And it could be much older than previously thought, investigations led by a British geologist suggest.

Egyptologists have long argued the monument outside Cairo, which has the head of a pharaoh and the body of a lion, was built soon after the first pyramid – around 4,500 years ago.

But geologist Colin Reader found that rain erosion on the Sphinx’s enclosure suggests it was built many years before.

A sunken palace on the Giza plateau provides further evidence that there was activity in the area before the building of the pyramids, Mr Reader said.

Its style implies that it is older than the other tombs at the site. Mr Reader said the tomb would have been adapted and embellished by later inhabitants of the area.

Visual effects experts used the research data to recreate the monument as it might have looked.

Their work can be seen in Channel Five documentary The Secrets of Egypt on Thursday at 8pm.

Researchers also discovered that the Sphinx’s body and head were disproportionate, suggesting it was not originally a pharaoh.

Historical architect Dr Jonathan Foyle, who worked with Mr Reader on the project, said the head and body were massively out of proportion.

He said the reason for this could be that the Sphinx originally had an entirely different head – that of a lion.

According to this theory, the statue was later re-carved to be modelled on Khufu.

To early Egyptians the lion was a much more potent symbol of power than the human face.

Given that the monument already has the body of a lion it makes sense to the experts that it also originally had the face of a lion.

During Egypt’s early history lions inhabited the wilds of Giza and surrounding areas.

The Great Sphinx is thought by most Egyptologists to represent the likeness of King Khafra.

It is also belived by others that Djadefre, the elder brother of Khafra, built the Sphinx to honour his father Khufu.

This would place the time of construction somewhere between 2550 BC and 2450 BC.

However the limited evidence linking the Sphinx to Khafra is circumstantial and somewhat ambiguous.

Geologist Robert Schoch concluded that the Sphinx must be much older than currently believed after an investigation in the 1990s.

Schoch has argued that the particular weathering found on the body of the Sphinx and surrounding ‘ditch’ the monument was carved from, displays features that can only be caused from prolonged water erosion.

Egypt’s last time period where there was a significant amount of rainfall ended during the late 4th to early 3rd millennium BC.

Schoch claims the amount of water erosion the Sphinx has experienced indicates a construction date no later than the 6th millennium BC or 5th millennium BC, at least two thousand years before the widely accepted construction date and 1,500 years prior to the accepted date for the beginning of Egyptian civilisation.

Mr Reader concludes that the Sphinx is only several hundred years older than the traditionally accepted date believing the Sphinx to be a product of the Early Dynastic period.

Independently, geologist David Coxill has also come forward to confirm in principle Schoch’s findings, but like Reader has taken a more conservative approach to the dating of the Sphinx.

Both Schoch and Reader base their conclusions not only on the Sphinx and surrounding enclosure, but have also taken into account other weathering features found on the Giza plateau from monuments such as the Sphinx Temple which are known to be consistent with the time period the Sphinx was constructed.

Because these conclusions require a re-dating of the Sphinx to an earlier time before the construction of large monuments, this theory has not been accepted by mainstream Egyptologists.

Source: Daily Mail

The increase will be triggered by the exploding world population, rising cost of fuel and increased competition for water, according to a leading Government think-tank.

Spiralling food prices will push hundreds of millions of people into hunger, trigger mass migration and spark civil unrest, the report warned.

And in the UK, the price of basics such as bread, rice and milk will spiral to inflation-busting record prices within the next few decades.

The report, from Foresight, a think-tank set up to predict future crises, called for ‘urgent action’ to prevent food shortages, and said genetically modified crops may be needed to prevent famines.

Even a ‘modest’ rise in food prices could push 100million people into hunger, the report warned.

Global food prices are already at a record high. Last month the price of cereals, sugar and meat soared on the world’s markets after a series of crop failures caused by bad weather.

Foresight predicted that the world’s population would rise from 6.9billion today to around 9billion by the middle of the century.

As the world gets more crowded and more wealthy, demand for food, water and energy will soar.

At the same time, climate change will increase the risk of droughts, floods and crop failures – creating a ‘perfect storm’ of food shortages and above-inflation rises in prices.

Co-author Prof Charles Godfray of Oxford University said: ‘There is a very large risk of a quite substantial increase in prices over the next 30 or 40 years.

‘We are going to have to produce considerably more food. So, inescapably, we are going to have to produce more food from the same amount of land without wrecking the environment.’

The report, written by 40 scientists in 35 countries, calls for a ‘green revolution’ to boost production using traditional, organic and genetically modified crops – designed to be resistant to drought or salt water – and better training for farmers in less well-off countries.

It also called for a massive crackdown on food waste. A typical British household wastes £500 to £700 a year on food that they buy and then throw away.

Source:Daily Mail

For more than two years I’ve known that the ‘five-a-day’ mantra we’re all so familiar with is nothing but a fairytale.

Of course, they are tasty, colourful additions to any meal. But in terms of health and nutrition, fruit and veg have little to offer, and telling us to eat eight portions a day is compounding one of the worst health fallacies in recent history.

Surprised? Many people will be, and no doubt some dieticians and nutritionists will reject my arguments. But science backs me up.

The latest findings come from a European study into diet and health looking at 300,000 people in eight countries.

It found that people who ate eight or more portions of fresh food a day had a 22 per cent lower chance of dying from heart disease. Yet just 1,636 participants died during the study from heart disease, which is about half of one per cent.

Out of that very small proportion, fewer people died from the group that ate more fruit and veg.

However, the researchers cautioned that these people may have healthier lifestyles generally. They may be less likely to smoke; they may eat less processed food; they may be more active.

What we should not do is to make the usual bad science leap from association to causation and say ‘eating more fruit and veg lowers the risk of dying from heart disease’.

This survey comes not long after another large study, which examined half a million people over eight years, reported that fruit and veg offer no protection against breast, prostate, bowel, lung or any other kind of tumour. Those eating the most fruit and veg showed no difference in cancer risk compared with those ­eating the least.

So how have we been duped for so long?

You might assume our five-a-day ­fixation is based on firm evidence. But you’d be wrong.

It started as a marketing campaign dreamt up by around 20 fruit and veg ­companies and the U.S. National Cancer Institute at a meeting in California in 1991. And it’s been remarkably successful.

People in 25 countries, across three continents, have been urged to eat more greens, and have done so in their millions, believing it was good for them.

No doubt it was set up with the best intentions — to improve the health of the nation and reduce the incidence of cancer. But there was no evidence that it was doing us any good at all.

The fact that our own government has spent £3.3?million over the past four years on the five-a-day message shows how pervasive this belief is.

People are convinced that fruit and vegetables are a particularly good source of vitamins and minerals.

For a long time, I too was a believer. I was a vegetarian for 20 years. It is only after nearly two decades of my own research — I am a Cambridge graduate and currently studying for a PhD in nutrition —that I have changed my views.

The message that fruit and veg are pretty useless, nutritionally, gradually dawned on me.

The facts are these. There are 13 vitamins and fruit is good for one of them, vitamin C.

Vegetables offer some vitamins — vitamin C and the vegetable form of the fat-soluble vitamins A and vitamin K1 — but your body will be able to absorb these only if you add some fat, such as butter or olive oil.

The useful forms of A and K — ­retinol and K2 respectively — are found only in animal foods. As for minerals, there are 16 and fruit is good for one of them, potassium, which is not a substance we are often short of, as it is found in water.

Vegetables can be OK for iron and calcium but the vitamins and minerals in animal foods (meat, fish, eggs and dairy products) beat those in fruit and vegetables hands down. There is far more vitamin A in liver than in an apple, for instance.

But surely, people ask, even if there is no evidence that increasing our intake of fruit and vegetables will help prevent disease, they remain good things to eat?

I don’t think so. If people try to add five portions of fruit and veg — let alone eight — a day to their diet, it can be counterproductive. Fruit contains high levels of fructose, or fruit sugar.

Among dieticians, fructose is known as ‘the fattening carbohydrate’. It is not metabolised by the body in the same way as glucose, which enters the bloodstream and has a chance to be used for energy before it heads to the liver.

Fructose goes straight to the liver and is stored as fat. Very few ­people understand or want to believe this biochemical fact.

Another argument that is often put forward by dieticians on behalf of fruit and vegetables is that they are ‘a source of antioxidants’.

They believe we need to have more ­antioxidants in our diet to counteract the oxidants that damage the body’s cells, either as a result of normal metabolic processes or as a reaction to environmental chemicals and pollutants.

But I would rather concentrate on not putting oxidants such as sugar, processed food, cigarette smoke or chemicals into my body.

Besides, fruit has a fraction of the antioxidants of coffee, though you rarely hear dieticians singing ­coffee’s praises.

Incidentally, the body’s ­natural antioxidant is vitamin E, which is found in seeds — and ­particularly sunflower seeds.

Another problem is that dieticians tell you to eat less fat. We’re told that fat is bad for us but this has not been proven at all.

Of course, man-made trans-fats such as those found in biscuits and cakes are very unhealthy and should be banned.

But natural fats such as those in eggs, meat and fish should not be demonised alongside trans-fats. They are essential to our wellbeing and they are what we’ve lived on for thousands of years.

According to a recent survey, the British people are deficient in ­vitamins A, D, E — all of which are fat-soluble. If we added a dollop of butter to our portion of vegetables, they would be better for us — not worse.

Then there is the issue of fibre. Again, I don’t agree with the ­prevailing view that we should all eat more fibre in order to help us feel full and keep our digestive systems moving.

The fact is, we can’t digest fibre. How can something we can’t even digest be so important to us, nutritionally?

We are told that we need to ‘flush out’ our digestive systems. But essential minerals are absorbed while food is in the intestines, so why do we want to flush everything out? It is far better to concentrate on not putting bad foods into your body.

The biggest tragedy of all is the lost opportunity from this misguided five-a-day campaign.

If only we had hand-picked the five foodstuffs that are actually most nutritious and spent what the Department of Health has spent on promoting fruit and vegetables over the past 20 years on recommending them, we could have made an ­enormous difference to the health and weight of our nation.

If you ask me, these foodstuffs are liver (good for all vitamins and packed with minerals), sardines (for vitamin D and calcium), eggs (all-round super-food with vitamins A, B, D, E and K, iron, zinc, calcium and more), sunflower seeds (magnesium, vitamin E and zinc) and dark-green vegetables such as broccoli or spinach (for vitamins C, K and iron).

Add milk (good for calcium, vitamins A and D), porridge oats (magnesium, zinc and B vitamins) and cocoa powder (magnesium and iron) and, hey presto, you’re provided with the full quota of every vitamin and mineral our bodies need.

In a long-awaited Public Health White Paper late last year, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said that only three in ten adults eat the ­recommended five-a-day.

Later in the same document, he asks how can we improve the use of evidence in public health. My suggestion is that he gets his own facts on five-a-day straight and saves himself the bother of worrying about fruit and veg.

The nation — and his budget — would thank him for it.

Source: The Daily Mail

And perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s not a pleasant experience by any means.

Telling stories of relentless screaming and crying coming from the house, Suleman’s neighbours claim there is rarely a moment’s peace day or night.

And to make matters worse, just the fact that she lives in the neighbourhood is damaging property value as estate agents must disclose that the unemployed 35-year-old lives nearby.
One person told celebrity website TMZ: ‘We continuously hear kids screaming and crying and fighting.’

Another neighbour said they’re constantly being woken up at 6AM by the sounds of screaming children when Suleman lets them go outside to play.

Neighbours, including children as young as ten, also find themselves having to show ID to the police simply to gain access to streets around Suleman’s home.

Suleman could face an investigation by social workers after recently filming a baby fetish video at her home.

Revealing photos and a video of the mother of 14 dressed in a dominatrix outfit whipping a grown man wearing a nappy are being shopped around Hollywood.

Some photos published on TMZ show the man on her bed, while corset-clad Suleman whips him near a baby crib.

Another photo shows her feeding him the man with a bottle and another shows him posing inside her children’s play castle.

The video was reportedly filmed in her Los Angeles home and both Suleman and the man in the video, identified as a LA radio personality have signed releases so it can be sold and distributed.

Sulemain hit the headlines when she gave birth to eight children in one pregnancy in 2009.

She already had six children but decided to go ahead with the multiple births.

After cashing in on her fame she is now facing foreclosure on her California home after failing to meet the monthly payments.

She has repeatedly turned down offers to star in porn movies to help clear her debt.

Source:Daily Mail

Maushart’s eldest, Anni, was less wired and more bookish than the others, so her transition in and out of The Experiment was the least dramatic. Her friends thought the ban was “cool.” If she needed computers for schoolwork, she went to the library. Even now, she swears off Facebook from time to time, just for the heck of it.

Maushart’s youngest daughter, Sussy, had the hardest time going off the grid. Maushart had decided to allow use of the Internet, TV and other electronics outside the home, and Sussy immediately took that option, taking her laptop and moving in with her dad — Maushart’s ex-husband — for six weeks. Even after she returned to Maushart’s home, she spent hours on a landline phone as a substitute for texts and Facebook.

But the electronic deprivation had an impact anyway: Sussy’s grades improved substantially. Maushart wrote that her kids “awoke slowly from the state of cognitus interruptus that had characterized many of their waking hours to become more focused logical thinkers.”

Maushart decided to unplug the family because the kids — ages 14, 15 and 18 when she started The Experiment — didn’t just “use media,” as she put it. They “inhabited” media. “They don’t remember a time before e-mail, or instant messaging, or Google,” she wrote.

Like so many teens, they couldn’t do their homework without simultaneously listening to music, updating Facebook and trading instant messages. If they were amused, instead of laughing, they actually said “LOL” aloud. Her girls had become mere “accessories of their own social-networking profile, as if real life were simply a dress rehearsal (or more accurately, a photo op) for the next status update.”

Maushart admits to being as addicted as the kids. A native New Yorker, she was living in Perth, Australia, near her ex-husband, while medicating her homesickness with podcasts from National Public Radio and The New York Times online. Her biggest challenge during The Experiment was “relinquishing the ostrichlike delusion that burying my head in information and entertainment from home was just as good as actually being there.”

Maushart began The Experiment with a drastic measure: She turned off the electricity completely for a few weeks — candles instead of electric lights, no hot showers, food stored in a cooler of ice. When blackout boot camp ended, Maushart hoped the “electricity is awesome!” reaction would soften the kids’ transition to life without Google and cell phones.

It was a strategy that would have made Maushart’s muse, Henry David Thoreau, proud. She is a lifelong devotee of Thoreau’s classic book “Walden,” which chronicled Thoreau’s sojourn in solitude and self-sufficiency in a small cabin on a pond in the mid-1800s. “Simplify, simplify!” Thoreau admonished himself and his readers, a sentiment Maushart echoes throughout the book.

As a result of The Experiment, Maushart made a major change in her own life. In December, she moved from Australia to Long Island in New York, with Sussy. Of course, the move merely perpetuated Maushart’s need to live in two places at once: She kept her job as a columnist for an Australian newspaper and is “living on Skype” because her older children stayed Down Under to attend university. Ironically, the Internet eased the transition to America for Sussy, who used Facebook to befriend kids in her new high school before arriving.

Another change for Maushart: She’s no longer reluctant to impose blackouts on Sussy’s screentime. “Instead of angsting, ‘Don’t you think you’re spending too much time on the computer? Don’t you think you should do something else like reading?’ I now just take the computer away when I think she’s had enough,” Maushart said in a phone interview. “And now that she’s been on the other side and remembers what it’s like, it’s less of an issue.”

Maushart realizes that living off the grid for six months is unrealistic for most people. (She also admits getting her kids to go along with it partly by bribing them with a cut of proceeds from the book, which she planned to write all along.)

But she encourages families to unplug periodically. “One way to do it is just to have that one screen-free day a week. Not as a punishment — not by saying, ‘I’ve had enough!’ — but by instituting it as a special thing,” she said. “There isn’t a kid on the planet who wouldn’t really rather be playing a board game than sitting at the computer.”

Saker and Tabitha’s ex-boyfriend Christopher Francklin – who spotted Tabitha climbing out of a window and shoved her back into her room – tied her arms together with tape and shoved a sock in her mouth.

The pair were arrested in October last year after Tabitha dialled 999 and police heard her screaming as she was tied up and forcibly restrained.

Saker was jailed for 12 months yesterday and Francklin for 18 months after Judge Adele Williams told them they had ‘detained a young woman who was subjected to violence and humiliation’.

Canterbury Crown Court heard how Saker, who is in her 50s and lives in Dover, Kent, was ‘desperate’ to save her daughter from drug addiction.

Francklin, who is in his 20s, spotted his former girlfriend climbing out of the window of her home and forced her back into her room believing she was sneaking out to buy class A drugs, believed to be heroin.

The tape also revealed Francklin telling the 19-year-old that he would ‘hit her hard’ and also Tabitha begging her mother and Francklin to ‘stop hurting her’.

A belt was also used to restrain the teen by putting it round her neck and her arms were tied behind her back – causing her to suffer bruises and an injury to her jaw.

When police arrived at the house they found Tabitha in tears and arrested her mother and ex-boyfriend, who both admitted a charge of false imprisonment.

Both Saker and Francklin admitted tying the teen up and Francklin also admitted using violence by jumping on her in a bid to hold her down – telling the court he was trying to force her to give up drugs.

Philip Hill, for Saker, said she had ‘done her utmost for Tabitha’ and she had ‘acted with the best of intentions’.

Nicholas Jinks, defending Francklin, added: ‘Things escalated. It was a short incident which caused great distress and he accepts his responsibility.

‘There was no premeditation or weapons used and it was motivated by good intentions.’

Judge Adele Williams told the pair it was a serious offence which subjected the victim to violence and humiliation, despite the fact they were trying to get her off drugs.

‘It was said you, Julia Saker were at your wits’ end because of her drug-taking but you could have sought professional help instead of imprisoning her in this way,’ she added.

Source

More people need to be informed about this. On top of that, if you read the comments on the site I am linking, Crest wont even reimburse you for the lousy 4 dollars you spend on this poison. Never mind the expensive dental bills I am going to face whitening and repairing my teeth. Spread the word Consumerist.

Yikes! We took a look around the internet and found a lot of people complaining about this issue.

Here are some highlights from Amazon.com:

David Case from Flint, MI says:

At the beginning mouthwash was fine. Nice not having the alcohol burn and the breath, that my girlfriend hated. So that was nice.

But after extended use for a month it stained in between my teeth brown. It looked terrible and it cost me a one hundred dollar trip to the dentist to scrape that junk off. The dentist advised that it was my mouthwash after hearing it was this Crest mouthwash that I was using. I was surprised that a mouthwash that is suppose to help clean your teeth actually does the opposite.

Another guy says:

This garbage put dingy yellow and brown stains on my teeth, especially near the gums. A dental cleaning failed to get them off. If I had known this mouthwash could cause stains, I would never have used it in the first place. If my next dental cleaning fails to remove the yellow on my teeth, P&G may have a lawsuit on their hands. It’s to the point where I don’t want to even talk or smile. These Pro Health products should be illegal.

E.Leyden from NY, NY says:

The first thing I noticed was a buildup of white gunk on my tongue. I had just brushed my tongue until it was a nice pink before using the mouthwash, which annoyed me. But it wasn’t just gunk — this stuff was solid. It was annoying, but I could live with gunk. I can’t live with what else it did, though.

Let me put this as simply as possible: This mouthwash destroys your sense of taste. Not just immediately after you spit it out, (it ruins it then too, since water tasted strange when I had a drink before bed) but the next morning as well. I COVERED my eggs in ketchup, yet the normally puckering taste of a mouthful of ketchup was missing. I ate kiwis, pineapple, apple, tea, and nothing. It was like a mouthful of sawdust, or water, or watery sawdust.

About 12 hours after the rinsing, I finally started to regain some taste. I looked up the “active” ingredient in Crest Pro-Health online, called cetylpyridinium chloride. This is what the Materials Safety and Data Sheet has to say about this ingredient: “Toxic if swallowed. Very toxic by inhalation. May cause severe eye irritation. Respiratory and skin irritant,” with a large TOXIC warning at the top of the page. I’m sure the concentration in this product is low enough to be harmless in a single dose, but imagine years of using this? Hopefully this won’t be on the market long enough for that to be possible.

Joseph Adams says:

This is easily the most disturbing thing I’ve ever had happen to me. I’ve never had side-effects like this from ANY over the counter medicine, much less an oral product. My bottom teeth now have visible brown spots between them and I’m worried that they won’t come off (or that it’ll cost me a lot of money to remove them). I don’t think I’ve ever felt so screwed over like this before… this is simply inexcusable. Crest should not be allowed to have a product like this on the market without a huge sticker warning you about its side-effects.

Sadly I don’t think people will see this, and they too will get brown garbage in between their teeth. No one googles or looks up mouth wash on Amazon, though I sure wish I did now…

Has this happened to you?

Source

It raises questions about the effectiveness of current birth control education.

41% of all New York City pregnancies end in abortion.

The rate for minorities is even higher.

Both sides say the high abortion percentage is a crisis.

“If 41% of New York babies are aborted, with the percentage even higher in the Bronx and among our African-American babies in the world, it is downright chilling,” New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan said.

Broken down by race for 2009:

Specifically non-Hispanic Blacks have a 59.8% abortion rate.

Hispanics have a 41.3% abortion rate.

Asians have a 22.7% abortion rate.

And non-Hispanic Whites have a 20.4% abortion rate.

The fact that 41% of all pregnancies in New York City end in abortion is not a secret and it’s not anything new.

In fact, things have been getting better over the past decade.

Back in 1998, 12 years ago, the number was actually 46%.

Planned Parenthood is also not happy about the numbers, but pushes education.

“We believe in comprehensive sex education, which by the way does include abstinence, but abstinence by itself has been proven to be ineffective,”

Archbishop Dolan reiterated the pro-abstinence, pro-life, anti-contraceptive position of the church.

“My word, what have we done the last 30 years. There’s candy bowls on people’s desks with condoms, they’re dropping them from airplanes, yet nothing seems to improve, so they’ve been on the wrong track here,” Archbishop Dolan said.

Source

Portia and Ellen

Portia, 37, who came out as lesbian in 2005, married TV host Ellen DeGeneres in 2008.

But in her book she recalls how she hit rock bottom when her husband left her before getting together with Renee Kappos, the wife of Portia’s older brother Michael Rogers.

Mel and Renee ended up marrying each other.

‘When my husband left me, my brother moved into my place… My husband ran off with his wife, so we kept each other company and we liked to go out for margaritas and Mexican food to commiserate.’

Writing about how the affair developed between her brother’s wife and her then-husband, Portia detailed: ‘He had married his longtime girlfriend, Renee, just before leaving Australia and the two newlyweds moved into an apartment in the same Melrose Place-style complex that was home to me and Mel.

‘The fact that Renee would wear skimpy, lacy underwear clearly visible underneath her oversized, gaping overalls should have indicated to my brother and me that a personal partnership was also forming.’

She continued: ‘But when Mel left me and Renee suddenly sabotaged her marriage to my brother to be with Mel. Brother and I were left idiotically scratching our heads in disbelief.’

“I have two daughters now and I would never ever let them join the Peace Corps,” said Adrianna Ault Nolan of New York, who was raped while serving in Haiti.

She is one of six rape and sexual assault victims who agreed to tell their stories, in hopes the Peace Corps will do a better job of volunteer training and victim counseling. The report will be broadcast Friday night on 20/20.

In the most brutal attack, Jess Smochek, 29, of Pennsylvania was gang raped in Bangladesh in 2004 by a group of young men after she says Peace Corps officials in the country ignored her pleas to re-locate her.

“They all took turns raping me,” she told ABC News. “They raped me with their bodies,. They raped me with foreign objects.”

Smochek says the group began to stalk her and tried to kiss her and touch her from the very first day she arrived at the city where she was assigned.

“Every day we felt unsafe. And we reported everything, we just kept reporting,” she said in an interview with five other former volunteers who also were rape or sexual assault victims.

She says the gang rape took place just hours after a Peace Corps safety official filed a report with the local police but again ignored her pleas for re-assignment.

She says the young men knew she had complained to the police.

“They slammed me against the wall and just started threatening me, they’re calling me a filthy American whore,” she said. “‘We told you to stop going to the police. And now we have to kill you,’” she said.

“I was in so much pain that I just told them, ‘Just kill me. Please. Just do it.’” Smochek was left unconscious in a back alley.