Category Archives: Popular Culture

Lost In Space

No, literally (I hate that as a title of a space article or op-ed). They’re apparently doing a reboot. I thought the show was stupid as a kid, but as my old roommate Alan Katz (and Glenn Reynolds) noted, the first season, which I missed as a kid, was actually quite dark and interesting, before it devolved into camp with the robot flailing its arms around shouting “Danger, Will Robinson.” It could be interesting. But then, I think between acclaim of The Expanse and everything exciting happening in real spaceflight, it could be new golden age for good space-based hard science fiction, in all venues.

Climate And Libel

Some thoughts on Michael Mann, the lawsuits, and the sad state of climate science, from Judith Curry.

[Update a couple minutes later]

The Fight Against Dietary Misinformation

continues:

In a recent study of 43 Latino and African American children with metabolic syndrome, for example, keeping total and calories from carbohydrate identical, a reduction from a mean of 28 per cent of calories from added sugar to 10 per cent, significantly reduced triglycerides, LDL-Cholesterol, blood pressure and fasting insulin within just ten days.

It’s been this very reliance on eminence trumping independent evidence that often stops policymakers, doctors and journalists asking the right questions while simultaneously misinforming the public.

As Albert Einstein once said, “A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth.”

The public must also realise that the overwhelming majority of dietitians have no qualification or understanding of the basics of medicine and although most doctors equally have little or no training in nutrition, it’s not rocket science to advise people to avoid eating processed food, more than 70 per cent of which now includes added sugar.

As with the tobacco industry, there’s a lot of money at stake.