In the lecture today...

[den]

The lecturer asked "Does anyone still use the command line?"

I put up my hand.

"That's a surprise," he said. "Usually only those over 40 still use the command line."

All the kiddies in the class pointed at me. I sank under the table.

Because of the bad audio system he thinks everyone has names other than the one we actually have. I'm Ben (Den) and there's Darrel (Jarred), Stuart (Gerard) and Nigel (Nigel). So we call him Popping. It all works out in the end.


And now, this:

Now you may think I'm being overly obvious here - everyone knows TV dinners are bad for you, right? This is true, but Swanson's new breakfast takes it to a level which previously could only be achieved by eating entire alternate universes made only of prosciutto. I'm being totally serious - I'm obsessed with reading those stupid nutritional labels on everything in the supermarket, and to date, I've never seen anything quite so decidedly heart-killing than Swanson's Hungry Man Breakfast.

Perfect for Fat Tuesday.

Comments

[level-head.livejournal.com]

One: Never be ashamed to have learned something more than others.

Two: Be careful about joining in with others to bash something--you should learn more than others.

Consider:
Humans do not absorb cholesterol very well from food. They MAKE it from precursor molecules. Pieces, basically.

The cholesteral molecule is physically quite large, and the pieces are able to pass through the small intestine membranes (of the villi) much more easily.

Humans tend to DEPRESS the serum cholesterol based on having a fairly large amount in the diet--it triggers a feedback loop that suggests that there's no need to "hoard" it.

To eliminate cholesteral in food, one common strategy is to break it down into the precursor molecules. They can then say "100% cholesteral free"--but do you see the problem with this?

The consumer gets less cholesterol in the diet--and this triggers the hoarding mechanism--and there is a plentiful supply of precursors, easily absorbed, to make cholesterol from internally.

Demonstration, anecdotal but important to ME. I eat a LARGE amount of cholesteral heavy foods--two or three dozen eggs a week on average. I enjoy steaks frequently, as Mako and Scott Kellogg can attest. I avoid "health foods" as a general thing.

And my cholesteral level runs between 66 and 88, which puts me in the bottom 2% to 5% of all humans. Average is 200 to 250 or so. A doctor, commenting on this, had never seen it so low in anyone, and he advised me to eat some eggs or something. ];-)

Very low cholesteral levels are occasionally caused by other genetic curiosities, but mine was over 200 before I read the research on this topic--about 30 years ago--and decided to radically increase my egg intake.

Even when I was a hundred pounds heavier, less than ten years ago, it was about 140.

Be careful of bandwagons--they aren't generally going in good directions. And you cannot steer.

===|==============/ Level Head

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I just thought it was a funny article. I eat steak and I LOVE lamb chops. I scarf down fish and chips. If someone says not to eat eggs or drink milk, I think "That can't be right." I'll happily eat a whole avocado. My cholesterol level is a fraction over normal but nothing, my doctor says, that can't be fixed with a little exercise. (5.6mmol/L I don't know how that translates to the old system. 5.5 is normal)

Breakfast today was an egg-flip. (3 raw eggs + 2 glasses of milk in a food processor. Whip for 20 seconds until frothy)

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

You gonna jog to the Lincoln Memorial after a breakfast like that?:)

(cues Rocky Theme)

My breakfast today was braunschweiger sausage, relish, and a dab of mayo on whole grain bread.

Breakfast of non-champions!:D

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

That's disgusting! Ew! Mayo! YUUUUUUUUUCK!

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

Good, so I'm not a freak of nature. I tried cutting the majority of fat out of my diet, and GAINED WEIGHT. So now I eat what I want, when I want..I find my body is much better at figuring out what I need rather than a team of experts. But that's just me, the sugar-addict bat.

Re:

[level-head.livejournal.com]

The information in scientific studies is often "sensationalized" by the media. And scientists are not above spinning things to their own biases, although this behavior will get 'em talked about.

Batty Den and I were discussing a few weeks ago that your type--the megachirpterans or giant fruit bats--seem to be a branch of the primate tree and evolved flight independently of the microbats.

And--I still use the command line. 4dos, specifically--it's on every box I own.

"Real programmers use COPY CON > PROGRAM.COM."
];-)

===|==============/ Level Head