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More To Coffee Buzz Than Caffeine
MrByte420 writes "WebMD has story about every computer geek's favorite beverage enhancer. Seems like there's more to the kick than just the caffeine that makes coffee a favorite amongst the sleep deprived programmers of the world. Some more information can be found here with some interesting details why decaf can keep ya up and wired too. In related news, scientists report no progress in determining why the best computer code is written at 4:27 AM on a tuesday morning surrounded by a box of Mountain Dew."
...is how anyone can fit in a Mountain Dew box. Seems like a pretty tight squeeze, even if the contents have been consumed to make room.
Sweet Jesus! Too much pressure!
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
the blood pressure of occasional drinkers rose.
Followed by:
potentially adverse effects of coffee on the heart could be less hazardous in regular drinkers with normal blood pressure.
The link here doesn't seem very clear. Are they trying to say that blood pressure rises with occasional use, but regular drinkers don't suffer raised blood pressure?
..researchers found [nervous system activation] rose after consumption of both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee in both groups.
Now we have some solid evidence to prove to people that there is no point in drinking Decaf. Decaf is EVIL!!
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Here's How this stuff works - decaffeination anyway.
More info and how to Kick the habbit, amongst other infos.
The caffiene in your cola/other drink often comes from the coffee decaffeination process.
Perhaps the reason your heart keeps beating is that these processes do not remove all the caffiene? I tend to believe other magics are at work here (chemicals), but they don't discount that in the article....
I wonder which caffeine extraction method was used?
Liquid C02 under pressure is often used to extract the caffeine. But there are other methods.
It might be interesting to see if the same results come from decaffeinated coffees made by different methods. It might also be interesting to see if the study controlled for the effects of smell and taste. People who don't drink coffee might find their heart races when forced to drink something that is definitely an acquired taste.
It might also be that removing caffeine and two other alkyloids (theophylline and theobromine, although I am unsure how prevalent those are in coffee) which are diuretics and vasodilators might allow other ingredients to have the opposite effect (previously mitigated).
Free book: Science Toys You Can Make
Aurrgghh... ewwwwwwwwwwwww..... I'll take the Crab Juice.
"You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help" -- Calvin
Shouldn't this have been posted a little later in the evening (morning)
Anyway: I do not drink coffee yet I function with little more than 4 hours of sleep. My beverage of choice is water. After realizing many years ago that soda rotted your teeth and had WAY too many calories per can (most juices too) I kicked the habit. I enjoy the occasional cappaucino now and then, but nothing like I used to with nightly visits to Dunkin D's during college.
My question for the everyone: how effective is self-determined sleep depravity? I tend to just "keep myself awake". Sure, I get to the point to where I can no longer function and pass out - in fact if I go to bed before this point I tend to not be able to sleep because I can still be doing "more productive" things with my time.
Are there signs that I am not getting enough sleep? I know it is time to go to sleep when I start slurring my words, which generally happens in the 30-40th hours of being awake.
I am asked how I do it, my answer is that I just do. I just have stuff to do and believe that sleep is a waste unless I need it. Do you find yourself doing this? Is this common among people you know?
I DO get a kick seeing all of the drones "needing" their coffee in the morning - people don't realize they are hooked on the caffine. More addictive than crack!
No good /. posting should go without the obligatory Simpsons quote.
"That wasn't your mayonnaise, was it?"
Now Caffine by IV would be nice as mentioned in the article. Leaves both hands free for typing
In related news, scientists report no progress in determining why the best computer code is written at 4:27 AM on a tuesday morning surrounded by a box of Mountain Dew.
If the scientists would just get a good night's sleep and return to the code the next day, they would discover that the reason they are having difficulty figuring out why the code is so good at 4:27 AM is that the code is complete garbage when seen in the light of day.
Unless you're one of the single digit percentage people in the world with truly unusual sleep needs, if the code you're writing at 4:27 AM is the same quality as the code you write during normal hours, your code must be seriously shitty all the time!
Sleep! Most of us need it, and I often wonder how many of those who don't are just fooling themselves...
Take this post for instance. What I ought to do is just hit CTRL-W to close the tab and go to bed, 'cause this is worthless flamebait. Instead, because my judgement is impaired because it's late where I am, I'm going to post this and subject myself to CowboyNeal-only-knows how many self-styled "sleep masters" explaining how they need only 10 minutes of sleep a week. Learn from my incipient disaster... sleep!
I have tried it in the past when I'm having trouble making it through the day and caffeine alone doesn't work. Though the last time I tried it, my resting pulse (sitting still at my desk for hours) was 120... not healthy I'm sure, but I didn't have any problems staying awake...
Somehow the two together seem to have a more powerful effect than the sum of each... Definitely not recommended for those who are not in good physical health...
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Me too ... Water Joe! That's right: water plus caffeine minus sugar!
Here at the UnivMich, you can get it at the party store just north of Williams and State, the Main St. party store downtown (kitty corner NW of the Courthouse) and Meijer's (but not Krogers...) in both 16- & 32-oz. sizes.
The power of caffeine without the spike/crash of sugar!
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
Coffee with or without the caffeine contains significant numbers of expectorant and diuretic alkaloids, ie: oils and along with caffeine these are known to strip out calcium from the body... calcium being the major nerve insulator with it's major contribution being the meyelin sheath surrounding nerve bundles. So if you drink a lot of this stuff that sucks off calcium from your nerve bundles you end up with 'twitchy' nerves that arn't insulated enough and start 'cross-talking' and causing lots of electrical feedback loops/shorts... ...kind of like when you play the bass too loud for too long on unprotected audio cables (oxidation), the signal gets a little scratchy and fuzzy.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
It just takes seven minutes for the THC to kick in, man...
This is indeed a disturbing development...
Get back under your bridge...
The reason that some people write their best code at 4:27 in the morning is because they slack off and don't do their homework until 4:00 AM the night before it's due, and it therefore becomes the only code they're writing. If it's the only code, it must be the bset code.
Look at it again in 6 years when you know what you're doing and see if it still seems so good. I know I'm embarrased by what I though was good code back then.
The reason why we're better at doing things like programming when we're so tired is because the tiredness narrows our focus. It's for much the same reason why autistics make such better programmers - the singularity of focus alows for the programmer to ignore all distractions and focus on nothing but the task at hand.
The coffee buzz DOES have its own set of downsides. By saying that, I mean spending 90% of the time in the bathroom. Especially a bad thing since Canada severely limits the legal amount of caffeine in beverages (and only allowing it in cola-coloured drinks or something like that) Next time I want a caffeine buzz, I'm going to order some from Thinkgeek or something.. The 12-cups-of-coffee-in-one-day buzz almost killed me.
Me too ... Water Joe! That's right: water plus caffeine minus sugar!
:)
How about straight coffee? Water + caffeine + taste?
People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
How did they prepare the espresso? Anyone who's had different types of coffee knows this makes a difference. After visiting Italy and tasting true italian espresso, I can't really tolerate 'normal' coffee. I'm no biologist, but wouldn't the method and conditions (temp, pressure) of preparation influence the compounds in the coffee? What about serving conditions?
I wonder if there is any chance that this can be attributed to the placebo effect. I would think that people not getting caffine were not told of the fact. They expected caffine effects, they got them.
...why the best computer code is written at 4:27 AM on a tuesday morning...
Am I the only one who is driven insane by hearing or reading 'A.M.' and 'in the morning' in the same sentence? I mean, obviously no one is writing code at 4:27 AM in the afternoon.
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
Try Kona Mountain Coffee, estate grown. Expensive but worth it. And take the tour if you're on the Big Island!
sulli
RTFJ.
Judging from my dreams, pretty damn effective!
(I think you mean "deprivation.")
sulli
RTFJ.
Coffee may help reduce plaque on teeth, as reported here and here. But I guess this involves drinking your coffee like a real man :P
I miss my rubber keyboard.(Homepage)