Relaxed Focus: May 11, 2014

Saturday, May 17, 2014

"Something good. Something bad. Bit of both."

"When people say “You’ve changed” there’s a 95% chance that you just stopped acting the way they wanted you to." - Anonymous

Reality Show President: Inside the White House PR Machine - Hit & Run : Reason.com:

"The White House has effectively become a broadcast company," says Michael Shaw, publisher of Bagnewsnotes.com, a site dedicated to the analysis of news images. Shaw explains how strategically composed photos, taken by official White House photographers, travel from social media sites that are controlled by the administration to the front pages of newspapers around the world."

Comment Of The Week: Deere John:

"Wife just called asking where lawnmower key was. I recognize this now for what it is. A shit test for me to say, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll do it when I get home.” But, I told her where the key was and to have fun. Haha. I could tell she wasn’t ready for that. She responded a few comments about hopefully being able to figure it out (again more guilt-loaded shit tests to get me to say I’d do it). I told her to have fun and she’d learn a thing or two. She replied, “Well, does it have any gas in it?” (another attempt) I replied, I don’t know, but fill it up if it needs it.” She replied, “No, I don’t want to fill it up with gas.” See, she wanted the grass cut. She didn’t care about how busy I am or how many other priorities I have in front of the grass. She wanted appeasement on the grass, plain and simple, but she didn’t think it was worthy of her time to fill it up with gas. Think of that... She didn’t feel it was worth one minute of her time to fill up the lawn mower, but an hour of my time cutting the grass with it was."

Sketch card...: "Sketch card of Bane from Gail Simone’s Secret Six"

COSPLAY - Comic Con 2013 - Steampunk batgirl...: "by -Mike Rollerson Photography- "

Best Transformers Cosplayer Ever Turns From A Robot Into A Rolling Car:

"Granted, this is a new car form for Bumblebee, and the performer doesn't use any acts of contortion to "transform," but it still brings a smile to the faces of the curious children who flock to him. And we're all smiles, too. The Detroit Free Press has an interview with the performer, Joslyn Paige, who explains that he made the costume over the course of five weeks for $700-800."

"Just... everything."

Cloud computers are computers you can only use with someone else's permission - Boing Boing:

"As Adobe Creative Suite struggles with its license-server outage, stranding creative professionals around the world without a way of earning their living, a timely reminder: a cloud computer is a computer you're only allowed to use if the phone company and a DRM-peddling giant like Adobe gives you permission, and they can withdraw that permission at any time."

Helpful. An Introvert's Guide to Surviving a Weekend with Strangers:

Best scene of the episode, really.

Does Gluten Intolerance Exist?:

"First, what is gluten intolerance? Unlike Celiac which is an autoimmune condition triggered by the protein gluten (gliadan to be specific) non celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) has been hypothesized to be an innate immune response which causes GI distress and inflammation. Recent research (please DO read that whole paper) suggests that gluten may in fact not be the culprit here, but rather FODMAPS."

FODMAP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"FODMAPs are short chain carbohydrates (oligosaccharides), disaccharides, monosaccharides and related alcohols that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine. These include short chain (oligo-) saccharide polymers of fructose (fructans) and galactose (galactans), disaccharides (lactose), monosaccharides (fructose), and sugar alcohols (polyols) such as sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol and maltitol. The term FODMAP is an acronym, deriving from "Fermentable, Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides And Polyols." The restriction of these FODMAPs from the diet has been found to have a beneficial effect for sufferers of irritable bowel syndrome and other functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID)."

Does Gluten Intolerance Exist?:
"...some of the largest dietary sources of FODMAPs — specifically bread products — are removed when adopting a gluten-free diet, which could explain why the millions of people worldwide who swear by gluten-free diets feel better after going gluten-free...

So, “millions of people world-wide” feel better from a gluten free diet, the lead researcher is pretty sure “something is going on,” these effects may extend well beyond intestinal issues…but we are all goofy for tinkering with this stuff and it has ONLY been driven by a profit motive? newsFlash for RCS: That this research occurs AT ALL is due to the volume of people playing with this topic. Might it be mainly FODMAPS and not NCGS? The study that Biesiekierski put together is VERY good and quite compelling. You need to let the data speak for itself but it’s ironic that the problematic foods (let’s say bread in this case) is still, well, a problem.

Here are some thoughts/questions in no particular order: -Why was celiac prevalence at one point written in stone as about 1/1,000 and is now in the 1/140 range? -Is it a terrible thing to suggest a gluten free (and low FODMAP) diet to the scores of people who suffer GI problems? -If people have a health problem, should they wait until “all the research” is in?"