Who knows the History, real History? Morality of what? National Security Act of 1947. Arms sales for oil. What's new? What happened to Senator Frank Church??
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Snakes in Suits
In a study of high-performing businesspeople, as many as one of every 30 was found to be a psychopath, a rate several times higher than that of the general population. A psychopath has no conscience and no ability to develop one. We think of psychopaths as serial killers, but in reality, many psychopaths just want money or power. They think nothing of ruining someone else's career if it helps them get ahead.
Example: Frank had a wonderful relationship with his company's CEO until Dave, a recently hired psychopath in his department, started telling the CEO that Frank was criticizing the CEO's leadership behind his back. The CEO believed Dave's lies, fired Frank and gave Dave his job.
IDENTIFYING A PSYCHOPATH
When we first meet psychopaths, we might sense that something isn't quite right, even if they seem friendly. This vague sense of unease could be the primitive part of our brain warning us that we're in the presence of a predator. If at some level you feel there is something wrong with a new coworker, keep an eye out for lies and more subtle deceptions. Psychopaths will...
Find reasons to blame other people whenever anything goes wrong.
Take credit for others' work.
Spread damaging rumors, and try to break down existing friendships.
Quickly deduce coworkers' weaknesses and exploit them.
Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Paul Babiak, PhD, industrial and organizational psychologist and president of HRBackOffice, an executive coaching and consulting firm, Dutchess County, New York. He is coauthor, with Robert D. Hare, PhD, of Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (ReganBooks).
Friday, March 30, 2007
Fwd: What Happy People Know That You Don't
What Happy People Know That You Don't
I once worked with a woman who vacuumed her house every single morning -- before she left for work. Now I knew this about my colleague only because her young daughter dropped it one day in casual conversation... her attitude being one of "Doesn't everybody?" Well, no, everybody doesn't... but neither does it matter. Still, my colleague considered her cleaning addiction crazy enough that she kept it her little secret. The truth is, every one of us has crazy behaviors and beliefs.
These are what one character in the movie "The Family Stone" referred to as a freak flag. And how much easier it would be, the movie implies, if we all carried around "freak flags" that announced our personal craziness for the world to see.
WHAT IS YOUR FREAK FLAG?
Life coach Lauren Zander of the Handel Group (www.handelgrouppc.com) agrees completely with the concept of flying personal freak flags. Being upfront about our crazy quirks is not only truthful, she says, it also acknowledges that everyone has a variety of them. They belong to and brand us and are the interesting things we do that make us human. She notes that a giant realm of personal craziness includes the category of food and eating -- from chowing down behind closed doors to never co-mingling foods on a plate.
Sexuality is another big area of personal quirks and preferences. Although universal, most people feel too weird about their sexual attitudes and ideas to speak honestly about them. Professional athletes have their crazy secret beliefs about what will help them win a tournament. Children have rituals, objects or imaginary friends they use to help them feel safe. Grown-ups have a wide variety of behaviors or harmless biases they cling to for a bevy of reasons. Example: Ask pack rats why they insist on keeping all that "stuff" with no obvious worth or value.
THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN
As human beings, we are all in the same interesting and weird boat, Lauren observes, trying to grow up and deal with our small vices -- but at the same time wanting to be "normal" and look good to others. Let it go, she says. Claim the joy to be found in admitting to your quirks. Fessing up to the crazy quirks is funny and freeing and endows people with a new sense of control about their behavior.
Accepting your own quirks also provides an opportunity for a whole new understanding of the quirks and freakiness of your spouse, kids, parents and friends. A huge percentage of marital squabbles involve one spouse's intolerance of the other spouse's quirks -- remember the classic toothpaste tube argument? Everyone around you has his/her own set of quirks that you can either learn to love as part of who that person is... or you can let them drive you crazy. I have a friend who never sends thank you notes -- not even for her wedding or baby gifts. I know that she is a loving and generous and devoted friend. So, I accept that she is not wired to send thank you notes. Some people might sever a relationship over not being thanked and sacrifice all the great things that are part of that lifelong relationship.
FINDING YOUR OWN
It is possible that crazy quirks are so well hidden they are hard even for the individual to find. To find yours, Lauren advises looking first for any behavior or attitude you don't want other people to know about. That is certain to be a freak flag candidate. Another place to look: At your grievances and annoyances about other people. If certain things about others really bug you, chances are strong that there is a little personal freak flag in there. As an example, Lauren notes that arrogance in others makes some people furious, but probably they carry around arrogance themselves, just better disguised. Because people are not generally bothered by behaviors that don't exist somewhere in themselves, being upset is a big signal to go looking at that.
Identifying it and accepting that bit of freakiness will loosen the steam you have built about your grievance and annoyance about others, Lauren says.
It may feel scary to fly a freak flag at first, but be brave. It won't take long to start experiencing the rewards. By admitting to your own craziness you bring a fresh openness in your dialog with others. By acknowledging, for example, that my husband is right in telling me that I sometimes forget things if I don't write them down allows us to have fun with my "forgetful-ism" and also creates a structure in our relationship that supports my need to write things down. It's now a big family loving joke about the notes I leave for myself for fear of forgetting.
Being honest about yourself, stripped of spinning and lying, gives people around you permission to put up their flags as well. Flying the flags breaks down the boundaries between you and the barriers to real human nature -- at last, everyone starts to be who they really are.
What Happy People Know That You Don't
* Meredith Haberfeld, co-founder and CEO, and Lauren Zander, principal, Handel Group Private Coaching (www.handelgrouppc.com).
I once worked with a woman who vacuumed her house every single morning -- before she left for work. Now I knew this about my colleague only because her young daughter dropped it one day in casual conversation... her attitude being one of "Doesn't everybody?" Well, no, everybody doesn't... but neither does it matter. Still, my colleague considered her cleaning addiction crazy enough that she kept it her little secret. The truth is, every one of us has crazy behaviors and beliefs.
These are what one character in the movie "The Family Stone" referred to as a freak flag. And how much easier it would be, the movie implies, if we all carried around "freak flags" that announced our personal craziness for the world to see.
WHAT IS YOUR FREAK FLAG?
Life coach Lauren Zander of the Handel Group (www.handelgrouppc.com) agrees completely with the concept of flying personal freak flags. Being upfront about our crazy quirks is not only truthful, she says, it also acknowledges that everyone has a variety of them. They belong to and brand us and are the interesting things we do that make us human. She notes that a giant realm of personal craziness includes the category of food and eating -- from chowing down behind closed doors to never co-mingling foods on a plate.
Sexuality is another big area of personal quirks and preferences. Although universal, most people feel too weird about their sexual attitudes and ideas to speak honestly about them. Professional athletes have their crazy secret beliefs about what will help them win a tournament. Children have rituals, objects or imaginary friends they use to help them feel safe. Grown-ups have a wide variety of behaviors or harmless biases they cling to for a bevy of reasons. Example: Ask pack rats why they insist on keeping all that "stuff" with no obvious worth or value.
THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN
As human beings, we are all in the same interesting and weird boat, Lauren observes, trying to grow up and deal with our small vices -- but at the same time wanting to be "normal" and look good to others. Let it go, she says. Claim the joy to be found in admitting to your quirks. Fessing up to the crazy quirks is funny and freeing and endows people with a new sense of control about their behavior.
Accepting your own quirks also provides an opportunity for a whole new understanding of the quirks and freakiness of your spouse, kids, parents and friends. A huge percentage of marital squabbles involve one spouse's intolerance of the other spouse's quirks -- remember the classic toothpaste tube argument? Everyone around you has his/her own set of quirks that you can either learn to love as part of who that person is... or you can let them drive you crazy. I have a friend who never sends thank you notes -- not even for her wedding or baby gifts. I know that she is a loving and generous and devoted friend. So, I accept that she is not wired to send thank you notes. Some people might sever a relationship over not being thanked and sacrifice all the great things that are part of that lifelong relationship.
FINDING YOUR OWN
It is possible that crazy quirks are so well hidden they are hard even for the individual to find. To find yours, Lauren advises looking first for any behavior or attitude you don't want other people to know about. That is certain to be a freak flag candidate. Another place to look: At your grievances and annoyances about other people. If certain things about others really bug you, chances are strong that there is a little personal freak flag in there. As an example, Lauren notes that arrogance in others makes some people furious, but probably they carry around arrogance themselves, just better disguised. Because people are not generally bothered by behaviors that don't exist somewhere in themselves, being upset is a big signal to go looking at that.
Identifying it and accepting that bit of freakiness will loosen the steam you have built about your grievance and annoyance about others, Lauren says.
It may feel scary to fly a freak flag at first, but be brave. It won't take long to start experiencing the rewards. By admitting to your own craziness you bring a fresh openness in your dialog with others. By acknowledging, for example, that my husband is right in telling me that I sometimes forget things if I don't write them down allows us to have fun with my "forgetful-ism" and also creates a structure in our relationship that supports my need to write things down. It's now a big family loving joke about the notes I leave for myself for fear of forgetting.
Being honest about yourself, stripped of spinning and lying, gives people around you permission to put up their flags as well. Flying the flags breaks down the boundaries between you and the barriers to real human nature -- at last, everyone starts to be who they really are.
What Happy People Know That You Don't
* Meredith Haberfeld, co-founder and CEO, and Lauren Zander, principal, Handel Group Private Coaching (www.handelgrouppc.com).
Thursday, March 29, 2007
LiveScience.com - Alarming Decline of Sharks Causing Other Species to Vanish
Oh daaa... Damb can people get really STUPID!!!
LiveScience.com - Alarming Decline of Sharks Causing Other Species to Vanish: "The precipitous decline in large predator sharks in the Atlantic Ocean in the past decade has made ecologists worry about a trickle-down effect on the ocean ecosystem.
A new study supports the case. With the large predators gone, their prey—smaller sharks and rays—are free to feast on lower organisms like scallops and clams, depleting valuable commercial stocks.
“Large sharks have been functionally eliminated from the East Coast of the U.S., meaning that they can no longer perform their ecosystem role as top predators,” said study team member Julia Baum of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Disappearing sharks
Shark populations all over the world have plummeted because of intentional fishing for their fins, which are eaten and used for medicines in Asia
For this study, published in the March 30 issue of the journal Science, the researchers looked at surveys of populations of 11 great shark species, conducted between 1970 and 2005. Every species had substantially declined in just those few decades. The smallest observed decline was in sandbar shark populations, which had decreased nonetheless by 87 percent. Other species, including the bull, dusky and smooth hammerhead sharks, may have declined by more than 99 percent.
LiveScience.com - Alarming Decline of Sharks Causing Other Species to Vanish: "The precipitous decline in large predator sharks in the Atlantic Ocean in the past decade has made ecologists worry about a trickle-down effect on the ocean ecosystem.
A new study supports the case. With the large predators gone, their prey—smaller sharks and rays—are free to feast on lower organisms like scallops and clams, depleting valuable commercial stocks.
“Large sharks have been functionally eliminated from the East Coast of the U.S., meaning that they can no longer perform their ecosystem role as top predators,” said study team member Julia Baum of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Disappearing sharks
Shark populations all over the world have plummeted because of intentional fishing for their fins, which are eaten and used for medicines in Asia
For this study, published in the March 30 issue of the journal Science, the researchers looked at surveys of populations of 11 great shark species, conducted between 1970 and 2005. Every species had substantially declined in just those few decades. The smallest observed decline was in sandbar shark populations, which had decreased nonetheless by 87 percent. Other species, including the bull, dusky and smooth hammerhead sharks, may have declined by more than 99 percent.
“They’re all down dramatically,” said study co-leader Charles Peterson of the University of North Carolina."
Personal mobility - One Planet Business - WWF Microsites
Oh cool, do I have the solution for YOU... lol...
Personal mobility - One Planet Business - WWF Microsites: "This first project of One Planet Business aims to inspire and catalyse change towards mobility and access solutions within planetary limits.
Passenger transport is placing an ever-growing demand on global resources and the climate’s absorptive capacity. Currently, the final demand for personal mobility represents 26% of the word’s CO2 emissions. Current technological advancements in personal mobility are not keeping pace with the rate of growth or the scale of the challenge, not least the minimum 60% reductions required in CO2 emissions. It seems clear that further solutions have to be explored.
One Planet Business Personal Mobility will explore the fundamental drivers for change, such as:
* identifying the barriers impeding a complete technological revolution for low-carbon mobility;
* exploring the possibilities for switching to low-impact transport and how this could be encouraged;
* questioning the value of such high levels of mobility in promoting a better quality of life and identifying which areas of mobility consumers may actually like to reduce (e.g. commuting);
* understanding how shifts in lifestyles could reduce personal mobility;
* thinking through the economic consequences of changing mobility patterns; and
* exploring access to key services such as shop"
Personal mobility - One Planet Business - WWF Microsites: "This first project of One Planet Business aims to inspire and catalyse change towards mobility and access solutions within planetary limits.
Passenger transport is placing an ever-growing demand on global resources and the climate’s absorptive capacity. Currently, the final demand for personal mobility represents 26% of the word’s CO2 emissions. Current technological advancements in personal mobility are not keeping pace with the rate of growth or the scale of the challenge, not least the minimum 60% reductions required in CO2 emissions. It seems clear that further solutions have to be explored.
One Planet Business Personal Mobility will explore the fundamental drivers for change, such as:
* identifying the barriers impeding a complete technological revolution for low-carbon mobility;
* exploring the possibilities for switching to low-impact transport and how this could be encouraged;
* questioning the value of such high levels of mobility in promoting a better quality of life and identifying which areas of mobility consumers may actually like to reduce (e.g. commuting);
* understanding how shifts in lifestyles could reduce personal mobility;
* thinking through the economic consequences of changing mobility patterns; and
* exploring access to key services such as shop"
Mom's beef puts son's sperm count at stake - Los Angeles Times
I wonder about all the other crap they feed cattle, chickens and fish.. Like the GMO's modified to like more pesticides. . .
Mom's beef puts son's sperm count at stake - Los Angeles Times: "Men whose mothers ate a lot of beef during their pregnancy have a sperm count about 25% below normal and three times the normal risk of fertility problems, researchers reported Tuesday.
The problem may be due to anabolic steroids used in the United States to fatten the cattle, Dr. Shanna H. Swan of the University of Rochester Medical Center reported in the journal Human Reproduction. It could also be due to pesticides and other environmental contaminants, she added.
If the sperm deficit is related to the hormones in beef, Swan's findings may be 'just the tip of the iceberg,' wrote biologist Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri-Columbia in an editorial accompanying the paper.
In daughters of the beef-eaters, those same hormones could alter the incidence of polycystic ovarian syndrome, the age of puberty and the postnatal growth rate, he said.
'It's a small effect, but it is a significant effect,' said Dr. Ted Schettler, an environmental health specialist at the Institute for Global Communications in San Francisco. 'It's not surprising. The more you look at dietary factors, the more you turn up interesting information about how diet during pregnancy affects lots of aspects of human health.'"
Mom's beef puts son's sperm count at stake - Los Angeles Times: "Men whose mothers ate a lot of beef during their pregnancy have a sperm count about 25% below normal and three times the normal risk of fertility problems, researchers reported Tuesday.
The problem may be due to anabolic steroids used in the United States to fatten the cattle, Dr. Shanna H. Swan of the University of Rochester Medical Center reported in the journal Human Reproduction. It could also be due to pesticides and other environmental contaminants, she added.
If the sperm deficit is related to the hormones in beef, Swan's findings may be 'just the tip of the iceberg,' wrote biologist Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri-Columbia in an editorial accompanying the paper.
In daughters of the beef-eaters, those same hormones could alter the incidence of polycystic ovarian syndrome, the age of puberty and the postnatal growth rate, he said.
'It's a small effect, but it is a significant effect,' said Dr. Ted Schettler, an environmental health specialist at the Institute for Global Communications in San Francisco. 'It's not surprising. The more you look at dietary factors, the more you turn up interesting information about how diet during pregnancy affects lots of aspects of human health.'"
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Biz magazines spotlight the sustainability revolution | By John Elkington, Mark Lee | Grist | Full Disclosure | 27 Mar 2007
"If the business press is any indication, sustainability issues have risen up the corporate ladder and are now seen as a central challenge for companies in the coming decades.
Fortune
In its first-ever green issue, Fortune commends '10 Green Giants' -- corporations that are making impressive environmental gains. The editors decided to bypass GE and Wal-Mart, whose eco-endeavors have been heavily publicized, and instead highlight companies whose sustainability efforts have been less high-profile recently -- among them, Hewlett-Packard, Continental Airlines, S.C. Johnson, Suncor, and Alcan. While its list focused on big, mainline corporations, its cover went to an idealistic maverick who runs a 350-employee, uber-eco outdoor-gear company -- Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia.
Fortune's Marc Gunther writes in an intro to the green package that environmentalism in corporate America has gone beyond mere compliance and efficiency: 'Now we're at the threshold of a different era, one in which smart companies are trying to figure out how to profit by solving the world's big environmental problems.'
Fast Company would seem to agree. Its latest annual "Fast 50" edition -- which spotlights trendsetting companies and leaders -- features California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on the cover and lauds him for "focusing the power of the free market on major problems" like climate change and dependence on foreign oil. In fact, this year the "Fast 50" is wholly focused on companies aiming to be green or socially responsible, from NativeEnergy to EcoFish to Home Depot, which now boasts that 95 percent of its wood products come from sustainably managed forests. The issue's lead essay argues that we have to shift to Business 3.0 -- a new, socially and environmentally sustainable set of economic and business models that acknowledge "we can't continue indefinitely to cannibalize our life-support systems for spare parts.""
Fortune
In its first-ever green issue, Fortune commends '10 Green Giants' -- corporations that are making impressive environmental gains. The editors decided to bypass GE and Wal-Mart, whose eco-endeavors have been heavily publicized, and instead highlight companies whose sustainability efforts have been less high-profile recently -- among them, Hewlett-Packard, Continental Airlines, S.C. Johnson, Suncor, and Alcan. While its list focused on big, mainline corporations, its cover went to an idealistic maverick who runs a 350-employee, uber-eco outdoor-gear company -- Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia.Fortune's Marc Gunther writes in an intro to the green package that environmentalism in corporate America has gone beyond mere compliance and efficiency: 'Now we're at the threshold of a different era, one in which smart companies are trying to figure out how to profit by solving the world's big environmental problems.'
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Paris Embraces Plan to Become City of Bikes - washingtonpost.com
Someone is getting smart out there... lol...
"On July 15, the day after Bastille Day, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of high-tech bicycle stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city's image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place.
"On July 15, the day after Bastille Day, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of high-tech bicycle stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city's image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place.
By the end of the year, organizers and city officials say, there should be 20,600 bikes at 1,450 stations -- or about one station every 250 yards across the entire city. Based on experience elsewhere -- particularly in Lyon, France's third-largest city, which launched a similar system two years ago -- regular users of the bikes will ride them almost for free.
"It has completely transformed the landscape of Lyon -- everywhere you see people on the bikes," said Jean-Louis Touraine, the city's deputy mayor. The program was meant "not just to modify the equilibrium between the modes of transportation and reduce air pollution, but also to modify the image of the city and to have a city where humans occupy a larger space."
The Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delano?, has the same aim, said his aide, Jean-Luc Dumesnil: "We think it could change Paris's image -- make it quieter, less polluted, with a nicer atmosphere, a better way of life."
"Dr. Sigmund Freud, Dr. Wilhelm Reich
Freud is the founder of the modern study of Psychology. His main theory is that sexual frustration leads to mental and emotional illness, which manifests primarily as Frustration- Aggression Syndrome, Transferral of Guilt onto innocent others, and simple hateful jealousy against those better than ourselves.
This all carried over into Reich's works, such as: "The Murder of Christ...The Emotional Plague", which is about how we destroy those superior than ourselves, thus ending their vital ministries to mankind. Also: "The Mass Psychology of Fascism", in which the ass-kissing cowardly populace knowingly conforms to an erroneous norm, sacrificing the brave and courageous, in order to save their cowardly, dishonorable selves.
Like I always said: "They will sacrifice any Truth, no matter how sacred, on the altar of selfish and cowardly conformity. To put it into perspective: They have rejected their own Salvation, in order to protect themselves from the "puta", which is really their own irrational fear and the government to which it gave rise. I always said: Get rid of the bitch and the horse it rode in on." Because of what all of you are, I fear for the life of the world and its multitude of living creatures
This all carried over into Reich's works, such as: "The Murder of Christ...The Emotional Plague", which is about how we destroy those superior than ourselves, thus ending their vital ministries to mankind. Also: "The Mass Psychology of Fascism", in which the ass-kissing cowardly populace knowingly conforms to an erroneous norm, sacrificing the brave and courageous, in order to save their cowardly, dishonorable selves.
Like I always said: "They will sacrifice any Truth, no matter how sacred, on the altar of selfish and cowardly conformity. To put it into perspective: They have rejected their own Salvation, in order to protect themselves from the "puta", which is really their own irrational fear and the government to which it gave rise. I always said: Get rid of the bitch and the horse it rode in on." Because of what all of you are, I fear for the life of the world and its multitude of living creatures
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Ending Corruption: Honesty Instituted | Changemakers
What It Is: A Changemakers competition awarded to the best idea for a socially entrepreneurial project could help battle corruption.
Why it Matters: Because corruption is a major global problem, making more difficult solutions to all the other problems we face, and while some great proposed solutions exist -- from spreading tools for transparency to paying leaders to eschew corrupt practices -- we need new and better solutions for rooting it out.
Particularly worth a look is this mosiac of innovative solutions, which describes some of the barriers to ending corruption (cynicism and apathy, lack of accountability, few vehicles for participation) and a few of the existing projects which aim to overcome those barriers in various ways (empower citizens, shame and prosecute corrupt leaders, etc.).
Operative Quote: "However you define or experience it, corruption is a disease that infects and impoverishes society. From the "lubricating" corruption of everyday bribe seekers among traffic police, hospital caregivers, permit administrators, customs agents, or prison guards—little by little grinding down those who need their services and approvals—to the 'venal' corruption of self-interested political 'kleptocrats' emptying entire national coffers, corruption is a poison that eats away at communities and institutions to devastating effect. 'Business as usual' is all too often replete with access for some, dead ends for many, and tortuous alleys of shady dealing that affect us all. ... The World Bank estimates that the cost of corruption represents about seven percent of the annual world economy, roughly $2.3 trillion. This is a staggering amount ... a figure that is larger than the entire federal budget of the United States government ($2.2 trillion)."
"Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms"
Submitted by Roberto Wohlgemuth on March 16, 2007 - 12:57.
The United Nations Global Compact was created as a multilateral initiative supporting corporate social responsibility. It was launched by the Secretary-General of the United Nations at the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos. It comprises ten principles derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
On 24 June 2004, during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit it was announced that the UN Global Compact includes a tenth principle against corruption: "Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery."
How is this principle implemented? What is the level of response from the business sector? What social innovations are promoting corporate social responsibility, including the work of businesses against corruption?
Roberto Wohlgemuth
Changemakers: an Ashoka Initiative
Friday, March 23, 2007
LiveScience.com - Healthier Tomatoes Grown in Seawater
"Healthier Tomatoes Grown in Seawater
By Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
posted: 22 March 2007
08:41 am ET
Tomatoes irrigated with diluted seawater grow with significantly higher levels of healthy antioxidant compounds, new research shows.
'It'd be interesting to see if this might be a more general phenomenon, where a little salt induces antioxidants in lots of crops,' said botanist Edward Glenn at the University of Arizona, who did not participate in the new study. 'There could be a consumer wave toward salt-tolerant crops based on their nutritional properties.'
The option to use salty water on crops might help farmers deal with growing irrigation woes. Irrigation water, as well as drinking water, is growing scarce and deteriorating in quality around the world.
Nearly 70 percent of all available freshwater is used for agriculture. Use of water for irrigation has increased globally by more than 60 percent since 1960, according to United Nation statistics. At the same time, poor irrigation and drainage practices have led to salt buildup in roughly one-eighth of all irrigated land.
The researchers investigated tomatoes, which are grown worldwide and are moderately salinity tolerant. They grew various types of tomatoes, including those commonly used for salads, under different levels of salinity and investigated the fruit for nutrients.
The researchers found that growing tomatoes in 10 percent seawater improved antioxidant levels significantly, findings they detailed in the April 4 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Glenn noted the water that percolates out from normally irrigated soil, technically known as irrigation return flow, is often as salty as 10 percent seawater. "About a third of irrigation water becomes irrigation return flow, so there's a huge amount of this brackish water, and this research now suggests this could get reused for crops," Glenn told LiveScience.
For decades, research has shown that seawater can irrigate crops, "but there's an impression (that) the crops seawater can irrigate are low value," Glenn said. "Farmers want a good return for their investment and time, and tomatoes are really high value. Also, crops like tomatoes are sold based on consumer appeal, and if you have an extra going for you like high antioxidant levels, this could be quite valuable."
By Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
posted: 22 March 2007
08:41 am ET
Tomatoes irrigated with diluted seawater grow with significantly higher levels of healthy antioxidant compounds, new research shows.
'It'd be interesting to see if this might be a more general phenomenon, where a little salt induces antioxidants in lots of crops,' said botanist Edward Glenn at the University of Arizona, who did not participate in the new study. 'There could be a consumer wave toward salt-tolerant crops based on their nutritional properties.'
The option to use salty water on crops might help farmers deal with growing irrigation woes. Irrigation water, as well as drinking water, is growing scarce and deteriorating in quality around the world.
Nearly 70 percent of all available freshwater is used for agriculture. Use of water for irrigation has increased globally by more than 60 percent since 1960, according to United Nation statistics. At the same time, poor irrigation and drainage practices have led to salt buildup in roughly one-eighth of all irrigated land.
The researchers investigated tomatoes, which are grown worldwide and are moderately salinity tolerant. They grew various types of tomatoes, including those commonly used for salads, under different levels of salinity and investigated the fruit for nutrients.
The researchers found that growing tomatoes in 10 percent seawater improved antioxidant levels significantly, findings they detailed in the April 4 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Glenn noted the water that percolates out from normally irrigated soil, technically known as irrigation return flow, is often as salty as 10 percent seawater. "About a third of irrigation water becomes irrigation return flow, so there's a huge amount of this brackish water, and this research now suggests this could get reused for crops," Glenn told LiveScience.
For decades, research has shown that seawater can irrigate crops, "but there's an impression (that) the crops seawater can irrigate are low value," Glenn said. "Farmers want a good return for their investment and time, and tomatoes are really high value. Also, crops like tomatoes are sold based on consumer appeal, and if you have an extra going for you like high antioxidant levels, this could be quite valuable."
Protect Your Health! Act Now!
THE RATH OF GOD ON THE DISEASE BUSINESS ORIGINAL TITLE: "NO AMNESTY FOR THE MAKERS OF DEADLY DRUGS" Protect Your Health! Act Now!
by Matthias Rath, M.D.
Largely unbeknownst to the American people, there is a war going on that has claimed victims in every family.This war is escalating and threatens every human life. It is a war being waged in the interests of the multibillion- dollar pharmaceutical industry, which is not a Health industry, but rather an investment business built upon the continuation and expansion of global diseases. Your health - and the health of every person in America - is threatened in several ways:
1. The "business with disease" as the basis of the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry is a multibillion-dollar investment business that has orchestrated the largest fraud in human history; it promises health, but in fact thrives on the continuation of diseases.This fraud scheme is easily unmasked: Most pharmaceutical drugs are designed to merely cover disease symptoms, but are not intended to cure or eradicate diseases. As a direct result of this multibillion-dollar fraud business, no cure has been found for cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or any other chronic disease. On the contrary, these diseases continue in epidemic proportions, killing about 5,000 - five thousand - Americans EACH DAY. This compares to the annihilation of a city the size of San Francisco - EACH YEAR!
2. The epidemic of dangerous side effects caused by pharmaceutical drugs. The dangerous side effects of Vioxx, Celebrex, Lipitor and Prozac are not the exception - they are the rule. Due to their synthetic nature, most pharmaceutical drugs are toxic to our bodies, causing organ damage and other serious side effects. According to the American Medical Association, one million Americans sufferdisabilities from taking pharmaceutical drugs and more than 100,000 of them die as a result of this - EACH YEAR!
3. Legislation that protects the expansion of the deadly "business with disease." For decades, drug companies have used their giant profits to manipulate the public and influence legislation, including that from the U.S. Congress and the White House. Now that the deadly consequences of the pharmaceutical fraud business have been unmasked, the survival of this industry depends on protectionist laws. The current push of the Bush administration for so-called "Medical Liability Reform" is not about protecting gynecologists and medical doctors from liability lawsuits. The centerpiece of the proposed medical liability legislation is to prohibit punitive damage awards in liability lawsuits brought by injured patients against drug companies!
This medical liability legislation is being used as a cover to grant amnesty to drug manufacturers, protecting them from having to compensate millions of patients for the harm their drugs have caused. It is payback for the pharmaceutical industry, which was the largest corporate sponsor of the Bush election campaign. The people of America and their political representatives have to realize that the proposed medical liability legislation is a "Trojan Horse"; passing it means granting immunity to the drug makers, allowing them the unrestricted expansion of their deadly "business with disease" at the expense of patients. As the direct consequence of this law, tens of millions of Americans will suffer disability and die from preventable diseases within the next decades.
4. Withholding lifesaving information about the health benefits of vitamins and natural therapies. A precondition for this "business with disease" based on patentable synthetic drugs is the suppression of effective and safe - but non-patentable and, therefore, less profitable - natural therapies. For decades, the pharmaceutical industry has strategically expanded its influence on medical education with devastating results; it has deliberately blocked any information about the essential role of vitamins and other micronutrients in maintaining health - contained in every textbook of biology, biochemistry and natural science - from entering medical school teaching and medical practice. Through their strategic influence, the pharmaceutical industry has established a globalmonopoly on medicine. As a direct result, generations of medical doctors have not received adequate training in nutritional and other natural therapies. Doctors and patients alike have become victims ofthe pharmaceutical industry's efforts to monopolize human health. As a result, tens of millions of Americans have died unnecessarily over the past decades because this lifesaving health information has not been available to them.
5. Suppressing effective natural health therapies by law. Effective, safe and non-patentable natural therapies threaten the very basis of the pharmaceutical investment business.They target and correct the underlying cellular deficiencies of today's most common diseases, thereby preventing and eventually eradicating them. The elimination of any disease inevitably destroys a multibillion-dollar drug market for the pharmaceutical industry. Thus, the pharmaceutical industry has launched a global campaign to protect its patent-based "business with disease" by outlawing natural, non-patentable therapies at the national and international level.This is the background for the Bush administration's attack on the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), the key legislation protecting the rights of the American people for free access to natural therapies and to freedom of health choice. If this fundamental human right to natural health is taken away, the health of billions of people will be compromised and tens of millions of them will pay the ultimate price for generations to come.
by Matthias Rath, M.D.
Largely unbeknownst to the American people, there is a war going on that has claimed victims in every family.This war is escalating and threatens every human life. It is a war being waged in the interests of the multibillion- dollar pharmaceutical industry, which is not a Health industry, but rather an investment business built upon the continuation and expansion of global diseases. Your health - and the health of every person in America - is threatened in several ways:
1. The "business with disease" as the basis of the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry is a multibillion-dollar investment business that has orchestrated the largest fraud in human history; it promises health, but in fact thrives on the continuation of diseases.This fraud scheme is easily unmasked: Most pharmaceutical drugs are designed to merely cover disease symptoms, but are not intended to cure or eradicate diseases. As a direct result of this multibillion-dollar fraud business, no cure has been found for cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or any other chronic disease. On the contrary, these diseases continue in epidemic proportions, killing about 5,000 - five thousand - Americans EACH DAY. This compares to the annihilation of a city the size of San Francisco - EACH YEAR!
2. The epidemic of dangerous side effects caused by pharmaceutical drugs. The dangerous side effects of Vioxx, Celebrex, Lipitor and Prozac are not the exception - they are the rule. Due to their synthetic nature, most pharmaceutical drugs are toxic to our bodies, causing organ damage and other serious side effects. According to the American Medical Association, one million Americans sufferdisabilities from taking pharmaceutical drugs and more than 100,000 of them die as a result of this - EACH YEAR!
3. Legislation that protects the expansion of the deadly "business with disease." For decades, drug companies have used their giant profits to manipulate the public and influence legislation, including that from the U.S. Congress and the White House. Now that the deadly consequences of the pharmaceutical fraud business have been unmasked, the survival of this industry depends on protectionist laws. The current push of the Bush administration for so-called "Medical Liability Reform" is not about protecting gynecologists and medical doctors from liability lawsuits. The centerpiece of the proposed medical liability legislation is to prohibit punitive damage awards in liability lawsuits brought by injured patients against drug companies!
This medical liability legislation is being used as a cover to grant amnesty to drug manufacturers, protecting them from having to compensate millions of patients for the harm their drugs have caused. It is payback for the pharmaceutical industry, which was the largest corporate sponsor of the Bush election campaign. The people of America and their political representatives have to realize that the proposed medical liability legislation is a "Trojan Horse"; passing it means granting immunity to the drug makers, allowing them the unrestricted expansion of their deadly "business with disease" at the expense of patients. As the direct consequence of this law, tens of millions of Americans will suffer disability and die from preventable diseases within the next decades.
4. Withholding lifesaving information about the health benefits of vitamins and natural therapies. A precondition for this "business with disease" based on patentable synthetic drugs is the suppression of effective and safe - but non-patentable and, therefore, less profitable - natural therapies. For decades, the pharmaceutical industry has strategically expanded its influence on medical education with devastating results; it has deliberately blocked any information about the essential role of vitamins and other micronutrients in maintaining health - contained in every textbook of biology, biochemistry and natural science - from entering medical school teaching and medical practice. Through their strategic influence, the pharmaceutical industry has established a globalmonopoly on medicine. As a direct result, generations of medical doctors have not received adequate training in nutritional and other natural therapies. Doctors and patients alike have become victims ofthe pharmaceutical industry's efforts to monopolize human health. As a result, tens of millions of Americans have died unnecessarily over the past decades because this lifesaving health information has not been available to them.
5. Suppressing effective natural health therapies by law. Effective, safe and non-patentable natural therapies threaten the very basis of the pharmaceutical investment business.They target and correct the underlying cellular deficiencies of today's most common diseases, thereby preventing and eventually eradicating them. The elimination of any disease inevitably destroys a multibillion-dollar drug market for the pharmaceutical industry. Thus, the pharmaceutical industry has launched a global campaign to protect its patent-based "business with disease" by outlawing natural, non-patentable therapies at the national and international level.This is the background for the Bush administration's attack on the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), the key legislation protecting the rights of the American people for free access to natural therapies and to freedom of health choice. If this fundamental human right to natural health is taken away, the health of billions of people will be compromised and tens of millions of them will pay the ultimate price for generations to come.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Marketing Education Review - The Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching in Marketing Education
Marketing Education Review - The Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching in Marketing Education: "The Capstone “Integrated Business Applications” Course: Addressing the Need for Cross-Functional MBA Education
Greg W. Marshall, Steven E. Bolten and Paul J. Solomon
V10, Fall 2000, 63-75.
The College of Business at the University of South Florida has implemented a new track-driven MBA program that culminates in an innovative two-semester capstone Integrated Business Applications (IBA) course. The goal is to address the call by industry for more cross-functional training of MBA students. This article describes the IBA course, including issues of pedagogy and evaluation of student performance, outlines key categories of knowledge and skill application imbedded within the course experience, and provides a summary of key operational challenges encountered as well as approaches to assessing program success."
Greg W. Marshall, Steven E. Bolten and Paul J. Solomon
V10, Fall 2000, 63-75.
The College of Business at the University of South Florida has implemented a new track-driven MBA program that culminates in an innovative two-semester capstone Integrated Business Applications (IBA) course. The goal is to address the call by industry for more cross-functional training of MBA students. This article describes the IBA course, including issues of pedagogy and evaluation of student performance, outlines key categories of knowledge and skill application imbedded within the course experience, and provides a summary of key operational challenges encountered as well as approaches to assessing program success."
American Environmental Health Studies Project
"Our Mission:
To facilitate projects that seek to empower citizens and educate decision makers on issues that:
*have the potential to harm human health or the environment; and
*offer alternative solutions which are environmentally just and sustainable.
Our Projects
For a complete listing of our current projects, click here"
To facilitate projects that seek to empower citizens and educate decision makers on issues that:
*have the potential to harm human health or the environment; and
*offer alternative solutions which are environmentally just and sustainable.
Our Projects
For a complete listing of our current projects, click here"
Fluoride Deception Part 3
I knew it... Florida Phosphate Industry saving costs for waste disposal... Greed and control!
Oak Ridge K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant Fluoride Accident. The SV-40 synergism and HF. Invention of Chemtrails. Human experiments with cyanide. Cloud s
Eeek this only gets worse and worse...
"The key to AIDS is the rising bone concentration of fluorine and its making essential trace metals like manganese unavailable in cell enzyme processes. The Pineal Gland's retention of fluoride exceeds the levels in the bone mass and disrupts the glands day-night regulation of thyroid hormone and melatonin. Many of the immune cells are born in the bone marrow and they begin with depleted levels of trace metals needed for enzymes and it stays that way due to the loss of GSH in cells leading to loss of manganese by rendering it unavailable. This effect sets up the infections of HIV in the immune cells that have lost the essential metal that protects the cells from retroviral infections. Fluoride chemistry also renders some essential metals like magnesium, zinc, and selenium lower in concentration due to shedding more rapidly from the body. Rising bone fluoride concentration signal upsets of the beneficial trace metals concentration in the body and via that effect comes illness, rapid aging, and even death."
"The key to AIDS is the rising bone concentration of fluorine and its making essential trace metals like manganese unavailable in cell enzyme processes. The Pineal Gland's retention of fluoride exceeds the levels in the bone mass and disrupts the glands day-night regulation of thyroid hormone and melatonin. Many of the immune cells are born in the bone marrow and they begin with depleted levels of trace metals needed for enzymes and it stays that way due to the loss of GSH in cells leading to loss of manganese by rendering it unavailable. This effect sets up the infections of HIV in the immune cells that have lost the essential metal that protects the cells from retroviral infections. Fluoride chemistry also renders some essential metals like magnesium, zinc, and selenium lower in concentration due to shedding more rapidly from the body. Rising bone fluoride concentration signal upsets of the beneficial trace metals concentration in the body and via that effect comes illness, rapid aging, and even death."
Sickness Control 101: Fluoride, the Lunatic Drug | 100777.com
"Controversial fluoride is one of the basic ingredients in both PROZAC (FLUoxetene Hydrochloride) and Sarin nerve gas (Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl FLUoride).
Sodium fluoride, a hazardous-waste by-product from the manufacture of aluminum, is a common ingredient in rat and cockroach poisons, anesthetics, hypnotics, psychiatric drugs, and military nerve gas. It's historically been quite expensive to properly dispose of, until some aluminum industries with an overabundance of the stuff sold the public on the terrifically insane but highly profitable idea of buying it at a 20,000% markup, injecting it into our water supplies, and then DRINKING it.
Yes, a 20,000% markup: Fluoride - intended only for human consumption by people under 14 years of age - is injected into our drinking water supply at approx. 1 part-per-million (ppm), but since we only drink half of one percent of the total water supply, the rest literally goes down the drain as a free hazardous-waste disposal for the chemical industry, where we PAY them so that we can flush their expensive hazardous waste down our toilets. How many salesmen dream of such a deal? (Follow the money.)
Independent scientific evidence repeatedly showing up over the past 50 years reveals that fluoride allegedly shortens our life span, promotes cancer and various mental disturbances, accelerates osteoporosis and broken hips in old folks, and makes us stupid, docile, and subservient, all in one package. There are reports of aluminum in the brain possibly being a causative factor in Alzheimer's Disease, and evidence points towards fluoride's strong affinity for aluminum and also its ability to "trick" the blood-brain barrier by looking like the hydrogen ion, and thus allowing chemical access to brain tissue.
Do you have diabetes or kidney disease? There are reportedly more than 11 million Americans with diabetes. Since many diabetics drink more liquids than other people, then according to the Physicians Desk Reference these 11 million Americans probably shouldn't drink fluoridated water, because in doing so, they'll receive an excessive dose of fluoride.
Kidney disease, by definition, lowers the efficiency of the kidneys, which is your main route of fluoride elimination. So those people with kidney disease also shouldn't drink fluoridated water. Cases are on record (Annapolis, Maryland, 1979) where kidney patients on dialysis machines died, due to a fluoride overdose in the city water supply.
Let's begin at the beginning:
The first occurrence of fluoridated drinking water on Earth was found in Germany's Nazi prison camps. The Gestapo had little concern about fluoride's supposed effect on children's teeth; their alleged reason for mass-medicating water with sodium fluoride was to sterilize humans and force the people in their concentration camps into calm submission. (Ref. book: "The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben" by Joseph Borkin. And for more on I.G. Farben you might also care to see "Can I pour you a cup?".)
The following letter was received by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, Milwaukee Wisconsin, on 2 October 1954, from Mr. Charles Perkins, a chemist:
"I have your letter of September 29 asking for further documentation regarding a statement made in my book, The Truth About Water Fluoridation, to the effect that the idea of water fluoridation was brought to England from Russia by the Russian Communist Kreminoff. "In the 1930's, Hitler and the German Nazi's envisioned a world to be dominated and controlled by a Nazi philosophy of pan-Germanism. The German chemists worked out a very ingenious and far-reaching plan of mass-control which was submitted to and adopted by the German General Staff. This plan was to control the population in any given area through mass medication of drinking water supplies. By this method they could control the population in whole areas, reduce population by water medication that would produce sterility in women, and so on. In this scheme of mass-control, sodium fluoride occupied a prominent place . . . .
"Repeated doses of infinitesimal amounts of fluoride will in time reduce an individual's power to resist domination, by slowly poisoning and narcotizing a certain area of the brain, thus making him submissive to the will of those who wish to govern him. [A convenient light lobotomy]
"The real reason behind water fluoridation is not to benefit children's teeth. If this were the real reason there are many ways in which it could be done that are much easier, cheaper, and far more effective. The real purpose behind water fluoridation is to reduce the resistance of the masses to domination and control and loss of liberty.
"When the Nazis under Hitler decided to go into Poland, both the German General Staff and the Russian General Staff exchanged scientific and military ideas, plans, and personnel, and the scheme of mass control through water medication was seized upon by the Russian Communists because it fitted ideally into their plan to communize the world . . . .
"I was told of this entire scheme by a German chemist who was an official of the great I.G. Farben chemical industries and was also prominent in the Nazi movement at the time. I say this with all the earnestness and sincerity of a scientist who has spent nearly 20 years' research into the chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology of fluorine - any person who drinks artificially fluorinated water for a period of one year or more will never again be the same person mentally or physically." - CHARLES E. PERKINS, Chemist, 2 October 1954"Tuesday, March 20, 2007
LiveScience.com - Controversial New Idea: Nerves Transmit Sound, Not Electricity
Controversial New Idea: Nerves Transmit Sound, Not Electricity
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 14 March, 2007
1:00 pm ET
Nerves transmit sound waves through your body, not electrical pulses, according to a controversial new study that tries to explain the longstanding mystery of how anesthetics work.
Textbooks say nerves use electrical impulses to transmit signals from the brain to the point of action, be it to wag a finger or blink an eye.
'But for us as physicists, this cannot be the explanation,' says Thomas Heimburg, a Copenhagen University researcher whose expertise is in the intersection of biology and physics. 'The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced.'
The textbooks are not likely to be rewritten anytime soon, however.
Roderic Eckenhoff, a researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, called the sound pulse idea interesting. 'But an enormous burden of proof exists and they have a very long way to go to beat electricity,' he said.
Nerves transmit sound waves through your body, not electrical pulses, according to a controversial new study that tries to explain the longstanding mystery of how anesthetics work.
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 14 March, 2007
1:00 pm ET
Nerves transmit sound waves through your body, not electrical pulses, according to a controversial new study that tries to explain the longstanding mystery of how anesthetics work.
Textbooks say nerves use electrical impulses to transmit signals from the brain to the point of action, be it to wag a finger or blink an eye.
'But for us as physicists, this cannot be the explanation,' says Thomas Heimburg, a Copenhagen University researcher whose expertise is in the intersection of biology and physics. 'The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced.'
The textbooks are not likely to be rewritten anytime soon, however.
Roderic Eckenhoff, a researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, called the sound pulse idea interesting. 'But an enormous burden of proof exists and they have a very long way to go to beat electricity,' he said.
Nerves transmit sound waves through your body, not electrical pulses, according to a controversial new study that tries to explain the longstanding mystery of how anesthetics work.
Textbooks say nerves use electrical impulses to transmit signals from the brain to the point of action, be it to wag a finger or blink an eye.
"But for us as physicists, this cannot be the explanation," says Thomas Heimburg, a Copenhagen University researcher whose expertise is in the intersection of biology and physics. "The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced."
The textbooks are not likely to be rewritten anytime soon, however.
Roderic Eckenhoff, a researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, called the sound pulse idea interesting. "But an enormous burden of proof exists and they have a very long way to go to beat electricity," he said.
The olive oil clue
Nerves are wrapped in a membrane of lipids and proteins. Biology textbooks say a pulse is sent from one end of the nerve to the other with the help of electrically charged salts that pass through ion channels in the membrane. But the lack of heat generation contradicts the molecular biological theory of an electrical impulse produced by chemical processes, says Heimburg, who co-authored the new study with Copenhagen University theoretical physicist Andrew Jackson.
Instead, nerve pulses can be explained much more simply as a mechanical pulse of sound, Heimburg and Jackson argue. Their idea will be published in the Biophysical Journal.
Normally, sound propagates as a wave that spreads out and becomes weaker and weaker. But in certain conditions, sound can be made to travel without spreading and therefore it retains its intensity.
The lipids in a nerve membrane are similar to olive oil, the scientists explain. And the membrane has a freezing point that is precisely suited to the propagation of these concentrated sound pulses"
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