Some Weighty Subjects

MSNBC reported today a study that estimates that

The number of overweight children worldwide will increase significantly by the end of the decade, and scientists expect profound impacts on everything from public health care to economies, a study published Monday said.

Nearly half of the children in North and South America will be overweight by 2010, up from what recent studies say is about one-third, according to a report published by the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity.

The report also states that 20% of Chinese children will also be overweight by 2010.
link

Put this into context with what Richard Carmona, our nation's Surgeon General, said during a lecture at the University of South Carolina, as reported by the Associated Press on March 2, 2006

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ America's obesity epidemic will dwarf the threat of terrorism if the nation does not reduce the number of people who are severely overweight, the surgeon general said Wednesday.

"Obesity is the terror within,'' Richard Carmona said during a lecture at the University of South Carolina. "Unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9-11 or any other terrorist attempt.''


"Where will our soldiers and sailors and airmen come from?'' he said. "Where will our policemen and firemen come from if the youngsters today are on a trajectory that says they will be obese, laden with cardiovascular disease, increased cancers and a host of other diseases when they reach adulthood?''

The AP story notes that the nation's top physician informed the audience that obesity rates have tripled over the past 40 years for children and teens, raising their risk of diabetes and other diseases. For the first time, Carmona said, children are being diagnosed with high blood pressure.
link

Now add to all this the first possible concrete public safety incident relating to Obesity: Today's report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concerning the water taxi accident that occured in Baltimore Harbor only two years ago.

National Public Radio just reported that the report cites "outdated estimates for average passenger weight" as a contributing factor in the accident which caused the deaths of five of the 25 occupants of the heavily loaded craft. A girl was also left with severe brain damage.

We, as a nation, are carrying around a lot of weight. It seems that all those metallic Maximum Occupancy signs that can be seen on planes and ferries and elevators and suspended walkways in public spaces, should be re-calculated. Not only is this a health care issue, and a health insurance cost issue, now obesity is a public safety issue, and according to our Surgeon General, National Security issue.

Isn't it about time our leaders stopped making war on ideas? We've had a failed war on Poverty, a failed war on drugs, a current impossible war on terror; let's if any adminstration dares address something more tangible and close to home: how about a war on fat!?

MIT OpenCourseWare. So many learning opportunities, so little time.

The guys over at Phischkneght Extended have done the work to make streamed media of a great Physics lecturer at MIT downloadable, and created a page listing the links. This makes it dead-easy with FireFox, FlashGot extension and FreeDownload Manager to slurp them down (10+ gigs!) to my harddrive. link

It's soooo much better than getting emotionally involved in a primetime soap opera and totally Lost