The Neo-Paleo Gourmet

Temperance

As my general state of health has improved, the difference between how I feel when I'm hungover and how I feel when I've just worked out has widened.  So I notice hangovers and lack of sleep more.  Which causes me to drink less and try to get more sleep, particularly on weekends.

To restate it: My average health initially improved because I raised my "max".  The resulting increase in variation caused me to notice and raise my "min".

Interesting example of positive reinforcement.

Asking the right questions

The wrong questions to ask: Why is there poverty?  Why is there war?

Historically, subsitance living and violence are the natural condition of man.  It is wealth and peace that require explanation -- they are the abberation.

The right questions to ask: Why is there wealth?  Why is there peace?

Constraints that lead to freedom

1. Gravity, electromagnetism and other physical forces are fundamentally constraining, but they allow a predictable framework for stable atom and molecules to come to be.  This allows for organisms to evolve, and organisms are pretty good at scooting around.

2. Political institutions that constrain the ways in which power can be used in a society provide a predictable framework for economic growth, freedom of migration, and freedom of thought.

3. Some moral constrains can make you less of a slave to the addictions of sex, certain chemicals, or materialism.

4. Constraints on what you eat can make you healthier, faster, and happier -- and better able to accomplish whatever you want to accomplish.

Milk...does a body bad

"Mongolian physician Ganmaa Davaasambuu has linked increased tumor formation and growth in laboratory animals with chemically induced cancer to high levels of hormones in commercial milk. Seasonal milking practices among Mongolian nomads ensure that cows produce milk only during the first three months of a new pregnancy, when hormone levels are low. Because modern dairies, on the other hand, milk cows well into their next pregnancy, commercial milk often contains much higher levels of biologically active hormones."

Not all bad: Of the milks they tested, "Levels of hormones and growth factors were low in both American skim milk (hormones are carried in the milk fat) and Mongolian milk."  They also found that Mongolian children started growing faster when they drank American milk.

It's a drink for children.

That's from a recent article in Harvard Magazine.

Why is unhealthy food so inexpensive?

Not because it's cheap to process a Twinkie.  The government massively subsidizes the main sources of processed ingredients: corn, soybeans, and wheat.  Three cheers for the farm bill!  Protecting the (fat) American way.

Here is the beginning of the excellent new article by Michael Pollan:

"A few years ago, an obesity researcher at the University of Washington named Adam Drewnowski ventured into the supermarket to solve a mystery. He wanted to figure out why it is that the most reliable predictor of obesity in America today is a person’s wealth. For most of history, after all, the poor have typically suffered from a shortage of calories, not a surfeit. So how is it that today the people with the least amount of money to spend on food are the ones most likely to be overweight?

"Drewnowski gave himself a hypothetical dollar to spend, using it to purchase as many calories as he possibly could. He discovered that he could buy the most calories per dollar in the middle aisles of the supermarket, among the towering canyons of processed food and soft drink. (In the typical American supermarket, the fresh foods — dairy, meat, fish and produce — line the perimeter walls, while the imperishable packaged goods dominate the center.)"

...

Anarchy isn't madness

This short video should clear up your misconceptions about Anarchy -- it isn't what you think!

Note: My sound card hasn't been installed yet, so I don't know what the audio is.   Hat tip to Nick Orenstein for the inadvertent pointer.

A habitable planet discovered

Astronomers have discovered a planet with the conditions likely necessary to sustain life.  An amazing, exciting discovery.  And it's old...

"Just because Gliese 581c is habitable does not mean that it is inhabited, but we do know its sun is an ancient star - in fact, it is one of the oldest stars in the galaxy, and extremely stable. If there is life, it has had many billions of years to evolve."

Article here, though I'm sure there will be better sources over the coming days.

Don't Diet

Most dieters gain weight.

Read why here, as well as a simple reiteration of the Evolutionary Fitness way.

Walmart's Supply Chain

Have a look at at a map of where Walmart's products come from.  (Via MR.)

How did Walmart become so successful?  Supply-chain management.  When others competitors were opening stores all around the country in "target markets", Walmart was building out in concentric circles.  This allowed it to build their reknowned supply chain, and to learn to how to squeeze every penny out of suppliers.

Apologies

Sorry for the recent lack of posts.  My first lapse since I started.  I've taken a new job with an internet start-up, and I'm currently on the West Coast.  Once I'm up to speed and back in New York, I'll get right back to it.