Just like a frog

In hot water that is

Just slowly remorselessly turn up the heat and the frog just sits there

So the people of Britain watch as their remaining liberties are removed one by one

Years ago people talked darkly about 1984 and how it might come to pass

Well it has

And more so

A report from the US Internet security company Cryptohippie puts the UK at number six in the list of the world's most repressive regimes

This in terms of the electronic surveillance of its citizens.

The report is from 'The Electronic Police State, 2010 National Rankings

And states the following

The UK is aggressively building the world of 1984 in the name of stopping 'anti-social' activities.

Their populace seems unable or unwilling to restrain the government

The report defines an electronic police state as being characterised by -

State use of electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens
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And if that is not enough the British are being taxed ever more heavily to pay for their very own police state 
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While also being told about unprecedented Government sleaze, waste and misuse of public funds
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On top of literally thousands of unelected bodies who advise said government on every subject conceivable and unconceivable 
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Again at great expense to the taxpayer financially and psychologically
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And what is the media doing in all this?

Just more shock, horror and crisis stories 

Or here have some more celebrity photos and did you know...........

Give us a break!
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At what point do the meek British finally say enough?
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Maybe never
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Just like a frog in hot water..................really

Not so covert state

Most of us fail to understand or think about what is being done by our governments in the name of security
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So in order that you do think a little the following is a list of areas where many governments do monitor our lives
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This list is not measuring government censorship of Internet traffic or police abuses, as legitimate as these issues may be.
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Nor is government corruption included which in many countries is rampant
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Note also that no categories apply to evidence-gathering by traditional, honest police
work which would be searches only with warrants issued by an independent judge, after sufficient examination of evidence
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A procedure often dispensed with today as other means are open to the various government agencies
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The list
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Daily Documents - Requirement of state-issued identity documents and registration.
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Border Issues - Inspections at borders, searching computers, demanding decryption of data.
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Financial Tracking - State’s ability to search and record all financial transactions: Checks, credit card use, wires, banks etc.
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Gag Orders - Criminal penalties if you tell someone the state is searching their records.
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Anti-Crypto Laws - Outlawing or restricting cryptography.
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Constitutional Protection - A lack of constitutional protections for the individual, or the overriding of such protections.
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Data Storage Ability - The ability of the state to store the data they gather.
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Data Search Ability - The ability to search the data they gather.
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SP Data Retention - States forcing Internet Service Providers to save detailed records of all their customers’ Internet usage.
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Telephone Data Retention - States forcing telephone companies to record and save records of all their customers’ telephone usage.
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Cell Phone Records - States forcing cellular telephone companies to record and save records of all their customers’ usage, including location.
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Medical records - States demanding records from all medical service providers and retaining the same.
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Enforcement Ability - The state’s ability to use overwhelming force (exemplified by SWAT Teams) to seize anyone they want, whenever they want.
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Habeus Corpus - Lack of habeus corpus, which is the right not to be held in jail without prompt due process. Or, the overriding of such protections.
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Police-Intel Barrier - The lack of a barrier between police organizations and intelligence organizations. Or, the overriding of such barriers.
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Covert Hacking - State operatives copying digital evidence from private computers covertly. Covert hacking can make anyone appear as any kind of criminal desired, if combined with the removing and/or adding of digital evidence.
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Loose Warrants - Warrants issued without careful examination of police statements and other justifications by a truly independent judge
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cc 2010 Cryptohippie
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Now you have the true picture of what is being done in your country today and if not today then certainly tomorrow
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Consider this
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While everything runs smoothly in your life you do not care about this except as a hypothetical issue
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Then when some silly little thing in your life goes wrong
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Like your phone does not work
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You suddenly experience the frustration of trying to deal with endless call centres
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Endless options leading nowhere
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Then finally after considerable frustration and time you get to a human being
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Said human being often trained only to answer standard questions
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Questions or answers that may or may not solve your problem
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For sure at some point you resolve your problem
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You go back to your normal life with a shudder at the time and effort used to rectify one small problem
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Now imagine the state decides you have done something wrong
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True or false now you enter a nightmare zone
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Ever tried defending yourself from a remorseless state?
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No then believe us it is hard if not impossible
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Now imagine you have had enough and want to demonstrate
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You write letters and emails all of which are held on file
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Then you decide to march or demonstrate
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Bad move you will be photographed your image and details on file for life
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Should you be arrested for your pains then DNA will be taken and again you will be on file for life
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And no you will not have access to what is hidden on these files
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Not today but tomorrow many of us might have had enough of surveillance
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Not sure we will be able to surmount these hurdles though

Internet control

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The conquest of the Internet – the building of what we call an Electronic Police State – has one
primary foundation:

Fear

This legitimizes the entire operation.
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You’ll notice that every time something goes wrong online, “more control” is immediately demanded as the solution.
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This is irrational, and here’s why:

We’ve had ever-more control for a long time, and the problems remain.

The magic of control hasn’t worked.
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Protection from terrorists is accomplished by shooting them with bullets

Not by grabbing every bit of personal information from children, grandmas and businessmen.

We all know pretty well who the terrorists are and where they live

Monitoring every penny that goes in and out of Butte, Montana is not going to help them get shot.
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Anti-privacy (pro-Electronic Police State) arguments pretend that central control produces
perfection, which is ridiculous.
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We’ve had mass-centralization since the early 20th Century, yet we still have an overflow of terrorists and crooks.

Why would we demand more of it at every possible opportunity?

It’s crazy

cc Cryptohippie

But then seen through the eyes of those in power it is not so crazy

Name the government which has ever ever voluntarily let go of control

Name the government which has ever stopped trying to take more control

They are institutionally unable to trust

Unable to see other ways of running things

Anything new they do not control will come under attack

Must come under attack because it might just might take away or put their control under tension

This is where the nub of our troubles lie

Government is culturally unable to govern any other way

Government control is out of control

Only when we wake up to the nonsense of greater and greater control as a solution to everything can we start the long fight to reverse or remove endless controls on everything

Future

How can humanity, us, me, you, we move forward if we do not accept the future?

There cannot be success in the future when our heads are stuck in the past

We need to search for new ways is the first requirement for reaching a better tomorrow

The evidence of flexibility in the search will be the basis of success

We cannot go on as we have been this is no longer an option

Yet our politics is divided basically along these lines

Those who reject the new

Those  who embrace the new

And then we tend to choose the path of least resistance and please no one

Compromise is fine in certain situations in others it leads to disaster

We have many of those today where the compromises please no one

The future of humanity is uncertain because our resources are stretched

Because there are so many of us

Our way of looking at the future is so often projecting more of the same on tomorrow

More of the same will not work any longer for reasons we all know

Yet we do not even debate or discuss what alternative options are open to us

Why do we not start with what we could imagine as our best possible vision

A vision where we all have the same rights

The same responsibilities

The two going hand in hand

A world where we outlaw any activity that knowingly harms others

Bye bye defense industries

About now you are saying he is off his head, the vested interest groups will never let go of their hold on politicians

Too much money and power at stake

Yes that is true yet a vision should put our heads firmly where we would like to go

To say what we would like the world to look like not what we today perceive as possible today

War is insane

War is dehumanising

And war is not part of our vision for a nicer world

Make all wars illegal for a start and put anyone who starts, supports, finances or promotes one on trial

Make war illegal under any and all circumstances

Today this might seem a mad dream

But then dreams have a funny way of coming true

If we have not even got the courage to dream then for sure we deserve what is coming

Dream an end to war and all those who support them

Put the thought form of a warless world into your mind and keep it there

Unlikely mosquito repellents

The most common way to avoid mosquito bites when outdoors is to use a citronella candle.

Planting marigolds around your house can also discourage them from hanging around.

You can likewise use citronella oil on your skin as a repellent
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For your child try using Yarrow tea.

You can mist this on them to repel mosquito bites.

This is a safe and affective way to protect children.

Lemon Balm is an alternative to prevent bites for children as well.

Pure vanilla, believe it or not, actually repels mosquitoes.

If you use imitation vanilla it won't work though.

Mosquitoes are not the only bugs that don't like vanilla, so it's good to keep around.

You can put vanilla on your pulse points to keep away the bugs.

Who would think that lavender, as wonderful as it smells, would be a natural insect repellent.

You can use the flower to rub on your skin or use the oil on your pulse points just as you would for perfume.

This is proof that you don't have to smell like a chemical to keep away the bugs.

This last suggestion might sound funny but by eating garlic, you will repel mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes will not go near a field of garlic.

Mosquitoes hate garlic

 You can use this to your advantage by rubbing a little onto your exposed skin, or eat it and it will permeate through your pores

Citronella candles are effective and also can be rubbed on your skin

Vitamin B-1 (thiamine hydrochloride) is known to give off an odor through the skin that repels mosquitos and also gnats, no seeums and black flies.

A 100 mg. tablet, taken once daily should be effective.

Plants such as marigolds, lavenderr, cinnamon, rosemary, catnip, and peppermint repel mosquitoes and can be planted in your garden.

Centerpieces made of the same plants will also work and can be planted later

Bats are natural predators of mosquitoes.

Take advantage of this by building bat houses to encourage them to take up residence.

When sitting outside, place a large electric fan by you.

Mosquitos are too weak to fly against the air current.

Select a fresh lemon that is nicely ripe and firm but not hard.

Cut the lemon in half and remove any seeds that are on the surface of the lemon where you've cut it

Rub the lemon directly on your mosquito bite and feel the relief!

Regular sex research

It shows men who indulge in regular lovemaking are up to 45 per cent less likely to develop life-threatening heart conditions than men who have sex once a month or less.

The study, of over 1,000 men, shows sex appears to have a protective effect on the male heart but did not examine whether women benefit too.
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Although sex has long been regarded as good for physical and mental health, there has been little scientific evidence to show the full benefits that frequent intercourse can have on major illnesses such as heart disease.
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In the latest study, scientists at the New England Research Institute in Massachusetts, tracked the sexual activity of men aged between 40 and 70 who were taking part in a long-term project called the Massachusetts Male Ageing Study, which began back in 1987.
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At regular points over a 16-year period, each man was quizzed on how often they had sex and then checked for signs of heart disease.
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Researchers took into account other risk factors, such as their age, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
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The results, published in the American Journal of Cardiology, showed men who made love at least twice a week were much less likely to have heart disease than those whose sexual encounters were limited to once a month or less.
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In a report on their findings, researchers said the benefits of sex could be due to both the physical and emotional effects on the body.
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Men with the desire for frequent sexual activity and who are able to engage in it are likely to be healthier.
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But sex in some forms has a physical activity component that might directly serve to protect cardiovascular health.
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Also, men who have frequent sex might be more likely to be in a supportive intimate relationship and this might improve health through stress reduction and social support.
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And sex once or twice a week in winter can boost the immune system and reduce the chances of catching colds and flu, according to researchers at Wilkes University, Pennsylvania.
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They found it boosted levels of immunoglobulin A or IGA which binds to organisms that invade the body and then activates the immune system to destroy them.

Guardian

So now you know or do you? 

One might suspect that some of the participants exaggerated their frequency of sexual activity

In fact what men do not?

Leaving the boasting aside the researchers have not considered the negative effects of sex

To make positive statements about the desirability of frequent sex in such a narrow context is maybe not so smart

For example anyone interested in evolving spiritually can forget having regular or frequent sex

The effect of orgasm along the spinal cord impacts on the pineal gland and this is damaging

Increasing one's sensitivity in other areas is not improved by frequent sex

If the sex is with one partner fine provided that partner is healthy

If the sex is with multiple or casual partners then this alone introduces problems of mixing energy with that person and this has negative effects

The observation must be made that while the researchers might be accurate in their narrow conclusions on any broader basis the research is misleading

There are of course myriads of other factors as to why older people enjoy good health

Be careful of blazing solution type headlines

Do medications really expire?

Does the expiration date on a bottle of a medication mean anything?
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If a bottle of Tylenol, for example, says something like "Do not use after June 1998," and it is August 2002, should you take the Tylenol?
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Should you discard it?
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Can you get hurt if you take it?
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Will it simply have lost its potency and do you no good?
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In other words, are drug manufacturers being honest with us when they put an expiration date on their medications, or is the practice of dating just another drug industry scam, to get us to buy new medications when the old ones that purportedly have "expired" are still perfectly good?
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First, the expiration date, required by law in the United States, beginning in 1979, specifies only the date the manufacturer guarantees the full potency and safety of the drug –
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it does not mean how long the drug is actually "good" or safe to use.
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Second, medical authorities uniformly say it is safe to take drugs past their expiration date –
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no matter how "expired" the drugs purportedly are.
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Except for possibly the rarest of exceptions, you won't get hurt and you certainly won't get killed.
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So wisdom dictates that if your life does depend on an expired drug, and you must have 100% or so of its original strength, you should probably toss it and get a refill, in accordance with the cliché, "better safe than sorry."
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If your life does not depend on an expired drug -- such as that for headache, hay fever, or menstrual cramps -- take it and see what happens.
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One of the largest studies ever conducted that supports the above points about "expired drug" labeling was done by the US military 15 years ago, according to a feature story in the Wall Street Journal (March 29, 2000), reported by Laurie P. Cohen.
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The military was sitting on a $1 billion stockpile of drugs and facing the daunting process of destroying and replacing its supply every 2 to 3 years, so it began a testing program to see if it could extend the life of its inventory.
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The testing, conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ultimately covered more than 100 drugs, prescription and over-the-counter.
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The results showed that about 90% of them were safe and effective as far as 15 years past their original expiration date.
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In light of these results, a former director of the testing program, Francis Flaherty, said he concluded that expiration dates put on by manufacturers typically have no bearing on whether a drug is usable for longer.
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Mr. Flaherty noted that a drug maker is required to prove only that a drug is still good on whatever expiration date the company chooses to set.
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The expiration date doesn't mean, or even suggest, that the drug will stop being effective after that, nor that it will become harmful. "
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Manufacturers put expiration dates on for marketing, rather than scientific, reasons," said Mr. Flaherty, a pharmacist at the FDA until his retirement in 1999. "
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It's not profitable for them to have products on a shelf for 10 years. They want turnover."
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The FDA cautioned there isn't enough evidence from the program, which is weighted toward drugs used during combat, to conclude most drugs in consumers' medicine cabinets are potent beyond the expiration date.
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Joel Davis, however, a former FDA expiration-date compliance chief, said that with a handful of exceptions -- notably nitroglycerin, insulin, and some liquid antibiotics -- most drugs are probably as durable as those the agency has tested for the military.
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Most drugs degrade very slowly
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In all likelihood, you can take a product you have at home and keep it for many years, especially if it's in the refrigerator
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Now I think I'll calculate how many billions of dollars the pharmaceutical industry bilks out of unknowing consumers every year who discard perfectly good drugs and buy new ones because they trust the industry's "expiration date labeling."
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Richard Altschuler
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So simple and such an easy way to make many many millions more
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Particularly when you wrote the rules regarding expiration
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Nice one guys
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Hard to imagine this from an industry that loudly and frequently talks about it's ethics and morals
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Mmmmm

High consumption

High consumption lifestyles
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Can and often do have many side effects that do not improve well being
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These include increased work stress
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Debt
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More illness and a greater risk of death
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Each year roughly half of all deaths worldwide are caused by
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Cancers
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Cardiovascular and lung diseases
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Diabetes
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Auto accidents.
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Many of these deaths are caused or at least largely influenced by individual consumption choices
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Such as smoking
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Being sedentary
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Eating too few fruits and vegetables
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Being overweight.
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Today 1.6 billion people around the world are overweight or obese,
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Lowering their quality of life and shortening their lives
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For the obese, by three to ten years on average
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And yet we go on pretending that this is not our concern
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It’s them
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It’s their problem
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Not so
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It is our problem
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A growing problem

Please ensure that your own choices are prudent

When young we have no clue about the effect of our behaviour today will have on our lives tomorrow

And health believe us is no 1 to 10 in terms of what makes life comfortable

We do not think about how amazing it is to be able to walk

Try being in a wheelchair for a day

Only later in life does walking easily be seen for what it is

Amazing freedom

Be smarter today please tomorrow is coming quicker than you think

Forbes billions list

But strangely not even Forbes magazine makes much of an effort to distinguish how the billions are made.
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The great truth of capitalism is that it took off only once the European Enlightenment created the great institutions that kept it honest
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- the rule of law, a free press, accountability mechanisms, ways of forcing monopolists to give up their ill-gotten gains, creating competitive markets and elections.
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Before that there was tax-farming and the buying and selling of monopolies – rather as in China today.
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The Enlightenment offered the means, however imperfect, to challenge all that.
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The great mistake of the free-market revolution was to argue that all that was needed to make capitalism work was free, lightly regulated and flexible markets – and that institutions imposing ethics, transparency, accountability got in the way.
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We now know better.
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Britain's representation in the Forbes list is particularly depressing.
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Our members include a bunch of property developers, tax-avoiding retail magnates, the Duke of Westminster, a hedge fund manager and Richard Branson.
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Branson is probably the closest we have to a billionaire productive entrepreneur, but his companies are hardly at the forefront of technological innovation or employment generation.
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He glamorises – but does little to grow the economy.
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We do not have one genuinely productive entrepreneur on the list.
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In many respects this forms the heart of the British crisis.
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Our political class bought the proposition that whatever the source of wealth economic progress would follow, celebrating the Mayfair hedge fund manager more than the genuine innovator.
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Watch the British government now fight on behalf of hedge funds against EU regulation.
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Only at the eleventh hour, with some of Lord Mandelson's speeches and initiatives, together with David Cameron commissioning a useful report from the entrepreneur James Dyson, Ingenious Britain, is there any sign of change.
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But it is a deathbed conversion.
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The electorate, angry and bewildered, want a conversation about creating wealth and jobs, rewarding those that do rather than those that speculate and rig markets.
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Instead they are offered platitudes and bromides.
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Guardian

An article that can be read anywhere in the world today as it touches upon our great malaise

A global malaise that accepts that money is God

That where money comes from is no issue

How it is made is of no concern

Wrong

It is of concern

Any planet that cannot understand that undisguised greed is intolerable is in trouble

Greed can only function when money is worshiped above all else

Where money trumps all else

Where money buys all

Where ethics and morals are buried under the greed for money

Greed is out of control on planet earth today

We cannot address our problems when power rests solely with the greedy

With narrowly focused industry pressure groups

Corporate power is rapidly overtaking other pressure groups in the political process

Corporate needs are not the same as those of society at large

Bankers imperatives as we have so recently seen are not ours

Craven politicians are unable or unwilling to stem the tide of interest group demands

Be they of arms manufacturers or cereal makers

Time to look beyond the dizzy figures of personal wealth accumulation and ask just where did it come from?

And just what are you collecting all this money for?

Is it just an addiction?

Or do you like Bill Gates have an answer as to what you are doing this for?

Time we asked some questions about where it all came from

Coconut oil

New Study Shows Coconut Oil Protects Against Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Obesity
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A new study published in the scientific journal Lipids demonstrates that coconut oil consumption raises HDL (good) cholesterol, lowers the cholesterol ratio (reducing risk of heart disease), improves blood sugar levels, decreases risk of diabetes, decreases body fat, reduces abdominal circumference, and can aid in fighting overweight and obesity.

A number of previous studies, mostly using fractionated coconut oil (i.e. medium chain triglyceride oil) have demonstrated similar results.
 
This study, however, measured the effects of various health parameters using ordinary coconut oil.
 
One of the criticisms skeptics have used to refute the claims for the health benefits of coconut oil is that the majority of the studies didn’t directly test coconut oil but tested fractionated coconut oil, which is also known as MCT oil.
 
Natural coconut oil contains a total of 10 fatty acids, 63 percent of which are medium or short chain fatty acids.
 
MCT oil, on the other hand, consists primarily of only two medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs).
 
When MCT oil is produced, coconut oil is fractionated or divided into the different fatty acids.
 
All but two, caprylic and capric acids, are removed.
 
Ironically, when MCT oil is produced, the most important MCFA, lauric acid, is removed.
 
Even without lauric acid, MCT oil has shown to have many health benefits.
 
Anti-saturated fat proponents have claimed that the benefits produced by MCT oil cannot be equated with coconut oil.
 
They acknowledge that the two MCFAs in MCT oil may have health benefits, but that coconut oil, consisting of 10 fatty acids, would not have the same benefits.
 
This study disproves their claim.
 
This study verifies previous studies that indicated that coconut oil has anti-inflammatory properties.
 
This is an important issue because coconut oil critics claim, with little justification, that saturated fats promote inflammation.
 
This study demonstrates just the opposite.
 
Once more, it also demonstrates that coconut oil consumption does not promote heart disease and improves cholesterol values.
 
It provides evidence that coconut oil is heart healthy and should be used to fight off heart disease.
 
Healthy Ways