lyndon.

The 55 men in a drug doping study in Sweden were normal and healthy. And all agreed, for the sake of science, to be injected with testosterone and then undergo the standard urine test to screen for doping with the hormone.

The results were unambiguous: the test worked for most of the men, showing that they had taken the drug. But 17 of the men tested negative. Their urine seemed fine, with no excess testosterone even though the men clearly had taken the drug.

It was, researchers say, a striking demonstration of a genetic discovery. Those 17 men can build muscles with testosterone, they respond normally to the hormone, but they are missing both copies of a gene used to convert the testosterone into a form that dissolves in urine. The result is that they may be able to take testosterone with impunity.

The gene deletion is especially common in Asian men, notes Jenny Jakobsson Schulze, a molecular geneticist at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. Dr. Schulze is the first author of the testosterone study, published recently in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

This was also on The Economist a few weeks back.

Using simple caffeine to raise alertness in conjunction with naps during a trip is a winning strategy, Dr. Rosekind said. Caffeine takes 15 to 30 minutes to work, and an effective nap should be less than 45 minutes, to avoid going into the kind of deep sleep that leaves people groggy. So drinking a cup of coffee just before a nap, he said, can ensure that you will awaken with a little extra zip. The caffeine and nap working together “can actually show a performance boost greater than either one alone,” he said. “It’s not rocket science.”

WASHINGTON — Some people marry for love, some for companionship, and others for status or money. Now comes another reason to get hitched: health insurance.

In a poll released today, 7% of Americans said they or someone in their household decided to marry in the last year so they could get healthcare benefits via their spouse.

Canadian wireless carrier Rogers Wireless said Tuesday it has reached an agreement with Apple to begin offering the iPhone later this year, putting an end to months of speculation on the subject.

It’s about freakin’ time!! No other details, but I can live with that. Let’s hope Ted plays it smart and gets us the 3G version.

It’s no surprise Rogers (NYSE:RCI) is up today with this news.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.

But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper.

Oh, the irony. Reminds me of this picture I posted a little while ago.

Among the millions of clips on the video-sharing Web site YouTube are 11 racially offensive Warner Brothers cartoons that have not been shown in an authorized release since 1968.

Some of the cartoons were removed on April 16. A message saying the cartoons were no longer available because of a copyright claim by Warner appeared in their place. By evening the messages disappeared, and some of the cartoons were back. Representatives for YouTube and Warner would not confirm whether the companies had tried to remove the cartoons.

http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=VortexFilms

(because you’re going to look for it anyways)

It’s a cruel irony: Car navigation devices keep you from getting lost, but their location-sensing acumen won’t help you find them if they get lost or stolen. Why not? Because location and tracking are two different matters. “The GPS calculates location for you. Communicating that location to a tracking center requires a separate service,” says Kanwar Chadha, founder and vice president of SiRF Technology, the largest supplier of GPS chips to navigation device makers.

Of course, GPS tracking systems have existed for years — they are used every day to keep tabs on valuable cargo, rental cars, and even parolees who are shackled to GPS-enabled ankle bracelets. Cell phones are routinely embedded with GPS chips too, and can communicate their location via cellular networks. (The Helio Ocean phone, for example, has a “Buddy Beacon” feature that lets you map your friends’ precise whereabouts on your handset.) Personal navigation units could easily incorporate the same features, but device makers say there’s little demand. “Most consumers are just looking to get from Point A to Point B,” notes Tom Murray, vice president of TomTom.

ARIELLE GREEN, a publicist in Manhattan, knows what most of her friends earn, whether it is $28,000 a year or $100,000. And she does not seem particularly shy about disclosing her income ($30,000 a year, plus overtime).

At 22, Ms. Green, like her friends, is less afraid to flirt with what many over 35 consider the last taboo in American life: discussing salary openly with friends and colleagues. “There’s just more of a feeling of openness in discussing what you make,” Ms. Green said.

Her friends, she said, consider frank talk about income a valuable tool. It helps them strategize — when to push for a raise, when to start looking around. It even helps them figure out plans for a Friday night, whether the assembled cast is better suited to a brick-oven pizzeria or Buddakan.

CEBU, Philippines (Reuters Life!) - The central Philippine island of Cebu is renowned as a holiday destination but these days it’s the provincial jail not the balmy beaches that’s drawing in the visitors.

Inmates at the prison shot to fame last year when a video clip of them gyrating in synch to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as part of their exercise regime became a You Tube hit. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha7VwGJDsrk).

WASHINGTON — Starting next month, people here will be able to rent a bicycle day and night with the swipe of a membership card.

A new public-private venture called SmartBike DC will make 120 bicycles available at 10 spots in central locations in the city. The automated program, which district officials say is the first of its kind in the nation, will operate in a similar fashion to car-sharing programs like Zipcar.

AMID panic over soaring rice prices and worries about whether the Philippines, the world’s biggest rice importer, can secure enough supplies, the results of the latest census have diverted blame towards a perennial culprit: overpopulation. The figures put the population at almost 89m when the census was taken last August, up from 77m in 2000. That means it has been growing at just over 2% annually since then. That rate is below the 2.3% annual growth of the 1990s and the 3% of the 1960s. But it is still faster than expected. Some analysts think the census undercounted, especially among poorer Filipinos. The population may now be up to 93m.

Good collection.

Warning: time waster

My average is 0.207 seconds (fastest is 0.064 seconds!).