Cristian Vlad Zot's Blog, page 11

What I’ve Been Reading Recently – My Bookshelf #10

Intro I read more than 70 books this year (as of August 2016). I don’t speed read. I allocate sufficient time every day to ‘parse’ books. I mostly read non-fiction. Some of the books are in audio format. Obviously I do not listen to textbooks and programming books. I choose the audio format for the

Data from David Blaine’s 44-day Fast – [Metabolic and Physiologic]

Introduction David Blaine has subjected himself to a prolonged fasting experiment lasting between Sept. 5 and Oct. 19, 2003. “A 30-year-old male, weight 96 kg, height 1.84 m, entered a transparent Perspex box on the banks of the river Thames in London and was suspended in the air from a crane for 44 days. During

10-Lecture Course on Science Based Medicine – And Alternative Practices

Introduction I started watching these lectures on Youtube about two months ago, a bit every day, slowing digesting the information and doing additional searches on the web whenever I found that a topic sparked my interest. These lectures are presented by Dr. Harriet Hall, a retired family physician and Air Force Colonel. According to Skeptic:

Top 5 Scientific Publications and their Most Cited Papers – [2016 Update]

Introduction Google Scholar recently released their 2016 Metrics update. “Scholar Metrics provide an easy way for authors to quickly gauge the visibility and influence of recent articles in scholarly publications…This release covers articles published in 2011–2015 and includes citations from all articles that were indexed in Google Scholar as of June 2016.” [*] As per

Fasting and AMPk Signaling – Lean vs. Obese

Introduction AMPk is a cellular energy sensor, activated mostly at low energy states. Its activation often depends on ratios such as AMP/ATP and NAD+/NADH. The main purpose of AMPk activation is to restore cellular energy. “Thus, any change in cellular energy status activates AMPK, leading to concomitant inhibition of energy-consuming processes and stimulation of ATP-generating

Alpha Version – My Voice Triggered Search Bot [Python]

This is the first workable version of my voice triggered search bot. I coded it in Python 3.4. If I keep working on it, it can become much more than a search bot. I could add unlimited functions and features and make it respond to numerous commands. Some may include: – doing backups – running

Baloney Detection – How to Distinguish between Science and Pseudoscience [A Short Guide]

Introduction “When we’re growing up (!and, often in adult life) we tend to be pretty credulous. We just believe almost anything that people tell us, especially if it comes from authorities, experts, textbooks, politicians, television, Youtube, and the Internet. I mean, there’s just this sort of sea of information coming at us. And how can

June 2016 – Physique Update [+ Current Protocols IF, CT…]

I took this video circa mid-June 2016. A few words about my current protocol To get some context, please read this short journal first. I managed to return to my April (2016) weight (my weight before the 1 month perturbation experiment) with a few days of overfeeding. Water retention from creatine intake may have helped.

The Hallmarks of Cancer – Insights from Decades of Research

Introduction Cancers are complicated. Many people try to envision and promote simple, one-shot approaches towards better management. Others engage in magical thinking by saying it’s a conspiracy not to cure it. Cancer physician and Pulitzer winner Siddhartha Mukherjee makes a compelling case for the complexity of cancers in this recent NYT issue (long read). Even

Rare Things happen all the Time – Another Example of Deception

Introduction Far from the intent of teaching deception, I’m writing this to bring awareness to some of the practices of dubious entities towards the gullible masses. Most of what you’re going to read is not my original thought. It is from a recent book that I read. I will do my best to add some