Fukushima: Strontium levels up to 240 times over legal limit near plant, uninhabitable land area now the size of 17 Manhattans - (Read Full Story)

Representing the first time the substance has been detected at the crippled plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) reported on Sunday that seawater and groundwater samples taken near the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan have tested positive for radioactive strontium. And according to a recent report in The Japan Times, levels of strontium detected were up to 240 times over the legal limit, indicating a serious environmental and health threat.

Radioactive strontium, which is known to accumulate in bones and eventually lead to diseases like cancer and leukemia, is one of at least three "hot particles" being continually released by the damaged plant, according to experts. The others include radioactive cesium and plutonium, both of which are implicated in causing birth defects, cancer, and death.

"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," said Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president with 39 years of nuclear engineering experience, to Al Jazeera. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters.”

Far out: Magic mushrooms could have medical benefits, researchers say - (Read Full Story)

The hallucinogen in magic mushrooms may no longer just be for hippies seeking a trippy high.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been studying the effects of psilocybin, a chemical found in some psychedelic mushrooms, that's credited with inducing transcendental states. Now, they say, they've zeroed in on the perfect dosage level to produce transformative mystical and spiritual experiences that offer long-lasting life-changing benefits, while carrying little risk of negative reactions.

The breakthrough could speed the day when doctors use psilocybin--long viewed skeptically for its association with 1960s countercultural thrill-seekers--for a range of valuable clinical functions, like easing the anxiety of terminally ill patients, treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and helping smokers quit. Already, studies in which depressed cancer patients were given the drug have reported positive results. "I'm not afraid to die anymore" one participant told The Lookout.

Japan Finds Toxic Fish, As Ocean Radiation Soars To 7.5 Million Times Legal Limit

A fish was caught on Friday midway between Fukushima and Tokyo that contained dangerously high levels of radioactive iodine and high levels of cesium.

This catch has prompted Japan to announce its first legal limits for radiation in fish, according to the AP. Previously Japan had said it was enough to ban fishing in the near proximity of the nuclear plant.

Japan also just announced a huge surge in ocean contamination, as radioactive iodine-131 at 7.5 million times the legal limit was found near the plant, according to Japan Times. Yesterday, levels were only 5 million times the legal limit.

Ocean contamination will probably get worse. Yesterday TEPCO commenced a plan to dump 11,500 tons of radioactive water into the ocean, and it said a leak of even more toxic water could last for months.

Japan, like the Gulf of Mexico during the oil spill, faces a serious economic blow if its fishing industry dries up.

Doctors, Nurses and Scientists on Protecting Your Child and Yourself

Click the button below to get the VaccinationCouncil.org Special Report released by NaturalNews. The report contains useful information on the fact vaccinations have never been proven safe or effective, the profit motive behind Big Pharm’s vaccine push, why vaccinated children have far worse health outcomes than unvaccinated children, and more.

Food costs serve up trouble

Get ready for a rocky year. From now on, rising prices, powerful storms, severe droughts and floods, and other unexpected events are likely to play havoc with the fabric of global society, producing chaos and political unrest. Start with a simple fact: the prices of basic food staples are already approaching or exceeding their 2008 peaks, that year when deadly riots erupted in dozens of countries around the world.

Infectious moods: How bugs control your mind

FEELING happy? Down in the dumps? Or been behaving strangely lately? Besides the obvious reasons, whether or not you are happy or sad, or prone to depression or other mental illnesses, could be a consequence of an infection - or even down to the diseases that you didn't catch during childhood.

"It used to be thought that the immune system and the nervous system were worlds apart," says John Bienenstock of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Now it seems the immune system, and infections that stimulate it, can influence our moods, memory and ability to learn. Some strange behaviours, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, may be triggered by infections, and the immune system may even shape our basic personalities, such as how anxious or impulsive we are. The good news is that understanding these links between the brain and immune system could lead to new ways of treating all kinds of disorders, from depression to Tourette's syndrome.

One poor harvest away from chaos

Dr Henry Kissinger, at the height of his powers as US Secretary of State, was speaking to the landmark 1974 World Food Conference. Since then, the number of hungry people worldwide has almost exactly doubled: from 460 million to 925 million.

And this week the airwaves have been full of warnings that the formidable figure could be about to increase further, as a new food crisis takes hold. Some experts warned that the world could be on the verge of a "nightmare scenario" of cut throat competition for the control of shrinking supplies.

The cause of such alarm? On Wednesday, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported that global food prices had hit a record high and were likely to go on rising, entering what Abdolreza Abbassian, its senior grains economist, called "danger territory".

Urgent action needed to help stop fluoridation of New York City and San Diego

There's good news on the fluoride front in New York City this week, but your help is needed there (and also in San Diego). Councilor Peter Vallone is introducing a bill to the New York City Council that would end fluoridation in NYC. We need help from all our New York City readers to support this effort to protect the safety of the NYC water supply and remove this toxic chemical from the tap water there.

As you may already know, the fluoride that's dumped into the water supplies in cities like NYC is actually derived from the toxic byproducts of the phosphate mining industry. Twenty-four studies have now been publishing linking fluoride to low IQs in children, including a recent study that showed water fluoridation strongly correlated to a statistically significant reduction in children's IQs (http://www.prisonplanet.com/fluorid...).

World Food Prices Jump to Record on Sugar, Oilseeds

World food prices rose to a record in December on higher sugar, grain and oilseed costs, the United Nations said, exceeding levels reached in 2008 that sparked deadly riots from Haiti to Egypt.

An index of 55 food commodities tracked by the Food and Agriculture Organization gained for a sixth month to 214.7 points, above the previous all-time high of 213.5 in June 2008, the Rome-based UN agency said in a monthly report. The gauges for sugar and meat prices advanced to records.

With food safety bill, U.S. government will spend nearly $1 million per person to prevent food-borne illness deaths

The recently-passed Food Safety Modernization Act, which was passed in order to prevent food-borne illness deaths in the USA, will cost $1.4 billion over the first five years. But nobody thinks about the economics of the issue. How many people are we going to save by spending this $1.4 billion, even assuming it works?

To answer that question, let's look at the food illness fatality figures offered by the CDC:

Out of the 5,000 food-borne illness deaths each year in the United States, only 1,809 are "attributable to foodborne transmission" according to the CDC

Federal Judge Rules in Favor of Virginia's Central Challenge to Health Care Law

Casting an unmistakable and perhaps permanent pockmark on the face of the Obama administration, a federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday that a major component of the new health care reform law is unconstitutional.

Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Monday for the state's claim that the requirement for people to purchase health care exceeds the power of Congress under the Constitution's Commerce Clause or under the General Welfare Clause.

Health panel brings out big guns

The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority is cracking down on more than 3,000 residents who are fighting state fines, and has even hired a private law firm to force the health insurance scofflaws to pay penalties of up to $2,000 a year.

All told, more than 7,700 people have appealed state fines for not having health insurance, according to connector spokesman Richard Powers. The agency has hired several private attorneys at $50 an hour to hear many of the appeals, and some 3,150 of them have been denied — and the losers told to pay up.

Aspartame (found in Diet Coke) causes premature births

Regular consumption of artificial sweeteners by pregnant women may increase their risk of premature birth, according to a study funded by the European Union and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers interviewed almost 60,000 pregnant Danish women about their soft-drink consumption, then compared these data with the results of the women's births. They found that drinking one can of diet soda per day increased her risk of giving birth prematurely by 38 percent compared with women who never drank diet soda. Drinking four or more of the beverages per day increased the risk of preterm birth by 78 percent.

Drunken' gene discovered by scientists

Scientists found that 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the population possess a particular version of the gene that causes them to get drunk easily.

The first few drinks during a night out will leave these individuals feeling more inebriated than their friends.

Cost of your health plan to rise 14%

Employees' share of premiums for a family plan is up an average 14%, to $3,997, vs. just a 3% rise in the total bill, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

And it's not just premiums that are spiraling higher. You're also likely to be hit with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums as well as bigger bills for doctor's visits and drugs.

Western surge in obesity may have been caused by a virus

The obesity explosion that has swept the Western world over the past 30 years may have been caused by a virus, scientists have said.

Researchers have discovered new evidence for an illness they have called "infectobesity" - obesity that is transmitted from person to person, much like an infection. The agent thought to be responsible is a strain of adenovirus, versions of which cause the common cold. It has already been labelled the "fat bug".

Oh-No: Tests Confirm Oil Seep Distance Away From Deepwater Well

As the National Incident Commander, I must remain abreast of the status of your source control efforts. Now that source control has evolved into a period beyond the expected 48 hour interval of the Well Integrity Test, I am requiring that you provide me a written update within 24 hours of your intentions going forward. I remain concerned that all potential options to eliminate the discharge of oil be pursued with utmost speed until I can be assured that no additional oil will spill from the Macondo Well.

You may use your letter of 9 July as a basis for your update. Specifically, you must provide me your latest containment plan and schedule in the event that the Well Integrity Test is suspended, the status and completion timelines for all containment options currently under development, and details of any other viable source control options including hydraulic control that you are considering. You should highlight any points at which progress along one option will be impacted by resource trade-offs to achieve progress along another option. Include options for and impacts of continued twice-a day seismic testing versus once a day testing...

No, You Can't Keep Your Health Plan

President Obama guaranteed Americans that after health reform became law they could keep their insurance plans and their doctors. It's clear that this promise cannot be kept. Insurers and physicians are already reshaping their businesses as a result of Mr. Obama's plan.

The health-reform law caps how much insurers can spend on expenses and take for profits. Starting next year, health plans will have a regulated "floor" on their medical-loss ratios, which is the amount of revenue they spend on medical claims. Insurers can only spend 20% of their premiums on running their plans if they offer policies directly to consumers or to small employers. The spending cap is 15% for policies sold to large employers...

Congressional Democrats have begun pushing legislation giving government regulators greater authority to block big increases in health insurance premiums, kicking off what is expected to be a years-long process of revising and expanding their major healthcare overhaul.

"Don't drink the water," that's what Oliver Outerbridge is telling his neighbors.

It's ironic because Outerbridge is a restaurant owner in Portland, Maine-a state which has some of the best tasting drinking water in the country.

"We are literally consuming a toxic substance," Outbridge said, "we are medicating everyone."

Wet kisses from man's best friend could soon be showing us more than love. Researchers have found that the DNA on Fido's tongue could be the key to new treatments for rare cancers in both humans and dogs.

The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), developed the Canine Hereditary Cancer Consortium, to understand why people and their pets get sick.

No Obamacare for Obama, his family, his staff, the vice president, the vice president’s staff, the rest of the administration, Nancy Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s staff, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Reid’s staff, all other House and Senate leaders and their staff, all committee members and their staff… the list goes on...

Twelve states plan to challenge the constitutionality of the health-care overhaul passed yesterday by the U.S. House, according to statements made today...

A group of Hispanic lawmakers on Thursday will tell President Barack Obama that they may not vote for healthcare reform unless changes are made to the bill’s immigration provisions...

President Obama's attempts to ram health- care reform through an increasingly reluctant Congress are starting to resemble a really eventful episode of "The Sopranos."

Whether or not you believe former Rep. Eric Massa's bizarre accusations of locker-room confrontations and conspiracies to drive him from office, there is no doubt that the Obama administration and its congressional allies are willing to use every trick in the book to get this bill passed…

Those who do not wish to have their details on the £11 billion computer system are supposed to be able to opt out by informing health authorities.

But doctors have accused the Government of rushing the project through, meaning that patients have had their details uploaded to the database before they have had a chance to object...

In cluded in President Oba ma's latest stab at health-care reform released yesterday is one of the more astonishing admissions of political deception in recent memory.

After months of swearing that his health legislation would lower the skyrocketing costs of insurance premiums, Obama finally acknowledged that actually it would not...

With long waits for treatment, thousands living in close quarters at makeshift camps and severely disrupted water supplies, there is an immediate threat of tetanus and gangrene to those who are injured as well as a risk from measles, meningitis and other infections...