Here are some images from my cell phone.  I’m cleaning it out:

I like to walk.  Just to get where I’m going, that is probably my preferred mode of transportation.  For this reason I hate LA:

Where did my sidewalk go?

Yes there is an apartment complex in LA called Crapi apartments:

Apparently there are frats and sororities at UCSC.  I didn’t get a close up but what you can see is a group of fratties playing beer pong (except with root beer since they are not allowed to have open containers and there are probably minors).

Every once in a while the quacks from action chiropractic have their setup going near the bookstore.  In order to be a certified chiropractor in the US you need to have taken 60 units from a chiropractic college, aka a quack school, and have paid a $100 fee.  After which time you can get people to stand on the contraption below.  Basically it has a metal frame with latex tubing that the chiropractor, shown at right, adjusts behind your back.  After positioning the tubing however he feels like it, he then gets you to turn around and view your spine alignment as depicted by the unaligned tubes.  When you look at the non parallel lines you then realize how much you need to go to their offices and get an Xray of your body (the real money maker) along with other expensive tests and procedures:

I feel bad for the guy on the device.  The two chiropractors would introduce themselves as doctors despite the fact that your vet needs more training and has way more restrictions and oversight than these guys do.  I’m more of a Doctor than the 2 guys that were there.  The sucker on the device really thought he was getting good sound medical/health advice.

I just found out about Tim Minchin and here is another video of him.  I found this one more humorous:

I did not like the 2 moderators at all.  I know that they are trying to make politics more entertaining, but I do not think that they are helping  (joke about underwear, fair and balanced, teletubbies just in the beginning leave me groaning and wishing they would stop talking).  I want a moderator to just ask questions because I am watching the videos to see the candidates responses to questions, not to hear whatever joke pops into the head of the moderator.

Part 2:

Part 3:

It is really hard to research and find information about city council members running for office since all the information is spread around in different places. I barely knew much about the people I voted for in the last round of city council elections.  Here are the people on the current ballot and my thoughts. Voters get to vote for 4 candidates and I listed how I’m leaning at the end.

Blas Jacob Cabrera (Jay): This guy is a Pranic healer.  What is Pranic healing?  Well you see you can heal people by waving your hands. It includes “non-traditional” or “paranormal” concepts of energy healing. If you think that you can heal major diseases by waving your hands then this is your guy. If not, then you should probably look elsewhere.  His resume is extremely light and his use of the words green healthcare is a stand in for dishing out placebos and pushing unregulated health “alternatives”.  He does not know much about the city council or about the needs of people that do not go to the farmers market drum circle.  I guess it’s pretty obvious that he will not get my vote.

Tony Madrigal: Incumbent. He is the only renter on the city council. That’s what got me to vote for him the first time and what will probably get me to vote for him again this year.  He supports Unions and low wage workers and his answer in part 3.

Simba Kenyatta: There is a quick interview of Simba over at good times magazine. There is also an audio interview, with an interviewer from freak radio that tries to agree with him as much as possible. His “why I am running” portion of his website is pretty good. He makes race a central pillar of his platform, but his election platform appears to be lacking in specifics.  His answer to the question asked to him in part 2 of the forum is basically “I dunno.  I’d have to ask someone else.”.  He’s a renter and I think that the city council should reflect the high number of renters in Santa Cruz.  That being said, I would prefer Tony Madrigal over Simba Kenyatta.  His answer in part 3 starts with ” I don’t know”.  I would prefer someone who does know.

Ryan Coonerty: Incumbent and current Mayor. He’s been involved in some less than popular decisions as his wikipedia page suggests, although the people that dislike his decisions I think are very active in maintaining his wikipedia page.  His reforms to how the city council meetings run sound fair (this was part of his answer to part 1).  Giving himself a raise while we’re in a budget deficit gives him huge negative points from me.  He should have waited until the Santa Cruz deficit problems are fixed before giving the city council a raise (this was part of his answer in part 3).  Part 3 of the forum is an ethics question.  It is not of major concern to me.

David Terrazas: His website looks nice but it is a little slim on specifics. I like the alternative transportation. It’s one thing to state that you would “strengthen our Downtown & other business districts”, but it would be nice to know how you would other than with good intentions.  He works over the hill so it makes sense that he advocates better transportation.

Craig Canada: I cannot find Craig’s website and he does not have a statement in the official handouts.  The forum states that he has a website, but I can’t find it.  All I can really find is this article in which he expresses his distrust in the election system. He kinda fails in giving me a good reason to vote for him.  He mostly wants to legalize marijuana, but I don’t think he would work with the other council members.  In general, people who have disdain for government should not be elected into government.  The guy just won’t shut up about marijuana even when asked about something else.  It is frustrating to listen to.

Tim Fitzmaurice: Tim is all over the internet. he has lots of endorsements including the sierra club. He’s a former mayor. There is an article about him in the metro.  I like the fact that he supports building rental units and addressing the needs of lower income housing, a serious problem in Santa Cruz.  His answers to transportation are spot on.  His answers to the questions on the forum strike all the right chords for me.

Kathrine Beiers: She is a former councilwoman and mayor. Her main platform is an environmental one and has therefore received sierra club’s endorsement.  The questions towards her in the forum were mostly answered in environmental terms.  I’d like to know more about her vision for downtown and what to do about the budget.

Don Lane: I like what he has to say on his website.  I don’t know too much about him.   The question about what to do about pan handling in downtown asked in part 2 is important, but his answer is unspecific and simply “we should all be part of the solution”.  The thing is that I want to elect people that have the same solution as me.  If I’m waiting for his solution and he’s waiting for my solution, then it sounds like there is no solution.  His budget answer in part 3 had more specifics and I thought that was good.

Lisa J. Molyneux: No official website that I can find. The statement for her on the ballot makes protecting medical Marajuana a high priority. I am not impressed with her statement, and I can’t find anything on the internet abut her.

Final thoughts and how I’m leaning:

From what I have read and seen I’m probably voting for Tony Madrigal and Tim Fitzmaurice.  Other than that I guess I’m leaning towards David Terrazas for his support of better transportation issues and Don Lane.  I’m going to look into the Candidates more because I could still be convinced to vote for Katherine Beiers or Ryan Coonerty.

I was not impressed with Simba Kenyatta, Blas Jacob Cabrera (Jay), Craig Canada, or Lisa J. Molyneux.  They seemed the least informed on the issues facing the city and the least prepared to fix them.

Update:  People Power, the group behind the bike church, endorses Tim Fitzmaurice, Tony Madrigal, Katherine Beiers and Don Lane.  The only difference between how I was leaning and people power is my selection of David Terrazas Instead of Katherine Beiers.  The critique from people power is that David Terrazas has good ideas, but was not a strong leader while a Transportation commisioner.  Katherine Beiers has a history of voting for better bike safety.  Both people power and the sierra club endorse Katherine Beiers so I must have missed something the first time I evaluated the candidates.  There is a very good chance that I will change to Katherine Beiers.

Measure E:  There is 1 local measure that is an enviornmental bill that increases the parcel tax.  Parcel taxes will tax my landlady and not me so I’m definately voting yes.  If I owned a house in Santa Cruz I might look over the bill more, but if I owned a house in Santa Cruz I would also be rich enough to afford a small tax increase.

School Board:  If I vote for school board I will probably vote for Ken Wagman based on this article.  I say if because the local school board does not affect me.

The thing is that I’ve made various unflattering statements about many groups. One of these days I’m going to need something from a jehovah’s witness chiropractor who is married to a mormon that really likes homeopathy. That would be karma. Of course I don’t believe in karma either. And naturally I’m now thinking of a post that I could write about karma. I wonder if I would get ads on how to get better karma. I’m sure someone has written a book about it.

I need to make sure that my next post is about something that I like. That way the google ad gravy train makes its next stop right here on my blog.

The area in front of the bookstore is the place where you get accosted to sign petitions, are given various fliers, and whatnot. Recently all the frats and sororities have their tables set up which is probably a topic for yet another post. Next to the fratties there is a guy with a demo for action chiropractic center. I always wondered if chiropractors were legitimate or snake oil vendors.

So I went to go talk to the person in front of the action chiropractic center demo, Dr. Ron Schmidt. According to his bio on his website, he graduated from Palmer west. This institution gets it’s name from Daniel David Palmer, the founder of modern chiropractic therapy. Palmer had previous experience as a spiritual and magnetic healer. From the wikipedia entry on the guy:

While working as a magnetic healer in Davenport, IA, he encountered a deaf janitor who he discovered had a palpable lump in his back. He theorized that the lump and his deafness were related. After a reported successful restoration of the man’s hearing^[2], it led to the beginning of Chiropractic history. His theories revolved around the concept that altered nerve flow was the cause of all disease, and that misaligned spinal vertebrae had an effect on the nerve flow. He postulated that restoring these vertebra to their proper alignment would restore health.

Also from wikipedia is the following juicy quote from DD Palmer:

“A subluxated verteba… is the cause of 95 percent of all diseases… The other five percent is caused by displaced joints other than those of the vertebral column.”

I don’t think that modern chiropractors are so bold as to make dumb statements like that. D.D. Palmer was living at a time when the evidence for the germ theory of disease was just starting to trickle in. Today there are mountains of evidence supporting the germ theory of disease and no evidence supporting the subluxated verteba theory of disease. Despite this Dr. Ron D. Schmidt used the term subluxated vertebra.

So how is it that in the year 2008 a completely disproven theory of disease is still bouncing around? Well the first thing that chiropractors learned is when to back off on the crazy talk. My questions to Ron were “what does it take to become certified? Who certifies you? Are there journals and research that support your claim that Chiropractic therapy does anything more than a placebo? Why shouldn’t I just get a massage and skip all the claims that I’m getting a medical treatment? (well I didn’t ask the last question but that was pretty much running through my head the whole time)

The response to these questions was that it is very tough to become certified and that there are in fact Journals where proof that chiropractic treatment works statistically better than a placebo. Ron had some trouble remembering the exact name of the journal (JUSR or JCRF…) so he told me to go to the ACA website (the fourth google hit) and find my journal articles there, the results of which are in the paragraph below. Of course there was no mention that the founder of chiropractic therapy happened to believe in other quack medical theories.

A big Journal for chiropractors is the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics – I looked at this one and was sorely disappointed at the attempt at science. The first article I read was “Comparison of 3 Physical Therapy Modalities For Acute Pain in Lumbar Disc Herniation Measured by Clinical Evaluation and Magnetic Resonance Imaging”. This “study” had 3 groups, each group received either Traction, laser, and ultrasound therapies. The result – each one showed improvement. The problem is that if a scientific study was performed, there needed to be a baseline. At a minimum there should have been a group that did not receive treatment and another group that received a placebo treatment. Obviously this journal has very reduced standards to get information published. I skimmed through a couple more of the published articles from them and wasnot surprised to find that they also lacked the scientific standards of real journals.

The thing is I was looking for proof of this subluxated vertebra thing. I think a massage probably does help your back pain, but what about this scientific sounding term. Is it legitimate? Part of the problem in searching for such a term is that real doctors use the term when describing when your spine is so bad that is requires surgery while chiropractors use the term to describe people that need chiropractic therapy, which if you ask a chiropractor is everyone. I found out after reading paper such as this one that subluxation has come to mean a general back pain. Chiropractors have used and continue to use various methods to try to detect subluxation. The thing is that according to this paper “Sixteen methods notionally used to detect spinal sublaxation by chiropractors were isolated form the literature. There has been some research into the reliability of some of these methods used by chiropractors, however, the results are variable and inconclusive.” I prefer the absurd statement made to promote a subluxation detector in 1924 (shown at left): “THE MOST VALUABLE INVENTION OF THE AGE BECAUSE IT PICKS, PROVES AND LOCATES THE CAUSE OF ALL DISEASES OF THE HUMAN RACE.”

The thing is that non specific muscle or back pain is tough to treat. Having a chiropractor tell you that Vertebral Subluxation and spine alignment is the cause of your pain when such a statement has never been proven is a bald faced lie. The moral of the story is that a masseuse than a chiropractor probably offer the same amount of therapy while the chiropractor will X-ray your spine and tell you medical mumbo jumbo for a slightly increased fee.

The thing is that since Chiropractors know that massage works, they come up with all sorts of ways of attempting to detect and treat something they don’t understand. Ron, the “Doctor” in front of the bookstore, was using a Spinal Analysis Machine. This is a machine that has two scales where you place one foot on each scale and rubber tubing that you adjust on a metal frame. I should have just looked up that machine to begin with. It is unable to diagnose anything meaningful other than your personal gullibility. You can see a picture of it below:

Of course these machines, which look like a machine a quack would use, cost thousands of dollars. I really need to start making these things and selling them to Chiropractors. Since the market on machines with household scales in them is already taken I could make some other device for chiropractors that makes some electrical reading from various parts of the body that will make chiropractors look more professional. Hell I should probably just sell them all Geiger counters so that they can take readings after the X-ray telling their patients that the device is measuring the increased neural activity after the treatment, and not the increased radiation from that X-ray machine. Be ready to get your pirate neural excitation flow meter at your local certified (yes my machine will require certification for proper use) chiropractor.

” The construction (below Performing Arts, right above the Music Recital Hall) is the new building that will house the Digital Arts & New Media program.

Pretty cool stuff, and not Science, but Art!”

This got me thinking about other battles science has had such as that between intelligent design and darwin’s theory of evolution (A picture of darwin pulled from wikipedia is shown at left). I recently went and watched NOVA’s series on the dover school board trial.

There are unfortunately prices to be paid if you don’t take science seriously, just as I think people are missing out on great cultural experiences by not exposing themselves to art. The price you pay in the case of science is that you are susceptible to bogus, unproven, and potentially harmful non scientific theories. In the case of Darwinism and creationism, recently returning under the name Intelligent Design, throwing out Darwinism means that you would throw out modern genetic theory.

The discarding of science is not just the domain of the religious right. I highly doubt that the tree sitters are fundamentalist Christians. Actually before I get into this I would like to point out that I have no idea what any of the tree sitters views are regarding evolution or modern medicine.

The discarding of science on the left comes in the form of alternative medicine which is unproven, unscientific, and mostly based on theories of diseases that predate the germ theory of disease. For this post I will focus on Ayurveda because it provides a contrast that highlights my point most beautifully.

Ayurveda is an ancient Indian healing practice that uses ancient religious beliefs to prescribe various teas, oils, scents, and massages to cure you. I like my massages, teas and whatnot, but the disregard of repeatedly confirmed modern scientific medicine is what gets to me. Deepak Chopra, shown at left, is probably the most public face on Aryuveda. You can see Deepak’s lack of respect for science in his defense of Intelligent design and his use of the term “quantum healing” which has nothing to do with anything quantum at all. But what about those teas oils and scents. Do they work? Do they have any effect?

Well the placebo effect can account for any anecdotal evidence provided to support Ayurveda, which is why modern medicine requires that double blind studies be done in order to rule out any placebo effect. What does Ayurveda provide you with? The answer is a triple whammy: lead, mercury and/or arsenic.

Toys are being recalled left and right from Chinese manufacturers for having toxic levels of lead, yet Ayuredic medicines, which has been scientifically shown to contain toxic levels of lead, mercury, and/or arsenic in 20% of properly administered medications, continues to be sold. This means that you may be (20% chance per medication) at risk for dangerous levels of heavy metal toxicity from a non scientific, unregulated, and ancient medication. The thing is that the toxic levels of metals are actually part of the prescribed cure in Ayurveda so you can’t take them out:

“Heavy metals are integral to some formulations and have been used for centuries. There is no point of doing trials as they have been used safely and have mention in our ancient texts.” cited from here.

So there you have it. Failure to understand and a failure to respect science can be harmful to your health.