The Whine thread.

[Alelou]

Since the medical establishment here is fairly hostile towards alternative medicine, and since the government doesn't test or regulate, and since the herbal industry itself doesn't seem to welcome rigorous regulations or the costs it might entail, and since the pharmaceutical industry which funds most drug testing here certainly doesn't want the competition, we're left with a situation of caveat emptor. In fact, most alternative medical practitioners here rely on European studies.

I believe there are a few companies that have generally good reputations for giving you what they say they are giving you -- but here you're pretty much forced to take that on faith. Having worked on the fringes of this industry with some natural health authors my division used to publish, I can tell you that some of them seem appeared to be very serious and professional -- and others were passionate, true-believing crazies -- and still others were nothing but venal snake oil salesmen.

Sadly, the latter two categories of authors always tended to sell better.

[Distracted]

Caveat emptor is definitely the name of the game in the US when it comes to herbals. Although I learned virtually nothing in med school about herbals, I have made it my business to become at least passingly familiar with the most common ones, especially the ones that have potential adverse side effects or that might interact with prescription meds. I rarely recommend them, though, because here in the US when you buy an herbal you honestly can't trust that what you're buying actually contains any of the herb it says on the label. Even if it does, the actual amount of active ingredient can vary from company to company or even bottle to bottle, so you have no idea what you're getting. The reason for this is that herbs are not patentable, so there is no incentive for companies to spend money to do controlled studies to prove effectiveness and safety. Without these, no allopathic physician will take them seriously.

Since the medical establishment doesn't take them seriously, they aren't classified as drugs (even though many of them are the original sources of the drugs we prescribe or have components that work exactly like drugs that are on the market). Since they are considered "dietary supplements" and not drugs they don't fall under the same FDA restrictions, which means no one regulates what's put into them unless the companies themselves decide to spend their own money to do purity testing and institute internal standards. Since such standards cost the companies money which would otherwise be profit most companies don't bother. It's also why the more expensive brands of herbals in the US are usually safer, since companies who have internal standards and purity testing have to charge their customers more. I tell people that if they choose to use US made herbals to get the most expensive brand they can find.

And don't get me started on so-called Chinese "traditional medicines". Some of them contain poisons like lead. Others are spiked with drugs like Valium or Viagra or Lipitor. They often work...only too well sometimes. But people don't know what they're taking. And that's way too dangerous.

[WarpGirl]

OK I'm gonna rant a bit... Since I can't take any narcotics anymore except Fentynal aand Demerol and then for no more than a week before everything starts to go haywire from my tummy to my bladder, I've been seriously pissed off at the US not taking alternative treatments seriously. For the reasons Dis has mentioned about the futility of regulating and standardizing herbal medicine, people like me are too scared to look into areas that just might take away some of the pain! Not only that but when (like me) you can't take certain antibotics and insurence won't pay for other options, something has got to give.

I'm not saying living in a capatalist society is bad, but health care should not be profit first. It's not the doctors fault (well not the vast majority) but with the way things are here alternative medicine could be a great option for people... If the government and that minority of the medical community would stop being so dang selfish and start caring about PEOPLE.

[Alelou]

Just tried to install an optional update for my printer and it failed because, according to Microsoft, I'd need to clear 7 GIGABYTES of space on my hard drive to install it.

Why the hell would a print driver require seven gigabytes?????

And if that's a lot smaller than I'm thinking, which is highly possible, why the heck is my hard disk that full? I'm not exactly a video maven or anything.

Sigh. But I don't have time to figure this out right now.

[aadarshinah]

According to my iTunes, 7 GB is roughly equivelent to 1/2 the first season of TOS - the HiDef version - which is about 10 hours of video. Which is about right, for the size. No idea why a printer would require it. Maybe 70 megabites, but GBs? That shouldn't be happening. When was the last time you defraged you computer? I'd suggest doing that (hell, I'd suggest doing that anyway) and trying again. And how much free memory do you have? ... Oh, and if you were running lots of programs while you were trying to install it, that might be the problem as well. It might be active memory it was talking about, not actual...

[Enerdhil]

No idea why a printer would require it. Maybe 70 megabites, but GBs? That shouldn't be happening.

Maybe it is just a bug in the message screen? Last week I installed the office 2007 file converters (docx, ...) in my computer. I remember that the requirements screen stated 15 Gbytes hard disk space would be required. I found unusual, but I didn't have space problems, so I said 'install'. I checked now the installed files and they barely add to 30 Mbytes...

[aadarshinah]

office is a large software program. a printer is harder with a few auto-install programs. it's either a error on the error message or a seriously high-tech, self-inking printer...

[Alelou]

It's just your basic black and white laser printer. Something's weird, or maybe HP is just on crack. I suppose they might have decided to include every font in the universe or something.

EDIT: But having run some diagnostics, I am low on free disk space. Sigh. Need to clean off and clean up. One more thing to add to the long list of stuff to do.

[aadarshinah]

Disk space is important. Never underestimate computer health. Occassionally I go on manic attacks and defrag/spybot/etc every computer in the house, going from one to the other like, well, idk what, but not like a normal person.

Fonts come with the word software. Your printer has nothing to do with it. I'm going with a random error caused by lack of operational disk space. Clear it up, reboot, and try again. If you're sitll having problems, I'll ask my mom. She's the hardware/network tech in the family. I just do software.

[Alelou]

Truth is I'm not having any problems at all (knock wood) ... that aren't related to internet connectivity, anyway, which is a cable co. issue. I think that's why I was so taken aback.

Will have to be manic soon. Sigh.

[WarpGirl]

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... t-for-life

[Distracted]

That is SO cool. We (meaning humans in general) really need to get working on our generation ships. My ten-times-great-grandchildren could be born on "Zarmina's World".

[WarpGirl]

Oh dang! I thought I clicked Randomness thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God I am such an idiot.

[WarpGirl]

Okay I'm sick of this, I am sick and tired, of being sick and tired... I need the darn botox again. My migraines are terrible, my sleep habits almost gone, and the pain is unbareable. Days like today make me crazy, completely nuts. In the bad way!

[panyasan]

Today I phoned an office to ask them about a couple of financial things that they should have done for my family which were pretty important. The person who we usualy deal with, had the day off. So I talked to another person and she not only talked down at me, she told me that only yesterday the guy who I gave the assignment two weeks ago had done the job half way and he hadn't submitted it yet (which is the most important part). She couldn't tell when it work was done and it sounded they didn't care much about our situation. I was getting really angry, but of course it would only complicated matters if I show. Monday we are going to phone the person in charge to complain and make sure they will do their job.