Conscientious people are less prone to Alzheimer's
CHICAGO, Oct 1 (Reuters) - People who lead a good clean life — those who are conscientious, self-disciplined and scrupulous — appear to be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Wilson and colleagues defined conscientiousness in the study as people who control their impulses and are goal-directed. These people are often considered dependable.
People in Wilson's study did not have dementia when the study started in 1994.
People who were highly conscientious had an 89 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease than those who ranked in the 10th percentile, with a score of 28 or lower.
The researchers also found that conscientiousness was linked with a slower rate of cognitive decline and a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment, a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.
Why conscientious people are less prone to Alzheimer's is not clear, but Wilson and colleagues suggested it may be because conscientious people tend to be more resilient, making them better able to cope with difficulties.
According to the World Health Organization, about 18 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease, a brain-wasting condition marked by memory loss and confusion that becomes so severe patients lose the ability to care for themselves.
" So it's the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember...
The way we..hey, who are you?
We now return you to “Drying Paint Theater”
World's most boring TV show to measure energy use
GENEVA (Reuters) - Television manufacturers and broadcasters have produced what may be the world's most boring TV program to measure energy consumption on new-generation televisions, an energy standards group said on Tuesday.
The aim is to have a standard way of measuring how much energy plasma and LCD TVs use, the Geneva-based International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) said in a statement.
If plasma and LCD TVs do use more energy than older televisions, that would push up demand for power and possibly affect climate change.
TV broadcasters and manufacturers edited together a mix of different genres spanning soap operas, nature programs and sports, and assessed the proportion of broadcasting for each type of genre in the world, it said.
This is because the power needed by a television for the images varies according to the type of program broadcast.
But the 10-minute program is an incoherent compilation and lacks drama. It can be compared with the test patterns or test cards that used to be broadcast to allow viewers to tune their sets, IEC spokesman Dennis Brougham said.
"The images are supposed to be a representation of what we watch, but when you stick it together it doesn't make much sense," he told Reuters.
Reducing energy use per model by 25 percent by 2009 could save more than 10 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year in the United States alone, the IEC said.
The program will be included in a new international standard from the IEC offering a way to measure power consumption and providing manufacturers with a way to provide accurate energy label ratings for consumers.
Ryan Seacrest would feel right at home.
Will the PTA be sacrificing a goat, in keeping with the holiday’s tradition?
Drudge reports: Illinois school district to celebrate 'winter festival' instead of Christmas
Oak Lawn Schools May Cancel Holiday Traditions
School District To Discuss Possible Cancellation Or Renaming Of Holiday Celebrations
(CBS) OAK LAWN, Ill. A southwest suburban school district has taken action, responding to the concerns of a parent who is Arabic.
But now, as CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports, other parents are angry that traditional school holidays will be renamed or even eliminated.
"That does not represent all the Muslims, all of the Arabs at that school," said Qais Nofel, the father of a student in Ridgeland School District 122.
There was some heated discussion between parents outside Columbus Manor Elementary School in Oak Lawn on Friday. The thought of no more traditional holiday celebrations has many parents really upset.
For now, children in Ridgeland School District 122 will celebrate fall festival instead of Halloween and winter festival instead of Christmas.
Brenda Elvidge said, "It's not fair to our kids. This is America and that's an American tradition."
The decision affects the children at four elementary schools in Oak Lawn and one junior high school in Bridgeview.
The district has a 30 percent Arabic population. The superintendent says the reason for the change in tradition comes after one parent wanted Ramadan decorations put up inside Columbus Manor Elementary. They were taken down.
Superintendent Tom Smyth said, "I go back to our policy which says that public schools are to remain neutral in this respect."
Meantime, Arab children are being allowed to pray during what's being called their own time, that's lunch time, during Ramadan.
Parent June Quigley said, "They get to pray in our schools. That is religion in a public school."
Arab-American parents have different views on the issue.
Sala Abour said, "To take away Halloween and Christmas from little kids, that is very wrong."
Nofel said, "We go and we celebrate the holidays and traditions here, but we do have the right to be Muslims as well."
Other parents say the controversy is overshadowing what really needs to be addressed at all five schools in the district.
Ronnie Carroll said, "The fact that they are cash strapped. Our classroom size is way above the average mean, 38 children in our first grade classroom. The concern should be our school, not the whole holiday issues."
Those issues along with the holiday controversy are going to be addressed at a school board meeting on Tuesday. Members will decide if holidays will be celebrated or not.
Meantime, the Illinois PTA district director says the state is now investigating this issue and there's a meeting with the superintendent next week.
But is it really a holiday if you’re not offending someone?
La-la-la, we don’t care, we’re going to live for ever…
Study: Boys and men worry less
DAVIS, Calif., 1 (UPI) -- A U.S. study found females more likely think negative events predict future events and this may explain why women perceive more risk and have more anxiety.
The study, published in Child Development, found that children and adults believe negative past events forecast negative future events, however, young girls and women more likely to believe negative past events predict future harm, compared to males.
Using a sample of 128 people that included children ages 3 to 6 as well as adults, the researcher tested reactions to stories involving negative events and found female children and adults more frequently explained characters’ reactions motivated by possible versus certain harm and more frequently predicted characters encountering someone who only looked similar to one causing past harm would feel worried.
Between ages 3 and 6, children increasingly understood how memories about past negative events influence their anticipation of the future, study author Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, of the University of California, Davis, said.
"These results are significant because they reveal that knowledge about the impact of past-to-future thinking on emotions and behaviors develops during the preschool years," Lagattuta said in a statement.
"And then she said, "Good news just means the bad news hasn’t arrived yet."
Yeah , but would you say it to his face if he was still around?
Sabretooth's surprising weak bite
By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News
The sabretooth tiger may have looked a fearsome sight with its massive canines but its reputation takes something of a knock with a new piece of research.
Scientists who have studied the extinct creature's skull in detail say it had a relatively weak bite - compared with, say, a modern lion.
And although those fangs must have been amazing killing implements, they made for a very restricted hunting strategy. The scientists report their work in the journal PNAS.
They say the sabretooth in many respects was a one-trip killing machine.
While it would have been a ruthlessly efficient hunter of big game, it was simply over-engineered for taking small prey - and that would have made it extremely vulnerable when times got hard.
"It's one of the golden rules of palaeontology," observed Colin McHenry of the University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia. "Specialisation is short term-success but it is long-term risk; because as soon as the ecosystem becomes destabilised, you're the first candidate to go extinct. It's the generalists that get through," he told BBC News.
CT (X-ray) scans were taken of the tiger's remains to construct a high-resolution digital model in a computer. This simulation was then loaded with forces to see how the skull, jaw, teeth and muscles would have coped with the mechanical stresses and strains experienced during predation.
The beast's predation strategy has long been a matter of contention, with some arguing that it leapt at prey with fangs bared; others that it used its sabres like ice-picks to climb on top of other animals; and some who argued that it would inflict grievous injuries by slashing out with its canines.
What seems clear from the research is that the sabretooth would not have taken down prey like today's lions, which try to asphyxiate their victims with a clamp-like bite to the neck.
The computer model shows that the sabretooth's skull would have struggled to handle the stresses being loaded on it as the prey writhed and kicked for the 10 minutes it can take to complete a suffocation.
For one thing, the scientists say, the sabretooth did not have the bite force to do this. At about 1,000 Newtons, it was biting with a third of the force an equivalent-sized lion can on the African savannah today, and the Smilodon would probably not have been able to sustain a clamp for the time required.
"The sabretooth was bear-like; it was massively strong - huge forequarters, powerful limbs. It was not an animal that was built for running; it was built for wrestling other animals to the ground," explained Mr McHenry.
"I think it was using its huge limbs and thumb-claws to wrestle large animals to the ground, and then when it's got them there under control, that's when the teeth come into play, and there's one instantly fatal bite to the neck, severing the airway and carotid arteries to the brain. Death is more or less instantaneous."
The computer work suggests this "coup de grace" was delivered largely from the neck muscles, the extra leverage driving a deep puncture wound.
Unlike with modern animals, there is no observational data
It's like Rocky said,
"its the eye of the tiger,
Its the thrill of the fight,
Rising up to the challenge of our rival,"
Yeah, he’s got your Siegfried & Roy right here.
How about Diamanda Galas and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music followed by some Throbbing Gristle?
Music Makes Colonoscopies Less Painful
Writing for Science.com,Karen Barrow describes a new study, presented at the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy's national meeting, which shows that patients who listened to music during their routine colonoscopy required less sedation for the procedure.
"Offering music makes sense," said Dr. Benjamin Krevsky, lead author of the study and professor of medicine at Temple University School of Medicine. "It has no downside, it may prove beneficial and patients appear to be satisfied with the procedure."
For the study, Krevsky and colleagues invited 73 men and women to bring music from home or choose from a selection of CDs with the understanding they may be played during their colonoscopy.
Ear buds were taped to the participants' ears before each procedure and the volume was adjusted so the music was only audible to the patient. Then, after the initial dose of a sedative commonly used during a colonoscopy, it was randomly determined if the music would be played during the procedure itself. Further doses of the sedative were given if necessary.
After the procedure, each patient was asked about their discomfort and pain levels during the procedure and if they had any anxiety.
From their data, the researchers determined that those who listened to music during the colonoscopy needed approximately one less dose of the sedative mediation, while still reporting about the same levels of comfort as those who did not listen to music.
"No I don't know that one, but could you hum a few bars?"
Nothing to worry about, we're scientists and we're from the government
U.S. labs mishandling deadly germs
Number of accidents involving anthrax, other toxins increasing, review finds
WASHINGTON - American laboratories handling the world’s deadliest germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003, and the number is increasing steadily as more labs across the country are approved to do the work.
No one died, and regulators said the public was never at risk during these incidents. But the documented cases reflect poorly on procedures and oversight at high-security labs, some of which work with organisms and poisons so dangerous that illnesses they cause have no cure. In some cases, labs have failed to report accidents as required by law.
The mishaps include workers bitten or scratched by infected animals, skin cuts, needle sticks and more, according to a review by The Associated Press of confidential reports submitted to federal regulators. They describe accidents involving anthrax, bird flu virus, monkeypox and plague-causing bacteria at 44 labs in 24 states. More than two-dozen incidents were still under investigation.
Among the previously undisclosed accidents:
* In Rockville, Md., ferret No. 992, inoculated with bird flu virus, bit a technician at Bioqual Inc. on the right thumb in July. The worker was placed on home quarantine for five days and directed to wear a mask to protect others.
* An Oklahoma State University lab in Stillwater in December could not account for a dead mouse inoculated with bacteria that causes joint pain, weakness, lymph node swelling and pneumonia. The rodent — one of 30 to be incinerated — was never found, but the lab said an employee “must have forgotten to remove the dead mouse from the cage” before the cage was sterilized.
* In Albuquerque, N.M., an employee at the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute was bitten on the left hand by an infected monkey in September 2006. The animal was ill from an infection of bacteria that causes plague. “When the gloves were removed, the skin appeared to be broken in 2 or 3 places,” the report said. The worker was referred to a doctor, but nothing more was disclosed.
* In Fort Collins, Colo., a worker at a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention facility found, in January 2004, three broken vials of Russian spring-summer encephalitis virus. Wearing only a laboratory coat and gloves, he used tweezers to remove broken glass and moved the materials to a special container. The virus, a potential bio-warfare agent, could cause brain inflammation and is supposed to be handled in a lab requiring pressure suits that resemble space suits. The report did not say whether the worker became ill.(MSNBC)
Now where did I put those monkey brains?I didn't know Britney was part Inca...
Study: Inca Children Drugged Sacrifice
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Children sacrificed by the Inca appear to have been "fattened up" in a yearlong ritual, new research suggests.
Researchers studied hair from the heads and in small bags accompanying four mummies of children sacrificed in Inca rituals. Their findings are reported in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The children's hair had been cut first a year and then six months before they were killed. By studying the chemicals preserved in the hair researchers can calculate the diet of the children.
The Inca lived in the area that is now Peru and were conquered by the invading Spanish in the early 1500s.
The children's diet was initially focused on vegetables such as the potato, but in the last year of their lives it was enriched with corn -- an elite food -- and protein probably from llama meat, according to the researchers led by Andrew Wilson of the University of Bradford in England.
"Given the surprising change in their diets and the symbolic cutting of their hair, it appears that various events were staged in which the status of the children was raised," Wilson said in a statement. "In effect, their countdown to sacrifice had begun some considerable time prior to death."
Changes in the hair samples indicate that in their last 3-to-4 months the children began their pilgrimage to the mountains, probably from Cuzco, the Inca capital.
The scientists are not certain how the children died, but think they were given maize beer and coca leaves.
"It looks to us as though the children were led up to the summit shrine in the culmination of a yearlong rite, drugged and then left to succumb to exposure," said co-author Timothy Taylor, also of the University of Bradford.At least they didn't drive them around L.A. until dawn.
And one more thing...
If you think Britney is upset about losing the kids, think again. It's all about that briar patch, Tar Baby.
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