Caffeine ‘lotion’ protects against skin cancer. The experiments were done with mice; human trials are pending. “Although caffeine itself filters out UV, (the researcher) thinks the main effect of the substance is biological, triggering cancerous but not healthy cells to wither and die through a process called apoptosis. But how caffeine selectively targets cancerous cells is not known. Despite the success of the tests in mice, (the author) warns people against smearing their bodies with coffee or tea potions..” New Scientist

Years ago, a medical resident friend of mine died of disseminated testicular cancer for which he had rejected medical treatment in favor of the Gerson Diet, which relied heavily on raw vegatable and fruit juices but also on coffee enemas. As usual, extraordinary claims were made by proponents, and maybe the claims will turn out not to have been so misguided if caffeine turns out to be a robust anti-carcinogen, if it works systemically as well as cutaneously, etc. etc. From my vantage point at the time, however, it was a tragic direction for a father of two young children to take at a time when his cancer would have been readily treatable and was not rethought by him until it was far too advanced to salvage anything with conventional treatment. During medical school, I’d been one of those who had constantly harried the professors with disciplined skepticism about the dominant paradigms in medicine and polemicized about ‘complementary pathways’. But watching him die was one of the things that embittered me toward alternative medicine (especially when used in an alternative rather than a complementary fashion to conventional allopathic techniques) and emboldened me to start confronting the unsystematic, flaky thoughtlessness with which many evaluate their options when facing important medical decisions.

Row erupts over danger of ecstasy:

Warnings that ecstasy causes long-term brain damage are premature because the supporting evidence is too weak, say three psychologists… (T)he claims echo a New Scientist report in April. They appear in a review of ecstasy research in The Psychologist, the journal of the British Psychological Society.

But their criticisms are robustly challenged in the same publication by mainstream ecstasy researchers. “It’s insane to propose that ecstasy is not damaging” in the long term says Andy Parrott of the University of East London.

New Scientist

Radio emerges from the electronic soup: “A self-organising electronic circuit has stunned engineers by turning itself into a radio receiver”, says this highly-blogged article in New Scientist

Thank heaven I didn’t try to sumarize my life’s hidden story in five words, as the newest weblog conceit goes, before leuschke skewered the idea… although I wouldn’t’ve been able to, and I’m sorry for those who can.

“Fatigue can refer to a subjective symptom of malaise and aversion to activity or to objectively impaired performance. It has both physical and mental aspects. The symptom of fatigue is a poorly defined feeling, and careful inquiry is needed to clarify complaints of “fatigue,” “tiredness,” or “exhaustion” and to distinguish lack of energy from loss of motivation or sleepiness, which may be pointers to specific diagnoses… ” A review of the concept and medical implications, in the British Medical Journal Sharpe and Wilks 325 (7362): 480

…but can you avoid it? The Register

Nat Hentoff on General Ashcroft’s Detention Camps:

Now more Americans are also going to be dispossessed of every fundamental legal right in our system of justice and put into camps. Jonathan Turley reports that Justice Department aides to General Ashcroft “have indicated that a ‘high-level committee’ will recommend which citizens are to be stripped of their constitutional rights and sent to Ashcroft’s new camps.”

It should be noted that Turley, who tries hard to respect due process, even in unpalatable situations, publicly defended Ashcroft during the latter’s turbulent nomination battle, which is more than I did.

Again, in his Los Angeles Times column, Turley tries to be fair: “Of course Ashcroft is not considering camps on the order of the internment camps used to incarcerate Japanese American citizens in World War II. But he can be credited only with thinking smaller; we have learned from painful experience that unchecked authority, once tasted, easily becomes insatiable.”

Turley insists that “the proposed camp plan should trigger immediate Congressional hearings and reconsideration of Ashcroft’s fitness for important office. Whereas Al Qaeda is a threat to the lives of our citizens, Ashcroft has become a clear and present threat to our liberties.”

Hentoff concludes, aptly:

Meanwhile, as the camps are being prepared, the braying Terry McAuliffe and the pack of Democratic presidential aspirants are campaigning on corporate crime, with no reference to the constitutional crimes being committed by Bush and Ashcroft. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis prophesied: “The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.” And an inert Democratic leadership. See you in a month, if I’m not an Ashcroft camper. Village Voice

Spellbound: “Every September, the office of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Cincinnati issues a crisp new edition of Paideia, a comic-size booklet that lists thousands of obscure words that will appear in spelling bees across the country over the coming year — words that any competitive speller in America should know cold. Most families wait for their Paideia to arrive at school; but serious devotees know when the advance audio version of Paideia will go up on the Scripps Howard Web site. On that day each year, the Goldsteins of West Hempstead, N.Y. — Amy, Ari, J.J. and Amanda, along with their parents, Jonathan and Mona — assemble like the Von Trapps in a thunderstorm. The whole family squeezes into Amy’s bedroom and fires up the computer, and the familiar, baronial voice of the National Spelling Bee pronouncer, Alex J. Cameron, carefully enunciates each new addition to the list — aition, campanile, kittel, giaour. Each Goldstein sits with pen and paper in hand, as still and focused as a game-show contestant, and spells the words, one by one. It takes hours.” NY Times Magazine

Why the President Can’t Lose in November: “It sounds so Machiavellian, even treasonous, that no one at the White House would dare endorse such an outcome — at least not in public.

But many prominent Republicans, including some of President Bush’s most faithful backers, are convinced that the most certain way for Mr. Bush to continue to rise politically, and ultimately win re-election in 2004, is for Republicans to, well, lose in November.” NY Times That, and to have been the sitting President during an unprecedented terrorist attack…

Long Bets: This offshoot of the Long Now Foundation — the clock people, Danny Hillis, Stewart Brand, etc. — is intended “to improve long-term thinking. Long Bets is a public arena for enjoyably competitive predictions, of interest to society, with philanthropic money at stake. The foundation furnishes the continuity to see even the longest bets through to public resolution. This website provides a forum for discussion about what may be learned from the bets and their eventual outcomes.” Even odds, yes/no questions of societal or scientific importance are posed to thinkers who designate a charity to receive the proceeds of their bet if they win. “Set up as a form of giving, Long Bets engages long-term thinking and long-term responsibility in even more ways.”

Bets start at $1000, so that some of the yield from investing the money can go to the cost of “maintaining institutional and technical continuity to keep track of Long Bets and manage the whole service over decades and centuries…” The project was launched prominently in the April 2002 Wired magazine issue with some interesting bet subjects posed by Wired editors to celebrity bettors.

Here

are the recorded bets to date; “you can read the arguments written by each bettor in favor of their position, participate in discussion and place parallel bets.” Bets listed to date have terms ranging between 5 years and 148 years, although there’s one about whether the universe will eventually stop expanding with a ‘?’ listed for its duration. (Years have fto have ive digits to deal with the Y10K problem.)

When black holes meet: ‘When two galaxies collide, massive black holes in their respective centers fuse in a dramatic flourish that creates a telltale “X” mark, according to astronomers. Jets from the core of radio galaxy NGC326 …seem to have abruptly switched direction, a possible sign of a black hole merger.

The conclusion offers strong support to the theory that the gravitationally powerful black holes merge when galaxies crash into one another.’ CNN

What Charlie Haden may still love most: a pretty song: This Boston Globe

review of a recent performance by the beloved and lyrical 65-year old bassist catalogues his recent health misfortunes:

Despite his youthful appearance and impressive stamina, Haden has had a rough time lately, and the facial expressions might reflect or relieve his pain. A few years ago, he had back surgery, necessitated by decades of bending over his bass, at an almost perfectly perpendicular angle, to hear the notes more clearly. While in the hospital, he nearly died of pneumonia.

Shortly after, he and his wife, the singer Ruth Cameron, were attacked by a Rottweiler outside their home in Malibu. The dog bit Haden on his left hand, between the thumb and forefinger. He underwent extensive physical therapy and couldn’t play for three months.

”It still hurts,” Haden says, especially when he moves his hand up and down the neck of the bass, which he does most of the time.

Then there’s his longtime bout with tinnitus, which causes ringing in his ears, and hyperacusis, which heightens the perceived volume of sounds. He’s learned to ignore the ringing, and surrounds himself with plexiglass when he plays with horns or drums.

Doctors have told him he shouldn’t play at all anymore. ”But I’ve got to pay the mortgage,” Haden says in his soft, slightly high-pitched voice. ”And” – he pauses – ”I’ve got to play.”

On the heels of the ‘Target “BB” ‘ story below comes this:

Jewish groups have expressed outrage that a British company is selling sport shoes with the same name as the Nazi nerve gas used to kill millions of Jews in the Holocaust.

Umbro, the firm that outfits the English national soccer side, said it was an “unfortunate coincidence” that its Zyklon shoe, on sale since 1999, bore the name of the poison gas Zyklon B.

Crystals of Zyklon B were dissolved in gas chambers at the death camps to produce the poison the Nazis used to exterminate millions of Jews and members of other minorities during World War Two. Reuters

The company says the shoes will be renamed or withdrawn. The name appears on the box but not the shoe itself, so it looks likely they will allow already-shipped stocks to remain in stores without modification.

When black holes meet: ‘When two galaxies collide, massive black holes in their respective centers fuse in a dramatic flourish that creates a telltale “X” mark, according to astronomers. Jets from the core of radio galaxy NGC326 …seem to have abruptly switched direction, a possible sign of a black hole merger.

The conclusion offers strong support to the theory that the gravitationally powerful black holes merge when galaxies crash into one another.’ CNN