It's WTF Tuesday!

Soldier: Obama not U.S. born, can't send me to Afghanistan:

MACON — U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook is seeking a federal court order to stall and eventually prevent an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.

In the 20-page document — filed July 8 with the United States District Court, Middle District of Georgia — Cook's California-based attorney, Orly Taitz, asks the court to consider granting his client's request based upon Cook's belief that President Barrack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of U.S Armed Forces.

Major Cook is very brave to bring attention to the fact that he wasn't paying attention in history class. Hawaii isn't part of the United States but one of those weird island nations filled with exotic natives and stuff, apparently.

Why didn't soldiers think of this excuse with Bush? "He wasn't elected but selected, so doesn't have the right to send me to his Neocon war of choice." That excuse would at least been based on the truth!
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That's a lot of fake brake repairs....

Rarely do stories generate the kind of consumer response that The Bee received after the state attorney general's office sued a Modesto businessman and his 22 Midas Automotive Service franchises.

The civil lawsuit, which seeks $222 million in penalties, claims the shops owned by Maurice "Mike" Irving Glad used false advertising and fraudulent business practices to sell consumers unnecessary parts and services. The case stems from a four-year investigation and 30 undercover sting operations.

For his part, Glad says he was the victim of overzealous enforcement by the state Bureau of Automotive Repair that was designed to deceive his mechanics. He defended his business practices and workers, vowing to fight the lawsuit aggressively.

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Chan Akya of The Asia Times digs a hole trying to explain why he took offense to Krugman's ... use of slang which makes his economic theories all wrong?

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Ya give a kid a credit card....

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Speaking of money, we'd like to see this corporation's uncooked books:

US bank Goldman Sachs reported a net profit of $3.44bn (£2.1bn) for April to June, beating analysts' forecasts.

Less volatility in stock markets, rises in global share prices and involvement in many firms' rights issues and takeovers had boosted profits, it said.

The bank said it had set aside $6.65bn for pay and bonuses in the quarter - an average of $226,000 per employee.

Goldman has recently paid off $10bn of government loans it had taken as part of a government bail-out programme.

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But lead is a natural substance... and makes you feel full!:

A new study by Consumer Lab found that many multivitamins contain potentially dangerous levels of lead, and many did not contain the vitamins and minerals their labels proclaim.

[snip]

Almost no vitamins were found to be free of lead, according to the Sacramento Bee (the study results are by subscription only). Indeed, lead-free may be an impossible goal because fruits and vegetables absorb lead from soil and water.

What's a person to do? Your best bet is to buy a well known brand and look for a stamp on the bottle from USP, NSF or Consumer Lab.com. Living in California helps, because our state is the only one to regulate vitamins. By California law, 15 percent of the vitamins evaluated ought to carry a warning label.

Pharmaceutical companies hope you will not read this

The best efforts of the scientific community to prove the health benefits of vitamins keep falling short.

[snip]

Everyone needs vitamins, which are critical for the body. But for most people, the micronutrients we get from foods usually are adequate to prevent vitamin deficiency, which is rare in the United States. That said, some extra vitamins have proven benefits, such as vitamin B12 supplements for the elderly and folic acid for women of child-bearing age. And calcium and vitamin D in women over 65 appear to protect bone health.

But many people gobble down large doses of vitamins believing that they boost the body’s ability to mop up damaging free radicals that lead to cancer and heart disease. In addition to the more recent research, several reports in recent years have challenged the notion that megadoses of vitamins are good for you.

Well, everybody else was doing it...

So why are we being picked on?

Sounds like twelve year olds caught out late:

Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said officials were focusing on stricter market access requirements for companies, conducting random checks and beefing up product testing.

But he stressed that China was not the only one with problems, citing comments by World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan this week that the agency receives about 200 reports of food safety problems every month from its 193 member states.

"This shows that food safety is not an issue of a particular country or region," Li said at a news conference.

But further down the article:

This week, Philippine authorities said a Chinese candy was found to be tainted with formaldehyde — an allegation the maker denied on Wednesday, blaming counterfeit versions.

An official at the Shanghai branch of Swiss SGS, the testing company, said Friday that "the milk candy samples did not contain formaldehyde."

But the official, who gave only his surname, Zhang, said it was unclear if the products tested were the same as those found in the Philippines.

Uh huh. And I presume the dog ate your homework, too.



By the way, just a heads up when you take your vitamin C:

New York and Beijing - A sharp rise in the international price of vitamin C is focusing fresh attention on the risks of the world's growing dependence on China for essential food supplies and additives.

China, which exports more than 80 percent of the world's ascorbic acid – also known as vitamin C and a key food preservative – appears to have cut production over the past several months, pushing prices up by more than 200 percent to a four-year high.

Update: The costs in lawsuits and finding other producers of food products is still being calculated.

The Washington Post:

In Nevada, the chief executive of an import company examines the lawsuit that just hit him, wondering how much it will cost to ensure that his next purchases of pet food ingredients are free of industrial poisons.

In Kansas, wheat growers wonder how China usurped the once-bustling market in gluten, a protein-rich byproduct of those amber waves of grain that once symbolized America's bounty.

And at a park in Washington, the owner of a soft-coated terrier says that after learning the food he had been giving his beloved Checkers for the past six years was on the recall list, he will never again buy pet food brands with foreign ingredients.

"They've lost a lot of credibility," said Fred Mitzner, who after the recall started buying California Natural dog food. "It was very upsetting."

While the Food and Drug Administration pursues what is sure to be a long investigation into how pet food became contaminated with an ingredient for making plastics, and while Congress begins the months-long process of haggling over food-safety amendments, pet food companies, their suppliers and their customers do not have the luxury of waiting.

They have to cope with the crisis immediately, and for most, that is already proving expensive.

You need to eat fish/not eat fish

If you can get any....

Munich­ Taking vitamin D during pregnancy can help prevent the development of diseases later in the unborn child's life, according to Armin Malter of Germany's Professional Association of Gynaecologists. "The latest studies show that vitamin D can aid the immune system and help prevent autoimmune conditions such as diabetes and thyroid problems," says Malter.

Malter says pregnant women are likely to have a deficiency of vitamin D as their unborn child develops in the womb.

Pregnant women should eat foods high in vitamin D such as fatty fish like salmon and tuna. Milk and eggs also contain high levels of the vitamin.

But....

New York, April 14 Eating fish polluted by manmade toxic chemicals and industrial effluents in sea and soil could increase your diabetes risk, a new study shows.

Until now, obesity was thought to be the most important factor in the development of type 2 diabetes - a disorder in which the body does not produce enough insulin - necessary for the body to be able to use sugar.

But new study by South Korean researchers has shown that people whose bodies are polluted by high levels of chemicals including the pesticide DDT and industrial coolants called PCBs are more likely to have diabetes than those with lower amounts in their bodies.

And California restricts fishing:

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., April 14 California is banning or restricting fishing in 29 areas off its Central Coast.

Friday's unanimous vote by the California Fish and Game Commission establishes the largest network of marine reserves in the continental United States. The move will protect about 200 square miles of water from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz in an effort to replenish depleted marine populations, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Tomorrow we will find out exercise kills!

Vitamins may not be so good for you:

Taking certain vitamin supplements may adversely affect people's lifespan, researchers have suggested.

Millions worldwide use antioxidant supplements such as vitamins A and E, and beta-carotene.

Looking at dozens of previous research studies, Copenhagen University researchers suggested these appeared to raise, not lower, the risk of death.

A supplements industry expert said the Journal of the American Medical Association study was fatally flawed.

But nutritionists said it reinforced the need to eat a balanced diet, rather than relying on supplements.

While vitamin supplements have been popular for decades, the precise benefits they offer - if any - remain uncertain, despite hundreds of research projects.