That Didn't Take Long

Do teachers ever stop complaining about getting sick? End of the second week in school and already I have my first cold, along with several colleagues and a good number of students in a pretty small school. Fortunately it is not serious, a relatively minor version (as of now, it could get worse) and if I really wanted to I could even do some exercise in spite of it, but I've been good lately so I can take a few days off without much guilt or worry.

What has me particularly annoyed, though, is what I've discovered about those gel-type hand "sanitizers" along the way. In August I bought a big economy bottle of the stuff hoping that using it liberally might cut down on some of the colds I get every year - I still average 5-6 per school year, some of them lingering for 2 or more weeks - "Kills 99.99% of germs and bacteria..." Sure. Umm, could you define "germ?"

Turns out that 0.01% of germs that don't have to worry about hand sanitizers includes the cold viruses, which are the number one problem among most people in the civilized world when it comes to pathogens that make us sick on a regular basis. I would give up just about any pleasureable, non-essential activity you can think of for freedom from these dreaded almost-living particles that exist for no other reason that to make me misreable.

So, when a colleague mentioned that those products don't work on viruses, I argued that they were all alcohol based and I thought alcohol killed everything? Not exactly. I came home and did a little research, and it turns out that alcohol is not effective against nonenveloped viruses, and wouldn't you know it, most of the viruses that cause the common cold are nonenveloped viruses - both the rhinoviruses and adenoviruses.

The other important point about hand sanitizers is that the jury seems to still be out as to whether cold viruses are more likely spread in the first place through hand-to-nose contact or through the air, in which case no hand sanitizer will help anyway, even one that might be effective at killing these viruses.

Bottom line, I'll still use it when I get off the subways and buses - no telling WHAT nasty bugs I might get on my hands there and better safe than sorry. But at school, I don't see much use in the products.

Sophmore Year

Wow, if I thought this second year was going to be a little easier, it isn't looking that way at the moment. I've not had time to post at all, so I'll skip the kwetching and go straight to the instruction.

I'm pretty happy with the way things are going at the moment. We just got into some nature of science stuff this week and will finish up the introductory material next week. I budgeted 2 full weeks (not counting this past one) and I may just meet the schedule for a change. This week we talked a little about magic - I did the "Science Never Sucks" (Word Doc) trick with the test tubes, penny, and soapy water. Worked in 2 classes but not a third. The penny is just a hair too big or doesn't sit just right on the lip of the test tube so it's a little inconsistent. Then I showed them a "gory" Crisangel video and we talked a little about the importance of observation and skepticism.

We spent a little time on the "Tracks" activity that I can't link to for copyright issues. E-mail me and I'll send you the copy that I scanned. It's actually from BSCS (or that's where I got it) and involves exposing a "fossil bed" (picture) of animal tracks, one section at a time, and making observations/inferences, then revising those inferences as more information accumulates. I'm sure there are other versions of the activity, but a google search turned up nothing. It was interesting to me that students at the end wanted to know the "real" story. That lack of certainty is obviously a problem in science for a lot of people. We seem to crave an author, an authority, or an authoritarian to give us a definitive answer.

Next week we will be playing with the hissing cockroaches. They will begin a long term observation of the critters and I will start by asking them to compare the cockroaches to themselves in as much detail as possible. I don't have a formal lab write-up. Instead, they will be taking notes and keeping a log in their journals. For lab minutes I will have to supply some sort of worksheet to keep on file for them, but that will have to wait a few weeks. I also have the mealworms that I will work in at some point. I found an idea to conduct a controlled experiment on the effect of temperature on their development from pupa to adult. It's the only transition where there's a certain degree of control for the age variable, since you can actually know within a few hours when a mealworm turns into a pupa, then measure how long it takes to turn into a beetle. Unfortunately I think my adult beetles are engaging in a little cannibalism, and I may have to start a separate cage for the adults to keep this from continuing. Gotta get those student monitors lined up next week to help with some of the lab set up and live critter upkeep.

Sunscreens Cause Skin Cancer

Sunscreens Can Damage Skin, Researchers Find

Science Daily

This is straight out of Woody Allen's "Sleeper."

Researchers discovered that the active ingredients in sunscreen can penetrate the skin where they themselves do damage when exposed to UV radiation. The effect is negated if fresh sunscreen is applied (where it will remain for a period of time on the surface of the skin) to stop the UV rays from penetrating the lower layers of the skin. In other words, on the surface of the skin, the sunscreeen prevents UV rays from causing damage to your skin cells. However, when the chemicals in sunscreen penetrate to the lower layers of the skin they actually magnify the damaging effects of the sun's rays. This is, in a weird way, great news for the sunscreen industry, since the solution to the problem is to reapply sunscreen often. Long term, the solution is to find ways to keep the uv filters from being absorbed into the skin.

Tacks Along the Hudson

I was hoping this post would be about that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from doing good deeds to help your fellow human being, but it will quickly turn into a rant about ugly behavior. I've been thinking about this post for a while, ever since I saw an ad on TV for some insurance company that depicts a series of linked events where a person steps in/up to help someone else - perfect strangers. The recipient of that random act of kindness is depicted in the next scene helping another, and so on and so on. (I'll update when I see it again and record the details). I normally hate television in general and particularly commercials, but this one strikes a cord with the goody-goody in me, which I like to think all of have inside us on some level.
First the warm fuzzy. I got a flat tire on my bike yesterday and found a tack in my tire. I had one patch left, fixed the flat, started pumping it up and realized the tack had gone through both sides of the tube, so there were TWO holes in the tire and I had no more patches left. I only had the one patch left because I just got a flat tire two days earlier going the other direction on the same path, caused by - a tack. It was early evening on a cloudy day that looked like rain, so not a lot of traffic on the bike path. Nevertheless, I flagged down a couple of guys on bikes. Both stopped to chat briefly but neither had any patches with them. I was about to give up and start walking when a pair of cyclists rode by before I could even see them coming, and without waiting for me to ask, one called out, "Everything OK?" I called back "Got any patches?,", to which the guy stopped, turned around, came back and shuffled through his sack, pulled out a patch, gave me a second one just in case. Saved me from a long walk home. I'm eternally grateful to someone I'll most likely never see again.
Time to repay the debt. Today I went running along the same path. I got caught in the heavy rain that lasted over an hour. The rain began shortly after I started running, and of course, stopped shortly after I finished running. I just can't catch break these days. I was so distracted by the rain that when I saw a guy fixing a flat tire on his bike under an overpass, I didn't even make the connection with my own troubles. A little further on, however, I looked down and saw a whole cluster of those sharp tacks that are used for furniture upholstery.

So I actually stood there (or stooped to be precise) and picked up all those tacks. Now, there's an element of self-interest here, in that I ride this path all the time and I'm tired of patching tires, but I also patted myself on the back for saving a good number of other cyclists from getting flat tires. So, start running again and get about 10 yards when I see another cluster of tacks. OK, stop & pick them up. Start running again expecting to see another cluster, but it looks clean - for about 100 yards, then another cluster of shorter tacks. Yes, I stopped and picked them up. Then another. Yup, picked them up. Suddenly a few yards away a huge cluster of tack, just too many for me to pick up. I tried sweeping them aside with my foot, but they stuck in my shoe. I had to admit defeat.

All the clusters I described above were along the newly-constructed pathway that runs along and below the Riverbank State Park between 135th and 145th streets (approximately). On the way back, I found more clusters north of the Park, and in the rain and scattered amongst the debris, who knows how many other clusters there are that I didn't spot? So it looks like I will have to find an alternative path temporarily.

OK, I'll skip the rant. I have to constantly remind myself of all the foolish things I did as a kid, and I hate to admit that this isn't that far different from some pranks that I did in fact pull when I was young & oblivious to the effects of my actions on others. I vented to a neighbor and I followed his advice to contact the parks department. Awaiting a response. In the meantime, if you're a cyclist, be very careful along the bike path from about 158th street to 133rd(?) street where the path ends - and always carry extra patches!

UPDATE (9-9-06)

The problem continues and is growing. I didn't ride along the path for a few days, both because of the beginning of the school year and because there were a couple of days where it rained. So when I finally rode to work on Friday I took a detour on the way in (no time for flats on the way to work) and then the usual route, slowly, on the way back. That's when I started passing by people again pushing their bikes with flat tires. I thought I had missed them, since I went slowly and didn't see any tacks, but a short distance from my home I noticed the tire getting a little flat, slowly, so I pulled over and sure enough there was another tack in the tire. I talked to a couple of other "riders" (pushers by now) and we cursed and speculated on what was going on. It's fresh tacks every day it seems. These are little steel nails that rust quickly and the ones we pull out of our tires are needle sharp and shiny. I'm slowly coming around to the idea of camera surveillance in the parks!

UPDATE II (1/14/07)

I meant to post this a few months ago but didn't have the time. Below is the text of an e-mail from the Parks Department and a contact e-mail for future problems. This is dated 10/27/06:

Mr. G -

Thank you for your note regarding the tacks strewn along the pathways in Riverside and Ft. Washington Park. We appreciate that you brought this matter to our attention. Your comments along with many others were quite helpful in identifying the problematic locations.

We've swept the entire length of the pathway and believe we've solved the problem though it remains a mystery why someone would do this.

If you should have any other questions regarding this or any other matter in Riverside Park, please feel free to reach out to me directly at kc.sahl@parks.nyc.gov or 212.408.0264.

Thank you,

KC

Haven't been out in a while but I expect the problem to be minimal in the winter months anyway.

Labs 2006

Lab List 2006-2007 - Part 1



This is taking a lot longer than I expected - Part 2 will follow...

I've divided them by topic according to my sequence for the year. A hodge-podge of labs from various sources, which I've linked to where possible. I hope to some day standardize the formats and customize them, but good lord that takes time and focus. Some labs are not available electronically. I've offered alternatives that are available or explanations of the labs that you can use as a starting point. I found all these labs by 1) creating my own from scratch or adapting existing labs, 2) browsing other science teachers' sites (click on the links in the sidebar), 3) browsing back issues of sciene teacher journals like American Biology Teacher or NSTA's Science Teacher, 4) googling key terms and seeing what comes up, 5) following leads that come in through various listservs.

Nature Of Science/Evolution

1. Black Box - Mental Models Lab

2. Natural Selection Game

3. Variation in Sunflower Seeds Worksheet. Adapted from Monaco Education Service

Organizations & Patterns

4. Chemical Reactions ( No write-up yet. I used my Experimental Design Worksheet and talked them through it. Students manipulate baking soda amount, measure magnitude of the reaction via balloon diameter. I'll try to write up something more substantial later on).

5. Mello Jello. Jello, detergents, enzymes. Controlled experiment on Enzyme Action. I have students fill out Experimental Design Worksheet in addition to answering the concept questions that come with the activity.

6. Making Cheese (Protein Denaturation) Just add sugar - yummy.

7. Egg 0smosis. Try the Exploratorium version of the "Naked Egg."

8. Diffusion Through a Membrane (Part 1) State Lab - No elecronic version available. Description: Red Onion Cells

9. Comparing Plant & Animal Cells (Mike Comet)

Homeostasis

10. Making Connections (Part 1) New York State - (Alternative)

11. Lung Capacity (Mike Comet)

12. Frog Dissection (Optional) - Here's an HTML version. Mine are not in electronic form.

Reproduction

13. Mealworm Life Cycle (Long Term Study, no write-up yet)

14. Zebra Fish Embryos Study (Still looking into this)

15. Flower Dissection. Mine is not available electronically. Try Access Excellence Version.

That's about half of the labs I have on tap. Next up - Genetics, Modern Evolution, Ecology Labs and a few additions to Homeostasis.

Curriculum Resources at NIH

Just found this site from a recommendation on the NSTA listserv. The National Institutes of Health Office of Science Education has an incredible catalog of curriculum resources for health-related human biology - fitness, nutrition, body systems, disease, genetics, etc. I haven't explored the resources in detail yet, but I'll probably be downloading a lot. I have some previous experience with their materials on drugs and the brain, which I found to be a little too advanced for direct use in the classroom, more AP level, so I may jump down and look at their middle school materials for Regents (mostly 9th graders in my school). It's always easier for me to "smarten up" than to "dumb down" if necessary.

(Thanks Elaine, if you stumble across this post!)

Are We Not Pansies?

We Are Pansies.*

10 lovely songs that I only listen to with the headphones lest my too-soft interior be exposed! (OK, I'm not really that paranoid.)

Artist - Title

1. Architecture in Helsinki - City Calm Down

2. Stars - This Charming Man

3. Nick Drake – Northern Sky

4. Cat Power – The Greatest

5. Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars

6. French Kicks – Trial of The Century

7. Cairo Gang - Warning

8. Velvet Underground- Stephanie Says

9. Microphones – I Want Wind To Blow

10. New Pornographers – Streets of Fire

*Pansy: Name origin and significance

The pansy gets its name from the French word pensée meaning "thought". It was so named because the flower resembles a human face and in August it nods forward as if deep in thought. (Wikipedia)

(Updated)

Science & Politics

Several recent items worth noting again are at the intersection of science & politics. First, the Pluto saga that I've already mentioned several times. This story represents politics in the broadest sense of the word, where cultural tradition and public pressure (politics in essence) almost led a scientific body (IAU) to define a planet based not on logical categories but on a historically based desire to keep a paradigm intact. It's not that the terminology is really all that important or that the current definition doesn't have problems (See again Bad Astronomy Blog or any of the Times articles on the issue), but that the definition that included Pluto as a planet was perhaps the worst, most inelegant, of the possible definitions, stitched together to satisfy a constituency's sentimental desires to maintain Pluto as a planet. Chalk one up for science.

Second item. The FDA finally approved over-the-counter sales of Plan B, a hormonal emergency contraceptive that has long been deemed safe for over the counter sale by the professionals at FDA who study these matters but held up by the *bush administration (directly or indirectly - it's all the same to me) for obvious political reasons. As PZ Myers points out in a fabulous summary of the physiology of it all, Plan B is not an "abortion pill" - it works by blocking ovulation or fertilization. In rare cases it may stop a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus, but that's pretty much true of traditional birth control pills as well. Chalk this one up as a political victory. Why? Because the decision was reached not because the politicos at the FDA came to their senses, but because the Democrats in congress applied the necessary political pressure in holding up the nomination of bush's appointee, Andrew C. Von Eschenbach, until after a decision about Plan B was reached. Gotta play hardball with this crowd - will Democrats ever really learn?

Last item. DarkSyde over at DailyKos has a "Science Friday" piece on a somewhat related topic, stem cell research. August is the anniversary of bush's speech (2001) limiting stem cell research to such an extent as to be a virtual ban as regards government funding. DarkSyde discusses the consequences and the politics. Includes a powerful juxtaposition of two pictures, a human embryonic stem cell and young Iraqi girl. Go read the caption (and the rest of the article), if you can't figure out already what the point is. A sad victory for politics. DarkSyde's post draws heavily from Chris Mooney's recent book "The Republican War on Science," which is out in paperback. I'm getting a copy today.

*When bush stops calling the Democratic Party the "Democrat Party" I'll start capitalizing his name.

Slow Going

I've been going in to work for a couple of hours each day this week. First, I can't tell you what a luxury it is to be able to go in before school starts and get a little work done. At my old school this just wasn't allowed - in a school where we all boxed up our possessions in June knowing that we would ALL be assigned to different rooms in September. You can imagine the madness in those two days we had to prepare for the return of the students, with at least half of the first day spent standing around waiting to get keys, sitting in faculty meetings and/or attending some so-called "PD."

Now I get to leisurely re-arrange my room, make sure all my technology is hooked up and working, organize supplies, and take care of those house-keeping chores that there never seems to be time for during the year. All the drawers in my room (all 54 of them!) had loose handles that had to be tightened, two screws per handle. I had to find all the keys (again, all 54 sets) and re-label them in a more user-friendly way. I've had to clear all the textbooks out of my supply cabinet where they were locked all summer, to make way again for my supplies, which were in boxes. I still need to clean some grafitti and gum from the tables, to the extent possible, before school starts. That should be enough boring detail to give you a sense of what's been going on, a part of the tedious and decidedly un-academic aspect of teaching that is underappreciated by the general public - it's not considered "work" in the contractual sense and no one seems to want to actually pay us do do it, but it doesn't get done if I don't do it myself, at least not in a timely mannner. It's also time consuming and sometimes back-aching - those biology textbooks weigh a ton.

I still don't know what to do with all those drawers. I'd like to put materials in there that students need, but I can't figure out a practical way to do it so that the materials are both secure and accessible. The only model I have is my old chem lab, where we bought our own padlocks and had our own individual assigned drawers. That won't work for me. I may end up simply using most of them as my own storage spaces and keeping them locked up throughout the day. I certainly need the space.

...Just Served Us Nuts. Period.

Pluto Is Demoted to ‘Dwarf Planet’


(NY Times)

It's official. The IAU voted on a new set of definitions that separates the 8 major planets from Pluto and the other objects out there that never got around to clearing their orbital "neighborhoods."

I refer you once again to Bad Astronomy Blog for insightful commentary.

(If the title of this post has you scratching your head, read this one.

The Music Drug

A while back I bought an MP3 player and re-entered the world of alternative music that I left behind after moving to NY (1990) & no longer having access to good college radio stations to keep me up to date. Wow, that's 15 years to catch up on. On the inaugural run with my new player I noted the distinct high I felt from the music coursing through my veins combined with the endorphins from the running.

I revisit the topic today in response to this link (via Smooth Pebbles) to an interview with Daniel Levitin, a former record producer turned neuroscientist specializing in, you guessed it, music and the brain. Quote:

Music activates the same parts of the brain and causes the same neurochemical cocktail as a lot of other pleasurable activities like orgasms or eating chocolate -- or if you're a gambler winning a bet or using drugs if you're a drug user. Serotonin and dopamine are both involved.

Furthermore, different types of music can be used for different effects, as we probably already know. There are particular kinds of music I look for when I'm exercising, and even within that subgroup of musical styles, I scan the folders for even more specific songs at the end of my run when I really need a kick to keep it going to the end. Another interesting phenomenon I've noticed is that the range of music I enjoy while biking is much greater than the range I listen to while running.

I first heard about Levitin's work on NPR a few weeks ago. You can listen to him here, along with links to a series of other NPR stories about music & the brain.

Another Blow To Charter Schools

Study of test scores finds charter schools lagging

(NY Times)

I'll be the first to say that test scores do not tell the whole story. I'm sure most parents who send their children to charter schools will continue to do so in spite of theses studies that show academic performance in charter schools is no better or even lags performance in comparable public schools as measured on standardized tests. A lot of intangibles make a school desirable, such as small size, low discipline problems and/or crime, special programs, feelings of community, and a willingness to keep parents informed and involved. As reported a while back, charter schools tend to have a young, energized, idealistic staff that work ungodly hours. Parents and students tend to respond positively to this Herculean effort but it is ultimately unsustainable before the eventual family demands, burnout, and turnover. This alone may account for some of the discrepancy in test scores. Few people have the instinctive talent to walk into a school the first year and be highly effective. Teaching has its own learning curve, regardless of how smart, energetic, or idealistic you are. A high turnover rate means a school on average has a high percentage of new teachers, meaning a high percentage of students are getting less than optimal instruction.

So why should it matter if their scores on standardized assessments are slightly lower? That seems to be the question on the mind of Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform:

Why do we need to have the government give us data when the most important data is what we get locally, looking at the school and how it does in meeting the state standards to which they have to be held under No Child Left Behind?

It's because standardized test scores are the only criteria that really matter in terms of NCLB. Individual states have radically different standards. Attendance, crime, graduation rates and any other peripheral items tend to correlate with test scores. It's the test scores that lead schools to be labeled as "failing." It is test scores that merit pay enthusiasts want to use as criteria for differential salaries. And the key point to remember when considering this study is that test scores are used by advocates of charter schools and other privatization schemes to discredit public schools and advance their cause.

Keep in mind that the two obvious groups who have an interest in a particular outcome for studies comparing charter/private schools and regular public schools are the alternative schools themselves, and the Bush administration, including his Department of Education, which funded this study. The irony, then, of this statement is hard to ignore:

This is one of the most contentious issues with regard to the charter school research debate, Mr. Schneider (federal commissioner of statistics) said. He said the department should not put its stamp on research comparing public and charter schools but should leave individual researchers to use the data to compete in the "marketplace of ideas."

Well sure. It's hard to sit back and throw stones at your own study - better to let private groups do the studies, then sit back and blast away at the ones you don't like while citing the ones you do like to support your ideological agenda. How transparently disingenuous can they get? "Marketplace of ideas?" What the heck does that mean?

A legitimate response to undesirable data is to try to explain it, not explain it away. I've speculated above on a possible reason why charter school scores lag (on average high percentage of new teachers due to teacher turnover), but I don't have the tools, resources, or time to actually test that hypothesis. I would think charter school advocates would in fact want to find out. I suspect they know what many of us have been saying for a long time, that test scores are neither the only nor necessarily the most important criterion in determining how well a school (or teacher for that matter) is performing. But they aren't willing just yet to give up on standardized tests as a weapon against public schools.

Not So Fast There Pluto!

It looks like Neil deGrasse Tyson and the American Museum of Natural History may yet be vindicated. The New York Times is reporting that a firestorm over the proposed changes last week at the International Astronomical Union's meeting in Prague has led to reconsidering the definition of a "planet." The latest proposal would require that a planet "must also be massive enough to clear other objects out of its orbital zone," which rules out Pluto (and Ceres and Xena & Charon and any other other potential additions from the previous definition). I should probably hold my tongue (er, keyboard) until an official announcement is made, but I've aelready stuck my neck out there and reported on the first news, so it can't hurt to respond now to the current state of affairs, even if they change again - I will follow up on the final announcement, which I believe is scheduled for Thursday. I hope Dr. Tyson gets another crack at Colbert after eating the proverbial humble pie last week:

Hat Tip: Bad Astronomy Blog for the YouTube link.

Back In The City

Short trip to the shore. I have to start planning my vacations in July. Once August rolls around all I can think of is getting ready for the new school year. Vacation should be a relaxing week or two to unwind from the previous school year, then back to work. Maybe in a few years when my program is in better shape I can think differently, but for now I need to think of August as the unofficial back to work month. I also need some time to leave the computer at home and disengage from the obsessive busy-ness of my routine - which is not necessarily productive activity, but just a constant need to be "doing" something.

SO here's a single picture of the kids at the beach. Deceptively strong waves, small and breaking very close to shore. I had difficulty wading out past the breakers to the calmer waters, and it was only about 10-15 feet from shore. There is a steep incline where water meets shore that probably explains the violence of those little waves. Kids got knocked around pretty badly and swallowed lots of saltwater. I won't even talk about my own little accident.

Final Days

I hate to utter those words, but here we are, 19 days away from the first day back with the kiddies. I'm off to the shore for the weekend, maybe a little longer. I will be taking work with me, since I've spent so much time procrastinating this summer and vegging out in July. I should probably call it "recuperating," from a stressful (if extremely satisfying on many levels) school year. Funny thing is, I was not particularly anxious for the school year to end, but after it ended, I immediately began having anxiety over the new year beginning. A strange phenmomenon, I think.

I have got some things done this summer, if far less than my over-abmitious plans at the beginning. I'll be posting a few things in the next week or so - my lab list is practically finished and I have a folder full of more than I can possibly implement for next year, meaning I will have to prioritize. I have balance issues in that I have a lot of labs on cellular pocesses and deficiencies in a couple of other areas, but not majorly so. Still, I will not be scrambling for labs as I did last year. I am still working on the links before I post.

I've also made decisions on sequencing, which I posted here and I will begin revising my course packet. I have collected a lot of newspaper and magazine articles on various topics, which I will compile into a booklet. I won't be able to post those for copyright reasons. I do recommend purchasing a pdf maker. I use Adobe. It allows me to make pdf versions of articles I find before they disappear. Yeah, you could just print them, but I'm not a good paper organizer, and prefer electronic copies. That also allows me to post the material on my school's website and make available to students only, avoiding the copyright problem.

Finally, I need to get my student website updated, then back to school to organize everything and re-arrange and decorate the classroom. A few other odds & ends not worth listing at the moment, but I will bring them in as I get around to them. So off I go. Pictures from the coast are sure to follow.

ignore this post

Ignore this post

dragonfire.exe

My Very inElegant Mother, Carol,...

OK. So now we will have 12 or more planets, and one of them insinuated itself WITHIN the existing 8/9. Ceres, the largest asteroid in the the asteroid belt between Mars & Jupiter is now a planet.

I won't spend a lot of time here discussing it, the NY Times and Bad Astronomy Blog for starters have weighed in on the good, the bad, and the who cares arguments.

Another Vote for Coffee

It's nice to find that something you are addicted to is actually healthy. Not just neutral, as in "not harmful," but actually providing a positive boost to your health.

That's the latest in a string of reports on the subject backing up the argument for coffee from a review of the research at the Journal of American Medicine as reported in the NY Times:

Coffee as a Health Drink? Studies Find Some Benefits

Coffee is not usually thought of as health food, but a number of recent studies suggest that it can be a highly beneficial drink. Researchers have found strong evidence that coffee reduces the risk of several serious ailments, including diabetes, heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver.

This is good news for me. I tried several times to break the habit, making the assumption that because it contains a drug, it's addictive, it stains the teeth, it costs a lot of money (I'm a diehard Starbucks loyalist), it causes occasional heart palpitations, so it must be bad for me. But I've been drinking it for so long I don't think it's possible to quit.

Last time I tried the headaches lasted for weeks. I started the cold turkey during the summer and it lasted most of those two months, and I never felt "normal" in all that time. My exercise routine went out the window - I had incredible fatigue and irritability among other things. Turns out I really tortured myself for nothing.

I may be an extreme case. I remember drinking coffee for breakfast at a pretty early age, in fact I don't remember ever not drinking coffee, so I started young enough that I have no memory of that first cup or taste. In addition, I grew up in North Carolina and Mountain Dew (loaded with caffeine) was my beverage of choice when it wasn't sweet southern iced tea by the pitcher. My brain is probably physically incapable of recovering. Here's a quick summary of caffeine's effect on the functioning of the brain.

Adenosine is a neuromodulator. When it binds with adenosine receptors on pre-synaptic neurons, it inhibits neuron activity by inhibiting the release of excitatory neurotransmitters. The effect is generally to shut down neural activity giving the neurons a "break." This down time is believed to be an important part of normal brain functioning. So caffeine comes along and binds antagonistically to adenosine receptors (it binds to the receptor without triggering the normal action of the native substance). The presynaptic neurons therefore continue releasing excitatory neurotransmitter and the neurons remain in an active state. The stimulant effect of caffeine lies in its ability to inhibit inhibition. The neurons respond by adding more adenosine receptors (tolerance increases), which means that when the caffeine is removed from the system, an increase level of inhibition of neural activity will occur due to the increase in adenosine receptors - that's the fatigue and other symptoms of withdrawal that lead to craving another cup. Caffeine addiction lies almost entirely in the drive to overcome the negative effects of withdrawal. There are many other effects of caffeine on the functions of the brain (many of them secondary effects of binding to adenosine receptors) and other parts of the body.

There are a few caveats in the studies. There is some evidence that in certain circumstances coffee can decrease blood flow to the heart (during exercise at high altitudes) and in some individuals increase blood pressure. Still, the conclusion:

"I wouldn't advise people to increase their consumption of coffee in order to lower their risk of disease," Dr. van Dam said, "but the evidence is that for most people without specific conditions, coffee is not detrimental to health. If people enjoy drinking it, it's comforting to know that they don't have to be afraid of negative health effects."

References:

Caffeine & Its Physiological Effects

My Money-Grubbing Son

(Actual coins found on the street or in pay phones in one afternoon)
One is obsessed with frogs, the other with money. Whenever we go out his eyes are peeled for coins lying on the street. Pay phone coin returns are his slot machines (except it doesn't cost anything to play). Today he hit the jackpot as about $3.00 worth of quarters came spewing from a phone. Yesterday he hauled in about $0.75 in pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, mostly off the street - only one lucky phone quarter. (I didn't tell him about the dollar bill I found under a park bench earlier or he would have nagged me out of it!) And you should see the tortured soul when we go to the toy store - he doesn't want to spend his money but he wants toys. He usually leaves empty-handed. If only I had such self-control.

Ick!

I always assumed it was just barnyard, redneck-bashing humor:

Confronting Sexual Abuse of Animals

(New Scientist)

On the other hand, the article mentions only one anecdote of an obviously deranged man and little else in the way of evidence. Maybe there's more in the original report, but it's not available on the web.