You can now get the T-Mobile HD2 from here.
This puts T-Mobile ahead of O2 for actually releasing it, though I swear they never announced it…
It’s free on a 24 month £35 a month contract, and £195.73 on an 18 month £15 a month contract. It’s by no means cheap, but it is at least competitive with more fruity phone prices (as far as I can tell).
Let us know if you’ve got one, or it’s full of bloatware! 
Well, you just knew this was going to happen eventually. Suddenly publishers are starting to freak out over “ebook piracy,” claiming (totally inaccurately) that they’ve lost $600 million to it. Of course, as some are noting the real problem isn’t “piracy” but the industry’s response to it:
The best way to fight piracy? Got e-book shoppers accustomed to buying from legitimate sources before it’s too late. That means easy downloading, fair prices and the ability to move content easily from machine to machine within a household. Use of the standard ePub format and the end of traditional DRM could go a long way in that regard.
Instead, they’re likely to go in the other direction (they always do) and try to raise the DRM walls higher in a futile effort to “fight” piracy. Of course, as we discussed nearly a year ago, the ebook industry could really use more piracy, because it’s actually a great indicator of what people really want. And, of course, locking up content with more DRM will only serve to take away value. If there’s growing piracy, that just means the industry is putting up unreasonable barriers. Hopefully publishers realize this before totally screwing things up, but somehow it seems likely they’ll make all the same mistakes as the music industry.
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San Gimignano, Italy | Incredible Ruins
In the age of the Renaissance, Tuscany was the center of the Western World. Its towns and cities grew insanely wealthy from a dense network of trade routes that spanned the Mediterranean and continental Europe. Florence, Sienna and Pisa are home of some of the most iconic architectural and artistic marvels of Italy. However, many more incredible are hidden away in smaller towns scattered across the region.
A small town of San Gimignano lies conveniently on one of most important medieval pilgrimage routes. Its inhabitants exploited the situation well. Made quickly rich by the constant influx of pilgrims, the families of San Gimigano wanted to show off. Each of them yearned to have a palace, but only thing that could be crammed between the tight confines of towns walls was a tower. Merchant families of San Gimignano entered an informal contest of building a higher and more splendid stone tower. The law forbid building the tower higher than the main communal one, known as Rognosa. Owning one become a status symbol. At the peak of fashion San Gimignano boasted no less the 72 of them.
Today only 15 remain. In 1348 the Plague devastated the city. It faded in obscurity, until it was rediscovered as tourist attraction in 19th century. Historic center of San Gimignano is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A similar Tuscan tower, the
On November 12, 2009, Herbert Williams was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Mr. Williams’s death sentence last year after finding that his trial lawyer failed to provide effective representation because he did not investigate or present powerful evidence of abuse and psychological trauma at trial.
If Shigeru Miyamoto had just graduated, chances are, he won’t even land a job with Nintendo. He said so himself. This is coming from a man who’s way…
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AT&T and HP today announced the upcoming availability of the new HP iPAQ Glisten, a feature-rich 3G world phone that meets the increasing demands of modern mobile professionals. AT&T’s first smartphone with an AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) screen, the HP iPAQ Glisten is loaded with features tailored with the business power user in mind.
Featuring the Microsoft Windows® Mobile 6.5 operating system, the iPAQ Glisten offers a touch-friendly user interface and improved browser with Flash support. Connections to your favorite people, content and applications are a fingertip away on the redesigned Start Menu, and Internet Explorer Mobile** supports the rich experiences that many Web pages offer for desktop computers.
Users can easily move between work and leisure with advanced mobile e-mail capabilities, built-in Wi-Fi and GPS functionality as well as rich multimedia features and applications. AT&T supports Windows Marketplace for Mobile for access to a variety of applications.
The iPAQ Glisten features a full QWERTY keyboard and five-way directional pad for fast, easy and accurate messaging including SMS/MMS and e-mail. The touch-enabled AMOLED screen, among the best displays on the market, allows users to easily navigate through menus, windows, and links with the touch of a finger.
“iPAQ Glisten adds to our innovative Windows Phone portfolio,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “It meets the demands of our business customers while boasting a beautiful AMOLED touch screen and a full package of multimedia features.”
“The iPAQ Glisten packs a powerful punch with its multiple input methods, variety of connectivity options, and a familiar, consistent email experience that allows mobile professionals to connect with the people and information that matter most to them,” said Susan Macke, vice president, Marketing, Handheld Global Business Unit, Personal Systems Group, HP. “Our strategy for success in growing the iPAQ business and customer base is working with industry leaders, like AT&T and Microsoft, and leveraging our collective strengths in the business and prosumer markets.”
Manage and take control of demanding professional lifestyles
Power users stay more connected with Outlook calendaring, Microsoft Word and Excel as well as the ability to view Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe PDF documents. The HP iPAQ Glisten gives users the ability to manage a single contact list and synchronize them wirelessly or with a PC using a supported e-mail account. It also comes with an integrated inbox that summarizes recent emails, calls, and texts.
In addition, users can take advantage of the built-in speakerphone and enjoy the freedom of hands-free control with Voice Commander, voice recognition software which reads text messages, emails and appointment details and lets users begin messages and dial contacts using simple voice prompts.
Bridge work and social life
Web browsing and streaming video on the HP iPAQ Glisten are fast and enjoyable with the improved Internet Explorer Mobile 6. Users can turn on the built-in Wi-Fi quickly with a dedicated on/off button and enjoy high-speed Internet access – featuring automatic access to over 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots included at no additional charge with select smartphone data plans.
Users can also connect with friends and colleagues on their favorite social networking sites, including a preloaded Facebook application. Mobile professionals can capture pictures and videos with the 3.1 megapixel camera and view them in brilliant color and clarity or edit them with HP Photosmart Mobile and easily share them via email or on the Web using Snapfish.
Pricing and availability
The HP iPAQ Glisten will be available in the coming weeks for $229.99 (receive a $50 AT&T Promotion Card with two-year agreement, smartphone data plan). The smartphone will be available through AT&T business services, HP corporate sales, small and medium business and consumer Websites at AT&T.com and HP.com as well as through third-party e-commerce sites.
More information on HP iPAQ Glisten is available at www.att.com/hpipaqglisten and www.hp.com/go/glisten.
Via Engadget.com
Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, BMW
You wouldn’t know it if you weren’t a serious film buff or marketing exec, but Propaganda GEM is responsible for a big share of the products you see placed in films. The entertainment marketing agency represents such brands as Audi, Lamborghini, Nokia, Panasonic, Bang & Olufsen and Casio, to name just a few. And it has a new client: the BMW Group.
Following such films as I, Robot and Iron Man, Propaganda has helped Audi significantly increase its profile in Hollywood. But the agency will be terminating its 13-year relationship with Audi (and, we’d expect, Lambo along with them) in order to take on BMW (together with Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW motorcycles), spearheading a new marketing initiative for the Bavarian automaker.
Having temporarily stolen the James Bond spotlight from Aston Martin and Lotus in the mid-Nineties and launched The Hire film short series in 2001, BMW is no stranger to product placement, but the tie-in with Propaganda promises to take things to the next level. Apparently Munich’s marketing budget has increased recently, thanks in large part to the termination of the company’s Formula One program this year. BMW’s sponsorship of the 2012 Olympic Games in London will only be the tip of the proverbial iceberg, as we can expect to see its products and those of its subsidiaries in more movies, television shows, music videos and video games in the near future. Thanks for the tip, Adam!
[Source: Variety]
REPORT: BMW using money saved from F1 pullout for more product placement originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The biggest shopping day of the year for Americans is this Friday, the dreaded Black Friday, and people are in a consuming mood. At the same time, economic pressures have folks watching what they spend. eBay today introduced a new app that capitalizes on both those impulses, called Deals.
Deals shares a lot of the functionality of the more full featured eBay mobile app, but it specifically targets eBay’s daily deals, and any zero bid items that have less than four hours remaining in their auction times, with no reserve price and free or fixed rate shipping, and a total price that includes shipping costs. In other words, with the deals the app presents, you pay exactly the price listed.
The app opens with a few featured daily deals already displayed in rotation on the main screen. You can then click on category buttons at the bottom, choosing between apparel, sports, computers, instruments, jewelry, electronics, collectibles, and photography to view auctions from those categories that fit the criteria I mentioned above.
The built-in searches are great for idle browsing (and possibly ruinous for those with strong impulse buying urges), but if you want to target items more specifically, you can either search on the fly, or create and save your own custom search. Creating a custom search allows you to specify keywords, a category, and a price range, and also assign an icon that will be displayed alongside the other default categories at the bottom of the app screen.
If you’d rather not save your search, there’s a magnifying glass icon at the top of the app that you can use instead to launch a one-time search. Next to that is another button that lists all the deals found in your most recent search. In use, I found that there wasn’t enough search criteria to ensure truly focused results. I’d love the addition of an “at least x dollars” filter, so that when I search for “iPhone,” for example, I can filter out most accessories and replacement parts.
Finally, you can sign in with your eBay account so that you can pay on the fly for any deal you find via the app with PayPal. The idea behind the app, after all, is to make sure eBay customers have access to the site no matter where they are. Apparently eBay mobile wasn’t driving enough business, and the Deals app is designed to remedy that situation. The app is free in the U.S. store (iTunes link), but beware the hidden costs of shopaholism.
SnapDragon, WVGA, 5 megapixel camera and slide-out keyboard. It seems this will all be arriving for happy Canadian Windows Mobile users.
The LG IQ, which will be showing up on Telus soon and previously known by the code-name LG Monaco, appear to feature an optical mouse/ D-pad, and runs Windows Mobile 6.5 with elements of LG’s S-class interface, which no doubt will run excellently on the Snapdragon processor.
MobileNinjas has published this collection of pictures of the device in the wild, showing what appears to be an excellent 4 row keyboard.
See more pictures below.
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See more pictures at MobileNinjas here.
Thanks RileySFreeman for the tip.
As you all know, the Supreme Court’s April 2007 decision in KSR v. Teleflex was a landmark case in the law of obviousness. Although the KSR Court reaffirmed the well-known Graham v. John Deere inquiries as the appropriate framework for evaluating claims under 35 U.S.C. 103, the Court’s emphasis on a flexible approach clearly calls for new thinking about obviousness by patent examiners and practitioners alike.
For its part, the Office’s first step toward addressing the implications of the KSR decision was to publish examination guidelines – available at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/notices/72fr57526.pdf – for its personnel to follow when determining obviousness. In accordance with the Supreme Court’s instructions regarding flexibility, the guidelines recognized that an examiner’s approach to obviousness had been broadened beyond the strict teaching-suggestion-motivation test. At the same time, they also stressed that in order to arrive at a proper conclusion of obviousness, examiners still needed to couple sound reasoning with particular findings of fact.
It has now been just over two years since the publication of the guidelines, and I think it’s understandable that practitioners have been asking the Office for additional guidance. We have heard the public’s concerns about the manner in which the Office is applying the KSR decision. Some have suggested that the Office is determining obviousness in a way that stifles innovation by refusing patents for truly inventive subject matter. They’ve asked us to provide examples of non-obvious claims in view of KSR. Such examples would serve as a complement to the examples of obvious claims already in the guidelines.
Now that a body of case law has been decided in light of the KSR decision, we are able to undertake that task. Office personnel are presently reviewing court decisions with an eye toward identifying factual scenarios to illustrate the developing law of obviousness. The obvious-to-try rationale is one that seems to be garnering quite a bit of interest, and has already been addressed in several such court decisions. We also recognize that this task will be on-going, as the Federal Circuit – and perhaps the Supreme Court – continues to weigh in on the question of obviousness.
KSR has unquestionably refocused the obviousness inquiry by reinvigorating the fundamental questions of Graham. Because the Supreme Court clarified that teaching-suggestion-motivation was not the sole test of obviousness, the Graham analysis is not to be carried out in a rigid manner. As a result, some claims that may have been found to be non-obvious before KSR will now correctly be found to be obvious.
Inventors and practitioners will need to take these developments into account when preparing and prosecuting applications. For example, it may be necessary to review a broader cross-section of prior art than was previously necessary, or to consider filing evidence of unexpected results earlier rather than later in the course of prosecution. By being proactive, practitioners will expedite prosecution and avoid unnecessary fees and RCE filings.
I am committed to providing appropriate and ongoing education for examiners and managers to ensure that the Office is applying KSR and other relevant obviousness decisions as faithfully and clearly as possible. To that end, I would like to continue to hear your concerns about applying the law and developing appropriate additional guidance. I look forward to hearing from you as we continue to work together to understand the contours and boundaries of the Supreme Court’s KSR decision.
Filed under: Sedan, Kia, Misc. Auto Shows, South Korea
Kia has taken the wraps off the 2010 Cadenza in its home market before its official debut at next month’s Riyadh Motor Show in Saudi Arabia, and if you’re wondering what the South Korean automaker had planned for the next generation Amanti, this is it.
Based on an all-new front-drive platform (Type-N) spanning 195.5 inches, the Cadenza is slightly shorter than the Amanti it’s due to replace, but its wheelbase has grown to 112 inches and Kia managed to reduce the weight by over 280 pounds while keeping torsional rigidity and overall strength up. MacPherson struts are employed up front with a multi-link suspension in the rear, while 11.8-inch discs (front) and 11.2-inch rotors (rear) are hidden behind standard 16-inch or optional 17-inch wheels.
Three engines, each mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, will be available when the Cadenza launches outside of North America in January. Outputs will range from 162 (four-cylinder) to 286 hp (V6), with the latter like to come to the US. Kia hasn’t released when the new Amanti will make it Stateside, but the smart money says sometime late in 2010. Make the jump for the full release.
Gallery: 2011 Kia Cadenza/Amanti
[Source: Kia]
Continue reading 2011 Kia Cadenza bows in Korea, replacing Amanti in the U.S.
2011 Kia Cadenza bows in Korea, replacing Amanti in the U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
While Uranium prices have fallen from 2008 levels, there’s reason to believe they could potentially be back on the upswing.
World uranium consumption outstripped production in 2008 and could do the same in 2009 and 2010. According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) this could send uranium prices up 22% from a forecast average of 46.4 US$ in 2009 to $56.7 in 2010.
Meanwhile, Nymex Uranium futures for December 2010 delivery appear to be around $48.50. Thus ABARE’s last commodities outlook might not yet be priced into the market consensus for this radioactive metal.
One potential uranium-related play might be Canada’s Cameco (CCJ), though we caution investors to due their own due diligence on any stock.
The author does not own shares in Cameco (CCJ).
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Guests Steven Crowder, Andrew W.K., Kimberly Guilfoyle and Mrs. Gutfeld discuss why climate change may drive some women to prostitution!
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Added: Tue Nov 24 18:31:05 UTC 2009
Air date: Sat Nov 21 00:00:00 UTC 2009
Duration: 43:44
I really enjoy traditional hummus, but sometimes you want to dress it up and take it out dancing. Well, okay, you can’t dance with a chickpea dish, but you can dress up the hummus for a party.
On the menu for my first catering gig, a 9-person book club meeting, I made this Edamame and Sweet Pepperdew Hummus dip. What’s great about this hummus combo is that the edamame gives the dip some added texture, and combined with the sweet pepperdews produces an experience similar to a chunky cheese spread.
One of the vegan guests at the book club thought that the hummus had cheese in it which I took as a high compliment because it’s not easy to replicate a cheese-like experience.
To make the dip even easier to make, I started by just buying a tub of traditional hummus at the store. No need to to start from literal scratch. We’re all about fast & simple here at Noshtopia.
Ingredients:
Let’s get cooking:
Pour the Edamame and Sweet Pepperdew Hummus dip into a pretty serving bowl, and compliment with pita bread, pita chips, vegetables, or crackers. Enjoy!
Filed under: Car Buying, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM, Earnings/Financials
Realizing that one of its keys to survival is retaining existing owners, General Motors is proactively enticing nearly one million customers – those loyal to now-closed dealerships – with significant financial incentives. According to Automotive News, GM started sending 950,000 letters out last week to customers of stores which have shut down or lost a brand franchise. Included in the correspondence are $1,000 to $2,000 discounts towards purchasing vehicles from one of GM’s four surviving U.S. brands (the incentive amount is based on the customer’s “likelihood to purchase a GM vehicle and the relative distance to the next closest dealer,” according to a letter GM sent to dealers outlining the program).
General Motors has about 5,860 dealerships right now. A total of 1,839 have agreed to shut down by October of 2010, helping the company downsize to between 3,600 and 4,000 retailers over the long term. While this incentive is scheduled to end January 4, a second wave of incentives (including one targeting Saturn customers) is expected to begin early next year. In addition, GM has also issued a service offer which runs through May that includes free vehicle inspections and tire rotations to displaced customers.
The retention programs – obviously meant to move customers between stores – have dealer advocate groups up in arms. Some dealers are still actively trying to get their franchises off the “kill list,” and GM has said recently that some may in fact be welcomed back into the fold. As such, Automotive News quotes Tamara Darvish, a leader of the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights as saying “This is an inappropriate time to take such an aggressive measure… If in fact dealer rights are to be restored, why would GM go in and move all those customers?”
[Source: Automotive News, subs. req’d | Image: Mark Ralston/Getty]
REPORT: GM offering special discounts to rejected franchise customers, move angers dealer group originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
For quite some time we’ve wondered why there’s no independent invention defense to patent infringement. It’s hard to come up with any justifiable reason for not only barring those who come up with an idea on their own from making use of such an invention, but also for potentially making them liable for millions of dollars in damages for just making use of something they came up with on their own. For years, I’ve been waiting to hear any justification for this — either economic or moral — and I’ve never heard anything that makes any sense at all. Patent attorney Stephan Kinsella has now written up a post that also calls for an independent inventor defense, noting how incredibly rare it is for a client to ever have actually been accused of copying an idea. He notes that about the only reason most are against this idea is that they realize it would put a lot of patent lawyers out of work.
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People are dogmatic. We’re territorial, stubborn, obstinate, and we cling to our ideologies even as accumulating evidence invalidates them. I sometimes wonder whether there’s evolutionary precedent for this apparent character flaw – did stubborn dogmatism confer some benefit to our ancestors? Did our tendency to cling to one another, to shy away from that which opposes or clashes with our current paradigm (whether it be a new tribe with different practices encroaching on your land, or a guy you meet at a cocktail party with completely different political views) make us safer? To a point, yes. Being wary of anything new promotes better survival than a tendency to rush headlong into foolhardy pursuits. There’s certainly that human legacy of fear of the unknown, and it normally manifests as dogmatic belief and cognitive dissonance. That much is obvious to anyone who watches the news or picks up a history book.
But there’s also that other legacy we’re irrevocably tied to: the continued expansion of our knowledge base. Grok may have been suspicious of different things and circumstances, but he also conquered that fear and discovered new horizons. By and large humans are explorers and innovators. We refute dogma and blaze new trails even as we cling to fear and ideology. We’re pretty much a walking contradiction, just a big-brained upright problematic ape with existential issues that still manages to do pretty well for him or herself. They don’t call us the most adaptive species on Earth for nothing.
If we were more cold and logical – like the Vulcans of Star Trek – things might get a bit easier, ruled by reason and reason alone. Cognitive dissonance would disappear and ideology would mostly vanish, leaving only absolute fealty to pure data. We’d get a lot done and there’d be absolute scientific consensus, but how much fun would it really be?
No, we’re contradictory and confused. We’ll make the emotionally difficult but realistic decision to put our aging pet to sleep, and then we’ll break down and weep all night. We’ll hear powerful evidence that refutes a deeply held belief and we’ll internally acknowledge its significance, but then we’re somehow able to dismiss it and maintain our delusion. Religious and ethnic clashes dot our history, never ending blood feuds, based on this text or that political cartoon, that continue unabated and will probably do so forever. Futile battles rage across Internet message boards – Playstation versus Xbox, Apple versus PC, vegetarian versus omnivore, Democrat versus Republican, carbohydrate versus fat – and it hardly goes anywhere. Graphs are posted and ignored, studies are quoted and brushed aside. Willful ignorance is proudly displayed. You can almost hear the fingers going in the ears (most people can’t even stand to hear evidence that contradicts their belief – the always dependable “la la la la” defense!).
People have the tendency to cluster around ideas as if they were tangible things and hold on for dear life. When we find something we like, or something that makes sense, like religion or a political stance or a diet, roots are planted and – for most of us – they are permanent. They’re permanent mainly because it’s easier that way. It takes less work to blindly cling to dogma. It’s hard (and humbling) to reevaluate an entire belief system and start over. We prefer the path of least resistance, and we’d simply rather not think too hard. Once the roots of a dogmatic belief find purchase in the hard packed earth of the lazy mind, they’re staying put.
We’re not all like that, though. Some of us have fertile minds, brains that aren’t burdened by an ego that refuses to believe it might be wrong about something. Others are just genuinely curious and thirsty for more knowledge (from any source); these are the same type of minds that shaped our evolutionary progress and brought us tools, mastery of fire, and exploration of new lands. They don’t brush aside graphs or ignore studies that challenge their beliefs. They can’t, because to ignore the truth is to oppose their very nature, no matter the inconvenience.
We’ve all heard the supposedly universal protocol standards for polite company: don’t talk politics, religion, or sex. Not on a first date, and definitely not when you meet your future wife’s parents. It’s not so much that these are impossible topics to discuss calmly and rationally without insults, ad hominem, or physical violence entering the fray, because it can happen. Measured debate on controversial topics does take place, and it’s possible for two people to hold directly oppositional views, express those views, and still remain amicable. It’s just highly unlikely given our propensity to cling to dogma at all cost (and we’ve got untold wars and death and destruction to show for it) and the rarity of people with thinking, fertile, thirsty minds.
A new forbidden topic has emerged, though: diet. I’d even say a diet, for many, is the single most entrenched aspect of a their identity, more than religion (not everyone practices, but everyone has to eat) and more than politics (who isn’t fed up with politics nowadays?). We literally are what we eat, and what we eat isn’t just an isolated characteristic. It’s intertwined with politics (veganism is as much a declarative political statement as it is a nutritional one) and religion. For some, it even becomes a religion with its own set of morals and laws. Diet as absolute dogma can be far more problematic than religious or political dogmas in many ways. See, at least there’s separation of church and state in this country; with diet, though, there’s that looming institutional triangular standard literally ordained by government to inform and (essentially) coerce unwitting citizens into a certain way of eating. Maybe if the nutritional pyramid were built on the backs of rigorous science and evolutionary biology it wouldn’t be so bad, but its blueprints were drawn up by Big Agra and Big Pharma (or worse, terrible, bumbling, bad science).
You’re here, on this site, because you recognize that the official dietary dogma is misguided at best and murderous at worst. You realize that, whatever your religious (non)belief, humans are “designed” to eat a certain way – and that the evolutionary diet is totally incompatible with the reigning dogma. I’m here every day because I see a real chance to make a difference. I see people making positive changes, extending their lives and improving their health. Every day, there’s a different success story in my inbox, but I never get sick of them. We have assumed the mantle of our innovating forebears, those Groks and Grokettes that dared to crack an auroch’s tibia and extract the strange delicious stuff inside, or follow the animals to new lands and new opportunities. We could have died out with the Neanderthal, but we were far too curious and capable to let that happen. Ours is a legacy of pursuing knowledge. It’s all we know.
But you know what? I’m starting to notice that old dogmatic view creep in to the Primal community. Those immovable roots are taking hold. On one hand, it’s understandable. When you’ve got the weight of the evidence in your favor, it’s easy to get cocky and dismissive of other views. I mean, don’t get me wrong; I believe the Primal Blueprint to be the path to health, strength, and energy (I wouldn’t have written a book called The Primal Blueprint if I didn’t think that!). I just want to stress that the foundation of the PB and MDA is science – ignored, brushed aside, inconvenient-to-CW science, but science all the same. And, like all good science, it’s constantly being challenged and refined. It needs to be challenged. When I started putting together the PB all those years ago, I was challenging the dietary wisdom I held near and dear to my heart for decades. Decades! And I didn’t stop there. Early readers might recall my prescribing “limited grains” way back when. I realized my error, took a closer look at the science on grains, and changed my stance accordingly. Now I’m just about as big an opponent of grains as one can be.
That’s how you’ve got to do it. You have to welcome challenges and reevaluate your dietary dogmas as needed. I’m certainly of the opinion that we’ve got things pretty well covered with the PB, but it never hurts to refine your argument or gather new evidence. If someone questions the Primal stance on grains, don’t casually dismiss them – convince them! (Of course, if hard data doesn’t convince, don’t wear yourself out.) Even if you’re upset or frustrated and he or she is being clearly obstructionist, think of the debate as rust removal, as a way to bone up on the latest studies and clinical data in support of the high fat Primal diet. There’s a whole wide world of people who will actively challenge your evolutionary dietary views, usually with half-truths and CW nonsense, but there are formidable opponents who won’t be so easily swayed or dismissed. You’ve got to be on your game.
I honestly think we have the opportunity to reach more people. The Primal/paleo communities are growing and improving and spreading like wildfire. We have the chance to be at the forefront of a revolution of how we approach food in this country (and this world), but we run the risk of becoming what we rail against: dietary dogma. We should never let stagnation set in, and dogmas and ideologies stagnate as a rule, by definition. You don’t want to force people into accepting the Primal life. You just want to give them the tools to change their life and reevaluate everything they’ve ever been taught about nutrition and fitness.
The forum is one such tool, and it’s a fantastic one for the most part. What we don’t want, though, is name calling or one-upping. No know-it-alls that patronize beginners. That’s beside the point. It’s supposed to be a community of like-minded individuals (sprinkled with a few skeptics and contrarians to keep us honest!) supporting one another in our effort to find truth and change our lives for the better. Support, of course, means challenging each other’s beliefs, but it should be done with real facts.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the heated debates that take place every day, as long as they remain actual debates with actual arguments. I love the fact that support systems and impromptu experts on various topics have sprung up. I like how forum members have a sort of Batcall for Tarlach when it’s a carnivore question or for Griff when it’s about lipid panels. I love almost everything about the forum, but I don’t like the creeping sense of dogma.
So, how about we watch out for that and nip it in the bud? I’ve been submerged in dietary and fitness dogma, and it ain’t pretty. Believe me: avoiding it will only make us stronger. Question your beliefs and challenge the Primal diet. Even if the PB doesn’t catch on and go mainstream, at least we’ll know we’re being honest with ourselves and consistent in our application of science to our diet.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this so hit me up with a comment. Thanks, everyone.
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Yup, Black Friday 2009 is in three days, and the Black Friday sale leaks are happening fast and furiously at this point. The latest ad that we have for you gives you a look at everything that Amazon will have available at a nice discount for their Black Friday sale. Since Amazon sells pretty much everything under the sun, we’ve pared the offerings down to cover just the things we’re interested in, no clothing deals here, but we’ve got all the tech and gadgets that’ll be on sale at Amazon come Black Friday for you, after the break. Be sure and take notice of all the Blu-ray disc sales, which should go nicely with the $78 Blu-ray player in the Walmart Black Friday 2009 ad!
Continue reading Black Friday 2009: Amazon sale ad
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The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Tekken 6 have only been in store shelves for barely a month, and the PSP version is still on its way – Namco Bandai …
AcaiFit is a diet pill that claims to do the following:
“-Flush Out Excess Pounds
-Boost Metabolism & Energy Levels
-Lose Weight & Purify Your System
-Eliminate Harmful Waste and Toxins” (website)
This AcaiFit review will reveal the truth behind the ingredient acai as well as the free trial associated with AcaiFit diet pills. It will also reveal the inconsistencies of the marketing of AcaiFit to show you that AcaiFit is not the answer to your weight loss problems.
Like most acai diet pill websites, the AcaiFit website fails to list the ingredients contained in AcaiFit diet pills. The only ingredient they mention is acai. Although it has been hyped up by influential television and Hollywood personalities, there is NO evidence showing acai actually contributes to weight loss.
AcaiFit boasts a 14 day risk free trial; you pay only $1.99 for shipping (but only if you buy it today). The free trial begins the day you place your order. If you decide AcaiFit is not right for you, you must cancel the trial within the 14 days and return the product within 21 days. Otherwise you are enrolled in autoship (they automatically send you more product each month and charge your credit card for it). The AcaiFit website claims you will get a “discounted price of $79.95″ as well as a free membership in the VIP program.
This AcaiFit review finds $79.95 is WAY too much to pay for this product. There is no reason to believe it will actually cause weight loss; there is simply no science to back it up. Don’t waste your money on AcaiFit diet pills. Instead, go with a diet pill that actually contains proven ingredients in the appropriate amounts.
The AcaiFit website is nearly identical to dozens of other acai diet products out there. It is packed with typical testimonials, photos, and sensationalized information. There are claims about how Hollywood personalities are losing amazing amounts of weight while taking acai and about various television programs which promote acai products. Don’t be fooled by these seemingly impressive claims. There is NO scientific evidence to show that AcaiFit diet pills actually contribute to weight loss.
In addition, the website says there are only 39 trials left. As you spend time looking through the site, that number counts down. However, when you refresh the page, the number of trials resets to 39. If you try to navigate away from the site, they offer you reduced shipping of $1.49 for the free trial.
This AcaiFit review finds AcaiFit diet pills are overpriced and ineffective. Clinical trials have not shown that acai does anything for weight loss. Additionally, the marketing is deceptive and inconsistent. Don’t waste your time or money on AcaiFit. It will only give you a headache. If you are serious about losing weight, take a diet pill with clinically proven ingredients in the necessary amounts.
