FutureVigil (r) » Uncategorized

BEST WAY TO STUDY FOR A TEST

Jeffrey Newman — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:34:27 +0000

There is a neat little article in today’s Wall Street Journal which talks about techniques for studying effectively for exams. Among other things it says that testing yourself repeatedly before an exam is better than re-reading the text because the tests help the brain to more easily retrieve and apply knowledge from memory. Taking pre-tests may seem hard and boring but it is clearly one of the best ways to boost your test scores and test taking skills. Here’s a way to engage your unconscious mind: review the toughest material just before you go to bed the night before the test. All nighters are a no-no and lower grades. You need good sleep. Eat a good solid breakfast the day of the test. Slow digesting high fiber foods like oatmeal and days before keep up with fruit and vegetables and stay away from fat. The article also has some good thoughts on stress and anxiety reduction techniques which will help on the day of the exam.

Olive Oil Users 41% Less Likely To Have A Stroke

Jeffrey Newman — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:19:14 +0000

In a study published in the journal Neurology, people who reported using olive oil in all facets of their diet from coooking their food to using it as salad dressing, were found to have 41% LOWER RISK OF STROKE than people who never included oive oil in their diet. Olive oil i high in healthy monounsaturated fats known to protect against stroke risk factors. factors

Device Linked To Smartphone Helps Diagnose Cancer–A Headline the Likes of Which We Will See More of

Jeffrey Newman — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:11:46 +0000

In yesterday’s news cycle, a story issued which is a harbinger of technology to come and one of the great benefits of competition between smart phone apps, which has advanced that technology nicely (although the potential is much greater). The story is about a portable device created at the Massachusetts General Hospital which connects to a smartphone and analyzes a small amount of tissue to know within an hour whether the patient’s cancer is malignant and likely to spread. The findings go into a monitor on the mobile phones. A paper on this excellent device was published in the Journal of Science Translational Medicine and it was run on 50 people with abnormal stomach tissue by biopsy. By looking at a combination of four biomarkers the researchers correctly predicted whether 48 of them had benign or malignant cancer. Now I agree that the amazing part of the development is not the connection to the smartphone but the determination of the biomarkers. However, the speed with which this new test can be run on humans is a central part of the whole concept and in any circumstances where speed of diagnosis is critical (most of medicine), this kind of lateral thinking is what we should be seeking. I envision that soon there will be a way to examine blood real time, without invasive needles and that the blood, which is often the earliest warning system of chronic disease, will be our canary in the cave. It will happen, the work is in progress and I am preparing a blog about it for next week. Anyway, I digress. Dr. Cesar Castro, an Oncologist at MGH and one of the authors said he is working on customizing the test for different types of cancers. Clinical trials are upcoming and Castro says that physicians will be able to use the device to see whether a drug is likely to work. If it is not, this will allow for a speedier transition to a more effective drug to try out. The device is inexpensive–$200 inexpensive and as such it could be used in the developing world. It won’t be used to replace existing methods of analyzing cancer but it will enhance those methods. This merger if discipline–new communication technology with medicine is where we need to be. Perhaps there should be a well funded think-tank as the potential is limited only by our imagination.

Facebook Playing Central Role in Egypt Uprising. 4 Facebook Activists Arrested

Jeffrey Newman — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:01:14 +0000

The Egyption government has arrested four anti-government protesters, members of the April 6 Youth, organized primarily through Facebook and other social media tools. Security officials detained the activitists in Cairo’s Hisham Mubarak Law Center, a group that provides legal assistance to detainees. Its director, Ahmed Sief was also taken into custody. Facebook said it has five million active users in Egypt. The company said that in the last two weeks alone, users have created 32,000 groups and 14,000 pages on the service.

When will Facebook Go Public and What Will It Mean?

Jeffrey Newman — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 03:05:29 +0000

According to some reports, Facebook is now cleaning up its legal act with pending and threatened litigation, in order to set the stage for taking the company public. Presently valued in excess of 40 billion, with infusions of funders from various quarters, the growing powerhouse could become the largest and most powerful internet phenom, exceeding Microsoft and Google combined, multiplying its value, worth and influence on a malthusian level. Although the timing of the move is unclear, its happening is inevitable. WITH THE INCREDIBLE INFUSION OF MONEYS FROM AN IPO, Facebook can and will consume new and valuable entities, talent and brains. More importantoy, it will exert significant infuence and control over the net in ways never considered. Social media sites including Twitter, linkedin and others will all be targets for Facebook purchases. Then we can certainly expect Facebook to expand laterally into other media including content development. Next up: what are the signs of a coming Facebook IPO: stay tuned.

Global Action Impotent To Halt Global Warming: Economist

Jeffrey Newman — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:56:37 +0000

The Economist Magazine analysts report that global action is not going to stop climate change and that the world needs to figure ways to live with it. Even if carbon dioxide emissions were to stabilize where they are now, the world would still warm by half a defree as the ocean catches up. Sea levels are expected to rise and low lying areas should begin preparing now. On land, wet places like South-East Asia re likely to get wetter and dry places like southern Afruca and south-western U.S. drier. Northern climates will become more suitable for farming

Internet Hijackings Endangers Entire System

Jeffrey Newman — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:16:43 +0000

For 18 minutes in April, one seventh of the entire internet was routed through China, an accident, China telecom claims. Now, experts are suggesting the occurrence was not an error but rather a purposeful manipulation in order to give Chinese experts time to analyze all of the data running through its servers. The April incident happened when a small Chinese internet service provider updated its routing information advertising its network was the best way to evade blocks of internet addresses assigned to government agencies. Presently there is no way to stop such information highjacking. Security experts within the government are looking at the internet re-routings as a matter of national security.

High Intensity Exercise Significantly Enhances Learning Power

Jeffrey Newman — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:40:25 +0000

A new study published in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory reveals that intense intervals of exercise including weight training, in which the maximum aerobic potential is met, will consistently boost brain power. For example, it was found that two 3-minute sprints spaced 2 minutes apart to the point of maximum yields a 20% faster vocabulary learning. This phenominon has been observed by a variety of researchers and will be the subject of my next several blogs, as the research appears significant in terms of body metabolism and intense exercise. The next grouping of blogs will be about inflammation in the human body and the search for nutrients and therapeutics to control and reduce inflammation, which is thought to have potential for treatment of several diseases including cancer and neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease

Hempel’s Promise

Jeffrey Newman — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:17:02 +0000

Jeff Newman

Hempel watched the scrawny girl fish off the skiff in the late afternoon sun. The thought of leaving her cut into his heart.
“Grampa, can we work on the table later on?” she asked.
“Sure, if you want. Then homework. It’s important.”
“I know. Mom said it’s important but I like workin’ in the shop better.”
“School is more important,” he said.
“Will I always be with you grampa?”
“Not always. You’ll be grown up one day.”
“But that’s not for a long time, right grampa?”
“Right. Not for a long time.”
They caught two big catfish and cooked them for dinner. The man stood by the girl at the stove, she standing on a green stool holding the large fork. He showed her how to turn the fish so they wouldn’t burn.

“You are a good cook grandpa,” Sarah said.
“You’re the one doin’ all the cookin.”
“But you taught me.”
“Yes, I taught you.”
They ate together with candles and music from an old radio and the food was good. After, he told her stories about her mother before the accident. She had stopped asking about her father and where he went.
The next day, Hempel rose at 5 am and met his friend Jackson at the diner for breakfast, long before the girl woke up.
“What are you going to do?” Jackson said. “You’ve got to do something. The girl has no one. They’ll stick her in the state home.”
“I know, but if I don’t report on my end date, if I run, they’ll come and Sarah will be a fugitive. That’s no life for her,” Hempel said.
“You’ve got to do something.”
“It’s not fair. Time was, not long ago when being 65 wasn’t even old,” said Hempel. “Now, they put us down to make room for the new ones. They put us down worse than animals.”
“Not everyone,” Jackson said. “The rich ones buy their way out.”
“I’m not rich.”
Jackson sat back and waited and when Hempel looked up he said, “what if someone took your place and they didn’t know. Someone who knows you better than anyone?”
“You can’t”
“Why not. I only got another year anyway. We look plenty alike. Hell I’m tired of you anyway and the girl needs you. In a way, she needs me.”
Hempel looked down.
“I can’t”
“You got to. Listen, you’d be givin’ me somethin. A gift. I’d be caring for Sarah just like you. I don’t have no one to care for Hemp.”
The men sat quietly, finished their coffee and walked out into the cool morning air.
“We’ll need to plan this real good,” said Hempel.
“Real good.”
“To the T.”
“You’ll have to go far and take on new names. Become new people,” said Jackson. “You’ll have to tell her. She’ll need to keep the secret.”
“We’ll both tell her.
“Want to come give her a ride to school?”
“And pick her up too?”
“And pick her up too,” Hempel said.

Large number public wells have harmful contaminants

Jeffrey Newman — Mon, 24 May 2010 09:33:16 +0000

Here is information that we should worry about from a new study by the U.S. Geological survey and written about in ScienceDaily. More than 20% of untreated water samples from 932 public wells around the country contain at least one contaminant dangerous to human health. In some instances, the contaminants included radon and arsenic but also gasoline chemicals, herbicides, insecticides and dolvents. The study did not assess pharmaceuticals or hormones.