Brad* created a personal webpage sometime back in 1996. That spurred my brother and me to create our own website on AOL — The Owings Brothers Page (archived). This site had grown stagnant some two years later so I created the first embodiment of The Justin Owings Page (archived), which chronicled 4th period lunch, published […]
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George Carlin, R.I.P.
George Carlin died at age 71. He was a damn hilarious comedian, philosopher and human observer. That is redundant. Here are a couple of interviews with Carlin: The A.V. Club circa 1999: GC: Well, they say, “If you scratch a cynic, underneath you’ll find a disappointed idealist.” So I would imagine there’s some little flame, […]
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Summer tunes
During the summer of 2007 there were a few albums that got more than their fair share of playing time. These albums ended up being theme music for last summer, and I have no doubt that listening to them going forward will evoke strong memories of the summer of 2007. Here they are in no […]
Over the past four months, I’ve turned into a staunch advocate of Paleo / low-carb / intermittent fasting (See IF/low-carb, caloric restriction, ketosis, hormesis). I proselytize because this diet lifestyle has had a significant impact on my physical health and my understanding of nutrition. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before my advocacy spurred the comment that […]
As alluded to previously, injecting small doses of stress into an otherwise harmonious existence can improve your health. This phenomenon is called hormesis. Here’s a googled definition of hormesis: A dose response phenomenon whereby a substance that in a high dose inhibits (or is toxic to) a biological process, in a much smaller dose will […]
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Mark Sisson: a Contrarian View on Water
Originally published June 10, 2008. Updated March, 13, 2024. A contrarian by nature, Mark Sisson’s recent counter-conventional post on water (archived) well worth the read. Bucking the mainstream view that we should drink at least eight glasses (64 oz. total) of water per day, Mark exhaustively details the counterpoint, advocating what seems downright obvious: obey […]
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June 2008 JNO Update
Here’s a brief life update. The wife and I are in Augusta. We’ve been here on an ongoing basis since late December; prior to our move beginning in June of 2007, we found the need to spend about two-thirds of our time in Augusta (The rest being spent in Atlanta at our place in Ansley […]
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Sunday morning
I wake up, but it is still early, so I roll over, readjust and keep my eyes shut. When I finally give in and rise, my cat decides to join me, and does his morning stretch — arched back, curled tail, yawn — you know the drill. I copy him as best I can. It […]
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Caloric Restriction, Red Wine, and Aging
First, a summary: The physiological stress resulting from caloric restriction may extend your life. It could accomplish this by switching resources from reproduction to self-preservation. Alternatively (or additionally), it might accomplish this by helping downregulate insulin, thereby reducing the diseases associated with metabolic syndrome. Resveratrol (Via red wine, for now) might also slow aging via […]
Was just commenting on Patri Friedman’s livejournal (here) regarding how the metabolic channels used while fasting were the same as those used while on a low-carb diet. Taubes notes fact in passing in Good Calories, Bad Calories but since that’s a hard reference to check on the ‘net, here’s another bit of support from Dr. […]