Posts

SOLVED!

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The Answer to My Ig-runt Question            From the Geology sub-Reddit (It was all because of that sneaky   Upper Cretaceous   Thank you "v7x" I'm a Selma chalk smiley face! I was once the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, long time ago. Even More The fertile soil has origins in the Cretaceous Period, when the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico was much farther inland. Over millions of years, plankton that lived in the Gulf left behind exoskeletons rich in calcium carbonate—the accumulation of which resulted in the Black Belt’s chalk subsoil. As a result of all the calcium, the soil is very fertile and good for growing crops. I truly appreciate the response.  Now we know. ("We" means quite a few of us'ns.) MacGown, Brown and Hill
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WHAT AM I SEEING IN THIS SATELLITE SHOT? Is It the... Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee "AgArc?"* [Look at Google Maps, click "satellite" and look.] Go ahead, sweep around from east to west to north through these places: ALA: Auburn, Montgomery, Selma, Demopolis, Gainsville, Demopolis MISS: Brooksville, West Point, Okalona, Tupelo, Corinth TENN:  Savannah I see a huge "AgArc" centered on East Point Alabama**, don't you? See the sweeping, circular arc? It's farmland, mostly, but what the......? Zoom in and you'll see the light part that makes the arc visible is FARM LAND. That's why I call it an "AgArc." But at the proper distance - satellite distance - there is clearly a geologic thang that could be the remnants of a vast crater... or maybe a ripple in the rock from an immense shock wave.  WHO KNOWS?  That's a real question, btw.  Seeing What I Wasn't Looking For I was looking for

Dry Hole

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    Looking like a bad exit wound         The heart of a frightening drought.               T he meteorologists call it "Exceptional,"                       Which is the tip top of the drought severity scale.                               I'd call it..... ...CRAZY DRY And it has been CRAZY WINDY with some DRY LIGHTNING .  And CARELESS HUMANS . All they can do is try to save houses and barns Last year we had the Dog Head Fire in our neighborhood.    We were all packed up and ready to evacuate. All irreplaceables were in storage.        Dogs were kenneled. Cat crates were ready. Friends were ready to put us up.              When I hear "2000 people evacuated," it has a visceral impact.                     Some of us live in flood plains, some in earthquake zones,                            There are tornado and hurricane alleys.                                 Very few of us would live anywhere else. BUT IT'S C

Something New for Flu...Whew!

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First New Flu Med in Twenty Years (You have to read "pharma news" to find stuff like this. I do.) U.S. Availability by Christmas - maybe (Available in Japan now) I wich I wad Japudeez Baloxavir marboxil is a medication developed by Shionogi Co., a Japanese pharmaceutical company, for treatment of influenza A and influenza B.  The drug was approved for use in Japan in February 2018  and is in late phase trials in the United States as of early 2018.  Drugbank.ca That's an accelerated approval track. Roche's Genentech* bought the license from Shionogi, so the FDA put their approval on a "fast track." – If approved, baloxavir marboxil would be the first oral, single-dose antiviral and the first medicine with a novel proposed mechanism of action to treat the flu in nearly 20 years – BusinessWire.com    One of it's great benefits is cutting  down  on how contagious we are ("viral shedding")! Since we are all just waiting for

Who Do You Love?

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Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...  But go ahead, who - between these two eccentric guys - looks the best? "He" #1  "He" #2 #1  Did these things: He created the Environmental Protection Agency He created  the Occupation Safety and Health  Administration.  He signed into law the Clean Air Act He signed the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.  He dramatically expanded the federal food stamp  program. He advocated for universal health-care coverage,  with subsidies for  low-income Americans. (Oh, and he totally screwed up with Watergate.) #2 Promised these things in the campaign He was FOR Raising taxes on the rich.  He was FOR investing in infrastructure on a massive scale.  He promised to Protect Social Security and Medicare from any cuts. His campaign even discussed breaking up the biggest banks.  You know what He #2 has actually done (much of it undoing what #1 did )- and doing NONE of these things he promised.)

MA-LAR-KEY!

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The I-Can't-Help-Myself Political Rant I don't do it often, but there you go. Our Government in “Action” The Compromise immigration bill, that The House will (won’t?) vote on next week creates far more problems than it solves.  Fixing the DACA horror and stopping family separations would be really good, but at the price of a major stupidity that will harm America for decades would be really, really bad . “Hanging in the balance is legal protection for young immigrants covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program; money for President Donald Trump's border wall* ; steep cuts to legal immigration; and a long-term strategy for addressing family separations at the border.” $Billions for a boondoggle that won’t work and will do vast environmental damage = Trump’s Wall . ...Just my humble opinion, but I’m mightily opposed to The Wall, preferring high tech border control that will work better, cost billions less and not interrupt mi

Bifido infantis

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We Are Shooting Ourselves in the Foot. Both feet, actually. Autoimmune diseases, diabetes and obesity are on a tear ,  growing worldwide (over 10% a year!), and conspicuously more in the U.S. "Western Civilization" has almost exterminated a great ally and opened the gates to an invasion of ailments that make us miserable and shorten our lives. Now we have figured out the problem and know how to correct our terrible mistake. [And I'm not just talking more exercise and less fast food.]  It starts with all our newborns! (See below) The Invasion of the Misery Makers If none of these has hit you you can guess what they are from the pharma ads on TV. Psoriasis; psoriasis arthritis credit Lupus, Graves disease, Asthma credit And especially Celiac disease. credit Our other, deadlier diseases on the fast elevator up. Diabetes Obesity   I look better in clothes. credit A HUGE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE OF