GeorgeBMac

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  • Apple's AirTag uncovers a secret German intelligence agency

    blastdoor said:
    larryjw said:
    When they tell you we’re the good guys, remember.

    there are no good guys. 
    That’s stupid. If you really believe that then why bother posting or even getting out of bed?

    You're saying that there are good guys and bad guys?
    No, he was right.  While nobody is perfect some are better than others -- and work hard at it. But none of them are perfect and make mistakes -- and the best will freely admit that.  (But watch out for the ones who don't!)

    But, even then, "good" is in the eye of the beholder.   Hitler truly thought he was doing good by ridding the world of what he thought were defectives polluting the human race.   Most people today would call that evil.  While here, some think that Martin Luther King did great harm to their nation.

    It is in fact, the core strength of democracy:   A dictator can take off in whichever direction he wants (like Hitler did) while, in a democracy, others are able to stand in his way and stop or at least slow him down.  It doesn't always work perfectly but over time it tends to head in the direction of "good".
    darkvader
  • Army wife uses AirTags to track shady movers

    lkrupp said:
    You can’t trust anyone these days. The work ethic is dead and buried in this entitled culture. So this piece-of-shit driver lied through his teeth to his customer and she caught him red-handed. Still he wanted to ‘negotiate’ the delivery. I hope he didn’t rob her blind in the process.

    How many people calling in sick during the pandemic were frauds who just didn’t want to work?

    You won't get any disagreement from me on that.
    But, as a long haul driver, it is possible he had not been home, with his girl friend, for months.  And, with the driver shortage, they would likely send him back across the country as soon as he delivered that load.

    No, that doesn't excuse it.  But I suspect that there is another side to the story.
    We should perhaps be blaming the booking & scheduling agency as much or more than the driver.

    But here, we're only getting one side of the story.  We don't know if he was a goof-off or just trying to survive.  Sometimes that can be a fine line.

    In any case, somebody screwed up and: That's a great story about AirTags!

    larryjwJWSCscstrrfravnorodomfred1twokatmew
  • Piper Sandler raises Apple stock target to $200, says $4T market cap is in reach

    viclauyyc said:
    I love Apple. But I really wonder can any company worth that much of money without stock market hype. 

    Sure Apple makes shit tons of money each year. But still a very very long way to 3 or 4Trillion. Even count all the IP, talent, property, etc. I don’t think it will come close to 1/4 of that value. 

    After all, Apple is not East India company that monopolize half of the world at that time. 

    Apple's stock price has their PE at over 30.  That has little to do with performance and mostly to do with the Fed.   Essentially the Fed has kept PEs high since 2008 by making bonds and savings money losers -- and then doubled down in 2020.

    COVID and the Fed teamed up to make tech the only game in town (COVID trashed main street while the Fed trashed bonds) -- so money poured in.  But they just announced they're going to stop dropping their billions of coins into the stock market piggy bank and then even start charging it interest -- a complete reversal from their policies since COVID took down main street.

    Currently, Apple is priced at nearly triple what it was when COVID showed its ugly face -- and that was supposed to be a great stock market!  Is Apple really worth three times what it was worth 2 years ago?
    There are few who think tech will be a winner in 2022.

    The big question is:  How tight is too tight?  And does the Fed know the answer to that question?


    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Apple Watch glucose & blood pressure sensors still years away

    sflagel said:
    sflagel said:
    sflagel said:
    sflagel said:
    sflagel said:
    sflagel said:
    A glucose monitor would be fantastic. A vibrate or beeping when insulin levels spike would deter a to of people from eating excessive carbs and sugar.

    As more and more research shows, once you are overweight, your body will fight tooth and nail to keep it by swiping down your metabolism PERMANENTLY, even after you gain your lost weight back. The only way to be healthy is to stay healthy and a glucose monitor can do wonders for this.

    Except that Type 2 diabetes is caused by animal fat -- either the type you eat or that which you wear.  Avoiding carbohydrates is merely treating the symptoms -- as is taking your doctor's pills.  Treating those symptoms is important, but ultimately fruitless because the disease itself chugs along just fine.

    Those who eat healthy, fiber filled diets either do not gain weight  or, if they are overweight, they usually lose the fat when they start eating healthy.  Unfortunately, most Americans think eating healthy means only two slices of pizza and a 12 ounce CocaCola.  Then, once their microbiome is totally trashed and they're coming down with the Standard American Diseases from their Standard American Diet, they blame it on "age" or "metabolism".

    In America, its normal to sicken and die from our normal lifestyle.
    People become I overweight because of excessive carbs and sugar. Then it’s almost impossible to lose it - there were some shocking articles in the New York Times about metabolism, scientifically tested, it really it open my eyes. And made me feel quite sad for anybody who wants to lose weight.
    I meant to say that a glucose monitor can provide the type of alarm that may scare people from indulging in sugar (pizza and coke) in the first place, thus allowing them to never gain weight in the first place. 

    The meal I'm eating right now is probably 70% "carbs" (maybe more).  But I could eat it till my stomach exploded and not get fat.   It is pretty much impossible to get fat on it because, very simply, you fill up before you fatten up. 
    Why?  Because not one of gram of those "carbs" is processed or refined.  Every single gram is a whole, unprocessed plant food filled with nutrients and fiber rather than calories.  It not only feeds a healthy microbiome but, the whole meal, while filling is less that 500 calories.  So not only is it low-calorie it promotes the microbiome that helps keep you thin.

    It's called "caloric density" (Calories per pound of food).  A pound of the much maligned white potato for instance will fill you up but, at 300 calories per pound, they're almost impossible to get fat on:  How many pounds can you eat?  the average person eats about 3 pounds of food a day -- if it's all white potato that's less than a 1,000 calories.  You're not getting fat on 1,000 calories a day.
    (But soak that potato in 4,000 calorie per pound oil and it's an entirely different outcome)

    But we think "carbs" are "bad".  That's because 90% of the "carbs" Americans eat are processed and refined.  White sandwich bread for example is stripped of its fiber and nutrients and is almost all calorie.  And, to make it worse, it is almost unpalatable without smearing it with some kind of fat or sugar -- so we blame "carbs".

    Further, Americans have a fixation with protein and think they have to eat dead animals to get enough.  So, when they eat that quarter pounder and get fat, they blame the bun that it's on.   While that bun (made with white, processed flour) is part of the problem it is far from the only problem with that meal. 

    "Carbs" is a meaningless term and is typically bandied about by those trying to prove a point.  In truth there are very healthy foods high in carbs and there are very unhealthy (processed) foods high in carbs.  Americans tend to eat the latter then blame "carbs" --- when the problem is they're eating processed & refined foods loaded up with fat, sugar and salt to make them palatable.  But they call that junk "carbs".  It should be called what it is:   "junk food".

    I totally agree. But the glucose monitor does not measure carbs intake. It measures spikes in blood sugar. So it would not beep when you ate potatoes; but it would beep if you ate too many refined sugars and refined carbs. It measures the outcome of what you eat, not what you eat. 
    This I think would be very helpful to refrain users from eating the wrong, sugar spike inducing foods (whatever they are). 

    True!  Good point!
    But it is equally important to avoid the foods & lifestyle that create insulin resistance because then any kind of "carb" -- good or bad, healthy or unhealthy becomes bad.

    I listened to an old debate with Dr. Atkins.  He freely admitted that his carb-free diet was based on the premise that everybody was insulin resistant (which is a state of disease).
    Yes. But again, I think a glucose monitor can go a long way to help people avoid insulin resistance, by warning them when their blood is out of whack. 
    But, and I cannot stress this enough after reading those NYT articles: the most important thing is to keep your kids off sugars. Once you are overweight, your body will fight tooth and nail to stay fat. 
    Better than counting calories, avoiding carbs etc. arguably, this should not be necessary if people just ate well, but then again, for some reason people buy sleep trackers, step counters, and all kinds of things to tell them what they should already know. And it helps some of them. 
    I sure would love to have one, if only to check whether it is is an important data point. 

    The trouble with the theory that once you are fat your body keeps you fat (aside from being mostly bullshit) is that it is exactly the excuse that fat people look for.  True, muscle burns more calories than fat, but that isn't enough to keep you fat once you adopt a healthy lifestyle.

    The truth is:  If you eat today's Standard American Diet -- especially if you don't exercise -- it is almost impossible to not gain weight.  And, you tend to stay fat because most diet plans are based on the starvation model (eat less) and THAT is what your body fights -- because it was designed to fight starvation.  So your weight goes up and down till you give up and assume you'll always be fat.

    Eating less (or preferably no) processed foods (which the Atkins folks call "Carbs") is a good start.   But it isn't sufficient.  It's half of the problem.  The other half is fat:  The Atkins folks claim we substituted "carbs" for fat.  We didn't.  We just eat more of both!

    Starting with your gut, your body needs what it was designed to process:  Whole, unprocessed, high fiber plant foods:  Veggies, Whole Grains, beans and fruit.  They are high in nutrients (including protein) but lower in calories.  People who eat that way lose weight -- and often (usually?) the pills they were taking to treat the effects from their Standard American Diet.  The closer you get to eating that way the healthier you will be and the less likely you'll be overweight. 

    (But, yeh, if your body is in insulin resistance from excess animal fat it will have trouble processing any kind of carbs correctly.  And that is what Dr Atkins was trying to address with his diet.   And maybe that's what the NYT's articles were addressing as well?)
    I think you’d enjoy reading those articles. Easy to find - two articles about long term studies on contestants in The Biggest Loser (so yes, it’s about calorie reduction to lose weight). It claims that resting metabolism reduces drastically when you start losing weight and never recovers(!). It seems that weight gain is a one way street - like stretched skin it does not revert. 
    Have you for articles that show weight reduction by changing foods and without calorie reduction, including speed of reduction, testing metabolism, and long-term success? Would love to read those. 
    Sorry to say this, but this statement "It seems that weight gain is a one way street" is total BS. I don't usually use such strong words, but can't resist it when such silly claims are made. With a healthy lifestyle, anyone can reduce weight and keep it that way for the rest of the life. George is absolutely spot on with his posts related to Lifestyle and how it impacts Health.
    I am just giving a summary of the content of these studies in The Biggest Loser. I would be careful full with claims such as “anyone can….” unless you have done it, know a lot of other people who have done it, or have some evidence that it’s possible. Sadly, the most evidence points in the other direction, everyone knows that diets fail and that most people gain their weight back. Blaming the individual is easy, but more curious is the one that wonders WHY they cannot maintain “a healthy lifestyle”. 
    Most smokers are able to quit, it’s hard and they may indulge every once in a while, but most can do it. That does not seem to be the case for overweight people. 
    .... Unless a person focuses on all 4 aspects, he/she will continue to have health issues.

    ... Or develop them.  
    It's why we call them "age related chronic diseases".   After years and decades of being pounded with abuse the body's organs and systems start to crap out -- slowly, surely and steadily.  It's been shown that heart disease starts when we are young:   autopsies of our soldiers in the Vietnam war showed atherosclerosis already developing in their arteries.  Most cancers have been growing for years and decades before our 'early detection' systems find them.  And the nasty effects of diabetes like retinopathy, nephropatyhy and neuropathy take years to develop.

    As for exercise, it's one of the most important things anybody over 60 or so can do.  They call it sarcopenia and blame it on aging.   But not being able to get out of a chair really sucks.  Walking (or running) a few miles and doing a few squats each day can make a lot of difference in how a person ages.  But too often seniors are told to avoid injury.

    Youth is the greatest conman ever:   We live the most unhealthy of lives and usually remain relatively healthy -- until a few decades later when we pay the price for all that unhealthy living and the only thing keeping us going at all are a dozen or so pills from our doctor.
    muthuk_vanalingamsflagel
  • Apple Watch glucose & blood pressure sensors still years away

    sflagel said:
    sflagel said:
    sflagel said:
    sflagel said:
    sflagel said:
    sflagel said:
    A glucose monitor would be fantastic. A vibrate or beeping when insulin levels spike would deter a to of people from eating excessive carbs and sugar.

    As more and more research shows, once you are overweight, your body will fight tooth and nail to keep it by swiping down your metabolism PERMANENTLY, even after you gain your lost weight back. The only way to be healthy is to stay healthy and a glucose monitor can do wonders for this.

    Except that Type 2 diabetes is caused by animal fat -- either the type you eat or that which you wear.  Avoiding carbohydrates is merely treating the symptoms -- as is taking your doctor's pills.  Treating those symptoms is important, but ultimately fruitless because the disease itself chugs along just fine.

    Those who eat healthy, fiber filled diets either do not gain weight  or, if they are overweight, they usually lose the fat when they start eating healthy.  Unfortunately, most Americans think eating healthy means only two slices of pizza and a 12 ounce CocaCola.  Then, once their microbiome is totally trashed and they're coming down with the Standard American Diseases from their Standard American Diet, they blame it on "age" or "metabolism".

    In America, its normal to sicken and die from our normal lifestyle.
    People become I overweight because of excessive carbs and sugar. Then it’s almost impossible to lose it - there were some shocking articles in the New York Times about metabolism, scientifically tested, it really it open my eyes. And made me feel quite sad for anybody who wants to lose weight.
    I meant to say that a glucose monitor can provide the type of alarm that may scare people from indulging in sugar (pizza and coke) in the first place, thus allowing them to never gain weight in the first place. 

    The meal I'm eating right now is probably 70% "carbs" (maybe more).  But I could eat it till my stomach exploded and not get fat.   It is pretty much impossible to get fat on it because, very simply, you fill up before you fatten up. 
    Why?  Because not one of gram of those "carbs" is processed or refined.  Every single gram is a whole, unprocessed plant food filled with nutrients and fiber rather than calories.  It not only feeds a healthy microbiome but, the whole meal, while filling is less that 500 calories.  So not only is it low-calorie it promotes the microbiome that helps keep you thin.

    It's called "caloric density" (Calories per pound of food).  A pound of the much maligned white potato for instance will fill you up but, at 300 calories per pound, they're almost impossible to get fat on:  How many pounds can you eat?  the average person eats about 3 pounds of food a day -- if it's all white potato that's less than a 1,000 calories.  You're not getting fat on 1,000 calories a day.
    (But soak that potato in 4,000 calorie per pound oil and it's an entirely different outcome)

    But we think "carbs" are "bad".  That's because 90% of the "carbs" Americans eat are processed and refined.  White sandwich bread for example is stripped of its fiber and nutrients and is almost all calorie.  And, to make it worse, it is almost unpalatable without smearing it with some kind of fat or sugar -- so we blame "carbs".

    Further, Americans have a fixation with protein and think they have to eat dead animals to get enough.  So, when they eat that quarter pounder and get fat, they blame the bun that it's on.   While that bun (made with white, processed flour) is part of the problem it is far from the only problem with that meal. 

    "Carbs" is a meaningless term and is typically bandied about by those trying to prove a point.  In truth there are very healthy foods high in carbs and there are very unhealthy (processed) foods high in carbs.  Americans tend to eat the latter then blame "carbs" --- when the problem is they're eating processed & refined foods loaded up with fat, sugar and salt to make them palatable.  But they call that junk "carbs".  It should be called what it is:   "junk food".

    I totally agree. But the glucose monitor does not measure carbs intake. It measures spikes in blood sugar. So it would not beep when you ate potatoes; but it would beep if you ate too many refined sugars and refined carbs. It measures the outcome of what you eat, not what you eat. 
    This I think would be very helpful to refrain users from eating the wrong, sugar spike inducing foods (whatever they are). 

    True!  Good point!
    But it is equally important to avoid the foods & lifestyle that create insulin resistance because then any kind of "carb" -- good or bad, healthy or unhealthy becomes bad.

    I listened to an old debate with Dr. Atkins.  He freely admitted that his carb-free diet was based on the premise that everybody was insulin resistant (which is a state of disease).
    Yes. But again, I think a glucose monitor can go a long way to help people avoid insulin resistance, by warning them when their blood is out of whack. 
    But, and I cannot stress this enough after reading those NYT articles: the most important thing is to keep your kids off sugars. Once you are overweight, your body will fight tooth and nail to stay fat. 
    Better than counting calories, avoiding carbs etc. arguably, this should not be necessary if people just ate well, but then again, for some reason people buy sleep trackers, step counters, and all kinds of things to tell them what they should already know. And it helps some of them. 
    I sure would love to have one, if only to check whether it is is an important data point. 

    The trouble with the theory that once you are fat your body keeps you fat (aside from being mostly bullshit) is that it is exactly the excuse that fat people look for.  True, muscle burns more calories than fat, but that isn't enough to keep you fat once you adopt a healthy lifestyle.

    The truth is:  If you eat today's Standard American Diet -- especially if you don't exercise -- it is almost impossible to not gain weight.  And, you tend to stay fat because most diet plans are based on the starvation model (eat less) and THAT is what your body fights -- because it was designed to fight starvation.  So your weight goes up and down till you give up and assume you'll always be fat.

    Eating less (or preferably no) processed foods (which the Atkins folks call "Carbs") is a good start.   But it isn't sufficient.  It's half of the problem.  The other half is fat:  The Atkins folks claim we substituted "carbs" for fat.  We didn't.  We just eat more of both!

    Starting with your gut, your body needs what it was designed to process:  Whole, unprocessed, high fiber plant foods:  Veggies, Whole Grains, beans and fruit.  They are high in nutrients (including protein) but lower in calories.  People who eat that way lose weight -- and often (usually?) the pills they were taking to treat the effects from their Standard American Diet.  The closer you get to eating that way the healthier you will be and the less likely you'll be overweight. 

    (But, yeh, if your body is in insulin resistance from excess animal fat it will have trouble processing any kind of carbs correctly.  And that is what Dr Atkins was trying to address with his diet.   And maybe that's what the NYT's articles were addressing as well?)
    I think you’d enjoy reading those articles. Easy to find - two articles about long term studies on contestants in The Biggest Loser (so yes, it’s about calorie reduction to lose weight). It claims that resting metabolism reduces drastically when you start losing weight and never recovers(!). It seems that weight gain is a one way street - like stretched skin it does not revert. 
    Have you for articles that show weight reduction by changing foods and without calorie reduction, including speed of reduction, testing metabolism, and long-term success? Would love to read those. 
    The trouble with engaging in "Battle of the articles and studies" is that you can prove anything with "a study".  The Tobacco industry pioneered those efforts when they paid researchers to conduct studies proving that cigarettes were healthy.  Today, the food industry continues and expands on the same techniques  -- and the media is happy to sell newspapers and clicks using their latest claims.

    Rush Limbaugh did the same:  It is accurate to say that he spoke truth.  It is equally accurate to say he only spoke those parts of the truth that supported his agenda.

    The easiest way to learn about  healthy lifestyles it is to watch "Forks Over Knives" or "The Game Changers".  Or, read "the Blue Zones" & "the China Study"   Neither deals directly with weight loss.  But they get the idea across.
    I am not suggesting a battle. I just recommend reading them as they put a new spin on things. It does not offer solutions, it does not tell people to stay fat. But it starts peeling the onion on why most people (that lose weight through calorie  reduction) gain their weight back. 
    I will review the articles/books you mentioned. I really would like to see data that shows that, and how, people lose weight whiteout calorific reduction by switching the types of food. I hear a lot about this theory but haven’t seen data - hope your books have it. 

    Think about it:  Calorie reduction violates the body's core directive to not starve.  There is no way it can work for long.

    There are a number of reasons why eating only whole, unprocessed plant foods generate weight loss in those who are overweight:   caloric density, a healthy microbiome, not flooding the system with fats & sugars that the body has to stuff away somewhere, non-addictive, non-compulsive eating, lower levels of inflammation, metabolic changes, hormonal changes and likely a LOT more.

    The fact is:  we evolved from the plant eating apes and that is how our body is designed.  It makes sense that our natural diet would produce the best results.  But, our food industry, particularly since the 70's is designed to pump us full of high fat, sugar, salt and manufactured chemicals and processed & refined "food"  to entice us to eat more and more and more.  And, since our so called health care system thrives on the diseases caused by those foods, they aren't going to lift a finger or whisper a word.

    If you want more evidence check out Dean Ornish.   He started out proving with randomized controlled studies showing how heart disease could be prevented and reversed.  But he evolved into realizing (and demonstrating) that almost all of our chronic, age related diseases have a common cause:   Lifestyle.
    (and yes, obesity is a disease).

    muthuk_vanalingamsflagel