This Saturday, July 26th, the Alamo Drafthouse downtown will have a screening of Under Our Skin: The Untold Story of Lyme Disease. Mari Alvarez and her camera crew from KVUE are expected, as well as members of the health profession and elected officials. We are charging admission to cover the cost of renting the theatre. If you have not purchased tickets, please do so online at:

http://www.originalalamo.com/Show.aspx?id=5477

No credit cards will be accepted Saturday -- cash or check only. The Alamo Draft House will accept credit cards up to the day of the event. The events start at 12:00 noon.

This is a private venue rental not sponsored by the Alamo Draft house, but tickets are available to the general public.

I plan to attend this movie. If you thought SICKO and FAST FOOD NATION were scary movies, have I got a film for you. This film mostly addresses stories of people whose lives have been upended forever by Lyme disease, as opposed to the politics of Lyme. I have to see it soon, because no matter how much I hope they won't find out about it, my parents will eventually see this film. And I have to know how to calm their hysteria once they see some of the cases shown in the film. (I've seen a ten minute clip used during the fundraising for the editing.)

The documentary is drawing national attention, and was a finalist at the Tribeca Film Festival.

http://www.openeyepictures.com/underourskin/

Let me know if you want to go -- I'll be there.

Spread the word!

Both teramis and hutson have birthdays in July (along with yours truly) so let's hear it for Crabby people! (Not to be confused with crabby people...)

ArmadilloCon, the literary and fun stuff convention held in Austin, Texas for the last thirty years, holds an event called "Fannish Feud". Some of you may have heard of or seen a game show where families competed against each other for prizes. A category would be given, and the family at the starting line (so to speak) tries to come up with the answer most polled people gave. If correct, they could keep going until the had the entire board; if they didn't hit the top slot first, the other family had a chance of stealing the category.

At any rate, Family Feud was silly and people enjoyed it. ArmadilloCon has been doing the Fannish Feud for several years. They need as many people as possible to give answers to their questions, so they will have a good slate of category answers. Go fill out their form -- how many can you answer?

http://www.armadillocon.org/programming/feudpoll.htm

Here's the article from Dining & Wine in the NYT -- on finding the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Look fast, it's the New York Times!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/09chip.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin

And here's the recipe --

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html?oref=slogin

Interesting -- especially because I have taken three of these, and I'm still taking one. I wonder if I could get acupuncture to work for the bad arthritis I have? I tried getting off Vioxx, and the Celebrex once each -- my hands were pretty much frozen up and unable to do anything by the tenth day. And I was still an LMT working at that point.

Of course the insurance company will pay 80% after the deductible on Celebrex. I doubt they'd pay for acupuncture. I could trade once a week for a month's Celebrex...or twice a week at the student clinic. Seriously thinking about it....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24777955/

Does anyone have a use for 16 oz/480 ml glass bottles with metal screw-on caps? I decided that since I can only handle about 2 oz a day of Kombucha, there was no point in brewing my own. We're keeping some to send W off to work with tea instead of anything else, but there comes a limit when we pack rats need to say "Be free, little bottles! Find your destiny!"

If yes, let me know!

A very happy birthday to lillian13! We have always chased each other in July, remembering sometimes (and other times we should be looking for belated cards.)

May you get your zombie gargoyle soon!

http://www.webmd.com/news/20080609/bad-lyme-bug-spreading

Virulent Strain of Lyme Disease Spreading in U.S., Europe
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

June 9, 2008 -- A virulent strain of Lyme disease germ is spreading in the U.S. and in Europe, a new study shows.

It's not a new strain of Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete or spiral-shaped bacterium that causes Lyme disease. In fact, it was one of the first strains ever identified -- found in the cerebrospinal fluid of a patient with severe Lyme meningitis.

But now Wei-Gang Qiu, PhD, Benjamin Luft, MD, and colleagues find that the particularly nasty ospC type A strain appears to be the most common of the 20 or so B. burgdorferi strains found in the U.S. The spread of this virulent strain, they suggest, could be part of the reason for the increase in Lyme disease cases seen over the past two decades.

When the fireworks are over, and you still lust after them, get a natural firework fix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Vx9nWB-ig

Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcartiersr/sets/72157594420812359/?page=5

Haven't yet found a good picture of the Southern Lights!

In honor of your birthday, the house has given back to me my CONTACT IMMINENT, missing for months, for e-reading so I can finally read the last Jani book and remember where I was!

I also think we should stop using the pledge of allegiance (a fairly recent phenomenon compared to the age of our country) and have kids memorize/recite this, the Preamble to the Constitution -- and discuss it so they understand that things we take for granted were unheard of, 200+ years ago, and are still rare in a governing body. I was surprised that I remembered almost all of it, and I learned it in Seventh Grade.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,[1] promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Know your preamble!

When I think of all the things we have faced and overcome, in the 232 years we have existed, I refuse to believe that we can't handle our current troubles.

(1) British spelling in the hand-written copy in the National Archives because after all, they were mostly of British descent and fleeing the British Empire.

Hope you are celebrating in high style your birthday and the birth of our nation!

1.) Does anyone have a grease car, or a friend who has one? Is this car in the central Texas region? I have 32 oz. of safflower fry oil and I hate to toss it in the trash.

2.) For the love of the Universe, does ANYONE know of something I can do to aloe vera juice to kill the taste without losing the benefits? So far 50-50 with pomegranate juice does not dent it. It was just sweet aloe vera juice. I feel like I need to spike it, like gin and quinine, but I should not be drinking alcohol.

And yes, I'm afraid I do need to drink the nasty stuff. At least my taste buds are numb after the first sip.

A new website! We'll see if it blooms or shrivels as a regular stop for SF/Fantasy/Horror fans.

http://www.nebulaawards.com/

It says the drive ended June 30, but they are still driving because they need operating expenses! (In their case, money to pay artists and writers). You might take a look and see if they're doing something they like. If so, bookmark and drop a few dollars in the till.

"2008 Fund Drive

Since its founding in September 2000, Strange Horizons has brought you some of the most exciting and vibrant voices in the genre of speculative fiction. We believe speculative fiction is an important literary genre, and we take pride in our work. (We also take pride in being the first professional sale for many of our fabulous and innovative contributors!) We are passionate about publishing cutting edge speculative fiction and art, and hope to be contributing to the genre for many years to come.

To that end, we depend on your help to keep our magazine going. All of our staff members contribute their time and energy for free, but our authors and artists do get paid. We are committed to paying professional rates for high-quality fiction, poetry, art, and nonfiction. In this fund drive, we're hoping to raise $6000, which is about one-third of our annual budget. We are hoping that you, Dear Reader, will help us reach that goal."

http://www.strangehorizons.com/fund_drives/200806/main.shtml

I got there via Boing Boing.

Local councils in the UK use CCTVs to spy on dog owners, cute butts

The Guardian's Marina Hyde discusses the rampant abuse of CCTV spy-cameras placed by local governments -- the junior G-Men who use cameras to follow women with cute butts around town.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/28/local-councils-in-th.html

We're going through Boingboing for this one. Thanks to Cory Doctorow!

http://www.collthings.co.uk/2008/06/10-very-rare-clouds.html

"Mammatus are pouch-like cloud structures and a rare example of clouds in sinking air."

Back in my teens, I saw this formation over Lake Michigan. There was lightning, and the sky reminded me of the cheaper foil-like old fireplaces with pretend fire -- the kind fireplace stores had as demos? The second picture down is close to what we saw.

I thought it was northern lights until I saw a photo of northern lights. Now...I wanna see northern lights!

http://tinyurl.com/5n3zdu

"A roll cloud is a low, horizontal tube-shaped arcus cloud associated with a thunderstorm gust front, or sometimes a cold front. Roll clouds can also be a sign of possible microburst activity."

I have seen this more than once driving north on US 35 toward Dallas/Ft. Worth. In Texas, so far they have all been dark beneath but with a clear area between them and the thunderstorm clouds coming up behind them.

http://tinyurl.com/57dqva

"A shelf cloud is a low, horizontal wedge-shaped arcus cloud, associated with a thunderstorm gust front (or occasionally with a cold front, even in the absence of thunderstorms).

"Unlike a roll cloud, a shelf cloud is attached to the base of the parent cloud above it (usually a thunderstorm)."

Blue Northers look like that. It used to be late November we'd see it, but we saw at least one early in November last year. It was dark like the first picture, but not black like the one further down the screen.

http://tinyurl.com/62ykvx

So -- I've seen three rare cloud types so far in my life! If these are rare -- is that a good score or a bad score?

At least on the LRO spacecraft.

Sign up to send your name to the moon. Names will be collected and placed onboard the LRO spacecraft for its historic mission bringing NASA back to the moon. You will also receive a certificate showcasing your support of the mission.

The deadline is June 27, 2008 for the submission of names.

LRO's objectives are to find safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology.


http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html
http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/index.php

Fortunately, I have the proper response to this nightmare. It's called, next year, an accountant.

Below is the most decipherable answer to my dilemma, having put $2124 too much into my Roth IRA. This answer was voted the best by every other desperate person on the TurboTax Community who got this finished before now. You may ignore the details -- I simply want to terrify you into never paying into your IRA before you know your final earnings for the tax year. Otherwise, the ghost of 1099-R past may visit you, too.

If things don't start looking up by this time tomorrow, I will attempt to coax my accounting friends from their burrows with the lure of something like a $100 gift certificate to Fogo de Chao, or something like that, to make this all go away.

You know it's bad when paying the 6% penalty for the rest of your life sounds good.

Good night, all.
( People really used to kill themselves over their taxes, back in the Regency )

...sock zombies.

**Sigh**

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5061910