The fine cuisine of McDonald's, Taco Bell and White Castle are taking a hidden toll on bodies. Well, outside of the hidden toll that is a ruined digestive track, diabetes, weight issues and being covered in grease.
You're more likely to get Alzheimer's if you eat at your favorite fast food joint.
from The Local:
“Our hypothesis is therefore that a high intake of fat and cholesterol, in conjunction with genetic factors like apoE4, can lead to several substances in the brain being adversely affected and that can be a contributing cause to the development of Alzheimer’s,” said Akterin.
Fast food is one of the most egregious malefactors of Western society. Low in nutrition, tasteless, addicting, unhealthy and designed for an impatient civilization, it only seems appropriate that it also steals your mind from you.
Grapes won't give you alz, by the way.
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving Day
I don't plan on giving much facetime to the Americana Creation Myth beyond this:
Eat up.
Eat up.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
American Dream Scientifically Impossible
According to a major nueroscientist, the pursuit of the American Dream through securing our own chunk of the pie is actually not going to make us any happier in the long run. The consumer society is a beast doomed to fatten and depress itself. Our very genetics make the quest for the American Dream a quixotic disaster. Screening for a replacement should begin immediately.
from Wired:
"We've been taught, especially in America, that happiness will be at the end of some sort of material road, where we have lots and lots of things that we want," said Whybrow, a 2008 PopTech Fellow and author of American Mania: When More Is Not Enough. "We've set up all sorts of tricks to delude ourselves into thinking that it's fine to get what you want immediately."
And if we aren't seeing the effects of immediate gratification on a national level now, then I dread to see what happens when the real consequences of a superpower Id nation take hold. It's not all doom and gloom for the shattered American Dream, though. There are ways to work our way out from the false land of plenty.
"America has always believed that it was the perfect society. When you have that mythology driving your culture, it's hard to look around and say, 'Is someone else doing it better than us?'" said Whybrow. "But you can trace the situation we're in to our evolutionary origins. Now that we find ourselves in the middle of this pseudo-abundance, we're in trouble. And the fantasy that we can restart the American dream just isn't true."
from Wired:
"We've been taught, especially in America, that happiness will be at the end of some sort of material road, where we have lots and lots of things that we want," said Whybrow, a 2008 PopTech Fellow and author of American Mania: When More Is Not Enough. "We've set up all sorts of tricks to delude ourselves into thinking that it's fine to get what you want immediately."
And if we aren't seeing the effects of immediate gratification on a national level now, then I dread to see what happens when the real consequences of a superpower Id nation take hold. It's not all doom and gloom for the shattered American Dream, though. There are ways to work our way out from the false land of plenty.
"America has always believed that it was the perfect society. When you have that mythology driving your culture, it's hard to look around and say, 'Is someone else doing it better than us?'" said Whybrow. "But you can trace the situation we're in to our evolutionary origins. Now that we find ourselves in the middle of this pseudo-abundance, we're in trouble. And the fantasy that we can restart the American dream just isn't true."
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Mercenaries to Lose Immunity
The days of treating Iraq like a first person shooter may be numbered. Seems that the Iraqi people were getting tired of being shot by trigger happy psychopaths for little to no reason.
from the BBC:
The US embassy in Baghdad has not confirmed the announcement, which comes as the US and Iraq are negotiating a controversial security pact.
Foreign firms employing thousands of guards won huge contracts in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion, but were not subject to Iraqi or US military law.
Iraqi frustration became fury last year when guards killed 17 people in a day.
from the BBC:
The US embassy in Baghdad has not confirmed the announcement, which comes as the US and Iraq are negotiating a controversial security pact.
Foreign firms employing thousands of guards won huge contracts in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion, but were not subject to Iraqi or US military law.
Iraqi frustration became fury last year when guards killed 17 people in a day.
Racial Profiling May Be Okay for FBI
The FBI might be allowed to investigate Americans without any evidence of any kind or even the smallest legal infraction. In lieu of evidence, a terrorist profile could be used. Not surprisingly, it's based on racial and ethnic characteristics.
The natural target for this policy are Muslims and Arabs, but the weapons of the domestic war on terrorism have not only erred, but have been blatantly misused. With new, racially motivated weapons like these, anybody with a darker then beige skin tone can be conceivably smacked with a terrorism investigation.
from the Los Angeles Times:
Law enforcement officials say the proposed policy would help them do exactly what Congress demanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: Root out terrorists before they strike.
Although President Bush has disavowed targeting suspects based on race or ethnicity, the new rules would allow the FBI to consider those factors among a number of traits that could trigger a national security investigation.
Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons -- such as evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated -- to investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement officials told the Associated Press, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious.
The natural target for this policy are Muslims and Arabs, but the weapons of the domestic war on terrorism have not only erred, but have been blatantly misused. With new, racially motivated weapons like these, anybody with a darker then beige skin tone can be conceivably smacked with a terrorism investigation.
from the Los Angeles Times:
Law enforcement officials say the proposed policy would help them do exactly what Congress demanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: Root out terrorists before they strike.
Although President Bush has disavowed targeting suspects based on race or ethnicity, the new rules would allow the FBI to consider those factors among a number of traits that could trigger a national security investigation.
Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons -- such as evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated -- to investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement officials told the Associated Press, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Science censored at EPA
Scientists at the US Environmental Protection Agency are complaining about political manipulation affecting their work. A lobby group dug up just how widespread the censorship is.
From New Scientist:
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a lobby group based in Washington DC, surveyed 1583 EPA scientists and found that many feel unable to speak openly for fear of retaliation from senior officials appointed by the Bush administration.
Over half said they were not allowed to talk freely with the media, while a quarter said they would not be allowed to publish results that contradicted the agency's official line. Researchers were often pressured not to publicly discuss issues linked to climate change, such as the coastal erosion caused by rising sea levels. The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.
But the survey does note some small victories for free speech. When one researcher was barred from talking about climate change at a conference, the meeting's organisers told the EPA that they would hold a 20-minute silence in place of the missing talk. The agency reversed its decision.
From New Scientist:
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a lobby group based in Washington DC, surveyed 1583 EPA scientists and found that many feel unable to speak openly for fear of retaliation from senior officials appointed by the Bush administration.
Over half said they were not allowed to talk freely with the media, while a quarter said they would not be allowed to publish results that contradicted the agency's official line. Researchers were often pressured not to publicly discuss issues linked to climate change, such as the coastal erosion caused by rising sea levels. The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.
But the survey does note some small victories for free speech. When one researcher was barred from talking about climate change at a conference, the meeting's organisers told the EPA that they would hold a 20-minute silence in place of the missing talk. The agency reversed its decision.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Life expectancy dropping in some parts of US
According to a new study, life expectancy for certain Americans has either stagnated or fallen. Perhaps new criteria needs to be designated for a country to count as a superpower. Healthy citizens would be a good criteria to judge by.
from New Scientist:
Majid Ezzati and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston studied mortality rates in all US counties between 1961 and 1999. They found that the inequality between counties' rates had been narrowing until the 1980s, when the trend reversed and the gap began to widen again.
Although average life expectancy in the US rose steadily over all four decades, the researchers found that it declined significantly in 11 counties for men and 180 for women. Such trends signal a healthcare failure, say the authors.
Many of the counties with the worst decline were in the Deep South and the Midwest. Smoking, obesity and high blood pressure appear to be the causes, the researchers say.
from New Scientist:
Majid Ezzati and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston studied mortality rates in all US counties between 1961 and 1999. They found that the inequality between counties' rates had been narrowing until the 1980s, when the trend reversed and the gap began to widen again.
Although average life expectancy in the US rose steadily over all four decades, the researchers found that it declined significantly in 11 counties for men and 180 for women. Such trends signal a healthcare failure, say the authors.
Many of the counties with the worst decline were in the Deep South and the Midwest. Smoking, obesity and high blood pressure appear to be the causes, the researchers say.
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About Me
- Troy
- I'm Troy Doney. I'm on the internet. I'm the writer of the blog "Off the Reservation" at New West. I also write a blog at Reznet. My personal blog is Man Bites Dog. I post my pictures at Flickr and I write short sentences at Twitter.