Michael Eades, the author of Protein Power has a guest post on Tim Ferris’s blog today about rethinking the value of Fat, especially as compared to carbohydrates. He even references the Starvation Study (with pictures!) that Gary Taubes references in his book and the speech Taubes gave at Berkeley.

It’s an interesting post, though it covers territory I’ve seen elsewhere. I also think he overly downplays all carbohydrates, particularly those that may be gained from plant matter. The comments are pretty lively, particularly when a vegetarian and Eades exchange words. The importance of insulin is also discussed.

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article today about The Royal Navy training crewmen for large yachts. One interesting tid-bit was that Roman Abramovich will need a navy of approximately 400 sailors to man his many yachts.

China has invited the US and Japan to have regular high-level three-way talks about issues affecting East Asia, such as energy strategies, North Korea, and the environment. Korea (rightly) has expressed alarm at being excluded from the suggested meetings between ministers and high-level bureaucrats. [And really, could anything play more into South Korean paranoia than proposed private meetings between Japan, China, and the U.S.]

I found this at Contentions, where the author seemed to take a dim view of this:

“No other nation provides more diplomatic support to Pyongyang. The Chinese cannot obtain the North Koreans’ cooperation or they do not want to. Either conclusion shows that China is not a helpful diplomatic partner. Consequently, it would be unwise to repeat our strategic mistakes by giving Beijing more clout than it deserves. “

Although, when you start with this supposition, it’s hard to find anything but one conclusion:

“We start with the general proposition that, given Beijing’s worldview, anything the Chinese propose cannot be advantageous for either the Japanese or us.”

I don’t think this is a correct assumption. The legitimacy that the poster, Mr. Chang fears giving China already exists, both in the size of its economy as well as the importance of that economy to both the US and Japan. We should insist that S. Korea be included, of course, but these meetings will result in pulling China further into the Core of the world economic and government system. Also, what Mr. Chang misses is that it is a tacit acceptance of the US’s role on that side of the Pacific by China.

The million dollar bonus comes the the Shanghai Financial Sector. Partially, its an effort to retain and attract talent, but it’s also a sign of how sophisticated that the financial industry in Shanghai has become.

China has already minted several self-made billionaires, though (even not-so-well connected ones), so I would see this as a lagging indicator of the changes in that economy.

Can we still call them communists? I don’t think so, yet, they’re hardly strictly capitalist, either. Perhaps they are corporatist and even fascists, or maybe a new term news minting.

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece this morning, I found this little nugget of information fascinating:

” America’s share of global imports has fallen to 14% last year from over 20% in 2000. The import share of the developing countries has grown to 40.6% last year from 33% in 2000.”

What does that mean for Americans? The first thing that comes to mind is that we will have less and less of an input into the kind of consumer goods we get to choose. This will take time as we are still the largest single market. However, in twenty years when you have to design a consumer good, will you design it to the desires of a market of 400 million people or for one of 1 billion people?

(of course the actual outcome will likely be a melding of the desires of the consumers of the big market countries and the little markets consumers having to just deal with it).

The 3×5 notecard is one of my favorite tools for organizing my life. The primary service it provides me is as something to write my daily what-to-do list upon. I usually carry about ten of the cards with me (the easily fit the inside pocket of a jacket or coat), with the what-to-do list at top, and perhaps a few other lists (like long term items, addresses) and notes on the other cards, and of course blanks. Always with me, they make ready scratch paper to write notes or phone numbers on when I’m out and about.

I also use them for my check-lists. For morning, for right before bed, for the car. They are the perfect size and their stiffness lends them an ability to sand up to exposure.

I’ve seen people use the note cards for study notes, reminder notes, motivational signs, etc.; but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen them used for their original purpose, indexing items in long drawers. I’m sure there is some library out there that still uses them this way, but I can’t imagine it’s easy to find.

Vanity Fair has a fantastic article on the use of data mining in the election process:

“Aristotle can tell its clients more than just the predictable stuff—where you live, your phone number, who lives with you, your birthday, how many children you have. It may also know how much you make, how much your house is worth, what kind of car you drive, what Web sites you visit, and whether you went to college, attend church, own guns, have had a sex change, or have been convicted of a felony or sex crime. It can pry into every corner of your life. “

Some of it comes from public records, some purchased from commercial data processors (and much of it put out there by consumers themselves). I find it not so surprising because I have known about this kind of stuff for a while, including its extent, but these articles are illustrative because they give indications of how to resist the catagorization and intrusion. (AND, if it suits you, it shows that possibilities for the business of information).

Wise words from wise man:

Modern mass political movements often have become cisterns for the religious fervor which has drained out of the traditional religions of the world. This is the source of much misery, since eschatological goals cannot be humanly achievable, only frustration and worse can result by attempting to achieve them.

-“Lexington Green” of ChicagoBoyz

I need a database. What I envision is something that allows me to create database with both connections(people) and assets and allows me to tag each entry with whatever tag (or catagory) that I choose and then allows me to rearrange and create ‘reports’ based upon these entries. This blog structure (wordpress) does have the work, just not when I want to pull up individual entries. Also, for each entry, I’d like to have log. The last bit is that I want to be able to import (or export) a contact to Outlook.

Plus: I want to be able to map out a selection of cards on Google maps or the like. For instance, I choose all assets with the tag “San Francisco” and I map it, which produces a map of all those particular assets on a google map mash-up.

Update (12-14-07):  This might be it, RealHound.   It’s real estate centered, which is what I was looking for, and seems to have all the features.  It’s main site has a bit of the evangelistic fever of new companies/real estate brokers, but if it works who cares.  I think I’ll check out the free download.

Again, too much sugar (both fructose and glucose) can tart to screw with your testosterone and estrogen levels. Yes, your body essentially runs on glucose, but it needs to process it itself from natural food sources. We’re all eat’n too much of the stuff.

What the linked-to story shows though is that the effects come at a genetic level as the over-indulgence in sugars causes a gene that controls those two important hormones to turn off.

Update:

Here is an interview of Gary Taubes on CBC.  He mostly speaks about carbohydrates (with a brief mention of sugar), but essentially the carbohydrates the people get too much of is the kind that is easily processed into sugar in the dietary tract (i.e. breads and pasta compared to plant carbs):