Unsought Input

Just when you thought it was safe to drink water you hear about this. This headline on yahoo.com today strikes fear into the hearts of all Americans who thought it was healthy to drink water. Yes, conspiracy theories aside, there was a five month probe to find out what was actually in our drinking water. And do you know what they found out? I think you might since I put in in the headline of this article but allow me to reiterate. They found prescription drugs and other stuff in minute concentrations in our drinking water. Minute. I.e. small amounts. Very small. But still present. And what do our utility companies say? Is our water safe? Should we be allowing our selves and our loved ones to drink this water? This aqua pharmaceutical cocktail that comes out of our taps and into our glasses, into our showers and baths and food?

First off, let’s talk about media hype. It’s built up around times when people are getting too worried about other things: war, elections, terrorism, etc, to distract everyday people like you and me from these intense subjects by worrying about something else. In magic it’s call slight of the hand. The magician makes you look the other way and does the trick while you are distracted. Then, viola! You didn’t even know what was happening and now it’s already over and you are just left to wonder how it was done without you noticing.

So, the media creates hype and fear about your drinking water while there are several other important things to be reporting to the good people of America about so that you are distracted. Yes, something in the water is very scary. You need water to live and you trust the water that comes delivered to you. So, I agree, it’s a scary idea that there is something in the water. (more…)

Toxins.  They are all around you, in the air, in your food, in your drinking water.  So how are you going to get rid of them?

One way would be to realize that “toxins” is so broad a term as to be useless and that in order to avoid exposure to specific health risks like mercury you need to do some research, analyze costs and benefits of approaches, and participate in a modern society with environmental, health, and food inspection.

But that’s too hard.  So instead, turn off your brain and watch this commercial:

So let’s check off all the reasons why this smells scammy.  Have you ever had any of the following symptoms:

• Headaches?
• Backaches?
• The dreaded…  fatigue?
• And many more?

These symptoms could mean that you are filled with toxins! or more likely, that you are a human being, since everyone has a headache once in a while.  In any event, products that claim to cure everything usually cure nothing.

The pads “work” by sticking to your feet at night and removing everything bad from your body.  Everything bad includes:

• Heavy Metals
• Metabolic Wastes
• Toxins
• Parasites
• Chemicals
• Cellulite

Yes, it turns out that cobalt, chiggers and chubbiness all follow the same metabolic processes.  This is point number two – claiming to work in several, completely unrelated ways.

Point number three is easy.  Too easy.  Isn’t it a bit suspicious that it does so much without any effort, pain, or discomfort on your part?

How was such an amazing products discovered?  Through the amazing, ancient art of oriental reflexology.  And acupuncture, or something and nature.  Did they mention homeopathy?  They should.  Misusing a lot of scientific-sounding or hippie nature-sounding terms is point four.

So what did I miss?  What other ways does this seem ridiculous to you?

Disclaimer: This article is about women and their “time of the month” so if you don’t want to read about it, please stop now. I mean, I would hope that you knew what this article was about from the title but I wanted to make sure.

So, while I was checking my email this morning Yahoo suggested some reading material as I waited for some pics to upload. This tasty tidbit of information supplied by my emailer of choice did catch my eye, seeing as how I am always interested in ways to skip out on my workout program even though I want to lose the weight. I don’t know, I guess that is just how I am. Anyway, according to Yahoo, this article was going to tell me everything I ever wanted to know about whether or not working out while on “that time of the month” for us women made us more prone to accidents. It said so right on the little link. I had so much hope for it. I really did.

Well, anyway, I did click on the link. And that brought me to the above article that is the pretty blue link right there in the previous paragraph I just wrote. And do you know what I found out?

…

Nothing. We go back and forth in a relatively long article about women’s health and sports and menstruating, but no conclusion is ever drawn. In fact, this article is so watered down and middle of the road that I didn’t even want to read the whole thing. But I did. Unfortunately. And I walked away from it knowing the same thing I knew before I read it, just robbed of 7 minutes of my life that I will never get back. Damn you, Yahoo!!!!

Here are some snippits for you, just to give you an idea why you don’t want to read Yahoo’s article, in case you felt the need.

Some, though not all, studies have found an increased risk of injury during certain parts of the menstrual cycle.

Hmm…some, though not all, eh? Wow, that is some pretty potent journalism. (more…)

Oh, and it makes them live longer.  Today’s headline article on Yahoo states that hard working scientists over there at lifescience.com are boasting that old men should be marrying and having children with younger women.  They say that it would be beneficial for the entire species!  I have a hypothesis of my own: the researchers are old men, wondering how to get beautiful young girls to sleep with them since they were not stinking rich like Hugh Hefner.  Because, let’s face it, non of those bleach blond airheads are at the playboy ranch because they find Hugh attractive.  If you disagree, you are a man above the age of 55.  Maybe one of these researchers?

Either way, the article goes on to say something about Darwin, I really don’t think that they know much about Darwin, they just mention him in passing.  And then, folks, it advocates killing women genetically after menopause.  Oh, so old guys are soooooooo much better?  Oh, yes, cause as a young woman I would totally love to be getting it from someone my grandpa’s age?  No.  That is gross.  I know I will be that old eventually.  I will wait till I get there.  I don’t want to be arm candy just so like a hundred years from now our overpopulation problem will suck even more because there will be people who live into their 100′s more often.  Anyway, if you don’t believe me that the people over at lifescience.com don’t want to kill women after menopause, let me just quote them here as saying:

women who can no longer reproduce are non-players, and since “it takes two,” men partnered with menopausal women are also irrelevant.Following that idea, natural selection should select for harmful mutations that impact women after menopause. Over time, the discriminating genes would accumulate in the population causing what evolutionary biologist William Hamilton called the “wall of death,” in which mortality of women spikes at the onset of menopause. (more…)

In the Plain Dealer today an article was posted which stated that women who were obese before they became pregnant were much more likely to have physically deformed babies than women who were of a healthy weight. The study involved over 15,000 women from 8 different states. The article states that

Obese women faced double the risk of having babies with spina bifida than women of healthy weight. With spina bifida, the spinal column fails to close properly. That often leads to leg paralysis, learning difficulties and other serious problems.

And that

Very heavy women also were 60 percent more likely to have babies born with a rare defect in which abdominal organs protrude through the belly button; 40 percent more likely to have heart defects; 36 percent more likely to have shortened arms or legs; and at least 20 percent more likely to have any of several gastrointestinal deformities. (more…)