Category: News

  • Some Restaurant Sushi Contains Endangered Species

    sushi menu

    A recent study has produced some astonishing and disturbing results. Tuna was ordered from 31 sushi restaurants. Genetic tests were then used to identify the species of fish ordered. Nineteen of the restaurants surveyed incorrectly described or could could not indicate which species of fish they had served. A few establishments actually served endangered bluefin tuna not knowing which tuna type they were selling to their customers.

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  • The Tuben or “Elk Showers”

    Sweden, Europe | Weird Weather Phenomena

    In the small village of Gravendal in Dalarna, Sweden there is an old wooden water tube, leading water to the local electric power station. Because of it´s age, this tube is full of holes so water squirts out in various places, in wintertime it forms amazing ice sculptures in the trees nearby.

    Locally this phenomenon is called the “elk shower”. Whether the elks actually take a cold one once in a while is unknown, but if you are very quiet maybe you might be able to sneak up on one..

  • Funny How Those In Favor Of ACTA Are Against Treaty Providing More Access To Content For Vision Impaired

    It seems pretty bizarre that companies and industry organizations would be against helping those with reading disabilities or vision impairment — but that’s exactly what you get in the discussion over creating some loopholes in copyright law to make it easier to reformat content to help those who would have difficulties reading it otherwise. Their concern, of course, is anything that can be seen as weakening copyright law. As we’ve noted in the past, there’s never really been any weakening of copyright law… ever. The only exception I can think of is when the US officially established that government documents could not be covered by copyright. But every other change has only strengthened it — so perhaps it’s no surprise that the usual suspects, including the MPAA and the RIAA are upset about this, claiming that this WIPO treaty on this subject would “begin to dismantle the existing global treaty structure of copyright law, through the adoption of an international instrument at odds with existing, longstanding and well-settled norms.”

    Now, that’s funny, because you could pretty much say that ACTA is doing the same thing… and yet these same groups are strongly in favor of ACTA, which would also be at odds with existing, longstanding and well-settled norms.” Funny how their view changes completely when discussing treaties that would beef up copyright law vs. those that would create important and useful loopholes in it.

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  • VIDEO: Inside the cockpit of the Viper ACR’s record lap at Laguna Seca

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    Dodge Viper ACR laps Laguna Seca – Click above to watch the video after the jump

    Pushing a performance monster like the Viper ACR around a race track at ten tenths takes some pretty massive cojones. But few tracks require the testicular fortitude of Laguna Seca.

    The iconic circuit in Northern California is packed full of decreasing radius corners, off-camber turns, and the indomitable corkscrew. Fortunately, Dodge test driver Chris Winkler was up to the task, and pushed the ACR around dry lagoon to a record-breaking lap time of 1:33.944, edging out its cousin the Devon GTX in the process to claim the fastest road-car lap time around the track.

    Now we’ve got footage that takes us inside the cockpit for the record run, which may seem like old hat to the video game crowd, until you realize this was happening in real life. Follow the jump to check it out.

    [Source: Chrysler via YouTube]

    Continue reading VIDEO: Inside the cockpit of the Viper ACR’s record lap at Laguna Seca

    VIDEO: Inside the cockpit of the Viper ACR’s record lap at Laguna Seca originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Ugly Betty – s4 | e8 – The Bahamas Triangle

    Betty, Matt and Amanda’s love triangle explodes in the Bahamas.

    Add this to your queue
    Added: Wed Nov 25 23:18:04 UTC 2009
    Air date: Fri Dec 04 00:00:00 UTC 2009
    Duration: 43:24

  • Castle – s2 | e11 – The Fifth Bullet

    When an art dealer is shot in his gallery, Castle and Beckett discover that a bullet is missing from the crime scene.

    Add this to your queue
    Added: Wed Nov 25 23:18:04 UTC 2009
    Air date: Mon Dec 07 00:00:00 UTC 2009
    Duration: 43:27
    Closed captions available.

  • Advertising As Content: Newspaper Raising Newsstand Prices For Thanksgiving Papers With Black Friday Ads

    With newspapers struggling with declining sales and subscriptions, it seems that a few of the major newspaper chains have realized that when they have a newspaper with something of real value to a lot more people than usual, perhaps it makes sense to bump up the prices. Both Tribune Co. and E.W. Scripps are planning to raise the newsstand price of Thursday’s paper, treating it like a standard Sunday paper, recognizing that many people want the paper just for the ad circulars that detail “Black Friday” sales. In some ways, it’s yet another point of evidence that ads (relevant ones) represent content — in this case, content that a lot of people are apparently willing to pay for.

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  • Loma Performance unveils Corvette C6.BlackforceOne

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    C6.BlackforceOne

    Loma Performance Corvette “BlackforceOne” – Click above for high-res image gallery

    Loma Performance seems to think that its new BlackforceOne Corvette is somehow evocative of POTUS’ personal airplane. “Clearly reminiscent,” they go so far as to say in their press release. (We think the moniker sounds as if could have been the title of a 1970s action film starring Fred Williamson.) Anyway, labored connections to the Prez’s 747 aside, with the BlackforceOne, Loma appears to have come up with something pretty tasty.

    It starts off as a base-engined C6 Vette, which is subsequently twin-turbocharged to make 783 horsepower (794 PS). Of that, a devilish 666 hp (675 PS) or so actually make it to the rear wheels. Accordingly, the sprint to 100 km/h (62 mph) takes a scant 3.4 seconds, and the top speed is 205 mph (330 km/h). The stock brakes are replaced with carbon-ceramic discs all around, and the suspension, wheels, tires, exhaust and other drivetrain components are also upgraded accordingly.

    The package is then wrapped in a widebody kit drenched in one of three matte paint finishes. Production will be limited to 25 examples, according to Loma, which will formally unveil the BlackforceOne at the Essen Motor Show.

    [Source: Loma Performance]

    Continue reading Loma Performance unveils Corvette C6.BlackforceOne

    Loma Performance unveils Corvette C6.BlackforceOne originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Is the Widcomm Bluetooth stack in the HTC Touch Pro2 causing problems

    Screen03 One of the surprises that greet new HTC Touch Pro 2 users when they first explore their phone is the very pretty and finger-friendly Widcomm Bluetooth stack. 

    While the task-based software is very easy to use it seems however it may be causing users some trouble due to incompatibility not present in the native Microsoft stack, and also complaints of general bugginess in the software.

    Are you using an HTC Touch Pro 2 and using Bluetooth?  Take part in our poll below and let us know of your experience in the comments.

    Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

    Thanks Simbadogg for the tip.

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  • Hanging Temple of Hengshan

    Daciyao, China | Rites and Rituals

    The Hanging Temple, located about 60 km southwest of Datong, China in Shanxi province, is one of the world’s forgotten wonders. Clinging to a crag of Hengshan mountain, in apparent defiance of gravity, it consists of 40 rooms linked by a dizzying maze of passageways. The temple is said to have been built by a monk named Liao Ran, during the late Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD) and restored in 1900.

    The temple was constructed by drilling holes into the cliff side into which the poles that hold up the temples are set. Interestingly the temple is dedicated to not just one religion, but three, with Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism all worshiped within the temple and represented in 78 statues and carvings throughout the temple.

  • World’s Largest Solar Furnace

    Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, France | Instruments of Science

    As far as energy sources go, focused solar heat is ancient. In ancient Greece, glass vases were filled with water to create a “burning glass” and as the Greeks got better at creating lenses, focused sunlight was used to light sacred fires and even cauterize wounds.

    The most famous of these solar powered burning lenses is the system Archimedes is said to have used to ignite a fleet of Roman ships. And it wasn’t just the Greeks and Romans who used solar power lenses either, “Visby” lenses made of ground rock crystal were used by the Vikings in the 1000s, and similar technology is believed to have been used by the Celts and even the ancient Egyptians.

    The name “solar furnace,” translates in Latin to heliocaminus. A heliocaminus was simply a glass enclosed room meant to focus and heat the room, much like a modern sunroom. The principles behind a modern solar furnace hasn’t changed much from these sun rooms and “burning lenses.”

    The world’s largest solar furnace is located in Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, a commune in the sunny Pyrenees mountains on the French-Spanish border. The furnace consists of a field of 10,000 mirrors bounce the sun’s rays onto a large concave mirror which focuses the enormous amount of sunlight onto an area roughly the size of a cooking pot which reaches temperatures above 3,000 °C or 5,430 degrees Fahrenheit.

    The solar furnace itself itself exactly new. The first modern solar furnace was built in Mont Louis, in 1949 by professor Félix Trombe, and the current one was constructed in 1970. However the solar furnace continues to generate a beam of focused sunlight as powerful today as it was 3000 years ago.

  • REPORT: Ferrari’s twin-turbo F70 shapes up to succeed the Enzo

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    It’s been nearly six years since production ended on the Ferrari Enzo. That’s longer than we had to wait for the Enzo to arrive after the preceding F50 ended production, but far longer than the gap between the F40 and F50 or between the 288 GTO and the F40. In the interceding years, rival automakers like Lamborghini, Bugatti and even Aston Martin have been glad to present the uber-wealthy with million-dollar supercars, but Ferrari hasn’t sat idly by. The exotic automaker from Maranello has been working on plans of its own, speculative details of which have begun to take shape.

    According to reports, the project codenamed F70 should hit the streets by 2012. And when it does, expect it to take its cues from the FXX development program and the Millechilli concept car. That means all the latest high-tech race-derived technology packed into a compact frame placing its emphasis on weight reduction.

    A carbon fiber body and chassis, along with a stripped-down cockpit will do their part, but don’t expect the F70 to go light on the power. Ferrari’s new turbo system could be ready for the Enzo replacement, possibly employing electric actuators to spool up the twin turbos to avoid lag. Coupled with direct injection, the V8 should at least match the Enzo’s 650 horsepower, but cut down significantly on carbon emissions while rocketing its rich occupants to sixty in three seconds flat and top out around 230 miles per hour. Of course, this is all an educated guess at best, but it looks good so far.

    [Source: Auto Express]

    REPORT: Ferrari’s twin-turbo F70 shapes up to succeed the Enzo originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Are Entertainment Industry Tactics Working?

    It’s been somewhat amusing over the last day or so to see a bunch of our usual critics all submit the same exact story with some sort of triumphant “I told you so!!!!!” (usually in less friendly language). It’s a report that music sales are up in Sweden following the strict anti-piracy law that went into effect earlier this year. The claim is that this is proof that the RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BPI/etc strategies work. To them, this is clear, irrefutable evidence that draconian measures to crack down on unauthorized file sharing really does make people buy. That would be quite interesting if true, but our friends employed by these companies might want to wait a bit before breaking out the champagne over a dead cat bounce.

    First, there are some who are questioning the actual numbers. So far, the only numbers have come directly from the IFPI, who hasn’t provided much in the way of detail (and have a long history of publishing questionable, fact-challenged numbers). In fact, the very lack of detail would likely indicate that there are extenuating circumstances here. And, when we’re talking about Sweden, it has to also be noted that services like Spotify (which dragged the labels kicking and screaming into the modern world) were just launched at the very end of last year. So, it could be that it was one of these more modern services that helped convince people to buy music rather than any crackdown. But, of course, the bigger question is whether or not any boost is sustainable. It was reported that there was a drop in file sharing after the Swedish IPRED law went into effect (though, again, many argue that the “drop” was simply because more people started using encryption and those who measure file sharing traffic had no way to deal with it, so pretended they all stopped). Yet, it didn’t take long for the traffic numbers to bounce back up.

    And that’s the issue. If your entire business model is based on whacking people with a stick and telling them what they can’t do, you may get brief moments of compliance, but at the first chance they get to go back to a more consumer-friendly system, they will. So while our friends in the entertainment industry will likely misread this situation into believing that its strategy of pissing off pretty much everyone makes business sense, let’s wait and see how this works out in the next year or so. Dead cat bounces can fool lots of folks, but there are very few industries that succeed by basing their future on such things.

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  • Climate conference just around the corner

    Senate needs to take action, now

    Editor, The Times:

    U.N. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon continues to press the Senate to take action on climate change, and they have continued to delay moving forward with a bill [“U.N. chief prods Senate to tackle climate change,” Seattletimes.com, Business/Technology, Nov. 10]. They seem willing to postpone it until after health-care and financial reforms are enacted.

    The problem with this strategy is that the longer we wait, the worse the effects of climate change will become. Even worse, we will be giving a head start to other countries who are already investing in clean-energy technology.

    Instead, we should be investing in clean-energy projects that will create green-collar jobs — jobs that most anyone can do. Contrary to what some may think, these jobs don’t require fancy technology, and actually only require basic skills like the use of a caulking gun.

    This is why we need Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to not only support a bill, but to urge that we confront the problem of climate change now.

    With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, a climate-change bill would help provide funding that allows the U.S. to become a leader in clean energy and would provide much-needed jobs.

    — Matt Ojala, Seattle

    No one cares what Ban Ki-moon, United Nations thinks

    All the recent discussion of U.N. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon [“Global climate change accelerates in dozen years since Kyoto accord,” page one, Nov. 23], misses an important point: Nobody cares what Ban Ki-moon or the U.N. thinks.

    If efforts to transition to clean energy are seen as appeasements to these figures, or anyone besides the American people at large, they will never enjoy success. The massive amount of political will needed to power this change can only come from one source: the economic self-interest of the American people.

    In fact, clean energy is in the economic self-interest of the American people, but this is seldom talked about. According to Thomas L. Friedman, it is the next global industry, set to generate enormous amounts of wealth.

    We need to be much more vocal in asserting the economic rationale for going green. It is on this point that the battle is currently being waged in Washington, D.C. And it is the point that Ban Ki-moon will need to emphasize if he wants anyone to take him seriously.

    — Daniel Silbaugh, Lynnwood

    Global warming is a natural disaster, nothing else

    Global warming, earthquakes, volcanoes, global cooling, global freezing, tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons and a new ice age or melting ice caps.

    They all have in common one thing: They are natural disasters that mankind has no control over. Period.

    We have to prepare as best we can to cope with results of these disasters that we have no hope of stopping.

    — Brian Maes, Olympia

  • The health-care debate: leaders still divided

    A dose of courage, a splash of confidence

    What is needed right now in Congress is a large dose of courage and intelligence [“State Dems still divided,” News, Nov. 23].

    Courage to stand up and make decisions that benefit the majority of Americans, and the intelligence to truly understand that if we don’t begin the crucial task of reforming health care in a significant way today, runaway costs will make the system even more untenable. Then America would really be in trouble tomorrow.

    It is a dark time in America, and witnessing a courageous stand by our politicians on behalf of the citizens would be a balm for a troubled nation.

    — Rebecca Sullivan, Seattle

    H.R. 676: Rep. John Conyers’ health-care bill

    I am dismayed at the approach and trajectory of the health-care reform solutions.

    The best solution to the health-care access crisis is Medicare for all, as outlined in H.R. 676, otherwise known as the Conyers Bill.

    As a person approaching the age of 65, I am very concerned that Medicare will be severely limited by the time I enroll. Let’s fix Medicare first, then use it as the model to provide single-payer health care for all.

    — Marcia Stedman, Bothell

    Health and fitness has its place in current reform

    One important aspect of health and fitness is being left out of the health-care reform debate. Physical exercise is not being given a role in health-care reform, even though it has the potential to save billions of dollars.

    Sometimes doctors will prescribe exercise, but because of the lack of incentives most of the time it is not followed. Patients find it much easier to take medications. Some doctors think that getting patients to exercise is as hard as getting them to quit smoking, which implies the need for incentives.

    Minimal amounts of cardiovascular exercise, when practiced by the aged and disabled, have a value in saved medical costs comparable to the hourly rate of a high-paid occupation. Although strength, balance and flexibility exercise are more specific in effects, they also have high value.

    The government, whose primary role is that of a rule maker, has the duty to promote positive behavior through incentives. Incentivizing exercise could yield rewards not just for citizens, but also for the government’s finances in saved medical costs.

    — Dale McCracken, Renton

    Filibuster is full of it, let’s get rid of it

    It is time to end the power of the Senate filibuster [“First key vote on Senate health bill,” page one, Nov. 21]. This anti-democratic process has distorted the vote of the Senate far too many times (112 times recently), and Americans are frustrated by the inability of elected officials to do what they’ve been elected to do.

    We elected Barack Obama and Democratic majorities in the House and Senate to end the Iraq war and implement universal health care. Yet, because of the filibuster, the minority still controls the direction of the country.

    It takes 60 votes to end a particular filibuster, but only 51 to reform or eliminate this roadblock. This is not a nuclear option— it is an option to return to a more democratic and productive system of government that would be more equipped to address current grave economic, environmental and global problems.

    I suggest retaining the filibuster as a temporary delaying device, so the voice of the minority can be heard one last time before a vote is taken. Then no vote would be needed to override the filibuster, only a deadline. We need to urge our elected officials to reform this process so we can make the much-needed changes we’ve already voted for.

    — Rosemary Adang, Seattle

  • The end of an era? Memorial Stadium

    Do we really need another downtown parking garage?

    Editor, The Times:

    How dare you, Seattle.

    More than 60 years past a remarkable generation of Americans, our friends, fathers, mothers, grandparents and our youth, joined forces during World War II. Now 62 years later, our city of Seattle is planning to desecrate a war memorial dedicated to our youth, who gave their all fighting for our freedoms [“The end of Memorial Stadium?,” page one, Nov. 25].

    Some of those youth never returned, and their resting place is Memorial Stadium.

    How dare you, Seattle?

    Seattle’s Memorial Stadium was dedicated Thanksgiving Day 1947 to honor this remarkable generation. How soon we forget the sacrifices our youth made going into war directly out of Seattle schools.

    Shame on you, Seattle to even think about desecrating a war memorial honoring those youth and our future youth. Do we really need another parking garage in lieu of a war memorial? The Seattle Center and Seattle Public Schools staff have reached a tentative agreement to do just that.

    — Guy Gallipeau, Seattle

  • Immovable Ladder on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

    Jerusalem, Israel | Incredible Ruins

    The immovable ladder of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a religious symbol of a sort, a kind of miracle possible only through human folly. It is also one of the most powerful and iconic symbols of the divisions and religious disputes within Christian World.

    Proposed as the site of the death and resurrection of Jesus the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of the holiest places in Christianity and has been the site of pilgrimages since the 4th century. However, even this most venerated shrine could not escape the quirks of human nature, vanity, pride and envy.

    Even from its earliest days Christianity was subject to splintering, creating numerous denominations and sects, all claiming to be the only true school of followers of Jesus Christ. The most prominent of these fought bitterly over the centuries for the dominance over the holy places in Palestine. During the time of Muslim dominance over the area, a government equally hostile to all Christian denominations, no one sect could achieve a clear advantage over the others. As the disputes rolled on, the methods of gaining advantage became ever more dubious including outright bribery, blackmai, and the use of force.

    Today, the current situation is an uneasy status quo, a kind of an fragile compromise reached in several stages, through the mediation of the Ottoman empire and several European powers.

    The care over the church is shared by no less then six denominations. The primary custodians are the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Roman catholic church, with lesser duties shared by Coptic, Ethiopian and Syriac Orthodox churches. The whole edifice is carefully parceled into sections, some being commonly shared while others belonging strictly to a particular sect. A set of complicated rules governs the transit rights of the other groups through each particular section on any given day, and especially during the holidays. Some of the sections of the church however still remain hotly disputed to this day.

    Arguments and violent clashes are not uncommon. In November 2008 the internet was flooded with videos of a fistfight between Armenian and Greek monks in one such dispute. A small section of the roof of the church is disputed between the Copts and Ethiopians. At least one Coptic monk at any given time sits there on a chair placed on a particular spot to express this claim. On a hot summer day he moved his chair some 20cm more into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile act and violation of status quo. Eleven were hospitalized after a fight resulting from this provocation.

    This state of affairs makes any agreement about renovations or repairs on the edifice impossible. The church is in a state of decay as a result.

    The famous immovable ladder is a bizarre outcome of this religious stubbornness pushed to extremes. Some time in the first half of the 19th century, someone has placed a ladder up against the wall of the church. No one is sure whom he was, or more importantly, to which sect he belonged. The ladder remains there to this date. No one dares touch it, lest they disturb the status quo, and provoke the wrath of others. The exact date when ladder was placed is not known but the first evidence of it comes from 1852.

    The ladder hasn’t moved since.

  • Judge eager to approve Columbia River salmon plan

    Chief of NOAA should have done more

    Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will be attending the last court hearing before a ruling on how to run hydroelectric dams in the Columbia Basin without driving wild salmon to extinction [“Judge praises Obama fish plan,” NWTuesday, Nov. 24].

    NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center has reported that salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest are correlated with changes in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation cycles, and that salmon runs declined steadily during the warm Pacific Decadal Oscillation cycle from 1977 to 1998. The listing of several salmon stocks as threatened or endangered coincided with a prolonged period of warm ocean conditions beginning in the early 1990s.

    The center also reported a dramatic increase in salmon runs from 2000 to 2004 that coincided with the return to a cool cycle in late 1998, and that cold offshore ocean conditions have now become well established, boding well for good salmon runs over the next few years.

    NOAA chief Lubchenco, trained as a marine ecologist, has the responsibility to testify at this court hearing that changes in Pacific Decadal Oscillation cycles, not Columbia Basin hydroelectric dam operations, have been the primary factor influencing Pacific Northwest salmon runs in recent decades.

    — Ken Schlichte, Tumwater

  • A few educational opportunities

    Computers don’t create lesson plans, teachers do

    Perhaps Brittany Hake [“Teaching with computerized lesson plans?,” Opinion, Northwest Voices, Nov. 20] needs to take another look at her reaction to the current tempest-in-a-teapot education issue in our fair state.

    Any new teacher worth her or his salt discovers that lesson plans are the construction girders of education. As a building needs a sound foundation, so a teacher needs a lesson plan to teach a novel.

    I taught secondary school for 31 years, and yes from time to time I purchased a lesson plan at the local school-supplies store. There have been great plans for decades, and I always found ways to tailor them to fit my student population.

    Does she think this is the easy way out?

    I am curious to know Hake’s definition of the computerized lesson plans, which enrage her.

    If I were to type my lesson plans onto a computer and teach from them, would that make them computerized? Or, if I were to purchase another teacher’s plans, download them to my computer, or copy them on a machine, does that invalidate their purpose?

    Or am I just making use of new technology and sharing ideas with other teachers, ideas that can and should enrich my teaching and my students’ learning?

    Computers do not make up lesson plans; teachers do that.

    — Margaret Lauderdale, Everett

    The hungry family next door: Schools must step up

    The economic recession may be coming to a close, but the effects of it will forever have an impact in the future generations [“Hunger’s familiar face,” Opinion, editorial, Nov. 19].

    For one in five children living in Washington state, the cycle of poverty prevents them from receiving a school lunch, making it hard to focus. Due to the recession, 425,000 more families had to take advantage of reduced or free school lunches, and some children did not get any food at all.

    The economic setback also meant that families are not spending as much money on healthier foods, and instead settling for fast foods, encouraging children to eat unhealthy foods and discouraging good eating habits while they are young. This results in a higher risk of obesity and the risk for future health problems.

    In 2009, one in three children has obesity. To prevent this number from increasing, schools need to take responsibility for children, in order to ensure they are receiving the proper nutrition and caloric intake every single day.

    This must happen in order for the mind to develop to its full potential, because after all, the child going hungry and without food could be your own.

    — Jennifer Briant, Seattle

  • Wars in the Middle East, past and present

    Israel’s illegal occupation Palestine: fact or fiction?

    In his letter from Nov. 14, Donovan Fisk described what he calls the illegal Israeli occupation of a place called Palestine [“Celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall,” Opinion, Northwest Voices].

    Occupation, as defined in the Fourth Geneva Convention, involves one nation taking over the territory belonging to another sovereign nation.

    I was 24 in 1967 and remember it well. Israel captured the West Bank, which had been annexed by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip, which had been taken over by Egypt. Both of those nations were illegally occupying that land, according to the almost unanimous vote of the United Nations.

    I would challenge Fisk to find one news report from June of that year claiming “Israel invades Palestine.” No such nation existed there.

    The Palestine Liberation Organization, in its 1964 Charter, declared that the Palestinians had no claim on these territories. All their efforts were directed at destroying Israel inside the 1949 armistice lines. The U.N. agreement between Israel and Jordan clearly stated that the Green Line was not a border, and that a final settlement would be between the parties. In July of 1988, Jordan abandoned any claim it had to the West Bank.

    So who had the best claim?

    The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, in 1922, granted all land west of the Jordan River to the Jewish people, who had helped to liberate it, and who had identified with that land for 3,000 years. About a million Jews lived in the Middle East at that time. The land that was offered to the Palestinian Arabs by the U.N. partition plan, which they rejected, was Jewish land according to international law.

    Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. Nobody is entitled to his own facts.

    — Robert G. Kaufman, Seattle

    Krauthammer on Islam: an inconvenient truth

    Please drop Charles Krauthammer as a columnist on the Opinion pages, except in those rare moments when he is talking about economic policy — a subject on which he has something of value to contribute.

    Krauthammer’s latest nonsense takes facts upon which no sentient entity can disagree — the slaughter at Fort Hood and the cultural and religious background of the perpetrator [“A dangerous delicacy about Islam,” Opinion, syndicated column, Nov. 14] — and then aims his arrow at a predefined target.

    His most telling, and egregiously, inaccuracy being that “Allahu Akbar” is a jihadist battle cry. Well it is in a sense, but only in the same sense that most Americans say the same thing in English under similar circumstances.

    The inconvenient truth Krauthammer does not wish to acknowledge is that fanatics of any stripe are going to do bad things. Islamic fanatics, Christian fanatics, Jewish fanatics, Hindu fanatics, Agnostic fanatics. Krauthammer is not being intellectually honest when he chooses one brand of fanatic over another, and The Times should stop giving him a soapbox on which to do so.

    There is no brand of fanatic that should make anyone feel safe.

    — Daniel A. Morgan, Seattle