Fats, Mondays, Michael Jackson & Juggling
Some fats make you less fat (?)
A new study says eating certain kinds of fats may help obese women with diabetes actually trim some body fat. (!)
The study, of 35 older women with type 2 diabetes, found that supplements containing two types of fats — conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and safflower oil — led to healthy changes in body composition over four months.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September 2009.
Bugs in Your Computer?
Microsoft will issue its biggest ever security update tomorrow. (Tues. Oct. 13)
The update will include 13 bulletins to tackle 34 vulnerabilities.
Microsoft said that eight of the bulletins were rated as critical - the most serious sort of vulnerability.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.aspx
Blue Mondays
Hey America, ” does somebody have a case of the Mondays?”
Turns out…a lot of us do.
Apparently there is a 9.7 percent increase in happiness on Fridays compared with the worst day of the week, Monday. That is among the discoveries made by Facebook researchers with access to two years of anonymous “status updates” from 100 million users in the United States.
Another conclusion: holidays like the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Halloween make Americans happy, while days when celebrities like Michael Jackson or Heath Ledger die make Americans sad.
Drunks in China
In China, just being a passenger in a car driven by a drunk driver could get a person in trouble. The official China Daily newspaper reports China has proposed expanding a nationwide campaign against drunk drivers to include penalties against their passengers.
Juggling
Is it better for your brain for you to learn a new skill, or to just continue doing what you’re already good at.
A new study says try to learn something new, because the brain wants to be puzzled and learn new things. A study done at Oxford University found that learning to juggle significantly boosted connections between different parts of the jugglers’ brains.
The Oxford researchers say the same transformation was seen in all the jugglers, regardless of how well they could perform. They say it’s the learning process that’s important.
Nature Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1038/nn.2412
I’ll Have What She’s Having
Mystery Meat. On purpose.
Something new at a Japanese restaurant called the Mystery Cafe.
You can order whatever you like… but that won’t be what you end up eating.
The restaurant wants patrons to expand their culinary horizons, so you get what the person before you ordered, and the next person gets what you ordered.
The point is getting people to taste something new .
New Michael Jackson Music
You can now get the first song from that Michael Jackson music documentary. “This Is It” is now available on the Web site www.MichaelJackson.com. The movie makes its debut later this month - and features backup vocals by Jackson’s brothers. The film makes use of rehearsal footage for Jackson’s planned London concerts. Jackson never got to do those shows because he died on June 25.