March 29, 2024

The Power Hour

Knowledge is Power

Today’s News: December 07, 2020

World News

UK to cull 25,000 turkeys after NINTH bird flu outbreak this year

RT – The UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has announced a cull of around 25,000 turkeys after officials confirmed an outbreak of the H5N8 strain of avian influenza at a farm in Norfolk, England.

In response to the new outbreak, authorities have implemented a 3km ‘Protection Zone’ and 10km ‘Surveillance Zone’ around the infected premises to prevent the further spread of the disease, which is highly infectious in poultry. 

The government is investigating the source of the infection but, as of Monday, have not disclosed where they believe it likely originated from. The outbreak in Norfolk is the ninth case of avian flu to be confirmed in the UK in 2020 and it follows the announcement a week earlier that 10,000 turkeys had to be culled at a farm in North Yorkshire. 

In order to combat the disease, the Chief Veterinary Officers for England, Scotland and Wales have released new measures to protect wild birds and farmed poultry, including asking all bird keepers to keep their flocks indoors from December 14, and follow core biosecurity procedures. 

Indonesia receives first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine

Al Jazeera – Indonesia has received its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine from China with over a million doses, with another 1.8 million expected to be sent next month.

And in the UK, the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are set to be administered on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, millions of people across California prepare for strict restrictions within hours as the US state records more than 30,000 cases in a day.

Iran’s top banker says US blocking COVID-19 vaccine purchase

Central bank chief says US trying to prevent efforts to purchase vaccine through the WHO’s COVAX programme.

Al Jazeera – The United States is actively trying to prevent Iran’s efforts to buy a COVID-19 vaccine through COVAX, a global initiative undertaken by the World Health Organization, according to the chief of Iran’s central bank.

Abdolnasser Hemmati on Monday said it must be “recorded in historical memory” that Iranian efforts to buy a vaccine through COVAX have been hampered due to money transfer issues arising due to the sanctions imposed by the US against Iran.

“So far, any methods to make payment and transfer the required currency have faced obstacles due to the inhumane sanctions of the US government and the need to obtain permits from OFAC,” Hemmati wrote in an Instagram post, referring to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury.

Iran, which is dealing with the largest and deadliest COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East, announced months ago that it had become a member of COVAX in order to secure vaccines.

The WHO touts COVAX as “the world’s best hope” for tackling the pandemic in a coordinated and timely manner, and says the international initiative’s aim is to “guarantee rapid, fair and equitable access to vaccines for people in all countries”.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

“Sounds Like 1984” – Mississippi Police Threaten To Squash Holiday Cheer

ZeroHedge – Hosting a holiday party in Aberdeen, Mississippi, this year could result in a hefty fine, or worse, end up on the police department’s naughty list. While there was no mention of possible arrest for breaking the new public health orders to limit gatherings, this certainty suggests draconian measures are being implemented that could jeopardize Christmas.  

According to Townhall, in a shocking Facebook post on Wednesday, the Aberdeen Police Department (APD) said they would enforce a mandate from the governor’s office regarding public health orders surrounding gatherings. 

We are now under a mandate that has been set by the governor’s office that will be enforced.

The mandate says 10 people on the inside and 50 on the outside.

If you scheduled events, please start making provisions to cancel them if they are going to be on the inside. Please don’t try and figure out how you can get around it because the fine will take the majority of your profit. -APD wrote in the Facebook post. 

APD continued and said the new “curfew” begins Monday and will be applied from “11:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m. attitudes and cussing will be giving a citation for disorderly conduct and possibly a vehicle being towed so heed the warning.” 

And here it is: “As far as Christmas parties, pop-up shops, card games, any social gatherings that exceed 10 people, we will be writing the tickets. We ask that you follow the mandate.” 

So really, in this time of year, a Christmas party of just ten folks is barely even a party. Let’s also consider Aberdeen’s town is seated deep in Mississippi, where frankly, mask-wearing just might not be a thing. 

Oh, and by the way, as for fines, APD said anyone issued fines for breaking these new public health orders over the holiday season would have to pay up – if not – the police department “will start serving warrants December 14, 2020.”

Now, of course, such draconian measures led to a firestorm on Facebook where APD initially published the new mandate, which came from the governor’s office. 

Dozens of people were shocked; some were outraged:

“Wow, I thought this was a joke when I saw it. Sounds like 1984 come true. Complete abuse of power,” wrote one resident.

“This is a disgrace that this is happening in Mississippi,” one irate resident wrote. “I’m pro-police. I back the blue. Until you overstep your boundaries. And this post is blatant tyranny. If you want citizens’ support, I’d suggest more professionalism and knowledge on the law.”

Another said: “Glad I don’t live here. This is awful and probably illegal and unconstitutional.”

The attempt to cancel Christmas appears to be nationwide, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said this past week with coronavirus cases surging and hospitalizations rising, people should “seriously consider” minimizing their travel plans over the Christmas holiday season. 

‘Black Panther’ star Letitia Wright criticized for controversial anti-vaxxer tweet

Actress has since removed controversial video on Twitter

Fox – “Black Panther” star Letitia Wright is under fire for some of her recent tweets.

The 27-year-old actress, who plays tech genius Shuri and sister to T’Challa in the Marvel movie, retweeted a video on Thursday night that expressed anti-vaccination thoughts.

The video was from the YouTube channel On The Table and the host discussed whether any potential COVID-19 vaccines will be safe and effective.

Fans of Wright were angered at her for using her social media platform to spread misinformation on vaccines.

“Everyone can have an opinion, but if you want your opinion to raise awareness you have to be properly backed up, smart questioning will and has, improved scientific advances, it’s encouraged by every scientist out there! But you got to be informed 1st to question anything really,” someone pointed out.

Wright responded, “Totally respect what you are saying here. I’ve also heard from medically qualified doctors who got their articles and videos taken down. Am I still wrong to question whats going on?”

Another fan wrote, “You’re sharing an opinion piece and say it has scientific value by ‘asking what’s in it and if it’s right for our bodies’ but refuse to ask the same questions about current vaccines….what information are you possibly trying to spread? stop putting your followers at risk.”

“These opinions endanger people’s lives and spread misinformation and conspiracy theories during a pandemic…” said another. 

The British star took down the tweet and wrote, “My intention was not to hurt anyone, my ONLY intention of posting the video was it raised my concerns with what the vaccine contains and what we are putting in our bodies. Nothing else.”

Whoops! We couldn’t access this Tweet.

She added, “If you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself….you get cancelled.”

Whoops! We couldn’t access this Tweet.

Even Marvel co-star Don Cheadle chimed in after fans kept tweeting at him to express his opinion. 

“Jesus… just scrolled through. hot garbage. every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd up. i would never defend anybody posting this. but i still won’t throw her away over it. the rest i’ll take off twitter. had no idea,” the actor wrote

Video: This WITNESS Deserves A MEDAL! “I signed something and if I am wrong I go to PRISON, did YOU?”

Patrick Basham explains why Biden victory ‘not statistically impossible, but … statistically implausible’

Key ‘non-polling metrics’ indicated that Trump would win second term, Democracy Institute 

founding director tells ‘Life, Liberty & Levin’

Fox – President-elect Joe Biden defied key “non-polling metrics” to defeat President Trump in a way that is “not statistically impossible, but it’s statistically implausible,” pollster Patrick Basham told Fox News’ “Life, Liberty & Levin” in an interview airing Sunday night.

Basham, the founding director of the Democracy Institute, explained to host Mark Levin that there are “a dozen or more of these metrics … [that] have a 100% accuracy rate in terms of predicting the winner of the presidential election.”

Those metrics, according to Basham, include “party registration trends, how the candidates did in their respective presidential primaries, the number of individual donations, [and] how much enthusiasm each candidate generated in the opinion polls.”

“In 2016, they all indicated strongly that Donald Trump would win against most of the public polling,” Basham said. “That was again the case in 2020. So if we are to accept that Biden won against the trend of all these non-polling metrics, it not only means that one of these metrics was inaccurate … for the first time ever, it means that each one of these metrics was wrong for the first time and at the same time as all of the others.”

Another anomaly of the 2020 election, Basham told Levin, is the fact that Trump performed better in many key voting metrics than he did four years earlier. 

“If you look at the results, you see how Donald Trump improved his national performance over 2016 by almost 20%,” he said. “No incumbent president has ever lost a reelection bid if he’s increased his votes [total]. Obama went down by three and a half million votes between 2008 and 2012, but still won comfortably.

“If you look at those results, you see that Donald Trump did very well, even better than four years earlier, with the white working class. He held his own with women and suburban voters against all of most of the polling expectations, did very well with Catholics, improved his vote among Jewish voters,” continued Basham, who detailed his incredulity in an article published in the American edition of the Spectator. “He had the best minority performance for a Republican since Richard Nixon in 1960, doing so well with African-Americans, and importantly with Hispanics.”

In fact, Basham suggested, Trump’s performance was so impressive that if anyone asked 100 observers “who were sequestered for the actual election night” and had been given “the vote breakdown by demographic group” who they thought won the election, “99, at least out of those 100 independent, well-informed observers would say, well, obviously, Trump.”

Basham also cited what he called a “historically low ballot rejection rate for absentee and mail-in ballots.”

“Rejection rates, which in the primaries earlier this year were well into the double-digits and which historically have often been very, very high in these key swing states, or at least in the key swing counties, we’re seeing rejection rates of less than 1%, often very close to to zero,” he said. “Given the increase in absentee balloting and the lack of experience that most of the new voters and those doing the counting would have with those ballots, it is implausible, to put it politely, that that figure would be as low as it was.”

Trump warns Georgia voters of consequences of not voting in runoff for Senate seats

Fox – Trump warns Georgia voters, ‘If you don’t vote, the socialists and the communists win’

President Trump urged his supporters to vote for Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to prevent the “socialists” and “communists” from gaining control of the U.S. Senate.

“There’s never been a case where a state has had this prominence on Senate races. Never together, and this is something that’s very important and you have to get out and you have to vote,” Trump said at a rally in Valdosta, Ga., on Saturday. “If you don’t vote, the socialists and the communists win.”

Trump described to the crowd how he saw the stakes in the twin Senate runoffs.

Very simply, you will decide whether your children will grow up in a socialist country or free country. Socialism is just the beginning for these people. They want to go into a communistic form of government,” he said.

Trump said that Perdue’s opponent, Jon Ossoff, and Loeffler’s opponent, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, are the “two most extreme, far-left, liberal candidates in history.”

Trump implored Georgians to vote, while still sowing distrust in the state’s handling of elections.

“You must go vote, vote early. They cheated, they rigged our presidential election, but we will still win it. They’re going to try and rig this election too.” 

Trump team begins examination of Dominion Voting machines

Giuliani calls it ‘big win for honest elections’

WND – Amid national concern over alleged fraud involving election machines belonging to Dominion Voting Systems, President Donald Trump’s legal team on Sunday began forensic analysis of 22 of the machines in Michigan after a judge in the state allowed the examination.

“Our team is going to be able to go in this morning at about 8:30 [a.m.] and will be there for about eight hours to conduct that forensic examination and we’ll have the results in about 48 hours, and that’ll tell us a lot about these machines,” attorney Jenna Ellis said on “Fox & Friends” Sunday morning.

“A judge actually granted our team access … to conduct a forensic audit,” she noted.

The move was hailed by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who tweeted: “BIG WIN FOR HONEST ELECTIONS. Antrim County Judge in Michigan orders forensic examination of 22 Dominion voting machines. This is where the untrustworthy Dominion machine flipped 6000 votes from Trump to Biden.”

Bar Given Coronavirus Fine Because Guitarists Sat Too Close to Each Other During Show

Activist Post – Lincoln, NH — On the list of arbitrary police state nonsense doled out by tyrants across the country that will get you extorted, kidnapped, or caged over COVID-19, we can now add guitarists sitting too close. Yes, you read that correctly.

According to a report out of Lincoln, New Hampshire, the White Mountain Tavern is being fined $1,000 for allegedly hosting a musical performance last month where two guitarists performed too close together.

The bar hosted a musical show last month and someone apparently snitched on them because the guitarists weren’t properly socially distanced. According to the report, the bar was also fined $2,000 because patrons stood too close to one another while not wearing masks. The horror.

A sign on the bar apparently explains how patrons should conduct themselves.

“Please refer to the Constitution of the United States!” the sign reads. “We know how to wash our hands, clean surfaces and NOT cough or sneeze on people. If you can do that and stay six feet away like someone tooted, please come in!!”

According to police, who issued the fines, they have warned the bar numerous times that they were in violation of social distancing rules. The guitarists sitting too close to one another, was apparently the straw that broke the police state camel’s back.

The bar’s owner, David Culhane, owned up to the fact that this was going on, but said he plans to fight the fines because separate parties were actually socially distanced. He said the fine for the guitarists is unjust because they live together and all the parties sitting close had come together.

“Nobody who didn’t come together was ever closer than six feet from each other,” said Culhane.

“If you go into any restaurant, you can find something where someone is violating the guidelines. A lot of them are really unclear, and they keep changing constantly,” he said. “It’s really hard on top of managing a business to keep up with everything.”

Erin Brockovich Blasts Joe Biden’s Pick for EPA Transition Board, a Former DuPont Consultant

Activist Post – Last year, actor/producer/activist Mark Ruffalo released the film, Dark Waters about DuPont dumping toxic chemical waste into the water supply of a West Virginia community. He also asked Congress to take action against “Forever Chemicals” created and improperly disposed of by DuPont and other companies.

Unfortunately, “Forever Chemicals” and the nation’s not-so-great water supply (see 1, 2) may not be as much of a priority to president-elect Biden as environmentalists had hoped.

Longtime environmental activist Erin Brockovich recently wrote a scathing open letter to Joe Biden that was published in The Guardian:

Dear Joe Biden: are you kidding me?

The president-elect has tapped a former DuPont consultant to join his Environmental Protection Agency transition board

For years, I’ve been trying to impart a simple concept that Superman is not coming.

Dare I say, I had hopes that this new administration would usher in the dawning of a new day. As picks for President-elect Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team were announced, I felt concerned and disheartened about a chemical industry insider being on the list. Are you kidding me?

Michael McCabe, a former employee of Biden and a former deputy Environmental Protection Agency administrator, later jumped ship to work as a consultant on communication strategy for DuPont during a time when the chemical company was looking to fight regulations of their star chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) also known as C8. The toxic manmade chemical is used in everything from waterproof clothes, stain-resistant textiles and food packaging to non-stick pans. The compound has been linked to lowered fertility, cancer and liver damage. The Guardian reported this week that Harvard school of public health professor Philippe Grandjean, who studies environmental health, warns that PFAS chemicals, of which PFOA is one, might reduce the efficacy of a Covid-19 vaccine.

This smells of the dawn of the same old. To quote the Who: meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

It should go without saying that someone who advised DuPont on how to avoid regulations is not someone we want advising this new administration.

Read full letter

Tens of millions in California under stay-at-home order starting Sunday night

CNN – Southern California and San Joaquin Valley residents will be under a stay-at-home order after the intensive care unit capacity in the two regions fell below 15%, triggering a mandate issued by the governor earlier this week that aims to bring down the soaring number of Covid-19 hospitalizations.

The order goes into effect Sunday at 11:59 p.m. PT for the some 27 million people in the regions, which includes Los Angeles and San Diego.

That follows a proactive order issued by six San Francisco Bay Area jurisdictions on Friday for its almost 6 million residents. It also goes into effect Sunday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced that any region that fell below the 15% ICU capacity threshold would be placed under stay-at-home orders.

California sheriff tells Newsom county won’t be ‘blackmailed, bullied, or used as muscle against’ residents

The sheriff publicly stated earlier in the pandemic that he would not punish law-abiding citizens

Fox – Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco on Friday said that his office will not be “blackmailed, bullied, or used as muscle” against county residents to enforce California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s coronavirus orders.

In a statement, Bianco criticized the Democratic governor’s “dictatorial attitude” toward Californians, while he dined in luxury, traveled, kept his own business open, and sent his kids to in-person private school.

It is “very telling about his attitude toward California residents, his feelings about the virus, and it is extremely hypocritical,” Bianco said.

The sheriff called the state’s metrics to justify stay-at-home orders “flat-out ridiculous” and “unbelievably faulty.”

These metrics, Bianco said, “are not representative of true numbers and are disastrous for Riverside County.”

The sheriff’s comments come as most regions in California are on the brink of another sweeping new lockdown in an attempt to curtail resurgent cases of the coronavirus.

The California Department of Public Health on Saturday said the intensive care unit capacity in Southern California and Central Valley hospital had fallen below a 15% threshold that triggers the new measures, which include strict closures for businesses and a ban on gathering with anyone outside of your own household. The new measures will take effect Sunday evening and remain in place for at least three weeks, meaning the lockdown will cover the Christmas holiday.

Bianco suggested that threats coming from the governor’s office appeared to be “part of the new goal to shift attention away from his and others’ personal behavior with a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ attitude by turning public opinion against California sheriffs.”

“Leaders do not threaten, attempt to intimidate, or cause fear; bullies do,” Bianco said.

The sheriff then appealed to Riverside County residents’ common sense by asking them to “act responsibly and do what they can to protect themselves and their family from contracting the virus.”

“While the governor’s office and the state has threatened action against violators, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will not be blackmailed, bullied, or used as muscle against Riverside County residents in the enforcement of the Governor’s orders,” Bianco said.

Science & Technology

Stunt artists take responsibility for mystery monoliths, sell them for $45G

The first monolith was found Nov. 18 in Utah’s red rock country

Fox – A New Mexico artist collective is taking responsibility for the stainless steel monoliths mysteriously cropping up around the world. 

The Most Famous Artist “global creative community,” based in Santa Fe, has posted photos and videos on its social media accounts, including a Thursday interview with Mashable.

However, Most Famous Artist founder Matty Mo would not give the tech publication a straight answer, noting that he was “not able to say much because of legalities of the original installation.”

“I can say we are well known for stunts of this nature and at this time we are offering authentic art objects through monoliths-as-a-service,” said Mo.”I cannot issue additional images at this time but I can promise more on this in the coming days and weeks.”

‘Havana Syndrome’ likely caused by pulsed microwave energy, government study finds

Exclusive: Report on neurological symptoms of U.S. diplomats in China, Cuba does not address whether directed energy was delivered intentionally, by a weapon.

NBC – The mysterious neurological symptoms experienced by American diplomats in China and Cuba are consistent with the effects of directed microwave energy, according to a long-awaited report by the National Academies of Sciences that cites medical evidence to support the long-held conviction of American intelligence officials.

The report, obtained Friday by NBC News, does not conclude that the directed energy was delivered intentionally, by a weapon, as some U.S. officials have long believed. But it raises that disturbing possibility.

The report was transferred to Congress after bipartisan calls led by U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire who is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees. She issued the following statement: “The health effects from these mysterious injuries have tormented those afflicted. Their illnesses and suffering are real and demand a response from Congress. American public servants and their families – who have been targeted – have requested that Congress receive and review this report, so I’m glad the State Department heeded our bipartisan call so we can get to work. “

NBC News reported in 2018 that U.S. intelligence officials considered Russia a leading suspect in what some of them assess to have been deliberate attacks on diplomats and CIA officers overseas. But there was not — and is not now — conclusive intelligence pointing in that direction, multiple officials who have been briefed on the matter said.

A team of medical and scientific experts who studied the symptoms of as many as 40 State Department and other government employees concluded that nothing like them had previously been documented in medical literature, according to the National Academies of Sciences report. Many reported hearing a loud sound and feeling pressure in their heads, and then experienced dizziness, unsteady gait and visual disturbances. Many suffered longstanding, debilitating effects.

“The committee felt that many of the distinctive and acute signs, symptoms and observations reported by (government) employees are consistent with the effects of directed, pulsed radio frequency (RF) energy,” the report says. “Studies published in the open literature more than a half-century ago and over the subsequent decades by Western and Soviet sources provide circumstantial support for this possible mechanism.”

While important questions remain, “the mere consideration of such a scenario raises grave concerns about a world with disinhibited malevolent actors and new tools for causing harm to others, as if the U.S. government does not have its hands full already with naturally occurring threats,” says the report, edited by Dr. David Relman, a professor in medicine, microbiolology and immunology at Stanford, and Julie Pavlin, a physician who leads the National Academies of Sciences global health division in Washington.

Health

Coronavirus may be sexually transmitted and cause male infertility: study

New York Post – The latest coronavirus threat really hits below the belt.

A new study claims the coronavirus can not only rob you of your taste and smell — it may leave men infertile and could be transmitted sexually.

The study, published last month in JAMA, a monthly open-access medical journal published by the American Medical Association, found the presence of COVID-19 in 15% of semen samples collected.

Researcher Dr. John Aitken likened it to the Zika virus. “It should be emphasized spermatozoa have a demonstrable capacity to carry viral infections from the male to the female reproductive tract, As happens during the sexual transmission of Zika, for example,” he told local San Antonio Fox 8. Zika virus is a mostly mosquito-borne virus that can also be sexually transmitted.

The study also found that COVID-19 in human sperm “leads to a build-up of angiotensin II, which is a hormone that regulates kidney function and blood pressure. Increased levels of this hormone cause an immune response against the invading COVID-19 virus particles that increases the availability of reactive oxygen species that causes cell death… Prolonged exposure to elevated angiotenstin II levels can lead to cell death in sperm.”

The study notes it could “ultimately result in a loss of male fertility.”

Trump Officials Push Ambitious Vaccine Timeline as California Locks Down

As cases surge and hospital beds fill up, federal officials said a vaccine could be distributed to as many as 24 million people by mid-January.

NY Times – he Trump administration’s top health officials outlined an ambitious timetable on Sunday for distributing the first coronavirus vaccinations to as many as 24 million people by mid-January, even as the accelerating toll of the pandemic filled more hospital beds across the United States and prompted new shutdown orders in much of California.

After criticism from President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. that the administration had “no detailed” vaccine distribution plan, Moncef Slaoui, the chief science adviser of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine development program, said all residents of long-term care facilities and health workers could receive the first round of vaccinations by mid-January.

A vaccine manufactured by Pfizer could be available by the end of the week, after anticipated approval by the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Slaoui said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, was just as optimistic.

“Really within days,” Mr. Azar said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Within 24 hours of F.D.A. green lighting with authorization, we’ll ship to all of the states and territories that we work with. And within hours, they can be vaccinating.”

But the hopeful comments were met with some skepticism as they played out against an increasingly desperate backdrop, with the virus surging across the country and packing hospitals to near capacity with critically ill patients. On Friday, more than 229,000 new cases were reported in the United States, a record, and several states hit new daily highs over the weekend. More than 101,000 Covid-19 patients are in hospitals now, double the number from just a month ago.

Health experts said the timeline sketched out by Dr. Slaoui and Mr. Azar was uncompromising and did not account for the possibility of delay during the many steps from vaccine manufacture to distribution at state and local levels, not to mention the hesitancy that many people might feel about taking a newly approved vaccine.

The Amazing Health Benefits of Bananas

Newsmax Health – Bananas are the perfect portable snack food. They’ve been a lunch box staple for decades and provide important nutrients for all age groups at a very reasonable price. Lisa Richards, a nutritionist and published author, says that while bananas are mainly noted for their potassium content, they are also fiber-rich and have important vitamins like B6 that help reduce cholesterol and balance your mood. And according to experts, because the peel of the banana is so thick, it is one of the safest non-organic fruits to ea.t

According to Insider, the average banana has 110 calories and no fat. One banana provides 12% of your recommended daily intake of the key mineral potassium and 8% of magnesium.

Dr. Fabrizio Mancini, best-selling author of “The Power of Self-Healing: Unlock Your Natural Healing Potential in 21 Days!” says both these minerals are essential to keeping us healthy.

“Potassium helps reduce water retention which can be a leading cause of cellulite,” he says. “This magic mineral also helps support the lymphatic system to ensure it works efficiently at circulating fluids and cleansing the body of impurities.”

Mancini adds that potassium keeps our bodies hydrated. Since every cell, tissue, and organ needs proper hydration to function, you need electrolytes like potassium as well as plain water to perform at your best.

Potassium can be a lifesaver if you suffer from hypertension. “Potassium helps lower your blood pressure,” says Mancini. According to Harvard Medical School, studies have shown that diets rich in potassium help keep blood pressure in a healthy range.

Vitamin D Reduces Cancer Deaths

Mercola – Several recent studies demonstrate vitamin D can have a significantly beneficial impact on your cancer risk, both in terms of preventing cancer and in the treatment of cancer.

A secondary analysis of the VITAL study found patients with no prior history of cancer who took 2,000 IUs of vitamin D per day reduced their risk for metastatic cancer and death by 17%.

The risk for metastatic cancer and death was reduced by as much as 38% among those who also maintained a healthy weight.

Another meta-analysis found supplementation with vitamin D resulted in a 30% reduction in adverse colorectal cancer outcomes. Vitamin D also improved outcomes among patients already diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

Research has also shown women who have a vitamin D level at or above 60 ng/mL (150 nmol/L) have an 82% lower risk of breast cancer compared to those with levels below 20 ng/mL (50 nmol/L).

Entertainment 

Hanging lights on the Christmas tree: Should you try stringing them vertically this year?

Experts and social-media influencers are championing the trend

Fox – Every year, you put your best Christmas ornaments on the “show” side of the tree, and leave your lesser-favored baubles — like that papier-mâché Santa your nephew made in pre-school — for the back. (Sorry you had to find out like this, Timmy.)

So why are you still hanging lights evenly around both the front and the back?

If you haven’t decorated your tree yet, you might want to consider an idea that’s gaining traction on social media — hanging your Christmas lights vertically, instead of wrapping them around the branches horizontally.

According to the decorating gurus who champion this trend, hanging your lights from top-to-bottom not only saves you from having to waste too many lights on the back of the tree, but it also allows the bulbs to sit closer to the tips of the branches for maximum sparkle. Experts claim it’s a lot easier to un-string the lights after the holidays, too.

The idea has been circulating for a while now, but most recently started trending on TikTok, where user Clare Hooper demonstrated “the right way to do lights” in a video that has since been viewed millions of times.

“I used to work for a large church, and the main facility also doubled as a conference center,” Hooper tells Fox News. “I ran a team of 100-plus volunteers to decorate for the Christmas activities. where thousands from the city came to free community events.”

In her video, Hooper said that she always used a top-to-bottom “zig-zag” method when decorating the trees, claiming that it provides more coverage where needed.

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