Low-Carb Equals Depression

And fast eating makes you fat.  Two new studies out.

Harvard Health Letter says low-carb diets drop serotonin levels, which can make you sluggish and depressed.  So you might be losing weight, but you won't be happy about it!

And another study says that eating too fast generally leads to eating more calories, since the appetite flags take a little while to work.

Conclusion: eat whole-grain bread slowly?

The Real Impacts of Micro-Credit : Philanthropy Action

True controlled study of micro-finance in Hyderabad makes us wonder yet again if we really know how to do any good for the poverty stricken.

"These early results are evidence that we really know almost nothing about the real impact of micro-credit and how or whether it works. "

http://www.philanthropyaction.com/nc/the_real_impacts_of_micro_credit/#When:01:11:15Z

Netflix and TiVo Together at Last

Finally Netflix solves the last-mile problem by partnering with TiVo for direct delivery.  Course, there's also been the Roku for a while.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/technology/internet/30tivo.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

New Trail Signs in Balboa Park

Our Balboa Part Trust was a major sponsor of this initiative to add trail signs throughout the Park to help runners and walkers find good routes. Seems like the project had a lot of support. Personally I'm a little doubtful as to it's use, but if all the groups think it's a good thing, let's go for it. And assuming the signs can avoid frequent vandalism.

I do like the extra idea of expanding the routes to incorporate other areas and bring them to the Park, particularly for tourists in downtown that may not realize it's such a short run from the Convention Center to Balboa Park.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081025-9999-1m25trails.html

Big Study Concludes Pollution Is Bad

Duh?

http://www.grist.org/news/2008/10/24/effingpollution/?source=daily#comments

California's Place in the Debate: Housing

Interesting article about housing crisis, and how California relates to the nation.  A few tidbits:

Los Banos, CA house prices are already down 66%.  20% are in foreclosure.

Population of CA is 12% of the nation.  But the mortages here are average 34% of mortgage-backed securities.

"Economist Chris Thornberg responded to that: "California doesn't have a Wall Street problem. Wall Street has a California problem.""

And after all this: "California is politically irrelevant. Weird."

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/10/22/survival/417wsj102208.txt

Undecided Voters for McCain

Thought after listening to an NPR story this morning about undecided voters (barely snuck in between their pledge drive begging - how annoying): Most undecideds are probably Republicans/evangelicals/Bushies.  What they haven't decided is whether they're going to break with their roots and vote for Obama.  Normally they'd vote conservative, but they are so dismayed at what the Bush White House has done that they can't decide whether or not they can bring themselves to vote for McCain.  I'd guess most of them won't, if they're still undecided.  So then we should consider most or all of the undecided voters (8 points, right?) going to McCain.

McCain vs Obama on Healthcare

A great story on NPR's Day to Day comparing the two candidates on their healthcare policies.  Neither appears great, but McCain's is definitely worse.  At least Obama's might be a step in the right direction, but lacking a ton of detail not to mention any method to pay for it.  Sounds a lot like welfare, and I'm not sure how they'd keep companies from just stopping offering group policies.  McCain's on the other hand just sounds ridiculous and would accomplish almost nothing.  A tax credit of an insufficient level to do any good, and at the same time taxing benefits from employer-sponsored programs?  At least he's dealing with the financial aspect a bit more, but uselessly.

At least according to this Trudy Lieberman person.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95899422

Real Charitable Loans to Non-Profits

Awesome, glad somebody figured it out.  And note they key focus: project-based, not general operations.  That's definitely how to make sure you can measure outcomes!

http://www.fjc.org/programs-ALF-overview.shtml

If It's Hip, It's Here: Wearing The Hair Of The Dog.

Maybe we should get long-haired dogs, then we could make our own clothes out of dog fur...

http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2008/10/wearing-hair-of-dog-portraits-of-people.html

South Park has it Right

They raped Indiana Jones.  I was stupid enough to Netflix Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - thank god I didn't pay for it in the theaters.  Has to be one of the worst "blockbusters" ever.  I didn't even finish it, didn't care what happened.  And I've watched some bad movies, and usually you at least have some desire to know how the plot resolves itself.  If I thought Indy might have died, I'd keep watching, just to have made sure there was no way they'd bring him back and do this again.

If they ever bring MST3K back, this one should be at the top of the list!

Homeless Couples Problem in San Diego

There's a homeless couple that's been hanging out near our house for a couple months.  They seem fairly with it, have never seen them visibly drugged or drunk.  The woman's had some health issues and can't work well any more, but the guy says he wants to work, so I thought I'd ask around.  I contacted one of our local charities, Alpha Project (http://www.alphaproject.org), and they've been very helpful.  They sent their outreach team to do an assessment and see if there's anything to be done.

However, through the discussions with Alpha, they explained that there are very few services for couples.  Almost none of the transitional housing or shelters or programs around here will take couples.  They separate the men and women, which means that couples like this won't go use the services and get a roof over the head because they wouldn't be together.  I'm sure there's good reasons for this, and I have no idea what percentage of the homeless population is couples, but it seems like a problem when you have people that apparently don't want to be homeless but are limited on their options without a significant sacrifice.

Course, one of the real problems with their ability to get off the streets is that they don't really want to work, because they're collecting SSI / disability.  And if you work, you lose it.  I've heard this over and over from a variety of perspectives, and we have people that are scared to take a job because then if they can't keep the job they're hosed.  What a mess of a welfare system.

Small Site Launch

Added a small site to our hosting: http://www.mytinnitusrelief.com/

Tinnitus Relief & Treatment - Help and Information for People Suffering from Ringing in the Ears

Tesla Says It Will Lay Off Employees and Delay Its All-Electric Sedan Until 2011 - NYTimes.com

Too bad, the Tesla seemed like such a good idea... guess trickle down wasn't going to work in this case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/technology/start-ups/16tesla.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Race Starts With Little Fuel, and Goes Uphill From There - NYTimes.com

Awesome eco-fuel race concept.  There should be an eco-fuel NASCAR circuit!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/13eco.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Brita Pitchers contain BPA?

Lots of posts say no.  I wrote to Brita, didn't get a response, but apparently other people have.  So sounds like the pitchers are safe - at least from BPA.

http://www.google.com/search?q=brita+bpa&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Great Scary Quote

At the rate the markets are falling this week, we'll hit zero in about 3 more weeks!

VIX Record

"The S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX) has soared to its highest levels on record—completely shattering previous all-time highs on nearly-unprecedented levels of panic across global financial markets. At over 73 percent, the VIX now shows that options traders expect that the S&P 500 will fluctuate an annualized 73 percent in the coming month of trade—or approximately 21 percent."

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/market_alerts/fundamental_alert/S_P_500_Volatility_Index__VIX__1223654773796.html

Green Building & Co-Housing Movement Starting to Take Off

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_14979.cfm

An Obama landslide? - THE WEEK

Amazing what outspending 3-1 can do...

http://www.theweek.com/article/index/89638/3/3/An_Obama_landslide

Facebook application causes a food 'frendzy' | Venues Magazine | The Daily Collegian Online

Online games for free stuff!

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/venues/2008/10/09/facebook_application_causes_a.aspx

Retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion

That can't be good... buy and hold, right?

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081007/meltdown_retirement.html

Six Products, Six Carbon Footprints - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122304950601802565.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

New Solar Cell Easy As Pizza To Make

"The iJET is a new type of solar cell that's cheap and easy to make, requiring not much more than a pizza oven, some nail polish remover, and a common inkjet printer. Australian scientist Nicole Kuepper describes her invention."

NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95394225

Google will do What Toyota Can't

New Google philanthropy aims to build super-efficient hybrid car | Grist | Daily Grist | 14 Sep 2006

http://www.grist.org/news/daily/2006/09/14/5/?source=daily

TED says: Learn about XDR-TB

Extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis.  Bad thing for some countries.  Bad for the world. (?)

http://www.xdrtb.org/

Dymondia as a Lawn Replacement?

Supposedly drought tolerant and a great groundcover.  Better than grass?

http://freshdirt.sunset.com/2008/06/dymondia-margar.html

SodaHead.com

Interesting concept...

"Create and vote on public opinion polls, share knowledge and express opinions in a dynamic social community."

http://www.sodahead.com/

'Tax Extenders' Add To Cost Of Bailout Bill : NPR

The Senate added $110 billion of pork to the $700 billion bailout bill to get it passed.  Note some of the examples!  Nothing but politics and pork, this has nothing to do with helping main street.  Not even sure it's about helping wall street, mostly just about helping politicians.  Disgusting.  Time for a revolution - and Obama ain't it.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95320567

So Long, Water Testing

Holy crap!  Now it really is "Swim at your own risk"!  Or maybe the problem is just that there's so much bacteria and pollution in the water, there's no point in testing...

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/10/02/this_just_in/584solong100208.txt

What the Next President Will Face

Foreign policy problems for whoever gets elected.  And do you think any of the candidates would answer even one of these questions with any specifics?

From John Mauldin, originally from Stratfor:
http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/archive/2008/10/01/the-new-president-and-the-global-landscape.aspx

The conclusion and ten questions (no, not like Passover):

U.S. national strategy is expressed in the defense budget. Every strategic decision the president makes has to be expressed in budget dollars with congressional approval. Without that, all of this is theoretical. The next president will have to start drafting his first defense budget shortly after taking office. If he chooses to engage all of the challenges, he must be prepared to increase defense spending. If he is not prepared to do that, he must concede that some areas of the world are beyond management. And he will have to decide which areas these are. In light of the foregoing, as we head toward the debate, 10 questions should be asked of the candidates:

   1. If the United States removes its forces from Iraq slowly as both of you advocate, where will the troops come from to deal with Afghanistan and protect allies in the former Soviet Union?
   2. The Russians sent 120,000 troops to Afghanistan and failed to pacify the country. How many troops do you think are necessary?
   3. Do you believe al Qaeda prime is still active and worth pursuing?
   4. Do you believe the Iranians are capable of producing a deliverable nuclear weapon during your term in office?
   5. How do you plan to persuade the Pakistani government to go after the Taliban, and what support can you provide them if they do?
   6. Do you believe the United States should station troops in the Baltic states, in Ukraine and Georgia as well as in other friendly countries to protect them from Russia?
   7. Do you feel that NATO remains a viable alliance, and are the Europeans carrying enough of the burden?
   8. Do you believe that Mexico represents a national security issue for the United States?
   9. Do you believe that China represents a strategic challenge to the United States?
  10. Do you feel that there has been tension between the United States and Israel over the Georgia issue?

Barack on Broadway

Way better than most political ads, if you're a Les Miserables fan...

Les Misbarack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ijYVyhnn0