As I sit down to work in the afternoon, I often have the TV blaring away in the background, and while most people would find it impossible to work in such conditions, I don't really like TV (especially daytime TV) so I find it easy to tune out. Over the past few weeks, I've listened with mild amusement to some old episodes of The Dr. Phil House, where opposites are pitted against one another in a blatant attempt at ratings. If you haven't seen it, it's a reality TV-style house that contains a fat guy who hates skinny people and a skinny girl who hates fat people, plus an array of other colorful combinations.

I do have a point here. A study shows that the skinny girl who hates fat people might not just be prejudiced -- it might be an evolved response. According to The Independent in Britain, when a slim person sees an obese person, their immune system is triggered because the brain relates site of the obese person to a fear of infection. Moreover, in a series of questions given to subjects, the people who exhibited disgust toward germs and bad hygiene were more likely to discriminate against someone based on their weight.

But regardless of whether it's a "natural" reaction, discrimination is still wrong, and I think being prejudiced is ultimately a learned behavior. What do you think?

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A group of researchers recently took a look at the relationship between beverage study outcomes compared to who footed the bill, and what they found is a little scary: milk, soda, and juice studies were 4 to 8 times more likely to have favorable results when they were industry funded. And of the studies fully funded by the industry, none found fault with the studied drink.

A representative of the American Beverage Association argues that these researchers looked only at funding sources, and not at the merits and data that back up the individual beverage study results, saying "The science is what matters -- nothing else."

I honestly don't know who to believe, and find the whole thing frustrating. Science should be science -- keep the money and politics out of it.

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