Author: Serkadis

Let’s face it if you’re not so much of a gamer, QJ-reading and regular checkups on the gaming news may not be among your daily to-do list. Perhaps not even monthly. Nintendo understands that little reality

Filed under: Concept Cars, Coupe, Videos, Audi, Electric

The LA Times‘ Pulitzer Prize-winning auto critic, Dan Neil, had a chance to sample the Audi e-tron while the electric R8 (R8e?) was down in So. Cal. for the LA Auto Show, and he’s suitably impressed with the nine-month-old prototype that — unlike your average concept — is actually functional.

Not only does it go, stop and turn, the e-tron has a fully functional climate control system, power windows, MMI system and a host of other gadgets on board, making it a rarity in the world of one-off concepts. Granted, it’s still just an overly-stylized mule (thankfully, the million-spoke wheels were dispatched in favor of the R8 V10’s hoops), but this is less about the driving experience (although Neil raves about the dynamics and power delivery) and more about the world’s largest automakers getting into the electric vehicle game.

Neil’s primary point is that while Tesla and Fisker are laying the foundation for EV proliferation, automakers like Audi, Ford, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen all have electric whips in the works. Neil contends that the standards set by the major OEMs are what’s going to drive EVs into the mainstream and if the e-tron (and the forthcoming electric Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG) are any indication, enthusiasts can have their cake and eat it too. Check out the full write-up and hit the jump for Dan’s video review.

[Source: LA Times]

Continue reading VIDEO: Dan Neil drives the Audi eTron, tells Musk and Fisker to watch out

VIDEO: Dan Neil drives the Audi eTron, tells Musk and Fisker to watch out originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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mrharrysan was the first of a few to send in this story of a restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, that just lost a lawsuit and must pay almost $49,000 for 14 BMI songs that were played at a karaoke night held at the restaurant. It was a default judgment, as the restaurant owners apparently did not respond to the lawsuit and failed to show up. The owners claim they responded to the lawsuit, but there appears to be no evidence of that (the court never received a response). Based on this, the owners clearly deserve their share of responsibility in what appears to be a decision to ignore this. The claim that:

“We answered the complaint, but they (BMI) wanted us to do ridiculous stuff. Our attorney said to take it to court and see where it goes.”

also doesn’t make much sense. If their attorney said to take it to court, they (perhaps… just a suggestion) should have showed up in court. They now claim they’ll appeal, but not showing up for the original case was a huge mistake. Separately, they claim that the karaoke night was run by a third party contractor that was “properly licensed” with BMI and ASCAP, but I’m pretty sure that is incorrect. If I remember correctly, it’s the venue that needs the license, not anyone doing the entertaining.

That said, there’s still plenty of ridiculousness to go around on the BMI side. BMI has been bullying anyone hosting karaoke nights for a while now, so it’s got the process down. However, $49,000 for 14 songs seems ridiculous — and anyone with any sense of reality would admit that. Not BMI. It’s spokesperson, Jerry Bailey indicated to the reporter covering the story that the restaurant was lucky BMI didn’t push for $30,000 per song, since it could ask for that much.

And, of course, BMI could admit that the $49,000 for 14 songs is ridiculous and agree to let the restaurant pay a smaller, but reasonable sum, and move on, but it’s not doing that either. Instead, Bailey highlights how its shakedown specialists are good at collecting on these judgments:

“It’s definitely about the money as well as the judgment,” Bailey said. “We will take appropriate steps to secure the judgment. This is not new to us. We are experienced in this area. Our attorneys know what to do.”

Yes, the shakedown business is a good one, and BMI has lots of experience in it.

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Demand for cloud-based storage and backup is creating some lucrative opportunities for companies servicing large telecommunications providers.

We are seeing a number of carriers offering cloud-based services. Orange Business Services announced today that it will be offering cloud storage and other cloud-based services for its customers.

Verizon announced earlier this month that it is offering a number of cloud-related services.

Telecommunications companies are partnering with services like Nomadesk to give customers the ability to do their own cloud-based online backups.

Sponsor

Belgium-based Nomadesk is an online backup and syncing service for small business owners and personal users. It provides unlimited storage and sharing. The company announced this week a partnership with Bell Canada to provide its millions of customers with online back up for their mobile devices.

Nomadesk is a virtual hard drive on your desktop. It’s very simple. We downloaded the application, made some simple configurations and immediately had the ability to drag and drop files into the virtual hard drive that sits on the desktop.The hard drive is connected to the cloud and syncs when updates are made.

Your data is secured and encrypted. It can be shared with any number of users and synced across the community. Applications can be backed up. Access to documents are available online or offline.

Nomadesk CEO Filip Tack is touting the service as a better alternative to Box.net and Mozy. We agree that Nomadesk is easy to use, but as a collaboration platform it has some way to go.

For example, Nomadesk does not have an advanced search capability like Box.net. We view enterprise search as a key feature for collaboration services. Tack said the company will offer search as a feature in the first part of 2010.

Companies in this space are showing big market gains as larger providers seek revenues from the petabytes of data being produced every day. Mozy, for instance, just announced a partnership with Cox Business. Mozy is also partnering with China Telecom, McAfee and Vodafone to deliver cloud-based backup to customers.

What is the amount of data that is produced every day in the enterprise? We know this can vary wildly but even small businesses are starting to produce exponential amounts of information compared to just a year ago.

As this amount of information continues to grow, services like Nomadesk should stand to do very well as providers for large telecommunications companies.

Nomadesk service for small businesses starts at $15 per user, per month.

Discuss

Filed under: Car Buying, Coupe, Sedan, Infiniti

Infiniti has turned over its cards and revealed pricing for two of its 2010 G37 models, and there is barely a bump in MSRP for the base models: the sedan’s price remains the same at $33,250, while the coupe goes up by $150 to $36,050 – for which you get the revamped outside and upgraded materials and electronics inside.

As usual, traveling higher up the food chain requires more dosh, but it’s interesting to see how much of a hit the more enthusiast-oriented models are taking. For the sedan, the Journey trim is upped by $750, the all-wheel drive model by $350, and the Sport 6MT surges by $2,750. The coupe increases by $850 for the Journey, $450 for the AWD, and a whopping $3,400 has been tacked onto the Sport 6MT. It isn’t immediately clear why the 6MT models have been targeted for comparatively large increases in price (we’re guessing it’s a volume thing), but you can get more details on both models in the press release after the jump.

UPDATE: Just got word from Infiniti that the reason for the significant price increase on the 6MT model is the substantial amount of additional kit, including Bose stereo, power moonroof, iPod interface, heated front seats, power tilt/telescopic steering wheel, anti-glare mirror with Homelink and Bluetooth — all standard.

[Source: Infiniti]

Continue reading Infiniti prices facelifted 2010 G37 coupe and sedan – enthusiast 6MT models get big price increases

Infiniti prices facelifted 2010 G37 coupe and sedan – enthusiast 6MT models get big price increases originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kids Pick Review By Sue Jackson

In honor of the holiday season, today’s Top Ten list is devoted to our favorite Christmas picture books. We have a stack of holiday books that we store with all the other Christmas stuff in the basement and just brought up this weekend. Even though my kids are now 11 and 15, they still love our tradition of reading these family favorites out loud in the days leading up to Christmas. Some of these are classics; some are pretty obscure! They’re our favorites because the kids have grown up with them:

• The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
• Darby’s Christmas Adventure by Ray Bentley, illustrated by Mike Hamby – two former Buffalo Bills who came up with this series about a kid dinosaur named Darby
• Dear Santa: The Letters of James B. Dobbins by Bill Harley – a more recent entry by one of our favorite entertainers; if you don’t know who Bill Harley is, you’re missing out. He’s hilarious and this book is great! Also check out his recent CD/DVD, Yes to Running!
• Carl’s Christmas by Alexandra Day – our boys loved this series of wordless books about the sweet dog, Carl.
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss (of course)
• A Cowboy Christmas: The Miracle at Lone Pine Ridge by Audrey Wood, paintings by Robert Florczak
• Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer – my sons LOVED the Little Critter series when they were little.

And on Christmas Eve, we always read the same 3 books:

*Santa Mouse by Michael Brown – a favorite from my own childhood
*The Christmas Star by Marcus Pfister
*The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Cheryl Harnes

I suppose we could use some holiday books for older kids, now that the boys have grown so much. Any suggestions?

What are your favorite Christmas books for kids?

The Nutcracker And The Mouse–No Wrapping Paper Needed

Kids Pick Review: The Christmas Magic By Lauren Thompson

Sue Jackson’s Blog

Copyright © 2006-2010, Basil & Spice. All rights reserved.

This Wednesday, at a meeting of the White House Middle-Class Task Force, Vice President Joe Biden announced plans by the Obama administration to expand by $5 billion a tax credit for U.S.-based manufacturers that produce renewable energy technologies like solar panels, wind turbines and advanced batteries. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided $2.3 billion to fund the tax credit, but those funds are expected to run out shortly because of the popularity of the program.

“The Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program, which supports the building and equipping of factories to make the products of the green economy, has been wildly successful since its inception,” said Phil Angelides, chairman of the Apollo Alliance. “This much-needed influx of funds will help maximize private sector investment in clean energy production facilities while generating tens of thousands of new jobs in construction and manufacturing.” Click here to read the full Apollo Alliance statement on the proposal to expand the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit.

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, whose state has been actively promoting domestic clean energy manufacturing, co-authored the tax credit provision that was included in ARRA. She released a statement praising the administration’s proposal as being central to any job-creation package:

“In order to turn Michigan’s economy around and create jobs, we need to build the clean energy technology of the future here in America. Otherwise, we will lose the race with other countries and see those jobs go overseas. This manufacturing tax credit, which I co-authored in the recovery act, has already spurred interest to invest in renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal, and advanced batteries for vehicles in Michigan and across the country,” Stabenow said.

Congress will still need to approve the administration’s proposal, which would fund the expansion of the tax credit with money left over from the bank bailout.

The White House also released on Wednesday a report on the challenges to U.S. manufacturing and the government policies that could help U.S. manufacturers succeed. Click here to read the report, A Framework For Revitalizing American Manufacturing.

Outcome in Copenhagen Still Unclear

As we finalize this weekly update, it’s still uncertain whether a global climate agreement will be reached in Copenhagen. President Obama has just made a speech to those attending the international gathering, saying that if the nations of the world fail to reach an accord, “we will be back having the same stale arguments month after month, year after year – all while the danger of climate change grows until it is irreversible.”

Richard Black of BBC News described the current state of the talks: “Two years ago, governments committed to agreeing a new deal to combat climate change – ‘full and sustained implementation of the UN climate convention’ – by the end of today…In back rooms now, officials are drafting and re-drafting documents in an attempt to find a form of words – any form of words – that will allow them to get out of here clutching a piece of paper.”

The Apollo Alliance is urging the governments of the world to find common ground and reach a fair, ambitious and binding climate change treaty. Many of our board members, member groups and allies are in Copenhagen, and we recommend that you refer to their blogs over the next few days to read their analyses of the final outcome in Copenhagen. Following are a list of recommended blogs:

AFL-CIO
Climate Progress
Green For All
Grist
Huffington Post
It’s Getting Hot In Here (youth perspective)
Natural Resources Defense Council
Third World Network (climate justice perspective)

And if you haven’t yet read it, you should know about an outstanding editorial that ran on December 7 in 56 newspapers around the world in 20 different languages. It urged global leaders to seize the opportunity to reach an agreement in Copenhagen. This editorial is an inspiration to people all over the world. Even if an agreement isn’t reached in Copenhagen, this editorial should inspire us to continue our work to take decisive action to stop climate change before it ravages our planet. Click here to read the editorial, Copenhagen climate change conference: ‘Fourteen days to seal history’s judgment on this generation.’

In other news …

*CBO says the Senate clean energy and climate bill could save $21 billion. This week, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released its estimate of the cost of implementing S. 1733, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. The CBO found that the bill would create a surplus of $21 billion over the period between 2010 and 2019. Senator Barbara Boxer, who co-authored the bill, said, “The CBO score shows that there is a way to design a clean energy and climate bill that is fiscally responsible and gets the job done – while protecting the health of our families and the planet.”

*Make an end-of-the-year donation to the Apollo Alliance! Help the Apollo Alliance seal the deal on America’s clean energy and climate policies in 2010. The House of Representatives has already passed the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, but now the Senate needs to step up and pass its version of a new, national energy policy. Donate to the Apollo Alliance today to help us make 2010 the year of clean energy and good jobs!

*Weekly update is going on vacation. The Apollo Alliance office will be closed for the holidays, and therefore the weekly update will be on hiatus until the first week of 2010. Happy holidays and talk to you next year!

The HTC Snap has finally arrived on the Australian Optus network.  The handset will be available from free on a 24 month contract and is primarily aimed at business users.  The Snap will be the carrier’s first Windows Mobile 6.5 handset.

Read more at Optus here.

Via Gizmodo.com

With the holidays now ever-so-close, SCEA whips up a little something-something to bid for your holiday splurge. Now that this announcementhas come by, Heavy Rain game just got heavier both figuratively and literally.
 
 
 

With the holidays now ever-so-close, SCEA whips up a little something-something to bid for your holiday splurge. Now that this announcementhas come by, Heavy Rain game just got heavier both figuratively and literally.
 
 

Filed under: Government/Legal, Recalls, Safety, Lexus, Toyota

Toyota/Lexus gas pedal recall modification – click above for gallery

Late last month, Toyota announced that it would begin its biggest recall action ever, summoning 3.8 million cars and trucks back to its dealers to combat “pedal entrapment” by cutting down the accelerator pedals of customer cars to avoid them getting hung-up on floormats, resulting in “unintended acceleration.” Although Toyota plans to eventually substitute redesigned units for the shaved pedals (beginning in April), for the moment, it’s shaved pedals or nothing.

Up until now, we didn’t know what went into the modification process or how the finished pedal looks, as Toyota has worked hard to keep this process confidential. However, thanks to an anonymous Autoblog reader who happens to work in service at a Lexus franchise, we now have a much better idea of what goes into the process. Our source reveals that he’s only witnessed the alteration carried out on a ES350, not the IS or any other Toyota model, but we imagine the process is quite similar for other vehicles.

In any case, the procedure is surprisingly involved, with the automaker providing the following tools to every dealership: A cutter, an electric sanding wheel, a gauge to measure how much of the pedal is to be removed and a smaller foam block to go under the carpet. Lexus is disbursing people from its area offices to train dealer technicians on the process, and Toyota is undoubtedly doing the same.

We’ll let our source take it from here:

“We will have to remove the gas pedal from the vehicle and place it on a vise. Using the gauge, we are to mark the amount to be removed and cut it off. After this, we take the sanding wheel and angle the edges to make a smooth contoured surface that both looks nice and will not stick to the floor carpet or floor mat.

Also included in the repair is to replace a foam block under the floor carpet with a smaller one to lower the height of the floor slightly behind the gas pedal. What was explained to us is the foam block is glued to the bottom of the floor carpet from the factory. The block will need to be removed by heating the top side of the floor carpet with a hair dryer – not a heat gun. This is to prevent burning of the floor carpet.

(Click through to the jump for the rest of the process and more details)

Continue reading Cut It Out: Toyota’s recalled pedal modification remedy detailed step-by-step

Cut It Out: Toyota’s recalled pedal modification remedy detailed step-by-step originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this week Meredith Whitney knocked down Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS), when she slashed estimates on them for the next two years.

The stocks sagged.

But today?

No magic touch. She lowered her estimates on JPMorgan (JPM), but the stock is up over 1.5%.

Jamie Dimon wins again!

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Amazing Life And Career Of Jamie Dimon
• Meredith Whitney Whacks Estimates On Goldman And Morgan Stanley Sending Shares Lower
• Watch Meredith Whitney Explain How She’s Bearish But That She’s Been "Trading Bullish"

Peter writes in to alert us to the latest example of copyright madness. It seems that over in Scotland, an amateur football (soccer, to us Americans) club, Buckie Thistle, would get a small group of about 500 fans attending each game, and one of them, a 16-year-old kid named David Smith would sit in the back of the stands and film the action. He would then post 10-minute clips to YouTube so those who missed the games could catch up. It built up a small, but decent, following. And that’s when the trouble began. The league’s secretary claims that Smith is violating the league’s copyright and has issued him a £5,000 fine:

“I was made aware that edited footage of games involving Buckie Thistle was being shown on YouTube without the prior approval of the league. Over the last three months, attempts were made to establish who was responsible, but I was advised that the person’s name was unknown.

“On meeting Mr Smith at Deveronvale, I asked him if he had permission to video this game, as it was the copyright of the league and no permission had been sought nor given. After brief discussion, he was advised by me that he may have to pay for the royalties for all videos taken and the sum could amount to £5,000.”

Now, there are all sorts of issues here, so let’s go through them one by one:

1. The secretary of an amateur sporting league has no authority to issue any kind of fine, let alone a £5,000 one.
2. As the article details, the league secretary is very confused if he thinks that the action on the field is copyright to the league. As a media lawyer notes in the article:
   

   
   THIS is not a question of copyright. The SFA does not own copyright on a football game. Copyright only applies to something such as a book, film, play etc that has been created as an act of labour by an individual or group of individuals. Men running around chasing a ball is not something that has been created.
   

3. If there is any copyright here, it should be owned by David Smith. Again, as noted in the article:
   

   
   The irony is that David Smith owns the copyright to his own piece of film; he has put the effort into filming and editing it and when he puts it on YouTube, he is tacitly allowing people to watch it and even download it on to their computer. But if those individuals then attempted to sell it for commercial gain then he would be well within his rights to stop them as they would be breaching his copyright.
   

4. This isn’t a question of competing with broadcasting rights. No one else is filming the games. It’s just the kid. Doing it as a labor of love to help promote the team he loves.
5. The club itself is thrilled with Smith filming the games, and is upset that the league is trying to fine him.

The whole thing is yet another example of what happens when people hear about copyright and “ownership” all the time and assume that it gives them control over all sorts of things it does not.

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Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Chevrolet, Specialty

The Indianapolis 500 is still more than five months away, but General Motors is getting a jump on the 2010 season with the unveiling of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Pace Car.

Shown today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the tangerine Camaro is a rolling homage to the original pony pace car that rolled onto the track in 1967, complete with Inferno Orange Metallic paint, White Diamond rally stripes and a color-matched instrument panel. While the auto-box equipped, 400-hp 6.2-liter V8 apparently remains unchanged, the rest of the modifications are primarily cosmetic, including the Indy 500 logos adorning the doors, front fenders and seat headrests, along with an all-new front grille that’s slated to be available as a Camaro accessory in the future. The only safety equipment is the strobe light system mounted inside the rear window, negating the need for a traditional roof-top light bar.

The 2010 Indy 500 Camaro will be on display at the Indianapolis Auto Show starting on December 26, but you can get all the details by checking out the gallery below and the press release below the fold.

Continue reading 2010 Camaro SS Pace Car ready for Indy 500

2010 Camaro SS Pace Car ready for Indy 500 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a nebulous term used by snake oil-salesmen to sell products cloaked in pseudoscientific terminology on late night television. Detox. If what they say is true, we apparently have millions of toxins constantly circulating throughout our body, permeating our cells, coating our digestive systems in a poisonous film, bogging down our organs. These toxins cannot be dealt with, nor reasoned with via the standard avenues of diet and exercise; no, they require the aid of special supplements and detox paraphernalia: magic herbs, weird colon-scouring clay mixtures, foot pads that supposedly suck the toxins directly out of the body, lemonade or juice fasting kits, liver flushes. They’ll often bring out a spokesperson who plays doctor well enough to convince your average Cheeto powder-encrusted insomniac that he or she needs this book or that colon cleanse to avoid obesity, cancer, disease, and depression. If you could just flush out all those toxins, you’d be doing great.

It’s all utter nonsense, of course. And it’s telling that these people never actually identify the toxins. It’s just a blanket term with unnerving connotations and few real denotations – but that’s exactly how the detox scam artists like it. Drum up fears about mysterious toxins without ever having to identify them. Perfect.

Let’s take a look at a few of the more popular detox methods.

The Master Cleanse

Also known as the lemonade diet, the Master Cleanse protocol prescribes a strict detox diet consisting of distilled water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup, with morning salt water flushes. Yeah, you basically drink nothing but spicy lemonade for thirty days and this is supposed to remove “harmful toxins,” accelerate “healthy weight loss,” and bring about “the correction of all disorders.” Common side effects are dizziness, muscle waste, headaches, nausea, irrational cravings, and vomiting – but these are touted as evidence that the Master Cleanse is working. All that diarrhea and fatigue? That’s just your body expelling the toxins!

Still, some people report beneficial effects. Weight loss is one, but is that any surprise when the average glass of Master Cleanse (two tablespoons maple syrup, two tablespoons lemon juice, 1/6 teaspoon cayenne pepper) runs a little over 100 calories? Besides, there’s no protein in this diet, making it highly catabolic. Fasting of any sort can have beneficial effects (SIRT1 expression, for example), but those are better pursued through intermittent fasting and proper Primal nutrition.

Colonic Cleansers

You’ve probably seen the disgusting images of toxic “mucoid plaque” deposits culled from unhealthy colons.  If not, give “mucoid plaque” or “colon cleanse” a whirl in Google Image search. You’ll get hundreds of results, images of brown/black, ropy extrusions that look a bit like chewed up Tootsie Rolls. This is “mucoid plaque,” a toxic film that supposedly accumulates on the walls of our colons over the years. No one is safe from the scourge of mucoid plaque, and the only way to rid yourself of this menace is to purchase a special fiber-and-herb cleansing formula, or shoot a high-powered jet of water through your colon to dislodge the toxins.

It’s strange, then, that physicians have always been unable to locate this mysterious, seemingly ubiquitous colonic plaque, even after “several thousand intestinal biopsies.” Some even suggest that the colon cleansers are creating the problem themselves, and that those ropy extrusions are the product of consuming all that insoluble fiber in the cleansing formulas. Huh? A self-fulfilling marketing ploy that ensures repeated consumption of a product by exacerbating the very condition it purports to relieve? Nah, that would never, ever happen.

Heroic Doses of Fiber

The obsession with consuming massive amounts of fiber to push things along is just weird to me. If you realize what insoluble fiber does in your colon – it scours the walls and generates the production of lubricating mucus, sort of a defense mechanism – you get a little apprehensive about consuming heroic doses of the stuff. A bit of fiber is fine (and may even enhance gut production of butyric acid), especially in whole-food fruit and vegetable form, but to supplement with massive amounts of fiber is completely unnecessary. It assumes that single daily visits to the toilet aren’t nearly enough. We are unclean, impure animals that must purge our colons five times a day.

This is insanity. If you poop once every two days, you’re fine. I’d even say constant trips to the bathroom are indicative of a problem; the notion that our bodies were designed to expel waste every couple hours is ridiculous. Efficiency of elimination makes far more evolutionary sense.

But the detox crowd needs that feedback. They like to know “something’s happening.” They love depositing those “plaque deposits” in the toilet bowl. They live for the lightheadedness and vomiting of a lemonade cleanse, because that means it’s working. What’s interesting to me is that most of these detox pushers claim they’re promoting a more natural existence, free of toxic chemicals and manmade contaminants, and yet they display a distinct lack of faith in the body’s ability to naturally regulate itself. They place themselves in direct opposition to conventional physicians and claim to represent the alternative side of medicine that considers the body as a holistic thing, rather than a set of symptoms to be treated with drugs and invasive techniques. I see two sides of the same coin. I see a quack that considers the human body to be inherently flawed and in desperate need of outside assistance. He or she may not be peddling heavily marketed pharmaceuticals with questionable clinical support, but the “natural” lifestyle changes they promote are anything but non-invasive and border on the religious or the self-flagellating.

The concept of detox is real, but our bodies are already equipped with natural measures designed to remove toxic substances from circulation. We really don’t need any new-fangled products with no scientific basis when we’ve got lungs, kidneys, a liver, the colon, and our body’s tendency toward homeostasis, all of which work perfectly well.

When we breathe out, our lungs are expelling CO2 from the body.

Our kidneys remove various acids from the body while regulating water levels. Excess water can carry too many electrolytes, or even urea (a real toxin).

The liver is a massive factory devoted to detox. It has a real knack for taking insoluble toxins and adding a molecule that renders them water-soluble; the toxins can then be excreted out by the kidneys. This is a far more elegant detoxification process than swallowing a bunch of herbs and insoluble fiber to flush out your colon.

And finally the poor, misunderstood colon. The colon is, quite literally, a waste removal system. It’s specifically designed to handle large amounts of toxic fecal matter. It’s “dirty,” I guess, just like the inside of your garbage can is dirty. It’s supposed to be dirty! It’s built to hold all that dirt and keep it from ending up where it doesn’t belong. Sure, people have problems with their colons from time to time, but ripping it asunder with a bunch of fiber and regularly shooting it with a powerful stream of water won’t help you there.

If you’re eating an otherwise healthy Primal diet, detox is naturally taken care of via urination, defecation, sweating, and exhalation. Avoiding fructose and binge drinking keeps your liver free of fatty deposits and running smoothly. Round things out with regular exercise, steady sleep, and plenty of sun, and I’ll bet that you, your colon, and your toxic load will be just fine.

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Another round of tracks coming to Rock Band next week, but it’s not the Christmas batch that you may have been looking for. Worry not, they may be no Bob Marley, but there are some positive vibrations