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As Wildfires Get Worse, Firefighters Say ‘Screw It’

• It’s one of the more widely-noted effects of global warming: As dry seasons get longer and droughts become more prevalent, wildfires — particularly in the southwestern United States — are increasing in both frequency and strength. [USA Today]
• They’re getting so strong, in fact, that “fire bosses are increasingly reluctant to risk lives saving houses particularly if the owners have done nothing to protect their property.” And can you blame them? From Southern California to Montana, seven firefighters have died this year battling blazes that have destroyed more than 400 houses, a dramatic increase from last year. Over the past five years, wildfires have killed 113 firefighters in the U.S. [ABC]
• So far this year, wildfires have consumed 8.2 million acres nationwide, an area larger than Maryland, and most of it in the West, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. That figure is fast approaching last year’s record of 9.9 million acres, and the fire season can last through November in many parts of the West, particularly in fire-prone Southern California.
• Until recently, firefighters “saluted and went out and did it,” said Don Smurthwaite, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman and former firefighter. Now, “we will not ask a fire crew in a dangerous fire to defend a structure that has not taken precautionary steps. That’s definitely a change.”

Good thing most of these homes will be under water soon, anyway...

Biggest. Terror Drill. Ever.

• If you live in Portland, Oregon or Phoenix, Arizona, repeat after me: This is only a test.
• From October 15-19, the United States government will conduct its biggest terrorism drill to date. [CBS News]
• Called TOPOFF (for Top Officials Exercise), the exercise will test official reactions to dirty bombs going off at the Cabras power plant in Guam, the Steel Bridge in Portland and the intersection of Rtes. 101 and 202 near Phoenix.
• Everyone from local hospitals all the way up to top officials at the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense will be involved in the exercise, working on Prevention, Intelligence/investigation, Incident management, Public Information and, most importantly, Evaluation. The program costs $25 million a year.
• Here’s the problem, though: The last round of exercises was conducted in 2005. The results from that test were supposed to be made public, to allow officials to see what went wrong and prepare for the next attack. However, the Department of Homeland Security won’t let anyone see the details.
• The Associated Press got its hands on a brief summary of the 2005 report; it charged problems arose when state officials realized the federal government policy said it wouldn’t help out with any biological incidents. Residents suffering from attacks in the 2005 drill weren’t able to access federal disaster assistance.
• An internal White House memo in 2006 on Hurricane Katrina mentioned this, saying, “The most recent Top Officials (TOPOFF) exercise in April 2005 revealed the federal government’s lack of progress in addressing a number of preparedness deficiencies, many of which had been identified in previous exercises.
• Former Homeland Security SecretaryTomRidge said “it is not acceptable” that the 2005 findings have yet to be released.
• Rep. Norm Dicks: “Is it so sensitive because there was a lot of failures in this exercise? You know Katrina wasn’t exactly a home run.” [AP]

How’s this for a test: Why hold drills if you’re just going to hide any negative results?

Yeah, Whatever, But Can Your iPhone Check Your Breath?

• So you’ve got an iPhone, and you’re feeling all cool and hip. But what if you’re fat and smelly? [Reuters]
• Well, a Japanese phone company has got the solution to your stinky breath and bulging waistline: a fitness phone.
• That’s right, NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest cell phone carrier, has released a phone with “various devices that can measure your pulse or the amount of steps you’ve taken in a day.” It also “dispenses heath advice after you’ve punched in statistics such as gender, age and weight.”
• Plus, it checks your breath: “you can also exhale into the phone and it will tell you whether its time to reach for the breath mints.”
• They’re not the only ones aiming to knock the iPhone from its perch. Verizon has just released a new touch screen/web browsing phone called the LG Voyager that, among other things, has a flip out keyboard and works on Verizon’s far superior wireless network. [Bloomberg]

We still love you best, Steve Jobs.

Your Husband Is Killing You

• Ladies, your husband may be hazardous to your health.
• One new study out this week shows that men keep us up at night, while they sleep like babies. [MSNBC]
• According to a new study this month in the Sleep and Biological Rhythms journal show “women sleep less soundly when they share a bed with a romantic partner.” And, yes, “men actually sleep better when they sleep next to a woman.”
• A different study showed the way women fight with their men can also affect their health. [NY Times]
• This will keep you up at night: In a 10-year study of marital bickering, researchers found women who hold their tongues during fights with their husbands were four times as likely to die than women who spoke their minds.
• Men? Didn’t matter. Yell, stay quiet, whatever, their health remained the same.
• The tone of the fights also affected the heart health of women. Hostile fights jack up a woman’s risk of heart disease; warmer, less nasty fights lower a wife’s risk of heart disease.
• Men? Style of fighting didn’t matter; their health remained the same.
• So what kind of fighting does affect a man’s health? Battles for control. Whether he is trying to take control or if his wife was being controlling, controlling arguments led to a higher risk of heart disease.

Lucky these hubbies are so darned cute.

You’re Paying For The Feds To Fly First Class

• The Feds are flying in style on your dime. [SEATTLE TIMES]
• A Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation revealed $146 million in unauthorized premium-class airline travel by federal employees in a one-year period.
• That’s $146 million of your tax dollars for extra leg room and an extended beverage list.
• In one instance, thirty-two State Department staffers flew business class from Washington to Liberia, twenty-two of which were unjustified. The flights totaled $293,000, $169,000 more than comparable coach tickets.
• Remember needing a note from your doctor because you wanted to get out of gym class, a math test, etc?
• A Pentagon employee took 15 premium class flights, citing a medical condition. His only proof? A note claiming surgery years earlier signed by a fellow Pentagon employee.
• And you thought the Department of Justice’s $5 meatballs were ridiculous, though probably delicious. [FOX]

…and, no you’re not getting the frequent flier miles

By the Numbers

So here’s the deal: Over the past twenty years, the staggering increase in preventable diseases (think: obesity and heart disease) has hurt the U.S.’s economic productivity, escalated treatment costs and caused unnecessary suffering, a new report says. Just how much money has your penchant for twinkies cost us? Take a look at the numbers that the study produced. [Los Angeles Times]

$1.1 trillion

A reorientation toward preventive medicine regarding of seven chronic diseases — cancers, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, mental disorders and pulmonary conditions — could save the U.S. $1.1 trillion...

40 million cases

...it could also prevent 40 million cases.

$60 billion

Reducing obesity alone to reasonable and achievable levels, the report says, could trim the incidence of disease by 14.8 million case in 2023, saving $60 billion in treatment costs.

$254 billion

Reducing obesity would also improve the nation’s economic output by $254 billion.

Celebrities: Unfiltered

“I don’t regret not having been drafted. . .because I made out big. Why is it good to die for one’s country? Isn’t it better to live in New York?”

— Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriend and up-and-coming supermodel Bar Refaeli on skipping out on serving in the Israeli army in order to have a venti-skim-latte at Prince and Elizabeth. [Jossip]

Speed Round

AUDIO: “WORST BOOK INTERVIEW EVER”

Chris Matthews gets really uncomfortable when Jon Stewart doesn’t like his book.

AUDIO: GROSS

Ted Koppel’s wife “married him for the sex.”

CELEBRIDIRT

Turns out on top of failing drug tests and being a drunken mess, Britney also forgot to sign some pesky papers about custody. Whatever. [TMZ]

IN OTHER BRITNEY NEWS...

Homegirl’s got her driver’s license! Road trip, y’all! [AP]

YOUR HEALTH

A strip club is offering free flu shots to its patrons. Yup, in Florida. [NBC]

GOOD NEWS

Authorities decide not to chop down the chestnut tree famed for providing comfort to Anne Frank while she hid from the Nazis. [MSNBC]

MR. SULU’S HEAVENLY BODY

The International Astronomical Union has officially renamed an asteroid between Jupiter and Mars “7307 Takei,” in honor of Star Trek (and more recently “Heroes”) actor George Takei. [Yahoo]

THE STORY THAT WOULDN’T DIE

Panicked at being out of the spotlight for too long, Howard K. Stern this week announced he was suing gravel-voiced Rita Cosby for $60 million for writing he’d had an affair with Anna Nicole’s babydaddy Larry Birkhead. [ET Online]

30%

Number of flights delays in the month of August. [USA Today]

WHOOPS

Note to Ohio State Rep. Matthew Barrett. When projecting data onto a giant screen during a lecture to local high school students, make sure to double check you’ve brought your personal computer memory stick that holds data, not the one filled with photos of topless women. [CBS News]

THE ONION

Favorite Onion headline of the week: “New Heart Device Allows Cheney To Experience Love” [The Onion]

THREE LEGGED ROBOTS

Seriously. Check it out. [Beyond The Beyond]

POSTAL AVENGERS

The postal service has declared “war” on those fake Nigerian princes trying to steal your money. They’re intercepting fake checks and have seized “more than 540,000 fake checks with a face value of $2.1 billion” so far. [Fox]

SAD

A woman gets a mastectomy after being falsely diagnosed with breast cancer. [AP]

SCAM

A fake chimney sweep scam artist has his victims write checks out to the abbreviated name of his fake company: “Chimney And Safe Home.” Abbreviation? CASH. [WFSB]