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<title>yogaplace.com.au</title><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/index.html</link><description>Raising Global Consciousness</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2006 Alan McCrindle</dc:rights><dc:date>2008-11-21T09:50:45+11:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:52:55 +1100</lastBuildDate><item><title>Is the gym contributing to the unhappiness epidemic? RX - Yoga</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><category>Yoga</category><dc:date>2008-11-21T09:50:45+11:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/6fe0d06651f62d960b23a4d4960f3595-15.html#unique-entry-id-15</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/6fe0d06651f62d960b23a4d4960f3595-15.html#unique-entry-id-15</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[In a nutshell the discovery was that happy people spend a lot of time socialising, going to church and reading newspapers &mdash; but they don&rsquo;t spend a lot of time watching television, a new study finds.

...And many forms of yoga don't really get much past this anyway - especially when they are taught in the gym environment and by people with a minimal training qualification.

...The real practice of yoga has nothing to do with "perfecting" certain physical positions in terms of how they look from an external perspective - that approach teaches "conformit"y and the idea that self value comes from being perfect in the eyes of standards set by an external authority.

...As one of my teachers, TKV Desikachar once said to me, from the perspective of yoga it is more important for your students to fix their relationships with their mothers than do any yoga posture or breathing exercise.

...But unhappiness is the opposite - when we are unhappy we are aware of it and think about it - but we don't generally think "how do I become happy" - we think "how do I get rid of this unhappiness" .

If we were constantly happy we would become used to it just like we become used to anything that doesn't change - it would be the normal state and life would be become flat.

...Maybe we would be happier if we focused on first avoiding doing the things that made us unhappy rather than trying to work out what makes us happy....  I have in front of me right now a brochure for the fourth annual conference on "Happiness and it's Causes - Tools and Techniques for a happier life".]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Rediscovering Ancient Wisdom to save the human Race</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><category>Yoga</category><dc:date>2008-11-13T14:28:02+11:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/Rediscovering%20ancient%20wisdom.html#unique-entry-id-14</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/Rediscovering%20ancient%20wisdom.html#unique-entry-id-14</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[His blind faith in the validity of scientific research as indisputable truth is not born out by John Ioannisis's work that has demonstrated that most published research findings are false.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Chemical used in Plastic bottles may be harming your children - US government health agency</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><category>Health</category><dc:date>2008-04-16T09:05:23+10:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/94f585db3bc07a5c3b7e5b99413c70ef-12.html#unique-entry-id-12</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/94f585db3bc07a5c3b7e5b99413c70ef-12.html#unique-entry-id-12</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[If you or your children are drinking bottled water from a plastic bottle, feeding from a plastic baby bottle or infant formula from a can you might want to stop this ASAP.

This Tuesday a US government draft report warned that a bisphenol alos known as BPA, a chemical used in some "plastic food and drink packaging, including baby bottles may be tied to early puberty and prostate and breast cancer".

The draft findings come from the National Toxicology program which is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

In Canada there are reports that the Canadian Health minister is about to declare BPA a dangerous substance.  This would make it the first regulatory body in the world to make this determination.

As you might expect there are divergent opinions of the draft results between the chemical manufactures and environmental activists who have long warned about the potential harmful health effects the chemical....  "The American Chemistry Council industry group said the conclusions confirmed that human exposure to bisphenol A is extremely low and noted no direct evidence that exposure adversely affects reproduction or development in human"

...It reflects a significant body of science showing that BPA may play a larger role than previously thought in a host of common health problems," Anila Jacob of the Environmental Working Group said in a statement.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Your prenatal yoga classes are benefiting you baby&#x27;s heart as well as you new research suggests</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><category>Prenatal Yoga</category><dc:date>2008-04-08T11:14:15+10:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/e92d7b969af8a9d810d5dcac6f9e3c56-11.html#unique-entry-id-11</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/e92d7b969af8a9d810d5dcac6f9e3c56-11.html#unique-entry-id-11</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Here is some good news if you practising prenatal yoga a couple of times a week - new research presented at the 121st annual meeting of the American Physiological Society on Monday 7th April 2008 reports that "When the mom exercises during pregnancy, the unborn baby gets the same type of training effect that you would see in an adult - so you see the lower heart rate and also improved heart rate variability, which is evidence of improvements in the nervous system of the heart."

...May, from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences in Kansas City, and her colleagues tested the hypothesis that foetuses exposed to exercise in the womb have better autonomic function compared with that of foetuses not exposed to exercise.

How often and for how long and at what intensity do you need to exercise to see these benefits?

...In the pilot study the researchers compared a group of 5 women who performed moderate intensity aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes, 3 times per week, with another group of 5 who had no regular exercise regime.  They measured the foetal heart rate and heart rate variability between 28 to 36 weeks of pregnancy.

Foetuses exposed to maternal exercise had significantly lower heart rates than foetuses not exposed to exercise....  Foetal heart rate variability was also significantly higher in the exercise group than in the non-exercise group.

"Maternal exercise may be the earliest intervention to improve the heart of children and possibly the best," said Dr May.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Challenges to on-line Participatory Democracy - I test drive www.howshouldivote.com.au </title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><category>Policy</category><dc:date>2007-11-23T11:18:09+11:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/5cbea9408c845cbfc708c482815e44e3-10.html#unique-entry-id-10</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/5cbea9408c845cbfc708c482815e44e3-10.html#unique-entry-id-10</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Having said this, will this turn out to be a case of voters loosing through the "divide and rule" principle - large political parties find it difficult to difficult to resist the sway of motivated special interest groups - how much easier would it be for these groups to conquer individual voters?

...Having said this , I was talking to someone about the idea of senator-online and he told me he had just been on a web-site set up by www.getup.org called www.howshouldivote.com.au.

...The objective of the web-site is to help you choose which candidate to vote for in the coming federal election based on a comparison between your ranking of important issues compared with the way the candidates have ranked those same issues .

...The first problem was that two candidates had not participated so they were excluded - one of these was the liberal party candidate - but given that my best match was with the democrats with labour third it probably wouldn't have mattered in my case.

...Having said this, will this turn out to be a case of voters loosing through the "divide and rule" principle - large political parties find it difficult to difficult to resist the sway of motivated special interest groups - how much easier would it be for these groups to conquer individual voters?

...Having said this , I was talking to someone about the idea of senator-online and he told me he had just been on a web-site set up by www.getup.org called www.howshouldivote.com.au.

...The objective of the web-site is to help you choose which candidate to vote for in the coming federal election based on a comparison between your ranking of important electoral issues compared with the way the candidates have ranked those same issues .

...The first problem was that two candidates had not participated so they were excluded from the evaluation- one of these was the liberal party candidate - but given that my best match was with the democrats with labour third it probably wouldn't have mattered in my case.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The coming &#x22;gold rush&#x22; - feeding plankton with iron filings to sequester carbon - madness or saviour?</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><category>Sustainability</category><dc:date>2007-11-21T11:18:14+11:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/1003149ebf7c2c4d27da8c17f9a9ff6a-9.html#unique-entry-id-9</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/1003149ebf7c2c4d27da8c17f9a9ff6a-9.html#unique-entry-id-9</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[All you will need to do is find a plankton forest in the ocean and throw an bunch of common iron filings over board with some form of "proof" to verify you have done it.

...The as yet unproved theory is that "iron seeding," or "iron enrichment" - dumping tons of pulverised iron ore into the ocean - can catalyse the growth of microscopic algae that will then suck carbon out of the atmosphere - in the same way a rain-forest on land works for the health of the planet.

...And when I say permanently I am thinking of what might happen if half the planet gets in on the act and starts dumping iron filings into the ocean to make their millions - might the ocean plankton become "obese" and start to exhibit symptoms such as plankton type 2 diabetes or heart disease?

...But the reason that a scheme like this would fail to make money for all but a few that got in early is that it is based on "access" to a free resource that anyone can exploit with little capital or skill.

...Oceanographers critical of Planktos say scientists have simply not yet done the work needed to prove that phytoplankton blooms can sequester carbon safely and for the long term. There are also questions about whether decaying blooms might produce other, more powerful greenhouse gases.

Kenneth Coale, a researcher at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California who has conducted leading work on the subject said that "Many scientists think we should try to establish the facts and the downstream consequences of iron enrichment and there are a few non-scientists who think if it can make money we should do it now."

...I think we should be pursuing ideas that reduce greenhouse emissions and per capita renewable resource consumption rather than backing ideas that promise to offset emissions that allow us to continue with business as usual - especially ideas that may fail to deliver their promises in the long run, or worse still exacerbate the situation.

...The way that systems behave depends upon many things - adding refined products to environments has unintended side effects - oil and coal are in a sense refined trees and the consequence of feeding them to the "earth body" is global warming.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Australia - the myth of strong economic management and the march towards dictatorship</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><dc:subject>Blog</dc:subject><dc:date>2007-11-09T11:36:24+11:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/d9a08a3be86d3b74bc9b1b0aac1bafb4-8.html#unique-entry-id-8</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/d9a08a3be86d3b74bc9b1b0aac1bafb4-8.html#unique-entry-id-8</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[This is easy to do and used frequently by barristers in court cases and politicians who want to create false ideas in voters minds - if you to see research on this have a look at Stephan Lewandowsky report titled Memory for Fact, Fiction, and Misinformation.

...If any existing part of your government responsibility is becoming an electoral liability then eliminate your responsibility for it in the name of economic sense - either blame the states, transfer responsibility for running it to the states (or the federal government if you are a state) or sell it to the private sector.

...One golden rule of "good economic management" is that government debt is bad -the private sector should be making these investments - the invisible hand of the market is the best way to make investment decisions.

...If governments go to the "market" to look for players to make these "risky" long term infrastructure type investments instead of doing them themselves are we really likely to get them done more cheaply?

...The truth is that if governments were really the "good economic managers" that they claim to they would be able to be able to make long term investments more cheaply than the market or some form of private public partnership.

...To get back to my original point, I feel like I am being asked to vote for governments that want power but are also trying to avoid the responsibility that goes with it.

...If this second option is the case and voters are really that ignorant then what hope could we have that a senator on-line type democracy would result in good outcomes?

...The key competitive selling point in our coming election is which party do we believe can grow the economy more - historically an increase in economic growth is correlated to increased per capita renewable resource usage.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The common factor behind affordable house prices in world markets is a high property tax not deregulated markets</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><category>Policy</category><dc:date>2007-09-10T12:14:10+10:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/c78e497685a6efaf1dc1edc43b332a64-7.html#unique-entry-id-7</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/c78e497685a6efaf1dc1edc43b332a64-7.html#unique-entry-id-7</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Is a shortage of land supply caused by state government controls the sole reason for the price increases?, and will deregulation of this function bring prices back to affordable levels such as those found in Texas?

...I disagree withe the protagonists like the right leaning think tank -The Institute for Public Affairs (IPA) - and John Howard who blame the whole price rise on land supply shortage and claim that falling interest rates played no role in it....  Look at the IPA analysis in more detail and you will see that real price of rural land doubled in the two years 2001/02 to 2003/04 - their own analysis disproves their point and demonstrates the impact of interest rates but they are blind to it.

...With the housing crisis hitting centre stage there is a group of organisations and individuals who have a very clear position that there is only one reason for the price increases and that can be sheeted down to a shortage of supply of land....  "There is a real problem in Australia about the affordability of the first home, and it's quite clear that the main cause of the high cost of housing in this country is the lack of supply of land," - John Howard, Prime Minister

...Alan Moran has penned also penned a 93 page document titled "The Tragedy of Planning" in which he explores this theme in more detail and comes to the conclusions that interest rates have played a negligible role in the increase in housing prices.

...- to quote the front page of their website its a "joint initiative of the Institute of Public Affairs and the Housing Industry Association, The Great Australian Dream Project has been created to promote research and inform discussion on the major causes of housing unaffordability in Australia and to encourage the adoption of policies that will once again put home ownership back within the reach of ordinary Australians"

It was launched by no one less that Peter Costello and is hosting a nation wide tour by Wendell Cox the man behind Demographia.com who as I have pointed out has no idea of what is driving housing prices but is on a free market crusade.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Is your diet keeping you healthy or is it one of the reasons why you are sick?</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><dc:subject>Blog</dc:subject><dc:date>2007-09-03T13:27:44+10:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/654f14360b6d199461c7ecc27d1e5a0b-6.html#unique-entry-id-6</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/654f14360b6d199461c7ecc27d1e5a0b-6.html#unique-entry-id-6</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[If you want to see how food effects health at a very gross level, look at statistics on how a country's disease profile changes as it becomes Westernised and its population switches from its traditional diet and lifestyle to a western diet and lifestyle.

...In Ayurveda we see that diseases like chronic heart disease, type 2 diabetes, arthritis etc. are essentially different manifestations of an inflammatory environment that started in the digestive tract.

...If your GP treats it symptomatically with say a COX two inhibitor (anti-inflammatory drug) - without fixing the problem that is causing the inflammatory environment - the inflammation will simply show up somewhere else as say heart disease.

...If we stick with this analogy of an ethanol plus petrol fuel mix, we can ask ourselves what types of foods do we have in our diets that are like ethanol - something that will work as fuel but that we historically weren't designed to use as fuel.

...If you ask western medicine why the aborigines are suffering form these diseases they will tell you that the cause is their diet - processed western food, especially sugar.

So why is it that western medicine blames the aboriginal health problems on food, but then seems to completely ignore this as a casual factor in the non aboriginal population.

...If refined foods have such a major impact on body function when classified as a medicine, it should come as no surprise that they are having exactly the same sorts of effects when we eat them as "normal food".

...It is not easy to be healthy in our society and it is becoming harder by the day - we have to work for health - it cant come from tablets.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Insights from Ayurvedic medicine rediscovered - taking drugs with the right foods makes them work better</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><category>Health</category><dc:date>2007-07-18T11:06:13+10:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/06f1c98326349bd75315ffa4f16719ce-5.html#unique-entry-id-5</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/06f1c98326349bd75315ffa4f16719ce-5.html#unique-entry-id-5</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[In many cases, drug therapy will only be prescribed after the practitioner has observed the effects of these basic changes on the patient because they by themselves may be sufficient and/or the results of their practice will act as a diagnostic tool to guide the practitioner develop a more effective "drug" regime.

...So for example when the drugs are taken (time of day, before eating, while eating, after eating), the carrier agent that delivers the drug (water, honey, fat, alcohol, ginger, etc change the effect of the drugs action), synergistic herbs (that facilitate the action of the main herbs) and digestive hers (ones that facilitate digestion or elimination) - these are all factors taken into consideration.

So Ayurveda has a rich established theoretical framework for enhancing the delivery of "drugs" to patients that might provide western medicine with ways to deliver drugs in the future that are more effective and/or mean that we get the same results using less drugs.

...Six minute consultations do not give the practitioner enough time with the patient to either do the type of in-depth investigation that is necessary to unearth the possible causative factors, or to educate and coach the patient on appropriate remedial changes.

Thirdly, patients live in a time poor society and may not either have the life skills necessary to make the changes (they may not know how to cook) or access to the facilities required to make these changes.  It is far more likely that a patient will choose a system that offers quick relief from symptoms that requires no changes other than popping a few pills over one that requires inconvenient changes to diet and lifestyle and offers slower change.

...In comparison, being told to try something such as "stop eating sugar, wheat and dairy products and come back next week and lets see how things have changed" can easily be interpreted as the doctor doesn't know what is wrong or that there is no positive action being taken.

...So while Ayurveda has some rich insights in the the practice of medicine - and particularly the maintenance and enhancement of health, as distinct from the treatment of disease - these insights are only likely to be rediscovered accidentally.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The Hidden Poison in our Food - Time for a tax on frucose</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><category>Health</category><dc:date>2007-07-11T11:54:08+10:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/123db286dd8db8d7226867aa85f5d447-3.html#unique-entry-id-3</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/123db286dd8db8d7226867aa85f5d447-3.html#unique-entry-id-3</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[And wouldn't it be even better if the same solution also reduced type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and other chronic inflammatory diseases like arthritis and heart disease - and it gave people more energy and made them feel better.

...In an interview with Norman Swan on Radio National's Health report yesterday (9 July 07) he went as far as saying "we're being poisoned to death, that's a very strong statement but I think we can back it up with very clear scientific evidence".

Since 1970, our consumption of fructose has gone from less than half a pound per year to 56 pounds per year in 2003 - thats an increase of more than eleven thousand percent.

...Without going into the details here, what happens in simple terms is that long term consumption of fructose sets in train a positive feedback loop that over-rides the normal negative feedback loop that controls energy balance in your body.  This doesn't only cause you to overeat, but it also prevents your body from speeding up to burn off the extra calories - and because of this you not only overeat which keeps keeps the feedback cycle going, but you have low energy, feel lousy and have no inclination to do any exercise.

...To quote Dr Robert Lustig again, "In fact fructose because of the way it's metabolised is actually damaging your liver the same way alcohol is.

...Given that alcohol consumption is banned for under 18's and there is a tax on alcohol to mitigate for the increased health costs that are associated with it's consumption, it looks like we have a clear cut case for taxing fructose and possibly even banning it in children's foods.

The implications of this evidence are huge - the fact that many children are being poisoned on a daily basis by consuming fructose and no one is acting is tantamount to condoning and being complict in child abuse on a massive scale.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>David Hicks - a symbol of the future collapse of democracy?</title><dc:creator>alan@yogaplace.com.au</dc:creator><dc:subject>Blog</dc:subject><dc:date>2007-02-11T14:57:34+11:00</dc:date><link>http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/3b86176f6803d6ba27e0208c652eb422-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.yogaplace.com.au/blog/files/3b86176f6803d6ba27e0208c652eb422-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Democracy can only be upheld if there is a "rule of law" that can stand above "elected" governments to prevent them from corrupting and breaking those laws with the view to seizing power "permanently".

...This has not only made the world a more unsafe place for all of us, but it has created a massive world wide anti USA sentiment that has the possibility of creating a positive feedback loop that will drive the collapse of democracy.

...The USA, UK and Australia have all evoked the "fear factor" based on the "war on terror" to introduce anti-democratic laws to "protect" us from the perceived threat.

...Democratic governments and free market growth economies have an inbuilt structural weakness that makes them incapable of making long term actions that have a negative effect in the short run.

...Even worse, the short-term free market feedback system is structurally flawed in such a way that it destroys our long term future.  This is because the free market system has excluded "externalities" from its model - these are the "free" resources that have driven the growth that now threatens our existence - Nature - air, oceans, rivers, land, forests etc. Because of this it has, and still is undervaluing anything with a resource component in it.

So while we blindly continue to pursue short term growth, private equity etc, the undemocratically elected government of China has its eye on long term survival and is taking strategic actions to secure long term access to "undervalued" resources.

...So we democracies have two broad options - A slide down to authoritarian system (the most likely path if we use David Hicks as a barometer) or a shift upwards, to a planetary system (We centered vs, I centered) that has appropriate feed back systems in place to allow us to adapt to the realities we face.]]></content:encoded></item></channel>
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