Jonathan's blog

Via Dvorak Uncensored, from an article of the same title from BBC News:

Women who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer, a study suggests. The research on more than 200,000 women from nine European countries found doing household chores was far more cancer protective than playing sport. Dusting, mopping and vacuuming was also better than having a physical job.

Experts have long known that physical exercise can reduce the risk of breast cancer, probably through hormonal and metabolic changes.

The latest study looked at both pre- and post-menopausal women and a range of activities, including work, leisure and housework. All forms of physical activity combined reduced the breast cancer risk in post-menopausal women, but had no obvious effect in pre-menopausal women.

Out of all of the activities, only housework significantly reduced the risk of both pre- and post-menopausal women getting the disease. Housework cut breast cancer risk by 30% among the pre-menopausal women and 20% among the post-menopausal women.

Men, I guess this justifies our lack of interest in housework since breast cancer is about 100 times less likely for us.

Remember when George W. recently admitted that we aren't winning in Iraq...but we aren't losing either? Well, this one is even richer. Via The Huffington Post and TPMmuckraker, homeland security advisor Fran Townsend on CNN responded to the characterization of the fact that Osama hasn't been brought to justice as a failure:

Well, I'm not sure -- it's a success that hasn't occurred yet. I don't know that I view that as a failure.

From the current issue of The Week Magazine:

Belgium - Last week, the French-language television station RTBF played a hoax on its viewers, and they are not amused. The station interrupted its broadcast with the news that Flanders, the Flemish-speaking part of the country, had declared independence. A shaken anchor said the king had fled. "Correspondents" stood outside Flemish government buildings interviewing grave-faced politicians. The show was convincing. French-speaking viewers wept by the thousands at the collapse of their country, and foreign embassies began phoning Brussels. The broadcast went on for many minutes before RTBF displayed a message confessing that the news was fake, a "dramatization" intended to provoke debate. The country erupted in fury. Parliament has opened an inquiry and threatened RTBF with everything from fines to outright closure.

My "Depressing Documentary Film" fest continued today with Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers:

During the last half-century, Cambodia has witnessed genocide, decades of war and the collapse of social order. Now, documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh looks at an irreparable tragedy that is less visible, yet no less pervasive: the spiritual death that results when young women are forced into prostitution. Angry and impassioned, PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS presents the searing stories of poor Asian women whose lives were violated and their destinies destroyed when their bodies were turned into items of sexual commerce.

I give it 4 out of 5 for doing a great job of communicating a real sense of the hopeless lives of these women in their own voices.

I'd planned a post giving big ups to the Lipscomb basketball team for losing by less than ten points to South Carolina and Vanderbilt and playing Alabama close until the final few minutes...but then they launched into a string of losses to Kennesaw State and East Tennessee State University...so I'm not so impressed any more. Link: Lipscomb schedule/results