Day: 05/04/2015

The Impact Of Smoking Marijuana Regularly On Your Lungs, According To Science

http://guff.com/glt-the-impact-of-smoking-marijuana-regularly-on-your-lungs/20?ts_pid=2

A new study out of Emory University in Atlanta, however, could challenge what has become the fundamental argument for maintaining the plant’s designation as a Schedule 1 drug.

“Lifetime marijuana use up to 20 joint-years is not associated with adverse changes in spirometric (exhalation strength) measures of lung health,” the study, featured in the medical journal Annals of the American Thoracic Society, concluded…

The data collected suggests that it’s unlikely that prolonged marijuana use would cause respiratory diseases in a way that smoking tobacco would. While researchers at Emory University found that marijuana users who smoked joints reported coughing and having a sore throat — symptoms of bronchitis — they attributed that to the use of rolling papers, especially since those who used vaporizers reported similar problems less often.

The results of the Emory University study bear a striking similarity to previous research about marijuana’s effects on lung function. In 2012, government researchers found that people who smoked pot daily for seven years didn’t damage their lungs in a manner similar to that of tobacco smokers. A 2013 study conducted by Donald Tashkin, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles who has led long-term studies on the effects of tobacco inhalation, also confirmed that marijuana use alone didn’t cause significant abnormalities to the lungs…

Long Day’s End

Is it the month of May?  Because it feels like we’re going backward into April again. Today we had another sharp drop in temperature in the Q, from about 80 degrees to around 60 this afternoon.  The cool breeze feels good, but all these drastic changes in temperature are messing with the pain in my head.  And my allergies… Achooooo!

The photo was taken around 7:30pm, on my way back from Taco Cabana.  Because… Mexican food. 🙂

Black And White

Thanks to Thumbup for the link to this song. 🙂

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_White_%28Three_Dog_Night_song%29

The most successful recording of the song was the pop version by Three Dog Night in 1972, when it reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Easy Listening charts… The song was inspired by the United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed racial segregation of public schools. It was first recorded by Pete Seeger in 1956, followed by Sammy Davis Jr. in 1957. The original lyrics of the song opened with this verse, in reference to the court:

Their robes were black, Their heads were white,
The schoolhouse doors were closed so tight,
Nine judges all set down their names,
To end the years and years of shame.

The Uphill Battle to Better Regulate Formaldehyde

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/business/energy-environment/the-uphill-battle-to-better-regulate-formaldehyde.html?ref=business

But E.P.A. scientists had concluded that these laminate products — millions of which are sold annually in the United States — posed a particular risk. They said that when thin layers of wood, also known as laminate or veneer, are added to furniture or flooring in the final stages of manufacturing, the resulting product can generate dangerous levels of fumes from often-used formaldehyde-based glues.

Industry executives, outraged by what they considered an unnecessary and financially burdensome level of testing, turned every lever within reach to get the requirement removed. It would be particularly onerous, they argued, for small manufacturers that would have to repeatedly interrupt their work to do expensive new testing. The E.P.A. estimated that the expanded requirements for laminate products would cost the furniture industry tens of millions of dollars annually, while the industry said that the proposed rule over all would cost its 7,000 American manufacturing facilities over $200 million each year…

Industry “executives” should have to use their own products in their own homes.

Individual companies like Ikea also intervened, as did the Chinese government, which claimed that the new rule would create a “great barrier” to the import of Chinese products because of higher costs…

Unum Unfairly Denies Claim For Lupus (SLE)

https://lindanee.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/unum-unfairly-denies-claim-for-lupus-sle/

Disability insurers have historically had a problem paying Lupus claims because the disease “flares” meaning symptoms worsen and then symptoms improve and insureds feel much better. Although Lupus is regarded as mid to life threatening, in the past Unum discredits disability claims when it can be documented insureds “feel better.” In fact, the saying, “I have good days and bad days” has become a new stereotype for those who are presumed by insurers to be malingerers…

Hovering

That hovering pain storm
tryin’ to lock my jaw
What’s with you, asshole?
Wanna see me crawl?

Be gone
Fuck off
Release me
you toff

From the Urban Dictionary:

TOP DEFINITION
Hovering

Hovering is the feeling you have when you’re almost high or when you’re coming down from being high; it’s the marijuana equivalent of being buzzed when drinking.

Friend: Are you high, man?
You: Nah I’m just hovering.

Yo I think I need some more weed, I’m starting to hover.

(Photo taken 4/16/2015 around 7pm.)