News that no one could possibly use.

Last week I bitched about the ban of Mexican avocados entering the US….well the issue has been settled….

First my bitch….

Closing Thought–16Feb22

The ban was very short lived….

The US is lifting a ban on inspections of Mexican avocados, freeing the way for exports to resume. Ambassador Ken Salazar said in a statement the decision came after Mexico and the United States agreed “to enact the measures that ensure the safety” of agricultural inspectors who are in charge of making sure Mexican avocados don’t carry diseases or pests that would harm US orchards, per the AP. The inspections were halted last week after one of the US inspectors was threatened in the western state of Michoacan, where growers are routinely subject to extortion by drug cartels.

The US Department of Agriculture said Thursday that the inspector had received a threat “against him and his family.” It said the inspector had “questioned the integrity of a certain shipment, and refused to certify it based on concrete issues.” Michoacan is the only Mexican state certified as pest-free and able to export avocados to the US market. There have been frequent reports that some packers in Mexico are buying avocados from other, non-certified states, and trying to pass them off as being from Michoacan. The temporary ban threatened to send prices soaring.

As we grow older the common misconception is that our brains slow down to a crawl….this may not be accurate…..

Don’t let the youngins tell you your brain is slower than molasses. Though plenty of research shows response times slow beginning around the age of 20, that doesn’t necessarily support the widely held view that brain processes slow from that age. Indeed, a new study finds this slowing in response times might simply be because, with age and wisdom, people become more cautious in their decision-making. So when do we see mental processes significantly decline? Turns out, it’s much later in life, around the average retirement age, according to the study published Thursday in Nature Human Behaviour.

In analyzing reaction times of more than 1.1 million people who took part in an online experiment requiring them to place words and images into one of two categories with the press of a key, researchers did find the average time for a correct response peaked around the age of 20. But they suggested this was because young adults were “most willing to trade accuracy for speed,” per the Guardian. In other words, they didn’t think too hard before pressing the key. Up to the age of 60, participants became more accurate but slower due to what researchers concluded were “increases in decision caution” and slower motor processes involved in pressing the key, “rather than to differences in mental speed.”

Mental speed appeared to peak around age 30, but “until older adulthood, the speed of information processing in the task we studied barely changes,” lead author Dr. Mischa von Krause of Heidelberg University tells New Scientist. “Our results show that average levels in mental speed in contexts demanding fast and forced decisions do not decline until relatively late in the lifespan,” he adds. Boston College psychologist Dr. Joshua Hartshorne, who was not involved in the study, says it “joins a body of work suggesting that the way mental abilities change throughout life is complicated,” per the Guardian. “But whatever’s going on, it’s definitely not that we peak at 20 and go downhill from there.”

We all suffer from ‘brain farts’ but that does not mean that we are slipping into dementia.

Keep your brain active and I think it can continue to be ‘sharp as a whip’…..

Finally some worthless international news.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday called Israel’s creation the “greatest political achievement of the 20th century”, in a speech to the Israeli parliament.

Leading a delegation of seven Democrats, including Ro Khanna, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee, Pelosi told Israeli lawmakers that Washington’s support for Israel remained “ironclad”, as she warned against the threat of a nuclear Iran.

“I am very proud that America is Israel’s oldest ally,” she told the Israeli Knesset. “The US remains ironclad, I keep using that word, in our support of Israel’s security and its regional stability.”

Bet that cost the Israeli PAC dearly!

Seriously, the greatest political achievement”?

Bullsh*t!

Civil rights act….the collapse of the USSR and many countries getting their independence….those are great achievements.

Israel was just another reaction to the rise of Soviet influence in the Middle East for the US….and since the founding they have NOT proved to be a good neighbor……just another drain on the US treasury.

Then there is the ‘regional stability’?

Has anyone looked at the region lately…it is anything but stable.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Be Well….Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”