DOES CILANTRO FLUSH MERCURY FROM YOUR BODY?

On Thursday I posted on:  How Really Bad is Mercury?I said it was not good, but, if you're not pregnant nor young, there shouldn't be a serious problem with your continuing to eat fish with some good judgement.  Well, Patty Golden sent me some information indicating that cilantro (which is sometimes called coriander, Chinese Parsley and dhania--I'm surprised, but Wikipedia says this is the same herb) can flush mercury out of your body:http://www.hoaxorfact.com/Health/cilantro-flushes-mercury-from-the-body.htmlMercury,...

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WHAT IS YOUR HOUSEHOLD ANNUAL INCOME?

About this handsome couple later.  The median American household income has hovered around $50,000 (in 2011 dollars)/year for a very long time:The rich, though, are getting richer, and the poor...well, their inflation adjusted income has continued to also increase, with the bottom 10% up from $9600/year in 1967 to $12,000/year now.Wikipedia only lists 40 countries, and the data are dated, but Mexico is at the bottom, with a median household...

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HOW REALLY BAD IS MERCURY?

The first emperor of China (left) took mercury pills to insure for eternal life.  He lived to a ripe old age of 49, which is not a joke, because that was in the BCs, and average life expectancy was below 30 until only around a century or so ago.From where did "mad as a hatter" come?  Well, there was Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland.  But the origin was a disease workers in the felt hat industry suffered from,...

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I HAVE A DREAM: Part 2

Part 1 of "I Have a Dream" was posted on Saturday.  But it was exactly 50 years ago today that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave that speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  USA Today compared Lincoln's Gettysburg Address with King's Dream:Lincoln in 1863 used 272 words in a 3 minute speechKing in 1963 used 1,652 words in a 17 minute speech Today, Presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton participated in the celebration...

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A $122 MILLION PROJECT TO MAKE SOLAR FUELS FOR VEHICLES

Alan Ohnsman (right) of Bloomberg News reports that Chemistry Professor Nate Lewis (below) from the California Institute of Technology is leading an effort, also involving Stanford, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Universities of California at Berkeley, Irvine and San Diego, of a $122 million effort funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to:Produce solar hydrogen and power fuel cell cars.Blend the hydrogen with carbon dioxide from...

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GET A FLU SHOT AND REDUCE YOUR CHANCES OF A HEART ATTACK BY 45%

The flu vaccine just recently became available for this coming season.  I took mine last week.  There were no after affects.  To the right is a microscopic shot of a typical flu virus.Depending on your medical plan, you could pay anywhere from zero to $15.  If you have none, the cost should be $30 at most.   Drugstores usually give a $5-$10 discount.The flu this past year was intense:Today, I read that TAKING A FLU SHOT CAN...

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A CONJUNCTION OF CELESTIAL BODIES IN SEPTEMBER

I have long been intrigued by the Planet Venus.  First, it is the brightest natural object we can see in the sky, next to the Moon and the Sun.  Second, my possible next novel, The Venus Syndrome, could consume me for the next year.From the 25August2013 issue of Skywatch by Mike Shanahan (sorry, but can't yet find a link, so the above is from Society of Popular Astronomy):  Since Spica shines at first magnitude and Venus shines at...

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PIGEON SUNSET

I bought a whole rotisserie chicken from Costco this afternoon and had it with a glass of white wine.  Then came sunset, with a special guest:I've had pigeons before, and a large praying mantis, green parrots, and, every so often, even people.  This was a memorable sunset tonigh...

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I HAVE A DREAM

1963 was a half century ago.  In January, George Wallace became governor of Alabama, and defiantly proclaimed at his inaugural:  Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.In April, Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama for "parading without a permit."In June, John F. Kennedy promised a Civil Rights Bill, and also gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin.  This actually was a blunder,...

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