The Worst 'Healthy' Foods

By David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding

If you want to lose weight, it may seem like a good idea to trade candy bars for granola bars or to swap bacon and eggs at breakfast for the classic bagel (it’s shaped like a zero; how bad could it be?).

Sadly, it’s just not that simple. Customers’ nutrition knowledge is rising, so food marketers are desperate to attract the right kind of attention from the eating public. So they’re twisting nutritional buzzwords to trick us into eating the kinds of foods that can actually help make us fat. We need to be more careful than ever to make sure we’re feeding ourselves and our families the very best real health foods — not sugar-infused calorie bombs disguised as weight-loss foods.

Read up for our latest batch of dietary phonies. They may look good on the front label, but they’ll get you in the end if you're not careful.

Granola Bar
200 calories
15 g sugars

Eat this instead!
1 oz cheddar cheese with Triscuits
150 calories
5 g sugars

Ever wonder what keeps a granola bar together? The answer: high-fructose corn syrup, which quickly raises blood sugar and cancels out most of the potential benefits the granola almonds and oats might give you. Switch over to good old-fashioned cheese and crackers, and you trade sugar and calories for protein and fiber. It's a big deal that will make you smaller, as will steering clear of the sugar bombs. By the way, these are the most sugar-packed foods in America.

Yogurt with Fruit on the Bottom
190 calories
30 g sugars

Eat this instead!
Plain yogurt with fresh fruit mixed in
110 calories
15 g sugars

Pass on these over-sweetened yogurt cups; they contain as much sugar as a soft drink. Almost all of that comes directly from the “fruit,” which is swimming in high-fructose corn syrup. Yogurt and fruit can be a great way to start your day, but do it yourself by mixing a cup of nonfat plain yogurt with a half cup of mixed berries.

Bagel with Cream Cheese
700 calories
40 g fat
13 g saturated

Eat this instead!
Cheese omelet
425 calories
18 g
6 g saturated

Bagels are bogus. The bread is bad enough, containing 300 calories and 60 grams of carbohydrates, but tack on the liberal cream cheese schmear (by our survey of popular breakfast chains, up to 4 ounces for a single bagel!) and your "harmless" breakfast sandwich weighs in as worse than a Whopper. The omelet swap will save you nearly 300 calories, plus provide a surge of metabolism-boosting protein. And a recent study from the University of Connecticut found that eating eggs can help raise HDL (good) cholesterol. And while you're being vigilant, watch out for the 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America!

Dried Fruit
175 calories
45 g sugars

Eat this instead!
Fresh fruit, like an apple or a peach
70 calories
15 g sugars

OK, so dried fruit won’t totally derail a day of good eating (unless you down the whole bag of banana chips), but it’s far from being a harmless snack. First, because the dehydrating process sucks most of the volume from the fruit, you can eat cups of the stuff, and 600 calories later, still not feel any fuller. More troubling, though, is the fact that Sun-Maid and Ocean Spray add sugar to the fruit, making Craisins closer to candy than Mother Nature’s original intention. The choice is clear: Stick to the original, straight from the tree.

Fish Sandwich
600 calories
30 g fat
11 g saturated

Eat this instead!
Grilled chicken sandwich
300 calories
13 g fat
4 g saturated

Fish is good for you, except when it’s battered, fried, robed in cheese, and bathed in tartar sauce. The lesson? Even the biggest star can be sabotaged by the supporting cast. To this end, avoid any menu item with the word "crispy," the restaurant industry’s favorite euphemism for “fried.” Make sure your next fish or chicken sandwich is grilled, dressed with fresh produce, and topped with a low-cal barbecue sauce, or even ketchup and mustard. And watch the salt; these 20 foods are the saltiest in America!

Stick margarine (1 Tbsp)
100 calories
11 g fat
2.5 g saturated
2.5 g trans fat

Eat this instead!
Whipped butter (1 Tbsp)
50 calories
6 g fat
1.5 g saturated

In their haste to remove saturated fat from butter, margarine makers created the margarine monster — a dangerous lipid called trans fat, with more dangerous links to heart disease than saturated fat. Pick up whipped butter instead; by whipping air into the spread, manufacturers decrease the caloric density of a tablespoon of butter, and they make it easier to top your toast. If you buy margarine, make sure it’s the type found in the tub, hopefully with an added bonus like omega-3s folded into the mix.

When eating out, make these 15 top restaurant swaps to avoid caloric disasters. And check out our definitive restaurant report card to identify the best places for healthy eating at fast food and chain restaurants throughout America.

Eat better at home, too. Shop for the 125 healthiest supermarket foods in America.

Keep your kids happy and healthy with twists on these 10 favorites.

Look here for 17 foods that women should be eating to stay fit.

US 'casino' mentality blamed for planet's meltdown

They got that right
best to hang all in public, all arrogant greedy obese,ignorant xenophobic TRAITORS
in USA

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Astounded by the U.S. government's failure to resolve the financial crisis threatening the foundations of the global free market, fingers of blame are pointing at America from around the planet.

Latin American leaders say the U.S. must quickly fix the financial crisis it created before the rest of the world's hard-won economic gains are lost.

"The managers of big business took huge risks out of greed," said President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, whose economy is highly dependent on U.S. trade. "What happens in the United States will affect the entire world and, above all, small countries like ours."

In Europe, where some blame a phenomenon of "casino capitalism" that has become deeply engrained from New York to London to Moscow, there is more of a sense of shared responsibility. But Europeans also blame the U.S. government for letting things get out of hand.

Amid harsh criticism is a growing consensus that stricter financial regulation is needed to prevent unfettered capitalism from destroying economies around the globe.

And leaders of developing nations that kept spending tight and opened their economies in response to American demands are warning of other consequences — a loss of U.S. influence globally and the likelihood that the world's poor will suffer the most from greed by the biggest players in global finance.

"They spent the last three decades saying we needed to do our chores. They didn't," a grim-faced Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday.

Even staunch U.S. allies like Colombian President Alvaro Uribe blasted the world's most powerful country for egging on uncontrolled financial speculation that he compared to a wild horse with no reins.

"The whole world has financed the United States, and I believe that they have a reciprocal debt with the planet," he said.

It's harder for European leaders to point the finger directly at the United States since many of their financiers participated in the recklessness. London was home to the division of failed insurer AIG that racked up huge losses on credit-default swaps, and many reputable European banks disregarded risk to load up on higher yielding subprime assets.

But the House's rejection Monday of the U.S. bank bailout proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson provoked a sharper tone and warnings that America must act. Though global markets on Tuesday recovered some of the ground they lost in a worldwide slide the day before, politicians from Europe to South America insisted the risk of a further plunge remains high.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on U.S. lawmakers to pass a package this week, saying it was the "precondition for creating new confidence on the markets — and that is of incredibly great significance."

In an unusually blunt statement from the 27-country European Union, EU Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said: "The United States must take its responsibility in this situation, must show statesmanship for the sake of their own country, and for the sake of the world."

The crisis also has strengthened voices in France and Germany calling for EU regulations to eliminate highly deregulated financial markets, despite objections from Britain, which along with the U.S. is considered by some to practice a freer form of "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism.

"This crisis underlines the excesses and uncertainties of a casino capitalism that has only one logic — lining your pockets," said German lawmaker Martin Schulz, chairman of the Socialists in the EU assembly. "It also shows the bankruptcy of 'law of the jungle' capitalism that no longer invests in companies and job creation, but instead makes money out of money in a totally uncontrolled way."

The U.S. government's failure to apply rules that might have prevented the crisis is seen as a betrayal in many developing countries that faced intense U.S. pressures to liberalize their economies. In some developing nations, state enterprises were privatized, currencies were allowed to float against the U.S. dollar and painful measures were taken to bring down debts.

These advances are at risk now that credit is drying up. Countries with commodities-based economies are particularly vulnerable since more industrialized nations could reduce their demand for everything from soy to iron ore.

"It doesn't seem fair to me that those of us who endured so much hunger in the 20th century, who began to improve in the 21st century, should have to suffer due to the international financial system," Silva said. "There are going to be a lot of people going hungry in the world."

Just before meeting with Silva on Tuesday, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez said he believes a new economic order is in store for the planet.

"What's to blame? Imperialism, the United States, the irresponsibility of the United States government," said the self-avowed socialist and frequent U.S. critic. "From this crisis, a new world has to emerge, and it's a multi-polar world."

China's influence in the outcome of all this could be profound because it is a huge investor in U.S. debt. It is already calling for strict new international regulatory systems to apply to globalized financial markets.

Liu Mingkang, chairman of the Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission, said Saturday before a weeklong bank holiday in China that debt in the United States and elsewhere has risen to dangerous and indefensible levels.

The rest of the world is taking notice. Many newspapers made references Tuesday to China's increasing importance in global finance. In Algeria, a large cartoon on the front page of the newspaper El-Watan showed Uncle Sam at prayer: "Save us!" he says, kneeling before a portrait of China's Mao Zedong.

In London, Jane Ayerson, a 20-year-old Irish exchange student, said Europeans share the blame.

"The problem started with America, but banks here have been greedy, too," she said.

___

Associated Press writers Michelle Faul in Johannesburg, South Africa; Alfred de Montesquiou in Algiers, Algeria; Raf Cassert in Brussels, Belgium; Jane Wardell and David McHugh in London; and Marco Sibaja in Manaus, Brazil, contributed to this report.

The Methane Time Bomb

by: Steve Conner, The Independent UK

In the past few days, researchers believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age. (Photo: Getty Images)

Arctic scientists discover new global warming threat as melting permafrost releases millions of tons of a gas 20 times more damaging than carbon dioxide.

The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.

The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.

Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane - sometimes at up to 100 times background levels - over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.

They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years.

Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane.

The amount of methane stored beneath the Arctic is calculated to be greater than the total amount of carbon locked up in global coal reserves so there is intense interest in the stability of these deposits as the region warms at a faster rate than other places on earth.

Orjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University in Sweden, one of the leaders of the expedition, described the scale of the methane emissions in an email exchange sent from the Russian research ship Jacob Smirnitskyi.

"We had a hectic finishing of the sampling programme yesterday and this past night," said Dr Gustafsson. "An extensive area of intense methane release was found. At earlier sites we had found elevated levels of dissolved methane. Yesterday, for the first time, we documented a field where the release was so intense that the methane did not have time to dissolve into the seawater but was rising as methane bubbles to the sea surface. These 'methane chimneys' were documented on echo sounder and with seismic [instruments]."

At some locations, methane concentrations reached 100 times background levels. These anomalies have been seen in the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea, covering several tens of thousands of square kilometres, amounting to millions of tons of methane, said Dr Gustafsson. "This may be of the same magnitude as presently estimated from the global ocean," he said. "Nobody knows how many more such areas exist on the extensive East Siberian continental shelves.

"The conventional thought has been that the permafrost 'lid' on the sub-sea sediments on the Siberian shelf should cap and hold the massive reservoirs of shallow methane deposits in place. The growing evidence for release of methane in this inaccessible region may suggest that the permafrost lid is starting to get perforated and thus leak methane... The permafrost now has small holes. We have found elevated levels of methane above the water surface and even more in the water just below. It is obvious that the source is the seabed."

The preliminary findings of the International Siberian Shelf Study 2008, being prepared for publication by the American Geophysical Union, are being overseen by Igor Semiletov of the Far-Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1994, he has led about 10 expeditions in the Laptev Sea but during the 1990s he did not detect any elevated levels of methane. However, since 2003 he reported a rising number of methane "hotspots", which have now been confirmed using more sensitive instruments on board the Jacob Smirnitskyi.

Dr Semiletov has suggested several possible reasons why methane is now being released from the Arctic, including the rising volume of relatively warmer water being discharged from Siberia's rivers due to the melting of the permafrost on the land.

The Arctic region as a whole has seen a 4C rise in average temperatures over recent decades and a dramatic decline in the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by summer sea ice. Many scientists fear that the loss of sea ice could accelerate the warming trend because open ocean soaks up more heat from the sun than the reflective surface of an ice-covered sea.

»

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ENVIRONMENTAL BAMBOO FOUNDATION

WHY BAMBOO? ... HERE'S WHY ...

DEFORESTATION and increased CO2 emissions threaten the earth's biodiversity and the very air we breathe...
Perhaps the environmental crisis' at hand have not yet touched your life, but the time is shortly to come. Recent NASA reports of a 60% loss of ozone over the arctic provide an explanation for increased severity in the worlds weather patterns which has only begun to affect us whether directly or indirectly. The social, political and economic implications are difficult to imagine as our ozone layer continues to thin, forests disappear and desertization is occurring at an alarming rate.

BAMBOO HAS AN IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY...
The earth desperately needs the attention and action of us all or our children's children will surely not have a world fit to live in. There is no one solution but amazingly, the simple bamboo plant can make a dramatic positive impact in many areas. It is our goal to inform and raise awareness about "Bamboo, People and the Environment" and provide the tools and information to then respond in one's own way in their own world. Every action counts, every person counts...

ENDURING THROUGH TIME...
Thomas Edison successfully used a carbonized bamboo filament in his experiment with the first light bulb. This light bulb still burns today in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. He also used a bamboo as rebar for the reinforcement of his swimming pool. To this day, the pool has never leaked. An unrivaled utility, (One resource book lists over 5,000 uses including paper, scaffolding, diesel fuel, airplane "skins", desalination filters, aphrodisiacs, musical instruments, medicine, food and was Alexander Graham Bell's first phonograph needle

SURVIVING THROUGH HARDSHIP...
Amidst death and destruction, bamboo survived the Hiroshima atomic blast closer to ground zero than any other living thing and provided the first re-greening in Hiroshima after the blast in 1945.

GROWING WITH STRENGTH AND SPEED...
With a tensile strength superior to mild steel (withstands up to 52,000 Pounds of pressure psi) and a weight-to-strength ratio surpassing that of graphite, bamboo is the strongest growing woody plant on earth with one of the widest ranging habitats of more than 1500 species thriving in diverse terrain from sea level to 12,000 feet on every continent but the poles. It also grows the fastest: clocked shooting skyward at 2 inches an hour. Some species grow one and a half meters a day.

BAMBOO PROTECTS THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE AIR WE BREATHE...
Bamboo is the fastest growing canopy for the regreening of degraded lands, and its stands release 35% more oxygen than equivalent stands of trees. Some bamboo even sequester up to 12 tons of carbon dioxide from the air per hectare. Bamboo can also lower light intensity and protects against ultraviolet rays. Traditional belief holds that being in a bamboo grove - the favorite dwelling place of Buddha - restores calmness to emotions and stimulates creativity.

Carbon Sequestration Information
Net production and carbon cycling in a bamboo Phyllostachys pubescens stand.
AU: Isagi-Y; Kawahara-T; Kamo-K; Ito-H
AD: Kansai Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research
Institute, Momoyama, Fushimi, Kyoto 612, Japan.
SO: Plant-Ecology. 1997, 130: 1, 41-52; 48 ref.
PY: 1997
LA: English
AB: Phyllostachys pubescens is one of the largest bamboo species with a leptomorphic (a type of rhizomatous system with solitary culms scattered rather evenly) root system in the world. The species originates in China and has been naturalized in neighbouring countries. It was introduced in 1746 into Japan because of the economic value of the young sprouts and culm woods. It escaped from the planted areas and expanded by invading the native vegetation. In order to clarify the basic ecological characteristics of the species,carbon fixation and cycling were determined in a stand of Phyllostachys pubescens in Kyoto Prefecture. The standing culm density and average DBH (diameter at breast height) in 1991 were 7100 ha-1 and 11.3 cm, respectively. The above-ground biomass was 116.5 t ha-1 for culms, 15.5 t ha-1 for branches, 5.9 t ha-1 for leaves and 137.9 t ha-1 in total. The total above-ground biomass is one of the largest among the world's bamboo communities. The biomass of rhizomes and fine roots was 16.7 t ha-1 and 27.9 t ha-1, respectively. Annual soil respiration was 52.3 t CO2 ha-1, the highest among those determined in Japan. The gross annual production was high, at 32.8 t C ha-1, and allocation of annual gross production to the root system was also high at 11 t C ha-1 - 34% of gross production, and 46% of the fluxes out of the leaves. This pattern of allocation results in a net annual above-ground production of 18.1 t ha-1, which is within the average range of productivity of forests under similar climatic conditions. The correspondence of the allocation pattern of the species with its successful range expansion is discussed.
DE: asexual-reproduction; biological-production; biomass-production; carbon-cycle; bamboos-; nutrients-; distribution-; carbon-; photosynthesis-; stand-characteristics; biomass-; cycling

AN: 950608033
TI: Carbon stock and cycling in a bamboo Phyllostachys bambusoides stand.
AU: Isagi-Y
AD: Laboratory of Silviculture, Kansai Research Center, Forestry
and Forest Products Research Institute, Kyoto 612, Japan.
SO: Ecological-Research. 1994, 9: 1, 47-55; 42 ref.
PY: 1994
LA: English
AB: Gross production and carbon cycling in a Phyllostachys bambusoides stand in Kyoto Prefecture, central Japan, were determined, and then a compartment model showing the carbon stock and cycling within the ecosystem was developed. Aboveground carbon stock was 52.3 t/ha, increasing at an annual rate of 3.6 t/ha. Belowground carbon stock was 20.8 t/ha in the root system and 92.0 t/ha in the soil. Aboveground annual net C production was 11.2 t/ha. Belowground annual net C production was crudely estimated at 4.5 t/ha. Gross annual production was estimated at 41.8 t/ha by summing the amount of outflow to the environment and the increment in biomass. Leaves consumed 13.7 t C/ha per year by respiration; the rest (41.8 - 13.7 = 28.1 t C/ha per year) was surplus production of leaves and flowed into the other compartments. Annual amounts of construction and maintenance respiration of aboveground compartments were 3.4 and 18.5 t/ha, respectively. The annual amount of soil respiration was 11.2 t/ha. Soil respiration levels of 4.3 and 3.1 t C/ha per year were estimated for the flow of root respiration and root detritus. The proportion of net to gross production was 37%, which fell within the range of young and mature forests. A shorter life span of culms, compared to tree trunks, resulted in smaller biomass accumulation ratio (biomass/net production) in the ecosystem, of 4.66.
DE: bamboos-; respiration-; biomass-; carbon-; models-; carbon-
cycle; biomass-production; simulation-; cycling-

EROSION CONTROL ...
A peerless erosion control agent,. it's net like root system create an effective mechanism for watershed protection, stitching the soil together along fragile riverbanks, deforested areas, and in places prone to earthquakes and mud slides. Because of their wide-spreading root system, uniquely shaped leaves, and dense litter on the forest floor, the sum of stem flow rate and canopy intercept of bamboo is 25% which means that bamboo greatly reduces rain run off, preventing massive soil erosion and keeping up to twice as much water in the watershed. Bamboo is a pioneering plant and can be grown in soil damaged by overgrazing and poor agricultural techniques. Unlike with most trees proper harvesting does not kill the bamboo plant so topsoil is held in place.

SAVING RAINFORESTS ...
Bamboo is one of the strongest building materials. Bamboo's tensile strength is 28,000 pounds per square inch versus 23,000 pounds per square inch for steel. In the tropics it is possible to plant and 'grow your own home;. in Costa Rica, 1000 houses of bamboo are built annually with material coming only from a 60 hectare bamboo plantation. If an equivalent project used timber, it would require 500 hectares of our diminishing tropical rainforests. Using bamboo to replace timber saves the rainforests. With a 10-30% annual increase in biomass versus 2 to 5% for trees, bamboo creates greater yields of raw material for use. One clump can produce 200 poles in the three to five years. Bamboo generates a crop every year.

A RENEWABLE RESOURCE ...
Bamboo is a high-yield renewable resource: "Ply boo" is now being used for wall paneling and floor tiles; bamboo pulp for paper-making; briquettes for fuel, raw material for housing construction; and rebar for reinforced concrete beams. There are 1500 species of bamboo on the earth. This diversity makes bamboo adaptable to many environments. It can be harvested in 3-5 years versus 10-20 years for most softwoods. Bamboo tolerates extremes of precipitation, from 30-250 inches of annual rainfall.

HOUSING ...
Bamboo related industries already provide income, food, and housing to over 2.2 billion people worldwide. There is a 3-5 year return on investment for a new bamboo plantation versus 8-10 years for rattan. The governments of India and China, with 15 million hectares of bamboo reserves collectively, are poised to focus attention on the economic factors of bamboo and its protection. In Limon, Costa Rica, only bamboo houses from the national Bamboo Project stood after their violent earthquake in 1992. Flexible and lightweight, bamboo enables structures to "dance" in earthquakes. Go to the "Comparative Strength of Bamboo or Grow Your Own House page.

FOOD ...
Bamboo shoots provide nutrition for millions of people worldwide. In Japan, the antioxidant properties of pulverized bamboo skin can prevent bacterial growth, and it is used as a natural food preservative. Bamboo :litter: make fodder for animas and food for fish. Taiwan alone consumes 80,000 tons of bamboo shoots annually, constituting a $50 million industry.
`Bamboo leaves are normally utilized as fodder during scarcity. Young bamboo leaves and twigs are a favorite meal for elephants and the Panda. D. strictus leaves have (on dry matter basis) crude protein,15.09; crude fiber,23.15; ether extract 1.43; ash 18.03; phosphorus-170 and calcium -1550 mg/100g respectively. Their digestible crude protein
and total digestible nutrient contents are 93.34 and 48.9% respectively. The leaves of B.arundinacea have crude protein 18.64;crude fiber, 24.1; ether extract 4.1; N- free extract 41.4; ash-11.75%; phosphorus-170 mg and calcium 56mg/100g respectively. The digestible crude protein and total digestible nutrient contents are 13.5 and 46.5% respectively. The protein contained methionine and lysine. Copper and zinc are also found. The nutrient contents differed significantly in samples collected from high altitudes.
For B.vulgaris the figures are crude protein,10.1;crude fiber 21.7; ether extract, 2.5 and ash, 21.3%; phosphorus-86,iron-13.4,vitamin B1, 0.1;vitamin B2- 2.54, and carotene 12.3 mg/100g respectively. The meal is used as a supplement to vitamin A deficient diets for chicks '.
For further details contact either the Bamboo Information Center in India -at KFRI -Tropical species, or The Bamboo Information Center in China-at CAF,Beijing - Temperate species.

AN ANCIENT MEDICINE ...
Bamboo has for centuries been used in Ayurvedic medicine and Chinese herbal medicine . Tabasheer, the powdered, hardened secretion from bamboo is used internally to treat asthma, coughs and can be used as an aphrodisiac. In China, ingredients from the root of the black bamboo help treat kidney disease. Roots and leaves have also been used to treat venereal disease and cancer. Sap is said to reduce fever, and ash will cure prickly heat. A village in Indonesia reports that the water form within the culm is used to treat broken bones effectively and that the tabasheer is used to promote fertility in their cows. Current research points to bamboo's potential in a number of medicinal uses.

A LANDSCAPE DESIGN ELEMENT & WASTE WATER SYSTEM ...
Bamboo is an exquisite component of landscape design. For the human environment bamboo provides shade, wind break, acoustical barriers, and aesthetic beauty.
"The Bamboo Forest is an ecological wastewater utilization system that essentially grows away, waste, producing a marketable crop in the process. Comprised of a subsurface evaporation-transpiration bed planted with bamboo and other rapid-growing, non-invasive plants, the system is engineered to provide an aerobic rhizosphere (the home of living organisms in the root system), in which damaging polluting components are transformed into plant nutrients" Go to the Discover magazine article on Bamboo used to treat waste water!

INTEGRALLY INVOLVED IN CULTURE AND THE ARTS ...
Bamboo is a mystical plant: a symbol of strength, flexibility, tenacity, and endurance. Throughout Asia, bamboo has for centuries been integral to religious ceremonies, art, music, and daily life. It can be found in the paper, the brush, and the inspiration for poems and paintings. Some of the earliest historical records form the 2nd century B.C. were written on green bamboo strips.
As evidenced by all of the above qualities, bamboo rightfully deserves its nickname, "the miracle plant." The EBF in Indonesia and Holland and the IBF in Hawaii strive to promote the use of bamboo and educate others about the greatly misunderstood and underutilized benefits of using and preserving this plant. One of the main ways in which we hope to accomplish this is through our educational and agro forestry programs worldwide, our consultant services and by your continued participation and support.

Five Antisocial Gadgets That Should be Banned

Speakerphones

A speakerphone’s advantages are far outweighed by the fact that it can be used to play music. Specifically (and you might detect the voice of experience here), really bad rap music on the train to the beach. Back in the eighties, there was a penalty involved in portable tunes, and it came in the form of a backbreaking boombox equipped with around fifty D-Cell batteries. Now there is no barrier, and anyone can pollute public spaces with what they obviously believe to be music loved by everyone there.

Worse, the speakers are terrible. Bass becomes buzz, drums become tinny taps and vocals distort. At least the old 1970s boomboxes packed a decent punch.

Bluetooth Headsets

If the cyborg-like plug in your ear weren’t bad enough, you look like a crazy-person whenever you use it, muttering to yourself as you walk down the street. Throw it away, now.

Custom Ringtones

Closely related to the Speakerphone (and not strictly a gadget), the ringtone is the bane of modern existence, and reached a nadir with the release of the Crazy Frog, a ringtone based on a piece of music designed to piss people off (and actually called “Annoying Thing”).

Custom ringtones can be useful — I have the Gadget Lab office number set to play a silent tone so I am never disturbed by my tyrannical editors, for example. But they are invariably used as a way to make the owner of the phone somehow look smart or funny. This, as we know, never works. Even if you have downloaded the latest chart-topper to show your excellent tastes off to the world, we all know that you just spent more than the cost of the track itself on a tinny, truncated MP3.

E-Books

A strange one, you might think, given my love of the e-book. Lightweight, convenient and offering hundreds of titles in your pocket, the e-book is surely a perfect gadget. It can’t even annoy your fellow-travellers on public transport. But it has a secret agenda: to destroy romance itself.

You might remember that I hollowed out a Moleskine notebook to hide my iPod Touch, the theory being that while a handsome young man reading a paperback and sipping a coffee at a pavement café would attract the ladies, a nerd reading an e-book would not.

My theory was proved correct this week. Sipping a glass of wine and looking very intellectual, I finished reading the last page of my book (something by Paul Auster, if you must know). I switched to my iPod Touch (without the Molekine prophylactic). Just then, the pretty girl at the next table turned around and, with a flirtatious smile, asked what I was doing.

“Reading” I said

“Reading?” she asked, tipping her lovely head to a rather coquettish angle.

“Yes,” I replied, “I’m reading a book on my iPod.”

She glanced down at the device in front of me.

“Reading a book on your iPod?”

As I nodded she simply turned away, brow slightly furrowed. I went home alone.

Satnav

This one comes from my brother, a motorbike rider who commutes daily. His problem: Morons. He thinks that most of the time people know where they are going and don’t actually need a satnav unit. Further, he argues, owners use them when they don’t need to, to justify the purchase.

I don’t necessarily agree, but I can’t argue with the theory in this one case: My brother saw a colleague pull up to work – a place he has driven to daily for years – with his GPS unit switched on. When challenged, he said it was for traffic avoidance. The problem? On his trip to work, there is only one route he can take, whatever the traffic conditions.

Over to you. Which gadgets most annoy you? Rants should go below, in the comments.

Stop The Nuclear Bailout

CIA running Cocaine for Bush/Clinton etc

As I have said, and know,seen and knew some players
you can run pendejos, but you cannot hide, we are coming for you, when Bush goes to The Hague,along with his Dad and evil Mom, Daughter of Aleister Crowley

7 Steps Newly Diagnosed Diabetics Should Take

Tip No. 1: Losing weight improves blood pressure and blood sugar, even if the pounds come back

By Michelle Andrews

Posted August 12, 2008

Diabetes sufferers may be able to give up their cake and eat it, too. According to a new study, people who lost weight in the 18 months after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes experienced sustained benefits even if they regained the weight later. They were up to twice as likely to reach their targets for blood pressure and blood sugar as those who didn't lose weight, although by the end of the four-year study, most of them had regained the weight they had lost.

Researchers speculate that "metabolic memory" may help explain the results; that is, achieving early metabolic control may have a long-term effect on clinical outcomes. Or it could be that the study didn't last long enough: "One possibility is that if we'd looked further out, the benefits would go away," says Greg Nichols, a researcher at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research who coauthored the study, which appeared online today in the journal Diabetes Care.

Whatever the reason, the study simply adds more weight, as it were, to the existing recommendation that those newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes shed some pounds. "You only need to lose 5 to 7 percent [of your body weight] to have a major impact on glucose levels," says Om Ganda, a senior physician at Joslin Diabetes Center and an associate clinical professor at Harvard Medical School.

If you've recently been diagnosed, there's more you can do to reduce your risk of complications. Here are six other tips, besides losing weight, based on American Diabetes Association recommendations:

• Get a primary-care physician. If you don't already have one, sign up with a primary-care physician who can work with you on an ongoing basis to keep your blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels within recommended guidelines. Check out my recent story about studies that offer hints on how to prioritize your efforts. Most newly diagnosed patients don't need a physician who specializes in diabetes, says John Buse, an endocrinologist who's president for medicine and science at the ADA.

• Get educated. Find a diabetes educator in your area to help you learn about the disease. Working with an expert can make you feel more in control. "When someone gets a diagnosis of diabetes, it's a little like cancer," Buse says. "They have some understanding but lots of fear."

• Exercise. The ADA recommends 30 minutes of moderately vigorous physical activity most days of the week. Even if you don't lose weight, exercise can help improve your blood sugar levels.

• Take the drugs you need. Get a prescription for metformin. This generic, inexpensive drug can help get your blood sugar under control, with few side effects. If you've got high cholesterol, you should have a prescription for a statin as well. If you're over 40 and have heart disease, take a baby aspirin every day.

• Make a plan for regular specialist checkups. At a minimum, you'll need annual eye and foot exams and a dental exam every six months.

• Get family members on board. "It's impossible to make these lifestyle changes if everybody in the family is doing something else," says Buse. In other words, it's tough eating vegetables if everyone else is having chips. Besides, it's a lot more fun to go for a daily walk with someone else than all by yourself.

To fight the Goliath of repressive Internet censorship, we, a few leading companies and grassroots organizations on the front line, formed an alliance

Beijing Reporters, Tear Down This Firewall (and How To)

The Falun Dafa Information Center Offers Tools for Breaking through the CCP's Internet Filters and Securing your Data while Covering the Beijing Olympics

Cheech and Chong are 'HIGH' on plans to reunite

In this June 26, 2008 file photo, Cheech Marin, left, and Tommy Chong pose together at Sunset Strip Music Festival opening night tribute event in Los Angeles. Now that their feud is up in smoke, Cheech and Chong are high on plans to reunite for their first comedy tour in more than 25 years. Cheech Marin told AP Radio that he and Tommy Chong 'looked at each other going, `If we're ever going to do something it has to be now because you're not getting any younger and neither am I.''

(AP Photo/Matt Sayles, files)

5 Healing Juice Drinks

Dr. Mao's Secrets of Longevity

A refreshing way to cool off in the summer, freshly made juice is also packed with nutrients and vitamins and can help you self-heal naturally. From preventing high blood pressure to helping you hear, juicing is an amazing way to bring nutrition and health to your life for many long years.

Just Juice It!
Be sure to make the juice fresh before drinking, as nutrients are lost the longer the juice sits around. Also, blenders do not separate the juice from the plant fibers, and this means that, aside from making the juice chunky, the fibers may lock some of the nutrients and prevent them from being absorbed by the body.

A juicer will separate the juice from the fiber, allowing the body to easily absorb the nutrients, as they have been released from the fibers. Of course, you should not miss out on the health benefits of juice just because you don't have a juicer. A blender will work in a bind. Also, these days, there are several health stores and cafes that can make any fresh juice you want while you wait.

1. Celery Juice to Lower High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure is often the root cause of stroke, heart disease, and kidney failure. A time-tested Chinese remedy for this condition is celery juice, which can be made with a blender or a juicer. Two to three 8 oz glasses a day for a month can help prevent high blood pressure or restore it to normal. Additionally, celery is known to prevent gout and other arthritic conditions. Studies have found that this stalk is packed with over a dozen anti-inflammatory agents, including apigenin, a cox2-inhibiting compound similar to some anti-inflammatory drugs. Get the benefits without the side effects!

2. Sunburn Soother
Sunburn can include symptoms of itching, painful blistering, redness, and swelling. When you are sunburned, it is incredibly important to rehydrate the body with fluids. Mix 12 ounces each of pineapple and black cherry juice together to help reduce inflammation and heat. Bromelain - found in pineapples - is a mixture of protein-digesting enzymes, which contain active substances that help reduce inflammation and aid in digestion.

The secret to the health benefits of cherry juice lies in the deep red skins. These skins contain the antioxidant compound called anthocyanins, which help the body relieve inflammation. As added bonuses, these compounds also protect you against heart disease and cancer and have been found to keep diabetics healthy. Drink two to three cups daily to soothe the burn.

3. A Juicy Hearing Aid
An ancient remedy for improving hearing is made from garlic and onions, carrots, and parsley. Put 2 oz of water in a blender with 1 medium-sized chopped onion, 2 chopped carrots, and a generous bunch of parsley. Take out the pulp and keep the juice. Press the raw garlic to get garlic oil, and add to the juice. The garlic will help to increase blood flow to the auditory nerve, and the carrots and parsley are rich in vitamin and C, and niacin, which naturally help improve your hearing function. Drink this juice on a daily basis for a month. If you prefer a more liquid juice, feel free to water this mixture down or add it to other juices.

4. Bright Eyesight Essence
An age-old Chinese folk remedy for clearing the vision is a blended juice made from celery, peppermint, and Chinese parsley. Research has caught up with this wisdom, and we know that luteolin, an antioxidant bioflavonoid found in many herbs and foods, included the three ingredients to this juice has been found to provide the best protection of cell DNA from radiation.

Evidence shows that luteolin helps protect the eye from UV radiation damage, as well as from glycation, a process in which sticky sugar molecules bind up protein, which can cause damage to the retina. Luteolin also promotes healthy blood sugar levels and regulates insulin sensitivity. Blend together celery, peppermint, and Chinese parsley in a blender with a little water or a juicer. Drink this fresh juice daily to see well into the future!

5. Heartburn Helper
Juice one medium raw potato in a juicer or a blender, put through a strainer and mix the juice with a cup of warm water. Drink this on an empty stomach in the morning when you first wake up. It will coat and sooth your stomach, as well as reduce acid.

These juices are not meant to replace any medications that you may be taking for conditions. Rather, they can supplement treatments you are already receiving and generally keep you body in good working order.

I hope you find the ways to drink to your health! I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.

May you live long, live strong, and live happy!

-Dr. Mao

Join SDS, and Win Change with Student Power!

Students for a Democratic Society

In two short years, SDS has become one of the largest and fastest growing student led organizations, with over 120 active and dynamite chapters around the country. Heroic thanks to all our student leaders who make it possible!

This summer, the National Convention and the Action Camps will again bring over 300 SDS student organizers together for training, movement building, and friendship. We need to work together and raise the money to provide stipends, food, housing, and support for our student organizers.

We are asking SDSer’s to make fundraising commitments to help our organization grow.

Everyone can get involved by making a chapter commitment, and a personal commitment to fundraise for SDS! The money we put into our convention and action camps (and other projects) directly empowers and trains grassroots organizers from around the nation. Here’s how to get involved in some of SDS’s most important work.

Surgery: Speed healing with nature's help

Big disclaimer: In this article, my intention is to help you weather surgery as successfully as my patients who have had to or chosen to undergo surgery have come out doing well. My patients on the following protocol have healed remarkably fast and well. However, the Food and Drug Administration, acting as a trade association and totalitarian strong arm of the drug industry, doesn't particularly like any freedom of speech that is used to impart information about the helpfulness of natural products. And they don't like very specific recommendations. So for their sake, I am forced to say that you do not have to follow any of these recommendations, that you should take all specific products and recommended doses with a grain of salt - not that it would improve the taste - and that even though I am a licensed physician, I am not supposed to diagnose and treat by way of the internet. With the last part I am in through agreement. There is of course no substitute for going to consult in person with your local naturopathic physician. The largest directory of naturopathic doctors in the United States is this one: www.naturopathic.org.

Although none of us go into it with enthusiasm, sometimes surgery is just unavoidable. Regardless of what part of the body will be operated on, you can approach your upcoming surgery with some natural strategies for preparing yourself both before surgery, as well as a stronger, faster recuperation afterward. This is particularly important for older people because of more delicate health and slow, difficult recuperation. But young people also can really go down hard from a surgery, and bounce back quickly with some of the strategies below, or take your chances with an otherwise laborious and slow recovery.

First, you will want to head into surgery with the strongest immune system possible. This is because microbes will have access to otherwise normally deep, protected tissues. And this is despite the absolute best and state-of-the-art sterilization procedures and techniques in contemporary surgical practice. Even with the best and best-intentioned precautions, there is some risk of infection resulting from any surgical access to deep and vulnerable areas of the body.

So before surgery you should build up your immune system with:

1. Vitamin C: Try to get not just Vitamin C tablets, but the packets of fizzing Vitamin C mixed in water such as Electrolyte Stamina or Emergen-C. Drink these right away after mixing with water so they don't oxidize before they benefit you. A packet should be taken three times a day. If these are not available look for a mineral-protected Vitamin C or an Ester-C or C or something with bioflavonoids, which will offer some protection against oxidation of the Vitamin C. The equivalent of 3000 mg a day is a good dose to aim for with adults, okay for kids too, and best in divided doses, because Vitamin C is water-soluble and doesn't hang around too long in the body at this dosing level.
2. Vitamin A: This is trickier to obtain in sufficient quantity to be helpful, but is massively helpful when you can get it. The problem is that vitamin A can be toxic to a fetus. This is why young ladies on the Retin-A prescription for acne are also given an Rx simultaneously for oral contraceptives, whether they are sexually active or not. Aside from all moral and political implications, vitamin A should definitely not be taken in large doses without this awareness of its abortive potential and the necessary dose precautions. For this reason, you are not going to find huge doses of Vitamin A in a health food store. A pregnant woman should not take more than 30,000 units a day for more than three days, and some rare pregnancies can tolerate even less. You have to consult your personal physician on this. But anyone else, any non-pregnant person can easily take 100,000 units per day for several days and get a significant boost to immune function. Beyond that dose for that time, anyone is subject to possible liver toxicity from build-up of this fat-soluble vitamin. It should be noted that there are individuals who have taken 1,000,000 (one million) units of Vitamin A for several years without any problem. Just make sure that you are also getting a variety of nutrients along with Vitamin A. Also, please be aware that beta-carotene is not the equivalent of Vitamin A. Actually, mixed carotenoids, (alpha, beta, gamma) are better for converting to Vitamin A. A physician can provide you with higher doses of Vitamin A than in a health food store. To find a naturopathic physician in your area please visit www.naturopathic.org.
3. Sleep: Sleep is an often forgotten component of good immune health. Try to allow enough time for sleep or at least equivalent time of bed rest during the several days prior to surgery.

Eliminating stress is crucial to good immune function. You may have noticed how often you or others have come down with a cold after a particularly stressful period. It is important to be able to separate external stressors (anything or any person driving you crazy) from your internal response to stress. The first we only have a certain amount of control over, and the second can be affected quite strongly. Two excellent books for this are: Deepak Chopra, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, an old but good book, as well as one of his newer books, Power, Grace and Freedom. Both of these are great guides for releasing the stress that you feel. Another fascinating and more scientifically oriented approach to the same subject is Robert Sapolsky's excellent book, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. Sapolosky explains how and why we feel stressed, then shows the physical effects of that stress on the body.

After surgery you have a massive wound that you need to repair. Surgeons are often great, even heroic and life-saving at what they do. But after they sew you up they usually offer nothing to help you heal.

Here is what you need to help rebuild the cut edges of your internal and external wounds:

1. Arnica or Arnica Montana: This is a homeopathic remedy available at almost any health food store. Take 4 pillules under the tongue as soon as you are able to after surgery, then about three more times over the next 36 hours (more often if desired or in pain during the first two days). Arnica, like any homeopathic remedy, does not act directly on your body's needs so much as it alerts the hypothalamus in your brain that there is a problem, in this case a big wound and that healing has to begin right now. Homeopathy works completely differently than any conventional system of medicine. For an explanation of how it works, please see my discussion of it at http://www.naturopathyworks.com/pages/homeopathy.php.
2. Glutamine powder: This is sold in all health food stores and there are many different brands. Any one will do, but ignore the instructions on the jar. You will need to take 1 rounded tablespoon in water, 2-3 times per day for two weeks. Don't worry about the taste. It's bland, but somewhat chalky in texture. Then, if you're feeling 70-80% better in a couple weeks, reduce the dose to half that for another month. This will rebuild and re-knit your tissues faster than anything. This dosing is a general recommendation for the average person having most any kind of surgery. See your naturopathic physician for more specific dosing in your case. Please don't confuse glutamine with gluten, monosodium glutamate or glucose. It is none of those things. Glutamine is one of the most common amino acids in proteins, meaning that you already consume it everyday in healthy foods. But you have a huge repair job to do now, and you would have to eat mountains of food to get enough glutamine. So it will help you a lot more and be more efficient to get the Glutamine (also called L-glutamine) powder at the health food store. Don't get the capsules; you would have to swallow dozens.
3. "Muscle Milk": A product by the Cytosport Company that provides a way to rebuild torn muscles. Muscle fiber is almost always damaged by the surgeon's scalpel, cut across or even with its grain, and needing repair, even more than an athlete's muscles need repair. Although Muscle Milk is marketed to athletes, you need it more as you have more repair to accomplish. Muscle milk works by putting elements in the bloodstream that are similar to human mother's milk and muscle breakdown products, which nourish and keep muscle from further breaking down. The body likes "homeostasis," which means constant levels of its biochemicals, so this products works quite well in that regard. This is not a paid endorsement by the way. I don't do that, for the simple reason that most of the nutraceutical (nutritional supplement) companies have a lot of okay products and then a smaller number of really outstanding helpful products, so I want to be free to recommend the ones that seem to work best regardless of which company they are from, rather than recommend the whole product line of the companies who want me to sign some kind of exclusivity contract.
4. N Acetyl Cysteine: This is an amino acid, meaning it is a building block of a protein, and you have consumed it before, mostly in chicken. You will see it in any health food store as NAC or N-Acetyl Cysteine, and in 500 or 600 mg tablets or capsules. You should take two to four of those a day, with more dosing guidelines from your doctor of course, for about a week after surgery. Its role is to thin bile, which makes it easier for bile to do its job of rinsing your liver of stored toxins. This will help get the anesthesia and other pharmaceuticals out of your body. NAC is a wonderful detox for any of us living in a polluted environment, which is just about everybody. No need to stop after one week.
5. Bromelain: Last but not least, you don't want to over-react to the surgery with a build-up of scar tissue. Some of us are keloid formers and scar tissue formers, more so than others. Bromelain is a common enzyme that you have eaten in pineapple, and is in supplement form in the health food store. Another helpful item in this regard is the herb Gotu kola, especially if you have a known tendency to form keloids.

Best wishes for an easy surgery and a comfortable recovery!