Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 112

When PR Underwhelms

To be quite honest, we have no idea whether or not Allura Red AC (aka Red 40) causes kids to become decidedly non-mellow. But we do know that the food dye's advocates would be well-advised to spiff up their flagship website, which thousands of concerned folks certainly visit every day via The Google. For starters, the graphics don't exactly impress. Nor does the matter-of-fact slogan: "Red Dye 40—It's in Your Food."

But the what really strikes us as off-kilter is the site's "Editorial," which mak

Another Kabaddi Legend

The rest of our day is all about the Now the Hell Will Start screenplay, so we'll outro with yet another clip of kabaddi mastery. Today's legend is the late, great Harjit Brar Bajakhana, perhaps the best Indian raider to every play the game. Keep in mind that he performed at such a high level while having to hold his breath—one of the sport's most important rules. Here's to hoping kabaddi makes it into the Olympics one of these days—we much prefer it to, say, racewalking.

"What More Do I Need?"

The first big magazine feature we ever wrote was about near-death experiences (NDEs). We have vivid memories of taking a prop plane from Washington D.C. to Charlottesville, Virginia, in order to interview a pair of psychologists who specialize in studying the effects of NDEs. What struck us most about their research was how the whole "walking down the long tunnel of light" experience changed folks' priorities once they healed up. True, there was a tiny subset of NDE survivors who fell into deep

Carbonated Vicodin in a Can

We generally shy away from Red Bull, due to a bad experience we had after consuming four cans of the stuff one night. (Suffice to say our earthly vessel did not appreciate the deluge of taurine.) But perhaps we should reconsider our aversion in light of this Winona State study. Because Red Bull may have some medicinal properties about which we were not aware:

Red Bull((R)) consumption was associated with a significant increase in pain tolerance in all participants. These findings suggest that Red

The Murder Project: Crocodile Tears

We have to duck out for a few hours, to work on a big Wired piece that's simmering on our front burner. Back as soon as possible; in the interim, please enjoy the above "gotcha!" clip of Dalia Dippolito, who was recently busted for trying to get her husband offed. Like so many murder-for-hire amateurs, Dippolito unwittingly found herself steered toward an undercover cop posing as a hitman. If only she'd read out latest Murder Project post, she might have realized that the $3,000 figure she was q

"The Requirements to Compete as a Woman"

In reading this quickie AP bit about a female runner whose gender is in question, we were left wondering about the shades of sexual grey that the International Association of Athletic Federations must contend with in the age of hormones. A quick peek in the pants, alas, is no longer sufficient to determine whether a male is masquerading as a female—in fact, that's not even really the issue anymore. Rather, it's more about athletes who are born in the gender interzone, and elect to use either sur

Citrus is Your Friend

Yesterday we touched upon medicine's tendency to stick with certain treatments even when there's a lack of credible evidence attesting to their efficacy. But there's a flip side to that foible—some physicians' genius for concocting cures on the fly, with no lab or patient data to assist them.

Such was certainly the case with scurvy, the bane of generations of sailors. The punchline to a million a pirate jokes is also history's most lethal "occupational disease": between 1500 and 1700, scurvy kil

First Contact: The Apache

Mea culpa for letting our First Contact series lapse. It's been nearly two months since we discussed Martin Frobisher's encounter with the Inuit, and that's far too long to do without primary-source accounts of the clashes of civilizations. But we're back with a dandy today, courtesy of the Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado.

Though he never did manage to find those fabled Seven Cities of Gold in the American West, Coronado did manage to stumble upon an Apache tribe in 1541—the first

Scared Sober?

We don't have too many hobby horses here at Microkhan, but one of them is a steadfast belief that many long-accepted practices are far less effective than advertised. This is typically because our species is easily seduced by logical facades, and thus pays too little attention to actual evidence. You can understand, then, why the medical establishment spent centuries swearing by bloodletting—it makes intuitive sense that "bad blood" would equate with ill health. It wasn't until we sat down and r

A Raider for the Ages

When the conversation turns to the all-time greats of kabaddi, the name Ameen Jatt must invariably be mentioned. The thick-bodied Pakistani raider was a dominant force in the 1990s, and still much-admired among the sport's rabid fanbase:

An awesome player, simply put out of this world! In 1995 World Cup he led Pakistan into the final against very tough opponents from USA, and England (that included legendary stopper Major Gakhal mama of current superstar Tirith, and another legendary stopper cal