No, Really, Who's On First?

Their finest hour:

The mechanism by which exercise reduces fat levels. (Hint: it's not by burning calories.)

Hmmm.

"The question is why does exercise work in obesity? Because it burns calories? That's ridiculous. Twenty minutes of jogging is one chocolate chip cookie, I mean you can't do it. One Big Mac requires three hours of vigorous exercise to work that off, that's not the reason that exercise is important, exercise is important for three reasons exclusive of the fact that it burns calories.

The first is it increases skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity, in other words it makes your muscle more insulin sensitive, therefore your pancreas can make less, therefore your levels can drop, therefore there's less insulin in your blood to shunt sugar to fat. That's probably the main reason that exercise is important and I'm totally for it.

The second reason that exercise is important is because it's the single best treatment to get your cortisol down. Cortisol is your stress hormone, it's the hormone that goes up when you are mega-stressed, it's the hormone that basically causes visceral fat deposition which is the bad fat and it has been tied to the metabolic syndrome. So by getting your cortisol down you're actually reducing the amount of fat deposited and it also reduces food intake. People think that somehow exercise increases food intake, it does not, it reduces food intake.

And then the third reason that exercise is important, which is somewhat not well known, but I'm trying to evaluate this at the present time, is that it actually helps detoxify the sugar fructose. Fructose actually is a hepato-toxin; now fructose is fruit sugar but we were never designed to take in so much fructose. Our consumption of fructose has gone from less than half a pound per year in 1970 to 56 pounds per year in 2003."

-- Robert Lustig

Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me About This?

A Lark of Perspective.

I've just had something of an epiphany.

On the comment "It's a boy!" to my mother, the response was;

"Boys are fine. I had 3 of them."

All of a sudden my parents weren't "My Parents," rather they were "A Couple Who Had Raised Three Sons."

I have this strange feeling that "People With Children" inhabit an entire other world, sharing a secret language.

Snobs.

Copy Right.

A magnificently elocuted display on the topic, by Stephen Fry.

His podcast is among, if not top of, my favourites.

Damn Those People That Move Around, Damn Them All.

But you know what he can't do? Grow hair.

In Console Able.

I stumbled across inconsolata via the author's page on Spiro while familiarising myself with Inkscape (long story).  I'm not really a typography guy, although I like to think I can tell when my eyes are bleeding.

I've spent the last ten minutes staring at the Inconsolata set.  It's simply beautiful.  I had no idea a monospace font could look that good.  The attention to detail, the understated beauty - it's a work of art.

The snapshot on the main page doesn't come close to doing it justice, I implore you to take some time to look at the PDF display sheet, zoomed in to 800%.  Pay particular attention to the "t", "v", "w", and "y" - not to mention the numerals.

Congratulations, Raph Levien.

Terms of Endearment.

For the life of me, I can't work out why I am so surprised at one company doing "the right thing" when it comes to on-line signup forms.  This is how Ovi, the new online service from Nokia, presents the customary "Now that we have your contact details, are you sure you don't want us to not stop starting to ignore your preferences with regard to being constantly irritated by a barrage of advertising sputum? (Full stop, no returns.)"

Using well-written, positive language they focus on the simple benefit of being on their mailing list, and - most importantly - the default option is off.

They've already earned my respect.

A Sense of Humanity.

From the user guide for my Nokia mobile phone, regarding the utility for "wiping" the device;

"When the device is wiped, the phone will appear to be new from the factory (except for scratches)."

Love it.

God Bless the Scientific Method.

"We'll Be Ready To Go To Market In 12 to 18 Months."

I'm now searching for a "paper" theme for my computer to achieve the same effect.

Oar Inspiring.

His name is Bill Shannon, and he has osteonecrosis, and I have a new hero.

Quiet Time.

"The mind is its own place, and in itself
can make heaven of hell or a hell of heaven."

-- Milton

Special Affect

Imaginations

dry, rotting. Hearts now empty, 

left unsatisfied

X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The wondrous, mundane.

Though for sheer entertainment,

give it two thumbs up.

Yet I Cannot Look Away.

Topical Treatment.

Sure, but does it come with the plan?

Henson's 11.

I would watch this.

I'd even pay cinema prices.

Gran Torino.

Off the beaten slope,
a racist? Unconvincing.
(Perhaps that's the point.)