Is Weight Loss Associated with Increased Risk of Early Mortality?

Category: Obesity Research
Posted on: March 15, 2010 11:42 AM, by Peter Janiszewski

The current recommendations from major health organizations stipulate that if an individual has a BMI in the obese range (>30 kg/m2), they should be counseled to lose at least 5-10% of their body weight. This advice appears to make some sense given that increasing body weight is generally associated with heightened risk of various diseases, and that reduction of body weight usually improves levels of risk factors for disease (e.g blood pressure, triglycerides, etc). However, the literature has been much more complicated in terms of the effect of weight loss on risk of early mortality.

There is often no alternative but thinking in terms of a “second” or “third” best. But that thinking is more soundly directed if done in terms of an image of what the “first” best would be, and how the “second” and “third” bests might be designed to move in the direction of that “first” best, or at least not to be in contradiction with it.

via .Too Good for the Comments: Ebeling on Mises the Applied Economist

Google Adds Cycling Routes to Their Maps!

Category: Research
Posted on: March 12, 2010 12:20 PM, by Travis Saunders

Regular readers of Obesity Panacea will know that I am a huge fan of active transportation (e.g. walking or cycling to work, rather than commuting by vehicle).  I just can’t say enough good things about it.  It often takes about the same amount of time as commuting by vehicle, plus it ensures that you’re getting at least some physical activity on even the busiest days.  Even just taking transit instead of driving yourself increases your chances of meeting the daily physical activity guidelines, since transit trips almost always involve some walking on either end of the trip (for more info on the transit/physical activity link, click here).

via ScienceBlogs.com:Obesity Panacea: Google Adds Cycling Routes to Their Maps!

Code is expendable; developers aren’t
Finally, companies should evaluate their software investments for what they are: short-term assets. The intellectual property value of any one version of a custom Web application is minimal. Far more valuable are the developers who built it, because they’re the ones who will be asked to rewrite it in response to the ever-changing business and technology landscapes.

Google and Microsoft, among others, understand the value of hiring, retaining, and incentivizing good developers, and they do it well. It’s a shame that so many companies promote their best programming brains into needless middle-management positions or allow them to leave the field entirely, rather than retaining them for their value as developers.
via Lessons from a lost decade: Developing for a disposable Web

5. Free Booze! Free Sex! A lot of companies sponsor parties, so as long as you have a pass, it’s pretty easy to go the entire five days without ever paying for a single drink or meal. Plus with all the young singles everywhere, everybody’s trying to get laid. X-thousand geek twenty-somthings trying to hook up en masse is pretty entertaining to watch. By Sunday or Monday everybody’s a basket case. Which is why the veterans are always telling the newbies, “Pace Yourself”.

via notes on sxsw 2010 | gapingvoid.

Culture Matters to Entrepreneurship

Culture Matters

All through childhood and adolescence you are a sponge absorbing cultural stimuli. From local billboard advertisements, to school curriculum stylized to your country; from conversations with your parents about the ways of the world to the thousands of local customs that dictate proper behavior in restaurants, queues, airports, homes, and driving on the road.

Culture matters. That's the title of a compelling set of essays on whether some cultures are better at creating freedom, prosperity, and justice. It is politically incorrect to chalk up massive societal failures in places like Africa to culture — besides, the situation is always more complex than a single factor — but it seems safe to assert that the culture you come up in affects how you think.

via Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Culture Matters to Entrepreneurship.

Bottom Line: The sorry truth is that “colleges remain indifferent to how well they help students learn, graduate, and succeed in the workplace.” And “like the church…they see themselves as occupying an exalted place in human society, for which they are owed deference and gratitude.” We should demand that all data around the effectiveness of colleges at teaching students be made public and easily searchable so that consumers of higher education can make more informed choices.

via Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Colleges Work to Maintain an Information Deficit About Their Effectiveness.

7 Mistakes That Prolong The Misery Of A Breakup:

1. Why can’t we be friends? This sounds nice but in reality an ex does not make a true friend, especially immediately after the breakup.

2. I must have closure. Closure can be difficult to obtain no matter how many conversations one has. The best closure can come from resisting the urge for dialogue and moving on.

3. I just need to make sense of it all, and I just have one more thing to say before you go. Another version of closure and another reason to stay in contact when in reality this just gives your ex another opportunity to hurt you. Not fun.

via Half-heartedly, 7 Mistakes That Prolong The Misery Of A Breakup:.

So:

Use caffeine for short-term performance on a focused task (such as an exam).

Avoid caffeine for tasks that require broad creativity and long-term learning.

(Disclaimer: The greater altertness, larger short-term memory capacity, and eased recall might make the memories you do make of higher quality.)

via Less Wrong: Coffee: When it helps, when it hurts.

Voters to go for candidates who promote contraceptives –surveys

---

by Lilita Balane, Newsbreak | 03/12/2010 7:03 PM

MANILA, Philippines – Most Filipino voters would choose presidential candidates who openly support a national family planning law, according to surveys released on Friday by 2 major polling firms.

The surveys were commissioned by 2 different groups advocating family planning.

In the survey on family planning conducted by Pulse Asia, more than 6 out 10 (or 64%) of respondents said they would vote for candidates who promote the use of contraceptives.

In Congress, the provision for government funding for contraceptives has been the most divisive part of the reproductive health bill, which lawmakers failed to put to vote in almost a decade.

Now, an election year, Pulse Asia’s survey also shows that about 75% of the voters  deem important that family planning be included in a candidate’s program of action.

Only 6% of the respondents in the February 21-25 survey, said that they will not support candidates backing modern family planning; 30% are undecided. The survey interviewed 1,800 respondents, and has ± 2% nationwide margin of error.

via Voters to go for candidates who promote contraceptives –surveys | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.