Current Affairs

Today's "Well, duh" headline: Sex is good for men:

THERE'S new advice for older men who want to preserve their sexual function: have sex, and have it often, researchers say.

As a lifelong smartass, I offer this advice to John McCain: If you make a joke, just let it live or die by the laughter it gets or doesn't get. NEVER immediately explain that, of course, you were just making a joke, in hopes that somebody, somewhere won't take offense. If nobody feels inclined to take offense, it probably wasn't a very funny joke in the first place:

A new study suggests that the simple act of keeping a food diary -- just writing down what you eat and when -- can help you with your diet, even doubling the number of pounds you lose. The reason given for fort the technique's effectiveness rings true with me:

This story caught my eye last week, and I was going to comment about it but forgot:

SYDNEY, Australia —  New regulations making it a crime to annoy or inconvenience people gathering in Sydney during Pope Benedict XVI's visit later this month were criticized Tuesday as a heavy-handed blow to free speech.

Representatives of Indiana Michigan Power visited with the editorial board yesterday to argue for their proposed rate hike, and I've gone into a mini obsessive state over what electricity costs:

1,000 watt-hours is a kilowatt-hour (kWh). For example.

One 100-watt light bulb on for an hour, is 0.1 kWh (100/1000)

One 100-watt light bulb on for ten hours is 1 kWh (1 bulbs x 100W x 10h= 1000Wh = 1 kWh)

Getting rough out there in talk land. Third-best recent putdown by one celebrity of another -- Anderson Cooper's producer on Fox's Gretta Susteren:

The executive producer of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 last week called Susteren's On The Record  "not a news program. It's missing-person of the day."

Second-best: Sustern's 1,000-word response:

WASHINGTON —  The Supreme Court's repeal of the ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., may be a boon for a segment of the firearms industry whose last major windfall might have been in the heyday of the Dirty Harry movies: those who make and sell revolvers.

Today's "Well, duh" headline -- "Drinking games prove deadly to college students":

What? No cut-rate college education for illegal immigrants? Goodness -- if we aren't careful, they might start getting the idea they aren't supposed to be here:

Some states are making it harder for illegal immigrants to attend college by denying in-state tuition benefits or banning undocumented students.

Call PETA -- maybe they can help:

Eating high levels of some soy products - including tofu - may raise the risk of memory loss, research suggests.

[. . .]

Soy products are a major alternative protein source to meat for many people in the developing world.

But soy consumption is also on the increase in the west, where it is often promoted as a "superfood".

Carnivores. Meat. Get it?