July 2008 Archives

Maybe the old saws about Russian monks living to be 100 on nothing but yogurt have a small bit of truth to them. New research finds that a restricted calorie diet actually increases life span and reduces free radical production in our cells.

The calorie restriction diet has been around for awhile, and this new study simply confirms that it works at least in theory. The basic idea? Gradually reduce your calorie intake by 15-30 percent over time -- 1,800 daily calories instead of the 2,500 recommended for an adult male by the FDA -- by eating lots of veggies and avoiding saturated fats and chemicals.

Hard-core CR fanatics often weigh their food on a scale and run their meal plans through software designed to ensure their getting the right nutrients. The danger of eating this way without carefully measuring and calculating is essentially anorexia, which is far less healthy than overshooting one's calorie goal for a day. Lose weight too quickly or fail to get enough salt or other essential vitamins and minerals, and health benefits fall away and the risks mount quickly. For instance, while CR has been found effective in reducing atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), rapid weight-loss reduces muscle mass and could shrink the heart, heightening the risk of a heart attack from overexertion. Reduced bone density and osteoporosis, anemia, memory loss and dizziness are among the other risks.

In fact, some critics see CR as little more than scientifically backed anorexia -- or something teetering on the verge of it. It's worth taking a look at this fascinating in-depth feature from New York Magazine from a couple years ago to get a picture of what living the calorie restricted lifestyle can be like. Judge for yourself if you think living a couple years longer is worth the work -- and the risks.

Have you decided for whom you're voting this November? If so, did you make your choice based on how aligned your views are with the candidate of choice? Or is your choice based on gut or emotions? Have your parents always voted republican (or democrat) so your choice follows suit?

All of these methods may work for you...and who's to say they are wrong. However, with how close the last election was, how fragile our economy, our status as a country in the world, and our morale as a nation is, shouldn't it be based on a bit more than gut feelings and historic party affiliation. If you agree (or would like to become more educated on the candidates), you should check out glassbooth.org, a site dedicated to connecting you to the 2008 presidential candidate that represents your views best. Glassbooth is unique in that it is a "nonprofit organization that creates innovative ways to access nonbiased political information." Their site includes a quiz revealing your 'matching' candidate, details on the candidates' views on various issues (including video clips and voting records), a blog to share your thoughts and see what other people are saying, and ways to contribute to help glassbooth continue their efforts.

So, before jumping to conclusions about which candidate to back, check to see if your views align. Your results might just surprise you.

Even the Big Three auto manufacturers in Detroit are rushing to replace their gas-guzzling SUVs with smaller cars, and developing new hybrids and electric cars.Toyota has announced plans to produce its popular Prius in the U.S. to help keep up with demand and reduce costs, while Honda is about to launch its first hybrid-only car. (Tangentially, Nissan's dealers now have so many Titan pickups sitting around unsold that Nissan is sending them solar chargers to keep the batteries from dying out of disuse!)

And the message at the Plug-In 2008 conference was that 100 MPG cars are just around the corner. If have a hybrid and you're willing to break your warranty, you could already have a 100 MPG car. But short of major modifications, you'll probably have to wait a couple years for an off-the-lot version.

In GOOD Magazine, Cliff Kuang says we should forget about a 100 MPG car for now anyway: "If you really think about it, the 100-miles-per-gallon innovation isn't as immediately effective as making a simple switch from a Suburban to a Civic. Just do the math: If you raise a guzzler's fuel efficiency from 15 miles per gallon to 35 miles per gallon, you save almost four gallons per 100 miles. But boost a fairly efficient car from 35 mpg to 100 mpg, and you save less than two gallons in the same distance. More importantly, the technology for all cars to reach 35 mpg is already here. The same innovations that in the last 30 years have made family cars into muscle cars can be easily deployed to save gas rather than boost performance."

PBS is offering a new program for all who are curious about Japanese electoral politics. Campaign, which airs this Tuesday, July 29th at 10 pm, provides "a startling insider's view of Japanese electoral politics" as it highlights a Japanese man "plucked from obscurity by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to run for a critical seat on a suburban city council."

Later in the week on PBS, China from the Inside will feature another episode of the documentary exploring China through Chinese eyes. On Friday, August 1st at 10pm, episode three, Shifting Nature, will examine in greater detail the environmental problems China is facing: "China's environment is in trouble, but solutions often seem as harsh as the problems. China is trying to feed 20 percent of the world's population on 7 percent of the world's arable land."

The Dutch Mills project is a plan to re-introduce an iconic structure of that land -- the windmill -- but this time, they won't be used to grind grain. The Dutch government has just approved the restoration of 120 mills (or in some cases, building new mills) of the 1,040 that still dot the Dutch countryside in order to create wind-generated energy.

T. Boone Pickens has the same idea, only his takes place on the more heated grounds -- both physically and politically -- of our own Panhandle State: Texas. Pickens plans to build the largest wind power plant in the world for $10 billion, and his mills -- or "turbines," as they're more accurately called -- will be placed around the state and stand twice as high as the Statue of Liberty and feature blades as wide as those of a jumbo jet.

[Image Credit: Nynke Vallinga, from Wikimedia Commons]

Did you know the New York City Police Department has had a "cash-for-guns" program in place since 2002? Actually, their on-going effort could be described as two different programs. 

In many ways the ugly trend of Balkanization that so polarized the 90s is, while still strong, facing now the idealistic post-tribal politics of Senator Barack Obama. And while, yes, people are still strongly influenced in their vote by the black magnetism of their tribal affiliation, Senator Obama's sunny campaign appeal has throughout favored idealism over the politics of blood identity.

What role, though, did tribe play in the Democratic party primary? The Washington Post did an interesting story about racial incidents that occurred on the campaign trail (that were, we cannot fail to note, deliberately downplayed by the Obama campaign). And it was the nearly overwhelming African-American vote - polarized, to be sure, by Bill Clinton's questionable post-South Carolina remarks -- that buoyed Obama throughout the rest of the primaries, negating the questions of "Is-he-black-enough?" Senator Hillary Clinton, who ran an incredible race, pivoted towards the white working-class vote, her last hope -- with nearly victorious results -- after the African-American vote was all but lost to the Clinton campaign as a result of those off-the-cuff remarks by her husband. In courting those white working class voters, race became a factor. Finally, let's not forget the Jeremiah Wright jeremiad, which so cacophonously clashed with Obama's campaign of idealism that it forced the Senator to break his relative silence on the subject and deliver his Philadelphia speech on race. Clearly we are not at a post-tribal American moment yet in America.

Still, that sea of 200,000 colorful and hopeful faces in Berlin gives one pause. Josef Joffe, the skeptical editor of Germany's Die Zeit told Brian Lehrer on WNYC this morning that if Senator Obama were running for Chancellor of Germany, or Prime Minister of Britain, he would win resoundingly. The world has come a long way when a "skinny but tough" man from Illinois, born in Kansas, educated in Hawaii and at Harvard - how American is that? -- could draw such crowds in "Old Europe." As Martin Luther King said in that eternally American I Have A Dream Speech, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." If that's not an appeal to post-tribalism - Obama-esque idealism -- then I don't know what is.

[image: LATimes]

The image above is a sample from the Transportation Security Administration's latest airport screening technology, the millimeter wave scanner. It and a backscatter x-ray machine were tested last year in Phoenix and are being rolled out in 10 of the country's busiest airports including LAX, JFK, DFW, ORD and others, as part of the TSA's "checkpoint evolution."

The agency says these devices will make it easier to screen for small but powerful explosives hidden against a passenger's body, and serve to replace hand pat-downs. The TSA assures that images will not be stored or transmitted, passengers' faces are blurred for privacy and that the screener viewing the revealing full-body scans will be isolated from public view. But privacy activists are crying foul. The American Civil Liberties Union has come out against the program, citing a laundry list of reasons they don't trust the system, and bloggers are shuddering at the thought of TSA agents seeing them essentially naked.

Although the images aren't saved in any system, you have to wonder how long before someone sneaks a digital camera in to snap photos of their favorites. On the other hand, CBS News in Chicago has been investigating claims of overzealous TSA agents at O'Hare, reporting stories of women being made to take nipple rings out and disabled men having their pants removed. If these scanners can eliminate situations such as these, maybe it is a privacy sacrifice worth making.

[Image Credit: Transportation Security Administration]