities)

Organized Shoplifting Rises As Economy Stays Weak

Bonnie Kavoussi
huffingtonpost.com
June 6, 2012

Shoplifting is on the rise.

Nineteen out of 20 retailers have been victims of organized retail crime over the past year, according to a report released by the National Retail Federation on Tuesday. That is up from 16 out of 20 in 2007. And two-thirds of retailers said they have seen an increase in organized retail crime over the past year.

Organized retail crime involves shoplifting with the intent of selling the goods, according to the report. Thieves usually sell stolen goods on street corners, at flea markets, or at pawn shops; return them for fraudulent refunds; or sell them online through auction sites and other websites.

Organized retail crime is most common in Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco, according to the report.

Read more

Raw, vegan diets shrink breast cancer tumors

Raw, vegan diets shrink breast cancer tumors

by Allison Biggar 

(NaturalNews) About one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. For men, it's about one in a thousand. Death rates have been going down since 1990 by about 2% each year; a woman's chance of dying is only about one in thirty-five. While the statistics are encouraging, it is still a life-changing illness, leaving us physically ill and emotionally vulnerable.

Traditional treatments for breast cancer include chemotherapy, radiation, and invasive surgeries such as mastectomies. These harsh treatments can often lead to other diseases or even a recurrence of breast cancer since they address the symptoms of the disease, rather than the cause. However, through diet and lifestyle changes, which address the cause of the cancer, breast cancer patients can prevent and reverse this heart-wrenching disease without resorting to conventional treatments.

Healing breast cancer naturally

When Annie Pierce discovered a lump in her breast, she researched everything she could find on alternative ways of healing breast cancer, knowing she could depend on her body's innate wisdom to heal itself.

Cancer cannot survive in an oxygen-rich, alkaline environment so Annie strived to create these conditions in her body through a combination of juicing, nutrition, and herbs. To battle the toxic build-up that contributed to her cancer, as well as alkalize and oxygenate her body, Annie decided to eat a completely raw, vegan diet. Her daily diet consisted of raw fruits and vegetables, almonds, raisins, water and fresh-squeezed juice. By avoiding toxins in processed foods and carcinogens created by cooking foods, she encouraged the acid/alkaline balance in her body to become more stable.

Using herbs to cleanse her blood and nutritionally dense raw food to alkalize it, she was able to shrink the tumor in a short amount of time without drugs, surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation.


"By the sixth day, I could literally feel the lump getting smaller, and by the fourteenth day, it had completely disappeared," Annie explained. "Now, with the new information that I have just recently discovered about cancer being caused by a vitamin B17 deficiency, I fully understand that it was the raw almonds . . . which played a major part in my cancer cure."

A combination of a raw diet and herbal remedies can shrink tumors and help reverse breast cancer. In the United States today, two and a half million women live as breast cancer survivors. A raw diet and natural remedies can improve the quality of life for breast cancer survivors, and help bring down the number of people who are diagnosed every year.

Having survived and found a cure for her breast cancer, Annie has become a stronger advocate of herbal medicine use and eating a raw vegan diet. "Had I not been educated about cancer and its causes at the time that I discovered that lump in my breast, I may have made the grave mistake of being overcome with fear and running to a medical doctor in a panic to get mutilated in surgery, or 'radiated' to death, and/or poisoned to death with chemotherapy treatments."

From Annie's story, others may learn to adopt an alternative approach to healing.

"Taking full control and responsibility of our own individual health is one of the most revolutionary non-violent actions we, as American People, can make. Especially in a time when the government officials are trying to pigeon-hole us into a Health Care System that railroads us straight into the grasps of the Medical and Pharmaceutical Industries whose monetary greed causes them to embrace death and disease, rather than life and good health," says Annie.


Sources for this article include:

http://www.YourNaturalCancerCures.com
http://www.cancer.gov
http://www.holisticvoice.org/annies-story

Congressman Paul - War Drums for Syria? - The CIA Seeks To Destroy Syria

War Drums for Syria?

by Ron Paul

War drums are beating again in Washington. This time Syria is in the crosshairs after a massacre there last week left more than 100 dead. As might be expected from an administration with an announced policy of "regime change" in Syria, the reaction was to blame only the Syrian government for the tragedy, expel Syrian diplomats from Washington, and announce that the US may attack Syria even without UN approval. Of course, the idea that the administration should follow the Constitution and seek a Declaration of War from Congress is considered even more anachronistic now than under the previous administration.

It may be the case that the Syrian military was responsible for the events last week, but recent bombings and attacks have been carried out by armed rebels with reported al-Qaeda ties. With the stakes so high, it would make sense to wait for a full investigation – unless the truth is less important than stirring up emotions in favor of a US attack.

There is ample reason to be skeptical about US government claims amplified in mainstream media reports. How many times recently have lies and exaggerations been used to push for the use of force overseas? It was not long ago that we were told Gaddafi was planning genocide for the people of Libya, and the only way to stop it was a US attack. Those claims turned out to be false, but by then the US and NATO had already bombed Libya, destroying its infrastructure, killing untold numbers of civilians, and leaving a gang of violent thugs in charge.

Likewise, we were told numerous falsehoods to increase popular support for the 2003 war on Iraq, including salacious stories of trans-Atlantic drones and WMDs. Advocates of war did not understand the complexities of Iraqi society, including its tribal and religious differences. As a result, Iraq today is a chaotic mess, with its ancient Christian population eliminated and the economy set back decades. An unnecessary war brought about by lies and manipulation never ends well.

Earlier still, we were told lies about genocide and massacres in Kosovo to pave the way for President Clinton's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. More than 12 years later, that region is every bit as unstable and dangerous as before the US intervention – and American troops are still there.

The story about the Syrian massacre keeps changing, which should raise suspicions. First, we were told that the killings were caused by government shelling, but then it was discovered that most were killed at close range with handgun fire and knives. No one has explained why government forces would take the time to go house to house binding the hands of the victims before shooting them, and then retreat to allow the rebels in to record the gruesome details. No one wants to ask or answer the disturbing questions, but it would be wise to ask ourselves who benefits from these stories.

We have seen media reports over the past several weeks that the Obama administration is providing direct "non-lethal" assistance to the rebels in Syria while facilitating the transfer of weapons from other Gulf States. This semi-covert assistance to rebels we don't know much about threatens to become overt intervention. Last week Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said about Syria, "I think the military option should be considered." And here all along I thought it was up to Congress to decide when we go to war, not the generals.

We are on a fast track to war against Syria. It is time to put on the brakes.




Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Record Number Of US Households On Foodstamps

Record Number Of US Households On Foodstamps

Posted By admin On June 5, 2012 @ 2:49 am In Money Watch |

Zero Hedge [1]
June 5, 2012

Last month, when the USDA released the latest foodstamps numbers for the month of February, there was some hope that following a third month of declines, we may just have seen the peak of US foodstamp usage and going forward we would only see the number decline. Sadly, the latest numbers refutes this: in March a total of 46,405,204 persons [2]were at or below poverty level and thus eligible for foodstamps [3], a 79K increase in the month. Yet while many individuals have learned to game the system, and this numbers at the peak may fluctuate, when it comes to the far more comprehensive and difficult to fudge "households on foodstamps" number, there was no confusion: at 22,257,647, [2] the number of US households receiving the "SNAP treatment" rose to an all time high, even as the benefit per household dropped to the second lowest ever. At least all these impoverished believers in hope and change have FaceBook IPO profits to look forward to. Oh wait.

 [4]

Congresswoman: TSA Hiring Pedophiles To Conduct Pat Downs

Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn has released a report documenting how the TSA is hiring "pedophiles and child pornographers" to conduct pat downs.

"This report details highly disturbing cases where pedophiles and child pornographers wearing federal law enforcement uniforms are not only patting down unsuspecting travelers, but in many cases stealing valuables from their bags. Enough is enough. It's time for Congress to step in and demand accountability from Administrator Pistole,"Blackburn told NewsChannel5.

The report (PDF) contains 50 examples of "the TSA's most dangerous officers," listing innumerable examples of TSA agents caught engaged in criminal behavior, from assault, to theft, to child pornography, to molesting children, in cases documented from 2005 onwards.

Blackburn says the report illustrates how the federal agency "needs to immediately remove themselves from the human resource business," adding that the decision to give TSA agents uniforms that mimic law enforcement agencies despite officers having next to zero law enforcement training was a critical mistake.


http://propagandamatrix.com/articles/june2012/050612_tsa_hiring.htm



75% of physicians in the world refuse chemotherapy for themselves

75% of physicians in the world refuse chemotherapy for themselves

by S. D. Wells 

(NaturalNews) Doctors used to think that if they drained a sick person's blood it would purge the "evil" infection or disease right out of the body, but all that did was make the ill person much weaker, unable to fight off whatever was invading their body, and the patient was then highly likely to lose the battle for life, and in less time.

This is all documented in a groundbreaking downloadable PDF report published by NaturalNews:

http://www.naturalnews.com

Research using polls and questionnaires continue to show that 
3 of every 4 doctors and scientists would refuse chemotherapy for themselves due to its devastating effects on the entire body and the immune system, and because of its extremely low success rate. On top of that, only 2 to 4% of all cancers even respond to chemotherapy or prove to be "life extending," yet it is prescribed across the board for just about every kind of cancer.

Polls were taken by accomplished scientists at the McGill Cancer Center from 118 
doctors who are all experts on cancer. They asked the doctors to imagine they had cancer and to choose from six different "experimental" therapies. These doctors not only denied chemo choices, but they said they wouldn't allow their family members to go through the process either! What does that say about their true opinion of this archaic method?

These surveys are having a profound effect on the general public opinion of chemo treatments in most of Western society, especially the United States, which uses more than any nation in the world. This lack of trust by doctors is spilling over to patients, and the move towards natural remedies is increasing, much the way it did in the early 1900's, 
before the dawn of corrupt medicine, pharmaceuticals, and radiation.

An elevated level of toxicity is actually the last thing any human being needs when fighting infection, disease, or pneumonia.

Auto-immune disorders are mainly caused when humans ingest chemicals from food, drinking water, vaccines contaminated with chemicals, artificial sweeteners and environmental pollution. Chemotherapy, like the popular Cis-platinum, fills the body with horrific toxins, and doctors and scientists know it, but because the FDA outlaws doctors from suggesting or prescribing vitamins, supplements, herbs and super-foods, chemical therapy is still "recommended."

The way to beat cancer is to detoxify your body and build up your host immune system, not break it down further by dousing one tumor or one organ with chemicals that pollute the entire system. Put it this way, if an elderly person had an injured toe and it needed a cold compress to help heal it, would you submerge the senior in a freezing pool of water repeatedly for days, and then wait for the toe to heal? Doctors know how absurd the ideology of chemotherapy really is, but when a society bases the bulk of its therapy on 
chronic care management, the doctors are silently coerced into suggesting it or finding another profession.

Chemotherapy shows very little success with common solid tumors that occur in the colon, lung and breasts, as documented over the past decade, yet somehow doctors still push "chemo" to attempt to stave off tumors and malignant growths in these areas of the body.

Could it be some extreme coincidence that although 75% of doctors would refuse chemotherapy for themselves and their family members, they still prescribe it for 75% of their patients? The costly price of chemo and the likelihood of Big Pharma "kickbacks" is screaming the answer "no."

At best, chemotherapy should be considered alternative treatment, but for over 70 years Allopathic medicine has warped the public perception of true medicine, so if you happen to get cancer and your doctor tells you what to do, you may want to ask him/her if they would do the same thing for themselves and their family members.

Sources for this article include:

CLICK HERE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD: 25 Amazing (and Disturbing) Facts about the Hidden History of Medicine

Learn more about the true history of modern medicine in this revealing report. Free downloadable PDF. Covers Nazi connections with Big Pharma, war crimes of Bayer, the weapons origins of prescription medications, the shocking history of psychiatric medicine and much more.

Additional sources:

http://www.indiadivine.org

http://www.curenaturalicancro.com/2-physicians-refuse-chemo.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/opinion/economic-bleeding-cure.html

http://breastcancercover-up.com/

http://www.scribd.com

http://cancercentre.mcgill.ca/research/

http://www.globalhealingcenter.com

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2001350/

Coke bottles may require CANCER WARNING LABEL if drink ingredients not changed

Coke bottles may require cancer warning label if drink ingredients not changed

by Ethan A. Huff, staff writer 

(NaturalNews) Back in January, the state of California added to its list of cancer-causing chemicals an ingredient commonly used in flavored soda beverages, which has sent major shockwaves throughout the processed food industry. And according to numerous reports, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and even Whole Foods are having to alter their soda beverage recipes in order to avoid being required by the state of California to label their products as causing cancer.

The cancer-causing chemical in question is 4-methylimidazole, or 4-MI, a byproduct formed during the production of caramel color, an additive commonly used in processed cola beverages. According to the 
Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), caramel color produced using ammonia or ammonia-sulfites creates both 4-MI and 2-MI (2-methylimidazole), which have been shown to be carcinogenic (http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/caramel_coloring_petition.pdf).

CSPI last year petitioned the U.S. 
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to remove its "Generally Recognized as Safe" (GRAS) status from caramel colors produced in this way, but the FDA refused, insisting that caramel color with 4-MI is safe. But Californians apparently believe otherwise, as they overwhelmingly voted to have 4-MI added to the list of toxic substances covered under California's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, also known as Proposition 65.

As a result, corporate beverage giants are having to change the way they produce caramel color in order to maintain levels of 4-MI that are below the threshold limit. In the process, they are having to spin the story publicly to make it seem as though 4-MI is not dangerous, and that altering the beverage formulas will not change the taste, color, or consistency of their beverages.

But a 2008 study published in the journal 
Archives of Toxicology found that 4-MI is toxic, and that it is linked to causing clonic seizures, hyperactivity, impaired gait, chronic inflammation, focal fatty change in the liver, carcinoma, leukemia, and adenoma, among other conditions. The study essentially confirmed that 4-MI is carcinogenic (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17619857).

If it is possible to make caramel color without 4-MI, why have beverage producers continued to knowingly produce the toxic variety?

In a public statement, Coca-Cola denied that 4-MI is carcinogenic, and openly called the cancer warning mandate "scientifically unfounded." But the science speaks for itself, particularly in beverage products made by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo that have been shown to have high levels of both 2-MI and 4-MI. CSPI covered this extensively in its petition to the FDA:
http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/caramel_coloring_petition.pdf

It is no big secret, in other words, that
4-MI is an "undesirable" byproduct of the caramel color manufacturing method long-used by both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. And yet these companies have continued to rely on this method, despite obvious awareness about its toxicity, even though less-toxic methods were most obviously a viable alternative.

The CSPI report names Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc.'s Dr. Pepper, and Whole Foods' 365 Cola as having unsafe levels of 4-MI that will have to be reformulated. The same report says the amounts of 4-MI contained in these beverages before the reformulation is responsible for causing roughly 15,000 cancers in the U.S. every year.


Sources for this article include:

http://www.independent.co.

£30 Billion Bill to Purify Water System After Toxic Impact of Contraceptive Pill

Drug firms oppose an EU call for controls on potent chemicals that have been blamed for the gender mutation of freshwater fish

Britain faces a £30bn bill to clean up rivers, streams and drinking water supplies contaminated by synthetic hormones from contraceptive pills. Drastic reductions in these chemicals, which have been linked to collapses in fish populations, are proposed in the latest European Union water framework directive.

Western Banks ‘Reaping Billions From Colombian Cocaine Trade’

Western banks 'reaping billions from Colombian cocaine trade'

While cocaine production ravages countries in Central America, consumers in the US and Europe are helping developed economies grow rich from the profits, a study claims

The vast profits made from drug production and trafficking are overwhelmingly reaped in rich "consuming" countries – principally across Europe and in the US – rather than war-torn "producing" nations such as Colombia and Mexico, new research has revealed. And its authors claim that financial regulators in the west are reluctant to go after western banks in pursuit of the massive amount of drug money being laundered through their systems.

The most far-reaching and detailed analysis to date of the drug economy in any country – in this case, Colombia – shows that 2.6% of the total street value of cocaine produced remains within the country, while a staggering 97.4% of profits are reaped by criminal syndicates, and laundered by banks, in first-world consuming countries.

"The story of who makes the money from Colombian cocaine is a metaphor for the disproportionate burden placed in every way on 'producing' nations like Colombia as a result of the prohibition of drugs," said one of the authors of the study, Alejandro Gaviria, launching its English edition last week.

"Colombian society has suffered to almost no economic advantage from the drugs trade, while huge profits are made by criminal distribution networks in consuming countries, and recycled by banks which operate with nothing like the restrictions that Colombia's own banking system is subject to."

His co-author, Daniel Mejía, added: "The whole system operated by authorities in the consuming nations is based around going after the small guy, the weakest link in the chain, and never the big business or financial systems where the big money is."

The work, by the two economists at University of the Andes in Bogotá, is part of an initiative by the Colombian government to overhaul global drugs policy and focus on money laundering by the big banks in America and Europe, as well as social prevention of drug taking and consideration of options for de-criminalising some or all drugs.

The economists surveyed an entire range of economic, social and political facets of the drug wars that have ravaged Colombia. The conflict has now shifted, with deadly consequences, to Mexico and it is feared will spread imminently to central America. But the most shocking conclusion relates to what the authors call "the microeconomics of cocaine production" in their country.

Gaviria and Mejía estimate that the lowest possible street value (at $100 per gram, about £65) of "net cocaine, after interdiction" produced in Colombia during the year studied (2008) amounts to $300bn. But of that only $7.8bn remained in the country.

"It is a minuscule proportion of GDP," said Mejía, "which can impact disastrously on society and political life, but not on the Colombian economy. The economy for Colombian cocaine is outside Colombia."

Mejía told the Observer: "The way I try to put it is this: prohibition is a transfer of the cost of the drug problem from the consuming to the producing countries."

"If countries like Colombia benefitted economically from the drug trade, there would be a certain sense in it all," said Gaviria. "Instead, we have paid the highest price for someone else's profits – Colombia until recently, and now Mexico.

"I put it to Americans like this – suppose all cocaine consumption in the US disappeared and went to Canada. Would Americans be happy to see the homicide rates in Seattle skyrocket in order to prevent the cocaine and the money going to Canada? That way they start to understand for a moment the cost to Colombia and Mexico."

The mechanisms of laundering drug money were highlighted in theObserver last year after a rare settlement in Miami between US federal authorities and the Wachovia bank, which admitted to transferring $110m of drug money into the US, but failing to properly monitor a staggering $376bn brought into the bank through small exchange houses in Mexico over four years. (Wachovia has since been taken over by Wells Fargo, which has co-operated with the investigation.)

But no one went to jail, and the bank is now in the clear. "Overall, there's great reluctance to go after the big money," said Mejía. "They don't target those parts of the chain where there's a large value added. In Europe and America the money is dispersed – once it reaches the consuming country it goes into the system, in every city and state. They'd rather go after the petty economy, the small people and coca crops in Colombia, even though the economy is tiny."

Colombia's banks, meanwhile, said Mejía, "are subject to rigorous control, to stop laundering of profits that may return to our country. Just to bank $2,000 involves a huge amount of paperwork – and much of this is overseen by Americans."

"In Colombia," said Gaviria, "they ask questions of banks they'd never ask in the US. If they did, it would be against the laws of banking privacy. In the US you have very strong laws on bank secrecy, in Colombia not – though the proportion of laundered money is the other way round. It's kind of hypocrisy, right?"


Dr Mejia said: "It's an extension of the way they operate at home. Go after the lower classes, the weak link in the chain – the little guy, to show results. Again, transferring the cost of the drug war on to the poorest, but not the financial system and the big business that moves all this along."

With Britain having overtaken the US and Spain as the world's biggest consumer of cocaine per capita, the Wachovia investigation showed much of the drug money is also laundered through the City of London, where the principal Wachovia whistleblower, Martin Woods, was based in the bank's anti-laundering office. He was wrongfully dismissed after sounding the alarm.

Gaviria said: "We know that authorities in the US and UK know far more than they act upon. The authorities realise things about certain people they think are moving money for the drug trade – but the DEA [US Drugs Enforcement Administration] only acts on a fraction of what it knows."

"It's taboo to go after the big banks," added Mejía. "It's political suicide in this economic climate, because the amounts of money recycled are so high."


How Sleeping Can Affect Your Immune System


By Dr. Mercola

Researchers have learned that circadian rhythms—the 24-hour cycles known as your internal body clock—are involved in everything from sleep to weight gain, mood disorders, and a variety of diseases.

Your body actually has many internal clocks—in your brain, lungs, liver, heart and even your skeletal muscles—and they all work to keep your body running smoothly by controlling temperature and the release of hormones.

It's well known that lack of sleep can increase your chances of getting sick. A new study shows just how direct that connection is.

The research found that the circadian clocks of mice control an essential immune system gene that helps their bodies sense and ward off bacteria and viruses. When levels of that particular gene, called toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), were at their highest, the mice were better able to withstand infections.

Interestingly, when the researchers induced sepsis, the severity of the disease was dependent on the timing of the induction. Severity directly correlated with cyclical changes in TLR9.

According to the authors, this may help explain why septic patients are known to be at higher risk of dying between the hours of 2 am and 6 am.

Furthermore, they also discovered that when mice were vaccinated when TLR9 was peaking, they had an enhanced immune response to the vaccine. The researchers believe vaccine effectiveness could be altered depending on the time of day the vaccination is administered...

According to study author Erol Fikrig, professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicinei:

"These findings not only unveil a novel, direct molecular link between circadian rhythms and the immune system, but also open a new paradigm in the biology of the overall immune response with important implications for the prevention and treatment of disease. Furthermore, patients in the ICU often have disturbed sleep patterns, due to noise, nocturnal light exposure and medications; it will be important to investigate how these factors influence TLR9 expression levels and immune responses."

Lack of Sleep Worsens Stress-Related Immune Depression

One of the first studies to provide direct evidence linking sleep with the human stress-immune relationship dates back to 1998ii. Stress is also known to interfere with immune system function, and has been found to increase susceptibility to the common cold and slow wound healing.

In that 1998 study, the researchers discovered that people who were more likely to awaken during the first sleep cycle also tended to have lower levels of natural killer cells (NKC). Overall, the age of the patient was the greatest determinant of NKC level, but sleep disturbances were responsible for about 12 percent of the variance in NKC level.

Are You Living in Sync with Your Natural Body Clock?

Sleeping well is one of the cornerstones of optimal health, and if you ignore your poor sleeping habits, you will, in time, pay a price. In general, you will feel best and maintain optimal health when your lifestyle is in line with your circadian rhythm. It's wise to establish healthful routines of eating, exercising and sleeping, and to stick to them every day, including the weekends.

Unfortunately, sleep deprivation is such a chronic condition these days that you might not even realize you suffer from it. Your circadian rhythm has evolved over many years to align your physiology with your environment. However, it operates under the assumption that you are behaving as your ancestors did. Historically, humans have slept at night and stayed awake during the day. If you stay up late at night, depriving yourself of sleep, you send conflicting signals to your body.

As a result, you body gets confused and doesn't know whether it should be producing chemicals to help you sleep, or gear up for the beginning of a new day.

Melatonin is another chemical closely tied to your circadian rhythm. It's a pineal hormone and a very potent antioxidant, created in your brain during sleep.

Among its many functions, it slows the production of estrogen and is well known to suppress tumor development, which is why insomnia may increase your risk of cancer. Melatonin also helps suppress harmful free radicals. Melatonin production can be severely disrupted simply by exposing yourself to bright light late at night. Just switching a bedside lamp on and off in an otherwise pitch-black room produces a drop in melatonin levels. This is why it's so important to turn off the lights as the evening wears on, and avoid watching TV and working on the computer late at night.

How Sleep Influences Your Physical Health

Without good sleep, optimal health may remain elusive, even if you eat well and exercise (although those factors will tend to improve your ability to sleep better). Aside from directly impacting your immune function, another explanation for why poor sleep can have such varied detrimental effects on your health is that your circadian system "drives" the rhythms of biological activity at the cellular level. Hence disruptions tend to cascade outward throughout your entire body. For example, besides impairing your immune function and raising your cancer risk, interrupted or impaired sleep can also:

Increase your risk of heart disease.Harm your brain by halting new cell production. Sleep deprivation can increase levels of corticosterone (a stress hormone), resulting in fewer new brain cells being created in your hippocampus.
Aggravate or make you more susceptible to stomach ulcers.Contribute to a pre-diabetic state, making you feel hungry even if you've already eaten, which can wreak havoc on your weight.
Raise your blood pressure.Contribute to premature aging by interfering with your growth hormone production, normally released by your pituitary gland during deep sleep (and during certain types of exercise, such as high intensity interval training).
Worsen constipation.Increase your risk of dying from any cause.


Furthermore, lack of sleep can further exacerbate chronic diseases such as:

Parkinsons  AlzheimersMultiple Sclerosis (MS)
Gastrointestinal tract disordersKidney diseaseBehavioral problems in children

Are Sleeping Pills a Good Option When You Can't Fall Asleep?

If you have trouble sleeping, you're not alone. According to the National Sleep Foundation's (NSF) 2010 "Sleep in America Poll," only four in 10 respondents said they got a good night's sleep every night, or almost every night, of the weekiii. But please don't make the mistake of resorting to sleeping pills. At best, they're ineffective. At worst, they can be dangerous.

According to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data, over-the-counter sleep products such as Tylenol PM and Excedrin PM don't offer any significant benefit to patients. In 2007, an analysis of sleeping pill studies financed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that sleeping pills like Ambien, Lunesta, and Sonata reduced the average time to go to sleep by just under 13 minutescompared with sugar pills -- hardly a major improvement.

You'd be far better off putting your money toward authentic solutions to help you sleep, like installing black-out drapes in your bedroom, than on sleeping pills, as they may actually make it more difficult for you to get a good night's rest naturally.

If anything, you could consider taking a melatonin supplement, which will help boost sleepiness.

Ideally it is best to increase your melatonin levels naturally, of course, by exposing yourself to bright sunlight in the daytime (along with full spectrum fluorescent bulbs in the winter) and complete darkness at night. If you do this regularly, you will promote proper functioning of your natural circadian rhythm, which is essential for a proper sleep cycle. However, if that isn't possible, you can consider a melatonin supplement. It's is a completely natural substance, made by your body, and has many health benefits in addition to sleep. In scientific studies, melatonin has been shown to increase sleepiness, help you fall asleep more quickly and stay asleep, decrease restlessness, and reverse daytime fatigue. I prefer to use a sublingual melatonin product because it is absorbed much faster and therefore works more quickly.

Keep in mind you typically only need a very minute amount. Taking higher doses, such as 3 mg, can sometimes have the reverse effect. So start with as little as 0.25mg or 0.5mg and play around with it to see what dosage works best for you.

How to Optimize Your Sleep

Below are several of my top guidelines for promoting good sleep. For a comprehensive sleep guide, please see my article 33 Secret's to a Good Night's Sleep.

  1. Avoid watching TV or using your computer at night—or at least about an hour or so before going to bed—as these technologies can have a significantly detrimental impact on your sleep. TV and computer screens emit blue light; nearly identical to the light you're exposed to outdoors during the day. This tricks your brain into thinking it's still daytime, thereby shutting down melatonin secretion.
  2. Under normal circumstances, your brain starts secreting melatonin between 9 or 10 pm, which makes you sleepy. When this natural secretion cycle is disrupted, due to excessive light exposure after sunset, insomnia can ensue.

  3. Sleep in complete darkness, or as close to it as possible. Even the slightest bit of light in the room can disrupt your internal clock and your pineal gland's production of melatonin and serotonin. Even the tiniest glow from your clock radio could be interfering with your sleep. So close your bedroom door, and get rid of night-lights. Refrain from turning on any light at all during the night, even when getting up to go to the bathroom. Cover up your clock radio.
  4. Make sure to cover your windows—I recommend using blackout shades or drapes.

  5. Keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 70 degrees F. Many people keep their homes and particularly their upstairs bedrooms too warm. Studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is between 60 to 68 degrees. Keeping your room cooler or hotter can lead to restless sleep. This is because when you sleep, your body's internal temperature drops to its lowest level, generally about four hours after you fall asleep. Scientists believe a cooler bedroom may therefore be most conducive to sleep, since it mimics your body's natural temperature drop.
  6. Take a hot bath 90 to 120 minutes before bedtime. This increases your core body temperature, and when you get out of the bath it abruptly drops, signaling your body that you are ready for sleep.
  7. Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). These can disrupt your pineal gland and the production of melatonin and serotonin, and may have other negative effects as well. To do this, you need a gauss meter. You can find various models online, starting around $50 to $200. Some experts even recommend pulling your circuit breaker before bed to shut down all power in your house.
  8. Move alarm clocks and other electrical devices away from your bed. If these devices must be used, keep them as far away from your bed as possible, preferably at least three feet. This serves at least two functions. First, it can be stressful to see the time when you can't fall asleep, or wake up in the middle of the night. Secondly, the glow from a clock radio can be enough to suppress melatonin production and interfere with your sleep.
  9. Cell phones, cordless phones and their charging stations should ideally be kept three rooms away from your bedroom to prevent harmful EMF's.

  10. Avoid using loud alarm clocks. It is very stressful on your body to be suddenly jolted awake. If you are regularly getting enough sleep, an alarm may even be unnecessary.
  11. I gave up my alarm clock years ago and now spontaneously awake without an alarm. On those rare occasions that I do need to get up early to catch a flight, I have used a sun alarm clock. The Sun Alarm™ provides an ideal way to wake up each morning if you can't wake up with the REAL sun. Combining the features of a traditional alarm clock (digital display, AM/FM radio, beeper, snooze button, etc) with a special built-in light that gradually increases in intensity, this amazing clock simulates a natural sunrise. It also includes a sunset feature where the light fades to darkness over time, which is ideal for anyone who has trouble falling asleep.