Month: September 2005

Olive oil: anti-inflammatory?

Researchers find anti-inflammatory chemical[*1] in extra-virgin olive oil:

A tasting experience at a molecular gastronomy meeting in Sicily led University of Pennsylvania biologist Gary Beauchamp to analyze freshly pressed extra-virgin olive oil, in which he found a chemical that acted like ibuprofen.

He and his team named their discovery oleocanthal and found that, although it has a different chemistry, its effect is similar to that of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory compound in the commercial pain-killer, they wrote in the science journal Nature.

How long before the FDA requires warning labels?

Oil for food

We now return to our previously scheduled scandal[*1] :

A draft forward of the report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the largest, most ambitious humanitarian operation ever run by the United Nations was used bySaddam Hussein to his advantage. Neither the U.N. Secretariat nor theU.N. Security Council was clearly in command, which led to “an evasion of personal responsibility at all levels,” it said.

Hm. “Personal responsibility.” What a concept. Do you suppose it will ever catch on?

European Katrina aid held up, Bush blamed

President Bush is apparently standing on the runway, personally preventing European aid to Katrina victims[*1] from being airlifted in:

“There appear to be some transportation problems,” Barbara Helfferich, a spokeswoman for theEuropean Union’s executive Commission, told a news briefing.

She said a Swedish plane laden with aid was waiting to take off but had not got U.S. approval to enter the United States.

Well, maybe it’s not Bush personally. I thought I’d try my hand at wacko Blame-Bushism and see how it works. Golly, it’s easy to do. Maybe too easy.

General Honore and the Half-Wit Press

Plain-talking general becomes a media star[*1] :

The fiery general, in charge of the military component of the mission, lost his rag during a press conference after President George W. Bush’s visit to rescue coordinators here.

“That’s B.S. It’s B.S.,” Honore raged.

“I can tell you that is B.S. We have got 300 helicopters and some of the finest EMS workers in the world down there.

“There is no red tape … there are isolated incidents that people take to paint a broad brush.”

Honore also lashed out at questions from journalists at the Baton Rouge emergency operations center concerning the security situation in New Orleans.

“You need to get on the streets of New Orleans, you can’t sit back here and say what you hear from someone else.

“It is secure, we walk around without any issues. Why the hell are you trying to make that the issue, if you can help, get there and help,” he said, saying that people were being scared away by reports of violence.

When one reporter argued that there still reports of bureaucracy and unrest stalling relief efforts in some outlying parishes of New Orleans, Honore fumed: “I don’t care if it is Han*censored* County, Mississippi — we are not going to have that kind of issue.”

More Honore, less Shepard Smith/Aaron Brown/(fill-in-the-blank hand-wringing sky-is-falling media type), please.

What about Mississippi?

It was Mississippi, not Louisiana, which took the direct hit from Katrina. Why aren’t we hearing much about the hurricane recovery efforts in Mississippi? I humbly suggest two reasons:

1: New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen.
if you build a city below sea level in a hurricane zone, you should expect to have it catastrophically flooded every once in a while. Building levees to Category-3 hurricane levels in a world where Category 5 hurricanes exist was foolish in the extreme. We now reap the bitter harvest of that decision.

2: Mississippi’s leadership is more competent than Louisiana’s.
I don’t know how else to say this. Do you even know the name of the Biloxi mayor? How about Gulfport’s? Has Mississippi governor Haley Barbour entered full-bore CYA mode like Louisiana Governor Blanco and New Orleans mayor Nagin?

Put point 1 and point 2 together, and you have a “perfect storm” of governmental failure.

Najaf base transferred to Iraqis

Progress in Iraq[*1] (remember Iraq?):

Lt. Col. James Oliver, the U.S. commander of Forward Operating Base Hotel, handed the ceremonial keys to the installation to the new Iraqi commander, Col. Saadi Salih al-Maliky. About 1,500 Iraqi soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 8th Division marched by.

Before the ceremony, the Iraqi soldiers, all Shiites, chanted “long live Sistani,” referring to top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and “Saddam is a coward.”

U.S. forces have relocated to another base farther outside the city so they would be available to assist in a major security crisis.

Levee progress in New Orleans

The Corps plugs a hole, fires up the pumps[*1] :

(U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spoksman John) Hall said the biggest pump in the system, which can push out 10,000 cubic feet (280 cu m) of water per second, had been turned on on Monday, but was pumping out just 100 cubic feet (2.8 cu m) per second and would be turned up slowly to full capacity.

“We are proceeding very gently,” he said. Engineers want to make sure that the pumped out water does not further damage the levee system and create a new breach.

World belly-flop champion crowned

The whole world waited breathlessly to see who would make the biggest splash[*1] :

A German dive-bombing coach, Helmut Huenerfauth, is convinced the new sport is here to stay.

“All over the place there are groups of people getting together who just want to get their backsides flayed,” he said.

Oh-kay . . .

Via Fark[*2] .