Random Phone Picture
Month: August 2017
The Tree
The wind cuts across the open field. An old oak stubbornly resists. Its yields a deep shaking of its leaves bristling against the change. A darkness curls up from the roots. Bitter tannin flavors the breeze as it passes by.
The foul smell carries upward. Bits of grey rolling into long low clouds. The sky and Sun try to resist. The steady breeze keeps flowing. And darkness fills the air.
A second wind grows steady beneath it’s grey shield. Unseen hands cast rain in fierce waves toward to unsuspecting ground. The other trees curl away fron the onslaught. Flowers bow their heads. Even the dirt dances about trying to hold ground.
Still the oak sways it’s branches. The storm feeds upon the ancient bark. Sinister lightning bolts feast upon its bark. Dark spirals dig into it’s sides. The bark frays. Sparks swirl about the grand oak. Slowly it’s leaves start to join in a willo-wisp. Green leaves change to brown. Leaves rise to form blind in which its source can no longer be seen.
Dampness and mustiness fill a third and final wind. The downdraft spills forth the brown leaves upon the world. They tumble and bounce. Everything they touch pales a little at a time. Their only means is to bring the great change. Scouring the world of color in a final flash before the whiteness resets the Earth for another season.
I look up from Grandpa’s tater-torn book. His Oak tree stands a few hundred feet in the distance. I could allows sense it held more than leaves. For years I believed these words to be true. The origin of storms incarnated into physical beings that never damaged. Even when the pitfalls leaves fell, brown ones filled in the next day.
I make a long journey in my heart to lay the ashes of the very soul who watched over this miracle tree. In my mind, I can see him making the journey 70’s years ago. Someday, it will be me being carried. As long as the tree stands, there will be stories of the magic within.
Voyager at 40: 40 Photos from NASA’s Epic ‘Grand Tour’ Mission
https://www.space.com/37847-nasa-voyager-mission-40-years-photos.html?utm_source=notification
Happy birthday to Voyager!
Remember this Land is Your Land
There had been several attempts to dismantle National Monuments by big oil for years. But alas, someone put pen to paper.
Between Heartbeats
Between heartbeats
Sparks fly amongst us
Dreams dance like fairy dust
Eternities rise and fall
Warmth rushes to caress
Hopes carry future
Between heartbeats
I lose track of time
Whispering words unheard
Envisioning scenes unraveling
Stories fill my tapestry
Regal lions play with cardinals
Between heartbeats
I realize you’re not there
Emptiness creates voids
Reasons become runaways
Doubt casts deep shadows
Dreams are all that’s left
Between heartbeats
GMO Corn Questions
A recent conversion about GMOs came through from a piece of fiction. Since food affects everyone and we don’t produce our own food any more. The last part meaning you may have a garden or fruit trees, but the ability to raise cow, chickens, and pork isn’t allowed in every community.
GMO is abbreviation for Genetic Modified Organism. Us humans have been playing with our food for thousands of years. For instance, in 1400’s corn had kernels on the top of the plant, not ears covered with them. Today, bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn actually has genetic coding from bacteria included in its own DNA. Thus modifying its genetics. While selective breeding has created thousands of varieties over decades, the process of genetic splicing produces much faster results.
Crop production is the added benefit through either faster production, resistance to pests, and/or resistance to herbicides. The ‘traditional’ of pest control methods included things like applying sprays of Bacillus thuringiensis (bt). The bacteria is light sensitive did sunlight would break down the applications of bacteria fairly quickly. Which means lots of reapplying. And high costs to purchase more and more product. But why use it, the bacteria has a chemical toxic to pests and only dissolves in alakine digestive systems. Hey, ours are highly acidic! Therefore extremely safe for humans, birds, cows and pigs.
Don’t mistake the Bacillus thuringiensis for the bt Corn. There are differences in what they are and why. The corn plant has the bt genes in its stalk, leaves, silks, ears, and roots. So Mr Bug eats at any part and ingests the toxin. Goodbye, Mr Bug. So far, so good. The bacteria has an outer shell between the toxin and the bug. The digestive juices eats away the shell. We don’t digest the shell, so we don’t ingest the toxin.
There have been several studies to investigate the level of scariness that bt Corn should cause. Obviously, producers of bt Corn have financed a few of these and they say there are no side effects to humans. Also tip of the environmental hat, it requires less pesticides! There are many environmental groups that paid for studies that show bt Corn as franken-corn, ready to storm the world corn village destroying it all.
The truth is probably closer to the middle. The bt Corn is usually resistant to herbicides like Glyphosphate (Commercially known as Round-up). Farmers tend to cultivate (weed) their fields by spraying Glyphosphate. The herbicide is water soluble and binds to proteins (animal and plant proteins). This is where things get cloudy. If consumed Glyphosphate can be found in stomach linings, esophagus, and intestines due to its ability to bind to proteins. It doesn’t flush out of the digestive system quickly because of the acidic environment. The catch is his much is in that ear of corn. Noone really knows.
Why, each variety has different water content and kernels vary between feed (dry) and sweet corn. Corn meal can be made from either, but feed corn is mostly for animals we eat. There are few studies that compare corn with number of applications of Glyphosphate and concentration of Glyphosphate in the harvested bt Corn. There are fewer that analyse the concentration of Glyphosphate within beef, poultry and pork that ate bt Corn. But the reason here is fed corn isn’t labeled GMO sourced, how does a research know without analysing all the feed. These animals eat well… like pigs. You couldn’t do anything but spot check. Mist peole aren’t crazy because of variance your numbers would be questionable. It still could be done with multiple studies, each either verifying or disproving the original study. Again few studies are done and released but most are subsidized by manufacturer of Glyphosphate.
In 2016, 90-95% of corn sold in US was classified as bt Corn. I sourced the websites and all had different numbers these represent the range of all three. Some websites state it is not appropriate to share their data (so they all anonymous). I have read a dozen articles and they are divergent at best in their findings. Personally, i make the decision to rely on chemistry and moderation with a heavy infusion of Farmers markets.
If it is toxic to a bacteria or plant, than in sufficient quantities it becomes toxic to my cells. If it is binding to my cells, than it can alter my cells in sufficient quantities. What the hell is that about? Cancer is irregular cell division and toxins tend to interfere with cell division. Not everyone will die of cancer because of Glyphosphate. But several courts have awarded damages from its use. Reducing exposure to Glyphosphate is healthier for you. If you don’t know your food source then consider organic. Organic is NO guarantee to be free if GMOs, it means less chemicals exposed to the plants that produce your food.
*I’m a former Chemistry major, with 20 years of gardening experience, and relatives who still make an honest living playing in the dirt, doing God’s work, farming
FFAW – Convenience in a Cup
This week’s photo prompt is provided by artycaptures.wordpress.com. Thank you artycaptures!
“Oh no! I’m not trying that!” Stella curls her nose at the streaming cup before her.
“Just try it once. You’ll be hooked, just like me!” Mortimer inches it across the table at her.
“No! I’ll have none of that gruel!” Stella pushes it back, spilling half of it on the table.
They both watch as the foamy paste slowly deflates into a pool of red, orange clumps surrounded by water.
“I told you! Look at what you choose over our natural food!” Stella stands up her long pale face grimacing at her mate. “This is the reason our kind are disappearing! All processed foods!”
“It’s really good, though. You don’t have to hang out on dark alleys for food.” Mortimer looks at his spindly hands wringing then together. ” I suppose the thrill isn’t there. Pitty, that.”
“Shut the hell up! You are a vampire! You’re drinking blood substitute for a Kuerig!” Stella points out the blasphemous device. “Mother was right about you!”
Word count 158
Written as part of a challenge called Flash Fiction for the Aspiring Writer
Wordless Wednesday
life’s journeys
Week 168
1. Feign
2. Gait
3. Torn
4. Press
5. Left
6. Labyrinthine adj. complicated, torturous, resembling a labyrinth
7. Look
8. Embed
9. Malformed
10. Gritty
11. Natural
12. Dead-reckoning (In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating one’s current position by using a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time and course.)
Use at least 10 of the words to create a story or poem The words can appear in an alternate form Use the words in any order that you like.
Tag: Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie and Wordle
I look upon my world. Naturally dead-reckoning has put me nowhere. My gait has deeply embedded a left turning path of malformed circles. But still I press on.
My gritty reality torn from labyrinthine puzzle that feigns living.
History – Twisted by Nature
First, a simple thought. History by Nature means is has already happened. Today and this hour has little impact on History. History is tainted by the people who retell the facts or believed truths. So when someone jumps up to define the problems of History, please understand it is not your place. When you have lived in someone else’s circumstances and know their time period well enough to respect the people who went through it, your eyes might see why things have changed.
Back in 1924, several small towns set up a collection. The idea started about 1890 when the Southern states started losing their Civil War veterans. Although Robert E Lee opposed any statues being raised to him or his Generals, the Southern public wanted to memorialize them. Much like the one in Charlottesville, Va. This was something paid for by the orginal “Go Fund Me” practice of socials by average almost middle class families. Keep in mind every family lost someone and saw more come back wounded. “Remember the boys who wore the grey”
The statue did not carry any Confederate States of America insignias. The soldiers who the statue memorialize, died and were probably left in empty fields. Both sides saw 620,000 soldiers lost their lives and another million were injured beyond the ability to return to the War and their regular lives. The Southern states had no Army or Navy on April 12, 1861. Their fields that supplied their industry and food were almost exclusively the battlefields of the Civil War.
The Monuments to the common “Johnny Reb” are not monuments of hate but remembrance. It is unfair to celebrate its destruction as a political statement. No government or party of hate created this chunk of bronze. While today “enlightened” protesters are correct in that slavery is wrong, maybe they should remember indentured servitude and corporate towns were normal perils of lower classes that impacted just as many people.
Facts are terrible ways to argue a point here. But the slaves in Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware and DC were not freed by President Lincoln. He didn’t free any slaves unless they were “recovered” in the States that rebelled and territory controlled by the US Army. Condemning the statue of a simple soldier fighting for their way of life (shocker here must Southerns didn’t own slaves). The Ninth Amendment gave powers that were not specifically designated to the Federal Government to the States themselves. In 1807, Massachusetts argued the Louisiana purchase would cause small states to lose its representation to these new larger territories. Secession was an old idea in 1861 but far from illegal. The primary factor in secession was economic. The South had tariffs placed on their raw materials ( mostly cotton, sorgham & hemp) by a predominately Northern Controlled Congress that wanted to sell finished goods to the world. Southern cotton seen to England made New England factories less money. These factories also were the ones with Company stores and their own currency. The Civil War was also due in part to Lincoln would never meet with any representatives of the CSA, because it would legitimize the country in European views.
So remind me of why we tear down a soldiers statue in the name of preserving our modern way of life. Violence by any group is still rooting at best and terrorism if done to stand any message.
But just my thoughts.
