Recent comments

  • Reply to: Having His Cake and Eating It Too   16 years 7 months ago

    As a sociologist who has studied the stigma of obesity for over 20 years, I believe the law IS ridiculous. I don't know how it will work, but I know it will not make one bit of difference in the obesity rate. If it is just that calorie count needs to be made available on request, only health fanatics will ask for it. If it the rabid version the likes of Jacobson want, where calorie count MUST be IN YOUR FACE, people will just stop going to restaurants and eat at home. Or they will order some tasteless low cal piece of crap with the healthy heart on it, then binge in secret at home. All it will do is further exacerbate the guilt surrounding food. Furthermore, food in restaurants is not a major contributer to this (hyped) obesity epidemic. Dieting, pollution, stress, overwork, and growth hormones are. As well as good old genetics.

    I personally have never taken a dime from the food industry. I lived my life according to my beliefs. But I believe the health nazis and bigdietpharma (BARFMA) are the greater evils. I am more than willing to sell me expertise at this point. We keep on repeating the same mistakes on obesity over and over. It is absurb. It is time to move on from weight obsession and take care of real problems.

    "Fat can be beautiful. Ignorance is ALWAYS ugly."

  • Reply to: Without Academic Partnerships, the Tobacco Industry Loses Power   16 years 7 months ago
    <blockquote>"i turned my head the other way when applauding PM's support of the performing arts -- especially since my kid wouldn't have had a job with the dance theatre of harlem had PM not been such a generous sponsor."</blockquote> Don't you see? PM dispenses its philanthropy solely to elicit endorsements like yours in defense of its tobacco business -- so it can keep getting new generations of kids hooked. Your mention of your son's job only reminds me of how eagerly I started smoking before I was even old enough for after-school work, and how desperately hard it was to quit when I finally grew up and wised up. As I see it, PM paid for your son's job with my years of addiction. Diversification is nice, but in my view that company's hands -- and its money -- won't be clean until it's out of the tobacco business worldwide and no executive ever involved in its tobacco operations is still working for it.
  • Reply to: Are Hybrids Putting the Brakes on Greener Options?   16 years 7 months ago

    Until we we can tap into Jupiter, we can and should consider hydrogen a means of storing and transporting energy rather than as an energy source.

    Every means of storing energy gives you less back out than you put in. There's no lack of practical questions about hydrogen, but I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

    I agree that we need to guard that nuclear "back door" very vigilantly.

  • Reply to: Without Academic Partnerships, the Tobacco Industry Loses Power   16 years 7 months ago
    i'm getting a little tired of philip morris bashing: for one thing, anyone who is still smoking after the lawsuits and attention that has been given to smoking hazards is nuts. anyone who hasn't availed him/herself of remedies for smoking doesn't really want to stop. and yes, i turned my head the other way when applauding PM's support of the performing arts -- especially since my kid wouldn't have had a job with the dance theatre of harlem had PM not been such a generous sponsor. moreover, PM has so diversified its holdings in this country that it can't be possible for the company to make bucks off ciggies alone. if other countries could afford the kind of campaigns launched here maybe foreigners wouldn't still be such avid smokers. the good news is anti-smoking campaigns are starting to take hold abroad. meanwhile, what's the point of bashing meaningful research funded by a corporate entity attempting to make amends for its past bad behavior?
  • Reply to: Are Hybrids Putting the Brakes on Greener Options?   16 years 7 months ago

    Thanks for your comment. The point that I was trying to emphasize, but perhaps didn't well enough, was that consumers are not necessarily aware that hybrids are not the best ultimate options, and that there are other types of vehicles that in the future may be better. There has undoubtedly been a PR and advertising push for hybrids which is the extent of information a lot of consumers have on the issue.

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