diagnosed as a nerd

It is remarkable to me how hard psychologists have been trying to make being a little dorky into a disease. First we had to constantly hear about Asperger's now apparently we can add schizotypal personality disorder to that list.

Why we are fat

There are a ton of hypotheses as to why Americans suddenly started gaining so much weight in about 1980. Some are obviously silly, our genes haven't changed much since 1980 for example so most of the gain is environmental.

The New York Times had two good articles though on two of the more plausible ideas: We eat too much sugar, we sit too much.

If I was smart, I would put my computer at a desk I can't sit at.

LCD Soundsystem

Every so often there are bands that I know I am supposed to like. I hear from fanatical music people how great they are. LCD Soundsystem is one of these bands. I know many people who seem to think they are a great band, yet I never bothered listening to much of them. Since they(or really he) seems to be winding down, I figured I would listen to some of their music. Not sure he will do anything about the perception that no good music has been produced in the past decade, but he at least tries:

Too many leaves

I don't know that I will make it to the end of the day eating nothing but leaves. This is a shockingly difficult adventure I chose. I am both completely full, and really hungry at the same time. I can't fit anything else in my stomach, but by my best guess I have only eaten 500-800 Calories.

At least I cooked most of them, so I shouldn't die.

More good news

Traffic Fatalities have hit their lowest levels in decades. The number of deaths on the road last year was 34,000. In 1972 it was 54,000. The last time the total number of people killed from cars was this low was 1949!When you account for the fact the average American drives more today and the population is larger; driving is about a quarter as dangerous as it was forty years ago.

Crime rates this year in LA are about 12% lower than they were last year at this time. This is all the more shocking since this comes on the tail of a twenty year drop in crime rates.

These two stories will have more impact on life expectancies than most medical advances. Car accidents and murders are some of the bigger killers of young people.

On the economic front, 216,000 net jobs were created last month. One of the few months where job growth has exceeded population growth since the crash happened in 2008. We still need this number to increase to 400,000 or 500,000 for this to really put a dent in the job losses of the past few years, but we are clearly moving in the right direction.

Dandelion Greens

Dandelion greens are nearly inedible. I tried eating them raw. That failed. So I cooked a few with kale and spinach. I was able to eat the couple of leaves I cooked, but just barely. I may have to give up on eating only leaves, and make the goal only leaves and balsamic vinegar. Wow is it hard to just eat greens.

I feel sick

I woke up this morning and noticed that my pants are once again getting too small for me. The reasons for this are obvious. When I cook for myself, I lose weight. When I eat out, or someone else cooks a lot for me I gain weight. I have had way too much food from restaurants in the past few weeks.

So, I decided that I should try to eat nothing but leaves today. My best guess is that Americans would be a lot lighter if they ate more greens. While getting more sleep, sitting less, and many other hypotheses for the great fattening of America make some sense as well, low calorie density foods have a really good case for them.

So I ate my radish sprouts for breakfast. It is really hard to eat a whole package of radish sprouts. It is almost as hard as when I tried to eat that entire purple korean radish all at once. But I got to the end of it.

Then I went to a grocery store and a farmers market. I bought: two types of Cabbage, two types of Lettice, Parsley, Watercress, Dandelion Greens, Leeks, Kale and Spinach.

I then tried to eat the red cabbage raw for lunch. I ate until I felt sick, and I am still feeling hungry. Sarah's eggs smell really good. We will see if this grand experiment makes it to the end of the day.