In 1980, after long consultation with some of America’s most senior nutrition scientists, the US government issued its first Dietary Guidelines.

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The most prominent recommendation of both governments was to cut back on saturated fats and cholesterol

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Look at a graph of postwar obesity rates and it becomes clear that something changed after 1980. In the US, the line rises very gradually until, in the early 1980s, it takes off like an aeroplane.

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At best, we can conclude that the official guidelines did not achieve their objective; at worst, they led to a decades-long health catastrophe.

The sugar conspiracy

End of an Era: Moving on from WebDevStudios

Business, Life, WebDevStudios, WordPress, Work

After 5+ years, last Thursday was my last day at WebDevStudios, and needless to say, it was a sad one. I’m going to miss working with those guys/girls, who have become practically family, and they are, truly, an incredible team. 3 years ago, I wrote a post, Why you should work at WebDevStudios, and I still stand by that post. If you are looking for a great job in the WordPress space, you would be remiss in not considering applying with WDS.

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NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is at Pluto — nasa.gov

New Horizons’ almost 10-year, three-billion-mile journey to closest approach at Pluto took about one minute less than predicted when the craft was launched in January 2006. The spacecraft threaded the needle through a 36-by-57 mile (60 by 90 kilometers) window in space — the equivalent of a commercial airliner arriving no more off target than the width of a tennis ball.

NASA’s Three-Billion-Mile Journey to Pluto Reaches Historic Encounter

DIY Dining Room Table refinish/painting

Hobbies, Life As A Painter, , , , ,

Here’s a recent project I took on. My wife has been begging me to do something with a dining room table for a while. I’ve been reluctant to paint the one we have because it has a laminate/formica top, and I wasn’t fond of the idea of the finish chipping off.. But after some research, I felt more comfortable with the idea. After sanding the crap out of it, I ended up using oil-based kilz as the bonding primer.

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WebDevStudios Gives Back!

WebDevStudios, WordPress, ,

This holiday season, we (mostly our Project Managers, Cristina and Jaimie) spent a good deal of time deliberating the best way to celebrate the holidays as a distributed team. In a stroke of genius, they came up with the idea to have a ‘competition’ to see which Team at WDS could raise the most money for their respectively chosen charities. We on “Team Scream” consider our jobs to be “dream jobs” so we thought, wouldn’t it be cool to give the gift of code to kids who want to learn? Team Scream is partnering with Codestarter.org, an awesome non-profit that uses your donations to give free computers to children enrolled in programming classes with one of their partner organizations. Please consider donating (and getting more information) here.

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My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the “boss” is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets “laid off,” nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: he is needed, & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.

— A Message to Garcia By Elbert Hubbard, 1899 (h/t Brian Richards)

As a human being, you’re multithreaded. You can type with multiple fingers, you can drive and hold a conversation at the same time. The only blocking function we have to deal with is sneezing, where all current activity must be suspended for the duration of the sneeze. That’s pretty annoying, especially when you’re driving and trying to hold a conversation. You don’t want to write code that’s sneezy.

— JavaScript Promises

Operation Desk: DIY desk and shelves

Hobbies, Home Improvement, Life As A Painter, , , ,

I decided to build a desk since the prices of nice desks are astronomical, and since I wanted it to be a custom fit for me. I knew I wanted more desk space, but didn’t want to necessarily build a giant desk, so I opted instead to build two side shelves that could serve as an extension to the desk. This is super convenient if I ever needed to use the desk in a smaller location or if I wanted to position the shelves differently.

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Thanks everybody!