Link to Elise Beth Bassin's Thesis

Here's a Link to Elise Beth Bassin's thesis which 'broke the story' on the link between fluoridated water and osteoscarcoma.

Harvard Study says there IS a link between fluoridated water and cancer

This one seems to be buried, but guess what? A Harvard University study just published in their Journal, Cancer Causes and Control, says that boys who drink fluoridated water are FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY TO GET A RARE BONE CANCER than boys who drink fluoridated water. The cancer, osteosarcoma is frequently fatal. This study confirms the findings of other studies by the National Institutes of Health as well as a study by the New Jersey Health Department.

The study's conclusion notes that:

Our exploratory analysis found an association between fluoride exposure in drinking water during childhood and the incidence of osteosarcoma among males but not consistently among females.

This study is different from another 'just published' study from the National Academy of Sciences that showed EPA limits for water fluoridation left water drinkers at an increased risk of dental fluorosis and bone fractures. That study has largely been brushed off because of the supposed benefits of fluoride. This study might be more problematic.

Looks like all those anti-fluoride people might not be nuts after all....

Is PC World reading the Pulpit?

PC World has put up an article on 101 freebies. You'll see they've recommended many of the same programs I have, and a few new ones I'll have to try out.

Another reason not to use debit cards

Today's news brings us another example of why you shouldn't use a debit card to make purchases. Read this story, and imagine how different it would have been if the guy had used a credit card. Instead of worrying about making his mortgage payment, Mr Beane would have been disputing an obviously ridiculous charge. Stop giving strangers the keys to your bank account.

Oh, and kudos to Bank of America for putting a 3-day hold on the money when it was returned. Nothing says Higher Standards more than that.

More Freeware For the Masses

To follow up on my freeware security suite post, I'd like to point you towards some excellent, regular use freeware you might want to take a look at. These are all programs I use on a regular basis, and frankly, find indispensable. At the time of this posting, all of the software below was free, and these are in no particular order.

1. The Gimp - The poor-man's Photoshop - Awesome in it's capabilities. Not quite on par with Photoshop (yet) but probably more than you'll ever need.
2. AM-DeadLink - Checks your bookmarks, tells you which ones no longer work, which one's have moved and (if you want it to) downloads those nifty favicons for your browser.
3. HNSKY Hallo Northern Sky - Planetarium software. Very cool if you have any interest in astronomy.
4. Google Earth - Mapping and satellite images all in one.
   
5. Exact Audio Copy - Audio grabber (i.e. "ripper") for CD's.
   
6. Visual CD - Ever wonder which one of the 10,000 CDs/floppies you have contains that file is you're looking for? Wonder no more. With Visual CD you catalog your CDs/Floppies/removable media so that you can search the contents of all of them, right from your desktop.
7. Firefox - You haven't been convinced yet? 10X better than Explorer, and that's not even counting the endless free "add-ons" that have been developed for it.
   
8. Winamp - The de facto mp3/media player. The Shoutcast streaming music (Think: thousands of commerical free Internet radio stations) is more than worth the price of admission (Yes...free).
9. CD Burner XP Pro - Your new computer didn't come with any CD/DVD burning software? Try this out. Will even create/burn ISO images, rip and burn music cds.
10. Moffsoft FreeCalc - Makes the Windows calculator (Calc) look like the anemic, poorly designed calculator that it is. Even has a virtual paper history tape!
11. Process Explorer - Shows you what's running on your PC now, and what's chewing up all your system resources. Useful in determining if you have spyware/adware running on your system as well.
12. ZipGenius - An compression/decompression utility that supports 99% of the files you're likely to encounter.
13. OpenOffice - Wow. That about sums this one up. If you can't afford Microsoft Office, then you must have this office suite. Even if you can, you might want this one as well. It will open Word, Excel and Powerpoint files...but you can also create them as well. At a price of free, this is nothing short of amazing. The database piece still needs work, so if you need to create an Access database, you're going to have to buy Microsoft's product.
14. CutePDF Writer - A plug in that will allow you to "print" to a virutal PDF printer, so you can e-mail or archive documents you would have printed in the past. If you don't have a printer (or want to create Acrobat PDFs), this is a must. You'll also need to install Ghostscript as well (if you don't already have it...and you probably don't) for it to work properly.
15. IrfanView - The best image viewer/editor available. Oh, and it's free.
    

Debit Cards: Good for Banks, Bad for You

Here's something to think about the next time you use your debit card. Did you need to use your PIN? Probably not. More and more people are using debit cards these days. They usually have a Visa or MasterCard logo on them. They look like credit cards, but they're not. Debit cards are a direct, and immediate link to your money. It used to be that the banks issued debit cards that were used just like an ATM card. Every time you used it, you would give your PIN number, which was your protection. A recent security breach at Citibank has let thousands of PIN numbers fall into some hacker's hands. But why is this even a big deal? Now days, you can choose to run your debit card through as "credit" (so-called "off-line debit transactions"). This allows the card to be accepted in more places and eliminates the expensive keypads, but guess what? It leaves the key to your money in the hands of anyone who has your debit card!

The biggest difference between a credit card and a debit card is that there is no one between a crook and your money with the debit card. With a credit card, VISA or MasterCard pay out the money, then in turn ask for you to pay it back. If there's a disputed charge, you have time and a pre-defined path to get it removed from your credit card. With the debit card, you may find that all of your money is gone before you realize there's a problem. Many debit cards say you're not liable (except for the first $50, aww gee...thanks) if you report your card stolen/lost immediately. That's great. Except it might take them a month or more to get the money back in your account. That sounds like a very fun month, doesn't it?

The bottom line is this, Debit cards are good for banks because they're cheaper to process than paper checks. They're bad for you because you have much less protection than a credit card. Maybe you should stop carrying a debit card and start using a credit card (oh..and pay it off too).

What the latest coffee study REALLY says: Coffee is still good for you

In spite of the fact that the media is really trying to sir up some sort of controversy regarding the latest coffee study, you should know you have nothing to worry about. The latest study shows that the bodies of 1/2 of the 2,014 people in the study (all of whom have already had a heart attack), are slow at getting rid of caffeine and that might have had something to do with their heart attack.

The processing of caffeine is done in the body by an enzyme, called cytochrome. Lets look at what the study found:

• Carriers of the 'slow' form of the gene (cytochrome) who drank two to three cups of coffee a day had a 36% increased risk of heart attack, compared to those who drank less than one cup a day.
  

You might want to ask yourself why they didn't compare the risk of slow processors vs. normal processors when they drank the same amount of coffee. They did, but there was a reduced risk of heart attack for everyone...and that sort of thing doesn't make good headlines.

This comparison is like saying "Slow caffeine processors who were forced to run 2-3 miles had a 36% higher risk of heart attack than normal caffeine processors who were forced to run less than one mile." What can we get from that? Not much. This explains why the head researcher said, " It appears that one cup a day is not associated with any harm, regardless of your genetic make-up." Well stated, but actually, there's more to it than that.

Here are the statistics:

Coffee consumption (cups)
Group	Less than 1	1	2 to 3	4 or more
Slow Gene Carriers	1	0.99	1.36	1.64
Fast Gene Carriers	1	0.75	0.78	0.99

Now, I'm no statistician, but hey!, it looks to me like the fast carriers had a decreased risk of heart attack compared to the control group up to and including 4 or more cups of coffee! And the slow carriers also benefited (minimally) from the first cup of coffee. Hmmm... Yet here are the (mostly sensationalistic) headlines from the news:

Coffee-Gene Interaction Raises Heart Attack Risk - CNN

Study: Coffee raises, lowers heart attack risk - News 8 Austin, TX

Coffee may brew heart attacks - Newsday, NY

Enjoy that next cup of coffee: it may be your last - Times Online, UK

Drinking regular coffee may be linked to heart attack, study says - Toledo Blade, OH - 3 hours ago

Coffee hazard linked to genes - Toronto Star, Canada

The Austin News 8 article, was the first one I found that mentioned the lower risk:

"Surprisingly, what we found was that in individuals under 50 years of age who were fast metabolizers, had the fast version of this gene, consumption of as little as one to three cups a day was associated with a lower risk of heart disease ," El-Sohemy said."

According to Google news, of the 287 news articles about this study, only 27 (9.40% - Hey, now there's math I can do! ) mentioned the "lower risk".

Grand Master Predictions #2

OOOOooohhhhhhhhh People. Today is your lucky day! The Grand Master has handed down (4) new predictions:

• In the US Senate Race in Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum Loses.

• After the November 2006 elections, the public will be shocked at the lack of change, especially in the House of Representatives.

• Within the next 5 years (i.e. beforeFeb 2011) there will be a US currency crisis of epic proportions which will cause great turmoil in the world. There will be rampant inflation as dollars rapidly lose value.
  

• The conflict between Iran and the western world over it's nuclear weapons development will end up being a conflict between the US and China. The reason will be that China will step in on Iran's behalf due to their growing need for Iran's oil.
  

The SMS (Short message service) Mystery

Why is SMS so freaking popular in Europe? I can't figure it out.

Look at the reasons why SMS is "cool" (lifted from a website):

1. SMS Messages can be Sent and Read at Any Time.
2. SMS Messages can be Sent to an Offline Mobile Phone
3. SMS Messaging is Less Disturbing While You can Still Stay in Touch
4. SMS Messages are Supported by 100% GSM Mobile Phones and They can be Exchanged between Different Wireless Carriers

Um..correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Voicemail do all of that? The "less disturbing" thing can be remedied by people learning how to turn their ringers off. And how much time does it take to type out a message on your phone keypad versus leaving a similar message with spoken language. The only thing that makes sense for SMS being popular is that it is cheap. However, in the US, it's pretty cheap to talk. I Guess the Europeans are paying too much for their cellphones.

Hmmmm...this just sounds like a bad idea.....

Does turning over the security of several major US ports (New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia) to a company that is based in the United Arab Emirates sound like a good idea to you? The Bush administraion seems to think it's ok.

A Scary Thought for Tax Time

It will soon be that time again, and time for the 1040. While you're filling it out, remember that you're helping to rebuild Iraq (and not Detroit, East L.A. or D.C.) to the tune of $100,000 per minute. And Afghanistan at $18,000 per minute. 24/7.

$1, 966.67 per second. Wow.

Fairfax County on Water Fluoridation

I was doing a little bit of research on fluoride tonight (You know, the fluoride-bone cancer connection) and came across these interesting statements from Fairfax County, VA:

First, from the County Code authorizing water fluoridation:

Section 42-1-5. Liability for injury or damage.
The Board of Supervisors in authorizing fluoridation, however, expressly declares that it in no way assumes any liability for, or on account of, any damage or injury incurred by any user of water so treated. (1954 Code, vol. 1, § 8-5; 1961 Code, § 13-5.)

Gotta love that. It's safe, but ah...should you die or grow a second set of fingers, we're not responsible for anything. Read the fine print.

Second, a question/answer from the Fairfax County Water Authority website:

#8. Is the fluoride in my drinking water safe?

In correct amounts, added and naturally occurring fluoride has improved the dental health of American consumers. Fairfax Water's water generally has between 0.8 and 1.2 mg/L of Fluoride.

Huh? Did I miss the answer in there? Is it safe? Who knows. All we know from this savy reply is that the fluoride, in correct amounts, improves dental health for American consumers. Is it safe ? Well, that's a different question....and apparently a different (missing) answer.

Prediction Corner #1

Here it is people.... The first of the predictions from the (very shy...well, anonymous) grand master himself (ah...it's not me). This will be updated as he chooses to drop his nuggets of wisdom upon us:

1) In spite of the (apparently) growing distaste for the Iraq war and the Republicans in general, the mix of Democrats/Republicans in the House and Senate will stay virtually unchanged after the November 2006 elections. The end result will be that the Republicans will retain control of the House and Senate.

He has spoken.

We’d like to welcome back to Virginia the new and improved CAR TAX!

So much for politicians and their promises. The State of Virginia has been stuck on 'covering' 70% of a vehicle owner's car tax bill for several years and now they decided to change the scheme starting this year. This year and beyond, they're only going to fund $950 million dollars worth of discounts. That means that the % of the bill they'll cover will fluctuate, depending on the car values for that year. What this means for you is that it your tax bill will almost certainly go up. Right now, in Fairfax County Virginia you have to pay $ $4.57 per $100 of assessed value. The state has been generously paying 70% of that for you. However, they do that only up to an assessed value of $20,000. Any amount above $20,000 you have to pay the full tax yourself. The state is now estimating that this year's car tax relief will be closer to 65%. Let's look at some figures to illustrate what that means:

You buy a $21,000 car this year, say, a Toyota Camry.

Your tax rate is $4.57 per $100 for the first $20K. ($914)

The rate for the next $1,000 is the same ($45.70)

The state is going to pay 65% of the $914, but the $45.70 you have to pay all yourself.

$319.9 + $45.70 = $365.6 for the first year. Remember, this is an annual tax based on the assessed value of the car.

Last year, using the old rates, you would have paid $319.90. This represents a 14.29% increase in the tax in one year. Of course, they might only cover 40% (so you'd have to pay $594). You'll just have to wait and see. Kind of adds new excitement to getting the mail, doesn't it?

In 1997, Virginia's then Governor Gilmore promised to do away with the tax completely (His campaign slogan was "No Car Tax!") That promise single handedly won him the office. Now 9 years later, it's still not gone and is no longer decreasing or stabilized, but IT'S GOING BACK UP!! I guess politicians have short memories. Lucky for them, so do the stupid/busy/lazy voters.

Nationals Stadium Deal is Corporate Welfare

This week brought another sad chapter to D.C.'s attempt to get a permanent Major League Baseball team. MLB in it's ridiculous arrogance, has requested that D.C. build a new stadium on the Anacostia River. The costs of this stadium are estimated to run around $700 million. And that's before all the cost over runs we all know are in the stadium's future. For it's part, MLB is offering to put up $20 million for the construction. However this week they asked D.C. to agree that $20 million would be ALL that MLB would ever pay, regardless of cost over runs. To make matters worse, MLB has also asked for the city to pay back (out of stadium parking revenues) the $20 million over the stadium's lease period. So what on the surface looks like a $20 million up front payment to defray the costs of construction is actually just a loan. Some have argued that the stadium will bring economic development to DC. However a study by the (relatively conservative) Cato Institute shows that over the last 35 years, professional sports teams have done just the opposite for cities. In the best case scenario, there was no economic impact. However, in the most likely scenario, per-capita income dropped.

There is no silver lining to this story. DC has some of the worst public schools in the country. Many have no heat in the winter prompting them to close. They also have some of the worst EMS response times in the nation. There are parts of the city that are quite literally war zones. Yet MLB is asking D.C. to give them $680 free and clear to build a new stadium which they will use to make money.

It is corporate welfare, pure and simple.

Aspirin might prevent all sorts of cancer

A couple of recent studies show that Aspirin might prevent throat and skin cancer. This adds to the growing list of other ills the little white pills seem to prevent, including stroke, heart attack and colon cancer.

The throat cancer prevention is primarily in people with Barrett's esophagus. Barrett's is a condition that is usually caused by excessive acid reflux disease (GERD). It's ironic, since aspirin is itself an acid that is a cause of stomach irritation. People with Barrett's who took aspirin (or other NSAIDs) had about a 68% lower risk of getting cancer than their counterparts who did not take it. This is a big finding since people with Barrett's are at a higher risk for throat cancer. I'm still unclear on what the daily dosage was. As I'm too poor to afford a subscription to the Lancet, but here's a summary article from Forbes.

Japanese study links coffee drinking with reduced liver cancer risk

I couldn't even make this stuff up. I don't want to bore you with the details....but a Japanese study (published February 2005 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute) of about 90,000 middle-aged and elderly people shows that habitually drinking coffee cut the risk of liver cancer in half. The conclusion of the study's abstract states that "In the Japanese population, habitual coffee drinking may be associated with reduced risk of HCC [liver cancer]" You can read the abstract here.

Diamonds are forever...but the diamond market is looking ill

Looks like man-made diamonds are finally here. Apollo Diamond (and others like Gemisis), should destroy the diamond monopoly in a few short years (if De Beers doesn't come up with a catchy new ad campaign and convince the gullible masses that flawed diamonds are better than perfect diamonds). Prices for man-made diamonds are already 1/4 of the price of mined diamonds. And no one has to lose body parts for them either.

Washington, D.C. got a baseball team (and inherited thieves with them)

I hope some enterprising soul organizes a boycott of the Washington Nationals. Not because they suck, but because they are preparing to steal the land needed to build their new stadium. If you are outraged by the recent Supreme Court decision regarding eminent domain, make sure you take it out on the Washington Nationals. Refuse to buy their products or visit their new stadium. The Kelo V. New London decision wasn't really anything new however, just more blatant in that it affects you and me. The US government has been stealing land from people for quite some time.

Build your own freeware security suite

For all you cheapskates out there. Being poor or cheap is no excuse not to protect your computer and data. You can assemble a minimum secuirty suite by downloading and learning to use the following freeware security apps (For Windows):

1) ZoneAlarm (Firewall)

2) Avast! Free Antivirus (Antivirus)

3) Spybot Search and Destroy (Spyware & registry change monitor. Enable S&D Resident - check weekly for updates) . Also grab Ad-Aware and run both Spybot and Ad-Aware (don't forget to update the definitions) at least monthly.

4)Spyware Blaster (Spyware blocker for Firefox and Internet Explorer) Enable all protection - check weekly for updates).

5) TrueCrypt - Allows you to create encrypted valuts on your hard drive. Never store personal information (bank info, passwords, etc) on your hard drive unless you encrypt it.