AdamSmith

Hah! Went right past me.

So don't blame me--this is a serious front-page article on this morning's Guardian site! The truth about poo: we’re doing it wrong Who knew sitting on the toilet was bad for you? In her best-selling book Charming Bowels, microbiologist Giulia Enders explains how to go to the loo Annalisa Barbieri Monday 18 May 2015 02.30 EDT The Guardian In my large Italian family, I grew up with the subject of poo, bottoms and constipation readily – and far too frequently – discussed at the dinner table. I’d be about to raise a raviolo to my mouth, only to hear how someone’s piles had popped, just that morning. This doesn’t mean I’m anal (sorry) about the subject. It’s fascinating away from the lunch table. Late last year, I read that we are pooing all wrong: we should be squatting, not sitting, on a toilet bowl. Then a book called Charming Bowels by Giulia Enders caused something of a storm in its native Germany and I got fully immersed in the subject. Enders is studying in Frankfurt for her medical doctorate in microbiology. She is utterly, charmingly obsessed with the gut, gut bacteria and poo. She writes and talks about her subject matter with such child-like enthusiasm, it’s infectious. And, yes, we have been pooing all wrong. Enders tells me about various studies that show that we do it more efficiently if we squat. This is because the closure mechanism of the gut is not designed to “open the hatch completely” when we’re sitting down or standing up: it’s like a kinked hose. Squatting is far more natural and puts less pressure on our bottoms. She says: “1.2 billion people around the world who squat have almost no incidence of diverticulosis and fewer problems with piles. We in the west, on the other hand, squeeze our gut tissue until it comes out of our bottoms.” Lovely. But not to worry. Although you can climb on your toilet seat and squat (“It might be fun!”), we can iron out the kink by sitting with our feet on a little stool and leaning forward. The book even has a helpful drawing by Enders’ sister. Then there are the sphincters. One of them we probably all know about – the one we open consciously – but there is also another, inner one, which is operated unconsciously. This ani internus sends a sample into the chamber between the inner and outer sphincter for the sensor cells to analyse and decide if it’s “safe” to fart or poo: “Yes, you’re at home. No, you’re in the office.” If it’s not safe, the sensors send it back in. But, if the inner sphincter is ignored enough times – say, because we are too shy to go to the loo for fear of being overheard – it sulks and can switch off. That’s one of the reasons constipation can occur. Enders loves her inner sphincter. “Learning about those two sphincters really changed my perspective on life,” she says. “Those inner nerves don’t care for other people; they have no eyes or ears. Finally, something that only thinks of me! So, now I can go to the toilet anywhere. I worship that muscle!” But the gut – and Enders’ book – is about far more than poo (although there is plenty there, about consistency, frequency, buoyancy, colour and laxatives, to keep the most forensic of scatologists happy). Enders’ big thing is bacteria. Our gut, which comprises two-thirds of our immune system, is full of the stuff. Two kilos’ worth, in fact. Our bacteria fight pathogens, are involved in blood-group development, digest our food, extract energy, produce hormones and can affect our mood. This gut/brain connection is a fairly new area of medicine, which Enders is very excited about. And she’s not alone: the American biochemist Rob Knight told science journal Nature that the field “offered at least as much promise as stem-cell research”. “There is an increasing interest in the gut microbiota and health and disease,” confirms Dr Ayesha Akbar, consultant gastroenterologist at St Mark’s hospital in London. “There is a huge number of gut bacteria which, in health, maintain a balance. However, an imbalance has been linked to many chronic disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease and obesity. There is a suggestion that they may also be linked to psychiatric disorders and mood, with the majority of evidence coming from animal studies. Further research needs to be performed in humans in this area.” Enders’ own interest in this link started when she was a new student. She met a man at a party whose breath was “the worst I have ever smelled – almost faecal”. The next day, he killed himself. “Could a diseased gut,” she wonders, “also have affected his psychological state?” She is keen, though, to point out that depressive disorders are multifactorial and not always connected to the gut; much more research is needed. The first human study of the effect of intestinal bacteria on the brain was only conducted only two years ago. Enders admits that writing about a possible connection between our psychological state and the gut was “the hardest part of the book for me. A professor would have been scared of putting it in the book, but I feel people are being robbed if they don’t know about this research.” As well as some serious issues, there are plenty of entertaining nuggets in the book. Did you know that our spit contains a painkiller more powerful than morphine: opiorphin? We have it only in minute quantities, so that we’re not off our heads all the time. Eating, though, releases more of the chemical and Enders wonders if this is one factor in comfort eating. And guess what? Your appendix – that bit of people always say is of no use – is actually made entirely of immune tissue and is a veritable larder of the best, most useful bacteria for the gut. Enders’ book is full of stuff like this. I hate to say it, but it is the perfect toilet book. Thankfully, it has also been translated into Italian, so that’s Christmas sorted. Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-rated Organ by Giulia Enders (Scribe, £14.99). To order a copy for £11.99, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call the Guardian Bookshop on 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min. p&p of £1.99. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/18/truth-about-poo-doing-it-wrong-giulia-enders-squatting

Agree -- the article does echo those points about electoral-college math blunting the negative effects for Republicans of this generational shift. Still, speaking as a Democrat -- huzzah!

The GOP Is Dying Off. Literally. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/the-gop-is-dying-off-literally-118035.html?hp=t3_r#.VVkkqz29LCQ

Bandwidth Hog?

That's the kicker, of course. As was widely reported, the jury selection process took a while to find enough jurors who were ruled "death-qualified."

My doc calls it late middle age.

Well, the erection may take a breather now and again.

Now age 55, I've found that every year past 50 adds many minutes to my stamina. (Escort to AS: "Will you cum already?!")

Somebody doesn't like their landlord! This is a real listing I just found in the Apartments for Rent section of the local Craiglist. $700 / 1br - 850ft2 - RENT A DUMP (NW Raleigh) 1BR / 1Ba 850ft2 apartment available now Marchester on Millbrook! You too can live the life of disrepair and discomfort with no working heat or air, leaky faucets, broken light fixtures, and parking lots just jam-packed with cars that no longer work, and garbage! Our lawn maintenance; complete with dead trees and shrubs, usually only seen around an abandoned factory, or warehouse is an eyesore to all. Windows and doors are in terrible shape and you won't need curtains, mold and mildew grow freely between the panes of glass. Oh and we sure as hell won't be around to plow the parking lot in the winter, so be prepared to use all that sick time sitting trapped in your wonderful apartment. Pray the rain won't fall too hard, as most of the roof's leak, and the gutters we do have are full of pine needles, it just takes a little longer to drain out. And don't mind the squirrels in the attic, we just love our little critters here, beware walking to your mailbox, those pesky geese leave little slimy green logs everywhere. Isn't that cute! Not far off Glenwood Avenue to the West, and Millbrook Road on the East, we have a filthy laundry area, and restrooms that are used frequently for oral, and drug induced Sex encounters. The Police are often found cruising through the area in great numbers, so rest assured you can feel Safe!

You got that right!

Oh my!

Depends what he looks like from in front!

OP-ED COLUMNIST How Hillary Is Winning MAY 9, 2015 Frank Bruni The New York Times AS fleetly as Hillary Clinton vacuums up the money, she piles up the paradoxes. She showed fatal weaknesses the last time she chased the presidency and her inevitability evaporated like a California puddle, but shes somehow inevitable all over again. Invincible, even. Journalists have to remind themselves daily not to type or say presumptive Democratic nominee before her name. Shes fashioning herself as someone uniquely attuned to everyday Americans while her husband fashions $500,000 speeches as amulets against the bill collector. Someones got to pay for the burrito bowls. And her Republican rivals convince themselves that Im not Hillary is their strongest argument and best bet, although the reverse holds true. At least for now, not being any one of them is her ace in the hole. The 2016 race in its adolescence is between the dependably messy, perpetually maddening spectacle of the Clintons and a party with a brand-decimating profusion of mad hatters like the two who announced their bids and grabbed the spotlight last week, Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson. Advantage: Hillary Clinton. Thats a clear takeaway from several surveys of voters released last week. They showed that despite her email shenanigans, despite the ethical muddle known as the Clinton Foundation, despite the growing confusion about whether the Hillary Clinton of 2016 will be of an ideological piece with the Hillary Clintons of yesteryear, voters will gladly take her, considering the alternatives. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, she was six points ahead of Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio in head-to-head contests with either. She was 10 points ahead of Scott Walker. Inexplicably and rather alarmingly, she was only three ahead of Rand Paul. The mysteries of the American electorate are boundless. Meanwhile a New York Times/CBS News poll found that over the past month and a half, during which she weathered a veritable hurricane of negative news coverage, her favorability rating improved, and the percentage of voters who see her as a strong leader rose to 65 from 57. Nearly 80 percent of the Democrats surveyed deemed her honest and trustworthy. There are many explanations. For starters, the hurricane I mentioned was experienced as a drizzle, if that, by many Americans, who arent exactly riveted by political news. Inasmuch as they notice journalists pouncing on the Clintons, theyre apt to shrug. The substance of the accusations is eclipsed by the familiarity of the tussle. Its like lions on an impala: bloody, yes, but the natural order. And the Clintons are being accused of what? Greed? Theres plenty of that to go around. Just ask Huckabee, a self-styled man of God and slave to Mammon. As recounted by Trip Gabriel in The Times, Ron Fournier in the National Journal and Max Brantley in Salon, hes a case study in financial high jinks, a master class in shamelessness. He reportedly used the Arkansas governors office as a personal ATM, in Fourniers description, channeling public money toward private expenditures (a doghouse, Taco Bell) and accepting tens of thousands of dollars in highly questionable gifts, some from people who later received prominent political appointments. More recently he did an infomercial hawking dietary supplements as a diabetes cure, even though reputable physicians and medical associations call it poppycock. Only three of the following four adjectives correctly describe that decision: tacky, mercenary, irresponsible and presidential. Clinton benefits from not being Huckabee, who described Obamacares contraception provision as a big-government sop to women who cant control their libido, blamed an absence of God in schools for the deadly shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 and then proceeded to write a book with a title that put firearms on a comforting par with breakfast food. Run, dont walk, to pick up your copy of God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy. Clinton also benefits mightily from not being Carson, who has lumped together homosexuality and bestiality and has likened Obamacare to slavery, President Obama to a psychopath and the United States under President Obama to Nazi Germany. It is said that Carson is a talented brain surgeon. Im taking my cerebellum elsewhere if it ever comes to that. And Clinton benefits as well from not being Carly Fiorina, who also declared a candidacy for the presidency last week. When Americans look askance at professional politicians, it doesnt mean that they long for the polar opposite and are poised to award the presidency to someone who, in Fiorinas case, has never held elected office, routinely failed to vote in the past, bungled her role as a surrogate for John McCain in 2008, had a miserable showing in her 2010 race for the United States Senate against Barbara Boxer, and claims a business expertise thats long been in vigorous dispute. Her campaign will be powered by hubris, not logic. REPUBLICANS crow about their deep bench. And they do have some formidable candidates, including Marco Rubio, who is an anti-Hillary in ways that could indeed work for him, and Jeb Bush. But Rubio and Bush share the bench with an unruly crowd that pulls them and the party too far to the right. Republicans also take heart from their majority in the Senate and their greater number of governors. But voters behave somewhat differently in presidential elections than in other ones, which is one reason Wisconsin has remained blue even during Walkers red reign. The partys image hasnt gone through the intended upgrade after its defeat in 2012. According to the Times/CBS poll, just 29 percent of Americans now view Republicans favorably, though 43 percent feel that way about Democrats. That number is unlikely to improve much with the likes of Huckabee, Carson, Ted Cruz and Rick Santorum roaming Iowa and foaming at the mouth. Besides, these two words come into play: Supreme Court. I know voters whod give more consideration to Rubio, Bush, Chris Christie or John Kasich if they didnt fear the kind of jurist one of them might nominate at the behest of the religious right. And the next president could easily wind up filling two vacancies on the high court. That thought is the soil in which love for Hillary Clinton flowers. Its a prompt for people who otherwise suffer bone-wearying Clinton fatigue to focus on her unquestioned smarts over her questionable scruples, her experience over her i.o.u.s, her sturdiness over her slipperiness. Theres a case to be made for her, and theres motivation to make that case. In another recent poll, by CNBC, she was the preferred candidate of voters with a net worth of $1 million or more. Apparently they, too, have made peace with her. Or maybe they just recognize a kindred spirit. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-how-hillary-is-winning.html?_r=0

Too good for the Politics forum! Florence Henderson Describes How Former NYC Mayor John Lindsay Gave Her Crabs http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/08/florence-henderson-crabs_n_7246404.html?cps=gravity_2677_8227369906427249878

Prayer, food, sex and water parks in Iran's holy city of Mashhad Since the escalation of Iraqi violence in 2011 and the appearance of Isis, the number of Iraqi Shia pilgrims to Iran has risen fast http://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2015/may/07/prayer-food-sex-and-water-parks-in-irans-holy-city-of-mashhad