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What is Really Happening to Britain……Summer 2013….
By Anonymous July 28th 2013.
GDP still 3.3% below the peak in 2008.
The longest/ slowest recovery from recession in a century.
Real wages on average 8-9% lower.
Around 500,000 additional children pushed into poverty since the Coalition came to power.
Homelessness at record levels.
Many on benefits having suffered cuts in real income of over 40%.
Public services decimated, leading to real hardship and deaths among the most vulnerable.
And the super-rich have got richer.
Austerity is still failing any anyone who claims otherwise is a fool or a knave and quite probably both.
Worldwide Unemployment Crisis: There Are 93 Million Unemployed Workers In G20 Nations.
By Michael Snyder, on July 19th, 2013. Find Full Article Here:-
Did you know that the total number of unemployed workers in G20 counties is now up to 93 million and that it is increasing with each passing day? You see, the truth is that the United States is not the only one dealing with a systemic unemployment crisis. This is literally happening all over the planet. So what is causing this crisis? Is there any hope that it will be turned around? Well, unfortunately there are several long-term trends that have been developing for decades that have played a major role in bringing us to this point. First of all, the giant corporations that now totally dominate the global economy have figured out that they can make a lot more money by replacing expensive workers that live in major industrialized nations with workers that live in nations where it is legal to pay slave labor wages. So it isn’t really a huge mystery why there is such a huge problem with unemployment in the western world. If you were running a giant corporation, why would you want to hire workers that will cost you 10 to 20 times as much as other workers? A worker is a worker, and over the past decade we have seen a massive movement of jobs to countries where labor is cheaper. In addition, large corporations are also trying to completely eliminate as many jobs as they can by using technology. If a corporation can get a computer or a machine or a robot to do a task more cheaply than a human worker can do it, then why would that corporation want to continue to rely on human labor? And of course we have seen an overall weakening of the economies of the western world in recent years as well. This has been particularly true in the United States. As these long-term trends intensify, the worldwide unemployment crisis is going to get even worse.
In fact, the director general of the International Labor Organization is fully convinced that unemployment is going to continue to rise in G20 nations. Just check out what he told CNBC on Friday…
Unemployment will likely soar further in the group of 20 major economic powers without immediate action, Guy Ryder, the director general of the International Labor Organization told CNBC on Friday, comparing the jobs crisis to the 2008-2009 financial crisis and warning it needs to be tackled urgently.
“We have gone backwards. It is quite alarming to see…that unemployment has not gone down, in fact it’s gone up,” Ryder told CNBC at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Moscow.
He said 93 million people were currently unemployed in the G20.
And when those living in G20 nations lose their jobs, they tend to stay out of work for a very long time. In fact, 30 percent of unemployed workers in G20 countries have been out of work for one year or longer.
Major industrialized nations all over the planet are no longer able to produce enough jobs for their people. In many “wealthy nations” the unemployment rate has already risen well up into double digits. Just consider the following numbers…
-The unemployment rate is above 25 percent in South Africa.
-The unemployment rate in France recently hit a 15 year high.
-The unemployment rate in Italy is up to 12.2 percent, which is the highest in 35 years.
-The unemployment rate in the eurozone as a whole is up to an all-time high of 12.2 percent.
-The unemployment rate in Poland is 13.2 percent.
-The unemployment rate in Ireland is now 13.6 percent.
-The unemployment rate in Portugal has rocketed up to 17.7 percent.
-The unemployment rate in Greece is currently sitting at 26.9 percent and it is being projected that it will soon hit 30 percent.
-The unemployment rate in Spain is even worse than in Greece. The unemployment rate in Spain is a staggering 27.2 percent.
Sadly, it looks like things are not going to be getting better any time soon. In fact, global business confidence is now the lowest that it has been since the last recession.
So what about the United States?
Well, it is true that our official numbers do not look quite as bad as much of the rest of the world. But the official unemployment rate in the U.S. has been at 7.5 percent or higher for 54 months in a row. That is the longest stretch in U.S. history.
But at least it is not in double digits yet.
Things could be worse.
However, that does not mean that we are doing well either.
The mainstream media is attempting to convince us that everything is just fine because the unemployment rate has been “going down”, but when you take a deeper look at the numbers that is not exactly an accurate assessment of our situation.
Jack Monroe: the face of modern poverty.
By Patrick Butler Tuesday 23rd July 2013. Find Full Article Here:-
A mother’s blog about feeding herself and her son for £10 a week has led to her becoming a sought-after campaigner.
A year ago, a bright, unemployed 24-year old single mother in Southend summarised in a blogpost the fear, humiliation and desperation of living on the breadline. It is one of the most moving and vivid accounts of the reality of modern poverty.
The piece, entitled Hunger Hurts, was written when Jack Monroe was at her wits’ end: no money, the food cupboard bare, the housing benefit cheque turning up, inexplicably, £100 short. Monroe describes in intricate detail how she had asset-stripped her life to pay the bills: sold her watch, iPhone and TV. She writes of the energy-sapping boredom of “getting by”, and the paradox that the poorer she gets, the more expensive her electricity becomes as the supply is moved from mains to meter.
“Poverty is the sinking feeling when your small boy finishes his one Weetabix and says: ‘More, Mummy, bread and jam please, Mummy,’ as you’re wondering whether to take the TV or the guitar to the pawnshop first, and how to tell him that there is no bread or jam,” she wrote.
This and other posts are filled with the minutiae of a life in poverty: the forensic, penny-pinching accounting that accompanied every trip to the supermarket; the shame of referral to a food bank; the time she sold the entire contents of her house – crockery, curtains and all – to pay off rent arrears; the hundreds of failed job applications, painstakingly typed out on a mobile phone; the dread that all this paupery might somehow attract the attention of children’s social services.
Austerity recipes
It wasn’t just the accounts of poverty that set the blog A Girl Called Jack apart, however, but the recipes. Scores of them, beautifully set out and photographed, and carefully costed: Mumma Jack’s Best Ever Chilli, 30p (“Since Sainsbury’s has hiked up the price of kidney beans, I’ve bought dried ones”), or Oh My God Dinner, 28p.
Filled with humour and almost real-time practical advice about the weekly price movements of supermarket food, it is a plain-speaking, practical austerity cookery guide – quite literally how to feed yourself and your toddler on £10 a week, in ways that are healthy, tasty and, importantly (to relieve the tedium of baked beans), varied.
The recipes require the bare minimum of kitchen equipment (“If you just have an electric two-ring plug-in you can cook most of the things that I cook”). They are fuel-efficient, rarely taking longer than 15 minutes to prepare. Ingredients are what you might find in an ordinary local supermarket. There is a risk, of course, that Monroe’s recipes will be seized upon by people eager to “prove” that food poverty is a myth, or that benefit payments must be too high. Cooking can be done cheaply, she says, but it is more complicated than that. She had been passionate about cooking ever since her food technology course at school (“a form of escapism from all the words and numbers”). Not only did she have the skills to experiment with her own dishes, she says, but, more importantly, she had the confidence.
Steve Bell’s “IF” … on the Queen and Prince Philip’s holiday and on a name for the royal baby…
Steve Bell on Iain Duncan Smith and the benefits cap – cartoon.
- The Guardian, Monday 15th July 2013.
Garlic Beats Drug in Detoxifying Lead Safely From Body.
By: Sayer Ji, Founder 25th July 2013. Find Full Article Here:-
Last year, a remarkable study published in the journal Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology revealed something very special about garlic: it is a natural detoxifier of lead and is not only as effective as a common chelation drug known as d-penicillamine at pulling this metal out of the body but is also much safer.
The study was titled, “Comparison of therapeutic effects of garlic and d-penicillamine in patients with chronic occupational lead poisoning,” and sought to confirm previous research in animals that showed garlic (Allium sativum) is effective in reducing blood and tissue lead concentrations.[1]
The study took the measurements of the blood lead concentrations of 117 workers at a car battery plant who were randomly assigned to two groups of garlic (1.2 milligrams of allicin from approximately 1,000 mg of garlic extract, three times daily) and d-penicillamine (250 mg, three times daily) and treated for 4 weeks. Clinical signs and symptoms of lead poisoning were also investigated and compared with the initial findings.
The study found:
Clinical improvement was significant in a number of clinical manifestations including irritability (p = 0.031), headache (p = 0.028), decreased deep tendon reflex (p=0.019) and mean systolic blood pressure (0.021) after treatment with garlic, but not d-penicillamine. BLCs [blood lead concentrations] were reduced significantly (p=0.002 and p=0.025) from 426.32±185.128 to 347.34±121.056μg/L and from 417.47±192.54 to 315.76±140.00μg/L in the garlic and d-penicillamine groups, respectively, with no significant difference (p=0.892) between the two groups. The frequency of side effects was significantly (p=0.023) higher in d-penicillamine than in the garlic group. Thus, garlic seems safer clinically and as effective as d-penicillamine. Therefore, garlic can be recommended for the treatment of mild-to-moderate lead poisoning.
UK Death rates show ‘mystery rise’.
25th July 2013. BBC News Find Article Here:-
There has been an unexplained rise in the number of people dying in England and Wales, according to a report.
The document, seen by the Times newspaper and the Health Service Journal, reported 600 more people died each week last year than the average.
The increase was highest in the elderly, particularly those over 80.
Public Health England said death rates were currently in line with expectation.
About 10,000 people die a week normally, but last year’s figures were about 5% higher than average.
The increase has not been explained although suggested contributory factors include flu, a levelling off of life expectancy and council cuts.
A Public Health England representative said it “uses data on weekly all-cause death registrations in England and Wales provided by the Office for National Statistics to establish a baseline of the expected number of deaths registered in each week”.
“Allowing for variation, we can then determine if the number of deaths are higher than expected,” the representative said.
“As acknowledged in Public Health England’s annual influenza report, the number of deaths during 2012-13 was high, especially amongst those 85 years and older and in deaths recorded as resulting from respiratory causes.
“We are currently undertaking further work to understand why there was a rise in mortality rates during the earlier months of this year and the causes behind this.
“The weekly number of deaths are currently within levels expected for this time of year.”
NASA Releases Images of Earth by Two Interplanetary Spacecraft.
July 22nd, 2013 Find Full Article Here:-
Color and black-and-white images of Earth taken by two NASA interplanetary spacecraft on July 19 show our planet and its moon as bright beacons from millions of miles away in space.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured the color images of Earth and the moon from its perch in the Saturn system nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) away. MESSENGER, the first probe to orbit Mercury, took a black-and-white image from a distance of 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) as part of a campaign to search for natural satellites of the planet.
In the Cassini images Earth and the moon appear as mere dots — Earth a pale blue and the moon a stark white, visible between Saturn’s rings. It was the first time Cassini’s highest-resolution camera captured Earth and its moon as two distinct objects.
It also marked the first time people on Earth had advance notice their planet’s portrait was being taken from interplanetary distances. NASA invited the public to celebrate by finding Saturn in their part of the sky, waving at the ringed planet and sharing pictures over the Internet. More than 20,000 people around the world participated.
10 Foods You Should Never Eat.
By Erin Schumacher 22nd July 2013. Find Full Article Here:-
We indeed are what we eat and what we are eating in many ‘first world nations’ is quite scary. The chemicals added to these ‘foods’ are disrupting our hormones, causing cancer and leading to a variety of health issues.
“In the 21st century our tastes buds, our brain chemistry, our biochemistry, our hormones and our kitchens have been hijacked by the food industry.” ~ Mark Hyman
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan is one of my favorite books. He describes his journey through 4 different ways of obtaining food: industrialized (or fast) food, conventional farming practices, organic/symbiotic farming practices, and people that hunt/forage for their meals. He follows the food chain literally from the ground to the table.
“Much of our food system depends on our not knowing much about it, beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner; cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. And it’s a short way from not knowing who’s at the other end of your food chain to not caring–to the carelessness of both producers and consumers that characterizes our economy today. Of course, the global economy couldn’t very well function without this wall of ignorance and the indifference it breeds. This is why the American food industry and its international counterparts fight to keep their products from telling even the simplest stories–”dolphin safe,” “humanely slaughtered,” etc.–about how they were produced. The more knowledge people have about the way their food is produced, the more likely it is that their values–and not just “value”–will inform their purchasing decisions.” ~ Michael Pollan
I highly encourage you to do your own research in regards to not only the products that you put into your body but also the products you put ontoyour body (check out the Skindeep website to research your personal care products). If you’d like to live a life full of health and vitality, start by controlling your food choices. This is the easiest and most controllable factor in regards to health. I always aim for fresh, local and in season produce. And in regards to what I DON’T ever eat, well that’s this list below.
- Canned Foods – We live in a world where convenience is king. I know this. It’s hard to find fresh produce and to only eat what is in season, kind of. When you buy canned foods, however, you are also buyingBPA – a toxic chemical linked to reproductive abnormalities, neurological effects, diabetes, heart disease and a heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers. Canned foods that are highly acidic, such as tomatoes for example, cause the BPA to leach into your food. I recommend you avoid canned foods, whenever possible, and stick to what’s fresh and season. You can also switch over to glass containers or frozen foods instead.
- Processed Meats – Most deli meats are typically made with meats from animals that are not raised in an ecologically sound fashion. They are given growth hormones, antibiotics and other drugs that stick in their bodies and are passed on to you when you eat their flesh. They are also raised in horrible conditions that gives rise to innumerable diseases that are then treated with more drugs. These meats are also treated with sodium nitrite (which adds color and flavor) which your body converts to nitrosamines, which are cancer-causing chemicals. Most processed meats also contain a variety of other cancer-promoting chemicals including HCAs, PAHs, and AGEs. Says Michael Pollan in his book the Omnivore’s Dilemma, “were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to raise, kill, and eat animals the way we do.” If you’re going to eat meat, avoid all processed meats at all costs. Go for local and sustainably raised (and grass-fed) meat. Wild caught salmon (and other fish) are a great alternative as well.
- Margarine – The low-fat diet craze is perhaps one of the worst diet fads to happen in the last 50 years. Healthy fats are ESSENTIAL to your diet as your cells are built with fat. Margarine, and other butter impostors, are loaded with trans fats, free radicals, emulsifiers, and preservatives. Any of these alone can lead to: heart disease, cancer, bone problems, hormonal imbalances, skin disease, infertility, and many more health problems. Don’t let clever marketing fool you. Good old fashioned butter, when made from grass-fed cows, is a healthy substance filled with conjugated linoleic acid which actually helps to fight cancer and diabetes.
Mice with human chromosomes – the genetic breakthrough that could revolutionise medicine.
By Steve Connor 11th July 2013. Find Full Article Here:-
Scientists have created genetically-engineered mice with artificial human chromosomes in every cell of their bodies, as part of a series of studies showing that it may be possible to treat genetic diseases with a radically new form of gene therapy.
In one of the unpublished studies, researchers made a human artificial chromosome in the laboratory from chemical building blocks rather than chipping away at an existing human chromosome, indicating the increasingly powerful technology behind the new field of synthetic biology.
The development comes as the Government announces today that it will invest tens of millions of pounds in synthetic biology research in Britain, including an international project to construct all the 16 individual chromosomes of the yeast fungus in order to produce the first synthetic organism with a complex genome.
A synthetic yeast with man-made chromosomes could eventually be used as a platform for making new kinds of biological materials, such as antibiotics or vaccines, while human artificial chromosomes could be used to introduce healthy copies of genes into the diseased organs or tissues of people with genetic illnesses, scientists said.
The Truth is Where? 