Are you sure you want to be on the Atkin's diet?

EVE –

Wahahhaha! ::Snort:: I love it. :slight_smile:

My $.02 is this:

Extemes = Bad. Moderation = Good. It is not a good idea to live on eggs, steak, and cheese any more than it’s a good idea to live on cake and Snicker’s bars. Foods that Americans consume as high in protein tend to also be high in fat (steak, cheese) and therefore should be eaten in moderation. Foods that Americans consume as high in carbohydrate tend to also be high in sugars (bread, pasta) and therefore should be eaten in moderation. But you do not have to choose to forsake one entirely in order to wholeheartedly embrace the other.

Wouldn’t I be skeptical? I’m skeptical of everything until I see proof. But I’m not fickle. If you work on the bleeding edge of science and a project fails that doesn’t mean the task is impossible and it’s silly to ignore it just because it failed in the past. This is just an excuse for an egregious error. You have loads of eyewitness reports that the plane flew. So you’re skeptical, fine. But send someone to check it out. There it was concrete proof and you’re defending the mainstream for not publishing it for years. In science you admit your mistake and move on. Why can’t you admit that there was no justification for a several year delay in reporting on the flight? If a so called fringe scientist made such a huge error you wouldn’t be so kind, you’d jump down their throat.

Imagine groundbreaking work that is more subtle, requires more effort to prove. The Genetic code took a lot of money and effort to get where we are today. If it was unpopular, then it would have got nowhere.

Anyway, this is not the type of dispute that will go anywhere. It’s a great debate that’s off topic. I’ve met people personally who have been castigated for their work which was unpopular. They are scientific mainstream people who realized the mainstream was wrong and as soon as they stopped toeing the line, they were outcast. Like the Wright brothers were for a few years, they aren’t even heretics on purpose. And I know a lot of mainstream people who think these so-called heretics are wacko because their professors told them so and they can’t believe there’s politics in science. But there is. I will never convince you, but meeting some of these people, maybe then you would change your mind, but probably not. What can I say but thank you for giving me the reference and let’s move on.

AnotherHeretic:

You’re right, this is a Great Debate. Would you like to start a new thread on it?

One of these days, sure. But I’m in a transition phase now with a lot of new things in my life, including this low carb diet which sucks the energy out of you. Plus I’m not at home and my library is in storage. Inevitably we’ll get into an argument where I’ll get frustrated and be unable to pull out any books to defend my side of it.

But I guess you’re a regular here and I’m sure we’ll start many debates :slight_smile:

I know a fair number of brilliant scientists but with a closed mind. Their professor tells them “It is an established scientific fact” and their curiosity ends there. I guess my father instilled in me that the above statement is an opportunity to learn more about science.

No, it is not an established scientific fact. A human came up with it at a particular time and perhaps it explained facts as they were known then. But with recent scientific knowledge, these theories may need to be revisited. I like to know the history of that established fact, who came up with it, why, what did his contemporaries have to say about it, and then do a thought experiment about how that person would have formulated the thoery with the benefit of recent knowledge.

But there’s so much money, ego, politics involved that the environment is not always right to challenge it any more than dvorak’s superior keyboard could challenge the qwerty keyboard today.

You know about variable stars. But you don’t know about Harlow Shapley’s shameful role in delaying it’s discovery. THAT isn’t taught in science textbooks or put on the wall of the new Griffith Observatory in NY. Shapley is remembered there and in science textbooks, but from what I’ve seen of him he was a jerk with power. There are plenty like him around today.

My dad remembers when the big bang came to be and the redshift theories as measure of distance were proposed. The environment was different then and George Gamow was the savior of the Big Bang. He had new discoveries contradicting the theory that he had to talk his way out of almost daily.

Now there’s Dark Matter. Missing Matter. If you have an open mind, it’s fun to watch Chandra’s discoveries and NASA’s spin on it. But if you care to surf the net and look at alternative ideas, you may view the pr in a different light.

To today’s students redshift as distance and the Big Bang is gospel like the bible is to religious folk. But mark my words, the theory will fall. Two mainstream sciences are going against each other and only one will win. Talk to plasma physicists and decide for yourself. Arp from the inside of the Halls of Astronomy coupled with the Plasma Physicists on their side will beat out the mainstream astronomers eventually. And the same people casting Arp aside today will hail him as a hero in a couple of decades. And no one will remember what hell he was put through in the meantime…He’s a formerly respected mainstream scientist who fell out of favor. When he falls back in, mainstream science will proclaim how wonderful it is because it corrects itself. Even though today Arp can’t get published by a decent publisher, he is “lucky” because he will have his day (even though that will probably only be after he’s gone since he’s not a young man anymore).

But HONEST scientists in many many fields are being cast aside all the time because they will not toe the line…It costs them monetarily and their excellent work will NEVER see the light of day.

I can’t prove this all, so it’s frustrating for me. But I see the world differently than you and I seek out unconventional information because there are great discoveries to be found there…

Well, AnotherHeretic, I couldn’t lay off this. I’ve started a new thread at http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=66667 on the topic of mainstream-vs.-fringe science. Come on over!

Everyone knows how to lose weight. It’s really a very simple concept. Burn more calories than you take in. People who try and “cheat” by taking metabo-boosters or going on radical diets which alter their natural body chemistry are losing sight of the big picture.

Your HEALTH should always be your focus. And it is far healthier to be 15 pounds overweight while eating a balanced diet than to maintain your “ideal” weight by restricting yourself to just protein.

If you are really serious about losing weight then cut down portion size and exercise more. Eat more fruits and vegetables and lean meats and cut down on sugars and starches. It may not happen quickly, but it will happen. But, please put those ridiculous books away and quit risking your health in order to lose weight.