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Thursday, December 31, 2015

The Daily Drift

Happy New Year to all! 
May the coming year be filled with love, happiness, good health and an end to the ignorance and hate!
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Today in History

The Sahara is crossed by an automobile for the first time.
Brewery heir Adolphus Busch is kidnapped.
Hungary declares war on Germany.
California becomes the largest state in population.
Cambodia breaks relations with Vietnam.

15 Things You Should Do at Least Once a Year

There are certain tasks in life that you need to do every once in a while, but so seldom that it’s easy to forget. Or to just put it off indefinitely. While we are getting ready to turn another calendar year would be a good time to do some of them -or at plan to. Have you bought a new calendar yet? Maybe you can mark it up by assigning those yearly tasks to different months of 2016, to remind you to get it done. What tasks? Here’s a couple you may not ever think of.
I must admit that there are quite a few on the list that I haven’t ever done. I’m afraid to see what’s on the bottom of my water heaters, since I don’t know how old they were when I got them! But in my previous house, I had one completely fall apart, so it’s worth a try. Read the rest of the list at mental_floss.

A year of extremes: Severe snow storms, drought and floods ravaged the US in 2015

In the warmest year on record, Mother Nature wrought havoc across the country, with large swaths of the west coast ablaze during the summer and the north-east blanketed in snow for most of the winter

As temperatures drop, airports crack down on homeless seeking shelter from the cold


You're Making Tea All Wrong

Chicken Soup and The Cold

Can chicken soup really cure body and soul?

Men Actually Improve Their Mental Health by Getting Married

Men Actually Improve Their Mental Health by Getting Married, Says Study
Men Actually Improve Their Mental Health by Getting Married, Says Study
Compelling evidence for why he should put a ring on it.

The Weird Symptoms That Signal You’re Just Days Away from Cardiac Arrest

The Weird Symptoms That Signal You’re Just Days Away from Cardiac Arrest
Find out the red flags that point to this quick and deadly condition

8 Surprising Reasons You Have No Energy

 by Amanda Shupack
To paraphrase Aerosmith, it can often feel like your get up and go musta got up and went. It's not just a matter of working too much and sleeping too little, though of course those are both big parts of it. It's sometimes easy to pinpoint why you're flagging by the afternoon -- that weekend of partying, for instance -- but sometimes the causes are more complicated.
Here are some common contributors to that two o'clock feeling:
1. You're not sleeping enough.
OK. So this one is kind of a gimme, but not for the reason you think. Sleep isn't just about resting; there's a lot going on inside while you're conked out for the night. Case in point: human growth hormone. Growth hormone, a protein made by the pituitary gland, plays a role in making muscles healthy and bones strong. It affects how our bodies collect fat (especially around the stomach area) and it helps balance the ratio of good to bad cholesterol. It's also essential for normal brain function. Not enough it of leads to fatigue, decreased strength and stamina, and depression symptoms. Since growth hormone is secreted primarily when we sleep, seven and a half or eight hours of high-quality shut-eye each night will help keep weight and pain down and boost up your energy.
2. You're eating too much junk.
We think of sugar as a quick way to boost energy, but in the long run it does just the opposite. All those that end in -ose, like glucose, dextrose, maltose and sucrose, are just going to leave you sluggish. Research shows that fast food also puts you in biological slo-mo. Try this all-day energy meal plan, instead.
3. You're not drinking enough water.
Many people can't identify when their fatigue is due to dehydration. A glass of water may be the jolt you need, rather than sugar (see above). Drink as much H2O as it takes to keep your mouth moist throughout the day. And remember this rule of thumb: Your pee should be light yellow to clear. If it's brighter and darker yellow, you need to drink more water.
4. You're low in vitamin B.
You need B vitamins for your mitochondria to turn glucose into energy. We can absorb B vitamins well in liquid or pill form, but 99 percent of us don't get enough from our diets. Try taking a vitamin in the morning and evening. This will keep levels stable and get you energized, and there's no harm in it since you'll excrete any excess water-soluble vitamins.
If you're having symptoms of low energy, check your vitamin B12 and D levels, and, in any case, have them checked annually. If you find you have the rare case of not absorbing them well into your intestine and stomach, you can get a B12 injection yearly.
5. You've got an infection.
Infection and inflammation can be two dominos in the low-energy cascade of symptoms. One of your goals could be to monitor your body so infections don't linger. So what can you do? Floss regularly to lower your gum inflammation risk. Reduce sinusitis with a neti pot. Use probiotics to treat prostatitis, vaginitis and bowel infections. With viral infections, frequent hand washing, sleeping and avoiding saturated fats and simple sugars can help.
6. You need to move more.
You can jump-start your energy with an activity as simple as walking. When you get moving, nitric oxide is released from the artery linings to allow blood to move freely through your vessels. This helps get more nutrients to your cells. Your body responds to your actions. If you tell your body you're watching re-runs all night, it will downshift energy production. If you tell your body that you need to have a brisk morning walk, it responds by giving you the energy you need to do just that.
7. Your hormones are out of whack.
There are numerous hormones that factor in to how energized or blah you're feeling. Hormones are like dimmers on headlights. When you need bright lights, you turn on certain hormones to increase the energy to that area, and decrease usage elsewhere. The fine-tuning starts in your hypothalamus and pituitary. The two primary sources of trouble are slow-functioning thyroid and adrenal glands. As for adrenal hormones, take this little test: When you're hungry, do you quickly switch to feeling so irritable and ravenous that if you don't eat, you'll commit a felony? This is a sign that your adrenal glands may not be working properly.
8. You're insulin resistant.
Insulin resistance -- a precursor to diabetes -- makes it hard to get sugar (our body's fuel) to our energy production plants. We then distribute the sugar into fat storage rather than storing it in cells, which need it to produce energy.



The Revolt of the Anxious Class

From Robert Reich:
They’re poisoning themselves with drugs and alcohol, or committing suicide.
Yet government can’t be counted on to protect them.
Nor should you even try.
The attraction is understandable, even though misguided.
The revolt of the anxious class has just begun.

When the American debate about abortion was sane ...


Florida kicks 9,000 chronically ill, disabled kids out of healthcare system

by Joan McCarter
Sorry, Rick Scott. Nothing you can do now is going to save your soul.
Florida moron Rick Scott (R-of course) has once again demonstrated just how much he doesn't care if people—children, even—suffer and die in ways that are totally preventable on his watch. An investigation by the Miami Herald has uncovered how the state gutted its Children's Medical Services, a program designed to help chronically ill and disabled poor children. So kids are getting dropped.
There was something they could do. Within a few days, the infant was re-enrolled. Thousands of other youngsters, though, did not fare as well.
Nine thousand kids have been dropped since May, even though the state was running a surplus, and possibly to help fund the tax cuts Scott wants. This program—for Medicaid-qualified children and for those whose parents make too much for Medicaid coverage but not enough for private insurance—provides more intervention with specialists and care devised for kids with special medical needs. Some of the activities of the CMS, like "providing care coordinators to help parents access therapy and medication, and organizing one-stop clinics for kids with sickle cell disease, HIV or cleft palates," just doesn't happen with Medicaid.
But there was too much need in the state for the program. It was getting too many enrollees and it became too expensive to treat these kids, so the state had some options. Not having $1 billion in new tax cuts was not among the options. Dropping 9,000 kids was what they settled on.
The designers of that screening tool, by the way, say it was created "for use in surveys, not for eligibility determination … to estimate the number of children with special health care needs in a population." The state found it a handy tool to start weeding out patients. Children.
Yes, we still need universal healthcare.

DoJ shuts down asset forfeiture program after Congress slashes its budget

If your goods lose the lawsuit, the police get to keep them, and use them (or sell them for operating capital). Police departments waxed fat on this, even making up "shopping lists" of desirable cars, etc, to target.
States have been trying to curb this practice, changing state law so that law enforcement agencies wouldn't get to keep the stuff their seized. But the DoJ wouldn't play along, meaning that cops could still keep stuff by confiscating it under federal, not state law.
Attempts to get the DoJ to play along have proved fruitless. After all, the DoJ got to split the take with local law-enforcement.. So in last week's budget bill, Congress took $1.2 billion away from the DoJ, money that they used to administer the program. Without that subsidy, the program became a money-loser. It is dead.

Police shot and killed nearly three Americans every day in 2015

Police officer aiming gun at car (Shutterstock)While the killing of unarmed black men makes up only 4 percent of the police shootings, 40 percent of the shootings involved black male victims — a grossly disproportionate number with African-American males making up only 6 percent of the population.

Seabed-Mining Robots Will Dig for Gold on Ocean Floor

There could soon be a swarm of deep-sea mining robots snatching up deposits of copper, gold and silver.

Floating Waste Bin Captures Ocean Pollution

A water filtering system designed for marinas and ports will help clear the water of floating plastic, paper, oil, fuel, detergent and other garbage.

Animal Winners and Losers of 2015

2015 was a year of both breathtaking highs and devastating lows for the animal kingdom.

Animal Pictures