Stuff below the fold

When we were a kid, the expression to someone getting hyper about trivia was "Don't make a federal case about it".

Well, now selling coke at a game at school, or sending in sugary cakes for a party, or to sell at a bakesale is now a federal crime....

way to go!
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FCC commissioner Copps tells the BBC that the news business in the US is terrible. His solution? Gov't oversight.

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Diogenes agrees that the news business is terrible, and prints a tongue in cheek example.
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Fire Mummies of the Philippines article at Atlas Obscura.
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Africa could feed itself in five years if it followed the lead of Asia in modernizing agriculture.
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BBC has a sad series on the price of modernization. It is set in China, but on a lesser scale could be used as an example of modernization in many countries.

This is why the movie "Avatar" was disliked by China, yet what is the alternative? Massive famines every generation or two?
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Roger Simon has a summary of Wikileaks, as channelled by a Hollywood Dolphin.

Berlusconi likes girls.
Sarkozy likes himself.
Angela Merkel is boring.
David Cameron is more boring.
Hillary thinks Cristina needs a shrink.
Benjamin Netanyahu can’t stand Ehud Olmert.
Al Qaeda hates America.
Yemen’s president hates Al Qaeda
Ahmadinejad is Hitler
North Korea likes Iran.
Saudi Arabia hates Iran
Julian Assange is Dennis Kucinich....
etc
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Alicia Colon enjoyed this documentary. I post it because it's good to remind folks that there is good in the world, even if the work of good people doesn't get headlines very much: