The official temperature just went down to -1F according the news this morning.  Another good day to stay in and warm.

Reading:

We like tea in the afternoon with our supper/dinner and like variety.  We brew up a mix of regular teas (Earl Gray or gunpowder, for example), or yerba mate with a variety of herbal blends often from herbs I have grown here.  Here is an interesting description of how people in 22 countries prepare their tea.

File this one in the "boys gotta have their toys" file.  Even if they have to exaggerate a non-threat and redefine "terrorism" as advocating "peace, love, and understanding."  It is also obvious that they don't use intelligence as a criteria for hiring or promoting police officer or for electing politicians.

The Romans had "bread and circuses;" we have "reality TV."  Looks like they serve the same purposes.  Late last fall we took our cable service down to bare basic--so we could still get the "news" and the few channels we still liked.  We have debated for years about the offerings and were increasingly unhappy as the so-called reality shows dominated more and more of the airwaves.  Not only have we reduced our cable service but we have reduced the hours we watch as well because the news isn't really news any more--which is why the word is in quotes above.  The early promise of what TV could offer has been short circuited by capitalism.

Ronni Bennett always offers a good info and today she offers links to a new website that deals with medical care and questions patients and doctors should ask.  Evidently the medical establishment (at least some of it) is coming to the same conclusion I have: we get too much medical care at too great a cost.

Fortune reports an interesting drug shortage:  saline solution.  Yeah, for the last couple of years sterile salt water has been in short supply.

Well, all that crap had to go somewhere.  Did they think Dumbledore waved his wand and murmured a spell to make it disappear?