Is coffee really getting that popular? First I heard about coffee beer from Nestle and now it’s Coca-Cola with real coffee included in its cold drink.

Also see: Coffee art gallery

Image teaser for the coffee art gallery

It appears as though the “drink one glass of wine every day” advice is based on fallacies.

Any heart gains from drinking alcohol in moderation are likely outweighed by the harm, say researchers.

The findings in The Lancet suggest that drinking a glass or two of wine a day may not be such a good idea.

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There was a period of time when I drank a glass of wine on occasions, sometimes daily (I was significantly younger). There is an augmented argument that any research, or even contention which people are willing to or believe, will be embraced without hesitance. ‘Benefits’ of caffeine come to mind. This is one among many recent articles, but the one I originally read was in The Independent. Last week I read about beer as a cancer treatment. Wishful thinking is probably what feeds those statements and drives (if not finances) the research.

[sarcasm] “Mind you doctor, I’ll just have some more beer, but purely for medicinal purposes of course…” [/sarcasm].

Contextually related: Coffee Beer

HE effect of the Internet on everyone’s life intensifies. With higher-speed connections and rendering capabilities that grip a vivid reality, more and more people get entangled in a world of fascination — a world more worthy than the mundane at times. As some recent studies indicate, Internet addiction can become very severe.

Up to 10 per cent of internet users in the United States have a dependency that could be as destructive as alcoholism and drug addiction, it has been claimed.

Internet addiction disorder is being treated by some therapists in the same way as a chemical addiction.

The Proctor Hospital in Illinois is admitting patients to recover from obsessive computer use, according to the New York Times.

Experts told the newspaper that they see similar signs of withdrawal to those found in alcoholics or drug addicts – including profuse sweating, severe anxiety and paranoia.

On other unhealthy effects of the Internet:

• Treating Online Addicts
• Blog Depression
• RPG Fantasy World

ARNING: this item is unhealthy to self-proclaimed and avid Windows users. To me, it sometimes seems as though Windows is much like smoking. It takes a lot of your money and as the addiction grows (dependency on software), it requires you to assign a decent proportion of your wage to it. Eventually, in return, it punishes you despite its high cost.

The fact that a majority people stick to Windows does not bother me. They insist on using it and I respect that decision. Being told what is good for you is probably the toughest challenge. I continue to see my colleagues spending a great deal of their time doing things which are by all means unnecessary, e.g. filesystem maintenance and virus checks. There is also a perpetual penalty due to, e.g. trial version of software with disabled features, O/S collapses and so forth.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, some people are able to get their work done without worrying at all about these man-made problems, which inherently are inexistent in computing. Finally, returning to my point above, Windows users often punish themselves, but no deliberately so. The least we can do is offer redemption from the habit and prove that better ways exist.

An academic study suggests that long-standing habits are difficult to break for a reason. It attributes this chronic and dangerous entity to physiology. This might, at least in part, explain why so many of us struggle to change recurring activities or rid ourselves from addictions.

Old habits don’t die. They hibernate.

Habitual activity–smoking, eating fatty foods, gambling–changes neural activity patterns in a specific region of the brain when habits are formed.

The following report was published yesterday:

DALLAS, Nov. 16 — Decaffeinated — not caffeinated — coffee may cause an increase in harmful LDL cholesterol by increasing a specific type of blood fat linked to the metabolic syndrome, hints a new study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2005.

Other items about coffee:

• Coffee Leads to Stress
• Coffee Beer

man was found to have cured himself of HIV, perhaps owing to his immune system. There appears to be no official confirmation, but doctors and researchers want the man for further tests. Understandably, the man declined the offers. The photo embedded in the BBC article rules out anonymity as a factor in his decision.

Doctors say they want to investigate the case of a British man with HIV who apparently became clear of the virus.

Andrew Stimpson, 25, was diagnosed HIV-positive in 2002 but was found to be negative in October 2003 by Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust.

This came just a couple of days after I had watched Constant Gardener, which is a strong and emotional film involving AIDS in Africa. The film can be rather cold and depressing, so it is most-suited for the faint-hearted. My negative reaction is amplified by the fact that I watched drama/comedy types at the cinema one week beforehand, namely Thumbsucker and Broken Flowers .