Raining and warm this Thursday morning along California’s northern coast — water and heat is the jeux de position of living on this spring-loaded, explosive planet right now.
We’re in some pitiful dire straights, but laughing all the way to the end.

And I’ve been living on the fault line for years: Men going thin on top may be more likely to have heart problems than their friends with a full head of hair, according to researchers in Japan.
Yet — what, me worry?

(Illustration found here).

In the context of the heat on this planet, and not just from global warming, but from possible nightmare scenarios in Korean, or from the Gaza strip bordering Israel, or the odd, on-going assassinations of US law-enforcement people all over the country, comes this study of plants and crime: A visual assessment of the data confirmed a negative correlation between vegetation and crime (i.e. the more vegetation in an area, the fewer incidents of crime there tend to be), and the statistics bear this out. “Notably, vegetation is significantly and negatively correlated with all of the crime variables, with the exception of thefts,” the study finds. “As vegetation increases, aggravated assaults, robberies, and burglaries decrease.”
This looks like vegetation provides a “mentally restorative effect” on how people respond to each other — if the landscape feels good, less throat-cutting.

And this in the wake of a horrible, seemingly worldwide surge in rape reports:

Three engineering students in India have developed “anti-rape” lingerie, which they claim will help women fend off unwanted sexual advances.
The garments—named Society Harnessing Equipment (SHE) — have been wired with pressure sensors and equipped with an “electric-shock circuit board,” which delivers up to 82 electric shocks when the garments detect unwanted force.
Using a GPS system, the undergarments can also apparently send an alert to parents or police.
As the students described the project, the inside of the garments are insulated with polymer — with a circuit placed near the bosom, “because in the attempt of rape or roadside eve-teasing, as per survey, women are attacked first on their bosom.”
(Eve-teasing is an Indian euphemism for harassment.)

Modern life begins with the female of the species taking a few minutes longer dressing in order to electrify themselves — totally WTF!

George Carlin said it years ago: “Just when I discovered the meaning of life, they changed it.”