Still Life Paintings Inspired by Elon Musk

 MARTIAN SURFACE STILL LIFE

STILL LIFE ABOARD THE SPACE STATION X

 

These kids today...missing out on so much...

 

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Recent Study: Diabetes Caused by Sugary Processed Junk Food and Red Meat

A study said that? Sure it did, he said sarcastically.

You can find this story going around right now. 

Authors refer to this "red meat" as processed stuff like bacon and sausage and hotdogs and such. Here’s what we do know about meat...it does not raise your insulin levels, and chronically high insulin for years on end is basically what causes Type 2 Diabetes. And probably causes Alzheimer's and Heart Disease too.

Sure some of the processed meats may also do that, like maple bacon or sausage perhaps, but hamburgers and hot dogs as far as studies go, are rarely eaten without a bun and french fries and soda and they rarely can tease out that fact. 

I know form eating pretty low carb for the past couple years and getting a few Hemoglobin A1C tests which measure your blood sugar levels over a three month period, a plate full of junky carbs like mac & cheese mixed with sausage, will raise your insulin - so will mac & cheese and salmon, mac & cheese and with broccoli, mac & cheese with water, and indeed mac & cheese by itself. Hamburger patties and hot dogs and bacon and sausage does not raise your insulin unless it has some sort of rub or sauce on it. Steak cooked in butter? Nope. Hamburger patty with some salt, nope, and maybe even a slice of cheese can be added and you won't see much of an insulin spike.

They provide no mechanism by which processed meats might cause the diabetes. This is most likely a politicized thing against red meat, a thing we all understand too well these days.

One might as well say that arsenic and red meat causes death. Well, yeah. Maybe ditch the arsenic? And processed sugary junk food is indeed like a slow-acting arsenic.

Traffic Tip - What Lane Moves Fastest in Traffic?

I spent quite a few hours driving on the California freeways this past weekend and it set me to wondering: which lane should I be in when the traffic gets heavy?  I did some Googling on the topic and came up with the following... 

The lane that moves the fastest when traffic is heavy is the lane that has the fewest cars in it. I know, thanks, Dr. Obvioso -- anyway in that lane there is more space between cars, which allows them to travel at a faster speed. In general, the rightmost lane is the least crowded apparently, so it is often the fastest lane during heavy traffic. 

However, there are other factors that can affect which lane is the fastest, such as the number of exits and entrances on the highway, the presence of trucks, and the weather.

And now three tips for choosing the fastest lane during heavy traffic:

1. Stay in the right lane unless you are passing.
2. Avoid lanes with a lot of entrances and exits.
3. Be aware of the presence of trucks, cuz they move slower of course.

OF COURSE THE DEATH PENALTY IS A DETERRENT

Always found the assertion that the death penalty is not a deterrent for murder to be spectacularly stupid. 

If you think the death penalty is not a deterrent for murder then why would prison be a deterrent? I mean obviously we should not bother to put people in jail if it is not a deterrent.

There is also the faction of people who say they cannot support the death penalty because we can never be sure we are not executing an innocent person.

To which I say: then why put anyone in prison of we can't ever be 100 percent sure of their guilt? I guess they are willing to deprive someone of their freedom without that 100 percent track record but not their life. Okay that makes some sort of sense I suppose.

Hell, I am deterred from parking in front of my house on street sweeper day with the threat of a 40 dollar ticket. Don't tell me deterrents don't work.

Amusing Anecdotes from a Regular Day

I coined a phrase years ago—at least I never heard it uttered by anyone else.  Have you ever heard of check-dar?  It’s kind of like gaydar, which is very handy both if you are looking for a hookup at a monster truck rally and don’t want to rile up some “fag hatin” hillbilly, or if you don’t want to accidentally set up that guy you work with who is actually gay but you were not aware of it, with some lady. No, check-dar is something I have have been afflicted with. 

Symptoms? Well, my body seems to gravitate toward any grocery store line where the person in front of me is writing a check.  It’s some mystical power that I know not whence it came. Thankfully due to the the advent of credit cards and debit cards and other money exchanging apps, I only get a rare flare-up of my checkdar. Today was a doozy. Got behind a woman who had perhaps six to eight times the number of items one should be gunning for in the Express Checkout Lane, then she had divided up her stuff into two or maybe three different transactions….perhaps she was buying stuff for a neighbor who wisely did not want to go to the store with her, then she whipped out her checkbook to pay. 

She was also a coupon enthusiast and had many laid out on the checkout stand, which of course, after being rung up, caused some sort of problem with the receipt that the manager had to come over and solve. This seemed to take double or triple the time that I have ever had to spend getting some issue resolved at the checkout stand. She dared not look up to make eye contact with the one, now two, now three, now four people who were stacking up behind her.  Heck just a look over at us to say, sorry guys, would be a nice gesture…I find that that eases the tension whenever I am that guy. But nope. She stared straight ahead…like I do when I am passing that homeless veteran guy just outside the exit door. 

Then I’m driving to pick up my daughter who just texted me to give me more info as to when she will be downstairs where I can collect her. As part of those Bluetooth features, my car shows messages on the dashboard touch screen. I heard the ding and I took my eyes off the road to read a message that told me that I could not read the text message while the vehicle is moving. Really….Really? 

Really….

This message appearing on my screen while the vehicle was moving told me that I could not read messages while in motion - a message that was obviously the idea of some lawyer. I kind of feel like lawyers have been ruining life more often lately than they used to. Years ago when my daughters were little tykes, we bought these car seats as required by law. I think I counted thirteen rather frightening warning labels on each of these things. Dare I strap my precious little ones into these risky contraptions? Can you imagine if cars were invented last week and we consulted lawyers on whether we should allow anyone who had achieved the age of 16 years to drive these things anywhere they want, these things that could get up to 140 miles per hour in some cases? With just a round wheel that lets you point them any old way you want? Or how about skiing and snowboarding… listen, we’d like people to pay us to let them ride up a steep mountain in a chair suspended on a cable…will they be strapped in? Oh his no, they have to be able to lift up the flimsy lap bar so they can then slide down a slipper snowy hill with boards strapped to their feet. Won’t that make it be hard to stand up with boards strapped to your feet? Oh, no, we also give them five foot long poles with spikes on the end, to steady themselves, so problem solved! 

And these people were in charge of COVID policy for two years….

And after yesterday's election I see they are STILL in charge.

Nice one.