oceanful

Yesterday I discovered that my wife is a god. At least, according to urbandictionary.com, which defines “Nori” as:

“Pretty much a god in human form. Nori can do no wrong, and is perfect in every way. It is when one is so so good at something that they must be compared to the Superhuman lifeform that is ‘Nori’.”

“One who is all-knowing; to contain a great amount of knowlege; the best;”

“The best; one who can not be wrong; always winning”

The example sentences are particularly good:

you must be nori smart; you’re the nori of this game; you are the nori of physics; you know everything, are you trying to be nori?

But then we looked up “nori nori nori“, and Nori was less pleased with the definition:

“One who sucks more than anyone else.”

Alas, even the gods have their flaws.

There’s a bit of buzz around research being done to identify the root cause of aging, focusing on a class of enzymes called “sirtuins”, which have recently been identified as having the function of repairing DNA damage.

Looking through some older articles, I traced the research back to a study in 2003 which found that ”a calorically restricted diet—including all necessary nutrients but 30 percent fewer calories than usual—has been found to extend the life span of rodents by 30 to 50 percent.” Caloric restriction has been linked to increased sirtuin activity, which in turn increases lifespan.

I’m amused when research uncovers something that’s been common knowledge for thousands of years. There’s an old Chinese proverb that says something along the lines of “to live longer, stop eating when your 70% full” (七分飽). Similarly, a Japanese saying for eating heathily is “七分目”, or 70 percent.

I’m not bashing scientific research, but merely pointing out its limitations as an end-all source of truth. The scientific method, based on hypothesis, experimentation, and observation, is inherently biased by what the researcher chooses to observe. So I would hesitate to disregard anything solely on the basis of a “lack of scientific evidence”. It’s often the case that the problem simply hasn’t been analyzed from the right perspective.

But really, the most important take-home is the finding that started all of this research: ”Biologists have found a class of chemicals that they hope will make people live longer … One chemical, a natural substance known as resveratrol, is found in red wines.”

Cheers to a longer, tipsier life.

I remember, at various times in my life, not being able to imagine myself doing certain things. Among these include:

• becoming an engineer
• running a marathon
• writing a blog