All posts by George Walters

Early To Bed, Early To Rise

Years ago the old saying was if your tired get some sleep.  I kind of think, that most us folks today should have listened to our old Mom & Dad.

CHICAGO – Just one extra hour of sleep a day appears to lower the risk of developing calcium deposits in the arteries, a precursor to heart disease, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

The finding adds to a growing list of health consequences — including weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure — linked to getting too little sleep.

“We found that people who on average slept longer were at reduced risk of developing new coronary artery calcifications over five years,” said Diane Lauderdale of the University of Chicago Medical Center, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Global Warming Part 1

Pretty Interesting Article:

There is no global warming. Period.

You can’t find a real scientist anywhere in the world who can look you in the eye and, without hesitation, without clarification, without saying, kinda, mighta, sorta, if, and or but…say “yes, global warming is with us.”

There is no evidence whatsoever to support such claims. Anyone who tells you that scientific research shows warming trends – be they teachers, news casters, Congressmen, Senators, Vice Presidents or Presidents – is wrong. There is no global warming.

Scientific research through U.S. Government satellite and balloon measurements shows that the temperature is actually cooling – very slightly – .037 degrees Celsius.

A little research into modern-day temperature trends bears this out. For example, in 1936 the Midwest of the United States experienced 49 consecutive days of temperatures over 90 degrees. There were another 49 consecutive days in 1955. But in 1992 there was only one day over 90 degrees and in 1997 only 5 days.

Because of modern science and improved equipment, this “cooling” trend has been most accurately documented over the past 18 years. Ironically, that’s the same period of time the hysteria has grown over dire warnings of “warming.”

Changes in global temperatures are natural. There is no proof that temperature is affected by anything that man has done.

In fact, recent severe weather has been directly attributed to a natural phenomenon that occurs every so often called El Nino. It causes ocean temperatures to rise as tropical trade winds actually reverse for a time.

The resulting temperature changes cause severe storms, flooding and even drought on every continent on earth.

It’s completely natural. El Nino has been wreaking its havoc across the globe since long before man appeared.

How about the reports that the polar ice cap is melting?

Well, yes it is. In fact, it has been for about a million years or so. We are at the end of the ice age in which ice covered most of North American and Northern Europe.

There’s at least one environmentalist, named Al Gore, who is panicking over the possibility that we may soon lose Glacier National Park in Montana because the ice is melting.

One hates to tell him that we’ve already lost the glacier that used to cover the whole country.

Perhaps he’ll want to start working for new regulations from the Interior Department to begin immediately restoring this lost historical environmental treasure. Re-establishing a sheet of ice covering the entire continent would certainly serve to stop mining, timber cutting and urban sprawl.

The truth is, someday humans may be able to take tropical vacations at the North Pole – and it will be perfectly natural.

Yet our world is being flooded with the dire predictions of Global Warming.

We are being warned of killer heat waves, vast flooding and the spread of tropical diseases. Ocean levels are rising, they say. America’s coast lines are doomed, they tell us. Hurricanes and tornadoes have already become more violent, we are warned. Floods and droughts have begun to ravage the nation, they cry.

Any change in temperatures, or an excessive storm or extended flooding is looked upon as a sure sign that environmental Armageddon is upon us. Diabolical environmentalists are using the natural El Nino phenomenon to whip people into a Global Warming hysteria.

Infrared Light Helmet Reverses Alzheimer’s

Interesting

An experimental infrared helmet has proven successful in not only halting but actually reversing the progression of dementia in at least one patient.

When 57-year-old businessman Clem Fennel began to rapidly lose the ability to function due to aggressive dementia, doctors told his family that nothing could stop his decline. Instead of giving up hope, however, they turned to an experimental device developed by British general practitioner Gordon Dogual. They flew Fennel to England, where Dougal began treating him with a helmet that radiates the brain with infrared light two times per day.

“Honestly I can tell you that within ten days, the deterioration was stopped; then we started to see improvements. He started to respond to people more quickly when they talked to him,” Fennell’s wife Vicky said.

“My husband, Clem, was fading away. It is as if he is back. His personality has started to show again. We are absolutely thrilled.”

Before receiving the treatment, Fennel was unable to complete regular daily tasks.

“When we go to the restaurant we usually have to order his meals for him, now he can order for himself,” Fennel’s daughter Maggie said. “Now we are okay about letting him go to the bank or the post office but he would not have been able to do that three weeks ago.”

The helmet has not yet been tested clinically, although a trial on 100 patients is scheduled to begin before the end of the year. Dougal noted that because the helmet has not been put through rigorous trials, there is no way to know if it will work the same on everyone.

“I made it clear to the Fennells that I didn’t know for a fact whether it would work or not, but the results are good,” Dougal said. “He was monosyllabic when I first saw him, but if I ring up now he will answer the phone. He didn’t have the verbal skills to do that three weeks ago.”

Smart Meter Price List Hmmm

And some folks think it will be cheaper.  Not Really!!

Weekdays
7 am to 11 am 8.8¢/kWh
11 am to 5 pm 7.2¢/kWh
5 pm to 8 pm 8.8¢/kWh
8 pm to 10 pm 7.2¢/kWh
10 pm to 7 am 4.0¢/kWh
Weekends 4.0¢/kWh

Homeowners with smart meters (i.e. meters that track how much electricity is used and when) will pay different rates throughout the day. The rates are set and regularly adjusted by the OEB to reflect pricing trends in the wholesale electricity market – when demand is higher, prices tend to be higher and vice-versa.

Weather Forecast For Port Loring Ontario

Forecast

Issued: 11.30 AM EST Wednesday 21 January 2009

Today:
Periods of snow ending early this afternoon then cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries. Risk of freezing drizzle near noon. High minus 8.

Tonight:
Cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries. Periods of light snow beginning overnight. Wind becoming west 20 km/h near midnight. Low minus 10.

Thursday:
Periods of light snow ending in the morning then cloudy with 40 percent chance of flurries. Becoming cloudy periods late in the day. Wind west 20 km/h becoming light in the morning. High minus 5.

Friday:
Snow. Low minus 17. High minus 7.

Saturday:
Sunny. Low minus 26. High minus 21.

Sunday:
Sunny. Low minus 28. High minus 19.

Honey Bees

Air pollution is making it harder for bees and other pollinating insects to find food, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Virginia.

Pollutants such as ozone (smog) and nitrate radicals, formed mostly as a consequence of car exhaust, are binding with the volatile scent molecules given off by flowers, the scientists found. This chemically alters the molecules so that they no longer carry a sweet scent, and do not attract pollinating insects to plants.

I would say it probably has something to do  with it but pesticides and things like that in my mind would be the worse culprit.  And remember this: Honeybees are the primary pollinators for 80 percent of the world’s food crops.  Bottom line is this. If the Bees Parish so do we.

Put A Smile On My Face

A minister was completing a temperance sermon.
With great emphasis he said,

‘If I had all the beer in
The world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.’

With even greater emphasis he said,

‘And if I had
All the wine in the world, I’d take it and
Pour it into the river.’

And then finally, shaking his fist in the air, he Said,

‘And if I had all the whiskey in the world,
I’d take it and pour it into the river.’

Sermon complete, he sat down.

The hymn-leader stood very cautiously and announced
With a smile, nearly laughing,

‘For our closing hymn, let us sing

Hymn No.365,

‘Shall We Gather at the River.’

Smile, life is too short not to !!

New Solar Dish

Kind of think this is the way to go.

A successful test has been carried out of a new prototype solar dish that concentrates solar rays by 1,000 times, creating what inventor Doug Wood has called “the most efficient solar collector in existence.”

The device is a 12-foot-wide dish made from thin, mirrored aluminum tubing and strips of mirrored glass. Water runs through the center of the dish in a coil of tubing, which is painted black for maximum heat absorption.

The collector is so effective at focusing light that when it is pointed directly at the sun, the water in the middle instantly vaporizes into steam. The prototype has also been used to set a plank of wood on fire, and researchers believe that it should be able to generate enough heat to melt steel.

Wood has signed over the rights to the device’s design to a team of MIT students, who built the prototype and have launched a company to mass produce the devices. The company, Raw Solar, hopes to use heat generated by the collector to produce steam for electricity generation, industrial processing, or heating or cooling buildings.

Wood spoke approvingly of the changes that the students had made to his design

“They really have simplified this and made it user-friendly, so anybody can build it,” he said.

Unlike with many alternative energy sources, large-scale production is not required to make the solar dishes cost-efficient, Wood said. Because the materials to make the device are so cheap and because larger dishes require a larger, more expensive support structure, small dishes actually costs only one-third as much as large ones for every unit of collecting area.

“I’ve looked for years at a variety of solar approaches, and this is the cheapest I’ve seen,” said David Pelly of MIT. “And the key thing in scaling it globally is that all of the materials are inexpensive and accessible anywhere in the world.”

Cleaning Your Coffe Machine

We don’t have a newer model we perk ours on the burner on the stove.  Just like it better for some reason. Old School I guess.

Your coffee machine begs for a rinse . . .
Pour a quart of white vinegar into the water chamber, put in a filter, and run the machine through its brewing cycle. Put the vinegar in again, but this time let it sit for half an hour. Run through the brewing cycle again. Then run a pot of fresh water through the entire cycle. Repeat with a second pot of fresh water.Should be like brand new after that.  Talk Soon

Clothesline Tips for Summer

Clothesline Tips for Summer
Hanging clothes on the line: THE AVERAGE LOAD of wash uses about 35 feet of line; your clothesline should accommodate at least that. Unless the height of a pulley-style line is significant, the clothesline shouldn’t be a lot longer than that, as the sag factor increases with length.

A load of wet wash weighs about 15 to 18 pounds (assuming it is spin-dried). It will shed about a third of that weight as it dries. This may not seem like much weight, but it won’t take long for your new clothesline to get stretched out a bit. By leaving a little “tail” when you tie your knot for either style of clothesline, you’ll be able to undo it, pull the line tight, and retie it as often as you need to.

There are three common clothesline types to choose from:

Basic plastic clothesline has the advantage of being waterproof and cleanable (you can wipe off the inevitable mildew). With wire and fiber reinforcement, it is stretch-resistant — and it’s cheap. You can find a 100-foot roll for less than $4. However, it is thin, which means that it will be harder for you to grip, and the clothespin is not going to hold as tightly as on a thicker line.

Multi filament polypropylene (nylon) is tempting because it is lightweight, water- and mildew-resistant, and strong (our sample was 640-pound test). However, its slippery texture deters a firm clothespin grip, and it doesn’t tie well.

My  choice is basic cotton clothesline. It’s about the same price as nylon, which is about $7 to $8 per 100 feet. In theory, it is weaker (only 280-pound test in our sample), but unless you’re hanging out pots and pans to dry, it should hold up fine.

Best Times For Fishing

Best Times for Fishing

* One hour before and one hour after high tides, and one hour before and one hour after low tides. Inland, the times for high tides correspond with the times when the Moon is due south. Low tides are halfway between high tides.
* During the “morning rise” (after sunup for a spell) and the “evening rise” (just before sundown and the hour or so after).
* When the barometer is steady or on the rise. (But even during stormy periods, the fish aren’t going to give up feeding. The smart fisherman will find just the right bait.)
* When there is a hatch of flies — caddis flies or mayflies, commonly. (The fisherman will have to match his fly with the hatching flies or go fishless.)
* When the breeze is from a westerly quarter rather than from the north or east.
* When the water is still or rippled, rather than during a wind.

The Best Fishing Days for 2009

The Best Fishing Days for 2009, when the Moon is between new and full:

* January 1-10
* January 26-February 9
* February 24-March 10
* March 26-April 9
* April 24-May 9
* May 24-June 7
* June 22-July 7
* July 21-August 5
* August 20-September 4
* September 18-October 4
* October 18-November 2
* November 16-December 2
* December 16-31

Alzheimer’s & Coffee

Something to think about. Hope they are right.

Drinking coffee in moderate amounts during middle age may reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in the elderly, according to a new study.

Researchers in Finland and Sweden examined the records of 1,409 people whose coffee drinking habits had been recorded when they were at midlife.

Those who drank three to five cups of coffee per day in midlife were much less likely to have developed dementia or Alzheimer’s in follow-up checks two decades or more later, the researchers say in the January issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.