The games consoles market is one of the fastest growing in consumer electronics with over 60 million sold and 14 percent growth last year," Greenpeace explained on its newly launched Clash of the Consoles website. "These consoles contain toxic chemicals and can contribute to the massive growth of electronic waste that's often dumped, causing widespread environmental pollution and health problems for unprotected workers."

Tattle: Too hot for tunnel vision

IT'S ONE THING when a new Calvin Klein underwear ad in Times Square gets the decency folks riled up, but the London subway system has a bigger problem than Klein, Abercrombie or Victoria's Secret.

Lucas Cranach the Elder.

London's transport authority has refused to display a poster featuring Cranach's "Venus," saying it is overtly sexual.

"Venus" was painted in 1532.

But she's still hot. In London, it seems, 470 is the new 30.

The painting, which depicts a golden-haired, milky-skinned woman cocking her hips behind a transparent veil, is one of 70 works due to go on display at London's Royal Academy of Arts on March 8.

But Transport for London refused to display a poster of the work unless the bottom half was cropped out, the academy said.

Cranach, after all, was the Seymour Butts of his time.

Easy WebContent Web Page Editing Service

It is a rare but unalloyed pleasure to try a product or service for which you have only modest expectations, and find yourself blown out of the water. Easy WebContent, an online service designed to take the fuss out of editing Web pages, is that good. In fact, this $9.95-per-month service is better than most stand-alone Web design applications I've used during my 13 years of building sites.

Easy WebContent isn't designed to compete with an Adobe Dreamweaver-scale product; it's meant to help average mortals create and update Web pages. And in that market, it has no rival. Online services such as Homestead.com use template approaches that restrict what you can do with your site; Easy WebContent comes much closer than its template-oriented competitors to being a Web design application.

February 2008

As you have more people living in more places, extreme weather will cause more property damage. The report concludes that "Even Hurricane Katrina is not outside the range of normalized estimates for past storms." And that's a consensus conclusion.

Fresh Cafe a mecca for everything vegetarian

So I decided to eat better. I've gone from a size 12 to a size 3 - that's smaller than I've ever been.

I don't feel deprived. I just don't crave junk any more.



Q. Where do you get your wheat grass?

A. We have a Carlisle address - that's where I grow my wheatgrass in a greenhouse at home.

I also sell the seed and kits for wheat grass.

A one-ounce shot of wheat grass has more protein than one egg. Although fresh is best, I sell frozen packs of wheat grass juice at Gateway Market.



Q. What's a typical breakfast for you?

A. Every morning, I have oatmeal. I use virgin, unprocessed coconut oil in it - that's an omega 3 oil. I might also put raw almonds in my cereal.

Clayton Reaction: Perdue, Students

William "Brad" Bryant and James Bostic, both members of the state Board of Education, will update Perdue on how well the school system is proceeding toward meeting the deadline.

Three audits -- which were asked for by SACS -- will go forward. The first, by the state auditor's office, will go over the school system's finances, the second, by the governor's office of student achievement, will focus on attendance records in the county. The final audit, by Secretary of State Karen Handel, will look at the election records of the individual elections of each of the school board members presently on the school board.

Finally, Perdue announced legislation that says that if a school system loses its accreditation, there will be an automatic recall of the school board.

When asked about the governor's statements, Georgia Association of Educators head Jeff Hubbard called it "a good first step."

Hubbard said he wants to see a recall of the four school board members tied to the problems cited in the SACS report.

Eric Harr: Time is on your side if you take time to set it aside

A RECORD 68 PERCENT of American adults are overweight or obese. Seventy-eight million Americans- roughly one-quarter of the U.S. population - exercise zero times a year. Zero times a year! This widespread avoidance of physical activity, coupled with poor eating habits, have created an unprecedented health crisis in this country. The time for change is now.

If we accept that physical activity and healthy eating confer benefits such as a healthier weight, a more beautiful body, higher energy levels, more confidence, a longer life and a better life, why do so many people struggle to exercise and eat right?

Most puzzling is the quiet resignation of Americans, whose collective apathy toward exercise, and the uninterest with which we do it, marks the eye-popping escalation of obesity in this country.