I’m laughing so much I’ve nearly thrown coffee all over…
(and , yes, it is decaffeinated 
)
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Poly-multi, saccharide-sugar 
[quote=“billybutcher, post:57, topic:47746”]
It’s still a myth that dietary sugars or carbs somehow “fuel cancers”.
[/quote] they prefer acidic sugary environments?
Thats what my oncologist said.
This was probably more my fault than David’s.
In order to grow bigger than the limit of diffusion (1 mm or so) cancers must find a way to con the body into giving them a blood supply - but they tend not to be very good at it, with the result that most cancer cells live in an oxygen poor environment.
To grow in this environment they must use the inefficient glycolysis pathway which gets energy from sugar without using O2 - inefficient use of sugar means they burn through a lot of it (which can be picked up on a PET scan), and produce a lot of lactic acid.
So, yeah, the middle of a cancer is anoxic and acidic but I don’t think that cancer cells “prefer” such environments.
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I’m about to press the “mute” key on this thread…
it’s been interesting as it’s wandered this way and that…
but Cancer-chatter is something which touches a very, very sensitive chord
and nuff’s-nuff
I’m off to the comparative sanity of my kitchen…
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I love your deep dives Billy, thank you.
It does with me too, but I face the demons!
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Agreed. There is so much we can do for ourselves where cancer is concerned rather than rely on the “treatments” offered by men in white coats. Hippocratic oath - first do no harm.
Look cancer squarely in the face and learn about it. Not least, it is our own cells, not something foreign, so learn everything we can about what our own bodies are doing to ourselves.
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1] The keyboard I’m typing on is from AliExpress. Excellent cordless k/bd 18,92€ inc p n p. No other charges : 6 day delivery, so must be in Europe somewhere.
2/ 8-pack of inks for Canon printer 63,03€, inc p n p. No VAT/Duty. I haven’t installed them yet, as the inks that were supposed to be in the printer turned up later. UK seller had to refund me £16.50 VAT/Duty. I don’t yet know if the printer will accept them. Seller offers free returns.
3] Wireless k/bd No 1. 20,57€ inc p n p. No other charges. Returned because USB in description didn’t exist on the k/bd and also it dropped off the Bl/Th connection and would not reconnect. Instant refund.
4] Filters x 2 for vacuum cleaner. €2.25 + €2.38 p n p. Rowenta wanted €12.84 ea + €6.95 p n p…
As far as I can remember, when placing an order or bringing up a product, they present a list of countries from which one is prepared to accept deilvery. I just default to ‘All’.
So far, so good.
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I am a seller on aliexpress.
So I can tell you some information
Whether you buy a product on aliexpress or amazon, the actual manufacturer of the raw material is most likely the same factory. The quality of the product purchased on Amazon is basically the same as on aliexpress.
Because aliexpress goes for thin margins and doesn’t have high after sales and warehousing costs, the pricing will be much lower than amazon.
You can simply understand that the extra price you pay for a product on Amazon over aliexpress is for the service and after sales.
So having purchased a product from aliexpress, in the event of a problem, you are likely to spend 30 days in dispute with the seller and may not always be able to return the product for a refund.
Sellers can usually rent warehouses in different countries, so some shipments come from China, while some products can be sent from France, Spain, the United States and other warehouses.
As long as your shipping address is located in France, you have to pay 20% tax to aliexpress, this tax is mandatory for aliexpress (if you are a company buyer, submit your company information and your company’s tax ID number to aliexpress and you can not pay the vat tax fee)
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I have been shopping on Aliexperess for probably the best part of 6-8 years. I got fed-up with the search on Amazon which directs you to what they want, not what you asked for.
In truth the Aliexpress search has altered much over that time and does a lot of guessing for what you may need, but a little imagination soon sorts that out.
The STUFF on the site is very variable. Things like seeds, perfumes, essential oils I wouldn’t touch again with a barge pole, but manufactured electronic goods are just the same as those you would get in Amazon.
DO read the reviews. Look for the same thing on AMAZON and read their reviews. Dont expect the same brand name as mostly they dont do recognizable brand names.
Areas I use them for first and foremost are photography equipment, cables (din, usb, ethernet etc.), bags, cases, carriers, cloths (But carefully), computer stuff.
Not cheap unbranded usb’s, memory cards, etc as there are too many cons. re holding capacity to go there and Amazon is as cheap.
Shopping on the site takes a certain philosophy. Dont expect to get a bargain to an exaggerated degree. If it says it is made of cotton remember they are working in a foreign language so don’t expect accuracy. I hope you get my drift.
These sellers are a few tens of thousand small businesses’ and a few large, doing their thing on this platform. Don’t expect consistency.
Having said that I have mostly received a good reaction from the site itself if things go wrong. If a thing isn’t up to description or (got one, ordered two etc.) or it simply doesn’t arrive.
The delivery times have improved dramatically this last year.
I get no added delay as I do stuff from the UK. There are (currently) no surcharges (legal or otherwise). I have the option in most cases of having them delivered to the local collection center (Mondial Relay) if they are large or awkward in some other way (free). I like them mostly they are polite courteous and diligent. BUT there are always outliers.
And (for the specific case of external USB stofage) just as full of suspect items - beware of anything which looks to be a suspiciously high capacity for a suspiciously low price.
That is why I try to avoid sellers on Amazon, and always avoid the ones I do buy from if the goods do not come from Amazon directly. Been bitten before and won’t be again. If that costs a few quid more, so be it, but cheaper in the long run.
Interesting that no one mentions the morality of buying direct from Chinese companies?
China, a country bent on world dominance and oppression through product dumping, land grab, indebtedness through it’s belt and roads policy, suppression of minorities, support for Russia and ultimately direct conflict with the west?
I know it is difficult to avoid buying, even European brands, either wholly or partly manufactured in China but ultimately, it’s buying all this crap from aliexpress, temu, etc , mostly knock offs of European designs and the results of costly western R&D that , through lost sales and profitability is leading to the collapse of western civilisation as all manufacturing and the jobs associated with it are lost.
Too few people are making vast profits from outsourcing their manufacturing to China, whilst the majority barely have enough to live on as their jobs have all been exported to the far east.
I’m all for the 100% import duty on all Chinese goods proposed by the US to help support home based manufacturing!
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Unfortunately, import tariffs are ultimately paid by the end consumer and not by the original manufacturer, so are fairly pointless as a means of “punishing” a foreign country, and do nothing to “support home-based industry” (which often doesn’t make direct competitors for the items in question, or uses the tariff-hit items to make its own goods).
Donald Trump is a big fan of import tariffs, which tells you all you need to know about their effectiveness.
Yes higher prices for Chinese-made goods might deter some consumers, but few people will know or care where specific items are manufactured, especially if they are sold under familiar Western brand names.
And the biggest flaw of import tariffs as a trade weapon is that they are usually countered immediately by retaliatory tariffs from the affected country.
Again Donald Trump found this out when he imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the EU. The EU immediately hit back with tariffs on US goods including Harley-Davidson motorcycles and American whiskey. When Biden was elected this silly little trade war was suspended.
The only losers in both cases were consumers who in the interim had to pay higher prices for goods on both sides.
Interesting article here in the developing context of this thread:
Whether we like it or not, Chinese manufacturing is now very much embedded in the Western economies, and now, without the low cost that it offers, pretty much everyones spending power would take a hit. We have all now got used to it unfortunately.
Do you think that actually, we’ve just got used to having more stuff, and to replacing it rather than repairing it when it breaks?
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So what is the answer to the trade imbalance between China and the west?
We can’t compete with them on equal terms and China is hell bent on re-setting the world order. Despite the US being a seriously flawed country, I still prefer it being the self proclaimed world police.
If China gets it’s way, it wants to re-centre the world on Beijing and dominate world politics and economics. It is already succeeding on the economic front and is forming alliances with countries like Russia, North Korea, Iran etc as a direct challenge to the west. This isn’t going to end well!
If the west could wean itself off super cheap goods then the alliances China has developed more recently might allow it to keep feeding it’s population without relying much on western trade. At the same time it would have reduced affluence which might also reduce it’s reach into other parts of the world.
But every western business knows that profit is the one true god, and all must bow at the altar.
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