news bites

Are Americans the biggest pizza eaters?
No! The highest per capita consumption is in Iceland. The menu looks more like the United State's than most countries but with fish toppings. I think it's the lifestyle there: long days, long nights, and the fact that people have a discretionary income. (Source: and interview with Domino's CEO David Brandon in Fortune)
COMMENTS: Sounds fishy.

Light traffic
A study by a Maryland researcher last year found that 35% of the nation’s traffic agencies had not retimed their traffic signals in 10 years. That mans they haven’t responded to business and residential growth that affects traffic patterns, says Philip Tarnoff, director of the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology at the University of Maryland…Ideal management of traffic lights would cut delays by 15% to 20%, reduce travel time by up to 25%, cut emissions by up to 22% and reduce gas consumption by up to 10%, according to the transportation engineers, who conducted their survey with the Federal Highway Administration and other groups. The survey estimates that improving traffic signal operations would cost about $965 million a year. (Source: USA Today)
COMMENTS: I hate traffic lights. Lizalou42 does, too.

Ben and Jen, again
Ben Affleck popped the question to Jennifer Garner last weekend, according to People and Star magazines…The wedding would be Affleck’s first, after his broken engagement to Jennifer Lopez. It would be the second marriage for Garner, who separated from husband Scott Foley in April 2003 before dating her Alias co-star Michael Vartan. (Source: USA Today)
COMMENTS: Poor Michael! Celebrity match-ups are so funny. USA Today not only has a timeline of Ben and Jennifer’s path to love, they also have a poll to see which Jennifer we, the star-crazed American public, think Ben should date next. Jennifer Saunders from Absolutely Fabulous. One benefit of dating Jennifers: Never having to worry about calling out your ex’s name in bed.

Habemus papam—we have a pope
Quotes from Pope Benedict XVI:

After the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me—a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord. The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers. In the joy of the risen Lord, trusting in his permanent help, we go forward. The Lord will help us, and Mary, his very holy mother, stands by us.

Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards.

I will make every effort and dedicate myself to pursuing the promising dialogue that my predecessors began with various civilizations, because it is mutual understanding that gives rise to conditions for a better future for everyone.

Under John Paul II, who died April 2 after more than 26 years as pontiff, Ratzinger headed the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which interprets and enforces church teachings.

In that job since 1981, he was a staunch traditionalist. He disciplined liberal theologians, resisted calls for female priests, opposed artificial birth control and condemned homosexuality.

Monday, at a Mass launching the conclave, he rallied against moral relativism, secularism, atheism, Marxism and religious sects. He attacked modern attitudes that recognized “nothing as definitive” and prize “the self and its desires.”

He wrote a letter to U.S. bishops urging them to deny communion to politicians who support abortion rights. He has called homosexual acts a tendency toward “intrinsic moral evil” and described the U.S. outcry over pedophilia by priests as a “planned campaign” against the church.
Kenya is home to about 10 million Catholics—about 30% of the population. There are almost 140 million Catholics on the continent.

COMMENTS: Even with all of this controversy, he was still selected quite quickly. The cardinals want him to lead the church. He was Pope John Paul II’s right-hand man. My question is, how could stationing a traditionalist be a good move when the church pews, especially in Europe, are becoming emptier. People are leaving the church. Many of them leave because they’re views too often keep falling out of line with the church—a line the church traditionalists mean to hold tightly.