IRC: #techbytes @ FreeNode: Sunday, December 13, 2020

schestowitz

> Somehow "such a simply rule" on paragraph 3 (*simple* rule) and

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> "nagative" rather than negative slipped in, if those could be fixed.

schestowitz

Thanks, working on it now.

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Dec 13 19:39

schestowitz

> If you read a technical article about MSG, it sounds nothing like an

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> article about a spice. If you decide to bake pot into brownies because

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> you like the flavour, that doesn't make it a spice just because you use

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> it as one.

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> There is a campaign to mark people who are sensitive to MSG as racist

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> and to mark MSG as safe.

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> I don't personally think this is any different than efforts to prove

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> that people who don't like Microsoft or IBM are racist, or efforts to

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> show that lead additives or sugar are safer than they really are.

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> MSG is addictive and cheap, and people make more money if it's

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> considered safer than it is. The number of people who are sensitive to

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> it may be in the minority, but that doesn't mean they are racist.

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> The argument is ridiculous as well-- I happen to love a number of Asian

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> foods, from Sushi to Chinese dumplings and fried rice to Indian food,

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> but if I'm sensitive to MSG at Applebee's, it's because I don't like the

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> Chinese? That's ridiculous.

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> For more than a year, I had problems every time I went to Applebee's. I

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> finally found out how much of their menu contained MSG, stopped eating

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> there, and felt much better. Cutting MSG out of my diet had a more

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> dramatic effect than ANY other diet change I've made in my life.

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> Consuming that one ingredient caused a huge amount of stress.

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> What's more, this change was through painful trial and error, not

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> reading some article about how MSG is evil and deciding to cut it out

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> because of some new dietary fad.

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> https://thinkprogress.org/we-know-how-to-stop-the-epidemic-of-lead-poisoning-so-why-arent-we-a4c618d26f91/

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-TechBytesBot/#techbytes-thinkprogress.org | We Know How To Stop The Epidemic Of Lead Poisoning. So Why Aren’t We? – ThinkProgress

> <https://thinkprogress.org/we-know-how-to-stop-the-epidemic-of-lead-poisoning-so-why-arent-we-a4c618d26f91/>

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> "Health officials first began raising concerns about the impacts of lead

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> exposure in the 1950s, but *the industry waged **a mighty marketing and

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> lobbying campaign*

> <http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/02/the-long-ugly-history-of-the-politics-of-lead-poisoning/461871/>*to

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-TechBytesBot/#techbytes-www.bloomberg.com | CityLab - Bloomberg

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> convince everyone that lead was safe*, even claiming it *promoted

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> health*

> <http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-lead-pipes-20160204-story.html>."

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-TechBytesBot/#techbytes-www.latimes.com | 'Lead helps guard your health': How American companies sold a toxic product - Los Angeles Times

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> This is what the public is up against. I appreciate that there are

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> studies to show that people complaining about MSG reactions are just

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> nutters, but it's easy to blame them if the number of people with ACUTE

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> (not long term) reactions are a small percentage.

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> Gluten intolerance is another thing where you have a small percentage

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> who really actually are sensitive, but the condition is real. Some

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> people have turned that real thing into a gimmick for others who believe

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> they are helped by avoiding gluten, when the scientific reality is that

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> ONLY people with Celiac are gluten intolerant-- there are many more who

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> are allergic to wheat.

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> They go gluten-free and reduce their wheat intake almost entirely, they

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> report feeling better without any mainstream science to back them up. At

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> some point, people will probably do studies to show they are sensitive

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> to wheat.

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> But that will go against the GMO industry, who say that nobody is

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> allergic to GMOs even when some people have had violent reactions to

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> say-- nut DNA introduced to products that don't otherwise contain nuts,

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> but there is enough DNA to create a nut allergy in those products.

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> The main problem with GMOs (other than being proprietary food,

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> introducing patent problems for people who plant seeds the way that

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> Microsoft introduces patent problems for software) is that the main

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> modification for GMOs is often simply to make them tolerant to

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> unprecidented levels of pesticides-- but even as many countries ban

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> those pesticides, we are assured that they are scientifically proven to

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> be PERFECTLY safe.

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> It's a substance that works more like a drug than a spice, in my

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> opinion. Maybe one day science will back me up on that, but for the

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> moment marketers have more influence on science than the public who are

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> at the mercy of science corrupted by corporate finance.

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> No thank you, all the same. You can eat your perfectly safe food, but

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> I'm surprised that anybody isn't more sceptical when you yourself know

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> how shifty and shady the industry is and how much they work very hard to

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> hide from the public.

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> This isn't a racist conspiracy theory, it's a repeatable, demonstrable

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> allergic reaction "refuted" by statistics, money and marketing. But you

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> say tomahto, and I say "low enough naturally-occurring amounts"-- let's

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> call the whole thing off.

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> MinceR

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> it's a spice, not a drug

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> Dec 12 18:09

> <http://techrights.org/irc-archives/irc-log-techbytes-121220.html#tDec

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-TechBytesBot/#techbytes-techrights.org | IRC: #techbytes @ FreeNode: Saturday, December 12, 2020

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> 12 18:09:07>

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> MinceR

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> 12 185429 < schestowitz> > "natural" as mining "naturally occurring"

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> uranium and then processing it

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> Dec 12 18:09

> <http://techrights.org/irc-archives/irc-log-techbytes-121220.html#tDec

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> 12 18:09:43>

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> MinceR

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> arsenic occurs in nature as well

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> Dec 12 18:09

> <http://techrights.org/irc-archives/irc-log-techbytes-121220.html#tDec

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> 12 18:09:48>

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> MinceR

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> > this may suck, but at least you're free as in freedom.

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> Dec 12 18:10

> <http://techrights.org/irc-archives/irc-log-techbytes-121220.html#tDec

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> 12 18:10:38>

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> MinceR

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> there still is plenty of free software that actually works better than

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> the proprietary alternatives

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> Dec 12 18:10

> <http://techrights.org/irc-archives/irc-log-techbytes-121220.html#tDec

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> 12 18:10:53>

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MinceR: ^^

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> Basically people who don't eat things they don't like are picky , but

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> people who don't eat things that make them sick are nuts.

MinceR

i wonder what they'll say about salt

schestowitz

wait until tomorrow

MinceR

i've read many bad things about the ill effects of high sodium intake, after all...

schestowitz

when the logs are published and replied to

MinceR

or sugar, which can contribute to obesity

MinceR

and the industry is shady, but afaik they have nothing to do with the MSG content of various seaweeds and tomatoes

Dec 13 19:53

MinceR

nor with people's practice of consuming those plants for their flavor

Dec 13 19:54

MinceR

also, some people having an intolerance to gluten (due to an immune system issue) doesn't turn gluten into a drug either

Dec 13 19:56

MinceR

lactose intolerance doesn't turn lactose into a drug

Dec 13 19:57

schestowitz

true

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Dec 13 21:59

schestowitz

Re: Meeting of the AC

Dec 13 23:39

schestowitz

> Dear Roy,

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> it is a little late tonight but an idea crossed my mind and I would like

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> to share it with you. We, staff of the EPO, nearly all read your blog

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> and undeed it helps to improve what we are dramatically missing at the

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> office: freedom of communication.

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> Therefore my suggestion: could you advise us a 101% sure way of sending

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> an anonymous message to the key "managers" of the office as well as a

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> ready to use list of such a managers?

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> The trouble is that we would love to talk to these managers personally

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> but knowing of the past witch hunts, we understandably prefer to remain

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> anonymous .

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> Please don't post this message "as such", that would be imho

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> counterproductive.

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> What do you think of that?

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Several times in the more distance past (almost 5 years and even more than 5) we posted an almost exhaustive list of all national delegates, with contact details as well (where we could find these; directories helped a bit).

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The list is partly out-of-date now, but I understand you want contact details of Office managers rather than delegates.

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I am quite certain someone inside the EPO can send me a long list of E-mail addresses of managers (one can also guess the addresses as they follow a namespace template). I don't have it. Someone once sent me the home address of Madame Bergot & Spouse Inc., but publishing such a thing can be seen as menacing given a past incident of house fire.

schestowitz

To work around E-mail filters, I'd suggest someone sends a list of E-mails of managers (nothing fancy, just comma-separated or semi colon-separated list of addresses one can paste in to conveniently mass-mail). Then, we can suggest different services for anonymously messaging all of them, perhaps along with a suggested template.

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I say different services, as if the same service is used by many people the Office will find a way to intercept/block/delete these.

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Another idea: we can set up a technical mechanism for sending anonymous mails to particular managers by proxy. It would need to use a diversity of addresses/sources to bypass filtering. Or an online page/form when you tick the manager you wish to contact anonymously, though if it's used to send abusive messages it can make us look bad.

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Thinking about this carefully, a good start would be, send a list of all known managers and their E-mail addresses. We can make a fancy clickable directory, maybe with list of thrasher remailers.

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It would be hard to know who sent us the list, esp. if many people have access to such information.

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*distant past