Grab Bag Cloud Peeker:

Morning Glory Clouds

Image: Mick Petroff

These long, crazy-looking clouds can grow to be 600 miles long and can move at up to 35 miles per hour, causing problems for aircraft even on windless days.

Known as Morning Glory clouds, they appear every fall over Burketown, Queensland, Australia, a remote town with fewer than 200 residents. A small number of pilots and tourists travel there each year in hopes of “cloud surfing” with the mysterious phenomenon.

Although clouds elsewhere don’t seem to be as tightly formed as the Australian ones, similar tubular shaped clouds called roll clouds appear in various places around the globe. Here is a photo I snapped over Lake Tahoe one morning:

Grab Bag Swallow Hard:

A moment of clarity, provided by an amazing video put together by TAC (Transport Accident Commission) of Australia. This message speaks very clearly and graphically across geographical and even language boundaries.  Be sure to view full-screen size, and please pass it on, with wishes for a healthy New Year.

Thanks to Patricia E. for this 🙂

Grab Bag No Gain, No Gain:

Seems a YouTube/Google financial analyst and a physical trainer got together and designed Gain.com which, FOR FREE!!, will design an exercise program just for you. You tell it how long you want to work out, where and with what you can do it, what level and intensity you want and, BOOYA, you have a written and illustrated workout. And THAT, my friends, is so much harder to fudge or ignore than the vague promise roaming around in your brain that gets beat up like a wimpy freshman in September, rendering your intent to work out getting stuffed into a garbage can. Fight back.

Give it  a try…

Grab Bag Fluoride Check:

This post was prepared for last week… the national news stories on fluoride this week clearly came from broadcast spies checking my blog files. Note to self: increase security measures 🙂

Dentist Bill Osmunson has been fighting tooth decay from a different perspective.  He has been at the forefront of a crusade to ban fluoride in our drinking water.

After promoting the use of fluoride in water for 25 years, he has done an about-face. Osmunson feels there is adequate evidence to show that the risks outweigh the benefits. As he directs our attention, look at a tube of toothpaste, which clearly carries the warning: “Do not swallow” and “in case of accidental ingestion, contact the poison control center.”

The amount they’re referencing is a quarter milligram of fluoride, contained in a pea size amount of toothpaste.

But here’s the kicker: this is the same amount of fluoride you find in 8 oz of water. So….. toothpaste carries a “Do not swallow” warning, whereas you’re typically told to drink eight, 8oz glasses of water each day, without any concern for the amount of fluoride you will ingest?

One of Dr. Osmunson’s main concerns is water fluoridation for infants. The American Dental Association (ADA) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommend that infants NOT receive fluoridated water for drinking, nor for making their formula, as fluoridated water contains 250 times more fluoride than mother’s milk.

If you filter your tap water (which is the best alternative we have, for many reasons), check your filter specs to see if it removes fluoride (many do)… especially if infants will be consuming your water.

Grab Bag:

Clever shopping bag designs… makes you want to just grab one, doesn’t it?

Grab Bag Brain Game:

Interactive crosswords online!

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

If cats could talk….