https://painkills2.wordpress.com/?s=i+love+tomatoes
http://losranchosnm.gov/growers-market/
http://www.corralesgrowersmarket.com/
Photo from 2014.
Day: 05/24/2015
Police in Florida Grapple With a Cheap and Dangerous New Drug
Flakka, which got its name from a Spanish colloquial term for a pretty, enticing woman, is a synthetic cathinone that mimics the khat plant grown in Africa. It is made from alpha-pyrrolidinovalerophenone, what Mr. Hall describes as “second-generation bath salts,” a reference to previous formulations of the amphetaminelike stimulant.
Also known as gravel, flakka made a sudden and explosive entrance into South Florida’s illicit drug market about six months ago, particularly in poor neighborhoods, where drug users including homeless people were lured by the low price, $5 a dose…
At first, the products known as bath salts were available in gas stations. When specific chemical substances were banned in China, chemists tweaked the formula, and flakka emerged…
“Our supposition is that the original concept was to design it so it would be technically not illegal,” Mr. Hall said. “It appears they are now looking to also design the molecule to be even more potent and more addictive. Addiction is good for sales.” …
“It looks just like meth, heroin or cocaine, depending on the state it’s in on the street,” Detective Schwartz said. “People who are used to cocaine or meth try this drug, but a normal dose of cocaine or meth is a gram or more. If you use a gram or more of flakka, you are in a state of excited delirium, and there is no way back.”
Bud made the cover of National Geographic :)
Science Seeks to Unlock Marijuana’s Secrets
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/marijuana/sides-text
Pretending To Be A Photographer
“The thing with pretending you’re in a good mood is that sometimes you can.” Charles de Lint
“There’s something liberating about not pretending. Dare to embarrass yourself. Risk.” Drew Barrymore
“There’s only one requirement of any of us, and that is to be courageous. Because courage, as you might know, defines all other human behavior. And, I believe – because I’ve done a little of this myself – pretending to be courageous is just as good as the real thing.” David Letterman
(Photo taken yesterday.)
Corruption By Design
It is interesting to me that Unum’s attorneys never once questioned me at deposition about my role as a Compensation Specialist working in Jim’s Orr’s office acting as a go between Unum ‘s executive staff and Smith Barney transacting the trading and sale of stock options.
It may also be that Unum’s legal resources hoped to avoid any public disclosures of insider trading in and around the time of the merger with Paul Revere and the Provident Companies. Nothing has ever been asked or answered about the sudden disappearance of “The 1998 People Goals”, and the deliberate granting of employee stock options valued at nearly $60 per share that became worthless at $5 per share after the 1999 merger took place, [possibly] with the full knowledge of management…
While Unum’s executives lived the luxury of wealth, claims handlers felt the stress of managers who demanded more and more claim terminations. If you can, picture a work area with a large red thermometer on the wall keeping track of denials, and a service bell alongside a large fishbowl into which lottery tickets were placed by those lucky enough to deny multiple claims. Each “ding” of the bell signified another denial with applause.
On the half hour Unum’s managers drew a ticket from the fishbowl and awarded picnic gear, movie tickets, lawn chairs and other prizes to claims handlers who denied claims…
Claims handlers were also told to call claimants from the south with 8th grade educations and offer them settlements, and or offer larger numbers of settlements around the holidays when claimants were in need of money…
Unum’s legal department is now arguing that insureds and claimants should not be able to retain qualified assistance to help them manage their claims. Without outside assistance Unum will be able to deny more claims than ever and has gained the support of the Maine Attorney General who is bed with Unum’s agenda. One has to wonder if the Maine Attorney General isn’t in Unum’s pocket…
The results are in
.https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2015/05/20/daily-windows-updates/
Do you ever wonder how much of your downloading allowance is spent on these updates?
Turns out, not as much as I thought. For the past 30 days, I calculated 272.12MB of downloading for updates in Windows 8.1. I have a 14GB plan from those rip-off artists, Verizon, which costs me $80 per month. So that’s about 2% of my limit. However…
When I was 0.840GB over my monthly limit, it was an extra $15. When I was 4.138GB over my limit, it cost me $75 extra. So that 2% can easily push me over my monthly digital allowance. When I was under my limit, do I get a credit? Hell no.
And Verizon also charges me $20 per month for “Jetpack/Usb Line Access,” along with various city and state fees/taxes.
Additionally, for this 30-day period, I had to reset my network wireless adapter a total of 120 times, for an average of 4 times for each update.
I shouldn’t need to tell you that in the U.S., we pay more for internet service than in any other country. Not only that, we have the slowest speeds. And it sucks big time. I believe the term for this is: monopoly (or duopoly).
My head hurts from all this calculating, frustration, and anger. Good thing I picked up some ranch dressing today from Pelican’s Restaurant. Now, if I could just figure out how to set up an IV, I’m all good. 😀
Military consumers have narrow escape on Capitol Hill
It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t pay lip service to honoring military personnel but on this Memorial Day weekend, it’s worth taking time out to note that there are also plenty of unscrupulous businesses that are only too happy to take advantage of servicemembers, aided by their friends on Capitol Hill.
Congress talks a good game but, when not attending Memorial Day parades and fund-raisers, House Republicans were hard at work on behalf of the banking industry this year, trying to delay new rules that shield servicemembers from predatory loans…
In an executive order, President Obama authorized changes to the rules that would cap most loans to military personnel at 36%.
Sorry President Obama, but 36% is still too high. In my opinion, that’s an interest rate charged by a loan shark.
This set off a flurry of activity in the House Armed Service Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) threw his weight behind a measure that would have indefinitely delayed the new rule, supposedly to make time for more study. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had already conducted a study based on more than 5,000 complaints of financial abuse it had received from military members by July 2013.
The blocking tactic was tucked into annual legislation that sets policy for the Department of Defense. But consumer adocates “outed” the measure and Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraqi War veteran, introduced legislation striking the banker-backed provision…
Suicide in the military — don’t blame deployments (2014)
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/suicide-in-the-military-dont-blame-deployments-030414.html
According to the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS), the rise in suicide deaths from 2004 to 2009 occurred not only in currently and previously deployed soldiers, but also among soldiers never deployed. In fact, nearly half of soldiers who reported suicide attempts indicated their first attempt was prior to enlistment.
Additionally, soldiers reported higher rates of certain mental disorders than civilians, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intermittent explosive disorder (recurrent episodes of extreme anger or violence), and substance use disorder…
Although historically, the suicide death rates in the U.S. Army have been below the civilian rate, the suicide rate in the U.S. Army began climbing in the early 2000s, and by 2008, it exceeded the demographically matched civilian rate (20.2 suicide deaths per 100,000 vs. 19.2)…
This study found that the suicide rates increased during this time period, even among those who had never deployed, and also found that being deployed increased suicide risk for women more than it did for men. However, suicide risk still remained lower for deployed women than for deployed men.
Additionally, the study identified a correlation between demotion and suicide risk: soldiers who had been demoted in the past two years experienced increased suicide risk, compared to those without such demotions. There was also increased risk in soldiers without at least a high school diploma or a GED certificate, compared to soldiers with similar or higher degrees. The data suggest that being male, white, or a junior enlisted rank put individuals at the highest risk of suicide…
Why Are Palo Alto’s Kids Killing Themselves?
Suicide clusters—defined as a group of three or more suicides in close time or geographic proximity—are exceedingly rare: There are an average of five per year in the United States. Most common among adolescents, college students, prisoners, and soldiers, clusters have occurred in locales both like and unlike educated, wealthy Palo Alto. Recently, there have been clusters at high schools in Fairfax County, Virginia; at the University of Pennsylvania; and at MIT. On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, nine young people have killed themselves since last December…
I followed news of the heartbreaking 2009–10 Gunn High cluster with a sense of suffocating unease. I wanted to write about the impact of the kids’ deaths on the town—and to ask what made Palo Alto different from other elite, affluent campus towns around the nation—but I was consistently shut out by the people closest to the events. The Palo Alto school district and community, terrified that media coverage—or even public utterance of the word “suicide”—would spread the contagion, implemented an unofficial gag order. The fear was too great—nobody would talk…
This was particularly true of the teens, who volunteered acute insights about their town, their school, and the contradictions of a culture that demands personal excellence but withholds emotional support…
On Monday morning, the victim’s identity was released—Harry Lee, age 17—and the terror of the weekend was replaced by a devastating resignation. In a ritual that started after Cam’s death, dozens of Gunn students replaced their Facebook avatars with a message that read “We’re All in This Together” in white lettering on a red background…
At a packed memorial service at Spangler Mortuary in Los Altos, Harry’s mother related that a few weeks prior, Harry had been deeply depressed, had even mentioned wanting to die. He was getting help, she said, but there were waits for referrals and appointments. In the end, it was too late. This, tragically, is not an uncommon set of circumstances: In Palo Alto, as in many other cities, wait times to see a mental health professional are increasing as rates of depression soar…
Indeed, Palo Alto’s avoidance of the word “suicide” is “very much exemplary of how we deal with problems here,” says Anna Barbier. “It’s like the chalk. No one addressed it. They just washed it down.” She’s referring to a series of chalk memorials that were drawn by students all over the Gunn campus after Cam’s death. Rather than leaving them up as a reminder of (or, school officials feared, an homage to) suicide’s lasting effects, the administration unceremoniously hosed them away within hours. The students were left feeling wronged, their voices and feelings silenced. In April, their fury at being ignored boiled over again in the form of a Tumblr blog called My Voice Matters, where nearly 200 students posted portraits of themselves with their hands blocking their mouth…
Captured By Pain
“If I were white, I could capture the world.” Dorothy Dandridge
(Photo taken 5/13/2015.)
Please help in honor of Memorial Day!
http://lisaslunacy.com/2015/05/23/please-help-in-honor-of-memorial-day/
Many of you may remember when I wrote about the tragic death of a young Marine. His mom just received the funeral bill, and unfortunately, the fundraiser fell short of the bill. Please find it in your hearts to help this mom pay for her son’s funeral. Click the following link: https://fundly.com/funeral-expenses-for-matt-aquaro if you’re able to donate. No amount is too small and every gift is appreciated more than words can say. On behalf of the family, thank you in advance.
All Things Chronic 