Monday, August 27, 2007

fruits/vegies DON'T prevent cancer

Feeling in a contrarian mood, I am not surprised to read that a study shows that eating increased amounts of fruits and vegetables does not prevent cancer.

This news follows a similar large study that found fiber in a diet does not prevent colon cancer.

Time to face that facts that:
  1. Diet and eating is one of the least affective ways to attempt to medicate the human body and seems to have almost no preventive or protective value.
  2. A large amount of the science behind the healthful (and natural) eating craze of the past 30 years was based on unproven assumptions, i.e., it just sounded so good we knew in our heart (but not in a proven way) it would work.
Once again, the solution to living a healthy life is:
  1. Don't smoke
  2. Drink in moderation
  3. And, fasten your seatbelt when in a car.

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Thursday, August 16, 2007

Man Caves of Russia

In the cold north of Russia men, as men every do, have their special places to get away from the wife for a while. In this case it's stand alone Garages.

Like all good man caves they feature ugly furniture and lots of chemicals and oils.

Lots of good ideas for garage decoration.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Answer of Strange Cruiser

In the manner of a young boy, I still like fighting ships. And, like many a kid, I have had various favorite ships: Victory, Bismarck, or Yamato. However, my current favorite is the cruiser Tone (WWII Japan):









What captured my interest was the unusual layout of all gun turrets forward of the bridge:










I kept wonder why did they do this? At first I thought it was to allow a full on broadside by eight of her guns, as the theory (at that time) was that cruisers while having smaller guns than battleships could still have great effect by 'smothering' a target in shells.

However, while reading a book on the battle of Midway Island (WWII), I found my answer. The Tone was built with the primary mission of escorting aircraft carriers. To allow the carrier to have the maximize the number of attack aircraft the Tone was designed to have four to five scout planes operate off its stern.












An interesting and ingenious design to carry out a support mission.

Tip of the hat to the Steel Navy web site for their great closeups of the Tone model: http://www.steelnavy.com/

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Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Family Wheels

I hated to do it, but it was time to move on. I bought a new (well used, but new to my ownership) car last week. This means I have to sell the Plymouth Voyager minivan I've been driving for the past 11 years. When the daughter was born we rushed out and bought a minivan.

I was surprised at how well the Voyager cleaned up. It still looks pretty good even after 180,000 miles.

voyager-1

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Monday, August 06, 2007

Red Star vs. Cross and Cresent

Spengler of the Asia Times pens an interesting column on the growth of Christianity and Islam in China. He predicts an interesting scenario for the end of Chinese Communist party and speculates on the affect the creation of a new Christian nation in Asia could have on the world.

The figures he quotes are a surprise (possible 200 million Christian), as in the 19th and 20th centuries China was one of the least productive areas for Christina missionaries. It would be a delicious twist of fate if indeed the communist party was undone by its own program to eliminate the traditional faiths of China--hosted by their own petard as it were.