Healthy skepticism

If you asked ‘what is the link?’ I am going to tell you right away.

Let’s start by saying that mozzarella is a big and profitable business in Italy, with an annual turnover of $500 million. Out of 33,000 tonnes of mozzarella cheese produced each year, about 16% is exported.
The water buffalo herds, the source of milk for making mozzarella, are concentrated around the city of Naples, in the Campania region.
The Naples mafia, or Camorra, is heavily involved in waste disposal in the Campania region around the city of Naples (Do you remember Tony Soprano’s main business? Waste disposal, right?), on agricultural land used for pasture.
Toxic waste contaminates buffalos’ food. The result?
In about two weeks interval, Italy was confronted with two problems: Brucellosis – found in herds- and dioxins- found in mozzarella cheese.

First problem: Brucellosis
Brucellosis is an illness characterized by fever, night sweats, extreme tiredness, loss of appetite, weight loss, headache, and arthralgia (pain in the joints). It is caused by an infection with bacteria of one of the Brucella species. The infection occurs worldwide. Areas currently listed as high risk are the Mediterranean Basin (Portugal, Spain, Southern France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, North Africa), South and Central America, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.
Anyone can get brucellosis if they are infected with bacteria of one of the Brucella species. Persons at highest risk for brucellosis are those who work with animals that are infected, such as veterinarians and ranchers, and persons who consume raw milk or cheeses or ice cream made with raw milk.
Brucellosis is spread to humans through contact with tissues or bodily fluids of animals who are infected with Brucella bacteria, and although direct person-to-person spread of brucellosis is extremely rare. Mothers who are breast-feeding may transmit the infection to their infants. It can also be transmitted through food to humans, causing severe intermittent fever - though the milk which produces the cheese is perfectly safe when it is pasteurized.

A preventive measure to avoid being infected with Brucella bacteria is to not consume raw milk or anything made with raw milk.
Treatment for Brucellosis: antibiotics.
Usually, doxycycline and rifampin are used in combination for 6 weeks to prevent reoccurring infection. Depending on the timing of treatment and severity of illness, recovery may take a few weeks to several
months. Mortality is low (<2%), and is usually associated with endocarditis

According to Italian papers, the Brucella bacteria had been present in herds for the past 10 years, spreading to about 30% of them, and the local vets who are supposed to test and put down infected animals have been intimidated by the Camorra - who also controls some of the farms. As an extreme measure, the Italian government will start the slaughter of 32,000 buffalo, infected with Brucellosis. In the coming weeks, armed police will accompany government vets to help with the cull and it’s going to cost Italian government closer to $97 million.

Second problem: Dioxin
Most people heard about dioxins in relation to the plastic containers heated in microwave (myth or not, it’s not up to debate right now)
Dioxin is the name generally given to a class of super-toxic chemicals, the chlorinated dioxins and furans, formed as a by-product of the manufacture, molding, or burning of organic chemicals and plastics that contain chlorine. It is the nastiest, most toxic man-made organic chemical; its toxicity is second only to radioactive waste.
Dioxin is a powerful hormone disrupting chemical. By binding to a cell’s hormone receptor, it literally modifies the functioning and genetic mechanism of the cell, causing a wide range of effects, from cancer to reduced immunity to nervous system disorders to miscarriages and birth deformity. Because it literally changes the functioning of your cells, the effects can be very obvious or very subtle. Because it changes gene functions, it can cause so-called genetic diseases to appear, and can interfere with child development. There is no “threshold” dose - the tiniest amount can cause damage, and our bodies have no defense against it.
Dioxin accumulates in the fat cells of the animals, and re-appears in meat and milk. Dioxin is virtually indestructible in most environments, and is excreted by the body extremely slowly.

The contamination in mozzarella cheese emerged during checks last week. Dioxins were found at higher than permitted levels at some mozzarella producers.
The French agriculture ministry on Friday ordered shops to withdraw the imported buffalo mozzarella as a precautionary measure. But it later reversed the decision.
Italy says it has traced the farms at the source of the contamination, and destroyed their milk.
Japan and South Korea imposed an import ban on the cheese.
Italian officials told the European Commission that 130 mozzarella production sites had been checked and dioxins above the EU limit had been found at 25 of them- which I would say it’s pretty scary, considering that it’s almost a quarter of the total production sites.

To be objective, we have to mention that dioxins could be found not only in mozzarella, but also in beef and pork, and this, only if we don’t want to touch the subject of many chemicals around us that we are happily using without realizing how much damage they bring to our health, among them chlorine bleach and all the bleached products, including food like flour (that’s exactly the reason for buying unbleached flour).

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This morning, while driving to work, I heard a piece of news about Tibet along with a cry and Tibetan words.
A monk was crying! According to the news, Buddhist monks in the Tibetan capital protested against Chinese rule during an official conference for foreign journalists put on by the Chinese authorities.

“Foreign journalists were expelled from Tibet at the height of the unrest, but on Wednesday China allowed a group of about two dozen reporters into Lhasa for a three-day escorted visit.
The BBC’s request to be included in the group was turned down.

The monks’ protest came as they toured the Jokhang Temple - one of Tibet’s holiest shrines.

One monk shouted “Tibet is not free, Tibet is not free” before he started to cry, an AP journalist at the scene, Charles Hutzler, reported.

Another monk said the rioting on 14 March “had nothing to do with the Dalai Lama”.

The monks said they had not been allowed to leave the temple since the rioting.

Government handlers told the journalists to leave and tried to pull them away, the reporter said.

Later, the area around the Jokhang Temple was sealed off by riot police.

The protests began on 10 March and developed into violent rioting in Lhasa before spreading to neighbouring regions.

China says 19 people were killed by rioters. The Tibetan government-in-exile says about 140 people have been killed in a crackdown by Chinese security forces.

‘Divided city’

The group of journalists has also visited a medical clinic and a clothing store, where Chinese authorities say five girls were trapped and burned to death, AP’s reporter added.
A reporter for the London-based Financial Times, meanwhile, said that the Tibetan quarter of the city resembled a war zone, with burnt-out buildings, shuttered businesses and groups of soldiers on every corner.

“The smell of burning buildings still hangs in the air nearly two weeks after violent rioting swept through the old Tibetan quarter of Lhasa,” the Financial Times’s Geoff Dyer reported.

The rioting appeared to have been more prolonged and destructive than previously thought, he wrote.

Charles Hutzler described to the BBC a city divided.

“In sort of the more recently built up, very Chinese part of Lhasa, life seems to be going on fairly normally,” he said.

“But in the older, Tibetan section of the town and the blocks leading to it we could see the remains of burnt-out buildings.”

The reporters said there was a heavy security presence in the Tibetan quarter, with squads of police and soldiers on every corner.

But in the new town, they described life as returning to a semblance of normality, with shops and restaurants busy with customers.

Treading carefully

On Wednesday, US President George Bush had “encouraged the Chinese government to engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama’s representatives,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

But the fact that it has taken Mr Bush this long to talk directly to Mr Hu shows that the US is treading carefully in its response, says the BBC’s Jonathan Beale in Washington.

Despite calls from rights groups for an Olympic boycott, the White House has already made it clear that Mr Bush will still attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games”

Story from BBC NEWS http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7315895.stm

“Protesting monks dash China’s show of peace in Tibet
By Charles Hutzler
Lhasa
A GROUP of monks overturned a carefully orchestrated visit for foreign reporters to Tibet’s capital, an embarrassment for the Chinese government struggling yesterday to prove Lhasa was calm.
The government had arranged the trip to show how peaceful Lhasa was after riots shattered China’s plans for a peaceful run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

But the outburst by a group of 30 monks in red robes came as the journalists were being shown around the Jokhang Temple – one of Tibet’s holiest shrines – by Chinese government handlers.

“Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!” yelled one young Buddhist monk, who then started to cry.

They insisted their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, had nothing to do with the anti-government riots in Lhasa, where buildings were burned and looted and ethnic Han Chinese were attacked.

Officials shouted for the journalists to leave and tried to pull them away.

“They want us to curse the Dalai Lama, and that is not right,” one monk said during the 15-minute outburst.

“This had nothing to do with the Dalai Lama,” said another, referring to the 14 March riots in which the Chinese government says 22 people died, while Tibetan exiles claim the death toll is 140.

Reporters were earlier taken to a Tibet medical clinic that was attacked by protesters and were shown a clothes shop where five girls had been trapped and burned to death.

The monks, who first spoke Tibetan and then switched to Mandarin so journalists could understand them, said they knew they would probably be arrested.

Troops who had been guarding the temple were removed the night before the visit, they said. One monk said authorities planted other monks in the monastery to talk to the journalists, calling them “not true believers but… Communist Party members.”

“They are all officials, they (the government] arranged for them to come in. And we aren’t allowed to go out because they say we could destroy things, but we never did anything,” another monk said.

Later the Chinese-installed vice-governor of Tibet said the Jokhang monks were confined to the monastery because some had joined protesters. He promised they would not be punished for their outburst.”
Source: http://news.scotsman.com/world/Protesting-monks-dash-China39s-show.3923898.jp

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Before I get to the article I want to present, I must say that I was very proud when our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, took the right stance and called on China to “fully respect human rights and peaceful protest” and “show restraint” in Tibet. Harper released his statement through Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre at a pro-Tibet rally on Parliament Hill on Thursday. Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier later called on China to begin talks with Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
The response from the Chinese ambassador Lu Shumin- a pretty nasty one I must say, and I am still surprised he was not recalled back, wait a minute, I meant kicked out of Canada- was basically ‘Canada, butt out’. To Mr. Lu Shumin with love: KISS OUR ASSES!
Ambassador Lu Shumin said recent remarks from Canadian officials fail to recognize that China is attempting to restore safety and security in the face of “violent crimes” by separatists in the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa.
“These irresponsible remarks will not do any good to the image of Canada for a champion of law and order,” Lu said Friday.
He also said that any mischaracterization of the Chinese government response to the Tibetan situation “would be inappropriate and be considered as interference with China’s internal affairs. It would also send wrong messages to Tibetan separatist forces and encourage their separatist activities and violence,” Lu warned.

Harper pissed off the Chinese when he received the Dalai Lama in his office on Parliament Hill, a move China considered offensive and when he has vowed he won’t let economic interests dictate Canada’s policies on human rights in China. Some observers believe China’s refusal to designate Canada a government-approved tourist destination is a consequence of the flagging relations
Kudos to our Prime Minister.

Going back to Tibet, it’s difficult to find information on what’s happening over there, therefore, every time I find something, I feel that I have to record the information before it’s lost, maybe forever.
Following is an eyewitness account on the monk’s treatment by the Chinese army and security forces, as presented by BBC.
Read this, and then go back to the paragraph regarding Chinese position on ‘mischaracterization’ of Chinese intervention and then draw your own conclusions.

Eyewitness: Monk ‘kicked to floor’
With tension rising in Tibet following a series of anti-China protests, the BBC spoke to an eyewitness who saw police on Wednesday beating monks at one of three monasteries which have been sealed. He wishes to be identified only as John.

“We knew something was happening because there were more road checks as we got into Lhasa.
Cars were being stopped and police were writing the licence plates down. We tried to stop at a shrine outside Lhasa but were told to keep moving.
Then we heard around Wednesday lunchtime that Drepung monastery was closed. We didn’t know why.
That afternoon we went to Sera monastery to see the debating. It’s famous - the monks debate points of philosophy and people come to see it.
Just when it was about to start, around three o’clock, we started to hear rounds of applause coming out of a courtyard in the heart of the temple.
They were grabbing monks, kicking and beating them
We thought the debate was starting but then suddenly the clapping reached a crescendo - kind of a hooting.
Then the gate of the debating compound opened and this stream of maroon humanity poured out, several hundred monks. It was impossible to count but I think there were at least 300.
We thought it was part of the tradition but when you looked at the expression on their faces, it was a very serious business. They were pumping their hands in the air as they ran out of the temple.

Plain-clothes police
The minute that happened we saw the police - two or three who were inside the compound - suddenly speaking into their radios.
They started going after the monks, and plain-clothes police - I don’t know this for sure but that’s what I think they were - started to emerged from nowhere.
There were four or five in uniform but another 10 or 15 in regular clothing. They were grabbing monks, kicking and beating them.
One monk was kicked in the stomach right in front of us and then beaten on the ground.
The monks were not attacking the soldiers, there was no melee. They were heading out in a stream, it was a very clear path, and the police were attacking them at the sides. It was gratuitous violence.
The Tibetan lay-people started rushing to get out of the temple. Tibetan grandmothers were grabbing young kids and getting them out.
We were left behind when the monks left the temple. About 20 minutes later we felt as if we could leave.

Riot police
Outside the monastery the road curved to the left and to the right. We were directed left - but when we looked to the right there was a line of riot police with batons and helmets blocking off the street.
The monks were sitting in neat rows on the ground, surrounded by a phalanx of police. It was a very clear show of force - there were maybe as many as 300 riot police and regular police there.
It could have been civil disobedience, but it looked like the monks had been put there. They weren’t moving.
As we turned left, we saw troop carriers with camouflaged army regulars arriving - those green trucks with soldiers in the back on benches. We saw guns, large guns that looked like automatic weapons.
There were two or three of those trucks as well as others - several units of public order personnel swarming the situation.
As we left, all the roads around the monastery were blocked by police. There was no access.
At the time, all the phones were dead - we were trying to call the hotel but none of the cell phones were working. But within an hour the phone service was back on.
It seemed as if within half an hour the thing had been totally brought under control.
Back in Lhasa, it was eerily normal. There were police around but not really a muscular presence. It seemed to have been a massive localised show of force.
We realised that if we had gone to Sera monastery an hour earlier or an hour later, no-one would have known what these monks had done.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7296134.stm

Published: 2008/03/14 12:15:32 GMT

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My heart aches every time I read about how the Chinese are dealing with the Tibet struggle for autonomy, a real autonomy.
I believe that again and again we witness the same old story: the ‘righteous’ big powers doing nothing when their interest is not in play. By ‘big powers’ I mean the USA, the UK, Germany, France… where are they now? All of them were so fast to recognize Kosovo’s independence, but no one seems to have any muscle to flex when it’s time to really do something righteous.
They are disgusting.

Following is an article as found on BBC’s site, and kuddos to BBC for covering the story of Tibet unrests.

Tibetan monks: A controlled life
China’s crackdown on monk-led rallies in Lhasa is part of a long history of state control of monasteries, argues Peter Firstbrook, producer of BBC Four series A Year in Tibet.

Buddhist monasteries are among the few institutions in China which have the potential to organise resistance and opposition to the government - so the Chinese Communist Party constantly worries about them.

Are some monks secret supporters of the Dalai Lama? Could they be working towards Tibetan independence? Beijing’s fear is so great that being found with just a photograph of the Dalai Lama in your possession could land you in jail.

Government regulation of the monasteries started almost as soon as the People’s Liberation Army marched into Tibet in 1950.

The recent protests mark the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising of 1959 when anti-Chinese and anti-communist demonstrations erupted on the streets of Lhasa, and were put down by force.

Lhasa’s three major monasteries - the Sera, Drepung and Ganden, were seriously damaged by shelling. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee into exile and the Tibetan government-in-exile estimates that 86,000 Tibetans died.

I visit these temples once or twice a month. I tell them what to do and what not to do. They all listen and say nothing
Butri
Communist Party official

Less than a decade later, Mao’s Cultural Revolution wrought havoc in the region and the Red Guards destroyed more than 6,000 monasteries and convents - just a handful survived.

Along with the buildings, hundreds and thousands of priceless and irreplaceable statues, tapestries and manuscripts were destroyed.

“At that time all the monasteries were destroyed. The whole country was changing during the revolution. The wave of change was unstoppable,” says Dondrup, a 77-year-old monk at the Pel Kor Monastery in Gyantse.

‘False’ lama

Further evidence of Chinese control over Tibetan Buddhism came in 1995, with the naming of the new reincarnation of the Panchen Lama - second only to the Dalai Lama in terms of spiritual seniority in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama selected six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima - but within days the young boy and his immediate family disappeared, apparently abducted.

Although we can’t have that many lamas now, we can still absorb new lamas under the current regulations and policies
Tsultrim
Pel Kor monastery

The Chinese government soon announced they had found the real Panchen Lama, a six-year old boy named Gyaltsen Norbu.

Gyaltsen Norbu just happened to be the son of two Tibetan Communist Party workers and he was soon whisked off to Beijing, where he continues to live today. Only occasionally does he appear in public, in carefully stage-managed events.

Most monks regard him as a “false” lama, though he is venerated by ordinary Tibetans.

We filmed his visit to the Pel Kor Monastery in Gyantse in September 2006. It was clear the authorities were worried about demonstrations as there were hundreds of police and army personnel on the streets and the monks had to go through a security check to get into their own monastery.

Since the 1980s the Chinese government has begun to rebuild some of the monasteries and they has also granted greater religious freedom - although it is still limited.

But almost every aspect of the lives of Buddhist monks and nuns is monitored and controlled by the government.

Phone technology

Every monastery and nunnery in Tibet is visited at least once every few weeks by a Communist Party official, who checks that the government rules and regulation are being correctly applied.

Butri, a Tibetan Communist Party cadre, explains: “I visit these temples once or twice a month. I tell them what to do and what not to do. They all listen and say nothing.”

The government is also very careful whom it allows to become a monk. All novices have to go through a detailed vetting procedure which takes years to complete. Even their families are checked for any subversive background.

The Chinese government also restricts the number of monks and nuns. In fact, monasteries can no longer perform many of their rituals correctly because of a shortage of monks.

Tsultrim, the deputy head lama of the Pel Kor monastery in Gyantse, said at its peak the monastery was home to 1,500 monks. Today the Chinese government restricts numbers to no more than 80.

“Although we can’t have that many lamas now, we can still absorb new lamas under the current regulations and policies,” he said.

“Of course, we need to check up on them, to see if they’re the right people for us.”

The recent conflict on the streets of Lhasa mirrors events almost 20 years ago - the last time there were major protests - when frustration among the monks and ordinary Tibetans finally reached boiling point in 1989.

But today, there is one important difference: technology. Practically every Tibetan monk I have met has a mobile phone. They even have special pockets sewn inside their robes to carry them.

In the past it has been notoriously difficult to communicate across the vast expanse of Tibet. Today, everybody is just a text away.

A Year In Tibet will be broadcast on BBC Four on Thursday, 20 March, 2008 at 2100 GMT.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7307495.stm

Published: 2008/03/20 20:34:59 GMT

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If not, what are you waiting for?
Maybe you have never heard anything about it or maybe you are just very skeptical that all that hype surrounding this root may be true.
And who can blame you? There are so many new super foods you are bombarded with, almost on a daily basis, that it’s becoming more and more difficult to trust something, let alone try it.

I have used maca root for about two years, and for me and my husband it only brought benefits, not only increasing our sexual drive, but bringing us the most precious gift of all: our son.

Known as “Peruvian Ginseng!”, “A Miracle Product!”, “The 21st Century Food!”, the little root vegetable that grows at high altitude- 14 000 ft above sea level- in Peru, is quickly gaining the attention and interests of a growing number of people daily.
Peruvian maca root’s main fame lies in it’s ability to increase the sexual urges and fertility rates of men and women. But there are numerous other benefits and attributes of Peruvian maca root that also are well known such as it’s ability to make people more energetic, stronger and have more endurance, and to make them feel better emotionally. Peruvian maca root is renowned for relieving the symptoms of menopause and andropause and correcting hormonal imbalances in men and women as well. As a woman approaching menopause, I can tell you that the emotional change I experience almost every day it’s overwhelming. Buts of depression alternating with insane rage, lack of patience, etc.
I have interrupted my intake of maca due to negligence mostly, but today I placed again an order and hopefully I will be able to keep my emotions under control.

According to scientific literature Peruvian maca root is amazingly rich in amino acids, phytonutrients, fatty acids, vitamin and minerals. Maybe because of the volcano enriched soil where Peruvian maca root grows and the rarified air and amazingly pure atmosphere around that area, Peruvian maca root has an abundance of trace minerals, and even some that scientists have not even classified yet. Peruvian maca root is truly a powerhouse of nutrition and energy and life giving ingredients, and a few spoonfuls of this powder every day can be a most beneficial supplement for you to take. If you are not taking a vitamin or mineral supplement, but you are taking Peruvian maca root, you will probably not be missing many essential nutrients from your diet. There is so much nutrition and goodness in this humble little tuber root that it is like a once a day supplement itself. Scientists have discovered that Peruvian maca root has the ability to regulate, support, and balance the hormonal systems of both men and women for optimal function. One of the very great things about Peruvian maca root is that it is not “gender specific” and works equally well at the hormonal changing benefits for both sexes equally.

Maca is an adaptogen, and by definition, adaptogens are substances that raise the physical body’s state of resistance to diseases through physiological health and emotional health improvements. Peruvian maca root somehow supports and rejuvenates overwhelmed, tired adrenal glands eventually resulting in much greater energy, stamina, clarity of mind and spirit, and the ability to handle stress. It should be pointed out that adaptogens work gradually and at their own speed, so the changes may take a little while to notice according to the make-up and physiological state of each individual. But continued, and persistent use of Peruvian maca root does promote phenomenal and profound changes in the hormonal, physical, and emotional states of people.

As I have already mentioned, today I placed an order. This time I am going to give it a try to gelatinized version, which does not contain starches and it’s much better for your digestive system.
Personally I like maca’s taste, although I have heard people complaining about it. It tastes somehow like backed sweet potato.

Bottom line: if you have not tried maca root yet, please do yourself a favor and try it. Preferably in the powder form, not capsules. Mix the powder in your morning smoothie and you get a nutritious and fast breakfast.

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The above statement needs some clarifications: it’s true if you are a normal, naïve human being, trying to make some money because you were fooled by the ‘cash in the attic’ kind of ‘reality show’, not if you know how to cheat people on Ebay. Because there is a way to make money on Ebay, it’s called ‘running a scam’.

After my son was born, about 4 years ago, I decided to give it a try to Ebay selling, mostly because I had lots of items I knew I was not going to use again, due to him being our only child.
I was not a seasoned seller and I learned a trick or two just by necessity.
What I have found out pretty fast- the hard way- was that you have to verify the shipping cost before listing something.
This is my lame experience with one particular item: I bought it for $120 and sold it for $28. Not bad would you say, right? But hold on, there are a few fees to be paid:
- Ebay listing fee (percentage of the starting bid, paid regardless if you sell or not)
- Ebay final fee (percentage of the selling fee)
- PayPal fee
And if you are stupid and don’t check the shipping fee, you get burned as I did.
I wrongly estimated the shipping cost as being $12, when the actual one was $22.
After that mistake and all the fees, I made a net $12.
Now imagine how much money you make from something listed for $0.99.

Unless you are a Power Seller- more about this later- or you have expensive items, it’s not worth the time.
I did it because I was on maternity leave and I had time to burn. Plus, I was walking to the postal office very often and it helped me lose the extra pounds gained during pregnancy.

I was a buyer as well, and my experience was different. Some sellers were really greedy and charged a lot for shipping. For example, one time the shipping cost asked by the seller was $7.00 and the actual one was $0.60. It was something small that fit into a regular letter. I got pretty mad honestly speaking. I understand asking a dollar or two extra to cover your time going there, or the cost of the fuel, but over $6 seems to be excessive.

Fast forward to these days: lots of changes in the site’s rules, and as per John Donahoe, the company’s new chief executive, eBay is trying to be harder on sellers in order to make the experience of buyers better.
As I have mentioned above, there are sellers and sellers. Some of them, the rare decent ones, are going to suffer because of these changes, while the crooks will prevail as they normally do.
As a seller I found that by the time you are done paying seller fees (listing and final sale fees) and PayPal fees you are making less money than selling the item on a place such as craigslist.org or Amazon marketplace.

I have mentioned the ‘Power Sellers’, right? Ebay has become the heaven for ‘Power Sellers’ and as a consequence, the whole experience feels geared to them. The process for posting an item to sell is so lengthy now that it would only be worth doing if you do it often enough to use templates or some other system. Furthermore, Power Sellers seek out only items they believe will sell, so you’re starting to see lots of lowest-common denominator items available rather than unexpected items that an individual might decide to sell were it not so complex to post now.
Ebay has become ‘Extreme Shopping’ — only the fittest survive, and it is dominated by fraud. Years ago it was fun, but now the charm has gone away. The gray-market guys do flood the listings, and the listings aren’t organic anymore so you can’t really tell what the thing you’re getting is really like. Ebay’s policies and procedures lead off into the no-accountability zone, especially for trying to get refunds on items a buyer just bails on. Feeback must work both ways - there are some horrible buyers whose MO is keeping your item and demanding half their money back for some inventive complaint, using their impending feedback as extortion.
Ebay wanted to make it a better experience for buyers and it opened the can of worms.

These days I visit Ebay only as a buyer when looking for items I can’t find otherwise on the net. But definitely it’s not my first option, more like the last one.

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Most people will have a New Year’s resolution related to losing weight, eating healthier, being more active, etc.
Wait a minute! Did I say ‘eat healthier’? Yes I did.
Now this is when we step into uncharted territory.
Why? Because all the health gurus are going to tell you that eating less fat, meat, and more vegetables and fruits will make you feel better and all together be healthier.
But somehow all is forgotten about engineered foods, found all around us.
I remember reading about the seeds irradiated in space by some Chinese scientists, seeds that eventually yielded bigger crops. At that point I am pretty sure that most people clapped their hands in ecstasy thinking about how easy would be to feed more population with less food basically.
But those seeds were genetically modified at that point.

Moving back to North America, in the USA, over 80% of all processed foods contain genetically engineered components.
You will say that it’s easy then to avoid them: steer clear of processed foods.
But the problem is that genetically engineered foods are found in everything we eat: rice, corn, wheat; in soybeans and soy products; vegetable oils, vegetables and fruits; dairy products including eggs; meat, chicken, pork and other animal products.

We don’t know what we are eating because nowhere on the label is anything mentioned about genetically engineered food.

We know that cows are treated with growth hormone (rbGH), which will affect the milk.
The milk from cows injected with bovine growth hormone has much higher levels of the hormone IGF-1 that risks breast, prostate, colon, lung and other cancers, and it has lower nutritional value.
I was talking the other day with our secretary and she said that back in time, when she grew up at a dairy farm, they drank the milk fresh from the cows, cows not injected with hormones. The milk was not supposed to be good for 10 days or a week, because it did not have any chemicals added. Now it’s a different story; they treat milk to increase the shelf life.
The treatment of poultry and animals with hormones and antibiotics is standard procedure these days, unfortunately and it costs lots extra to buy ‘organic’ meat coming from animals not treated.
But… what did they eat?
If they were fed animal by-products (they were not apparently, or so it’s the claim made by the organic growers) it still not clean meat. Of if they were fed corn or other grains coming from genetically engineered seeds…. we are back to square one.
Disease-resistant crops may promote human viruses and eating these products may produce toxins associated with Alzheimer’s, diabetes, allergies, kidney disease and cancer.

What people seem to fail to understand is that as soon as you genetically modify something, the long time effect of this modification is unknown.

FDA and other regulating bodies, in bed with the big agribusinesses, like to say that GM crops are the same with ordinary seeds, when in fact they are not.
Agribusiness giants like their money and I have serious doubts that they would cave in and accept how dangerous GM are. On the contrary, they funded studies to prove they are safe. Really?
How objective a testing funded by this industry could be?
The most probable scenario (not unknown to other industries like the pharmaceutical one for example) is that the study funded by agribusiness would fail to investigate the impacts of GM food on liver, kidney, gut function (studies on rats showed smaller than normal liver and kidney and bigger pancreas), on the immune and endocrine system, in blood composition (studies on rats showed a decrease on the white cell counts), would fail to present the effects on the unborn as well.

Furthermore, they would cook the books.
How could they cook the books?
By diluting the GM component of feeds used, limit the duration of feeding trials, keep sample sizes too low for statistical significance and ignore animal deaths and sickness.
And most important: hide the negative results.

I took an introductory genetic course, enough to make me understand the implications of genetically modified foods.
The picture is like this: you take a seed and genetically modify the DNA. That will trigger changes in the natural functioning of the resulting plant. The inserted gene can become truncated, fragmented, and different than the original design, expressing a new GM protein maybe different than the one intended, with characteristics that may be harmful, even if the industry claims that transgenes are destroyed by our digestive system.
In reality and contrary to industry claims, transgens are not destroyed by the digestive system and the surviving foreign DNA can be transported by blood to internal organs, may proliferate over time, and get into cells DNA, possibly causing chronic diseases.
Another aspect not to be ignored: Antibiotic Resister Marker (ARM) genes are attached to transgenes prior to insertion to allow cells to survive antibiotic applications. They potentially can cause antibiotic-resistant super-diseases and these is already fact not fiction (see my article on hospital superbugs).

To the industry claim that there are no harmful effects claim I would give the example of the L-Tryptophan epidemic. L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid, was identified as the cause of the 1989 epidemic of Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome [EMS] in country-wide litigation against Showa Denko K. K., a major Japanese petroleum corporation that manufactured and sold L-tryptophan in the U. S.
L-tryptophan was sold as a food supplement during the late 1980s to induce sleep “naturally,” because this amino acid produces serotonin in the brain, similar to the calming role of milk as a sleep inducer.
Showa Denko’s pills had several unique contaminants that were likely to be responsible for the epidemic. In addition to that, the manufacturer was genetically engineering bacteria to produce the L-tryptophan more economically. Genes had been inserted into bacteria’s DNA in order to produce high concentrations of several enzymes used in its production.
EMS is a painful and progressive, multi-system disease which causes permanent scarring and fibrosis to nerve and muscle tissues, continuing inflammation, and provokes a permanent change in the body’s immune system. EMS is a serious systemic illness characterized by elevations of white blood cells known as eosinophils and by severe muscle pain.

Probably there is an international conspiracy of big agribusiness to control the world food supply, therefore our moaning over the health hazards of GM food fall on deaf ears.
The worries are dismissed and the pink fluffy picture of big crops and happy farmers showed to us.
The giants who are currently controlling our future existence are: Monsanto, DuPont, Dow Agrisciences, Syngenta in Switzerland (from the merger of the agriculture divisions of Novartis and AstraZeneca) and - Germany-based Bayer CropScience AG (division of Bayer AG) with its Environmental Science and BioScience headquarters in France.
Just reading the names will get your skin to crawl.

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After I finished watching the movie ‘Wag the Dog’ I realized how thin and blurred is the line between politics, media and show business.
Many years after that I kept asking myself how many of the political events are master minded by the USA, UK and other big players and how many are genuine movements, and with every passing year I am losing more and more of my enthusiasm and belief in the innate good of people.

In ‘Wag the Dog’ the spin doctor Conrad Brean (Robert DeNiro) is called to the White House to disarm a sex scandal ready to erupt, scandal that will jeopardize the President’s bid for a second term. Conrad Brean knows how to manipulate politics, the press and most importantly, the American people.
Anticipating the reaction of the press, Brean creates a bigger story, something to deflect the attention from the president to something else. And that something else is a fake war with Albania.
Helped by Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman), a famed Hollywood producer, Brean assembles a crisis team that will orchestrate a global conflict.

Less than a month after the movie was released, President Bill Clinton was embroiled in a sex scandal arising from his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Over the course of 1998 and early 1999, as the scandal dominated American politics, the US engaged in three military operations:
• Operation Desert Fox, a three-day bombing campaign in Iraq that took place as the U.S. House of Representatives debated articles of impeachment against Clinton
• Operation Infinite Reach, a pair of missile strikes against suspected terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan three days after Clinton admitted in a nationally televised address that he had an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky
• Operation Allied Force, a 78-day-long NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that began weeks after Clinton was acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial.
In a further coincidence, the missile strikes against Sudan and Afghanistan were announced by the White House moments before the beginning of a press conference in which Lewinsky was to give details of her appearance before Congress.
Critics, including Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, charged that the former operation was an attempt to distract attention from the Lewinsky scandal, and Serb state television went so far as to broadcast Wag The Dog in the midst of NATO attacks on Serbia.
Source: wikipedia

‘Canadian Bacon’, released in 1995, is another movie dealing with the same issue: start a war to divert the attention from the stringent domestic issues. In the movie, the problem with this plan is that, with the demise of the Soviet Union, there’s no one left to go to war with. But some brainstorming leads to an attempt to start a cold war with Canada (”everyone hates Canadians”), using media manipulation as the main tool to stoke the passions of the US public.

Going back to the previous article on Obama, Clinton and NAFTA, it looks like the reality imitates art, much more than vice versa. When having domestic trouble try to blame everybody around, but the true culprits.

I have to admit that when I found out that the USA was among the first nations to approve/accept/recognize Kosovo independence, one though revolved around the question ‘cui bono’? (to whose benefits) and I was looking for a political reason related to the current presidential nomination campaign, rather than a financial one.

Speaking of the political campaign, not that it matters to anybody but me, I have to say that I don’t like any of the candidates, regardless the political orientation.
I don’t particularly like Hilary Clinton. I had mixed feelings until she launched the rhetoric on how NAFTA should be redesigned, implying that basically Canada and Mexico suck the USA vitality.
Give me a freaking break!
I lost any consideration I might have had for her.

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This is the complete list of the TV shows.
I have published a shorter version about a month ago including only my favorite shows.
I tried as well to update the latest info I found on the net.

24
Season 7 postponed until January ‘09.
30 Rock
Expected to shoot 5 new episodes to begin airing on April 10.
Aliens in America
Eight pre-strike episodes remain. No additional episodes expected for this season.
Back to You
Two pre-strike episodes remain. Future TBD
Battlestar Galactica
Returns April 4 with first half of 20-episode final season. Production on second half could start as early as March. Airdate for those TBD.
The Big Bang Theory
Expected to shoot 9 new episodes to begin airing on March 17.
Big Love
Expected to go into production on Season 3 in the spring. Airdate info is TBD.
Big Shots
Cancelled
Bionic Woman
Cancelled
Bones
Four pre-strike episodes are scheduled to begin airing April 14. Expected to shoot 2 additional episodes. Airdate for those is TBD.
Boston Legal
One pre-strike episode remains. Expected to shoot 8 additional episodes to air in April/May.
Brothers & Sisters
One pre-strike episode remains. Expected to shoot 5 additional episodes to air in April/May.
Burn Notice
Production on Season 2 expected to get under way in late April. New episodes could start airing as early as July.
Cane
No additional episodes expected this season. Future beyond that TBD.
Chuck
No new episodes until fall.
The Closer
Expected to kick off its fourth season this summer.
Cold Case
Expected to shoot 5 new episodes to begin airing on March 30.
Criminal Minds
Expected to shoot 7 new episodes to begin airing on April 2.
CSI
Expected to shoot 6 new episodes to begin airing on April 3.
CSI: Miami
Expected to shoot 8 new episodes to begin airing on March 24.
CSI: NY
Expected to shoot 7 new episodes to begin airing on April 7.
Desperate Housewives
Expected to shoot 7 new episodes to air in April/May.
Dirty Sexy Money
No new episodes until fall; three remaining pre-strike episodes will undergo some tweaking and kick off fall run.
ER
Expected to shoot 6 new episodes to begin airing on April 10.
Everybody Hates Chris
Twelve pre-strike episodes remain. No additional episodes expected for this season.
Friday Night Lights
No new episodes expected for this season, but will be back on air, due to the lobby of many fans.
The Game
Four pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot 8 or 9 additional episodes to air in March/April/May.
Ghost Whisperer
Expected to shoot 6 new episodes to begin airing on April 4.
Girlfriends
No new episodes expected this season, although a special one-hour series finale is being discussed.
Gossip Girl
Expected to shoot 5 or 6 episodes to air in April/May.
Greek
Kicks off second half of Season 1 on March 24. Renewed for Season 2.
Grey’s Anatomy
Expected to shoot 5 new episodes to air in April/May
Heroes
No new episodes expected until fall.
House
Expected to shoot 4 to 6 new episodes to air in April/May.
How I Met Your Mother
Expected to shoot 9 new episodes to begin airing on March 17.
Jericho
Seven episodes remain. No additional episodes expected for this season. Rumor has it that it will be cancelled. Update March 25, 2008:It looks like this will be the last episod = series finale.
Journeyman
No new episodes expected. Ever. Good move! that was a stupid show and I did not like the actors either.
Las Vegas
Two pre-strike episodes remain, but no future for this show. It’s been cancelled.
Law & Order
Expected to shoot 5 additional episodes to air in spring.
Law & Order: CI
Expected to shoot an indeterminate number of episodes to air in spring.
Law & Order: SVU
Expected to shoot 5 new episodes to begin airing on April 15.
Life
No new episodes until fall.
Life Is Wild
No new episodes expected. Ever.
Lost
Six pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot 5 additional episodes to air in April/May.
Medium
Six pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot 7 additional episodes for this season.
Men in Trees
Eleven pre-strike episodes remain, the first of which airs Feb. 27. No additional episodes expected this season. Update: the show was axed. Good, I don’t like Anne Heche and the show was kind of stupid.
Moonlight
Expected to shoot 4 new episodes to begin airing on April 11 but it’s future is still uncertain. Keep your fingers crossed!!
My Name Is Earl
Expected to shoot 9 new episodes to begin airing on April 3.
NCIS
Expected to shoot 7 new episodes to begin airing on April 8.
The New Adventures of Old Christine
Seven pre-strike episodes remain. No additional episodes expected this season.
Nip/Tuck
Season 5 concludes Feb. 19. Production on the show’s eight-episode sixth season expected to start up this summer. Airdate TBD.
Numbers
Expected to shoot 6 new episodes to begin airing on April 4.
October Road
Four pre-strike episodes remain. Future beyond that TBD.
The Office
Expected to shoot 6 new episodes to begin airing on April 10.
One Tree Hill
Five pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot 5 or 6 additional episodes to air in April/May.
Prison Break
Two pre-strike episodes remain. Update March 25, 2008: Fox has picked up a fourth season, ordering 22 episodes to resume in the fall.
Private Practice
No new episodes expected until fall.
Pushing Daisies
No new episodes until fall.
Reaper
Three pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot 5 or 6 additional episodes to air in April/May.
The Riches
Seven-episode second season kicks off March 18.
Rules of Engagement
Expected to shoot 6 new episodes to begin airing on April 14.
Samantha Who?
Three pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot an additional 3 episodes to air this spring, likely after Dancing with the Stars.
Saturday Night Live
Returns Feb. 23
Scrubs
Five pre-strike episodes remain and will begin airing on April 10. Up to four additional episodes may be shot
Shark
Expected to shoot 4 new episodes. Airdate TBD.
The Shield
Final season already shot. Airdate TBD.
Smallville
Four pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot 5 additional episodes to air in April/May.
Supernatural
Two pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot 4 or 5 additional episodes to air in April/May.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Four pre-strike episodes remain. Future beyond that TBD.
Two and a Half Men
Expected to shoot 9 new episodes to begin airing on March 17.
Ugly Betty
Expected to shoot 5 new episodes to air in April/May.
The Unit
No additional episodes expected this season. Future beyond that TBD.
Without a Trace
Expected to shoot 6 new episodes to begin airing on April 3.
Women’s Murder Club
No new episodes expected this season. Future beyond that TBD.

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By now, I guess lots of people had the chance to take a glimpse at the alleged pregnant man or at least read about this new urban legend.
Although I am not homophobic, I found the picture grotesque. Aside from that, my first reaction when I have read about it was somewhere along these lines ‘yep, and the pigs fly’, followed by ‘it’s a hoax’.
I just don’t believe it for many logical reasons.

First of all, even if the scientists are considering male pregnancy as theoretically possible, the risks associated with the pregnancy would outweigh any benefits.
Try to think about ectopic pregnancy in women, which are considered so hazardous (it’s the number one cause of first-trimester deaths) that they are normally terminated after an ultrasound confirming them.
A man, who would undergo such a risky procedure of having an embryo implanted into a part of his body, would face and run into the risk of hemorrhaging to death with the progress of the pregnancy

It was a case back in 2005, when a woman delivered at 33 weeks a baby that survived development outside the womb.
“We won’t see another case like this in my lifetime,” Dr. Victor Han, chairman of the division of neonatal-perinatal medicine at St. Joseph’s told the Medical Post.
“A case like this won’t happen in the lifetime of my colleagues either. Probably not even in Canada. It is so rare.”
So rare, in fact, there have only been four similar cases reported worldwide.
The baby did not have any amniotic fluid surrounding her, had dislocated hips and club feet and her skull was flattened due to the fact that she was squished beneath her mother’s liver and bowels during the pregnancy.

There are two artists behind the male pregnancy hoax: Virgil Wong and Lee Mingwei.
Go to Virgil’s website http://www.virgilwong.com/ and check for yourself.
He owns both the domain names: malepregnancy.com and genochoice.com, according to Alexa and even more, the site is described as being “Documentary on “the first human male to ever birth a baby from his own body.” [Contains fictitious information].” Moving on to the next website, “This is a fictitious web site,” reads a disclaimer on the GenoChoice home page, “created to be an exploration of a very likely scenario that may one day result from new advances in biotechnology and infertility treatments.”

People think that this is art and because beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, I must conclude that I may be blind with regards to this concept.

Controversial as it was or maybe just because of that, the site got an Alexa rank of 344,000, which is not bad at all.

In conclusion: the news trolls are having fun.

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