Anything but water

• A really interesting podcast on the "nutrition mafia" in the US. If they've been wrong all along about the benefits of a high-carb low fat diet, then can we blame most of the health problems on overconsumption of sugar (HFCS and "non-caloric" sugars included)? Yet another reason to doubt that the USDA works for Americans instead of the agro-industrial complex. That segment gives an interesting example of "authority" via circular-citation, brilliantly demonstrated in this XKCD.
  
  
• Pepper spray as a poison and an interesting overview on the history of poison.
  
  
• Thomas Sowell slays conventional wisdom (on government policy, equality, etc.) for breakfast.
  
  
• Speaking of scary government out of control, "An obscure Pentagon agency intended to fight illicit drugs has quietly become one of the biggest sources of federal money for private security contractors. Over $3 billion..."
  
  
• For more on that, read about America's prison-industrial complex at Al Jazeera.

H/Ts to AG, RM and HZ