BBC News - Yemen arrests medical student over cargo jet bomb plot

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-us-canada-11660005?
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Brazil set to elect new president

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-latin-america-11659587?
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Palin is not Potus

Most still doubt Palin's presidential qualifications, poll finds Most voters continue to hold negative views of Sarah Palin and doubt that she has the qualifications to be president, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Despite Palin being a nearly ubiquitous presence in campaign 2010, public opinion of the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee remains fixed in time. Some 54 percent of registered voters surveyed say they have unfavorable impressions of Palin, with more than twice as many holding "strongly unfavorable" as holding "strongly favorable" ones. Thirty-nine percent view her positively. These numbers are little changed from earlier this year. Palin gets very high marks from those who are strong backers of the tea party movement, but overall inspires a more intense negative than positive reaction. Fully 78 percent of liberal Democrats hold "strongly unfavorable" views of Palin, while 37 percent of conservative Republicans have "strongly favorable" impressions. Among solid tea party supporters, 72 percent say they are strongly positive about Palin (she's at 91 percent overall favorability among this group). Solid tea party supporters are also the most apt to say Palin is qualified to serve as president at 73 percent. That contrasts with 67 percent of all registered voters who see her as not qualified to hold the office, a figure that's hardly budged since spring. Democrats and independents are broadly skeptical of Palin's presidential qualifications, while Republicans divide evenly (47 percent say she is qualified; 46 percent say not). Even 46 percent of those who say they voted for the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008 now see Palin as unqualified for the presidency. Q: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of Sarah Palin? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat? http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2010/10/most_still_doubt_...
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Rand Paul, Ayn Rand

Rand Paul, Ayn Rand | The New Republic

Jonathan Chait


Democrats Want To Make America Like Greece. Ancient Greece.

What If Democrats "Steal" The Election?
Chait: America Is About To Become a Lot More Like Sparta. Also, Gayer.

Greg Sargent has obtained Rand Paul's college-era letters to the editor. Unsurprisingly, the current Kentucky GOP nominee was a huge Ayn Rand-head:

In a 1982 Op ed Paul published in the same paper, he wrote worshipfully about the "immortal words" of Howard Roark, the hero of Ayn Rand's novel "The Fountainhead." Displaying a taste for ambitious prose that betrayed his tender years, he lamented that "man" had lost touch with the Roark-ian ideal, and decried rank and file human beings as a "mindless mob of mediocrity" that hates and tries to stymie the achievements of great men:

The new world man crawls on all fours, submits, acquiesces and seeks the security of the mindless mob of mediocrity.

Such are the masses that cower before knowledge, that condemn science, and seek to become one with the inanimate earth. This subspecie of man rises from among us, consolidated in their hatred of achievement, and their fear of the unknown...Their defeat, however, is still possible if the few who still possess originality, those men who still dare to think, speak out and show the mob the reflection of their premises, the impotence of the conclusions, and the lifelessness of their entire ideology.

To me, a candidate whose worldview was shaped by Rand is exactly tantamount to a candidate whose worldview was shaped by Karl Marx. It should be disqualification unless it's clear that the candidate in question has completely broken from his past. Ayn Rand was a total nut.

Only good-looking women under 23 need apply to become a law enforcement officer in Chengdu, China

Chinese city wardens wanted: must be young, female and pretty | World news | guardian.co.uk

A good temperament might be an obvious requirement for a city warden. Good looks? Perhaps less so.

But authorities in Chengdu, in China's south-western Sichuan province, have said they will hire only attractive young women for the law enforcement jobs, hoping it will improve their district's image.

Others say it is a blatant example of widespread looks-based discrimination that hits women harder than men. Economists have noted the "beauty premium" in many places, but employment experts say it flourishes in China thanks to inadequate laws.

The Xindu district government's advertisement stipulates that candidates must be female, aged between 18 and 23, over 5ft 2in (1.6m) tall, attractive and with a good temperament. Their contracts will end when they turn 26.

China's urban law enforcement officers, known as chengguan, have a bad reputation, with many regarding them as little more than thugs. Xindu authorities said they created the women-only team to "present the soft side".

"Their main job is to present a good image so they have to be good looking," said the human resources director of the law enforcement bureau. "And when they get older, they will get married and have children so it will not be convenient for them to do such work. Having them leave at 26 is for their sake."

He insisted it was unfair to describe them as "flower vases" – a Chinese idiom for women who are decorative but of little use. "They need a good temper and communication skills as well," he told a Chengdu news website

Lu Ying, former director of the Gender Centre at Sun Yat-sen University, said it was common for employers to pick out female candidates because they were prettier.

"The effect of looks discrimination is much bigger for women than men. What makes it worse is that for women, the job opportunities are less than for men already," she said.

"It is a very bad phenomenon. It is much worse when a government body does this because it will set a terrible example."

Private companies are certainly not immune. A current advert for a sales assistant at the Zhengzhou Electric Bike Company requires a candidate with "a smile to topple the city" and even stipulates her vital statistics: 36-22.5-36.

Li Fangping, a lawyer who has handled many job discrimination cases, said: "In the current employment law it only says that opportunities should be open and equal to everyone. It does not directly point out that employers should not include criteria such as looks and height – it is too general to be implemented."

One Shanghai cosmetic surgery hospital estimated last year that half its customers were undergoing operations for career-related reasons. Most of those were women.

But the scorn that internet users have poured on Xindu authorities suggests that others in China have little tolerance for blatant discrimination.

In 2004, the Hunan provincial government dropped its requirement for women civil servants to have "symmetrical breasts" after it was widely ridiculed.

Un-Indonesian??

I just don't understand why some people here are so judgemental. They say that I am so un-Indonesian because I mostly weet in english. Hey people, listen, using english doesn't make me or (you) less Indonesian. So, people stop judging and try to be open-minded.

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The Tea Party movement: deluded and inspired by billionaires

| George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

The Tea Party movement is remarkable in two respects. It is one of the biggest exercises in false consciousness the world has seen – and the biggest Astroturf operation in history. These accomplishments are closely related.

An Astroturf campaign is a fake grassroots movement: it purports to be a spontaneous uprising of concerned citizens, but in reality it is founded and funded by elite interests. Some Astroturf campaigns have no grassroots component at all. Others catalyse and direct real mobilisations. The Tea Party belongs in the second category. It is mostly composed of passionate, well-meaning people who think they are fighting elite power, unaware that they have been organised by the very interests they believe they are confronting. We now have powerful evidence that the movement was established and has been guided with the help of money from billionaires and big business. Much of this money, as well as much of the strategy and staffing, were provided by two brothers who run what they call "the biggest company you've never heard of".

Charles and David Koch own 84% of Koch Industries, the second-largest private company in the United States. It runs oil refineries, coal suppliers, chemical plants and logging firms, and turns over roughly $100bn a year; the brothers are each worth $21bn. The company has had to pay tens of millions of dollars in fines and settlements for oil and chemical spills and other industrial accidents. The Kochs want to pay less tax, keep more profits and be restrained by less regulation. Their challenge has been to persuade the people harmed by this agenda that it's good for them.

In July 2010, David Koch told New York magazine: "I've never been to a Tea Party event. No one representing the Tea Party has ever even approached me." But a fascinating new film – (Astro)Turf Wars, by Taki Oldham – tells a fuller story. Oldham infiltrated some of the movement's key organising events, including the 2009 Defending the American Dream summit, convened by a group called Americans for Prosperity (AFP). The film shows David Koch addressing the summit. "Five years ago," he explains, "my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start Americans for Prosperity. It's beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organisation."

A convener tells the crowd how AFP mobilised opposition to Barack Obama's healthcare reforms. "We hit the button and we started doing the Twittering and Facebook and the phonecalls and the emails, and you turned up!" Then a series of AFP organisers tell Mr Koch how they have set up dozens of Tea Party events in their home states. He nods and beams from the podium like a chief executive receiving rosy reports from his regional sales directors. Afterwards, the delegates crowd into AFP workshops, where they are told how to run further Tea Party events.

Americans for Prosperity is one of several groups set up by the Kochs to promote their politics. We know their foundations have given it at least $5m, but few such records are in the public domain and the total could be much higher. It has toured the country organising rallies against healthcare reform and the Democrats' attempts to tackle climate change. It provided the key organising tools that set the Tea Party running.

The movement began when CNBC's Rick Santelli called from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for a bankers' revolt against the undeserving poor. (He proposed that the traders should hold a tea party to dump derivative securities in Lake Michigan to prevent Obama's plan to "subsidise the losers": by which he meant people whose mortgages had fallen into arrears.) On the same day, Americans for Prosperity set up a Tea Party Facebook page and started organising Tea Party events.

Oldham's film shows how AFP crafted the movement's messages and drafted its talking points. The New Yorker magazine, in the course of a remarkable exposure of the Koch brothers' funding networks, interviewed some of their former consultants. "The Koch brothers gave the money that founded [the Tea Party]," one of them explained. "It's like they put the seeds in the ground. Then the rainstorm comes, and the frogs come out of the mud – and they're our candidates!" Another observed that the Kochs are smart. "This rightwing, redneck stuff works for them. They see this as a way to get things done without getting dirty themselves."

AFP is one of several groups established by the Koch brothers. They set up the Cato Institute, the first free-market thinktank in the United States. They also founded the Mercatus Centre at George Mason University, which now fills the role once played by the economics department at Chicago University as the originator of extreme neoliberal ideas. Fourteen of the 23 regulations that George W Bush put on his hitlist were, according to the Wall Street Journal, first suggested by academics working at the Mercatus Centre.

The Kochs have lavished money on more than 30 other advocacy groups, including the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the George C Marshall Institute, the Reason Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. These bodies have been instrumental in turning politicians away from environmental laws, social spending, taxing the rich and distributing wealth. They have shaped the widespread demand for small government. The Kochs ensure that their money works for them. "If we're going to give a lot of money," David Koch explained to a libertarian journalist, "we'll make darn sure they spend it in a way that goes along with our intent. And if they make a wrong turn and start doing things we don't agree with, we withdraw funding."

Most of these bodies call themselves "free-market thinktanks", but their trick – as (Astro)Turf Wars points out – is to conflate crony capitalism with free enterprise, and free enterprise with personal liberty. Between them they have constructed the philosophy that informs the Tea Party movement: its members mobilise for freedom, unaware that the freedom they demand is freedom for corporations to trample them into the dirt. The thinktanks that the Kochs have funded devise the game and the rules by which it is played; Americans for Prosperity coaches and motivates the team.

Astroturfing is now taking off in the United Kingdom. Earlier this month Spinwatch showed how a fake grassroots group set up by health insurers helped shape the Tories' NHS reforms. Billionaires and corporations are capturing the political process everywhere; anyone with an interest in democracy should be thinking about how to resist them. Nothing is real any more. Nothing is as it seems.

Atheists and believers can get along |

 Julian Baggini | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

If being an atheist meant being anti-theist, then I would not be one. I am an anti-dogmatist, an anti-fundamentalist, yes. But I have no hostility to theism as such, and have no desire to strip all theists of their faith. Of course I think theists are mistaken, but no one should be automatically hostile to everyone they disagree with. Hostility should be reserved for the pernicious, the wicked and the harmful.

Of course, there are plenty of atheists who do think that all religion is harmful, and that every person who believes in God is being hampered by a terrible illusion. Plenty of atheists are anti-theists. What is more, this breed of atheist tends to attract more attention, so for many, this is just what atheism seems to be.

But there are also lots of atheists like me. We simply do not believe in God because we see no good reason to do so. To invite us into the citadels of faith and ask us to explain what we believe is therefore not to bring the enemy though the gate, simply because we are not the enemy.

I would suggest that a far greater enemy to the kind of liberal Anglicanism that has prevailed in the Church of England, custodian of Westminster Abbey, would be a biblical literalist. But I do not imagine that the decision to allow such a person to talk in Westminster Abbey would raise as many eyebrows as the decision to let an atheist do so. Somehow, it has become received wisdom that the most important division is between people of faith and people of none. This is not only false, it is unchristian. Time and again in the gospels, Jesus argues that it is better to be a good gentile than a bad Jew. The Samaritan is more of a friend to the Christian that the Pharisee who walks by on the other side. What matters more than having the right faith is acting in good faith.

Dividing the world up into believers and non-believers, while accurate in many ways, doesn't draw the distinction between friends and foes. I see my allies as being the community of the reasonable, and my enemies as the community of blind faith and dogmatism. Any religion that is not unreasonable and not dogmatic should likewise recognise that it has a kinship with atheists who hold those same values. And it should realise that it has more to fear from other people of faith who deny those values than it does from reasonable atheists like myself.

So my time in the pulpit is not so incongruous after all. That it seems that way to many simply reflects two sad facts: that atheism has come to be seen as anti-theism, and that, perhaps partly in response, we expect people of faith to forge not-that-holy alliances with each other rather than far better unholy alliances with kindred non-believers. We should challenge both those assumptions, for the sake of values that good believers and good atheists alike hold dear.

Nate's Word of the Day

Nate's Word of the Day

Nate's Word

Such story below is common here and the legislatives just don't care

Gold Coast bus drivers 'urinating in bushes' because of unrealistic schedules | News.com.au

GOLD Coast bus drivers are being forced to urinate behind bushes because of unrealistic schedules and the locking of public toilets at night.

Gaven LNP MP Alexander Douglas yesterday told State Parliament a female bus driver recently was caught with her pants down by a group of greatly offended people who had to be talked out of calling the police.

"Because of the tightness of the schedule, these poor drivers - male and female - have no time in the schedule in which to get to the toilet," he said.

"A month ago ... a bus driver had to go to the toilet. The council had locked the public toilet near one stop. She was behind the bushes and was unfortunately interrupted by a group of people who did not realise the nature of the situation."

Bad Politicians! They are just liars!

When I went to a tailor this afro to alternate my jeans, I met an old guy whose work is collecting rubbish. Suddenly I feel pity for him and this guy reminds me of the French big protest against pension reform. I gave him a few rupiah. "Thank you," he said.
However, I am not going to discuss about that French thing. I just wondered why the government here ignores its own people. Heryawan and Rosada are just" sitting on their potato coach" and receive millions rupiah from us the tax payer. They are just useless leaders. Recently I met that Heryawan. He is getting fat. Maybe he eats too much. He used to be a poor and joining greey and dumb people in PKS, an islamic party, make him enjoying luxury life. His wife is also like him, coming from poor background. These two useless people are busy creating image this and that. For example, the wife of heryawan is trying to make a good image for her and family by visiting some people who are victim of facebook frauds. Hey, can u do something useful? U r paid by our money to take care this state so the people can enjoy prosperous life. But, u r just such hypocrite. All politicians are suck. Some of them are really disgusting, using religions to cheat people. Hey people wake up and speak up? Don't let these crappy people stealing our money....


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Shonky award for power balance band. Did you know it is just a rubber band bracelet with a plastic hologram?

 

Choice was also unimpressed with the Power Balance band which claimed to promote natural energy flow.

Mr Zinn said the product was "simply just a rubber band bracelet with a plastic hologram".

 

via ScribeFire

"The back of your neck's all over the shed/Boomshacka boom chop chop bang"

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The Guardian | This is a news website article about a scientific finding | Martin Robbins

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gmg/op/s6xqGwB3jywb5iLRAfqL-dQ/view.m?id=583005&...
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detikInet: 60% Karyawan Yakin, Kerja Tak Perlu dari Kantor

http://m.detik.com/read/2010/10/26/190158/1475801/319/60-karyawan-yakin-kerja...
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Does inflation help or hinder leveraged investments

Does inflation help or hinder leveraged investments ?

I've read a debate on another forum where they are discussing whether inflation helps or hinders investors.

There seem to be two arguments:

The first argument says borrowing money now and paying it back using tomorrow's dollars makes investment great for people using leverage (borrowed money). This works because inflation means that it's easier to get $1000 in the future to pay back our loan than it is to get that same $1000 today (our rate of pay would have increased in the future, making the amount of effort required to earn $1000 much less then than it is today). Or, flip that around and it says, the future value of $1000 is less than it is today (hence it costs us less to pay it back at some point in the future). This argument implies that the higher the rate of inflation, the better it is for people with loans.

The other argument says that your investment returns have to "keep up with inflation" to maintain their value. For example, if you had $1000 in cash today, it would have less purchasing power in 10 years time because of inflation. You money is decreasing in value over time. If you were to invest that money in the bank - and if your money wasn't growing faster than the rate of inflation - then your money will also decrease in value over time (although at a slower rate than if you hadn't invested it at all). This argument implies that the lower the rate of inflation, the better it is for people investing.

So, which argument is correct ?

Well, I did some thinking about it, and some modelling using a spreadsheet, and my analysis has concluded this:

They are BOTH correct !!

(don't you hate that ? )

Both arguments actually have an impact on the future returns of your investments. Borrowed money gets cheaper to pay back over time, but the real value of your investments decrease over time - both due to inflation.

In fact, my spreadsheet (which I won't upload right now, because it would take me too long to explain it all) shows that there is a point of inflection where inflation changes from a help to a hinderance. Where this point actually sits depends on a multitude of variables, but let me explain my basic scenario.

$20K cash put in as a deposit
$80K borrowed
$100K purchase price
30 year interest only loan payments, with full principal paid out at the end of 30 years.

I calculated the Net Present Value (NPV) of the payments over 30 years, and compared this with the NPV of the total returns (growth + income, ignoring tax) over the same 30 years. I then changed the interest rate and inflation rate, and each time I had the spreadsheet solver calculate what the minimum total return each year was to ensure that the NPV of returns was at least equal to the NPV of the payments.

I then plotted those minimum return values in a chart against the interest rates, and it showed that for lower interest rates, higher inflation improved the returns, while at higher interest rates, higher inflation hindered returns.

In my scenario, the point where the inflection occurred was when interest rates were around 8%. I haven't done enough analysis to work out how this figure changes as the assumptions in the scenario change - and it's certainly not a fixed point.

Assange

Who is Julian Assange? | The New York Observer

This morning as America was waking up to the first day of news after the leak of nearly 92,000 classified documents describing the realities of the war in Afghanistan — this war's Pentagon Papers — Julian Assange was speaking to members of the press at the Frontline Club in London behind a podium and a white laptop.

Mr. Assange is the founder of Wikileaks, the organization that obtained the classified documents and distributed them to The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel, the German newsweekly. "The real story of this material is that it's war, it's one damn thing after another, it's the continuous small events, the continuous deaths of children, insurgents, armed forces," Mr. Assange told the assembled reporters. "Maimed people," he added. "This is the story of the war since 2004."

Mr. Assange told The Times in April that one of his chief obligations was “to get maximum political impact" out of the leaks that Wikileaks handles, "to do justice to our material." At the time, Mr. Assange had just released a video, named Collateral Murder, showing a U.S. Apache helicopter killing 12 civilians. The video came from within the military. Raffi Khatchadourian followed Mr. Assange for The New Yorker as Wikileaks prepared to reveal "Collateral Murder" and its founder rented a house in Iceland that he nicknamed "The Bunker." There he employed a small team to prepare, publish, publicize and, most importantly, protect the damning footage. The protection part involves more than 20 servers stationed in different countries around the world. Mr. Assange says that Wikileaks' digital infrastructure is more secure than those used by the banking industry.

Mr. Khatchadourian offered a compelling description of Mr. Assange's gray eyes, his silver hair and his face, which was scarred by mosquito bites while Mr. Assange slept in a park in Victoria, Australia awaiting trial for thirty-one counts of hacking and related crimes in 1991. He was born in 1971, the same year news of Daniel Ellberg's Pentagon Papers ran on the front page of The New York Times.

The Guardian | Iraq war logs: British blunder may have let al-Qaida kingpin Zarqawi go free

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gmg/op/sMbmAOCKa_JHR-DQO91AOkg/view.m?id=617527&...
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I wish society becomes more open, inclusive and free

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Gejala Penyakit Jantung dan Stroke

Print Artikel

Patient Education Corner: Mengenal Kolesterol dan Dampaknya Terhadap Kesehatan
ADVERTORIAL - Vol.8 No.5, Desember 2008
Di kehidupan sehari-hari kita sudah tidak asing lagi dengan istilah kolesterol. Kalau kita disuguhi makanan gorengan atau masakan yang berasal dari daging sapi atau kambing, maka pikiran kita pasti akan mengarah pada kolesterol. Bagi yang tengah menjalani diet, makanan tadi sudah pasti ditampiknya karena sumber kolesterol. Apakah kolesterol itu? Samakah kolesterol dengan lemak?

Lemak, disebut juga lipid, adalah suatu zat yang kaya akan energi. Lemak berfungsi sebagai sumber energi yang utama untuk proses metabolisme tubuh. Dari segi ilmu gizi, lemak dapat diklasifikasikan menjadi lemak sederhana, lemak majemuk, dan turunan lemak. Masing-masing jenis lemak memiliki stuktur kimia berbeda. Contoh lemak sederhana adalah monogliserida, digliserida, dan trigliserida. Lemak majemuk contohnya fosfolipid dan lipoprotein. Sedangkan yang termasuk dalam turunan lemak salah satu contohnya adalah kolesterol.

Meski masuk dalam golongan lemak atau lipid, tetapi kolesterol dan lemak merupakan substansi yang berbeda. Satu makanan bisa saja tinggi lemak, tetapi bebas kolesterol, misalnya minyak zaitun. Atau sebaliknya makanan lain bisa rendah lemak tetapi tinggi kolesterol.
Apa itu kolesterol?

Dilihat dari struktur kimianya, kolesterol merupakan senyawa lemak yang kompleks. Sebagian besar kolesterol yang beredar dalam tubuh manusia dihasilkan dari dalam tubuh (di hati), mencapai 80% dari total kolesterol. Sisanya (20%) diperoleh dari makanan. Meski tampak "jahat" sebenarnya kolesterol memiliki banyak kegunaan dalam tubuh, di antaranya membuat hormon seks, membentuk dinding sel dan lain-lain.

Kolesterol tidak larut dalam cairan darah. Untuk itu agar dapat dikirim ke seluruh tubuh perlu dikemas bersama protein menjadi partikel yang disebut lipoprotein. Lipoprotein dapat dianggap sebagai 'pembawa' (carier) kolesterol dalam darah

Jumlah kolesterol yang ada di tubuh kita harus seimbang dengan kebutuhan. Dengan begitu tubuh kita akan tetap sehat. Tetapi bila jumlahnya berlebihan, salah satunya akibat terlau sering makan makanan mengandung kolesterol, maka kadar kolesterol dalam darah akan meningkat.
Jenis-jenis Kolesterol

Ada beberapa jenis kolesterol yang penting untuk diketahui.

1. Kolesterol LDL (low density lipoprotein)
Kolesterol LDL ini adalah kolesterol yang mengangkut paling banyak kolesterol di dalam darah. LDL sering disebut sebagai kolesterol jahat, karena kadar LDL yang tinggi akan menyebabkan mengendapnya kolesterol dalam arteri. Kolesterol LDL merupakan faktor risiko utama penyakit jantung koroner dan merupakan target utama dalam pengobatan

2. Kolesterol HDL (high density lipoprotein)
Kolesterol HDL mengangkut kolesterol lebih sedikit. HDL sering disebut kolesterol baik, karena dapat membuang kelebihan kolesterol jahat di pembuluh darah arteri kembali ke hati untuk diproses dan dibuang. Jadi HDL mampu mencegah kolesterol mengendap di arteri dan melindungi (proteksi) dari aterosklerosis (terbentuknya plak pada dinding pembuluh darah).

Selain LDL dan HLD ada lagi satu jenis lemak yang berbahaya, yakni trigliserida. Trigliserida adalah salah satu jenis lemak yang terdapat dalam darah dan berbagai organ dalam tubuh. Meningkatnya kadar trigliserida dalam darah dapat meningkatkan kadar kolesterol. Sejumlah faktor dapat mempengaruhi kadar trigliserida dalam darah seperti kegemukan, minum alkohol, makan gula, makan lemak. Kadar trigliserida yang tinggi banyak dikaitkan dengan pankreatitis atau radang pankreas.
Kolesterol : Faktor Risiko Penyakit jantung dan stroke

Jika kadar kolesterol di dalam darah melebihi dari nilai normal, maka risiko terjadinya penyakit jantung koroner dan stroke akan lebih besar. Kelebihan kolesterol dapat menyebabkan mengendapnya kolesterol pada dinding pembuluh darah yang menyebabkan penyempitan dan pengerasan pembuluh darah yang dikenal sebagai aterosklerosis (proses pembentukan plak pada pembuluh darah).

Jika penyempitan dan pengerasan ini cukup berat, sehingga menyebabkan suplai darah ke otot jantung tidak memadai, maka timbul sakit atau nyeri dada yang disebut sebagai angina. Dan bila berlanjut akan menyebabkan matinya jaringan otot jantung yang disebut infark miokard. Jika infark miokard meluas, maka akan timbullah gagal jantung.

Selain kolesterol LDL, faktor risiko lain yang memperbesar terjadinya penyakit jantung adalah kebiasaan merokok, nilai HDL rendah (< 40 mg/dl), memiliki penyakit tekanan darah tinggi atau hipertensi (140/90 atau sedang dalam pengobatan). Selain itu penyakit jantung berisiko lebih tinggi pada usia ³ 45 tahun (pria) dan ³ 65 tahun (wanita), yang diketahui memiliki riwayat keluarga yang menderita penyakit jantung.

Adapun gejala penyakit jantung adalah:

* Rasa tertekan (ditimpa beban, sakit, terjepit, diperas, terbakar ) di dada yang dapat menjalar ke lengan kiri, leher, dan punggung
* Tercekik atau sesak
* Berlangsung lebih dari 20 menit.
* Keringat dingin, lemah, berdebar dan bisa sampai pingsan
* Gejala akan berkurang dengan istirahat dan bertambah berat dengan aktivitas

Jika sumbatan ini menyerang pembuluh darah otak maka akan terjadi stroke. Gejala serangan stroke tergantung dari derajat serangan, mulai dari yang ringan sampai berat.

* Gejala stroke ringan :
o Bicara tiba-tiba jadi pelo
* Gejala yang sifatnya berat :
o kelumpuhan anggota gerak tubuh
o wajah menjadi tidak simetris
o jika terjadi perdarahan otak dapat menyebabkan KEMATIAN.

Gejala-gejala stroke memerlukan tindakan yang cepat agar jangan sampai jatuh pada derajat yang lebih berat.
Hubungan kolesterol dan penyakit lain Diabetes Melitus (Kencing Manis)

Diabetes merupakan suatu keadaan dimana kadar gula darah melebihi batas normal. Diabetes ini juga merupakan faktor risiko terhadap PJK. Bila kadar gula darah naik dan berlangsung lama, maka akan memicu terjadinya aterosklerosis pada arteri koroner. Pasien dengan diabetes cenderung mengalami gangguan jantung pada usia yang masih muda. Diabetes yang tidak terkonrol dengan kadar glukosa yang tinggi cenderung meningkatkan kadar kolesterol dan trigliserida. Bentuk kolesterol LDL pada penderita diabetes lebih padat dengan ukuran yang lebih kecil yang sering disebut Small Dense LDL, sehingga mudah sekali masuk kedalam lapisan pembuluh darah yang lebih dalam. Bentuk kolesterol LDL ini lebih jahat lagi karena lebih bersifat aterogenik (lebih mudah menempel pada pembuluh darah dan lebih mudah membentuk plak).
Disfungsi Ereksi (Gangguan Ereksi)

Disfungsi ereksi adalah ketidakmampuan mencapai atau mempertahankan ereksi penis yang memadai untuk melakukan hubungan seksual yang memuaskan.

Proses aterosklerosis (pembentukan plak) akibat kolesterol tinggi juga dapat terjadi pada pembuluh darah penis (arteri dorsalis penis). Plak yang menyumbat pembuluh darah penis ini menyebabkan penis tidak mendapatka aliran darah sehingga terjadi gangguan ereksi.
Kolesterol Harus Dikontrol!

Karena dampak kolesterol yang amat membahayakan kesehatan, maka kadar kolesterol perlu dikontrol. Untuk mengetahui kadar kolesterol dalam darah, dapat dilakukan dengan melakukan tes di laboratorium setelah puasa lebih kurang 10 jam. Adapun nilai normal laboratorium untuk kolesterol adalah sebagai berikut:

1. Kolesterol LDL: Nilai normal kolesterol LDL bergantung kepada jumlah faktor risiko seseorang terhadap PJK. Semakin banyak jumlah faktor risikonya, maka semakin rendah kolesterol LDL yang harus diturunkan.
* Jika jumlah faktor risiko PJK 0-1 , maka kolesterol LDL < 160 mg/dl
* Jika jumlah faktor risiko PJK > 2, maka kolesterol LDL < 130 mg/dl
* Jika seseorang ada riwayat PJK ataupun Diabetes, maka kolesterol LDL < 100 mg/dl
2. Kolesterol HDL : > 40 mg/dl
3. Trigliserida : <150 mg/dl
4. Kolesterol Total : < 200 mg/dl

Gaya hidup sehat

Selain rutin melakukan pemeriksaan laboratorium, kolesterol juga bisa dikendalikan dengan menerapkan gaya hidup yang sehat. Di antaranya menjaga berat badan yang seimbang. Kegemukan juga salah satu faktor risiko lain diabetes, hipertensi, yang pada taraf selanjutya meningkatkan risiko PJK. Berat badan dikatakan ideal bila berat badan untuk tinggi badan tertentu secara statistik dianggap paling baik untuk menjamin kesehatan.

Indeks Massa Tubuh (IMT) atau Body Mass Index (BMI) merupakan alat atau cara yang sederhana untuk memantau status gizi orang dewasa, khususnya yang berkaitan dengan kekurangan dan kelebihan berat badan. Penggunaan IMT hanya untuk orang dewasa berumur > 18 tahun dan tidak dapat diterapkan pada bayi, anak, remaja, ibu hamil, dan olahragawan. Untuk mengetahui nilai IMT ini, dapat dihitung dengan rumus berikut:

Marriage: an institutionalised incentive to gold-digging

Marriage: an institutionalised incentive to gold-digging | Lionel Shriver | Comment is free | The Guardian

Pre-nups aren't pretty, but they protect us from a law that says because you love someone they have a claim on everything you own

Before they married in 1998, the German heiress Katrin Radmacher and her then-fiance, Nicolas Granatino, drew up a legal document promising that, if they divorced, neither would go after the other's money. Yet, when the couple separated in 2006, Granatino did just that. The supreme court decision to uphold their original contract may herald a new era, in which prenuptial agreements are finally accorded standing in British courts.

Alas, this week's ruling awards poor Granatino only £1m in lieu of maintenance for the couple's two daughters, a London residence that will be returned to Radmacher when the younger of their two daughters reaches the age of 22, and another property in France for the same period, while Radmacher has already paid off his £700,000 in debts. His lawyers claim this pittance leaves Granatino facing "bankruptcy, financial ruin, and destitution", although these attorneys might invest in a dictionary, the better to clarify what "bankruptcy", "ruin", and "destitution" actually mean.

Family lawyers are warning that this decision may bring on a torrent of so-called pre-nups now that the contracts are no longer treated like toilet roll in British jurisprudence. But would that be so terrible?

Formal declarations of mistrust, pre-nups are emotionally unfortunate. They overtly plan for failure, and thus involve a jarring cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, couples are vowing to be true till death parts them; on the other, they're already hammering out the details of their divorce. But when nearly half of British marriages do end in divorce, practicality may get the better of romance, especially for those who bring considerable assets to the relationship.

Thus couples that can bear the contamination of an otherwise joyful celebration should have their agreements honoured. For British courts to have hitherto invalidated pre-nups has been high-handed, like British marital law in general. In the UK, divorcing couples don't have assets divided 50-50. It's worse than that. The courts can do whatever they want.

However unattractive, pre-nups are at least a way round a law that dictates simply because you love someone and share their bed, that person has a claim on everything you own. In a time when women had little or no ability to support themselves, a husband's monies being legally regarded as joint assets helped to protect the wife. But these days both sexes have access to the workplace, and the protection that women like Katrin Radmacher require isn't from helpless penury, but from rapacity – the greed of ex-husbands who violate what should be legally binding contracts to turn divorce into a nice little earner.

A just, fully contemporary divorce law would obviate pre-nups altogether by recognising the morally obvious. Yes, all households incur joint running costs; but, when my husband earns £500, that is his money, not mine. If "we" buy a house but I pay the deposit and the mortgage, that house is mine. If my husband owned £10,000 in shares before we married, I do not deserve to remove any of those shares from his possession if we split. Western workers do not toil for collective farms called families; they are paid as individuals. Whether they wish to pool assets with a partner is their business, not the state's.

When one spouse has raised children while the other works, the division of spoils in divorce is more complex. Yet the law is fully capable of quantifying the value of childcare and lost earnings without blindly handing over to a stay-at-home spouse an untold proportion of what the working spouse has accrued.

As it is, little wonder marriage has plummeted in popularity. "I do" forfeits all control over your earnings, possessions and finances. You can't be sure that if you buy a house you can keep it, even if the title is in your name. Should you divorce, there's no guarantee that the courts will distinguish between your earnings of £150,000 per annum and your spouse's salary of £12,500. Under the present system – an institutionalised incentive to gold-digging – a pre-nup codifies the fairness that the law does not. For British courts to finally accord these contracts legitimacy provides people a measure of protection from the caprices of the courts themselves.

In the perfect world no one would need pre-nups. But all too often a misty-eyed romancer at the altar transforms into a vengeful, avaricious fiscal predator when the marriage goes south. A pre-nup is an insurance policy or, in brokerage terms, a short hedge – meant to mitigate a high-risk investment. It safeguards the love-struck from their own poor judgment of character.

Don't believe in God? Read This

| Fred Edwords | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Washington DC nontheist, atheist bus shelter advert The Coalition of Reason bus shelter advertisement, in Washington, DC. Photograph: CoR


New advertisements on Washington DC bus stop shelters ask a simple question: "Don't believe in God?" After that gets your attention, they answer it: "Join the club."

More than a figure of speech, this rejoinder is a direct invitation to join one of the dozen local non-theistic groups that have come together as Washington CoR – the Washington DC area Coalition of Reason.

Believers in traditional religion are often shocked at such ads. Since 2008, this message and others like it have been placed on billboards, buses, subway trains and at subway stations in cities across the United States. But the ads don't actually address believers. They address non-believers, in an effort to get them "out of the closet", or at least, to let them know they aren't alone. The goal is to end a conspiracy of silence of sorts, where quietness is next to godlessness, and begin the process of giving non-theistic Americans their place at the table.

But why is this happening now? Well, it actually began in 2004 with the emergence of what the media quickly dubbed the "new atheism". In the wake of that, godless Americans suddenly found themselves in a sweet spot. They were no longer so controversial as to be beyond the pale, yet just controversial enough to be endlessly interesting.

Other groups have gone through a similar phase. Remember when being interracially married would get you air time? Or being transsexual? These controversies have passed, of course. And this phase will pass for non-theists, too. But not yet. And so, in city after city where these ads are put up, reaction follows. Sometimes in the form of a backlash – which only multiplies their power.

So, the United Coalition of Reason has been striking while the iron is hot, stoking the flames of public interest in secularism, anti-clericalism and religious diversity to bring the growing number of godless groups together into local coalitions. Thus organised, they pool their efforts in a common website that links to all the groups, creating a sort of online one-stop-shopping for the religiously disaffected and spiritually uninterested. That website is then publicised through the ads; and via the media attention and internet buzz the ads generate, more people emerge as interested non-theists and coallesce into the groups. The size of the freethought and humanist community thereby expands.

In the United States, evangelical Christianity dominates the field of religious advertising. Which only makes atheist messages stand out more. Further, because freedom of speech and freedom of the press are enshrined in the US constitution, transit companies that allow religious advertising can't ban non-theistic alternatives. So the ads must be allowed to run.

And when they do – over and over and across the land – people start getting used to them. This increases public tolerance of dissenting views and gives more people permission either to be open about their unbelief or even to begin questioning their faith.

So, in the end, everybody wins because society becomes more open, inclusive and free.

ANTARA News: KPK: Pensiun PNS Berpotensi Bebani Uang Negara

akarta (ANTARA News) - Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) menyatakan bahwa alokasi dana pensiun bagi pegawai negeri dan penyelenggara negara berpotensi membebani keuangan negara.

"Uang pensiun itu diberikan sampai yang bersangkutan meninggal dunia," kata Wakil Ketua KPK M Jasin di Jakarta, Kamis, yang menambahkan bahwa KPK memberi perhatian terhadap alokasi dana pensiun itu.

Meski belum memiliki perhitungan rinci, Jasin menegaskan, beban alokasi dana pensiun bagi pegawai negeri dan penyelenggara negara sangat besar.

Jasin mencontohkan, seorang pegawai negeri akan pensiun pada usia 56 tahun. Jika dia hidup sampai usia 65 tahun, maka negara akan menanggung dana pensiun yang bersangkutan selama sembilan tahun.

"Padahal, sejumlah orang memiliki usia harapan hidup lebih dari itu," kata Jasin.

Menurut dia, jumlah alokasi dana pensiun itu akan membengkak jika dikali dengan jumlah seluruh pegawai negeri dan penyelenggara negara di Indonesia.

Di sisi lain, pemberian dana pensiun itu kadang tidak sesuai dengan rasa keadilan masyarakat. Hal itu antara lain terlihat di beberapa instansi seperti Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR), baik di pusat maupun di daerah.

"Misalnya terkait pergantian antar waktu," kata Jasin.

Mekanisme pergantian antar waktu adalah mekanisme bagi politisi untuk menduduki kursi DPR dalam periode waktu tertentu.

Jasin berpendapat, pemberian uang pensiun kepada mereka yang hanya beberapa bulan atau beberapa tahun menjabat tidak sesuai dengan gagasan tata kelola pemerintahan yang baik.

Model KPK

Jasin berharap instansi pemerintah mencontoh mekanisme yang ditempuh KPK. KPK tidak membebankan dana hari tua karyawan pada keuangan negara.

Menurut Jasin, tunjangan hari tua karyawan KPK diambil dari gaji mereka masing-masing.

"Gaji setiap pegawai KPK dipotong untuk tunjangan hari tua," katanya.

Jasin menjelaskan, gaji setiap pegawai, termasuk pimpinan KPK, dipotong sekira satu persen sampai dua persen. Dana hari tua itu kemudian dititipkan kepada pihak ketiga, yaitu perbankan.

Setiap pegawai yang sudah tidak bertugas di KPK, bisa mengambil dana tersimpan itu sesuai jatah yang harus dia terima.

KPK menerapkan sistem bagi hasil dengan pihak bank atas simpanan dana tunjangan hari tua itu.

Hal itu berarti setiap pegawai KPK berhak atas jatah yang dia simpan ditambah dengan bunga hasil simpanan itu. Sedangkan pihak bank bisa menggunakan keuntungan akibat penempatan dana itu untuk pengembangan usaha.

Jasin menegaskan, upaya KPK itu bertujuan untuk tidak membebani negara dengan alokasi tambahan untuk dana pensiun. Dengan begitu, keuangan negara bisa digunakan secara optimal untuk pembangunan dan kesejahteraan rakyat.

"Jangan sampai uang negara habis hanya untuk membayar pensiun," kata Jasin.

Spain reclaims Siesta

Spain defends nap with siesta championship | News.com.au

WHAT is being billed as Spain's first national siesta championship is under way in Madrid to find the best napper and help revive the tradition of taking a snooze after lunch.

Participants are monitored as they lie on bright blue sofas in the middle of a shopping centre for a 20-minute nap.
Some wear pyjamas; others sport eye masks or cover their faces with their jackets.

They have pulse monitors attached to their bodies and the maximum of 20,000 points is awarded to those who sleep for the full 20 minutes.

Sleeping fewer minutes means fewer points but judges also award marks for original sleeping positions, the loudest snore and the most eye-catching outfits.

The competition, organised by the National Association of Friends of the Siesta, began on October 14 and will wrap up on Saturday, with the winner awarded a prize of 1000 euros ($1420).


"The mission of the championship is to spread the idea that the nap is something of ours that must be defended and practised, because it is healthy and good for everyone," the association says on its website.

"Being able to do it in public requires having a spirit of a champion and to be a great siesta taker."

Eight rounds of the competition are held daily, with each involving five participants on sofas lined up in parallel lanes like those at a track and field meet.

"We were afraid that people would be afraid of making fools of themselves, but on average about 50 people have taken part each day," the association's spokesman, Alvaro Vidal, said.

Given the success of the siesta contest, the association is planning to repeat the event in future and hold editions outside of Spain, he said.

''For all this time, we have never felt calm, never peace. Why? "

I get this from smh.com.au

(the video u can download here https://www.fpcn-global.org/films/mo...0x240_H264.mov)
A graphic and disturbing video shows a Papuan man being poked in the genitals with a fiery stick as he is interrogated by a group of men who appear to be members of Indonesia's security services.

The video has come to light as the Indonesian government faces continuing criticism about abuses by its security forces in Papua, scene of a long simmering separatist struggle.

The Papuan man, stripped naked, bound and with one of the interrogators placing his foot on his chest, is being asked about the location of a cache of weapons. After he tells his interrogators it has been hidden in a pigpen, one of them screams at him: ''You cheat, you cheat.''
Advertisement: Story continues below
‘‘Get a fire’’ ... video posted on YouTube shows two Papuan men being tortured by apparent members of the Indonesian security services. One has a smouldering stick applied to his genitals.

‘‘Get a fire’’ ... video posted on YouTube shows two Papuan men being tortured by apparent members of the Indonesian security services. One has a smouldering stick applied to his genitals.

Another interrogator then yells ''get a fire, get a fire'' before a colleague administers the torture with a stick that has been burnt in a fire and is smouldering. The man screams in agony, and does so again when the treatment is repeated.

The video appears to have been taken with a mobile phone by one of the interrogators, who speak Indonesian with Javanese and Ambonese accents and wear plain clothes.

While it is common for Indonesian police and military personnel to wear civilian clothing, it is impossible to verify those in the video are members of the security services.

But the nature of the interrogation suggests professionals are at work, as does a later incident shown on the 10-minute video when an M-16 rifle is pointed at the man's mouth.

''So you want me to shoot your mouth? So your mouth breaks?'' the interrogator shouts.

The emergence of the video - it was posted on YouTube three days ago by someone using the moniker papualiberationarmy and obtained independently by the Herald - will do nothing to lessen criticism of abuses by security forces in Papua.

''We have been living under Indonesia for almost 48 years,'' said Victor Kogoya, a member of the central committee of the Aliansi Mahasiswa Papua, a Papuan student group. ''For all this time, we have never felt calm, never peace. Why? Because ever since the security state has been chasing us, arresting us, killing, terror and intimidation.''

Although Jakarta made an autonomy deal with the province almost 10 years ago, its indigenous Melanesian people remain the country's poorest while migrants flood into the resource-rich area and dominate business and paid employment, further marginalising the Papuans.

There have been repeated reports of abuses by the military and police, but foreign journalists are banned from entering Papua without special permission, while non-government groups, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, have been told to leave in the past year.

Two Papuan victims are recorded in the video - one naked and being burned, while the other is clothed and has a large knife placed under his nose as he is being questioned by the men. At one point, one of the interrogators says: ''I'll cut your throat.''

The footage is graphic, with the men hit and threatened throughout the interrogation.

The victims speak in the Papuan dialect Lani, strongly suggesting the video was filmed in Puncak Jaya, a regency in Papua's highlands where a unit of the armed Free Papua Movement commanded by Goliath Tabuni has been staging sporadic attacks on Indonesian police and military posts for the past two years.

Numerous weapons have been stolen in the raids and at least four soldiers and police have been killed in the past two years.

Jakarta has sent members of the national police's mobile brigade and anti-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, to the region. Both units have been accused of using excessive force.

There have been repeated allegations of security forces making violent sweeps through villages in Puncak Jaya, a region characterised by soaring mountains covered in thick jungle. The military, including its controversial special forces unit Kopassus, also has a strong presence.

Papua, which was formerly known as Dutch New Guinea, was not incorporated into Indonesia when it became a state in 1949. It was held by the Dutch until 1962 when, following Indonesian military incursions into the area, an agreement brokered through the Untied Nations gave Indonesia administrative control of the region pending a referendum.

That ''referendum'' involved just 1025 handpicked tribal leaders who unanimously agreed to join Indonesia. The so-called ''Act of Free Choice'' has been labelled fraudulent and remains a source of great anger for many indigenous Papuans.

While separatist sentiment remains strong, it has little international support. Australia recognises Indonesia's sovereignty over the region. The Herald was unable to obtain a response from the Indonesian military or police late yesterday.

via ScribeFire

Glenn Beck

Being Glenn Beck - NYTimes.com

You need to be who you were born to be, not the people we have allowed ourselves to become. Don’t let life and the world shape us. That’s not who we are.”

So You Want Me To INVEST?

Source: http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=169761

You're joking, right?

Yesterday the dollar advanced about a percent and a half.  The stock market fell by more than 100 DOW points.

Today, the dollar declines by (thus far) 1.32%.  The stock market advances by more than 100 DOW points.

Simply put, you're not investing.  You're gambling on the movement of the currency, which is a direct function of the actions of The Fed and Congress.

A stronger dollar means your imports get cheaper and your exports more expensive.  Your money goes further to buy things you want to import, such as energy.

A weaker dollar means imports get more expensive and exports cheaper.  Your labor becomes devalued, since you must buy energy in order to survive, and it is in everything you buy - including most-especially food.  We import some 70% of our oil, as just one example.

A weaker currency means your real buying power is diminished.  Your prior labor's surplus is effectively stolen.  Prices of stocks may appear to rise, but to someone who is investing in Euros they haven't gone up at all - the "increase" in "wealth" alleged is in fact an illusion - and when paraded in front of the public as a reason to "go spend more", it is a fraud.

No nation has ever managed to devalue its currency as a means of achieving or reclaiming prosperity.  In point of fact all such attempts have ended in either abject failure or worse, monetary system collapse as capital flight ultimately ensues.

The usual reaction to capital flight, rather than addressing the underlying rot that causes it, is to try to slap capital controls on the firms who have capital invested in the nation.  This always backfires as once a nation engages in this nobody in their right mind will invest in a nation where it could become "trapped" in the future.  So while you can "trap" the capital that you already have, doing so simply means you'll never get any more.

CNBS is claiming that the dollar is weakening "a bit."  1.3% moves in a day is not "a bit."  The bond market is not impressed, driving /ZN (10year Treasury Futures) sharply higher since the dollar began its dive a couple of hours ago.

The instability these currency moves are creating will eventually cause a market collapse.  The Dollar/Yen cross is today trading under 81 - a near-historic low - and continues on the trendline we have seen since June, when Bernanke began his threats of devaluation.

These moves trash Japanese profitability.  Their Ministry of Finance and Central Bank have threatened to "prevent" disorderly strengthening - but their "intervention" bought them only 2 weeks of respite from an inexorable trend and amounted to flushing billions down the toilet, as the currency simply re-accelerated its declines until it once-again intercepted the trend that had been running for six months.  In other words, they were shown to be impotent by the market, which immediately called the bluff and turned them into liars - exactly as has happened in every intervention they ever conducted over the last two decades.

CNBS is once again, this morning, hauling out every useful idiot they can find to pump stocks.  This after bringing on David Tepper, who immediately got Tattoed with his holdings in the financial sector after his last pump.  One wonders if these guys are unloading into the pops they create with their public touting, thereby attempting to stick you, once again, with the inevitable losses.

This time it was Bill Miller, who, I might remind you, was long up to his neck in stocks in 2007 and 2008 and likewise was "pumpting" stocks then - he got destroyed in the crash.  Why doesn't anyone ever point out how much Countrywide Financial he held - all the way down the toilet bowl?

Everyone is talking about how low rates make stocks "cheap."

Does anyone understand how stupid this is?  Think back to 2003.

Money was cheap then too.  Greenspan told you to buy houses.  The price of houses soared due to the cheap money.

But as soon as the cheap money wore off, the ability to afford that house disappeared.

Cheap money can wear off two ways: Interest rates can rise or the currency can depreciate.

Oh wait - they're deprecating the currency, aren't they? 

You want to know what forced the serial-refinancing frauds on the market?  Here's the reason for it:

Now let's talk about this a minute.  The S&P 500 went from 800 in late 2002 to 1576 in 2007.  But the dollar went from 121 to 80 - a devaluation of 33%. 

The loose lending alone wasn't enough - and that dollar depreciation served to hide real wage declines, that were in fact much worse than published.  In "inflation-adjusted" dollars, for all but the super-rich (the top 5%) real wages went down during the 2000 decade. 

When adjusted for the depreciation of the currency real wages decreased by about 40% and when adjusted for depreciation of the currency the S&P 500 only reached about 1000 - NOT the previous 2000 highs!

If you want to know why we had a credit bubble, that's the reason.  It's what was used to prop up the economy in the 2000s - false prosperity predicated on a rank lie - rising equity and house prices that were not affordable through the purchasing power of economic surplus - that is, what you had left from your earnings after you paid your necessary living expenses.

Ever-looser lending standards "permitted" driving higher equity and house prices through the expansion of credit that could not be paid except through serial refinancing on the back of alleged increases in "value."

Ok, so where are we now?

In deep **** far worse than we were in 2007 when I started writing The Market Ticker.

Why?

Because the credit bubble has not come out. 

That is, all that debt is still there, as I have repeatedly shown:

There has been very little contraction in overall debt.

There has also been no appreciable "reset" higher in the currency value (dollar.)

This is exactly what happened in the 1930s.  The bad debt was not forced out of the system.  It instead was allowed to fester (despite what you were told), and not even a forced devaluation of the currency pulled the nation out of Depression.  We in fact had a Depression inside the Depression (1937-38) in terms of GDP although you're not taught that in school.  Japan has likewise failed to exit their deflation and regain their stock market's highs despite 20 years of attempting to manipulate their currency and markets for the same reason - they never forced the bad debt out of the system. 

The only reason we got out of the Depression in the 40s was that we literally destroyed the productive capacity of 3/4 of the world's industrial economies and killed millions of workers competing for jobs!

In both cases the government and banksters decided to protect those who would be instantly bankrupted by the realization of actual value against their loan books - the big banks and their monied interests.  

In both cases the claim was made that the impact on "Main Street" would be "catastrophic" if such recognition were to occur, and thus it "must not happen."

In both cases the economy failed to truly recover as the excess debt remained as a millstone around the neck of the economic and monetary system and since that excess credit is ten times or more the currency base there is no ability to "inflate it away" without causing an instantaneous collapse of the currency.

Unless you're prepared for a global nuclear war the path we are on cannot lead to a prosperous intermediate and long-term outcome.  It is mathematically impossible and Ben Bernanke knows it. 

Were he to face me in a debate of 30 minutes or longer I could, in fact, force him to admit it or sulk away and concede by silence, using nothing more than publicly available data and a basic charting program such as Excel.  That debate will never happen and you will never see Congress do it (even though some of them know it too) because the day it happens confidence disappears and unless that realization comes with a concise and cogent plan to address the problem all markets tied to the United States instantaneously collapse.

Therefore:

We cannot further expand credit, as we're still up against the wall.  We never defaulted and got rid of the bad debt - our government and banks hid it instead.

We are not expanding real wages and therefore we are not expanding economic surplus with which to expand consumption and pay down debt balances.

The currency is depreciating due to the actions of The Fed and Government so in purchasing-power-adjusted terms buying power is going down, not up, and prices for energy and commodities will continue to rise.

We cannot devalue sufficiently to fix the problem as the bad debt is some 10x or more the currency in the system.  Printing of that amount would take the /DX to roughly 10 and destroy the currency along with everyone's standard of living.  That would not exacerbate the Depression, it would lead to immediate privation for more than 200 million Americans and result in an instantaneous "hot" (that is, shooting-style, not political-style) revolution.

THE ONLY MEANS OF EXITING THE PROBLEM SHORT OF A WORLD WAR THAT DESTROYS MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY AND TAKES HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF LIVES IS TO FORCE THE BAD DEBT INTO THE OPEN AND FORCE THOSE WHO ARE HIDING LOSSES TO ADMIT TO AND EAT THEM, KNOWING FULL WELL IT WILL BANKRUPT THEM!

In short, we're in worse trouble now than we were in 2007 and yet all the monkeys on CNBS along with the rest of the media are telling you to go out and buy stocks?!

Incidentally, the all-time low in the dollar is that 70.69 print.  At the rate we're going we will decidedly violate that, crude oil will skyrocket and purchasing power will collapse.  Unable to expand debt the consumer will experience a "foldback" some time in the next 12-24 months and when they do, it will be "lights out" for tax revenues and the general economy.

All the claims that we're "recovering" are lies.  None of this is difficult to verify or subject to interpretation - it's all right here in the charts and data in the public domain - but nobody wants to talk about it.

If you're not listening you would be wise to start paying attention to the data and the facts because just as it did in 2007 you will be led straight off the cliff this time as well, and this time they have already spent their rate cuts, legislative games to hide debt, and currency devaluation tricks.

That is, this time they're flat-out of ways to stop it.

My Melbourne

The Voice of Indonesian Future Leaders | PPI Australia

This book is a compulsory reading for anyone who concerns over Indonesia’ future as it brings together all the proceeding papers from panel discussions and the material from photo exhibition, film screening and talk show of the PPIA 2008 Conference “The Voice of Indonesian Future Leaders” held on 2-3 May 2008, where a wide pool of Indonesian future leaders voices their thoughts and hopes, and presents their work for a better Indonesia.

The writers and the contributors are students who reach across the different education strata -short course, diploma, undergraduate, and postgraduate -from various universities, such as Victoria University, La Trobe University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, University of Sydney, Australian National University, University of Canberra, Macquarie University, Murdoch University, National University of Singapore, University of Indonesia, University of Gajah Mada, and Klampist Community-Jakarta.
Table of Contents

GENDER AND FAMILY ISSUE

1. The law of the sea and marine scientific research: What lies ahead for Indonesia.
Achmad Gusman Siswandi
2. “Laki-laki itu khan yang mimpin”: Memahami Kaitan Maskulinitas Muslim dengan isu Kekerasan dalam Rumah Tangga
Rachmad Hidayat
3. Culture and Violence against Women Domestic Workers in Indonesia: A Case Study in Java
Evi Eliyanah
4. Towards victim-blaming-free Positive Deviance Programme for Breastfeeding in Indonesia
Astri Juliani Madjid

INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY ISSUE

1. Saving the Environment or Saving the People : A Critique for Global View of Environment for Indonesia (case study : Forest Conversion for Palm Oil Plantation)
Sandhi Eko Bramono
2. Initial Plan for Sustainable Water Management in Indonesia through the Development of a Water Sustainability Index
Iwan Juwana

DEVELOPMENT ISSUE

1. Pendekatan Alternatif Pembangunan Indonesia
Heni Kurniasih
2. Empowering Urban Poor Women in Indonesia: The Contribution of Suara Ibu Peduli for Indonesia’s Economy
Angga Indraswara Leksono
3. The Multitask BMT (Syaria Microfinance): Poverty Reduction and Financial Sustainability
Bagus Aryo
4. Nasionalisme yang Terlupa
Widodo Ramadyanto

SOCIAL POLICY ISSUE

1. The Importance of Social Policy for the Future of Indonesia
Reni Suwarso
2. Ruang Publik, Batman, Dan Mobil Terbang: Mengembalikan modernitas ke tangan masyarakat dengan kebebasan berekspresi
Arsisto Ambyo
3. Health Care in Indonesia
Richard Husada
4. The State’s Negligence and the Women Impoverishment in Indonesia
Huminca Sinaga

ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS ISSUE

1. Bisnis dan Politik di Tingkat Lokal dalam Era Otonomi Daerah: Studi Perbandingan Batam dan Kutai Kartanegara
Rosa Evaquarta
2. Dampak Ekonomi dari Dua Model Kepemerintahan Lokal: Studi Perbandingan Pada Provinsi Gorontalo dan Sumatera Barat
Yopi Fetrian
3. Entrepreneur Human and Social Capital Determinants of the Export Propensity of Indonesian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Diana Sari
4. Corporate Governance In Indonesian State-owned Enterprises: Is It On The Right Track?
Miko Kamal

EDUCATION ISSUE

1. The Participation in Indonesian Higher Education: Do Socio Economic Backgrounds Matter?
Mohamad Fahmi
2. Teachers as leadership figures in English language practices in Indonesian high schools and their investment as English learners impact on their professional identity development
Nonny Basalama
3. Household Size and Children’s Schooling Attendance: Snapshot of the Past and Implication for the Future*
Ekki Syamsulhakim

LEADERSHIP AND LEGITIMACY ISSUE

1. Leadership For Everyone: A Disabled Person’s Perspective
Y. Anni Aryani
2. (Youth And Leader) Contextual Leadership In Indonesia Needs The Ecletical Mind, Leadership And Management Capability
Aulia Mauludi
3. “Kontekstualisasi Idealisme Mahasiswa Menjawab Problematika Bangsa : Aktualisasi Kepemimpinan Kaum Intelektual Menuju Kebangkitan Indonesia Di Era Transisi”
Agung Baskoro
4. Kepemimpinan yang Visioner dalam Memajukan Iptek Nasional
Dedy Saputra

CORRUPTIONS, SECURITY STUDIES AND NATIONALISM ISSUE

1. Corruption Is A Serious Problem In Indonesian Judiciary Do You Agree?
Junaedi
2. “State-owned Legal Bodies (BHMN), is it really a bright future 314 for Science and Technology Development in Indonesia?”
Zubaidah Ningsih

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE “NATIONAL AWAKENING” ISSUE

1. Kebangkitan Nasional, Kaum Muda, Dan Prospek Indonesia Pada 2028
Munafrizal Manan
2. 20 Mei: Memperingati Apa? Sebuah kritik tradisi peringatan Hari Kebangkitan Nasional Indonesia
Hikmawan Saefullah
3. Looking Back to the Pioneers: A historical study of Indonesian nationalism in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Buru Quartet Novels
Reza Anggara
4. Education As The Backbone Of A National Awakening
Melita Rahmalia
5. A Reflection of Ten Years after Reformation
Elfansuri Chairah

How to Order?

This book is for sale in Indonesia and Australia. To order, contact Mohamad Fahmi via email at mfahmi@fe.unpad.ac.id.

Dollar hits parity with greenback 1 AUD = 1 USD

Dollar hits parity with greenback ... before pulling back | News.com.au

THE Australian dollar reached parity with the US dollar for the first time since the currency was floated in December 1983.

The local currency rose to $U1.00 at 11.18pm (07.18 pm WIB (15/10)) last night in overseas trading.

It was the first time since 28 July 1982 that the Australia dollar has traded about one US dollar.

In afternoon London deals, the Aussie soared as high as $US1.0003, hitting its highest level since being floated 27 years ago. Moments later it pulled back to stand at 99.50 US cents.

Earlier yesterday, the local currency was hovering around 99 US cents ahead of the release of US CPI data, retail figures and a Federal Reserve speech that could indicate how much quantitative easing will take place.

Quantitative easing is a process whereby the US Federal Reserve increases the amount of US dollars in the economy by buying US Treasuries.


  The Australian dollar touched a fresh 27-year high of 99.94 US cents overnight, the closest it has been to parity with the US dollar since it was floated in December 1983.

At 5pm on Friday the Australian dollar was trading at 99.28 US cents, down from Thursday's close of 99.61 cents.

Since 7am, the local unit traded between 98.92 US cents and 99.46 cents.

Nomura Australia economist Stephen Roberts said traders had been waiting patiently throughout the domestic session in the absence of any local data.

"It might be a bit of a patient wait for parity, but we will get there," Mr Roberts said.

He said the release of the US economic data and a speech by US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke would drive the momentum of the local currency.

"Those factors will certainly have some influence," Mr Roberts said.

Mr Bernanke said the central bank was ready to support recovery "if needed".

Speaking in Boston overnight, he gave his strongest hint to date that the US central bank will step in to help the country's fledgling economic recovery with more extraordinary measures to prime the economy.

During the offshore session last night, US retail sales for September are expected to have increased 0.5 per cent and the official measure of US inflation for September is expected to show a 0.2 per cent increase.

Mr Roberts said there could be an initial adverse reaction to the CPI data.

"But then probably we'll go back to the same groove over the next week or two," he said.

"Running towards the next FOMC (US Federal Open Markets Committee) meeting, people are still thinking there's a reasonable chance the Fed's going to start the next process of QE."

Mr Roberts said it was possible the Australian dollar would reach parity with the US dollar mid-way through the European session.

Treasurer Wayne Swan said the milestone reflected the stark difference in the strength of our economy relative to other nations, record prices for our commodities and the effects of diverse and dynamic international currency markets.

"The government supports a floating currency, which has served our nation well as a shock absorber against global events for more than a quarter of a century," Mr Swan said.

"But we know that there are swings and roundabouts, and while the dollar has beneficial impacts for consumers through cheaper imports, it also makes life tougher for some sectors of our economy such as manufacturing and tourism.

"The government has an agenda to strengthen and broaden our economy to increase economic capacity and competitiveness, including by cutting the corporate tax rate.

"We have a fiscal position which is the envy of the developed world, and any suggestion from the Liberal Party that it has anything to do with what we have seen today reinforces their complete lack of understanding of how the international economy works."

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o What are these?

The skyrocketing Aussie dollar is delivering mixed blessings

This morning the dollar was a touch lower but well supported above 99 US cents, as investors cautiously waited on a raft of US economic data. The unit touched a fresh 27-year high of 99.94 US cents overnight, the closest the unit has been to parity with the US dollar since it was floated on foreign exchange markets on December 8, 1983. By 7am (AEDT) today , the "Aussie" had backed down to 99.40 US cents, down from yesterday's close of 99.61 cents. It touched a low of 98 US cents overnight. Dollar dazzler leads to winners and losers A stronger dollar brings both benefits and disadvantages for the country. Overseas travel and imports - such as electronic goods like iPods - become cheaper as the dollar climbs in value. The Reserve Bank does not target a particular exchange rate, but cheaper imports tend to help the inflation level stay lower. This can help keep the underlying inflation rate within the 2 to 3 per cent target band of the central bank, reducing the need for its board to raise official interest rates. A strong dollar can hurt businesses, particularly manufacturers, that export overseas or compete locally with imports. It also means that our tourism industry suffers as it becomes relatively more expensive to holiday Down Under than travel overseas. For farmers, the higher dollar is a mixed bag. It means their products become more expensive in foreign markets but reduces the costs of imported equipment. The resources sector is relatively protected from a rising dollar as commodities like coal and iron ore are sold in US dollars. But local miners will lose when they repatriate their earnings. WINNERS * Electronic goods such as televisions, white goods, even cars, especially those made in Europe, should be retailing for less in the coming months as current stock bought at higher prices is sold off * Airlines are paying less for jet fuel because it's priced in US dollars, which is leading to cheaper flights and some bargains for travellers * Internet shoppers: take advantage from sites in the US and Britain, offering savings on everything from computer games to CDs, books, clothes and accessories LOSERS * Our winemakers are struggling at the moment because their produce has become so much more expensive for overseas buyers * Any company that exports its goods, or that has an international presence and earns all or part of its income overseas, will be hit * When companies such as Boral, the construction firm, bring their earnings from the US back into Australia, they will buy fewer Aussie dollars, so their bottom line takes a bashing * Our education institutions could suffer as students are priced out of an Australian education and it becomes cheaper to learn in the US or Britain Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/faq-winners-and-losers-from-the-high-australian-dollar/story-e6frfm1i-1225939013600#ixzz12OZJBDIb

This is no good, once the US crashes its dollar they halve their debt, then try and start production and manufacturing again

This is no good, once the US crashes its dollar they halve their debt, then try and start production and manufacturing again.(which is good for them) All the while we sit here thinking wow this is great but realistically its only great if your traveling there or somewhere that uses the US dollar as their currency. This will only bring us higher inflation and lower exports. Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/australian-dollar-hits-record-high/comments-e6frfm1i-1225938441202#ixzz12LcoyWFN

1 AUD = 1 USD?

Dollar higher at noon in wait for US CPI | News.com.au

THE dollar was stronger at noon, as investors await US inflation data on Friday to see whether it prompts the US Federal Reserve to restart stimulus activity.

At midday (AEDT), the dollar was trading at 98.70 US cents, up from from yesterday's close of US97.78c.

Since 7am, the "Aussie" has traded between US98.70c and US98.56c.

With little action on markets today, the dollar was in a holding pattern until the release of US consumer price index (CPI) data on Friday night (AEDT), Commonwealth Bank currency Strategist Joe Capurso said.

"It's been a pretty quiet day," Mr Capurso said.

"The market is in wait and see mode until the next data point, which is the US CPI on Friday."

The median market forecast is for prices in the US to have risen 0.2 per cent in August, with year on year inflation up 0.1 per cent.

The reason the data is important to traders is that a weak result could give the US Federal Reserve cause to re-engage its quantitative easing program.

The Fed said last night (AEDT) that it saw a need "before long" to provide additional stimulus to prop up the US economy.

There was broad consensus on the idea that such action was likely to be swift if economic conditions warranted, according to the minutes of the Fed's September 21 policy meeting, published overnight.

The US central bank's policy-making arm, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), said in a brief statement at the end of the minutes that the central bank was prepared "to provide additional accommodation if needed" to support the recovery.

"Such an indication accorded with the members' sense that such accommodation may be appropriate before long, but also made clear that any decisions would depend upon future information about the economic situation and outlook," the minutes said.

Mr Capurso said Friday's CPI would affect the Aussie.

"It could be the night we get to parity," he said.

"Until then, put your feet up, relax and wait for the sunshine."

The Aussie hasn't reached one US dollar since it was floated on foreign exchange markets on December 8, 1983.

Meanwhile, Australian bonds were mixed at noon.

At midday today on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December 10-year bond futures contract was at 94.955 (implying a yield of 5.005 per cent), steady with its previous close.

The December three-year bond futures contract was at 95.110 (4.890 per cent), down from 95.130 (4.870 per cent).

You want flies with that? McDonald's Happy Meal shows no sign of decomposing after SIX MONTHS

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:56 AM on 12th October 2010

Looking almost as fresh as the day it was bought, this McDonald's Happy Meal is in fact a staggering six months old.

Photographed every day for the past half a year by Manhattan artist Sally Davies the kids meal of fries and burger is without a hint of mould or decay.

Entitled 'The Happy Meal Project', Mrs Davies, 54, has charted the seemingly indestructible fast food meals progress as it refuses to yield to the forces of nature.

Fresh: The Happy Meal on the day it was bought by artist Sally Davies in New York

Tasty: Looking a little dry and with an 'acrylic sheen', but the burger has no signs of mould - not even on the bun

Sitting on a shelf in her apartment, Sally has watched the Happy Meal with increasing shock and even her dogs have resisted the urge to try and steal a free tasty snack.

'I bought the meal on April 10 of this year and brought it home with the express intention of leaving it out to see how it fared,' she said.

'I chose McDonald's because it was nearest to my house, but the project could have been about any other of the myriad of fast food joints in New York.

'The first thing that struck me on day two of the experiment was that it no longer emitted any smell.

'And then the second point of note was that on the second day, my dogs stopped circling the shelf it was sitting on trying to see what was up there.'

Fast food: Five months into the experiment, and although the burger patty has shrunk a bit it doesn't look that different to the original

Worrying: More than three months in and the usual effects of time appear to have had no impact

Expecting the food to begin moulding after a few days, Mrs Davies' surprise turned to shock as the fries and burger still had not shown any signs of decomposition after two weeks.

'It was then that I realised that something strange might be going on with this food that I had bought,' she explained.

'The fries shrivelled slightly as did the burger patty, but the overall appearance of the food did not change as the weeks turned to months.

'And now, at six months old, the food is plastic to the touch and has an acrylic sheen to it.

'The only change that I can see is that it has become hard as a rock.'

Tucking in: Mrs Davies bought the Happy Meal and put it on a shelf in her home. She said even her dogs are no longer interested in eating it

Even though she is a vegan, Mrs Davies' experiment has brought her amusement rather than fear.   

'I don't really see this experiment as scary, I see it almost as an amusement,' she said.

'Although, I would be frightened at seeing this if I was a meat eater. Why hasn't even the bun become speckled with mould? It is odd.'

When asked if their food was not biodegradable, McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud said: 'This is nothing more than an outlandish claim and is completely false.'

It comes after Denver grandmother Joann Bruso left a Happy Meal to decay for a year until March to highlight the nutritional dangers of fast food.

Morgan Spurlock also made the film Super Size Me in 2004 charting the changes to his body eating just fast food for 28 days had.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319562/McDonalds-Happy-Meal-bought-months-ago-shows-sign-mould.html#ixzz1294Fsn3D

#IndomieBeracun apakah berbahaya untuk orang Taiwan berarti tidak berbahaya untuk orang Indonesia?pls explain!

I cant believe, government has let this happen...you choose to defend
the owner of PT Indofood instead the people. How much have u been paid to allow that evil capitalist sell their products? This food must be banned. Thanks to media in Taipei which has published the news
that Indomie is a poisonous food. Luckily I am not a fan of that
disgusting food...but my family like to eat Indomie. I have warned
them that it is not a safe food to eat. ..

Sent from my BlackBerry®powered by Sinyal Kuat INDOSAT

Indomie instant noodles beracun...berbahaya.. is poisonous food. Dont eat them!

detik Finance : Indomie 'Berbahaya' di Taiwan Mestinya untuk Spesifikasi Pasar Indonesia
I cant believe, government has let this happen...you choose to defend the owner of PT Indofood instead the people. How much have u bribed for this? Thank you for media in Taipei which has published the news that Indomie is a poisonous food.  Luckily I am not a fan of that disgusting food...but my family like to eat Indomie. I have warned them that it is not a safe food to eat. ...

Mie instan produk PT Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur Tbk (ICBP), Indomie yang dianggap Taiwan 'berbahaya' ternyata sebenarnya untuk spesifikasi pasar Indonesia. Tak heran, ketika sampai di Taiwan, produk itu langsung tak memenuhi standar negara tersebut.

Hal itu terungkap berdasarkan hasil klarifikasi Kantor Dagang Indonesia (KDI) di Taiwan kepada pihak produsen mie instant yakni Indofood untuk memberikan keterangan mengenai informasi tersebut. Klarifikasi itu diajukan setelah KDI di Taiwan mendapat surat pemberitahuan dari departemen kesehatan setempat terkait kasus temuan produk mie instant Indomie 'berbahaya'.

"Yang ditemukan di departemen kesehatan Taiwan adalah produk Indomie yang harusnya beredar di Indonesia," kata Kepala Bidang Perdagangan Kantor Dagang dan Ekonomi Taiwan Bambang Mulyatno di gedung DPR-RI, Senayan, Jakarta, Senin (11/10/2010).

Sebelumnya, Badan Pengawasan Obat dan Makanan (BPOM) memastikan produk buatan Indonesia itu aman dikonsumsi.

"Kita jamin (Indomie) aman. Tidak apa-apa," kata Kepala BPOM, Kustantinah, kepada detikcom, Senin (11/10/2010).

Kustantinah menjelaskan BPOM mempunyai aturan yang mengatur bahan tambahan makanan yang diperbolehkan ada di dalam pangan dengan batas maksimum penggunaannya. BPOM mengacu kepada Peraturan Menteri Kesehatan nomor 722 tahun 1988 yang salah satunya mengatur masalah bahan tambakan makanan.

Menurut dia, BPOM telah melakukan pengawasan dan pengujian terhadap bahan pengawet nipagin yang ada di dalam Indomie.

"Yang digunakan sebagai pengawet, ada di dalam kecap 250 mg per kg produk. Pengujian dan pengawasan kita tidak lebih dari situ. Jadi tidak apa-apa," ujar dia.

Sementara Direktur PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk (INDF) Fransiscus Welirang juga mengatakan, Taiwan memiliki kriteria khusus atas produk Makanan Minuman yang masuk ke negaranya, berbeda dengan standarisasi internasional yang ditetapkan Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). Forum CAC (Codex Alimentarius Commission) merupakan organisasi perumus standar internasional untuk bidang pangan.

"Prinsipnya Taiwan memang memiliki ketentuan dan spec (spesifikasi) berbeda karena tidak anggota Codex dunia seperti kita," jelas pria yang biasa disapa Franky itu.

Sebelumnya, media-media di Taiwan mengabarkan penarikan Indomie dari sejumlah supermarket. Indomie ditarik karena mengandung Methyl P-Hydroxybenzoate yang dilarang di Taiwan. Tidak hanya di Taiwan, dua jaringan supermarket terbesar di Hong Kong juga menyetop penjualan produk INDF. Pemerintah Hong Kong pun akan melakukan tes uji produk Indomie.

Namun, berdasarkan rilis resmi Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur, selaku produsen Indomie menegaskan, produk mie instan yang diekspor ke Taiwan sudah memenuhi peraturan dari Departemen Kesehatan Biro Keamanan Makanan Taiwan.

"Sehubungan dengan pemberitaan di media massa Taiwan baru-baru ini, mengenai kandungan bahan pengawet E218 (Methyl P-Hydroxybenzoate) dalam produk mi instan Indomie, PT Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur Tbk (ICBP) menjelaskan bahwa produk mi instan yang diekspor oleh Perseroan ke Taiwan telah sepenuhnya memenuhi peraturan dari Departemen Kesehatan Biro Keamanan Makanan Taiwan," jelas Taufik Wiraatmadja, Direktur ICBP dalam siaran persnya.

ICBP telah mengekspor produk mi instan ke berbagai negara di seluruh dunia selama lebih dari 20 tahun. Perseroan senantiasa berupaya memastikan bahwa produknya telah memenuhi peraturan dan ketentuan keselamatan makanan yang berlaku di berbagai negara dimana produk mi instannya dipasarkan.