Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
On the Couch (and other good TV shows)
On The Couch, the Foxtel football show on a Monday night is infinitely better than Channel 9's horrible Footy Classified. Footy Classified is antagonistic and media centric. Every segment seems to have as its goal an argument between two of the presenters. On The Couch on the other hand is 3 intelligent football fans having a friendly discussion about the weekend's games. It makes me wish Foxtel had some kind of streaming service that allowed me to share the show with friends.
My sister also mentioned that its successes (and Footy Classified's failure) are replicated in another two shows:
Masterchef was great, My Kitchen Rules was terrible. My Kitchen Rules pitted self-assured couples against each other. They bitched about one another's meals and came across as the kind of people you wouldn't want to have as friends -especially at dinner parties. Masterchef had a sprinkling of self-assured contestants amongst what was generally, a pretty down to earth bunch. I can't remember a time when they judged each other's meals; that was left to professional critics who were always constructive. I'm sure that the positive attitude of the show helped make it an all-round (and not just ratings) success.
Any other examples?
(as an aside, image googling On The Couch does not provide the results one expects)
My sister also mentioned that its successes (and Footy Classified's failure) are replicated in another two shows:
Masterchef was great, My Kitchen Rules was terrible. My Kitchen Rules pitted self-assured couples against each other. They bitched about one another's meals and came across as the kind of people you wouldn't want to have as friends -especially at dinner parties. Masterchef had a sprinkling of self-assured contestants amongst what was generally, a pretty down to earth bunch. I can't remember a time when they judged each other's meals; that was left to professional critics who were always constructive. I'm sure that the positive attitude of the show helped make it an all-round (and not just ratings) success.
Any other examples?
(as an aside, image googling On The Couch does not provide the results one expects)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
(why I'll never be) A Scientist
I am not, and will never be, a scientist.
Thanks to Isabelle I've been reading Good Calories, Bad Calories for one day now. (well for a couple of hours really as I do have to work, sleep and take my car to the mechanics) I will post about some of the interesting food science and public health policy implications of the book another time as I am excited by what I am reading so far. For now though, I just want to acknowledge that numerous books have shown me that I am no scientist.
I work in a field full of scientists, full of people who want to know why something happens, perform an experiment, collate results and then set about interpreting them. I stop at when.
To me, once something is repeatable I don't really care about the mechanisms anymore. I certainly find them fascinating, and the knowledge of why something occurs is undoubtedly powerful. However, once I've constructed a system/process/device that works I don't want to gather a deeper understanding, I want to move on to the next challenge.
I wonder if this is a quality of professional engineers (what about engineering academics?). I wonder if I will develop my scientific drive later in life, or if I have already outgrown it.
Any thoughts from the chorus?
Thanks to Isabelle I've been reading Good Calories, Bad Calories for one day now. (well for a couple of hours really as I do have to work, sleep and take my car to the mechanics) I will post about some of the interesting food science and public health policy implications of the book another time as I am excited by what I am reading so far. For now though, I just want to acknowledge that numerous books have shown me that I am no scientist.
I work in a field full of scientists, full of people who want to know why something happens, perform an experiment, collate results and then set about interpreting them. I stop at when.
To me, once something is repeatable I don't really care about the mechanisms anymore. I certainly find them fascinating, and the knowledge of why something occurs is undoubtedly powerful. However, once I've constructed a system/process/device that works I don't want to gather a deeper understanding, I want to move on to the next challenge.
I wonder if this is a quality of professional engineers (what about engineering academics?). I wonder if I will develop my scientific drive later in life, or if I have already outgrown it.
Any thoughts from the chorus?
Monday, March 22, 2010
Gary Taubes on Salt (bit of a rant)
A reasonably fit, healthy and food conscious person would read the article Bread and cereal makers to slash salt and probably think it's a step in the right direction. But what if this:
Gary Taubes wrote a fantastic article for Science back in 1999 comparing the evidence for both sides of this debate (yes! there is another side to the debate).
The (Policitcal) Science of Salt
It just reminds me that time and time again people want a simple solution to a complex problem. People with high cholesterol and high blood pressure are eating special margarine and having oats for breakfast because they want a silver bullet. If the real solution was to change their flawed eating and drinking habits entirely, well, I wonder if they would do anything.
My father recently lowered his blood pressure levels dramatically. He didn't do it by eating more oats, exercising more (he already went to the gym every day), or adding an expensive margarine to his diet. He did it by cutting out those 2 glasses of wine every night. Switching from a small amount of alcohol every day to a small amount of alcohol every week had a significant positive impact on his health.
Wouldn't you much rather the big supermarkets cut salt from their bread?
It appears that the only thing more satisfying than solving a problem yourself is pretending someone else will solve it for you.
"because of its links to high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke."was actually rubbish?
Gary Taubes wrote a fantastic article for Science back in 1999 comparing the evidence for both sides of this debate (yes! there is another side to the debate).
The (Policitcal) Science of Salt
It just reminds me that time and time again people want a simple solution to a complex problem. People with high cholesterol and high blood pressure are eating special margarine and having oats for breakfast because they want a silver bullet. If the real solution was to change their flawed eating and drinking habits entirely, well, I wonder if they would do anything.
My father recently lowered his blood pressure levels dramatically. He didn't do it by eating more oats, exercising more (he already went to the gym every day), or adding an expensive margarine to his diet. He did it by cutting out those 2 glasses of wine every night. Switching from a small amount of alcohol every day to a small amount of alcohol every week had a significant positive impact on his health.
Wouldn't you much rather the big supermarkets cut salt from their bread?
It appears that the only thing more satisfying than solving a problem yourself is pretending someone else will solve it for you.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
A summary of things that have interested me lately.
http://ferfal.blogspot.com/
Ferfal here writes about experiences from the (numerous) economic collapses in Argentina. I don't believe that the US/Australia/Greece anywhere else is heading societal collapse, however, reading about one that happened is really interesting.
Outliers: The Story of Success
This book was simply amazing! It is not, as it sounds, a business book. It attempts to explain why people/cultures achieve success and others with similar starting points don't. It left me with a really strong sense of social justice - I believe that was its intention, I wasn't being super insightful. I would like to elaborate or have a discussion with someone about it but I'm not about to preach on my blog. Read the book!
And some music.
Kelis gets a bad rap because of that milkshake song. It got popular, no one had heard of her, she sings hip hop, therefore everyone thinks she must actually be rubbish - if that logic doesn't make sense to you then you're not alone. This song is cruisey, funny and super sexy. I first heard it in this Diplo mix which itself is a killer.
Ferfal here writes about experiences from the (numerous) economic collapses in Argentina. I don't believe that the US/Australia/Greece anywhere else is heading societal collapse, however, reading about one that happened is really interesting.
Outliers: The Story of Success
This book was simply amazing! It is not, as it sounds, a business book. It attempts to explain why people/cultures achieve success and others with similar starting points don't. It left me with a really strong sense of social justice - I believe that was its intention, I wasn't being super insightful. I would like to elaborate or have a discussion with someone about it but I'm not about to preach on my blog. Read the book!
And some music.
Kelis gets a bad rap because of that milkshake song. It got popular, no one had heard of her, she sings hip hop, therefore everyone thinks she must actually be rubbish - if that logic doesn't make sense to you then you're not alone. This song is cruisey, funny and super sexy. I first heard it in this Diplo mix which itself is a killer.
Monday, March 8, 2010
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