The feasibility of a plant-based diet

I have always been a fan of eating lots of fruits and vegetables. I can't even remember being a very picky eater, and growing up on tomato and corn fields certainly cemented the love of plants hard.

I've also been a hesitant meat eater the past few years. Don't get me wrong, I definitely have eaten a lot of meat but on the back of my mind it's been as if my conscience was calling out in resistance to my meat-eating. You see, my brother had a couple close calls with cancer and my dad embarked on a crusade to help him. Because the medical community doesn't have all the answers, he pursued knowledge in alternative medicine including nutrition. And like a good father, my dad has shared his knowledge with me over the course of the past 8 years.

Part of those findings is that your diet can greatly influence your health, even the big diseases that have strong genetic components such as cancer. After talking to medical professionals and "experts" in the nutritional field, I grew skeptical of my dad's claims that nutrition can do that much for cancer. According to my sources, there just wasn't enough data to support the claim. And because everyone is different, what works for one person may not work for another.

That being said, I have still kind of believed my dad's claim that nutrition can have a really big effect on a person's health and I've tried to watch what I eat. I just haven't taken it that seriously.

Last night, I watched the movie Forks over Knives. For those who haven't watched it, I highly recommend it. If you have Netflix, that's the easiest way to watch it. The movie is in documentary format and details two perspectives (clinical and research) to come to the same conclusion, that we humans get a lot more disease and suffering because of the animal products and processed foods we consume. Further, switching to a completely plant based diet stops the progression of many of these diseases and can even reverse them.

Because of my experiences, and because I am not a meat fanatic, the film resonated with me. A couple of the premises of the movie didn't sit too well with me. For instance, how our medical community wants us to stay sick so they can have good business. I've heard this argument with regards to cancer, that a cure to cancer is being withheld because then it's a big money-making industry for a lot of people. I can't believe that people in the medical field would consciously do this to people especially because they most likely have loved ones who are affected by it. I would hope that mankind has not devolved into something that bad.

I think more likely is that there has of yet been inconclusive data supporting alternative medicine and these researchers do not have an incentive to do the research. Yes, a cure to cancer would be an incentive, but to go outside the mainstream of thinking is difficult to do. There seems to be adequate incentives in place for researchers to do their thing.

The only thing stopping me from trying a plant based diet is cheese. I really don't think I could go without it. Assuming there's a decent substitute to cheese, it would be a challenge to come up with new food ideas. This takes time. It would also be more expensive. The pure unprocessed foods are traditionally more expensive in general. Plus, by eating a lot more fruits and vegetables instead of denser foods, I could see myself eating a lot more. I eat a ton of food. So maybe when I've got some more time and money, I'll give this thing a try.

Cooperation is a necessary evil?

It's great when you can learn about a particular topic, it's even more great when that same topic gets retaught in another medium. Yesterday included a couple big learning moments on cooperation. These moments included chimps, Jet Li, and the Tea Party. 

First, a program on NPR called RadioLabs featured chimps. The program looked at the way that humans behave based on very instinctual and primal evolutionary thought processes. So naturally, they started looking at one of our closest relatives. My favorite part of the program was when a delicious berry reed was dropped into a pack of chimps, specifically to the adolescents of the group. One of them picked it up, then others started fighting for it, and then squabbling. You could hear the chaos by the shrieking. Then there was a very abrupt silence to all the fighting. Apparently the alpha male had made an appearance and everyone knew what they were supposed to do. The alpha male continued to eat some of the reed, then it got passed on to the next highest male and on. According to this evolutionary system, the food always goes from the highest on the ladder downward. While one animal wouldn't get all he wanted, every animal in the pack would at least get something. The commentator remarked that evolution had favored this type of order because cooperation was necessary for survival. And there my first learning moment was, cooperation is a good thing for survival. 

Next, I watched the Jet Li movie Fearless while the Aimers did her school stuff. Here, a hotshot go-getter was out to show the world that he was a great fighter using the art of Wushu. Then a series of events fundamentally changed his perspective about his order. He realized what his father and many others had known all along: that his Wushu order was all about respecting others and cooperating. Without that, there was no purpose and only death. Thus, my second learning moment: cooperation is crucial for success. 

Finally, I started thinking about the GOP party right now. While everyone will have to admit that the Tea Party has been a very influential factor in politics the last couple years, it has also been known as a very "loud" and uncompromising voice. Maybe they have been loud because they have needed to get their voices heard. Maybe they have felt like their views and opinions had been ignored for too long. Maybe they have come across as uncompromising because their views have been more correct than the alternative. Because they felt like they were right, why should they cooperate? I think that in a GOP primary where candidates are increasingly being called on to proceed more and more to the right, it is sad that cooperation is being viewed as a thing of the past. Changes occur often times gradually and without cooperation, we will not win as a society. We will instead be denigrated to squabbling chimps. Like Jet Li, we need to respect, honor and cooperate with those around us.

An update to the shifting y

I found that the shifted y is only in the newest version of the scriptures. Think new maps edition or thin pages if you are referring to the book of mormon as a standalone. Since my wife recently gifted me a new quad, that's why I hadn't noticed any text anomalies because they weren't there. I have highlighted another verse that illustrates my point a little bit more clearly. The verse is mosiah 2:36. As you can see, starting with the fourth line, there is a divide with the left side of the verse subscripted and the right side regular. Line 4 is the most obvious because the fault line occurs in the middle of the word "ye." The second line "go contrary to" is left of the fault. This continues until the 9th line where the line contains no shifts.

My theory? I think this shift pattern is a result of either capitalizations or footnotes (notice how these make the line taller than usual) coupled with letters that go below the line (like p's or y's). If one line is abnormally tall in height and the line preceding it contains some low hanging characters, a predetermined line buffer may not be sufficient to avoid crowding. It appears that the new publication attempts to compress lines in sections rather than uniformly make a predetermined buffer for each line to solve this problem.

This theory does not clarify why in my original observation of Mosiah 2:31 the y is shifted. If you look to the very next line, there's a capital G which makes that line abnormally tall. The line with the shifted y has no reason to shift the y down to get even closer to the next line. To maintain the same buffer of space, if the publishers wanted to do any shifting here, it should have been up. This means that I am open to ideas for what is going on.

Mysteries of the Kingdom

I don't know how many times I've read the Book of Mormon (probably more than 30), but every time I read the book, I get new insights and perspectives. Last night as I was reading in the book of Mosiah, something caught my eye that I have never seen before, a mystery in my eyes. Mosiah 2 is King Benjamin addressing the people. Midway through verse 31, there is a my that has the "y" shifted down. I checked another Book of Mormon to make sure the shift was not just in my set and sure enough the same shifted "y" was there. I probably would never have noticed this, but for strange talents that you develop at law school.

The question remains, what is the purpose of this shifted y? How did it happen? And will my brother's digital Book of Mormon ipad app maintain the integrity of the printed version of the Book of Mormon by making sure the shifted y is preserved.

Syria in the news

If you're anything like me, you are fascinated by Middle East current events. I have had my eye on the so-called Arab Spring from day 1. It's interesting to see what the socially connected people are doing to throw off the shackles of repression.

As country after country has fallen to the mass demonstrations, one regime has maintained power for surprisingly long given how long the demonstrations have gone on. Not too long ago, I got a unique perspective that shed some light on this situation.

On our flight to California to see my dad get married, I sat next to an Iranian grad student. Unable to let this opportunity pass me by, I spoke with him about the Middle East. His philosophy on the happenings was surprisingly simple: if a country has the resources, it can resist revolutions.

I thought back to Iran in 2009. The Green revolution was close, but then it fizzled. Why? It turns out that Iran is in the top 25 highest GDP countries. They used their resources to effectively quash any meaningful opposition. Poorer countries not so much. Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, etc. I always thought of Egypt as a reasonably wealthy for one reason or another. Maybe it stems back to them having the pyramids. However, this guy on the plane explained that Egypt's GDP is 1/6 of Iran's. It's no wonder they couldn't do much to stop the protestations.

But Syria is not a very wealthy country. So how could they effectively stop the protests going on? Iran. I don't know what's going on in Syria, but it seems like it's one big mess. The latest estimates are that more than 6000 Syrians have been killed and the country seems to be edging closer to a civil war. But Al Assad has long maintained that he isn't to blame. He has contended that foreign militants are to blame. Everyone seemed to either think that the Syrian dictator was crazy or completely ignorant based on the happenings on the ground. But maybe it's true to the extent that the snipers taking out peaceful demonstrators come from Iran. Iran has the money, for one. They have the interest. Iran needs Syria. It needs the close influence to its neighbor to the West Israel. Iran needs Syria the way it is right now. It cannot afford for Syria to stage a revolution. So maybe the fighters inside Syria that have caused so much mayhem are paid foreigners trying to quash an uprising using whatever means possible. This is not unreasonable, considering there was evidence that when Iran's revolution was going on, Jordanian and other foreign fighters were found combating the protesters.

It's one thing to get your news from mainstream America outlets. It's another to get your news from an Iranian who by the way speaks Russian. Yes, I got to combine my flight with a little bit of Russian too, it was very nice. But it's interesting to me how Russia also needs Syria. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/31/un-syria-resolution-opposed-russia?newsfeed=true and they are not about to let the UN do anything to encourage Syria undergo its "inevitable" change of power. Russia will lose out on selling weapons to Syria and in this economy you fight for every bit of economic leverage you can.

My Stance on SOPA/PIPA -- I oppose

I am against the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act. I have long held views favoring a less regulated Internet (as noted here) because I feel like the Internet is a very unique invention that has already transformed all of our lives and will continue to only do so in the future. To regulate this developing infrastructure with 20th century paradigms will be detrimental for our society in more ways than one. Additionally, the Constitution provides for Congress with the authority to create a copyright law to promote the progress of science and the useful arts. However, if the copyright law is divorced from this basic premise, on the effect regulations have on promoting innovation, the law becomes unconstitutional. That is why in my opinion every copyright case should be looked at with a healthy dose of fair use. SOPA/PIPA seem to look at copyrighted content only from the perspective of the established, powerful content police, seeking to fix piracy with an overly broad measure that chills precisely what the Internet has done a marvelous job of promoting: fair use. There are less troubling means of stopping pirated content than by these proposed bills. I have already made my thoughts known to my Congress representative and if you similarly think that SOPA/PIPA is not the best approach, I urge you to do the same. There is a really cool website that allows you to easily find out who and how you can contact: http://americancensorship.org

Help me with your extra sky miles!

Almost 23 years ago, my mother passed away. Now after raising all of us kids, my dad is finally getting married again. I'm so happy for him and his fiance; they go so well together. The only problem is that I won't be able to go without a financial miracle. At first, I wrote this off as an expense I could not handle. Money is really tight right now. Now 11 days away, I realize that my dad needs me there and I would love to be there. My wife would also love to go! If you have any extra miles, I am happy to provide any sort of services in return that I can such as web development or patent support. If you want to donate to my cause, please click here at WePay: https://www.wepay.com/donations/my_dad_s_sacramento_wedding