http://www.kcbs.com/…

For years, the idea of taxing soda to beat back obesity has been tossed around in medical circles. But now, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is proposing a tax on beverages high in fructose corn syrup.

Newsom says obesity accounts for tens of millions of dollars in city health care costs. He cites a recent San Francisco Health Department survey that found nearly a quarter of the city’s 5th, 7th and 9th graders were overweight and that high sugar drinks make up a tenth of a kid’s daily calorie count.

Newsom reportedly wants all big box retailers and chain drug stores to pay into his new “Shape up San Francisco” program, which started this past summer with a walking regimen.

This comes as the state of California is considering slapping caffeine-infused sodas, and energy drinks with warning labels, saying consumption can contribute to diabetes.

This isn’t about obesity. They outright admit it’s about money. They don’t want to or can’t continue to mandate required city health care if the costs keep rising. Lets look at the entirety of this situation. The federal government steals your money through income taxation. They use some of that money to subsidize the corn industry and the fructose corn syrup industry in particular. In addition to that there are import quotas and tariffs on sugar. Those force the domestic price of sugar to more than twice the world price and lowers the cost of high-fructose corn syrup. According to Wikipedia Coca-Cola uses sugar internationally but HFCS domestically. Some believe that HFCS has greater health risks than sucrose. So here we have you paying for a possibly dangerous sweetener to be used in food which San Fran would like to then tax you for consuming. They want to tax you at the cash register so they don’t have to tax everyone else for your greater use of the mandatory health system. Of course the soda companies have something to say about this.

“It makes no sense to single out any one single cause of obesity, which is a complex problem,” said Kevin Keane, a senior vice president of the American Beverage Association, the trade group for $105-billion-a-year nonalcoholic beverage industry.

Keane said that if Newsom really wanted to fight the fat, he would take on computer and video game companies, which Keane said lured children inside when they should “be outside burning calories.”

Another person passes the blame. Lets see who has more sway in the California and San Francisco government: the beverage or videogame companies. Will they start placing “no fatties” taxes on Pepsi or Nintendo? Why can’t these people place blame on those who cause the obesity? The fat asses who eat and drink these things in excess and in the case of children their parents. Why not be honest and say that the reason they want to implement this tax is because people don’t want to actually pay for the socialist single payer health system pipedream they claim they want?

The soda proposal will be introduced to the Board of Supervisors early next year, Ballard said, and would affect only large retailers, not mom-and-pop stores. As for levies on other child-friendly delicacies, Ballard added, “The mayor has no intention of imposing a fee on pizza.”

Yet. Not as if the pizza is worth eating in San Fran.

http://arstechnica.com/…

California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia have moved (PDF) to extend their antitrust judgment against Microsoft until November 12, 2012. This decree is a modification of last month’s request to a judge that the judgment be extended by five years. The current antitrust decree is scheduled to expire in November of this year.

Firstly, they claim that there have been “continuing problems” with Microsoft’s efforts to document its server communications protocols.

Secondly, the report laments the state of OEM web browser bundling, saying that “no major OEM currently distributes a browser other than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE).”

I’m no fan of Microsoft but it’s laughable to think people actually consider them a monopoly. Sure they own lots of stuff and a whole lot of hardware run their software… but there are dozens of alternatives both for sale in the traditional sense but also free and open source projects. It’s really amazing all this has gone on for so long.

And why aren’t these states going after MS, Sony and Nintendo for having closed platforms? Shouldn’t my 360 game be able to work on my Wii?

http://gonintendo.com/?p=21166

A sequel to the amazin Golden Sun duo of games on the GBA is being developed by Camelot for DS, and is titled Golden Sun: The Solar Soothsayer. It will feature touch screen control, Felix will be the main character, it will have pseudo 3D graphics and psynergy (spells) controlled by touch screen.

The creators have said that the story of the game is very important and was fully scripted before the game began the rest of the creative process. It seems to set after the second of the two GBA titles, The Lost Age.

The game appears to have been shown only behind closed doors, with no official confirmation as yet. More as it breaks.

Hot damn!!! I really enjoyed the original 2 for the GBA. Good story, great graphics, lots to do, good puzzles, and very cool way in which they changed the cast in the second one. I hope this is legit. I’m a bit disappointed though it’s not for the Wii. From a company that primarily made golf games for Nintendo… they did a hell of a job.

UPDATE:

Appears to be a fake. :-(

http://gonintendo.com/…

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass follows hot on the heels of another classic Nintendo franchise with amazing new controls. Metroid® Prime 3: Corruption, the third installment of the hit trilogy, launches with motion-sensitive controls exclusively on Wii™ on Aug. 27. For more information about these games, visit www.Nintendo.com.

It’s only a week. I can deal with that.

http://www.siliconera.com/…

The collective community of Mother/Earthbound fans at Starmen.net banded together to launch a campaign to bring Mother 3 outside of Japan. For the past few weeks members have been mailing envelopes to Nintendo with Earthbound fan art, circulating Earthbound propaganda posters on the internet and organized a flood of phone calls to Nintendo requesting a new Mother game.

I’ve never played Earthbound but many of my friends would possibly give a testicle for a new Mother. I wish these guys all the luck.