Health: Reduce High-glycaemic food intake

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk A diet rich in potatoes, white bread and white rice may be contributing to a "silent epidemic" of a dangerous liver condition. "High-glycaemic" foods - rapidly digested by the body - could be causing "fatty liver", increasing the risk of serious illness. The study, carried out at Boston Children's Hospital, looked at the effect of diets with precisely the same calorific content, but very different ingredients when measured using the glycaemic index (GI). After six months on the diet, the mice weighed the same, but those on the high GI diet had twice the normal amount of fat in their bodies, blood and livers. The researchers say that because the processed carbohydrates are absorbed so quickly, they trigger the release of more of the chemical insulin, which tells the body to lay down more fat.

NASA: Near Earth Object Program

clipped from neo.jpl.nasa.gov The following table lists potential future Earth impact events that the JPL Sentry System has detected based on currently available observations. Click on the object designation to go to a page with full details on that object. Recently Observed Objects (within past 60 days) Object Designation Year Range Potential Impacts Impact Prob. (cum.) Vinfinity (km/s) H (mag) Est. Diam. (km) Palermo Scale (cum.) Palermo Scale (max.) Torino Scale (max.) 2007 RU9 2013-2071 16 4.4e-06 16.18 20.8  0.234 -2.57 -3.00 0 2007 RY19 2014-2092 752 1.7e-05 9.76 21.9  0.142 -3.03 -3.87 0 2007 RX19 2021-2107 53 5.4e-08 21.30 18.7  0.622 -3.81 -4.54 0 2007 RA20 2016-2107 64 4.6e-08 13.22 19.9  0.362 -4.60 -5.15 0 2007 RT9 2028-2107 33 7.9e-08 9.61 19.9  0.357 -4.61 -5.20 0 2007 RV9 2011-2107 8 7.8e-09 15.22 19.9  0.358 -5.23 -5.56 0

Greenspan: Clinton Good, Bush Bad

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Alan Greenspan, who served as Federal Reserve chairman for 18 years and was the leading Republican economist for the past three decades, levels unusually harsh criticism at President Bush and the Republican Party in his new book, arguing that Bush abandoned the central conservative principle of fiscal restraint. While condemning Democrats, too, for rampant federal spending, he offers Bill Clinton an exemption. The former president emerges as the political hero of "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," Greenspan's 531-page memoir, which is being published Monday. Greenspan, who had an eight-year alliance with Clinton and Democratic Treasury secretaries in the 1990s, praises Clinton's mind and his tough anti-deficit policies, calling the former president's 1993 economic plan "an act of political courage."