The toxic truth about #sugar
http://www.Nature.com/nature/journal/v482/n7383/full/482027a.html Argues for regulation like alcohol & tobacco, making it harder to get, esp. for kids
$GOOG’s Road Map to Global Domination
http://www.NYTimes.com/2013/12/15/magazine/googles-plan-for-global-domination-dont-ask-why-ask-where.html Old article but discussion on #opendata v closed maps still relevant
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“O’Reilly is more skeptical. “An open-hardware play broke the IBM monopoly, an open-software play broke the Microsoft monopoly, and eventually an open-data play will prevail,” O’Reilly admits, but he points out that those earlier cases were not instances of direct competition between rival companies. “It wasn’t a plug-compatible mainframe clone that dethroned IBM; it wasn’t a free operating system like Linux that dethroned Windows.” Rather, he says, “it was this toy, the personal computer, it was the global operating system that we call the Internet.”
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“Current treatments for diseases related to ageing “just exchange one disease for another”, says physician Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. That is because people treated for one age-related disease often go on to die from another relatively soon thereafter. “What we want to show is that if we delay ageing, that’s the best way to delay disease.”
Barzilai and other researchers plan to test that notion in a clinical trial called Targeting Aging with Metformin, or TAME. They will give the drug metformin to thousands of people who already have one or two of three conditions — cancer, heart disease or cognitive impairment — or are at risk of them. People with type 2 diabetes cannot be enrolled because metformin is already used to treat that disease.
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http://www.nature.com/news/anti-ageing-pill-pushed-as-bona-fide-drug-1.17769
FormBox: A Desktop…Former…Makes Beautiful Things, by @TeamMayku
https://www.KickStarter.com/projects/1094489804/formbox-a-desktop-vacuum-former-that-makes-beautif 3D printouts w/ chocolate & cement + ABS, PVC…
ice too
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“Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene ABS (the stuff Lego is made from) Polystyrene PS (Commonly found in: Product packaging)
Polycarbonate PC (Commonly found in: Drinks bottles)
Polypropylene PP (Commonly found in: Buckets, spades, chairs, everything!) Polyethylene (Commonly found in: sheet and foamed sheet)
PE (Commonly found in: Insulating cases, bottles)
Polyvinyl Chloride PVC (Commonly found in: straws, plastic pipes) Acrylic PMMA (Commonly found in: Light up signs)
PETg (Commonly found in: Food safe molds)
HIPS (Commonly found in: Disposable cups)”
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Facebook, Free Expression & the Power of a Leak, by @MargotKaminski
https://www.NYTimes.com/2017/06/27/opinion/facebook-first-amendment-leaks-free-speech.html Internal company choices vs. the law
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“But there are also crucial distinctions. Where First Amendment law protects speech about public figures more than speech about private individuals, Facebook does the opposite. If a user calls for violence, however generic, against a head of state, Facebook deems that a credible threat against a “vulnerable person.” It’s fine to say, “I hope someone kills you.” It is not fine to say, “Somebody shoot Trump.” While the government cannot arrest you for saying it, Facebook will remove the post.
These differences are to be expected. Courts protect speech about public officials because the Constitution gives them the job of protecting fundamental individual rights in the name of social values like autonomy or democratic self-governance. Facebook probably constrains speech about public officials because as a large corporate actor with meaningful assets, it and other sites can be pressured into cooperation with governments.”
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“For people, a drug that’s safe for use during pregnancy may help. A probiotic, many of which have anti-inflammatory properties, may also be of benefit. Not coincidentally, asthma researchers are arriving at similar conclusions; prevention of the lung disease will begin with the pregnant woman. Dr. Parker has more radical ideas: pre-emptive restoration of “domesticated” parasites in everybody — worms developed solely for the purpose of correcting the wayward, postmodern immune system.
Practically speaking, this seems beyond improbable. And yet, a trial is under way at the Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine testing a medicalized parasite called Trichuris suis in autistic adults.
First used medically to treat inflammatory bowel disease, the whipworm, which is native to pigs, has anecdotally shown benefit in autistic children.
And really, if you spend enough time wading through the science, Dr. Parker’s idea — an ecosystem restoration project, essentially — not only fails to seem outrageous, but also seems inevitable.”
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The lost genius of the @USPS http://Politi.co/2rOqSGM Innovator (which once pioneered pneumatics & even missile delivery), now sclerotic
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“The first half of the 20th century was a dynamic time for the Post Office. It immensely improved mail receipt and delivery by adopting innovations from the private sector and abroad. Train cars were designed to mesh two separate aspects of mail delivery: mail sorting and delivery. Rather than have mail delivered to a post office in a jumble and then sorted by postal clerks, clerks on rail cars sorted the mail while it was en route. Bags of sorted mail were hung on posts outside train stations and post offices without the train even needing to stop.
…
The agency even toyed with moving mail by missile. Why schlep over ground when letters could be launched through the air at 600 miles per hour? “Before man reaches the moon,” Postmaster General Arthur A. Summerfield proclaimed in 1959, “mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to England, to India or to Australia by guided missiles.”
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OVERSHADOWING ALL THE invention, however, was the creeping sclerosis of the Post Office as an institution. As a monopoly, it was insulated from competitive pressures, allowing inefficiency to creep into its operations and management.
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Things began to change in the 1960s. Postal workers unionized, and President John F. Kennedy authorized them to bargain collectively in 1962. Despite growing mail volume, the Post Office ran perennial deficits, and its investment in the guts of the system—mail receipt and sortation—lagged. The system broke down in Chicago in 1966, and 10 million pieces of mail were backlogged for days.”
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Sight Unseen http://www.NewYorker.com/magazine/2017/05/15/seeing-with-your-tongue/amp New devices let one see w/ one’s tongue; they also open the
possibility for new types of #perception
Gr8 Low-carb #Veggies http://www.HealthCentral.com/diabetes/c/17/20167/good-veggies Top: collards, spinach, #kale, chard, red peppers; Bottom: cukes, eggplant, mushrooms, alfalfa
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“In fact, the healthiest of all vegetables, according to "Nutrition Action Health Letter," is one that I had never prepared before: collard greens, with a score of 461.
…
The number 2 vegetable, spinach, with a score of 424, is one that I eat both raw and cooked. Like collards, and number 3 kale (score 410) and number 4 Swiss chard (322) all of these green leafy vegetables pair extraordinarily well with ham or bacon or other smoked meat and vinegar (a tip I picked up from Ruth Reichl’s Gourmet Cookbook).
Then comes red pepper (score 309), which I usually add to my salad but is also great cooked. Skipping a couple of high-carb veggies, the list then goes to broccoli at 179.
Next in order are okra, 165; Brussels sprouts, 143; lettuce, 141; and asparagus, 84. I was surprised that tomatoes and avocados, two honorary vegetables (technically fruit), ranked at 76 and 71 respectively. Wonderful cauliflower ranked even lower at 64, cabbage at 44. Near the bottom of the list are cucumber, eggplant, mushrooms, and alfalfa sprouts.
…
My attention went in that direction anyway after reading Michael Pollan’s He notes there that when we largely switched from eating leaves to seeds (as in grain), the problems with the so-called "Western Diet" began. It is indeed striking how many of the top veggies are leaves.”
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Is the Gig Economy Working?
http://www.NewYorker.com/magazine/2017/05/15/is-the-gig-economy-working/amp It’s lonely Being a @TaskRabbit. Can one make a career of it? #SharingEconomy
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