Well, at least he didn’t barf on him: President Bush visits the King of Thailand, with some interesting results, reports the ever-unbiased Washington Post. “While the president and first lady Laura Bush stood in the receiving line, a Thai functionary read the titles, but not the names, of the 20 people in the president’s party: [...]

London researchers have found that the high energy density of calorie-laden fast food tricks us silly humans, who think about food in terms of visual size. “Typical menus at McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King contain 65 per cent more calories per bite than standard British meals,” reports the Times.

Camille Paglia, to Andrew Sullivan, on young writers: “I love your description of young Americans you know ‘whose heads are filled with nonsense at universities.’ But as a teacher, I don’t agree that the damage is only temporary. There is too little available time for the humanities as it is. Students forced to waste their [...]

Herr Gröpenfuhrer

Patients with Irritiable Bowel Syndrome have found an unlikely solution to their gastrointestinal difficulties. Rather than say, stop eating cheeseburgers infested with feces, slurping down Big Gulps, and scarfing Doritos – all trigger foods for people with digestive issues – the solution lies all your mind. 81 percent of participants found that by hypnotizing themselves, [...]

“Apples, peppers, celery and cherries top a list compiled by an environmental research organization of the 12 fruits and vegetables it considers the most contaminated by pesticides … The 12 considered least contaminated are asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, kiwi, mangoes, onions, papayas, pineapples and sweet peas.” Nytimes.com

U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd is the latest to criticize the $87 billion dollar blank check. In this eloquent speech, transcribed by truthout, Byrd reminds Americans of the fable of the Emperor’s Clothes in our blind acceptance of the situation in Iraq, and quotes an all-important interchange between an author, and Hermann Goering, the infamous [...]

Off the wire from Alternet is a beautiful and inspiring lecture on global sustainability, given by Kenny Ausubel, founder of Bioneers, at the 2003 Bioneers Conference, Oct. 17-19 in San Rafael, CA: “… One of the beauties of biology is that its facts can become our metaphors. These underlying codes may also serve as inspiring [...]

There were several compromises I had to make to free my environment of the latest Mentos ad and the noxious stylings of a certain factor. But I pushed through my addiction and said “I’m hip to it.” And then what do my faves do? They reward the faithful with nothing short of intelevised freevolution. Live [...]

“Research reported last week at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity indicates that the trend toward overweight is going nowhere but up … Severe obesity, once thought to be a rare, genetic fluke, is the fastest-growing segment of the overweight population. ” U.S News