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Can’t believe I start this topic… I’m sure I will regret it someday… just I can’t resist the temptation to write something down to "comment" the news… I borrowed the title from Jay Leno’s late show… so you can sense some irony from the title alone. well, this topic is all about "news", some are "political news". I just feel so funny where the world is going… It should actually belong to the topic "freestyle". Actually lots of issues can belong to that topic. well, seems I’m now starting more and more topics with no real follow-up contents… hmm… I should make that up…

damn…

– Go out.
– Find topics.
– Bull*.

Before Dan Brown became famous for his best seller Da Vinci Code, he wrote another bestselling mystery novel about Robert Langdon: Angels & Demons. In the novel, Landon and a beautiful lady, Vittoria, follow the "path of illumination" at the night of Papal election, trying to dig out the secrete group illuminati. The path is directed by the statues of angels in churches. However, a "demon" always sits beside the angel, disguising the real path. (Disclaimer: this is not a real plot of the novel. Interested people please click here for the true story.)

However, this topic is not about the novel, nor is it about religion. It’s about mortal human beings. In my opinion, like in many religions, human is the unity of angel and demon (like camerlengo?). Sometimes we are more like angles, sometimes we are not.  So, we may want to tell good from bad, right from wrong, angels from demons. However, we must also realize that the notion of "good", "right", "angel" differs from person to person. It can be best illustrated by the recent head to head "debate" between Chavez and Bush in the United Nations speeches.

This is the topic to express my feelings, about me, about you, about everyone else, in an imprecise manner.

随笔？杂谈？不，是杂论。它杂，任何题目都可以谈。但不像随笔，随手拈来，挥笔而下。它又论，论述一个观点，表达一个思想。有时它先叙后论，叙论结合。有时它有叙无论，论于读者心中。这，就是杂论。

Recently, China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine discovered trace amount of chromium and neodymium in SK-II skin care products. Then we saw all kinds of news about the refund and the unfair waiver form etc. I don’t know anything about this brand of cosmetics. But I happened to research the amount of chromium that’s needed by a human, for a completely different reason.

I found most vitamin and mineral supplements (e.g. Centrum) have chromium. A warning was posted on the label: diabetes or hypoglycemia patients need to consult doctor before taking the supplements. Why? I googled the web and seemed to have found the answer.

It is generally believed that chromium is an essential trace mineral for human body, while excess intake of chromium may have several undesired effects. However, different sources draw different conclusions.

UC Berkeley Wellness Letter presents a negative view about chromium [1]: There’s little evidence that chromium deficiency is widespread. Some very preliminary research suggests that chromium picolinate can reduce blood sugar in people with Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. But that’s a far cry from a reliable treatment for diabetes, which is not a chromium-deficiency disease. There is no good evidence backing chromium picolinate as a weight-loss aid, a muscle-builder, or a way to reduce blood cholesterol levels. This new evidence does suggest that it may have serious side effects. Nobody should take chromium picolinate, especially not young people.

However, other sources suggest differently. Briggs presents a double blind study in China [2]. The result indicates that daily intake of 1,000 mcg chromium have shown consistent improvement on type II diabetes. Similar results have been obtained by scientists at Agriculture Department’s Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center. A chemical explanation is also presented [3]. Because chromium may potentially treat diabetes, it may interfere with other drugs. This explains the warning message on the bottle of supplements.

Freestyle writing, as the name indicates, means to write at will with no specific topic. The writing may also be spontaneous, which means I will make more mistakes… Please remind me if you ever find one. Thanks in advance.