Archive for December, 2006


su

Biest has been skiing already

Only few people had the chance to enjoy snow this year. Our biest is one of them. Thanks to Mario and Markus who took it with them to the Swiss Alps ;-)) and did some advertising for biestmilch.
Biestpanorama

Biestsnow2

Mariomarkus

Mario and Markus Konrad loyal biesters and Biest_Gang members.

su

Gründungstreffen der Biestgang

Die Biestgang ist eine mögliche Antwort auf das Versagen der Top-down-Konzepte des letzten Jahrtausends, ein Bottopm-up-Konzept, das auf dem Prinzip des Teilnehmens und des Mitmischens beruht. Dieses Konzept verlangt von jedem einzelnen jedoch die Lust zum Mitmachen und zum Experimentieren. Die Biestgang ist der erste schillernde Knoten in einem Netz sozialer Ereignisse, die sich um Biestmilch in Zukunft konstituieren werden.


Biester, wer/was/wie? - ein Entwurf

Biester sind Wanderer zwischen den Welten, die ein bisschen etwas von den 3 Musketieren in sich tragen sollten, ein bisschen von "Einer für alle, alle für einen." Biester bewegen sich in realen und virtuellen Welten. Biester sind Einzelgänger und brauchen gleichzeitig den Rückhalt der Gemeinschaft, um ihre Risikobereitschaft und Freude am Experimentieren nicht zu verlieren. Biester sind keine Experten oder Besserwisser, sondern Spieler, Quereinsteiger, Eroberer, Abenteurer, Ausprobierer, Experimentierer…
Biester lieben es, Visionen nachzujagen, sie lieben die Abwechslung.
Biestmilch ist für Biester nicht nur Nahrungsmittel, sondern Lebensstil.

Heute trifft sich die Kerntruppe zu einem Gründungstreffen. Mal sehen, was passiert. Alles ist/soll möglich sein.

su

Pulp Xmas

I think I don’t need to comment on this video, just that I have always been some kind of a pulp f… fan.

su

The lonely ZUNE

In den USA und bei www.amazon.com ist sie jetzt erhältlich, die Antwort von Microsoft auf Apples iPod. Er, der MP3 Player, heisst ZUNE (Offizielle website http://www.zune.net:80/en-US/). Klingt doch wie »der Einsame« und einsam ist er zur Zeit wahrlich noch. Drahtlos von ZUNE zu ZUNE, das ist möglich, aber wo ist der nächste ZUNE. Einsame brauchen nicht zu quatschen, oder doch?

Neues und Kritisches zum ZUNE findet Ihr auf http://www.zune-zoom.de/13-zunenet-online.

Ich bin ja seit ca. 15 Jahren ein eingefleischter, wenn nicht gar sektiererischer Apple-User. Seit 3 Wochen habe ich nun auch einen iPod, den Nano mit 8 Giga, ein Geburtstagsgeschenk… gleich bei der ersten Inbetriebnahme ging der Kleine in die Knie… Austausch unproblematisch, am nächsten Tag war der Neue da. Inzwischen war ich ja verreist, habe den Nano aus Zeitmangel liegen gelassen. Zurück zuhause habe ich mir gestern die Zeit genommen, bei iTunes meinen Nano zu füttern.  Und dann… ja dann wollte ich mich in mich zurückziehen und hören…

Prompt… der Nano, er rührte sich nicht mehr… Ich konnte es nicht glauben… reset, reset, reset… nichts, keine Reaktion.

Wäre das ein Grund für mich mit ZUNE, dem Einsamen, zu kokettieren? Ich bin noch unsicher. Einsame Pfade zu beschreiten, ist auch nicht ohne Risiko. Einsam bleiben ist ebenfalls nicht lustig. Und unloyal zu sein, ist auch nicht mein Ding. Also werde ich mich wohl weiter mit dem NANO herumärgern!

su

If you have got friends all over the world and you want to call them on Christmas…

… then you might want to use Jajah services. This is a tip I found on Guy Kawasakis Blog http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

Free Calls for Christmas from Jajah

Jajah* http://www.jajah.com/ will provide free global phone service between consumers in eighty countries on Christmas Day. Registered Jajah users will be able to make free calls, conference calls, scheduled calls, and text messages to anyone in the eighty countries even if the recipients are not in registered Jajah users.

For example, families can use Jajah to get the whole family together (up to ten people) for a free conference call. The registered user can set up the call on Christmas day or schedule the call in advance anytime between now and Christmas. Again, the only family member who needs to be a registered user is the person who sets up the call.

Program Details

The service is available in Zones 1, 2, 3 (see country list below)

The numbers called do not need to be registered Jajah users

Callers must be registered Jajah users (registration is cost and obligation free)

Zone 3: to and from landlines only (except for text messages)

The free Jajah lines are open 24 hours on Christmas, December 25, 2006 (December 24th at 11:00 am GMT to December 26th at 10:00 am GMT)

Calls are subject to Jajah’s fair-use policy.

Countries
Zone 1

USA, Canada, China, Singapore, Hong Kong

Zone 2

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, San Marino, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, Venezuela

Zone 3

Algeria, Andorra, Anguilla, Armenia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burundi, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, El Salvador, Estonia, French Antilles, Gibraltar, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macao, Malawi, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Togo, Turkey, Uruguay, Virgin Islands (US)

Guy Kawasaki is on the board of advisors of Jajah.

*For basic Info to Jajah click on »Continue reading«. This information I took from their homepage. Thus it gives an insight view on the company. It might be useful - as it is in most cases of new inventions/enterprises - to go for a second or third opinion.

(more…)

su

You’re No Meryl Streep

Today I just want to post this post from Andy Wibbels http://andywibbels.com/ who helped me with his book »Wild Blogging« to make the final decion to get into blogging too. I won’t comment on it. I think it is quite clear cut why I chose this post.

It really isn’t that hard.

That next step.

You know: the one that you are delaying.

Making a phone call. Answering an email. Taking out the five bags of trash you have in the kitchen.

A small step towards something big. Ger.

Stop thrashing about. Gnashing your teeth. Letting your hair flail about like Jennifer Love Hewitt with your long sleeves pulled over your hands. Or is it Neve Campbell? Probably both. Anyway:

You’re no Meryl Streep.
Okay - maybe the dingo did eat-chore bay-bay. But really.

This isn’t Sophie’s Choice. It isn’t even Color Purple. Or Joy Luck Club.

It’s your daily work-a-day life with the smaller mundane minutiae that leads to something bigger.

Suffering is optional - but sometimes we need to cast ourselves in a mini-drama to expire into action.
Oh you can still whine. Far be it from me to deny you your whining (I come from a long line of whiners).

But whine and do it anyway.

You know that ‘fake it ’til you make it’ thingy? Feel the fear and do it anyway?

Whine and do it anyway.

Tell yourself Okay! Dammit! I’ll do it! GAH!

Every journey begins with a single whine. And we will serve no whine before its time.

I find I’m driven by dis-satisfaction - but need to remember that also means dis-satisfaction with myself. Sometimes I get so obstreporous with myself I just have to do something.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go take out the trash. There’s like five bags in the kitchen.

su

Taste varies with mood

Biestmilch often raises the taste issue in people. Some find it awesome, others find it awful. Then I always say, biestmilch is not there to taste well, but to make you feel better and healthier.

But what should one think about this? Red Bull for example, one of the most famous brands on the globe, failed in all taste tests which were performed by market research institutes prior to launch. One needs not to comment on this! Taste is probably one the most unreliable candidates to measure. Even in the same person, something can taste excellent one day, and can be disliked on another depending on the moods and the general condition the body finds itself in at certain time.

Yesterday I found a study in Nature News http://www.nature.com/news/ that tries to deal with this issue.

Mood makes food taste different*
by Kerri Smith

Your mood may actually change how your dinner tastes, making the bitter and salty flavours recede, according to new research. Especially anxiety is such a feeling.
It has long been known that people who are depressed have lower-than-usual levels of the brain chemicals serotonin or noradrenaline, or in some cases both. Many also have a blunted sense of taste, which is presumably caused by changes in brain chemistry.

To unpick the relationship between the two, Lucy Donaldson and her colleagues at the University of Bristol, UK, gave 20 healthy volunteers two antidepressant drugs, and checked their sensitivity to different tastes. The drug that raised serotonin levels made people more sensitive to sweet and bitter tastes, the team reports in the Journal of Neuroscience. The other, which increased noradrenaline, enhanced recognition of bitter and sour tastes.
Healthy people whose anxiety levels were naturally higher were less sensitive to bitter and salty tastes.

Next the team plans to perform similar tests in depressed people, and in healthy volunteers given another brain chemical called tryptophan. This chemical would lower the healthy subjects’ levels of serotonin, as actually happens in depressed patients.

The work has also generated interest from flavour houses — companies that develop chemicals for the food and drink industry — who are interested, for example, in making foods taste just as sweet with half the amount of sugar.

Published online: 6 December 2006; | doi:10.1038/news061204-5

(more…)

su

Does not everybody have his/her little genetic polymorphism to overcome?

There is lot of talking about genetic disposition and its implications on our quality of life nowadays, especially after the decoding of the human genome. Genetics have been always used as an excuse for weaknesses, as something one cannot to do anything about, and therefore needs not to feel guilty about. Weaknesses referring back to genetics are/were equal to destiny. This is an attitude that needs to be changed, slowly.
The code of the human genome has taught us a lot, but not that everything is unalterably written into our genes. There is no »the human genome«. Minor variations between individuals contribute to the fact that we are all different, but they don’t make us different.
The same disease can take a total different course in you than in me, you may develop a tumor, another does not, some suffer from allergies others from autoimmune diseases, others again are incredible susceptible to infections, others are not. Our genes have its shares in this game, but also has our way of life, our life style how we eat, how much we move, how we think… Even if one is so unlucky to have a punct mutation in one of his/her genes that does not necessarily mean this is weakness is going to show on the surface of his/her life. The body and its cells have many possibilities to counteract deficits, so it is the case with genetic mutations of many kinds.

Think about it. Life style can really make a difference. There are many options to lead a good life despite genetics telling you another story.

At the end, just a remark to outline the relativity of genetics. Even in a condition of genetic identity like it is the case in identical twins the final outcome can vary considerably, identical twins need not be alike. For long science tried to hide these facts from us not to destroy the omnipotency of the genetic code. But this power scrambles because of the knowledge the Human Genome
Project gave to us. It forces us to change our view, genetics looses
grounds as an universal explanation and excuse.

In the British Journal of Sports Medicine http://bjsm.bmj.com (Issue 22.11.06, Zhou, D Q, Hu, Y, Liu, G, Gong, L, Xi, Y, Wen, L, Lucia, A) I found an article of which I would like to give you a brief summary underneath that stands for a prototype of thousands and thousands of studies that have been performed to demonstrate the power of the genome.

Muscle-specific creatine kinase gene polymorphism and running economy responses to an 18-week 5000-m training programme

The objective of the study was to investigate the association between muscle-specific creatine kinase (CKMM) gene polymorphism and the effects of endurance training on running economy.
102 biologically unrelated male volunteers from northern China performed a 5000-m running programme, with an intensity of 95–105% ventilatory threshold. The protocol was undertaken three times per week and lasted for 18 weeks. Running economy indexes were determined by making the participants run on a treadmill before and after the protocol. Gene polymorphism in a specific region of CKMM was detected by polymerase chain reaction-restricted fragment length polymorphism.
The results showed three different genotypes for CKMM (AA, AG and GG) in the participants observed.

After training, all running economy indexes declined markedly. Change in steady-state consumption of oxygen, change in steady-state consumption of oxygen by mean body weight, change in steady-state consumption of oxygen by mean lean body weight and change in ventilatory volume in AG groups were larger than those in AA and GG groups.
Conclusions were made as follows: The findings indicate that the CKMM gene polymorphism may contribute to individual running economy responses to endurance training.

Don’t forget studies of this kind may wrongly correlate creatine kinase to the variations in performance. But even though, if you had this handicap of your creatine kinase, and this may be the reason for your performance deficit under special conditions, on the other
hand you might have the advantage of another mutation that renders you
less susceptible to infections than others. To pinpoint one thing and disregard the rest may lead to unjustified conclusions.
However, there are mutations that can be overcome or compensated for by training and lifestyle, and there are definitely those gene polymorphisms that put limits to your performance as an athlete. The problems is that up to now nobody will be able to give you the facts in your very specific case.