The New York Times reports today on the growing food crisis in poor countries around the world. Like most major problems it has more than one source. Major problems are usually the result of a convergence of forces, any one of which can be managed, but in concert they can be devastating.
Drought has contributed to [...]
Archive for April, 2008
Burning food during a famine
Posted in In the News, Uncategorized, tagged famine, fat, food on April 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Tasty, but not so legal
Posted in In the News, tagged Brunello, Italy, wine on April 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The winemakers in the Tuscany region of Italy make a wonderful, expensive, and commercially successful wine known as Brunello. That’s the basis for their latest melodrama as it could only happen in Italy. In order to appreciate the drama you have to know that brunello is another name for the sangiovese grape that is used as the primary ingredient in [...]
U.S. leads the world in prisoners
Posted in In the News, tagged prisons on April 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The New York Times reports today that the United States leads the world in putting people in prison. We may have a mortgage crisis, but there are at least 1.6 million people among us who don’t have to worry about keeping a roof over their heads. They must find some comfort in that. One adult [...]
Has Starbucks gone too far?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Starbucks on April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I used to like Starbucks enough to pay those hotel-gift-shop prices. I liked Starbucks so much I would sometimes make a left turn to get to one. Not any more. Starbucks is no longer a destination for me, it has become generic. Some of the grungiest places I know of “proudly pour Starbucks” coffee—I’m thinking [...]
High cholesterol? Attention deficit? Blame sub-prime loans
Posted in In the News, tagged Iceland on April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
According to an article in today’s The New York Times, Porsche sales are likely to decline in Iceland this year. Apparently this bit of bad news is somehow connected to the sub-prime mortgage meltdown in the United States—but then, what bad news isn’t?
I’m glad we finally have an explanation for all the bad things happening [...]
Polygamy can be hard work
Posted in In the News, tagged polygamy on April 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Seattle Times reports that one of the lifestyles common to polygamists is to travel from home to home to visit their various wives in a serial fashion. Such men may or may not have a home where they live, in the usual sense of the word. One man profiled in the story visits a [...]
Our responsibility to Iraq
Posted in In the News, tagged Iraq, Sweden, you break it on April 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Colin Powell invoked the Pottery Barn rule about invading Iraq: you break it, you own it. We definitely broke it, and a responsibility comes with owning it. We’ve paid heavily for that responsibility in lives, injuries to our precious war fighters, their time spent away from their families, and in tax payers’ money. Even that [...]
They make it up on volume
Posted in In the News, tagged IRS, taxes on April 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The IRS, according to a story in today’s Washington Post, pays debt collectors to badger reluctant taxpayers to actually pay up. The debt collectors charge the government more than they collect, and some members of Congress still think the government is getting a good deal.
Not only do the collection agencies produce a loss for the [...]
A butterfly flaps its wings
Posted in In the News, Science, tagged birds, ecology, food, insecticide on April 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
There is an old saying about a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil and a tornado striking Kansas, or some similar unfortunate place. The New York Times reports today that the saying is true. In this case, the butterfly is our appetite for out-of-season fruit and produce, and the tornado is insecticide use in Latin [...]
