Protein, Penguins, and People, Spy Wednesday's Three P's

Today is Spy Wednesday for Lent Madness! Do not miss it!
The first article I read today is about how protein rich breakfasts can cut down on snacking later in the day. I think this is great research to help people make better food choices. I don't usually have a protein rich breakfast. One of the things that lots of gluten free and or paleo people do is have whatever they want for breakfast, obviously not including grains. I have pretty much always been a cereal girl and have eaten cereal for breakfast most of my life. I have thought about changing my habits since going gluten free, but there is a time issue in the mornings many times. Also, most normal sausage patties or links are not soy free for some reason and so I cannot buy the easy to make breakfast meats.
The second article I read today was about how four different kinds of penguins used to live in Africa instead of just the one species that lives there now. I am very interested in penguins, so I had to read the article. The reason is linked to changing sea water levels by the scientists studying the fossils and not humans. However, the scientist do point out that humans have made the remaining penguin population decline by over fishing of the penguin's natural food source and by oil spills in that region. I hope that humans can work towards managing the area and the fishing better to protect the ecosystem in which penguins live! Penguins!
The third article I read today was about how women make better decisions than men. Of course, once you read the titles of all the articles I read today, you know exactly why I had to read three of them. I wasn't just trying to make you read more here. Though I do promote that as well! Come and read and comment! Now, back to the article. Apparently this is in the situation of women board leaders in charge of corporations instead of men. Having women as leaders is better for the health of the company, despite traditional understandings that men are better. The professors who did this study said that women only account for 9% of board directors "despite evidence showing that their presence has been linked to better organizational performance, higher rates of return, more effective risk management and even lower rates of bankruptcy." Who doesn't like the sound of that? I am definitely all for a higher percentage of women board directors and women's rights and respect across the board. Being that I am a woman, I do have a tendency to think that collaboration with everyone is more likely to make better decisions and have better outcomes.
The three P's of today: protein, penguins, and people! Do not forget any of them ;)

Have a Science Talk on Me

I like my Lenten study so much. Reading and reflecting on the science of the day has been a lot of fun and has given my mind some thing else to wrestle with. Today I read two articles. There are too many articles that I want to read and cannot keep up with them all. Neither were about scientific breakthroughs or cool scientific techniques or anything, but they were interesting and things that as someone in the religious world I need to think about. The first was about how we can use cancer as an analogy for social injustice in the world. I think that is a good analogy. http://cancerincytes.scienceblog.com/2013/02/26/the-cancer-that-is-social-injustice-2/ Apparently there is an institute looking at and helping healthcare needs of the products of social injustice. I don't know much about psychology, so I don't know if there is study about the creation of social injustice and what fuels people to tear other people down. Certainly, I do not know anyone that likes to be torn apart on a daily basis, so I don't know why we tear each other apart on a daily basis. I do understand that there is a lot of misplaced anger in the world because we cannot blame the real structures which create our suffering. And granted there are simple people who create suffering for others. Whether all such cases are products of structures which perpetuate social injustice, I cannot say. However, I can say that we need to take a careful look at the structures we employ to see if they are creating or maintaining social injustice. Then we need to do something about them to change them.
On a different note of Christian moral life, I also read an article about pushing the boundaries of science. http://thebrainbank.scienceblog.com/2013/02/25/pushing-scientific-boundaries-how-far-is-too-far/ It is interesting to me that the article talks about the motives driving the boundary pushing studies in order to judge whether they are acceptable. I am not sure how scientific boards which regulate such things determine what is pushing the boundaries and so forth, but I can say that I am glad the author did not take an end justifies the means approach. We cannot know where we will be in another hundred years and what we will accept as normal at that point. I am so looking forward to seeing what changes over the course of my life. As painful as the discussions about scientific boundaries has been and as painful as the discussions about public ethics and morals are, I am very glad that we have them. I do believe that talking through issues with people of differing opinions helps the general understanding. If you don't agree, talk to me about it. ;)