It is Saturday again and time for the usual news that no one can use…..
It’s what is called the ‘Dog Days Of Summer’ that time before Autumn, that time when the final vacay days like going to the beach before cooler weather sets in.
If you are planning that last trip to the seaside keep in kind the dangers that could await you…..like sharks, jellyfish, rip tides ans of course beach umbrellas…..
Beach umbrellas?
Glad you asked.
A midweek beach outing turned tragic for a South Carolina woman after an umbrella blew over and fatally impaled her. WMBF reports that 63-year-old Tammy Perreault of Horry County was struck in the chest Wednesday around 12:40pm by the umbrella. It had toppled with the wind on the shore of Garden City. “It just kept going and going,” friend Sherry White tells the news station. “Everyone [said], ‘Duck,’ and we did, but unfortunately she was in the line of fire.” Off-duty medical professionals and other beachgoers assisted Perreault, who was suffering from chest trauma, until first responders arrived to take her to a nearby hospital, per a spokesman for Horry County Emergency Management.
She died there about an hour after the accident. Per a study last year in the Journal of Safety Research, most patients treated at the ER due to injuries from beach and patio umbrellas were women over the age of 40 like Perreault, reports CBS News. “The most frequently reported injury was laceration followed by contusions or abrasions and internal organ injury, and the body part with the highest proportion of injuries was the head/neck followed by the upper extremity,” the study notes.
Such incidents have been concerning enough that Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner of Virginia asked the US Consumer Product Safety Commission to run a safety campaign around them, spurred by the death in 2016 of a 55-year-old Virginia woman. WTKR cites a CPSC warning that “airborne beach umbrellas can be dangerous, even deadly.” The agency notes that between 2010 and 2018 there were about 2,800 unconfirmed injuries due to beach umbrellas. The CPSC offers tips on safely erecting one, including anchoring the base of the spiked pole with something hefty to keep it down, packing sand down around the base, and tilting the umbrella into the wind.
Keep that in mind while you visit the seaside.
How many of you old farts remember the gorgeous Gina Lollobrigida?
She has decided to enter into Italian politics…..
The Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida has said she is running in general elections next month because she is “fed up with quarrelling politicians”.
Lollobrigida, who turned 95 in July, is endeavouring to become a senator with the Sovereign and Popular Italy party (ISP), a new Eurosceptic, anti-Mario-Draghi political alliance that opposes sending arms to Ukraine and “warmongering Atlanticism”.
She told Corriere della Sera she was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, for his “way of doing things, for his non-violence” and that she was a “great friend” of India’s first female prime minister, Indira Gandhi. “I saw her every time she came to Rome. She was an extraordinary woman.”
If you live anywhere mosquitoes are a problem and what to do about them in your yard…..
Life comes with lots of little annoyances, few of them littler or more annoying than mosquitoes. Although it may seem difficult to avoid mosquitoes, the AP offers some ways to reduce or eliminate them from your yard and garden—without resorting to insecticidal foggers or sprays (which the AP points out threaten essential pollinators and other beneficial insects while controlling only a small portion of the adult mosquito population). With the exception of those who live near a lake, marsh, or swamp or in densely packed neighborhoods, most of the blame for mosquito invasions usually falls on the property’s residents.
Mosquitoes need only one-quarter inch of water to breed, and a female can lay hundreds of eggs at a time. Inspect your property for standing water. Drain or dump water as you see it, even if the amount appears insignificant—in a children’s playset, clogged gutter, pot saucer, overturned trash can lid or flying disc toy—and drill drainage holes in the bottoms of vessels like tire swings. For water that’s intended to stand, such as in ponds and bird baths, the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) is a safe and effective way to kill mosquito larvae.
Several strains of Bt are available, each targeting different insects, so be sure to buy the israelensis strain to target mosquitoes. Bti comes in various forms, including donut-shaped briquettes called “Mosquito Dunks.” The floating rings offer 30 days of protection and “will not harm people, pets, and other animals, aquatic life, or other insects, including honeybees,” according to the CDC. If you don’t have a pond or bird bath, you can make a DIY mosquito trap. Add a handful of straw, hay, or grass clippings to a (preferably dark-colored) pail filled with water, and let it sit for 1-2 days. Then add one mosquito dunk.
For large infestations, tuck several buckets around the yard. The decomposing organic matter will attract the insects, which will lay eggs on the treated water. Replace water and add a fresh dunk every 30 days to thwart future generations of mosquitoes. As for so-called “mosquito plants” marketed as repellents: They do contain oils or chemicals that the insects find unappealing, but they’re not effective unless those compounds are released, such as by crushing the leaves. Merely having such a plant in the garden or a pot will not provide any benefit. In case you’re wondering, mosquitoes do serve a purpose—as pollinators and bird food. Still, because the roles they serve in these areas are minor, eliminating them from your yard will not adversely affect the ecosystem.
Finally, a new study has me concerned…..bacon could cause dementia…..
There are 10 million new cases of dementia every year and this trend is expected to accelerate in the coming decades. The reason for the jump is ageing populations. However, it’s worth pointing out that age is a risk factor not a cause of dementia, and there are things you can do to modify your risk. Research published earlier this year suggests cutting back on processed meat.
Scientists from the University’s Nutritional Epidemiology Group used data from 500,000 people, discovering that consuming a 25g serving of processed meat a day, the equivalent to one rasher of bacon, is associated with a 44 percent increased risk of developing the disease.
But their findings also show eating some unprocessed red meat, such as beef, pork or veal, could be protective, as people who consumed 50g a day were 19 percent less likely to develop dementia.
The researchers were exploring whether there is a link between consumption of meat and development of dementia.
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1654251/dementia-symptoms-risk-bacon
Okay this sounds like a story by the Turkey Bacon people to increase sells…..besides with enough bacon I could eat a bowling ball.
This is it for all the news that means absolutely nothing….hope you enjoyed it.
Have a great weekend.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
There is always a new ‘medical study’ every week. Most of them turn out to be telling us something we already know, like eating too much sugar will make you fat and give you Diabetes. We need less medical studies, more commonsense.
Our patio umbrella doesn’t have a spike, but the pole is screwed into a very heavy iron baseplate that makes it safe from blowing away. They need those on your beaches, obviously.
Best wishes, Pete.
Commonsense….a commodity that is in short supply these days. chuq
About the warning against processed meats …If you look at the entire spectrum of all the foods that we consume ..and if you consider all the pesticides and chemical additives that we already consume in nearly every thing we eat … and that we have been eating for many years now, two things should become immediately clear: (1) We already have enough chemicals and preservatives in our system to negate the need for embalming us after we die …and (2) A little processed meat is not going to do much more damage than the rest of the chemical-laden swill that we have been eating for years has already done … so I say, “Let’s eat our bacon and bologna and be happy.”
With enough bacon I could eat a bowling ball chuq