AS we begin the Labor Day weekend….I set aside the boring humdrum news of the day for something different…..
First a bit of good news for my area….NOT since 1997 has there been NO named storms in the Gulf for the month of August….
Have you ever wondered why hippies are almost always ‘tree huggers’?
There maybe an answer…..
People who have undergone a mystical experience after consuming a psychedelic substance are more likely to engage in behaviors aimed at protecting or conserving the environment, according to new research published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
Psychedelic drugs can cause drastic alterations in consciousness, and research has indicated that the substances can produce lasting changes in personality. The authors of the new research sought to better understand whether these changes had implications for people’s relationships with the natural world. They were particularly interested in whether the mystical qualities of a psychedelic experience played a role in influencing pro-environmental behaviors
Mars is not a good candidate for colonization because of the lack of oxygen….but that is becoming less of a problem…..
The comparisons are small scale at the moment: A device the size of a toaster generated oxygen comparable to that of a modest tree. But given that this took place on Mars, the implications are of the large-scale variety. In a study published in Science Advances, NASA researchers report that the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) was able to turn carbon dioxide—which accounts for 96% of the Mars atmosphere—into breathable oxygen, reports Space.com. MOXIE has done so seven times since April 2021, each time converting the CO2 into about 6 grams of oxygen per hour, per CNN.
“This is the first demonstration of actually using resources on the surface of another planetary body, and transforming them chemically into something that would be useful for a human mission,” says researcher Jeffrey Hoffman in a news release from MIT. “It’s historic in that sense.” The Washington Post spells out the significance: Before humans can explore Mars in person, NASA has to figure out how to supply them with oxygen. The ongoing MOXIE experiment—part of the Perseverance rover mission—suggests a blueprint for doing so.
The process would have to be scaled up by a factor of several hundred times, meaning NASA would have to send much larger devices to the planet ahead of a human mission, per CNN. But that is both feasible and necessary: In addition to helping humans breathe while on the planet, oxygen also would be needed as a fuel propellant for the trip home. “To support a human mission to Mars, we have to bring a lot of stuff from Earth,” Hoffman tells the Post. “But dumb old oxygen? If you can make it there, go for it—you’re way ahead of the game.”
With all the legal issues in the news these days…I thought I would look into what is illegal…..
A bit more good news for this Saturday…..for those that drink tea, especially a black tea…….
When it comes to the potential health benefits of tea, the green variety tends to get all the glory. However, a large new observational study suggests that black tea also does good things for those who drink it, reports the Guardian. The study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that those who drink two or more cups a day might live a bit longer than those who don’t, per the AP. Specifically, researchers from the National Cancer Institute discovered that these “higher intake” drinkers of tea have a 9% to 13% lower risk of mortality, a modest but statistically significant figure.
“These findings suggest that tea, even at higher levels of intake, can be part of a healthy diet,” the researchers conclude in the study. The tea’s temperature, or whether people added milk or sugar, didn’t matter. The US researchers used a large database in the UK, given the popularity of black tea there. The UK Biobank allowed them to follow nearly 500,000 tea drinkers ages 40 to 69 for about 11 years, per a news release from the National Institutes of Health, to which the NCI belongs.
The study can’t prove cause and effect, only that researchers observed a possible connection between tea drinking and longer lives. “Observational studies like this always raise the question: Is there something else about tea drinkers that makes them healthier?” Marion Nestle, a professor of food studies at New York University, tells the AP. “I like tea. It’s great to drink. But a cautious interpretation seems like a good idea.”
It is that time of the year again…..everything you see in ads is ‘pumpkin spice’…lattes, creamers, yada yada….and now there will even be a pumpkin spice noodles…..
Fall is the time for curling up with a cup of something warm and comforting. The pumpkin spice latte is the official beverage of the season, and a bowl of hot noodle soup is an excellent choice if you’re looking for something more substantial. If you can’t choose between sweet and savory, you don’t have to. As Yahoo! Reports, Nissin is bringing back its pumpkin spice Cup Noodles for autumn 2022.
The seasonal product from Nissin is part of a long-running trend of sticking pumpkin spice flavoring where it arguably doesn’t belong. The brand debuted the limited-edition variety in September 2021, and it was apparently popular enough to warrant a comeback.
According to the brand, the noodle soup uses “special pumpkin seasoning” to achieve its sweet-and-savory flavor combination. Brave taste-testers who reviewed the concoction on YouTube were baffled—and a little nauseated. Jason Mazurek said, “It’s really creamy[…] It starts to make your stomach turn a little bit.” The YouTubers behind the channel 5 Minute Eats described it as “a warm dessert.”
In Saner Thought 