Good news, everyone! Drink coffee and live longer and better!

Not that this information actually means anything to the addict, but it appears that not only is the modest imbibing of coffee not harmful, caffeine may actually help you live a longer life.  Back when coffee was being panned as unhealthy by really unhappy people, the Phactor figured that the people who didn't drink coffee didn't really live longer; it was just that their miserable existence seemed longer. One does wonder about all the factors involved.  Perhaps the socializing in the convivial company of coffee house patrons improves your outlook on life, which in turn provides a positive impact on your health, if only everyone didn't talk so fast.  But even if such studies did not exist, a true caffeine addict is not easily guilted into quitting their morning upper.  Such a study also should not be used as an excuse for over indulgence so as to increase your chances of living to 120.  So, to Mr. 4 shots, straight up, you're probably near the limit.  HT to Scientific American blog.  And a wag of the finger for their stupid commercial delay.  None of that stuff here, folks! 

Coffee, bugs, and death

Tiny minds are at work worrying about tiny things, in this case whether a dye from ground up insects ruins your vegan diet when used in a coffee drink.  Well, not as much as a strawberry frappacino (it's a red dye).  Ah, the vegan belief system in fundamentalist, fanatic mode, and the Gleaming Retort has said it with more humor and information than the Phactor can muster today.  This craziness had to have originated in California; I mean you're getting drinks from Starbucks and you worry about a dye from an insect in your drink?  Just be happy it isn't a fly or cockroach swimming around.  But just remember vegans, fungi and animals are each others most recent common ancestors forming a single lineage, so phylogenetically eu-vegans (true vegans) you should probably avoid fungi and their metabolic products too, just to be safe.  Leave the beer and bread for us poor omnivores.

Caffeine gives brain a jolt

Without doubt this is good research, but really, you needed rats to document that caffeine gives your brain a jolt? All you have to do is observe everyone participating in the five-day rat race, and almost everyone of them jump starts their cranium with caffeine. Wish the Phactor could apply to the Juan Valdez Foundation for coffee research. But that's science for you. It's not enough that it works, science has to find the caffeine receptor sites deep within the brain, invent a cranial coffee port, and then pour the stuff straight into the brain! And the best part is that it's still legal.