xciting news today: I have won the contest for the first time in 3 years. I finished second last year and the year before that, having won it in 2004 and 2006.

Trophies have not been handed out yet, but I’ll need to update this page, which is well out of date.

Friends don’t do this to friends

Smoking is gradually being banned from more and more places. What will it be now that cancer research progresses?

He suggests that people try to avoid constantly carrying their cell phones on their bodies and also try not to keep the devices nearby at night under the pillow or on a nightstand. He even warns against using cell phones in public places like buses because it exposes others to the phone’s electromagnetic fields.

ome time ago I wrote about the health implications of cellphones, Wi-Fi and wine. There are the “only make believe” and wishful thinking studies, which much like in global warming can be funded by those with vested interest. And then there’s reality. After a study from Japan which suggests cellphones are no health hazard there’s this from the news:

Heavy mobile phone use may be linked to an increased risk of cancer of the salivary gland, a study suggests

A lot of people will be unhappy to read this. Personally, I’m glad I stopped carrying a cellphone back in 2003.

was recently informed that I had finished in second place in this year’s Mr. Fitness competition. I will write some more about it when I find the time, when I put online the results and when I take a photo of the trophy I am about to receive (shown about is last year’s trophy). The award ceremony is due soon.

Mike Coogan was this year’s winner. He was last year’s winner as well. I won the competition for two consecutive years prior to that.

Here is some crazy little scientific development.

Scientists have found a way to turn on deep sleep using a machine that magnetically stimulates the brain.

Such a device worn on the head could in future squeeze the benefit of eight hours’ sleep into just two or three hours.

Some months ago I read about medication that has the same effect, but anyone brave enough to consider this probably just plays a role in some big experiment. With Second Life gaining traction and now this, the future could soon become bizarre. The press is getting filled with the negative effects of cutting-edge science such this on people’s lives.

Interesting article about a clinical study at Columbia:

Columbia-Led Study Finds Exercise Benefits Area of Brain Involved in Aging

Neuron-Growth First Observed in Living Brain

Good news to those of us who take a break from work in order to engage in physical activity. The image above, by the way, is my own brain.

have finally put behind me some chores that I have been escaping and postponing for almost a year. First of foremost, I needed to spend many hours converting documents and papers of mine to HTML, then filing them sensibly under the Web site (here is the largest one among about 10). It was like opening a Pandora’s box, taking a glance at old papers and trying to figure out what fits where. The mind slips when it is no longer familiar with old material that got mis-filed.

Photo from

The second thing which I finally finished is the rowing competition. I did fairly well at it, given the circumstances, but it had my throat in a bad state for almost a day. I will soon report about. I can’t do so now because it is too early to announce the results. If I win, there will be an excellent prize and it will count as a personal achievement which is becoming hard to replicate as not only do I age, but I also seem to spend less time at the gym nowadays. I am not entirely certain what impact my career will have on my physique, but I am not worried (yet!). I’m probably in a better shape than I have ever been, but it varies depending on exercise. Some things I have neglected while others, which do not count as ‘dirty laundry’, I just carry on doing.