Eating Eggs vs. Smoking? Tomato-Tomato

So my partner, Ryan works out 5 days a week.  He's at the gym early in the morning and exercises frequently.  Only problem is, he eats 3 boiled eggs a day and 2 cans of tuna a day.  He does this for protein intake, and it's been doing great.  But according to a news article I read last week, eating an egg yolk a day "regularly increases plaque buildup about two-thirds as much as smoking does".

So for those who eat eggs every single day, you may want to re-think your diet. Then again, if you believe in the "Western Diet vs. Low-Carb Diet", "Sitting on The Job 10 Years or More Means You Have a 94% Chance of Developing a Tumor", or believe "Watching TV Will Kill You" - you're gonna die anyway.

Aside from that, I still think Eggs have too much saturated fat, at least in the egg yolk.  So this week, I boiled 15 eggs and removed the yolks, since most of the protein is in the whites anyway.  

Now I feel a little more comfortable knowing I have given my nutritional advice for the day. :-)  You can check out the article here, it's pretty damning... this new study has really compared eggs to smoking.

Next... Tuna. LOL.

WTF Has Obama Done? - Issue No. 008 - Scientific and Medical Research

Okay, okay, I didn't post an issue of "WTF Has Obama Done?" yesterday, but it was the Superbowl and Madonna at half-time, can you really blame me? LOL.  There's going to be days I'll probably miss "here and there," because of personal events in my life, but I will continue posting them until election day, I promise.

In the last 7 issues I brought up the top 7 most important issues concerning Americans today - Civil Rights, Health Care, Immigration, our Military, Taxes, the Economy, and Foreign Policy.  I listed all of our President's achievements in regard to his broad policies and targeted actions for each topic.  I included an excerpt from each reference and listed the sources for each.

In today's issue I will cover 3 of the President's broad policies concerning Scientific and Medical Research.

WTF-20

Removed restrictions and provided support for embryonic stem-cell research and new biomedical research.

Pledging that his administration will “make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology,” President Obama on Monday lifted the Bush administration’s strict limits on human embryonic stem cell research. [Reference-1]

"I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations. As president, I will lift the current administration’s ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001 through executive order ... .." [Reference-2]

"In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," Obama said at the White House.   In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research -- and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly." [Reference-3]

Launching a dramatic expansion of government support for one of the most promising but most contentious fields of biomedical research, the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday authorized the first 13 lines of cells under the administration's policy...[Reference-4]

WTF-21

Extended the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to establish an advisory council on science, technology, and innovation, it is hereby ordered as follows:

The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is hereby established. The PCAST shall be composed of not more than 21 members, one of whom shall be the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (the ‘‘Science Advisor’’), and 20 of whom shall include distinguished individuals and representatives from sectors outside of the Federal Government appointed by the President. These nonfederal members shall have diverse perspectives and expertise in science, technology, and innovation. The Science Advisor shall serve as a Co-Chair of the PCAST. The President shall also designate at least one, but not more than two, of the nonfederal members to serve as a Co-Chair of the PCAST with the Science Advisor. [Reference-1, Reference-2]

President Barack Obama said, "This council represents leaders from many scientific disciplines who will bring a diversity of experience and views. I will charge PCAST with advising me about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation."

PCAST will be co-chaired by John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Eric Lander, Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project; and Harold Varmus, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, former head of the National Institutes of Health and a Nobel laureate. [Reference-3]

WTF-22

Supported Landsat Data Continuity Mission to enhance earth mapping.

Landsat is a satellite program, jointly run by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, that has been used for climate research, natural resources management, land development, public safety, homeland security and disaster recovery. It has operated for more than 25 years, with two satellites — Landsat-5, launched in 1984, and Landsat-7, launched in 1999 — still in orbit. But they are operating beyond their planned life and are subject to failure.

To ensure that the program survives, NASA and USGS are developing the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, or LDCM, which is planning to launch a spacecraft in December 2012, according to the Congressional Research Service.  [Reference]

As promised, I will come back to this topic in another issue.  Please make sure to read Issue No. 009 as I continue with WTF-23
Posted daily or weekly on BLADE 7184 until Election Day!

Get More Out of Google

Hack College has come up with the following Infographic that I have posted on my blog on a permanent basis (located on the left sidebar).  It provides tips and tricks for students wishing to do online research.  

A recent study has found that 3 out of  students don't search Google efficiently, hell, I know people that could use help with Google.  One example, "Don't ask Google questions. Think about how an answer would be phrased, and search for that(ie, never search for 'What is the air speed velocity...')."

Yes, you have people who are Google masters, and know every Google trick in the book, but most of us don't, so this definitely does help.  Give it a try if you're doing a research paper, project, or just simply at home searching for useless information.  Enjoy.

Megalopolis of the Ants - It is Truly a Wonder of the World

I found this video very interesting and I think you will too.  It seems to be a documentary from a few years back, but it's only 3 minutes long. 

It's amazing that a tiny creature such as the ant, can create a city under a city in just several months.

Imagine you're a researcher, and one day you come upon a rather large anthill.  Your first thought would probably be, "geez that's a huge ass hill," but not for Professor Louis Fortune.  He and a team of researchers were curious to see how hard these little ants really worked.  Well, lets just say, it took them 3 days and 10 tons of cement before they were able to stop filling these ant hills.

After the cement was left to dry for a month, the excavation process began; What they found was beyond comprehension.  

There they found subterranean highways connected to main chambers, fungus gardens and living quarters.  It was like a huge masterpiece, like an architect had gone in and done all the work.  Not only that, these ants carried 40 tons of soil to the surface in order to make this huge city.  It truly is a fascinating video. You'll enjoy it so much you'll wish there were more.

Watching TV Will Kill You!

So let's take a look at this for a moment...

We can't sit at work for too long, because our lives will shorten drastically.  We can't eat a high-carb diet, because we have a chance of developing a tumor in a few years, and today we find out that our Television is slowly killing us.  Geez, I think our lives are too short to worry about that kind of crap, don't you agree?  When can I start smoking again?

A team of researchers from Australia are predicting that Ryan and I will die within a few years.  No, really.  As long as our asses are sitting on the couch watching Glee, America's Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance, True Blood, Master Chef, Dexter, and Hell's Kitchen, we will not be around much longer.  It's true!  If your ass is watching TV for more than 2 hours at a time, you're life expectancy decreases by 1.8 years and for women, it decreases by 1.5.

I guess Ryan and I better sleep less than 5 hours a day to increase our life expectancies, otherwise we're fucking screwed!

Sitting on The Job 10 Years or More Means You Have a 94% Chance of Developing a Tumor

According to The Telegraph, a new research study from the University of Western Australia states a team of researchers found that if you work 10 years or more in a sedentary job you have a 94% chance of developing a tumor, and a 44% chance of developing rectum cancer. 

In simpler terms, if you're sitting on your ass all day in a cubicle or desk - you don't have much longer to live.  And it doesn't matter if you exercise or workout when you get out of work or on weekends, you are developing a tumor whether you like it or not!  

‘Even a high level of vigorous recreational physical activity did not modify the effect of sedentary work.’ And they warned: ‘The findings have occupational health implications, given that advances in technology have led to increasing amounts of sedentary behaviour at work.’

And in other developing news....  sitting down for lengthy periods of time also increases blood sugar levels - so you're going to develop diabetes which will also lead to colon cancer!

Boy, am I screwed!

Mammoth to Make a Gigantic Return by 2015

So it's possible the Mighty Mammoth may roam the earth once again.  At least according to a team of scientists from Russia, Japan and the United States.  And they plan to do it by 2015!

The recipe calls for:

A mammoth carcass (preferably preserved in a Russian laboratory)
Egg cells of an African elephant

All you have to do is extract DNA from the mammoth carcass and insert it into the egg cells of an African elephant.  And presto! You have your very first Wooly Mammoth since 15,000,000,000,000 (gazillion) years ago.

Read the full story here: CNN