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Carrion Luggage
Carrion Luggage
 
Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem.
This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it.
It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans.
It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier."
I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination.
December 24, 2025 at 10:57am December 24, 2025 at 10:57am
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Pardon the mess while I experiment with new formats thanks to Our Glorious Leader's fun new editing interface.
Meanwhile, I think this is the first time I've highlighted a link from Snopes:
Well, it's simple, see: if it's a supplement, it's a scam.
Oh, sure, not always. But like getting phone calls from an unknown number, it's best to assume the worst rather than take chances.
Many supplement brands readers ask about use unethical business practices to sell products that simply do not work.
Or, worse, will actively make you sick.
While deepfakes may be difficult for many internet users to spot, many of the health supplement products that seek to trick people into parting with an excessive amount of money have common red flags in their online presence that take no research or special knowledge to be able to spot.
For starters, they advertise on the internet.
In this article, Snopes will guide you step-by-step through how to easily spot a potential health supplement scam.
Of course, these scams predated the internet by decades, the most famous one being the promotion and sale of fake snake oil.
Turns out actual snake oil may have some beneficial properties, but that wasn't the problem (except from the point of view of snakes). The problem was they weren't selling actual snake oil, but whatever ingredients they could obtain cheaply.
I also did an entry last month on a fun supplement containing radium: "It Got Glowing Reviews"  There, I also ragged on "supplements" being promoted today.
You should talk to your doctor if you think there is a supplement that might be beneficial to you.
These things always say "you should talk to your doctor." Bitch, I'm in the US. You know how hard it is to even get a chance to wait in the lobby?
Still, yes, you should talk to your doctor. Just remember that they're people, too, and they have enough knowledge to absorb without trying to keep track of every mostly-unregulated placebo (or worse) hawked by unscrupulous vendors.
It's worth noting that we were unable to reach out to the companies mentioned in this story to inquire about their business practices and the efficacy of their supplements because they all either did not list contact information or had nonfunctional contact links on their websites, a common practice for the sellers of unproven supplements.
Well, I'd consider that the third red flag, right after "it's a supplement" and "it's hawked in a popup ad": if they won't let you contact them, then they're almost certainly a scam.
The rest of the article is mostly about what Snopes considers to be the red flags. Personally, I prefer to keep things simple and avoid these products entirely. I think I can trust aspirin made by well-known manufacturers, but after that, my inner skeptic raises his ugly head.
And the link's there if you want it. I've spent all my energy this morning playing with the new text editor, which is very cool but there's a bit of a learning curve for those of us who have spent 20+ years learning the ins and outs of WritingML. Now I have low energy. Maybe I should go to a gas station and buy one of those untested, unregulated five-hour energy shots. |
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