What Caught My Eye Today

Obesity - This is one of those bad news good news stories. Thinking makes you hungry, and thinking really hard makes you really hungry. That's the conclusion of a new study that found one explanation for why people in sedentary, white-collar jobs often gain a lot of weight. See, I was under the impression that it was the 'sedentary' bit that was making us more portly. Scientists found that while the brain is working hard, stress hormones in the body cause blood glucose levels to fluctuate, inducing feelings of hunger. Here's my question. I thought Americans were generally becoming stupider with each passing year. At the same time, we're becoming fatter with each passing year. So if that's the case, are we to conclude that Americans are getting fatter because we're thinking about stupid things?

Now, I did say that there was some good news here...so here it is.

About 30% of white Americans have a gene that predisposes them to obesity. One can only assume that every other color of American doesn't matter. But there is a one surefire way for these folks to stay slim: exercise virtually every day. That doesn't seem so good to me. Besides, when am I supposed to find time for all this exercise? I'm too busy thinking.

Beer - Every once and a while, it's nice to report a feel good story. And, I ask you, what's better than beer? The beer business is dominated by a handful of huge players, and the remaining 1,400 or so microbrewers in the U.S. must fight with them to survive. So when the industry was hit with a shortage of hops, many speculated that the competition among microbrewers would become especially "cutthroat". As it turns out, an unexpected comradery arose. Jim Coch of Boston Beer (brewer of Sam Adams) saw that small brewers were in distress and decided to share his inventory. He held a lottery and distributed 20,000 pounds of hops, at cost, to the brewers. Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada Brewing also stepped up, selling 150,000 pounds of hops, again, at cost. Let's show these guys that this generosity won't go unnoticed. Go out and buy yourself a six pack or two of your favorite microbrew.

Potpourri - More fascinating tidbits to dazzle your friends with...or at the very least to make you feel intellectually superior to them.

• Wealth - More than 20 state lotteries across the country are experiencing record sales this year, a trend experts attribute to hard economic times. One experts said, "People look to the lottery to get back to where they were financially."
  The way things are going on Wall Street, why not?
• Information - The public filed nearly 22 million Freedom of Information requests with the federal government last year. Only one in three was granted.
  No kidding. I sent in my request asking for information on what the government is thinking (pick any subject--the economy, foreign affairs), and I still haven't heard back from them.
• U.S. Election - In a recent BBC survey of 22 countries--included Canada, France, China, Brazil and Egypt--a large majority of respondents in all 22 preferred Barack Obama to John McCain.
  Dude, those guys are so going to end up on our sponsors of terrorism list if McCain wins.

Sports - Here a brief rundown of some of highlights out from the sporting world that caught my attention this weekend:

• Baseball - The last game ever at Yankee Stadium--"the house that Ruth built"--was played today. In related news, the first game ever in the new Yankee Stadium (across the street) is scheduled to be played next April.
• Golf - Team America beat Team Europe 16 1/2 to 11 1/2 to reclaim the Ryder Cup for the first time since 1999. U - S - A. U - S - A. What? Why should we enjoy this moment? Chances are we won't have any moment like this for another decade.
• College Football - Three weeks into the season, some trends are starting to show: USC looks like a title contender...again (#1 in the AP polls for the third straight week); Notre Dame remains overrated...again (Sure they beat Michigan and a 1-A school, but they got clobbered in their first real test against Michigan State); the SEC is the best conference in the country...again (half the SEC is in the Top 25 and 4 of those teams are ranked 8th or better).