Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Groundhog Day predicts another 6 weeks of winter for America
Groundhog Day, the world's most eccentric weather forecasting system, has predicted that America is in for another six weeks of winter.
Following tradition in Punxsutawney, the groundhog communicated his prediction to Bill Cooper, a top-hatted town elder who claims to be the only person in the world to speak 'Groundhogese' Photo: REUTERS
Every February 2 since 1887, the behaviour of a groundhog – a rodent in the marmot family – called Phil has been closely observed as it emerges for the day in Punxsutawney, a small town in western Pennsylvania.
On Monday the current "Phil" emerged from its burrow just after dawn in front of a 13,000-strong crowd on Gobbler's Knob, a tiny hill in the town, which is 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
According to German superstition, if a hibernating animal sees its shadow on this day – the Christian festival of Candlemas – winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, according to legend, spring will come early.
On this occasion, the groundhog reportedly saw its shadow. At least that was the case in Punxsutawney, whose annual ceremony was made famous in the 1993 film Groundhog Day, about a reporter – played by Bill Murray – who keeps living the same day over and over again.
At another Groundhog Day ceremony in New York, a rodent called Staten Island Chuck didn't see his shadow but did bite Michael Bloomberg, the city's mayor – an action that groundhog experts were at a loss to explain in meteorological terms.
Following tradition in Punxsutawney, the groundhog communicated his prediction to Bill Cooper, a top-hatted town elder who claims to be the only person in the world to speak "Groundhogese".
Since 1887, Phil has seen his shadow 97 times, hasn't seen it 15 times, and there are no records for nine years, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.
The town, which this year attracted fans of the event from Japan, Iceland and Egypt, claims Phil has always been correct.
However, the US National Climate Prediction Centre said that the animal has only been right 39 per cent of the time.
Sheldon Carr, an engineer from Newburg, Wisconsin, was unable to explain the appeal of Groundhog Day, especially to non-Americans.
"There's no reason," he said. "No one understands the Yanks."
A spokesman for Mr Bloomberg said the Staten Island groundhog bit him on the hand, drawing blood, but there was no risk of rabies as the animal had been raised in captivity.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Coffee L inked to Lower Dementia Risk
Drinking coffee may do more than just keep you awake. A new study suggests an intriguing potential link to mental health later in life, as well.
A team of Swedish and Danish researchers tracked coffee consumption in a group of 1,409 
middle-age men and women for an average of 21 years. During that time, 61 participants developed dementia, 48 with Alzheimer’s disease.
After controlling for numerous socioeconomic and health factors, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the scientists found that the subjects who had reported drinking three to five cups of coffee daily were 65 percent less likely to have developed dementia, compared with those who drank two cups or less. People who drank more than five cups a day also were at reduced risk of dementia, the researchers said, but there were not enough people in this group to draw statistically significant conclusions.
Dr. Miia Kivipelto, an associate
professor of neurology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and lead author of the study, does not as yet advocate drinking coffee as a preventive health measure. “This is an observational study,” she said. “We have no evidence that for people who are not drinking coffee, taking up drinking will have a protective effect.”
Dr. Kivipelto and her c
olleagues suggest several possibilities for why coffee might reduce the risk of dementia later in life. First, earlier studies have linked coffee consumption with a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, which in turn has been associated with a greater risk of dementia. In animal studies, caffeine has been shown to reduce the formation of amyloid plaques in the brain, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Finally, coffee may have an antioxidant effect in the bloodstream, reducing vascular risk factors for dementia.
Dr. Kivipelto noted that previous studies have shown that coffee drinking may also be linked to a reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease.
The new study, published this month in The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, is unusual in that more than 70 percent of the original group
of 2,000 people randomly selected for tracking were available for re-examination 21 years later. The dietary information had been collected at the beginning of the study, which reduced the possibility of errors introduced by people inaccurately recalling their consumption. Still, the authors acknowledge that any self-reported data is subject to inaccuracies.
Monday, January 26, 2009
2009 January 4
Breaking Distant Light Credit: VIMOS, VLT, ESO
Explanation: In the distant universe, time appears to run slowly. Since time-dilated light appears shifted toward the red end of the spectrum (redshifted), astronomers are able to use cosmological time-slowing to help measure vast distances in the universe. Above, the light from distant galaxies has been broken up into its constituent colors (spectra), allowing astronomers to measure the redshift of known spectral lines. The novelty of the above image is that the distance to hundreds of galaxies can now be measured on a single frame using the Visible MultiObject Spectrograph operating at the Very Large Telescope array in Chile. Analyzing the space distribution of distant objects will allow insight into when and how stars, galaxies, and quasars formed, clustered, and evolved in the early universe.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
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