1.
97-year-old
gets high school diploma
Here's one graduate who
may feel a little more senior than most: Ann Colagiovanni, 97 years old, is
finally receiving her high school diploma. The Depression-era student quit
school at the age of 17, back in 1930s, to work in her father's market. The
Ohio resident never returned to finish her education but instead became a
student of life. She worked at the family store until the 1960s when it closed.
She got married and has two daughters and 11 grandchildren.
Daughter Emilia
Colagiovanni Vinci told Fox 8
Cleveland,
"When I told her she was getting a diploma, she sobbed as if a pain had been relieved from
her heart," adding, "I never knew what it
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meant to her. She wanted
this." Emilia noted that during the Depression, work was more important
than an education. But receiving a diploma certainly seemed important to the
nonagenarian. The oldest member of the class of 2012 appears in the news video in a white cap and gown, at a special ceremony at Shaker
Heights High School, which presented her with an honorary diploma--in her
name--dated June 1934. "Finally, I'm going to be a graduate," she
says.
Grandma isn't the only
graduate this year: Her grandson, Thomas Vinci, will also receive a diploma
from the suburban Cleveland high school one day after his grandmother. Emilia
Colagiovanni Vinci said, "She did what her father wanted her to do, even
though she wanted to graduate. She put her father, her family, before
herself." Seventy-eight years later, Ann Colagiovanni finally put herself
first.
2.
Junk Food More
Appealing When You're Sleepy: Study
SUNDAY,
June 10 (HealthDay News) -- Unhealthy foods, such as sweets and chips, are more
appealing to people who haven't had enough sleep, new research suggests.
When
researchers examined the areas of the brain that were most active when people
were looking at healthy or unhealthy foods, they found the reward centers of
the brain were activated when sleep-deprived study volunteers saw pictures of
unhealthy foods.
"We
found regions associated with reward and motivation -- those that are involved
with addiction and pleasure-seeking behaviors -- were more strongly activated
in the short-sleep phase," said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a research associate
at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center and an assistant professor at Columbia
University's Institute of Human Nutrition in New York City.
Findings
from the study are scheduled for presentation Sunday at the Associated
Professional Sleep Societies annual meeting in Boston.
A
second small study from the same meeting didn't find a large difference in the
activation of the brain's reward centers in people who were tired. The
researchers from the University of California, Berkeley did, however, find
significantly impaired activity in an area in the frontal lobe of the brain.
This area of the brain helps control behavior and make complex choices. When
people were sleep-deprived and then presented pictures of unhealthy foods, this
area of the brain didn't respond well, which would make choosing healthy foods
more difficult.
The
study included 16 healthy young adults who underwent functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) once after a full night of sleep and then again after
24 hours of sleep deprivation. They were asked to rate their desire for 80
different foods during each test. Simple past
St-Onge's
study included 25 normal-weight men and women who underwent fMRI after five
nights of restricted sleep (four hours a night) and then again after five
nights are being allowed
to sleep for nine hours. Present Countinous
While
they were in the fMRI scanner, they were shown pictures of healthy foods, such
as fruits, vegetables and oatmeal; unhealthy foods, such as candy or pepperoni
pizza; and nonfood items, such as office supplies.
They
found that unhealthy foods activated areas of the brain considered reward
centers only in people whose sleep was restricted. When the same people were
allowed to rest a full night, they had no such
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activation
in the brain's reward center when they saw the unhealthy foods.
"I
think it's related to cognitive control," St-Onge explained. "Your
guard is somewhat down when you're tired and sleep deprived. Even though you
know you probably shouldn't eat certain foods, when you're tired you might just
decide to go for it."
Registered
dietician Samantha Heller said she was not surprised by the studies' findings.
"It
makes sense that when you are fatigued, your body would want calorie-dense
foods that give you quick energy," said Heller, clinical nutrition
coordinator at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn.
"In an evolutionary sense, doing so would provide an advantage because you
do get a momentary lift when you eat."
In
today's society, the foods people often turn to for a quick shot of energy are processed
carbohydrates, rather than a piece of fruit. But, she said, that momentary lift
from processed foods won't last long, and trying to eat to make up for sleep
deprivation just won't work.
A
better choice is to keep healthy foods around, in both your home and workplace,
so it's easy to reach for a healthy option, Heller said.
St-Onge
said a clear message from her study is that it's important to get enough sleep
every night. She suggested between seven and eight hours nightly.
"This
is especially important if you're trying to lose weight," she said,
because you may choose the wrong foods if you don't get enough sleep.
Because
this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should
be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
3.
Nokia
Dominates TOP – 10 Handset Sales Report
The Swedish
manufacturer of carrying cases for portable electronics, Krusell, has released
their "Top 10"-list for February 2008. The list is based upon the
number of pieces of model specific mobile and
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smart phone
cases that have been
ordered from Krusell during February 2008. Krusell's list is unique
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due to the
fact that it reflects the sales of phones on six continents and in more than 50
countries around the globe.
o (1) Nokia 6300
o (3) Nokia 3109/3110
o (2) Sony Ericsson K810i
o (7) Nokia E51
o (5) Sony Ericsson K850i
o (4) Nokia N95 8GB
o (6) Nokia 6500
o (10) Sony Ericsson K530i
o (9) Nokia N95
o (-) Nokia N73
() = Last
month’s position.
"By taking seven out of ten
positions, Nokia is in total lead of the Krusell Top 10 list for February. It
is rather fascinating to see that no other brand than Nokia and Sony Ericsson are represented in
the list
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this month," says Ulf
Sandberg MD at Krusell. "At least for the next month I will expect to see
one of the units from HTC, Apple and Samsung making a comeback."
4.
Giant Alien Planet May Have Split
into 2 Earth-Size Worlds
A massive alien planet that may have been ripped into Earth-size chunks by
its
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dying parent star is offering a unique glimpse into the
evolution of other worlds and their stars, scientists say.
The planet's two remaining
pieces, which researchers tentatively identified as planet-size objects just
slightly smaller than Earth, were possibly created when their parent body
spiraled inward too close to the bloated red giant star KIC 05807616. Extreme tidal forces
then tore the parent planet into
pieces, some of which seem to have stabilized in orbit around the star,
revealing that a planet's life doesn't always start and end neatly, researchers
said.
"Planets can still evolve,
by disintegrating to several small bodies, or by being completely
destroyed," authors Ealeal Bear and Noam Soker, of the Israel Institute of Technology, told
SPACE.com by email.
A dance of death
Once a common star like the sun,
KIC 05807616 swelled into a red giant as it reached the end of its life. The
gas surrounding it ballooned outward, engulfing any alien planets that lay too close.
But one gas giant may have
escaped complete destruction. By spiraling in through the star's
shell, the planet's
massive girth would have allowed it to function the same way a companion star might, stripping off the excess gas
and allowing the star to contract to a more manageable size.
At the same time, tidal forces
would have ripped the giant planet to shreds, creating at least two rocks only
a little smaller than Earth. Known as KOI 55.01
and KOI 55.02, the two planets orbit the sun between 550,000 and 700,000 miles
(900,000 to 1,100,000 km), far closer than Mercury, and too hot to hold water
on their surface.
While much of the giant planet flew into space — or into the star
— other pieces may also have been caught in orbit. When KOI 55.01 and
KOI 55.02
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were first identified, the presence of a third was also
tentatively noted. If other pieces are found, it would strengthen the idea that
the two rocky planets formed from a single object.
Like KIC 05807616, our sun will
one day balloon outward, engulfing the rocky bodies in the inner solar system.
But Mercury, Venus, and Earth are too small to have an effect on the sun's
outer atmosphere, while the larger gas planets will be too far away. [Video: How the Sun Will Swallow
Earth]
But other planets throughout the
galaxy may play a role in their stars' evolution. The authors emphasized that
there are more indications for planets existing around dying stars, calling the
pairing "a general process that we expect to take place in other
circumstances," Bear and Soker said. They intend to continue monitoring
new discoveries of planets around evolved stars, analyzing possible evolution
routes to explain their existence.
The researchers' findings are detailed in the April edition of the Astrophysical
Journal Letters.
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5.
best all-beef
Applegate
Farms' the Great Organic Uncured Beef Hot Dog meets and beats Brown's criteria,
with 110 calories, 8 grams of fat (3 grams saturated), 7 grams of protein, and
just 330 milligrams of sodium. It's also made from organic, grass-fed beef.
"Organic meat has never been given
antibiotics or hormones, so it's always the way to go if you have the
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option," she says.
"Grass-fed is even better; meat from a grass-fed animal doesn't have as
much total or saturated fat as regular grain-fed."
6.
Avoid being in a death zone -
actions and non-actions that can make you a statistic
Monday, January 09, 2012 by: Fleur Hupston
(NaturalNews) The prevalence of
cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers and chronic lung diseases is being influenced by
lack of exercise, poor nutrition and tobacco smoking. Good health is not
difficult to achieve if one gives up smoking, eats correctly and exercises
regularly. This is stating the obvious, of course. Despite knowing this,
however, many people find it very difficult to break bad habits, even if that
means they may be at risk of developing serious diseases.
Numerous articles have been written and
studies conducted which prove that good health can be easily attained through
lifestyle changes. So why is it that many people ignore the evidence and
continue to put themselves in line for health problems?
One reason may be the highly addictive
nature of fast foods. It would seem that not even a heart attack can stop some
people from indulging regularly in these types of foods. When researchers
examined the data of over 2000 heart attack patients, they discovered that a
large majority ate unhealthy fast food at least once a week in the month prior
to their heart attacks. Worse still, at least 25% of these patients went back
to their old habits after recovering. Junk food addiction can be as serious as
drug addiction - the pleasure centers in the brain are stimulated by highly
palatable food, which is often drenched in fat, sugar, salt and preservatives.
Similarly, cigarette smoking is
an extremely hard habit to break for many. Over 13 million smokers try to quit
each year yet the success rate for first time quitters is about 2.5%. Nicotine
is an addictive chemical that facilitates the natural release of serotonin,
dopamine and norepinephrine.
Obesity statistics
Obesity has become a world-wide
epidemic; the World Health Organization predicts that there will be 2.3 billion
overweight adults globally by 2015, more than 700 million will be classified as
obese. Obesity causes a huge strain on health care costs, with statistics
showing increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. Small
lifestyle changes can make a big difference. For example, reducing BMI (body
mass index) by only 1% per annum will significantly lower the number of chronic
diseases that an obese individual may develop. According to some doctors, this
may be achieved by consuming a mere 20 calories
less per day for three years.
Good nutrition is hard to come by
these days with many processed and nutrient-deficient food products flooding the
market, masquerading as healthy convenience food. It is time, however, we took
the overwhelming body of evidence seriously when it comes to a healthy
lifestyle. Change from being a
two-pack-a-day smoking, pizza and
beer guzzling couch potato and, in that way, avoid being in a potential death
zone.
