1. Seeya Nostra - the economy is so bad in the Sicilian region of Italy - the official unemployment rate is 22 percent, and we know that government numbers are bogus - that the mafia has given up on extorting fellow Italians and started moving to Germany. It sounds like the worst Godfather sequel ever. 
2. NASA forced to admit it does not have a child slave colony on Mars

Any donor may request our latest publication free of charge, and everyone at the event got a copy. If you prefer to avoid paper, it's available as a PDF inside this article. Along with national coverage, the news was carried by regional papers from Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and Salt Lake Tribune to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Buffalo News.

Preservatives help keep our food supply safe and reduce food waste. Apparently, Panera Bread is unaware of this.

Adherence to medical treatment involving multiple medications is not easy. Can electronic reminders and financial incentives help?

One phenomenon that continues to mystify physicians and healthcare professionals alike is the "obesity paradox," the idea that significant extra weight can actually be beneficial and provide protection in some circumstances. 
For years, studies have been released that produced competing findings – some that supported its existence, others that undermined it – only serving to muddy the waters in this area of research. 

U.S. News and World Report recently disclosed their Best Children’s Hospitals 2017-2018 annual rankings. Do children’s hospitals even matter? Is an academic center, community or other facility good enough?

Can ratings of physicians and hospitals help patients improve their care? Is there an objective way to weigh costs and benefits? Improving our information is more difficult than it seems.

Delicious irony: our friends over at the Natural Defense Resource Council excel at scaring people about (mostly) harmless chemicals. They are also huge fans of solar power. But the solar panels contain the same chemicals that NRDC is always scaring us about. What to do? They haven't a clue.

"The Little Black Book of Junk Science is just what it sounds like," says Dr. Alex Berezow, Senior Fellow in Biomedical Science for the Council and author of the work. "Everyone talks about fake news but it is a little harder to know what junk science is if you are not an expert. This book is a pocket-sized reference that will allow the public to do just that. Family barbecues will never be the same!"

It makes some sense that over-consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (sodas or fruit juices, for example) could be linked to both obesity and the risk of type 2 diabetes. But artificially-sweetened beverages? The ones with fewer calories? Still, another paper tries to support that link — but leaves us wondering about the lack of logic in this approach.