Study: Sticking needles in your body wherever you want reduces back pain (part 2).

It's been a while on the old blog for me, but I couldn't pass this one up, especially considering I did a post on this very subject a while back. The AP reports that a new study shows that both "fake" and "real" acupuncture (is there really a difference?) helps with back pain. What makes me go freakin' nuts is that the headline in the Seattle Times reads: "Study: Acupuncture works for back pain"

What's amazing, is that they debunk their own story in the first paragraph:

CHICAGO — Fake acupuncture works nearly as well as the real thing for low back pain, and either kind performs much better than usual care, German researchers have found.

Almost half the patients treated with acupuncture needles felt relief that lasted months. In contrast, only about a quarter of the patients receiving medications and other Western medical treatments felt better.

Even fake acupuncture worked better than conventional care, leading researchers to wonder whether pain relief came from the body's reactions to any thin needle pricks or, possibly, the placebo effect.

I'm not sure what the reaction from trained acupuncturists is going to be, but you can, with diamond hard logic prove to them that any time or money spent studying acupuncture was a complete waste.

Chinese medicine holds that there are hundreds of points on the body that link to invisible pathways for the body's vital energy, or qi. The theory goes that stimulating the correct points [emphasis mine]with acupuncture needles can release blocked qi.

I have personally spoken with trained acupuncturists that suggested that there was such a thing as incorrect or bad acupuncture, where undesirable effects could occur. Basically, if true believers claim this as a victory for acupuncture, this would be the same as evidence based medicine claiming victory by having a study where medication-- any medication-- given for a particular ailment was effective.

Update: It appears the headline as it appeared in the Seattle Times has changed ever so slightly. My original link to the story above no longer works, and a search of the site now shows the headline as: "Study: Fake acupuncture helps ease low-back pain". This, in my opinion is a far more honest treatment of the subject matter. Methinks they had some nice folks point out the unintentional hilarity of the original title juxtaposed with the story?

Driving drunk, talking on a cell phone, it's all the same to me.

The state of Washington finally passed a ban on talking on a cell phone while driving. One nutcase legislator named Tracy Eide-D Federal Way had this to say:

"It's absolutely a safety issue," Eide, D-Federal Way, said after the vote. She said talking on a cellphone while driving is "equivalent to driving while you're intoxicated."

The hell? Does one even need to respond to that bit of idiocy? Eide has been trying for seven years to get a cell phone ban. The long winter evenings must fly by at the old Eide household. Cell phone bans are some of the most stupid and infantilizing type of legislation around. To wit:

It will still be legal to use hands-free devices such as earphones and Bluetooth technology, and to talk on licensed amateur radios. The legislation imposes no limits on emergency workers, tow-truck operators or motorists trying to call law enforcement.

Clearly, "talking" on a cell phone must not be the equivalent of driving while intoxicated. Do we allow tow-truck operators, emergency workers or motorists with an emergency drive while intoxicated? No we don't. If it's the talking that's dangerous, why are hands free devices allowed? One must still dial the phone. Oh, and anyone who tries the voice recognition come-back, I've used cell-phone voice recognition. Believe me, you're still going to be dialing.

I will still be talking on my cell phone in Washington.

No One Supports Free Speech More Than I But...

Via Rogier van Bakel, we get yet another story where the hyper-liberal progressive carefully reminds us about how-- liberal and progressive they are but...

"I am probably the most progressive liberal person in the world and I am personally offended by the sign," said Janet Stillman, executive director of the Wallingford Neighborhood Office. "It's so blatant and so in your face."

I'd like to take this moment to point out to Ms. Stillman that it's precisely her type which are often the first to attempt to stifle free speech rights. What's all the fuss? A "high-end dog shop" has taken the name "High Maintenance Bitch", and has put a fairly prominent sign on the street which is offending Wallingford's famously progressive residents.

New York Times Investigation Reveals Sororities Cliqueish and Shallow

Via the New York Times, we are shocked-- SHOCKED to learn that sororities may be choosy [may req. registration] about their members, even on such grounds as appearance or weight.

The 23 members [asked to leave] included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.

If this were an Onion article, I'd be laughing harder. As an occasional observer of the national "scene", I do have to wonder, why is this news? Apparently, a large number of news organizations believe that the discovery that a college sorority may engage in such behavior is in fact, big news. I first read this story on the-- I hesitate to say it-- front page of the Seattle Times. Yes, it was below the fold, but the front page, nonetheless. It must have been a dismally slow news day when the reporter penned this one.

Get over it, you lost.

Yes, it's been a long absence for me-- lots going on in life which I won't get into here, but one thing that happened locally is very much worth noting: The tunnel option for Seattle (aka The Big Dig II, The Big Dig Goes to Washington) is dead. This comes as a great relief to all intelligent people everywhere. As anyone with command of more than a few brain cells could have guessed, the technical difficulties of digging a tunnel through soggy, clay-like Seattle soil right next to Puget Sound would be... problematic to say the least.

State leaders' rejection of the tunnel came hours after the state Department of Transportation issued a letter declaring a four-lane tunnel too dangerous to merit further study. The tunnel concept, in which the shoulders would be used as exit lanes at rush hour, has "serious operational and safety problems," the DOT said.
[...]
As for safety, she said, "The DOT review has shown that the hybrid tunnel proposal does not meet state and federal safety standards. Furthermore, an accident where people could not escape this tunnel could prove catastrophic."

It was also interesting to note that State Lawmakers, in an extremely rare moment of fiscal responsibility, were unambiguous about their rejection of such a scheme. And really, who can blame them? This is the kind of project that would tarnish the career of any politician who comes near it.

The reaction in Olympia was striking in that lawmakers spoke with one voice, where before there was ambiguity. [Seattle Mayor]Nickels and other tunnel supporters had taken advantage of any political uncertainty to press their case.

Nickels, frankly, should thank his lucky stars because this project would have eventually been dubbed "Nickels' folly" had it been allowed to go on. However, Seattle isn't out of the woods on this yet, because Nickels is turning out to be one of the more hard-headed, arrogant control freaks of recent mayoral memory. Nickels is the type of politician who threatens his constituents if he gets a whiff that they don't agree with him, and he's repeatedly warned that if he doesn't get his tunnel, he'll tear the viaduct down and go with the utterly crackpot "surface street" option, because he refuses to have any elevated freeway. While Nickels promises to continue his campaign for a tunnel, the real fear is that we'll get nothing, which will please seven community activists who drive their Volvos from Madison Park to Downtown three days a week, and as such cannot conceive of why anyone would ever need a freeway in the first place.

If a tunnel is not possible, Nickels has said in the past that his preferred alternative is tearing down the viaduct and using existing surface streets and improved transit to replace it.

The mayor, who confoundingly has pushed this patently dumb tunnel option is politically no idiot. He knows that the surface street option is the dumbest plan of all, and his strategy here is to give Seattle residents something that he knows won't work as punishment for not getting his tunnel. This, in turn may make Seattle residents beg for a tunnel once the arm-twisting gridlock sets in.

To "pubic" employees: Raises, promotions all around for a job well done.

Coincidence? I think not. Yet another fine member of our education establishment has allegedly exposed himself to more trouble. Now, I'm not one to make an early jump on anything before the verdicts are in, but given that I'm on a roll, I couldn't help but point this one out:

A Ballard elementary-school principal who has been placed on leave is accused of exposing himself to a woman in a car while driving in the Northgate area, according to a Seattle police report.

Alexander Coberly, principal at Whittier Elementary, was charged last week with a misdemeanor by the Seattle city attorney's office. Coberly has been on administrative leave since Dec. 7, after Seattle School District officials were informed by police of their investigation.

The sad thing is that if he actually did it, he's about to get near to six figures for his transgression. Let's hope that he didn't do it. I find it much cheaper when public employees aren't guilty. What's interesting however, is this staunch denial of wrongdoing by Coberly's attorney:

"I do want to note, though, that the charges are not in any way related to his work as a teacher, as a principal. There are no minors involved in the allegations, and from all accounts I've heard he's a very good principal," [Coberly's attorney] said.

I dunno, color me skeptical, but when your own attorney opens his salvo by diminishing the damage to the victims, it suggests to me that we might actually have a solid charge of wrongdoing.

The bitch led me on!!! It's not completely my fault.

At least that was the tone of the defense used by a Spokane Detective who exposed himself to a barista during a Spokane County Civil Service Commission hearing.

The firing of a detective who exposed himself at a barista at a coffee stand has been reversed by the Spokane County Civil Service Commission as excessively harsh.

Instead, under the panel's 14-page ruling Monday, sheriff's Detective Joseph W. Mastel, 52, will be on unpaid leave and then forced to retire in July, allowing him to be paid for as much as 1,440 hours of unused sick time and to apply for other law enforcement jobs in the state.

Perhaps this man is a prime candidate to enter the much vaunted education system in this state. Given our history of "public service" employees, he sounds like quite a catch. Oh, and lest you think I'm kidding about the 'led me on' comment, think again:

At his Civil Service Commission hearing, Mastel argued that the woman to whom he exposed himself had dressed provocatively and led him on.

"I take responsibility, but I don't take full responsibility," Mastel said at the time.

Hmph, "full responsibility" and the criminal actions of our public service sector- why would I expect someone in the public sector to take "full responsibility" for anything?

Ding-dong, Saddam is dead.

Here's some video evidence.

Teh innernets are back!!!

Yes, that's right. To the literally tens of visitors I get per month, I'm back. My internet connection finally came back up some time this evening. Eight days without teh innernets is enough to drive a man crazy. I have some things to write about regarding our large and relatively up-to-prediction level wind storm. Aside from my relatively short period without electricity (48 hours) and my long-assed time without internet (eight days), my only very close encounter with a near disaster is the little Cedar which came crashing down in my neighbors yard, missing their house and more importantly, my fence by only a few feet.

If you behead your wife...

...it would be nice if you'd kill yourself quietly and discreetly, without ruining any more lives.

Prosecutors alleged Time killed his wife, then tossed her severed head into his Dodge Ram pickup and drove into Boise. There they allege he swerved into oncoming traffic and collided with a sedan, killing a woman and her young daughter. He faces second-degree murder charges in those deaths.

I'd like to post more often, really.

Except that my internet connection has been down for over a week since Seattle Windstorm '06. I'm not sure what's going on with Comcast, but when I call them, they report there is a known outage in my neighborhood, and that there's no reason to stay on the line. A friend of mine who never lost internet also gets the same recording. When I try to stay on the line, Comcast eventually drops my call and politely suggests that I visit their website at www.comcast.com. Kinda hard when you don't have teh innernets.

So I'lll be posting from work (when I'm not working).

Teachers and alternative schools-- my favorite subject

Looks like the Seattle School District finally nicked a teacher for fraudulently collecting $120,000 in overtime pay. I shudder to think what her regular salary was. Strangely, they don't mention the woman's name. A union thing? That probably greases the wheels for her to be another sought-after teacher in another district.

A routine budget review by the school's new principal this fall turned up time slips on which the teacher claimed more hours than she could possibly have worked, according to a Seattle Police Department incident report.

The woman, who has worked for the district for 32 years, offered to repay the district. She has not been charged.

Here's a situation it seems you'll never see

A man, who was trapped on a snowy peak was able to call a rescuer and read off the following information before the cell phone went dead:

"I am at 46.830134 and -121.669464. Those are my coordinates."

Instead, we just get this:

Searchers thwarted by a storm whose winds were expected to gust from 60 mph to 80 mph today stayed well below the summit area of Mount Hood, where at least one of three missing mountaineers was last heard from.
[...]
Signals from the phone put it about 11,000 feet, just below the summit. Search teams in a statement today said the signals also "suggest that the phone was moved from one point to another. The points are not far from each other."
[...]
Hughes said Tuesday that calls to James' cell had produced "pings" allowing searchers to approximate where he was but that nobody had answered the calls.

Hughes said tracing the pings put James at about the 11,000-foot level.

Yep, a high tech guessing game and a race to save someones life. I'm not even going to start on the whole Kim family tragedy. As long as people make the conscious decisions to continue on a journey which has all the warning signs it will end badly, they should at least have a $150 device in their pocket which will, at minimum, tell them where they are in relation to other known objects... like the highway, or hell, back to their own car if they decide they can't walk out.

To the literally tens of visitors I get per month, I would like to introduce you to a concept called GPS. It may not save your life, but it sure as hell might help someone else save your life, or at least find your body more quickly.

Thank God

It missed the tv.

Joni Balter: Do Seattle taxpayers have a breaking point?

No.

Rumors of my demise...

...have been exaggerated. I would like to assure the tens of readers I get per month that I'm getting ready to start posting again. The holiday season has been pretty stacked, plus I've been concentrating on other more important endeavors, such as snowboarding and flying a small remote control helicopter.

I've got lots to write about, and I shall be back within a day or so.

Biodiesel? Not if it freezes!

I had read that colder temperatures caused problems for biodiesel cars. Freezing causes the alternative fuel to 'gel' up. This guy learned that little lesson. Thankfully, he had some good old-fashioned non-alternative diesel to buy:

Billy Amon lugs several gallons of diesel fuel for his bio-diesel car back to his home. Amon had tried to take a bus, but was denied because of the fuel he carried. His car won't operate in freezing temperatures with out the diesel.

The death penalty doesn't prevent murder-- but convicted murderers sure want to avoid it.

Convicted serial killer, Robert Yates, is trying hard to avoid it.

Yates was sentenced to 408 years in prison in 2000 after confessing to 13 killings in a plea deal with Spokane County prosecutors that included information on the Pierce County deaths.

[...]

"Mr. Yates' [death] sentence is arbitrary, wanton ... freakish and random in light of his Spokane County sentence," his lawyers argued in court documents.

I pay taxes in Peru, and all I got was this lousy 9' fiberglass penis.

Peruvians have a new theme park, paid for by public monies.

People in Huayre are bemused by the uproar. National rulers, they figure, have been squandering their riches for centuries, so what's the big deal if Mayor Wenceslao Alderete hoped to attract tourists by gracing the village's central plaza with outsize images of genitalia and of the maca root, a tuber traditionally consumed as an aphrodisiac?

I guess you can either get really mad at your elected officials or simply declare, "What do you expect?" However, if my income taxes went up 1,000%-- I say again-- 1,000%, I'd expect a little something more. Like, you know, a sewer or a road.

Mercedes: Engineered like no other car in the world.

Which could be why Mercedes has three of the seven un-coveted "least reliable" slots in the Consumer Reports New Car Preview. Mercedes, unhappy with the "results" which came from 1.3 million readers, is less than pleased.

For its part, a spokesman for Mercedes says that the data in the Consumer Reports rankings "is totally out of sync with what we're seeing in the mainstream research as well as our own customer satisfaction and warranty data." He points to the good marks Mercedes gets for ride, handling, comfort, safety and performance.

According to the article, JD Power ranked Mercedes 25th out of 37 brands, which was (and I was surprised to read this) two notches "above BMW". Wow, those Bavarian engineers have begun to slip.