Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Vitamin D Revisited

CRAIN'S COMMENTS

Dr. Leslie Kernisan reprized an article on Vitamin D supplementation this weekend. The one finding worth noting is that simply spending time outdoors is no guarantee that you have a sufficient amount of this vitamin in your body. I’ll explain below:

Background:

  • Source: Vitamin D occurs naturally and can be created and activated by the body through a three-step process starting with synthesis from exposure of skin to sunlight, and then two hydroxylation actions first in the liver and then in the kidneys. It can also be captured from dietary supplements.
  • Known benefits of vitamin D: The body uses vitamin D for several purposes:
    • Bone creation and to limit the risk of brittle, soft or deformed bones. The related disease conditions are rickets in children, osteomalacia in adults, and osteoporosis among older adults.
    • Prevention of involuntary muscle spasms or cramps
    • Maintenance of calcium and phosphate concentrations at the right levels…

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Opal Lee — Grandmother Of Juneteenth

Filosofa's Word

I first discovered this amazing woman last year, and … well, no story of Juneteenth is complete without Ms. Opal Lee!


Look at this beautiful woman …

This is Opal Lee, age 94, and on this, the first time Juneteenth is being celebrated as an official U.S. holiday, I want to tell you a little bit about Ms. Lee who is known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth.  While yesterday I wrote a bit about the negativity of some racists toward the new holiday, Juneteenth, today I want to put aside the negative and focus on the positive … and the voice of Ms. Opal Lee.


When Opal Lee was growing up in Texas, she would spend Juneteenth picnicking with her family, first in Marshall, where she was born, then in Sycamore Park in Fort Worth, near the home she moved into at age 10.  Ms. Lee’s paternal grandmother was born into bondage…

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Opinion | Putting Babies Up for Adoption Isn’t an Alternative to Abortion – The New York Times

In the leaked Dobbs draft opinion, Justice Alito noted that many abortion opponents point to the fact “that states have increasingly adopted safe haven laws, which generally allow women to drop off babies anonymously, and that a woman who puts her newborn up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the baby will not find a suitable home.” For these advocates, “just” having the baby is a perfectly viable option.

It may seem perfectly viable to someone who has never been pregnant or given birth. Perfectly viable to someone with no concept of the full range of women’s concerns and fears. Perfectly viable to someone who has never had to make these choices — and live with the consequences.

 

Evanston, Illinois Is the First City to Offer Reparations to Black Residents

Under the “Restorative Housing Program,” the first of the reparations initiatives, Evanston City Council has given an initial 16 qualifying Black households $25,000 for home repairs, down payments or mortgage payments. In order to qualify, residents must either have lived in — or be a direct descendant of a Black person who lived in — Evanston between 1919 to 1969 and suffered a form of discrimination related to housing because of city ordinances, policies or practices.

Source: Evanston, Illinois Is the First City to Offer Reparations to Black Residents

Is This What True Emancipation Looks Like?

How will we know when we have succeeded?

Well, when ‘freedom to’ comes, women will be free to make their own choices, wherever in this great union they happen to live. Their bodies will not be a matter of governmental rhetoric, nor of religious propaganda.

When ‘freedom to’ comes, we will all be free to vote in fair and just elections. No citizen’s voting rights will be threatened by gerrymandering, intimation, or suppression tactics.

When ‘freedom to’ comes, everyone will be free to love and marry whomever they please, because love will simply be love.

When ‘freedom to’ comes, each of us will be free to worship in any way we chose – or not worship at all – without facing vile attacks. Anti-Muslim hate speech and antisemitism will no longer exist. No-one will be shouting “Jews will not replace us.”

When ‘freedom to’ comes, parents will be free to send their children to school without worrying that they might be shot, because the Second Amendment will not count for more than students’ lives.

When ‘freedom to’ comes, every child will be free to realize their ambitions. Poverty will not be a barrier to achievement, and a poor White child in a rural area will matter just as much as a poor Black child in an urban area.

Together, we can complete the task begun on the very first Juneteenth, but dreaming won’t be enough. We need to awaken from our current nightmare and take action.

Source: Is This What True Emancipation Looks Like?

Long Covid: new discoveries and possible treatments – Magic Mistura を

It affects at least one in ten infected and has persistent consequences, which can last for months or years: vascular, brain and immune system damage. But science begins to decipher it, and it already tests an arsenal of drugs against long Covid – the damn legacy of the pandemic.

Source: Long Covid: new discoveries and possible treatments – Magic Mistura を

Schloss Evenburg – architektonisches Juwel in Leer, Ostfriesland

Senioren um die Welt

Schloss Evenburg ist ein einmaliges Gesamtkunstwerk, das auch überregional von Bedeutung ist. Es besteht aus dem Ensemble von dem eigentlichen Schloss, dem schönen englischen Landschaftsgarten und der Vorburg. Bereits im Jahr 1642 wurde die erste Evenburg als barockes Wasserschloss von Oberst Erhard Reichsfreiherr von Ehrentreuter erbaut. 1861 – 1862 wurde es im neugotischen Stil umgebaut. Über Jahrhunderte gehörte das Schloss der Familie der Grafen von Wedel, seit 1975 ist der Landkreis Leer der Eigentümer.


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Before sunset

De malinha pronta

Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream.

Bernard Williams

Photo : Filipa Moreira da Cruz

There is nothing more musical than a sunset.

Claude Debussy

The water was glassy and calm, still candy-colored in the afterglow of sunset.

Stephen King

Photo : Filipa Moreira da Cruz

Life does not come with instructions on how to live, but it does come with trees, sunsets, smiles and laughter, so enjoy your day.

Debbie Shapiro

There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.

Jo Walton

Photo : Filipa Moreira da Cruz

Sunset is so marvelous that even the sun itself watches it every day in the reflections of the infinite oceans!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

Sunsets are proof that no matter what happens, every day can end…

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