(no subject)

Today is Prickle-Prickle, day 30 in the season of Bureaucracy, 3269.

A few happy-making memories from my last trip:

* Starting the day with a long breakfast spent mostly talking and watching hummingbirds flit through the garden. (I highly recommend The Briar Rose Inn if you want a B&B in the San Jose area. Cath-Bob sez: two thumbs up.)

* Actually being able to see the Milky Way (and get a clear view of Mars). There's too much pollution, light and otherwise, where I live to be able to see many stars at all, and I miss them.

* Long talks over dinner and several Strawberry Lemon Drop martinis. Yum yum yum.

Next time hopefully I'll also have time to get together with other folks. (If I didn't tell you I was going to be on the Left Coast, it really wasn't personal, I promise. It was because I had a fairly packed schedule because I was driving up to Chico to meet up with my aunt on Friday/Saturday and had a very early afternoon flight on Sunday.)

(no subject)

Huh.

A researcher who a year ago published startling research showing that the drug commonly known as ecstasy can cause Parkinson's-like brain damage has retracted his study.

George Ricaurte, the Johns Hopkins Medical School researcher who performed the research, said his lab did not administer ecstasy, or MDMA, but methamphetamine, to the primates in the study.