the generally quite fun and always quite crazy 2008 san francisco bay to breakers is this sunday, may 18th. the race is 12 kilometer (7.46 miles) and goes from one end of san francisco to the other. giantmonster will be running (but no, not as the mighty glergg) and enjoying the madness! hope to see you there!
Archive for the 'health' Category
i am amazed and inspired each time i watch this video titled Qigong Demo with John Chang. it was sent in from brit and i’ve since found it (along with other great material & insights) on the sites martialdevelopment.com and also mind-energy.net. the videos posted below are of john chang (’dynamo jack’ & also John DiJang) demostrating his remarkable chi energy that he has developed over the course of his life through a deep & ancient meditation practice. john chang is a healer and lives in java. he is also the subject of a book titled The Magus of Java: Teachings of an Authentic Taoist Immortal. truly amazing. beginning my meditation practice right now …
Qigong Demo with John Chang
John Chang
The Power of Now written by eckhart tolle is a very wonderful, powerful, and transformational book. books find you in strange ways. i am grateful that eckhart tolle wrote it and grateful to my father and then my friend mike murnane for introducing me to it. without the messages and insights gathered from that book, i do not know where i would be right now. i imagine less aware, less awake, less alive, less loving, less caring, more reactive, more negative, and more afraid to be who i am. open up and begin reading The Power of Now at any point in the book and you will get some great insight, simplicity, and wisdom, as well as pathways to peace, stillness, and understanding. i found this is also true of eckhart tolle’s second book A New Earth. soundstrue has a great interview with eckhart tolle and also has several great videos of eckhart tolle lectures and speeches. i’ve posted two of those videos below. one is titled Not Reacting to Content and the other is Your Pain Body is Very Seductive. i feel that the consciousness of human beings on our planet is changing. it has to in order for our world to survive. thank you very much eckhart tolle for putting you thoughts and ideas out into the world and for your work and insight!
Not Reacting to Content
Your Pain Body is Very Seductive
brain scientist and neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor spoke recently at the TED conference. the speech she gave is available on the TED talks site. what she talks about it is very fascinating, beautiful, and moving. from the TED talks website: One morning, Jill Bolte Taylor realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. it’s friday and it’s time to enhance your brain and perspective on your life, your mind, and your world. please enjoy Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight. it’s great!
time to fight cancer! how? well, oddly enough through the power of jacking off. no really. researchers in australia have concluded that men could reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer through regular masturbation. wow, who knew? & giantmonster is happy to report we are cancer free! set aside some special time & help fight cancer today - you deserve it!
great chart via good magazine that displays which of the USA’s largest food producers & corporations are behind your favorite organic foods. always good to know where your dollars go. i didn’t know coca cola owned odwalla. or that pepsi owned naked juice.
as if it needs mentioning, the drug methamphetamine is absolutely horrible. to drive that point home further, jezebel is hosting a short clip from the A&E show Intervention of Cristy, the 24 year girl who has been a meth user & addict for 10 years. it is very very sad and disturbing. longer video clips of this episode are available on youtube. if that isn’t enough, there’s an informative page via pbs frontline on how meth destroys the body. this is the worst drug. just awful. seeing what meth use does to people is the best deterrent. please avoid at all costs.
incredible! myaspartameexperiment.com is a very detailed website of an extensive experiment conducted by a private citizen on the effects of the artificial sweetener aspartame (nutrasweet). in short: stop using anything with nutrasweet/aspartame today! the experiment was conducted by victoria inness-brown, MA. inness-brown put a group of rats on a steady diet containing nutrasweet for 2 years and 8 months. the aspartame received daily by her rats was equivalent to two-thirds the aspartame contained in a 8 ounce can of diet soda (meaning it was less than the human equivalent of the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for aspartame as set by the FDA). the results are startling -the rats fed nutrasweet developed tumors, eye diseases, bone disorders, and eventually died. quoting the website for the basis of the experiment:
“I did my aspartame experiment because my family was addicted to diet soda. After researching the effects of aspartame, I strongly believed the artificial sweetener might one day lead to their illness and even early death.”
WARNING: the website myaspartameexperiment.com contains disturbing images of rats with symptoms of severe diseases and and illness. you can review the setup for the nutrasweet experiment here. fyi: nutrasweet is another bad product made by monsanto (the makers of round-up, agent orange, rBST/rBGH).
if you are like me, you’ve always wanted to give all your friends syphillis, maybe some HIV, a touch of black death, and even some athlete’s foot each & every holiday season. well now you finally can! the geniuses at GIANTmicrobes have created a plush line of just that - giant microbes! yes, there’s the flesh eating virus (with embroidered knife & fork!), gonorrhea, mad cow, and so much more! with marketing tag lines for their dolls such as scum that go “he may look like the scum of the earth, but once you cross paths he’s sure to grow on you” - how can you resist?
wow. there’s crazy post on who-sucks dot com titled monstrous myostatin misfortunes with equally crazy pics of some mighty massive muscle magnification caused by myostatin deficiency. oh my! myostatin is a hormone that regulates muscle growth. too much myostatin and you may not have enough muscle mass. too little myostatin and, well, you are super buffed and strong without really trying. i have to remember to ask santa for just a wee bit of a myostatin deficiency this year. yikes.
the staff of one at giantmonster is slimming down for the summer with this hot new diet. you should do it too! it’s simple - all you have to do is eat live frogs and live rats on a daily basis and watch the pounds just melt off! yeah, awesome! you are allowed baby rats and mice to snack in between meals. it is also said to cure minor tummy aches and pains. and it’s low carb too (fart!).
today is 4/20 - so act accordingly. especially at 4:20pm. while you are at it, why not read up on 10 Things Every Parent, Teenager, & Teacher Should Know About Marijuana. good information there. attitudes seem to being changing more and more from one of ‘reefer madness’ to one of ‘reefer rad-ness!’ that is a good thing.
more advances in science and health with stem cell research and discoveries. Early reports from study conducted in the UK by a joint team of Brazilian and American scientists has found that diabetics with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again through new stem-cell therapy. quoting Dr. Richard Burt on the study:
“As a research scientist I am always hesitant to speak of a cure, but the initial results have been good and show the importance of conducting more trials.â€
my friend keith is participating in the American Diabetes Association’s donation drive/bike ride called Tour de Cure. keith is very near his personal goal of raising $2,100. so please help out with a monetary donation if you can. click here to sponsor keith and get him to that goal or beyond (beyond is good)! your sponsorship donation is tax deductable too.
are you drinking non-organic milk or eating non-organic dairy products? please stop. chances are the milk and dairy products you are consuming contain a gift from monsanto (the makers of round-up, agent orange, and nutrasweet /aspartame) called rBST - or Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (also rBGH). and you should avoid anything with rBST like the plague. although legal in the united states, rBST has been banned in the EU, canada, japan, and other nations due to tests that show it’s link to cancer. monsanto’s own tests on rats showed this but those results were excluded from the report to the FDA. and monsanto has gone out of it’s way to suppress that information, as well as suppress the labeling of milk & dairy containing rBST. please watch this youtube clip from the movie The Corporation titled Fox News Kills Monsanto Milk Story (embedded movie below). more info at alternet.org and foxBGHsuit.com. more about the absolutely evil monsanto via the organic consumers association website. avoid any dairy with rBST. support organic dairy farmers by purchasing organic milk and diary products.
next time you think of stuffing a big, thick, juicy wiener in your mouth, think about this: hot dogs may very well contain DNA-mutating compounds that boost one’s risk of getting cancer. granted, the phrase ‘cancer dogs’ lacks that marketing spark and zeal that would make one actually crave processed tubular meats. so what to do? well, it’s not so much the hot dogs per se, it’s those darn nitrates. nitrates are found in processed meats, like bacon, sausage, and the beloved steamy wiener (a.k.a. the hot dogs), as well as chemical fertilizers for vegetable crops. so avoid them nitrates (and probably hot dogs too). a health tip: when you do eat foods containing nitrates, have a glass of orange juice at the same time. vitamin c is known to inhibit the conversion of nitrates into nitrosamines in your stomach.
what drugs are dangerous according to their level of addictiveness? a new report by the Science and Technology Select Committee in the united kingdom urges that drugs should be considered harmful or dangerous based on their level of addictiveness. there’s even a handy bar graph to keep track of drug danger levels (according to how addictive the drug is considered) which is handy for when you’re out shopping (even smaller chart here). the danger levels/harm ratings on the drug chart are listed as being rated by “independent experts” (note: tommy chong & cheech marin were not available for comment). so it looks like ecstasy is the new gateway drug as it is rated as the least addicitve (g$: i told you so!), whereas the lazy lettuce is listed as middle of the road. both are less addictive than alcohol though. i find it odd that the graph lists heroin as more addictive than tobacco. i know lots of people who’ve kicked heroin, but none of them have been able to stop smoking. go figure.
great study carried out by scientists from cornell university in ithaca, new york, that looks into the use of pesticides and genetically modified (GM) crops. the big biotech firms promote the benefits of GM crops stating that GM crops are safer for the environment as they require less pesticides and toxins. this was based on three year study began in 1997 where farmers growing GM cotton did actually reduce pesticide use by 70% and make more money then conventional farmers. but that was just a three year focus. a longer term look (7 years +) reveals that the farmers growing GM crops use just as much pesticide as their conventional farming counterparts. the US study also revealed that the GM cotton farmers were spending far more money in the long run because GM cotton seed is three times the price of conventional cotton seed. factoring in price of grain and increased pesticide & toxin use makes GM cotton more expensive then conventional cotton or organic cotton in the long run. the article states that the findings of the study “will undermine claims by the biotechnology industry that GM technology can boost food production without necessarily damaging the environment with pesticides.” it seems that short term studies on GM crops tend to promote GM crops while longer term studies of the effects of GM crops tend to refute the positive results of the short term GM crop findings. long term studies also reveal the harm of GM crops and the very negative side effects, such as the creation of ’superweeds’ that are resistant to pesticides.
it’s friday & we’re totally peaking! actually, just wrapping up the semi-unofficial week of the brain with this is your brain on ecstasy. it’s a highly informative slideshow (created by emanuel sferios & brought to you by the rad folks at dancesafe) outlining what takes place on a chemical level in your brain when you drop one of those special little MDMA pills or capsules. good stuff (the slideshow too).
a great brain story in the news yesterday finds us here at giantmonster compelled to put down our fireworks and celebrate with the week of the brain! yes - the brain! read the story of terry wallis & his amazing brain. in 1984 and at the age of 19, terry was in an auto accident and ended up in a coma with massive brain injuries. he stayed that way for 19 more years (!) until in 2003 when terry started to speak, then move, and then communicate. turns out terry’s brain rewired itself, building new axon connections that grew across around the back of the brain, forming structures that do not exist in normal brains. amazing and fascinating! more stories on terry wallis found here and here. there’s also a great post (via metafilter) by jake young of scienceblogs.com that covers details & differences on terry wallis’s brain condition. celebrate brain week! got any brain stories?
drink unlimited amounts of beer and battle breast cancer - both at the same time. sounds dreamy, right? well, it’s happening! the sixth annual fermenting change: microbreweries battling breast cancer will take place on saturday, july 15, 2006 at the marin brewing company (map) on larkspur landing from 12 noon to 5pm. all proceeds benefit the Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic (CMCC). there will be over 20 local microbreweries with their finest beer, live music, outdoor barbeque, and a prize raffle. tickets are $25 at the door, $20 advance. View & print a large JPG flyer of the event or you can download a hi-res PDF flyer to print as well. thanks for the info, cari!
for the lazy lettuce fans and big time jah praisers out there, some good news that you may already know: there is no link to pot smoking and lung cancer. zero. zip. nada. study shows no increased risk for even the heaviest marijuana smokers. neato! and even though numerous studies state that marijuana smoke contains 50% higher concentrations of chemicals linked to lung cancer than cigarette smoke, researchers feel it’s the THC connection and THC’s anti-tumor properties. there you go!
there’s a great read on the site seedmagazine about prions called the prion anomoly. i started to learn about prions a wee bit while reading about mad cow disease. this article goes even further in talking about how prions control stem cell growth and how prions may pass on genetic traits - challenging the theory that genes are soley responsible for inheritance. and be sure to click the link to the related article on prions called the bipolar protien. it goes into how prion-based disease spreads and how prions work to ’signal’ other cells.
so the recent developements with ye old timey avain bird flu - where the H5N1 deadly disease strain has been passed to a cat and now a weasel (technically a stone martin) - have been reminding me about the story premise for the movie Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. yes. in the movie, a terrible disease has killed off the world’s cats and dogs, leaving humans with no animals to keep as pets, except monkeys and apes. in reality, birds and now cats and ferrets/weasels are all capable of carrying the deadly bird flu strain. so what i’m saying is the basic setup for eventual ape domination is beginning now. just thought i’d mention it here first. this sci-fi moment has been brought to you by nothing-to-blog-about.biz.
2006 should be the year you give up red meat. i’m not joking. mad cow disease is no joke. here’s a recent story that should have been front page news but wasn’t: US Meat Supply at Risk of Mad Cow. mmmm … beefy! and if you know what a downer cow is, you’ll be unhappy to hear that, according to the USDA inspector general, downer cows are entering the US meat & food supply. downer cows are supposed to be banned as food source meat. but their entering the US food supply isn’t old news. it’s just not reported, or rather it’s lied about and covered up. and a report by the agricultural department found that it could not determine whether beef slaughterhouses and packing plants obeyed safeguards designed to keep mad cow disease from reaching humans. the regulations are largely ignored. yikes! but it’s not all bad for red meat lovers. if you’re hooked on the beef, then make a smart move to only eat organic meat from free range grass fed cows, such as napa free range beef or niman ranch. you just can’t trust factory farmed meat anymore. period.