links I like - 07-03-12

links I like - 07-03-12

Here are some of the articles I read this week that I thought you might enjoy..

The Downside of Living in a Need-to-Know World, by Freakonomics writer Stephen Dubner.  Dubner does a good job of adding perspective to the flow of information. Remember when you used to come home and look in the mailbox? Then you started to come home and check your emails. Then email was everywhere, then it became too slow and we had to sms text, which today is dreadfully slow if you're used to live chatting. Give it a rest, people - not everything is this-second-urgent!

Children's Cereal: Healthy Start or Junk Food?, by US News. I love the cereal companies' rationalization that it's a good idea to pack the cereal full of vitamins, then sweeten the bejeezus out of it so the kids will eat it - and voila, they've eaten their healthy vitamins (along with a ton of sugar, artificial sugar, and plenty of other man-made concoctions). Meanwhile they're spending gobs of money advertising with catchy cartoons and joint marketing with other kid-brands. This is one of those challenging parent topics - you want your kids to eat, you want your kids to eat healthy, and you want to go to battle over the things that are most important to you (which is different for all of us)...

Does Sunlight Prevent Myopia?, by marksdailyapple.com. I had read something about this awhile ago, but have never been able to find it again, so I was glad when Mark published this piece. My vision was 20-20 until I was about 24 years old, then it went downhill quickly. I've been told, and it made sense to me, that it was because my job required a lot of computer work, lots of working with numbers, and a high level of stress. But after reading studies like these, I wonder: could my eyes have deteriorated because up until about 22 years old I spent a lot of my life outside, then suddenly I was inside the majority of the daylight hours. After a couple years, my eyes got weak. I don't know which side of the argument is right, but I'm going to advise my kids to get plenty of outdoor time, even once they get a "real job"!

Jogging in forest twice as good as trip to gym for mental health, by the Telegraph in the United Kingdom. I already knew this, or at least I know that I much prefer exercising outside compared with going to the gym. In fact, I find the gym to be one of the most uninspiring environments out there, but I digress. Anyway, it's always nice to read a scientific report that backs up what we already knew intuitively.

Independence Day, Wikipedia. Happy Independence Day! This is a good week - it feels like Monday, Friday, then a day off to spend with family and celebration, then another Monday, Friday before the weekend. I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am.

Cheers.

-Chris Butterworth

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