They say that you learn something every day. Let us help you with your quota.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

31 January 2013

Today's Daily Quota is a link to a good friend's blog.
Now, as thinly veiled as it may seem, this is no attempt to shamelessly advertise her page. Rather, it's my attempt to promote local talent.

It does take guts to blog, especially in a personal capacity. We all seem to follow a blog or five, and it just wouldn't be the same if it were in a big, commercial context. Too many sponsors spoil the broth, and so forth.

As such, take some time out to sample the local produce. It may not be Christopher Hitchens, but it's there to be enjoyed, and it's ripe for your support. I assure you, the support will not fall on deaf ears. There are several times I've sat down with this friend of mine and given her constructive criticism, and I expect her to do the same.
It's about mutual support, mutual respect and facilitating the growth of that big pie. I hope everyone enjoys it.
Stay tuned tomorrow as we get back into Filosophy Fridays!

READ IT HERE


Wednesday, January 30, 2013

30 January 2013

Today's Daily Quota is a mid-week collection of vintage photographs from Paris, France.
As part of their Rewind segment, Buzz Feed release such collections a few times a week. This one is one of their better posts, immortalizing the beauty of Paris in an era that suited it so, so well.

Unfortunately for us, Buzz Feed likes to add their own stupid captions at the bottom of each photograph, lest they appear too cultured. Because then they would lose a lot of their predominantly US audience.
Heaven forbid we should appreciate foreign culture without making a mockery of it.

Enjoy them, guys. These are the kinds of photos 20-something females put as their cover photos, so at least half my reader base will appreciate them!
Romanticism at its finest. Woody Allen would be proud.


VIEW THEM HERE

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

29 January 2013

For today's Daily Quota, we touch on a topic that has gotten health officials very, very worried.
Basically, it's the fact that many strands of bacteria are doing what nature does best and adapting to their enemies - in this case, antibiotics. 
A lot of strands of common diseases and infections are developing a resistance to the drugs used to treat them. This is bad news; really really really bad news. Imagine the simplest infections being fatal. Imagine routine surgery being fatal. Imagine an influenza variant becoming fatal. Yep.

What's caused this, though?
Alfonso J. Alanis wrote a very educational piece on the topic in 2005. He outlined the natural mechanisms of resistance, as well as the causes - the main one being overuse and abuse of antibiotics.
Notice how you need more and more Codrals to tackle that bigger and bigger flu? Or the fact that almost everything is cured with penicillin these days? Well, both of these examples spell big problems for you, and for humanity.

I was brought onto this topic by the lovely Cassie, a friend of mine. As such, I thought it appropriate to let this long-term reader have her say on the topic.
Everyone shut up and hear her wordmusics. Take it away Cass.

The year is 1837 and the immigrant ship 'Lady McNaughten' docks the shores of North Head, Sydney infested with Typhus Fever and Scarlet Fever. The first of thousands of ill-fated passengers depart the ship and enter an atmosphere teeming with infectious disease and death. There is nothing anyone can do to cure these women, children and men so why not quarantine them? Separate them from the rest of society while they await their inevitable, slow and painful death.
Not long after, small pox, tuberculosis, the plague, pneumonia and influenza hit the shores of sydney. Between 1828-1984 at least 580 ships were quarantined, more than 13,000 people were quarantined and hundreds upon hundreds of people died. As each ship hit the shores, many tried to do all they could to help eliminate disease. Each and every person was showered in Phenol a type carbolic acid used to literally burn and strip the skin with the hope that in doing so the disease would magically diminish. There was no antibiotics to fight off these diseases, no medication, there was nothing but sheer panic. There was no cure, there was no treatment. Thousands of people fell victim to such infectious diseases all over the world.
Fortunately, in 1928 Alexander Fleming, a bacteriologist in London discovered 'Pencillin' a mould that had an antibacterial action. Consequently, in the 1930's the first antibiotics were prescribed and between the 1940's-1970s death due to infectious disease decreased. Scientists were certain that the war against infectious disease was won. In 1969 William Stewert a US surgeon General valiantly told the US Congress that it was time to "…close the books on infectious bacteria." Happy Days?
What if I told you that in the year 2013 scientists, doctors and governments were in fear of an apocalypse. Not the sort that most of you imagine. A type of apocalypse that is becoming dangerously real. In the year 2013, the whole world is in danger of taking a massive leap backwards. So far back, that we will land right back where we started, into a pre-antibiotic era. Superbugs are on the rise and are stronger than ever before. So what are superbugs? Put simply, they are a strain of bacteria, so strong that antibiotics have no effect on them anymore. How can this happen? simple really, the misuse and abuse of antibiotics.
Imagine a world without antibiotics, a simple cut that becomes infected can become deadly, simple medical procedures such as surgery and operations becomes deadly. Simple treatments of everyday illnesses such as pneumonia could be eliminated. Back to square one we go.
This could be our world in the near future. Scary.

Today's Daily Quota is a recent article from The Guardian on the topic. It's very brief, very gloomy and should very much be on our radar. 
Have a read, put down those tablets, and start showering with Dettol. 



Monday, January 28, 2013

28 January 2013

I fucking love Batman. I don't know how else to say it.
My bookcase has an entire tier dedicated to Batman comics, graphic novels and memorabilia pieces. Batman statues accompany Lionel Hutz statues in my study.

As such, today's Daily Quota is an article I dug up from the July 2012 edition of The Atlantic. It's titled How the Dark Knight Became Dark Again and explores the evolving image of Batman from the Golden Age of comics, through to the Adam West caricature of the 60's, up to Nolan's most recent revamp.
For those of you that have read the comics before, you'd know that most of them are very dark indeed. Any Joker adaptation since Alan Moore's The Killing Joke has been melancholy, psychotic and outright disturbing. Batman has to keep up with his foes, lest the Biff! and Pow! days return.

What I love about this article is the articulation of an otherwise 'childish' fictional character; who is often dismissed as one without merit.
Nolan has done much to resurrect Batman from the postmodern shambles of the 90's; his sole intention being to restore the 'Dark Knight' character that first emerged in the 1980's through such writers as Alan Moore and Frank Miller.

This article is fantastic. It's on the ball, it's well researched and it's a real treat for any Batman fan - Nolan or otherwise.


READ IT HERE


Sunday, January 27, 2013

27 January 2013

Superficial Sundays on The Daily Quota - where we pursue the trivial!

Today's Daily Quota is a music video from one of the most talented bands out there. However, what makes them so special is that they do not take themselves seriously in the slightest.
Steel Panther is a contemporary metal band that exists to take the absolute piss out of 80's rock bands. They take a satirical hit at everyone from Iron Maiden to Guns'n'Roses to Bon Jovi. They're the Spinal Tap of a new generation.
The thing is, they're actually very, very talented.

For anyone that has listened to Steel Panther, you'll find that their music is actually fantastic. Almost all of their songs have been smash hits amongst fans - and not just for their satire.
To put it another way, if it wasn't for their blatant vulgarity and sexism, they'd be on the radio.

For instance, this is their track list from their most recent album Balls Out, and this is the track list from their previous album Feel the Steel.

The link below is to one of their biggest hits - Community Property.
Just listen to the first few lines. Look at these guys. You can't hate them. In fact, you can't not love them.
Enjoy!

WATCH IT HERE


Saturday, January 26, 2013

26 January 2013

Well it's Australia Day, so that means a not-so-Sardonic Saturday edition of The Daily Quota.
Today, we discuss why we're the Lucky Country; and what better way to prove this than by internationally recognised quantitative data!

Presently, Australia is ranked second in the world on the Human Development Index (HDI). We are second only to Norway. This is an international measure that attempts to measure standard of living by collecting socio-economic data.

As of 2010, HDI is calculated by comparing three big quantitative factors;

  1. Life expectancy at birth (how long and healthy our lives are)
  2. The Education Index (the amount of years spent in school, and therefore access to and quality of education)
  3. GNI per capita (to ascertain how 'wealthy' each individual citizen is compared to overall economic input/output)
Today's Daily Quota is the up-to-date list of HDI rankings per country, calculated using the criteria above. So today, be proud to call yourself a citizen of the 'Lucky Country', because you officially are.
And there's Norway of denying that.

Sorry.


SEE THE FULL LIST HERE


Friday, January 25, 2013

25 January 2013

Filosophy Fridays for your Saturday mornings!
Today's Daily Quota is a book review by the LA Review of Books - but with a bit of a twist.
Adam Kotsko touches on rockstar philsopher Slavoj Zizek with an empathetic light.

He discusses Slavoj's complex prose, his backhanded politics and his ideological approaches to discussions of ideology. If you haven't seen Zizek in action, please, please YouTube him. You'll be grateful you did.

This is a great article for those unfamiliar with Zizek's works. It adds another philosopher to your (hopefully) extensive cultural arsenal.
It compliments his style in a way that is different from most - it's not patronizing.



Thursday, January 24, 2013

24 January 2013

Recently, Julia Gillard and the Labor Government have announced the formation of a Cyber Security Centre as part of Australia's increasingly sobering stance on cyber attacks. This new centre will be an ADF initiative, inevitably tying in nicely with the AFP, DSD and ASIO.
The full report can be found here. Bit of a read, but a skim through the executive summary and contents is more than enough.

Cyber-related attacks range from cyber-crime, hacktivism or DDOS, all the way to full-blown cyber espionage, hacking or malicious computer viruses.
This stance did not come as a surprise. Australia has been placing more and more focus on cyber-security as of late. As it should. Australian government agencies alone receive over 2,400 cyber attacks daily as of mid-2012. A recent survey has found that a third of global cyber attacks originate from China (although I don't know how this figure could be ascertained given the amount of proxies, botnets and encryption used in most of them).
This stance is also in-line with that of many other countries bolstering their cyber-arsenal - China has recently devoted an entire division of the PLA to cyber-warriors, as has the US. The recently established US CYBERCOM is a similar initiative, and most NATO countries are in talks to form a cyber-alliance treaty. However, the question of cyber attack as acts of war are still being debated.

The formation of an Australian Cyber Security Centre may increase the tensions with China. The Australian Defence White Paper, along with the recent 'Asian Century' focus have sent clear messages to China about our stance - we know we have to work together, we know we need you and you need us, but we are still keeping our guard very much up.
The Labor Government has also disallowed any bids for NBN infrastructure from Chinese telco bohemoth Huawei because of their links to the PLA. This, along with the formation of a US Marine base in Darwin, sends a crystal clear message to Beijing.

Today's Daily Quota is an article from the contrarian, and generally left-wing, New Matilda. It's an opinion piece that criticises the Labor Government's decision.
I disagree with this article's stance. Via my own extensive research on the topic, I've found that their stance is a smart one. The future of warfare is very much in cyberspace, and Australia has to bolster itself if we are to become a formidable player in the Asia-Pacific region.
My only concern about this newfound cyber-security scheme is the potential to turn out like this...

READ IT HERE


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

23 January 2013

Over the past year, injuries, curiosity and newfound skill sets have caused me to try a whole bunch of training regimes. My current obsession is body-weight conditioning, particularly on gymnastics rings.

Today's Daily Quota is a great collection of body-weight exercises that involve little to no equipment. Not only are they practical, but the risk of injury is significantly less than CrossFit. The flexibilty and core strength you'll gain outweighs pilates, and in many cases, the potential muscle mass and definition outweighs traditional body-building.

These kinds of workouts are not for beginners, or even intermediate weights trainers. These kinds of workouts are ideal for those with a background in it - CrossFitters, gymnasts, even lighter body builders. But hey, start light, and go for gold.
I've seen significant improvements in just four months. Be warned though - patience really is a virtue.

This are 20 workouts out of thousands; but they're a great start.

VIEW THE LIST HERE


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

22 January 2013

Today's Daily Quota ran frighteningly under the radar of mainstream news.
When big news happens, it's important to scan page 9 for some big stories that tend to get back-benched because someone kinda-sorta-but-not-admitted to doping. For now.

The below article is one of the few that reported on recent court injunctions placed upon Google Australia. Google was recently forced to reveal the identity of one of the anonymous bloggers that used their Blogger service.
The blog in particular had several take-down requests attached to it after the host made supposedly defamatory comments about the plaintiff. The full details are available via the link below.

The reason for my concern is the can of worms this precedent may now open up for blog hosts like Google, Wordpress or anyone really. The internet, and many bloggers, retain anonymity as one of their greatest weapons to voice their opinions or broadcast information. This verdict may be the catalyst to a lot more deregulation of internet anonymity. Hopefully not.
I do, however, understand the grounds for these requests - especially in contexts like defamation. But where will the courts draw the line?
Time will tell.

I did see mention of this story on the Sydney Morning Herald, but it did not appear on my 'Top Stories' RSS feed - default proof of its under-publication. Poor Google, being sued time and time again for their almost-perfect algorithm. 

Until subjected to a take-down request, here is today's Daily Quota.

READ IT HERE


Sunday, January 20, 2013

21 January 2013

Recently, a coworker received the sudden and crippling news that her first cousin had been shot dead in war-torn Syria. Like a blood-soaked butterfly effect, this supposed civil war is hitting ever closer to home.

Today's Daily Quota is a consolidated collection of a six-part series titled Ground Zero Syria.
This series follows Vice Magazine videographer Robert King and he spends some time with Syrian civilians and rebels, camera in tow.
Those of you who have never heard of Vice are in for an enlightening treat. Their website, and particularly their YouTube Channel, is packed full of interesting stories, documentaries, how-to guides and general shit-talk. Each are bite-sized and very much empathetic towards the short attention spans of the internet proletariat.

I must warn everyone, many of these images are graphic and very distressing, even to my standards. King doesn't hold back on scenes of civilian casualties, especially women and children.
Each episode focuses on a different facet of the anti-Assad movement; ranging from the civilian-run hospitals, to the child victims, to interviews with representatives of the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo.

Readers must also be aware of the heavily anti-Assad position of the publication. There is a lot of conflicting information out there about the Syrian civil war. We must remember that Vice is an American publication targeted at contrarian American audiences.

Below is an episode guide. Each episode is only about 7 minutes long, but you can't stop at one.
part 1 : Assad's Child Victims VICE commissioned renowned photojournalist and videographer Robert King to embed on the front lines with the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo. War-zone chaos ensued. In this episode, Assad forces hit Al Qusayr with a rocket attack while Robert is filming - it was targeted directly.
part 2 : Burning of The Old Souk Amid a fierce battle between Assad's security forces and Free Syrian Army insurgents, fire swept through the old Souk of Aleppo, a historic covered market and World Heritage site. Rebel fighters and activists have reported that the blaze was sparked by the use of incendiary mortar rounds by Assad's forces. 
part 3 :The Atrocities Within Aleppo's Field Hospital  The atrocities and war crimes currently ripping Syria apart at the seams are evident inside a field hospital in Aleppo, the country's largest city. Inside the hospital exhausted doctors indescriminately treat civilians, members of the Free Syrian Army, and captured Syrian Army troops alike.
part 4 : Under Fire for Bread in Alepp Every day the men, women, and children of Aleppo, Syria, must risk their lives to stand in line and hope that they can buy a kilo of bread to survive another day. Many of the bread factories in Aleppo have been destroyed amidst fighting between the Free Syrian Army and Assad's troops. The few that remain are staffed by brave souls who risk their lives every day to ensure the local population has basic sustenance. 
part 5 : The Bombing of Aleppo's Dar al-Shifa Hospital On November 21, Aleppo's Dar al-Shifa Hospital was bombed and destroyed by the Syrian Army. This is the same makeshift hospital where, weeks ago, VICE and videographer Robert King reported on human rights abuses and war crimes against patients (including children) being treated inside. It was completely leveled by the rocket attack, and Robert was on the scene to document the fallout.
part 6 : The Free syrian Army During his time in Syria throughout much of 2012, videographer Robert King followed Aleppo's Al-Tawhid Brigade as he dodged bullets and rocket fire to learn more about the largest brigade of the Free Syrian Army. Somehow Robert managed to track down Haji-Mara, the Al-Tawhid Brigade's commander, for a rare interview, during which the former-businessman-turned-freedom-fighter espouses the many difficulties the rebels face against the alleged brutality of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

WATCH IT HERE


20 January 2013

A great edition of Superficial Sundays, where we pursue the trivial.

Today's Daily Quota is one of the coolest indie TV shows to ever come out of Australia.
Danger 5 was first aired on SBS in early 2012, and has gained enormous international appeal ever since.
One season has been produced, with a total of six full episodes and one bonus one. Each of them can be viewed for free via the SBS website, linked below.

It's a pulp-inspired series about a crack team of international agents set out to kill Hitler and halt the Nazi's hare-brained schemes; Jackson from the USA, Tucker from Australia, Ilsa from Russia, Claire from Great Britain and Pierre from Europe. They're debriefed by the hilariously inappropriate Colonel Chestbridge
Each episode ends with Hitler escaping out of a window. Yep, it's that good.

The trailer speaks for itself. It's just...brilliant. One episode will have you hooked.
This is, sadly, some of the best Australian television I've seen in a very long time.



Friday, January 18, 2013

19 January 2013

Another edition of Sardonic Saturdays, where every silver lining has a cloud.

For today's Saturday afternoon, I'd like to share with you a piece from of one of the greatest writers I've had the pleasure of reading. The late Christopher Hitchens was an author, columnist, political dissident and atheist of the highest order.
A few months ago, Christopher Hitchens had died after a relatively brief battle with Stage 4 esophageal cancer. This came as no surprise to both Hitchens or his followers, as he had been a frequent smoker for most of his life. This, however, doesn't take away from the heavy loss that his death has caused all of humanity - he had a razor tongue, an even sharper wit, and his writing was superb.
As a fighter for atheism, he had ironically gained an almost religious following, and he wielded his pen with far more grace than anyone has ever wielded a sword.

His scathing retort to Mos Def on nuclear disarmament is the stuff of legends.

Today's Daily Quota is one of my favourite Hitchens essays. It's a fantastically tongue-in-cheek article titled 'Why Women Aren't Funny' from the January 2007 issue of Vanity Fair.
He employs a mixture of satire and traditional misogyny to argue how women do not need to be funny. Except for a few notable exceptions, he discusses the presence of humour in gender politics; particularly how contemporary men need humour as part of their evolutionary arsenal, whilst women simply do not.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. I'd love to hear some feedback on this piece - it really is one to weed out the easily offended, and reward the scarcely amused. Hitchens is a titan of knowledge, and this piece is the closest you'll get to understanding his brand of humour.

I hope you enjoy this one. There will be a few more Hitchens-related links in the future - you can bet on it.

READ IT HERE


18 January 2013

Filosophy Fridays for your Saturday mornings!

Lately religion has become a dirty word; active faith is a taboo, atheism is all the rage, and militant atheism is on the rise. It all started with the secularists like Bertrand Russell and AC Grayling, popularized by the militant atheists like the late Christopher Hitchens, and found an ally in the sciences via Sam Harris and Charles Dawkins.
However, most of us don't know these names - so the trend has been more paradigmatic than academic.
The times, they are indeed a-changin'.

Today on Filosophy Fridays, we discuss one of the most comically simple solutions to the life-long dilemma of religious faith.
Blaise Pascal was a 17th Century French philosopher that proposed a deeply logical solution, known as Pascal's Wager, or Pascal's Gambit.

Basically, it presents two options to the ambivalent individual - either devote to God and the respective lifestyle, or do not devote to God, and reap the rewards of such a lifestyle (but be damned in the afterlife).
Here we have a choice, and as logical beings, we weigh up the pros and cons. What do we have to lose in each case, and is it worth the sacrifice? Well, clearly the latter option is logically the far more grievous one - a lifestyle of sin for an eternity of damnation.

Pascal's Wager is, therefore, live your life by the rule of God, because there is far, far less to lose that way. Whether God and heaven and hell end up being real or not, by taking this option, you are covered either way.
It's kind of like a cosmic insurance policy. Does it make sense? I guess so...

READ IT HERE


Thursday, January 17, 2013

17 January 2013

A nice, light one for your Thursday night.
Light on reading, but heavy in depth.

Today's Daily Quota is a collection of some fantastic still and action shots of US and NATO troops in the Helmand and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan.
They were taken by AP photojournalist David Goldman as part of a series for The Frame.

The resolution is fantastic - perfect for capturing the beautiful, unforgiving Afghanistan landscape.
These are ancient lands these soldiers walk on, and their blood spilt upon them is the most recent of many before them.

These images provide a great insight into what these US troops wake up to, it gives us an view into their looking glass and it paints a much more vivid picture of the long stretches of inaction that we rarely see in the media.
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, and I hope you will too.

VIEW IT HERE


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

16 January 2013

In the early hours of this morning, Mark Zuckerberg, 2011 Time Man of the Year, announced a significant addition to the Facebook platform, and thus their business model.
They announced Graph Search - an integrated search engine that lets you search the web, your friends' timeline history and filter your friends based on sex, interests, workplace etc.
It makes stalking that much easier, and once again stretches the outer limits of your friends' lenient privacy settings.

What makes Graph Search different from using Google/Bing/Yahoo is the data that Facebook has at their disposal.
Google uses a combination of quantitative details to filter your search results - Chrome browser history, browser cookies, search habits, Gmail/Maps/GReader keywords, algorithmic wording and general popularity on the wider internet.
Facebook, however, has much more 'personalised' data on you. They know your interests, what you share, what you 'like', what ads you click on, where you attend on the weekend, and much, much more. They can also tailor search results based on what your friends' interests are, not to mention the ability to search things amongst your entire friends' timeline histories.

Here is where this Graph Search will meet a tragic flaw. It is almost entirely dependent on the transparency of its users. It is dependent upon how much information they disclose, how much they make public and how active they are.
If people don't publicize their relationship status, or workplace, or education, or 'like' every stupid thing they see...how can it work?
Why, it can't!

Notice the subtle changes to discourage you from being an anti-social brute; the practical 'remove friend' button has been replaced by the tabooed 'unfriend' button. 'Post' has become 'Share', it is now visible if you see a message but not reply to it...I'm sure you can pick out many more just by examining your Home page.
It's almost as if Facebook is conditioning us to be nicer to each other. Aw shucks, Zuckerberg.

Is it me, or is Facebook's business model, much like Apple's, gaining more and more resemblance to socialism? Let me explain my wacky train of thought.
It's one of those social models that would only work if everyone got on board with it. Kind of like a Tragedy of the Commons but in reverse. Facebook, like Apple, had created an ecosystem where each piece of the puzzle fits nicer the more pieces that there are.
Everyone has an iPhone? Perfect, we can share iOS-only documents, single-platform apps, etc.
Everyone has Facebook? Perfect, the more of my friends that are on it, the more likely I am to join. My Facebook experience is heightened by the activity of friends, and vice versa. No one wants a desolate News Feed (although it is better than a trivial one).
These are, in theory, the perfect political system, the perfect technological ecosystem and the perfect social network. However, if everyone doesn't play ball, they break down. As more people break away, more will do so.
Utopia becomes Fruitopia which becomes Dystopia.

Today's Daily Quota is an article from late 2011 that had predicted just this move by Facebook. This article discusses some of the strengths and relative weaknesses of the Internet's Big Four - Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. It discusses how each will try to gain ground on each other, and attempts to predict how it will turn out.
It's a very, very interesting read. In retrospect, a lot of the hypotheses have proven to be true.

READ IT HERE


Tuesday, January 15, 2013

15 January 2013

A great one for ancient history buffs.
Recently, The Discovery Channel has been running a several part series on Ancient Egyptian mummification as part of their Curiosity program.
We all know a bit about mummification. Something about embalming, some jars, the removal of organs and a lot of bandages. Oh and the whole brains through the nose thing.

This series, however, goes one better.
After bringing in some heavyweight Egyptologists such as Dr. Jo Fletcher (University of York, contributor to The Guardian and BBC), a group of scientists and surgeons actually perform a mummification in the traditional manner.
Employing new technology and ancient technique, they successfully mummify a deceased volunteer's body. Then, they reverse-engineer the whole process to compare results with 3,000 year old 'ones we prepared earlier'.

Today's Daily Quota is a series of previews of Curiosity's series on Mummification. Each preview is around 2-6 minutes in length, and provide some great shots of mummified corpses.
Which is always fun!

WATCH IT HERE


Monday, January 14, 2013

14 January 2013

Last week I was flicking through my signed copy of AC Grayling's To Set Prometheus Free and I found a gem that I had highlighted during my first reading.
Grayling was discussing happiness, as philosophers do. He was making the point that people tend to favour experiences over possessions when reflecting on their own happiness. This has been backed up by numerous studies as respondents rank travel and social interactions as far more valuable than materialistic items.

Grayling also mentioned one very interesting hypothesis by Robert Nozick - The 'Experience Machine'.
Nozick was a professor of philosophy at Harvard University, and in 1974 posed this question;
Everyone wants to be happy, everyone wants to be in a perpetual blissful state. What if a machine existed, a tank of water, where scientists could plug cords into your brain, stimulate the happiness transmitters, and leave you in a comatose state.
You'd float there, dreaming of only happy thoughts. You'd be constantly smiling, and you could be anyone you wanted; Cleopatra, Caesar, anyone. Would you do it?
This is the 'logical' rationale behind it;

  1. If pleasure is our ultimate goal, then our actions will be to pursue pleasure over not.
  2. Once 'connected' to the machine, we will experience more pleasure than by any other means.
  3. If pleasure is our ultimate and exclusive goal, there is no reason to connect to the machine.
  4. Therefore, since one does not want to connect to this machine, experiencing as much pleasure as possible is not all that matters to us.

Basically, it's a concept that is designed to expose one's attitude to experience by providing a hypothetically bleak means to achieving an end. 
Logically speaking, all of us should opt to go the machine. It's an interesting concept that can be applied to any daily philosophy. I'm sure you can think of a few examples.

Today's Daily Quota is an excerpt from Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia published in 1974 and reprinted by The University of Montana Press.
Great stuff, perfect discussion for a coffee and a free afternoon.

READ IT HERE


Sunday, January 13, 2013

13 January 2013

Concluding our week-long discussion on Health and Diet, today's discussion is that of the big C - and how stem cells possess the properties to both fight and proliferate cancer growth.

Lately we've been hearing a lot about stem cells. A lot.
There are two types of stem cells; embryonic stem cells (from an embyro, before mitosis occurs) and parent stem cells (pretty much all the other base cells before they develop into mature cells of various kinds).

Stem cells possess three distinct characteristics which make them significant in the battle against cancer - depending on which side they fight for.

  1. They have remarkable self-renewal properties
  2. They have the capability to develop into multiple lineages
  3. They have the ability to proliferate very extensively
Think about the potential of such cells. Think about how regenerative they can be for anything from scar tissue to skin cell repair to organ repair to slowing down cancerous malignancy.
Now think about if one of these stem cells became mutated into a cancerous cell. Imagine how difficult it would be to manage, imagine how aggressive it can get and imagine trying to kill every single cancerous stem cell. 
Herein lies the duality of stem cells in the context of cancer.

I've found myself digging into medical journals for information on stem cells, haemopoietic process and their capacity for cell regeneration and repair.
Needless to say, my commerce/law background didn't help me get my head around half of it. In a defeatist manner, I resorted to getting back to basics and found the following link.

Today's Daily Quota is a link to the Stem Cells Australia - an organisation dedicated to keeping its subscribers up-to-date in the latest in relevant news. They've got some great introductions to stem cells, a handy RSS feed with the latest news and a generally intuitive layout.
It's not much, but it helped me wrap my head around the basics. 
You've gotta crawl before you can walk.



Friday, January 11, 2013

12 January 2013

One of the biggest phenomena of the internet age is the concept of crowd-sourcing.
This involves outsourcing a task or research or a question to a 'crowd' (such as the internet), employing the mantra of 'wisdom of the people'. This 'crowd' then essentially contributes in their own way, solving the problem, answering the question, or identifying the most popular item.

This concept started off as Wikipedia, online democratization; but has evolved as uploaders pose each and every question to the infinite wisdom of the internet masses. Even synthetic medicine is being crowd-sourced as people upload their entire DNA genome and wait as others tailor-make a vaccine.
Incredible. There's an article on that coming up in the next few weeks.

Today, given my incredibly tight time frame, I've decided to crowd-source the question of health, diet and fitness. Luckily, I've found a convenient summary of several Reddit contributors on such a question. I've had a read of it, and it's actually quite reliable.
It's called the Reddit Guide to Fitness.
Easy to digest, full of quick information, but like everything you read or see in the news, make sure you cross-reference!

READ IT HERE


Tomorrow is the Daily Quota's final day of the Health and Diet week. We'll be touching on the concept of stem cell research, particularly in the context of combating cancer.
Definitely not a Superficial Sunday tomorrow.


Thursday, January 10, 2013

11 January 2013


Today's Daily Quota comes from a reader.
This week we've discussed the very tip of the iceberg that is health and diet academia.
Sometimes the best advice isn't found in medical journals, but rather gained from your own experience, or that of others.
In the end, different regimes, diets and supplements work different on everyone - it's about trial, error, patience and dedication. Stephanos recounts his experience with training, dieting and supplements over the past four years. Here's his story;

Before I rant about health, you should ask yourself; what are the writer's credentials? (Sobriety is sufficient here - Editor). Me personally, I am studying to be a doctor at university so I have done a lot of research on the actual medical journals behind the science of health; I have trained at the gym for 4 years so I can tell you what worked and didn’t work for me; and most of all I have personally put on and lost weight in the form of fat and muscle - so I have actually tested and tried what I will discuss, rather than just be an armchair critic.

Just briefly, as of 2007 I had not touched the gym. I was 21 then, and at 2009 I was my first year in but I always ate junk food, by 2010 I cleaned up my act and spent the next two years putting on lean muscle mass.

Diet
Most common things you hear about diet are false. Fats saturated or unsaturated are NOT bad for you. The only fats you should concern yourself with are trans-fats (which are artificially made to help increase shelf life of the oil). The misconception about saturated fats increasing your cholesterol was spawned in some early studies where the subjects tested were indeed eating high fats, but also high refined carbohydrates - so it's not scientifically valid to claim one variable (saturated fats) is the cause when there are multiple variables could be causing the high cholesterol (saturated fats, refined carbs, lifestyle etc).

Refined carbohydrates, keep well away from. This includes your white rice/bread/sugar/flour. Also, a lot of processed foods falls under  the 'refined carbohydrates' umbrella like canned fruit and chocolate bars. 
Substitute them for whole grains or consider brown/jasmine rice, brown bread, brown sugar and stevia for sweetener.

I personally commenced a ketogenic diet at the end of 2009. It is similar to the Atkins diet, but 5 out of the 7 days in a week is atkins diet, the other 2 out of 7 days I can eat carbohydrates. 
In that 3 months I lost only 10 kg - but what was significant was that my waist shrank dramatically from 36” to 28”. The reason why only 10kg was lost but waist shrunk so much is because I was also weight training, so muscle was being added on, but a great indicator of fat loss is waist circumference as that’s where fat rather than muscle tends to accumulate. 
Don’t focus too much on your weight. Remember your body is ~70% water. I did a blood test before and after this diet for curiosity's sake and my cholesterol actually dropped to 4.5, my good cholesterol went up and bad cholesterol went down - even though I was eating plenty of saturated fats in this diet but no refined carbohydrates even in those 2 days I was allowed to eat carbs. While one person's results with a diet doesn’t mean it is a proven fact, it does verify what new studies have shown about the common misconceptions behind saturated fats.

Gym Supplements
I can safely tell you to stay away from every single gym supplement out there except protein powders (and even then I’d be picky) and creatine (again, be picky about what type of creatine you pick). With creatine stick to monohydrate, with protein do not bother with ones that have “added aminos” or anything added, just isolate or concentrate whey is fine. Also, avoid artificial sweeteners if possible.  Aminos are just a waste of money. Aminos are just the break-down of protein which your body can do just fine; it is not necessary to buy as a supplement or to be added to anything.

Pretty much every other supplement else out there is useless and does not work. The only other effective 'supplements' is anabolic steroids (testosterone) and human growth hormones. They work, but they also come with a nice avalanche of responsibility and discipline. 
Steroids are not something to be taken lightly, while your body already makes testosterone increasing the levels too high can have dangerous side-effects.

Here are some sources I want you to read. Please do not read health magazines. Stick to reputable websites like university-based, or better yet, medical journals like the Harvard School of Public Health.
  
If you would like a more in-depth history of the fats myth, the following link is a great start.


10 January 2013

Fourth day into our week on Health and Diet, and I'm (ironically) awake at the small hours, burning the candle from both ends.
Today we finally touch on the Paleo Diet - the one that we've brought up on numerous occasions.
Why I mention it so much is because this seems to be the current 'diet fad' that is sweeping gyms, Zamba classes and Crossfit arenas across the globe.

What is the Paleolitic Diet?
The name says it all. It's a diet based on minimal processed foods (especially carbohydrates) and a focus on what was obtainable by hunter-gatherers of the ancient eras.

We're talking whole foods, meats, nuts & seeds, fats and little to no intervention by human process.
One is to avoid dairy, processed carbohydrates, processed sugars and pretty much anything that common sense tells you isn't whole-foods or that wasn't obtainable by a caveman.

I, personally, am a huge fan of this diet. It promotes basic eating patterns, is completely compatible with modern nutritional scholarship, and most importantly, dissuades everyone from going anywhere near processed food.

Dr. Loren Cordain is usually accredited with having brought this diet into the mainstream with her 2002 essay titled The Nutritional Characteristics of a Contemporary Diet Based Upon Paleolithic Food Groups in The Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association.
It can be found here, pp 15-25
I've posted links to Robb Wolf's blog page on several occasions, and he's one of the biggest advocates of the Paleo Diet.

However, enough talk.
Today's Quota is quite simply a link to the Wikipedia page for the Paleolithic Diet.
It summarises everything beautifully, and those that don't feel the page is sufficient, a quick Google search will return ample information.

READ IT HERE


Wednesday, January 9, 2013

9 January 2013

We've all seen those food pyramids that the Australian government uses to promote a well-balanced diet. Well, I learnt about them through Healthy Harold, but we all know what I'm talking about.

Now, that traditional food pyramid (pictured left) was created in the 70's - completely disregarding the hugely phenomenal Atkins Diet.
This diet involved minimal carbohydrate consumption, so as to shift the body's reliance on glucose-based energy to stored fat. This diet was probably the most successful in recent Western history, and is still very much relevant in today's dietary fads.

Whatever the case, times have changed, and carbohydrates are now the bad guy while (selective) fats are the good guys.

Today's Quota is a number of local and international alternative 'food pyramids' that have sprung up as of late.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but does give you some insight into the changing nature of nutritional scholarship.
Interesting stuff, especially if we finally see a shift in the Australian government's archaic approach to dietary harmony.

CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet

NHMRC Dietary Guidelines for Australians

ESDGP New Food Pyramid

Dr Weil's Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid




Tuesday, January 8, 2013

8 January 2013

Today's Quota is one that I found educational, intuitive and compatible with all the contemporary diet fads.
It's a TED talk by Dr. Terry Wahls (strangely not on the TED website) called Minding your Mitochondria. In it, she discusses her fight with MS and how traditional Western medicine reduced her to near-paralysis.
She turned to a natural diet, high in specific vegetables that mimic the diets of ancient cultures.

Anyone who is a fan of the Paleo Diet will be a fan of her diet. A lot of parallels.
Her rule of thumb is 'three plates a day' - one of B-vitamin rich vegetables, one of sulfur-rich mushrooms and cabbage, and one of other superfoods like kale, salmon, seaweed and many more.

Great to make note before hitting the supermarket.
Such a great talk. Enjoy, folks!

WATCH IT HERE


Monday, January 7, 2013

7 January 2013

Welcome to another week of The Daily Quota; another seven days of daily facts, enlightenment and shit-talk.
This week, The Daily Quota dedicates these seven days, and seven posts, to the pursuit of Health & Well-being.  Let's crack some of the myths about dieting, let's take a look at what is really making us sick.

As Hippocrates famously hypothesized; Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.
Modern scholarship, contemporary diet fads and every physician without their hand in some cookie jar will tell you the same thing.

Today's Quota takes a focus on the biology behind stress. In particular, the Adrenal Fatigue that we all experience as a result of busy lives.
This piece is written by Diane from the Balanced Bites blog, contributing to the Robb Wolf page - one of the most vocal supporters of the Paleo Diet (we'll touch on this in the upcoming days).

The article discusses the various chemical reactions that occur in your adrenal glands when they are met with stressors like over/under-training, mental stress, lack of sleep or caffeine over-consumption (guilty).
Bascially, it all comes down to the excretion of the anti-stress hormone called Cortisol, and how effectively it can be released via neurotransmitters.

Interesting stuff, doesn't require any pre-requisite medical knowledge, and very very relevant to our busy lives.

Hope this week provides some insight!

READ IT HERE




Sunday, January 6, 2013

6 January 2013

Superficial Sundays - where we pursue the trivial!

Today's Quota is a good bed-time story for all the kids.
When you masturbate, a kitten dies. Or a puppy. Or perhaps a poor person.

John Harvey Kellogg - the joint founder of Kellogg's - was a strong advocate for celibacy.
In fact, he held such strong views against sex that he wrote several pieces on how boys and girls could take extreme measures to abstain from succumbing to sexual desires.
John Kellogg had indeed married, but he never consummated his marriage.

One of his most effective methods of combating evil sexual pleasures was to refrain from an overly 'stimulating' diet; this meant sticking to grains and avoiding meat and dairy. Basically, eating as boringly as possible.
This is when the corn-flake cereal was conceived. It was his brother, however, that took the company down the capitalist path into what we know today.

So there you go!
Corn-flake cereal was indirectly created to combat masturbation.
Read up on it on the link below!

READ IT HERE


Saturday, January 5, 2013

5 January 2013

Sardonic Saturdays - where every silver lining has a cloud.
Today's Quota is very short, and can be sweet or sour, depending on your mood at the moment.

We all know who Mohandas Gandhi is, right?
Right before his assassination, he presented his grandson with a slip of paper.
On it, he wrote the 'seven blunders of the world'; probably one of his most famous pieces.

These are the Seven Blunders of the World;

  1. Wealth without work
  2. Pleasure without conscience
  3. Knowledge without character
  4. Commerce without morality
  5. Science without humanity
  6. Worship without sacrifice
  7. Politics without principle

Wise words to live by, laying out the hypocritical nature of Man.
We tend to be superficial in our gains, never stopping to consolidate our position or reflect on ourselves.
Be mindful of these plunders in everything you do, lest you fall victim to your own inherent nature.

Today's Quota (which has already been divulged) is this quote. These blunders.
Below is the Wikipedia page, complete with a more extensive background on the final 'blunder'.

READ IT HERE


Friday, January 4, 2013

4 January 2013

Another edition of Filosophy Fridays.
Today we discuss the underdog of Psychology, Carl Jung.

He's been called many things, but I like to refer to him as the Nikola Tesla of Psychology (although this is still an understatement of Tesla's genius).
He lives, historically, in the shadow of his former mentor Freud (THE Freud!), as did Tesla with Edison. Only recently are the geniuses of both parties finally coming to light.
He was one of the most eccentric characters in his field, experiencing visions and feverish dreams (like Tesla), driving him to an 'outside of the box' approach.

His eccentricity eventually translated (evolved?) into hybrid works of psychology; he had dabbled in alchemy, Eastern and Western spirituality, religion, astrology and even the Occult.

Like Tesla, Jung is famous for many concepts; many of which we all know, but do not know the origin of.
In his lifetime, Jung had conceived and furthered the concepts of the archetype, intro-extroverted personalities, the 'complex' and the 'collective unconscious'.
His work has inspired many, many others and his scribblings stretch the outer limits of your open-mindedness.
If you're unsure of any of the aforementioned concepts, google them and enjoy the read!

Today's Daily Quota is an article which praises this heavyweight, whilst simultaneously providing an enlightening take on his philosophies. It takes a particular focus on his more eccentric side - including his Red Book and his infamy among more conventional psychologists.
It's called Psychology's Magician and it can be found below in the Spring 2011 issue of The New Atlantis.

It's a great piece, well worth the time taken to read it.
Pair this article with a morning coffee and you have yourself one hell of an enlightening day.

READ IT HERE


Thursday, January 3, 2013

3 January 2013

Welcome back, folks!
I hope the new year has kicked off to a great start, and you're all enjoying your well-earned breaks.
Sit back, relax, and let me serve you the Daily Quotas one mouthful at a time.

Today's Quota is one of my personal favourites.
Whoever knows me knows I love my comic books. Big hobby of mine.
People often ask me for a good place to start. Most don't, and I have to employ every trick in the book to drag them tooth-and-nail into the genre.

There is only one series that every single person has loved.
It's called Fables, and it's been voted one of the best series' of all time.
Anything that can reach issue # 124 and keep going strong is an absolute winner.

CBR summarises the series quite well;


Before "Grimm" and "Once Upon a Time" graced the airwaves, writer Bill Willingham brought familiar fairy tales into the modern world in the pages of the multiple-Eisner winner "Fables." When the mysterious Adversary attacked their homelands, Snow White, King Cole, Prince Charming and thousands of other Fables escaped into our plane of existence, the mundane, or "Mundy," world. Secretly walking among us, hundreds of fairy tale refugees set up new lives in an area of New York City they call "Fabletown." What began as a series of stories that modernized familiar characters developed into a multi-faceted saga of war, loss and the many characters and agendas that inhabit it.
For over a decade, Willingham has developed and nurtured the world of "Fables" through spin-off series and one-shots featuring character like Jack (known for killing giants, climbing beanstalks and jumping over candlesticks) and Cinderella (Fabletown's chief secret agent and, at times, ambassador). Willingham also ventured into the world of prose fiction with "Peter and Max," a story about Peter Piper, his wife Bo Peep and Peter's brother Max. For many people who never read a comic book before, this series has been a great introduction to the medium.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough - especially to new readers and for those that don't like the whole 'Biff and Pow' style of comic books.
This series is published by Vertigo, which is aimed at mature readers and releases some real quality.

They've also released 6-issue mini series shoot offs like some Cinderella story arcs (which is pretty much a James Bond parody) and Jack of Fables.
Download the first few issues, and try not to get hooked.

It can be purchased digitally from Comixology, imported for cheap via The Book Depository UK or purchased from your friendly local comic store King's Comics.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

2 January 2013

Another day, another Daily Quota consumed fashionably late.

A client of mine has recently invited me to a Japanese themed 40th birthday bash.
This means I need to educate myself on Japanese food (beyond sushi) and Japanese alcohol (besides Saki). What a great quota, right?
I've been told to dress up as everything from Little Boy to a tsunami to this.
I decided to do some more politically-correct research...and disassociate myself with a few people.

However, in my endeavors, I had stumbled onto the Wall Street Journal. As one does.
In doing so, I've found a great article about Japan's recent cultural revolution;
Apparently the Western influence on Japan has caused it to do Western culture better than the West itself.
Examples include food, fashion, entertainment and even coffee.

A great read, especially for the entrepreneurs out there.
I think I'm getting good at this Japanese stuff;

郵便配達員が死亡した


READ IT HERE


Tuesday, January 1, 2013

1 January 2013

Welcome to the new year everyone!
Hope we've all held up well from last night, and that our alcohol has finally turned back into blood.

Today's Quota is a great one to ring in the new year.
It's a poem by Robert Herrick titled To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time.
It's short, but such a strong piece. The first paragraph is particularly quotable.

It's a poem that encourages us to find romance while we're young, to gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
It's an omen to abstain from hesitation, so strike while the iron is hot. Advice to young lovers.
However, this mantra can also be applied to many other things; and the best way to start is on the first of January.
Seize the day, and place no trust in tomorrow.

Robert Herrick was a 17th Century Romantic poet, and the Romanticism is very evident in this piece. His other words are definitely worth checking out too.
Those of you that have read Keats will find similarities.

This was YOLO before it wasn't cool.

READ IT HERE