Barbara Maher of Lancaster University (UK) and her team looked at the brains of 37 people who had lived in Manchester in the UK or Mexico City. All contained millions of iron oxide nanoparticles per gram of brain tissue, suggesting that tiny specks of metal in car exhaust gases seem to fly up our noses and travel into our brains, where they may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.

A closer look at six brains found that round particles outnumbered angular crystals 100 to one. Crystal forms of iron oxide are more likely to have a natural source, whereas round particles normally come from melting iron at high temperatures. Maher says the particles’ round shape is compelling evidence that they come from pollution. These nanoparticles are less than 200 nanometres in diameter, so may be moving from the air into the nerve endings in our noses, and from there to the brain, says Maher’s team.

Previous work on cells grown in the lab has suggested that iron oxide is present in the protein plaques thought to have a role in Alzheimer’s disease, and that it generates reactive compounds called free radicals, which can kill nerve cells. Population studies have found that people who live nearer busy roads have a higher risk of mental impairment in old age.(Clare Wilson, New Scientist)

The good news is that studies have also found that our risk of getting Alzheimer’s by a particular age is falling, so if pollution is contributing to the disease, it doesn’t seem to be making it more common. Even so, reducing air pollution might cut our risk of Alzheimer’s. There is a serious possibility now that electric cars are really going to catch on, that their cost will come down, and the re-charging issue will be solved. If this finally materialises then the health of all those living in cities or near busy roads should improve.

You have to hand it to Putin. He and his cronies may be autocratic and corrupt, but he is achieving two things that Russian Tsars sought to achieve, and is doing so simultaneously – in Syria. By supporting Assad, brutally and without concern for the massive destruction and death, Putin has achieved a permanent warm water port in the Mediterranean. Russia sought this for centuries.

Secondly, by encouraging the massive movement of Syrian refugees in the direction of Europe, Putin is upending the decades of EU expansion and looks like contributing to its political instability, and even its possible collapse. Why? Because the EU developed an imperial posture of constant expansion, far too far and far too fast, including countries that arguably had been within the Russian sphere of influence within living memory. When the EU began to include countries like Serbia, Roumania and Bulgaria and the three Baltic countries, when it toyed with Ukrainian membership, and when NATO talked about the ring of rocket installations at the Russian border, this was all too much for the Russians. Their paranoia about their borders cannot be exaggerated, nor their resentment at the collapse of their own empire (make Russia great again). Think Napoleon, Hitler and earlier invaders. Now we have Brexit and a wave of very right wing governments popping up in Eastern Europe, driven by what seems to people as a wave of unwelcome and destabilising moslem immigration. From the Russian point of view the cost of the Syrian bombers must be well worth the price.

What has this to do with Epicureanism? Well, as an Epicurean I would not have provoked the Russian bear, but tried to woo it and be inclusive. I would not have so obviously taken advantage of its weakness since the fall of Communism. Brussels has been really ill-advised.

The Washington, D.C-based Migration Policy Institute released “An Analysis of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States by Country and Region of Birth.” It’s based on U.S. Census Bureau data.

Some of the findings may not surprise you. Mexicans represent 56 percent of the total. 15 percent come from Central America and 14% from Asia. The report finds that while the illegal population doubled in the 1990s from 3.5 million to 7 million, peaking at about 12.2 million people in 2007, it has since fallen by about one million (mostly Mexicans). Of the illegal immigrants the greatest number are Central Americans, Africans and Indians.

Meanwhile, Southwestern border apprehensions have fallen 80 percent since 2000 as fewer crossings are attempted. In the view of the Migration Policy Institute “the U.S.-Mexico border is more secure than it’s been in 40 years.” As for potential terrorists, there’s now a high probability of being apprehended at the border, and entering the US there is very risky. Better to enter through, say Dulles airport in the normal way; just don’t crack jokes or draw attention to yourself.
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So much for Trump’s stupid wall!