Caffeine May Kill Some Cancer Cells

I’ve got to admit, keeping up with a daily blog post is harder than I originally expected. I feel like I am reading more on a daily basis than at any other time in my life. Since I have failed to relay any of the more interesting things as of late, here’s my attempt at filling the void.

Source: Caffeine May Kill Some Cancer Cells by Andrea Thompson.

A cup of joe a day may help keep skin cancer away: A new study shows that caffeine helps kill off human cells damaged by ultraviolet light, one of the key triggers of several types of skin cancer.

Several studies have shown that people who regularly drink coffee or tea seem to have lower incidences of nonmelanoma skin cancers. One recent study of more than 90,000 Caucasian women found that with each additional cup of caffeinated coffee consumed, there was an associated 5 percent decreased risk of developing one of these skin cancers (decaf coffee had no effect).

The researchers go onto say:

"We are by no means recommending that people change their beverage habits," Nghiem said. It would take regularly drinking six cups of coffee a day to decrease the risk of incidence by just 30 percent, and tea has only half the potency of coffee, he added.

Interesting stuff...

JJ

Credit Crisis 101

Nice little summary of the Credit Crisis. For those that don't understand how many countries found themselves in the economic freefall of today, here is the primer. While Easy money and leverage walked us up the slippery slope, tight money and deleverage have turned cliff diving into a sport that most countries, industries, and sectors are clearly unprepared to handle.

Video by Jonathan Jarvis:


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Preach on brother Rick.

It's nice to see some one grow a set and speak some truth on TV (watch the 3 min rant).

Targeted Sound.

Woody Norris shows off his invention dubbed "Hypersonic Sound". His creation effectively shapes and focuses sound waves, allowing for the precise targeting and delivery of sound. I highly recommend the below video. Its a bit long, but worth the time spent watching.

A sign of things to come!

WMC 09 - Sweet New UI's

Three different vendors. Three different OS'. Three sweet interfaces. Nice to see Sony using the PS UI. I'll let the videos do the talking.

Microsoft (WM 6.5),


Windows Mobile 6.5 Running on HTC from Jesus Diaz on Vimeo.

Garmin (Linux),


Garmin G60 Hands On from Jesus Diaz on Vimeo.

Sony Ericson (Symbian).


Sony Ericsson Idou's in landscape mode from Jesus Diaz on Vimeo.

Stimu-less.

Image courtesy of http://www.neoconnews.com/

Caught this article during one of my binge blog reading sessions. Apparently it’s making its way around through the fwd circuit, so it’s only a matter of time before it hits my inbox. Pretty humorous, but oh so true. Id be curious to what the United States holds a comparative advantage in nowa days outside of agricultural goods, and select capital goods (and since there is not type face for sarcasm yet, yes that was a sarcastic comment).

via: The Big Picture

Sometime this year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:


Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.


Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.


Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. No, they are borrowing it from China. Your children are expected to repay the Chinese.


Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.


Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.


Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:


If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.

If you spend it on gasoline it will go to Hugo Chavez, the Arabs and Al Queda

If you purchase a computer it will go to Taiwan.

If you purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala (unless you buy organic).

If you buy a car it will go to Japan and Korea.

If you purchase prescription drugs it will go to India

If you purchase heroin it will go to the Taliban in Afghanistan

If you give it to a charitable cause, it will go to Nigeria.


And none of it will help the American economy. We need to keep that money here in America. You can keep the money in America by spending it at yard sales, going to a baseball game, or spend it on prostitutes, beer (domestic only), or tattoos, since those are the only businesses still in the US.

Can you say Buy-America?

The slow death of print media.

Just a quick rant.

After a long day at work yesterday, I got off the elevator to find the hall of my apartment building littered with the 2009 Yellow Pages. Lets analyze those last three words one more time. 2009 Yellow Pages. Yes, I know what your thinking. There are still Yellow Pages?

Let me start with a question. When is the last time you opened a yellow pages to find information? My guess if your reading this blog, is 1982. What an enormous waste of resources (can you hear me shaking my bag of granola). My recommendation to Yellow Pages: encourage people to use their advertising dollars a little wiser and get their information put online, or if already there to kick it up a notch. I understand there is a segment of the population who can't imagine the world without yellow pages, and have it around just in case Armageddon kicks in, but seriously is Google that intimidating?

Anyway, since I can imagine the YP book will be floating around for at least another decade, all I ask is that: the company does a little demographic research and give this artifact to those that actually think they need it, throw it directly in the recycling bin instead of leaving it at my front door, or here’s a novel concept...create an opt out program!


JJ

Quotes for the day.

Two different Quotes, two different people:

"We are not going to put out the details, until we get it right"

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in response to his releasing the details behind the US governments latest attempt at rescuing the US financial sector.

"Massive responses with little explanation will probably make things worse. That is the lesson from this crisis so far."

From How Government Created the Financial Crisis, written by Economist John Taylor (The Taylor Rule).

From TAF, to TARP, to TALF, and whatever is next, the only thing that is clear to me is how unclear the US government has been in its dealing with its current financial/economic mess.

What a mess…

JJ

To Buy or Rent.

Interesting piece on the NYT: Is it better to Buy or Rent?

The above link takes you to a Buy/Rent calculator. Here you can plug in all the parameters appropriate to you and your region. Given that most major markets are seeing horrendous real estate conditions I would encourage you to relax (tone down) assumptions on price appreciation, and if your a good tenant then lets assume YOY rental increases are small at best. Scroll over the graph to see your results.

Feel free to play around with all the different parameters to get a gauge of all the results possible.

Random Factiod of the Day

From Matt Buchanan over @ Gizmodo: Print Is Doomed, By the Numbers

"It would cost the Times about half as much money to send every single one of its subscribers a brand new Amazon Kindle instead of a physical newspaper each day." Over three months! [SAI]

Isn't the digital age great?

As featured in the UK publication News of the World this last Saturday, the Olympic Champ, Michael Phelps was captured hitting a bong @ at a University of South Carolina party. You can't be too careful nowadays. With everyone and their mother packing a 2mp camera on their phone, and most 15-40 something’s rocking a Facebook or Myspace pace, it doesn’t take to much to bring someone down a few notches.

This picture is definitely on par with that of President Obama’s twenty something chief speech writer having this picture show up on a Facebook page (see below). Classic!!! It’s good to know we're all human.

High Speed Far East.

It’s been a while since my last post. But between that last post and this morning, I have decided its time for me to move to Korea. Since it will probably be a decade or longer until I can expect my local ISP to provide something remotely close to this service @ a reasonable price, for now all i can do is sit back in envy of what the Koreans will be getting.

While in Korea download a 120-minute film in just 12 seconds!

Korea is to acquire the world's fastest wired and wireless Internet service at 10 times the speed of the current service by 2012. The government and the communications industry plan to invest some W34 trillion over the next five years in the project. The Korea Communications Commission finalized plans for Internet services at an average speed of 1 Gbps through fixed lines and 10 Mbps through wireless. One Gbps allows users to download a 120-minute film in just 12 seconds. The aim is to give users seamless access to large-capacity, high-quality convergence services such as IPTV.

Although the super-speed internet will be available mainly in large cities, fixed-line
subscribers in smaller towns in Korea will also have access to 50 to 100 Mbps Internet service allowing them to watch IPTV programs without a hitch.