News: Food Crisis. Arsenic in Chicken. Battle of Wilderness. Photo Tips. Bicycle in a Tree. Spanish Armada. Species Protection. Juicing. DUI.

News, Some New, Some Old:

Food and nutrition crisis in Sahel region of Africa, May 11, 2012
Next time you are thinking about going on a diet, remember those who don’t have to:

“A woman carries her child amidst dusty winds in the desert near Mondo, a village in the Sahel belt of Chad, April 19, 2012. UNICEF estimates that 127,000 children under the age of 5 in Chad's Sahel belt will require lifesaving treatment for severe acute malnutrition this year, with an estimated 1 million expected throughout the wider Sahel region of West and Central Africa in the countries of Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal and Mauritania.” (Ben Curtis/Associated Press)

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FDA finally admits chicken meat contains cancer-causing arsenic (but keep eating it, yo!)

(NaturalNews) “After years of sweeping the issue under the rug and hoping no one would notice, the FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, a cancer-causing toxic chemical that's fatal in high doses. But the real story is where this arsenic comes from: It's added to the chicken feed on purpose!
Even worse, the FDA says its own research shows that the arsenic added to the chicken feed ends up in the chicken meat where it is consumed by humans. So for the last sixty years, American consumers who eat conventional chicken have been swallowing arsenic, a known cancer-causing chemical.”   Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032659_arsenic_chicken.html#ixzz1vFVAtRQX

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Protecting Our History—and Growing Our Economy—in Orange County, Virginia.  By Pam Goddard, Chesapeake and Virginia Program Manager

“Too often, efforts to protect historical sites end up pitting preservationists against landowners and developers, resulting in wasted time, wasted money, and hard feelings all around.

But what if we turned this equation around? What if we started with the answer we wanted—a strong community with a vibrant economy and a beautiful national park—then worked together to attain it?

In Orange County, Virginia, citizens, elected officials, businesspeople, and preservationists are doing just that. Only a few years back, Walmart proposed building a 138,000-square-foot superstore on a hallowed Civil War site adjacent to the Wilderness Battlefield at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. After three years of opposition, Walmart decided to relocate their store to another site in Orange County. Hard feelings and divisions remained—one local newspaper even called it the “Second Battle of Wilderness.” The story could have ended there. Instead, a group of stakeholders known as the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition worked with the community to identify options for the county to grow economically without putting a big box retailer in the middle of its rich Civil War history.” More at: http://www.parkadvocate.org/?p=706

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Headed to a Park with Your Camera? Read These Tips!  By Scott Kirkwood, Editor-in-Chief of National Parks Magazine

“Bringing your camera on a park trip? Before you pack your bags, read these tips from the editors of National Parks Magazine, who offer ways to add interest and variety to your photographs. Thousands of people capture the same iconic landscapes and monuments over and over again in their travel pictures—here’s how to make your shots stand out:” Article at: http://www.parkadvocate.org/?p=603

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Trivia:    “If you ever wonder why we firemen cut a big hole in your roof its because we didn't wanna watch your house explode in our faces when we tried to go in. It's how we prevent flashover and backdraft's from occurring. So its either hole in roof or have fire gut the house.”

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Bicycle in a tree, Vashon Island, Washington

”Beautiful Vashon Island is 12-minutes by ferry from Seattle. It seems a hundred miles away. There's one small settlement and isolated homes scattered around the peaceful countryside. And there's "the bicycle." Ask at the Country Store how to find it (it's hidden from view across the street). The story goes that the bicycle was chained to a tree decades ago and never picked up. Over time, the tree "ate it." Many children are familiar with the bike from the Berkeley Breathed book "Red Ranger Came Calling."

While on the island, visit the small airport and the "crashed" flying saucer. Vashon Island is connected to Maury Island, where in 1947 the first UFO sighting in the USA was reported. And be sure to have a cup of coffee at the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie, located in the wooden building where Seattle's Best Coffee was founded.”

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On This Day:

Spanish Armada sets sail, May 19, 1588:

“A massive Spanish fleet, known as the "Invincible Armada," sets sail from Lisbon on a mission to secure control of the English Channel and transport a Spanish invasion army to Britain from the Netherlands.

In the late 1580s, Queen Elizabeth's support of the Dutch rebels in the Spanish Netherlands led King Philip II of Spain to plan the conquest of England. A giant Spanish invasion fleet was completed by 1587, but Sir Francis Drake's daring raid on the port of Cadiz delayed the Armada's departure until May 1588. The Invincible Armada consisted of 130 ships and carried 2,500 guns and 30,000 men, two-thirds of them soldiers. Delayed by storms, the Armada did not reach the southern coast of England until late July. By that time the British were ready.

On July 21, the outnumbered English navy began bombarding the seven-mile-long line of Spanish ships from a safe distance, taking full advantage of their superior long-range guns. The Spanish Armada continued to advance during the next few days, but its ranks were thinned considerably by the English assault. On July 28, the Spanish retreated to Calais, France, but the English sent ships loaded with explosives into the crowded harbor, which took a heavy toll on the Armada. The next day, an attempt to reach the Netherlands was thwarted by a small Dutch fleet, and the Spanish were forced to face the pursuing English fleet. The superior English guns again won the day, and the Armada retreated north to Scotland.

Battered by storms and suffering from a lack of supplies, the Armada sailed on a difficult journey back to Spain through the North Sea and around Ireland. By the time the last of the surviving fleet reached Spain in October, half of the original armada was destroyed. Queen Elizabeth's decisive defeat of the Invincible Armada made England a world-class naval power and introduced effective long-range weapons into naval warfare for the first time, ending the era of boarding and close-quarter fighting.”

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The early years of species protection, May 19, 1715:

“The colony of New York passes a law making it illegal to "gather, rake, take up, or bring to the market, any oysters whatsoever" between the months of May and September. This regulation was only one of many that were passed in the early days of America to help preserve certain species. In recent years, endangered species laws have been enacted in order to criminalize poaching for the protection of animals. However, earlier versions of these laws were more concerned with insuring that hunters would have a steady supply of game.

In 1699, Virginia passed a law to prevent people from shooting deer during half the year and Massachusetts made criminals out of those who exported raccoon furs or skins from the state in 1675.

Fish and game laws were not restricted to the East, though. After the near extinction of the buffalo (it is estimated that many millions of these animals were killed during the western expansion of the mid-to-late 1800s), it became a felony to kill buffalo anywhere across the country.”

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Juicing:

Dizzy-Dick left a comment on my Tuesday post "Moody Gardens, Galveston, TX. Gordon Cooper. Juice...":
“We have a good juicer but never enough veggies to set it up. I guess we eat the veggies before they can get juiced.”

My Answer:  Most vegetables are better for you when eaten raw.  As I have had a busted jaw, remnant from a drunken husband, I have trouble chewing raw veggies.  Seeing people munching on raw cauliflower, carrots and broccoli, I wish I could do it, too.  That is why I wanted a slow RPM juicer.  The fast ones, like the centrifugal ones, and the VitaMix-like ones that Montel Williams, and others tout in the infomercials, damage the cells in the veggies and fruits.   Food costs too much not to get the best benefit out of it.  After a lot of research about the different brands, I finally bought one:

And it will also make nut butters, which I really like.   I can’t wait for it to arrive.

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Probably the funniest DUI you'll ever see

“Dumbass + scissor lift + hankerin' for a cold one = a heap of trouble”

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Yesterday:

Jay and I finally got the troublesome GFI outlet going in the cargo trailer, we hadn’t had any trouble with the other one over the sink, but this one got our goat.  Also we wired up the converter, and it works.

After spending an hour working on the updated description of Prime, my foster cat, for her new prospective ‘parents’, as I went to print it out for them, the power went out momentarily, and I lost it all.  So I had to do all over again, later in the day.