Today there was a discussion about the obese. Should they be thrown in a ditch? Should they be worshiped as gods? Should they have wider seats? And one commenter stirred up a whole lotta conversation.

The Nobel committee has told us to stop calling or else they're going to have to involve the police, so we guess that means we aren't real scientists. So we will not refute/agree with this argument. Instead we're highlighting and urging you to, in the immortal words of Ms. Richman, talk amongst yourselves (some more).

From themediatrix:

Lifestyle choices are not responsible for making people fat. That belief is the result of an information cascade. A combination of genetics, epigenomic tags, environmental estrogenic compounds, and anti-biotic impaired gut flora are responsible. Who should pay for bigger seats? Dow, teflon, nagalene, factory chicken farms, and perhaps ill-informed "journalists," who haven't done their homework.

Oh, I don't mean you Brian. You're just repeating and reinforcing the information cascade. I mean the NYT, Self and Shape Magazines, and every other publication that's reprinted press releases or executive summaries about weight and health studies AS IF they were accurate, and news — rather than reading and reporting on the studies themselves, which are flawed, biased and misleading.

Want to know why people are fat? Let me recommend prize-winning science journalist Gary Taubes "Good Calories, Bad Calories," as a starting point about all the unscientific health info people think is "just common sense." Enjoy!

So... should we order the cheese fries from Atomic Wings tonight or not?