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Forbidden Knowledge
Gillette Fusion razor
If you watch the TV ads, you'd think they were about to sell you a cold fusion
reactor to power your home.
Instead, they're talking about a razor with five (5) closely spaced blades. Does
it work? Well, think about it. All those blades are sharp, so if there's
hair in the way, they'll cut it. But if the first or second blade get the
stubble, what do you need the 3rd, 4th and 5th blades for? Or aren't the blades
that sharp after all? The one thing you do know is that in order to work, each
blade has to drag itself across your tender skin. Dragging five blades across
your face can't be smoother than dragging two. And, indeed, in my experience, it
isn't. Even the battery vibrator does nothing to make the blades cut better. But
it does distract from the increased razor drag, so you think you're
getting a smoother shave. Ah, the wonders of marketing....
What Were They Thinking???
An old duffer hauling his beloved in a kid's wagon. Oh, how comfortable
she is. Oh what an "exceptional quality lifestyle" they are experiencing. Oh
what a disastrous message! What advertising executive can possibly have
recommended this ad to his client? For the answer, read the copy. It can't have
been penned by anyone who makes his living writing English. It was written by
someone with a (barely) high school education. Then there's the highly
sophisticated "Life is good when it's all about you." Good Lord, even a parody
could be this ridiculous. (I'm surprised it wasn't headlined: "Me, Me, Me."
Does EVERY Manufacturer Have to Chisel and lie?
What do you think you're buying when you read this OceanSpray label below? "100% Cranberry Blueberry 'Organic' juice"?
Ha--Foolish you. You forgot to read the fine print.
What these masters of prevarication are saying on their label is that the cranberries and blueberries in the juice are "100%" 100% What? They didn't have space to tell you that--the "Organic" label must be too big.. And the type that tells you what you actually are buying is--of course--miniscule. But get out your magnifying glass and see the sorry truth--the truth the FDA forces them to print. Otherwise their deliberately misleading label would remain uncorrected.
So there it
 is. "Another juice" is the biggest component of this "100% Cranberry Blueberry." OceanSpray can barely admit what the
other content is--juice from another mystery fruit flavored with cranberry blueberry juice. But of course their crafty lawyers can't even put that fact into a normal English sentence--which would be "100%
real white grape juice flavored with real (100%) cranberry and blueberry juice." Far too much emphasis on the major
component of this flavored juice--the identity of which is found not on the front label but only on the legally required back label list of ingredients ("organic white grape juice from concentrate"). Good Work OceanSpray. We stupid consumers always appreciate being made suckers of by a company we trust.
Here is the official Ocean Spray defense:
At Ocean Spray, there is nothing more important than the relationship we have developed with our consumers and we would never intentionally mislead them. (1)
All our 100% juice products contain 100% juice. But unlike Orange Juice, cranberry juice is not naturally sweet. In fact, similar to lemon or lime juice, cranberry juice is much too tart to drink straight. This means that it must be sweetened to make it palatable. We either sweeten with added sweeteners, or in the case of our 100% products we sweeten with other juices.
The Ocean Spray® Premium 100% juice line consists of several flavors, and only the primary fruits used are pictured on the label.(2) The juices added as sweeteners are listed on the ingredient panel. For example, the cranberry variety uses cranberry as its primary flavor,(3) thus “cranberry” is the only fruit featured prominently on the label.(4) The other juices blended with the cranberry are for sweetening purposes and they also help to enhance the natural flavor of the cranberry.
We are continually looking at our labels to be sure that they provide all the information consumers need to make educated purchases. Please be assured that these labels comply with all government regulations. If we find, through discussions with our consumers, that we are not providing adequate information, we will make necessary changes. [Emphasis added.]
False Rebuttals:
(1) If they would never intentionally mislead us, why have they been cited by the FDA so many times, and been forced to change their labels? Because they are so dumb those misleading labels have all been unintentional?
(2)The primary fruit is white grapes. They are not pictured on the label.
(3) If the "primary flavor" were what you have to put on the label, then most juices would have to be called "Sugared water with fruit flavors," but they are not.
(4) Cranberry is not the only fruit featured prominently on the label under discussion. Blueberry is equally prominent. But this reply letter is probably computer generated anyway. No one at Ocean Spray actually read my letter to them.
A pretty pathetic defense of clearly deceptive labeling.
Aha! It looks like this isn't the first time Ocean Spray got caught at deliberately misleading
labeling. Here are some more instances.
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The Ultimate Gadget--a
Cell phone Jammer !
Just think of the the thrill, the sense of justice served, by turning on your own look-a-like cell phone that is actually a cell phone jammer. Think of the silent appreciation of your fellow sufferers enduring the loud-mouth blather of some self-important prig ordering his long-abused minions about--and proud of it! Image the choked bluster as he sees you pretending to be chatting cheerily while his Very Important Call has been cut off in mid sentence with at "No Service" notice. Aaaah, the downright pleasure of it--and all for only $220. ('Course it's illegal in the US and most other countries. But then only Allah is perfect.)
Beauty and Fashion Models
Here is a website that should be required viewing for every female between the ages of 8 to 80, and every male from birth. It shows what the most beautiful men and women in the world look like when photographed and--after it has been expertly retouched--what the printed photo looks like. Wow-what a revelation. But what a crushing blow to human fantasy. Why, unretouched, those women look just like--our girl friends and wives!
Go to the website, then:
Click on "Portfolio"
Click on "Agree"
Click on "Before/After"
Select a thumbnail
Click on "To see Before" and the photo changes to the unretouched version.
Sex-Partner Search Engines
Looking for true romance--or just
want to fool around? Internet search engines
 today provide surfers with pretty much anything imaginable. And now they can plow through 15,334,302 profiles of men and women who are seeking one of two things (and that's just in the US of A): Most of the men want a sex partner and offer
possible romance as a sweetner; most of the women want "a Long Term Relationship," and offer sex as the bait.
www. AdutlFriendFinder.com is a huge sex-partner search engine. Who frequents that very active site, and what do they get out of it? Click here for the latest dope.
What is "Race"?
In the vast majority of cases there is not the slightest disagreement about who belongs in which race. Children can distinguish race unerringly by the age of two or three. Nature is parsimonious and does not often endow its creatures with senses to distinguish things that do not matter. An inborn ability, acquired at a very early age, of who are “our people” and who are not is essential to group survival.
Everybody knows what a "racist" is, but what is the "race" they're shouting about? What is race? The psychological community asserts with some vigor that race is a social construct--in other words, we made it up. But they are famous for jumping in where they have no more standing than any other know-it-all. Biologists have finally re-entered the frey--keeping a very low profile (Hell hath no fury like a leftist scorned). Here is a rare collection of counter-evidence to the fatuous claims of the social construct ideologues.
Think you can walk a straight line --with
your eyes closed? I couldn't. Try it in an open field or parking lot. I aimed
for a distant flagpole, closed my eyes and walked straight as a die--until I
bunked into a goal post. My "straight" path was a semi-circle with a diameter
of only 70 yards!!!
"Aliens" on Planet Earth
Any sentient aliens discovered on Earth-like planets MUST be similar to humans in every regard . Think about it for more than one instant: If Darwin is right, evolution continually results in animals perfecting themselves in their adaptation to their environment. If a distant Earth-like planet is found, Darwin's laws must work on it exactly as they have here on Earth. Thus, given the same length of time, biology must result in sentient creatures as well-adapted as us--eyes up high for maximum distance vision; two eyes for stereoscopy, the brain case high near the eyes (which are a direct extension of the brain matter), a sniffer and taster also near the brain. Bipedal works best for locomotion and raising the eyes up high. Highly specialized hands with opposable thumbs are necessary to build artifacts (such as weapons).
This being so obvious, why is the SETI cult not doing an extensive analysis of the differences among Earth-native sentient beings? Pigmies, Masai, high-altitude Peruvians and
Tibetans, Asians, Nordics, etc., etc.? There is probably as as much variation in those sentient natives as we will ever find on other Earth-like planets.
But, are there any other sentient aliens in this galaxy? Here is an informed viewpoint that is unexpectedly pessimistic. (And an excellent book.)
A slip knot that really works (The "Surgeon's Shoelace" knot)
Tired of tying your shoes and boots with "slip knots" that either don't slip, or are too complicated? here is a slip knot that really works and is easy to tie. I learned it from Ehrhard Wall, a customs agent in Berlin. (This, and other shoe/boot knots are described at Ian's Shoelace site.)
Here the blue bow is being folded through the main hole... (Right photo)
...to result in a lovely, symmetrical slip knot that stays tied and yet pulls open easily.
Another Face on Mars.
This photo shown on the NASA Rover website shows a real face--not that of a tired monkey. The exerpt here has been colorized only to point out the regal profile--no details of any kind have been added or removed. The actual uncolorized photo is shown below. (This deep intellectual skill--to be able to make out images in random scenes--has been given a name! "Pareidolia.")
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Chastity belts were not used by Knights of Olde going off to the crusades and hoping to keep their young wives' honor in tact. They were used -- rarely-- according to an exhibit in the Torture Museum in San Gimignano, Italy, by women who wanted to protect themselves from rape during pillages and civil unrest.
With Dan Rather finally out to pasture, what is the biggest TV news scam remaining?
TV "news" programs that palm-off dated footage as recent imagery. The same footage of Michael Jackson arriving for his trial was shown day after day, with the broadcasters conveniently forgetting to mention that the footage was days old. The biggest ancient footage scam? The shots of Terry Schiavio ( the woman who has been comatose for over ten years). Day after day, week after week, ALL the TV "news" broadcasters discussed her fate while showing footage that was at least ten years old --as if to suggest that this was her current state. (The footage showed her with her eyes open.) Why, other than that they are too lazy and feel you, the viewers, are too stupid to know the difference? Because they are making a conscious effort to push the point of view that she should not be taken off life support--witness her semi-conscious state. The only cure (and this should be mandatory for all news imagery): Visible on-screen date-stamping of all news footage shown over the air. (If they are able to stamp footage as “live,” let then stamp old footage with its date.)
[Ed note: The world is listening. Finally, in the last week of Mrs Schiavo's life, some of the newscasts did date their footage. It was at least five years old.]
Is Society being poisoned by Krispy Kreme & Coca-Cola? Over the past 50 years the sales of carbonated soft drinks and donuts have sky-rocketed. So--following a 30 year onset delay--has the national incidence of diabetes and a grossly overweight population. In fact, diabetes (and its frequent precursor–glucose intolerance) has reached epidemic proportions. The cosmic question is, is our diabetes epidemic caused by the large amount of sugar that soft drinks and pastries now add to our diet? (Click here to read what the NY Times has to say about the surprising danger of excess sugar even to those who have not yet become glucose intolerant.)
Yes, this is conjecture. But what if the huge amount of sugar added to our diets by the soft drink and pastry industries is alone the cause of our nation's diabetes and fat epidemic? Should we treat soft drinks and donuts like cigarettes–-which are hugely enjoyed but also lead to deadly long-term health problems? Is the psychological addiction to sugar to be treated as harshly as the physiological addiction to nicotine? (Is there any difference?) If these two industries are discovered to be the cause of the problem, brace yourselves for a massive (and very well-financed) campaign demanding “proof,” citing "Irreparable financial damage,” along with cries of “Big Brother, socialism,” etc. It will be a hell of a battle.
Gore-Tex® fabric does not "breathe."
The earliest Gore-Tex did breathe because it really did have millions of tiny holes. But that experiment failed because the holes became contaminated with body oils, thus reducing the surface tension of impinging water and permitting it to penetrate too easily. The second generation Gore-Tex is an air-tight permeable membrane made of cellophane: you can make a balloon out of it. Since the common usage of the word "breathe" is to pass air, Gore-Tex doesn't breathe at all. It can pass a small amount of water vapor under certain conditions. Not enough to let a hard-sweating person remain dry, and not at all when the temperature of the Gore-Tex fabric drops below freezing. "Guaranteed to keep you dry"? When you get soaked with your own perspiration thanks to Gore-Tex's air-tight nature -- use their guarantee certificate to help mop up the sweat. [See Summit magazine, May-June, 1984, vol 20, No 3 for the first article ever published questioning the the Emperor's Gore-Tex clothes. It was submitted to all US outdoor magazines, and only Summit agree to publish it. (Such is the power of BIG advertisers over outdoor magazine editorial "ethics.")]
Why are toilets designed differently in Europe than in the USA and Japan? In America and Japan, flushing cleans the bowl nearly every time (even with the new "double-flush" toilets in the States -- you have to flush them twice to get everything down -- but in the end the bowl is empty and clean). Every toilet in Europe has a toilet brush next to it, to let the user wipe the bowl clean after flushing. And too often, floaters don't get flushed down at all! The answer is in the ancient design: The European toilets are merely chamber pots "modernized" by adding a huge slosh of water into the bowl, with the hope that this sloshing will somehow do the job. The American and Japanese toilet swirl the water in, which cleans the side walls and helps to funnel the contents into the center of the small whirlpool, and suck them out. (And yet, Europeans designed the Concorde!!)
Chiropractic Science: "Then the nurse returned with the key to the code. When we determined which trials involved glucose and which involved fructose, there was no connection between ability to resist and whether the volunteer was given the "good" or the "bad" sugar. When these results were announced, the head chiropractor turned to me and said, "You see, that is why we never do double-blind testing anymore. It never works!" ( See:http://quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/ideomotor.html )
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Prostate Biopsy Side Effects
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E.W. of South Carolina writes:
Apropos of your fine article on knee replacement surgery from the patient’s point of view, here, in the same spirit, is a description of my prostate biopsy. Why would anyone be interested in this grisly subject? For two reasons: First, nowhere on the web could I find any realistic description of what takes place and how it feels; and second, a major aspect is not described because of political correctness.
My PSA reading had been a steady 1.7. When it suddenly rose to 5, my primary doctor sent me to a urologist who suggested a prostate biopsy to see if any cancer had arisen.
The procedure is an outpatient one and nothing to worry about. I lay on my side with my pants and underpants off (but my socks and above the waist clothing still on). The nurse swabbed my anus with an anesthetic salve. A few minutes later the doctor inserted a tube housing a needle with which he injected Lidocain (Novocain) into two points of the prostrate gland. I could barely detect the needle going in.
A few minutes later he began shoving a thick (1-1/2 inch?) tube up my rectum which did not hurt, but was disconcerting in its rough prodding. Relaxing at this point makes a huge difference. With this, he could image the prostate gland using ultra-sound. My prostrate was the size of a chestnut–normal for may age (62)–and showed no lumps or wart-like growths.
He then zapped me six times with a needle that is housed in the inserted tube. I say “zapped” because what is being done is a hollowed-out needle is shot into you prostate gland and zipped out, having taken a core sample of your prostate tissue. It is a spring-loaded gadget and each shot makes a “zap” sound. You feel it, and it feels a little uncomfortable--sort of like being rudely scratched with a knitting needle--but again, not a big deal. Each sample is the size of a one-inch piece of angle hair spaghetti. These samples are sent to a pathologists who examines them under a microscope and looks for cancerous cells.
Now to the side effects. I was given a list (but only after the procedure–they don’t want to scare you into not having it) which describes the side effects. They are (from memory):
1. Your urine will show signs of blood. For me this was a brief spurt of pink, followed by the normal stream of pale yellow. This kept up for about a week, but can go longer. If you have heavy bleeding, you need to go back to the doctor. I did have one urination on the third day in which what seemed like a lot of blood came out, along with some black particles, and that frightened me. But at the next pee the urine was back to normal--the initial pink spurt, followed by normal pale yellow.
2. You may have some blood in your bowel movements. I never did.
3. It may sting to urinate for a few days. It may have with me, but it was not certainly not a big deal.
4. If you have a fever (sign of infection) see the doctor. You are obliged to take an antibiotic pill (at $10 each!!) the day before the biopsy, on the day of the biopsy, and the day after the biopsy. I tolerate antibiotics, so did not have any side effects there, such as diarrhea, etc. One advantageous side effect of the antibiotic was to kill-off a hanging-on cough I had developed due to a bout with the flu.
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Not mentioned at all, either by the doctor of on the instruction sheet was the scariest side-effect. My ejaculate (seminal fluid) was bright dark red several days after the procedure. A week after, it was darker, the almost black color of old blood. This did not appear as a mixture of semen and blood (although that’s what it was), but a thick black goo. (My wife said that was the first time she had ever made love to a menstruating man!) Several weeks later, it was still pinkish, but by now-–6 weeks later--it is back to its normal Queen Ann White.
When I asked the doctor why this gory ejaculate side effect was not mentioned, he admitted it was considered too disquieting and too disgusting to mention to patients. So the medical establishment simply finessed it. Forbidden knowledge strikes again!
[Ed. note: An excellent book on prostate cancer is Dr. Peter Scardino's "Prostate Book."]] |
[Ed note: E. W.'s biopsy did show prostate cancer. His treatment is described here.]
Extracting information from data is one of the most interesting of intellectual feats. It was this lure that attracted me to the examining the Mallory & Irvine mystery: so much data, so little information. The New Scientist magazine has described the famous Wllm Fitch Cheney magic trick that extracts a maximum of information from what seems like an impossibly small amount of data. Here is the trick:
Pick any five cards out of a deck and hand them to my assistant Esmerelda. She will reveal to me one card after another until I see four of them. I will then tell her exactly what the fifth card is.
You can do this trick anyway you like: even select the exact cards you want Esmeralda to show (but not the order) and, given the set-up above, I will be able to tell you the fifth card.
This feat, of extracting precious information from limited data has huge significance in cryptology and everyday life. Bridge is a good example, in which expert players try to glean, after a bit of bidding, who has which cards.
In day-to-day intercourse, have we not ever wondered how rumors start when by all accounts, no information has leaked out? True, no information may have leaked, but data certainly has. The secretary did not announce the information that she is in love with her boss; but a split-second loving glance at him was all the data the switchboard operator needed to see. | |
- Caffeine poisoning. Cardiologists are noting that some "normally healthy" people develop an heightened sensitivity to caffeine when exercising (or shortly thereafter). The symptoms vary from tachycardia (rapid heartbeat for 2-3 minutes) to acute nausea, dizziness and vomiting. The tachycardia can be very high--200 bpm. The nausea can vary from a background "feeling funny" to projectile vomiting. The dizziness can go as far as loss of balance and fainting. (If you feel that coming on, quickly drop to the floor so you won't hurt yourself in a fall should you faint.) Even regular coffee drinkers can find themselves afflicted--say by drinking two stronger-than-usual mugs of coffee before or after exercise. This condition is exacerbated by taking a hot bath to sooth those aching muscles. This nausea may also be induced when--heavily hung-over: you drink extra strong coffee and then go for a run to “work it off.” The nausea you experience may not be due to the excess alcohol, but the excess caffeine. (Realize also, that if you were really drunk last night, you may still be legally drunk the next morning. A night's sleep may not be enough to remove all the alcohol from your bloodstream.)
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- Enhanced libido? (Spanish fly that works?)
RWS of New Jersey writes:
Following your advice in "If Atkins Doesn't Work," I began to take 300 mg of alpha lypoic acid (ALA) with breakfast. But ensuing heartburn caused me to experiment with taking it at lunch (that worked much better), and then at dinner. My girlfriend and I work as a small ad/graphic arts agency out of my house. As such, we engage in conjugal activities whenever the mood strikes us, which is about every other day (I am in my mid 50's; she is 20 years younger).
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[Ed note: Too many people complained about the heart burn problem of ALA, and its appetite
suppressing function was only moderate. So that recommendation has been removed and Glucophage (metformin) is now recommended instead.]
My girlfriend noticed that my urges seemed to follow (by about 1-2 hours) the taking of the ALA. She noticed this because at first I would become "frisky" (her word) at 9-10AM. Then when I switched to taking ALA at lunch, around 2PM. And finally at around 8PM when I experimented taking ALA at dinner time. This revelation did not occur to us until months after the fact, so I do not believe it is a placebo effect. ALA also definitely gives me a mild surge of physical energy, so it is also just the ticket to boost the level of your gym work-out. (I can just see the drug companies coming out with Viagra and ALA combined in a new "miracle pill." And sell it for three times as much as the separate articles.)
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Click here for Forbidden Knowledge, Part II
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