what does this remind you of? January 31, 2010

so yea i watch reality tv…so what.  I love it….the anthropoligst in me wants to pay for the premium 24 access to watch the big brother news feed (i did that the 2nd year they were on)  anyhoo gotta rant on this……

Anybody watch the biggest loser (i refuse to dignify it with a link) and get reminded of the Running Man by Steven King? “the Games Federation, a government-mandated television station that runs violent game shows. In one game, Treadmill to Bucks, a contestant with a heart or respiratory condition runs on a treadmill earning prize money for the duration of their run, often dying in the process.” (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man)  huh…sort of sounds like the biggest loser to me, just framed every so slightly differently.   At least on treadmill to bucks the contestants get paid, even if they don’t lose the most weight.  

 what the hell has the world come to….I am just waiting for shows like the running man  to start.  and hell I hate to say it I would watch. i watch solitary for its eerie creepy doing-a-phychological-test-for-50k craziness so i can see its appeal. (and if you havent seen solitary check it out on Fox reality or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitary_(TV_series  also apparently the network is going of the air in march 2010 so catch it if you can)

High-tech sensors help people stay true to diet, exercise plans (quick link) January 30, 2010

OMFG  gattica anyone?  does this not scare anyone else? 

The experimental devices are designed to keep track of how many minutes they work out, how much food they consume and even whether they are at a fast-food joint when they should be in the park. The goal is to cut down on self-reported answers that often cover up what’s really happening.

 I recently found THIS article (complete with the obligatory headless fatty picture….this time with a monitor) http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2010-01-07-obesity-monitors_N.htm

it’s a freaking monitor.  nanny state anyone?  I am SO mad right now I am seeing red.   SO  they are gonna make me wear a monitor and tell me what I should be eating?   how much I should be moving?  whats next?  what happens when I DONT lose weight?  I wont, trust me…on diets if anything I UNDER eat and OVER exercise, not the other way around asshat.  AND I STILL DONT LOSE WIEGHT.  “Traditional weight-loss interventions rely mainly on people’s memory of what they ate for dinner and how many minutes they worked out. But researchers have long known that method can be unreliable since people often forget details or lie.”  Right blame the fatty…because if we don’t lose the weight we MUST be lying.   we HAVE to be eating bon bons.  And watching tv.  I wonder if the monitor is waterproof so I can swim…or does that not count?  (since some of the protoypes monitor sweat levels to determine activity levels) do i have to wear a freaking heart rate monitor while i blow out my bad knees running on a treadmill because OMFG YOUR ARE FAT YOU WILL DIEEEEEEEEEEE.

Anybody else reminded of gattica, with the rows of perfect clones running in synchronization, wearing heart rate monitors…  /shudder