Sunshine amidst flowing, puffy clouds this near-noon Thursday on California’s north coast, the bright tempered by cool, ocean breezes.
Apparently, indications are we’ll stay in this mode — above normal temperatures, and generally clear skies — for at least the next 10 days, maybe two weeks. Maybe longer…

Also experiencing good weather-PR is marijuana — new research shows pot use isn’t as harmful as some stuff, and might even be a health product (the Guardian yesterday):

“What we’re seeing is that cannabis may be harmful in some respects, but possibly not in every way,” study co-author Avshalom Caspi said in a news release.
“We need to recognize that heavy recreational cannabis use does have some adverse consequences, but overall damage to physical health is not apparent in this study.”

(Illustration: ‘Cannabis and Politics,’ by Denis Marsili, found here).

This latest study, published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry, revealed long-term recreational pot use caused poor gum health in some users, but not much else — this was calculated by a number of measures, and over more than 20 years.

Michael Lynskey, professor of addictions at King’s College London, said the study was “methodologically” sound.
“It suggests that, in terms of the physical health measures that they studied, if there are any effects, they would be really quite small and minor compared with the effects of tobacco use,” he said.
…
“One thing that surprised me is that we didn’t see associations between cannabis use and poorer lung function,” said Madeline Meier, a professor of psychology at Arizona State University and one of the paper’s authors.

And this addendum from the Washington Post on the study:

In some domains, marijuana use was associated with better health outcomes: “Findings showed that cannabis use was associated with slightly better metabolic health (smaller waist circumference, lower body mass index, better lipid profiles, and improved glucose control),” the study determined.
However, these associations were fairly small and by no means strong enough to recommend regular bong hits as a weight management strategy.
The findings were more striking when measured against the effects of tobacco use over a similar period.
By comparison, tobacco use was associated with worse periodontal health, lung function, systemic inflammation, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, triglyceride levels, and glucose levels in early midlife, as well as health decline from ages 26 to 38 years,” the study found.
Despite some public health concerns about legal weed being “the next Big Tobacco,” marijuana’s toll on physical health appears to be far smaller.

Just another lying-brick in the wall.
Now, another bong hit, but just remember to brush your teeth and gargle afterwards…