Everyone should see this film. Take the red pill, and pass it to everyone you know.

Link

Interesting, informative, eye-opening, and a bit depressing. Even if you think it’s sensationalist, these should really be required viewing for all, as the Peak Oil phenomenon is not a question of if, but when. My takeaway: we all need to use less energy, and have fewer kids.

This stuff is crazy, especially the cell phone flip catch.  I think we might be doomed.

Apparently their works are in the public domain thus perfectly legal.  I discovered this trove after reading this article about how Orwell wrote 1984 while suffering from tuberculosis in the last years of his life.

Links: George Orwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, William Shakespeare

Trans fats: The scary thing about trans fats is that even if it says 0g on the label, the FDA allows it to be up to 0.4g and it’ll be rounded down to 0 for the label.  You very rarely see anything containing any grams of trans fat according to the label, but I’d be willing to bet that tons of products have it snuck in there and they get to round down to 0.  They probably lower the serving size to accomplish this too.  A person could eat 6 servings of such things in a day, that could be over 2g of trans fats all the while the label said 0.  Again it could also come at a restaurant and you’d never know it.  “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” oils.  Avoid them!  It’s a shame that whole cities (like NYC back in 2006) place bans before the FDA even thinks of it.

MSG: The scary thing about MSG (other than of course how bad it is for you) is how it’s disguised so innocuously as other things in ingredient lists.  Like “hydrolyzed vegetable protein”, “autolyzed yeast”, “hydrolyzed yeast”, “yeast extract”, “soy extract”, “protein isolate”, even just as “spices”, or “natural flavorings”.  Be deligent with your label reading, or better yet avoid that processed crap all together.  But it’s ALSO served up in restaurants, you gotta be diligent.

(watch parts 2a, 2b, 3, 4)

Aspartame:  This vid series is called Aspartame and MSG are Poisoning Us, but it’s really just about aspartame and how it causes brain tumors and various other things.  It’s kinda long but near the end is a pretty sad story about how a woman was convicted for poisoning her husband who died of methanol poisoning, the actual suspicion being that it was from the component of aspartame.  Stevia gets mentioned in the credits; it’s a joke how aspartame is still approved for food use but stevia isn’t.

(watch parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Or this 60 Minutes piece which kind of sums up the above aspartame material in 10 minutes.

This is a French documentary entitled The World According to Monsanto. It reveals how “the gigantic bio-tech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.” Please watch the whole thing, and pass it on. And just say NO to GMO. Trouble is that Monsanto fought hard so that GM products don’t have to be labeled as such, so the only reliable way to know your food is GMO-free is to buy organic.

Support local farmers at farmer’s markets, join a CSA, start a garden. Stop drinking milk, cut way back on or eliminate your red meat intake, and stop being so fat. Wake up America!

I think that may be the Scientology guy narrating this, but this is an interesting view. Bit scary. Parts 2-10 after the jump.

Leave it to Shelby to blow the [electric car] world out the water with this beast.  With 1000hp, top speed of 208mph and a 0-60 of only 2.5 seconds, this thing is sure to get you the company softball game quickly.

The most exciting thing to me though is they have technology which will allow it to be recharged in as little as 10 minutes.  So while it has the typically short electric car range of 150-200 miles, 10 minutes isn’t really any longer than you’d spend at a gas station.  Long distance travel could be possible.

Isn’t the majority of our electric produced from fossil fuels though?  Why haven’t we gotten with that whole nucular thing.

Click the pics for their high rez glory, or check out Shelby’s official announcement page.

This is fascinating stuff, especially the 2nd half. He was a little nerdier back in 2003!

Botany of Desire:

(see other posts featuring Michael Pollan)

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, stopped by the Google headquarters in California last year and delivered this talk.

See also my earlier post featuring an interview with this man.

(see other posts featuring Michael Pollan)

This is an entertaining film. I do think it’s preaching to the choir a little bit, and some of his methods are a little too antagonistic in my opinion, but an interesting watch nonetheless. I saw this film in a relatively empty theater and some people sat down directly behind us (who does that?) and one of these bitches laughed ridiculously at every other line. I didn’t find this film that hilarious, in fact I found it somewhat scary.

(via)

edit2: here it is on Hulu.

Parts 2-9 after the jump Edit1: Here is only the first part remaining on youtube.. the pirated one got pulled.  buy the dvd or see it elsewhere but watch it!

Part 1:

(Watch parts 2-5 after the jump..)

These links have been sitting in my tabs for a while, and rather than post them individually, I’m going to drop them here together.

Cheetah joins endangered species list

Scientists Back Brain Drugs for Healthy People

Is Einstein the Last Great Genius?

Proof that Albert Einstein’s black holes do exist, claim scientists

Black hole confirmed in Milky Way

Why We Procrastinate and How to Stop

Academics invent a mathematical equation for why people procrastinate

Are we too afraid of touch?

Does a short haircut mean women have gone off sex?

Men find long, wavy locks the sexiest hair do, while short hair leaves them cold, says poll

Young women ‘have more sexual partners’ than men

Birth Control Pills Affect Women’s Taste in Men

Could Males Really Become The Weaker Sex?

Cold Sore Virus Linked To Alzheimer’s Disease: New Treatment, Or Even Vaccine Possible

World’s first flying car on the roads from next year – yours for just £130,000

Video games may do the aging brain good