Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.

The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.

W00t! =P

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7326839.stm

So in my oh-so-finite free time, I’ve discovered two new TV shows that are both unique and well written, and I thought I’d share…

Dexter is about a serial killer (protagonist) who graciously kills only other murderers. Sounds cliche when I put it like that, but it’s the best saga-drama I’ve seen since BSG. My sister-in-law introduced me to it, oddly enough. Curiously (in the sense of the writer’s take) he’s not motivated by humanitarian concerns, simply survival by staying under the radar. Lots of dry sarcasm, which if you know me you know is the cornerstone of my sense of humor.

The second is Breaking Bad, where a chem teacher decides to go into the meth business to pay for the chemo for his stage-3 lung cancer. I was literally tearing up watching the last episode. (I’m a sucker for drama involving family/marriage problems, what can I say)

“But Derek, you’re a poor college student…and you buy Showtime?” Hardly. I’ve abandoned Tivo, even my Myth box, for Miro. It auto-downloads new TV shows as they come out for you. Read about how to set it up.

Let me know what you think.

People kill people. Guns just make them more efficient.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/us/15shoot.html

Hey everyone, allurstuff.com is finally up! For those of you who don’t know about it, this started with an idea last summer (that idea being “craigslist sucks”), was the motivation for me to seek my PhD at UTD, and something I’ve put a lot of myself into these past 8 months. So please, go, use it, and for pete’s sake let me know what bugs you find.

Also, I want to say thanks to those who tested for me (esp. those who were unabashed in their criticism), and of course to my investor.

Enjoy,
Derek

P.S. Obviously there isn’t much data available yet other than the real estate information I’m pulling dynamically, so if you’re just checking it out for the first time I recommend searching around Plano, TX for say “house with pool”.

Apparently tomorrow Bill Gates is going to show off some new “Vista Compatible” hardware during his CES keynote.   I don’t normally follow such things, but I I saw a cool looking photo set on Cnet.   And one of them was this:

Toshiba’s Portege R400, also to be shown off by Gates Sunday, will be among the first PCs to include a SideShow auxiliary display, one of the new hardware features supported by Windows Vista.

WTF?   I think someone at Toshiba is having some fun at Microsoft’s expense…   This is certainly in homage to the original (and iconic) Apple Macintosh ad:

I can’t imagine this was an intentional move by MS.   Congrats to whoever sneaked this by legal/marketing.