On:

We drink bottled water because it’s “safe,” but some of it actually makes people sick. Researchers say that up to 6,000 campylobacter food poisoning infections a year in the U.K. can be traced to bottled water. This bacteria causes diarrhea and stomach aches.

Chris Bunting writes in the Independent that scientists interviewed 213 campylobacter patients and 1,144 other people who had stomach problems but were not infected by campylobacter. They discovered that the symptoms were caused by bottled water in 12% of the cases. The only worse foods were salad (21%) and chicken (31%).
read more

On:

Opium production in Afghanistan is on the rise and is turning that nation back into a country run by drug lords, the way it was before the Taliban took over. UN drug agency director Antonio Maria Costa says the country is falling into the hands of “drug cartels or narco-terrorists.” This means that drug wars will escalate here in the U.S. as well.

The Taliban may have provided a haven for Osama bin-Laden and drastically curtailed women’s rights, but they also forced many farmers to stop growing opium. However, since their other crops didn’t bring them nearly as much money, farmers returned to opium growing as soon as they could and production rose to around 3,600 metric tons last year.
read more

On:

Scientists are trying to figure out if life came from space. This theory would be strengthened if we found evidence that there is?or ever was?life on Mars. When we sent a Viking lander there to do tests, the results were inconclusive. Now we’ve found soil in one of the oldest and driest deserts in the world?the Atacama Desert in Chile?that’s a close match to the red soil of Mars. It may help us figure out if there’s life on Mars.
read more

On:

Like so many of our readers and listeners, “Damon” has memories of strange, unexplained visitor experiences that have lasted throughout his lifetime and he doesn’t know what to make of them. He’s even gotten flying lessons! Interestingly enough, these instructions are entirely up-to-date with the latest scientific research in teaching people how to move computer cursors using only brainwaves, etc. This is another in our series of new Communion Letters.

NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.read more