] The US National Institutes of Health study concludes
] acupuncture is an effective complement to standard care.

It is nice that NIH is putting money into demonstrating that acupuncture works in a way that is acceptable to the western medical community: large trials, like the way we actually understand drugs. Too many scientists get hung up on the mystic and uncertain aspects of acupuncture, and ignore the evidence that it seems to work. We seem to be ok with not really knowing how drugs (Vioxx, Celebrex anyone) work, but make a stink when something whose explanation is "Qi energy forces" asks to be considered legit.

BBC NEWS | Health | Acupuncture 'works for arthritis'

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] people in Cameroon are showing up with symptoms of HIV,
] but are testing negative for both the virus and its
] primate equivalent SIV, the virus from which HIV is
] thought to have evolved. That suggests that new strains
] of an HIV-like virus are circulating in wild animals and
] infecting people who eat them

Article: Bush-meat trade breeds new HIV �| New Scientist

] Will drinking coffee have the same effect as caffeine?
]
] It's a mistake to assume that the effects of caffeine
] always extend to caffeinated drinks such as coffee.

Interesting /researched/ article summarizing studies on the performance enhancing effects of caffeine -- straight or as it comes in coffie -- and creatine -- and what happens when you try both. The highlights are that caffeine in a direct form has a noticable positive impact on performance/endurance, but that they are neutralized when delivered via coffee; creatine should be consumed post-workout not pre-; and choose one, caffeine or creatine, they may cancel each other out in some cases.

Three myths about creatine and caffeine...

] Jody Gorran, 53, said Thursday that he was seduced "with
] a bacon-wrapped cheeseburger" to blindly follow the
] Atkins Diet, which also made his cholesterol soar to a
] risky level.

This was clearly a cherry picked, opening salvo lawsuit. But it really sounds like maybe the next fads will have to have reading comprehension waivers in order to participate. Blindly following is a bad idea in anything health related.

This is made worse by the fact that South Beach, which is similiar in nature to Atkins, was developed by a cardiologist to /help deal with cholesterol/. It wasn't intended for weighloss, but it was published when it showed such behavior as well. My dad has significantly improved his cholesterol levels with it.

It sounds like the guy should have put the book down, anyway, if it really was a matter of being 148 pounds desiring 140. Atkins diet -- or "lifestyle" -- is /way/ too extreme for that.

Yahoo! News - Man Sues Atkins Diet Over Heart Problems

] Said Steiner, "If the blonds and blue-eyed people die
] out, the human race will become increasingly dense ...
] Blond hair actually bestows intelligence."

So it is no wonder why I take a performance hit whenever I have my hair cut. And I was thinking of getting rid of it... Silly me.

Interesting article on an alternative school philosophy; having been to several schools run by alternative philosophies, this made me thankful for the environments I actually ended up in. The Quaker running my elementary school may have shared some media-minimal aspects with Waldorf, but tolerance was principle number one, and I doubt folks would argue with that.

Salon.com Life | What's Waldorf?

] A Mexican man who got drunk, fell asleep on railroad
] tracks and was run over by a train slept through the
] entire episode and escaped unharmed, local officials said
] on Friday.

Yahoo! News - Drunk Run Over by Train, Lives

Wow. A porn star biography I might actually consider reading... she sounds coherent, neither completely ditzy nor with a room-filling ego.

Nerve.com Screening Room