It's Called Homeopathic Medicine

     

Tucson Weather Today

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After having heard about so-called miraculous cures and unexplainable results from natural medications, I became interested in matters of Homeopathic Medicine. There is no shortage of information on that subject.

According to the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, which included a comprehensive survey of the use of complementary health practices by Americans, an estimated 3.9 million adults and 910,000 children used homeopathy in the previous year. These estimates include use of over-the-counter products labeled as "homeopathic," as well as visits with a homeopathic practitioner. Out-of-pocket costs for adults were $2.9 billion for homeopathic medicines and $170 million for visits to homeopathic practitioners.

Wow! That's a lot of money. The ill and the ailing people of America spend billions of dollars each year on snake oil and voodoo charms and witch-doctors? And that's after discovering that their multitudes of fervent prayers to their Lord and all their tithes and offerings have done them no good.

It has been reported that Hillary Rodham Clinton has been known to send homeopathic remedies to her colleagues. That must mean something; don't ya' think?

Yeah... it means something all  right.

Regarding homeopathy... as Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper might say, "It's all hokum."

Note: Sheldon Cooper is played by Jim Parsons on The Big Bang Theory.

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TRIVIA

Betsy Ross, Jackie Onassis, JFK, and Daniel Boone have all appeared on Pez dispensers.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, August 12 in 1990, fossil hunter Susan Hendrickson discovered three huge bones jutting out of a cliff near Faith, South Dakota. They turned out to be part of the largest-ever Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever discovered, a 65 million-year-old specimen. Amazingly, Sue's skeleton was over 90 percent complete, and the bones were extremely well-preserved. It has a length of 42 fteet, stands 14 feet tall at the hips, and is estimated to have weighed more than 6.4 tons when alive.

The skeleton was named Sue, after its discoverer. Sue was the first T.Rex skeleton to be discovered with a wishbone, a crucial discovery that provided support for scientists’ theory that birds are a type of living dinosaur.

In October 1997, Chicago's Field Museum purchased Sue at public auction at Sotheby's in New York City for $8.36 million, financed in part by the McDonald's and Disney corporations.

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WORD FOR TODAY

homeopathy [home-ee-op'-uh-the]
noun
A system for the treatment of disease by minute doses of natural substances that in a healthy person would produce symptoms of disease.
synonyms
mumbo-jumbo; scam; phony-baloney; bullshit

Homeopathy is a system of alternative medicine originated in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann, based on his doctrine of "like cures like", according to which a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people. It is widely considered a pseudoscience.

Scientific research has repeatedly found homeopathic remedies ineffective and their postulated mechanisms of action implausible. The scientific community regards homeopathy as a sham; the American Medical Association considers homeopathy to be quackery, and homeopathic practice has been criticized as unethical.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

George Stevens Hamilton

(born August 12, 1939)

George Hamilton is an American film and television actor. One of his best-known MGM films was the iconic Where the Boys Are (1960. He went on to star with George Peppard as a soldier in 1963's The Victors, and as a Confederate captain in a 1967 drama, A Time for Killing.

Hamilton made two memorable bio-pics: Your Cheatin' Heart (1964), in which he portrayed the country-western music legend Hank Williams, followed by Evel Knievel (1971),

A surprise blockbuster hit came his way in 1979 when Hamilton showed a flair for comedy in Love at First Bite. The film's box-office success created a popularity surge for Hamilton, who followed it with a comic portrayal of a famed swordsman in 1981's Zorro, the Gay Blade.

Yvette Nicole Brown

(born August 12, 1971)

Nicole Brown is an American actress and comedienne. Brown has appeared in various commercials, television shows, and films throughout her career. She has appeared on The War At Home, Malcolm in the Middle, That's So Raven, and the U.S. version of The Office. She also had a recurring role as movie theater manager Helen Dubois in the Nickelodeon TV show Drake & Josh. Currently, she appears as Shirley Bennett on the NBC comedy series Community.

Stuart Bruce Greenwood

(born August 12, 1956)

Bruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor and musician. He is generally known for his roles as U.S. presidents in Thirteen Days and National Treasure: Book of Secrets and for his role as Captain Christopher Pike in the 2009 Star Trek film and its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness. He has appeared in several supporting roles, such as Hollywood Homicide, Double Jeopardy, Déjà Vu, I, Robot, Dinner for Schmucks, Capote, and as the motion capture alien dubbed "Cooper" in Super 8.

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger 

(August 12, 1887 - January 1961)

Erwin Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in the field of quantum theory, which formed the basis of wave mechanics.

Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Schrödinger in 1935. It was recently made popular to the general public when explained in an episode of The Big Bang Theory, The philosophical issues raised by Schrödinger's cat are still debated today.

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There's a gullible side to the American people. They can be easily misled. Religion is the best device used to mislead them.
--Michael Moore

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

     

Overweight, Obesity, And Natural Gullibility

     

Tucson Weather Today

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We here in the United States have been indoctrinated by the food industry, aided by those loosely associated with that industry, the chefs, the TV cooking show personalities, and the profiteering charlatans who claim to know the secrets of vitamins, nutrition, and gastronomical health. The indoctrination to which I refer is the unquestioned absoluteness of the notion that the only food that should be eaten is food that has been prepared for consumption by enhancing that food's flavor or adding other elements to create additional pleasant flavors to the food being prepared.

This, to me, makes no sense. One of the most prevalent maladies in the United States is reported to be obesity. What is the most probable reason for this? I would guess that it is the ubiquitous practice of pleasure-seeking overeating. Why do obese people continue to eat more (much more) food than their bodies  actually need, and often much more than they actually want to eat?

Why?

Because it tastes so damned good. That's why. If a little bit is good, then more has to be even better.

And yet Rachael Ray, the once perky (now porky) queen of the popular daytime cooking show continues to prepare tubs and overflowing  platters of yummy, delicious, flavor-filled foods before your very eyes each weekday. And proclaims them to be healthy and nutritious.

And yet, Martha Stewart (no longer svelte and fetching) teaches you How To Bake by whipping up Cakes and Pastries loaded with tons of butter, cream, sugar, and wheat flower. And declares it to be luscious... and soooo good.

And yet, Lidia Bastianich (large and larded Italian Mama) graces the PBS television screen with recipes filled with high-calorie, high-fat, delicious food, And delicious wines.

To be fair, all of the above showmen (show-people?) appear to be cooking for a huge crowd and, of course, expecting you, the viewer, to eat only a small, normal, sensible portion of the sumptuous spread they've shown you how to prepare and present to your friends and families.

And you will. You, being the strong-willed, intelligent, in-charge person that you are, you will treat yourself to only a tiny piece of that sweet, creamy cake with the butter creme frosting.

Sure, you will.


How much do I weigh, now, at age 74? My weight varies between 172 and 175 pounds.

How much should I weigh?

Well, I felt pretty well when I weighed 160 pounds, back in 2008, 2009, and 2010... and even better a few years back when I averaged 150 pounds for about ten years. And I felt GREAT during the early to middle 1980s, when I weighed between 145 to 150 pounds.

That's about as well as I can describe myself relative to body weight.

I would like to get my weight down to somewhere between 150 and 160 pounds. Maybe I will start recording my daily weight here on the blog. And perhaps a record of my daily food intake -- what I eat, and how much of it. And eschewing, of course, all added sugars, all wheat products, and as few fats as possible.

I'll think about it.

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TRIVIA

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit will damage it.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

Some 35 U.S. states declared it to be Bob Hope Day on this day, May 29, in 2003, when the iconic comedic actor and entertainer turned 100 years old. Hope died on July 27, 2003, less than two months after his 100th birthday celebration.

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WORD FOR TODAY

gastronomy
-  the art or science of good eating
-  culinary customs or style

Gastronomy is the art of food eating. It is also the study of food and culture, with a particular focus on gourmet cuisine. One who is well versed in gastronomy is called a gastronome, while a gastronomist is one who unites theory and practice in the study of gastronomy.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy
(May 29, 1917 - Nov, 22, 1963)

John F. Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his death in 1963.

After military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts' 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election.

At 43 years of age, he is the youngest to have been elected to the office, the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president. A Catholic, Kennedy is the only non-Protestant president, and is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and early stages of the Vietnam War.

Annette Carol Bening
(born May 29, 1958)

Annette Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia, and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films.

Bob Hope
(May 29, 1903 - July 27, 2003)

Bob Hope was an English-born American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, author, and athlete who appeared on Broadway, in vaudeville, movies, television, and on the radio. He was noted for his numerous United Service Organizations (USO) shows entertaining American military personnel; he made 57 tours for the USO between 1942 and 1988. Throughout his long career, he was honored for this work. In 1996, the U.S. Congress declared him the "first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces."

Over a career spanning 60 years (1934 to 1994), Hope appeared in over 70 films and shorts, including a series of "Road" movies co-starring Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. In addition to hosting the Academy Awards fourteen times, he appeared in many stage productions and television roles, and was the author of fourteen books. He participated in the sports of golf and boxing, and owned a small stake in his hometown baseball team, the Cleveland Indians. He was married to his wife, fellow performer Dolores Hope for 69 years.

Danielle Riley Keough
(born May 29, 1989)

Riley Keough is an American model and actress. She is the daughter of singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough and the eldest grandchild of Elvis and Priscilla Presley.

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Gluttony is not a secret vice.
--Orson Welles
  

Don't Believe Everything You Know

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Why do so many people in the United States continue to eat spinach in such great quantities? It is a good source of vitamin K and iron, we're told, but we get vitamin K and iron from a great many other foods as well. Spinach does not taste particularly good. It has a bitter flavor (in my opinion) when eaten raw and unembellished. For years I have wondered why so many people recommend eating lots and lots of spinach, and swear that it is a miraculous food.

Well, I recently found out why this phenomenon exists. It is because, at least partially, a goodly number of Americans are so childishly naive and incredibly gullible, and have been purposely misinformed.

How?

The answer is here

Of course, as I said, this is just my opinion, and I am sometimes wrong.

(Not often, though)

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I recently found, watched, and enjoyed a half-hour youtube video titled: The Big Bang Theory - How it all started and thought that someone reading this blog, whether familiar or not with The Big Bang Theory TV series might like to view it.

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Would you believe that I baked three pies? Well, they were not prepared from-scratch, nor were they full-size pies, but were those little Banquet frozen ones that are about the size of what are called tarts, although a tart is defined as a small, shallow pie, without a top crust, filled with fruit, custard, or the like. These (pictured below) have a top crust and are filled, one of each, with berries, peaches, and apple slices, so I suppose they should not be called tarts, but little fruit pies.

These little pies cost only 89 cents each and they bake in half and hour at an oven temperature of 400 degrees F. And, to my somewhat aged taste buds, they are absolutely delicious. They probably contain way too many chemical preservatives, pesticide residues, and other myriad toxins... but, "Boy oh boy do they taste good."

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WORD FOR TODAY

gullible
adjective
-  naive and easily deceived or tricked.
-  easily tricked because of being too trusting.
-  not alert to danger or deception.
synonyms
trusting, innocent, naive, unsuspecting, green, simple, silly, foolish, unsophisticated, credulous,

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 CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Jane Leeves
(born 18 April 1961)

 

Jane Leeves made her screen debut with a small role in the 1983 popular British comedy television show The Benny Hill Show.

Leeves moved to the United States, where she performed in small roles until she secured a recurring part in the television sitcom Murphy Brown. In 1986–1988, Leeves garnered her first leading role in the short-lived sitcom Throb and, in 1993, achieved wider fame as Daphne Moon on the television sitcom Frasier for the entire run of the series, from 1993 until 2004, for which she was nominated for Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards during the show's run. She received further recognition for her performances in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), James and the Giant Peach (1996), Music of the Heart (1999) and The Event (2003). In June 2010, Leeves returned to acting, as Joy on TV Land's sitcom Hot in Cleveland.

James Howard Woods
(born April 18, 1947)

 

James Woods is an American film, stage and television actor. After his first Golden Globe nomination for a breakthrough role in The Onion Field (1979), Woods has starred in Once Upon a Time in America, Oliver Stone films Salvador and Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, and in legal series Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards (for tele-movies Promise and My Name Is Bill W., and for the animated series of Hercules). He has been twice nominated for an Academy Award. His voice work has been heard in the animated series Family Guy, The Simpsons, Disney movie Hercules as Hades and the video game Grand Theft Auto.

Melissa Joan Catherine Hart
(born April 18, 1976)

 

Melissa Joan Hart is an American actress, writer, television director, television producer, singer and business woman. Hart is best known for her title roles in the television series Clarissa Explains It All (1991–94), the live action version of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1996–2003), and Melissa & Joey (2010–present).

Frederick Allan "Rick" Moranis
(born April 18, 1953)

 

Rick Moranis is a retired Canadian/American actor. Moranis came to prominence around 1980 in the sketch comedy show Second City Television, and later appeared in several Hollywood films including Strange Brew, Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, Little Shop of Horrors, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (and its sequels), Little Giants, Parenthood, The Flintstones and My Blue Heaven.

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There's a gullible side to the American people. They can be easily misled. Religion is the best device used to mislead them.
--Michael Moore
    

Hey Kids... What Day Is It?

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Tucson Weather Today

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Is today Good Friday?

Or is today Earth Day?

According to the Christian religion, the Friday before Easter Sunday is celebrated because on this day Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, was crucified to death.

According to the Earth Day Network Earth Day is celebrated by a billion people, making it the world's largest secular holiday.

The Word for This Day is gullible.

gullible
adjective
naive and easily deceived or tricked

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A while back I wrote about a Hormel pre-prepared, non-refrigerated meal sold in the grocery stores for a couple dollars that I really liked. Well, I still like it.

Heat in Microwave Oven or in Boiling Water

A delicious 200-calorie meal

I have no idea if this little tidbit is nutritionally sound or not... and I don't care. It tastes good. The flavor reminds me, believe it or not, of the chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy that my Grandma Morris used to fix for the family. And no, I am not joking. Try it, if you don't believe me, and I'll bet you'll like it too.

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"I try to be candid and level with people, and not purvey a bunch of horseshit."
--Richard Ford

Just A Couple Of Things . . .

Tucson Weather Today
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What is tragedy?

An online dictionary definition is: an event resulting in great loss and misfortune.

Another definition is: a literary genre depicting serious actions that usually have a disastrous outcome for the protagonist.

Below is my immediate thought on the matter:


one example
of a terrible tragedy
occurred to me
and it is this

a lifelong pious person
when at the effing end
lingering at death's door
in silent contemplation
on death's disinterested bed
discovers that this entire life
was based on a calculated lie


How effing sad is that?

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Have you ever been reading along and all at once a lurking line leaps out at you and grabs you by the throat, and suddenly you can't swallow and you cannot catch your breath and moisture mists your vision, and you feel one of those tremendous shocks of memory's fickle recollection that screams, "Yes, that's exactly how I feel" and you realize that this poet whose thoughts you've been reading has at one time felt that same stab of piercing sadness that sometimes nearly overwhelms you? Such as:

I had a love once too who now is
gone, is gone, she's gone...

The above is from a poem, In A Cafe written by Garrison Keillor and when I first read it, I was nearly overwhelmed with the memory of a thing that once was and no longer is.

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I ordered one of those extremely low cost used books from Amazon.com to find out if Mo Hayder is truly the talented master (mistress?) of engaging writing that she has been trumpeted as being.

Mo Hayder

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I read somewhere that coconut water is good for one's health. So I researched the claim. After doing so I came to the conclusion that this is nothing more than another marketing ploy designed to extract money from the gullible. Filtered water probably is just as healthy as is coconut water.

Of course, one should never discount the health benefits arising from the placebo effect -- if paying three or four dollars for a serving of coconut water makes you believe you will become more healthy by drinking it, then by all means do so.

Penn and Teller illustrate the placebo effect.

We human animals are so ludicrously gullible.

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Today's entry seems way too skimpy -- if I think of something else to include, I'll insert it here later...

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