The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an animated graphic of health risks as they spread from the East to the West over twenty years.

This image shows the overlay between a particular disease and obesity:

They also discuss the correlation between obesity and exercise, which discusses how a caloric intake higher than a metabolic rate is a major factor.

Americans who live in Appalachia and the South are the least likely to be physically active in their leisure time. In many counties in that region, more than 29 percent of adults reported getting no physical activity other than at their regular job.

Unfortunately they do not yet have a graphic that maps specific types of food product consumption rates and change (e.g. soft drinks or even just corn syrup) to obesity. Another interesting overlay would be the density of fast-food restaurants and supermarkets relative to obesity. And another one might be the percentage of cars relative to bicycles to obesity.

I agree with this general assessment of Facebook

Brad Shimmin, an analyst with Current Analysis, said it’s clear that Facebook hasn’t learned any big lessons from its previous privacy brouhahas .

“Facebook’s repeated methodology of opting all users into new services, particularly services with potentially damaging ramifications, demonstrates a certain disregard for the security and privacy of its users,” Shimmin said.

There is no excuse for Facebook. They just fail and fail again. An opt-in system could be very easily advertised by them. What possible reason could they have to make it an opt-out?

The Facebook blog post does not hide the fact that they want their users to have to dig their way out of facial recognition software.

When you or a friend upload new photos, we use face recognition software (similar to that found in many photo editing tools) to match your new photos to other photos you’re tagged in. We group similar photos together and, whenever possible, suggest the name of the friend in the photos.

If for any reason you don’t want your name to be suggested, you will be able to disable suggested tags in your Privacy Settings. Just click “Customize Settings” and “Suggest photos of me to friends.” Your name will no longer be suggested in photo tags, though friends can still tag you manually.

What’s the supposed benefit of facial recognition technology on a social network platform? Let’s say you are the type of person who uploads a lot of photos of the same person…

Instead of typing her name 64 times, all you’ll need to do is click “Save”…

They are offering to save time for a certain type of user. It does not by any means justify an opt-out philosophy for automatically tagging everyone else, given the risk and privacy issues.

Google built but never launched a facial recognition service. The company was worried about its potential for abuse, says Google chairman Eric Schmidt.

Facebook’s system also brings to mind the problem of what happens if every face in every picture is the same? In other words how long before a clever artist builds a flashmob holding up masks with a picture of someone else to get it automatically tagged hundreds or even thousands of times?

This seems like the obvious answer and a great way to protest the opt-out:

Now you too can look like the man who says his plan to “become a vegetarian” is killing and eating animals.

The Chefs at Coi in San Francisco admit they did not come up with a “new” item for their menu.

The idea came from a conversation with my sous-chef. We were trying to find a new way to cook carrots, and he recalled working in a restaurant in France…

Shocking. Americans stealing ideas from French kitchens…if any one of those kitchens had some Google-sized orphelines they’d be all over America right now with accusations of cuisine warfare. I can hear the military sabre rattling now…

“If you steal from our kitchens,” said one unnamed official, “maybe we will put a soufflé down one of your chimneys.”

Here’s some more shocking news. Coi has discovered that hay is best served to farm animals.

And if you’re considering eating the hay itself, I wouldn’t. The flavor is great, but unless you’re a farm animal, the texture leaves much to be desired.

If that hasn’t dissuaded you, Coi also offers health and safety warnings, which beg the question of why they even bother to use hay in the first place.

Most farms and farm-supply stores carry hay, but because you’ll use it in direct contact with food, make sure it hasn’t been treated with chemical pesticides. And beware: Before you place your order, stake out some serious storage space. A bale of hay is enormous.

Unfortunately the reader gets no indication of how exactly they “make sure” it has no chemical pesticides. Count the legs and eyes on the farm animals that eat from the same bale?

Oh well, if the French do it, must be good. I might have to ride my horse down to Coi and check it out.

The Chinese might have responded with too much haste to the most recent accusations by Google. The English news from Xinhuanet has made some amusing and unfortunate errors. This one is probably my favourite:

In fact, individual criminals, rather than states, are the major treat to Internet safety, as some U.S. experts say.

I would like to know which experts say this. Criminals are a major treat? Do these treats leave a sour taste?

The next one makes me think that the Chinese editors might have relied too much on Google translate.

The chimerical complaints by Google have become obstacles for enhancing global trust between stakeholders in cyberspace.

If only Google had known that their language engine would be used to draft the letter against them. Oh, the fun they could have had.

Although China does not identify the experts it cites, mentioned above, they don’t seem to mind accusing Google of failing to identify theirs. Double standard?

Then unidentified American security investigators said, they traced the attackers to computers at Chinese Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School, according to the New York Times.

And then they try for some humour.

The report amused many Chinese at that time since Lanxiang Vocational School enjoys a good fame at training chefs for local restaurants.

But the American investigators suggested that the school had the capacity to stage the cyber attacks and made the world’s No. 1 search engine suffer. It is really hard for people with common sense to understand.

Well, actually, I don’t know about that since security experts in America often tout their culinary skills. I know one who brags about his “short-order cook” training, another who writes guides to restaurants, and another just retired to start a chocolate company.

It could just be that Americans think very highly of culinary skill while the Chinese…well, apparently common sense to them is you don’t want to eat the food made by graduates of the Lanxiang Vocational School. Americans who saw the school’s name might have thought “good fame at training chefs” meant something like Culinary Arts instead of “do you want fries with that”.

Never mind the messenger(s). The historic trend of attacks has been away from states and towards groups/individuals, away from clear definitions of victory and towards mixed levels of compromise. That was a large point of my Dr. Stuxlove presentation earlier this year. Google might believe it knows reasons why China is sponsoring or even supporting attacks but the company has yet to provide anything even close to a proof.

It is hard not to wonder about the timing and the reason they chose to announce this breach. Does Google make a major news announcement every time they think someone not in China is responsible for breaching their security?

A source familiar with the incident said this was not the first time a Google employee has been dismissed as the result of a privacy breach

I am reminded of a comment I made on Bruce’s blog the other day about the US intelligence community’s recently published review on McCarthy-ism. I ranted a bit but the follow-up comments by Eric and Dirk are excellent. Definitely worth checking their perspectives out if you have a moment.

Speaking of Bruce, he declares this whole flap non-newsworthy but I know he is into good food and I bet he hasn’t taken into account the criminal treats.