fascinating

Talk of the Nation on this past Friday (Science Friday, in case you don't know) was so interesting. First there the story about all the microbes who live in our bodies, and how we keep destroying or altering them by doing things like taking antibiotics and having cesarian sections, etc. Did you know we have more microbes in us than we have cells??? And we haven't even identified them all, much less started to make peace treaties with them.

And then there was the story about the sexy-looking bio-fueled powerboat which just set a world record. The creator and captain talks about his environmental mission, and about his run-in with the Colombian Navy involving high-powered assault rifles. Yikes!

alarm bells

Two or three weeks ago I finished In Defense of Food, and now I'm finally reading this, which we thought was lost but now is found. And, while much of its message isn't new to me (eat fresh, local, seasonal. Check.), what is new is the idea that we are all, to some extent, participants in a giant experiment to see just how much of one or two foods (corn & soybeans) we can consume and still (more or less) live. Apparently, while we were asleep, there was a coup and now ADM & Cargill run our country. Ha! And you thought it was Exxon! Certainly none of it would be possible without fossil fuels, so the oil companies benefit as well. According to Pollan, one-fifth of our oil consumption is used in agriculture. I'll bet most Americans don't know that little factoid.

Anyhoo, this morning I was thinking about how well all this ties in with Wall-E. In that film, the humans have all become huge, helpless and blubberous lumps who just float around on their hover-chairs watching TV and talking on the phone all day. Meanwhile all the advertisements (for BNL Corporation: Buy-N-Large) show svelte and fit models who don't even exist anymore. Yikes! Apocalypse now, ya'll! Or soon, anyway.

so sweet!

I heard this story on NPR (All Things Considered) and learned about a Chinese police officer who found a great reason to take off her uniform. She is feeding hungry babies after the earthquake.

a verdict has been rendered

Quoted from this article
Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius won his appeal Friday and can compete for a place in the Beijing Olympics.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the 21-year-old South African is eligible to race against able-bodied athletes, overturning a ban imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

CAS said the unanimous ruling goes into effect immediately.

"I am ecstatic," Pistorius told reporters in Milan, Italy. "When I found out, I cried. It is a battle that has been going on for far too long. It's a great day for sport. I think this day is going to go down in history for the equality of disabled people."