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By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Starting the day with whole-grain cereal may lower the risk of heart failure in the long run.

A new study shows men who eat whole-grain breakfast cereal regularly are less likely to develop heart failure than those who eat it rarely or never.

Heart failure is a condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood as effectively as it should. The risk of developing heart failure is about one in five for the average 40-year-old man or woman, the study’s researchers say.

Other studies have suggested that a diet rich in whole grains, such as nonrefined breakfast cereals, can provide a variety of health benefits. But researchers say it’s the first study to look at the relationship between breakfast cereal and the risk of heart failure in a large group.

If further studies confirm these results, adding whole-grain cereal may be a relatively risk-free way to reduce the risk of heart failure.

Cereal Fights Heart Failure
The study compared cereal intake and the risk of heart failure among more than 21,000 doctors who took part in the Physicians Health Study I. The results appear in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Information on the participants’ diets was gathered throughout the study and their health was monitored with annual surveys. During more than 19 years of follow-up, there were 1,018 cases of heart failure.

The results showed that the risk of heart failure decreased as cereal consumption increased. For example, the risk of heart failure among those who ate breakfast cereal at least seven times a week was 29% lower than that the risk among those who never ate cereal, after adjusting for other heart disease risk factors.

When researchers further analyzed the results they found this healthy effect was associated with whole-grain cereals only, not with refined breakfast cereals.

Researcher Luc Djoussé, MD, MPH, of Harvard Medical School, and colleagues say the protective effect of whole-grain cereal against heart failure may be due to the beneficial effects of whole grains on heart disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, heart attack risk, diabetes, and obesity.

Microsoft’s getting into the advertising business instead of fixing its operating system issues, so why shouldn’t Google put its billions to use developing a free, better OS?

Microsoft has been in the news a lot lately, and there are two distinct themes to the coverage. The first is the generally negative press about Vista—that people are complaining about it, and that many are reverting to XP. In this kind of situation, you’d think a corporate effort would be made to fix any and all flaws.

But instead, we hear a lot of denial while Microsoft pushes its new agenda: advertising. And I’m not talking about buying advertising, like any normal company in the software business does, but about selling ads—as Google does.

Engineers’ syndrome. The only difference is that Microsoft, once a software company, keeps entering businesses in which it has little or no expertise. Microsoft may be suffering from engineers’ syndrome, something you run into all the time. This is quite amusing, even to engineers, who see it occurring in other engineers but never see it in themselves.

The idea is that once you learn engineering disciplines, you project them onto endeavors other than engineering, since everything you ever do in life is actually some sort of engineering. While there is some modicum of truth to this notion, it’s the leap of faith that pushes the idea into the absurd. What happens with engineers’ syndrome is this: You start believing that since you’re an excellent engineer in one specialty, then you’re a friggin’ genius in everything you do, because it’s all the same, really.

This becomes most obvious—and ludicrous—when engineers decide that they can develop, design, and orchestrate an advertising campaign. Hey, it’s a form of engineering, no? If you work with some of the big agencies in and around Silicon Valley, you’ll hear great stories about what a nightmare working with engineering companies can be, because of the meddling of engineers.

Microsoft afflicted. Microsoft seems to suffer from this syndrome a lot more than Google does. Microsoft sees that Google is making a pot-load of money selling ads from search results and via other mechanisms. How hard can that be? So Ballmer is out tub-thumping for the notion that Microsoft will eventually generate half its income from selling ads. Is he nuts? That’s like General Motors deciding that it doesn’t want to buy ads to sell its cars—it will sell ads on its cars instead. Put an ad on a Cadillac! That’s just dopey—and particularly dopey for Microsoft, since Microsoft is a software company, not Vogue magazine.

For Microsoft, this is a potentially disastrous scenario: The company takes its eye off the operating system ball and goes into the flaky ad-sales business, buying up various companies and lording it over them since Microsoft engineers are the ones who know better. This is a formula for disaster. —

Google pulls a Microsoft. Meanwhile, Google runs into a team of coders who have developed some sort of hybrid Linux-Windows-VM-BSD mashup OS. The results are interesting, and kind of work. A lot of people do not know that at any given time, numerous workable operating systems are being developed, many with great potential. None of them can get traction, though. If they rise above the common-noise level, they get crushed by Microsoft rather quickly. But none have worked freely under the umbrella of a troublemaker corporate entity such as Google, either. What we are witnessing is the potential for a unique switcheroo.

Microsoft pulls a Netscape. You’ll recall that in the mid-to-late-1990s Netscape was making noise about moving into Microsoft territory, and Microsoft had to get into the browser business to beat Netscape back and crush it. Well, this time, Microsoft is the one making the saber-rattling noises by going into the Google business. Seems as if Microsoft is the joker here, much as Netscape was back then.

How about this for an idea: the Google OS—a Vista/XP-compatible OS that’s fully functional, has billions of dollars in development behind it (eventually), and is free!

Sound like a familiar ploy? Give away the product to destroy the cash cow of the other company. That’s exactly what Microsoft is asking to have happen if it attacks Google, a company with which it should not even be in competition.

Instead of going into the advertising business because Google is in the advertising business, perhaps Microsoft should go back and nurture its cash cows. Cripes. What are they thinking!?!

As part of its new Ovi brand of Internet services, Nokia is reviving the much-maligned N-Gage gaming platform in a new way. Instead of offering a hardware-based gaming system, Nokia is opening up a mobile gaming portal with the N-Gage branding. Once accessed, you can browse through a wide selection of game titles, download free trials, and finally purchase the games directly from Nokia. Nokia is also heavily promoting the community aspect of the new N-Gage platform, suggesting that you can connect and play with friends all over the world, as well as keep track of global gaming stats. As with the Music store, you can either purchase the game over the air or download it to your PC first. And these aren’t just any ordinary games, either. Gaming titles include popular ones such as EA Sports’ FIFA 08, The Sims 2 Pets, Tetris, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and Crash Bandicoot. A host of different gaming companies have jumped on board, such as Capcom, Digital Chocolate, EA, Gameloft, Glu Mobile, Vivendi Games Mobile, and more, signifying the availability of additional games in the future.

Initial pricing per game will range between $8.16 and $13.60 (6 and 10 euros), or alternatively, daily and weekly licenses are available at lower prices. Supported phones include the Nokia N73, the Nokia N81, the Nokia N81 8GB, the Nokia N93, the Nokia N93i, the Nokia N95, and the Nokia N95 8GB, with more planned in the future. The service will debut in November 2007.

Originally posted at Crave.

ROYSE CITY, Texas (UPI) – Police in Royse City, Texas, discovered about two dozen embalmed human heads in the back of a truck that was pulled over for speeding.

The driver was detained until the company he works for, which was not identified, faxed police paperwork documenting why the heads, which had been used for medical training in Fort Worth, Texas, were being transported, the Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday.

“It really turned out to be much ado about nothing,” Royse City police Lt. Jim Baker said. “When you are carrying human body parts, it’s good to have some documentation that they are legitimate.”

The heads were found in plastic bags and containers in the back of the truck.

“This is in the top five of the strangest things — maybe the strangest — that I’ve ever encountered,” said Hunt County Justice of the Peace Aaron Williams, who was called to the scene when the heads were discovered.

The driver and the heads were allowed to continue their journey back to the company in Little Rock, Ark.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (UPI) – A teller in Florida ended her day by helping capture a man who allegedly first tried to open an account and then rob the bank where she works, police said.

Daytona Beach police said the Sun Trust bank branch teller was leaving work Monday afternoon when she spotted the would-be customer-robber, the Orlando Sentinel reported Tuesday. The man was arrested and booked for attempted armed robbery under the name John Doe.

Earlier, the man had tried to open a bank account only to leave after being told he lacked proper identification, authorities said. He returned to the bank and handed a note with a phone number on it to a teller.

Not understanding the man was trying to rob the bank and unable to read what the note said, the teller asked the potential thief if he wanted her to call someone for him. He told her he wanted money.

Police said the man then apologized to the teller, explaining he was on medication and asking her to return the note. He never displayed a weapon.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International