Gourmet Tea Guide - Portfolio.com

Coffee isn’t the only caffeinated beverage to get the gourmet makeover. How to properly tackle tea.

Five Myths About Drinking Water : NPR: “Is bottled water better for you than tap? Or should you choose vitamin-enriched water over sparkling? Experts say, skip it all. None of these products are likely to make you any healthier. Below, we look at five major myths about the benefits of drinking water.

But first, how do you know if you’re drinking enough water? Experts say there’s an easy way to judge. If you’re not thirsty, you’re fluid intake is likely ‘just right.’

“

TheStar.com | Health | Mom was right: Giving really is better than receiving: “Canadian-led research reveals that when it comes to money, it’s better to spend it on others than on yourself”

Michael Pollan: Don’t Eat Anything That Doesn’t Rot | Health and Wellness | AlterNet: “Acclaimed author and journalist Michael Pollan argues that what most Americans are consuming today is not food but ‘edible foodlike substances.’ His previous book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, was named one of 2006’s ten best books by the New York Times and the Washington Post. His latest book is called In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.”

The Dairies Are Half-Pint, but the Flavor Isn’t - New York Times

ANNE SAXELBY had what she calls an “aha moment” a couple of years ago when she drove upstate to try the cultured butter made by Evans Farmhouse Creamery in Chenango County. Ms. Saxelby, who owns Saxelby Cheesemongers in Manhattan, said that for all the butter she had eaten in her life, “I had really never had butter before — this is butter.”

More and more people across the country are being treated to the same aha experience as they find a burgeoning variety of fresh dairy products made in small batches on little farms and in small creameries. And it’s worth the extra money…

 

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Surprising reasons you’re not having sex - CNN.com

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TheStar.com - News - War on plastic heating up

Bans on plastic bags and bottles are now proliferating. But that bad-boy image overlooks some big environmental advantages

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click | The rise of technology addiction

The seemingly exponential growth of portable technology has sparked fears that people are becoming addicted or swamped by gadgets and their uses. One major consequence of this phenomenon is that the line between work and private life is much more blurred, now that e-mail and phones provide a 24-hour link between employers and staff.

See also:
Technology Addiction Makes Us Unwitting Slaves - ZDNet UK

Marginal Revolution: How Green are Cities?

Manhattan, not suburbia, is the real friend of the environment. Those alleged nature lovers who live on multiacre estates surrounded by trees and lawn consume vast amounts of space and energy. If the environmental footprint of the average suburban home is a size 15 hiking boot, the environmental footprint of a New York apartment is a stiletto-heeled Jimmy Choo. Eight million New Yorkers use only 301 square miles, which comes to less than one-fortieth of an acre a person. Even supposedly green Portland, Ore., is using up more than six times as much land a person than New York.

New York’s biggest environmental contribution lies in the fact that less than one-third of New Yorkers drive to work. Nationwide, more than seven out of eight commuters drive.

[Marginal Revolution doesn’t quite buy this…]

2 minutes in the microwave sterilizes sponges, scrub pads: study

Putting kitchen sponges and scrub pads in the microwave for two minutes can kill bacteria and viruses, eliminating the threat of food-borne illnesses, U.S. researchers say.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China’s ‘cancer villages’ pay price

The small hamlet of Shangba is a tiny jumbled collection of houses sitting in the lush green paddy fields and hills of southern China.

It sounds idyllic, but many of the locals are dying after drinking polluted water.

Shangba has become one of the country’s growing number of what have been called “cancer villages”.

Psychology Today: Straight Up: Don’t Be a Slouch

Good posture is in a slump. Our days at work and school are filled with non-ergonomic tasks and habits—staring at computers, lugging heavy shoulder bags, and cradling the phone in the crick of our necks. Now our backs are paying the price. According to a Duke University study, back pain is costing the country $90 billion a year.

Tea drinkers urged to skip milk | UK Latest | Guardian Unlimited

Tea drinkers have been urged to give milk a miss if they want to help their hearts.

Studies have shown that drinking tea can help protect against cardiovascular disease.

But now researchers believe that adding milk to a favourite cuppa counteracts any beneficial effects. And when black tea is drunk on its own, cardiovascular function improves.

Howstuffworks “Could I Lose Weight Just by Eating Slower?”

For decades, dietitians, doctors and nutritionists have made the link between eating speed and weight. People who eat slower tend to eat less and weigh less. The slower you eat, the less food it takes to get you full.

Tariq Ramadan in TIME; BBC at HAhmed.com

Tariq Ramadan was recently interviewed by John Humphrys, an atheist who hosts a BBC Radio 4 program where he talks to various religious leaders to supposedly try to restore his faith in God.

Akram’s Razor - Svend White’s blog on Islam, Muslims & America: Never let your guard down in the bathroom

Akram writes: Just had a traumatic experience in a public bathroom. To use Seinfeldian euphemisms, I was in the place and I dropped my wallet in. In it. After.

NPR : Syrian Village Hobbled by Years of Inbreeding

Deep in the northern Syrian countryside lies a tiny village with a very big problem. For more than 100 years, it has been common practice for the village of Kesten’s 5,000 inhabitants to intermarry. The tradition of marriage between first cousins in the Arab world is a way to keep property and businesses in the family. But it also keeps family in the family, and now up to 800 children in this impoverished village are living with extreme genetic defects. One schoolteacher in Kesten is taking the unprecedented step of asking the outside world for help.

Related NPR Story

BBC NEWS | Health | Millions ‘hit by toilet phobia’

A campaign is being launched to raise awareness of the crippling impact of toilet phobia.

Risky Teen Sex: Blame Social Pressures

Young people’s sexual behavior is largely determined by social influences — and around the globe, these influences are strikingly similar.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | ‘Only 50 years left’ for sea fish

There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study.

Naps: Endagered species in modern life? | 43 Folders

A good nap is one of life’s great pleasures, and the ability to nap is the sign of a well-balanced life. When we nap we snatch back control of our day from a mechanized, clock-driven society. We set aside the urgency imposed on us by the external world and get in touch with an internal rhythm that is millions of years old….

Marginal Revolution: How to Use a Condom Optimally

The NYTimes has an excellent article
on how foreign aid is often more about aiding local companies than
aiding foreigners.  It’s a familiar story but told with a wry look
at condom production in Alabama where for decades billions of condoms
have been manufactured for USAID and other programs despite the fact
that costs are much lower on the world market.

Don’t ignore drug expiration dates - Lifehacker

HealthDay reporter Kathleen Doheny explores the mysteries of drug expiration dates and tries to answer the eternal question: Is it bad to pop an aspirin from a bottle that expired six months ago?

YouTube - UMMA Community Clinic

A highly-inspiring example of serving humanity sincerely, consistently, and with excellence…

Geriatrics Lags in Age of High-Tech Medicine - New York Times

Even as the population ages and more people like Mrs. Foley need them, geriatricians are in short supply. It is a specialty of little interest to medical students because geriatricians are paid relatively poorly and are not considered superstars in an era of high-tech medicine. In fact, the credo of geriatric medicine is “less is more.”

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