Author: Serkadis

When caught early, endometrial cancer has a high survival rate, but what if it could be prevented altogether with the help of a common drink?

Scientists from the National Shanghai Center for New Drug Safety Evaluation and Research analyzed seven published studies on the role of green and black tea in the prevention of endometrial cancer.

Although they cautioned that more studies are needed, the scientists found that existing research reveals that consuming tea might provide protection from endometrial cancer, which starts in the endometrium — the lining of the uterus. That’s exciting news for women who love tea!

Green tea was found to have a better cancer-protecting benefit than black tea. Increased tea drinking (around two cups daily) was linked with a 25% reduced risk of having endometrial cancer.

The new analysis was published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The number of new cases of endometrial cancer in the US in 2009 was predicted by the National Cancer Institute to be 42,160 with 7,780 deaths.

According to Mayo Clinic, some of the symptoms of endometrial cancer include any bleeding after menopause, prolonged periods or bleeding between periods, painful intercourse, unintended weight loss, unusual (nonbloody) discharge and pelvic pain. Unlike ovarian cancer which is much harder to detect, endometrial cancer is often caught early due to the bleeding symptom.

Endometrial cancer is diagnosed by physical exam, transvaginal ultrasound, endometrial biopsy or dilation and curettage (D and C). Treatment includes the surgical removal of the uterus and possibly tubes and ovaries as well. More advanced endometrial cancer may require additional treatments such as radiation, chemo or hormone therapy.

Do you drink green tea for its potential health benefits?

(Image via stock.xchng)

Post from: Blisstree

Tea Could Prevent Endometrial Cancer

Massachusetts, US | Museums and Collections

When the prolific illustrator and author Edward Gorey died in 2000, the floors of his home sagged under the weight of 25,000 books, several cats, assorted collections of eclectic items gathered over the course of years at Saturday flea market outings, as well as 75 unpublished manuscripts. Lucky for the world, rather then parseling these all out, the illustrators home and collection have been converted into a museum dedicated to his life and works.

Edward Gorey was born in Chicago in 1925 to an artistic family, and by the time he enrolled at Harvard to study French in the 1950s he was already an established dandy. According to the Harvard Magazine, “He arrived sporting a full-length sheepskin-lined coat, sneakers, and thick rings on his long fingers. His hair was combed forward, Roman style. A typical freshman he was not.”

He cultivated his eccentrically artistic lifestyle during his university years, establishing his trademark style of raccoon fur overcoats worn with tennis shoes, and a habit of attending every performance of the New York ballet (which he did from 1957-1982). His first book The Unstrung Harp (“Or, ‘Mr Earbrass Writes a Novel’”), about the horrors of the writing life, was published in 1953. Since then he published over 100 more titles, usually in small hardback editions. His distinctive scratchy style of illustration and macabre humor lead to a cult following by the late 60s.

A very private person, Gorey was publicly perceived as cold, gothic, and eccentric. The back cover of his 1997 book The Haunted Tea-Cozy (“A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas”) quotes the New Yorker: “Many of Edward Gorey’s most fervent devotees think he’s (a) English and (b) dead. Actually, he has never so much as visited either place.” In fact, his friends (who knew him as Ted) describe him as chatty and personable, which comes across immediately in documentary footage shot in 1996.

Gorey moved to Cape Cod in 1986 following the death of George Balanchine, the legendary choreographer of the New York Opera, and then into the 1820 house he called the Elephant House, now known as the Edward Gorey House, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. He filled his home with books and his unusual collections, and lived with as many as six cats at a time, whom he referred fondly to as his “people.” It was for their sake that he eventually dispensed with his habit of wearing fur coats. He worked in a tiny room under images by Matisse and Goya, and “an Indian sculpture of a tiger devouring a missionary” (almost certainly one of the sculptures made after Tipu’s Tiger), always writing his surreal stories first, illustrating with a slow and precise style, after.

In 1994, he was diagnosed with diabetes and prostate cancer, but in the end he died of a heart attack at age 75, on April 15, 2000. A portion of his ashes are being held in an urn pending the death of his last two cats, so they may be buried together in the yard of the house. A film about his life, shot between 1996 and 2000 is now in final production, and expected to be released soon.

The museum supports Gorey’s interest in animal welfare (he left his money to three animal welfare groups in his will), as well as displaying objects related to his life. The house has been cleared and rearranged since his death. Pictures taken by Kevin McDermott in the week after his death show piles of books and objects-on-objects. Most of his book collection was removed to make way for display items. Some things have been left as is, such as his cat-shredded divan, and his raccoon coat is in a display case.

Forming a macabre scavenger hunt, there are are scenes from The Gashleycrumb Tinies, on of his most famous morbid books recounting the gristly deaths of 26 youngsters in 13 rhyming couplets, hidden throughout the museum. According to some accounts there is a door at the back of a closet that leads to a secret room which once held his collection of children’s books.

Filed under: Budget, Europe, Renault

Dacia Logan, Logan MCV and Sandero Black Line – Click above for high-res image gallery

These days it seems like every color is being claimed for one cause or another. Medical research has laid claim to a few (pink and yellow come to mind), but so has the automotive industry: red for performance, green for hybrids, blue for clean diesels… Mercedes adopted black as the label for its most extreme AMG models, but now the shade is being used for something decidedly more low-rent: Renault’s budget brand and Romanian subsidiary, Dacia.

Available on the Logan, Logan MCV and Sandero – though not, apparently, on the Logan pick-up or the upcoming new Duster crossover – the Black Line adds a touch of class to the budget cars. The package, based on the Laureate trim level, adds such “special” touches as metallic paint, visible top-stitching on the black fabric upholstery, MP3-capable CD player and a leather-trimmed steering wheel. Nothing ground-breaking here, and it’s not going to outshine an SL63 by any means, but finally a car Top Gear’s James May can drive to the symphony. Details in the press release after the jump and photos in the gallery below.

[Source: Renault]

Continue reading Darkness Follows: Renault’s Dacia brand launches Black Line

Darkness Follows: Renault’s Dacia brand launches Black Line originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Car Buying, Marketing/Advertising

Chandler, Arizona used car salesman “Crazy” Tracy Tingue has been put out of business at his current location, and that means his busty mannequins have gone with him. That’s right, his busty mannequins. To the chagrin of Chandler’s code enforcement officials, the AutoMart Superstore used mannequins immense of bosom to advertise its wares to passing motorists. Somewhere in Chandler’s sign laws, those kind of shenanigans are outlawed.

According to the East Valley Tribune, the dealership’s closure didn’t come at the hands of the city, though, but those of his landlord. Tingue and the property owner had a dispute, and the AutoMart was evicted. Tingue told one of his suppliers that he still has his inventory and he’s looking for another location, so you can probably expect those mannequins to return. Just maybe not in Chandler.

Be sure to follow the jump to check out some of Crazy Tracy’s commercials, which are just as schlocky but more humorous than we ever expected.

[Source: East Valley Tribune, YouTube]

Continue reading Report: Controversial AZ dealer with busty mannequins, crazy ads closes [w/video]

Report: Controversial AZ dealer with busty mannequins, crazy ads closes [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a little after 3 on Sunday afternoon, and Mr. Scatter is wearing pants.

I mention this because apparently several people in Portland aren’t wearing pants at the moment, and what’s more, they’re riding around town on public transit.

As Scatter friend Peter Ames Carlin reported in Saturday’s Oregonian, a carefully calculated event called the No Pants on Max Ride shed its inhibitions at 3 this afternoon, allowing “all local pranksters to let their freak flags, and boxers or bloomers, fly in public.”

Evidently those canny policy wonks at MAX, Portland’s light-rail system, have decided this is A-OK, as long as everyone follows the rules of decorum and keeps their privates private with suitable swaths of undergarment.

This could actually be an improvement on the cheeky low-rider revelations of some of the transit system’s sloppier regular customers. Still, Mr. Scatter detects a whiff of desperation in the whole knock-kneed enterprise. Surely this is a product of those KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD folks on the prowl again.

I’m all for weirdness, I suppose, but I wonder: Can it truly be weird if it feels compelled to announce itself? Shouldn’t weirdness simply … happen? If weirdness arrives with a press release, is it nothing but marketing?

A couple of points about No Pants on Max:

• First, it isn’t original. In its third year, it mimics a similar, older and much bigger trousers-free event on New York’s subway system. How weird is copycat weird?
• Second, Portland’s pants-free pioneers GOT PERMISSION. How anarchic can it be if you don’t doff your trousers until the authorities give you the green light? How can you twit the system when the system says it’s OK?

Imagine the No Pants scene in one of those recruits-and-a-drill-sergeant movies. (Mr. Scatter imagines a young Richard Gere as the rebel-with-a-permit-clause and Louis Gossett Jr. as the contemptuous sarge):

Sir! Permission to drop trou, sir!

Stand up straight, soldier! You’re a disgrace!

Yes, sir! Standing up straight, sir!

You disgust me, soldier. If I had my way dropping trou in public would never be tolerated. What if the enemy saw this display? But the politicians at the Pentagon say we have to put up with this sort of perversion in the New Army. Permission granted. But wait until I’ve turned my eyes away.

Thank you, sir! Sorry about your disgust, sir!

Dismissed, maggot.

All in all, Mr. Scatter prefers to keep his pants in place. But then, Mr. Scatter is also aware that he doesn’t possess the prettiest legs in town, and he feels a certain social responsibility to protect the visual sensibilities of his fellow citizens.

Yet everything about No Pants on Max appears to be legit. Too legit. Conspiracy theorists are wrong about this one: It’s definitely not part of a vast cover-up.

That would be just weird.

***************

• ILLUSTRATION: World War II poster, United States Government Office. Collection Northwestern University Library. Wikimedia Commons.

>> Dairy and Cheese Shops on Marketplace

Stinky, smooshy, runny, crumbly, delicious cheese. If you want to treat your guests to something special, nothing’s as simple and beautiful as an artisanal cheese plate. Our writers have shopped for cheese from San Francisco to Boston—here are some of their favorite places to pick up a wheel or a wedge.

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Susan Boyle is set for a second appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show later this month.

The 48-year-old Scottish singing sensation will fly to the US to celebrate six weeks at the top of the US album charts, sources told London’s The Mirror on Sunday.

“Susan appeared on Oprah via satellite when she became an overnight star on Britain’s Got Talent, but she never got to meet her in the flesh. She is a big fan and loves going to America, so she can’t wait….”

Susan is expected to perform a track from her blockbuster debut album, I Dreamed A Dream, and sit down for an interview with The Queen of Talk. The appearance is likely to be pre-recorded so that the sometimes publicity-shy Susan doesn’t feel nervous.

I Dreamed A Dream has sold over three million copies in America.

Evidently the latest issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine has reached subscribers, and GameThirst reports it has a number of juicy rumors in its pages. Top among them: that Sony is planning to announce three huge sequels at E3 later this year, including Resistance 3, Killzone 3, and InFamous 2.

None of them, mind you, is particularly surprising. The existence of Resistance 3 was already kind of leaked by a fake billboard on a movie set, so that one was expected. Similarly, Killzone 3 has also been previously rumored to be in the works (a rumor that also first appeared in OPM, in fact), and there have already been reports that Sucker Punch has been casting for InFamous 2 as well. This latest wave of rumors in OPM, though, says none of them will be available until 2011.

In other rumor news, the issue also states that they’re “90 percent sure” God of War 3 will launch with a custom God of War-designed limited edition PlayStation 3. And lastly, there’s an “85 percent chance” (we’re sure these figures are very scientific) that Metal Gear: Rising — the Raiden-starring spin-off announced at E3 last year — will be out by Christmas.

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Newly-engaged couple Russell Brand and Katy Perry were snapped grabbing breakfast at London’s Coffee Cup Cafe over the weekend. The pop songstress smiled for cameras as she showed off her diamond engagement ring. The British comic, 34, proposed to Perry, 25, while the couple vacationed in India over the holidays.

I don’t associate Virgin Mobile with high-end smartphones, but I may have been mistaken.  Coolsmartphone has just noticed the premier Windows Mobile smartphone on the network, and at pretty reasonable prices also.

Virgin Mobile seems to be the only network still offering 12 month contracts, and even the 18 month contracts are run cheaper than O2’s for the same minutes and period.

Read more at Virgin Mobile here.

Via Coolsmartphone.com

Filed under: Budget, Europe, Renault

Dacia Logan, Logan MCV and Sandero Black Line – Click above for high-res image gallery

These days it seems like every color is being claimed for one cause or another. Medical research has laid claim to a few (pink and yellow come to mind), but so has the automotive industry: red for performance, green for hybrids, blue for clean diesels… Mercedes adopted black as the label for its most extreme AMG models, but now the shade is being used for something decidedly more low-rent: Renault‘s budget brand and Romanian subsidiary, Dacia.

Available on the Logan, Logan MCV and Sandero – though not, apparently, on the Logan pick-up or the upcoming new Duster crossover – the Black Line adds a touch of class to the budget cars. The package, based on the Laureate trim level, adds such “special” touches as metallic paint, visible top-stitching on the black fabric upholstery, MP3-capable CD player and a leather-trimmed steering wheel. Nothing ground-breaking here, and it’s not going to outshine an SL63 by any means, but finally a car Top Gear’s James May can drive to the symphony. Details in the press release after the jump and photos in the gallery below.

[Source: Renault]

Continue reading Darkness Follows: Renault’s Dacia brand launches Black Line

Darkness Follows: Renault’s Dacia brand launches Black Line originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: TUAW Business, Podcasts

Talkcast time again! We’ll review the week’s news, consider the latest tablet tidbits, and then look back at CES and ahead to Macworld Expo.

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the “TalkShoe Web” button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 — during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8.

If you’ve got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then!

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/macinate/ / CC BY 2.0

TUAWTalkcast 10 pm tonight: Looking ahead to Macworld Expo originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software Update, Terminal Tips

In response to a Macworld article, TidBits’ Chris Pepper elaborated on ways to run Software Update, Apple’s means of delivering updates and patches, on your own schedule. Beginning with the fact that Software Update schedules its next update based on the time it’s currently being run, setting the time for the next update is as easy as running it manually at the time you want it to be scheduled for in the future.

Later, Pepper delves into the command line method of updating, using the softwareupdate tool (which we’ve talked about on TUAW, too) to run it from Terminal. Taking that a step further, it’s suggested that you run the command from cron, a UNIX command for scheduling tasks, to automate the command-line updates. However, while it still works fine and is perfectly capable of the task, cron has technically been deprecated in OS X since Tiger. I thought I’d mention the newfangled “Mac OS X way” of handling scheduled tasks, and demonstrate a little of its flexibility.

Launchd is Apple’s replacement for several UNIX ways of doing things, including init, rc.d scripts and cron. It provides a uniform, XML configuration method and — in many cases — is more secure than the replaced methods. Launchd can trigger applications and scripts at boot time, at intervals or even when a file or the contents of a folder change. It can also make sure a daemon or an application keeps running, with the ability to respawn and throttle it. If that’s just a bunch of nerd-speak to you, don’t worry, this isn’t going to be an overly technical post. You can read more specifics about launchd on Apple’s developer site, if you want more geeky goodness.

Launchd configuration files, like much of OS X, are XML files. Each process has one, and they can exist just about anywhere. A tool called launchctl is used to add and remove them from launchd. While these files are technically human-readable, they’re not the most fun to create and edit. In the interest of keeping this as non-technical as possible, I’m going to use a very handy utility called Lingon. The latest version (2.1.1) can be found at Sourceforge. It’s no longer under active development, but it’s working fine in Leopard and Snow Leopard. Grab a copy, put it in either your Applications folder or into Applications/Utilities, and launch it.

You’ll see all of your existing daemons and agents in Lingon’s sidbar. Unless you know exactly what you’re doing, you’ll generally only want to edit/add scripts in the “My Agents” section to avoid breaking anything at the system level. Create a new script using the plus button in the upper left, and name it something unique in section 1 of the edit area; I prefix my launchd scripts with my own name, e.g. com.brettterpstra.awesomescript, but anything will work.

Section 2 is where our command goes. In this case, we’re running the softwareupdate command, and we want it to automatically download any available updates in the background. We’ll use /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --download --all in that field.

Section 3 gives us the various options for running the command. In Lingon’s interface they’re pretty self-explanatory, so I won’t go through each one. We’ll just use “At a specific date:,” “Every Day,” and whatever time works best for you (and your bandwidth allowances). Make sure the enabled checkbox in the upper right is checked, hit the save button at the top, and you’ve got your own Software Update scheduler. Change the time at will, or use one of the other options to control how often it runs. If you enable this, you’ll probably want to disable the automatic checking in Software Updates panel in System Preferences.

There are other possibilities, too. For example, if you wanted to be notified as soon as possible about available updates, you could write a script that ran softwareupdate with the “-l” option (to list available updates without downloading them), parse the output and have it send you an email or a direct message if it found any updates. Run it about every 15 minutes and you could be among the first to know about an update! You can also use the launchd manager (launchctl), or Lingon to disable background processes that other programs have added, but that you don’t want running. Whether you’re a UNIX user still hanging on to cron, or are just a regular user who wants something besides iCal for scheduling scripts and launching applications, this will hopefully get you started with the ‘new’ OS X way of doing it.

TUAWManually schedule Software Update ‘the OS X way’ with launchd originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’m just aching to know if the new Apple tablet (insert caveats, weasel words and qualifiers here) is a potential Cintiq competitor. I don’t think it will be, but you never know. It may also have a built in barometer and bird call generator.

I’m never sure if Apple does themselves more good than harm with the secrecy and anticipation that surrounds the run-up to these announcements. Unless there’s something truly jaw-dropping about whatever device rises from the stage when Steve Jobs reaches that particular slide in Keynote, the reaction may be muted disappointment: “Oh.” “Huh.” “Wait a minute… my life is still the same miasma of thwarted potential and spiritual anomie that it was half an hour ago!”

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That said, what are you expecting on Jan. 27?

More Noise to Signal.

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Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal

Emissions tests are often part of the registration renewal ritual for many car owners. Some appreciate being able to breathe deeply, others see it as a de facto tax, while still another group of automotive unfortunates have cars that won’t pass without much expensive work. Whether for purely financial reasons, or a chafing anti-authoritarianism, some drivers elect to circumvent the system.

Federal indictments have been handed down to 10 Nevada emissions testers for falsifying emissions tests. The ten testers allegedly accepted cash stipends for “clean scanning” a car. Normally during a Nevada emissions test, vehicles are plugged in via their OBD-II port and the Vehicle Identification Number is entered into a computer. The computer then scans the car’s on-board system and passes or fails the automobile. “Clean scanning” is a deception whereby a different vehicle, one that will pass, is connected to the computer, and the VIN of a failing car is entered. More than 1,000 vehicles are believed to have been falsely passed this way by the indicted.

Fooling around with the federal Environmental Protection Agency has these 10 individuals facing up to two years of incarceration and maximum fines of $250,000 per person. Is it mere coincidence that this high-stakes game of palm greasing happened in Vegas?

[Source: U.S. Department of Justice | Image: David McNew/Getty]

Ten Las Vegas DMV employees indicted for falsifying emissions tests originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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