Another Saturday and another day of news that Walter Cronkite did not report….

Locally–More local shootings.  Weather went from the high of 72 to a high of 34 in two days….but that gave me another opportunity to make some chili.

Personal–I had a week off from treatments and doctors so Sue and I decided to take it easy and lounge around…..it has been glorious week.  Bad news is I start more radiation come Monday and 5 days a week for 6 weeks….the joy.

I have contacted WP about the IST glitch….their ‘Happiness Engineers’ were no help….I now await their solution (if they can find one)….thank you to everyone that is bearing with me through this damn ordeal…..hopefully this can be resolved soon but sadly I am not holding my breath….thanx for your understanding and patience…..

We start with food news as well as health news….do you eat yogurt?

A new study builds on evidence that yogurt, touted for its health benefits for millennia, may protect against certain colon cancers. The fermented food containing live bacteria “may be good for maintaining a good microbiome in our body,” Dr. Tomotaka Ugai, a senior author of the study, tells NPR. Researchers analyzed the diets of more than 100,000 female registered nurses and 51,000 male health professionals who were followed for 30 years or more, finding those who regularly ate at least two servings of yogurt per week had lower rates of proximal colorectal cancer positive for Bifidobacterium, “a bacterial species found in yogurt,” per a release.

Researchers believe long-term yogurt intake may alter microorganisms in the gut, including Bifidobacterium, a probiotic generally believed to prevent gastrointestinal disorders, resulting in a “protective effect.” Indeed, the study speaks of “the anti-tumor potential of yogurt.” “My message is, if you like yogurt, go for it,” Ugai of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School tells NPR. Study co-author Dr. Andrew T. Chan of Massachusetts General Hospital notes the research “provides an additional avenue” to investigate the role of diet and gut microbiome in the risk of colorectal cancer among young people, per USA Today.

I like mine with blackberries, honey and walnuts.

I do enjoy a glass of OJ in the mornings….will that change?

A story in Bloomberg Businessweek notes that breakfast staples such as eggs, butter, and even cottage cheese have rebounded after being out of favor with the public. Orange juice? Not so much. Consumption in the US is down by more than half since its peak in the late 1990s, and a slew of challenges stand in the way of a comeback.

• Nutrition: Though it was once considered a must for health, more consumers have grown leery of the sugar at play. And not just added sugar: Nutritionists note that juicing oranges rather than eating them whole means the fruit’s fiber is no longer there to slow sugar consumption.
• Prices: They’re climbing for both the bottles and frozen concentrate varieties. The latter, for example, averaged $4.24 a pound last year, up 30% from the previous year. Meanwhile, bottles of OJ are getting smaller as prices go up, up, up, per the Atlantic. Potential tariffs on Mexico (which fills gaps in US production) and Canada (a huge market for US exporters) won’t help.
• Storms: Hurricanes Ian, Irma, and Milton have taken a huge toll on Florida’s citrus industry in recent years. After Milton slammed the state in October, for example, Tropicana supplier Alico said it was exiting the citrus business and converting its acreage into other use.
• Disease: On top of a worsening climate, a disease called “citrus greening” is wiping out groves. From the Atlantic: “Around the world, millions of acres of orange trees have succumbed, and in the past 20 years, production in Florida’s storied orange groves, which once supplied the majority of America’s juice, has declined 92%.”
• Fighting back: Brands such as Minute Maid and Tropicana are experimenting with new blends (adding apple or pear, for example) to bring down costs, and spending heavy on marketing. Whether it will be enough is another question. Yasmin Tayag puts it this way in the Atlantic: “As orange availability slides, the era of orange-juice ubiquity is rapidly coming to an end.”

Keeping with the food stuff….we all are bitching at the high cost of food these days but where do people pay the most for their food?

With inflation rising and increasing prices for products like eggs making headlines, it’s natural to want to cut your supermarket bill as much as possible. WalletHub used recent data from the US Census Bureau and Council for Community and Economic Research to assess the cost of a variety of grocery products—meat, milk, fruits and veggies, frozen food, etc.—in all 50 states, against the context of each state’s median monthly income. New Jersey turned up as the place where market visits sap the least percentage of residents’ income, while customers in Mississippi open their wallets the most (WalletHub notes that while groceries in Mississippi are relatively cheap, the median income in the state is the lowest in the nation). The highs and lows:

Where people spend the most

1. Mississippi
2. West Virginia
3. Arkansas
4. Kentucky
5. Louisiana
6. New Mexico
7. Alabama
8. South Carolina
9. Tennessee
10. Oklahoma

Where people spend the least

41. Hawaii
42. Colorado
43. Virginia
44. Minnesota
45. Utah
46. Connecticut
47. New Hampshire
48. Massachusetts
49. Maryland
50. New Jersey

See how other states ranked here.

I see my state is number 1 on the high side something else we can be proud of (sarcasm) plus we have the lowest monthly income another plus (sarcasm again).

A couple of new state laws that are now being proposed….we begin with Utah….

Utah state lawmakers are fighting to ban the display of Pride flags — but not Nazi or Confederate flags — in schools and on all government property.

Utah’s House Education Committee introduced a bill this week that bans Pride flags in all public schools and other government buildings, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The bill passed committee — with the only two Democrats voting against it — and is now on its way to the House floor.

The bill allows for “a historic version of a flag…that is temporarily displayed for educational purposes,” which Republican lawmaker Trevor Lee says will include Nazi and Confederate flags, according to the Tribune.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/utah-pride-flag-ban-schools-government-property-b2698466.html

And my favorite is from the great state of Ohio….

A groundbreaking law has been proposed in Ohio that would make it a felony for men to ejaculate unless they intend to conceive a child. The legislation, introduced by Democratic House Representative Anita Somani, seeks to regulate male reproductive rights in the same way as women’s.

Abortion continues to be a contentious issue in America, particularly since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing each state to independently determine its abortion laws.

“You don’t get pregnant on your own,” stated Somani, adding, “If you’re going to penalize someone for an unwanted pregnancy, why not penalize the person who is also responsible for the pregnancy? ” The bill, known as the Conception Begins at Erection Act, would criminalize any man in the state who “discharges semen without the intent to fertilize.”

(themirror.com)

I hope there is more to this stupidity than the blurb I read.

Then there is a ‘creepy’ one from Missouri…..

Missouri Republicans are advancing an effort that would require pregnant people to register in a statewide database.

House Bill 807, called the “Save MO Babies Act,” is intended to target people “at risk for seeking abortion services” and to “reduce the number of preventable abortions.” If passed, the registry would start on July 1, 2026, and would be managed by the Maternal and Child Services division of the state’s Department of Social Services, according to the bill text. But the bill does not specify the scope and scale of such a registry, or exactly how “at risk” individuals would be identified.

https://newrepublic.com/post/191724/republicans-missouri-registry-pregnant-people-abortion

I seem to always find one that fits into the ‘Can’t Fix Stupid’ files….

A woman vacationing in the Turks and Caicos Islands lost both of her hands to a shark while trying to photograph it, reports the Telegraph. The woman, identified only as a 55-year-old from Canada, “attempted to engage with the animal” to take pictures while in shallow water on the beach on the island of Providenciales, according to a government statement and the New York Times. Authorities say the shark was about 6 feet long, though its species was not clear.

Every year there is a wealth of idiots that think wild animals are ‘cute’…..and a selfie is needed….

Finally one for the ‘holy crap’ files…..

Adrian Simancas was only in a whale’s mouth for around a second but it felt like much, much longer. On a kayaking trip with his father in the Strait of Magellan off southern Chile to celebrate his 23rd birthday, Simancas and his kayak were briefly swallowed by a surfacing humpback whale, People reports. He escaped unharmed. The incident last Saturday was captured on video from a camera attached to his father’s kayak. In the video, his father, just a few feet away, can be heard encouraging Simancas to stay calm, the AP reports.

Simancas was able to reach his father’s kayak and they made it back to shore. “I thought I was dead,” Simancas tells the AP. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.” He tells the BBC that they had been kayaking for around two hours when he “felt something hit me from behind, closing in on me and sinking me.” “I managed to see a dark blue and white color. I felt a slimy texture, which touched my face,” he says. “At that moment, I closed my eyes expecting an impact, but I felt more like I was flipped over, not hit, and that’s when I lay down.”

He says in the brief moment he was in the whale’s mouth, he “thought about the possibility of surviving inside the whale like Pinocchio.” He says that after it spat him out and he rose to the surface, he realized that it wasn’t a predator, but was worried it could do the same thing to his father’s kayak, “whether out of curiosity or just to play.” He tells the BBC he has reflected on the experience and decided to appreciate it. “Not only to see how to get something positive out of something negative, but to see it in its entirety as what it is, which is a unique experience, an encounter with wildlife in a region at the end of the world.”

Now he has a tale for his grand kids.

That will do it for this Saturday….enjoy your day and weekend….and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”