Cocaine Trade Moves Out of Colombia | US Defense Warns Israel | Fat Taste Receptor Gene Protein Identified

/

Lesley Masson & Marcella Breukers | Michelle Du Xuan | Harper’s Bazaar China February 2012

Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

Iranians on Friday carried the flag-draped coffin of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a scientist working in Iran’s nuclear sector assassinated in Tehran.AP photoIsrael and Iran

Despite the demands of many Republican presidential candidates that the US go to war with Iran sooner rather than later, the WSJ writes that US defense leaders are seriously concerned that Israel plans to take military action against Iran, ignoring US admonitions about the dire consequences of a strike.

The Jerusalem Post is also reporting the WSJ story.

Cocaine: The New Front Lines

Since 2000, cultivation of cocoa leaves — the raw material of cocaine — has plunged 65% in Colombia, says the UN. That doesn’t mean that America’s white powder consumption is declining, writes WSJ in its Saturday essay. Rather, the drug trade has moved on, with cocaine growers ramping up production in countries not nearly as friendly to America. They include Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, where populist leaders have no interest in cooperating with US anti-drug efforts.

Tongue Taste of Fat

Image credit: Pepino labResearchers believe they’ve found a human receptor in a gene that makes people sensitive to the taste of fat. People with a particular variant of the CD36 gene are far more sensitive to fat than others. It’s possible that it people are highly sensitive to the taste of fat, they taste less of it the more they eat. As a result, those individuals seek more fatty foods to be satisfied.

The research results don’t confirm that obese people generally carry the CD36 gene variation, based on DNA tests with a group of 21 obese people. But the variation is very significant. Those participants who made more CD36 protein were eight times more sensitive to the presence of fat than those making 50 percent as much of the protein. via Science Daily

More DFR

Image credit: Anna VergheseYesterday morning the people of Port au Prince, Haiti woke up on the anniversary of Haiti’s terrible earthquake to find JR in town. From Cité Soleil to Petion-Ville, over 500 images, taken by Haitian photographers and printed by JR’s award-winning Inside Out Project, celebrated the resilience of the Haitian people and visualizing a country being reborn. See more images on TED blog.

JR won the 2011 $100,000 TED Prize for his inspiring artwork around the world. AOC has tracked JR for years. Read some of our most important articles about this amazing guerilla artist.

Natalia Vodianova’s LOVE Ball | JR’s Inside Out in Pakistan | Beauty & Brain

Global Slums Photograffeur JR To Receive 2011 TED $100,000 Prize

Photographers JR & Jonas Bendiksen | Artistry in Kibera, Kenya

In Paris All Eyes Are On ‘Women Are Heroes’