Test Your Internet Connection Speed

In the left-hand margin of this blog, at the very bottom, there is a link to click on to test your Internet connection speed. (Or click here.) You'll be taken to the site of a tech company that provides the service. Their server network has locations in major U.S. cities.

Click on any city and you'll get a download test -- wait a few seconds and it will begin an upload test. (All uploads are a fraction of the speed of downloads on the Internet.)

Your speed numbers will appear as kbps (kilobytes per second). Divide by 1,000 to get megabytes per second.

For example, my download speeds from all the cities fall in the 9,700+ kbps range, which equals roughly 9.7 megabytes per second. (Actually, a bit less than that if you use a calculator.)

I'm on Road Runner's Turbo service which advertises download speeds of up to 10 mbps, so I'm close to that. I'm curious as to what some others of you are getting on your various Internet connections.

Beware Aluminum

Reading an article in the June 2008 issue of Acres USA ("Aluminum: Valued Servant, Dangerous Master"), was reminded of the dangers of excess aluminum to the human body. Just a few reminders:

•Alzheimer's Disease is the chief result of a lifetime of aluminum exposure.
•Flouride is a by-product of aluminum production. It and aluminum sulfate are used in public water supplies, so if you drink public water that hasn't been purified you are ingesting both. Aluminum sulfate is added to public water supplies to clear up turbidity (cloudiness) in the water. This adds even more aluminum to food and other body products that are made using public water supplies.
•Aluminum is widely used in all antiperspirants. Check the label of yours -- if you see "aluminum-anything" on the label, stop using it.
•Don't use aluminum cookware.
•Don't use baking powder that contains aluminum. (Aluminum-free powders are available.)
•Most processed foods contain aluminum. For example, American cheese best melts on hamburgers because of added aluminum.
•Food colorings contain aluminum. If the "-lake" suffix appears on a food label it is an aluminum-based additive.
•Aluminum is used in almost all commercial candy formulations (think Halloween).
•Aluminum from Detroit's drinking water fed to lab rats showed up in the rats' brain tissue in 4-7 minutes after ingestion.
•Dialysis for renal patients requires the use of distilled water because of the damage to kidneys caused by aluminum and fluorine in city water. "Dialysis dementia" was the name given to dialysis patients in the early days who exhibited Alzeimer's-like symptoms within days of starting dialysis.
•Patients taking large doses of aspirin (blood thinning, etc.) are often switched to coated aspirins to decrease stomach irritation, the coatings of which contain significant amounts of aluminum.

Is aluminum always bad? No. In trace amounts, like arsenic and other "bad" natural elements, it plays its role in maintaining health. Aluminum is one of the natural elements in trace amounts in nature's perfect blend of all the 100+ elements: seawater. And fish don't get Alzheimer's. In natural, trace amounts, aluminum has a role to play. We get those trace amounts from food grown in healthy, balanced soils. But when excess, non-natural amounts of aluminum are added to food and body products (in addition to being found in toxic air pollution from industrial and internal combustion uses), it becomes a poison in the body.

Garden Friend

After digging up the onions late yesterday afternoon, this morning I went out to bury some veggie scraps where the onions had been growing. I put the trowel in and turned up -- in the trowel of soil -- this huge snake:



Okay -- he wasn't huge. See his size compared to the trowel:



He was coiled neatly, underground, and remained in a coil when I set him on the concrete driveway. I could tell he was alive since his tongue was flicking. What would he have been doing at this time of year underground? He obviously looks to be a juvenile based on size -- but since I don't know what kind of snake it is I don't know what size he should be. Cold-blooded creature that he is, I'm sure he'll warm up with the morning sun and find his legs and wander off. But I'm puzzled about finding him coiled up underground this time of year. If you look closely in this picture you can see his tongue flicking:



I recorded a few seconds of a movie to see if he would move but he didn't cooperate. (He was flicking his tongue, but the movie resolution makes it hard to see.) At least the morning birds sound nice:



Any ideas?

Volunteer Onions

Pulled up some onions from the front beds today. They sprouted from some onion scraps I had buried in the gardens a few months ago. Have no idea what they'll taste like -- probably very strong after getting this big. Have laid them aside to dry for a couple days, then will clean them up. I put the trowel in the picture as a size reference:

More Power to Him

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, the group that was all over Al Gore a year or so ago for his inefficient lifestyle regarding utility consumption at his personal residence, is back on the case. They reported today that Gore's electric consumption -- even after he installed solar panels, a geo-thermal system, upgraded windows and ductwork, and, of course, the requisite green lightbulbs -- was up by 10% from a year ago. I checked my own KWH's (kilowatt hours) used on my most recent electric bill and discovered that my electric consumption was up last month by 9% over the same month a year ago. (I have no idea why.) So I'm as guilty as he is.

Al Gore's average residential electric consumption per month at his home is 17,768 KWHs per month (by comparison, mine was 779 last month). Gore's bill for electricity comes to $16,533 PER MONTH (average)!

I don't begrudge the man his energy consumption -- more power to him, so to speak. I'm just curious as to what one does in a home that results in an electric bill of $16,533 per month. Maybe it's the three 30" Apple Cinema displays he has connected to his Mac. If I could afford them, or the power to run them, my bill would probably be higher as well:

Green Tea/Sun Tea

Ten-plus years ago, I honored my Southern sweet tea roots in the summertime by making gallons of sun tea: tea slow-brewed in gallon glass jars using the heat of the summer sun. (I have read you can make "sun tea" in the winter by putting it in a dark closet for five hours -- go figure.)

When I stopped consuming all things caffeinated I stopped brewing and drinking traditional ice tea as well (which also eliminated the cups of white sugar required). However, I made some organic, decaffeinated green tea yesterday afternoon that turned out very well. A couple of things coalesced to kick-start that effort. (Yes, I believe decaffeinated everything is better. Caffeine is addictive and has been linked to calcium loss in the body [Prescription for Nutritional Healing, p. 552].)

An email health tip from Dr. Robert Rowen (Second Opinion Newsletter) reminded me about the powerful antioxidant benefits of green tea, and Jennifer (who got the same email) and I were talking about it when I was in Columbia. Also, Daniel got on the sun tea thing a few weeks ago and has been making it, so that was a fresh reminder as well. I no longer have the gallon glass jars with the built-in spout (Jen found Daniel a nice one at Target -- my original ones had come from Wal-Mart), so I used a quart glass jar yesterday and it worked fine until I can get a new gallon size.

First, here's the copy from Dr. Rowen's June 13 newsletter on the benefits of green tea:

One in three Americans get cancer today. How would you like to reduce your chances of being the one? New research suggests you can do it simply by drinking my favorite beverage.

In a recent study, researchers followed 36,745 women using a questionnaire and blood samples. Among these women, there were 494 cases of gastric cancer. They compared these cases to a separate group of 494 women who didn't have the cancer. The scientists found one very telling factor in their cancer.

The researchers found that the blood levels of epicatechin-3-gallate (ECG) made a huge difference in risk. ECG is the most powerful polyphenol (phytochemical from plants) we've discovered. In this study, ECG blood levels of 9.3 ng/mL or greater conferred a 75% reduction in risk.

Your best source of ECG is green tea. My favorite beverage is just loaded with these polyphenols. Researchers continue to discover new uses for this drink. As you can see, it's a fantastic cancer fighter - and not just gastric cancer.

Researchers also found that it works wonders for prostate cancer. In another study, this one following 49,920 men (aged 40-69), green tea stopped the cancer from growing. Those who drank the most green tea (five cups or more) had a 47% lower risk of getting advanced prostate cancer than those who drank less than one cup.

So if you're looking for a great way to stop cancer before it starts, look no further than organic green tea. And you can drink as much of it as you want. The science supporting it just gets better and better.

Yours for better health and medical freedom,
Robert Jay Rowen, MD

Ref: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008 Feb; American Journal of Epidemiology, 2007; 167(1): 71-77.

Second, here is the only organic, decaffeinated green tea I've been able to find (flavored with peach -- very nice). I have ordered it in the past from Cook's Wares, but I believe I've also seen it at Earthfare in Charlotte.

I put two of these tea bags in a quart of PURE cool water and arranged an aluminum foil reflector as a backdrop to (hopefully) increase the heat. It sat in the driveway for about six hours yesterday:





After I brought it in and removed the tea bags, it had a lovely color:



The theoretical advantage to making sun tea is that the tea has a "smoother" taste as a result of not being exposed to boiling water. Fewer tannins (I don't know), i.e. tannic acid, are released into the tea which makes it less bitter. After you go to the trouble to make sun tea you'll be convinced it's better. You won't know that it's better, but you will believe it's better. :-)

Day in Columbia

Strapped on my bike and drove down to Columbia for the day on Saturday to see Daniel, Jennifer, Ellen, and Arianna. The highlight of the day was a several-hour bike adventure on the wonderful bike/walking trail that runs between the Broad River and the 19th century canal that was built to bypass the rapids (the "fall line") in the river for the sake of commerce and transportation. One of the historical markers we read said that, in that era, towns developed at spots on rivers where rapids prevented commerce further upriver -- to wit, Columbia. But the canal was eventually built and commerce moved on. Once the railroads began shouldering the majority of commerce the canal ceased to be used for transportation and shipping. But it remains a beautiful and tranquil setting -- several miles of wildlife and peaceful water. Rapids in the river on one side of the bike trail, a tabletop-smooth canal on the other.

Jen took the afternoon to get things done at the house, so it was Daniel, the girls, and me on our four bikes (no training wheels in sight!). Ellen and Arianna are troopers. Two-plus hours in the blazing sun, a four-mile bike ride, a few scary descents from the trail into the cool, dark forest between the river and canal -- all with no complaining. They are thoroughly enjoyable companions who are as eager to learn as their parents are to teach.

In the parking area before biking up:





In the late 19th century, a hydro-electric facility was built and water from the canal was diverted through it to provide electricity for Columbia. This is very near downtown Columbia -- history on display:



A very nice observation facility has been constructed at the site of the hydro facility -- very impressive:



A couple of miles upstream on the bike path you reach this concrete dam built across the Broad River. I never quite understood the purpose or history of this dam -- but the water flowing through the gap in the dam creates significant swift water. The river bed below this dam is filled with granite boulders -- "the basement of the Appalachians," one of the markers said -- and rapids. Very impressive -- had no idea Columbia, SC, had this kind of aquatic dynamics:



Beautiful egrets (white) and herons (dark gray) stand like statues on rocks in the rapids waiting to grab lunch. Ellen and I named the egret "Ellen Egret" and the heron "Henry Heron:"





Daniel demonstrated that it is possible to float in six inches of swift water. (He was actually just cooling off -- can't say that I blamed him.)



All the following pix were taken at the site of the dam where we paused to rest and cool off -- and in the cool woods bordering the Broad River:















Here we're riding along the bike path on the way back to the parking area. You can see the beautiful canal on the left, while the river runs parallel to it on the other side of the trees on the right:



We stopped a couple of times along the way to look at wildlife: a huge turtle sunning on a log in the middle of the canal and another "Henry Herron" standing motionless in the grass waiting, again, for lunch:







At one point, Ellen and I were riding behind Daniel and Arianna. Somehow, she spied these two little purple flowers growing just off the edge of the bike path. Look closely -- they're right in the middle of the picture:



Of course, we had to stop and get a picture of these amazingly intricate flowers and their three-pronged leaves. Daniel wasn't familiar with them -- we assumed they were just some kind of wildflower. But when we got home and were looking through another garden book on fruit-bearing trees and plants we saw the very same purple flowers and three-pronged leaves in the book. Turns out the plant is called Maypop (passiflora incarnata). Here is a short excerpt from the Wikipedia article:

The fleshy fruit, also in itself called a Maypop, is an oval yellowish berry about the size of a hen egg; it is green at first, but then becomes orange as it matures. In this species, the yellow mucilage around the seeds of the fruit is sweet and edible, however it is quite seedy and mostly benefits wildlife. As with other passifloras, it is the larval food of a number of butterfly species.

Traditionally, the fresh or dried whole plant has been used as a herbal medicine to treat nervous anxiety and insomnia. The dried, ground herb is frequently used in Europe by drinking a teaspoon of it in tea. A sedative chewing gum has even been produced.

The Maypop occurs in thickets, disturbed areas, unmowed pastures, roadsides, and railroads. It thrives in areas with lots of available sunlight. It is not found in areas of growing forest, however, as the sun is blotted out by growing trees.

Other common names include Wild apricot and May apple.

Here's a closeup of the two flowers Ellen saw by the trail. Are these amazing or what?



Because Daniel and Jen are learning to "root" various plants, I have a feeling they'll be back out there soon to get a cutting off the Maypop vine to try to root and plant in their yard.

The bike ride was a delightful excursion -- hats off to Columbia, SC, for its provision of the trail as well as the amenities, historical markers, and such that make it an inviting setting to explore. And kudos to Daniel and the girls for the pleasure of their company.

Earlier in the day we were checking out Daniel and Jen's garden while Daniel lamented the scourge of the squash vine borer that has been wreaking havoc on their squash plants. The squash vine borer is the larva that hatches from a tiny reddish egg laid by a uniquely-colored and shaped moth that flies around looking for members of the cucurbit family (melon, pumpkin, squash, cucumbers, gourds) on which to lay one egg at a time. In the south, they rarely afflict cukes, but wreak havoc on squash. The tiny egg is usually laid at the base of the squash plant where it hatches a larvae that bores into the trunk of the squash plant and proceeds to kill the plant by eating the nutrient-carrying inner parts of the trunks and stems. After a couple of weeks of this the larva emerges, burrows into the ground beneath the plant, and remains in cocoon form until it pupates into the above-mentioned moth which starts the life cycle all over again. Some regions of the country have just one life-cycle per season, but two cycles per season are common in the South: one in June and another in later summer.

It so happens that while we were standing in the garden talking one of the moths flew by! I recognized it immediately from my prior experience with them as did Daniel. It got away but reappeared a few minutes later and he swung it at with his hand, knocking it to the ground. No gardener can eliminate all the vine borer moths -- but Daniel eliminated this one. They are "sort of" wasp-shaped -- not like a traditional moth -- with distinctive black and red coloring. This is the top side (the back and wings):



And this is the underside:



Here's the trunk of a squash plant. If you look closely on the white part of the trunk, about 2-3 inches from where the trunk enters the ground (just to the right of a small leaf-looking protrusion), you'll see a tiny reddish dot. That's an egg -- probably laid by the very vine borer moth dispatched by Daniel:



Here's a cropped close-up of the egg (middle of the photo):



Nobody said gardening was easy. One market gardener I know said the solution is to plant enough squash for you and the vine borers. But when you only have a few plants it becomes a challenge to save every one.

Here are a few more photos from the day:

The lovely Jen:





Daddy and daughter:



Two acoustic wannabe's:





Two of a million pictures Arianna took with my camera:





And some face-painting before going out to eat for veggie burritos and a free music concert in a local park. (Grandad passed on the concert to motor home before it got too late.)



Nice day in Columbia -- thanks to the Columbia Kruideniers for hosting a Charlotte Kruidenier for the day.