In Case You Missed It!

We lost two of my favorite news guys recently:  Bob Simon and David Carr.  Simon combined insight and humanity in every story he covered.  Carr talked about media in a way that provided context – past, present and future – as well as facts.  Bob Simon died when the livery cab in which he was riding crashed in New York City.  David Carr collapsed and died at work at the N.Y. Times, apparently because of cancer and heart failure.  Double bummer!

What I can’t get my head around today:  Scientists say we can observe only 5% of the universe.  Of the other 95%, 27% is called dark matter, which we can’t yet prove exists.  And the remaining 68% is dark energy, which is a theory to explain why (we think) the universe is expanding.

I thought Beijing was the poster-city for pollution.  Wrong!  New Delhi is much worse.  If you live in Delhi (which I did long ago when the air was cleaner), coal, truck exhaust and burning cow dung combine to shorten your life.  Prospects for improvement in the future?  Bad!

Magnesium is good for your health and most of us don’t have enough magnesium in our diet.  What foods are high in magnesium?  Seeds and nuts – especially pumpkin seeds and brazil nuts.  A half a cup a day will give you all you need.  That or a bucket full of kale.

Longshots:

Tiger Woods will win another Major.

The ceasefire in Ukraine will hold.

The drought in California will end this year.

Our species will avoid extinction in just a few thousand years.