Debunking the Salt Myth

This article lays out what I have suspected all along; Salt is an essential human dietary requirement and reducing intake to the extent that lowers blood pressure is unhealthy.  I will provide the finer points of the article in separate quote blocks, but you should read the whole article here.

Like fat, people tend to think of it as an unnecessary additive - something to be avoided by seeking out processed foods that are "free" of it. But also like fat, salt is an essential component of the human diet - one that has been transformed into unhealthy forms by the food industry.

"The problem with reducing sodium enough to change blood pressure [is that it] has other effects - including increasing insulin resistance, increasing sympathetic nerve activity, and activating the renin-angiotensin system and increasing aldosterone secretion. All bad things for the cardiovascular system."

There are no studies based on a diet that draws its sodium from unrefined salt and from foods containing naturally occurring salt (like zucchini, celery, seaweed, oysters, shrimp, beets, spinach, fish, olives, eggs, red meat, and garbanzo beans). Clearer answers would surely emerge with a study like this.

The differences between refined and unrefined salt are significant. (Make sure you use unrefined sea salt, as other sea salts can be just as processed as ordinary table salt.) Unrefined sea salt contains about 82 percent sodium chloride and the rest is comprised of essential minerals including magnesium and calcium; and trace elements, like iodine, potassium, and selenium. Not coincidentally, they help with maintaining fluid balance and replenishing electrolytes.

But what's fascinating about this most recent study is that even in monitoring those on a largely industrial foods diet, consuming what's considered high levels of salt, the results indicate that even this is better than a low-sodium diet.

HOW TO: Start Marketing on Facebook

This looks like an actual How To article.

http://mashable.com/2011/05/25/facebook-marketing-guide/

This Will Fix What’s Wrong

I read this article (you can read it here) about hormone imbalance, that read like one of those self-help books.  Below is the recommendations for repairing insulin imbalance.  Nothing like changing all your eating habits at one time.

Resetting Your Metabolism for Optimal Blood Sugar
My goal is to make your metabolism more efficient, to make your cells more intelligent and cooperative, not resistant. In other words, you will need much less insulin to accomplish the task of balancing your blood sugar.
You can achieve this by resetting your metabolism of sugar and insulin.
To do this you have to eliminate the things that are knocking you out of balance, and provide your body the things it needs to reestablish optimal balance and thrive.
Here is what to do:
- Stop eating flour and sugar products, especially high-fructose corn syrup.
- Don't drink liquid calories in juice and soda. Your body doesn't feel full from them, so you eat more all day.
- Stop consuming all processed, junk, or packaged foods. If it doesn't look like the food your great grandmother ate, stay away.
- Stop eating trans or hydrogenated fats.
- Slow the rate of sugar uptake from the gut by balancing your meals with healthy protein (nuts, seeds, beans, small wild fish, organic chicken), healthy carbs (vegetables, fruit, beans, whole grains), and healthy fats (olive oil, nuts and seeds, avocadoes, fish oil).
- Eat plenty of soluble fiber (30 to 50 grams a day).
- Eat smaller, more frequent meals.
- Make your cells smarter by giving them an oil change with omega-3 fats, which help fix cell membranes so that they can more readily receive the messages from insulin.
- Move your body: Exercise improves your cells' ability to work better, respond to insulin better, and burn sugar faster.
- Relax! Stress reduction also helps improve blood sugar control.
- Make your cells more efficient by increasing specific nutrients, such as chromium, vanadium, magnesium, vitamin E, biotin, the B vitamins, zinc, bioflavonoids, and some newer compounds including alpha lipoic acid, arginine, and carnitine.
- Herbs may also be of benefit. These include Panax ginseng, ginkgo biloba, green tea, fenugreek, gymnema sylvestre, bitter melon, and garlic.
Just balancing this one hormone - insulin - can have wide-ranging effects on all your other hormones and brain chemicals and is a great place to start on your path to vibrant health.
Just try these suggestions for 1 week and see how you feel - you may be shocked at how quickly your body can recover.

Cancer Cure

This is here more as an archive item than anything else.  I want to be able to find it for future reference.  Compelling but full of questions.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/228583-Scientists-cure-cancer-but-no-one-takes-notice

What’s the Problem, Officer?

 

The Problem With Autocorrect

 

The worship of female pleasure

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/05/21/slow_sex/index.html

Mortgage Firms Defrauded Taxpayers

Paul Sakuma / AP Photo

Federal investigators have concluded that the nation’s five biggest mortgage lenders defrauded taxpayers in their handling of foreclosures on homes purchased with government-back loans, officials said Monday. The five audits investigated Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Ally Financial, sources said. The audits found that the banks cheated taxpayers by filing for federal reimbursement on foreclosed homes that then sold for less than the outstanding loan balance—and filed defective and faulty documents to the Federal Housing Administration to obtain the reimbursement. The internal watchdog group at the Department of Housing and Urban Development—the department that conducted the audit—will now turn the audits over to the Department of Justice, which will then decide whether or not to press charges.

It Can be Hard Keeping a Straight Face as a COURT REPORTER

 

These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
 
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS:     He said, 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY:  And why did that upset you?
WITNESS:     My name is Susan!
____________________________________________
 

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS:     Yes.
ATTORNEY:  And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS:     I forget..
ATTORNEY:  You forget?  Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________
 
 
ATTORNEY:  Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS:  Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________
 
ATTORNEY:  The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS:      He's 20, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________
 
ATTORNEY:  Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS:     Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________
  (My Favorite)
ATTORNEY:  So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS:     Yes.
ATTORNEY:  And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS:     Getting laid
____________________________________________
  (Another favorite)
ATTORNEY:  She had three children, right?
WITNESS:     Yes.
ATTORNEY:  How many were boys?
WITNESS:    None.
ATTORNEY:   Were there any girls?
WITNESS:      Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________
 
ATTORNEY:  How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS:     By death…
ATTORNEY:  And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS:     Take a guess.
____________________________________________
 
ATTORNEY:  Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS:     He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY:  Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS:     Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
_____________________________________
 
ATTORNEY:  Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS:  No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
 
ATTORNEY:  Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS:     All of them... The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________
 
ATTORNEY:  ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS:     Oral...
_________________________________________
 
ATTORNEY:  Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS:     The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY:  And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS:     If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________
 
  
And last:
ATTORNEY:  Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS:     No.
ATTORNEY:  Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS:     No.
ATTORNEY:  Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS:     No…
ATTORNEY:  So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS:     No.
ATTORNEY:  How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS:     Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY:  I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS:     Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Matthew Perry Going Back to Rehab

 

Matthew Perry can’t even announce he is going to rehab without making a joke. The Friends and Mr. Sunshine actor said Thursday he is going to rehab as a pre-emptive measure in his continuing recovery. “I’m making plans to go away for a month to focus on my sobriety and to continue my life in recovery,” Perry said. “Please enjoy making fun of me on the World Wide Web.” Perry has been in rehab twice before, for prescription drug abuse in 1997 and in 2001. Despite a trip to rehab, a source insisted, “There was no relapse,” and said the stay is purely proactive.

Google Explains Live After the Desktop

 

Google announced the availability of two Chromebooks — laptops based on Google’s Chrome OS — at the Google I/O conference Wednesday, but the hardware specifications of those machines are almost completely irrelevant.

According to Google, what makes these laptops interesting is not what they have, it’s what they lack: programs, messy desktops or locally stored documents. A Chromebook is not really a laptop, and it’s not really a computer, Google claims. It’s the web in a “computer-like object” and if you believe Google, “you can do everything on the web.”

Of course, the lack of desktop software does have some benefits, such as a startup time as fast as 8 seconds. Furthermore, the fact that your files are stored in Google’s cloud mean they’re quite safe: You can literally throw your Chromebook into a river and you won’t lose your stuff.

The question, however, is whether the world is ready to completely move into the cloud? According to Google’s own notice on the official Chromebooks features page, “when you do not have network access, functionality that depends on it will not be available.”

 

And here’s another story on the subject by someone who has played with the device.

40 Belief-Shaking Remarks From a Ruthless Nonconformist

 

nietzsche

If there’s one thing Friedrich Nietzsche did well, it’s obliterate feel-good beliefs people have about themselves. He has been criticized for being a misanthrope, a subvert, a cynic and a pessimist, but I think these assessments are off the mark. I believe he only wanted human beings to be more honest with themselves.

He did have a remarkable gift for aphorism — he once declared, “It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.” A hundred years after his death, Nietzsche retains his disturbing talent for turning a person’s worldview upside-down with one jarring remark.

Even today his words remain controversial. They hit nerves. Most of his views are completely at odds with the status quo.

Here are 40 unsympathetic statements from the man himself. Many you’ll agree with. Others you will resist, but these are the ones to pay the most attention to — your beliefs are being challenged. It’s either an opportunity to grow, or to insist that you already know better. If any of them hit a nerve in you, ask yourself why.

***

1. People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.

2. He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.

3. The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

4. There are no facts, only interpretations.

5. Morality is but the herd-instinct in the individual.

6. No one talks more passionately about his rights than he who in the depths of his soul doubts whether he has any.

7. Without music, life would be a mistake.

8. Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn’t.

9. In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.

10. The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

11. A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

12. We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the way in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.

13. No victor believes in chance.

14. Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

15. Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

16. It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

17. The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

18. The future influences the present just as much as the past.

19. The most common lie is that which one tells himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.

20. I counsel you, my friends: Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.

21. Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, is what makes someone a friend.

22. God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight.

23. Success has always been a great liar.

24. Nothing on earth consumes a man more quickly than the passion of resentment.

25. What do you regard as most humane? To spare someone shame.

26. Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.

27. When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.

28. When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets.

29. Whoever despises himself nonetheless respects himself as one who despises.

30. All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

31. What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome.

32. Fear is the mother of morality.

33. A politician divides mankind into two classes: tools and enemies.

34. Everyone who has ever built anywhere a new heaven first found the power thereto in his own hell.

35. There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

36. The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness.

37. The Kingdom of Heaven is a condition of the heart — not something that comes upon the earth or after death.

38. What is the mark of liberation? No longer being ashamed in front of oneself.

39. Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you.

40. We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.

Ashton Kutcher to Replace Charlie Sheen on ‘Two and Half Men’: Report

 

Ashton Kutcher is set to replace Charlie Sheen on CBS’ Two and Half Men, two sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. The former star of That '70s Show is reportedly putting the final touches on a contract that will net him a “huge payday,” though no specific number has been revealed. Since Sheen’s public-relations fiasco got him axed from the successful sitcom, CBS has been looking for a big-name replacement to keep the show, a cash cow, running, and reportedly considered Hugh Grant as well. Executive Producer Chuck Lorre, who publicly feuded with Sheen, is said to be “really happy” with the Kutcher deal. Ashton himself has remained mum, cryptically tweeting, “I'm starting to become convinced that people put my name in articles just to improve their SEO or hoping I'll tweet it.”

The 50 Most Important Landmarks of the World

http://www.pxleyes.com/blog/2011/05/the-50-most-important-landmarks-of-the-world/

Zooey to Fox

The New Girl (Fox)

Image: Evan Agostini / AP Photo

Zooey Deschanel, sitcom star? The feature film actress and She & Him mainstay will be joining her sister Emily (Bones) on the Fox schedule with The New Girl, a single-camera comedy written by Liz Meriwether (No Strings Attached) and directed by Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story). Deschanel plays Jessica Day, a perky fourth grade teacher, with a penchant for borrowing clothes from the lost and found, who comes home to learn that her live-in boyfriend is cheating on her... and promptly moves in with three very messy, very horny, and very single guys, who teach her more than a few things about the opposite sex. The project, which began life with the far more colorful title Chicks and Dicks, also stars Max Greenfield, Jake M. Johnson, Hannah Simone, and Damon Wayans Jr. Given Meriwether's background in the raunchy humor of the recent No Strings Attached, Deschanel's delightful presence, and direction from Kasdan—who as the son of producer Lawrence Kasdan and the director of The TV Set—knows a thing or two about television, this is one to keep an eye on. Sample line of dialogue: "Pink wine makes me slutty. One sip of pink and I'm like Fergie in the Black-Eyed Peas. I'm like the Incredible Slut."

Status of TV Shows 05/12/11

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-10/tv-upfronts-2011-abc-nbc-cbs-fox-cw-to-announce-schedules/