Fast eating?

Obesity seems to have become the problem for many people these days, yet what is the cause for that? Often it is said that eating fast is unhealthy, now why could that be? Mostly that is because there are other causes to someone eating fast such as unhappiness and that combines with eating fast and most likely over eating can cause obesity. An interesting comparison that was brought forward in an article in the Koelner Stadtanzeiger, was as follows "In comparison with the French and the Americans already tells the tale, In the Fine-foods paradise France are only half the people overweight then in the country of the Fast-food." This comparison refers to the proportional percentage in the countries and not the actual numbers since in France the population is smaller as well. Making the difference in numbers far greater.
What could help? Well for once in a while relaxing and taking stress in to a lesser extend allowing the mind and the body to recover. This would be a healthy and possible approach that can show lasting effects.

Relevant articles
Stress macht dick

Iran's defiance

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated that Iran is willing to enter negotiations with the UN and western countries if they also suspend their nuclear fuel production. Until now the US and UN have challenged Iran to suspend the enrichment of nuclear fuel, now with the deadline approaching Iran stated that it will suspend its enrichment if the western countries asking the same from Iran do the same. The white House responded with a statement delivered by White House spokesman Tony Snow who said: "Do you believe that's a serious offer?"
Clarifying that the US is not willing to suspend its own enrichment process to aid the negotiations. The US is also pressing for a more aggressive strategy if Iran does not suspend its enrichment before the deadline. Many experts have warned before military intervention because it could cause another great war in a region in which any war can't be afforded.

Relevant Artilces
Iran seeks 'constructive dialogue' (Al Jazeera)
Iran defiant on nuclear programme (BBC)
Iran (Paladin101)
Iran presses the US (Paladin101)

Tension in Israel

Excavations near the third holiest side in of the Islam in Jerusalem have caused a great deal of tension in Israel. Those tensions also became visible in Muslim countries which protested against the excavation, Turkey now wants to send a inspection team which then is to find if or if not the excavation means harm to the holy side. Israels government has maintained that the excavations do not pose any danger for the holy side and that there is no reason for tension. Further Israel's government has stated that it is happy to host the inspection team since they had nothing to hide.
The Israeli Antiquity Authority has also installed web-cams which supply a 24-Hour feed to show that there is no harm done to the Muslim structure.

Relevant sides
Turkey and webcams survey al-Aqsa (Al Jazeera)
The Israel Antiquities Authority (life-feed)

Birthday

Since today I became old I decided to keep this post short here is a link to the best Birthday song ever made,...by Die Prinzen (yes it is a German Pop-group).
Die Prinzen Heute Ha-Ha-Habe Ich Geburtstag

Terflop...

The teraflop chip is there, this chip is not yet ready for commercial use but it does have 80 cores. The problem now is how to use those, since the PS3 already had problems with dealing with 7 different cores at the same time. Now programming 80 parallel cores is a task that is far greater. And might require significant changes in how our computer systems operate. Yet, this technology is still under development.

Teraflop chip hints at the future (BBC)

US military in Japan

The US military faced loud and noisy demonstrations, which luckily remained peaceful, when the F-22 (Raptor) was flown to a US base to counter the North Korean thread. The F-22 was not previously employed outside the US and this was the first time that the US send this new and most expensive of their air combat toys outside US borders. The F-22 also is a Stealth fighter which means that it is harder to detected in comparison to conventional fighters, this can either increase the time until fired upon or even prevent enemy fire and/or detection.
More recently a bomb has exploded near a US base in Japan which may be reason for concern since the Japanese population seems to want that the US troops begin their long promised leaving of the country.

Explosion in Japan near US base (Al Jazeera)

Iran

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared at a rally Iran did not intend to stop its nuclear program. Further that it also did not intend to violate international conventions, concerning nuclear weapons. A semi-official news agency named Mehr has also reported that the Red Guard had a form of flying 'suicide drones' at their disposal that would be able to fly at US Military ships ram them. Triggering there by an explosion, this technology sounds like a somewhat less advanced version of the Cruise Missile. Which could also be nuclear tipped since Iran does have nuclear fuel available yet considering statements until now make that unlikely. Thus making conventional explosives the most likely armament, yet it is by now in Iran's capability to produce nuclear tips for these missiles.
Further the US has continued to accuse Iran of supporting Iraqi resistance fighters with technology as well as resources. Iran until now has also denied doing so, further the bombs have grown sufficiently sophisticated that they are able to penetrate Abraham Tanks. Which represents the backbone of the US tanks.

Relevant Articles
US accuses Iran over Iraq bombs (BBC)
Iran insists on nuclear programme (BBC)
Rally used to promote nuclear Iran (Al Jazeera)

Sleepy?

If one does not sleep enough you feel tired and as your brain just does not want to work properly. Missing out enough sleep can that lead to a from a waking sleep were everything in your environment seems very surreal. That is called insomnia it is a state which today probably more common then is good and a new study suggests that missing sleep is not just problematic for the body because it reduces the time alloted for regeneration but also because the production of new Brain cells seems to be reduced. Now this would manifest in the study after 72 hours of sleep deprivation and there is no study right now dealing with the effects of little sleep loss such as often is experienced by students and the working population. Yet, it does once more show that sleep is very important for our body and mind.

No sleep means no new brain cells (BBC)

Doomsday...?

Many have always speculated how and if Doomsday will occur, now a vault is being build to resist all currently foreseen climatic changes. What is this bank going to hold? This bank is a seed bank for crop seeds those crop seeds are then to be used in case of catastrophes when the seed banks in other countries are destroyed or if presumably all other seed banks are destroyed. It will be able to hold approximately three million seed samples and further the Norwegian government is paying $5 (US)million to build the complex. The vault itself will be located very close to the north pole in Spitzbergen.
This vault then can insure the food production even after devastating events such as the Tsunami in the Philippines.

Alzheimer the dread of age...?

Alzheimer has always been linked to age, high age as well as genetic predisposition. A new study concerning itself with social isolation has brought up a very interesting new lead. Which suggests that Alzheimer is more likely to develop if the subject is socially isolated, that the degradation of the neural pathways is likely to be increased by the reduced use that is accompanied by social isolation. Further studies are required to confirm what is now being suspected which is that genes might not even play as great a role as has been believed until now and that social interaction might already greatly decrease the risk of Alzheimer.

Relevant article
Loneliness link with Alzheimer's (BBC)

Ever wanted to spent 2.9 trillion US $?

President Bush's administration holds the track record for having lost the most money any American administration has ever lost. That is most impressive and saddening considering that the Cold war actually is part of that list of administrations. Now the new Budget that Bush has presented does not change this problem but only seems to increase expenditures, also he claims that this budget would allow a surplus by 2012, thus making another administration responsible of handling this problem. The new budget plans on spending 2.9 trillion US Dollars such this sum includes new and increased (or improved as some would call it) military expenditures. The Congress has already criticized Bush's approach to the finance problem and is likely to want to change a great deal on this new budget.
Some even call this new Budget 'The war budget' if that is justified or not is to be decided.

Bush submits $2.9 trillion budget (BBC)
Bush unveils 'war' budget (Al Jazeera)

TB YAY

The terabyte has now finally taken over from the Gigabyte or rather is beginning to do so. With the help of a new writing technology the first internal hard drive has now reached the 1 TB mark. A mark that until now was only reached/broken by some very expensive external HDs 1 terabyte consists of 1000 Gigabytes. Computer systems on the average currently move in the realm of 0.3-0.6 TB of total available HD space the TB internal HD is likely to reduce the Dollar to GB ratio further and now introduce the Dollar to TB ratio which is likely to increase the space on HDs available to computer users during the next few years rapidly.

Storage growth sets a fast pace (BBC)

Nuclear power issue...

The nuclear reactor in Sweden once more showed safety problems for which the reactor then was shut down. This leads to further question the actual safety of nuclear reactors in use. Also it further reduces the trust in this power source. Now Germany will reduce the production of coal or even stop it entirely, it leads to ask the question what power source is to be used since no power source seems to be safe. At this point it does not leave any options but to use a form of clean sun power.
Now that this winter has been so very unusual, lead people to accept that humans and their technology have a enormous impact onto the environment which leads to some changes in the climate.

Neuer Zwischenfall im Atomreaktor (Al Jazeera)

Apple vs. Cisco

Cisco Systems sued Apple over the iPhone, since Cisco has owned the trademark of the iPhone since 2000. Cisco Systems is one of the bigger companies owning a great deal of the internet, further several companies produce VOIP telephones under the trademark of the iPhone. Apple's response by stating that this lawsuit was 'silly' and 'tenuous at best'. Previous legal battles involving Apple focused around the legal implication of the iTunes Music store. Both companies have agreed on extending their talks concerning this issue.

iPhone court battle put on hold

The US and how the administration deals with problems...

The US Government is attempting to 'solve' the problems of the Middle East with the help of military force. This reaction appears very familiar since the British government tried to solve the problem in Mesopotamia (Iraq) with the same tools. The only thing they found that was more problems, the tension they created prevailed until today. Now trying to solve a problem that was created by ignorance and violence now the question is can such a problem be solved by even more of such problems.
The US military leaders seem to deny this problem as well.

US commander denies Iraq failure