Okay – this entry is just for the record:

Tonight on Thursday the 12th of April 2012 the fuel price in the Waterville Maine area went over four dollars the first time.

4!

That’s a lot for around here…especially in the poorer Central Maine.
I also already feel that this is a high price although I have been here in Maine only since last July, but since then the price just rose so fast! Shortly after I bought my super-Subaru fuel was at $3.17. Only three months later it is at $4. That’s a quick rise!

I should add that the fuel price in the US is measured by the gallon, which is 3.8 liters.

While $4/gallon is still “cheap” compared to German fuel, which is around 1.70 Euro PER LITER (= $6.45/gallon!!), most people in the US, especially in rural areas like Maine, drive their car a lot more than in Germany. There is no public transport in about 90% of Maine and people often drive one or two hours to work. mr.Natey drives 1.5 hours to his work with a heavy duty Volvo wagon (which uses less fuel than my light Subaru…which really annoys me).

First I thought gas is so cheap here…compared to Germany, but I only get 300 miles (483 km) to the tank (60 liters?) and paying around $55 to fill it up. My beloved car gets 22 miles/gallon, which is a bit low (the mister and his Volvo get 28 miles/gallon, newer cars can get up to 50 miles/gallon).

Oh and yes, my car is also an automatic (I hate automatics…grrr), but I could not find a manual car that ticked all the boxes. Manual cars are way more fuel efficient…at least the older models. My car is a 92, good old boy, but I guess I still need to break him in a bit more to reach the estimated 24 to 29 miles per gallon. But even the latest 2011 model of the Subaru Outback Wagon (the one I was going to get), the fuel economy is not much better than mine; almost worse with only 18 to 25 miles per gallon. Now think of those heavy duty trucks and SUV’s that are driving around everywhere….I don’t understand how people are willing to afford them.

Well, imagine a carved wooden board that is hanging on Planet Cola’s header saying “we’re at 4 dollars per gallon”…knowing that the only way is up and tomorrow is Friday the 13th (by the way).

Does someone drive a hybrid or electric car yet?
Who rides his/her bike to work?
I never see people on bikes here. There are no bike lanes around here and the mister said riding a scooter is even too dangerous…sigh…I need a horse and a cart!!!! And I HAVE seen those in people’s yards! Yes, a little bit old Wild West is still alive, I tell ‘ya!

missycola, Planet Cola -

10 interesting facts about the placebo effect:

1. Given a sugar pill (which has no physical effect) people with certain conditions not only report feeling better, but see actual improvements in their condition.

2. Given two sugar pills, people report more benefit than one sugar pill.

3. If someone believes a placebo has a negative effect, they can experience that negative effect. This is called a nocebo.

4. If a sugar pill is described as a muscle relaxant it will cause muscle relaxation. If the same type of sugar pill is described as causing muscle tension, it will produce muscle tension.

5. Placebos can produce the same side-effects that the real drug the person thinks they’re taking would also produce.

6. When conducting a study, it is an error to assume that your treatment produced the improvement and everyone seeing improvement under the placebo are “only” experiencing placebo effects. It could very well be that everyone who experience an improvement were experiencing a placebo effect.

7. Saltwater placebos administered via syringe are more effective than sugar pills.

8. Pacemakers can improve heart function after they’ve been put in, but before they’ve been switched on.

9a. Give people a sugar pill and tell them it’s a stimulant and they get stimulated.

9b. Give people a relaxant but tell them it’s a stimulant and they get more stimulated than anyone in 9a or 9c.

9c. Give people a relaxant, tell them it’s a relaxant: They have more molecules of the relaxant in their blood plasma than the people in 9b.

10. We’re still pretty confused about the placebo effect and it’s causes. There’s a mishmash of different things going on and we’re still picking them apart. Also, it’s really hard to design studies!

I read this on Google+ (via Dustin Wyatt) and wanted to share it here because I think there are some really interesting points. Isn’t #8 just crazy? Or #4?

Of course I was not the only one wondering about the sources for these claims, and Mr Wyatt was so friendly to add them; you can find them here.

I am so sure that our mind is able to “give” us an illness just because we “think” we are having something. Or because we are afraid that we would get ill. I’m convinced that our mind is the most powerful “mechanism” (if one can call it that) of the human body. I often think of things that could happen and then they are happening. Mostly they happen if I speak them out loud. I’m really concentrating on not speaking certain things of my mind out loud (which is hard, but I’m getting better at it, haha).

In regards to pills I actually had a similar placebo effect happening to me when I was a teenager. At a party I had a bad headache and someone offered me a pain reliever in form of a small tablet. Not even an hour later I felt fine; my headache was gone. The next day that “friend” told me it was not a headache tablet; it was just a small sugar pill. Something like dextrose. I could not believe it as it really helped with my headache. Crazy, isn’t it?

Do you have a placebo experience to share?

missycola, Planet Cola -

DE

Wir sind mit dem Internet und im Internet aufgewachsen. Darum sind wir anders. Das ist der entscheidende, aus unserer Sicht allerdings überraschende Unterschied: Wir “surfen” nicht im Internet und das Internet ist für uns kein “Ort” und kein “virtueller Raum”. Für uns ist das Internet keine externe Erweiterung unserer Wirklichkeit, sondern ein Teil von ihr: eine unsichtbare, aber jederzeit präsente Schicht, die mit der körperlichen Umgebung verflochten ist.

Ein wunderbarer Artikel (Piotr Czerski, uebersetzt aus dem Polnischen von Patrick Beuth und Andre Rudolph), den es lohnt zu lesen, und nicht nur, wenn man mit dem Internet aufgewachsen ist.

Wir verstehen nicht, warum wir einen festen Wohnsitz (absurd genug, so etwas überhaupt haben zu müssen) erst förmlich abmelden müssen, bevor wir uns an einem anderen anmelden können – als könnten die Behörden diese Sache nicht auch ohne unser Eingreifen regeln.

Ich habe einmal versucht, meinem Ami-Maenne meinen festen Wohnsitz zu erklaeren und habe nur einen Blick der Unverstaendnis erhalten. Verstaendlich irgendwie, wenn man mal wirklich drueber nachdenkt.

So, und nun ab und den gesamten Artikel lesen.

EN

Read the article in the English version here.

missycola, Planet Cola -

Why didn’t my readers let me know that I spelled my category folder name ‘Delicious’ wrong? The second ‘i’ was missing. Oh noooo! How embarassing.
Any other spelling mistakes? Please don’t hesitate and tell me. As you might know…I am a (correct) spelling junkie.

missycola, Planet Cola -

All Smiles (guitarist from Grandaddy & Modest Mouse) is giving away a free album. A friend of mine posted this on facebook and I was curious but sceptical as usual. The download took about half an hour with my slow connection, but in the end you really get the whole album. They want you to “like” them on facebook (which I didn’t because I wanted to know if it really works and if I really like it). In a nutshell: I like their album. Good music! What is really free these days…okay, they might collect some data, but I’m not sharing my profile info with them, as I didn’t “like” them although I like their music. Making sense? Well…go for the free album if you haven’t got it yet or if you want to have some new music for free. I can really recommend it. Inspected and trusted by missycola.

When this screen comes up only click on “Download Now” and ignore the twitter and facebook stuff if you don’t feel sure about it.

missycola, Planet Cola -

Als wenn es nicht schon schlimm genug ist, dass immer mehr kids sich im Internet tuemmeln und sich von anderen Internetlern die schlechte bzw. falsche Rechtschreibung abgucken. Und das passiert nicht nur Kindern, denn auch unter Erwachsenen sehe ich immer oefter diese Faulheit, was das richtige Schreiben der eigenen Sprache angeht.

Aber nun ist es amtlich! Die allmaehliche Verdummung der Menschheit ist GEWOLLT! Es scheint eine Taktik zu sein.

Schaut selbst. Hier ein Werbemagazin einer hiesigen Supermarktkette.

BakedBeanz? Hallo? Hat jemand da das ‘s’ zu zackig gemalt, oder was?

Hier dann der augenscheinliche Beweis, dass an dem einst serioesen Heinz geruettelt wurde, um sich auf ein paar Stufen tiefer mit dem coolen, poebelnden Volk das ach so coole ‘high-five’ der Jugendsprache zu geben.

Meine bessere amerikanische Haelfte sagte dazu nur, “Wie? Das wurde doch schon immer so geschrieben, das ist nicht neu von Heinz, das ist deren Schreibweise”. Er war ganz unbeeindruckt. Oh…ist das ein Wort? Unbeeindruckt? Oder kommt das gar von “unimpressed”? Ups, na, da muss ich ja nun selbst mal aufpassen, dass ich mit meinem australischen Kopf ueberhaupt noch vernuenftiges Deutsch schreibe. Grins.

Ich glaube aber, dass Heinz die Bohnen-Schreibweise erst vor Kurzem geaendert haben. Zum Wohle der aufstrebenden neuen Ich-schreibe-gern-alles-mit-Absicht-falsch-weil-es-so-cool-ist-Generation. Das hat halt sowas Punkiges. Einfach mal anders sein ist ja gut und schoen, aber heutzutage ist man ja keine Ausnahme mehr, wenn man alles (wenn auch mit Absicht) falsch schreibt. Wo man hinguckt, wird umgangssprachlich geschrieben und gesimst (sms via Handy). Ich vermisse das professionelle Umfeld. Hallo – Echo – wo bist du?
Ich ertappe mich staendig dabei sogar meine Chefs bei ihrer (englischen) Rechtschreibung zu verbessern. Ich bekomme sms von Vorgesetzten, die ich erstmal entschluesseln muss, weil alles umgangssprachlich und abgekuerzt ist…keiner kann mir sagen, dass das nur zum Zwecke der Zeichenersparnis (beim sms schreiben) ist…ob man nun “be” oder “b” schreibt…tolle Ersparnis um EINEN Buchstaben. Wow. Glueckwunsch! Ihr zahlt monatlich eure 100 Dollar fuer euren iphone Vertrag, da kommt es doch nicht drauf an, ob ihr alles in EINE sms quetscht oder zwei draus macht. Eine sms kostet doch nur 19cent.
Sollten Chefs nicht dennoch eine gewisse Vorbildfunktion haben?
Ok, wer nicht kann, der kann halt nicht, aber der, der eigentlich weiss, wie’s geschrieben wird, warum zum Teufel……!

Ach hoert auf!

Was die Rechtschreibung anbelangt bin ich grundtief spiessig und konservativ. Heutzutage ist es doch schon cool, wenn man KEIN piercing hat (habe aus unter anderem diesen Grund meins schon vor langer Zeit rausgenommen), wenn man KEIN Tattoo hat, wenn man KEIN Handy (sollte ich iphone sagen?) besitzt (geht das ueberhaupt noch?) und wenn man die Rechtschreibung beherrscht und es nicht albern findet, es auch zu zeigen.

Puh…es kommen Rauchschwaden aus meinen Ohren.

missycola, Planet Cola -

Officially on holiday from today on. Cannot really believe it. Calming down….breathing in….and out….Relaxing is on the daily to-to list from now on…

We’re off to Lombok, which is an island east of Bali in Indonesia.

It is my first attempt to discover a part of Asia. Lombok is in the south east of Asia….it is only a 4 hours flight from Perth (to Bali).

Some interesting facts about LOMBOK for my family or everyone interested (from wiki and wikitravel):

The island’s topography is dominated by the centrally-located stratovolcano Mount Rinjani, which rises to 3,726 m (12,224 ft), making it the third-highest in Indonesia. The volcano, and its crater lake, ‘Segara Anak’ (child of the sea), are protected by the Gunung Rinjani National Park established in 1997. The southern part
of the island is a fertile plain where corn, rice, coffee, tobacco, and cotton are grown.

Bali versus Lombok

Proximity to Bali is Lombok’s blessing, and its curse. While only 25 miles separate the two islands, they are in fact worlds apart. “Indeed, overzealous tourism officials notwithstanding, Lombok is not “an unspoiled Bali,” or “Bali’s sister island.” Lombok is not Bali at all, and that is precisely its charm.” Lombok has retained a more natural, uncrowded and undeveloped environment, which attract travelers who come to enjoy its relaxed pace and the opportunity to explore the island’s unspoiled, spectacular natural beauty.

Meaning of Lombok

In the Indigenous language of the Sasak people of Lombok the word lombok means straight ahead. or lurus in Bahasa Indonesian.

The people

Lombok’s people are 85% Sasak: around 2.6 million of a total population 2.95 million in 2005. They are culturally and linguistically closely related to the Balinese, but unlike the Hindu Balinese, the majority are Muslim. (…) The dominant Sasak culture in Lombok and the very restrained and quiet nature its people may help explain why Lombok is less popular in terms of shopping, cuisine, and nightlife than Bali. Lombok is however becoming increasingly popular with tourists and honeymooners who want to relax in an inexpensive, tropical, uncrowded atmosphere, with many natural treasures and majestic scenery.

In 2000, mobs of the ethnic Sasak people, ostensibly provoked by fundamentalist Muslim agitators from Maluku, looted and burned churches as well as homes and businesses owned by Hindus and ethnic Chinese. The bombing of nightclubs in Bali in 2002 and the further explosions in 2005 further exacerbated the fears held by foreign tourists. For many years many Embassies issued advisory travel warnings against travel to Indonesia. The ensuing years have been peaceful, but tourists have yet to regain confidence that travel to Lombok is safe.

Weather

While tropical, hot and humid, Lombok is drier than neighboring Bali, which makes it a particularly attractive option during the October-December rainy season (it rains on Lombok too, but rarely for more than an hour or two). The peak of the tourist season, though, is May through August.

Language

The main local language is Bahasa Sasak – the language of the Sasak people of Lombok. Bahasa Indonesia is also spoken or at least understood by many local people and will normally be used in government offices, larger shops and businesses. English is common in the resort areas and occasionally some other European languages are spoken by people involved in the tourism sector.

Getting around

By bemo
Bemos (converted passenger-carrying minivans) are the main means of short and medium distance transport on Lombok. They can be hailed down on all larger streets and will happily take you even short hops down the road. Fares are inexpensive.

By taxi
Metered taxis are a fairly new development on Lombok.

By car
Renting a car is also an option. Driving yourself around Lombok is not for the uninitiated. The chances of having an accident are much higher than when driving in your home country. Driving in Lombok requires an International Driver’s License plus your own country of residence Drivers Licence. Insurance is not provided by the car rental places, so you are responsible for any damage. If you do hit a local person, either on foot, on motorcycle, or in a car, you can expect to pay a very large sum of money to make restitution. Finally, street signs are infrequent and ambiguous. Road users are normally seriously undisciplined and engage in highly dangerous and erratic behaviour on the road. The roads in Lombok have horse carts (cidomo), free roaming cattle, goats, cats, dogs, chickens and other assorted hazards moving about at all hours. Roadworks or hazards are rarely sign-posted by other than a pile of branches or a rock placed on the road as a warning, most often no cautionary signal is given at all.

Sounds like an adventure to drive there.

A good alternative to renting a car is to rent a car with a local driver. This service is normally offered as an all inclusive package of rental car, driver and fuel. The driver can take you effortlessly to all the local attractions, plus some places that are never shown in the guide books. A suitable driver will take responsibility for whatever happens during the trip and will be happy to accommodate your travelling schedule. If you want to take a two or three day trip around the island, the driver will accompany you, eat low priced meals, and find low price places to stay at night so he is prepared to continue the trip in the morning.

By motorbike
Renting a motorbike is also an option and there are many places in Senggigi, Mangsit, Mataram, Cakranegara and elsewhere to rent from.

By ojek
An Ojek is a motorbike taxi service.

By horse cart
Horse-pulled carts, known as cidomo, are very common on Lombok. They are a good method of transportation for short distances e.g, from your hotel to a restaurant. Make sure to agree on the price before the journey – Rp 10,000 is the maximum price to pay for a short journey. In the Gilis there are no cars, so horse carts or a bicycle are the best way to get around.

We will be in the Gilis as well. Yay horse carts! :))

By boat
Traditional fishing boats known as perahu ply the waters around Lombok, and are instantly recognizable due to their outriggers, two lengths of extra large bamboo sealed at either end and attached by timber outrigger bars on both sides creating a configuration similar to a catamaran and affording greater stability in heavy swells.

By bicycle
Traffic is relatively light throughout the island so travel by bicycle is quite possible and provides a very different cultural experience to other means of transport. You may wish to bring your own touring bike, as most local bikes are of a very basic quality.

Hmmm…a long list to choose from.

What to do

Traditional massage, snorkeling, surfing, scuba diving, fishing, biking, trekking…

There are several good treks around the island, including multi-day hikes up Mount Rinjani a 3726 m volcano. There are several short treks to see water falls and other island attractions. Rinjani last erupted in May 2009 and the last major eruption was in 1994.

This is already on our to-do list.

Good to know

It is very useful to take along a sarong when traveling about as they are a good all purpose item that can come in handy to keep off the sun or wind and can be called into service to avoid any awkward moments.

Footwear must always be removed when entering a person’s home and occasionally even some business premises. This is the case in even the most primitive and basic living structures.

In Lombok it is normally considered to be quite rude or disrespectful to offer or hand something to someone with your left hand unless they are a very close and intimate friend or family member, and even then it is best avoided if possible.

In December-January 2009-2010 there was an outbreak of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) in Lombok.

Dress modestly in rural villages, religious sites and government buildings; long pants for men and a shirt, a modest skirt, full or calf length pants, dress or sarongs are suggested and a conservative blouse is recommended for women. This may save you and onlookers from embarrassment. If more revealing clothing is worn it is good to have a sarong handy as it can effect a quick and easy adaptation to prevailing circumstances.
Carry a sarong if you only have revealing swimwear available and wear it especially when you are nearby or talking with local people as it will place everyone more at ease and create considerably less controversy.

….adding ‘sarong’ to shopping list.

And now: packing up and leaving in less than three hours!

Soon we are here:

[photo credit]

We are totally excited!!!

missycola, Planet Cola -

Fuer die, die es noch nicht mitbekommen haben. In Sydney wuetete ein roter Sandsturm und verursachte Chaos und spektaluaere Bilder. Die Stadt versank im roetlichen Sandnebel. Hier gibts den Bericht mit Bildern vom Spiegel. Und hier gibts mehr Bilder und Infos auf einer der australischen Nachrichtenseiten.
Es heisst “air pollution highest on record”. Na dann, Prost Mahlzeit.

missycola, Planet Cola -

Um wirklich glücklich zu sein, muss man eine Aufgabe, einen geliebten Menschen und eine große Hoffnung haben.

Ricarda Huch

Da ist was Wahres dran.

missycola, Planet Cola -

Received today, via email and found it quite “refreshing”:

Have you ever noticed girls who set their handbags on public toilet floors, then go directly to their dining tables and set it on the table?
Happens a lot! It’s not always the ‘restaurant food’ that causes stomach distress. Sometimes ‘what you don’t know will hurt you’!

Read on………….
Mom got so upset when guests came in the door and plopped their handbags down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up food. She always said that handbags are really dirty, because of where they have been.

It’s something just about every woman carries with them.. While we may know what’s inside our handbags, do you have any idea what’s on the outside? Women carry handbags everywhere; from the office to public toilets to the floor of the car. Most women won’t be caught without their handbags, but did you ever stop to think about where your handbag goes during the day.

‘I drive a school bus, so my handbag has been on the floor of the bus a lot,’ says one woman. ‘On! The floor of my car, and in toilets.’
‘I put my handbag in grocery shopping carts and on the floor of the toilet,’ says another woman ‘and of course in my home which should be clean.’

We decided to find out if handbags harbour a lot of bacteria. We learned how to test them at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake , and then we set out to test the average woman’s handbag.

Most women told us they didn’t stop to think about what was on the bottom of their handbag. Most said at home they usually set their handbags on top of kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared.
Most of the ladies we talked to told us they wouldn’t be surprised if their handbags were at least a little bit dirty.

It turns out handbags are so surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked.

Microbiologist Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the handbags tested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds of bacteria. Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staphylococcus aurous can cause serious skin infections, and salmonella and e-coli found on the handbags could make people very sick.

In one sampling, four of five handbags tested positive for salmonella, and that’s not the worst of it. ‘There is faecal contamination on the handbags’ says Amy. Leather or vinyl handbags tended to be cleaner than cloth handbags, and lifestyle seemed to play a role People with kids tended to have dirtier handbags than those without, with one exception.

The handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the worst contaminations of all. ‘Some type of faeces, or possibly vomit’ says Amy.

So the moral of this story is that your handbag won’t kill you, but it does have the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you eat. Use hooks to hang your handbag at home and in toilets, and don’t put it on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop.

Experts say you should think of your handbag the same way you would a pair of shoes. ‘If you think about putting a pair of shoes on your countertops, that’s the same thing you’re doing when you put your handbag on the countertops.’
Your handbag has gone where individuals before you have walked, sat, sneezed, coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc!

Do you really want to bring that home with you?
The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a handbag will help Wash cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather handbags.

THIS IS WORTH SHARING!!! PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO YOUR GRANDMOTHERS, MOMS, DAUGHTERS, GRANDDAUGHTERS AND GIRLFRIENDS !! !!

Quite gross! I never put my handbag on the floors in toilets; I used the hook or the handle on the door, but even the handle might be not a good spot. Sometimes I balanced it on top of the toilet paper holder.

I will be more aware now. Because I am a handbag-on-the-counter-thrower. Yuck!

missycola, Planet Cola -