A little Bit here & a little Byte there . . .

I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

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Answer: Bill Gates. Read his entire email here. If he has these problems with Windows and Microsoft web sites, what hope is there for the rest of us?

As some of you are no doubt aware, this past week has seen sickness within our household.  In lieu of having to compose over two-hundred e-mails in order to catch everyone up to date on personal goings-on, I had intended to post an update covering the period of the last week or so.  My plan was to post it this morning.

That did not happen.

Unfortunately, I was up again last night vomiting - - - and generally exhibiting the majority of symptoms contained in this posting.

I have the entry in draft stage, and hope to have it posted (with photos) not later than this coming Friday morning.

I will be having a very long day at Tripler Army Medical Center tomorrow undergoing some diagnostic testing on the old, sick carcass - - - followed by an employment interview (videoconference) during the middle of the night.

The plan is to go to sleep as soon as I get home from the hospital, then have E wake me around 00:30 to 01:00 in order to have a few hours to prepare for my videoconference.  During this time, I shall hopefully complete and post my updated personal entry.

For those who sent me the e-mails expressing disappointment that I did not get my entry posted, as I said I would today - - you will just have to be a bit more patient.

And if you cannot afford to be a bit more patient with me, then perhaps you should learn to use an RSS reader - - - or seek your amusement elsewhere.

For the guy that sent the e-mail saying my blog would be much more interesting if I wrote about my sexual activity - - - you can KISS MY ASS. . .

You are always free to start your own blog should you so choose.

Long-term coffee drinking does not appear to increase a person's risk of early death and may cut a person's chances of dying from heart disease, according to a study published on Monday.

Previous studies have given a mixed picture of health effects from coffee, finding a variety of benefits and some drawbacks from the popular drink. The new study looked at people who drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee.

Researchers led by Esther Lopez-Garcia of Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain followed 84,214 U.S. women from 1980 to 2004 and 41,736 U.S. men from 1986 to 2004.

They found that regular coffee drinking -- up to six cups a day -- was not associated with increased deaths among the study's middle-aged participants. In fact, the coffee drinkers, particularly the women, experienced a small decline in death rates from heart disease.

The study found no association between coffee consumption and cancer deaths.

"Our study indicates that coffee consumption does not have a detrimental effect," Lopez-Garcia, whose research appears in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, said in a telephone interview. "It seems like long-term coffee consumption may have some beneficial effects."

There has been a debate among scientists about the health effects of drinking coffee, which typically contains the stimulant caffeine and a number of other important compounds.

The people who took part in the research completed questionnaires on how frequently they drank coffee, other diet habits, smoking and medical conditions. The researchers then studied the mortality risk over the period of the study among people with different coffee-drinking habits.

The study found that women who reported drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease than women who did not drink coffee. The researchers saw a smaller decreased risk for men but it was not statistically significant.

Drinking decaffeinated coffee was associated with a small reduction in overall mortality risk, the researchers said.

The people in the study had no history of cardiovascular disease or cancer when they entered it. The women were nurses and the men doctors, dentists and other health professionals.

Some studies have indicated coffee is a great source of antioxidants, substances that may protect against the effects of molecules called free radicals that can damage cells and may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other ailments.

Recent studies have offered a mixed picture on the health effects of coffee.

A study that came out in January found that pregnant women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day had twice the risk of miscarriage as those who avoid caffeine. Another study appearing in January found that drinking caffeinated coffee lowered a woman's risk of ovarian cancer.

Source: Reuters

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Personal Opinion:  The medical community in the United States seems to run Hot and Cold regarding the benefits/disadvantages of consuming coffee.  Such is life!

Me - - - I like my Java, to the tune of about 48 fluid ounces daily.  So if this theory pans out - - - I should be well-insulated from certain cancers.

If it does not - - - then I have consumed lots of a very enjoyable beverage on my way to the grave . . .

Coffee definitely has some mental health benefits associated with its consumption . . .

Remember, I drink coffee for your protection!  Were there no coffee - - - when I snap, you'll be the first to go!

Enjoy your chocolate with less guilt – a study at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is affiliated with Georgetown University Medical Center, has found that a synthetic chemical based on a compound found in cocoa beans slows the growth of cancerous tumors and speeds their destruction.

“We have all heard that eating chocolate is good for you; this study suggests one reason why that might be true,” said researcher Min Kim, Ph.D. “This chemical seems to be safe, which makes sense because it has a structure similar to a natural product in cocoa beans, the same beans used to make chocolate,” he says.

Even better, the concentrations of the chemical tested in the study weren’t excessive. “The effective concentrations were considered similar to what a person might eat or use,” he says.

Kim and his team of researchers found that the chemical, known as GECGC, was effective against colon, cervical, and one line of leukemia cells. Growth of colon cancer cells was cut in half, and the chemical damaged most of the tumor cells.

GECGC was most effective against fast-growing cancers and was so effective against colon cancer, and didn’t harm normal cells that Kim says the chemical “could serve as a promising therapeutic for colon cancer.”

Source: Newsmax

Although the Physician’s Desk Reference sits on the desk of almost every doctor, it may be dusty from neglect. And if your doctor continues to prescribe the same drugs year after year without checking out his PDR or keeping up with breaking research on newly discovered dangers for commonly-prescribed drugs, your doctor could accidentally send you home with a prescription that could be deadly. Some old, formerly trusted drugs are so dangerous doctors say they wouldn’t take them. Are the deadly drugs in your medicine cabinet? Here’s a list of drugs docs say they wouldn’t take:

• Advair. When used regularly, an ingredient in Advair called salmeterol can increase the severity of asthma attacks. Researchers estimate it may contribute to as many as 5,000 deaths related to asthma in the U.S. each year. In 2006, the FDA added a “black box” warning to Advair, the organization’s highest warning. Safer alternatives include inhaled corticosteroids or inhaled corticosteroids coupled with a leukotriene modifier such as Singular to help control inflammation and the production of mucous.

• Avandia. Recent studies have shown that Avandia, which is an oral medication used to control type 2 diabetes, increases the risk of a heart attack. People who took Avandia (also known as rosiglitazone) for a year increased their risk of heart failure by 109 percent and heart attack by 42 percent. A safe, cheaper alternative to Avandia is metformin (One brand is Glucophage). You might also speak to your doctor about taking statin drugs to lower your cholesterol or the vitamin B niacin, which can raise good (HDL) cholesterol levels as it lowers bad (LDL) cholesterol.

• Celebrex. Once prescribed to treat inflammation and pain, especially for those with arthritis, studies have shown that people who take 200 mg of Celebrex twice a day more than double their chances of dying from cardiovascular disease. In addition, Celebrex is linked to liver damage, kidney problems, and gastrointestinal bleeding. Although nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen could be safer alternatives, they, too, have been liked to intestinal bleeding. Consider acupuncture instead. German scientists found that treatments twice a week were twice as effective as conventional treatment plans, including drugs, physical therapy, and exercise.

• Ketek. Although an effective antibiotic for respiratory infections, Ketek puts patients at a higher risk of severe liver problems than other antibiotics. If you have a severe infection, such as pneumonia, and your doctor prescribes Ketek, ask for a safer alternative such as doxycycline or Zithromax.

• Nexium and Prilosec. Researchers are investigating a link between these acid-reflux medications and heart attacks, but there are more reasons to avoid these two meds. They reduce acid so effectively that you may have an elevated risk of pneumonia (from bacteria and viruses that stomach acids would have killed) and an increased risk of bone loss. Instead, try Pepcid AC or Zantac 150. Also, losing weight can keep excess belly fat from putting pressure on the valve that lets stomach acid leak into your esophagus.

• Pseudoephedrine. This decongestant, which has been linked to stroke and heart disease, can raise your heart rate and blood pressure – potentially dangerous for people with high blood pressure or heart disease. In addition, pseudoephedrine can increase symptoms of glaucoma and benign prostate disease.

Source: Newsmax

Falling levels of a hormone called leptin that helps the brain resist tempting foods may explain why people who lose weight often have a hard time keeping it off, U.S. researchers said on Friday.

Restoring leptin to pre-diet levels may reverse this problem, they said, offering a way for weary dieters to finally win the weight battle.

"When you lose weight you've created about the perfect storm for regaining weight," said Michael Rosenbaum of Columbia University Medical Center in New York, whose research appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

After weight loss Rosenbaum said the metabolism not only becomes more efficient, so the body needs fewer calories, but the brain becomes more vulnerable to tasty-looking treats.

"Areas of your brain involved in telling you not to eat seem to be less active. You are more responsive to food and you are less in control of it," he said in a telephone interview.

Leptin is a natural appetite suppressant secreted by fat cells in the body. Its discovery created a stir in the 1990s when researchers found leptin caused mice to eat less and lose weight. This rarely happens in humans.

Since then researchers have been looking the best way to use the hormone to help treat obesity.

In earlier studies, researchers found that when people lose weight, leptin levels fall as the body tries to protect its energy stores.

Rosenbaum investigated the impact of this loss of leptin on the brains of people who had lost weight, and whether replacing the hormone might help them keep off the weight.

He used an imaging technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging that shows activity in the brain. The researchers studied six obese patients before and after going on a hospital-supervised diet that reduced their body weight by 10 percent.

People were shown pictures of food and non-food items, such as an apple or a yo-yo. The researchers found that after weight loss, areas in the brain responsible for regulating food intake were less active when people were shown food images. Areas in the brain responsible for emotion were more active.

When the researchers restored leptin to the levels before the dieting, these changes were largely reversed.

Similar results have been seen in people with a rare genetic condition in which their bodies do not make leptin.

Rosenbaum believes leptin could be a useful tool in helping people maintain weight loss. "The idea is there should be a whole new class of therapies to help us keep weight off after we have lost it," he said.

Source: Reuters

BUCHANAN, N.Y. -- Officials say five out of 167 sirens failed in a test of the warning system at a nuclear power plant in New York City's heavily populated northern suburbs.

Entergy Nuclear spokeswoman Robyn Bentley says the failures in the Indian Point sirens were due to an amplifier problem.

All of the sirens were tested at full volume Monday for four minutes. The test was held in the evening so residents would be home to hear the sirens.

The sirens would warn people within 10 miles of the plant to any emergency. Indian Point is just 35 miles north of New York City.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined Entergy $780,000 for missing deadlines to install the new siren system. Its next deadline is mid-August.

Source: Associated Press

Waikiki board backs measure, which worries advocates for homeless

By Mary Vorsino
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

Waikiki residents are supporting a City Council bill to ban sleeping or lying down at bus stops to help tackle a persistent homeless problem in the state's No. 1 tourist destination.

"We've been getting all these complaints that bus riders can't use the bus stops because they're being populated by people sleeping there," said Bob Finley, chairman of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, which voted unanimously to support the measure at its meeting last Tuesday. "We're not anti-homeless, but we feel people riding buses have the right to the bus stops."

The measure, introduced in April by City Councilman Rod Tam, is before the Transportation and Public Works Committee. Tam said he believes it will move out of committee this month and could go for a full council vote before the end of the summer.

The bill comes as more people are riding city buses to avoid soaring gas prices. And it follows a successful bid in January to ban aggressive panhandling near ATMs — a proposal that largely came out of complaints from Waikiki residents. Though Tam said the bus stop bill is designed to address an islandwide problem, he said its biggest impacts will be in Waikiki, Downtown and Chinatown, where there are larger pockets of the chronically homeless.

Advocates for the homeless fear the bill — coupled with the panhandling ban near ATMs — will further stigmatize the homeless and make their lives more difficult. They agree that a bus stop is no place to sleep, but say banning the practice is unnecessary.

'Find them a shelter'

Bob Erb, founder of the Waikiki Beach Outreach Ministry, which feeds about 250 homeless people weekly, said the city should instead be thinking about ways to help the homeless.

"Let's find them a shelter so they don't have to sleep on the bus stop," said Erb.

Erb added it appears homelessness is getting worse in Waikiki.

There are no recent figures to back up the assertion, but between September 2006 and April 2007, Waikiki saw an increase of 49 homeless people — to 206 — according to a count conducted by University of Hawai'i students.

Meanwhile, shelters indicate they have space for more people, partly because of more facilities opening islandwide. The Institute for Human Services men's shelter in Kalihi is at about 75 percent capacity, with 150 men. There is space for about 20 more single women at the nearby IHS shelter on Ka'aahi Street, but the family shelter is nearly full.

possible benefits

Waikiki residents contend that a measure to prevent the homeless from using bus stop shelters as personal shelters is long overdue. They also say that spurring the homeless to move elsewhere might be beneficial.

"People may feel that some of these bills are insensitive," said Michael Peters, Waikiki Neighborhood Board secretary, "but what they don't realize is that by passing these bills, you're forcing the system to improve."

Finley said the Waikiki board didn't ask Tam to introduce the measure, but board members and residents have since thrown their support behind it.

Several bus users waiting at a stop last week near Kapi'olani Park also supported the bill.

But others had doubts.

"It's kind of irritating for them to be sleeping" at the bus stop, said Lexi Jack, 19. "But it's kind of mean to kick them out in the rain, too."

Tom Smyth, of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said many residents have expressed early support for the measure. He added that Downtown and Chinatown residents have been trying to address the issue for years, with no luck.

"It's a big issue for our board," he said.

similar measure

In the last legislative session, state Rep. Karl Rhoads, D-28th (Kaka'ako, Iwilei), also introduced a measure aimed at addressing the problem. House Bill 2262 proposed changing the definition of disorderly conduct to include "impeding or obstructing the use of or access to a bus stop by laying across any bench ... at the bus stop or sleeping on the ground within or abutting any bus stop shelter."

The measure never had a hearing, though.

Smyth said the challenge of writing the city bill will be to make sure it doesn't violate constitutional rights and will stand up against potential lawsuits. Other cities have passed bans on sleeping in public or at bus stops, and some of those measures have since been thrown out.

Tam said the bill still needs work to make sure it will hold up against legal challenges.

He is also trying to address concerns voiced by the Honolulu Police Department about exemptions to the measure — people who are disabled, experiencing a medical emergency or are mentally incapacitated. Michelle Yu, spokeswoman for the department, said the bill would require police officers to determine whether someone is sick, mentally ill or disabled before citing them or asking them to move on, something they're uneasy about doing.

"The ordinance as written would be very difficult to enforce," she said.

bill's details

The bus stop bill would prohibit "lying down or sleeping on a bench at a designated bus stop area" and "storing large, bulky bags or shopping carts in a designated bus stop area which will not be admitted on board a public transit vehicle." It also prohibits "occupying space within a designated bus stop area in such a manner as to block ... or interfere with a public transit rider's entry onto a public transit vehicle."

The bill proposes a fine up to $50 for violators.

City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who introduced the measure with Tam, said there needs to be a system in place so officers can crack down on people sleeping at bus stops. But she agreed the bill needs tweaking before it's ready for a full council vote.

"We hope to pass something just to make it so bus users will be able to take back their bus stops," she said, adding that she has gotten lots of complaints from people about the homeless sleeping at bus stops with no intention of riding the bus.

"The bus stops are for bus users," she said.

Source: Honolulu Advertiser

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Personal Opinion:  While I certainly agree that this is an ongoing problem - - - I am not so sure that another bill that will be difficult to enforce is the answer.  After all, if there people are so poor and wretched as to have to resort to sleeping at the Bus Stops - - am I the only one who thinks that they may not be able to pay the $50 fine that may be levied against them for doing so?

If the city will not be able to collect the money, then what is the point?

Our elected officials have ignored the "Homeless Problem" for many years.  What is really required in order to make an impact upon the plight of the homeless here in Hawaii are more Shelters, more and better trained social workers, and a bit less negative judgement against these people for being homeless.

One cannot always control what life is going to hand you.  Seems to me that getting rid of some of the "secret handshaking" that goes on within the City and State governments would free up more money - - - money that could then be put into more effective programs for helping these folks to get back on their feet, which would benefit society as a whole.

I know quite a few homeless Vietnam and Iraq War Veterans here in Honolulu.  Something tells me that most of them did not just wake up one morning and say "Hey, won't it be great if I have to go and start living on the streets today??? - - I want to be Homeless."

Most of them are decent folks who just need some help getting back on their feet.  Do I know what the answers are?  No.

But I do know what they are not . . .   The solution presented by the article that was printed in the Honolulu Advertiser falls into the 'not' category . . .

WASHINGTON -- Researchers have uncovered a new clue to the cause of Alzheimer's disease. The brains of people with the memory-robbing form of dementia are cluttered with a plaque made up of beta-amyloid, a sticky protein. But there long has been a question whether this is a cause of the disease or a side effect. Also involved are tangles of a protein called tau; some scientists suspect this is the cause.

Now, researchers have caused Alzheimer's symptoms in rats by injecting them with one particular form of beta-amyloid. Injections with other forms of beta-amyloid did not cause illness, which may explain why some people have beta-amyloid plaque in their brains but do not show disease symptoms.

The findings by a team led by Dr. Ganesh M. Shankar and Dr. Dennis J. Selkoe of Harvard Medical School were reported in Sunday's online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

The researchers used extracts from the brains of people who donated their bodies to medicine.

Forms of soluble beta-amyloid containing different numbers of molecules, as well as insoluble cores of the brain plaque, were injected into the brains of mice. There was no detectable effect from the insoluble plaque or the soluble one-molecule or three-molecule forms, the researchers found.

But the two-molecule form of soluble beta-amyloid produced characteristics of Alzheimer's in the rats, they reported.

Those rats had impaired memory function, especially for newly learned behaviors. When the mouse brains were inspected, the density brain cells was reduced by 47 percent with the beta-amyloid seeming to affect synapses, the connections between cells that are essential for communication between them.

The research, for the first time, showed the effect of a particular type of beta-amyloid in the brain, said Dr. Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad, director of the division of neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging, which helped fund the research.

It was surprising that only one of the three types had an effect, she said in a telephone interview.

Morrison-Bogorad said the findings may help explain the discovery of plaque in the brains of people who do not develop dementia. For some time, doctors have wondered why they find some brains in autopsy that are heavily coated with beta-amyloid, but the person did not have Alzheimer's.

The answer may lie in the two types of beta-amyloid that did not cause symptoms.

Now, the question is why one has the damaging effect and not others.

"A lot of work needs to be done," Morrison-Bogorad said. "Nature keeps sending us down paths that look straight at the beginning, but there are a lot of curves before we get to the end."

Dr. Richard J. Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, said that "while more research is needed to replicate and extend these findings, this study has put yet one more piece into place in the puzzle that is Alzheimer's."

In addition to the Institute on Aging, the research was funded by Science Foundation Ireland, Wellcome Trust, the McKnight and Ellison foundations and the Lefler Small Grant Fund.

Source: National Institute on Aging

SAN DIEGO -- If there's pain at the pump in the U.S., Mexico may just have a remedy. A gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in San Diego retails for an average price of $4.61 a gallon. A few miles south, in Tijuana, it's about $2.54 _ even less if you pay in pesos.

More and more people appear to be taking advantage of the lower price.

"I used to buy exclusively in the U.S. before gas started really going up," said Patrick Garcia, a drama teacher at an elementary school in San Diego who lives in Tijuana. "Since then, I've been buying all my gas in Tijuana."

The lower prices mean a U.S. motorist could save almost $54 filling up a two-year-old Ford F150 pickup with a 26-gallon fuel tank in Mexico.

The differential in diesel is even greater, selling at $5.04 a gallon in San Diego County and $2.20 in Tijuana.

Paul Covarrubias, 26, who lives in Chula Vista and works in construction in San Diego, crosses the border each week just to refuel his dual-cab Ford F-250 pickup.

"I fill it up with diesel in Tijuana for $60," he said. "It would be almost twice that in San Diego."

Gas is cheaper in Mexico because of a government subsidy intended to keep inflationary forces in check.

Still, international gas-buying trips don't make sense for everyone. The wait getting back into the U.S. at the border in Tijuana frequently takes longer than two hours and cars can burn about a gallon of gas for each hour they idle.

Source: Associated Press

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While still a far cry from the perfect solution, at least if you are living in Southern California - - - it is another alternative to paying overly high prices . . . and you can always shut down your car while waiting in the long lines to re-cross the border so that you are not burning a gallon an hour through wasteful idling of the engine . . .

Glad that my SoCal friends have this resource available to them to use!