"The canary in the coal mine is dead."

     The wind gusts were ferocious all last night....80+ mph.  They kept me awake much of the night wondering if my house would blow away with me in it, not an impossibility these days.  A glance out of my windows this morning confirmed branches down but the trees appear intact.
     I re-read the book "Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver for a book club I have started attending. It is a fictional account of one family, the plight of monarch butterflies, and global warning.  It was a scary read.  Kingsolver, a novelist, started her career as a biologist and scientist.  She conveys well the problems of global warming.
     She said,  "the canary in the coal mine is dead".  "There is no life raft, you're just freaking swimming all the time."
     It reminded me of the Butterfly Effect of chaos theory.  Per Wikipedia:

 The name of the effect, coined by Edward Lorenz, is derived from the theoretical example of a hurricane's formation being contingent on whether or not a distant butterfly had flapped its wings several weeks earlier. 

     If tiny effects, such as a butterfly flapping its wings, can cause such huge effects, what happens when huge changes take place, such as extinction of the butterflies?  Like I said, it was a scary book.




Lovely days don't come to you,
you should walk to them...
                Rumi

Where do you get your calcium?

     The second most irritating question asked of vegans after "where do you get your protein?" is "where do you get your calcium?"  Here is a great article explaining the calcium myth, and why more is not better.

http://www.plantbasedpharmacist.com/2014/03/the-calcium-myth-more-is-not-better.html

The healthiest diet....Real Food

     Science compared all the diets out there and the winner is Real Food.

"A diet of minimally processed foods close to nature, predominantly plants, is decisively associated with health promotion and disease prevention."

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/science-compared-every-diet-and-the-winner-is-real-food/284595/


  Diet du jour

Difficult to make out, I know

     Here are 14 deer walking across the street in front of my dog and me.  It is not a great picture, but it was hard to keep Charleigh quiet and get out my cell phone before they all ran away.  This is more evidence that spring is on the way, although the winds were bitter cold later.  These deer are the reason I can't have a nicely landscaped yard....they eat it all.  They are worth it, though.

I know this all too well.

   

No spring skips its turn...

     After several cold days, spring should be back today.  I walked Charleigh in the South Valley and we were fortunate to see 3 elk.  They must be migrating down from the mountains to wherever they summer. Here are 2 of them.
             

Here are a couple of interesting medical news bits I found fascinating.  

First, an article in Medical News Today showing that much of our healthy bone structure is actually comprised of a shock-absorbing goo.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/274487.php

Next, a video on dietary intervention to slow the growth of cancer.  There is great background information. 

(email subscribers must go to the blog to view video)

Why we are what we eat

     Dr. Michael Greger has a series of videos on turmeric and cancer cell death.  However, in the following video (the first 1 min. and 40 sec.), he has a wonderful simple explanation of why we are what we eat.
     The human body is made up of 10-13 trillion cells, almost all of which are rebuilt every 100 days.  Since the human body is made up of air, water, and food, we really are what we eat (drink and breathe).
     Remember that every 3 months your cells are all new, and they are built upon the food you take in. Healthy food and healthy cells, it is a continual ongoing process.

Friday thought for the day.....