http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2005/2004GL020778.shtml Bio-optical feedbacks among phytoplankton, upper ocean physics and sea-ice in a global model and much, much else. This has been a big deal for a long time. For most plankton (other than larval forms), lifetime in the ocean is a few days to at most a few weeks, so both the turnover and the selection for fitness under the immediate conditions -- which species increase and which decrease -- change very rapidly. Back before the 2007 arctic sea ice low point, when Dr. Bitz wrote a guest post at RC about the theoretical possibility of such sudden changes, I recall I asked and she said her colleagues studying what lives around the Arctic and northern oceans were watching this stuff very carefully.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/the-puzzle-of-rising-methane/

As to identifying where the methane comes from -- well, when a Duke University study of methane in well water suggested methane was coming from fracking gas wells, the industry response relies on measuring isotope signatures from the well gas compared to those claimed typical for different geological strata under the site. Their conclusion was "uncertainty" -- but the method is instructive. http://www.ogj.com/content/dam/ogj/print-articles/Volume%20109/December%205/z111205OGJXWY09.jpg from: http://www.ogj.com/1/vol-109/issue-49/exploration-development/methane-in-pennsylvania-water-p7.html (not endorsed or carefully read, just reporting the claim of using the method) Of course you have to sample the strata to know their signatures -- probably not extensively done in the Arctic (yet).

Earth: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/122450main_methane_chart_lg.jpg Mars: http://universe-review.ca/I07-21-methane2.jpg

Some of the dip and rise over more than a decade may be partly the collapse of the USSR and revival of industry. I recall reading they had a gross methane leak problem even before maintenance paychecks stopped. Here's something for the US, presumably a bit tighter system: http://www.picarro.com/community/blog/how_much_methane_escapes_from_leaking_natural_gas_distribution_pipes If I were the worrying kind, I'd be asking if any hot waste from the soviet nuclear navy is in sediments over shallow hydrates. It's a horse-race of the apocalypse.

Nothing is amiss; data always needs cleanup; at those pages preliminary raw data are posted but unreviewed points are flagged/colored so they're clearly identified as provisional. Once new data is reviewed the data point color is changed to so signify. See the discussion below the chart. It says get professional advice before relying on preliminary data.

Typo in the main post above: "... My Amateur Apin on Putting ..." (I think you can fix the text that appears without changing the underlying link, leaving the typo in the link itself to avoid renaming the file) Aside question -- any problem with using ordinary nonfat powdered milk, versus the pricey oat milk? I can't think of any reason not to keep using it in coffee for example, or oatmeal. ---- Yeek! from http://www.scribd.com/doc/44601571/Meta-analysis-Reveals-%E2%80%9CHeart-Healthy-Omega-6-Fat%E2%80%9D-Increases-Risk-of-Heart-Disease "the Oslo Diet-Heart Study provided about 5 grams of EPA and DHA per day to the intervention group. (That's equivalent to about 16 fish oil capsules).

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Dyslipidemia/21313 "The predictive value of HDL cholesterol all but disappeared with treatment-induced low levels of LDL, according to a new analysis of data from a large trial of lipid-lowering therapy...."

uhhhhh ... hat tip to a commenter at 'fanaticcook' who spotted this. Better look carefully at 'nutritiondata' -- can you guess what this is? http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fast-foods-generic/9280/2 Total Omega-3 fatty acids: 800mg Total Omega-6 fatty acids: 212mg

Finally -- found a clear, understandable, visual chart showing proportions that makes food choices easy: http://fanaticcook.blogspot.com/2009/04/omega-6-and-omega-3-in-foods.html And she provides the Excel spreadsheet http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pSxtKS08e_vablhPkWuTeJw so you can present the data in your preferred way (the chart she shows is sorted by omega-6 amount; I'll sort it by omega-3 amount). It makes -- strongly -- the same point made in Tribole's book, which arrived yesterday, about needing to do the addition to know your daily totals. Much easier than writing down the numbers for each food and adding them up by hand. And -- more informative than Tribole -- she gives the ratio as a decimal when it's "less than 1" Of course Tribole has far more foods listed. How did I ever live without knowing the numbers for opossum meat?

Another doctor with a blog -- and restaurants! All vegan, with some convincing fake cheese etc. in some dishes: http://natures-express.com/ From his blog: http://natures-express.blogspot.com/2010/02/time-for-nutritional-sanity.html "... I was lucky enough to attend Dr. McDougall's fantastic weekend intensive in Santa Rosa, a valuable educational experience on nutrition and health. I recommend it heartily. One very noteworthy moment at the conference was when Amy Joy Lanou, Ph.D., author of Building Bone Vitality and a professor at the University of North Carolina, spoke about the moment of truth in her educational transformation. She had spent eight years pursuing traditional nutritional studies when she had her first encounter with Dr. Colin Campbell, author of the best-selling The China Study, and biochemistry professor emeritus at Cornell. By the end of Campbell's lecture, Amy had come to the conclusion that either all eight years of her education leading to her doctorate degree totally missed the point of what a good diet really is, or Dr. Campbell was a crock (not her exact words). After doing further research, she became convinced that the most vigorous science supported a vegan diet - time after time. The mantra, "there are no bad foods" turned out not to be sound nutritional advice, but blatant marketing for the current SAD (Standard American Diet) status quo (also not her exact words, but you catch the drift)..... ... ... We do not need more data to know what to eat and what not to eat; we just need to do it. Choose your guru - Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn or his son Rip, Dr. Neal Barnard, Rory Freedman, or partake from what tickles your fancy from each of them. These are all pioneers pointing the way toward healthier lives for you and your family through sound and incredibly tasty nutritional practices. There is plenty of science to say what is wrong with our diet. We don't need more statistics to say we are getting fatter - any trip to the grocery store will suffice to prove that. Just as we don't need more data to understand that dairy has literally milked us all - we have known that for decades. One can either keep one's head in the sand and continue eating an incredibly unhealthy diet or decide to get smart, healthy, and feel great, making it much less likely that heart disease or cancer will become a part of your future...." ----end quote---- We've been patronizing one of his restaurants, and really like the food. I'm asking for details on ingredients and contents, hoping to put them into KIM2 for tracking.

Here's the closest abstract I've found to addressing my questions; hoping someone else has something better: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19967506 Methods Mol Biol. 2010;598:53-73. Markers of inflammation. Germolec DR, Frawley RP, Evans E. Abstract Inflammation is a complex and necessary component of an organism's response to biological, chemical or physical stimuli. In the acute phase, cells of the immune system migrate to the site of injury in a carefully orchestrated sequence of events that is mediated by cytokines and acute phase proteins. Depending upon the degree of injury, this acute phase may be sufficient to resolve the damage and initiate healing. Persistent inflammation as a result of prolonged exposure to stimulus or an inappropriate reaction to self molecules can lead to the chronic phase, in which tissue damage and fibrosis can occur. Chronic inflammation is reported to contribute to numerous diseases including allergy, arthritis, asthma, atherosclerosis, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, and cancer, and to conditions of aging. Hematology and clinical chemistry data from standard toxicology studies can provide an initial indication of the presence and sometimes location of inflammation in the absence of specific data on the immune tissues. These data may suggest more specific immune function assays are necessary to determine the existence or mechanism(s) of immunomodulation. Although changes in hematology dynamics, acute phase proteins, complement factors and cytokines are common to virtually all inflammatory conditions and can be measured by a variety of techniques, individual biomarkers have yet to be strongly associated with specific pathologic events. The specific profile in a given inflammatory condition is dependent upon species, mechanisms, severity, chronicity, and capacity of the immune system to respond and adapt.

Looking for any studies distinguishing markers from causes of inflammation, this is as close as I get http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19967506 -- it says (of course all I have is the abstract, hoping someone with access can do a better search) -- I think it says we don't yet know which markers are affected by which factors, compared to which underlying causes are being affected. We don't want to just stop the smoke alarm from making the noise -- we want to know _why_ it's making the noise and deal with the cause of the alarm signal. That's my question -- is there any research addressing which compounds make a difference to the underlying tissues in the body, versus reducing the warning signs -- like taking out the C-reactive-protein from the blood after it's produced, for example. Also I'm looking for anything published on the ANDI criteria and weightings -- didn't Vitamin E get a really good press for a while, then turn out not to be such a good idea, for example? How's it weighted in this particular system?

I looked at the ceramic pans yesterday; the inside is gray-black, probably just looks silvery because it's very reflective in the pictures. The surface of the couple of them I picked up and ran my fingers over felt like there were a few bits of sand baked into it (they're in open cardboard covers so you can see and feel the surface). I wonder if they need to be polished. I saw mixed reviews, one person saying the nonstick lasted only a few months, but others saying they really like it. There appear to be several products using nonstick ceramic coatings: 'Scanpan' titanium (out for a couple of years); pricey 'Pinnacle' crockery with ceramic nonstick for bakeware, inexpensive Others? Mixed reviews on all of them I've found, over time.

Found this via that industry newsletter: http://www.goedomega3.com/ Seems like all the money is going to selling supplements and pushing people to eat more, more, add more of THIS or THAT -- as Bill Lands points out, the 'paradox' is that without reducing the problem foods, supplements add nothing useful. Well, except money to the industry's bottom line, of course.

A bit of history in the making: http://www.nutraingredients.com/Regulation/Scientists-attack-proposed-EU-omega-3-DRVs http://www.nutraingredients.com/Regulation/Scientists-protest-as-EC-validates-omega-3-labelling-rule http://www.nutraingredients.com/Regulation/UK-watchdog-rules-omega-3-supplements-adverts-medicinal I can't speak for the people behind the site, they provide a large number of newsletters aimed at the food industry: "NutraIngredients.com .... service seeks out news stories and data of value to decision-makers in food and beverage development in Europe."

Good clear blog on the issue, referencing Dr. Lands: http://nutritionscienceanalyst.blogspot.com/2010/02/omega-6-fat-that-ruins-your-health.html

Do you bake your own bread? I'd just started doing that for the first time in decades, when we found your site and, ack, I'd always used oil. Found some no-oil recipes! very slow-rising (takes several days) but simple http://www.thekneadforbread.com/2009/04/10/8-grain-whole-wheat-bread/

The Salba link behind the name at the first place it appears above isn't working: http://www.salbasmart.com/USA/SalbaGrain.html This one works: http://www.salbasmart.com/products-grain.html They appear to be widely distributed now, in local grocery stores it says, not just health-food stores.

And possibly the biggest source -- those little paper credit card receipts you get with every transaction. Don't lick your fingers .... http://www.sciencenews.org/index/generic/activity/view/id/48084/title/Science_%2B_the_Public__Concerned_about_BPA_Check_your_receipts

Hmmmm, the person named 'Co Q 10 Believer' who posted 'Forwarded this to some friends, appreciate your advice' is linked to the company recommended, the URL behind the name. Gotta watch the advertising, it slips in. So what's the site they advertise selling? The label says: Other Ingredients: Rice Bran Oil, Gelatin, Glycerin, Soy Lecithin, Titanium Dioxide Color. Nuh uh. Nope. If you want to remove the automatic links you can put the nofollow tag in next to them -- that keeps people from getting Google credit for being mentioned, if you decide their website/product isn't one you want to contribute to supporting. Browsing today I discovered that yes, Vitamin D is available in other than the little gelatine capsules filled with soy oil that I'd been taking. Oh good, more stuff to throw out and replace.

the transcript I found is at http://www.amazon.com/tag/health/forum/ref=cm_cd_tfp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1EO24KZG65FCB&cdThread=Tx241KS54K89FO7&displayType=tagsDetail this Amazon page Last bit, summarizing, by Dr. Land: "... this puts together everything I've told you. And I want you to see.... to get you to where you really would like to be. Let's lower the omega-6. You're eating like 17,000 milligrams a day. What would happen if you just made it 4,000? ([video timestamp] 47:21) Now you're at a level ... where you now have the protection that you want. You can prevent it. It's as simple as that. You can get this from the website NIH.gov...."

Oy. Farmed fish are fed wild fish to get omega-3s! http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122196685/abstract Reviews in Aquaculture V1 Issue 1, Pages 10 - 57 Published Online: 10 Feb 2009 Fish oil replacement in finfish nutrition "... dietary fish oil is required for the production of omega-3-rich farmed fish and this commodity, in a vicious circle, is at present derived solely from wild fisheries.... This review attempts to compile all principal information available regarding the effects of fish oil replacement for the diets of farmed finfish .... the production, availability and main nutritional characteristics of fish oil and the principal alternative lipid sources (such as vegetable oils and animal fats)."

The slides are here (or so it claims, looks right): http://omega-6-omega-3-balance.omegaoptimize.com/files/8/9/8/7/3/147167-137898/NutritionalArmor.ppt

"here's the Bill Lands presentation in two parts, slightly edited for clarity. Why Omega-6 Fats Matter for Your Health October 14, 2009 " http://www.amazon.com/tag/health/forum/ref=cm_cd_tfp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1EO24KZG65FCB&cdThread=Tx241KS54K89FO7&displayType=tagsDetail You do need the slides Dr. Land was showing. Anyone know if they're available in better form? This is the full day's program in one video: http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=8108 "Air date: Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 8:00:00 ... You can drag the timer button slightly to the right to the 12 minute mark where Dr. Lands begins speaking." (The video quality is a little better though many of the slides are still illegible) (hat tip to: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/heart/articles/2010/01/19/shedding-light-on-why-omega-3-fatty-acids-may-help-the-heart.html ) He mentions two recent papers, mentioned in notes handed out at that meeting (can we get them??): "A critique of paradoxes in current advice on dietary lipids." Progress in Lipids Research (2008) ("The editor ... let me have unlimited space and unlimited references, a luxury. So invite you to read this because it illustrates what are the primary causes that are readily modifiable and can be prevented ...") Planning primary prevention of coronary disease