Anticancer

Here's a short video interview with Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, cancer survivor and the author of Anticancer—A New Way of Life (mentioned in a post below on Oct. 23):



Here's another video clip about him from the CBS Early Show:

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Obama, McCain, and Abortion

The video below is a compilation of the two candidates remarks on what we now commonly refer to as the "abortion issue." Is it incomplete? I don't know -- I don't know everything each candidate has said on the subject. But it does confirm what I have understood to be their differences: McCain is pro-life, Obama is pro-abortion (again, in the general sense in which those terms are used).



I'm not sure why it is never mentioned in the "debates," but perhaps the greatest reason for the Social Security system running out of money is because of the systematic extermination of 50 million future wage earners since 1973. Everyone knows that the current generation's S.S. payments are funded by the rising generation's wage deductions that go to S.S. The generation of workers that was supposed to fund the upcoming Baby Boomers' S.S. payment has been decimated by the legalization of abortion. Those contributions were never made into the system, but those who need the contributions are still alive. The 50 million aborted wage earners will not draw on the system, so theoretically within a couple of generations the system would balance itself out again. But those who voted for pro-abortion presidents who appointed pro-abortion judges will discover that the coffers are going to run dry because of their short-sightedness.

[Disclaimer: Is it possible that McCain has ever been inconsistent in his position, or Obama in his? Of course. So if there are errors of fact in the above, I'm happy to be gently informed. But I think in general terms, the video accurately represents the two candidates' positions.]

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Cell Phone Precautions

I'm currently reading Anticancer—A New Way of Life (2007) by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D. He chronicles his own successful (so far -- 14 years) encounter with a brain tumor and what he learned about fighting cancer along the way. The majority of the book focuses on nutritional and lifestyle changes. I'll no doubt be posting additional insights from this book along the way.

For now, because I have raised this issue before, I'm going to list his "Ten Precautions for Cell Phone Use" (pp. 207-208). I am among a minority of people who could own a cell phone but don't. My reasoning so far has centered on not needing one, but over the last year, in the face of increasing scientific research being published, my reasons are shifting to defending myself against the harmful effects of prolonged exposure of the brain to EMFs -- electromagnetic fields, created not just by cell phones but by cordless phones, wireless computer networks, computers/monitors, and a host of other electronic devices and appliances. (Small defensive measures against EMFs are coming online, such as this one for cell phones and these for other devices. I can't speak for their efficacy -- just noting that they exist.)

Due to the relatively short time that cell phones have become ubiquitous in our culture, only now are studies beginning to appear assessing their safety -- and the results of the studies, from what I continue to read, are not positive from a health perspective.

I am listing here only his 10 precautions without the explanatory paragraph that accompanies each in his book. If you want to read his brief discussion of each point, go to Amazon's page for the book, click on "Search Inside this Book" (under the image of the book jacket), enter "Ten Precautions" in the search field, and you'll get a link to the pages in the book where you can read the discussion. (Click on the directional arrows on the right side of page 207 to be taken to page 208. If you don't use this feature of Amazon, keep it in mind. More and more, the full text of more recent books are searchable at Amazon or at books.Google.com.)

Ten Precautions for Cell Phone Use

1. Do not allow children under twelve years of age to use a cell phone except in emergencies.

2. While communicating using your cell phone, try to keep the device away from the body.

3. As much as possible, stand away from a person using a cell phone.

4. Avoid carrying your cell phone on you constantly . . . even on standby, particularly if pregnant. (Turn it off.)

5. If you must carry your cell phone on you, make sure that the face (key pad) is positioned toward your body anad the back (antenna side—stronger magnetic field) is positioned toward the outside.

6. Only use your cell phone to establish contact or for conversations lasting only a few minutes.

7. Switch sides regularly and, before putting your cell phone to your ear, wait until your correspondent has picked up.

8. Avoid using your cell phone when the signal is weak.

9. When possible, communicate via text messaging rather than making a call.

10. Choose a device with the lowest SAR possible (SAR = specific absorption rate of the magnetic field absorbed by the body). (SAR rates for cell phones are available on several Internet web sites.) [WK note: Here you can find a list of the 10 cell phones with the highest SAR rates, plus SAR rates for many popular phones as compiled by CNET, a reliable source.)


Unless you are qualified to refute the above precautions, I would recommend erring on the side of caution. Your brain will thank you.

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What Obama Says vs. What Obama Does

An interesting article at AmericanThinker.com highlights two large promises Barack Obama has made and then broken. One is his promise to participate in the federal financing program for his presidential campaign and the resulting fund-raising limits, and his subsequent repudiation of that promise. That promise-breaking is pretty well known.

The other was unknown to me: His documented pledge to the voters of Illinois in 2004, upon his election to the U. S. Senate, not to run for president. From the American Thinker article:

"Look, I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years."

Obama gave a similar response to a question from a reporter that he dismissed as "silly": "Guys, I'm a state senator. I was elected yesterday. I have never set foot in the U.S. Senate. I've never worked in Washington. And the notion that somehow I'm immediately going to start running for higher office, it just doesn't make sense."

More than half the time Obama has been a Senator he has been campaigning for president.

Is he the first politician to make promises and break them? No. Has John McCain done anything similar? I don't know -- I haven't seen reference to it if he has. But this is another example of why Barack Obama scares me to death. He either knowingly says things that he hasn't carefully considered (immature), or says things that he knows aren't true (immoral). There are no perfect politicians or leaders, but I would prefer one that is more mature and more moral, especially when it comes to keeping his word, than the alternative.

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New Urban Farming Documentary

Watch for a new documentary that is currently being screened at film festivals around the country. Called Homegrown, it tells the story of the Dervaes family (dad and three adult children) who turned their Pasadena, CA, one-fifth-acre lot into a fabulous urban farm. Here is the family's website (where you'll find numerous videos about this venture), and here is the trailer for the movie:


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Trip to Dallas

Made a sad trip to Dallas this week to attend the funeral of a good friend from high school. While there, stayed with Joey and Cynthia -- Joey was a college fraternity brother and close friend, and I knew Cynthia vis-a-vis Campus Crusade for Christ while in grad school at the University of Alabama. Pictured below are Joey, Cynthia, and a sort of abstract shot of a gigantic jet engine against the blue sky on the return trip.

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Bailout: A Bad Idea

There is no shortage of talking heads out there opining about the current market crisis. I'm posting this one because of who the head belongs to: Jim Rogers, one of the most respected and successful international investors for the last several decades. He believes the American government's bailout plan, and now that of the G7 nations who are convening in Washington, is being ignored by the markets—and says why. Watch the video here.

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More Reasons to Move to Asheville

There is a new movement in Asheville, NC, to promote the local food scene. Growers, chefs, markets, restaurants, and community are all gathered under the banner of FoodTopianSociety.com. Asheville keeps creating more good reasons to live there or nearby. The Appaliachian Sustainable Agriculture Project was the first of these "umbrella" movements supporting sustainable food production, and the FoodTopian Society is following in that same vein.
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Meat, the Prostate, and Big Pharma

A new Oxford University study has found that a diet containing meat and dairy may lead to increased likelihood of prostate cancer in men.

Because the connection between animal fat and prostate cancer has been established before, I've thought about it every time I've seen a current commercial running on TV. It's for Flomax (get it? MAXimum FLOW of urine, not constricted by an enlarged prostate?), one of the popular drugs to reduce the symptoms of BPH (swelling of the prostate). It pictures these guys who are all happy now that they can get in and out of the bathroom quickly -- and they're all standing around a grill at a cookout!

Imagine -- a drug company that sells a prostate-shrinking drug showing men at a cookout preparing to consume the very foodstuffs that are bad for the prostate. It's part of the do-whatever-you-want-and-then-take-a-pill mentality that Big Pharma has sold the American consumer.

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Hide Your Private Stuff

Check out the clarity of this first picture taken by the new Google-sponsored satellite that is now circling the earth, snapping pix of the globe. These pictures will, in due course, begin replacing the images now seen on Google maps, etc. This is a picture of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, taken from 423 miles above the earth:

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What Goes Around . . .

Very interesting article written by Dean Reynolds, veteran CBS News correspondent who has spent the last 12 months on the road covering both the Obama and McCain campaigns. His article is about the differences between how the two campaigns operate and how they treat the press: one of the campaigns is friendly toward reporters, one is not; one of the principals is friendly to the reporters, the other is not; one of the campaigns is extremely organized when it comes to letting reporters know about schedules, travel, etc., the other is not; one of the campaign's plane is cramped and smelly, the other is clean and accomodating.

Reynold's final paragraph is insightful:

"Maybe none of this means much. Maybe a [campaign] that is focused solely on victory doesn't have the time to do the mundane things like print up schedules or attend to the needs of reporters.

"But in politics, everything that goes around comes around."

Banks Down, Brewers Up

From Agora Financial's 5 Minute Forecast:

Just out of curiosity this morning, we sought out the best and worst performing sectors over the last 12 months:

Worst: Dow Jones U.S. Mortgage Finance Index, down 95%.
Best: Dow Jones U.S. Brewers Index, up 17%.

That pretty much sums it up, eh?

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Right or Responsibility?

In the presidential debate last night, one question illustrated the clear difference between Obama and McCain. If I didn't have any other reason NOT to vote for Obama, his answer to this one question would have been enough:

Brokaw Question: "Is health care a right, a privilege, or a responsibility?"

Obama Answer: "A right."
McCain Answer: "A responsibility."

Obama's answer is the same answer that created the sub-prime mortgage mess: Every American has a RIGHT to own a home whether s/he can afford it or not. That belief was engineered by Democrats and translated through Fannie and Freddie and we are reaping the results. Separating rights from responsibilities (and privileges -- such as home ownership) is fundamental.

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Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture

This past August, a group of well-known activists for healthy food and sustainable agriculture (Wendell Berry, Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, et al) released a draft Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture -- a 12-point statement intended to influence the next iteration of the always-lamentable federal Farm Bill. Several hundred thousand people already have signified their support by endorsing the statement at the Declaration's web site. I would encourage you to go to the site, read the (brief) declaration, and add your endorsement.

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Avocado Transplants

Here are the six avocado trees I transplanted from the flower beds into the side yard. The row of four borders my neighbor's property line but he was fine with having them there; the two on the left could be problems being so close to the driveway. The jury is out on whether any of them will make it -- one of the six looks a little pale this morning. We'll see.

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Figs and Books

Went to Home Depot this morning to get potting/planting mix for transplanting the avocado trees (pix tomorrow -- too dark when I finished) and spied a great Brown Turkish Fig tree -- actually, the one I got has two trunks growing out of the same pot, even better. I bought some Brown Turkish Figs at the store the other day -- $.79 each. The price wasn't marked and the checkout person thought they were $.79 for the bag instead of $.79 each. Needless to say I haven't bought any more at that price, but a bag for $.79 was nice. And they were delicious -- as big as golf balls. So when I saw the fig trees at Home Depot I grabbed this one. The card that came on the tree says they can get 40-50 feet wide and tall, so I put it on the open space on the side yard.

Digging this hole was like chipping concrete:



All tucked in with a mix of mushroom compost, composted cow manure, potting soil, and organic fertilizer:





These look just like the ones I bought at the store -- huge:





On the way to Home Depot I stopped in the Matthews Public Library book sale that began today and runs all this week. A nice stack of hardbacks for four bucks:

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TED

TED (stands for Technology, Education, Design) is an annual, invitation-only conference of the best and brightest thinkers in technology, education, and design. I have a DVD of the TED conference from 2006 -- mind-boggling to watch these speakers, using their 18 minutes to tell the other attendees what they are working on. Cash prizes to further that research are awarded to the best.

This was one of the presentations on creativity in children (many more of the 18-minute videos, on a variety of subjects, at the TED website):



This one is a Swedish researcher who uses an amazing presentation of data on child mortality around the world. The audience was blown away by his presentation:

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Your Bank's Stability

Go here to get a rating on your bank's financial condition. Very detailed information.

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What About Cancer-Preventing Foods?

Tour de France legend and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, as part of his Livestrong war on cancer, has challenged McCain and Obama to list three things they would do to lessen the impact of cancer if elected to the presidency. Their answers are brief and pointed, but focus mainly on doing more of what's been done in the past: more money, more research, more accessible healthcare, etc. McCain makes a brief reference to "healthy living" which is commendable. (Yet see the previous post below on what McCain keeps in the 'fridge on his tour bus, and his overall eating habits. His idea of "healthy living" is not that healthy.) But it's clear these two have no more creative ideas than trying to improve what has been done in the past. 

The new DVD, Healing Cancer from Inside Out, makes it clear that in spite of billions of dollars spent over recent decades, cancer still has the upper hand. There was definitely not "one American death per minute" (as Armstrong notes) in 1900 as there is today. From that perspective, we are in worse condition now than before the billions were spent. As books like Dr. Colin Campbell's The China Study point out, the first line of defense against cancer, and the most potent weapon against reversing it, is an immune system made strong by the cancer-fighting properties of plants. 

From the national level, regardless of which of the two is elected, we're in for more of the same:

UPDATE: I removed the embedded video because of the IRRITATING fact that it plays automatically every time you log onto my blog. To watch the video you can click on the title line of this post above.

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The Health of the Candidates

In his latest Newsletter, Dr. John McDougall does a thorough, detailed analysis of the current diet and health status of the two presidential candidates. One is in good shape and the other is not.

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