Rules of Reason

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Some Science on Low-Carb Diets

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The 'tl;dr' summary here is that basically, with relatively minor caveats, scientific studies generally increasingly seem to show low-carb diets to be either as good or better than alternatives, for both weight loss, and other health markers: [Added 2016] The effects of ketogenic dieting on skeletal muscle and fat mass 2014 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4271639/ " Lean body mass increased to a greater extent in the VLCKD [ Very low carbohydrate (<5 %), high fat (>70 %) ketogenic diets ] ... as compared to the traditional group. Ultrasound determined muscle mass increased to a greater extent in the VLCKD group ... as compared to the traditional western group. Finally fat mass decreased to a greater extent in the VLCKD group " [Rauch et al, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2014;11(Suppl 1):P40] [Added 2015] Dietary Intervention for Overweight and Obese Adults: Comparison of Low-Carbohydrate and Low-Fat Diets. A Meta-...
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Last Refuges of Great Art

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The 'art world' should be ashamed that one of the last refuges of artistic beauty and value is not in the art world, but in the art produced by the artists of the video game industry ... I think there is more beauty and value in a single screenshot here than in all the works of the "Tate Modern" put together: http://www.videogamer.com/wii/secret_files_tunguska/screenshot-4.html (And there's plenty more like this out there.) Even the garbage bin is beautiful The rich, expansive virtual worlds created by video game artists are, in a loose sense, 'virtual art galleries' - they're often 'larger' than 'real' art galleries, you can comparably 'explore' them, and every virtual detail is almost like a small piece of art in its own right. If you're ever in London, try this "experiment": Visit the National Gallery (for its classical paintings collection) in the morning, and the Tate Modern in the aftern...
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The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis and the 'Wet Look'

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An Aquatic Ape I think the strongest 'circumstantial evidence' supporting a partial form of the (controversial)  aquatic ape hypothesis * is something I don't think I've seen mentioned before: The simple fact that we find  wet Homo sapiens sexually attractive. If you think about it, doesn't it seem a bit arbitrary? E.g. would gorillas find other wet gorillas sexy, or would rats find other wet rats sexy? How universal is this? If we consider the concept of sexual choice ** in evolution, then if our ancestors were once partially evolving "in that direction", then we might expect that they may have felt  a mate choice preference  for the entailed characteristics of a hypothetical "aquatic ape" (such as the 'wet look', as well as finding smooth, hairless skin comparatively more attractive, as we do). To consider this argument, look at a picture like the one above (or  this ,  this ,  this ,  this , or  this ) ... then (for...
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