baudot

Saffron ice cream? That sounds wonderful. Was it $35/scoop?

And now I know what you are talking about. Quit tempting me to move before I have a job offer, dammit!

Thanks again for the hospitality last weekend.

He went there. We were discussing whether the boarding life was as wild as rumor would have it. He confirmed, and informed that he'd been kicked out prior to graduation. Heh.

We had a similar graduation ratio due to excessive drug use and a general lack of recognition of the value of a high school diploma. But we were lucky - the year after I graduated, they started enforcing the maximum absence rules regarding graduation. Only 50% of that class graduated. I don't know what they did the year after.

Cheers to those indeed.

Fuck yes. The meal went splendidly.

I am sneakily adding comments to past posts - ha! Just about to sit down at the quilting table to hem some stuff and make some other stuff. Making stuff is fun, even without lasers.

I kinda still don't get it. Acupuncture has double-blind studies (which produce negative results). One sells one's expertise in a system, not the system itself.

To assert that a double blind study cannot be performed because the material is public domain assumes that scientists lack curiosity about a potentially plausible dietary system and the means to get a grant for a potentially plausible dietary system. That seems incredibly unlikely to me. The existence of the Ig Nobel Prize would seem to invalidate the claim that it's impossible to get a study done when it seems unlikely to create profit. Not to mention the simple existence of the NCCAM.

The difference between this and, say, willow bark is pretty simple. Willow bark, aspirin, is mainstream, demonstrated, and entirely plausible. It doesn't need to be tested because it's not really in question - its efficacy has been demonstrated for decades. But even were that not the case, the suggestion that it's not being tested is patently false. Likewise for valium.

I'm looking around for Ayurvedic studies and... they mostly look pretty crappy. I see an oil-dripping study that concludes a positive result with only 16 participants. I see one study actually examining the effects of the diet on diabetes which seems to suggest that it may have helped, or may not, depending on how one does the math on the results, and further study is needed. And there are a couple other studies loosely related.

To suggest that something must be bunk because it has no double-blind studies is, of course, incorrect. But to withhold acceptance of an assertion until it's been accepted is absolutely rational. That's almost the foundation of reason. Until Ayurvedic methods are demonstrated to be efficacious, I remain skeptical of its claims. And I'm not impressed by excuses that it cannot be tested for this reason or that. If people are willing to test homeopathy, and they have, they're willing to test this.

I believe these bases were covered...

As previously stated:

Also, for when L.A. drops below the chill of the temperate 70s:

Seeing as LA falls under the 'warmer climates' category, mild whining is valid. For example, the temperatures could dip as evening rolls in and you could be heard saying, "For fuck's sake, wasn't it 90 degrees out earlier?" This could be followed up with scattered grumblings, but only within reason.

Well aren't you boring.

what's your number? i'll only be gone for like 24 hours. going to a wedding from 1130- 5 on saturday in san jose..

congrats about the publisher!!!

Some good points re: selfishness. I think we can be satisfied yet still pursue things at the same time without an inherent contradiction.

I'll post some stuff in a bit. I haven't been on SG too much and sometime I feel like the group is over-saturated with my posts.