Pinky and The Brain
Sunday, February 8, 2009
And I Quote
It's not the people who are in prison that worry me.
It's the people who aren't.
~ Arthur Gore
It's the people who aren't.
~ Arthur Gore
Healthy Heart Tips for a Bad Economy
The economic news is enough to weaken anyone's heart, and it sometimes does with people feeling stressed, eating poorly and cutting out workouts while trying to make ends meet.
"We've seen an increase in patients complaining about heart palpitations, anxiety and stress over the past months," Karol Watson, an associate professor of cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, said in a news release issued by the school. "Much of heart disease can be prevented. That's why it is so important to follow a healthy lifestyle and to control your cardiovascular risk factors."
UCLA cardiologists offer these tips for adults and children in these tough economic times:
- Eat better; exercise more. Eat a healthy diet, including five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. By cooking simple fresh foods at home, rather than indulging in restaurant fare or fast foods, you can save money and your health. Maintaining a good diet and exercise program -- even if it's just 30 minutes of walking around the neighborhood -- helps you prevent obesity, which adds to the risk of heart attacks, heart failure and diabetes.
- Don't skimp on health care. Putting off doctor visits, especially when you have symptoms, hurts your health more in the long run, as does skipping medications or splitting pills to cut costs. Maintain regular checkups. Look at pharmaceutical company prescription programs if medication costs are a concern for you.
- Stop smoking and avoid secondhand smoke. Smoking is an expensive habit that greatly increases your risk of cardiovascular problems. Quitting smoking quickly reduces the risk to your heart.
- Reduce stress. Find a positive outlet -- such as exercise, meditation or the company of others -- to ease stress and improve your health.
- Maintain healthy cholesterol levels. Get your levels checked and talk to your physician about the best plan of action to keep your LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels low and your HDL ("good") cholesterol levels high.
- Check your blood pressure. Hypertension is called the "silent killer," because it exhibits few warning signs. Today, several effective treatments are available for high blood pressure. If your blood pressure is normal, maintain it with a healthy lifestyle.
The American Heart Association has more about maintaining a heart healthy lifestyle.
Deadliest-ever Australian wildfires
Damn!
Entire towns have been razed by wildfires raging through southeastern Australia, burning people in their homes and cars in the deadliest blaze in the country's history.
The number of dead stand at 128, as of this post.
A grim toll that rose almost by the hour as officials reached further into the fire zone.
Searing temperatures and wind blasts created a firestorm that swept across a swath of the country's Victoria state, where at least 750 homes were destroyed and all of the victims died.
"Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.
"It's an appalling tragedy for the nation."
If any of the deadly fires were deliberately lit, "There are no words to describe it other than mass murder," he said.
The skies rained ash and trees exploded in the inferno, witnesses said, as temperatures of up 117 F combined with blasting winds to create furnace-like conditions.
The town of Marysville and several hamlets in the Kinglake district, both about 50 miles north of Melbourne, are virtually destroyed.
At Marysville, a winter tourism town that was home to about 800 people, up to 90 percent of buildings were in ruins, witnesses said.
Police said two people died there.
Marysville is no more," Senior Constable Brian Cross said as he manned a checkpoint Sunday on a road leading into the town.
I say it again, Damn!
Entire towns have been razed by wildfires raging through southeastern Australia, burning people in their homes and cars in the deadliest blaze in the country's history.
The number of dead stand at 128, as of this post.
A grim toll that rose almost by the hour as officials reached further into the fire zone.
Searing temperatures and wind blasts created a firestorm that swept across a swath of the country's Victoria state, where at least 750 homes were destroyed and all of the victims died.
"Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.
"It's an appalling tragedy for the nation."
If any of the deadly fires were deliberately lit, "There are no words to describe it other than mass murder," he said.
The skies rained ash and trees exploded in the inferno, witnesses said, as temperatures of up 117 F combined with blasting winds to create furnace-like conditions.
The town of Marysville and several hamlets in the Kinglake district, both about 50 miles north of Melbourne, are virtually destroyed.
At Marysville, a winter tourism town that was home to about 800 people, up to 90 percent of buildings were in ruins, witnesses said.
Police said two people died there.
Marysville is no more," Senior Constable Brian Cross said as he manned a checkpoint Sunday on a road leading into the town.
*****
I say it again, Damn!
Unusual Celebrations and Holidays
You know there might just be something to that horoscope thing after all?
Mine today said it's all about the money and today is Laugh and Get Rich Day.
Makes you, wonder????
Mine today said it's all about the money and today is Laugh and Get Rich Day.
Makes you, wonder????
As of this moment ...
4239 Brave men and women will not be returning from Iraq
ALIVE
and
573 Brave men and women will not be returning from Afghanistan
ALIVE
Support OUR Troops ... Bring Them HOME, Now!
ALIVE
and
573 Brave men and women will not be returning from Afghanistan
ALIVE
Support OUR Troops ... Bring Them HOME, Now!
Daily Funny
The wife has kicked me out for cheating.
A bit of an over-reaction, I thought - we were only playing Monopoly.
A bit of an over-reaction, I thought - we were only playing Monopoly.
Fire and Rain
The fires burning in Australia in the south and the unending rain in the north really need to get together and cancel each other out as it were.
From ABC Melbourne:
This is not a good time for the folks Down Under.
From ABC Melbourne:
Marysville north of Melbourne has been all but wiped off the map and ambulance authorities say there are not enough vehicles to reach all the injured in nearby Kinglake, a town which is also feared to have been destroyed.More details at ABC Melbourne
This is not a good time for the folks Down Under.
Ann Coulter is being probed ...
... For fraud! I know, I know you had visions of other 'probing', but hey, we get what we get.
From the New York Daily News:
From the New York Daily News:
Following our January 11th column, Connecticut’s elections enforcement commission is making a “thorough investigation” of whether the conservative pundit broke the law by voting in the nutmeg state while living in New York City.
Read the rest in the New York Daily News
Russian heavy industry gives up rubles
Russia's liquidity crisis is so bad that giant factories and regional governments are conducting commerce using barter - the ancient method of exchanging goods and services.
The ruble is in short supply, first because the government's bought up a ton of money to keep it from collapsing, and second, because there is so little confidence in banks that many people keep their savings in safe-deposit boxes or mattresses, rather than savings accounts.
The ruble is in short supply, first because the government's bought up a ton of money to keep it from collapsing, and second, because there is so little confidence in banks that many people keep their savings in safe-deposit boxes or mattresses, rather than savings accounts.
Advertisements are beginning to appear in newspapers and online, like one that offered “2,500,000 rubles’ worth of premium underwear for any automobile,” and another promising “lumber in Krasnoyarsk for food or medicine.” A crane manufacturer in Yekaterinburg is paying its debtors with excavators...The Hyundai factory in Taganrog, the southern seaport where Chekhov was born, rolled out a barter promotion on its Web site, offering to trade vehicles for “raw materials,” “high-tech equipment” or “other liquid goods, including finished products of various branches of industry.” Gleb Korotkov, a spokesman for the factory, said he could not be specific about what goods were meant, saying it was a “commercial secret.”
Barter deals seem to be spreading fastest in construction industries. Dmitri Smorodin, who runs a large St. Petersburg building firm, said he thought for two months before announcing in late January that he was willing to accept barter items — including food products — as payment for construction work.
Job-loss chart comparing previous and current recession
From the Speaker of the House's blog -- a chart showing the job-losses by month in the past two recessions (red=2001, blue=1991) against the current recession (that suicidal green line plunging to its death).
Holy Shit, Batman.
Sixity degree swing
It is 75 degrees Fahrenheit outside right now and only four days ago it was 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
No wonder everyone around here has a 'cold'.
It also beats the record high for the day set eighty-four years ago.
No wonder everyone around here has a 'cold'.
It also beats the record high for the day set eighty-four years ago.
Print your own money
From TreeHugger as well:
How to Print Your Own Money, Build Community & Not Get Arrested by the Feds
photo: Jason Houston/Berkshares
I want anyone who’s got a joke on the tip of their tongue about ‘monopoly money’ to put it out of their mind. Printing your own local community currency is a perfectly legitimate thing to do—you can’t make your own local coins but bills are legal, at least in the US—and can be a great way to encourage shopping at local businesses. It doesn’t replace federal printed currency, but augments it by getting people to make the practical and symbolic gesture of supporting local businesses before national chains.
Think it’s tough to get started, to convince businesses to accept the currency and for people to attach value to it, you may be right. But here are a few examples of places which have taken their local monetary system into their own hands:
The article continues here.
Green or is it
From TreeHugger:
New Study Finds Corn-based Ethanol More Harmful Than Oil-based Gasoline
Photo via: Silfverduk
Currently in the news, the producers of ethanol are pressing their thumbs to the government, asking them to overturn the 25-year rule limiting the mix of ethanol which can be added to gasoline from its current 10 percent to as much as 15 percent. In the meantime, the Agricultural Department is in discussions with the EPA on raising the current ethanol blend percentage in order to help protect the ethanol industry, which has been deemed a key contributor to the “new energy future”.
Okay, that sounds just great. But a recent study is warning that the corn-based ethanol produced in the US, may in fact be more harmful and costly than helpful and clean... (read on)
Article continues: New Study Finds Corn-based Ethanol More Harmful Than Oil-based Gasoline
Our Readers
Some of our readers today have been in:
Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Pulaski, Tennessee, United States
Tinley Park, Illinois, United States
Surabaya, Jawa Timur, Indonesia
Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Pulaski, Tennessee, United States
Tinley Park, Illinois, United States
Surabaya, Jawa Timur, Indonesia
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