It’s a chewing gum that increases breast size. It’s so popular in Japan that it is sold in convenience stores. But, as with anything promising non-surgical enhancement, the jury is out on whether this works effectively. One British nutritionist said you may have to consume/use the product (whether pills, gum, or cream) every day for the rest of your life to maintain the effect. That doesn’t sound cheap. And it’s not known yet what the long-term side effects may be.
I was very surprised to see someone buying a pack of organic hot dog buns today. (Who knew they even made organic hot dog buns?) This struck me as really silly and a giant waste of money.
First, I’ve read all the recommendations on what organic products to buy. Mostly, these include apples, berries, spinach, and a few others. Nowhere on any of these lists are “hot dog buns.”
Second, I can’t see how the occasional regular hot dog bun (one or maybe two a week?) would really be detrimental to your system. Could there be THAT many pesticides in eating an infrequent, non-organic bun? Methinks not.
Third, do you know how much they cost? Almost double the price of regular hot dog buns.
Can you imagine how funny it would be if someone put a non-organic hot dog in an organic bun? Now that’s comedy.
Then, the EZCracker is here to solve all your egg-cracking problems!
Really? Is this how pathetic we’ve become? Cracking an egg is neither difficult nor time consuming. I think this product should only be purchased by amputees and people with severe arthritis. Anyone else who owns one has surely lost his or her dignity.
What’s next? A product that will shovel the eggs into our mouths for us? I can hear the informercial now…. “Using a fork is hard! And, how many times have you poked yourself in the eye? Well, put down that fork because now we’ll do it for you….”
We’ve been taking it easy over the holidays and enjoying some time off. But, that doesn’t mean we’re not paying attention. Here are some of our favorite brief Web stories from this week.
Some people had common sense.
No one wants to get sick, especially with health care so expensive. NYTimes.com had a great article on how to recover–cheaply–once the sniffles start. Simple stuff is what works, and they give some facts on all the hoodoo and other remedies that do little, if any, good.
The TSA has dropped their case against two bloggers who posted a copy of the agency’s intense security directive for Christmas day. Shouldn’t they be worried about terrorists, not bloggers? At least our tax dollars won’t be wasted in this trial.
Experts at exposing flim-flam and wastefulness, Consumer Reports Health Blog posted a list of “9 items not worthy of your holiday cash.” These include such gems as Latisse, the Night-Light Condom, diet pills, and Kinoki footpads. If you thought your body was leaching toxins from your feet at night, we’ve got a bridge we’d like to sell you.
In absolutely the CRAZIEST shoplifter story ever, a couple caused quite a ruckus at a Walmart in Tennessee. He’s trying to steal flat-screen tvs, she’s stabbing someone in the parking lot. It’s a like some zany, mad-cap sitcom plot from Hell.
Maine and California will consider putting a cancer warning on cell-phone packaging, despite the fact that the jury is still out in the scientific community. Way to fear-monger, legislators.
Are you planning on getting up at the crack of dawn on Friday to snag some sales? The stores hope you will. The name “Black Friday” refers to the fact that retailers generally move into the black (in other words profitable) on that day. But, look deeper into the fine print on the sale items and you may decide to stay home instead.
Many stores pull some sleazy shenanigans to get customers in the door. Here are some things to look out for.
Limited quantities
Yes, those deals on the flat-screen tvs look too good to be true. The sales are real, but only for the first few people who can grab one. The stores knowingly limit the amount of items for sale–and there are NO rain checks. So, if there are four tvs available for the deal price and you are number five…so sad, too bad.
Sears has not officially revealed its Black Friday sales. However, the company confirmed to CNNMoney.com that two of its post-Thanksgiving deals include a Samsung 40-inch 1080p LCD HDTV for $599.99, “Only while quantities last, minimum three per store, no rainchecks.”
“Sure, you probably have more, but how do you put out a circular to millions of households and only have three?,” Dworsky asked.
Taking advantage of not-so-tech-savvy consumers
Stores knowingly offer the killer deals on lower-quality products, especially electronics, because consumers won’t know the difference. These have far less features than the standard models in a product line.
Dworsky cautions that retailers usually don’t advertise these models as derivatives. “There’s no way the average consumer will know that the TV model they are buying is not the standard one unless they are savvy enough to compare their model numbers,” he said.
The risk
A Black Friday stampede at Wal-Mart last year resulted in the death of an employee. This year, some stores have changed their policies to avoid chaos, either staying open throughout Thanksgiving night or giving numbers to those in early morning lines. However, not all stores have revised the “winner-take-all” atmosphere of Friday morning. If you’re in the market for one of the hot items, be prepared to hold your own against the masses.
Also, you risk getting up at THE CRACK OF DAWN to come home empty handed. Talk about presentus interruptus. That would be too depressing for words.
Me, I’ll be in bed at 5AM on Friday. I’ll wait for the Cyber Monday deals and shop in my pajamas.
There’s no shortage of products that claim to alleviate arthritis. Copper bracelets are some of the more popular products sold. It is believed by some that wearing a copper bracelet or wrist strap will relieve the pain and discomfort of arthritis. Here is how one site claims it works:
It is no secret that copper is a most excellent conductor of electricity, and besides that, the skin is as much an entry point in the body as a barrier.
Micro doses of copper enter the body and bolster the immune system, and as it’s on the skin, it enters as and when needed (not as in dietary copper).
The copper bracelet seems also to emit elemental and molecular vibrations and other physical phenomena such as a corona effect of the ends of the bracelet.
These vibratory emissions appear to convey some medicinal benefit. In the case of body pains due to some rheumatoid arthritic condition, it appears to be very effective indeed.
Really? Just all from that one tiny bracelet?!
Sounds all very scientific, doesn’t it? Well, as with most products that hint at science but don’t back it up with real facts, it’s bunk. A study just released by a group of scientists in England has concluded that there is no scientific proof of medical benefit from wearing these bracelets. The test subjects experienced no difference in pain, discomfort, or stiffness while wearing copper jewelry. Any benefit felt someone wearing a copper bracelet or wrist band can likely be attributed to a placebo effect.
So, if you thought wearing a piece of copper to cure arthritic conditions sounded too good to be true, you were right.
The suit is coated with the chemical titanium dioxide, which reacts to light to break down and kill the virus when it comes into contact with it.
Well, it’s nice that your clothing won’t contact the virus. But, if you know anything about how viruses are transmitted, this suit won’t solve your problem. The special fabric isn’t going to prevent your hands, face, neck, or head from coming into contact with H1N1.
Unless you wear it over your head. If you do, I suggest cutting out some eye holes first.
Want to know how banks are making up the money they lost in the economic crash? Off you, that’s how.
Despite the current recession, banks are charging record fees to checking account customers. The costs are sneaky: higher non-bank ATM fees, higher bounced check fees, and higher monthly service charges.
ATM fees have risen for three-consecutive years. In 2009, consumers paid an average fee of $3.54 to use another bank’s ATM, up 16% from 2004. This includes the fee charged at the ATM, as well as the fee charged by the customer’s bank.
This year, consumers are paying a record charge of $12.55 per month for an interest-bearing checking account, up 3.5% from 2004, Bankrate’s data show. The average bounced-check fee was $29.58 this year, near the inflation-adjusted high of $29.73 reached in 2005.
Also, banks are increasing their credit card interest rates and penalties for late payment. They are finding any way they can to make up for the housing mortgage debacle of ‘08. And, don’t look for it to get any better any time soon.
BankRate.com has a good list of ways to avoid checking account fees. Some tips are common sense, like don’t bounce checks and only use your bank’s ATMs, but others may be new information on how to avoid paying more.
Most banks offer three or four checking account options. Visit the Web sites of several banks and see the differences between accounts. Do you really need free checks if you’re going to have to pay a fee for the account? If you pay most bills online, perhaps you only need a couple of paper checks per month and it would be cheaper to buy them yourself. Carefully review what each account offers and see if it’s worth the price of admission, or if you’d be better served by a free account.
So, read your statements and shop around. Don’t let your bank stick it to you.
As few as 25 years ago, neuroscientists stuck firmly to the belief that as we aged our brains became fixed and static–hence the saying, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. However, new research is saying otherwise. Enter the relatively new concept of brain plasticity and the related practice of brain fitness.
In the simplest terms, brain plasticity is the brain’s capacity for continuous physical, chemical and functional change. Brain fitness is the purposeful exercising of our gray matter to keep it engaged and healthy.
And, while brain plasticity has bona-fide roots and application in the neuroscientific community, brain fitness seems to be a new ‘it thing’ for some quacky websites, books, training seminars, and even diets. The Wikipedia entry for brain fitness notes, “The term is virtually never used in the scientific literature, but is commonly used in the context of self-help books and commercial products.” But, if you wade through the brain fitness drivel, essentially the premise is use it or lose it. Moreover, how you use it is equally important.
One source lists the following the ideal components of brain fitness activities:
They should teach you something new.
They should be challenging.
They should be progressive.
They should engage your great brain processing systems.
They should be rewarding. (My personal favorite.)
They should be novel or surprising.
And there you have it. In order to maintain our brain health and take advantage of the newfound concept of brain plasticity, we need to continually engage our noggins in new and challenging ways.
Hmmm. I don’t think I need a website or seminar to tell me that.
The creator claims patients lose as much as twenty pounds in one month. Um, yeah. That’s what we would expect when someone has to drink caesar salad milkshakes and steak smoothies for thirty days. Mmmmmmmmmm….steak smoothies.
I sure hope anyone considering this mumbo jumbo realizes that the results won’t last. What happens when you return to real food? You’re back to your original weight, I’d wager. And, how can you talk with this thing sewn onto your tongue? If it makes eating painful, it’s probably not fun to talk, either. But, hey, if you want to sound like Cindy Brady in your staff meetings, then be my guest. For a real glimpse, check out the photo of the patch’s application.
Losing weight isn’t easy, and people are always looking for a quick fix. Unless you need to fit in your Oscar gown, I think this is just a way to torture yourself for a month.
Daily Dose of Common Sense cuts through the crap, hype, and pseudoscience to tell it like it is. Part science, part news, and part, er, common sense, this site may be harsh sometimes but it's just tough love.
I was very surprised to see someone buying a pack of organic hot dog buns today. (Who knew they even made organic hot dog buns?) This struck me as really silly and a giant waste of money.
Are you planning on getting up at the crack of dawn on Friday to snag some sales? The stores hope you will. The name “Black Friday” refers to the fact that retailers generally move into the black (in other words profitable) on that day. But, 
There’s no shortage of products that claim to alleviate arthritis. Copper bracelets are some of the more popular products sold. It is believed by some that wearing a copper bracelet or wrist strap will relieve the pain and discomfort of arthritis. Here is how one site 
A Japanese company has produced a business suit that it claims will 
Want to know how banks are making up the money they lost in the economic crash? Off you, that’s how. 
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