SeniorJunior

    Looking like a bad exit wound         The heart of a frightening drought.               T he meteorologists call it "Exceptional,"                       Which is the tip top of the drought severity scale.                               I'd call it..... ...CRAZY DRY And it has been CRAZY WINDY with some DRY LIGHTNING .  And CARELESS HUMANS . All they can do is try to save houses and barns Last year we had the Dog Head Fire in our neighborhood.    We were all packed up and ready to evacuate. All irreplaceables were in storage.        Dogs were kenneled. Cat crates were ready. Friends were ready to put us up.              When I hear "2000 people evacuated," it has a visceral impact. ...

First New Flu Med in Twenty Years (You have to read "pharma news" to find stuff like this. I do.) U.S. Availability by Christmas - maybe (Available in Japan now) I wich I wad Japudeez Baloxavir marboxil is a medication developed by Shionogi Co., a Japanese pharmaceutical company, for treatment of influenza A and influenza B.  The drug was approved for use in Japan in February 2018  and is in late phase trials in the United States as of early 2018.  Drugbank.ca That's an accelerated approval track. Roche's Genentech* bought the license from Shionogi, so the FDA put their approval on a "fast track." – If approved, baloxavir marboxil would be the first oral, single-dose antiviral and the first medicine with a novel proposed mechanism of action to treat the flu in nearly 20 years – BusinessWire.com    One of it's great benefits is cutting  down  on how contagious we are ("viral shedding")! Since we are all just waiting for...

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...  But go ahead, who - between these two eccentric guys - looks the best? "He" #1  "He" #2 #1  Did these things: He created the Environmental Protection Agency He created  the Occupation Safety and Health  Administration.  He signed into law the Clean Air Act He signed the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.  He dramatically expanded the federal food stamp  program. He advocated for universal health-care coverage,  with subsidies for  low-income Americans. (Oh, and he totally screwed up with Watergate.) #2 Promised these things in the campaign He was FOR Raising taxes on the rich.  He was FOR investing in infrastructure on a massive scale.  He promised to Protect Social Security and Medicare from any cuts. His campaign even discussed breaking up the biggest banks.  You know what He #2 has actually done (much of it undoing what #1 did )- and doing NONE of these ...

The I-Can't-Help-Myself Political Rant I don't do it often, but there you go. Our Government in “Action” The Compromise immigration bill, that The House will (won’t?) vote on next week creates far more problems than it solves.  Fixing the DACA horror and stopping family separations would be really good, but at the price of a major stupidity that will harm America for decades would be really, really bad . “Hanging in the balance is legal protection for young immigrants covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program; money for President Donald Trump's border wall* ; steep cuts to legal immigration; and a long-term strategy for addressing family separations at the border.” $Billions for a boondoggle that won’t work and will do vast environmental damage = Trump’s Wall . ...Just my humble opinion, but I’m mightily opposed to The Wall, preferring high tech border control that will work better, cost billions less and not interrupt mi...

We Are Shooting Ourselves in the Foot. Both feet, actually. Autoimmune diseases, diabetes and obesity are on a tear ,  growing worldwide (over 10% a year!), and conspicuously more in the U.S. "Western Civilization" has almost exterminated a great ally and opened the gates to an invasion of ailments that make us miserable and shorten our lives. Now we have figured out the problem and know how to correct our terrible mistake. [And I'm not just talking more exercise and less fast food.]  It starts with all our newborns! (See below) The Invasion of the Misery Makers If none of these has hit you you can guess what they are from the pharma ads on TV. Psoriasis; psoriasis arthritis credit Lupus, Graves disease, Asthma credit And especially Celiac disease. credit Our other, deadlier diseases on the fast elevator up. Diabetes Obesity   I look better in clothes. credit A HUGE UNINTENDED CONSEQUEN...

Separate Those Parents and Kids! Look into my eyes.  Deeper, deeper.... The Daily Beast

Getting All Flowery. And  Ayurvedic   New Front Opened in the War On Aging - Telomerase Adding a new substance to the brew of my "life extension" (anti-aging) formula. It's a hobby. The little end-caps on your DNA are telomeres. They wear out or fall off letting the DNA leak all over the kitchen floor which is an aging experience. Telomerase keeps the telomeres functional.  One supplement outfit that I subscribe to,  LiveCellResearch.com scans credible research and puts together attractive supplement combinations based on recent findings. They  aggressively market with well written emails. Since they reference a lot sources - and I check them - I find them c redible.  I give them the credit for turning me onto this combination. (They sell a Cadillac version, but I started out with the Pontiac version.) Ashwagandha    The Big brand in India, " Tranqualine" is the Caddy concentrate KSM-66 (LCR.com uses it). Their site came up under...

No More $enescence! Big Money Folks Want to Live Longer ....And what Big Bucker$ want, they usually get. Then, after the prices go down, the rest of us buy some at CVS. Over the counter, maybe. As you possibly know, the "life extension" field is of interest to me. Being 81 and watching my pals crash and burn all around me keeps me focused.  Among my musings on this, there's: Anti-aging Pills Aplenty Am I Getting Any Younger ? More Fountain of Youth Stuff   You've undoubtedly read some of the Google gazillions are going into longevity research with  Calico .  Genomics guru Craig Venter and innovation specialist Peter Diamandis founded  Human Longevity Inc. You've heard of the Segway inventor Dean Kaman; and there's Ray Kurzweil. The list of major investments and investors is Looong. And the websites! Longevity is a whole new category. Like Aging 2.0 . And many, many more. Here's a great Update Article on another billionaire, Brit Jim...

(Bet you thought this was about Trump.) When All the Merging Is Done No more troublesome competition. No more question who owns the politicians.  Everyone will be happy. Everyone will be happy. Everyone will be happy. Everyone will be happy. Everyone.. Costco, the size of Vermont* AT&T/Time Warner, finishing the Deathstar** * Costco in Idiocracy  (the brilliant Mike Judge sci-fi satire, complete with a future Trump.) ** ars Technica                   Mother Load

America Has an Autoimmune Disease New Medical Discovery at PUI (Punditus Universal Institute) America Losing Its Grip! I had one helluva grip in the day. To grasp the full implications of this sociomedical discovery, it's necessary to mine some bit-terms. SocioMedical Terms Civilization : the list of humanity's flaws with various attempts to correct for them. There is a positive side effect . Humanity : the first hominid to evolve a big brain and have this great body with hands, eyes, etc. Flaws :  Tends to feud among themselves; Deceitful to varying degrees; Capable of destructive rage; Selfish along with unselfish; Possessive & territorial; Acquisitive; Short sighted; Slow to adapt to change; Intelligent in a wide spectrum... Oh the list is long. Positive side effect : All the effort to correct for the flaws lets the strengths and productive traits arise. Attempts to correct : Depends on the objective.  A civilization with the objective of b...

         GUT 4.0  by scooter duff Coming Soon

The U.S. is Again #1 in Supercomputer speed... . ..For a bit You should see my graphics! The machine is named Summit, and it's designed for A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). Here's the well written story on it in the NY Times. Sure, the U.S. is ahead by a nose...But it's just for a bit. There is a worldwide race for supercomputing supremacy, because the stakes are so incredibly high. We are in the lead at this moment, and congratulations to the computer scientists as Oak Ridge National Labs, and let's celebrate while we can.  But watch your flanks; that may be a Chinese quantum computer coming around to the side door. No Time to Sit On our Graphics Cards!

The Holy Grail - REAL Investigative Reporting Money Hungry Managed Care Company in THE Under-regulated State Harm to babies in the pursuit of profits The Dallas Morning News has been one helluva newspaper for a long time. Under the leadership of Publisher Jim Moroney, a huge investigation was started over a year ago. The findings are devastating. Texas, My Texas Just imagine, a healthcare company more interested in profits than saving lives of babies! Just imagine a "managed-care" company denying care, but still talking the (BIG) money! Just imagine fictitious doctor "networks!" Just imagine, state officials failing at every level in overseeing it all! OK, stop imagining and look at this stunning bit of real, super documented,  investigative journalism. Roll up your sleeves and READ THE REPORT HERE. PAIN AND PROFIT

Duking It Out in the Comments Sections     I just have to write comments a lot. Thats a disgusting habit I've got. ... and mostly it's good old politics that fires up my fingers, pushing my purely polarized platitudes across the  pissoire of passionate positions. Political positions, that is.* NM Political Report story:   Understaffed National Parks   Stop complaining! Long lines are the National Park tradition. Scooter Duff   "Government is bad," the Reagan mantra, is pushed into the self-fulfilling prophecy range by underfunding government's critical jobs. (Of course that leaves more money to give to major funders via tax cuts.) No problem! Just privatize the National Parks. The Republican way. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Washington Post : Ann Telnaes cartoon:    Trump deal w/Chinese money and “saving Chinese jobs . ”  Lower, lower! scifiscooter The Forever Trumpsters must feel like their finge...