Although coffee gets a bad rap, it’s actually a medicinal food. In fact, this stimulating bean isn’t nearly so bad as we’ve all been taught. Although I’m skeptical about grande latte supplementation in the long run (it’s a drug, after all), I found myself surprised by much of the science on coffee. Poor Ponce de Leon; all this time he should have been searching for the espresso machine.
Step aside, acai. Here are some surprising health benefits of coffee.
Apparently, coffee and alcohol really do go together. Believe it or not, alcohol drinkers who also drink coffee regularly have a lower chance of developing cirrhosis of the liver. That’s not to say it’s a healthy lifestyle – obviously, lowering your alcohol consumption is better. But…science says…
Caffeine reduces risk of skin cancer. Sorry, venti quaffers, this prevention method is topical. Lotions containing caffeine (both from coffee and green tea) have been shown to prevent the occurrence of cancerous tumors on the skin – in murine trials, anyway.
Have a smile with your morning brew! If you’re a caffephile, you don’t need this Johns Hopkins study to tell you that a cup or two a day increases your sense of well-being and happiness. You can thank dopamine for that, which also contributes to coffee’s addictive nature. But be aware, the study also noted that more than 2 cups daily increases the risk of anxiety and panic attacks. Some people respond more readily than others – if you find yourself feeling jittery or nervous, ease up on the joe.
Caffeine may reduce chance of Parkinson’s Disease. A 30-year study has shown that non-coffee drinkers have a higher chance of developing Parkinson’s Disease than their coffee-drinking counterparts.
Most Americans get their antioxidants from coffee. That doesn’t mean it’s the best source of antioxidants, just that it’s the most consumed. But, it’s true, coffee is very high in antioxidants. As for me, I’ll stick to fruit.
Black gold. After petroleum, coffee is the second most valuable economic product in the world. Imagine the financial potential of running our cars on coffee grounds.
Coffee may cut colon cancer in women. A 12-year study on Japanese women found that drinking 3 or more cups of coffee per day may actually halve the risk of developing colon cancer. They found no beneficial effect from green tea on the colon – in this case, it was strictly a coffee thing.
Coffee and diabetes, that’s a tricky one. Even though a Finnish study shows that drinking large amounts of coffee can reduce the risk of developing Type-2 Diabetes, coffee drinkers who already have diabetes have a harder time controlling their blood sugar levels.
Coffee reduces muscle pain. After a hard workout, a cup or two of coffee has been shown to reduce muscle soreness (in women, anyway) more effectively than naproxen, aspirin and ibuprofen. (But don’t replace your water thermos with coffee.)
Coffee will detox your liver in surprising ways. This remedy is not one for drinking: we’re talking about the coffee enema. Some people swear by it – using a tube to introduce coffee into the rectum and colon in order to stimulate the liver to remove toxins. Definitely not for the squeamish.
Coffee may reduce chance of death from heart disease. Studies show that drinking 4-5 cups of coffee a day can make you less likely to die from heart disease. The researchers think it may have something to do with coffee’s anti-inflammatory effects.
The devil is in the grounds. When coffee, which originated in Ethiopia and became popular in the Arab world, was first introduced to Western culture, Christian priests denounced it as the devil’s drink, given to the Muslims as a substitute for the wine (Christ’s blood) they weren’t allowed to consume. The belief at the time was that any coffee-drinking Christian risked burning in hell forever. Hooray, progress!
Coffee may help with short term memory. It’s probably because of caffeine’s stimulant effects, but an Austrian study showed that volunteers given caffeinated coffee had better reaction times and short-term memory function than those who were given the cup of decaf.
For women, caffeine may prevent long term memory loss. Because caffeine is a psychostimulant, older women who drink 3 or more cups of coffee or tea a day have less memory loss and cognitive decline than their counterparts who drink less or none. Unfortunately, caffeine consumption doesn’t seem to have any preventative effect against dementia.
Caffeine won’t cause hypertension. Some of the studies can be contradictory and confusing. What we do know is that for non-habitual coffee drinkers, those first few cups will cause a temporary rise in blood pressure, but for regular drinkers, a tolerance develops and won’t cause any long term, permanent increase.
The injustice of cheap coffee. No, it’s not just an injustice to your connoisseur taste buds; conventional coffee farming exploits workers and destroys communities in third world countries. On average, 5% of the profits actually make it back to the farmers, who are hungry, underpaid and treated badly. Why do they work on coffee plantations at all? Because in many cases, the plantations own the most fertile land (which was most often acquired unscrupulously) and the local people won’t survive from subsistence farming alone. How can you avoid supporting the cycle of poverty, corruption and injustice? Only buy Fair Trade certified coffee.
Pesticides in your brew. Because almost all coffee is grown in third world countries with less stringent laws than Europe or the United States, your non-organic cuppa is probably laden with chemicals. That’s not just bad for you, it’s bad for the farmers and the tropical ecosystems in which the coffee is grown. Go organic, will ya?
Pick your poison – literally. Caffeine is an alkaloid, which is a type of poisonous, bitter substance found in plants. Other alkaloids include strychnine, nicotine, morphine, mescaline, and emetine (the deadly ingredient in hemlock). Fortunately, in small quantities the bean is harmless, but it’s worth thinking about if you choose to use other drugs (both pharmaceutical and recreational).
The FDA has approved caffeine for babies. This doesn’t mean you can wake up your sleepy infant with a bottle of latte. Caffeine injections have been used medicinally since 1999 in the United States to stimulate breathing in infants who are experiencing apnea. It’s still recommended that pregnant and breastfeeding women keep their caffeine intake to a minimum, but a modest amount is safe.
Coffee can fight cavities. Just avoid all the sugar and milk! Actually, roasted coffee has some antibacterial properties, particularly against Streptococcus mutans, one of the major causes of cavities. By the way, these properties have nothing to do with caffeine, so decaf drinkers will get the same protection.
Despite the positive health studies, it’s best not to intentionally pick up the caffeine habit if you’re not already a regular coffee drinker. Even though some of the studies suggest drinking 3 or more daily cups to get the benefits, everyone is different. If it makes you jittery and sick to your stomach, stick to a milder pick-me-up like green tea or yerba mate. But if that morning cup makes you feel awake, alive and eager to greet the day, you might as well indulge (in moderation) in the world’s most well-loved drink.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – Icy roads were a contributor to the death of a cab driver when he was on his way to work Wednesday in Burien, a suburb of Seattle.
Friends told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News that Getenet Endeshaw, 28, was driving to work when he lost control of his car on the icy roads.
The Washington State Patrol said his car spun-out on state Route 509 at 128th at about 4:15 a.m. and wound-up facing the wrong direction.
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – Police have arrested two men whom they say played a role in the death of a 25-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia whose body was found Monday morning in a South San Jose neighborhood.
San Jose police arrested Samuel Rose, 19, and Ronald Correa, 20, both of San Jose, on Monday, according to Officer Jermaine Thomas, a department spokesman.
Rose is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon on charges of accessory to murder and theft or unauthorized use of a vehicle, according to Amy Cornell, a spokeswoman with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
Correa, who was arrested on suspicion of murder, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday, Cornell said.
Monday morning, the body of Fisaha Isaac Gebremichael, 25, of San Jose, was discovered lying on the curb at about 5:30 a.m. by a resident who lives in the neighborhood of the 600 block of Braxton Drive, located south of Hellyer Avenue.
Gebremichael died of a gunshot wound, according to police, who have not released any other details about the slaying.
“No motive has been established yet and the investigation is ongoing,” Thomas said.
The slaying, the city’s fourth killing this year, does not appear to be gang-related, according to police.
The University of Minnesota’s entry into January’s final University Nanosatellite Program competition won’t be launched into space.
However, the U.S. Air Force has selected the University team to participate again. Team members are already recruiting new students, while some are still working on satellite components to use for the next two-year competition cycle, Nanosat-6.
The program has two aims: training students to build satellites and provide the Air Force with useful research, aerospace engineering and mechanics associate professor {www:Demoz Gebre-Egziabher} said.
As the faculty adviser, he’s responsible for pitching an idea for the satellite’s science mission.
Since Gebre-Egziabher’s research involves Global Positioning Systems, the University’s nanosatellite projects have tried to use it in novel ways.
Goldeneye, as the satellite is known, is an apt name, as its science mission was to keep an eye on the Earth’s surface conditions, like ocean wave heights and wind speeds, by analyzing reflected GPS signals.
Aerospace graduate student Jim Pogemiller is writing his master’s thesis on the GPS sensing the satellite was meant to do, and he said a lot of the work he did for it, like making sure his radar system would work in space, will go into his thesis.
Though equipment already exists for remote sensing, it would be handy to be able to do it with GPS since most satellites already use it, Gebre-Ebziabher said.
The upcoming Nanosat-6 science mission is an extension of the previous project, Gebre-Ebziabher said. But instead of sensing the Earth’s surface, this satellite will use GPS to sense other satellites in space.
When one satellite is repairing another — like the Hubble Space Telescope — it’s important it knows where its target is to avoid a collision.
Existing sensors can do this, but GPS would be cheaper, weigh less and require less power, Gebre-Ebziabher said.
Though Gebre-Ebziabher pitches the science mission, it’s up to students to figure out how to accomplish it.
That means designing the satellite, fabricating it, testing it and updating it, mechanical engineering senior and project field manager Ellie Field, said.
“It’s real engineering,” Gebre-Ebziabher said. “It’s a lot of work.”
Aerospace engineering senior Erin Mussoni, who was in charge of satellite communications (getting information to and from the satellite using radio signals), found that out. “I didn’t sleep for five months,” she said.
One of the challenges, she said, was finding and paying for materials that are space-ready.
Materials with impurities or air bubbles, like plastic and fiberglass, can expand and explode in space. Space ready materials are expensive, she said.
Though the Air Force provides $110,000 to get accepted teams started, Gebre-Ebziabher said the teams are expected to raise more than that.
Goldeneye got a lot of help from businesses, mostly in the form of product donations from companies like Honeywell and Lockheed Martin, he said. He estimated the Goldeneye team’s fundraising at least tripled the Air Force’s seed money.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration also supports the program, through scholarships given to Nanosat students through the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium .
Aerospace engineering professor Bill Garrard, who directs the MSGC, said the draw for NASA is to fill the pipeline of engineers and scientists.
Though Mussoni said she hasn’t found much use for the ham radio license she got in order to operate Goldeneye’s radios, the project did help on the career front: “This project probably gave me my internship,” she said.
“Engineers want to talk about design projects, and if you have something unique like this, they just go wild over it,” she added.
Garrard said he thinks University students have become increasingly interested in this kind of activity during his time here.
“I think students realize that these opportunities really are important for them in terms of getting a job,” he said.
But aerospace senior Kyle Zakrzewski , who will take over as field manager, said he does it because it’s fun.
“We’re a bunch of undergrad students making a satellite. I mean, that’s pretty cool.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bad news for Ethiopia’s murderous tyrant Meles Zenawi.
(VOA News) – U.N. diplomats and officials say judges at the International Criminal Court have decided to indict Sudan’s president for war crimes in Darfur.
Officials say on the of anonymity that the court will issue an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir. They say the decision will be made public later this month.
It is not clear whether the Hague-based court will indict him on all 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes brought by the court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo.
On Tuesday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Sudan must cooperate fully with whatever decision the court makes and should ensure the safety of U.N. peacekeepers and civilians in the country.
Sudan has rejected the court’s authority. Sudanese officials say the safety of peacekeepers in Sudan is not in jeopardy, buy they say authorities cannot control public outrage if an arrest warrant is issued for the president.
The developments come as a key Darfur rebel group holds peace talks in Qatar with the Sudanese government. The rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement accused Sudan’s government Wednesday of undermining the talks by allowing army troops to advance towards rebel positions on the ground in Darfur.
Also Wednesday, key members of the U.S. Congress urged the Obama administration to quickly focus on the situation in Sudan and to appoint a presidential envoy to the country. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also called on the administration to help Sudanese leaders implement a fragile peace deal that ended years of fighting between the Khartoum government and southern rebels.
Sudan dismisses Bashir arrest move
(Al Jazeera) – Sudan’s ambassador to the UN has vowed not to co-operate amid reports that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, the country’s president.
The ICC had “decided it wants him arrested”, an unnamed diplomat at the UN was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying on Wednesday while the New York Times said prosecutors had evidence that al-Bashir had committed war crimes in the country’s conflict-ridden Darfur region.
But Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, Sudan’s envoy to the UN, said even if there were an arrest warrant, “it means nothing to us”.
“We have been hearing this speculation for the last two weeks but we are not going to be surprised if this decision is issued today or tomorrow or if it has already been issued.
“Because we know this court is a political court, a politically motivated decision. It will never bother us at all. It means nothing to us. We are in no way going to co-operate with this decision.”
ICC prosecutors said last year that they had evidence that al-Bashir had committed war crimes, but the precise charges against the president have not been disclosed.
It would be the first time the ICC has sought the detention of a sitting head of state since it was established in 2002.
Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey said the UN secretary-general’s office had said it had not been notified of any ICC decision and declined to comment.
UN urges co-operation
But Ban Ki-moon, the UN chief, had on Tuesday urged the Sudanese leader to co-operate with the ICC if a warrant was issued.
“He [Bashir] should fully co-operate with whatever decisions the ICC makes,” Ban told reporters at the UN headquarters.
But Abdalhaleem dismissed the ICC as a “hostage to the political will of some powers on the [UN] Security Council”.
“If the secretary-general wants us to believe that the court is independent, then he should stop becoming its spokesperson,” he said.
Last year Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief ICC prosecutor, asked the court’s judges to indict al-Bashir for orchestrating what he described as a campaign of genocide in Sudan’s western Darfur region that killed 35,000 people in 2003 and at least another 100,000 through starvation and disease.
Sudan, in rejecting the term genocide, says 10,000 people died in the conflict.
UN officials say at least 2.5 million were left homeless and put the death toll as high as 300,000.
The Sudan government has said that it would continue co-operating with UN peacekeepers in the country even if al-Bashir is indicted, but has warned there may be widespread demonstrations of public outrage.
Court Approves Warrant for Sudan’s President
By MARLISE SIMONS and NEIL MacFARQUHAR | The New York Times
THE HAGUE — Judges at the International Criminal Court have decided to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, brushing aside diplomatic requests to allow more time for peace negotiations in the conflict-riddled Darfur region of his country, according to court lawyers and diplomats.
It is the first time the court has sought the detention of a sitting head of state, and it could further complicate the tense, international debate over how to solve the crisis in Darfur.
Ever since international prosecutors began seeking an arrest warrant last year, opponents have pressed the United Nations Security Council to use its power to suspend the proceedings. But a majority of Council members have argued that the case should go forward, saying Mr. Bashir has not done enough to stop the bloodshed to deserve a reprieve.
Many African and Arab nations counter that issuing a warrant for Mr. Bashir’s arrest could backfire, diminishing Sudan’s willingness to compromise for the sake of peace. Others, including some United Nations officials, worry that a warrant could inspire reprisal attacks against civilians, aid groups or the thousands of international peacekeepers deployed there.
The precise charges cited by the judges against Mr. Bashir have not been disclosed. But when the court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, first requested an arrest warrant in July, he said he had evidence to support charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide related to a military campaign that “purposefully targeted civilians” and had been “masterminded” by Mr. Bashir.
Lawyers familiar with the case said the court had already sought to freeze the president’s assets but had found his possessions to be hidden behind other names.
The decision to issue a warrant against him, reached by a panel of judges in The Hague, has been conveyed to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and is expected to be formally announced at the court, officials at the United Nations said.
The prosecutor became involved in the case after the Security Council asked him to investigate the conflict in Darfur, where massacres, disease and starvation have led to the deaths of up to 300,000 people and driven millions from their homes.
Although there has been sporadic fighting in Darfur for decades, the conflict significantly intensified in 2003, when rebel groups demanding greater autonomy for the region attacked Sudanese forces. The Arab-led government responded with a ferocious counterinsurgency campaign, which the court’s prosecutor called a genocidal strategy against Darfur’s black African ethnic groups.
Relations between Mr. Ban and Mr. Bashir continue to be strained by Sudanese government actions in Darfur and by Mr. Ban’s refusal to deal with Mr. Bashir directly.
But on Sunday the two men had an unscheduled encounter at a summit meeting in Ethiopia. Diplomats described it as “a stormy meeting” and “a shouting match” in which Mr. Bashir vented his anger at the court, though it is independent of the United Nations. Mr. Ban, in turn, insisted on the safety of United Nations staff members and peacekeepers, and demanded that Mr. Bashir stop the attacks on civilians.
The prospect of an arrest warrant for Mr. Bashir has already caused a diplomatic rift, with the African Union and members of the Arab League asking the Security Council to exercise its right to postpone any moves against the president for a year, arguing that he might still help bring a settlement in Darfur. Once an arrest warrant is issued, the Council can request that it be postponed.
There is broad concern that removing Mr. Bashir from power could threaten a landmark peace treaty between the Sudanese government and rebels in the southern part of the country. The treaty was signed in 2005 to end a civil war in which 2.2 million people died, far more than in Darfur.
Mr. Bashir fought members of his own party to approve that peace deal, and it is widely seen as critical to holding the country together.
On Wednesday, the Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, dismissed the court’s decision as “not deserving the ink used to print it.” The ambassador accused the court of being a political tool of mostly Western powers that want to fragment Sudan.
Mr. Abdalhaleem contended that in separate talks at the United Nations last fall with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top European officials, Sudan was promised that Western powers would support a suspension of the prosecution if the country cooperated with United Nations peacekeeping efforts, pursued peace talks and more aggressively pursued war criminals.
“We are moving on all those tracks,” he said, though human rights groups and diplomats disagree.
A top United Nations official said Mr. Ban’s advisers were now struggling to forge a policy that supports the court’s pursuit of justice but avoids wrecking Sudanese cooperation with the complex missions there.
The court has issued two other arrest warrants in connection with the Darfur conflict, one for a former government minister, Ahmad Harun, and another for Ali Kushayb, a leader of a government-backed militia. Neither has been arrested.
The prosecutor has also accused three rebel leaders of the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers. They have said publicly that they will surrender to the court.
Marlise Simons reported from The Hague, and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) – Ethiopian police have arrested a local man suspected of killing of a U.S. diplomat at his home in Addis Ababa, officials said on Wednesday.
The unnamed suspect was being transferred to the capital after he was detained by officers at Were-Illu village in the remote north of the country on Tuesday.
Local media reported that a laptop computer, mobile telephone, camera and several documents belonging to the U.S. diplomat had been found in his possession.
Diplomatic sources said the 25-year-old victim worked in the U.S. embassy’s consular section and had apparently been stabbed to death. His body was found at his home on Feb. 2.
State Department officials in Washington named him as Brian Adkins and said Ethiopia was his first foreign assignment.
(Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by Louise Ireland and Daniel Wallis)
Apparently, coffee and alcohol really do go together. Believe it or not, alcohol drinkers who also drink coffee regularly have a lower chance of developing cirrhosis of the liver. That’s not to say it’s a healthy lifestyle – obviously, lowering your alcohol consumption is better. But…science says…
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – Icy roads were a contributor to the death of a cab driver when he was on his way to work Wednesday in Burien, a suburb of Seattle.
The University of Minnesota’s entry into January’s final University Nanosatellite Program competition won’t be launched into space.