Seth's Blog

A friend writes:

I remember reading on your blog about more socks as a cure for Athlete’s Foot and I had a fungal infection on my foot from climbing around barefoot outside, I think. I tried using two different antifungal creams. They didn’t work. To be honest I didn’t use them for the recommended time cuz it’s a huge fucking hassle. You have to put it on your feet, let it dry, rub it in blah blah blah. And it’s kinda gross to use. So I went to Uniqlo [a Japanese clothing store] and bought like 20 pairs of extra socks and forgot about it. But when I wash socks the washed ones get put in the back of the drawer so the effect is the socks I wear spend like 3-4 days away from my feet every time. Anyway, the infection COMPLETELY disappeared. There is a weird sense of satisfaction from this kind of cure. It feels like just by doing some small things ‘right’ all these health issues can be fixed.

I had foot fungus for years, I too tried antifungal creams without success, and the problem cleared up within days when I bought a lot more socks. It has remained cleared-up. You could call it the staging-area problem: Our things act as staging areas for harmful bugs. Another example is getting an eye infection from pillowcases.

Elizabeth Kolbert, the New Yorker staff writer, did not know that Phil Jones, a climate-change scientist, manuevered to keep hidden information that disagreed with his conclusions. Here is what one of the damning emails gathered from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit said:

From Phil Jones [head of the Climate Research Unit]. To: Michael Mann. Date: May 29, 2008
“Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise.”

To keep them from being exposed via a Freedom of Information law. Robin Hanson and Tyler Cowen think this is no big deal. I disagree. Yes, I said before this happened that the consensus was likely to appear stronger than it is and that bloggers were a powerful force toward truth — both of which this episode merely supports rather than reveals. And, yeah, it’s just email; the really damning info is the tree-ring data reanalyzed by Stephen McIntyre.

The reason I think this is important is two-fold. First, this is not a smoking gun. Global warming does not equal the honesty of Phil Jones. But it is a powerful piece of evidence that climate skeptics can use to convince anyone that the consensus isn’t as consensus-y as it appears. Second, it exposes what Kevin Trenberth (a proponent of man-made global warming) really thinks. This is something that few knew until now. Here is what he really thinks:

The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.

The data are surely wrong. Trenberth, being human, is going to put the best possible spin on things, the spin most consistent with what he has said many times . . . and this is what he comes up with. Support for the idea of global warming is entirely based on climate models. No one has created a mini-Earth and done experiments. If the data and models don’t agree, there is no reason to believe the models. And if you don’t believe the models you have no reason to believe in global warming. Is Trenberth an ignoramus whose honest assessment of the situation (the models and the data profoundly disagree) should be ignored? Of course not. He doesn’t draw the obvious conclusion (the models are wrong) but nothing prevents the rest of us from doing so.

Just to be clear: I completely agree with Robin’s larger point that this sort of thing supports prediction markets. And I think reduced reliance on fossil fuel would be a very good thing.

Three Things Elizabeth Kolbert Doesn’t Know.

This old comment made me laugh me when I reread it recently:

It was slightly embarrassing when friends would ask how long I had been on [the Shangri-La Diet]. I lied and said a day – it had only been eight hours but, hey, without SLD, I normally would have done a great deal of damage in those 8 hours. It’s now been a week and I’ve lost three pounds. I love the luxury of choosing finer foods now that I’m no longer compelled to eat everything in sight when dinnertime comes around. The Monster has been rocked to sleep

How are they similar? Kenneth Anderson at The Volokh Conspiracy writes:

I have shaved my head completely, as I have discovered from long experience that even if it doesn’t help me discover my spiritual side, it weirdly helps me concentrate. I highly recommend it. I have much coffee, good stuff from Antigua Guatemala. Yerba mate from Paraguay. I have my extralight olive oil re the Seth Roberts diet – to which, although I realize I’m just bragging here – I sincerely credit the loss of 25 pounds [emphasis added] and a wholly unmedicated cholesterol score last week of 128 total and 66 good (!).

All three help you concentrate. (SLD helps you not be distracted by hunger.)

In March, Century posted this on the SLD forums:

I’d like to put my dog on SLD by giving him his calories through sugar cubes. Would that work?

The dog will whine constantly when he’s hungry. He’s pretty old, and at this point, we don’t have the heart to put him on a strict diet. The hope is that with SLD, we won’t have to choose between a happy dog and a healthy dog. If it works, he won’t whine after he’s been fed his normal serving.

Today he posted this:

It’s worked incredibly well. It’s gotten to the point where he won’t whine at all. If I don’t remember to feed him, he won’t eat anything. I haven’t been able to weigh him, so I don’t really know how much weight he has lost, but a number of people have commented on how much thinner he looks. I’ve started to cut back on the sugar.

Any doubt I’ve had that SLD is for real has been erased. It’s unreal how well it’s worked for the dog.

Thanks to Heidi.

This, from the SLD forums, made me laugh:

Ya know its probably NOT placebo. . . . First time I ever did it I could not finish my bowl of oatmeal. Before SLD I had never, not ever, been able to not finish anything.

From the SLD forums:

It has been two years since I started [SLD], and I just couldn’t think about changing this simple, natural way of life that has given me such peace and freedom.  I often think of a comedy skit I saw on t.v. some time ago where this guy was given a new electric sander as a gift, but kept using it without plugging it in.

To try to lose weight without SLD is like not plugging in an electric sander. Other weight-loss methods work; they’re just much harder, like a sander versus an electric sander.

In her sig file she describes her method and results:

48 years old, 5 feet 4 inches
March 7 160
May 8 119
May 9 116
1-2T OIL/day AND/OR N.CLIP 300-500 calories food.
CFF daily.
To sustain weight loss: Eat fewer calories; enjoy the food you eat; low G.I.; only highest quality.
Don’t assault your precious body with empty calories.

N.CLIP = noseclip. CFF = calorie-free flavor. See the SLD forums for more about them.

To lose 25% of your weight and go a year without regain is a huge accomplishment.

The May 4, 2009 issue of The New Yorker contains three readers’ letters, no doubt selected from a much larger number. They begin like this:

Ian Frazier, in his hilarious sendup . . .

Jill Lepore’s richly detailed article . . .

Anthony Lane’s sensitive and nuanced review . . .

A recent large study concluded:

After a median follow-up of 8.0 and 7.9 years in the clinical trial and observational study cohorts, respectively, the Women’s Health Initiative study provided convincing evidence that multivitamin use has little or no influence on the risk of common cancers, CVD, or total mortality in postmenopausal women.

I think this supports what I’ve been saying. In this blog I’ve emphasized two deficiencies in the American diet:

• Not enough omega-3
• Not enough fermented food

Neither is reduced by a multivitamin pill. As far as I can tell, when either one is fixed with something resembling an optimal dose, there are easy-to-notice benefits. Before I started making these points, there were plenty of reasons to think these are major deficiencies. For example, the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis suggested that we might need more omega-3 than we usually get. The Umami Hypothesis suggested we need a lot more fermented food than we usually eat. In contrast, I can’t think of a single reason to think that Americans suffer from major vitamin deficiencies. I take a multivitamin pill but I’d stop long before I’d give up flaxseed oil or fermented foods.

From the Shangri-La Diet Forums:

I chanced upon the book on sale at Barnes and Noble for $4.98. I pored over the book with a slice of stratta, one chocolate lava cake, and a large Green Tea Frappuccino. I was smirking as I read it, in disbelief — it sounded ridiculous!!  . . . I’ve been on different diets since 2003. I weighed 137.5 lbs at my heaviest in 2006. The lowest I’ve been was 126 lb in 4/2004. For New Year 2008 I resolved to take a break from caring about my wt. I wanted to see how big would I actually get if I do nothing – I canceled the GYM (saved $100/month) and ate all the food I wanted anytime.  I was happy as a lark and actually shed some weight without even trying.  My weight settled between 128-130 lb. New Year 2009 came and a coworker asked what diet I was planning to be on. She also informed me of the company’s drive, inviting employees to a health challenge:  For every pound you lose, Pound For Pound will donate 10¢ to Feeding America . . . A sucker for “causes”, I committed to lose 7 lb. I have been procrastinating ever since – it’s not that easy to get back on track and start working-out again. I couldn’t give up Belgian Chocolates or Nutella Crepes.  The first thing I do when I wake up is pop a truffle or 4 in my mouth. (isn’t that gross?)  I do the same at night, before eating my lunch or dinner etc. There’s nothing quite like it – the texture of different truffles, the smell, etc., especially after having no food for at least 2 hours. I eat my dessert before my meal. When I read this book, I thought – this can’t be true. Lose your appetite without even trying? Let’s see… 3/18/2009 I cleaned up my dusty Tanita scale, replaced the batteries & weighed myself. It registered 128.5 lb . . . 3/26/2009 It’s not really time to weigh in or measure but yesterday my belt had to be re-adjusted down a notch. Results WT= 123.5 lb Body Measurement of parts with losses (inches): Waist = -.5; Abs = -.5; Hips -.5 ; Under Bra -.5 Total lost = 2 inches. I guess it works. I only have 2 lb more to go for the Pound for Pound Challenge. Have I changed my eating habits? I’d say I’m eating a lot less chocolates (by far). I’m so motivated to lose more wt. I have already shared the news at work, of course. This is by far the easiest diet I’ve ever been on with the quickest results.

It’s like a weight-loss ad come to humorous life.