For the purposes of the study, the specialists analyzed the chemical composition of 157 different toys
Allowing children to play with old toys may pose a risk to their health, writes “Science Daily”, citing a Swedish study.
Its authors from the University of Gothenburg have found that more than 80 percent of old toys and items contain toxins that can damage children’s growth, development and reproductive abilities, as well as cause cancer.
For the purposes of the study, the specialists analyzed the chemical composition of 157 different toys.
The analysis carried out shows that up to 84 percent of the old products contain phthalates and short-chain chlorinated paraffins in concentrations significantly exceeding the norm.
An excess of 30 percent was registered for the new toys, but it was lower than for the old ones. The phthalate content of old footballs, for example, makes up more than 40 percent of their weight, which is 400 times the legal limit.
The results obtained show that reuse and recycling are not always good for the environment. According to the study’s authors, toxins in old toys and belongings present an obstacle to a future circular economy involving these practices.
Lard, simply put, is pork fat. This fat is semi-soft and quite butter-like in texture. It can be found almost anywhere in the pig, but most often comes from the back, belly and around the organs. However, not all lard is created equal. Higher quality bacon comes from different areas of the pig:
– Leaf Lard is considered the highest quality you can get. It is collected from around the kidneys and from the inside of the groin. This fat has a very neutral, non-porky flavor. This makes it ideal for baked goods and is particularly prized for the flaky pie crusts it produces.
– Fatback is next in line. Fatback is, as its name suggests, fat from the back of the pig. This variety is used by many top chefs in place of oil because of its light, spicy flavor and silky texture. It is also the best choice for making sausages. – Caul Fat is the lowest grade available. It is collected from around the pig’s digestive organs. This fat is a mesh membrane. As a result, it is best suited for wrapping leaner meats or adding to pâtés.
Health benefits of lard
Believe it or not, lard offers a wide range of health benefits, making it a great choice for your fat needs:
– Vitamin D — lard is the number 2 food source for vitamin D, after only cod liver oil. One tablespoon actually contains 1000 IU!
– Heat stable — Pork fat is not destabilized by higher heat. This means it is much healthier and has a lower risk of cancer than other oils that smoke at high temperatures.
Interesting uses of lard – Natural — since it is a natural food, it does not need additives and further processing to work. – Cholesterol – Butter contains about three times more cholesterol than lard. For this reason, lard is a great low-cholesterol butter substitute.
Where can I buy lard?
Lard is available at most grocery stores. It can also often be purchased directly from local butchers. Uses in Mexican Cuisine Pork lard is used in Mexican cuisine as the fat of choice for making tamales, refried beans, and flour tortillas.
Learning how to make lard is a fairly easy process. – Collect the fat. See the first section of this post. It outlines the different types of lard and will help you determine what kind you want.
– Freeze the fat. This makes it much easier to cut into smaller pieces.
– Cut the fat into ½” or smaller cubes or grind it.
– Place in a heavy saucepan and cook over low heat with the lid removed. Alternatively, you can use a slow cooker at a low temperature or an oven.
– Melt the fat and let it cook for a few hours until the hard bits sink and rise again. They are called splatters because they make a popping sound when the lard runs out.
– Strain the rendered fat through a strainer and then through 3-4 layers of cheesecloth to remove any solids.
– Store well-melted and strained lard in an airtight glass container at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
– Use it instead of butter or oil in all your recipes!
Bulgaria ranks first in terms of smoking in Europe, and the country has already surpassed even Greece, which until recently was first. This was announced by the chairman of the Coalition for a smoke-free life, Dr. Gergana Geshanova. “Our country ranks first in mortality in Europe. Our population is aging and no one is teaching young people how to live healthily so they don’t get sick,” she pointed out, adding that a quarter of 16-year-olds smoke.
“Back in 2006, Bulgaria signed, together with more than 180 other countries, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. 16 years have passed since then, and our country should have implemented everything under this convention a long time ago. However, we only do what the EU pressures us to do in terms of smoking,” said Geshanova. According to her, there is no initiative or desire for the state to do something to improve the health of the people in Bulgaria. She and her colleagues insist that Bulgaria fulfill its obligations under the Framework Convention. That is why the civil mission team is already meeting with representatives of the political forces that are fighting to enter the parliament. Most of the parties have included in their programs measures related to health care and smoking, but they have several important requests from the organizations to fight this vice. “First and foremost is the liquidation of outdoor advertising of tobacco products. Our country is one of the remaining 3-4 countries in Europe with billboards of tobacco products. The law in our country allows it, and this must be changed urgently. In shops, tobacco products are still displayed in a prominent place, most often behind the cash register, which is not the case in the West, because people are reminded to buy cigarettes or other tobacco products. Placing advertisements in a prominent place is unacceptable if we care about the health of our nation,” commented Dr. Geshanova. According to her and her colleagues, the sponsorship of tobacco companies should be banned.
The civil pressure team insists that more authorities such as the police, for example, be involved in the control of the smoking ban in closed public places, as is the case in Western Europe. The district health inspectorates involved in the inspections have very few employees who cannot supervise effectively. Last but not least, the experts insist on increasing the excise tax on tobacco products, which is a powerful factor in limiting smoking. “If the price of cigarettes increases, first the more vulnerable part of the population will decide not to smoke,” said Gergana Geshanova, quoted by BTA.
The President of Latvia Egils Levits submitted to the parliament a draft law on changing the status of the Latvian Orthodox Church, reports the official website of the Latvian presidency.
Currently, the Latvian Orthodox Church has the status of a self-governing church within the Moscow Patriarchate. It received this status in 1990, when Latvia proclaimed its state independence. It is headed by miter. Alexander (Kudryashkov).
President Levits proposes to the Latvian parliament to recognize it as independent.
The President of Latvia stated that the Latvian Church was de facto recognized as autocephalous in 1921 by Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow. Later, when Latvia was occupied by the USSR, the previous decisions of the Russian Orthodox Church were reversed and the Latvian Church was incorporated into the Russian Orthodox Church.
The President notes that he has met the understanding and approval of the parties in the Latvian Parliament for his proposed draft law. The Orthodox Church has also been informed, but so far there is no official reaction.
“I can assure that the Latvian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan Alexander can count on the full support of the Latvian state as an autocephalous church recognized by law in the future,” the president wrote.
“When the law comes into force, any influence or authority of the Moscow Patriarch over our Orthodox Church will be removed. Renunciation of any ties with the Moscow Patriarch is an important matter for our Orthodox believers, for the entire Latvian society and for national security,” the Latvian president said .
The President of Latvia also noted that he discussed the proposed draft law with all state institutions, the National Security Council and the parliamentary committees on national security and human rights. All of them have expressed the opinion that the law should be voted on as soon as possible. The president has asked parliament to grant the bill extraordinary status, and it will most likely be considered on September 8.
About 700 thousand are the Lutherans in the country, 370 thousand are the Orthodox and 500 thousand are Catholics. The Orthodox are about 18% of the population.
U.S. State Department Accuses Russia of Antisemitism and Exploiting the Suffering of Jews for its Own Agenda in Ukraine
In the space of a lifetime, the people of Ukraine have endured war (5-7 million lost in WWII), nuclear disaster (Chernobyl 1986), and civil discord.
February’s attack by the Russian Federation as directed by Vladimir Putin, wielder of the third largest military power on Earth, opens yet another chapter in Ukraine’s struggle to remain free.
“To serve its predatory ends, the Kremlin is exploiting the suffering and sacrifice of all those who lived through World War II and survived the Holocaust,” the State Department says in a dossier posted on its website July 11. “In the process, the Kremlin is detracting from critically important global efforts to combat antisemitism and is instead propagating one of antisemitism’s most insidious forms, Holocaust distortion,” the dossier continued.
The release of the dossier was timed ahead of an informal session of the United Nations Security Council that Russia called to further prop up its denazification justification. Tass, the Russian news agency, on July 7 quoted Dmitry Polyansky, the deputy Russian envoy to the United Nations, saying the session will “be our response to Western colleagues, who express doubts about one of the main goals of our special military operation in Ukraine, namely denazification, and claim that we are exaggerating the problem.”
The State Department dossier quotes historians and Holocaust remembrance institutions. It references Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s preposterous and widely discredited claim from May that “the biggest antisemites are Jewish themselves.” It quotes Israeli officials condemning Lavrov’s statement as bogus.
A key aim of Russia’s canard campaign, according to the State Department dossier, was to “downplay the role of antisemitism in Nazi ideology.”
How does Mr. Putin expect such cross-eyed lies to even be believed?
Because they already are.
Putin and the Kremlin are playing on the well-worn lie that the true victims of the Holocaust were not the Jews at all, but the Russian Christians (and, make no mistake, “Christian” in this context bears as much relation to Christianity as an assault rifle does to a place of worship). The canard goes that an elite global cabal of Jews was and continues to be the cause of any suffering wrought upon Russian Christians.
Putin, as the leader of “Russian Christian Nationalism,” uses the playbook of eastern European antisemitism, which screams that it’s all a Jewish conspiracy that cleverly employs words like “democracy” and “human rights” to undermine Christianity. Immigrants, Blacks, Muslims, Jews are all therefore threats against the “pure state,” and a Jewish head of state is something that is not to be tolerated.
The State Department dossier concludes by saying that Russia is crippling the fight against antisemitism: “With antisemitism on the rise around the world, it is imperative for all to call out this particularly pernicious kind of Russian disinformation.”
At this writing, the freedom-loving people of Ukraine—Jew and Gentile—are facing down the Russian tanks and might with a verve and passion that Putin had not expected. He is increasingly isolated as the well-intended nations of Earth turn their backs on him. His anticipated tidal wave of support has not materialized, nor will it. Creatures of the shadows, if not emboldened, stay in the shadows.
The people of Ukraine know from their recent history how dear a price they must be prepared to pay for their freedom. They have the attention of the world for the heroes they are, just as Putin and his “denazification” have earned its lasting contempt.
Pope Francis presided over the beatification Mass of Pope John Paul I, recalling how his smile communicated the goodness of the Lord. He encouraged everyone to learn from the Lord on how to love without limits and be a Church with a happy, serene and smiling face, that never closes doors.
By Thaddeus Jones
Recalling the example of the “smiling pope,” John Paul I, Pope Francis presided over his beatification in Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday. The Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, with 25 thousand faithful participating in a rainy and later sun-filled square.
In his homily, Pope Francis recalled how in today’s Gospel we hear of large crowds following Jesus who gives them a challenging message: to become His disciple means to put aside earthly attachments, to love Him more than his or her own family, to carry the cross we bear in our lives.
The Pope observed that this admonition of the Lord contrasts with what we often see in our world, where the crowds are taken by the charisma of a teacher or leader, attaching their hopes for the future based on emotions, but they become more susceptible to those who instead shrewdly take advantage of them, telling them what they want to hear for their own profit, glory or power, profiting on society’s fears and needs.
Beatification of John Paul I in St. Peter’s Square
God’s style is different
The Pope explained that God’s way is different, as he does not exploit our needs or vulnerabilities, or offer easy promises and favours. The Lord is not interested in huge crowds, or seeking approval, the Pope went on to say, pointing out that the Lord appears more worried about those who follow with easy enthusiasm but without a more profound understanding of what is needed.
“Instead of yielding to the allure of popularity, (Jesus) asks each person to discern carefully their reason for following him and the consequences that it will entail.”
Many in the crowds recounted in the Gospel reading were hoping Jesus would become their leader and free them from their enemies, the Pope observed, someone who could easily fix all their problems. This worldly focus on only one’s needs, of gaining prestige and status, power and privilege, needs to be challenged he pointed out, as “this is not the style of Jesus…and cannot be the style of his disciples and of his Church.”
Pope Francis greets all those present at the beatification mass for John Paul I, before turning to the Virgin Mary and praying for world peace.
Carrying one’s cross
The Lord asks a different attitude of us, the Pope said, he wants his disciples to prefer nothing other than this love, even over their deepest affections and greatest treasures.
“To follow him does not mean to become part of a court or a triumphal procession, or even to receive a lifetime insurance policy. On the contrary, it means “carrying one’s cross” (Lk 14:27): shouldering, like him, one’s own burdens and those of others, making one’s life a gift, spending it in imitation of his own generous and merciful love for us. These are decisions that engage the totality of our lives.”
Love without measure
To commit as a disciple of Jesus means to look to the Lord more than ourselves, to learn how to love from the Crucified One, “the love that bestows itself to the very end, without measure and without limits.”
“In the words of Pope John Paul, “we are the objects of undying love on the part of God.” An undying love: it never sinks beneath the horizon of our lives; it constantly shines upon us and illumines even our darkest nights.”
When we look upon the Crucified Lord, the Pope continued, we are called to overcome the focus on ourselves, to love God and others everywhere, even those who see things differently, even our enemies.
Love calls for sacrifice
To love can involve “sacrifice, silence, misunderstanding, solitude, resistance and persecution,” the Pope pointed out, and it calls on us to take risks, and never to settle for less or we can end up living life “halfway,” without taking the decisive steps needed to be the Lord’s disciples, truly committing ourselves to Him and helping others.
“As Pope John Paul also said, if you want to kiss Jesus crucified, “you cannot help bending over the cross and letting yourself be pricked by a few thorns of the crown on the Lord’s head.” A love that perseveres to the end, thorns and all: no leaving things half done, no cutting corners, no fleeing difficulties.”
Pope Francis greeting pilgrims attending the beatification of John Paul I in St. Peter’s Square
Love without compromise
Recalling the example of Blessed John Paul I, Pope Francis recalled how the new Blessed lived the joy of the Gospel, “without compromises, loving to the very end.” He did not seek his own glory, but lived as a “meek and humble pastor.”
“With a smile, Pope John Paul managed to communicate the goodness of the Lord. How beautiful is a Church with a happy, serene and smiling face, that never closes doors, never hardens hearts, never complains or harbours resentment, does not grow angry or impatient, does not look dour or suffer nostalgia for the past.”
In conclusion, the Pope encouraged us to ask Blessed John Paul I to help us obtain from the Lord “the smile of the soul” and to pray in his own words: “Lord take me as I am, with my defects, with my shortcomings, but make me become what you want me to be.”
Listen to our report
Full video of the Beatification of Pope John Paul I
A photo exhibition in the Western Indian Ocean region
Ports play a vital role in the global economy, with over 90% of goods being traded across the ocean. Yet ports also have a large impact on the lives of people living along the coastline, from changing their landscapes and providing employment opportunities to affording opportunities to connect to the rest of the world.
The large role that ports play in coastal communities means that port security is crucial to the well-being of a country’s culture and economy. Ports are often spread over thousands of hectares of sea and land, meaning that criminals have many opportunities to smuggle illegal weapons, drugs, and commit multiple crimes.
The UN Office on Drug and Crime’s Eastern Africa office has enhanced port security in the Western Indian Ocean and recently held photo exhibitions in Madagascar, Mauritius, and Tanzania to showcase how ports and people are interconnected, thus underscoring the need to maximize port security.
A picture tells a thousand words, as our photo exhibits show below:
Mahajanga, Madagascar
Photographer: Rijasolo
“Whether they are port dockers, dhow captains, fishermen or simple evening strollers, their economic and social life is directly or indirectly linked to this maritime environment. My role as a photographer is to reveal this friendship between them and “their” sea,” explains Rijasolo, the photographer.
“A port is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. A port never stops. There are a lot of actors who gravitate around this area. And indirectly, the port creates a very close link between its inhabitants, its surroundings and its activity.
I also had the chance to meet men and women who work there every day. They do jobs that we do not necessarily know: divers who inspect the hulls of ships, taxi boats, supply boats, shipyards with teams of 500 people capable of repairing all the parts of a ship, fishermen who sew the tuna fillets, propeller spinners… It’s a world of enormous proportions.”
With financial support from the European Union (EU), UNODC’s Global Maritime Crime Programme (GMCP), in collaboration with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and INTERPOL, are implementing a programme on Port Security and Safety of Navigation in Eastern and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean Commission is coordinating this project across Angola, Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, and Tanzania. To learn more about GMCP, click here.
There are many demands in life, says Szommer: one’s work or career, relationships, marriage, parenthood. “It’s not always easy to get all these aspects of life aligned and going well. And unfortunately, a problem in one area can badly affect the rest.”
A newly ordained Scientology minister, she explains how she was able to improve her own life with the help of Scientology.
“I became a Scientologist more than 20 years ago,” she says. “I was working abroad as a student, and the people I worked for were not the friendliest. In fact, hardly anyone who worked with them before me lasted more than a year.”
Despite the challenges of the job, it was a good one with a nice salary and she wanted to succeed.
Fortunately, just before she began this job, she had taken some introductory Scientology courses. That made all the difference. She noticed that when she applied what she learned from these courses, it worked.
“That’s when I decided that I wanted to know more. I wanted to know exactly what Scientology was,” she says. Although she knew she had only learned a small part of Scientology, it had helped her through the rough spots and enabled her to succeed when so many other people had failed.
“Later, I applied what I learned in raising my son. He is successful in his studies, he is purposeful in his life,” she says.
Szommer is very proud of her son and that while has a great circle of friends who really enjoy being with one another and partying, they don’t get involved in harmful substances.
Before becoming a minister, Szommer was an entrepreneur. She would help people with their businesses, but there was so much more she wanted to be able to share with them.
She decided to sell her business and dedicate herself to helping people.
She realized that by applying Scientology spiritual counseling—called auditing, from the Latin word “audire” meaning “to listen”—it helped those around her do better and put them much more in control of their lives.
As she carried on with her Scientology training, she noticed the difference in her ability to help others.
“People would come to me, ask for advice, and I was able to help them turn their marriages in a positive direction and reconcile with their partners. They became able to take their businesses, human relations and child-rearing in the right direction, and this made me very happy,” she says.
But training as a Scientology minister also broadened her understanding of other beliefs and practices.
“I wanted to learn about other religions and I wanted to find the similarities and differences between them and Scientology,” she says. “I saw how we share the same goals, and how important it is that we all keep moving in the right direction.”
Szommer grew up in a Catholic family. “I would go to church, and I could see that those who really practice the religion are much more loving and helpful,” she says. “The teachings that religion gives people help them live together more easily.”
During her ministers’ training at the Church of Scientology of Budapest, by learning about other religions and philosophies, Renata gained an even greater understanding of Scientology and how much it has in common with other faiths.
“If we look at the history of humanity, religion has emphasized love of one’s fellow man and mutual friendliness and understanding,” she says. She points out there are so many wonderful ministers of all faiths. They have ministries dedicated to helping those in need, helping children. Many schools are run by ministers. Instead of harshness and hostility, religion helps lead people in the direction of love and help.
“My plans are to continue providing spiritual counseling and helping people,” says Szommer. “I can help those around me, and anyone who turns to me, achieve a happier, better life.
“Society turns to religion—whatever religion it may be. Religion helps us all win and live in a better world.”
From its beginnings, the Church of Scientology has recognized that freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. In a world where conflicts are often traceable to intolerance of others’ religious beliefs and practices, the Church has, for more than 50 years, made the preservation of religious liberty an overriding concern.
The Church publishes this blog to help create a better understanding of the freedom of religion and belief and provide news on religious freedom and issues affecting this freedom around the world.
The Founder of the Scientology religion is L. Ron Hubbard and Mr. David Miscavige is the religion’s ecclesiastical leader.
The human body needs various vitamins to function. A healthy diet provides most of the vitamins that people need. When the diet alone does not provide enough nutrients, taking vitamin supplements helps fill nutritional deficiencies. Because supplements are not as strictly standardized and regulated as pharmaceuticals, it can be difficult to determine the amount of a substance in a particular preparation and know an acceptable dose. Vitamin supplements can be measured in milligrams, micrograms, or international units. Converting between these units can help clarify the amount of vitamin needed.
What are International Units (IU) and what are they used for?
One of the most common unit conversions in medication is from international units (IU) to milligrams (mg) and micrograms (μg). This is because people are used to seeing milligrams in the dosage of medication, and noting in other units of measurement confuses them.
International unit (ME, in English: International unit, IU) in pharmacology is a unit for measuring doses of a substance based on its biological activity. It is used with vitamins, hormones, some drugs, vaccines, blood components and similar biologically active substances.
Despite its name, the IU is not part of the International System of Measurement. The amount of substance in 1 IU for different classes (types) of substances is completely different.
The exact definition of one IU differs for different substances and is established by international agreement. The Committee for Biological Standardization of the World Health Organization provides reference blanks (samples) of certain substances, (arbitrarily) quantifies the IU units contained in them, and defines biological procedures for the comparison of other blanks with the reference blanks. The aim of such procedures is to achieve that different preparations having the same biological activity contain the same amount of IU units.
In the metric system, 1000 milligrams (mg) is a unit of mass equal to 1 gram and 1000 micrograms (mcg) is equal to 1 milligram (mg) and will be the same no matter what you measure. The IU (International Unit) tries to measure “biological effect”, not mass. The international units themselves are most often used for dosing vitamins, vaccines, enzymes, hormones or medicines, where it is necessary to account for the biological effect of a unit of active substance.
In other words, international units (I.U.) account for the action and effect of the active substance in the body, not just its quantity in the medication. However, this creates difficulty in converting IU into milligrams and micrograms, because each substance has a different activity in the body and it must be calculated specifically for it.
Thus, if you know the recommended dose in micrograms (μg), and the product is given international units (IU), then you must convert the values for the specific substance. For example, 1 IU of vitamin A is the biological equivalent of 0.3 mcg of retinol but 0.6 mcg of beta-carotene.
If you need to convert from mg to μg or vice versa, you can use the converter to convert grams, milligrams, and micrograms for solid dosage forms.
The Committee for Biological Standardization of the World Health Organization (WHO) deals with how many IUs different medicines respond to and their standardization.
1 IU insulin = 45.5 μg pure crystalline insulin
1 IU Vitamin A = 0.3 μg retinol, or 0.6 μg beta-carotene
1 IU Vitamin C = 50 μg L-ascorbic acid
1 IU Vitamin D = 0.025 μg cholecalciferol/ergocalciferol
1 IU Vitamin E = 0.67 mg of D-alpha-tocopherol, 0.9 mg of DL-alpha-tocopherol and 0.74 mg of D-alpha-tocopheryl acetate
An 1,100-year-old Armenian church in Turkey’s eastern Van province hosted its tenth special Mass since it opened in 2010 after a 95-year hiatus, reported Mesut Varol and Emre Ilikan from Anadolu Agency.
Sahak Mashalyan, head of the Armenian Patriarchate in Turkey, and Father Harutyun Damatian came to the island with their clergy to perform the ceremony at Akdamar Church.
The liturgy was presided over by Damatian and attended by 46 clerics from the patriarchate and some visitors from Istanbul, Armenia and other parts of the world.
After the liturgy, Mashalyan expressed his gratitude to the authorities who gave permission for the ceremony to take place.
He also made remarks about the ongoing dialogue between Turkey and Armenia.
Stressing that the Turkish and Armenian nations share a thousand-year coexistence, Mashalyan said the two nations can develop promising and brighter relations, Anadolu Agency reported.
“Today we prayed that the two friendly peoples would live in peace so that the Caucasus would become a land of peace. May God protect our country and humanity,” Mashalyan said.
Hundreds of pilgrims flocked to the island where the unique temple is located.
Akdamar Church, a medieval Armenian place of worship, was built between 915-921 by architect Bishop Manuel under the direction of King Gagik I Artsruni.
The church, which has a special place in East-West Christian art, bears the most important decorations and the most elaborate wall reliefs of its time and was accepted into the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on April 13, 2015.
On September 19, 2010, Akdamar Church hosted its first service after a 95-year hiatus. Since then, a service is held in the church once a year, only on this day.
Photo: Akdamar Church, on the island of the same name in Lake Van, Turkey | AA
