I’m waiting and watching as the votes continue to come in (albeit more slowly now) on the ‘to dissect ‘or ‘not to dissect’ issue. I’ll probably tally them over the weekend.
The whole l’affaire Colpo has gotten a little intense, so why don’t we all lighten up with a little humor before heading off into our weekends.
Here is a YouTube clip, stunning in its complexity, that shows what can be done if you’ve got way, way, way too much time on your hands.
[youtube]5-ddCXUeub4[/youtube]
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Check out this link to an hilarious animation of daily life for the Boomer generation. The sad thing is that for many it is all too true. (Hat tip to my wife for this one)
If any of my readers out there know how to embed videos like this one, please let me know. I figured out how to embed YouTubes, but that’s about the extent of my technical knowhow.
And, finally, a Bill Maher routine on all the pharmaceutical ads. I really loved the part about how all the drug companies figure a way to put an ‘X’ in the names of their products. A company I’m involved with just came up with a new supplement for heartburn, and we put an ‘X’ in its name just like the big guys. (Warning: It’s Bill Maher on stage, so some of the language is a little risqué)
(Hat tip to Wil for this video)
[youtube]TfDSlfVqjx8[/youtube]
Have a good weekend.

15 Comments

  4. This doesn’t have much to do with your post, but it has to do with mood elevating:
    I’d like to see your opinion about tanning booths. In the winter months, where I live, we get about zero sunshine exposure. With my current diet, I’m probably getting about no vitamin D every day. I haven’t have any decent sun exposure since the month of august.
    I’m curious about how much U.Is are produced vs. the sun, and how often should we tan. What I’m worried about is that this artificial tanning is much stronger, so if it is too long, the vitamin D might get destroyed. When you suntan outside, you usually tan on one side, then get on the other side, and so on, so I guess that the vitamin D gets a chance to be absorbed, so that you can produce some more when you come back to that side. Tanning booths have an advantage though: a full body UVb exposure, something that is not possible around here when tanning outside…
    I’m going to start tanning next week, probably twice a week, only 5 minutes to begin. Since this will be the main change in my habits, I hope to be able to notice if it has an impact on my mood, my energy levels, my sleep, and perhaps my strength (weight training).
    Thanks
    Hi Max–
    I’m no expert on tanning booths, but I do know that the wave length that tans is UVA. The wave length that burns is UVB. UVB also stimulates vitamin D synthesis. As I understand it, tanning beds produce primarily UVA, which would make sense considering people go to tanning beds to get tanned, not burned.
    Why don’t you simply take a vitamin D3 supplement. They’re dirt cheap. Take at least 5,000 IU per day during the winter season – I take that much every day that I don’t go into the sun, summer and winter alike. A recent review article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition stated that even 10,000 IU per day isn’t too high.
    So, were I you, I would check on the wavelength of the light in the tanning beds before I spent much time in them. If I found it to be primarily UVA, I would avoid them like the plague. UVA is the wavelength that stimulates the melanocytes and increases the risk for melanoma, a very nasty cancer.
    Regular sun exposure gives you both UVA and UVB. The UVB produces vitamin D, which is protects against the development of melanoma as a consequence of the UVA exposure. As you develop a tan, you are protected even more.
    The worst set up for melanoma is to go out in the sun for long periods using a UVB sunblock. The sunblock allows you to spend a lot more time in the sun without getting burned while also allowing you to get a whopping dose of UVA.
    Good luck.
    Cheers–
    MRE

    Reply

  8. Maxwell Hola..ref sunlight.
    Try getting a Solux 24 degree 50 watt 12 V 3500K bulb.
    Afore i came to the land of drizzle..Vancouver..i was 3 yrs in sun drenched sub Sah Afrique.
    Using a homeemade lightbox in the Autumn and Winter is quite wonderful.
    Dead easy and cheap to make and if i can do it anyone can.
    Am at supachramp at yahoo dot com should you need more info
    Hey Simon–
    Thanks for the info. I’ve always lived where there is a lot of sun, so I’ve never had to worry, and, consequently, never researched it much. Glad you’ve done the work.
    And this throws off UVB and UVA?
    Best–
    MRE

    Reply

  9. I don’t watch TV and don’t have cable, but this Maher fellow is what I find in most good comedians, both intelligent and funny. However, when I googled him, he seems to be affiliated with PETA, although he claims he eats meat, just not a lot of it. I suppose our feelings about Pharma reflect those of PETA as well. I wonder what else we have in common?
    I live further north than our dear friend Simon so I supplement with cod liver oil as there is absolutely no sun to be found here except for maybe 6 hours per day and it’s too cold to go outside comfortably without covering the entire body including the face. However, in the summer we have about 18-20 hours of sun daily so we are happy, happy, happy. Especially the golfers who are out there at 11:00 pm when it’s cooler. Can I digress or what?
    Didn’t know about Maher’s PETA affiliation. I’ll have to view him with a more jaundiced eye from now on.
    I’ve never played golf in the far north where it stays daylight forever in the summer. Maybe next year.
    Cheers–
    MRE

    Reply

  10. Dr.Mike,
    Here is one way to embed the Flash video. View the the source of the page that has the video and search for .swf. Then just copy the tag and insert it into your blog, here is the one for the Boomer generation.
    I hope the above tag gets through you comment system.
    Dan
    Hey Dan–
    The tag didn’t make it through. In fact, the entire comment got gobbled by my spam filter, which must have removed the tag in the process.
    Question: How does one ‘view the source of the page’?
    Thanks–
    MRE

    Reply

  11. In IE when viewing the page with the flash video on it, select the View menu and then select the source item. In other browsers you there should be a similar option in their menus. You can also right click the page to get the menu as well, I believe this will also work with Firefox and Safari browsers. Once you see the code behind the page with the video on it, just search for .swf which is the extension used for Flash videos. When you find the location of the link to the file it will look like this below:
    Lessthansymbol embed src=”h t t p : / / w w w . newsday.com/media/flash/2007-11/33678461.swf” height=335 width=450″ greaterthansymbol
    I put spaces in above to keep it from being rejected, hope it gets through.
    And below is another attempt with a code tag:


    You should be able to add this tag the same way you do the YouTube video, you may need to use the standard text entry tool and not the wysiwyg one.
    Dan
    Hey Dan–
    Thanks. I’ll give it a try. Your post got hung up in the spam filter again, and it extracted your tag along the way.
    Best–
    MRE

    Reply

  12. Here’s something else to take your mind off AC. The one thing I can say about this video, is that she is consistent! (Plus it boggles my mind to think that this was practiced and coached!!)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wffwg7pA0t8
    On another note, I found an interesting post on the Fanatic Cook (www.fanaticcook.com, I think) about a study concerning who profits from the epidemic of diabetes and obesity. You need to scroll down a bit to get to it but it’s very revealing. (I don’t know how to go directly there….)
    Continued thanks for your great advice and information!
    Something to take my mind off of AC… I would rather be tied to a stake in the middle of the desert and have the entire works of AC read to me by the nasally woman who did the consumer reports video than to watch that YouTube again. I’m with the commenter who wrote: Has she hung herself yet?
    Here is the link to the post you were citing. It is indeed true that all those people profit from the diabetes epidemic, but it goes deeper than that. It’s a subject worthy of a longer post.
    Cheers–
    MRE

    Reply

  13. Thanks for the comment and the link to the article I mentioned. I hope you can write something more on that subject (i.e., “Who profits from the diabetes epidemic?”)
    As for the video, I almost couldn’t get through it either. I just kept hoping that she would hit at least one note on pitch or with good tone. It was quite painful. The one positive thing that I noted was that she had good foot turn-out on her duck walk….
    I’ve subsequently discovered that trumpets can be tuned, and if they’re not tuned with the orchestra (or the music if played on tape) that this very thing can happen. And when it does, one has no choice but to either soldier on or quit. Maybe she’s got more chutzpah than we gave her credit for. I would have dissolved on the stage.
    Cheers–
    MRE

    Reply

  14. On the kinetic motion machine. There’s an artist who does these, only the video is better, the motion more, well, composed, generally in black&white or sepia tones. I’ve seen his videos at the MOMA in NY and one of the galleries here in DC (can’t remember if it was the Hirshorn or the National Gallery East Building). Really long, crazy stuff, but elegant. This one wasn’t bad, but not the same level of accomplishment. Forgot to ask my wife if she remembers the name.

    Reply

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