I’m going to make up a series of fictional health claims which I will put in quotes below to begin a discussion on pseudoscience. “Smoking is actually good for you. Doctors used to recommend it, until the government realized that demonizing tobacco would allow them to charge exorbitant taxes on cigarettes. It is a well-known […]
The Never-Ending Maw of Cybersecurity Certifications
As the months pass by and my retirement savings dwindle, I have to say I’ve at least been enjoying everything that I’ve learned over the past 2+ years. But I really needed to take a moment to criticize some of the activity I’ve been seeing in the certification space, because it’s truly bizarre. First of […]
Experimenting with a De-Googled Phone
Last month, I made the effort to find an older Pixel so I could install an alternative operating system on it. I’m a little bit of a privacy nut, but not nearly as nutty as I could be, so although I write a lot about my life in this blog (which has its own risks), […]
Brief Thoughts on Workers vs. Consumers
I’ve recently been reading the book “Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry”, and this is now the second time I’ve bumped up against the history of food oligopolies, in which policy changes in the 1970s are often summarized as “get big or get out”, which led to the elimination of many […]
Elitism and Food
Due to the their rarity or cost of production, some foods used to be eaten exclusively by the wealthy, but industrial agriculture has dramatically leveled the playing field. Humans, though, are often keen to distinguish themselves, and so the emphasis has shifted from the exclusivity of foods to their supposed “health” benefits. In essence, the […]
Diet Religions, Part 5: False Prophets and Miracle Cures
The idea that one perfect, universal diet exists and can be followed by everybody is highly problematic and is entirely unlikely to be true, but that hasn’t stopped various diets from making the outrageous claim that they have super secret access to the Divine. One thing that really troubles me is how specific diet ideologies […]
Sourcing Ingredients
The research continues as I investigate companies that produce dried fruits and dried fruit powders in my quest to perfect a few homemade oatmeal recipes. The going has not been easy, but it has brought me to an interesting understanding of food and how I relate to it. The short backstory is that my favorite […]
Diet Religions, Part 4: Beyond Good and Evil
For as long as I’ve been alive, people have been calling different foods “healthy” or “unhealthy” without any explanation or justification beyond popular belief. I would say this is akin to black and white thinking and, dare I say it, ‘religion’, but it tends to be passed down as a matter of fact, rather than […]
Sketchy Food Companies
Last week, I saw acai powder in the grocery store for the first time. I had considered buying some of this online in the past to assist the blueberry powder I have for various oatmeal experiments, but the price tag of $24 for roughly 8 oz scared me away, at least for the day. Having […]
Don’t Make a Giant List of Everything You Want to Buy
Every great now and then, annoyed by a scramble of checklists, I sit down and write out a list of all of the things I’ve been meaning, wanting, or considering to buy. In some ways this is great, because it pulls all smaller lists together, addressing both immediate needs and someday-kinda wants, and can be […]