Friday--

Chilly again.  We put on winter nightgowns and were glad we did.  I may put the afghan on the bed soon.  I plan to harvest the rest of the sweet potatoes and, maybe, the last peppermint cutting.  Otherwise generally cleaning up.  The mandevilla is showing some stress so I may be taking it out soon.  It is a tropical vine and very sensitive to cold temperatures.  It bloomed prettily but I don't think, as of right now, I will put a new one in next year.  I am thinking of passionflower mixed with my dragon's egg cucumbers on a trellis.  Nowadays when I look out my patio door I see what I am seeing next year's garden in my mind's eye over what is left of this year's.  Need to sit down and thoroughly evaluate what did well and what didn't.

An interesting sign of the times, I think.  Good?  Bad?  I don't really know but it certainly does reflect our modern world.  Part of me is sad that so many words referring to natural, growing things are being replaced by words referring to an intangible, man-made environment.  Part of me wonders if, in a few short years to the children who use the OJD, the latter world will be more real than the former. If so, what will that mean for our society?

As computer technology invades more and more of the devices we use on a daily basis the possibility of more frauds like the VW "defeat device" software grows.  This little post provides a scary example.  We have already seen hackers holding individual computers and larger computer systems (as in those police departments rely on) hostage for ransom payments.  Pay up or you will never see your data again.  What would happen if, in the middle of an extreme cold spell, some malicious bastard took over your computerized heating system and threatened to shut it down unless you paid his extortion demands?  Or took over your fridge/freezer and threatened to ruin everything in it?

Some years ago, when we were still buying Christmas/birthday presents for the grandnieces/nephews, we did shop a bit at Toys 'r' Us.  If we still were we wouldn't any more because of this.  I have gradually decided that I shouldn't spend my American dollars with companies who don't support our American workers.

They just might be right about that.

We have wondered here about the so-called obesity epidemic.  We don't pooh-pooh the notion.  We know people who have dieted and exercised under strict doctors' supervision and been unable to lose weight.  This little article adds some complexity to the situation.  The researchers found that controlling for diet and exercise (meaning that the diets are the same and the level of exercise is the same) a person today is going to be 10% (or more) heavier than a person of the same age 30 years ago.  So what has changed.  Remember the study controlled for diet and exercise.  We have our ideas and I will leave you to think up your own.

I am not going to comment on the Oregon shooting directly.  Rather I am going to rant a bit about all the pundits now declaring that this is another part in a "war against Christians."  Frankly, I am sick of that crap.  I have seen reports of a couple of church shootings in which the assassin target blacks but no one is talking about a "war against blacks."  A Sikh man in Chicago was recently beaten by an attacker who was anti-Muslim and evidently was too ignorant and bigoted to know the difference.  It hasn't been too long since that mass shooting at a Sikh temple but no one has talked about a "war against Sikhs."  What about the vandalism of Jewish synagogues?  But we don't hear about a "war on Jews."  There is plenty of rage churning in this country and a lot of targets for that rage.  That there is a whine about a "war against Christians" shows just how insecure some Christians are and how easily demagogues of the most vicious sort tap into that insecurity. (Rant over.)