20 August 2010 PM

Science: why second hand smoke (even a little) is bad:

Scientists led by Dr. Ronald Crystal at Weill Cornell Medical College documented changes in genetic activity among nonsmokers triggered by exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke. Public-health bans on smoking have been fueled by strong population-based data that links exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke and a higher incidence of lung diseases such as emphysema and even lung cancer, but do not establish a biological cause for the correlation. Now, for the first time, researchers can point to one possible cause: the passive recipient’s genes are actually being affected. (See a new recipe for longevity that says no to smoking.)

Crystal’s team devised a study in which 121 volunteers – some of whom smoked and some of whom had never smoked – agreed to have samples of their airway cells studied for genetic activity. The subjects also provided urine so the researchers could measure the amount of nicotine and its metabolites, like cotinine, for an objective record of their exposure to cigarette smoke.

Airway cells that line the bronchus, from the trachea all the way to the tiny alveoli deep in the lungs, are the first cells that confront cigarette smoke, whether it is inhaled directly from a cigarette or secondhand from the environment. Crystal’s group hypothesized that any deterioration in lung function associated with cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including emphysema and bronchitis, in which the lungs lose their ability to take in air, would begin with these cells. (See TIME’s guide for good health at every age.)

And indeed, that’s what he and his team found. The researchers removed airway cells from the volunteers using a bronchoscope and tested all 25,000 identified human genes in them to determine which ones were active – either turned on or off – in response to cigarettes. They narrowed the search to 372 genes that were active among the smokers but not in the cells of the nonsmokers. Based on the level of nicotine in the urine, the scientists also divided the volunteers into three groups: smokers, who showed the highest level of the tobacco metabolites; nonsmokers, who showed none of these compounds and a low-exposure group who fell in between. Comparing the 372 genes among these three groups, they found that the low-exposure group shared 34% of the same active genes with nonsmokers and 11% of the same gene activity with smokers. The low-exposure group included both nonsmokers who have never lit up as well as those who admitted to smoking only occasionally. [...]

Food: “locally grown” does NOT mean “smaller carbon footprint”, though there might be other reasons to buy locally grown stuff (e. g., taste, support your neighbor, etc.):

[...]One popular and oft-repeated statistic is that it takes 36 (sometimes it’s 97) calories of fossil fuel energy to bring one calorie of iceberg lettuce from California to the East Coast. That’s an apples and oranges (or maybe apples and rocks) comparison to begin with, because you can’t eat petroleum or burn iceberg lettuce.

It is also an almost complete misrepresentation of reality, as those numbers reflect the entire energy cost of producing lettuce from seed to dinner table, not just transportation. Studies have shown that whether it’s grown in California or Maine, or whether it’s organic or conventional, about 5,000 calories of energy go into one pound of lettuce. Given how efficient trains and tractor-trailers are, shipping a head of lettuce across the country actually adds next to nothing to the total energy bill.

It takes about a tablespoon of diesel fuel to move one pound of freight 3,000 miles by rail; that works out to about 100 calories of energy. If it goes by truck, it’s about 300 calories, still a negligible amount in the overall picture. (For those checking the calculations at home, these are “large calories,” or kilocalories, the units used for food value.) Overall, transportation accounts for about 14 percent of the total energy consumed by the American food system.

Other favorite targets of sustainability advocates include the fertilizers and chemicals used in modern farming. But their share of the food system’s energy use is even lower, about 8 percent.

The real energy hog, it turns out, is not industrial agriculture at all, but you and me. Home preparation and storage account for 32 percent of all energy use in our food system, the largest component by far. [...]

New York Mosque, again: Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub has an interesting post pointing out that Hiroshima does have several American things near ground zero and that Pearl Harbor has a Japanese cultural center. Surf there to see the satellite photo and to read the title of his post.

In fact, other nations are lampooning us (e. g., “outrage over plans to build a library next to Sarah Palin“).

A Response to Rush Limbaugh

Mr. Limbaugh says:

I know that Limbaugh’s shtick is to shock and use the most inflammatory language possible, but as someone who’s dedicated my life to working in the nonprofit sector, it’s hard to let this particular attack roll off my back.

On his August 12 show, Limbaugh called nonprofit workers

“[a] Bunch of lazy idiots. Many of them don’t want to really work. Non-profits siphon contributions, as their salaries and so forth, and think of themselves as good people, charitable people. I mean, these people are rapists, in terms of finance and economy

Here is a video response:

Daily Kos: MUST-SEE Jon Stewart: “Is Fox News a terrorist command center?”

Daily Kos: MUST-SEE Jon Stewart: “Is Fox News a…, posted with vodpod

20 August 2010 Rehabilitation

Workout notes easy 2 mile walk, leg weights/abs, 1 mile easy walk.

Weights/abs: 30 leg lifts then leg set: 20-30 leg presses with 150, leg extensions, leg curls, calf machine
30 twist crunches, leg set
30 regular crunches, leg set
20 incline sit ups, 20 regular sit ups
one legged squats: 45 pound bar on Smith Machine
20 ball sit ups
one legged squats: 75 pounds on the Smith Machine
one legged squats: 95 pounds on the Smith Machine
one mile cool-down walk
Then stretching, etc.

Last night: restless, but avoided pain.
I am finding that this shoulder stretch brings relief:

20 August 2010 posts

Economics: I found this comment from Paul Krugman to be amusing:

As I look at what passes for responsible economic policy these days, there’s an analogy that keeps passing through my mind. I know it’s over the top, but here it is anyway: the policy elite — central bankers, finance ministers, politicians who pose as defenders of fiscal virtue — are acting like the priests of some ancient cult, demanding that we engage in human sacrifices to appease the anger of invisible gods. [...]

in America, we do have a choice. The markets aren’t demanding that we give up on job creation. On the contrary, they seem worried about the lack of action — about the fact that, as Bill Gross of the giant bond fund Pimco put it earlier this week, we’re “approaching a cul-de-sac of stimulus,” which he warns “will slow to a snail’s pace, incapable of providing sufficient job growth going forward.”

It seems almost superfluous, given all that, to mention the final insult: many of the most vocal austerians are, of course, hypocrites. Notice, in particular, how suddenly Republicans lost interest in the budget deficit when they were challenged about the cost of retaining tax cuts for the wealthy. But that won’t stop them from continuing to pose as deficit hawks whenever anyone proposes doing something to help the unemployed.

So here’s the question I find myself asking: What will it take to break the hold of this cruel cult on the minds of the policy elite? When, if ever, will we get back to the job of rebuilding the economy?

Bottom line: if people don’t have money to spend, businesses won’t have enough customers to warrant hiring more people. This is why stimulus spending is more important in this current economic situation than deficit reduction. Cutting taxes for the rich really won’t do anything; there is no incentive to invest more if the market for goods isn’t there. Our problem is a demand problem.

Other topics
Many think that President Obama is a Muslim. I know, these people are idiots. But what bothers me more is that so many in this country care how someone worships some invisible man. And yes, it really irks me that some want to turn our military into some sort of fundamentalist Christian army.

The “Mosque near Ground Zero Mess”

Republicans: it is hard to read this with a straight face, but you see, Muslim mosques are places to recruit terrorists and to advance their form of repressive law.

Note to Republican visitors: I hardly am a fan of such a law; after all I am an atheist and therefore would be executed under such laws. But maybe Muslims are here (in this country) because they want freedom and don’t want to live under such laws? I think that we should be encouraging the advance of moderation in the Muslim community.

Here is another Republican:

And listen to what “Ground Zero” strippers have to say:

After the World Trade Center towers fell, a stripper named Chris went to volunteer in the recovery effort for the Red Cross. Nearly 10 years later, she dances just down the street from Ground Zero at the Pussycat Lounge.

But for Chris, who declined to give her last name, and other dancers at the two strip clubs within three blocks of the World Trade Center site, the neighborhood is just where they go to work.

As supporters held signs extolling religious freedom at the site of the proposed Islamic center Wednesday, a stripper who gave her name as Cassandra was working the afternoon shift at New York Dolls on Murray Street — just around the corner. She worried that calls to prayer from the mosque at Park51 might wake up neighbors. But when she was told that the organizers aren’t planning loudspeakers, she said she didn’t have a problem with the project.

“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Cassandra said. “It’s freedom of religion, you know?”

Down on Church Street, one block east of the proposed Islamic center and two blocks from Ground Zero, men placed bets on horse racing at an Off-Track Betting facility. One bettor said he could see why the families of victims might get upset about the mosque and community center, but scoffed at the notion that the area around the betting parlor was hallowed ground.

“The bums used to sit right in front of it,” he said of the Park51 location, which would replace a former Burlington Coat Factory store damaged in the terrorist attack.

Speaking of prominent Republicans: there is no doubt that Sarah Palin is popular with many. But her appeal isn’t strong everywhere:

According to the Florida Times-Union, organizers of the event were very upfront and honest about why they decided to move, “An Evening With Sarah Palin” from the 2,936 seat Moran Theatre, to the 609 seat Terry Theatre, Florida Director for Heroic Media Mark Nelson admitted that there weren’t enough tickets sold to hold the event in the bigger building, “We would rather have a packed theater than a theater that’s not so packed.”

Not so packed, is a very polite way of saying, “Palin isn’t selling any tickets and if we hold this thing in the big building, we are going to look like idiots because it will be less than a quarter full.” How many tickets have been sold to the Jacksonville fundraiser? Considering that the venue holds 609 people and there are still some $50 tickets for sale on Ticketmaster, a generous sales estimate is probably somewhere in the 400-500 range, which means that the event organizers were expecting about 3,000 people, and instead will be lucky to get 20% of that total. (The Palin popularity myth has claimed another victim).

Note: she did much better when she came by here (near Peoria, IL) earlier this year:

A sold-out crowd of 1,100 people turned out for Palin’s speech, titled “You Don’t Need a Title to Make a Difference.” Audience members submitted questions for possible inclusion in a question-and-answer session after the speech.

Said U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria: “She’s definitely got a role in shaping American politics and American policy, and when she speaks, people listen.

“I thought she gave a very inspiring speech about some of the challenges she went through in her own life as mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska and as a candidate for the vice presidency of the United States,” he added.

Her speech was preceded by a $200-per-plate banquet. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Five Points capital projects fund and provide scholarships for area students.

“I’m not necessarily a Sarah Palin fan, but I think people in her position have interesting things to say. After all, she was the governor of Alaska,” said Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy. “I’m not necessarily a Joe Biden fan, but I listened to him, too, when he came to Peoria last month to speak on domestic violence because he has a passion for that and his speech was outstanding.”

Palin is just the latest political figure to stop in Illinois. Last month, Vice President Biden was the keynote speaker for The Center for Prevention of Abuse Partners in Peace event in Peoria. President George W. Bush’s former senior adviser Karl Rove was the keynote speaker at the Tazewell County Republicans Lincoln Day Brunch in East Peoria.

My psycho-babble take: Palin appeals to those who have a huge inferiority complex and our area has one. In short, she is probably popular with the uneducated Republicans and the “ACT of 20 and managed to cobble together a soft degree at a directional school” crowd; I doubt that the “Wharton School MBA Republican” set thinks highly of her.

Political Cartoon:

A bit more on President Obama: he has gotten a good deal done. The bad economy is driving his numbers down though.

Now THIS is something I call “Amazing”

I hear the words “amazing” and “awesome” applied very liberally.

THIS is an example of what I consider to be amazing upper body and core body strength.

19 August 2010 Rehabilitation

Workout 6.1 mile (almost 10K) walk; roughly a 14:40 pace. I made no effort to walk fast, just steady.
Pleasant, sunny weather; perfect really.

Knee: last night I had some “shallow” soreness in the ligaments that run on the inside part of the knee (the “outer knee that faces the other leg”); not in the knee joint so much last night. I attribute that to being slightly overzealous on the bike and on my knee straightening stretches; in fact, the pain was where I feel it when I did the straightening stretches.

It was fine during my medium effort walk.
Straightening: it straightens to “1 CD” case with less effort; the swelling is all but gone.

Shoulder: hurt like hell in the middle of the night; right on the deltoid. I attribute that to the “arm bike”; I’ll have to pass on that.

Update on the knee: the medial ligament (where it attaches to the knee) is “warm” to the touch and somewhat sore; I have been stretching it. Time to really be gentle. Tomorrow’s PT has to be easy; light weights, easy on the stretching.

A couple of quips:

If you think that I am strident, check out this reaction to a poll which purports to show that 1/5 of people in the United States think that President Obama is a Muslim.

This is a good essay on the cost of living in fear.

18 August 2010 pm

Politics I
Where is the love for President Obama from the left? Some feel that his political capital may have been wasted on…passing legislation.

Others claim that we progressives are just in a tight spot; the whole system is stacked against us. Roughly: we live in a country that is to the right of us, and big money tends to support conservative type action. This article is “subscriber only” from The Nation (I subscribe) but is very good. It is called Kabuki Democracy by Eric Alterman. It’s points can be summarized here.

Science
Astronomy
There is some new data that might well refine our “star formation” theory: a huge star that “should have” become a black hole ended up becoming a mere “neutron star”.

Human evolution and development
At first, this article might seem bogus. But there is some controlled experiment data in this Scientific American article: what a juvenile experience affects their sexual tastes. Example: mice who sucked a lemon scented teat ended up being more aroused by females that had the same scent.

Free Speech, Civil Liberties
Not all of the bloggers I follow approve of the President’s performance; here Mano Singham decries the President’s lack of commitment to civil liberties.

Randazza wonders why Republicans (who are so committed to “tort reform”) won’t back SLAP suit legislation. Rough background: a SLAP suit is one in which a powerful entity (say, a corporation) files a lawsuit to silence criticism. Even if the suit has no merit, defending against a suit might be expensive, hence the less powerful party will have to cave, even if they have acted within their First Amendment rights. You sometimes see this when someone complains about lousy service on a blog or on twitter. Of course, customer complaints on things like twitter sometimes gets results.

A bit more Randazza: he doesn’t like “Dr. Laura” either, but wonders about overreactions to the word “nigger” or other such words. I sometimes wonder too; I don’t like it when, say, a school censors a book like Huckleberry Finn due to the language. On the other hand, mainstream media is really customer oriented, and people certainly have the right to patronize the sponsors that they want to patronize.

Of course, such complaints against Dr. Laura do not constitute a violation of the First Amendment.

Humor
You might call this science fail Here is probably the lamest attempt to make something look “cross bred”. These are alligators painted to look like pandas. Sure, this was done as a joke…but it is lame!

Fun: Rabbits!
Just awesome:

Hat tip: Jerry Coyne.

Politics II
From Australia. In all honesty, I like the “sex party” platform, though it is too small to make a significant difference.

Economics
Robert Reich: why trickle down doesn’t work. You can give the wealthy all the money that they want, but it doesn’t mean a thing unless people have enough money to buy stuff.

Republicans: the “Republican Women thing again”
This is what is going on: some Republicans made a video showing Republican women in flattering positions while showing (mostly older) Democratic women in unflattering positions (e. g., a woman preening vs. a woman getting sick or coughing).
The video

Here is one of my old responses.

Religion: is this real?

It kind of reminds me of something from Republican Faith Chat.

Hat tip: Richard Dawkins.

18 August 2010: Rehabilitation

Last night: I put a small pillow under my shoulder and it greatly reduced the pain. I had some brief knee pain from my leg going very straight (lateral part of the knee). I need to ice my knee prior to sleeping as well.

Workout 2 mile easy walk, abs (20 sit ups on the incline, 20 yoga leg lifts, 20 twist crunches, 20 scissors, 20 crunches, 20 ball sit ups, 5 more incline sit ups), 1 mile treadmill (14:40, changed elevation from 1 to 10 every .1 miles), 10 mile Lifecycle in 35:20 (every .5 mile to level 10, then alternated between 5 and 10).

PT for the shoulder I was given a new regimen today:

stretches: back, “range of pain”: 1 set of 10, 3 times a day.
resistance: yellow cord, 2 sets of 10, once a day: elbow bent and in, rotate out, arm straight and forward, arm straight and to the side.
No pain on these; range of motion is “pain free”.
arm bike: 5-15 minutes easy; I’ll probably conclude my gym sessions with these.

Next appointment: 8:45, Tuesday.