Thursday, January 17, 2013

ewwww, but they say it works!

Imagine, if you will, for a second, that this weird treatment was found in the טעמי המנהגים, or in some other "primitive" segulah sefer, how the enlightened ones would howl with laughter. How Prof. Marc B. (aka מלך) Shapiro would have a real problem with it. How Facebook's walls would be "full of it." But now that the NYT prints it it's the height of hygiene. Cutting age medicine, so to speak. Would you call this "repulsive?" I think so. Yet, in the name of science and health we sometimes overlook the repulse of it and do it for the greater good. I wonder what prompted the guy in charge of this study to even try it... Just 4 days after Shapiro's thoughts about one particular segulah we get this story. Coincidence? I think not!

23 comments:

psol said...

Idiotic post.

Don't drag science down to the level of bubbe maase "segulos".

I thought you lot learned the Rambam.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

maybe if you visited more often I'd care about what you thought. As it is.... not so much.

Anonymous said...

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בכבוד רב
ליטווישע יונגערמאן

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

שיק צו neveler@gmail.com

Z said...

> we sometimes overlook the repulse of it

sorry to nit pick but repulse is a verb not a noun.

psol said...

So only regular commenters have a monopoly of truth and logic?

yoichy said...

Hirshel,
You are an interesting mix.You have the cultish craziness of Lubavitch+ the narrow mindedness of the the "Chareidim" black hatters+the mind of a Hungarian
Awful mix.Each one alone is pretty difficult to stomach, but a double ,triple whammy?
Bashefer !!!!!
What has this treatment to do with the bs "segulahs"?

Yanover said...

Finally an industry that can be made in USA. though im sure someone will find a way to import it cheaper from Asia.

Formerly Known as Yodea Sefer said...

Tzig,

Bob Grant once said: "the biggest avlah of the ACLU is that once in a blue moon they take up a just cause."

Just so you know, probably about 65% of your ideas make me ill, but with this you hit the nail on the head!

Shkoyach!

moshe moshel said...

once we stop being repulsed by what the torah calls disgusting and to'eva....

Reeses Feces said...

Please don't advocate this. We have enough problems with feces from both the secular world and other communities being transplanted to 770 as it is.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

z

I figured if one is repulsed then repulse could be used by itself as well

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Psol

nobody said anything about having monopolies, all I said was that it was hard for me to care about what you thought if you don't bother to show up more than once in 8-9 months

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Bob is still going somewhat strong...

Shevet Mussar said...

Yoichy


"What has this treatment to do with the bs "segulahs"?
Obviously that Segula of the Kav Hayosher was a treatment and it worked then for people, but since it is in the Kav Hayosher (that Melech and his ilk despise, because it is too kabalastic)but not in the progressive NYT, its primitve and a embarrasment for the tribe.
Hirshel,
I see that you got mad a certain crowd, thats a sign that the message came across

lostinCA said...

This is at least a refuah for a serious illness r"l.

read this one
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/travel/2012/12/23/1-elephant-dung-gives-coffee-pricey-prestige.html

Anonymous said...

shidduch crisis

http://thepartialview.blogspot.com/2013/01/ami-magazine-shidduch-crisis-simply-and.html

Milhouse said...

IostinCA, that's very interesting about the elephants, because it would seem to resolve once and for all a great question that has been bothering foodies.

Until now, for decades if not centuries the most expensive and renowned coffee in the world has been made from berries excreted by civets. For most of that time this was an obscure delicacy known only to the mevinim, but in the past decade or so it became more widely known and the demand for it shot up, so instead of going around the forest collecting the berries where the civets deposited them, as was traditional, some people had the idea to farm civets, feed them coffee berries, and harvest the processed coffee beans on the other end.

The thing was, there was a big chakirah what it is that produces this wonderful coffee. Is it takeh the digestive processes of the civet, in which case the farming idea would work? Or is it that civets have a nose for the best and most tasty coffee berries, which also contain the best beans, and in their natural habitat they choose only the good ones, so if you collect the beans that they chose you get the best coffee? If so, since the farmed civets are not able to go foraging and have no choice but to eat the berries they are given, the beans they excrete will be no better than normal beans, and the farmed product is not the echter civet-produced coffee that commands the high prices.

But if it works with elephants too, who don't naturally eat coffee berries and therefore shouldn't be expected to have a chush for picking out davka the good ones, then it must be just the stomach that's doing the good work. In which case we could probably produce the same thing by treating the beans with hydrochloric acid or something.

shlomo said...

Hirshel,
Thanks for the link.Marc Shapiro is such a breath of fresh air.Especially when compared to the primitive Chareidi outlook and in general the Chasidic cultishness.

Tibi Lotzi said...

Shlomo
"and in general the Chasidic cultishness."
seeing that you are trying to rid of the Yoke of your culture,I think its important you should know first the facts, that for instance Kav Hayoesher is not a chasidic sefer. just know whom you hate

shlomo said...

"just know whom you hate"

Your posts for example.
----
i did not think that kav hayosher was a chasidic sefer.after all it was authored in the early 17 hundreds's i do think that chasidim are on a mission of collecting the strangest things wherever they can find them

Tibi Lotzi said...

Shlomo
"i do think that chasidim are on a mission of collecting the strangest things wherever they can find them"
MY IQ is very low, please explain your self a lettle better, maybe I will grasp better your profund thinking...

Anonymous said...

There was a recent episode of "Freakanomics" that discussed this treatment. I know someone who went through it too recently & seems to be doing better.

-- ZIY