World Has More Fat People Than Hungry

The transition from a starving world to an obese one has happened with dramatic speed, US professor Barry Popkin told the International Association of Agricultural Economists.

"The reality is that globally far more obesity than undernutrition exists," Popkin said, adding that while hunger was slowly declining, obesity was rapidly spreading.

There are about 1.4 billion overweight people in the world and 800 million who are undernourished, he said (read more).

E.T. Come Alive!

See that dude in the back on the left? Carrying a bag? Soon that will be me.


Recently my employer asked for volunteers to learn decontamination training in case of an emergency. They specifically requested non-medical personnel. I suspect that is either because the medical personnel will be busy with medical emergencies or because the rest of us are expendable. In any case I'm pretty excited. Two days off work to play in the highest quality rain gear and chemical hoses money can by. October 17-18th. I'll try to post some pictures.

"Well No Miss, It Is Mostly Wood"

While looking up how many bags I was allowed for my flight to Denver last month I ran across a handy list provided by Frontier Airlines, indicating what sorts of odd luggage were allowed. Lots of interesting stuff in that list but the item that caught my attention were the rules on skateboards.

Apparently you can check a skateboard as a piece of your luggage at no extra charge with the following exception; "Cannot accept skateboards with hazmat stickers."

You have to figure that one came up a lot to make it in the rulebook.

Commando Llama!

Israeli special forces and their llamas wait to cross the Israel-Lebanon border west of Avivim, late night August 1 (source).