I finally found a gang I wouldn’t mind joining. Except I don’t think I am cool enough.
The world’s coolest gang.
Page 17 of 110
Need a dose of common-sense? Watch this. Even if you have seen it before, it is worth another look.
Also, homeopathy is stupid. So is naturopathy. So is chiropractic. None of these have any basis in science or reality. None of them work. Don’t waste your money.
My chiropractor told me I don’t have the gene for autism, so it must have been caused by something else, probably vaccines.
I blame hair conditioner. Widespread use of hair conditioner began in the seventies, shortly before the alarming rise in diagnoses of autism. Well, what do you expect, rubbing chemicals into your head? Even now, places where hair conditioner is not used have a far lower reported incidence of autism. The more hair conditioner a population uses, the higher the rate of autism diagnosis in that community.
Well, no. I don’t really think autism is caused by hair conditioner, though that correlation does exist.
This is the kind of argument frequently used by anti-vaccination campaigners; this happened, then that happened, so this must have caused that. My child was vaccinated, then I noticed his ears turning purple. That had never happened before. Big pharma is trying to poison us!
This kind of faulty reasoning is so old and so common it has a name; post hoc ergo propter hoc. After this therefore because of this. The ancient Greeks and Romans knew this did not necessarily follow over two thousand years ago.
But anti-vaxxers still manage to fool some people, potentially endangering themselves, their children, and others.
A couple of years ago in a doctors office in Perth, a nurse was drawing down a vaccine to administer to a four year old girl. The child began having convulsions while she was waiting with her mother. If her convulsions had started just a few minutes later, medical staff would never have been able to convince her parents they were not caused by the vaccine.
Just because something happens after something else does not mean the first thing caused the second.
CO2 is not a driver of climate. Climate changes constantly. There is no long-term correlation between rises in CO2 and subsequent rises in globally averaged temperatures.
CO2 is vital for all life on earth. At levels below 300 ppm, plant growth and productivity begins to be severely impaired. Optimum levels for plant growth seems to be about 1000ppm. This is the level greenhouse operators aim for to give maximum growth and yields. Humans and other animals cope easily with levels as high as 4,000 ppm. Our exhaled breath contains as much as 35,00ppm and is safely used for CPR.
Atmospheric CO2 is currently at near its lowest level ever on geological timescales.
Changes in CO2 do not drive changes in climate.
In 1916 the ship the City of Adelaide was wrecked near Magnetic Island in Queensland. This is what remains now.
Wreck of the City of Adelaide, off Magnetic Island, Queensland, Australia
Seems like an appropriate time for one of my favourite poems:
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said — “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
For almost everyone, multivitamins and supplements are not necessary, do not work, and are probably harmful.
Taking vitamin A dramatically increases the risk of developing lung cancer in smokers.
Excess intake of vitamin E increases mortality (in other words, you are likely to die sooner), increases rates of heart failure, and significantly increases the risk of prostate cancer.
Taking calcium supplements actually increases the risk of suffering a hip fracture, as well as increasing the risk of death from cardio-vascular disease.
Taking anti-oxidants increases your risk of getting colon cancer.
If you are pregnant, a dark-skinned person who lives in a cold or dark environment, a diabetic who takes metformin, or if you have been on high dose of a proton pump inhibitor for more than a year, you should talk to you doctor (a real medical doctor, not a scammer like a chiropractor or naturopath), who will check, and if necessary advise about possible short term supplementation.
For everyone else, unless you have been diagnosed with a specific deficiency, vitamins and supplements are more likely to harm you than do you good. And yet people in the USA spend more than $32 billion per year on them.
“A driver who flipped the bird at a traffic camera is about to be a jailbird.
A court in England has sentenced Timothy Hill, 67, to eight months in prison after he was caught using an illegal laser jammer to avoid speeding tickets.”
Timothy Hill, radar speed trap jammer and moron.
OK, Timothy Hill is an idiot. And probably not a very nice person. Speeding is not OK, and being rude to law enforcement is stupid. But eight months in jail? When Yorkshire police apparently don’t have time to investigate burglaries, common assaults or the mass rape of teenage girls? Something is very wrong here.
We all know resources are limited. Please, police – priorities!
“Britain’s Court of Appeal on Wednesday rejected a new bid by the parents of terminally ill toddler Alfie Evans to take him to Italy and continue his life support against the wishes of his doctors and judges.
Doctors say the 23-month-old boy suffers from a degenerative neurological condition that has left him in a “semi-vegetative state” with almost no brain function. Medics caring for him at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool have said further treatment is futile, and the toddler’s life support was withdrawn Monday after a series of court rulings sided with the doctors and blocked further medical treatment.
Alfie’s parents continued their fight to take him to Italy to be cared for at the Vatican’s children’s hospital, which has said it is willing to take him.
High Court Justice Anthony Hayden dismissed the parents’ case on Tuesday, and said his ruling represented “the final chapter in the life of this extraordinary little boy.” From the US ABC.
Alfie Evans nursed by his mother Kate James at Alder Hey Hospital
People are upset. They are right to be. It is one thing for a hospital to decide it can no longer care for a dying patient. Resources are limited, and bed space, medication, nursing time and other resources which are given to one patient cannot be made available to others, who may be in greater need, or who in the opinion of medical staff have a greater chance of recovery.
It is another thing entirely to use the force of the law to prevent loving parents from taking Alfie to another hospital where treatment is being offered.
Gary Larsen is one of the greatest cartoonists ever. What a pity he actually retired when he said he was going to! I am hoping I may have a the same privilege sometime in the next five years.
Gary Larsen Butterfly Life
Life. It’s not really like that, thought it sometimes seems so.
Julian of Norwich had it better, when she said “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
American River, South Australia: there is something wonderful about living in a community where the most exciting thing that happens all week, the front page news story, is ten people wanting to save an old tree.
John Buick’s Mulberry Tree, American River, South Australia
We have a lot to be thankful for. And then there is that great little American River Post Office and Store.
If Hamas would spend money on infrastructure instead of destruction, and if Hamas wanted to live in peace with its neighbours, Gaza could be a paradise.
As long as hating Jews is more important to Hamas than building a stable nation, Gaza will be a sad, failed, non state.
Gaza Protests and Hamas. Peace, or no peace?
If you are vitamin D deficient, you are up to five times more likely to develop diabetes.
“People deficient in vitamin D might have a greater risk of developing diabetes, report researchers in a new study.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Seoul National University studied 903 healthy adults without pre-diabetes or diabetes during clinic visits from 1997 to 1999, and followed up with them for 10 years, to study their levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin and their medical condition. Their findings were published this week in PLOS One.”
Moderate sunlight and increased intake of foods containing vitamin D will be enough for most people. If you live in a cold part of the world or are dark skinned, you may also need supplementation.
If you are in doubt, especially if you are over forty or pregnant, check with your doctor. A real medical doctor, not some unqualified “health professional.”
Peace
Have a peaceful night, eveyone.
Seventeen year old blue heeler Max saves the day.
Seventeen old blue heeler Max, deaf and partially blind, stayed through the night with lost three year old Aurora, then lead searchers to her in the morning.
Queensland police have named Max an honorary police dog. Good boy!
Greenland is melting, right? Sea levels are rising. Global warming is a disaster. It is all our fault.
No, no, no, and no.
CO2 is increasing, and that’s good. Greenland is not melting.
Arctic Sea Ice as at April 2018. Thick and extensive, like global warming alarmists.
Visit these two websites for more information:
Qohel Author Peter Wales
