SUGAR AND DIABETES

I get comments from readers who post on topics I now and then feature.  Today I will send you to two sites to expand on their efforts, and mine.

Last year in September I wrote on A NEW SOLUTION FOR DIABETES.  Danielle Stevenson of OnTrackDiabetes.com sent me a note and indicated people interested in this subject might want to access their blog site.  In particular, she sent me:

   Social Anxiety Disorder:  Test, Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

from PSYCOM.

I can also recommend:

• 5 Ways to Prevent Prediabetes from Becoming Diabetes (my current condition)
• Prediabetes 101

On their home page, they look into:

• How to eat pasta when you have diabetes
• Tips for fixing high morning blood sugars
• How blood sugar impacts hearing

Aurora Chelo of SugarScience from the University of California at San Francisco read my posting on

    WHY YOU SHOULD QUIT SUGAR

and recommended

     12 Foods with Hidden Sugars:  #7 is a Real Eye Opener!

That #7 is iodized salt!  The rest are foods you all eat.  29 million people in America have diabetes and 54 million have pre-diabetes.

What is Sugar Science?  Click on that.  Have questions you want answered?  Click on this.  The key point is:

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REFLECTIONS ON MY TRIP TO SAN FRANCISCO AND LAS VEGAS

Goodbye San Francisco:

Hello Honolulu:

My ten-day trip, five days each in Frisco and Vegas, was cultural for the former and academic for the latter.  In both cities I also had the opportunity to get together with family and friends.

About Aquaculture America 2018 in Las Vegas, it was depressing to see what has happened to this field.  Nothing much has changed from two decades ago.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is still focused on modeling and monitoring, frustrating entrepreneurs and total system developers.  NOAA is part of the Department of Commerce, but there is no sense of commerce and there remains an overwhelming attitude of protection over development.  Of course, in many quarters--scientists and environmentalists--that is great, but there are ways to farm the ocean while enhancing the marine environment.  The Blue Revolution could well be that solution.  Of the hundred and more presentations, I might have been the only individual providing any kind of vision.  In many ways, that graphic to the left well depicts the current situation.

The population of San Francisco and the City and County of Honolulu are relatively similar, with Honolulu being slightly larger.  However, if you include the entire Bay Area, you begin to approach 8 million, nearly ten times the population of the City.

Hawaii is my home and San Francisco is #2, for I I have lived on the Stanford campus (when I was a student there, plus a decade later when I spent the summer with the NASA Ames Research Center) and during my two stints at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore and Fremont).

I wanted to catch BART to both cities, but a future 5.5 mile extension to Livermore is undergoing public comment, and of all the coincidencies, that occurs today.   The line now goes past Fremont one station, with two more, one to Milpitas and the other to North San Jose, scheduled for later this year.  The $4.7 billion third phase to Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara is still on track for 2026, but is un-funded.  There is no plan to extend the system south of Millbrae.

BART trains look old and are screechily noisy.  The windows are plastic and stained by sunlight and wear.  You can't see outside well.  When you're inside, there is no indication of where you are nor the next stop, and the audio malfunctions. The buses are great, but that's because they're new.

About pricing, youths (5-12), disabled, medicare and seniors (65+) pay $9 for a fare value of $24.  There is also now a Clipper Card, and seniors get 62.5% off.  This card can be used on BART and any public transport system in the 9-county region, and can be purchased at selected sites, as for example the Embarcadero Station of BART and at Clipper Customer Service at the Ferry Building.  You need a state driver's license or passport.  Can also be obtained on-line.

This card changed my whole attitude about traveling about the city.  Just beep it once when you get on the bus.

Marijuana is now recreational in both San Francisco and Las Vegas.  Legally, you can only smoke this weed only at home.  The reality is that this smell pervades no matter where you go, and certainly on the streets.  But tourists do wonder where they can smoke, for hotels prohibit use.  State lawmakers are struggling with the allowance of special lounges, etc., and Denver seems closest to actually experimenting.  Of course, don't sneak MJ home.  Las Vegas has obvious green disposal stations.  Here is an ad in San  Francisco:

About that 2018 Winter Olympics theme this year, which was Peace, how perfect.  While the door is only slightly ajar, it seems like North and South Korea are now communicating with each other.  The USA is playing bad cop, and I just need to again show Mike Pence as he was depicted in the local media.  But the Donald is taking credit for scaring Kim Jung-un into capitulating.

Norway won 39 medals, breaking the record the USA set in 2010.  We placed far back at #4.  I wondered why.  According to Tore Ovrebo, director of Olympiatoppen, sure they have more snow, but they only had 109 competitors to 242 for the U.S., and have one/64th the population.  He also said there is free health care, no doubt a dig at Donald Trump, but they can keep their young athletes healthy.  A key factor is that youth sports teams do not keep score until they are 13.  The U.S. crowns 9 year old champs in everything.  Not sure why this develops Olympic champions, but it has something to do with the culture.

About the snow part (latitude):

• 60  Oslo
• 60  Bergen
• 61  Anchorage
• 47  Fargo
• 49  Minnesota

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THREE BILLBOARDS and ANNIHILATION in San Francisco

Good Morning San Francisco.  Sunday, and I have nothing planned today.  I could take a wine ferry around the Bay, or Caltrain down to Levi Stadium for the Bacon and Beer Classic (but that was yesterday), maybe the Crystal Fair at Fort Mason Center, Chow Down on Dumplings at the SOMA Street Food Park ($24 with bottomless mimosas), or, now that I have a Clipper Card, perhaps a nostalgic visit to Fisherman's Wharf.

One big plus about traveling around the U.S. or Europe is that the breakfasts are routine, so I don't gain any weight.  I got the meal to the left for free in the M Club at the Marriott Marquis.

Incidentally, you probably haven't even noticed, but my nearly $1000 Sony camera (which I bought in 2016) last week refused to download photos to my Mac Air.  So there was a day of photos from my iPhone.  Not bad, except that it's really difficult to zoom when you are carrying something, so I almost dropped the camera twice.  

Next door to the Marriott Marquis is Target, so I bought a $129 Sony DSCW830.  It came with an X battery ($38 from Amazon) and an 8 GB memory card ($7), so the actual camera cost was $84.  That other Sony still costs $898 from Amazon.  They are both rated at 20.1 megapixels.  Frankly, I can't tell the difference of photos used in my blog postings.  Better yet, my new Sony is one-fourth the weight.  Great, except that it is so light that I almost washed it with my shirt. That photo to the right was taken with my iPhone.

When I was having lunch at M.Y. China yesterday, I noticed a Century complex one floor up.  I did want to see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (3B) before the 90th Academy Awards ceremony on March 4, and, conveniently, I could follow with Annihilation, thus, so much for more dumplings and crystals:

                                Rotten Tomatoes          My Rating

                             Reviewers  Audiences

Three Billboards        93              87                B

Annihilation               87              64                B

3B, a black comedy, has already won 16 awards and 7 Oscar nominations.  Reviewers loved this film, and Frances McDormand could well win a best Actress Academy Award.  But the film was at first plodding, generally depressing and could well have ended a minute or two earlier so that we could all over-analyze what will be.  Unless you go see the movie, you won't understand what I'm suggesting.

After the recent Florida school massacre, three "billboards" are following Marco Rubio in the Miami area:

Annihilation is a totally different kind of movie.  Note that reviewers liked it, but the audience was lukewarm because there was a lot of confusion.

You can interpret the production any way you want, but my take is of an alien invasion beginning with individuals, then expanding into an annihilation of life as we know it, melding animals with plants.  Tossed into this melange is cancer, an ailment that is not solved by that alien stage of evolution.

With Natalie Portman there are two beasts:  a large whitish crocodile-looking reptile and a large bear with a fiendish snout

Certainly, a lot of creativity went into this movie, from the visuals, and flowers stick out, to the rapidly evolving biotechnology to reality.  You will have many questions, and here is one attempt at explanation.  I don't totally agree with those points of view.  Maybe that's the beauty of the film:  there might by design be no conclusive pathways.

All the better to gain your second viewing, and also opening the door to Annihilation II.  Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach is a trilogy, so, if #2 does well, there will most certainly be a #3.  Sponsors and owners are covering themselves, for the movie will show in the U.S., Canada and China, but be made available internationally mostly on Netflix.  Southern Reach, incidentally, is the secret agency that manages Area X, the Shimmer, a site in Florida where an alien craft crashed, with the nearby environs going genetically bonkers.  Well, the location is not mentioned, but VanderMeer lives in Tallahassee.

Walking by that red lantern display (scroll down to the next posting), I got the urge for some Peking Duck.  I did take out from M.Y. China and enjoyed the Chinese bento with glasses of Chardonnay and Anchor Steam Beer.

I'm at the San Francisco Airport and soon to board my flight back to Honolulu.  My snack in the United Club:

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A MAGICAL DAY IN SAN FRANCISCO

This was a magical day in San Francisco.  The city had the usual chill, with more wind than normal.  However, fortuitous good fortune is how I would characterize my second Chinese New Year celebration, which in China extends until March 2.

Westfield SFO Center in the next block is home to a high class Chinese restaurant, M.Y. China, highly recommended by the MM concierge.  I sat left of those two ladies under the red circle with yellow characters by the entrance:

There were speaking Chinese, and while that added to the atmosphere, they didn't find time to breath.  I ordered my usual Shanghai Soup Dumplings and added a Hot Sour Soup.  The beer and Dewars White label scotch cost $16:

Of course, I need to compare M.Y. China to Fook Lam in Honolulu.  This SFO meal cost me $40.  At Fook Lam I can get the beer for $1 and bring my own scotch or cognac.  Thus, with tax and tip, the Hawaii version sets me back around $15.  But the M.Y. China Xialongbao (Chinese for this dish) was better.  Two point six seven times better.  Nope.

I then went to Walgreens to purchase a Clipper Card, which can be used for all sorts of transport in the city.  The lady almost did not want to sell me one because she said they don't do the Senior card, which is a lot more economical, and I should go to the proper office.  Buying from her would be a waste of my money.  However, convenience overrides cost here, as I could just beep it at entrance to a bus or trolley.  The thought of finding and dropping $1.35 into a hopper seemed too much for me to bear.  Next time, however, I will get a seniors card.  As for example, my BART $24 card cost me $10.

In all my years in the Bay area I had never caught a bus.  Today, the #7 took me from Market Street to Golden Gate Park, where the largest orchid show in the USA was being held.

I saw the smallest orchids ever:

Orchids in glass:

In one large room you could just about buy anything, for a reasonable price.  In a side room were the award winning orchids.  I'll just show you some interesting ones:

Many of them looked awfully close to the supposed $20,000 Akatsuka Volcano Queen.  More:

I only took around 200 photos.  I would say the show was okay for $10, but not as humongous as I was expecting.  That yellow flower, a tulip, I think, was growing next to my bus stop on the way back to town.

The bus passed through the Haight-Ashbury District, origination point for the hippies of half a century ago.  Still weird, but now more boutiquish:

Those outdoor wall murals in Kakaako are also fashionable here.  Actually, they're all over San Francisco.

My next decision was whether I wanted to brave the cold to view the Chinese New Year Parade, which was supposed to begin at 5:30PM.  If I had brought a warm jacket, that would not have been a problem.  But just a sport coat was suicidal.  So I went early and took a few photos of the preparation.

It is said that this SFO tradition has been ongoing for 150 years, and is the largest New Year parade outside of China.  Why this is happening more than a week after the actual new year day is a mystery, but, no matter, for there was  excitement and cacophony awaiting the start.  A cast of thousands, and more than a hundred dragons.

Here are some scenes, the first because in the background is Daiso, a Japanese store where I've bought my last four $3 walking canes (I've lost three):

Yes, this is the year of the Dog.

The parade had not begun yet, and I noticed that Hakkason, an upscale Chinese restaurant I long wanted to try, had a second floor.  The chain of now eleven restaurants started in London and one of the owners, Alan Yau, not too long ago opened Yauatcha at the Waikiki International Marketplace.  Notice the combination of Yau and matcha tea.

So up I went and the crush of the crowd definitely did not meet OSHA requirements.  However, I somehow managed to sneak into a seat at the bar and was able to order a nice combination of crispy duck roll with a salt and pepper vegetable dish of lotus root (hasu), asparagus and onions.  I asked what would be ideal with this meal, and was brought a Chinese Mule.

All the above cost about $50 with tax and tip.  Two Chinese meals in one day.  Excellent match for dinner.  The vegetables were crunchy and perfectly al dente.  I should steer the 15 Craigside chef here to learn how this can be done.

I also then was able to take a few photos from this restaurant, beginning with that same Tsingtao float now rolling along:

The Marriott Marquis was just a block away, where I took from my TV screen photos of the 2017 Miss Chinatown, Karen Yang, and the  finale of the parade:

That dragon is almost as long as a football field.  It was much warmer and safer in my room.

Well, so much for Chinese New Year 2018.  Next year this day falls on February 5, and begins the Year of the Pig, considered by seers as most unlucky.  Good luck to all.

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