Energy Conservation

Energy conservation: it's not just a good idea, it's the law

Cover your eyes

This one isn't funny (yeah, yeah...) but I had to get it off my chest. All over the world, men tell women how they should dress. They have a variety of reasons -- that women's bodies offend god, or society, or inflame mens uncontrollable sexual passions -- none of which permit rational debate. And let me say straight away, this isn't a dig at any particular religion or any particular society. Sure, some examples are more obviously visible than others, and in some places the pressure applied is more subtle than the blunt threat of the law. But even in the US today there are offices where women are frowned upon for not wearing stockings; churches where it's an affront for a woman not to cover her hair; and in many supposedly liberal Western democracies it's debatable whether girls should be permitted to wear pants (trousers) to school.

And before those of you who think of yourselves as tolerant and liberated and beyond such pettiness laugh at the silliness of those social conservatives, consider this: throughout the US today, the mere sight of the shape of a woman's nipple is enough to launch the media into paroxysms. And I'm not talking here about a Janet Jackson moment: I'm just talking about the shape seen through clothing! The same is true of many of the more repressed European countries. Did you know that contestants in beauty pageants routinely put band aids over their nipples so the shape won't show through their bathing suits? How obsessive is that?

Anyway, my bottom line here is: if you think that women's bodies or hair are offensive or inflammatory...

...don't tell the women to cover their bodies. Tell the men to cover their eyes.

Prejudice

Lie and lay. Ensure and insure. Loose and Lose. I hate, sight unseen, people who confuse similar-sounding words.

Does that make me homophonic?

I have to stop reading WebMD

Every time I read WebMD I discover another disease that I'm suffering from. I read the list of symptoms and lo and behold, I have that. According to my self-diagnosis, I have everything from acne to zoster virus. Amazingly, I have stuff it shouldn't be possible to have at the same time. I have insomnia and narcolepsy. I have diarrhea and constipation. I have all the symptoms of both hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism (I may be the world's smallest giant). I also have anxiety disorder and depression (at least, I do after reading WebMD for a while).

I seem to be particularly prone to stuff that's named after people. I think I have Crohn's disease, Graves' disease, and Reiter's syndrome. I also have Reyes' Syndrome -- and he has mine.

I've decided to stop reading about anything that's named after two doctors as those seem to be the ones that are so unpleasant, no one doctor wanted their name associated with it. That rules out Guillain-Barre', Epstein-Barr, Kreuzfeld-Jacob, and Beri-Beri. OK, that last one isn't really named after the Beri brothers, but its still pretty nasty.

Last week my armpit was hurting. According to my self-diagnosis, I have bubonic plague.

Either that, or my t-shirt is too tight.

Clinically Proven

Carl Zetie has been clinically proven to be effective!*


*This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. Carl Zetie is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Vegetarians not so smart?

From the BBC News website this morning:

"Intelligent children are more likely to become vegetarians later in life, a study says. A Southampton University team found those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10... Twenty years after the IQ tests were carried out in 1970, 366 of the participants said they were vegetarian - although more than 100 reported eating either fish or chicken." [my emphasis]

Perhaps they should deduct 10 points from people who think fish and chicken are vegetables.

Video game ratings

With Christmas approaching I have been seeing a lot of video game ads on TV, and apparently the industry has a rating system: E for Everyone, T for Teen, and M for Mature. What I don't understand is, given than most of the ads seem to revolve around rather sad adolescent male fantasies involving guns, cars, and women with extremely improbable anatomies...

...why are none of these games rated I for Immature?