G+ Migration Blog

Scott Walker wants to protect us by building a wall on the border with Canada? Wut?!?

However controversial to some people, what a sad loss of a person who added to the world. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/science/oliver-sacks-dies-at-82-neurologist-and-author-explored-the-brains-quirks.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/science/oliver-sacks-dies-at-82-neurologist-and-author-explored-the-brains-quirks.html?_r=0

This is both a cool and kind of terrifying picture. Originally shared by Friends of NASA Hurricanes Kilo, Ignacio & Jimena Surround Hawaii, USA | NOAA This image, captured by the GOES West satellite at 8pm EDT on August 30, 2015, shows major Hurricane Kilo located around 1,220 miles west of Honolulu, Hurricane Ignacio located around 315 miles east of Hilo and Major Hurricane Jimena located around 1,425 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NOAA Weather  NASA's Earth Observatory  NASA Goddard  #NOAA #NASA #Space #Satellite #Earth #Weather #Storm #Hurricanes #Kilo #Ignacio #Jimena #Hawaii #USA #UnitedStates #GOES #GoesWest #GSFC #Goddard

Ok, I have no idea how "Jesus Christ Daily" showed up as a recommend on my google plus. Google plus be trippin' yo.

What I did today : laundry cleaned grill  made salsa unload dishwasher, load dishwasher, hand wash things that don't go in the dishwasher rearrange/clean full size freezer clean kitchen What I did not do : oh, loads of stuff

Maybe interesting about clothing and costuming. Originally shared by Lou Flores The Stratford Festival, Ontario 2015 The Forum Clothes make the man (or woman) Five hundred year ago men’s clothing defined the status and class of a man as they wore garish colors in bold longer styles filled with lace and trim.  Today no man would wear a red or yellow suit of clothes for fear that he might be mistaken for Santa Claus or the Banana Man.  The Forum panel this week spoke to the fashions of men and women over the last centuries both on and off the stage.  The former editor of “Chatelaine,” Rona Maynard, joined festival costume designer Charlotte Dean along with Larry Rosen, CEO of Harry Rosen Inc.   Rosen pointed out that women’s styles are allowed to change with the seasons where as with men there has been a stability in fashions in the last century.  The classic dark suit will often carry the occasion for most men along with the appropriate accessories and polished shoes.  Having said that ...

And now for things I think are neat and don't make me grumpy ... Originally shared by Make: Transparent Aluminum? #StarTrek http://makezine.com/2012/01/17/transparent-aluminum/

I am severely peeved about a Katrina story I just saw on CNN. Well, not just saw; I needed some time to calm down because it turns out I can get rather angry about some things. This still may not be particularly articulate; maybe I am irrational (not). What's the story? The story is how volunteer professional help from Illinois was sent to save 1200 frozen embryos from a New Orleans hospital (and how they found the first children born from those embryos after Katrina and how isn't this all wonderful and heart-warming and and and). Yep, somebody in the story says something about how isn't it wonderful those 1200 lives were saved. o.O I ... kind of don't know what to say. The numbers being used to talk about Katrina are that 1800 people died. Overwhelmingly in New Orleans. There is some dispute about those numbers, because it's always difficult to calculate these things and this was such a mess that it wouldn't be possible to have an absolute number. Even if you w...

Would a single-payer system prevent/resolve problems like this? http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/ama-wire/post/ruling-could-give-insurers-leeway-terminate-physicians?utm_source=BulletinHealthCare&utm_medium=email&utm_term=082915&utm_content=physicians&utm_campaign=article_alert-morning_rounds_weekend http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/ama-wire/post/ruling-could-give-insurers-leeway-terminate-physicians?utm_source=BulletinHealthCare&utm_medium=email&utm_term=082915&utm_content=physicians&utm_campaign=article_alert-morning_rounds_weekend

I was aware very early on after moving to Vancouver that there was tension between (at least some of) the scientific community and the conservative government. This seems to fall well within that friction, especially the ongoing concerns that the government was interfering with what scientists could and could not say. This particular situation highlights more of a conflict between being employed by a government agency, and having a right as a citizen to express your personal opinions about the government. At least initially, it seems this was a person who is a folk singer who wrote a protest song, which isn't outside of what they've done for some time. They also happen to be a scientist who works for a government agency, which they have also done for some time and simultaneously. I can't quite tell if this is a case of some precise details (which are note presently available to the public) being at issue, versus the whole idea of expressing your personal opinions which may ...

Aw. My sister got me a signed copy of Eric Carle's "Dragons, Dragons" for my birthday. I might just have to forgive her for being such a dink about the  vacation.

You know, it'd be nice to actually stay asleep through the night once.

Hey, we get to vote! Who knew? Jessica Musinski was very right, this totally should get more attention than it does. Shame on you, media, for not touting this more widely. P.S. My favorite thing in the Time graphic is where it notes that women are still not allowed to vote in Vatican City. Does that mean they allow women to hold positions at all in Vatican City? Because that would surprise me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Equality_Day http://www.nwhp.org/resources/commemorations/womens-equality-day/ http://time.com/4010645/womens-equality-day/ http://time.com/4010645/womens-equality-day

For National Dog Day, nauseatingly cute fluffy puppy, with and without toy.

Weather is weird. The strawberry season wasn't very good this year because it rained too much in May and June, then the late June/early July berries (raspberries and blackberries) were amazing. Now, the blueberry season, which usually runs July into September, has been super short due to hot, dry weather (I'm not sure if they even got a full month out of it?). I haven't seen too many late strawberries and raspberries, yet, so that remains to be seen. Also wondering about late rhubarb. Meanwhile, the tree fruits that were early to mid-July did great (all the cherries, some plums, apricots, early peaches), but then anything from about mid-July on has been unpredictable. Like, some of the best peaches were around for 1-2 weeks, and then they've gone into other peach types, which are so far kind of meh. Maybe the late peaches that come in September will be better.

Today has not been a very good day for me. You know how some days are just like that? Today has been one of those days. Everything feels terribly negative.

Guess I was tired. Definitely had weird dreams.

Dad had to have more surgery today. It was outpatient stuff. See, sometimes when you get cancer, you get extra, little cancers to go along with the big one. Although some of these little things turned out to be rather larger than not. It's the extra free stuff you never knew you wanted knew you never wanted. Anyway, he is feeling pretty crummy. I haz a sad.

Donuts have been ordered. That is all.

It's happening again . Welcome to the 1950s. P.S. Other articles make this more clear, but there is no question that many of these refusals expose the women in question to risks they simply would not have faced. P.P.S. Many Catholic healthcare systems provide otherwise excellent to exceptional healthcare, but this idea that religious doctrine has any place in healthcare decisions is ludicrous and antediluvian. http://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/Lawsuit-tests-religious-hospitals-right-to-6461051.php http://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/Lawsuit-tests-religious-hospitals-right-to-6461051.php

I made a mistake; I went outside (it's really kind of gorgeous out). Augh, something is definitely trying to kill me. Just took more allergy medicine.

Interesting history, if you're into that sort of thing. P.S. The Upper/Lower Canada thing used to confuse the heck out of me as a kid because looking at a map Lower Canada always looked further north and higher than Upper Canada. http://historynstuff.blogspot.ca/2015/08/how-provinces-and-territories-of-canada.html

Had to turn on the AC. Not because of temperature, something is blooming and trying to kill me. Cue every scifi story about spores or pollen, ever.  Protagonists: We were raised in space and landed on a planet and it's trying to kill us. Computer: whizz beep pop (I think this is mandatory to indicate the tremendous effort the bees and mice are making) ... Try an antihistamine. Protagonists: What? Computer: A synthesized compound from 20th century Earth that is recorded as countering the inefficiencies in the Human immune system. whizz beep pop bing! drawer/slot opens with little white pill and instructions to swallow, which may be assisted by ingesting liquid simultaneously. Protagonists happily go off to destroy yet another culture/ecosystem. Or tiny little, flying, fire-breathing lizards. Whatever works.

Just saw this, even though it's a couple months old. I get a little concerned when the supposed scientists are getting hyperbolic with their descriptors. Don't get me wrong; I'm all for miracle drugs. They're infrequent enough, and important enough that we definitely want serendipity to favor this. Nonetheless, it's hard enough to get rational reporting on what is and what is not a true advance, and what is and is not available to help people and their loved ones right now . It doesn't help when the researchers lose perspective, and I do think it is part of your professional responsibility to think about how you say things before you say them whenever possible.  [Most of you can't see the link, so I'm copying the article here. It's a short one, but it'll be a long g+ entry.]  Medscape Medical News > Conference News Leukemia Drug Is 'Blessing From God,' But Trial Imperfect; Believers May Change Practice Nick Mulcahy June 05, 2015 CHICAG...

Went and saw this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_and_the_Mockingbird#Cultural_references It's very French, very surreal, probably helped a lot by being on some kind of medication, very preachy, and lethargic. Unless you are really into the history of animated films, or random European art films in general, I'd just rent it or something (assuming that's possible). The only version available to see was over-dubbed in English. I'd have gotten a little more out of it if it was just sub-titled, but then that might have had some effect on the visuals. There are a few things that I suspected might have been left out of the translation to English, and according to Wikipete I am quite sure of it. It would have been difficult to translate some of the references or concepts*, although if you know what certain things are, like lèse majesté, they are obviously present.  The wikipedia article points out the long list of things that the film references, many of which are easi...

I could have gotten up when I woke up at 5 am. Or not.

Today in the obvious mcobvious department. Fortunately, the number of people who get horrible infections is relatively low, compared with the number of people who do everything wrong with their contact lenses. On the other hand, if you get one, it's devastating. Also, places with warm, humid weather are at risk for even nastier stuff. So being careful is appropriate. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/08/20/contact-lens-bacteria-eye-infection-blind-cdc/32049205/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/08/20/contact-lens-bacteria-eye-infection-blind-cdc/32049205

Saw Mr. Holmes as part of the cat herding. Spoilers ensue. Not spoilering might include comments like Ian McKellen acts good and some parts of England are pretty. It's ok, but I suppose reading the book it's based on might be informative. Or not. You can never tell with these things. Basically, there are a lot of good ideas that aren't quite worked out in the midst of some good acting. A n y w a y The promotional tag for the film does and doesn't tell you about the film. Basically, Holmes is very old and has dementia, which has been progressing. Apparently, he has plenty of money because he can afford to keep a live in housekeeper. Or not. One of the stories it tries to explore but really doesn't do much with is the stress of caring for someone significantly ill. The housekeeper decides to leave at one point, but then doesn't for, frankly, not terribly good reasons. There's a subplot about WWII and what happened with the housekeeper's husband that is su...

The cat herd has gone their separate ways. Now I just have to find my motivation. I'm sure I put it somewhere, I just can't quite figure out where.

Things that baffle me about yoga. On the one hand, many of the people involved are there for a positive, generally accepting, focused experience. On the other hand, some people are all about themselves, and everyone else is imposing on them by being there. The two ways this manifests that really bug me are the space hogs and the chip implants. The slightly lesser of the two evils are the people who CANNOT TURN THEIR DAMN PHONES OFF. No, seriously. It's dead quiet, and we're all levitating/meditating, and your bleepity bleep bleeping electronic bleeping bleeper buzzes, tweets, pings, and sometimes outright rings. TURN IT OFF. Silencing is obviously not actually silencing it, airplane mode is either not working or unfamiliar to you, or there are alerts that's you have no concept of whizz-banging away. You are not going to answer it during class, so actually, completely, totally turn it off. You won't break it, it won't stop working, the world won't end, and that p...

Sadface. http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2015/08/20/Live-coverage-of-K-9-Falko-s-funeral-service.html http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2015/08/20/Live-coverage-of-K-9-Falko-s-funeral-service.html

My family, see: Cats, herding.

Well, maybe a tiny change in approach that might make sense.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-heroin-fight-white-house-tries-to-break-down-walls-between-public-health-police/2015/08/16/f63d63c2-4425-11e5-8ab4-c73967a143d3_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-heroin-fight-white-house-tries-to-break-down-walls-between-public-health-police/2015/08/16/f63d63c2-4425-11e5-8ab4-c73967a143d3_story.html

Having a bad reaction to something is a great way wake yourself up in the middle of the night and deprive yourself (and others) of sleep. No fun, bad physiology.

Beyond all possible odds, my niece apparently passed her driving test. I will warn you if I know she is going to be on the road in your area. #notkidding

The plumber is here. He came to fix the sump!

Oops. That creek/stream they keep messing up and not fixing up but using as an open sewer (for over 100 years), the one that is never monitored for flooding because why would you do that? Flash flooded last night, big time. Is not so good. Abandoned cars are still where people were rescued from them. Other systems did not flood, but are overwhelmed with volume. Why? Because we finally got rain last night, all at once, with thunder and lightning. It is backing up the sewers and overwhelming sump pumps and the back pressure in that system has cracked the pipe on our sump pump (sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 this morning), which is trying valiantly to keep us off the list of people with flooded basements. We are whole-heartedly endorsing its efforts and have provided it with a bucket to catch the leaking. Also sincerely hoping the plumber can make it here today. The Town has its big, giant pumping thing out on the next street over to try to alleviate the overwhelmed storm sewer system, w...

To sleep, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

My mother has thanked me for something I did for my sister. My sister, otoh, has not thanked me, however must have told my mother what I did for her as I did not mention it. So confusion.

You know that thing where you know you should eat, but there's nothing you really want to eat, and you're probably even hungry but there's still nothing you really want to eat? That thing.

Took this canning class tonight because I was hoping to learn more about technical and scientificky stuff with canning. I unendeared myself to the instructor early on after they said that you had to use a sugar syrup to can peaches because it stopped botulism (multiple people wanted to know if you could just use water). Upon which I enquired as to the mechanism whereby it prevented the release of botulinum toxin from the spores? I mean, I actually would have liked an answer to that question because there seems to be some serious debate as to whether or not sugar is really performing any preservative function whatsoever in various foodstuffs of the long stored kind. Needless to say, I got a rather snappish and uninformative answer back. I've found a little info by looking things up, like 38% sucrose or 22% glucose solutions inhibit growth of the spores in a lab setting. Nobody sits there and tries to calculate out an actual percent refined sugar solution, though, when they make a si...

Do I send this to my sister? Maybe I could cushion it by folding a copy inside a filled donut I bring her.  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/phillip-hodson-parents-let-children-go http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/phillip-hodson-parents-let-children-go

Dinner: rabbit cacciatore. I didn't take a picture because it looks just like chicken cacciatore, only more rabbit. Ion, It's not as easy to cut up a rabbit as it looks. Bunny was courtesy of one of the farmers at the farmers market; they raise them for such purposes. P.S. Delicious.

Always unfortunate, no matter to whom it happens. http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/former-u-s-president-jimmy-carter-has-advanced-cancer-n408751 http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/former-u-s-president-jimmy-carter-has-advanced-cancer-n408751

Something is blooming that is really bugging me.

You know, for a comedy show, some people are taking this thing awfully seriously, particularly as it is no longer. But since they are, a couple opinions on the commentary in this opinion piece. 1) I was never under the impression that Stewart made any pretense about his personal beliefs. Why should he? He was a satirist, it's a comedy show. 2) As far as the whole torture thing, Stewart knew the semantic game that was being played about (my phrasing, here) how much torture can we get away with and call it legally not torture. And yes it is, still, a valid and important ethical question whether or not legal not-torture is something we really want to engage in as a government and a society. All this tells me is that John Yoo is a damn good lawyer, which might explain why the then Administration hired him.  P.S. It saddens me that we are so lost for any shades of meaning anymore that you are either liberal or conservative, if not even further off the the ends of the descriptors of poli...

My sister needs punchings. Or professional therapy. It could go either way.

Things in life which seem inequitable. My SIL is still trying to lose pregnancy weight, so she and my brother (in solidarity) have gone on a SF hipster super low carb/no carb diet. Presumably this is far enough out that it has no nutritional effect on the whole breast-feeding thing. Anyway, they've been doing this for a month and my SIL has lost 13 lbs., which is a decent amount, and my brother has lost 4 lbs.  I gotta say, if I had to eat nothing but kale and other carbless entities, I'd be hard put to stay on that diet without losing at least 20 lbs./month.

Logics I do not get. My mother arranged for my parents to go to dinner with some friends tonight. Originally, this was at someone's house, and I was invited.  It was changed to being at a restaurant, and I was uninvited. Except my mother forgot to tell me that until just now when I asked what time we were leaving. Is it just my brain, or would it be more logical  for someone to have a reason to not include someone at their home (say, limited space), but include them in a larger public venue? Maybe my brain is inside out, but I don't get this one.

Reminds me, I got to say hello to a mastiff and a rottweiler/mastiff mix today at the market. Omg, sooo well trained and friendly and adorable. And huge. Like, smaller at the shoulder than the officially Giant Alaskan Malamute, but big, muscly dogs. Really, really pretty and sweet.

TIL that raccoons will mess up a cornfield by getting in there and eating the corn. There was some left to buy at the Farmers' Market, but a lot of other stuff wasn't there.  We haven't been getting a lot of rain, so a lot of things have sort of slowed down on ripening and several farmers said they were between fields, with ones already harvested and ones not yet ripe. It's affecting fruit and veggies. I am also sad that nobody planted my favorite heirloom tomatoes this year, and nobody is going to have sweet dumpling squash in the fall. At least, not the places I usually go. I will have to consider scoping out someplace with a different regional set of vendors and hope.

Surprise. Not. Unsurprising? The tone of the DEA statements.  http://khn.org/news/pain-patients-say-they-cant-get-medicine-after-crackdown-on-illegal-rx-drug-trade/ http://khn.org/news/pain-patients-say-they-cant-get-medicine-after-crackdown-on-illegal-rx-drug-trade

Definitely Not going to Vermont*, definitely coming to Labor Day. I will probably need to occupy floor space for at least one night. Or Jez tribell and I can build a fort, if she's willing. *bored people see screed about family

Great Caesar's Ghost, my family. I am so worried about how messed up I am, and I could not even begin to be as messed up as they are.  Directly related to the fact that people were constantly telling me as a child and young adult that I was imagining things about what people said and did and meant. Resulting in my constantly questioning myself and pretty much thinking there was something wrong with me. Well, frak all y'all. It sucks to be perceptive, not because you're wrong in your observation or interpretation, but because people are uncomfortable with and plain old hate it when you de facto deny them their convenient fictions. Which, if you can get them that far, they will say were all to keep you protected and comfortable. Which is nutrient deficient digestive byproduct. It's to keep them protected and comfortable. GTFOI. I'm not enabling this crap any more. Yes, you hurt my feelings, but you hurt them because you lied to me, nevermind yourself. Why do I always...

Way to make public schools look bad. P.S. I can't believe no one has stepped up to offer this kid a scholarship to a private school. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-dc-a-12-year-old-piano-prodigy-is-treated-as-a-truant-instead-of-a-star-student/2014/09/08/58962746-3727-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-dc-a-12-year-old-piano-prodigy-is-treated-as-a-truant-instead-of-a-star-student/2014/09/08/58962746-3727-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html

Sleeping - hah. Things that did not happen, a list of.

Selections from Five Points Bakery toast cafe in Buffalo, NY

SI joints. They're a thing. A thing that can get inflamed when certain back muscles get pissy.

My family and I interacting are like a Myers-Briggs case study. My sister is taking my niece back to college in two weeks. Two, II, 2 weeks. Part of this little adventure is supposed to involve a trip to Vermont on the way to school in Massachusetts. It is still not planned. There are no reservations for lodgings. Now, originally my sister had tried to make this a family trip with two cars, five people, and my niece's stuff, thus facilitating only she and my niece proceeding onwards to MA before turning around and returning to Ann Arbor. However, both of my parents are having outpatient surgeries the end of this month, so they both said it was too much. Theoretically, this trip would still involve me.  Yet emails and texts go unreplied to and phone calls are neither answered nor returned. No one tells us if my sister and niece have specific activities occurring other than work, but this seems irrelevant to trying to get a response. I mean, obviously I don't expect them to drop ...

This would absolutely not apply to me, as I prefer it cooler, thus confirming, once again, that I am not one of those 16 "normal" people in the study. Ahem.  P.S. I wonder what result they would get if there were 1000 menopausal women with hot flashes in the study? P.P.S. Total clickbait headline. http://qz.com/470301/men-are-literally-freezing-women-out-of-the-workplace/ http://qz.com/470301/men-are-literally-freezing-women-out-of-the-workplace

So, I have this crazy new plan for dealing with stress and its effects on my life. Get up and exercise every morning. This doesn't mean I won't exercise any other time of day, but at the very least, I want to start the day out doing something that counts as exercise. I fully expect there may be moments of not succeeding, but you gotta have a goal, right? Right? Tell me I'm not crazy.

It seems there are pictures of the English royal family giving nazi salutes and being otherwise chummy with them from the early 30's. I missed this brouhaha, but it occurs to me that this particular article is handling it relatively well.  That is, it is important to know the full context of history, even though it is often unpleasant, embarrassing, and/or painful when things come out later on. There's also someone who'd been documenting the reality of France during WWII, and how it was hardly the universal resistor to the conquering Nazis as it is frequently portrayed. I find that pertinent because the Nazis and what happened in and around WWII did not spring out of nothingness.  For example, hating jews, gypsies, communists, homosexuals, and others was not exactly original or unacceptable. Using that sort of thing as a tool to manipulate a populace is distinctly unoriginal, and continues to be used today. The idea that everyone was just shocked, shocked! I tell you, is th...

Dad felt well enough to go to a tiny local car show. Here are a few of the pics. P.S. Apparently one of the cars my dad raced was a Jaguar XK120. (This came up because there were several different models of Jaguar there.)

I kinda forgot to exercise yesterday, but I did already today, so yay!

Breaking news: An experimental Ebola vaccine seems to confer total protection against infection in patients at high risk of contracting the virus, according to preliminary results.  http://bit.ly/1Iu6Pg8