Friday, May 18, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Bonobos
Whenever I learn something astounding, my initial reaction is "why didn't anyone tell me?" Well, just couple days ago, I didn't know a single thing about bonobos, and now that I do, I am absolutely flabbergasted. Why don't they teach about bonobos in schools? Why aren't people writing about bonobos in their blogs? Why aren't we talking about them in bars? Why didn't I know about bonobos before?
If you didn't know what bonobos are, they are apes, previously known as pygmy Chimpanzees. But scientists now consider them to be a different species of great apes.
What makes bonobos so astounding are their similarities to us. Some studies suggest that bonobos genes are 99.4% identical to humans. Although I'm slightly skeptical of this statistic, there is no way of denying that two species are incredibly close to one another.
Take a look at this video, for instance. For the first half of the video, the bonobos are having sex, and the eerie part is, they are facing each other. Not only that, but look at them walk around in their hind legs, just like humans. How are people not fascinated by this, I will never understand.
Another clip of bonobos in love. They gaze at each other, they hold hands, hug, and kiss (not so much in this video), just like human beings.
And if you want to learn more, since my three days worth of bonobo research is far from expert knowledge, there's always TED:
If you didn't know what bonobos are, they are apes, previously known as pygmy Chimpanzees. But scientists now consider them to be a different species of great apes.
What makes bonobos so astounding are their similarities to us. Some studies suggest that bonobos genes are 99.4% identical to humans. Although I'm slightly skeptical of this statistic, there is no way of denying that two species are incredibly close to one another.
Take a look at this video, for instance. For the first half of the video, the bonobos are having sex, and the eerie part is, they are facing each other. Not only that, but look at them walk around in their hind legs, just like humans. How are people not fascinated by this, I will never understand.
Another clip of bonobos in love. They gaze at each other, they hold hands, hug, and kiss (not so much in this video), just like human beings.
And if you want to learn more, since my three days worth of bonobo research is far from expert knowledge, there's always TED:
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The Perfect Diet
This is my first post since google changed the layout of the blog. Although I do see definite improvements, I am immensely annoyed by the position of the title in the "compose" screen. It's so detached from the rest of the post, as if the title should have nothing to do with the writing.
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*Disclaimer: This blogpost is my opinion, and I am not a physician qualified to say anything about our diets.
The problem with today's diet is that people are not eating as nature intended. True, if we all went back to hunting & gathering, vast majority of us would starve to death, but the problem is the foods that we consume are so refined and extracted from its original form, that it is causing us harm.
So the diet I'm suggesting is to go back to our roots, and try to limit any refined or extracted foods. In addition, try to limit the flesh of an animal that eats foods that they weren't designed to eat. For most foods, it's not really difficult. Do you see and twinkie growing from a tree? No? then don't eat it. How about spinach? yes? then go ahead. Stuff like orange juice is a little complicated, but it's made from a concentrate, so no. What makes this really difficult is when you have things like salt. My advice is to intake as little as possible. What about sugar? Do you see sugar lying around in the nature? No, it is extracted from a sugar cane/beet. Eat strawberries instead.
Sounds nice and simple right? But it's incredibly difficult. You would have to throw out just about every food that is in a box. And since virtually all of our animals are eating corn we would have to throw all of them out except naturally caught fish (though this creates a new problem called extinction, obviously). So it sounds like being a Pesco vegetarian right? Actually it is much more difficult, because you would have to throw out white bread, white rice, pasta, and many other foods as well.
The sad reality is, this is how we were designed to eat, yet it's almost impossible to do so in this day and age. Americans consume over 150 pounds of sugar a year, in which 1/3 of it comes from added, or extracted, sugar. If you have hard time visualizing, here it is:
10 five-pound bag of sugar. That's a whole lot of sugar if you ask me. That's only a third of what average Americans consume.
So what do I mean by eating foods that we were designed to eat when we were designed to be omnivores who eat everything? Well, let's take cows for an example. Cows are designed to eat grass. It's reasonable to think so because that is what they eat in nature, and they have four stomachs for a reason. These ruminants need all four stomachs to break down the grass. So what happens when you feed these cows corn instead of grass? They'll eat it, but corn only takes one stomach to break down. That's fine you might say, they only have to use one stomach instead of four, which is better right? But the truth is, cows become sick when you feed them corn. Making their stomachs do less work will actually make them sick.
What are humans supposed to eat then? Humans are not ruminants - as omnivores, we are designed to eat all types of foods. This is fine. But the problem is, modern technology has made it possible to extract a single element from plants - like sugar, and make our own food that never existed in nature before. The problem with this is that our body doesn't have to work as hard to break down refined foods like white rice and white flour. The work is already done for us.
These foods, known as simple carbs, causes a spike in our insulin levels because the hard part - breaking down the rice - is already done for us. If you eat rice in its more natural state, it takes time for our bodies to break it down and absorb the energy. In short, white rice and other simple carbs burn like gasoline, while complex carbs burn like wood - slowly for a longer time.
My theory is that it is the same for sugars. Although some people may disagree, sugar from sugar canes probably act differently in our bodies compared to sugars from fruits because the hard part is already done for us. I believe sugar from fruits such as strawberries requires more effort and time by our bodies to digest, which helps our insulin levels stay rather constant. Hence, eating naturally occurring foods that contain sugar is fine, but extracted sugar is not.
So there it is, my perfect diet. It actually should be called the common sense diet. I mean, all I am saying is, let's eat like we were designed, whether you believe in evolution or God, to eat. Why is it so hard to do?
_______________________________________________________________________
*Disclaimer: This blogpost is my opinion, and I am not a physician qualified to say anything about our diets.
The problem with today's diet is that people are not eating as nature intended. True, if we all went back to hunting & gathering, vast majority of us would starve to death, but the problem is the foods that we consume are so refined and extracted from its original form, that it is causing us harm.
So the diet I'm suggesting is to go back to our roots, and try to limit any refined or extracted foods. In addition, try to limit the flesh of an animal that eats foods that they weren't designed to eat. For most foods, it's not really difficult. Do you see and twinkie growing from a tree? No? then don't eat it. How about spinach? yes? then go ahead. Stuff like orange juice is a little complicated, but it's made from a concentrate, so no. What makes this really difficult is when you have things like salt. My advice is to intake as little as possible. What about sugar? Do you see sugar lying around in the nature? No, it is extracted from a sugar cane/beet. Eat strawberries instead.
Sounds nice and simple right? But it's incredibly difficult. You would have to throw out just about every food that is in a box. And since virtually all of our animals are eating corn we would have to throw all of them out except naturally caught fish (though this creates a new problem called extinction, obviously). So it sounds like being a Pesco vegetarian right? Actually it is much more difficult, because you would have to throw out white bread, white rice, pasta, and many other foods as well.
The sad reality is, this is how we were designed to eat, yet it's almost impossible to do so in this day and age. Americans consume over 150 pounds of sugar a year, in which 1/3 of it comes from added, or extracted, sugar. If you have hard time visualizing, here it is:
10 five-pound bag of sugar. That's a whole lot of sugar if you ask me. That's only a third of what average Americans consume.
So what do I mean by eating foods that we were designed to eat when we were designed to be omnivores who eat everything? Well, let's take cows for an example. Cows are designed to eat grass. It's reasonable to think so because that is what they eat in nature, and they have four stomachs for a reason. These ruminants need all four stomachs to break down the grass. So what happens when you feed these cows corn instead of grass? They'll eat it, but corn only takes one stomach to break down. That's fine you might say, they only have to use one stomach instead of four, which is better right? But the truth is, cows become sick when you feed them corn. Making their stomachs do less work will actually make them sick.
What are humans supposed to eat then? Humans are not ruminants - as omnivores, we are designed to eat all types of foods. This is fine. But the problem is, modern technology has made it possible to extract a single element from plants - like sugar, and make our own food that never existed in nature before. The problem with this is that our body doesn't have to work as hard to break down refined foods like white rice and white flour. The work is already done for us.
These foods, known as simple carbs, causes a spike in our insulin levels because the hard part - breaking down the rice - is already done for us. If you eat rice in its more natural state, it takes time for our bodies to break it down and absorb the energy. In short, white rice and other simple carbs burn like gasoline, while complex carbs burn like wood - slowly for a longer time.
My theory is that it is the same for sugars. Although some people may disagree, sugar from sugar canes probably act differently in our bodies compared to sugars from fruits because the hard part is already done for us. I believe sugar from fruits such as strawberries requires more effort and time by our bodies to digest, which helps our insulin levels stay rather constant. Hence, eating naturally occurring foods that contain sugar is fine, but extracted sugar is not.
So there it is, my perfect diet. It actually should be called the common sense diet. I mean, all I am saying is, let's eat like we were designed, whether you believe in evolution or God, to eat. Why is it so hard to do?
Monday, April 9, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
1. I don't understand why it's okay for the state of Massachusetts to mandate health insurance on its denizens but the federal government can't.
2. I don't understand why the federal government can send you to a war thousands of miles away from home, especially when it really has nothing to do with national security and it was waged based on faulty evidence, but it can't mandate health insurance.
3. I don't understand why the federal government can mandate education but not health insurance.
4. I don't understand why the state of California can mandate car insurance for all drivers (virtually 100% of active working population) but the federal government can't mandate health insurance.
All this, of course, is on the assumption that the supreme court will vote Obama care unconstitutional, 5-4. (Ellito, Roberts, Clemens, Scalia, and Kennedy). I really don't like Obama care all that much, and frankly speaking, I am repulsed by the idea that the federal government is making you buy private health insurance. But isn't that what they're virtually doing already when the federal government builds freeways and buy fighter jets?
This is my idea of health care. There are two ideas, the first one being better.
1. Make it completely national, just like the education. All taxpayers must pay for their health care - it would be just like paying for education. If you don't like the insurance, you can get your own private insurance on top of the government insurance. It's like rich people (or Asians) paying for tutoring after school. This is how it works in Korea, and though it has its faults, it's much better than current American health care, and Obama care for that matter.
2. Make it completely private. It sucks but medicare and medicaid is unsustainable at this rate.
2. I don't understand why the federal government can send you to a war thousands of miles away from home, especially when it really has nothing to do with national security and it was waged based on faulty evidence, but it can't mandate health insurance.
3. I don't understand why the federal government can mandate education but not health insurance.
4. I don't understand why the state of California can mandate car insurance for all drivers (virtually 100% of active working population) but the federal government can't mandate health insurance.
All this, of course, is on the assumption that the supreme court will vote Obama care unconstitutional, 5-4. (Ellito, Roberts, Clemens, Scalia, and Kennedy). I really don't like Obama care all that much, and frankly speaking, I am repulsed by the idea that the federal government is making you buy private health insurance. But isn't that what they're virtually doing already when the federal government builds freeways and buy fighter jets?
This is my idea of health care. There are two ideas, the first one being better.
1. Make it completely national, just like the education. All taxpayers must pay for their health care - it would be just like paying for education. If you don't like the insurance, you can get your own private insurance on top of the government insurance. It's like rich people (or Asians) paying for tutoring after school. This is how it works in Korea, and though it has its faults, it's much better than current American health care, and Obama care for that matter.
2. Make it completely private. It sucks but medicare and medicaid is unsustainable at this rate.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Meet Nikkor f/2.8 24-70mm zoom lens, conveniently priced at $1,900. So $4,900 is the least amount of money I can possibly spend if I were to make a switch to D800.
This is Nikkor 14-24mm zoom lens. 24-70 will take care of my basic needs. I will take this lens with me when people ask me to take pictures of their baby or something, but 14-24 will allow me to take more creative pictures, like my landscape pictures that people love so much. ($2,000)
And a light shed would be nice, so that I can have my own studio... $80
And a macro lens (to take pictures of small things)... $1,000
And one more flash... $546
70-200mm lens... $2,300
Fisheye lens... $600
Nikon D7000 as a Travel camera, since I don't want to get mugged in Mongolia... $1,300
Sigma 10-20mm lens and Tamron 28-75: 500 + 500 = $1,000
And a new tripod... $200
Filters, batteries, accessories... $200
What is that, roughly around $14,000 ~ $15,000?
So basically, I would have to save up for almost a year, just to buy some camera equipment. The crazy part is, I'm tempted to do it.
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