Lead Linked to Aging in Older Brains

Once we absorb things like Lead, Mercury, Dioxins, Pesticides etc, they cannot be easily eliminated from the system, and can accumulate. Go and have a blood test looking for heavy metals, and toxic substances like dioxins, you may be shocked. Dioxins are in things like DDT (pesticide) Agent Orange (herbicide) Once they are in the environment they permeate the environment. They can be banned, but they will never go away - Some of them are refined Elements. That also includes depleted Uranium, and of course Chronic Lead poisoning (Gunshot Wounds)

clipped from www.mail.com MALCOLM RITTER Could it be that the "natural" mental decline that afflicts many older people is related to how much lead they absorbed decades before? The new work suggests long-ago lead exposure can make an aging person's brain work as if it's five years older than it really is. If that's verified by more research, it means that sharp cuts in environmental lead levels more than 20 years ago didn't stop its widespread effects. "We're trying to offer a caution that a portion of what has been called normal aging might in fact be due to ubiquitous environmental exposures like lead," says Dr. Brian Schwartz of Johns Hopkins University The fact that it's happening with lead is the first proof of principle that it's possible Other pollutants like mercury and pesticides may do the same thing, In fact, some recent research does suggest that being exposed to pesticides raises the risk of getting Parkinson's disease a decade or more later. Experts say such studies in mercury are lacking.

For Non-Americans and ignorant Americans

the most important 2008 elections for the world

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Q&A: US presidential election When is the vote? Who is running? Which party has the best chance? "Most major national opinion trends decidedly favour the Democrats," the Pew Research Centre wrote in October. It went on: "Discontent with the state of the nation is markedly greater than it was four years ago. President Bush's approval rating has fallen from 50% to 30% over this period What are the main issues? Nationwide, polls indicate that voters rate Iraq, the economy, healthcare, education, jobs and national security as the things that are most important to them. However, it varies from state to state. Immigration is a burning issue in some parts of the country. How does a candidate win his or her party's nomination? What happens between the primaries and the vote? Does the candidate who gets the most votes win the presidency? Not necessarily. Voters do not, technically, participate in a direct election of the president Which are the key battleground states? third candidate this time?

U.S. Ranks With China On Privacy Invasion

clipped from www.privacyinternational.org The 2007 International Privacy Ranking Each year since 1997, the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International have undertaken what has now become the most comprehensive survey of global privacy ever published. The Privacy & Human Rights Report surveys developments in 70 countries, assessing the state of surveillance and privacy protection.

URGENT

This is no wish, no remembrance day. Ir is an order, Mr War President

clipped from clesnes.blog.lemonde.fr 09 janvier 2008 Close Gitmo Day    Ils sont encore là eux ? C’est vrai, on a tendance à les oublier. 11 janvier: anniversaire de Guantanamo. 09 janvier 2008 Publié Non classé | Lien permanent | 19 Commentaires

Climate Denialists Get Silver Falsie Award

Exhibit B is the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), whose "heavy-handed" editing "eviscerated" the October 2007 Congressional testimony of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director on the likely health impacts of global warming. Her original testimony described "how many people might be adversely affected because of increased warming and the scientific basis for some of the CDC's analysis on what kinds of diseases might be spread in a warmer climate and rising sea levels." The OMB edits removed these details, cutting her testimony to less than half of its original length.

Exhibit C is the U.S. negotiators for the global warming statement released by the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial countries at their June 2007 summit. Draft documents revealed that the U.S. pressured other G-8 countries to remove commitments to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as an assessment that "tackling climate change is an imperative, not a choice."

clipped from www.alternet.org Silver Falsie: "Deleting Heating" Speaking of alternate realities, this year's Silver Falsie goes to determined global warming skeptics who, when faced with evidence of climate change, simply remove it. Exhibit A is Philip A. Cooney, who headed the White House Council on Environmental Quality in between lobbying gigs for the American Petroleum Institute and Exxon Mobil. In March 2007, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released documents detailing "hundreds of instances" where Cooney had edited government reports to downplay the human contribution to and impacts of global warming. Cooney has no scientific credentials.

Selfish Capitalism and Mental Illness

What about us? Total toxity.

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk By far the most significant consequence of "selfish capitalism" (Thatch/Blatcherism) has been a startling increase in the incidence of mental illness in both children and adults since the 1970s. As I report in my book, The Selfish Capitalist - Origins of Affluenza, World Health Organisation and nationally representative studies in the United States, Britain and Australia, reveal that it almost doubled between the early 80s and the turn of the century. These increases are very unlikely to be due to greater preparedness to acknowledge distress - the psychobabbling therapy culture was already established. An average 23% of Americans, Britons, Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians suffered in the last 12 months, but only 11.5% of Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Spaniards and Dutch. The message could not be clearer. Selfish Capitalism, much more than genes, is extremely bad for your mental health. But why is it so toxic?