20 MAR 2018 by ideonexus
1.6 Grams of Protein a Day Per Kilogram of Weight
To answer the simplest question of whether taking in more protein during weight training led to larger increases in muscle size and strength, the researchers added all of the results together.
[...]
But those who did ramp up their protein gained an extra 10 percent or so in strength and about 25 percent in muscle mass compared to the control groups.
The researchers also looked for the sweet spot for protein intake, which turned out to be about 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weig... 1 
notes
notes30 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Violence and the Concept of Social Justice
The main reason that violence correlates with low socioeconomic status today is that the elites and the middle class pursue justice with the legal system while the lower classes resort to what scholars of violence call “self-help.” This has nothing to do with Women Who Love Too Much or Chicken Soup for the Soul; it is another name for vigilantism, frontier justice, taking the law into your own hands, and other forms of violent retaliation by which people secured justice in the absence of inte...Folksonomies: violence social status
Folksonomies: violence social status
1 notes
notes24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
The Pareto Distribution
The Pareto distribution shows up in a remarkably wide array of complex systems. Together, “the” and “of” account for 10 percent of all words used in English. The most volatile day in the history of a stock market will typically be twice as volatile as that of the second-most volatile and ten times the tenth-most. Tag frequency on Flickr photos obeys a Pareto distribution, as does the magnitude of earthquakes, the popularity of books, the size of asteroids, and the social connectedness of your...Folksonomies: statistics
Folksonomies: statistics
1 Clay Shirky on what is also known as the "long-tail effect" or "90% of everything is crap" effect.
24 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Cost Benefits of Lead Cleanup
It's difficult to put firm numbers to the costs and benefits of lead abatement. But for a rough idea, let's start with the two biggest costs. Nevin estimates that there are perhaps 16 million pre-1960 houses with lead-painted windows, and replacing them all would cost something like $10 billion per year over 20 years. Soil cleanup in the hardest-hit urban neighborhoods is tougher to get a handle on, with estimates ranging from $2 to $36 per square foot. A rough extrapolation from Mielke's est...While it would cost tens of billions to clean up lead in the environment, it would generate a hundred billion in health benefits.
24 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
The Brain is Too Expensive for Survival Purposes
My interest is in the psychological adaptations that are uniquely
human, the 10 percent or so of the brain's capacities that are not shared with other apes. This is where we find puzzling abilities like creative intelligence and complex language that show these great individual differences, these ridiculously high heritabilities, and these absurd wastes of time, energy, and effort. To accept these abilities as legitimate biological adaptations worthy of study, evolutionary psychology must bro... 1 notes
notesIt makes more sense that our capability for complex thought, music, and socialization are adaptations to prove our genetic fitness to a potential mate.
13 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Bayes' Theorem Means Scientific Consensus Should Converge
One property of Bayes’s theorem, in fact, is that our beliefs should converge toward one another—and toward the truth—as we are presented with more evidence over time. In figure 8-8, I’ve worked out an example wherein three investors are trying to determine whether they are in a bull market or a bear market. They start out with very different beliefs about this—one of them is optimistic, and believes there’s a 90 percent chance of a bull market from the outset, while another one is bearish an... 1 notes
notesAs more and more tests are carried out, scientific opinions should converge around the truth.
21 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Evolution of Lactose Tolerance
One case involves our ability to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk.
An enzyme called lactase breaks down this sugar into the more easily
absorbed sugars glucose and galactose. We are born with the ability to
digest milk, of course, for that’s always been the main food of infants.
But after we’re weaned, we gradually stop producing lactase. Eventually,
many of us entirely lose our ability to digest lactose, becoming “lactose
intolerant” and prone to diarrhea, bloating, and cramps after eat... 1 notes
notesSome groups of humans evolved the ability to digest milk beyond infancy as their societies domesticated cows.
31 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Friendships are the Best Predictor of Happiness
“The only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”
After nearly 75 years, the only consistent finding comes right out of It’s a Wonderful Life. Successful friendships, the messy bridges that connect friends and family, are what predict people’s happiness as they hurtle through life. Friendships are a better predictor than any other single variable. By the time a person reaches middle age, they are the only predictor. Says Jonathan Haidt, a rese... 1 notes
notesHaving strong social bonds and the opportunities for altruistic acts are a strong predictor of lifelong fulfillment.
31 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
An Hour of TV a Day Equals a 10 Percent Increase in Atten...
Another example comes from a study that looked at bullying. For each hour of TV watched daily by children under age 4, the risk increased 9 percent that they would engage in bullying behavior by the time they started school. This is poor emotional regulation at work. Even taking into account chicken-or-egg uncertainties, the American Association of Pediatrics estimates that 10 percent to 20 percent of real-life violence can be attributed to exposure to media violence.
TV also poisons att... 1 notes
notesEven second-hand television, just having it on the the room, causes problems; therefore, the APA recommends no Television for children for two years.
27 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Preschool Social Programs Demonstrate the Importance of a...
In 1962, researchers wanted to test the effects of an early-childhood preschool training program they had designed. Kids in Ypsilanti, Michigan, were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first attended the preschool program (which eventually became a model for other preschool programs nationwide, including Head Start). The second group did not. The differences powerfully illustrate the importance of a child’s early years.
The kids in the program academically outperformed the controls...Programs like Head Start have a lifetime's worth of positive benefits for the children enrolled in them.
