Dr. Kurt Harris, M.D. & PaNu

In my post yesterday about the Nightline segment, I should have also given a shout-out to Dr. Kurt Harris. First of all, he's a UI grad as both an undergraduate and from medical school, so of course this speaks well of him! But more importantly, he, too, provides a rich and thoughtful resource in his blog about nutrition and health. Each of the persons that I normally mention in this realm has a slightly different take on what is best, but a couple of really regular and standard points stand out: grains and sugars (especially fructose in high doses) will be the death of us. Really, the death of us. Dr. Harris is another excellent resource for this perspective. Check out his "Get Started" link, which is short and to the point.

P.S. The "PaNu" should be pronounced "pay new", but I lack the diacritical marking for a long "a". He's shortening "paleo nutrition".

Krugman on Trains: We Love 'Em

There seems to be an argument that we Americans don't and shouldn't like the idea of trains. BS! Krugman makes the practical arguments in his usual deft & slyly ironic manner. I've been infatuated by trains since I was a youngster. I rode in the engine of a train between Shenandoah and Essex courtesy of connections of my grandfather. (This places the trip no later than 1959, the year that he died.) Since then I've always loved to travel by train. It was great having a train connection between Champaign and Chicago, and traveling on the TGV from Paris to Geneva--wow! A truly sweet ride! Also, we enjoyed a fun family vacation traveling via Amtrack from Galesburg (IL) to San Francisco, on the Yosemite, LA, and Santa Fe, before completing the loop back to Galesburg. The trip was a wonderful site seeing tour. Iowa Guru & I are supporting the effort to get train service between IC & Chicago, but things are dicey, as Brandstad and the Republicans don't seem to like the idea. Let's hope (and write) that they change their minds.

Two more points:
1. A short Krugman follow-up post: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/trains-planes-and-automobiles/

2. Planes, alas, used to seem quite fun and an adventure, but this is no longer so.