Saturday, May 31, 2014
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It
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'via Blog this'
Diet beverages shown to play positive role in dieters’ weight loss | Newsroom | University of Colorado Denver
This study clearly demonstrates that diet beverages can in fact help people lose weight, directly countering myths in recent years that suggest the opposite effect – weight gain
---Steve
The real reason why libertarians become climate-deniers | Talking Philosophy
The obsession of libertarians with individual liberty crowds out the value of truth. In the end, their thinking becomes voluntaristic and contrarian for the sake of it. They end up believing simply what they WANT to believe. And, as explained above, they don't WANT to accept the truths of ecology, of climate science, etc. . And so they deny them.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Slate: Quantum and Consciousness Often Mean Nonsense
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/05/quantum_consciousness_physics_and_neuroscience_do_not_explain_one_another.html
---Steve
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Forks Over Knives: The Latest Vegan Nonsense Dissected, Debunked and Destroyed « AnthonyColpo
There was war-time rationing in Europe alright, and it involved a whole bunch of foodstuffs along with animal products. So we're faced with the same shonky extrapolation issue I just discussed a few moments ago; namely, using a multifactorial intervention to disingenuously sing the praises of a single intervention.
In the case of Norway, here are some of the potentially confounding changes recorded in the literature:
- Cod liver oil became a standard addition to war-time diets…hmmm…more omega-3s, vitamin D and vitamin A! Gee, that wouldn't have had any possible confounding effect on CVD would it, now? Naaah…
- Fish intake increased greatly (those omega-3′s again…)
- Intake of skim milk was higher throughout the war than before it.
- Added fats like margarine and butter declined.
- Intake of sugar declined markedly.
- Overall calorie intake went down. Anyone down for some weight loss-induced reductions in CVD?
And to top it all off, Denise reminds us that a rise in infectious disease mortality may in fact be the real reason behind the wartime drop in CVD deaths. It's pretty safe to say you won't die of CHD if tuberculosis kills you first…
---Steve
John Hiatt Mulls ‘Terms Of My Surrender’ (Song Premiere) - Speakeasy - WSJ
Sometimes love can be so wrong/Like a fat man in a thong
---Steve
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Would you like a liver flush with that colon cleanse? « Science-Based Medicine
In other words, the "stones" that liver cleansers are so proud of and go to such effort to strain their poo for after doing their flushes are not gallstones and were almost certainly the product of the actual flush itself!
---Steve
Monday, May 26, 2014
Why we are poles apart on climate change : Nature News & Comment
People acquire their scientific knowledge by consulting others who share their values and whom they therefore trust and understand. Usually, this strategy works just fine. We live in a science-communication environment richly stocked with accessible, consequential facts. As a result, groups with different values routinely converge on the best evidence for, say, the value of adding fluoride to water, or the harmlessness of mobile-phone radiation. The trouble starts when this communication environment fills up with toxic partisan meanings — ones that effectively announce that 'if you are one of us, believe this; otherwise, we'll know you are one of them'. In that situation, ordinary individuals' lives will go better if their perceptions of societal risk conform with those of their group.
---Steve
Genetically Engineered Crops—What, How and Why | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network
There is broad scientific consensus that genetically engineered crops currently on the market are safe to eat. After 14 years of cultivation and a cumulative total of 2 billion acres planted, no adverse health or environmental effects have resulted from commercialization of genetically engineered crops
---Steve
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Tweet from God (@TheTweetOfGod)
God (@TheTweetOfGod) | |
Overwhelming scientific evidence suggests a startling number of people are capable of ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence. |
Politicians discussing global warming:
Friday, May 23, 2014
The Straight Dope: Are humans meat eaters or vegetarians by nature?
Listen, wimp — whoops, too aggressive. Gimme some of that tofu burger. Ah, I can feel the testosterone receding already. Now then, let us reason like gentlemen. There are some intelligent arguments for vegetarianism, but claiming that man is "naturally" herbivorous isn't one of them. The settled judgment of science is that man is an omnivore, capable of eating both meat and vegetables, much as certain four-year-olds might like to convince their mothers otherwise.
Like the hard-core carnivores, we have fairly simple digestive systems well suited to the consumption of animal protein, which breaks down quickly. Contrary to what your magazine article says, the human small intestine, at 23 feet, is a little under eight times body length (assuming a mouth-to-anus "body length" of three feet). This is about midway between cats (three times body length), dogs (3-1/2 times), and other well-known meat eaters on the one hand and plant eaters such as cattle (20 to 1) and horses (12 to 1) on the other. This tends to support the idea that we are omnivores.
---SteveThe Medicalisation of Everyday Life – Bad Science
The World Health Organisation's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health reported this week, and it contained some chilling figures. Life expectancy in the poorest area of Glasgow – Calton – is 28 years less than in Lenzie, a middle-class area just eight miles away. That is a lot less life, and it isn't just because the people in Lenzie are careful to eat goji berries for extra antioxidants, and a handful of brazil nuts every day, thus ensuring they're not deficient in selenium, as per nutritionists' advice.
People die at different rates because of a complex nexus of interlocking social and political issues including work life, employment status, social stability, family support, housing, smoking, drugs, and possibly diet, although the evidence on that, frankly, is pretty thin, and you certainly wouldn't start there.
---Steve
Thursday, May 22, 2014
HP Shares Fall on Light Results; Plans to Cut up to 16,000 More Jobs | Re/code
The Business Critical Servers group, also known as the old Intel Itanium server line, continued its long-term decline and fell 14 percent.
---Steve
Slate: This Article Is Fortified With Antioxidants
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/05/pomegranate_supreme_court_case_food_industry_nutrition_claims_sound_scientific.html
---Steve
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Language Log » Nicholas Wade: Genes, culture, and history
There is genetic variation within the human race, part of which is geographical, though individual variation within populations is much greater than the average differences found between different parts of the world.
Much the greatest genetic variation is in fact within Africa itself.
The human race as a whole shows remarkably little genetic variation compared with other primates, probably reflecting several episodes of severe reduction in our total numbers in the past.
We have in general little idea of how (or even whether) known genetic variations affect actual human physical structure, let alone behaviour; when we do know anything, it is usually because we have connected genetic differences with pathological states rather than variations in normality.
We are mostly just beginning to work out how known genetic abnormalities actually result in the diseases they are associated with.
---SteveLanguage Log » Nicholas Wade: Genes, culture, and history
The paradox of racism is that at any given moment, the racism of the day seems reasonable and very possibly true, but the racism of the past always seems so ridiculous.
Slate: The Internet’s History Isn’t As “Open” As You Think
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/05/21/net_neutrality_the_internet_s_history_isn_t_as_open_as_you_think.html
---Steve
Slate: The Deliberate Amateur
---Steve
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
Secular Web Kiosk: The Final Superstition: A Critical Evaluation of the Judeo-Christian Legacy
biblical stories of Jesus and Moses and the Genesis account of creation to their pagan beginnings, demonstrating them to be efforts by a pre-scientific people to explain the mysteries and origin of the world around them -- explanations that have long since been superseded by the discoveries of science. Similarly, the moral injunctions of the Bible, as codifications of ancient traditions, are incompatible with an enlightened modern perspective, since they condone slavery, the subjugation of women, and even genocide.
---Steve
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Peer-reviewed by my neurons
---Steve
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
New book on race by Nicholas Wade: Professor Ceiling Cat says paws down « Why Evolution Is True
For this Wade offers virtually no evidence, because there is none. We know virtually nothing about the genetic differences (if there are any) in cognition and behavior between human populations. And to explain how natural selection can effect such rapid changes, Wade posits some kind of "multiplier effect," whereby small differences in gene frequencies can ramify up to huge societal differences. There is virtually no evidence for that, either. It is a mountain of speculation teetering on a few pebbles.
---Steve
Slate: Pete Holmes Does a Hilarious, Spot-On Spoof of Sherlock
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/05/13/pete_holmes_spoofs_sherlock_the_comedian_does_a_hilarious_send_up_sketch.html
---Steve
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
CDC - Water Fluoridation Additives - Engineering Fact Sheet - Community Water Fluoridation - Oral Health
Fluoride Additives Are Not Different From Natural Fluoride
Some consumers have questioned whether fluoride from natural groundwater sources, such as calcium fluoride, is better than fluorides added "artificially," such as FSA or sodium fluoride. Two recent scientific studies listed below demonstrate that the same fluoride ion is present in naturally occurring fluoride or fluoride drinking water additives and that no intermediates or other products were observed at pH levels as low as 3.5. In addition, fluoride metabolism is not affected differently by the chemical compounds nor are they affected by whether the fluoride is present naturally or artificially.
- The ionic speciation study conducted in 2006 mentioned previously (Finney WF, Wilson E, Callender A, Morris MD, Beck LW. Re-examination of hexafluorosilicate hydrolysis by fluoride NMR and pH measurement. Environ Sci Technol 2006;40:8:2572)
- The pharmacokinetics of ingested fluoride was studied by a 2008 study (G.M. Whitford, F.C. Sampaio, C.S. Pinto, A.G. Maria, V.E.S. Cardoso, M.A.R. Buzalaf, Pharmacokinetics of ingested fluoride: Lack of effect of chemical compound, Archives of Oral Biology, 53 (2008) 1037–1041).
---Steve
Roasted, Spiced, Almond-y Cauliflower, a recipe on Food52
https://food52.com/recipes/27792-roasted-spiced-almond-y-cauliflower
---Steve
Slate: Scales of Justice
---Steve
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Wednesday, May 07, 2014
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
40 Maps That Explain The Middle East
People started farming here in 9000 BC, and by around 2500 BC the Sumerians formed the first complex society that resembles what we'd now call a "country," complete with written laws and a political system. Put differently, there are more years between Sumerians and ancient Romans than there are between ancient Romans and us.
---Steve
Monday, May 05, 2014
12-696 Town of Greece v. Galloway (05/05/2014)
Offense does not equate to coercion
---Steve
Saturday, May 03, 2014
Top 10 Douchiest Guitarists of All Time - Page 2 | Village Voice
8. Esteban
If you've ever come home drunk at 4 a.m. and stared at infomercials for a half hour, chances are you've seen this guy. Your first thought: "Who is that mysterious man in black and how did he learn to play guitar like that?" Turns out that dashing axe man in the bolero hat and shades is none other than Esteban, lord of the Spanish guitar who is about as overly suave and mystical as they come. So suave he doesn't even need a last name. Aside from the overwhelming cheese factor in each of his videos, there's the fact that a white guy from Pittsburgh (real name: Stephen Paul) would commandeer a Spanish name and go parading around like a wannabe Zorro. Fail.
---Steve