steve mencher

Why Complaining Is Bad for You… but Might Feel Too Good to Stop

Posted on 05/7/2013 by | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Your LifeMy dad was a master complainer. A king of kvetching. He had a symphony of noises and a palette of winces and scowls to make his annoyance known to all. Dad would never have taken part in a growing fad: purple rubber bracelets carved with the words “A Complaint Free World.” Ten million bracelets are supposedly out there in more than 100 countries, although who knows how many are being worn. The bracelet is inspiration for nitpickers, grouches and grumblers …

Have Athletes Found a New Fountain of Youth? Should You Try It?

Posted on 05/1/2013 by | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthGolfer Vijay Singh withdrew from the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C., May 1, one day after the PGA Tour said it wouldn’t punish him for using deer antler spray, a nutritional supplement that includes small amounts of a banned hormone. Singh blamed his departure on a sore back. Tough luck. The spray is supposed to cure that. After deer antler spray debuted in the popular press in January, when owners of a Florida lab claimed they had supplied it …

Boston Blast Knocks Down Runner, 78, But He Finishes Race

Posted on 04/16/2013 by | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | News RoundupsBill Iffrig was a few yards short of the finish line at the Boston Marathon when the 78-year-old runner was knocked to the ground by the first of two blasts. A Boston Globe photographer shot several pictures of the fallen Iffrig with police and race assistants nearby, and the images soon appeared around the world. Astonishingly, Iffrig was helped to his feet, apparently uninjured, and finished the race. “I was heading for the finish line,” he told ESPN’s Steve Levy. …

Can a Company Patent Your Genes (and Make a Boatload)?

Posted on 04/16/2013 by | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | PoliticsIf there’s a medical test that could save your life, should one company have the power to set its cost so high that few people could afford it? And what if the thing that makes the company’s test exclusive is a government-issued patent on a part of the human body? That’s what is at stake in a case the U.S. Supreme Court heard April 15 that could determine whether some biotech companies, by patenting particular human genes, can completely control …

Computer Geeks Make Money. Literally. What You Need to Know

Posted on 04/11/2013 by | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | Money & Savings | TechnologyNobody knows exactly who they are. But a group of computer geeks have created a virtual currency called “Bitcoins” that’s got everybody from the FBI to international bankers to the news media talking. Bitcoins are money that flows on the Internet — money that’s not backed by gold or governments. But it does buy things — like cars, pizza and guns. Starting from zero about four years ago, the Bitcoin economy was said to be worth about $2 billion earlier …

5 Movie Actors Who Were Late Bloomers

Posted on 04/10/2013 by | Who's News | Comments

Bulletin Today | LegacyBesedka Johnson proved that it’s never too late to become a movie actor. She began at age 85, and won praise for last year’s Starlet, her first and only film. The Detroit native, who passed away on April 4 at age 87 in Glendale, Calif., moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to pursue a modeling career and then became a successful dressmaker. She took an acting class in her 30s, but never seriously considered striving for a Hollywood career. …

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