beancounters

Own a piece of cult history

Say, if you have $2.3 million, the house where Cameron Frye lived is up for sale.

THE BEN ROSE HOME-site of the famous movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", cantilevered over the ravine, these two steel and glass buildings, which can never be duplicated, have incredible vistas of the surrounding woods. This is a unique property designed by A. James Speyer and David Haid, both notable architects of the 20th Century. Estate Sale Sold "As Is" No disclosures! This is an amazing architectural treasure.

"As is"? Do you think this means they never repaired the garage window?

Everything you need to know about swine flu is

here.

Okay, okay, if you want to see an interactive map, go here.

And if you want to keep up with reliable news in the Sacramento area, go here.

But whatever you do, do not get your news from here. Avoid that place altogether. This is why.

Those alpha kids

What traits distinguish boys and girls at school as the alpha kids? The Times takes a crack at it. You'll be shocked - shocked! - by their conclusion: the most popular children are good-looking, social and funny, get good grades but make it look effortless, and usually have a zany sidekick.

Except for the bit about school ties, I'm re-living four years of high school inadequacy right this minute. I was never even alpha enough to rate the job of sidekick! Read on, please, while I go and breathe into a paper bag.

Academic achievement seemed to be performed relatively effortlessly, at the same time as socialising in class.

"In this sense they are notably different from the high achieving but not popular pupils, including those delineated 'boffins' or 'geeks', who tended to be far more exclusively focused on the demands of learning," said the research.

While alpha pupils were assertive, their behaviour was not excessively disruptive, involving good-humoured "cheek" and "attitude" rather than overt confrontation.

I'm better now. Um, "boffin"?

Boffin was a common colloquial term used in Britain during WW2 for the technical experts, the backroom boys, who were helping to win the war.

An affectionate term, but with some practical fighting man's scorn for the academic brain worker.

Hmm. Do we still deride boffins here in the U.S. anymore?  These days, Americans seem to have a collective crush on web geeks. Or is it a different story at the grade school level?

Obama halo

I hereby declare a moratorium.

Photographers are no longer allowed to take pictures of the President of the United States from this particular angle, so the head is situated within the circle of the Seal of the President, which is hanging on the wall to one side of the podium. We get it: it looks like he's wearing a halo! How interesting! How droll! We remember this trick very well from the last presidency. Now cut it out.

Quick thought:

Herr Fritzl's prison cell ought to be a tiny, tiny box.

Just in time for the weekend

Add two more things to our growing list of fun ingestibles that have been found to prevent Alzheimer's Disease.

Red wine
In animal trials, UCLA researchers found that compounds known as polyphenols, which naturally occur in red wine, can inhibit the development of proteins that deposit in the brain and form the plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease. [thx Maya]

Marijuana
Wenk's studies show that a low dosage in the morning of a certain cannabinoid, a component in marijuana, reversed memory loss in older rats' brains. In his study, an experimental group of old rats received a dosage, and a control group of rats did not.

Another food fights dementia

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that we can take steps to delay age-related cognitive decline, including in some cases that which accompanies Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

Thomas B. Shea, PhD, of the Center for Cellular Neurobiology; Neurodegeneration Research University of Massachusetts, Lowell and his research team have carried out a number of laboratory studies demonstrating that drinking apple juice helped mice perform better than normal in maze trials, and prevented the decline in performance that was otherwise observed as these mice aged.

So far this month, we've been given three potential keys to fighting senior dementia - coffee, a calm demeanor, and apple juice.

Heck! Throw in a bagel and the funny pages and we'll be reversing Alzheimer's at my breakfast table.

Grow Tower

It's Saturday, so you have plenty of time to play with the latest version of Grow. It seems we're building  a tower this time, blogfolk. Enjoy!

Also, I hope you're not tired of photographs of the inauguration, because I'm about to present you with The Mutha Of All Inauguration Photos. It's 2 gigabytes, and detailed enough that you can zoom in to see Yo-Yo Ma stealing a pic with his cell phone.

Pop quiz: Senioritis

BBC News - People who are more laid back are less likely to develop dementia in old age, a study has suggested.

Research published in the journal Neurology asked 500 healthy elderly people to fill out questionnaires about their personalities.

Those who were calm and relaxed had a 50% lower risk of developing dementia during the six years of the study.

The dementia risk was 50% lower for people who were outgoing and calm compared to those who were outgoing and prone to distress.

Pop Quiz

When I read that laid back people are less likely to develop senior dementia, my first thought was:

a) 'Wait - wasn't there a U.S.study recently that said that coffee wards off dementia? How am I supposed to keep calm through a daily caffeine rush? Hmm? Hmm?'

b) 'I missed that coffee study. I drink tea, not coffee. Why isn't tea mentioned? Typical! Anti-tea bias!'

c) 'I find that non-stop web-surfing keeps me calm, so this study is really good news. Now I'm off to read the comics.'

Veep-crush

We watched (and partially fast-forwarded through) the whole inauguration last night. Especially loved Joe Biden's exuberance after being sworn into office. We pictured him saying, "Well, that's it! Thanks for coming, folks! Snacks and lemonade in the rotunda! Follow me - oh, wait, sorry, I forgot about Barack's thing. Back to your seats, everybody."