Rack of lamb, orecchiette with golden beets, beet greens, and pecans.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Ai, yi yi
On a news web site, my eyes were, however unwillingly, drawn to an ad -- one of those bogus survey things. "Is Obama a good president? Yes/No. Win a free dinner at Olive Garden!"
I'm starting to question my life-long support for the first amendment.
I'm starting to question my life-long support for the first amendment.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Try to restrain your angst
This is going to anger some readers -- it's not possible that among our acquaintances there are no fans of alternate medicine. But as you probably recall, I am not a fan, especially of the wilder ones like homeopathy and Traditional Medicine. It's not that I admire the American Medical Association, I just doubt (see post below) anything that claims it will make me feel better by sticking needles in my body or dosing me with the internal secretions of other, already endangered mammals. I have, perhaps, an unusually low threshold of tolerance for preposterousness. Maybe it's a character flaw, who knows? But I did want to pass along to y'all an interesting AP story, about a US Government agency you probably didn't know existed: The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
The AP story is linked below; the summary: NCCAM has spent two and a half billion dollars of your money funding studies into alternate medicine. The score so far:
Things that were funded and, amazingly, didn't work out:
I could go on a bit more about it all myself, but instead, I'll quote from a paper presented in 2001 to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (WHCCAMP) by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H.. You can see all of it here, but the following paragraphs say a lot about why this sort of nonsense gets national attention and money:
Much has been written about the "medical establishment" and its institutions and systems of delivering medical care. I think it is fair to note the existence of the "'alternative' medical establishment" which includes promoters, practitioners, organizations, foundations, retail businesses, wholesale businesses, politicians, the NCCAM, the WHCCAMP, and other institutions. The "alternative" medical establishment has even extended its reach into medical schools, other professional schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, and insurance plans. In so doing, alternativists have increased their power and, in effect, invalidated the NCCAM definition of complementary and alternative medicine.
"Alternative" medicine is alternative in the sense of espousing or reflecting different values. The science-based medical establishment insists that health products and services be proved safe and effective—with proponents bearing the burden of proof—before promoting them. Alternativists often value hunches, clinical impressions, subjectivity, anecdotes, reports of best cases, legends, and so-called "other ways of knowing," as sufficient "proof" to justify their promotional efforts. They tend not to value efforts to identify sources of clinical illusions and to reduce the problems of systematic and nonsystematic errors leading to faulty conclusions.
Alternativists also value different credentials and standards of practice than most consumers expect. Many "alternative" credentials and standards of practice do not require professional accountability.
Anyway, read the AP article here, if you like. It talks about the idiocy that resulted in this agency's existence in the first place (legislators who thought some imbecilic practice helped them and demanded funding to study it, among other reasons), and the fox-in-the-hen-house policy of using alternative practitioners to lead studies into their own dogma. Makes for good reading, unless of course you believe passionately in Black Cohosh, whatever the hell that is. But for even better reading, have a look at one of my favorite sites, QuackWatch, and see what the good doctor Stephen Barrett has to say about things like TCM and chiropractic. And try to stay healthy.
The AP story is linked below; the summary: NCCAM has spent two and a half billion dollars of your money funding studies into alternate medicine. The score so far:
- Taking ginger may ease nausea after chemotherapy
- Yoga and massage may make you feel a bit better than you did
Things that were funded and, amazingly, didn't work out:
- Ginkgo biloba for memory
- Glucosamine and chondroitin for arthritis
- Black cohosh for menopausal hot flashes
- Saw palmetto for prostate problems
- Shark cartilage for cancer (I wrote about this last piece of rubbish way back in the 90's)
- And -- for two million dollars -- whether acupressure on your face can help with weight loss (it doesn't)
I could go on a bit more about it all myself, but instead, I'll quote from a paper presented in 2001 to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (WHCCAMP) by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H.. You can see all of it here, but the following paragraphs say a lot about why this sort of nonsense gets national attention and money:
Much has been written about the "medical establishment" and its institutions and systems of delivering medical care. I think it is fair to note the existence of the "'alternative' medical establishment" which includes promoters, practitioners, organizations, foundations, retail businesses, wholesale businesses, politicians, the NCCAM, the WHCCAMP, and other institutions. The "alternative" medical establishment has even extended its reach into medical schools, other professional schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, and insurance plans. In so doing, alternativists have increased their power and, in effect, invalidated the NCCAM definition of complementary and alternative medicine.
"Alternative" medicine is alternative in the sense of espousing or reflecting different values. The science-based medical establishment insists that health products and services be proved safe and effective—with proponents bearing the burden of proof—before promoting them. Alternativists often value hunches, clinical impressions, subjectivity, anecdotes, reports of best cases, legends, and so-called "other ways of knowing," as sufficient "proof" to justify their promotional efforts. They tend not to value efforts to identify sources of clinical illusions and to reduce the problems of systematic and nonsystematic errors leading to faulty conclusions.
Alternativists also value different credentials and standards of practice than most consumers expect. Many "alternative" credentials and standards of practice do not require professional accountability.
Anyway, read the AP article here, if you like. It talks about the idiocy that resulted in this agency's existence in the first place (legislators who thought some imbecilic practice helped them and demanded funding to study it, among other reasons), and the fox-in-the-hen-house policy of using alternative practitioners to lead studies into their own dogma. Makes for good reading, unless of course you believe passionately in Black Cohosh, whatever the hell that is. But for even better reading, have a look at one of my favorite sites, QuackWatch, and see what the good doctor Stephen Barrett has to say about things like TCM and chiropractic. And try to stay healthy.
Don't shoot that carnivore
In our on-going quest to question things ("I doubt the really big doubts." Socrates, according to Larry Gonick), we were interested to see a study that questions the typical game-management strategy of restricting hunting to males of the species in question. Turns out that in critters that are infanticidal, removing males results in greater offspring losses to other males. Lions and cougars are examples.
Of course, it begs the question of whether trophy hunting should be allowed at all, but I'm not going to touch that thorn (or pet that tiger, as an exec of my acquaintance would say) in the current political environment. Anyway, read the study if you're interested.
Of course, it begs the question of whether trophy hunting should be allowed at all, but I'm not going to touch that thorn (or pet that tiger, as an exec of my acquaintance would say) in the current political environment. Anyway, read the study if you're interested.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Spring, finally
The "garden" (one 3x3 raised bed) is yielding fresh basil, the markets have reasonable tomatoes and asparagus -- maybe it's really going to be spring, eventually, before summer gets here.
Caprese with local mozzarella, filleto di manzo, asparagus with smoked paprika mayonnaise, and sauteed summer squash.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Coping with the economy
On Territorial Road, right off M-23, there was a pickup truck pulled off onto the side. He had a homemade sign out: "For sale: Bansai."
The misspelling aside, it seemed more like a Subaru cottage industry than a Dodge Ram one, but everybody's gotta play to their strengths, I guess.
The misspelling aside, it seemed more like a Subaru cottage industry than a Dodge Ram one, but everybody's gotta play to their strengths, I guess.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Fun with the 18-200 Nikkor
Once in a while you grab a lucky shot. Coney and Rambo, exchanging business cards "... let's do lunch -- have your people call my people."
And a 13" beagle (yes, they refer to the varieties by size) demonstrates the concept of depth of field.
Here's the lens.
And a 13" beagle (yes, they refer to the varieties by size) demonstrates the concept of depth of field.
Here's the lens.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
More Cartoon Themes
I'm now up to 1981 in my complete history of the New Yorker cartoon, and some additional primal themes have emerged. Gone, almost completely, are the Arab-on-Flying-Carpet gags, the gypsy fortune tellers, and the sandwich board humor. Since the seventies, the rise of soi-disant jokes about guys in suits, living the corporate life and being either smug or disillusioned about it (depending on which recession was going on) are far in the majority. The idea that goings-on in board rooms are somehow funny was rife. The desert island castaways continue, arguably alive to this day in television guise, as is in reduced quantity the "go and never darken my door again" unwed-mother bit. But also hidden among the three-piece-suit paradigms were some of these constants:
Rats deserting a sinking ship
Workers picketing an establishment (40's and 50's, mostly)
The tunnel of love (dying out by the 80's)
The safari leader with a team of natives carrying things on their heads
Floods
Nude artist's models
Insomniacs counting sheep (or something)
Indians sending smoke signals
Criminals being questioned
The Ladies' club meeting (gone by the 70's)
Nudists
Workmen down in a manhole, saying something ironic
Diogenes and his quest for an honest man
The smiley face (first shows up in 1971)
Mirror, mirror, on the wall ...
Snake charmers and snakes
People kicking the tires on cars
IRS audits
Cave men who court cave women by hitting them on the head
People (or something) being announced on entering a party
With the late 60's and 70's, a thread appears about people who are or aren't having a good time at cocktail parties, with some kind of incongruous or ironic reason why or why not. Little or nothing of the drug culture shows up, only a few bits mention Vietnam, nothing at all about the Kennedy assassinations, and there are but a couple of guess-who's-coming-to-dinner race relation ideas. Unsurprisingly, the 70's cartoons are largely a bore, with a lot of William Steig's crap and the execrable Roz Chast. But we do see many wonderful drawings by George Booth, with his dogs that are the heirs of Thurber's.
I'll let you know how things turn out when Reagan's out of office.
The most fun you can have in bare feet
Well, perhaps not. But GelPro kitchen mats are pretty good on bare feet. Tossed the beat-up old rug that was in the prep area in favor of the smallest of GelPro's line, and the early returns are in favor. My fellow cooks are welcome to drop by and try a stand on it. The dog is unimpressed, but the bipeds in the house are in favor of it.
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