Cannabis WORSE than Tobacco
From BBC Health News:
Cannabis harm worse than tobacco
The impact of cannabis is worsened by how joints are smoked.
A single cannabis joint could damage the lungs as much as smoking up to five tobacco cigarettes one after another, scientists in New Zealand have said.
The research, published in the journal Thorax, found cannabis damaged the large airways in the lungs causing symptoms such as coughing and wheezing.
Read the rest of the story HERE.
And don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t addictive as well as damaging to your health.
Burke and Tin Roof Blowdown
“So what are you reading?”
Sparkle’s question didn’t surprise me. It’s one of the things we share, a love of reading, anything really but especially mystery books.
“I just started James Lee Burke’s new book, The Tin Roof Blowdown,” I responded.
Her eyes brightened and she threw back her head and laughed! “I knew it! I saw he had a new book out and I hoped you had already bought it!”
What she’s not saying is “bought it, read it and will pass it along to me!”
It’s what we do. I am in the middle of a series she recommended and loaned to my son, he is 3/4 way through (the Hyperion series) and has passed along the first two volumes to me, which, when finished, I will return to my sis.
James Lee Burke’s newest book, The Tin Roof Blowdown, is Burke at his best. His last book ended with the ominous storm rolling in that has changed the face of New Orleans and this book starts with Hurricane Katrina. The stories are heartbreaking, and all the more so because they are true. New Orleans is one of the most corrupt cities in the United States, about one third of the police force LEFT the city they were hired to protect in the evacuation, and the poorest of the poor were left behind, to suffer, to struggle to live, or to die. Many did all three.
Detective Dave Robicheaux is called into the “Big Sleazy” with the rest of the New Iberia police force to help with rescue operations, and to try to bring some order into the chaos. He gets involved with a missing priest, two looters being shot, a robbery that includes cocaine, counterfeit cash and blood diamonds, and the usual cast of psycopaths and organized crime goombahs.
The book builds inexorably to a nail-biting climax.
This author can WRITE. He is head and shoulders above the average churn-em-out detective writer. Here is one of his less poetic, but more insightful entries:
” . . . the honest to God truth is that law enforcement is not even law “enforcement.” We deal with problems after the fact. We catch criminals by chance and accident, either during the commission of the crimes or through snitches. Because of forensic and evidentiary problems, most of the crimes recidivists commit are not even prosecutable. Most inmates currently in the slams spend lifetimes figuring out ways to come to the attention of the system. Ultimately, jail is the only place they feel safe from their own failures.
Unfortunately, the last people on our minds are the victims of crime. They become an addendum to both the investigation and the prosecution of the case, adverbs instead of nouns. Ask rape victims, or people who have been beaten with gun butts or metal pipes or tied to chairs and tortured how they felt toward the system after they learned that their assailants were released on bond without the victims being notified.
I don’t believe in capital punishment, but I don’t argue with the prosecutors who support it. The mouths of the people they represent are stopped with dust. What kind of advocate would not try to give them voice?
Pensacola Treehouse
The tree house is an old American tradition, but most treehouses are fairly primitive things, more like a raft high in the tree branches with sticks nailed into the tree to climb up. Few have walls, if it has walls, Daddy probably helped. But look at this house, and it’s magnificent tree house! I think it must have been built by a builder! And I wonder if it has air conditioning?
Obesity Contagious
Obesity ‘contagious’, experts say
This report is from BBC Health News.
The study looked at data collected over 32 years
Having a friend, sibling or spouse who is overweight raises a person’s risk of being obese too, US researchers say.
They said data on more than 12,000 people suggested the risk was increased by 57% if a friend was obese, by 40% if a sibling was and 37% if a spouse was.
They argued this showed social factors, such as the body sizes of other people, were important in developing obesity. . . .
“Rather, there is a direct, causal relationship. What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most likely causes a change of norms about what counts as an appropriate body size.
“People come to think that it is OK to be bigger since those around them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads.”
The study was actually about heart disease, and this result was a by-product of the study.
The Apple Market, Pensacola
The Apple Market isn’t a big chain. You can hardly maneuver in the aisles, they are so close together. They have their own deli, with Boar’s Head meats, they have a big section with deli-made food, made with fresh ingredients, that you can take home and heat – some are already hot! They have rotisseried chickens, they have fresh key lime pies, boutique breads, a whole huge refrigerator full of freshly made salads . . . the Apple Market is my kind of place.
I can’t imagine the odds against the family grocery stores staying in existence against the giants. But I can walk into one of the giants here – Winn Dixie – and walk out without buying a thing, the giant is so tired looking, so sterile, so packaged. What the Apple Market offers is personal service.
When I walk up to the counter with a container of “Mama’s Gumbo” they ask me if I have had it before, and when I say I have, and loved it, they recommend the Shrimp Loxlie, in the same brand, and recommend that I serve it over rice or noodles, to make it go further. I buy some, serve it over angel hair pasta, and it is a gourmet feast. They encourage you to bring your own re-usable bags, or buy one of theirs – they are earth friendly.
You pay a little more. I don’t mind. They buy locally, the produce is always first rate, and they have an amazing variety of goods in a relatively small space. I can always fine something to fix up for dinner there, and I always love the service. Give me The Apple Market over a big box store anyday!
Supersize Me
Have you heard about this movie? It is a documentary, and you might think “Oh YAAWWWWWWNNN” but this one really kept going. I love visiting our son; I learn SO much.
The creator of this movie decides that for one month, he will eat every meal, three meals a day, at McDonald’s. And he has to try every entry on the menu at least once. And if the employees ask him to super-size, he has to do it. It appeared that he also made a rule for himself that he had to finish every meal. I don’t know how he did it.
Before he does this, he visits three doctors, a cardiologist, a gastroentrologist and . . .hmmmm, maybe an internal medicine specialist. He has health care professionals who will do blood readings every week and weigh him in. He starts at 185 lbs and very low body fat, and his cholesterol and triglicerides are to die for – excellent readings. His girlfriend is a vegan chef, so he has been eating beautiful meals, but not a lot of meat. (He is not a vegetarian.)
We watch him eat many of the meals. On the third day, his system rebels, as he is trying to finish, I think, a double quarter pounder, and he vomits. It isn’t pretty. At one point, his girlfriend says he has lost his sex drive, and has far less energy than before.
At the end of the first week, his weight has gone up to 203 – 12 lbs in one week! Worse, his cholesterol is rising rapidly. The second week, he is feeling sick and the doctor says he is developing a fatty liver, from digesting all the fats and sugars he is eating.
At the end of the month, he has gained 25 lbs, his system is in total rebellion against all the fats and sugars, and the doctors have warned him that he must stop now to reverse the damage.
Threaded through this adventure are sides, where we learn how much sugar the supersized drinks contain, and that even the SALADS at McDonalds have sugar in them. The calorie count for one of the salads exceeded that for the Big Mac!
I have to admit, there is nothing like a fast food hamburger every now and then – maybe once every six months or so – but this movie is a must see if you are eating at a fast food restaurant even once a week. The “food” they are serving is so processed, it barely qualifies as food.
The man who conducted this experiment went on a vegan diet for a while when he finished, and it took 8 weeks for his blood readings to return to normal, and 9 MONTHS for him to lose all the weight he had gained.
This was a fascinating movie, and a must see if we want to counter the rising tide of obesity spreading around the world. If it were an illness, people would be mobilized. As it stands, obesity is going to kill more people every year than smoking. The narrator says this is going to be the first generation of young people whose lives will be shorter than their parents, thanks to fast food. See this movie! Take your children!
There is a post script, and another reason I love this movie. As we were watching, my son said “Mom, thank you for cooking all those dinners for me as I was growing up.” He and his wife are very exercise and diet conscious, and I am proud to say, they live very conscientiously, trying to recycle, trying to eat fewer processed foods. What a gift that “thank-you” was!
Father and Son Find Viking Treasure
A father and son in England, who spend their weekends treasure hunting stumbled across a treasure buried in a farmer’s field, worth an estimated $2 million. Buried more than 1000 years ago, the treasure has remained hidden in the ground all these years.
You can read the story <a href=”“> at Viking Treasure Found.
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What I don’t understand is why they believe it was buried by the Vikings, rather than buried by someone trying to hide the wealth FROM the Vikings?
What’s in Your Toolbox?
What do you give a young adult, graduating high school, who has just about everything he wants? What do you give him that he doesn’t even know he wants?
It was Christmas, and we were trying to figure out what to give our son. We eventually decided on a tool box, and we had a lot of fun filling it – hammers, fasteners, screw drivers and Phillips screw drivers in various sizes, nails, putty, screws, a level, a measuring tape . . . he like it, but he was a little underwhelmed.
Until he got to college. At the end of the first week, when he called us, we could hear the joyful confidence in his voice.
“Guess what!” he said. It wasn’t really a question, he was going to tell us.
“No-one else has a tool-box here! All the other kids need help putting their bunks together (there was some smart entrepreneur who was marketing loft-like bunk beds and room-customizing kits to all the incoming students, making, I am willing to bet, a fortune) and I’m the one with the tool box!”
We could hear the smile on his face.
And isn’t that life? The more tools you have in your toolbox, the better equipped you are to handle what life throws at you? Even the unexpected – if you have the right tools.
For me, those tools have been varied.
• Reading books has introduced me to new ways of thinking.
• Learning foreign languages gives me different perspectives.
• Living in foreign countries helps conquer ignorant ideas about people of other cultures.
• I can eat a wide variety of cuisines without fear
• I can swim, use a rifle, cook, and speak in public without my voice quavering
• I can laugh. Thanks be to God.
All these tools have been acquired, some, like patience and kindness, at great price.
So what are your tools? What has helped you deal with what life throws your way? What tools have you grown to deal with life’s challenges?
The Real Florida
So many Americans visit Disneyland and think they have visited Florida. Disneyland, and the huge shopping mall that is Orlando is about as close to the real Florida as skiing down an artificial hill in Dubai is to really skiing.
There is a real Florida. You can go there. You’ll need sunscreen, you will need beach shoes, and you will need mosquito repellent.
One of the first places to go is the Florida Everglades. Take a boat ride back into the swamps, take a whole day, or even two. And take your camera. There are alligators, and a million species of water birds. When the motor cuts off, just use your ears and listen . . .the Everglades is an amazing place, beautiful, even a little eerie, with the Ahingas and herons and water birds.
The Florida Keys are a blast. Key West is like it’s own country, a little off-beat – no, WAAAAYYY off beat. Stay in a bed and breakfast, leave your car and just walk around. Take one of the dive boats, if you dive, or the snorkle boat trips if you don’t dive. They provide all the equipment and will take you out to a reef where you can snorkle for a few hours, and see more glorious and gorgeous fish than you would see in a lifetime of searching, in bath-water warm water. It’s like God’s great aquarium, it’s a mystical experience, seeing all the life underwater. Head for the wharf at sundown, for the “green flash” as the sun dips into the water and the reggae plays and humanity in all it’s diversity gathers to send the sun to bed.
Cocoa Beach, where the space shuttles launch, is a totally cool and very funky place. It gets really crowded when the shuttles are about to launch, but there are some very fun and very relaxed restaurants there, and some great surf when a storm is brewing.
Sanibel Island, off season, where you find miraculous sea shells by just strolling the beaches as the tide goes back out, and watch the most amazing sunsets.
Take the family to Crystal Springs, “just north of Tampa” but I remember it being a LONG drive! You get there, pick out the size innertube or raft you want (I prefer the ones with the sealed center, because your bottom can get REALLY cold hanging in the spring waters) and head for the source of Crystal Springs on a bus. You can choose a short route or the long route – you will know your own children, and what they can handle. We like the long route.
You get into your tube, into the water, and . . . you float! You float for two or three hours, and the water is so clear you can see the fish just feet below you. You float through areas of vine covered trees and tannin stained waters, you see what Florida looked like before man. It is WILD and beautiful. At the end, you are pretty cold, but oh, what a grand adventure.
Wakulla Springs is the deepest freshwater spring in Florida, and they have glass bottomed boats you can go on to see all the life underwater. We especially love the old fashioned lodge there, just a few miles south of Tallahassee. Wakulla Springs Lodge
And I am only now getting to the very best part. For a great adventure, we love Myakka River State Park. It is one of the oldest recreational parks in Florida, with excellent hiking trails, over 1000 alligators in the lake, and a boat trip – on a boat driven by a giant fan – around the lake. Adventure Man has always said that if he ever thinks about retiring, he wants to be the park ranger driving this boat and showing people all the alligators. It is a thrillingly beautiful place. It is near Venice beach, famous for fossilized shark tooth hunting.
But we go just a little bit further south, to a little beachside community called Englewood Beach. We have collected thousands of fossilized shark’s teeth on Englewood Beach – it is a treasure trove. We stay at the Weston Resort which is really a conglomeration of properties near the southernmost tip of the barriar island on which Englewood Beach exists, and from which you walk right into the state park where you can’t drive.
I see that they now have parking for like 25 cents an hour – it used to be free, but you only got a parking spot if you got there by around 8 in the morning, there were so few parking places. But you always have a place to park if you are staying at the “resort”. The resort isn’t really a resort, it is a very beachy place, and most people rent by the week, or even, during winter, by the month. They have their favorite units and their favorite buildings. The units all have kitchens, some even with ovens and all with coffee makers and microwaves. It’s a very old time-y Florida kind of place to stay. We love it. We dream of Englewood Beach!
There are still a few other funky Florida places. You have to rent a car, and you have to be willing to go off the beaten track. Take some of the backroads, drive along the Gulf Coast – Florida is a LONG state, and it is really a two day drive – or more – if you start in the Keys and drive to the Alabama border, near Pensacola. The real Florida has its own beauty, you just have to take the time and effort to find it. Once you do – you will be hooked on Florida.
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Early Voting in Florida
