Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY

Baumblog Comments & Suggestions
posted by Geoff on March 8, 2007 @ 10:51AM

Hey Guys,

We'll be making some design and functionality changes every now and then and I wanted you guys to participate. If you find something not working well, or not visually pleasing, just give us a shout on this post.

By the way we improved some legibility issues, hope you like!

4 comments | Tags: comments, suggestions

"Organic" food--worthwhile?
posted by Kristen on March 7, 2007 @ 9:26PM

Here's one I don't think we've debated yet! Organic foods: worth the extra money or worthless?

In an effort to lose 10 pounds by Geoff's wedding (thanks for the motivation Geoff!) Over the past month I made some changes to my diet and tried to get to the gym more. Pretty standard procedure. Didn't work.

So about 2 weeks ago I decided to give this organic thing a try. I've actually lost a pound, though I think it's from generally eating better b/c with organic foods it's somewhat hard to eat crap. There's less crap available. It's not killing my budget, so I figure I'll keep to it and see how it goes.

I couldn't help but wonder, what would GJ think of this organic stuff? My guess is that he thinks it's a money-making feel-good scheme. I'm not a PETA person by any means--I freely wear leather coats and shoes and I'm not too sensitive to the idea of animal testing. But I admit that I kind of like the idea that the eggs I just bought came from a chicken that isn't penned up in a cage 24/7 ("free range", according to the label).

So what do y'all think?

4 comments | Tags: myths

GJ said about 10 hours later

Organic foods are supposed to be better for you because they are grown without pesticides and other man-made chemicals used to grow plants on modern farms today. I haven't actually heard that they really do anything to help you lose weight. The only thing I can think of: eating organically will probably keep you from eating a lot of things with refined sugar and other carbohydrates, both of which are common in processed food and help make us fat.

At the end of the day, however, you get fat and/or skinny by a simple equation: Your body at rest requires X amount of energy (calories) to function. You eat 2*X calories, you get fat. You eat 1/2* X calories, you get skinny. You can also exercise, which burns off some of those calories you are consuming. Generally, a combination of diet and exercise will work--but only if you carefully measure what you've changed to ascertain if you're actually making a difference.

Anyone who tells you you can lose weight with a pill, a better attitude, or a magical exercise machine is full of crap. Same goes for those that tell you how to get rid of tummy fat vs. buttocks fat vs. (insert favorite fatty area here). Studies have conclusively shown that when you lose weight, you lose fat evenly across all fat deposits regardless of exercise pattern.
Geoff said about 13 hours later

In regards to Diet Pills not working, I may have to disagree. I watched one of my co-workers from Wegmans back in the day (Ryan Mann...Kristen you might remember him, I know Marc does). He was a big guy, ate a lot, and had no self-control over what he ate. He decided to try one of those popular pill diets (can't remember which one). I kid you not, the man lost at least 15-25 pounds in a few months. He was noticeably thinner. He didn't eat nearly as much as before, which is obviously the reason he lost the weight. The question is did the pills reduce his hunger, or did he himself. I would hedge a bet that the pills did because I knew Ryan well...and he's a pig. Marc can attest to this.
GJ said about 17 hours later

OK, let me be more specific: most over-the-counter diet pills do not work. Same goes for the crap they sell on TV.

Diet pills come in the following forms:
1. over the counter, containing phenylpropanolamine. Eg., Dexatrim. Has been shown to work on a temporary basis (you must keep taking it). Significant risk of high blood pressure and stroke.

2. over the counter, herbal remedy containing ephedrine, similar diet effect to phenylpropanolamine. Significant risk to heart, known to cause psychosis, heart attack, heart scar, and stroke.

3. over the counter, supplements, laxatives, diet teas, usually containing plantain. This helps you lose weight by making you shed water weight. Bonus--you lost your electrolyte balance in the process. Double bonus--known to be addictive, and cause all sorts of lower GI distress.

4. Prescription--all sorts of them, working all kinds of ways. Administered by a physician, these do work, but often has risks too.

In your friend's case...anecdotal at best...he may have lost weight temporarily. I'd be willing to bet he's back to being super-heavy, unless he learned how to eat better. I hope he suffered no ill effect from the pills--many people do.
Geoff said about 24 hours later

Ryan has more to worry about that the above mentioned items hahaha. JK...yeah I haven't seen him in awhile but I do know when he stopped taking Dexatrim (I think this is what he used) he gained some weight back. FYI, I don't endorse this whatsoever. Diet and Execise all the way (which I could use a bit more of these days).

Of course the new thing today is that gastric bypass I always hear about...that introduces a whole new set of risks....um like death. However for some of the 500 pound whales, ahem humans, this may be their only option.

Have you heard the Secret?
posted by GJ on March 7, 2007 @ 12:55PM

You may have seen this on Oprah, or in your local bookstore. The Secret is the latest fad in the "how to be happy" movement.

Rather than spout on about it, I'm going to direct you to Skeptic Magazine's newsletter for this week. Yes, Skeptic Mag is a haunt for mostly atheists and agnostics, but stick with the main article on the Secret and you'll be fine. :)

Of course, by now I'd hope most of you wouldn't fall for this kind of claptrap. The analysis provided in this newsletter does a very good job of explaining why this Secret is well, not very secret and also not very true. Good ammunition to have the next time a buddy tries to let you in on a little Secret of theirs.

2 comments | Tags: woo, pseudoscience, philosophy

Kristen said about 9 hours later

The secret is “The Law of Attraction” that asserts what you think creates what you feel, and these feelings flow from your body as magnetic energy waves over vast distances, which then cause the universe around you to vibrate at the same energy level as your feelings. If your feelings are negative, negative experiences will inevitably flow right back, positive feelings elicit positive experiences."

Humm...I agree that the way you process things around you (thought patterns) will shape your emotions. Everyone has a different perception, and each person's perception is their reality. What the heck does this have to do with magnetic energy?! That's just some pseudo-science they tried to stick in there to make it sound more, well, scientific.

I think it's safe to argue that some of their ideas ring true: if you think negative thoughts more than positive ones, you will probably tend to display socially negative behaviors (withdrawal, picking fights, sullenness, pessimism). People will not want to be your friend.

On the other hand, if you see the world with rosy glasses, you probably feel more confident, treat people nicer, say nice agreeable things, and do things like conform to rules and norms. People will like you (ie be "attracted" to you).

It's pretty much that simple.

They make the arguement that people who think of illness tend to be sick more often. Hypercondriacs--I buy that. But I don't think people think themselves into getting cancer.

You can create your perception of your reality: but your negative energy does not send out vibes that attract poverty, crime, and natural disasters. How could all those mardi gras revelers attract Katrina?!
GJ said about 18 hours later

Exactly. This "theory" takes a worthwhile concept--that your positive outlook on the world does tend to make you a more agreeable person, and you tend to look for opportunity rather than failure, making it seem like you are lucky. However, there is nothing magical about this, and no way does your mind truly affect the material world around you. As soon as you start hearing things about energy, you can pretty much guarantee what you're reading is total bunk.

Baumblog: Renewed
posted by Marc on March 7, 2007 @ 12:16PM

Welcome to the new Baumblog, version 2.0. We've got a nice new look (thanks Geoff!), and a bunch of new features (you're welcome). So, for a first post, I'm going to give you an overview and how to use the shiny new interface.

First things first, the right side of the page is where you're going to need to login. For now it doesn't remember your login, but that will be changed shortly. After you have logged in, you will see a "NEW POST" link at the top right of the blog.

Let me explain the new post form briefly, as there's a new feature there. The title and body are fairly obvious, but the tags are a whole new thing. The tags are a way for you to mark the post as being categorized by certain keywords. This will be extremely helpful for finding posts later on if you ever need to (Or if others need to!). Basically, you simply write words separated by spaces that describe the post. For instance, this post is marked "updates tutorials" because it relates to updates to the baumblog as well as a tutorial for how to use it. Try to reuse tags as well as use tags you think can be reusable and are relevant, otherwise we'll just have a bunch of tags linking to one post. :) These tags will be shown on each post as well as will make an effect in the Tag Cloud.

What is this cool Tag Cloud, you say? The Tag cloud over on the right there will slowly evolve into this cloud of words (tags). As the same tag is used more and more often, the word will get bigger. The idea here is that the cloud will show what topics are talked about the most, which will make for finding those topics again easier. It's cool, you'll see.

Comments work pretty much the same way as they did on Blogger. Simply click the "No comments" or "# comments" link under a post to see the comments for the post. If you're logged in, you'll be able to leave a comment.

Finally, let me just explain that there's a bunch of features that are very close to being ready, but with the untimely death of the old blog, we needed to get this up fast. So be patient, you'll be seeing some rather large updates this week.

2 comments | Tags: updates, tutorials

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