Eating soy & broccoli reduces cancer risk

Heres an interesting bit of nutrition imformation for both vego’s and meat eaters (I’d say most would probably hate soy products & broccoli). Eating foods like broccoli and soy has been linked to lower cancer rates, and California researchers have said they may have discovered the biological mechanism behind the protective effect.

Using cells in a lab dish, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that diindolymethane (DIM), a compound resulting from digestion of cruciferous vegetables, and genistein, an isoflavone in soy, reduce the production of two proteins needed for breast and ovarian cancers to spread.

“We think these compounds might slow or prevent the metastasis of breast and ovarian cancer, which would greatly increase the effectiveness of current treatments,” said Erin Hsu, a UCLA graduate student in molecular toxicology.

The UCLA team, which reported its finding at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, will next test the theory in mice.

The findings highlight “an entirely unique mechanism … Preventing the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells is crucial,” said Dr Alan Kristal, associate head of the cancer prevention program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle.

Cancer cells express very high levels of a surface receptor known as CXCR4, while the organs to which the cancers spread secrete high levels of CXCL12, a ligand that binds to that particular receptor.

This attraction stimulates the invasive properties of cancer cells and acts like a homing device, drawing the cancer cells to organs like the liver or brain.

The study found that when cancer cells were treated with either DIM or genistein, movement toward CXCL12 is reduced by at least 80 per cent compared to untreated cells.

Hsu says that this same chemotactic attraction is thought to play a role in the development of more than 23 different types of cancer.

The amount of DIM and genistein used in the study is probably comparable to use of a high dose of supplements, and is likely not achievable through consumption of food alone, the researchers said.

Both DIM and genistein are already being developed for use as a preventive, and a chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer, although more extensive toxicological studies are needed, they added.

Reuters

Incidently, on the subject of soy milk, most people I know hate the taste of it. I think it really depends on the brand of soy milk that you use. The best tasting ones in Australia are Vitasoy – Creamy Original and Sanitarium – So Good( all low fat soy milk is indeed horrible!). A close second in taste and much cheaper are “Coles brand” and Woolies “Home brand”. To stop soy milk curdling in coffee, add the milk to the coffee granules first & stir well, then add the hot water and continue to stir for 10 – 20 seconds. Interestingly I’ve noticed that soy milk never curdles when you add plunger coffee to it… which tastes better & is better for you anyway.

Updating the firmware in a Pioneer DVD-R Drive

Heres a really good tip for updating the firmware in your Pioneer DVD-R Drive.
I have a Pioneer DVR-109 that I installed in my Powermac G4 Dual 1Ghz & had been having some problems burning a dual layer disk of a friends wedding video that I did for them. There was so much video & photo slideshow data in the iDVD project that a dual layer burn was the only solution. I ended up sorting out that the main problem was I was trying to use Imation DVD+R DL disks when Pioneer recommends using Verbatim DVD+R DL disks.

However before reaching that conclusion I found a way of updating the firmware on a mac, which is not easy as all the firmware installers that Pioneer release are for Windows.

There is a little program called DVRFlashX which does the job. DVRFlashX is a GUI Utility for Mac OS X to simplify the use of DVRFlash. This version is only compatible with Pioneer drives up to DVR-109 series and PPC Macs.

All you have to do is:
1 – Download DVRFlashX version 2.1 here:
( scroll halfway down the page to find DVRFlashX version 2.1 )
http://lasvegas.rpc1.org/
Then unzip it & you will have a folder on your desktop called DVRFlashX 2.1. Inside that will be the DVDFlashX application & another folder called Firmware.

2 – Download the original Pioneer firmware for your DVD drive model from here:
http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/product-e/ibs/device_e/dev00001r_e.html

3 – Then use stuffit expander to open the .EXE file & you will find 3 files inside.
an .exe file, & two black files with funny names like RA100010.141 & RA100110.141.

4 – Put these two black files in the folder named Firmware.

5 – Then double click on the DVDFlashX application & you will be guided through the process of updating your firmware. DO NOT quit the app or do anything else on the mac while it is doing the firmware update.

After it’s finished you will have the latest firmware available for your Pioneer DVD-R drive.

Those people with newer drives like DVR-110 and above will have to use the terminal based DVRFlash Version 2.2. available here:

http://lasvegas.rpc1.org/

Then follow the instructions posted on this forum page:
http://nowonder.com/forums/howto-faqs/263749-howto-flash-new-pioneer-drive-mac-2.html

I must warn you that niether Apple or Pioneer endorse this sort of firmware update, so proceed at your own risk!

Powermac G4 MDD cooling and noise reduction

I have owned an awesome Apple Powermac G4 for about two years now. It’s a 1Ghz with dual processors which is commonly known as the Mirror Drive Door model or MDD for short, due to it’s mirror finished optical drive doors. It has been a faithful servant so far for all sorts of stuff like video editing, music production, photo’s, web surfing, email & business duties to name just a few. I noticed when I first got it that it was a bit noisier than my old G4 533 Powermac, but until my girlfriends mother complained one night that it kept her awake all night, I didn’t really take much notice of it. After that though it started to drive me crazy & I started a long campaign to quieten the thing down.

First thing I did was search google for information of how to do it & I found this page which document in detail how to replace the main 120 mm cooling fan.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com

Here is a link to Apple’s description of how to replace the 120mm case fan

http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/pdf/g4mirror/fan_power_supply.pdf

After trying one fan that just didn’t cool the G4 well enough I found on a website called FrozenCPU.com, a “SilenX” 120×120x38mm – 18dBA – 90CFM which is whisper quiet & cools the mac just as well as the original Delta fan that came from Apple, only it’s about 300% quieter. It made a big difference.

I also read about a software modification to Mac OSX called ” Nap Mode” which to cut a long story short, basically cycles the processors down into a “mini sleep” sort of mode, reducing the temperature and therefore the noise from the fans is quieter without losing any speed. This made a massive difference, but also now made a new noisy high pitched sound from the power supply fans. For G4 MDD owners you must download version 3.5.2 of CHUD, later versions do not work with MDD Powermacs. Some other models of Macs come with Nap mode enabled as standard like the G5 Powermacs & the PowerBook G4, so it’s not a risk to use.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/MDD_CHUD_feedback.html#storytop

I also created an applescript that I saved as an application & put in my Powermac’s start up items so that nap mode is automatically turned on every time I turn it on. To do this just download the applescript below, unzip it then open up System Preferences – Accounts – Login Items. Then just drag the nap mode applescript into the Login Items Box. Here is the link to my applescript:

An applescript to enable Nap mode

After more research I found that another main source of noise is from the standard power supply fans that come with the MDD G4, so I found the quietest fans on the net to replace them. I chose the fans that come on the Thermaltake Volcano 5 heatsink and fan combination – the Everflow model F126025DH, which spin at 4550rpm with a maximum airflow of 32 CFM and a noise level of 31 dBA. These are actually the same fans as recommended on the above instructions at www.xlr8yourmac.com, so I was confident that they would do the job. The installation is not for the faint hearted so if your not good with electronics & fixing thing’s I wouldn’t attempt it. This made a big difference once again. I also put in a foam insert between the power supply & the case as instructed below.

http://home.centurytel.net

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/g4_mirrored

Finally I put the Powermac down on the floor under my desk which quietened it down again, so after all these measures I now have a Powermac G4 MDD, which is whisper quiet and much more suited to music production.

Apple iPhone – another revolution begins

After several years of rumours & gossip about whether Apple would come up with a mobile phone of their own, they finally released to the world on January 9th 2007 a revolutionary device that incorporates an iPod, a smartphone and an internet browsing device. So what you might say, my phone does all that… but this thing is different. The iPhone with 4GB & 8GB storage and a 2 Megapixel camera, brings to the mobile phone market the effortless user interface & integration between a handheld device & the iTunes software on your computer that made the iPod the massive hit that it was & still is today.

Lets face it, most mobile phones are a pain in the ass to use with fiddly little clunky buttons. Instead of fixed plastic buttons that dictate that you can only have a small screen, Apple got rid of them and used one giant touch screen that covers the whole face of the unit. The controls & buttons change instantly depending on what you are doing at the time. If you are scrolling through your music or contacts, it is in full screen. If you want to send an email or sms, a little keyboard pops up down the bottom of the screen. If you want to view a movie or photo it covers the whole screen & If you want to view them in widescreen, you simply turn the unit to the side & it automatically shifts to widescreen. To zoom a photo in & out you use a pinching motion with 2 fingers. All this and much more is possible because it runs on a customized version of the powerful Mac OSX operating system, that’s right OSX, the same system that powers all of Apple’s computers.

It has wireless internet & bluetooth built in and a full size email & web browser built in, so that you can zoom in & out of web pages also. You can just find any wireless hotspot & start surfing the web including google maps & google earth, email & soon you’ll even be able to make free phone calls via Skype. It treats voice mail like a visual email type interface and you can make 3 way conference calls. And because it uses Mac OSX, iPhone can use the thousands of free Widgets that are available for OSX for instantly checking anything from stocks, news headlines, sports results or weather to web cams, jokes, TV & movie guides & recipes. Or you can create a widget yourself if there is something you want to be able to do specifically. The other thing is that Apple can update the firmware & OSX system software itself to add more features whenever it wants. Oh yeah I forgot it’s a mobile phone too!

I think you get the idea… this thing changes the game, it’s another Apple revolution in the making. But unlike 25 years ago when they invented the mouse & a graphical user interface, but didn’t patent it, this time they patented everything. So it’ll take years for the rest of the industry to catch up. Try copying this one Microsoft!

To check out the amazing demos of all these features go here:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/

The Iraq War – 4 years on

After nearly 4 years of fighting a war that should never have happened, I think it’s clear to most people that George Bush & his administration as well as the so called coalition of the willing, were severely deluded in their judgement of the situation & totally arrogant & therefore unprepared for what was about to take place after the invasion.

One of the biggest mistakes they made (and they made many), was sacking & disbanding all of Saddam’s army who really didnt have any allegiance or want to fight for Saddam anyway. By sacking them, they created an instant band of unemployed, angry & desperate men with army training & expertise in weapons. This is where the Iraq resistance, a new guerilla movement with growing popular support began. The US now calls them the “Insurgents”.

Iraq now find’s itself in a quagmire of suicide bombers and factional religious fighting between the Sunni’s and the Shiites. Interestingly, Sunni’s are a majority in the Arab and the Muslim world. In Iraq, Shiites are a majority. The vast majority of Kurds are Sunnis. Turkmen are mostly Sunni. Saddam Hussain & his Baath Party followers were Sunni’s and it is thought that much of the Baath party still exists in the guise of the “insurgents”. So after first turning their attention in a more unified resistance against the US lead invaders, Shiites & Sunnis are now fighting between each other, renewing old hatreds and making new one’s in what seems to be an unofficial civil war spiralling out of control.

Now that this hornets nest has been unleashed, there are no easy solutions as to how to fix this mess. It’s hard to know what to do. Would it get worse if the US left tomorrow? Probably, but one thing is for sure though, the situation will not improve as long as there is a foreign invading force in the country. George Bush doesnt seem to believe this though, so after ignoring his Dad’s former mate James Baker & his intelligent recommendations to work with the other countries in the region, Bush is sending in more troops. Not necesarily to help the Iraqi people, but in an attempt as he himself put it in his speech, ” to save my Presidency”.

Dear John – a letter to our Prime Minister

Here is a letter I found the other day that I wrote to the Prime Minister of Australia just before the Iraq invasion. At the time there was a groundswell of support against the invasion with millions of people all around the world marching the streets demanding their leaders listen to them. History will show that the people were right to protest and it will also show that they were simply ignored.

His reply was both measured and predictable:

Milking tea of all its goodness

That dash of milk in the morning cuppa nullifies all the goodness of the tea.
Studies have shown that drinking green or black tea can be good for you because both types contain an abundance of antioxidants called flavonoids. These improve blood-flow and help to prevent heart disease, and are also thought to protect against some cancers. But German researchers discovered that adding milk to a cup of black tea counteracts the beneficial effects.

The study, published in the European Heart Journal, found that when black tea is drink on its own, cardiovascular function improves. But it suggests that certain proteins in milk appear to negate the effect of catechins, the particular flavonoids in tea. The findings are bad news for manufacturers who have promoted the health properties of the beverage to Australians who add milk as a matter of routine. The study involved 16 healthy post‑menopausal women who were given either 500 ml of black tea, black tea with 10 per cent skimmed milk or with extra boiled water as a control. They drank it on three occasions but refrained from drinking tea for four weeks before and after the study. The drink itself was made from 5g of Darjeeling tea leaves brewed for three minutes.

In a healthy artery, blood vessels able to relax if the blood flow increases. A process called flow mediated dilation. The researchers measured FMD levels in the forearm before the tea was drunk and at several intervals afterwards. They wrote: “Black tea significantly improved FMD in humans compared with water, whereas addition of milk completely blunted the effects of tea.”The culprit in milk appears to be a group of proteins called caseins, which interacted with the tea to decrease the concentration of catechins.

The Times

So perhaps this means that by switching to soy milk which like all soy products doesnt have dairy based casein in it, you are not going to lose all the goodness that tea possesses?

Deslination Plant at Port Kennedy gets cancelled

Thankfully, due to the huge local response to the Water Corporations plans for a Desalination plant located at Port Kennedy, with outfall & intake pipes at Golden Bay & Secret Harbour, has been cancelled.

” Following public advice from the premier of Western Australia, the Hon Allen carpenter MLA, on 21 November 2006, that the Government would not approve a seawater desalination plant in Port Kennedy or Secret Harbour, the Water Corporation has withdrawn its plans for a proposed plant at those locations”.

This was always a crazy idea to locate this major plant in such a pristine coastal location surrounded by residential land developments, which is also a breeding & feeding area for the fairy penguin. In the end it was probably not the local humans kicking up a fuss, but these tiny little penguins that saved the day.

The iPod is 5 years old.

As a long time mac fan I remember when the iPod came out 5 years ago, Apple said it would be a revolutionary device, but I and many others thought ” big deal, why would I need one of those”. So I held out from buying one for 3 years, eventually finding a reason to purchase a 20GB 4th gen iPod.



Nine minutes later our iTunes library of well over 2500 tracks was sucked up & transferred to the iPod. We use it mainly at work plugged into our stereo for music all day long & driving in our cars with a Fm transmitter sending it to the car stereo. iTunes & iPod have changed the way we listen to & purchase music. We’ve discovered so many new bands & artists & have a greater appreciation of music now than we ever did. After an upgrade to a new 30Gb iPod video we now also keep our favourite photos & home videos on the iPod to show our friends & family, as well as using it as a portable hard drive for computer files. The iPod was and still is a revolutionary product.



And Apple has indeed begun to capitalise on the iPod “halo effect” with mac sales up in every market & it’s US marketshare up 32% where Apple currently holds 6.1 percent of the U.S. PC market, making the company the fourth most popular PC maker in the country. Figures also reveal that over half these sales are to people who have shifted to Apple Mac’s from Windows. Mac evangelists call it “the second coming for Apple”… and they’re not far off the mark.

Dubya Dub – George Bush remix.

I have been working on this track that I call “Dubya Dub” under my artist name “Buckster” for about 12 months now. It’s a satirical piece that uses humour in an attempt to explain just why so many of us see George W Bush as both a cruel joke and an incredibly dangerous man due to his simplistic views on the world. The fact that such a simple man, with fundamentalist right wing views can become the most powerful man in the world with his finger on the button is a scary thought indeed.

I’ve combined many different sounds in Dubya Dub, from the hillybilly banjo & it’s grungy distorted electric guitar chorus sections, a thumping dance bass beat, the drum kit, tambourines, bongos and of course the crazy actual quotes from George Dubya himself.

Try listening carefully, and see if you can decifer all the quotes. Some of the gems include “I know that human being and fish can co-exist peacefully” and ” your working hard to put food on your family”. Wise words indeed.

Note that none of the quotes have been doctored, edited or altered at all. Download it & have a laugh.

click here to download Dubya Dub

Also, I don’t know whether you have heard of a competition being run by radio station Triple J in Australia called Unearthed. Basically they have set up a website that lets emerging young music artists submit their songs so that everyone can sample them & if they like them, they can vote for them & even download them.

Theres some really great music on there.

Anyway if you would like to vote for my song, go to this link below:
( to vote or leave a review you have to register & then log in)

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=3599