Sarcasm 101

Watching the World through a correcting lens.

[jafryaly]

La consommation chronique des édulcorants et le risque d'obésité abdominale

La consommation des édulcorants serait responsable de l'obésité abdominale

Les édulcorants sont des produits d’origine naturelle ou synthétique ayant un goût sucré et qui servent de substituts au saccharose. Les édulcorants ont souvent un apport calorique largement inférieur à celui du sucre, d’où l’intérêt de leur utilisation dans la fabrication des produits dits “light” et des produits destinés aux diabétiques. D’ailleurs, l’utilisation des édulcorants à faible teneur…

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[jafryaly]

Le sel et les sucres dans les céréales de petit déjeuner

Une enquête du #WASH révèle des quantités élevées de #sel et de #sucres dans les céréales

Un nouveau sondage sur la composition des céréales de petit déjeunera été mené par l’Action Mondiale sur le Sel et la Santé (WASH). Le sondage a révélé de grandes différences dans les teneurs de sodium et de sucre dans les céréales de la même marque dans le monde. Par exemple, Kellogg’s Honey Smacks avait 55,6 grammes (g) de sucre par 100 g aux États-Unis, mais le même produit contenait seulement…

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[jafryaly]

“The Newsroom” is it really that bad?

Yesterday I watched the finale to the TV show “The Newsroom”, a final episode which comes only after 3 seasons, 25 episodes into an abrupt ending. The Newsroom faced a tough crusade from the critics, despite being a very good show judging from the perplexed 

testimonies of countless

 fans and the high ratings on IMDB.

Since the first episode, critics have been riding the show, not because it is necessarily bad, but maybe because they are a bit disappointed or frustrated. The opening monologue of Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) is unexpected and provocative to say the least.

The characters of the show are accused of being too “self-righteous”, too “intelligent”, too “qualified”, in short, these critics reproach is that the characters are far from being realistic which is not the case of nowadays news anchors. But, isn’t this precisely the point? 

The mission to civilize

should not be limited to the show but should be generalized to real life journalists. I agree with the show’s vision that anchors should know what the hell they are talking about instead of the bunch of parrot-fucks we see everyday. Not only should they know what they’re talking about but also they should be overqualified. Those are people whose “mission” is to inform, if they can’t figure out right from wrong themselves, how can we expect them to carry on their mission appropriately?

Bottom line, the show was good, the vision was accurate and much needed nowadays when there is race to broadcast as much info as possible, as fast as possible… and to the hell with it if the information isn’t accurate.

My advice, watch the show without preconceptions… the US isn’t the greatest country in the world? so what?

[jafryaly]

The Photographer on Flickr.

[jafryaly]

Obesity will soon become illegal

A greedy CEO of an airlines company and US senator, that’s all it takes and that is what I pictured when I first read this article about the attitudes of medical students towards overweight and obesity. Discrimination against overweight and obese people is not a new thing,  but when it is noticed in a health-care environment where it shouldn’t be (not that it should be elsewhere) and when a number of scholars take the time and effort to write about it, then it is just a matter of time before things get serious.

Yesterday I stumbled upon a blog article discussing this very same issue, and boy, was Isurprised when it turned out that it was an airline company that fired the first bullet. Was it expected? Of course! We all have a skinny friend (probably a girl) pointing out the issue everytime he or she takes the plane.

The fact is obesity costs money, and not only in air travel; a study showed that the total direct costs attributable to overweight and obesity were $6.0 billion in 2006 in Canada, another oneestimated that the total health-care costs attributable to obesity/overweight would double every decade to 860.7–956.9 billion US dollars by 2030. And with the lawsuits raining over the Fast-food companies, it is just a matter of time before someone takes the first step into making obesity illegal. When you think about it, this isn’t a new concept, Hollywood has been preparing us for this day by illustrating obesity being illegal; I can particularly recall an episode of Sliders(Sci-Fi TV show) and another movie of which I can’t remember the title.

With a little perspective, this turn of events was inevitable. However, I can’t help but wonder, what does this mean for those for whom obesity is not an inevitable outcome, but rather apersonal choice.

[nulefa]

Mendeley, the reason I changed my referencing software

Over the years of my academic life, I used many reference managers, mainly EndNote and Zotero. I…

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[jafryaly]

Eat like a dietitian

Is "Eat like a dietitian" a good advice?

1. The concept of a healthy diet is different from one person to another; what might be considered as healthy for a person with diabetes is different from what a person with anemia should eat. 

2. Most dietitians that I know have eating disorders themselves. In Psychology, when a message is repeated too many times, people become "immune" to it, like bad advertising. Basically, most dietitians have an idea of what a healthy diet should be, but they don't stick to it; they're partisans of the "Do as I say, not as I do!" concept.

3. Eat balanced is a more appropriate message. It isn't very restrictive, yet alarming enough to make people concerned by what there is in their plates.

4. People should be given appropriate goals to reach (other than weight loss).For example, during the 1st week your goal should be to eat fresh veggies at least 5 times/week, during the 2nd week your goal should be to eliminate the morning snacks from your eating habits and so on. Adopting these kind of steps makes it easier for people to change their habits which is more smooth and gives more permanent results than regular diets that require changing habits over night. 

5. Weight loss should't be the optimal goal. Too many ads are featuring iconic skinny sport professionals as the symbol of a healthy diet. Which is just wrong, the message should be clear about weight loss, like this "if you manage to balance your diet and do regular exercise you'll probably lose 3 kilograms the 1st month, you might find this not enough but you won't be worried about regaining this lost weight because you'll lose it permanently!"

The ultimate goal should be a healthier life, it should be clear that a person with fairly high BMI (say 32) but with a balanced diet and practicing regular physical activity is less likely to develop a chronic disease than a inactive person with a regular BMI.

[doctorswithoutborders]

[jafryaly]

doctorswithoutborders:

Thanks to your generosity, we can save more lives. With your support, our medical teams will be able to save more lives around the world. Please support Doctors Without Borders today to help us provide humanitarian medical aid to people where the need is greatest.

DONATE NOW

[jafryaly]

Reflexion on Flickr.

[jafryaly]

Where’s the rest of the data iceberg?

Ben Goldacre at TEDMED 2012

[jafryaly]

Bloomer on Flickr.

[jafryaly]

Flora on Flickr.

[jafryaly]

Angry Birds Star Wars Edition! For the pleasure of the Nerd and the Geek! x)

[jafryaly]

Write like you are on a bender, edit like you are in rehab

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/writing-inspiration-productivity

[jafryaly]

Research, Step 1: #Denial The good thing with unfunded studies is that you don't have any conflict of interest!

[doctorswithoutborders]

Cholera Epidemic Escalates Along Sierra Leone and Guinea Border The onset of the rainy season in West Africa has caused an increase in cholera cases on both sides of the border between Sierra Leone and Guinea. More than 13,000 people have been admitted to hospitals in the capital cities of Freetown and Conakry since February, when the disease was declared an epidemic. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) currently has more than 800 beds available to treat cholera patients and is opening additional cholera treatment centers and rehydration points in collaboration with local authorities. Cholera, which spreads through contaminated water and flourishes in unsanitary conditions, causes days of diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach cramps, and leaves patients visibly emaciated after. It is a punishing affliction. “I want to die,” whispers a patient in MSF’s treatment center in the Mabella slum in Freetown, Sierra Leone. “I’m tired, tired of this disease.” Photo: A 10-year-old patient recovers from cholera at Donka Cholera Treatment Center in Conakry, Guinea. Guinea 2012 © Holly Pickett/MSF

[jafryaly]

Timgharine sur le chemin de l'existence 

Timgharine is the amazigh (native language in Morocco) word for women. I was working on a survey in a village in the south of Morocco (in the region of Tiznit, 90 km to the South of Agadir). Those people are one of the most conservative people in Morocco and needless to say, you can’t dwell taking pictures of women (or people just like that). I was taking a break when I saw three women in their traditional outfit returning back to their village… I said to myself “I have to try a B&W picture”, in the mean time I was trying not to be noticed while taking the picture. This picture so much reflects the life of these people whom have conserved their traditions in their struggle with life in a poor and resource-less environment.