Friday, October 31, 2008

Did Helen's fall straighten out her teeth?


Here's Helen Clark's famous fall. This version is the 30 second version. The one on YouTube is six seconds and doesn't show who she kissed before she fell. She was very lucky the thing she collected on the way down wasn't closer or otherwise her next public engagement would have been the dentist.

Herald journalist to vote National


John Roughan has decided to vote National, but would have voted the Maori Party if he thought his vote would count in getting a Government that has Maori Party influence. But the Maori Party is likely to get more seats than the proportion of the vote allows it to so all a vote fore the Maori Party will do is assist in reducing overhang as long as others think similarly - and it's not like Roughan can vote for an electable candidate of the Maori Party.

See if anyone will respond to this: Which minor party should a centre-left person vote for if they want a change of Government and want their party vote to count in influencing a National government? Suggestions welcome.

GI News—November 2008

[COLLAGE]
  • GI values for over 2,480 foods in the 2008 International tables of glycemic index
  • Prof Trim: ‘The real issue is not if you are fat, but where the fat’s gone.’
  • ‘It’s not how much fat you eat, it’s the type that counts,’ says Nicole Senior
  • ‘The GI can be a great friend and tool to anyone battling weight and carb cravings.’ – Stephanie's success story
  • Kate's delicious low GI, dollar-saving Carrot, Ginger & Cannellini Bean Soup
‘Any changes aimed at reducing weight without a complete lifestyle “makeover” package are doomed to failure in the long term,’ says Prof Trim in Food for Thought. ‘It’s the whole kit and caboodle you need – good sleep, low stress, non-smoking, good diet and plenty of exercise.’ In News Briefs, we cover the key findings from the 2008 International tables of glycemic index and Fiona Atkinson summarises the average GI values of more than 60 common carb-containing foods in the Latest GI Values to help you put the lower GI choices into your shopping trolley and on your plate.

Good eating, good health and good reading.

GI News Editor: Philippa Sandall
Web Design and Management: Scott Dickinson, PhD

Food for Thought

Inflammation and obesity
‘Any changes aimed at reducing weight without changing all aspects of lifestyle are doomed to failure in the long term in today’s inflammatory environment,’ writes Prof. Garry Egger in his newsletter, Professor Trim’s Waistline (23). ‘So, while health “experts” and dinner party guests continue to argue the merits of the Atkins over the Zone diet, or weight lifting over walking, the world moves on, with new findings suggesting the ineffectiveness of single behaviour change programs in the absence of a “lifestyle makeover”.

[INFLAMMATION]

Leading the charge is research that indicates that body weight or even fat, per se, may not be the issue in disease, and may in fact just be a marker of other problems occurring in the overall lifestyle. Studies on inflammatory processes in the body, normally thought to be associated with infections, have shown that a low grade form of inflammation throughout all cells of the body, seems to result from certain lifestyle behaviours, some of which (but not all) can make us fat at the same time.

Eating too much and not being active enough are the two main lifestyle behaviours that cause obesity. And while obesity has been known for over a decade to be associated with inflammation, certain types of nutrition and inactivity are now known to cause a low grade form of inflammation, with or without the weight gain.

Foods that cause a rise in pro-inflammatory markers (chemical call-out signals to the immune system to fire up its defences) immediately after they have been eaten, have now been identified (e.g. saturated fat, high GI foods, salt, excessive alcohol, starvation) as have foods that have the opposite (anti-inflammatory and hence supposedly good) effect (e.g. fruit and veg, nuts, tea, monounsaturated fats, calorie restriction).

A casual glance at these suggests an immediate hypothesis: pro-inflammatory foods and nutritional behaviours are typically those with which humans have not evolved, and those listed under the anti-inflammatory side are those that humans have consumed for thousands of years – little wonder the body reacts as if it is at war against these foreign invaders. Starvation is the exception, but an inflammatory reaction to this has survival value in increasing insulin resistance and enabling the body to conserve what valuable energy stores (glucose and fat) it may have left. On the positive side, calorie restriction – although obviously not to the point of starvation – can have an anti-inflammatory effect, so bearing in mind the adverse effect of over-eating, it seems like this is a moderation in all things type recommendation

The fact that most of the pro-inflammatory stimulants can also increase body fat may be less relevant than is often thought. And this is reinforced by the fact that other modern behaviours can have a similar effect.
  • Inadequate sleep is a common phenomenon in an electric light and entertainment driven environment. Over one-third of individuals in modern industrialised countries are now getting less than 7 hours sleep a night and this has been shown to raise inflammatory markers.
  • Depression is also on the rise and is also associated with an inflammatory reaction.
  • Finally, smoking, while actually being responsible for keeping weight down, can cause an outpouring of pro-inflammatory markers.
In all of these cases, obesity or weight gain may or may not exist. So by adopting a single behaviour such as a short-term diet or exercise program, could we realistically expect to see a decrease in inflammatory related diseases (such as heart disease and diabetes)?

It seems clear that any changes aimed at reducing weight, without changing all aspects of lifestyle relating to the modern inflammatory environment are doomed to failure in the long term – hence the renowned failure of all forms of dieting, biggest loser programs and TV promoted machines for weight loss. What’s needed for those lucky enough to be “warned” by an expanding waistline, and those who stay lean but should be aware of increasing disease risk factors, is a complete lifestyle “makeover” package. Bits of the package won’t do. It’s the whole kit and kaboodle – good sleep, low stress, non-smoking, good diet and plenty of exercise – that has been promoted since the days of Hippocrates, that must make up the prevention armoury.’

[CARTOON]

For more information check out Prof Trim’s article in September’s Obesity Reviews.

News Briefs

GI of over 2,480 individual food items published
The International tables of glycemic index 2008 produced by researchers from the University of Sydney’s Human Nutrition Unit have been published online in Diabetes Care. The tables give the GI (glycemic index) of over 2,480 individual food items – doubling previous data. The key findings says lead researcher Fiona Atkinson are:
  • Most varieties of legumes, pasta, fruits and dairy products are low GI.
  • Breads, breakfast cereals, rice and snack products, including wholegrains, are available in both high and low GI forms.
  • Most varieties of potato and rice are high GI, but lower GI ones are available.
  • The GI of some foods such as oatmeal/porridge appears to be increasing possibly reflecting food industry efforts to provide convenience for the consumer with faster cooking products.
  • The GI of foods must be tested locally because manufacturers in different countries prepare and process foods, particularly cereal products, in different ways. For example, Kellogg’s Special K™ and All-Bran™, for example, are different formulations in North America, Europe and Australia.
[GROCERIES]

‘Low GI foods have benefits for everybody,’ says Prof. Jennie Brand-Miller from Sydney University’s Human Nutrition Unit. ‘They can keep you feeling full longer, help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight and provide you and your brain with more consistent energy throughout the day. They can also have a major effect on the way the body functions and whether or not you develop health problems. If you have constantly high blood glucose and insulin levels due to eating a high GI diet, for example, you may literally “exhaust” your pancreas over time and eventually this can lead to pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes.’

‘The GI was a controversial topic among researchers and health authorities for many years, for a variety of reasons, she says. ‘But today, studies from major leading medical institutions and research universities around the world have repeatedly demonstrated that the GI is a clinically proven tool in its application to weight control, diabetes and coronary health. Moreover, the International Diabetes Federation and diabetes organisations in many countries have endorsed the judicious use of the GI in the dietary management of diabetes.’

To create the 2008 tables, University of Sydney researchers spent over two years systematically sorting through all the published and unpublished sources of reliable GI values. ‘What’s unique about the 2008 tables,’ says Brand-Miller, ‘is that there are actually two tables, the first is a list of GI values derived from testing foods in healthy people, and the second primarily from individuals with impaired glucose metabolism.’

In their conclusion, the researchers emphasise that the GI should not be used in isolation. Food choices should be based on overall nutritional content along with the amount of saturated fat, salt, fibre and of course the GI value.

Low g-eyes
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one is the most common causes of blindness in the over-50s, currently responsible for 14 million cases of blindness or severe visual impairment worldwide.

[EYE]

Dietary factors are known risk factors for AMD. In ‘Food for Thought’ (May 2006) we reported on research suggesting that the quality of the carbohydrates you eat may help to bring it on — or hold it off. A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition confirms that it would be a good idea to make a low GI diet part of any AMD prevention plan along with foods you already know about such as dark green leafy vegetables, a variety of fruits (all different colours) and fish. Prof. Paul Mitchell from Sydney University’s Department of Ophthalmology says the prospective population based study shows that a high GI diet is a risk factor for early AMD — the recognized precursor of sight-threatening late AMD. ‘Low-glycemic-index foods such as oatmeal may protect against early AMD,’ say the researchers in their conclusion.

What's new?
Check your fracture risk

The Garvan Institute’s Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study has followed more than 2,500 people aged over 60 from Dubbo (in Australia) for almost 20 years. It’s the world's longest osteoporosis study and the first to include men. Three-quarters of the risk of developing osteoporosis is genetic. But, according Assoc. Prof. Tuan Nguyen, ‘men with prostate cancer should consider seeking evaluation for osteoporosis, particularly if they are being treated with androgen deprivation therapy as they face a 50 per cent higher risk of fracture, which increases to nearly double the risk if they are receiving androgen deprivation therapy’. Using data collected in the Dubbo study, the Garvan Institute has formulated a web-based tool to enable people to calculate their fracture risk: www.fractureriskcalculator.com.

[FRACTURE]

2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans
The US Government has issued its first-ever Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. They describe the types and amounts of physical activity that offer substantial health benefits for adults and children.

November 14: World Diabetes Day focuses on diabetes and children
World Diabetes Day is a campaign that each year features a theme chosen by the International Diabetes Federation to address issues facing the global diabetes community. In 2008, the World Diabetes Day theme is diabetes in children and adolescents. For more information: www.worlddiabetesday.org

[KIDS]

Catherine Saxelby reviews Portion Perfection by Amanda Clark
Finding it hard to lose that excess weight? Could be that you’re eating ‘the right stuff’ but just eating too much of it. A new book published in Australia called Portion Perfection is a visual weight control plan that shows you exactly the right amount to eat if you want to lose or maintain weight. It includes everyday and occasional foods (such as treats like chocolate or wine) and spells out just how much you can eat for a number of different diet levels. The best thing about this book is that it has hundreds of pictures showing brands of packaged foods – not something normally found in a diet book. You’ll find almost every brand of yoghurt, cereal, muesli bar and crisps available in Australia shown as well as sushi, nuggets and take-aways. There’s also a Portion Perfection plate and bowl to help you serve up the right amount. For more information, check out www.greatideas.net.au.

[PORTION PERFECT]

The giveaway is now closed.
Check 'COMMENTS' for the winners and Great Ideas In Nutrition's special offer for residents of Australia who order the Portion Perfection book, plate and bowl before 5pm on Friday 7th November 2008.

Food of the Month with Catherine Saxelby

Ginger it up!

[PIC]
Catherine Saxelby

Whether you enjoy it fresh or dried, ginger adds a wonderful fragrance and pungency to your cooking. A key medicinal in traditional Chinese medicine (it has been used for over 2,500 years and it has a reputation for relieving stomach upsets as well as being a digestive aid), many of ginger’s health benefits are now being backed by research. Today, ginger’s medical uses include the treatment of nausea and morning sickness during pregnancy, motion sickness and some cancer treatments. Ginger can help reduce the pain and inflammation of osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis. Some sufferers have been able to reduce their arthritis medications with a daily dose of ginger extract.

[GINGER]

Ginger is technically a rhizome – it’s the underground stem of the Zingiber officinale plant. It’s rich in hundreds of phytochemicals, including gingerols, beta-carotene, capsacin, caffeic acid, curcumin and salicylates. It’s these chemicals that scientists believe are responsible for ginger’s therapeutic actions.

With very few kilojoules and virtually no fat, a tablespoon of grated fresh ginger (around 13 g) adds its pungent flavour and aroma without adding to your waistline. It’s 90% water. In contrast, a couple of squares (10 g) of glace or crystalline ginger is in the ‘treat’ category and will set you back around 130 kilojoules (31 calories) thanks to its 8 g sugar.

Ginger up your diet: Peel a chunk of the ginger root and then grate, finely chop, slice or even crush it in a garlic crusher. Store fresh ginger unpeeled in the vegetable crisper of the fridge for one to two weeks. Ground ginger should be stored in an airtight container away from light and heat.
  • Team fresh ginger with garlic, fish, pork, chicken, beef, shellfish, beans, pumpkin and Asian greens.
  • Sip home-made ginger tea: place 2 or 3 slices of fresh ginger in a cup and pour over boiling water. Leave for a couple of minutes and then drink. Add lemon juice and honey to taste.
  • Pep up a Japanese meal with pickled ginger on the side.
  • Indulge in a few squares of crystalline ginger as an after-dinner treat, occasionally
For more information on super foods and healthy eating, visit Catherine’s website: www.foodwatch.com.au

[ZEST]

Low GI Recipes of the Month

Our chef Kate Hemphill develops deliciously simple recipes for GI News that showcase seasonal ingredients and make it easy for you to cook healthy, low GI meals and snacks. For more of Kate’s fabulous fare, check out her website: www.lovetocook.co.uk. For now, prepare and share good food with family and friends.

[KATE]
Kate Hemphill

Carrot, ginger and cannellini bean soup
As a very new Mum, not having much time in the kitchen is a new experience for me and cooking has become frantic and hurried. So I thought I’d share one of my current favourite fast and nutritious meals. As there’s no sweating of onions or peeling of carrots, you really can throw this all in the pot without a worry. I’ve been making large batches of it and freezing portions so there’s always something to eat. Best of all, it's a real dollar saving dinner at around $US1 a serving if you make it using stock powder or cubes!
Makes 10–12 serves

1.5 kg (3¼ lb) carrots, scrubbed or peeled, ends trimmed and cut into 5 cm (2 inch) pieces
10 cm (4 inch) piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
Chicken or vegetable stock, to cover (approx 600 ml)
2 x 400 g (14 oz) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
300 ml (10 fl oz) light crème fraiche, low fat or skim yoghurt or light sour cream
Freshly ground black pepper
  • Put carrots, ginger and garlic into a large saucepan, cover with stock and and bring to the boil then reduce the heat and gently simmer until the carrots are tender.
  • Blitz, leaving some texture, and stir through the beans and crème fraiche (or yoghurt or sour cream). Add extra stock for a thinner soup. Reheat, taste and season with freshly ground black pepper and serve.
  • If freezing, allow to cool and ladle into 1-cup or 2-cup containers or zip-seal bags for easy use.
Per serve (based on 12 servings with skim yoghurt)
Energy: 392 kJ/93 cals; Protein 5 g; Fat 0.5 g (includes 0.2 g saturated fat and 1.3 mg cholesterol); Carbs 14 g; Fibre 7.6 g

Low GI fare from Johanna’s kitchen: In GI News American dietitian, Johanna Burani shares her recipes photographed by husband Sergio Burani. (Adapted with permission from Good Carbs, Bad Carbs, Da Capo Lifelong Books, New York.)

[JOHANNA]
Johanna Burani

Chocolate applesauce cupcake
You just can’t imagine how light and moist and tasty these cupcakes are unless you try them! Any nutritionist would agree that eating one of these as an occasional treat is 781 kJ (186 calories) well spent.
Makes 12 large or 48 mini cupcakes

½ cup tub margarine or light butter
¾ cup sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg white or ¼ egg substitute
½ cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
1½ cups natural applesauce
1¾ cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
  • Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Grease and flour the cupcake tin.
  • In a deep mixing bowl, cream the margarine or butter and sugar for about 1½ minutes at medium speed until smooth. Add in the egg, egg white or substitute and cocoa powder and mix for about 1 minute until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently. Fold in the applesauce.
  • In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and mix by hand, about 60 or 70 strokes. Do not over mix.
  • Fill the cupcake molds half to three-quarters full. Bake the large cupcakes for 22 minutes or the mini cupcakes for 15 minutes. Cool before removing from pan.
Per serve (1 large or 4 mini cupcakes)
Energy 781 kJ/186 cals; Protein 4 g; Fat 7 g (includes less than 0.5 g saturated fat and 18 milligrams cholesterol); Carbs 31 g; Fibre 4 g

[CUPCAKE]

Chocolate-pear smoothie
Thirty seconds to prepare, thirty seconds to mix, and then take your time to enjoy this luscious creamy treat.
Makes 2 serves

1 cup nonfat or 1% milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 medium pear (fresh, frozen or canned) peeled and cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon honey
Dash ground cardamom
  • Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Blend at high speed for 30 seconds. Pour into two glasses and serve immediately.
Per serve (1 cup)
Energy 550 kJ/131 cals; Protein 6 g; Fat 2 g (includes less than 0.5 g saturated fat and 0 mg cholesterol;); Carbs 27 g; Fibre 3 g

Visit Johanna’s website: www.eatgoodcarbs.com.

Busting Food Myths with Nicole Senior

Myth: A low fat diet is best

[NICOLE]
Nicole Senior

Fact: It’s not how much fat you eat, it’s what type of fat that counts.
It’s fair to say most people are scared of fat and try to avoid it. However, failure to eat the right kinds of fat is a primary reason why Australia’s national average cholesterol level has not improved in over 25 years. This is due in no small part to well-intentioned but misleading public health education aimed to reduce the risk of heart disease. Health authorities didn’t think regular folks would understand the difference between saturated fat and unsaturated fat, so they went for the simple message to ‘eat less fat’. As a consequence, the food industry went into overdrive in the quest to drive down fat levels, and low fat claims became the most sought by shoppers in the supermarket. Rather than being a good thing for our growing waistlines, eating low fat foods didn’t make any difference and we just grew fatter. Some healthy fat is good, but we’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water. While dietary guidelines around the world have now changed their emphasis towards reducing saturated fat and not total fat, the damage has been done.

To help you get your ‘fats’ straight, here are my five favourite dietary edicts.

Commercial reduced-fat, light, low-fat, and fat-free salad dressings are unnecessary. Home-made salad dressings are easy and simple: oil, plus vinegar and/or lemon juice, with perhaps some herbs, spices or perhaps mustard. It is fat-phobia gone mad when perfectly good oils are removed from commercial ‘dressings’ which are then loaded with salt, sugar and additives to put the flavour back in. Enjoying your salad or vegetables with oil is a healthy habit, and also enhances the absorption of antioxidants. The Mediterranean diet is certainly not low fat, but famous for its health benefits.

Reduced fat potato crisps are fattening. Potato crisps and the like were traditionally viewed as party food, to be enjoyed in small quantities on special occasions. Being so rich and tasty, and knowing they were a high-kilojoule (calorie) treat, meant we knew when to put the eating brake on. Having such foods manufactured with a lower fat content has loosened our inhibitions and unleashed the impulse to eat twice as much. The other bad news is these foods are still kilojoule-dense (and nutrient poor), and strangely unsatisfying: a recipe for over-eating. Switching to an unsaturated cooking oil to cook the crisps and reducing the salt is where the real health triumph lies, provided we can stop eating this ‘sometimes’ food after a modest amount (would removing the ‘low fat’ label help?).

[CHIPS]

Eating chocolate, cakes and biscuits instead of oils, spreads and nuts is a false economy. Like the glittering hope offered by a sub-prime mortgage, saving calories (kilojoules) from healthy fats to spend on treats is a pipedream and will only end in a health meltdown. And like sub-prime mortgages, calories from treats are way too easy to get – restraint is needed. Considering how important omega-3 fats are for mental health, missing out will have you heading into depression. While the occasional calorie sleight-of-hand is OK, if you usually skip healthy fats in order to indulge in nutrient-poor treats (often high in saturated fats), your diet is not healthy. Think of oils, spreads, nuts and seeds as another food group, like lean meat or vegetables, and therefore not inter-changeable with ‘extra’ foods or treats. There is no need to endure dry toast or soggy sandwiches – oil-based spreads (AKA margarine spreads) are healthy, provided you select trans-free, reduced-salt versions.

“Frying” food in water or stock is a crime against cooking. There was a time, in the quest for eliminating fat of any type, when food lovers the world over were thrown into misery by the advice to switch from oil to water or stock. Besides breaking every rule of cooking, flavour and gastronomy, and creating an infinitely inferior result, the advice was counter-productive for health. Oils (any you care to name in your local supermarket) contain good fats, fat-soluble vitamins, and healthful phytochemicals. Why would you avoid such a food? If your answer is, “to lose weight” – see point below.

You don’t need a low fat diet to lose weight. The best weight loss is the result of eating less calories (kilojoules) overall and exercising more. The trick is to maintain a high nutrient intake in fewer calories (kilojoules) and this is where food choice is paramount. You must choose the most nutrient-dense foods from all of the food groups to ensure you stay well-nourished at the same time as burning body fat. A fat-free diet does not contain enough essential fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins, and also leaves a massive flavour black hole. A Cochrane Review meta-analysis of studies concluded there is no advantage to low fat diets over calorie-restricted diets for weight loss. You can still lose weight eating healthy fats so long as your diet is calorie controlled (and it will taste a lot better too).

It should be said there is a place for low fat foods – in the dairy aisle. Because dairy foods are a major source of artery-clogging saturated fat, low fat versions of these nutrient-rich foods are a change for the better and recommended for everyone, including children from 2 years of age. Low-fat dairy foods such as milk and yoghurt are also satisfying and low GI, making them a heart-friendly food.

If you’d like more information on how to lose weight and lower cholesterol in a healthy way, grab a copy of Eat to Beat Cholesterol by Nicole Senior and Veronica Cuskelly. If you’d like great ideas for simple, heart-friendly food made with the goodness of healthy fats and oils, try Heart Food by Veronica Cuskelly and Nicole Senior. Both titles available from www.greatideas.net.au.

[SUN]

Move It & Lose It with Prof Trim

The real issue is not if you are fat, but where the fat’s gone
So you’ve put on weight – that happens when humans spend too much time in the good paddock. But the real issue is where the fat’s gone – to your belly, to your hips or to places unknown.

The average punter typically has around 50 billion fat cells stored in various depots throughout the body. The main ones are around the organs of the trunk (what's called visceral or internal fat); around the waist (called subcutaneous abdominal fat); and on the hips and buttocks (subcutaneous gluteal fat). Visceral fat tends to be much more closely linked with disease than the other type of subcutaneous belly fat that makes up a ‘pot belly’. Visceral fat is generally correlated with abdominal fat and can usually be picked up in waist circumference measures (so get that tape out).

[FAT GUT]

Research shows that where you get fat depends largely on the genes you’ve inherited from your parents. ‘Apple’ or ‘pear-shaped’ people have parents that are generally shaped the same, and particular genes control for this. It means that no matter how you try, if you’re a natural pear, and you lose a good amount of weight, you’ll probably just become a smaller pear – never a smaller apple.

Asians may have more visceral fat than Caucasians. In one study from the International Journal of Obesity, it’s been shown that Japanese men have a higher proportion of visceral to subcutaneous abdominal fat than Caucasian men at the same level of overall body fatness. This is important because it has long been known that Asians have a higher health risk than Caucasians even if they have the same waist measurement and BMI.

Exercise decreases abdominal fat more than diet. A US study examined the question of whether a diet alone, or a diet with low or high intensity exercise has a differential effect on different fat cell depots. Obese women were given a low calorie diet, or a diet with exercise that amounted to the same number of calories as the diet alone. Fat cells in different parts of the body were examined to see if each of these regimes affected fat cells differently. The researchers found this was indeed the case. Although all groups lost about the same amount of weight, those given the exercise program as well as the diet tended to lose more from the subcutaneous fat cells around the waist, suggesting that these respond somehow differently to other fat cells. Because these are more linked to disease risk in women, this suggests that exercise might have a greater benefit for health improvements than diet in obese women.

[GARRY EGGER]
Dr Garry Egger aka Prof Trim

For more information on weigh loss for men, check out Professor Trim.

Curly Questions

So many times one reads: ‘Eat nuts regularly - a small handful’. Since hand sizes differ greatly I would appreciate if possible some kind of measurement.
Good question. That serving ‘a small handful’ is 30–50 g (1–1¾ oz) and doesn't include the tempting salted kinds. Enjoy that unsalted ‘handful’ 5–7 times a week and halve your risk of developing heart disease. Even people who eat nuts once a week have less heart disease than those who don’t eat any nuts.

[NUTS]

I have been tracking the stories about consumption of fruit juices and the correlation with type 2 diabetes. Should we give up fruit juice altogether and stick to raw fruit? What's the causal relationship between fruit juice consumption and type 2 diabetes?
Eating fresh fruit as a snack when you are hungry and drinking water when you are thirsty is always going to be a better option than gulping down a glass of juice, but we wouldn't say give up juice altogether. We would say think of juice as an occasional or keep-for-a-treat food (note we use the word 'food' here and not 'drink'), and be judicious re portion sizes. A serving is only about 1/2 cup or 125 ml. That's not a lot. Liquid calories are a little stealthier than most, in that they tend to sneak past the satiety centre in our brain, which would normally help to stop us from overeating. Here's what Catherine Saxelby says in her article on juice and juicing in June 2008 GI News:

'Fruit juice is fruit that’s concentrated. Juices pack in a lot of kilojoules/calories and represent fruit in a form that’s all too easy to seriously over consume. The fibre and intact structure have been removed, and with that goes the ‘natural brake to over consumption. Look at this comparison:
  • A 200 g (7 oz) apple PROVIDES 3 g fibre and 300 kilojoules (71 calories) and TAKES 10 minutes to eat.
  • A 650 ml glass or bottle of apple juice (2½ cups) PROVIDES zero fibre and 1300 kilojoules (309 calories) and TAKES 2 minutes to drink. In fact a large juice is equivalent in food value to 4 apples but takes a fraction of the time and volume to drink and you are missing out on the fibre in the skin.'
As for the second part of your question, Julie Palmer’s study referred to in September GI News suggests that the mechanism for the increase in diabetes risk associated with soft drink and fruit drink consumption is primarily through increased weight from the calories. The fruit drinks she is referring to aren't 100% fruit juice. They are diluted and sweetened juice sold as 'fruit juice drinks' like Ribena and 'cordials' like Orange Crush in Australia. They noted no association between type 2 diabetes risk and grapefruit juice or orange juice.

[JUICE]

Email your curly question about carbs, the GI and blood glucose to: gicurlyquestions@gmail.com

Your Success Stories

‘The GI can be a great friend and tool to anyone that battles weight and carb cravings.’ – Stephanie
‘I always worked out with weights, and occasional cardio. After my father died, my family broke apart. With all the stress and court drama, I turned to high carb and convenience and comfort foods. I gained 30 pounds. The good news is that I did not keep that weight on more than a year. After being checked for anxiety, I had one high random glucose reading. A few weeks later, my fasting blood glucose was normal, but my A1c was 6.9. Since Dad had diabetes, and his Dad had diabetes, I knew I had to get my “health” back. I started eating a low GI diet and alternated between low carb and moderate carb eating. However I gave up foods like bread, potatoes, white rice, and high glycemic pizza. I lost 40 pounds in a 4-month period. Eating low GI helped my blood pressure return to its previous normal readings and kept my A1c between 5.6 to 5.9. I also got my fitness back and my energy back. Watching my carbs, and aiming for lower and healthier GI carbs has been thus far a lifesaver, and a turnaround for my health! And I have maintained my weight loss, and even lost a few more pounds!

[WEIGHT LOSS]

By choosing the right foods that will not elevate blood sugar on a continual exhausting basis the GI can be a great friend and tool to anyone who battles weight and carb cravings. It was instrumental in me getting my life back. Thanks to all who have made this science available -- I truly believe it is a blessing.’

Postscript: Prior to publication, Stephanie reports that her A1c is now 5.5.

‘I would recommend this action plan to anyone with a desire to lose weight, eat plenty of food and feel fantastic.’ – Lorraine
‘Over three months ago I looked in the mirror and didn’t like what I saw and decided to do something about it. After some research on line I decided to give The Low GI Diet: 12-Week Action Plan a go and to my delight I have lost 12 kilos in the 12 weeks. My husband did it as well and lost 9 kilos. We didn’t do the exercises only walking every day for 35 minutes. The menus in the book were simple to prepare and a delight for the taste buds. We have decided to stick to the low GI way of eating and get into exercise to tone up. I have serious back problems and the weight loss has helped to control the pain.’

success story

The Latest GI Values with Fiona Atkinson

Shopper’s Guide to GI Values
This summary lists the average GI values of more than 60 common carbohydrate-containing foods to help you put the lower GI choices into your shopping trolley and on your plate. The complete 2008 International Tables with the GI of over 2,480 individual food items are published in Diabetes Care (subscription required). Alternatively look out for the 2009 Shopper’s Guide to GI Values. The Australia/NZ edition will be published in November 2008 and the US/Canadian edition in January 2009. Publishing rights for this handy little pocket guide are available for all other countries. The database at www.glycemicindex.com is currently being updated with the latest GI values. We will let you know when the update is completed.

[GI TABLES]
Click on the table for a full-sized view

Where can I get more information on GI testing?
North America
Dr Alexandra Jenkins
Glycemic Index Laboratories
36 Lombard Street, Suite 100
Toronto, Ontario M5C 2X3 Canada
Phone +1 416 861 0506
Email info@gilabs.com
Web www.gilabs.com

Australia
Fiona Atkinson

[FIONA]

Research Manager, Sydney University Glycemic Index Research Service (SUGiRS)
Human Nutrition Unit, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences
Sydney University
NSW 2006 Australia
Phone + 61 2 9351 6018
Fax: + 61 2 9351 6022
Email sugirs@mmb.usyd.edu.au
Web www.glycemicindex.com

New Zealand
Dr Tracy Perry
The Glycemic Research Group, Dept of Human Nutrition
University of Otago
PO Box 56 Dunedin New Zealand
Phone +64 3 479 7508
Email tracy.perry@stonebow.otago.ac.nz
Web glycemicindex.otago.ac.nz

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Winston Peters and the evidence


Why did Winston Peters say this?

The court that I will stand before is on Saturday, 8 November [election day]

Because it is the only court that does not hear evidence - and therefore adjudicators cannot make an informed decision. Unless they they read this and the related links on the sidebar.

Perhaps all these articles should be pasted on every polling booth wall in the country on November 8 so that we can rid our Parliament of corruption.

Indonesia on edge as bombers face execution


Indonesia stepped up security around foreign embassies amid fears of attacks as it prepared Friday to execute the 3 Islamists convicted over the Bali nightclub bombings which killed 202 people.

Police revealed they had found and defused 2 bombs in a Balinese Hindu migrant area on Sulawesi island on Wednesday and Thursday as tensions mount ahead of the imminent executions.

"I think there is a connection between this and the execution of Amrozi and others," local police chief Suparni Parto told AFP, referring to bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, who could be executed as early as Saturday.

National police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said extra police had been stationed around embassies in Jakarta, especially the US and Australian missions, as well as sensitive locations across the main island of Java.

"We are increasing security at embassies and public places such as malls," he told reporters, adding that bus terminals, railway stations and houses of worship were also possible targets.

"The exact date (for the execution) is the Attorney General's Office's decision but the police are ready for the execution to be carried out any time."

Officials have said Imam Samudra, 38, Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48, will be executed by firing squad any time from midnight Friday until mid-November.

They were sentenced six years ago for the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali which killed more than 160 foreigners including 88 Australians.

The attack, launched in retaliation for the US invasion of Afghanistan, remains one of the bloodiest terror bombings carried out in the name of Islam since the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The executions have been repeatedly delayed by a series of failed appeals and most recently by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in September.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Jasam Pandjaitan told the Antara state news agency the executions would be carried out "soon."

The Balinese prosecutor in charge of the executions reportedly arrived early Friday at the prison island of Nusakambangan off southern Java where the bombers are being held, along with police responsible for firing squads.

The younger brother of Amrozi and Mukhlas told AFP the family had not been informed of the executions, as they should be 3 days in advance.

Beaming broadly like his older brother Amrozi, who is known as the "smiling assassin," Ali Fauzi said the family had nothing to be ashamed about.

"Do we feel embarrassed or ashamed of what they have done? No, we feel proud because in this world full of lies and accusations there are still people who are ready to fight against that," he said in Tenggulun village, East Java.

Fears of a violent backlash from Islamist radicals in the world's most populous Muslim country have risen amid reports that hundreds of extremists are planning to protest near the prison.

The vast majority of Indonesian Muslims are moderate but a small fanatical fringe have waged jihad, or holy war, for many years in a bid to bring about an Islamic caliphate across Southeast Asia.

The country has been hit by a string of attacks since 2000, including a suicide bombing in Bali which killed 20 people in 2005, a car bombing at the Australian embassy which killed 10 people in 2004 and another car bombing at the American-owned JW Marriott hotel which killed 12 people in 2003.

Most of the attacks including the 2002 blasts have been attributed to the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network.

The Bali attacks' chief mastermind, Malaysian former accountant Noordin Mohammad Top, is still at large and believed to be hiding in Indonesia plotting further bombings against Westerners and the Indonesian state.

Source: Agence France-Presse

Execution wrong - even for terrorists

After more than 2 years of delays and legal brinkmanship, it seems it is finally going to happen. In the coming days Indonesian firing squads will shoot the three men sentenced to death for organising the October 2002 Bali bombing. The bureaucratic wheels are turning to provide the time, the place, the personnel, the training, the equipment and the legal authority to kill 3 people.

Many in Australia and Indonesia will applaud the executions, looking to the firing squads to deliver revenge and a measure of emotional release. Some journalists will reach for that dubious cliché and ask whether the victims now have 'closure'. And their deaths will bring an end to the stream of heartless and absurd statements from the men who gained an aura of macabre celebrity from the media attention.

Undeniably these 3 men are criminals, whose actions had a shattering impact on the hundreds of people killed or injured and the thousands who cared for them. Undeniably the bombers deserve harsh punishment, both to protect society from what they may do again, given the chance, and to signal a collective outrage at their crimes. None of that is at issue.

But there are unsettling questions in the countdown to the executions. Is it ever acceptable for a government to kill convicted criminals in the name of society as a whole? Or is it justified in this case?

Here's an answer: execution is never justified. The death penalty is never an appropriate response to serious crime. This includes the Bali bombers. It is possible to condemn their crimes while also believing they should not be killed by the state.

Even if their executions deliver a sense of revenge, they represent a step that no government has the right to take. No government should carry out the coldly planned and delivered act of putting a human being to death in the name of justice. The enormity and the horror of these people's crimes will never be wiped away by their deaths, and the promise they destroyed can never be returned.

Over the past 30 years, the death penalty has increasingly been seen as a human rights issue. Under the key international human rights charters, every individual has certain basic rights such as the right not to be tortured and the right to life. In the words of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, "these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person". They are not granted by our parents, our families, our race or the society around us. This is why murder is, among other things, a violation of human rights.

Because no government grants us these rights, no government has the power to take them away. Only where there is a direct or immediate threat to life are police, soldiers or individual citizens permitted to use lethal force. An overwhelming majority of countries have come to agree the death penalty is the ultimate violation of the right to life by a government.

The legitimacy of modern government rests on protecting their citizens, and ensuring the conditions for people to achieve their potential. It used to be argued that executions were necessary to protect communities from criminals and deter further crime. Both of these arguments are now threadbare, with modern prisons offering physical security and mounting evidence that the severest punishment does not deliver a greater level of deterrence against crime.

When it is applied to murder, there is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of the death penalty which destroys it as a symbol of a society's values. It is not possible for a government to demonstrate the supreme worth of human life by killing. Some claim the very seriousness of killing proves the importance of the innocent life the state is acting to avenge. But far from cancelling out the original crime, it instead places the state in the position of mimicking the killer's original decision that a particular person should no longer live.

The ethical dimensions of execution also need to be tested against the reality of death penalty systems around the world. It is easy to imagine the unremorseful criminal, tried in a perfect justice system where execution sends an unmistakeable signal to would-be criminals that they will receive the same punishment if they similarly offend. This situation does not exist anywhere in the world.

The firing squad and the scaffold are symbols of absolute state power, but also of infallible state power, and there is no such thing as an infallible justice system. There are cases where the defendant is certainly guilty, including the Bali bombing conspirators. However many cases are far from certain, which introduces the very real risk of error ? Even the best justice systems in the world make mistakes. To accept that some people will be killed as a result of mistaken convictions is to accept that innocent people will inevitably die.

For a penalty that is supposed to deliver justice using the ultimate and irreversible sanction, this reality is simply unacceptable.

Even in the case of the guilty, it is not possible to reserve execution for offenders who have expressed no remorse for their actions. Showing mercy or allowing a prisoner to live is not a reward for their remorse. It is a statement about who we are, and what we value as a society.

The death penalty is ultimately about politics more than criminal justice. For all the talk of it providing greater deterrence against crime (which can't be demonstrated) or satisfying public opinion (when few governments allow a free and informed debate), it is used to show a government's determination to stand against the threat of personal crime. It is retained by countries that no longer carry out executions, because it sends all the right political signals to keep it on the books. In countries like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia it is also a very useful means
of maintaining control over the broader population. It is no accident these countries are among the few that still carry out public executions.

We will wake up one morning soon to hear the three Bali bombers have been shot during the night. The sentences will have been carried out. There will be some grim satisfaction. Two governments will have proclaimed their resistance to terrorism. Three more people will be dead. And nothing else will have changed.

Source: Tim Goodwin, ABC News (Australia)

Einstein And Eddington DVD


The DVD will be released on 8th December and can be pre ordered from our online shop for £11.98.

Einstein And Eddington..Coming Soon

The BBC Press Office have announced that Einstein And Eddington will air between 22nd November - 28th November.

They also have the following interview with David about the show and his charcter, Sir Arthur Eddington:

Tell us about Eddington.
"He is already recognised within his field and has become the Director of the Royal Observatory when the story starts. This is a man who has been recognised at quite an early age as someone who is quite sharp and who is at the forefront of astrophysics. He is described in the script by someone as being 'the best measuring man' in England, and that is very much his thing. He was obsessed with the minutiae of quantification and, as a kid, he tried to count all the words in The Bible. He liked to specify the fact of our existence in numbers."


Tell us about his Quaker beliefs.
"It's certainly what motivated him. His Quakerism and belief in God was fundamental to him and everything he did, particularly with his insistence not to go to war. I don't think for him that was a great moral battle, he just knows what is morally correct in his version of the universe and that's simply how it is to him.
"His religion started to count against him in later life because that became unfashionable. His life was dedicated to marrying science to God – to prove that, far from being mutually exclusive, we are mutually inclusive – and, as time went on, moving into the Thirties and Forties, it became a less-fashionable viewpoint to take. Science became more secular, I suppose. But, for Eddington, there was never a conflict between the two."


As a religious man, how did Eddington cope with challenging Newtonian physics?
"Well that's his big defining moment. Having accepted Newtonian physics as the way of explaining the universe, he gets a sniff of something pure, he gets a sniff of something more complicated, bigger – more anarchic actually – but ultimately truer.
"It's not a generally easy decision to make, to fly in the face of received opinion, to fly in the face of all his contemporaries and, at the same time, fly in the face of political sensitivities [because Einstein was German], because they are fighting a war he doesn't want to be involved in. There are all these things he has to combat."


As you touched upon earlier, as a Quaker, he was a pacifist and refused to go to war. Was that a difficult and unpopular decision?
"We used some of his actual words in the script and I think that is very instructive. He got let off [active service] the first time round because Cambridge said that they needed him for research, but then as the war went on and the numbers of available men were dwindling, there was a second round of conscription, and he was called again.
"He did have to go in front of a committee and justify himself, and he said, 'I simply can't believe that God wants me go out and slaughter his people'. It's a very persuasive argument, this idea that we have to go to war for some kind of belief, that we are following what God wants for us. But they believed that in Germany, too, so who's right? It's a persuasive and brilliant argument."
How much research did you do for the role? Did you manage to find out much about Eddington?
"In some ways he is a great, forgotten man, which is why this is an intriguing story to tell. There is one biography which I found and that was very helpful, although there are elements of his private life which are skirted around.
"The story we tell is of a man who couldn't quite face the fact that he was gay."


The script tells of his possible unrequited love for a man who has gone to war. What's your take on that?
"It adds to that tension and that becomes the truth he doesn't pursue. The moment he doesn't tell William how he feels, he doesn't pursue that particular truth. I think that haunts him, in a way, and pushes him to pursue the more difficult choice elsewhere."


Tell us about his relationship with Winnie, who, in the film, is a very glamorous sister.
"She is a very glamorous sister, although we found a photo of her and she wasn't quite as glamorous as Rebecca Hall! One has to make certain assumptions about that relationship, as it's unusual. Perhaps it was less unusual then, that a brother and a sister could live together as husband and wife.
"It was interesting playing the scenes with Rebecca because we'd often stop ourselves and say, 'Are we playing this as husband and wife or brother and sister?' and wonder how much difference there would be in all the years of living together and depending on each other."


Einstein and Eddington were very different men. Why do you think they came together to solve this great scientific mystery?
"What I loved about the story is the sense of beautiful symmetry between these two characters who are almost total opposites, and yet ... they are relatively bohemian within their worlds.
"Eddington is far from bohemian, but there is an unconventionality to him. It's not anarchy because his life is very straight and very buttoned-down, very controlled, but because he has a certain way of thinking, he becomes an anarchist in a sense, whereas Einstein is anarchic and crazy, but, because of his brilliance, he becomes, ultimately, conventional. It is fascinating to set them off against each other."


How did you learn about the General Theory of Relativity?
"I have read a bit. I've found lots in the script quite helpful in terms of coming to an understanding about it. It's about reprogramming your brain because, whenever you start talking about space, you are talking about distances that are so beyond our comprehension that I can't even begin to breathe!
"You look at the pages of Einstein's 1905 paper and your mind boggles as to how people's brains can think in equations that way. Maths was never my favourite subject but I have the beginnings of the grasp of some of the concepts.
"It gets so philosophical sometimes. You start to think back to the Big Bang and the moment of singularity. That is such a concept that is beyond our ken. That moment of singularity... When was it? How can it exist?"


What would you say Einstein And Eddington is ultimately about?
"It's about a moment in time, it's also about human endeavour, it's about those moments when people step up to the plate. I think it also becomes about your own moments in life when you are faced with those decisions. Eddington managed to do that with Einstein."

David To Star In New Polikoff Film

The following is a press release from the BBC detailing David's latest project:

Principal photography begins on Monday (3 November) on BAFTA- nominated Stephen Poliakoff's (Capturing Mary, Joe's Palace, Gideon's Daughter, The Lost Prince) Second World War thriller 1939.
The feature film will shoot on location in Norfolk and London for six-and-a-half weeks and is a talkbackTHAMES production in association with Magic Light Pictures, funded by BBC Films, the UK Film Council and Screen East.
Award-winning British actress Romola Garai (Atonement) takes the lead as Anne, alongside BAFTA-winning actor Bill Nighy (Notes On A Scandal, Love Actually), who plays her father Alexander.
They are joined by Oscar-winning actress Julie Christie (Away From Her, Finding Neverland) who plays the formidable Aunt Elizabeth, Eddie Redmayne (The Other Boleyn Girl) as Anne's brother Ralph and Juno Temple (Wild Child) as their younger sister Celia.
David Tennant (Doctor Who) plays family friend Hector, Charlie Cox (Stardust) stars as Anne's lover Lawrence, Jeremy Northam (Gosford Park) as the shady government operative Balcombe and the legendary Christopher Lee (Lord Of The Rings, Golden Compass) as Walter.
1939 is set between present day London and the idyllic Norfolk countryside in the lead up to the Second World War.
At a time of uncertainty and high tension, the story is centred around the formidable Keyes family, who are keen to uphold and preserve their very traditional, English way of life.
The eldest sibling Anne (Romola Garai) is a budding young actress who is head-over-heels in love with Foreign Office official Lawrence (Charlie Cox).
Anne's seemingly perfect life begins to dramatically unravel when she stumbles across secret recordings of the anti-appeasement movement.
Whilst trying to uncover the origin of these recordings, a tangled web of dark secrets begins to unfurl, culminating in the mysterious death of a dear friend.
As war breaks out Anne discovers the truth and escapes to London to try to confirm her suspicions, but she is caught and imprisoned and only then does she finally begin to discover the true extent to which she has been betrayed.
1939 is writer/director Stephen Poliakoff's return to the cinema after an absence of a decade since his previous feature films which included the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning Close My Eyes starring Clive Owen, Saskia Reeves and Alan Rickman.
Since then Stephen has directed a plethora of BBC television dramas, most recently the BAFTA-winning Capturing Mary, BAFTA-nominated Joe's Palace, the Emmy Award-winning The Lost Prince and Gideon's Daughter which won Golden Globes for actors Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt.
Stephen Poliakoff comments: "I'm very excited to be making this film about a period that has always fascinated me, the extraordinary machinations that went on in British society on the eve of war.
"It is truly thrilling to be making it with such a tremendous cast which combines some of the most exciting young talent in the country including Romola Garai, Eddie Redmayne, Juno Temple, Charlie Cox and David Tennant with such great names of the British film industry as Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, and Christopher Lee."
The film is produced by Emmy winner Barney Reisz (Elizabeth I) and Martin Pope (Lawless Heart, The Heart Of Me); and the Executive Producer is Lorraine Heggessey, CEO, talkbackTHAMES.
The behind-the-scenes team includes BAFTA-nominated Production Designer Mark Leese (Capturing Mary), Director of Photography Danny Cohen (The Boat That Rocked, Joe's Palace), Oscar-winning Hair and Make-up designer Jenny Shircore (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), BAFTA-nominated Costume Designer Annie Symons (Doctor Zhivago) and Line Producer Julie Clark (Whitechapel).

David To Talk To BBC Breakfast

David will take to the BBC Breakfast sofa this Monday, 3rd November 2008. The interview will take place shortly after 8.30am.
Tune in to hear him discuss his decision to move on from Doctor Who which he announced on Wednesday night.
David will be appearing as The Doctor in a further five specials, the first of which airs this Christmas.

Halloween pardon sought for executed British witches


LONDON, England (CNN) -- Campaigners in London planned to petition the British government Friday for a posthumous pardon for the hundreds of people executed for witchcraft between the 16th and 18th centuries.

They said Halloween is a good time to highlight the "grave miscarriage of justice" suffered by the men and women falsely accused of being witches.

Their petition asks Justice Minister Jack Straw to recommend that Queen Elizabeth issue a pardon.

"We felt that it was time that the sinister associations held by a minority of people regarding witches and Halloween were tackled head-on," said Emma Angel, head of Angels, a large costume supplier in London.

"We were gobsmacked to discover that though the law was changed hundreds of years ago and society had moved on, the victims were never officially pardoned."

Angels launched a Web site, pardonthewitches.com, to solicit signatures for their petition. They had between 150 and 200 by Friday morning, Angels spokesman Benjamin Webb said, but they hoped Halloween publicity would generate more.

Around 400 people were executed in England for alleged witchcraft, and many more in Scotland, the campaigners said.

The Witchcraft Act of 1735 put an end to trials of accused witches, but many still faced persecution and jail for other crimes such as fraud.

"It shifted from a spiritual thing to more of a criminal thing," Webb said, but "it didn't pardon those people who'd suffered before."

The campaigners worked with witchcraft historian John Callow to detail eight cases they hope will persuade the government to act.

They include the case of Ursula Kemp, a woman who offered cures in Essex, England in the 1500s. The uneven results of her work prompted accusations of witchcraft and she was hanged in 1582.

A century later, Mary Trembles and Susanna Edwards were begging for food in Exeter, England, when a local woman blamed one of them for an illness and they were jailed.

A jail visitor noticed Edwards' shaky hands and suggested she was "tormenting someone." It started a string of rumors that resulted in an accusation of witchcraft, and the women were executed in 1682.

In 1645, clergyman John Lowes was regarded as too attached to Catholicism in a strongly Reformed area. He had already defended himself once against witchcraft when he came to the attention of a notorious zealot named Matthew Hopkins.

Hopkins made Lowes walk for days and nights until he was unable to resist confessing to being a witch. Lowes was hanged in Bury St. Edmunds, England, after conducting his own funeral.

"Today we are well aware that these individuals were neither capable of harmful magic nor in league with the devil," Callow said.

He said the endemic poverty of the 16th to 18th centuries put pressure on leaders and the judiciary to blame someone for society's problems -- so they decided to blame witches.

"A lot of these cases were score-settling in local communities," Webb said, adding many cases of alleged witchcraft weren't even reported.

"The notion that people could suspend their disbelief and believe that women were talking to toads -- just horrible times. Horrible times."

Webb said while few people today may believe those men and women deserved execution, their stories still generate suspicion and stigma.

That extends to modern-day criticism of children dressing as witches at Halloween with the idea that it's evil or connected to the devil, he said.

"Witches were not emissaries of Satan," Webb said. "They were in fact persecuted women and men who deserve a pardon."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice would not comment on the case but said the granting of such a pardon is extremely rare.

"To receive a royal pardon, the test is a high one," the spokesman said. "Evidence must prove conclusively that no offense was committed or that the applicant did not commit the offense. It is not enough that the conviction may be unsafe -- the applicant must be technically and morally innocent."

Source: CNN.com

Texas: Gregory Wright executed

Proclaiming his innocence, condemned prisoner Gregory Wright was executed Thursday evening for the fatal stabbing and robbery of a Dallas-area woman who tried to help him when he was homeless.

"There's been a lot of confusion who done this," Wright said from the death chamber gurney.

Then, as he has for years, he declared a fellow homeless man, John Adams, was responsible for the murder of Donna Vick.

"I never sold anything to anyone. My only act or involvement was not telling on him. John Adams was the one that killed Donna Vick. The evidence proves that. ... I was in the bathroom when he attacked. I ran into the bedroom. By the time I came in, when I tried to help her with first aid it was too late."

He said an innocent man was being put to death and said he loved his family. "I'll be waiting on y'all. I am finished talking."

9 minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow, he was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. CDT.

Wright, 42, was 1 of 2 homeless men convicted of killing Donna Duncan Vick, 52, at her home in DeSoto, just south of Dallas, in 1997. The woman was known for helping the needy and had given Wright food, clothing and money after he said she spotted him on a street corner holding a cardboard sign offering to work for food.

Wright, an out of work truck driver, maintained he was innocent of the killing and blamed it on a fellow homeless man, John Adams. Adams was tried separately and also was convicted and sentenced to death.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Wright less than an hour before he was scheduled to be taken to the Texas death chamber. Other federal courts had rejected similar appeals and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also refused a clemency request for Wright on a 7-0 vote Wednesday.

"The truth doesn't matter," Wright told The Associated Press recently from a visiting cage outside death row, saying he was stunned at the outcome of his 1998 trial in Dallas. "I couldn't believe what was happening. I'm very upset at a number of different people. I don't blame the legal system. I blame individuals running the legal system. ... I am innocent."

Adams, who implicated Wright as the killer, earlier this year recanted his statement against Wright. Then at a court hearing last month, he reversed his recantation.

"The co-defendant has been a bit erratic," Meg Penrose, one of Wright's lawyers, said Thursday.

She said she understood demands for an execution in the case "but I thought justice demanded we executed the right person."

"I guess there's a difference of emphasis," Penrose said. "I'd rather wait 30 years and make sure we have the proper individual executed than wait 12 and hedge our bets. I don't like the rush to review that we're at. A person who is innocent is rushed to the gurney and is executed."

New DNA tests requested by Wright's lawyers, which put off Wright's execution initially scheduled for last month, "on the whole, confirmed Wright's guilt," state attorneys told the appeals courts in their arguments. Penrose contended the tests were ambiguous.

At Wright's trial, jurors were told that after the killing, the 2 men packed up items from inside the house, drove off in Vick's car and traded the loot for crack cocaine.

A day and a half later, Adams turned himself in to police, implicated Wright, directed officers to Vick's home and helped in the recovery of her car. DNA tests of blood on the steering wheel of the car was shown to belong to Wright. His bloody fingerprint also was found on a pillowcase on her bed. Wright's lawyers disputed the accuracy of the fingerprint evidence.

From death row, Wright refused to talk about specifics of the crime, saying only that it stemmed from an argument between Vick and Adams over Adams' smoking.

"This should have been finished long ago because there's no question about his guilt and there should be no question about the jury's verdict either," said Greg Davis, who prosecuted Wright. "He and Adams had been living on the streets together. So what he does, he talks his way into the victim's home and then he gets Adams in there, too. Both them actually stabbed her to death."

Wright becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, the 2nd this week and the 419th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982. Wright becomes the 180th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.

6 more men are set to die in November; scheduled to die next is Elkie Taylor, 47, on Nov. 6. Taylor was condemned for strangling a 65-year-old Fort Worth man in 1993 with 2 wire coat hangers and then leading police on a four-hour chase in a stolen 18-wheeler. Authorities said the robbery and murder of Otis Flake at Flake's Fort Worth home was the second killing linked to Taylor over an 11-day period. Wright becomes the 30th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1129th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Ringing the Prime Ministers office


I rang the Prime Minister's office today to ask some information. The person I wanted to speak with was unavailable. Given that, I was then asked if I would like to speak to Labour's research unit...

Labour's job search allowance is discriminatory


Helen Clark said Labour’s job search allowance for redundant and laid off workers is fair, applied to everyone and was simple to administer.

First, some important points based on what the PM said yesterday. The important point to make is that all - without exception - will get this allowance if they have been working for five years and are made redundant or are laid off due to an economic downturn – and cant get the unemployment benefit due to partners income.

The second point is that the allowance is equal to the unemployment benefit. The third point is that a partners income is not means tested against the allowance. Once redundant, you`d be entitled to the job seekers allowance for up to 13 weeks, and your partner can keep his or her income.

But the student allowance is also classed as income.

The Herald today said only “working couples” would get this allowance. That’s slightly incorrect as the Ministry told me today that student partners would be able to keep their allowance and other income like everyone else.

Say the partner was a student earning $150.00 a week. Normally, they'd be entitled to student allowance at the married rate if no one earned. Clark said her announcement will extend to ALL who are redundant or lose their job (and couldn’t claim the dole due to partner’s income) after five years in the workforce. The student applies for the allowance timed for the day her partner becomes redundant. She now has income. He doesn't so applies for the allowance, which is not means tested. The newly unemployed partner would effectively be paid twice by the state if he was to collect the job search allowance – and the Minister’s office says that is fine - earning partners don't lose any income, why should student families?

The only other option is that they keep the full student allowance To get an extra $150.00, the partner will have to go back to work to earn it.

update The Ministry has rung back. They made a mistake. You can't get both – as I suspected. So the job search allowance will discriminate against the source of income – student income - similar to the way the In Work Payment discriminates against employment status. It doesn’t apply to everyone, without exception, at all. And if the newly redundant partner was working 25 hours a week and the partner 10 hours, they'd lose the In Work Payment as well, whereas a good deal of families entitled to the job search allowance will keep it.

Looking back in time for context



News coverage usually focuses on the most recent events, and when we first launched quotes, we did the same. However, past events frequently provide context that helps us better understand the present. With this in mind, we recently extended our quotes coverage back to 2003. Hopefully this new data (our quotes index grew 15x in size!) will help shed light on what people have thought and said over time, and how their views have changed.

As always, to find a person's quotes you can search for their name on Google News, and if we have any quotes from that person, they'll appear in a onebox at the top of the page. Click on the 'more by' link and from there you can simply browse through all our quotes from that person, or filter them to a specific year using the links on the left. Try comparing Alan Greenspan's quotes on the economy from 2004 to those from 2008:


People running for office are some of the most prolific speakers, especially on economic matters. In Quotes makes it easy to compare what McCain and Obama have said about the economy (or, try comparing Palin and Biden.)

Of course, quotes are not restricted to politics--there are also many from sports figures. See what Michael Phelps said about the 2004 and 2008 Olympic games, or what Roger Federer has been saying about Wimbledon.

Government warned about hypocrisy over Bali bombers

LAWYERS representing Australians on death row in Indonesia have urged the Rudd Government to signal its in-principle opposition to the imminent execution of the Bali bombers, or risk being "objectively identified as hypocrites" across Asia.

Colin McDonald QC, who represents Bali Nine member Scott Rush, said the Rudd Government needed to speak with one voice in condemning capital punishment or it would be harder to save Australian lives in the future.

"In practical terms, it makes it so much harder to save the lives of Australian citizens when there is apparent political ambivalence about the carrying-out of the death penalty overseas," he said.

Kevin Rudd told Neil Mitchell yesterday on Melbourne Radio 3AW that his Government was "universally opposed to the death penalty", but would intervene only "in the case of Australian citizens".

Barrister Julian McMahon, who acted for Australian drug trafficker Van Nguyen, 25, who was hanged in Singapore in 2005, urged a more humane punishment of the bombers.

"It will dignify the memory of those who were murdered if we call for punishment which is both humane and in accordance with our legal obligations and stated policy," he said. "True justice is not vengeance. It is not an eye for an eye, but is firm and humane."

Mr McMahon said failure to remain consistent on capital punishment would expose the Government to attack in the region.

"Wherever we are not consistent, the Asian press accuses us of being hypocritical," he said. "They ask why should there be one rule for Australians and a different rule for non-Australians?"

The bombers, Amrozi, Ali Ghufron and Imam Samudra, face execution within days for their roles in the Bali bombings of 2002, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Security has been stepped up in and around the southern Java city of Cilacap, near the prison island of Nusakambangan, where the three will face the firing squad as early as tomorrow.

Deputy Attorney-General Abdul Hakim Ritonga said yesterday: "All preparations are ready. Security forces have been boosted."

However, lawyers for the bombers said authorities had not informed them of their clients' imminent execution, which they are obliged to do at least three days before the sentence is carried out.

The condemned men are hoping for one more visit by close family members, although Ghufron's Malaysia-based wife and six children, including youngest son Osama, made their final trip to the jail last week.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told Radio National yesterday the execution was a matter for the Indonesian authorities. "We certainly don't make representations on behalf of terrorists (and) we don't see that, in any way, as being contradictory," Mr Smith said.

Mr McDonald said opposition to the death penalty was long-standing Labor policy and had been correctly articulated by the party's then foreign affairs spokesman, Robert McClelland, last October when he spoke out against the execution of the Bali bombers.

"Labor believes that supporting executions, even by a nation state, gives justification to all kinds of fanatical lunatics to take the lives of others in pursuit of their own warped ideologies," Mr McClelland said. But his comments drew a sharp rebuke from the Prime Minister.

Mr McDonald claimed Australian leaders had tended to speak with a "forked tongue" on the issue of capital punishment, marking a "retreat from principle to political opportunism".

"When we retreat from our asserted universal opposition to the death penalty, we run the danger of being objectively identified as hypocrites," he said.

Mr McDonald and Mr McMahon, who represents two of the Bali Nine on death row, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, warned that the imminent executions would fulfil the Bali bombers' aspirations, give them hero status and turn them into martyrs.

"Why set the stage for them to become potential martyrs when they could die decades hence, forgotten lonely old men?" Mr McDonald said.

Source: The Australian

Double Income No Kids Yet O BBC iPlayer

You can use BBC iPlayer to listen to episode 6 of Double Income No Kids Yet here.
It will be available until Thursday 6th November 2008 at 17:32pm.

David's Doctor Who Interview In Full

Thanks to the BBC you can now watch the full interview with David talking about his decision to leave Doctor Who below:

Scandal in Louisiana’s Criminal Courts

There’s a major scandal brewing in Louisiana’s criminal justice system.

Since 1994, Chief Judge Edward Dufresne has been handling the appeals of indigent Louisiana convicts who had to file their own briefs. Last year, the aid Dufresne had assigned to handle those appeals committed suicide. According to his suicide note, Jarrold Peterson killed himself in part because of the guilt he faced over what he had been asked to do as part of his job.

Peterson sent a posthumous letter to Louisiana’s Judiciary Commission with a damning allegation. He said Dufresne had instructed him to deny every appeal not prepared by an attorney. Peterson said he was instructed to write up and file the denials without every showing the appeals to the judges. Peteson handled about 2,400 such cases in the 13 years he was in charge of them.

The Louisiana Supreme Court will now decide if the investigation of the allegations and the review of those cases will be handled by another circuit, and outside panel, or the same 5th Circuit court where all of this may have happened.

A few facts about Louisiana’s criminal justice system that might be helpful in putting the seriousness of this scandal into perspective:

• About 90 percent of criminal defendants in Louisiana are indigent.

• Louisiana only provides post-conviction legal aid in death penalty cases. Everyone else must either hire a lawyer, find a lawyer to handle their case pro bono, or handle the appeal themselves. Obviously, most have no choice but to opt for the latter.

One criminal defense lawyer in Louisiana told me that if you’re convicted of murder in Louisiana and you’re innocent, you’re actually better off getting the death penalty. At least then you’ll get a team of lawyers, investigators, and experts to help with your appeal.

• Because convicts aren’t considered citizens in Louisiana, they have no standing to make requests for public records—and that would include copies of their own case files. Some prosecutors’ offices will grant such requests anyway, but they’re under no obligation to do so. When such requests are granted, or are made by the family or friends of the defendant, defense attorneys tell me that DA’s offices charge $1-2 per page, for files that can easily run thousands of pages.

• So what? Most of these people are probably guilty anyway, right? Maybe not. Earlier this month, the Louisiana Innocence Project released a study of 36 death penalty convictions won by the office of former New Orleans District Attorney Harry Connick (yes, he’s the father of the famous crooner). The report found that prosecutors had withheld important exculpatory evidence in nine cases, or 25 percent. In four cases—one in nine death sentences—the condemned defendant was later declared innocent.

Given that these were death penalty cases, the defendants had good representation from the state’s capital post-conviction office.

Not only are 90 percent of defendants in non-capital cases left to find such abuses in their own cases by themselves, DAs are under no obligation to give them copies of their own case files, can charge exhorbitant fees when they do, and for 13 years, at least one of Louisiana’s appeals courts couldn’t even bother to read the appeals, anyway.

One more thing to consider: Many Louisiana DAs have been sending regular work to former Mississippi medical examiner Dr. Steven Hayne and his disgraced "forensic odontologist" sidekick Dr. Michael West since the early 1990s.

Source: The Agitator