Aspiring chef dies hours after making ultra-hot sauce for chilli-eating contest

[via dailymail]

An aspiring cook who challenged his friend to a chilli-eating contest died just hours later.

Andrew Lee, 33, had used a bag of home-grown red chillies to make a super-hot sauce.

The forklift truck driver, who had recently passed a medical at work, dared his girlfriend's brother to eat a spoonful - then ate a plateful himself. Shortly after he had a heart attack and died.

Andrew Lee made an ultra-hot sauce with homegrown chillis. The morning after he was found unconscious and paramedics were unable to revive him

Mr Lee took a jar of the sauce to his girlfriend's house last weekend, where he challenged her brother Michael, his family said.

His sister, Claire Chadbourne, 29, explained: 'They had a contest over who could make the hottest chilli sauce.

'Andrew had used chillies to make Thai dishes before but had never made anything this hot.

'My dad grew the chillies especially for Andrew. The contest was planned and he gave them to him.

'Andrew just ate it with a plate of Dolmio. It was not a proper meal because he had already eaten lamb chops and mash after coming home from work. I don't know if Michael ate the chilli sauce as well.'

But as he went to bed after the contest, Mr Lee, of Edlington, Doncaster, had complained of itching, she added.

The next morning, his girlfriend Samantha Bailey, a mother of four, found him unconscious.

She called an ambulance, but paramedics were unable to revive him. Mr Lee was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mrs Chadbourne added: 'He apparently got into bed at 2.30am and started scratching all over.

'His girlfriend scratched his back until he fell asleep. She woke up and he was dead.

'Who would have thought he could have died from eating chilli sauce? We don't know of anything else that could have caused his death.

'He was perfectly healthy and the post-mortem showed no heart problems.'

She added: 'He loved cooking for his friends and was a good cook. He always said he wanted to be a chef but didn't want to start at the bottom.

'He would do anything for anybody. He never held a grudge and loved fishing and computers.'

Mr Lee's mother, Pamela, 61, said: 'He had used chillies in cooking but never made a sauce like this before.

1'He tested the sauce after making it, stuck his finger in and went to wash it, saying, "Wow, that's hot."

'We don't know what happened to him. Something has given him a cardiac arrest and we can only put it down to the chilli sauce.'

Toxicology tests are under way to see whether Mr Lee had a fatal reaction to the sauce.

Attempts to develop ever hotter varieties of chilli pepper have been condemned by health experts, who warn of potentially lethal effects.

Mild adverse reactions can include burning eyes, a streaming nose and uncontrollable hiccups.

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Mad Science: Nine of the oddest experiments ever

[via newscientist]

1. The 28-hour day

At one time, one of the great unsolved mysteries of sleep research was whether the human sleep–wake rhythm of 24 hours was merely a habit, changeable at any time, or whether people had an internal, hard-wired body clock.

So sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman set out to find a location where there was no difference between day and night.

He found it in a 20-metre wide and 8-metre high rock chamber in the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, where he and his student Bruce Richardson decided to try out a 28-hour day. They would sleep for 9 hours, work for 10 hours and have 9 hours' leisure time.

They spent 32 days in the cave. Richardson adapted to the new cycle after just a week. Kleitman, who was 20 years older, failed to adapt.

Watch some footage from the experiment

2. The psychonaut

To find out what would happen if the brain was cut off from all external stimuli, scientist John Lilly built the first sensory deprivation tank in 1954. Floating in warm water for hours in complete darkness and silence, Lilly began to experience vivid fantasies.

"These are too personal to relate publicly," he reported later. The hallucinations of his test subjects were similarly difficult to categorize scientifically. This was one reason why his research did not take off.

Lilly later gave up scientific research and founded the firm Samadhi Tanks, which manufactured tanks for domestic use. Having became something of a New Age guru, he died in 2001.

One of the few scientific experiments honoured by Hollywood, Lilly's work was the model for the 1980 film Altered States. To no one's surprise, the real experiments were done with much less flashy equipment than that shown in the film. Lilly sometimes had to switch off the light himself and then climb, in complete darkness, into a tank, which was little more than an outsize bathtub.

Watch the title sequence of Altered States, which shows a sophisticated vertical tank that never actually existed

3. Psychology's atom bomb

This is probably the most famous experiment ever not actually done. American market researcher James Vicary claimed that he had exposed the audience in a cinema in Fort Lee, NJ to the secret instructions "Eat Popcorn!" and "Drink Coke!" As a result, the sales of Coca-Cola in the cinema foyer increased by 18.1%, while those of popcorn rose by 57.5%.

Vicary later admitted that the whole story had been fabricated. But it stuck and became an urban myth.

Vicary's experiment had its last major airing to date during the US Presidential elections of 2000, when in a TV advert promoting the Republican candidate George W Bush unseen by viewers, the word "RATS" was flashed up momentarily when a Democrat policy was mentioned. See the ad for yourself: the word appears at 0:25

4. Holidaying in a draught

Being a guinea pig for the British government's Common Cold Unit in 1946 was very popular with students. They saw it as a cheap holiday: getting free accommodation in spacious flats fully equipped with books, games, radio and telephone, and spending your leisure time playing table tennis, badminton, or golf. You even got paid three shillings a day.

The students were instructed to maintain a distance of at least 9 metres from all unprotected persons, other than their flatmates. The unpleasant part of the experiment began when the participants had to spend half an hour in a draughty corridor after taking a hot bath, had to wear wet socks for the rest of the day, and were infected with nasal secretion from a cold sufferer.

To everyone's surprise the experiments demonstrated that the common cold had nothing to do with cold temperatures.

Watch a (hilarious) film about the experiment

5. Remote control bullfight

Spanish neurologist Jose Delgado from Yale University was not only convinced that electrical stimulation of the brain was the key to understanding the biological bases of social behaviour: he was also prepared to prove his case in a rather risky fashion.

On a spring evening in 1964 he came face to face with Lucero, a 250-kilogram fighting bull owned by landowner Ramón Sánchez, who had granted Delgado the use of a small practice ring on his estate of La Almarilla in Córdoba for the experiment.

Lucero lumbered towards him. Delgado pressed a button on the remote control. The radio-controlled electrodes he had placed in the brain a few days before the experiment activated. This instantly dissipated the animal's aggression – Lucero skidded to a halt and trotted off.

Watch a video of Delgado's encounter with the bull

Delgado's experiment was considered newsworthy enough to be published on the front page of the New York Times – ironically only one year after it was actually done.

6. Dogbot meets real Dog

In 2003, researchers from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris tried to find out whether dogs would accept Sony's commercial dogbot AIBO as one of their own. The experiment resulted in a formal scientific publication, "Social behaviour of dogs encountering AIBO, an animal-like robot in a neutral and in a feeding situation", and the insight that the answer is "no".

Watch a video of the experiment

7. A year in bed

It sounds like the ideal job for couch potatoes: in January 1986, 11 men went to bed in Moscow, and didn't get up for the next 370 days. They were washed lying down, and ate, read, watched television and wrote letters in a prone position.

At the time, this was the simplest method to simulate the effects of weightlessness on Earth. But the 370 days this study lasted went way beyond anything that had been done before.

In addition to the medical results, it had unintended consequences. Some marriages did not survive the strain, and one of the men fell in love with a researcher who was working on the project.

Each participant had been promised a car as compensation for his efforts. As former Cosmonaut and director of the study Boris Morukov says, "It was still the Soviet era then, and getting hold of a car wasn't easy." Only one man quit the experiment, after three months – he already owned a car.

8. The Doctor Fox Effect

The lecture that Myron L Fox delivered in 1970 to a crowd of assembled experts had an impressive enough title: "Mathematical game theory as applied to physician education". His polished performance at the annual conference of the University of California School of Medicine's further education program so impressed the audience that nobody noticed that he was an actor, who didn't know the first thing about game theory.

All that Fox had done was to take a scholarly article on game theory and work up a lecture from it that was quite intentionally full of imprecise waffle, invented words and contradictory assertions.

The researchers behind the experiment – John Ware, Donald Naftulin and Frank Donnelly – wanted to find out whether a brilliant delivery technique could so completely bamboozle a group of experts that they overlooked the fact that the content was nonsense. The answer is: yes, it can.

At the beginning of the talk, Fox was nervous because he feared people would see through the ruse and recognise him. After all, he was the actor who played Dr. Benson, the vet who looked after the inspector's dog, in Columbo. But the performance went so well that by the end he was confident enough to take questions from the audience.

A journalist later wrote: "If an actor makes a better teacher, why not a better congressman, or even a better President?" Ten years later Ronald Reagan was elected to the White House.

9. Urine in the web

In 1955, psychiatrists at the Friedmatt Sanatorium and Nursing Home in Basle, Switzerland were trying to find a way to diagnose schizophrenia. They fed urine concentrate from fifteen schizophrenics to spiders and compared the webs that they spun to those constructed by spiders that had been given researchers' urine instead. No systematic differences were found.

However, the researchers found out one thing: concentrated urine "must taste extremely unpleasant, despite all the sugar that was added". The spiders' behaviour left no room for doubt: "After taking just a sip, the spiders exhibited a marked abhorrence for any further contact with this solution.”

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Why you shouldn't propose at a NBA game.

I’ve always wished this would happen when some dork cluelessly tries to be romantic at a sporting event however now that I’ve seen it, I actually feel really bad for this loser. I hope from now on women can appreciate how special it is to be proposed to at half-court in front of 1000’s drunk hot dog and nacho eating fans. Who am I kidding, this is how all woman should reply to this bad idea!



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10 Ways To Rekindle The Magic In Your Relationship

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Are you frustrated that your relationship doesn’t have the magic and romance that it once had?

You’re not alone.

Living with the same partner for a long time can become stable and comfortable, and, as a result, can also kill the spark that made your relationship so special in the first place.

Here are some simple, fun and creative ideas to
reignite that magic:

1. SEND THEM A UNIQUE GIFT

Get a piece of paper and some crayons. Draw a bright childlike picture with a smiley sun and two stick figures holding hands. Add labels with your two names pointing to the stick figures. Write ‘I Love You’ inside a heart. Next get a large formal envelope. Place your drawing inside and type up a formal address label of your partner's workplace, such as: “For the immediate and urgent attention of: Rebecca Jones, Level 20, Collins & Smith Solicitors, New York.” Mail it to your partner so they receive it in the middle of a busy day.

2. BECOME KIDS AGAIN

If you are walking by a park, visit the swings and give your partner a ride. This will often bring
back happy memories from their childhood.

3. FUN WITH WATER

On a hot summer’s day, buy two large water pistols and take them to the beach with you. Pull them out and throw one to your partner and then have a huge water fight.

4. A MASSAGE WITH A TWIST

Buy a small, decorated cardboard box, a sheet of colored tissue paper, some massage oil and a blank card. Line the box with the tissue paper. Place the massage oil in the box and write the following message on the card: I know a great masseur. For an appointment call: (Your Phone Number)

5. BRING BACK CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

Contact your partner's family and ask if there was anything she always wanted when she was a little girl. For example if she always wanted a porcelain doll, buy one for her birthday. She will not only appreciate the gift, but also the fact that you were thoughtful enough to find out what she always wanted. You can do this for your man too.

6. STARE AT THE CLOUDS

Drive into the country, find a grassy hill, and lie with your partner and look up at the clouds.

7. WALK ALONG THE BEACH

Trace out the shape of a large love heart in the sand. Sit inside the heart and cuddle your partner
as you watch the sun go down.

8. ORGANIZE A PICNIC ON A WARM SUMMER’S NIGHT

Spread a picnic blanket on the ground and get together some snacks, chocolates and champagne. Lie down on the blanket with your partner and gaze up at the stars together.

9. SHOW YOU’RE GRATEFUL FOR YOUR PARTNER

Leave a long-stem rose where your partner will find it, with a note on it saying: "Thank you for coming into my life."

10. SPICE UP YOUR LOVEMAKING

Probably the most profound way to rekindle the romance in your relationship is to spice up your lovemaking. Surprise your partner with a little gift after you make love, try a new position, learn to give your partner a sensual massage before or after, or just spend some time staring into each other’s eyes and caressing their bare skin before making love.

Many people underestimate the affect passionate and intimate lovemaking has on a relationship. If you spice it up, chances are you and your partner will naturally do romantic things for each other. Why? Because passionate lovemaking connects two people in a meaningful and unexplainable way that nothing else can. [via btr]

About the Author:

Oprah Love Expert Michael Webb is the author of 500 Lovemaking Tips, a book full of ways to spice up your lovemaking, adding more passion, pleasure and intimacy to your experience. Read more

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The World's Weirdest Vending Machines

[via wired]

Today’s news that Best Buy is to put vending machines into airports got me thinking about these automated, mechanical stores. Vending machines can be incredibly useful if they are put in the right place, and sell the right things. They are available 24 hours and can empower even the shyest of shoppers to buy normally embarrassing items (toilet paper, anyone?)

Best Buy has it right, loading up on the kind of things every traveler needs -- cellphone chargers and travel adapters, for example. But for every beverage machine in the gym there is a surreal counterpart, sometimes handy, and sometimes just plain nutty. And as you expect, most of the machines on this list come from the spiritual home of the vending machine: Japan.

Marijuana

Where? California, of course. The marijuana is for medical use, and you can’t just walk in, drop a few coins and roll out with a bag of weed. The machines are situated in dispensaries, and surrounded by armed guards. We suspect the latter is to stop the machines getting ripped off, not to harass the legitimate users.

So how do you get your fix? You need to be preapproved by your doctor and then give a fingerprint. After that you get a card detailing your prescription. Head to the machine, 24-7, and pick up your baggie. Neat, and surprisingly civilized. We hear that the sales in nearby candy machines have almost quadrupled since these were installed.

Convenience rating: If you can remember where it is, 10/10

World’s First Weed ATM [Thrillist]

Umbrellas

This is one of the more sensible machines. Put these at the exits of every Tube station in London and you'd make a killing. This one, from Tokyo, sells two sizes of brolly, although only the small folding one seems to be suited to automatic vending. Even with the long, opening doors on the front, moving umbrellas around the internals of the machine without jamming can't be easy.

Convenience rating: If it's raining, and you can find a working machine, then 9/10

Vending Machines of Japan [Photomann]

Used Panties

You knew this one was coming. The possibly apocryphal machines which dispense sealed tubes of pre-worn schoolgirls' underwear are the most famous kind of automat in the world. According to Snopes, they were real, but only existed for a few short months back in 1993.

The operation was shut down by invoking a law concerning antiques dealers: It said that anybody selling second-hand items needed permission from local authorities. Apparently worn panties can still be had in porn shops, but if you're looking for a more anonymous solution, you're out of luck.

Convenience rating: As finding one will be impossible 0/10

The Love Machine [Snopes]

Photo [Inventorspot]

Eggs

What? Why? Given our criteria for a vending machine to be either very handy or a way to avoid looking a shopkeeper in the eye, the egg vending machine (from Japan, of course) at first looks rather pointless. After all, who needs to make an emergency omelet at 2 a.m.? A closer look shows us that this is simply a high-tech version of the farmer's roadside stall. The farmer fills the refrigerated machine with fresh eggs every morning and passersby can buy them, certain that they are still safe to eat.

Japanese farmers should stop showing off with fancy gadgets though, and take care of the packaging first. These eggs are in bags. C'mon, guys, what about egg boxes? You do have egg boxes, don't you?

Convenience rating: For city dwellers, there's a corner store. For country folk, don't you all keep chickens anyway? 0/10

Egg Vending Machine [Flickr/Josh Berglund]

Books

On the face of it, a book vending machine seems smart. You're stuck in an airport or railway station, your plane/train/automobile is delayed and you have nothing to read. I agree with the commenters on the Flickr page, though: RellyAB says that "you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but you haven't got much choice there!"

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Restaurant Charges Guy's Credit Card $858,432 For Sandwich!

[via consumerist]

Sorry PotBelly Sandwich Works customers, you can't order the Chicken Salad Sandwich unless you qualify for a mortgage. Ashley's husband thought his usual lunchtime meal cost $4.23, but, as his wife discovered when trying to pay their credit card bill, the sandwich actually costs $858,432.06. Ashley writes:

My husband works in downtown Minneapolis and has the annoying habit of putting small purchases on his credit card (under $5.00). He patronizes a chain here called PotBelly Sandwich Works, never spending more than $4.50 a pop. Last week I was paying our credit card bill online and noticed we had pending charges of $858,432.06. Yes—almost a million dollars. Needless to say, our credit limit is about $825,000 less than that. We called Chase and were told that the pending charges were indeed correct but that the charge had been rejected. When the rep told us the charge was made by PotBelly, I couldn't help but laugh. There was a charge that same day from PotBelly for $4.23 because my husband had purchased a sandwich, but that was it. The fraud rep said that because the charge was rejected, not to worry about it, but that it wouldn't disappear from our pending column unless PotBelly reversed the charge. There was no mention from the fraud department of canceling our cards and issuing us new ones. When my husband went to PotBelly the next day, they could give us no information. I can't imagine them reversing an $858,000 charge anyway, especially without a receipt (given this was done after my husband had left the premises.) My husband works in IT for a large corporation and thinks this is nothing but a system glitch and doesn't think it's worth pursuing because the charge was rejected.

My question is: what is our next step and what should we be worried about? It sounds as if someone didn't close out a ticket and just kept charging my husband's card. However, there's no way in hell this Potbelly does $858,000 in business in a day—or even a year, I imagine. Anyone who wanted to commit fraud wouldn't, I presume, be so dumb as to charge nearly a million bucks on a personal credit card. The charge is bound to be rejected. I am also disturbed that we did not receive a call from Chase when this charge was put through, but that's a minor quibble at this point. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Ashley is covered under the Fair Credit Billing Act, which protects against incorrect charges. The FTC has instructions for formally disputing the charge, but we wouldn't fret. Chase rejected the charge, and even if they hadn't, it wouldn't be a tough charge to reverse. Sure, her husband may have eaten the sandwich, but PotBelly's still hasn't delivered the pool, tennis court, or the several cars that had to have been promised as side dishes.

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Top 10 Ways to Stay Energized

[via lifehacker]

Even if you're a hyper-organized, task-oriented worker with an expansive mind and endless ambition, you won't get a lot done if your mind and body are demanding you curl up and doze off. Luckily, you can overcome a late night of net surfing, a rough morning, or just the post-lunch stupor without becoming an over-wired mess. We've put together 10 of the best ways to jumpstart your brain and get back into a productive groove, and all of them are tricks you can put to work this Monday. Photo by neps.

10. Make your own energy products.

If you're going to resort to a brick of grains and protein to give you short-term "power" or "energy," you may as well have it be cheap—and tastier than those foil-wrapped roofing tiles. Same goes for re-hydrating drinks, which can be easily mixed at home. Foodie extraordinaire Alton Brown has recipes for three different home-baked bars, as does About.com's Sports Medicine section. Of course, there's always the free stuff flowing from the tap for true replenishment.

9. Listen to brain-stretching music.

Among other tips offered up by software programmer Brad Isaac for beating "brain drain," the exhaustion that comes from sustained concentration, is working a little Mozart or Bach into your playlist. There's no overly hook-y melody to pull your mind away, and the harmony of so many instruments together relaxes your mind. Strings and brass not your thing? Try the non-intrusive, up-tempo ambient of Groove Salad.

8. Deal with job burnout.

Even if you're generally happy with your job, the people you work with, and the work you're doing, small annoyances and responsibilities can build up over time, until a dark, angry cloud hangs over you seven and a half hours per day. Seriously—feeling overwhelmed by your tasks was the second most frequent response in our poll on energy zappers. The Simple Dollar blog recommends scheduling an immediate vacation to take care of piling-up home stuff and set your mind free. Web Worker Daily suggests finding a new project. However you handle burnout, keeping an even head about your job gives you a lot more energy to spend on stuff that's a lot more fun.

7. Schedule around your energy peaks.

Writer and speaker Michelle Dunn describes herself as "very organized," but there are times of the day she just can't be productive. So when she's about to hit a lull—like right after lunch—she schedules errands and tackles non-thinking tasks, and otherwise schedules around her energy. Of course, not everybody can just run off to Target whenever they're feeling blah, so 43 Folders honcho Merlin Mann explains subtle ways to work inside your schedule.

6. Get outside—even if it's cloudy.

Even if you live in one of those areas with perma-gray skies for two-thirds of the year, getting outside every day can give you a vitamin D boost and the resulting mood and energy improvements. The National Institutes of Health recommends getting 10 to 15 minutes of sun each day, and a layer of sunscreen if you're getting more. Even better, you get away from the screens, voicemails, and low-level humming of the office.

5. Crank out some morning exercises.

You know those mornings where you have to get right up and do something with a deadline? The groans about coffee and sleep fall away, and you usually get it done. Give yourself a now-now-now pushup cycle right after your breakfast, and you might just shake off your sluggish self-doubt and get moving. If you're looking to get more out of your morning time, personal trainer Dan Boyle offers a two and a half minute core routine that'll definitely leave you aware that you're awake. Photo by whyld.

4. Eat the right nutrition mix.

Sugar and bread give you a quick jolt of energy, but ultimately result in an insulin-powered crash later in the day. Too much meat doesn't give you enough of the quick-firing stuff. Balancing out your lunch, instead of just eating leftover pasta, can have a big impact on your day, according to the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Source. As Lifehacker guest editor (and current io9 editor) Annalee Newitz puts it:

Remember, carbs come in fruits and veggies as well as grains. And you can get protein from meat, dairy, fish, eggs and beans (like soy or pinto). The perfect lunch might be veggies with fish (mmm, nicoise salad, anyone?), and the best snack an apple with a little cheese.

It's also not a bad idea to keep the heavy meals for morning to ensure better sleeping patterns.

3. Put your senses to work.

If you're stuck at work after a rough night, chances are you'll be staring at a hypnotizing screen or look-alike paperwork and finding it hard to stay awake. WikiHow suggests a multi-sensory assault on your tired self. Try scenting yourself awake with some essential oils of (or just strong scent of) peppermint or rosemary, or target the alertness-sparking stress points like your earlobes and the skin between your thumb and forefinger. Keep yourself a little chilly, and try to move around a bit—it's your best shot at not having the boss notice you haven't said a word since 9AM. Photo by cote.

2. Switch from venti to smaller caffeine doses.

Slamming half a carafe of coffee to get alert and productive is kind of like pounding a six-pack to get social and funny—you're going to miss your mark, in often painful ways. Research suggests that small, frequent doses of caffeine—like tea breaks, caffeinated mints, and even chocolate—do a better job of keeping your brain from feeling fatigued than jitter-inducing java. Of course, if you've got the willpower and patience, you could also just drink half-cups of coffee more frequently. Photo by ToOb.

1. Master the power nap.

Taking a nap isn't calling it quits on getting energized—it's just running a quick defrag on your neural drive and rebooting. We've covered the ins and outs of napping pretty thoroughly here, but if you need a quick take-away, try the Boston Globe's comprehensive cheat sheet. If shut-eye alone can't bring you back, try a coffee-charged caffeine nap.

How do you keep your energy levels high and even throughout the day? What do you do when you need a recharge? Tell us your own tips and tricks in the comments.

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The 16 Worst Places for Your Health

Location, location, location

Store owners aren't the only ones concerned with finding the perfect spot in which to situate their stuff. Researchers in a wide variety of fields know that how you organize your environment--from where you stand in fitness class to the place you choose to store your meds--has a surprising effect on everything from your weight to your chances of staying well. In other words, when it comes to how you feel, it's not just what you do, it's where you do it. Here, surprisingly bad locales for your health--and the best places to optimize it.

1. The worst place to sit on an airplane

The rear: Avoid this section if you're prone to airsickness, says retired United Airlines pilot Meryl Getline, who operates the aviation Web site fromthecockpit.com. "Think of a seesaw," Getline says. "The farther from the center you are, the more up-and-down movement you experience." Because the tail of the plane tends to be longer than the front, "that's the bumpiest of all," she says. "The smoothest option is sitting as close to the wing as you can."

2. The worst stall to pick in a public restroom

The one in the middle: The center stall has more bacteria than those on either end, according to unpublished data collected by Gerba. No, you won't catch an STD from a toilet seat. But you can contract all manner of ills if you touch a germy toilet handle and then neglect to wash your hands thoroughly.

3. The worst place for your toothbrush

On the bathroom sink: There's nothing wrong with the sink itself--but it's awfully chummy with the toilet. There are 3.2 million microbes per square inch in the average toilet bowl, according to germ expert Chuck Gerba, PhD, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona. When you flush, aerosolized toilet funk is propelled as far as 6 feet, settling on the floor, the sink, and your toothbrush. "Unless you like rinsing with toilet water, keep your toothbrush behind closed doors--in the medicine cabinet or a nearby cupboard," Gerba says.

4. The worst place for your sneakers and flip-flops

In the bedroom closet: Walking through your house in shoes you wear outside is a great way to track in allergens and contaminants. A 1999 study found that lawn chemicals were tracked inside the house for a full week after application, concentrated along the traffic route from the entryway. Shoes also carry in pollen and other allergens. Reduce exposure by slipping off rough-and-tumble shoes by the door; store them in a basket or under an entryway bench. If your pumps stay off the lawn, they can make the trip to the bedroom--otherwise, carry them.

5. The worst place to try to fall asleep

Under piles of blankets: Being overheated can keep you from nodding off, researchers say: A natural nighttime drop in your core temperature triggers your body to get drowsy. To ease your way to sleep, help your body radiate heat from your hands and feet, says Helen Burgess, PhD, assistant director of the Biological Rhythms Research Laboratory at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Don socks to dilate the blood vessels in the extremities--then take the socks off and let a foot stick out from under the blankets.

6. The worst place to cool leftovers

In the refrigerator: Placing a big pot of hot edibles directly into the fridge is a recipe for uneven cooling and possibly food poisoning, says O. Peter Snyder Jr., PhD, president of the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management in St. Paul, MN. It can take a long time for the temperature in the middle of a big container to drop, creating a cozy environment for bacteria. You can safely leave food to cool on the counter for up to an hour after cooking, Snyder says. Or divvy up hot food into smaller containers and then refrigerate--it'll cool faster.
7. The worst place to keep medicine

The medicine cabinet: It's not uncommon for the temp in a steamy bathroom to reach 100F--well above the recommended storage temperatures for many common drugs. The cutoff for the popular cholesterol drug Lipitor, for instance, is around 77F. To stay out of the red zone, store your meds in a cool, dry place, such as the pantry.

8. The worst place to pick up a prescription

The pharmacy drive-thru: In a survey of 429 pharmacists, respondents ranked drive-thru windows high among distracting factors that can lead to prescription processing delays and errors, says survey author Sheryl Szeinbach, PhD, professor of pharmacy practice and administration at Ohio State University. If you don't want to give up the convenience of a rolling pickup, be sure to check that both drug and dose are what the doctor ordered.

9. The worst place to set your handbag

The kitchen counter: Your fancy handbag is a major tote for microbes: Gerba and his team's swabs showed up to 10,000 bacteria per square inch on purse bottoms--and a third of the bags tested positive for fecal bacteria! A woman's carryall gets parked in some nasty spots: on the floor of the bus, beneath the restaurant table--even on the floor of a public bathroom. Put your bag in a drawer or on a chair, Gerba says--anywhere except where food is prepared or eaten.

10. The worst place for your coffee

The refrigerator or freezer: Think that you're preserving freshness by stashing it in the fridge? Think again. Every time you take it out of the fridge or freezer, you expose it to fluctuating temperatures, which produces condensation. "The moisture leeches out flavor--it's like brewing a cup of coffee each time," says John McGregor, PhD, a professor in the department of food science and human nutrition at Clemson University. The best spot to store beans or grounds: in an opaque, airtight container kept on the counter or in the pantry.

11. The worst place to stand during your first few fitness classes

Front and center: You might think that you'd want to be near the mirrors so you can check your form, but your sweat session will be more motivating if your view is obstructed, suggests a 2003 study at McMasters University. In that research, 58 sedentary women all exercised at similar intensity levels. But those who did it in a mirrored room reported feeling more anxious about their body's imperfections after their workout than women who sweated without mirrors distracting them.

12. The worst place to use earbuds or headphones

On an airplane, train, or subway: Sure, music's a better traveling companion than your seatmate's cell phone conversation. But studies show that if you listen through a headset in a noisy environment, you probably crank the volume too high. Harvard researchers found that in reasonably quiet surroundings, volunteers tended to keep the volume at an ear-friendly level. But when the researchers added background noise--the loud rumble of an airplane cabin--80% boosted the volume as high as 89 decibels, a level that risks long-term hearing damage. If you must have music, consider noise-canceling headphones--only 20% of listeners in the study who used a set got close to the danger zone. Two good options: Sony MDR-EX51LP ($40; sonystyle.com) and Etymotic Research ER-6i ($149; etymotic.com).

13. The worst place to set fruit before washing it

The kitchen sink: Of all the household germ depots, the kitchen sink sees the most bacterial traffic--even more than the toilet, says Kelly Reynolds, PhD, a professor and environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona. If the perfect berry drops while you're washing it, pop it in the trash--not your mouth.
14. The worst place for a nighttime reading light

Overhead: These fixtures put out relatively bright light--enough to significantly delay the body's secretion of melatonin, showed a 2000 study. That can wreck your night, since rising melatonin levels are a major cue for your body to prepare for sleep. A low-power light clipped to your novel will let you read but leave the room dark enough for your brain to transition into sleep mode. Try the LightWedge ($25 to $35; lightwedge.com) or the "Itty Bitty" Slim Book Light ($40; zelco.com).

15. The worst place for a workout reminder

Stuck on your post-it laden fridge: A visual nudge can help--but only if you notice it, says Paddy Ekkekakis, PhD, an exercise psychologist at Iowa State University. In one study, a sign urging people to use the stairs rather than the nearby escalator increased the number of people who climbed on foot by nearly 200%. Put your prompt near a decision point, Ekkekakis says--keep your pile of Pilates DVDs next to the TV; put a sticky note on your steering wheel to make sure you get to your after-work kickboxing class. Just remember: The boost you get from a reminder is usually short-term, so change the visuals often.

16. The worst place for your TV

Wherever you dine: Studies show that distraction is your waistline's enemy--it can keep you from noticing how much you're eating. In a 2006 study, volunteers ate faster when watching TV than while listening to music--consuming 71% more macaroni and cheese when watching a show. If you have the tube on while cooking, turn it off before dinner at the kitchen table, and avoid being tempted into eating in front of the TV in the living room. The best place for your television: up or down a flight of stairs, so you have to "work" to get a snack--you'll be much less likely to munch. [via aolhealth]

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The Earth's 6th Great Mass Extinction is Occurring as You Read This

[via dailygalaxy]

"In one sense we know much less about Earth than we do about Mars. The vast majority of life forms on our planet are still undiscovered, and their significance for our own species remains unknown. This gap in our knowledge is a serious matter: we will never completely understand and preserve the living world around us at our present level of ignorance.

"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."

Edward O. Wilson, The world's leading authority on Biodiversity, Emeritus Professor of Biology at Harvard and author of "The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth."

There is little doubt left in the minds of professional biologists that Earth is currently faced with a mounting loss of species that threatens to rival the five great mass extinctions of the geological past, the most devasting being the Third major Extinction (c. 245 mya), the Permian, where 54% of the planet's species families lost. As long ago as 1993, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson estimated that Earth is currently losing something on the order of 30,000 species per year -- which breaks down to the even more daunting statistic of some three species per hour. Some biologists have begun to feel that this biodiversity crisis -- this "Sixth Extinction" -- is even more severe, and more imminent, than Wilson had supposed.

With the human population expected to reach 9-10 billion by the end of the century and the planet in the middle of its sixth mass extinction — this time due to human activity — the next few years are critical in conserving Earth’s precious biodiversity. The cause of the Sixth Extinction, Homo sapiens, means we can continue on the path to our own extinction, or, preferably, we modify our behavior toward the global ecosystem of which we are still very much a part.

At a casual glance, the physically caused extinction events of the past might seem to have little or nothing to tell us about the current Sixth Extinction, which is a human-caused event. For there is little doubt that humans are the direct cause of ecosystem stress and species destruction in the modern world through transformation of the landscape, overexploitation of species, pollution, and the introduction of alien species

The Sixth Extinction can be characterized as the first recorded global extinction event that has a biotic, rather than a physical, cause, due to massive asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions. Yet, looking deeper, human impact on the planet is a similar to the Cretaceous cometary collision. Sixty-five million years ago that extraterrestrial impact -- through its sheer explosive power, followed immediately by its injections of so much debris into the upper reaches of the atmosphere that global temperatures plummeted and, most critically, photosynthesis was severely inhibited -- wreaked havoc on the living systems of Earth, which is precisely what we are doing to the planet right now.

Phase two of the Sixth Extinction began around 10,000 years ago with the invention of agriculture-perhaps first in the Natufian culture of the Middle East. Agriculture appears to have been invented several different times in various different places, and has, in the intervening years, spread around the entire globe.

Agriculture, which began around 10,000 years ago in the Natufian culture of the Middle East, is a major engine driving the Sixth Extinction, represents the single most profound ecological change in the entire 3.5 billion-year history of life. With its invention humans did not have to interact with other species for survival, and so could manipulate other species for their own use nor did humans have to adhere to the ecosystem's carrying capacity, and so could overpopulate

Homo sapiens became the first species to stop living inside local ecosystems. All other species, including our ancestral hominid ancestors, all pre-agricultural humans, and remnant hunter-gatherer societies still extant exist as semi-isolated populations playing specific roles (i.e., have "niches") in local ecosystems. This is not so with post-agricultural revolution humans, who in effect have stepped outside local ecosystems. Indeed, to develop agriculture is essentially to declare war on ecosystems - converting land to produce one or two food crops, with all other native plant species all now classified as unwanted "weeds" -- and all but a few domesticated species of animals now considered as pests.

Yet, upon further reflection, human impact on the planet is a direct analogue of the Cretaceous cometary collision. Sixty-five million years ago that extraterrestrial impact -- through its sheer explosive power, followed immediately by its injections of so much debris into the upper reaches of the atmosphere that global temperatures plummeted and, most critically, photosynthesis was severely inhibited -- wreaked havoc on the living systems of Earth. That is precisely what human beings are doing to the planet right now: humans are causing vast physical changes on the planet.

"The comparison I make between these big extinction events, prehistoric meteorite-caused or natural event-caused extinctions and the present one," says E.O. Wilson, "is parallel to the difference between a heart attack and cancer. We understand that what we are doing is a slow but insidious, and only can be seen when you lay it out over the whole world over a period of decades. The hopeful thing about it is that this cancer can be treated. A lot of damage has been done, and it can be dangerous to us if we really just go on until half the species of organisms are extinct forever. Or we can halt the hemorrhaging.

"In terms of scale, it’s hard to put a figure on it," Wilson adds: "We’re in a pronounced early stage of an extinction event that would probably be, by the end of this century if human activities continue unabated, right up to the Cretaceous level. We’re part way there. Whether you can say its 10 percent there or 25 percent there, a lot of it depends on the organisms you’re talking about. One estimate has it that, particularly when you throw in the mass extinction of the Pacific Island birds, which are the most vulnerable on Earth, something like 20 percent of bird species has been extinguished by human activities."

Biocide is occurring at an alarming rate. Experts say that at least half of the world’s current species will be completely gone by the end of the century. Wild plant-life is also disappearing. Most biologists say that we are in the midst of an anthropogenic mass extinction. Numerous scientific studies confirm that this phenomenon is real and happening right now. Should anyone really care? Will it impact individuals on a personal level? Scientists say, “Yes!”

Critics argue that species disappear and new ones emerge all the time. That’s true, if you’re speaking in terms of millennia. Scientists acknowledge that species disappear at an estimated rate of one species per million per year, with new species replacing the lost ones at around the same rate. Recently humans have accelerated the extinction rate to where several entire species are annihilated every single day. The death toll artificially caused by humans is mind-boggling. Nature will take millions of years to repair what we destroy in just a few decades.

A recent analysis, published in the journal Nature, shows that it takes 10 million years before biological diversity even begins to approach what existed before a die-off. Over 10,000 scientists in the World Conservation Union have compiled data showing that currently 51 per cent of known reptiles, 52 per cent of known insects, and 73 per cent of known flowering plants are in danger along with many mammals, birds and amphibians. It is likely that some species will become extinct before they are even discovered, before any medicinal use or other important features can be assessed. The cliché movie plot where the cure for cancer is about to be annihilated is more real than anyone would like to imagine.

Research done by the American Museum of Natural History found that the vast majority of biologists believe that mass extinction poses a colossal threat to human existence, and is even more serious of an environmental problem than one of its contributors- global warming. The research also found that the average person woefully underestimates the dangers of mass extinction. Powerful industrial lobbies would like people to believe that we can survive while other species are quickly and quietly dying off. Irresponsible governments and businesses would have people believe that we don’t need a healthy planet to survive- even while human cancer rates are tripling every decade.

A lot of us heard about the recent extinction of the Yangtze river dolphin. It was publicized because dolphins are cute and smart, and we like dolphins. We were sort of sad that we humans were single-handedly responsible for destroying the entire millions-of-years-old species in just a few years through rampant pollution. Unfortunately the real death toll is so much higher than we hear on the news. Only a few endangered “celebrity favorites” get any notice at all.

Since animals and plants exist in symbiotic relationships to one another, extinction of one species is likely to cause ”co-extinctions”. Some species directly affect the health of hundreds of other species. There is always some kind of domino effect. This compounding process occurs with frightening speed. That makes rampant extinction similar too disease in the way that it spreads. Sooner or later- if gone unchecked- humans may catch it too.

Amphibians are a prime example at how tinkering with the environment can cause rapid animal death. For over 300 million years frogs, salamanders, newts and toads were hardy enough to precede and outlive the dinosaurs up until the present time. Now, within just two decades many amphibians are disappearing. Scientists are alarmed at how one seemingly robust species of amphibians will suddenly disappear within a few months.

The causes of biocide are a hodge-podge of human environmental “poisons” which often work synergistically, including a vast array of pollutants, pesticides, a thinning ozone layer which increases ultra-violet radiation, human induced climate change, habitat loss from agriculture and urban sprawl, invasions of exotic species introduced by humans, illegal and legal wildlife trade, light pollution, and man-made borders among other many other causes.

Is there a way out? The answer is yes and no. We’ll never regain the lost biodiversity-at least not within a fathomable time period, but there are ways to prevent a worldwide bio collapse, but they all require immediate action. Wilson, and other scientists point out that the world needs international cooperation in order to sustain ecosystems, since nature is unaware of artificially drawn borders. Humans love to fence off space they’ve claimed as their own. Sadly, a border fence often has terrible ecological consequences. One fence between India and Pakistan cuts off bears and leopards from their feeding habitats, which is causing them to starve to death. Starvation leads to attacks on villagers, and more slaughtering of the animals.

Some of the most endangered wildlife species live right in between the borderland area of the US and Mexico. These indigenous animals don’t know that they now live between two countries. They were here long before the people came and nations divided, but they will not survive if we cut them off from their habitat. The Sky Islands is one of many areas smack in the middle of this boundary where some of North America's most threatened wildlife is found. Jaguars, bison, and Wolves have to cross through international terrain in the course of their life's travels in order to survive. Unfortunately, illegal Mexican workers cross here too. People who know nothing of the wildlife’s biological needs want to create a large fence to keep out Mexicans, regardless of the fact that a fence would devastate these already fragile animal populations.

Wilson says the time has come to start calling the "environmentalist view" the "real-world view". We can’t ignore reality simply because it doesn’t conform nicely within convenient boundaries and moneymaking strategies. What good will all of our money and conveniences do for us, if we collectively destroy the necessities of life?

There is hope, but it requires radical changes. Many organizations are lobbying for that change. One group trying to salvage ecosystems is called The Wildlands Project, a conservation group spearheading the drive to reconnect the remaining wildernesses. The immediate goal is to reconnect wild North America in four broad "mega-linkages". Within each mega-linkage, mosaics of public and private lands, which would provide safe migrations for wildlife, would connect core areas. Broad, vegetated overpasses would link wilderness areas normally split by roads. They will need cooperation from local landowners and government agencies.

It is a radical vision to many people, and the Wildlands Project expects that it will take at least 100 years to complete. Even so, projects like this, on a worldwide basis, may be humanity’s best chance of saving what’s left of the planets eco-system, and the human race along with it.

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Music for only $0.14/song at SoundsBox!

[via stereotune]

SoundsBox is a relatively new music site starting in late June 2007. With its friendly customer service and their willingness to please the customer, this shop is a standout with me. I look forward to their daily new arrivals, because they are usually different than other sites that I go to. They also have very prompt arrivals of new releases in mainstream as well as independent releases.

The site’s goals are to offer quality downloads at the cheapest prices possible, to maintain site availability to their customers and they are proud of their prompt releases on new material.

Pricing / Payment Options / Bonus Schemes

SoundsBox has a very fair pricing policy at only 14 cents a download, with a 10% added bonus, if you buy the whole album. They will also give you up to 45% bonus on $100 deposit. At the present time they are accepting Master Card and Visa credit cards as payment.

Music Catalogue

When looking for a music site my first criteria is its catalogue. The catalogue of Soundsbox consists of 35,100 artists, 2,000,000 songs and 142,500 albums.

They also have many new independent releases that I also see on eMusic, as well as very prompt releases of all the mainstream releases that I am also interested in. This, to me, creates a well balanced catalogue that keeps me going there daily, keeps me interested and draws me in.

Audio Formats / Bit Rates

SoundsBox has a sampler that samples in full quality 90 seconds - but as of now only works properly in IE. They have said they will fix this to work in Firefox as well. Until then you can use the Firefox add-on: IE Tab to make the site fully functional.

The site administrators say that their average download is 192 vbr. It varies on some of the older titles but on newer titles I see more consistency in quality.

Personally, to my ears, their downloads all sound of good quality, which says to me that they use excellent source material. Most importantly their downloads are DRM free, which means you can use them anywhere you choose.

Interface

SoundsBox is an attractive site but with a bit too much flash content for my taste. It has an interface that helps you find the contents of its catalogue. You must point and click to a letter in the alphabet and it will take you to all the artists under that chosen letter. Unfortunately you can not input an artist or an album in the search box, because it does not work properly. I have been told that this will be fixed at the end of the year, when they intend to make site upgrades.

Another way to search is by genre: click on the browse by genre tab and you will be taken to another page with various genres and sub genres, a quite impressive list. On that page you will also find new releases. I prefer to have the new releases on the front page, because this is one of the great draws to this site.

On the album page you can find out such information as release date, total time, genre, time, file size and bit rate. Everything you need to know before making a purchase. One small problem is that I find page loading is a little slow with IE. Using Firefox will speed up your page loading, when visiting Soundsbox.

Support / Assistance

The assistance at Soundsbox is excellent and very responsive. I like that “hands on” approach to customer service. When you make a request, usually in a day or so, you will see it appear on the site. You feel that you are being listened to, and at the same time help to develop the site into a place you want to visit.

Technical questions and results may take a little longer; but from personal experience I can tell you, it will be worked out. This is one of the reasons, I am such a big fan of the site.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a music site that offers great new diverse releases, great customer service and music at a great price, then Soundsbox is a place you might like to spend some time with. They are a relatively new site, so I’m personally looking forward to their future development and growth. I know if they continue on their current path, we (the music lovers) have a great deal to look forward to.

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Anti-suicide barriers on Japanese train lines

"Newer train lines in Japan have suicide prevention platforms. 5-foot walls span the entire platform, with doors that only open when the train has safely stopped at the station. Jumping in front of a moving train is one of the most common suicide methods in Japan—it was, at least, until people started spreading information on how to gas themselves at home."

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[via TokyoMango]

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1996 McDonalds Hamburger - Unchanged because of preservatives

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This is a hamburger from McDonalds that I purchased in 1996.



That was 12 years ago.

Note that it looks exactly like it did the very day I bought it.

The flecks on the bun are crumbs from the bun.

The burger is starting to crumble a bit

It has the oddest smell.

The paper and bag in the backround is circa 2008 - to add decor to the photo. My friend Robyn's idea.




This is the retro welch's grape juice plastic container I have always kept it in. People always ask me - what did you do to preserve it ?

Nothing - it preserved itself.

Ladies, Gentleman, and children alike - this is a chemical food. There is absolutely no nutrition here.

Not one ounce of food value. Or at least value for why we are eating in the first place.




The burger on the right, off the paper is a 2008 burger. I had to buy it to get the groovy paper and bag.

The meat is a tad darker, the bun a little less golden but in 12 years it will look exactly like that too.

Do you find this horrifying?

McDonalds fills an empty space in your belly. It does nothing to nourish the cell, it is not a nutritious food.

It is not a treat.

I marvel at how McDonalds has infiltrated our entire world. A hamburger here tastes exactly the same in China or some around the world place.

It's cloned.

Makes you wonder doesn't it?

Do me a favor and share this. [via BoME]

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50 tools to speed up your PC

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Is your PC tired and sluggish? Has its get up and go got up and went? If you want a faster system, you could certainly break the bank and buy a new machine. Or you could read this article instead.

We've found 50 downloads that will make your PC run more quickly and smoothly, help you use the Internet more effectively, and push Windows to work at optimum speed with the interface you want, not what Microsoft gave you.

Most of these downloads are free to use forever; some are free to try, but require that you pay for them after a trial period (we've labeled each download accordingly). You won't have to search high and low on the Internet to find them; they're all available from the PC World Downloads library.

What are you waiting for? Get downloading; you're minutes away from a spiffier, faster system.

General Tune-Up Tools

Sometimes the best way to optimize your PC is to use all-in-one tune-up tools that offer a slew of utilities, ranging from file cleanup to Registry cleaners and beyond. Here are some of our favorites.

Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal

This great free all-in one tool straightens out your Registry, handles Windows startup programs, erases your surfing history, removes spyware and protects you from future infections, and gives your system an all-around optimization.

Be sure to tell the program to create a restore point before it goes to work. And examine, closely, what it will do in its overall system optimization. Apart from that, just direct the program to scan your system, see what it wants to do, and let it do its business.

Download Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal | Price: Free

TuneUp Utilities

This all-around degunker and system cleaner will sweep away unneeded files, control which programs run on startup, undelete, and even completely destroy unwanted files to protect your privacy.

Download TuneUp Utilities | Price: US$50 (Trial)

WinSettings Pro

With this tool you can kill junk files, duplicate files, and Internet tracks. It also includes a good cookie cleaner that displays all your cookies, lists their contents, and then lets you eliminate ones you don't want. Features beyond system cleaning include Registry tools that claim to speed up Internet access. And how about a screen-capture program and wallpaper randomizer on top of that?

Download WinSettings Pro | Price: $50 (Shareware)

Super Utilities

Given that Super Utilities has 27 tools for cleaning and optimizing your PC, you're sure to find a module that you want. Included are a startup organizer, a Registry cleaner, defragmentation tools, antispyware features, and much more.

Download Super Utilities | Price: $60 (Trial)

Glary Utilities

This excellent no-cost tool promises one-click cleanup and optimization, and it delivers. It scans your system for problems with the Registry, shortcuts, startup programs, and spyware, and then gives you the option of which to clean up. It also deletes traces of your Internet surfing and erases temporary files. Optimization doesn't get simpler than this.

Download Glary Utilities | Price: Free

Application and Startup Optimization

System sluggishness is often the result of problems with the applications you run. Are they outdated and in need of patching? Do too many run in the background? Use the following utilities to solve those problems and others.

Secunia PSI

If you make sure that all of your applications are patched and up-to-date, they'll run faster and be more secure--and so will your PC on the whole. Unfortunately, visiting the Web site for each of your applications can be so time-consuming that you'll never get around to doing it. Grab this freebie instead. It scans your system, lists all of your applications, and then regularly checks for security patches. When it finds a new patch, it applies the fix.

Download Secunia PSI | Price: Free

PC Decrapifier

One likely reason your system is sluggish is that it's bedeviled by "craplets"--software that your PC maker installed because it was paid to. Craplets slow down startup and general operation.

This free software removes dozens of unwanted items automatically. It zaps only a specific set of craplets and trialware programs: Those that are specifically put on new PCs, such as QuickBooks Trial, Wild Tangent Games, Dell URL Assistant, and others. (For a full list, go to the PC Decrapifier site.) Before you use this utility, create a restore point in case it kills something you wanted to keep.

Download PC Decrapifier | Price: Free

Autoruns

Unnecessary services and applications that run whenever you start your PC or log in to it are a big cause of system slowdowns. Unfortunately, it's tough to identify every item that starts up, because nothing in Windows gives you such information. That's why you need this free tool. It displays every program and service running and offers a great deal of detail about each, such as associated .dll files, the program or service name, and its location on your PC. With that knowledge, you can decide what you don't want to run on startup.

Download Autoruns | Price: Free

Security Task Manager

Similar to Autoruns, this excellent tool shows you every running program and process. The utility also indicates whether the program is likely malicious, its type, how it launched (for example, upon startup or from within Windows Explorer), and the file name. It lets you delete any program and process with a single click. It also rates files according to how harmless or dangerous they may be. To stop a program, highlight it, click Remove, and you're done.

Download Security Task Manager | Price: $29 (Trial)

WinPatrol

This very good all-around system optimizer frees your PC of unnecessary programs that run on startup and keeps it clean of spyware and other malware. Whenever a program tries to start automatically, WinPatrol sends you an alert so you can block it. In addition, it shows details about the program, including the creator, when the program was added, the file name, and so on. The Delayed Start feature allows you to put off the launch of certain programs for up to an hour. That way, you'll still have access to the program when you need it.

Download WinPatrol | Price: Free

Foxit Reader

Strictly speaking, this isn't an optimization tool because it doesn't clean your system or tune it up. But it does eliminate a cause of system slowdowns and instability for many people: buggy, bloated Adobe Reader software for reading PDF files.

The free Foxit Reader is smaller, loads quickly, doesn't take up unnecessary memory, and has no instability issues. So if Adobe Reader slows your system down, this is a great alternative.

Download Foxit Reader | Price: Free

Norton Removal Tool

Some Norton products, especially the security suites, are notorious for taking up far too many system resources and too much RAM. Removing them completely can be tough, but this free tool from Norton does the trick. Copy down your product key before removing them in case you want to reinstall.

Download Norton Removal Tool | Price: Free

McAfee Consumer Products Removal Tool

Like Norton products, some McAfee utilities can consume serious amounts of system resources. To remove them from your system, use this free tool.

Download McAfee Consumer Products Removal Tool | Price: Free

Hard-Disk Cleaning and Backup

Your hard disk is clogged with files you no longer need. They occupy precious space and could possibly slow your system. Get rid of them with these optimization tools, which include a very good backup program.

CCleaner

This is probably the best tool you can find for cleaning your system and thereby optimizing your PC. It scrubs temporary Internet files, the history list, cookies, autocomplete entries, the thumbnail cache, unneeded file fragments, temporary files--the list goes on. It also includes a Registry optimizer and uninstall tools, and eliminates traces that applications leave behind

Download CCleaner | Price: Free

Duplicate Music Files

If you have a big MP3 or media files collection, you likely have many duplicates and don't realize it. The excess files hog hard-disk space and junk up your media library. Finding duplicates can be difficult, though, because the same piece of music or media may have different file names. This freebie searches for more than file names, as it compares file sizes, does error checks, and even examines ID3 tags to track down duplicates and delete them.

Download Duplicate Music Files | Price: Free

Easy Duplicate File Finder

Looking to clean all sorts of duplicate files? This tool does the job for you. It scans your system, gives you a full report, and lets you clean either in bulk or just selected files. It also allows you to protect system files so that you don't accidentally delete any important ones that your PC needs to run.

Download Easy Duplicate File Finder | Price: Free

NovaBackup Professional

Backup software may be the most overlooked optimization tool of all. When something goes wrong with your system, you'll want a way to recover files and restore your machine to a working state. This software does a great job, and can restore individual files, folders, or a whole disk.

Download NovaBackup Professional | Price: $50 (Trial)

Internet and Network Tune-Up

Want to compare storage products? Visit the IT Buyer's Guides now.

Want to get more out of the Internet and your network? These tools will speed up downloads, help you find fast Wi-Fi, peer into your home network, and more.

Spiceworks IT Desktop

If you're like many people and have more than one PC connected to a network, you may be looking for a tool to help get the most out of your network. This free software scans your network, identifies every device on it, and displays detailed information about each. In addition, it lists all applications and operating systems, and sends you a variety of warnings, such as when antivirus definitions are out-of-date or new software is installed. Though this software is free, it displays ads. To get rid of the promos, you'll have to pay $20 per month.

Download Spiceworks IT Desktop | Price: Free

Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor

Want to optimize your use of Wi-Fi hotspots? Give this free Vista gadget a try. It runs in the sidebar and displays information about your current Wi-Fi connection, as well as nearby hotspots. You'll be able to see how strong or weak your connection is compared with others, and find information such as your IP address, MAC address, and signal strength.

Download Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor | Price: Free

Expired Cookies Cleaner

Your PC has dozens and dozens of cookies that Web sites use for things such as automatically logging you in or remembering how you've customized the way they work. Cookies typically have time-out dates, after which they won't work, but even then they stay on your PC, clogging it up. This free little utility finds expired cookies and deletes them. No fuss, no muss--they're gone.

Download Expired Cookies Cleaner | Price: Free

HackCleaner

This excellent freebie cleans many different types of Internet junk, including cookies, temporary files, and Browser Helper Objects. The program also includes a security feature that will block Browser Helper Objects from being installed on your PC.

Download HackCleaner | Price: Free

Download Accelerator Plus

People who live to download will want this free program, which optimizes every aspect of the downloading process. It splits individual downloads into pieces and downloads them all simultaneously from the fastest servers it can find. It's extremely easy to use and integrates with your browser, so when you initiate a file download, it automatically launches. You can also manually add downloads to the program.

The utility restarts interrupted downloads, and pauses and resumes downloads. Its history manager shows all the files you've ever downloaded, plus their size and where they downloaded on your hard disk. It has a lot more features, as well--and you can't beat the free price.

Download Download Accelerator Plus | Price: Free

FlashGet

Yet another excellent optimization tool for downloaders, FlashGet speeds up downloads and helps organize them while keeping you safe. The program searches for downloads via numerous protocols, including HTTP, FTP, and eMule. It's good for managing downloads, too, allowing you to delete files from within the program.

Download FlashGet | Price: Free

Browser Optimization

Want to make your browser run better and give it new capabilities, including optimizing the way you browse the Web? Check out these browser utilities.

Adblock Pro

Here's a great way to optimize your use of Internet Explorer. (Be aware that this tool works only with IE.) It blocks ads of all kinds, including banner, Flash-based, and embedded. You have plenty of configuration options, too, such as the ability to have it display ads only from specific domains or pages. If you turn on the Flash blocker, you won't be able to view YouTube videos, so you may want to instruct the program to display Flash only from specific domains.

Download Adblock Pro | Price: $20 (Shareware)

Adblock Plus

If you're a Firefox user looking to rid your browsing sessions of ads, this add-in is worth a whirl. It claims to block 99 percent of ads on the Web, and based on our experience with it, that may well be true. You can selectively block ads or choose a filter that blocks them all. With a bit of work, you can even allow certain ads through while blocking the rest.

Download Adblock Plus | Price: Free

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer

Do you use Firefox on more than one PC? If so, you know how maddening it is to keep bookmarks in sync. This free tool automatically syncs all Firefox bookmarks on multiple PCs, and backs up your bookmarks to a server so they'll never be lost. And if you're on a PC that isn't yours, you can pull up your bookmarks from the server.

Download Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer | Price: Free

Greasemonkey

If you're willing to get your hands dirty by digging under Firefox's hood, this may be the best Firefox optimizer around. Through JavaScript, it allows you to customize how Web pages look and act so you can change them, add extra features to them, and so on. Actually, you don't even need to tinker much yourself, because plenty of people have written useful scripts that you can simply plug into Greasemonkey.

Download Greasemonkey | Price: Free

IE7 Pro

Optimize Internet Explorer with the help of this no-cost utility. It juices up the browser's tab handling, restores all tabs in the event of a crash, lets you use "mouse gestures" for controlling IE, blocks ads, checks spelling, and much more. It also has a scripting feature similar to Greasemonkey for Firefox.

Download IE7 Pro | Price: Free

Registry Cleanup

The older your PC is, the more junked-up its Registry becomes. Badly written programs (and plenty of those are around) don't bother to clean the Registry when you uninstall them, and some applications add unnecessary junk. The messier the Registry is, the more likely it is to crash your PC or slow down its operations. Though the benefits of using a Registry cleaner are often debated, these utilities might be worth a try.

Wise Registry Cleaner

This freebie scans the Registry, flags orphaned or bad entries, and identifies entries that are either dangerous or safe to delete. Like most Registry cleaners, the utility will back up your Registry so that you can restore it if need be.

Download Wise Registry Cleaner | Price: Free

Glary Registry Repair

Here's another very good, free Registry cleaner. It lets you choose which changes to accept and to ignore, and creates an Undo file so that you can revert to the previous version of the Registry if problems occur.

Download Glary Registry Repair | Price: Free

Registry First Aid

If you're willing to pay for a Registry cleaner, this is a great choice. Longtime PC World contributor Steve Bass rates it as the best Registry cleaner, with good reason: It does an excellent, thorough job. It also searches the Internet for details about Registry keys, so you can have background information before deciding whether to delete or change them.

Download Registry First Aid | Price: $28 (Trial)

Auslogics Registry Defrag

Cleaning your Registry may help keep your system in tip-top shape, but you can do something else for it as well: Defragment it. This program shows how fragmented your Registry is, defragments it, and restarts your PC. The program also creates a restore point so you can restore the Registry if necessary.

Download Auslogics Registry Defrag | Price: Free

Security Optimization

If your PC is infected with malware, it runs at less than its peak. So if you have a sluggish system that seems to go on the fritz regularly, an infection may be the cause. Use these programs to kill infections and stop them from attacking your machine in the first place.

Comodo Firewall Pro

This excellent free firewall has been rated as one of the top firewalls by the independent testing site Matousec, which found that it has the highest level of "anti-leak" protection (in essence, a measurement of a firewall's effectiveness). It offers two-way protection, and a great view into your system and your Internet connection as well.

Download Comodo Firewall Pro | Price: Free

Avast

A lightweight freebie, Avast won't weigh down your system by consuming too many resources or RAM--yet it does a great job of killing viruses and live-scanning for them. It also scans e-mail (including Web-based e-mail) for viruses, and offers protection against instant-messaging viruses, peer-to-peer dangers, and other threats.

Download Avast | Price: Free

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

AVG's excellent free antivirus software is similarly prudent with your system resources and RAM. It's simple to use and easily configurable, and it protects your machine. What else could you want?

Download AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition | Price: Free

SpywareBlaster

Keep your system in top running form by stopping the installation of ActiveX-based malware and other types of spyware. A particularly useful feature is the System Snapshot, which will take a snapshot of your PC so that if it gets infected, you can revert to a clean version.

Download SpywareBlaster | Price: Free

Spybot Search & Destroy

A longtime favorite free program, Spybot offers live protection from spyware installation, and scans your system for preexisting spyware and kills it. The software has a restore function, as well.

Download Spybot Search & Destroy | Price: Free

Ad-Aware 2008

Using more than one antispyware scanner is a good idea. So even if you have another, this free one, which has been around for years, is worth trying. It does a great job of scanning, and it lets you put potentially damaging software in a quarantine area, where you can later restore the item if it isn't dangerous.

Download Ad-Aware 2008 | Price: Free

Trend Micro HijackThis

If you think your PC is infected with spyware, but your spyware killer can't track it down, try this freebie. After HijackThis analyzes your Registry and file settings, it creates a log file, which you can upload to a HijackThis Web forum for the community to analyze. Unless you're an expert, you should not try to use this tool to fix problems.

Download Trend Micro HijackThis | Price: Free

Interface Tune-Up

Another effective way to optimize your PC is to tweak Windows' interface and behavior to your liking. All of these programs will get the job done.

Vista4Experts

If you run Vista, this utility is an excellent way to tweak the OS. Through its simple interface you can customize many Vista features. Turn off the dreaded User Account Control, customize the power button, disable or enable the Aero environment, change the behavior of Windows Updates, and more.

Download Vista4Experts | Price: Free

MagicTweak

This program offers countless options for tweaking Windows. It can change the icons for various system features, create a custom desktop-shortcut arrow, change how Windows Explorer looks and works, tweak your network connection, hide menus, customize the Start menu, and adjust Windows security, just for starters.

Download MagicTweak | Price: $40 (Shareware)

RocketDock

Give your PC a Mac OS X-like dock, a customized bar of icons that puts frequently used programs at your fingertips. Place it at the top, bottom, or side of your screen, and you get instant access to your favorite programs and features.

Download RocketDock | Price: Free

Vista Manager

Vista users who want to juice up the OS's performance or its looks should give this tool a spin. You can optimize numerous aspects of your system, including its RAM, cache, and hard disk. The utility also manages startup and shutdown, cleans your system, improves your security, and customizes how your network functions.

Download Vista Manager | Price: $40 (Shareware)

Auslogics Visual Styler

Through this simple-to-use program, you can make Windows work the way you want and gain instant access to deeply hidden Windows customization features. For example, you can change icon resolution, size, spacing, and shortcut arrows. And a wallpaper changer rotates the scenery displayed every time your PC starts.

Download Auslogics Visual Styler | Price: $25 (Trial)

Miscellaneous Optimization Tools

You have plenty of other ways to optimize your PC. Following are some great all-around optimizers that give details on your system configuration, keep your drivers up-to-date, and manage your PC's power use.

Belarc Advisor

Before you start optimizing your PC, you need to know your system's exact configuration. That's where the free Belarc Advisor comes in. It tells you everything you need to know--and far more. Of course, in this program you'll find the computer manufacturer, installed RAM, hard-disk size, processor type and speed, and so on, but that's only the beginning. You'll also see the motherboard maker, hard-disk manufacturer, chassis serial number, PC service tag, bus type and speed, multimedia devices, and plenty of other details. The program goes beyond a hardware inventory, too, giving information about your Windows installation, including user accounts, security hotfixes that are installed or missing, and a list of all the software on your machine.

Download Belarc Advisor | Price: Free

Driver Sweeper

Keeping drivers up-to-date helps your system stay in top shape, but if you don't correctly remove old versions, you can experience system instability, slowdowns, and crashes. Driver Sweeper finds old drivers and deletes them. It also backs them up if you need to restore them.

Download Driver Sweeper | Price: Free

Performance Monitor

A monitoring tool--software that can show you overall system use--is essential for optimizing a PC. This nifty little freebie tracks RAM, CPU, Internet, and hard-disk use, and shows everything on your desktop in four small colored boxes. (Reading the information in the boxes is tough, so hover your mouse over them.) You'll see statistics such as the percentage of your CPU currently being used, and even the usage of individual cores on multicore PCs.

Download Performance Monitor | Price: Free

Edison

Consider this: If you don't use the power settings on your PC, you're spewing hundreds of pounds of unnecessary carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, a result of the electricity you waste.

But Windows' power-setting controls are as confusing to use as the tax code, you object. We agree--but we also have a solution for you. The free, simple-to-use Edison helps you change and manage your power settings. No need to fiddle around with Windows: Just move a slider or two, click a few buttons, and you're ready to go. You could just stay with the defaults, too.

How much might you save? When we used its default power settings on our laptop, Edison claimed we would save 359.63 kilowatt hours of electricity in a year (which adds up to $32) and 490.17 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Download Edison | Price: Free

LocalCooling

This freebie, like Edison, helps you cut your PC's electricity use. You can easily edit settings such as when your PC automatically turns off or goes into hibernation, and when your hard disks spin down. The program also displays the amount of energy, trees, gallons of oil, or kilowatt hours you've saved.

Download LocalCooling | Price: Free

Windows Memory Diagnostic

If you find your PC crashing frequently, the culprit may be bad RAM. This free software from Microsoft performs a comprehensive test and tells you whether the RAM or the memory system on your motherboard is faulty. It's built into Vista, too: Click Start, type memory in the search field, and then click Memory Diagnostics Tool.

Download Windows Memory Diagnostic | Price: Free

[via networkworld]

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