This old world survived another week and the news just keeps coming….

I apologize for today’s ‘Dump’ is a bit thin but this damn chemo is kicking my scrawny ass.

Local–Apprehension is high among the Coast’s sizeable Hispanic community….they are waiting for ICE to head East from New Orleans.

Personal–Not much new happening with me….same diseases and same treatments with same side effects…..

I will start with dire predictions…..this from our old friend Nosty….

As we say goodbye to 2025, a sense of foreboding is setting in as one of the “most famous” prophecies about humanity’s downfall could potentially become reality.

(read the rest of his predictions for the coming end time)

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/nostradamus-catastrophic-2025-war-disaster-36278966

Now we go too my favorite subject…..Food….

I use honey instead of sugar and with the bees in trouble what will I do…..

One taste, and the beekeeper was certain: This was no ordinary honey.

Sean Kennedy had been showing off the hives he tends in Northwest Washington one autumn afternoon when he removed a glove for a taste test. This was how the self-taught beekeeper ate most of his honey, by plunging a finger into a row of honeycomb and slipping it under his protective head covering to his mouth. Lately the flavor had been, well, different.

“I’d say that’s spotted lanternfly honey,” Kennedy, 64, declared after a moment’s consideration, over the droning of thousands of bees at the Swiss Embassy apiary. He searched for the right way of describing how he knew, landing on: “It just doesn’t have this gentle sweet taste.” It was instead, he said, “like, you know, your grandparents’ cough drops.”

The invasion of the spotted lanternfly was impossible to miss this past summer in the Washington region. The scarlet-winged leafhoppers wreaked havoc on trees, threatened Virginia’s multibillion-dollar wine industry and ushered in a spectacle of state-sponsored squashing. This fall, the insect’s impact on the area has shown up in a less obvious way: It’s changing the honey.

Honeybees, it turns out, are attracted to the sticky, sugary substance that spotted lanternflies leave behind after slurping tree sap in late summer and fall months, during the adult phase of their life cycle. The proper term for this substance is honeydew, but that’s really just another word for poop. Bees suck it up and bring it back to their hives, where they treat it like nectar — spitting it into honeycombs and furiously fanning it down with their wings to reduce the water content.

And voilà: honey. Maybe not what you’d find in a bear-shaped container on a grocery store shelf. But honey nonetheless, a darker, mysterious new kind that’s shaking up the beekeeping world. The phenomenon first happened several years ago in Pennsylvania, where the spotted lanternfly was discovered in the United States around 2014 after apparently hitching a ride from China aboard a shipment of stone.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ar-AA1RSt7Y

Thoughts?

Ex-Beatle Paul is defending the EU ban on the term ‘burger’…..

A vegan burger is still a burger, according to Paul McCartney, who’s among the more prominent names fighting a proposed EU law that would ban the use of meat-related terms for plant-based foods. “To stipulate that burgers and sausages are ‘plant-based,’ ‘vegetarian’ or ‘vegan’ should be enough for sensible people to understand what they are eating,” the former Beatle and longtime vegetarian tells the Times of London. This would also encourage attitudes benefitting the health of people and the planet, McCartney says. It should be noted that his family owns Linda McCartney Foods, which offers vegetarian and vegan sausages, burgers, and pies, per the Guardian.

Eight British MPs, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, have also expressed their displeasure with the bill, proposed by French center-right MEP Céline Imart as a way to honor farmers and reduce consumer confusion. In a letter to Brussels, they argue the bill could instead “increase confusion” and “undermine economic growth,” per Politico. Though the UK is no longer a part of the EU, MPs worry the bill would affect British supermarkets if it were to go into law.

Having already passed a vote in the European Parliament, it now awaits approval by a majority of EU member states. Meanwhile, critics point to EU polling, showing consumers generally understand the difference between real meat and plant-based foods that mimic meat, as well as the Collins dictionary, which defines a burger as a “flat round mass of minced meat or vegetables,” and a sausage as “an object shaped like a sausage.”

I disagree with Sir Paul but that should not be earth shaking since I never liked him anyway…..LOL

As an old fart I am interested when I read about a study on slowing down the aging process….

A new study suggests that a fountain of youth of sorts might be conjured up on the cellular level. Scientists at Texas A&M have developed a technique to boost the energy production of aging and damaged cells, reports the Washington Post. As a piece at Science Alert puts it, the cells “can be effectively ‘recharged’ by replacing their internal batteries—microscopic power stations called mitochondria.” The findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences hold implications for the treatment of conditions including Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

The technique is still in its early stages. So far, it has only been tested in laboratory dishes, but animal trials are expected soon. If proven safe and effective, the method could eventually allow doctors to extract a patient’s cells, convert them to stem cells, treat them in the lab with particles called “nanoflowers,” and then return the rejuvenated cells to the patient. “The fact that you can increase the number of mitochondria per cell is huge,” Stanford University’s Daria Mochly-Rosen, who was not involved in the study, tells the Post. However, researchers caution that the long-term safety of nanoflowers and their key ingredient, molybdenum disulfide, has yet to be established. (Popular Mechanics has more details on the role of nanoflowers in the study.)

The Texas A&M team is collaborating with other labs to explore applications for muscular dystrophy, fatty liver disease, and nervous system disorders. If successful, the technique could mean fewer repeat treatments are needed compared to current drugs that boost mitochondria, which typically wear off quickly. Researchers say the ultimate goal is to improve health and extend life by maintaining healthy mitochondria in tissues throughout the body.

It is too late for me maybe this will help others.

Japan seem to be making great headway in the bathroom….

Japan’s famously high-tech toilets are getting a new upgrade: sound-masking devices designed to cover up the less melodic realities of public restrooms. These gadgets, often called Otohime, or “Sound Princess,” are now a staple in Japanese bathrooms, emitting everything from rushing water to birdsong with the push of a button. The goal? To spare users embarrassment and save water by reducing the number of flushes used to drown out other noises, reports the New York Times.

Although these devices have been present in women’s restrooms in Japan for some time, it’s not just the ladies using them anymore, either. “As younger men are more sensitive about toilet noise, it’s being installed in men’s rooms as well,” says Tsukasa Matsuyama of Toto, the company behind the Sound Princess. And with public bathrooms in Japan increasingly designed without gender distinctions, the devices are finding fans across the spectrum—including among transgender people, who’ve been consulted by Toto on bathroom issues.

The devices are even becoming a target for hackers and hobbyists, with one viral parody playing the theme from a samurai TV drama. The concept of masking toilet sounds isn’t new in Japan, where ancient temples used urns to splash water and mask noises centuries ago. The modern version emerged during a 1979 drought, when electronic sound devices were introduced as a water-saving measure. Today, Toto’s technicians scour the country for the perfect nature sounds to record, while competitors are adding their own twists—like a Formula One engine roar at a racetrack rest stop.

Finally this fad of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss is getting out of hand….

Your pet dog or cat might soon be a chubby little munchkin no more.

Welcome to the burgeoning era of — we swear we’re not making this up — “ozempets,” in which your servile critters might shed some extra pounds by taking animal-focused diabetes and weight loss drugs similar to Ozempic and Wegovy.

It hasn’t quite happened yet, but it’s seemingly about to. As the New York Times reports, a San Francisco based biopharmaceutical firm called Okava Pharmaceuticals is expected to announce the first pilot study of using these drugs, which are known as GLP-1 agonists, on obese cats.

Spoiled as ever, the cats won’t even need to receive regularly injections of the drug. In a setup that seems designed to fuel conspiracy theories but is intended to make the treatment more convenient for owners, the cats will instead be injected with microchip-sized implants that slowly release the drug for periods up to six months, according to the reporting. Okava hopes to carry out similar trials in dogs.

“You insert that capsule under the skin, and then you come back six months later, and the cat has lost the weight,” Chen Gilor, a veterinarian at the University of Florida, who is leading the study, told the NYT. “It’s like magic.”

https://futurism.com/health-medicine/scientists-testing-ozempic-dogs-cats

NOOTE:  A very royal reader of IST  Pete of beetlepete has posted about the medical problems his wife Julie is facing…..so I ask my readers to please Julie and Pete in your thoughts for her speedy recovery…..for those that may not be familiar with Pete’s blog here is the post….

A Blogging Pause

Thank you for your time and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”