by Sandy Sand
It’s really hard to find any advantages to being a codger or codgerette except for the freedom to say anything you want and pretty much get away with it. Everything else is a pain…literally.
One exception might be a built-in immunity to the swine flu.
According to the Los Angeles Daily News: Los Angeles County has seen at least 57 people die from H1N1 virus this year, according to county public health director Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding. Outbreaks of the swine flu have been reported in 34 schools and one nursing home throughout the county as of the week ending on Oct. 10, Fielding said.”
The article continued: It's quite severe for this time of year," Fielding said. "I think what distinguishes this (flu season) ... is that there is a small group that is getting severely infected, including some young and healthy children, pregnant women and young adults.
The breakthrough news is that the H1N1 virus has SIMILAR MARKERS to flu viruses that have been around for years, therefore seniors may have dodged the bullet on this flu by building up immunity to the current virus.
"So the older you are, the more likely you are to have been exposed to the similar marker and that builds some resistance and immunity to H1N1," said Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Association of Southern California.
Yeah! for having been around longer than a mutated virus.
So, what about all those other viruses and bacteria that have been around longer than any of us and will survive long past our own extinction?
Like small pox, for example. Not one of us escaped the torment and discomfort of a small pox vaccination, although having been vaccinated at age six-months we have no memory of it except in our subconscious, but our mothers who cared for us sure remember.
Maybe we, too, have a memory of it that’s deeply imbedded in our psyches; a memory of being rudely and roughly having our asses, upper arm or thigh stabbed numerous times with a live virus, and VOILA! almost immediately got incredibly sick with a pseudo case of the pox which lasted for days.
My kids did and I haven’t forgotten.
I’m also sure I have the memory chip implanted somewhere in my engrams of my own small pox vaccination, which is why I’m totally suspicious of getting flu shots after combining that long buried memory with the memory of getting a flu shot as an older teen and immediately coming down with a lousy case of the flu.
That was the first and last flu shot for me.
Then there’s the explosion of autistic kids, when prior to being massively over-dosed on mercury-laden multi-doses of vaccinations, making perfectly healthy, normal kids incredibly sick for the rest of their lives and giving their parents a rash of child-rearing problems that neither had to suffer through.
And yes, I’m aware of all the contraindication studies done by arse-covering big pharma, but none of their studies are to be believed unless you are of the coincidence persuasion.
But I digress. Back to the pox.
The small pox virus has been around for eons and we were all given a dose of it allowing us to build up a ton of antibodies; therefore, there’s no need to ever get a booster vaccination.
Although they say small pox has been eradicated in the United States and other Western countries, it hasn’t.
Just because we were vaccinated doesn’t mean the virus gave up, said “oh there’s no one left to attack“, that it committed viral suicide.
It probably didn’t go dormant either. It’s still floating around; we’re still breathing it in, but over time we’ve built up a super immunity to it making further vaccination unnecessary.
There! As a one who is on the geserhood waiting list, that’s what I think and I’m not afraid to say it.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Let's See If BPAs Really Make Girls More Aggressive
by Sandy Sand
Not to be too cynical, but do we really want to drink or eat from plastic containers that contain BPAs?
Whether they be rumor or factual, for years there have been claims that BPAs (bisphenyl A) are leached out from plastics and are of special concern to mothers who are bottle feeding their babies.
Of course, the plastic bottle and container industry is going to say “pish-tosh” to the entire matter. What the hell do they care; they just want to sell merchandise in the cheapest, most convenient containers they can.
The consumer, too, wants the most convenient containers. If they didn't, billions of water bottles wouldn't be sold worldwide each year. One would also think that they'd want safe water bottles. Maybe they don't really care, or perhaps they aren't aware of the possible dangers from BPAs, or convenience outweighs safety.
I should state now that I don't know, and while I'm suspicious of the plastic bottles I do buy them because it's so convenient to throw a capped water bottle in my purse or keep one on my desk where there's less danger of it falling over and ruining my computer keyboard. In my defense -- if you can call it that, most of the water I drink comes from the tap, and that, too, has it's "yuk" factor.
On the flip side are the skeptics such as myself, who don’t believe anything manufacturers say about their products where health or product safety is concerned; that goes for the FDA, too. Both have been caught too many times in bald-faced lies.
That brings me to the latest study published by McClatchy Newspaper Group stating that BPAs are making little girls more aggressive. Maybe yes; maybe no. The final results aren’t in yet.
The nipples on the bottles and pacifiers are never mentioned, but I have to wonder about them, too. They’re made from plastic and make the most immediate and continual contact with babies’ mouths, and whatever is sucked off of them has a direct route into the tots’ bloodstreams.
I’m not sayin’ there’s a danger there’; I’m just sayin’.
Perhaps a far-out experiment is in order.
Let’s take a bunch of those supposed felonious suspects -- the BPAs -- and feed them to Venus flytraps, insectivorous plants that voraciously gobble up their prey when they come too close.
Being named “Venus”, they must all be females, so let’s give the young plants an ample dose of BPAs and see if they become even more aggressive in their insect eating by reaching out and attacking anything that comes flying or crawling near them.
Since plants mature far fast than humans, Venus seems like a likely subject for such an experiment, and maybe we can find out quickly just how harmful BPAs really are.
Not to be too cynical, but do we really want to drink or eat from plastic containers that contain BPAs?
Whether they be rumor or factual, for years there have been claims that BPAs (bisphenyl A) are leached out from plastics and are of special concern to mothers who are bottle feeding their babies.
Of course, the plastic bottle and container industry is going to say “pish-tosh” to the entire matter. What the hell do they care; they just want to sell merchandise in the cheapest, most convenient containers they can.
The consumer, too, wants the most convenient containers. If they didn't, billions of water bottles wouldn't be sold worldwide each year. One would also think that they'd want safe water bottles. Maybe they don't really care, or perhaps they aren't aware of the possible dangers from BPAs, or convenience outweighs safety.
I should state now that I don't know, and while I'm suspicious of the plastic bottles I do buy them because it's so convenient to throw a capped water bottle in my purse or keep one on my desk where there's less danger of it falling over and ruining my computer keyboard. In my defense -- if you can call it that, most of the water I drink comes from the tap, and that, too, has it's "yuk" factor.
On the flip side are the skeptics such as myself, who don’t believe anything manufacturers say about their products where health or product safety is concerned; that goes for the FDA, too. Both have been caught too many times in bald-faced lies.
That brings me to the latest study published by McClatchy Newspaper Group stating that BPAs are making little girls more aggressive. Maybe yes; maybe no. The final results aren’t in yet.
The nipples on the bottles and pacifiers are never mentioned, but I have to wonder about them, too. They’re made from plastic and make the most immediate and continual contact with babies’ mouths, and whatever is sucked off of them has a direct route into the tots’ bloodstreams.
I’m not sayin’ there’s a danger there’; I’m just sayin’.
Perhaps a far-out experiment is in order.
Let’s take a bunch of those supposed felonious suspects -- the BPAs -- and feed them to Venus flytraps, insectivorous plants that voraciously gobble up their prey when they come too close.
Being named “Venus”, they must all be females, so let’s give the young plants an ample dose of BPAs and see if they become even more aggressive in their insect eating by reaching out and attacking anything that comes flying or crawling near them.
Since plants mature far fast than humans, Venus seems like a likely subject for such an experiment, and maybe we can find out quickly just how harmful BPAs really are.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
WHY I SHALL NOT VOTE FOR OBAMA AGAIN
Congrats, to those who think there have been significant changes in the first six months of the Obama administration, I am not seeing the "political changes" to which some refer:
We now have more troops and Mercenaries than Bush did overseas. We still have the Patriot Act and the Military Commission's Act of 2006, both of which gutted our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
We have not gone after the War Criminals; Obama refuses to make certain Executive orders that would undo much of the evil. Nancy Pelosi continues to be a loser; does anyone truly believe that the voters of San Francisco's District 8 are not perpetually stoned?
Pensions are still being slaughtered and where are the laws to make them inviolate?
Why has not this Admin set-up a health care plan that is insurance company free as a fund similar to Medicare or Social Security, paid for by taxing outsourcing Publicly traded corporations?
Why does not Obama followed FDR's approach and recover 80% of the profits of War Contractors? Why has he not capped Oil per barrel prices at, say $20.00 as did Carter (He capped it at $8-$10 per barrel) and tax the oil companies with a $1.3 trillion WINDFALL PROFITS tax for what they stole from us these last eight years?
Why has he said nothing about the increase in gas prices from $1.44 in November/December of 2008 to over $3.03 cents recently and still at twice what the price was in 2008 then?
Why has he not capped Executive Compensation packages at $2.5 million or 25 times’ average employee Com Packages? Anything more by my calculations is stealing from investors. Why do we not have the same Health care plan as our senators have?
Illinois has borrowed against my pension fund to the tune of $39 billion dollars and wants to turn it over to the legislators and judges to carve up further. My wife is paying $850 a month for health care. I can assure you of this, neither my friends, colleagues, associates nor I, will vote for Mr. Obama again. I will vote for Dennis J. Kucinich, or if he does not run for president, then we shall vote for Pawlenty if he runs, or for an independent. This congress is no better than that of the Bushites.
The more I see of this president, the more it confirms my concerns during the campaign; he is in this for the celebrity and the dynastic wealth that celebrity holds in store for him. He has done a thing not even Bush did, he has betrayed his supporters.
Those who think there has been anything other than a minor change since the end of the Bush Administration must be smoking some Gosh awful weed.
We now have more troops and Mercenaries than Bush did overseas. We still have the Patriot Act and the Military Commission's Act of 2006, both of which gutted our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
We have not gone after the War Criminals; Obama refuses to make certain Executive orders that would undo much of the evil. Nancy Pelosi continues to be a loser; does anyone truly believe that the voters of San Francisco's District 8 are not perpetually stoned?
Pensions are still being slaughtered and where are the laws to make them inviolate?
Why has not this Admin set-up a health care plan that is insurance company free as a fund similar to Medicare or Social Security, paid for by taxing outsourcing Publicly traded corporations?
Why does not Obama followed FDR's approach and recover 80% of the profits of War Contractors? Why has he not capped Oil per barrel prices at, say $20.00 as did Carter (He capped it at $8-$10 per barrel) and tax the oil companies with a $1.3 trillion WINDFALL PROFITS tax for what they stole from us these last eight years?
Why has he said nothing about the increase in gas prices from $1.44 in November/December of 2008 to over $3.03 cents recently and still at twice what the price was in 2008 then?
Why has he not capped Executive Compensation packages at $2.5 million or 25 times’ average employee Com Packages? Anything more by my calculations is stealing from investors. Why do we not have the same Health care plan as our senators have?
Illinois has borrowed against my pension fund to the tune of $39 billion dollars and wants to turn it over to the legislators and judges to carve up further. My wife is paying $850 a month for health care. I can assure you of this, neither my friends, colleagues, associates nor I, will vote for Mr. Obama again. I will vote for Dennis J. Kucinich, or if he does not run for president, then we shall vote for Pawlenty if he runs, or for an independent. This congress is no better than that of the Bushites.
The more I see of this president, the more it confirms my concerns during the campaign; he is in this for the celebrity and the dynastic wealth that celebrity holds in store for him. He has done a thing not even Bush did, he has betrayed his supporters.
Those who think there has been anything other than a minor change since the end of the Bush Administration must be smoking some Gosh awful weed.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Inaugural celebrations from Washington, DC to St. Paul, MN
President Obama gets out of limo - screenshot
Originally uploaded by Kathlyn Stone
As President Obama stepped out of his limo to walk for part of his symbolic approach to the White House via Pennsylvania Avenue on Jan. 20, hundreds of elementary school students at St. Paul's Expo for Excellence Magnet Elementary were concluding their own inaugural march along Randolph Street and Snelling Avenue.
View slideshow of some happy children and adults celebrating the day.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Come One, Come All. Get Your New People Parts
by Sandy Sand
For more than forty years physicians have been replacing worn out knee and hip joints.
Internal organs are replaced even though they are riddled with rejection problems.
External flaws, the ravages of aging and excess fat have people lining up at the body sculptors’ workshops.
According to CNN
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2009/01/03/connery.uk.bionic.knuckles.cnn
Scientists have perfected bionic knuckles made of space age materials that prevent rejection by the body to give new life to old hands that are ravaged by arthritis.
All this body part replacement needs some reconsideration.
I rather like to compare our bodies to automobiles.
Put a new engine in an old car and it puts stress on the older un-replaced parts and they conk out.
Give a person a new efficient pump and it will put stress on weak old kidneys that can’t keep up.
Therefore, once our bones have finished growing and we’re fully matured adults (yeah, like that ever happens to our brains, anyway).
Brain transplants, anyone? But then you wouldn’t be you; you’d be him or her.
We should have all our body parts replaced at the same time before they all conk out like old auto parts.
Why put up with the crummy ones nature doled out to us?
For more than forty years physicians have been replacing worn out knee and hip joints.
Internal organs are replaced even though they are riddled with rejection problems.
External flaws, the ravages of aging and excess fat have people lining up at the body sculptors’ workshops.
According to CNN
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2009/01/03/connery.uk.bionic.knuckles.cnn
Scientists have perfected bionic knuckles made of space age materials that prevent rejection by the body to give new life to old hands that are ravaged by arthritis.
All this body part replacement needs some reconsideration.
I rather like to compare our bodies to automobiles.
Put a new engine in an old car and it puts stress on the older un-replaced parts and they conk out.
Give a person a new efficient pump and it will put stress on weak old kidneys that can’t keep up.
Therefore, once our bones have finished growing and we’re fully matured adults (yeah, like that ever happens to our brains, anyway).
Brain transplants, anyone? But then you wouldn’t be you; you’d be him or her.
We should have all our body parts replaced at the same time before they all conk out like old auto parts.
Why put up with the crummy ones nature doled out to us?
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Being Dead Broke is a Grave Situation
by Sandy Sand
It’s no secret that the economy is bad for most of us, while others have fallen into a black hole of debt.
Where yesterday they could pay their bills; today they can’t, even after selling off everything of value that they possess.
That is…until they remember that long forgotten, dusty deed to a burial plot.
From ashes to ashes; from dust to dust, and for some the dust on the deed is a safety net to buy them a little time to recover from their economic ills.
So it is in Southern California where the price of land has always sold at an inflated premium.
More and more people in California, as well as across the country, are selling off their burial plots make ends meet or to keep their heads above drowning in indebtedness.
Like all over-inflated acreage, burial plots in Southern California before the economic downturn were selling for between $3,000 and $21,000, with a mean price of $12,000.
The average plot is 6-feet by 3-feet or 18-square-feet, and there are 43,560 square feet to an acre, which if laid side by side and not allowing for walk-around room, means every acre could accommodate 2,420 plots.
If the plots were to sell for the average price of $12,000, each acre would be worth $2,904,000.
In any man’s pocketbook that is a lot of money.
In a bit of irony, for one Los Angeles woman, who found herself suddenly evicted with the distinct possibility of being forced to live on the street, her grave situation was her lifeline, but at a heavy cost in the deflated value of all real estate.
According to Baron Chu, owner of Plot brokers, plots are selling for 25-cents on the dollar.
The burial plot she owned was originally purchased for $6,800, which she sold for a paltry $500.
“ But,” Chu said, “it allowed her to move into a hotel for a month where she can live and look for work. It kept her out of Skid Row."
There was no follow-up in the Daily News story, so there is no way of knowing if a month and $500 was enough time and money to allow her to dig her way out of her financial mess.
For her sake, and the thousands of Americans like her, who managed to be productive citizens up to now…let us hope so.
Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11364444
It’s no secret that the economy is bad for most of us, while others have fallen into a black hole of debt.
Where yesterday they could pay their bills; today they can’t, even after selling off everything of value that they possess.
That is…until they remember that long forgotten, dusty deed to a burial plot.
From ashes to ashes; from dust to dust, and for some the dust on the deed is a safety net to buy them a little time to recover from their economic ills.
So it is in Southern California where the price of land has always sold at an inflated premium.
More and more people in California, as well as across the country, are selling off their burial plots make ends meet or to keep their heads above drowning in indebtedness.
Like all over-inflated acreage, burial plots in Southern California before the economic downturn were selling for between $3,000 and $21,000, with a mean price of $12,000.
The average plot is 6-feet by 3-feet or 18-square-feet, and there are 43,560 square feet to an acre, which if laid side by side and not allowing for walk-around room, means every acre could accommodate 2,420 plots.
If the plots were to sell for the average price of $12,000, each acre would be worth $2,904,000.
In any man’s pocketbook that is a lot of money.
In a bit of irony, for one Los Angeles woman, who found herself suddenly evicted with the distinct possibility of being forced to live on the street, her grave situation was her lifeline, but at a heavy cost in the deflated value of all real estate.
According to Baron Chu, owner of Plot brokers, plots are selling for 25-cents on the dollar.
The burial plot she owned was originally purchased for $6,800, which she sold for a paltry $500.
“ But,” Chu said, “it allowed her to move into a hotel for a month where she can live and look for work. It kept her out of Skid Row."
There was no follow-up in the Daily News story, so there is no way of knowing if a month and $500 was enough time and money to allow her to dig her way out of her financial mess.
For her sake, and the thousands of Americans like her, who managed to be productive citizens up to now…let us hope so.
Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11364444
Thursday, January 1, 2009
OMG, How Could I Live Without My MTV?
by Sandy Sand
OMG, How Could I Live Without My MTV?
Very well, thank you very much even if Time Warner and Viacom reached a temporary agreement.
Viacom and Time Warner reached a temporary settlement that will keep Dora Exploring, Sponge Bob doing whatever he does, Jon Steward and Steven Colbert punching the pols.
Most of the 17 channels Viacom was threatening to pull from Time Warner Cable I never heard of, and like MTV, would be clicked right past even if I did know of them.
In what sounds more like an attempt at extortion by Viacom in these tougher that tough economic times, Viacom used the threat of pulling the channels if Time Warner didn’t come up with and additional four percent for each channel they subscribe to.
Time Warner estimated the cost to them would be an additional $39 million a year.
Home entertainment is the cheapest thing we have to temporarily escape from the pressing problems of keeping home and hearth together, and worrying from day to day if our jobs will be there tomorrow.
This is the time for Viacom to rein in the greed, practice good public relations and NOT raise their fees.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-viacom1-2009jan01,0,519565.story
OMG, How Could I Live Without My MTV?
Very well, thank you very much even if Time Warner and Viacom reached a temporary agreement.
Viacom and Time Warner reached a temporary settlement that will keep Dora Exploring, Sponge Bob doing whatever he does, Jon Steward and Steven Colbert punching the pols.
Most of the 17 channels Viacom was threatening to pull from Time Warner Cable I never heard of, and like MTV, would be clicked right past even if I did know of them.
In what sounds more like an attempt at extortion by Viacom in these tougher that tough economic times, Viacom used the threat of pulling the channels if Time Warner didn’t come up with and additional four percent for each channel they subscribe to.
Time Warner estimated the cost to them would be an additional $39 million a year.
Home entertainment is the cheapest thing we have to temporarily escape from the pressing problems of keeping home and hearth together, and worrying from day to day if our jobs will be there tomorrow.
This is the time for Viacom to rein in the greed, practice good public relations and NOT raise their fees.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-viacom1-2009jan01,0,519565.story
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