Delivery

 

Giant Sinkhole in China

This giant karst sinkhole, also called a tiankeng, has plants growing at the bottom in Luoquanyan Village of Xuan'en County, central China's Hubei Province. This is not the sinkhole discovered in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Image credit: Song Wen/Xinhua/Alamy Live News)

A team of Chinese scientists has discovered a giant new sinkhole with a forest at its bottom.


The sinkhole is 630 feet (192 meters) deep, according to the Xinhua news agency, deep enough to just swallow St. Louis' Gateway Arch. 

A team of speleologists and spelunkers rappelled into the sinkhole on Friday (May 6), discovering that there are three cave entrances in the chasm, as well as ancient trees 131 feet (40 m) tall, stretching their branches toward the sunlight that filters through the sinkhole entrance.


"This is cool news," said George Veni, the executive director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) in the U.S., and an international expert on caves. 

Veni was not involved in the exploration of the cave, but the organization that was, the Institute of Karst Geology of the China Geological Survey, is NCKRI's sister institute.  READ MORE...

Traveling Cat

 

Causes of Cancer

A team of researchers led by Yale University scientists can now quantify the factors causing changes in the DNA that contribute most to cancer growth in tumors of most major tumor types.

In a new paper published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, they say that their new molecular analysis approach clarifies a long-standing debate about how much control humans have over cancer development over time.

Looking at the instances of specific genetic mutations can reveal the extent to which preventable exposures like ultraviolet light caused tumor growth in 24 cancers, said Jeffrey Townsend, Ph.D., the Elihu Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).


“We can now answer the question — to the best of our knowledge — ‘What is the underlying source of the key mutations that changed those cells to become a cancer instead of remaining normal tissue?’” he said.

Some of the most common cancers in the United States are known to be highly preventable by human decisions. Skin cancers, such as melanoma, emerge in large part because of prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light, and lung cancers can often be traced back to tobacco use. But scientists have long struggled to gauge how much any individual’s tumor developed as a result of preventable actions versus aging or “chance.”  READ MORE...

Only Once

 

Thoughts of an American

I am a white male born to middle-class white parents under the zodiac symbol of the SCORPION hence the logo on the left...   

I make no excuses for my birth location of North Carolina, USA nor do I feel guilty because my creator wanted me to be caucasian...

I have no desire to apologize because I was also given a natural athletic ability or an above average mind given the millions of mediocre people in the world today...

I do not have a chip on my shoulder because I attended Woodstock or because I am a survivor of the 1960s or because I am a Vietnam Era Veteran...

I do not feel bad that my personality is different than yours nor do I feel bad that you may not understand or appreciate my personality because that is who I am...

I am retired...  after working 45 years...  and I am glad that the bullshit is finally over...  Bosses are assholes and I was a boss most of my career, although I was actually referring to my bosses and not me being a boss to others, however, I am sure that I was an asshole to them as well...  as that seems to be what bosses are...

I don't think much of politics as all politicians are liars as that seems to be a pre-requisite for the office.  All politicians are wealthy or end up becoming so none of them really ever represent a majority of Americans...  and, we are fooled by that shit, every time there is an election.

Today, I just collect my Social Security and the dividends from my investments and wake up when I want to, eat when I want to, and go wherever I want to whenever I want to go there.

If I have to pay a little bit more for food and gasoline sobeit...  I just cut back somewhere else if I need to...  but what helps me do that is the fact that I have NO DEBT...  in fact, I have been debt free for over 15 years.

The American people are getting screwed by the wealthy and this has been going on ever since my birth and will continue long past my death...  And, one day the people are going to see that it is the wealthy who are the problem and do something about it...  not sure what that is or will be...  but, I do know that the wealthy are only wealthy because of us...

That is to say, we buy their shit...  think about that?  What if we stopped buying? Or, at least, purchased a little less of the shit...  I mean, do we really need all the shit that we have?

PLIF Surgery

 

Posterior Lumbar Interwoven Fusion or PLIF...  is the surgery that I will be having in July to fuse together L2, L3, L4, L5, & S1...  it is a total of 4 fusions...

• L2 with L3
• L3 with L4
• L4 with L5
• L5 with S1

I would say that the photo on the right is a close approximation of what will be happening to my lower back...

There will be 2 screws on either side that will be connected to two rods to keep the vertebrae separated even though they will be fused together.

PLIF surgery is being performed because my age has caused my vertebrae to expand and the opening for the nerve to pass through is being pinched causing me not to be able to walk but more importantly is putting me in pain as well as preventing me from having the strength to walk up a flight of steps to either go down to our basement or down to our outside deck. 

Standing in one place for more than a minute or two is also a problem.  I have to sit down several times when cooking meals at the stove.

The surgery will take 4-6 hours, with recovery being 4-6 weeks (6 months for 100% recovery), and the first couple of days, I will be given meds for the pain that I am expected to have.  I will remain in the hospital for 1-2 nights depending on my immediate recovery process.

If I don't have this surgery now I could possibly end up in a wheelchair in a few years...  so, it is a no-brainer choice for me.

The Eyes

Secret Hidden Images

Windows and mirrors embedded with liquid crystals can hide images that appear only when the right kind of light is shined on them. The technique, inspired by a 4000-year-old trick for building “magic mirrors”, may be a step towards developing better displays for 3D images.

A magic mirror or window looks transparent until a light is shined onto it to reveal a secret image. Craftspeople in ancient China and Japan made magic mirrors out of bronze that similarly hid images, but physicists only began to understand how they work around 15 years ago.


Felix Hufnagel at the University of Ottawa in Canada and his colleagues used those insights to build a new type of magic mirror and window. Their versions contain a state of matter known as a liquid crystal. While liquids flow freely and crystal atoms are organised in stiff grids, liquid crystals split the difference: their molecules are both fluid and arranged in patterns.  READ MORE...

Classic Sunday Morning Newspaper Cartoons

 

Being Sleep Deprived

Scientists continue to discover ways in which a lack of sleep affects our mental and physical health – now a new study reveals that a serious lack of shut-eye can even influence the way we see other people.

When we've gone without sleep, we spend less time fixing our gaze on other people's faces, the study shows. As that's a crucial part of reading social cues from those around us, our relationships could potentially suffer.

What's more, after sleep loss, angry faces appear to us to be less trustworthy and less healthy, while neutral or fearful faces come across as less attractive, compared to when we've had a full night's sleep.

"Since facial expressions are crucial to understanding the emotional state of others, spending less time fixating on faces after acute sleep loss may increase the risk that you interpret the emotional state of others inaccurately or too late," says sleep researcher Lieve van Egmond from Uppsala University in Sweden.

The study authors recruited 45 participants who went through a night without sleep, and another with 8 hours of slumber, separated by at least a week. In each case, eye-tracking sensors were used the morning after to monitor the gaze of the subjects as they looked at images of faces.

A mix of expressions were shown on the faces: happy, angry, fearful, and neutral. Participants were also asked to rate the attractiveness, trustworthiness and healthiness of the faces they saw.  READ MORE...

Heading Home

 

Drones Planting Trees

Combating climate change and biodiversity loss is a complicated matter, causing prolonged and perhaps tedious conversations. But what if there was a cooler way to achieve all that?

Enter Australian start-up AirSeed Technology and their swarms of seed-firing drones that are planting 40,000 trees a day to fight deforestation. The company and its incredible technology were featured Wednesday on Euro Green News.

What does this unique innovation look like?
The novel technology combines artificial intelligence with specially designed proprietary seed pods that can be fired into the ground from high in the sky. The firm claims that it performs 25 times faster and 80 percent cheaper compared to traditional seed-planting methodologies.

How do these seed pods work?

According to the firm's website, the "patented seed pods are a low cost, low-impact solution to reforesting native species and provide several supplementary nutrients, minerals, and other additions, all of which are necessary for developing seedlings but may not be available in abundance in the soil at a planting location."  READ MORE...

Flipbook

 

Russia's BIG BLUNDER

 

Vladamir Putin has got to be seen by the rest of the world as not just a BULLY but an incompetent warrior in the truest sense of the word...  

and, it is not just Putin that is seen as a clown bully, but his army has not been able to accomplish most of its militaristic goals...  

and, the Russian people have been lied to as they have been told that the Russian army is fighting NAZIs...  

how stupid can a population become?  

If the government controls the media, then the government conveys to its people only that which they want the people to know and believe.

What amazes me more than Russia's inability to conquer Ukraine, is China's continued desire to partner with Russia in their conquest to RULE THE WORLD...  That does not say much for China's decision-making ability...  now, does it?

It is time for the USA to start kicking some butt.

Babies

 

Altered Face

Humans Apex Predators

Paleolithic cuisine was anything but lean and green, according to a 2021 study on the diets of our Pleistocene ancestors. For a good 2 million years, Homo sapiens and their ancestors ditched the salad and dined heavily on meat, putting them at the top of the food chain.

It's not quite the balanced diet of berries, grains, and steak we might picture when we think of 'paleo' food. But according to anthropologists from Israel's Tel Aviv University and the University of Minho in Portugal, modern hunter-gatherers have given us the wrong impression of what we once ate.

"This comparison is futile, however, because 2 million years ago hunter-gatherer societies could hunt and consume elephants and other large animals – while today's hunter gatherers do not have access to such bounty," said Miki Ben‐Dor from Israel's Tel Aviv University in April last year.

A look through hundreds of previous studies on everything from modern human anatomy and physiology to measures of the isotopes inside ancient human bones and teeth suggests we were primarily apex predators until roughly 12,000 years ago.

Reconstructing the grocery list of hominids who lived as far back as 2.5 million years ago is made all that much more difficult by the fact plant remains don't preserve as easily as animal bones, teeth, and shells.

Other studies have used chemical analysis of bones and tooth enamel to find localized examples of diets heavy in plant material. But extrapolating this to humanity as a whole isn't so straight-forward.  READ MORE...

Rainbow

 

Cancer Drug Toxicity

3D rendition of T cells attacking cancer cells. Credit: La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Researchers uncover a new strategy to avoid cancer immunotherapy side effects.  It’s not often that a failed clinical trial leads to a scientific breakthrough.


When patients in the UK started experiencing negative side effects during a cancer immunotherapy trial, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and University of Liverpool went back, examined the data, and worked with patient samples to determine what went wrong.


Their findings, published today (May 4, 2022) in the journal Nature, provide critical clues to why many immunotherapies trigger dangerous side effects—and point to a more effective strategy for treating patients with solid tumors.

“This work shows the importance of learning from early stage clinical trials,” says La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Professor Pandurangan Vijayanand, M.D., Ph.D., who co-led the new research with Christian H. Ottensmeier, M.D., Ph.D., FRCP, a professor with the University of Liverpool, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, and adjunct professor at LJI.  READ MORE...