Herbal medicines banned as EU directive comes into force

By Daily Mail Reporter

Patients have lost access to hundreds of herbal medicines today, after European regulations came into force.
Sales of all herbal remedies, except for a small number of popular products for ‘mild’ illness such as echinacea for colds and St John’s Wort for depression have been banned.

For the first time traditional products must be licensed or prescribed by a registered herbal practitioner.

Both herbal remedy practitioners and manufacturers fear they could be forced out of business as a result.

Some of the most commonly used products were saved after the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley approved a plan for the Health Professions Council to establish a register of practitioners supplying unlicensed herbal medicines.

However, many remedies were lost as it was only open to those who could afford the licensing process which costs between £80,000 to £120,000.

At least 50 herbs, including horny goat weed (so-called natural Viagra), hawthorn berry, used for angina pain, and wild yam will no longer be stocked in health food shops, says the British Herbal Medicine Association.

 

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Morning Heart Expanding Practice

Intermediate Yoga Class ~ Full Lenght 49 minutes

 

Paintings of Morteza Katouzian

KATOUZIAN MORTEZA :
Morteza Katouzian was born in 1322 A.H. into a middle-class Teheran family. Tragically, Katouzian lost his father at the age of seven, leaving him in the care of his mother and elder brother, at the time a second-year law student. With no formal training, special tools or encouragement outside of the constant support of his family, Katouzian passed his free time sketching and painting, slowly honing his talent in solitude.

“When I took my paintings to school, the instructors would refuse to believe they were my original works,” Katouzian joked recently. In 1341 A.H., he began work at a local painting workshop, eventually emerging as one of the unique talents in the contemporary school of Iranian art. Discussing the role of the artist in the modern world, Katouzian remarks, “I could never stop painting; my heart is like a mirror, reflecting the reality of the surrounding world.”

 

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“We should fear a deep temperature drop”

By Marc Morano – Climate Depot

Prominent Russian Scientist: ‘We should fear a deep temperature drop — not catastrophic global warming’

Key Excerpts: Observations of the Sun show that as for the increase in temperature, carbon dioxide is “not guilty” and as for what lies ahead in the upcoming decades, it is not catastrophic warming, but a global, and very prolonged, temperature drop. [...] Over the past decade, global temperature on the Earth has not increased; global warming has ceased, and already there are signs of the future deep temperature drop. [...] It follows that warming had a natural origin, the contribution of CO2 to it was insignificant, anthropogenic increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide does not serve as an explanation for it, and in the foreseeable future CO2 will not be able to cause catastrophic warming. The so-called greenhouse effect will not avert the onset of the next deep temperature drop, the 19th in the last 7500 years, which without fail follows after natural warming. [...] We should fear a deep temperature drop — not catastrophic global warming. Humanity must survive the serious economic, social, demographic and political consequences of a global temperature drop, which will directly affect the national interests of almost all countries and more than 80% of the population of the Earth. A deep temperature drop is a considerably greater threat to humanity than warming. However, a reliable forecast of the time of the onset and of the depth of the global temperature drop will make it possible to adjust in advance the economic activity of humanity, to considerably weaken the crisis.

Excerpts: Experts of the United Nations in regular reports publish data said to show that the Earth is approaching a catastrophic global warming, caused by increasing emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. However, observations of the Sun show that as for the increase in temperature, carbon dioxide is “not guilty” and as for what lies ahead in the upcoming decades, it is not catastrophic warming, but a global, and very prolonged, temperature drop.

Life on earth completely depends on solar radiation, the ultimate source of energy for natural processes. For a long time it was thought that the luminosity of the Sun never changes, and for this reason the quantity of solar energy received per second over one square meter above the atmosphere at the distance of the Earth from the Sun (149 597 892 km), was named the solar constant.

Until 1978, precise measurements of the value of the total solar irradiance (TSI) were not available. But according to indirect data, namely the established major climate variations of the Earth in recent millennia, one must doubt the invariance of its value.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, German and Swiss astronomers Heinrich Schwabe and Rudolf Wolf established that the number of spots on the surface of the Sun periodically changes, diminishing from a maximum to a minimum, and then growing again, over a time frame on the order of 11 years. Wolf introduced an index (“W”) of the relative number of sunspots, computed as the sum of 10 times number of sunspot groups plus the total number of spots in all groups. This number has been regularly measured since 1849. Drawing on the work of professional astronomers and the observations of amateurs (which are of uncertain reliability) Wolf worked out a reconstruction of monthly values from 1749 as well as annual values from 1700. Today, the reconstruction of this time series stretches back to 1611. It has an eleven-year cycle of recurrence as well as other cycles related to onset and development of individual sunspot groups: changes in the fraction of the solar surface occupied by faculae, the frequency of prominences, and other phenomena in the solar chromosphere and corona.

Analyzing the long record of sunspot numbers, the English astronomer Walter Maunder in 1893 came to the conclusion that from 1645 to 1715 sunspots had been generally absent. Over the thirty-year period of the Maunder Minimum, astronomers of the time counted only about 50 spots. Usually, over that length of time, about 50,000 sunspots would appear. Today, it has been established that such minima have repeatedly occurred in the past. It is also known that the Maunder Minimum accompanied the coldest phase of a global temperature dip, physically measured in Europe and other regions, the most severe such dip for several millennia, which stretched from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries (now known as the Little Ice Age).

The search for a relationship between large climate variations and phenomena observed in the Sun led to an interest in finding a connection between periods of change in the terrestrial climate and corresponding significant changes in the level of observed solar activity, because the sunspot number is the only index that has been measured over a long period of time.

Determinative role of the Sun in variations in the climate of the Earth

The Earth, after receiving and storing over the twentieth century an anomalously large amount of heat energy, from the 1990′s began to return it gradually. The upper layers of the world ocean, completely unexpectedly to climatologists, began to cool in 2003. The heat accumulated by them unfortunately now is running out.

Over the past decade, global temperature on the Earth has not increased; global warming has ceased, and already there are signs of the future deep temperature drop (Fig. 7, 11). Meantime the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over these years has grown by more than 4%, and in 2006 many meteorologists predicted that 2007 would be the hottest of the last decade. This did not occur, although the global temperature of the Earth would have increased at least 0.1 degree if it depended on the concentration of carbon dioxide. It follows that warming had a natural origin, the contribution of CO2 to it was insignificant, anthropogenic increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide does not serve as an explanation for it, and in the foreseeable future CO2 will not be able to cause catastrophic warming. The so-called greenhouse effect will not avert the onset of the next deep temperature drop, the 19th in the last 7500 years, which without fail follows after natural warming.

The earth is no longer threatened by the catastrophic global warming forecast by some scientists; warming passed its peak in 1998-2005, while the value of the TSI by July – September of last year had already declined by 0.47 W/m2 (Fig. 1).

For several years until the beginning in 2013 of a steady temperature drop, in a phase of instability, temperature will oscillate around the maximum that has been reached, without further substantial rise. Changes in climatic conditions will occur unevenly, depending on latitude. A temperature decrease in the smallest degree would affect the equatorial regions and strongly influence the temperate climate zones. The changes will have very serious consequences, and it is necessary to begin preparations even now, since there is practically no time in reserve. The global temperature of the Earth has begun its decrease without limitations on the volume of greenhouse gas emissions by industrially developed countries; therefore the implementation of the Kyoto protocol aimed to rescue the planet from the greenhouse effect should be put off at least 150 years.

[...]

Consequently, we should fear a deep temperature drop — not catastrophic global warming. Humanity must survive the serious economic, social, demographic and political consequences of a global temperature drop, which will directly affect the national interests of almost all countries and more than 80% of the population of the Earth. A deep temperature drop is a considerably greater threat to humanity than warming. However, a reliable forecast of the time of the onset and of the depth of the global temperature drop will make it possible to adjust in advance the economic activity of humanity, to considerably weaken the crisis.

 

US secretly helped Israel contain UN Gaza war probes; Palestinians to seek UN membership by September

By AGENCIES

WASHINGTON: The United States worked behind the scenes to help Israel contain UN probes into possible war crimes committed during the 2008-2009 Gaza war, Foreign Policy reported Tuesday.

The online foreign affairs magazine cited exclusive WikiLeaks cables detailing moves by the US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice to prevent a more thorough UN investigation of alleged abuses during the conflict.

Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the three-week-long Israeli offensive in December 2008 and January 2009, which was aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks.

According to one cable, Rice spoke with UN chief Ban Ki-moon three times on May 4, 2009 to urge him to remove recommendations for a wider investigation from a board of inquiry report into attacks on UN sites in Gaza.

Rice “underscored the importance of having a strong cover letter that made clear that no further action was needed and would close out this issue,” the US diplomatic cable said.

Ban said his staff was working with the Israeli delegation and “called her after the letter had been finalized to report that he believed they had arrived at a satisfactory cover letter.”

Later that year Israel and the United States pushed back against a similar effort to investigate the war by the UN Human Rights Council, which appointed a team led by the South African jurist Richard Goldstone.

In a separate development, the Palestinians say that if a peace treaty with Israel isn’t reached by September their first choice is to go to the UN Security Council with such strong support and arguments that it would recommend admission of Palestine as a new member of the United Nations.

That would require convincing the US, Israel’s ally, not to veto a resolution supporting membership for an independent Palestinian state, which won’t be easy.

But Riyad Mansour, the top Palestinian diplomat at the UN, said that there are other options to achieve the goal through the UN.

 He said September looms large for the Palestinians because “there are so many things that will converge.”

 “Our preference for what should happen in September is to have a peace treaty with the Israelis to end the occupation to allow for our independence and our membership in the United Nations,” Mansour said.

Mansour expressed regret that the US blocked a Quartet meeting tentatively scheduled for last Friday in Berlin to discuss, and hopefully endorse, the outlines of a peace settlement proposed by Britain, France and Germany. A US official said a Quartet meeting wouldn’t produce anything that would help restart direct talks.

Mansour said that if there is no peace treaty by September, “for whatever reasons, then we are not going to be hostage to the position of Israel, nor will we accept that nothing can be done until the Israelis are ready and willing.”

Mansour said Palestine has been recognized as an independent state by 112 countries. Possible recognition by six others is being examined, he said, and “hopefully by September 2011 we will have 130, maybe 140 countries recognizing the state of Palestine.” That is important because UN membership not only requires a recommendation from the Security Council but approval by two-thirds of the General Assembly, or 128 countries.

“This is the end game,” Mansour said — the more countries the Palestinians have on their side, the more they can pursue independence, “whether in the Security Council or in the General Assembly or combined.” If a US veto looks certain in the Security Council, there’s the option of going before the General Assembly, where there is no veto but resolutions are nonbinding.

 

 

David Shirkey matches the poor and disabled with a free wheelchair or prosthetic limb

By David Clark Scott

David Shirkey doesn’t fit the stereotype of a philanthropist. He’s “no saint,” he says. He doesn’t have deep pockets or belong to a group that does charitable work.

Most days, you’ll find him dressed in a white apron, perhaps carving 200 kissing birds out of kiwi fruit for a wedding reception at the Essex Conference Center & Retreat, in Essex, Mass., where he’s the chef.

But once a year, he also puts smiles on the faces of disabled children in Poland.

Since 2005, Mr. Shirkey has been quietly shipping wheelchairs, crutches, and toys to five or six Polish kids a year.

But his one-man, do-it-yourself charity didn’t start by helping children, Shirkey says with a Boston accent. It all began with a conversation with an ex-girlfriend at a Dunkin’ Donuts.

Beata Kelson is Polish, and in 2004 she was earning $140 a week as an au pair in Massachusetts. Her mother in Poland needed a new wooden leg. It was going to cost 6,000 zloty (about $2,000).

“At first, I thought she was pulling my leg,” Shirkey says. “‘Does anybody still use wooden legs?’ I thought.”

Then he blurted out, “Maybe I can help.”

It took months of looking on eBay and making phone calls before Shirkey persuaded a group, the Limbs for Life Foundation in Oklahoma City, to donate an artificial leg that might fit this 50-something woman in Poland.

Shirkey was already planning to fly to Poland, so he decided to deliver the leg in person. It was a 13-hour train ride to the village of Objazda. Shirkey isn’t Polish, doesn’t speak the language, and Berta couldn’t go. So he traveled with a Polish friend, whom he had met in the kitchen of a US summer camp a few years earlier.

It was nearly Christmas, so Shirkey wrapped the prosthetic up as a present.

“Her hands were shaking as she opened it. Then she just stared at the aluminum shaft like it was a bad joke. It wasn’t wooden. It wasn’t sturdy-looking.

“It didn’t even look like a leg,” recalls Shirkey. “Once we showed her how it worked, however, she started crying. ‘I’m too old for this! Why would you do this for me? How was this possible?’ “

“Anything is possible in America if you work at it,” Shirkey told her.

It took another two years – and visits to three doctors – to finally get the leg properly fitted. But Ms. Kelson says her mother now says that she has had three lives: her life before the car accident; life with a 50-pound wooden leg (for 30 years she seldom left the house); and life with her new high-tech prosthetic.

“He’s a cook. He’s not a wealthy guy,” Kelson says. “But David has a big, big heart.”

His charitable efforts might have ended there. But a few months later, Shirkey was on Gadu-Gadu, an online Polish chat site. He mentioned the artificial leg delivery, and Magda Idzik, a special-education teacher in Katowice, Poland, asked him if he could find wheelchairs for children at a Roman Catholic orphanage near her.

How could he refuse? Shirkey found that wheelchairs on eBay sold for about $140 each. But he wasn’t sure he could afford to buy the chairs as well as pay for the shipping to Poland. He asked at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston about second-hand wheelchairs.

“A doctor gave me a business card and said the guy on the back of the card handled equipment for the hospital,” he says. “I flipped it over and just smiled. His name was Polish.”

One by one, Shirkey picked up five used wheelchairs. But that first shipment hit a snag: American shipping companies wanted $2,000 to ship the chairs to Poland. Then Kelson suggested he call a Polish shipping company in the Boston area. The firm agreed to do it for $200, a price Shirkey could afford.

In the past six years, Ms. Idzik estimates that Shirkey has helped 40 Poles. Such assistance, she notes, is as much about freedom as comfort.

“He’s given people a chance to go out and meet other people, beyond family and nurses,” she says. “And he’s restored to these children a sense of faith in the goodness of others.”

This year, Shirkey suffered a setback. Seven used chairs were promised, but only one donation came through. “It was a tough economy, I guess,” he says.

He’s been told many times that if he’d just set up a legal nonprofit entity, more companies and individuals would help. That’s his next step, he says.

Shirkey goes to Poland once or twice a year – he’s there now – to hang out with his Polish friends and do “what single guys do on vacation.” While he’s there, Shirkey will get together with Idzik, who will take him to a state-run rehab center or one of the orphanages near Katowice.

The gregarious American will visit with the children and chat with their caregivers. Then he’ll return to the United States with a small list of things he can do to make a difference in a few more lives.

“I can’t help everyone. The world’s too big,” he says with a shrug. “But I’ve learned I can help someone.”

 

Lioness shows trust in man with her newborn cubs