My wife and I have been so shocked about the news of the young mother in New York who killed herself and three of her children by driving her mini-van into the Hudson River this week. She apparently meant to kill her 10 year old son as well, who managed to escape the van through a window.
What a terrible tragedy this is! One can only imagine her state of mind at the time. What upsets us both even more is that she would also take the lives of her innocent children. Can you even imagine the terror that her children felt? Even the thought of doing something like that turns my stomach. Most horrific, most sad.
As my wife and I are approaching our senior years, we find that we need to start buying different skin care products than what we’ve always used. Although we find that we seldom have the need for acne products, we find that our skin has developed age spots on our arms, and our skin is always dry.
Although we constantly run humidifiers in the house, we still use a lot of creams and lotions to reduce the itching that dry skin produces. So far we’ve found that we prefer the thick creams (don’t even try to give me an ointment!) for the most part, and we apply it liberally several times a day to our arms, elbows, hands and knee caps. It’s a constant challenge!
I found this video on YouTube today and thought it was interesting that female humans are not the only females that don’t want to be ignored! This video shows a female polar bear flirting with her mate, trying to get him “in the mood.” I think it’s a riot!
Last year when the economy was bad and people were freaking out about the cost of gas, a lot of people ditched their family vacations and stayed home. So the term, staycation was born. I have to admit that I was one who spent much more time at home last summer than I would ordinarily. But this year people have decided to enhance their staycations and they are buying above ground pools for their backyards. I think the term staycation will be true again this year, but people will not be so willing to make all the sacrifices of missing their former vacation activities.
If you think about it, above ground pools make a lot of sense. Having a pool in your backyard used to be a luxury, but now they are very affordable and installation/setup is very fast. You can buy a pool this week and be swimming in it by the weekend. There are some really attractive decking packages that surround the pools, and tiki huts or cabanas, too. Some get very elaborate, with built in sound systems, outdoor flat screens and outdoor kitchens, too. I think this will be a growth industry for this year’s sun and swim seekers as they spend the money on improving their own backyards instead of spending it on transportation and lodging to more exotic locales.
Humans, like most primates, have a fairly small set of major driving forces resulting in behavior. One of the strongest forces is the need to be part of a group, which for our species in necessary for survival (in the ancient days, being expelled from the group meant certain death, from starvation or animal attack, so this force is strong).
Another force is that an awful lot of people want to be the head ape, or at least be in good favor with the head ape. Thus we have leaders or celebrities and their entourages. This desire to be head ape is what drives politics, corporate greed, all kinds of things. It is basic biology and we can see examples of this throughout the animal kingdom.
