So what's on your cell phone? Lotsa germs

These days it's uncommon to see people without a cell phone in their hands while carrying on their every day lives. This includes from personal experience, talking while using a public toilet. Why the necessity and urgency to communicate with someone while answering nature's call to put it politely, is a mystery to me. I've been privy to people in nearby stalls gossiping on their cell phones while using the toilet facilities, making social arrangements and other inconsequential chatter. It can wait people! But I digress.

Research conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London, a study suggested that one in six cell phones is - wait for it - contaminated with faecal matter, according to research for Global Handwashing Day, which took place on October 15. The researchers took almost 400 samples from phones ande hands in twelves British cities. Their findings are interesting in that 16% of phones and 16% of hands harbored E. coli bacteria.

Although 95% of people said they washed their hands with soap where possible, 92% of phones and 82% of hands had bacteria on them. Furthermore, 16% of hands and 16% of phones were found to harbour E. coli – bacteria of a faecal origin. Thinking further, this indicates at least to me that not everyone washes their hands when possible and not everyone tells the truth when asked.

Researchers travelled to 12 cities in various locations in England and took 390 samples from mobile phones and hands which were analysed in the lab to find out the type and number of germs lurking there. They also asked participants a series of questions about their handwashing habits.

To get back to National Handwashing Day, how many people reading this were even aware that this was a day put aside to - well - draw attention to the importance of washing hands. In the way of background information, the day was established by the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing in 2008 to:


• Foster and support a global culture of handwashing with soap.
• Shine a spotlight on the state of handwashing in every country.
• Raise awareness about the benefits of handwashing with soap.

Global Handwashing Day was originally created for children and schools, but can be celebrated by anyone promoting handwashing with soap.

Each year, over 200 million people are involved in celebrations in over 100 countries around the world. Global Handwashing is endorsed by a wide array of governments, international institutions, civil society organizations, NGOs, private companies, and individuals.

Thinking further (again), 200 million people world wide are involved are involved in some way to the act of  washing their hands.

Here's a link for Global Handwashing Day: http://www.globalhandwashingday.org/About.asp

Do not drink the toilet water, okay? And don't juggle hand grenades, either

We human beings can always be counted upon to provide - how shall we say - interesting material that makes us shake our head in wonderment and bewilderment.

So for whatever reason, let's say somebody reading this decides to visit the Phoenix area perhaps for work or pleasure. While checking out the city and Chandler, Arizona in particular following a large consumption of coffee...or tea...whatever, nature calls and a trip to the bathroom is necessary. It appears there are signs posted in restrooms of a new $73 million, five-story building warning people not to drink water out of the urinals and toilets, which happen to use re-cycled water. Unless one gets down on one's hands and knees, this is not a probability, anyway. Mind you, non-human four-legged non-humans like cats or dogs might find this a deterrent. Thinking further, would this law apply to them?

The reason for the posting is that city code regulations located 20 miles southeast of Phoenix to post signs or tint water blue to flag the existence of non-potable "gray water."

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Been juggling various life choices? Someone in San Francisco for whatever reason known obviously only to him, decided that it might be fun and definitely an attention-getter, to perform a juggling act at Fisherman's wharf. What makes this news is that his choice of juggling material was a hand grenade. Presumably, this was a one-item juggling act. But I digress. Bomb squad investigators responding to this man's choice of items, closed down the entire block in response. After further investigation, police determined that the grenade was a fake.

The performer, who has not been identified, was arrested and may face charges. I bet.

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Last but definitely not least - another study

Love those studies. Some researchers living in Montreal, Canada, obviously and again for whatever reason known only to them, conducted studies that revealed the sight of red meat on a dinner table seems to calm men down and makes them less aggressive.

The research recruited 82 men men who believed they could punish an aide reading a script with various volumes of sound every time he made an error while they sorted photos, some with pictures of meat and others with neutral images. This leads one to wonder what this has to do with meat. But I digress.

The researchers initially believed the men would inflict more discomfort on the script reader while they sorted photos of cooked red meat, but that didn't turn out to be the case.

The researcher says in hindsight, it makes sense that our ancestors would be calm at the sight of meat that is ready to eat as they would be surrounded by their loved ones at meal time. O-kaaaaay....

This leads one to wonder - again - whether the sight of real meat would have the adverse affect, or whether the same would be applicable when seeing photos of raw chicken and other varieties of meat. Also, what about cooked meat? As a person who prepares meals regularly, my feeling is that the sight of a cooked meal when one doesn't have to prepare it is infinitely better. Really.

A dose of chocolate a day keeps heart attack away - so they say

At last - a legitimate medical justification to indulge in chocolate!

A new study - my kind of study by the way - indicates that small doses of chocolate each day lessens one's risk of having a heart attack or stroke by nearly 40%. How exciting! So researchers based in Germany followed 20,000 people over an 8 year period by sending them questionnaires focusing on diet and exercise habits. Findings reveal that participants who ate 6 grams of chocolate per day or approximately 1 square of chocolate bar, had a 39% lower risk of either a heart attack or stroke.

Experts are of the opinion that flavonols, also found vegetables and red wines, are responsible helping the muscles in blood vessels widen, leading to the drop in blood pressure.

Hey - that sounds like a good enough reason to me. However - don't you hate the howevers in life - medical experts caution that eating larger amounts of chocolate could lead to weight gain. Wow - what a surprise!

"This is not a prescription to eat more chocolate," said Dr. Robert Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado and a past president of the American Heart Association. He was not linked to the study. "If we all had (a small amount) of chocolate every day for the rest of our lives, we would all gain a few pounds."

So basically if we read between the lines, the experts are still out regarding this eating chocolate=healthy heart study, but what the heck - we should all do our part to help science and if that includes eating chocolate, so much the better.

Meanwhile, watch this video for the lowdown on chocolate and healthy hearts. The Easter bunny would be happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6zIlNCrZpk

Finger length an omen of future earning success

One has to ponder how much money was allotted to the group conducting this study. More to the point it strikes me that British researchers seem to have access to a cache of funds for - how shall we say - unusual studies.

In this case scientists at Cambridge University, presumably through close-up studies, have deduced that a man's fingers could predict his future success. The researchers who studied the forefingers of financial traders, concluded that those whose ring fingers are longer than their index fingers make the most money.

Say what?

The link could be down to testosterone exposure in the womb, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says.

This exposure may improve rapid decision-making skills and has been linked with aggression.
The same ring-to-index finger ratio, which is determined in the womb, has previously been
associated with success in competitive sports.

Researcher John Coates and his team reported last year that testosterone seemed to boost short term success at finance after they found City traders with higher levels of the male hormone in the morning were more likely to make an unusually big profit that day.

He said studies suggested similar associations with finger length are also seen in women.

The article on http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7825890.stm states that "when the researchers looked only at the experienced traders, those with longer ring fingers earned far more than those with shorter ring fingers - £838,000 compared to £154,000 on average, respectively."

Seems that Belgian researchers, not to be outdone by the Brits, have discovered that "men with longer ring fingers become less "socially minded" - less willing to give money to a fellow participant - after watching aggressive movies."

Who cares? Gimme a break!

I dunno. Given the current state of the economy around the world with people starving, becoming homeless and the loss of employment, why on earth would someone waste/conduct a study that focuses on fingers and their potential for whatever?

Something new to worry about in cell phones

Perhaps out of habit and/or for the sake of convenience, some males reading this story, store their cell phone in talk mode in a pants pocket. It might be wise to re-think this habit since a new report reveals that mobile phones left on/in talk mode in said pocket can hurt sperm quality.

In a study semen samples from 32 men were collected and brought to the lab where the study was taking place. Each man's sample was placed into small, conical tubes and divided into two parts: a test group and a control group. The control group was unexposed to cell phone emissions, but kept under the same conditions and temperature as the test group.
The semen in the test group was placed 2.5 centimeters from an 850 MHz cell phone in talk mode for 1 hour. Researchers say that 850 MHz is the most commonly used frequency.
They used the measurement of 2.5 centimeters to mimic the distance between the trouser pocket and the testes.

Overall, researchers found an increase in oxidative stress such as a significant increase in free radicals and oxidants and a decrease in antioxidants. Agarwal says that equals a decrease in sperm's quality, including motility and viability. Evidence of oxidative stress can appear under other conditions, including exposure to certain environmental pollutants or infections in the urinary genital tract.

The findings are interesting so read the rest of the story here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/09/18/cellphone.sperm/index.html

...and the entire study here: http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/18/effectsofradiofrequencyelectromagnetcwaves2008.pdf

Given the negative possibilities and findings, it wouldn't hurt guys to re-think storing their cell phones in pants pockets. They could be stored for example, in a jacket pocket. See...females have an alternative in that they can store them in their purses, which are also used by males.

As Roseanne Rosannadanna used to say: it just goes to show you, it's always something.