Bit the bullet and decided to subscribe to WAPO this year. Having another ‘go-to” besides my habitual visit to the NYT each morning is going to take some getting used to but WAPO has addressed that. First thing up is the morning email of “The 7,” the top stories of the day. Next, they run you through a series of questions so they can tailor the news they highlight for you. Then there is the downloading of the WAPO extension into your Chrome browser. You’re set to go. I feel a little indulgent, but I’ve really been getting exasperated with the NYT lately.
For starters, I am enjoying reading content from reporters whom I’ve only known so far as tv personalities.
One of the first things I came across was an article about an interesting new eating plan — the plant-based Portfolio Diet. It’s being advocated as an alternative to statins for those who have high cholesterol. The diet totally shifts away from processed foods while focusing on soluble fibers and sterols. Added benefits include lowering blood pressure, weight loss, and lowering blood sugar, all contributing factors to heart disease.
In an article about the diet and its cholesterol lowering capacities, The Washington Post earlier this week reported:
Experts recommend a plant-based diet high in soluble fiber — oatmeal, oat bran, beans, apples, peas, citrus fruits, carrots, barley, flaxseed, a gel-forming powder called psyllium, as well as nuts and plant sterols, which are found in small amounts in fruits and vegetables, extra virgin olive oil, and nuts, and also added to some spreads, milks and yogurts.
They also urge consumers to avoid saturated fats, typically found in fatty and processed meats, butter, and in tropical oils such as palm and coconut. Go for unsaturated oils or polyunsaturated oils, such as corn, canola, sunflower and sesame. Saturated fat does more to raise blood cholesterol than naturally occurring cholesterol in eggs and shellfish, experts said.
Up to 40 million people in the US are prescribed statins for high cholesterol and many are looking for alternatives because of their side effects, which include headaches, muscle pains, liver damage, digestive problems and increasing blood sugar levels.
Here’s a sampling of some of the content I enjoyed behind that paywall.
Why cats love to be up high — and how to DIY a lofty spot for yours
Nearly all domesticated cat behavior can be explained by survival instinct, including their propensity to situate themselves in lofted areas. As both predator and prey, resting at a high vantage point allows cats to eye their potential dinner while avoiding becoming someone else’s (yes, this intuition persists even for house cats whose meals get delivered in a dish). “Everything a cat does is for the survival of themselves and their species,” Reimers says. It’s less about showing superiority over the home and more a way to gain the most advantageous view of their resources and environment.
Plug-in hybrid or all-electric? How to choose your next car.
While electric vehicle sales are booming — 14 percent of all new cars sold globally were electric in 2022, up from less than 5 percent in 2020 — sales of plug-in hybrids are rising even faster. They accounted for almost 30 percent of all electric cars sold in 202
What I found is that it will all depend on how you plan to use your new car and what’s most important for you. To gauge that, you should ask yourself three main questions: how will you charge, how will you drive and what’s your budget?
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE SMITHSONIAN’S HUMAN REMAINS
The National Museum of Natural History has at least 30,700 human bones and body parts in storage
The Smithsonian’s collection of human remains is one of the largest in the world. It includes mummies, skulls and teeth, representing an unknown number of people. It also has a collection of brains, which were taken mostly from Black, Indigenous people and other people of color.
The remains are the unreconciled legacy of a grisly practice in which body parts were scavenged from graveyards, battlefields, hospitals and morgues in more than 80 countries.
Most of the remains appear to have been gathered without consent from the individuals or their families, by researchers preying on people who were hospitalized, poor, or lacked immediate relatives to identify or bury them. In other cases, collectors, anthropologists and scientists dug up burial grounds and looted graves.
In a social media post, a prominent right-wing conspiracy theorist linked Swift to … let’s see here … ah yes, George Soros. In response, Ramaswamy offered a prediction.
“I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month,” he wrote. “And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall. Just some wild speculation over here, let’s see how it ages over the next 8 months.”
The implication (again: forgive my telling you something obvious) is that the Chiefs are being ushered to the Super Bowl … somehow … to secure Swift’s endorsement for President Biden.
Convicted for insider trading, Chris Collins got a pardon from Trump and found warm refuge in Florida — where crime is hardly a political liability, and comebacks are always possible.
The Collins route to political redemption:
- First stop: Get indicted while running for reelection, as Collins did in 2018 — just as Trump was last year after launching his current presidential campaign.
- Second stop: Win an election, as Collins did in 2018 while under indictment — and Trump is trying to do now while wrestling four indictments.
- Third stop: Go to prison — a fate that could await Trump in any of four criminal cases in Washington, New York and Florida.
- Fourth stop: Get out of prison and run for office again proclaiming persecution by the feds!
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share a virtual kitchen table with other readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by to talk about music, your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper…. Newcomers may notice that many who post in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table and hope to make some new friends as well.