Interesting articles - why not add your own

Interesting article on eating smarter and how / why we each react differently to food.

Come back to me in 6 months :joy:

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It’s why junk food it easier to chew so you eat faster, better for companies profits. Although Sarah Berry and Tim Spector often disagree on breakfast and it’s timing. High time they stopped the cholesterol hypothesis, chemical formula for cholesterol is C27H46O, no matter whether it’s good or bad the actual formula doesn’t change so just how is one better than the other? What they are actually talking about is lipoprotein and the lipoprotein’s cargo (it’s a transport mechanism) some of which is cholesterol and some other things the body needs. We are not calorie furnaces, we are hormonal acid and bacteria machines. Sarah Berry mentions buterate, stops at saying butter is a good source as it doesn’t fit with the Zoe vegetarian mantra. It does seem our gut bacteria signal to our brains what they would like and if your gut has too many naughty bacteria they may signal the brain to go in search of sugar.

It was my understanding that a clearer atmosphere increased the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground but decreased the amount of solar radiation dispersed at higher levels. The amount reflected back to space is the same or near as damn it. One of the biggest increases in solar gain is caused by the reduction of ice mainly in the northern ice sheet, but also by Greenland and Antarctica. Th high albedo of the ice reflects a much higher proportion of solar radiation back to space than lower albedo darker surfaces.

Not sure if it’s the case here but the same formula doesn’t mean much. Particularly with organic compounds, the same number of the same elements can be rearranged in many different ways creating compounds with very different properties (isomers) or even the same arrangement but mirror images (enantiomers). It’s interesting that many complex organic compounds used in the body exist in two enantiomeric forms with only one of them being useful but the other can be toxic.

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Yes quite true, at the moment particle size and state of oxidation seem to be the popular idea. That’s one idea of the actual cause of atherosclerotic plaques. Although it’s an early stage mechanism for temporary fixing of a damaged cell wall (endothelium) later if the problem doesn’t heal it becomes calcified also blood and fibrin (foam cells) get involved to stabilise the vessel. But they still just blame cholesterol. It’s unstable plaques that are most dangerous and they are not formed from cholesterol, they are blood clots. I watch this fascinating story unfolding as technology moves forward. A good indicator of issues is a simple carotid artery ultrasound to look for plaque accumulation, keep promising myself one of these tests, better to know than not I feel as early intervention could save a lot. Women post menopause have increasing LDL cholesterol and out live us men frequently as our LDL can often fall as we age. However stress and a bad diet (high in sugars) is more problematic as we age.

It seems as though TotalEnergies has drunk some of the Trump cool aid.

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Interesting but brief article about the Government wanting to decouple UK energy prices from the price of the highest source. Similar to what France did at the start of the Ukraine war, which is why our electricity prices are so much lower than the UK. If it can be done it should not only save people a lot of money, but show people that the lower cost is due to renewable energy. And it would make heat pumps a lot more desireable.

https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/natural-gas/594594/miliband-decouple-electricity-gas-prices-bills/

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I briefly saw the same headline, it would show Labour in a terrific light if they can do this. Likewise benefiting from keeping the vast profits from electricity, renewables, water etc back into our economy and not foreign pockets.

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I don’t know if this counts as a serious article but it describes the joy I get from motocycles and this brings me joy in its own right.

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For any who enjoy, as I do, a living examination of philosophy and religion, this is a wonderful and very articulate read I am posting for all with an open door through the NYT firewall, which may be a bit naughty but because I feel the subject itself reflects there should be no ‘have’ and ‘have nots’

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/opinion/jesus-christianity-atheism.html?unlocked_article_code=1.alA.5LOw.kFf5c-0qVuNo&smid=nytcore-ios-share

For me, the connection between the spiritual and art has been a constant source of fascination and lifelong study. Mr Hart doesn’t refer in this article to Asian philosophies but I think they add a very relevant perspective.

Class discuss!

And for light relief

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A surprising and wonderful piece of news about Ukraine

A sunflower mural decorates a residential building in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, that was restored with funding from Denmark.Credit…Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

The Danish government has contributed more than $250 million to Mykolaiv

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/world/europe/mykolaiv-ukraine-denmark-rebuilding.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

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Fascinating France 24 article commenting on the super-sensitive (in France) question of whether the French army in Algeria committed massacres on a par with Nazi WW2 massacres in France, in the eyes of historians. Spoiler alert - yes, more or less.

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Show me one colonial power who did not indulge in this sort of stuff…

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40 odd years ago I took my daughter, who was only about 6 or 7 years old, to visit Oradour-sur-Glane. When they went back to school, each child was asked to describe their summer holiday. My (now grown up) daughter still speaks of it. She, for one, will “never forget”.

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Interesting article about the latest IEA report on global energy usage.

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Useful knowledge for your next trip to the seaside.

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On the 40th anniversary (today Sunday 26th April) of the Chernobyl disaster, this article comments (briefly) on the areas of France that are still affected by radiation. These areas include the Vosges, Alsace, Vallée du Rhône,.le Puy-de-Dome, Est de la Corse, les Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and the Pyrénées Atlantiques.