Life, Health and Enjoyment

Vinegar may keep people from accumulating too much belly fat—it can also defend you from jellyfish and slugs, and keep your hair from turning green. A new study out of Japan has found that rats given vinegar, whether made from rice, grapes, barley, or even bananas, were less prone to accumulate body fat. The jury’s still out on whether or not scientists will see similar effects in humans. In the meantime, pour some vinegar-based dressing on your salads and check out some other uses for this 10,000-year-old dietary staple. Aside from the standard uses in household cleaning—a mix of 1 part vinegar and 9 parts water will kill germs and clean just about any surface—here are eight other ways to use that bottle you’ve got stashed in your cabinet:  1. Deodorant replacement. Dabbing apple cider vinegar under your arms after you shower may inhibit odor-causing bacteria on your skin, according to the book Natural Healing with Cider Vinegar (Sterling Publishing, 1998). 2. ...

Coca-Cola is withdrawing 22,000 collectible glasses from the US market. The paint, which the world's larges producer of soft drinks used for its glasses, contained toxic cadmium. The concentration of the cancerous substance is very insignificant; it does not pose any danger to consumers, company officials claim. The cadmium curse of Coca-Cola The press release from the company said that the drinking glasses were being recalled due to quality issues, rather than health hazards. News reports about toxic drinking glasses appear on a regular basis. In October, for instance, it was said that toxic glasses by a Chinese company could be delivered to Russia's Khakasia Republic. Hazardous content of benzol was found in baby cups made by Surpass Arts and Crafts Co. Ltd. (China). Chronic benzol poisoning may trigger leukemia and anemia (shortage of hemoglobin in blood). The story with cadmium, paint and glasses occurred to the world's largest fast food chain McDonald's in June of ...

Phosphorus present in human feces can be used in basic food crops such as wheat Human feces may have a key role in ensuring food security in the future, helping prevent a sharp fall in wheat production, among other foods, because of the shortage of phosphorus, said the largest organic certification agency in Britain, the Soil Association. "It is estimated that only 10 percent of the three million tons of phosphorus excreted by the human population worldwide each year are returned to agricultural land," the agency said. An adequate supply of phosphorus is essential for seed formation, root development and maturation of crops. The supply of phosphorus derived from rock phosphates may reach its peak in 2033 and thereafter become increasingly scarce and expensive, the report said. "We are completely unprepared to deal with a shortage of phosphorus, with falling production and rising food prices that will follow after that," said the Soil Association. Histo...

  The first planet discovered one that originates outside the Milky Way should have been swallowed by the star, but remains in orbit Alessandro Greco, special A newly discovered planet, that originates outside the Milky Way, orbiting a star with no heavy elements, and that should no longer exist, are challenging the knowledge of the formation of celestial bodies. It is currently orbiting around the star HIP 13044, but should have been destroyed when the star became a red giant. In this process, the red giant multiplies many times its size and swallows everything that is around. "Probably lucky we found a survivor in the system," said Johny Setiawan, iG, from Max Planck Institute in Germany, and the lead author of the study published on Thursday in the Science journal. Although the planet, called HIP 13044 b, is currently within the Milky Way, its origin is a galaxy that existed around it, but it broke down over billions of years. The planet has a minimum mass 1....

After reading through these pages, those who produce carbonated drinks are likely to be outraged, while those who consume them die slow deaths. Where does the truth lie? Read on. Medical research comes up against the drinks lobby. Fascinating, yet terrifying, reading. Carbonated drinks...immediate relief from thirst. Or a death trap? Medical research is frightening when it isn't hidden. Carbonated (gas) drinks...the link with gout, osteoporosis, diabetes, dehydration, cancer? Gout...increased risk for women, specially, when they drink soft beverages rich in fructose...Osteoporosis, caused by the carbonic and phosphoric acid in the carbonated drinks.  How? CO2. Carbonation irritates the stomach, which reacts by finding calcium from the blood as an antacid and the blood turns to the bones to replenish its calcium. Result? Brittle bones. Diabetes? Carbonated drinks are ultra-high in sugar...and when ingested in high quantities, it sends signals to the pancreas, which sen...

Group succumbed to hunger and extreme cold in Lithuania   The remains of 18 soldiers of the Grand Army of Napoleon Bonaparte were buried again in Lithuania on Monday. Nearly 200 years after the failure of the siege of Moscow, the men were obliged to flee to the west in the midst of extreme cold. The remains were found last year outside the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. Experts are of a view that the soldiers were members of the infantry, hussar and dragoon units. A small group of representatives, diplomats, French military and Lithuanians attended the burial of the remains in a cemetery in the Lithuanian capital. A mass re-burial of 3,500 Napoleon's soldiers was held in 2003, but the remains of these soldiers were found elsewhere. "These men were soldiers of Napoleon's army who participated in the Russian campaign and were returning to Moscow. They died of hunger and cold here in Lithuania," Michael Bourlet told Reuters, a military historian of the French ...

An American man is preparing himself for a change of diet, after successfully eating his 1200th potato to as part of a 60-day challenge. Chris Voigt, the executive director of the Washington Potato Commission wrote on his website that he took up the challenge to "remind the public about the nutritional value of potatoes," and show it was possible to live healthily off potatoes alone for an extended period of time. Beginning on October 1 and ending today, Mr Voigt ate nothing but 20 potatoes a day-- the only allowance being cooking oil and a light topping of seasonings or herbs, Herald Sun reports. Voigt underwent a physical Monday, the last day of the diet. His weight dropped from 197 pounds to 176 pounds and his cholesterol level fell 67 points. Voigt said he and his doctor were both shocked. "I've been struggling being borderline high cholesterol for four or five years," he said. "We were thinking maybe a 20-point drop, but this is 60-some po...

Scientists have identified a gene which may play a role in a common defect affecting the genitalia of baby boys. Hypospadias, which affects one in every 375 boys, is the result of incomplete development in the womb. The latest research, in the journal Nature Genetics, found a gene which, when mutated, more than doubled the risk of the condition. A UK researcher said it may help explain why hypospadias runs in families.   In boys who have the malformation, the opening of the urethral tube is not at the tip of the penis, but either further down the penis, at its base, or even further back, in the scrotum. The normal solution is surgery at a young age, but even when corrected in this way, there can be long-term medical, psychological and sexual consequences. The problem starts during the development of the sexual organs in the womb, and while there have been suggestions that exposure to environmental chemicals early in pregnancy may contribute, evidence to support this is not conclusi...

A construction crew in the south-central Chinese city of Changsha has completed a 15-story hotel in just six days. Six days. That’s how long it took to build this level 9 Earthquake-resistant, sound-proofed, thermal-insulated 15-story hotel in Changsha, complete with everything, from the cabling to three-pane windows. The foundations were already built, but it’s just impressive. Despite the frenetic pace of construction, no workers were injured — and thanks to the prefab nature of the process, the builders wasted very few construction materials. Below is a time-lapse video that shows the hotel being built from the ground up in less than a week: 15 story building

                   Researchers Unearth Ancient Water Secrets at Royal Garden Dig   Ancient gardens are the stuff of legend, from the Garden of Eden to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with Heidelberg University in Germany, have uncovered an ancient royal garden at the site of Ramat Rachel near Jerusalem, and are leading the first full-scale excavation of this type of archaeological site anywhere in the pre-Hellenistic Levant.According to Prof. Oded Lipschits and graduate student Boaz Gross of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology, this dig is an unparalleled look into the structure and function of ancient gardens. "We have uncovered a very rare find," says Prof. Lipschits, who believes that this excavation will lead to invaluable archaeological knowledge about ancient royal gardens in the Middle East.