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| Is Big Pharma Dictating Editorial Policy at Your Favorite Newspaper or TV Station? |
| If you still believe that most media outlets provide unbiased, impartial information, it's time for a wake-up call, as most are heavily controlled by corporate interests, including drug companies.
As retired neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock, MD put it: " … We no longer have investigative journalists, we have a corporate controlled media. It is no secret that most media outlets are desperate for money, especially in this economy. The lifeblood of all media is advertising. An independent analysis appearing in a peer reviewed open access journal published by the Public Library of Science estimated that pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. spent $57.5 billion on promotion in 2004, almost twice as much as they spend on research and development. Virtually every TV news network, magazine and newspaper is filled with very expensive pharmaceutical ads. These media outlets cannot afford to lose this money and this allows the pharmaceutical companies to set editorial policy. |
Stories criticizing vaccines are as rare as hen's teeth. With billions to use for influence, one witnesses resulting bias in academia and government regulatory agencies as well."
Case in point, even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also has worrisome ties to the drug industry, spends $1.7 million for a Hollywood liaison as part of their Entertainment Education Program, which makes sure that when your favorite TV shows feature a health topic, that information is "accurate," or shall we say "CDC-approved." Have you ever wondered why you will rarely ever see a TV show that features a plot line including a vaccine injury or adverse drug reaction, even though they are incredibly common in real life? Now you know why. When you begin to peek beneath the surface at the funding sources behind most media outlets, the picture becomes clearer as to why there is a pattern of censorship in the mainstream press when it comes to revealing the truth about the drug industry. This even applies to the scientific evidence documenting drug and vaccine risks. |
 | Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed guidelines that would limit the use of potatoes in school lunches, as well as require a serving of tomato paste to be one-half cup in order to count as a serving of vegetables.
Since a slice of pizza has less than that, it would therefore NOT qualify as a vegetable, the way it does now. |
| Well, since Congress appears to have few more pressing concerns, they decided to invest their time nixing the proposed changes, and will continue to allow two tablespoons of tomato paste to count as a vegetable, and potatoes to be served with abandon.
Since federally subsidized school lunch programs are required to serve a certain number of vegetables, pizza and French fries will continue to be served as "vegetables" to school kids across the United States. Who Lobbied for These Changes? A handful of USDA provisions were vetoed by Congress, including standards that would not only have limited the use of starchy vegetables (including French fries) and changed the amount of tomato paste that counts as a vegetable, but also limit sodium and boost the use of whole grains in school lunches. As you might suspect, food companies, including those that produce frozen pizzas for school lunches, and potato growers fought back, saying the USDA standards were too strict. Others argued that the changes would be too cost-prohibitive to schools already stretching their budgets. Unfortunately, what this means is that pizza and French fries will continue to be a staple found in most school cafeterias, which are already notorious for their heavy use of very low-quality processed foods. It's true that most schools are on tight budgets, and though they may have good intentions, they often find introducing healthier foods a challenge, particularly when kids prefer the junk-food versions, or have not been introduced to healthier foods. However, there are other factors at play as well, including not only intense lobbying from the food industry as noted above, but also "rebates" paid to food service companies that serve public schools for purchasing processed junk foods. |
 ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO (TOKYO) NUMBER EIGHTY-THREE |
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| Shinagawa Susaki |
| Here we draw back from the subtleties of the previous print for a straightforward topographical view from roughly the same location. The brightly lit second-story room to the lower left is in one of the same Shinagawa brothels, and in terms of location it could plausibly be the Dozo Sagami, as some have proposed.
In the distance the horizon is bathed in a stunning red while to the right appear the somber gray forms of two of the Odaiba (fortresses constructed to defend Edo). The center of attention here, however, is the small Benten shrine nestled among the pine trees and accented by its bright red torii and lantern. This was known as Susaki Shrine because of its location at the end of a narrow spit of land that extended out from the mouth of the Meguro River which emptied into Edo Bay here. |
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Cook them, mash them up, dehydrate them. Reconstitute them with moisture to make a dough; cut into a uniform size and shape and package in air tight containers. They were introduced in 1969 by Proctor and Gamble.
What were they when they started out, and what is the name of the final packaged product?
PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER! |
CLUMBER SPANIEL The Clumber Spaniel is a breed of dog of the spaniel type, developed in the United Kingdom. It is the largest of the spaniels, and comes in predominantly one color. The name of the breed is taken from Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire. It is a gundog that specializes in hunting in heavy cover. They are gentle and loyal, and can act aloof with strangers. They have several habits which could be considered disadvantages, including a constant shedding of its coat, snoring and the production of excessive drool. |  |
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| The history of the breed is uncertain prior to the mid-19th century with two theories being prevalent. Clumber Spaniels have been kept and bred by various British Monarchs, including Prince Albert, King Edward VII and King George V. They were introduced into Canada in 1844, and in 1884 became one of the first ten breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club. The breed can suffer from a variety of breed-specific ailments varying in severity from temporary lameness due to bone growth while young to hip dysplasia or spinal disc herniation. |
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| The Clumber Spaniel is the largest of the spaniels and is long and heavy-bodied, standing only 17 to 20 inches (43 to 51 cm) in height but weighing from 55 to 85 pounds (25 to 39 kg). It is similar in shape to the smaller Sussex Spaniel. The Clumber has a heavy bone structure, has a massive 'melting' head with a mournful and sleepy expression, a square nose and muzzle, and large vine-leaf shaped ears. Freckles on the muzzle and front legs are common. Its coat is dense, weather-resistant, straight, and flat with feathering around the ears, belly and legs. Clumbers are predominantly white in color with lemon, brown, or orange markings around the eyes, and at the base of the tail. |
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| Their temperament is described as gentle, loyal and affectionate, but dignified and aloof with strangers. They can appear to be a sedate breed and enjoy curling up on the couch, eating and sleeping. |
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| Clumber Spaniels shed at a medium pace. Clumbers tend to drool because of their very droopy flews. Clumbers have minds of their own. They may not pay attention to you all of the time, but they are truly amazing dogs. Puppies are especially curious and playful. The breed has a trophy mentality and the dog has an incessant need to carry something most of the time; unfortunately this can lead to health issues as they may ingest the items. |
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| The breed has been used to hunt pheasant and partridge, in both small packs and alone. It is well-suited for work in upland hunting in dense cover, and although the Clumber is rather slow in the field compared to other spaniels, it is a quiet worker with a fine nose and good stamina. The broad muzzle of the breed allows it to retrieve a variety of game. |
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| D IS FOR DUCK STAMPS |
| Duck stamps are issued annually by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as proof of payment of the fee for a Migratory Bird Hunting License. Proceeds from sale of the stamps are used to preserve wetlands. Technically a form of Revenue stamp (hence a Cinderella), these have been issued every year since 1934, and are a popular collecting sideline among stamp collectors, though they have no postal validity. Many consider them exemplary of the best work from the BEP, and the most handsome stamps produced in the US, since they are printed in relatively small quantities, so the quality remains high. Once applied to a license, these stamps must be signed to validate them! Each year's design is chosen through an open competition, an approach that has been used only a few times for US postage stamps - most notably for "The Prexies", our definitive series (of U.S. Presidents) from 1938 to 1954, whose initial design was chosen from designs submitted in a competition suggested by then-President FDR.
Below is a selection of the Duck stamps issued since 1934. Part of their appeal is that a complete collection, while not cheap, is within the reach of most collectors, especially if one is willing to settle for used copies of the older issues. Note that the year printed on the stamp is when it expires, and is always the year following that in which it was issued. |
PART TWO |
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| Griz--so many years ago |
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 | Of course it's vulgar.
How could it not be? The sustained cry of a ferociously perplexed, ferociously lucid New York City Jew--you expected maybe Jane Austen? Roth's barbaric yawp of a book was a literary instance of shock and awe, a dirty comic masterpiece that can stand with Tristram Shandy. (For the masturbation scenes alone it will endure forever.) It's also, once you crawl out of the rubble of its most infamous passages, tender and charitable, and not just toward the main character. How else to describe a book that, while it charts the wild arc of Portnoy's sexual and romantic misadventures--all of this being recounted by him to his therapist--discovers exactly the most painful question about relations between children and parents. "Doctor what should I rid myself of, tell me, the hatred… or the love?" |
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| Ayu Trout Ando Hiroshige |
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| Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. It contains approximately 28 species (including four incompletely characterized species as recognized by Willem Meijer in 1997), all found in southeastern Asia, on the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, Thailand and the Philippines. |
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| Rafflesia was found in the Indonesian rain forest by an Indonesian guide working for Dr. Joseph Arnold in 1818, and named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the leader of the expedition. It was discovered even earlier by Louis Deschamps in Java between 1791 and 1794, but his notes and illustrations, seized by the British in 1803, were not available to western science until 1861. |
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| The plant has no stems, leaves or true roots. It is an endoparasite of vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae), spreading its absorptive organ, the haustorium, inside the tissue of the vine. The only part of the plant that can be seen outside the host vine is the five-petaled flower. In some species, such as Rafflesia arnoldii, the flower may be over 100 centimetres (39 in) in diameter, and weigh up to 10 kilograms (22 lb). Even the smallest species, R. baletei, has 12 cm diameter flowers. The flowers look and smell like rotting flesh, hence its local names which translate to "corpse flower" or "meat flower." The vile smell attracts insects such as flies, which transport pollen from male to female flowers. Most species have separate male and female flowers, but a few have bisexual flowers. Little is known about seed dispersal. However, tree shrews and other forest mammals apparently eat the fruits and disperse the seeds. Rafflesia is an official state flower of Indonesia, also Sabah state in Malaysia, as well as for the Surat Thani Province, Thailand. |
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| The name "corpse flower" applied to Rafflesia is confusing because this common name also refers to the Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) of the family Araceae. Moreover, because Amorphophallus has the world's largest unbranched inflorescence, it is sometimes mistakenly credited as having the world's largest flower. Both Rafflesia and Amorphophallus are flowering plants, but they are still distantly related. Rafflesia arnoldii has the largest single flower of any flowering plant, at least when one judges this by weight. Amorphophallus titanum has the largest unbranched inflorescence, while the Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) forms the largest branched inflorescence, containing thousands of flowers; this plant is monocarpic, meaning that individuals die after flowering. |
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What were potato chips first called?
PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER! |
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 IOWA Having three vertical stripes blue, white and red the Iowa flag resembles the flag of France. On the white stripe is a bald eagle carrying a blue streamer in its beak. The state motto "Our Liberties We Prize, and Our Rights We will Maintain" is written on the streamer. The name of the state is emblazoned in red letters. The flag was adopted in 1921. | |
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| Pencil sketching is an interesting and powerful element of design. To put it correctly, pencil sketching can be termed as "the mother of graphic arts."
The general perception about drawing pencil sketches is that it is either a part of initial training given to Fine Arts students or it's a good hobby for anyone who can draw well. What most of us don't know is that making pencil sketches is almost an inevitable part of design and a unique branch of art in itself. |
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| Sir Sean Connery |
