Month: July 2020

Fido Is How Old?

As usual a little FYI for my readers…..

This is for all those dog companions out there…..I have always heard that one dog year is equal to 7 human years…..but is that accurate?

My entire life there has been a dog that guarded the property, was my best friend and was a valued member of my family…..and I wish that everyone of them was still here with me….I could not ask for better friends.

Enough about me…..

Some research has been done on the question of “dog years”…..using a Labradors……

As the dog days of summer approach, it’s time to confirm, once and for all, how old your dog really is in human years. University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers have nuzzled their way into this age-old inquiry, digging into the canine and human genomes to create a more accurate graph of your dog’s age in human years. You can see it here:

[Image: courtesy of University of California San Diego School of Medicine]

Fido is older than you think! To create this helpful graph, the researchers studied the genomes of 105 Labrador retrievers and traced the methylation patterns in the retriever and human genomes, which provide clues to a genome’s age. They found that dogs and humans age at vastly differing rates at certain points in their lifespans.

“A nine-month-old dog can have puppies, so we already know that the 1:7 ratio wasn’t an accurate measure of age,” noted professor of medicine Trey Ideker in the study.

But in later life, after age 7, dogs’ aging slows significantly. So while a 1-year-old dog is roughly equivalent to a 30-year-old human, a 9-year-old dog is just north of 65 in human years, according to the chart. (Note that the graph is based on Labrador retrievers—some breeds live longer or shorter.)

The researchers have aspirations beyond helping you realize that your dog is “older” than you thought: Their study articulates a new formula for epigenetically determining the age of a cell, tissue, or organism, the first that is transferable across species, with many possible applications, such as pinpointing the age of adopted dogs or measuring the efficacy of anti-aging interventions.

(Fast Company)

Canines are also being used (possibly) to detect the Covid-19 virus…..

Researchers in Germany have found that army sniffer dogs can discern between samples from coronavirus-infected and healthy patients. So high is the level of accuracy, they hope this can be used in real-life scenarios.

Scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover have found that trained sniffer dogs could be used to detect COVID-19 in human samples with a relatively high rate of accuracy, a study published on Thursday revealed.

Eight sniffer dogs from the German Bundeswehr were trained for only a weekto distinguish between the mucus and saliva of patients infected with coronavirus and non-infected individuals.

The dogs were then presented with positive and negative samples on a random basis by a machine.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-sniffer-dogs-show-promise-at-detecting-coronavirus/a-54300863

This is my heart these days……

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And this is “Lil Man”  Sue’s heart…..

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BTW the snake was taught a lesson.

He is too cool for school…..

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Learn Stuff!

Be Well…..Be Safe……enjoy your Sunday.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Are You A Bad Person?

If you spend all your time on social media then you may well be a dickhead.

Recently a loyal follower of IST, Pete wrote a post about the social media craze of misspelling just about everything……https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/92661894/posts/2825622909

And then I read an article about social media and being a bad person……

Your addiction to social media is probably making you a jerk.

Addictions to Facebook, Snapchat, and other platforms aren’t just making you hungry for more likes and recognition; it’s also negatively affecting others in your lives, according to new research.

Researchers from Michigan State University and California State University-Fullerton found that there are dark sides to social media use including an enhanced call to be “cruel” and “callous online.” Dar Meshi, a cognitive neuroscientist and assistant professor at Michigan State University, said that researchers were interested in finding out both the benefits and problems with social media use.

https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/if-you-spend-time-doing-this-activity-it-means-you-are-a-bad-person

I had noticed that there is a wealth of dickheads on social media….and now we can point to this study to explain just why they are such d/bags.

Don’t get me wrong…..I can be a dickhead….but usually after someone has attacked me or insulted me….I try to keep things civil but there is always one that will press that one remaining nerve and I lash back.

AS far as social media goes….I am on Twitter…..I use it as a news feed…..I do not go any further….no Facebook, no Instagram, No any of it.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

News Round-Up

If you are old enough to remember black and white movies then you must remember those newsreels before the movies began.

These brought to the audiences news from around the world that was not readily available……as part of my FYI Saturday I would like to try and do the same type of thing for my readers.

Think you have read or heard just about all the news about our present pandemic?

Think again.

If you must get the virus then go to Uzbekistan, in Central Asia…..why?

(Getty Photo)

The government of Uzbekistan is so sure of the hygiene and safety measures it’s put in place to protect tourists against getting COVID-19 that “the president is prepared to put money where his mouth is.” That’s per a statement from the country’s tourism ambassador to the UK, announcing an unusual approach to boost tourism within its borders during the pandemic: an offer of $3,000 to any visitor who contracts the coronavirus there, Vice reports. “We want to reassure tourists they can come to Uzbekistan,” adds Sophie Ibbotson in the statement. The $3,000 figure was arrived at because that’s about the cost of the medical care that Uzbekistan citizens get for free get if they’re infected. It’s all part of the nation’s “Safe Travel Guaranteed” campaign, given the OK by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to coax travelers back.

The compensation is conditional: The tourist must have been exploring Uzbekistan with a local tour guide who’s been certified in safety and hygiene guidelines. There’s a reason why the country is making this investment: Insider notes it’s the fourth fastest-growing tourism market, according to UN stats. Currently Uzbekistan is welcoming back visitors from low-risk nations like Japan and South Korea; those coming from elsewhere will have to self-quarantine for 14 days when they get there. The Telegraph notes Cyprus has taken a similar tack, offering to pay vacation costs for any tourists infected while visiting. Uzbekistan has had just 88 deaths since the pandemic started, with about 17,000 cases overall out of a country of 33 million. The country was one of the first to implement strict lockdowns and border closings in March when the virus started taking hold worldwide.

Ever heard of “pornification”?

Are women more sexually liberated than ever before? So suggests the burgeoning sexual marketplace. From vibrators and erotica to bondage and beyond, the marketplace has transformed transgressive sexual practices into everyday household affairs. But is this sexual freedom truly liberating, or does it transform women from sexual objects of male desire to sexual subjects in their own right?

These were the questions we sought to explore in our study investigating young women’s sexual and intimate lives through a series of in-depth interviews. In the course of these interviews, which took place in a southern state in the United States, we were struck by how the women’s sexual and intimate relationships reflect current trends in pornography, particularly in relation to themes of dominance and submission.

https://theconversation.com/wo-men-on-top-the-perils-of-the-pornification-of-popular-culture-141617

Could there be an anti-aging solution on the horizon?

Gérard Karsenty was a young scientist trying to make a name for himself in the early 1990s when he first stumbled upon a finding that would go on to transform our understanding of bone, and the role it plays in our body.

Karsenty had become interested in osteocalcin, one of the most abundant proteins in bone. He suspected that it played a crucial role in bone remodelling – the process by which our bones continuously remove and create new tissue – which enables us to grow during childhood and adolescence, and also recover from injuries.

Intending to study this, he conducted a genetic knockout experiment, removing the gene responsible for osteocalcin from mice. However to his dismay, his mutant mice did not appear to have any obvious bone defects at all. “For him, it was initially a total failure,” says Mathieu Ferron, a former colleague of Karsenty who now heads a research lab studying bone biology at IRCM in Montreal. “In those days it was super-expensive to do modification in the mouse genome.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jul/04/does-the-key-to-anti-ageing-lie-in-our-bones

The hot item for journalists and for discussion these days is that of racism…….

Organisations globally are facing pressure from staff to do more to confront racism amid global protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody in the United States.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation asked 24 non-government organisations (NGOs), charities and United Nations agencies how many racism complaints they received in the past year, and if staff had faced disciplinary action in the past five years.

Seven would not respond to questions or share data, a further eight said they had received no reports of racism against employees over the last year, while four said it was not possible to obtain clear data.

Only five organisations confirmed they had dealt with racism complaints and provided numbers.

https://news.trust.org/item/20200714031405-qlpbp/

This report is indicative of how the world is handling the issue of racism…..not well at all.

Do you “nuke” hot dogs and such?

Well that may not be such a good idea…..

If you’ve ever been tempted to nuke a hot dog or a few strips of bacon in the microwave instead of firing up the grill or dirtying a frying pan, we get it. The convenience of a microwave is unrivaled in the kitchen. But using one to cook processed meats isn’t doing you any favors. The problem comes in the form of three little letters: COP, which stands for Cholesterol Oxidation Product. What are COPs and why should they get in the way of you enjoying tasty microwaved breakfast sausage?

According to BioMed Central, when foods derived from animals are heated, the cholesterol in these foods oxidizes and degrades, forming Cholesterol Oxidation Products. COPs can contribute to conditions such as atherosclerosis, which The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute describes as a hardening of the arteries that restricts the flow of oxygen-rich blood to other parts of your body. COPs are a necessary evil if you eat meat, eggs, and other animal products since most of these things need to be cooked before they can be consumed. But the combo of the hot, fast heat of a microwave and some ingredients commonly found in processed meat makes the situation worse. Here’s why.

https://www.mashed.com/228044/you-should-never-microwave-processed-meat-heres-why/

News from around the world…..for this Saturday…..

Stay Safe……Stay Well

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–24Jul20

Today is my late Mom’s birthday……she would have been 99.

I was waiting for the GOP Convention to begin in August….I have this whole post about the riot in 1960….in case it is something that you know little about…..https://www.jacksonville.com/article/20100822/NEWS/801246165

But my attempt to educate will come to naught…..it appears that Trump as head of the GOP has called off the convention…..

“The timing for the event is not right,” President Trump said Thursday. “To have a big convention is not the right time.” So Republicans will not be gathering in Jacksonville next month for their national convention. Trump made the announcement during his coronavirus briefing at the White House, saying he wants to protect his supporters from the coronavirus and the protesters, the Washington Post reports. Florida reported 173 COVID-19 deaths Thursday, a record for a single day. Trump said that aides told him the convention could be held safely but that he told them the timing is “just not right with what’s happened recently.” Thousands of people, he said, “desperately” want to attend the event in Jacksonville. “The pageantry, the signs, the excitement were really, really top of the line,” Trump said. Around 10,000 people were expected, far fewer than would normally attend the party’s convention, per the AP.

The convention originally was planned for Charlotte, and Trump said the formal selection of the party’s presidential nominee will still take place there. Trump had pulled the main event from North Carolina after disagreeing with the governor about pandemic restrictions. Trump said he’ll still deliver an acceptance speech in some form. Fundraising for the Florida event also has lagged, per the New York Times. Instead, more than 2,000 delegates will vote by proxy, and 336 delegates will be invited to take part in person in Charlotte. A Republican lawyer in Jacksonville was glad to hear of the cancellation, saying the party hadn’t done any planning. “They were having trouble getting people to come here,” he said. “No one in their right mind would come here. This thing was a nightmare for our community.”

I am hoping that Trump has learned the error of not taking the pandemic seriously.

But wait!

Vote by proxy?

Is that not the same thing as mail in voting?

I thought that was riddled with fraud.

Maybe that is only for the general election when he will lose.

Just a thought.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Will Workers Be Protected?

This pandemic has shove unemployment up the worker’s butt and broke off……but Congress decided to step in an extend unemployment and try to help save the lives of laid off workers.

The problem is the bill that protected the workers is due to expire on 25 July, the CARES Act…….once it expires will Congress step up and protect workers again or will they decide to screw them hard like they do most of the time?

Some 25 million US workers are facing a reduction or outright elimination of a $600 weekly federal addition to state unemployment benefits when the supplemental payment authorized by Congress under the CARES Act expires on July 25.

In the midst of a raging pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with at least 30 million out of work and new jobless claims surpassing one million a week, the supplement is all that has been keeping many families above water. Coinciding with the impending end of a federal moratorium on evictions and the expiration of state moratoriums, the cut in jobless pay will propel millions into destitution and homelessness.

One survey found that 37 percent of renters and 26 percent of homeowners feared they could be homeless by the end of the year. Researchers at Columbia University say they expect US homelessness to increase by 45 percent compared to 2019.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/07/21/pers-j21.html

Since Congress only worries about party politics and could care less of the plight of the workers….I think they will find a way to screw those people that need help (as always)…..even economists see the need to extend the Act even the need to expand it a bit….

Congress is back in session, and it has a weighty task before it — figuring out what to do about the economy as COVID-19 infections spike across the country and states roll back their reopenings. One central point of tension: the $600-per-week supplemental unemployment insurance benefit that was enacted in March as part of the CARES Act and is set to expire on July 31.

Democrats have proposed extending the payment until jobless rates in states fall below a certain threshold. Republicans, meanwhile, are leery of continuing the full payments, saying they will discourage people from returning to work. And it’s true that research has shown that many workers are making more money on the beefed-up benefits than they would be at their old jobs.

Economists Think Congress Should Keep Paying Unemployed Workers $600 A Week — Or Even More

Time to end these damn wars and use the money saved where it is most needed…..in this country to help those that are paying for the wars.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Remember Dodd-Frank?

Does anyone remember the days around 2008?

The financial collapse….remember now?

Well after the collapse Congress did all they could to make things better for the society and spawned the rooks on Wall Street…..it was called Dodd-Frank.

In case you have no damn idea what I am talking about…..

Dodd-Frank is also geared toward protecting consumers with rules like keeping borrowers from abusive lending and mortgage practices by banks.

It became the law of the land in 2010 and was named after Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) and U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), who were the sponsors of the legislation.

But not all of the provisions are in place and some rules are subject to change, as we’ll see.

The bill contains some 16 major areas of reform and contains hundreds of pages, but we will focus here on what are considered the major rules of regulation.

https://www.cnbc.com/id/47075854

Basically the Congress allowed the industry to write the bill and then makes it look like someone is protected……you are NOT!

The pandemic has created a similar situation,,,,and Congress is doing what it always does….bails out the crooks as a solution to the problem….

Big business and banks are just as corrupt and eager to shovel profits to senior executives 10 years after the landmark banking reform legislation known as Dodd-Frank as they were during the 2008 crisis, a new report warns, because the bill’s regulations on executive pay remain unimplemented.

“White collar crime pays, and until Congress enacts the rules to change it, we’ll continue to see top executives raking in off catastrophes of their own making,” report author Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate at Public Citizen, said in a statement.

The report lists billions in bonus cash paid out to executives over the past decade despite Dodd-Frank’s regulatory framework banning such cash-outs.

“It’s 2008 all over again,” said Naylor. “Congress is bailing out Big Business and enriching CEOs while workers scrape by as the economy lurches downward in a pandemic.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/21/white-collar-crime-pays-decade-after-dodd-frank-executives-still-lining-their

Once again the Congress is only protecting their donors……. they care NOTHING for the “people”……and yet we are to believe that they have our best interests at heart……

Time for them to have a wake up call….and the people take back the government that began with them in mind and has gone so far off the original track.

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–23Jul20

Pres. Trump has been setting the stage to challenge an election since 2016…..and he has made it clear that he will not accept the votes that are cast if he does not win.

In a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, President Donald Trump refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2020 presidential election and baselessly claimed mail-in voting is going to “rig” the contest—remarks one advocacy group condemned as an “insidious” attack on democracy.

“I have to see,” Trump said when asked by Fox News host Chris Wallace whether he intends to accept the election results. “No, I’m not gonna just say yes. I’m not gonna say it, and I didn’t last time either.”

Sean Eldridge, founder and president of Stand Up America, said in a statement that Trump’s comments show “he is an existential threat to our democracy and has no respect for the rule of law.”

“For five years, Trump has sought to undermine our elections again and again—from soliciting foreign interference to making baseless claims about voter fraud to lying about the results of the 2016 election,” said Eldridge. “Today’s comments are an escalation in these attacks on our democracy and show the insidious ways in which Trump is working to sow doubt about the outcome of this election before votes are even cast.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/19/existential-threat-our-democracy-trump-refuses-commit-accepting-2020-election

I will be interested in see how many of his supporters will come to his side and defend such blatant treasonous attitudes.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Pandemics Helped Build Mega-Corporations

Yes I know another one of the professor’s historic posts……history is where it is at people.

I read an interesting article about pandemics and how they helped build the mega-corporations….but first a little background from earlier posts here on IST……

https://lobotero.com/2020/03/28/pandemics-in-history/

https://lobotero.com/2020/04/01/more-plague-history/

There have been many pandemics through history and each time someone dies and others profit……

In June 1348, people in England began reporting mysterious symptoms. They started off as mild and vague: headaches, aches, and nausea. This was followed by painful black lumps, or buboes, growing in the armpits and groin, which gave the disease its name: bubonic plague. The last stage was a high fever, and then death.

Originating in Central Asia, soldiers and caravans had brought bubonic plague – Yersina pestis, a bacterium carried on fleas that lived on rats – to ports on the Black Sea. The highly commercialised world of the Mediterranean ensured the plague’s swift transfer on merchant ships to Italy, and then across Europe. The Black Death killed between a third and a half of the population of Europe and the Near East.

This huge number of deaths was accompanied by general economic devastation. With a third of the workforce dead, the crops could not be harvested and communities fell apart. One in ten villages in England (and in Tuscany and other regions) were lost and never re-founded. Houses fell into the ground and were covered by grass and earth, leaving only the church behind. If you ever see a church or chapel all alone in a field, you are probably looking at the last remains of one of Europe’s lost villages.

https://theconversation.com/how-pandemics-past-and-present-fuel-the-rise-of-mega-corporations-137732

Throughout history there are winners and losers……usually it is the working stiffs that lose out and those with the money that make out like bandits…..

Think this is not the case?

Let’s look at Bezos……in one day during this pandemic…..

How do you treat yourself when you make $13 billion in one day? We’ll have to ask Jeff Bezos, who, per Bloomberg, saw that amount added to his net worth Monday, the largest single-day boost to one person’s wealth since the Bloomberg Billionaires Index began in 2012. A big part of his newfound windfall: Amazon shares rising 7.9% Monday (they’ve been up 73% so far this year). The 56-year-old Amazon founder has made $74 billion in 2020, bringing his overall fortune up to nearly $190 billion—more than what Nike or McDonald’s is worth. Earlier this year, Business Insider reported

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“F*cking Bitch”!

They say the the people in Congress are civil to each other even when they disagree….with such politeness as “gentlemen” and “gentle ladies”….when referring to each other……and then you have the MORONS like the Yahoo from Florida…..

Tensions flared on Capitol Hill this week when a Republican lawmaker challenged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on issues of crime and policing in an unusual — and decidedly personal — confrontation on the Capitol steps.

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) was coming down the steps on the east side of the Capitol on Monday, having just voted, when he approached Ocasio-Cortez, who was ascending into the building to cast a vote of her own.

In a brief but heated exchange, which was overheard by a reporter, Yoho told Ocasio-Cortez she was “disgusting” for recently suggesting that poverty and unemployment are driving a spike in crime in New York City during the coronavirus pandemic.

“You are out of your freaking mind,” Yoho told her.

Ocasio-Cortez shot back, telling Yoho he was being “rude.”

The two then parted ways. Ocasio-Cortez headed into the building, while Yoho, joined by Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), began descending toward the House office buildings. A few steps down, Yoho offered a parting thought to no one in particular.

“Fucking bitch,” he said.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/508259-ocaasio-cortez-accosted-by-gop-lawmaker-over-remarks-that-kind-of

These people demand respect from others yet they allow a bonehead like Yoho to exist as a Congressman…..seems okay since it is Florida we are talking about.

These are the times we live in……no civility (evident here as well as the House)…..

We need to rid ourselves of toads and slugs in the government…..in other words…..

VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”