Doing puzzles and reading books have been linked with a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and a new study may explain why — it reduces the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain.

In the study, older adults who said they engaged in mentally stimulating activities throughout their lives had fewer deposits ofbeta-amyloid, the hallmark protein of Alzheimer’s. The findings were true regardless of the participants’ gender or years of education.

The findings suggest that cognitive therapies that stimulate the brain may slow the progression of the disease, if applied before symptoms appear, said study researcher William Jagust, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute.

The researchers note Alzheimer’s is a complex disease that likely has more than one cause. In addition, other lifestyle factors not accounted for in the study may influence the link.

The study is published online today (Jan. 23) in the journal Archives of Neurology.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Coca-Cola Co. acknowledged Thursday it was the company that alerted federal regulators about low levels of fungicide in its own orange juice and in competitors’ juice, prompting juice prices to rise and increased government testing for the residue.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have said orange juice is safe to drink and the levels found are below levels of concern.

A defunct German satellite is expected to fall to Earth this weekend, with experts predicting that up to 30 big pieces of the junked spacecraft could hit the planet. But exactly when and where the satellite will fall remains a mystery.

The 2.7-ton Roentgen Satellite, or ROSAT, will likely plummet to Earth on Saturday or Sunday, according to the latest update from the German Aerospace Center.

“Currently, the re-entry date can only be calculated to within plus/minus one day,” agency officials said in a statement. “This time slot of uncertainty will be reduced as the date of re-entry approaches. However, even one day before re-entry, the estimate will only be accurate to within plus/minus five hours.”

In a controversial effort to curb teen vanity, a school in England prohibits makeup and removes mirrors from the girls’ bathrooms

Talk about plain dealing. The 14- to 16-year-old girls at Shelley College in West Yorkshire, England have been banned from wearing makeup, and are checked daily for offending eyeliner and rouge. (Teachers are reportedly armed with “makeup removal kits.”) Going even further, the school has removed the mirrors in the girls’ bathrooms to curb what’s perceived as an obsession with vanity. “There comes a point when you need to stop teachers spending half an hour in the day talking to girls about their makeup,” says head teacher John McNally. “It is more sensible to say it’s not allowed.” Is this a good way to help kids focus on learning over looks?

I don’t know about you, but the first thing I do when I check into a hotel is conduct an obligatory spot-check for bedbugs, unpack my belongings and place my passport, extra money and other items of value in the hotel safe, which, by name alone should be the best place to keep my important treasures, right?

Wrong. According to a new video by travel consultant, skyrangerpro, of Skyranger Productions, your hotel safe may not be as, well, safe, as you think it is.

In the video, we’re faced with a common, ordinary hotel room safe. The subject demonstrates the proper way to lock it, entering his own generic password of 123456. The safe closes and is supposedly secure now that it is locked. When he enters the password correctly, it opens once again. So far, so good.

Washington (CNN) — The U.S. Postal Service does not have the money to meet an obligation to a retiree health care trust fund coming due at the end of the month, but if there’s a default, officials promise no interruption in the mail, the payroll or payments to suppliers.

Commenting in response to a New York Times article Monday suggesting that the Postal Service may have to shut down within months, spokeswoman Yvonne Yoerger said there’s “nothing actually new in the Postal Service’s position.”

“We are required to make this $5.5 billion payment into the future retiree health benefits fund and probably won’t be able to make it when it comes due September 30th.”

In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in March, the appetite for new nuclear power plants slipped to post-Chernobyl lows. Regulators from Italy to Switzerland to Texas moved to stop pending nuclear-power projects, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) began to re-evaluate the safety of all domestic plants. Yet nuclear power still provides 20 percent of America’s total electric power and 70 percent of its emissions-free energy, in large part because no alternative energy source can match its efficiency.

Everywhere you look, people are telling you how to go green: Walk. Recycle. Compost. Turn off the water. Turn off the lights.

But it looks like there’s one place in America that didn’t get the memo. The firehouse in Livermore, California has a light that’s been on for 110 years. (Yes, YEARS. Not hours. Not minutes. YEARS).

Granted, it’s only 4 watts, but that’s what is believed to be the source of the bulb’s longevity. The hand-blown globe was installed in 1901 and there’s even a “bulb-cam” website where you can watch it … being on.

In Siberia, a simple rainstorm can turn a road into not just mud but quicksand. Snow drifts close roads for months, and streams come and go. The vehicle of choice? The six-wheel Trekol, a two-ton amphibian with pillow-soft tires.
The key to the Trekol‘s
fortitude are its tires — engineered with a special rubber compound to
operate with just 1.5 pounds per square inch of air pressure, about a
tenth of air pressure at sea level and well below the 25-35 psi used in
most vehicle tires.el Trekol, a two-ton amphibian with pillow-soft tires.

LAKE PROVIDENCE, La. — Army engineers prepared Saturday to slowly open the gates of an emergency spillway along the rising Mississippi River, diverting floodwaters from Baton Rouge and New Orleans, yet inundating homes and farms in parts of Louisiana’s populated Cajun country.

About 25,000 people and 11,000 structures could be in harm’s way when the Morganza spillway is unlocked for the first time in 38 years. Sheriffs and National Guardsmen were warning people in a door-to-door sweep through the area, and shelters were ready to accept up to 4,800 evacuees, Gov. Bobby Jindal said.