Category: health & fitness

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.

skiing Banff

On By Rick McIn health & fitnessLeave a comment

Downhill skiing is the best. I try to get out at least 5 days every year.

I am still stunned at how beautiful the mountains are in winter. And how magical it is to be transported up to the continental divide.

We had a day at Louise and a day at Sunshine.

skiers

Sunshine is better.

drug companies in it for the money

On By Rick McIn economics, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Drugs companies ‘inventing diseases to boost profits’

Do you believe this headline? I’m not so sure.

For example, shyness is diagnosed as a “social anxiety disorder” and treated with antidepressants.

Get your drugs for:

IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROMES, SEXUAL DYSFUNCTIONS, OSTEOPOROSIS, SLEEPY IN THE MORNING SICKNESS … (OK, I invented the last one myself.)

conditioning – CrossFit exercises

On By Rick McIn health & fitnessLeave a comment

CrossFit is an advanced strength and conditioning program used by police and military. It is popular with the martial arts community.

Firefighters, too, like CrossFit because it does not use weight machines, preferring free weights. They use many gymnastics exercises in which body weight provides the resistance.

Many video clips and photo sequences are linked from their exercises page:

CrossFit excercises list

log sit-up
team sit-up using a log for resistance