TampaYankee

This country is so fucked up when it comes to heath care. Between the special interests vested in the present system and the political agendas that seek to use health care to achieve other goals, we are going to end up worse than many many third world nations. We are already there. Take a look at Singapore for one. There are many successes elsewhere that we fail to study closely and try to adapt to American needs because they were not invented here by us or because they gore the ox of some special interest. Or because they solve the problem of universal medical care with selection of private or public plans that permit one to choose their own doctors and hospitals, at half the cost, thus removing it as an issue to push other agendas.

Bristol is playing with fire here. Public defamation can have strong legal consequences. It can also affect Levi too if pressed. This may have severe consquences for one or both of them.

I never found a hammock that didn't kill my back. When I was younger (Boy Scouts) my head was enamored of hammocks, my back not so much.

Is there any relationship between your seeing again and giving your mis-shapened right hand a rest?

I have eamiled Oz to alert him to this issue. He has the books on premium upgrades.

That's exactly why I chose that diet. I never could exist well on grass and teaspoon-portioned servings of meats, starchy vegetables and breads or desserts. For me, a little was worse than none. After the first two weeks on Atkins without the forbidden foods, feelings of deprivation abated and foregoing them was no big deal. After you reach your goal you can put some carbs back in to your diet. That's true even on the diet after the intial two to three weeks. Ultimately, 50-60 grams a day were recommended for maintenance, if I remember correctly. That can be done with eating unprocessed grains, vegetables and fruit. Whatever diet is adopted to achieve the desired weight, the exercise usually ends in failure eventually for two reasons. Ultimately, discipline wanes in the dieter during the diet or after the goal is reached. 1. The dieter strays from the food regimen needed to maintain a steady desired weight and/or 2. the dieter slacks off or never engages in the regular physical activity needed to lower the body's natural set point which is an equlibrium weight associated with the individuals basal metabolism. Exercise increases metabolism which lowers the natural weight set point. As for the gall bladder concern, I have no answer for that. The Adkins diet does challenge the gall bladder. My second time on it some twenty years later I did watch the fats. I did not eliminate them but I did not splurge on them as I did the first time around. That made living with the diet a little more challenging as it cut into the variety I could avail myself of. Which diet is appropriate is an individual choice. As you say one size doesn't fit all. However, it is true that not all calories are the same.

Pretty amazing production accomplishment considering this seems not to be a big money production project.

Finally!! An honest informative article on the true story about calories. After decades of stupid advice and information from so-called nutritionists, a sane article that explains that not all calories are equal. It pissed me off reading or hearing such lame-assed claims from so-called experts. It was clear to me they were motivated by dogma instead of research. I learned that when I tried the first Atkins diet in the early 70's. I was amazed to find that I could lose 87 pounds in 7 months without counting calories. I ate as much as I wanted as long as it wasn't carbs. Blood pressure, blood sugar and triglycerides fell with the weight. I'm not sure about the ascribed faults to artifical sweetners mentioned in the article and elsewhere. I consume my share and I don't notice any desire to splurge elsewhere to make up for lost calories. Others might react differently.

The Truth About Calories By Clint Carter, Men's HealthThu, Jun 02, 2011 You can't go anywhere without being confronted by calories. Restaurants now print calorie counts on menus. You go to the supermarket and there they are, stamped on every box and bottle. You hop on the treadmill and watch your "calories burned" click upward. But just what are calories? The more calories we take in, the more flab we add—and if we cut back on them, then flab starts to recede too, right? After all, at face value, calories seem to be the factor by which all foods should be judged. But if that were true, 500 calories of parsnips would equal 500 calories of Double Stuf Oreos. Not quite. There's nothing simple about calories. Learn the distinctions and lose the lard. Myth #1: Calories Fuel Our Bodies Actually, they don't A calorie is simply a unit of measurement for heat; in the early 19th century, it was used to explain the theory of heat conservation and steam engines. The term entered the food world around 1890, when the USDA appropriated it for a report on nutrition. Specifically, a calorie was defined as the unit of heat required to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. To apply this concept to foods like sandwiches, scientists used to set food on fire (really!) and then gauge how well the flaming sample warmed a water bath. The warmer the water, the more calories the food contained. (Today, a food's calorie count is estimated from its carbohydrate, protein, and fat content.) In the calorie's leap to nutrition, its definition evolved. The calorie we now see cited on nutrition labels is the amount of heat required to raise 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius. Here's the problem: Your body isn't a steam engine. Instead of heat, it runs on chemical energy, fueled by the oxidation of carbohydrates, fat, and protein that occurs in your cells' mitochondria. "You could say mitochondria are like small power plants," says Maciej Buchowski, Ph.D., a research professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University medical center. "Instead of one central plant, you have several billion, so it's more efficient." Your move: Track carbohydrates, fats, and protein—not just calories—when you're evaluating foods. Myth #2: All Calories Are Created Equal Not exactly Our fuel comes from three sources: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. "They're handled by the body differently," says Alan Aragon, M.S., a Men's Health nutrition advisor. So that old "calories in, calories out" formula can be misleading, he says. "Carbohydrates, protein, and fat have different effects on the equation." Example: For every 100 carbohydrate calories you consume, your body expends 5 to 10 in digestion. With fats, you expend slightly less (although thin people seem to break down more fat than heavy people do). The calorie-burn champion is protein: For every 100 protein calories you consume, your body needs 20 to 30 for digestion, Buchowski says. Carbohydrates and fat give up their calories easily: They're built to supply quick energy. In effect, carbs and fat yield more usable energy than protein does. Your move: If you want to lose weight, make protein a priority at every meal. Adding them to snacks—especially before you exercise—can help too. Try these 5 perfect protein-packed gym-ready snacks. Myth #3: A Calorie Ingested is a Calorie Digested It's not that simple Just because the food is swallowed doesn't mean it will be digested. It passes through your stomach and then reaches your small intestine, which slurps up all the nutrients it can through its spongy walls. But 5 to 10 percent of calories slide through unabsorbed. Fat digestion is relatively efficient—fat easily enters your intestinal walls. As for protein, animal sources are more digestible than plant sources, so a top sirloin's protein will be better absorbed than tofu's. Different carbs are processed at different rates, too: Glucose and starch are rapidly absorbed, while fiber dawdles in the digestive tract. In fact, the insoluble fiber in some complex carbs, such as that in vegetables and whole grains, tends to block the absorption of other calories. "With a very high-fiber diet, say 60 grams a day, you might lose as much as 20 percent of the calories you consume," says Wanda Howell, Ph.D., a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Arizona. So a useful measure of calories is difficult. A lab technician might find that a piece of rock candy and a piece of broccoli have the same number of calories. But in action, the broccoli's fiber ensures that the vegetable contributes less energy. A study in the Journal of Nutrition found that a high-fiber diet leaves roughly twice as many calories undigested as a low-fiber diet does. And fewer calories means less flab. Your move: Aim to consume at least 35 to 40 grams of fiber every day. That being said, not all fiber is created equal. Read "The Truth About Fiber" to find out even more need-to-know facts about this nutrient. Myth #4: Exercise Burns Most of Our Calories Not even close Even the most fanatical fitness nuts burn no more than 30 percent of their daily calories at the gym. Most of your calories burn at a constant simmer, fueling the automated processes that keep you alive—that is, your basal metabolism, says Warren Willey, D.O., author of Better Than Steroids. If you want to burn fuel, hit the gas in your everyday activities. "Some 60 to 70 percent of our total caloric expenditure goes toward normal bodily functions," says Howell. This includes replacing old tissue, transporting oxygen, mending minor shaving wounds, and so on. For men, these processes require about 11 calories per pound of body weight a day, so a 200-pound man will incinerate 2,200 calories a day—even if he sat in front of the TV all day. And then there are the calories you lose to N.E.A.T., or nonexercise activity thermo-genesis. N.E.A.T. consists of the countless daily motions you make outside the gym—the calories you burn while making breakfast, playing Nerf football in the office, or chasing the bus. Brandon Alderman, Ph.D., director of the exercise psychophysiology lab at Rutgers University, says emerging evidence suggests that "a conscious effort to spend more time on your feet might net a greater calorie burn than 30 minutes of daily exercise." Need more suggestions? Here are 4 ways to harness the power of N.E.A.T. Your move: Take frequent breaks from your desk (and couch) to move your body and burn bonus calories. Myth #5: Low-Calories Foods Help You Lose Weight Not always Processed low-calorie foods can be weak allies in the weight-loss war. Take sugar-free foods. Omitting sugar is perhaps the easiest way to cut calories. But food manufacturers generally replace those sugars with calorie-free sweeteners, such as sucralose or aspartame. And artificial sweeteners can backfire. One University of Texas study found that consuming as few as three diet sodas a week increases a person's risk of obesity by more than 40 percent. And in a 2008 Purdue study, rats that ate artificially sweetened yogurt took in more calories at subsequent meals, resulting in more flab. The theory is that the promise of sugar—without the caloric payoff—may actually lead to overeating. "Too many people are counting calories instead of focusing on the content of food," says Alderman. "This just misses the boat." Your move: Avoid artificial sweeteners and load up your plate with the bona fide low-calorie saviors: fruits and vegetables. See orginal article for embedded links to more information: http://health.yahoo.net/rodale/MH/the-truth-about-calories

Suicide is a leading cause of death in young adults. Much of it rooted in depression, some in drugs. Then there are the unintended overdoses. Whatever the reason it is all very sad.

A truly sad story for a promising young man.

This is have to wait for Oz to check in. He has the keys to the database.

I love that Robert Ludlum manages to send, from the grave, fresh copy to his publisher.

I got a wonderful offer in the mail yesterday from Verizon -- a $100 rebate on top of any other rebate already available on any of their $4G phones. There were sexy phone photos, and priced from 29.99 to 249.99 before any rebate. Of course they all required re-upping for two years and a data package. Went directly to the circular file. I cannot conceive of signing up for internet service through one of these metered portals. Someone posted in another thread that such service will be free in 10-20 years. Yeah!! Not as long as telecom's exist. But then who would provide the free service?

I think that anticipates something that certainly isn't clear at this point. No discord between husband and wife has even been hinted at for now. I'd wait for some smoke before I'd yell fire. I doubt this would upset most marriages of real substance given that transgressions were limited to fantasy indiscretions. That doesn't mean there won't be time served in the dog house. It also doesn't mean that all marriages would weather this storm. Well, you have just condemned potentially thousands of escorts and porn models to that same miserable fate. I see nothing wrong with either profession so I can't fault them for it myself. I find it uncomfortable to hold inconsistent values. For me, the much bigger transgression is lying to the press and public and staff and colleagues. The middle-school-boy level transgressions only rise to the level of stupid.

First I've heard of it too. Expat, best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

Absolutely stunning photography. Probably color enhanced but stunning nevertheless.

Amen. I get visions of Technology Big Brother having ultimate control over all of our lives through access and control of all information about us. I prefer to have my own data storage and my own software on my own computer. I know that even with this, privacy is a fiction. Nevertheless, I prefer to keep it as difficult as possible to let others access all of my information, especially for a central broadly scoped entity. When ones gives away responsibility for maintaing one's own life, one cannot be surprised when he is no longer in control of it.

I'm not sure how this adds anything bur irony maybe. She has done nothing wrong in getting pregnant. He has done nothing wrong getting her pregnant. This is all pretty much normal behavior. What's wrong with that now?

Ditto

This whole story starts and ends with Anthony Weiner. It is not the woman's fault, whatever she may have done or sold. It is not the Republicans' fault (or Breitbart), whatever joy they take in it. It is not the other Democrats fault for any lack of support or backroom glee they may enjoy. If Weiner really had his eye on Mayor of NYC then the poeple are probably better off for this episode for having a candidate with such poor judgement exposed early on. It plays out with Weiner serving out his term, then his seat vaporizes in redistricting unless explicit photos are definitely tied to him. Maybe he resigns but I don't really see any benefit to him in that unless it is to avoid the shame of explicit photos. If he runs for Mayor then the people will have the facts about his judgement when they decide. Added: Eplicit photos purported to be of him are out. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/08/anthony-weiner-penis-photo_n_873182.html If this is of him then he has no more common sense than a hormone-raging middle-schooler, which is, unfrotunately, not unique for politicians it seems.

Cervical cancer is caused by a virus similar to HPV. It is not surprising that that viruses might lurk on an uncut penis more readily that on a cut penis. Hygiene of a cut penis is easier to maintain.

BFD! I have no issue with the Family Values types boycotting Diseny Gay Days and warning others of like mind. The last thing I'd want is to be surrounded by uptight people with sticks up their asses. As for threatening Disney with a boycott, well... that is just stupid and they have already found in the past that doesnt work. Might as well swear off water the rest of your life. Disney is just toooo big a draw to everyone.

Apply cold compresses to lower the heat when viewing those forums or review your parental contorls settings.

It is such a nonstory. I don't know the source for ZZ's photos but if they are of Weiner's weiner then I'd be happy to buy him a few drinks. Sadly, it appears he doesn't swing that way. More seriously, I wouldn't have thought anything of the Vitter story either and some others if it weren't for the hypocracy that the family values guys wrap themselves in. BTW, what is it with politicans that cannot keep their mouths shut, so to speak, on twitter and facebook accounts? It is dumb enough to do some of the things they do. It is even dummer to do it online.