June 16, 2010

天價幻滅 天匯交易爛尾 首批25伙單位八成撻訂

天價幻滅 天匯交易爛尾 首批25伙單位八成撻訂
(明報)2010年6月16日 星期三


【明報專訊】天匯單位的天價成交幻滅。首批發售的25伙單位,最終只有1伙如期成交及4伙延期成交,而有多達20伙撻訂爛尾,佔首批單位八成,當中更包括呎價7.12萬元售出的全球最貴分層單位(68樓A)。發展商恒地主席李兆基 親自回應事件時表示,這20伙重售時不會減價,原價「多數賣得出」。

呎價7萬單位 交易取消

恒地發言人補充,撻訂是買家的選擇,一切依足合約辦事。不過,有立法會 議員表明,擬動用特權法要求政府交出調查天匯交易的資料,然後再決定是否成立專責委員會調查事件。政府發言人表示「政府會了解有關情况,以考慮下一步行動」,並說「有決心為置業人士締造更公平、高資訊透明度的交易環境」。

恒地昨發表聲明說,僅4個單位之成交於最近完成,至於其餘20個單位取消,恒地已接獲買方書面要求取消買賣協議。恒地已根據合約沒收樓價5%的訂金,涉資1.334億元,另有罰息逾千萬元。

恒地殺訂逾1.3億

李兆基昨午親自在總部大堂回應事件,被問及會否擔心影響恒地賣樓的誠信,李兆基說不擔心。對是次「撻訂」事件會否不開心,他說﹕「你口地(傳媒)有份搞到大家不開心!」恒地聲明又說,恒地並無就該4個單位作出減價,亦無就樓價融資向買方提供任何協助。恒地副主席林高演補充說,交易過程中無論是殺訂、罰息,都完全依足合約,而4伙完成交易的買家要向匯豐銀行 做借貸,但不透露承按多少。

議員倡引特權法查交易資料

對於天匯20個單位取消交易,民主黨 議員李永達 質疑之前的交易涉嫌托價誤導市場,他已去信政府,要求公開地政總署 發給恒基的6封信及回覆,若政府不公開資料,他不排除要求動用特權法索取資料。

公民黨 立法會議員湯家驊 認為,發展商需要公開交代,為何不維護上市公司的利益向買家追討差價。若那些買賣合約原來沒有法律效力,則有誤導市場之嫌,政府應調查研究是否涉詐騙。

當局關注天價單位「不存在」

對於天匯有相當多數目的高價成交單位爛尾,政府消息人士表示,地政總署會繼續追查,向恒地了解成交的單位是否正常的成交、撻訂的單位是否正常的取消交易,看是否有需要繼續向恒地索取資料,如果發現有不尋常之處,會研究對策,包括研究日後是否需要立法規管;如果完成和取消的交易都屬於正常的買賣,那便沒有問題。政府關注事項之一是,以7萬元一平方呎成交的史上最高價分層住宅單位有否取消交易,若取消了即意味該交易價並不存在。

消息人士坦言,即使天匯大量單位買賣撻訂,最終無法成交,在現行法例規定下,買家「撻訂」難指發展商要負什麼法律責任,但消息人士說,最重要是逼他們保持單位買賣的透明度。消息人士說,「四叔」昨日的尷尬,某程度都是被步步進逼出來。

政府指售樓透明度十分重要

政府發言人昨表示,政府與公眾同樣關注天匯發展商去年公布的24個單位的買賣情况,「清晰的市場資訊、高透明度的售樓安排以及成交紀錄,對有意置業的人士來說十分重要。」



January 13, 2010

Acai Assault: The Acai Berry may Regulate Cholesterol


Acai Assault: The Acai Berry may Regulate Cholesterol

by Frank Mangano


(NaturalNews) The laundry list of acai berry benefits to the body just got a bit longer. According to a recent study published in the journal Nutrition, the awkward-to-pronounce berry is great for cholesterol regulation.

There's no shortage of health claims when it comes to the acai berry (pronounced ah-sigh-EE, not ack-EYE), the berry that's been billed as the "Superfood of superfoods" by doctors and nutritionists alike. From better digestion to improved circulation, the acai berry could very well be the "berry best" in a family that's already bursting with nutritional heavyweights.

The latest study to tout the acai berry's benefits comes out of Brazil, the berry's native land, where the pulp of acai was fed to two groups of rats. One of the groups had a standard rat diet, while the other had a high fat diet. The remaining rats had high fat diets but without the accompanying acai (there were four groupings of rats).

After six weeks of observation, the researchers found distinct differences in the blood work of the rats that supplemented with the acai and those that didn't. Both acai supplementing groups had improvements in their cholesterol profile, but what really took the researchers by surprise was that the high fat rats had the best cholesterol profile (i.e., total cholesterol levels AND non-HDL levels dropped).

The researchers believe the acai berry was the catalyst, but it could also have been due to the fact that those fed the high fat diet consumed less food in terms of quantity (i.e., less food consumed, but more calories consumed).

Granted, this test was performed on rats, but observers of the study have every reason to suspect that the results can be translated to humans. More long-term studies are in the offing.

The acai berry is not something you'll find nestled next to blueberries or strawberries at your local farmer's market. Ninety percent of the berry is the pit, which may explain why you've seen people drinking acai berry juice but not eating the actual berry. But what an acai berry lacks in plumpness, it makes up for in nutrients. The flesh of one acai berry has 10 times the antioxidant content found in a grape, and two times the antioxidant content found in a blueberry.

November 25, 2009

What is relative humidity and how does it affect how I feel outside?

What is relative humidity and how does it affect how I feel outside?

If the air is at 100-percent relative humidity, sweat will not evaporate into the air. As a result, we feel much hotter than the actual temperature when the relative humidity is high.

Humidity is somethi ng we hear about daily in weather reports. Humidity is to blame for that muggy, steam-room feeling you experience on certain summer days.

Humidity can be measured in several ways, but relative humidity is the most common. In order to understand relative humidity, it is helpful to first understand absolute humidity.

Absolute humidity is the mass of water vapor divided by the mass of dry air in a volume of air at a given temperature. The hotter the air is, the more water it can contain.

Relative humidity is the ratio of the current absolute humidity to the highest possible absolute humidity (which depends on the current air temperature). A reading of 100 percent relative humidity means that the air is totally saturated with water vapor and cannot hold any more, creating the possibility of rain. This doesn't mean that the relative humidity must be 100 percent in order for it to rain -- it must be 100 percent where the clouds are forming, but the relative humidity near the ground could be much less.

Humans are very sensitive to humidity, as the skin relies on the air to get rid of moisture. The process of sweating is your body's attempt to keep cool and maintain its current temperature. If the air is at 100-percent relative humidity, sweat will not evaporate into the air. As a result, we feel much hotter than the actual temperature when the relative humidity is high. If the relative humidity is low, we can feel much cooler than the actual temperature because our sweat evaporates easily, cooling us off. For example, if the air temperature is 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) and the relative humidity is zero percent, the air temperature feels like 69 degrees Fahrenheit (21 C) to our bodies. If the air temperature is 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 C) and the relative humidity is 100 percent, we feel like it's 80 degrees (27 C) out.

People tend to feel most comfortable at a relative humidity of about 45 percent. Humidifiers and dehumidifiers help to keep indoor humidity at a comfortable level.

November 17, 2009

Author and Nutritionist David Wolfe Discusses Nutritional Myths

Author and Nutritionist David Wolfe Discusses Nutritional Myths
By Kevin Gianni


Kevin: Let's take another turn here and let's talk a little bit about some of the common things that people are experiencing nowadays and maybe if you can just give some suggestions on what they can do to help them out. I know that, to start, we'll start with osteoporosis. A lot of women are concerned about osteoporosis and they're concerned about calcium and taking these calcium pills. You know, what are some of the pros and cons of that?

David: Okay, well the nations that consume the most calcium, the United States, Canada and the Scandinavian countries, have the worse osteoporosis and that's because our theory of mineralization or our theory of nutrition is incorrect.

The general theory is that a hundred years ago they started looking at people's bones. They found out that, oh my god; these bones are made out of calcium. When people don't have enough bone density the thought is, oh they just have to eat more calcium because that's what builds bones.

Calcium does not build bones and that is one of the biggest misconceptions ever and it actually goes to the real core of our problems with science. And that is the human body is a complex biological machine of an unbelievable of mystery.

And there is strong evidence that indicates that if you eat some of the calcium, let's say it's calcium from coral calcium, for example, oyster shell calcium. That it is almost impossible to get that stuff into your bones to increase bone density. The amount of increasing bone density, at best, is 1 or 2%. It is not good enough.

What increases bone density? Well, it turns out it's two other minerals and that is silicon and magnesium. Now, the best natural source of magnesium is cacao and cacao is known to be good for your teeth. In fact, there are chemicals in cacao that kill the organism Streptococci mutans that cause cavities. And, in fact, those extracts of the chocolate are now going to be showing up in toothpaste all over the world.

Kevin: No kidding?

David: That's amazing. That to me is just such a dramatic irony.

Kevin: Wow.

Wolfe: All along chocolate has been good for your teeth. It's the sugar that's been bad but even then, studies have been done on people who eat chocolate even with the sugar and it's been found with a study done in Scandinavia on this.

It's been found that even then that people who eat chocolate have been teeth health than people who don't. To me that's amazing. But let's get on to silicon because this is the mineral that is difficult to get in today's diet. What is silicon? It's a mineral. You get it in the skin of cucumbers. It's in the skin of bell peppers. It's the skin of tomatoes. It's in certain special herbs, which I'm going to name and you can drink this as a tea or take it in supplemental form and you will notice that it helps with your bone density.

And here are the herbs. One of them is called horse tail, horse tail and it's not a horse's tail. It's actually an herb. Another one is nettle. Stinging nettles have been eaten by the druids in the U.K. for thousands of years and it's one of the most important foods to eat if you know how to do it or if you juice it or you can just dry it and make a tea out of it, which is what I'm recommending; horse tail, nettle, oat straw. The oat seed of the oat grass has a little straw around it. It has a little coating. It's the seed capsule. That oat straw is one of the richest sources of silicon. You can buy it in health food stores. You can get in as extracts in health food stores.

You can get it raw and make your own tea out of it. You combine those three together and you want you can add alfalfa, which is also a great source of silicon. You can either make a tea out of that or you can just eat those any way you can find them. And you will find if you do three strong teas of that per day you will start increasing your bone density but how? It's the silicon.

Now, how does silicon increase calcium? I mean that doesn't make sense. It's because our theory of minerals is incorrect. Our atomic theory is incorrect. And that is if you eat silicon rich food your body, through the power of enzymes transmutates it into calcium, turns the silicon into calcium. That was discovered by a great French researcher by the name of Louis Curvan, a Nobel prize nominee, who wrote five books and 5,000 pages of research on just this particular subject; how silicon and calcium are related to each other.

It was very well honored in France and he is very intimately entwined in the science of what's going on in France; but because of the language barrier his research really never made it to the English-speaking nations.

Kevin: Interesting when we're still taking calcium pills from, you know, sea shells and everything.

David: I recommend to god, you know, this is so engrained in our minds about calcium that if you are confused about this, get on the Internet and research exactly whose getting the results of remineralizing their bones and you'll find it's people who are not taking these forms of calcium that are toxic, which is the oyster shell calcium and to some degree even coral calcium.

Kevin: Now, bones are alkaline and doesn't the acidity of meats and sugars - does that eat away at the bone? I mean has that been proven or is that just a theory that I think I have, you know?

David: Well, that's a great question and that's the other side of the equation about osteoporosis. One is we've got to make sure we get the right nutrition to build strong bones. The other side of the equation is we've got to make sure we are doing things that aren't hurting our bones.

Eating lots of sugar is one of the worse things we can do to our overall health of our teeth, which are living bones and to the density of our bones because when we take in lots of sugar our body has to use calcium, it has to pull calcium out of the bones to buffer or neutralize the intense acidity of the sugar.

Calcium is highly alkaline, as you stated. Our bones are alkaline and, therefore, alkaline minerals are used whenever we're exposed to real strong acids. Sugar is a very strong acid. I mean, you know, we used to dissolve the corrosion on our battery terminals of our bus by dumping soda pop onto it because that sugar just dissolves and the phosphoric acid just dissolves all the corrosion right on the battery terminal. I mean you don't' want to be putting that in your body. That's dangerous.

Kevin: Let's get into supplements little bit. And you walk into a health food store and there are literally thousands of them. How do you get through them to find the ones that help with weight loss, and longevity, is really what I think the fountain of youth is all about?

Which ones of those are the best? I mean rhodiola, turmeric, cinnamon. I mean which ones are the ones that people should be focusing on, not necessarily take but should be focusing on?

David: That's such an excellent question. My job is to basically guide people into health food stores and create order out of chaos. There are so many things. Okay, well the most important thing, in my opinion, that you can buy in a health food store in that department is going to be vitamin C.

Kevin: Okay. In what form?

David: Well, there's different forms. Now, I recommend that you start experimenting, moving away from synthetic forms of vitamin C or ascorbic acid, which is still beneficial, still good for you, and moving towards powdered, really high vitamin C plants. For example, you can get acerola cherry. It's a tropical berry that is really high in vitamin C.

It's like 1 or 2% vitamin C and basically what they do is they grow these berries. They dry them and they powder them down and the encapsulate them or put them in a glass jar and sell them in health food stores as vitamin C.

Now, that's a real great way to get lots of vitamin C natural with all the cofactors. Vitamin C needs cofactors like rutin and bioflavonoids that are all naturally present in those powders, like acerola cherry. You can either take it supplementally as capsules or you add it onto your smoothies. You can literally put it in your water that you drink in your morning and it kind of sweetens the water. It sweetens the water but doesn't sugarize the water.

Kevin: Gotcha.

David: Vitamin C is sweet but not sugary. So it makes your morning water easier to drink. So that's one thing, vitamin C. The next thing is, what I believe to be, the greatest discovery in the last -- probably in the last hundred years in the field of nutrition other than vitamin C and enzymes and that is sulfur, MSM, Methylsulfonylmethane.

MSM is a biologically available form of sulfur that's naturally found in wild food, untended food. We don't really have access to that hardly at all any more. I mean, almost all our food is grown on farms for us. It's not being watered naturally by the rain. I'm talking about the natural sulfur that's produced in the oceans that helps create clouds, then drops them on the land that we need nutritionally in order to produce flexible collagen. Now that in the world does that mean? It means that sulfur produces flexible skin and flexible muscle tissue. It stops, in essence, wrinkling and increases the juiciness of the collagen and the discs, the joints that basically separate our bones from each other. On top of all that, it increases the growth of our hair, our nails, so that we have thicker, richer growth of our hair and nails. This can all be easily experienced within two weeks of taking MSM.

Kevin: It's going to grow like weeds.

David: It's really incredible and people who want thick quick growth of their hair and nails are almost always completely shocked by how powerful MSM can be. You can get it in capsule form. You can get it in a powder form. It's available in every single health food store now.

Once you start looking into it, and especially when you take it, here's what you're going to find out. You're going to find it's one of the most important things you've ever taken. I have randomly polled hundreds of people about MSM. I almost always to a T here from people who have taken it before. Oh, MSM changed my life. I've heard that dozens of times, that exact quote. Oh, MSM changed my life.

Kevin Gianni the host of Renegade Health Show - a fun and informative daily health show that is changing the perception of health across the world. His is an internationally known health advocate, author, and film consultant. He has helped thousands and thousands of people in over 21 countries though online health teleseminars about abundance, optimum health and longevity. He is also the creator and co-author of The Busy Person's Fitness Solution


David Wolfe's Eating for Beauty

David Wolfe's Eating for Beauty


I recently bought this at Whole Foods, and I'm now incorporating his supplement suggestions...

On some levels, taking supplements makes me crazy. I spend a ton of money, which is fine. The only thing more important than my intake would be something like a massage or spa treatment... Sometimes I'm so full from swallowing all the stuff that there's no room for anything else, which is not that fun all the time.

I'm completely grossed out by the taste of MSM, so I'm going to put less into my water. I think I nearly poisoned myself with it today. I felt so sick! He said that one teaspoon per liter ought to be okay. I'm going to try it tomorrow. I'm also wondering if I could just put a few tablespoons into a cup of water and just chug it.

Would it still work? still help with the absorption of all the food nutrients and supplements I taken within 12 hours? I'm also trying to figure out exactly how much to take. The label says to take 1/2 teaspoon 1-2 times per day whereas David Wolfe recommends 1-3 tablespoons twice a day. Sometimes I wonder if my body needs the maximum.

I found an amla berry powder that's blended with spirulina. He recommends 2-3 tablespoons of whole-food viatmin C powder per day whereas this label recommends 1/8-1 teaspoon per day. Does anybody know if spirulina stains porcelain veneers? Amla berry seems really potent.

I picked up some tocotrienols today. He recommends 1-2 tablespoons per day which I think I'll take. The label recommends 1 rounded teaspoon per day.

He recommends 1-3 capsules of silica from horsetail extract. The label recommends 1 500 mg capsule twice per day, which what I'm going to take.

He recommends goji berries. I've become a fan of blending them into smoothies or eating them by themselves. I'm down with goji berries.

He recommends 1-3 enzyme capsules per meal. The label recommends 1 per meal. If I took 2 more would I notice? benefit? feel better? have better digestion?

He recommends 1 probiotics capsule with each meal. The label recommends only 1 per day.

I haven't found chaparral leaves, blue mangosteen, or David Wolfe's supplements yet. I haven't even made it to his website to read his information! I've got to get over there! I'd like to meet him in person. He seems like a delight. I think I'd totally jive with him.

In addition to the suggestions in the book, I'm also currently taking the Natural Calm magnesium-calcium formula, which I really like! It's a tasty raspberry-lemon flavor. Dr. Norm Shealy was a huge advocate for magnesium taurate on his radio show... I'm taking chlorella because I feel that my body is so much more flexible when I have it in my system.

Of course I'm still taking the whole food blood builder. And I'm taking alfalfa leaf juice, wheat grass juice, barley grass juice, and blue green algae.

I need your help with his topical suggestions. I bought cacao butter for my face since it's supposed to be so good for the eye region. Do you know how to soften this? It's not like coconut oil, which melts as soon as you touch it. Have you found a stone-crushed olive oil? I haven't seen at the store. I guess I'll have to get it online. I want to get some MSM lotion, too.


David Wolfe Debunks Calcium

David Wolfe Debunks Calcium


Calcium does not build bones. This is one of the biggest misconceptions ever. This statement comes from one of the world's leading authorities on nutrition. He is David Wolfe and he is here to debunk some of our nutritional myths.

But first of all let us talk a little about David Wolfe. Who is David Wolfe? David Wolfe is the author of a lot of nutrition books namely Naked Chocolate, Amazing Grace, Eating for Beauty and the Sunfood Diet Success System.

Working with the sunfood organization they have been responsible in developing, marketing and distributing some of the world's most incredible and exotic organic food items. They are also the first to deliver raw organic superfoods such as Incan berries, cacao butter, cacao powder, goji berries, maca extract, powdered encapsulated mangosteen, cacao beans and cold-pressed coconut oil into North America.

David Wolfe, having a degree in political science, mechanical and environmental engineering, a juris in doctor in law and a masters in living-food nutrition is also part of Dr. Gabriel Cousen's masters of degree program on live-food nutrition. He hosts at leasts six fitness, health and adventure retreats each year at various retreats around the world. He has already given over 1,000 health lectures and seminars in Canada, Europe, the South Pacific, Central America, South America and the United States.

David Wolfe as of now is already completing several new books and on the side is also playing drums for the raw rock and roll band called The Healing Waters.

So with that background on David Wolfe let us now talk about his debunking of calcium. David Wolfe says that calcium does not build bones. When people do not have much bone density people think that they don't have calcium but this is not true. In fact even if we eat for example oyster shell calcium, we will only take in at best 1 or 2% of increase in our bone density. And we all know that 1 or 2 % is not enough.

For David Wolfe, what increase bone density is by taking in silicon and magnesium. The best source for magnesium would be cacao. Yes, cacao or raw chocolate. Chocolate is even good for your teeth because it kills the organism Streptococcus that cause cavities. It is sugar that is bad for our teeth not chocolate.

Then the best source for silicon would be cucumber skin, bell peppers skin and skin of tomatoes. Silicon can also be found in certain special herbs like horse tail, nettle, alfalfa and oat straw.

So if you want to have bone density. Stop taking calcium. Start taking in magnesium and silicon. Hope this new information has helped you change your outlook in foods because there is till more new updates on science, food and nutrition that still needs to be discovered.

Help spread the world and start living healthy. Good luck!