Drinking three cups of tea or coffee a day cuts risk of age-related diabetes by 23%

Above is a headline taken from todays Daily Mail website. Researchers from the University of Sydney collated data from 15 different studies involving between 300000 and 500000 participants (depending on whether you read the Daily Mail or BBC News) and suggests that drinking 3 or 4 cups a day cuts your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by up to 20%. The report cites two people in the article: Dr Rachel Huxley who lead the investigation and is, therefore, clearly biased towards agreeing with the outcome of the study and Dr Carrie Ruxton, a Nutritionist who is scientific adviser for the Tea Advisory Panel. No need for me to say that she has motives to agree with the study.

Dr Ruxton's quote is frankly laughable. She firstly rehashes what the paper found before suggesting:

This protective effect may be due to the variety of compounds present in tea, including antioxidants

Based on what evidence exactly?

The BBC have gone for a more balanced approach, quoting Dr Victoria King of Diabetes UK who said:

Without full information about what other factors may be influencing the type 2 diabetes risk of the studies' participants - such as their physical activity levels and diet - as well as what the active ingredient in tea or coffee appears to be, we cannot be sure what, if anything, this observed effect is down to.

What we can be sure of is that the development of type 2 diabetes is strongly linked to lifestyle, which means that many cases could be prevented by keeping active and eating a healthy balanced diet that is low in fat, salt and sugar with plenty of fruit and vegetables.

A £2.99 child's toy mouse was designed to sing Jingle Bells when you press a button in it's tummy. Unfortunately, as the video above shows, there were one or two problems with the recording:

Distributors Humatt, of Ferndown, Dorset, said the man providing the voice could not pronounce certain sounds. His singing was then speeded up to make it higher-pitched - distorting the result further.

It so happens that I've subscribed to the thisisoxford rss feed, which includes the Scales of Justice page; a round-up of people convicted at the Oxfordshire Magistrates' Courts recently. I was drown to the plight of 20-year old woman from Oxford who had been convicted of:

shoplifting a £7.49 bottle of rum from Tesco in Oxford on July 17; racially aggravated intentional harassment towards ... on the same date; racially aggravated intentional harassment towards ... on the same date; shoplifting facial wipes and a Durex Play Vibe valued at £8.73 from Sainsbury's in Oxford on October 28; commission of a further offence while subject to a suspended sentence and commission of a further offence while subject to a conditional discharge.

I'm wondering exactly what circumstances would require the need for both face-wipes and a disposable vibrator...

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Above are the top 10 most popular google searches in the UK for 2009, as reported by Pocket Lint.

I'd like to draw your attention to number 8.

Need I say more?

A DIY, internet-enabled cat feeder with web and mobile web-based interface and recording capabilities so you know that your pampered feline has had her fill!

All they need to do now is add twitter capabilities...

Scientists have shown off an effect not unlike that of the "phasers" in the show Star Trek - but it only works on tiny worms called nematodes.

The above is the abstract paragraph of a BBC News article referring to a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society entitled A Photocontrolled Molecular Switch Regulates Paralysis in a Living Organism. The living organism in question is a worm (shown in the picture above) called C. elegans.

Essentially what they did was introduce a chemical into the worms which changes shape and structure in response to different wave-lengths of light. When exposed to UV, the worms turn a light blue colour (as shown in the upper-most portion of the image above) and paralyses the worm. What's more, when the worm is then exposed to visible light, the chemical switches back to it's original form and the worm returns to normal.

Neat, huh!

This has led to the inevitable comparison with phasers seen in Star Trek and the like. But, I'll be honest, I've never seen a Sci-Fi character force-fed chemicals before being stunned and they never turned blue, did they? Have I missed something?!

A genius flash cartoon by British animator Jonti Picking. Click here for the full cartoon.

Two bonkers twenty-somethings take advantage of stormy weather to fulfil a 3 year ambition.

One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it's very graphical and easy to use.

What we've tried to do with Windows 7 - whether it's traditional format or in a touch format - is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We've significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it's built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance.

I'm trying to work whether Microsoft would be peeved with these comments or not!