Interesting If True Aaron, Jenn, Jim, Shea & Steve

Welcome to Interesting If True, the podcast that sticks our sharp voices right into your ear-y meridians.







I'm your host this week, Aaron, and with me are:







I'm Shea, and this week I learned there is no winning at parenting, only damage control.







Acupuncture recently stuck itself back in my life. Heh, needle puns. So I’m going to get right to the point and … umm… No, first I’m going to do a recap but I couldn’t find a acupunctuating way to say that… haaaaa







Check out episode 53 for our complete intro into acupuncture.







Briefly, from episode 53’s intro:







Acupuncture was initially described in the Shi-Chi text, cerca 90 B.C.E., it describes 11 “mo” or vessels that hold chi. About a hundred years later there are 12 mo and chi flows in the body. Over the next two thousand years the 12 mo turn into hundreds to thousands depending on who you talk to - because there is no standard. In the early 1900s China, like the rest of the world, became focused on the industrial revolution of the western world and sought to adopt western, science based, medicine (such that it was at the time).







The Chinese Communist Party all but outright rejected traditional medicine:









Our men of learning do not understand science; thus they make use of yin-yang signs and beliefs in the five elements to confuse the world… Our doctors do not understand science: they not only know nothing of human anatomy, but also know nothing of the analysis of medicines; as for bacterial poisoning and infections they have not even heard of them… We will never comprehend the ch’i even if we were to search everywhere in the universe. All of these fanciful notions and irrational beliefs can be corrected at their roots by science. 1









And so yes, chi is an irrational belief and that is the last official quote that will be based on reality.







Traditional medicine — again, not yet TCM, we haven’t made it to that branding yet — was on its way out, from 1927 to 1936 the Chinese Journal of Physiology has nothing to say on the topic.







Acupuncture, plainly, is a theory of healing — not a medical science — based on philosophy not results, processes, or even simple observations.







The foundation of acupuncture is the belief that one’s chi or (Qi if you want to be correct or charge an iPhone) needs tending. Under normal, desirable conditions your chi flows through your body freely along pathways in the body called meridians. Think of this as the Force flowing through a Jedi’s Force-circulatory or Force-lymphatic system. Illness, then, is caused by chi blockages or imbalances, and not the cool kind Ty Lee or the Kyoshi Warriors can inflict — and yes, I am shamelessly reusing my Avatar jokes from episode 53, they’re that good… according to my mom, who says I’m very funny indeed.







The “treatment” if you will, is to insert a now-tiny, ultra-thin, needle into the body where the meridians overlap to improve the flow or balance of your chi because… needle. I want to step aside and note though that thin needs are kinda new, back in the day, this was probably done with a medical ice pick or surgical grade splinter.







This is, obviously, nonsense.







Despite thousands of years and many times many more attempts to analyse it no one has ever proven the existence of, much less their ability to manipulate, chi by any name. Raki, cupping, dry needling, and all of their ilk are, at best, magical-thinking nonesnse and at worst, a tragically poor substitute for actual medical intervension.







There’s a reason Randi’s millions went unclaimed.

Welcome to Interesting If True, the podcast that is back after a wee bit of a break… 







I'm your host this week, Shea. I'm Aaron, and this week I learned I should be doing my homework...







This week's drink: Space Bloody Orange from Ace cidery 







Crazy Headlines of 2022







May: Pecker Plants 







Apparently, back in May, the Cambodian government asked people to stop picking a rare carnivorous plant and if the poaching continues this plant has a very real chance of going extinct. The reason behind the carnivorous bouquet is the flowers' unique appearance of male genitalia, Nepenthes holdenii also called the Penis Fly Trap. Cambodian environment ministry wrote on Facebook: “What they are doing is wrong and please don’t do it again in the future.









“Thank you for loving natural resources, but don’t harvest them so they go to waste.”









https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/southeast-asia/penis-plants-cambodia-nepenthes-b2081969.html







June: See ya later Alligator 







The end of last June in a tiny town in southern Mexico, Mayor Victor Hugo Sosa sealed his nuptials to an alligator with a kiss. The age-old ritual in San Pedro Huamelula, now mixed with Catholic spirituality, involves dressing the alligator or caiman in a white wedding dress plus other colorful garments. "We ask nature for enough rain, for enough food, that we have fish in the river," said Sosa.







The seven-year-old reptile, referred to as a little princess, is believed to be a deity representing mother earth, and her marriage to the local leader symbolizes the joining of humans with the divine.







As trumpets blared and drums provided a festive beat, locals carried the alligator bride in their arms through village streets as men fanned it with their hats.









"It gives me so much happiness and makes me proud of my roots," said Elia Edith Aguilar, known as the godmother who organized the wedding.









She said that she feels privileged to be entrusted with carrying out the ceremony, and noted she spent a lot of time fretting over what the bride would wear.







"It's a very beautiful tradition," she added with a smile.







https://nypost.com/2022/07/03/mexican-mayor-weds-princess-alligator-in-age-old-tradition/







July: I turned 35 and that sucks. 







August: Captain Maryland







He wields a mallet, carries a crab-shaped shield and wears a belt of Old Bay. Some say he is quicker running sideways than forward and has a super pinch grip! It’s Captain Maryland!! Clark Rogers, “Defender of Maryland” and superhero in disguise, has always been fascinated by cosplay.







Ever since he was a young boy, he could be found at countless comic conventions, watching as his favorite television personalities strode by, capes billowing and costumes gleaming. As Rogers, a recently retired firefighter, grew older, he wished to create a superhero of his very own — one on a much smaller scale, dedicated to his beloved home state of Maryland.







Thus, Captain Maryland was born.







Every superhero needs an origin story, and Rogers explains that Captain Maryland gained his superhero powers after eating radioactive crabs from the Chesapeake Bay near the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. The seafood gave him the powerful pinch of a cra...

Aron Ra & Lilandra try to catch them all then Patrons learn about the time he fought the ocean! It's a bucket of chuckles!

Welcome to Interesting If True, the podcast that Chex all the boxes! @11:30







I'm your host this week, Aaron, and with me are:







I'm Shea, and this week I learned that if you bump into someone you haven’t seen in 7 or more years, every cell has been replaced and they are someone new. You don’t have to say hello.







Chex Shredded Ralston off your list







So. Korn flakes were made to stop you jerking off. Sleepy Time tea was made by eugenicists. And Chex Mix, it turns out, was created by a racist health food nutter who walked like a centaur.







Webster Edgerly was a health food nut before, health, food, and nuts were really understood, much less used together. He was a bigoted, would-be actor who moved to Hopewell in the late 1800s to create a utopian society based on his own understanding of hygiene, eugenics, and magnets.















Edgerly first arrived in New Jersey. The year was 1898 and had arrived to save the world from the horrors of being a fat, gross, minority. Perhaps apropos then that he would — as an amateur actor — first appear on stage as Christopher Columbus. A role which he insisted on playing while walking only on the balls of his feet. The theater people assumed it was because he was an ass. He said it was because keeping all your weight on your toes would avoid “leakage of vital forces.” But in reality, it was because he was an ass.







Fortunately, he wasn’t a full-time actor. That was just a hobby. His real passion lay in writing under the pen name Edmund Shaftesbury. He wrote 82 pseudoscientific, and often overtly racist and horrible, advice books on life, sex, and one's ability to become Magento!







Also a bunch of “the kids these days,” and “damn modernity” stuff that would have made the Luddites blush.







Also, being a cult leader.







That was probably the one that paid the best. Cause if you’re the cult’s leader, you get all the money and everyone else gets whatever you say they do. It’s a pretty solid system if you’re at the top — I imagine he got that advice from long-time patron and fan, Queen Victoria.







She’s also probably where he got his advice on sex: once every eight days. The end. Or vice versa. There’s not a lot of info on how freaky deeky the Queen of England is.







He also had this thing where you’re not supposed to walk in straight lines. Because of demons or some other stupid, Jersey-water induced, nonsense.







Upon arrival in Jersey, he created The Ralston Health Club. Which was less of a destination as it is a mindset. His mindset. He named it Ralston by using the letters of his mother’s name, Rhoda Lucinda Stone, and later retrofitted it to become an acronym for Regime, Activity, Light, Strength, Temperation, Oxygen, and Nature—all things Edgerly valued.







While the official motto of the Ralston Club was "Perfect Health," Edgerly said its purpose was "To Establish a New Race." So… welcome, again, to your snack eugenics moment.







So if you wanted to join the nearly million people who fell down this idiots’ well, you’ll want to read his advice books like Artistic Deep Breathing or Sexual Magnetism. Written under the name Edmund Shaftenbury, the books offered all his fantastic wisdom, like, if you’re a young man you should bang GILFs. And if you’re an old man, like he is, you should marry women at least 20 years your junior, as he did.







He also wrote advice for improving your day-to-day life, like spinning a marble around your head to make yourself more magnetic. I guess at this point I should say that “magnetism” was his pet term for life...

Welcome to Interesting If True, the podcast that’s brewing up some crazy







I'm your host this week, Aaron, and with me are:







I'm Shea, and this week I learned T.S. Eliot added the S to his name because T.Eliot backward is “toilet”.







This Week’s Beer







Olde English 800 - Miller







From Listener PornHub Hoodie







https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/105/3350/







* Aaron: 5* Shea: 4















Aliens, Herbalists, & Bears, oh my!







Being a good British show Doctor Who has, more than once featured “a cuppa” which is either British or Galifrain slang for a cup of tea.







First seen in Series one, episode four, titled Marco Polo, each Doctor has had, at some point, their own cup of tea. According to the Eighth Doctor, one should “never turn down tea if it’s offered. It’s impolite, and that’s how wars start.” Perhaps most notably in Christmas Invasion the first-holiday special featuring 10, Jackie brings a thermos of tea into the TARDIS so they’ll have a snack during the end of the world. “Very British” according to Rickey… I mean Mickey… When the tea falls into the TARDIS' dash it turns to steam, awakening the 10th Doctor from his regeneration-sleep, with the Doctor declaring “Tea! That’s all I needed! Good cup of tea! Super-heated infusion of free-radicals and tannin, just the thing for healing the synapses…”







But no, this isn’t a story about Doctor Who, this is my perhaps sad, diet-Coke version of a Mike Hall intro.







Ashley and I drink a fair amount of tea. She more than I, but our pantry is pretty well stocked with an assortment of teas from all over the world. From Macha to Earl Grey, hot. One of our favorites is Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Herbal Tea.







It’s a tasty wind-down tea for sure. Made with chamomile and, apparently, like 30 other bits of shrubbery found in the Colorado mountains.







I never would have guessed it, but Celestial Seasonings is semi-local. Also, in terms of guessing, I’d have been the more right about the location — with horseshoe rules of course — because even if I’d said New Zealand, I’d be closer to the right place than all the rest of the stuff I’m about to talk about is to reality.







And no, despite where I’m sure many of you think this is going, I’m not going to debunk Sleepytime. Unlike the Doctor, a cuppa isn’t going to wake your nan from her coma, heal your broken bones, or align your chakras. Tea isn’t medicine. At least, not anymore. A cup of boiled aspen bark might have been better than nothing in the ye-oldie, splinters-can-be-fatal times. but no longer.







Chamomile is generally associated with drowsiness, but it’s not melatonin or chloroform. And the tea isn’t magic, but a nighttime cup of tea and a bit of quiet do go a long way toward helping many people sleep. Not sure that the ingredients of the tea are the linchpin of that process though…







So, what was all of that? Well, it was a time-filling, long-winded, dismissal of medical tea nonsense so we can talk about what really matters. Their name, religious practices, eugenics, and the aliens that inspired it all…







The Doctor is an alien. See, see! I planned this. Kinda.







Speaking of timey wimey, the year is 1969. Some friends are hiking the Rockies in Colorado and discover that most of the plants here become tea if you dry and boil them — so they start a tea company.

Welcome to Interesting If True, the podcast that encourages you to date… poorly.







I'm your host this week, Shea, and with me are: Aaron and Steve







I'm Aaron, and I had to go to r/ShowerThoughts for today’s lesson because I'm a hoser.







I'm Steve, and I’m just glad to be here today… also tacos are good.







Round Table: DQ Bingo turn out and such







This Week's Beer























* Shea: 8* Steve: 6* Aaron: 8











The Dating Game Where Nobody Wins







While helping my single friend, well, help is a strong word. While trying to torment my single friend I stumbled on a trove of really niche dating websites. From diaper lovers to hot sauce meet-ups with just about everything in between. Now to stand out, these websites try to be creative with their names, most of the time it just ends up confusing, as I was telling my wife some of the names and we had a fun time trying to figure out what their “kink” was.







So today I have scoured the web and found some really “great,” terrible dating sites and I will challenge Aaron and Steve to figure out who they are catering to. All of these websites are real or were real at one time. So today I give you, The Dating Game where nobody wins!







* Our first weird dating app from the corners of the web is http://www.bristlr.com/. What sort of people is Bristlr looking for?



* -Bearded people and beard lovers. From their website











“Part social network, part dating service, Bristlr has become the world’s favorite beard-centric app.







Started as something of a joke in October 2014 by then-28-year-old John Kershaw, Bristlr has now created more than half a million connections between those with beards, and those who want to stroke them. The app has grown into a fully-fledged and feature-rich dating service used in more than 100 cities worldwide.







Bristlr is available on the web at bristlr.com, and as a free Android and iOS app.”







If you are looking for something a bit less hairy I might suggest Stache Passions which has a lot cheaper looking website and any dates probably come with a free kidney removal https://stachepassions.com/







* Luxy at https://www.onluxy.com/ has been around since 2014 and has apparently helped pair over 3 million people across the globe, which seems like a lot. They bill themselves as matching sophisticated and successful singles. New users to Luxy will be prompted to select their favorite brands such as Prada, Gucci, and Cartier. Your favorites show up at the bottom of your profile so that when you're shopping for a date, you can bond over your preferred brands… Who is Luxy for?



* Millionaires not Sugar Daddys











An initial profile review during the first 24h or the photo verification is highly esteemed by our members. These features help keep the Luxy community excellent and safe. An additional highlight is Luxy’s Income Verification with which wealthy members are able to find matches within the same economic brackets when verifying their income or assets.







They make sure to check your financials so you can pair with a similar tax bracket… a Very good-looking website though with lots of stock photos of pretty people and 5-star testimonies that don’t really testify to anything. Def a great app to look into. Oh, and it once referred to itself as "Tinder, minus the poor people."







* Positive Singles.