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Down the Hatch - "Gimme a cuppa joe. Black." If you utter those words every morning down at the local Waffle House, you'll be making a wise health choice, a new study declares. After 10 years, researchers at Harvard have determined that two cups of coffee a day helps to reduce the risk of gallstone disease in men by up to 40 percent. Drink four and the incidence of disease is cut in half. Researchers are pretty sure that women, who are at greater risk of contracting gallstone disease than men, will benefit by drinking coffee, too. But that's only an educated guess. None of the 46,008 subjects participating in the project were women. [Wired News]
Dubious Distinction - Toyota and Honda make popular cars. According to CCC Information Services, they're really popular -- with car thieves. For the first time ever, the two Japanese carmakers swept the board, holding all 10 spots on the thieves' Top 10 list. The 1989 Toyota Camry tops the list (as it did last year), followed by the 1988 and 1990 Camrys. Five of the next seven spots are held by Honda Accords of different vintages. No American cars made the top 10, and only four models -- two Fords and two Chevys -- were in the top 25. Most stolen cars are stripped for their parts. The good news: Car theft dropped 22 percent last year, CCC reported. [Wired News]
Dumb Ass - You're 21 years old and you're on your way back into Cape Town after spending Tuesday visiting a nearby South African town renowned for its wine. You're in the back of the bus, happy as a potted plant, when you suddenly get the urge to drop your pants and moon the passing motorists. It's a great idea, until you press your flesh a little too tightly against the bus window -- which turns out to be an emergency exit. Next thing you know, your raw butt is bouncing along the highway, cars are swerving around you, emergency lights are flashing, sirens are blaring, and you're in the hospital -- in stable condition, totally mortified, but lucid enough not to give out your name. You, young man, are an idiot. [Wired News]
Dumb and Dumber - A media watchdog group is railing against the poor quality of prime-time television again, claiming that despite a voluntary ratings system in place to warn parents about objectionable content, shows contain more sex, violence, and crude language than ever. Of course, the group studied shows aired during TV's sweeps period, when programming is even more inane and profane than usual ... if that's possible. But maybe the question to ask is why is there more sex, violence, and crude language on TV? Two possible answers come to mind: 1) The average American viewer laps it up with a spoon, and 2) Hollywood is bereft of real writing talent, so why bother with an intelligent story? Either possibility seems plausible. [Wired News]
Dutch Treat? - The Dutch have never been renowned for their cuisine, and now maybe we know why. The European Commission is investigating a report that treated sewage sludge has been added to animal feed there, where it is presumably gobbled up by livestock that eventually finds its way onto dinner plates in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and other locales around the Zuider Zee. If that weren't bad enough, the EC believes the use of sludge may not be limited to the Netherlands; investigators will soon be on their way to neighboring Germany as well as other European nations to look into similar allegations. [Wired News]
Early Withdrawal - It's well known that Pancho Villa, the famous bandit who led a revolution in Mexico early in this century, relied on robbery to fund his army. It's also known that Villa's biggest heist came on 9 April 1913, when he and his men waylaid a train in northern Mexico and made off with 122 silver bars worth about $2.6 million in today's dollars. The mystery is how Villa managed to exchange the bars for the hard cash needed to pay his men and buy arms. Turns out the old rapscallion had a banker: Wells Fargo. Letters and memos obtained by the Bancroft Library prove that the bank's Mexican subsidiary acted as an intermediary between Villa and the owners of the silver, who agreed to pay him for the return of the bars. Wells Fargo's reaction, 86 years later? Yeah? So what? [Wired News]
Easy Go, Easy Come - When Jimmy Johnson said he was resigning as head coach of the Miami Dolphins Wednesday, he sounded like another burnout case. His father applauded the decision and said his son intended to lie low for awhile and work on his house in the Florida Keys. Well, forget it. Johnson's retirement lasted just long enough for Dolphins officials to talk him out of it and he'll be back on the sidelines next season. But he'll have some help: Miami also hired Dave Wannstedt, sacked recently by the Chicago Bears, to be the assistant head coach. [Wired News]
Eat Your Greens - You wanna be smarter? You wanna evolve along with all the other pre-humans and double your body size in a few million years? Well, build a fire, then cook and eat your vegetables. Researchers writing in the journal Current Anthropology conclude that it was vegetables, rather than meat, that gave the major boost to human evolution. Over the eons, our ancestors gradually evolved a more refined palate, one that eschewed seeds and nuts and raw meat in favor of a healthier diet centering around vegetables. The result was Homo erectus, a taller, heavier hominid with a better brain. Now we've all become Homo sapiens, although there are certain bowling alleys where the odd Homo erectus still turns up. [Wired News]
English Spoken Here - Life Is Beautiful, written by Robert Begnini, who also directed and starred in it, tells the tale of an Italian father who tries to shield his son from the horrors of the Holocaust by turning concentration camp life into a game. It won the Oscar for best foreign film, while capturing a meager 13 percent of the American moviegoing public. Miramax thinks it knows why: It was subtitled, a turnoff for many American viewers. So the company is preparing to re-release the film, dubbed in English, betting against the possibility that the real reason Life Is Beautiful did so poorly is that Americans prefer idiotic action films to real filmmaking and real storytelling. Good luck. [Wired News]
Enshrined - Baseball writers on Tuesday sent three greats to the game's Hall of Fame: Ageless fireballer Nolan Ryan; sweet-stroking third baseman George Brett; and Robin Yount, who gained stardom despite spending his entire 20-year career in obscurity (Milwaukee). No player has ever been ticketed to Cooperstown on a unanimous vote, but Ryan came close, gaining a 98.79 percent endorsement, second all-time to Tom Seaver's 98.84 in 1992. [Wired News]
Ex-Cowboy Dies - Mark Tuinei, who played on a Dallas Cowboys team that won three Super Bowls in the early '90s, died early Thursday after being found unconscious in his car. He was 39. Investigators said they found no evidence of foul play, drugs, or alcohol. Tuinei, a 6-foot-5, 320-pound left tackle, played 15 seasons with the Cowboys, blocking for quarterback Troy Aikman and opening holes for running back Emmitt Smith. He and his wife, Pono, were getting ready to return to their native Hawaii, where Tuinei had taken a job as offensive line coach at his old high school, Punahou, in Honolulu. [Wired News]
Exits - In Russia, President Boris Yeltsin sacked his prime minister, Yevgeny Primakov, leading to fears that an internal crisis will prevent the Russians from helping broker a settlement in the Balkans. Yeltsin said Primakov was paying the price for failing to stabilize the economy, but the move is widely seen as a retaliatory one. Yeltsin is facing an impeachment hearing and Primakov is cozy with many of his opponents. Meanwhile, in the United States, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin is resigning after more than six years in the Clinton administration. His departure, rumored for weeks, has no controversial aspects. Rubin simply wanted out. [Wired News]
Falcons vs. Broncos - Everyone expected the Denver Broncos to be in Super Bowl XXXIII, and so they will. Anyone who claims to have picked the Atlanta Falcons back in September is a liar. But thanks in part to Gary Anderson's first missed field goal all season, it will be the Falcons, and not the Minnesota Vikings, representing the NFC in Miami. Atlanta's come-from-behind, 30-27 win at Minnesota Sunday is the culmination of a remarkable turnaround: Since beginning last season 1-7, the Falcons have gone 21-4. If you happen to be a Falcon diehard who bet 100 bucks on your club to reach the Super Bowl before the season started, you're buying a round for the house today. Atlanta was 100-1 to make it to Miami. The early line on Super Bowl XXXIII: Denver by 7. [Wired News]
False Advertising - The annual Harlan Page Hubbard marketing awards were doled out Thursday and, as usual, none of the 10 winners bothered showing up to claim their statuettes. This year's recipients included the automaker Saturn and the beermaker Miller. Saturn won for promoting a three-door coupe showing a child getting into the car using the specially designed third door on the driver's side. (That would be the street side, where all the traffic is.) Miller was cited for its ad showing a bunch of beer drinkers frolicking with a puppy, proclaiming its product to be "Man's other best friend." The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence was moved to ask whether beer is really a friend to America's estimated 8 million alcoholics. The Harlan awards, incidentally, recognize the most misleading, unfair, and irresponsible ad campaigns of the year. [Wired News]
Fast Times in the Northeast - The Northeast is getting a little smaller, thanks to Amtrak and one of those fast trains Americans tend to associate with the Europeans and the Japanese. Starting in October, the Amtrak Acela will begin service between Washington and Boston, traveling at a top speed of 150 mph. This is expected to cut 90 minutes off the trip between New York and Boston, which takes four-and-a-half hours on a regular train. The train will have some nice touches for business travelers, including outlets for computers and larger business-class seats, with a skosh more room. The project costs US$2 billion, but if it gets some cars off of I-95, it's money well spent. [Wired News]
Fat Chance - Fiji was an island paradise until 1995. That's when the South Pacific nation was introduced to television, and it's been downhill ever since. According to ABC.com, it used to be a compliment when a friend in Suva noticed you'd put on weight. Now -- with the advent of TV and all those skinny blonde models and imported American beauty values -- Fijians are fretting about their fat. While ABC's report said that no studies are conclusive, there is this stark reality: Before TV got there, Fijians had a good self-image. Now they think they're fat. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out, does it? [Wired News]
FedEx Flunks Out - Thanks to a fumble by Federal Express, 675 high school students in southern California will have to retake their college entrance exams and, boy, are they happy about it. Seems that the courier picked up the SATs after testing was completed in early June, but somehow managed to lose them between LA and the New Jersey offices of the Educational Testing Service, where the exams are scored. Since you can't go to college without taking the SAT, the kids will have to do it all over again. And they'll want to do well, so they can go to a good college ... and not ending up in some dead end job, like delivering packages. [Wired News]
Fewer Like It Hot - No wonder they're tired and cranky. Only 45 percent of the coffee-drinking public had a regular cup of joe yesterday. That's the lowest level in the 50 years that the National Coffee Association has been keeping track of coffee drinking trends. The high was in 1962, when 70 percent of survey participants reported drinking "regular" coffee, which includes regular, instant, and decaf coffee. The survey also shows that Americans are fussier about the coffee they drink. Nearly 5 percent of the nation's coffee drinkers are ordering espresso, cafe au lait, and double decaf soy milk lattes. [Wired News]
Filipino Executed - A 38-year-old house painter convicted of raping his 10-year-old stepdaughter became the first person to be executed in the Philippines since 1976 when he went to his death Friday in a prison outside Manila. Leo Echegaray, who steadfastly maintained his innocence since being convicted in 1994, died by lethal injection. The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 1987 but concern over a rise in violent crime led to its restoration in 1994. Philippine President Joseph Estrada, a strong advocate of capital punishment, said Echegaray's death would serve as a warning that the government means business. [Wired News]
First Homebuyers - Their lease on the White House set to expire in 2001, the first family is in the market for a new home. President Clinton, his wife, daughter, and mother-in-law spent Sunday touring multimillion dollar properties in Westchester County, New York. Among the prospects: a US$2.3 million estate on four acres in Rye Brook and a seven-bedroom colonial in Edgemont, priced at $1.7 million. The top three criteria, as any real estate agent knows, are location, location, and location. Hillary Clinton has to establish New York residency if she's going to campaign for the US Senate. [Wired News]
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