Things I Learned Today

[fullygoldy]

 

1.  I watched an electrician pull 2 new wires through a conduit.  He disconnected one orange wire that was in the conduit already and attached a new orange wire plus a blue and a black (for a total of three), and then his helper pulled the orange wire from the other end of the conduit until all three were pulled through. Voila!!  I always knew there would be a trick to doing this, but I'd never actually seen it done.  This is good to know since my basement wiring is all run in conduit.

2.  From The Washington Post:  A study by a doctoral candidate (Paige Harden) at the U of VA in Charlottesville used the techniques of behavioral genetics to determine that there is no causal link between early sex and juvenile delinquency which is directly opposite of the widely held belief that loss of virginity at a relatively young age appears to "open the doorway to problem behaviors (Dana Haynie PhD, Ohio State)."  Harden's analysis used the same data as Haynie's but arrived at the completely opposite result!  Ooh! Burn!  The way to reconcile that with the previous evidence of a link is to conclude that some other factors are promoting both early sex and delinquency, such as genes that increase impulsivity and risk-taking behaviors (The study will appear in the 3/08 issue of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence).  In fact, the findings actually indicate that early sex reduces the likelihood of delinquency!!  My favorite quote of the article:  The new study "really calls into question the usefulness of abstinence education for preventing behavior problems," Harden said, "and questions the bigger underlying assumption that all adolescent sex is always bad."

3.  The Associated Press reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering public promotion of the "co-benefits" of fighting global warming and obesity-related illnesses through everyday exercise, like walking to school or work.  UW health sciences professor Dr. Jonathan Patz said, "this may present the greatest public health opportunity that we've had in a century."  Substituting walking or bicycling for car travel 30 min each day would cut obesity, greenhouse gases, smog, car-related deaths, osteoporosis, and depression.  The average person would lose 13 lbs in a year.  You also avoid health expenses resulting from a sedentary lifestyle.  If all Americans from 10-74 walked half an hour a day instead of driving, they would cut the annual US emissions of CO2 by 64 million tons.  An additional shift away from a heavy meat diet would also go far, because it takes much more energy and land to produce meat than fruits, veggies and grains.  The UN's Food and Ag folks reported last year that the meat sector of the global economy is responsible for 18% of the world's greenhouse emissions (includes contributions from fertilizer, energy consumed in growing/manufacturing, methane, and transportation).

4.  To obtain and maintain my desired weight, I should only be consuming 1400 calories per day.  Um - I'm going to have to make some major changes to hit that mark.

I did quote heavily from both articles in my summary - no plagiarism intended, but no actual journalists were cited either.