FEEL BETTER RECIPE

Are you stressed? I AM. The news stresses me -- the troubles everywhere in the world, and what's happening in our country. 

Would Ayurveda help? (It's alternative medicine, traditional in India, that seeks to treat body, mind, and spirit using diet,  herbal remedies, exercise, meditation, breathing, and physical therapy.)

Wolfgang Preuss spent two decades in Germany installing phones, faxes, outfitting TV and radio studios. When he realized that he was chain-smoking, fixated on caffeine and alcohol, he visited an Ayurvedic Center.

Emerging from a ten day stay, the newly calm, convert Preuss refocused his life in order to set up a Ayurvedic clinic in Germany. After an exhaustive search, he bought a very old building outside Frankfurt, and went to work on renovating it, paying meticulous attention to Ayurvedic principles -- using "natural" material, even for walls and floors, as well as plumbing, piping in drinking water from a spring a few miles away in a suburban parkland.

In 1993 he opened "Parkschlosschen" with a resident staff of specialists -- doctors and therapists trained in Ayurvedic meditation, massage, skin brushing, herbal inhalations, as well as cooks expertly able to provide vegetarian meals (no coffee, tea, alcohol, sugar, meat or any animal products), except the one essential that is used in Ayurvedic medicine for detoxification -- clarified butter, that's called "ghee." (pronounced the way we say "gee" when surprised.) It's butter that's been boiled, strained. It helps brain functions, sleep disorders, and alertness.

Being an enterprising cook myself, with sleep problems and a big desire to improve brain functions, I searched and found a recipe.

1 pound butter
Place butter in saucepan
Medium-high heat, bring to a boil for 2 to 3minutes, reduce heat,
Butter forms a foam that disappears; second foam forms on top of butter.
Butter turns  golden.
After 7 to 8 minutes, brown milk solids will be in  bottom of pan.
Pour and strain residue (use strainer or cheesecloth)
Store in airtight container.

All the Ayurvedic routines sound like something to try if you are an insomniac, depressed, and stressed. The Parkschlosschen Clinic, which has been successfully treating older people since it opened, now has many guests their thirties. 

If you, like me, would like to know more about how you might utilize this alternative medicine by yourself where you live, here's the link: WHAT IS THE AYURVEDIC PHILOSOPHY AND APPROACH.

Gee, it might be fun to clarify some butter ... Gee, I can buy it on line -- 7.5 oz.  $6.95!! We'll try Ghee on our bagels in the morning!!

Aii-EEK NEWS!!!

The Washington Post blared perturbing news, scary news, about NUKES AND FLOPPY DISKS!! 

The "Nukes and Floppy Disks" article was quoted, repeated, in -- wow -- all the major U.S. and UK  newspapers. It was a news alert on CNN, CBS-TV, ABC-TV,  FOX TV, and BBC. I heard well-known anchors, columnists, and reporters express grave concern.

Apparently, old IBM computers that use 8-inch floppy disks, are currently being used to coordinate key strategic forces such as nuclear bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Pentagon confirms this. The U.S Government Accountability Office confirms this. They are also saying that those IBM computers which were manufactured in the early seventies will continue to be used until the end of 2017.

Why?  Because updating government computers, memory banks, data, history, files, reports will be a massive job -- aside from installing new equipment and renovating thousands of offices, everything that the government is using now will need to be replaced and re-located as well as re-checked, and updated.  

Summing up the decision not to change what's working now, the US Government says "Using old systems disconnected from digital networks is a buffer against hackers. Low tech is safer tech."

My reaction to this news is

So, I'm including this sort of down-to-earth, unemotional video.