Watching

 

My Ongoing Battle With Cancer

HEADS UP FOR THOSE IN A SIMILIAR SITUATION

My cancer journey began in 2007 when I was 60 years old.  Prior to that I was never sick (after typical childhood illnesses), not even with a cold or the flu.  I exercised regularly, lifted weight, 80% active, and ate healthy.  I had also stopped smoking and stopped drinking alcohol 20 years earlier.

My first diagnosis was non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (SLL) and went on a monthy infusion regimen of Rituxan (infusion lasted 6 hours).  No side effects.  A few years later, I woked in Northern KY (came home on the weekends) and that Oncologist put me on a regimen of Rituxan, Cytoxin, and Fludara (over two days).  Side effects were extreme and I ended up in the ER two days later to stop cronic vomiting.

HINT:  ask for 2 different kinds of nausea meds with 4-6 hour intervals.  That way, you can take a nausea pill every 2 hours.

HINT: start taking nausea meds two hours after the end of your infusion...  DO NOT WAIT UNTIL YOU FEEL SICK...  TOO LATE...

Twelve (12) months later, I returned to TN, and my original Oncologist put me on a regimen of a monthly infusion of Triandra (2-3 hours).

Three years later, I was diagnosed with Melanoma which some experts say was actually caused by the repeated use of Cytoxin and Fludara.  However, malpractice would have never been proved.

My melanoma started in my foot, moved to my groin, then moved to my neck.  The movement took place 4 years after, a surgeon removed the melanoma from my foot with clean margins.

NOTE:  bear in mind, that my Oncologist had to deal with two cancers simulataneously (and still does) both of which had turned aggressive and surgery was out of the question.  What worked for me was Odivo/Yervoy combination for a few months, then Opdivo and Radiation.  The radiation supercharges the Opdivo.  For me, it worked....

Whenever you are given chemotherapy or immunotherapy you will be given steroid to reduce the risk of nausea plus other meds as well.  These steroids will make you gain weight.  I gain 50 pounds in 10 years and manged to lose 30 pounds.

NOTE:  the way I lost weight, which may not work for everyone, is counting my calories.  I focused on eating 1,500 to 1,800 but not over 2,000.  I also ate small meals five times a day and my focus was on SOUPS.

I am now in my 15th year of being treated for cancer and in my 12th year of being treated for 2 cancers simultaneously.

Here is what I constantly live with:

1. Low white blood count (no immune system)

2.  Low red blood count (anemia)

3. Low Platelet count (blood clotting issuse)

4. Constant fatigue (mild to severe - varies)

5.  Loss of taste

6. Thyroid problems

7. Lymphodemo (moderate)

8. Depression (mild to moderate)

9. Weight gain

10. Diarrhea/Constipation (mild to moderate)

11. Mouth Sores (mild to moderate)

12.  Must avoid direct sunlight exposure (UV Clothing)

13. COVID might have killed me so I was very careful!!!

14.  Must avoid being in large crowds in closed in areas

15.  Must maintain a strict diet

NOTE:  My cancer(s) are made worse by a triple bypass heart attack that I had also when 60 years old.  Plus, a five level lower back fusion.

Classic Sunday Morning Newspaper Cartoons

 

Retirement Downsizing

My wife and I retired in 2015, about 7 years ago and for the first 5 years did an enormous amount of traveling...  so much so that we got the traveling bug out of our systems.  COVID hit and stopped our traveling for two years.  It was COVID that helped us mentally curtail our desires to travel.

Our home that we purchased over 20 years ago has a full basement and an acre of land.  We loved the space and took advantage of all the land we had.  We put in a pool, deck, gazebo, hot tub, and had areas behind that area where we grew vegetables each summer.  

After twenty years, we are tired of going up and down the stairs as well as taking care of the outside yard.  While it only takes us a few of hours each week to take of our yard, but our 70 year old bodies do not respond well to that physical trauma on our bodies.

This week we found a house that is about the same size as our home but with no basement.  Our yard reduces down from an acre to just a small plot that would take 30 minutes to mow.  The outside yard is the biggest problem for our age along with the stairs, so we eliminated both concerns.

Fortunately, the house is in the same neighborhood so we are in the perfect community we want to be in.  

The purchase of this new house was not contingent upon the sale of our current home, so we can take our time moving our stuff from one house to the other.  Then when everything is moved, we will have a yard sale with the items we don't want to take.  When that is done, we will put our house up for sale and see what happens.  

Sometime between the middle of June and the middle of July, everything should be resolved...

Our last twenty years will not be as stressful worrying about taking care of a larger house...

Gotcha

 

AI and ChatGPT Threaten Humanity

As tech experts warn that the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence could threaten humanity, OpenAI's ChatGPT weighed in with its own predictions on how humanity could be wiped off the face of the Earth.

Fox News Digital asked the chatbot to weigh in on the apocalypse, and it shared four possible scenarios how humanity could ultimately be wiped out.

"It's important to note that predicting the end of the world is a difficult and highly speculative task, and any predictions in this regard should be viewed with skepticism," the bot responded. "However, there are several trends and potential developments that could significantly impact the trajectory of humanity and potentially contribute to its downfall."

Fears that AI could spell the end of humanity has for years been fodder for fiction but has become a legitimate talking point among experts as tech rapidly evolves – with British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking issuing a dire warning back in 2014  

"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," he said then. Hawking died in 2018.

The sentiment has only intensified among some experts nearly a decade later, with tech giant Elon Musk saying this year that the tech "has the potential of civilizational destruction."   READ MORE...

It's Super Dog

 

One Year After 5-Level Back Fusion Surgery

Within a couple of days, I experienced back fusion surgery 12 months ago.  Primarily due to old age, L2-L3-L4-L5-S1 were fused together in a 3-hour surgery by an orthopedic surgeon.  There was some discussion about having this done by a neurosurgeon, especially since my surgeon had repeated my 5-level surgery over 1,500 times.  

The surgery itself lasted about 3 hours and I stayed two nights in the hospital because I had excessive bleeding with no other complications.

My other experiences staying over night were with non-profit hospitals but this one was a for-profit hospital and when they said they were going to discharge me first thing the next morning, I was sitting in a wheel chair waiting for my wife to arrive by 8:15 am.  These people did not fool around.

I never took any pain pills after my surgery and on my first night (in the hospital) I was sleeping on my back, without any pain at all.

However, my movement was severly restricted and had to force myself to walk for 5-10-15-20-30 minutes the first couple of months.  After about 6 weeks or so, I was walking a mile a day.  That first mile took me 58 minutes and I had to stop twice for 2-3 minutes to rest.

There was difficulty with walking up hill and up stairs.  However, this gradually got easier as time passed but I still have problems with both of those even after 12 months.

Limitation:  I can walk fine...  maybe there is a slight limp with one leg...  but, I cannot walk fast.

I am walking a mile in about 20/21 minutes and while I am walking only every other day, I will soon walk twice a day every other day or walk every day.  I am pretty sure that walking twice is better than walking more often or longer or faster.  My stride is long which is good and walking up hills has gotten a "tad" easier.

All the research that I have done has given me the impression that it could take 12-18 months before returning to normal...  it looks like I am going to be on the 18 month side of that range.

I have no problems bending over or lifting, although I am still careful about lifting too much.  Also, I am sure if I was younger, it would have been easier for me walk more.  Since I have retired, 2015, I spend more time sitting than walking around because my hobby is blogging and writing.

While there are many articles on the web regarding WHY NOT to do fusions greater than 3 levels, I was fortunate enough not to have any problems.  I think that was due to my surgeon's experience but also the fact that I maintained a well-exercised body until the age of 60-65.  If I was over-weight, it may have been much worse.

 

Bank Robbers

 

Spacetime - Is It Real?

An illustration of heavily curved spacetime, outside the event horizon of a black hole. As you get closer and closer to the mass’s location, space becomes more severely curved, eventually leading to a location from within which even light cannot escape: the event horizon. At large distances, the spatial curvature is indistinguishable for equal mass black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, or any other comparably massed object. Credit: JohnsonMartin/Pixabay




When most of us think about the Universe, we think about the material objects that are out there across the great cosmic distances. Matter collapses under its own gravity to form cosmic structures like galaxies, while gas clouds contract to form stars and planets. Stars then emit light by burning their fuel through nuclear fusion, and then that light travels throughout the Universe, illuminating anything it comes into contact with. 

But there’s more to the Universe than the objects within it. There’s also the fabric of spacetime, which has its own set of rules that it plays by: General Relativity. The fabric of spacetime is curved by the presence of matter and energy, and curved spacetime itself tells matter and energy how to move through it.

But what, exactly, is the physical nature of spacetime? Is it a real, physical thing, like atoms are, or is it merely a calculational tool that we use to give the right answers for the motion and behavior of the matter within the Universe?


It’s an excellent question and a tough one to wrap your head around. Moreover, before Einstein came along, our conception of the Universe was very different from the one we have today. Let’s go way back to the Universe before we even had the concept of spacetime, and then come forward to where we are today.

The journey from macroscopic scales down to subatomic ones spans many orders of magnitude, but going down in small steps can make each new one more accessible from the previous one. Humans are made of organs, cells, organelles, molecules, atoms, then electrons and nuclei, then protons and neutrons, and then quarks and gluons inside of them. This is the limit to how far we’ve ever probed nature.Credit: Magdalena Kowalska/CERN/ISOLDE team

At a fundamental level, we had long supposed that if you took everything that was in the Universe and cut it up into smaller and smaller constituents, you’d eventually reach something that was indivisible. Quite literally, that’s what the word “atom” means: from the Greek ἄτομος: not able to be cut. 

The first record we have of this idea goes back some 2400 years to Democritus of Abdera, but it’s plausible that it may go back even farther. These “uncuttable” entities do exist; each one is known as a quantum particle. Despite the fact that we took the name “atom” for the elements of the periodic table, it’s actually subatomic particles like quarks, gluons, and electrons (as well as particles that aren’t found in atoms at all) that are truly indivisible.   READ MORE...

Bananas

 

Mountain View

 

American Worker Retirement

 In 2022, the average american had between $5,000 to $6,000 in their savings accounts.  SOURCE:  www.cnbc.com

The suggested savings guidelines say you need about ten times your annual salary in savings as you reach your full retirement age. The median salary of a 65-year-old is $54,000 per year — which means you'd need approximately $540,000 saved if you want to retire at 65.    SOURCE: Western & Southern Financial Group

It would appear that most Americans have a long way to go in order to save the money they need for retirement.  Of course, once you are 67 years old, you can receive full SOCIAL SECURITY benefits which average about $1,200 to $1,500 each month.  And, if you work for a company that has 401Ks, then you already have a savings program in place.

If you work for state government, then there is a good possibility that they will still have retirement programs in place which might revolve around $2,000/month after 20/25 years.

The Social Security Trust Fund is running out of money as more and more Americans retire.  There is a good possibiity that in order to keep it solvent, the amount of monthy dispursements might reduce from 100% to 80% AND the age to draw full benefits might increase from 67 to 70.

Regardless of what our Federal Government decides to do or not to do, Americans should have their OWN PLAN for retirement.  This plan SHOULD INCLUDE paying off ALL DEBT before one retires...  in other words, it is not a good idea to retire with debt...  but then again, that is your decision to make.

FIFTEEN YEARS before my wife and I retired, we became DEBT FREE and began saving as much money as we could each year.  We also created an outside environment that would substitute for being at a beach resort.  We put in an above ground pool, built a deck around the pool, added a gazebo along with a 6 person hot tub.  While it is not a beach resort, it was our substitute an afforded us another chance to save money.

Our East TN location gives us another opportunity to live in a low cost of living environment.  It is possible to have monthly expenses of $3,500.  While our expenses are a little higher, Social Security pays for 75% of that.  We are lucky but you might not be that lucky...  this is exactly why you need to have a plan.  The earlier you start the better off you will be.

Imagine

 

Flying Bike

 

Dark Energy

This diagram reveals changes in the rate of expansion since the universe’s birth nearly 15 billion years ago. The more shallow the curve, the faster the rate of expansion. The curve changes noticeably about 7.5 billion years ago when objects in the universe began flying apart at a faster rate. Astronomers theorize that the faster expansion rate is due to a force called “dark energy” that is pulling galaxies apart. Credit: NASA/STSci/Ann Feild






Dark Energy Was Always Present, Everywhere and at Every Time


The Force is with us, according to cosmologists working to understand a mysterious “something” that’s making the universe expand. Its name? Dark energy. And, it turns out that it’s been present everywhere throughout cosmic history.

Astronomers have known since the 1920s that the universe is expanding. That understanding began with Edwin Hubble’s groundbreaking observation of a Type I supernova in the Andromeda Galaxy. 

And, astronomy trucked along for many years, using that expansion to measure distances and other parameters in the cosmos. Then, in 1998, something happened. Astronomers discovered that the cosmic expansion is speeding up.

The culprit? This completely not-at-all-understood dark energy force which can’t be seen, but with effects that can be detected. Some explain it as a property of space that causes the universe to expand faster and faster. 

Others suggest that it’s some kind of new energy fluid or a field that fits throughout space, but has an effect on the expansion of the Universe. It could also be something that doesn’t fit our current theories about gravity, and that a new theory of gravity could account for dark energy’s effects.

There’s no consensus yet about which of these theories is correct. However, its discovery immediately raised a bunch of questions, such as, when did the expansion rate accelerate? Will that change, too? Was it the same rate throughout the universe across all time?

Dark Energy, eROSITA, and Galaxy Clusters

To answer those, a group of researchers used something called eROSITA to look at a specific subset of galaxy clusters across time. eROSITA is the main X-ray-sensitive instrument aboard the Spectrum-ROENTGEN-GAMMA (SRG) mission launched in 2019. (Currently, it is shut down due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.) 

One of its jobs is to do a complete all-sky survey in the medium energy X-ray range (up to 10 keV). The data it returns should help probe the nature and ubiquity of dark energy by studying up to 100,000 galaxy clusters and the material between them. It also studies obscured black holes in galaxies and looks at X-ray sources ranging from young stars and supernova remnants to X-ray binaries.

Astronomers I-Non Chieu of Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University and Matthias Klein, Sebastian Bocquet, and Joseph Mohr at Ludwig Maximilians-Universitat in Munich used eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS) data taken before the shutdown to characterize about 500 low-mass galaxy clusters. 

It’s one of the largest such samples and it “saw” them over the past ten billion years. That’s around 3/4 of the age of the Universe.  READ MORE...

Fish Pod

 

Sanctioned Chef

 My wife and I retired in 2015 at the ages of 62 and 67 respectfully.  One of her demands was that she no longer spend time in the kitchen cooking, except for maybe Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I honored her demand without hesitation, but on the inside I was reluctant as I had never spent much time cooking except left over Christmas meal soups, biscuits, 15 bean soup with sausage, and rice (which I had gotten pretty good at).

Personally, I hate following recipes other than using the recipe as a guide.  Sometimes, my food turns our good, sometimes it doesn't...  go figure(?)...  lol...  however, I eat what I cook except for a few times where I had to throw it out with prejudice.

My main foundation when I am cooking most anything (with obvious exceptions) is:  onions or green onions, bell peppers, celery, mushrooms, garlic, pepper with the understanding that leeks can be substituted for onions.  I use vegetable, beef, or bone broth and sometimes put in 2-3 heaping tablespoons of some sort of creamy soup starter.

I use mainly chicken, vege sausage, turkey burgers but sometimes a small beef patty - most meats are diced or shredded.  I use a variety of beans to subsitute for meat like:  black, kidney, great northern, pinto, etc.  Pieces of other red meats are used for seasoning.  Pasta sometimes substitutes for Basmati white rice but I prefer rice over pasta unless it is a cold dish or spaghetti or lasagna.  All my veges and rices are washed.  My  veges might include:  potato, sweet potato, squash, zuchinni, peas, limas, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, kale, greens, celery, cucumber (and tomatoes), carrots, celery, bell peppers, leeks, onions (all types), garlic, and gabage -  I am sure I left out one or two or more.

When cooking beans, I always use the instapot and cook for 15 minutes.  While I have a pantry full of different varieties of beans, I prefer dried beans and let them soak in water overnight.  Some people, including myself, had gastrointestinal issues when first eating beans regularly.  After a few days to a week or two, my body adjusted and I am doing fine.  However, the max of beans I have combined at any one time has been four (4).

I also eat lots of fish but I never combine fish with anything else in the same pot.  I have used the oven, stove top, and air fyer.  I tried making a chowder using fish and corn but it was horrible....  I mean really horrible, so I am NEVER going to try that again.  My favorite fish is SALMON, with Cod and Tuna coming in second and third.  I like lobster tails and crab meat but they are expensive.  Any type of white fish is acceptable but so far what I have cooked is: cod, flounder, grouper, orange ruffy, and tilapia.

I have cooked a variety of different breakfasts, lunches, dinners, breads, and desserts.  What I like to cook the best is SOUPS and off the cuff mixtures.  I am a fan of one pot meals that makes enough for no more than 3 servings.  My meals are complex not just bacon and eggs for instance, except for maybe oatmeal and pancakes/waffles.  If I am going to cook eggs, then it is an omelette, quiche, or some kind of caserole.

When I was in college (1966-1974 [minus two years in the military]), I would take a can of vegetable soup, pour in a cup of water and a cup of rice in the popcorn maker.  The key there was keeping the lid on but stiring it often so it would not stick.  The popcorn maker unit's heat could not be regulated.  I also used it to boil water for hot instant coffee.

My final comments would be that I do not resent my wife because she stopped cooking as I rather enjoy doing my own cooking.  Being retired, I have plenty of time to prepare meals, cook, and clean up.  I don't necessarily recommend this for all couples but it does work for us.

Night Waves

 

Transforming CO2 Into Foosd

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich have developed a sustainable method to create the essential amino acid L-alanine from CO2. This process uses artificial photosynthesis, converting CO2 to methanol and then to L-alanine. This new method requires less space than traditional agriculture, highlighting the potential of combining bioeconomy and hydrogen economy for a more sustainable future.

Researchers produce important amino acid from greenhouse gas CO2

• Growing demand for food in the world
• Biotechnological process via methanol as intermediate product
• Less ground required than for plant cultivation

Ensuring the supply of food to the constantly growing world population and protecting the environment at the same time are often conflicting objectives. Now researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have successfully developed a method for the synthetic manufacture of nutritional protein using a type of artificial photosynthesis. The animal feed industry is the primary driver of high demand for large volumes of nutritional protein, which is also suitable for use in meat substitute products.

A group led by Prof. Volker Sieber at the TUM Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability (TUMCS) has succeeded in producing the amino acid L-alanine, an essential building block in proteins, from the environmentally harmful gas CO2. Their indirect biotechnological process involves methanol as an intermediate. Until now, protein for animal feed has been typically produced in the southern hemisphere with large-scale agricultural space requirements and negative consequences for biodiversity.

Artificial photosynthesis for environmentally friendly food production, from left: PhD student Vivian Willers und Prof. Volker Sieber. Credit: Otto Zellmer / TUM

The CO2, which is removed from the atmosphere, is first turned into methanol using green electricity and hydrogen. The new method converts this intermediate into L-alanine in a multi-stage process using synthetic enzymes; the method is extremely effective and generates very high yields. L-alanine is one of the most important components of protein, which is essential to the nutrition of both humans and animals.  READ MORE...