go diet. pop.

i'm tired of this debate over whether diet soda is going to fry your brain, give you cancer, and all things unnatural.

check out this page from the National Cancer Institute. Here are the key points:

A study of about half a million people, published in 2006, compared people who drank aspartame-containing beverages with those who did not. Results of the study showed that increasing levels of consumption were not associated with any risk of lymphomas, leukemias, or brain cancers in men or women. (Question 2)

Researchers examined the relationship between aspartame intake and 1,888 lymphomas or leukemias and 315 malignant brain cancers among the participants of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study from 1995 until 2000. Development of these cancers was not associated with estimated aspartame consumption, refuting a recent animal study with positive findings for lymphomas and leukemias and also contradicting claims regarding brain cancer risk. (Questions 3 and 8)

A typical can of soda pop has 1/4 cup of sugar - about 140 calories. and you're only getting sugar - nothing else beneficial. at least orange juice will give you vitamins, minerals, etc.

And for the picture...well, diet soda floats and regular sinks. has to do with the density of sugar versus aspartame.

yamaha pianos

hey, I feel the same way as this guy:

Time to warm up. John (stage manager guy) has set up a Yamaha upright for me to warm up. It's a piano action. Perhaps this is not a good time to mention that the best thing I can say about Yamaha is that they make good motorcycles. But it's a piano action. Do what you can. (William Eddins, music director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra)

compensation.

This topic blows my mind. I first heard about it on NPR.

Basically, the US military will provide compensation to Iraqi civilians who have been harmed by american forces. This includes compensation for a door that has been run over by a tank, or a cow that was killed during a fight with insurgents. OR, when a family member has been killed during fighting.

Here's a an excerpt from the site Iraq Body Count:

The US Army paid $7,500 to two children whose mother they killed inside a taxi that ran a checkpoint — both children were also in the taxi, and were shot and injured; they also paid $6,000 for killing a child looking out of the window, while a raid was on-going in the house across the street. They refused, as they do in the majority of cases, to compensate the child whose father they killed as he drove home, but agreed to make a ‘condolence payment’ of $1,500. More recently, the US military is reported to have paid $2,500 to each family of the three men they killed near Abu Lukah, as they guarded their village.

It can certainly be debated whether or not the US military should be compensating for civilian deaths. The US army will generally not compensate for deaths resulting from insurgent weaponry - something that both family members or the military would have a hard time proving/disproving. And sadly, many civilians will go to different stations to see if they can get multiple compensations.

what simply kicks me in the balls, though, is the compensatory figures and the different words attached. $2,500. $6,000. "condolence payment granted." $500.
"compensation for death denied due to combat exemption." "negligent fire." $3,500.

I know we have lawsuits in the US for deaths associated with prescription drugs or wack police officers. I guess I'm wallowing in this thought that we really can/should/need to/have put a price tag on a person's life.

password fatigue

"Frustration caused by having too many passwords and failing to remember them"

other aussie expressions from this bbc article:

Globesity - the problem of rising obesity around the globe - and floordrobe - the use of the floor as a substitute wardrobe.

Salad dodger is included as a term for an overweight person, while a surfer under the age of 10 can now be called a microgrom.