SAR #12012

My interest in these things is more than idle curiosity...

Hangover: The unemployment figure rose 26,000 last week, to 399,000. Unexpectedly.

Photo Finish: Will oil keep climbing, or will the price collapse? Continued deterioration of the European economy would cut demand and thus price. But an interruption of the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf would spike prices higher. Eneey, Meeny...

They're Back: Two US drones attacked a hovel in Pakistan's tribal region, killing four people who, being dead, were obviously militants.

Trust Us: Researchers have now demonstrated what was feared all along - some of the genetic modifications made to food crops can survive digestion and take up residence in the blood and organs of humans who eat them. But it is far too late to panic - GM crops of corn, rice, soybeans, cotton, alfalfa and others have become ubiquitous, thanks in no small part to the US State Department pushing Monsanto's little darlings on client states around the world.

Three Guesses: Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan was assassinated by a bomb planted by ________ agents.

Size Matters: The Transportation Security Administration says that cupcakes with a thick layer of icing are a security threat. It also says that ““In general, cakes and pies are allowed in carry-on luggage, however the officer in this case was hungry.”

Nevermore: Drones now account for 31 percent of all military aircraft. The Army, for example, has 5,346 Ravens, a tiny flying spy used to monitor battlefields and civilian populations.

Resolution: A 2% growth rate leads to doubling about every 80 years. The human population has grown at about that rate for the last 200 years, fed by fossil fuels and the unrestrained exploitation of natural resource and the unfettered despoliation of the environment – land, sea and air. This cannot continue, and thus will not. We must very rapidly reduce both our population and our thoughtlessness, or Ms. Nature will close our account. People ask “What level of human population is sustainable?” as if there were a positive integer that would answer the question.

Thirsty Business: A bill in the Florida legislature would transfer public drinking water to the care and keeping of a privately owned entity. What could go wrong?

Yes, But... Using the 'we're bigger than you are' defense, the US declines to be taken to court over experiments involving sexually transmitted diseases conducted on unsuspecting Guatemalans. The US does not deny conducting the experiments, it just denies the victims and their descendants the right to take the US to court. Besides, we ran the syphilis experiments here at home.

'Nuff Said: The RNC, following up the Roberts' Court ruling on corporate campaign donations, wants to overturn the 1908 law that bans corporations from directly buying political candidates. Logic, if not prudence, is on their side.

Porn O'Graph: It's the oil, stupid.