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In the US, for political reasons, we’re being conned by corn. It turns out that fuels high in ethanol may pose an equal, or even greater, risk to our health than regular gas.
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We hear news about the Iraq war from the White House all the time, but we rarely hear from the soldiers themselves. Do they feel that the war they are fighting is working?and is it worth it?

British soldiers are fighting the same war in Iraq that we are, and in the Independent, Terri Judd quotes two of them as saying the Coalition troops are totally ineffective: “sitting ducks” to an “increasingly sophisticated insurgency.” She quotes private Paul Barton as saying, “Basra is lost, they are in control now. It’s a full-scale riot and the Government are just trying to save face.”

Corporal Richard Bradley says, “[Guys] are dying for no cause at all and [guys] are getting injured for no cause at all.”
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We’ve explained why circumcision is the kindest cut: It helps to prevent AIDS. But what does it do to a man’s sex life? Since there are plans to circumcise adult males in Africa, this is a major concern.

New Scientist reports that scientists don’t yet have an answer to this touchy question.Canadian researcher Kimberley Payne compared the sensitivity of 20 uncircumcised with 20 circumcised men’s penises as they watched porno films, and found no difference between them.

However, when US researcher Robert Van Howe used a similar method to measure sensitivity at 19 points along the penises of 163 men, he found that the five most sensitive points were all in portions of the penis removed by circumcision.

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
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In an earlier diary, I wrote, “The goddaughter of our dying friend is kind of a stray cat.” That reminded me of how Coe (our Siamese cat) visited me in the hospital (despite the fact that he was dead at the time). Whitley recently found himself wondering about the afterlife and he had a dream about Coe, so that cat has become a sort of intermediary for us between the worlds. The Egyptians (who were obsessed with the afterlife) used to worship and mummify cats, so maybe they knew something we’ve forgotten.
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