Have your say(85)
The poll, carried out across 21 countries, found “widespread anti-immigration sentiment”, but warned 
But leading Muslim academic Haleh Afshar, of
Sunday, 12 July 2009
labour badly wrong
Saturday, 11 July 2009
seaweed saturday
Did you know that seaweed and your body have something in common? Ocean vegetables are a reflection of the body fluids of a person—in good health!
 "In the internal environment of our human system, and only there, do we find the same mineral make-up and the same physiognomy as that of seawater."- René Quinton |
Our body fluids have the same mineral composition as seawater. In his celebrated work Sea Water, Organic Substance (1897), noted scientist, René Quinton wrote, "In the internal environment of our human system, and only there, do we find the same mineral make-up and the same physiognomy as that of seawater."
Our blood, lymphatic fluid and intracellular fluid or plasma (the colorless fluid part of the blood), contains all one hundred or so minerals and trace elements that exist in the ocean. Just imagine, the necessary life-giving elements that circulate in the ocean currents, are the very same elements, and in very similar concentrations, that flow through our veins!
While we were babies growing in the comfort of our mother's body, we were swimming in fluids which has almost the same composition as that of seawater. Keep that in mind next time you see a pregnant woman walk by. She carries in her her own little ocean!
And get this, amniotic fluid is similar to the unprocessed sodium in seaweed! Seaweeds — the ocean’s main plant life — are just as abundant with the natural goodness of the sea. They act like sponges, and soak up all the minerals and trace elements found in seawater. When we consume these ocean vegetables, all the energy-rich nutrients are absorbed by our bodies and are easily integrated into our cells and tissues. This makes ocean vegetables our important link to the ocean—man’s vital source of life!
In conclusion, because seaweed and your body's mineral make up is similar, a daily diet of these ocean delights is the most natural way for us to re-mineralize, replenish any depleted nutrients, and rebalance internally — to keep us in good, vibrant health!
Proceed from seaweed and your body to the homepage
chicken or egg
Oldest dinosaur burrow discovered
| Matt Walker Editor, Earth News |
A burrow photographed from above, showing a cross section, with the entrance on the right side and chamber on the left
The world's oldest dinosaur burrows have been discovered in Australia.
Three separate burrows have been found in all, the biggest 2m long, each built to a similar design and just big enough to hold the body of a small dinosaur.
The 106-million-year-old burrows, the first to be found outside of North America, would have been much closer to the South Pole when they were created.
That supports the idea that dinosaurs living in cold, harsh climates burrowed underground to survive.
The only other known dinosaur burrow was discovered in 2005 in Montana, US.
Described two years later, this burrow dated from 95 million years ago and contained the bones of an adult and two juveniles of a small new species of dinosaur called Oryctodromeus cubicularis.
 |  It provides an alternative explanation for how small dinosaurs might have overwintered in polar environments  Palaeontologist Anthony Martin |
Now the older burrows have been found by one of the researchers who made the original Montana discovery.
"Like many discoveries in palaeontology, it happened by a combination of serendipity and previous knowledge," says Anthony Martin of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, US.
"In May 2006, I hiked into the field site with a group of graduate students with the intention of looking for dinosaur tracks. We did indeed find a few dinosaur tracks that day, but while there I also noted a few intriguing structures."
Martin returned to the site, a place dubbed Knowledge Creek that lies 240km from Melbourne, Victoria, to study these structures, once in July 2007 and again in May this year.
His first reaction was one of astonishment.
"I was scanning the outcrop for trace fossils, and was very surprised to see the same type of structure I had seen in Cretaceous rocks of Montana the previous year," says Martin.
That original structure turned out to be the burrow of O. cubicularis, which Martin described with colleagues David Varricchio from Montana State University, Bozeman, US, and Yoshi Katsura of Gifu Prefectural Museum in Seki City, Japan.
"So to walk up to the outcrop and see such a strikingly similar structure, in rocks only slightly older, but in another hemisphere, was rather eerie."
Twisting structures
Within the rock, which forms part of the so-called Otway group of rocks that have yielded a rich diversity of vertebrate fossils, Martin found three separate burrows less than 3m apart, which he describes in the journal Cretaceous Research.
Two of the burrows formed a semi-helix, twisting down into the rock that was once soil.
The largest and best preserved, dubbed tunnel A, turns twice before ending in a larger chamber. In total, it is more than 2.1m long.
Martin calculates that an animal around 10kg in size would have made each burrow.
Modern animals which create such burrows include aardwolves, alligators, coyotes, gopher tortoises and striped hyenas. Twisting burrows can help stop predators getting in and keep the temperature and humidity constant.
Martin can't be sure which species of dinosaur made the burrows, but he is struck by how similar their designs are to the burrow made by O. cubicularis.
A variety of small ornithopod dinosaurs were also known to have lived in the area during the same time in the Cretaceous. These ornithopods stood upright on their hind legs and were about the size of a large, modern-day iguana.
Surviving the cold
Martin has ruled out a variety of other factors that could have created the burrows.
The fact that they were made by dinosaurs makes sense, he says.
Twenty years ago, researchers in Australia, including Patricia Vickers-Rich of Monash University in Clayton and Thomas Rich of the Museum of Victoria, first proposed that some dinosaurs may have climbed into burrows to survive harsh climates they couldn't escape from by migrating.
"It gives us yet another example of how dinosaurs evolved certain adaptive behaviours in accordance with their ecosystems," Martin says.
"Polar dinosaurs in particular must have possessed special adaptations to deal with polar winters, and one of their behavioural options was burrowing. It provides an alternative explanation for how small dinosaurs might have overwintered in polar environments."
Martin now hopes that palaeontologists will be on the look out for a range of different types of dinosaur burrow, and for dinosaurs that are physically adapted to burrowing into soil
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
absolute rubbish prove it
Although Indohyus, as it is known, looks nothing like the whales of today, it shares certain anatomical features.
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Indohyus belongs to an ancient order of mammals that had two or four toes on each foot. Modern day representatives of the group include camels, pigs, and hippopotamuses.
After seeing loose teeth and fragments of jaw bones found by the late Indian geologist A Ranga Rao some 25 years ago, Professor Thewissen obtained rock samples from Rao's private collection. They harboured a treasure trove of complete Indohyus fossils, including skulls and leg bones.
Although the behaviour and habits of Indohyus appear somewhat strange, there is a modern day parallel in the African mousedeer (chevrotain).
The mousedeer lives on land, but is known to leap into the water to avoid predators such as eagles.
Monday, 6 July 2009
what is clean
Chick found during maggot inquiry
 NHS Grampian said about 25 maggots were found by cleaners |
Specialists probing an outbreak of maggots at the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital believe the carcass of a chick could be to blame.
The discovery of the maggots caused the closure of three operating theatres, and postponements of procedures.
NHS Grampian said about 25 maggots were found by cleaners on the floor.
What is believed to be the carcass of a chick was found in pipes above two theatres and has since been removed. No further infestation has been found.
NHS Grampian said generally high levels of hygiene had been found and the roof space was clean and in good order.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said she had been "very disturbed" after first reports of the incident.
I.Q. que
High IQ link to being vegetarian
 Vegetarianism has been linked to better heart health |
A Southampton University team found those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10.
Researchers said it could explain why people with higher IQ were healthier as a vegetarian diet was linked to lower heart disease and obesity rates.
The study of 8,179 was reported in the British Medical Journal.
Twenty years after the IQ tests were carried out in 1970, 366 of the participants said they were vegetarian - although more than 100 reported eating either fish or chicken.
Men who were vegetarian had an IQ score of 106, compared with 101 for non-vegetarians; while female vegetarians averaged 104, compared with 99 for non-vegetarians.
|  We've always known that vegetarianism is an intelligent, compassionate choice benefiting animals, people and the environment  Liz O'Neill, of The Vegetarian Society |
There was no difference in IQ score between strict vegetarians and those who said they were vegetarian but who reported eating fish or chicken.
Researchers said the findings were partly related to better education and higher occupational social class, but it remained statistically significant after adjusting for these factors.
Vegetarians were more likely to be female, to be of higher occupational social class and to have higher academic or vocational qualifications than non-vegetarians.
However, these differences were not reflected in their annual income, which was similar to that of non-vegetarians.
Lead researcher Catharine Gale said: "The finding that children with greater intelligence are more likely to report being vegetarian as adults, together with the evidence on the potential benefits of a vegetarian diet on heart health, may help to explain why higher IQ in childhood or adolescence is linked with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease in adult life."
Intelligence
However, she added the link may be merely an example of many other lifestyle preferences that might be expected to vary with intelligence, such as choice of newspaper, but which may or may not have implications for health.
Liz O'Neill, of the Vegetarian Society, said: "We've always known that vegetarianism is an intelligent, compassionate choice benefiting animals, people and the environment.
"Now we've got the scientific evidence to prove it. Maybe that explains why many meat-reducers are keen to call themselves vegetarians when even they must know that vegetarians don't eat chicken, turkey or fish."
But Dr Frankie Phillips, of the British Dietetic Association, said: "It is like the chicken and the egg. Do people become vegetarian because they have a very high IQ or is it just that they tend to be more aware of health issues?"
Saturday, 4 July 2009
The NHS needs help
| |
These are all 'soft targets' for the axe-swingers.
The benefits are in the future and there aren't any immediate shrouds to wave.
This time the 'efficiencies' will be deeper and longer-lasting. The NHS is facing a new ice age.
| |
Precious NHS money is still being wasted.
We need to spend more money on prevention, not less.
In short, we should be aiming to add life to years rather than simply adding years to life.
|  |
Friday, 3 July 2009
cnd /union war
| Sorry, your entry can't be deleted right now. Please try again later. |
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament - Trade Unions
Trade Unions
Trade unions are vital to CND's campaign against the replacement of Trident and our long standing commitment to achieving the global abolition of nuclear weapons.
Today CND has national affiliations from UNISON, CWU, RMT, FBU, TSSA, ASLEF, NUM and UNITY.
Other unions, including the UNITE sections TGWU and AMICUS, and also UCATT, the NUT and the NUJ have voted to oppose the replacement of Trident.
total evolution
New dinosaur gives bird wing clue
The Limusaurus fossil sits among small crocodile fossils
A new dinosaur unearthed in western China has shed light on the evolution from dinosaur hands to the wing bones in today's birds.
The fossil, from about 160 million years ago, has been named Limusaurus inextricabilis.
The find contributes to a debate over how an ancestral hand with five digits evolved to one with three in birds.
The work, published in Nature, suggests that the middle three digits, rather than the "thumb" and first two, remain.
Theropods - the group of dinosaurs ancestral to modern birds and which include the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex - are known for having hands and feet with just three digits.
| It's a really weird animal - it's got no teeth, had a beak and a very long neck, and very wimpy forelimbs James Clark, GWU |
It has been a matter of debate how the three-fingered hand developed from its five-fingered ancestor. Each digit among the five was composed of a specific number of bones, or phalanges.
Palaeontologists have long argued that it is the first (corresponding to the thumb), second, and third fingers from that ancestral hand that survived through to modern birds, on grounds that the three fingers in later animals exhibit the correct number of phalanges.
However, developmental biologists have shown that bird embryos show growth of all five digits, but it is the first and fifth that later stop growing and are reabsorbed.
The remaining three bones fuse and form a vestigial "hand" hidden in the middle of a bird's wing.
'Weird animal'
James Clark of George Washington University in Washington DC and Xing Xu from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing hit an palaeontologist's gold mine in the Junggar Basin of northwestern China.
Previous digs have unearthed the oldest known fossil belonging to the tyrannosaur group and the oldest horned dinosaur among several others.
 The dinosaurs had beaks and may have had feathers |
This time, the ancient mire has yielded a primitive ceratosaur, a theropod that often had horns or crests, many of whom had knobbly fingers without claws.
"It's a really weird animal - it's got no teeth, had a beak and a very long neck, and very wimpy forelimbs," Professor Clark told BBC News.
"Then when we looked closely at the hand, we noticed it was relevant to a very big question in palaeontology."
The fossil has a first finger which is barely present, made up of just one small bone near the wrist. The fifth finger is gone altogether.
It is a fossil that appears to offer a snapshot of evolution, proving that the more modern three-fingered hand is made up of the middle digits of the ancestral hand, with the outer two being shed.
The third finger is made up of the four phalange bones that the second should have, and it is presumed that the second would lose one bone to become like the first finger that was missing in the fossil.
This process of shifting patterns of gene expression from one limb or digit to another is known as an "identity shift", and was again caught in the act - making the conflicting theories of bird hand origin suddenly align.
"This is amazing - it's the first time we've seen this thing actually starting to disappear," Jack Conrad, a palaeontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, told BBC News.
"There's been this fundamental rift - there was no way to make peace between the good data we were seeing from the developmental biologists and the palaeontological evidence that showed with every fossil we found we were seeing [fingers] one, two and three."
evolution
New dinosaurs found in Australia
 The carnivorous theropod Banjo is likened to the velociraptor |
Australian palaeontologists say they have discovered three new dinosaur species after examining fossils dug up in Queensland.
Writing in the journal PLOS One, they describe one of the creatures as a fearsome predator with three large slashing claws on each hand.
The other two were herbivores: one a tall giraffe-like creature, the other of stocky build like a hippopotamus.
The fossils date back nearly 100m years to the middle of the Cretaceous period.
They were found in rocks known as the Winton Formation.
Beyond velociraptor
Queensland Museum palaeontologist, Scott Hucknell, said the carnivore, Australovenator wintonensis, was even bigger and more terrifying than velociraptor made famous in the Jurassic Park movies.
"The cheetah of his time, Banjo was light and agile. He could run down most prey with ease over open ground," he told reporters.
| FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE More from BBC World Service |
The dinosaurs have been named after characters in Australia's famous song, Waltzing Matilda.
The carnivore has been named named after Banjo Patterson, who composed Waltzing Matilda in Winton in 1885, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper explained.
Clancy, Witonotitan wattsi, was a tall slender animal, while Matilda, Diamantinasaurus matildae, was more stocky and hippo-like.
These two plant-eating, four-legged sauropod species are new types of titanosaurs - the largest animals ever to walk the earth.
Banjo and Matilda - possibly predator and his prey - were found buried together in a 98m year old billabong, or stagnant pond.
Breakthrough
The find was published in the public access journal Public Library of Science One, and was announced by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History in Winton.
She said the discoveries were a major breakthrough in the scientific understanding of prehistoric life in Australia.
Museum Victoria palaeontologist, John Long, said the finds were "amazing".
The newspaper quoted him saying that the finds put Australia back on the international map of big dinosaur discoveries for the first time since 1981, when the discovery of Muttaburrasaurus, a large four-legged herbivore that could rear up on two legs, was announced.
The new species will be part of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History under construction in Winton. This aims to house the world's largest collection of Australian dinosaur fossils when it is completed in 2015
Thursday, 2 July 2009
feminist labour
Harman pay gap data 'misleading'
 Ms Harman has launched a new Equalities Bill |
Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman has been criticised by an official watchdog for exaggerating the pay gap between men and women.
UK Statistics Authority chief Sir Michael Scholar said Ms Harman's use of figures was potentially misleading.
She had said women were on average paid 23% less per hour than men but the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the figure was actually 12.8%.
The government said Ms Harman's figures related to full and part-time workers.
The Government Equalities Office, which issued a press release in April with the 23% figure in it, said this provided the "fullest picture" of the gender pay gap.
'Impartial and objective'
But in a letter to Ms Harman, who is also the women's minister, Sir Michael said the use of different figures was "likely to confuse the general public".
He said: "The Statistics Authority is concerned that this may undermine public trust in official statistics."
"It is the Statistics Authority's view that the use of the 23% on its own, without qualification, risks giving a misleading quantification of the gender pay gap."
| We understand the concerns raised about different measures of the gender pay gap Government Equalities Office |
A source said Ms Harman's department was warned about using the figure beforehand but went ahead anyway.
Both figures were taken from the same annual survey of hours and pay, and are based on average hourly earnings excluding overtime.
The ONS measure is based on full-time earnings alone while the GEO figure includes full-time and part-time workers.
Both men and women who work part-time are paid less, but the vast majority of part-time workers are women. That means including all part-time workers in the figure could exaggerate the pay divide.
Sir Michael said neither measure was "entirely satisfactory" on its own and suggested different ways to discuss the gender pay gap that were "impartial and objective".
Knife crime row
But a spokesman for the Government Equalities Office rejected the criticism.
He said: "We understand the concerns raised about different measures of the gender pay gap - that's why we discussed this with the Office for National Statistics some time ago.
"The 23% gender pay gap figure used by the Government Equalities Office includes both full- and part-time employees.
"With women representing over three-quarters of the UK's part-time workforce, we believe this figure gives the fullest picture of the country's gender pay gap."
Equalities Bill
Last year the Home Office was rebuked by Sir Michael for a press release on knife crime statistics that he said was "premature, irregular and selective".
The row came as Ms Harman launched her Equalities Bill, which aims to establish an "equality duty" on public bodies.
Organisations such as schools and hospitals with more than 150 employees would have to report annually on their gender pay gap and they would have to promote equality in age, religion or belief, race, disability, pregnancy and sexuality under the proposed legislation.
Launching the Bill in the Commons on Thursday, Ms Harman said it would also outlaw the British National Party's "apartheid" membership rules, which dictates that members must be from the "indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of 'Indigenous Caucasian"'.
Ms Harman said she was "shocked and horrified" by the election of BNP leader Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons to the European Parliament last week.
She said there was "no place" in Britain for having a political party that only accepted white people as members and the Equality Bill would prevent this.
labour wrong again
Go easy on equality says minister
 Mr Denham called on Labour to confront a "difficult truth" |
The political left must stop "holding up egalitarianism as the ideal", Communities Secretary John Denham has told the Fabian Society think tank.
Basing fairness purely on "society's response to those in greatest need" risked being unpopular, he said.
He called for a "different, more nuanced view of fairness and equality".
His comments come as an Equality Bill is going through Parliament which would make public bodies consider social class gaps when forming policies.
Mr Denham said that the numbers within society who signed up to the traditional egalitarian view were "simply too small to construct a strong, viable and inclusive electoral coalition".
He told the Fabian Society: "We must confront the difficult truth: that this form of egalitarianism, the one that defines fairness solely in terms of society's response to those in greatest need, is badly out of step with popular sentiment.
"A rejection of inequality - both absolute, relative and of opportunity - is absolutely core to who we are. But we will be more successful - not just electorally but in challenging unacceptable inequality - if we adopt and own a different, more nuanced view of fairness and equality."
Mr Denham said Labour had to relate to the aspirations of people on middle incomes, adding that this group felt excluded by policies and language aimed at 'the poor'.
He said this group were in fact more concerned about those in higher social classes.
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EUROPEANS THINK ISLAM IS DANGEROUS
14.03.09, 12:31pm
I agree a million percent if there was such a figure . How right up to the hilt are those already writing their comments and this morning in the Sunday Express on page 5 we have members of the WRAF being told to wear Headscarves when entering mosques in Peterborogh . How dare they desecrate our uniform of the Queen's ROYAL AIR FORCE.(where is the MARSHALL OF THE RAF
We must stamp hard on this insurgence of Isam in the K We have had enogh and if we dont we shall end up bieing subjagated by this faactical religion.. Every last one of the MUslims should be shipped back to their own country. I never hear anyone and i me anyone with common sense agreesing with this policey of multi culturalism Its is not what soldiers fought for in WW2 and this is what we are fighting for now, What a disgrace to allow those protesters last week in LUton and for the POLICeE to arrest a decent white English person and charge them with an offnce abslutely abhorrent and i shall never accept any Muslim in this country .
• Posted by: Eeldu • Report Comment
EUROPEANS THINK ISLAM IS DANGEROUS
28.12.08, 8:46am
Great article and about time too, this once great country has been sold out by the malignant pc crazed bunch of socialists that without manadate rule this country. They are in total spineless and I urge, no demand at least one of them to read the article and the majority of agreeing comments and then to stand up, be recognised and agree with their countrymen and women that enough is enough and make preparation for the removal of every vestige of non conforming immigrants. Equally to end this stupid and incoherent policy of an open door Britain.
• Posted by: lowwise • Report Comment
EUROPEANS THINK ISLAM IS DANGEROUS
04.11.08, 10:01am
An overwhelming yes to this statement. We are British in these Islands, and the onslaught of Muslim beliefs being forced upon us is not acceptable. It is clear to see to any normal thinking person that this threat is going to grow. Yes there are peaceful muslims, but the fanaticism of the extremists begs extreme measures to remove them. Allowing Mosques\\ every where, is an invitation for them to eventually gain footholds they should not have.
Has\\ anyone else seen the fanatical marches in London ? I rest my case. But our Government should act, and act now in the interests Britishness, and adopt Australian standards full stop. Kerry0
• Posted by: Kerry0 • Report Comment
**COMMENT REMOVED**
22.06.08, 12:28pm
***ABUSIVE COMMENTS WILL BE REMOVED***
• Posted by: bri9999111 • Report Comment
ISLAM IS DANGEROUS
25.05.08, 9:34am
The problem is that it is getting too late to do anyhting to stop the colonizattionof europe by Islam. The British goverenment has doen all it can to turn the country into a polyglot dumping ground for all races, and amongst these many thousands are those who wish us nothing but hram. But when you opn the folldgates as we have done, how do you close them again?
An open plea to the politicians: When can we have our country back?
• Posted by: saracen • Report Comment
ISLAM IS VERY DANGEROUS
11.05.08, 2:35pm
The Islamic invasion of Europe has begun, the advance guard are here in Britain and taking over large areas of our inner cities. Seemingly immune from British law the Islamic hordes have even persuaded the simple Archbishop of Canterbury that Islamic Shari law should be practised in Britain.(Presumably he also condones the barbaric atrocities and repression of woman carried on in the name of Islam). Where the Islam invasion lands the mosques spring up, christianity retreats and evil Imams are allowed to preach hate and terror for the country whose social security benefits they enjoy.
The tolerance of Islam in this country borders on the insane. Iran would not show any tolerance at all for a christian in Tehran. Islam does not show any tolerance for infidels. Barbaric corporal punishments, stoning to death, beheadings and amputations are all carried out in the name of Islam. Fatwahs and death sentences are issued against all who dare to challenge their way of life. Islamic fanatiscism breeds terrorism and the Islamic society sheilds the terrorist from international justice. Allahu Akbar!!
Islamists do not integrate into our society , they do not accept our standards but rather seek to force their culture on us. We should not tolerate schoolgirls in the yashmak or Imams preaching violence or any suggestion that shari laws can prevail in this country. Islamic aims for world dominance and Islamic terrorism are a clear and present danger and the warning signs are everywhere. The inbred hatred has been intensified by the illegal war in Iraq. We are all in danger from the growing invasion . The army of Islam is swelling too fast in this small country of ours and it is time to close the door to people that do not like us