Why won't they let me in their crappy club for jerks?

I read this line in a post at Pharyngula today. It's Woody Allen's, "I'd never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member," except with more narcissism.

An apt summary of nearly every pro-alternative medicine argument I've ever heard.

Turtle is not angry

Its not Scientology. Its natural homeopathic medicine!

I was wondering if Scientology might re-brand itself as "natural medicine," and then I found an example of just that from some crazy person running for office in Nevada named Sharron Angle.

The same Post story claimed that as a legislator, Angle had supported “a prison rehabilitation program promoted by the Church of Scientology and involving massage and saunas.”

Seeking to “clear the record,” Angle told us “I am not even sure that the Church of Scientology fits into it at all. You have to make some quantum leaps here.”

She noted “the program itself is a multifaceted program, and it had two protocols: one in the area of withdrawals, and it was a natural withdrawal system. As s you know, that can have some severe physical side effects and the cramping that was involved there required that other people be taught how to relieve the cramping. So that is where it said that people were being massaged.”

“The second protocol was what they called the ‘disintoxification,’ which was actually sweating the drug out of one’s system so that there were no longer any cravings for the drug. This is a very intense potassium, calcium, vitamin, mineral regimen, with a hot rock sauna that sweats the toxins out. Those two protocols were developed by [the late Church of Scientology founder] L. Ron Hubbard, and they had to give him credit. But it is not Scientology, but rather natural homeopathic medicine.”

Old Spice Guy says, "Hello Anonymous"

LOL, major marketing firm Wieden and Kennedy tells Anons, "Ur doin it rite!"

Dr. Mercola hangin' with Scientologists

Some Scientology celebs and others recently held a three hour meeting at the Saddle Ranch restaurant on Sunset in West Hollywood.  Don't know what they talked about. Probably some movie project.

But here are the money shots:

From the Daily Mail.

NCCAM's Josephine Briggs joins Naturopath Convention in August

What happened to smart lady's brain?   Did she fall down some rabbit hole while working in Germany -- fatherland to all things Thule-ish?  (Was he a Hans oder Franz?)

If you clicked the link above and scrolled that list of speakers for the 25th Anniversary Meeting of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, you can't have avoided the toothy grin of one Peter Bongiorno, ND.

 Uh oh.  I feel it coming...     RAEG!!!

RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEE111111!!!!!!!!

Listen up Bongiorno, you vanity-Googler you:

Your douchebaggery toward a medical student shall never be forgotten.  Ever.   It's just too precious a teaching moment in this, the science-under-siege operetta of our present era.

Men of science appeal to evidence when their claims are questioned.  But not so the deluded or dishonest.  They ring up their attorneys.  They hire investigators to dig for dirt.  They incite the thugs among their entourage to apply a little unfriendly pressure.

But for all the above, the science is unmoved.

SO LERN 2 EVIDENCE STOOPID DOUCHE IF YOU DOESNT WANT BEING CALLED A STOOPID DOUCHE!

Charlie St Cloud has Sailboats!

A movie with sailboats in it!  Woohoo!



IMMA GONNA SEE IT! 

The Amazing Meeting 8

TAM 8 is pretty cool. But the back-to-back talks don't leave much time for socializing.

I am pleased to put faces to a few names that I've come to know over at Science Based Medicine, in particular

Dr. Kimball Atwood

Dr. David Gorski

and Dr. Harriet Hall.

Tough as nails, every one of 'em.

Hobie Adventure Island tiller modification

To control the rudder, the AI has a small knob placed near where one's left hand might comfortably rest, assuming one's arm is of a certain length, unlike mine.  Yet even if the tiller location were perfect, it would still need an extension for the movable ballast wanting to drive the boat. 

Last summer after reading the Hobie forums I added a tiller extension as in the pic below. But I found a  three foot pipe flopping around in the middle of my boat something of an obstacle.

So after some thought, I decided to move the tiller to the aft hatch, as you can see in this picture:

My new tiller is a piece of black plastic shaped like a ruler, bolted to the center of the aft hatch. The tiller extension is a lightweight ski pole. A piece of automotive heater hose serves as the universal joint connecting the extension to the tiller.

It's been a month now and so far so good.  I can steer while out on the trampolines or standing up. My tiller hand can rest wherever it feels best, no matter which way I happen to be leaning or sprawling.

AI owners will recognize other mods in these pics:

- Rear akas flipped so the support struts attach behind rather than beside the driver. Makes moving off the seat and onto the tramps less painful.
- Stern light on a mast. The Scotty mast base that came with the light happens to have four screw holes. Two of them line up with the holes for the mainsheet block padeye. Two screws seems to be enough to hold the base of the light to the boat firmly.
- Moving the mainsheet block up an inch was good for my new tiller arrangement, as the sheet has a little clearance over the starboard rudder line. But the new position means the block must swivel to keep the mainsheet moving over the center of the sheave.

Update on the birds

May 1st the orioles were back.  Each male has a slightly different song and I believe I recognize one of the males from last year. 

We put out slices of orange for the orioles, which they seem to appreciate.  

It's well known around here that orioles love Welch's Concord Grape Jelly.  A few times I've put out a spoonful of grape and a spoonful of something else as a kind of taste test.  The grape has won out over Smuckers apricot, peach, and strawberry.  But today I can report that Smuckers Pineapple Ice Cream Topping kicked Welch's ass clear across the field.



Yesterday the catbirds were back. Soon, hopefully, we'll see some hummingbirds.