The Risks of Sleep Debt

"For years, sleep researchers have been preaching the dangers of lost sleep: People who are fatigued can't pay attention to routine tasks, have trouble learning and are prone to a laundry list of health problems, from depression to high blood pressure," says Kathleen Facklemann in USA Today

"New research suggests an added risk to losing sleep day after day: Humans and animals that have chronic sleep deprivation might reach a point at which the very ability to catch up on lost sleep is damaged, according to Fred Turek, a sleep researcher at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois."

"His research on sleep patterns in rats appeared this summer in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That, together with findings from a human study, suggests people who lose sleep night after night might not recover the alertness they need to perform well during the day. So far the studies don't tell researchers whether the damage is permanent. But they do suggest that people who go to work fatigued day after day might perform consistently at a subpar level.

Cell Phones ARE Dangerous

I've said it for years: talking on a cell phone demands your sharp attention and hence it is dangerous to employ a cell phone around vehicles. Now "indisputable" evidence confirms my observation. Steve Rubenstein in The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "A pedestrian apparently absorbed in a cell phone call was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in San Leandro today after he walked around a lowered crossing gate and onto the tracks."

"The victim, a man who was not immediately identified, was struck at 12:30 p.m. by a northbound Capitol Corridor train at the Alvarado Street crossing, about 8 miles south of the Oakland station... None of the 20 passengers or crew aboard the train was injured. That train and two others were delayed and another Capitol Corridor train was cancelled."

"Crew members aboard the Sacramento-bound train told authorities they saw the victim talking on the cell phone before he was struck, Graham said. The warning lights and gates at the crossing were functioning properly."

The Fastest Route to Purchases

Do you go online to find out about products or services these days? Of course, what could be faster or easier. So, where do most web surfers obtain information on potential purchases? According to Hitwise.com, an online competitive intelligence service, Google is by far the top U.S. search engine in terms of driving visitors to shopping sites, accounting for 14.9% of visits.

Yahoo! Search was found to be the second most popular search engine, accounting for 4.7% of shopper visits, followed by MSN Search and a rapidly-gaining MySpace.

Breathing Space for Patent Office

The National Research Council issued a new report on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which is beset with funding shortages and outdated policies. The report shows that vigorous competition among businesses “to file and enforce patents” is a major reason why the Patent Office currently is swamped and faces a backlog of 500,000 patent applications, added to approximately 350,000 new applications a year.