•
First a welcome back to me, I am once again trying to get back to writing on a regular basis, I am going to try and start off slowly and build to my previous posting levels, so without further ado:
Here at AmericanMadness we have not been huge fans of the law that requires chain restaurants to post calorie counts. Essentially we feel that the information provided can be misleading since it goes by the assumption that th only concern with food should be the amount of calories you are taking in.
Now we have another problem with it: Over at CellarDoor they have a post with pictures from 2 Dunkin’ Donuts, both located in Penn Station. 1 of them listing the calorie count on a Chocolate Glazed donut at 80 calories and the other listing it at 340 calories. Both are printed up in the official D & D way so which is to be believed? Or maybe they are both right, maybe each Dunkin’ Donuts in the city is using different recipes and cooking methods and that is why they get different calorie counts. Or the donuts on the left could be almost 1/4 the size of the ones on the right, there are so many possibilities that I decided to ask Dunkin’ Donuts to explain it. I am still waiting for a response.
Also in the realm of calorie counting: Read more »
•
Should we bring back the asylums of yesteryear?
Is the promise of modern medication exceeding its actual effectiveness?
These are questions that come to mind having read yesterday’s Freakonomics Quorum post by Stephen Dubner.
The column, How Much Progress Have Psychology and Psychiatry Really Made? is definitely worth reading in its entirety.
There is one section I would like to discuss and that has to do with a woman whose son was bipolar and who committed suicide when he stopped taking his medications. The writer says:
“Four years ago I lost a beloved son to suicide due to bipolar disorder. As devastating as this is, I do believe that the treatment he received increased his quality of life and chances for survival. His doctors and therapists were compassionate and concerned, working very hard to assess and adjust his treatments, and I came to respect the complexity of his condition and what they were trying to do on his behalf.
Is it possible he was in some ways a guinea pig in terms of the various medications he took? Perhaps, but I believe they were our only hope of giving him a chance in light of the seriousness of his condition and his previous suicide attempt. When he did complete suicide, we discovered that he had stopped taking his medications, so I don’t blame the medications, but the lack of them.”
Now as horrible as it may seem, I feel compelled to take issue with this lady. The problem which caused her son’s suicide was the fact that he stopped taking his medication. We have recently had a spate of mass murders in America committed by psychiatrically disturbed individuals who were mainstreamed in society because they were on medication. The problem that resulted in the killings has often been that the patient stopped taking the medication. Read more »
•
Starbucks launched the new Pike Place Roast today along with a new cup design. While the Pike Place blend still maintains Starbucks’ trademark paint thinner bouquet, it is noticeably smoother. The excessive caffeine level seems to have remained the same ensuring that Starbucks will not loose it’s legions of faithful junkies, who cling to this last legal addictive substance.
•
Last week I was pretty miserable, I had a bad head cold, my sinuses were killing me, my throat felt as if I had been swallowing sandpaper (which I had not) and my nose wouldn’t stop running. After digging through my medicine lunch box (yes, we keep all of our first aid and cold cures in a lunch box, a Curious George one at that) I discovered that pretty much all we had were cough drops and Airborne. I went through the cough drops pretty quickly kept drinking Airborne through out the day. That is until I read that it contains about 1500& of the daily recommendation of vitamin C, then I decided moderation was best and eased off the 4 glasses of airborne a day.
Needless to say, by Sunday I was feeling 95% better (I still have a bit of congestion, but nothing too bad). Apparently this has little to do with Airborne… Or maybe it has everything to do with Airborne (that was pretty much where all of my Vitamin C intake was coming from). According to a NY Times article Airborne has decided to settle a class action lawsuit out of court, admitting to no wrong doing, but I am sure changing its unproven claims that it helps prevent and cure the common cold.
For more info you can check out the settlement website here. Pretty much you will get a refund for the Airbrne you purchased (part of the millions of dollars of sales from last year). Personally I am going to skip it, I took Airborne pretty much as a dietary supplement (which is what it actually is), pumping up the Vitamins in my system to help my immune system battle that evil cold. By the end of this week I hope to again have a stable system with no signs of the cold insurgents.
•
Are todays remote controls too much for you? The tedium of pushing buttons too strenuous? Getting Carpal Tunnel from trying to find something decent to watch? Well worry no more-
From the International Reporter we get an article about a new cocncept for a remote control, Basically it is a video camera that hooks up to your A/V equipment which will recognize your hand gestures and be able to perform such tasks as switch equipment on and off, alter the volume, change channels, play and stop.
Dr Premaratne, one of the creators said that anyone could learn the gestures within five minutes. The concept should be on store shelves within 3 years.
Okay, I get it, they are playing off the popularity of the Nintendo Wii, but some one might want to mention to them that 1- Three years from now it might not be quite so popular anymore and 2- the remote control is not the most complex thing to learn how to master, especially with its intuitively name buttons like “Channel Up,” “Power,” and “Play.”
