Sure, you can lose weight on a junk food diet, since when it comes to weight loss, "it's the calories, stupid" should be the mantra. But if your goal is to live long and prosper, then (like the vegetarian Mr. Spock), you need to eat your vegetables. Yet more evidence for this comes from a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which looked at data from the Third NHANES Follow-up Study and found that people who consumed the highest levels of alpha-carotene (found in yellowish-orange vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins, and in dark green ones like broccoli, spinach, and lettuce) had the lowest death rates from cardiovascular disease, from cancer, and from all other causes put together.

The alpha-carotene intake was measured by blood serum levels, and the relationship was dose-dependent -- meaning, the higher the alpha-carotene level, the lower the risk. Those with a serum level of 9 µg/dL or higher had a relative risk of death that was only 61% that of those whose level was 0 to 1 µg/dL.

Alpha-carotene is chemically similar to the famous beta carotene, but seems to be more protective against certain types of cancer.

The good news is that something as simple and inexpensive as eating more fruits and vegetables can lower your risk of disease. The bad news: the CDC estimates that only 32.5% of American adults get two or more servings of fruit per day, and just 26.3% get three or more vegetables a day.

The difference between sexual assault and other forms of intimate contact is informed consent. If someone has intimate contact with you, in a situation where you did not -- explictly or implictly -- consent to it, it's sexual assault.

When I go to my doctor and she snaps that latex glove and tells me to cough, that's intimate contact; I don't like it but I know what's coming and, by coming to the appointment and not objecting, I'm giving my consent. When I do massage or acupressure on the gluteal region for a client (which I sometimes do for sciatica that might arise from impingement by the piriformis muscle), I inform them what I'm going to do and give them a chance to give or withhold consent.

But when a performer in the TSA's security theater, without warning, explanation, or option, grabs a woman's genitals and breasts, that is sexual assault. Read Erin's story and weep.

Andy Harris is an incoming GOP Representative from Maryland's Eastern Shore. He defeated Democrat Frank Kratovil in part by campaigning against the health care reform act (even though Kratovil had twice voted against it), telling voters that "the answer to the ever-rising cost of insurance is not the expansion of government-run or government-mandated insurance but, instead, common-sense market based solutions that ensure decisions are made by patients and their doctors."

As a member of Congress, of course, Harris will now get government-subsidized health care. But he's upset that it doesn't start soon enough -- he was outspokenly upset to learn that his new insurance will take effect on February 1, 28 days after he's sworn into office.

“He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care,” said a congressional staffer who saw the exchange. The benefits session, held behind closed doors, drew about 250 freshman members, staffers and family members to the Capitol Visitors Center auditorium late Monday morning,”.

“Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap,” added the aide, who was struck by the similarity to Harris’s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine.

I love that last bit: yes, I think the option of purchasing insurance from the government -- a.k.a., the public option -- would be a fine idea. Funny how Harris came around to it real quick when he saw that he might have a gap in his coverage, isn't it?

Harris's spokeswoman Anna Nix later said that Harris wasn’t being hypocritical, heavens no, he was just pointing out the inefficiency of government-run health care.

For the record, members of Congress get the same health insurance options that other federal employees do, with a range of private plans including a popular Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO. But unlike my friends who work at the Goddard Space Flight Center, for example, Congresscritters and Senators can get taxpayer-subsidized treatment -- including free (to them) outpatient procedures -- by top docs in "VIP Wards" at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center (rather different care, we must note, than most wounded vets get there.)

In a recent Slashdot thread, someone asserted that the idea "The State knows best" is a "Far Left" idea. This is my refutation.

Authority ("the Church/State/Boss/Father/Mother knows best") vs. liberty ("I'll decide for myself") is orthogonal to left (the interests of people who do productive work) vs. right (the interests of people who own capital). It is certainly true that there are two main clusters in contemporary American politics; whether our two parties reflect or create this dynamic is an open question. But to understand the issues, we have to see politics as multi-dimensional. (And no, the two dimensional "Nolan Chart" used as a recruiting tool by the so-called "Libertarian Party" is just as much of a distortion.)

The contemporary mainstream American right, which we can more-or-less identify with the Republican Party, is capitalist and authoritarian. It thinks the State knows best what sort of sexual and romantic relationships you ought to be permitted to engage in, believes that the state ought to have the power of life and death over citizens (not just in the death penalty, but in opposing euthanasia laws), and fetishizes the military chain of command, where the individual submits to the moral judgment of the State as to who ought to be shot or bombed.

On economic issues, both the GOP and the "libertarian" right of the "Libertarian Party" want a state that's powerful enough to preserve the privilege of the investment class (i.e., the capitalists). You'll never hear them talk about reducing government's power to enforce and create property "rights". The mouth-noise from the GOP about "smaller government" is marketing; their idea of "smaller government" is about decreasing democratic governance and increasing state-backed private power. (It's government cops who come to evict you from "private" property.)

As a young geek, I whiled away many hours playing interactive fiction text games like Adventure (Colossal Cave), Zork, and Planetfall.

So I was quickly enchanted with this video of Jonathan Guberman and Jim Munroe's Automatypewriter. Guberman has essentially converted an old Smith-Corona into a fanciful teletype terminal for interactive fiction.

Watching the type type "by itself" reminds me of a scene from the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth", where Roberta Lincoln -- played by a young Terry Garr -- encounters a voice-operated typewriter in the office of time-traveling secret agent Gary Seven. Anyway, it's cool.