|
| For any of you who still look at this from time to time, I have changed blogs, and have so far written two posts over the course of a few days. Not bad!
It's monkeefking.wordpress.com. Please check it out!
| | |
| A couple of weeks ago I came across this article about scientists who questioned various advertisers' claims about the health benefits or "detox" benefits touted in the ads. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7808348.stm
It irks me, what they can get away with, the fads created from and hidden under the guise of technical language. You hear this whole thing about "detox" where people go on a strange juice diet for 3 weeks to "purge" themselves of toxins and even shampoos and face wash that can purge toxins, too.
Apparently, unsubstantiated claims are only reviewed if someone actually bothers to bring up a challenge. "Members of the Voice of Young Science network (I imagine really nerdy superheroes here and secretly wish I were one)...started an investigation that was kicked off by a campaign to unpick "dodgy" science claims - where companies use phrases that sound scientific but do not actually mean anything." Good for them...people waste sooo much money just on dietary supplements, not to mention all sorts of other health fads (vitamins alone are a huge market, multi-billion dollar I think...I should look up the stats. By the way, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which publishes the Nutrition Action Newsletter recommends that the most people generally can benefit from is a multivitamin every other day and that a daily multivitamin may actually provide too much of certain vitamins and minerals).
I liked this quote - "It is ridiculous that we're seeing a return to mystical properties being claimed for products in the 21st Century and I'm really pleased that young scientists are sharing their concerns about this with the public." (bbc article) Yes. Score 2 for young scientists. Go superheroes! Well...unfortunately, the score is somewhere around a bazillion to 2. Quick tangent - that reminds me of a joke. So a guy is sitting in an airplane in the middle of his flight. He briefly glances next to him and sees a blonde reading a newspaper. He looks away but then is curious what she is reading and looks over. She turns a page and gasps, so he looks at the headlines. She looks utterly shocked and is losing her composure, and he scans the headlines to figure what is so troubling. The worst headline he sees is "10 Brazilians Dead." He feels sad at the loss of any life, but wonders just why she is so upset. He leans over and says, "that is quite a tragedy" to probe her response. She looks at him and with tears in her eyes, said "I didn't even know the world had 10 bra-zillion people!"
I just got back from a work trip from upstate New York today (I took a US Airways plane, the same carrier as the plane that went down in the Hudson - thank goodness no one was seriously hurt) and I was reading the US Airways magazine, and near the end found a full-page ad entitled "Choose Life. Grow Young with HGH" (human growth hormone). My gosh, the claims made by this ad were preposterous. It cures and reverses a huge list of different conditions (hemorrhoids, autoimmune diseases, chronic fatigue, Hepatitis C, high blood pressure, asthma, baldness, wrinkles, memory loss - to name a few). I felt like I had memory loss after reading this sentence: "It is now thought that HGH is so comprehensive in its healing and regenerative powers that it is today, where the computer industry was twenty years ago, that it will displace so many prescription and non-prescription drugs and health remedies that it is staggering to think of." Man, that sentence is just staggering to read!
Another quote: "Modern medical science now regards aging as a disease that is treatable and preventable and that "aging", the disease, is actually a compilation of various diseases and pathologies...and all of these aging symptoms can be stopped - and rolled back by maintaining Growth Hormone levels at the same level HGH existed in the blood when we were 25 years old." Crike! Where have I been? I'm two years off that mark, better act now!!
So I just found the ad on the web, and here's one of the many sites it pops up on: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_1_57/ai_n13610418
My goal is to submit this article to my superheroes above and see if they can do something about it!
| | |
| So yesterday morning I read an article in the Washington Post ("On the Road Again") about two guys who bought a bus and welded a half a bus on top of it (calling it 'topsy turvy') and set out across the country to try to persuade Obama to grow food on the White House lawn (and compost food wastes from the federal kitchens). It's called the White House Organic Farm Project (thewhofarm.org - i haven't visited the site yet). I was surprised to learn that there is a history of agriculture at the White House: John Adams in 1800 planted a garden. In 1918, Woodrow Wilson introduced sheep to the lawn, to naturally mow and fertilize. Then in 1943 Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden, which according to the article, "inspired millions of Americans to grow their own food."
I just recently started a couple of compost piles in the backyard - it's surprisingly fun! I read that urine is a rich source of nitrogen for compost piles and that it is very safe (yes, I read this in a composting book) so I have been depositing on the pile occasionally, much to the amusement of my roommates. I even got a little bucket as a Christmas present, happily labeled "pee bucket" to make my transactions.
When I told my friend Megan about the Post article, she remarked that the White House could hire, and could really use someone, to help the compost piles with some urine and suggested that if the WHO farm project is successful, I should vie for my own special role! So perhaps I can have a place in the Obama administration. I can picture the newspapers announcing Obama's pee czar, and wondering if he will have a poo czar.
Update: I just visited the website, and there's a nice video that is fun to check out. I liked the shots they showed of posters about the victory gardens, how it is patriotic to grow your own food, and a pic they showed of the White House lawn with food being grown on it!
| | |
| Well, I am trying to get into the habit of blogging again (was I ever really in the habit? No.) Kak zhal - what a pity.
First, a couple of updates. I have no idea who will be reading this so I'll start from the basics. This summer I moved to a new home still near Washington, DC with several people from the church I'm going to. I live about 7.5 miles from downtown DC so my commute to work is very reasonable and is also bike-able (both take about the same amount of time). Elisabeth moved up to DC from NC this summer as well and she is living just 6 blocks from me! My good buddy Bruce visited for a weekend in September after his 5,000 mile bicycle trip across the country. Bruce, Ebeth, and myself spent the whole weekend together and I was happy he got to meet her. Bruce is of course one of the most enjoyable people to be around that I know of - an unbeatable combination of fun and deep conversation. Also our friend Leon from NC moved up here in late August/early September once he had a job lined up. We found a place for him a few miles from my place and a few miles from his workplace at the University of Maryland. He is the "property manager" at the house, being in charge of interviewing potential tenants, keeping up the yard and house - basically being the responsible point of contact with the landlord. In return he got a nice discount on the rent. Needless to say he is happy to have a place and I'm encouraged to see him exuberant and energetic. He's working hard and everyone at his job likes him and is very impressed with him. So it was amazing how well everything worked out (and continues to work out).
This past weekend (the 18th) I just returned from a two-week trip to Odessa, Ukraine on the Black Sea. I went for a combo of a vacation and an intensive Russian language program. I never really got much of a chance to get away from things after finishing my thesis this May, and had developed some sleeping problems after working on thesis and having a job all the time, then afterwards fretting about catching up on sleep and "getting back to normal". Over the next few days I'll be sharing about the time there in Odessa.
| | |
| So I have been home in Tucson, AZ for Thanksgiving. It's been nice spending time with family and friends. Yesterday I spent a good chunk of the day hiking and hanging out with my friend from high school, Erin. She is one of those people Paul talks about who is not a believer but has the law written on her heart - "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them." Romans 2:14-15. She even considers herself in some ways to be a Christian, but has never felt comfortable in the church. Some friends in high school invited her to their church, a big and popular Baptist church in the area. She went on retreats and trips and things like that. But always kids just hooked up, slept together, things like that (not everyone, but definitely many). Now after being in a relationship for 4 years with a guy who had a good idea what life was about but couldn't choose it over his immature friends, she wonders how to meet a guy who is actually what he seems. (because he seemed very mature and sincere and interested in more important things) Her mom says to try to meet people at church, but she is afraid of being judged at a church since she isn't baptized. What a colossal failure of the church that instead of being known as a place of love and acceptance where people can be honest about where they are and to learn about the journey ahead, it is a place known to be judging and hostile. One example that was really bad was she went out with a couple she was friends with and a male friend of theirs from church. He talked a lot about how religious he was but then that night assertively wanted to sleep with her and do all that is associated with that. She had to tell him to stop, and so what did he do? He told his friends that she wasn't religious enough for her and that's why he wasn't interested in her any more. Disgusting. Reminds me of the verses "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to." How can anyone who is already an outsider come to a place where that sort of behavior isn't questioned, perceived, or discerned? (or at least not enough) We talked about it some and she said that most people just give themselves the title of 'Christian' but don't do anything jesus teaches, or think about how their actions affect others. We talked about how in his day, Jesus' biggest adversaries were the Pharisees and teachers of the law, and how that corresponds to many Christians today whose belief is more about power or self-righteousness or unlimited forgiveness for whatever lifestyle they choose. Also that Jesus said that there will be many who call him "Lord, Lord" and even do some works in His name, but whom Jesus will not recognize or acknowledge. She expressed concern that there aren't many young men who think about God and spirituality, and what they truly mean. It just bothers me so much that the people who would really thrive and grow and find happiness and meaning in church are the very ones who are barred from most churches. Anyone who questions or is disillusioned with the church has to come in doubly an outsider (being a stranger in a new crowd, for one, and then already feeling different and estranged from the observation of hypocrisy). Then if they even have to deal with people who are really pursuing their own lusts (in the case of some guys). It's too bad I can't recommend a church near her where I know a few people or anything like that - never looked hard for a good church here when I was a kid. Kind of a hard thing to do. But it all brings up some questions of how to be the church, what forms church can take that are more accessible to people (house churches, small groups) or if church is such an intimidating place that multiple church folks need to get to know potentially interested people outside of church first. Afterall, in the Bible, most of the time the church reaches out to people and doesn't wait for them to come to church. A tall order, I know. Just a thought I keep in mind sometimes and hopefully will act on more... | | |
|
