Interesting Links for 15-09-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Interventions to prevent obesity in children aged 5 to 11 years old have little-to-no effect

(tags:obesity children research exercise diet )

2. Cannabis use associated with quadrupled risk of developing type 2 diabetes (2.2% vs 0.6%)

(tags:diabetes marijuana )

3. Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles

(tags:electricity myths solarpower windpower cars transport environment )

4. The chumbox is (still) the dirty design secret of the internet

(tags:advertising web doom )

Comments

[calimac]

4) I didn't know they were called chumboxes, but I have learned to tell the difference between them and genuine useful links, like the ones that news sources give to other stories they've covered, and never to click on the chumboxes, because when I did they never led to anything useful or even relevant.

[andrewducker]

Thankfully, adblock means I almost never see them.

[calimac]

That's weird, because I have an adblocker so fierce it renders some legitimate sites unusable (I have to load up another browser), and I still see chumboxes.

[andrewducker]

Interesting - pass me a link next time you see one?

[juan_gandhi]

As to #2, I started using cannabis when I got my diabetes, so I could get a prescription for "medical marijuana" (in the days when in California you could only get it "for medical purposes").

So, it was a correlation, not a causation.

Thank you for the #4 article.

As to #3, I'm afraid it's a strawman. The claims look too primitive.

[andrewducker]

I see ones from (3) regularly.

I'm hoping they will now dig in to the cannabis/diabetes link further, to see what the actual link is.

[nancylebov]

Never mind. I was able to get it by searching on the headline.

[calimac]

What did cannabis do for your diabetes, if you don't mind going into that a little?

[juan_gandhi]

See, first, let's set the scene.

There was a fight, for many years, in California, to legalize two things: MJ and gay marriage. Legalizing MJ for "medical purposes" was the first step where we won. But then, not being local (the locals would ask, "do you party?", and, seeing that we, pathetic immigrants, were clueless what that question even meant, did not discuss it further.

But as it was legalized, some inconspicuous "green pharmacies" started to pop up here and there. Some Karen warned the neighborhood on nextdoor, to be careful, there's a "dispensary" at this address. I was curious of course; went there, they sent me to a "doctor". The "doctor"'s office was spectacular. People were waiting in line, and there was a tv playing "Cheech and Chong go up in smoke". Sure I got a prescription, I went and bough mj, and I smoked it, and enjoyed it a lot. Hallucinations did not happen every time, but I loved it either way.

Now, diabetes. The problem was, munchies. Can't stop eating. So I knew that my sugar will go up to the skies. I tried fighting it, but how can you fight when you want to eat and enjoy your life.

Eventually I stopped using it, but not because of munchies. I gradually figured: every morning after I feel like about 1 cm^3 is taken out of my brain. Missing something. And I did not like it. That's how I quit.

(Sorry about the long story, I guess I talk too much. Probably the side effect of several years of using MJ. It makes one dumber.)

[andrewducker]

That story was not too long. Seemed pretty much perfect length to me.

You write well.

[nancylebov]

1. cochranlibrary has blocked me. I apparently look like malware to them.

[jducoeur]

I suspect they're less concerned about malware, more about being hammered by AI bots. (Which are causing DDOS-like effects on lots of sites nowadays.)

I suspect it's not Cochran itself, but their edge provider that misidentified you, but that's just a guess...