THE STATE OF PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY ON 23JULY2010

1.  DAY 95 of the Gulf Oil Spill sees a scrambling to evacuate the impacted region, as Tropical Storm Bonnie is coming;


Bonnie will not attain hurricane strength and should quickly move through Louisiana.  Looks like that second storm behind her has lost momentum.

2.  Every five years the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services publish Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  The 2010 version has yet to be published (but you can download the report) where the alcohol section confirms what Wine Spectator and all those lifestyle magazines have been saying:  drinking is good for your body.

Get this:  people who have a couple of drinks a day live longer than those who don't.  Also drinkers have a slower cognitive decline with age.  That is, if you're old like me, your teetotaler friends are not as sharp as you.  There is also something called attitude improvement that comes with most imbibers.  People just feel better.  No doubt a flood of rebuttals will be provided by the medical field, for the downsides of road accidents, addiction and liver damage can come from over consumption.

3.  100,000,000,000,000:  (100 trillion) number of bacteria living in your gastrointestinal tract.  This is ten times more than cells in your body.  Depending on the person, you could be living with two to nine pounds of bacteria.  During the Black Plague, the rat didn't kill you.  Neither did the flea on the rat.  It was the bacterium Yersinia pestes transmitted from the flea bite.  However, most bacteria are good, and we have been living in synergism since the beginning of our time.  Tracing our past, we came from bacteria.  Well, there is now known another microorganism called archaea.  Chances are, if you believe in evolution, we originated from this life form.  "2" and "3" are capsule tutorials.  Both are covered in Chapter 2 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity.

4.  Here is something to further unnerve you this weekend.  The 17July2010 edition of The Economist has a special report on the Arab World.  Hosni Mubarak (left), ruler of Egypt since 1981, is 82 years old, ailing and fragile.  Shimon Peres, President of Israel, is 86, but he only has a figurehead role.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is 86, and he is soon to go, with his anointed successor, Crown Prince Sultan, 82, maybe even closer to death.  Our three closest allies in the the Middle East could experience some turmoil in the months to come.  Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamanei of Iran is only 70.  Situations such as these can trigger skyrocketing oil prices.

5.  Two months ago I wrote about The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.  Number two in the series, The Girl Who Played with Fire, starts in Honolulu today.  It is rated okay, but not as good as Dragon Tatoo.  I think I'm captivated by the dragon (I was born in that year), but the actress, Noomi Rapace, is dangerously beguiling.  I have a dilemma.  I bought the book for my iPad (or you can wait for a $35 version from India), and wonder if I should read it first...or not.  There is a third, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, already showing in Europe and booked for New York City this month.  The films are in Swedish with subtitles.  Stieg Larsson's trilogy has been the #1 bestseller this summer, this past week rated #1, #2 and #4.  He died of a heart attack six years ago at the age of 50.

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The Dow Jones Industrials rose 103 to 10,425, just below the 10,428 of 1January2010.  It was 6,627 on 6March2009, 11,204 on 11April2010, and 14,165 on 9October2007.  World markets also mostly increased, with the Japan Nikkei up 210 to 9431.  Looks like I won't be buying.  Gold dropped $6/toz to $1189 and crude oil is just about at $79/barrel.  The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has petroleum at $92.68/barrel in December of 2018.

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