[Toshi]

Tesla leaks 'Acceleration Boost' upgrade

Tesla accidentally leaked a new ‘Acceleration Boost’ upgrade planned for existing vehicles in its customer fleet. Over the last year, Tesla has been making several over-the-air software upgrade to the performance of the Model 3 – its best-selling electric sedan. We have seen a range increase, a...

electrek.co

$2k Acceleration Boost option coming for dual motor Model 3s as an off the bat or post purchase option? Hmmmm

So taking it from a nominal 4.4 to 3.9 seconds 0-60. In reality we're at 4.1x 0-60 now. Context is of claimed 3.2 seconds 0-60 for the Performance.

I think I shall do this.



Edit: done.

 

[Toshi]

41 or so lbs down since July, scale at PCP vs scale at PCP. 30.5 lbs down since August, DEXA derived weight vs the same (as in measuring fat and non-fat mass and summing). Body fat % was essentially unchanged, though, as I proportionally lost as much lean as fat mass.

LFTs nearly normal now. ALT still slightly high. Ferritin normal now.

I'm up in the wee hours of the morning (had to comfort Aya twice and coax her back to sleep) and the above is on my mind.



How per DEXA did I lose no body fat proportionally despite dropping a fair bit of weight? (A fair bit defined as 15.3% from July-December via PCP's scale, 12.1% from August-December DEXA vs DEXA.)



Here's a theory. I clearly had fatty liver disease in July/August from my labs from that time. Judging from the various and sundry imaging studies I've read on people with NAFLD my liver was probably enlarged at that time as well.

What if I had fatty muscle disease at the same time, as part of the same process of energy overload (not serum glucose, per se, but as manifest by intramuscular in addition to intra-hepatocellular glycogen and ultimately fat deposition)?

Dave Feldman did one of his n=1 experiments in which he had back to back DEXA scans over the course of something like 2 or 3 days that showed a sharp change in measured lean mass, whereas in reality no change in lean mass could occur that quickly. He concluded, I think correctly, that DEXA scans also reflect one's glycogen (and thus water following it, recall 3-4 H20 per glycogen molecule) state. What if they also reflect intramuscular fat state?



So circling back to that fatty muscle disease idea:

Effect of nutritional counselling on hepatic, muscle and adipose tissue fat content and distribution in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

AIM: To assess the effectiveness of the current UK clinical practice in reducing hepatic fat (IHCL).METHODS: Whole body MRI and [1] H MRS were obtained, before and after 6 mo nutritional counselling, from liver, soleus and tibialis muscles in 10 subjects ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

10 patients with NAFLD. 4% weight loss over 6 months. Fat in liver cells went down 39.9% on average. Fat in a calf muscle went down 12.2% on average.

…



See where I'm going with this? On that August DEXA I could well have had fatty muscles in addition to a fatty, probably enlarged liver. (Would I have been delicious at that time, like a wagyu steer? Hmm.) Those fatty muscles may have been enlarged, akin to the enlargement seen with fatty liver, and thus could have fooled the DEXA into thinking I had more lean mass than I actually did sans-excess-intramuscular-fat. Therefore at that time my true body fat ratio may have been higher than nominally reported, and now my lean mass is presumably closer to its true value (as evidenced in my liver by my normal AST and ferritin and 68 U/L ALT, which indicate that my fatty liver is now nearly normal).




Cliffs Notes: DEXA might have incorrectly thought I was swole if I had fatty muscle disease to complement a fatty liver.




Besides being intellectually interesting if one is wired like me, what use is this, you ask? Well, it leads to a follow-up plan: In 4 months from now, for symmetry since August, I'll get:

- LFTs to see if that ALT finally normalized
- chem panel for glucose + insulin to recheck HOMA-IR to see if it has come down from my still-insulin-resistant 3.2 value
- CRP to see if I've crept below the desired 1.0 from 1.11 currently
- lipid panel
- DEXA and RMR

Hypothesis: If my fatty muscle disease resolving in parallel with fatty liver disease theory is correct then on the next DEXA I should see a body fat % drop relative to this most recent DEXA.

 

[Toshi]

I skied some mild bump runs today (Jacque’s Pique and top part of Copperfield). Also gave The Moz a shakedown.

But then I did many laps on Windsong, because apparently doing 40 mph GS turns down lovely groomers is what I like to do in my dotage.

 

[Toshi]

So taking it from a nominal 4.4 to 3.9 seconds 0-60. In reality we're at 4.1x 0-60 now. Context is of claimed 3.2 seconds 0-60 for the Performance.

@stoney want to sample 3.8 sec 0-60?

From Wugz via Electrek:

In [Wugz’s] tests of the Model 3 after last month’s performance boost (and before this acceleration boost upgrade), Wugz read the Model 3 AWD as having 333kW (447hp) of peak power. This resulted in a 0-60 time of a little under 4.2 seconds, and a 0-160km/h (roughly 100mph) time of just over 9.0 seconds.

Now, with the new “Acceleration Boost” upgrade, Wugz measured peak power of 371kW (497hp), for a boost of 50 horsepower from the update. This is about 11% more power and resulted in a quicker 0-60 time, just under 3.8 seconds.

This is not quite the half-second improvement that Tesla promised, but very close, and the time is lower than the 3.9 seconds promised by Tesla. The Model 3 also showed more than a half-second improvement in 0-160km/h, with a time just under 8.5 seconds.

There was also a 12% increase in total peak torque, with a significant increase to front motor peak torque and a slight increase at the rear motor. Interestingly, the rear motor actually lost a little bit of peak power in the tradeoff, though gained peak torque.

 

[Toshi]

I got a coronary artery calcium score CT today, at South Denver Cardiology Associates. I went into a very large, nice looking building at the address and asked the info counter lady where SDCA was. She replied that the whole building was them.

I guess cardiology reimburses well when everyone has heart disease. Go figure.

The CT scanner was a nice one as well, new in the last year or two per the technologist. 256 slice. The study was prospectively ECG gated and acquired in one likely 0.2 second gantry rotation as a volume (which is the draw of 256 and 320 slice scanners—can get a whole brain or heart as a volume in one or a fraction of one rotation).

I could see my heart rate displayed on the scanner’s display when I wasn’t in the bore, and I jumped around between 45-70 depending on breath holding, usually 50-60 bpm. Thus the scanner’s software had no issues acquiring my images—when the heart rate is too high then it can’t ECG gate reliably.

As expected my coronary artery calcium score was 0. I was 99.9% sure that I’d be a 0 but wanted to be sure. I’ll look over the study on my own tomorrow to see if there’s anything else interesting (like my liver’s attenuation!).



Edit: looked over the actual images last night. My liver remains borderline fatty (attenuation 42-46 HU). My ratio of muscle mass to fat is not where I want it to be, still—more work yet to go! Study was of the heart but still saw a good bit of visceral fat by my spleen. Hmph

 

[Toshi]

2020 Ford Escape Plug-In will offer ‘30+’ miles of EV range, sell below $30,000 after incentives

The 2020 Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid comes in the spring with '30+' plus miles of EV range, followed by the powerful 39-mile Toyota RAV4 EV by summer 2020.

electrek.co

Bodes well for the RAV4 Prime coming in under 40 large. This Escape is FWD only.

 

[Toshi]

Annual review submitted. Having the system copy the prior year's review forward was and remains key. I intentionally wrote everything initially with vague, time-independent language so it works every year!



The only actual task I really had to do for this was to paste in the PMIDs for my various publications last year. Turned out 8 showed up with 2019 calendar year publication dates. As I keep my CV current anyway this was pretty trivial.

 

[Toshi]

Attn @Nick

“I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody.”

-DJT

 

[SkaredShtles]

Attn @Nick

“I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody.”

-DJT

Sometimes I have trouble believing the transcripts from these speeches... they *can't* be this dumb, right?

 

[Toshi]

 

[Toshi]

 

[CBJ]

Still one of the coolest cars/trucks I have seen in a while. Would not be ideal around here though just way to big for the city and Danish sized parking.

Btw I saw Volvo changed how you access the heated steering wheel function from when you had your car. One of the few missing items I wish I could have had in my XC60 but ran out of allowance.

 

[Toshi]

Toshi v2, now with 100% more continuous glucose monitoring capability.

 

[SkaredShtles]

 

[Toshi]

I got a coronary artery calcium score CT today

As expected my coronary artery calcium score was 0

Edit: looked over the actual images last night. My liver remains borderline fatty (attenuation 42-46 HU).

So as a followup to this (and because my ALT remains slightly elevated--AST and ferritin nice and normal now) I ordered and scheduled myself up an imaging study, an MR of the liver with fat quantification and elastography.

To evaluate for fatty liver one could use ultrasound, but the problem is that it's not quantitative. MR with fat quantification gives one a proton density fat fraction (as in the actual % fat one's liver is in a given measurement area), and the elastography sends shear waves through the liver and sees how fast they propagate, therefore showing how stiff it is (a stiff, fibrotic liver being bad).


I am becoming quite the consumer of health care $$$ these days (out of my own pocket in that I'm on a HDHP/HSA), eh. At least I'm on a trajectory to better health--and hopefully by March when I've scheduled this MRI my fatty liver shall have normalized completely.

 

[SkaredShtles]

<snip> my fatty liver shall have normalized completely.

For some reason this puts me in the mood for some fava beans and a nice Chianti...

 

[Toshi]

Toshi v2, now with 100% more continuous glucose monitoring capability.

Screenshot is from my watch just now. I can see every 5 minute glucose on my Apple Watch! Such excite, many wow, much data



Insights thus far:

- blood sugar stays remarkably constant when fasted, go figure
- for much of yesterday and today I was sitting high but steady, 100-115 even. Stress from traveling? It is slowly going down as I approach 24 hours into my fast and I anticipate it being lower tomorrow as I continue on to 40-46 hours or so
- even from that higher-than-usual baseline and eating lots of carbs for dinner yesterday (Thai leftovers: drunken noodles and some curry fried rice, mmmmmm) I never crested 140 mg/dL
- I figured out a way to export raw data in .csv format (transmitter automatically syncs with the Dexcom G6 phone app, which in turn automatically feeds the Dexcom Clarity phone app that shares a data store with the Dexcom Clarity web site, from which one can export, whew)
- said exported data can be reshaped for use with a Matlab script I found that'll calculate MAGE among other things–yay math!

 

[Toshi]

An update on Mariko's school stuffs, for anyone who might care:

Backstory is that she tests high on the WISC-IV but only got 90th percentile on Denver Public Schools' preferred kindergarten-level test, the NNAT. 90th gets her bupkis from DPS in terms of admission to magnet schools (97th unless one is FRL, which we are not) or even in-school pullouts (95th).

…

She'll also be taking the CogAT this fall in 1st grade as an official DPS-administered thing.

So Mariko took the CogAT as per this post above from August, and we got the scores back today:

91st percentile for verbal (somewhat oddly low–she's a voracious reader and remembers things like I do).
98th percentile for quantitative.
99th percentile for nonverbal.
These somehow equate to 99th percentile composite.

Therefore now in Denver Public Schools' eyes she's officially magnet school eligible. Getting in is still a lottery process but at least this bar has been cleared.

 

[Toshi]

Wow.

 

[CBJ]

Have you had a chance to see effects of exercise on the glucose level? Interesting you think stress will affect it too.

Btw first spinning class with the watch and it the heart rate seemed a lot more accurate than the first time in the gym. I have not felt 100% the last two days so I was happy to see the HR didn't go crazy. I ended up with 164 average and reached 195 max at the end.

 

[Toshi]

Have you had a chance to see effects of exercise on the glucose level? Interesting you think stress will affect it too.

Btw first spinning class with the watch and it the heart rate seemed a lot more accurate than the first time in the gym. I have not felt 100% the last two days so I was happy to see the HR didn't go crazy. I ended up with 164 average and reached 195 max at the end.

Stress/cortisol totally can affect glucose levels. Light exercise where one is oxidizing fat should reduce glucose slightly. Strenuous exercise should cause it to spike as an energy mobilizer and then rebound down afterwards. I haven't exercised since getting back to Denver and installing it on my arm because of snow and ice all around + need to work instead of ski these next few days. Saturday I'll get out on the slopes.

Part of my deal is that this particular sensor, factory calibrated (that's the draw of the Dexcom system--don't have to calibrate it, in theory) was drifting high relative to my wife's AccuChek Nano... and that AccuChek Nano in turn reads 13 mg/dL or 15% higher than my Cholestech LDX.

Which one is the most accurate I do not know, but I at least manually calibrated the Dexcom this morning down 8 points to an average of 3 test strips from the AccuChek.

 

[Toshi]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Chronological Episode Order | StarWars.com

Lucasfilm presents the official sequential order for the beloved animated series, including all 121 shows and the original feature film.

www.starwars.com

@Pesqueeb are you aware of this order business? I watched an episode or two but didn't dive in. Now that we have exhausted the Baby Yoda for this season I think I'll watch Solo (finally) and maybe The Ewok Adventure.

Ok, maybe not the last. But after Solo, a re-watch of Rogue One, then into the Clone Wars timeline as above?

 

[Toshi]

That is one awkwardly proportioned frog-car.

 

[Toshi]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Chronological Episode Order | StarWars.com

Lucasfilm presents the official sequential order for the beloved animated series, including all 121 shows and the original feature film.

www.starwars.com

@Pesqueeb are you aware of this order business? I watched an episode or two but didn't dive in. Now that we have exhausted the Baby Yoda for this season I think I'll watch Solo (finally) and maybe The Ewok Adventure.

Ok, maybe not the last. But after Solo, a re-watch of Rogue One, then into the Clone Wars timeline as above?

Turns out Solo isn't available on Disney Plus until July 2020. Gah.

But I did at least rewatch Rogue One. Having the family away (still in Seattle they are) means I can watch at my preferred volume! That never happens.

 

[Toshi]

A fine list

These Are The Worst Cars Of The Decade

Since the calendar (usually) doesn’t lie, and unless you feel like having that tedious argument about how there was no year 0, we have to accept where we’re at: the end of a decade. So, let’s do what has to be done, and call out the worst cars of the two thousand teens. Because someone has to.

jalopnik.com

 

[Toshi]

This looks like much fun

I am envious of @Da Peach

 

[Da Peach]

This looks like much fun

I am envious of @Da Peach

I am definitely spoiled for choice around here. I must say, if I were to give you a tour, that trail might not make the cut.

 

[Toshi]

Remind me to not go skiing during this week next year, midweek or otherwise. Traffic was a shitshow: half an hour from Frisco to Copper, which is just over 5.5 miles. Parking was a shitshow and a half. I ended up parking in Far East! and yet there was a backup just to get into it. The Cobus shuttles from the free lots are cool, though.

At least the snow was pretty good. Bit of soft atop the scratchy bits, filled in bumps. I caught one rope drop and had glorious top of boots-deep powder… but by the next lift up that same run was already tracked out, because Colorado during busy season.

 

[Toshi]

Very cool.

 

[Nick]

I ended up parking in Far East!

Huge.
Manatee.

 

[Toshi]

Huge.
Manatee.

Alpine vs Far East isn’t a big deal, sure. But Alpine was completely full as were all the paid lots that I drove by—drove to West Village and back (hoping for one of the two EV charging spots to be free across from Passage Point but no dice).

 

[Toshi]

Filled up the wife's car tonight, not because it was empty (more than half a tank left) but because of the pesky Fuel and Oil Refresh Mode deal. Got the oil up to temp by driving a few miles on 270 then gassed it up, and voila, back in EV mode. 82.0% EV miles out of 33ish miles rated EV range. It remains not bad.

I also intentionally ran the Tesla low on electrons. (It's amazing how sluggish it feels when it pulls power at low states of charge!) Now and then one is supposed to do this to reset the range-o-guessimator.

I achieved this low mileage left by starting the day at 90% SOC, driving to Copper, not charging it all day as it soaked in the cold, driving back home, driving to work and back, and then driving out east on I-70 to the 75 mph section for a few dozen miles. It is charging now to 100% SOC so that I can see what it thinks its range is as opposed to the rated 310 miles at 100%.

 

[Toshi]

For @roflbox and @dan-o see attached. It may make your eyes glaze over, but it represents a legit/serious attempt to explain why the current anti-saturated fat guidelines are not really supported by the evidence.

Cliffs Notes are that a lot of the early studies purporting to show this were changing too many things at once, things they didn't realize at the time (like Vit D levels and trans fats).

/me does not shun the saturated fats at all

 

[Toshi]

Segway has created the Wall-E pod!

Segway's S-Pod Brings the Hoverchairs From 'WALL-E' to Life

You'll soon be able to scoot around town—at 24 mph—without even having to stand up.

www.wired.com

At last!

24.8 mph top speed. 43 mile range. 60 inches tall. Can carry 265 lbs in payload but weighs 330.7 lbs so not something one's going to bring on the bus.

 

[Toshi]

The moon rover was apparently almost an electric moon-bike

 

[dan-o]

Segway has created the Wall-E pod!

Segway's S-Pod Brings the Hoverchairs From 'WALL-E' to Life

You'll soon be able to scoot around town—at 24 mph—without even having to stand up.

www.wired.com

At last!

24.8 mph top speed. 43 mile range. 60 inches tall. Can carry 265 lbs in payload but weighs 330.7 lbs so not something one's going to bring on the bus.

Make provisions for a cartridge style composting toilet, Big Gulp drink holder and a holster for a carton of cigs and Rascal sales will plummet.

 

[Toshi]

Perhaps the one time I'll admit to agreeing with Jillian Michaels:

This is regard to her comments about Lizzo, who is pretty clearly unhealthily fat IMO:

I'll be damned if she doesn't have pre-diabetes or frank DM2.

Anyway, this is what sparked the furor:

“We should always be inclusive, but you cannot glorify obesity. It’s dangerous,” she said. “Now, it’s like, ‘Ah, that woman is 250 pounds, good for her!’ … It shouldn’t be one way or the other. It’s really no one’s business to comment. It’s not something you should judge. It’s not something you should celebrate.”

The conversation then turned to Lizzo when Berg mentioned how much she enjoyed seeing plus-size celebrities, such as the 31-year-old singer and the model Ashley Graham, preaching body positivity and promoting their images — “bodies that we don’t get to see being celebrated.”

Michaels interjected, cutting Berg off to ask why people don’t just celebrate Lizzo’s music. The singer, born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, has emerged as a vocal body-positivity advocate with hit songs featuring lyrics such as, “If I’m shinin’, everybody gonna shine” and “I do my hair toss/ Check my nails/ Baby how you feelin’?/ Feelin’ good as hell.”

“I’m just being honest,” Michaels said. “I love her music. My kid loves her music. But there’s never a moment where I’m like, ‘I’m so glad that she’s overweight.’”

Michaels later added: “If you said to me, ‘Hey, Lizzo can live to be 90 and motivate people, or she can die at 60 and motivate people,’ why wouldn’t I say I hope she’s as healthy as she can be? It’s not about saying that I don’t respect her, I don’t think she’s awesome. I absolutely do. But I also would hate to see her get sick.”

 

[Toshi]

Pretty image from a study I read. All those grape looking things lower midline part of the image are outpouchings of the pancreatic duct, branch duct IPMNs in our terminology.

 

[6thElement]

View attachment 139943

Pretty image from a study I read. All those grape looking things lower midline part of the image are outpouchings of the pancreatic duct, branch duct IPMNs in our terminology.

Lies.
Underwater footage of Cthulhu

 

[Pesqueeb]

Mazda favours smaller batteries for upcoming EVs | Autocar

Japanese firm will use small batteries for less CO2, while developing a rotary-engine range extender

www.autocar.co.uk