What Caught My Eye Today

Iran - A report from the U.N nuclear watchdog agency found Iran to be generally truthful about key aspects of its nuclear history, but it warned that its knowledge of Tehran's present atomic work was shrinking. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) focused on the history of Iran's black-market procurements and past development of its enrichment technology — and the agency appeared to be giving Tehran a pass on that issue, repeatedly saying it concludes that "Iran's statements are consistent with ... information available to the agency." The IAEA report also confirmed that Tehran continued to defy the U.N. Security Council by ignoring its repeated demands to freeze uranium enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear arms. So here's what we have in a nutshell. The agency has concluded that Iran is 'generally' telling the truth about the small amount of information it has to disclose, but that Iran continues to enriched uranium. Gee, what an enlightening summary of that which we already know.

Pakistan - Police said they lifted the house arrest of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, hours before the arrival of a senior U.S. envoy who was expected to urge the country's military leader to end emergency rule. Despite Bhutto's call, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has given no sign he will hand over power. He has named his own interim prime minister and is expected to announce a caretaker Cabinet to oversee parliamentary elections promised by Jan. 9. This just in...Tomorrow, Bhutto will be placed under house arrest again to align with the government's plan to release her the following day.

Bangladesh - Thousands of coastal homes have been levelled and trees uprooted as a powerful cyclone batters Bangladesh. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated or sought safe shelter before the storm hit the coast, but there are fears for those left behind. The cyclone is packing winds of up to 150mph and driving rain. The cyclone made landfall in an area of mangrove forests known as the Sundarbans - a world heritage site and home to rare royal Bengal tigers. The hope was that the trees there would absorb most of the storm's strength but communities along the whole coast, including several large cities. So they based their hopes on a bunch of trees to absorb the brunt of a cyclone? Yeah, maybe that wasn't such a good plan.

Baseball - Baseball home-run king Barry Bonds used steroids to fuel his success and then lied about it, prosecutors said in charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice. "During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances for Bonds and other professional athletes," the indictment said. The all-time Major League baseball home run king has long been under federal probe over suspicion that he lied to the BALCO grand jury in 2003 when he told them he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs. Despite his huge success on the field, his abrasive personality and the lingering doubts about steroid use, kept him from gaining widespread personal popularity, especially outside San Francisco. Is this the part where we are supposed to act all shocked and surprised? I'm not saying what the dude allegedly did was right, but how many of those critics out there weren't glued to the TV screen when Bonds broke the single season home run record or when he eclipsed Hank Aaron's all-time home run record? Barry gave the people what they wanted. Sure he did it by taking illegal steroids, but now we're just splitting hairs.

Lindsay Lohan - Actress Lindsay Lohan checked in and out of jail today, spending just 84 minutes behind bars for a drunken driving and cocaine-possession conviction. Lohan, 21, had been sentenced in August to one day in jail after admitting guilt to drink and drug charges and was told by the court to serve her time before January. Lohan was also sentenced to 10 days of community service, three years probation and 18 months of an alcohol-education program.

If you think this sounds like a familiar pattern among Hollywood's elite starlets, you would be correct.

Jail sentences for minor crimes are often cut short by Los Angeles sheriffs, who manage the county jails, because of overcrowding. In August actress Nicole Richie of "The Simple Life" spent one hour, 20 minutes in jail for what was a four-day sentence for driving under the influence of drugs. In July, a media frenzy surrounded socialite Paris Hilton's three-week stint behind bars for a driving violation. Hilton had been sentenced to 45 days, was released after three days, and then sent back after an outcry over perceived preferential treatment.

Let's see. With Paris off saving the elephants in Africa, Britney losing her mind and custody of her kids, and now Lindsay having been 'scared straight' by hard time, I guess it's time for Nicole Richie to do something stupid again. Though, for my money, I'm going with Britney--she's on sort of a roll.

Obesity - I heard about this last item in a related story on NPR. The fat acceptance movement, also the fat liberation movement, is a grassroots effort to change societal attitudes towards individuals who are fat. The movement consists today of a diverse group of people, who have different beliefs about how best to address the perceived widespread prejudice and discrimination against fat people in contemporary Western societies.

Wait there's more...

Fat activism covers several fronts but generally can be described as attempting to change societal, internal, and medical attitudes about fat people. The movement argues that fat people are targets of hatred and discrimination, with fat women in particular subject to more social pressure. Hatred is seen in multiple places including media outlets, where fat people are often ridiculed or held up as objects of pity. Discrimination comes in the form of lack of equal accessibility to transportation and employment. There's even an association dedicated to the cause... The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, or NAAFA, was founded in 1969 by William Fabrey in New York. It is the most active and best-known fat liberation organization in the United States. Any group is entitled to form a special interest group to advocate its cause, so I say, have at it. Though here's a group that I wouldn't mind seeing formed. It's called the, "International Coalition of Can't We All Just Get Along So We Don't Have To Create All These Stupid Special Interest Groups."