Olympic Countdown Clock Stops

The London 2012 Olympics countdown clock has somewhat embarrassingly stopped.

Set running with 500 days to go to the 2012 games the digital display has stopped at just 500 days and 7:06:56.

Omega is investigating what has gone wrong.

A Time Lord on a Time Lord

Linda Buckley-Archer, author of the 'Time Quake' trilogy, has reviewed BR Collins' new 'Tyme's End' ghost story noting a rather nice turn of phrase from the story's main character "No-one escapes the past, it's simply a question of how long the leash is".
She describes how Collins racks up the tension towards an unputdownable finale concluding that Collins is a writer of real power.
See 'Linda Buckley-Archer uncovers secrets from the past' in the Guardian's Review section, Saturday, 29 January 2011.

Alpha Carotene in Vegetables for Longer Life

A large U.S. study has found that adults with higher concentrations of serum alpha-carotene in their blood were likely to live longer than those who had lower levels.

Interestingly, women tended to have slightly higher concentrations of the nutrient than men.

The team found an especially strong correlation between higher alpha-carotene levels and lower risk of death from diabetes, upper respiratory tract and upper digestive tract cancers, as well as lower respiratory disease.

The researchers cautioned that the levels of alpha-carotene, rather than having a direct affect on disease prevention themselves might instead "act as an indicator of multiple interactive forces."

"These findings support increasing fruit and vegetable consumption as a means of preventing premature death," the researchers noted.
See more at http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=alpha-carotene-from-veggies-linked-2010-12-30