A study published in 2022 in the British medical journal, The BMJ, found processed and ultra-processed meats, such as ham, bacon, salami, hotdogs, beef jerky, and corned beef, can significantly increase men’s risk of colorectal cancer and other diseases and even increase early death in both men and women.
“We found that men in the highest quintile of ultra-processed food consumption, compared to those in the lowest quintile, had a 29% higher risk of developing colorectal cancer,” stated co-senior author Fang Fang Zhang, a leading cancer epidemiologist and the head of the nutrition epidemiology and data science division at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston.
The effects of ultra-processed foods are pretty obvious — look at the American people — morbidly obese and full of health problems. Knowing the health ramifications of the chemicals mega corporations put in the food should be a national priority — but it’s not.
While we don’t want to spoil dinner, the latest viral video of pink slime was posted on TikTok. It shows what appears to be a ham operation.
Over 20,000 users weighed in on the video, with the vast majority expressing concern about the country’s food supply and speculating on how the chemicals in processed foods might be harming them.
It may be time for some folks to realize their health problems are partly due to diet. Break the food matrix, find a local farm, and source food locally — or better, grow your own food. Isn’t it time to know what’s exactly in your food?
But don’t worry. Big corporations will solve the fat crisis with the newly created miracle fat drug.
Why aren’t ESG-ers going after companies producing processed and other junk foods?
Beijing Soon Needs A Whatever-It-Takes Policy Move
By George Lei and Ye Xie, Bloomberg markets live reporters and strategist
China’s benchmark CSI 300 index surged 5.5% on Monday as authorities unveiled a slew of supportive measures, including a reduction of the stamp duty. By the end of the session, the efforts had fallen flat with investors and the gauge had pared its gain to just 1.2%.
That price action suggests Beijing urgently needs to make a “whatever-it-takes” move — similar to the ECB’s open-ended commitments to saving the common currency in 2011 — or else risks further asset weakness.
The CSI 300 index’s early rally of as much as 5.5% sputtered during the session, with the gauge closing just 1.2% higher. That’s quite the rarity: There have been only three past occasions since 2004 when the equity index soared over 5 percentage points and then pared the gain by 4 percentage points.
Two of those episodes occurred during the 2008 global financial crisis. One happened in 2015 when China’s stock bubble burst. While history shows that the gauge often recovered in the week and month after such volatility, the index fell over the following 60 days in two of the three past instances.
The government has previously delivered massive stimulus to shore up not just financial markets, but also the real economy. During the 2008-2009 crisis, Beijing launched a 4-trillion yuan ($548 billion) spending package. And a program where the PBOC provided cash for policy lenders to finance urban renewal helped turn around a slumping property market in 2015. This time, however, a solution appears to be trickier.
Beijing has stepped up its efforts over the past weekend to lift stocks and rescue the property market, according to Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura. Still, “the impact will be short-lived if these measures are not followed by measures for supporting the real economy,” he warned in a client note on Monday. In fact, Hong Kong-based investors have turned into net sellers of onshore Chinese equities throughout August, in contrast to a couple days of brief inflows in late July following positive signals from the politburo meeting.
Forecasts for China’s 2023 and 2024 GDP have been slashed on Wall Street over the past few weeks. The world’s second largest economy now risks missing Beijing’s own growth target for a second straight year and could expand at a sub-5% pace for three years in a row — something unheard of since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The sheer scale of the challenge calls for unprecedented policy actions, akin to the Fed’s commitment to purchasing “unlimited amounts of Treasury bonds” in March 2020 or Mario Draghi’s famous line 11 years ago: “The ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro.”
Beijing’s responses have so far been underwhelming and investors are keeping their hopes low after repeated disappointments over the past few years. A Bloomberg MLIV survey of 455 respondents found only 11% look forward to “really big, bazooka-like” stimulus, while more than half expect moderate steps that target specific industries. In a Bank of America survey two weeks ago, only 3% of those polled saw a stronger yuan in the next three months as a result of “policy stimulus restoring growth momentum.” If Beijing cannot surprise investors amid such a low threshold of expectations, Chinese markets are probably headed for further selloffs.
Watch: Robo-Forklifts That Can’t Get Sick Nor Unionize Hit Warehouse Floors
By the 2030s, or even sooner, robots might dominate warehouses, displacing millions of jobs. In the latest wave of automation advancements, a Japanese tech firm has just unveiled a self-driving forklift.
Japan’s only public broadcaster (NHK) said NEC Corporation developed an industrial forklift powered by AI that allows intelligent, real-time decisions, delivering materials on the warehouse floor to the right place at the right time.
“Of these, NEC developed a system that makes forklifts automatically operate, and is characterized by the fact that it can be operated unmanned by attaching cameras and sensors later,” NHK said.
NEC said the goal of the robot forklift is to “alleviate the labor shortage in the logistics field and reviewing long working hours, and plans to put it into practical use next fiscal year.”
“I want to contribute to creating a better environment at the same time as making the warehouse site run smoothly,” said Junichiro Yonetake of NEC’s DX Offering Management Department.
Yet we all know the proliferation of automation in warehouses will result in job loss in the millions, if not more, in the years ahead. We’ve explained for years when this ill-fated day will arrive for human warehouse workers:
The Biden administration has been aware since last year that Saudi border guards were slaughtering African migrants on Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen but kept quiet about the killings, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Sources told the Times that American diplomats were made aware of the news last fall, around the time the US was publicly condemning Riyadh for agreeing to OPEC+ oil production cuts. The administration did not make any public comments about the reported killings.
The administration received more details about the atrocities in December 2022 when the UN presented information about Saudi forces shooting, shelling, and abusing Ethiopian migrants at the border, but the US still kept quiet.
After Human Rights Watch released a report last week that said Saudi border guards killed hundreds — possibly thousands — of Ethiopian migrants between March 2022 and June 2023, the Biden administration insisted that it “raised concerns” with Riyadh about the report. For their part, Riyadh denied the allegations.
Last month, the Mixed Migration Center (MMC) released a similar report that said Saudi border forces killed at least 800 Ethiopian migrants, and over 1,700 were injured. The Saudi guards used mortar shells and small arms to attack the Ethiopians. There were also reports of rape and torture.
According toThe Washington Post, Saudi border guards are trained by the US as part of military cooperation between the two nations. The mass slaughter of civilians by US-backed Saudi forces is nothing new, as Riyadh frequently targeted civilians in its war in Yemen using US-made bombs and aircraft. In January 2022, Saudi airstrikes hit a migrant detention center in Sadaa, Yemen, killing at least 91 civilians and injuring 236 more.
Since last fall, when President Biden vowed “consequences” for Riyadh over the oil cuts, his administration has backed off on its criticism of the kingdom as it seeks to clinch a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal.
Saudi authorities are spending billions on sports-washing to improve their image.
But out of public view, Saudi border guards have killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers, including women and children, who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border. pic.twitter.com/1XmJavfxWI
Saudi Arabia is demanding new security guarantees from the US as a condition for normalization that could go as far as NATO’s Article 5, which would mean Washington treating attacks on the kingdom as attacks on the US.
Content Overload: Streaming Libraries Balloon 39% In Two Years
Binge-watching TV shows, movies, and documentaries on streaming platforms is like a drug…
So, what do drug dealers streaming companies do when customers demand more?
Give the customer what they want: A 39% increase in TV shows, movies, and documentaries on streaming platforms in two years, according to Bloomberg, citing a new report from market researcher Nielsen.
Nielsen said the number of titles on streaming services surged to 2.35 million. The figure increases to 2.7 million when traditional broadcast and cable channel viewing operations are factored in. This content is only available across the Western world, primarily in the US, Canada, the UK, Mexico, and Germany.
“Netflix and Disney+ are among 167 streaming providers, up from 118 two years ago. The average time it takes someone to find something to watch has risen to more than 10 minutes from a little over seven minutes in 2019,” Nielsen said.
Streaming companies played the long game, pumping out an enormous amount of TV shows, movies, and documentaries over the years for a small monthly fee — a move to get viewers hooked on their content. Dive deep into the bio-chemistry. Turns out, TV addiction isn’t just psychological; it’s biological. Your brain pumps out dopamine while you binge-watch, making the experience pleasurable and rewarding.
But as any drug dealer would do… They eventually raise prices, and as we found out last week, ‘streamflation’ has led to a surge in customers wanting to cancel their Hulu And Disney+ accounts. It might be hard for some to cold turkey the ‘streaming drug.’
Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa, California, on Aug. 24 reversed a recent policy that would require masks in its hospital after it reinstated the mandate days before. A Hollywood studio also said it would do away with its mandate.
Officials for the hospital system told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that the mask policy applies only to staff, not patients. It said that it is “strongly encouraging masks for patients, members, and visitors in the hospital and medical offices in the Santa Rosa Service Area in response to this latest increase in COVID-19 cases.”
“Our intent was to communicate that as of Tuesday, we have expanded the masking requirement for our employees and physicians to medical offices and clinic settings; we apologize for any confusion among Press Democrat readers,” Kaiser said in its latest statement.
The statement also said that “visitors, patients, and members are strongly encouraged to also wear masks in these settings,” according to the paper. “We have not changed our masking requirements in the hospital, which have been in effect since April: employees and physicians are required to wear masks and we ask visitors to wear masks when in the hospital.”
It doesn’t appear that Kaiser Permanente, which operates hospitals across the United States and California, would also attempt to reinstate mask mandates at other locations.
Days before its latest statement, the hospital system said it would be mandating masks for patients, doctors, patients, visitors, and staff members at its hospital and medical offices.
“Kaiser Permanente Northern California is committed to protecting the safety of our members, patients, employees, physicians, and visitors, which includes taking appropriate steps to prevent the spread of transmissible infectious diseases in our facilities,” it told local media.
Some Northern California locals weren’t happy with the announcement that mask mandates would return, according to local outlets.
“They told us a bunch of [expletive],” Richard Staudinger, a North Sacramento resident, told CBS. “I think most of the people don’t believe it now.”
Another, Craig Roberts, said, “I think it’s more political than anything, just think they’re trying to do what they did in 2020.”
But some said they don’t mind the mandates. “I don’t have a problem if they reinstate the masks,” Kiona Cooper, of Northern California, said.
Other Mandates
Meanwhile, the Lionsgate film studio in Santa Monica also said it would not be implementing a mask mandate, days after the media company said it would force workers to put on masks again on certain floors. It claimed that it never changed its mask policy.
“The LA County Department of Public Health notified us yesterday that we could lift the mask requirements, effective immediately, and we have,” the firm told news outlets over the weekend.
The statement also said: “Lionsgate never changed its own mask policy. The LA County Department of Health ordered us to institute the temporary masking requirement after we reported a cluster of COVID cases to them and we have an obligation to comply with their orders.”
Last week, a Lionsgate memo stated that employees on only certain floors have to wear surgical masks, KN95 masks, or N95 masks “except when alone in an office with the door closed, actively eating, actively drinking at their desk or workstation, or if they are the only individual present in a large open workspace.”
Earlier in the month, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that COVID-19 hospitalizations rose across the country. Hospitalizations rose by 21.6 percent, to 12,612 new admissions from 10,370, according to the data ending Aug. 12.
Despite the increase, it’s among the lowest levels of hospitalization recorded since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
“An upswing is not a surge; it’s not even a wave,” Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine, told ABC News. “What we’re seeing is a very gradual and small upward trajectory of cases and hospitalizations, without deaths really going along, which is great news.”
At the same time, several hospitals, including some in upstate New York, and Morris Brown College in Atlanta reimplemented mask mandates, prompting concerns about a broader effort to force masks on people, three years after the start of the pandemic in the United States. Media coverage around the small increase in COVID-19 cases has also focused on whether masks should be worn, with mainstream outlets such as CNN interviewing doctors who say people should start wearing them again.
But some politicians and commentators, in response, called on supporters to resist the mandates.
“It’s alarming that the mandates are kicking in again,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said in a recent interview. “It’s like, OK, we noticed masks didn’t work, particularly for children. We always knew they didn’t work for kids.”
It also comes as President Joe Biden on Aug. 25 told reporters in Lake Tahoe that he signed off on a proposal “to present to Congress a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works.”
Half Of Transgender Prison Inmates Convicted Of Sex Crimes: Wisconsin Data
Half of the transgender inmates in the Wisconsin prison system were convicted of at least one count of sexual abuse or assault, according to data provided by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
Obtained via a public records request to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections in April 2022, the data – provided more than a year later and reported by the Daily Caller, indicates that 81 of the 161 transgender inmates at female prisons had a record of sexual abuse.
Details were not disclosed by the DOC regarding how many transgender inmates applied to a women’s facility and the number of requests granted, according to the documents. The prison system also did not provide how many had transferred with sex crimes on their record or how many were charged while in prison. -Daily Caller
The records don’t show which other crimes the transgender inmates may have committed, including whether they have multiple sex crime convictions.
“The transgender issue isn’t just about women in sports, which seems to be the context people are most comfortable talking about the transgender contagion in,” according to Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Foundation Oversight Project, in a statement to the Caller. “This data shows a much uglier truth, that sexual crime and transgenderism are linked.“
The Caller also notes that in June, the Supreme Court affirmed a previous ruling by a lower court that sided with a transgender inmate – biological male Kesha Williams – who successfully sued Fairfax County jail for discrimination after sticking him in an all-male jail. According to the Fourth Circuit, the jail discriminated against Williams under the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide treatment for “gender dysphoria,” and for allowing other inmates to harass him.
A new parody rap of a fired-up former President Donald Trump after his release from his Atlanta, Georgia booking has been rising up the charts. As of Monday morning “First Day Out” by Trump the Don had shot up to #3 on the iTunes Hip Hop chart, #34 overall, and has garnered 2.8 million views on social media since its release on Friday.
“I’ve been blown away by the response. It’s gone completely viral,” Jessie Friedman, 29, the alter ego behind Trump the Don, told The Epoch Times. “Like so many other Americans I was disgusted and felt like fighting back in a comedic way. I never expected it to blow up like this.”
Mr. Friedman, a resident of central Florida, who had been rapping since the age of 13, found inspiration for the song after first seeing the former president’s historic mugshot on the news. Fired up, Mr. Friedman decided to write an ode first popularized by other artists’ experience rapping about their first day of freedom after being in police custody.
“In hip-hop it’s common for when an artist gets out of prison they do rap for a couple minutes about their first day out to just flex and let everyone know that hey, I haven’t been defeated. I’m still here standing strong,” said Mr. Friedman. “I felt Trump deserved a flex of his own so I went to work.”
“First Day Out,” which is 90 seconds in length, shares the thoughts of a fictionalized Trump after exiting the Atlanta jail.
The song opens with shout-outs to notable conservative figures before launching into a defiant, yet humorous, screed, “Out on bail, out on bail. I won’t see inside a cell.”
“I got homies doing life in jail they living in Hell. These DAs are acting silly. My mugshot is worth a billi. Sold some merch and made and made a milli.”
The lyrical Trump continues: “I am not who they are after. I’m just in the way, they want to get to you but I won’t let ‘em. Cold-hearted now I’m heartless getting back to where I started. I don’t need to do the race, Ima beat the RICO charges. And if I go to prison you can’t do me like the Clintons. I’ll be laid up eating steak with secret service straight up chillin. Screaming Orange man bad! Got the whole world mad! Thug life shout out to all of my MAGA based chads”
The song ends with Trump issuing a warning: “Coming for the deep state I will stop the new world order. But before that I’ll finish the wall at the border.”
Mr. Friedman, who says he supports Trump but not the Republican Party, is hoping his music not only makes people smile, but through humor, can also inspire change in the way political parties are perceived.
“It’s wild to see these rock stars, who, while growing up, I had always thought of as these counter culture renegades, step in lockstep with corporate and government powers, telling us to mask up and obey authority,” said Mr. Friedman. “We look to them to fight the power, but they are all conforming. Sit down. Do what you’re told. That is their message. Trump is the true rebel.”
“It’s sick. You can rap all you want about guns and everyone will celebrate, but talk about the Second Amendment and you get canceled,” Mr. Friedman added.
Recent months have seen political songs strike a deep chord in American culture. For several weeks the number one song on the iTunes chart has been Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men of North Richmond,” which chronicles how corrupt elites on both sides of the political aisle have profited at the expense of the struggling lower and middle classes.
Mr. Friedman, who currently resides in central Florida and also raps under the name “Hi-Raz The Rapper,” had a chance meeting with his lyrical inspiration at the former president’s Florida residence in Mar a Lago.
“It was my wedding and Trump showed up to wish us luck,” said Mr. Friedman. “He was a lot of fun. Couldn’t have been nicer.”
The rapper says that while he is taking time to enjoy the success of his newest song, he plans to get back to work soon to create more musical parodies. However, if the former president is elected to a second term Mr. Friedman says he would gladly make time in his schedule for any potential reelection events.
“Why not light up his inaugural?” said Mr. Friedman. “I’m just this white Jewish rapper living out my dream while living in this clown world, so I say, Let’s go. And knowing Trump the little bit that I do, he might just be into Trump the Don.”
Nvidia has become an early winner of the generative AI boom.
The company reported record revenue in its second quarter earnings report, with sales of AI chips playing a large role. If we compare to other American competitors, what do the AI chip sales of Nvidia vs. AMD vs. Intel look like?
While the companies don’t report revenue for their AI chips specifically, they do share revenue for their Data Center segment.
The Data Center segment includes chips like Central Processing Units (CPUs), Data Processing Units (DPUs), and Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). The latter are preferred for AI because they can perform many simple tasks simultaneously and efficiently.
Below, we show how quarterly Data Center revenue has grown for Nvidia vs. AMD vs. Intel.
Source: Nvidia, AMD, Intel. Quarters are based on the calendar year. In cases where revenue was revised at a later date, we have used the latest available revision. Intel integrated its Accelerated Computing Systems & Graphics (AXG) group into its Data Center Group in 2023. We have included revenue from the AXG group in the Data Center revenue for quarters prior to 2023 except for Q1 and Q2 2022, where revised Data Center revenue was provided by Intel.
Nvidia’s Data Center revenue has quadrupled over the last two years, and it’s estimated to have more than 70% of the market share for AI chips.
The company achieved dominance by recognizing the AI trend early, becoming a one-stop shop offering chips, software, and access to specialized computers. After hitting a $1 trillion market cap earlier in 2023, the stock continues to soar.
Competition Between Nvidia vs. AMD vs. Intel
If we compare Nvidia vs. AMD, the latter company has seen slower growth and less revenue. Its MI250 chip was found to be 80% as fast as Nvidia’s A100 chip.
However, AMD has recently put a focus on AI, announcing a new MI300X chip with 192GB of memory compared to the 141GB that Nvidia’s new GH200 offers. More memory reduces the amount of GPUs needed, and could make AMD a stronger contender in the space.
In contrast, Intel has seen yearly revenue declines and has virtually no market share in AI chips. The company is better known for making traditional CPUs, and its foray into the AI space has been fraught with issues. Its Sapphire Rapids processor faced years of delays due to a complex design and numerous glitches.
Going forward, all three companies have indicated they plan to increase their AI offerings. It’s not hard to see why: ChatGPT reportedly runs on 10,000 Nvidia A100 chips, which would carry a total price tag of around $100 million dollars.
As more AI models are developed, the infrastructure that powers them will be a huge revenue opportunity.
Stealing deprives the right to property that does not belong to the thief.
It’s a pretty easy concept. In a civil society, people don’t steal from each other.
This begs the question of how civilised Australia is given the alarming and chilling statistics from our major supermarkets showing theft or “stock loss” is exploding.
Both of Australia’s major grocery retailers have detailed the big hit they are taking from those in the community who believe they have a right to steal products.
Woolworths and Coles, along with other smaller businesses, are suffering at the hands of shoplifters. They all report that the thefts have diminished their potential profits.
The reasons for this increase in theft are, as it is with most things, multi-faceted.
Cost of living, reluctance to prosecute, and self-service booths enhancing temptation are some of the factors that spring to mind along with lower staffing levels.
Coles reported a 20 percent increase in “stock loss.” Disturbingly, Coles pointed to organised crime, especially in the non-food areas of their retailing empire.
To combat the trend of thieving, retailers are installing more CCTV circuitry and scanning mechanisms. Others are requiring people exiting self-serve areas to display their receipts for a quick appraisal.
Virtues Are the Greatest Crime Stopper
In all the discussions about the increased stealing and countermeasures to combat the epidemic, very little has been mentioned about the moral well-being of Australian society.
There can be no doubt that the increase in shoplifting is a symptom of a much deeper malaise that resides in the souls of the population.
Where there is no sense of a transcendental aspect to life, hedonism, and “me first” prevail—to the detriment of fellow citizens.
Stock theft from supermarkets is a crime. It deprives the owners of their property. It also results in higher prices for fellow Australians and businesses try to claim back the losses.
A well-honed conscience would find such behaviour disturbing and rightly so.
The failure to teach and promote the virtues of honesty among other virtues, seeps through into everyday behaviour in societal interactions.
Hedonistic materialism dulls the senses to what might be right or wrong informed by an authority greater than immediate gratification. The determinant of a person’s moral conduct is rooted in their belief system.
The threat of being caught and punished is a deterrent. But if that threat is not present at a particular time the deterrence loses its impact and behaviour is not modified.
However, having an ingrained belief system guiding ethical and social behaviour including respect for private property will constantly guide behaviour irrespective of a CCTV presence or the checking of receipts.
A Hikvision CCTV security camera is seen at a building in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 15, 2023. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
While stealing has always been with us in society, the prevalence of it may be an expression of our education system and society generally discounting the importance of religious education and guidance for our young in particular.
Without their constant teaching, moral values become less sustainable. Those broad societal ethics will not be preserved unless they are continually taught.
The Melbourne Declaration stressed the importance of the spiritual development of young Australians in ensuring the nation’s ongoing prosperity and social cohesion.
Society ignores these matters at its peril.
Our supermarket bosses might reflect and consider allocating shareholders’ monies (for that is what it is) to wholesome causes promoting societal virtues rather than woke and divisive causes like “The Voice.” It will keep the costs of doing business down and returns to shareholders up while avoiding consumer boycotts.
Now there is a triple bottom line for the corporates to embrace.
