Changing the Equation in STEM Education

Backed by 100 CEOs and the first American woman in space, President Barack Obama announced a new initiative on Thursday to pump up the mediocre U.S. performance in math and science.


Posted by Katelyn Sabochik on September 16, 2010 at 06:03 PM EDT

Today, President Obama announced the launch of Change the Equation, a CEO-led effort to dramatically improve education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), as part of his “Educate to Innovate” campaign. Change the Equation is a non-profit organization dedicated to mobilizing the business community to improve the quality of STEM education in the United States.
The United States is falling behind our foreign competitors in STEM subjects. According to one, study American 15-year-olds ranked 21st in science and 25th in math compared to other countries. In his remarks to day, the President emphasized the importance of providing American students with a solid foundation in these subjects in order to compete in the global economy:

We’re here for a simple reason: Everybody in this room understands that our nation’s success depends on strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of discovery and innovation. And all the CEOs who are here today understand that their company’s future depends on their ability to harness the creativity and dynamism and insight of a new generation.
And that leadership tomorrow depends on how we educate our students today -- especially in science, technology, engineering and math.
We know how important this is for our health. It’s important for our security. It’s important for our environment. And we know how important it is for our economy. As I discussed this morning with my Export Council, our prosperity in a 21st century global marketplace depends on our ability to compete with nations around the world. And we are never going to win that competition by paying the lowest wages or simply by trying to offer the cheapest products. We’re going to win by offering the most innovative products. We’re going to win by doing what we do best, which is harnessing the talents and ingenuity of our people to lead the world in new industries. That’s how we can create millions of new jobs exporting more of our goods around the world.

President Barack Obama speaks at the announcement of the "Change the Equation" initiative in the South Court Auditorium of the White House. The initiative seeks to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education to better prepare students to lead in the 21st century economy. September 16, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The President also emphasized the importance of the government working together with teachers, parents, students and businesses to achieve these goals

What I’ve also said for a long time is that our success will not be attained by government alone. It depends on teachers and parents and students and the broader community. It depends on us restoring an insistence on excellence in our classrooms and from our children.
And that’s why last year I challenged scientists and business leaders to think of creative ways to engage young people in math and science. And now they are answering the call.
All across this country, companies and nonprofits are coming together to replicate successful science programs. New public/private partnerships are working to offer additional training to more than 100,000 teachers and to prepare more than 10,000 new teachers in the next five years.
Media companies are creating content to inspire young people in math and science. And businesses are working with nonprofits to launch robotics competitions and other ways for kids to make things and learn with their hands.
So now we’re building on this effort. The business leaders gathered in this room with this board at the helm are launching a new organization called “Change the Equation” to help our country reach the goal of moving to the top in math and science education. It brings together a coalition of more than a hundred CEOs from the nation’s largest companies who are committed to bring innovative math and science programs to at least a hundred high-need communities over the next year.

The audience, reflected in a window at left, listens as President Barack Obama speaks at the announcement of the "Change the Equation" initiative in the South Court Auditorium of the White House. The initiative seeks to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education to better prepare students to lead in the 21st century economy. September 16, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Read More

Present, Sir!

A humorous thought provoking short clip depicting the state of primary education in India. Makes us think that the reality may be far far away from what it appears on the TV set.

Clip was made by NID Ahmedabad students.



A Satire on the state of 'public' education in India!

Read More

Right to Education India: HRD ministry to get Rs 2.31 lakh cr for RTE: Prana...

Right to Education India: HRD ministry to get Rs 2.31 lakh cr for RTE: Prana...: "HRD ministry to get Rs 2.31 lakh cr for RTE: Pranab 9 Aug 2010, 0631 hrs IST,ET Bureau KOLKATA: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said that..."

Read More

Right to Education India: Setting up pvt school is fundamental right of a ci...

Right to Education India: Setting up pvt school is fundamental right of a ci...: "Shibu Thomas, TNN, Apr 19, 2010, 02.24am IST MUMBAI: To set up a private un-aided school is the fundamental right of every citizen, the Bom..."

Read More

The FLYING CAR....video!

INSIDE TOUR OF TERRAFUGIA FLYING CAR !

Read More

GULF OIL SPILL - Simple Solutions To Restore Environment!

SOLUTION 1 - MACHINE CAN DO IT!

KEVIN COSTNER HELPS TO FIGHT SPILL !




SOLUTION 2 - MICROBES CAN DO IT!

The Texas Land Office and Texas Water Commission successfully used 'oil eating' microbes to clean up large oil spills in just weeks. Microbes hunt down and eat the toxic oil and leave only a biodegradable waste that is non-toxic to humans and marine life. Marshland and beaches were pristine again in just weeks---not years like the Exxon Valdez spill. This is the answer to save the seafood industry and all the precious creatures dying.



Link

Read More

David Icke on 2012

And the video link that follows below points to an opportunity to choose a better 2012 and beyond!

Karma is Universal -
Know Oneself & Connect with the REAL YOU!
Link

Read More

Hedge Funds Startup - Simplified

Read More

Freedom of Movement

Consider what life was like over 105 years ago, in San Francisco, in 1905, on Market Street, well before the Federal Reserve was founded in 1913. Here is a movie that was found, and put on youtube. The freedom on the streets is amazing; no rules of the road, nobody is hurt, people are dodging cars, driving the wrong way, it's just amazing.



Watch it on You Tube and don't miss the Comments section....here's one highly rated comment from stopbeingamoron:
'We may have progressed technologically, but watching this clip shows me how we have actually regressed in much more significant ways as a result of that technology.'

Read More

Its INDEED all about Money, honey!

What follows is a very entertaining, creative, and educational movie about the money system in Canada. Yes, it’s almost all applicable to the entire debt-backed money world, be it USA or INDIA. There are some editorials you may not agree with, but I think it’s worth your time overall. This is a good one to share with those who may not be familiar with the way money works – in other words nearly everyone!

Total running length is 1 hour and 36 minutes. You can view their homepage here: Oh Canada – The Movie

Here's a short sample:


This Link will take you to all the parts of the full video!

Read More

Unveiling of Synthetic Life - Craig Venter

Earlier Presentation.....On the verge of creating Synthetic Life!

Read More

Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall (Live)

Read More

"Obama" at his best!

Enjoy.....


And more....


Link

Read More

2012 Event Horizon: Prophecies and Science of a Golden Age, by David Wilcock — Part 1

There are a total of 4 parts...For the rest of the 3 parts...go here for PART 2, PART 3 and PART 4

In this heavily-anticipated sequel to 2012 Enigma, (#1 Most Viewed on Google, 12/1/08), David Wilcock presents a compelling case that the prophecies of a Golden Age are not myth or superstition. Our DNA has been evolving 100 times more rapidly in the last 5000 years due to a natural galactic process which is also creating climate change throughout our entire solar system. If the prophecies are correct, psychic abilities and powers such as telekinesis, levitation, spiritual healing and telepathy may soon become as common as breathing.

The Mayan Calendar, the Timeline in the Great Pyramid of Giza, the story of Jesus Christ in the Bible and many other ancient mystery schools and spiritual teachings all speak of a great tribulation that transforms Earth into a Utopian Age. Many misunderstand these prophecies as predicting pole shift, asteroid collisions, super volcano eruptions or Armageddon thanks to Planet X, alien invasion, Illuminati/government takeover, or a solar event.

Russian physics reveals that anti-gravity, free energy and time travel technology arise from a Source Field that is the energy of Mind, Spirit and Consciousness. Life emerges from nonliving material by Intelligent Design and evolution occurs in sudden bursts that repeat in 26 and 62 million year cycles, apparently the result of energy waves gradually rippling out from the center of the galaxy and transforming our DNA.

For at least 1200 years, crop circles have presented symbolic messages of DNA transformation and even Ascension on or around December 21, 2012. Easter Island, Stonehenge and some 4000 ancient sites are built on a Global Grid of energy that creates portals in space and time, such as the Bermuda Triangle. Rapture may indeed occur but in a very different way than most believe.

Project Camelot whistle-blowers reveal that extraterrestrials look human like us and may even be time travelers from our future! Edgar Cayce and the Law of One reveal we have a Higher Self leading us through reincarnation and Graduation.

Read More

The Foundation of Wealth

Reproduced here is an excellent piece from Nathan's Economic Edge blog....

The Foundation of Economics

I’ve been talking a lot to people lately about the rule of law and how important it is to the foundation of our economy. It is THE critical element, without it, no functional economy. You can have massive human and natural resources, but without the rule of law, you will not have capital formation and you will not have an economy that works.

The basis of a functioning economy is a rule not of man, but of nature. It is natural because man can attempt to manipulate or bypass the process, but man will lose every time they stray outside of the rules. The same rules win out every time they are tested, just like gravity. The basis of economies are ruled by the same rules of mathematics and of physics, it is bound and limited in its construct by both. Create a system that is not harmonious with those bounds and well… welcome to exponential math and the limits of the physical world.

Sometimes when what you’re doing isn’t working, it’s best to get back to the basics. Allow me to start with a most fundamental concept, one that many people are aware of but may not be able to verbalize real well. I call it BE – DO – HAVE. The concept is simple. In order to have, you must first BE, then DO… THEN you can HAVE. Take, for example, the lotto winner. They skip right over BE and DO and proceed straight to HAVE. This is what people are attempting to do every time they gamble, every time they buy that ticket at the 7-11.

And what happens to those lucky enough to win, do they hold onto their wealth? Of course not, they failed to first BE and then DO. Thus they do not HAVE for very long.

My point? The same thing is true for nations. This is the root of socialism and WHY it is not harmonious with nature. Sharing the wealth destroys work ethics, it undermines BE and DO. It is an attempt to HAVE from the efforts of others. I was in the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war, I saw the lack of work ethic first hand. I saw how it impeded the progression of mankind – it was like stepping back in time 50 years or more. Innovation? Forget it. Security? No way. Freedom? Hardly.

Of course Plutocracy, rule by the rich, is hardly efficient at advancing humankind either. That doesn’t work because it too eventually destroys work ethic, serfs and slaves forced to give away all their productive efforts will eventually give up.

A Dictatorship, Mr. Chavez, is also an attempt to proceed directly to HAVE while skipping over BE and DO. This is why dictatorships do not last; they too are not harmonious with nature.

So let’s take a look at the basis of a healthy and functioning economic system, one that is built upon a solid foundation.

Pyramid of national wealth:

Note that the first bricks of the foundation are built upon the rule of law. They are not built upon money and they are not built upon human or natural resources. The rule of law comes FIRST, without it the others are meaningless.

If you attempt to head straight to wealth, you are skipping over BE and DO. This is the current method, it is top down, not bottom up. This is why money printing fails, it is not real wealth, and it is the “solution” being offered. It is destined to fail in exactly the same way that the gambler is destined to die broke.

Think that our nation can just go straight to creating jobs? Never happen, will never work without first starting at the foundation and building your way up to it. Think you know the answer to job creation? Build this project, build that project? If you think that you can just fire up job creation, you are mistaken.

Large projects and infrastructure building, real wealth, cannot be stolen, it cannot be dictated. In order to create jobs, the rule of law must be in place, a system of exchange and way of providing capital must work, there must be human resources at the appropriate level, there must be natural resources available, and THEN you can HAVE jobs that build wealth.

THE RULE OF LAW:

The rule of law is necessary FIRST because without it capital will not be formed, it is not attracted, it will not concentrate. Would you give your money to Hugo Chavez as an “investment?” Would you lend your money to someone who is constantly changing the rules of the game? Would you put your money to work by giving it to a lazy person with no work ethic? Would you lend your money to someone who spends three times what they earn?

NO? Neither would I. Capital, you see, is free to come and go as it pleases, it is a part of nature and it cannot be contained, not in the long run.

Lawmakers skipping over and creating new procedures to pass healthcare? Is that the Rule of Law? Bailing out bankrupt companies, is that the Rule of Law? TARP, Quantitative Easing, Mark to Fantasy accounting, government buying of mortgage paper, are those the things that comprise the rule of law? Private individuals charging people interest to use their own money system, is that the Rule of Law?

These things are gouging huge holes in the foundation of our economy. They are causing capital to flee. This is a part of why so many do not have jobs, and why we are becoming less wealthy as a nation. It begins at the foundation. Who is responsible for maintaining the rule of law, the foundation? It is WE the People.

MONEY/ EXCHANGE SYSTEMS:

Money and exchange systems are necessary to provide working capital. Want to build a nuclear power plant? Where’s the capital coming from? Capital concentration is completely necessary to the advancement of human kind. A person and his capital can accomplish little things. Combine capital with several partners and you have the basis to accomplish something greater – the core of a simple partnership or business.

Want to send wooden sailing ships across the ocean without risking ALL your capital? Better have some limited liability, the foundation of corporations and the next level of capital formation that was necessary to advance humankind.

Want to accomplish something larger than is capable by a corporation? You will need capital that is directed and formed by government. That capital, however, will not last long if it is manufactured or not formed in accordance with the rule of law.

Let’s go back and visit the way in which capital is free. You may recall from the following diagram from my article Asset Classes and Capital Flow…

There are 5 principal asset classes:

1. Currencies – for capital to flow from one asset to another, it must first be exchanged for currency.

2. DEBT – Debt, because our money is backed by debt, it is as large an asset class as currency. Yes, debt, although likely a liability to you is an asset to someone else. An asset to someone, like say, the central bank who issues an instrument of debt when YOUR money is created.

3. Equities – Providing working capital for corporations is an essential process for capital formation. This is, in case you have forgotten, the reason that we have stock markets. No, they do not exist for the pleasure of market makers, quants, banks, or gamblers in derivatives.

4. Real Estate – Sections of the earth. Under our current rule of law, by the way, you don’t really own, you rent.

5. Commodities – Things of the earth.

It’s a fascinating study watching money pour from one asset class to another. The equity bubble in technology leading up to the year 2000… pop, into currency, into real estate… pop, into DEBT, pop… and now which asset class do you see capital flowing to?

New home construction lowest level on record. No, not there, keep looking. Meanwhile, with each cycle the DEBT piles higher, our money system adds on another three zeros. We are forgetting the basics, it’s time to head back to the fundamentals.

Link

Read More

A note of appreciation from the rich!

Let's be honest: you'll never win the lottery.

On the other hand, the chances are pretty good that you'll slave away at some miserable job the rest of your life. That's because you were in all likelihood born into the wrong social class. Let's face it — you're a member of the working caste. Sorry!

As a result, you don't have the education, upbringing, connections, manners, appearance, and good taste to ever become one of us. In fact, you'd probably need a book the size of the yellow pages to list all the unfair advantages we have over you. That's why we're so relieved to know that you still continue to believe all those silly fairy tales about "justice" and "equal opportunity" in America and the world.

Of course, in a hierarchical social system like ours, there's never been much room at the top to begin with. Besides, it's already occupied by us — and we like it up here so much that we intend to keep it that way. But at least there's usually someone lower in the social hierarchy you can feel superior to and kick in the teeth once in a while. Even a lowly dishwasher can easily find some poor slob further down in the pecking order to sneer and spit at. So be thankful for migrant workers, prostitutes, and homeless street people.

Always remember that if everyone like you were economically secure and socially privileged like us, there would be no one left to fill all those boring, dangerous, low-paid jobs in our economy. And no one to fight our wars for us, or blindly follow orders in our totalitarian corporate institutions. And certainly no one to meekly go to their grave without having lived a full and creative life. So please, keep up the good work!

You also probably don't have the same greedy, compulsive drive to possess wealth, power, and prestige that we have. And even though you may sincerely want to change the way you live, you're also afraid of the very change you desire, thus keeping you and others like you in a nervous state of limbo. So you go through life mechanically playing your assigned social role, terrified what others would think should you ever dare to "break out of the mold."

Naturally, we try to play you off against each other whenever it suits our purposes: high-waged workers against low-waged, unionized against non-unionized, Black against White, male against female, American workers against Japanese against Mexican against.... We continually push your wages down by invoking "foreign competition," "the law of supply and demand," "national security," or "the bloated federal deficit." We throw you on the unemployed scrap heap if you step out of line or jeopardize our profits. And to give you an occasional break from the monotony of our daily economic blackmail, we allow you to participate in our stage-managed electoral shell games, better known to you ordinary folks as "elections." Happily, you haven't a clue as to what's really happening — instead, you blame "Aliens," "Tree-hugging Environmentalists," "Niggers," "Jews," Welfare Queens," and countless others for your troubled situation.

We're also very pleased that many of you still embrace the "work ethic," even though most jobs in our economy degrade the environment, undermine your physical and emotional health, and basically suck your one and only life right out of you. We obviously don't know much about work, but we're sure glad you do!

Of course, life could be different. Society could be intelligently organized to meet the real needs of the general population. You and others like you could collectively fight to free yourselves from our domination. But you don't know that. In fact, you can't even imagine that another way of life is possible. And that's probably the greatest, most significant achievement of our system — robbing you of your imagination, your creativity, your ability to think and act for yourself.

So we'd truly like to thank you from the bottom of our heartless hearts. Your loyal sacrifice makes possible our corrupt luxury; your work makes our system work. Thanks so much for "knowing your place" — without even knowing it!

______________________________________
Found this at http://www.scroogle.org/. A neat search tool that overrides google ! Check it out.

Read More

Kites - Remix

Must Watch Kites (English) Trailer Brett Ratner Turns Bollywood Into Rush Hour


About Ratner's cut, one Hollywood trade analyst had this to say: "Ratner's reputation couldn't be anything further from the Bollywood norm. He's known for movies full of fast cars, fast women, and big explosions. Subtlety isn't his thing. Kites hits theaters thanks to Brett Ratner."

The Hindi trailer is comparatively tame, perhaps made to suit the local sensibilities.
While Kites releases worldwide on May 21, The Remix, a re-edited version of the 130 minute original, releases on May 28. It is only 90 minutes long and has been reworked by Ratner to be faster, younger and hipper.

Read More

Bubble # 6 unfolding !

Bubble #6: Global Warming

Fast-forward to today. It’s early June in Washington DC. Barack Obama, a popular young politician whose leading private campaign donor was an investment bank called Goldman Sachs – its employees paid some $981,000 to his campaign – sits in the White House. Having seamlessly navigated the political minefield of the bailout era, Goldman is once again back to its old business, scouting out loopholes in a new government-created market with the aid of a new set of alumni occupying key government jobs.

Gone are Hank Paulson and Neel Kashkari; in their place are Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson and CFTC chief Gary Gensler, both former Goldmanites. (Gensler was the firm’s co-head of finance.) And instead of credit derivatives or oil futures or mortgage-backed CDOs, the new game in town, the next bubble, is in carbon credits – a booming trillion dollar market that barely even exists yet, but will if the Democratic Party that it gave $4,452,585 to in the last election manages to push into existence a groundbreaking new commodities bubble, disguised as an “environmental plan,” called cap-and-trade.

The new carbon-credit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that’s been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won’t even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance.

Here’s how it works: If the bill passes, there will be limits for coal plants, utilities, natural-gas distributors and numerous other industries on the amount of carbon emissions (a.k.a. greenhouse gases) they can produce per year. If the companies go over their allotment, they will be able to buy “allocations” or credits from other companies that have managed to produce fewer emissions. President Obama conservatively estimates that about $646 billion worth of carbon offsets will be auctioned in the first seventy years – one of his top economic aides speculates that the real number might be twice or even three times that amount.

The feature of this plan that has special appeal to speculators is that the “cap” on carbon will be continually lowered by the government, which means that carbon credits will become more and more scarce with each passing year. Which means that this is a brand-new commodities market where the main commodity to be traded is guaranteed to rise in price overtime. The volume of this new market will be upwards of a trillion dollars annually; for comparison’s sake, the annual combined revenues of all electricity suppliers in the U.S. total $320 billion.

Goldman wants this bill. The plan is (1) to get in on the ground floor of paradigm shifting legislation, (2) make sure that they’re the profit-making slice of that paradigm and (3) make sure the slice is a big slice. Goldman started pushing hard for cap-and-trade long ago, but things really ramped up last year when the firm spent $3.5 million to lobby climate issues. (One of their lobbyists at the time was none other than Patterson, now Treasury chief of staff.) Back in 2005, when Hank Paulson was chief of Goldman, he personally helped author the bank’s environmental policy, a document that contains some surprising elements for a firm that in all other areas has been consistently opposed to any sort of government regulation. Paulson’s report argued that “voluntary action alone cannot solve the climate-change problem”. A few years later, the bank’s carbon chief, Ken Newcombe, insisted that cap-and-trade alone won’t be enough to fix the climate problem and called for further public investments in research and development. Which is convenient, considering that Goldman made early investments in wind power (it bought a subsidiary called Horizon Wind Energy), renewable diesel (it is an investor in a firm called Changing World Technologies) and solar power (it partnered with BP Solar), exactly the kind of deals that will prosper if the government forces energy producers to use cleaner energy. As Paulson said at the time, “We’re not making those investments to lose money.”

The bank owns a 10 percent stake in the Chicago Climate Exchange, where the carbon credits will be traded. Moreover, Goldman owns a minority stake in Blue Source LLC, a Utah-based firm that sells carbon credits of the type that will be in great demand if the bill passes. Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, who is intimately involved with the planning of cap-and-trade, started up a company called Generation Investment Management with three former bigwigs from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, David Blood, Mark Ferguson and Peter Harris. Their business? Investing in carbon offsets. There’s also a $500 million Green Growth Fund set up by a Goldmanite to invest in green-tech … the list goes on and on. Goldman is ahead of the headlines again, just waiting for someone to make it rain in the right spot. Will this market be bigger than the energy-futures market?

“Oh, it’ll dwarf it,” says a former staffer on the House energy committee.

Well, you might say, who cares? If cap-and-trade succeeds, won’t we all be saved from the catastrophe of global warming? Maybe but cap-and-trade, as envisioned by Goldman, is really just a carbon tax structured so that private interests collect the revenues. Instead of simply imposing a fixed government levy on carbon pollution and forcing unclean energy producers to pay for the mess they make, cap-and trade will allow a small tribe of greedy-as-hell Wall Street swine to turn yet another commodities market into a private tax-collection scheme. This is worse than the bailout: It allows the bank to seize taxpayer money before it’s even collected.

“If it’s going to be a tax, I would prefer that Washington set the tax and collect it,” says Michael Masters, the hedge fund director who spoke out against oil-futures speculation. “But we’re saying that Wall Street can set the tax, and Wall Street can collect the tax. That’s the last thing in the world I want. It’s just asinine.”

Cap-and-trade is going to happen. Or, if it doesn’t, something like it will. The moral is the same as for all the other bubbles that Goldman helped create, from 1929 to 2009. In almost every case, the very same bank that behaved recklessly for years, weighing down the system with toxic loans and predatory debt, and accomplishing nothing but massive bonuses for a few bosses, has been rewarded with mountains of virtually free money and government guarantees – while the actual victims in this mess, ordinary taxpayers, are the ones paying for it.

It’s not always easy to accept the reality of what we now routinely allow these people to get away with; there’s a kind of collective denial that kicks in when a country goes through what America has gone through lately, when a people lose as much prestige and status as we have in the past few years. You can’t really register the fact that you’re no longer a citizen of a thriving first-world democracy, that you’re no longer above getting robbed in broad daylight, because like an amputee, you can still sort of feel things that are no longer there.

But this is it. This is the world we live in now. And in this world, some of us have to play by the rules, while others get a note from the principal excusing them from homework till the end of time, plus 10 billion free dollars in a paper bag to buy lunch. It’s a gangster state, running on gangster economics, and even prices can’t be trusted anymore; there are hidden taxes in every buck you pay. And maybe we can’t stop it, but we should at least know where it’s all going.

Link

Read More

Hyperinflationary Depression

Filed under: Hyperinflationary Depression — totallygroovygirlfriday @ 1:22 am

The day-to-day economic news can really mess with your head. The economic data is filtered through a lens that believes we can return to previous economic activity. We can not. Thus most commentary from F-TV will confuse you. Data stats that are observed through a lens from 1999, will not get you real economic information.

Therefore, let’s look at the big picture.

We are being set up for a hyperinflationary depression triggered by a world-wide fiat currency crisis.

Our current global economy that is built on debt and leverage must have large amounts of credit and liquidity just to maintain the status quo. Right now, the powers that be are sustaining the economy by printing money. In this environment investments are only as solvent as their ability to roll over their debt. There is too much debt in relation to the economic activity to sustain it.

More and more money must be printed. This money is sustaining what economic activity is already there, keeping it from imploding. It is not going into economic growth that will produce credit availability or liquidity for capital investment. Thus the economy is at a complete standstill, debt is deflating, credit is frozen, even while mounds of paper money are being injected into the world economy.

Soon, some of that printed money will make its way into prices for real things. Note that debt is deflating, not prices. (Prices are staying the same or inflating, depending on what it is.) Too much printed money will chase too little goods, since the economy is currently at a standstill not creating more goods.

When goods are too expensive to purchase, the economy will then implode again. This time, even if credit is available at a low-interest rate (which is highly questionable), the cost of real goods will make it too expensive to grow the economy.

This is the cycle of a hyperinflationary depression. Deflation in debt, then too much printed money to “fix” deflation, then too much money causing inflation (and at the rate we are printing) hyperinflation in prices. Thus a contraction in the economy or what we call a depression.

This is a catch-22 situation (caused by an imbalance between real economic growth and debt): death by fire (hyperinflation) or ice (deflation). The powers that be have chosen death by fire.

Hyperinflationary depression: deflation in debt (frozen credit) and inflation in prices that cause a contraction (of at least 25%) in economic activity.

Physical gold and silver are good investments because the price of “real things” (or a currency backed by real things) will go up in relation to the amount of printed money. Then the investor may sell those real things to get capital and purchase sound businesses to get the economy moving again. Only then, will we be able to grow the real economy and move out of a depressionary cycle.

There have been many hyper-inflationary depressions in history. The most recent was in Zimbabwe in the last decade. Germany had one during the 1920′s. And the United States experienced a hyper-inflationary depression during the period before and after the Civil War.

This is a cycle. Prepare for it, since you now know it is coming. Like all other hyper-inflationary depressions before, it will end.

I am 100% sure that the U.S. will go into hyperinflation. Not tomorrow, but the problem with the government debt growing so much is that when the time will come and the Fed should increase interest rates, they’ll be very reluctant to do so and so inflation will start to accelerate.

-Marc Faber, Bloomberg, May 2009

Rebuttal from Marshall Auerbuck here.

The inability to tax and dependency on foreign currency are central to hyperinflation or national solvency. Moreover, in Zimbabwe and Weimar, it was the trashing of productive supply that created inflation (think supply versus demand).

Groovygirl’s comments on the rebuttal quoted above.

Groovygirl would suggest that the lack of national productivity (i.e. all hard production moved to China/India/Mexico) is/will close that loop. In addition, a main difference between Zimbabwe and Germany and the US is that those countries started out with actual production. The US “produces” financial services and healthcare services. Those services will contract/disappear/move as the economy contracts. There is no production to lose, it’s already gone.

Tax revenue is already down. The government is setting up a scenario in this baby boomer majority where they pay people medicare, social security, and unemployment and those people just return a portion of that money in taxes. That is not real tax revenue. That is an inability to tax.

In addition, if the USdollar is not the global reserve currency (which it will not be at some point), US Treasuries in USDollars all of sudden turn into a foreign debt obligation problem.

Hyperinflation is coming.

Link

Read More

'Rich Dad Poor Dad' Robert Kiyosaki Exposed

Rich Dad / Poor Dad Robert Kiyosaki is exposed in this investigative report. It clearly shows how Robert is merely a front for Russ Whitney and his Whitney Information Network. In this shocking 3 part video report you will see the outrageous and slimy techniques Mr. Kiyosaki's instructors use in his training classes. Robert basically admits that his classes are taught by instructors that use more than questionable practices and that he is not in control of his own training program. He looks like a very weak man in this report but don't be fooled... he is making millions off of taking your money. He is fully aware of what is going on. You'll find this truly shocking. Beware! Part 1 of 3. Watch them all. Again.. Shocking!!!
Link

'Rich Dad Poor Dad' Robert Kiyosaki Exposed - Part 1 of 3 Investigative Report



'Rich Dad Poor Dad' Robert Kiyosaki Exposed - Part 2 of 3 Investigative Report



'Rich Dad Poor Dad' Robert Kiyosaki Exposed - Part 3 of 3 Investigative Report

Read More

Wish you were here - Pink Floyd

Over 30 million hits!

Read More

Lalit Modi on Rendevous, Shashi Tharoor and Indian People League!!

This is an interesting video clip....an interview of Lalit Modi taken just after the two new teams Kochi and Pune were announced after bid opening at Chennai!!

Watch him state clearly Shashi Tharoor is NOT involved financially but was just acting as a mentor, though he stammers trying to recall names of the Kochi Owners and gives the name of Venugopal (owns just 1%) but was the one who attended the bid opening!



Its obvious both Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor were made fall guys! Lalit does not seem to have anything against Shashi personally.

FINAL PRESENTATION SPEECH BY MODI: It takes a lot of courage even for someone like Lalit Modi to stand up and make the Final Presentation Speech as he did (knowing fully about his ouster!). And he said it! 'Indian Premier League is not IPL anymore but INDIAN PEOPLE LEAGUE!'

Here's a wild thought....

Lalit Modi should come 'clean' first, as he claims...
Next, he should embrace Shashi Tharoor and prove he meant nothing personally.
Then they launch Indian People League as new People's Party and show Indians you can 'clean-up' the system!

Thanks to Modi, everyone (from 8 to 80 years!) watching Indian TV channels over the last few days now knows what is 'sweat' equity, company forming, share structuring incl offshore cos. He did what other corporate bigwigs have done for eons. Now the new IPL party can guide and empower layman on how to build and run their lives profitably.

He built BCCI to become the richest sports body in the world within three years. Same skills can be replicated to reform and build INDIA to become the richest in the world. Its time for a true turnaround of India. Can the new IPL be the one to spearhead change? Think about it.

Over the next few days, BCCI and the Media will attempt to further throw brand Modi into the mud and it will be a huge challenge for him to prove himself. Brand IPL news will die down in few days. Can Modi swing it?

Read More

Beera Beera | AR Rehmans latest magical song in Raavan!! Sure to be a BIG HIT! Dama dham Dham dham!!

ENJOY!

Read More

Indian Express - What Praful sent Tharoor: IPL CEO's grim forecast for franchise business

Indian Express - What Praful sent Tharoor: IPL CEO's grim forecast for franchise business

PS: Don't miss reading the Comments! Simply Hilarious!

Read More

Feast for your Eyes and Ears!

Earth's Fabulous sights with awesome music! Enjoy...

Read More

Lalit Modi: Cricket's billion-dollar brain....drained?

Lalit Modi, the man behind cricket's Indian Premier League, credited with transforming the game, now in the thick of the greatest challenge he ever faced....of saving himself from being booted out of IPL!

Watch these two video interviews of Lalit Modi by CNN...listen to him admitting the Twenty over cricket idea was not his, but a format from England....also take a look at his residence in Mumbai!

Indian Premier League 9:13
It's loud, brash- and insanely popular. India's new cricket league has gripped the country and revolutionized the sport.


Facing the critics 6:04
Lalit Modi discusses some of the recent controversies in the cricketing world and his inspiration for the IPL.

Read More

How Dubai's $14 billion dream to build The World is falling apart | Mail Online

How Dubai's $14 billion dream to build The World is falling apart | Mail Online

Read More

Love ofcourse! Ask the Animals if you arent sure...

Love.........

Read More

What do you choose........Love or Fear?

A must listen video song from Shawn Gallaway....

Read More

The Hidden Story of Big Sugar

Other than gold, no single substance has had a bigger hand in shaping the history of the western hemisphere than sugar. These videos explore the dark history and modern power of the world‘s reigning sugar cartels.

Using dramatic reenactments, they reveal how sugar was at the heart of slavery in the West Indies in the 18th century, and continues to be at the heart of a present-day epidemic: consumers who are slaves to a sugar-based diet.

(Watch this video: 44:29)








(Watch this video: 44:28)

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

I thought it would be great to juxtapose the stevia article in this issue with the amazing story of big sugar. If you aren’t familiar with the story I would strongly encourage you to watch the videos. You will see the incredible human brutality that occurred as a result of the early sugar trade, and in some parts of the world similar injustices are occurring.

So if you have kids, watch this video with them and give them a great history lesson.

Halloween is without question the biggest event of the year for the sugar industry. They sell more treats during this season than nearly all others combined. So you will be barraged with sugar-filled candy advertisements, perhaps more so than at any other time of year. Even toddlers, it seems, are clamoring for their share of sweet treats, and this is not by happenstance.

The sugar industry is a shrewd, savvy, well-oiled machine that will hook your children from the youngest ages if you allow it, and has already hooked the majority of the U.S. population.

These two videos are a fascinating introduction into the incredible power of the sugar industry, and they’re filmed in a dramatic way that makes them very interesting to watch.

You all know that the tobacco industry has been pushing its addictive cigarettes on the world’s population for decades. When you watch these videos, you’ll see the striking similarities between big tobacco and the big sugar industry, which is now echoing many of big tobacco’s defense strategies.

Namely, they are denying any connection between their product and the obesity and diabetes epidemics going on in the industrialized world. They also have access to immense power and give generously to both political parties to ensure that their products are protected.

Yet, sugar is one of the biggest enemies you face in your pursuit of a healthy eating program. It appears in nearly ALL processed foods and drinks -- even things you wouldn’t think would be sweetened, like canned beans, mayonnaise, and pickles -- making it virtually impossible to avoid.

Sugar Can Destroy Your Health

It is a proven fact that sugar increases your insulin and leptin levels and decreases receptor sensitivity for both of these vital hormones. This can lead to:

* High blood pressure and high cholesterol
* Heart disease
* Diabetes
* Weight gain
* Premature aging

If you read my newsletter regularly, you know that controlling your insulin and leptin levels is one of the most important things you can do to optimize your health and slow the negative effects of aging -- and avoiding sugar is essential to do this.

Sugar has many more negative side effects beyond increasing your insulin levels, and you can read 76 ways sugar can destroy your health now.

One way in which sugar has been linked to the obesity epidemic, for instance, is that when consumed in massive quantities, sugars cause hormonal changes that lead to overeating.

Meanwhile, sugar suppresses your immune system, contributing to allergies, and it is responsible for a host of digestive disorders. It also contributes to depression, and its excess consumption is, in fact, associated with many of the chronic diseases in the United States, including cancer.

The sugar industry, of course, wants to downplay its health risks because there is big money involved.

The average American eats well in excess of 150 pounds of sugar a year, or about 2.5 pounds each week. This is no surprise because the single largest source of calories in the United States is high-fructose corn syrup from sodas.

The sugar industry has had its share of challenges lately, such as a growing artificial sweetener industry that has been stealing more and more attention and market share.

As a result, they’re coming on stronger than ever, touting their “natural” sweet treat as a fine part of your diet. Of course, most people don’t eat just a dab of sugar a week; they eat over 2 pounds, which is not surprising when you consider that sugar is actually more addictive than cocaine.

If you need help ridding yourself of a sugar addiction, then please consider energy psychology tools. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is one of the best ways I know to help kick the sugar habit. It includes a marvelous technique called Turbo Tapping that has helped tens of thousands of people kick the soda habit.

Sugar is Better Than Artificial Sweeteners

Now that I’ve expressed the dangers of sugar, I have something to say that may shock you:

If you HAVE TO have something sweet it is FAR better to choose the natural, real-deal authentic sugar than its synthetic, no-calorie, artificial sweetener counterparts.

Artificial sweeteners are, hands-down, worse for your health than sugar.

And, while it clearly tends to decrease your health, sugar in moderation is likely not going to cause any significant damage. What do I mean by moderation? Well, something on the order of five pounds a year or less.

Another option if you’re looking for a safe, natural sweetener (that also has no calories) is to give the sweet herb stevia a try.

Read More

New Man from 2012? A gripping Future of Mankind video by Michael Tsarion

Read More

COLD FUSION - Beginning of a New Golden Age with Clean Energy?

Cold Fusion: Energy powered by Water?

Could Cold Fusion play the same role that the Internet played in the 90s boosting the US and world economy for at least a decade or is the dream of an infinite source of clean energy at almost zero cost too good to be true?

Cold fusion refers to nuclear fusion of atoms at conditions close to room temperature, in contrast to the conditions of well-understood fusion reactions such as those inside stars and high energy experiments. Interest in the field was dramatically increased on March 23, 1989 when Martin Fleischmann, then one of the world's leading electro-chemists,[1] and Stanley Pons reported that they had produced fusion in a tabletop experiment involving electrolysis of heavy water on a palladium (Pd) electrode.[2] They reported anomalous heat production ("excess heat") of a magnitude they asserted would defy explanation except in terms of nuclear processes. They further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction byproducts, including neutrons and tritium.[3] These reports raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy.[4](source Wikipedia)

Read More

Your Marvelous Mind

Bob Proctor Training » Your Marvelous Mind

Read More

Low levels of Vitamin D linked to muscle fat, decreased strength in young people

The Natural Advocate - Best Self USA/Health: Low levels of Vitamin D linked to muscle fat, decreased strength in young people

Read More

Bob Proctor Training » That word, “Paradigm”

Bob Proctor Training » That word, “Paradigm”

Read More

Oil Storm 2005 - Fiction (Julia) Becomes Reality (Katrina) - Part 1 of 10

Oil Storm is a 'fictional' docudrama that predicts, with uncanny accuracy, that a Category 4 hurricane would slam into Louisiana killing thousands, leaving the State under water and cutting off America's oil supplies.

The drama predicts a fictional Hurricane Julia would hit the US coast on Saturday, September 3, 2005. In fact, Katrina hit just five days earlier on Monday, August 29, 2005.

The Co-Director, Caroline Levy, stated. "I was completely weirded out by it. It was just bizarre watching the news and seeing the Mayor of New Orleans and reporters on CNN and NBC saying almost exactly the words we'd scripted! It felt very odd indeed. We'd been allowed to film our fictional scenario in the Emergency Preparedness Center and I saw on the news the very same people we'd met there." For more...read on...http://uktv.co.uk/eden/item/aid/534041

1 of 10 Videos in Series - For rest of the parts, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4nVMVc9Fv4&feature=related

Read More

'India Will Muddle Along Until The Debt Crisis Hits' - Forbes.com

'India Will Muddle Along Until The Debt Crisis Hits' - Forbes.com

Read More

The Great American Bubble Machine PT.1 of 5

Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression.



In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on "the Wall Street Bubble Mafia" — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi's piece is "an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories" and a spokesman adding, "We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good." Taibbi shot back: "Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it." Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi's piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.

Read More

Is it TOO LATE? Marc Faber thinks so!

The economy is NOT recovering, they say, and the U.S. faces a depressing "eventuality" of either crushing deflation (Mish Shedlock) or runaway inflation (Marc Faber). The timing and type of this eventuality is uncertain, say the gurus, but they are certain it's too late for America to change course.

"It's beyond repair -- it's too late," to avert fiscal disaster, Faber declares.

Mish agrees: "The day of reckoning has arrived. The question is how long it takes to play out."



This grim outlook doesn't mean you're helpless. Faber recommends individuals prepare for doomsday by buying gold, owning assets abroad and buying property outside of major cities.

Read More

Dscover the Top 100 Safest US Banks

Elliott Wave International: How to Find a Safe Bank

Read More

The World's Biggest Debtor Nations - CNBC

The World's Biggest Debtor Nations - CNBC

Read More

To save itself, Detroit plans to shrink - US - World - The Times of India

To save itself, Detroit plans to shrink - US - World - The Times of India

Read More

Deploying An Infosys Fortune - Forbes.com

Deploying An Infosys Fortune - Forbes.com

Read More

What You Must Know About Diabetes in Order to Successfully Treat it

First and foremost, you must understand that diabetes is NOT a blood sugar disease like your doctor may have led you to believe.

Type 2 diabetes is a disease caused by insulin resistance and faulty leptin signaling, both of which are regulated through your diet.

Until that concept becomes well-known in both the medical community and by the public at large, the misconception about what diabetes is and the appropriate way to treat it will continue to be promoted and people will continue dying prematurely.

Conventional treatment, which is focused on fixing the symptom of elevated blood sugar rather than addressing the underlying disease, is doomed to fail in most cases.

Why?

Because most treatments for type 2 diabetes utilize drugs that either raise insulin, or lower blood sugar. Avandia, for example, lowers your blood sugar levels by increasing the sensitivity of liver, fat and muscle cells to insulin.

As I will explain below, this in no way addresses your underlying problem, which is metabolic miscommunication.

Let me assure you, the cure for type 2 diabetes has NOTHING to do with giving insulin. Giving someone with type 2 diabetes insulin is one of the WORST things that can be done. Any physician doing this simply does not understand insulin physiology.

Leptin is a Major Key to Successful Treatment of Diabetes

The hormone leptin is largely responsible for the accuracy of insulin signaling and whether you become insulin resistant or not.

Leptin, a relatively recently discovered hormone produced by fat, tells your body and brain how much energy it has, whether it needs more (saying "be hungry"), whether it should get rid of some (and stop being hungry) and importantly what to do with the energy it has (reproduce, upregulate cellular repair, or not).

In fact, the two most important organs that may determine whether you become (type 2, insulin resistant) diabetic or not are your liver and your brain, and it is their ability to listen to leptin that will determine this.

When your blood sugar becomes elevated it is a signal for insulin to be released to direct the extra energy into storage. A small amount is stored as a starch called glycogen in your body, but the majority is stored as your main energy supply -- fat. Thus, in this regard insulin's major role is not to lower sugar, but to take the extra energy and store it for future times of need.

Insulin lowers your blood sugar as a side effect of directing the extra energy into storage.

This is why treatments that concentrate merely on lowering blood sugar for diabetes while raising insulin levels can actually worsen rather than remedy the actual problem of metabolic miscommunication.

Taking insulin is one of the WORST things you can do, as it will actually make your insulin and leptin resistance worse over time. And taking diabetic drugs like Avandia may send you into an early grave from a heart attack or heart failure.

Fortunately, the safest treatment alternatives are also the most successful!

Fructose – One of the Major Culprits for Both Diabetes and Obesity

Before I delve into the other treatment strategies, I want to emphasize the importance of avoiding fructose if you want to successfully address your diabetes, or avoid it in the first place.

It’s important to understand that your body metabolizes fructose differently from glucose (regular table sugar is a disaccharide and 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose), and these differences lead to serious health consequences.

For example, fructose does not stimulate a rise in leptin, so your satiety signals are diminished. It also reduces the amount of leptin crossing your blood-brain barrier by raising triglycerides. And whereas glucose suppresses ghrelin (the hunger hormone, which makes you want more food), fructose does not.

Fructose also increases your insulin levels, interfering with the communication between leptin and your hypothalamus, so your pleasure signals aren’t extinguished. Your brain senses starvation and prompts you to eat more.

All of this also sets the stage for over indulgence and hence overweight, and puts you on the path toward both obesity and diabetes.

I strongly advise keeping your fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.

However, it would be wise for most people to limit fruit fructose to 15 grams or less as it is virtually guaranteed that you will be getting “hidden” sources of fructose from just about any processed food you eat.

This includes fruits, which also need to be carefully measured to make certain that you’re not inadvertently consuming too much fructose.

Keep in mind that most processed food is loaded with fructose and is best avoided entirely. For instance, there are about 40 grams of HFCS per can of soda.

Clearly, eliminating excess fructose from your diet is FAR safer and MORE effective than taking a drug like Avandia if you have diabetes. However, virtually no doctor will inform you of this, as there aren’t billions of dollars worth of drug company marketing muscles behind this sort of recommendation.

Most Diabetes Cases Can Be Cured Without Drugs!

Please understand that nearly 100 percent of type 2 diabetics can be successfully treated -- meaning you will no longer have the symptoms of diabetes, or the high risk of developing health complications -- if you are willing to implement a few healthy lifestyle changes.

Diabetes runs in my family. About fifteen years ago, I diagnosed my father with it and gave him these guidelines to follow. He's 81 years old and does two hours of exercise every single morning. Recently he's added strength training. He's been able to keep his diabetes under control without taking a single drug by following these principles.

If you follow the recommendations listed below, your likelihood of successfully going off of drugs and having normal blood sugars is close to 100 percent, as treating type 2 diabetes is simply a matter of implementing some basic strategies to improve your insulin and leptin resistance:

1. Exercise

Exercise is an absolutely essential factor, without which you’re highly unlikely to get this devastating disease under control. It is clearly one of the most potent ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance.

Typically, you’ll need large amounts of exercise, until you get your blood sugar levels under control. You may need up to an hour or two a day. Naturally, you’ll want to gradually work your way up to that amount, based on your current level of fitness.

If you’re unsure of how to get started, I recommend you view this comprehensive exercise program video for tips and guidelines.

2. Eliminate Grains and Sugars

For the last 50 years, many people have been following the nutritional recommendations dictated by conventional health agencies, which advise a high complex carbohydrate, low saturated fat diet. The end result has been a 700 percent increase in diabetes in the same time frame, and many have come to view diabetes as an incurable chronic disease…

This is clearly not true, but the inevitable result of seriously flawed dietary recommendations. Instead, you’ll want to eliminate foods that your body will react to by creating insulin, which includes ALL types of sugars and grains -- even “healthy” grains such as whole, organic grains. This means avoiding all breads, pasta, cereals, rice, potatoes, and corn (which is in fact a grain). You may even need to avoid fruits until your blood sugar is under control.

3. Eat Right for Your Nutritional Type

Exercising and avoiding grains and sugars might not be enough unless you balance your protein, carb and fat ratios for your unique and specific genetic biochemistry. You can read more about nutritional typing here.

4. Monitor Your Fasting Insulin Level

This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You’ll want your fasting insulin level to be between 2 to 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin receptor sensitivity is.

The recommendations mentioned above are the key steps you need to achieve this reduction.

5. Optimize Your Vitamin D Level

Interestingly, optimizing your vitamin D levels can not only help improve type 2 diabetes if you have it, but can likely eliminate the risk of type 1 diabetes in your children if you are pregnant. It’s also vital for infants to receive the appropriate amounts of vitamin D in their early years for these same reasons.

Ideally, you’ll want to do this by exposing a large amount of your skin to appropriate amounts of sunshine (or a safe tanning bed) on a regular basis, year-round. Your body can safely create up to 20,000 units of vitamin D a day this way.

However, if neither of these options are available, you may want to use an oral vitamin D3 supplement. But remember, if you choose to take an oral supplement it’s essential that you get your levels tested regularly by a proficient lab to make sure you’re not reaching toxic levels, and are within the therapeutic range. Maintaining your vitamin D levels around 60-80 ng/ml can significantly help control your blood sugar.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Vitamin D Lifts Mood During Cold Weather Months (lockergnome.com)

These are the top steps you should take, starting today, if you have type 2 diabetes. Doing so will virtually guarantee that your diabetes will disappear. And if you want to make sure you are not one of the millions impacted by the coming diabetes epidemic, these same steps will help you to stay healthy and diabetes-free.

Read More

Do Not Take This Deadly Diabetes Drug -- Two Reasons Why

Do Not Take This Deadly Diabetes Drug -- Two Reasons Why

Read More

Is it a Bus? a Boat? or BOTH?

Read More

'Buy farmland and gold,' advises Dr Doom - Times Online

'Buy farmland and gold,' advises Dr Doom - Times Online

Read More

Diabetes Alert: Your Gut Microflora May Be Out of Balance

Diabetes Alert: Your Gut Microflora May Be Out of Balance

Read More

The Hazards of Sugar

Scientists have proved for the first time that fructose, a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks, can damage human metabolism and is fueling the obesity crisis.

Fructose, a sweetener usually derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.

Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a controlled diet including high levels of fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems.


Dr. Mercola's Comments:

This study takes its place in a growing lineup of scientific studies demonstrating that consuming high-fructose corn syrup is the fastest way to trash your health. It is now known without a doubt that sugar in your food, in all it’s myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll.

And fructose in any form -- including high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and crystalline fructose -- is the worst of the worst!

Fructose is a major contributor to:

* Insulin resistance and obesity
* Elevated blood pressure
* Elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL
* Depletion of vitamins and minerals
* Cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, arthritis and even gout

A Calorie is Not a Calorie

Glucose is the form of energy you were designed to run on. Every cell in your body, every bacterium -- and in fact, every living thing on the Earth--uses glucose for energy.

If you received your fructose only from vegetables and fruits (where it originates) as most people did a century ago, you’d consume about 15 grams per day -- a far cry from the 73 grams per day the typical adolescent gets from sweetened drinks. In vegetables and fruits, it’s mixed in with fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial phytonutrients, all which moderate any negative metabolic effects.

It isn’t that fructose itself is bad -- it is the MASSIVE DOSES you’re exposed to that make it dangerous.

There are two reasons fructose is so damaging:

1. Your body metabolizes fructose in a much different way than glucose. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver.
2. People are consuming fructose in enormous quantities, which has made the negative effects much more profound.

Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used in food and beverage manufacturing are made from corn, and the number one source of calories in America is soda, in the form of HFCS.

Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that HFCS was not only far cheaper to make, it’s about 20% sweeter than table sugar.

HFCS is either 42% or 55% fructose, and sucrose is 50% fructose, so it's really a wash in terms of sweetness. Still, this switch drastically altered the average American diet.

By USDA estimates, about one-quarter of the calories consumed by the average American is in the form of added sugars, and most of that is HFCS. The average Westerner consumes a staggering 142 pounds a year of sugar! And the very products most people rely on to lose weight -- the low-fat diet foods -- are often the ones highest in fructose.

Making matters worse, all of the fiber has been removed from these processed foods, so there is essentially no nutritive value at all.

Fructose Metabolism Basics

Without getting into the very complex biochemistry of carbohydrate metabolism, it is important to understand some differences about how your body handles glucose versus fructose. I will be publishing a major article about this in the next couple of months, which will get much more into the details, but for our purpose here, I will just summarize the main points.

Dr. Robert Lustig[i] Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism. His work has highlighted some major differences in how different sugars are broken down and used:

* After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. But with glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.

* Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is “burned up” immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.

* The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.

* Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.

* When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!

* The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.

* Glucose suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain’s communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.

If anyone tries to tell you “sugar is sugar,” they are way behind the times. As you can see, there are major differences in how your body processes each one.

The bottom line is: fructose leads to increased belly fat, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome -- not to mention the long list of chronic diseases that directly result.

Panic in the Corn Fields

As the truth comes out about HFCS, the Corn Refiners Association is scrambling to convince you that their product is equal to table sugar, that it is “natural” and safe.

Of course, many things are “natural” -- cocaine is natural, but you wouldn’t want to use 142 pounds of it each year.

The food and beverage industry doesn’t want you to realize how truly pervasive HFCS is in your diet -- not just from soft drinks and juices, but also in salad dressings and condiments and virtually every processed food. The introduction of HFCS into the Western diet in 1975 has been a multi-billion dollar boon for the corn industry.

The FDA classifies fructose as GRAS: Generally Regarded As Safe. Which pretty much means nothing and is based on nothing.

There is plenty of data showing that fructose is not safe -- but the effects on the nation’s health have not been immediate. That is why we are just now realizing the effects of the last three decades of nutritional misinformation.

As if the negative metabolic effects are not enough, there are other issues with fructose that disprove its safety:

* More than one study has detected unsafe mercury levels in HFCS[ii].
* Crystalline fructose (a super-potent form of fructose the food and beverage industry is now using) may contain arsenic, lead, chloride and heavy metals.
* Nearly all corn syrup is made from genetically modified corn, which comes with its own set of risks.

The FDA isn’t going to touch sugar, so it’s up to you to be proactive about your own dietary choices.

What’s a Sugarholic to Do?

Ideally, I recommend that you avoid as much sugar as possible. This is especially important if you are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure.

I also realize we don’t live in a perfect world, and following rigid dietary guidelines is not always practical or even possible.

If you want to use a sweetener occasionally, this is what I recommend:

1. Use the herb stevia.
2. Use organic cane sugar in moderation.
3. Use organic raw honey in moderation.
4. Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, which can damage your health even more quickly than fructose.
5. Avoid agave syrup since it is a highly processed sap that is almost all fructose. Your blood sugar will spike just as it would if you were consuming regular sugar or HFCS. Agave’s meteoric rise in popularity is due to a great marketing campaign, but any health benefits present in the original agave plant are processed out.
6. Avoid so-called energy drinks and sports drinks because they are loaded with sugar, sodium and chemical additives. Rehydrating with pure, fresh water is a better choice.

If you or your child is involved in athletics, I recommend you read my article Energy Rules for some great tips on how to optimize your child’s energy levels and physical performance through good nutrition.

Read More

Vitamin D and Diabetes - Can We Prevent it?

First Aired: 2/25/2009
48 minutes

Can vitamin D help prevent certain cancers and other diseases such as type 1 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain autoimmune and chronic diseases? To answer these questions and more, UCSD School of Medicine and GrassrootsHealth bring you this innovative series on vitamin D deficiency. Join nationally recognized experts as they discuss the latest research and its implications. In this program, Frank Garland, PhD, discusses vitamin D and the opportunity for prevention of diabetes.

Read More