Ha! Take that sneering rest of the world.

Sometimes Berserkeley isn't so berserk after all.

Many ideas spawned in Berkeley - and roundly mocked by the rest of the country - have taken root and have been adopted by cities everywhere. Among them: police radios, a ban on Styrofoam, health benefits for domestic partners and a switch to biodiesel for city cars.

- posted by k @ 8:33 PM

 
Jon Carroll nails it yet again
(though he gets lost in the wormhole of Cartesian dualism in the middle)

And yet junkies are human beings. We all contain within us the seeds of junkiedom. If you think you don't have an addictive personality, maybe you just haven't met your drug yet. It starts out, after all, with wanting to feel good. Then some switch gets thrown, and even though taking the drug doesn't feel that good anymore, the chase is on. There are only a few places where the chase can end, and the best destination is probably a church basement.



- posted by k @ 8:34 PM

 
Surprise! Whole grains and vegetables in diet reduce vascular disease risks
CHICAGO - A large study offers the strongest evidence yet that a diet the government recommends for lowering blood pressure can save people from heart attack and stroke.Researchers followed more t han 88,000 healthy women for almost 25 years. They examined their food choices and looked at how many had heart attacks and strokes. Those who fared best had eating habits similar to those recommended by the government to stop high blood pressure.

The plan, called the DASH diet, favors fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk and plant-based protein over meat.

Women with those eating habits were 24 percent less likely to have a heart attack and 18 percent less likely to have a stroke than women with more typical American diets.

What's new about this particular study is that it's longitudinal. Short of randomized controlled studies, as far as I know longitudinal studies are best for drawing causal inferences.

I like this quote from the end of the article:

Dr. Nieca Goldberg, medical director of New York University's Women's Heart Program, said many patients would rather take a pill than adjust their eating habits. But, Goldberg said, "I always point out to my patients, if you make these changes in your lives, it could ... keep you off medication" in the long run.

"There has to be a greater emphasis on the way we live our lives," she said.

Awesome*. But here's a challenge for moving forward (policy and implementation): What keeps people from making these changes in their lives? For some people it might be lack of information, for others it might be lack of motivation, but for a large chunk of people, I fear it might be lack of resources. If you're trying to stay fed on $20/week, especially if you're trying to feed others besides yourself, you are going to reach for refined carbohydrates and saturated fat and trans fats because that's what's cheap (Kraft dinners, wonderbread, KFC, McD, etc.). What can we do about this? Farmer's markets don't take food stamps.

*So, I also have an elaborate theory now about why we maybe shouldn't see our bodies as machines, but that will have to wait since I'm supposed to be writing a paper right now.

- posted by k @ 6:55 AM

 
Actual news: KITH touring again!

• Boston, April 17
• San Francisco May 11
• Los Angeles May 10

What else do you need to know? All new material.
- posted by k @ 8:29 AM

 
Saw Dentist today
Was told I am very lucky.

• Apparently, no wisdom teeth in x-ray. None, nada, zip. Dental technician lady "You were born without them."

• Dentist said teeth look good, gums mostly good, I should floss every day. I think no matter how much you floss they always tell you to floss more, so that's ok too.
  

- posted by k @ 8:07 AM

 
Spiders aren't insects (but they'll side with the insects)

- posted by k @ 9:29 PM