Clean out time.

Going, going, gone. About 5 years ago we did a massive, huge, gigantic sort, clean and pitch effort. Now it's all come back--things we saved were like rabbits and multiplied without permission or purpose. I had stored some old paintings (most unfinished acrylic) in my bedroom closet. I looked through them this week-end and it's time to say good-bye. There are one or two (completed) I might offer to  my son, but that's about it. If he doesn't want them, it's the trash man's delight.

I have been encouraged in this effort hearing about an acquaintance who has been a hoarder all her life, and is now in the early stages of dementia. A professional agency has been called in, but after 3 months, little progress has been made.  In a recent stay in a nursing home (she has returned home), she even managed to save things in her room.  I'm not a hoarder, but have some odd and unusual piles of junk.

Turmeric, pt. 2

“Turmeric is the spice commonly found in curry — and, according to new research published in Stem Cell Research and Therapy, it may boost your brain proliferation or its power to repair itself.”

I looked through my blogs to see what I’ve written about turmeric—not much, and usually I wrote that I don’t use it.  But since writing about it last week after watching a review of Brain Fog, I’ve been trying it in apple cider.  That sort of covers up the taste and color.  A few sprinkles on food or salad dressing probably isn’t enough, so I’m trying about 1/2 teaspoon in cider until I get used to it.  So far, no stomach upset, and it’s not awful.

“Outside of this study [on neurodegenerative diseases], turmeric is considered the “spice for life.” Another one of its active ingredients is curcumin, and curcumin is considered an anti-inflammatory. This ingredient has also been associated with the ability to prevent diabetes, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s. But as is the case with the rat research, the potential of turmeric acting as modern medicine is uncertain, though adding turmeric powder to food or tea is believed to supplement a well-balanced, healthy lifestyle. Doing so sets you ahead of the game if turmeric is found to be capable of repairing the human brain.”

http://www.medicaldaily.com/turmeric-helps-your-brain-heal-itself-spice-your-brain-power-curry-305242

Source: Hucklenbroich J, Klein R, Neumaier B, Graf R, Fink G, et al. Aromatic-turmerone induces neural stem cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Stem Cell Research & Therapy. 2014.

How true.

What computers used to cost, Dec. 2007

Today I was cleaning out a drawer (something I need to do more often) and came across the receipt from Staples for the computer I’m using as I write.  A Dell Inspiron 530S loaded with VISTA. The total bill came to $895.50 with various price over rides amounting to $39, a flash drive of 4 GB (I still have it in the package and not sure I ever used it), something that looks like a 2 year warranty, taxes $53.59, a holiday cd for $6.  Can’t be sure from the codes but it looks like I also bought a monitor and paid for data transfer from the old computer (which I think is still in the basement storeroom, and occasionally has been called into service when this one failed). Photo below.

The new Inspiron seems to be about the same price ($50 less), but with Windows 10, wireless, 1TB hard drive, 8GB system memory (compared to 250 GB and 2 GB)

My 530S is clunky and slow, it’s been repaired twice, and really resisted when I updated to Windows 10 (had to use Firefox).

Mammograms—do they help, hurt or save?

You may wish to download this booklet on screening for breast cancer.

"When we first published this leaflet in 2008, the Summary was:

"It may be reasonable to attend for breast cancer screening with mammography, but it may also be reasonable not to attend, as screening has both benefits and harms.

If 2000 women are screened regularly for 10 years, one will benefit from the screening, as she will avoid dying from breast cancer.

At the same time, 10 healthy women will, as a consequence, become cancer patients and will be treated unnecessarily. These women will have either a part of their breast or the whole breast removed, and they will often receive radiotherapy, and sometimes chemotherapy.

Furthermore, about 200 healthy women will experience a false alarm. The psychological strain until one knows whether or not it was cancer, and even afterwards, can be severe."

These numbers were derived from the randomised trials of mammography screening. However, since the trials were performed, treatment of breast cancer has improved considerably. More recent studies suggest that mammography screening may no longer be effective in reducing the risk of dying from breast cancer."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/insider/aggressive-treatment-for-early-breast-cancer-reporters-notebook.html?_r=0

If you read the NYT article, be sure to read the comments.

In God we Trust

Food and fellowship

Do you sometimes feel like this? Too much food?

• Saturday we ate out to celebrate our daughter/SIL's 22nd anniversary at the Rusty Bucket;
• Monday we ordered pizza in from Iacono’s on Kenny Rd.;
• Wednesday we were on a road trip to Canton and the meal was catered (baked chicken);
• Thursday a church group gathered for dinner at the Crane’s lovely home on a lake (wonderful smoked ribs)
• also attended a memorial service at Friendship Village for Mary Dunbar which included a reception with food;
• Friday we attended the wedding of Tracy and Andy at the  Amelita Mirolo Barn which included dinner (lots of choices);
• Sunday we're having friends Howard and Betty here for lunch (soup and salad) before we head out for an art show in Middletown, Ohio Watercolor Society.

But I seem to be going to the store all the time.

When we point a finger, three are pointing back at us

"The family is under attack from internal forces, such as divorce, cohabitation, decline in marriage, promiscuity, abuse and violence, addictions, pornography – and the list goes on and on. The family is also under attack from outside forces, such as cultural coarsening, anti-family entertainment and rhetoric, sex trafficking and sexual exploitation, and extremists who want to shut down religious freedom and redefine marriage and family." Janice Shaw Crouse

Last Sunday our class was looking at the first three chapters of Romans.  Her quote taken from an interview reminds me of Paul's letter to the Romans. He was writing to a Christian congregation in Rome made up of pagans and Jews--all saved by grace. Pagans accepted pedophilia, abortion and homosexuality, Jews didn't. Paul calls those practices degrading, unnatural, indecent, exchanging the truth of God for a lie, and perversion, and it needed to stop. But Jews had the advantage of the law and the prophets which addressed many other sins and which were also being violated. Paul had harsh words for them for being stubborn, self-righteous, self-seeking and blind to the light. Adultery, stealing, blaspheming, gossip, arrogance, etc. The family is under attack, but we Christians weakened it to the point of collapse and now point fingers at those who violate natural law.

God doesn’t grade on a curve.

Federal Debt Held by Public Has More Than Doubled Under Obama

$57,431.65 for each of 117,343,000 households.

"Debt held by the public represents federal debt issued by Treasury and held by investors outside of the federal government, including individuals, corporations, state or local governments, the Federal Reserve, and foreign governments,”  explains the Government Accountability Office. “The majority of debt held by the public consists of marketable Treasury securities, such as bills, notes, bonds, floating rate notes, and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities that are sold through auctions and can be resold by whoever owns them. Treasury also issues a smaller amount of nonmarketable securities, such as savings securities and State and Local Government Series securities."

"Intragovernmental debt holdings represent federal debt owed by Treasury to federal government accounts—primarily federal trust funds such as Social Security and Medicare—that typically have an obligation to invest in federal securities their excess annual receipts (including interest earnings) over disbursements,” says GAO.

“Unlike debt held by the public,” says GAO, “intragovernmental debt holdings are not shown as balances on the federal government’s consolidated financial statements because they represent loans from one part of the federal government to another."

As of the close of business on Tuesday, the total debt of the federal government was $18,150,481,620,363.39. Of this, $13,046,512,400,965.87 was debt held by the public, and $5,103,969,219,397.52 was intragovernmental debt.

The $13,046,512,400,965.87 in debt held by the public was an increase of $6,739,201,661,284.21—or 106.8 percent--from the $6,307,310,739,681.66 in debt held by the public on the day Obama was inaugurated. (CNS News)

http://useconomy.about.com/od/usdebtanddeficit/p/US-Debt-by-President.htm

Fall color in Ohio

You don't need to go to Vermont to be a leaf peeper. The fall color this year is marvelous. This is Rose Lake in the Hocking Hills State Park. It's a 17 acre fishing lake, but isn't it glorious?

http://trekohio.com/2012/04/08/rose-lake/

http://parks.ohiodnr.gov/hockinghills

Think about the civility and good manners of despots

I watched a report of viewer satisfaction with Tuesday's debate, and one thing that impressed them most about the Democrats was civility. Well, I hope so. Look at their ages--they should have good manners. However, not negotiating with Iran or Cuba for imprisoned Americans, grabbing the rights that belong to the states (10th amendment), funding an abortion organization that killed close to 400,000 unborn Americans in one year according to its own report, attacking free speech, freedom of religion and the 2nd amendment, and by default letting Russia back into the middle east power structure isn't my idea of civilized. Nor is pandering to the lowest common denominator to avoid these issues with socialist programs.

Conestoga trip to Canton, Ohio, October 14, 2015

We had a wonderful time visiting Canton, OH to see the National Memorial for President William McKinley, the Stark County Historical museum, and the National First Ladies education and resource center.

Before he became President, William McKinley had served 14 years in the House, where he became the leading Republican tariff expert, giving his name to the measure enacted in 1890. The next year he was elected Governor of Ohio, serving two terms. McKinley was assassinated in 1901 at the beginning of his 2nd Presidential term by Leon Czolgosz who said his actions were inspired by violent anarchist Emma Goldman’s claim that “all rulers should be exterminated.” Yes, she's called an anarchist, not a communist or socialist, but if you read her writings, she was left of the Bolsheviks with whom she shared a mission and had squabbles. To this day, the leftists in the U.S. apologize for her. But put that aside for the moment since everyone's forgotten them. Capitalism has brought wealth and comfort to the very people they tried to inflame.

I'll say I was very impressed by Stark county's hard work on history and maintaining these sites without federal or state money. 25,000 school children each year visit this memorial, and the education director did a wonderful monologue for us about McKinley's life.

On the bus with Jerry passing out snacks.  We watched two terrific DVDs on architecture—Louis Sullivan and Gothic Cathedrals—on the 2.5 hour trips.

McKinley National Memorial, final resting place of the 25th president of the U.S. and his wife Ida, and their two young daughters .  There are 108 steps, and we saw people running up the steps for exercise (Rocky only had to do 72).  He died in September 1901 and by June 1903, $500,000 had been contributed for his memorial and designs were submitted.  The one chosen is laid out like a cross, in the shape of a sword. Construction began in June 1905 and it was finished by September 1907; the dedication ceremony was September 30, 1907. Ida his widow was there but died later in the year.

The Director of Education at the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, Christopher Kenney, provided a wonderful reenactment of the President in the museum and accompanied our group to the memorial providing interesting insights about the construction and dedication. 

Entrance to the museum built in 1963; it has a Planetarium, a McKinley Gallery, a research library, and a street of shops reflecting the history of Stark County.

A room in the museum is set up with period pieces to reflect the McKinley home.

Then it was back on the bus to travel to Ida Saxton McKinley House and the First Ladies Education and Research Center on Market Avenue, South.

This was originally the home of Ida McKinley’s parents, but she and her husband also lived there for awhile.  It had fallen into disrepair in the 20th century having been used as retail space and was slated to be demolished when a relative of Ida’s stepped in to save it.  It has been completely restored and has an active group of volunteers.

The research center dedicated to the first ladies is in a former bank down the street from the house within easy walking distance. We saw a number of personal items and gowns of the First Ladies.

It’s hard to be a Kardashian male

“Lamar Odom took cocaine and as many as 10 sexual-performance supplement pills leading up to his hospitalization in Las Vegas, according to a dramatic 911 call released Wednesday by the Nye County Sheriff’s Department.

Odom, the former NBA player and husband of reality television star Khloe Kardashian, was rushed to a medical facility after being found unresponsive by staff at a brothel known as the Love Ranch in Crystal, Nev., around 70 miles northwest of Las Vegas.” http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2015/10/14/lamar-odom-cocaine-sexual-performance-supplements-brothel-hospitalization-khloe-kardashian/73960622/

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-84708783/

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-84707571/

Walking vs. stationary bike

"Exercise expert Dr. Kenneth Cooper ranks walking and stationary bicycling as two of the six best exercises. He writes that walking is particularly good for previously sedentary people and older people. He recommends stationary bicycling because it simultaneously strengthens bicyclists’ arms and legs and causes far fewer injuries than jogging and outdoors bicycling. The Merck Manual Home Health Handbook’s “Choosing the Right Exercise” report lists 10 exercises, including stat...ionary bicycling and walking. Walking is praised for being “relatively easy” on joints throughout the body and being better than stationary bicycling for people with knee problems. Stationary bicycling improves strength more than walking and lets people change the intensity of their workouts by changing the bicycle’s resistance." Walking is almost out of the question for me except for brief errands. That's why I just love my stationary bike, a power spin 210. http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/stationary-bicycle-vs-walking-exercise-9889.html

". . .the latest research reveals that the magic number for maintaining cognitive fitness with age and preventing Alzheimer’s is to work up to a level of 150 minutes per week of a combination of cardio exercise and strength training. Great ways to get in your aerobic exercise include brisk walking, jogging, dancing, swimming, and playing tennis, or going to the gym and utilizing an elliptical, treadmill or stationary bike." http://www.alzheimersprevention.org/.../exercise-and...

Walking in Spain with a cane and strong friend.

Turmeric and Alzheimer’s research

http://alzheimer.neurology.ucla.edu/Curcumin.html

I was watching someone plug his book “Brain Fog” today and in addition to the usual walk a mile a day, drink coffee and wine and eat blueberries, he mentioned turmeric and black pepper.  So I looked that up.  Seems to be a lot of pre-prepared items you can buy.

Curcumin (Turmeric), an ancient Indian herb used in curry powder, has been extensively studied in modern medicine and Indian systems of medicine for the treatment of various medical conditions, including cystic fibrosis, haemorrhoids, gastric ulcer, colon cancer, breast cancer, atherosclerosis, liver diseases and arthritis. It has been used in various types of treatments for dementia and traumatic brain injury. Curcumin also has a potential role in the prevention and treatment of AD. Curcumin as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and lipophilic action improves the cognitive functions in patients with AD. A growing body of evidence indicates that oxidative stress, free radicals, beta amyloid, cerebral deregulation caused by bio-metal toxicity and abnormal inflammatory reactions contribute to the key event in Alzheimer's disease pathology. Due to various effects of curcumin, such as decreased Beta-amyloid plaques, delayed degradation of neurons, metal-chelation, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and decreased microglia formation, the overall memory in patients with AD has improved. . .

Worldwide, there are over 1000 published animal and human studies, both in vivo and in vitro in which the effects of curcumin on various diseases have been examined. Studies include epidemiological, basic and clinical research on AD. . . .

Epidemiological studies have shown that prevalence of AD is 4.4 lower amongst Indian Asians as compared to people of western origin. Ann Indian Acad Neurol. 2008 Jan-Mar; 11(1): 13–19.

Look what’s in the bag of tricks. More scary treats.

As of 2010, 68.8% of Federal individual tax receipts including payroll taxes, were paid by the top 20% of taxpayers. And these candidates will do their best to keep anyone else from getting rich.

49% of all 2014 spending paid for Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid; 20% went for income security (SNAP, TANF, housing, etc.).  Obamacare’s new spending will cost more than $1.8 trillion over the next decade. Now add in all these freebies.

The state vs. the people

Hillary Clinton has proven herself—to be just as low and crooked as a male politician

Take this science quiz

Whites and Hispanics score better than blacks on general science information, 8.4, 7.1 and 5.9. But why? This is information most of us had by 10th grade in general science class. It's not college level science.  I scored 11 out of 12 and have been away from science classes for over 50 years, but I recognized a lot of the questions from freshman high school general science. The debate will continue, but it would certainly affect STEM graduation and future jobs.  Asians are not included because there wasn’t a big enough pool for the researchers, but since they outscore whites in every area, I think we know what that would be. There is no breakdown by gender or age in the summary, although there is in the questions.  I’m assuming males score higher than females and older higher than younger.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/15/the-race-gap-in-science-knowledge/

Will he ever run out of left wing causes?

About 8 years ago I met the sweetest 11 year old boy.  He was just adorable.  We were taking a class together at Lakeside. He was really too young, but was so talented and precocious the teacher just overlooked the age requirement. Over the years I’d see him at his cottage and we’d wave and speak.  His parents got a divorce, but the cottage stayed with one of him, so my friend continued to enjoy the lake.  He didn’t seem to change much physically—always seemed to look like he was a fresh face kid, even though I figured he must at least be a junior or senior in high school.  I came across him on Facebook and friended him a few years ago. He had a few interests he posted occasionally—nothing unusual for a teen age boy.

He’s now in college.  Long stringy hair, no longer blond. He comments on every far left cause imaginable.  Pro-Palestine.  Anti-Columbus Day. Protesting against rape culture on his college campus. Demanding changes for climate change.  White privilege. Empty the racist prisons.

Gee, I hope he grows up soon.  This is almost like watching a train wreck in slow motion.