Random Internet Discovery of the Week

Okay, right as I’m moved to ditch the RID entirely, I finally find something worth commenting on. Because this is pretty much pseudoscience.

First of all, I kind of doubt the underlying idea that cravings for certain types of food are really cravings for the things those foods contain. Especially when one of the claims is that if you’ve got a hankering for alcohol or drugs, it’s not because you have an addiction to the drugs themselves; you just need to find alternate sources of protein, calcium, and potassium! (Similarly, if you’ve got a hankering for tobacco, it’s not nicotine you’re craving, but silicon and tyrosine!) Second, that’s just one example of these people providing one thing and then a laundry list of things you might really be craving instead to the extent you wonder “Wouldn’t it be easier to give in to the craving and not have to pick one thing from column A and one from column B?”

Oh, and “bread” or “toast”? These people really believe in the Atkins diet and other low-carb diets, don’t they? Then again, they think “cool drinks” are a sign you need manganese and should gorge on things like walnuts instead of a sign you need, oh I don’t know, hydration or, say, to cool off

Speaking of hydration, if you have a preference for liquids rather than solids, what you need is water (and you should get it from flavored water? WTF?). On the other hand, if you have a preference for solids rather than liquids, you also need water because you’re so dehydrated you’ve lost your thirst!

Then again, it’s all coming from a naturopathy site preaching one guy’s back-to-nature New Age crap, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised at the misinformation… (No, wait, it’s the mainstream that’s peddling misinformation! It all makes sense now!)

Random Internet Discovery of the Week

Yes, my laptop is back in proper working order.

I was directed to the specific image, not the page itself, and I find it fascinating that there are lights popping up only in what could be called “civilized” areas. Not just localized in cities; almost exclusively in the US, Europe, and to a lesser extent, India, East Asia, and for whatever reason, the southeast coast of South America.

Da Blog Poll on the future of the RID is being extended through the end of June. Someone is going to tell me what to do with the RID if it’s the last thing I do.

Random Internet Discovery of the Week

I’ve had several occasions to watch “The Elegant Universe” and found it fascinating as much for its means of presentation as for its subject matter. But I’ve never seen the third part; pledge-break-filled versions, the only ones I’ve actually seen on my PBS stations, always omit the third part to get you to buy the DVD, and while I watched it on DVD in my high school physics class the teacher never got to the third part there either, and I’m not sure he even finished the second part. If I hadn’t wasted most of my morning and wasn’t on a time crunch regardless I might take this as an opportunity to finally see it. Maybe tomorrow.

Should I point out the new label or are you smart enough to figure it out on your own?