Let it Snow...

Well, the weather outside here in Halifax is certainly frightful -- we've had about three inches of snow overnight that's just now changing to rain, making for fun times on the road. However, it gives me some time to catch up on some reading I've been meaning to do, especially a poetry anthology that I've been trying to get through. I know very little about poetry, so I was hoping that this might give me a broad overview so that I don't have to be completely ignorant. Also, I came across a few stories that I thought were interesting. The first one deals with how oak barrels apparently improve the anti-cancer potential of red wine. Given that I rarely turn down a good bottle of wine, I can further justify my interest by claiming this on top of all the other studies that show red wine to be a benefit to your health.

Also of interest, and relating to a story that I previously wrote about, it looks like the United States has an agreement with the Yugoslavian tribunal to edit the testimony of Wesley Clark in the interests of national security. I find this interesting because you would think that given his long career in the military, General Clark would have enough sense about him not to reveal military secrets or other confidential information to the court. I think that this is a little bit of an overreaction and, as we can see from this article, a bad PR move for the United States.

Finally, I found a story about the aftermath of Liberia post-Charles Taylor, where the UN is having problems with the disarmament program. However, it's the good kind of problem, as it seems that the program is so popular they are having trouble keeping up with the number of people turning in weapons. However, it's a problem they'll have to fix quickly if they want to successfully restore order to this region of western Africa.