Longer Step: Ideas for Justice and Sustainability

  There are up to 1000 sugar molecules in just one starch molecule. So, if you think you are greatly reducing the sugar in your diet by limiting the added sugar in your foods, surprise! It is far more important to look at the amount of starch, too, as in most recipes (breads; cakes; cereals; pasta; rice) starch contains stupendously huge amounts of sugar. Even in a slice of wedding cake, the sugar in the starch is far more than the amount of "sugar" put into the recipe. But there is a way to still enjoy a lot of starch without causing a huge blood sugar spike: If that starch is easy to digest (e.g., white flour), then it slams your body with a huge blood sugar spike. Very bad! But if the starch is whole grain (whole wheat; barley; oat; spelt; etc.), then all the fiber interferes with the sugar extraction process and so it takes a lot longer to break the starch down into sugar, and there's no spike. This is WONDERFUL for our health--it's how we evolved to eat. Blood...

  Very interesting essay by a West Point graduate: He predicts Ukraine will become part of Western Europe and the EU, with many Western innovations and West-supported rebuilding in the cards (and P.S., you don't mess with Sparta--they were bad-ass, and they didn't care if you had five times as many soldiers--they knew how to fight and win). Here is the essay. (Photo credit: Fine Art Prints)

 The states get 44% of lottery bets, a teriffic deal for them. Not so much for the hapless citizenry, many of whom "invest" money they can't afford to lose, in order to have a one in 300,000,000 chance of winning. And since most of them weren't math whizzes, they likely don't understand how slim the odds are when they are one in three hundred million. It basically means "zero."  "But someone always wins!" you may say. Yep, but 299,999,999 other tickets lost.  And the big winners have a terrible track record of surviving their win. They tend to die early, get divorced, take on unhealthy habits, and many even go bankrupt! Not a very impressive end to such a wonderful achievement.  So, here's my proposal: If the Powerball pot gets really huge, let's split up among more folks. Some lucky stiff (pardon the pun--they might die early now) just won $1.5 BILLION and even after the magic of net present value and income taxes that's still hund...

  None of us can know if and when our country will reach a breaking point. But it seems obvious that every country needs leaders who are experienced, capable, and ethical. To that end, my wish for this coming Tuesday's elections is that most of the races are won by candidates who are experienced, capable, and ethical. And I'd like to add that it should be fine for a football player or coach, or quack doctor, to take high elected office, IF they are experienced (i.e., have decades of experience in corporate or governrment leadership), and capable (smart and wise) and ethical (kind and dedicated to the greater public good, with no thought of benefit to self). Positions on issues matter of course, but these "Big Three" qualifying factors should be on every voter's mind, and several of the current candidates should be seen as unqualified ...

  You can look pretty hard and never find a perfect city. But if you ask the question, "which is better--a group of nations, or a group of city-states?", the answer might be the city-states. And, sea-steading, anyone? Whether you agree or not, this is a thought-provoking essay...