Song in my head: Where bon-bons play....on the sunny beach of Peppermint Bay...........Shirley Temple

ALTER-ABLED NEWS

Wow...check out this editorial from the Oregoonian:

Stop blocking marijuana research

The agencies that can give permission to conduct research into medicinal marijuana are most hostile to that research

Oregonians have made clear, in elections and in public opinion polling, that they favor careful use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. They also made clear, in the 1998 Ballot Measure 67 and the 2004 Ballot Measure 33, that they are uninterested in going beyond current state law to legalize marijuana for nonmedicinal purposes.

It will be hard for medicinal marijuana to be properly evaluated and applied if legitimate researchers can't get legal supplies for human studies to assess the health effects of the drug and unless versions of the drug can be standardized for sale if recommended by doctors.

Going blind is my worst nightmare. Maybe because it is such a real threat to me. I only have one good eye and it has glaucoma, typical of a nail patella mutant. I'm using medical marijuana to keep my ocular pressures in check and its working good! I went to my opthamologist last week and my pressures were 14 and 16......in an acceptable range. My eye doctor is not supportive of my treatment plan, but screw him. All I need is proof of glaucoma to keep my growing license current, which is easy documentation to get. I get irritated at his lack of support for my medical choice. So, I like to give him a little shit. "How about charging me half price for this eye exam since I only have one good eye", shames him appropriately, for now.

I am sure if I couldn't walk, I would consider electrode implantation, but this article is a little freaky to me.....

$6.7 Million For Bionic War On Disabilities

University of Utah researchers have won about $6.7 million in federal grants to develop wireless electrodes that would be implanted to provide blind people with artificial vision and stimulate paralyzed body parts and so disabled people could walk, talk or control a computer with their thoughts.

[...]

Now, “we are trying to make the system even better” by developing a “smart” wireless electrode array so it won’t be necessary for people using the device to have 100 wires emerging from their skull, something that raises the possibility of infection and also of getting the wires snagged while the person is using a wheelchair, Normann says.

“To go from a bundle of wires sticking out of somebody’s head to a totally implantable system that is invisible will be a major advance in this technology,” he adds. LINK

Yes, I hate it when my wires from my skull snag under my wheelchair wheels.

Columbia Gorge News

Rocky Mountain goats may be re-introduced in my neighborhood. Sounds like a neat idea as long as we dont see an increase in mountain lions killing the neighborhood cats. I already lost one cat that way. Oh well, we are all one. Right?

Rocky Mountain goats may return to the Columbia River Gorge, under a plan that's being considered by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

If successful, it would be the first time in nearly 200 years that population would be sustained in the region, ever since Lewis and Clark reported seeing mountain goats in their journals on their return trip up the Gorge in 1806. LINK