User:Crusty007

This is just me...i dont much fancy writing about myself, but since i have some time between things to do i will just write some stuff that would describe my interests, in no particular order, as they pop up: (be ware, i have no idea how user pages are meant to be, so consider this as an example of early 21st century internet-pop-art)

(I like to broaden my mind, generally, and not use mind-broadening artificial flavourers in the process...as in, i don't do drugs.)

Science, history, undogmatic thinking, inventors On Music

good music, (like:) Queen, The Police, U2, Sting, Rolling Stones, Abba, The Beatles, The Doors, Kate Bush, 10cc, Led Zeppelin, Status Quo, Daft Punk, Felix Da Housecat, Louise Armstrong, Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier...well lets just say i have to buy extra hard disks to house all my music. Music i dont like: Metal/Gothic (although the pre-ballad Metallica is good, Angel of Death by Slayer, some work of Anthrax, Kiss, Iron Maiden and Marilyn Manson), gangster-rap (perhaps a dozen individual exceptions) modern R&B (not the old rythm & blues which is actually rythm and blues, as opposed to soft paced gangsta music), rap in particular (although dutch, german, and french are actually better languages to rap in than english...somehow it just sounds better).

On Movies

Huge fan of movies, and movie music. Not a huge fan of teen movies (like most mainstream horror movies for example, although i do like Hellraiser I) and movies with rather poor taste of humor, like police academy, american pie (in its MANY iterations) Eurotrip etc etc.. I like (good) action movies, sci-fi (loved the last Star Trek movie..finally one with some kick-ass action in it), and a lot lot lot LOT of different movies in general...just to name a few i watched and liked(again, in no particular order..it would serve no purpose to try to index them in order of likeability as individual movies tend to cater to the needs of different emotional facets of my puny, futile existence on this small, harmless insignificant planet in a seedy spiral arm of an otherwise quite inconspicuous galaxy): Up, the Hurt Locker, Sherlock Holmes (the latest, and the BBC series is very excellent indeed), Once Upon A Time In The West, A Fistful Of Dynamite, My Name Is Nobody, Alien, Aliens, Star Wars...i better not continue because the list would become immense. I do like movies that are clearly off the beaten track and/or not mainstream, although for totally personal and individual reasons i will like the one and not the other. I'm, for example, quite fond of a lot of movies that carry the Troma label, but i'm no fan at all of the 'exploitation' genre. I like 'Bad Taste' because it has such immensely good taste, but i care not for 'The Day After Tomorrow' which proves beyond any scientific measure of doubt that not even the most enormous mountain of money can buy even a shred of good taste...although respectability is clearly measured by the bank deposit of reviewers. I try to track down those really hard to find movies made by non-american companies, that arent sold in my country,(or for that, screened, televised, sold, hired, lended, or distributed in this part of the european continent). I'm 21st century, and strictly new generation, in that i consider the old laws of copyright to be an impediment to free speech and receiving a half-decent education.

On Television

I dont watch television, for the very sane reason that it does not inform or instruct, but only serves to keep people inside their homes and not out on the street rioting against their respective governments. I also dont watch television because i have seen Armageddon, Men In Black, Harry Potter and Pirates Of The Carribean 1.500.000.000.000.000.000.654 times already....each. They stopped being enjoyable at about the 1000th time. In fact, since i have gone the way of choosing which film i download, i have seen 50 times more Japanese movies in 3 years than i have seen in the 30+ years of my life before that. The same goes with, say, Hong Kong movies, Russian movies, German and French movies, Italian movies, or even decent Shakespeare film adaptations. One will be hard-pressed to find a TV-channel in my country televising films that are actually interesting. I have, in my lifetime, not been witness to a TV-viewing in my country of the pan-arabian epic film classic, Saladin. I also dont watch TV for information purposes, TV has no information, only tainted views of things that are happening around us. When a news item tells only 50% of the truth, it is 100% lying..the devil is in the details (and the stuff they don't tell you). I gather my news and views from a vast array of websites all over the world, and only when i'm interested. Having contrasted news-gathering on the internet with the televised news, i can safely say the TV is 100.000% wrong.

On Radio

I don't watch it. Some of my gadgets come with it. My grandma used to think it was pretty cool when she was young. It is like television, but without the videostream. It supposedly comes from the air, which sucks, because i can't plug the air into my pc, unlike webradio. If you live in a 3d world country radio is probably cool, but they dont have running water there either, so it's probably safe to say they don't have high expectations.

On Physics

I don't fancy relativity...i prefer quantum mechanics. Relativity has a poor, very poor track record in proving itself. No single experiment that is supposed to prove the theory of relativity can be UNIQUELY explained by relativity...in fact certain more extreme versions of quantum mechanics and it's many offshoots can fully explain the observed experimental outcome exactly as relativity does. Having the only, unique explanation of an observed phenomenom is the cornerstone of any workable scientific theory, and as such, relativity fails miserably. Instead the evidence for quantum gravity continues to pile up, totally annihilating any curved-space explanation of gravity. I also dont fancy the whole dark matter/dark energy idiocy. I think in 50 years from now physicists will look back to this period, of belief in a mysterious substance making up almost all of the universe AND not being visible and detectable, as THE great lunacy of cosmologists of the early 21st century. I'm pretty sure the whole thing can be explained away by just accepting that gravity is quantized, and as such, will be shown to be stronger over longer distances than classical gravity is able to explain.

As Sherlock Holmes would say: "A mysterious dark, undetectable substance which rules all the known vastness of space and makes possible all that is in all its intricate manners, but cannot be seen directly in any way, method, or instrument the most brilliant minds of the country can devise, is such a ludicrous concoction of incredible dimmness that only a raving lunatic could have imagined such a monstrosity, and only a con-artist of considerable ability aided by gullible and thick-headed science writers can sell this to the man on the street. Well... try, for the man on the street is NOT sold, my dear Watson, especially as the only men presumed capable of detecting this nefarious substance are the very men who are doing the selling!"

No sir...the man on the street is NOT sold.

In general, in science i prefer to look at radical new theories when it is very clear the old ones are failing miserably. The relativity-quantum mechanics problem is one of them, with many other problems in cosmology or astronomy a derivative of that problem. Relativity for example predicts that black holes exist, and quantum mechanics predict that they can evaporate, and even seem to imply that black holes can explode (Quasars anyone?).

On Seti, Aliens, and life in the universe

The correct answer is of course 42, and i wholeheartedly agree with the answer. More specific, i think the Seti project is the most dumbest thing imaginable, looking for ET-signals on the 21 cm hydrogen band. A suitable analogy would be to look for a pygmee at a dance-party in a Swedish discotheque, or a red block of lego in a huge cargo container containing red blocks only. Call me crazy, but i would look for more obvious signs in, say, a radio band that does NOT contain 95% of all the natural signals in the universe (as the 21 cm hydrogen band contains). Perhaps i'm in error and they do look at a less idiotic place than that, perhaps i'm misinformed and have preconceptions. I would prefer to look at the part of the spectrum where there can surely only be radiation made by intelligent species, like emanations from uranium, thorium and plutonium. We would have to be looking at exactly the right time to even be able to detect the people on another planet wiping themselves out in a nuclear war, but at least it is slightly less insane than looking for a slightly unusual piece of hay in a huge haystack. No, Seti, isn't looking for the needle, instead it redefines the needle as being a sligthly odd piece of hay and then bluntly goes looking for it.

Aliens, of course, dont care. They've been here, probably are here now, will be here in the future, and dont care at all about us. And to be honest, i can't blame them, we ARE primitive. In fact the most primitive humans are the ones ruling us, because let's face it, you dont become president or prime minister by playing it nice and behaving in a moral manner. Journalists are paid to deceive US, not the aliens...because obviously, we are stuck here and can't emigrate to another planet with better rulers. If i could i would be outta here 20 years ago. Aliens don't watch TV, they just observe us killing ourselves in a varied and rather inefficient manner.

Aliens probably just consider our planet a bit of a game reserve, to refill the tank and have a bite or two, perhaps do some experiments on us. Dont count on them to do anything..they wont save us from ourselves nor will they come to eat us or enslave us all...that would surely imply they actually care, which they don't of course. We care what happens to us, and since we tend to project every single aspect of ourselves onto anything that moves, or tends to move, we tend to think that we are important enough that some other guy on a planet a dozen lightyears away would think one second about us.

And as for life that isn't smart but just lives, it's probably everywhere. Just the fact that we fail so miserably of eradicating life in every single instances where we think it really matters, like surgical theaters, interplanetary probes, and our chicken fillets, should be proof enough that life is an incredibly powerful, persistent, pervasive and tenacious force in every single cubic centimeter of the universe where enough atoms and photons exist to make it possible. To think otherwise is a matter of religion, and not very, VERY sound science.

On Mars

Bring no umbrella, unless you care to terraform. Obviously there is both life and lots of water there, its just very cold and has almost no atmosphere, like a Polish cafe or an interrogation room at Guantanamo Bay. The cold can be fixed, all you need is a really really big mirror in space. The atmosphere is a bit more tricky, because it has probably evaporated on the account of Mars being to small and having too little a gravity field. Terraforming should involve us smashing bits of rock into Mars until it is heavier, but that is sort of a long-term project. As for life, it's there, we are just too dumb, close-minded, and too self-conceited to consider it a given. Well the top is, in any case... Dont expect any plague pandemics when our first Marstronauts get back, our bacteria probably eat their bacteria before we even get into the picture. Extremophiles generally don't fare very well in non-extreme environments. No 'Andromeda Strain' pandemics here...you probably are at far far greater peril because of some really nasty little bugs your own military scientists conjured up in some biosafety level 4 laboratories, and are holding stored in a glass jar somewhere on an undisclosed location, that they can tell you about, but then have to kill you. I consider it not a problem. And as for why we should go there? Well, it beats killing (with 10.000$ bombs) people (earning 100$ a year) in some far away country whenever our leaders get caught with their hand in the cookie jar (or up your sister's skirt) for diverting attention. The simple fact that government dollars are spent doing something else than killing poor coloured people in a far away land should be reason enough to do it. Especially since it means some top scientists are involved in it, whereas otherwise they would just be hired by the military industry inventing new ways to kill us.

On War

War basically involves our rich people sending our poor people with guns and bombs paid by our non-rich/poor people (those people who actually pay taxes) to some other place, against the other poor people sent by the other rich people to stop our poor people from killing their rich people.

(I might be wrong on other things but i'm pretty sure i'm spot-on on that)

Being poor myself, i wouldnt really mind, considering i live in a country that has better guns and bombs, so i would (usually) live, but unfortunately i'm also chronically ill so they won't let me go kill other poor people. After all, being paid beats not being paid, even if it is to kill people. (that's why it's called POOR, you dont have the option of being too morally inclined...on the other hand, rich people have all the options, but choose to kill people instead of just hanging out with them)

Generally, once you consider the above statement, wars usually make more sense and dont come as a surprise anymore. That would help, because you can start storing candles, water bottles, Elvis Presley CD's and fake vomit beforehand to prevent being caught without when it happens.

Also, usually, war isn't fun at all. It's rather a really nasty affair. When looking for destinations for your holiday, avoid those countries at war. Yes they might have cut-rate prices and come with a free machine gun (and GREAT photo-opportunities) but your family will certainly not appreciate your choice of destination while under mortar attack or being machine-gunned from the holiday inn at the other side of the swimming pool. To avoid post-holiday recrimination by your family-in-law, best thing is to avoid going to places where there is war. Obviously, the people living there dont have your options. The rich people usually do, but they prefer the option of having poor and non-rich people killed instead of giving up their own wealth. The poor people do most of the killing and the dying, and the people who pay taxes in that country usually end up not getting a receipt because their government has been bombed out of existence in the meantime. Also, usually war means some local jojo with a gun comes around and kills you, your mother, your daughter, your only goat, burns your house down, keys your 200$ 25-year old toyota pick-up, puts up his tent on your land and chases you off it, puts a landmine on the path your 6-year old son uses to go get bread in the morning, takes the cake, AND all your favourite CD's, and generally behaves in a very disagreeable manner.

Generally, war is no fun at all and should be avoided, unless you get paid for it. You can tell who is getting paid for it easily; those are the ones advocating war. The connection is 100% foolproof...advocates for war are the ones getting paid. Being the one getting paid in a war is the preferred way of spending time in one. It means you get to carry a gun and shoot it, which is fun just by itself, and you get to kill other people, their mothers, their daughters, their only goats, key their toyota pick-ups, take other people lands and blowing their 6-year old kiddies apart with your landmines. Hey, at least its not happening to YOU...

In case you,by any weird chance of fate, actually get to kill a rich person from the other side, the rich person from your own side usually pins a medal on your chest. A medal is a small piece of metal designed to show everybody who is also rich you can be relied upon to do their killing for them, and to show any poor person that if you kill enough people that are rich enough for your rich people to care they give you a small piece of metal to wear on your chest. The piece of metal itself is totally worthless, although the rich people say it is. You can trade it for a can of beans if you are hungry and the sucker with the can of beans is not rich.

To sum up: in any war, make sure you are getting paid for it. Any war you are not getting paid in, is to be avoided at any price.

On Oil Pulling

I got a few medical chronic medical ailments that the normal medical establishment has been unable to fix, so ive been looking around on the internet for over a decade for alternative treatments....and I used quite a few. A lot of them work, a lot of them don't work, and a lot of them just address the symptoms and not the cause. Luckily, i have found Oil_pulling to be one of the few that works. As it looks like the wikipedia page on the topic is dominated by unscientific debunkers, I'll put my POV here. As you can read on the wiki page it basically involves rinsing your mouth with sunflower oil for 15 minutes and spitting it out, not swallowing it. That's it...that's all there is to it. Since I've discovered this method a year ago it has improved my health considerably, and it seems to have cleared my acne for now, a very persistent acne that i have had for 20 years and resisted everything I, my physician, and the dermatologist could throw at it, including minocin, roaccutane, benzoyl peroxide and at least a dozen alternative medicine methods. All those methods basically involved me not getting any better and the drug company getting richer. Oil pulling improves my health and it is dirt cheap...actually cheaper than dirt considering the land prices over here.

This is one of many ways advertised/promoted in the alternative medical community, and I don't know about most of the others. Some are expensive, very unpleasant, a lot of them don't work, and some are outright quackery, so use your brains when researching them. I'm a real wuss when it comes to stuff that tastes bad, so I don't fancy most of those cleansing/detox ways one damn bit. And don't abandon normal medical treatment, you need the supervision of a proper medical doctor in any auto-immune disease you have.

My pet theory is that because your tongue is one of the largest muscles in the body and has a large blood circulation (cut it and you bleed like a pig), you are basically giving your entire blood reservoir a change to exchange oil-soluble toxins with the oil in your mouth. That small amount of oil in your mouth is a huge reservoir of oil in your body the second you put it there. Anything that likes to dissolve in oil instead of water (blood is mostly water) will happily leave your blood and go crawling in your mouth. This way you clear out a lot of toxins out of your blood each time. Once the toxin level in your blood drops low enough, your organs will start releasing the toxins stored in them into the bloodstream. This explains why you can get worse after doing this for a while, because not all toxins are created equal: they are not all stored equally all over the body, but toxin A is more concentrated in say, organs X and Y, and toxin B is more concentrated in organ Z. But once released back into the bloodstream they travel through every part of the body getting a second change to infect any organ vulnerable to that particular naughty molecule. Conceivably, if you stop cleansing like this at exactly the wrong moment, you could feel better as a whole (systemic improvement), but get sick in one part of your body(localized infection), and since normal medicine usually hasn't got a clue toxins cause a lot of diseases, they'll throw expensive medications to fix it, with all their side-effects. They don't tell you to keep going, if you feel worse after a while, for nothing, you know...

Of course, a lot of doctors will tell you some of these diseases are auto-immune diseases, because they see your immune system doing battle somewhere inside your body, causing inflammations and such, and they can't find a bug that causes it because they aren't taught to look for chronic toxins. Your body has considerable means to flush out toxins and does so every day, but these can simply be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Suffice it to say, if you are diagnosed with an auto-immune disease, the first thing you can do yourself is cleanse your body.

Please Note:

This is a pet theory, my POV so don't quote me on this anywhere you find someone hostile to undogmatic thinking.You'll get into flame wars and shit, and nobody will do anything remotely positive to solve the scientific issue. Trolling and flaming has never helped anybody live a healthier live, it just made more people more frustrated. If you really want to help, you would have to find a medical researcher willing to stake his reputation on proper research on this off-the-beaten-track subject. And those are really, REALLY hard to find. The research itself is insanely easy to do: just take 20 people with an auto-immune disease, take bloodvalues of a range of toxins before starting treatment, during and after, note symptoms before,during, and after, and compare. You could use 20 controls and give them colored water to rinse with. It's not rocket science, you just can't get rich researching it.

Some tips and caveats:

-This is my POV and I'm no professional, just someone who has studied these things off and on for 15 years to improve my own health. Don't blame anybody but yourself if you take me more seriously than your own doctor(s).

-Always tell your doctor you are oil pulling. Some drugs you take might like to dissolve in oil and you would be lowering their level in your body, making them less effective. Specifically ask him to look it up, because he might not realize this.

-oil-soluble vitamins (like A,C,D, and E) will also be removed from your body, so supplement them if you continue for some time. Not doing this may cause infections and other non-nice health issues.

-Some people put all sorts of claims on any method they find. I don't know if it cures cancer, AIDS, world peace, whatever. I'm not holding my breath on most of those claims. Just try it and see for yourself. It does good things for me.

-I use very cheap sunflower oil from the local supermarket. It works just fine, don't bother with any expensive cold pressed organic stuff unless your religion/way of life expressly requires it. Don't buy anything that is supposed to work better, if it is ridiculously expensive it is probably bogus. Ask for free samples instead.

-Don't swallow. Lets just say it's really YUK! if you do that. It won't really hurt you though, after all, the nasty stuff you cleanse out of your body was in your body in the first place. You'll get nauseous if you do and might vomit, that helps.

-Spit it out in the toilet. It's nasty stuff what comes out of there, you don't want to wash your dishes in the same sink you spit it out in.

-You're supposed to start slowly and work up to 15-30 minutes, on the grounds that it might be disgusting. Having drunk laxative agents, been subject to many unpleasant poking in more body cavities I thought I was born with, 15 surgical procedures, and using self-injection pens on a regular basis, I can safely say I'm not at all impressed by it's disgustfullness. I was doing it for 40 minutes straight within the week while rearranging my socks and checking the internet. It's ridiculously easy to do.

-Some say do it in the morning before breakfast. I do it in the evening before going to bed, and pay no heed at all to whether or not I just ate. Still works just fine. In fact if you just ate, you won't have to use a toothpick, the oil will do that for you.

-It's a batch process, so you can do it as many times as you bloody well wish. Given the fact that the longer you hold it in the mouth the slower the toxin exchange into the oil goes, i just use several shorter batches instead of one long one.

-I can imagine some nutter immediately trying to do this for 8 hours straight, go into a coma and die. If you are that crazy you probably should be the winner of a Darwin award.

-Some people report they can see parasites floating and crawling in their spit. If so, please film it and put it on Youtube or something.