MY WRITING JOURNAL

Sunday, September 12

Forget Halloween or Boxing Day with your family, the scariest time of the year is already here: spider season.  But what may be a petrifying period for us is actually a blast for the arachnids as they're out looking for love.

"The ones we see scuttling around in the house - they're usually the male house spiders," entomologist, author and self-proclaimed 'bugman' Richard Jones tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.  "The ones you see running across the carpet in front of you freaking you out, most often it'll be a male out on some sort of amorous pursuit.

"They're more mobile than the other sedentary females. And that's why we see them at this time of year."

'They do not invade our houses'
House spiders are descended from species that come from the Mediterranean or North Africa, which is why they like living in our warm, dry homes and won't be found building webs in the garden.  Those ones have no interest in coming indoors.  "The garden spiders are looking very big and obvious at the moment - but they remain outdoor creatures, and they do not invade our houses," says Richard.

Although he does say it's "highly likely" that if a house spider or daddy-long-legs does come crawling in through your window, it's because one of your neighbours has chucked it out of theirs. READ MORE

Splashing Wave

Saturday, September 11

American Pride

AMERICA IS A CAPITALISTIC AND A DEMOCRATIC BULLY...

The tragedy of 9/11 was horrific to say the least and the unnecessary lives lost... and, the fact that it happened on American Soil that our military nor our National Security Agency or our CIA or our FBI could have prevented is the ultimate in incompetence... however, we brought this on ourselves... on our families... on our sons and daughters simply because as Steppenwold said in their song MONSTER... "we wanted the whole world to be like us..."

How wrong is all of this???

Deadly wrong apparantly... and yet, we continue to stick our noses into the political and military affairs of other countries in the hopes that we can turn them into Americans...

Why do we think that the rest of the world should be like us?

We lead the world in the purchase of illegal drugs
Our educational system K-12 is no longer the best in the world
We have systematic racism all around us
We have a huge problem with obesity
We have a huge problem with alcohol
We have a huge problem with opioids
We are no longer a religious country
We have a 50% divorce rate
We have a huge amount of national debt
Wealthy people hide their money from taxes
We never fix any of our problems
Our Justice systems favors the wealthy
We cannot control crime in our cities
Businesses only care about profits
Our political parties cannot compromise

AMERICA is no longer the great country she once was... unless you are wealthy and then you don't notice what has happened... Politicians care more about their prospects for re-election than they do about improving the quality of life for the people... outside of making the wealthy people pay for it which cause resentment and further division.

AND YET, this is still the best country in the world in which to live... so, you can just imagine what the rest of the countries are like...

Economic Forecasting Models show that the global economy is moving away from the USA and towards China and Asia, and between 2030 and 2050, America will loose its global economic dominance....

AND NO ONE IN POWER OR CONTROL SEEMS TO CARE...

NEVER FORGET

China Not Impressed

US climate envoy John Kerry has told China that climate change is more important than politics as tensions between the two countries continue.  He made the remarks following two days of talks with Chinese leaders in the city of Tianjin.

But China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned on Wednesday that the worsening relationship could hamper future co-operation on climate issues. Both countries have outlined steps to tackle climate change.  But Mr Kerry has called on China to increase its efforts to tackle carbon emissions.

Tensions between the two countries have worsened in recent months with disputes over China's human rights record, the South China Sea and the Covid-19 pandemic.  Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mr Kerry said he had told the Chinese that "climate is not ideological, not partisan and not a geostrategic weapon".

"It is essential... no matter what differences we have, that we have to address the climate crisis," he said Earlier, Mr Wang called on the US to "stop seeing China as a threat and an opponent", accusing Washington of a "major strategic miscalculation towards China".

"It is impossible for China-US climate co-operation to be elevated above the overall environment of China-US relations," he said. China became the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2006 and is now responsible for more than a quarter of the world's overall greenhouse gas emissions.

President Xi Jinping has said he will aim for China's emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for the country to be carbon neutral by 2060. But it is not yet clear how he plans to achieve this.  Mr Kerry said he aimed to meet Chinese leaders again ahead of the upcoming COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow this year and push for stronger emission reduction targets. READ MORE

Foxes

Colder Winters

A new study shows that increases in extreme winter weather in parts of the US are linked to accelerated warming of the Arctic. The scientists found that heating in the region ultimately disturbed the circular pattern of winds known as the polar vortex.

This allowed colder winter weather to flow down to the US, notably in the Texas cold wave in February. The authors say that warming will see more cold winters in some locations. Over the past four decades, satellite records have shown how increasing global temperatures have had a profound effect on the Arctic.

Warming in the region is far more pronounced than in the rest of the world, and has caused a rapid shrinkage of summer sea ice. Scientists have long been concerned about the implications of this amplification of global change for the rest of the planet.

This new study indicates that the warming in the Arctic is having a significant impact on winter weather in both North America and East Asia. The researchers detail a complex meteorological chain that connects this warmer region to a rotating pattern of cold air known as the polar vortex.

The authors show that the melting of ice in the Barents and Kara seas leads to increased snowfall over Siberia and a transfer of excess energy that impacts the swirling winds in the stratosphere above the North Pole.

The heat ultimately causes a stretching of the vortex which then enables extremely cold weather to flow down to the US. There has been an increase in these stretching events since satellite observations began in 1979. The scientists believe this vortex stretching process led to the deadly Texas cold wave in February this year. READ MORE

Siamese

Facebook Apologizes

Facebook users who watched a newspaper video featuring black men were asked if they wanted to "keep seeing videos about primates" by an artificial-intelligence recommendation system.

Facebook told BBC News it "was clearly an unacceptable error", disabled the system and launched an investigation.  "We apologise to anyone who may have seen these offensive recommendations."  It is the latest in a long-running series of errors that have raised concerns over racial bias in AI.

'Genuinely sorry'
In 2015, Google's Photos app labelled pictures of black people as "gorillas".  The company said it was "appalled and genuinely sorry", though its fix, Wired reported in 2018, was simply to censor photo searches and tags for the word "gorilla".

In May, Twitter admitted racial biases in the way its "saliency algorithm" cropped previews of images.  Studies have also shown biases in the algorithms powering some facial-recognition systems.

Algorithmic error
In 2020, Facebook announced a new "inclusive product council" - and a new equity team in Instagram - that would examine, among other things, whether its algorithms exhibited racial bias.

The "primates" recommendation "was an algorithmic error on Facebook" and did not reflect the content of the video, a representative told BBC News. READ MORE

Hungry Cat

Friday, September 10

Serve Somebody

Remembering

Whenever I hear politicians, Democrats or Republicans, say that 9/11 happened because WE LOVE FREEDOM... I cringe with anger... because that is not true at al...

The United States of America has a big problem trying to FORCE DEMOCRACRY on the rest of the world, especially in the Middle East among the ARABS who are MUSLIM and their faith is mainly ISLAM and they DON'T WANT OUR FREEDOM to be a part of their country and their beliefs...

America has FREEDOM

America was founded on FREEDOM

America has a BILL OF RIGHTS

America believes in CIVIL LIBERTIES

BUT... not everyone around the world shares our belief of freedom and it is wrong for us to force OUR FREEDOM on them... especially when we are trying to get them to change their beliefs.

When will we learn that the REST OF THE WORLD DOES NOT WANT TO BE LIKE US???

and,

When will we learn that THEIR RIGHTS are just as important as OUR RIGHTS???

Eagle Takes Down Drone

Swapping Statues

The statue was daubed with paint during protests last year

A statue of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, which stood on one of the main avenues of Mexico City, will be replaced by one of an indigenous woman.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said the bronze likeness of Columbus would be moved to a park and a statue of an Olmec woman would take its place.

The Columbus statue was removed from its plinth last year ahead of protests. Protesters have toppled Columbus statues in Latin America and the US.

Christopher Columbus, an Italian-born explorer who was financed by the Spanish crown to set sail on voyages of exploration in the late 15th Century, is seen by many as a symbol of oppression and colonialism as his arrival in America opened the door to the Spanish conquest.

Mayor Sheinbaum made the announcement on Sunday at a ceremony marking the international day of the indigenous woman. She said that relocating the statue was not an attempt to "erase history" but to deliver "social justice".

Ms Sheinbaum said that the Columbus statue "would not be hidden away" but that the civilisations which existed in Mexico before the Spanish conquest should receive recognition. READ MORE

Jellyfish

Disappearing Flamenco

(Image credit: Hugh Sitton/Getty Images)

Hard-hit by pandemic closures, Spain's flamenco venues struggle to survive long enough to reignite the art form.

Flamenco's trifecta of guitar music, vocals and dance ranks among Spain's most famous art forms. But in the country of its birth, this centuries-old craft that unites elegant physicality and raw human emotion is in danger of extinction.

Spain's tablaos – traditional flamenco venues named after the wooden platforms upon which performers spin, sing and strum – were particularly hard-hit by pandemic lockdown restrictions. In tablaos, spectators rub shoulders at tightly spaced tables and performers remain close enough to maintain an electric connection to their audience, one that encourages improvisation and turns flamenco into a nearly collaborative act.

The unique environment that fosters flamenco, though, presents serious challenges in the time of Covid-19. Shuttered for extended periods, the majority of Spain's tablaos remain empty.

According to Juan Manuel del Rey, president of the Spanish Tablao Association, tablaos employ 95% of the flamenco dancers in Spain. Before the pandemic, the country's 50,000 yearly shows accounted for all but 5% of the world's flamenco performances. Without tablaos, flamenco is losing its stage to the world.

Because tablaos don't have a specific license that recognise them as cultural providers, they're unable to receive needed support from the Spanish government, leaving both venues and performers scrambling for survival. A few venues have opened with limited capacity one or two nights a week, but many remain closed or have already closed permanently. READ MORE

Cat Play

Narcissists Climb the Ladder

People with a high degree of narcissism get promoted faster, new research shows. Why?

Much ink has been spilled on the dangers of the narcissistic CEO. They tend to instil an individualistic culture throughout the corporation, which reduces collaboration and integrity.

They are known make rash and risky decisions that can weaken a company’s long-term resilience, and they are more likely to engage in aggressive tax avoidance and commit managerial fraud.

Some management scientists have even speculated that narcissism can bring down entire companies, as may have been the case with the fall of Enron in 2001.

Despite these serious concerns about narcissistic leadership, surprisingly little is known about the way ways that these self-centred and over-confident people arrive at their positions of power in the first place.

Does the ambition and hubris of narcissism actively help someone to be promoted, so that they are more likely to reach the top than the average person? Or are narcissistic leaders a toxic, but rather uncommon, phenomenon in the average workplace?

A new paper by Italian researchers attempts to close that gap in our knowledge – and it has some serious implications for the ways that companies select and reward their employees. READ MORE

Male - Female

Thursday, September 9

Four Eyes

Populist Press

Dictator(s)

Waves

Do Something

Berlanga of Spain

In his centenary year, Luis García Berlanga is receiving a renewed burst of attention at home. Why isn't he better known outside of Spain, asks Thomas Graham.

There's some debate over how it happened. It might have been after the screening of The Executioner, which satirised capital punishment in Spain, at the Venice Film Festival in September 1963 – or it might have been after Welcome, Mr Marshall! (1953) lampooned Spanish hopes for a slice of the US money destined to rebuild Europe after World War Two.

In any case, one of the ministers of Spain's then dictatorship reported the latest irritation from the director Luis García Berlanga with the words: "Of course, Berlanga is a communist." To which the dictator Francisco Franco replied, "No, he's something worse: he's a bad Spaniard."

This little anecdote delighted no one more than Berlanga himself. For the duration of the dictatorship, the director made films that were out of step with Spain's cultural mores and reverence for family, church and nation. Franco was right: Berlanga wasn't a communist.

If anything, he was an anarchist. But even that probably involved too much imposed discipline for someone who has a biography entitled, approximately: Welcome Mister Screw-Up: Chaotic Memories. READ MORE

Trust

Kenya: Ending FGM

IMAGE SOURCEGETTY IMAGES

John can barely remember a time when having sex with his wife did not end with her in tears.  It was just too painful because she had undergone female genital mutilation (FGM).  "Anytime I go to Martha, she recoils, curling like a child. She cries, begging me to leave her alone. She doesn't want to have sex any more," the 40-year-old says. John and Martha come from Kenya's Marakwet community in western Kenya.

Although FGM is illegal in Kenya, girls in their community often undergo FGM between the ages of 12 and 17, as a rite of passage in preparation for marriage.  Martha was cut when she was 15.

Sex as an endurance test
"It is painful when we have sex. I wish this practice would end," she says, adding that it had also made childbirth very difficult for her.  Recounting their first sexual experience, the couple describe it as traumatising.  Martha says she felt a lot of pain and it is not how she had imagined sex would be. She had to ask her husband to stop.

"I didn't realise a part of her [vulva] had been stitched, leaving only the urethra and a tiny vaginal opening," John tells the BBC. "I try to be very compassionate with my wife. I don't want her to feel like I don't respect her, yet we are a couple."

They lived in agony with little hope that things would ever change - not just for them, but they feared for their young daughter as well.  That was until John heard of an anti-FGM campaign meeting in his village, targeting men. READ MORE

Downside of IVIG Infusions

According to the Clieveland Clinic, prior to infusions of IVIF patients are usually pre-medicated with acetaminophen 650 to 1000 mg, diphenhydramine 50 mg. Acetaminophen is for headaches basically that this drug might cause and diphenhydramine is to prevent an allergic reaction or nausea. However, at UT Medical, I have decadron instead of diphenhydramine which is a steroid and in my body is much more powerful because every once in a while, it prevents me from falling asleep even though I take 2 benadryl at 6:00 pm.

Last night was especially important for sleep as I have back-to-back early days (awake at 5:30) since my second early wake-up call is for my monthly OPDIVO infusion.

Idiot or "no brainer me," has forgotten to swap out these two days or have IVIG on Fridays instead of Wednesdays because of the use of steroids so I will not have any problems falling asleep. Obviously, I have yet to make that swap because here it is 1:30 am and I am wide awake drinking coffee.

Once you start these monthly infusions, it is necessary for optimum affectiveness to have them every 4 weeks... and while that can be played with once or twice (in case of vacations), it is not something that the Oncologist likes to do. However, I have yet to exercise that option and once in a while my body makes me pay the price...