Dollar reaches high against euro and British pound sterling - This is because of the fear of an escalation of military conflict with Russia, which supplies most of Europe's natural gas and oil. It hasn't reached a high, just that the European currencies are slipping down. On a good note, I have noticed that food prices are going down here in New York. Have any other Americans noticed the same?

Former Georgian President says US wants new Cold War - New WW3 actually.

Some new research has appeared in nature about a possible cause for obesity in later adulthood. Dr Zane Andrews in Oz has pointed his finger at the effect of carbohydrates and sugars on the body. The short abstract extract that I have read from the paper in Nature doesn't tell me much (but that is my fault not that of the paper). All the releases on the web seem to over hype the effects of carbs by the use of headlines like "Killer Carbs" etc.

My huge worry is that the interpretation given to this paper by the media is conflating "refined carbohydrates" with carbohydrates. These are two hugely different creatures and lumping them all together could be disastrous.

The figure above is the area of Amazon forest which has been destroyed during the last thirty years, according to this article I just read on the web site of Il Corriere della Sera, the best-selling newspaper in Italy:

"Negli ultimi trent’anni, in Amazzonia, sono stati rasi al suolo per sempre 750 milioni di chilometri quadrati di foresta, un’area pari a due volte e mezzo quella dell’Italia."

(During the last thirty years, in Amazonia, 750 million square kilometers of forest has been destroyed, an area equal to two and a half times that of Italy.)

I finally managed to get a copy of Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D by Grant Morrison, Doug Mahnke , Ray Zone and a million inkers late yesterday evening. I can only presume that the comic shops were trying to protect me from the sheer incredible Thrill Power of an oversized Superman comic by Grant Morrison in 3D.

(Well, that's *one* explanation - after my local comic shop ran out without putting it in my pull list, my wife offered to go to Forbidden Planet and get a copy for me. They lied to her and told her they didn't have any. When I went in later, they had at least 30 copies. It couldn't possibly have been because I am a bearded man who looks comically like the stereotype comics reader, while my wife is a woman... )

Het hoeft niet altijd kunst en cultuur te zijn, scheikunde mag ook wel eens aan bod komen!

(Mét aandacht voor raciale en seksuele diversiteit en niet-stereotype rollenpatronen :-) )

From WESH-TV:

For the first time on the record on Sunday, Orange County investigators acknowledged that recent FBI lab tests confirmed that Caylee Anthony’s body was in her mother’s trunk and that the child is dead.

Evidence from a Central Florida body farm showed that an odor emitted from Casey Anthony’s car’s trunk was human decomposition. A lead investigator in the case told WESH 2’s Bob Kealing that lab results indicated Caylee’s dead body was in the trunk of that car. Sources also confirmed that a stain in the trunk was not what clinched the decision that Caylee was in the trunk, but it was the strands of hair that investigators suspected all along were Caylee’s.

The Wrong Energy Agenda

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<!--DECK--> Conservatives should rethink their solution to our energy problems. Instead of more drilling, it's time for small-scale enterprises, argues guest columnist Byron Kennard <!--/DECK-->

by Byron Kennard

Read the whole thing: BusinessWeek

In response to the nation's energy problems, Republican politicians are calling for extensive and rapid deployment of large-scale technological solutions: drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; offshore oil development; construction of scores of new coal-fired and nuclear power plants; and development of clean coal technologies (coal-burning power stations equipped with carbon capture and sequestration gizmos).

For Access to a Radar that allows you to track Gustav as it approaches the US by zooming in to street level, making a radar loop, put in clouds and lighting, CLICK HERE. It will default to the Ohio Valley, but simply navigate it to the Gulf Coast or anywhere else in the nation.

In large industrialized countries the fight and prevention against smoking, with appropriate laws and a public health information increasingly specialized beginning to have its effects, but the major companies producing cigarettes, have already begun to invade the Asian and African markets , in the same way when presented the cigarette in Western markets in 60 years, aided by lack of information and complacent and corrupt governments to spread the tobacco and nicotine without notifying the consumer of the consequences on your health

At Project Gutenberg Australia, they have Nutrition and Physical Degeneration Dr. Weston A. Price. Subtitled, A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects, it's guaranteed to be unlike any other book you've ever read.

It's only available as on-screen HTML. But don't worry about that for now. What I want you to do is scroll down and stop and see and read all 100+ of the photographs. Such as these two:

You'll want to read it. It's a masterpiece.

I previously mentioned this book in Your Gums Can Kill You.