vindication, of sorts…

Well, newswise today was an exciting day!

A much needed informational release… And to those of you who snub the wisdoms in this here collection of ramblings… A sad, yet refreshing, bit of news has finally hit the mainstream after 70 years of being snubbed:

“The National Academy of Sciences released a report finding that fluoride is less safe than previously thought, and that the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit on fluoride in water should be lowered. Specifically, it said that levels of the cavity-fighting substance currently allowed under federal water-safety rules cause a harmful variety of dental fluorosis, a mottling of the tooth that in its more severe form actually can cause cavities.

Moreover, it found persuasive evidence that fluoride in water increases bone fractures as well as stiffness in the joints of the elderly, and that it also may be related to Alzheimer’s disease, marginally reduce IQ in children and alter the endocrine and hormonal levels that control most of the functions of the human body – with unknown effects. The chemical may even cause bone cancer, said the NAS – although the evidence is “tentative and mixed.” Thankfully, of course, we live in the only unpoisoned major city in the country!

Read More Here!.

And if you have missed the reading hint I gave you back in the early new year right here, here is my recommendation of a book to read, just so that you know that none of this is new news, it dates back to the early 20th century, when the dental association actually opposed the use of fluoride… The Fluoride Deception!

Hopefully, it won’t take them so many years to come clean about Cell phones and other RF poisoning… Or there will be a lot of bad brains out there, and not the good Bad Brains… Of course, the cancer clinics will certainly prosper…



killing ourselves softly…

Very quiet these days. Another light viewing week. We’ve got plenty too watch, maybe too much even… But the time just doesn’t seem to be there. We did find some extra time… to run to frye’s at the last minute and pick up an iBook. Who knows what we were thinking, but it seems to be a good idea to have one. So yes, I’m fiddling about on it just now. I like it. It’s the first laptop I’ve had about aside from the 5300cs I’ve had hanging around for the last seven or eight years.

I’ll start things of with an old favorite, Sixteen Candles. I got a bunch of the Hughes/Ringwald movies and this was our first to view. I didn’t really recall it but, on seeing, it became quite familiar. I feel like this was the first of the “series” and though it’s not my favorite of the bunch, it seems like a good place to start. Pop/teen/romance masterpieces, all of them. Though I was the right age at the time for this, it never really spoke to me. It is fun though.

We also watched Brothers Keeper. Another one of those sad lonely documentaries which has taken me years to get around to watching. It’s good and it really makes you wonder, like any good mystery. Personally, I think that they did do away with their senior brother and I felt like I had to question their motives a bit behind doing this movie. But I could see their position and understand why they did what they did. The darker motive that some law officers started flinging about seemed much less likely then just a plain ol’ mercy killing, however odd these fella’s situation might have been. But it’s a good movie, interesting in a number of ways. The boys are rather mysterious in their own way, a bit more savvy then they let on. Of course, I did avert mine eyes at the “pig slaughter” scene and some of the scenes with Lyman Ward (was he the shy one?) were a bit much in the sad way. I almost had to avert my eyes when he was on the stand.

Then The Tin Drum. I think it’s a great Lit movie. I hadn’t seen the movie for many years or read the book for quite a while either, but it still seems a satisfying rendition of the story. Of course, it looked really good (Criterion and all) well beyond the VHS experience of my past. The horsehead scene handily beats the Godfather’s horsehead scene for disturbing grossness (it was a natural for a picture here, but I just couldn’t do it… Opting for a more family friendly image) and there are lots more great scenes. Really just a strong movie all around. Very well acted, well produced, the boy looked just creepy enough, yet not really, to make the age and size issues seem not too unbelievable and a great story! I would suggest though reading the book and watching the movie.


td4430
the tin drum 44:30

We also watched Romper Stomper again. Back when, it was my first experience with Crowe and I thought, “wow, he sure is an ass.” Of course, now I realize that he wasn’t acting that part. But he does make a good ol ignorant fascist. Australians finding commonality with the Nazi’s seems a bit daft, but I think that adds to the character of the movie. The whole time I can’t help thinking, “Are you guys kidding? You’re in Melbourne”. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has the interest to sit through an hour and a half of skinhead action and talk and nazi-worship. Keep in mind that nothing positive really occurs anywhere in the film but it’s got good tragedy, alot of action and the soundtrack is really good. Not just good Oi but the rest of the mood music is nicely foreboding.And on a lighter note, we watched Houseboat. I felt unsure as to if I had even seen a Sofia Loren movie before, so that was good and interesting, she’d be quite a catch for a ol’ stodger like Cary Grant… Speaking of Cary… I found his character an odd love interest for Loren and I’ve never liked him (strangely though, I think I’ve seen 6 of his films in the last year or so) or most of the characters he plays. This one was no different. In fact, I didn’t really like any of the characters, even the kids were annoying. It was enticing to see Werner Klemperer show up in the cast, but his role was very light, almost as if a bunch had been cut out. Regardless though, it was, of course, completely predictable and there were my issues with the cast, but it was a finely enjoyable old romantic comedy. And it had Sofia Loren!

Newflash! In my constant efforts to warn folks of the impending doom of all of our electro-magnetic emissions we’re soaking ourselves in, read this little tidbit about a college rejecting wi-fi for health concerns, here. How many of these kinds of results will it take before people really start to question the long term impact of sending wi-fi & cell phones signals though our heads, on top of all of the other crap we force our bodies to put up with. For a more indepth look, read here. I think this part best sums up my thinking on the matter “The associations observed are weak, however; the strong consistency of slightly positive effects has a very low probability of being explained by chance alone”

Some fun quotes:
9.3.1 STATEMENTS OF INDIVIDUAL REVIEWERS
Reviewer 1 (DelPizzo)
Degree of Certainty: The evidence regarding this endpoint has attributes very similar to those of childhood leukemia, with the dose-response relationship being less clear, but the consistency of results being even stronger and the plausibility being increased by having already established a high degree of certainty for the childhood leukemia risk. This reviewer is “prone to believe” that EMFs increase the risk of adult brain cancer to some degree.
IARC classification: “Possible Human Carcinogen, 2B.”

Reviewer 2 (Neutra)
Degree of Certainty:
…This reviewer is “close to the dividing line between believing and not believing” that EMFs increase the risk of adult brain cancer to some degree… In fact, it looks similar to the evidence for adult lymphocytic leukemia… This warrants a Possible (2B) carcinogen IARC classification, “limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans…”

Reviewer 3 (Lee) 31
Degree of Certainty: The meta-analysis for the occupational brain cancer studies
indicates a slightly higher risk for electrical workers. As a result…relative risk … is considerably increased… by the positive association of EMF with childhood and adult leukemia. Hence, this reviewer is “close to the dividing line between believing and not believing’ that EMFs increase the risk of adult brain cancer to some degree. IARC Classification: …The associations observed are weak, however; the strong consistency of slightly positive effects has a very low probability of being explained by chance alone… classification, “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

If you missed my earlier, enticing warnings before, please enjoy this long rant, here.



super long happy new years greeting…

And what about all this death and disease, cancer pervades… Folks of all ages shapes and sizes… What’s the cure? Well, I don’t think that cure is the right word for the solution.

Looking at the world we have created around us, how can people be so naive about the causes of these ills that befall us. This myriad of symptoms that we call cancer have many, many causes in our little world. The list of things we surround ourselves with that are known to be carcinogenic (or otherwise potentially harmful or fatal) goes on and on: lead and the endless list of monoxides and dioxides from car pollution, industrial waste (just try reading The Fluoride Deception sometime), the radiation from Cell phones (“safe if antenna is not pointed at your head” does not, in my mind, constitute safe for something you talk through), radiation from power lines. Worse yet, plastics. Plastics are filled with carcinogenic materials: DEHA in water bottles, PVC in food wrap, chemical laden-plastics are what we’ve biult our homes around. That and: Ammonia used everywhere, Formaldehyde in carpets (along with 100 other toxic substances) and hundreds of personal products of all kinds, VOCS from mercury, formaldehyde and solvents in Oil & Latex based paints, polyurethane and Boric Acid and Antimony Oxides in Mattresses, and more! We all know that color and smell leach into plastic, I feel safe assuming that the leaching just may go both ways.

And let’s not forget our food system. Most of the food we eat has been so heavily processed that it doesn’t even resemble anything that the body should recognize: Soy is good for you (or is it?), but what connections does it have with textured soy protein, especially in a mash with myriad other chemicals, preservatives, coloring, stabilizers… Does the body really appreciate that as sustenance? On top of that atrophying, nay sabotaging, our immune system by swallowing every medicine we can get out hands on when we feel ill and covering ourselves and our environment with Anti-Bacterial soap, can’t really help. Human bodies are being weakened from the inside out and radiated and carcinogated from the outside in! No wonder there’s cancer everywhere. Good luck finding a “cure”.

Two cheery quotes from US PRIG, “three of the seven infant sleep accessories tested contained toxic flame retardants in the foam materials.” Yay! “Fifteen out of the eighteen products tested for phthalates including bath books, teethers, bath toys and other products contained phthalates. For example, a teether made by Gund contained DBP, a type of phthalate classified as a reproductive toxicant and banned in the European Union,” Don’t even get me started on the child development effects (ADD anyone?) of having little children stare at the seemingly psychosis inducing television shows, cartoons, and commercials for hours everyday…

Anyway, I don’t even know why these reports are needed. It strikes me as obvious that all of these sources surrounding and permeating us all of the time (who else finds it discomforting that we can turn on radios and TV anywhere and listen to them? Does that mean that American Idol is going through me whether I want to watch it or not?), assaulting our cells and systems, must have a cumulative effect greater then the individual harming ability of each one (this oft-quoted note from the FDA: “While it is true that chemicals used to make plastics can leach into food from plastic containers and films, all of the regulated chemicals used to make plastics for food contact, including DEHA, have been reviewed by FDA and have been found safe for their intended use” is fine… How all of our concerns about hazards are blown off using terms like Safe For Intended Use and The Amount Falls Into A Safe Range, doesn’t do much for me).

For further worry, here is a bit from Healthy Home Builder.

Anyway, on to movies!

We’ve had a busy week! We watched Dead Ringers which is always fun. It seemed a bit sillier then the last time I watched it (the effects of age, I suppose), but I still like it. Quite tense at times and you can’t help but feel bad for some of the characters, especially when Claire learns about the “fabulous mantle twins”. All in all though, I couldn’t help but think though of Julian Sands twisted doctor in Boxing Helena, who I find creepier, due to his childlike nature.

We also started off the Kubrick with Lolita. I’d never seen it and, man, had I been missing out. Very good film, very good performances from the whole cast (especially though, from Peter Sellers, always a favorite of mine). It was involving, intriguing and I highly recommend it. I hear the book is good too!

We followed that up with the Documentary A Life in Film. That was good too. I could have done without Tom Cruise as the narrator but, when he wasn’t actually on-screen, he was easy enough to forget. I never knew much about Kubrick, so it was good to hear a bit.

We also watched Angels in America. I had little interest in watching this, plus the six hour length scared me, but I was quite surprised. Though I didn’t actually like any of the characters, they we’re all well done (except the two scenes that lapsed into a few seconds of bad acting) and the story was good. As for the length? Well, I’m starting to feel that it’s odd that anything under 3 hours can even be called a film. There’s no time to develop anything worth developing in 90 minutes. The six hours went by easily.

We also watched Me Without You, another film I’ve never heard of but liked quite a lot. I fell right into the “Yay Holly, Boo Marina” camp… Rooting for Holly and Nat from the beginning (why do I get to be such a sucker for these romances sometimes? Tim and Dawn, anyone?). I really got into it. Queasy at their first punk rock party, mad at Marina, mad at Kyle Mac and his terrible hair… I fell for this fun film and the great soundtrack.

Speaking of Tim and Dawn, we had Krista and Ryan over for a bit and made them watch the first 6 episodes of The Office, the real (UK) version. That was fun as always. I never tire of this show. Krista reported that, though it is very like the American copy, the UK edition is much more discomforting. I’ve never seen the domestic re-hash, but I would bet she’s right! Now we need to watch all the way to the end again!

Last night, in the haze of a cold, I put in Sexy Beast. This time, the third I think, I am no longer having much troubles with their brogues (I wanted to subtitle it the first time). A great movie. The opening scene ranks up with the “leaving the restaurant” scene in Reservoir Dogs as one of the best opening/title scenes I know of. Past that though, the movie is awesome. Ben Kinsgley is tremendous, as usual, and the whole thing is great. Acting, story, script, cinematography, everything. Easily one of my top ten films (though my top ten list is at least 50 films long).



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