What Caught My Eye Today

Japan - After less than a year in office, Shinzo Abe quit as prime minister of Japan. Abe said that it was evident by his party's poor showing in July's elections that he had lost the people's confidence. Abe's tenure was marked by small-scale financial scandals, and analysts speculated that some larger transgression might soon emerge. One has to believe that the latter had more of a bearing on his decision to leave office. Can you imagine a head of state leaving office just because the people didn't like the job he or she was doing? I know a lot of people in the U.S. have been fantasizing about that for several months (or even years), but let's be real here.

Germany - The German army rejected nearly half its annual call-up of conscripts last year because they were overweight and out of shape. In 2002, 19% were rejected on medical grounds. In 2006, that figure jumped to 45%. Officials suspect that in some cases, sympathetic doctors are colluding with healthy but reluctant recruits, pronouncing them unfit. National service remains a divisive issue in Germany. Supporters say an army of "citizens" is a safeguard against a domestic military takeover. Detractors say that a professional army made up of volunteers would be more effective in defending against external threats. A "domestic military takeover?" Sounds to me like some folks over there are still a little spooked about a possible repeat of World War II. I'm all for learning from history, but this seems a little extreme.

India - Okay, this one is a bit creepy. The demand for Hindu funeral pyres is rapidly deforesting India. Burning a single body in the traditional Hindu manner requires 600 to 1,000 pounds of wood. With more than 8 million Hindu deaths a year, India burns 50 million trees annually, producing 50,000 tons of ash and 8 million tons of carbon dioxide. The government offers environmentally friendly gas-powered cremations, but only the poorest are sent off that way, as most observant Hindus insist on wood.

Arctic - Parts of the Arctic are losing summer ice so fast that no polar bears will be able to live there within a few decades, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. As a result, two-thirs of the world's estimated 25,000 polar bears may be gone by 2050. The agency found that as the climate warms, the remaining bears will be relegated largely to the ARctic archipelago of Canada and the northern Greenland coast. Polar bears depend on sea ice as platforms from which to hunt seals and other food. Clearly this report is flawed. Global warming is just a myth, right? How could any sane person possibly equate warmer climates to global warming?

Under-age Drinking - Apparently, you won't find much in Maine. A supermarket refused to sell a bottle of wine to a 65-year old woman because she didn't have identification. State law requires stores to check the ID of anyone who looks 27 or younger. By the woman's own admission, "no wone would mistake me for 30 or even 40. The store manager told the woman the chain has a firm policy of requiring ID from anyone who looks younger than 45. Absurd as this whole incident was, this broad must be doing something right to come off looking that good. Either that or the supermarket's staff is dumber than dirt.

Motor Sports - Accused of using leaked secret data from its main rival Ferrari, the Formula One team McLaren was hit with a record $100 million fine Thursday by the World Motor Sport Council in the biggest scandal to hit auto racing's premier circuit. The F1 case broke in July when a 780-page technical dossier on Ferrari cars was found at the home of McLaren's chief designer, Mike Coughlan, who was later suspended. Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stepney, who allegedly supplied the documents, was fired. McLaren escaped censure by the World Motor Sport Council in July due to insufficient evidence that Ferrari's technical documents were misused. The $100 million fine imposed on McLaren is 40 times larger than the previous F1 record. Over here, in the U.S., the press is making a big deal over the $500,000 fine levied against New England Patriot's head coach, Bill Belichick for illegally video taping defense signals for its opponent. Kind of sounds like small potatoes compared to the F1 fine. You know, with all this proliferation of steriods, blood doping and, now, cheating, I'll take amateur sports from now on. The simple fact of the matter is when you play for pay it is no longer sport, it's a job and it's all about business.