CULTURE//SOCIETY: Happy National Poinsettia Day

Well, I found out from my work newsletter that today is National Poinsettia Day. So, in honor of that, I provide the following info - as a sort of public service announcement thingy! - OlderMusicGeek

From Suite 101...
National Poinsettia Day

December 12th is National Poinsettia Day. The day was named in honor of Joel Poinsett who died on this day in 1851, and after whom the plant is named. Joel was the First United States ambassador to Mexico and it was this gentleman who first introduced the bright red plant to his homeland. The traditionally red leaves against the bright green of the plant are a particular favorite in North American homes at Christmas time. Poinsettias now come in a variety of colors as well red as the traditional. Look for ones that are white, salmon pink, lilac or even with spots on the leaves. Occasionally blue and other colors are marketed too, but these are not natural hybrid colors, rather the plants are fed a colored dye to produce unique colors in the bracts (the colored leaves at the top of the plant).

From the Wikipedia entry...

Euphorbia pulcherrima, commonly named poinsettia, is a species of flowering plant indigenous to Mexico, and native to the Pacific coast of the United States. The shrub occurs in some parts of central and southern Mexico, and a few localities in Guatemala.^[1] The name "poinsettia" is after Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States Ambassador to Mexico, who introduced the plant into the US in 1828. The alternative names for the poinsettia are: Cuetlaxochitl (in Nahuatl Mexican language), Mexican flame leaf, Christmas star, Winter rose, Noche Buena, Lalupatae, Atatürk çiçeği ("Flower of Atatürk", in Turkey), Αλεξανδρινό (Alexandrian, in Greece), Pasqua and Stella di Natale (in Italy).

The plants' association with Christmas began in 16th century Mexico, where legend tells of a young girl who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus' birthday. The tale goes that the child was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson "blossoms" sprouted from the weeds and became beautiful poinsettias.^[4] From the 17th century, Franciscan monks in Mexico included the plants in their Christmas celebrations.^[5]

Rumoured toxicity

In the United States and perhaps elsewhere, there is a common misconception that poinsettias are toxic. The origin of this could be found in the fact that most plants of the spurge genus are indeed toxic and also because the name of the plant seems to refer to the word poison. This misconception was spread by a 1919 urban legend^[8] of a two-year-old child dying after consuming a poinsettia leaf. While it is true that the plant is not very toxic, those sensitive to latex may suffer an allergic reaction and it is therefore not advisable to bring the plants into the home of sensitive individuals.

From Snopes.com's "Poinsetting It Out"...

Since that non-poinsettia death in 1919, there haven't been any real ones either. And on wonder: a 50 pound child would have to eat more than one and a quarter pounds of poinsettia bracts (about 500 to 600 leaves) to exceed the experimental doses, according to the POISINDEX Information Service. (POISINDEX is the primary resource used by most poison control centers.) Further, the American Medical Association's Handbook Of Poisonous And Injurious Plants lists nothing more than occasional vomiting as a side effect of ingesting otherwise harmless poinsettia leaves. And in 1975, The Consumer Products Safety Commission cited lack of substantial evidence in its decision to deny a petition requiring warning labels for poinsettias...

Thom David, marketing manager of The Paul Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, California, has a way of convincing people (that poinsettias aren't poisonous). He's been known to grab a few bracts off the nearest poinsettia plant and eat them in front of persistent disbelievers. Seems to work, too - they don't doubt him after that.

Speaking from "bitter" experience, he says it's unlikely a kid or an animal will eat more than one bite. He describes the taste as far worse than the most bitter radicchio. Frankly, he says, the flavor is indescribably awful.

Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you're celebrating!
MY CHRISTMAS INTERNET RADIO STATIONS
OlderMusicGeek Radio - Christmas Edition
OlderMusicGeek Radio - Christmas Rock and Punk Edition
OlderMusicGeek's Christmas QuickMix

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CULTURE/SOCIETY: Cruise Control In The Rain

My mother sent me an email about this. And The Computer/Music Nerd will be happy to know that I checked it's authenticity! And below is what I found at Living Internet. - OlderMusicGeek

Internet Myths -- Cruise Control In The Rain

I had a wreck a couple of weeks ago and totaled our Lincoln Town Car. I hydroplaned on Hwy 135 between Gladewater & Kilgore, Texas. I was not hurt, just emotionally rattled! ... I learned a lesson I'd like to pass on to you.

- The only true email chain letter

There is only one true email hoax, just to show it's the exception that proves the rule.

There have been uncounted billions of hoax emails circulated around the Internet since it's creation, but, just to keep things interesting, there is at least one email with all the usual earmarks of a hoax that is actually true and potentially a useful safety tip.

The "cruise control in the rain" email began circulating in November 2002, and claims it is unsafe to drive a car using automated cruise control in the rain. While it is unknown if the story in the email is true, it is true that it is unsafe to use cruise control during a rain, or afterwards while the roads are still slick or puddles of water remain. The reasoning is that if if the wheels hydroplane on the water where there is no traction they can unpredictably change speed, putting the car's stability at risk both then and again as the wheel regains contact with the dry road with lots of traction designed in.

Resources. The following sites provide information about this true myth:

BreakTheChain.org - Cruising out of control

TruthorFiction.com - Don't Use Cruise Control in the Rain!

Urban Legends: Automobiles (Wild When Wet)

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Update on The Dam

One of my buddies, who I'll call The Music/Computer Dork, sent me this from snopes.com.

Origins: In July 1997, one of Stephen Tvedten's neighbors noticed flooding on his property and traced it back to a dam on Tvedten's stream. He complained to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on July 28.

Five months later, the agency responded with a letter to the offending land owner. The letter, from David Price, a Dam it! local Michigan DEQ official, was blunt. The "construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond" was "unauthorized" because "a permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity." The letter ordered Stephen Tvedten, the land owner, to "cease and desist" under penalty of "elevated enforcement action."

Mr. Tvedten responded to the Michigan DEQ's demand with the now widely-circulated "dam letter," in which he pointed out that the "debris dams" he had been ordered to remove because they were constructed without permission from the state of Michigan were actually built by beavers. The DEQ later claimed they were fully aware the "debris dams" were beaver dams; the issue, they said, was that the beavers who built them had long since abandoned the dams, but Mr. Tvedten had been continuing to maintain and even build up the dams himself:

The letter concerned an enforcement action directed to a tenant on property surrounding Spring Pond, which is located in Pierson Township, Montcalm County, Michigan. The tenant was observed by the downstream complainant, and has since admitted to the complainant, that he artificially built up, and maintained two abandoned beaver dams on the discharge end of the natural pond. Such an activity falls under the jurisdiction of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1194 PA 451, as amended. It is the Department's position that in the absence of any threat to public welfare, beaver dams should be left in their natural state, that being either actively maintained or abandoned by beaver.

The Department conducted an on-site inspection of the dams in August of 1997, accompanied by a Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist, the Pierson Township Supervisor and the complainant. The tenant's actions, and a threat to the welfare of the downstream complainant prompted our correspondence of December 1997, instructing the tenant to cease and desist all illegal activity and to restore the stream to its prior condition. The owner of the property took issue with our action, and responded with his own version of the situation. It was this correspondence that has been circulating in the internet.

Luis Saldivia
Grand Rapids District Supervisor
Land and Water Management Division
616-356-0208

For his part, Mr. Tvedten claimed that the dams had been "abandoned" because a neighbor had killed the beavers (then filed a complaint with the state because he was concerned that the untended dams would break apart and enter his property) and that no one but the beavers had ever maintained them. And contemporaneous accounts of the brouhaha quoted a Michigan DEQ spokesman as saying the agency hadn't performed an inspection before firing off their December 1997 letter to Mr. Tvedten:

Ken Silfven, public information officer at the state Department of Environmental Quality, said that . . . the account was correct. He hastened to note, however, that the case was prompted by a complaint from a neighbor who was concerned about flooding caused by the dams.

The department dropped its investigation after an inspection by a DEQ employee.

"It probably would have been a good idea to do the inspection before we sent the notice," Silfven said.

After some wrangling the agency ultimately dropped the issue, but not before Stephen Tvedten found an inventive way of quickly pointing out both how ludicrous and humorous the situation was. In a way dusty legal language never could, such a letter serves to drive home the silliness of Michigan DEQ's intractable posturing. The beavers are likely still ignorant of how close they came to being fined $10,000 a day for dam living expenses.

Barbara "in Michigan, transforming from guardian of the law to giardia of it just took a touch of beaver fever" Mikkelson

Last updated: 5 August 2002