May 3, 2004
Dustin and Mies weekend
This past weekend, my friend from undergrad (at Rice University), Dustin (shown at left displaying his "American Gothic smile"), came to visit me. Since he was an architecture major, we spent lots of time touring the built splendor of the Loop. It was useful to have someone to explain why Mies van der Rohe's designs, while ugly, are so renowned. A couple of pictures have been posted from that long walk.
We also walked around Oak Park in order to sample the supreme majesty of his highness, the Greatest Architect in the WORLD, Frank Lloyd Wright. In case you haven't gathered the sarcasm of that epitaph, please do so now. Nevertheless, his buildings may not be the most practical or habitable, but many are aesthetically astounding in my opinion.
On Sunday night, Mike, Dustin, and I saw GB Shaw's Heartbreak House at the Goodman Theatre. The production was very good, but the three-and-a-half hour play left me a bit confused. I think it'll take a while, along with some re-readings of the play, to process.
PS It does occur to me that the entry title's pun is SO awful, that people probably have no idea it was an attempt at punnery in the first place. Sorry.
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May 5, 2004
Exploitation x 5
I have, in front of me, a pamphlet telling of the incredible technology behind new Penta� Ultra Premium Purified Drinking Water:
"The secret is in the molecular structure. A water molecule, as most everyone knows, is made of two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom."So far so good...
"What most people don't know is that water molecules naturally bond together to form large clusters and chains, which can be bulky and inhibit the absorption of the water into the cell."Okay now we're getting weird. It's true that water forms hydrogen bonding networks, as a result of its polar nature. This network formation results in drops of oil coalescing in water, and a huge number of other important phenomena, so they are correct here. But what is this about inhibiting absorption into cells? Now we're getting a little stupid.
"Penta clusters are unique. Penta goes through a rigorous purification process that removes any chemicals or other contaminants. After it is purified, Penta is put through the patented Penta process, which uses powerful ultrasound to restructure the H2O clusters to a smaller, stable state. These smaller clusters...(the clusters are pictured, albeit more artistically, as the 5-molecule structure I have displayed to the right)
...move through the body more quickly than others, getting into cells more easily, hydrating your body faster and more effectively.To the left of this text in the pamphlet is a graphic which shows a shriveled up cell surrounded by big water clusters, and a turgid cell surrounded by Penta water clusters.
Excuse me for being so frank, but THIS IS SOME OF THE BIGGEST BULLSHIT I'VE EVER READ. First of all, the only way to restructure hydrogen bonding is to put something, such as a detergent or a hydrophobic moiety, into the water to make it adopt a more thermodynamically favorable conformation. If the water is as pure as they say (which is NOT that hard to do--we use ultra pure water in our lab every day), then there is NO way any novel restructuring of the water will happen, ESPECIALLY not through sonication. And the heptagonal structure they've pictured is super-unstable. Water would never even think about doing that! You know the old science adage "like charges repel"? Well, that structure has all of the like charges (actually, dipole moments) together, and they are VERY unhappy. Come on, people, give me a break.
Also, if they actually did succeed in altering the rate at which water entered your cells, you would probably die upon ingesting their product. Our cells have evolved over millions of years to regulate extremely carefully the amount of water, ions, and larger molecules that pass through their membranes. Increasing "hydration" of cells would make them all bloated, and maybe even blow up. Maybe a better description of their product would be: PENTA IS POISON.
It is so unfair to exploit what people don't know using science, or science-y sounding bullshit. People tend to trust science, with its aura of cold hard fact. That's just taking advantage of people's trust.
[Sigh].
Okay, I know it's bad that people use pseudoscience to sell stuff, but this totally cracked me up. Hee!!
Posted by Gwen on May 11, 2004 4:39 PMI just got some local Kazakhstani water that has silver added to it. It tastes like crap, but I drank all 5 liters of it b/c they were out of my normal brand. Is this stuff OK? It says it has it has 'no more than .05 mg/dm3' of silver. I'm all worried about my 'membranes' now.
Posted by Peter on May 15, 2004 10:41 AMI don't think silver is thought of as a contaminant (someone please correct me if I'm wrong!). While some forms of certain transition metals like chromium and copper are known to be carcinogenic, I've never seen silver among them. A short web search led me to http://gcisolutions.com/bifsum.htm which lists silver under non-carcinogenic metals.
You have nothing to worry about. After all, we wear silver jewelry all the time--even in fresh piercings.
In any case, I'm sure silver's effects on the body are nothing compared to the phenomenal enhanced infiltration of PENTA water!!!
Posted by Nate on May 15, 2004 11:22 AMOkay. I'm getting scared. People are buying this shit like crazy. I'd like to do my (very) small part to counter the Penta Water craziness.
Here are a couple of sites debunking this ludicrous faux-science exploitative money-grubbing product.
James Randi and his Million Dollar Challenge saga; quite funny.
A page about all of the pseudo-science surrounding water.
I'll post more as I find them.
I also just posted something at this fitness forum in my campaign against Penta:
http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=1974
Posted by Nate on September 5, 2004 11:38 AM«Post a comment»
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May 8, 2004
Spilled Guts
So, I've finally added an "about me"-type page. Now the "Slice of Nate" graphic actually links somewhere.
I've also added the box to the right, designed so I can showcase what music, books, films, etc. I've surrounded myself with at any given time. I don't know if that's interesting in any way; but then again, I don't know if anything on this website is interesting in any way. Regardless, I think my readership only numbers about 2 or 3.
Woohoo.
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May 9, 2004
Midwest UN-natural
I went to a bodybuilding competition last night...
A fellow PrideYouth volunteer was competing, so a few of us promised her we would be there.
It was scary. I don't think I'll ever attend another one again.
Basically, spectators cheer for whichever guy or girl looks the freakiest, and has the most unnatural-looking bumpy striated super-bulgey fake-tan bronze-spray-covered physique.
There was also a women's "Figure Competition" in which the women wore next to nothing and silver glittery high heels and paraded themselves around. It was strange because these are women who spend hours a day working out, could probably beat lots of guys up, and appear totally self-empowered. So why are they reducing themselves to sex objects in front of a crowd of testosterone-laden oafs?
Brandy, the fellow volunteer, though, did look good. Sadly, she won second place in her division, but the judges said it was close.
Still, never again.
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May 10, 2004
Did somebody say coronary?
I saw Morgan Spurlock's new documentary, Super Size Me, last night. The basic premise of the film is that Spurlock goes on a 30-day McDonald's-only diet. He is testing the company's assertion that fast food is not at all reponsible for America's obesity epidemic, and that McDonald's can be a part of a healthy and nutritious diet. The film isn't perfect, but it has some really interesting and disturbing things to say about the mentality of our society regarding food.
In one scene I found especially poignant, an obese girl is explaining her situation after seeing the Subway guy, Jared S. Fogle, speak at her school. She talks of her struggle with dieting, how nothing has helped her lose weight, and how big of an inspiration Jared is. She is especially distraught that this one diet that is certain to work, the Subway diet, is beyond her reach because she can't afford or take the time to go to Subway twice a day and get sandwiches.
It's strange to describe a film in which you see Spurlock vomiting Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese all over the pavement, or laproscopic gastric bypass footage accompanied by the Blue Danube Waltz as elegant. But it is. The film very convincingly, but not forcibly, makes the case that the obesity overtaking the US is serious, and that there is a myriad of things we can do to fix it; we just aren't, due to laziness and an attention to economics that is so focused our own health becomes an oversight.
But damn that McDonald's is tasty!
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May 16, 2004
I'm surrounded.
Well, I am now completely surrounded by MDs in my immediate family.
Congratulations to my sister, Kristina, on her graduation this morning from the University of New Mexico Medical School.
All I have to say is: free medical advice abounds!
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May 20, 2004
Public nudity
So, I have finally gotten over one of my long-established fears: taking a shower at the gym. I'm not sure exactly why I've always been so scared of public showers, but today I got nekkid after working out and just got it over with. It was pretty nice leaving the gym clean for once. Another hurdle jumped!
Remaining fears: insects and death.
Edit [5/25/04]: Another weird fear I've thought of is riding a bike. I learned when I was little, but it's been so long that now I fall over whenever I try to turn.
I hope you wore shower shoes. Although I don't see "Foot Fungus o' Death" listed under "Remaining fears"...
Posted by Sha Sha on May 21, 2004 5:45 PMI do, indeed, have flip-flops for that purpose--especially because the lockerroom I use is carpeted, disgustingly enough.
Posted by Nate on May 22, 2004 2:00 PMI don't know what your problem is ... you have no problem showing your schlong to everyone - strangers included. But I'm proud that you don't smell anymore.
Posted by mpc on May 27, 2004 9:02 AM«Post a comment»
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May 26, 2004
Ookadeet?
Okay. I am racked by indecision. Well, it's not that bad, but I'd like to do a little public opinion survey:
Does lomtick.com need a links page?
All readers of this entry, please respond via comments; total strangers, everyone. (On an ulterior note, this is also a ploy to see how many visitors I have. I predict...5. Perhaps that is too high?)
Edit [6/2/04]: Just to defend my poor little site a bit: this entry isn't quite as pathetic as it may seem. I have had more than two visitors (only two people have responded as of today, not counting myself!), but I suppose people don't want to write comments. I guess I've experienced a similar kind of paralysis on other peoples' pages; you're there, but it can feel like eavesdropping or something, so you don't want to trod and leave footsteps. Oh well. I think I'll add a links page anyway.
No. You have enough embedded links throughout the site, so I see no reason to have a separate Links page. What would be there anyway?
Posted by mpc on May 30, 2004 7:37 PMI guess I'd put up links to all of the strange and interesting stuff I find around the web that doesn't appear in embedded links. It's kind of fun to go to peoples' link pages and see what they've found.
Posted by Nate on May 30, 2004 10:24 PMI vote a qualified NO, and my answer ties in with your latest entry about interpreting art.
I have looked at a large number of personal web sites in my day, many of which included a 'links' page. Most of the time, the links themselves are really pretty useless to me. I feel that I can decide for myself what I want to see on the Web and, frankly, I stumble across enough bizareness on my own that I don't need someone else to point out novelty web sites.
What links pages usually do give me, however, is an insight into the person behind the site. Looking through the links to various music sites, humor sites, news sites, porn sites, commercial sites, etc. I put together a little profile of the tastes, views, political and artistic leanings, etc. of the page's author. However, I am SURE that these profiles are never 100% correct and are sometimes completely wrong. After all, how can you get an accurate feel for a person from a list of 10 links to web sites created by other people or organizations, each with their own views and ideas? Despite the obvious unfairness of judging people based on such skimpy evidence, though, we all tend to make these assessments anyway.
So here is where my point comes in: What is your goal in creating a links page? What is your goal with each link? If you have a message that you want to send with each link, make it clear. Don't leave your choices to be interpreted by those who don't know you.
That was a very serious answer to a very non-serious question. Thank you for suffering through it.
Posted by Peter on June 6, 2004 10:18 AM«Post a comment»
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