Germ theory of obesity gains weight. Salon

West Nile Virus declared an epidemic in Israel. Probably spread by birds stopping over on their migration routes between Europe and Africa. 15% of tested Israeli population have antibodies against WNV, indicating a history of exposure. All wild birds tested in Israeli national parks carry the antibodies, according to health officials. NYPost

Sealed Evidence Against Clinton Called ‘Terrible

if True’. Scandal-sheet-style suggestions by a Washington Post reporter based on information from private investigators who worked on the Paula Jones case.

“In his book Baker says that the independent counsel’s office

investigated 21 women linked to Clinton… (Private) investigators hired by Jones’

legal team told NewsMax.com last year that one of the

allegations they were investigating at the close of the Jones

case involved the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by

then-Governor Clinton at a cocaine party…”

Why Not Sue Big Entertainment? “What Big Entertainment has done to

America’s children makes what Big Tobacco has done pale by

comparison.” Opinion piece by George Mason University professor of economics Walter Williams.

City-by-city Grid of Local Actions for the “S 26 International Day of Action”, 9/26/00, the latest planned outbreak of the anti-globalization “movement.”

I asked whether that “air rage” passenger who died after restrained by other passengers really represented a threat. People have written with what strike me as both thoughtful and kneejerk responses. The former mostly reflect on when they were perceived — or misperceived — as scary and threatening by others when they were distraught. The latter were mostly along the lines of projections of what the unfortunate young man could’ve done if not prevented — e.g., depressurize the cabin by his actions — or assumptions about what he had done — hurt other passengers. (“Shit yeah, he was dangerous!”) This all confirms my point. While, of course, neither those who wrote responses to me nor I know anything about what really happened up there, and we’re not likely to, he might still be alive (and everyone safe) if his fellow passengers had tempered reacting from their own fears with a grasp of the situation from his panic-stricken viewpoint and realized that, when someone scares us, it is often a reflection of how scared they themselves feel at the time. I just wanted to suggest that he, or someone in his position the next time, might not really need to be subdued quite so vehemently at such a time. My work with the psychiatrically ill has alot to do with sensitivity to the stigmatization and negative reactions they suffer from those around them.

Annals of the Age of Depravity (cont’d.): Baby Dies After Being Left In Car. The father says it was only when he went to pick up his 5-month old daughter at day care at the end of the day and was told she had never arrived that morning that he realized that he had forgotten to drop her off and had left her in the car all day, where she had died.

You are what you eat. “A mother’s diet in the first few days after conception could determine the health of her unborn child for life, say

British researchers. An embryo sets its growth rate according to its environment–a process known as programming. If a mother is

malnourished, for instance, the embryo grows more slowly, which leads to low birthweight. Babies that are born

small are more susceptible to diabetes, high blood pressure and strokes in later life.

Now a team led by Tom Fleming of the University of Southampton suggests that programming may take place in the

four or five days following fertilisation, before the embryo even implants in the womb.” New Scientist

Gulf War syndrome may lead to Parkinson’s; more immediately, evidence of neurological dysfunction in Gulf War veterans but not matched controls suggests the syndrome may have an organic, neurological cause rather than being merely a psychological reaction to traumatization, as has been previously claimed. The promising imaging technique, magnetic resonance spectrometry, contributes evidence.

New class of antibiotic may fight drug resistance. Or, more likely, select for bacteria resistant to them (as have all other classes of antibiotics…) Reuters