I mostly wanted to say that I appreciate that this thread is more or less civil and respectful.

I fall in the fat acceptance/health at any size camp so I suppose many of you would consider me biased, but the main thing I think is worth trying to get across to folks who don’t share my views is this:

Fat is one area where it is completely acceptable for a bunch of strangers to sit around making moral judgments about someone they don’t know - often... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 2:29 PM on July 14, 2008

Mostly, I think anyone’s body size (or height, or skin color, etc) is none of anyone else’s business. But here’s where I’m coming from in my personal ideology about body size:

1) Certain health conditions are associated with certain physical traits. For example, tall people die younger. And we now know that environment influences height. Yet we never judge tall people for their irresponsible, tall lifestyle choices. Moralism about fat is not based on “fact” or “science”,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 3:04 PM on July 14, 2008

You want a reference for the idea that you gain weight when you consume more calories than you burn, and you consume calories by eating them? I guess I can repost the first law of thermodynamics.
posted by Justinian at 3:18 PM on July 14 [+] [!]

The relationship between calorie and fat intake and body weight is not clear.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 3:28 PM on July 14, 2008

I don't think you understand the argument that is being made here. If you consume more calories than you burn, your body stores the extra energy as fat, while if you burn more calories than you consume, your body burns fat to supply the energy needed. The studies you linked to do not attempt to disprove this fact.
posted by ssg at 4:03 PM on July 14 [+] [!]

I understand the argument perfectly. I also understand that there are a lot of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 4:19 PM on July 14, 2008

Justinian - there is not a good study that shows that fat people eat more than thin people. If you know of one, please point it out to me. For your point to be significant of course, I'd need to see multiple studies pointing to the same conclusion.

Wager away, I'll stick with the science.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 8:22 PM on July 14, 2008

You're not sticking with science, you're sticking with some weird ideology. I mean, weight gain not correlated with calorie intake? Come on, be serious.
posted by Justinian at 8:38 PM on July 14 [+] [!]

I'm serious. Show. Me. One. Study. Just because your intuition tells you something, doesn't mean it's true. Repetition doesn't make it true either.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 8:48 PM on July 14, 2008

Common sense, it's what's for dinner!
posted by P.o.B. at 8:56 PM on July 14 [1 favorite +] [!]

What KirkJobSluder said, only I'd add that I'd prefer to see a study based on human beings in real-world scenarios, not on rats on forced obesity and starvation diets.

Common sense used to tell us that the world was flat and that tomatoes were poison. Common sense can be wrong.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:16 PM on July 14, 2008

The science is already out there. It has been tried and tested, dare I say, billions of times already and it works.

What science is that? Can you point to some studies that show that restrictive diets and exercise lead to significant, long-term weight loss? Because I haven't seen those studies in this thread or anywhere else.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:05 PM on July 14, 2008

notashroom -
you and your friends present an unusual set of examples. Statistically, we know that the vast majority - somewhere in the 90% range depending on the study - regain the weight. Most people interpret that data to mean that 90% of fat people are lazy or refuse to follow through. Given evidence related to set-points, genetics, etc, I think that statistic means that for most people, significant, long-term weight loss is not possible.

I'd also ask you,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:45 AM on July 15, 2008

TheOnlyCoolTim: Studies vary on this. One problem is that few studies of weight loss do real, long-term follow up. One year is considered "long-term" but in real life, we know that people regain later. From what I understand, studies in medically controlled environments show greater weight regain than people's personal weight-loss programs without help. It's hard to know whether the difference is just in the reporting though. I'd check out this article to start exploring this issue.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 11:08 AM on July 15, 2008

Hey Omie,

I think the weight loss registry is flawed because it is based on self-reporting and you can sign up with only 1 year of sustained weight loss.

Also, I didn’t say that dieting causes regain of weight, but I think evidence points to the idea that dieting does not keep weight off over a long period - not for most people.

I don´t think we´re going to convince each other at this point. But thanks for your civility... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 12:05 PM on July 15, 2008

Also, I hope I was clear that I advocate high quality food and regular exercise for everyone. But I think a more realistic, and compassionate goal is to focus on improving real health indicators (diabetes rates, heart disease rates, etc) through quality nutrition and regular physical activity – NOT by simply emphasizing weight loss (which, we barely mention in this thread, is most often achieved through methods that are established as UNhealthy – I’m thinking of diet pills, crash diets, fad... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 12:09 PM on July 15, 2008

Yay!
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:12 AM on July 14, 2008

I saw this and thought: There is No Way a black person drew this cartoon. I googled Barry Blitt and although the only portraits I can find are drawings, I'm pretty sure that I'm right. What an asshole.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:52 PM on July 13, 2008

I have to admit that the disemvoweling thing in particular has come to strike me as just utterly obnoxious and passive-aggressive.

I don't follow Boing Boing - what is the vowel-removal?
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:34 AM on June 30, 2008

I was three weeks past my due date when my mother showed up for one of her at that point daily checkups. (She'd been bringing her urine with her on the bus from work to Kaiser each day - some sort of test they had to run). The obstetrician, who, as my mother always emphasizes ,provided only prenatal care and was guaranteed not to attend the actual birth, suggested she have an amniocentesis to assess my well being.

These days amniocentesis is performed only fairly early... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 12:12 AM on July 5, 2008

I was really proud of myself for making and canning my own blackberry jam last week, but now its staining my teeth purplish black. My question is, should I blame the blackberries or the cast iron pan?

apparently, in 1851 Royal Navy warships attacked Lagos island
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 11:07 AM on July 11, 2008

Kamchatca?
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 1:17 AM on July 12, 2008

Wow.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 11:00 PM on July 8, 2008

Does Lively offer virtual childcare?
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:54 PM on July 8, 2008

I'd rather not have yet another post on this grim subject.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:57 PM on July 7, 2008

Wow. I've always thought the suicide barrier idea was stupid. This article totally changed my mind.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 12:01 PM on July 7, 2008

80085
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:09 AM on July 7, 2008

That was a great photo series. I was trying to figure out if guanabee was a gawker project and discovered that they're apparently owned by "exacto media". Look at the wierd google results for exacto media. I don't get it. Anyone know the backstory on guanabee?
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:34 AM on July 3, 2008

DU, I think the artist statement talks about the "superhuman" tasks an immigrant must perform in order to both survive here in the US and send money home to support family and community there.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:40 AM on July 3, 2008

I basically agree with the sentiments in this thread but we should also think about what legal agriculture actually looks like in this country. The person who told me about this article was pointing out that if we just legalize pot farming, it’ll be monocroped in Iowa like corn or cotton and the issues of pesticide and fertilizer runoff, water table and soil depletion and destruction of small-scale farming practices will be major issues.

Save the planet! Grow your own!
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 2:05 PM on July 1, 2008

I'm not sure who I hate more: cops or the freakanomics assholes.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:08 AM on June 19, 2008

In effect, wealthy hetero westerners got a lot of money spent on them they didn't need

This isn't exactly right. Budgets for AIDS in developing countries come from different pots than AIDS work in rich countries. Global Fund money (which accounts for something like 60% of international AIDS funding - I'm not remembering the exact number off the top of my head) doesn't get spent in Western Europe or North America. We pay for our own AIDS research,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:40 AM on June 12, 2008

ethnomethodologist, you've got good points here, and I completely agree that the 80s were a horror in terms of lack of public education (or funding, or anything) for gay men. Reagan and many others will rot in hell for what they did and what they failed to do.

But, most HIV education material I see NOW here in the US is geared towards gay men. Given, I live in the SF Bay Area, which is kind of like Atlantis, but HIV education here seems to be targeted at the communities... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:14 AM on June 12, 2008

Maias, I don't care if you disagree with the article, but de Cock isn't just some clown shooting off at the mouth. He's an epidemiologist who has made a career studying HIV around the world. Before becoming the head of the WHOs HIV program he directed massive HIV programs in Uganda which is where a large percentage of HIV research happens.

What your saying about needle exchange is the current public health wisdom. And I agree that needle exchange is awesome and necissary.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 3:01 PM on June 12, 2008

But Maias, the point of de Cock's statement is that in Eastern Europe for example, where needle exchange programs have not been instituted on a large scale and injection drug users are marginalized and receive few services, even there HIV has not impacted the heterosexual, non-drug-using community much.

No one should get HIV - one case is too many - and I think HIV education belongs everywhere. In other words, I agree with you that de Cock's analysis sucks in that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:50 AM on June 14, 2008

This turned into a great thread! Thanks for all the food history and context peops!
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:35 AM on June 11, 2008

I hate stupid memorization focused education - its a big reason I was a high school dropout. Now that I'm back in school and taking math and science classes I sure wish I had memorized my times tables when I was in elementary school!
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 7:50 AM on June 8, 2008

I totally don't get it. Can someone explain for the morons in the house, please?
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 5:28 PM on June 2, 2008

FYI, fellow mefites: it's a PDF link, and the article in question is approaching ten years old.
posted by heeeraldo at 11:35 PM on May 28 [+] [!] Sure, PDFs are mildly annoying, but I don't get why people complain about old links. So what if its old as long as its not some played out meme?
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 7:39 AM on May 29, 2008

I believe that it is metafilter's own History is a Weapon.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 7:33 AM on May 27, 2008

That's really good writing there. It's made to seem goofy and relatively shallow, and manages to bring you a bit deeper without feeling manipulative. I'm impressed.
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 12:05 AM on May 24, 2008

Woah!

In retrospect the books are pretty shitty, but I fucking loved them so fucking much. I remember them better than most of my real life experiences from when I was 10 or 12 - the age I was when I was reading them.

Thank you Robert Asprin!
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:37 PM on May 22, 2008

It's a great prank, but I don't get it. What's the critique of Kasparov?
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 6:19 PM on May 19, 2008

Laurie Anderson was the best model I could find as a kid (when I was listening to her - I was born in the 70s) of what being female could mean.

Looking at that 80s footage now, I think options for women have gotten more limited since then. Or maybe she was a lone exception who transcends time. (But I don't think so because without much thought I can produce other androgynous and popular women stars of the 80s: Grace Jones, Annie Lenox, Patti Smith). I love that even... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:47 PM on May 11, 2008

OH NO! Please delete this shit mods! Its a viral levis ad!
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 8:49 PM on May 8, 2008

Sometimes I think I'm naive about homophobia. I get stared at occasionally when I'm holding hands or smooching a lover, especially when I leave my enclave here in the Bay Area. But I honestly don’t think I ever edit myself because of internalized or external homophobia. I believe I am more vigilant than straight people tend to be when expressing affection, but not much. Mostly I just do my gay-ass thing and if someone gets in my face about it (very rare) I get in their face back. I look pretty... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:45 AM on May 6, 2008

One funny thing on the “roommate” meme:

My real-life roommate is a bi-woman. I’m a dyke. We’ve been best of friends for about 15 years. We finish each other’s sentences, eat off the same plate at parties, she helps care for my kids, stuff like that. We are constantly mistaken for being partners. We (mostly me) fall all over ourselves to tell people that “We’re roommates. No, really! We’re not in the closet! But we’re just roommates!... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:50 AM on May 6, 2008

ColdChef-

Your wife sounds lovely and her use of the expression seems fine since she was with someone who probably knows her to be straight, but the expression “straight but not narrow” has always bugged me. How come the straight person has to make a point of pointing out their straightness in this context? If you were really “not narrow” then would you care if, when you spoke out for gay rights for example, those around you assumed you to be gay?
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 10:23 AM on May 6, 2008

A lot of us lezzes chafe at the word "wife". It's got all the connotations of evil patriarchy about it. Girlfriend often feels inappropriate for someone you've chosen to spend your life with. Partner is artless, but works better in mixed company than "lover".

PS. Here in the progressive Bay Area at least, I know a number of straight folks, some legally married, who refer to their husbands or wives as their "partner".
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 6:57 PM on May 6, 2008

See also the White Rats pervert morris team. They have their bells play pierced into their skin!
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:52 AM on May 1, 2008

And if you live in the SF Bay Area, come join in the fun!
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 7:33 AM on May 1, 2008

I'm interested in controlling HIV. Punishment is not an effective means to control an infection.

Besides, punishment is applied unevenly, and in that sense it is unjust. And in my view prison doesn't work: it doesnt' prevent criminal behavior. What is the point? What is the value? Especially if your goal (and I hope this is your goal) is to have less HIV infection.

I want a fair, just world where no one has to get sick from HIV. I don't think... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 12:15 PM on April 25, 2008

Repeat yourself as much as you want. I don't agree with you. I'm in the middle of revising this book and I'm also trying to get into nursing school right now - just finished my prerequisites including microbiology and anatomy and physiology classes. Based on a lot of reading on the topic, this is what I understand about HIV and public health: Prison. Will. Not. Reduce. HIV. Rates. That's pretty much what I care about here. So fucking what if we arrest people for driving drunk? I’m interested in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 12:46 PM on April 25, 2008

I'm not convinced that sending people to jail for killing someone while drunk driving is an effective means to prevent drunk driving deaths. And I'm positive that sending people to jail for knowingly having unprotected sex while HIV positive is NOT an effective means to stop HIV transmission. I believe in solutions that work. If its not working, it shouldn't be national policy. Supposed straw-man removed enough for you? (I don't think it was a straw man in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 2:03 PM on April 25, 2008