What Would Jesus Buy?

An examination of the commercialization of Christmas in America while following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.) The film also delves into issues such as the role sweatshops play in America’s mass consumerism and Big-Box Culture. From the humble beginnings of preaching at his portable pulpit on New York City subways, to having a congregation of thousands – Bill Talen (aka Rev. Billy) has become the leader of not just a church, but a national movement.

http://video.google.es/videoplay

Food Label Lies

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/02/25/9-food-label-lies.aspx


The healthiest food often has the least marketing muscle behind it. The Center for Science in the Public Interest recently published a comprehensive report on the subject, a persuasive indictment called 'Food Labeling Chaos' [below].

Here are nine of the most common ways food labels lie...

"Made With Whole Grains"

Unbleached wheat flour is still the main ingredient; whole wheat flour is further down on the list, indicating that the product contains relatively little. One truth -- the presence of whole grains -- masks another; that whole grains make up an insignificant portion of the food.

Ingredients

Even if the first ingredient listed isn’t sugar, the product may contain more sugar than anything else. How is it possible? Just add up all the sugars that go by different names, such as sugar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup and white grape juice concentrate.

Serving Size

There are 2.5 official servings in a 20 ounce soda bottles, meaning that 100 calories per "serving" is really 240 calories per bottle.

Omega 3

The FDA allows certain foods that are rich in two of the omega-3 fats to advertise that they can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, but only if they're also low in saturated fats or other risk factors. Which is why some unhealthy foods use a bit of marketing misdirection: the packaging has the word "omega-3", but nothing specifically about heart health.

"Made With Real Fruit"

Usually the only thing approximating fruit is concentrate (sugar). If you want real fruit, buy real fruit. If you want candy, buy candy.

"0 Trans Fat"

Many reformulated foods are basically just as bad, but they scream one truth: "0 trans fats!" to obscure another: "Still bad for your heart!"

"Free Range Eggs"

This means chickens must be granted the luxury of exactly five minutes of "access" to the outdoors every day. Those eggs you buy may have been raised ethically, with room enough for hens to roam the yard. But there's no guarantee in the "free range" label.

Fiber

The fibers advertised in many foods are mainly "purified powders" called inulin, polydextrose and maltodextrin.

Tastes Like Medicine!

Food makers can't say that their product "helps reduce the risk of heart disease" without FDA approval, so they say that it "helps maintain a healthy heart."
Read more...

Food Labeling Chaos, The case for reform
The Center for Science in the Public Interest
Bruce Silvergrade & Ilene Ringel Heller

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24876372

How Advertising Manipulates Our 'Caveman' Brains (& How to Resist)

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/01/how-advertising.html

It is becoming increasingly clear that widespread consumption is wrecking havoc on the planet. But, if it’s making us happier then perhaps it’s worth the compromise, some argue. Strangely, that doesn’t appear to be the case, either. The spreading westernized belief that “more” possessions equates to more happiness hasn’t panned out. In fact, statistically, the First World now has more depression, alcoholism, crime, anxiety, obesity and overall dissatisfaction with life than was reported 50 years ago. What if “more” isn’t “more” in terms of consumption? Recent research is now shedding light on the phenomenon.
These studies suggest that our Stone Age brains, or what scientists refer to as the “primitive” brain is evolved to want more, but not necessarlily to ENJOY more. For example, Brain scans by Emory University revealed that the reward-chemical dopamine is released when we spot a product and consider buying it. Interestingly, only the anticipation releases dopamine. After the item is bought, the high often evaporates within minutes, and the purchaser may be indifferent to having one more item or even suffer from “buyer’s remorse”.
Last year Bonn researchers used brain scanning to show that humans don’t want lots of stuff, so much as they want MORE stuff than others. This is a confusing, scarcity paradigm that we share with monkey’s and other primates. The study found that whether or not people made big paychecks, for example, was much less of a motivating factor than whether they made MORE than their coworkers. In other words, winning the arbitrary “competition” appears to be more important than the reward itself.

Read more...

[More on consumerism...]

The Joneses Paradox: Brain-Scan Study Rewrites Economic Theory
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/11/the-joneses-par.html

"Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance."
· Epicurus (Greek philosopher, BC 341-270)

[and...]

The Consumer Paradox:
Scientists Find that Low Self-Esteem and Materialism Goes Hand in Hand
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/11/the-consumer-pa.html

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes,
working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need."
- From the movie Fight Club, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk

Human civilisation 'will collapse' unless greed culture is stopped, report warns

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/6979611/Human-civilisation-will-collapse-unless-greed-culture-is-stopped-report-warns.html

The world's population is burning through the planet's resources at such a reckless rate – about 28 per cent more last year - it will eventually cause environmental havoc, said the Worldwatch Institute, a US think-tank.
In its annual State of the World 2010 report, it warned any gains from government action on climate change could be wiped out by the cult of consumption and greed unless changes in our lifestyle were made.
Consumerism had become a "powerful driver" for increasing demand for resources and consequent production of waste, with governments, including the British, too readily wanting to promoted it as necessary for job creation and economic well-being.
[...]
The think tank warned that without a "wholesale transformation” of cultural patterns the world would not be able to "prevent the collapse of human civilisation”.
The think tank found that over the past decade consumption of goods and services had risen by 28 per cent to $30.5 trillion (£19bn) - with the world digging up the equivalent of 112 Empire State Buildings of material every day.
The average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, many US two year-olds can recognise the McDonald’s “Golden Archers” sign, although they cannot read the letter, and an average western family spends more on their pet than by someone trying to live in Bangladesh.
[...]
Consumerism it said had "taken root in culture upon culture over the past half-century ... (and) become a powerful driver of the inexorable increase in demand for resources and production of waste that marks our age."

"Until we recognise that our environmental problems, from climate change to deforestation to species loss, are driven by unsustainable habits, we will not be able to solve the ecological crises that threaten to wash over civilisation."

Read more...

How 16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-16-ships-create-pollution-cars-world.html

[...]
As ships get bigger, the pollution is getting worse. The most staggering statistic of all is that just 16 of the world’s largest ships can produce as much lung-clogging sulphur pollution as all the world’s cars.
Because of their colossal engines, each as heavy as a small ship, these super-vessels use as much fuel as small power stations.
But, unlike power stations or cars, they can burn the cheapest, filthiest, high-sulphur fuel: the thick residues left behind in refineries after the lighter liquids have been taken. The stuff nobody on land is allowed to use.
[...]
There are now an estimated 100,000 ships on the seas, and the fleet is growing fast as goods are ferried in vast quantities from Asian industrial powerhouses to consumers in Europe and North America.
[...]
Each is a quarter of a mile long and can carry up to 14,000 full-size containers on their regular routes from China to Europe.

Emma – dubbed SS Santa by the media – brought Christmas presents to Europe in October and is now en route from Algeciras in Spain to Yantian in southern China, carrying containers full of our waste paper, plastic and electronics for recycling.
[...]
Bunker fuel is also thick with sulphur. International Maritime Organisation (IMO, the UN body that polices the world’s shipping) rules allow ships to burn fuel containing up to 4.5 per cent sulphur. That is 4,500 times more than is allowed in car fuel in the European Union. The sulphur comes out of ship funnels as tiny particles, and it is these that get deep into lungs.
Thanks to the IMO’s rules, the largest ships can each emit as much as 5,000 tons of sulphur in a year – the same as 50million typical cars, each emitting an average of 100 grams of sulphur a year.
With an estimated 800million cars driving around the planet, that means 16 super-ships can emit as much sulphur as the world fleet of cars.

Read more...

Apoteosis del 'Revival'

[Perfecto para la época...]

[Via Droïd. Salud!]

Health and disease information: Are you getting the whole story?

http://www.examiner.com/x-672-Disease-Prevention-Examiner~y2009m3d31-Health-and-disease-Youre-probably-not-getting-the-whole-story

Recently, I have been intensely frustrated with big business, my health care community, and our government.

Since when is it considered to be wrongful to share the facts about health and disease?

In some settings, my hands are tied when it comes to giving people the whole story about health and disease, and because they do not hear life-saving advice, they continue to live a life that is burdened.

My approach is simple and straight-forward. I encourage people to eat a diet that is based on foods that grow from the ground. I encourage them to exercise regularly. I advise them not to smoke and to use stress management techniques when necessary.

The research is not new. Research that supportsvegan nutrition, regular exercise, abstinence from tobacco, and stress management has existed in the scientific literature for decades.

Judging by the way that individuals and many large institutions react when I give recommendatios based on these findings, you'd think that I was asking them to consider some sort of inhumane, witch-like ritual.

Shouldn't the people who pay for the research -- taxpayers -- be given this potentially life-saving information? After hearing and understanding the facts, they could then digest the information and decide for themselves what recommendations they will and will not adopt.

T. Colin Campbell, in his book The China Study, said it best:

"Consumers have the ultimate choice of whether to integrate our findings [research data and recommendations] into their lifestyles, but we owe it to them to give them the best information possible with which to make that decision and not decide for them. It is they who paid for this research and it is only they who have the right to decide what to do with it."

Unpaid bills? Good luck starting future laptops

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/ptech/stories/040109dnbusBills.8c81e8e7.html

NEW YORK - As wireless carriers begin to subsidize computers that come with wireless Internet access, they're faced with a quandary: What do they do if the buyer stops paying his bills?

The company can cut off the computer's wireless access, but the carrier would still be out a couple of hundred dollars. The buyer would be left with a computer that's fully usable except for cellular broadband.

LM Ericsson AB, the Swedish company that makes many of the modems that go into laptops, announced Tuesday that its new modem will deal with this issue by including a feature that's virtually a wireless repo man. If the carrier has the stomach to do so, it can send a signal that completely disables the computer, making it impossible to turn on.

"We call it a `kill pill,'" said Mats Norin, Ericsson's vice president of mobile broadband modules.

The module will work on AT&T Inc.'s U.S. third-generation network, and on many other 3G networks overseas.

Read more...