Silicone Butt Injections – A Plan

Once upon a time, I wrote a post about a woman who died in a hotel room getting a silicone butt injection. To me, that was more of a “what in the hell?” type of post, but it turns out that almost daily someone stumbles upon this web site by typing in “silicone butt injections” in Google. Obviously, I have been too dismissive of this topic. This is what people want to talk about. So here are my thoughts.

For starters, I don’t care if people want to get silicon injections or implants. There are those who get all righteous about how this is a dangerous or bad idea, but much of what we do to ourselves is as dangerous or worse, and it is my opinion that this is another example of people deciding something is bad or wrong based solely on whether or not they would do it to themselves. But you aren’t reading this because you are trying to decide on the issue, you’re reading it either because you want to find out more information or because you are looking for someone who will meet you in a hotel room and shoot silicon into your ass.

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The HPV Vaccine In Pictures

I love the web site Information Is Beautiful. They take a lot of information and represent it graphically, which I think we can all agree is often a great way to understand the data. We are a species that relies heavily upon sight to interpret the world, and we are also a species (myself included) that doesn’t often take the time to really read and interpret information.

The Information Is Beautiful stuff is fantastic both because it represents the information in an easy to read format and also because it links to the actual data, so those who want to say that it is skewed or what have you can take a look at where it comes from and determine for themselves. That doesn’t stop people from being wrong, but it certainly goes a long way to allowing people to be right, which is to say more properly informed.

Their latest info graphic is about the HPV vaccine’s effectiveness and safety, and it speaks volumes. Check it out.

Jim

Evolution Explained For Kids – DNA And Traits

[I regularly notice that one of the top search hits to this site is some variation on the theme of "evolution for kids". It just makes sense that I take a few moments and write a post or two on the topic and hopefully help out those parents who are searching for this information. My intended audience in this case isn't actually kids, it is parents trying to find ways to communicate with their kids. Hope it comes in handy! To see other entries, go here.]

Your body is made up of cells. They are really small, and each one contains a lot of stuff. One of the things they contain is called DNA, and that’s a really important thing. DNA is like an instruction manual for building you, and it gets put together when your mom and dad made you.

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Criminal Acts In The Womb

Just when you thought it was safe to have sex, the religious zealots have once again made it dangerous. I’m referring to the story of Rennie Gibbs, the girl who had a stillbirth and is now facing life in prison.

Man, do I ever wish I was kidding about that.

Rennie is a fifteen year old girl who got pregnant. The fetus survived to 36 weeks and then terminated. Rennie uses cocaine, and while doctors didn’t say that had any impact at all on the result of her pregnancy, she has been charged with what they call a “depraved-heart murder” which,  at least in Mississippi, carries a mandatory life sentence.

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Comfy In My Own Skin

I go by the nickname Big Ugly Jim. There’s a story behind that. It involves two little barbie girls. It matters not, though. Suffice to say that it has been my nickname for a very long time. I don’t consider myself ugly, and I’m not that big, but it works. When people say Big Ugly Jim, they know they’re talking about me. Or possibly that guy from Faith No More.

The thing is, I’m comfy with who I am. That isn’t to say that I don’t feel the need to make alterations. I’m getting some more tattoo work shortly and still have a few pounds to shed, but at the end of the day I like how I look, who I am, and what I do. But then, I’ve never been too hung up on appearances.

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Rabies And The Milwaukee Protocol

Rabies is a bitch. It’s funny, because we don’t think it’s a bitch here in the west. We all saw Old Yeller and we know that there you just go get rabies shots if you’re bit by Cujo and you’ll be fine. Only rabies is sneakier than that.

Rabies doesn’t always look like rabies. I suppose that’s the same as saying “people with the flu don’t always look like people with the flu”, but we are accustomed to thinking of rabies as that foaming-at-the-mouth disease that comes from bats. Obviously, if we get bit by a dog or a cat that has the obvious outward signs of rabies, we rush to the hospital for our round of life-saving vaccination and rabies-busting antibodies. But what about when the animal in question isn’t foaming at the mouth like Rush Limbaugh touring a Liberal Arts college?

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My Grandfather’s Suicide

When I was about 10, my grandfather killed himself. He was a fantastic person, a rag time musician who was always the life of the party and who raised his family well. He was thirteen years older than my grandmother and completely caught off guard when she died two years before him of lung cancer. After her death, he was diagnosed both with emphysema and skin cancer, but that yucky kind of skin cancer that you will kill you dead. He was constantly exhausted, alone, in a giant amount of pain, and his clock was ticking.

My dad made arrangements for him to come live with us for his last few days. We moved my sister into the basement and set up her old room as a really nice environment for him to live his last in the home of people who could look after him, would love him, and would be there at the end. But he was a very proud man, and the idea of relying on anyone, of being a burden to his children… Well, these were really just too embarrassing for him. He chose to go out to his garage, sit in the car, turn on the engine, and fall asleep.

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How Do We Layperson Types Know What Is Good Science?

One of the problems that us layperson types have is in trying to understand what’s true in areas where we are mere laypersons rather than experts. One of the common areas where this crops up is in medical news. We hear about studies that say they found a cure for cancer and we go “Yeah! Screw you, cancer!” but nothing comes of it. We hear about studies that prove a link between mercury and autism and we go “Yeah! Screw you, mercury!” but then someone else says it isn’t true and who do we believe? How do we figure out the truth when there are two sides to every story?

It’s situations like this that are breeding grounds for the conspiracy theorists. “They can cure cancer, maaaaan, but the Drug Companies, maaaaan, Big Pharma, maaaaaan, they don’t WANT cancer cured cuz they make more money treating it, maaaaan! And mercury? Maaaaan, mercury is in the vaccines, maaaaaan, and that’s their cash crop, maaaaan, so they want you ignorant and full of toxins. Maaaaaaan.” But both those arguments (and, indeed, most conspiracy theorist talk) are so full of stupid as to warrant a rough kick in the pants.

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Something Is Akimbo With Our Allergies

It’s allergy season, and that got me to thinking. Do you remember when you were a kid, and in the school cafeteria you did things like eating peanut butter sandwiches, and nobody carried epinephrine on them for it? Maybe there was one kid in the class who was deathly allergic to bee stings, but that was about it? Do you remember when allergic reactions meant a few itchy hives? Do you remember a time when you didn’t know what gluten was? Something has changed, but we don’t know what it is yet.

My ex-wife is a great case-in-point. If I remember correctly, it started rather discourteously. We were in flagrante delecto, and she said that she felt some burning “down there”. We examined, and it seemed to be red and itchy. Soon after that, contact with a balloon to her face triggered a similar response of redness and itchiness. But it wouldn’t end there. Any contact with latex and things seemed to get worse to the point of that swelling throat and can’t breath thing that we sadly associate with allergies today. And it isn’t just latex. Today, she has the same reaction if she eats anything that was made on the same continent as a nut, and I believe there are many more things that trigger this reaction.

And it doesn’t seem to be allergies.

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