Scott R. Sullivan

June 30th, 2008 by Scott

I’ve agreed with this for the longest time, always laughing at those who had to drink “spring” water, which more often than not is just “filtered” water.

It is obviously a fad created by marketers, in much the same way that music is manufactured and marketed and global warming is marketed.

Just read this clip from the Washington Post today:

Desalinated seawater from Hawaii, meanwhile, is being sold as “concentrated water” — at $33.50 for a two-ounce bottle. Like any concentrated beverage, it is supposed to be diluted before drinking, except that in this case, that means adding water to . . . water.

And from Tennessee, a company named BlingH2O — whose marketing imagery features a mostly nude model improbably balancing a bottle of water between her heel and her hip — is retailing its water at $40 for 750 milliliters, with special-edition bottles going for $480 — more than a million times the price of the liquid that comes from your tap.

The push to turn water into the new wine is a marketing phenomenon: The bottled-water industry is engaged in an intense effort to convince Americans that the stuff in bottles is substantially different from the stuff out of the tap.

But empirical tests have repeatedly shown that they are generally the same. In blind taste tests, many people who swear they can differentiate between bottled-water brands and tap water fail to spot the differences, and studies have shown that both are fine to drink, and both occasionally can have quality problems.

Experts who study bottled water as a cultural phenomenon say differences between the two are largely marketing inventions.(Source)

In fact, if you look at most spring water bottles, you’ll see that it actually says “filtered” not spring. And we have all heard the anagram for the famous bottled water Evian. Naive.

I’ll close with this clip from Penn and Teller’s show, BS:

via videosift.com

June 14th, 2008 by Scott

Pennsylvania just passed a ban on smoking in most public places. It also imposed a $1,000 fine for offenders. They did this in the name of public health. Who can argue with that?

Now I’ve never smoked in my life. A few of my friends do. Most of them do not.

I am not going to dispute the harm of smoking. I know it is bad.

The problem is that congress knows it is bad for you, too. Yet, they tax it so much that they are making HUGE profits from someone’s addiction and unhealthy habit. How is it ethical to profit off of someone else’s cancer?

To me, there is one answer. Congress is just as addicted. Except they are addicted to the money they rake in from this poison.

Ethically, congress had only two options.

Option one, get rid of all cigarette taxes, thus getting rid of blood money. I’m all for congress reducing taxes in any form.

Option two, ban cigarettes altogether. Classify it along with Cocaine or Heroin and make it illegal. If tobacco is as bad as congress says it is, why don’t they just ban it all instead of doing this wimpy “no smoking here or here, but there is okay.”

Personally, I don’t care which option they take.

So the question is: Congress, can you kick your own addiction?

May 5th, 2008 by Scott

Back in February, I posted some thoughts on anti-depressants and medications in general.

Today, the journal, Pediatrics, released a study that many are over-medicated both in the UK and United States, reaffirming my thoughts from February:

Experts say that’s almost beside the point, because use is rising on both sides of the Atlantic. And with scant long-term safety data, it’s likely the drugs are being over-prescribed for both U.S. and U.K. children, research suggests.

Among the most commonly used drugs were those to treat hyperactivity.

Dr. William Cooper, a Vanderbilt pediatrician, said the study shows the drugs are being used “without full understanding about the risks.”

“I find it really interesting that we’re now seeing increases in other countries besides the U.S., which suggests that the magnitude of this issue is global,” said Cooper, also an author of the 2004 U.S. study.
(Source)

So medications are being over-prescribed? Who would have thought.

Americans began this trend that is spreading globally, that everything can be fixed with enough pills. Now understand, I come from a medically trained family: we have doctors and RNs in the family.

Growing up, our family never had ADD or any other “hyperactive.” Instead, we played outside. We used up our energy playing with friends. We didn’t sit in front of a computer texting each other all day.

We actually burned calories playing!

We got dirty, got scrapes, got hurt, cried, then learned to deal with a few boo-boos.

Today, too many people want to find some magic medicine to cure their “pain” when they should stop focusing on the pain and focus on life. They are becoming less social and communicate only through text messages, emails and blogs.

We are seeing a realization of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Though, instead of just television, we are seeing medication, television, video games and the infamous “ADD attention span” destroying any interest in reading literature and engaging in real social communication and discussion.

As a result, we are seeing a society that just wants to “feel good” and is ignorance of total facts, leading to the fascination with irrelevant pop “crack” like the latest Britney gossip.

Let’s kick our addiction to meds, pills and the diagnosis of ADD and instead go out and get a life.

Yeah, its harder. Yeah their will be some pain. But that’s life. And I love my life… pain and joy.

April 4th, 2008 by Scott

For all those who think that coffee is bad for you, for all those who think coffee takes years off your life, I’ve got a bit of news. According to researchers:

Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.
The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.
A vital barrier between the brain and the main blood supply of rabbits fed a fat-rich diet was protected in those given a caffeine supplement.

Source: BBC News

Gotta run. Me coffee’s brewin!