On a roll: Golfer records 5 holes-in-one in a week

Central Illinois amateur golfer Curt Hocker is on a roll. Five rolls, to be exact. Just ask anyone at the El Paso Golf Club, where the 22-year-old has recorded five holes-in-one in the last week, including two on Saturday. In this year alone, Hocker has seven aces, five on par-4s, and two other double eagles.

"I don't know what to think," said Hocker, who works in the club's pro shop. "After each one I say it's over, and it keeps happening."

Friends and family, 15 of whom have witnessed Hocker's strokes of luck while playing with him, are equally mystified.

"It's incomprehensible this kind of luck could happen, but it does happen," said El Paso pro Steve Fulton. "There are other things in life that have been just as weird and eerie that have happened. What are the odds?"

Hocker said he's just glad that his club membership comes with "hole-in-one insurance."

That "insurance" means the club — and not Hocker — has to honor the golf tradition of buying everyone in the clubhouse a drink after an ace is made.

"I think the golf course is getting mad at me for all the drinks," Hocker said. "It's hard to talk about, but it's awesome to have it happen.

World's Brightest LCD Panel Unveiled by Samsung

The most important factors in any display solution designed especially for digital signage applications are its size and its brightness, ensuring the fact that the images will be clearly visible even in bright sunshine. However, none of the models currently available on the market will be able to compete against Samsung's latest development, a 70-inch panel touted by its manufacturer to be the world's brightest, with a light output of 2000 nits.

According to the company's statement, this digital information display (DID) is one-third brighter than the previous model and has been designed to optimally accommodate the wide range of lighting conditions affecting outdoor displays. Besides providing around 4 times the brightness of most consumer-grade HDTVs, the device also sports a brightness-control option, which actually allows operators to "dim it down" during nighttime.

Moreover, by using local dimming LED technology, the DID LCD panel manages to keep power consumption as low as possible by adjusting picture brightness in very precise "localized" increments, thereby avoiding having to brighten areas that don’t require it.

One of the main advantages provided by this local dimming technology is related to the contrast ratio, which achieves a very impressive value, of 200,000:1. Other features worth mentioning are the Full-HD (1080p) screen resolution with 16.7 million colors, plus some very good viewing angles, namely 178 degrees on both horizontal and vertical directions.

The panel weighs 80 kilograms, is 1630mm (millimeters) wide by 952mm high by 129.6mm deep, and can be used in either portrait or landscape format, thus making it pretty versatile. Unfortunately, no pricing details have been provided, but Samsung claims that the first samples of this "super-bright" display will be available by the year's end, with mass production most likely scheduled to start at some point in early 2009.

Top 5 Causes of Skin Aging

Let's count down the top five barriers between you and healthier, younger-looking skin:

5. The enemy: Lack of moisture. Dry skin isn't just uncomfortable - it's also a sign that your skin isn't holding on to enough water to allow its repair enzymes to work properly. That means that your skin is less able to naturally heal the inflammation caused by external attackers like the sun, excess sugar intake, and pollution.

The solution: Moisturize! Not all creams and lotions are created equal, though: Ideally, a moisturizer should not only temporarily hydrate, but also strengthen skin so that it can retain moisture more effectively. Check ingredient lists for ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids (stearic acid is the one you'll see most often) - those are the very lipids found naturally in your skin barrier, a layer of the epidermis that keeps moisture in and irritants out. Deliver those powerhouse moisturizers topically, and you'll bolster skin's ability to prevent further dryness.

4. The enemy: Pollution. The exhaust-belching cars and other pollutants in our modern environments are among the major causes of free radicals in the skin (the sun and cigarette smoke, which you'll read about below, also make the list of free-radical producers).

So just what is a free radical? In a nutshell, it's an oxygen molecule that has been stripped of one of its electrons ... meaning that it's on the hunt for replacement electrons. As a result of that hunt, free radicals attack vital skin components like collagen, resulting in skin aging.

The solution: Chances are, you can't take off for the less-polluted climate of a pristine desert island, but antioxidants can help mitigate the damage that pollution causes. Antioxidants calm free radicals by delivering the electrons they seek - and as a result, they also stave off free radicals' aging effects. Get them through your diet (through green tea, dark chocolate, and lots of fruits and veggies, particularly berries and pomegranates) or topically with skin-care ingredients like coenzyme Q10, green tea, coffeeberry, and idebenone.

3. The enemy: Genetics. Yes, to some extent each person's aging process is the unavoidable result of the genes they inherited.

The solution: Obviously there's not much to be done about this one. We are, however, looking into the genetic component of skin aging at the University of Miami Cosmetic Medicine and Research Institute and hope to pinpoint the exact genes involved.

2. The enemy: Smoking. If you need another great reason to quit smoking, here's one: Smoking breaks down collagen, one of the most critical structural proteins in your skin. The result is premature aging in the form of lines, wrinkles, and loss of skin firmness. Smoking also decreases blood flow to the skin, which leaves the complexion sallow and less radiant, and allows damaging toxins to build up.

The solution: Talk to your doctor, research stop-smoking aids, or enlist the support of your friends... just do what it takes to quit smoking!

1. The enemy: The sun. The No. 1 saboteur of healthy, youthful skin is the ultraviolet light of the sun. UV rays induce skin-aging inflammation and generate free radicals, which make the sun the biggest threat to skin's collagen, not to mention the fact that UV exposure puts you at a dramatically increased risk for developing skin cancer.

UV light also worsens and causes hyperpigmentation (they don't call 'em sunspots for nothing!). I have found in my years of practice that dark spots and pigmentation irregularities age people as much as - if not more than - lines and wrinkles.

The solution: Protecting your skin from the sun requires a combination of avoidance and vigilant sunscreen-application. Try to stay out of the sun when it's strongest, at midday, and wear sunscreen every day, even if you're not planning a lot of outdoor time. Incidental sun exposure - on the way to lunch, as you walk to and from your car, while you're waiting for the bus - adds up.

Do You Know Your Brain Foods?

It appears there may be some association between the foods we eat and the power of our brain. Just like the rest of our bodies, the brain reacts negatively to a constant intake of high-fat and junk foods and prefers to be nourished by a well-balanced diet.

Studies have documented the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, commonly found in fatty fish, in lessening the damage wrought by dementia. One study showed that eating at least one fish meal per week may significantly lower the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Fish is not the only food that has been linked to improved brain power. There are also benefits to eating a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and fiber. Other touted brain foods are the brightest colored fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries, strawberries, prunes, raspberries and blackberries, because antioxidants found in them have been linked to improved memory. In addition, foods containing B vitamins or magnesium are crucial to ensuring normal brain and nerve function. Both of these nutrients are often found in whole grains and in enriched and whole grain products such as bread, rice, pasta and fortified cereals.

Finally, remember that just like the rest of your body, your brain needs energy, which it prefers to get from glucose. This may be one reason why some people who follow a low-carbohydrate diet report feeling sluggish. Just like every other aspect of nutrition, balance and moderation are the keys.

YouTube and MySpace as Election Tools

The power that popular media has on the electorate, through websites such as YouTube, MySpace or FaceBook, has not been fully comprehended and harnessed by officials running for elected positions at the White House yet. From a psychological perspective, it makes a whole lot more sense for people to go get information on the web, considering the fact that mainstream media is biased and that the large networks have economical interest in supporting one candidate or the other.

Therefore, more and more people are going on-line to check YouTube's channels or MySpace's profile pages of candidates to this year's presidential elections. Republican John McCain already has a MySpace page, where supporters or the average, undecided voter can log on and get basic information on the candidate's biography and political platform, as well as see pictures of him and his colleagues, family and friends. People can also notice if their friends have endorsed McCain in the presidential race or if other have something to object.

The same applies to Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose fans and campaign staff have already posted numerous videos on various YouTube channels, from meetings or confrontations with other politicians. YouTube's “response” feature allows for the creation of an extended network of related videos, arguing for and against voting for Obama.