Snake Oil in the Supermarket

Scientific American on Greenwashing:

Food-makers should have to prove the validity of their health claims …

In March the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to 17 food and beverage manufacturers concerning false or misleading health and nutrition claims on their products. It was an unusually expansive crackdown for the agency, whose regulatory power over food companies has declined over the past decades, thanks to Congress and the courts, which have tended to come down on the side of the food companies. …

In 2006 Europe began holding food makers to rigorous scientific standards. Since then, the European Food Safety Authority has rejected, on the basis of insufficient evidence, a whopping 80 percent of the more than 900 claims they have assessed thus far. …

Differences between the lenient U.S. system and the more restrictive European system are easily apparent. For instance, visitors to the Web site for Activia (www.activia.com)—a yogurt product from Dannon—will have a very different experience depending on which country they indicate they are from. The U.S. version prominently displays the product’s putative health benefits, asserting that it can “help regulate your digestive system by helping reduce long intestinal transit time.” …

Snake Oil in the Supermarket

I assume over 80% of green packaging and health claims are tainted.

voluntary simplicity is trendy

It was 1990 when Keith Russell first introduced me to the concept of voluntary simplicity aka simple living. He was researching construction of a log house in rural Saskatchewan.

Soon after I adopted it as my personal philosophy.

Garth linked to a related article in the Globe and Mail. Some of the talking points:

… the recession has forced many people to re-evaluate their consumption patterns …

… “Right-sizing” is how she describes her efforts to purge her 1,200-square-foot home of “stuff creep” …

… have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful …

Give Your Stuff Away Day

… the Small House Society

… Sheena Matheiken, a New York creative director who wore the same little black dress for 365 days …

read it – Keeping down with the Joneses

For one thing, we’ve got to get rid of some of these books! … Donate them to a library or something!

the stack shrinks

price of movie rental = $1

The cost of infinitely reproducible digital ‘goods’, transferred via the web, will approach zero.

In the States, McDonalds has dropped the price on very good, fairly recent movies to a dollar a night. And that’s for a DVD with real production and transportation costs.

video kiosk at McDonalds

Some of the big Hollywood production houses try to fight Redbox. A losing battle, I predict.

I want to PAY for my motorcycle accident

Coming from Canada, I’m still shocked at the number of Americans riding hogs without helmets.

Motorcycle helmets greatly reduce injuries and fatalities in motorcycle accidents, thus many countries have laws requiring acceptable helmets to be worn by motorcycle riders. These laws vary considerably, often exempting mopeds and other small-displacement bikes.

In some countries, most notably the USA and India, there is some opposition to compulsory helmet use

Ah, right.

In America (and India) FREEDOM is more important than personal safety. Got it.

… Twenty-seven states have a motorcycle helmet law that only require some riders to wear a helmet. Three states (Illinois, Iowa, and New Hampshire) do not have a motorcycle helmet law. …

Current US motorcycle and bicycle helmet laws

I assume that people forfeit their government and/or corporate insurance if they take a fall without a helmet.

Head Injury

It would be idiotic to expect others to pay for my brain damage, self inflicted.

By the way, does riding a Harley Hog make you fat? … Cause and effect?

I need to start texting …

Lest I become a dinosaur.

The cost of a cell phone and SMS plan compared to that of a computer and a broadband connection has made texting extremely popular in developing countries, and “unlimited messaging” plans have made it the communication medium of choice for teens everywhere (beating face-to-face conversation and e-mail in popularity). …

Mashable – The Rise of Text Messaging

who’s rich in Aspen, Colorado?

I’m surprised such an affluent town is so unpretentious.

The rich and the (homeless) poor dress equally badly.

… Is the modern western culture the first where it’s so difficult to identify the wealthy? … I like it.

I’ve seen none of the famous residents.

why a FREE MARKET won’t work

In response to Google and Verizon trying to circumvent FCC rules on Net Neutrality:

The Economist:

If companies always agreed with regulators’ rules, there would be no need for regulators. The very point of a regulator is to do things that companies don’t like, out of concern for the welfare of the market or the consumer.

I’ve seen in my lifetime that competition will diminish if markets can do what they like. We end up with oligopoly or, even worse, monopoly.

Oligopoly and monopoly are normally very, very BAD for consumers.

In my opinion we need “regulators” but they should regulate as little as possible, … mainly with the goal of maintaining a high level of competition.

(via one of the best blogs Daring Fireball)

… I’ve got mixed feelings on the Net Neutrality issue, myself. … I’ll support Net Neutrality, for now.

breaking – politicians are lying scumbags

Who knew …

Only those of us who live in tents and don’t drive vehicles can righteously criticize the Alberta oilsands.

… Oops. Actually I own a vehicle now. Therefore I support the oilsands.

Garth linked to an article in the Montreal Gazette criticizing their own Premier and other politicians for disingenuous grandstanding:

Oil patch reeling from unfair attacks

Alberta is being slagged by anti-oilsands ads and criticized by eastern premiers and politicians

… the oilsands, ominously labelled the tarsands, is compared to the worst environmental disaster in American history, which has for three months been spewing millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, posing a major threat to the economy and environment of five states from Texas to Florida. And the companies extracting oil out of bitumen in Fort McMurray are compared to BP.

Everyone likes ducks. But more of them apparently die from flying into wind power turbines than from being soaked in tailing ponds in the oilsands.

Enough already, say Albertans. They are still shaking their heads at the performance of Quebec Premier Jean Charest, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, and Toronto Mayor David Miller, trashing the oilsands on the world stage at the Copenhagen conference on climate change last December.

Since then, Albertans have started pointing out that Ontario and Quebec are beneficiary provinces of equalization, paid for by four donor provinces led by Alberta. Cheap tuition at universities, private high schools half-funded by Quebec, $7-a-day child care and now, in-vitro fertilization treatments in public health care, are all partly supported by Alberta tax dollars. This is what happens when politicians play a short game for easy headlines, rather than the long game that serves everyone’s interests.

And it wasn’t a good day for Michael Ignatieff when the Liberal leader said he wouldn’t permit trans-Pacific shipment of oil on tankers from the coast of northern British Columbia. The next time Iggy goes to China, they’ll want to talk to him about that, because they’ll buy as much product from the oilsands as Alberta is not shipping to the United States. In the oilpatch and pipeline industry, they’re simply gob-smacked by the stupidity of Ignatieff being in favour of the oilsands on the one hand, but against building a northern pipeline and shipping it overseas on the other. …

Read more

If you don’t drive a motor vehicle, climb on your high horse and criticize the Petro-toxin industry. I’ll applaud you.

Otherwise, don’t you feel a bit sheepish gassing up your vehicle with that “Alberta has the dirtiest oil in the world” bumper sticker.