It’s getting cold. In Malaysia at least with the rainy season upon us yet again. So I ask myself, can the cold give you a cold?

Well apparently, the association of cold weather and catching a cold is an age old myth. Just like people used to associate the bad air around swamps to malaria. So does the colder weather give you a cold?

According to a study conducted by Dr Belilovsky and the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, the cold weather actually acts as a stimulus for the immune system to rev itself up. They claim that, “...Researchers examined the immunological responses to cold exposure and found that acute cold exposure, such as going outside without a jacket, actually appears to activate the immune system...". They went on to explain that this happens as a natural response by our body to increase its levels of norepinephrine (a decongestant) in the blood stream.

Having said so, no one is suggesting stepping outside without a jacket for an immunity booster. The real cause of colds (among other things) is hypothermia which is the lowering of the body’s core temperature.

However, when it’s cold, vasoconstriction may occur. That is when the blood vessels close to the outside world get tighter. Areas such as the nose may be affected in that it compromises the nose’s ability to filter the air we inhale.

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Here’s a piece of fantastic news. Researchers at the MIT Labs have announced a new battery which could be fully recharged in 10 seconds! What’s more, these batteries are the size of cell phone batteries. According to Gerbrand Ceder and Byoungwoo Kang as printed in the journal Nature, this discovery could open up endless new technological advances.

The ‘old’ version worked by calculating how much amount of energy could be stored and balancing that with how quickly it could be discharged. These new batteries on the other hand, create a sort of ‘fast lane’ for ions to move around in the lithium iron phosphate material.

Read more at: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/superbattery.html

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There is a dietary fibre which has emerged as a weight loss power food. So much so that a study conducted in 2008 by a Swedish group discovered that people who ate this type of food, also called the resistant starch, noted being less hungry than the other control groups.

These resistant starches can be found in beans, slightly green bananas and either white or sweet potatoes. And just like other types of good fibres, these foods resist being digested. They have also been proven to lower blood sugar levels because the starch content does not enter the bloodstream. In fact, it is being looked as a possible preventer of diabetes.

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You know they say you can’t keep a good man down. Well with the story below, it really depends on which side of the fence you prefer to sit on.

Some updates with regards to the Spectrial. By the way, the charges: complicity to making copyrighted material accessible.

Fredrik Neij, who is one of the four founders of The Pirate Bay, admitted that while lawyers were bsuy making their closing statements in court, he was remotely restarting his servers. He told news agencies that, “...the server was down so I used the wireless internet connection in the courtroom to restart it...”.

Printed at http://www.laptopical.com/pirate-bay-defendant-restarts-server-remotely-during-trial-59886.html for more information.

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Demand ‘soft and fluffy’ to wipe your behind when you visit the loo?

Well, guess what? This is having a terrible effect on trees in North America and Latin America plus a percentage of trees from rare old growth forests in Canada. It costs much less to produce them using recycled paper but consumers will gladly pay more for the softer version, which comes from fibre taken from standing live trees.

The Charmin Effect will continue to grow because as it is, in the US alone, households use about 23.6 rolls per year.

Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/science/earth/26charmin.html?_r=2&em

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I’m sure everyone knows about the ‘Spectrial’ (spectacular trial) of Piratebay the popular online torrent website.

Well the website is posting daily updates with regards to the trial. It will be interesting to see how the ‘law’ will prosecute TPB or if they even can. One thing is for certain, you can’t win with these pirates...Arr Matey!

According to Peter Sunde from TPB, “...TPB knows that about 80% of all the traffic on the internet is torrent related and about half of these 80% are our traffic...therefore, 40% of all internet traffic is passing through The Pirate Bay...”

On day 4, when asked if advertiser Oded Daniel was involved in the technical aspects of Pirate Bay, Neij replied “...No, he’s not good at that. He uses Windows…” laughing came pouring in from the listening lounge and not the main courtroom (where the mainstream media was seated).

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Great news in the treatment of diabetes. Diabetics no longer need to prick their fingers to check their glucose levels thanks to the scientists at Draper Laboratories.

They have developed a nanoparticle tattoo which only needs to be applied once. The nano ink particle constantly samples blood glucose levels and changes colour in accordance to glucose content.

Inside the particles are glucose detecting molecules, a colour changing dye and another molecule which mimics the properties of glucose.

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According to the British Heart Foundation (BHF), egg lovers worldwide can rejoice because a recent study has proven that there is nothing wrong with eating too many eggs. According to researcher Bruce Griffin, eggs do not necessarily cause high blood cholesterol or heart disease. He advises that those adhering to low cholesterol diets should concentrate more on reducing their intake of saturated fats from fatty meats, dairy products and pastries.

For more information, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7882850.stm?lss or http://www.bhf.org.uk/

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