Week's Reflections - 1/28/12

          Apologies for getting to this so late today!  It has been a bit of a hectic week.  As always, please let me know if you come across anything interesting you want to let me know about; I would really appreciate it.

Plus it has a nice color.

1.) Curcumin vs LDL Receptors

          This is an interesting little study that I came across recently, despite the fact that it's been sitting around for over three years.  It deals with the compound curcumin, which is found in the wonder spice, turmeric.  In case you missed the boat, turmeric takes a shotgun approach to health in the human body by somehow positively impacting virtually everything.

          This study was designed to further analyze the observed anti-atherosclerotic effects of curcumin.  They found that it increases LDL receptor expression by some molecular pathway that's a little beyond my current paygrade.  LDL receptors pick up LDL cholesterol (the "bad" kind) and help get them pulled into a cell via endocytosis.  Sounds good to me.  Besides, it's a pretty tasty spice.


2.) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

          This one has been on my list for a while, but somehow I never got around to it.  Fortunately, I finally did, and I have to say I was pretty impressed.  It's a relatively slow movie, but it is very smart and completely riveting.  The acting was also phenomenal, and piecing the plotlines together is plain good fun.

          I was pretty shocked to see this movie didn't get a best picture nomination at the Academy Awards (for a movie great movie that did get a nomination, go see Midnight in Paris).  It's definitely worth seeing.  The one thing I will hold against it is that the absolute climax of the movie passes without much of a bang, but otherwise it was great.


3.) Dennis Allen as the Raider's Head Coach

          I know Raider Nation has mixed feelings about this hire, but I like it.  He seems like a good young coach, and I'm personally really happy that the Raiders have finally hired a defensive coach.  Our offense has been pretty solid, but our defense has been nothing short of embarrassing.  I vividly remember how we gained double digit leads in the fourth quarter of multiple games this season knowing they would somehow blow the lead... and they almost always did.

          The one big question - besides how he does as a coach - is what will happen with the rest of the staff.  Personally I'm really hoping we keep the Offensive Coordinator, Al Saunders.  Some continuity would be nice, and the offense was solid this year.  If you get everyone healthy (McFadden and the receivers) and give Palmer an offseason with the team, I think they could be a good to great group.


4.) All Things Glycation

          As part of my stated mission to learn more about Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs), I have been steadily reading through the above article.  These AGE things are pretty interesting and somehow sinister.  If you look at the list, meat immediately jumps out at you as being relatively high in AGE content.  However, I also saw this study that reports that vegetarians have higher levels of AGEs in their plasma, seemingly at odds with the above info, but the authors suggested the higher AGE content could be due to higher levels of fructose in the diet causing internal AGE production.  Conversely, absorption of dietary AGEs hovers at around 10%, suggesting that, despite the higher AGE content in cooked meat, it might not be as bad as a fructose heavy diet.  Interesting things to consider; I need to read more.


5.) Underworld Awakening

          My girlfriend has a thing for these movies, so we went and saw it.  I like the first two but thought Rise of the Lycans wasn't so good.  Well, this wasn't so good either.  Oh well.  It's still pretty sweet watching Kate Beckinsale kick butt.


6.) Peyton Moving On

          One of my long time favorite NFL players has been Peyton Manning.  You have to respect the guy's work ethic and incredible talent.  I also think it's incredible how he is essentially a freak of nature, the first time a great coach and great player were ever put in one body.  I'm really saddened by the way it looks like things are going to go for him, as it is starting to look like the Colts will show him the door.  I just hope he ends up healthy enough to keep playing and takes some other team to the Super Bowl.

          Honestly, if he ends up somewhere half decent, it'll be a blessing, as he'll turn them into a playoff contender.  He could get the Colts into the playoffs, but I don't think even he could do much with them beyond that.  They're terrible.