Via a link posted by Nerd, I found this video by Dr. Robert Lustig, lecture about the American obesity epidemic and High Fructose Corn Syrup.
It wasn’t that long ago when the HFCS kerfuffle popped up in the US. Suddenly soda cans were proudly labeled “Made with SUGAR!” After the many decades of warnings about obesity and even diabetes from the sugar (generic term) in soda, I did find that rather humorous.
In trying to replace HFCS, some makers are swapping in “organic brown rice syrup,” which has turned out to potentially have dangerous levels of arsenic. Reminds me of how margarine was a healthier alternative to butter, until the dangers of trans-fats were discovered and the butter turned out to be better.
All such stuff amounts to finding safer ways to indulge in dangerous excessive consumption. Healthier living is still found in old wisdom, ‘Moderation in everything, even in moderation.’
Dirk,
While the high fructose syrup may be a factor, I think that growth hormones in meat and dairy products (banned in France, don’t know about other EU countries) are one of the reasons of American obesity. Not that you would hear much about it — the U.S. food lobby plays hand in hand with the Feds.
Nerd
February 19, 2012 11:22 am
Dirk,
High fructose syrup in high amount can give you fatty liver disease! Essentially, no different than drinking alcoholic beverages in large quantity. Yikes. Anyway, if you want to lose weight, get diabetes and heart disease under control, get glucose meter and test your blood 30-60 minutes after you eat something. If your blood sugar level goes above 120, ditch the food and try something else. Paleo Diet is a great one and not only that it was proven by multiple trial studies. Wheat Belly Diet is a pretty good complementary to that diet as it helps you understand why and how you get heart disease in the first place. High fructose isn’t the only carbohydrate source to worry about. Wheat/corn flour based products (pasta, bread, etc) are everywhere as well.
Widespread vitamin D deficiency is a huge concern that nobody seemed to be aware of. No thanks to CDC, it got swept under the rug. http://www.naturalnews.com/032202_vitamin_D_deficiency_disease.html To help you understand how important Vitamin D is for our health – (Note: it is not really a vitamin but a prohormone that get converted to powerful steroid hormone that acts as DNA repair and maintenance) – http://www.biochemj.org/bj/441/0061/bj4410061.htm
Once again, we get screwed by gov’t… Oh yeah, American Cancer Society recently tried to discredit vitamin D and telling us to stick to federal guideline. Right… you want us to get cancer so you get to charge high amount while I suffer miserably undergoing chemotherapy. How nice of you…
Once again, it’s all about money.
Eric (skeptic)
February 19, 2012 11:23 am
Genghis, interesting experiment but it only tests albedo changes. The atmosphere is only in equilibrium near the top and the efficiency of getting heat up to that level will determine the final temperature down at the surface. A metal bar experiment could represent that by heating the bars from the center and adding varying amounts of insulating material into the composition of one of the bars. Given an identical power flux into each bar, one bar would have a warmer center than the other.
orkneylad
February 19, 2012 11:51 am
Plunging to New Depths: http://www.glebedigital.co.uk/blog/?p=5435
“Plunge, by artist Michael Pinsky, imagines a time 1000 years in the future when the effects of runaway climate change have completely transformed the London we know today.
This latest piece of state-sponsored apocalism is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the European Culture Programme, Trust Greenbelt, WWF-UK and the Big Give.
This ‘work of art’ invites visitors to look up and see ‘rings of blue fire’, erected at 28 metres above sea level on familiar icons across London in an attempt to create disturbing visions of apocalypse in the eye of the beholder.
“Artist Pinsky’s work illustrates how sea levels will have climbed by then, should we fail to heed the threat of ‘global warming’.”
The artwork, which resembles a series of chip shop fly killers, clearly suggests the level of knowledge and intelligence required to be an ‘artist’ in the early 21st century.
Sea levels are rising at approximately 15cm per century, so in a thousand years that’s a rise of around 1.5m.
Pinsky shows signs of his true colours elsewhere on his main website, refering to a work on green neon crosses:
“These objects that use siren-like attractive powers to kill and brutalize the unsuspecting fly. But who gets caught? The consumer or the fly?”
Perhaps Mr Pinsky isn’t aware of the apparent parapraxis in that statement. All hail the Age of Stupid!”
DirkH
February 19, 2012 11:51 am
Nerd says:
February 19, 2012 at 11:22 am
“Widespread vitamin D deficiency is a huge concern that nobody seemed to be aware of. No thanks to CDC, it got swept under the rug. http://www.naturalnews.com”
I regularly adapt my supplements; I’m taking D3 and Zinc Histidine ATM and looks like that works out perfectly – all the people around me coughed and sneezed in this winter and I’m just fine…
Alexander Feht says:
February 19, 2012 at 11:01 am
“While the high fructose syrup may be a factor, I think that growth hormones in meat and dairy products (banned in France, don’t know about other EU countries) are one of the reasons of American obesity. ”
Banned in all of the EU. Yes, maybe that’s a factor as well.
Reading more about fructose, I found out that our normal sugar here in Germany (made from sugar beet) is simply sucrose, that’s a fructose molecule connected to a glucose molecule. The bond between the two molecules is removed by our metabolism and the fructose and glucose are then processed separately. With 50% fructose content, sucrose is nearly as high as HFCS 55 (55%) in fructose content.
And we’ve been using this sugar beet sugar for ages. Dr. Lustig blames the introduction of HFCS in the 70ies, but our sucrose has existed for far longer. So that can’t be the decisive reason.
And by the way: the English wikipedia DOES contain the arguments against HFCS; under http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hfcs
But when I went from the German page http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maissirup
I landed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_syrup
which doesn’t.
HankH
February 19, 2012 12:41 pm
Alexander Feht says:
February 19, 2012 at 11:01 am
Dirk,
While the high fructose syrup may be a factor, I think that growth hormones in meat and dairy products (banned in France, don’t know about other EU countries) are one of the reasons of American obesity. Not that you would hear much about it — the U.S. food lobby plays hand in hand with the Feds.
The combination of high levels of grown hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides in meat and dairy is also being shown a leading cause of breast and prostate cancer, among others. Believe it or not, chicken is as bad or worse than beef. The growth hormones encourage these hormone sensitive cancers to grow. The antibiotics suppress the body’s natural defenses against the cancer, and pesticides and other chemicals contribute to chromosomal damage that gets the cancer started.
Having battled cancer and kicked it to the corner, I no longer eat commercial farm raised meat or dairy products. I’m even careful to read the label on organic labeled products as many of them come from China and aren’t inspected by U.S. agencies to ensure that they’re really organic. In reality they’re often so full of undesirable chemicals that they’re worse for you. Anyway, I don’t want a repeat of the cancer experience so I choose my food carefully.
Jeff Alberts
February 19, 2012 12:54 pm
The deal with any sugars is moderation. Even “natural” sources of sugar such as fruits will break down into high levels of fructose. HFCS is no worse than Honey or Agave. Eating a wide variety of foods, and in moderation is the key.
Third Party
February 19, 2012 12:56 pm
Has an(y)one else noticed that on http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps+002
we are once again in record low temperatures for the calendar date?
Here’s my question(s):
Why is there a global seasonal temp signal?
Why is it positive at some altitudes and negative at others?
Can these data be used to help show causality of CO2 to atmospheric temps in any way?
Can anyone help me with this. Per wiki, the total amount of energy generated by humans from oil, gas, coal, nuclear and biomass is ~125,000TWH per year.
This might seem like a large number, but it equates to ~0.03W/m2 of energy intensity that we are adding to the Earth’s energy budget. ~170W/m2 gets to the surface from the sun, or just over 5,600 times more than we are adding.
Surely, the maximum effect we can have on the system overall is the energy that we add to that system? Our first order effect is the energy, our second order effect is the waste heat. Some of that waste heat goes to creating CO2, making it a third order effect. How can a third order effect from a miniscule addition of energy result in Thermageddon?
Here’s the figures:
143,851TWH – 13%(amount for renewables) = 125150TWH
125150TWH / 8760 (hours in a year) = 14.286530TW = 14286530MW
14286530MW / 510926783 (Area of the world in km2) = 0.027962W / m2
Jimbo
February 19, 2012 1:04 pm
John Peter says:
February 19, 2012 at 9:29 am
So the oceans are doomed after all, notwithstanding Willis Eschenbach’s attempts to explain that the oceans are not turning acid. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17088154
Jacuzzi vents’ model CO2 future
“A UK scientist studying volcanic vents in the ocean says they hold a grave warning for future marine ecosystems.
You may have missed this:
“….a large scale, natural experiment in Papua New Guinea. There are several places at the eastern end of that country where carbon dioxide is continuously bubbling up through healthy looking coral reef, with fish swimming around and all that that implies. Coral Reef at Dobu Island with carbon dioxide bubbling through it
What that implies is that ocean acidification is no threat at all. If the most delicate, fragile, iconic ecosystem of them all can handle flat-out saturation with carbon dioxide, what is there to worry about? http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/28/the-fishes-and-the-coral-live-happily-in-the-co2-bubble-plume/
Doomednotdoomed.
statmanUK
February 19, 2012 1:06 pm
Has anyone else wondered whether this whole ‘acidification’ of the world’s oceans due to increasing CO2 emission is the biggest load of bollax ever thought up by non-chemists? Look at the ‘latest research’ reported with gusto by the BBC here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17088154
Apparently volcanic vents deep under the seas surface is acidifying the ocean. Extrapolating this finding, researchers from the low grade UK uni Plymouth University conclude that 30% of all marine life on the sea bed could be killed by acidifying oceans.
Is this an example of good science? Or crap science? Please let me know!
Anybody else had trouble voting in the Weblog Awards?
I’ve tried three times over the last few days and the process seemed to go OK – but I never got the confirmatory email on any occasion.
kadaka (KD Knoebel)
February 19, 2012 1:17 pm
From Alexander Feht on February 19, 2012 at 11:01 am:
While the high fructose syrup may be a factor, I think that growth hormones in meat and dairy products (banned in France, don’t know about other EU countries) are one of the reasons of American obesity. Not that you would hear much about it — the U.S. food lobby plays hand in hand with the Feds.
I’ve noted on the ads for Perdue chicken and others that they say no growth hormones are used, with the fine print saying growth hormones aren’t permitted anyway. I Googled up an expanded listing (bold added): http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA400066
Some people think that all commercially raised animals – cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry – are fed hormones as growth promoters. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not permit the use of hormones in raising hogs or chickens, turkeys and other fowl. That is why the USDA does not allow the use of the term “no hormones added” on labels of pork or poultry products unless it is followed by a statement explaining that “Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones.”
Hormones are still used as growth promoters in cattle and sheep. It’s estimated that two-thirds of the cattle raised in the U.S. are given hormones (usually testosterone or estrogens) to boost growth. Producers of beef and lamb may use the term “no hormones administered” on labels after satisfying the USDA that hormones were not used in raising the animals. If you eat beef or lamb, I urge you to look for such products.
So growth hormones in meat are rather easy to avoid.
More info on growth hormones is found in this Cornell University fact sheet: http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/factsheet/diet/fs37.hormones.cfm
Note that’s a 2000 document, page says it’s on a archival site, see the new one. I did, did searching through the pdf files… which lead right back to the same document except in pdf.
I can’t see anything there to worry about. And if someone says they’re worried about growth hormones in American poultry and pork, feel free to write them off as a raving nutter.
u.k.(us)
February 19, 2012 1:33 pm
Foxgoose says:
February 19, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Anybody else had trouble voting in the Weblog Awards?
I’ve tried three times over the last few days and the process seemed to go OK – but I never got the confirmatory email on any occasion.
==============
Same here, voted 4 or 5 times, never got the confirm email ?????
Marlow Metcalf
February 19, 2012 1:34 pm
My tiny understanding of how Wikipedia decides which position to publish is this. They do not do peer review. They go with what the vast majority opinion and facts of published work. When the vast majority of published work is that humans cannot change climate then Wikipedia will publish that. As to different opinion and information in different languages, I have no idea.
Kaboom
February 19, 2012 1:45 pm
@Smokey
If you published a story that a study has concluded that global warming causes half the population to be of below average intelligence you could probably get every major news outlet to run it – simply based on the fact that the editors today are part of that population half.
DirkH
February 19, 2012 1:47 pm
Marlow Metcalf says:
February 19, 2012 at 1:34 pm
“My tiny understanding of how Wikipedia decides which position to publish is this. They do not do peer review. They go with what the vast majority opinion and facts of published work. When the vast majority of published work is that humans cannot change climate then Wikipedia will publish that. As to different opinion and information in different languages, I have no idea.”
In my opinion, they publish the point of view that wins. For instance, once I read the article on Albert Einstein, and it was strangely worded at one point. I looked into the history and the talk page and it turned out that there had been a war raging for years between one guy who thought that Poncaré was the real inventor of general relativity and others who opposed him; in that case it resulted in a strangely compromising text, taking neither position clearly.
What position wins in such a war is determined by the warring factions, their standing in the wikipedia hierarchy, their numbers, their tactics, their strategy, how well they can damage the reputation of the opposing forces etc. The book of Sun Tzu comes in handy.
Reading more about fructose, I found out that our normal sugar here in Germany (made from sugar beet) is simply sucrose, that’s a fructose molecule connected to a glucose molecule. The bond between the two molecules is removed by our metabolism and the fructose and glucose are then processed separately. With 50% fructose content, sucrose is nearly as high as HFCS 55 (55%) in fructose content.
I’m semi-agnostic on the issue. Science News has had some intriguing articles over the last several decades on the subject, most recently one to the effect that fructose, in the presence of glucose prompts the pancreas to put out more insulin.
The “predigested” sucrose sounds like it should be metabolized just like real sucrose. However, it’s possible that sucrose leads to low levels of fructose in the bloodstream.
I think the last time I checked, I found that fructose is converted into glucose, and then it enters the long processing (Krebs Cycle, electron transport chain, etc) that I learned in high school biology when that was new knowledge.
If the enzyme that splits sucrose is slower than that which converts fructose to gluclose, then fructose would have a short dwell time in the blodstream. Consuming HFCS, OTOH, would likely flood the bloodstream with both fructose and glucose, so there would be a fructose spike.
I have not had time to look into the reaction rates of the two steps, if someone has time to do so, please be my guest.
By the way, one thing I learned along the way is that “invert sugar,” used mainly in pastery products, is sucrose decomposed to glucose and fructose by a heat process. (My recollection is fuzzy, a recheck is in order.) The goal is to make sugar sweeter in pastries.
Steve from Rockwood
February 19, 2012 1:52 pm
u.k.(us) says:
February 19, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Foxgoose says:
February 19, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Anybody else had trouble voting in the Weblog Awards?
I’ve tried three times over the last few days and the process seemed to go OK – but I never got the confirmatory email on any occasion.
==============
Same here, voted 4 or 5 times, never got the confirm email ?????
————————————————————————————
I had no problem. Maybe check your spam filter.
Genghis
February 19, 2012 2:01 pm
Eric (Skeptic)
I think you missed the point a little. If the system isn’t in thermal equilibrium, then yes albedo, GHG’s, insulation, etc. make a difference to the rate of temperature change in the system.
The point of the experiment was that the Earth after being heated by the sun for billions of years has to be in thermal equilibrium. Just like putting the putting the metal bars under the heat lamp for a few hours.
Marlow Metcalf
February 19, 2012 2:04 pm
Regarding Bovine Growth Hormon (BGH)
From the American Cancer Society http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/OtherCarcinogens/AtHome/recombinant-bovine-growth-hormone
“Before approving the use of rBGH in 1993, the FDA calculated a worst case scenario based on an infant drinking 1.5 liters (1.6 quarts) of milk daily, with complete absorption of intact IGF-1 protein and the maximum increase in IGF-1. Under these conditions, milk from rBGH-treated cows would contribute far less than 1% of the infant’s normal daily production of IGF-1. “
Current usage and regulatory status
Although the use of rBGH is still approved in the United States, demand for the product has decreased in recent years. Many large grocery store chains no longer carry milk from cows treated with rBGH. A United States Department of Agriculture survey conducted in 2007 found that less than 1 in 5 cows (17%) were being injected with rBGH.
Summary
The available evidence shows that the use of rBGH can cause adverse health effects in cows. The evidence for potential harm to humans is inconclusive. It is not clear that drinking milk produced using rBGH significantly increases IGF-1 levels in humans or adds to the risk of developing cancer. More research is needed to help better address these concerns.
The increased use of antibiotics to treat rBGH-induced mastitis does promote the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but the extent to which these are transmitted to humans is unclear.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has no formal position regarding rBGH. Together with its advocacy affiliate, the ACS Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the Society supports open, fair and transparent regulatory oversight of products containing rBGH. The ACS also encourages continued and expanded scientific research and independent, credible assessment of potential relationships between the use of this substance in cows and human cancer risk. We support regulatory standards based on rigorous scientific evidence to minimize exposure to carcinogens, and we encourage the FDA to give the public information regarding known and suspected causes of cancer in the food system. The need for an effective FDA in ensuring the safety of our food supply, medicines, and consumer products has never been greater.
From DirkH on February 19, 2012 at 9:33 am:
It wasn’t that long ago when the HFCS kerfuffle popped up in the US. Suddenly soda cans were proudly labeled “Made with SUGAR!” After the many decades of warnings about obesity and even diabetes from the sugar (generic term) in soda, I did find that rather humorous.
In trying to replace HFCS, some makers are swapping in “organic brown rice syrup,” which has turned out to potentially have dangerous levels of arsenic. Reminds me of how margarine was a healthier alternative to butter, until the dangers of trans-fats were discovered and the butter turned out to be better.
All such stuff amounts to finding safer ways to indulge in dangerous excessive consumption. Healthier living is still found in old wisdom, ‘Moderation in everything, even in moderation.’
Dirk,
While the high fructose syrup may be a factor, I think that growth hormones in meat and dairy products (banned in France, don’t know about other EU countries) are one of the reasons of American obesity. Not that you would hear much about it — the U.S. food lobby plays hand in hand with the Feds.
Dirk,
High fructose syrup in high amount can give you fatty liver disease! Essentially, no different than drinking alcoholic beverages in large quantity. Yikes. Anyway, if you want to lose weight, get diabetes and heart disease under control, get glucose meter and test your blood 30-60 minutes after you eat something. If your blood sugar level goes above 120, ditch the food and try something else. Paleo Diet is a great one and not only that it was proven by multiple trial studies. Wheat Belly Diet is a pretty good complementary to that diet as it helps you understand why and how you get heart disease in the first place. High fructose isn’t the only carbohydrate source to worry about. Wheat/corn flour based products (pasta, bread, etc) are everywhere as well.
Widespread vitamin D deficiency is a huge concern that nobody seemed to be aware of. No thanks to CDC, it got swept under the rug. http://www.naturalnews.com/032202_vitamin_D_deficiency_disease.html To help you understand how important Vitamin D is for our health – (Note: it is not really a vitamin but a prohormone that get converted to powerful steroid hormone that acts as DNA repair and maintenance) – http://www.biochemj.org/bj/441/0061/bj4410061.htm
Once again, we get screwed by gov’t… Oh yeah, American Cancer Society recently tried to discredit vitamin D and telling us to stick to federal guideline. Right… you want us to get cancer so you get to charge high amount while I suffer miserably undergoing chemotherapy. How nice of you…
Once again, it’s all about money.
Genghis, interesting experiment but it only tests albedo changes. The atmosphere is only in equilibrium near the top and the efficiency of getting heat up to that level will determine the final temperature down at the surface. A metal bar experiment could represent that by heating the bars from the center and adding varying amounts of insulating material into the composition of one of the bars. Given an identical power flux into each bar, one bar would have a warmer center than the other.
Plunging to New Depths:
http://www.glebedigital.co.uk/blog/?p=5435
“Plunge, by artist Michael Pinsky, imagines a time 1000 years in the future when the effects of runaway climate change have completely transformed the London we know today.
This latest piece of state-sponsored apocalism is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the European Culture Programme, Trust Greenbelt, WWF-UK and the Big Give.
This ‘work of art’ invites visitors to look up and see ‘rings of blue fire’, erected at 28 metres above sea level on familiar icons across London in an attempt to create disturbing visions of apocalypse in the eye of the beholder.
“Artist Pinsky’s work illustrates how sea levels will have climbed by then, should we fail to heed the threat of ‘global warming’.”
The artwork, which resembles a series of chip shop fly killers, clearly suggests the level of knowledge and intelligence required to be an ‘artist’ in the early 21st century.
Sea levels are rising at approximately 15cm per century, so in a thousand years that’s a rise of around 1.5m.
Pinsky shows signs of his true colours elsewhere on his main website, refering to a work on green neon crosses:
“These objects that use siren-like attractive powers to kill and brutalize the unsuspecting fly. But who gets caught? The consumer or the fly?”
Perhaps Mr Pinsky isn’t aware of the apparent parapraxis in that statement. All hail the Age of Stupid!”
Nerd says:
February 19, 2012 at 11:22 am
“Widespread vitamin D deficiency is a huge concern that nobody seemed to be aware of. No thanks to CDC, it got swept under the rug. http://www.naturalnews.com”
I regularly adapt my supplements; I’m taking D3 and Zinc Histidine ATM and looks like that works out perfectly – all the people around me coughed and sneezed in this winter and I’m just fine…
Alexander Feht says:
February 19, 2012 at 11:01 am
“While the high fructose syrup may be a factor, I think that growth hormones in meat and dairy products (banned in France, don’t know about other EU countries) are one of the reasons of American obesity. ”
Banned in all of the EU. Yes, maybe that’s a factor as well.
Reading more about fructose, I found out that our normal sugar here in Germany (made from sugar beet) is simply sucrose, that’s a fructose molecule connected to a glucose molecule. The bond between the two molecules is removed by our metabolism and the fructose and glucose are then processed separately. With 50% fructose content, sucrose is nearly as high as HFCS 55 (55%) in fructose content.
And we’ve been using this sugar beet sugar for ages. Dr. Lustig blames the introduction of HFCS in the 70ies, but our sucrose has existed for far longer. So that can’t be the decisive reason.
And by the way: the English wikipedia DOES contain the arguments against HFCS; under
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hfcs
But when I went from the German page
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maissirup
I landed at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_syrup
which doesn’t.
The combination of high levels of grown hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides in meat and dairy is also being shown a leading cause of breast and prostate cancer, among others. Believe it or not, chicken is as bad or worse than beef. The growth hormones encourage these hormone sensitive cancers to grow. The antibiotics suppress the body’s natural defenses against the cancer, and pesticides and other chemicals contribute to chromosomal damage that gets the cancer started.
Having battled cancer and kicked it to the corner, I no longer eat commercial farm raised meat or dairy products. I’m even careful to read the label on organic labeled products as many of them come from China and aren’t inspected by U.S. agencies to ensure that they’re really organic. In reality they’re often so full of undesirable chemicals that they’re worse for you. Anyway, I don’t want a repeat of the cancer experience so I choose my food carefully.
The deal with any sugars is moderation. Even “natural” sources of sugar such as fruits will break down into high levels of fructose. HFCS is no worse than Honey or Agave. Eating a wide variety of foods, and in moderation is the key.
Has an(y)one else noticed that on
http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps+002
we are once again in record low temperatures for the calendar date?
Here’s my question(s):
Why is there a global seasonal temp signal?
Why is it positive at some altitudes and negative at others?
Can these data be used to help show causality of CO2 to atmospheric temps in any way?
“Agave”?
Distilled Nectar of the Gods
Can anyone help me with this. Per wiki, the total amount of energy generated by humans from oil, gas, coal, nuclear and biomass is ~125,000TWH per year.
This might seem like a large number, but it equates to ~0.03W/m2 of energy intensity that we are adding to the Earth’s energy budget. ~170W/m2 gets to the surface from the sun, or just over 5,600 times more than we are adding.
Surely, the maximum effect we can have on the system overall is the energy that we add to that system? Our first order effect is the energy, our second order effect is the waste heat. Some of that waste heat goes to creating CO2, making it a third order effect. How can a third order effect from a miniscule addition of energy result in Thermageddon?
Here’s the figures:
143,851TWH – 13%(amount for renewables) = 125150TWH
125150TWH / 8760 (hours in a year) = 14.286530TW = 14286530MW
14286530MW / 510926783 (Area of the world in km2) = 0.027962W / m2
You may have missed this:
Doomednotdoomed.
Has anyone else wondered whether this whole ‘acidification’ of the world’s oceans due to increasing CO2 emission is the biggest load of bollax ever thought up by non-chemists? Look at the ‘latest research’ reported with gusto by the BBC here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17088154
Apparently volcanic vents deep under the seas surface is acidifying the ocean. Extrapolating this finding, researchers from the low grade UK uni Plymouth University conclude that 30% of all marine life on the sea bed could be killed by acidifying oceans.
Is this an example of good science? Or crap science? Please let me know!
Yet another study shows shale gas is safe.
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/yet-another-study-shows-shale-gas-is-perfectly-safe/
Anybody else had trouble voting in the Weblog Awards?
I’ve tried three times over the last few days and the process seemed to go OK – but I never got the confirmatory email on any occasion.
From Alexander Feht on February 19, 2012 at 11:01 am:
I’ve noted on the ads for Perdue chicken and others that they say no growth hormones are used, with the fine print saying growth hormones aren’t permitted anyway. I Googled up an expanded listing (bold added):
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA400066
So growth hormones in meat are rather easy to avoid.
More info on growth hormones is found in this Cornell University fact sheet:
http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/factsheet/diet/fs37.hormones.cfm
Note that’s a 2000 document, page says it’s on a archival site, see the new one. I did, did searching through the pdf files… which lead right back to the same document except in pdf.
I can’t see anything there to worry about. And if someone says they’re worried about growth hormones in American poultry and pork, feel free to write them off as a raving nutter.
Foxgoose says:
February 19, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Anybody else had trouble voting in the Weblog Awards?
I’ve tried three times over the last few days and the process seemed to go OK – but I never got the confirmatory email on any occasion.
==============
Same here, voted 4 or 5 times, never got the confirm email ?????
My tiny understanding of how Wikipedia decides which position to publish is this. They do not do peer review. They go with what the vast majority opinion and facts of published work. When the vast majority of published work is that humans cannot change climate then Wikipedia will publish that. As to different opinion and information in different languages, I have no idea.
@Smokey
If you published a story that a study has concluded that global warming causes half the population to be of below average intelligence you could probably get every major news outlet to run it – simply based on the fact that the editors today are part of that population half.
Marlow Metcalf says:
February 19, 2012 at 1:34 pm
“My tiny understanding of how Wikipedia decides which position to publish is this. They do not do peer review. They go with what the vast majority opinion and facts of published work. When the vast majority of published work is that humans cannot change climate then Wikipedia will publish that. As to different opinion and information in different languages, I have no idea.”
In my opinion, they publish the point of view that wins. For instance, once I read the article on Albert Einstein, and it was strangely worded at one point. I looked into the history and the talk page and it turned out that there had been a war raging for years between one guy who thought that Poncaré was the real inventor of general relativity and others who opposed him; in that case it resulted in a strangely compromising text, taking neither position clearly.
What position wins in such a war is determined by the warring factions, their standing in the wikipedia hierarchy, their numbers, their tactics, their strategy, how well they can damage the reputation of the opposing forces etc. The book of Sun Tzu comes in handy.
DirkH says:
February 19, 2012 at 11:51 am
I’m semi-agnostic on the issue. Science News has had some intriguing articles over the last several decades on the subject, most recently one to the effect that fructose, in the presence of glucose prompts the pancreas to put out more insulin.
The “predigested” sucrose sounds like it should be metabolized just like real sucrose. However, it’s possible that sucrose leads to low levels of fructose in the bloodstream.
I think the last time I checked, I found that fructose is converted into glucose, and then it enters the long processing (Krebs Cycle, electron transport chain, etc) that I learned in high school biology when that was new knowledge.
If the enzyme that splits sucrose is slower than that which converts fructose to gluclose, then fructose would have a short dwell time in the blodstream. Consuming HFCS, OTOH, would likely flood the bloodstream with both fructose and glucose, so there would be a fructose spike.
I have not had time to look into the reaction rates of the two steps, if someone has time to do so, please be my guest.
By the way, one thing I learned along the way is that “invert sugar,” used mainly in pastery products, is sucrose decomposed to glucose and fructose by a heat process. (My recollection is fuzzy, a recheck is in order.) The goal is to make sugar sweeter in pastries.
u.k.(us) says:
February 19, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Foxgoose says:
February 19, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Anybody else had trouble voting in the Weblog Awards?
I’ve tried three times over the last few days and the process seemed to go OK – but I never got the confirmatory email on any occasion.
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Same here, voted 4 or 5 times, never got the confirm email ?????
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I had no problem. Maybe check your spam filter.
Eric (Skeptic)
I think you missed the point a little. If the system isn’t in thermal equilibrium, then yes albedo, GHG’s, insulation, etc. make a difference to the rate of temperature change in the system.
The point of the experiment was that the Earth after being heated by the sun for billions of years has to be in thermal equilibrium. Just like putting the putting the metal bars under the heat lamp for a few hours.
Regarding Bovine Growth Hormon (BGH)
From the American Cancer Society
http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/OtherCarcinogens/AtHome/recombinant-bovine-growth-hormone
“Before approving the use of rBGH in 1993, the FDA calculated a worst case scenario based on an infant drinking 1.5 liters (1.6 quarts) of milk daily, with complete absorption of intact IGF-1 protein and the maximum increase in IGF-1. Under these conditions, milk from rBGH-treated cows would contribute far less than 1% of the infant’s normal daily production of IGF-1. “
Current usage and regulatory status
Although the use of rBGH is still approved in the United States, demand for the product has decreased in recent years. Many large grocery store chains no longer carry milk from cows treated with rBGH. A United States Department of Agriculture survey conducted in 2007 found that less than 1 in 5 cows (17%) were being injected with rBGH.
Summary
The available evidence shows that the use of rBGH can cause adverse health effects in cows. The evidence for potential harm to humans is inconclusive. It is not clear that drinking milk produced using rBGH significantly increases IGF-1 levels in humans or adds to the risk of developing cancer. More research is needed to help better address these concerns.
The increased use of antibiotics to treat rBGH-induced mastitis does promote the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but the extent to which these are transmitted to humans is unclear.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has no formal position regarding rBGH. Together with its advocacy affiliate, the ACS Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the Society supports open, fair and transparent regulatory oversight of products containing rBGH. The ACS also encourages continued and expanded scientific research and independent, credible assessment of potential relationships between the use of this substance in cows and human cancer risk. We support regulatory standards based on rigorous scientific evidence to minimize exposure to carcinogens, and we encourage the FDA to give the public information regarding known and suspected causes of cancer in the food system. The need for an effective FDA in ensuring the safety of our food supply, medicines, and consumer products has never been greater.
“How can 30% of nickel in Rossi’s reactor be transmuted into copper?”
http://www.journal-of-nuclear-physics.com/?p=473
Genial
V.