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Comment Centrophenoxine too (Score 1) 684

by jonskerr (#25866933) Attached to: How to Deal With an Aging Brain?
Eight million idiotic Simpsons references to five actual worthwhile suggestions. Thank goodness someone finally got around to solving this original poster's query.

The /cetam drugs are good, but much better when you're young. I'm taking Piracetam and centrophenoxine, but it's too early to see what the results are.

A lot of talk on here is behavioural coping mechanisms, and not much talk of actually repairing the damage aging has caused to the brain.
One of the main problems with learning and keeping mentally agile is the accumulation of lipofuscin on the dendrites in the brain. Lipofuscin is a pigment; age spots are made of it, and it accumulates in the brain and liver. It's made of broken pieces of cell membranes and other crap. And it's plaquing up our brains! The brushy tips of the dendrites are where the mental connections are made, and there's less available surface area when lipofuscin is mucking everything up. So take centrophenoxine.

Rat studies show a significant reduction of lipofuscin (about 40% in middle-aged rats) after a month. This effect is potentiated by piracetam and similar drugs (all of which can be had online nowadays).
Piracetam (and the others that came after) cause the brain to use more glucose and choline, which get turned into acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter. These drugs were originally developed to repair damage caused by alcoholism and hypoxia. Good stuff, Maynard.

Also the previously suggested exercise, eating less/no red meat, meditation etc are all important as part of the program. AND QUIT WATCHING TELEVISION.

Comment Because you HAVE to. (Score 2, Interesting) 684

by jonskerr (#25866735) Attached to: How to Deal With an Aging Brain?
Einstein was wise, but many in the world are not. And a problem for many of the people this thread is about is that they are leaving unsatisfactory careers and trying something radically new. I quit a cubicle job at the phone company and next month will graduate from watchmaking school (thanks to a Slashdot posting from two years ago).
The problem is, it's REALLY HARD to try to learn a whole new set of skills in a new career at 45. (The flip Simpsons comments on this thread are just showing how slashdot has become polluted with idiocy when serious subjects need discussing.)
The final exam has a bunch of math, and the Swiss group that administers the test requires students to memorize the formulae. Fortunately it's only a few questions out of twenty or so on the test.
Image

Washington Man Wins Grand Prize In Annual Bad Writing Contest 3

Posted by samzenpus from the and-if-thine-eye-offend-thee dept.
41-year-old Garrison Spik, a communications director and writer, took the top prize in San Jose State University's 26th annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with the following mental nightmare, "Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped 'Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.'" Sexy. Terrible writing hopefuls are asked to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. The contest has many categories, with awards for "purple prose" and "vile puns." The top winner receives a $250 prize and is urged to throw away his pens and pencils.
Biotech

Hacking a Pacemaker 228

Posted by CmdrTaco from the probably-not-the-best-idea dept.
jonkman sean writes "University researchers conducted research into how they can gain wireless access to pacemakers, hacking them. They will be presenting their findings at the "Attacks" session of the 2008 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. Their previous work (PDF) noted that over 250,000 implantable cardiac defibrillators are installed in patients each year. This subject was first raised along with similar issues as a credible security risk in Gadi Evron's CCC Camp 2007 lecture "hacking the bionic man"."

Gravity Lamp Grabs Green Prize 596

Posted by CmdrTaco from the well-isn't-that-clever dept.
eldavojohn writes "A lamp powered by gravity has won the second prize at the Greener Gadgets Conference in NYC. From the article, "The light output will be 600-800 lumens — roughly equal to a 40-watt incandescent bulb over a period of four hours. To "turn on" the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp. An hour glass-like mechanism is turned over and the weights are placed in the mass sled near the top of the lamp. The sled begins its gentle glide back down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs come on and light the lamp ... Moulton estimates that Gravia's mechanisms will last more than 200 years, if used eight hours a day, 365 days a year." The article contains links to the patents and the designer/inventor Clay Moulton's site." I think my laptop would require a slightly larger weight to pull this off.
Government

College Funding Bill Passes House, P2P Provision Intact 222

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the pay-no-attention-to-the-man-behind-the-curtain dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Ars Technica is reporting that the College Opportunity and Affordability Act passed through the House today with a vote of 354-58 and the anti-P2P provision is intact. That provision would require universities to filter P2P and to offer legal alternatives. They are claiming now, though, that universities would not lose federal funding if they fail to do this. Of course, an amendment that would have clarified that was withdrawn immediately after it was offered."
The Military

Pentagon Working on "Human Fear" Weapons 310

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the smells-like-... dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Animals use pheromones to attract each other for sex, and warn each other of danger. Now, Wired reports, military researchers are working to harness the 'human fear' pheromone to create a scent of terror. The pheromone could lead to smell-based terrorist sensors, and new weapons that rely on 'contagious' stress."
Government

UN Says Tasers Are a Form of Torture 816

Posted by kdawson from the just-don't-bro dept.
The use of Tasers "causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture," the UN's Committee Against Torture said. "In certain cases, they can even cause death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life events." Three men — all in their early 20s — died from after tasering in the United States this week, days after a Polish man died at Vancouver airport after being tasered by Canadian police. There have been 17 deaths in Canada following the use of Tasers since they were approved for use, and 275 deaths in the US. "According to Amnesty International, coroners have listed the Taser jolt as a contributing factor in more than 30 of those deaths."
Privacy

Hellgate Beta's In-Game Ads Raise Eyebrows 424

Posted by Zonk from the use-the-coke-luke dept.
ari wins writes "IGN.com has up a post discussing the new EA/Flagship game Hellgate: London, and the in-game advertisements it includes to facilitate targeted marketing. Though ads in games aren't exactly new, some Beta testers are objecting to their apparently off-putting presence. Users have also noted that accepting the game's EULA means you submit to the collection of 'technical and related information that identifies your computer, including without limitation your Internet Protocol address, operating system, application software and peripheral hardware'."
Security

Journalist Test Drives The Pain Ray Gun 818

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the set-phasers-to-ooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww dept.
Fantastic Lad writes to tell us that journalist Michael Hanlon recently got the opportunity to experience the Army's new not-so-secret weapon, dubbed "Silent Guardian". The Silent Guardian is essentially (even though the creators prefer you not refer to it as such) a ray gun, emitting a focused beam of radiation similar to your microwave tuned to a specific frequency to stimulate human nerve endings. "It can throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile. Because the beam penetrates skin only to a depth of 1/64th of an inch, it cannot, says Raytheon, cause visible, permanent injury. But anyone in the beam's path will feel, over their entire body, the agonizing sensation I've just felt on my fingertip. The prospect doesn't bear thinking about. "
Security

AOL's Embarassing Password Woes 192

Posted by CmdrTaco from the top-sekrit dept.
An anonymous reader writes "AOL.com users may think they have up to sixteen characters to use as a password, but they'd be wrong, thanks to this security artifact detailed by The Washington Post's Security Fix blog: "Well, it turns out that when someone signs up for an AOL.com account, the user appears to be allowed to enter up to a 16-character password. AOL's system, however, doesn't read past the first eight characters." This means that a user who uses "password123" or any other obvious eight-character password with random numbers on the end is in effect using just that lame eight-character password."
Space

Could Black Holes Be Portals to Other Universes? 277

Posted by Zonk from the oh-sliders-you've-taught-us-so-much dept.
David Shiga writes "Astronomers have identified many objects out there that they think are black holes. But could they be portals to other universes called wormholes, instead? According to a new study by a pair of physicists, we wouldn't be able to tell the difference. They have discovered that wormholes with the right shape would look identical to black holes from the outside. But while a trip into a black hole would mean certain death, a wormhole might spit you out into a parallel universe with its own stars and planets. Exotic effects from quantum physics might produce wormholes naturally from collapsing stars, one of the physicist says, and they might even be produced in future particle accelerator experiments."
Caldera

Submission + - SCO Given Delisting Notice

Submitted by
SCO Delenda Est
SCO Delenda Est writes: "The SEC has given SCO notice that they will be delisted from the NASDAQ if they cannot keep their share price above $1 sometime in the next 180 days. Although they may be able to avoid delisting for a while, their small market capitalization will hinder their efforts. Given their other financials, this just goes to show how desperate their current financial situation is."

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