Sneakiest primates have biggest brains

Sneakiest primates have biggest brains reports more evidence for the "Machiavellian intelligence" theory:

Of all the terrestrial mammals, primates have by far the largest brains relative to their body size, with humans having the largest of all. The enlargement is almost exclusively in the neocortex, which makes up more than 80% of the mass of the human brain.

Large brains, despite being energetically costly, benefited primates because they conferred complex cognitive skills. But which skills were the priority — was it clever food-finding strategies that were most valuable, for example, or complex social skills?
[...]
Now Byrne and Corp have studied a catalogue of observations of deceptive behaviours in wild primates from many researchers over several years up till 1990. They found that the frequency of deception in a species is directly proportional to the average volume of the animal's neocortex.

Bush babies and lemurs, which have a relatively small neocortex, were among the least sneaky. The most tactically deceptive primates included macaques and the great apes — gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orang-utans — which also have the largest neocortex.

Some examples of deception:

Deception amongst primates is well documented. Sometimes a female gorilla will mate with a male surreptitiously to avoid a beating from a more dominant male. Or monkeys might feign disinterest in tasty food so that others do not come and steal it.

Byrne has himself observed a young baboon dodging a reprimand from its mother by suddenly standing to attention and scanning the horizon, conning the entire troop into panicking about a possible rival group nearby. "We were rather shocked that baboons could do anything quite as subtle as that," he says.

It's not just about deception though:

"I'm sure if we could have measured cooperative skill, we'd have found a similar result," says Byrne. "Cooperation and outwitting are not opposed — they're both about being socially subtle."

Sex and Propaganda

Sex and Propaganda explains the failed attempts to demoralize the enemy in WWII — through pornography:

Both the Axis and the Allies printed aerial propaganda leaflets using sexual themes in an attempt to demoralize enemy soldiers at the front. Did these leaflets work? Did the finders become emotionally crippled and unable to carry on their duties and responsibilities? Just the opposite occurred. The 'pin-up' pictures became collectors items sought after by the troops who greedily collected and swapped them. If anything, the leaflets raised morale. There is no doubt that they were the most heartily appreciated propaganda leaflets used in World War 2. We can probably state that they were the most widely read and circulated enemy documents of any war.

It Didn't Succeed, So Iwate Prefecture Decided to Give Up

It Didn't Succeed, So Iwate Prefecture Decided to Give Up tells the peculiar tale of a Japanese governor and his prefecture:

Nothing was going right for the residents of northern Iwate prefecture. Try as they might, the people of Iwate seemed stuck in a poor backwater, with factories closing, shaky state finances and few prospects.

So, three years ago, Gov. Hiroya Masuda sent out a bold new message: Just give up.

"We don't make an effort in Iwate," Mr. Masuda declared in a nationwide ad campaign that has run annually since 2001. Iwate should build traditional wooden houses rather than modern buildings, he said. Instead of striving like the big cities for economic growth, people should take pride in their forests.

"In Tokyo, people are chased by speed, and life consists of working, eating and sleeping," says the 52-year-old Mr. Masuda, who has local government employees print the we-don't make-an-effort slogan on their business cards. "Here, I want people to go home early in the evening, take a walk with their family, and talk to the neighbors."

The wacky ads have been a hit. They boosted Mr. Masuda's standing in Iwate, helping him get elected for a third time last year, with 88% of votes cast. They also struck a chord with Japanese nationwide.

Japanese culture may be changing:

Opposing effort in Japan is as bizarre as disparaging freedom in America. But since their economy slowed in the 1990s, many Japanese have started to question whether their hard work was really worth it.

In the past, even average Japanese workers who devoted their lives to a corporation could prosper. "If you graduated from college and worked solidly, you would reach an annual salary of �10 million," about $90,000, says economist Takuro Morinaga, author of a shelf of downshifting bestsellers with titles such as "It's Cool to Be Poor." But now that not everyone gets rich, "They think, why should they work themselves to death for their company?" he says.

As Threats to Oil Facilities Rise, U.S. Military Becomes Protector

As Threats to Oil Facilities Rise, U.S. Military Becomes Protector gives a short history of the Coast Guard:

The Coast Guard is serving as the oil police here [in the Persian Gulf]. It's a somewhat novel role for the service, which traces its roots to 1790, when Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton cajoled a young and cash-strapped Congress to build a fleet of 10 cutters — called the Revenue Service — to collect tariffs. Coast Guard sailors pitched in during World War II and then patrolled Vietnam's shallow waters two decades later.

WSJ.com - Clock Watching Divides Workplaces, but Time Favors Neither Side

WSJ.com - Clock Watching Divides Workplaces, but Time Favors Neither Side addresses different perspectives on time in the workplace:

Time may be many things — money, an enemy, a healer, something either saved or wasted — but at work it's never on your side. Employees think it moves too slowly. Managers believe it goes too fast. In general, their different perspectives illustrate the great divide between bosses, who tend to think that presence equals productivity, and workers, who often feel forced to provide proof of their commitment.

Increasingly, people seem to feel that they don't have enough free time:

That's because even though everything takes less time today than in our horse-and-buggy past, no one seems to have enough. According to a survey conducted by the Families and Work Institute, a center for research on the changing work force, 67% of respondents said they don't have enough time for their children, while 63% have shorted their spouse or partner, up from 50% 11 years ago.

What's Your Workout?

What's Your Workout? is a new column looking "at the lifestyle and fitness routines of busy businesspeople" — starting with Jim Sud, executive vice president of growth and business development for Whole Foods Market Inc. in Austin, Texas:

Mr. Sud leaves his house at 6:30 a.m. and drives about 10 minutes to his health club, Mecca, located across the street from his office in downtown Austin. From there, he runs various loops around Town Lake, generally around 45-50 minutes. He ends up back at the gym, where he stretches and, twice a week, lifts weights. By 8:30 a.m., he's at the office.

Some people are born to run. At 6:30 a.m. I'm not.

Wired News: Speedy, Tiny and Troublesome

"Popular in European racing circles for years, pocket bikes have recently exploded on the scene in California," Wired News: Speedy, Tiny and Troublesome explains — and from my recent visit back to California, I can attest to this; the miniature motorcycles were being sold by the road in the desert.

Ionko tells customers the bikes aren't street-legal, and though he's heard those with lights could be, the DMV won't let riders register them. Many pocket bikes also lack the 17-digit VIN, or vehicle identification numbers, that motor vehicle manufacturers stamp on each product. Ionko and others believe this may be an obstacle to registering them.

Terri Johnson, a manager with the state's DMV, said the VINs have nothing to do with pocket bikes' illegality on streets — it's really about the bikes' failure to meet safety standards, she said.

"You can't modify it to make it street-legal, so that's just the bottom line," she said. "They're not street-legal, and we're not registering them."

Wired News: Apple Lets Cat out of the Bag

Wired News: Apple Lets Cat out of the Bag reports on Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, where Jobs announced OS X version 10.4, code-named Tiger. He also introduced a new display:

Jobs also introduced Apple's largest display yet: a 30-inch flat-panel display in a sleek, trim aluminum housing.

Complementing the company's new 23-inch and 20-inch flat-panel screens, also in aluminum housing, the giant display will be available in the fall for $3,300.

Unlike its smaller siblings, the new screen will work only with Power Macs equipped with a new $600 GeForce video card from nVidia that features dual DVI outputs — one for each half of the 2,560 by 1,600, 4.1 million-pixel screen.

The geek in me actually got excited when I read that it required two DVI connections. Sick, I know.

Al Safa - Hand Slaughtered by a Muslim

Al Safa operates under the slogan, Hand Slaughtered by a Muslim, and their website features their "slaughtermen", Ahmed Omur & Osman Salih. Granted, they're referring to halal chickens, but, really, that slogan's a bit much.

The Inquisition

Thomas F. Madden provides a different perspective on the Inquisition than the one you're used to:

The Inquisition was not born out of desire to crush diversity or oppress people; it was rather an attempt to stop unjust executions. Yes, you read that correctly. Heresy was a crime against the state. Roman law in the Code of Justinian made it a capital offense. Rulers, whose authority was believed to come from God, had no patience for heretics. Neither did common people, who saw them as dangerous outsiders who would bring down divine wrath. When someone was accused of heresy in the early Middle Ages, they were brought to the local lord for judgment, just as if they had stolen a pig or damaged shrubbery (really, it was a serious crime in England). Yet in contrast to those crimes, it was not so easy to discern whether the accused was really a heretic. For starters, one needed some basic theological training � something most medieval lords sorely lacked. The result is that uncounted thousands across Europe were executed by secular authorities without fair trials or a competent assessment of the validity of the charge.

The Catholic Church's response to this problem was the Inquisition, first instituted by Pope Lucius III in 1184. It was born out of a need to provide fair trials for accused heretics using laws of evidence and presided over by knowledgeable judges. From the perspective of secular authorities, heretics were traitors to God and the king and therefore deserved death. From the perspective of the Church, however, heretics were lost sheep who had strayed from the flock. As shepherds, the pope and bishops had a duty to bring them back into the fold, just as the Good Shepherd had commanded them. So, while medieval secular leaders were trying to safeguard their kingdoms, the Church was trying to save souls. The Inquisition provided a means for heretics to escape death and return to the community.

As this new report confirms, most people accused of heresy by the Inquisition were either acquitted or their sentences suspended. Those found guilty of grave error were allowed to confess their sin, do penance, and be restored to the Body of Christ. The underlying assumption of the Inquisition was that, like lost sheep, heretics had simply strayed. If, however, an inquisitor determined that a particular sheep had purposely left the flock, there was nothing more that could be done. Unrepentant or obstinate heretics were excommunicated and given over to secular authorities. Despite popular myth, the Inquisition did not burn heretics. It was the secular authorities that held heresy to be a capital offense, not the Church. The simple fact is that the medieval Inquisition saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.

Formal inquisitions actually kept hysteria in check:

During the 16th century, when the witch craze swept Europe, it was those areas with the best-developed inquisitions that stopped the hysteria in its tracks. In Spain and Italy, trained inquisitors investigated charges of witches' sabbaths and baby roasting and found them to be baseless. Elsewhere, particularly in Germany, secular or religious courts burned witches by the thousands.

Protestants embraced the printing press and won the propaganda war against the Catholics:

By the mid 16th century, Spain was the wealthiest and most powerful country in Europe. Europe's Protestant areas, including the Netherlands, northern Germany, and England, may not have been as militarily mighty, but they did have a potent new weapon: the printing press. Although the Spanish defeated Protestants on the battlefield, they would lose the propaganda war. These were the years when the famous "Black Legend" of Spain was forged. Innumerable books and pamphlets poured from northern presses accusing the Spanish Empire of inhuman depravity and horrible atrocities in the New World. Opulent Spain was cast as a place of darkness, ignorance, and evil.

(Hat tip to Cronaca.)

No Atheists in Foxholes?

Are there really no atheists in foxholes?:

The old adage that there are "no atheists in foxholes" does not appear to apply as much as it used to. It turns out that the active duty troops in the American armed forces are somewhat less religious than the population as a whole.

Americans over all are 78 percent Christian, 1.3 percent Jewish, .5 percent Moslem, .4 percent Hindu, 13 percent unknown or none and the rest various other sects and faiths. But the troops are 55 percent Christian, .3 percent Moslem, .27 percent Jewish, .04 percent Hindu, .24 percent Buddhist and 34 percent unknown or no preference. Part of this may be a generational thing, as the troops are younger than the population as a whole. People become more religious as they get older. Another factor is probably education, as the high education standards for recruits means those in uniform have several years more formal education than their civilian peers. More literate too, as people in uniform read at a level a full year ahead of civilians. As people become more educated, they tend to be less religious.

While most religions are underrepresented in the military, there are some exceptions. The Mormons (Latter Day Saints), represent 1.3 percent of the American population, and 1.1 percent of the troops. Catholics, which are 25 percent of the population, are 22 percent of the troops. The Mormons are recruited energetically by the military. Mormon families emphasize education and clean living for their kids, which makes them ideal candidates for enlisted or officer slots. Because nearly all Mormon men spend two years as missionaries, and many do this in foreign countries (after learning the local language at Mormon schools), Mormons are particularly sought after for intelligence, translation and Special Forces jobs. The largest concentration of reserve Military Intelligence units is located in Utah, a state with a majority Mormon population. If Mormons cannot be enticed into active duty, the armed forces makes it easier for the well educated and multi-lingual Mormons to join these reserve units.

Even so, when American troops work with those from other countries, the foreign soldiers are surprised at how �religious� the U.S. troops are. That�s because the United States has the highest rate of religious participation in the industrialized nations.

Sleep Habits Matter and Sniper Logistics

How to Make War reports on a interesting Navy sleep study:

U.S. Navy sleep studies have discovered another thing to look for when selecting sailors for different kinds of duty. The study found that �short sleepers� (those who typically slept for six hours or less a night), were more alert when they were awakened, but were much less alert after 36 hours without sleep. �Long sleepers� (those who require nine or more hours a night) took longer to become completely alert when they were awakened, but were much more alert after 36 hours or more of being awake. So if you have to wake up people for an emergency that requires concentration, pick a �short sleeper.� If you need people who might have to stay awake for long periods, and still be able to function, pick a �long sleeper.�

It also comments on the popularity of snipers:

One of the least mentioned reasons why snipers are increasingly popular in the U.S. Army and Marines, has to do with logistics. During the Vietnam war it was discovered that 200,000 rifle bullets were fired for each enemy soldier killed. But snipers fired 1.3 bullets for each enemy soldier killed. The 200,000 5.56mm and 7.62mm bullets weigh over four tons. But 1.3 7.62mm sniper bullets weighs a little over an ounce. OK, so snipers fire more bullets in training, but that's still going to end up with four tons being compared to a few pounds. You cannot have an army of snipers. There are many combat situations (like being ambushed), where a sniper getting off single, well aimed, shots would not be the most effective response. If you are ambushed, you want to put as many bullets on where you think the enemy is, as quickly as possible. But there are many combat situations where a few well placed shots will do a better job than hundreds of less well aimed bullets. Even for the regular troops, single shots are now favored over emptying a 30 round magazine with fully automatic fire. Every bullets counts, especially when you have to move them thousands of miles before you can use them.

(That sounds like an OR finding, doesn't it?)

WSJ.com - Middle Seat Mailbox

I do not like people going through my things, and I do not like checking bags while flying. This week's Middle Seat Mailbox presents an amusing anecdote ("The Riddle of the Extra Underwear") that, while amusing, isn't reassuring:

This could take some explaining. Peter K. Hochla came home from a trip to find a notice from the Transportation Security Administration that his suitcase had been opened for inspection. But TSA left more than a calling card: Dr. Hochla found a pair of woman's underwear in with his things.

'Fortunately, it was 'industrial strength' utilitarian type in a large size, or it might have been difficult to explain to my wife,' he writes. 'I could not get anyone at TSA to return my calls of complaint or to even acknowledge my complaint.'

Spider-Man gets Indian make-over

According to Spider-Man gets Indian make-over, the popular American character is getting reinvented for the Indian market:

The character will no longer be known as Peter Parker — but will become the young Pavitr Prabhakar.

He will also have a more modest costume, wearing a dhoti, the loincloth worn by men in India.

There will initially be four comic books produced, released to coincide with the Spider-Man 2 movie. The first film was a huge success in India.
[...]
When the first Spider-Man movie opened in India, it took 67m rupees (�940,000) in its first four days of release — and made more in its first weekend than any Hollywood movie yet released in India.

If the first Spiderman movie was a huge success, why are they "transcreating" the character?

"Unlike traditional translations of American comics, Spider-Man India will become the first-ever 'transcreation', where we reinvent the origin of a Western property."

Spider-Man would become an Indian boy in Mumbai and dealing with local problems and challenges, he added.

Spider-Man India will interweave local customs, culture and mystery to make it more relevant to the readers, set against the backdrop of monuments including the Taj Mahal and the Gateway of India.

The Green Goblin villain will be replaced by Rakshasa, an Indian mythological demon that has shape-shifting abilities.

If you're going to change the character's costume, setting, and enemies, why not create a new character?

(Hat tip to Marginal Revolution.)

Yahoo! News - Vandal Smashes Saintly Venice Statues with Hammer

I don't know what to say, except that this makes me angry. From Yahoo! News - Vandal Smashes Saintly Venice Statues with Hammer:

On Sunday night, a man in his 30s attacked a column of the Doge's Palace on St Mark's Square with a hammer, battering the statue of Moses, witnesses said. He fled after a group of Italian tourists alerted the police. The night before, someone chipped off the hands from statues of St Mark and St Francis outside the 16th century Church of the Redeemer on the island of Giudecca.

This isn't the first time a lunatic has vandalized Italian works of art:

Geologist Laszlo Toth took a sledgehammer to Michelangelo's Pieta in the Vatican in 1972, shouting "I am Jesus Christ!" Two decades later, an Italian painter smashed one of the toes of Michelangelo's statue of David in Florence.

New Scientist - Silver cars are the safest on the road

A new study shows that silver cars are the safest on the road:

Silver cars are much less likely to be involved in a serious crash than cars of other colours, suggests a new study of over 1000 cars.

People driving in silver cars were 50 per cent less likely to suffer serious injury in a crash compared with drivers of white cars, the research in New Zealand found.

White, yellow, grey, red and blue cars carried about the same risk of injury. But those taking to the roads in black, brown or green cars were twice as likely to suffer a crash with serious injury.

The study doesn't explain why silver cars are safer, but it may be due to a combination of light color and high reflectivity.

New Scientist - Cactus extract offers hangover help

According to Cactus extract offers hangover help, an extract from the skin of the prickly pear fruit, called OFI, eases hangovers by soothing the inflammatory response to alcohol:

Hangovers, or veisalgia as the condition is called medically, carry huge economic and health consequences, say Wiese's team. But despite this, little is known about its mechanism.

It has been associated with a heightened inflammatory response by the body to alcohol impurities called congeners and some preservatives. Extract from the skin of prickly pear fruit, called OFI, had previously been shown to dampen inflammatory response.

So Wiese's team gave 55 adults aged between 21 and 35 years old either OFI or placebo five hours before they staged a party. The subjects were given a fast-food dinner and then allowed to choose their tipple for the evening from vodka, gin or rum, which are relatively low in impurities, or bourbon, scotch or tequila, which are relatively high.

I can't help but note that I prefer vodka, gin, and rum to bourbon, scotch, and tequila.

The morning after the parties, those given OFI were nursing less severe hangovers than those given placebo. In particular, it slashed the risk of a severe hangover by half.

The researchers also measured levels of a protein produced by the liver, called C-reactive protein, which is thought to be involved in the inflammation process.

The higher the levels, the worse the hangover, they found. This is the first study to show this, the team believes. Levels of this protein were also 40 per cent higher in the people who took placebo pills compared with those who took the OFI.

The researchers therefore believe that OFI eases hangovers by soothing the inflammatory response to alcohol.

So how does OFI compare to aspirin?

New Scientist - Sun block

I've long had a certain morbid curiosity about sunscreen — are the chemicals in sunscreen worse for you than the UV radiation they block? According to Sun block, they just might be:

Schlumpf and her colleagues tested six common UV screening chemicals used in sunscreens, lipsticks and other cosmetics. All five UVB screens — benzophenone-3, homosalate, 4-methyl-benzylidene camphor (4-MBC), octyl-methoxycinnamate and octyl-dimethyl-PABA — behaved like oestrogen in lab tests, making cancer cells grow more rapidly.

Three caused developmental effects in animals. Only one chemical — a UVA protector called butyl-methoxydibenzoylmethane (B-MDM) — showed no activity.

One of the most common sunscreen chemicals, 4-MBC, had a particularly strong effect. When the team mixed it with olive oil and applied it to rat skin, it doubled the rate of uterine growth well before puberty. 'That was scary, because we used concentrations that are in the range allowed in sunscreens,' Schlumpf says.

Nobody knows if doses are high enough to create problems for people, says Schlumpf.

New Scientist - Early puberty linked to shampoos

According to New Scientist - Early puberty linked to shampoos, some popular "black" hair products contain female hormones:

Unbeknown to many parents, a few hair products — especially some marketed to black people — contain small amounts of hormones that could cause premature sexual development in girls.
[...]
Throughout the West, girls are tending to reach puberty earlier. This has been blamed on everything from improved diet to environmental contaminants. But African-American girls are developing even earlier than their white counterparts. About half of black girls in the US begin developing breasts or pubic hair by age eight, compared with just 15 per cent of white girls, one study has found. In Africa, girls enter puberty much later, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
[...]
The products are sold as shampoos or treatments to deep-condition dry, brittle hair. The labels usually state that they contain placenta, hormones or "estrogen", although not all products that make such claims contain active hormones.

Television watching may hasten puberty

According to Television watching may hasten puberty, watching television may reduce melatonin levels — and low melatonin levels hasten maturation:

Scientists at the University of Florence in Italy found that when youngsters were deprived of their TV sets, computers and video games, their melatonin production increased by an average 30 per cent.

�Girls are reaching puberty much earlier than in the 1950s. One reason is due to their average increase in weight; but another may be due to reduced levels of melatonin,� suggests Roberto Salti, who led the study. �Animal studies have shown that low melatonin levels have an important role in promoting an early onset of puberty.�

(Hat tip to FuturePundit.)

Operation everything

Virginia Postrel's Operation everything describes Operations Research, a field that's finally delivering on old promises, now that we have the computing power and the data to take advantage of it:

"I've been explaining for 40 years what operations research is," says Eisner, who is associate director of the school of operations research and industrial engineering at Cornell University. He defines O.R. as "the effective use of scarce resources under dynamic and uncertain conditions."

That may sound arcane, but it's pretty much the problem of living — and certainly the central problem of economic life. O.R. isn't economics, however, though most economists have some O.R. training. It's applied mathematics. Since its origins in World War II to its recent resurgence fueled by the explosion in raw computing power, O.R. has developed analytical models of the tradeoffs and uncertainties involved in problems ranging from inventory management to police deployment, from scheduling sports leagues to determining how many people to call for jury duty.
[...]
Magnanti calls O.R. "a liberal education in a technological world." Just as a classical education once prepared students for a wide range of endeavors, from theology and science to diplomacy and warfare, he argues, so the habits and tools of O.R. are widely applicable to contemporary problems.

I enjoyed this anecdote from the early days of OR, but I'm not sure how you systematize such thinking:

In World War II, scientists from a wide range of fields attacked military problems with a potent combination of empiricism and mathematical models. When airplanes came back riddled with holes from enemy attacks, for instance, the intuitive response was to reinforce the armor where the holes were. But, noted the scientists, those were the planes that made it back. They didn't need more armor where they were hit. The real challenge was to figure out the places that had been hit in the planes that went down.

Operations Research

Operations Research sounds like my kind of job:

One of the more revolutionary weapons developed in the last century is being widely used in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is little known even within the military. It's called Operations Research (OR), and it's basically the application of mathematical and statistical tools to determine 'optimal resource allocation.' In other words, it's the use of math and common sense to solve seemingly unsolvable problems. During World War II, OR was first used to solve military problems, and it had a major impact. Developed mainly by British scientists in the 1920s and 30s, it?9s first major success was in developing the British air defense system used with great success during the Battle of Britain. OR was used to determine the most effective way to deploy the new radars, and where to put Britain?9s outnumbered fighter squadrons, and when to send them off to fight oncoming German bombers and fighters. OR was later used to figure out optimal ways to deploy anti-submarine forces in the Battle of the Atlantic, how to best defend formations of American heavy bombers over Germany, and much, much more.

It's not just military though:

There are some OR specialists in plain sight. These are the MBA crowd. Reviled as heartless bean counters, MBAs practice OR under a different name; �Management Science.� But the two disciplines are the same, and many business schools have one OR Department that teaches the tricks of the trade to the apprentice captains of industry.

At Pitt, Scientists Decode The Secret of Getting Grants

Working as a scientist is as much about getting grants as performing the actual science, and Pitt is actracting negative attention from scientists for its focus on getting grants. From At Pitt, Scientists Decode The Secret of Getting Grants:

To make sure Pittsburgh stays ahead of the pack, Dr. Kupfer runs an intensive "survival skills" course for young postdoctoral fellows in psychiatry to train them in the fine points of applying for their first grants, typically about $600,000 for five years. The biggest trick young scientists need to learn, he says, is to focus their proposals more narrowly. To Dr. Kupfer, it's almost like marketing or branding. "You need a T-shirt," he constantly exhorts his charges, by which he means a quick phrase that tells the world what the research stands for.

Football Rules

I found an excellent history of Football Rules, including these dates and rules changes:

1905

• No tackling out-of-bounds.


• No Hurdling or piling on after play called dead.


• No tackling below the knee.


• No stricking the ball carrier in the face.


• No locking of legs, except for the two players on either side of the center.


• Referee called the end of the play.


• Offense had to have 6 players on line of scrimage.


• Only one player in motion before the snap.


• Any player moving from the line of scrimage had to be replaced prior to the snap of the ball.


• The length of the game shortened to 2 thirty minute halves.


• The number of yards need for a first down increased from 5 to 10.


• Neutral zone increase to length of the ball.


• Legalization of the forward pass.


• If the pass was incomplete, it was a turnover.


• A pass completed in the endzone was a touchback for the defending team (turnover)


• If the ball wasn't thrown within 5 yards, either side of the middle of the field, or hit an ineligble receiver, it was a turnover. Hash marks were added.

1908

• Seven players on the line of scrimage. End of mass-formation plays.


• No pushing or pulling the ball carrier.


• No interlocked interference.


• No crawling.


• Flying tackle banned.


• Score for forfeited game set at 1 point.

1910

• A player leaving the game could not return until the start of the next quarter.


• Forward passes limited to 20 yards in length or under.

1912

• Team had 4 downs to make a firstdown. (10 yards)


• Length of field reduced to 100 yards from 110 yards. 10 yard endzone created behind each goal.


• Value of a touchdown increased from 5 to 6 points.


• All distance restrictions for a forward pass were removed.


• A pass completed in the endzone was now a touchdown and no longer a turnover.


• An incompleted pass was a loss of down and no longer a turnover.

NFL History

Some of my favorite factoids from NFL History:

1869
Rutgers and Princeton played a college soccer football game, the first ever, November 6. The game used modified London Football Association rules. During the next seven years, rugby gained favor with the major eastern schools over soccer, and modern football began to develop from rugby.

1876
At the Massasoit convention, the first rules for American football were written. Walter Camp, who would become known as the father of American football, first became involved with the game.

1898
A touchdown was changed from four points to five.

1904
A field goal was changed from five points to four.

1906
The forward pass was legalized.

1909
A field goal dropped from four points to three.

1912
A touchdown was increased from five points to six.

Interestingly, the NFL History site doesn't mention what prompted the forward pass — it was an attempt to open up the game and reduce the number of injuries in the game, which still involved rugby-like scrums charging down field. Teddy Roosevelt himself demanded the changes. (They also changed the first-down distance to 10 yards, from five — in three downs.)

Touchrugby International

I've had a mild interest in rugby for some time, and touch rugby sounded like a fun variant — "similar to rugby but without the tackling, scrumming, rucking, mauling, lineouts and kicking."

In fact, it sounds quite a bit like (American) touch football, but with six touches instead of four downs, no forward passing or punting, and some different lingo. For instance, if you're touched, you have to return to where you were touched and "rollball" (more-or-less "hike" the ball) to a "dummy half" (quarterback) who can't get touched (I'd say "sacked") or your team loses possession (not just one of its six touches). Also, the dummy half can't score; he has to pass the ball along to another player.

Defenders have to back off five meters (yards) from the ball before the rollball — 10 meters (yards) on the first play of the game or after a touchdown — which, by the way, lives up to its name: you have to touch the ball down past the try (goal) line to score.

Gaelic Football

This weekend, I watched an Irish friend's team play Gaelic Football:

Gaelic Football can be described as a mixture of soccer and rugby, although it predates both of those games. It is a field game which has developed as a distinct game similar to the progression of Australian Rules. Indeed it is thought that Australian Rules evolved from Gaelic Football through the many thousands who were either deported or emigrated to Australia from the middle of the nineteenth century. Gaelic Football is played on a pitch approximately 137m long and 82m wide. The goalposts are the same shape as on a rugby pitch, with the crossbar lower than a rugby one and slightly higher than a soccer one.

The ball used in Gaelic Football is round, slightly smaller than a soccer ball. It can be carried in the hand for a distance of four steps and can be kicked or "hand-passed", a striking motion with the hand or fist. After every four steps the ball must be either bounced or "solo-ed", an action of dropping the ball onto the foot and kicking it back into the hand. You may not bounce the ball twice in a row. To score, you put the ball over the crossbar by foot or hand/fist for one point or under the crossbar and into the net by foot or the hand/fist in certain circumstances for a goal, the latter being the equivalent of three points.

There are so many variations of football (soccer, rugby union, rugby league, American football, Canadian football, Aussie rules, and Gaelic football), and they all struggle to come up with the right mix of rules. Gaelic rules seemed to provide good action, but I have to admit that the mandatory "solo-ing" seemed odd and arbitrary.

Spike TV Enlists for 'Ultimate Fighter'

I may finally have a reason to watch Spike TV. From Spike TV Enlists for 'Ultimate Fighter':

Spike TV is stepping into the ring with Ultimate Fighting Championship for a series about the martial arts sport. The male-oriented cable network has ordered 13 hour-long episodes of 'Ultimate Fighter' to begin airing in January.

Set to start shooting in September in Las Vegas, 'Fighter' will chronicle a competition among 20 athletes to earn a shot at a spot in the UFC league. Mixed martial arts involves fighters of different weight classes battling each other using techniques from karate, judo and kickboxing.

The Spike deal represents a turnabout for UFC, which cable operators dropped from pay-per-view during the late 1990s because of controversy over its violent action. Since coming under new ownership in 2001, the sport has remade itself in a bid for mainstream viewers.

UFC president Dana White believes that the Spike deal will expose the sport to new fans. 'This is huge for us,' he said. 'It will take UFC to the next level.'

Robert Riesenberg, one of the executive producers, said he expects to sign up advertisers from several categories — ranging from energy drinks to athletic shoes — that would help finance the series in exchange for product integration and off-air extensions of UFC in everything from radio and Internet advertising.

By the way, stepping into the ring? It's the octagon, people.

Californians, as a rule, are familiar with ju-jutsu...

As an aficionado of "physical culture" and "clever wrestling tricks", I quite enjoyed this passage from The Land That Time Forgot, where our hero has been tackled by multiple cavemen:

Three of the warriors were sitting upon me, trying to hold me down by main strength and awkwardness, and they were having their hands full in the doing, I can tell you. I don't like to appear conceited, but I may as well admit that I am proud of my strength and the science that I have acquired and developed in the directing of it — that and my horsemanship I always have been proud of. And now, that day, all the long hours that I had put into careful study, practice and training brought me in two or three minutes a full return upon my investment. Californians, as a rule, are familiar with ju-jutsu, and I especially had made a study of it for several years, both at school and in the gym of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, while recently I had had, in my employ, a Jap who was a wonder at the art.

Californians, as a rule, are familiar with ju-jutsu...

Merriam-Webster Online - myriad

I recently learned a friend-of-a-friend's peeve: using myriad as a noun. Naturally, I'd heard it used as a noun and as an adjective, and I wasn't sure which version was "correct" (or "more correct"). Merriam-Webster Online explains:

Main Entry: ¹myr^.i^.ad
Pronunciation: 'mir-E-&d
Function: noun
Etymology: Greek myriad-, myrias, from myrioi countless, ten thousand
1 : ten thousand
2 : a great number <a myriad of ideas>
usage Recent criticism of the use of myriad as a noun, both in the plural form myriads and in the phrase a myriad of, seems to reflect a mistaken belief that the word was originally and is still properly only an adjective. As the entries here show, however, the noun is in fact the older form, dating to the 16th century. The noun myriad has appeared in the works of such writers as Milton (plural myriads) and Thoreau (a myriad of), and it continues to occur frequently in reputable English. There is no reason to avoid it.

Overstocking in Afghanistan

A Salt Lake City-based Internet retailer — actually, the retailer's handmade-goods division — is Afghanistan's largest private employer. From Overstocking in Afghanistan:

These days, Worldstock employs more than 1,500 Afghan artisans among a worldwide network of craft workers. It's an accomplishment that Overstock's CEO, Patrick Byrne, attributes to both an upswing in online retail spending and reliable demand for inexpensive handmade rugs.

That confluence of factors culminated this week in a confirmation by the Afghan Ministry of Commerce that Overstock is currently the largest provider of private employment in Afghanistan. According to Mariam Nawabi, commercial attach� for the Afghan Embassy in the United States, Overstock is currently believed to provide employment, directly or indirectly, for about 1,700 people living in Afghanistan.

Prior to Overstock's arrival, Byrne was told that the country's largest employer was a brick factory in the Western city of Herat, which had about 400 workers.

You Always Get to be the Terrorist!

The Northeast Intelligence Network shares a creepy story:

Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. A video located today on Sheik Abu Hamza's website, www.shareeah.org, features four children, doing what as children the world over do: pretending. But what is completely unnerving about this video is what they are pretending.

One young boy kneels in front of three other children, in the same manner of the condemned man; Three other children stand behind him in the same way that the terrorists stood over the men prior to their beheading. The three standing children are armed with pretend weapons. One of the three children is a girl. The tallest of the three standing children pretends he is Zarqawi, and reads a list of demands.

The film clip ends with the pretend beheading of the kneeling child.

Chilling.

(Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan.)

Badmash - The Singhsons

Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish pointed me to Badmash's South Asian (Indian) version of The Simpsons — The Singhsons.

WSJ.com - An Indian Paradox: Bumper Harvests And Rising Hunger

WSJ.com - An Indian Paradox: Bumper Harvests And Rising Hunger describes how international agencies are (finally) embracing some fairly simple economic principles:

The world is producing more food than ever before as countries such as India, China and Brazil emerge as forces in global agriculture. But at the same time, the number of the world's hungry is on the rise — including in India — after falling for decades. Despite its overflowing granaries, India has more hungry people than any other country, as many as 214 million according to United Nations estimates, or one-fifth of its population.

The paradox is propelling a shift in strategy among the world's hunger fighters. International agencies that once encouraged countries to solve starvation crises by growing more food are now tackling the more fundamental problem of rural poverty as well. The old development mantra — produce more food, feed more people — is giving way to a new call: Create more jobs, provide income to buy food.

It looks like we've moved one step past "teach a man to fish" to "teach a man to drive a taxi so he can buy fish"...

WSJ.com - Jeans Makers Launch New Styles To Flatter the Male Figure

Manufacturers are producing "figure-enhancing" jeans for men now. From WSJ.com - Jeans Makers Launch New Styles To Flatter the Male Figure:

The new styles feature many of the same touches that designers have brought to women's jeans: low-rise cuts, stretchy fabrics, bleached-out colors — and, of course, higher price tags.

I can't be the first person to point out that men and women have different figures, so what enhances a female figure might not enhance a male figure. For example:

Chip and Pepper, a Los Angeles label, lowered the back pockets on one men's style by several inches — it's supposed to help the pear-shaped fellow — and left the zipper fly exposed on another. Seven for All Mankind put Lycra in some styles when it launched men's jeans in the fall last year, offering both stretch and relaxed-stretch styles for $256. Adriano Goldschmied, known as AG, also sells stretch jeans for men. "Men have fat days and skinny days too," says NPD's Mr. Cohen.

Last I checked, men don't have fat days and skinny days.

Here's how to guarantee that I won't buy your jeans:

To encourage men to try on the new styles, Diesel stores stock most of the jeans on high shelves behind the sales counter — so guys can't buy them without consulting a salesperson first.

I find this...amusing:

British designer Andrew Buckler, who founded his label in 2001 and gave his first runway show this spring, says his fledgling company is already profitable largely because of the success of jeans "designed, cut and styled specifically for men."

Jeans have always been "designed, cut and styled specifically for men" — that's why designer jeans for women were such a hit 25 years ago; no one had made jeans designed, cut and styled specifically for women before.

Gene Doping

Gene Doping explains the brave new world of ergogenics:

Treatments that regenerate muscle, increase its strength, and protect it from degradation will soon be entering human clinical trials for muscle-wasting disorders. Among these are therapies that give patients a synthetic gene, which can last for years, producing high amounts of naturally occurring muscle-building chemicals. [...] The chemicals are indistinguishable from their natural counterparts and are only generated locally in the muscle tissue. Nothing enters the bloodstream, so officials will have nothing to detect in a blood or urine test.

Recently scientists matched up the harmless AAV virus with a synthetic gene that would produce IGF-I only in skeletal muscle:

After injecting this AAV-IGF-I combination into young mice, we saw that the muscles' overall size and the rate at which they grew were 15 to 30 percent greater than normal, even though the mice were sedentary. Further, when we injected the gene into the muscles of middle-aged mice and then allowed them to reach old age, their muscles did not get any weaker.

To further evaluate this approach and its safety, Rosenthal created mice genetically engineered to overproduce IGF-I throughout their skeletal muscle. Encouragingly, they developed normally except for having skeletal muscles that ranged from 20 to 50 percent larger than those of regular mice. As these transgenic mice aged, their muscles retained a regenerative capacity typical of younger animals. Equally important, their IGF-I levels were elevated only in the muscles, not in the bloodstream, an important distinction because high circulating levels of IGF-I can cause cardiac problems and increase cancer risk. Subsequent experiments showed that IGF-I overproduction hastens muscle repair, even in mice with a severe form of muscular dystrophy.

This allowed them to "break the close connection between muscle use and its size" — but it certainly seems to work fine with weight training too:

We injected AAV-IGF-I into the muscle in just one leg of each of our lab rats and then subjected the animals to an eight-week weight-training protocol. At the end of the training, the AAV-IGF-I-injected muscles had gained nearly twice as much strength as the uninjected legs in the same animals. After training stopped, the injected muscles lost strength much more slowly than the unenhanced muscle. Even in sedentary rats, AAV-IGF-I provided a 15 percent strength increase, similar to what we saw in the earlier mouse experiments.

And that's just IGF-1 he's discussing, not myostatin inhibition.

Myostatin, Belgian Blue, and Flex Wheeler

The German toddler is supposedly the first human known to have the myostatin mutation (or, rather, to have two copies of it), but Double muscling in cattle due to mutations in the myostatin gene reports "that the myostatin gene is highly conserved among vertebrate species and that two breeds of cattle that are characterized by increased muscle mass (double muscling), Belgian Blue and Piedmontese, have mutations in the myostatin coding sequence."

Muscle: The Myostatin Connection discusses the knock-out mice and at least one human case of the mutation:

The ultimate demonstration that myostatin regulates muscle size in humans is the work of a man named Victor Conte of BALCO laboratories. He has shown that champion bodybuilder Flex Wheeler actually possesses a mutation that has resulted in the deletion of his myostatin gene (much like that in Belgian Blue Cattle). This goes on to prove something else that has always been suspected...that champion bodybuilders possess some sort of genetic gift that allows them to become much more muscular than the average person. It seems that champion bodybuilders may owe much more to their genetics than they do to their training, supplement or drug use.

You may have heard of BALCO laboratories. Here's their statement regarding Flex Wheeler:

Flex was a participant in a study we recently conducted in collaboration with the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh involving 62 men who made unusually large gains in muscle mass in response to strength training (extreme responders). Flex was one of only nine extreme responders that had the very rare "myostatin mutation." Myostatin is the gene that "limits muscle growth." Specifically, Flex had the rarest form of myostatin mutation at the "exon 2" position on the gene. This simply means Flex has a much larger number of muscle fibers compared to the other subjects or the normal population. We believe that these are the very first myostatin mutation findings in humans and the results of this landmark study have already been submitted for publication. Flex was also found to have a very unusual type of the IGF-1 gene. In fact, Flex was the only participant in the study that did not have a "match." All of the other extreme responders had at least three other subjects with a matching IGF-1 gene. Based upon Flex's very unique genetic profile, we plan to expeditiously publish a scientific paper that reveals his complete genotype in specific detail. The publication of his remarkable genetic data should generate an enormous amount of media exposure.

(Addendum: Read more about Gene Doping and Fitness.)

A New Treatment To Prevent Asthma Is Only Skin-Deep

A New Treatment To Prevent Asthma Is Only Skin-Deep notes the connection between skin reactions and other allergic reactions:

In the long search for the cause of asthma — a fast-growing disease that affects some nine million American children under 18 — scientists have variously blamed pollution, exposure to irritants in food and even excessive hygiene. But a new theory focuses on the kind of rashes Ryan has had as a baby. It suggests that infant eczema is the trigger of an allergic chain reaction that can lead to a childhood full of wheezing.
[...]
The Elidel study represents another approach to asthma: trying to attack the immune system's overreaction at its origin. Elidel inhibits a molecule called calcineurin, which is a key early activator of the allergic response. Doctors hope this will keep in check the antibody IgE, which is found at high levels in 80% of kids with eczema. IgE is seen as a master switch that turns on inflammation-producing immune cells. According to the new theory, these cells at first cluster around the skin, producing eczema in infants, and later migrate to the lymph nodes and lungs, where they cause asthma. That could explain why asthmatics tend to have high IgE levels.

Evidence to support this theory came from some wheezing mice in the lab of Jonathan Spergel, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Spergel, who is a consultant to Novartis, induced eczema by smearing egg white protein — a common cause of allergies — onto the skin of young lab mice. The mice developed eczema. Next he gave these mice and healthy control animals a whiff of egg-white protein through their airways. Mice without eczema breathed normally. "But mice who had had pre-exposure to the skin would wheeze," he says. "The mouse work really showed things went from the skin to the lungs." Through skin irritation, he says, "we were inducing asthma."

When scientists tried other parts of the body instead of the skin, they couldn't induce asthma. "So the hypothesis is there's something special about the skin," says Thomas Hultsch, who heads dermatology research at Novartis. "The skin is the portal."

Form and Function: Disguising Security As Something Artful

While visiting DC recently, I couldn't help but notice the ubiquitous planters — concrete planters, heavy and solid enough to stop a suicide bomber in a truck. Disguising Security As Something Artful discusses other examples:

In Seattle, a new 20-story federal courthouse scheduled to open this summer comes with a thicket of cleverly hidden protection. A perimeter of sweet gum trees, concrete benches and stainless-steel bollards forms the first line of defense. Should a suicide car bomber smash through those, he would face two options: Try to ford a 'waterlily pond' that doubles as a security moat, or navigate through a grove of 80 trees carefully staggered to prevent a vehicle from getting a clear shot at the main entrance.

Then there's the sunken sculpture garden, designed both to please the eye and trap a vehicle in the soft grass. Even the building's sign is part of the security system: Twenty feet long and made of stone, it forms part of the western perimeter.

"If something does happen and they're able to break through all that, they have to figure out how to get up 18 feet of steps," says Rick Thomas, the building's project manager.

A good point:

The intertwining of security and architecture is a throwback to antiquity. From medieval English castles to the Great Wall of China, structures throughout history have been built with defense in mind. Only in relatively recent times have cities and buildings been constructed on the assumption that they were safe from attack.

Bomb blasts follow the inverse-cube law, so keeping them at a safe "standoff distance" pays off:

Many new building perimeters are designed to keep vehicles at what security types call a safe "standoff distance" — preventing the nightmare scenario of a truck bomb penetrating into a modern tower's vulnerable core, where an explosion could trigger a catastrophic collapse.

Curt Betts, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blast expert, says a large vehicle bomb produces just one-eighth as much blast force on a building from 50 feet away as it does from 25 feet. Moving to 100 feet cuts that to just 2%.

So, what's a bollard?

Commonly the strong posts on a pier or wharf for holding fast a ship's mooring line, the term bollard now also refers to the waist-high pillars that have become the barrier of choice around many buildings. Anchored as much as five feet into the ground, with a steel core, the toughest bollards meet U.S. government standards requiring them to halt a truck going 50 miles per hour.

Bollard makers now report a lot of demand for better-looking bollards. "Bollards can be beautiful," asserts the Web site of Delta Scientific Corp., a Valencia, Calif., manufacturer of security barriers. The company, which says business has grown three-fold since Sept. 11, has added a line of "designer bollards," including fluted ones that mimic ancient Greek columns, and others with a vaguely Victorian touch. Delta's bollard customers include the State Department and the National Archive building in Washington and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

A rival firm, SecureUSA Inc., in Atlanta, designed bollards shaped like giant golf balls for an 18-hole course at a military base. Then there's the gorilla bollard, a crouching fiberglass simian with four steel pillars hidden inside its arms and legs, installed at a theme park that the company declines to name. "To a kid, it just looks like a fun thing to climb on," says Bevan Clark, SecureUSA's president. "But it could stop a Ringling Brothers truck carrying a real gorilla going 30 miles an hour."

Bollards are the main perimeter security at the new Oklahoma City federal building, officially dedicated in May to replace the one bombed in 1995. Those by the front entrance are hidden inside much larger cylinders of perforated metal. At night, lights inside the devices make them glow like luminaria, the popular Mexican and Southwestern Christmas decoration of candle-lit paper bags weighted with sand.

Boche

While reading Edgar Rice Burrough's The Land that Time Forgot last night, I came across a term I'd never seen before: boche. From MSN Encarta - Dictionary - Boche:

Boche [ bosh, bawsh ] (plural Boches, Boche) or boche [ bosh, bawsh ] (plural boches, boche)

noun

U.K. an offensive term for Germans considered collectively, especially German soldiers of World War I (dated)

[Early 20th century. Shortening of French alboche, a blend of allemand "German" and caboche "cabbage, blockhead."]

Cream Made from Breast Milk Reduces Warts

I couldn't make this up. From Cream Made from Breast Milk Reduces Warts:

A cream made from human breast milk and nicknamed Hamlet can dramatically reduce, and often eliminate, stubborn common warts, Swedish doctors reported.

Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made Lethal to Tumor cells, which the researchers refer to by the whimsical acronym HAMLET, is the active ingredient that forces the wart cell to self-destruct by accumulating in each cell's nucleus and interfering with its control process.

The results, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, may extend well beyond wart treatment because the same class of viruses that cause those growths are also responsible for cervical cancer, genital warts, and some types of skin cancer.

Mutation Found in 'Muscle Man' Toddler

Mutation Found in 'Muscle Man' Toddler reports on a recent NEJM paper:

Somewhere in Germany is a baby Superman, born in Berlin with bulging arm and leg muscles. Not yet 5, he can hold seven-pound weights with arms extended, something many adults cannot do. He has muscles twice the size of other kids his age and half their body fat. DNA testing showed why: The boy has a genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth.
[...]
The boy's mutant DNA segment was found to block production of a protein called myostatin that limits muscle growth. The news comes seven years after researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore created buff "mighty mice" by "turning off" the gene that directs cells to produce myostatin.
[...]
Researchers would not disclose the German boy's identity but said he was born to a somewhat muscular mother, a 24-year-old former professional sprinter. Her brother and three other close male relatives all were unusually strong, with one of them a construction worker able to unload heavy curbstones by hand.

In the mother, one copy of the gene is mutated and the other is normal; the boy has two mutated copies. One almost definitely came from his father, but no information about him has been disclosed. The mutation is very rare in people.

Gorilla Runs Amok in Zoo

I was hoping for more story from Gorilla Runs Amok in Zoo:

A male gorilla escaped from his cage in the Berlin zoo and sent terrified visitors running for cover, the zoo said on Wednesday.

Eight-year-old Bokito, who weighs 286 pounds and stands more than six feet, six inches tall, climbed over the top of the glass wall surrounding his outside enclosure and roamed the zoo on Tuesday.

Berlin newspapers showed shaky photos of the gorilla taken by an 18-year-old visitor who recorded how Bokito was grabbed by two burly zookeepers and marched back to his enclosure.

'Suddenly hysterical children and grown-ups came running toward us. They were all running toward the exit. Behind them we saw the huge ape leaping toward us on all fours,' the visitor, Husam Shawabkeh, said.

So two "burly" zookeepers were able to grab 6'6", 286-lb gorilla and march him back to his enclosure? (By the way, I love the false precision of round numbers translated from the metric system. The gorilla is two meters tall and 130 kilos.)

RPG vs. M1

War Nerd (Gary Brecher), in RPG vs. M1, draws an analogy between tanks and knights:

Fact is, no tank in the world is totally invulnerable to RPGs, any more than any knight was totally invulnerable to arrows.

If you think of a tank as an internal-combustion knight, you get a better sense of how it's meant to work. The armor is concentrated up front, so the knight/tank can attack without having to hold back. The idea is that he has to be able to shrug off what they throw at him while he's spurring the warhorse full-speed over the battlefield — then hit hard.

If he's unhorsed — if the tank is forced to stop and deal with lots of dismounted enemy — then it's all over. It's as easy as knifing a turtle

Black Tea May Help Get Blood Circulating

I may have to learn to like tea. From Black Tea May Help Get Blood Circulating:

In an experiment with 10 healthy men, Japanese researchers found that blood-flow in the coronary arteries improved two hours after the men drank black tea. The same was not true of a caffeinated drink used for comparison.