Have you heard of the A TO Z Diet study done by dietitians at Stanford? The researcher is a bit of a dumbass, a well-spoken, sweet, hippy type, but he didn't even do what he made his subjects do: Thoroughly read one of three popular diet books (Atkins, Ornish, Zone) under the guidance of a dietician.
He thinks that the Atkins folks started to slip on their diets because their carbs went up after 6 months. Uh, hello dude, that's explicitly written in the book to do that. He also says his "Palo Alto educated" subjects could not POSSIBLY be doing REAL Atkins such real Atkins is all bacon and whip cream. OMFG. READ THE BOOK DUDE.
He also cannot imagine that fat people don't lie about their caloric intake, and that if they didn't lose they weight that he calculated they should have lost, there might be something wrong with his assumptions about caloric intake and body weight, not their reporting. (I know everyone underreports -- it was found that even thin people do so, and to the same degree! But still.)
Despite his assumptions, he does seem open minded. I mean, he is a 25-year-vegetarian! There were four groups, the three diet books plus the Traditional Medical diet. Atkins had better results than the other three in every area. Ornish is apparently butt hurt over this. Ha ha! So is Barry Sears. I have to say, I really respect Barry Sears, but I couldn't follow his fucking diet, either. And that's a big part of what the study looked at: Can people follow these diets? Do they understand the books? Is it practical to implement what they are asking?
Ornish's complaint is stupid though. If people were unable to his prescription of 10% fat, and ended up at about 18%, and the Atkins people, who were eating 40% fat had better results in all health perameters, it makes no goddamn sense to say that if people would have eaten even LESS fat they'd get better results. I swear, Ornish is amazingly logic-impaired.
The last part of the presentation is awesome. Could insulin sensitivity have something to do with which diet is actually good for you? Man, talk about research from The Department of Obvious. But at least it's finally happening.
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| User: |  spider88 |
| Date: | 2009-11-15 02:16 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
Who knew pharmaceutical writers could be so snarky!
Amusing, if not always mature, and a decent time-line of birth control, too:
https://www.seasonique.com/about/the-real-story-of-the-pill/
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Bleh
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Again, something I wrote to a list a while ago. Sorry, I usually like to edit these down to be more stand-alone appropriate, but I think the point comes across here anyway.
>2009/8/31 Lee Bonnifield <leemaps@localnet.com>:
>>the bricoleur wrote:
>>
>>>Your belief that "reality does NOT exist objectively" is a model -
>>>just like the belief that there is an objective reality.
>>
>>Right. Non-objective reality is a model of what? A model of self, and a
>>model of not-self, and a model of how I distinguish self from wholeness.
>>Besides being a model (and unlike the belief that there is an objective
>>reality) non-objective reality is unitive experience, without the separation
>>models have from what they model.
>
>So your map is not a map, it is the territory.
>
>OK, you keep telling yourself that ...
>
>You model is looking increasingly like a middle-eastern religion the
>more you describe it.
In case it is helpful, I would like to describe the current state of my thinking on this question.
As the bricoleur says, a discussion of "non-objective reality" is a map, not the territory. Same for "objective reality", or any other philosophical position. One might (and most do) choose a map and believe it is the "right" one, or even that it is the actual territory, and defend this belief against others. However, it should be clear that belief is a choice, not an obligation. Although for some people it is so natural as to seem almost obligatory to be in possession of the set of enduring thought processes that constitute a "belief", it is not in fact obligatory.
There are clearly two extremes that can be seen to be set up for trouble. One, of course, would be to be utterly lacking in maps. For such a person all territories would be equally un-navigable and threatening. The other would be to be in possession of one map, which one has decided is the only one that matters (whether because one believes it is actually the territory, or because one believes that the maintenance of one set of beliefs in opposition to other options is demanded theologically, or because one believes it is more advanced than the others) and therefore to be quite at home in some territories, but entirely lost in others. Indeed sometimes this latter person might be even worse off than the mapless when he is outside of his home territory, because the mapless might develop some skill in navigating the landscape itself, while the person attached to one map at the expense of others might well believe that not only is only one map the "right" one, but only one *territory* is the right one, and thus the others might not be navigable on principle.
Now, of course, there's a bit of a slippery argument in that last sentence. If someone develops skill in navigating the cues of the landscape itself, then isn't he just mapping as he goes along? Yes, of course this is true. And if this person were truly mapless as a matter of principle, then *he* would be obligated to forget as he goes, and would really be pretty hopeless. So, then, what is the difference I am trying to describe? I would argue that the optimal approach is simply to accept that there are a potentially unlimited number of territories, and a potentially unlimited number of maps that could be useful in any moment.
The ability to move fluidly from one map to another based on the cues of one's actual observed environment is a skill, not a belief. I do think it is a particular flaw of the Western mentality that we have come to think of "knowledge" as declarative, at the expense of procedural, which seems to often lead to philosophical debates where it seems to be lost that the matter in question is not a belief at all, but rather some type of mental skill. Flexibility, in particular, the ability to shift mental frames fluidly in response to continuously arising contingency, might be the essence of what we are discussing here. Incidentally, this is the underlying reason why both a classical Western education and the still-extant Tibetan buddhist educational system include an emphasis on rhetoric, and particularly the exercise of expecting students to be ready to argue *any* philosophical position at a moment's notice. Students are then graded on how well they embody and promote the assigned position; not on how well they adhere to one "right" position.
The need to adapt to continuously arising contingency brings me to my next issue with this thread:
On Aug 31, 2009, at 2:47 AM, the bricoleur wrote:
>The scientific method being:
>
>1 Pose a question about reality.
>2 Collect the pertinent, observable evidence.
>3 Formulate an explanatory hypothesis, defining relevant assumptions.
>4 Deduce its implications.
>5 Test all of the implications experimentally.
>6 Accept, reject, or modify the hypothesis based upon the experimental results.
>7 Define its range of applicability.
>8 Peer review
>9 Publish (including methodology, data and analysis)
>10 Evaluation and peers continue to test, extend and challenge the hypothesis.
This definition of the scientific method is exactly the problem. The greatest scientists are, without exception, those with the most skill and devotion at the omitted step 0: OBSERVE. Without that the rest is often just a meaningless exercise in grant acquisition. Yes, I feel strongly about this. :)
One of my favorite scientific portraits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63535639@N00/3900637086/
OBSERVE.
Observe EVERYTHING.
...
Of course I readily admit that now that I've written it down, this, too, is a map. If by some bizarre happenstance someone interpreted this as wisdom and started a religion around it, then inevitably some day people would be killing for the idea that you need to be flexible. History is full of examples of people killing for weirder ideas. But it must be recognized that one's experience and one's approach to experience do not consist entirely of philosophical positions. A philosophical position can shape and direct one's development, but the text of the philosophy itself is not the same as the changes in the individual that might result.
Sometimes there's even a good reason to *believe* something for real for a while, because it serves your development, and then believe something else later...
maply yours,
-dave
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My laptop mocks me. Want to write, but words hard.
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BoyAndy says
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That's coffee I am drinking, I swear
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Omg
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Happy hour at Dilettante
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Omg
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Broadway
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| User: | spider88 |
| Date: | 2009-11-10 00:49 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
Observations:
Bill Smith, PhD says, "Call me Bill."
Bill Smith, MD says, "Call me Dr. Smith."
This would suggest that having an MD increases one's sense of superiority. One could argue for the prestige, expense of medical school, more rigorous classwork and clinical experience despite lack of scientific research design skills, HOWEVER:
Bill Smith, MD, PhD, says, "Call me Bill."
It would appear, then, that the award of PhD in fact attenuates a sense of superiority.
More research is needed.
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| User: | litos |
| Date: | 2012-11-09 08:14 |
| Subject: | Itch.... |
| Security: | Public |
I seem to have poison ivy. Again. You would think that as a grown ass man I would not get poison ivy on such a frequent occurrence.
But, you know, you'd be wrong. :-)
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Amazon.com is selling the complete Greatest Hits of The Ramones for $2.99. DRM free.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001A3GSFW/ref=s9_simz_gw_s0_p340_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0SAC75FQDHE79JRGAQBF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
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Dancing @ The Market
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For teh_dirty_robot. ( NSFW video under cut )
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In response to a question posted in the comment thread below: Yes, I believe Wizards will continue publishing my existing novels for as long as sales warrant it. Heck, Twilight Falling just went through a fifth printing and, as far as I know, The Erevis Cale Trilogy Omnibus is still on track for a June '10 release. And indeed I do continue to receive royalties for those sales.
Here's the thing: I consider these books and characters mine in all the ways that really matter, so I hope you'll continue to recommend them to friends, family, fans of the Realms, and fans of sword and sorcery . I plan to continue to promote them, even as I expand into other things.
Just FYI.
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I wanted to say thanks to all the friends, colleagues and readers who wished me well after my separation from Wizards of the Coast. The decision was the right one at the right time. Thanks again.
And there are lots of things already in the works, with contracts flying and matters progressing apace. I hope you'll stick with me as I change gears and explore other things with other publishers.
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Our last day in Montreal was for Jewish food. We went to St. Viateur Bagels and walked down the street chewing on our bagels on our way to Cheskie Bakery for babka and rugelach and so on. We didn’t feel up to poutine, but we did stop at a Frite Alors! location for some yummy fries before going up to the mountain to see the view and then heading back to Vermont.
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Our second day, we vowed to wander around eating as many different things as we could. We started by taking the subway up to the Jean-Talon Market, where we immediately fulfilled our vow by sampling a maple bar, a churro, some meats of various nationalities on sticks, and some local produce. We then sought out Chez Apo, renowned for its Armenian-Lebanese pizza, a sort of flatbread topped with spinach, feta, and zaatar and totally delicious. Then we wandered around and ended up at Sablo Kafe, where we had a tasty tandoori chicken sandwich, and sheltered from all the rain. Later that night we managed to get into Pintxo for great tapas dinner. We may have done something not food-related, but I don’t recall.
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We arrived in Montreal around midday and just headed out to wander around. We had a couple of articles and some ideas of streets to explore but no really clear idea of where to go. Which can be fun. We were staying in the old quarter, which was lovely but not really what we wanted to see, so we initially just headed up St. Laurent. Going that way you first hit the Chinese quarter, where we had lunch at Pho Cali, which was pretty good.
As you continue up St. Laurent, it gets kind of sketchy and red-lightish, but once you cross Sherbrooke, there are lots of boutiques and restaurants. We passed the infamous Schwartz’s of smoked-meat fame, which we didn’t manage to eat at this trip. We did stumble across a european grocery called “La Vielle Europe” which had impressive selections of cheese, meats, coffee, and chocolate — we weren’t able to escape without some salami and chocolate “for later”. After that we went in and out of several boutiques along the street, including m0851 and a place called U&I, where E tried on some great shoes. We eventually walked over to St. Denis and back to the hotel that way, not stopping a whole lot but enjoying the variety from block to block.
That night we had dinner reservations at Au Pied de Cochon, which I’ll review separately.
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I have a massive update coming but in the meantime, I'd like to share this with you guys.
This is Ian Fisher. Starting at age 17, for 27 months, a photographer followed him around from the Army recruiter's office, a military entrance processing station, basic infantry training at Fort Benning, Georgia, to his assignment to the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado, to a deployment to Diwaniyah, Iraq.
It is an excellent warts-and-all portrait of kid in over his head. He barely graduates high school with a 2.0 GPA. He is not a good soldier. He gets busted down at least twice (he has PFC rank in Basic, but gets knocked down to the blank velcro of an E-1 Private, and even after two years, has only gotten back to PFC), goes AWOL, smokes pot, and is on his second marriage by age 20.
Ian Fisher: Portrait of an American Soldier.
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