Health, Fitness and Style

Adding a justice opposed to abortion to the bench — which is what Trump has promised his supporters — would almost certainly tilt the court in favor of far more dramatic restrictions on the procedure and possibly an overturn of the landmark 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade. For Ginsburg, those issues came down to a clear question of a woman’s guarantee of equal status under the law. “Women, it is now acknowledged, have the talent, capacity, and right ‘to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation,’” she wrote in her dissent in that 2007 abortion case. “Their ability to realize their full potential, the Court recognized, is intimately connected to ‘their ability to control their reproductive lives.'” more »

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified on the latest coronavirus response efforts. CDC Director on Availability Coronavirus Vaccine by "Late Second Quarter, Third Quarter 2021". CDC Director Redfield on Face Masks: "More guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine." more »

If you happen to dig up an ancient ceramic cooking pot, don’t clean it. Chances are, it contains the culinary secrets of the past. A research team led by UC Berkeley archaeologists has discovered that unglazed ceramic cookware can retain the residue of not just the last supper cooked, but, potentially, earlier dishes cooked across a pot’s lifetime, opening a window onto the past. The findings, reported in the journal Scientific Reports, suggest that gastronomic practices going back millennia — say, to cook Aztec turkey, hominy pozole or the bean stew likely served at the Last Supper — can be reconstructed by analyzing the chemical compounds adhering to and absorbed by the earthenware in which they were prepared.  more »

Do you talk to your dog? Apparently that’s fairly common, especially with human contact reduced during the Covid 19 pandemic; and there’s no need to be concerned — unless your dog talks back. Just yesterday I had a heated (no pun intended) argument with my air conditioner. “Are you kidding me? You picked the hottest day of the year to quit?! Then, of course, there’s Alexa. She’s great, and always available to answer my questions, serenade me with my favorite music, play games, or just chat. I also talk to my blood pressure monitor (“That can’t be right!”); my check book register (“Wait a minute! I’m sure my balance is way higher than that!”); and my smart phone and smart watch, which are too smart for me.                               more »