Miller Media Moments

A study released last week finding Vitamin C or E pills are ineffective in warding off heart disease also do not help prevent cancer in men.

"At least in the context of two very common outcomes -- cardioprotection and chemoprevention -- we see no compelling evidence to take vitamin E or C supplements," one of the study's authors, Dr. Howard Sesso, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston told the Washington Post.

The findings are expected to be presented by Sesso on Sunday at an American Academy of Cancer Research (AACR) meeting in Washington, D.C.

The study included almost 15,000 male physicians who were randomly assigned to take a 500 milligram vitamin C supplement daily and 400 international units of vitamin E every other day, or placebo pills for the 10 years of the study. All of the men were over the age of 50 at the start of the trial. (Washington Post)

Despite hopes of vitamin E helping to prevent cancer, after an average of eight years, there were 1,929 cases of cancer, including 1,013 cases of prostate cancer. However, rates of prostate cancer and of total cancer were similar among all four groups (Associated Press)

"Well-conducted clinical trials such as this are rapidly closing the door on the hope that common vitamin supplements may protect against cancer," Marji McCullough, nutrition chief at the American Cancer Society told the Associated Press. "It's still possible that some benefit exists for subgroups that couldn't be measured, but the overall results are certainly discouraging.

About 12 percent of Americans take supplements of C and E. The new study does not mean these vitamins have no value, just that they didn't prevent cancer in this group of doctors, who may be healthier than the general population, Dr. Peter Shields, deputy director of Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center told the Associated Press.

The best bet, Shields told the Associated Press, is to do things that are known to prevent the disease — eat right, maintain a healthy weight, and exercise.

Posted by mill3444 at 5:31 PM | Permalink

After a century of publication, the Christian Science Monitor announced Tuesday it will go online only and no longer produce a print edition.

The paper is currently published Monday through Friday, and will move to online only in April, although it will also introduce a weekend magazine. John Yemma, The Monitor’s editor, told the New York Times that moving to a Web focus will mean it can keep its eight foreign bureaus open.

The Christian Science Monitor recognizes that daily print has become too costly and energy-intensive," Editor John Yemma told the Chicago Tribune. "Online journalism is more timely and is rapidly expanding its reach, especially among younger readers. … Our shift … is likely to be watched by others in the news industry as they contemplate similar moves."

The announcement came during the same week of several announcements by newspapers and magazines planning to make significant cuts in jobs, including the Gannett Company.

Lou Ureneck, the chairman of the journalism department at Boston University, told the New York Times that it was difficult to interpret what the move meant for other newspapers, because The Monitor was nonprofit and most newspapers were not. But across the industry, news organizations “are going to simply have to be smaller organizations,� Mr. Ureneck told the New York Times.

Ken Doctor, a newspaper analyst at Outsell Inc., told the New York Times most newspapers cannot give up paper. Print editions still bring in 92 percent of the overall revenue, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

“If that much revenue is tied up in the print product, if tomorrow these companies dropped those editions, they would have 90 percent less revenue,� Mr. Doctor told the New York Times. While getting rid of costs like printing plants and delivery trucks would help a little, he said, it would not make up for the lost revenue.

The Monitor's decision will be closely watched by media organizations.

Posted by mill3444 at 10:32 PM | Permalink

The third installment of Disney's "High School Musical" premiered Friday made an estimated $82 million around the globe.

In a review in the Los Angeles Times the reporter says, "The "HSM" series has always been playful and high-spirited, with a refreshing emphasis on collective action and the importance of group effort over the individual, and there's nothing in "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" to upset the formula."

The movie brought in $42 million dollars in North America alone, according to the New York Times.

The earnings this weekend made HSM 3 one of the most profitable films of the decade, good news for Disney as it tries to navigate the buzz saw of a global economic downturn, according to the New York Times.

“High School Musical 3� cost an estimated $13 million to produce, a tiny budget considering that the average studio production costs $70.8 million, according to the Motion Picture Association of America (New York Times).

“People really seem to want to get out and have some fun that is relatively affordable,� Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, told the New York Times in an interview.

Posted by mill3444 at 9:55 PM | Permalink

Hoping to stop people from drunken e-mailing, Mail Goggles, a new feature on Google’s Gmail program requires a little more work than a user name and password for a computer user to access their e-mail during late night hours.

The experimental program requires any user who adds the function to their e-mail account to perform five simple math problems in 60 seconds before sending e-mails between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. on weekends, however you can adjust the time setting, according to the New York Times.

The time frame is aimed to correspond to hours when a person would be most impaired from drinking.

A reporter from TIME Magazine decided to try out the new feature herself and then report on it.

While drinking bottles of wine, the TIME reporter, attempts to send e-mails between 10 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. She said she is able to solve the math problems for the first few hours.

Her conclusion is a person has to be pretty sloppy of a drunk to utilize the tool, according to her article.

"Mail Goggles' math questions are too easy to deter any but the sloppiest of drunks. However, my last e-mail remained unsent. If you have to do math at 2:30 in the morning, you're more likely to stop sending e-mails because you give up, not because you actually get the answers wrong," the TIME reporter said of her test of the tool.

"As a purely dissuasive tool, then, Mail Goggles works as advertised. Of course, there's still the text message, the Facebook message and the good old-fashioned drunken phone call," she said. "There are plenty of ways to humiliate yourself if you try. And for those determined to reveal their true feelings via e-mail, the company that brought you Mail Goggles helpfully provides a way around it as well: the Google calculator."

Posted by mill3444 at 10:37 PM | Permalink

The number of colleges banning smoking on campus is growing.

More than 140 campuses are now completely smoke-free, more than triple the number that had banned smoking as recently as March 2007, Frieda Edgette, of the lobbying group Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights told USA Today in an interview.

An additional 30 campuses are smoke-free with a few exceptions, such as designated smoking outdoor areas, and at least 500 campuses have smoke-free policies in residential housing, she told USA Today.

Last month, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) announced a smoking ban at all state-owned universities, after the state passed a ban for most work and public places in June. That made the state's 14 universities, attended by more than 110,000 students, smoke-free, according to a USA Today report.

"The momentum is growing," Edgette told USA Today.

One year after smoking in bars, restaurants and other establishments was banned in Minnesota, some campuses across the state are beginning to look into a complete ban on campus, according to the Minnesota Daily.

Boynton Health Service , in conjunction with the Office of Student Affairs, is distributing a smoking survey to students, faculty and staff during the first week of October, Vice Provost for Student Affairs Jerry Rinehart told the Minnesota Daily.

The survey’s purpose is to get a broad sampling of people’s attitudes toward smoking, Rinehart told the Minnesota Daily.

“We would be reluctant to adopt a policy that no one would support,� he told the Minnesota Daily.

A recent Boynton survey found that 96 percent of University undergraduates don’t use tobacco on a daily basis; 80 percent report they never use tobacco products. This is the lowest rate since tobacco-use data was first collected in 1992. (Minnesota Daily)

“This generation of students is not like any other,� Dave Golden, public health and marketing director at Boynton told the Minnesota Daily. “They’ve really got it figured out.�

Many of the campuses that have gone smoke-free in the past two years have been community and smaller colleges and universities, Edgette told USA Today. The latest campuses include Bergen (County, N.J.) Community College, Montgomery (Md.) College, Fullerton (Calif.) College, the University of North Dakota and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. (USA Today)

Margaret Johnson, a University of Minnesota junior and smoker, told the Minnesota Daily a campus smoking ban would be difficult to implement and control because campus is so large.

“You would probably still see students smoking on campus,� Johnson told the Minnesota Daily. “But I think if smokers had designated smoking areas people would respect that.�

Posted by mill3444 at 10:56 PM | Permalink

"It's starting to feel like Tina Fey is running for vice president," according to the Associated Press.

Fey reprised her role as Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live" this week to continue the sketch shows political event spoofs, according to the Associated Press.

The "SNL" take on the week's political events has become a part of the news cycle this fall and has reflected immediate parodies of the week's events. This choice has provided NBC with higher ratings and more website traffic, according to the Associated Press.

In an opinion article from the Washington Post, a columnist wrote Sarah Palin looked as though she prepared herself for the presidential debates by studying Tina Fey's impressions of her.

"She twinkled and winked and piled on the perkiness, a 'darn right' here and an 'I'll betcha' there," the Washington Post column said.

Saturday nights sketch is likely to gain as much buzz as previous skits have thanks to Fey's now popular Palin impression, according to the Associated Press.

Posted by mill3444 at 10:35 PM | Permalink

The Gophers are clearly better than last year's 1-11 record, but despite being 4-0 going into Saturday's game at Ohio State, Minnesota lost to the Buckeyes 34-21 in front of 105,175 fans at Ohio Stadium, according to the Pioneer Press.

The Gophers kept the score close for nearly two quarters, but mental mistakes brought the Gophers its first loss of the season.

"They're a few steps ahead of us, I think that's pretty obvious," Gophers quarterback Adam Weber told the Star Tribune. "But a few of our mistakes maybe made us look worse than we actually are."

The Star Tribune anaylysis said,"The Gophers gave up too many big plays, turned over the ball three times (resulting in 17 Ohio State points)." It also said the Gophers gave Ohio State running backs Terelle Pryor and Chris Wells too much room to run.

But, the Gophers learned from the experience.

"Playing in a place like this, playing against a team that's one of the best, our young guys are going to learn a lot," Weber told the Pioneer Press. "We have a very young team, obviously. We had a couple of stupid mistakes out there, not lining up correctly, but those are things that are going to come with the growing process. ... You kind of don't want to crawl for too long, you want to get up and start running."

Next week will show how the Gophers recover from a loss.

"Next week is when we'll learn about our team, how we come back from a loss," linebacker Deon Hightower told the Star Tribune.

Posted by mill3444 at 7:27 PM | Permalink

Many Nebraska Republicans felt anger toward Sen. Chuck Hagel Thursday after Hagel questioned Sarah Palin's experience to serve as president, according to the Omaha World Herald.

Mark Quandahl, chairman of the Nebraska GOP, told the Omaha World Herald that State Republicans are "worn out" with Hagel and his controversial comments about other Republicans.

"The views expressed are his own and would not refelct the views of the Nebraska Republican Party and msot Nebraskans, let alone most Nebraska Republicans," Quandahl told the Omaha World Herald.

The World Herald reported Hagel is the most prominent Republican to question Palin's qualifcations.

Hagel questioned Palin's foreign policy credentials and said it was a "stretch" to say she has experience to become president.

"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel told the Omaha World Herald in an earlier article cited by the Miami Herald. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."

McCain and other Republicans continue to defend Palin's qualifications.

Palin cited Alaska's proximity to Russia in defense of her knowledge of foreign policy, according to a report in the Miami Herald.

The following quote ran in the Miami Herald from any earlier Omaha World Hearld article, "I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia," he told the Omaha World-Herald. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."

Nebraska Republicans beleive Hagel should also be questioning Barack Obama's foreign policy experience as well.

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman told the Omaha World Herald he did not know if Hagel would be welcomed at Republican party events within the state, as so many disagree with his comments.

Posted by mill3444 at 4:57 PM | Permalink

Omaha man dies from fatal bee sting reaction

An Omaha man died Wednesday after being stung multiple times by honeybees, the Omaha World Herald reported.

Steven Parsow, the co-owner of a longtime Omaha clothing store was mowing his yard when he was stung and died at a local hospital after medics tried reviving him for 45 minutes, the Omaha World Herald said.

In an Associated Press article that ran in the Lincoln Journal Star it was reported Parsow was stung up to 15 times.

Parsow's wife, Debra Parsow, told the Omaha World Herald she was unaware of any allergies her husband had to bee stings.

Nationally, about 100 people die each year after being stung by a bee, Dr. Linda Ford, a Papillion allergy specialist told the Omaha World Herald.

The body can build up an allergic antibody to the bee venom.

"It takes awhile before the allergic antibody starts," Ford told the Omaha World Herald.

Symptoms of of an allergic reaction include swelling of the lips, eyes and throat. The person may also break out in hives, experience abdominal pain, have difficulty breathing and experience a drop in blood pressure.

Ford told the Omaha World Herald five stinging insects reside in the region - honeybees, yellowjackets, white-faced hornets, yellow hornets and wasps.

Posted by mill3444 at 9:27 PM | Permalink