Current Facts 5

Diet Foods Fattening?
Diet foods may make you fat, said researchers at Indiana's Purdue University. They found that rats who had been fed saccharin gobbled up three times the calories as rats fed sugar. That could help explain why Americans have grown fatter even as their consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks and snacks has soared. Artificial sweeteners damage the body's ability to link sweet tastes to high calorie content, said researcher Terry Davidson. "When you substitute artificial sweetener for real sugar, the body learns it can no longer use its sense of taste to 'count' Calories."
The Week, December 24, 2004, Vol. 4, Iss. 188/189, pp. 31

2004 Disaster Review
Throughout the Year:
Antartica-Formerly landlocked glaciers move into the ocean, threatening sea levels.
East/South Africa-Droughts threaten 4 million in south Africa and 1.9 million in Eritrea. Indonesia-Mount Egon erupts four times; 2,000 people evacuated.
January: Brazil-Floods and landslides kill 21.
February 24: Morocco-Earthquake kills 628.
March: Western Africa-Saharan dust storm clouds skies.
June-July: Nicaragua-Heavy rains, floods, and mudslides kill 21.
June-July: Bangladesh-Monsoon floods kill 600 and leave the capital, Dhaka, 40 percent underwater.
June-August: Spain and Portugal-forest fires scorch tens of thousands of acres.
August-September: Florida & the Caribbean-four hurricanes in six weeks leave more than 2,000 dead.
August-November: Africa-Locust plague clears millions of cropland acres.
August 12: China-Typhoon Rananim strikes near Shanghai, leaving 115 dead.
August 16: United kingdom-Heavy rains forced Boscastle in Cornwall.
September: Japan-three typhoons leave 107 dead.
September 7: Italy-Mount Etna breaks its seven-year quiet with lava eruption.
September 10: China-Flash floods and landslides damage 300,000 homes.
September 10: Australia-devastating locust plague stuns new South Wales.
October-November: Japan- Earthquakes kill 39, injure 2,000.
October 1: Washington-Mount St. Helens coughs up a 10,000-foot column of steam and ash.
October 6-11: India-Flash floods and landslides kill 162.
October 13: Australia-Record high (100.76 degrees Fahrenheit) hits Sydney.
November 2: Iceland-Grimsvotn volcano erupts, forcing diversion of air traffic.
December 26: Tsunami kills over 116,000 (as reported on Dec 30th 2pm) in Indonesia.
Discover, Vol. 26, No 1, pp 88

Baby Thumb
Parents often try to figure out whether toddlers will be left of right handed. In July scientists came up with an easy, and early, way to tell. Look at the sonograms. Fetuses sucking their right thumb in the womb tend to be right-handed, and vice versa.
Discover, Vol. 26, No 1, pp 70

Public Charities
Though the number of public charities has nearly doubled in the past decade, the number of people doing fundraising has jumped five-fold in that time.-CBSmarketwatch.com
The Week, December 24, 2004, Vol. 4, Iss. 188/189, pp. 46

Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens is now the state of Washington’s worst air polluter, the us Geological Survey reported. Since October, when it began smoldering, the volcano has been spewing 50 to 250 tons of sulfur dioxide a day. Compared with 129 tons a day from all the state's industries combined.-The Seattle Times
The Week, December 17, 2004, Vol. 4, Iss. 187, pp. 18

Auto Market
In 1984, Ford, GM, and Chrysler controlled 76 percent of the US Auto market. In October, the big three accounted for a record low of 56.5 percent.-Business week
The Week, December 17, 2004, Vol. 4, Iss. 187, pp. 44

Hot Cocoa
Hot cocoa keeps you healthy, said Cornell University researchers. Cocoa contains more of the powerful antioxidants Known to fight cancer, heart disease, and aging than other beverages known for their antioxidant content. I mug of cocoa is twice as rich in antioxidants as a glass of wine, three times richer than a cup of green tea, and five times richer than a cup of black tea.
The Week, December 24, 2004, Vol. 4, Iss. 188/189, pp. 30

Origami Gesture Pollution
Narathiwat, Thailand: The Thai air force dropped 100 million paper birds over the southern provinces this week as a goodwill gesture toward the region’s Muslim population. The “peace bombs,” made by Buddhist schoolchildren and carrying written messages of friendship, were the idea of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is running for re-election in a few months. Violence has been almost continual in the south since October, when 78 Muslim demonstrators suffocated to death in police vans. The gesture did not appease Muslim officials in the south, who said it was an “insult” for residents to have to pick up tons of litter.
The Week, December 17, 2004, Vol. 4, Iss. 187, pp. 9

BBC Shrinks
London: The BBC will lay off more than 3,000 reporters, editors, researchers, and administrative staff starting next year, the company said this week. BBC director Mark Thompson said the broadcaster had to cut back if it was to remain “the greatest force for cultural good on the face of the earth.” The company, which is funded by the British government and an annual tax on British TV owners, has 27,600 employees and broadcasts worldwide. The network has been considering a restructuring since last year, when it was sharply criticized for an incorrect report claiming that Tony Blair’s government had knowingly falsified data on Iraq’s weapons programs.
The Week, December 17, 2004, Vol. 4, Iss. 187, pp. 8

Poison Potential
Washington, D.C.: Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson offered some sobering warnings last week after announcing his resignation from President Bush’s Cabinet. Thompson said Asian bird influenza strains were “a really huge bomb” that could kill 70 million people if they mutated into a flu affecting humans. Thompson also said he worried “every single night” about the potential for terrorists to poison imported food. “For the life of me,” he said, “I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply, because it is so easy to do.” A spokesman said Thompson was just trying to be candid, and that there was no reason for the public to panic.
The Week, December 17, 2004, Vol. 4, Iss. 187, pp. 7

U.S. AIDS Drug Flawed
Kampala, Uganda: The National Institutes of Health admitted this week that it withheld potentially damaging results of research into an AIDS drug that the U.S. donated to Africa. In 2002, President Bush announced a $500 million program to provide African countries with stocks of nevirapine, a drug that helps prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to babies during birth. Since then, thousands of African women have received the drug. But the NIH did not tell the White House that some of its research, particularly a study in Uganda, suggested a high level of adverse, even lethal, reactions to the drug. African doctors shrugged off the news, saying the drug had already saved thousands of lives. “What you may call a serious side effect in the U.S. is not a serious side effect in Kampala,” said Francis Mmiro, a lead doctor in the Uganda study.
The Week, December 24, 2004, Vol. 4, Iss. 188/189, pp. 9

New American History
Shortly after Pearl and Ray Wilcox bought their 42,000-acre Range Valley ranch in eastern Utah's rugged Book Cliffs region in 1951, they threw up a gate, ostensibly to protect their cattle. Last June the world learned the real reason. They had been hiding hundreds of small, undisturbed Native American villages dating to the time of the Fremont, a collection of hunter-gatherers and farmers whose complex 1,000-year culture mysteriously ended.
Discover, Vol. 26, No 1, pp 43

2 New Elements
Scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National laboratory in California and the Joint Institute for nuclear research in Russia announced they had discovered two new chemical elements. Called superheavies because of their large atomic mass, elements 113 and 115 lasted little mere than a second. Their brief existence, however, lends credence to the theory that an island of stable heavy elements with unique chemical properties exists within the undiscovered reaches of the periodic table.
The elements were born in a high-powered circular particle accelerator in Debra, Russia. After chemists at Livermore produced a rare isotope of the element Americium, they shipped it to their Russian colleagues, who beamed calcium ions at it with the accelerator. "Every once in a rare while, a calcium ion fused with an americium nucleus, and we got an element 115 isotope," says nuclear chemist Ken Moody, who led the Livermore team. Since each calcium nucleus contains 20 protons and each Americium nucleus has 95, he was pleased, but not surprised, that an element of 115 protons resulted. But it had a littermate-an element with 113 protons that appeared after element 115 underwent radioactive decay.
The new elements, tentatively dubbed ununtrium (113) and ununpentium (115), will have to be independently re-created before they are written into the periodic table.
Discover, Vol. 26, No 1, pp 38

99.8% of FCC Complaints
"Mediaweek is reporting that complaints to the FCC are rising. Powell spoke before congress, detailing that the complaints are up from 14,000 in 2002, to nearly 240,000 in 2003. There were only 350 complaints during 2000 and 2001. Powell failed to mention however that 99.8% of those complaints came from PTC (Parents Television Council). The article does mention he may have been unaware of this fact. Jonathan Rintels (president of the Center for Creative Voices in Media) commented, 'It means that really a tiny minority with a very focused political agenda is trying to censor American television and radio.'"As noted on Slashdot

20 Mummies Found
An Egyptian archaeological team has discovered a group of 20 gold-coated mummies in the country's western desert, Culture Minister Faruq Hosni announced today. He said the discovery brings to 234 the number of mummies so far unearthed in the area called the Valley of the Golden Mummies, adding that excavations were ongoing in and around the site.

Oldest Backgammon Set in Iran
Archaeologists in Iran have said they have uncovered what they believe is the world's oldest backgammon set, which could make the country the cradle of board games.
According to the Internet site of Iran's Cultural Heritage organisation, the game, complete with 60 pieces, was found in the ruins of the so-called Burnt City in Sistan-Baluchestan province the far southeast of the Islamic republic.
The report said Iranian archeologists working on the relics of the 5,000-year-old civilisation believe the set is up to two centuries older than previous discoveries in Mesopotamian sites in what is now Iraq."The board is rectangular and made of ebony, which did not grow in Sistan and merchants used to import it from India," said Mansour Sajjadi, adding the set also displayed a high degree of craftsmanship. However, he said researchers were still trying to work out why the set had 60 pieces. Modern varieties of the game have 30 pieces.
Located near Zabol and the Afghan border, the Burnt City is believed to have been built 3200 BC and flourished until it was destroyed by fire in 2100 BC.

Wal-Mart
Frontline Documentary on Wal-Mart. View it online here (in sections)

Jet Crash
A private jet crashed near Houston on its way to pick up former president George H.W. Bush this week, killing all three crew members. The Gulfstream charter jet was supposed to be flying at 1,000 feet as it descended in heavy fog three miles from Hobby Airport. But the plane, just 120 feet off the ground, clipped a light pole beside a highway and showered cars with fuel and debris. It then slammed into a muddy field and exploded. Bush, who was planning to fly to a conference in Ecuador, found out that his plane had crashed when he reached the airport. “I’d flown with this crew before and knew them well,” he said. “It’s very sad.”
Taken from “The Week,” December 3, 2004, Vol 4, Iss 185, pp. 7

Civil War in Sudan
Another half-million people are fleeing the civil war in western Sudan, the U.N. said this week. The war started last year as a conflict between Arab nomads and black farmers over land and water rights. It now involves the government and three rebel groups, and has left more than 1.5 million people homeless. That figure will rise by another half-million next month, and most of the refugees cannot return even if the war ends. U.N. aid official Tony Hall said that on a recent trip to Darfur, he saw many villages completely burned out and uninhabitable. “They were like ghost villages,” he said. “The houses were destroyed, the land was barren, and the people were gone.”
Taken from “The Week,” December 3, 2004, Vol 4, Iss 185, pp. 9

Gulf War Syndrome
Veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, who have long demanded recognition of the Gulf War syndrome as a real illness, have finally received some vindication. A federal panel found that exposure to a toxic stew of chemicals probably caused the mysterious medical problems that have plagued the veterans. More than 25 percent of the 700,000 soldiers who served in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq during the war have come down with chronic headaches, memory loss, skin rashes, and other nervous system disorders, as well as unusual forms of cancer. The government had previously maintained that the ailments were caused by stress or psychological problems. But the special panel of scientists found a probable link between the illnesses and toxins from a variety of sources: burning oil wells, a sarin nerve gas depot that was destroyed, pesticides used to ward off insects, depleted uranium used in armor piercing shells, even the drugs designed to protect the troops from nerve gas. The new findings could make it easier for the Gulf War veterans to get disability benefits and other compensation. “The men and women who fought there deserve our undivided attention to their questions, to their symptoms, to their futures,” Anthony Principi, secretary of Veterans Affairs, tells the New York Times. “They have been frustrated for far too long.”
Taken from “The Week,” December 3, 2004, Vol 4, Iss 185, pp. 24