Posts

Not the WAY(S) You Want to Die*

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 All The Latest On  The Fungus Pestilence A friend of mine, recovering from sepsis (bad enough, but he was getting over it) was suddenly infected with "a yeast infection**," without further details. It killed him rather quickly. The hospital won't say any more, and guess what?  Hospitals are protected from having to disclose fungal infection outbreaks!! [From a NY Times piece :   By  Matt Richtel ,  Andrew Jacobs   April 6, 2019    "With bacteria and fungi alike, hospitals and local governments are  reluctant to disclose outbreaks  for fear of being seen as infection hubs.      Even the C.D.C., under its agreement with states,  is  not allowed to make public the location or name of hospitals involved in outbreaks. "]   Now This new article really gets my attention: ^ SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Link Deadly Fungi Are the Newest Emerging Microbe Threat All Over the World These pathogens already kill 1.6 million people every year, and we have few defenses against them 75,0

Huge GUT News

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  ***  NOT about a Huge Gut... But huge news about the MicroBiome,  that collection of trillions of microbes  we all have in our guts (large or small). 1. Increase your motivation! 2. Exercise more (because you want to)! Just up your portion of  Eubacterium rectale and Coprococcus eutactus, two of the microbes research identifies as the wee critters that make major contributions to these two get-up-and-go drives . The powers of the human microbiome have been a focus of this blog for years now.  Seems like every week there are new findings. News about this one comes from Penn Medicine News    Gut Microbes Can Boost  the Motivation to Exercise,  Penn Medicine Study Finds Study in mice uncovers gut-to-brain pathway  that increases exercise performance =? ...and the research report is in Nature. NEWS AND VIEWS 14 December 2022 Gut microbes shape athletic  motivation Microorganisms in the gut produce molecules that activate sensory neurons, stimulating exercise-associated reward circuits

Should We Rewrite Some History?

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Things Would Have Been a LOT Different Without Alpha males If this parasite, Toxoplasma gondii  is a main cause of Alpha males, a tiny parasite changed the  course of human history.  [re: My last blog post  — about Alpha wolves and their parasites, I’m still researching, and what I find keeps blowing my elderly mind.] Since there have been human Alpha males all through recorded history, I assume they were around for some of pre-history as well.  Alpha males, risk-taking, overly confident, aggressive men, egged on by T.gondii since the time we started getting infected with them in significan numbers. (See “cats” below) Society’s evolution has been seriously impacted by this kind of man... particularly the "hyper Alphas..."  I'm Genghis I'm Alex I'm Atilla ...like Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Atilla the Hun et al, and the huge collection of Pharaohs, Kings, Emperors, and other autocrats who "rose to the top" with their Alpha brains driving them.  If

Alpha Schmalpha, It Could Be Parasites!

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Is This What It Takes To Be A Leader? We are   Toxoplasma gondii all cozy in our cyst. You can call us POWER PROTOZOAN PARASITES 24 November 2022  (headline in nature ) Parasite gives male wolves  what it takes to be pack leaders S howing the behavioral effects of  Toxoplasma gondii  in wild animals This is my Alpha Wolf smile! From the nature study:  Researchers looked at 256 blood samples from the 229 wolves that had their life histories and social status recorded.  They found that T.Gondii infected wolves were 11 times more likely than uninfected ones to start a new pack, and 46 times more likely to become pack leaders, often the only males in the pack that breed. Now that’s ALPHA, baby.                  So.... You might ask, How About Alpha Male People ?   Up to one-fifth of humans might be chronically infected with T. Gondii.  ONE FIFTH!   [Maybe more. The info keeps rolling in.] From the report :  Physical and behavioral changes have been found with infected human males: test

Five Stars !!!

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  History That's Exciting,  Ultra (!) Relevant         and Ultimately Reassuring (What a deal!) In 1940 I was 3 and 4 years old, so you wouldn't expect me to be keeping up with the political scene. But I could have told you who Gabriel Heatter and Walter Winchell were: Men on the radio who talked funny.  I thought Gabriel Heatter had the funniest name going. ("Gabriel Stove" I said a lot, laughing every time.) I missed most of what they were reporting, probably because I was laughing.   Rachael Maddow, and a great MSNBC team have put together an 8-part podcast that makes that 1940 span leap to life, It's modestly called: It's got everything: Deadly plane crash, armed bands of insurrectionists, corrupt politicians, star special prosecutors, nasty anti-Semites, lotsa Nazis, out-of-control lawyers, private spies, Roosevelt haters... oh it's got everything (but sex, and sex isn't nearly as interesting as the other stuff). I rarely-to-never binge, but I we

Blatant Plug

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  In Case You Missed This...         An  award won  by another Scooter Duff book. Check out this  heart-stopping, hilarious , nutso winner  HERE * Modestly yours, scooter * Or HERE .

Extended Youth -- in CONGRESS! (They need it)

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  ONE OF THE HUGE STORIES YOU (ALMOST) CAN'T FIND IN THE NEWS U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS AND OVERSIGHT HEARING CHARTER  The Fountain of Youth? The Quest for Aging Therapies  Thursday, September 15, 2022 10:00 a.m. EDT – 12:00 p.m. EDT  2318 Rayburn House Office Building and Online via Zoom "Fountain of Youth!?" Now, you know as well as I do that this is not your grandfather's House subcommittee meeting.  It's right up there with the recent    UFO-related House committee hearings. This hearing was really, really good!  Three of the top experts in this "fountain of youth" field testified: • Dr. Jay Olshansky "Geroscience has come of age. It is the culmination of decades of research. It is not a theoretical construct – it has been demonstrated in the laboratory that rate of aging can be modified..."  • Dr. Laura Niedernhofer  "A Geroscience approach is anticipated