An interesting statistic from researchers from Imperial College London and Harvard University have discovered after an exhaustive survey, that those worldwide suffering from diabetes, a potentially deadly disease, has risen from 153million to 347million..
Blame television.

Just an example of how this global recession has hit Greece.. Hospitals and doctors surgeries are running short of drugs to treat their patience, as the drug companies react to the economic state of the country.. even essential services can't get credit..
Greece is between the proverbial rock and a hard place.. Prime Minister Pappandreous has been told by the IMF, France, Germany and Britain, those being the countries about to cough out another £110 billion in loans, that he'd better stick to his strict austerity programs, increase taxes, cut social services, tackle unemployment, or that's they'll not shell out..
Meanwhile there are riots in the streets of Greece, with the public both vehemently and violently opposed to these measures, and the drop in their standard of living which they would bring about..
But.. supposing Greece fails to meet these conditions.. what then..?
There are a few possibilities.. Greece could shovel this debt into a hole.. and hope their economy could survive the return to the Drachma..
Or.. France and Germany could decide enough was enough.. good money after bad and all that.. and request Greece leave the EU.. again, a case of sink or swim, but no lifeguards on duty..
Or.. Moody's could downgrade Greece even further, causing a run on what commodities Greece deals in, the likes of shipping.. Bankruptcies would only add to an already unbearable problem...It's going to be interesting to watch this Game play out.
How important is the Unity of the EU..?
Now Mervyn King.. the Governor of the Bank of England, has warned that British involvement in propping up failing economies is only adding to our own rick of sliding back into recession..
The whole issue boils down to solvency. King suggested that the ultimate answer may lie in either alleviating the burden of its debts through 'gifts' of cash, or engineering a “significant improvement in competitiveness”..
Now while that certainly has it's merits, the fact remains that it renders down to getting the populace back to work.. That may well take the return to the old currency, and devaluing it.. with the open invitation to rejoin the ranks of the Union, as soon as it's finances were sorted out.
But how to get jobs into Greece..?
Certainly a devalued Drachma would increase tourism, and might be enough to entice foreign investment.. Tax incentives would certainly be on the table..
That option, in the long run, might be the best for all concerned.. It would allow France to divert much needed funds back into public sector projects, and would allow Angela perhaps yet another term in the Reichstag's..

Now while they're telling patients not to panic.. to keep taking their meds as prescribed.. a study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society seems to show that the cocktail of drugs some people are taking for various conditions, not always associated with geriatric patients but those who have longstanding medical problems requiring large doses of medication as well.. could be subject to premature dementia or Alsheimers..
Some of the drugs tested fell into Category One, meaning mild effects.. those the likes of codeine, warferin, and some eye drops, timonol maleate..
What the 'mild'effects are long term was not explained..
Perhaps it is a symptom of what our society has become, this addiction to medication..
Perhaps it started in the 60's with 'mother's little helper'.. perhaps even far earlier with the first bar fight..
But we have a predilection to use medication to excess, simply because 'if one's good, two must be better'.. This includes those doled out by physicians who have become little more than prescription pads, and if they can't prescribe it, they refer you to someone who can..
It's treating the symptoms.. not the problems..
It's a pity. There was a time the family doctor not only made housecalls, but knew his patients personally..
Makes one feel old, to say that..

What could be some rather disturbing news from Afghanistan..
As Barack plane's a phased withdrawal of 33 thousand troops from the country.. it's President Karzai, is having meetings with Akmadenejad in Tehran..
There have been some concerns about the relationship between Iraq and Afghanistan.. and what it might develop into once the West is gone..
But it's a no win situation for Barack.. He can promise to pour money into Karzai's government once the last American boot has left, but that still leaves Al Q'aida, and Iraq..
One has to feel some sympanthy for Barack.. he's not been much of a President, but he did inherit a lot..
But he's not made things any better either.. His unemployment figures are staggering.. the forecasts call for worse times to come and it's exceedingly difficult to see what magic policy is going to reverse this juggernaut..

A Brief word on the passing of Peter Falk.. While best known for his 'Columbo' character, he was an actor of some great talent beyond television.