Category: health & fitness

does TV cause autism?

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, bad news, health & fitness, TVLeave a comment

Sounds crazy?

Child autism rates have been rising over the past few decades. What’s causing it?

autism.jpgGregg Easterbrook paints a pretty convincing argument:

Today, Cornell University researchers are reporting what appears to be a statistically significant relationship between autism rates and television watching by children under the age of 3.

The researchers studied autism incidence in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington state. They found that as cable television became common in California and Pennsylvania beginning around 1980, childhood autism rose more in the counties that had cable than in the counties that did not. They further found that in all the Western states, the more time toddlers spent in front of the television, the more likely they were to exhibit symptoms of autism disorders.

TV Really Might Cause Autism – Slate.com

Listen to the Slate.com audiocast.

medical / dental tourism

On By Rick McIn economics, health & fitness, travel, travel MexicoLeave a comment

dentist-smile.jpgI’m still shopping for a dentist in a developing country, likely Mexico.

Dental work in Canada is over-priced in my opinion. How many can afford $400 / hour for sitting in a chair?

More than 500,000 Americans traveled out of the country last year for medical or dental work, according to the National Coalition on Health Care. In those numbers are cases of heart bypasses, orthopedic surgeries and expensive dental treatments.

ContraCostaTimes.com | 10/08/2006 | Need care, will travel

airport screeners at Newark fail to find 20 of 22 “weapons”

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, travelLeave a comment

More on “security theatre”.

The Newark Star-Ledger reports that security screeners at Newark airport flunked 20 of 22 security tests operated by undercover federal agents last week. They failed to spot items including concealed bombs and guns at checkpoints throughout the international airport’s three terminals, according to federal officials.

Boing Boing: Airport screeners at Newark fail to find 20 of 22 “weapons”

“security theatre”

On By Rick McIn government, health & fitness, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

Like every tourist in Page, Arizona, I popped in to visit Glen Canyon Dam. I’ve really enjoyed similar tours of other large dams.

And the impact on the environment caused by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam is more controversial than most. It sounded interesting.

Glencanyondam.jpg

But I was turned off by over-zealous security officials.

After a slow line-up, turned out I was not allowed to carry anything into the facility. They rushed and flustered a bus load of French tourists too. Everyone present was painfully aware that there was zero security risk. It was an embarassment.

This going-through-the-motions has been called security theatre. Too right.

Rather than this useless song and dance, why don’t we study what the Israelis do? The security procedures of El-Al airlines, for example. El Al has has had no successful terrorist attack on board any of its aircraft for over 35 years.

Major dams are terrorist targets. They deserve the highest level of security. But hassling tourists does not help. Shut the facility down from tourism completely, if necessary. Shut down the highway, if necessary.

But don’t pretend you are preventing a serious attack by preventing me carrying in a wallet.

» next travelogue post on this trip – when did Halloween get … BIG?

exercising while travelling

On By Rick McIn gymnastics, health & fitness, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

The worst part of travel is the inconsistency of exercise and food. You have far more control over your life at home.

I would like to be riding a bike to a gymnastics gym (or weight room) but — instead — I’m jogging to playgrounds.

This one (VitaCourse) in Vegas is of the best playground gyms I’ve found.

playground-gym.jpg

» next travelogue post on this trip – leaving Las Vegas

how will you die?

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, Islam, travelLeave a comment

Shouldn’t we spend more on reducing vehicle deaths? Less on hassling airline travellers?

According to this data, you are more likely to be killed by an American policeman than by a toothpaste-wielding foreign jihadist.

Flu, hernia, or police more likely to kill you than Al Qaeda – BoingBoing

death.jpg

tobacco companies increased nicotine

On By Rick McIn bad news, health & fitness, product complaintsLeave a comment

Surprise, surprise.

Tobacco companies increased nicotine in kids’ and minorities’ cigs

A new study shows that tobacco companies have been quietly increasingly the nicotine in the brands most smoked by kids and minorities for the past decade, increasing the toxicity and addictiveness of their products.

Boing Boing: Tobacco companies increased nicotine in kids’ and minorities’ cigs
2006

Monsanto should be terminated

On By Rick McIn bad news, food, government, health & fitness, product complaintsLeave a comment

photo.jpgPlaying with Mother Nature is rarely a good policy.

This is bound to end in diaster.

… I believe Monsanto is going too far with this evil … Yes, I said evil. To prevent a farmer’s seed from previous harvests from germinating just to maintain a strong grip on the marketplace is sick, and one strong reason GM food is looked at with distrust and hatred in the rest of the world.

Terminator technology or anything that disrupts the proper development of any plant should be illegal.

Beyond protecting intellectual property, this is all about greed, plain and simple.

Dvorak Uncensored » Monsanto continues to pursue controversial “Terminator” seed-control technology

want your corpse posed and displayed?

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, traveloguesLeave a comment

Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul BODY WORLDS exhibition was packed.

You could join the 200 authentic human specimens, including entire bodies, that have been preserved through the process of Plastination, not surprisingly a German technique that replaces bodily fluids and fat with plastic.

runner.jpg
runner with muscles splayed back

The purported goal of the exhibit is to “educate the public about the inner workings of the human body”. But it is ghoulish fascination which has been drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors to this and 2 other touring shows.

I thought it fascinating.

The Human Body is an OmniMax film showing in conjunction with the exhibit.

» next travelogue post on this trip – Montreal has a crappy airport