Sometimes a picture says everything.
I made it through another Comicon. As usual, the people there were amazing and friendly. I didn’t know all the costumes, but it was still amazing to people watch.
This year our booth was next to Pixy Cakes. After a day our books smelled of cake and we managed to sample their divine Whoopie Pies. They had a cake you could write on:
And one that displayed their amazing talents:
Further down the aisle, I found the two characters from Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Yes, they moved and I really wanted one, but hubby said no there wasn’t enough room on the couch for all of us. That’s the amazing artist in the background.
On Saturday, Odin decided to grace us with his presence.
I don’t think I was wrong to picture him as a cannibal, too.
I also got to meet Belle, Ariel, and Cinderella who weren’t wearing their princess ball gowns, but their working clothes. They were my favorite and I forgot to take a picture. DOH! I saw a really wonderful Tom Baker Doctor Who and didn’t get a picture. It was a day.
But I did get a picture of this guy and I still chuckle over it. 😀
We reserved our spots for Phoenix Comicon 2016, so if you missed me this year, maybe you could make it next year!
As many companies that produce GMOs are suing any state that attempts to label products that contain GMOs, it is difficult to know where the products are hiding.
The easiest way is to look for the USDA Organic label which in its guidelines prohibits genetically modified food from using the label. Read More
You can also purchase food from countries like Spain, Germany, and Italy that require labeling of GMOs in their products.
Several sites offer nonGMO product lists:
http://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/search-participating-products/
And I think there might even be an app for it. Check here
Lastly, you might consider your local farmers’ markets and talk to the people who grow the food. Googling ‘Farmers markets’ is the easiest way to find one near you, but there are eat local movements, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and Buying clubs.
Will it be more expensive? Yes, but since most grocery stores now carry Organic products (our Fry’s and Safeway do), these items also go one sale and you can stock up. The app will let you know which conventional products are nonGMO, saving you even more.
Happy eating!
While I’m enjoying Phoenix Comicon, here are some links that I loved.
Hairball Redux:
Teddy the Porcupine:
http://www.zooniversity.org/2011/12/teddy-the-porcupine-is-a-viral-video-and-tv-star/
Epic Old Man:
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ItXKGyO6cRA?rel=0
Nice Purse:
http://safeshare.tv/w/KkkEFRtyiS
A Quick View of the World:
In continuing my exploration of the dark side of the science making GMOs, I came across several sites (antiGMO sites) that raised some interesting side effects to inserting a new gene into an existing one.
1) The theory of GMOs rests on the premise that one gene does one thing. This has been proven to be false, and in some cases produces toxic side effects. Humans have 100K proteins, yet only 30K sequences that code for them.
2) To make certain the new gene took, the scientists use an antibiotic resistance marker. Given the rise of superbugs and the hype that it’s all patients’ faults, perhaps there should be further studies done.
3) Proteins are like origami. One wrong fold and instead of a turtle you have a wad of paper. Since the new code hasn’t been seen before, it’s possible the inserted gene won’t express itself as if does in the source organism.
4) The gene inserted is switched on permanently using a virus. We have in our DNA 350 million years of evolution and diseases, what if one of those ‘junk codes’ accidentally gets switched on, and turns something off. For example skin. Skin is a very cool thing. But did you know that your teeth, hair, fingernails and some of your glands are made from skin cells? So if something goes awry with the skin gene, what do you think will happen?
5) Although most sites say the nutritional effects of a GMO crop is the same as a conventional crop, there are no studies to prove this. (Why does everyone but the GMOs have to proof their safety, but this doesn’t?) And ask yourself this, if that tomato looks the same red, round and juicy at day 90 as it did on day 1. Do you really think nothing has changed? Microbes and insects need to eat too. And farmers have consistently said animals prefer conventional crops to modified ones.
6) Allergies have skyrocketed, so has the number of ADD/ADHDs sufferers. Yet in the US our increase is much higher than in the EU, where GMOs are labeled. Is there a correlation? Why not check our grocery store cards with our health records?
7) Spread of the GMOs. These inserted genes are spreading to native crops. Since some of them are counted as pesticides, why can’t these be treated as Superfund sites and have the companies clean up the environment they’ve polluted? Gotta love the pro-GMO slant of this article from the Huffington Post.
8) And lastly, why do the seed companies use thug tactics to suppress labelling foods and any media that contradicts their rainbows and unicorns propaganda.
Lots of fodder for my new Hadean series, and folks I don’t have to make a lot of it up.
Until next week! Happy eating.
Today is Memorial Day in the US. Thank you to all who serve and fight for freedom.
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My family think that’s a rhetorical question. I’m undoubtedly weird. Have been all my life. I think it’s genetic. My family is all weird too. Just ask me. Not them, they lie. And while they’re weird, they’re not writers. Some of them are artists, or have other creative outlets.
I had other outlets until I started writing.
Now it seems everything I do comes back to the writing. How I can use what I see, read, hear in a book. Take my Netflix queue. It has: Forks over knives, Brain Games, Tesla, Evergreen, Leave it to Beavers, Battle for Midway, Fracknation, Korengal, Food Inc, Ebola outbreak, TB Silent killer, Mankind, Plastic paradise, and Forecast disaster. This is only a partial list of the 70 items in my list. There’s a cartoon Christmas movie that I plan to watch when it gets really hot outside, right now it’s too cold. Lots of World War 1 stuff that now is coming out, lots of TED talks, an old Cary Grant movie, and some chick flicks and disaster movies.
Yet everything I see gets filed away and used in odd ways.
For instance, I’m using the documentary I watched on Adolf Hitler to see how my character Brent will twist in the Hadean books, but another documentary on Hitler and the Nazis will be used in an upcoming Dystopian novel series. The Man Who Wasn’t There will be used in the next Syn-En book, Ghost World, while a documentary on Sinking the Bismarck was used in the opening battle of Syn-En: Pillar World.
My research in World War 1, aside from being incorporated in the romances, will also be used in the 4th Hadean novel when our medical abilities fall by the way side. I’ve used a documentary called Your Inner Fish, to introduce a possible twist to the consequences of genetic engineering using a virus that will flick a gene to constantly on.
Everything I read gets picked apart—what works for me? What doesn’t? And why?
Now, I’ve started to read poetry. School really killed my love of poetry, but in an effort to improve my writing, there’s nothing better than poetry to catch a mood, a feel or an image of a scene. My challenge has been to condense each bit into 4 lines or less of description. It’s not easy.
But I’m learning something new which is really why I started writing in the first place. To keep learning as I grow older (because I’m not growing up). And this way when hubby complains at how much I’m spending on books, I can always say research. I have a room full of unread research books (let’s not mention my kindle, nook and ibooks apps). But hey my kids are moving out, emptying rooms I can fill with books.
And if I live as long as my folks, I’ve got decades left to write.
That’s a lot of books.
But the ideas keep coming.
Until next time.
Well, I didn’t touch upon milk in my new book, Hadean. But I thought this was fascinating. The information is a bit dated at least where I live as most milk is tagged as being free of rbGH.
If you’re a label reader, you’ve probably noticed a tag about rbGH free on your milk. I noticed it and didn’t really have a clue as to what it really meant.
rbGH is recombinant bovine growth hormone (It can also go by the name BST-bovine somatotropin). It is genetically engineered (think GMO). It is injected into dairy cows to produce more milk.
Sounds good, right?
But there are side effects that vets have noticed in the cows: udder infections called mastitis, increased risk of lameness and infertility. In some cases, farmers risked having to destroy 1/4 of their herds. (Canadian Broadcasting Corp, 1999) Yet, the payoff for using the hormone in cows is only a 10-15% increase in the production of milk.
Okay, humans aren’t cows, and some among you could care less. So what are the human implications.
The FDA had to raise the amounts of antibiotics allowed in milk to 1 part per million. Originally, the FDA considered the safe amount of antibiotics to be 1 part per 100 million. That’s a pretty large increase. And considering the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria, isn’t this a dangerous policy?
Still not convinced?
Okay, lets move onto IGF-1. That’s insulin-like growth hormone, and just like the name implies it is just like that insulin, you know the one associated with diabetes. While the makers of rbGH have stated that the level of IGF-1 remains unchanged (Robert J Collier & others in a letter to the editor of Lancet, vol 344, p 816), the FDA admits that there is an in increase in the concentration of IGF-1. Some studies have put this difference from doubling to a 71% increase; others funded in part have put it as not substantial. IGF-1 is not destroyed by pasteurization.
So what are the implications?
Elevated levels in the bloodstream have been linked with cancer-breast and prostrate. In 1999, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute associated it with lung cancer.
Initially, the makers of the hormone sued any dairy that labeled their products as free of this hormone. They pushed to have a label that said there is no significant difference in the milk.
I’m not willing to give up milk, cheese, or that gift from heaven, ice cream. But I’m looking for products without the hormone.
IN 1991, the American Medical Association called for more studies to be conducted. None have been, at least none without some influence by those with a vested interest in the hormone.
Most nations in the EU have banned its use. So has Canada.
I leave it up to you to judge for yourself.
Here’s an interesting article for those who want more information: http://americannutritionassociation.org/toolsandresources/milk-america’s-health-problem
While the Pastor was presenting a children’s sermon. He asked the children if they knew what the Resurrection was.
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Now, asking questions during children’s sermons is crucial,
but at the same time, asking children questions in front of a congregation can also be very dangerous.
In response to the question, a little boy raised his hand.
The priest called on him and the boy said, “I know that if you have a resurrection that lasts more than four hours you are supposed to call the doctor.”
It took ten minutes for the congregation to settle down enough for the service to continue.
Linda Andrews 