Category: health & fitness

“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

are you allergic to Poplar fluff?

On By Rick McIn health & fitnessLeave a comment

In Waterton National Park, in early July, the Poplar fluff lays on the ground like snow.

Click play on the video below or watch it on YouTube.

I am not allergic. But if I was, I would call in the chain saws. This is ridiculous.

Clinton – a nightmare, insane, a colossal waste of money

On By Rick McIn economics, health & fitnessLeave a comment

globeandmail.com : Avoid U.S. health model: Clinton

(Bill might be ramping up the rhetoric towards coming US elections.)

Clinton said Canada should stay the course. And review similar health-care systems — in Germany, Denmark or Sweden, for instance — that have solved problems such as overly long waiting times.

I disagree. The only solution is a FREE free market system for health care.

Regulated health care is like regulated phone service. Now that there is competition between VOIP and traditional carriers, my cost today dropped to FREE for all long distance Skype calls and now all local calls from North America to North America from SkypeOut.

the war on indoor tanning

On By Rick McIn health & fitnessLeave a comment

William Saletan wrote a great piece on Slate.com

“Here come the health police. First they came for the cigarettes. Then they came for the sodas. Now it’s the tanning salons.

The cigarette war is winding down, as one country after another bans public smoking.

A week ago, the top three soft-drink makers surrendered the first big battle of the junk-food war, agreeing to remove sodas from elementary and middle schools. A few days later, spooked by the outcry against fast food and childhood obesity, Disney fled an advertising deal with McDonald’s. Nobody wants to be the new Joe Camel.”

read the full article …

The overzealous war on indoor tanning.