Lee.org

For as long as I can remember I have taken multivitamins as a matter of course. Ranging from once a week to daily. I was getting ready to order more vitamins from Puritan’s Pride, they are having their yearly-ish “buy 1, get 2 free” sale. The topic of vitamins came up this weekend at a gathering where there were several smart people including 2 doctors and no one in the group eats multivitamins regularly. “Hmm,” I said.

So today I did some googling and found a study from the National Institutes of Health that says pretty much, “They are a little bit good for you and they are a little bit bad for you. We certainly won’t tell you that you should take multivitamins as a matter of course.” And I saw an article from the US Department of Health and Human Services saying much the same.

“Hmmmmm,” I said.

I eat healthy. Should I take multivitamins? I’m thinking that the answer is “no.” What do you think?

They say you can peer into a man’s soul by looking at his bookmark file. Well, have a gander. To me, it looks like the yearly booksale at the library of Alexandria.

Unfortunately it’s impossible for you my dear reader to tell which links I use all the time and which ones I’ve only visited once. I apologize for that.

Continue reading ‘Way too many bookmarks’ »

I’m a good listener. In the last few months, I’ve listened to:

Art of War by Sun Tzu – a fantastic reading of a vital treatise. You should read this.

Cat’s Cradle byKurt Vonnegut, Jr – I’m slowly becoming a Bokononist.

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond – I just finished yesterday. Once I got past the super-uptight voice of the reader, I rather enjoyed learning about the pleistocene and modern era.

Next up is the 22+ hours of the abridged Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson.

Rick bet me a dollar, saying that apples are a “negative calorie food”. IE: it takes more calories for your body to digest apples than the number of calories you get from them.

I was dubious to say the least. So I took the bet.

On about 7-14-09 I called the University of California at Davis at 530-754-9708. I spoke with a woman named Judy. She referred me to Dr Scott Johnson.

I called Dr Scott Johnson, Extension Pomologist at Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis. He didn’t know the answer but said I should try 3 folks at the Department of Food Science and Technology at UC Davis:

————————————————–

* Dianne Barrett, Specialist in Cooperative Extension, UC Davis School of Food Science and Technology (left message 7-14-09 4pm) no response.

————————————————–

* Christine Bruhn, Specialist in the Cooperative Extension, UC Davis School of Food Science and Technology  (left message 7-17-09 12pm)

I spoke with Doctor Christine Bruhn  she says that some of the nutritional values of foods in the USDA nutrition lists are determined in part by having people eat the food and then they measure all of the outputs (breathing, pooping, peeing, etc) to see how the body digested it. So the USDA nutrition info is pretty correct. If it says that celery has 6 calories per stalk, that accounts for the calories it takes to digest it… IE:  Celery is a positive calorie food. Raw unpeeled apples really do give you 81 calories (page 28 of the USDA Nutritive Value of Foods book, or search for foods here)

————————————————–

* Adel Kader, Professor of Postharvest Physiology UC Davis  (spoke to him 7-17-09) said that  there is no such thing as a negative calorie food… and that he didn’t know of any studies suggesting otherwise. I asked about how fiber might take more energy for the body to attempt to digest. He said, “Fiber facilitates thing moving quickly, so it might even end up taking less calories”.

————————————————–

Next week I’m going to call my favorite science talk show, Doctor Karl and ask! I’ve always wanted an excuse to call him. He’s on 11am Thursday… errrr. That’s 6pm Wednesday PST, the show is in Australia :-)

In the mean time, I’ve asked Rick to get that dollar ready for me.

Groovy.

I think this is just wonderful.

You should play it full-screen.

local version:

日々の音色 (Hibi no Neiro)  by Sour a Japanese music group. (via) (originally via Vimeo but the content was removed just 1 minute after I made this post, that’ll remind me never to post content I don’t host!) (via) (via)

Here are the lyrics (via). They are worth reading.
Lyrics:

Your heart that gently reflects in the puddle
is your tone, as you pass through the maze of everyday

Footsteps of spring
the city starts adding color
The melody flowsLE LU LA LI
Through the colored lenses

ReggaeDubHiphopTechnoLatin
Between the waves of all the different values
JazzRockPops Category no more
Whats the most important thing?

Spinning and turning on the overpass
as we overtake that season
this and that, which color is your melody?
Sometimes you could get confused

ReggaeDubHiphopTechnoLatin
Between the waves of all different values
JazzRockPops Category no more
What are you thinking of now?

If we can embrace all the differences
It will shine the sky in rainbow colors
Your heart that gently reflects in the puddle
is your tone, as you pass through the maze of everyday

You can see it in any color, because of your clear feeling
Dont worry about it, lets just go as we are.
If we can embrace all the differences
The rain will stop, and the sky will shines in rainbow colors

Your heart that gently reflects in the puddle
is your tone, as you pass through the maze of everyday
You can see it in any color, because of your clear feeling
Let your tone shine like the rainbow

Pass through the maze of everyday
And start playing your tone

National Treasure 7-3-09  A fun chase scene

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy 7-3-09.  Read the books instead, they are much better. Maybe it’s the British thing but it seemed that every line in the movie was delivered wrong. :-(

Sin City 7-5-09. 52:10 “Hi, I’m Shelly’s new boyfriend and I’m out of my mind.” Shivers down my spine. Lots of shivers. Very very cool.

Night of the Living Dead 7-10-09. Holy crap, that is a scary movie. It stands the test of time and then some. And the ending really really flipped me out. See Night of the Living Dead free on Archive.org.

Just tonight I just started a mead with Red Star “Pasteur Red” yeast. Ask me in 6 months how it came out. :-)

• 1/4 tsp Red Star Pasteur Red yeast
• 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
• 2.5 lbs Rainbow Raw Blackberry Honey from Oregon
• almost 1 gallon bottled water
• shake,  put an airlock on it, stuck it in the corner of the closet

I have my ticket to California Extreme, the classic arcade games show! A roomful of classic video games set to free play! It’s this weekend in San Jose.

I am driving down from San Francisco early Saturday morning (7am?) to visit the Electronics Flea Market at De Anza College. And then it’s over to play video games all day and night until my hands ache and my eyes bleed! It’ll be awesome! I’m hesitant to offer a carpool ride because I’m not sure how long it will take for my eyes to bleed sufficiently for me to decide to leave… :-)

I am hoping and hoping that they have my two all-time favorite coin operated games, R-Type and Cabal! I put a lot of quarters into those machines on lunch breaks during high school when I was working for Sears Business Systems! It would be an ecstatic joy for me to be able to beat Cabal on a single quarter again.

Lee

At the Subzero event I ran into Gaspo and his Chakratron. Man, I love that thing.

Sitting on the table was his source-book. All the manuals for all the parts that went into the Chakratron. The part that intrigues me the most is the rotating electrical connector. That’s the thing that lets the top part with lights spin at a gazillion RPM while the bottom part… well the bottom part sits safely on the ground.

If you haven’t seen the Chakratron, you’ve really got to check it out. Video simply doesn’t do it justice though.

Here’s the source of Gaspo’s rotating electrical connectors, Mercotac. I simply must build something that uses these marvels.