Just a little something for my readers to think about on this late Summer Saturday….

Local–Still hot but we are still dodging those hurricanes….at least that is something.

A famous burger joint in Biloxi has closed down….Burger Burgers has decided to shut the doors after being a cultural hot spot for many years….

https://www.sunherald.com/entertainment/restaurants/article312175513.html

Sad….I had eaten there many times for it was one of the best burger joints I have ever visited…..and I do love a good burger.

Personal–It has been a horrible week….more dealing with Sue’s estate more people with hands out.

Let the post begin….

Has anyone else noticed that the push for plant based food has lost some of it luster?  The industry is cutting it’s loses….

Plant-based burgers were supposed to help wean Americans off their environmentally ruinous appetite for meat. But sales have plummeted amid a surging pro-meat trend embraced by the Trump administration, raising a key question – will vegetarianism ever take hold in the US?

This year has been a punishing one for the plant-based meat sector, led by companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, with sales of refrigerated products slumping 17%. This follows a difficult 2024, during which sales fell 7%, furthering a multi-year spiral – last year Americans purchased 75m fewer units of plant-based meat than they did in 2022.

Despite hopes that burgers, sausages and chicken made from soy, peas and beans would curb Americans’ love of eating butchered animals – thereby reducing the rampant deforestation, water pollution and planet-heating emissions involved in raising livestock – these alternatives languish at just 1% of the total meat market in the US.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/sep/12/vegan-burgers-meat-vegetarian

Sorry to be cruel but good riddance.

This is for all my science geeks….

It’s one thing when a respected scientist has a novel idea of what dark matter or dark energy might be, or what could explain spooky quantum phenomena like entanglement and superpositions.

But the wonders of the internet has brought an entire economy built on outrage and conspiracy theories, enabling even the most crackpot grifters and fringe scientists to reach a wide audience and easily make a quick buck. We’ve all heard them rage against vaccines and seed oils, but one of their buzziest claims lately might surprise you: that theoretical physics are all lying to us, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Allegedly, theoretical physicists are corrupt and collude with each other to uphold groupthink. The lack of world–changing discoveries in recent decades, or a framework that reconciles quantum mechanics and classical physics, evinces an academic establishment that’s become enfeebled by its unwillingness to allow room for disagreement or to entertain more radical ideas.

https://futurism.com/fringe-physics-wrong

Speaking of science….are you interested in immortality?

Homo sapiens have remarkable regenerative abilities—wounds heal, bone fractures “thread” back together, and some organs can even regrow from devastating injury—but none of these biological bonafides compares to the healing power of the humble starlet sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis).

Located along the eastern coast of the U.S., with a few introduced populations scattered along the western U.S. coast and the southeast coast of Britain, this sea anemone is a member of the sea-dwelling phylum Cnidaria, which is well-known for its full-body regenerative abilities—so much so that some animals in this phylum, such as the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii, are functionally immortal. Because of this ability to seemingly defy the aging process, these animals have figured prominently in anti-aging research.

Now, in a study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers from the University of Vienna have possibly identified small, multi-potent cells in scarlet sea anemones that basically allow cnidarians to continually drink from the proverbial fountain of youth. In humans, stems cells allow limited regeneration of certain cells in our body (which is why they’re central to the exploration of anti-aging therapies), however, other animals display much greater, whole-body regenerative abilities compared to us humans.

(popularmechanics.com)

The flesh eating problem is expanding….

A fifth person in Louisiana has died this year after being infected by Vibrio vulnificus, a rare bacteria responsible for causing life-threatening skin and tissue infections, according to state health officials. Often called flesh-eating bacteria, Vibrio vulnificus thrives in warm coastal waters and tends to be more prevalent between May and October. Health officials warn that the bacteria—once mostly a southern threat—may be spreading further north, CBS News reports.

The latest victim’s identity and method of exposure were not disclosed. The bacteria can enter the body through open wounds exposed to contaminated water or by eating raw or undercooked seafood—particularly oysters. Earlier this year, Louisiana officials confirmed that two deaths were linked to eating raw oysters. Symptoms can include gastrointestinal illness, fever, blistering, and dangerously low blood pressure, per WWLTV.

Louisiana had averaged about seven Vibrio vulnificus infections and one death annually over the past decade. But cases are climbing: There have been 26 documented infections in the state so far this year; 85% involved wound/seawater exposure. Neighboring Alabama has seen 10 cases, Mississippi three (including one death), and Florida has reported 13 cases with eight fatalities. Some oyster beds have been shut down as a precaution, per CBS.

Kinda craps on the idea of a day at the beach.

A new meaning of ‘die hard’….

You know the stories: a flash of light, a tunnel, maybe even a mysterious voice telling you it’s not your time. Near-death experiences have fascinated people for decades, but now scientists are starting to think there’s something even stranger going on: Right as the body shuts down, the brain might be kicking into overdrive, firing off one last burst of consciousness in a final push to stay alive.

That’s the mind-blowing idea behind one of Pop Mech’s most-read recent stories, “A ‘Twilight Consciousness’ May Exist in Dying Patients. Could That Mean Death Isn’t Final?” In the story, scientists detail a huge spike in gamma brainwaves—those linked with memory, awareness, and sensory experience—after patients are declared clinically dead. The discovery basically challenges everything we thought we knew about what it means to die.

Watch Andrew Daniels and John Gilpatrick break down the weird phenomenon of “twilight consciousness” and share a few stranger-than-fiction stories, like the man who woke up on the operating table just before his organs were harvested, and the 95-year-old woman who rose from her coffin after six days and made herself a bowl of porridge because she was hungry.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a67949452/astounding-pop-mech-show-death-consciousness/

Autumn is coming and with it will come those leaves that must be raked up and disposed of but while they are piled up they are targets for kids and pets….but are they safe?

If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with iconic, vibrant autumns, you’re probably familiar with the other side of that experience: leaves everywhere. Watching those orange, yellow, and red leaves fall to the ground can feel a little less gratifying knowing you’ll have to rake them all into piles later.

Still, those raked leaf piles present their own opportunities for fun. From Charlie Brown and Snoopy to Calvin and Hobbes, leaping full-force into a mound of leaves is a classic way to enjoy the outdoors once summer wanes.

It’s hard to imagine that this iconic pastime could pose any serious threat, but there are actually some risks involved for both children and adults. Below, we’ll go over some of the biggest concerns around jumping in leaf piles and what you can do to be as safe as possible while soaking up the autumn season.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/science/health/is-it-safe-to-jump-in-leaf-piles

A few years back there was a major story of cheating…..it was at a bass fishing tournament where a couple guys added weight to their catch to win….now we have cheaters in a rock skipping contest….

A decades-old stone-skipping contest on a tiny Scottish island made waves this year—not for record throws, but for a cheating scandal. The rules of the Easdale island contest are simple: A competitor can use only naturally formed stones from Easdale itself, and nothing wider than 3 inches, verified by the contest’s metal “ring of truth.” But this year, organizers say, a few participants slipped in doctored stones in pursuit of the world championship title. They’d been ground too perfectly round, per the BBC. Event commentator and “Toss Master” Kyle Mathews, who watched all 1,200 throws, said the breach only underscored the lengths people will go for a win, calling it “flattering” in its own way, per the New York Times.

Allegations of cheating first emerged during the Sept. 6 event, which included 400 participants. When confronted after the fact, those involved quickly admitted their misdeeds and accepted disqualification. “You wouldn’t get that in a lot of sports,” said six-time women’s champion Lucy Wood, who praised how organizers handled the fallout, per the Times. Jon Jennings, this year’s open category champion and the contest’s first American winner, hopes the cheating won’t overshadow the event’s quirky, communal vibe. The annual championship, which began in 1983 in a local pub, remains a fiercely competitive but good-natured affair. This year’s event brought 2,200 spectators from 27 countries to the car-free island that’s home to just 60 permanent residents, per the BBC.

Seriously?  Skipping stones is that important?

My time to bow out…..I hope everyone found something informative or at least entertaining today.

Please find the time to enjoy family and friends and life on this last weekend of Summer…..and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”