RoundUp (glyphosate) causes cancer ... but don't look for it on the label!

The New York Times published this today ... Looks to me that the preponderance of the evidence shows that Roundup (glyphosate) causes cancer:

Part of the agreement is that Bayer (owner of Roundup) can't be forced to put a cancer warning on the label.

That's why I'm telling you ... OK?

How the gold standard in our minds messes up our economy

For decades the U.S. and other countries in the developed world were on the gold standard, making sure that they didn't issue any more paper money than their holdings in gold could support. In the U.S. the price of gold was fixed at $35 per ounce, so you couldn't inflate the currency very much at all before investors around the world cleaned you out of your gold reserves.

The gold standard sounds good to many, having money that's "based on something" rather than "just paper." But the effects of the gold standard are a real drag on a modern economy. If you need to do some things that are up for the U.S. right now:

• $1 trillion infrastructure investment ... just a start, according to many experts, proposed again today by Trump

• $2 trillion or more for supporting the country through the pandemic that is "just getting started" according to many public health experts

• All the regular trillions for all the regular stuff that goes on in the U.S. as normal ...

If you start to bump up against the gold in your vault, where do you cut at a time like this?

I just read an excellent book that explains the explains the situation in detail:

Fortunately we ditched the gold standard in the U.S. for good in 1972 ... unfortunately not many noticed how different a "fiat currency" regime such as those now in place in the U.S., Great Britain and Japan, among others, operates:

• There is no fixed quantity of money ... the central banks (Federal Reserve in the U.S.) can create as much money as needed by changing accounting entries in their computers
• The only real limit is inflation, and as we in the U.S. have seen the last few years, the economy can take a whole ton of extra money sloshing around it with "quantitative easing" and all the money that Congress and the Fed threw into the mix since the 2008 financial crisis ... no inflation, not even the 2% target that the Fed says it wants!
• There's no reason for a fiat currency country EVER to default on a payment ...
• And certainly not a social security payment, which is supposedly "underfunded for the long term" and blah blah ... not so.

Dr. Kelton was on Senator Bernie Sanders' staff for some years and lately has reportedly been consulting with the Biden campaign ... Let me end this post by letting you hear from Dr. Kelton herself:

Michael Lewis interviews "Inner Game of Tennis" author

Michael Lewis is one of my favorite authors; his books include The Big Short, Liars Poker, and several other excellent titles.

Michael Lewis

His podcast, though Against the Rules, has emerged from the large pack of podcasts now in existence and now is one of the best I know of.

This season he's focusing on the "rise of coaches" and these are so far even better than his first (excellent) season on "referees."

The episode "The Coach in Your Head" is an interview with Timothy Gallwey, the author of this book:

I bought a copy of this book shortly after it came out and appreciated it for what it was (tennis instruction as I was playing in those days), but what I didn't know was that Gallwey was inundated with requests from corporate executives and others to "do what you did for the tennis players."

The coaching stories discussed in this episode of the podcast are fascinating, from corporate executives

To firefighters:

To his daughter, Dixie, trying to improve her hitting so college softball coaches would notice her:

Probably not Dixie but I couldn't find a picture of her

Anyway, fascinating stuff ... five stars!

Modern job hunting hacks 2020

... is published on Medium ... Thanks for reading!

Excellent New Yorker this week!

This week's New Yorker:

... is the best complete issue I remember in quite a while. The stories include:

• Nick Paumgarten on various traders' take on the pandemic, including an Australian who bought a bunch of out-of-the money calls on an N95 mask maker ....
• Rebecca Mead on Harry and Meghan's exit
• Michael Specter on Anthony Fauci and his long career
• Jane Mayer on Mitch McConnell
• Jerome Groopman on surgically implanted devices and their lack of regulatory oversight

I got my copy for free via the RBDigital app, which I've recommended here before. What are you waiting for?

Compelling Coronavirus Coverage from RadioLab

RadioLab has been running a series on the Coronavirus that's been very compelling, especially the latest one:

Dr. Tatiana Prowell of Johns Hopkins

The interview with Dr. Prowell is extraordinary! It's in the latest episode, Dispatch 3, about 1/2 way through the episode (though the whole episode is worthwhile, as is all Radiolab content!)

The idea she's discussing is plasma donation from those have recovered from coronavirus to treat the currently infected!

Fascinating and hopeful!

My latest afib (and general health) regimen

A couple of years ago I gave the list of supplements I was taking to keep afib under control.

One I was taking then:

This became unavailable for quite a while so I substituted copper and zinc, two minerals it includes. I get enough calcium, vitamin D and magnesium from other sources, food and supplement-wise.

Then finally Twinlab got its production back on line and I got a bottle ... but:

I had a relatively mild episode, fortunately, but I wondered WTF and through a tiny bit of research found this:

High Levels of Calcium Interfere With Potassium Uptake In Cells

Harrumph. So the Tri-Boron Plus went back on the shelf.

So now my regimen (no more afib episodes and no cold since the one I had in March 2019):

• Biocardiozyme Forte 4 per day    Biotin Research -- only officially available through a local provider
• Potassium 99mg   6 per day  Vitamin Shoppe
• Magnesium 400mg 2 per day Nature Made via Costco
• Vitamin D   1000iu  4 per day Nature Made via Costco
• Vitamin C  1 gram 1 x per day though considering going to 2-3 grams
• Kelp 600mcg iodine or so per day, split into 2 doses
• Selenium 200mcg 
• Copper + Zinc 1 tab per day 

And I'm working from home and mostly staying home keeping the Other Thing at bay:

Be well!