The last weekend of 2025 and I hope 2026 is a better year….this past year has not been one I appreciated much.

Local–Almost on cue some idiot trying to fry a turkey burnt down his garage….weather on Christmas was Mid 70s to mid 55s….not the snow day that some would have desired.

Personal–My visit with the doctor was not good news…..it seems they found another shadow in my left lung and more tests are needed.

Christmas meal went off without a hitch and the clean-up was slow but finished….

The last Dump of 2025 and a hodge podge of info that I hope will entertain and inform….

The best news is about chocolate….

Fans of dark chocolate and coffee are getting a modest scientific nod—but not a free pass—to enjoy their habit. A study in the journal Aging out of King’s College London reports that people with higher blood levels of theobromine, a caffeine-related compound most concentrated in cocoa and present in smaller amounts in coffee and tea, showed signs of slower cellular aging, reports Medical News Today. As with all such studies, there are plenty of warnings about reading too much into it, but as one dietitian not involved in the research tells the Washington Post, “It’s a great reason to not feel bad about having an ounce of dark chocolate today.”

• Researchers analyzed blood and DNA from about 1,670 adults in the UK and Germany, average age 60, and found that more theobromine in the bloodstream was linked to a slightly slower “pace of aging” as measured by DNA methylation markers, per the Post. When they checked other cocoa components, including caffeine, the association held only for theobromine.
• The findings, however, come with major caveats. The study is observational and based on a single snapshot in time, so it cannot show that theobromine slows aging or indicate how much chocolate or coffee—if any—would be needed for a benefit. The researchers also did not rigorously track chocolate intake or type, leaving open the possibility that theobromine is standing in for other factors in people’s diets or lifestyles. Also note that theobromine is toxic at extremely high doses.
• For those inclined to reach for a bar, dietitians suggest choosing dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa, and has cocoa listed first on the label with few other ingredients. If it says “Dutch-processed,” that is less than ideal, because it can strip away polyphenols. They also warn about sugar, saturated fat, and potential heavy metals such as cadmium and lead, particularly for pregnant people and children.

Let’s begin with a new finding about seal milk….

Seal pups may be nursing on what amounts to a biochemical powerhouse—and it could someday end up in baby formula. In a new study, researchers found that milk from gray seals contains roughly a third more distinct sugar molecules than human breast milk, and many of those sugars have never been seen before, per Phys.org. The milk is “extraordinary,” says Daniel Bojar of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, lead author of the study in Nature Communications.

The research suggests that some of these new sugar molecules could someday be added to human infant formula to boost infants’ immune systems, or perhaps to adults to keep their gastrointestinal systems healthy. As the New York Times explains, milk has fat and protein, along with different sugars. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides, and these are key players in early-life health across mammals, helping shape gut microbes, strengthen the intestinal tract, and block invading viruses and bacteria.

The researchers followed five wild gray seals off Scotland for their full 17-day nursing period, repeatedly collecting milk and analyzing it with mass spectrometry and AI-driven tools. They found not only a broad variety of sugars, but also a shift in milk composition as pups aged, similar to how human milk changes. Specifically, researchers identified 332 separate sugar structures in seal milk, compared with about 250 known in human milk. Roughly two-thirds were previously unknown to science.

What’s more, some of the newly spotted molecules are unusually large, with chains of 28 sugar units, far exceeding the 18-unit maximum known in breast milk. Tests on human immune cells suggest the newly identified seal-milk sugars can modulate immune responses and show strong activity against disease-causing bacteria. All in all, “the study highlights the untapped biomedical potential hidden in understudied wild species,” says Bojar.

There are some health myths that many of us have heard most of our lives…..

We have a lot of misconceptions when it comes to health and wellness, from the cold-fighting powers of Vitamin C to whatever it is that crystals are supposed to do. Let’s break down a few of them, adapted from the below episode of Misconceptions on YouTube.

1. Misconception: You need to drink eight glasses of water a day.
2. Misconception: Caffeinated beverages dehydrate you.
3. Misconception: Vitamin C prevents colds.
4. Misconception: Cracking your knuckles is bad for your joints.
5. Misconception: Crystals have healing powers.

Plastic could be converted to a painkiller….

A team of scientists has engineered bacteria that converts chemicals made from plastic bottles into a common drugstore painkiller called paracetamol, which is the active ingredient in Tylenol.

Inside small flasks in a Scottish lab, the microbes converted plastic-based starting material into paracetamol with yields approaching about 92 percent

This work was led by Prof. Stephen Wallace of the University of Edinburgh, a chemist who builds hybrid chemical-biology workflows.

His research focuses on using microbes and non-natural reactions together to make medicines and materials from everyday waste streams.

Today, manufacturers produce about 120 billion pounds of PET plastic each year. Right now, most industrial paracetamol starts its life in oil refineries, because the key starting chemicals are derived from petroleum.

Worldwide, paracetamol ranks among the most commonly used painkillers and is recommended as first-line therapy in many pain conditions.

https://www.earth.com/news/new-process-converts-plastic-bottles-into-paracetamol-drugstore-pain-killer/

Two things….will we ever hear about this again and since it is ‘Tylenol” will RFK,Jr get involved?

Death Valley Lake returns…..

It’s hard to imagine a place more hostile to water than Death Valley. This scorched landscape holds the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth, regularly sees less than two inches of rain per year, and sits at the lowest point in North America. Yet something remarkable has happened once again in late 2025. An ancient lake that vanished thousands of years ago has staged another comeback, briefly transforming the barren salt flats into a glistening body of water that has drawn visitors from across the country eager to witness this rare phenomenon.

The reappearance of this temporary lake isn’t just a curious weather event. It’s a window into a vastly different past when this desert valley was home to a massive freshwater lake teeming with life. Let’s dive in to understand how record rainfall brought this prehistoric wonder back to life

Lake That Vanished From Death Valley Has Reappeared Again

Do animals feel emotions?

You’ve probably looked into your dog’s eyes and felt certain they understood your sadness. Or watched your cat sulk after being scolded. These moments feel deeply real, yet for centuries, science has struggled to prove what pet owners have always known. Now, with cutting-edge technology and fresh perspectives, researchers are finally peeling back the layers of animal emotional life. What they’re discovering might make you see the natural world in a completely different light.

The answers emerging from labs around the globe are both fascinating and unsettling. They challenge our assumptions about which creatures deserve moral consideration and force us to confront uncomfortable questions about how we treat animals in farms, zoos, and research facilities.

Do Animals Feel Emotions Like Humans? New Studies Reveal Surprising Truths

Would you claim your furry friend as a dependent?

There is no doubt that Americans love their pets, and now one woman is suing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to claim her dog as a deductible dependent.

This move might not come as a surprise, as dog culture is mainstream in American living, from dog “paw-rents” to dog social media accounts with millions of followers. Pets have steadily become more prioritized in U.S. households.

A Pew Research Center survey found that nearly all U.S. pet owners — a whopping 97% — say their pets are part of their family. Additionally, the survey found that over half of American pet owners consider their furry friends as much a part of their family as a human member.

https://www.themirror.com/money/irs-lawsuit-reclassify-pets-dependent-1571392

Another year in the books for the “News Dump”

I sincerely hope everyone had a good week and a great holiday….and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”