US Government Says UFOs are “Real”

An Analysis of the 60 Minutes Investigation 
BY MICK WEST

The 60 Minutes segment of Sunday May 16, 2021 (available on YouTube), was no doubt for many people a startling revelation that the US Government has admitted that UFOs are “real” and the military is investigating them. But for me it was a walk down memory lane, a recap of the curious events of the last four years. A disappointing recap at that, as I’d hoped at least for some new nuggets of information that I could use to help solve the rather complicated puzzle of just exactly what is going on.

The segment opens with an interview with a familiar character, Luis Elizondo, reputedly the former head of a $22 million program instigated by Senator Harry Reid called AATIP: the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. Ostensibly this was created to study possible future developments in aerospace. Elizondo claims the program was actually created to study UFOs (or, as they prefer to call them now, UAPs, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.) Put out to tender in 2008, the budget was awarded to Harry Reid’s friend, Robert Bigelow, a UFO and paranormal enthusiast.

Elizondo opens with the startling claim that “the Government has already stated for the record that [UFOs] are real.” Startling, that is, until you remember that “UFO” does not necessarily mean alien visitors, but rather something unidentified in the sky, something about which the observer lacks sufficient information to identify. Obviously, the government would admit such things are “real.” A mylar balloon floating into the range of a Navy jet’s camera is “real”, but the U in UFO and UAP does not mean extraterrestrial, or even necessarily an aerial technology beyond any known physics and aerodynamics.

Elizondo then goes on to describe craft exhibiting startling technologies—the ability to accelerate at a physics-defying 600g, reaching speeds of 17,000 mph in the atmosphere, or even through water. These are things that the government very much has not admitted are real. […]

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Study Finds That Extreme Exercise Carries Metabolic Consequences

by Shawna Williams for The Scientist e-zine

Healthy people put through high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, displayed  insulin resistance and mitochondrial dysfunction after working out excessively.

 As a researcher at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Filip Larsen would hear anecdotes about the downsides of too much exercise—a common enough phenomenon that nevertheless puzzled him. “All athletes know if you train too much, something’s happening. . . . Your legs feel terrible after a while, and then if you just continue, you have these psychological disturbances too, like mood disturbances,” he says. “That hasn’t been really described in the literature—no one knows exactly what’s going on.”

To find out, Larsen and his colleagues recruited 11 healthy young people and put them through a 4-week, increasingly intense regimen of sessions on a stationary bike while monitoring their glucose tolerance and mitochondrial function. During the toughest week, the subjects displayed insulin resistance and other deleterious metabolic changes, the team reported last week (March 18) in Cell Metabolism.  

“It’s a very impressive study,” says Thijs Eijsvogels, an exercise physiology researcher at Radboud University Medical Center who was not involved in the work. Typically, cardio-metabolic health improves with greater exercise volumes, and the results indicate that there’s a point at which those benefits stop accruing, he notes.

That changed in the third week, designed to represent excessive training, during which the participants completed a grueling 152 minutes of intervals over the course of the week. After that, the subjects’ intrinsic mitochondrial respiration fell by an average of 40 percent compared with the samples taken at the end of the moderate-intensity week, the researchers report. 

It’s quite similar to the changes that you see in people that are starting to develop diabetes or insulin resistance.
—Filip Larsen, Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences

Furthermore, the subjects’ glucose tolerance—measured by their glucose levels before and after they consumed a sweet drink—also dropped between the light-training week and the end of the excessive-training week (no oral glucose test was performed after the moderate training week). “It’s quite similar to the changes that you see in people that are starting to develop diabetes or insulin resistance,” Larsen says. 

After a recovery period, during which participants completed 53 minutes of intervals spread across the week, most measures rebounded. Oxygen consumption and power output during exercise, as measured by how hard they pedaled, were higher after recovery than at baseline or at any other point during the experiment. However, intrinsic mitochondrial respiration had not fully recovered by the end of the experiment, remaining 25% lower after recovery than it had been after the moderate week. 

In a second component of the experiment, the researchers monitored blood glucose levels in 15 elite athletes who weren’t subject to any intervention and in matched, non-athlete controls. On average, the two groups’ levels over a given 24-hour period were about the same, but the athletes spent more time with glucose levels either above or below the normal range. Eijsvogels remarked, “I think joining together all of these findings gives a really strong message of the impact of repeated and sustained bouts of intense exercise training on glucose tolerance,” he says. 

The study didn’t examine what, if any, long-term health consequences might arise from excessive exercise. Linda Pescatello, who studies the health effects of exercise at the University of Connecticut and was not involved in the study, says she suspects the findings about the effects of over-exercise do indeed have real-life ramifications, with individuals having different thresholds for over-exercise depending on their fitness levels.

She points to a 2020 review article, coauthored by Eijsvogels, that found associations between very high levels of exercise and what the authors called “potential cardiac maladaptations” such as coronary artery calcification. “I guess the bottom line is, especially for the average person, all in moderation if you want to maximize the health benefits” of exercise, she says. 

Study coauthor Mikael Flockhart, also at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, says that it’s not clear where the “tolerable limit of training” is. Knowing where that limit is, he says, would be helpful to everyone. 

Reference: M. Flockhart et al., “Excessive exercise training causes mitochondrial functional impairment and decreases glucose tolerance in healthy volunteers,” Cell Metab, doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2021.02.017, 2021.

When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault

Sexual conflict permeates ancient religions, from injunctions about thy neighbor’s wife to the permissible rape of infidels. It is etched in written laws that dictate who can and cannot have sex with whom. Its manifestations shape our sexual morality, evoking approving accolades or contemptuous condemnation. It produces sexual double standards that flourish even in the most sexually egalitarian cultures on earth. And although every person alive struggles with sexual conflict, most of us see only the tip of the iceberg: dating deception, a politician’s unsavory sexual grab, the slow crumbling of a once-happy marriage, a romantic breakup that turns nasty. When Men Behave Badly shows that this “battle of the sexes” is deeper and far more pervasive than anyone has recognized, revealing the hidden roots of sexual conflict — roots that originated over deep evolutionary time — which define the sexual psychology we currently carry around in our 3.5-pound brains. Providing novel insights into our minds and behaviors, When Men Behave Badly presents a unifying new theory of sexual conflict, and offers practical advice for men and women seeking to avoid it.

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7 Hidden Messages On Packaged Food Labels You’re Not Noticing

by Kiersten Hickman for “Eat This, Not That”

We spoke with a registered dietitian about the specific things you should be looking for in a food label. As you peruse items in your grocery store and see foods with labels like "heart-healthy" and "all-natural," it almost seems like every item in the store has some kind of healthy spin to it. While those front labels try to make their foods sound healthier, the nutrition food labels can reveal a very different, but true picture.

In order to learn how to properly read nutrition labels and look for any hidden messages the front of the box may be missing, we spoke with Maggie Michalzcyk, RDN and founder of OnceUponAPumpkinRD.com, about what specific things to look for in your food labels. The next time you go to pick up snacks to stock up on, here's how to make sure those snacks are truly healthy.

1). Look for high fiber & high protein: When it comes to picking out her snacks, Michalzyck says she likes to look for higher counts of fiber and protein. "You want the snack to be giving you nutrition like protein and fiber to tie you over to the next meal and not a ton of sugar," says Michalzyck. If you're looking for snacks that actually make you feel full and have nutritional benefit, look for these two things.

2). Be mindful of the sugar count: "People should look out at the sugar content," says Michalzyck. "Check ingredients on packaged goods—you may not expect there to be sugar alcohols, multiple types of sugar, and other ingredients, but there can be." Make sure to calculate how much sugar you should eat in a day so you can calculate the proper amounts.

3). Be wary of a long ingredient list: "A super long ingredient list is a telltale sign that the product is not the healthiest," says Michalczyk. "It's important to read the ingredient list, especially if you have allergies or sensitivities or just prefer to say away from a certain ingredient. Maybe you think there would never be two different types of sugar in your frozen ravioli, only to read the label and find out that there is."

4). The order of the ingredient list matters: Ever wonder why the list of ingredients on a label isn't just in alphabetical order? That's because the order of the list matters! "Ingredients are listed in predominance of weight in the ingredient list—the thing it has the most of is first," says Michalcyzk. Check what the first few ingredients are to know what that item is really made of.

5). Note where sugar is on the ingredients list: Is sugar first on the ingredient list? You may want to put that item right back on the shelf! "One thing to know about sugar content is that you can know that the sugar will be high if you look at the ingredient list and sugar is one of the first few things listed," says Michalzyck. "More often than not when I see sugar as the first ingredient, I don't need to look at the rest because I will start looking for a different (healthier) alternative."

6). Look for high fructose corn syrup: If there's one ingredient to avoid, it's high-fructose corn syrup. "I say try to stay away from high fructose corn syrup in any and all products," says Michalczyk. High-fructose corn syrup is a sweetener chemically similar to sugar (derived from corn syrup) and studies have shown that frequent consumption of this product has contributed to obesity and related health issues, according to Mayo Clinic.

7). Look at the calories per serving:  A packaged good may have more than one serving in some products, so make sure you pay attention to the calories per serving, how large that serving actually is, and how many serving each package contains. When you use it, be sure to measure it out so you an account for the proper amount of calories.

8). The types of fat matter: While some think having foods with fat in it is unfavorable, it's actually healthy to have a reasonable amount of fat in your diet—it’s a longer burning fuel and helps you feel full. However, knowing the different types of fat will matter when reading a nutrition label. According to Mayo Clinic, limit your saturated fat count to less than 10 percent of target calories per day. As for trans fat, while some trans fats are created naturally in some foods (but in very small amounts), most items with partially hydrogenated trans fat can increase blood cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. In short, it could increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. In short, be wary of items with a high trans-fat count.

Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think

Astonishingly irrational ideas are spreading. COVID-19 denial, anti-vaxxers compromising public health, conspiracy thinking hijacking minds and inciting mob violence, toxic partisanship cleaving our nations, the return of Flat Earth theory… What the heck is going on? Why is all this happening, and why now? More important, what can we do about it? Does our “right to our opinion” trump our responsibilities? Does the resulting ethos effectively compromise mental immune systems, allowing “mind parasites” to overrun them? Are conspiracy theories, evidence-defying ideologies, and garden-variety bad ideas all species of mind parasites, each of which employs clever strategies to circumvent mental immune systems? In this conversation, based on the book Mental Immunity, Andy Norman shows that minds and cultures have immune systems, and that they really can break down. Fortunately, he assures us that they can also be built up: strengthened against ideological corruption. Can his ideas revolutionize our capacity for critical thinking?

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Study Links Mushroom Consumption To Lowered Risk Of Cancer

from The Optimist Daily e-zine

We at The Optimist Daily are no stranger to the power of mushrooms. These versatile  fungi can be used to make sustainable clothing, treat depression, and even build decomposable coffins. Now, a new study from Penn State College of Medicine indicates that mushroom consumption could help protect against cancer. 

The study analyzed 17 cancer studies from 1966 to 2020 and found that people who incorporated any variety of mushrooms into their daily diets had a lower risk of cancer. Specifically, those who ate 18 grams of mushrooms daily had a 45 percent lower risk of cancer compared to those who did not eat mushrooms. 

The researchers believe this health benefit is tied to mushrooms’ high concentration of ergothioneine, a unique and potent antioxidant. Diving deeper, the researchers found that mushroom consumption is particularly beneficial in terms of preventing breast cancer. 

More research is needed to determine the exact link between mushrooms and better health, but this study is a great starting point and for those looking to give themselves a health boost, consider throwing some extra mushrooms into your diet today.

Foods Linked To Better Brain Power from the Harvard Health e-zine

Just as there is no magic pill to prevent cognitive decline, no single almighty brain food can ensure a sharp brain as you age. Nutritionists emphasize that the most important strategy is to follow a healthy dietary pattern that includes a lot of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. Try to get protein from plant sources and fish and choose healthy fats, such as olive oil or canola, rather than saturated fats.

That said, certain foods in this overall scheme are particularly rich in healthful components like omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, and antioxidants, which are known to support brain health and often referred to as brain foods. Incorporating many of these foods into a healthy diet on a regular basis can improve the health of your brain, which could translate into better mental function.

Research shows that the best brain foods are the same ones that protect your heart and blood vessels, including the following:

1). Green, leafy vegetables. Leafy greens such as kale, spinach, collards, and broccoli are rich in brain-healthy nutrients like vitamin K, lutein, folate, and beta carotene. Research suggests these plant-based foods may help slow cognitive decline.

2). Fatty fish. Fatty fish are abundant sources of omega-3 fatty acids, healthy unsaturated fats that have been linked to lower blood levels of beta-amyloid—the protein that forms damaging clumps in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. Try to eat fish at least twice a week, but choose varieties that are low in mercury, such as salmon, cod, canned light tuna, and pollack. If you're not a fan of fish, ask your doctor about taking an omega-3 supplement, or choose terrestrial omega-3 sources such as flaxseeds, avocados, and walnuts.

3). Berries. Flavonoids, the natural plant pigments that give berries their brilliant hues, also help improve memory, research shows. In a 2012 study published in Annals of Neurology, researchers at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital found that women who consumed two or more servings of strawberries and blueberries each week delayed memory decline by up to two-and-a-half years.

4). Tea and coffee. The caffeine in your morning cup of coffee or tea might offer more than just a short-term concentration boost. In a 2014 study published in The Journal of Nutrition, participants with higher caffeine consumption scored better on tests of mental function. Caffeine might also help solidify new memories, according to other research. Investigators at Johns Hopkins University asked participants to study a series of images and then take either a placebo or a 200-milligram caffeine tablet. More members of the caffeine group were able to correctly identify the images on the following day.

5). Walnuts. Nuts are excellent sources of protein and healthy fats, and one type of nut in particular might also improve memory. A 2015 study from UCLA linked higher walnut consumption to improved cognitive test scores. Walnuts are high in a type of omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which helps lower blood pressure and protects arteries. That's good for both the heart and brain.

Religious vs. Secular Morality — Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality

In their book Science and the Good, professional philosophers James Hunter and Paul Nedelisky trace the origins and development of the centuries-long, passionate, but ultimately failed quest to discover a scientific foundation for morality. The conversation takes a decidedly interesting turn when Drs. Hunter and Nedelisky reveal that they are both theists and that their Christian worldview informs their thinking on moral issues. The three then dig into the weeds of the difference between religious and secular moral systems, the nature of God and morality, why a purely naturalistic approach to morality does not negate religion or even the existence of God (natural law could be God’s way of creating moral values), natural rights and rights theory, consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics, progress in philosophy, why philosophers never seem to reach consensus on important subjects like morality, how to think about issues like abortion, why they believe in God and follow the Christian religion and yet reject Divine Command Theory, and much more.

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