Quickies
Skepchick Quickies 5.19
- Oprah’s bad medicine – Salon article on all of the bad medical advice that Oprah has endorsed on her show. From bibliotequetress.
- Are insanely expensive skin creams worth it? – The doctors’ comments are priceless. From Chasmosaur.
- Acupuncture clinic helps night owls mellow out – Go out drinking a lot? Well, just stick some needles in your ear and your body will rebalance itself. From kriss.
- The newest commercial from NOM – Omg, think of the children! They will be confused! The horror, the horror!Â
- Killer blob invades Vietnamese lake – Well, killer blob if you’re a fish, itch-inducing blob if you’re a human.
Bryozoans aren’t as rare as you might think. We have them here in New Jersey. I’ve seen them while kayaking some of the lakes here. They don’t usually grow to that size though.
The real question is though : do super-expensive creams or acupuncture help bloggers get their hyperlinks correct or is that Oprah’s fault?
Mike.
@NoAstronomer: I blame it on the coffee enemas.
What? That skincream contains stem cells from a rare Swiss apple tree. But who will think of the baby apples?! MURDER!
So the ultimate nightmare for these folks is children asking uncomfortable questions. I can see that.
Brilliant ad! I sent it to friends in NH, who got so upset by it, the called the number to tell Gov. Lynch to SUPPORT gay marriage. Go NOM!
Gold? Platinum? Caviar? So, the key to marketing an expensive skin cream is to use an ingredient that everyone equates with being incredibly expensive and/or difficult to acquire. So my plan is to get some hot actor or actress (Kate Beckinsale in my imagination) to run around a track several times, then collect her sweat and sell it as as a beauty cream. That should sell really well, at least until NASA can produce some kind of antimatter based cream. Remember, the more expensive it is, the better it works!
Until that happens, since I can’t afford caviar, I guess I’m just going to have to stick to rubbing Grey Poupon on my face. Or Fig Newtons. After all, a cookie is just a cookie, but Fig Newtons are fruit and cake.
Hold on. When they say “stem cells”, do they mean undifferentiated progenitor cells or just cells from the plant stem? Because, y’know, you could get “stem cells” by rubbing a piece of celery on your face too.
How often does that Oprah list auto-refresh?
Ii thought I was one of the confused children, as the link was the same as the article above. But it seems to magically have autoedited itself into the correct link now …
Am I the only one who saw an upside down cross in the NOM ad?
Oh, and the PHd. comic would be funny-if it were so true. That makes it sad.
My daughter’s biology teacher last year had the best thing to say about all these creams. S/he said it was like repairing a bridge by standing on the shore and throwing nuts and bolts at it in the hope that one of the pieces would land in the right spot. Your skin may contain some of these proteins, etc, but there is no reason to think that slathering them on your skin will have them go to the right place.
I recommend Paula Begoun who has been talking about this stuff since the 80’s and her line is that no plastic surgeon has lost business as a result of these creams.
So, is acupuncture the new piercing and tattoo of late night? “Lets get punctured together man… It’ll mean something.” Damn hipsters won’t leave my kind alone.
@agashem,
I think the whole concept of all these creams, and the nutritional shampoos too, is flawed. You’d be more likely to get any of these substances in the right spot if you ate or drank them than by simply smearing them on on the outside.
Speaking of shampoos, nowadays it’s become almost impossible to find a shampoo that doesn’t smell like a fruit salad. Even men’s shampoos. What the fuck is up with that?
So the worst thing about all these bad medicine stories wherever they appear is that Bon Jovi’s Bad Medicine gets stuck in my head every frakking time I read them.
Shhhh….the secret. If I say any more I’ll have to kill you.
So the reason we should continue to systematically deny rights to a segment of our population is because changing might confuse children? Makes sense.
I’m wondering if the child is confused because they’re not old enough to know were babies come from, much less the complex issues of equal rights and homosexuality in a changing society.
Or if the child is “confused” because equal rights in New Hampshire has turned their child gay. Given the overly simplistic and holey logic, I’m going with the later.
My one christian and two atheist/agnostic children think this is silly. They don’t understand why anyone cares about gay marriage at all and can’t figure out how someone else getting married matters. So I guess NOM is right. It is confusing. They are confused by NOM’s stance and think that NOM is silly.
So we should ban anything that might confuse the kids?
That’s pretty much the end for congress then, and probably T-ball too.
Mike.
I’m pretty sure that opponents of gay marriage seriously think that if gay marriage were legal, they would then be required to gay marry.
@NoAstronomer: COTW
I want to see a NOM-style ad against T-ball.
@NoAstronomer:
LOL So true….my son played T-ball and all I can see is 10 kids converging on the ball in one big mass unclear on what to do with the dang thing.
I just love the little girl who says, “God created Adam and Eve? That’s soooo old fashioned!”
From the Oprah article:
“…injecting another hormone, estriol, vaginally every day…”
SHE INJECTED A HORMONE INTO HER COOTCH WITH A SYRINGE?! What the hell is wrong with this picture?
@Sean: And now I’m going to have the words “hot beef injection” stuck in my head all day.
@Sean: Holy crap, I somehow missed that part…. The face I made was definitely akin to the face that men make upon seeing another guy take a hit to the junk.
@Amanda: Can we give COTW’s to Skepchicks?
@Sean
No-one said anything about using a syringe.
Mike.
@NoAstronomer: I sincerely hope so, but alternative medicine people do some really, really weird shit sometimes.
@infinitemonkey:
I saw the upside down cross, too!!!
Is it wrong that the first time I saw “The Gathering Storm” it was so ridiculous I thought it was a joke.
@Glow-Orb: No, but it is wrong if you kept humming, “It’s Raining Men!”, while it was playing.
Am I the only one who watched the NOM video and thought it was an excellent example of why gay marriage is no big deal?
That’s right! Isn’t that great!
I know, isn’t it?
Hooray for progess!
No one. You’d have two dads who both love you as much as your mom and dad love you. It’s different, yeah, but you know what? When grandma and grandpa were growing up, step families were different and weird.
@MiddleMan:
Like this?
@Elyse: You’ve got to be kidding me!
That rocks! I’m glad my insanity is shared by others!
@NoAstronomer:
“Grandma, why is a Speaker Pro Tempore appointment limited to three legislative days?”
Children are confused. They’re asking questions. We need to avoid answering these questions by banning the source of the confusion: Congress.
Okay, so am I the only one who thought at first read that they were giving acupuncture to owls?
@Imrryr: I think you are a bit off there, if I was going to collect sweat form a hot chick I wouldn’t use it as a beauty cream. Maybe use in a male enhancement formula, or maybe a warming gel exclusively for men. And we would have actual sweatshops with hot women in them, just visualize that. Oh, and you women could just switch the gender words and have their own fantasy.
“…our kids will be taught a new way of thinking.”
We must put a stop to this AT ONCE! ;)
I’m just glad NOM wasn’t around during the 1960s. “Mom, if Dad were black, would I be grey?”
Again, my TV show idea:
Harpo’s Island, a 13-week series in which someone dies each week from preventable diseases.
@MiddleMan:
“It’s Raining Men,” as much as I love it, would be a hetero song for me. What’s the lesbian equivalent?
As a primary care doc I feel the effect of Oprahblem Winfrey EVERY single day. Truly, not a day goes by that I don’t have to translate at least one piece of nonsense said by one of her disciples into sense.
@Glow-Orb: Gee, I dunno. You got me there.
I guess just pick any Indigo Girls song and go with it.
Somehow I doubt this is how Oprah’s developed