Scientists attempting to create a nicotine pill to treat Alzheimer's disease have suggested that smoking can help boost memory and concentration. Nicotine has long been known to have a stimulating effect on the brain.

However, the deadly side effects of cancer, stroke and heart disease, mean its benefits have been largely set aside by medical research.

Now researchers, who hope to develop drugs which copy the active ingredients in tobacco without causing heart disease, cancer, stroke or addiction, discovered that nicotine can boost the intelligence and recall ability of animals in laboratory experiments.

The researchers, who plan to present their latest findings at the Forum of European Neuroscience in Geneva, hope that the new drugs, which will be available in five years, may have fewer side effects than existing medicines for dementia.

However, the scientists stressed the new treatment at best will only give patients a few extra months of independent life instead of fully freeing them of Alzheimer's disease. "The substances that we call drugs have, in the majority of cases, do have a mixture of beneficial and harmful effects and nicotine no exception to this," Professor Ian Stoleman of Britain's King's College was quoted as saying by the Mail online.

Researchers led by Prof Stolerman studied how nicotine alters the brain's circuitry to boost concentration and memory. In his study, he showed that the concentration power in rats went up by 5 per cent when injected with nicotine, the report said.

No, it’s not because the airline hates you

Last year, U.S. airlines canceled 21,000 flights. Or rather, a small cadre of guys canceled 21,000 flights. Every gate agent reports up the ladder at a given airline to a set of command-center managers. We spoke with a few of the people who make the big decisions to learn what factors influence whether they cancel a flight.

Number one is no surprise: The Weather

No 2. : Repairs

One warning light is all it takes to ground a plane. Age-related corrosion is often the culprit. Airplanes also have mileage-based maintenance checks, so if a plane has just passed the mark (or will very soon), an airline may cancel its next flight to be safe.

No 3. : Crew Hours

Flight crews can work for only 30 hours every seven days and 100 hours a month. If delays have tacked on too many in-flight hours (idling on the tarmac counts) and crews will exceed their quotas during the next flight, the airline will cancel it.

No 4. : Full or Empty

Contrary to popular belief, it’s usually better to fly in the evening, since the airlines will work furiously to get the planes where they’re supposed to be for the next day’s schedule. It’s the early-morning flights that are more likely to be canceled.

I found this On:

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-%2526-space/article/2008-09/why-your-flight-got-canceled

Buying a 3G iPhone doesn’t have to mean that your first-generation model is now just a paperweight

Here’s a secret they didn’t tell you when you bought a 3G iPhone: One of its best features—the ability to run new applications found on iTunes—is also possible on the old iPhone with an easy software upgrade. Plus, you can hack your first-gen to run unofficial apps alongside the sanctioned ones (known as “jailbreaking” the phone). And remember that your deactivated iPhone still has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well. With all this at your disposal, there are lots of ways to give a first-gen a second life.

Remote Control
Apple’s free Remote application is the slickest way to control your AppleTV or Mac’s iTunes with an iPhone, but there are other free apps for controlling your TiVo (code.google.com/p/tivoremote), your MythTV home-theater PC (trac2.assembla.com/mymote/wiki) or any computer (code.google.com/p/telekinesis).

GPS Device

xGPS ($75; xgps.xwaves.net) uses a small GPS receiver that plugs into your phone, along with software to give you turn-by-turn directions (you must have a jailbroken phone to use xGPS). Coming in January, LocoGPS (gomite.com) will do the same thing with a GPS receiver that connects to your iPhone over Wi-Fi.

VoIP phone

Although your cell number is now on the 3G, your old phone can still make calls over the Internet using Wi-Fi. Truphone is found in the app store; calls cost between 6 and 30 cents a minute. Fring (fring.com) lets you use your Skype account, including SkypeIn, so you can receive calls too.

Media Center

With Apple’s Universal Dock ($50; apple.com), you can play video and music from your iPhone through a connected TV and stereo. Download movies and TV from iTunes or transfer them from your Mac, and install applications like Pandora and Last.FM for customized Internet radio.

Music Studio

From vinyl scratching (MixMeister Scratch; free) to more cowbell (More Cowbell; free), the iPhone can provide just about any sound you’re craving. One of the most versatile apps is MooCow Music:Band ($1.99), which gives you simulated piano, drums, bass, blues guitar, metronome and, of course, crowd noise. To get a little more utility out of your actual instruments, use any number of tuning applications, including Stay in Tuen ($4.99) and Tunic Guitar Free (free).

Shop Assistant
Our pal Chuck over at Toolmonger has put together a list of five uses for your iPhone around the shop including the rather analog straight edge, and a digital level using the phone’s built-in accelerometer and an app like Bubble Level ($.99). We’d add “calculator” to that list with the handy ShopCalc ($1.99), which can add fractional and decimal measurements interchangeably, and a more comprehensive unit-conversion app like Units (free), which handles everything from pressure to power

I found This on:

http://www.popsci.com/oldiphone

Spooked? In our first episode of The Science of YouTube, we take a ride down into the Uncanny Valley and explore why this robot might freak you out

Have a look around intresting stuff

Scammers take advantage of banking turmoil, incidents of fraud increasing as market falls

In the worst of times, don't expect the best in everyone. Scammers are reveling in the financial turmoil by taking advantage of consumers' fears, especially those who are customers of banks most affected by the Wall Street crisis. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which issued a warning this week, cautioned that people should watch out for e-mails or pop-ups, even if from their own banks, asking for any sensitive personal or financial information. People should double-check their bank and credit card statements for fraudulent activity, the report added.

Banks making the news like JP Morgan Chase, which bought out Washington Mutual in September, or Citigroup, which as of this week backed out of settlement talks with Wachovia and Wells Fargo, are prime targets for phishing. The report said that fraudsters may not necessarily be taking information to get credit using someone else's identity, but could be going a step further and breaking into accounts that already exist. Spammers are apparently also creating fake Web sites and malicious software to get information.

To learn more about scams, check out the FTC's site.

1. Coca-Cola was originally green.
2. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
3. The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with .
4. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
5. There are two credit cards for every person in theUnited States
6. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
7. Women blink nearly twice as much as men!
8. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath ..
9. It is impossible to lick your elbow.
10. People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
11. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
12. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
13. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
14. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history.Spades - King DavidClubs - Alexander the Great,Hearts - CharlemagneDiamonds - Julius Caesar.
15. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
16. If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
17. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common?Ans. - All invented by women.
18. Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil.
19. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
20. A snail can sleep for three years.
21. All polar bears are left handed .
22. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
23. Butterflies taste with their feet .
24. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
25. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
26. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
27. Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.
28. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
29. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
30. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
31. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
32. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.
33. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
34. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match .
35. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
36. Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different

Microsoft crazy facts

1 :
Nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer named as "CON".
This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable. ..

Explanation for 1:

In windows the folder name and the special system variables share the same interface, so
when you create a folder with a system variable name it will consider that folder already
exist!!
these special system variables are available irrespective of path
You cannot create a folder with these names also:
CON, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3,COM1 to COM9 and LPT1 to LPT9....
CON means console, COM1 means serial port 1, LPT1 means parallel port 1

2:
This is something pretty cool and unbelievable. ..
At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!
Try it out yourself...
Open Microsoft Word and type
=rand (200, 99)
and then press ENTER

3:
For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1. Open an empty notepad file
2. Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3. Save it as whatever you want.
4. Close it, and re-open it.
is it just a really weird bug?

You can try the same thing above with another sentence "this app can break"