The Skeptical Hypochondriac

Pull Over First

Dave — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:14:18 +0000

Here are a couple of the more popular recent posts from Tweetage Wasteland, where I examine the intersection of realtime and real life.

Pull Over Before You Read This - All of this data can wait until later – and much of it can wait until never.

The Web’s Five Most Endangered Words - Let me think about that.

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge

Dave — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:04:21 +0000

Here are some of the latest posts from Tweetage Wasteland, my blog where I examine the intersection of the realtime web and our real lives.

—- I WALKED THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE WITHOUT FACEBOOK
In 1989 I used a payphone next to Madonna … The was an era before
the internet became an umbilical cord

—- IT WAS THE OKest OF TIMES
A look at how reading and other activities might change if Facebook
continues its spread

—- TRYING TO PADLOCK A CLOUD
Everything I know about internet privacy I learned from Curb Your
Enthusiasm

—- I’M LOOKING AT THE MAN IN THE IPHONE
On Gray Powell and the case of the stolen iPhone prototype

—- I KISSED AN IPOD AND I LIKED IT
When I woke up this morning, the last thing I wanted to do was cheat on my laptop.

Memory, Addictions, Privacy, Clouds

Dave — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:04:14 +0000

Here are some of the latest highlights from Tweetage Wasteland, where I’m doing most of my blogging these days.

We All Have Photographic Memories - Do your kids remember experiences or photos of experiences?

I’m a Web Analytics Junkie - Think facebook is addictive, try this.

Is the End of Privacy the End of Shame? - Can shame survive when everyone gives up their privacy?

My Kids Refuse to Go Viral - Why can’t they be more like that kid David on the way home from the dentist?

My head is in the Cloud - the most popular post by far.

No More Getting Baked in School

Dave — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:54:33 +0000

In New York City, bake sales may soon be a thing of of the past. What’s the issue? Some folks want schools to do a better job combating childhood obesity and play less of a roll in creating it.

Whatever happened to the old cake walks? We used to walk around in a circle, sort of like musical chairs, until the music stopped and you had a winner. You exercise a little. You eat a little. All good.

Reducing Salt No Longer a Pillar of Health?

Dave — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:35:47 +0000

Salt used to be known as one of the major bad guys of an unhealthy diet. But with the increased focus on the obesity epidemic, salt has taken a backseat in terms of the marketing of a healthy lifestyle. Some politicians (like Mayor Bloomberg) and researchers think it’s time to regulate the amount of salt in foods. Others think we should keep the focus on body weight.

Jamie Oliver on Childhood Obesity at Ted

Dave — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:20:18 +0000

Celebrity cook and author Jamie Oliver has been doing a lot of work to combat childhood obesity. Here’s his very recent talk at the TED Conference. Good stuff.

Senior Moments for Juniors

Dave — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:09:50 +0000

A lot folks refer to momentary memory lapses as “senior moments.” But the truth is that senior moments can start as early as your 20s.

Memory lapses start in our 20s, though people don’t typically notice or fret about them until their 50s. In a study published last year in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, psychologists asked about 2,000 participants to solve puzzles, identify patterns and remember words and details from stories, among other memory tests. The top performers were 22 years old; researchers saw a notable decline in the ability to make rapid comparisons, remember unrelated information and detect relationships by age 27. A weakening memory can usually be detected by around age 37, according to the study. The good news was that people’s vocabulary and general knowledge increase until at least age 60.

I wonder if our memories for certain bits of information take a hit due to the increasing amount of data we face via online networks, etc. I tackled that topic over in my new blog: I Can’t Read Anything Longer than This Headline.

Real Soccer Moms

Dave — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:14:30 +0000

Think we’ve got some serious fans in the United States? Soccer fans are so serious about their teams that they often celebrate by having a ton of sex. How can we be so sure about that fact? Well, just look at the number of babies being born in Catalonia nine months after Barcelona took home top prize in Spain’s La Liga.

Fans being fans, some celebrated with a few pints of their favorite adult beverage, others engaged in another favorite adult activity — sex.

On Thursday, Reuters reported the maternity wards at hospitals in the capital of Catalonia have been jammed after an increase in births of almost 50 percent. COMRadio’s survey of area hospitals found that births this week and those expected soon are more than 45 percent above the average.

Gives new meaning to the phrase Soccer Moms.

At least now I can blame my sex life on how bad the Warriors have been playing.

Porking. Literally.

Dave — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:52:38 +0000

I think I finally understand why out State of the Union speeches always seem a little boring. Argentina’s president gives televised advice about such topics as eating pork to improve one’s sex life.

Argentina’s president recommended pork as an alternative to Viagra Wednesday, saying she spent a satisfying weekend with her husband after eating barbecued pork.

“I’ve just been told something I didn't know; that eating pork improves your sex life … I'd say it's a lot nicer to eat a bit of grilled pork than take Viagra,” President Cristina Fernandez said to leaders of the pig farming industry.

We might have to rethink pork’s status as the other white meat.

The Secrets of a Longer Life?

Dave — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:32:44 +0000

Dan Buettner studies Blue Zones, areas where people tend to have the longest lifespans. In this article and video he explains some of the things he’s discovered.

We found that all five Blue Zones possessed the same nine lifestyle characteristics. Among them: a low-meat, plant-based diet (all of them ate a lot of beans) and a ritual of “downshifting” each day. They experience the same stresses we do — kids, health, finances — but they managed it through daily prayer, meditation, ancestor veneration or city-wide happy hours (like the Sardinians).

The secret to longevity, as I see it, has less to do with diet, or even exercise, and more to do with the environment in which a person lives: social and physical. What do I mean by this? They live rewardingly inconvenient lives. They walk to the store and to their friends’ homes and they live in houses set up with opportunities to move mindlessly. They do their own yard work, hand-knead their own bread dough, and, in the case of Okinawa, get up and down off the floor several dozen times a day.

There’s more, but you probably want to walk around the block a couples times before reading it.