This Week on the Newsstand, March 30th

TIME to Expose Clean Energy
TIME debunks some of the common thoughts around ethanol -- stating it "increases global warming, destroys forests, and inflates food prices." The article appears with a shocking full page picture of emerald green farmland, that used to be the thick jungles of the Amazon. With the demand for farm-grown fuels such as ethanol, crop prices have risen to record level highs, which accelerates the deforestation but also jacks up the price of food as those resources are going to fuel and not the dinner plate. Furthermore it's not even as clean as once thought -- studies show that corn ethanol is "environmentally disastrous." The need of land to grow fuel is the key problem and with Brazil and Indonesia chopping more irreplaceable forests their carbon emissions have ballooned as a result. Taking deforestation into account corn ethanol and soy biodiesel actually produce twice the emissions of gasoline. Despite this politicians in the U.S. support biofuels because they have to simplify things into half a sentence that the network news can air at the end of the day. Farmers in Brazil, meanwhile, are driven by market forces, pointing to the U.S.'s own deforestation over a century ago and so they say, "If you don't want us to tear down the forest, you better pay us to leave it up!" Yes, because having money is more important than living.
EW! Speed Racer!
The latest movie from the Wachowski brothers is the live-action upgrade from retro classic cartoon Speed Racer. The six page layout on the cover story offers a few pictures from the CG-heavy film which stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, and Matthew Fox. The accompanying article mentions the trippy effects, the eye candy images, and the complications in bringing the $120 million movie to life. Warner Brothers has had the rights for the movie for over a decade and went through many directors including J. J. Abrams, and stars, including Johnny Depp, but the Wachowski brothers won the project with a four minute mini-movie showing what they wanted to do. I am excited for the movie, not so much because of who directed it (though they are good at plagiarizing so I expect the transition from TV cartoon to film to be smooth) but because of the stellar cast and crazy effects. So what if it's going to be G or PG? Pixar's movies all fall in that category are doesn't make them any less awesome.
Surrogate Mothers in NEWSWEEK
It must be a slow news week if the magazine with the same name decides to look at just who are the hundreds of women who rent out their womb to somebody else's baby. Typically surrogacy agreements run between $20,000 and $25,000, but many states don't recognize surrogacy agreements (Europe doesn't either, which is why international couples turn to the USA for their surrogacy needs.) Estimates put surrogate births at only 1000 for 2007, many of which were military wives supplementing their income while their husbands are overseas. Plus with having to move around a lot the "job" gives them a way to contribute and takes less than a year. But those numbers are growing, in part because of better technology which can put success rate to 70-90% up from 40% ten years ago. Surrogates are often stereotyped as hicks, which seems to be the case with the upcoming movie Baby Mama starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, but one surrogate points out that many of those women wouldn't qualify at agencies. Many of the women interviewed feel like they are helping someone else, giving themselves a sense of purpose, and liken it to donating an organ, only you can live to see the recipient's happiness. But some of them feel a little lonely and helpless after giving up the babies they carried, saying its the hardest part of the job. Some remain in contact with the child, receiving pictures from the parents while others don't have any connection. Overall the article doesn't really give any eye-opening insight on surrogates, though it is interesting to learn that military wives are common surrogate candidates.