Watercooler Sensation

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Diabetics Swap Needles For Tattoos

• For the 6.7 percent of Americans with diabetes, sticking themselves with a need on a regular basis isn’t a whole lot of fun.
• But getting a tattoo? Still getting stuck with a needle, only way cooler and far less frequent.
• That’s why a biomedical engineering professor at the Dwight Look College of Engineering has come up with a diabetics’ version of getting “ink” done. [LIVE SCIENCE]
• Here’s how it works: Fluorescent polymer microbeads (molecules that glow under light from an LED) are injected under the skin, and the person’s glucose level is reflected in the amount of light given off.
• In other words, instead of having to stick themselves with a needle to test their insulin levels, diabetics can just check their tat.
• Sci-Fi fans may recall the idea of “active” tattoos from such works as Paul Di Filippo’s 1985 work, Stone Lives, and M. John Harrison’s Nova Swing.
• Check out these other bizarre takes on the classic tattoo:
• Braille tattoos for the blind. [TECHNOVELGY]
• Eyeball tattoos to change the color of your eyes. (Picture not for the faint of heart) [TECHNOVELGY]

Tattoos that do more than just “express how you really feel inside.”

Fit Or Fat? Turns Out You Can Be Both

• Consider it justice for that skinny couch potato telling you that you’re packing a few extra pounds: Scientists are now saying that there are benefits to being fit and staying active — even if you’re overweight. [USA Today]
• “You can’t tell just by looking at someone if they are fit,” says Steven Blair, a professor in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. “You can certainly be fat, even obese, and still be fit.”
• Don’t believe us? Take a look at the numbers. Recent studies have shown that tit older men and women who were at a normal weight, overweight or even obese had a lower risk for death during the 12 years than unfit people at a normal weight. So turn of “Tila Tequila,” put down the Doritos, and hit the treadmill, bud.
• If that’s not enough to convince you, then how about this: The least fit in the study had a death rate four times higher than the most fit.

• So aside from getting roped into a gym membership, what can you do to increase your fitness? Try hitting the road. On average, Americans walk 5,300 steps per day. Many health experts, on the other hand, recommend doing at least 10,000

  steps a day. Think you can take care of that, Richard Simmons?

Big is beautiful. And, apparently, healthy.

Going To Jail For Drugs Is More Black Than White

• Be it racism in the system, the uneven deployment of police forces, or unfair mandatory minimums, these are the facts:
• White Americans and black Americans use illegal drugs at the same rates, but blacks are “10 times more likely to be imprisoned for illegal drug offenses than whites.” [Reuters]
• In 2002, 19.5 million Americans used drugs, 1.5 million were arrested, and 175,000 were incarcerated.
• Of those imprisoned, over half were black, even though blacks account for only 13% of the U.S. population.
• Some possible reasons for this stark disparity:
• Crack vs. cocaine sentences: “The mandatory federal sentence is the same for possession of 5 grams (0.2 ounces) of crack, more associated with blacks, as 500 grams (18 ounces) of cocaine, which is more often used by whites.”
• Police focus: “Police also tend to devote more resources to policing illegal drugs in open-air drug markets in inner cities with more blacks than in suburban communities or college campuses” where more whites are toking up.
• Probation disparities: “Probation officers are sometimes more lenient with white offenders, blaming their problems on factors such as a broken home, than with black offenders, who were more likely to be described as having a failure of moral character.”
• But changes to the system are difficult to achieve.
• Says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, ‘"The public is by and large supportive of (some drug) reform, but legislatures have been hesitant to move forward. ... The law enforcement industry is politically very powerful and has a lot of sway over legislators.”
• Find out here why Rolling Stone says weve lost the War on Drugs: [Rolling Stone]

Black and white and unfair all over.

Why The Flu Likes The Cold

• It never fails: The Winter months roll in, along with Christmas, snow, garland, and...the flu. But now, researchers in New York believe they’ve found the reason why the flu spreads primarily during colder months. [New York Times]
• As it turns out, the answer’s not rocket science, but has to do more with the virus itself. See, the virus is more stable and stays in the air longer when air is cold and dry, the exact conditions for much of the flu season.
• To put things in greater context, a bit of history: The very name, “influenza,” is an Italian word that some historians proposed, originated in the mid-18th century as influenza di freddo, or “influence of the cold.”
• Flu season in northern latitudes is from November to March, the coldest months. In southern latitudes, it is from May until September. In the tropics, there is not much flu at all and no real flu season.
• Naturally, until now, there’s been no shortage of theories as to why people caught the flu. Some said flu came in winter because people are indoors; and children are in school, crowded together, getting the flu and passing it on to their families.

Man, are we happy we got our flu shots this year OR WHAT?

WSJ Hatchet Job On Al Gore

• The uber-right-wing Wall Street Journal writer Holman Jenkins yesterday attacked Al Gore for the crime of winning the Nobel Prize. [Climate Progress] [Think Progress]
• His piece included bits of particular nastiness like, “The Nobel Committee might as well have called it Al Gore’s Inner Peace Prize, given the way it seems designed to help him disown his lifelong ambition to become president in favor of a higher calling, as savior of a planet.”
• Then he spat out Gore “could neither win the office nor govern on the basis of imposing the kinds of costs supposedly necessary to deal with an impending ‘climate crisis.’ Yet his credibility would become laughable if he failed to insist on such costs. How much more practical, then, to cash in on the crowd-pleasing role of angry prophet, without having to take responsibility for policies that the public will eventually discover to be fraudulent.”
• Why all the hate? Lacking a scientific leg to stand on, Jenkins came up with a different strategy of attack. In 2006, he wrote a “global warming worksheet” which warned that people become concerned about global warming “based on the perceived credibility of public figures who affiliate themselves with one view or another.” Aha, Jenkins, *NOW* your random attack on Mr. Gore makes a little more sense!
• We weren’t terribly surprised at the attempted hatchet job. Jenkins often works himself into an angry fury over the fact that people are paying attention to global warming.
• Jenkins: “In our unstable and evolving planet, temperature is often either rising or falling. Who knows whether a trend is the product of human activity or natural?”
• Er…how about scientists from the US Department of Energy who in 2005 discovered “the first unequivocal link between man-made greenhouse gases and a dramatic heating of the Earth’s oceans”? [Independent UK]
• Or February’s “smoking gun” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which found “Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperature since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic [human-caused] greenhouse gas concentrations.” [National Geographic]
• And we’ve always been partial to scientist D. James Baker’s comment that, when it comes to human contributions to global warming, “there’s no better scientific consensus on this on any issue I know—except maybe Newton’s second law of dynamics.” [FAIR]
• And by the way, the Jenkins answer to global warming is, eh, don’t worry about it, somebody will somehow save us. In 2006, he wrote, “Whatever the truth of climate change turns out to be, today’s vast investment in climate research will likely lead someday to technologies that really will allow us to alter local and global weather.” Doesn’t that remind you of the guy who decides to keep smoking because doctors will probably have a cure for cancer by the time he gets sick? Yeah. That guy died. [Jenkins 2006]

Nice try, Mr. Jenkins, but nobody’s buying what you’re trying to sell.

By the Numbers

It’s all fun and games till someone gets lead poisoning.

Careful what you’re calling a toy, buster. As the holidays approach and you’re making your list and checking it twice, make sure there isn’t any lead on there. And, as it turns out, that might be harder than you think. Take a look at the numbers. [ABC]

35 percent

35 percent of toys contain lead — many with levels far above the federal recall standard used for lead paint.

20 percent

Only 20 percent of the toys and other products had no trace of lead or harmful chemicals.

21 million

Mattel Inc. recalled more than 21 million Chinese-made toys on fears they were tainted with lead paint and tiny magnets that children could accidentally swallow. Mattel’s own tests on the toys found that they had lead levels up to 200 times the accepted limit.

Jewelry products

Jewelry products were the most likely to contain the high levels of lead.

Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game

Among the toys that tested above that limit was a Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game, whose case tested at 3,056 ppm (or parts per million).

Celebrities: Unfiltered

Ellen: Hello President Bush, how are you?

Jenna Bush: This is the Ellen Degeneres show.

President Bush: That’s great! How’s my little girl doing?

Ellen: Oh, she’s great. She’s scared she’s going to get in trouble because I asked if it was easy to just pick up the phone and call your dad anytime, and she said yes, and I said okay...well...then let’s call him, and now she’s scared she’s not going to get any Christmas presents.

[Laughter. Awkward pause.]

Jenna: Dad?

— We’re guessing Jenna might not get that pony this year...[TMZ]

Speed Round

HOW MANY HAVE YOU READ?

It’s never too late to put down the US Weekly and get in touch with your literary side: The New York Times has released it’s annual 100 Most Notable Books of the year list. [NYT]

IT’S HARD OUT THERE FOR A STUDENT

Two bank robbers in Ohio explain why they held up the Valley Central Savings Bank: They needed the money for college tuition. [ABC News]

P.U.!

Congratulations, Tom Brady! You’re the new winner of Baby Talk magazine’s Stinky Diaper Award, the award for being such a rotten dad and spending only a few hours with Baby Mamma Bridget Moynihan and son after she gave birth. [OK Magazine]

92,000

Number of microwave ovens recalled by General Electric yesterday. Zap. [CBS News]

WE GET A KICK OUT OF [MAIL]

Old Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra, is to be immortalized on a stamp. [AP]

WORLD WAR III

And here we thought it’d involve Iran...but apparently Paris and Britney are threatening mutual destruction. [Yeeeah]

HEADLINE OF THE DAY

“Cop sues over firing, blames meatballs” [AP]

SHE’S BAAA-AAAACK

After birthing her spawn and a brief hospital stint, Nancy Grace is back to screaming on the small screen. [Jossip]

TOO MUCH CREDIT

“How the Spice Girls have killed feminism, subverted morality and embarassed us all” [Daily Mail]

INTERNET SECURITY

Al Qaeda is on the internet and they’ve got more than just a Myspace profile and Facebook group. [FOX]

FRIEND REQUEST

Your professor is on Facebook. Turns out it’s just as awkward for them to be your friend as it is you to be theirs. Draw the line somewhere short of poking. [OTB] [CHRONICLE OF HIGHER ED]

OUT OF THE FIRE AND INTO THE 16 WHEELER

California wildfires drove frightened deer out of the blazing forests and onto the freeway. [LA Times]

COEN BROTHERS SMELL OSCAR

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures picked the Coen Brother’s violent thriller “No Country For Old Men,” based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, as the best film of 2007. The award, reports the LA Times, “has developed a standing as a predictor of statuettes to come.” [LA Times]

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Thief uses a flower pot to steal a Porsche. MacGyver unavailable for comment. [AP]