Just another wintry Saturday and the news goes on….
Local–Down here we are well into the Mardi Gras season…parades, floats, crowds and amateur alcoholics….I am too old too put up with the nonsense.
Personal–I am not a huge sports fan but I do like hockey and the Winter Olympics have begun and I can watch many hours of a sport I like…..both men and women’s….
Here is a fun fact–a 30 second ad for the Super Bowl will cost in the neighborhood of $10 million…..corporations have too much money to piss away.
Let’s begin with the news that no one will ever use….
For me the big news story was all that plastic in the Pacific…..
In a world where the scale of plastic pollution can feel overwhelming, 2025 brought a milestone worth celebrating: The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch nonprofit dedicated to removing plastic from marine environments, pulled more than 25 million kilograms of waste from global waters last year alone. That’s over 55 million pounds or about 2,000 garbage trucks’ worth of plastic that is no longer drifting through our oceans.
The achievement brings their cumulative haul to more than 45 million kilos (99 million pounds) since operations began. This number not only reflects enormous operational progress, but also offers a sobering reminder of just how vast the challenge remains.
For eons people have debated if there is life after death….and now….
Death has always been seen standing in stark opposition to life, yet new groundbreaking research may shift this understanding. Scientists are diving into a mysterious biological phenomenon known as the “third state.” This is a state in which cells from dead organisms can reorganize into new multicellular life forms with alternative functions they never had while alive. Researchers at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and City of Hope Cancer Center documented this phenomenon in a 2024 study published in the journal Physiology.
Death is usually a definitive, irreversible cessation of an organism’s overall function; however, certain cells take on a new meaning to “life” and even transform after death occurs. Peter Noble, a microbiologist at the University of Alabama Birmingham, told The Conversation that this third state suggests that organismal death may play a significant role in how life transforms over time.
Getting some new ‘kicks’ has always been a fashion desire….but could it boost your brain?
thletic footwear has entered a new era of ambition. No longer content to promise just comfort or performance, Nike claims its shoes can activate the brain, heighten sensory awareness and even improve concentration by stimulating the bottom of your feet.
“By studying perception, attention and sensory feedback, we’re tapping into the brain-body connection in new ways,” said Nike’s chief science officer, Matthew Nurse, in the company’s press release for the shoes. “It’s not just about running faster — it’s about feeling more present, focused and resilient.”
Other brands like Naboso sell “neuro-insoles,” socks and other sensory-based footwear to stimulate the nervous system.
It’s a compelling idea: The feet are rich in sensory receptors, so could stimulating them really sharpen the mind?
As a neurosurgeon who studies the brain, I’ve found that neuroscience suggests the reality is more complicated – and far less dramatic – than the marketing implies.
One of my favorite food stuffs…..cheese….
A long-running Swedish study has found that middle-aged and older adults who ate higher amounts of full-fat cheese and cream had a lower risk of developing dementia. While the results may sound encouraging, researchers stress that they should be interpreted with caution.
The study tracked 27,670 people over a 25-year period, during which 3,208 participants were diagnosed with dementia. Among individuals without a known genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease, consuming more than 50 grams of full-fat cheese each day was associated with a 13%–17% lower risk of Alzheimer’s. This association was not observed in participants who carried genetic risk factors for the disease.
Higher intake of full-fat cream showed a similar pattern. People who consumed more than 20 grams per day had a 16%–24% lower overall risk of dementia. In contrast, the researchers found no meaningful links between dementia risk and consumption of low-fat or high-fat milk, fermented or non-fermented milk, or low-fat cream.
No matter I will not give up on my cheese.
One of the newest fads is those injectable drugs to help with weight loss….but are they all that and more?
Ozempic and Wegovy drugs may seem like a quick road to weight loss, but doctors say that short-term framing can be a problem. The Wall Street Journal presents a slew of metrics that show the standout benefits of GLP-1s are quickly reversed once they’re no longer taken:
- Almost 1 in 5 US adults have tried a GLP-1 for weight loss. About 50% quit taking it within 12 months.
- Studies show most people regain much of the weight within about 18 months, and they put the pounds back on four times faster than those who lose weight through lifestyle interventions.
- BMJ review of weight-loss studies found people lost an average of 32 pounds using a GLP-1 but regained 21 pounds within a year of stopping the drug.
- All the blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood-glucose level benefits the drugs bestow reverse in about the same timeline: When people stopped taking the GLP-1, their levels were back at baseline within 1.4 years.
- Kevin Hall, formerly of the National Institutes of Health, explains appetite is a big factor: When you lose weight, your appetite increases; GLP-1s blunt the food noise, “but once you’re off the drugs and lost so much weight, your appetite is much higher than it was to begin with” and your metabolism has slowed.
- So is it foolish to start a GLP-1 if you don’t plan to be on it for good? Not exactly, says obesity-medicine specialist Dr. Robert Kushner. “I would never say to them there’s no point in starting, but I will tell them right up front we have to start thinking of the day after stopping now.”
- But the stats that Dr. Michelle Hauser, obesity medicine director of the Stanford Lifestyle and Weight Management Center, shares with the New York Times aren’t particularly encouraging: She estimates less than 10 of her patients have maintained at least 75% of their weight loss after stopping their GLP-1 without opting for bariatric surgery or another medication. “Those are people that are working out two hours a day, tracking what they’re eating, they’re really working hard,” she said. “I haven’t had anyone that just tapers off, isn’t really putting that much thought into it, and just keeps the weight off. I’ve never seen that happen.”
- The Times notes that Oprah Winfrey has been public about experiencing this very thing. In a December interview with People, she said she stopped her GLP-1 “cold turkey” after taking it for about six months. “I tried to beat the medication,” she said, and despite exercising and eating a healthy diet, she regained 20 pounds in a year, leading her to realize that taking the drug would “be a lifetime thing.”
Try eating less.
When I lived in Colorado I owned a ski store and twice a week we would offer free hot dogs to customers….the leftovers I would take out and put out for the crows they would eat everything but the hot dogs that should tell you something.
Have you ever caught a crow staring back at you with those dark, intelligent eyes and wondered what’s going on in there? These feathered creatures, often dismissed as mere scavengers, are turning out to be some of the most cognitively gifted animals on the planet. Recent scientific breakthroughs reveal that crows possess abilities once thought exclusive to humans and our closest primate relatives.
From recognizing individual human faces to creating sophisticated tools, from counting out loud to planning multiple steps ahead, crows are rewriting our understanding of animal intelligence. Scientists now believe these remarkable birds may rival the cognitive abilities of young children. Let’s dive into the fascinating world of crow intelligence and discover why these black beauties might just be the smartest non-human animals walking (or flying) among us today.
Crows have counting abilities more sophisticated than anyone had realized, with the birds exhibiting behaviors very similar to toddlers first learning to count. In groundbreaking research, scientists trained three carrion crows over more than 160 sessions, teaching them to associate visual and auditory cues from 1 to 4 and produce the corresponding number of caws.
The results were astonishing. The trained crows used a tallying approach to counting that mirrors the way young children first begin to communicate numbers. For example, if there are three apples on a tree, a toddler may say ‘one, two, three’ or ‘one, one, one’ with the number of sounds matching the number of objects
They also seek revenge….my ex-brother-in-law use to chase off the crows even would fire off a shotgun to scare them off and every mourning his truck was covered in crow crap while mine parked close by was never attacked.
Go out and enjoy your Saturday….enjoy family, friends and food and of course fun and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”