Archive for category Science

The New Cosmos

I’m a big fan of Carl Sagan and his excellent television show from the 80’s called Cosmos. If you’ve never seen it, check it out on Netflix. It’s great if you like documentaries on science.

I’ve recently discovered a new television show from Great Britain called, The Wonders of the Solar System. In it, Professor Brian Cox seems to pick up where Carl Sagan left off. It’s the closest thing I’ve seen to Cosmos so far. However, I would critique that some of the camera work is just too “modern”, and by that, I mean that they use their hi pod to zoom/pan around Brian Cox way too much. This is a trend in cinematography that I just can’t stand. Other than that, the show is great. I feel that Cosmos was a bit more ordered and historical. It seems to have a clear path which Carl Sagan took the viewer down. This new series seems a bit more chaotic.

I think it could use more direction, but it’s the best modern day version of Cosmos around.

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Do we really need more explanations for obesity?

I happened across an article entitled Unusual Explanations for the Obesity Epidemic recently. Reading through it, I found that scientists are devoting way too much time trying to find new explanations to things that are pretty easy to figure out.

I’m overweight. Actually my Wii Fit exclaims “OW” when I get on it and tells me I’m in fact obese. I believe it. I’m around 50 lbs over my ideal weight and I’d love to be at that ideal weight. However, I’m not a very active person. On top of that, the bigger your stomach gets, the more it hurts when you are hungry. I’m also getting older and my metabolism is slowing down.

That’s all the reasons I need for why I’m “obese”, but this article goes into detail how our obesity could be caused by a virus or bacteria…Please…I’m fat because I’m a lazy overeating American. I honestly wish our road system was designed to accomidate bicycles more. I would like to get out and ride a bike more often.

There are a few reasons Americans are fat, and it’s not too complicated to understand. We are on the go probably more than any other people. However, our on-the-go lifestyle made us buy things to make our lives easier. We all have big cars of course, at least most of us that are not inside a big city. We also don’t spend much time planning our meals or enjoying them for that matter. On our daily rush, it’s pretty essential for us to have a fast food restaurant.

So even though we are arguably the busiest people on the planet, we don’t get a lot of exercise and we don’t eat right. It’s that simple. There’s no need to spend millions researching other reasons we are fat, what we should be researching is how much does a total gym cost to start working out. We aren’t necessarily lazy as the rest of the world views us. It’s actually the opposite. We are zooming around everywhere, putting in hours upon hours at work, coming home dead tired, and spending the rest of the night vegging out in front of the TV or on the internet looking at porn/news/youtube/whatever.

We are fat because we are overworked. I know this sounds crazy, but there is a reason America is as great as it is. Americans are hard workers. We don’t take 2 hours lunches every day. We don’t have 7 course meals. We don’t relax enough. How’s that for an unusual explanation for the obesity epodemic?

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