Too LOW on Cholesterol?

The cool thing about being a curmudgeon is speaking your mind even when it contradicts “common wisdom.” Doctors today (who are mainly working for the drug companies trying to sell tons of drugs) are constantly harping on “lower your cholesterol, lower your cholesterol!” However, cholesterol is a naturally secreted substance in the body. God designed it to “plug” cracks in the walls of veins and arteries, for instance. If you drop it too low, you can have issues. For instance, check out this article:

Low Cholesterol A Problem?

Have you noticed that at one time 200 was considered a “good to excellent” level… now, it is 170! And, most people can’t get down to 170 without… guess what? Drugs! I wonder why the “good” level was lowered? Hummmmm… yeah. Drug company sales. So what is the “right” level? I would say whatever the level would be if you ate right, got the right amount of exercise, and got plenty of water. Whatever is right for YOUR body!

Geek Software of the Week: Azureus – Java BitTorrent Client

Wikipedia says of BitTorrent: “BitTorrent is the protocol and the name of the peer-to-peer (P2P) file distribution tool written by programmer Bram Cohen and debuted at CodeCon 2002. The reference implementation is written in Python and is released under the BitTorrent Open Source License (a modified version of the Jabber Open Source License), as of version 4.0. The name ‘BitTorrent’ refers to the distribution protocol, the original client application, and the .torrent file type.

With BitTorrent, files are broken into smaller fragments, typically a quarter of a megabyte each. As the fragments are distributed to the peers in a random order, they can be reassembled on a requesting machine. Each peer takes advantage of the best connections to the missing pieces while providing an upload connection to the pieces it already has. This scheme has proven particularly adept in trading large files such as videos and software source code. In conventional downloading, high demand leads to bottlenecks as demand surges for bandwidth from the host server. With BitTorrent, high demand can actually increase throughput as more bandwidth and additional ‘seeds’ of the completed file become available to the group. Cohen claims that for very popular files, BitTorrent can support about a thousand times as many downloads as HTTP.”

Azureus – Java BitTorrent Client

This is an excellent Java client for BitTorrent with lot’s of great features. Try it! You’ll like it!

Will Google Take Over The World?

Once upon a time, there was a young upstart company called “Microsoft” that set out to destroy the monopoly held by the giant of the computer world… a company called… IBM! Little Microsoft made some fairly smooth and innovative moves back then, and the giant IBM fell! The masses cheered that the giant was dead, and the young, more friendly, upstart was heralded as “the next big thing!”

This may sound like a fairy tale today… but I remember this story! It REALLY happened! Microsoft used to be an insignificant upstart compared to IBM. Now, IBM has “eased out” of Personal Computing (even selling their popular ThinkPads to Chinese Lenovo!) NOW, Microsoft is the giant that everyone hates… and Google is the up-and-coming upstart. Will history repeat itself?

Google’s Plan to Take Over the World!

I say, “Probably so!” Especially if Google comes out with a Google Linux Desktop with integrated WiFi. Dewd. Hide and watch!

“Ask the Doctor!” Segment

I am beginning to get questions via e-mail about computers, technology and the web… it occurs to me that I could incorporate the questions and answers into the “Dr. Bill: The Computer Curmudgeon” podcast. I think it will make a great segment. Send me your questions at: DrBill [at] TheComputerCurmudgeon.com Of course replace the “[at]” with an “@” sign. I am trying to keep the spammers at bay… this way they can’t automagically grab the e-mail address.

Anyway, go for it!

New Dr. Bill Podcast (09/24/05) #3

Dr. Bill Podcast – 3 – (09/24/05)
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Evil’s of Spyware, BAD Spyware Removers, Listening to keyboard sounds to get keystrokes?, Opera now FREE!, Google Secure WIFI coming!, ask.com gets rid of Jeeve’s?, AOL’s dying!

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BAD Spyware “Removers” List

Spyware and Ad-Ware is evil! It installs on your system without permission and then slows your PC down! In most cases, it “tracks” your movements on the web and reports those movements to it’s evil masters. Arrrgh! Spyware is EVIL! However, given the user’s frenzy to get RID of Spyware, the bad guys have now taken a new tact. They are creating “Spyware removal programs” that DON’T actually find Spyware, but rather, install it! Talk about EVIL!

List of BAD Spyware “Removers”

So, if you are tempted to use any of the above… don’t! Instead, here are the one’s that the Doctor recommends these excellent, FREE tools:

SpywareBlaster
Spybot Search & Destroy
Ad-Aware

Pass the Butter!

Today I have received a “cease and desist” official registered letter warning me to correct this blog post. Please note, that at the time of the post (2005) I saw it as an “interesting” Internet e-mail that was circulating at the time… as you can read below, I did not attest to it’s accuracy at all. I did say that as a CNHP I believe that butter is much healthier for you… and I stand by that… but, there are those that say that as a Natural Health guy, I am a loon anyway… so what do I know! The letter was from the “Margarine Protection Squad” (not their real name) … but an industry group… they referred me to the American Health Association and such (like that would impress a renegade natural health guy like me!) Anyways… here’s a link to Snopes statement “correcting” the letter that was circulating back then… which I did post here… only as a “isn’t this wild” view of computer circulated stuff… yeeesh! The things people get in an uproar about!

Link 1 – Snopes Correction

Link 2 – Break the Chain – Chain Letter Correction Site – Urban Legend “Debunking”

So, “A” this is not written by me… it is a flaky Internet e-mail I got and thought was interesting… and “B” I am a widdle ol’ computer nerd with a computer interest blog… anything I believe about butter vs. margarine is simply my personal opinion anyway! So, does “the man” get to control my opinion… well, since I don’t want any lawsuits, and I don’t personally care about the topic anyway… I DISAVOW ALL KNOWLEDGE AND THINK THAT THE LETTER THAT WAS CIRCULATED VIA E-MAIL WAS A CROCK! So there. I didn’t write it… I got it in a spam message… please don’t sue me… please??! OK??

– added August 30, 2007

Here’s the original post that caused all the fuss!
————————————————————————-

This is one of those “informational” files that occasionally gets passed around, I can’t completely “confirm or deny” all of what it says, however, as a Certified Natural Health Professional, I do believe that butter is MUCH healthier for you than margarine! Anyway, read on!

“Pass the Butter!”

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings.

DO YOU KNOW…the difference between margarine and butter?

Read on to the end… it gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.

Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only, because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.

And now, for Margarine…

It is very high in trans fatty acids.

It has triple the risk of coronary heart disease.

It increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol.)

Margarine increases the risk of cancers up to five fold.

Margarine lowers the quality of breast milk.

Margarine decreases immune response.

Margarine decreases insulin response.

And here’s the most disturbing fact… HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC…

This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance.)

You can try this yourself:

Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will note a couple of things:

* No flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* It does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value; nothing will grow on it Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

New URL, and Cool Stats!

I have a new URL for the Blog. The old one will still work, so if you have it bookmarked, never fear. However, I now have “TheComputerCurmudgeon.com” domain set for the Blog. And, you can reach me at DrBill [at] TheComputerCurmudgeon.com (of course, substituting a “@” for the “[at]” in the address… don’t want those nasty spammers to get that e-mail, you know!)

On another note of interest, it seems that after only two weeks, the “Dr. Bill: The Computer Curmudgeon” Podcast is ranked number 32 among tech oriented podcasts in BlogShares.com. Dewd! I am amazed and humbled. And, it takes a lot to humble the good Doctor! [GRIN!]

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