ZAP INFO

By: Zap Produced by: webmd.com 9/7/08, 7:12 AM In the past few years, medicine has made tremendous strides in the treatment of men's hair loss. With the advent of 5-alpha-reductace inhibitors such as Propecia and the evolution of surgical hair restoration, living with noticeable hair loss is no longer inevitable. For the first time in the history it is now possible to stop or slow the progression of hair loss and to replace lost hair through surgery with completely natural results. However, with that said, the vast majority of hair loss treatments being marketed today are still nothing but "snake oils." You may have seen the ads in the back of men's magazines, you've heard the commercials on the radio, and you've seen the infomercials promoting miracle treatments for hair loss. The bottom line is that most advertised "treatments" do not work for the prevention and treatment of hair loss. If a hair loss treatment is not approved by the FDA or recommen...

Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:48PM EDT Produced by: Yahoo Tech Unsurprisingly, most snoopers end up finding something they don't like, and a good 10 percent dumped their partners after reading a damning text message, the study says. Other findings of the study, conducted for Virgin Mobile Australia (as reported by Reuters): 60 percent of SMS snoops wait until their victims are in the shower before prying into their text messages, and 41 percent are brazen enough to sneak a peek while their loved one is in the same room (asleep, perhaps?). Now, as anyone who's rifled through a loved one's diary knows, snooping is risky in more ways than one—not just in terms of getting caught, but also because of what you might find. Of course, I'm sure some of the snoopers found heart-warming and/or reassuring texts along the lines of, "UR boyfriend sent flowers? Awesome!" or "sorry 4 making a pass at U, won't happen again." But according to the study, about 73 percent of S...

Produced By: Yahoo tech Wed Sep 3, 2008 11:31AM EDT Never mind creating a password with at least eight characters, two of which are numbers, one of which is a capital letter, and one of which is a symbol like (*&^%$). The easiest way for a hacker to weasel into your account is likely the "Forgot your password?" link. "Forgot your password?" features are older than the Internet, providing businesses and site owners a simple way to let a user reset a forgotten password, provided he can verify his credentials by asking a few personal questions that only the rightful user should know. For years the archetypical question was, of course, the "Mother's maiden name" challenge. In recent years, additional challenges have emerged, such as asking the street you grew up on, your favorite pet, and grandparents' first names. Is all of this stuff really secure? More than one researcher is sounding the alarm over these tools, noting that while this data may ha...

By: AMANDA RIPLEY Thu Sep 4, 12:40 PM ET In the space of two weeks, Hurricane Gustav has caused an estimated $3 billion in losses in the U.S. and killed about 110 people in the U.S. and the Caribbean, catastrophic floods in northern India have left a million people homeless, and a 6.2-magnitude earthquake has rocked China's southwest, smashing over 400,000 homes. If it seems like disasters are getting more common, it's because they are. But some disasters do seem to be affecting us worse - and not for the reasons you may think. Floods and storms have led to most of the excess damage. The number of flood and storm disasters has gone up by 7.4% every year in recent decades, according to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. (Between 2000 and 2007, the growth was even faster - with an average annual rate of increase of 8.4%.) Of the total 197 million people affected by disasters in 2007, 164 million were affected by floods. It is tempting to look at the line-u...

By: Zap Tue Sep 2, 2:11 PM ET DUBAI - The world's tallest building just got taller -- the Burj Dubai tower in the booming Gulf emirate of Dubai has now reached a height of 688 metres (2,257 feet) and is still growing, developers Emaar said on Tuesday. It now boasts 160 storeys, the highest skyscraper in the world, Emaar said in a statement. The skyscraper, set for completion in September 2009, is one of several mega projects taking shape in Dubai, which is a member of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) federation. Burj Dubai, which was started in 2004, overtook Taiwan's Taipei 101 tower as the world's tallest building when it reached 512 metres (1,533 feet) in April 2007. It became the tallest man-made structure on the planet, when Emaar announced in April that it has surpassed the 629-metre (2,063-foot) KVLY-TV mast in the United States. Its eventual height remains a closely-guarded secret, though there is speculation it will reach a final height of 900 metres (2,953 ...

By Anndee Hochman Post date and time: 9/2/08, 8:19 PM Produced by: marieclaire.com Bottled water — already a more than $10 billion industry — is the fastest-growing beverage category in the U.S. But is it good for you? Here's the pure truth. MYTH #1: BOTTLED WATER IS BETTER THAN TAP. Not necessarily. While labels gush about bottled water that "begins as snowflakes" or flows from "deep inside lush green volcanoes," between 25 and 40 percent of bottled water comes from a less exotic source: U.S. municipal water supplies. (Bottling companies buy the water and filter it, and some add minerals.) That's not really a bad thing: The Environmental Protection Agency oversees municipal water quality, while the Food and Drug Administration monitors bottled water; in some cases, EPA codes are more stringent. MYTH #2: PURIFIED WATER TASTES BETTER. The "purest" water — distilled water with all minerals and salts removed — tastes flat; it's the sodium, calcium...

By Jeffrey Strain Thursday, August 28, 2008 Provided by: TheStreet.com Faced with record high personal debt levels and ultra-low savings rates, it may be worthwhile for Americans to consider taking the hard way out of debt. When people talk about getting their personal finances in order, they usually try to find the easy way to reduce debt and increase savings. There are a number of steps you can take that are relatively pain-free and low-cost that will help get you on your way to a better financial position, but this is taking the long term approach. Little steps over a long period of time will add up to big amounts, but it's not the only way to achieve financial freedom. Another option is to take the hard route. Instead of making small changes, make big changes which can have a large impact. The advantage is that you can put a huge dent into any debt you might have or supercharge your saving rate, with large increases over a short period of time. Here are 10 hard ways to get your...