What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially charged South Carolina primary Saturday night, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to the February 5 competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates after rolling up 55% of the vote in a three-way race. About half the voters were black, according to polling place interviews, and four out of five of them supported Obama. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers. Obama got about a quarter of the white vote while Clinton and John Edwards split the rest. Edwards finished a distant third, a sharp setback in the state where he was born and scored a primary victory in his first presidential campaign four years ago. The South Carolina primary marked the end of the first phase of the campaign for the Democratic nomination, a series of single-state contests that winnowed the field, conferred co-front-runner status on Clinton and Obama but had relatively few delegates at stake. That all changes on February 5, when New York, Illinois and California are among the 15 states holding primaries in a virtual nationwide primary. Another seven states and American Samoa will hold Democratic caucuses on the same day. Another way to put Super Tuesday into context would be this..."Game on." And another thing, I was watching the early results come in last night and with 0% of precincts reporting in, the AP had already determined that the rout was on. I'm not saying that 55% to 27% isn't exactly close, but how about letting the some of the results be tabulated before calling a race?

Brazil - A huge natural gas field has been discovered off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The find, almost 17,000 feet below the ocean surface, may rival the isze of the nearby Tupi oil field, a 5 billion to 8 billion bareel deposit discovered last November. State oil company Petrobras, regarded as a world leader in deep water drilling technology, could parly the discoveries into a role as a dominant global energy supplier. Does anyone know how good the relations are between Brazil and the U.S.? I'm just wondering if these recent events are going to be a good thing--as in a new source of energy not in the Middle East that could help satisfy growing global energy demands--or a bad thing--as in time to start planning another 'shock and awe' campaign to make sure there is a U.S friendly regime in place to make sure the U.S. gets its fair share.

Air Pollution - Here's a candidate for the "No S--t, Sherlock" story of the year. According to a recently published Johns Hopkins University study, air pollution isn't just bad for our lungs, but the toxins found in factory funes and car exhaust can reduce the quality of male sperm and perhaps lead to birth defects. Yes, and it could kill you too. In a test of two groups of mice, the group that breathed polluted air for several weeks had 60% more mutations in sperm samples, including some in germ line cells, the precursors to sperm. This means that mutations caused by pollution could be passed down for generations. Let me begin by saying the job of collecting mice sperm better pay one heck of a lot of money. How exactly do you describe that work experience on a resume? Don't tell me, I don't want to know. Seriously, though. I fail to see how any of this comes as any great surprise. A hundred years ago the HIV virus didn't exist, but look at the epidemic we have now. What makes us think that there weren't going to be some sort of side effects from all the pollution we've generated over the past few centuries?

Dieting - Let me just say this before I go on. I'll believe it when I see it. Rapper Eminem is being courted by the makers of SlimFast to be their new spokesperson. The hard-core rapper has been out of the public eye in recent years, during which time he has apparently ballooned up to around 210 pounds. A company spokesman said, "Slim-Fast would love to offer Eminem product and assistance to help him become a potential S-F success story." Don't do it, Slim Shady. There are more important things in life than a slim waistline and endorsement deals. You know what I'm talking about. That's right, a little thing called R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

War Veterans - Last week the New York Times ran an article that found at least 121 veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan had committed murder since returning from combat. The piece linked the vets' violence to the ravages of post-traumatic stress disorder. That doesn't seem like too much of a stretch. Frankly, I would have thought the number might be a lot higher. However, the Times omitted some crucial context. Uh-oh. Do I sense a bit of sensationalism here? Through 2007, the Pentagon discharged 749,932 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. That translates in a 'homicide offending rate of 16.1 per 100,000. The national average among males ages 18-24 is 20 per 100,000. Ah, well there you have it. Seems like a perfectly harmless oversight if you ask me. After all, who would want to read a story about war vets being less violent than the general population.

Sports - Just a couple of entries to conclude on a couple of events that I watched last week and over this weekend.

Tennis - First the short and sweet version of the women's and men's singles titles at the Australian Open. #5 Maria Sharapova won a snoozer over #3 Ana Ivanovic (7-5, 6-3) whicle #3 Novak Djokovic won a rather entertaining 4 set match over unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6). Besides not one of my picks making it out of the semi-finals in either draw, two items from the first grand slam of the year. First, half of the contenders for the championships came from Serbia. Not bad for a country that has been around since what, last week? Secondly, not one American advanced out of the quarterfinals in any event--including aany the doubles events. Thank goodness we have the French Open to look forward to. I don't have to tell all you tennis aficiandos how well we do on clay.

Golf - This guy just makes it look way too easy. In his most dominant start to a season, Tiger Woods built an 11-shot lead in the final round of the Buick Invitation, until a run of three straight bogieshis game on the back nine. A birdie on the last hole gave him a 1-under 71 and an eight-shot victory, giving him 62 for his career to tie Arnold Palmer on the PGA Tour list. Woods finished at 19-under 269 to win the Buick Invitational for the fourth consecutive year, tying a PGA Tour record for consecutive wins in a single tournament. Woods is the only player to own such a streak at two events, having also won four in a row at Bay Hill. The Buick Invitational is the third PGA Tour event Woods has won six times. The others are the Bridgestone Invitational and the CA Championship, both World Golf Championship events. I could probably go on, but you get the general idea.

One last item today--a sad and tragic end to a rather remarkable young actor's life.

Film - Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger was found dead this week in his New York apartment. Preliminary indications were that he died of a drug overdose. Ledger was found unconscious in a bedroom, with a bottle of prescription pills nearby. Foul play is not suspected. Ledger plays the Joker in the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Rest in peace, Heath. To borrow from an Australian phrase, "Good on ya, mate."