The Neo-Paleo Gourmet

Stay smart, stay strong

I'm hanging up my spurs.  My job is more engaging, I have a longer commute and less time to blog regularly (which is the right way to do it).  Feel free to email me about anything.  A few closing thoughts:

Good Thinkers
Taleb, Dennett, Pinker, Hayek, Dawkins, Diamond, Harris (Judith Rich) - new article here, Lomborg, Gilbert, De Vany, Kurzweil, Wright (Robert), Pollan, Friedman (Milton), Ridley are good sources of insight.  Marginal Revolution is my favorite blog. 

Food and Health
I'm still 80% of the way caveman (eating and exercising), and I'm integrating it into my lifestyle.  Go to www.arthurdevany.com if you're interested in this topic.  He is my guru.  Read his essay on Evolutionary Fitness. I'll close with some recent meals:

kiwi, turkey burgers, asparagus

                                                 

                                                                                                massive omellette with red grapes and melon...salmon burger

                            so tasty....

yum....

salmon fillets with spinach and brocolli

The Encyclopedia of Life

I received this amazing email this morning.  There's never been such an amazing time to be alive.  Everything is moving so quickly!  If I weren't at work I probably would have cried while watching the video.  It's not just the Encyclopedia of Life, if that weren't enough, but also the fact that E.O. Wilson can now give a speech, the right people can watch it, that so much work can get done so quickly, and resources can be mobilized.  How can you have a pulse and not be optimistic?

"Dear TEDizens,

Those of us in Monterey this year watched in awe as E O Wilson unveiled his inspiring TED Prize wish to create an Encyclopedia of Life. (If you weren't there, you can see it  here.)

In Washington DC this morning, the first big step in that dream came true. Five major scientific institutions, backed by a $50m funding commitment led by the MacArthur Foundation, announced the launch of a global effort to launch the Encyclopedia. Ed Wilson described today's announcement as a dream come true.

As Ed hinted in his speech back in March, a broad-based effort to plan the launch was already underway at the time he made his TED Prize wish. But  he called on us to assist the effort, I am proud to tell you that members of the TED community played a key role in realizing what happened today.

In particular I'd like to salute the effort of Avenue A-Razorfish who in three short weeks were able to visualize a stunning design for the Encyclopedia and incorporate it in a video that is the centerpiece of the newly launched website. Please take two minutes (and it is literally two minutes) right now to watch this video. It does a spectacular job of explaining the purpose and vision behind the Encylopedia. It is here at  www.eol.org. This work was done entirely pro bono, and is a wonderful example of the TED Prize at work. Everyone at the launch today was blown away by it.

The video includes spectacular photography, some of it contributed by TEDster Frans Lanting. And the website address itself was contributed by an individual inspired by Ed's wish. Programmer Ray Ratelis owned eol.org, a valuable web address which he freely contributed to the project.

Many more TEDsters are meeting next month to assist the project in brainstorming its architecture, technology and design. It's proving an exhilarating example of the power of collaboration.

There are already many stories up online about the Encylopedia. Here's the official announcement.

Huge kudos and thanks to Ed and to Avenue A-Razorfish and to everyone else embarking on this journey. 

My best,

- Chris Anderson, TED Curator"

Saturn backlit by the Sun

 

Just amazing.  The beauty of human ingenuity and science.

Go here to find Earth in this picture, and also to hear why this picture upsets Steve Pinker.

Child Obesity

"McDonald's Corp. will use the film "Shrek the Third" to launch its biggest promotion ever of fruits, vegetables and milk this summer."

This is a good thing.  But the bulk of blame for childhood obesity belongs with parents, not McDonald's.

I just can't imagine having a child and letting them gorge themselves to obesity.  It's mind-blowing to me that parents let this happen.  And NO, I'm not going to "see it from their perspective".  That sort of bullshit thinking leads you to blame everyone (society, advertising, corporations, poverty, etc.) except the people who can do something about it -- YOU. 

A twelve year old forty pounds overweight?  How can parents not watch their fat kids getting fatter and not treat it like a drug addiction? Kids are becoming addicted to sugar and fat right in front of parents' eyes.  It's crazy.

What would you do if your 12 year old were addicted to cocaine or heroin?

I would take measures to save his or her life.  The measures would be in proportion to the importance of the goal.

The Era of Personal Genetics is dawning

"23andMe is an early stage startup developing tools and producing content to help people make sense of their genetic information. Our goal is to take advantage of new genotyping technologies and help consumers explore their genetics, informed by cutting edge science.

Combining computer science, biology and informatics, we are at the cutting edge of a new era of genetics. Genome deciphering technologies have reached affordable levels, allowing consumer access. This information has the potential to empower both individuals and society in a way that will deliver tremendous value. For the individual, such information will provide personal insight into ancestry, genealogy and health. For society, the collection of genotypic and phenotypic information on a large scale will provide scientists with novel avenues for research."

Not much else on the website, but bet on it.  Founded by Sergey Brin's fiancee.  Via Valleywag.

50 is the new 40

Just take Julio Franco, still playing major league ball at 48 -- and now the oldest major leaguer to ever hit a home run.

Watch Aubrey de Grey on why aging can be defeated:

"In a shocking challenge to conventional wisdom, Cambridge researcher Aubrey de Grey argues that the process of aging is merely a disease -- and a curable one at that."

I particularly like his illustration of "Longevity Escape Velocity", showing how he believes a person can expect to live more or less forever provided that they are healthy enough once the relevant medical breakthroughs accelerate.  Aubrey is also head of the Methuselah Mouse Prize, giving researchers an incentive to extend the life of mice.

Misfortune aside, I expect to live well over a hundred years.  Did you see the stem cell discovery today?

Hat tip to Robert Cantwell.

A typical Saturday afternoon...

...sipping champagne at the Harvard Club.  Can you guess what we were talking about?  Not global politics.

(They offered me a free brunch to model for this ridiculous photo....and two glasses of champagne...and fame.)

Photo in context here.

Corporate Ghost Towns

"Could you imagine if the City of New York banned advertising in Times Square? How about advertising in all public spaces?

Well, that's exactly what the city of São Paulo, Brazil, voted to do last September, by a vote of 45 to one, and it took effect January of this year. Madison Avenue has mostly swept this story under the rug, but it's real -- and daunting."

Article here, and more importantly, see pictures here.

Hat tip to Brian Crandall.

Putting the fundamental attribution error to work

Directly from MR....

Use visualization to improve your life

Tyler Cowen

...we tend to interpret other people's actions as saying something about them, whereas we interpret our own actions as saying more about the situation we're in.  So, when we picture ourselves acting in the third-person, we see ourselves as an observer would, as the 'kind of person' who performs that behaviour.  "Seeing oneself as the type of person who would engage in a desired behaviour increases the likelihood of engaging in that behaviour", the researchers said.

Here is the article, which claims you should envision your desired successes through the perspective of a third person, to better bring them about.

Presidential Debates: Better in France

 

The French Presidential Debate sounded so much more combative and direct than any American debates I can remember.  That means both more substantive AND more entertaining.

Good one-liners:

"In the middle of an exchange on schooling for the handicapped, Royal sought to paint Sarkozy as unreasonably hard-hearted. He urged her to calm down, whereupon she insisted three times: "I will not calm down!" Sarkozy then said: "To be president of the Republic you have to be calm..' "

...

No skirting the issues:

"A combative Royal riposted by sketching a devastating picture of France today, a country deeply in debt with two million people living below the poverty line, three million unemployed and prey to rising violence.

"I want to get France out of the situation it finds itself in today," she said, challenging Sarkozy to say whether as a member of the government he accepted responsibility for the current state of affairs.

Sarkozy came straight back at her: "Yes, Madame Royal," he said. "I am responsible for a part of the record of this government." But he added that when the center-right government took over from the Socialists in 2002, "I found a situation that was catastrophic."

...

Exposing the preposterous economics of the Socialist left:

In one of the more heated exchanges of the evening, Sarkozy accused Royal of having no credible economic program.

"It seems to me that when it comes to debt," he said, "you given no indication how to reduce it. That's your right. When it comes to growth, you have given no means of reviving growth. I have: because you're right we need more growth. The problem of France is that there is about 1 percentage point of growth less than in other big democracies and economies in the world. Why: For a simple reason, Madame Royal: Because we work less than the others.

"It may surprise you," he said, that none of the 10 countries in Europe that have fuller employment have the 35-hour week. "You want more civil servants?" he added. "That's nice. But how do you pay that?" She shot back: "Don't deform my words. I will maintain the number of civil servants not increase it. I will redeploy them in a more efficient way."

Notice the arrogance of the expert planner.  "I will redeploy them in a more efficient way."  Ha!