thoughts on the oscars

THOUGHTS ON THE OSCARS

wikepedia

the oscars were subdued this year
less politics
and
less issue raising comments
although
it was there
just more subtle
which sometimes works better

one benefit to living here now
is that they have a film festival in february
where you can see
if you want
all of the movies that were nominated
even meet some of the stars

i only saw two of them
the billboard one
the water one

i wanted the actress in the water one to win
best actress
she went through the whole movie
without saying a word
but
you could feel what she was saying all the way through
yep
i would have voted for her for sure

not that frances didnt do a good job

then
the water animal actor
how come he didnt get nominated for something
i never even saw him interviewed
i know he wasnt animated
was he
my wife she the movie connoisseur says no
hes real
hes a tall skinny quiet guy

now for best movie
i wanted the water movie to win
that movie
it just left something with me
inside
makes me think about the movie frequently
even when im in my garden

now i didnt see the other ones
but
i would like to
there is so much diversity in them
actors producers writers etc
i really like the historical ones like
dunkirk mudbound darkest hour
we need to all read and watch history
so it doesnt ever repeat itself

i like the diversity in the nominations
black hispanic women gays white guys immigrants
some won some didnt
but
in the end you want them to chose the best movie
best actor
best actress
etc
without caring who or what the person was

i think thats what we want for everything here in the us

even
kobe won an oscar for mr basketball
i noticed he cried frequently while accepting the oscar

coca won
made my wife she happy and ms b happy

yep
we all should have watched the oscars last night
it was the way you would want them to be
it truly represented the diversity in america

we all won last night

the organicgreen doctor

alzheimers news-baceless

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-BACELESS

in the amyloid theory of alzheimers disease
beta amyloid accumulates in the brain
this accumulation leads to brain cell death

many of the new drugs are aimed at
1 removing the amyloid thats accumulated in the brain
or
2 preventing it from being deposited
or
3 preventing it from being produced in the first place

the drug biogens aducanumab that i receive in my monthly infusions
at ucla if i am getting the real drug instead of the placebo
is an antibody that goes in and does 1 and 2
it removes the accumulated amyloid from the brain
and
it prevents it from being deposited in the brain by binding it
up before it can be stuck in the brain

as aside
i have now done 1 year of these infusions
in 6 months i will be switched to definitely getting
the real aducanumab for at least 2 more years
so
i am hoping that ive been on the real drug so that by
septermber 2018 i will have received 20 doses of the
real drug

if that is so my amyvid pet scan for the amyloid that was
in my brain 1 year ago should be all clear
fingers crossed

now there is a lot of research going on to block the
bace gene or beta secretase gene in the brain that
cleaves the beta amyloid to make the stuff that sticks in the brain

there is a tablet produced now that is taken regularly
is called a bace inhibitor
which means it blocks the gene
so the bad protein amyloid is not produced

by preventing the amyloid from being made it cant be
deposited in the brain


studies using this bace inhibitor are ongoing now
in patients

who are prealzheimers
which means they have no memory issues but they have
positive scans like that above for the bad beta amyloid in the brain
eg
if i had a scan 20 years ago it probably would have been positive
for the bad beta amyloid

who have mild cognitive impairment or early alzheimers

so by stopping or reducing the amyloid production in the brain
alzheimers disease would be slowed or stopped

recently researcheres were able to remove the bace gene
totally in rats with alzheimers disease
the rats memory improved back to normal
so there was no bad beta amyloid in the brain

so by removing this gene or inhibiting it with drugs
alzheimers disease could be prevented or slowed down

so
maybe in the future
folks will take a bace inhibitor pill to prevent the
bad amyloid from being produced
then
add a drug like aducanumab that i am on
to remove any beta amyloid that was produced or deposited
then
you could treat
or
if we are lucky
cure alzheimers disease

lets hope we are this close

the organicgreen doctor

sb country n news-dry farming

SB COUNTRY N NEWS-DRY FARMING

we have lived here now for nine months
we have gotten about 2 inches of rain
maybe
we have a chance to get an inch of rain in the next
2 days here
maybe

if you like to garden you know that it takes a lot of
water supplementation to keep your garden alive here

now in texas before we moved
there was a long drought that was the worst they had
had for years and years
since we relied totally on rainwater for our gardening
and all our water needs
well
you learn to figure out ways to use less water

so over the 17 years we lived at the country n
we learned how to do a lot of things to save water
now
when i say we i really mean me
my wife she has a brown thumb
she will readily admit it
she only took care of the plastic plants in our house
i did let her care for the cactus in our cactus beds
ie you just leave them alone

so now here where i garden there is i guess no limit on
how much water i can use in my garden
however
i pretend im still in texas gardening in a drought
since
i know if the dry weather continues around here
someone somewhere is going to limit water use
in the garden
i want to be ready for that day
plus its the right thing to do
so
i am transferring my texas dry farming techniques to my
sb country n garden

once plants are established i do one watering a week
a real deep watering
this makes the roots go deep

i only hand water the garden
keeps my shadow in the garden

i have enriched the soil over the last 9 months with
a lot of biological material like compost and more compost
layers of mulch layers of leaves layers of newspapers
layers of cardboard
so now you can almost garden with just your hands
without any tools
much like in my texas country n garden

this year as i plant my spring stuff i am burying a 1 foot potting
pot into the ground for each large plant eg tomato pepper
egg plant basil etc
filling it about 1/4 with compost and pine straw

i will water once a week by filling this up with water
or a seaweed molasses fish emulsion mix
this reduces the amount of water used
the roots of the plants go deep down into the ground
for the moisture thats there

then i dug a foot trench all around the edges of my
approximately 20 x 10 ft garden bed
this trench is then filled with mulch
packed in good
this trench then will hold water in the mulch
helping to keep the moisture from wicking out of
the bed
eventually when this mulch is all composted down
i will just dump it over into the garden bed
then
replenish the mulch as needed into the trench

also
down the middle of the bed there is a 1 ft + wide walkway
that is also a 1 foot trench filled with mulch
with every 4 feet i have buried a 5 gallon bucket
worm tower
here is the link to my blog on how i did that
this all holds moisture in the middle
and will eventually provide the compost for the garden
all plant material from the garden goes into
the worm towers

these trenches of mulch down the middle and surrounding
the garden bed holds in a lot of moisture

these trenches can hold 500 gallons of water
a 1 inch rain will put 30 gallons of water in those trenches

then
a layer of pine straw mulch is kept over the beds
to keep the upper soil from drying out too much

so when things are growing well
i just water the plants by filling up the buried pots
all 16 of them
once a week
if we dont have rain

so thats how i dry farm in my sb country n garden

thanks to all the austin area folks that taught me over
the years
little did i know i would have to use these techniques here

the organicgreen doctor