Western diet lifestyle may lead the way to an early grave: Study

Consumption of a 'Western-style' diet could reduce the likelihood of reaching old age in good health and may increase the chances of early mortality, according to new research.

The new data from a study of adults in the UK find that adherence to a 'Western-style' diet - including fried and sweet food, processed and red meat, refined grains, and high-fat dairy products - reduces a person's likelihood of achieving older ages in good health and with high functionality.

Led by Dr Tasnime Akbaraly from Inserm, France, the research team analysed data from the British Whitehall II cohort study which followed more than 5,000 men and women between 1985 and 2009.

"The impact of diet on specific age-related diseases has been studied extensively, but few investigations have adopted a more holistic approach to determine the association of diet with overall health at older ages," said Akbaraly.

"We examined whether diet, assessed in midlife, using dietary patterns and adherence to the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), is associated with aging phenotypes, identified after a mean 16-year follow-up."

Writing in the The American Journal of Medicine, the team reveal that that following the AHEI can double the odds of reversing metabolic syndrome, a condition known to be a strong predictor of heart disease and mortality.

"We showed that following specific dietary recommendations such as the one provided by the AHEI may be useful in reducing the risk of unhealthy aging, while avoidance of the 'Western-type foods' might actually improve the possibility of achieving older ages free of chronic diseases and remaining highly functional," noted Akbaraly.

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"A better understanding of the distinction between specific health behaviours that offer protection against diseases and those that move individuals towards ideal aging may facilitate improvements in public health prevention packages."

Study details

Akbaraly and her team analysed data from 3,775 men and 1,575 women with a mean age of 51 years from the Whitehall II study. Using a combination of hospital data, results of screenings conducted every five years, and registry data, the investigators identified mortality and chronic diseases among participants.

Outcomes at follow-up stage were classified into 5 categories:

1.    Ideal aging, defined as free of chronic conditions and high performance in physical, mental, and cognitive functioning tests – 4.0%

2.    Nonfatal cardiovascular event – 12.7%

3.    Cardiovascular death – 2.8%

4.    Noncardiovascular death – 7.3%

5.    Normal aging - 73.2%

The team then determined that participants with low adherence to the AHEI increased their risk of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular death - finding that those who followed a 'Western-type diet' lowered their chances for ideal aging.

The AHEI is a validated index of diet quality, originally designed to provide dietary guidelines with the specific intention to combat major chronic conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

foodnavigator.com 18 Apr 2013

Junk food houses like McDonald's, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), Burger King (Hungry Jacks in Australia), also Wendy's, Donut King and many others, are the breeding grounds for obesity and cancer.

These places 'should' cease to exist, but as long as there are trailer park trash people, these places will flourish.

Quite simply put, food for canon fodder.

Governments are not interested in keeping the herd population healthy, as once you have outlived your usefulness, you can die.

Full disk encryption is too good, says US intelligence agency

You might be shocked to learn this, but when a quivering-lipped Chloe from 24 cracks the encryption on a terrorist’s hard drive in 30 seconds, the TV show is faking it. “So what? It’s just a TV show.” Well, yes, but it turns out that real federal intelligence agencies, like the FBI, CIA, and NSA, also have a problem cracking encrypted hard disks — and according to a new research paper, this is a serious risk to national security.

The study, titled “The growing impact of full disk encryption on digital forensics,” illustrates the difficulty that CSI teams have in obtaining enough digital data to build a solid case against criminals. According to the researchers, one of which is a member of US-CERT — the US government’s primary defense against internet and digital threats — there are three main problems with full disk encryption (FDE): First, evidence-gathering goons can turn off a computer (for transportation) without realizing it’s encrypted, and thus can’t get back at the data (unless the arrestee gives up his password, which he doesn’t have to do); second, if the analysis team doesn’t know that the disk is encrypted, it can waste hours trying to read something that’s ultimately unreadable; and finally, in the case of hardware-level disk encryption, tampering with the device can trigger self-destruction of the data.

The paper does go on to suggest some ways to ameliorate these issues, though: Better awareness at the evidence-gathering stage would help, but it also suggests “on-scene forensic acquisition” of data, which involves ripping unencrypted data from volatile, live memory (with the cryogenic RAM freezing technique, presumably). Ultimately, though, the researchers aren’t hopeful: “Research is needed to develop new techniques and technology for breaking or bypassing full disk encryption,” concludes the paper.

It’s a tough situation: On the one hand, being able to crack full disk encryption is vital for the prosecution of white-collar criminals, child porn ringleaders, pharmaceutical spam barons, and the curtailment of terrorism — but on the other, it’s quite satisfying to know that, perhaps at long last, we have a way of escaping the ireful eye of Big Brother. Where do you stand on FDE?

extremetech.com 18 Nov 2011

It's all about making every person on the planet transparent to the corporate elite and governments as well.

Privacy laws are created for the corporatocracy and NOT the masses, as some may believe.

If an individual has the same access to government information as governments has to the individual, the individual then is charged for 'hacking', and imprisoned.

Encryption keys created in the United States are stored in a U.S. government facility and are not allowed to be exported.

Here are some comments from the article:

Ref:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/105931-full-disk-encryption-is-too-good-says-us-intelligence-agency

"While the Fourth Amendment is being dismantled wholesale at the behest of law enforecement and corporations, Fifth Amendment still provides some levels of protection. For now, at least in the US, you can't be compelled to give up a password. Fifth Amendment sees to that."

"The fifth has been breached pretty egregiously already. The nastiest such was probably when President Obama ordered a murder of a US citizen abroad and the military carried it out for him. For good measure, he then ordered the murder of the minor child of that US citizen. 
That's a stunningly clear-cut case of flagrantly flouting the fifth amendment - by the one person who literally takes an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. "

457 visas: more than 10,000 are rorting system, says minister

More than 10,000 foreign workers are rorting the 457 visa system, Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor has declared.

He released new figures on Sunday showing the number of 457 visa holders on low incomes had doubled in the past year, while the number of 457 visa holders had grown overall by 19 per cent.

The highest growth rate was for people holding accommodation and food services visas, which grew by 99 per cent, and those holding retail visas, which recorded 75 per cent growth.

The average wage for accommodation and food workers was $55,000, and the average wage for retail workers was $69,000.

''When we see evidence that something is not right with the program - such as spikes in particular sectors that are out of step with growth in those industries - we must take action to stamp out any rorts,'' Mr O'Connor said.

For the first time, Mr O'Connor sought to quantify his argument that the system was prone to rorting, saying more than 10,000 people were abusing the scheme.

''Insofar as numbers, I believe that the areas where there's been an illegitimate use of 457s numbers [is] not negligible,'' he said. ''I would say it would exceed over 10,000.''

This is about 10 per cent of the 105,600 457 visa holders in Australia. The Minister's office could not say where his figure about the number of people rorting the system came from.

Mr O'Connor said he would introduce legislation to close loopholes in the scheme when Parliament resumes in May.

''We believe that it should be based around the fluctuations of shortage,'' he said.

''Now we've had evidence where people have been employed where there are not shortages in the area and we've got evidence to show that the nature of the job that was on the application is nothing like the job that actually exists when the application is processed and the applicant fills that job.''

According to figures released on Sunday, the number of 457 visas had increased by 19 per cent at the end of March compared with the same time last year, although they fell slightly between January and March this year.

More than 65 per cent of visas granted were to managers and professionals, and 26 per cent were to technicians and trades workers. The top three industries were services, construction and health care and social assistance.

But Mr O'Connor accused ''unscrupulous'' employers of hiring foreign workers to avoid hiring and training local workers.

"Locals should have the opportunity to get jobs first, with temporary skilled workers employed from overseas only as a last resort," Mr O'Connor said.


theage.com.au 28 Apr 2013

As part of the policies of the new order of the world, Australia is right on track.

The new migrants bought into the country are bought in through various loopholes to degrade the pay of the Aussie workers.

Tax loopholes (for the masses) are changed very quickly, whereas immigration loopholes are not, as it is not in the interest of the corporatocracy to change them.

Government and businesses support the 'slave' trade, under the 'refugee' banner.

Low educated migrants are seen as fodder for the corporates and businesses.

Myki crashes at rail station opening

Myki crash sours station's first day

An embarrassing system crash left passengers at brand-new Williams Landing station unable to top up or purchase myki cards.

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• Five lines hit by cancellations

As eager commuters headed to Melbourne's newest train station on Sunday, they arrived to find the myki system out of order.
It meant that for more than an hour, passengers at the $110 million Williams Landing station couldn't buy or top up myki cards at the counter or from the lone myki machine.

Out of order: myki machines at Williams Landing. Photo: Eddie Jim

Minutes before the system crashed, Victorian Transport Minister Terry Mulder was talking up the Werribee line station, which will service Point Cook and future residents of Williams Landing.

''Wyndham is one of the fastest-growing areas in the country, and this new station and bus network mean more transport options for over 32,000 Point Cook residents,'' Mr Mulder said.

Two thousand commuters are expected to use the premium station each day, which includes a bus terminal, taxi rank, bike cage and access from both sides of the Princes Freeway via an overhead footbridge.

Two existing bus routes have been replaced with five new local routes, increasing bus services from 697 to 2120 per week.

Protective service officers have also been assigned to Williams Landing and will patrol the station from 6pm until the last train.

But on Sunday, passengers and Metro staff said there were questions that remained unanswered.

The station has only 500 car spaces, which are likely to fill quickly in the morning peak.

And because Williams Landing falls within Zone 2, several commuters said it was likely locals would drive to nearby Laverton station, where they can pay the cheaper Zone 1 fare to the city.

Metro employees have already raised concerns there are no security cameras covering the station's footbridge.

However, a spokeswoman for Mr Mulder said cameras would be installed ''in the coming days''.
Sections of the footbridge are protected by only a 1.5 metre fence.

With a drop of at least 10 metres, one Metro staff member told Fairfax Media that ''ticket inspectors wouldn't want to be apprehending fare evaders on the bridge''.

But Mr Mulder's spokeswoman said the fence complied with building codes and a higher fence would prevent ''passive surveillance''.

She also dismissed speculation that there were plans to close the nearby Aircraft Station, located about one kilometre away.

theage.com.au 29 Apr 2013

The new myki ticketing system is a government failure, which the masses have overpaid for.

The government awards contracts in falsified tenders to 'mates', which later blow out the budget.

The people in government who are involved should be sacked, never to work again, but since the support network of their 'brethren' is overpowering this will never occur.

Another fraud paid for by hard working tax paying Aussies.

Defiant parents a target as truancy fines increased

PARENTS who don't pay a $70 penalty for a truant child could see the fine increase tenfold.

Earlier this year, the Herald Sun revealed that from next year, parents of students who missed five days of school without good reason would be issued with a notice asking them to explain.


If the explanation is deemed unacceptable, they could face a $70 fine.

Under the changes introduced into Parliament last week, the fine could be increased up to $704 if the matter were taken to court.

Education Department spokesman Stuart Teather said there was no threshold for court action to be taken.

But "the draft guidelines suggest it would be appropriate to bring proceedings . . . where a parent has received three infringement notices in two years", he said. "This is at the discretion of the school attendance officer, and the circumstances . . . will be taken into consideration."

He said a parent who did not pay a fine would be taken to court.

Education Minister Martin Dixon said the change was aimed not at pupils wagging class but at parents who didn't send a child to school; the aim was to give them an incentive to do so.

Infringements would be a last resort. "This isn't about fining the vast majority of parents who do the right thing," he said.

A principal would decide if an excuse was acceptable.

Unacceptable excuses could include visiting friends or relatives, social or leisure activities, or unplanned holidays about which the school had not been told.

Foster parents and students in care would not be subject to a fine.

heraldsun.com.au 26 Apr 2013

The Australian legal system is designed in such a manner to discourage the masses from taking the 'system' to court.

From the article : "Under the changes introduced into Parliament last week, the fine could be increased up to $704 if the matter were taken to court.", is an example of the above mentioned policy.

Australian courts function as corporations whose purpose is to bring in revenue for the government.

The public education system is a failure, which has been documented in many news media reports and independent papers, which has been designed as such.

There is no urgency to educate the children of the masses, or to make doctors, lawyers or politicians out of them, as these positions are already reserved for the children of the ruling elite.

The objective is to make subservient uneducated 'sheeple'.

The children of the masses are dumbed down by a mind numbing curriculum that teaches how to be a social media guru, or make viral videos to obtain fame.

To the uneducated the so called 'fines' seem legitimate enough.

Two Men lose their other half

ANGUS T. Jones said he wished he wasn't on hit show Two and a Half Men, now it appears that he has got his wish. 

Warner Bros announced it had signed Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer up for an eleventh season of the hit sitcom. Entertainment Weekly says that Jones will only appear in a few episodes after his character was shipped off to the army.

Jones shocked many when he made a video for religious website Forerunner Chronicles in which he slams the show that made him a star at 10 years old.

"Jake from Two and a Half Men means nothing. He is a non-existent character. If you watch Two and a Half Men, please stop watching Two and a Half Men. I'm on Two and a Half Men and I don't want to be on it," he said.

"Please stop watching. Please stop filling your head with filth, please. People say it's entertainment ... the fact that it's entertainment ... do some research on the effect of television on your brain and you'll have a decision to make. It's bad news. A lot of people don't like to think about how deceptive the enemy is."

No word on whether Warner Bros will be changing the name of the show now that these two men have lost their other half.

heraldsun.com.au 27 Apr 2013

From its very inception, the Hollywood entertainment industry's foundations are lies.

Much of the 'entertainment' the comes out of Hollywood is family and society degrading trash.

Angus T. Jones is absolutely correct in this observations.

Many people who come to Hollywood become disillusioned with its farce.

But as rapper Eminem once put it "We're the ones who made you", referring to the Hollywood financiers.


The new trend now is to make movies that depict so called real events, but with deliberately misleading information or just plainly put lies, as the truth.

One such event happened, when movie director Steven Spielberg came to Melbourne to interview survivors of World War II, and the description of events that he received were not conducive to the official government reports or the agenda he wished to portray in his movies.

Tycoon dodges millions in land tax

One of Asia's richest tycoons has avoided tax on tens of millions of dollars in profits from Australian property deals over the past two decades.

Onn Mahmud - brother of the billionaire chief minister of Sarawak - has used an elaborate global financial network to export his earnings from a portfolio of Sydney commercial and residential properties worth an estimated $100 million.

In one deal, Mr Onn sold an apartment development site in Sydney's Potts Point for $15.5 million in 2007 - realising a profit of $10.8 million. A former senior business associate of Mr Onn said no capital gains tax was paid on the deal and all of the proceeds were transferred to a trust based in the Cayman Islands tax haven.

''All his operations were carefully structured to ensure that he paid no tax in Australia,'' said Farok Abdul Majeed, who ran Mr Onn's Sydney property deals for several years.

Documents obtained by Fairfax Media indicate that Mr Onn gave conflicting information to authorities to secure an Australia business visa and build the property portfolio he ran through Cayman Island trusts managed by merchant bankers Merrill Lynch in the Isle of Man.

Mr Abdul Majeed is fighting to recover millions of dollars he claims to be owed in unpaid fees, commissions and expenses. Leading architects Crone Partners also claim to be owed more than $500,000.

Onn Mahmud is reported to be the second-richest person in Malaysia with a fortune in excess of $2 billion - most of it drawn from deals involving timber exports that have decimated the tropical rainforests of Sarawak.

Mr Onn's wife and children live in a mansion in Carrara Road, Vaucluse, with sweeping views across Sydney Harbour, but he spends most of his time in Singapore and Malaysia.

His 2002 business visa application was sponsored by Ryan Park Limited and three associated companies which he and his family controlled: Ferncroft Limited, Golden Arrow Limited and Cherry Blossom Limited.

In the application, Mr Onn said Ryan Park and the other companies had invested more than $50 million in Sydney real estate. Mr Abdul Majeed said he believed Mr Onn's total property investments in Australia were double that amount.

Ryan Park's Australian Business Number registration describes it as an ''Australian private company'' but it has no record with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and was in fact registered in the Cayman Islands in 1991 as a ''non-resident'' entity.

In March 2007, executives of Merrill Lynch swore in a statutory declaration in the Isle of Man that Ryan Park was ''an unregistered foreign company'' that ''does not carry on business in Australia''.

Ryan Park and the three other companies also registered in the Cayman Islands were struck off the islands' company register several years ago.

The property portfolio assembled by Mr Onn between the early 1990s and 2007 included a hotel and restaurant complex in central Sydney and an office building in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, which was sold in 2005 for a profit believed to be in excess of $5 million.

Mr Abdul Majeed, a Malaysian-born property development and project management consultant, has resumed legal action to recover more than $5 million he claims to be owed by Mr Onn.

In August 2007, a NSW Supreme Court judge ordered Mr Onn to pay $2.2 million to Mr Abdul Majeed for outstanding fees and commissions. The order was discontinued after he failed to appear at a subsequent hearing at which the order was challenged by Mr Onn's lawyers.

Mr Onn did not respond to a series of questions from Fairfax Media sent to his Singapore lawyers last week.

thage.com.au 28 Apr 2013

 

The government allows certain people to get away with not paying tax, only for the general populous to make up the balance of figures.

 

Corruption and bribes make up a significant part of mulit-million dollar deals, as described in the above article.

 

So called 'Australian' retailers, that hold brand names that many Australians are familiar with, are registered in tax havens under shelf companies avoiding taxes to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each, each year.

This has been going on for decades, where the government turns a blind eye, supporting their 'brethren' in business.

The Australian worker / taxpayer supports the country's businesses, which can pay as little as 0% tax, where the citizen has a whopping 50% tax taken out from their salary.

PSOs 'asking too many questions'

Concerns have been raised about Protective Service Officers collecting personal information from innocent bystanders, partly to show their superiors they have been working and, sometimes, to conduct on-the-spot criminal record checks.

PSOs recorded the name and date of birth of more than 29,000 people last year, including those not suspected of any wrongdoing. The information may be used, at PSOs' discretion, to conduct criminal record checks by radio.

When questioned by The Saturday Age one PSO said another reason they wrote down people's details was to prove they had been working.

The acting Victorian Privacy Commissioner, David Watts, was unaware of the practice and said he was ''seeking comment and clarification from Victoria Police''.

Jane Dixon, SC, president of Liberty Victoria, said gathering law-abiding citizens' personal information for no reason showed police wanted a database of everyone in Victoria and was ''bringing us closer to a police state''.

Victoria Police defended the practice as standard procedure used by both PSOs and police to gain information about an area.

After beginning work in February 2012, PSOs were involved in the arrest of 1397 people up to the end of 2012. More than 60 of those arrested were breaching bail conditions and 500 had outstanding warrants.

A police spokeswoman confirmed one role of PSOs was to ''gather intelligence. PSOs can have between five and 50 contacts with commuters per shift (including those not behaving suspiciously) in the form of a greeting or a formal interaction where they obtain the person's name and date of birth.''

Under the Crimes Act people can refuse to give their name, address and date of birth, unless police have reasonable grounds for believing they have committed or are about to commit an offence, or could aid an investigation.

The spokeswoman said when someone was not under suspicion ''a member of the public has the right to ask whether they are required to provide their details, which they would be advised that there is no obligation''. But police are not required to warn someone that they don't have to answer.

Meghan Fitzgerald, legal projects officer at Fitzroy Legal Service, said: ''Many people don't know to say no. Once they've got your details they can look up your LEAP status. All of your information, all your contacts with police are recorded in that. That includes more than criminal record information, it includes allegations, investigations.''

On Tuesday morning Baljit Thind, 21, was outside the paid ticketing area on the ground level of Southern Cross Station.

He was exploring the city, having arrived three weeks earlier from India to study in a language school, when he was approached by two PSOs.

According to Mr Thind, one PSO said: ''Just show me your ID.''

''I said, 'why'. He said, 'Just show me, we need your date of birth, name and address','' Mr Thind said.

''Because I was scared I gave him my Indian licence, and then he wrote my name and my date of birth in his diary. He told me, 'Where are you living in Australia?' and I told him my address.''

At no stage did the PSO tell Mr Thind that he was not obliged to reveal the information. ''I asked the police officer many times, 'Why do you need my ID?' because I didn't do anything wrong. He said to me, 'We just need it'.''

Police did not disclose with whom the details were shared, but confirmed they were ''held by Victoria Police as law enforcement data''.

The spokeswoman said the data was ''generally not'' cross-checked with CCTV footage ''unless the circumstances require an investigation''.

theage.com.au 27 Apr 2013

One does not legally have to provide information to ANY PSO unless it is for the purpose of an arrest, and not a fine.

The general populous are being fed drivel, in order to keep them subservient and submissive to civil rule.

 

The police are factually a corporation and function as such, which is a well known fact within certain legal circles, but kept under wraps.

 

This information will not be published in the corporate media,as the corporate media is a government lap dog.

There are many cases of government fraud that are taboo to report.

The official jobless rate is just one example.

 

Australia, the new Alcatraz is truly a Police State.

NSW Police hit with $1.8m legal bill after piracy case

NSW Police incurred a $1.8 million legal bill defending itself against a multinational software company that sued for wide-scale copyright piracy, figures obtained under government information access laws show.

Software company Micro Focus alleged in 2011 that the NSW Police Force, Ombudsman, Police Integrity Commission, Corrective Services and other government agencies illegally used its ViewNow software, which is used to access the intelligence database known as COPS.

The company alleged police and other agencies were using 16,500 copies of its software on various computers when police were only ever entitled to 6500 licences. The group initially alleged $10 million in damages but later increased this to $12 million after reviewing the results of a court-ordered, $120,000 KPMG audit of the NSW Police Force's computer systems.

The police force maintained during the court proceedings that it had paid for a site licence that entitled it to unlimited installations of the software for all of its officers.

Despite this, it settled the matter out of court last year for an undisclosed sum. The other agencies previously settled the matter out of court, also for undisclosed sums.

No internal documents were handed over to Fairfax Media as part of its government information access request.

• NSW Police's response to Fairfax's request for documents

Darren Brand, Senior Sergeant co-ordinator at the NSW Police information access and subpoena unit, denied a request for documents relating to how much was paid to Micro Focus as part of the settlement, and why the matter was settled out of court.

Mr Brand did however divulge that no one was sacked as a result of the legal action by Micro Focus and the legal costs for the case totalled $1,829,709.29.

''To put these costs in context, Micro Focus has claimed as much as $12 million in damages,'' he said.

Mr Brand said there was a stronger public interest against releasing all of the information requested. He said it would ''breach'' the NSW Police Force's obligation to maintain the confidential terms of the settlement.

Mr Brand also believed the release of that information ''could result in further legal action against [the police force], which would incur further expenditure of government funds''.

But Sydney piracy investigator Michael Speck said it "beggars belief" that the NSW Police Force had continued to pursue the case even after all other government agencies had settled.

"One can only assume [it] was motivated by ready access to the public purse," Mr Speck said.

"They have settled the case after fiercely resisting it on commercial terms that include the settlement being confidential. You'd have to wonder how the confidential settlement sits with the obligation that police have to properly investigate and report on alleged misconduct."

Mr Speck said the public deserved to know if police had properly investigated the matter internally, if they had taken steps to ensure something like the matter never happened again, and if action would be taken against the individual who allegedly set it on the path of software piracy.

boardermail.com.au 27 Apr 2013

Corruption in the police is widespread.

This corruption is supported by the government.

When a 'civilian' reports this corruption, there is no response from but rather a vendetta by authorities.

Software piracy plays only a small part in the bigger picture of police corruption