Cancer, Gulliver, cat and mouse

Forget fruit and veg. Lose weight and cut the booze to reduce cancer risk
People should be warned that cancer is linked to obesity and alcohol, rather than urged to eat more fruit and vegetables to protect against the disease.

UK trialling testing sugar-coated salt on roads
Although they’ve been using molasses for years in Nebraska and other places to help salt stick to the roads, it’s only just occurred to us Brits to give it a try now that we’re entering a period of severe cold weather (again). Add salt to water and it lowers its freezing point so that it has to be that bit colder for the roads to stay frozen. However, salt kicks up too easily, add molasses and the salt gets more of a purchase on the icy roads and helps defrost them (ever so slightly) producing a nice brown slush.

Stuart Little does a Benjamin Button
Researchers have identified targets (related to the enzyme telomerase) that could help produce old-age-defying drugs and a fountain of youth for the baby boomer population… but haven’t we heard this all before? Of course, we have. It’s unlikely ever to come to anything more than next-generation Botox.

Gulliver Turtle is looking for candidates for BioMed Central’s 5th Annual Research Awards
BioMed Central’s Research Awards are now in their fifth year and apparently growing in popularity. The awards were set up to recognize excellence in research that has been made universally accessible by open access publication, so get your nominations in and see if Gulliver picks you.

Cat and mouse
No sooner do the US authorities begin stealing web domains illegally (actually just taking out the domain from DNS servers), than users find a way to fight back using a DNS system that cannot be touched by any governmental institution and works a P2P network. The problem being that an innocent party might have their domain blocked by the US before due process has taken place and on spurious grounds (and all this before the legislation even comes into effect).