Want to live to be 100?

The New York Times ran a set of pieces on a very cool Japanese monk, 100-year-old Rinzai Zen master (one of the oldest in the world) Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, who tells followers, “Excuse me for not dying.” – souljerky

… avoid alcohol, caffeine and tobacco … Scientists working for the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Japan’s Ministry of Health have been following oldsters like Toguchi since 1976 in the Okinawa Centenarian Study (OCS) and they’ve learned that he’s typical. Elderly Okinawans tend to get plenty of physical and mental exercise. Their diets, moreover, are exemplary: low in fat and salt, and high in fruits and vegetables packed with fiber and antioxidant substances that protect against cancer, heart disease and stroke. They consume more soy than any other population on earth: 60-120 g a day, compared to 30-50 g for the average Japanese, 10 for Chinese and virtually 0 g for the average American. Soy is rich in flavonoids—antioxidants strongly linked to low rates of cancer. This may be one of many reasons why the annual death rate from cancer in Okinawa is far below the U.S. rate.

But it’s not just what Okinawans eat; it’s how much. They practice a dietary philosophy known as hara hachi bu—literally, eight parts out of 10 full. Translation: they eat only to the point at which they are about 80% sated. That makes for a daily intake of no more than 1,800 calories, compared to the more than 2,500 that the average American man scarfs down. And as scientists have learned from lab animals, the simple act of calorie restriction can have significant effects on longevity. – time

Rock Musician 101 years old to run London Marathon

A 101-year-old man has his sights on the London Marathon in a bid to become the world’s oldest competitive runner. Working plumber Buster Martin ran Sunday’s Roding Valley half marathon in Essex in five hours 13 minutes, and is now focusing on London’s 26-mile event.

On finishing the run, the first words of the ex-member of rock band The Zimmers were: “Where’s my beer?” Mr Martin, who has 17 children, started work at Pimlico Plumbers in London three years ago because he was bored.  He drank a tankard of ale before signing autographs and chatting to fans near the finish line of the Essex race.

‘A revelation’

Charlie Mullins, managing director of Pimlico Plumbers, said he was “amazed” when Mr Martin appeared at work on Monday morning after his exertions. He said: “I was amazed and delighted, he turned up on time and set to work polishing the vans. He’s a revelation.” Mr Martin’s trainer is marathon enthusiast Harmander Singh, who helped Fauja Singh, 96, break the London marathon record for the over-90s.

Buster, who lives in London, made headlines last year when he signed up as an agony uncle for men’s magazine FHM, offering guidance to a younger generation. He also found fame when The Zimmers, who had a combined age of more than 3,000 years, scored a hit single last year with a cover of The Who’s My Generation. – bbc

Inspiring! I added the Zimmers as my Myspace friend today. In the second photo Buster is 100 years old.

Cannibalism may have killed Neanderthals

Neanderthals who practiced cannibalism may have spread a mad cow-like disease that weakened and reduced populations, thereby contributing to their extinction, according to a new theory.

The theoretical model could resolve the longstanding mystery of what caused Neanderthals, which emerged about 250,000 years ago, to disappear about 30,000 years ago.

“The story of Neanderthal extinction is one of the most intriguing in all of human evolution,” says Simon Underdown, a lecturer in the anthropology department at Oxford Brookes University and author of a paper in the journal Medical Hypotheses.

“Why did a large-brained, intelligent hominid that shared so many traits with us disappear?”

To resolve that question, Underdown studied a well-documented tribal group, the Fore of Papua New Guinea, who practiced ritualistic cannibalism and linked that to what could have happened to the Neanderthals.

Evidence of cannibalism

Gory evidence uncovered in a French cave in 1999 reveals Neanderthals probably practiced cannibalism too.

The 100,000-120,000 year-old bones discovered at the cave site of Moula-Guercy near the west bank of the Rhone river suggests a group of Neanderthals defleshed the bones of at least six other individuals and then broke the bones apart with a hammer stone and anvil to remove the marrow and brains.

It’s not clear why Neanderthals may have eaten each other. But research on the Fore determined that maternal kin of certain deceased Fore individuals used to dismember corpses and regarded some human flesh as a valuable food source.

Beginning in the early 1900s, anthropologists also began to take note of an affliction among the Fore named kuru. By the 1960s, kuru reached epidemic levels and killed over 1100 people.

Subsequent investigations determined that kuru was related to the Fore’s cannibalistic activities and was a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy or TSE.

TSEs, of which mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy is one, have been around for possibly millions of years, Underdown says.

TSEs cause brain tissue to take on an almost sponge-like appearance, caused by the formation of small holes during the development of the disease.

The disease’s latter stages often result in severe mental impairment, loss of speech and an inability to move.

How many could the disease kill?

Underdown created a model, based on the kuru findings, to figure out how the spread of such a disease via cannibalism could reduce a population’s size.

For example, he calculated that within a hypothetical group of 15,000 individuals, such a disease could reduce the population to non-viable levels within 250 years.

When added to other pressures, this type of disease could therefore have wiped out the Neanderthals, Underdown believes. – abcsci

Eur-eek-a! The moment a pupil jumps 40ft from crane with only helium balloons to keep her afloat

Being asked to leap off a 40ft high scaffold, suspended only by helium balloons, is not usually a requirement in science lessons. Neither is dangling from a crane, 60ft from the ground.

But a group of 13-year-olds experienced these spectacular activities as part of an attempt by leading British scientists to show that the subject can be fun and interesting. – dailymail

Great! A kid was telling me just last night that he hates science class because it is boring. If he got to do something like this I think he’d sing a different tune.

Pigs’ feet: the new superfood

As Britain’s spending on cosmetic surgery soars, Fiona MacDonald Smith suggests it’s time that we chopped and changed our diet instead.

The latest anti-ageing food? Pigs’ trotters. That’s right, you heard it here first. In New York, the most talked-about new opening of the past couple of months has been a Japanese restaurant called Hakata Tonton, where 33 out of the 39 dishes contain pigs’ feet.

The reason for this, according to its owner, Himi Okajima, is that they are rich in collagen, the protein responsible for skin and muscle tone, more recognisable to beauty addicts in the form of face creams and fillers.

“Collagen helps your body retain moisture,” says Okajima, who has introduced a chain of restaurants specialising in collagen cuisine in Japan. “Your hair and skin will look better, but it’s not just for looking beautiful now. If you begin eating collagen in your thirties, you will look younger in your forties.”

Maybe this sounds a little improbable (“It’s news to me,” sniffs Lisa Miles of the British Nutrition Foundation. “I’ve certainly never heard of eating collagen”) but Okajima believes he is on to something. Figures published last month show that British spending on cosmetic surgery is the highest in Europe, hitting nearly £500 million in 2006, four times more than in 2001.

Isn’t there a cheaper solution? Couldn’t eating the right foods, in the right way, be a simpler, and ultimately more long-term way to stay looking and feeling younger? “You are what you eat,” says nutritional therapist Ian Marber, aka The Food Doctor.

“You can’t turn the clock back but you can slow things down. Every cell replicates from RNA and DNA. In order to keep the DNA in good condition, you want to protect cells from harmful free radicals. And for this you need to eat fruit and vegetables, which contain vital anti-oxidants like vitamins A, C, E and zinc.

“It doesn’t have to be expensive,” he adds. “I know people go on about so-called ‘superfoods’ which have a greater concentration of anti-oxidants, but two apples a day will give you plenty of vitamins and fibre. You just need to ensure a varied diet.”

“The key is to remember we’re omnivorous,” agrees nutritionist Christian Lee, who is the national trainer for the Dr Nicholas Perricone cosmetics and nutrition empire. “Have you ever noticed how women age more rapidly than men?

That’s because they don’t eat enough protein. The days you don’t eat protein are the days you age. The body can’t store protein, but it needs it for cellular production and function.

“At each meal you should be able to hold up three fingers and say ‘I’ve got a good source of protein (lean fish or poultry, nuts, seeds or tofu); an essential fatty acid (Omega 3 or 6, so that’s coldwater oily fish, flaxseeds, linseeds) and a low glycaemic carbohydrate (fruit, vegetables, and wholegrains like quinoa, buckwheat and oatmeal)’. If you can say that, you’re on the right road.”

Perricone, a dermatologist, became America’s most famous anti-ageing specialist with his “Three-Day Nutritional Face Lift”, which extolled the virtues of eating wild Alaskan salmon twice a day, claiming its essential fatty acids would banish puffiness and tighten the skin. Uma Thurman, Heidi Klum and J-Lo are all fans.

In his new book Ageless Face, Ageless Mind, which has yet to reach the UK, Dr Perricone’s team assert that up to 40 per cent of wrinkles are caused by dietary sugar.

“When you eat high glycaemic carbohydrates like bread, cakes and pasta, they turn into sugar in the blood so fast that the pancreas can’t respond with enough insulin and the blood becomes saturated with sugar,” argues Christian Lee. “The sugar needs to go somewhere so it attaches itself to the cell membranes.

When it does this to collagen molecules in the skin, it causes the collagen to become stiff and immobile and that’s the birth of the wrinkle. The bad news is that it doesn’t end there – the sugar then pumps out free radicals, causing a double whammy of damage.

The good news is you can prevent it – either by cutting out sugar or by taking a supplement of alpha lipoic acid, which is 400 times stronger than vitamin C and E combined.”

So ditch the sugar, but don’t forget the pigs’ trotters. – telegraph

 

Ring of fire

Probably not the smartest thing in the world to be doing this on a wood table.

from spluch.blogspot.com posted with vodpod

Spacecraft Photographs Mars Avalanche

A robotic spacecraft circling Mars has snapped the first image of a series of active avalanches near the planet’s north pole, scientists said Monday.

The image, taken last month, reveals at least four avalanches of fine ice and dust breaking off from a steep cliff and settling on the slope below. The cascade kicked up massive debris clouds, with some measuring more than 590 feet across.

It is rare for scientists to catch a natural event in action on the surface of Mars. Most of the landscape that has been recorded so far has not changed much in millions of years.

The avalanches occurred near the north pole and broke part of a 2,300-foot cliff.

Scientists were unsure what set off the avalanches and whether they occur frequently or only during the spring.

Source: Ap

A Six-Legged Hexapus

It would of course be technically nonsensical to describe this creature as a “six-legged octopus”.

“Octopus” meaning “eight-legged”, it would be similar to talking about a “three-wheeled bicycle”.

What this picture depicts, therefore, is a hexapus. Henry the Hexapus – as he has been christened by his keepers – is a resident of Blackpool Sea Life Centre in the north-west of England.

His shortage of extremities is the result of a genetic defect, rather than an accident, and he is believed to be the first of his six-legged kind known to humanity.

Source: Telegraph

MySpaceTV Videos: S4 interview Alien video by Who is he?

Here’s a mysterious interview with someone who claims to be revealing video of a real alien at Area 51. He seems to believe that they are somewhat supernatural and that, “They may fold in from another dimension, another reality.”

from vids.myspace.com posted with vodpod