Hidden Steriods!

Without the government to protect us, who would? Certainly not the businesses of America that would be more than happy to have us in working in sweat-shops, just like they do in their manufacturing facilities in third-world countries, while selling us defective and dangerous products:

[Posted 11/03/2009] Bodybuilding.com and FDA notified healthcare professionals and patients of a nationwide and international recall of all lots and expiration dates of 65 dietary supplement products that were sold through the Company's website, www.bodybuilding.com.

FDA believes that the recalled products contain the following ingredients that are currently classified, or the FDA believes should be classified, as steroids: "Superdrol," "Madol," "Tren," "Androstenedione," and/or "Turinabol." Acute liver injury is known to be a possible harmful effect of using steroid-containing products. In addition, steroids may cause other serious long-term adverse health consequences in men, women, and children. These include shrinkage of the testes and male infertility, masculinization of women, breast enlargement in males, short stature in children, a higher predilection to misuse other drugs and alcohol, adverse effects on blood lipid levels, and increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and death.

Customers who have any of the products in their possession should stop using them immediately and contact their physician if they have experienced any problems that may be related to taking one or more of the ingredients listed above. Any adverse events that may be related to use should be reported to the FDA's MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program online [at www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.htm], by phone 1-800-332-1088, or by returning the postage-paid FDA form 3500 [which may be downloaded from the MedWatch "Download Forms" page] by mail [to address on the pre-addressed form] or fax [1-800-FDA-0178].

[11/03/2009 - Press Release - Bodybuilding.com]

So, basically, Bodybuilding.com was selling dangerous supplements by which the effectiveness of the supplements was greatly enhanced by the manufacturer putting steroids in them. Then somebody got caught and the retailer (and possibly manufacturer, it's not clear) released a typical press-release where the recall is portrayed as some noble action by the one of the perpetrators in the chain of toxic-business-practice in some nice Orwellian fashion...

When I read this... Not only am I not shocked, but I'm happy we live in a country that still has some, albeit insufficient, consumer protection. This kind of dangerous, life-destroying crap goes on like crazy in those "unregulated, free-market-paradise" second-and-third world countries.

All those economic 'freedoms' which really translate into: free to be exploited, used and then die poor with no recourse or dignity.

What burns the me the most... Most of the hardcore libertarians who endorse this "get government out of "x" position," and their children, would be better off in a 1950's America. A country that had high marginal-rate taxation, confiscatory estate taxation, social and corporate constraints on executive compensation (and behavior), a functional government not ruined by idiots (like the libertarians and fellow travellers) and strong unions to protect the working-class from exploitation.

They won't see it because facts and data don't matter to them. They have a third-rate economic philosophy made-up by a second-rate writer which they defend, despite it being intellectually bankrupt in it's foundation, like it's a religion. Despite it's completely failing in any sort of practical, the real-world application as a philosophy as the economic data is overwhelming against this economic free-for-all.

Capitalism is only "best" when there is a strong central government to keep it functioning as it "ought," not as is otherwise does. It should be clear to anyone who has been around the world, without strong regulation, this is what we'll have. And worse.

Or have we forgotten about the toxic pet food we manufactured out of contaminated imports? And the toxic drywall made in China? And the salmonella infested fruit and vegetables we've gotten from Mexico (irrigated with sewage-water which included human feces).

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FREE ENERGY - Air Powered Vehicles

Oh boy! I can't believe they are selling this... But I do believe people will fall for it... Stupid idea that it is...

First, it takes energy to compress air. So all we're doing is moving the environmental problem to where we can't see it. So, no real benefit there...

Second, we know that compressing air as a power source is very inefficient because it generates huge amounts of waste heat. This means we're going to use a lot of fuel to make the electricity used to compress the air. The basic formula is a bit complex, but to run a one-horsepower compressed air motor, the electric costs to run it is about $1,300 a year. That same motor, run directly from electric will run about $300 a year.

That's a $1,000 a year in direct energy cost differences. Highlighting just how bloody inefficient compressed air really is...

Third, we have electrical transmission inefficiencies. That's another 7.2%, at least in the US where we tend to run longer electrical transmission lines than in Europe. I don' t know if it's less efficient than transporting fuel, but it's not likely more as transportation and distribution costs are about 17% of your pump-price at your local Texxon... But much of that is labor and an additional level of businesses in the cycle.

A way to look at it though is... Every time you convert energy from one type to another, you're going to pay a cost in lost energy. The laws of thermodynamics do not change because you find them inconvenient and no conversion process will prevent these losses.

The more steps in your process, the more over-all loss.

So, when possible, always stay as close to your original fuel source as possible. Using gasoline directly is more efficient than burning gas to generate electricity to power a compressor to make compressed gas... By a huge, huge factor.

More truth from a Comedy Show...

...than all the mainstream press in America:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Formidable Opponent - Global Warming With Al Gore
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

The sad part is, the reason industry opposes all this is because the Lords of Capitalism are so short-sighted. Why is Exxon an oil company? They should be an energy company. Going forward in finding new resources to exploit and leave oil for what it does best and is irreplaceable -- lubricants and plastics. There are many other things that we can burn, like hydrogen gas or using hydrogen fuel cells, to move cars, trains and planes.

Anyway, this show constantly high-lights the corrupted news media we "enjoy." We pretty much only see what is good for the Corporate Master and not what is good for us or the planet.

Beck Satire...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The 11/3 Project
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Stewart does a fantastic job of mocking the lunacy that is Beck... If only the real media were this critically honest in their reporting...

Why not Bush and Cheney?

We can only hope someday, in our lifetime, that some blogger writes this about Bush and Cheney:

Former Argentina's de facto President and Army chief Reynaldo Bignone listens to his attorney at the courtroom where he is accused of human rights crimes during the country's dictatorship, in Buenos Aires on November 4, 2009. Bignone, 81, the facto leader from 1982 to 1983, is charged with the kidnapping and torture of 56 people who were held in secret detention centers at the Campo de Mayo military base, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires during Argentina's 'dirty war' against leftists. In addition to the kidnapping and torture charges, Bignone is accused of having stolen children from some of the kidnapped detainees. Five other retired military officers also are being prosecuted during the trial, which is expected to run through early March 2010. By Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images.

Until we leave the "permanent war" state, we're going to make more Bush's. More Cheney's. Until one day, people will get so sick of us that they'll embargo our country to its knees.

How Lord of The Rings Should Have Ended

This is SO true!

Missing Persons-- Long Before Lady GaGa

Sometimes I think there's been nothing new in rock for decades. Just derivative shtick...

Religious Quiz

I always find these cute:

How did the Belief-O-Matic do? Discuss your results on our message boards.

1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (92%)
3. Nontheist (77%)
4. Liberal Quakers (74%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (74%)
6. Neo-Pagan (62%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (56%)
8. New Age (45%)
9. Taoism (44%)
10. Orthodox Quaker (38%)
11. Reform Judaism (38%)
12. Mahayana Buddhism (37%)
13. Sikhism (28%)
14. Jainism (27%)
15. Baha'i Faith (25%)
16. Scientology (24%)
17. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (22%)
18. New Thought (22%)
19. Seventh Day Adventist (21%)
20. Hinduism (20%)
21. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (17%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (17%)
23. Eastern Orthodox (15%)
24. Islam (15%)
25. Orthodox Judaism (15%)
26. Roman Catholic (15%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (12%)

I'm an athiest Unitarian. Has me nailed.

I smell a

lawsuit:

WASHINGTON — In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.

Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.

Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.

There's a little thing called "fidiciary duty:

A fiduciary duty is a legal or ethical relationship of confidence or trust between two or more parties, most commonly a fiduciary or trustee and a principal or beneficiary. One party, for example a corporate trust company or the trust department of a bank, holds a fiduciary relation or acts in a fiduciary capacity to another, such as one whose funds are entrusted to it for investment. In a fiduciary relation one person justifiably reposes confidence, good faith, reliance and trust in another whose aid, advice or protection is sought in some matter. In such a relation good conscience requires one to act at all times for the sole benefit and interests of another, with loyalty to those interests.

“ A fiduciary is someone who has undertaken to act for and on behalf of another in a particular matter in circumstances which give rise to a relationship of trust and confidence.”

A fiduciary duty is the highest standard of care at either equity or law. A fiduciary (abbreviation fid) is expected to be extremely loyal to the person to whom he owes the duty (the "principal"): he must not put his personal interests before the duty, and must not profit from his position as a fiduciary, unless the principal consents. The word itself comes originally from the Latin fides, meaning faith, and fiducia, trust.

And I don't think it'll be that hard to convince a jury that Goldman failed to keep their trust...

Of course if we lived in Libertarian Paradise, these things couldn't possibly happen... Because in Libertarian Paradise, everyone does the "right thing." Especially the business class, like John Galt... Oh wait, he's a fictional character in a silly novel peddling a sophomoric philosophy that boils down to: "I got mine, fuck you."

Well, Goldman got theirs. The rest of us got fucked. That worked out so well...

Regeneration Can Be Achieved After Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

There's a long way to go, but...:

ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2009) — Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that regeneration of central nervous system axons can be achieved in rats even when treatment delayed is more than a year after the original spinal cord injury.

"The good news is that when axons have been cut due to spinal cord injury, they can be coaxed to regenerate if a combination of treatments is applied," said lead author Mark Tuszynski, MD, PhD, professor of neurosciences and director of the Center for Neural Repair at UC San Diego, and neurologist at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health System. "The chronically injured axon is not dead."

While there are more than 10,000 new spinal cord injuries annually in the United States, nearly 250,000 patients are living in the chronic stages of injury. Yet nearly all previous spinal cord injury studies have attempted to stimulate regeneration when treatment is begun almost immediately after injury -- because, in part, scientists considered it very difficult to achieve regeneration at such long time points after injury. None had shown successful regeneration in the late, chronic stages.

Three things:

1. Someone has, through intelligence, education and personal dedication, learned something of great importance and has, quite possibly, taken a significant step on the pat that will end up with an ability to cure paralysis. This underscores the critical importance of education in our lives, especially science education. (And let's not over-state this, this is a step. But there are many other, very difficult problems to over-come.)

2. All the prayers through-out all of history have done less than this one man toward the goal of making the paralyzed walk.

3. The money was NIH and VA money with a bit from a charitible trust. For-Profit corporations don't do this kind of medical research. In fact, for the most part for-profit corporations don't do any basic medical research and very little applied-research unless it's, basically, copying or extending medicines and/or devices to beat, create (from government basic research) or extend patents. Without the government, medical research would come to a screeching halt.

So the next time you hear some person whining about how the government sucks and your tax dollars do nothing, etc. Just remember, those people are, by-and-large, full of crap. Not only can you see it from this particular episode, but if you look at our life-style and society versus those of Europe and Japan, our first-world competitors... We're pretty pathetic across the board.