BREVITAS

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OUTLYING PRECINCTS

JAY LENO - Last night was the premiere of 'Dancing Around The Issues,'
otherwise known as the Democratic presidential debate. ... The three
Democratic frontrunners said last night ... that setting a timetable for
complete withdrawal is irresponsible, because you can't project what the
future situation will be in Iraq and pulling out troops basically
depends on the situation on the ground. Otherwise known as the 'Bush
plan.'

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bldailyfeed3.htm

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WAR DEPARTMENT

NY TIMES - The United States maintained its role as the leading supplier
of weapons to the developing world in 2006, followed by Russia and
Britain, according to a Congressional study. Pakistan, India and Saudi
Arabia were the top buyers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/us/01weapons.html?
_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=world&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin


WASH POST - While waiting to be confirmed by the White House for a top
civilian post at the Air Force last year, Charles D. Riechers was out of
work and wanted a paycheck. So the Air Force helped arrange a job
through an intelligence contractor that required him to do no work for
the company, according to documents and interviews. For two months,
Riechers held the title of senior technical adviser and received about
$13,400 a month at Commonwealth Research Institute, or CRI, a nonprofit
firm in Johnstown, Pa., according to his r¿sum¿. But during that time he
actually worked for Sue C. Payton, assistant Air Force secretary for
acquisition, on projects that had nothing to do with CRI, he said.
Riechers said in an interview that his interactions with Commonwealth
Research were limited largely to a Christmas party, where he said he met
company officials for the first time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2007/09/30/AR2007093001402.html


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HEALTH & SCIENCE

USA TODAY - Researchers gave 46 graduate students a coupon for a
McDonald's Big Mac, which at the time had about 600 calories, or a
Subway 12-inch Italian sub with meat, cheese and mayonnaise, which had
about 900, he says. The students weren't told the number of calories in
their sandwiches. Participants also were given a menu and asked to
indicate what extras they would like to order, if anything. Those given
the Subway coupon were more likely to order a large drink and less
likely to order a diet soda. They also were more likely to eat
chocolate-chip cookies. Those with the Subway coupon ended up ordering a
meal with an average 1,011 calories. Those with the McDonald's coupon
got meals with an average of 648 calories. In another test, people ate
more snacks later in the day if they had eaten a Subway sandwich than a
Big Mac, even though both had been made to equal about 600 calories.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-09-30-mcsubway_N.htm?csp=34

REED ABELSON, NY TIMES - An influential senator is raising new questions
about payments made to spine surgeons by Medtronic, one of the nation's
largest makers of medical devices. Charles Grassley, a member of the
Senate panel that oversees Medicare, has asked Medtronic to explain any
payments. Medtronic, which reached a $40 million settlement last year
with the federal government over accusations that the company had paid
illegal kickbacks to doctors for using its spinal devices, has continued
to pay doctors millions of dollars in consulting fees, according to a
lawyer representing a whistle-blower involved in the case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/business/27letter.html?ex=
1348977600&en=34937e43da5d4802&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


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AMERICAN NOTES

JAKE HALPERN, BOSTON GLOBE - At the University of South Alabama,
psychology professor Joshua Foster has done a great deal of research
using a standardized test called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory.
The NPI asks subjects to rate the accuracy of various narcissistic
statements, such as "I can live my life any way I want to" and "If I
ruled the world, it would be a better place." Foster has given this
personality test to a range of demographic groups around the world, and
no group has scored higher than the American teenager. Narcissism also
appears to be reaching new highs, even within the Entitlement
Generation, among American college students. Another national study
involving the NPI, conducted by Twenge, shows that 24 percent of college
students in 2006 showed elevated levels of narcissism compared to just
15 percent in the early 1990s.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/
2007/09/30/the_new_me_generation?mode=PF


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CORPORADOS

DAILY MAIL, UK - As a nation of gardeners, millions of us spend hours
tending the seeds we've sown. But in some cases, there is little chance
of actually growing anything, a survey reveals. It found as many as 99
per cent of packet flower seeds are dead, with the figure around 40 per
cent for vegetables. The consumer group Which tested three types of
flower seed - delphinium, sweet pea and mimulus - and three types of
vegetable seed - lettuce, parsnip and spring onion. Just one of the 15
seed supply companies met acceptable standards. . .

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in
_article_id=484339&in_page_id=1770


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ECO NOTES

NY TIMES - The Exxon Valdez disaster is certainly the most notorious oil
spill in the United States — a single, terrible accident that poured 11
million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound 1989, causing
grievous damage to Alaska's waters and beyond. But it is not the
largest. In terms of volume it cannot match the steady seepage of oil
into Newtown Creek, the polluted waterway that separates Brooklyn from
Queens. The Newtown Creek spill has not received anywhere near the
response that followed the Valdez incident. The cleanup has been
haphazard and ineffective, hampered by weak enforcement, and residents
have been left in the dark about potential health effects. A report this
month from the Environmental Protection Agency suggested that the
Newtown spill may be twice as large as first believed — some 30 million
gallons, nearly three times the size of the Alaska spill. It has
polluted the 4-mile strip of waterway and some 55 residential and
commercial acres around it, gathering in subsurface reservoirs, mixing
with groundwater, creating toxic vapors and and seeping, slowly but
inexorably, into the creek.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/opinion/nyregionopinions/
CInewtown.html?ex=1348804800&en=916665ca221919a4&ei=5
088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


NY TIMES - Plastic bags are not the biggest single issue out there, and
no expert on global warming would suggest solutions rest wholly with
decisions made by individual consumers. On the other hand, it is
estimated that the United States goes through 100 billion plastic bags a
year, which take an estimated 12 million barrels of oil to produce and
last almost forever. And if individual decisions can't solve the
problem, the wrong ones can certainly compound it. Once upon a time, the
question was plastic or paper, which had its own somewhat uncertain
calculus of virtue and waste. Now, it has begun to dawn on people that
you don't need either. Most supermarkets these days sell sturdy,
reusable bags for 99 cents that people can use instead of plastic ones.
Except almost no one does. For lots of different reasons. They buy them
and forget to use them. They figure they can reuse the plastic bags for
garbage and dog-walking duties. They find them unhygienic; we fell in
love with the throwaway culture for a reason. One reusable bag can hold
the contents of several plastic ones, but that's too heavy for the
elderly or the frail to carry. It's just not what we do. . . San
Francisco banned petroleum-based plastic bags in large supermarkets and
pharmacies, which, depending on your mind-set, was visionary leadership
or the green nanny state in action. After Ireland enacted a stiff tax on
the bags in 2001, consumption fell by 90 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/nyregion/30towns.html?pagewanted=print

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FURTHERMORE . . .

INTERVIEW WITH GARY SICK ON IRAN
http://www.electricpolitics.com/podcast/2007/09/american_predators.html

TONY BENNETT'S FAVORITE TUNES
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3659051

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