What, no rise on the "homeopathic mumbo-jumbo"?!? Bah! :-(

Post #34,681 by CRConrad 4/8/02 7:53:21 AM Reply	What, no rise on the "homeopathic mumbo-jumbo"?!? Bah! :-( I was counting on one, you know... That's probably why you didn't rise to the bait; you figured out that that was what it was, ne? :-)
Post #34,684 by Meerkat 4/8/02 8:16:14 AM Reply	It's already doing the rounds of the media You'd think it was a touring celebrity or something :) But it's getting so much attention I'm sure (at least I hope) some 'real' information about it will soon be forthcoming. The only things that make even someone so cynical as myself take notice is all the patents and stuff behind it. Sure a patent to 'extend life' doesn't hold much water (so to speak...) but anyway, we'll see. There's every chance it's some mob who know the truth that nearly everybody oesn't drink enough water - and suddenly switching to two litres of water a day will generally make you feel better. Heck, I reckon forcing two litres of normal water down my throat did me good (if only for the extra exercise walking to the looa lot :) On the upside, it's being priced the same as all the other bottled water out there - $1.25 for 600mls. If it were five bucks or something then that would be as good as plastering 'scam' across it in large friendly leters. In the meantime I'll be sticking to my tap water ... who knows, my old pipes might just have the right combination of midichlorians or whatever it was already :-) On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.
Post #34,686 by CRConrad 4/8/02 9:03:54 AM Reply	Oh, it quite probably (AFAIK, which isn't much) DOES have... ...positive effects; with the reasoning about acid levels being improved by bicarbonates and the longevity of the livestock[] on those NSW farms, and so on, I'm not saying it doesn't do more or less exactly what they're saying it does. I agree, there's no saying how much of the anecdotal evidence illutrates the benefits of just drinking more water in general, minerals or no minerals. But for all I know (as I said, next to nothing), that particular salt could very well be very beneficial to your health. It's just the way they're marketing* it, with "thermodynamic balance of life forces" or whatever the voodoo phraseology was; with patenting it in stead of (OK, they're claiming "as a prelude to") doing some peer-reviewed research[]; and with the generally confused New-Age-sounding drivel on their Web site[], that makes me think their way of marketing* the stuff points to them being at least a bit whacko. Anybody know the wholesale price of chemicals? I'm still thinking, if you buy your magnesium bicarbonate, perhaps not from your local pharmacy but from the place where they buy theirs from, and your distilled water (this is optional -- if your tap water is OK, use that!), perhaps not from your local filling station but from the place where they buy theirs from -- then you'll get this stuff at a price comparable not to "other bottled water", but to TAP water. Get some of that salt, put it in water, stir, and drink. WTF are they going to do -- have they PATENTED the process of dissolving a salt in water?!? Or of drinking water with minerals in it?!? I DON'T THINK SO!!! There's PLENTY of prior art, for both ideas! (Ever heard of a place called Vichy, in France? Before it became the seat of the collaborationist government of a rump of France in WWII, it used to be known for something else... :-) []: So, why are there no reports about the people* on those farms living 'til they're, oh, about 120? (="Normal" life-span + 50%) Or of those farmers' wives being fertile into their seventies or eighties? Don't they drink their own local water?!? []: And no -- I'm sorry, being in the IT business and having followed international news about diverse intellectual property controversies, I may be rather more jaded with patent offices than the average Joe, but still -- no, "patent examiners" do NOT count as "peer review"! []: The bit about "Why increase the human life-span?" in the FAQ, for example, lists (in a rather jumbled fashion, I might add) some possible concequences* of longer life, but not the reasons for it. (Which is fucking obvious, like, "Who the heck wants to die?!?") Christian R. Conrad Of course, who am I to point fingers? I'm in the "Information Technology" business, prima facia evidence that there's bats in the bell tower. -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=27764\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #34,795 by Meerkat 4/8/02 8:17:18 PM Reply	Had I read their website before the news article I would probably have dismissed it out of hand. But since I read the journalist-speak before the new-age-bullshit-speak, gave it some credence in my head, at least. I can bet it won't be long before you can get Magnesium Bicarbonate pills - unless of course they can patent something that's naturally occurring... these days you never know! One thing about the farmers not drinking the animal's water - that's entirely possible. It's pretty common to use bore water or dam water or whatever to feed the animals, whilst the farmers collect their drinking water in a rainwater tank - fed usually by runoff from the roof of the house (guessing this is common the world over) On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.
Post #34,687 by CRConrad 4/8/02 9:11:01 AM Reply	Oh yeah, one more thing: Did they miss the opportunity... ...of a lifetime, or (literally! :-) of the millennium? They've been at it for years and years, and they're claiming their product is wonderful for athletes -- and they put it on the market now? So they DIDN'T take the opportunity to market it to the tens of thousands of international top athletes that invaded not only their continent, but their very city, the other year?!? I'm not remebering things wrong, am I -- you did have some kind of Games in Sydney year before last, didn't you...? If they missed that... Sheesh! Christian R. Conrad Of course, who am I to point fingers? I'm in the "Information Technology" business, prima facia evidence that there's bats in the bell tower. -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=27764\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #34,713 by Ashton 4/8/02 12:22:07 PM Reply	Nah, no point, unless you want to take on allopathy too (to keep the screeds balanced -) And the very popular, "treating of symptoms" by the even more Popular: "a pill for every ailment we can find an unu$ed Name\ufffd to attach to" (like, "nonspecific colitis.. vaginitis.. ANY-itis" meaning -- We don't Know WTF ya got, but here's a Rx anyway!). We Don't Know, in Latin is ever so much more Professional sounding, though - no? Now as to Hamlet (friend's cat) going on 7? years since his allopathic vet declared he had FIV and maybe a few months to live. Yeah.. it must be a crock, all right. (Yes he still has FIV, a 'syndrome name' about as useful as for the human variety) That means that, various symptoms manifest themselves, after periods of reasonably 'normal health'. These have been treated by various non pharm-chem remedies as correlate to the problems - but without any cockamamie fantasies that these treatments are a "cure". Which twin has the Toni\ufffd ?? (ancient Murican ad for YAN female hair 'permanent wave' - wherein a Professional wave was compared with the bottled nostrum). So one might as well say, Which cat used the Professional / Which cat used the Fake ?? Cat A: Had FIV - Dead in 6 months. Cat B: Has FIV - Takes a lickin and keeps on tickin. Name yer poison, Pardner. Oh yeah: at many points, the usual lab tests for kidney, liver, other vital functions - were done in the usual expensive way. Gotta have diagnostic data, when ya wish to eschew mumbo-jumbo! and do Real Science. Main difference has been: what was done with the information next, and what was Not done (like the usual proffered Rx for this and that broad-spectrum antibiotic.. never mind that there was no indication of an infection, fever or any other reason to Use these powerful substances!) Another difference: the kind of food = Not from cans nor bags of crunchy (sugary + salty) "dry food". Like humans, cats love the shit that's not Good for them, too (except feral ones, whose diet depends on live food - til someone hooks them on the crap stuff) Hell, maybe it's just magic (?) The fucking cat lives, still. (Allopathic vet, to give him credit.. did Not call it "spontaneous remission!"... talk about yer mumbo-jumbo.) As for me, should I 'get' anything remotely serious - I'll look for a genuine Witch Doctor with a track record over.. my local homogenized white-coated HMO droid, Tee Vee trained via ER and his 3-minute "exam" - and then a trip to the PDR (Physician's Desk Reference) of Popular Rx Drugs\ufffd du jour. Ashton Neutral Observers R' Us Ltd. PS (I'll be sure and let you know when Hamlet goes off to the Collective Unconscious - if he doesn't outlive me, that is. Johns Hopkins may want to study his corpse. Then again..) D. knows of several other animals in similar condition, after a similar diagnosis. We'll see how long they last, natch.

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