Alcohol is nearly as addictive as which drug? - Cocaine
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An estimated 17 percent of cocaine users become addicted to it, and drinkers follow closely at 15 percent. Of the other drugs: marijuana, 9 percent; heroin, 25 percent; nicotine, 32 percent.
Following factors are effect by alcohol.
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Body weight: Fat, protein proportion, volume of blood and cardiovascular function all play roles in determining the impact of alcohol.Gender: Alcohol is generally more potent to women than men.
Ethnicity: Based on genetic differences, there are direct and indirect alcohol effects by ethnicity. For example, Asians carry a gene that compromises liver function. More than other groups, Asians who drink tend to get flush, sweat and become nauseated.
Age: A person’s age is represented in every system of the body, and alcohol works directly on the cardiologic, metabolic, excretory, digestive and neurological systems. Consider that dosage recommendations vary by age even on over-the-counter drugs.
Genetics: One’s capacity to tolerate alcohol is partially dependent on genetic factors, so you may gain some insight about your own tolerance by studying other family members’. Geneticists have even gone so far as to determine that the ability to hold alcohol depends on an enzyme made on Chromosome 4.
By consuming no more than one drink per hour, you can stay under the legal limit for driving. - False
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The effects of one drink per hour will vary greatly from one person to the next. A 125-pound woman having just one glass of wine per hour over the course of three full hours can easily reach a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08—the legal limit in most states. Symptoms such as flushed face and difficulty with fine motor skills can be evident at a BAC level of just .02.The body metabolizes pure alcohol at only .25 or .30 ounces (about half a drink) per hour, so on average it takes two hours for the effects of a single drink to be eradicated. Metabolization simply can’t keep up with an hourly drink. Drinking has a cumulative effect.
It’s best to treat a hangover with acetaminophen (Tylenol). - False
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Current evidence suggests there is little if any danger in using proper dosages of acetaminophen the morning after a night of drinking. Physicians do acknowledge, however, that research on the subject is lacking. The risk sometimes cited is liver toxicity, which is a realistic concern for alcoholics who overdose on acetaminophen to the tune of 26 extra-strength pills in 24 hours.
Women get drunk faster than men do. - True
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Alcohol mixes with water in the body, and because men have more body water, there is more dilution of alcohol. Less body water makes for a meaner hangover as well.
Drinking tends to enhance sexual experiences. - False
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Going by the numbers, the drawbacks of combining alcohol with sex outweigh the benefits. Women with impaired judgment are more likely to engage in sexual behaviors they later regret, especially regarding whom they slept with or what they consented to. Worse yet, compromised judgment can put a woman in a dangerous sexual situation. For both men and women, the likelihood of unprotected sex also rises with alcohol use, increasing incidences of unwanted pregnancy and STDs, including, of course, HIVOn the upside, alcohol does relax social and sexual inhibitions, and can increase amorous feelings. But these benefits could easily backfire as well since alcohol interferes with a man’s ability to sustain an erection and with a woman’s ability to reach orgasm.
Claiming that one is drunk, and therefore out of control, is a legitimate defense against an accusation of sexual assault. - False
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Being drunk is not a valid legal defense against a charge of rape or sexual assault. It is estimated that 75 percent of men who perpetrate sexual assault are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A significant percentage of sexual-assault victims also tend to be under the influence; however, a victim who is drunk may be incapable of giving consent. Sex with an intoxicated person can constitute rape.
Alcohol and pot are relatively safe to mix, since the effect of one balances out the other. - False
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Alcohol and pot are both depressants. The risk of slowing one’s body down or passing out increases significantly when they’re combined. Marijuana also inhibits the gag reflex, which can be a problem when you want or need to throw up—and a fatal malfunction if you vomit while unconscious.Some drug combinations are additive, meaning that the effect produced is equal to the sum of the drugs combined. The effect of mixing alcohol and marijuana, however, is hyper-additive or synergistic: The two are multiplied rather than added. Many additional factors have influence (weight, tolerance, age, type of alcohol and pot), so the outcome is always difficult to predict.
According to a 2005 study of colleges, how many students per year were injured under the influence of alcohol? - 599,000
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And that’s just the 18- to 24-year-olds enrolled in college.
The number of alcohol-related fatalities in motor vehicle crashes appears to be going: - Down
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Americans may be getting smarter. Between 2003 and 2004, there was a 2.4 percent reduction in alcohol-related motor vehicle fatalities: 17,105 in 2003 compared to 16,694 in 2004. While that’s good news, alcohol still plays a role in 39 percent of all traffic fatalities.
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" will have to sail without Disney.
While declining to elaborate, Disney and Walden Media confirmed Tuesday that for budgetary and logistical reasons the Burbank-based studio is not exercising its option to co-produce and co-finance the next "Narnia" movie with Walden.
The third entry in the series, based on the classic books by C.S. Lewis, was in preproduction and set for a spring shoot for a planned May 2010 release. The development puts the participation of the talent attached in doubt. Michael Apted was on board to direct a script by Steven Knight. The key players of the second installment, "Prince Caspian" -- Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell -- were to return for the third film.
Walden has a strong relationship with the Lewis estate and will shop "Treader" in hopes of finding a new partner. The most likely candidate at this stage is Fox, which markets and distributes Walden fare under the Fox Walden banner.
Any partnership on a "Narnia" movie will require a substantial investment. "Caspian," which filmed in the Czech Republic, Mexico and New Zealand, cost $200 million. The first film, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," was shot mostly in New Zealand for $180 million.
It is rare for a studio to pull out of a planned trilogy in midstream, but the number-crunching showed a franchise on a downward trend. "Lion" roared to $292 million domestically and another $453 million internationally in 2005. This year, "Prince Caspian" grossed a healthy $141 million in North America and another $278 million internationally, but that was well off the "Lion" take.
Further challenging "Treader" may be a waning of the pricey children's fantasy genre. When the "Harry Potter" series topped the book charts and then filled movie theaters, studios began snapping up fantasy manuscripts as quickly as they could. When "The Lord of the Rings" showed it was possible for adults to enjoy the fare as well -- and produced the boxoffice results to prove it -- Hollywood's fascination with the genre intensified.
But no other fantasy adventure films have shown that kind of boxoffice punch. Earlier this year, Warners and New Line hoped they were launching a franchise with "The Golden Compass," but the adaptation of the Philip Pullman trilogy tanked domestically.
The film grossed just $70 million domestically and the co-production partners declined to go forward with a second installment despite the fact the film did take in more than $300 million overseas.
Even Lance Armstrong, who after winning the Tour de France seven times has taken his fair share of doping tests, is amazed by the number of times he has been told to give samples on his return to competitive cycling. 
On his Twitter page - a social-networking website - Armstrong wrote: "Guess what!? Drug control #10. Unreal."
Many in France still cast a suspicious eye towards Armstrong and the success he achieved before retiring in 2005.
As such, the American is attempting to be as open as possible when it comes to his comeback preparations.
Upon his return, he said: "We're going to be completely transparent. This is for the world to see. I am returning with a completely comprehensive programme and there will be no way to cheat."
The authorities are clearly making sure of this.
Armstrong, though, is hiding nothing, as his postings on Twitter show. They include:
"Ate at Chuys. One of Austin's finest. Had a "big as 'yo face" burrito."
"Got a note from Levi. Was going to go out and train with him but didn't since my condition isn't half-bad now. It's freezing cold there too."
"Still freezing in Austin so training indoors at Kevin's Pedal Hard studio."
"Just saw Slumdog Millionaire. Amazing film. Run don't walk to see it."
"Morning - I'm up drinking coffee, reading the nyt, and texting with Johan who's at the Tour of Spain (Vuelta) presentation."
Former team-mate George Hincapie, however, perhaps seems less than impressed with the media's reaction to Armstrong's return. On his page, he notes: "Just did a USA Today interview. 95 per cent L(ance) A(rmstrong), 5 per cent me. He's back!!!!"
A British museum curator has built a working replica of a 2,000-year-old Greek machine that has been called the world's first computer.
A dictionary-size assemblage of 37 interlocking dials crafted with the precision and complexity of a 19th-century Swiss clock, the Antikythera mechanism was used for modeling and predicting the movements of the heavenly bodies as well as the dates and locations of upcoming Olympic games.
The original 81 shards of the Antikythera were recovered from under the sea (near the Greek island of Antikythera) in 1902, rusted and clumped together in a nearly indecipherable mass. Scientists dated it to 150 B.C. Such craftsmanship wouldn't be seen for another 1,000 years — but its purpose was a mystery for decades.
Many scientists have worked since the 1950s to piece together the story, with the help of some very sophisticated imaging technology in recent years, including X-ray and gamma-ray imaging and 3-D computer modeling.
Now, though, it has been rebuilt. As is almost always the way with these things, it was an amateur who cracked it. Michael Wright, a former curator at the Science Museum in London, has built a replica of the Antikythera, which works perfectly.
In the video from New Scientist below, Wright shows how the machine works.
In short, Antikythera's user interface is deceptively simple, operated by a simple knob on the side. This conceals the intricacy within, amounting to a complex mathematical model, tracking the movements of planetary bodies and incorporating a series of submechanisms to account for the eccentricities of their rotation.
A dial on the faceplace featured the Greek zodiac and an Egyptian calendar; pointers showed the location of the moon and the five planets known at the time. On the machine's back, an upper dial shows a 19-year calendar (matching the solunar cycle) and the timing of upcoming Olympic games. A lower dial shows a 76-year cycle (when the Olympic and solunar cycles coincide) and indicates the months in which lunar and solar eclipses can be expected.
According to New Scientist, this is the first working model of the Antikythera computer to include all of the device's known features. And, like the original machine, it has been built of recycled metal plates. That's right: The Antikythera mechanism is not only the world's oldest computer, it's also the world's first green computer.
Mouse could become extinct as new gadgets do without one....
The computer mouse might someday become an endangered species.
Instead of rolling a mouse around to move a cursor on the screen, more users will gesture with their fingers on touch-screens and multitouch trackpads, analysts say.
Or they will tilt or shake the phones or other handheld devices themselves to manipulate them, said Steve Prentice, vice president and fellow at Gartner, a market-research firm based in Stamford, Conn.
Apple's iPhone, Nokia and other smart phones already are undergoing such a transformation with touch-screens, he said in an e-mail, and the switch "will accelerate over the next two to three years."
On an iPhone or iPod touch, a user can scroll through album covers by flicking a finger across the screen, or tilt and turn the device to control actions in a game.
Prentice, based in Egham, England, said users probably will stop connecting a mouse to their laptop computers within five years, if they haven't already. And the use of a mouse will diminish on office desktop computers after that. The new trackpads are seen as offering more versatility.
"The demise will be hastened by the move toward 3-D environments, which encourage a more complex range of movements to move around, and by the growth of multimedia applications and manipulation, which encourage a more natural user interface," he said.
Already, Hewlett-Packard makes a TouchSmart personal computer with a touch-screen monitor. Apple's new laptop computers have trackpads that support gestures with two, three or four fingers. And the upcoming Microsoft Windows 7 also will support multitouch.
Not so fast, said Logitech International, the Swiss maker of mice and other peripherals. Touch-screens will continue to develop, but "I don't see a world where it would override the effectiveness of the mouse and keyboard," said Erik Charlton, director of product marketing for Logitech retail pointing devices.
The history of the mouse dates to 1968, originating at what was then known as Stanford Research Institute.
A glimpse of the future can be found at the Microsoft Technology Center in Manhattan, where visitors can get their hands on a Surface table.
The Surface computer, which debuted for commercial use in July, has a 30-inch screen on which users can tap, drag, spin and zoom in and out with their fingers or an object such as a paint brush.
Only a few days after the launch of its new task manager, Gmail has introduced a new feature allowing users to send free SMS messages through its integrated Chat. To activate the feature, visit the Gmail Labs page and scroll down until you see the appropriate listing (you may also want to activate a few of the other nifty features while you’re at it).
To send a message, just type a phone number into the search box at the top of the chat window on the left side of the Gmail interface, and hit ‘Send SMS’. Numbers can be associated with contact names so you don’t have to keep manually entering them. Recipients of these messages can respond by simply hitting ‘reply’ on their cell phones to send their own SMS message (Gmail ties a unique phone number with each of your contacts).
According to the Gmail blog post, the site is currently testing out the service with US phones only for now (messages can be sent from abroad, they just need to be directed at a US phone).
Gmail first toyed around with the feature in October, but wound up pulling it from Labs for a few weeks because of a number of glitches. This time, it seems like it’s here to stay.
This isn’t by any means the first chat service to offer free SMS messaging - major chat networks like AIM have been doing this for years. But it’s a handy feature, especially for the many people who use Gmail all day long.
Ferrari doesn't make motorcycles. At least, not officially... but that fact hasn't stopped a number of custom cycle makers from taking matters into their own hands. Perhaps the most famous Maranello-inspired two-wheeler was made by Arlen Ness, but that one's not all that practical in conception. We would imagine a Ferrari motorcycle to be a truly sporting machine, equally as comfortable on the race track as the street, or, more realistically, being shown off in one's garage. Ferrari seems to agree, as the only cycle ever created that bears an official Ferrari chassis number -- SF-01M -- has true sporting pretensions.
Built by David Kay Engineering and completed in 1995, this one-and-only Ferrari motorcycle sports a DOHC engine displacing 900cc and putting out 105 horsepower at 8,800rpm. The only styling choice we take exception with are the Testarossa-style strakes on either side, but nothing's perfect, right? So, what's the only officially official Ferrari bike worth? We'll find out for sure when the auction ends on the 20th, but the expected price is between 325,000-375,000 Swiss francs, or around $300K in U.S. dollars.
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