tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180555273509830586.post423066384234317674..comments2024-03-23T03:21:04.152-07:00Comments on The Social Atom: Fat spreadsMark Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11288455251267863265noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180555273509830586.post-38517396708783804412007-07-27T05:33:00.000-07:002007-07-27T05:33:00.000-07:00Kate,You may be right. We'll have to wait and see....Kate,<BR/><BR/>You may be right. We'll have to wait and see. The Framingham study is certainly unique in the terms of the extensive data it produced.<BR/><BR/>But I'm not so pessimistic of someone else being at least able to perform a similar study in the not-too-distant future. It can't be too long before all kinds of bio-sensors will revolutionize medical monitoring, gathering and storing data automatically on a huge scale. Putting that together with all the emerging data on social networks (from cell phones, the Internet etc), one can imagine a far larger study sometime in the future...though not now.Mark Buchananhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11288455251267863265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180555273509830586.post-5608145308007774242007-07-26T11:58:00.000-07:002007-07-26T11:58:00.000-07:00I think there are other factors that contribute to...I think there are other factors that contribute to the expansion of the American waistline (and I'll admit up front that I am not a svelte as I once was). We tend to work long hours at sedentary jobs. These work hours are bracketed by long commutes, mostly spent alone in cars. There's a line in <I>A Hard Day's Night</I> that sums up our lifestyle. the character of Paul's Grandfather says, "But so far, I've been in a train and a room, and a car and a room, and a room and a room." Replace the word "car" for "train" and one of the rooms, and you've got the average American life.Leonardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07680935313621903480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180555273509830586.post-78005086623361153012007-07-26T10:04:00.000-07:002007-07-26T10:04:00.000-07:00I'm deeply suspicious of the finding. The NYTimes ...I'm deeply suspicious of the finding. The NYTimes article mentions that the method is completely unique and unlikely to be replicated. That is one big warning. Second, the research was done by physicians, that's another big warning to me. Their methodology and statistics are often funky.<BR/><BR/>Here's the specific comment in the article that rouses my doubts: <I>"...people were most likely to become obese when a friend became obese. ...There was no effect when a neighbor gained or lost weight, however, and family members had less influence than friends.</I><BR/><BR/><I>It did not even matter if the friend was hundreds of miles away, the influence remained. And the greatest influence of all was between close mutual friends..."</I><BR/><BR/>The effect remained even if the friend was hundreds of miles away? And family members had less influence than distant friends???? Hmmm.<BR/><BR/>Before I spent too much time trying to come up with a psychological explanation for this finding, I'd start with the hypothesis that this is a statistical artifact, reflecting some kind of systematic error. Prove that hypothesis wrong first.peaceable_tatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16927995538292007453noreply@blogger.com