The forest fires in California and other Pacific states not only burned down a lot of trees and residences but also killed people by either being burned to death or poisoned by the smoke. The air quality has become so bad that knowledgeable people have been checking a dedicated webpage before they venture from their homes. And they have recently have purchased some sort of air purifier.
Many people have lots of time and need to stay fit. Some are walking every day. But they also need to do things to maintain their strength and flexibility. Pushups and situps are ideal because they don’t take much space or time. How effective they are depends on how many repetitions they do and how they do them. Pushups are simpler and the main technique consideration is how wide apart their hands are. How many one should do depends on their age and gender. Situps use different muscles and there is a wider range of positions of one’s arms. How difficult it depends on where you put your arms. It’s basic engineering. Your body is like a bunch of chunks of meat: head, arms, torso, abdomen, legs. If you extend your arms over your head your situps will be a lot more difficult than if you keep them along your legs. Some people are fans of “crunches”, which are shorter and harder motions. Your choice is like choosing a religion.
There are multiple reasons that people may increase the number of alcoholic drinks they consume. The overall stress of the current pandemic leads people to turn to alcohol for relief. The absence of one’s numerous healthy alternatives, especially social ones that have been discontinued because of the pandemic can result in drinking with your spouse or other members of the household. And sitting in front of a TV set longer than in the pre-pandemic days expands the opportunity to drink. Examples are numerous.
Perhaps April 2 was too soon to expect precise counts and estimates, but in Massachusetts, there were actual counts of only 7,738 cases but the state’s estimates were in the range of 47,000-172,000 for the course of the epidemic. And of course, if a second wave of the virus occurs, the numbers could be significantly larger.
Reasons for the miscounting, are numerous. One is that states are not counting cases and deaths consistently, as specified by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). But the conventions for counting are changing. And the counts depend on who is doing the counting and their methodology.
The numbers of cases and deaths are worse for men than for women. Women make better than decisions about health, so they live longer (which gives meaning to our website name).
President Trump’s beliefs and actions may be causing more deaths than would have otherwise occurred. He continually pooh-poohs the danger of the Coronavirus and almost never wears a mask (though he did on July 11). And it may cause him to lose the coming election. He apparently is joined by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos who supports school openings in the fall.
We don’t drink a huge amount of wine, but every time we hoist an extra heavy bottle we wonder if the winery is so misguided that they think that their customers are so naïve as to believe they are getting more wine for their money. And we also think about the extra cost of shipping and the effect on the environment.
There are other containers that could be used, including Tetra-Paks, boxes, and plastic bottles, but those are so inelegant that people would never use them for dinner with guests. Even a screw-top bottle is infra dig, though we like it for more casual meals because it avoids the time and struggles with a stubborn cork.
It seems to us that an attractive non-traditional-looking bottle would be both a marketing coup and a conversation piece when one is entertaining.
A quick Web search finds that people are more concerned about THEIR weight than their wine bottle’s weight.
Anyone who has opened an account has run the gantlet of questions that are used in the event of entering its password incorrectly. (We deplore the use of passwords so when we are forced to create them we use some variation of “dumb idea” or “dongle” (a dongle is a small device able to be connected to and used with a computer, especially to allow access to wireless broadband or use of protected software).) In our case, we have had to provide the answers to such questions as “Who was your favorite elementary school teacher?”, “What was the model of your first car?”, or “What was your mother’s maiden name?” Most recently we had to provide several answers to such arcane questions that we laughed. Fortunately, this is such a widespread nuisance that it has resulted in some humorous suggestions.
The police brutality that killed George Floyd in Minneapolis was inexcusable. But the injuries during the demonstrations that followed it were also inexcusable. Many of those injuries were caused by police shooting the demonstrations with rubber bullets. Those bullets are HARD, not the soft Nerf projectiles that children play with. They don’t just sting a little, they cause permanent injuries, especially to eyes. One young man, who was trying to bring peace to the demonstrations, was shot in the groin, destroying one testicle. Any man hearing this story would shudder. Hopefully, rubber bullets will soon be banned.
There are as many opinions are there are experts as to if and when a resurgence of the CoronaVirus might occur, and there are nearly as many action plans as there are countries, usually based on their own experiences. Sweden, which stayed open and suffered considerably, would likely choose a more conservative approach. President Trump seems to do whatever he pleases, but his more thoughtful aides would be more careful. Although cooler climates have historically seen higher rates of infection, more recently in the United States the rates appear to be rising as the country reopens and has more protest marches. Additionally, when collegiate athletes return during the summer and work out in large groups there have already been cases of CoronaVirus.
It happens so often that it even has a name: “Wrap Rage”. But it isn’t funny. And the main culprit is plastic, which is frequently so strong that it requires a sharp knife and a lot of muscle. Sometimes the packaging is even stronger than the product inside. This situation is perfect for a visit to an emergency room, which these days likely is full of victims of the coronavirus. Frequently the culprit is clamshell packaging, which may be fine for protecting the product inside, but equally fine for injuring the purchaser.
Anyone with a mailing address is bombarded with requests for donations for a variety of causes. In particular, as Americans, we depend on our armed forces to keep us safe from attacks from unfriendly foreign countries. There are numerous organizations that raise money to help veterans, and the messages in their mail campaigns are often heart-rending. And there is a large variety of other causes, e.g., frightful diseases or conditions, who have similar mail campaigns. This situation is ideal for scammers. A popular scam is to send a target person a check, and when the person cashes it a process starts that steals money from him/her. In our case, fortunately, the check was from a valid charity that we had contributed to, off-and-on, in the past. But this is the first time that we had received a check. It was a small amount, but we wonder why the Veterans of Foreign Wars has done this at this time. We will not cash this check because it will give whoever sent it to me my account number.