Obesity Amnesiacs’ Real International Choke Problem
Beating Obesity by Marc Ambinder (The Atlantic): Political reporter Marc Ambinder writes a thoughtful, considered essay about the problem of obesity in the US (and Australia could be worse than the US in some ways), the possible political solutions, and the problem of regulatory capture; in the shadow of all this is his own dramatic loss of weight after banding his stomach, a treatment out of the reach of the poorer ethnic rural Americans who have the most need of it. Ambinder also responds to reader comments here. [via]
Don’t Choke by Jonah Lehrer (The Frontal Cortex): How do we avoid choking at that vital point in the game, or that big song at the end of the set? Lehrer recommends thinking about motivational posters. Seriously. At least Lehrer is vaguely horrified by the depths to which he is suggesting that we sink in the pursuit of the best performance.
Amnesiacs Show That Emotions Linger Long After Memories Fade by Ed Yong (Not Exactly Rocket Science): People with anterograde amnesia - who can no longer transfer memories from short-term to long-term memory (think Memento) - still feel sad long after they forget what made them sad. In a way, this is further proof that we should be distrustful of our emotions - our emotional reaction to what is in front of us may not be totally caused by what is in front of us.
My Search For The Real Robin Hood by Stephen Moss (The Guardian): I recently posted a Fortean Times article alleging that poor old Robin was a Knights Templar, which was fun but a bit silly. This article, on the other hand, is the kind of enjoyable romp that, in order to figure out if Robin Hood actually existed, ends up in the murky waters of historiography (i.e., the question of what is history?). I bet you didn’t expect to see “enjoyable romp” and “historiography” in the same sentence, but Moss accomplishes exactly that.
Africa’s Drug Problem by James Traub (New York Times): Perhaps more accurately titled “Guinea-Bissau’s Drug Problem”; Africa is a wildly varying place. In any case, the combined results of government corruption, drug trafficking, terrorism, and abject poverty aren’t pretty, whatever you call the article.
Journeys To The International Space Station by various photographers (The Big Picture): Sometimes the daily linkblog writes itself. Usually this is when there are good blog entries from Jonah Lehrer and Ed Yong, plenty of good Guardian and New York Times articles to chose from, and a good recent Big Picture photo set. A new issue of the Atlantic never hurts either. Today’s linkblog is seriously the archetypal O Song! post. Q: Why am I talking about all this rather than the link? A: Awesome pictures of space and astronauts and rockets sell themselves.
