Hot off the Press: I've been lazy and unwilling edition

Here's a thoughtful, though a tad confusing, NYT post from Anthony Shadid, a Middle East correspondent. Despite all the ethnic and religious conflict, the word "Allah" is used by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike in the Middle East: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/allah-the-word/?hp.

The surveillance video captured by drones flying over Afghanistan and Iraq is overloading the military's ability to study it: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/business/11drone.html. Get this:

Air Force drones collected nearly three times as much video over Afghanistan and Iraq last year as in 2007 — about 24 years’ worth if watched continuously.

Speaking of lazy and unwilling, a new study has linked TV watching to shortened life spans: http://www.latimes.com/news/health/la-sci-tv12-2010jan12,0,6667265.story.

Researchers found that each hour a day spent watching TV was linked with an 18% greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, an 11% greater risk of all causes of death, and a 9% increased risk of death from cancer.

The article only suggests that TV viewing is part of a host of inactive activities (kind of an oxymoron, but it works) that have the same affects. I just like to think watching TV will kill you. So...you should kill it first.

An LAT op-ed by Senator Ted Kaufman regarding the importance of a federal media shield law: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-kaufman12-2010jan12,0,6101761.story.

A few states that have instituted exit exams for high school seniors are postponing or easing the standards because many students would not pass: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/education/12exit.html?hp. Isn't it strange how nobody talks about our crumbling education system?

The Iowa DNR runs, unbeknownst to me until now, a resort...and it's $900,000 in the red: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100112/NEWS10/1120353/Honey-Creek-ran-9-month-deficit-of-900-000. The DNR, I suppose, is a kind of tourism agency, but this resort seems a bit too commercial and far-out for a state-run department to me.

The German Pirate Party staged protests against "naked scanners" at airports across the country. Party members stripped to their underwear and marched through the airports: http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20100111-24493.html. If Pirate Party chicks look like that, sign me up.