Post climate change Summer Olympic events

• Sauna cycling
• Climate change denier decathlon (make them run till they drop)
• Heat wave high-jumping
• Swimming in sweat
• Bad ass butt-blistering badminton
• Empty pool concrete crawl
• Track and burnt to a crisp fields
• Diving into melted marshmallows
• Hop, skip, and puddle jump
• Arid aerobics
• Hot as hell hammer throw
• Molten lava shot put (can you say hot potato?)
• Blistering baseball
• Torrid tennis
• Fiery flame fencing
• Hot foot gymnastics
• Desert doom marathon
• Asphalt egg-frying
• Perspiration polo
• Dead tree trunk lifting
• Bermuda short boxing
• Water bottle relay
• Mirage javelin  and discus throw
• Greenhouse gym-gastics
• Wrestling with guilt (everyone qualifies)

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Will wonders ever cease?

Kudos to Chief Justice John Roberts and the other four members of the Supreme Court who voted today to preserve nearly all aspects of the Affordable Healthcare Act. This is a tremendous victory for all Americans, whether they know it (or like it) or not.

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In a nation that espouses “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” nothing does more to preserve life than everyone having access to affordable health care. Now is the time for opponents to start putting patients ahead of politics!

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Mapping costly climatic disasters in the USA

Here is a fascinating map depicting those areas of the United States with the most and least billion dollar disasters since 1980.  If you want to avoid destructive weather and climate related disasters, the south is not the place to be. On the other hand, Hawaii, Alaska, Wyoming, Michigan, New England, and Puerto Rico appear to be the safest. Sadly, with the recent glut of monstrous wildfires, Colorado may no longer be among the safer places.

Source: blog.cleanenergy.org

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More disappearing acts to depart soon

Here are eleven more items that I believe will all but disappear within the next decade – some a little more controversial than the previous list:

• The Euro – good idea, but not everyone came to the party with the same idea in mind.
• Gasoline only cars – there will still be a plethora of gasoline only cars left over, but within a decade all new cars will be flex-fuel, hybrid electric, diesel, or electric.
• Paper business cards – instead we will have some type of RFID business cards that can be read by cell phones.
• Paper maps – as a map collector this one makes me sad, but I sure am holding on to the ones I have.
• Printed lodging directories
• Mail boxes – to save money, the post office will require everyone to maintain a post office box instead.
• Super-sized cola drinks – what New York City starts will be followed as obesity costs rise.
• Training wheels – as studies start to show they may hinder learning to ride more than they help, off they will go.
• Three-car or more garages – long overdue as starter castles start reflecting reality. Perhaps a separate bicycle door instead?
• Facebook – keep changing things arbitrarily without telling people ahead of time and it will soon go the way of myspace and digg. Hope you didn’t buy the stock.
• The BCS – this cannot come soon enough. Bring on playoffs.

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Obsolete watch – things about to disappear

Here’s my initial list of things that will largely disappear in the next decade. Sure, you can still find buggy whips in certain places, but they don’t permeate the market like they did 100 years ago.

• Wristwatches – who needs them when everyone carries a cell phone?
• Alarm clocks – ditto
• Video rental stores – Can you say, “bye-bye Blockbuster?”
• Film – remember Fotomat’s? Forget largely any kind of film for photography and the equipment that goes with it.
• CDs – the music and data storage disks, not the investment option. Not sure if I am thrilled about his one. Seems like every time I get all my crap transferred onto a new storage medium it goes out of date. Everything’s going digital or to the cloud, wherever the heck that is?
• Chain bookstores – personally, I am sad about this one. Love wandering through a good bookstore. Used and niche bookstores will remain, but the chains are being replaced by electronic options.
• College bookstores – same reason, but I won’t miss the price ripoffs, especially on returns.
• Daily newspapers - neighborhood-oriented and specialty ones may remain, as well as national publications like the New York Times, but most small to mid-sized cities will have none.
• SUVs – the sooner the better for these gas hogs.
• Schedule planners and non-photographic calendars – who needs them in our electronic world?
• Dial-up internet – sorry AOL hanger’s on, time to join the 21st century.
• Phone books – despite how many they pile up at your doorstep.
• Land lines for homes. Haven’t had one for a year myself. Still may be necessary for work.
• Keys – with electronic door locks, keys may all but disappear for many uses. This prediction will not be true for Florida where they have many lovely keys dotting its coastline. : )
• Key chains – ditto.

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Two celebrity cafes

For fun, here are photos of two coffee shops/cafes in the United Kingdom that have a certain amount of celebrity status associated with them. The first is the Beatles Coffee Shop in London. If you take the excellent and interesting two-hour Beatles Walking Tour, this is where your trip concludes.

The second is the Elephant House Tea and Coffee Shop in Edinburgh, Scotland where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. It has excellent food and an outstanding view of the Edinburgh Castle. Be sure to see the table where Ms. Rowling sat and wrote the books as she looked out over this lovely city. Definitely worth a stop to visit.

Source: flickr.com

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An epidemic whose cure cannot “weight”

According to a recent article in Live Science which was summarized in the National Center for Bicycling and Walking’s online publication, Centerlines, humanity is 17 million tons overweight. That is the equivalent to 34,000,000,000 pounds or another 242 million people!

Sadly, but not surprisingly, the United States is the most overweight nation on the planet. With all our fast food, fried food, super-sized sodas, lack of exercise, and over all couch-potato attitudes, we deserve to be at the top of the heap.  The research shows that while North America accounts for just six percent of the world’s population, but 34 percent of its human body mass due to obesity. that is a very sorry statistic.

Here are the lists of the top ten heaviest and lightest nations on the planet. It is noteworthy that half of the top 10 heaviest nation are located in the Middle East, while all ten of the lightest nations are from Asia or Africa. It should also be pointed out that for several of the nations included on the lightest 10 list, the opposite problem from obesity is occurring - instead of too much food (or calories) being consumed, they have too little, which is leading to risks associated with starvation.

Heaviest 10 (for nations with more than 100,000 people):

1. United States
2. Kuwait
3. Croatia
4. Qatar
5. Egypt
6. United Arab Emirates
7. Trinidad and Tobago
8. Argentina
9. Greece
10. Bahrain

Lightest 10:

1. North Korea
2. Cambodia
3. Burundi
4. Nepal
5. Democratic Republic of the Congo
6. Bangladesh
7. Sri Lanka
8. Ethiopia
9. Vietnam
10. Eritrea

The research was detailed online Sunday (June 17) in the journal BMC Public Health.

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Scenes from Michigan’s vagina support rally

Here are some of my photos taken last night at the Michigan rally in support of vaginas held at the steps of the State Capitol in downtown Lansing. At least 5,000 people attended in support of Women’s Rights.

Sheroes of the day – Rep. Barbara Byrum and Rep. Lisa Brown

“Vagina Monologues” being presented

Under a beautiful June evening sky.

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Michigan vagina rally

Photo of portion of the crowd in front of the state capitol in Lansing.

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Michigan vagina rally

I am currently attending the Rally for Vaginas at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. This is easily the largest crowd I have seen at a capitol rally with at least 5,000 women and men of all ages attending.

The rally is in response to the overtly prudish and arrogant actions of the conservative, male dominated state house of representatives where the leader censured two female representatives last week. More will be posted tomorrow.

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