Colon cleansing – sounds good for you but isn’t really

OK, so it doesn’t sound good, but to a lot of people, it sounds like colon cleanings are a good natural therapy cure for what ails you. As Christopher Wanjek covers in this LiveScience.com article, just because it sounds like it should be good for you doesn’t mean it is good for you. In fact, it can be very bad for you.

Unlike many natural therapies, colon cleansing makes a lot of sense. It is expensive, utterly useless and potentially harmful, but it’s all even more logical if one subscribes to the body-as-a-sewer-system paradigm.

Now, I’ll be talking about feces, so this column is not for the squeamish or those eating lunch.

. . .

Laxatives and enemas, which promote bowel movements, have been around for at least 4,000 years and were famously practiced by the ancient Egyptians. That shouldn’t be an endorsement; the ancient Egyptians also buried servants alive to attend to the mummified kings in the afterlife. Colon cleansing refers to a more invasive procedure of water and hoses stuck you-know-where. It’s not clear when this practice started.

All this is part of Mr. Wanjek’s Bad Medicine column. The article covers the history and “logic” of this practive, some of the whys of the rebirth of the practice, and why it’s wrong for you.  If you’d like something less (WARNING: scientific term ahead) icky to read that will educate you, here are some other recent Bad Medicine columns:

[tags]Bed Medicine, Colon cleansing, LiveScience.com[/tags]

Happy Birthday, Fidel Castro

I almost made it through the day without wishing Mr. Castro a happy birthday (because, like, you know he totally reads my web site and is waiting for me to send well-wishes, and all). So, here’s a bit from The History Channel on our favorite communist dictator whofidel_castro_mug_3.jpg lives only miles from the US.

1926 Fidel Castro born

Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro is born in the Oriente province of eastern Cuba. The son of a Spanish immigrant who had made a fortune building rail systems to transport sugar cane, Fidel attended Roman Catholic boarding schools in Santiago de Cuba. He became involved in revolutionary politics while he was a student and in 1947 took part in an abortive attempt by Dominican exiles and Cubans to overthrow Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. In the next year, he took part in urban riots in Bogotá, Colombia. The most outstanding feature of his politics during the period was his anti-American beliefs; he was not yet an overt Marxist.

The humorous part of Castro’s history?  In 1953, while trying to overthrow the current Cuban government with a band of rebels, roughly half of his troops were captured or killed.  Arrested for this, Castro argued he shouldn’t be jailed:

Castro was himself arrested and put on trial for conspiring to overthrow the Cuban government. During his trial, he argued that he and his rebels were fighting to restore democracy to Cuba, but he was nonetheless found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

So, Fidel, how’s that whole democratizing your nation going?

That said, happy birthday Fidel Castro.  We hope you get well from your recent surgery and all really soon.  And could you like, please stop being a communist dictator and all?

[tags]Happy Birthday, Fidel Castro, Cuban government[/tags]

This is how I feel right now

After spending a few weeks getting caught up on the site, and future dating enough material that I could go days without updating if necessary, I’m a little burned out.  Not on the site, but on everything else in life I have to deal with right now.  But that has put a drag on my having time and energy to update the site.  So, things might slow down over the next few days as I try to find time to get caught up and ahead of the game again.  In the meantime, here’s how I feel about most of the things I have to deal with in life.
giveadamn1ju.gif

[tags]Give a damn, Sometimes this is my life[/tags]

A look at computer interfaces (PC and Apple) from 1984 to present

(view MAKEzine blog)
A graphical look at graphical and semi-graphical user interfaces on Apple and PC systems from 1984 to present.  See what you have missed, if you just entered the computing world recently.  Shoot – I was into computers since way back then, and I even missed a lot of these interfaces.

system_30.png

 windows_100.jpg

[tags]Graphical interfaces, User interfaces, Computing interface evolution[/tags]

I don’t get it – why aren’t more travellers outraged?

The idiocy continues.  Our government has made a public relations move and disallowed all liquids on flights.  Rather than continuing to do real work that improves safety for travellers, they have made things worse by forcing anyone travelling with a dangerous liquid to pour it in a large receptable and expose *EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO COMES NEAR THE RECEPTACLE* to that liquid.  In other words, our government has increased the power terrorists have for disrupting our daily lives – moreso than they have already disrupted it by giving the government reasons to implement stupid policies that they’ve probably wanted to do any way.

But in same locations, the current levels of stupidity are not enough.  No, in same places, the inspectors are making people peel bananas to prove that there are bananas.

At Dulles International Airport near Washington on Thursday morning, one traveler reported that screeners were also making passengers remove all food items from their carry-on luggage for inspection, and one passenger was told to peel her banana.

[tags]Our government is staffed by idiots, Lose of rights continues in America, Let’s not let people take food either because they would be a way to top the idiocy of no liquids[/tags]

The reality of our latest stupid restrictions on travel

(via boingboing)
People, understand this – the newest travel restrictions are absolutely not increasing your security.  In fact, they are probably making things worse by fooling millions into thinking something positive is being done while simultaneously stripping away rights and increasing your potential exposure to dangerous materials at the airport instead of in the air.  So, since our government is gladly giving us nothing while reducing our rights and taking away safety, isn’t it time to ponder just what it is that the enemy is really doing?  Well, here is a bizarrely accurate view of what’s happening that no one in charge can seem to see.

wondermarkliquidsonaaplane.jpg

[tags]Losing our rights for travel, Less safety under the guide of more, Terrorists disrupt America and the idiots in government are too stupid to get it[/tags]