Welcome to the Free Talk Live bulletin board system!
This board is closed to new users and new posts.  Thank you to all our great mods and users over the years.  Details here.
185859 Posts in 9829 Topics by 1371 Members
Latest Member: cjt26
Home Help
+  The Free Talk Live BBS
|-+  Profile of Njal
| |-+  Show Posts
| | |-+  Topics

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Topics - Njal

Pages: [1]
1
General / Funny Podcast
« on: June 25, 2012, 03:56:09 AM »
HA!

This one is about money and inflation. I think we need help.

http://thestochastickitten.com/?p=175

Warning: not safe for internal use, do not listen to if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, use only as directed.

Nyal

2
General / If god is all knowing....
« on: August 01, 2009, 07:56:31 PM »
....does he know what it's like to have a gay three way while high on meth?

If no, he's not all knowing. If yes, but he hates the idea...

....does he know what it's like to have a gay three way while high on meth and enjoy it?

If no, he's not all knowing. If yes, he has to know what it truly feels like to sin...

....does he know what it's like to have a gay three way while high on meth, enjoy it, and also what it's like to never change his mind?

If no, he's not all knowing. If yes, god just got more interesting.

Bonus question: Does god know what it's like to spend an eternity being tortured for having a gay three way while high on meth and enjoying it enough to never change his mind?

3
The Polling Pit / Elevators
« on: March 16, 2009, 03:31:12 PM »
I saw this three times today. How common is it? We shall soon answer the question for all time!!!

4
The Polling Pit / SamIam as host.
« on: March 03, 2009, 09:44:18 AM »
I am very curious........I have my own opinions of Sam.

5
General / Third Hand Smoke - Not an Onion Article
« on: January 09, 2009, 06:52:30 AM »
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=11459920&ch=4226723&src=news

and

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/family/articles/2009/01/09/its_enough_to_make_you_sick/

So essentially the smell CAN kill you. I really wish that this was an Onion video, but it sure seems like one.

If you smell it, you will die!

Below is the article:

It's enough to make you sick
By Alex Beam
Globe Staff / January 9, 2009

What's going on at MGH, Man's Greatest Hospital? Lots! A team headed by Massachusetts General Hospital pediatrician and health policy researcher Dr. Jonathan Winickoff has just identified a new threat to children: third-hand smoke.

   
Third-hand smoke isn't actually smoke. It's the residue left in the furnishings and clothing of people who smoke at home. Tobacco smoke contains dangerous chemicals, Winickoff & Co. point out, so their mediagenic coinage, "third-hand smoke," must be dangerous, too.

Maybe. It would be interesting to know how much of these threatening chemicals find their way into, say, babies' blankets, in smokers' homes. It would also be interesting to know if those levels amounted to a toxic dose of the chemicals in question. Science like that might justify the headline "A New Cigarette Hazard" that The New York Times slapped on its artless rewrite of Winickoff's press release.

That science might also justify the dubious assertion in an MGH public health advertisement depicting a coat hanging on a hook, next to the words, "The toxins from cigarette smoke can hurt your children long after the cigarette is out."

In fact, there is no science at all in Winickoff's opus, "Beliefs About the Health Effects of 'Thirdhand' Smoke and Home Smoking Bans," published in Pediatrics. It's a poll - sorry, newspapers do polls; docs do surveys - about people's attitudes toward third-hand smoke. How they can have an opinion about a buzzword coined for the purposes of Winickoff's paper is beyond me.

I had a respectful exchange with Winickoff, who seems like a nice fellow. Don't automobiles spew out toxic chemicals, too, I asked? (His and mine don't; we drive holier-than-thou Priuses.) It would be interesting to know how much, if any, of those chemicals show up in the average home. "That's what the tobacco industry says," was his retort. But that didn't answer my question.

Dr. Michael Siegel, a tobacco researcher at Boston University School of Public Health, was more unsparing of Winickoff's work on his website, tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com. "I am not convinced that the existing scientific evidence supports the conclusion that thirdhand smoke poses a significant public health hazard, even to children living in homes with a smoker," he writes. Addressing the trace amounts of chemicals left in tobacco residue, Siegel adds that "there is no convincing scientific evidence that exposures of this magnitude produce any significant health harm, with the one possible exception of children who have asthma and are sensitive to tobacco smoke."

Thank heavens the MGH brand of slippery science isn't practiced at the Boston University School of Public Health. Oh, wait. What's this?

This week I heard BU health researcher Dr. Roberta White holding forth about Gulf War Syndrome on the BU-owned radio station WBUR. White, a neuropsychologist and chair of BU's Department of Environmental Health, was the scientific director of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs' Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, which published its 465-page report late last year.

Gulf War Syndrome, also called Gulf War Illness, has proved controversial because reasonable people doubt that it is an illness and suspect it is a political catchphrase uniting a variety of symptoms with differing causes, under a vague, medical-sounding name. There is no doubt that US soldiers in the 1991 war were exposed to any number of toxic substances, including pesticides, anti-chemical warfare drugs administered by the military, and possibly traces of nerve gas. But those are separate medical events, not a nebulous, headline-grabbing "syndrome."

"I don't agree with you that it's a politically motivated diagnosis," White said. "The subdiagnoses are what hold all of these symptoms together; they all work on a common biological pathway. That's why I believe it's legitimate to call this Gulf War Illness, in order for these veterans to be taken seriously by their practitioners." When I told White that "Gulf War Illness" would probably never be listed in the Physicians' Desk Reference, she replied, "I agree with you, it probably won't be."

White's report poses the question: "Is There a Unique Gulf War Syndrome?" It takes her collaborators about 750 words to provide the answer: No. "Whether this Gulf War-related symptom complex represents several syndromes, or one syndrome with several subtypes, is an issue of taxonomy that can only be definitively resolved as objective markers become more firmly established," the report concludes.

What's the takeaway, as they say on that inane public radio show? Where there's an anti-smoking message, there's grant money, and where questionable diagnoses can act as a palliative for veterans, the taxpayers will foot the bill. More science, less rhetoric, I say

6
The Polling Pit / To Whale or Not to Whale
« on: January 28, 2008, 05:56:33 PM »
What are your thoughts as to whaling, whales, and greenies?

7
The Polling Pit / Tithing and AMP Program
« on: October 31, 2006, 02:37:02 PM »
I am LDS and am considering paying my tithing toward FTL and other freedom oriented organizations. My question: Does it still count as tithing? This poll is for everyone not just the crazy Mormons.

Pages: [1]

Page created in 0.015 seconds with 29 queries.