Saturday--

Supposed to get temps into the mid 80s with a chance of storms.  I did get my hyssop and lemon basil transplanted yesterday and will get a few other plants out if things are dry enough long enough.  We had heavy rain last night so things need to dry out a bit.  I also need to find the pots for the wintergreen and lemon verbena plants.  I love the way Cook's Garden packed the plants.  They were in easily-opened clam shell packages that kept the plants secure curing shipment.  Those plants are destined for a life inside with brief times outside in good weather.  When I opened up the lemon verbena the strong lemon scent reminded be of why I want to find a way to grow it.  It was wonderful.

As expected Tsarnaev was given a death sentence.  An interesting "win-win" situation.  The families, prosecutors, and the worst of our commentariat can claim a kind of justice (which is a thin veneer over thick plank of vengeance) while Tsarnaev, if he really is a committed jihadi, gets what he truly wants (martyrdom and a reward in his heaven.)  If I sound somewhat cynical, I'm not.  I'm a lot cynical.

Sunday--

Supposed to be warm again today with a likelihood of storms.  Probably won't get much done outside today but things are looking very nice.  In the early morning I saw a couple of the Cupcake squash peeking their little heads above the ground in their pot and by late afternoon all five had emerged and unfurled their first leaves.  The peas are just a bit behind them.  Still no sign of life in the strawberries.  The wintergreen and lemon verbena plants are all in their pots and recovering from the transplanting well.

Monday--

We should get near 80 today before the temperature takes a serious dive.  Overnight drop into the low 40s.  I will bring the wintergreen and lemon verbena I put in the greenhouse inside for the next several days.  All my peas have sprouted and the Barese cucumbers are starting to poke through the soil.  The rose still hasn't shown any signs of life so I will wait until next week and, if it is still not showing anything, I will dig it up and check what is happening below the surface.  And if the strawberry plants aren't showing anything I will replace them with already sprouted plants.

This article sums up some interesting studies, clinical and lab, on drug addiction that I have hear a very few mentions of before.  It makes one wonder if we really don't have the entire notion of drug addiction wrong.

Some time ago we decided to change our foods to those which were the least processed in any way and had the fewest additives.  As a result we get whole dairy products as much as possible.  No 2%, 1% or skim.  We have also shifted away from margarine and back to butter.  Conventional thinking would be aghast and waiting for us to gain a lot of weight as a result.  Didn't happen.  This article might help explain it--as far a nutrition science can explain much of anything.

Another interesting article that pretty much confirms some of my own not terribly scientific conclusions: much of what appears in the science literature isn't very reliable.  All too often the results are preliminary and won't stand up to further studies aimed at confirming them.  The pressure to publish and publish frequently pushes the release of preliminary data long before any firm conclusions can be reached.  And too often the researcher asks the wrong questions or fails to ask reasonable follow-up questions.  (See the first article I linked to where they describe the studies in which isolated rats lapped up the cocaine laced water till they died.)  Also the entities which fund the studies want certain results and, by asking the right questions and setting the parameters of the experiments the "right" way, their tame researchers can give them those answers.  Think about how often a nutritional study which indicates a "health problem" with one kind of food (eggs, red meat, dairy, whatever) is followed by contradictory studies claiming the "health benefits" of those very same foods.

Scott Walker's "Sarah Palin" moment:  she was qualified to be vice-president (possibly president) because she could see Russia from her deck and he thinks he is qualified because he traveled to six countries

I have been getting real tired of all of the various events to "honor" our "heroes."  They have become increasingly saccharine and staged.  Evidently, my instinct on some of those events may more right on than I knew.  Cheap and insincere and avoids doing anything of substance to "support" the troops.