Tom's Weekly Tips, Links and Tidbits Newsletter

Wednesday 27th July 2011


How To Live The Healthiest Life


Tom Grimshaw is an Optimum Wellness Researcher/Writer
who enjoys bringing you the oldest and newest tips to
improve each of your 12 pillars of Optimal Health.

Check out the special report How to Live The Healthiest Life




G'day,

Hope you are having a great week.




Contents

Basic Computer User | Advanced Computer User | Health | Humour | Other




Basic Computer User


ABS warns of Census internet slowdown

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has warned internet service providers to expect a "considerable" spike in traffic particularly in the days leading up to and immediately after Tuesday 9th August 2011 http://www.itnews.com.au/News/264632,abs-warns-of-census-internet-slowdown.aspx



LinkedIn fires up Monster-killing 'Apply' button

Monster app versus LinkedIn network. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/264728,linkedin-fires-up-monster-killing-apply-button.aspx



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Advanced Computer User


Wolfram launches interactive document format

Wolfram Research has launched its own document format, which it claims is "as everyday as a document, but as interactive as an app". http://www.itnews.com.au/News/264432,wolfram-launches-interactive-document-format.aspx



Big 2-D drop-downs can facilitate site navigation

If they're properly designed. Two examples illustrate some mega-menu usability pitfalls. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mega-menus-wrong.html



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Health


Yet Another Reason to Tuck Into the Vitamin D3

If you've ever had a "senior moment" you'll be pleased to hear that vitamin D3 and grape seeds reduce or reverse Alzheimer's disease. http://www.healthiertalk.com/fight-alzheimer-s-these-two-all-natural-remedies-4362



Pesticides in Your Toothpaste And Other Legal Dangers

By MARTHA ROSENBERG July 25, 2011

Most people know by now that the orgy of antibacterial dish, body and laundry soaps that emerged in the 2000s do less to protect people from germs than to build new and better germs via antibiotic resistance. They also know that such bacterial overkill (soap and water work just as well) is at the basis of the "hygiene hypothesis" theory of childhood allergies that says a too clean environment with no exposure to microbes subverts the immune system.

But how many realize the antibiotic germ killers in such products are the same endocrine disrupter pesticides producing frogs with no penises in polluted streams?

One pesticide, triclosan, found in Colgate's Total toothpaste, breaks down into chloroform with tap water and dioxin in the environment, impairs thyroid function and lives in human breast milk, urine and blood, according to studies. When Dr. Sarah Janssen, a staff scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, spoke in Chicago about the health risks of triclosan and other endocrine disruptors in consumer products, many went home and filled garbage bags with Ajax and Palmolive antibacterial dish detergents, Colgate's Total toothpaste and other products. Yes, people are brushing their teeth with pesticides.

Meat Is Safe If You Cook It

There are knowns and unknowns when eating meat products to quote a former defense secretary. Thorough cooking kills pathogens like E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter but what about veterinary drugs, pesticides and heavy metals like copper and arsenic? Are they dug in with the A1 Steak Sauce?

Yes according to a 2010 Office of Inspector General report. Of 23 pesticides designated by the EPA and FDA as high risk, the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service only tests for one and in just six months, four carcasses with "violative levels of veterinary drugs" were released onto the public dinner plate.

"Farmers are prohibited from selling milk for human consumption from cows that have been medicated with antibiotics (as well as other drugs) until the withdrawal period is over; so instead of just disposing of this tainted milk, producers feed it to their calves," says the report, sounding more like an animal rights group than the U.S. government. "When the calves are slaughtered, the drug residue from the feed or milk remains in their meat, which is then sold to consumers." Bon Appetit.

After Mercury Exposes, Tuna and Sushi Are Safe

Is your tuna filled with mercury? Over five years ago the Chicago Tribune said unequivocally yes. "The tuna industry has failed to adequately warn consumers about the risks of eating canned tuna, while federal regulators have been reluctant to include the fish in their mercury advisories -- at times amid heavy lobbying by industry," said the paper. Three years later, the New York Times found similar contamination in area sushi.

But rather than better warnings, regulation or a safer product, all consumers have gotten is more studies. Last year Time magazine reported 100 samples of both lean red tuna and fatty tuna from 54 restaurants and 15 supermarkets in Colorado, New Jersey and New York, exceed recommended amounts of mercury. And this year Consumer Reports says every tuna sample tested at an outside lab "contained measurable levels of mercury, ranging from 0.018 to 0.774 parts per million. The Food and Drug Administration can take legal action to pull products containing 1 ppm or more from the market. (It never has, according to an FDA spokesman.)"

In fact mercury-filled tuna is so rampant, it is what inspired Fischer Stevens to make the Oscar winning-documentary The Cove, about the Japanese dolphin fishing industry. He personally came down with mercury positioning after eating tuna three or four times a week, he told NBCLA, and began to look at the entire industry.

Sun Screens Always Reduce Cancer

Most people have enough fear of skin cancer and photo-aging to give tanning salons wide berth, pun intended. But how safe are sunscreens themselves? Weeks after the New York Times exposed the caprice in assignment of sun protection factors (SPF) last year, Sen. Charles Schumer (D- New York) called on the FDA to investigate reports that an ingredient in most sunscreens--retinyl palmitate -- actually causes cancer.

In one FDA animal study, dismissed by a dermatologist consultant to sunscreen companies as "very premature to even cast doubt about the safety of this chemical," retinyl palmitate accelerated tumors and lesions in the sun by 21 percent! (Similar studies on humans would be "unethical" say scientists.)

And there are more suspect ingredients. Many sunscreens contain oxybenzone which is another endocrine-disrupter. But only recently was it discovered that it penetrates the skin and enter the bloodstream--as does the sunscreen ingredient titanium dioxide. In fact, one of the few good things that can still be said of sunscreens is they have been exonerated for causing a national Vitamin D deficiency. In a 2010 report, the Institute of Medicine says "the number of people with vitamin D deficiency in North America may be overestimated because many laboratories appear to be using cut-points that are much higher than the committee suggests is appropriate." Enjoy your shade.

Martha Rosenberg's first book, tentatively titled Born with a Fritos Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp the Public Health, will be published by Amherst, New York-based Prometheus Books next year. http://counterpunch.org/rosenberg07252011.html



The Popular Food that Turns Your Gut into a Pesticide Factory

Robyn O’Brien shares her personal story and how it inspired her to become a Real Food evangelist. Her journey started when one of her children had a dangerous allergic reaction to a "typical" breakfast. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/06/14/why-are-there-so-many-food-allergies-now.aspx



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Humour


Topical Humour

Rupert Murdoch has issued a statement, he is deeply touched by all the messages left on Amy Winehouse's phone.



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Other


Co2 Correction

Seems the article I forwarded about the level of Co2 emmissions from volanoes had some significant inaccuracies in it. It is a continuing source of wonder and disappointment to me at how many unethical people will blatantly lie to forward their personal agenda. So many of Lord Monkton's statements on global warming fail to pass verification it completely discredits him. Unfortunately. http://www.skepticalscience.com/ and http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/apr/21/iceland-volcano-climate-sceptics

But just because people on both sides of this argument tell lies, distort, misrepresent or hide facts, that alone does not validate the truth of the argument of the other side. I still believe that a carbon tax is a scam to transfer money from the masses to the elite. One might ask why has Al Gore bought a very expensive waterfront property in San Fransisco if he is so concerned about global warming?



Quotes From Warren Buffet's Lieutenant

An interesting few quotes from a candid and well read business person. http://bitcast-g.bitgravity.com/morningstar/aus/video/110706_dorsey2_mstar.mp4



Save Our Salmon

I eat canned wild Alaskan salmon because it has more omega-3 fatty acids than the farmed Australian salmon. Here's a petition to help preserve it. http://action.freshthemovie.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7585



22 Uses for Lemon Peels

Don’t toss them; put them to work. http://www.care2.com/greenliving/22-uses-for-lemon-peels.html



This is what happens when you combine kung fu, soccer and volleyball.

Wow! Serious warmups required before this activity! http://www.wimp.com/combinesoccer/



Study shows 3D displays cause 'visual discomfort'

No, it's not just you. According to studies recently conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, the viewing of stereoscopic 3D displays does indeed cause visual discomfort, fatigue and headaches. http://www.gizmag.com/3d-eye-strain-headaches/19342/



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Until next time, dream big dreams, read widely, think well of your fellow man, eat food that's good for you and do the important things that make a difference - they are rarely the urgent ones!

Tom




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