Anandtech Special

Today's blog will be dedicated to topics I browsed through over at ATOT.

(By the way, boy, this Warriors-Mavs game is exciting! Can the Mavs stave off elimination?)

- To nobody's surprise, Los Angeles is the worst polluted city in the nation, according to a study based on 2003-2005 data. No kidding. What's next? A study on which country has the highest rate of obesity? If people want to commission a study that would actually impact people, I have a proposition: let's commission a study to determine why food tastes better after midnight!

(Wow. I thought Jason Richardson got fouled on that shot attempt. And that was a real tough call on Baron. Ouch! Golden State just fumbled a missed FT. Looks like Dallas will survive to fight another day.)

- A Washington, D.C. judge is suing a local dry cleaners for $67 million over a lost pair of trousers.

Plaintiff Roy Pearson -- himself a local judge in Washington D.C -- says in court papers that he's been through the ringer over a lost pair of prized pants he wanted to wear on his first day on the bench. He says in court papers that he has endured "mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort.''

Are you freaking kidding me?

(Wow...I didn't think Jackson deserved to be tossed for THAT.)

Mental suffering? Discomfort? Once this case gets laughed out of court, can the owner of the dry cleaner countersue for the same thing? I know that, if I were being sued for a huge chunk of money, I would be sick to my stomach over the prospect of spending thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees!

It's morons like this that give lawyers and judges a bad name. I hope the presiding judge puts this idiot through the ringer (apologies for the pun). Damn...I kinda want to sue the guy myself for "mental suffering, inconvenience, and discomfort" for reading about this dumbass.

Let's see how long it takes for this guy to sue me for libel.

(Freaking Dodgers. They had numerous chances to extend a 1-0 lead, and now it's 1-1.)

- New studies in the "science of resuscitation" show that the widespread death of cells in a "dead" individual occurs when cells are reintroduced to oxygen, a process caused "reperfusion" (EDITED 5/11: link added). According to research studies on oxygen-starved heart cells, "once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed." Apparently, reperfusion triggers apoptosis--abnormal cellular suicide, for lack of a better term, used typically as a defense mechanism; an abnormal cell would rather kill itself than propagate and potentially become cancerous. According to the Dr. Lance Becker of the University of Pennsylvania,

"It looks to us as if the cellular surveillance mechanism cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and a cell being reperfused with oxygen. Something throws the switch that makes the cell die."

Incredible! The idea that CPR on a victim could potentially kill a man, as opposed to possibly saving his life, is remarkable! How counterintuitive does it sound that a better approach to saving a heart attack victim is to reduce his oxygen uptake, as Dr. Becker suggests?

I hope to hear some more advances in the "science of resuscitation" in the near future.

(Freaking Nomar! Popped up with the go-ahead run at second! Now it's 1-1, in the top of the ninth).

That's all I've got for now. I missed Heroes and The Riches last night, so I gotta watch those before I head off to bed.

Happy blogging!