Magic Statistics

After years of falling popularity in the UK, the sausage is making a comeback.

Just five years ago, with the traditional cooked breakfast in decline, it looked as if Britons were falling out of love with the banger. Today, the sizzle is back, with consumption up 17%. Forecasters say the nation will eat 189,000 tonnes this year, the equivalent of 140 sausages each.

I've always wondered why they're called "bangers". Now I know: the high water content of World War II-era sausages made them explode when fried.

via Blogotional.

Ted Olson, who runs the Weblog at Christianity Today, leads off today with an item on two newspapers that have been suppressed by offended officials. Besides the Anglican Planet, which the Bishop of Brandon has banned from his diocese, there's the case of Women's Rights magazine in Afghanistan. Its editor Ali Mohaqiq Nasab has been sentenced to two years' imprisonment for publishing "un-Islamic" articles. Olson wonders why American reporters aren't speaking up for colleagues whose journalistic freedoms have been trampled on.

But at least the Associated Press and some other media outlets are covering Nasab's case. So far, only the CBC has talked about the suppression of The Anglican Planet in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It hasn't even warranted a link on Romenesko.
. . .
[I]t used to be that these kinds of stories would trump the political ideologies of mainstream news reporters. Not anymore? Or is it just that a story has to be big before it gets big? Are people waiting for The New York Times to report this?

I have little to add to what has been said by others with more expertise than I in American politics, only that there is renewed hope for my choice for the US Supreme Court.