Comments for Less Than Credulous

Comment on About Shane by Ray

Ray — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:37:04 +0000

Shane, keeping tabs on you. XPI

Comment on Feed: The Movie, Or, An Argument For Vegetarianism And Celibacy by MichaelC2B

MichaelC2B — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:25:39 +0000

Good review.
I love this movie. It’s unusual, it held my interest from beginning to end, and the acting was excellent. Alex O’Loughlin shines as Michael. Anyone who has seen his other work on TV or in films knows that he is a brilliant actor, and he really shows off his range in this role. I was impressed that he and his costar Patrick Thompson came up with the idea for a film after having seen a documentary about feeders and gainers. They took the idea to Brett Leonard and it turned into what was almost a “family affair”. Brett assembled almost the entire cast from “Man-Thing” and they filmed FEED on an extremely low budget in about 28 days.
I love having the DVD, as some of the best scenes are in the deleted scenes, and “FEED in Philly”, with the audience answer and question with producer Melissa Beauford and Alex O’Loughlin is so much fun to watch.
I would recommend that anyone who likes FEED get a copy of the UK DVD. It has the option to watch the movie with commentary by Brett Leonard, and some of the info about how the movie was made is so much fun to hear, especially with Brett’s sense of humor.
FEED was meant to be a thriller and a dark comedy as well. Some of the scenes that are meant to be funny truly hit the mark. From some of the things I have read on the internet I think that some of that humor was lost on some viewers who couldn’t get around being “squeamish”. Personally, I didn’t see anything the be that squeamish about, though Brett himself tells you in his commentary that he hopes that you are “disturbed”. He laughs as he says that.
I enjoyed the soundtrack so much I got a copy of the CD. Seeing Michael do his little dance to “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” is worth the cost of the DVD all alone, as are his rants about women and body image, etc. Again, Alex is brilliant as Michael, and as his popularity rises as it has over the past few years, FEED is destined to be a cult classic, as I have already seen it referred to many times.
Get the US DVD to get all of the extras, and then the UK version to get that commentary by Brett.

Comment on Dr. Frank’s Pet Pain Spray Redux by Gregg

Gregg — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:01:57 +0000

I have been giving Dr Franks spray to my dog for almost a year. She is not over weight and has been suffering from chronic pain of some sort for years. She is only 7 years old. I have to give her an extra spray over the recommended dose, but it most definitely works. If I get busy and forget to give her her spray for a couple of days, she moves like an old woman, all hunched over and won’t even come to see me and get her treat when I come home. After a couple of days back on her spray, she runs around wagging her tail like a little puppy. I can’t analyze the ingredients, but I know it works for my dog, and that’s all I care about.
I’ve used the people version on myself, but it doesn’t seem to work, so I use the joint formulas available in stores and they work just fine.
I’m going to buy some Dr. Franks for pets as soon as I finish this post.
I have no affiliation with Dr. Franks, and my only benefit is a happy dog.

Comment on Rust on the Tin Ear by roger stein

roger stein — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:21:13 +0000

Beautifully done Shane. I too heard the commercial and the mention of the term ‘homeopathic’. I was instantly filled with an intense urge to see a “first”: a product label reading “Active Ingredients: None”. I wasn’t surprised when the website was cagier and more tight-lipped than a mob boss testifying before Congress.

I, like you, haven’t the slightest doubt the product is fraudulent. However, I do have to say that although I come from the same Skeptical-Inquirer-reading school as you (figuratively, if not literally), a few months ago I clicked on a few links and was soon reading some studies on homeopathy in the British Medical Journal, the Brits’ equivalent of JAMA, (not reading ABOUT some studies, reading the actual studies), and to my genuine astonishment, these placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized studies found highly statistically-significant results in favor of homeopathy for certain medical conditions. So I’m left in a mild quandary: all rational theoretical analysis says it’s not possible based on current science, but empirical evidence, in repeated studies, suggests it might be. (Don’t hold me to this, but my recollection is that there was a mention made of a Cochrane Study on homeopathy, a meta-analysis, which also was positive for homeopathy.)
So, what do people like us do when a series of well-conducted studies, published in a highly reputable medical journal, produce results that CURRENT science indicates is impossible? Obviously call for more studies, but until then, do we continue to sardonically deride homeopathy (or whatever the subject may be) or temporarily hold our fire?

Comment on A Monster By Any Other Name by angel

angel — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:09:59 +0000

And that is why, if there is an oncoming galactic war, it would be a war. To quote a famous movie, “It was in his nature.”