Crazy On Tap - A new kind of diet

Crazy On Tap - A new kind of diet: "As the article says, one should self-experiment. These principles (prune-ciples?) are derived from self-experimentation.

That I and this psych professor were able to come up with completely contrasting principles speaks to the variety of dietary experiences. Or that when it comes to food, anything is provable.

Of course, the article then goes on to contradict itself by telling you exactly what to do (ie, not experiment, just follow the rules). Cause there is no book to sell in self-experimenting with values. Even Nietzsche could tell you that.

I think humans are naturally attuned to eat according to social cues. But most of us are content to be followers, to be the scrawny, needy dog who gets table scraps from the masters and creators of diets."

Crazy On Tap - Going

Crazy On Tap - Going: "There are differences in how often people have to go. based on both genes and lower GI microflora. For some people twice a day, for others every two days. I'd be wary of anyone who was as an absolutist zealot on the issue. (As it takes 2-5 hours to digest food, going right after every meal sounds like a psychological conditioning more than anything. Not there's wrong with it. Unless one like to go on picnics.)

The infomercial is a classic case of appealing to cultural anti-establishmentism - we're always looking for cultural cues about our eating (and shitting, I guess) habits. Some people are predisposed to look for culturally dominant cues, others look for culturally contrarian ones.

The infomercial dude is playing on people's fears and doubts about the medical establishment, to push his own theory (and of course, product). That one can find other people to agree with him on the web isn't surprising - it's a very wide web, and, as Willam James would say, the variety of human experience is such that of course there are doctors who go twice a day themselves and are egotistic enough to believe that everyone else should be just like them.

The informecial is the form of a cult appeal (decry the authority, reinforce self-righteousness among those who do go often, preach that that is the only one way to 'go', bring out the evil goo and appeal to disgust, make the whole thing a moral issue).

But ask oneself this ... was there anything wrong with one's health before or is there an overwhelming desire to fart in the general direction of the system?"

The disgust of seeing goo is leveraged into amoral disgust.

Psychology Today: The Hidden Side of Happiness

Psychology Today: The Hidden Side of Happiness: "Happiness is only one among many values in human life,' contends Laura King, a psychologist at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Compassion, wisdom, altruism, insight, creativity—sometimes only the trials of adversity can foster these qualities, because sometimes only drastic situations can force us to take on the painful process of change. To live a full human life, a tranquil, carefree existence is not enough. We also need to grow—and sometimes growing hurts."