Here is the truth: The Earth is round; Saddam Hussein did not attack us
on 9/11; Elvis is dead; Obama was born in the United States; and the
climate crisis is real. It is time to act.

Need a netbook? Toshiba’s latest netbook:

Toshiba NB505-N508BL 10.1-Inch Netbook (Blue)

Toshiba NB505-N508BN 10.1-Inch Netbook (Brown)

Toshiba NB505-N508OR 10.1-Inch Netbook (Orange)

Toshiba NB505-N508GN 10.1-Inch Netbook (Green)

Toshiba NB505-N508TQ 10.1-Inch Netbook (Turquoise)

For price reasons, the netbooks all come with only 1 GB onboard RAM. It is crucial to upgrade:

Crucial CT25664BC1067 2GB 204-PIN PC3-8500 SODIMM DDR3 Memory Module

“Science Myths” in K-6 Textbooks and Popular culture

The complex and abstract nature of Science makes the subject difficult to understand. But complexity is not the only barrier to our understanding Science. The subject is made much more difficult by the presence of numerous misleading “Science Myths” which circulate in the popular culture, which are handed down from parents to children, and which have become so common and widespread that they appear widely in science textbooks and are taught as facts in grade school.

The British Home Secretary, Alan Johnson announced Britain had raised its
terror threat level from substantial to severe, suggesting that an
attack is “highly likely.” He goes on to state: “This means that a terrorist attack is highly likely, but I should stress that there is no intelligence to suggest that an attack is
imminent.”

Take the definition of each of these words, and rewrite the sentence.

Definition of the words:
Likely: having a high probability of occurring or being true : very probable
Imminent: ready to take place

Before: This means that a terrorist attack is highly likely, but I should
stress that there is no intelligence to suggest that an attack is imminent.
After: This means that a terrorist attack has a high probability of
occurring, but I should stress that there is no intelligence to suggest
that an attack is ready to take place.

So what he is really saying is: the terrorists will attack unprepared?

This is not the first time a politician came up with such drivel to keep the sheeple in place: In 2004, US Attorney General John Ashcroft informed law enforcement officials that without a doubt an attack was going to
be perpetrated in the US within the next 6 weeks, prior to the elections.

Don’t be a sheeple! Refuse to be terrorized. Not by terrorists and not by government!

In Sheep’s Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People

Sheep in a Jeep (Read-Along Book & CD)

Came across this website in my search for old computer games, gaming info, emulators and other resources. Truly the most complete I have seen, well laid out and very informative.

The Old Computer Dot Com is dedicated to all aspects of retro computing, collecting and gaming. You will find emulators and Roms for many weird and defunked formats as well as libraries full of material like commercials, magazines and manuals. This website is owned, designed and maintained by one person, namely, Hot Trout.  This site has 56,939 Roms, over 47 Formats, and at my last visit, on the 12th of February listed the last update as on Jan 2010, so not a dead at all.

About 3 years ago, I bought a breadmachine from Boardmans in Menlyn.
Last year in November, the pan section broke and I visited the branch
on a Saturday to obtain a replacement part. On the surface the staff
were very efficient. They promised to phone me back on Monday, with
availability and price information. On Monday I was phoned back. The
suppliers did not have a part in stock, but I was promised that I
would be contacted again.

After 2 weeks my wife inquired again, and
was again promised she would be phoned back. I have since tried via
their website (twice), where I was again promised that someone would
contact me. Reference numbers: 125448720091127S.G.N and
127694920100107S.G.N.

It is now three months since my initial attempt.
I can’t afford to drive to Menlyn every few days. If the part is not
available, I need to know so that I can consider buying a new machine
(not from them though). And also, if it is not available, why are they
selling machines for which parts are not available!

Although this complaint is related to Boardmans, everywhere Edcon (CON -
HAHA!) is used when you try to contact Boardmans.

You are all taking a chance with you health and you life. Take a look at:

1. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bitter-orange/AN01218
   

   With bitter orange, you may develop migraines, fainting, and potentially deadly stroke and heart attack.

2. http://nccam.nih.gov/health/bitterorange/
   

   Many herbal weight-loss products now use concentrated extracts of bitter orange peel in place of ephedra. However, bitter orange contains the chemical synephrine, which is similar to the main chemical in ephedra. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned ephedra because it raises blood pressure and is linked to heart attacks and strokes; it is unclear whether bitter orange has similar effects. There is currently little evidence that bitter orange is safer to use than ephedra.

   There have been reports of fainting, heart attack, and stroke in healthy people after taking bitter orange supplements alone or combined with caffeine.

3. http://www.raysahelian.com/bitterorange.html
   

   Do not take bitter orange daily for many weeks or months without a break.

4. http://www.drugs.com/npp/bitter-orange.html
   

   There are numerous case reports of adverse cardiac reactions associated with C. aurantium extract use.

5. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/expert.q.a/07/31/bitter.orange.extract.appetite.jampolis/
   

   As soon as they stop taking the pills, their appetite returns, and they regain weight.

6. http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/bitter_orange
   And you know there are issues once the lawyers get involved:

   On July 27, 2004, the FDA announced that it is going to start looking into the safety of alternatives to Ephedra. One product that has filled the market niche of Ephedra is Bitter Orange (generic name: Citrus Aurantium). It contains Synerphrine, which brings about stimulation similar to Ephedra and many believe that it is as dangerous as Ephedra.

7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_orange
   

   “While bitter orange has not undergone formal safety testing, it can cause the same spectrum of adverse events as ephedra.^[7] Case reports have linked bitter orange supplements to strokes,^[8][9] angina,^[10] and ischemic colitis.^[11] The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that “there is currently little evidence that bitter orange is safer to use than ephedra.”^[4] There is no evidence that bitter orange is effective in promoting weight loss.”

8. http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7430
   

   A lot of people will die waiting to get it off the market, Woolsey says.

Saying “Luckily the only side affect that I experienced“, means you took a gamble, and thought you won. But the casinos win on average most of the time. And judging by the comments on hellopeter.com, the casino is winning again.

There seems to be some problem with WordPress 2.9′s scheduler function. I have now used the solution as described at Semiologic, and will see if it works.

I’m a Photographer, not a Terrorist

Mass Gathering in defence of street photography

To the Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse (terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers), governments worldwide are now attempting to add a fifth – the photographer. Be informed; a good place to start is The Register:

1. Police snapper silliness reaches new heights
2. Lord Carlile: Police are taking the proverbial on terror
3. Police, Cameras, Pixellation
4. Too-tall terror snapper stopped by cops again
5. Kent Police clamp down on tall photographers
6. El Reg Street View snappers caught on camera
7. New terror guidelines on photography
8. No snapping: Photographers get collars felt
9. So, what can you photograph?
10. The war on photographers – you’re all al Qaeda suspects now

Recommended reading: Schneier on Security

]]> http://word.chaos.co.za/2009/12/14/quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes/feed 0 http://word.chaos.co.za/2009/03/25/message-in-the-salad-bowl http://word.chaos.co.za/2009/03/25/message-in-the-salad-bowl#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:43:28 +0000 Marius http://word.chaos.co.za/?p=218 A response to a recent email I received. The uncommented version is available in a previous post. God puts a sign in the food we eat! A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye…and YES science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood [...]]]>

A response to a recent email I received. The uncommented version is available in a previous post.

God puts a sign in the food we eat!

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye…and YES science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

Blue-green eye

It seems the whole story started with a grain of truth found in the carrot. And then took on a life of its own. But carrots are not just specifically good for eyes. Anti-oxidants in carrots aid in the protection against cardiovascular disease, cancer and vision; specifically night vision. But it does not so much enhance the function of the eye; it supplies a compound – rhodopsin – essential for night vision.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research show tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Tomato: Sliced horisontally (By FoeNyx; CCASA 1.0)

Not all tomatoes has four chambers and they come in a variety of colours (red, yellow, orange, pink, black, brown, ivory, white, and purple) and shapes (kidney, globe, plum, strawberry, round).

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

Red blood cell of a frog

A red blood cell is normally described as being being a biconcave disk (almost like a doughnut with the hole filled in). I would not advocate doughnuts as part of a healthy diet. The other five cells are round; vary greatly in size ; they just travel in the blood; and for the most part perform their function elsewhere. None of the blood cells are formed in the blood but in places like the bone marrow. Once formed, they can not be vitalized. They perform their function, and get recycled.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Prosopium cylindraceum

The health benefits of walnuts are related to their high content of omega-3 fatty acids. These are also found in salmon and flax seeds. No brain message in salmon and flax seed. Walnuts also help protect the cardiovascular system.

Illustration of flax

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Yes, kidney beans do have health benefits. I could not find any health benefits related to kidneys derived from kidney beans. In fact, raw kidney beans can contain excessively high amounts of a potentially toxic substance called phytohemagglutinin and contain high levels of purines. Gout and kidney stones are related to the excessive intake of purine-containing foods.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength.. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak.. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Sodium in celery: 80 mg per 100 g serving (0.08%)

Sodium in rhubarb: 4 mg per 100 g serving (0.004%)

Too much sodium is, in fact, not at all good for you. It causes high blood pressure and is related to heart attacks. It is recommended that an adult consume less than 2400 mg of salt per day. Bone does consist of about 15% calcium by dry weight, not sodium.

So what is the amount of calcium in these foods:

Calcium in celery: 40 mg per 100 g serving (0.04%)

Calcium in rhubarb: 86 mg per 100 g serving (0.086%)

(Unfortunately I don’t have the nutritional data of bok choy in my database).

Rhubarb is a good source of calcium, but a much better source of calcium is milk, cheese and yoghurt. And it would require some pretty nimble mental arithmetic to get to 15% on any of these.

Milk: 123 mg per 100 g serving

Low fat swiss: 961 mg per 100 g serving

Yoghurt: 199 mg per 100 g serving

Raw Sesame: 420 mg per 100 g serving

It would be a far stretch of the imagination to get from the structure of bone to a sesame seed.

Eggplant, Avocados and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female – they look just like these organs. Today’s research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? …. It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Photolytic means the chemical decomposition induced by light or other radiant energy. How this relates to nutrition is unknown. What is more likely meant is phytonutrients. Of these slightly more than 141 has been named and studied. As for avocados, one of the problems in growing them is determining when to harvest the fruit. Mexican types ripen in 6 – 8 months from bloom while Guatemalan types usually take 12 – 18 months. The correct harvest time will determine the fruit quality. They do not ripen on the tree but immature fruits will not ripen properly and shrivel and dry up without ripening. Although avocado might help with cervical cancers, no direct reference to this is available. Avocados do provide significant protection against breast, prostate and oral cancer. In cases where it is advocated in the prevention of cancer of the cervix, this is mentioned in the same line as flax seeds, olives and fruits and vegetables.

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Figs are helpful in blood pressure, losing weight, breast cancer, diabetes, maintaining bone density, has cardiovascular effects and protect against macular degeneration. No mention of the male reproductive system. Figs are just one of many foods supplying nutrients involved in healthy sperm.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

I know what a pancreas look like, and it aint not a sweet potato! And I have seen and eaten many sweet potatoes, and they never reminded me of a pancreas.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

And I have also seen olives and ovaries. An ovary does not have a hard centre nodule rich in oil. And olives is slightly poisonous if not chemically processed to get rid of the bad stuff. But I would not deny the health benefit of cooking with olive oil as opposed to sunflower oil.

Grapefruits, Oranges, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Ok… When discussing the mammary gland of the female in the context of fruit, melons do come to mind. And watermelons… But an orange? They do look like the secretory unit of the salivary glands. And lymph tend to move out of things, never really into. And out of almost everything in the body and back to the blood.

Onions look like body cells. Today’s research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes

Not mine they don’t, last time I checked my histology. The closest structure in the body that looks like an onion is the Pacinian corpuscle in palmar skin. Epithelium in the eyes is only a few layers thick. They protect a very sensitive inside. Tears are produced to wash away toxic substances that are IRRITATING the eye. In this case, the onion is releasing a gas that reacts with the water of the eye to form a mild solution of sulfuric acid. I have seen what sulphuric acid can do to floors, cloths and furniture. Not exactly something I want in my eyes. It is listed as a hazardous substance with a pH of below 1 as opposed to the pH of 7.4 of tears.

What does this all come down to: Very simple. Eat plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and unprocessed food; preferably grown by yourself or bought directly from a farmer and not a large multi-national conglomerate; and prepared slowly with care and attention. In our attempts to find a quick fix to every problem in our lifes, we grab these little truths blended with a large portion of untruths, spread it as gospel and end up even further behind in the big rat race of life.

Relax, the rats have won.

1. The World’s Healthiest Foods
2. God’s Pharmacy – A Lesson In Simple-Minded Bullshit Thinking
3. Eat for a killer immunity

And to read: