JAPAN SEVERED BY TYPHOON TALAS

THOUSANDS STRANDED AFTER
47 DIE IN JAPAN TYPHOON

http://news.yahoo.com - Thousands of people remained stranded in western Japan on Tuesday as the death toll from a fierce typhoon rose to 47, heaping more misery on a nation recovering from the March earthquake and tsunami. Torrential rain brought by powerful Typhoon Talas, which made landfall Saturday and was the deadliest in seven years, caused rivers to swell and triggered floods and landslides that swept away buildings, homes and roads. More than 50 people were still missing, local authorities told AFP, while Japanese media reported another 100 or so could not be contacted in hard-hit Wakayama prefecture. New Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who was sworn in last week, plans to visit the affected areas on Friday to inspect the damage from the deadly typhoon, top government spokesman Osamu Fujimura said.  Noda will also visit Fukushima on Thursday, home to a nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 disaster at the centre of the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

As police, firefighters and Self-Defense Force troops continued their painstaking search for the missing, local authorities were planning to air-drop more food and water to those isolated by the disaster.  In severely affected Wakayama, about 4,500 people remained stranded in communities that could not be reached due to collapsed roads, according to a local official. In Totsukawa village in Nara prefecture, more than 400 people were stranded in evacuation shelters as access routes have mostly been cut off and phone lines were down in most parts of the village. Talas, which moved away from Japan on Sunday, has since been downgraded to a tropical storm but the remnants of its weather system, together with the impact of new Typhoon Noru, continued to dump heavy rains on northern Japan. “After carrying 1,000 litres of drinking water by helicopter yesterday, we are planning also to transport rice, instant noodles and drinks later today,” a local police official said.

Members of Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force, firefighters, soldiers and police officers search destroyed houses for missing people after a landslide triggered by Typhoon “Talas” that brought heavy rains at Tanabe, central Japan on Monday.  The storm dumped record amounts of rain Sunday in western and central Japan as it turned towns into lakes, washed away cars and triggered mudslides that obliterated houses.  The terrible force of nature is one of the clearest signs of this age of Kali, therefore we should reflect on the reasons behind such natural disasters.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Natural calamities are a display of an awesome power immensely and fearfully greater than the human. They jolt us out of our complacent routines and force us to think about the supernatural: Why do such natural disasters occur?  Does God exist? If He does, why does He not stop such calamities? ... All the great spiritual and religious traditions of the world warn us that we are answerable to God for all our actions. Known as the law of karma, this universal, infallible law of action-reaction gives all of us our due pleasures and pains as per our actions, right or wrong. ... We can protect ourselves from our past misdeeds by re-harmonizing ourselves with God. This can be very easily and effectively done by adopting the non-sectarian universal meditation on the Holy Names of God, especially the maha-mantra Hare Krishna.

Śrīpad Caitanya Caran das (BE E&TC) :
“When Nature Boomerangs”
The Spiritual Scientist - Vol. 3 - Issue 13
Bhaktivedanta Academy for Culture and Education (BACE), Pune
http://thespiritualscientist.com/
http://deepak.esmartguy.com/ss/when_nature_boomerangs.htm

RED MEAT BOOSTS DIABETES RISK: US STUDY

RED MEAT CONSUMPTION MAY
INCREASE RISK OF TYPE 2 DIABETES

AFP - Two slices of bacon, a hot dog or a serving of deli meat daily has been found to significantly boost the risk of getting type 2 diabetes, said a major US study published on Wednesday. The research by experts at the Harvard School of Public Health represents the largest study of its kind to date and appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  Eating 50 grams of processed red meat every day increased a person’s diabetes risk by 51 percent, while eating 100 grams of unprocessed red meat each day, about the size of a deck of cards, boosted the risk by 19 percent. However, those risks went down if the red meat was substituted with nuts, white meat, low-fat dairy or whole grain proteins. “Clearly, the results from this study have huge public health implications given the rising type 2 diabetes epidemic and increasing consumption of red meats worldwide,” said senior author Frank Hu. “The good news is that such troubling risk factors can be offset by swapping red meat for a healthier protein.”
 
The data for the study came from questionnaire responses from more than 204,000 people in US nurses and health professionals’ studies. The subjects were tracked for between 14 and 28 years. Researchers also updated a meta-analysis that included their data with other studies covering more than 442,000 participants. Diabetes affects nearly 350 million adults worldwide, and more than 11 percent of adults over age 20 - or 25.6 million people - in the United States have the disease, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Type 2 diabetes, a chronic disease that involves high levels of blood sugar, is often caused by obesity, lack of exercise and unhealthy eating habits.
 

Recently, a major study of the US conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health has found that routine consumption of meat could trigger Type 2 diabetes.  It is believed that the high iron content of red meat can increase inflammatory chemicals, which can destroy insulin- producing beta cells - could be the main reason of triggering Type 2 diabetes.  Due to their unnatural diet meat-eating human beings are far more susceptible to diseases and disorders as compared to their vegetarian counterparts.  

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Every day, several times a day, every living being, in whichever part of the world he may be, enjoys a universal ritual - eating.  Most people decide what they eat based mainly on taste, cost, habit, nutrition and convenience.  But for those who are a little more thoughtful, here are some other points worth considering. ... The Bhagavad Gita states that foods such as milk products, grains, fruits, and vegetables increase the duration of life and give strength, health, happiness, and satisfaction. Conversely, foods such as, meat, fish and fowl are putrid, decomposed and unclean. They cause numerous hazards to physical health. ... Apart from bringing severe sinful reactions, meat-eating also dulls the human intellect thus rendering it incapable of understanding the higher dimensions of life. Therefore real spiritual life, nay real human life, can not begin unless a human being stops killing his younger brothers, innocent animals, just for the satisfaction of his tongue.

Śrīpad Caitanya Caran das (BE E&TC) :
“Think Before You Eat”
“The Spiritual Scientist” - Vol. 1 Issue 8.
Bhaktivedanta Academy for Culture and Education (BACE), Pune
http://thespiritualscientist.com/