MAIL vs. E-MAIL February 23, 2012
Posted by thenaturalist in History, Interesting.add a comment
John Updike was the last New Yorker writer to use the mails. (Roger Angell, “Comment: Life and Letters” The New Yorker, January 2, 2012)
BURJ KHALIFA February 23, 2012
Posted by thenaturalist in Dubai.1 comment so far
In the movie “Mission Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” Tom Cruise scales the world’s tallest building (the spindly Burj Khalifa, in Dubai), gripping with electronic gecko gloves, one of which appears to have a dying battery. (David Denby, “The Current Cinema: Battle Stations,” The New Yorker, January 2, 2012)
DIABETES February 23, 2012
Posted by thenaturalist in Alarming, Drugs, Health.add a comment
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw founded Biocon, India’s largest biotechnology company, in 1978…. Biocon is in stage-three clinical trials on both a cancer treatment drug and a variety of insulin that can be taken orally — a product that has long been the pharmaceutical industry’s “holy grail,” according the several American pharmaceutical executives. Mazumdar-Shaw says, “As the world becomes more affluent, diabetes gets worse. Oral insulin is Biocon’s big bet.” (Ariel Levy, “Drug Test,” The New Yorker, January 2, 2012)
LIPITOR February 23, 2012
Posted by thenaturalist in Dates, Drugs, Health.add a comment
Lipitor, the best-selling drug in the world, came off patent on November 30th, 2011. (Ariel Levy, “Drug Test,” The New Yorker, January 2, 2012)
THE PITCH DROP EXPERIMENT February 23, 2012
Posted by thenaturalist in Calendars, Clocks, Time, Interesting, Measurement, Science.add a comment
In 1927, Thomas Parnell, a physics professor at the University of Queensland, in Australia, designed an experiment to show his students how viscous a fluid could be. He poured hot pitch into a glass funnel, let it cool, and then waited…. Eight years later, the first drop fell. After another nine years, the second one fell. The Pitch Drop Experiment is now the world’s longest-running lab experiment. There have been a total of eight drops, occurring at an average interval of ten years. The drop takes bout a tenth of a second. No one has ever actually seen a drop fall.
John Mainstone, the professor who has overseen the experiment since 1961, is eagerly awaiting the ninth drop of pitch, which he expects will occur sometime in 2013. “Unpredictability is one of the great things about nature,” he said the other day…. The pitch drop doesn’t accommodate countdowns, he said. “I’ve been around long enough that I just see time before and time after. It’s only when the drop has happened that what has gone before makes sense in the flow of time. That is, I don’t become aware of what was going on just before the drop until after the drop occurs.” (Nick Paumgarten, “Dept. of Predictions: Countdown,” The New Yorker, January 2, 2002)
CEDAR KEY’S LAST FROST February 23, 2012
Posted by thenaturalist in Natural World, Weather.add a comment
Usually the last frost date in Cedar Key, Florida, is March 15 (Judi and Mandy, “In the Garden Don’ts and Do’s,” Cedar Key News, 2/2/12)
CAFFEINE January 5, 2012
Posted by thenaturalist in Coffee, Depression, Health, Nutrition.add a comment
For caffeine, probably the most important risk is that it can precipitate a panic attack. If you ingest too much of it, you can get what’s called caffeinism — jitters and tremors. Caffeine can increase blood pressure and can aggravate heart arrhythmias. However, if you consume caffeine on a regular basis, you can develop a tolerance to most of its side effects. French press or boiled coffee has chemicals that can raise cholesterol, but filtering coffee removes these chemicals, and in fact filtered coffee can actually protect the heart because it also contains antioxidants. You can clearly become physically dependent on caffeine but that isn’t the same thing as addiction, in which you have a compulsion to use a substance and can’t easily quit even if you need or want to. In itself, being dependent on caffeine isn’t harmful. (Neal Benowitz, M.D., professor of medicine, University of California, San Francisco, “The buzz on caffeine,” Consumer Reports on Health, January 2012)
COFFEE January 5, 2012
Posted by thenaturalist in Coffee, Food, Health, Nutrition.add a comment
A recent analysis of the Nurses’ Health Study has found a reduced risk of depression among coffee drinkers. Decaf appeared to have no significant effect on depression, nor did tea. Coffee contains antioxidant compounds called polyphenols that might help regulate blood sugar and prevent deadly clots. In fact, regular coffee consumption was associated with a longer life — mostly due to a reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes — in a 2008 study of nearly 180,000 people who were followed for two decades. Most healthy adults can safely consume up to 300 milligrams of caffeine daily (roughly three 8-ounce cups of coffee). People who suffer from anxiety might want to reduce or eliminate their consumption of caffeine. (Consumer Reports on Health, January 2012)
SLEEP AIDS January 5, 2012
Posted by thenaturalist in Food, Sleep.add a comment
Milk and other proteins contain tryptophan, an amino acid that causes drowsiness. Eating carbohydrate-rich foods makes tryptophan more available to the brain. That’s why the National Sleep Foundation recommends bedtime snacks consisting of both a carbohydrate and a protein, such as cereal with milk, peanut butter on toast, cheese and crackers, or even a turkey sandwich. (Consumer Reports on Health, January 2012)
APPLES AND PEARS January 5, 2012
Posted by thenaturalist in Floods, Food, Health, Nutrition.4 comments
“An Apple a day keeps the doctor away.” A 2011 Dutch study involving more than 20,000 people found that stroke risk was 52 percent lower among those with a high intake of fruit and vegetables whose edible portion is white. Apples and pears were the most commonly consumed “white” produce. (Consumer Reports on Health, January 2012)
Factoids 