In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Eat Food.
Not too much.
Mostly plants.

So begins and ostensibly ends Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food a book which encourages us to pay less attention to health studies and go back to eating tradition foods that our grandmothers, or even our grandmothers grandmothers would eat.

Refined foods, Pollan argues, have lost their nutrient value leaving us over-fed but undernourished. Even with essential vitamins added back in, refined food does not compensate for real food. There is some magic in the interaction of vitamins, or perhaps, undiscovered vitamins and nutrients in real food, that we need.

Markedly there are studies comparing Western (sweet meat) diets with traditional diets. Only cultures eating the Western diet suffer from high rates of Western diseases like cancer, heart disease, and tooth decay. Diseases that enter developing countries when they adopt the diet.

Spend more and eat less, Pollan concludes. Keep food food, make it part of your culture, eat well, live well.

Buy In Defense of Food from Amazon

For more food health visit my website HealthAliciousNess.

Michael Crichton - Next

Michael Crichton's Next is a novel which highlights some of the current issues of genetics from the creation of transgenic animals to gene patenting.

The novel taught me things which I had not before thought about, including the question, what is a gene? Turns out scientists are still battling for one final definition.

Crichton's novels are entertaining and educational works, and he concludes Next leaving the reader with his stated opinions. Namely, Crichton opposes gene patenting as he feels anything occurring in nature, like a tree or a leaf, cannot be owned (in the sense of intellectual property, you can't patent a leaf...). Crichton also feels that patenting actually hinders capitalism and product creation due to unrealistic licensing fees.

As for the issue of cloning and transgenic animals, Crichton sees no point in trying to ban it since no attempt at controlling human behavior has worked thus far. People find a way to do what they want to do, and so it might as well be out in the open, where we can at least know about it and possibly regulate it.

I agree with Crichton on both points.

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Consumer Culture

Bit of a down ending, but not bad otherwise.

The Häggström diagrams

The Häggström diagrams on wikipedia display various effects and conditions on the human body, below is love, click here for more.

The Hourglass

The Hourglass is a blog carnival dedicated to the science of aging.

Check out the latest edition here.

David Wiesner

At the library I stumbled upon a book which had been placed out on display. Printed in aquatic ink, lay the title "Flotsam".

The book contained no words, just fantastic images of a day at the beach and life in the oceans. Below is a taste of what can be found. I checked out the book to keep in my home and show to people who drop by.




Buy from Amazon
or check it out at your local library.

Julia Nunes

I have been a fan of Julia Nunes for some time now. A natural actress and talented musician Julia rose to fame on youtube and now has put out two albums which are for sale on her website here:
http://www.junumusic.com/products.php

Camille Dalmais

Camille Dalmais is a French singer/songwriter.

Here she is preforming a version of la demeure d'un ciel using nothing but her voice and a loop pedal. An amazing performance!



Buy her album from Amazon