How Oxidative Stress May Help Prolong Life

How Oxidative Stress May Help Prolong Life:

"...study suggests why humans may actually be able to prolong the aging process by regularly exposing our bodies to minimal amounts of oxidants."....

This finding may explain recent studies suggesting that eating less may, in fact, raise ROS levels – and, in doing so, provide protection from acute doses of oxidants. This is counter to the hypothesis that caloric restriction extends lifespan in some species because it reduces ROS produced as a by-product of the energy regenerated by mitochondria.

'It may be that adaption to oxidative stress is the main factor responsible for the lifespan-expanding effects of caloric restriction,' said Ideker.

On my FinanceProfessorblog I have a category of papers called I^3. It stands for Important, Informative, and Interesting. This one would definitely fit! Really makes us think about what we know on many levels. READ THE ARTICLE!

Crossposted on RandomTopics2 and ParkandShop.

Google Waves Goodbye to E - Webmonkey

Amazing. BUT do I want people to see what I am typing as I type it? So much for error correction, etc.

Google Waves Goodbye to E - Webmonkey:

"Google Wave is an attempt to replace not one but all of these methods, rolling threaded conversations, real-time chat, nested comments, media sharing, link sharing and wiki-style collaboration into a familiar interface that looks and behaves like an e-mail inbox, complete with folders for keeping things organized and a search box for digging up older threads"

U.S. Cancer Death Rates Continue to Fall - ABC News

GREAT NEWS!

U.S. Cancer Death Rates Continue to Fall - ABC News:

"(HealthDay News) -- Some 650,000 people are alive today who wouldn't be were it not for advances in cancer prevention, detection and treatment over the past 15 years, new statistics show.

The American Cancer Society's Cancer Statistics 2009 report finds an encouraging 19.2 percent drop in cancer death rates among men from 1990 to 2005, as well as an 11.4 percent drop in women's cancer death rates during the same time period. "

We continue to see a decrease in death rates from cancer in both men and women and this is mainly because of prevention - mostly a reduction in smoking rates; detection which includes screening for colorectal cancer, for breast cancer and for cervical cancer; and also improved treatment," said report author Ahmedin Jemal, strategic director for cancer surveillance at the American Cancer Society"

Rock City travel, from Albany's Capital News

Capital News 9 | 24 Hour Local News | LIVING | Rock City Park getaway:

"For a trip back in time millions of years, you only have to take a few hour drive to Olean, New York. This where you'll find the most fascinating natural wonder called Rock City Park. This getaway is an easy hike through unusual rock formations along trails that take you in between, around and underneath giant boulders!"

Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees

Part Behavioral finance, part cycling, and part a study in how the brain works, the following "Test" is eye opening at least.

We all get so caught up in seeing what we want to see that we sometimes miss the obvious. This effects us in many ways: In finance, if bullish (optimistic), we are more apt to see the good news, if bearish (pessimistic) you see only bad news.

That is one reason why big break throughs happen from those outside the field. It is one reason why sabbaticals and vacations are important. But it can also have important implications in many other ways.




Go ahead, take the test. It takes about a minute.

Cross posted on FinanceProfessor.com's blog, Olean Cycling club's blog (which is currently almost inactive :( ), and RandomTopics2.


thanks to the Tour of the Gila for pointing this one out.

Manhattanhenge | Hayden Planetarium

Manhattanhenge | Hayden Planetarium:

"For Manhattan, a place where evening matters more than morning, that special day comes on Saturday, May 30th this year, one of only two occasions when the Sun sets in exact alignment with the Manhattan grid, fully illuminating every single cross-street for the last fifteen minutes of daylight. The other day is Sunday, July 12th. These two days give you a photogenic view with half the Sun above and half the Sun below the horizon—on the grid. The day after May 30th (Sunday, May 31), and the day before July 12 (Saturday, July 11) will also give you Manhattanhenge moments, but instead you will see the entire ball of the Sun on the horizon—on the grid."

Former Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman pleads guilty to tax evasion

Former Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman pleads guilty to tax evasion:

"Former major league pitcher Jerry Koosman pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion on Friday and could face up to one year in prison.

Koosman, an All-Star who helped the New York Mets win the 1969 World Series, failed to pay federal income taxes for 2002, 2003 and 2004, defrauding the government out of as much as $90,000, assistant U.S. attorney John Vaudreuil said. He also faces $25,000 in fines.

The 66-year-old Koosman makes his home in Osceola. He told investigators he researched federal tax laws and concluded they applied only to federal workers, corporate employees and District of Columbia residents, court documents said.

'I guess it's a combination of being naive and not being able to understand law as I read it or was told,' Koosman told U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb during Friday's hearing."

So wait, he really believed that? Really? uh, ok.

Protecting Athletes -- Microbiologists Invent Coating To Protect Athletes From Infection

Exciting news :)

Protecting Athletes -- Microbiologists Invent Coating To Protect Athletes From Infection:

"Microbiologists have devised an anti-microbial coating to protect athletes from potentially deadly infections. When applied to a surface, the coating bonds to it, then inhibits growth of bacteria, fungi, mold, and viruses. The coating can be applied to surfaces in locker rooms, equipment, and athletic fields."

Study Finds Reduction in Turbine Bat Kills - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

I have nothing against bats (the flying variety not the baseball kind), but I do have problems with many of the studies that find bird deaths around wind turbines. If pollution is bad (which I would assume it is), how many animals (birds, bats, skunks, people, or whatever) are dying from other sources of power generation? The problem is that they don't just fall at the base of the gas pump and hence are not measured. So much for true comparisons.

Study Finds Reduction in Turbine Bat Kills - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com:

". Twenty-one dead bats were found when turbines were fully operational, while 11 were found when turbines were turned off during low-wind phases....

The bat-saving measure came with a cost. Given the wind farm’s generating capacity, that one percent could theoretically translate to as much as 1,000 megawatt hours per year.

Using the going rate of $70.00 to $90.00 per megawatt hour of wind energy, that’s a potential $70,000 to $90,000 annual hit to the bottom line."

BTW this is also an example of how framing (context) matters. For instance. What if the following were the headline? "Would you pay $9,000 to save a single bat?"

High Blood Pressure Could Be Caused By A Common Virus, Study Suggests

High Blood Pressure Could Be Caused By A Common Virus, Study Suggests:

"A new study suggests for the first time that cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common viral infection affecting between 60 and 99 percent of adults worldwide, is a cause of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease."

From Genes To Growls, Decoding 'The Modern Dog' : NPR

From Genes To Growls, Decoding 'The Modern Dog' : NPR:

"Talk of the Nation, May 15, 2009 · Stanley Coren, author of The Modern Dog, joins other experts to discuss the latest in canine science — including how dogs influence child development, what the canine genome reveals about human cancer and a new device that allows dogs to bark at their masters over a cell phone."

Google's Wonder Wheel Experiment, and More

They've done it again! another very cool feature.

Google's Wonder Wheel Experiment, and More:

"One of the most interesting experiment features is the “wonder wheel.” This will show a Flash-based interactive mini app which starts with your keyword in the center, and related terms around it. Clicking on a related term creates a new, connected circle with more related terms. And whenever you click on a term, to the very right, the web results change to reflect your current topic of focus."

YouTube - uchannel's Channel

How does network TV have any viewers for non sports events? American Idol? What is that?

YouTube - uchannel's Channel:

"UChannel presents public affairs events from academic institutions all over the world.

Here you can see the full-length presentations of faculty, policy-makers, and researchers who have been invited by member universities to discuss the problems of the world -- and how to solve them.

These events are put online as a public service, brought to you by the institutions which support UChannel.

The UChannel consortium is led by Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

The other Charter Members are:
- Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
- Middlebury College's Rohatyn Center for International Affairs
- The LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

These lectures are distributed under the Creative Commons 'Attribution, NonCommercial, NoDerivatives' Deed.

For more programs (including many audio-only presentations not available here), go to: http://uc.princeton.edu"

State of the Art - With a Private MiFi Hot Spot, Be Online Wherever You Like - NYTimes.com

State of the Art - With a Private MiFi Hot Spot, Be Online Wherever You Like - NYTimes.com: "

Novatel MiFi 2200, available from Verizon starting in mid-May ($100 with two-year contract, after rebate). It’s a little wisp of a thing, like a triple-thick credit card. It has one power button, one status light and a swappable battery that looks like the one in a cellphone. When you turn on your MiFi and wait 30 seconds, it provides a personal, portable, powerful, password-protected wireless hot spot."

Multiple users are cool! I really like by USB modem, but this is really cool.

Yoga Journal - Yoga Buzz - Yoga Blog

Yoga Journal - Yoga Buzz - Yoga Blog:

"83-year-old yoga teacher Bette Calman defies all the stereotypes when it comes to seniors and yoga. She practices many advanced postures that even experienced yoga students half her age don't have the strength to hold, including this impressive Peacock Pose."

And from the Daily Mail:

"Mrs Calman teaches up to 11 classes a week with no sign of stopping and she keeps the 'corpse' posture strictly for her classes.

'Yoga keeps you young,' she said.

'Never have I gone to a yoga class and wished I was somewhere else, because I know I'm going to come out feeling on the top of the world. There'll always be yoga.'"

Google advertising in Olean! (from Washington Post)

Google Uses YouTube Clips To Hype Chrome - washingtonpost.com:

Now why would anyone think this is unusual? lol....and BTW I did see the billboard.

"Google doesn't really advertise its products?its business is to get other people to advertise theirs. So when the company takes the time and money to heavily promote something (in this case, Google has turned to YouTube to hype its browser, Chrome) people tend to notice. The last product Google (NSDQ: GOOG) went out of its way to promote was its free phone directory service, GOOG-411. People spotted billboards for the service in random places like relatively rural Olean, N.Y. and downtown San Francisco (via SEL)."

sciencefriday.com - making science user-friendly

One of the few shows on Radio or TV that is always worth the time!

sciencefriday.com - making science user-friendly
from the "about" page:

"Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide from 2-4pm Eastern time as part of NPR's 'Talk of the Nation' programming. Each week, we focus on science topics that are in the news and try to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join Science Friday's host, Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science"

Hard work (practice) makes the difference

Op-Ed Columnist - Genius - The Modern View - NYTimes.com:

"The latest research suggests a more prosaic, democratic, even puritanical view of the world. The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. It’s not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess. Instead, it’s deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours) rigorously practicing their craft."

and later:

"The mind wants to turn deliberate, newly learned skills into unconscious, automatically performed skills. But the mind is sloppy and will settle for good enough. By practicing slowly, by breaking skills down into tiny parts and repeating, the strenuous student forces the brain to internalize a better pattern of performance."

thanks to Lura_Forcum