n2doc
n2doc's Journal
Paul Krugman- A Test Of The System
At this point two things are clear about the debate: 1. Romney won the night by being confident and aggressive while Obama was hesitant and passive 2. Romney said many things that simply weren’t true — and not just about budget math, which he might be able to obfuscate (although he shouldn’t get away with it). These ranged from the just plain dishonest assertion that he has a plan to cover preexisting conditions, to his completely false claims about government energy loans.
The question now is whether the revelation that he was making stuff up matters. Is our system shallow enough — and in particular, are our media so much into appearances rather than reality — that it’s OK to lie to win an argument, with no further consequences?
Time will tell.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/a-test-of-the-system/
Study: Omega-3 Supplements May Actually Affect Aging
OCT 4 2012, 8:03 AM ET
Lindsay Abrams
PROBLEM: It's an eternal and irreversible certainty that as we get older, our telomeres shorten. Every time a cell divides, a bit of the chromosomal end-piece is clipped off, our DNA diminishing in length; aging, cancer, and our ultimate demise following closely behind. If we can't preserve our fleeting youth, can we at least save our telomeres? And -- let's be honest, here -- can we do so without making any major lifestyle changes?
METHODOLOGY: Researchers at Ohio State University put adults (over one hundred of them, middle-aged and older, mostly overweight but otherwise healthy) on a four month regimen of already-known-to-be-good-for-us omega-3 supplements. The pills, derived from cold-water fish like salmon and cod, were administered in two different doses, while a control group received placebos.
RESULTS: Members of both groups given the real stuff had longer telomeres than the sugar pill group -- a promising sign. But differences in telomere length reached statistical significance when looked at as a function of the lowered ratios of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 in the experimental groups' blood.
The fish pill groups also had a 15 percent reduction in oxidative stress, the disease-causing condition behind science's much-enthused over endorsement of red wine and dark chocolate.
more
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/10/study-omega-3-supplements-may-actually-affect-aging/263219/
Tom Toles- The Debate: The Perfessor vs Lemon Dog
By Tom Toles
Well, that was a fine mess. As I predicted, Romney came out a whirling dervish of roundhouse punches. The President stayed mostly in a crouch. The debate format proved completely inadequate at clarifying any of the facts behind the assertions, as Obama tried to squeeze the Dismal Science into two-minute boxes. Post-debate, the punditocracy, incapable of helping on that, as usual, decided to score the “debate” on “energetics.” This will make the next debate particularly relevant, as the format of that one is the 90-minute Irish Jig.
If there was any positive lesson of the encounter, it was that Romney could be observed pushing the same Bushonomics platform, with the same phantasmagoria of non-numbers that do not add up to anything, except for rich people. The punches he threw were combinations, doubling down and tripling down on the preposterous budget claims that Paul Ryan recently didn’t “have time” to explain, and Romney didn’t either. He had time for a nonstop barrage of assertions, avoidance, bobbing and weaving, and zinger-lite talking points, that were at least for a night given a pass because they were “energetic.” Be sure to take that “energetic” to the emergency room with you under President Mitt.
Obama? If you’re going to do fact-based rebuttal, use language with some potency next time okay? Call Bill Clinton. Facts alone don’t sell product in the American marketplace and never have. Everyone is free to see what they choose to have seen last night, and what I saw is the Perfessor trying to get Romney to bite on a factual exchange. Romney decided to respond like Lemon Dog. Energetic! Every dog has his day.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tom-toles/post/the-debate-the-perfessor-vs-lemon-dog/2012/10/04/934948d4-0e0f-11e2-a310-2363842b7057_blog.html
Paul Krugman- Romney's Sick Joke
OK, so Obama did a terrible job in the debate, and Romney did well. But in the end, this isn’t or shouldn’t be about theater criticism, it should be about substance. And the fact is that everything Obama said was basically true, while much of what Romney said was either outright false or so misleading as to be the moral equivalent of a lie.
Above all, there’s this:
MR. ROMNEY: Let — well, actually — actually it’s — it’s — it’s a lengthy description, but number one, pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan.
No, they aren’t. Romney’s advisers have conceded as much in the past; last night they did it again.
I guess you could say that Romney’s claim wasn’t exactly a lie, since some people with preexisting conditions would retain coverage. But as I said, it’s the moral equivalent of a lie; if you think he promised something real, you’re the butt of a sick joke.
more
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/romneys-sick-joke/
About as angry as I've seen Dr. Krugman on his blog.
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