We have light snow on the grass. The pavements are too warm for it to stick. Supposed to change to rain over the morning. No Spring yet! I haven't planted outside yet and this makes me glad I haven't tried. It isn't our area but we have been visited by similar weather. Most of the snow is now gone washed away by the rain. It is still gray and gloomy.

Ronni Bennett has a piece this morning on Elders and Cannabis--Pt. 1. I haven't smoked pot or tried it in any form but I have had more frequent episodes of sleeplessness, fitful sleep, etc. Some of it can be attributed to two young cats who joined the household just before last Christmas. That makes pot, in some form other that smokable, intriguing. Given the statistics she cites, which the government is, and has been, aware of I am flummoxed by the antediluvian dinosaurs who insist on keeping it illegal. See especially the stats on the effects on the opioid "crisis" of legalizing marijuana. Until my state joins the 29 who have already legalized at least medical marijuana, I will settle for a nightcap of chamomile/lavender tea.

The issue of cyber security has taken a bizarre twists. The Netherlands government has told government and business travelers to China to take blank laptops and phones with them because the Chinese government wants to know all about them and their companies and will infiltrate the computers and phones. Representatives are also taking printed copies of important papers to circumvent that. The article also suggests they be wary of Russia, Iran and Turkey as well. From what I heard on the American border they should add the U.S. to that list. Mom mentioned stories she had seen which said some diplomats and others are taking typewriters that use pressure sensitive paper, including the child's typewrite from Hasbro, so there isn't a ribbon they can remove.

A good piece on public education at Naked Capitalism: The Corporate Plant to Groom U.S. Kids for Servitude by Whipping out Public Education.

And then there is this piece on vitamins and the contradictory work that has been done on them. I think my main criticism of nutritional studies is that the researchers take the specific compound (nutrient) out of the food and give it to patients to see what it will do. Maybe it has an effect, maybe it doesn't. Perhaps it needs another "nutrient" to have its full effect. Worse--the researchers then publish their findings which may lead to doctors prescribing the vitamin to patients only to be informed later that the "preliminary results" were wrong.

Says the man who won't get "hit" at all.