An Autralian study is showing that bad moods can actually be good for your brain. The study from the University of New South Wales, showed that people in a negative mood were more critical of, and paid more attention to, their surroundings than happier people, who were more likely to believe anything they were told. The study also showed that positive moods seem to promote more creativity and coperation while negative moods tend to promote attentiveness and awareness of the surroundings.
This seems crazy to me becuase I always feel like when I am in a bad mood I couldnt care less about whats going on around me or what someone may be saying. Interesting stuff.
Full link here
Recently as I was doing some internet research on affordable health insurance plans, I came across a health insurance term that had never heard of…guaranteed issue health insurance. Now I dont claim to be a health insurance expert…far from it, but surely I would have heard of that before. Well in some circles it is referred to as a Mini Med health plan (as opposed to a major medical plan which is what most people have) or as a guaranteed acceptance health plan. The bottom line is this a health insurance plan for people who either have pre-existing conditions that prevents them from getting a major medical plan or for people who just do not have access to a reasonably priced major medical plan…like people in between jobs or something.
Like the name suggests, guaranteed issue health insurance is truly guaranteed. There are no medical questions answered and virtually everybody can qualify. Essentiall the only people who get turned down are those with a history of financial fraud or poor payment practices. Of course guaranteed issue health insurance plans are not as comprehensive as a full blown health insurance plan, however it does have most of the necessities that someone would look for in a plan like accident coverage, emergency room fees and things like that, although some exclusions do apply. All i know is this type of insurance sounds pretty great for the population of people who are considered “uninsureable”.
It is well documented that when in New York City you have to try some of the food from the street vendors, however I never knew how serious this was. Apparently they have an annual contest to crown the best street vendor in NYC. This year a Brooklyn couple selling Mexican food from their cart took top honors in what is called the Vendy Awards.
Here is the full award: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_street_vendor_award;_ylt=Av_DIHNFJjOgvlNIUEAT9sDtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJyYTZuOGpuBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwOTI3L3VzX29kZF9zdHJlZXRfdmVuZG9yX2F3YXJkBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDMwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNtZXhpY2FudGFjb2M-
Well, while my pond got off to a bad start this year, it rebounded nicely until my filter broke last month. As the summer is the worst time for a filter to go down, i quickly bought a new one without having the luxury of shopping around. I got the new filter and installed and my pond got back in order. So in my spare time this week I thought i would do some looking around online into the costs of pond filters and to see if i got hosed or not on my new one. While I found I did OK for myself, i did come across a new store I had not seen before, PondFilter.com.
The site looks to have a central focus on pond filters and pond filtration supplies. As most pond owners know, this is the highest priority in maintaining a pond, so I was glad to find the site. They told me the store is new and more products and articles will be added frequently. I am really excited about this new find and know I will be a customer next season.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE55H4Z220090618
Is this all that PETA has to do now…worry about the rights of houseflies? While their response to the presidents “execution” of a housefly was not as demonstrative and over the top as many of their protests and demonstrations, the fact that they even had to comment on it and make it out be more than it was is completely ridiculous to me. I guess we all should think before we squash a mosquito that is sucking the blood from our leg and worry about its feelings first.
So a lady in Australia just won $10 million in the lottery. The kicker is, she won it 10 months ago, but only now checked her lottery ticket. Apparently this had been a mystery and everyone was wondering who the winner was since it was known that “someone” had the lucky numbers.
Here is the full story from CNN http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/28/australia.winning.lottery/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
So far I have been really impressed with the humic acid as my grass around my pond is looking really thick and healthy, so I have to say for as inexpensive as that humic acid was, I think I will be using it all the time now. Now that I am believer in the quality of this product, I decided to check out the products they make for ponds, and to my surprise, they make a lot of them. It appears they have a heavy focus in bacterias, which as a pond owner I understand the importance there. But aside from the numerous pond bacteria products, they generally have a lot of pond supplies and ones that are very safe and environmentally friendly and that is important to me. I recently got in some of their Pond Keeper Dissolvable Bacteria Blocks since I have never seen a product like this before. I was a little skeptical as I normally use liquids, but boy are these blocks easy to use. I just toss one or two in and within a few minutes they have sunk to the bottom and dissolved and so far my water has been clear as always and these are much less expensive than the other bacteria I have been using. I wish I had more friends with ponds so I could show these to them too.
While I have been shopping around for a new health insurance plan, I keep coming across terms and jargon that I was not familiar with and it has been very frustrating having to decifer what these things mean. Well, while trying to find out the meaning of one of these terms I came across a website called Ehealthmenu.com. At first glance it is a very un-assuming website, void of fancy graphics and color schemed, but what it has is a robust listing of health insurance terms and their definitions. With all of these terms being contained within one site, it certainly makes reading over possible health plans much easier since I dont have to do google searches for specific words. I have already bookmarked this site and have started telling friends and family members who are also shopping around for health insurance.
Since I have been spending so much time outside tending to my ponds, i have also been taking note of improvements I need to make to my yard and gardens. I have been reading more and more about how fertilizers can contribute to algae and water problems in a pond due to run off from rain, so I have been looking into ways to improve that. While research various soil additives and alternate fertilizers I cam across something called humic acid. Now, I dont know a lot about organics when it comes to gardening and such, but this sure didnt sound like something I would put in my yard. However after reading about it and the way people have used it, I am totally sold on the idea of using it in my yard, especially around my pond. In a nutshell, humic acid is supposed to help your soil retain water better and make more efficient use of fertilizer, which to me reads “can reduce run-off”. I have read where people use organic treatments in the yards surrounding a pond so that you can limit the excess fertilizers that make it to the pond.
So a couple of weeks ago I ordered some humic acid from a company called Natural Environmental Systems due to the high concentration level their product had. The product arrived a few days after I ordered it and true to form, it looks very concentrated. It is a dark brown…really black… liquid. I mixed it up with some water and liberally sprayed it over the yard immediately surrounding my pond. I dont know if it is wishful thinking, but it does seem like the grass in this area has grown a little faster than the rest, but it could be my imagination. The people at Natural Environmental Systems told me it could take a couple of application before you start seeing the results. Anyway, for as inexpensive as this stuff was I certainly think it is worth a shot and based on all of the stuff I read about humic acid, it sure seems viable.
So even though it is early in the season, I am already starting to have issues with my pond. I have had more algae problems so far this year than I can remember and to top it all off my pond pump went out, which is probably contributing to my algae now that I think about it. This week I started shopping the internet for small submersible pond pumps and ended up ordering a Quiet One 2200 pond pump from a site called Pondworld.com. I should receive it either Sat or Monday so maybe once I get it hooked up and get my filter running again this algae will control itself. It is just a simple, plug and play unit, which is perfect for me and my small pond. I dont have the patience to plumb in some big pump, nor is it really necessary at this time. However, it was good to see that these folks at PondWorld did carry a lot of options for other types and sizes of pumps and filters so if I need to upgrade, I have a source.
It still just amazes me how critical a good pump/ filter is for a pond. I would think that having my filter down for just a few days would be such a big deal, but I guess this time of year the ponds are “awakening” and so there is a lot going on biologically and natural processes just need some help.