What Caught My Eye Today

Fred's Note: Upon reflection, yesterday's topics were a bit on the heavy side. By sheer coincidence, today's postings (with the possible exception of the first one) are much more on the lighter side.

Zimbabwe - Here's a riddle for you...What do you get the delusional leader of a nation who apparently has everything? If you happen to be the "whack job" leader of another country I guess you do something like this. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is assembling a "Noah's Ark" of Zimbabwean wildlife, as a gift to his fellow dictator and ally, North Korea's Kim Jong Il. Sure, why not? Park officials have captured pairs of baby elephants, rhinos, giraffes, warthogs and other species, which are to be shipped to Pyongyang. Mugabe gave North Korea two rhinos in the 1980s; they died after just a few months. It seems these endangered species don't have enough going against them. Forget that their very existence is at risk; let's ship them off to North Korea for the amusement of the Beloved Leader. Who knows, maybe some of them might actually survive more than a few months this time.

National Debt - If you are anything like me, you have spent countless nights pondering what to do with all that spare cash you have lying around. Fear not, my friends. I have the perfect solution. If you would like to help the U.S. pay its public debt, the Treasury would be glad to take your money. They've set up a convenient online form to make it easy (click here). "Welcome to the United States Treasury's site for making donations to help reduce the public debt," the form says. "If you would like to make a donation, please fill in the required fields and click the Submit Data button when completed. Your contribution will be deposited to the account "Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt." Your contribution is accepted under the provisions of 31 U.S.C. 3113 which authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to accept conditional gifts to the United States for the purpose of reducing the public debt. These donations are voluntary, and no goods, services, or other considerations are provided to the donors." I am so there.

Teenagers - As if it wasn't hard enough to survive puberty. Apparently, it makes you stupid, too. A recent study suggests that puberty may set off changes in the brain that make it the hardest time in life to learn new things. Researchers have found that during puberty unusual changes take place in the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in memory and learning. There is a sudden growth of receptors for a chemical that calms them down but also interferes with learning. Whew. That's a relief. All this time I was thinking that it was all that binge drinking and preoccupation with hooking with the opposite sex that was to blame. Who would have thought that being dumb was just part of growing up. Woo hoo!

Junk Food - New research suggests junk food is literally addictive, producing changes in brain chemistry similar to those cocaine causes. Far be it from me to mock science, but...Duh. Of course its addictive. Why else would so many of use inhale so much of this crap on a daily basis? Researchers measured the brain activity of rates given unfettered access to fatty, high-calorie food. The rats quickly became obese and ate compulsively and continuously, even ignoring electric shocks applied to their feet in the presence of food. The same shocks applied to the control group deterred those rates from eating. Again, duh. The junk food probably tasted better, thereby warranting the trivial cost of shock therapy. As the rats consumed the junk food, the pleasure centers of their brains lit up just as if they were taking drugs. When the junk food was removed in favor of healthier food, the rats were so upset that they basically starved themselves. Seriously, can you blame them? Once you have tasted the sweet ambrosia that is "two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun" its hard--I daresay, impossible--to expect any real satisfaction from a celery stick.