Friday, August 26, 2016

Quote of the Day


But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers.  But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. ~ Carl Sagan

8 comments:

Lady Anne said...

Since I never watch TV, I had no idea who this lady was(I'm assuming this is from a commercial or PSA), but I did a reverse look-up, read and listened to what she had to say, and I do agree with her. I make all of our bread, simply because I want to know what's in it, and we shop at Aldi's because, as she said, most of the additives our government thinks are safe (and you KNOW they never lie to us!) are not permitted overseas.

Good stuff. Thanks for posting it and giving us some food for thought . With no BHT in it!

Shay said...

I'm sorry to hear that, because she is incredibly science-phobic and is cynically making a great deal of money off of people who are equally ignorant.

https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/04/07/watch-scientist-challenge-the-scare-promoting-food-babe/

Bunnykins said...

I agree with both of you, but only think food additives are dangerous because three of us in the family have proven allergies to products that have recently become prevalent in food, medicines, and cosmetics: corn, olives, and, in my case, benzene. The allergist had a very sensible and long explanation as to why we are now allergic to things that never bothered us before.
My general rule is don't buy junk, ignore the "this or that food is going to kill you noise" and remember science is my friend.

Lady Anne said...

I'm certainly not anti-science; these people do a lot of work that most of us don't have the expertise, time, or salary to do. BUT how many times have we been told by the FDA that things were safe - cyclamates comes to mind - only that well, maybe, um, yeah, we made a mistake?

If two different groups of people come up with totally different answers to the same set of problems, I'd rather go with the lesser or two evils. It's funny - people in Europe have been eating cheese made from raw milk for centuries, but it's not "safe" for Americans to eat. Maybe if everybody agreed on a topic, the public would be less apt to feel they are being jerked around. (And yes, all my kids, grandkids, and great-grands have been vaccinated!)

Bunnykins said...

Agreed.

Anonymous said...

@ Lady Anne: What's even funnier about the raw-milk-cheese ban is that for many cheeses, the milk is heated to pasteurization temps, thus rendering the "raw milk" a non-problem.
The food-additives I avoid most carefully are the artificial colors - my husband is allergic to several of them, and usually they are just not necessary . . . and not present in real food.
Science (in the sense of "pursuit of truth/facts) may be my friend, but it's awfully easily perverted by moneyed or otherwise powerful interests.

Sam said...

To quote Michael Moore "follow the money" to know who paid for the "study" on additives. I can offer up a friend's website for more in depth food additive issues -
www.grainsandmore.com I get no kickbacks from her - she started down this path because of gut issues within her family. Short answer - if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it.

Shay said...

Everyone should try to eat healthier -- the FDA pyramid is a good place to start.

However, given that a banana – just a plain old banana right off the tree – contains histidine, leucine, lysine, phenylalanine, threonine, isoleucine, tryptophan, tyrosine, methionine, linoleic, palmitoleic, and myristic acids, phystosterols, phylloquinone and ethyl butanoate, “don’t eat what you can’t pronounce” is advice that absolutely none of us can or should follow.

It’s not nutrition, it’s a sound-bite, and people like Hari are making a very nice living scaring people who are science-illiterate.