American Portrait

An article in The New York Times does a good job of pulling interesting factoids from the 2007 Census Bureau Statistical Abstract of the U.S. Here's a headliner: teenagers and adults now spend 64 days a year watching TV, 41 days listening to the radio and just more than a week using the Internet. How about us multitaskers?

Shocking but true

Young people who prepare their own food at home instead of going out to eat have healthier diets than their peers who eat out more often, one U.S. study finds. I suppose it would take a dedicated junk food fiend with a flair for the kitchen to eat worse than a Whopper, french fries and a milk shake. The University of Minnesota study does make one helpful suggestion: young people need to be taught how to prepare economical and healthful meals. Even among those who prepared food at home, only about 3 in 10 met the threshold of five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Canadissent

There is more protest from agriculture interests in Canada about the phase-in of new APHIS fees. Though the USDA put off the proposed fee imposition until March - the fee was originally slated for Nov. 24 - Canadian grain interests complain the rule doesn't consider alternatives and the impact of the fee on cross border trade. However, I think it is hard to make a case that Canada should be exempt from the user fee when every other country pays it.