Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Prostate Cancer an STD?
The headline from The Scientist magazine is startling - Prostate cancer is increasingly looking like an infectious disease, a new study shows, and may be sexually transmitted.
This means that the trend is towards all cancers being infectious diseases, but not everyone with the disease gets cancer - ie there are other aspects involved, like lifestyle, health and genetics.
I find it interesting, the possibility that most men with prostate cancer caught it from being promiscuous or unfaithful. It certainly makes prevention much, much easier.
This means that the trend is towards all cancers being infectious diseases, but not everyone with the disease gets cancer - ie there are other aspects involved, like lifestyle, health and genetics.
I find it interesting, the possibility that most men with prostate cancer caught it from being promiscuous or unfaithful. It certainly makes prevention much, much easier.
Labels: Prostate Cancer
Friday, October 23, 2009
CentMail - Only Half a Solution
It's a good idea, you pay CentMail 1 cent (you buy in bulk ahead of time), and you get to send an email, with the charity that the cent is going to proudly displayed. The penny goes to charity, and people receiving your email know that it isn't spam, because spammers would never spend a penny on an email.
Unfortunately it will never take off, because to do so, it will need more people onboard than what are willing to pay for email, today. In the long-term it could gain traction as people's attitudes change, but by then it might be forgotten about. It might also have a chance if all email providers join in, but I doubt Hotmail and Gmail will adopt a Yahoo initiative.
It also fails to recognise that quasi-spam, emails from businesses and services that you have used in the past, that kept sending you crap, won't mind paying 1c.
What would work is my old idea - pay 5c to send email, but get a credit each time you receive one. Most people email back and forth to their friends, and the model works out very well for everyone. Read more about my solution to end spam.
Unfortunately it will never take off, because to do so, it will need more people onboard than what are willing to pay for email, today. In the long-term it could gain traction as people's attitudes change, but by then it might be forgotten about. It might also have a chance if all email providers join in, but I doubt Hotmail and Gmail will adopt a Yahoo initiative.
It also fails to recognise that quasi-spam, emails from businesses and services that you have used in the past, that kept sending you crap, won't mind paying 1c.
What would work is my old idea - pay 5c to send email, but get a credit each time you receive one. Most people email back and forth to their friends, and the model works out very well for everyone. Read more about my solution to end spam.
Labels: spam solution
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Lettuce Factory
Sounds wrong, doesn't it? Lettuces are supposed to be grown in fields. Irrigated. Fed with fertilisers. Sprayed with herbicides and pesticides. Harvested and washed, but at the supermarket it still might have some dirt or bugs in it.
Not in Japan. They grow lettuce in sterile factories. Hydroponic and sealed off from the real world. I'm not sure if I should be freaked or amazed.
Some factories are vast - and can produce three million vegetables a year.More at the Daily Mail.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Modern Fossils
Just came across this art form - concrete sculptures made to look like fossils of our era, as if they would be found in the future. Modern Fossils. The one I like best is the cassette:
(Hint to wife... b'day present!)
The rest don't look realistic enough for my taste.
(Hint to wife... b'day present!)The rest don't look realistic enough for my taste.
Labels: fossil
