News – Healthy Tuesday Report

General

Red meat and processed meat such as hot dogs are show to raise one’s risk of developing diabetes by new research. Investigators have found that people who mostly subsist on a “Western” diet(including sweets, French fries, refined grains such as white bread, and red and processed meats) were 50% more likely to develop diabetes over a 14-year period than those who at sparingly of the same foods. Broken down, they found that each additional daily serving of red meat increased a person’s risk of diabetes by 26 percent; adding another serving of processed meat upped their chances of the disease by nearly 40 percent. So might be a good idea to cut down a little on the red meat and the processed meat. It’ll help your health in general.

In further eating and health news, vegetable oils found in leafy greens, nuts and flaxseed reduce a woman’s risk of dying from heart disease. So eat your lettuce, cabbage and peanuts, ladies. Not too heavily salted on that last one.

Today’s Papers has Castro rolling out new pesos and ending use of the US dollar, federal judges halting military tribunals at Gitmo for not meeting the minimum standards of justice, varied updates on the battle for Falluja and more in the one page news.

Iraq

Reports are that insurgents are putting up heavy resistance in Falluja, though US forces have pushed in roughly a mile toward city center. Best take care to not get caught in a pincer. No note of casualties in Falluja, militant, US or civilian. AS US forces are focusing on Falluja, militants struck in Baquba, killing 45 people in gun battles in and near.

One half amusing, half sad note is on the initial part of the operation, capture of the city’s hospital, in which an Iraqi soldier shot himself in the leg, though no other shots were fired.

World press muses the wisdom of this assault on Falluja. And, like me, Fred Kaplan wonders what comes after the battle for Falluja. The ‘win’ in the city is not in doubt. We have superior numbers, equipment and training. Period.

Israel/Palestine

French doctors say Arafat’s condition is worsening with a deeper coma. He just needs to give up and die already. :p The delegation of Palestinian officials have arrived to visit the ailing leader. They might want to look out for his wife, who seems determined they’re there to take him out.

Iran

Iran says it has the capability to mass produce medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic missiles. Experts say they have the range to hit Israel or US bases on the Gulf.

Afghanistan

A Taliban splinter group says they’ll kill a hostage(they have three) if their demands aren’t answered. The government has said it’s unwilling to meet their deadline for an answer on freeing 26 Taliban prisoners.

US

Morocco is added to the other fifteen countries(Benin, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, Armenia, Georgia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu, Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua – Cape Verde was removed as it was no loner poor enough) who get a share of the one billion dollar Millennium Challenge Account. Some advocacy groups are wondering at the omission of other nations who meet similar criteria to Morocco such as Nepal and Swaziland. Bush wants to beef the fund up to 5 billion and have countries competing through reforms for a bigger share, though congress has limited the amount thus far. Perhaps because there is little evidence the plan will work. Millennium Challenge officials say none of the 2004 cash has been handed out yet and only four nations(Nicaragua, Honduras, Madagascar and Georgia) have started serious negotiations on their projects.

Police are investigating how Andrew Veal, a 25-year-old public opinion researcher from Athens, Georgia, managed to penetrate the security at Ground Zero where he took his own life with a shotgun near the gaping hole where the World Trade Center once stood. A note was found in his car, which was parked about two blocks away, but no comment has been made on the note’s contents.

Lawyers for a Georgia school district and some parents are clashing with the Cobb County school board, which placed stickers on biology text books, saying “This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered”, at the behest of hundreds of parents, many of them religious conservatives. They’re challenging that the school board promoted religion in its classrooms in violation of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. To be honest, the stickers aren’t actually that bad.. because evolution is a theory and should be so considered. Of course, when a religious group is prompting it, that’s when things can get messy.

Tasers have been approved for use on some flights. Better, overall, than a gun as it can incapacitate without danger of putting a hole in the side of the plane. The only issue is it is less effective against multiple targets. Might not be a bad idea to provide those little handheld devices as well. For close in back up.

A PBS documentary says Americans are tuning out advertising, leading to even more crass means of trying to get our attention. Sure, they desensitize us with over marketing, so decide to push even harder.. brilliant move.

America’s Space Prize has its rules listed and $50 million on the line for whoever can get a craft up into orbit twice.

Continued musing on where democrats have gone wrong.

Amusements<P>

The car-surfing was going swimmingly until the passenger’s hat blew off, the driver stood on the brakes and the human hood ornament became a projectile

Man decides to clear jammed wood chipper with his feet while it’s still on. You already know what happened next

Best Buy seeks to prevent money-savers from shopping there

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Holiday theme: What the reindeer do during the offseason

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Theme: Create a new prescription drug for what ails your fellow farkers

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this smoke break