so excited for the antp goodness! last week, previews showed that shandi would fall prey to the tried and true italian boy's "i've never done it with an american girl" pick up line. and had sex in a hot tub, even though she's got a boyfriend. how cliche. now, sex with an italian boy in a funicular, or in a eurostar bathroom, would have been much more interesting. but we shall see.

wait? what is this crap? it is a recap of the eight first seasons. okay, well whatever. this is good. i can see what i missed the first half of the season. italia, next week!

Italian researchers also say that coffee -- scratch that, espresso in particular -- is good for you. Don't mention red wine; we'll never get them to shut up.

All of these Italian breakthroughs are great, but I'm even more excited to hear that Columbian scientists are poised to announce they've identified an amazing all-natural pick-me-up.

olive oil during pregnancy makes kids smarter.

A teaspoon of olive oil a day during pregnancy makes for smarter children, according to Italian researchers. The effects of 'green gold,' on a mum-to-be are many -- from a healthier liver and cleaner arteries to reinforcing cell membranes-- and can add up to a 30% increase in intelligence.

"Olive oil isn't just a condiment, it's a food," said Giorgio Calabrese, professor and nutritionist. "Our studies have shown that it is an important element for health, not only contributing to intelligence but also in preventing tumors, reducing risk of heart attack and improving cholesterol levels."

Those of us who missed out on a mediterranean diet in the womb can still benefit from regular consumption of olive oil.
A study by the University of Bari found that elderly people with a diet high in monounsaturated fatty acids contained in olive oil had and maintained higher cognitive skills than those who did not. During the nine years of the study, researchers studied over 700 people between the ages of 65 and 85, and found that followers of the mediterranean diet, where 29% of total calories were fat from olive oil, scored highest on cognitive tests and maintained that advantage over the years.

Trying to convince the rest of the world that olive oil is the 'divine gift' mediterranean populations consider it may take some doing. Even before the low-carb, high-fat diet craze set in, only 3% of the worldwide consumption in fat was made up of olive oil.

"It's conquering the other 97% of the people that concerns me," said Calabrese. "We can talk about benefits all day long, but we need to change habits."

basically: a shotglass of olive oil a day=good idea. and it's yummy!

hahah. tom brokaw for vp. hahaha. i guess it's not too crazy considering other names i've heard floated.

kerry really should just go ahead and pick one. my preference would have been richardson, but i don't think he'll do it. i mean, i have no insight as to who would be the best veep, but sooner better than later, i think. though i do know some people are saying that kerry should wait as long as possible on the choice so as to continue getting publicity for his campaign, but i figure if people are counting on the veep selection to be the only thing that'll get any publicity for the dems from here until november, that's not very optimistic. plus, he should get a vp now to test him under fire, and have him battle-ready within a month or two.

ETC. another name for this blog should be: uninformed thoughts of an addled mind.

most of you probably know that the US lifted its travel ban to libya in light of qaddafi becoming all cuddly in the past few months. the new york times showed this past sunday why you might actually want to go there for a vacation: stunning roman ruins in the cities of leptis magna and sabratha. apparently libya is home to some of the best roman ruins outside of italy.

the article also discusses how horribly italy treated libya when it was a colony of theirs.

Although the 20th century has seen the first mass excavations of these Roman cities, over all it has not been kind to Libya, an Italian colony from 1911 to 1943. When Italy entered its Fascist period under Mussolini, the Roman treasures of North Africa were dug up as icons of Italian imperialism.

"The politics of the spade was very much operating in North Africa at that time," says David Mattingly, who teaches Roman archaeology at the University of Leicester. "And it was partly an attempt to disenfranchise the Libyans from their own past and to make the Roman past of Libya an Italian preserve."

A railroad was laid into Leptis in the 1920's (its tracks are still visible) and thousands of workers spent years hauling hundreds of tons of sand and dirt off the ruins.

Indigenous rebellion was brutally suppressed, and ordinary Libyans were not allowed to walk the streets in central Tripoli where Italians lived in grand buildings.

"The Libyans were treated horribly during the colonial period and the resentment still complicates Libya's relations with Italy today," one Western ambassador says. For that reason also, the amazing Roman ruins here are not the source of national pride that a visitor might expect.

it sounds amazing, and i bet it's dirt cheap. because everyone is probably terrified to go to libya. but i bet within ten years, it'll be a hotspot international travel destination. it would be wonderful to go to tunisia, libya and egypt in one extended trip. i really wanted to go to tunisia when i was younger. my grandfather and brother and i played this game where he would quiz us on capitals of north african and middle eastern countries (you see that my family are true partiers) and i always thought it was funny that tunis was the capital of tunisia; i liked it because it was the easiest to remember.

is it possible that most of the gay republicans will vote again for bush this november, despite his support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage? i think it might be. i bet andrew sullivan still will. this article states that a lot of log cabin people and other gay republican groups have reevaluated their support for bush, but still seem to be leaning towards voting for him.

Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, an organization of gays in the party, worried last month that the president's backing of an amendment might demoralize or cripple Mr. Guerriero's group. But in an interview on Friday, Mr. Guerriero said the Log Cabin Republicans had received a sudden increase in memberships and financial support.

"What we are doing right now is we are putting all of our resources to fight the constitutional amendment," he said. "Then hopefully the party and the president can focus on who do you want to be the president regarding taxes and who do you want to be commander in chief when it comes to terrorism."

Although Mr. Bush's support for the amendment "seriously jeopardized" the endorsement of the Log Cabin Republicans, Mr. Guerriero said the group had not made a decision. "Our members are intensely conservative,'` he said. "We are not going to let one moment make us run away scared."

i just can't fathom it. i mean, i realize this is a complicated situation, and if you really believe bush could handle foreign policy and the economy, etc, better, it would be hard not to vote for him--but he has come out in support of the fact that gays do not deserve equal rights. he has said to these voters, you are not as good as other people in this country and are not entitled to happiness and freedom and equality. like i said, i know it is more complicated and difficult for gay republicans than it is from my viewpoint. but JEEZ.

...But he said he felt he had to separate his opposition from the amendment from his support for Mr. Bush. "I am an American first, I am a gay American second," he said. "I am going to support him on the fight against terrorism, and be against him on this amendment. Am I going to vote for him? Yes, I will, very reluctantly and only because of the courageous and gutsy job he has done fighting terrorism."

if you were an american first and foremost, wouldn't you still be worried about the constitution being tampered with?