Thursday evening roundup

While Pakistan's bulletproofing buses for cricket players, maybe they could work on the school buses, too.

Aw! Nigerian kidnappers up their game for the holidays:

Police say kidnappings often increase towards Christmas, when gang members need more money for festivities and gifts.

God's all, "I don't think so."

Tina Fey is wondering whether she's a secretary on Mad Men.

Ikaria: the island of life. Here's a shocker:

She noted that the Ikarians’ diet, like that of others around the Mediterranean, was rich in olive oil and vegetables, low in dairy (except goat’s milk) and meat products, and also included moderate amounts of alcohol. It emphasized homegrown potatoes, beans (garbanzo, black-eyed peas and lentils), wild greens and locally produced goat milk and honey.

and

“One explanation why they live so long is they eat a plant-based diet. Or it could be the absence of sugar and white flour. From what I know of the Greek diet, they eat very little refined sugar, and their breads have been traditionally made with stone-ground wheat.” 

Most importantly,

That’s what the $70 billion diet industry and $20 billion health-club industry do in their efforts to persuade us that if we eat the right food or do the right workout, we’ll be healthier, lose weight and live longer. But these strategies rarely work. Not because they’re wrong-minded: it’s a good idea for people to do any of these healthful activities. The problem is, it’s difficult to change individual behaviors when community behaviors stay the same. In the United States, you can’t go to a movie, walk through the airport or buy cough medicine without being routed through a gantlet of candy bars, salty snacks and sugar-sweetened beverages. The processed-food industry spends more than $4 billion a year tempting us to eat.

Conveniently, a companion blog entry links to a few plant-based recipes (note that the Times avoided the 'v' word).