The website Stevie cited seems to be a useful/cool way to find interesting things when traveling. I think we'll use this site to spontaneously plan our big American road trip. Check out this Auburn entry.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Roadside Attractions
Friday, July 24, 2009
Auburn Journal Article
Our back yard neighbor saw it this morning and commented. :)
I do like Auburn, it is our home and our town; we no longer feel like anonymous SF Bay Area residents.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Rendezvous with Rama
I found these pictures (spoiler) inspired by Clarke's story.
These two drawing are from the wikipedia entry for the novel.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
The Rookie
Now available in print, this science fiction novel was first available as a book tape read by the author. I like the related podcasts that others have done that fit into the story. You need to build your own play list to get the bonus material in the right sequence.
In a previous blog I recommend Scott Sigler with some reservations for the all but the toughest reader. The Rookie is recommended without those reservations. Start here and then when you get into Scott's stories check out his other fiction. The podcasts are how I access his fiction.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Trigosamine® smoke and mirors
My suspicions were aroused when by the box ad at the bottom of the page, just above the article citations, telling how to order this new product with special limited time 48-hour "significant discount". Implying that my local drug store may not be able to stock the product in the foreseeable future because of the high demand. But with the special code, if I call after 8:00 AM (date not specified) I am guaranteed my order will be delivered directly to my home.
I googled for Trigosamine and found the company's website and pages of hits. Most of these hits seemed to be drug sales sites offing the product. Eight pages into the google hits I found this short article, Is Trigosamine® Really an Effective Drug for Joint Care? About the only none sales related hit I found. I then looked for FASEB J and found the Journals website. No articles on Trigosamine® or on Hyaluronate-13 published in 2004.
The one scientific sounding reference in the company's literature is bogus. Assume the other information if not wrong is misleading.
The Glucosamine Sulfate is known to help degenerating joints so maybe the product will help some people. But eating a joint lubricant, hyaluronate, isn't going to lubricant my joints any more than eating steaks, bovine muscle, is going to add more muscles to my abs.
While writing this blog I attempted to link to the article in the Auburn Journal but their search engine didn't find their own article. Hmmm??? Going back to the newspaper clipping I see in a smaller type along the top of the page that the "article" is a paid advertisement run by Universal Media Syndicate, Inc. for the product manufacturer. To quote Universal Media Syndicate's website, "Media buying is not just what we do, it's who we are".
Dr. Joseph Dietz, PhD works for the manufacturer. The other scientist quoted in the article, Dr. Philip Howren, is a medical consultant to the manufacturer, PatentHEALTH.
I will NOT include the URL for the product here because I do not want to endorse it or add search-engine-credibility to the company.