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By Neece, on November 20, 2009, at 4:58 am
 If you’re like me, and you enjoy dark chocolate, then I have some studies to share with you! I think they’ll be helpful for the holidays as well as generally beneficial throughout the year. If you don’t like chocolate (WTF, just kidding), see below for swine flu info, and other linky goodness.
Dark Chocolate Helps Ease Emotional Stress: A new study found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in people who felt highly stressed. The chocolate also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances. “The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” the scientists say.
That led me to a study from last December. It’s rather small and involves self-reporting, but it could [...]
By Neece, on November 4, 2009, at 8:45 am
 I read an AP article titled Medical schools add alternative remedies to curriculum the other day. The article was pretty balanced, explaining both sides of the situation.
Apparently a growing number of medical schools are teaching acupuncture, herbology and other CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) to their students, often with the help of Uncle Sam. That’s right, your tax dollars are being spent to teach your future doctors all about pseudoscience.
The government has spent more than $22 million to help medical and nursing schools start teaching about alternative medicine — lesson plans that some critics say are biased toward unproven remedies.
Additional tax money has been spent to recruit and train young doctors to do research in this field, launching some into careers as alternative medicine providers.
Doctors need to know about popular remedies so they can discuss them nonjudgmentally and give competent advice, the [...]
By Johnny, on September 29, 2009, at 1:39 pm
 The HPV vaccine has jumped into the news again as the UK reports their first death following a vaccination.
The US (and western world in general) has already been struggling with vaccines, and this could make things more difficult in the UK. With all the claims of vaccines linked to autism, Jenny McCarthy’s wild-ass claims, and Muslims stopping the distribution of the polio vaccination — there’s a lot of pseudoscience, superstition, and urban legends up against vaccines.
Then there is the religious angle against the HPV vaccine. Because the human papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted disease, the abstinence-only proponents think giving a girl this vaccine gives her the go-ahead to be promiscuous.
It will be interesting to see what kind of media attention resurfaces from this; but I can already see the email or Facebook posts flying [...]
By Neece, on March 25, 2009, at 6:26 am
Every week I look forward to cleaning up a bit on Monday. After my husband goes to work, I update my iPod and blast The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe while I tidy up. I love the Rogues. I learn an awful lot from them. They spark my interest in various topics and have helped me to learn to be skeptical.
So, the reason I’m sharing that is because I want to share part of the most recent podcast with you. It was Episode 191 and they talked about the Pope who was in Africa talking about Aids recently. Pope Benedict Ratz-en-evil said,
“(HIV/AIDS) is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems.”
Um, WTF? That is reprehensible. The pope, the spokesman for god, is basically telling people who [...]
By Neece, on March 15, 2009, at 11:40 pm
Butch (my nearly perfect husband) and I have been having discussions lately about what the default is for people. Are we naturally atheistic or if we were raised without indoctrination would we still create a god?
Butch feels strongly that humans are atheists by default. We must be indoctrinated by authority figures to turn us into creatures bowing to invisible gods we created to have dominion over [...]
By Neece, on March 2, 2009, at 7:15 am
I think I understand what it’s like to be lost in a world of woo thinking. Maybe even an inkling of what it’s like to believe in Jesus as your personal hero.
Butch, my awesome husband, came home Friday night and told me he felt awful. He and I both got a cold about 3 weeks ago and he shook if off in about 4 days while I suffered with a nasty chest cold, congestion and laryngitis until just the other day. I didn’t want to hear that he was sick again. It was my birthday weekend, we were supposed to go out to dinner on Sunday (last night), and I was hoping we’d both be feeling well for a change.
Alas, it was not to be. He had a fever, the chills, and was completely miserable. And here’s where I realized I felt totally helpless. I can’t [...]
By Neece, on February 28, 2009, at 2:39 am
Monday is going to be a great day. I just know it. At least I’m really excited about it. Of course I’m also sort of dreading it for a different reason.
Monday I will hopefully get both my wonderful, new microscope as well as the slides for it. That will be awesome and fun and keep me busy for a long time.
Monday is also my 40th birthday. March 2nd, mark it on your calendars. I’m going to thoroughly be middle aged. This one is really hitting me hard, for some reason. Should I have accomplished something by now? I think about other people my age and then I think about my life and I feel like I haven’t done anything yet. I’m not ready for my life to be half over. I’m just getting started, in some ways.
Anyway, I’m trying to be positive [...]
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Neece & Butch’s Zazzle Designs – Sir Lee Tees
Neece & Jenny’s Zazzle Designs
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If you’re like me, and you enjoy dark chocolate, then I have some studies to share with you! I think they’ll be helpful for the holidays as well as generally beneficial throughout the year. If you don’t like chocolate (WTF, just kidding), see below for swine flu info, and other linky goodness.
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