Despite all the smoking bans in place, there are still some places, such as casinos, where workers are still consistently exposed to second hand smoke.

A new study, funded by the Flight Attendent Medical Institute, finds that casino workers face higher risks of heart disease and lung disease because a smoke filled work environment.

In the study, the air quality in three Pennsylvania casinos was tested for levels of two indicators of tobacco smoke - cancer-causing chemicals and particles small enough to inhale. 

At the same time, eight volunteers, each of whom spent four hours in the casinos, provided urine samples which were measured for levels of a tobacco smoke byproduct.

Measuring the air quality revealed that the tobacco smoke indicators inside the casino was four to six times higher than outside.

And testing the volunteer’s urine samples showed a 10 fold increase in tobacco smoke byproduct levels in the urine.

All in all, a fairly clear indication that the air that you breathe in casinos is full of smoke.

Seems to me it might be time for casinos to follow the lead of restaurants and bars and ban smoking altogether.

It works pretty good here in New Zealand. And there doesn’t seem to be any evidence it’s reduced the number of people visiting the casino. If anything, it might have actually increased the number of visitors.

(image source)

Take a gamble

People bet on the horses, football, basketball, and pretty much any sport in between. So why not bet on weight loss? That’s what over a 1,000 dieters in the United Kingdom have signed up for on the StickK website.

The American based start-up was created last year by two Yale professors who wanted to help people achieve their goals and objectives by enabling them to form Commitment Contracts.

Dieters in the UK have been joining up and betting on their ability to lose a specified amount of weight in a specified time frame. If  you don’t succeed,  you lose money.

But you don’t just lose a designated amount of money. The money that you lose is paid to a charity that you nominated when you join up.

But wait, there’s a twist. You have to nominate a charity that you would not normally support - preferably one that supports a cause that you do not agree with.  

Plus a Group e-mail will be sent to your friends informing them of your failure to reach your target weight loss.

Sounds pretty extreme.

Not sure it’s something I’d be willing to sign up for. But there are studies that incentive schemes - usually resulting in gaining some sort of material gain - do work, if only in the short term.

So what do you think?

Would you be willing to bet on your dieting success?

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Most of us use the toilet, well, to put it delicately, to relieve the body of no longer needed products.

But for two Belgian beer fans, that’s simply not enough. Seems that they think you should be able to relieve yourself and shot aliens or slalom down ski slopes at the same time.

To that end, they designed and have recently released the ‘Place to Pee’ video game. It’s set up in a booth and caters for two users at a time. Gamers (ie pee-ers) score by aiming and hitting sensors positioned on either side of the urinal.

And ladies, if you think that it’s just a ‘man thing’, think again. Seems that they have created a paper cone allows women to play too. Lucky us!

Personally, I think these guys have more than one beer too many!!!

(source - Reuters)

Protein folding as a competitive sport?

Sounds bizarre but researchers at the University of Washington are hoping that Foldit, a new computer game will help uncover the key to medical mysteries ranging from Alzheimer’s Disease to vaccines.

There are more than 100,000 different kinds of proteins in the human body. These proteins form cells, make up the immune system, and determine the speed of chemical reactions.

Scientists already know the genetic sequence of many of the proteins but not how they fold up into the complext shapes that play the crucial biological roles within the human body.

This is where Foldit comes in.

This computer game will allow players to manipulate on-screen images of protein chains and attempt to predict their folding patterns. Points are earned for every chemically stable folded protein they create. The more they create, the more they earn. The reward - maybe one day the Nobel Prize in Medicine according to the game’s creators.

In recent game trials, hundreds of players were provided with 40 protein puzzles (the folding solutions already known to the game makers) to solve and most of the players were able to find the correct structure faster than the computer could.

The next step is to provide players with proteins with unknown folding patterns and let them do the research in protein structure prediction through game playing.

Sounds like a unique form of scientific outsourcing.

This might be the one computer game that parents will encourage their children to play…

You can download it here.

(Source)

Fancy yourself a surgeon? You might want to try out this interactive online game. You’ve got 60 seconds to save Fred once his heart stops. Do you have the (sorry) right stuffing?

10mg Interactive / Bunny Surgery

Obviously, there are varying reaction times from person to person, but did you know that you have a fairly wide range of variance when it comes to your own personal reaction time? And it’s something most people can train themselves to improve. (Drag racers and FPS pwnrs take note.)

Check it out:
Reaction Time Trainer - Gamefudge

This is how you will die before you win Powerball, statistically speaking…

• 1 in 78: Automotive accident
• 1 in 314: Assault by firearm
• 1 in 1,313: Medical/Surgical complication
• 1 in 2,360: Fall down stairs
• 1 in 3,060: Drowning/submersion while in/falling into natural water
• 1 in 4,284: Choking on food
• 1 in 7,278: Pool drowning
• 1 in 8,988: Fall from a ladder
• 1 in 27,559: Caught between (non-automotive) objects
• 1 in 62,468: Legal execution
• 1 in 79,746: Lightning Strike
• 1 in 124,936: Explosion/rupture of pressurized device
• 1 in 340,733: Fireworks discharge
• 1 in 500,000: Struck by extra-terrestrial object
• 1 in 1,249,356: Ignition or melting of nightwear
• 1 in 1,874,034: Contact with venomous snake/lizard
• 1 in 146,107,962: Winning Powerball

Good luck!

“Death-by” odds are from the National Safety Council online at nsc.org and from LiveScience.com; The Odds of Dying.

Powerball odds are from Durango Bill’s Mathematics; How to Calculate the Probabilities for the Powerball Lottery (Updated for the 55 ball game.)

A study by Liverpool John Moores University finds normal Wii use could burn 27lbs (12.25kg) worth of calories a year.

They studied gamers in the United Kingdom and found that they spend an average of 12.2 hours weekly playing video games. They also found that kids playing a Nintendo Wii more than doubled their energy expenditure when compared with playing other video games. Wii energy levels rose to 156% above resting level, as opposed to 60% above resting level for normal gaming.

That doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, but translated into calories it does. The Wii players would burn 1,830 calories per week playing for 12.2 hours at that energy level.

Point of reference:
I weigh 200 pounds, I am 5′10″ and I run 10 minute miles very consistently. If I were to run 12.2 hours a week, then I’d burn 11,566 calories. This is ~171lbs (78kg) per year.

Sooooo… if you’re going to play video games anyway, get a Wii. My wife and I love ours.

Having said that, you still need to brush the Cheeto-fallout off your shirt and get your fat butt out the door on occasion. In fact, you can go from couch to 5k in 6 weeks, starting today, if you want.

(I’m not endorsed or supported by Nintendo in any way. I do hate Sony. Yes, I’m bitter. No, I won’t let it go.)

Nintendo Wii, what a cruel mistress you are. You giveth and you taketh away. Here’s a pair of articles for your consideration in our gadget-hungry culture of (mostly) fat-asses and (mostly) over the top marketing gimmicks.

This guy lost 9 pounds in 6 weeks enthusiastically playing his Wii. he also managed to knock his BMI from 25.2 to 24 even, and lost almost 2% of his total body fat. He also goes so far as to document his calorie burn in each category of Wii Sport he uses to workout.

• Tennis: 92 calories / 15min.
• Bowling: 77 calories /15min.
• Boxing: 125 calories /15min.

It should be noted that while partaking in each activity he “…played each game fairly aggressively and would perform full swings, move left and right, and not take any breaks.” Unfortunately I doubt that everyone will play this game console with such vigor, but maybe they should. I know there is nothing scientific about this study, but these are numbers it’s hard to argue with.
No wonder The Mayo Clinic endorsed philosophy behind the Wii, if not the product itself…

Which brings us to the other end of the spectrum. The product itself. It is just a product. It can’t solve your problems or make you skinny or anything else you’re not willing to make yourself. And it’s certainly not worth dying for.

On Friday, last week, a Sacramento woman dropped dead after trying to “hold her wee for a Wii” in a local radio promotion. The coroner said she exhibited signs of water intoxication after competing in a radio promotion where contestants were provided with bottles of water every 15 minutes while they attempted to stave off urination.

She left complaining of a terrible headache and crying only to die in her home later on that day. She had been trying to win a Wii for her kids.

This is a tragedy to be sure, but I’d say there is hardly malice involved. People in the marking sector can hardly turn down a good pun, even one as silly as hold your wee for a Wii. In fact, I’m sure the “punny” and novelty/adolescent humor of the entire ordeal ensured a green light from the station’s promoters.

The problem here was ignorance or carelessness of the event organizers. Obviously, water intoxication is just as deadly as dehydration, and it should be taken seriously. Just about anything, in excess, can end your life if you’re not careful. They weren’t careful, a woman died, and they all got canned.