Your body is the joystick: Motivatrix's MX9 Workout Master

More cool toys to battle obesity in an electronically addicted age. Motivatrix MX 9 Workout.

This one is modeled after Dance Dance Revolution. Not only does it read your foot movements, it also picks up hand flailing and other body movements.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/02/BUGSOOV2GV1.DTL

Serenity voted top SCI FI movie of all time

Ok, so there were only 3,000 voters, and it was a poll by SFX magazine, an UK publication.

What's your top 10, and why?

Here is their top 10:

1. Serenity
2. Star Wars
3. Blade Runner
4. Planet of the Apes
5. The Matrix
6. Alien
7. Forbidden Planet
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey
9. The Terminator
10. Back to the Future
Source: SFX magazine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6517155.stm

Kids average 50 hours a year of junk food ads

Newsweek article about a study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"...researchers looked at 1,638 hours of programming and analyzed nearly 9,000 food and beverage ads. They found that none of the food advertisements targeted to kids were for fruits or vegetables, and more than half the ads they saw were for candy, snacks or fast food...In compiling the report, Kaiser researchers looked at a week's worth of content from 6 a.m. to midnight between May and September of 2005. They collected data from the parents of more than 4,000 children to determine how much time kids watched TV and how much time they spent watching children's shows (where the amount of ads are limited by law, but where more ads, 50 percent of all ad time, are for food) as well as non-children's programming. "

And, it gets better.
"Thirty-four percent of the ads were for candy and snacks, 25 percent were for cereal and 10 percent were for fast foods."

It's just depressing.

Makes me relieved that I've trained my 5 year old to watch via replaytv, and to skip commercials. When she was younger, there were occasions when we watched live tv and she would pick up the remote control to fast forward when a commercial came on and disappointingly said, 'It's not working'. Wish I got that on video.

I know that ideally we're not supposed to let kids watch tv in the first place. But realistically, I'm hoping more kids will be increasingly accustomed to PVRs, and won't have to sit thru the obesity generators in the future.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17838488/site/newsweek/

But wait, there's more! :-)

I don't really care for Tivo, since I am a replaytv fan myself, but in the interest of more PVRs in the world, I saw this deal go by today:

http://www.dealhack.com/archives/2007/04/free_80hour_series2_tivo_wtih.html

"Meth kills", and cocaine too. Mostly by causing strokes

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have done an analysis of "more than 8,300 stroke patients — ranging in age from 18 to 44 — at more than 500 Texas hospitals in the years 2000 through 2003."

Their conclusion? “Using amphetamines or cocaine significantly increases an individual’s risk for a stroke,”

And more data: "The study focused on two kinds of strokes: hemorrhagic and ischemic. Most strokes — which involve a sudden interruption in the blood supply of the brain — are ischemic, caused by an abrupt blockage of arteries leading to the brain. Hemorrhagic strokes, on the other hand, result from bleeding into brain tissue when a blood vessel bursts.
An evaluation of patient study data from 2003, the first year that U.S. hospitals were required to make a distinction between the two types of strokes in their diagnoses of stroke victims, showed that young people who abuse amphetamines are five times more likely to have a hemorrhagic stroke than non-abusers. If cocaine is abused, the person’s likelihood of having either a hemorrhagic or an ischemic stroke more than doubles."

Well, Mr. Mackey was right, "Drugs are bad, m-kay?"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070402233734.htm

Converting blood to a universally usable type

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have found a way to convert all blood to type O.

There are 2 possible antigens that may appear in blood, A and B. Blood types are thus either A, B, AB, or O, where O has no antigens on it.

Additionally, blood also has a rhesus (Rh) factor associated with it. The presence of Rh creates a +, and the absence creates a -.

All possible combinations of blood types are: A+, B+, AB+, O+, A-, B-, AB-, O-.

For blood transfusions, people cannot accept blood that has antigens that individual does not already have. For instance, a person with O+ blood can only accept transfusions of O+, or O-.
A person with AB- blood can accept: A-, B-, AB-, and O-, but no Rh+ blood. See also wikipedia's blood compatibility table. Blood type O is known as the universal donor, because their blood can be transfused to anyone.

Researchers discovered two bacteria: Elizabethkingia meningosepticum and Bacterioides fragilis, which can be used to strip away the A and B antigens from blood cells. As of yet, they have not found a way to remove the Rh factor yet, so that means that if you are Rh-, you will still need blood from and Rh- donor. The Rh+ can accept blood from both + and -.

If this pans out, it will drastically reduce blood supply problems, and greatly decrease risk of transfusion incompatibilities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6517137.stm

Build your own toy Hydrocar for $79

I wish we had science kits this cool when we were kids.

From gizmag:
"Watch as oxygen and hydrogen gases are formed in two transparent water containers in the back of the vehicle. The kit’s fuel cell unit combines water electrolysis and fuel cell functions into one device.
The car steers independently of the user once it hits a barrier, and blue LED lights flash from inside the cockpit.
It’s possible to order directly from Horizon with deliveries to begin next month (May)."

http://www.gizmag.com/go/7060/

Even more reasons to get a good night's sleep

2 articles from WebMD that cite additional disadvantages of insufficient sleep.

Less sleep may mean less testosterone.
The study looked at older men, ages 64 to 74. Too bad they had such a small sample size (n=12), but they did manage to get published in the journal Sleep. The less they slept, the lower the concentration of testosterone in their systems.

Sleep disturbances heighten pain.
This study, also published in the journal Sleep, studied sleep patterns of 32 healthy women. Their findings:

"Our research shows that disrupted sleep, marked by multiple prolonged awakenings, impairs natural pain control mechanisms that are thought to play a key role in the development, maintenance, and exacerbation of chronic pain," says Smith."

In particular, new parents, shift workers, and especially insomniacs are at risk for lower pain thresholds, chronic pain, and less pain inhibition.
Makes me wonder if there are many studies on the relationship between pain and fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.