*raises hand*
I'd like to add myself and my husband to the list of people who had never heard of this phrase before now.

[raises hand, excited]

Oh! OOOh! I want to be raped, too!

Mmmm. Chips. You know, in the States a fish n' chips order typically results in greasy, breaded fish (typically not cod) and fucking french fries! French fries?! The gastropub down the street from me is owned by an Irish bloke, and he makes authentic fish n' chips with the thin chips (not too thin) blanched and cooked in malt vinegar. Delicious.

>> ^rottenseed:
>> ^bcglorf:
>> ^rottenseed:
raises hand
Um how come they don't have electricity? IT'S THE 21ST FUCKING CENTURY!!!

Political instability.
Oddly enough it's a problem not solved by technology.

Well then somebody needs to help out a bit. Give them a little push. Maybe not too much, technology doesn't always equate to a better quality of living. I'm sure there's potential that their day is a lot less stressful than mine (political unrest aside).


No money in giving shit away for free. Yay capitalism.

>> ^bcglorf:
>> ^rottenseed:
raises hand
Um how come they don't have electricity? IT'S THE 21ST FUCKING CENTURY!!!

Political instability.
Oddly enough it's a problem not solved by technology.

Well then somebody needs to help out a bit. Give them a little push. Maybe not too much, technology doesn't always equate to a better quality of living. I'm sure there's potential that their day is a lot less stressful than mine (political unrest aside).

>> ^rottenseed:
raises hand
Um how come they don't have electricity? IT'S THE 21ST FUCKING CENTURY!!!


Political instability.

Oddly enough it's a problem not solved by technology.

*raises hand*

Um how come they don't have electricity? IT'S THE 21ST FUCKING CENTURY!!!

*raises hand* That was me on the intarwebs that just came at the end there.

*Raises hand and jumps around in seat*

Me me me me me me me! Link link link link link!

In reply to this comment by finch451:
God, that reminds me! I filmed/photo'd the DC flashmob pillow fight this month and haven't done anything with the video yet!

[raises hand]

I was making fun of him.

*raises hand*

Yeah, this guy's an idiot.

Ooo! Oooo! [raises hand, excitedly!] I want to be the new crazy!

This didn't start with choggie. There have been others. Though, sometimes people get banned for certain offenses while others inexplicably escape the ban for the exact same offense. I think a new precedent is being set where it's okay to discard other people's Sift Talk posts.

>> ^garmachi:
>> ^Sagemind:
They could have walked around her.


Except that in doing so, they would have made themselves more vulnerable. Don't you know anything about riot control formations? Oh, wait. I guess not.
Does anyone here?

::raises hand::

Oh yeah! I do!

By swerving around her, they would have created a ripple throughout formation, causing breaks in their defensive lines. Granted, they don't have their shields here, but it's still ingrained in them to follow procedure.

/raises hand

>> I don't know what kind of retard would identify with a specific group of athletes just because they happened to be born within a few hundred miles of them.

Umm, *raises hand*.
With whom should anyone identify then? Not fellow countrymen. Not anyone who lives near you... Just people you're related to or are they also off limits? Please do inform so I know how to behave retardation-free according to the rules of gorillaman for the remainder of my life (if I could only be so lucky).

Or perhaps it's a natural, innocent feeling to experience which means nothing, especially not that one is retarded. Still, please forgive any offense I may have caused by rooting for the representatives of my home country to succeed.

>> ^spoco2:
lucky, I do have to say you're a little negative towards the british commentators and the rest, show a little sportsmanship. ANYONE watching that would have said the US could not have closed that gap, that was an insanely large gap to claw back, and more power to the final swimmer for that, incredible swim. And 'In your face?'... come on, brilliant swimming by all competitors, no need to sully such a superb performance with negativity.

I think my comments were totally misconstrued. About the Brit announcers I was saying that this was the first time hearing announcers of this race saying "He can't close the gap," (the American announcers didn't) which adds to your own feeling of "Damn, they're going to lose," and that made his winning by millimeters even more mind blowing.

And are you kidding about the negativity? My "in your face" (which was intentionally a child-like joke, hence the "nyeh") can not sully the win when it's in response to some assholes announcing to the world how wonderful they are, how much the competitors suck, and how humiliatingly they will get crush their competition.

Chogster,
I didn't have time to watch it either, but I did anyway. This is a tough one. I'll try to keep it brief, but that may be hard.

On vitamins and minerals;
If you eat a healthy balanced diet (raise hands please)you get all the vitamins and minerals you need. That's SO not the case in many undeveloped countries, as they rarely eat balanced diets. Taking extra water soluble vitamins, i.e. Vit C, will not hurt you, but it will give you expensive urine. Taking extra fat soluble vitamins can be outright dangerous. Vit A is hepatotoxic in high doses. I recall seeing a patient with end stage liver cirrhosis from chronic cod-liver oil (rich in Vit A) ingestion (how someone can get addicted to that is beyond me.)

There is little credible evidence to prove "extra" amounts of vitamins, above what your body really needs, is of any benefit to your health. Selenium supplementation has been associated with decreased prostate cancer. (So has rapid turnover of spermatozoa and it's more fun than taking selenium.)

The problem with "natural supplements" is several fold. (1) They are still chemicals and, therefore, are not easily differentiated from standard pharmaceuticals, many of which come from plants as well. (2) There is VERY lax quality control in the production of many of these drugs. Assays on potency have shown up to a 100 fold difference between brands that supposedly have the same amount of drug in one pill. (3)Taken in excess, drugs like ephedra are dangerous. It's amphetamine. It will give you a boost in energy, but it also may give you a hypertensive crisis or a fatal arrhythmia.

Medicine is science, and like any scientific endeavor, the proof is in the pudding. There are very few credible studies that demonstrate much benefit to "natural supplements." One speaker in the video, Jim Turner, laments that some of these drugs fall victim to "systematic cause and effect mentality" of the pharmaceutical companies and their "huge, expensive studies." That statement is intellectually bankrupt and I don't think I have to point that out. It takes huge expensive studies to achieve the power of analysis necessary to detect a benefit a drug might have on a relatively rare condition. Say for instance, a drug reduces by 50% the incidence of a complication that happens only once in a thousand patients. You will need to enroll thousands and thousands of patients to reach a power of analysis that will approach statistical significance. It takes, on average, almost a billion dollars to get a typical pharmaceutical drug from synthesis to the US market and that's, in part, due to the rigorous process the FDA requires.

On antidepressants;
Eating right, getting enough sleep, regular exercise and playing in the sunshine are as effective as marketed antidepressants. The side effect of "activation" of SSRIs has been understated. Patients with bipolar illness, rather than typical depression, can experience mania or hypomania, with increased anxiety, racing thoughts and insomnia. That's not what a depressed person needs. While not proven, my personal opinion is that this heightened sense of anxiety may play a possible role in the risk of suicide. Please remember, mentally ill people can hide their illness well. Unforeseen suicides are not uncommon and it's easy to pin the blame on a new medicine, or some other unrelated factor.

I told you it would be difficult for me to be brief. I've practiced for 25 years now.
(1) The FDA is NOT suppressing effective therapies.
(2) All drugs, natural supplements included, should undergo systematic randomized prospective studies to assess their efficacy before being labeled as effective (sadly, that's not always the case)
(3) The drug companies are shamelessly pandering to the public and downplaying side-effects. They have been successful in creating a herd mentality in the U.S. of "I don't feel right, I need a drug." Direct advertising to the public should be BANNED.