Category Archives: Scientifica

Let’s see, I’ll take death by asteroid impact.

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I’m loving this short post about the common worries that parents have with regards to their kids, and contrasted against the real dangers that exist. 

Based on surveys Barnes collected, the top five worries of parents are, in order:

  1. Kidnapping
  2. School snipers
  3. Terrorists
  4. Dangerous strangers
  5. Drugs

But how do children really get hurt or killed?

  1. Car accidents
  2. Homicide (usually committed by a person who knows the child, not a stranger)
  3. Abuse
  4. Suicide
  5. Drowning

I will readily admit that I have personally had some of these worries from time to time, but the rational part of my brain shouts out and says that’s really stupid.  Usually I listen, because I like to think I’m a rational person.  It’s a difficult voice to ignore, there must be some sort of wiring in my head that makes it so.  One commenter on this post pretty much nails it:

If we were any good at assessing risk, then we would kiss the ground when the taxi dropped us off at the airport instead of clutching the armrest at takeoff.

It’s amazing that we even have these worries, because really how many direct experiences have I had that even come close to any of these?  None.  We are so good at projecting other’s fears onto ourselves that just a news story is enough to chill our souls and instill fear even when the odds are long, long, long of any such thing happening to us.  In fact, I thought it might be fun to look up the odds of death of some regularly occurring nightmares (for some folk).

Heart Disease
 1-in-5
 
Cancer
 1-in-7
 
Stroke
 1-in-23
 
Accidental Injury
 1-in-36
 
Motor Vehicle Accident*
 1-in-100
 
Intentional Self-harm (suicide)
 1-in-121
 
Falling Down
 1-in-246
 
Assault by Firearm
 1-in-325
 
Fire or Smoke
 1-in-1,116
 
Natural Forces (heat, cold, storms, quakes, etc.)
 1-in-3,357
 
Electrocution*
 1-in-5,000
 
Drowning
 1-in-8,942
 
Air Travel Accident*
 1-in-20,000
 
Flood* (included also in Natural Forces above)
 1-in-30,000
 
Legal Execution
 1-in-58,618
 
Tornado* (included also in Natural Forces above)
 1-in-60,000
 
Lightning Strike (included also in Natural Forces above)
 1-in-83,930
 
Snake, Bee or other Venomous Bite or Sting*
 1-in-100,000
 
Earthquake (included also in Natural Forces above)
 1-in-131,890
 
Dog Attack
 1-in-147,717
 
Asteroid Impact*
 1-in-200,000**
 
Tsunami*
1-in-500,000

Fireworks Discharge
1-in-615,488

 
Finally, just to really quench the good vibes and optimism you had about the odds being that nothing really horrendous will happen to you, the odds of winning the jackpot in Lotto 6/49?

1 in 13,983,816

Crap.

Huge heads not just good for smashing against things….

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It seems that scientists have discovered that the size of your skull can be a factor in staving off the effects of Alzheimers.  Anyone who has met me in person and felt in person the force of my magnetic personality will understand perfectly when I say this:  I win at the Alzheimer’s game.  I beat all of you.  There is no winning against me, for my head is made of win.

Here’s a little clarification for you; that’s not my magnetic personality you are feeling, but rather the gravitational pull of my skull actually causing you to lean towards me.  I have a huge head.  Measurably so.  I have never met a head bigger than mine, and it’s a regular party gag to throw down and have a measure-off with anyone in the room.  I am a skinny dude with an enormous melon, and nobody expects me to beat the huge guys with the muscles, but I do.  When I finally lose the battle with hair loss it will probably be a lot more obvious, but for now I can safely say that I will out last any of you in the Alzheimer’s department, and nobody knows it until the tape measures come out.

The most ironic thing of all is I have probably the worst memory (for some things).  Just ask my wife Lorraine or especially my sister, um, Betty.

The Power of Time

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I thoroughly enjoyed this little talk about how you perceive time, how cultures and countries tend to perceive time, and how it affects everything.  Fascinating stuff, and the animations make it really pretty cool too.

It makes me want to hear a bit more, it sounds like an excerpt from a longer talk, or multiple lectures.  Very cool stuff.

Tales from the Salt Lick

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P90X dude Steve Edwards posts a nice bit about the salt lobby that is resisting changes to recent efforts to reduce the amount of salt we consume daily, which as it turns out is probably a staggering amount for most of us.

The best part is his language about how most processed foods are really food at all:

Most processed foods aren’t really food. They’re just amalgamations of chemicals that bind together that are flavored in a way that some scientists have figured out will cause you to crave them. For example:

As a demonstration, Kellogg prepared some of its biggest sellers with most of the salt removed. The Cheez-It fell apart in surprising ways. The golden yellow hue faded. The crackers became sticky when chewed, and the mash packed onto the teeth. The taste was not merely bland but medicinal.

“I really get the bitter on that,” the company’s spokeswoman, J. Adaire Putnam, said with a wince as she watched Mr. Kepplinger struggle to swallow.

They moved on to Corn Flakes. Without salt the cereal tasted metallic. The Eggo waffles evoked stale straw. The butter flavor in the Keebler Light Buttery Crackers, which have no actual butter, simply disappeared.

The main addictive qualities of these foods come from salt, sugar, and fat; incidentally (or not) the three culprits of the obesity epidemic. There’s not much nutrition in these foods, which are fortified with a few “essential vitamins.” This may sound great on TV to kids but is done, essentially, to keep you from dying quickly. Real food has all the vitamins, minerals, macronutrients, micronutrients, and phytonutrients you need to be healthy and doesn’t need to be fortified with anything.

It’s nice to see that in writing.  Essential vitamins, which just barely prevent you from dying from eating this stuff.  Makes you think, doesn’t it?

I wonder how much salt I eat?  Hm, pass the chips while I think on that.

Exercise does not equal weight loss, but it does help keep it off

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Some pretty neat articles here on the New York Times website about exercise and weight loss.  Many people I know find that exercise makes them so hungry they eat more afterwards, ruining the calorie deficit required to actually lose weight.  It seems that this holds up in scientific studies, primarily for women.  Women seem to get especially hosed because the mechanism that wants to maintain the body’s weight works especially well for them, while for men it seems to not be as effective.  The guess is that women naturally retain more calories for reproduction.  Either way, women are getting the crappy end of this stick, as far as weight loss goes.

The other neat part is there is some evidence that the amount of exercise required to actually do some good might be a lot less than originally thought.  In one study they just prevented people from sitting down at all during the day and saw that while hundreds of extra calories were burned, there was no associated appetite increase.  Kinda neat stuff.

Go and check it out.

A really cool read, saw it on Metafilter.

My Lucky Secret Weapon

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I am lucky.

In general I think I have been one of the luckiest people I know.  I have been employed steadily at a job I generally love for the past 16 years without any real interruption, I have the best family and wife I could ever hope for, I’m healthy, I have great friends, the list goes on and on.  I’m sickeningly happy.

I have always felt that this was a direct result of me simply expecting to be that happy and successful.  It makes no real sense, and I had no reason to believe that it would actually work, but it did.  I am one of the more, ah, relaxed people I know, and it’s probably because of that very fact; I expect things to probably be just fine, so I’m not worried about them, and because I’m relaxed they do in fact turn out fine.

Now this has been basically “proven” in a sort of long term study.  The article gives lots of detail, but the main point is: being lucky can be learned.

You can become luckier just by trying, and upon reading the article I understand now that I have been doing this for years without realizing it.

  • Lucky people tend to look on the positive side of misfortune
  • Lucky people trust their instincts
  • Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine.

Way cool.  Saw the article on Lifehacker.