Acetaminophen has a new use, a first in college football and China continues its world takeover

- Acetaminophen: It’s not just for headaches anymore. Researchers at the University of Kentucky have discovered that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, may not only ease physical pain, but the pain of social rejection as well. According to Psychologist C. Nathan DeWall, physical and social pain appear to overlap in the brain and even rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms. For that reason, treating physical pain with acetaminophen could also help psychologically. For his first experiment, DeWall and his team gave 62 healthy volunteers 1,000 milligrams daily of either acetaminophen or a placebo. Each evening, participants were asked how much they experienced social pain using a measurement tool accepted as a valid measure of social pain. Surprisingly, social pain and emotional distress decreased in those taking acetaminophen, while no change was observed in subjects taking the placebo. In the second part of the experiment, 25 healthy volunteers took 2,000 milligrams daily of either acetaminophen or a placebo. They took their respective pills for three weeks, then participated in a computer game engineered to create feelings of social rejection. Functional magnetic resonance imaging used during the game revealed acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions associated with the distress of social pain and the affective component of physical pain. On the flip side, the control group experienced the same feelings of hurt and rejection they would normally experience. However, temper any enthusiasm for this revelation with the knowledge that long-term or high-dosage use of acetaminophen has been linked to serious liver damage. If you would like to read more about this study, the findings are published in the journal Psychological Science………….

- In case you missed the Little Caesars Bowl on Saturday afternoon (and I cannot fathom why you would do such a thing), you missed a little piece of football history. Sarah Thomas made history in the matchup between Ohio and Marshall by becoming the first woman to officiate a bowl game. That’s astonishing for several reasons, not the least of which is the absolute glut of bowl games (34 this season), meaning that there are more than 200 officials working a bowl game on an annual basis at this point. Thomas served as the line judge for the game, making history just as she did when she became the first woman to be an official for a major college football game in 2007. On top of that, Thomas is on the NFL's list of officiating prospects – again, something I had no idea existed. But apparently the NFL scouts officiating talent and Thomas has caught their eye, meaning the married mother of two young sons from Brandon, Miss., could officiate an NFL game some day. In her day job, she is a pharmaceutical representative (just like Survivor winner Natalie White). Since White broke the gender barrier in 2007, other female officials have joined the collegiate ranks and there are now five women officiating in major college football, counting Thomas. Terri Valenti became the first woman to officiate a pro game, although it wasn’t in the NFL. She was the head linesman earlier this year in a United Football League game, which I am not certain counts as a professional game based on the level of play and the fact that no one gives a rat’s ass about the UFL and no one watched or attended the games played in the league’s inaugural season. But either way, a great day for all the ladies out there for whom gender equality is a perpetual rallying cry……….

- If you thought the Chinese were kidding about taking over the world, here’s more proof that it’s no joke. On Saturday, China unveiled what it claims is the fastest rail link in the world -- a train connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 217 miles an hour. The 664-mile journey now takes a mere three hours, down more than seven and a half hours from the previous time for the commute. The unveiling of the new train marked the culmination of four years’ worth of work. The train is part of a grander plan to expand a high-speed network aimed at eventually linking Guangzhou, a business hub in southern China near Hong Kong, with the capital Beijing. "The train can go 394.2 kilometers per hour, it's the fastest train in operation in the world," Zhang Shuguang, head of the transport bureau at the railways ministry. Final testing for the new real service began earlier in December, but it wasn’t until when the first scheduled train left the eastern metropolis of Wuhan on Saturday that the link officially went into service. Just to give you a frame of reference for how fast this train (allegedly) travels, the average for high-speed trains in Japan is 243 kilometers per hour. Should this new high-speed train prove successful, it should add fuel to Beijing’s fire to continue developing its rail with the goal of increasing the national network from the current 86,000 kilometers to 120,000 kilometers, making it the most extensive rail system outside the United States. The inspiration for China’s first high-speed line was the Beijing Olympics in 2008, which resulted in a service linking the capital with the port city of Tianjin (two different cities, both terminally polluted and with basically unbreathable air). Back in September, officials said they planned to build 42 high-speed lines by 2012. Even as the global economy takes a collective nose dive, the Chinese are bound and determined to overhaul their transit system in the hopes that it will spur economic growth. Having the United States pay a chunk of portion of its massive debt that the Chinese own would also help, but we all know that ain’t happening. In the end, the Chinese will have to settle for a groundbreaking high-speed train developed with international firms such as Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom. Enjoy your new toy, China…………

- Normally I wait until the end of the weekend to tally up the movie box office carnage, but being a holiday weekend and all, how’s about a bonus edition of our movie watch? I bring it up only because Sherlock Holmes debuted with a single-day record for the holiday with a $24.9 million domestic take. It certainly helped that Christmas fell on a Friday this year. The second-highest earning film on the day was James Cameron’s Avatar, which kicked off its sophomore weekend by declining a mere 12 percent from last week, bringing its cumulative total to $160.8 after eight days. In third place was Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, slid to third place with $14.5 million. In fourth place was a movie I am thoroughly sick of by this point and cannot see any of the hype and praise for, the Meryl Streep-Alec Baldwin comedy It’s Complicated. For one, I am not a big Alec Baldwin fan and think he is wildly overrated, by and large. Streep is a great actress, but that doesn’t mean her movies are always great. Oh, and who wants to see a movie about a couple of 60-something divorcees hooking back up? No thanks. Rounding out the top five was the George Clooney comedy Up in the Air, which finally debuted in wide release after incrementally expanding its screen presence for the past several weekends and made $3.6 million at 1,873 sites. We can also recap the movie scene for the entire weekend, but that can wait for a day. Until then…………

- January 26 is going to be a big day for you, fans of good computers. For Microsoft fans, this would be something you should view as a chance for enlightenment. For Apple fans, that date marks the unveiling of Apple's new touch-screen tablet device. Apple is a company known for purposefully and deliberately leaking certain product details, so when the company’s public relations arm delivered a heap of neatly wrapped rumors on Christmas, it was no surprise. Specifics about the tablet computer were in short supply, but one Apple insider said that company president Steve Jobs is “extremely happy with the new tablet.” Those in the know say that if you have an iPhone, you’re basically carrying around a mini version of an early Apple tablet. Ironically, some of the in tablet designs that Jobs had previously rejected ended up in the iPhone. To make its big announcement, Apple has rented the big stage at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for “a major product announcement.” Some developers have reportedly been told by Apple to prepare apps for onstage demonstration at the event. Those developers have been told select developers that as long as they build their apps to support full screen resolution — rather than a fixed 320×480 — their apps should run well on the new device. As for the tablet computer’s on-sale date, industry experts predict that will happen before the end of March. Circle the date on your calendars now, the future of tablet computers is about to debut…………