Amazing facts

Several very interesting reports released this week, found via Resourceshelf and/or Docuticker:

Diesel Fumes: The Clean Air Task Force released No escape from diesel fumes. According to the report: "...fine particles, such as those found in diesel exhaust, shorten the lives of 70,000 Americans each year... although we spend only about six percent of our day commuting to and from work, it is during that time when we receive over half of our exposure."

I used to ride a bike in downtown DC and figured breathing the air was a real problem for my future health. After a respite for a few years in the NC mountains, I moved to Miami and drove a series of convertible cars. Great way to drive back and forth to work in the tropical air, but it covered a few miles of I-95 so I'm sure I got another good dose of those diesel particles.

Hmmm. Doomed. Between that and the spray I breathed in all the apple orchards around my childhood home....

The future of fish: The National Center for Policy Analysis has released Ocean Fisheries: Common Heritage or Tragic Commons? about the collapse of fisheries around the world, particularly in U.S. waters:

...five hundred years ago the English explorer John Cabot reported the waters off Newfoundland were so thick with cod you could catch them by hanging baskets over the ship's side. But the boom is over. American and world fisheries have entered a period of rapid and unprecedented decline:
In the past 50 years, populations of large fish species - including tuna, swordfish, marlin, sharks, cod, halibut and flounder - have decreased 90 percent worldwide.
...Fish stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of all ocean fisheries, and all commercially valuable world fish stocks could completely collapse by 2048.

Veterans and military: The American Psychological Association has results of a task force study on the mental health problems of military personnel and their families, which says "Many service personnel and their family members are going without mental health care because of the limited availability of such care and the barriers to accessing care."

Too many calories: From the Center for Science and the Public Interest, a study of restaurant menus, X-Treme Eating. Listing some of the highest-calorie menu items offered by places like Ruby Tuesday, Uno and Cheesecake Factory, this is scary. For one:

Ruby Tuesday’s “Fresh Chicken & Broccoli Pasta.” Pity the poor diner who thinks this healthy sounding entrée is on the light side: Thanks to its parmesan cream sauce and layer of melted cheese, the 2,060 calories and 128 grams of fat make it the equivalent of two 12-ounce sirloin steaks, two buttered baked potatoes, and two Caesar salads.

I don't eat often in restaurants, partly because most of them give you too much food. But this is beyond what I would have imagined.


Women who ask too much: The Telegraph takes on 'Toxic Wives' and gives potential grooms tips on how to avoid gold-diggers.