I may be what I eat…

… but I’ll probably be smarter than you 😉

Going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin.

The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87. When the volunteers were retested five years later the medics found those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage. It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12.

One thing though… don’t the subjects’ ages affect this test somewhat? They’re pretty old; who knows if their brain shrinkage is caused by veggies or just natural degeneration. Still, the B12 deficiency sounds credible, I’m just saying that it would’ve been better to use other test candidates.

29th Manila International Book Fair

Yesterday, I went with Cris to visit possibly the nerdiest place I could ever fathom going to. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the 3rd time I’ve gone to one.

I’m not in a position to make fun of nerds. After all, my girlfriend is one of them. Plus, I’m a geek; so that just makes us even. Still, I was amused at how much “excitement” books could generate – maybe because I don’t like reading in general (I prefer listening to audiobooks, etc.)

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Noise profiles for Lumix LX3

I’ve taken the liberty of making NoiseNinja noise profiles for the Lumix LX3. Here are the setup details:

  • Tripod (anti-shake turned off)
  • f/4.0
  • Telephoto to minimize barrel distortion
  • In-camera Noise Reduction set to -2 (lowest)
  • Everything else was set to the defaults.
  • 7 ISO settings (80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200)
  • 4 MP variations – each with 3 individual aspect ratios.
    • RAW (approx 10MP)
      • 4:3 – 10MP
      • 3:2 – 9.5MP
      • 16:9 – 9MP
    • JPG – maximum resolution (same as RAW)
      • 4:3 – 10MP
      • 3:2 – 9.5MP
      • 16:9 – 9MP
    • JPG – next biggest resolution (approx 6MP)
      • 4:3 – 7MP
      • 3:2 – 6.5MP
      • 16:9 – 6MP
    • JPG – biggest possible resolution which allows maximum digital zoom (approx 3MP)
      • 4:3 – 3MP
      • 3:2 – 3MP
      • 16:9 – 2.5MP

So that’s 7 ISO increments available to each of the 3 aspect ratios; Which in turn, gives us 21 profiles for each of the 4 megapixel choices I’ve profiled. That’s a total of 84 profiles! Download links for the profiles are available at the end of the post.

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