Tag Archives: strange

Aluminum is Wealth and Knowledge is Better than Gold

This post is also available in video form: https://youtu.be/pXXad5FmkiU

Aluminum is wealth. That sounds strange – it’s cheap, and it’s a recent invention. But the fact that we can all get use (goods and services) because of things made of aluminum is a kind of wealth. And it’s an example of a bigger principle. When someone tells you something is rare or scarce and equates that to value, remember this. Value comes from enabling more people to enjoy something, not from preserving its exclusivity.

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Will NAD+ Longevity Supplements Extend Lifespan? Maybe.

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This post also appears on my youtube channel for long-form essays. Here’s the link.

Today, we’re diving into the world of longevity research – examining the supplements Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) and Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN). There’s buzz about them on the internet and in the scientific literature. I see ads, I see sponsored studies. The big question is: are these pills worth the money – will they buy a human a few extra youthful years – or is it just an unregulated supplement cash grab? It all comes down to making hard choices with incomplete information. Like our mouse friend in the comic.

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Vampire Aristocrats, Young Blood, Eternal Youth

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In the study of longevity, researchers turned to a macabre and shocking experiment called parabiosis where two animals are sewn together. It turns out that if you connect an old mouse to a young mouse, the old mouse grows young again. Nobody likes animal research (and content warning, obviously, this will be gross but not explicit). But, for now, understanding biology means we need to study live animals. And this study revealed something important, even if it sounds like some weird vampire stuff. This essay is also available in YouTube form.

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“BDSM Eye Drops” turned out to be a bad idea

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My wife and I have the weirdest conversations, and I absolutely love that. I am a lucky man. I found someone who can turn her magical perspective into a set of tiny numbers in a computer that we perceive as colors that are then assembled into a picture that makes me laugh. This person is called an “artist.” The result is this week’s comic. There’s a video version of this post available, too.

Life is full of unpleasant things. Everything from having-to-put-in-eye-drops to the-inevitable-fact-of-our-demise. But it helps me to find a little humor where we can. And… while the script is loosely based on true events, in the interest of the joke, the comic did take liberties with the outfits.

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Video on the Authority of Science, Stuff I’ve enjoyed

A few weeks ago, I made a video about hydra, the little freshwater creatures, not the mythical beast or the Marvel villains. I got people up in my comments talking about a conspiracy theory I’d never heard of. According to this theory, “THEY” are adding HYDRA to the vaccines (along with NANOCHIPS with NANO-ONIONS)! My cat is more wise than i am with regard to YouTube comments (in that he has no idea they exist).

So, I started reading about what the best practices are for talking with conspiracy theory believers and science deniers. And that led to the video I uploaded last weekend.

I was inspired by this talk by Naomi Oreskes called “Why Trust Science?” Dr. Oreskes wrote a book about that topic that was published before COVID-19. It is especially relevant now, thanks to all of the anti-science talk on social media. She asks a simple but important question: why should we trust science, and more practically, why should people trust scientists?

Ultimately, scientists are people. Science is a human endeavor. There will be problems. But scientists are accountable to reality. Scientists are accountable to experiment. Scientists are accountable to observation and data. That’s the final, highest authority.

On a mostly unrelated note, here are two terrible aquatic creature jokes I made up:

What do you call a baby frog caught in a storm? A SQUALL-iwog.
What’s a jellyfish’s favorite exercise? Pull Ups (polyps).

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