More pricey than Guitar Hero III
Yeah, especially if you live in Europe. I thought Guitar Hero III was great, and I'll wait for Guitar Hero IV (with hopefully better quality instruments than Rock Band as well).
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 1:33 PM on May 29, 2008

Class Goat:The nations which do have them refused to participate.
As pompompon said, that's not true. The Netherlands also have to stop using certain munition because of this treaty.
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 6:25 AM on May 29, 2008

There is a somewhat better interface here.
I wonder what clothes people will wear in 2100.
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 6:50 AM on May 28, 2008

The strange thing is that Bisphenol A is already banned in Europe
Is that true? I cannot find anything about that, only about "maximum exposure levels", which I am sure exist in the US as well.
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 7:33 AM on May 26, 2008

Dances with Werewolves:Asking women to defend themselves is, in my opinion, part and parcel of blaming the victim by making them responsible for the crime.
If you believe that, how do you feel about the advice, that is also mentioned in this thread, that women should always trust their instincts and RUN AWAY if they feel something is wrong? Does that lead to blaming the victim too? Because the woman in this story also felt something was wrong and did nothing with... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 8:02 AM on May 7, 2008

It's not about the inanimate objects. It's about the feeling that you were violated
I agree. My house was robbed one christmas night. The next christmas, of course we stayed home. It felt a bit stupid, because we knew that the chance that there would be burglars again was small, but still, we did not feel comfortable leaving. The burglars came back. We scared them away. It was awful, I never felt really safe in that house as well. For a while after the burglaries I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 10:10 AM on December 5, 2007

If you link to yahoo answers (and the almond industry) to prove a point, I don't think you have much of a point, actually. Almonds are healthy, sure, but so are other nuts. Walnuts contain heart healthy omega 3 fatty acids, almonds not significantly. Soaking almonds increases the bioavailability of some nutrients, but decreases that of others. Take any nutrition advice on the internet with huge tablespoons of salt.
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 7:42 AM on November 27, 2007

I totally disagree with InnocentBystander. I used to be poor. I worked 40 hours a week at half minimum wage, because I was only 18 (but of course, my room was not at half rent, neither were my insurance premiums halved or did I get food at half price). I was WAY too poor to afford a car (or even a driver's license), let alone money for gasoline. Public transport is great in my country, but it does not go to the industrial areas where most of the low-paying jobs are. So, I went by bike. Even in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 10:59 AM on November 3, 2007

It is a bit strange that Harris, on one hand, says that how you raise your child does not matter at all, but on the other hand, says (in "The Nurture Assumption") that homeschooling is very dangerous because you may end up producing misfits, poorly suited for the world in which they will eventually have to live (conveniently not mentioning ANY research at all - apparently she only cites research if it is available to support her claims). If it doesn't matter what we... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 3:16 PM on October 27, 2007

Because it affects their peer group. That's one obvious way in which parents can influence their children's development: by taking actions which determine their peer group.
I understand. But still. It means that in the end Ms Harris is just another parenting book author who tells parents what to do and not to do, the exact thing she says is unneccessary, if I understand correctly.

I also think it is disingenious if you constantly emphasize... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 2:31 AM on October 28, 2007

I do not agree with most of the sentiments in this thread at all. The descriptions of borderline as an untreatable illness seem like how people looked at borderline more than a decade ago. These days borderline is not by definition untreatable. It does require a therapist with experience and special training and of course the person will have to want to change.

Furthermore: people can actually grow over it (actually, in a Dutch study, 40% of all people who were at one... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 3:37 AM on August 7, 2007

This article is so bad, I am very surprised that it got so much attention. I am also afraid that it may do much harm, because people may get the idea that it was just the soy milk and apple juice that was the problem. As if it would have been totally okay to feed a six week old baby cows milk and apple juice.

For those who are really interested: a good site about vegan nutrition and health is veganhealth.org. It is not THAT difficult to be a healthy vegan, and it is not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 5:13 PM on May 21, 2007

an infant would quite likely SURVIVE on a diet of cow's milk. That was not my argument. An infant would quite possibly not survive on a diet of cow's milk and APPLE JUICE. The analogy still stands. Also: many infants survive on soy milk just fine (see zarah's comment). Babies can certainly die if they are fed only cow's milk too. It is fundamentally different from human milk.
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 3:15 AM on May 22, 2007

Skeptic: we use soap made from vegetable oils.
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 3:20 AM on May 22, 2007

Vegans eat only vegetables because they do not want to harm animals in order to get their sustenance.
There's the straw vegan again (thanks kyrademon! That was great). Every vegan I know has heard this argument over and over again, yet somehow omnivores always seem to think they know something we don't. We know that killing animals is inevitable. I try to avoid trapping ladybugs, but I know I will kill one every once in a while. Such is life. Does that make me a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 12:56 PM on May 22, 2007

There are probably some people that need animal products indeed. I think most people just THINK they need meat, and when their problems go away after eating meat, they conclude that they do indeed need meat. They do not realize that a different vegetarian diet could also have worked. There are very, very few doctors that specialize in vegan nutrition and meat often is the easy way out to compensate for the failures of a standard western diet. If your diet contains lots of sugar and fat, you do... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 2:03 AM on May 23, 2007

As far as I can tell the high-fructose corn syrup fear is just total paranoia.
I agree. In Europe, most foods are still sweetened with sugar, and guess what, we face an obesity epidemic as well. I always cringe whenever I hear Americans talk about sugar as if it were almost a health food.
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 11:46 AM on April 23, 2007

The fact that fructose does not stimulate insulin production, combined with its unprecedented presence in our food supply in huge amounts is a very compelling one
Well, it would be, if HFCS actually contained much more fructose than sugar (sucrose). In fact, the HFCS that is used in soft drinks contains only 55% fructose. Table sugar is 50% fructose. The HFCS that is used in cookies etc. actually contains less fructose (42%) than sugar. People get confused by the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 2:46 PM on April 23, 2007

This Gillian person seems indeed way too much like a tv preacher for my tastes, but I do not agree with the Goldacre piece at all. This has nothing to do with cargo cults. McKeith does recommend a reasonably healthy diet. It's just that she gets the reasons why it is healthy wrong. She is close though. Chlorophyll is one of the reasons why leafy greens are so good for you (example). This has nothing to do with oxygen though. It also probably does not mean that a chlorophyll supplement is just... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 2:23 AM on February 19, 2007

There are pages and pages of good science showing the value of a healthy diet, and to use your example, showing us that eating your greens is associated with good health outcomes. Isn't that enough?

I agree, it is. My problem with Goldacre's piece is where he says:

How can I be sure that this phenomenal difference in life expectancy between rich and poor isn’t due to the difference in diet? Because I’ve read the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 9:12 AM on February 19, 2007

Here is an update: I have received an apology from Steve Murphy, the CEO of the National Pork Board and we are currently working toward a resolution.
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 3:00 PM on February 4, 2007

altolinguistic: a full term pregnancy is 40 weeks. Substract 5 months (21 weeks) and you'll end up with 19 weeks gestation. Depending on how you round, it could also be 20/21 weeks, and of course the people who said that she may have not known exactly how far along she was are also correct. At 19 weeks many people already feel the baby and a miscarriage is not that common anymore (actually, a miscarriage at 14 weeks is not that common either. Miscarriages before 12 weeks are common).
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 7:31 AM on February 2, 2007

My vote goes to parents who smoke around their kids. Lung cancer is a terrible way to die, and when you go through the awful chemo you know very well that your responsible parents, who of course never had pets or a pond in their garden, and who snarked on the internet about those stupid parents who put their adorable babies at risk, killed you.
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 6:32 AM on December 15, 2006

Let's also not forget the good things they did. Kati breastfeeding their daughters was a great thing. Many women these days do not breastfeed 7 month olds anymore, let alone four year olds. It is incredibly empowering to be able to feed your children with your body. I hope all the smart people in this thread who would never leave the car etc. also decide to breastfeed their children until at least age two.

I do agree that they made some terrible choices that I probably... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 1:59 AM on December 7, 2006

The author (Gina Kolata) really seems to want there to be no connection between diet and illnesses, it seems. See also: an article from a couple of months ago about diet and cancer (and a response)
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 4:18 AM on February 8, 2006

I was very scared when I first read these reports when I had a small baby. So I buyed organic as much as possible, on our single income. It meant eating only the recommended amount of fruits and veggies (five servings a day). (organic strawberries and spinach are about four times as expensive as regular).

I have since changed my mind. I think it is more important to eat lots of fruits and veggies. The health risks of eating not enough fruits and vegetables are well... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 12:28 PM on January 10, 2006

I am Dutch, and I was going to respond, but easternblot said it much better than I could (I apologize for my bad english, compared to that of the other dutch members in this thread). I have indeed always believed that zwarte piet was black because of the chimney. That was totally not an issue among anybody when I grew up. There were no racial connotations at all.

However, now that I am a parent, I do feel a bit uncomfortable about the whole thing . When my two-year-old... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 4:04 PM on December 7, 2005

There's also GreedyMe.
posted to MetaFilter by davar at 7:07 AM on November 24, 2005