SeniorJunior

Nicotinamide Riboside, Etc., Etc. Etc..... In the longevity extender greyhound race (the real rabbit is healthy life extension), there are a few contenders running around the track. We don't realize the rabbit we're chasing is fake.  But hey...* Those in the race There's resveratrol from red wine grapes, peanuts, blueberries and a bunch more foods. There's trans-resveratrol from Japanese knotweed. (Not weed!) And  Pterostilbene , a variant on resveratrol. And Metformin, the well tolerated treatment for diabetes. Plus  Rapamycin (prescription), the  immunosuppressant used in organ transplants. (This one's kind of scary to me - side effects and all.  Now COMING UP FROM BEHIND is  Nicotinamide Riboside.  This one sprang into general awareness thanks to the entrepreneur's magazine Fast Company . They had a youthifying headline: One Of The World's Top Aging Researchers Has A Pill To Keep You Feeling Young The top...

What's a "Pro-Lifer" to do? Thanks in part to slow thinking House Republicans, the zika virus is about to invade the U.S. South and bring  a plague of Biblical proportions. Every pregnant woman's baby-to-be will be threatened with horrible birth defects, life destroying defects. Without massive intervention, a whole generation of children and their families will be deeply scarred.  Microcephaly  is but the most obvious, and there are more and more discoveries of tragic impacts of this mosquito-borne disease. What is the obvious response to, say, an ultrasound examination that reveals a badly damaged fetus? Pro-Life What would you do? Especially what would you do if you are a profound pro-lifer? What do you expect your religious and political pro-life leaders to say? Pro-choice A pro-choice person will undoubtedly suffer the deep pain anyone experiences at this horrible decision, then she will go ahead and get the abortion (...

"Comments" For several years, most of my opinionating happened on this blog.  Lately, my time at the keyboard has been mostly devoted to fictionalizing.  However, the opinions keep storming up out of my deeper brain centers and are impossible to repress.  So my efforts have moved to making "comments" on various articles, columns and op-eds. I have a sneaking feeling that these tidbits get more readership than they would if they appeared only on this blog. And since they are in response to something (sometimes to other commenters commenting on the column), I don't really have to establish a context, thus I can be pithier.  I love pithy. ANYWAY.... Here are my recent efforts.  Granted they might not make any sense if you didn't read the piece I'm commenting on. But at least you can see I haven't entirely abandoned reality for sci-fi. NEW SEQUENCING   From this point, the latest comments will be here first, rather than at the ever-retreating ...