House of Brat

Links for 2012-01-15 [del.icio.us]

2012-01-16T00:00:00-08:00

Gary Taubes on Dieting | FiveBooks | The Browser
...that insulin and insulin-like growth factor are cancer promoters. I actually have a five page article about this research in the journal Science today. The idea is that you avoid cancer by keeping insulin levels as low as possible, which means avoiding these same fattening carbohydrates we’ve been talking about, and arguably eating an animal product, fat-rich diet. It’s the same type of diet we’ve been eating for two million years, prior to agriculture, and the same diet that many of these indigenous populations were still eating through the early 20th century. Actually, while I was doing research for this story I interviewed the head of the cancer research centre at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre at Harvard Medical School, as well as Craig Thompson, the president of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in Manhattan. Both of them told me they were effectively on the Atkins diet...not because they wanted to lose weight, but because they didn’t want to get cancer.

OMG! I love this...

2012-01-10T21:16:00.001-07:00

(Source)

Links for 2012-01-01 [del.icio.us]

2012-01-02T00:00:00-08:00

Matt Stoller: Why Ron Paul Challenges Liberals « naked capitalism
Modern liberalism is a mixture of two elements. One is a support of Federal power – what came out of the late 1930s, World War II, and the civil rights era where a social safety net and warfare were financed by Wall Street, the Federal Reserve and the RFC, and human rights were enforced by a Federal government, unions, and a cadre of corporate, journalistic and technocratic experts (and cheap oil made the whole system run.) America mobilized militarily for national priorities, be they war-like or social in nature. And two, it originates from the anti-war sentiment of the Vietnam era, with its distrust of centralized authority mobilizing national resources for what were perceived to be immoral priorities. When you throw in the recent financial crisis, the corruption of big finance, the increasing militarization of society, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the collapse of the moral authority of the technocrats, you have a big problem. Liberalism doesn’t really exist much within the...

2011 Movies

2011-12-31T23:59:00.001-07:00

True Grit
The Fighter
The Lincoln Lawyer
Jane Eyre
Toy Story 3
The Conspirator
Water for Elephants
Thor
Iron Man 2
Inception
Bad Teacher
Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains
The Good Shepherd
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
A Small Act
Captain America: The First Avenger
Straw Dogs
Moneyball
My Week with Marilyn
Hugo
The Descendants
Young Adult
The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

So I had to go to church last night for Christmas Eve services.

Had to listen to the (female) pastor give a sermon too last night.

Blah, blah, blahbitty blah, blah, blah.

That's all I got out of it.

Or, I'd actually describe my reaction to it like this:

When you're full of shit, you're full of shit. No amount of kumbaya sermons is ever going to change that.

Links for 2011-12-18 [del.icio.us]

2011-12-19T00:00:00-08:00

The clerk, RIP - Salon.com
The loss of clerks – and the spaces in which they work – is a loss for the culture as a whole. It’s intangible, though. “So much of it is happenstance and chance,” says Doug Dutton, who ran Dutton’s Brentwood Books, arguably Los Angeles’ finest bookstore, until its 2008 closing. One of his most beloved clerks was a poet and crime-fiction junkie named Scott Wannberg. “All you had to do was say something about noir mysteries, and it would open a stream. Conversation can lead to all kinds of things – to mutual distaste, to romance, or profound meetings of the minds. These pathways of connections are very important, and disappearing.”... There’s a bigger, more tangible dimension to all of this: The death of the clerk as cultural curator is part of a larger move by which computers are putting educated “knowledge workers” out of jobs. It’s not just the guy on the assembly line, now – it’s the autodidact at the bookstore. Next, they’re coming for librarians...

Links for 2011-12-11 [del.icio.us]

2011-12-12T00:00:00-08:00

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH »
On May 23, 2007 a major stride in the quest for life extension occurred. Researchers Simon Melov et al announced a treatment that successfully reversed aging. This reversal occurred not in worms, fish, or rats; but actually occurred in human subjects. More importantly, this reversal was not simply a marker of aging, but an actual reversal toward normal youthful function at the genetic level. The researchers tested 596 genes that appeared to be markers of declining function as a result of age. Most of these genes were associated with mitochondrial function. This is important for two reasons. First, the mitochondria are the powerhouses for the cells of your body, they are the engine that makes us run. Secondly, mitochondrial DNA is easier to study with greater certainty of accuracy because all of your mitochondrial DNA comes only from your mother. As a consequence, differences in expression cannot be accounted for by the contribution of another person’s (i.e.-father’s) DNA that may react

Hm...

2011-12-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

does this mean my Knightfall comics are going to increase in value after The Dark Knight Rises comes out? I'm inclined to think so particularly since DC Comics is going to release the entire saga in May 2012. I'm sure that's not a coincidence.

I kind of wondered if Nolan was going to do this storyline ever since Bane was mentioned as one of the villains. Apparently so.

I wonder if Batman will get his back broken by Bane this time around?

Judging by the poster, I'm going with yes.

Links for 2011-11-26 [del.icio.us]

2011-11-27T00:00:00-08:00

INTERNAL STARVATION »
The important concept behind all of this is not that the obese have these problems just because of excess body fat. These problems occur because of muscle atrophy that occurs as a result of nutrient partitioning that occurs with the metabolic derangements associated with a modern diet. These problems can be reversed by restoring a normal metabolic environment and a return to proper insulin sensitivity. Following a diet that is in line with our ancient ancestors will decrease the massive sugar load of the modern diet. High intensity exercise will empty the largest glucose reservoir in the body, making improved insulin sensitivity possible. The situation is somewhat like a tub overflowing, you want to turn of the faucet and unplug the drain.
“BODY BY SCIENCE” — ESPECIALLY FOR WOMEN »
The results were very clear. The high intensity group significantly reduced total abdominal fat, abdominal subcutaneous fat, and abdominal visceral fat. There were no changes observed in the non-exercise group or the low intensity group. The part not mentioned in the study is the most important part. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: THE RESULTS ARE CORRELATED WITH INTENSITY NOT CALORIES BURNED. Each exercise session was controlled to expend the same number of calories, AND based on total calories burned, the low intensity group had the advantage since they worked out more days per week. Despite this advantage, the low intensity group did not lose fat. This is a key concept: when it comes to losing body fat you cannot achieve it by “burning calories” in an attempt to influence the calories in/calories out equation. Fat will be mobilized when you use an exercise modality that mobilizes glycogen out of the muscle, creating a need for replenishment via the insulin receptors....

Links for 2011-10-25 [del.icio.us]

2011-10-26T00:00:00-07:00

Eat Wild
referral directory
The Weston A. Price Foundation - Weston A Price Foundation
referral directory

Links for 2011-10-10 [del.icio.us]

2011-10-11T00:00:00-07:00

Liver: nature's most potent superfood
The chart below lists the micronutrient content of apples, carrots, red meat and beef liver. Note that every nutrient in red meat except for vitamin C surpasses those in apples and carrots, and every nutrient—including vitamin C—in beef liver occurs in exceedingly higher levels in beef liver compared to apple and carrots. In general, organ meats are between 10 and 100 times higher in nutrients than corresponding muscle meats. In fact, you might be surprised to learn that in some traditional cultures, only the organ meats were consumed. The lean muscle meats, which are what we mostly eat in the U.S. today, were discarded or perhaps given to the dogs.... Remember that it is essential to eat meat and organ meats from animals that have been raised on fresh pasture without hormones, antibiotics or commercial feed. Pasture-raised animal products are much higher in nutrients than animal products that come from commercial feedlots.
Panic of the Plutocrats - NYTimes.com
What’s going on here? The answer, surely, is that Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe realize, deep down, how morally indefensible their position is. They’re not John Galt; they’re not even Steve Jobs. They’re people who got rich by peddling complex financial schemes that, far from delivering clear benefits to the American people, helped push us into a crisis whose aftereffects continue to blight the lives of tens of millions of their fellow citizens. Yet they have paid no price. Their institutions were bailed out by taxpayers, with few strings attached. They continue to benefit from explicit and implicit federal guarantees — basically, they’re still in a game of heads they win, tails taxpayers lose. And they benefit from tax loopholes that in many cases have people with multimillion-dollar incomes paying lower rates than middle-class families.

Captain America: The First Avenger

2011-10-01T17:55:00.000-06:00

Gee, it's been a long time since I've seen a movie in a theater. Last time I was in a theater, I saw the last Harry Potter flick. (I hate being poor. It sucks!)

So I finally saw Captain America and really, REALLY enjoyed it. This was a surprise for me because I've never been a huge fan of the character; however, I did appreciate the civil liberties stance Marvel gave him a few years ago. But I think not knowing as much about the characters allowed me to enjoy it even more. Like, I wasn't stressing out the first time I saw X-Men eleven years ago.

Originally, I didn't think Chris Evans was right for Cap. Those Don Draper suggestions seemed so much better. Sorry, I meant Jon Hamm. But now I realize he would have been too old. One thing I’ve always thought about Chris Evans is that his face is rather generic. Which, I think, is a plus for an actor and, ultimately, why he works so well as Steve Rogers.

I was glad that Emily Blunt didn’t play Peggy Carter. Since I’m not as familiar with Hayley Atwell, it allowed me to believe the romance between Steve and Peggy better. (Although, I do think Blunt would have made a much better Black Widow than ScarJo. Because what exactly does Scarlett bring to Natasha other than the ability to dye her hair red?) But Hayley did get the much better female role out of the two Marvel adaptations I've seen this summer. (I haven't seen X-Men: First Class yet.) Peggy Carter is far superior to Natalie Portman's Jane Foster in Thor. I didn't think that would be possible, but then Joss Whedon did an uncredited rewrite on the script as part of his Avengers contract. Which makes me actually look forward to seeing The Avengers when it comes out.

On those greater generations...

2011-09-18T02:30:00.000-06:00

It is said that what is called "the spirit of an age" is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. In the same way, a single year does not have just spring or summer. A single day, too, is the same.

For this reason, although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation. This is the mistake of people who are attached to past generations. They have no understanding of this point.

On the other hand, people who only know the disposition of the present day and dislike the ways of the past are too lax.

~Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure

Ouch! It hurts to be Texas...

2011-09-09T02:52:00.000-06:00

Texas has always had water scarcity problems. But on top of that now, we have a booming population, a lack of investment in our infrastructure and in water conservation in a lot of places, and we have climate change. I mean, this drought is not 100 percent a climate drought. It’s not—wasn’t caused by climate change. But as the state climatologist will—has been going around saying, it’s been enhanced because we have a couple degrees of warming that have happened in this century. So, you have higher rates of evaporation, you have more heat, the drought is worse. And if you look at the climate record, for example, based on tree ring data, we’ve had megadroughts of the past that have lasted 30 to 40 years, numerous times in the past 500, 600, 700 years, that dwarf anything that we’ve seen since record keeping began in 1895.

~Forrest Wilder, reporter for The Texas Observer

Good point

2011-09-08T23:29:00.000-06:00

If we enter into the kind of world that Google likes, the world that Google wants, it's a world where information is copied so much on the Internet that nobody knows where it came from anymore, so there can't be any rights of authorship. However, you need a big search engine to even figure out what it is or find it. They want a lot of chaos that they can have an ability to undo.

It should be pointed out that the original design of the Internet didn't have even a copy function, because it originally just seemed stupid. If you have a network, why would you copy something? That's just inefficiency. I'm convinced the reason copying happened on the Internet was because Xerox PARC was so important as an early supporter of computers, that for Alan Kay to go to the Xerox people and say, "Oh, by the way, copying itself, even in the abstract will become obsolete because of computer networks", would have just blown their minds. We ended up with copying on a network.

But anyway, when you have copying on a network, you throw out information because you lose the provenance, and then you need a search engine to figure it out again. That's part of why Google can exist. Ah, the perversity of it all just gets to me.

~Jaron Lanier

The Mariners succeed at something this year

2011-09-08T00:12:00.000-06:00

Bad times help you get through the good times...

2011-09-07T23:14:00.001-06:00

It is said that much sake, self-pride and luxury are to be avoided by a samurai. There is no cause for anxiety when you are unhappy, but when you become a little elated, these three things become dangerous. Look at the human condition. It is unseemly for a person to become prideful and extravagant when things are going well. Therefore, it is better to have some unhappiness while one is still young, for if a person does not experience some bitterness, his disposition will not settle down. A person who becomes fatigued when unhappy is useless.

~Tsunetomo Yamamoto, from the 2nd chapter of Hagakure

Good TV is a novel

2011-08-17T15:04:00.000-06:00

GARY SHTEYNGART: How is literature supposed to survive when our brain has been pummeled with information, sliced and diced with it all day long at work, if we're white-collar workers? We go home. Are we really going to open up a thick text with 350 pages and try to waddle through it? Or are we just going to turn on "Mad Men"? Which is a wonderful show...

TERRY GROSS: It's a great show.

GARY SHTEYNGART: It's a great show, but see, what "Mad Men" does, which is so wonderful about it, is it takes a lot of the things that make novels great. It takes so much of that novelistic precision and also it takes time to explain its characters, to develop its characters and also to try to get into the minds of its characters, as far as film will allow.

So it satisfies all our narrative impulses. That's what we want. But we don't have to open a book to get it. We just watch it on the screen. "The Sopranos," "The Wire," "Mad Men," all these shows very cleverly are indebted to novels, and all the creators of these shows frequently talk about how they're indebted to novels.

~Writer Gary Shteyngart, speaking with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, on May 13, 2011

Hm, interesting...

2011-08-17T01:23:00.000-06:00

The Quran tells many familiar biblical stories, featuring Abraham, Moses, and other key figures of the Old Testament, in addition to lengthy passages concerning Jesus and Mary, and of course the Quranic focus on the Last Judgment strongly recalls biblical texts. But generally, the most potent outside influences seem to have come from Eastern forms of Christianity. Most of the Quranic stories about Mary and Jesus find their parallels not in the canonical four Gospels but in apocryphal texts that circulated widely in the East, such as the Protevangelium of James and the Arabic Infancy Gospel. The Quran cites the miracle in which the infant Jesus shaped a bird out of clay and then breathed life into it, a tale also found in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The Quran also presents the death of Jesus in exactly the language of those heretical Eastern Christians known as the Docetists, who saw the event as an illusion rather than a concrete reality: "They did not kill him and they did not crucify him, but it was made to seem so to them." One sura includes the common Christian legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, the saintly young men who escaped a persecution by sleeping many years in a cave.

So strong are these connections that over the past half century scholars have questioned whether the Quran could even have originated in Arabia, or whether it was collected or constructed somewhere else with a prominent Christian and Jewish population, perhaps in Syria or Mesopotamia.

~Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity, p. 186

Goddamn it

2011-08-02T18:07:00.001-06:00

You know you really hate someone when you're beginning to have thoughts about publicly calling him a compulsive liar in front of a group of elderly people.

Why some people just can't get hit by a bus I'll never understand.

Of course, he's the brains in the family

2011-07-12T20:25:00.000-06:00

Charles, that is...

“My understanding is that Prince Charles was less than happy that Andrew was given the role of trade envoy back in 2001 after he left the navy,” Robert Jobson, author of William & Kate: The Love Story and a royal commentator for NBC News, told me. “When Charles ascends the throne—which he will do despite all the talk to the contrary—he’d like the royal family to be streamlined; he wants a smaller, more cost-effective monarchy. Andrew has made a tremendous effort to keep Beatrice and Eugenie close to the Queen in order to assure their future as fully paid-up members of the Firm, as the royal family is called. In addition to their status as royal highnesses, Andrew has always wanted them to have around-the-clock security and the rank of working royals. But if Charles has his way, the girls will be thrown off the royal payroll and have to fend for themselves. Many of Andrew’s inexcusable actions—consorting with rich oligarchs in North Africa, the Mideast, and the former Soviet Union, and begging friends to bail out Fergie—have been done with his daughters’ welfare in mind.” (A Palace spokesman wouldn’t comment on Charles’s intentions with respect to the princesses.)

I'm surprised this article didn't make mention of Andrew's comments noted in Wikileaks-released memos. Oh well, Charles will get the last laugh any way...

A substantial number of Britons are in favor of Charles’s stepping aside in William’s favor after the Queen dies. But tampering with the succession to the throne would precipitate a constitutional crisis. It would require an act of Parliament plus the passage of legislation by all the Commonwealth governments, neither of which is likely to happen. What’s more, it is well known in royal circles that Camilla is keen to become the first commoner Queen and that Charles is eager to gratify her wish.

“What’s far more likely to happen,” said the royal-watcher Robert Jobson, “is that there will be a seamless change of power in the monarchy, a gradual shift away from the Queen. Charles’s influence will gain, as will William’s. During the last years of Elizabeth’s reign, Charles and William will be like shadow kings.”

Charles turns 63 in November, and given the longevity of the Windsor line, he may have a long wait to ascend the throne. But assuming he outlives his mother, he will become King. He has made no secret of the fact that he intends to make significant changes in the monarchy. To begin with, he’s determined to be seen as the representative of a more inclusive society. He has stated that he will be the Defender of the Faiths—plural—not simply the Church of England, which would be a monumental departure from nearly 500 years of tradition. He also wants a thriftier, pared-down monarchy, which is not so open to criticism.

All of this is bad news for Prince Andrew. Up till now, Andrew and his daughters have lived a charmed life. To please her favorite son, Queen Elizabeth has taken Beatrice and Eugenie under her wing and given them a place of honor on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during state occasions. Over the objections of her husband, the Queen has indulged Andrew’s wish to live under the same roof as his ex-wife, and she has turned a blind eye to his improper behavior.

But the time is nearing when Prince Charles will take a more significant role in running the affairs of the British monarchy. And as Queen Elizabeth’s power wanes and Charles’s power grows, Andrew is likely to find himself out of a job and out of luck.

Sounds like Charles is going to go for the Scandinavian-style monarchy!

"The Trouble with Andrew," Vanity Fair

Oh, it's not just people in the Midwest...

2011-05-26T16:06:00.000-06:00

You know what's funny? People in the flyover states tend to think that all the celebrities on both coasts are constantly high. They think that we're all on some uber-drug. But the thing is, they're kind of right. But somehow most of them manage to function, more or less. The biggest celebrities and movers and shakers I know are also some of the worst alcoholics and drug addicts. But you'd never know it by looking at them.

~Courtney Love, The Fix

I so need this t-shirt!

2011-05-22T21:29:00.000-06:00

I just keep having this pop up in my head

2011-04-05T01:46:00.000-06:00

The Cylon War is long over, yet we must not forget the reasons why so many sacrificed so much in the cause of freedom. The cost of wearing the uniform can be high, but...

[very long pause]

sometimes it's too high. You know, when we fought the Cylons, we did it to save ourselves from extinction. But we never answered the question "Why?" Why are we as a people worth saving? We still commit murder because of greed and spite, jealousy, and we still visit all of our sins upon our children. We refuse to accept the responsibility for anything that we've done, like we did with the Cylons. We decided to play God, create life. And when that life turned against us, we comforted ourselves in the knowledge that it really wasn't our fault, not really. You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you've created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can't hide from the things that you've done anymore.

~Commander William Adama, Battlestar Galactica

Happy April Fools' Day!

2011-04-01T00:00:00.004-06:00

via Rachel Maddow

It's not the seats...

2011-03-14T22:58:00.000-06:00

From the "Rx For The Movie Biz" section from this week's edition (#1146, March 18, 2011) of Entertainment Weekly:

Movie theaters need to add more of the wide seats. Customers aren't comfortable smooshed into narrow seats, and theaters are competing with the comforts of home. The movie itself is not the only draw--it's the overall experience. ~Gail M. Eppers, Racine, Wis.

And what was ringing in my ears after I read that quote? That line from the beginning of Charlie's Angels:

I said, "Look, lady, it's not the seats that have gotten smaller, it's your ass that has gotten bigger."

Too Fucking True

2011-03-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Dude, It's the MPAA

2011-02-28T20:27:00.000-07:00

“I’m trying to find out what that really means. I have heard that it’s simply required taking out two of the [naughty] words. If that’s all it is, then I’m fine with it. Losing two isn’t going to destroy the scene. If they cut deeply into that scene I will be very unhappy. It’s nonsense. There’s a movie that’s advertised on television called ‘Little Fockers.’ Come on folks, who are we kidding here?”

~David Seidler, Oscar-winning screenwriter of The King's Speech

Accessories

2011-02-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

“It’s a monkey looking in a mirror – it just says everything about the Oscars, don’t you think?”

~An Australian jewelry designer, who came wearing a pendant she’d found in a thrift shop

2010 TV

2010-12-31T23:54:00.016-07:00

Lost: Season 2
Lost: Season 3
Lost: Season 4
Lost: Season 5
Dollhouse: Season 2
Mad Men: Season 1
Lost: Season 6
True Blood: Season 1
True Blood: Season 2
Generation Kill

2010 Books

2010-12-31T21:55:00.011-07:00

Generation Kill
Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography
Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture
Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia

2010 Movies

2010-12-31T12:59:00.025-07:00

Avatar
The Cove
Hesher
Waiting for Superman
Mother & Child
The Hurt Locker
Food, Inc.
District 9
Crazy Heart
Invictus
Sherlock Holmes
Inglorious Basterds
The Ghost Writer
The September Issue
Valentino: The Last Emperor
Secretariat
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Black Swan
The King's Speech