The University of Cambridge found that regular consumption of chocolate might slash the risk of developing heart disease by a third.
114,000 people were studied. People who ate the most chocolate were 37% less likely to develop heart disease, and 29% less likely to suffer a stroke.
Why? Researchers speculate that chocolate’s high content in polyphenols, antioxidant compounds that boost the body’s production of nitric oxide, helps reduce blood pressure.
“Wild birds may introduce the virus, but people’s actions in poultry production and marketing spread it.”–Juan Lubroth, UN Food and Agriculture Organization
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is warning of a new mutant strain of H5N1 (Bird Flu). They say it’s spreading throughout southern China, and Vietnam.
Current vaccines do not work on this latest strain.
The UN is predicting the mutant H5N1 virus could spread to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Korean and Japan. The last H5N1 outbreak peaked in 2006.
Bank of America announced that it wants to sell half its stake in the lucrative China Construction Bank. Why? B of A needs cash now!
Bank of America hopes to get $8.3 billion from the sale. B of A will still hold 5% of China Construction Bank.
“The next 12 months look tough. Incentives brought forward buying in a very dramatic fashion in 2009, 2010, and now we are seeing a lack of pent-up demand.”-Ashvin Chotai, Intelligence Automotive Asia
General Motors can’t stand the heat of the competition in China, so they’re sacrificing profit margin by dropping their prices, on minivans.
“GM does not rely on the minibus for profit, they only contribute volume.”– Jenny Gu, JD Power & Associates.
GM might not rely on minivan sales for profits in China, but they’re sure taking the competition serious. GM’s sales of minivans, in China, dropped 3% this year, so far. That’s important when you realize that China, not the United States, is now GM’s largest auto market.
The minivans that GM sells in China, are made in China, not the U.S. One in eight vehicle sales in China are minivans.
It looks like VolksWagen is taking up the slack in GM’s lagging Chinese made minivan sales. GM sold 1.27 million vehicles in China in the first half of this year, compared with VW’s 1.1 million. This means VW could soon overtake GM’s number one foreign car maker position in China.
“We’ve had an increase in requests for that type of service, and so our food supply is dwindling rapidly.”-Brenda Ames, Pocatello Salvation Army
A recent survey by Feeding America revealed that the economic situation in Idaho is much worse than elected leaders claim. At least 20% of Idaho kids do not know where their next meal is coming from.
“Children are aware that the parents are struggling to feed them. They don’t know if there is enough in the house for breakfast, enough food for dinner.”-Joye Jones, Idaho Food Bank Pocatello Branch
The problem is made worse by the facts that because more people are making less money, donations to food banks are down, and, the state of Idaho has been cutting federally funded social programs.
The state with the least food insecurity is also the state with the best economy; North Dakota with less than 12% of kids going hungry.
Talas has been a slow but steady tropical storm, building strength as it heads towards the center of Honshu. It’s expected to become a full blown Typhoon on August 30.
The projected path of Talas brings it onshore, on September 1, in south central Honshu, west of Tokyo. Then it almost splits the island as it heads north to the island of Hokkaido. Japan is still recovering from the March 11 disasters.
Tropical storm Talas, directly south of Japan, is heading right for the center of the nuclear damaged island nation.
It’s predicted that by 29 August 2011 Talas will be a category 1 typhoon. Japan is still recovering from the 11 March 2011 quake and tsunami. Also, the damaged nuclear plant Fukushima Daiichi could get hit.
Supertyphoon Nanmadol, wavering between category 4 and 5, slammed Philippines, killing several people.
It’s known that five children were killed when the supertyphoon caused a landslide. Nanmadol is about 370 miles in diameter. It’s now heading towards Taiwan.
The Virginia earthquake shutdown at least one nuclear power plant, but Hurricane Irene could hit dozens more.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has sent personnel to the Brunswick nuclear plant, on the North Carolina coastline where Irene is expected to make landfall.
NRC regulations call for nuclear reactors to be completely shut down several hours ahead of the arrival of hurricane-force winds of 75 mph or greater.
There are at least seven nuclear power plants in the projected path of Hurricane Irene.
More than one year ago, the city of Adelanto, California, sold their prison to GEO Group. The Adelanto Community Correctional Facility was being used to house state prisoners.
City officials say they got a promise from GEO that the former city prison guards would be hired. City officials also thought the prison would be reopened shortly. One year later those former city paid prison guards are still unemployed.
GEO is remodeling the prison, because it is now going to be used as an immigrant detention center. It’s been renamed the Adelanto ICE Procesing Center East & West. GEO wants to start taking in immigrants by August 2011, but doesn’t expect the new detention center to be completed until August 2012.
GEO also runs the Desert View Modified Community Correctional Facility, in Adelanto. GEO Group is the second largest for profit prison corporation in the United States. GEO run prisons have histories of violence and sexual assaults.
