Adults Can Take Steps to Delay Alzheimer’s

Christine Dell’amore:

Older adults who exercise at least three times a week keep their minds sharper as they age, a new study shows.

Researchers at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle found that regular exercise, in as little as 15 minute intervals, can delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in adults over 65. Their study offers the most conclusive evidence to date that physical activity can help stem the degenerative diseases.

iPod Personal Trainer

Catherine St. Louis:

But that was before she tried MP3 workouts. Taking advantage of sale prices last January at www.cardiocoach.com, she downloaded the first three volumes of a five-part series. Cardio Coach audios are designed to be used during any kind of cardiovascular exercise: running, stair climbing, even walking. For 30 to 60 minutes Sean O’Malley, the personal trainer who created the programs, offers encouragement as he guides the listener through a series of sprints – and for those exercising on machines, hills – that alternate with easier periods. Original music accompanies the ebb and flow of the intervals.

The Read / Write Internet

Lessig:

This will be the next big copyright war — whether this form of noncommercial creativity will be allowed. But there will be a big difference with this war and the last (over p2p filesharing). In the p2p wars, the side that defended innovation free of judicial supervision was right. But when ordinary people heard both sides of the argument, 90% were against us. In this war, the side that will defend these new creators is right. And when ordinary people hear both sides, and more importantly, see the creativity their kids are capable of, 90% will be with us.

“The Origins of the Great War of 2007”

Niall Ferguson:

With every passing year after the turn of the century, the instability of the Gulf region grew. By the beginning of 2006, nearly all the combustible ingredients for a conflict – far bigger in its scale and scope than the wars of 1991 or 2003 – were in place.

The first underlying cause of the war was the increase in the region’s relative importance as a source of petroleum. On the one hand, the rest of the world’s oil reserves were being rapidly exhausted. On the other, the breakneck growth of the Asian economies had caused a huge surge in global demand for energy. It is hard to believe today, but for most of the 1990s the price of oil had averaged less than $20 a barrel.

Sort of a bolt of lightning as I’ve been reading Shirer’s the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I’m now entering 1939 in this amazing 1960 work. The look back with respect to opportunities missed is simply astonishing. I hope Ferguson is dead wrong, but one can see the seeds of war…

Constant Innovation

Geoffrey A. Moore:

The book’s central question is: How can companies innovate continuously? He writes: “Evolution requires us to continually refresh our competitive advantage, sometimes in dribs and drabs, sometimes in major cataclysms, but always with some part of our business portfolio at risk and in play. To innovate forever, in other words, is not an aspiration; it is a design specification. It is not a strategy; it is a requirement.”

Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution Author Geoffrey A. Moore