August 3, 2010

It's Tuesday, August 3rd.

16-year-old singing sensation Justin Bieber plans to release his memoirs in October.

Currently, Which puts him on track for a mid-life crisis just in time for Christmas.

This is The Current.

According to a new survey, the world is on the verge of facing a bed bug pandemic.

Bed bugs are tiny things, about the size of an apple seed or, as Mark Amery said, a fleck of pepper. They only come out at night to bite their hosts. And they don't just live in beds. You can find them in picture frames, baseboards, electrical outlets or books. Officials insist that bed bugs are not themselves a public health risk. But many people who have lived with them say differently. Marsha Lederman is a reporter with the Globe and Mail. She recently wrote about her family's experience battling bed bugs at their home in Vancouver. She was in Toronto for the show.

According to Missy Henriksen, bed bug infestations are becoming all too common in cities all over the world. She's the Vice-President of Public Affairs for the U.S.-based National Pest Management Association. It's a not-for-profit group that represents the pest-control industry. And last week it released a survey suggesting that the world is on the verge of a bed bug pandemic. Missy Henriksen is in Washington.

HOUR TWO

Hunter-Gatherers

About ten thousand years ago, humans made a giant leap forward as a species. We settled down, stopped wandering the earth endlessly in search of food and shelter and built permanent settlements. That led to towns, cities, modern farming and ultimately nations with complex cultures and economies. Most people view that as a good thing. But Spencer Wells thinks it might have been our undoing as a happy, healthy species. He's the Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. And his new book is called Pandora's Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization.

And he's not the only one trying to revive the hunter-gatherer ideal. Loren Cordain is a professor of Health Science and Exercise Science at Colorado State University. He is also one of the driving forces behind what's commonly known as "the caveman diet", although Loren Cordain prefers the term "Paleo Diet."