Seth's Blog

• Rating prisons on Yelp. Quantified Institutions.
• Widespread fraud at Indian drug company that makes generic drugs widely sold in the United States. Maybe this article will cause people to stop buying their products. It isn’t obvious to me what to do about this problem, although apparently the fine was too small. Jail for the owners?
• Poisoning at Tsinghua University
• Association of Restless Leg Syndrome with glutamate

Thanks to Bryan Castañeda and Andy.

• Washington Post covers evidence for the hygiene hypothesis
• Renata Adler answers audience questions (video)
• Mother Jones criticizes probiotics
• Rating prisons on Yelp. Quantified Institutions.

Thanks to Bryan Castañeda.

• Nigerian fermented foods
• I point out that certain results in the BMJ are impossible
• Big increase in ADHD diagnoses
• Preface and Chapter 1 (Abraham Lincoln) of Edward Jay Epstein’s new book, Annals of Unsolved Crime
• How to taste umami (very good)
• No mortality difference between vegetarians and non-vegetarians (2009 study). This is evidence against the new TMAO theory of heart disease (carnitine in meat is converted by bacteria to TMAO, which causes heart disease).

• World Health Organization opposes effective herbal malaria remedy
• Increasing potassium intake reduces blood pressure and risk of stroke (experimental evidence)
• How to clearly distinguish thermometer and proxy temperature records.
• Conversation with Edward Jay Epstein about his new book Annals of Unsolved Crime.
• The flavors of fermentation (WSJ). “Recreating naturally occurring fermented flavors in a lab isn’t easy, experts say. “What I marvel the most about is the complexity, especially with something like kimchi,” says Paul Ricciardi, an IFF flavorist.” I believe we like complex flavors so that we will eat more fermented food.
• Ada by Vladimir Nabokov, annotated
• Patient-powered health (BMJ)

Thanks to Dave Lull and Ashish Mukharji.

• Acting classes improve memory of older adults
• Baltimore hairdresser proposes interesting theory about ancient Rome (via John Hawks weblog). The WSJ article fails to mention what a commenter points out, that the hairdresser’s husband is a professor of Italian.
• Dried plum reverses bone loss in mice. More than other dried fruit. Impressive study.
• US life expectancy stalled.

Thanks to Greg Pomerantz and Casey Manion.

• Seth Godin’s criticism of schools
• Emily Nussbaum (New Yorker TV critic) podcast
• Joyce Cohen became oversensitive to sound due to loud ventilation
• Bariatric surgery trades obesity for alcoholism
• Edward Jay Epstein on the death of Boris Berevzofsky
• Chinese graduates from top schools play it safe
• ASMR videos. An example.

Thanks to  Bryan Castañeda and Joyce Cohen.

• Fermentation forum
• Fruit and vegetable consumption today predicts happiness tomorrow
• multiple sclerosis and mercury exposure
• some bacteria protect against acne — a good reason to not take antibiotics for acne
• A fecal transplant eliminated a serious intestinal infection (in mice)
• The Iris Code (a 2004 article about Iris Chang)
• Zeo (sleep tracking) out of business

Thanks to Paul Nash and Adam Clemens.

• Low pay at Weight Watchers. “The $18 base rate for running meetings has not increased in more than a decade. . . . The restlessness over low pay extends across the weight-loss industry to Weight Watchers’ rivals, including Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem.”
• At Berkeley I told undergraduates: “Do as many internships as possible. Take as few courses as possible.” Salman Khan (of Khan Academy) has a similar view and suggests that college should be built around this idea.
• The Umami Burger empire
• The Positive Deviance Initiative
• Michael Wolff on Edward Jay Epstein’s Annals of Unsolved Crimes
• Another teacher who stopped grading. “It has honestly been the best thing I have implemented in my career.”

Thanks to Bryan Castañeda.

• Japan Korea kimchi dispute
• Dirt restaurant in Tokyo. The dirt is treated to kill bacteria, which I think is a mistake.
• Around 2005, a teenager combined DNA analysis with public data to find his biological father (a good example of personal science — using science to help yourself). Recently some professional scientists showed this wasn’t a fluke. The teenager was far ahead of the professionals, in other words. Just as I discovered that my acne was antibiotic-resistant long before professional dermatologists discovered (or at least published) the idea that some acne was antibiotic-resistant.
• Edward Jay Epstein and Vladimir Nabokov. I told this story here.
• If high-school students designed their own school

Thanks to Alex Chernavsky.

• An Epidemic of Absence (book about allergies and autism)
• Professor of medicine who studies medical error loses a leg due to medical error. “Despite calls to action by patient advocates and the adoption of safety programs, there is no sign that the numbers of errors, injuries and deaths [due to errors] have improved.” Nothing about consequences for the person who made the error that caused him to lose a leg.
• Doubts about spending a huge amount of research money on a single project (brain mapping). Which has yet to produce even one useful result.
• Cancer diagnosis innovation by somebody without a job (a 15-year-old)
• Someone named Rob Rhinehart has greatly reduced the time and money he spends on food by drinking something he thinks contains all essential nutrients. Someone pointed out to him that he needs bacteria, which he doesn’t have. (No doubt several types of bacteria are best.) He doesn’t realize that Vitamin K has several forms. I suspect he’s getting too little omega-3. This reminds me of a man who greatly reduced how much he slept by sleeping 15 minutes every 3 hours. It didn’t work out well for him (his creativity vanished and he became bored and unhappy). In Rhinehart’s case, I can’t predict what will happen so it’s fascinating. When something goes wrong, however, I’ll be surprised if he can figure out what caused the problem.

Thanks to Amish Mukharji.