12.31.06
Posted in Environment, health at 12:37 pm by site admin
My weekly wrap up of health related articles. First large cholesterol leads to long life. Larger cholsterol particles in the blood are less likely to get stuck in the lining. Less buildup, less heart attacks and strokes.
Second, live stock pollute and take up space. Live stock generate 18% more pollution than automobiles and other modes of transportation. Live stock also generate 37% of all human-induced methane, and use 30% of the earth’s entire land surface. And for those of you that still drink milk, check out MilkSucks.com. A dairy cow produced 100 pounds of milk a day!!!! 10 times more than they would produce in nature. And coming out of the other end, the cow produces 120 pounds of waste every day — equal to that of two dozen people, but with no toilets, sewers, or treatment plants. If thats not personal enough for you, unlike french fries, potato chips, and chocolate, milk can make you break out.
Got zits? Try wiping off that milk mustache!
Will drinking milk make you greasy, grimy, and pimply? Some doctors suspect that the fat, animal protein, sugar, and hormones in milk irritate the skin, causing break-outs.
Dr. Jerome K. Fisher conducted a clinical study of 1,088 teen-age patients over 10 years and reported to the American Dermatological Association that milk was a principal contributor to some patients’ acne. Dr. Fisher found that their acne tapered off as their milk consumption did.
Dr. Fisher noted that dairy products often contain large amounts of butterfat and milk sugar, both of which, he believed, aggravate acne. He also suspected that the high volume of hormones produced naturally in the milk of pregnant cows may break down into androgen when consumed, which in turn stimulates the production of sebum, the waxy substance secreted by the sebaceous glands that clogs pores and creates acne when the pores become infected.
I’m not sure if dropping milk (all forms), has helped me reduce my acne. It could be b/c i’m a bit past my ‘hormonal years’ or whatever, but in anycase, being milk free works for me. The skin is your body’s largest organ. So eating a good diet, w/vegetables and fiber, keeps your insides running smoothly and keeps randomness from bubbling to the surface.
Next on my list, a new tattoo ink that can be removed. The ink is encased in tiny little beads that can be destroyed in a single laser light treatment. So this is good news for everyone out there wanting ‘I love [fill in name here] forever’ tattooed on your bods.
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12.28.06
Posted in Education at 8:56 am by site admin
Check out this link with tons of cool tests from the BBC. Tests include: Explore your memory. What sex is your brain?, Face perception, Morals, Adultery, Self-control, and Perfectionism.
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12.27.06
Posted in Education at 10:32 pm by site admin
Check out this article on reforming the english language: Nuspelynh. Its an interesting idea, but its much more dramatic of a change than tradtional changes in a language. e.g., colour to color, or whats up to sup, etc. For pronounciation, I would prefer using the International Phoentic Alphabet, but I can see where, for the english language, cleaning up our own alphabet would suffice.
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12.20.06
Posted in Evolution at 10:29 am by site admin
Check out this article titled ‘Make Room for Bomb-Sniffing Humans’. Heres the first paragraph:
When it is necessary to sniff out a trail–be it to a bomb, a drug stash or even to a pie sitting on a windowsill–the task is normally better left to our canine companions. And while our four-legged friends still hold the crown for tracking scents, a new study published in this week’s issue of Nature Neuroscience proves that humans may not be bloodhounds, but they can follow a scent–and they get better with training. In addition, the paper provides evidence that mammals make comparisons between what is sensed by each of their nostrils to synthesize information on scent much the same way that they use both ears to hear.
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Posted in health at 9:28 am by site admin
Check out this article discussing how that the brain in alcohol-dependent individuals can improve when they quiet drinking. In short: Alcohol-dependent patients showed a 2% increase in brain volume, and 10-20% increase in brain choline levels after 2 months of alcohol-free living.
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Posted in Religion/Philosophy at 9:18 am by site admin
Sitting at work and procastinating? But tired of the usual ‘what kind of animal am I?’ games? Check out this link with a bunch of mind numbing philosophy games. Here are my results:
Do-It-Yourself Deity: Plausibility Quotient = 1.0
The metaphysical engineers have determined that your conception of God has a plausibility quotient (PQ) of 1.0. A PQ of 1.0 means that as far as the metaphysical engineers can determine your conception of God is internally consistent and consistent with the universe that we live in. A PQ of 0.0 means that it is neither internally consistent nor consistent with our universe. More than likely, your PQ score will be somewhere between these two figures. But remember that this is your PQ score as determined by the metaphysical engineers. The editors of TPM have no control over their deliberations, so don’t blame us!
Taboo: Your Moralising Quotient is: 0.00. Your Interference Factor is: 0.00. Your Universalising Factor is: -1.
You see nothing wrong in the actions depicted in these scenarios. Consequently, there is no inconsistency in the way that you responded to the questions in this activity. However, it is interesting to note that had you judged any of these acts to be morally problematic, it is hard to see how this might have been justified. You don’t think that an act can be morally wrong if it is entirely private and no one, not even the person doing the act, is harmed by it. The actions described in these scenarios are private like this and it was specified as clearly as possible that they didn’t involve harm. One possibility might be that the people undertaking these acts are in some way harmed by them. But you indicated that you don’t think that an act can be morally wrong solely for the reason that it harms the person undertaking it. So, as you probably realised, even this wouldn’t seem to be enough to make the actions described in these scenarios morally problematic in terms of your moral outlook. Probably, in your own terms, you were right to adopt a morally permissive view.
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Posted in health at 9:14 am by site admin
Check out this article in the nytimes about how the brain replays the days events during non-dreaming sleep. A bit technical, but very informative. For me it confirms my belief that I learn through osmosis— I always nap after any intense learning (and sometimes during).
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12.19.06
Posted in Education at 10:03 pm by site admin
Check out this article on wired.com discussing why Shakespeare mystifies us. In short, Shakespeare employees a linguistic technique known as functional shift that uses one part of speach in the place of another, e.g., using a noun to serve as a verb.
Professor Philip Davis, from the University’s School of English, said: “The brain reacts to reading a phrase such as ‘he godded me’ from the tragedy of Coriolanus, in a similar way to putting a jigsaw puzzle together. If it is easy to see which pieces slot together you become bored of the game, but if the pieces don’t appear to fit, when we know they should, the brain becomes excited. By throwing odd words into seemingly normal sentences, Shakespeare surprises the brain and catches it off guard in a manner that produces a sudden burst of activity – a sense of drama created out of the simplest of things.”
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12.18.06
Posted in Humor at 10:58 am by site admin
Check out this article on some pretty strange coincidences throughout history. Say what you will, still is an interesting read.
Mark Twain was born on the day of the appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1835, and died on the day of its next appearance in 1910. He himself predicted this in 1909, when he said: “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.”
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Posted in health at 10:30 am by site admin
Check out this article talking about how stem cells patched up mice genetically engineered to have holes in their brain. This finding shows great potential for stem cells for diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
This article reminds me of something I read long ago related to mothers and their babies. When the fetus is in the womb, some of the baby’s stem cells actually enter into the mother, where they become incoporated in her body.
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Posted in health at 10:24 am by site admin
Check out this article that talks about a study linking high IQ to being vegatarian. While it is unclear if this link is simply a preference choice (correlation), or if there is a causal relationship between the two.
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12.15.06
Posted in society at 9:58 am by site admin
Check out this extremely long article on the invention of diamonds. I read this exact article over a year ago. And someone posted it as news again. So it does have some value, so I’m recording it for future reference. In a nut shell: The diamond market is a regulated industry that has created the conditions and propaganda of a valuable commodity.
The diamond invention—the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year.
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12.13.06
Posted in internet at 9:51 pm by site admin
Ahh. I try to abstain from mindless reposting and linking (which i do pathetic job at anyways), but this is a pretty witty read. Check out Bruce Sterling’s final prediction on Wired.
The bubble-era vision of a utopian Internet is dented and dirty. The Pew respondents seem to agree that personal privacy is a thing of the past, and they’re split nearly 50-50 on whether the costs will outweigh the benefits. Technophobic refuseniks are likely to carry out violent resistance, and they may have good reason: Out-of-control technology is a distinct risk. The Lexus has collided with the olive tree, and its crumpled hulk spins in a ditch as the orchard smolders.
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Posted in society at 9:43 pm by site admin
Check out this article that talks about how erroneous expectations distort our decisions. In many cases these epectations can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. Its a short read, but its still a good wake up call.
Why did the cheaper energy drink prove less effective? According to Shiv, we always get what we pay for. Since we expect cheaper goods to be less effective, they generally are less effective, even if they are identical to more expensive products. This is why brand-name aspirin works better than generic aspirin, or why wine tastes better when it comes from an expensive looking bottle. “We have these general beliefs about the world – for example, that cheaper products are of lower quality – and they translate into specific expectations about specific products,” said Shiv. “Then, once these expectations are activated, they start to really impact our behavior.”
I cant agree with them 100% of the time. I think there are many products people dont care what brand things are. Like soap, I might have an initial hesitation because I’ve never heard of a soap brand before. However, after using it for a while, all of a sudden it becomes the brand of choice. Eh.. So I would have to say my experiences change my perception.
While this article focuses on products and expectations, I think this insight applies to everything in life— including social relationships. This is how a first impression can set the tone of an entire friendship/relationship. This is also how, when we have egotistically ‘figured it all out’ and reached a decision, we may be actually boxing ourselves in our mental perception. And we deny the truth, no matter how logical and simple it may be. What we need is the consciousness and awareness to pierce through our ignorance to see the active reality. We all learn the hard way, make mistakes, and hurt those that we love.
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Posted in society at 4:50 pm by site admin
Check out this column on wired about the low-tech products and toys that are still churning along in this modern age. Its a short read— heres my favorite:
The Umbrella
A friend described this as “one of those things that gets crappier the more you improve on the design,” and she’s right. All the collapsing and weird folding and such just makes an umbrella that’s going to turn into kinetic art at the first sign of a stiff breeze. Now I hear they’re making umbrellas with Wi-Fi and a digital camera, just in case you’re one of those people who only takes photos in the rain. It’s silly! What everyone needs is a good standard British brolly and a quick stride, and you never need leave your cake out in the rain again. Whatever that means.
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12.12.06
Posted in Humor, Religion/Philosophy at 1:50 pm by site admin
Check out this Q&A with Richard Dawkins. He is the author of The God Delusion, as well as many other books. The Q&A is filled with good insight, witty humor, and many commercials for his own website.
Are people who advocate intelligent design stupid, and do you think natural selection will operate to remove them from future generations? ADAM KHAN, The Hague, Netherlands
The majority are ignorant, which is not the same thing as stupid. Natural selection will not remove ignorance from future generations. Education may, and that is the hope to which we must cling.
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Posted in Education, society at 9:39 am by site admin
Check out this article that discusess how using taboo words (sexual body part and cuss words) helps people remember what you said. Taboo words are not considered too negative, but they have a higher arrousal rate.
The cool lesson is that we remember words for sexual body parts and swear words really well, and the memory benefit extends to the context in which they were presented! So, next time you’re having a conversation with someone, and you really want them to remember what you’re saying, use as many swear words and words for sexual body parts as you can.
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