*feels the need to geek*

[kohikari]

*having read the Mar. 28 issue of Science News*

DAHAHAHAHA I knew it, I knew it, I knew all those diets and low-calorie and low-fat and low-sugar crap was ridiculous bullshit, SKIM MILK CAUSES CANCER.

(...Well, not exactly, it's that animals aren't meant to be lactose-tolerant after infancy and although most people have evolved tolerance (or invented anti-lactose-intolerance stuff), it's still not quite natural, especially since it's cow's milk we drink; the stew of hormones in milk (while it varies depending on the cow's trimester) has been linked to heightened risk of cancer (mostly prostate, and also breast and ovarian cancers), especially the estrogen (and the androgens only make things worse), which is perfectly fine when our own bodies are producing it but when random outside hormones come into the equation? Things go a bit haywire. The hormones provoke or speed up cell division, causing greater risk of tumours, and feeding cancerous tissue. 2% milk has more hormones than whole milk, skim milk has more hormones than 2%, and buttermilk is off the freaking charts (which is a shame, because it's used in making some of my favourite foods). A + B = Cancer.)

(Although it has to be said that it's not that much greater risk, less than double, and everyone has individually varying risks for cancer so it really depends on the person, and like all science there are a shit-ton of variables and new discoveries are disproving old theories each year and even in the 21st century we know so little about cancer and the processes involved, but still, I have more reason now to complain about skim milk than just because it's disgusting and it's a single drop of milk in like a bucket of water! I've always sneered at all that low-fat low-sugar low-sodium low-calorie bullshit, and whenever I see someone with some spiked energy drink I get pissed because (a) there's like cocaine in those things and (b) calories, or, more properly, "kilocalories" (they probably took off the kilo- because they thought it would scare people) are UNITS OF ENERGY YOU IMBECILES why the hell do you think the "energy drink" industry is making such a profit now?!? And people go, "Oh, but I'm so fat, I need to lose weight and besides I like the high I get from all those chemicals" but why are you fat? Because you sit on your ass all day long.

... *coughs* Uh, sorry about that, pet peeve.)

One of the scientists quoted in the article concludes that, well, apart from growing kids and adults with nutrition issues, nobody really needs milk anyway. Of course, in my case, there's no way in hell I'm giving up dairy; it's the same argument I give people who ask if I'll ever go vegan--having never really eaten much meat even before I went veggie, I need as much protein as I can get, nevermind the calcium and vitamin D, and anyway God clearly intended us to enjoy ice cream the way it was meant to be: rich and creamy. I won't touch that soy and rice stuff. I like my ice cream to taste like cow.

(Also, giving up chocolate and cheese and sour cream and cream cheese and butter and yoghurt and whipped cream and pizza and fried mozzarella sticks and grated cheese on pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches and rich hot chocolate and milkshakes/frappes and pancakes and waffles and doughnuts and the deliciousness of melted Muenster on my crackers? HELL TO THE NO.)

*clears throat; I hadn't realised how much I love dairy...* In other news:

• a sixty-first moon has been found for Saturn (damn, that's a lot of satellites)
• black holes do obey math after all
• "Give that dino a hand:" T.rexes' arms really were that useless
• "Honey, They Unshrunk the Fish" *dies laughing*: y'know how overfishing has encouraged fish to evolve smaller? we can fix that--but it'll take time
• the same proteins that cause mad cow disease may also cause Alzheimer's
• prescription antacids mess with heart patients' blood-thinners
• some chemo drugs can actually make brain cancer worse (remember what I said about how we don't know shit about cancer?)
• autism and gastrointestinal problems are somehow linked (wtf?)
• really bored scientists have discovered that some printer inks smudge because they're too "gloopy"
• they found a 1.5 million-year-old human footprint in east Africa
• 5000 years ago people in Central Asia were milking horses (why are there so many cow- and milk-related articles in this issue?)
• grade-school kids who switch virtual genders in online games still act like the boys and girls they are IRL
• (cover article) cells communicate through teeny-tiny tubes, analogous to telephone wires, and HIV and other diseases take advantage of that to spread infection
• (major article) archaeologists are still fighting a losing battle against looting and black-market eBay sales of ancient goodies
• (major article) physicists are working on bending light backwards so that they can invent an Invisibility Cloak (and also so they can see the hidden light waves inbetween microwaves and infrared)
• more hate mail ♥ (I think the bitchy letters sent to Science News and National Geographic are hilarious)

Scientists make such dorky puns.  ♥

(Also: why the hell is Twitter asking for my email password?  I'm proud to say that I've never been hacked, and I don't plan on that changing anytime soon...)

Comments

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

So whole milk is the safest? Eh, that works for me, I usually drink that anyway. (I usually don't pay attention to such diet things; as my mom says, don't bother with losing weight, just stay where you are. It's more effective, & less stressful.)

Also, the energy drinks taste disgusting. ewww red bull.

really bored scientists have discovered that some printer inks smudge because they're too "gloopy"
XDD talk about bored scientists!

Ah man I heard about the Invisibility Cloak thing. Sounds sweet. And haha yeah, the hate mail's always fun to read for any magazine. People get so huffy. :D

[kohikari.livejournal.com]

It really shouldn't have any effect on the people consuming dairy products; the major impact of these studies is going to be getting the dairy industry to be more careful about what they feed their cows and when they milk them, etc. Some sensationalist news people are probably going to make a huge fuss over it like I did and then the industry and scientists are going to start arguing that the increased risk is so miniscule as to be negligent.

Man, a couple years ago as I was walking home from school they were handing out free cans of Monster from a truck by Fenway Park, and I took one; spent the train ride studying the ingredients--I didn't recognise at least half of them--and right after I got off at my stop I took a sip and was light-headed for like five minutes. Vile stuff, that. They should restrict it to ages 18 and up (really should be 21, but the college kids would lobby it down anyway).

Such random shit happens when scientists have too much free time. Biologists watch animals do it in the woods, chemists start blowing shit up, physicists invent the atom bomb...

I just really love how highbrow intellectual science journals get hate mail. And the letters are so catty, it's hilarious.

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

eh, I drink a load of milk but oh well. It's good. 8DD

I don't know what it is with energy drinks, they taste so awful. Caffeine's never done much for me anyway, whether it be energy drinks, coffee, or tea--I feel no more awake than I would have without them. But yeah, the college kids need their energy drinks, so whatever.

BEST THING EVER. Sodium & water --> kaboom! I wish I could do that properly sometime; instead of just itty-bitty pieces in the chem lab, to get a huge slab and throw it into the river... *dreams*

Oh yeah. I was reading a recent National Geographic issue and people were so pissed about this one article on King Herod... XDD

[kohikari.livejournal.com]

Num num dairy. My favourite thing to do (when there's enough milk left that I won't be blamed for finishing it) is to pour a tall glass of ice-cold whole milk and add several teaspoons of sugar and some cinnamon, and stir it up, and mmm. (I got the idea from, you remember when you're little (or it's the last day of school and your chem class is really bored) and they give you two ziploc bags and you put ice and salt in the big one and cream, sugar and vanilla in the little one and close it up and put it in the big one and shake it until it's ice cream? Except mine never ever turned into ice cream no matter how long or which way I shook it (great cardio though), and at the end I would just give up and drink the milkshake, except it always tasted a little salty...yeah.)

Heh, the farther down the periodic table you go, the bigger the boom. The MythBusters team have done that a couple times, dropped sticks of sodium and potassium and rubidium and cesium into toilets on a blast range to see if it would asplode the tank like the Internet said it would (it didn't, though the blasts were pretty). However, tossing a giant slab of sodium in a river wouldn't be very feasible, given the risk to public health and all. Alas.

XDDD I READ THOSE TOO it was like, "How dare you take anything the Bible says as truth?!" and "How dare you say anything in the Bible is a lie?!" and "Herod was a butthead!" and "Herod was FRAMED!" and oh my god these people. I liked the one with the letters about the model of a female Neanderthal too, when mad people wrote in like "Wait a minute, I know that woman, she works at the supermarket down the street..."

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Mmm that sounds amazing! I just drink milk by itself most of the time, but occasionally I heat it up and mix honey into it. Loveliness. *__*

It's so awesome! In my science class we watched a video in which they threw slabs of sodium into rivers. It was very old, so they probably didn't consider public health risks back then. XD

Such a ridiculous little flame war going on there. People are so defensive about that. Hahaha I didn't see the female Neanderthal one though! Which issue was that? (Over break I just noticed that my family's started getting National Geographic and got my hands on the newer ones.)

[kohikari.livejournal.com]

Chocolate-malt flavour Ovaltine, hot or cold, is absolutely delicious. ♥ (I still have a bit of this childhood hang-up where I don't really drink milk straight, so I always drink it with a sweetener or with some cereal.)

Ah, I fondly remember reading about back in the days when radium paint was applied to clocks and such for that helpful blue glow...until everyone started dropping dead, of course.

(Damn but The Radioactive Boy Scout was a good read. Even with the author being a bit fanatically anti-nuclear power and hating on the Boy Scouts, and the factual errors here and there--vinegar is 5% acetic acid not 30%, using a charcoal grill in a closed shed is asking for carbon monoxide poisoning not dioxide, volatility ≠ reactivity, etc.--it's terrifically entertaining to read along as an American Boy Scout goes about building himself a miniature nuclear reactor in his backyard. True story, too!)

The NG issue with the letters about Neanderthal neighbours is Feb 09, the one with "What Darwin Didn't Know" on the cover next to a frog; the actual issue including the feature on Neanderthals was Oct 08, with "The Other Humans: Neanderthals Revealed" on the cover next to a model of a Neanderthal dude. The issue with the hissy fits over Herod is Apr 09, with "The She-King of Egypt" on the cover next to a sculpture of Hatshepsut's head; the actual issue including the Herod feature was Dec 08, with "The Real King Herod" on the cover next to an aerial view of some crumbled palace.