WASHINGTON — Spurred by the rising rate of obesity among American youth and the increasing availability of high-calorie, low-nutrient products on school grounds, a new report by the Institute of Medicine proposes a set of nutritional standards for ‘competitive’ foods and drinks available in schools. The standards promote consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nonfat or low-fat dairy products and limit the amount of saturated fat, salt, added sugars, and total calories. The standards also restrict the sale of caffeinated items. Developed by an IOM committee at the request of Congress, the standards apply to a la carte cafeteria items, products sold in vending machines and at school stores, and other foods and drinks that are available outside of — and therefore compete with — federally reimbursable school meals, which already must conform to some nutrition guidelines. The proposed standards take into account the varying needs and responsibility levels of children and teens — for example, by limiting the sale of caffeine-free diet soda to high schools after school only, and by recommending smaller juice portions for younger children. ‘The alarming increase in childhood obesity rates has galvanized parents and schools across the nation to find […]
Something strange is happening to honeybees. They’re vanishing. In parts of the country, bees are leaving hives and not returning. The phenomenon, dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder, has wiped out a quarter of the hives of commercial beekeepers since last summer, according to the American Beekeeping Federation, and set off a flurry of debate about how to stop it, whatever it is, and what it all means. Though scientists from UC San Francisco announced Wednesday that they had identified a parasitic fungus and a virus as two potential causes, the culprit or culprits behind a national phenomenon still have not been definitively confirmed. As if out of some lost Rod Serling script, this warp in the daily rhythms of a tiny creature has potentially big consequences. Bees, after all, don’t just make honey. ‘One-third of our daily diet is based on crops produced by honeybee pollination,’ says Eric Mussen, an entomologist and bee expert at UC Davis who believes Colony Collapse Disorder has the potential to threaten U.S. food production. Crops that rely on bees, he says, represent ‘the lion’s share of our fruits and vegetables.’ But it’s not just at the dinner table where these unsung constant […]
Cancer is set to outpace cardiovascular disease as the leading killer of Canadians, according to Statistics Canada data on mortality rates released yesterday – good news, say medical experts, for the success of new treatments but bad news for rates of developing a serious illness. Over the past quarter century, deaths due to heart disease have steadily declined to 30% in 2004 from 47% in 1979 while deaths attributable to cancer have climbed to 30% from 23% over the same period. The rates were near the point of converging in 2004. But some experts say that cancer likely has already surpassed cardiovascular maladies as the chief cause of death among Canadians since those figures were collected. ‘We probably have crossed over already,’ said Andreas Wielgosz, a cardiologist and epidemiologist at Ottawa Hospital and a spokesman for the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation. He attributed the lower mortality rates among those with cardiovascular problems to major advancements recognizing and treating heart attacks. ‘I think the decline is a combination of factors including better treatment, both surgical and medical and a lot of effort in prevention of disease, particularly in the area of prevention of a recurrence […]
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin on Friday renewed criticism of U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Eastern Europe, saying Russia would take ‘appropriate measures’ to counter the system. Putin told Czech President Vaclav Klaus at a Kremlin meeting that the proposed missile shield would be used to track Russian military activities. ‘These systems will monitor Russian territory as far as the Ural mountains if we don’t come out with a response,’ Putin told Klaus. ‘And we will indeed do this. Anyone would.’ ‘We will not get hysterical about this. We will just take appropriate measures,’ he said, without elaborating. Russia views the U.S. plan to base 10 missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic from 2012 as a major threat to its national security. Washington says the system is needed to defend Europe and U.S. forces there against what it calls ‘rogue states’ such as Iran and North Korea. But top Russian politicians say the U.S. plan could disrupt European stability and fuel a new Cold War-style arms race. Moscow’s top brass say the missile shield does not pose any immediate military threat for Russia, but warn that Russia […]
Some of the worst spammers in the United States could be in for a rude surprise shortly, as Unspam Technologies has taken the first steps in tracking them down, with help from the ISPs. The company filed a lawsuit yesterday in the Eastern District of Virginia seeking the identities of spammers under the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act and the state of Virginia’s own anti-spam statue. The suit seeks damages that could potentially reach $1 billion, but Unspam said it would be happy with driving spammers out of business. The idea of suing spammers may seem as ludicrous as suing God; where do you deliver the subpoena? But Jon Praed, the lawyer on the case, founding partner of the Internet Law Group and one of the top lawyers involved in spam suits, said not to think that way. ‘We cannot fight them by treating them as if they are everywhere, because it lulls us into a false acceptance of the inevitability of the outcome,’ he told internetnews.com. ‘If we focus on what they are using or make it hard to use those tools, we’re going to beat them. We are not fighting Acts of God, we are fighting criminal […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
