Thursday, May 19
Human Eyes After Death
Scientists have momentarily restored a faint twinkle of life to dying cells in the human eye.
In order to better understand the way nerve cells succumb to a lack of oxygen, a team of US researchers measured activity in mouse and human retinal cells soon after their death.
Amazingly, with a few tweaks to the tissue's environment, they were able to revive the cells' ability to communicate hours later.
When stimulated by light, the postmortem retinas were shown to emit specific electrical signals, known as b-waves.
These waves are also seen in living retinas, and they indicate communication between all the layers of macular cells that allow us to see.
It's the first time deceased human donor eyes have ever responded to light in this way, and it has some experts questioning the irreversible nature of death in the central nervous system.
"We were able to wake up photoreceptor cells in the human macula, which is the part of the retina responsible for our central vision and our ability to see fine detail and color," explains biomedical scientist Fatima Abbas from the University of Utah.
"In eyes obtained up to five hours after an organ donor's death, these cells responded to bright light, colored lights, and even very dim flashes of light."
After death, it's possible to save some organs in the human body for transplantation. But after circulation ceases, the central nervous system as a whole stops responding far too quickly for any form of long-term recovery. READ MORE...
Saturday, May 15
Time's Mistress
Tuesday, December 1
The Poverty of Wealth
Throughout my lifetime or call it what you will, I have experienced the following:
- a life of wealth and privilege
- a life of poverty and despair
- a life with servants and cooks
- several trips throughout Europe and the Middle East
- several Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Hawaiian cruises
- travels all over the United States
- heart attack and cancer treatments
- the sheer panic of almost dying in the ER
- living from paycheck to paycheck
- middle aged work as a hourly worker/laborer
- the frustration and depression of unemployment
- the constant lies of all politicians
- the incompetent decisions of upper management
- the harsh treatment of production quotas
- the insane arrogance of the wealthy
- the insincerity of both men and women
- the lives wasted by fighting foreign wars
- the demonstrations of civil disobedience
- law enforcement people breaking the law
- the stupidity of debt and becoming debt free
Thursday, November 19
The Calculation of Wealth
We all know that WEALTH is the accumulation of money and the more money one has acquired over one's lifetime, the more wealthy one will be when one FINALLY DIES... which is the ENDGAME that all of us must face... and we see this final solution more vividly the older we become... resulting in finding ways to hold onto our wealth or having buildings named after us so that our lives will NO BE FORGOTTEN... as the Scottish might have said once upon a time.
- the wealth of being healthy
- the wealth of having what you can never purchase
- the wealth of being physically fit, skilled in many areas
- the wealth of never lying to yourself or others
- the wealth of being mindful through meditation
- the wealth of connecting to a cosmic consciousness
- the wealth of being artistically skillful
- the wealth of saving many "souls"
- the wealth of knowing you were "admired" and "respected" by many
- the wealth of one's religious belief and faith in God
- the wealth of having many "real" friends
- the wealth of children and grand children
- the wealth of having a love for mankind and animals
- the wealth of love and marrying one's "soul mate"
As AMERICANS in the TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY have a tendency to measure wealth through money and nothing else which is an unfortunate place to be, especially when one find oneself on one's deathbed knowing that shortly one will not exist and that one's money cannot be taken with one once that final breath of air is taken...
Can you imagine how empty and alone a person like that is going to be?
Monday, October 12
Hot Tub Revelations
The black sky above my head was loaded with millions perhaps billions of stars even though I could only see less than 00.00000001% of 99.9999999% of them around our planet earth which is located in our solar system... and, to expand your mental horizons imagine millions/billions of solar systems in our galaxy and millions/billions of galaxies in our quadrant of our universe.
Now, let's imagine our universe is a dinner plate and our quadrant in this universe represents 1 degree of the 360 degrees that completes the full circle of the universe. Of course, it is also possible that our quadrant is not 1 degree but 1/10 or 1/100 or 1/1,000 or 1/10,000 of 1 degree.
In short, our universe is incredible vast and in each quadrant there are literally billions of billions of billions of solar systems and galaxies... so, you can just imagine how many stars there are.
- why am I here?
- what's my purpose here?
- was it created by the BIG BANG?
- was it created by CREATION?
- how?
- why?
- where did the stuff that created the BIG BANG come from?
Saturday, September 26
Saturdays are Peaceful
SATURDAYS for me are days of reflection, pondering what I cannot understand or will ever know, sitting on the porch witnessing the activities of my community neighbors (which is nothing done outside) and watching the animals, especially the rabbits and birds that enjoy safety and security on my property.
Spring, Summer, and Fall SATURDAYS are spent on the back screened-in porch contemplating the benefits and frustrations of still being alive in today's AMERICA... an AMERICA that is divided along several lines of political ideologies and philosophies which has little to do with LIFE's PURPOSE... at least as I see it.
Life is about LIFE which is about living and living is about appreciate and gratitude and that revolves around one's being given life (birth) and whether we wanted life or not is meaningless and irrelevant since life is what we have.
In other words, I did not REQUEST that I be given life via birth from my mother and yet, life is nonetheless what I have received; consequently, I am grateful for that life and appreciative for what that life has allowed me to SEE... EXPERIENCE... and DOUBT...
- We have not been designed (???) to live a long time.
- We have not been designed to live without food or oxygen.
- We have not been designed to want the same things.
- We have not been designed to think the same way.
- We have not been designed to serve each other.
- We have been designed to procreate.
WHY?
- manufacturing of HATE also evolve inside of us over the years?
- Did the inability to show appreciation or gratitude evolve inside of us over the years?
- Did the desire to acquire wealth, position, and power evolve inside of us over the years?
Wednesday, July 1
Just Another Fairy Tale...
I started this BLOG in March 2020 because after writing down my thoughts each day since 2001, I decided what the f _ _ _, I might as well share them with others as I really have nothing to lose and perhaps nothing to gain either but at least it gave me something to do each day now that I was retired...
In just 3 quickly passing months and while my readership is still not as high as readers would like, I have been visited by people from TEN FRIGGING COUNTRIES... and, for me that is a success... and, worth my continued writing... although, if no one had visited this BLOG I still would be writing and posting here because I am still retired and have nothing better to do... seriously...
I retired 5 years ago after working for 45 years and it was not a day too soon either as I had gotten pretty fed up with the bullshits that exists in the workplace by little people who have acquired a little power... and, what they have not realized yet is that power is not taken, it is earned and given to that person by the people who are their subordinates.
Similarly, in a DOMINANT/submissive relationship, the POWER given to the DOMINANT has been given willingly and voluntarily by the submissive... so, who really has the power?
ALSO similarly, are our lives here on earth and the fact that our lives (none of whom asked for birth) were given to us as a gift by GOD or our CREATOR or by whatever other name you want to use... our birth did not come because any of us asked for it and our death will not arrive either because any of us asked for it... OUR LIVES ARE BEING CONTROLLED by HE who some of us worship and in so doing give HIM power and DOMINION over us whether we want it or not... and, that my friends is TRUE POWER...
Why were YOU in particular given birth by your parents???
And, did your mom really give birth to you in the sense of allowing you to grow in her womb?
Was your birth location predetermined?
Were your parents predetermined?
Was your face predetermined?
OR,
was this some crazy result of SCIENTIFIC EVOLUTION OF SPECIES... that miraculously took place over millions of years... starting with the BIG BANG and later a POOL OF LIFE from which the first one celled animal grew which later created animals with millions of cells which later and after numerous cell and DNA mutations created MANKIND and over time, evolution quite unscientifically created white, black, brown, olive, and red creatures all of whom would fight each other for domination... because that fighting survival GENE had evolved from their original DNA...