Musings

Arithmetic and health

 

Myths

 

There is no fat virus. Thee is no secret force that fills you full of food as you sleep.

This are arithmetic and the law of conservation of mass.

 

Reality

Fat is the result of consistently taking in more calories than you use.

If you eat an extra slice of toast and butter every day, you will gain

about 10 lbs in a year.

 

A slice of toast with butter has about 100 calories. Eating this every day for a year

you take in 365 x 100 = 36,500 calories.

One lb of fat is 3600 calories.

10 x 3,600 is 36,000. 

 

So this agrees with the result.

 

So why are you fat. ( If you are not fat you don't need to read this.)

 

One reason may be that you are eating food that is missing the vitamins

that you need.   So you body sends you the message eat more.

 

So the first action you need to do is  take a multivitamin every day.

 

The second is to get a note book and write down everything you eat every day.

 

Weight yourself now and every 4 days, so you know  your weight you are gaining or losing weight.

 

If is unhealthy to lose weight at more then 2-3 lbs/ per week.

In the first week you can lose 6 lbs - but you are only  losing water - probably the

result of reducing your salt content.  But this is not  real weight loss.

 

If you lose 2 lbs a week, this means that you are burning 7200 calories more then

you are eating.   Another way of saying this is that you are burning  1000 a day more then you are taking in. Usually you should eat at least 1000 calories a day.

Unless you are exercising you will probable burn less that 2000 calories a day.

So you eat 1000 calories then burn 2000, you can lose 1000 calories a day.

i.e. 2 lbs a week.

 

So first decide if you want to be healthy.  Then save some money by not eating junk food.

If you smoke we will talk abut stopping that later.

Remember the life you save is your own.

You might want to go and see the movie” Supersize me”; it is excellent and frightening.

 

Mood: Happy
Listening to: The Wall by PF

Knowledge is valuable.

My  final article on  the Tsunami and how to save lives.

The cheapest solution is to put  notices in all coastal areas in hotels, bars, beaches showing the warning signs. This is most cost effective.  If the notices are also put in the radio/TV stations, then they can broadcast the warnings also. They can then also  recognise the signs of the Tsunami.  Such actions would have probable saved most of the lives lost.



I notice that the warning sign is -  the beach that is normally covered by water is uncovered as the sea recedes quickly.
If you run away from the beach when you see then and get to high ground you will survive.


The following articles on the net are most instructive:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake


Case 1
------
This is from Reuters account of Tilly Smith's story:-
...
had studied tsunamis in geography class at school and recognised the warning sign of the receding ocean. She and her parents warned others on the beach, which was evacuated safely . "I was on the beach and the water started to go funny," Tilly Smith told the Sun at the weekend from Phuket, Thailand. "There were bubbles and the tide went out all of a sudden. I recognised what was happening and had a feeling there was going to be a tsunami. I told mummy."

While other holidaymakers stood and stared as the disappearing waters left boats and fish stranded on the sands, Tilly recognised the danger signs because she had done a school project on giant waves caused by underwater earthquakes.

Quick action by Tilly's mother and Thai hotel staff meant Maikhao beach was quickly cleared, just minutes before a huge wave crashed ashore. The beach was one of the few on the Thai island of Phuket where
no one was killed.  ...
-------------------

Tilly Smith used the information she had learned at school to save many lives.

I think that this shows the value of information.

I think you should encourage your children to learn as much as they can - they never know when the knowledge they learn will be useful.


Case 2
------
Kayaker recognized coming tsunami, survived  from THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- When the water began rushing away from beaches across south Asian coastlines, thousands of people stood and watched - wondering what was happening.
Bob Kandiko knew.
An earth sciences teacher in Ferndale, north of here, Kandiko and his friend  recognized the fast-receding tide as a sign of an impending tsunami. When they saw water pulling away from a secluded cove. They began paddling furiously out to sea. They survived.

Case 3
-------
Also from  internet in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake
... One of the few coastal areas to evacuate ahead of the tsunami was on the Indonesian island of Simeulue, very close to the epicentre. Island folklore recounted an earthquake and tsunami in 1907 and the islanders fled to inland hills after the initial shaking - before the tsunami struck [35] (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18690-1422835,00.html).
...



  -------------------------------


 Use Google on "Bob Kandiko" and "Tilly Smith" to find the complete articles.

These show that information makes a difference.


The rule is:
"If the sea runs away from you, then you must run away from the sea".


I am sure that the internet had enough information to save lives - but starting to look for it when the tide receded would have been too late.

 This is why we need to learn some material and memorise it.

One of my mottos is "The right action at the wrong time - is the wrong action".

That is worth teaching your children.

This is really the message - information is valuable and can save lives.


Another Idea  - the low cost of storing information.

We can often replace material with information.  That is the technological revolution that has occurred in the last 30 years.   The value of information is apparent.   This revolution has produced  Computers, Cellphone, Cameras and MP3 players, etc.  They have separated the  information -   words, sounds, pictures, from the material - books, photographs and record, tapes.  Information has no weight - it is pure idea.

CDs and DVD are  a cheap way of storing information - strictly speaking data, but that is the content of another note.


The  retail cost of storage on a DVD is about 10 cents per 1 Gigabyte.

The manufacturing cost of a DVD is about  10 cents.  This is why the music industry likes the CD and the DVD. The cost of making the product is so low.

This cost will continue to drop.


20 years ago a floppy disk cost $0.60 for 1.4 Megabytes. ( $400 a Gig)
Now it costs 10 cent a Gig.
The reduction in cost is a factor of 4000 over 20 years.
So that means that the price of storage drops by 1/3 ever year! And this rate of reduction in price will probably continue for the next 10 years.
Think what that will mean. In 6 years time you will buy 10 times the storage for the
same price.  

The awful effects of the Tsunami have set me thinking. 
I am sharing my thoughtson how to stop this terrible loss of life from happening again.

We already have the tools and the information.   Here is how do it.

I call it IMPACT. The sequence of events is listed below:

Information  Propagation   Attention    Communication  Traffic  Status

Here is a description of each step.

Information   - gather the reports from the seismic centres around the world.

Propagation   - communicate the information to the central reporting systems.

Attention    -  identify and inform the TV/radio stations nearest the Tsunami so they can give the  most urgent warning.

Communication  - The people are warned of the approaching Tsunami. and the expected arrival time.

Traffic  -   The traffic movement - walk or drive out of the danger zone  (1 km area from the sea)

Status    - Wait for the status report that the Tsunami has arrived.


The 2nd idea is the practice of "1000/1000 Warning" rule.  This is, when the warning is given, one travels 1000 steps (about 1 km) in 1000 seconds (about 20 minutes) to get to safety.  Such action would have saved 140,000 people, 95% of the lives lost.


Best of all, the cost of implementation this is very low as most of the infrastructure is already in place.

1. The seismic monitoring stations exist around the world.  They can send messages over the internet to  central computer systems with the location and size of any large disturbance. 

 I suggest that there  be ten systems to provide redundancy.

This will ensure that  communications breakdown or power outage will not stop the warnings. These systems use information from multiple sources to prevent false alarms and prevent any one causing a warning as a prank.   

This system will have a list of radio/TV stations with their location. It will also have  web sites that will allow interested people or hotels etc. to monitor the status.

They can also have blog sites with a ping to alert when a quake occurs.

All of the parts I have described are available and exist today using the current internet.


When a quake occurs, a report of the quake and the epicenter is broadcast.

The radio stations nearby (within 300km of the blast will immediately broadcast the Warning, "1000/1000 Alert".  This will allow those to get to safety in time.

The stations can report the arrival of the Tsunami, so that the timing and size of the wave propagation can be accurately tracked.

When the Tsunami is seen, the warning can be sent to other the locations at risk.

Airplanes and satellites can also be used to gather information on the movement of the Tsunami.

In this way accurate information can be broadcast, giving people the time to securethe possessions and move to safety.

This will stop the loss of life and reduce the damage.

I also have SOME IDEAS on a RESEARCH PROJECT to stop the Tsunami while it is spreading through the sea.  This will need some experiments to determine the best/most
cost effective way to stop the damage.

I am SEEKING FUNDING for the research SO IF YOU KNOW of any university or other organization that may be interested
 PLEASE PASTE MY BLOG MY blog into a email to them.
or drop me a note by clicking on my name "Thoughtful".