May 30, 2013 ? Measurements taken by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission as it delivered the Curiosity rover to Mars in 2012 are providing NASA the information it needs to design systems to protect human explorers from radiation exposure on deep-space expeditions in the future.
Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is the first instrument to measure the radiation environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential human exploration spacecraft. The findings reduce uncertainty about the effectiveness of radiation shielding and provide vital information to space mission designers who will need to build in protection for spacecraft occupants in the future.
"As this nation strives to reach an asteroid and Mars in our lifetimes, we're working to solve every puzzle nature poses to keep astronauts safe so they can explore the unknown and return home," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations in Washington. "We learn more about the human body's ability to adapt to space every day aboard the International Space Station. As we build the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket to carry and shelter us in deep space, we'll continue to make the advances we need in life sciences to reduce risks for our explorers. Curiosity's RAD instrument is giving us critical data we need so that we humans, like the rover, can dare mighty things to reach the Red Planet."
The findings, which are published in the May 31 edition of the journal Science, indicate radiation exposure for human explorers could exceed NASA's career limit for astronauts if current propulsion systems are used.
Two forms of radiation pose potential health risks to astronauts in deep space. One is galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), particles caused by supernova explosions and other high-energy events outside the solar system. The other is solar energetic particles (SEPs) associated with solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun.
Radiation exposure is measured in units of Sievert (Sv) or milliSievert (one one-thousandth Sv). Long-term population studies have shown exposure to radiation increases a person's lifetime cancer risk. Exposure to a dose of 1 Sv, accumulated over time, is associated with a five percent increase in risk for developing fatal cancer.
NASA has established a three percent increased risk of fatal cancer as an acceptable career limit for its astronauts currently operating in low-Earth orbit. The RAD data showed the Curiosity rover was exposed to an average of 1.8 milliSieverts of GCR per day on its journey to Mars. Only about three percent of the radiation dose was associated with solar particles because of a relatively quiet solar cycle and the shielding provided by the spacecraft.
The RAD data will help inform current discussions in the United States' medical community, which is working to establish exposure limits for deep-space explorers in the future.
"In terms of accumulated dose, it's like getting a whole-body CT scan once every five or six days," said Cary Zeitlin, a principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio and lead author of the paper on the findings. "Understanding the radiation environment inside a spacecraft carrying humans to Mars or other deep space destinations is critical for planning future crewed missions."
Current spacecraft shield much more effectively against SEPs than GCRs. To protect against the comparatively low energy of typical SEPs, astronauts might need to move into havens with extra shielding on a spacecraft or on the Martian surface, or employ other countermeasures. GCRs tend to be highly energetic, highly penetrating particles that are not stopped by the modest shielding provided by a typical spacecraft.
"Scientists need to validate theories and models with actual measurements, which RAD is now providing," said Donald M. Hassler, a program director at SwRI and principal investigator of the RAD investigation. "These measurements will be used to better understand how radiation travels through deep space and how it is affected and changed by the spacecraft structure itself. The spacecraft protects somewhat against lower energy particles, but others can propagate through the structure unchanged or break down into secondary particles."
After Curiosity landed on Mars in August, the RAD instrument continued operating, measuring the radiation environment on the planet's surface. RAD data collected during Curiosity's science mission will continue to inform plans to protect astronauts as NASA designs future missions to Mars in the coming decades.
SwRI, together with Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, built RAD with funding from NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and Germany's national aerospace research center, Deutsches Zentrum f?r Luft- und Raumfahrt.
Mole is to the Mexicans what ragu is to the Italians. It's a beloved sauce that's the crowning jewel of their cuisine -- and one that's truly a labor of love. Not only does this dish ask for an encyclopedia of ingredients of chiles, spices and chocolate, but its in-depth steps could intimidate the most seasoned of cooks. And we haven't even talked about the stirring. There's a lot of stirring required to make a proper mole.
What we like most about mole, besides its incredibly rich and complex flavor, is that it's best made by home cooks who don't mind spending the day pouring love into just one dish. It's a dish of tradition, with a recipe that's passed on through family members. It's a recipe called upon for celebration and special occasions. And it's deeply rooted in Mexico's history. Mole has been cooked and preserved for centuries, making it beyond perfected. Which is exactly why you should take the time to master it.
We know what you're thinking. With everything we've just said about the intensity required to make mole, why in the world would you ever give it a try? Well, for one, because it's mole -- and having an amazing mole recipe up your sleeve will serve you well in life. Trust us.
And two, because if little old Mexican grandmothers are happily spending their time and energy making this dish, we're certain you can do the same. Just remember, at the end of it all, you will be rewarded with a huge supply of mole, and that's enough to make even the most arduous tasks more than worth it. Now go forth, and make mole. We're fans of this Mole Poblano recipe but there are many variations on this classic to explore.
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Tortilla Soup With Chiles And Charred Corn
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Soundtrack Ideas - Mexico Lindo Y Querido By Jorge Negrete
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When you think of Mexico, Mariachi music (Mexico's folk music) is probably not far behind in your train of thought. Mariachi Vargas, founded in 1897 by Gaspar Vargas, is currently in its fifth generation. The group of 12 members tours the world, maintaing the tradition of Mariachi music.
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Mexican-American singer Ritchie Valens is best known for taking the Mexican folk song "La Bamba" and setting it to a Rock 'n Roll rhythm. Unfortunately, only eight months into his recording career, Valens died in a plane crash. His life was turned into the film "La Bamba" with Lou Diamond Philips portraying him.
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Mexican singer, songwriter, author, businesswoman and soap opera actress Thalia is considered the most internationally successful solo female Mexican artist. In 2000 she married music industry executive Tommy Mottola, the ex-husband of Mariah Carey.
Less than two weeks after Yahoo announced its acquisition of Tumblr, the micro-blogging platform is unveiling a new feature for its desktop site. Starting today, users will see sponsored content mixed in alongside posts from the blogs they follow. Previously, sponsored content from brands was only featured in Tumblr Radar, located less prominently to the right of the Dashboard. Though the goal is clearly for paid content to blend in with regular posts -- see that dollar sign above? -- we're sure Tumblr users will sniff out the difference instantly.
Many of the Pentagon's most advanced weapon systems -- including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and PAC-3 Patriot missile system -- were compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a classified document obtained by the Washington Post. The list of weapons was part of an earlier DoD report condemning Chinese cyber-espionage activities, but had been confidential until now. Other systems hacked are said to include the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the Navy's Aegis ballistic-missile defense system, the F/A-18 fighter, V-22 Osprey and the Littoral Combat Ship used for shore patrol. Many of these form the foundation of defense systems from Europe to the Persian Gulf -- and their breach goes a long way toward explaining Washington's unprecedented dressing-down of China.
WASHINGTON (RNS) In a generational changing of the guard, Southern Baptists are gaining a new advocate for their values in Washington and around the country as Russell Moore, a media-savvy theologian, takes the helm of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
The ERLC is the public policy arm for the Southern Baptist Convention, and Moore is taking over from Richard Land, who headed the ERLC since 1988 and used it as a platform to rally social conservatives in the nation?s culture wars.
Like Land, Moore is an abortion opponent, a believer in an errorless Bible and a fan of Coke Zero.
But even though both men assumed the ERLC post at age 41, it?s clear that Moore is part of a new era. While Land, 66, has been computer-averse, Moore is a frequent blogger and can tweet more than a dozen times a day. Moore, a Mississippi native, is a fan of country music and Christian hip-hop; Land, a sixth-generation Texan, favors Elvis and the Beatles.
R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said Moore ? who had been head of the seminary?s theology school ? is ?unabashedly committed to the same convictions? as Land but uses newer cultural skills ? including Twitter.
?It?s the difference between ?Mad Men? and ?The Office,?? said Mohler, who has known Land for 30 years and Moore, a Southern Seminary alumnus, for at least half as long.
Land, for his part, said he has no plans to join the Twitterverse but he does have a copy of ?iPad for Dummies? and will teach an online class in his new job as the head of Southern Evangelical Seminary near Charlotte, N.C.
While the audience is different ? the interdenominational seminary has just 350 resident and online students ? Land?s mission will be much the same as he aims to create, in his words, ?green berets and paratroopers of God?s army.?
The difference in language and tone between the two men is significant.
Citing Jesus? ?calm tranquility,? Moore likes to speak of the need to defend Southern Baptist ideals by using ?convictional kindness? rather than the stern moralism that propelled the previous Moral Majority generation.
?Jesus is convictional,? Moore said in an interview as he began to adjust to his Washington office just off Capitol Hill. (He officially starts on June 1 and will split time between Washington and Nashville, Tenn.) ?He speaks clearly about sin, righteousness and judgment but Jesus is not panicked or outraged.?
Moore, who was registered as an Independent in Kentucky but admired former President George W. Bush?s ?compassionate conservatism,? supports what he calls ?engaged communitarianism? ? a middle ground between the evangelical extremes of triumphalism and cultural separation.
No matter how the Supreme Court rules in June on same-sex marriage, he thinks evangelicals need to rethink marriage by affirming the roles of men and women and moving away from the notion of clergy as the ?marrying parson? who willingly weds ?unbelievers.?
?The church is not some sort of justice of the peace with a prayer book,? he said.
Jonathan Akin, a director of Baptist21, a group of younger Southern Baptists, hopes Moore will expand the agency?s portfolio to also address issues like adoption, justice, poverty, and sex trafficking. Adoption is already something of a personal crusade for Moore, the father of five sons, including two adopted from Russia.
?He?s going to help the church think through issues that the church doesn?t usually stop and think through,? said Akin.
David Key, director of Baptist studies at Emory University?s Candler School of Theology, said he expects Moore to engage people with whom he disagrees.
?Richard came of age during the time the religious right was at its strength; Russell is coming at a time when the religious right is at its weakness,? said Key, a Facebook friend of Moore?s who calls himself a ?dissenting Southern Baptist.??
?Russell cannot be as combative as Richard was because Southern Baptists are in a decline at the moment.?
Land said the ethics job deals with the personal as well as the political. He once took a call from a pastor in the emergency room as he visited the ailing pregnant wife of his head deacon. If she kept the baby, she?d lose her life, the doctor told them. Land advised: ?It?s permissible to take life in defense of life.?
But it was the political that earned Land notoriety, and trouble.
Last year, Land was embroiled in a controversy about racial comments he made about the Trayvon Martin case, an ironic turn of events given that Land is credited for pushing Southern Baptists to apologize for their Civil-war-era defense of slavery in 1995. The incident ? along with accusations that Land lifted writings from others for his radio show ? came shortly before the ERLC moved in a different direction.
Fred Luter, who was elected as the SBC?s first African-American president last year, said he was concerned when Land announced his retirement: ?One thing about Richard: You never had to guess what he stood for.?
But he?s pleased with the selection of Moore, who was one of the earliest supporters of Luter?s historic presidency. With connections to older Southern Baptists and social media outreach to younger ones, Luter said, ?He?s going to be a great, great fit.?
In an interview, Land didn?t seem concerned about how he?d be viewed in light of the scandals that overshadowed his final year in office: ?My legacy will be decided long after I?m gone.?
But as he heads to Charlotte with his wife of almost 42 years, his German shepherd and his 36,000 books, Land seemed to relish his changing role.
?Before I was head of the ERLC, I used to enjoy the Southern Baptist Convention,? he said of the annual gatherings each June. ?For the last 25 years, it?s been work. Now it?ll be fun again.?
May 29, 2013 ? Women who experienced severe physical or sexual abuse during childhood are much more likely to have a food addiction as adults than women who did not experience such abuse, according to a new study published in the journal Obesity. The study's findings provide valuable new information regarding potential causes and treatments for food addiction and obesity.
National surveys indicate that more than a third of American women experienced some form of physical or sexual abuse before they reached 18 years of age. Also, research shows that such childhood abuse has consequences not only for women's mental health, but also for their physical health. In particular, many studies have documented a link between childhood abuse and later obesity, possibly because stress may cause one to overeat high-sugar and high-fat "comfort" foods in an uncontrolled manner.
Because of these findings, Susan Mason, PhD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and her colleagues looked for a link between childhood abuse and addiction-like eating behaviors in women. The researchers studied 57,321 adult participants in the Nurses' Health Study II, which ascertained physical and sexual child abuse histories in 2001 and current food addiction in 2009. (Food addiction was defined as three or more addiction-like eating behaviors severe enough to cause significant distress or loss of function.)
The analysis revealed that addiction-like eating behaviors were relatively common among women in the study, with eight percent meeting the criteria for food addiction. Women who had experienced physical or sexual abuse before the age of 18 years were almost twice as likely to have a food addiction in middle adulthood compared with women without a history of childhood abuse.. The likelihood of food addiction was increased even further for women who had experienced both physical and sexual abuse in childhood. The food addiction prevalence varied from six percent among women without a history of physical or sexual abuse to 16 percent among women with a history of both severe physical and sexual abuse. Also, women with a food addiction were generally heavier than women without a food addiction.
Dr. Mason and her co-authors caution that the study's findings are exploratory and will need to be replicated before any conclusions can be drawn about a causal link between childhood abuse victimization and addiction-like overeating. If enough evidence of this association accumulates, the next step will be to find ways to reduce the risk of addiction-like overeating among women who experienced childhood abuse. "Women with histories of trauma who show a propensity toward uncontrolled eating could potentially be referred for prevention programs, while obese women might be screened for early trauma and addiction-like eating so that any psychological impediments to weight loss could be addressed," said Dr. Mason. "Of course, preventing childhood abuse in the first place would be the best strategy of all, but in the absence of a perfect child abuse prevention strategy, it is important that we try to head off its negative long-term health consequences," she added.
Zach Galifianakis is ridding himself of more than a hangover as his popular film series comes to an end. The actor/comedian shaved off most of his trademark bushy beard.
Getty Images, AP
Actor Zach Galifianakis, with full beard, left, at the premiere of "The Hangover Part III" in Westwood, Calif., on May 20, and cleaned up in Paris on May 27.
Galifianakis, who returns as Alan in "The Hangover Part III," showed up at the Paris premiere of the film on Monday sporting a mustache and tuft of hair on his chin.
In a three-piece gray suit paired with a pink shirt and red tie, and with his hair showing the effects of a combing, Galifianakis looked downright suave on the red carpet. He was joined by castmates Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong and Heather Graham.
Julien Hekimian / Getty Images
Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Todd Phillips and Ed Helms attend the Paris premiere of "The Hangover Part III."
This isn't the first time Galifianakis has altered his appearance in drastic fashion. During an appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in 2010, the actor shaved down to a mustache after hosting the entire show with a beard. He performed in one skit and then had a fake beard applied for the show's signoff.
In 2011, again on "SNL," he shaved his hair into a Mohawk and then told the audience, "unfortunately we did not get to the Mr. T sketch."
"The Hangover Part III" opened in theaters over the holiday weekend and pulled in $51 million at the box office.
French actresses Adele Exarchopoulos, right, Lea Seydoux, left, and Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche stand on stage after they received the Palme d'Or award for the movie "La Vie d'Adele" at the Cannes Film Festival.
By Belinda Goldsmith, Reuters
An emotional lesbian love story by French director Abdellatif Kechiche won the top prize at the 2013 Cannes festival on Sunday, ending 12 packed days of premieres, celebrity appearances, rain and dramatic jewelry thefts.
"La Vie d'Adele -- Chapitre 1 & 2" ("Blue is the Warmest Color") was chosen from a field of 20 films full of sex, violence and anguish vying for the Palme d'Or, one of the most coveted film awards after the Oscars.
Critics had picked the film as a possible winner at the 66th Cannes festival but queried whether its no-holds-barred lesbian sex scenes would be a deterrent to the jury deciding the awards led by U.S. filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
"I think it will get a lot of play ... I think this film carries a very strong message, a very positive message," Spielberg told a news conference, adding that he was a firm supporter of same-sex marriage.
Kechiche, an actor who made his directorial debut in 2000, was virtually speechless as he went up on stage to receive his award from U.S. actress Uma Thurman before a star-studded audience.
"As you know I always take my time. I always need time to reflect before starting. It is my rhythm, I am sorry," said Kechiche as he was handed the Palme d'Or statuette, flanked by his two lead actresses, Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos.
He dedicated the award to the youth of Tunisia, where he was born, praising their strength in the Arab Spring as those "who wanted only to live, speak and love freely".
The competition was an open field ahead of Sunday's award ceremony. Another forerunner, the quirky comedy "Inside Llewyn Davis" about a struggling New York folk singer by the American Coen brothers, was named as runner-up.
The award for best actor went to American Bruce Dern, 76, from Alexander Payne's film "Nebraska" in which he played an ageing, alcoholic father on a road trip with his son through the depressed midwestern United States to collect a lottery prize.
French actress Berenice Bejo won the best actress award for playing the wife in Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's tense domestic drama "Le Passe" ("The Past").
"I was not expecting this," said an emotional Bejo, in a teal lace dress. Earlier she had signed autographs on the red carpet in blazing sunshine, a contrast to the festival's opening ceremony on May 15 when umbrellas took over in the rain.
The third prize went to Japanese director Kore-Eda Hirokazu's "So@!$%#e Chichi Ni Naru" ("Like Father, Like Son") while the award for best director went to Mexico's Amat Escalante for his brutal look at Mexico's drug war, "Heli."?
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In this Monday, April 9, 2012 photo, North Korean women work in a thread factory in Pyongyang, North Korea. A North Korean economist said that the government introduced new economic management methods in April 2013 that relax state control of workers' salaries. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Monday, April 9, 2012 photo, North Korean women work in a thread factory in Pyongyang, North Korea. A North Korean economist said that the government introduced new economic management methods in April 2013 that relax state control of workers' salaries. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Tuesday, April 10, 2012 photo, North Koreans work at a factory bottling apple juice on the grounds of a communal apple farm on the outskirts of Pyongyang, North Korea. A North Korean economist said that the government introduced new economic management methods in April 2013 that relax state control of workers' salaries. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Sunday Oct. 9, 2011 photo, a North Korean factory worker sorts bottles at a snack food factory in Pyongyang, North Korea. A North Korean economist said that the government introduced new economic management methods in April 2013 that relax state control of workers' salaries. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Friday, Aug. 10, 2012 photo, North Koreans work together at a fertilizer factory in Hamhung, North Korea. A North Korean economist said that the government introduced new economic management methods in April 2013 that relax state control of workers' salaries. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? North Korea relaxed state control of salaries last month, a government economist said, outlining a change in policy intended to boost production by giving companies latitude to provide workers with financial incentives.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Ri Ki Song, a professor at the Institute of Economics at North Korea's Academy of Social Sciences in Pyongyang, said enterprises are now allowed to use some of their earnings to pay workers more.
Until recently, most salaries were set by the state. The new policy gives managers of factories and other businesses the right to determine workers' salaries if they are able to improve productivity. The change follows a similar move last year to give managers at North Korean farms more power to make management decisions and to allow farmers to keep any surplus harvest to sell or barter instead of turning them over to the state.
"After repaying the state for its investment, enterprises can set salaries themselves, regardless of salaries fixed by the state, and pay workers according to their performance," Ri said last week. Companies must also put aside funds for investment, continued production, development of technology and cultural activities, he said.
But Ri said the new economic management methods enacted April 1 were not signs that North Korea is adopting a capitalist free market system.
"This is nothing to do with reform and opening," Ri said. "As I've said, the socialist ownership of the means of production is firmly established in our country, and we defend this."
Foreign governments have looked for indications that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might be open to reform since coming to power in December 2011. North Korea has a per capita GDP of $1,800 per year, according to the U.S. State Department, just a fraction of the living standards in its Northeast Asian neighbors, Japan and South Korea.
Kim, the third generation of his family to lead North Korea since 1948, inherited a nation plagued by chronic food, fuel and power shortages. He has said improving the economy is a priority, acknowledging economic hardship in North Korea and pledging to raise the standard of living.
Kim in a speech in January said the country's most important task is the "building of an economic giant" and called for all of the year's economic undertakings to be aimed "a radical increase in production and stabilizing and improving the people's living standards."
"We should hold fast to the socialist economic system of our own style, steadily improve and perfect the methods of economic management on the principle of encouraging the working masses to fulfill their responsibility and role befitting the masters of production," Kim said.
However, Kim also has made the costly building of a nuclear arsenal a priority at a time when the United Nations says two-thirds of the population is coping with chronic food shortages.
The new policy on salaries went into effect after a trial period, Ri said.
"In the past, the state used to fix standard salaries, which meant you couldn't pay more than a certain amount," he said.
Now, factories and enterprises that perform well will be allowed to raise salaries, Ri said.
"And individual workers who work more can earn more," he said.
Last September, AP quoted farmers as saying new directives aimed at boosting productivity at collective farms give managers more control over decisions on how to farm the land and allow farmers to keep any surplus after they fulfill state-mandated quotas.
By giving farmers incentives to grow more food, North Korea could be starting down the same path as China when it first began experimenting with a market-based economy, analysts said.
File this one very firmly in the ?some guy on the Internet said? category, but this weekend?s hot gossip is that Sony is going to bin plans for a used games DRM system following the Internet?s unhappy reaction to news of a similar scheme for the Xbox One.
The not so farfetched suggestion that Sony might employ a similar system to that announced for the Xbox One arose from a comment made by Geoff Keighley in an episode of Bonus Round, in which he said he had heard that Sony might pursue the same course.
Shortly thereafter, famousmortimer, NeoGAF poster whose Sony predictions have in the past been perfectly correct, said Keighley?s comment is accurate but out of date.
?The gist of it is that Sony is listening to the backlash that Microsoft is getting and they are basing decisions off of this,? they explained in another post.
?I can say, for sure, that the past week?s PR nightmare for MS has not been lost on Sony and they, in fact, do have a used game ?solution? working and have been going back and forth for months on whether to use it. This past week is pushing them strongly into ?Yeah, let?s not use that.??
Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, in particular, is very open to feedback, the poster added.
How patient centered are medical decisions?Public release date: 27-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Crystal Bozek Crystal.Bozek@umb.edu 617-287-5383 The JAMA Network Journals
A national survey sample of adults who had discussions with their physicians in the preceding two years about common medical tests, medications and procedures often did not reflect a high level of shared decision making, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Floyd J. Fowler, Jr., Ph.D., from the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation and the University of Massachusetts, Boston, conducted a 2011 survey of a cross section of U.S. adults 40 years or older and asked them to indicate whether they reported making one of 10 medical decisions and to describe their interactions with their physicians concerning those decisions. The decisions included: medication for hypertension, elevated cholesterol, or depression; screening for breast, prostate or colon cancer; knee or hip replacement for osteoarthritis, or surgery for cataract or low back pain.
"we saw great variation in the extent to which patients reported efforts to inform them about and involve them in 10 common decisions," the authors write in their conclusion. "Although there was variation within decision types, decisions concerning four surgical procedures were much more shared than decisions about cancer screening and two very common long-term medications for cardiac risk reduction. If share decision making is to be one defining characteristic of primary care as delivered in medical homes, primary care physicians and other health care providers will need to balance their discussions of pros and cons to a greater degree and ask patients for their input more consistently."
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(JAMA Intern Med. Published online May 27, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.6172. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.org.)
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How patient centered are medical decisions?Public release date: 27-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Crystal Bozek Crystal.Bozek@umb.edu 617-287-5383 The JAMA Network Journals
A national survey sample of adults who had discussions with their physicians in the preceding two years about common medical tests, medications and procedures often did not reflect a high level of shared decision making, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Floyd J. Fowler, Jr., Ph.D., from the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation and the University of Massachusetts, Boston, conducted a 2011 survey of a cross section of U.S. adults 40 years or older and asked them to indicate whether they reported making one of 10 medical decisions and to describe their interactions with their physicians concerning those decisions. The decisions included: medication for hypertension, elevated cholesterol, or depression; screening for breast, prostate or colon cancer; knee or hip replacement for osteoarthritis, or surgery for cataract or low back pain.
"we saw great variation in the extent to which patients reported efforts to inform them about and involve them in 10 common decisions," the authors write in their conclusion. "Although there was variation within decision types, decisions concerning four surgical procedures were much more shared than decisions about cancer screening and two very common long-term medications for cardiac risk reduction. If share decision making is to be one defining characteristic of primary care as delivered in medical homes, primary care physicians and other health care providers will need to balance their discussions of pros and cons to a greater degree and ask patients for their input more consistently."
###
(JAMA Intern Med. Published online May 27, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.6172. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.org.)
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
For the next 12 weeks, I am going into self-experimental, bio-hacking guinea pig mode in preparation for?Ironman Canada in Whistler on August 25.
It?s called the ?Great Ketogenic Ironman Experiment?, and in just a moment, I?m going to spill all the beans for you. I?ll show you a sample ketogenic training diet, a sample minimalist training week using time-saving underground training techniques, and reveal the secret weapons I?m going to use to enhance my fat-burning and training results.
But first?why the heck would YOU even want to try a low-carb, ketogenic diet for something like an Ironman triathlon? Or a marathon, Crossfit training routine, hard swim workouts, multi-day cycling stage race, or anything else that is energetically demanding and requires moderate doses of endurance?
There are two main reasons for using a low-carb, ketogenic diet.
1)?Metabolic superiority of using fats as a fuel.
Peter Attia really gets into this in the excellent blog post on ?Ketosis ? Advantaged or Misunderstood State??, in which he explains how being in a ketogenic state vastly enhances your lipolysis (fat burning efficicency), your aerobic capacity and your muscular endurance, including?significant increases in aerobic power and efficiency in several groups of elite athletes (e.g., Olympians) across multiple physical tasks maximally stressing the aerobic system. Go read his post to dig into this stuff.
2) Health and longevity advantages of controlling high blood sugar.
To illustrate these advantages, I scanned and pasted here a compelling image from Life Extension Magazine (I don?t know about you, but I want to be around to see my grandkids, and considering my 23andme.com genetic testing revealed higher risk for Type II Diabetes, I doubt that shoving any more gooey gels and sugar sports drinks into my gaping maw is going to do me any favors).
Finally, I?m not just messing around here and doing this Ironman at a slow, aerobic pace. Instead I?ll be attempting for an Ironman World Championship qualification, and a total time of 9:15-9:45.?We?re talking pain cave stuff here, with lots of hard anaerobic efforts thrown in ? no lolly-gagging ? a hard and heavy swim, 300-400W power efforts on the bike sprinkled throughout a 112 mile ride, all finished off with a 26.2 mile run (marathon) in 3:00-3:15?
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What Is Ketogenesis?
Great question.
Here?s the deal: I?m not even going to?try?to comprehensively explain this when so many other resources already exist. Here are the best 4 resources for you to become a ketogenic ninja:
1) My recent low carb and ketogenesis podcast on Jimmy Moore?s Livin? La Vida Low Carb Show?(in which we also tackle all the questions that are probably going to end up as comments on this post anyways, such as ?Aren?t You Concerned About Your Thyroid? and ?How Does Your Body Make Glucose If You Don?t Eat Carbs?, etc., etc., etc.).
2) Peter Attia?s excellent series on ?Ketosis ? Advantaged or Misunderstood State??. Put on your geeky propellor hat and scientific wading pants and go read it. He?s good.
3) Any of the other podcasts I?ve done with Peter, including:??How To Turn Yourself Into A Fat Burning Machine By Fasting For 24 Hours Then Going Out And Do Monster Workouts Without Bonking? and??Is It Possible To Be Extremely Active and Eat A Low Carbohydrate Diet??.
4) My Low Carbohydrate Diet For Athletes package?(pictured right), which includes a?complete low carb for athletes meal plan with fat adaptation, low carb maintenance, race/event week and race/event day blueprints, my low carb guidebook and 24-7 access to a low carb forum (warning, this program isn?t necessarily ketogenic ? it has carb re-feed days and stuff like that ? but it?s a good resource nonetheless).
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The Great Ketogenic Ironman Experiment Overview
OK, let?s get down to the nuts and bolts. Here?s how this ketogenic protocol is going to go.
I?ll be implementing a 100%?ketogenic diet?(meaning I?m keeping my blood ketones at 1.0 millimolar or higher)?along with?
-weekly?Talking20?blood measurements to make sure I?m not killing myself, and also to get some interesting data on what happens to thyroid, inflammation, testosterone, cortisol, etc. when combining ketogenesis with hard training.
-daily?Metron?breath ketone measurements to make sure I?m keeping my ketones above 1.0 millimolar (whoopee for smart scientific sounding numbers!)
-daily?Sweetbeat?HRV measurements (that?s ?Heart Rate Variability? ? read this for why I do it)?
-Hypoxico?s Intermittent Hypoxic Training protocols?
-Jay Schroeder?s EVOAthlete electrostimulation, isometric and overspeed training protocols?
-All the other ?underground training methods? I outline in this article?
-And a bunch of other secret weapons I?ll tell you about below?
In addition to putting weekly updates on my Facebook page and video updates on my upcoming phone app (launches June 3), I?ll be discussing the results of the experiment at this year?s?Ancestral Health Symposium?during my panel with Jimmy Moore, Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson, and Jamie Scott. And that symposium will be exactly one week before I actually take things into the deep, deep trenches and try to qualify for Kona at Ironman Canada.
Warning: unless you want to seriously ?F-up? your body (e.g. adrenal fatigue, joint damage, metabolic derangement, etc.), I do not recommend you combine ketogenesis or low carb diets with any form of hard or heavy training unless you?re willing to utilize the strategies you?re about to learn. I?m not even 100% sure that with all the ?damage control? I?m personally going to be doing that I will not experience medical issues while doing this experiment. But SOMEBODY has to find out if elite performance and ketogenesis are compatible, so I?m diving in.
Clear? OK, let?s keep going.
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Sample Weekly Ketogenic Ironman Training Diet
Here?s a sample of what I?ll be eating. Basics: 50-100g carbs on an easy day, 100-150 carbs on an average day, 150-200g carbs on a hard and heavy day, along with lots of medium chain triglycerides to keep my body in ketosis. So this isn?t?calorie-restricted ketosis.?It?s high-fat, high-calorie ketosis (that?s Lesson #1 for you to ensure you don?t destroy your metabolism with stuff like this).
-Breakfast: Piping hot cup of ?upgraded??organic, mold-free Upgraded Coffee?blended with unsalted, organic KerryGold butter and?Medium Chain Triglyceride (MCT) oil,?with a touch of?vanilla powder?and Upgraded Chocolate Powder. That?s what I?m calling ?The Bulletproof Triathlete? breakfast, with more details shortly?
-Mid-morning: TianChi with vegetable juice (I prefer my cleansing cocktail of cilantro, parsley, carrot, lemon and ginger juice, with a few pinches of Himalayan Sea Salt). If this takes me out of ketosis, I?ll leave out the carrots. Sorry, Bugs Bunny.
-Lunch: Large kale salad with extra virgin olive oil, avocado, olives, walnuts, sardines and nori OR my world-famous sexy ketogenic smoothie (kale blended with MCT oil, brazil nuts, cinnamon, coconut milk, Upgraded Chocolate Powder, stevia?and an avocado).
-Pre-Workout Snack: Shot of X2Performance?with 2-3oz?MCT oil.
-Dinner: Grass-fed beef, liver, sweetbreads (yes, that would be thyroid gland), wild salmon, etc. with roasted vegetables.
Rrrrrr ? back it up. Liver and sweetbreads? Yes. Here?s the 30 second elevator pitch: your liver needs glucose to convert T4 to T3 so unless you give yourself extra liver support and thyroid support by eating organ meats and sweetbreads, you?ll mess up your thyroid on a diet like this.)*
-Snack: 2-3 tablespoons coconut manna (AKA nectar of the gods)
*Here?s the rest of the reason, taken straight from this Chris Kresser/Chris Masterjohn podcast:
Chris Masterjohn:? Yeah, and I think you highlighted something important there that there are a lot of classic symptoms that go beyond the blood tests, and you know, I think even if you don?t see the changes in T3 and reverse T3, there are other mechanisms.? For example, if you have increased liberation of free fatty acids beyond what you?re able to utilize, there is some evidence that the free fatty acids will accumulate in the nucleus of the cell at a high enough concentration to inhibit thyroid binding to its receptor, and that will cause all of these symptoms of the metabolic effects, including the high cholesterol, but it might not show up as changes in thyroid hormones in the blood.? So, I think if you see those classics symptoms, if you see high cholesterol and low sex hormones, for example, I think those are good clues in addition to T3 and reverse T3 that might signify that an increase in carbohydrate intake might be needed, but I have an anecdote that I think is pretty interesting to share from?Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Weston Price?s book.
Chris Kresser:? Yeah, let?s hear it.
Chris Masterjohn:? He says:? ?For the Indians of the far North this reinforcement? ? he?s talking about reinforcement of nutrition for pregnancy ? ?was accomplished by supplying special feedings of organs of animals.? Among the Indians in the moose country near the Arctic circle a larger percentage of the children were born in June than in any other month.? This was accomplished, I was told, by both parents eating liberally of the thyroid glands of the male moose as they came down from the high mountain areas for the mating season, at which time the large protuberances carrying the thyroids under the throat were greatly enlarged.?? So, what he?s saying is when the moose were about to reproduce, they naturally went into a kind of hyperthyroid state where their thyroids were enlarged, and the people there would harvest the thyroid glands so that they could reproduce, and as a consequence, most of their children were born nine months after the moose mating season.
Chris Kresser:? Wow.
Chris Masterjohn:? And what the indicates to me is ? I mean, it?s difficult to interpret it because he doesn?t go into great detail, but I think what we might be seeing here is up in the Arctic circle ? and these are the inland people, they?re not seacoast, so they probably don?t have a lot of iodine in the diet, they certainly don?t have a lot of carbohydrate in the diet.? It seems like they, as part of their natural adaptation to their environment, they supplemented with thyroid hormone so that they could convert their cholesterol to sex hormones so that they could increase their fertility, and I think what we?re witnessing is perhaps a natural acknowledgement that under those certain conditions where you have an extremely carbohydrate-restricted diet, you may need supplemental thyroid hormone in order to maintain that fertility.?
There you have it folks. That?s how I?m going to maintain my yummy, fat-fueled, sweetbread-laden fertility. You can check USWellnessMeats if your local organic farm can?t get you sweetbreads and liver.
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Sample Week of Minimalist Ironman Training
Due to time constraints and my desire to avoid chronic cardio overtraining, I?m following a complete 8-10 hour per week minimalist Ironman training protocol, while implementing all the Underground Training Techniques you learn about in?this post?and?this post. This includes extreme isometrics, hypoxic altitude training, overspeed, high intensity intervals, super slow weight training, cold thermogenesis, heat acclimation, greasing the groove, and electrical muscle stimulation.
Here?s a sample week so you can see what this kind of stuff looks like. It may look a little overwhelming at first, but once you establish your daily habits and patterns, it?s pretty easy to fit this stuff in.
Monday:
-60 minutes yoga and meditation.
-Cold thermogenesis (20-30 minute cold soak in 45-55 degree water).
-Full body foam rolling, 10 minutes inversion table,?mobility work?for any neglected areas.
-Stay off feet.
Tuesday :
-5 minutes hot-cold contrast shower.
-Swim 10?100?s using Wetronome to decrease 100m time by 0.2s per week.
-Run ?Hurricane workout?, 10?30 seconds at 10mph and 10% incline.?All performed with deep nasal breathing (I highly recommend BreatheRight strips for doing hard workouts/races with nasal breathing).
-Commute bike to gym and back for workout above (total 30 minutes cycling).
-All day: 5 pull-ups every 1-2 hours, entire work day is at standing workstation.
Wednesday:
-Superslow lifting: 5x 30 seconds up, 30 seconds down full body lift (e.g. Squat, Overhead Press, Seated Row, Back Extension, Pull-Up).?All performed with deep nasal breathing.
-Bike ? 8-10 30 second overspeed efforts of 120-150rpm.?All performed with deep nasal breathing.
-Isoextreme back foot elevated lunge 2 minutes each side, followed by 1 Russian Lunge every 5 seconds for 2 minutes, then repeat for opposite side (performed in sauna). You can find most of these isoextreme exercises on this YouTube Channel.
-All day: 5 pull-ups every 1-2 hours, entire work day is at standing workstation.
Thursday:
-Swim 50?s and 25?s sprints using Finis front mounted swim snorkel with hypoxic CardioCap.
-Litvinov 400m run repeats as 15-30 dumbbell swings or front squats to 400m uphill or flat run. All performed with deep nasal breathing. If tired, no run, but just easy, fun?Elliptigo?on trail.
-Commute bike to gym and back for workout above (total 30 minutes cycling).?All performed with deep nasal breathing.
-All day: 5 pull-ups per 1-2 hours, entire work day is at standing workstation.
Friday:
-10 minutes inversion table.
-30 minutes suspension trainer workout.
-Easy bike to sauna at gym for?5?20 second on, 5 seconds off isoextreme lunges,?5 minute isoextreme wall squat, and standing hamstring folded dollar bill drill 10?30 seconds on/10 second off.?All performed with deep nasal breathing.
-All day: 5 pull-ups per 1-2 hours, entire work day is at standing workstation.
Saturday:
-Electrostimulation 30 minutes quads/hamstrings + 60-90 minute tempo intervals ride using Sufferfest training videos and Hypoxico altitude generator.?
-If time: easy swim drills 30 minutes in cold river (kind of a combined cold thermogenesis with training).
Sunday:
-Run 60-90 minute tempo intervals on treadmill or trail.
And yes, compared to disappearing from my kids, work and social life for a 5 hour bike ride on a Saturday morning, slipping into the garage ?pain cave? for a quick Hypoxico session is far superior.?
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My Ketogenic Secret Weapons
OK, here?s the stuff that I?ll be relying on for the next 12 weeks ? the things that will make your life?far easier, your training way more productive and your body way less likely to get metabolically damaged if you doing low carb triathlon training. I call these my ?Ketogenic Secret Weapons?.
1. Upgraded Bulletproof Coffee
Bulletproof Coffee is?organic, mold-free coffee?blended with organic KerryGold butter and?Medium Chain Triglyceride (MCT) oil?with a touch of?vanilla powder?and chocolate. This stuff keeps me in a ketogenic state with me having to feel like gnawing my arm off in hunger halfway through the morning.
The idea behind?Bulletproof Upgraded Coffee?is that most coffee beans are processed by either leaving them in the sun and elements to wither and dry ? or by pressing them and letting them ferment (spoil) to remove the outer layer of the bean. Both of these techniques produce significant levels of unhealthy mycotoxins.
In contrast, the?Bulletproof Upgraded Coffee?beans are mechanically processed after picking using only clean cold water, which is more expensive, but safer because it significantly reduces harmful molds and bacteria from impacting your health.
The addition of the MCT oil?provides a readily available fuel source brain mitochondria, and may help you to excrete toxins from the brain, while the fat from the butter and the oil improves the ability of mind-stimulating terpenes and caffeine in coffee to enter your brain, along with potent coffee-based anti-inflammatories such as cafestrol and kawehol. And adding?a touch of?vanilla powder?and?Upgraded Chocolate Powder?makes it all the more heavenly.??
Just call it ?The Bulletproof Triathlete? breakfast.
2. Oxaloacetate
If you?re using extreme isometrics or high-intensity interval training and experiencing the massive lactic acid build-up that occurs in the local muscle tissue during a set, then you should know about something called ?oxaloacetate?.
Strap on your geek hat for a second.
Most chemical reactions in your body take place in a series of several steps.?In chemistry, the rate (or velocity) of a reaction with several steps is often determined by the slowest step, which is known as ?rate-limiting step.
A?significant rate limiting step of converting lactic acid into glucose (a really, really efficient way for your body to get glucose for hard efforts) is the conversion of the molecule Nicotinamide?Adenine?Dinucleotide (NAD) into Nicotinamide?Adenine?Dinucleotide Hydrogenase (NADH). So what does this have to do with oxaloacetate? In studies,?acute oxaloacetate exposure enhances resistance to fatigue?by increasing NAD to NADH conversion and allowing lactic acid to get recycled and converted to glucose at a much higher rate (16).
As a matter of fact, along with calorie restriction (which isn?t much fun, really), enhancing your Cori cycle efficiency is also one of the ways that you can significantly increase the enzyme AMPK, which you learned?earlier in this book?can upregulate mitochondrial biogenesis and improve both carbohydrate and fuel utilization.
Basically, this means that you can become a complete lactic acid metabolizing endurance beast if you?take about 100-200mg of oxaloacetate in supplement form 15-30 minutes prior to a workout?that includes either high intensity intervals, super slow training, or isometrics. I?m using the?Upgraded Anti-Aging?formula for this.
3. X2Performance
The main ingredients that?X2Performance?contains that directly help the purposes of ketogenic training are?
-d-Ribose, which allows you to rapidly regenerate ATP, even in the complete absence of carbohydrates (especially important since high intensity training depletes your total adenine dinucleotide pool much faster than long slow distance training, and you need that precious pool to make ATP)?
-Pinitol, which enhances uptake of cellular energy, even in a state of low insulin, which you?ll be in if you?re following a low-carb or ketogenic diet?
-Low doses of caffeine, which enhance free fatty acid utilization?
For anyone who wants to geek out on how loading with d-Ribose also allows you to more easily tap into your body?s own free fatty acids as a fuel, read?neurosurgeon Jack Kruse?s excellent article that reveals the truth about carbohydrates and exercise performance.?I?ll be slamming a shot before my workouts, and also before and during Ironman, and?X2Performance?has offered you the code BENGREENFIELD to get $10 off a case of the stuff in case you want to do that too.
4. UCAN Superstarch
UCAN Superstarch is for anyone who wants unflavored, 100% pure fuel ? in a non-GMO, slow release form for that allows you to use far less carbohydrate and burn significantly more of your own fat as a fuel. SuperStarch causes a very low release of insulin and results in an extremely stable blood sugar profile compared to sugary gels, sports drinks, powders or? energy bars.
This stuff puts your body in the ideal performance state and make you more metabolically efficient, thus allowing you to burn more fat as a fuel. To listen to an excellent interview about how to practically use this, and why burning more fats during exercise is good,?listen to this interview with Peter Attia.
Also, for more scientific information on Superstarch, read:??A Technological Breakthrough in Sports Nutrition Innovation:?a white paper by Professor Jeff Volek, March 2009?...
?or for a less ?sciency? explanation, read?this article that appears in Feb 2012 Men?s Health magazine.
I?ll be using this during a select few long rides and runs, and of course, quite liberally during the race itself.
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How I?ll Be Tracking & Testing
Of course, it wouldn?t be an experiment if I wasn?t gathering data, right? See, I did take a little bit of college at least, even it was in North Idaho.
1. Metron Ketone Breath Testing
That weird tube pictured on the right is a breath ketone monitor. It?s brand new, cutting-edge stuff developed by medical device manufacturer Akers Biosciences to detect levels of acetone in your breath, an indicator that your body is burning fat as its energy source, rather than carbohydrates
A Metron breath ketone monitor
It?s just a simple breath test can be performed anytime, anywhere. You get a measurement in 3 minutes, and ? most importantly ? there?s no blood testing involved. I?ll be doing enough finger-pricking as it is.
This is the same thing my fellow low carb blogger and podcaster Jimmy Moore has been using to test his ketones during his N=1 weight loss experiment, during which he?s lost 78 pounds so far (in one year).
2. Talking20 Blood Testing
In the video?How To Test Your Blood Anytime, Anywhere In The World, you learned about?Talking20, which?is disrupting health as we know it by merging biology with technology to deliver personal health data in a way that I think may actually trigger a personal health revolution.
Here?s how it works:
You send in a few drops of blood on one of their kits, and you?ve opened the gateway to everything happening inside you,?anytime you want it.??Talking20?is using mass spectrometry to analyze its blood samples, the same technology used by NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency use to conduct their studies of very small samples taken from all over on (and off) the planet. So you can?run 100?s of blood tests off a single, convenient drop of your dried blood.
I think this stuff is going to literally blow the roof off personal biohacking and the ability to peer into your personal health and performance in real time as you test anytime, anywhere in the world. For the purposes of the Great Ketogenic Ironman Experiment, it?s going to allow me to test every week without driving to the lab and giving oodles of blood.
If you want to try it, you can get your blood tested by Talking20 in the USA by clicking here or internationally by clicking here.
3. SweetBeatHRV Measurements
In the episode ?Everything You Need To Know About Heart Rate Variability Testing?, I introduced you to a cool little phone app called the Sweetbeat.
Since heart rate variability testing tracks the strength of your nervous system and can be a key sign of overtraining and metabolic distress, this will be a way to track how beat up my body is, and how my nervous system is responding to carbohydrates (or lack thereof, more specifically).
Interestingly, there may also be a correlation between ketogenesis and the ?low frequency? number you get when measuring your HRV. I was alerted to this fact in a recent reader comment (copied and pasted below):
Oh yeah, that?s kinda small, huh?
Here?s the full conversation from the comments section on my What Kind Of Damage Happens To Your Body After You Do A Hard Workout, Triathlon or Marathon?
Tom ? Some days I have a very very high VLF. say up to 80% of the power. Research is unsure what this means but could be related to diet, stress etc. ?I have noted that if I take serial readings across a morning I am fasting, till 12 noon usually, VLF gets steadily higher until I eat. It also seems to be higher when I am ketogenic, so could be of interest to you.?Also, in regards to your Ketogenic experiment, I take my ketone readings with a blood monitor multiple times a day, I have found from my research that I can consume huge amounts of carbs in and around training (mostly in the form of waxy maise starch) and sweet potato, and still be ketongenic (ketones 1.5-2mmol) the next morning. But If I overdo it on protein and fat later on in the evening and eat my last meal later than say 8.30 pm I have no ketones the next day, down to 0.3 or similar. Food for thought?
?The significance of VLF is still up for debate. I?ve read many theories including infection (this one I have noted in myself, I have predicted my last 3 infections with a sudden surge in VLF noted 2-3 days prior to symptoms). Also there is evidence it is linked to energy expenditure, which could be highly linked to the thermogenic and energy burning effects of MCT/ketogenesis. Such as -?http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnume/2011/715361/abs/??This correlates well with my findings in ketogenesis.
?If that spiel was all greek to you, go listen to this podcast episode on heart rate variability testing (or read the transcript).?Go ahead, just do it. Once you get it through your head, none of this HRV stuff is too scary, and makes intuitive sense.
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How YOU Can Follow & Learn
This is going to be an exciting adventure, and along the way, I?ll be eager to answer all your questions about low carb diets and endurance training, any of my ?weapons? or training and diet methods listed above, and anything else you want to know.
The very best way to follow this entire experiment will be by 1) following the BenGreenfieldFitness Facebook page and 2) grabbing the brand new, free BenGreenfieldFitness phone app, which will be released on June 4 (don?t worry I?ll send out an email about it, so be sure you?re subscribed to my free newsletter). I?ll be releasing photos and updates to the Facebook page?and insider videos and audio updates to the phone app?
?in the meantime, leave your comments, questions and feedback below.
This week's roun-dup of Good Reads includes a remedy for writer's block, a call to eat insects, a growing culture of sharing, countering the false perception of Europe's decline, and a nuclear Khazakstan.
By Jenna Fisher,?Staff writer / May 22, 2013
Dried insect spices are displayed as part of a London exhibit, ?Insects au Gratin.?
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
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To face the blank page
What if writer?s block or the moments between creative inspirations didn?t bother us? What if they could be considered welcome moments or even essential to the game of creation? Most people don?t experience writing in one fluid bout of perfection, anyway, writes Leni Zumas in the Spring 2013 issue of Good magazine. In an essay titled ?Working the Hole,? she investigates how to overcome those moments when ?[t]he aversion to sitting down to write, or to staying at the desk, is fierce and physical, almost as if magnets were at work, rejecting each other.?
Skip to next paragraph Jenna Fisher
Asia editor
Jenna Fisher is the Monitor's Asia editor, overseeing regional coverage for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine.
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Make use of your time in between bursts of inspiration by becoming a scavenger, Ms. Zumas says. Not in the carrion bird of prey way, but by practicing deliberate awareness. ?In order to show readers the world in ways they may never have seen it before, the artist herself must practice being open to raw, unbridled perception,? she writes. The only thing wrong with ?the lacunae of inspiration,? as Walter Benjamin once described writer?s block, is how much we fear it.
Eat your insects
Lauren Alix Brown writes in Quartz that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says it?s time to get over it when it comes to the topic of eating bugs. Ms. Brown points out five reasons to follow through: (1) They?re good for you, ?grasshoppers have comparable levels of protein to raw beef....? (2) They?re better for the environment. (3) It makes economic sense. The cost of raising insects is low, which is good for economic development. (4) They are less likely than livestock to transmit food-borne maladies like SARS. (5) Insects are everywhere, and many people already do eat them.?
?Humans, on average, already unintentionally ingest an estimated 1 pound of insects a year, mixed in with other foods,? writes Brown.
Why own, when you can rent ? or borrow?
Americans have defined themselves by what they own: their cars, houses, books, music, power tools. But a cultural shift is changing definitions of ownership, as the Monitor?s Oct. 1, 2012, cover story reported (?The sharing economy?). Janelle Nanos of Boston Magazine delves further into the forces that have made sharing and renting more appealing: a poor economy, rapidly evolving technology that encourages sharing (share button on Facebook, anyone?), and growing city populations.?
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Public release date: 27-May-2013
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3) Any of the other podcasts I?ve done with Peter, including:??How To Turn Yourself Into A Fat Burning Machine By Fasting For 24 Hours Then Going Out And Do Monster Workouts Without Bonking? and??Is It Possible To Be Extremely Active and Eat A Low Carbohydrate Diet??.
Warning: unless you want to seriously ?F-up? your body (e.g. adrenal fatigue, joint damage, metabolic derangement, etc.), I do not recommend you combine ketogenesis or low carb diets with any form of hard or heavy training unless you?re willing to utilize the strategies you?re about to learn. I?m not even 100% sure that with all the ?damage control? I?m personally going to be doing that I will not experience medical issues while doing this experiment. But SOMEBODY has to find out if elite performance and ketogenesis are compatible, so I?m diving in.
Saturday:
1. Upgraded Bulletproof Coffee
2. Oxaloacetate
