Seth's Blog

A new series on Showtime called Homeland is about a CIA agent (played by Claire Danes) who believes that a newly-released American prisoner of war may have been “turned” during his years in Iraqi captivity. In the first episode, she tries to find evidence to support her belief. Judging by that episode, it is very good.

I told Edward Jay Epstein about it — his book on James Angleton centers on CIA infiltration by “moles”. He commented: (more…)

I used to get my omega-3 from flaxseed oil. Then I encountered problems with the flaxseed oil going bad, in the sense of losing potency. (It did not smell bad.) I switched to flax seeds, which I grind and eat with yogurt. This is more difficult than drinking flaxseed oil.

From Peter Spero I have learned of a possible new source of omega-3: camelina oil. Camelina oil, unlike flaxseed oil, contains high levels of anti-oxidants, which protect it from going bad. Camelina is cheap to grow and can be grown where other crops cannot.

I wrote recently about how our health care system resembles a protection racket. In a protection racket, you or someone else threatens people so that you can make money protecting them. Modern health care, especially in America, ignores prevention. It says let them get sick. Let the general public get sick so that we (health care providers) can make money treating them.

The profitability of let them get sick is illustrated by some numbers in Run Barefoot Run Healthy, a new book by Ashish Mukharji  (who gave me a copy). Ashish has run several marathons. Before he started running barefoot, running caused all sorts of problems. To deal with them was costly:

• Two or three pairs of orthotics (a type of insole): $200-$300 each.
• One MRI, for what turned out to be ITBS (Iliotibial Band Syndrome, a thigh injury): around $1,000.
• Twenty or more deep-tissue massage treatments for ITBS: around $80 each.
• Corns removed (twice): $500 per treatment.
• Twenty or more sessions of physical therapy for ITBS and Achilles tendonitis: $100-$250 per session.
• Several visits to orthopedists and podiatrists: $150 per visit.
• Cortisone injection for plantar fasciitis: $200.

Since he started barefoot running (3 years and 2 marathons ago), he has incurred no (zero) running-injury expenses. Interviews with other barefoot runners convince him this is typical. Long ago a runner friend of mine told me everyone who runs eventually hurts themselves. The truth of this was confirmed many times by runners I met after she said this. Now it appears she was right because all the runners she and I knew wore shoes.

I started barefoot running/walking on my treadmill a year ago. I have never had running injuries (probably because I walk — uphill fast — much more than run). Going barefoot saved time. During the first few months, I got four or five cuts (actually, splits) on the sides of my feet. The skin was split by  downward pressure. The cuts made ordinary walking (in shoes) a little unpleasant. I did nothing  about them. They healed and have not recurred.

A better health care system would have discovered the damage caused by running shoes long ago. We are lucky to live when personal scientists such as Ashish can figure out the truth themselves and tell others.

From the movie Gladiator:

Slave Trader 1 These slaves are rotten.

Slave Trader 2 It all adds to the flavor.

A big reason I believe we need to eat fermented foods to be healthy is that they taste so good.

• The Shangri-La Diet: still too good to be true. It was my dream — and maybe every scientist’s dream — to discover something (a) useful and (b) counter-intuitive, the more surprising the better. It did not occur to me that (a) and (b) conflict. I think that more surprising discoveries are eventually more useful (as logic suggests), but it takes much longer.
• Marisa Tomei wants to play Jane Jacobs. “I love that she saved Greenwich Village.” When she does, perhaps Robert Caro will post the unpublished Jane Jacobs chapter of The Power Broker.
• Symposium on The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.
• Did you know that Mindy Kaling’s amusing article in this week’s New Yorker is an excerpt from a forthcoming book? Neither did I. Likewise, the recent Murakami story Town of Cats was from a forthcoming book. The New Yorker, unlike other magazines, never identifies book excerpts. This  is unfortunate because doing so would help both writers (sell books) and readers (find books to read). For more criticism of  The New Yorker, see the great book Gone: The Last Days of The New Yorker by Renata Adler.

Thanks to Dave Lull.