Thursday--

A day for puttering, I think.  I saw some Blauhild beans developing.  They should be ready for harvesting in a few days.  Otherwise nothing new going on.

I found this story first off today.  The tree was already ancient when it survived the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

We have already noticed the effects of the record setting rains at the farm market and the supermarket.  The ears of corn we see are smaller and more expensive.  We have decided to give corn a pass this year and won't stock up for the freezer.

Friday--

Another day for puttering and general maintenance in the gardens.  Perhaps time to do the midseason straighten-up/de-cluttering/clean up.

I've missed Barbara Ehrenreich's writing.  Here is an interesting piece on the intersection of reporting on poverty, journalism and the economics of publishing.  She hasn't posted on her blog for about four years so I lost track of what she was writing.  Maybe it is time to catch up.

So the FDA has approved, or is about to approve, another cholesterol lowering drug.  There are so many red flags that should arise in patients' (and doctors') minds about this (and all other such drugs).  First is the price tag: $14K per year).  That is more than my income for a year.  Even discounting the (alleged) Medicare benefit taking off 80% of that, it would be a steep price that would remove more than 20% of my income.  Second, I find it totally interesting how many holes I found in the only large scale trial of the drug that has been published before the writer of the article covered the same holes and their implications.  Third, did anyone else notice that no cholesterol lowering drug has ever been shown, definitively, to benefit patients?  A large number of patients take these drugs to prevent heart attack and stroke but would never develop the conditions whether they took the drug or not.

So, The Donald refused to rule out an independent campaign for the Presidency if he is not the Republican nominee.  Anyone surprised?  The man's ego is boundless.  I had a thought which should have party hacks sweating in their nightmares.  What if the race shapes up as Hillary the Democrat vs. whoever the non-Trump Republican turns out to be vs. Trump vs. Bernie Sanders?