aelephant

Karma: 745

aelephant 9 Jun 2014 1:15 UTC
2 points
in reply to: NancyLebovitz’s comment on: Links!
The spirit of Seth Roberts lives!

aelephant 9 Mar 2014 18:34 UTC
4 points
in reply to: taryneast’s comment on: Lifestyle interventions to increase longevity
Here’s a randomized trial from JAMA showing more than 1000% increase in urinary BPA after consuming canned soup: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3367259/

BPA used to be in a lot of plastics, but I think it has been phased out. Perhaps someone else can confirm or refute that.

Another source is transdermally through handling receipts. I’ve heard of at least one health conscious workplace giving their cashiers wooden tongs to handle the receipts. Best practice would probably be to email them instead. Saves paper too.

aelephant 1 Mar 2014 18:32 UTC
6 points
in reply to: taryneast’s comment on: Lifestyle interventions to increase longevity
Bisphenol A and human health: a review of the literature

aelephant 27 Feb 2014 18:33 UTC
3 points
in reply to: D_Malik’s comment on: Lifestyle interventions to increase longevity
I would recommend against eating canned food to limit your exposure to Bisphenol A.

I would also not eat tuna every single day for such an extended period of time!

aelephant 21 Feb 2014 19:09 UTC
0 points
on: Testing my cognition
Curious where you got the USMLE questions. Are you able to share them?

aelephant 21 Feb 2014 19:08 UTC
0 points
in reply to: John_Maxwell’s comment on: Testing my cognition
Creatine will make you retain water in the muscles, which will make them look bulkier than they otherwise would.

aelephant 14 Jan 2014 10:52 UTC
0 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Open Thread for January 8 − 16 2014
Wow, how do you master Mandarin AND French with difficulties with akrasia & drive?

aelephant 12 Jan 2014 8:44 UTC
0 points
in reply to: maia’s comment on: Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!
Nick Winter used a similar scheme (albeit with a towel) & found that not only did he get better at pullups, his 1 mile time & bench press improved as well!

aelephant 10 Jan 2014 2:44 UTC
−1 points
in reply to: Solitaire’s comment on: Why Eat Less Meat?
Yes, I consider them outside the realm of morality. If a mentally disabled person committed murder, for example, he or she could not be held morally liable for their actions—instead the parent or guardian has the moral & legal responsibility for making sure that he or she doesn’t steal, kill, etc.

aelephant 29 Dec 2013 10:32 UTC
1 point
in reply to: kalium’s comment on: Open thread for December 24-31, 2013
Feeding grain to cattle is an awful practice that needs to stop; the sooner, the better.

Re: grazing cattle, have you seen Allan Savory’s TED talk? http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html

aelephant 29 Dec 2013 2:14 UTC
1 point
in reply to: B_For_Bandana’s comment on: Open thread for December 24-31, 2013
Actually grazing cattle don’t kill plants, they just trim off the ends.

aelephant 26 Dec 2013 2:52 UTC
2 points
in reply to: NancyLebovitz’s comment on: Open thread for December 24-31, 2013
And yet those horrible vegetarians continue to murder & eat these sentient lifeforms!

aelephant 17 Dec 2013 1:47 UTC
23 points
in reply to: bramflakes’s comment on: Group Rationality Diary, December 16-31
If it is just the caffeine you want, why not get some caffeine pills? Virtually no calories & lightyears better for your teeth.

aelephant 24 Oct 2013 11:51 UTC
2 points
in reply to: Viliam_Bur’s comment on: Is it immoral to have children?
From Daniel’s post, it seems like the categorical imperative defines whether some behavior could be considered morally required, not whether a particular behavior is immoral. Being a computer programmer couldn’t be morally required of everyone, but that doesn’t mean that it is immoral for some people to be computer programmers.

aelephant 23 Oct 2013 23:30 UTC
0 points
in reply to: Daniel_Burfoot’s comment on: Is it immoral to have children?
Can you expand on that a bit?

aelephant 7 Oct 2013 23:52 UTC
0 points
on: Megameetup on December 13-15th, NYC
Will Kim Dotcom be there?

aelephant 9 Sep 2013 0:04 UTC
2 points
in reply to: passive_fist’s comment on: Yet More “Stupid” Questions
Doesn’t have the same effect. There was a study where they gave one group Vitamin C & one group ate oranges. The group that got the Vitamin C had no change in Antioxidant activity; only the orange-eating group saw the benefit. Probably there are some other factors involved that we just haven’t figured out yet. Eventually maybe reductionism will solve this one, but it hasn’t yet.

Here’s an article about the study in case I remembered incorrectly: http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070416/full/news070416-15.html

aelephant 9 Sep 2013 0:01 UTC
0 points
in reply to: kgalias’s comment on: Yet More “Stupid” Questions
What vegetables should you eat?

Dark green ones seem to have more nutritional content in general, but yellow, orange, & red vegetables are typically good sources of Vitamin A & some other pigment-like compounds that might not be in large amounts in the green ones.

aelephant 8 Sep 2013 23:57 UTC
3 points
in reply to: John_Maxwell’s comment on: Course selection based on instructor
I had an Organic Chemistry teacher at the small community college in my home town that blew away my big university’s Medicinal Chemistry prof. The big university prof was tenured & could treat his students as abusively as he desired without any fear of significant consequences.

aelephant 6 Sep 2013 23:05 UTC
0 points
in reply to: Jiro’s comment on: Why Eat Less Meat?
Right. Like I said, I find it hard to come up with a good argument. I don’t like arguments that extend things into the future, because everything has to get all probabilistic. Is it possible to prove that any particular child is going to grow into an adult? Nope.