Time for another Summer Saturday ‘Dump’….I know you all have been waiting for the ‘Dump’ to drop.  (Sorry could not resist)

Locally a typical Summer in the Deep South….sweltering so much so that the simple act of breathing will bring on a sweat….the extreme heat is also effecting the garden.

Enough chit-chat I have a butt-load of stories to share so let me get to the grits and the gravy.

I will begin with the stupid….every year several people try to take selfies with the bison in Yellowstone and that seldom ends well……and that stupidity is just not for the Americans….

A 43-year-old tourist was trampled to death by elephants Sunday morning while attempting to take photos of them at a South African national park. The AP reports the Spaniard was with his fiancee and two other women at Pilanesberg National Park in North West province when officials there say he exited his vehicle despite protests from his group and people in two other vehicles who were also watching the herd. His approach reportedly “agitated” the matriarch of the herd, which included three calves, per the Guardian.

An adult elephant cow charged at the man, who then ran from the elephant. He was unfortunately not able to escape or evade the elephant, which was now joined by the whole herd, and was caught and trampled to death,” the North West Parks and Tourism Board said in a statement. The board said the elephants paid no attention to the other cars and then moved on.

What fires off in the brain that makes one think this is a good idea?

I recently reported on the ‘poop’ problem on Mt. Everest…..well goes higher than that….

Neil Armstrong left more than his footprints on the moon. As Becky Ferreira writes in Wired, he and his fellow Apollo astronauts also left nearly 100 bags of poop up there over various missions, where they remain to this day. For one thing, this raises the prospect of humans contaminating an extraterrestrial world with their fecal microbes. For another, it illustrates an easy-to-overlook problem that still exists as we humans ramp up our plans for moon expeditions—the complicated and very real logistics of space pooping. This is the main focus of Ferreira’s piece, which provides an earthy education. Start with this, for example: “Basically, in space a human no longer has gravity to assist pulling the feces away from the anus,” explains David Munns of John Jay College, City University of New York.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station use a hose and a head to suction out waste, a big advance from the early days, when phrases such as “fecal popcorning” were invented to describe unfortunate mishaps. “But scientists haven’t developed a circular system that can dispose of all the biological waste produced by humans in space—urine, feces, vomit, and menstrual blood—which is a major technology gap for future human space exploration,” writes Ferreira. The story explores some of the designs under review, which are not only vital to plans of returning humans to the lunar surface but may play a role in solving waste-management problems that still plague billions of people down here on Earth.

Turn it into ‘Soylent Brown’.

The FDA is enforcing a ban on a cancer cause ingredient….

Say goodbye to BVO. The FDA announced Tuesday that brominated vegetable oil, the controversial ingredient found in some citrus-flavored soft drinks, will no longer be allowed in food or beverages in the US due to safety concerns. Used to keep citrus flavoring from rising to the top of drinks, the ingredient includes bromine, a naturally occurring chemical that’s denser than water and, when combined with vegetable oil, ensures certain ingredients are evenly distributed through a liquid, per Live Science. A 2022 study found that rats fed BVO accumulated bromine in their blood and tissues and suffered damage to the thyroid, a gland that helps regulate the body’s metabolic rate, growth, and development.

Already banned in the European Union and Japan, BVO is also linked to nervous system damage, headaches, irritations of the skin and mucous membrane, fatigue, memory lapses, and loss of muscle coordination, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit consumer health advocacy group, per CNN. In proposing a ban last year, the FDA said studies “clearly show adverse health effects” in animals. It added that “animal and human data, including new information from recent FDA-led studies on BVO, no longer provide a basis to conclude the use of BVO in food is safe,” per the Washington Post.

Why does the US always seem late to the game when corporations are involved?

This is for all my readers that enjoy a good glass of wine…..

Researchers looking for fossilized grape seeds across Colombia, Panama, and Peru, have found seeds that are between 60 and 19 million years old – and one example is from the oldest grape ever found in the Western Hemisphere. The researchers think that the proliferation of grapes might have come as a result of the changes in the environment following the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.

The oldest known fossilized seeds from the grape family were found in India, and are 66 million years old. That is around the time of the Chicxulub impact, which wiped out non-avian dinosaurs and 76 percent of all living species on the planet – but it appears that it might have done wonders for the ancestors of grapes.

“We always think about the animals, the dinosaurs, because they were the biggest things to be affected, but the extinction event had a huge impact on plants too,” lead author Fabiany Herrera, an assistant curator of paleobotany at the Field Museum in Chicago, said in a statement. “The forest reset itself, in a way that changed the composition of the plants.”

https://www.iflscience.com/we-might-owe-wine-to-the-asteroid-that-killed-the-dinosaurs-66-million-years-ago-74893

A toast to the asteroid!

Could Boobs be a problem?

n a new study published in the journal Sexes, researchers have uncovered evidence that physical features, particularly breast size, can influence competitive behaviors among women. The study found that women are more likely to engage in derogatory tactics against other women with larger breasts, shedding light on the dynamics of intrasexual competition.

Intersexual competition, a concept grounded in evolutionary biology, refers to the rivalry between individuals of the same sex to attract and secure mates from the opposite sex. This form of competition is driven by the need to enhance reproductive success and pass on genes to the next generation. In humans, intersexual competition manifests in various behaviors and strategies aimed at increasing one’s desirability to potential mates while diminishing the attractiveness of rivals.

While much research has focused on men’s competitive behaviors and the traits they find attractive in potential mates, less attention has been given to how women perceive and react to these traits in each other. The researchers behind the new study were particularly interested in breast morphology—specifically breast size and firmness—given its significance in male mate choice due to associations with fertility and reproductive value.

https://www.psypost.org/women-show-increased-aggression-toward-those-with-larger-breasts-study-finds/

Do you think that they might have over thought this situation?

I could not close out my ‘Dump’ without a story that just made me laugh…..of course it is that tool Musk…..

Elon Musk has lot going on—Tesla, SpaceX, and X, for starters. But the entrepreneur’s priority is establishing a civilization on Mars, the New York Times reports. That dream might be out of reach—”You can’t just land one million people on Mars,” said an aerospace engineer who knows him—but Musk has told SpaceX employees he expects the planet to have that population in about 20 years. Musk denied the claim in a post on X, but others said he has volunteered his sperm to help make that happen.

Several people, as well as documents reviewed by the Times, indicate that Musk has told employees to work on a design for a city on the planet, down to the details. To most experts, humans living on Mars seems a distant goal in many ways. No one has so much as set foot on the planet, and NASA projects a human landing in the 2040s. When the first arrivals step out of the landing craft, they’ll encounter icy weather, dust storms, and air they can’t breathe. But Musk not only remains committed to the notion, he’s made it the business of the six companies he owns or runs.

He founded the Boring Co., for example, partly to lay the groundwork for burrowing under the surface of Mars. Musk reportedly has said he bought X in part to help test how a citizen-led government might work on Mars. And he’s said he sees Tesla’s Cybertrucks being driven on the planet by residents. Testifying in court about his Tesla compensation in 2022, Musk said this dream is the reason he stockpiles assets. “It’s a way to get humanity to Mars,” he said, “because establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars will require a lot of resources.” One solution to the obstacles would be groundbreaking: Musk has said he hopes to create his own species that would be suited to life on Mars

We know he is a fertile little devil after all he has 12 or so kids and I think I read he got another woman pregnant…..but we should expect this egotism out of this tool….but a whole planet with one father…..scary thought….is there a scifi movie along these lines?

Time for me to end my weekly ‘Dump’ and think of next week……so I hope everyone has a wonderful Saturday and thanx for stopping by…..and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”