The USDA has announced that it is going to replace its 'Food Pyramid' with what they hope will be a less confusing 'Food Plate.' You can watch a 2 minute segment HERE from CNN where this change is discussed in more detail. I particularly enjoyed when the CNN anchor asks the nutritional expert incredulously at one point, "what the heck is this even for?"
When I grew up in the 1970s, the USDA promoted what it called the 'Four Food Groups,' which it recommended from 1956 to 1992. Then in 1992, it changed over to a 'Food Pyramid.' Why were the Four Food Groups replaced back in 1992? And why then? It was surprisingly hard to find a concise answer to that simple question, actually. But on the USDA website I did find a somewhat turgid and self-congratulatory 18 page history of its nutritional guidance, which states in part:
"In 1977, Dietary Goals for the United States by the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs (U.S. Senate, 1977) heralded a new direction for dietary guidance. The focus shifted from obtaining adequate nutrients to avoiding excessive intakes of food components linked to chronic diseases... The goals drew attention to the need for new guidance on diet and health... Therefore, work began in 1988 to develop a graphic presentation of the food guide that conveyed the key concepts of the guide: variety, proportionality, and moderation. Consumer studies were conducted with adults having a high school education... After this testing, the food guide graphic was presented as a pyramid design."
So to summarize, in order to promote the fact that fats and sugars should be eaten more sparingly than other foods, in 1988 (a mere 11 years after that 1977 Senate committee report), the USDA began conducting extensive "consumer studies" and after four more years of work ultimately came up with a 'Food Pyramid' design that put those very fats and sugars at the very top.
And that design flaw is precisely the reason for the changeover now (a mere 20 years later) to the 'Food Plate,' apparently.
Our government at work.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
In Search Of... Lost Vikings
While I was very open as a child to the existence of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, I remember being incredulous (for whatever reason) at the assertions in this episode that a colony of vikings had sailed in open boats from Greenland to Canada around 1,000 AD (500 years before Columbus), and established a colony there. The irony is that this is one of the claims that In Search Of... examined during its six year run in the late 1970s that is now widely regarded as accurate.
But rather than focus on the more generally accepted archaeological work done at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, this episode instead focused on now widely dismissed claims made by a Canadian archaeologist named Thomas Lee that another site, on Pamiok Island in Ungava Bay, was the location of the first Norse colony. Watching it again this morning, I was struck by how many times interbreeding with the native Inuits was mentioned. A focus of Lee's claim was a 10 foot tall stone monument there, which he named "The Hammer of Thor" (see photo). It's now widely believed that this was actually an Inuit stone monument. Lee died in 1982, less than four years after appearing in this episode.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
There's An Old Rule In Politics...
Mitch Daniels' somewhat surprising announcement that he will not seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, was discussed this morning on Meet The Press in the clip below. There's been a lot of speculation about his wife's lack of enthusiasm for him mounting a presidential campaign. I really liked a line from a Republican strategist in this segment. "There's an old rule in politics," he says, "if you're going to run, be sure that your wife is going to vote for you."
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Escape From New York
The movie was scripted to begin with a 10 minute scene showing how Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russel) initially gets arrested following a bank robbery, before being sent to New York. This scene was cut from the final version released to movie theaters, however. It was finally included as a 'deleted scene' on a recent DVD, though, and you can watch it HERE. Having now seen it myself, I actually think the movie is better without it.
You can also watch a 15 minute interview with the film's legendary director, creator, and co-writer, John Carpenter, conducted in 1994. In part 1 HERE he discusses the origin of the concept and the original script, the casting of Lee Van Cleef, and the special effects work done in part by (a very young) James Cameron. In part 2 HERE, he discusses how the film is really a western and not a science fiction movie, the character of Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell channeling Clint Eastwood), and and the bizarre, unstated back story about why English actor Donald Pleasance plays the President of the United States.
As an epilogue, another sequel was planned to follow 1996's Escape From L.A. It was to be called "Escape From Earth," and was to begin right where Escape From L.A. ended, with the world about to be plunged into chaos. The film proposal never went anywhere, however, because of the disappointing box office results of Escape From L.A.
In Search Of... The Angel of Death
A few days ago I watched an excellent episode of a National Geographic channel TV series called Nazi Hunters. It profiled the decades-long search for the infamous Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, the so-called "Angel of Death." The show detailed how the Israeli Mossad almost captured Mengele at the same time they kidnapped Adolph Eichmann in Argentina in 1960, which was news to me. Eichmann and Mengele had apparently met several times for coffee in Buenos Aires in the late 1950s, since they both lived relatively openly in the area at the time. Another revelation was that Mengele actually died in 1979 while body surfing at a beach not far from São Paulo, Bazil, where he had lived out the last years of his life.
This latter detail reminded me of an episode of the 1970s TV show In Search Of... that I had seen as a kid, which detailed Simon Wiesenthal's then-ongoing search for Josef Mengele. This episode, which you can watch HERE, was also titled, "Angel of Death." Little did I or anyone else know at the time it first aired on February 1, 1979, that Josef Mengele had less than a week to live.
Until 1985, it was widely believed that Mengele was still living in Paraguay, where he was last sighted. This conventional wisdom is reflected in this 1979 episode of In Search Of... "The closer one gets to Mengele, " concludes narrator Leonard Nimoy, "the more elusive he seems to become... Wherever Mengele is in Paraguay, he has the protection of the Stroessner regime....This road, which leads to a well-guarded gate that we were unable to photograph, is the access to a hacienda where Mengele lives today..."
Not quite, as it turns out. But it wasn't until 1985, when, acting on a tip, German police raided the home of a long-time Mengele family administrator named Hans Sedlmeier (who'd been secretly sending Josef Mengele money from Germany for decades) that the truth was finally learned and the location of Mengele's grave in Brazil was discovered. And it wasn't until those remains were DNA tested in the early 1990s, that Mengele's identity (and, therefore, his fate) was conclusively established.
The episode of Nazi Hunters ends with an intriguing footnote to this story. At the time of Menegle's death in 1979, his friends in Brazil apparently sought permission from his family in Germany to cremate Mengele's remains. Because of the secrecy, however, they were unable to obtain that permission in a timely manner, and so his body was buried instead. Had Mengele's remains been cremated (and therefore rendered unable to be DNA tested later) it's likely, the show concludes, that many people today would still not believe he was actually dead.
This latter detail reminded me of an episode of the 1970s TV show In Search Of... that I had seen as a kid, which detailed Simon Wiesenthal's then-ongoing search for Josef Mengele. This episode, which you can watch HERE, was also titled, "Angel of Death." Little did I or anyone else know at the time it first aired on February 1, 1979, that Josef Mengele had less than a week to live.
Until 1985, it was widely believed that Mengele was still living in Paraguay, where he was last sighted. This conventional wisdom is reflected in this 1979 episode of In Search Of... "The closer one gets to Mengele, " concludes narrator Leonard Nimoy, "the more elusive he seems to become... Wherever Mengele is in Paraguay, he has the protection of the Stroessner regime....This road, which leads to a well-guarded gate that we were unable to photograph, is the access to a hacienda where Mengele lives today..."
Not quite, as it turns out. But it wasn't until 1985, when, acting on a tip, German police raided the home of a long-time Mengele family administrator named Hans Sedlmeier (who'd been secretly sending Josef Mengele money from Germany for decades) that the truth was finally learned and the location of Mengele's grave in Brazil was discovered. And it wasn't until those remains were DNA tested in the early 1990s, that Mengele's identity (and, therefore, his fate) was conclusively established.
The episode of Nazi Hunters ends with an intriguing footnote to this story. At the time of Menegle's death in 1979, his friends in Brazil apparently sought permission from his family in Germany to cremate Mengele's remains. Because of the secrecy, however, they were unable to obtain that permission in a timely manner, and so his body was buried instead. Had Mengele's remains been cremated (and therefore rendered unable to be DNA tested later) it's likely, the show concludes, that many people today would still not believe he was actually dead.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
The Thin Market For Andy Warhol's Work
In the wake of some record-breaking multi-million dollar selling prices for Andy Warhol's work at recent auctions in New York, the Economist magazine has taken a more detailed look at the nature of the market for his art HERE. They conclude that the prices Warhol's works now command at auction are a function of a thin but passionate collector base.
Perhaps more interestingly, it's also a market whose thinness leaves it vulnerable to distortion. One example cited in this article is that of a Warhol collector who has apparently amassed over 800 Warhols since the artist's death in the 1980s, and who has been known to continue to bid on more of his work as it comes up for auction today. Even if he doesn't win these auctions, his bids have the effect of increasing the perceived market value of his existing collection, which benefits him when he is then a periodic seller.
Perhaps more interestingly, it's also a market whose thinness leaves it vulnerable to distortion. One example cited in this article is that of a Warhol collector who has apparently amassed over 800 Warhols since the artist's death in the 1980s, and who has been known to continue to bid on more of his work as it comes up for auction today. Even if he doesn't win these auctions, his bids have the effect of increasing the perceived market value of his existing collection, which benefits him when he is then a periodic seller.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
When I Met Newt Gingrich
Did you catch the Newt Gingrich interview on Meet The Press a couple of days ago? There is some lingering controversy about whether moderator David Gregory 'set him up' and unfairly ambushed Gingrich with questions concerning his views on healthcare reform. If you like, you can watch the clip below of David Gregory addressing this issue on MSNBC this morning. The clip starts with a citizen in Iowa coming up to Gingrich yesterday and angrily confronting him, asserting that he'd 'undercut Paul Ryan.' This confrontation reminded me of the time I met Newt Gingrich myself.
It was in 1999, after he had resigned his Speakership and House seat following the 1998 mid-term elections, which had gone poorly for Republicans. A buddy of mine and I walked into an English-style pub near Stanford University in Palo Alto, California one random weekday night and, to our amazement, there sat Newt Gingrich at the end of the bar, having a quiet beer. The place was pretty much empty. Just Newt Gringrich (accompanied by what looked like a young Secret Service agent to me, who was not drinking), my buddy and I, and a college-age guy and his girlfriend (who were vaguely hippie-looking). I ordered a beer and tried to work up the courage to walk 10 feet down the bar and say hello to Gingrich myself. But after I'd had just a couple of sips of my beer, Newt got up to leave.
As he walked toward the door (passing right next to me), the hippie-looking guy said something profane and insulting to Newt (which I wont repeat here), in a childish manner that seemed intended to impress his girlfriend. But unlike in this clip, where Newt politely walks away, that night a decade ago, Newt leaned back toward the hippie guy and said clearly and calmly to him, "F--k off."
I still enjoy the vivid memory of how the look on that hippie guy's face transformed so instantly from one of righteous, hands-on-hips indignation to stunned, open-mouthed amazement.
It was in 1999, after he had resigned his Speakership and House seat following the 1998 mid-term elections, which had gone poorly for Republicans. A buddy of mine and I walked into an English-style pub near Stanford University in Palo Alto, California one random weekday night and, to our amazement, there sat Newt Gingrich at the end of the bar, having a quiet beer. The place was pretty much empty. Just Newt Gringrich (accompanied by what looked like a young Secret Service agent to me, who was not drinking), my buddy and I, and a college-age guy and his girlfriend (who were vaguely hippie-looking). I ordered a beer and tried to work up the courage to walk 10 feet down the bar and say hello to Gingrich myself. But after I'd had just a couple of sips of my beer, Newt got up to leave.
As he walked toward the door (passing right next to me), the hippie-looking guy said something profane and insulting to Newt (which I wont repeat here), in a childish manner that seemed intended to impress his girlfriend. But unlike in this clip, where Newt politely walks away, that night a decade ago, Newt leaned back toward the hippie guy and said clearly and calmly to him, "F--k off."
I still enjoy the vivid memory of how the look on that hippie guy's face transformed so instantly from one of righteous, hands-on-hips indignation to stunned, open-mouthed amazement.
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