Irony and Politics

The ironic thing I refer to is the meeting I went to today. We were reading a paper that had recently been published in Nature on the topic of ubiquitin-dependent pathways and calorie restriction---essentially how starving, under strict control, leads to longer life. How was this ironic? We were doing this while gnawing through 6 boxes of pizza and drinking several 6-packs of Coca-cola.

Let me tell you, we all felt sorry for the starved subjects in the study. The mice and C Elegans might live longer, but a full belly of pizza is happiness. Short term, I admit. But who wants to wait 50 plus years to reap a benefit? I can get my pizza-bliss in 15 minutes.

In case anyone is curious, the normal life span of a mouse is 2 years and C Elegans is around a month. Though in some studies they have Elegans going out to 80 days. That's over double the normal life span---but no pizza. Just not worth it!

On to politics! Yesterday I was commenting about Dr Gates, President Obama, and Officer Crowley so I figured I'd revisit the topic. I saw all three interviewed separately on the morning news this morning before work. I was impressed with how well President Obama was able to hold his ground and sound presidential while defending his position on the "police acted stupidly" comment.

When ex-president Bush (the wienie, not the father) would be called to task he always came off as being a little kid trying to lie his way out of trouble. President Obama is a breath of fresh air in that regard. Still, he might have pulled his punch a little with his wording. The word stupid is kinda strong when you're not sure of your facts yet. And speaking of facts, both Dr Gates and Officer Crowley came across well in their interviews. One or both is fibbing about what happened but it was hard to tell from their interviews. Maybe it'll become obvious as time goes by...

Comments

Gwen said…
Hi Net Chick sent me over. I have to agree, starving yourself all the time takes the joy out of life.
2:10 PM
kenju said…
I'll bet on Dr. Gates as being the one telling the truth. He's a very learned man. He may have gotten mad at the police, but I can't imagine him acting in such a way as to require an arrest.
6:22 PM
Teresa said…
Personally, I think the calorie-deprived people are a bit nuts, but I respect their right to do what they want in that regard. Most of us could certainly survive on less than we consume (some of us, a LOT less!). I'm just not sure that living longer is a great goal. Not that some people don't lead great lives into extreme old age, but most people don't. I don't think our bodies were meant to sustain a long life. As I dieter, skipping the pizza for a few weeks is hard. If I looked at it like, "If I skip this pizza now, I'll be able to skip it for the next 50 years too!", I'd go crazy. And I think people would consider me crazy to plan to do that...

I'm still not responding to the race issue, but I do have to agree that it's nice to have a President that owns his words. It's almost as if he knows that what he says is being recorded for posterity! Quite refreshing!

(The pizza looks awful though... bleh!)
8:14 PM
Ronald Lee said…
Actually, this is not really new news, it has been known for a while (low calorie diet).

For a second there, I thought that slice of pizza was a cow head you were about to eat! Nice photo there.
3:25 AM
Anonymous said…
Can I trade a week off the end of my life for a slice of THAT PIZZA - oh my god it looks good!
4:39 PM
utenzi said…
Yes, you can, NCP. It's in the contract.
5:03 PM
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