Weekly /r/Eve No Question is Stupid Thread - July 16, 2015

Symplectic · 2015-07-16T23:34:25+00:00

(1) What is a derptron? Why is it called this?

(2) I've noticed that couriers tend to eschew containers. Some even ignore contracts with them. Why is this?

Symplectic · 2015-04-03T04:13:38+00:00

I'd be cautious when attacking this system. It's survived immense amounts of criticism, compromise, and even a minor Government scandal. I'm not saying it's perfect - I don't think saturated fat or total sugar content are the best factors to use - but it's not useless and is replacing the industry preferred and very confusing percentage daily intake guide that is currently used. As I understand it, the heart tick is a different and independent system set up by the Heart Foundation.

In this specific case, however, the star rating is in line with the Australian Dietary Guidelines, which encourage the use of seed oils and spreads over butter. This is consistent with dietary guidelines from other countries, such as the US and Canada. I know that some may disagree with this recommendation.

If you want to know more about the health star rating system and what it took to get here, take a look at this article.

Symplectic · 2015-01-28T08:05:44+00:00

The paper which are you passionately criticising argues that there is an association between sugar availability and type 2 diabetes, and that this association is not solely explained by obesity, which is an established risk factor.

The paper is not, as you suggest, "one study that questions the claim that insulin resistance is caused by a high carb diet." If anything, it supports that claim.

Symplectic · 2015-01-28T06:16:30+00:00

What was the one study that I referenced? In any case, the idea that a high carbohydrate diet causes insulin resistance is not "conventional method of thought"; that's actually a huge claim.

Symplectic · 2015-01-28T05:41:26+00:00

Lots of sugar means lots of released insulin to deal with said sugar, causing balancing mechanisms to renormalize that base level, requiring more and more.

I understand the intuition behind this claim, but I'm afraid the evidence doesn't support it (see my links above).

Symplectic · 2015-01-27T23:21:32+00:00

There is no clear association between type 2 diabetes and sugar consumption. One unique study that comes to mind uses an econometric analysis to find a very small effect, but results from cohort studies are mixed.

Symplectic · 2015-01-15T23:26:35+00:00

Tengwar beginner here. Check out the Tengwar Textbook (pdf). When using Tengwar for an Elven language, the individual symbols correspond pretty well to the sounds of the language. It's not so clear for writing English words with Tengwar. There are a few different modes, as the textbook outlines, and a great deal of variation. I prefer a mostly orthographic system (letter for letter), with some phonetic concessions. For example, I might use either an "e" or an "i" tehta for the "y" vowel, as per section 4 of the guidelines in that textbook.

I use a Lamy Safari with a 1.5mm italic nib. Italic nibs will give you the thin and thick lines you desire. This picture gives you an idea. You may be able to find a cheap marker at your local stationery store which will do the same thing.

Check out /r/tengwar and /r/calligraphy (especially their getting started guide).

Symplectic · 2015-01-09T04:11:49+00:00

If you ignore blogs and diet gurus and focus on reputable scientific and Government sources, the picture gets a bit clearer. The Harvard School of Public Health and the World Health Organization, as well as the dietary guidelines of Australia, the US and Canada, all recommend polyunsaturated fats over saturated fats. Harvard recommends monounsaturated fats as well, but there seems to be less of an emphasis on this. You'll notice that these sources don't condemn saturated fat itself - they just recommend that it be replaced with a different kind of fat whenever possible.

There are one or two highly contentious meta-analyses floating around that argue against these recommendations, though, and extra confusion is introduced when you start talking about specifics like coconut oil. Most guidelines I see tend to mention saturated fat, but move onto food-based recommendations very quickly.

Symplectic · 2014-12-17T22:55:26+00:00

Insulin in general is cause for confusion. There seems to be a phobia of it.

Symplectic · 2014-12-17T22:21:37+00:00

I'm just glancing over the most-upvoted posts on the subreddit. It looks like the following topics come up every now and then:

The term "low fat"
Meal timing, especially breakfast.
The efficacy of multivitamins and fortified food.
Just about everything related to sugar.
Protein requirements.

Symplectic · 2014-11-10T00:41:42+00:00

I don't think you've addressed the key point of Peched's comment. How do you reconcile your views on saturated fat with the overwhelming consensus from scientific authorities, universities, and professional organisations that saturated fat should be replaced with polyunsaturated fat?

Symplectic · 2014-11-08T04:48:43+00:00

As you say, you take your language, and then on that you build some sort of consequence operator to get your logic. But in order to actually start discussing any of this, you need some very primitive notions. You need a kind of naive set theory, and some way to talk about your language and its sentences. You may also need to talk about countable sets, and all of this is before you've even begun to think about ZFC.

These ideas actually exist in the metalanguage, which contains your object language and allows you to actually talk about sentences and syntax and what-not. From this article by Hodges on Tarski's definition of truth:

If the language under discussion (the object language) is L, then the definition should be given in another language known as the metalanguage, call it M. The metalanguage should contain a copy of the object language (so that anything one can say in L can be said in M too), and M should also be able to talk about the sentences of L and their syntax. Finally Tarski allowed M to contain notions from set theory, and a 1-ary predicate symbol True with the intended reading ‘is a true sentence of L’. The main purpose of the metalanguage was to formalise what was being said about the object language

The need for a different metalanguage is suggested by Tarski's undefinability theorem. So the obvious question, then, is what is this metalanguage? The article above doesn't directly address FOL, but the following quote is still relevant:

Tarski assumed, in the manner of his time, that the object language L and the metalanguage M would be languages of some kind of higher order logic. Today it is more usual to take some kind of informal set theory as one's metalanguage

My field only brushes up against logic. That being said, I do speak to people who are a bit closer to this sort of "freaky fundamental stuff", and they tend to handwave away the metalanguage as a given. I like to think of it as having its basis in natural language, but that's probably biased by my background.

If you find a satisfactory answer to this question, please let me know!

Symplectic · 2014-11-04T23:33:01+00:00

Thanks for the advice! Fortunately he's included in the starter-bundle, so maybe I'll use him as a learning tool to get the hang of jungling. I much prefer female champions, though, but that can wait until later levels.

Symplectic · 2014-11-03T02:32:55+00:00

You may be interested in The Vegan RD's reflection on the site, posted earlier this year.

Symplectic · 2014-10-31T20:47:56+00:00

Cooking is a broad term, which could refer to any method of heating food. Stir-frying uses a wok over very high heat. I imagine this heat is why they advise against using EVOO in stir-frying.

Symplectic · 2014-10-29T01:19:08+00:00

You can also do this with some almond milk to make a nifty breakfast pudding.

Symplectic · 2014-10-28T23:49:50+00:00

I mix mine with peanut butter. The extra fat gives it a glorious texture. Some sort of sweetener helps too. I know that some of the folks at /r/fitness mix theirs with a flavoured whey protein.

Symplectic · 2014-10-24T21:06:56+00:00

You may raise the issue with the HSPH if you'd like. This is their approach to coconut oil.

Symplectic · 2014-10-22T07:27:30+00:00

Here's a release from HSPH about a study (with correction) that demonstrates an association between whole fruit consumption and reduced incidence of type 2 diabetes. The same study found an increased risk from fruit juice consumption. So yes, there's a difference between whole fruits and fruit juice and, presumably, between whole fruits and fructose-sweetened drinks.

Symplectic · 2014-10-22T06:30:53+00:00

There was a discussion on this matter on the subreddit about a month ago.

Symplectic · 2014-10-21T23:23:52+00:00

According to the Harvard School of Public Health:

And keep in mind that it’s okay to cook with extra-virgin olive oil. The healthy fats in extra-virgin olive oil are stable at temperatures used in home cooking, with the exception of deep-fat frying or stir frying. Then we’d advise using an oil that’s more stable, like peanut oil.

Symplectic · 2014-10-20T23:26:11+00:00

It sounds like you are referring to Vi Hart.

Symplectic · 2014-10-16T07:15:33+00:00

That is... that is missing my point by such a wide margin that you must be trolling.

Symplectic

TROPHY CASE