M.N. proposed? Good for her!

Martina Navratilova proposed at US Open today, Good on her! I hope that this pair bonding lasts a good while.

I never really discuss my views on LGBTH(the "H" is for hetero) issues. I s'pose it just never occurs me to comment on such issues. If two--or more--humans are of the age of consent, and these humans wish to bring it to the level of matrimony, I am good with that. Of course being a materialistic human with a bent towards an anarchistic political view, it is too natural a fit for me not to don.

I am not much of a sports fan, but Martina N. really transcends the whole sports legend title. She seems such a fine human being.

That said, I adored watching M.N and Steffi Graf battle in the late 1980s. They are giants.

In ebola news, the NYT has an editorial that distills just what I have gone on about this summer.. and adds "Given the W.H.O.’s weaknesses, the White House ought to consider whether the United States should take the lead."

Here is some speculation as to why the US has yet to lead on this issue. Obama is now an embattled president. I feel pretty confident in stating that Obama would like to lead on this issue, but cannot at present. There are essentially two reasons why he will not lead until perhaps later this year. Half of the answer can be divined from the last sentence.

As much as it only makes perfect sense for the US to lead on this issue, things are not likely to change until after the mid-term elections.

The apple cart is on three wheels as it is, and who knows what would happen if Obama was to do something more regarding the West African ebola outbreak? That this is even a potential issue, is truly a shame.

The other part of equation is inexorably linked to that which was just stated. If Obama moved forward with real zeal regarding the West African ebola outbreak, one can almost be certain that skin color would rear its fucking ugly heed. Oh, it would not be shouted, but racial undertones would almost certainly be spawned by those petty minded fools that we have for pundits.

Really, Obama's second term has almost all been about race when one removes the chaff. I cannot figure out why people do not seem to care for the ACA. Okay, if one sets aside stupidity, incestuous coupling, and not having any command whatever about the real facts, THEN I only know of one reason why people are upset about the ACA. It is a color issue.

I do not know if it has even been brought up but everything wrong with Iraq--from IEDs to ISIS--are squarely braindead Bush's deals.

That Obama's polling numbers are so low are only due to some kind of weird collective amnesia. There seem to be no limits to the paths to stupidity, but few to the light of knowledge.

I cannot fathom why today's GOP holds Reagan is such regard. Ronald Reagan was very likely the worst president of the 20th century. I can do it by the numbers if I must. It just gets really ugly for Saint Ronnie when I do so.

Shit! A mostly political rant.

Sorry 'bout that. I am off to hang my head in the corner. Honestly, I am sorry.

We are still No. 1!

In obesity rates in the Western world.

Does this really surprise anyone? The sheer oddity of television programming..."Man Vs. Food" and an entire network dedicated to rich foods are but two mainstream examples of the celebration of caloric excess.

one would think that the "heartland"(honestly, the pun was unintentional) would have lower rates of obesity due to the still ongoing meth epidemic. It would be funny if it was not true..that is another tragedy.

Kidding aside, I see no reason for the US to be the tubbiest country. The medical costs must be absolutely huge.

I have things to say about tobacco proucts, spirits, and the lack of universal motorcycle laws, but I really do not want to show my authoritarian side.

The US needs to lighten up..literally.

News cases of ebola confirmed in Nigeria, approx. 400 being monitored

If there has been a worse handling of an ebola case in this outbreak I will become incensed.

Here is a bit from the article:

...After having contact with an Ebola patient and before his own death on Aug. 22, the Port Harcourt doctor, named by local authorities as Iyke Enemuo, carried on treating patients and met scores of friends, relatives and medics, leaving about 60 of them at high risk of infection, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

The doctor's wife, who is also a physician, and a patient in the same hospital have been infected with Ebola, the WHO said.

"Everything about this doctor was in secrecy, he violated our public health laws by treating a patient with a highly pathogenic agent who revealed to him that he had contact with Ebola and didn't want to be treated in Lagos because he might be put in isolation," Nasidi said.

"He treated him in secrecy outside hospital premises. When he became ill he did not reveal to his colleagues that he had contact with someone who contracted Ebola. He was taken to General Hospital, a private hospital that sees everybody.

"That is the only case that effectively escaped our surveillance network. We are paying now for it," Nasidi said.

He spoke on the sidelines of a two-day WHO experts meeting aimed at speeding development of Ebola drugs and vaccines.

That is almost a textbook definition of insanity. *shakes head*

The above practice had better not be happening on any scale, or West Africa will not get this outbreak under control.

More about Lyme..which is now Borreliosis.

I am really going to have to go with what many are now calling Lyme illness: Borreliosis. After all, The WHO has finally awoken to the fact there are almost certainly several different Borrelia "serotypes" that present in roughly the same way.

There is some potentially good news surrounding Borreliosis.

On 17 Sept. Lyme activists will be speaking "Out at NY Times with Silence Against Silence".

The medico-insurance complex is way behind the ball on Borreliosis. I should really blockquote the whole article. Screw it, I am going top simply do just that.

New York, NY—On Wednesday, September 17, 2014, Lyme disease patients from around the U.S. will unite at the headquarters of the New York Times to call for greater coverage of the Lyme disease pandemic.

Lyme patients are using the NY Times as a symbol for the media as a whole to bring attention to the general underreporting of this public health crisis. By holding a silent vigil, Lyme patients are speaking out with silence against the silence.

“Increased media coverage will mean the difference between crippling debilitation and a normal life for hundreds of thousands of people. Greater public awareness can lead to prevention and increased funding for research, and that’s our goal with this event,” says Jill Auerbach, Chairperson of the Hudson Valley Lyme Disease Association.

Butoh dancers from the Vangeline Theater in Brooklyn will be performing at the vigil in support of raising awareness. Dancers will be dressed in white and will perform in silence, as an expression of the silent suffering of Lyme patients.

In 2013, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that rather than 30,000 new Lyme cases annually, there’s an estimated 300,000.

But other Lyme disease experts estimate that there are likely 1 to 2 million new cases per year.

Despite the rapidly escalating rates, the media has given Lyme significantly less coverage than other diseases that are less prevalent in the U.S.

A Google news archives search shows 12,100 results for “Lyme disease” in contrast to 117,000 for “HIV.”

Annual rates of Lyme disease far exceed annual rates of HIV in the United States by sixfold. Dr. Marc Conant, who was at the forefront of the AIDS movement, says that we are repeating past mistakes made handling the AIDS epidemic with Lyme disease: “In the early days of the AIDS crisis, there was little effort made to do public awareness and consequently the epidemic escalated to disastrous proportions.”

Dr. Jane Marke, M.D. believes that Lyme disease is the new AIDS epidemic in New York: “I encounter so many people here who either have Lyme disease or have a family member afflicted with the disease. It’s become a serious problem but nobody is talking about it.”

Unlike the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s where many able-bodied people took to the streets on behalf of sick AIDS patients, those struggling with Lyme disease have been primarily waging this battle alone.

Many Lyme patients are so debilitated that they’re having to engage in a new kind of activism—activism from a homebound or bedbound state.

Sick Lyme patients are fighting a David and Goliath war against the CDC and HMOs who assert that a 2- to 4-week course of antibiotics cures all patients. But people like 34-year-old Josh Cutler, who is still severely ill after taking the recommended treatment, insist that a short course of antibiotics does not work for many: “We’re dealing with an all profit, no care attitude by HMOs and it’s having a serious impact on families and our economy.”

Attorney Lorraine Johnson, Executive Director for LymeDisease.org, describes the financial impact of Lyme disease: “Eighty-four percent [of Lyme patients] are not diagnosed within 4 months; 65% of those with chronic Lyme have had to cut back on or quit work or school. . . . One thing that is certain is that ignoring this problem is costly and grows more costly every day that we fail to intervene.”

Dr. Richard Horowitz explains the long-term consequences on future generations: “We’re talking about a worldwide epidemic that is affecting the future generations of this country, dumbing down America. This lowers down your IQ, it affects your memory and concentration . . . These organisms will get into pregnant women and get into children . . . There’s got to be an awakening soon because this epidemic is spreading.”

In related news....

Drs. are blowing off the accepted protocols and treating Lyme victims far longer than a month. YAY!

and the CDC offers that perhaps as many as 1.5 million..in the US alone.

I should update my own tale of Borreliosis..I have no symptoms whatever, so 34 days of 400mg/day doxycycline worked for my stage 1 Borreliosis. My two 'house guests' AKA tenants both have had Borreliosis treated successfully as well. There are but three of us in this abode, and we have all had confirmed Borreliosis.

As I have stated before, I will not leave all of my healthcare decisions to those that are motivated by profit, not results.

Ebola death toll passes 1,900 per WHO

More than 1,900 people have now died of Ebola in West Africa, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, warning the world’s worst-ever outbreak of the virus is still gathering pace.

There are now more than 3,500 confirmed cases since the West African outbreak began in December of 2013.

Ofttimes being correct is not a very nice place. I again post my chart from 08.25.2014:

I have no ability in forecasting anything. I just extended the trendlines; and the trend will stay in place until the contagion level and death toll undergo some transformation. Extending the graph until 1 October will be very sobering indeed. I will do so after I get back from a show on 09.06.2014 or 09.07.2014..it is a two day event, and it is out of doors. The weather forecast for 09.06.2014 is very much up in the air at this juncture. I will post pics of one of my other lives.

Warning: Quasi-political post below! Hey, it has to do with that Duck guy...

At any rate, I have no idea if the Duck guy--one Phil Robertson--is intelligent or not. There is no evidence to support a hypothesis that he plays chess against Deep Blue for fun, or trades academic barbs against that Hawking fellow.

The guy has demonstrably deep seated issues with reality.

In addition to his "fire and brimstone" sermonizing, his latest attempt to stay in the spotlight is by bloviating to Sean Hannity that ISIS members should be converted or killed.

Thoughtful Phil Isn't going to Iraq to do battle with the evil-doers, but he would seemingly send others to do the converting..or killing. Or whatever.

Thoughtful Phil also laughably states that "You think about it, most of the wars we've fought, they were not asymmetrical like this one." Uhh, what? EVERY war since the one where the US gained independence have been lopsided affairs*. That is, "asymmetrical."

Thoughtful Phil should go to Iraq and lead his army--with no weapons save for the Holy book--and do this deed for the country that still gives a public arena with which to spout his progressive views. For if he truly believes in The Holy Bible, righteous Phil cannot be harmed.

Barring his crusading pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the dude should just keep his trap closed. He really makes the rest of us seem like fools. Really. I wonder if Thoughtful Phil knows the meaning of narcissism?

* WWII was really both won by the Russians, and lost by Hitler; and his methamphetamine addled brain deciding to fight the war on two fronts. Good try, though.

Good Morning America mentions ebola!

Stop the universe from expanding! Just this AM, the awful morning "news"(??) television program gave few precious minutes of airtime to the West African ebola epidemic. Of course the sub-text is that l'épidémie most likely only got some airtime because..you guessed it..another American doctor has tested positive for ebola. Yes, a US citizen. GMA is the only TV news that I watch; and that is only because it what the television is tuned to during my morning wake-up coffee. At least the epidemic was acknowledged.

It is very sobering that my updated ebola case and fatality graph has proven to be eerily accurate.

I was going to link to an article that states what is abundantly clear to anyone following the outbreak in West Afice; that ebola cases are "likely increase in the coming weeks." I do not think that necessary.

However, I have found a new source of interesting data--at least potentially--related to all of the ebola outbreaks to date. This one too, is sobering. Africa: Banning Bushmeat to Stem Ebola Outbreaks Is Unworkable, Expert Says. A fascinating read. One need be wary of the "parinet zero" claim in the article. To the best of my knowledge, the 2 year old toddler has not been definitively identified as "patient zero," but was, at least certainly was among the first to break with ebola.

Both linked articles have some nebulous data on ebola's circulation in nature, and while bats--especially fruit bats--are almost certainly a primary source as ebola virus antibodies have been found in fruit bats, it may be that there are other hosts as well. Fruit bats are a confirmed natural host. The bushmeat piece is my ebola addition for this entry. The other stuff is all filler.

iCloud may have been hacked by ancient trick

According to reports A simple brute force attack seems the likely culprit at this point in the investigation. That'is simply inexcusable. The basics of a brute force attack are repeated password guessing until the attacking program and computer hit upon the correct password. It's really only a matter of time if no lock-outs are issued after say..three tries. That's a pretty standard number of attempts before an account lock-out is issued. The iCloud HAD no such measure in place.

I remember discussing this kind of simple attack 15 years ago with a then 13 year old programmer from across the country. 15 YEARS AGO! He wanted me to write a password generator for him to break into a single not for profit website of no real substance. Of course I did not even give him a hint as to where to start, but he ultimately hacked the forums of the site. The lad was so proud. Kids..Sheesh!

BTW, I have no idea who Dam Kaminsky--chief scientist for Whiteops.com--is, but whatever he is smoking, I would give it a trial.

The iCloud hole was an airplane hangar door. The simplest answer is most often the correct one. No desktop compromise was needed. None is indicated. Ockham's Razor applied to computer forensics. Hackers being hacked? Nahhhh!

If it turns out that this Kaminsky bloke is correct, I will eat my hat, your hat, and anyone else that wants a hat consumed.

In humorous and related news Apple stock was actually up a bit last I checked. Oh what delicious irony.

"Man, those are some frigid bitches"

On the lighter side* it is being reported that famous Russian geckos sent into orbit to do "the nasty" have all returned freeze-dried. Some headlines are, or course, better than others. My favorite bit of journalistic hooliganism is this: Russia in Mourning over the Death of Its Space Love Geckos. Unsurprisingly to me, fruit flies..you know it just has to be Drosophila melanogaster...on the same flight did not expire. I had to breed those little bio-markers of evolution many a time, and the only time I was able to extinguish them was when I knocked them out with ether prior to sorting for traits and forgot about my brood over a weekend. Other than that, even my sorting damaged nary a one.

Fear not gentle reader, I still got top marks(98%?) in that biology class. I do not recall what I told the teacher about my fruit fly disaster, but it must have been a sound lie.

* I adore all forms of life. Okay, a lot fewer ticks and brain eating amoebae. I could also do without ebola virus which really is not alive on its own--so the side is only lighter as to being less dire than most of my posts as of late. I trust that this honest disclosure will restore my nearly universal adoration and awe of all things natural.

Yes. We suck at science, but money is not the fix Plus more on ebola and social issues

While this piece makes one of basic claims about science--that the US needs to invest in basic research--it also will not likely get basic research re-funded. Why? Because our lawmakers are largely scientifically illiterate, and cannot seem to simply fund basic research for they are in constant re-election mode, and have no sense of awe and wonder it instills to those that choose career paths in basic research.

Behind saving the habitabilty of the planet for future generations of H. sapiens, this is my number two issue.

We are not raising kids on the whole with anything remotely like the scientific and mathematic abilities to even have a real shot at a science major at even the undergrad level at a really fine school. No, political science does not count as science.

It does start at home. Parents cannot tell a child why the sky appears blue, so unless a child goes in search of real answers to these kinds of questions, they are given false answers at best, and at worst 'blown off' by their parents. I grew up in a household where one parent rejoiced in my constant questioning, whilst the other only appreciated manual labor and other provincial pursuits. Yes. I was a precocious pain in the ass. But I keep asking questions 50 years later.

Today's ebola message..

Okay, so it is not aboout ebola per se, but concerns itself with West African countries suffering food shortages due to panic buying and other factors. In some of the poorest countries on earth, supply and demand still reign supreme. At this point it looks much like other price spikes wherein the costs increase in advance of unknown future supplies. *sigh*

I could put more down about health workers stricken with ebola--as well as their families--but you can find these things out for yourselves.

Opinions and data...on ebola.

I found two Op-Ed pieces today. One is spot-on accurate, and illustatrates the sociology involved in a thoughtful, lucid manner. An excellent read.

The other Op-Ed is penned by two 'infectious disease physicians,' and is somewhat more speculative, whilst illuminating a real disconnect between "Western Medicine" and that which is being dispensed in the ebola epidemic today.

I confirmed the CFR for Marburg in sub-Saharan Africa. Data here.

It is claimed by some(not by this author) than H. sapiens is an intelligent species. If we grant that, then we must also grant that altruistic behavior is most certainly not a universal given in the species. Sad, but I think that statement will stand up to close scrutiny.

Upload nude pics., and you're 'exposing' yourself...Der.

If you upload risque photos of yourself you may get burned. Sure, Apple has some explaining to do regarding iCloud security, but if people had less ego issues, this would not be an issue. Even if the paaswords to all these 'exposed' people were gleaned from different websites..and this is specious, Apple should use a combination of hardware authentication, as well as at least double authentication protocols. Making things simple for users also makes things simple for those that would like access to your data.

I do not like to promote software as I am developer, but using LastPass and having your passwords automatically changed every two weeks--or less frequently if you visit the site less frequently--is not a bad idea.

I am not terribly paranoid, but I now use the longest passwords a site will allow and if I lose my LastPass password, I would be pretty well screwed. Oh, my Lastpass password is updated on a 14 day schedule as well.

All public clouds are just that. Apple and others should use a three tries and lock the MAC address of the device attempting access out. There are lots of other ways to verify user credentials, but people want simplicity. This is not a good thing for security. The linked article does seem to excuse Apple, but that is foolishly premature. As of early this AM, Apple had yet to comment.

I do not know how the iCloud was compromised, and neither does the author of the article.

Remember kids, do not post nudies anywhere where they might be compromised.

On Edit: According to this ZDNet piece, Apple has patched a security flaw in the too aptly named "Find My iPhone" service. Henceforth to be known as "Find Anything About Me Via My iPhone" service.

I should offer full disclosure: I have an Android phone running KitKat, but I have everything Google related set to "Ask Me" or NFW. My Google Drive acct. has three utterly useless docs enclosed, and I don't take photos with a cell phone. I have a DSLR and two CMOS pocket cams with which to take pictures....Picasa has no privileges. I KNOW Google knows lots about me, but for now I can tolerate their draconian terms of service agreement. 'Tis a sad day when Microsoft has by far the best ToS agreement.

Oh great..an open atheist is running for US Congress

I long for the good old days when being an atheist automatically excluded excluded one from even bothering to seek a high office in the US. In all seriousness it has always bothered me that a person that suffers from harboring one less god-belief than others was excluded from holding office in many states. As a demogrsaphic, atheists have exceedingly low rates of the kinds of social ailments that plague theists. Not believing in anything that does not pass muster in the realm of scientific scrutiny should be lauded. Thankfully, there are less theocratic societies where this is indeed the case.

I fail to see the need to label one a non-believer in any realm where science has said: "Well mebbe, but there ain't no evidence for such a belief."

All labels do is divide us at an absolutely critical time in history when we must be united in order to move forward on leaving the planet habitable for future generations of humans.

One will see that I squarely place science deniers into the 'magical thinking' camp. I have yet to meet a denier of scientific findings that is not biased by fore-determined conclusions. I always ask them the quantify their unbeleif in the findings of science, and I have never gotten even one equation out of any of them--and their numbers are not small. Living in New Hampshire with out 'first in the nation presidential primary' gives me terrific opportunities every four years to grill candidates and their surrogates regarding science literacy. In the past it was worse than I could imagine, but now I have resigned science literacy to the level of simply awful.

It really is nonsense that people that likely hold less magical thinking are pretty much excluded from being elected to high office. Oh well.

Even more ebola...

Now that Senegal has had its first confirmed ebola patient, that brings the number of the West African countries that have had at least one confirmed case to five. I should note that the Senegalese patient likely was infected in Guinea whist attending a funeral there and in assisted in taking care of two relatives with ebola.

Things are really getting out of control in many places as rioting in Guinea erupted after a rumor had spread that "we had sprayed the market[with Ebola virus] in order to transmit the virus to locals."

In The Gambia--where there have no confirmed cases of ebola as of this moment-- the WHO has sent material support to aid in suveillance of suspected ebola cases. The news is quite sparse at this juncture, but given The Gambia's size, a thorough examination of persons entering and leaving via roads and waterways does not seem unlikely. Well, ask and sometimes you get confirmation of your suspicions. The Gambia seems pretty well locked down. This is a very positive thing that was done prior to the WHO's new commitment to The Gambia.*

*I use "The Gambia" as that is the true name of the country. "Gambia" is probably acceptable--and when I was there in 1995 the natives did call it simply "Gambia," but I will go with current naming conventions.

One More Before I Call It..

"Poli-Sci"? Really, it only gets a mention due to funding by people that are largely unaware of science. *Heavy sigh* Oh, I am listening to Pink Floyd's terrific album "Meddle" as I type this, but am in no other way under the influence of psychedelic drugs. Other drugs may apply. By the way "Fearless" is my favorite Floyd song that rarely gets air play.
Moving right along....I had better finish this before I am swept away. My GF claims that my twice per year 'indulgences' are very cleansing. Perhaps.

The EU needs good science policy. But does that mean it needs a Chief Scientific Adviser? Bollocks!

What every group needs is an incorruptible being that has nothing more to prove. Since politicians everywhere seem to need harsh language--or a 10 meter cattle prod--in order to get off their duffs and actually do something, "listen the fuck up" does not appear to be too strong a way of phrasing. Insrall a Nobel Laureate with the requisite 170+ I.Q. and be done with it!

Okay, now I am really off.

I am totally off-base here, but....

...much like the equities markets, the low hanging fruit in the Real Estate(RE) market has been picked in most markets. People with a vested interest in the Northeast US continue to bang the drum that the market has not topped. This is not true in the Boston, MA market where the deals were to had in 2008-2009. Yes, yes, I am a real estate investor--as opposed to a speculator--and perfectly decent homes that sold for(I am using a unique situation here as I may buy the property) slightly over 200K in 2010 are not getting nibbles at 165K. There is NO easy 35K to be made here. The only reason I am posting this in my sci-rech blog is that Marketwatch is not playing well with any of my three installed browsers. Marketwatch has most of the story correct.

I just wanted to add my $0.01 to the comments section, but no dice.

Okay, I am done venting.

It continues to be an off day. Who would have thought that a card carrying materialist would be so bowled over by the loss of a feline friend? Not I. And yet, here we are. I hope to be back in the science game tomorrow. As for now, I fear that I can only inflict damage so I am off.

Peace be with you and yours,

Todd

I lost a dear friend last night, and other observations

My Cat Jed died last night. No, that's not an excessive use of caps. It is how I have referred to him over the past 16 years. My Cat Jed was stolid until the very end. I will miss him dearly.

In My Cat Jed's honor I planted six balloonflower(Platycodon grandiflorus) today after burying him in the family's pet cemetery. *Heavy Sigh*

In crass consumerism the Internet is awash with rumors concerning the iPhone6. It is a phone, people. The phrase "imagined appetite" immediately leaps to mind. Full disclosure: I have owned one Apple product. It was an iPod that was given to me by client. Being in technology, shiny and new is only impressive when it does something either 10x less expensive and/or 10x better than that which it is replacing. Otherwise, it is simple evolution and that is hardly reason for excitement in any but the biological sense.

I know that I accuse most everyone(hey, that's only 50.1%!) of the populace as being functionally illiterate when it comes to science and technology when science and technology have never been more important in our lives, but at least Canadians are interested in science. Calling the Canadian populace 'scientifically literate' is stretching that thread too thin.

Ironically, in a sidebar on the webpage containing the glowing report on Canadians and their relative scientific literacy, there is this: Canada’s math, science lag bad for economy, report says.

So, Canadians seem greatly interested in science, but they largely cannot do the maths.(nod to my British audience)

At any rate, Canada is helluva lot better off than we here in the US.

Science denial is worlds simpler than developing the tools to proffer quantifiable commentary on scientific issues.

Unfortunately, those least able to deny the findings of science are the quickest to deny that which they have no toolkit to deny via quantification. This anti-intellectualism without validation is one of the scariest things confronting all of us. Okay, enough about that..now onto the follies of science.

There are scientists that are so wedded to either a pet theory and/or what amounts to scientific dogmatism that they are as bad for progress as the science deniers. Thankfully, the scientific method ultimately prevails and new paradigms and deeper understandings are arrived upon. In science, showing that your peers are wrong is lauded. It is unfortunate that this adulation may come too late for an individual scientist.

I could keep flooding the Internet with nonsense about this topic, but I will simply give an illustration.

How Oswald Avery: Discoverer of DNA as genetic information carrier was never awarded a Nobel. Almost everyone thought genetic information had to be carried by some protein structure. Avery discovered otherwise. But his discovery was not immediately heralded. Oswald T. Avery, died in 1955. No posthumous Nobels are awarded. That is a shitty thing.

Fish teaches itself to "walk"...with disclaimers :)

This is really cool. I saw this yesterday, but didn't hit upon the correct article. Bichir fish have always been fascinating. I would put mudskippers in the same tent(it is a big tent!). I thought that this was going to be a simple Tiktaalik redux. Was I ever wrong.

Fish raised out of water develop steady walking gait, Canadian researcher finds . The most fascinating thing to me is that the fry forced into a terrestrial existence lost the ability to swim. Astonishingly, the terrestrial birchirs modify body posture AND some features of their anatomy in order to better locomote. In reading one finds that the fish used in the experiment were not raised generation after generation so that selection does not come into play. The fish have the capacity sans any breeding program. Bichirs of normal environmental rearing have the ability to "walk," but not nearly as well as the terrestrially raised brood in the experiment.

LaMarckian nonsense is not going on here. The abilities and structure changes are obviously available in the current fish's genome.

If this sort of thing interests you in even a wee amount, open the link, read more, and watch video of "walking" fish.

Oh, and I am not "dissin'" Neil Shubin et al's discovery of Tiktaalik. That discovery was monumental. The transition from fishes to tetrapods is one of the greatest moments* in the history of evolution. Tiktaalik also definitively demonstrated the predictive power of evolutionary theory.

Hey, a happy entry!

*Yes. I know it was more than a moment when measured against the timescale of a human life. In geological terms, it happened pretty fast.

You know you have issues when.....

....brain-eating amoebae have taken up residence in the municipal water supply.

Things really are linked. Just the other day I was going to post this similar story as a tie-in to global climate change.

Louisiana just can't catch a break.

Is it only a coincidence that incidence of N. fowleri seems to be closely matched to the Mississippi River system? Surely I cannot be the only person to have made this observation. No. I am not speculating that "Old Man River" is a natural reservoir for brain-eating amobae. I shall remain mute on the subject until further evidence sways me one way or the other. Minnesota is the anomalous state where one wouldn't expect cases of a warm water amoeba...and yet.

I truly hope that the situation in LA is taken care of post-haste.

And now for something completely different.. Mosquito vector illnesses!

No Lyme and no ebola..this time.

I live in central New Hampshire, USA and vector-borne pathogens we got.

Eastern Equine Encephalitis(EEE) has been found in New Hampshire mosquitoes. Again. Oh, we still have our old friend West Nile Virus(WNV) about, and whilst it can be a really nasty infection, EEE is far worse.

It looks like both of these vector-borne pathogens are here to stay.

Just yesterday aerosol insecticides were again sprayed as people will no doubt be out and about this weekend--it is a US national holiday weekend.

To the best of my knowledge no 2014 confirmed cases of either WNV or EEE infecting humans. In fact, I am unaware as to any WNV having been found in 2014 in the state via the usual sampling methods.

Since I live a hundred meters from a large, slow moving river I do not even bother with DEET repellant. I treat my boots and clothing with a very weak permethrin solution. Permethrin is good protection against mosquitoes, and is really effective against those small arachnids which shall not be named in this entry.

Enjoy the outdoors!

More Ebola!

As I suspected(see most of my any entries concerning the West African ebola outbreak), things are likely far, far worse than the official reports that have simply implanted numbers in lieu of confirmation of additional cases. Now the WHO is reporting that the West African ebola outbreak could exceed 20,000 cases before it is extinguished. The dope:

The World Health Organisation said Thursday it aimed to reverse the spread of Ebola within three months, but warned that the caseload in West Africa's epidemic could eventually top 20,000.

In a new anti-Ebola plan, the UN health agency said it aimed to reverse the trend within three months, with the final aim of stopping "all residual transmission within 6-9 months".

It said the current case-count -- 3,062, with 1,552 deaths -- was likely several times lower than the actual number, and that the number of infections "could exceed 20,000 over the course of this emergency".

"This Roadmap assumes that in many areas of intense transmission the actual number of cases may be 2-4 fold higher than that currently reported," it said.

"It acknowledges that the aggregate case load of (Ebola) could exceed 20,000 over the course of this emergency," it added.

The plan called for a massive ramping up of efforts to contain and defeat the epidemic.

It put a price tag of $490 million on a six-month campaign, saying the money would need to come from WHO coffers as well as other aid agencies and governments.

Now that is sobering. The "final aim of stopping '"all residual transmission within 6-9 months"' is really eye opening as that time frame is to begin once the new influx of monies and personnel are in place and working.

I think that it can safely be said at this juncture that no one really knows just what the fuck is going on with this new strain of ebola and just how large of an issue this epidemic is becoming.

Since lots of my speculations do come to pass(anyone buy an Amazon Fire phone?) I will allow myself a bit of speculation here. This strain of ebola--with its nearly 400 mutations--has become more easily transmissible in human-to-human contact. I make no claim as to which route this transmission takes, but if one looks at the clues, one can see that it really does strongly appear different this time.

New strain. Staggering amounts of health workers infected, and once the mutations were published in Science, countries started pulling medical personnel out the embattled area. Now none of this is evidence of a new mode off transmission, but I must speculate every week or so about something.

So far I think that my observations concerning the West African Ebola Outbreak of 2014 have been quite accurate.

Oh, a couple of things.

Yesterday, I used the acronym "CFR" without an explanation. In that instance CFR stood in for "Case Fatality Rate."

I should add that my speculations are only that. I certainly hope that this new strain of ebola has not made the species jump into easy human-to-human transmission. That would be really bad. I only offer an easier mode as pure speculation backed up by no facts. I really, really hope that my speculation proves false.

More Ebola.

Yes. It is a new strain. Lots of mutations vs other strains.

he Ebola strains responsible for the current outbreak are likely to have a common ancestor, dating back to the very first recorded outbreak in 1976.

The researchers revealed the lineage responsible for the current outbreak diverged from the Middle African version of the virus within the last decade and spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone by 12 people who had attended the same funeral.

The team's catalog of 395 mutations (over 340 that distinguish the current outbreak from previous ones and over 50 within the West African outbreak) may serve as a starting point for other research groups.

"We've uncovered more than 300 genetic clues about what sets this outbreak apart from previous outbreaks," said researcher Stephen Gire.

"Although we don't know whether these differences are related to the severity of the current outbreak, by sharing these data with the research community, we hope to speed up our understanding of this epidemic and support global efforts to contain it."

This was reported in the journal Science, so it had to be vetted by true experts in the field. 395 mutations. Perhaps the transmissibility of this strain of ebola differs from those for which more is known.

No more ebola today. I promise.

No. I am not anti-gun. I am anti-stupid.

9 year old girl kills 'instructor' with Uzi on full auto. The now deceased 'instructor,' a Mr. Charles Vacca is hereby nominated for a Darwin.

Lest anyone think I am an anti-gun crusader, the evidence is not there. I held my Federal Firearms License(FFL) for 9 years. I had my own little shop as well. I was hardly Wal-Mart. I would not sell any firearm to perhaps 30% of my potential customers. Sure, it took time to fully explain The Second Amendment to the US Constitution to people that I did not believe neither trained well enough, nor sufficiently in control of their faculties to responsibly handle and care for a firearm, but I slept well every night.

I took--and take--the "well regulated" phrase of the Second Amendment in its proper context. Insufficient training and/or discipline were the two properties that I used to judge a person worthy or not to purchase any firearm.

I was fortunate enough to never have a real incident with a potential customer that even escalated to the raised voices degree. I handed out a lot of supporting documents.

I shuttered the store in 1998.

More Ebola.... From Guinea to the DRC

Things are seemingly very fluid on the ground in efforts to contain the West African ebola outbreak as people quarantined in Liberia trying to escape are reportedly being fired on using live rounds by that country's military. Simultaneously, foreign aid workers are being pulled, with Canada pulling a team out being but the latest extraction.

One of two ebola testing facilities in Sierra Leone has been shut down due to a Senegalese epidemiologist becoming infected at the lab.

Yes, I am now getting into the sociology of the epidemic. From all news reports it is maddeningly difficult to get a sense as to what the state of things really are in West Africa. The WHO has stated that health workers are becoming ill and subsequently dying at an "unprecedented rate."

One reads things like 'we're hopeful,' and 'it appears that the worst may be behind the outbreak,' and yet the situation on the ground is anything remotely like stable as of the time of this entry. One has to think that the WHO is putting the best face on public statements. Just what the reality is remains well guarded sets of data.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC), it is still being claimed that the Congolese outbreak is a different strain of ebola. This is entirely reasonable given that--according to the WHO-- the two strains of ebola in previous outbreaks of ebola in DRC have been the devastatingly lethal Zaire strain(up to 90% motality rate) and the Bundibugyo strain(50% motality rate). Given the distance between the ongoing West African outbreak and DRC unless someone(s) made it across hundreds of miles of west and central Africa, this really does look like a separate event. Believe me, it was not easy to come to that conclusion given all the issues that Africa has had over the past 50 years. I would not put money on it either way. I still don't yet know for certain that "Ebola Guinea" is a new strain. How could I know?

I just got a distillation of news stuffs about the new DRC outbreak. Features:

13 Probable Ebola Deaths & 565 Suspect In DR Congo

Recombinomics Commentary 18:15
August 26, 23:00

· Declaration of the epidemic by the Minister of Public Health August 24, 2014
· 13 people died of the disease (CFR 54%), including five health workers, about 24 cases suspects (16 women and 8 men)
· 11 people segregated
· 24 cases (16 women and 8 men) of Ebola virus disease outbreak in the area of health Boende, from July 28 to August 18, 2014 · 80 contacts identified for monitoring
· 4 positive samples from eight after a second analysis INRB
· 565 suspected cases investigated with gastroenteritis, diarrhea and vomiting.
· Index case identified Ikanamongo (100 km Boende): a woman who died on August 11 after consuming bushmeat hunted by her husband and that has contaminated your doctor and husband.
· yet unidentified strain between Zaire and Sudan. Awaiting the results from the laboratory in Franceville (Gabon).

Pieces d' origine: If my French is bad, it is because my French IS bad.

I think that the data is mostly good as I just got the following headline: Ebola epidemic declared in Congo


I do not believe that I have ever posted that I have been to West Africa. I went on a multiple country trip in 1995. I went to Gambia(official language is English), Guinea, Senegal, and Mali. It was a combination of business and pleasure. It is not unclear to me just how spending time in Africa has colored my impressions of the ebola outbreak. I do know that I have always been fascinated in the natural world. If I had a clue as to what I wanted to do before committing to my academic training, I would not have chosen engineering. My working career has been a lot of fun, and highly rewarding financially, but I do not find it especially self-actualizing. While solving a vexing problem is not without its charms, I have rarely gotten ecstatic in my work. I feel metamotivated much of the time, just not while pursuing my vocation.

I do love me some applied botany!

'Tis a good day when it begins with an hour plus of applied botany. Today is that kind of day. With the forecast to potentially hit 90 F today, an hour early and an hour late of applied botany will be good. The UVI is only reported as "5," but there is nary a cloud in sight, and things are bright and heating up quite rapidly.

Any science news?

Since we have a plant theme going....an analysis suggests that out blue rock can potentially handle a lot more floral bio-mass than previously thought. Of course the facts on the ground are sobering. Heck, even I have to fight with invasive species; two are only largely kept at bay. Evil Bittersweet Vine and the awfuller Japanese Knotweed. If you read the linked article, you will see why I did not even make an attempt at anything like a segue into my floral nemeses.

I know that I am stupid so I do not see why attempting to keep the earth's population at 7+ billions of humans is a good thing. Stuff is gonna breakdown real fast, real soon.

I will go with that theme. I read The Population Bomb, and while things have not worked out in the book's timeline, the underlying premises are--if anything--even more relevant today.

The book was not a simple Malthusian redux, but a warning. Sure, some of the criticism of the book's scenarios are spot-on, but that seems almost entirely relegated to the timeline, not the central issues. Yes, it was alarmist. But the book did much to raise awareness on a large--and popular--scale. Unfettered reproduction has not been the same since to those with both a working memory and no rose colored spectacles. I have lived with the knowledge for roughly 45 years.

The have-nots are becoming the have-some, and will surely claim that they have every right to live as many currently do in the Western World. So, what to do with a small planet that simply cannot provide bounty for all?

Negative population growth(NPG) seems the reasonable--and achievable answer. I, for one, am not holding my breath.

I think I will go water some plants...using self-captured rainwater, in a vessel made of woven local reeds, of course :)

On Edit: I read about the 63 trillion gallons of water lost to (mostly) irrigate the desert in the US southwest days ago, but didn't read this bit:

Rampant dependency on water has become a more focal point of environmental advocacy groups more so than ever in recent years as drought has threatened water supplies in even developed countries such as the U.S. Americans use nearly 400 billion gallons of water every day as a whole, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In Europe, the average household uses nearly half of the amount as Americans. On average, American households use around 100,000 gallons per year — meaning the 63 trillion gallon loss amounts to nearly half a year of total water use and multiple years worth of household use.

Is it really any surprise that--assuming the statement is accurate--people in the US use--on average-twice as much water per capita as out counterparts in Europe?

I just thought that the water resource issue hooked in really well with my dire post of earlier today. Bottoms up!

Good thing we have all that unused bio-mass just-a-waitin' to be exploited.

More Confirmation of The Standard Model..it's a QM universe, baby!

Quantum mechanics is truly weird.However, nearly all of the predictions of The Standard Model have proven accurate to our ability to measure the phenomena. The things that physicists haven't yet found are still yet to be discovered.

It appears that at least one of The Model's "heavy" baronsmay have experimental support.

For what it is worth, the Physics Hypertextbook referenced in link #1 is a very, very cool reference. If you take that fine work, and use Stephen Wolfram's fabulous Wolfram Alpha for solution assistance, the world will turn. I find it odd that wolfram Alpha is a pay for app...it is however, more than worth the 3 bucks if you really need it even once. I am really frugal, and I bought the app. It makes lots of things too easy. I'd opt for Alpha Pro if I didn't have Mathematica at the ready. Mathematica knows everything :)

Oh, yes. This is a good day for particle physics!

Ebola - New outbreak, and updated graph

New ebola outbreak in DRC(Democratic Republic of Congo) confirmed. It is very new, so it is unclear which strain this is; given that it is in the DRC, both Ebola Zaire and Ebola Sudan are likely suspects. Other reports claim that as many as 13 have died in the DRC outbreak.

It should be noted that this outbreak is almost certainly unrelated to the West African ebola outbreak which "officials" claim is a different strain. I believe that much can be well stated.

In editorial commentary concerning the West African ebola outbreak this author claims that "ebola debates turn everyone into an expert." The author--perhaps correctly--pens that everyone with an opinion about what to do with experimental drug therapies is an instant expert on "clinical trials, drug pipelines, investigational medicines, and ethics." This may be spot on, but I don't follow the sociology behind the outbreak so I simply do not know. It is a good, quick read.

Meanwhile, I whipped up a graph that I have extended to 1 Sept. concerning the West African ebola outbreak.

I have taken a tiny liberty in extending the figures to 1 Sept., but given what is likely to be the true numbers of cases and deaths, I think that--if anything--an upward revision will be required at some point. It's pretty crude as I did it on my phone at breakfast.

I hope that I am wrong.

Daily Ebola Update!

The WHO has reported that the number of confirmed deaths due the West African ebola outbreak is now at 1,350.

In other ebola news a hospital patient in Sacramento, CA is being tested for ebola. Just why the media keeps reporting that "ebola doesn't spread through airborne....methods" when ebola has been definitively shown to capable of spreading via this very method under unusual circumstances. A flat out denial is false. People in Africa need the truth. Sure, it would be uncommon, but not out of the bounds of the possible. The True Story of Ebola in Reston, Virginia. See esp. the quote by Peter Jahrling.

It seems to this interested person that Africans need all the data.

Did you know that the contiguous 48 states have seen ebola(unrelated to the current outbreak) fully three times? Reston, Va was the site of two of these ebola zones, and the third was Alice, TX. All three contaminations were with the Reston strain of ebola which appears to be asymptomatic in at least healthy humans..immunocompromised individuals may be susceptible to ebola-type symptoms. I don't think that anyone really knows at this juncture.

Warning: Political post ahead!

Some things you just cannot make up. Oh-what-a-Rush Limbaugh blamed Robin Williams' suicide on some sort of leftist ideology. How does this opiate addict stay on the air? Has Rush succumbed again to the draw of the altered sap of Papaver somniferum? I have no idea. Since uttering this baseless blather, Rush has since taken the "I don't know" why Williams' committed suicide.

At least one more station has dropped Rush from their line-up, and it seems likely that he is in damage control mode.

Oy!

Your daily ebola update and a bit more..The Sciencey Olympics!

First, West African ebola death toll officially passes 1200. I will extend my little graphic found in this post at the end of August to reflect the new reality. Any reader can see that the slope is headed towards the vertical in the y axis. Things are so bad that no news source is reporting that the worst is past, and the WHO--according to this report is only admitting to some 'encouraging signs.'

Oh, that remainds me, if you use a news aggregator to follow things, news.google, bing news, and Yahoo! news, all pale in comparison to newsnow.co.uk. More sources, and NewsNow's feed setup--presumably an AJAX function--is fresher than fresh. NewsNow gets you the story before it hits the 'Net.

I think I'll call this one "The Sport of Science"

I know just how big a part a some people's lives the viewing of sports is..sports viewing, along with religion and politics are the three things that most people seem to care about as it is these areas where they have the deepest knowledge bases. Of course most of what people think that they really know about both politics and religion can easily be disassembled via facts and/or reason. Not so with sports.

In the end none of what they believe sans data to back it up is worth anything at all. That's why I get a wee bit excited when scientific disciplines get sportsy labels. These events have been going on since 1959--in mathematics, at least--yet who knows about the International Science Olympiad?

In the USA, where almost everything is dependent on science and technology, almost no one knows anything substantive about science and technology. Lest you think I jest, ask a fellow citizen for a working description of radio. A technology that has been with us for more than a century. It may as well be magic to most. I know that I am not going to make any difference, as I don't believe anyone reads this blog, but it is good to read that in some parts of the world science and technology indeed have their superstars.

I have intellectual heroes. Two living Americans that I admire greatly for their intellectual agility are Stephen Wolfram and Alan Guth. I met Alan Guth and Noam Chomsky while I did summer work at MIT. Chomsky is certainly no intellectual lightweight, but mathematicians are a special kind of genius. Murray Gell-Mann has to receive a word as well.

I am not often thought a blockhead, but intelligence is a sliding scale. These people are giants.

Stupid 911 tricks, and Ebola Outbreak confirmed as worser and worser

Dammitalltahell! I am receiving a new shiny new street address due to some weird 911 non-compliance issue. I have had this address for thirty years. 911 has been mistakenly called from my humble abode, and the local constabulary was here in perhaps two minutes. The error was due to a one-time calling issue wherein the party being caleed had "911" within the sequence of her phone number. So, I have to notify everyone on the planet that our fair municipality has left me with this albatross. Much profanity has been issued from my mouth, and no doubt ore will be forthcoming.

In real sciency news the West African ebola outbreak is far worse than expected. I have posted about this very likelihood a few times. Time for another blockquote!

"Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak."

Canada offers up to 1,000 Ebola vaccines Husband: Ebola victim 'getting stronger' How Ebola got out of control Ebola claimed many lives in this family Dr. Gupta: Why we shouldn't fear Ebola Though the United Nations agency did not provide an estimate of unreported cases, it said it's teaming up with the affected countries to gather more intelligence from the ground.

"WHO is mapping the outbreak, in great detail, to pinpoint areas of ongoing transmission and locate treatment facilities and supplies," the statement said.

It's also working with other agencies, including the World Food Program, to feed about 1 million people quarantined in villages in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

"Our team are not in direct contact with Ebola quarantine and treatment centers," said Fabienne Pompey, spokeswoman for World Food Program. "We deliver food to the medical staff and they are in charge of the distribution."

As experts scramble to contain the outbreak, health officials are considering the use of experimental treatments and vaccines, since no proven ones exist.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the outbreak could last another six months. Leave it to the business press to not sugar coat issues. I think that WSJ stinks as a source for editorial comment, but the entire business press is the least likely to don the rose colored glasses before penning an article.

Beware of statements made by non-ebola experts. I have read everything I can about ebola since circa 1980, and I only trust a few sources for straight talk about ebola. United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases(USAMRIID)has been at the forefront of ebola research, and some members of the CDC have like experience. Although it is likely that there a members of the World Health Organization(WHO) that have expertise in ebola, I don't use the WHO as a source for ebola data save for counting numbers.

One odd thing is that during the US ebola episode involving crab eating monkeys imported from Asia it was confirmed that "Ebola Reston" was transmissible via the aerosol route. This is NOT the same as airborne transmission.

Here's the latest dope. The situation in Reston, VA was admittedly odd as large numbers of simians were packed together in cages, but when a health worker and/or family member is caring for a person stricken with ebola similar proximities are established.

I will wrap this up as I need to go for a run.

What really needs to be established--and this has been explored since 1976 with only limited success--is finding and controlling the host species in nature in which ebola circulates. The natural reservoirs need to be fleshed out so that humans are at least alerted to the possibility that this or that critter in the forset could be a vector.

Here is an interesting look at a possible means for the current devastating outbreak. Dead it. It is speculative, but raises really important questions.

Off to abuse my cardiovascular system.

Changing the theme of the blog is intellectually satisfying, but pols are much easier to write about..Of Mice and Men

I see that Gov. Rick Perry(R-Tekksus) had been indicted on felony charges. Oh how the one-time presidential candidate has fallen.

Enough about pols and their dandy ways.

As my gentle reader knows, I am all about surviving. I am not really keen on passing on my bit of the human genome into an unknown future, so I had better make this life a damned good one. I have written some about antibiotic stockpiling for an unforeseen event. I have also never taken any ABX that were not prescribed to me. Two AB exposures in my life to this point is all. Be prepared, but don't be stupid. If anyone thinks that ABX are like vitamins, the following should give them cause to eat them like "One-A-Days."

Early antibiotic exposure leads to lifelong metabolic disturbances in mice. Another good reason to only use antibiotics(ABX) when they are really needed. Of course mice and humans don't share ALL metabolic processes, but why take unnecessary risks?

This really needs a blockquote.

...The new study by NYU Langone Medical Center researchers reveals that mice given lifelong low doses of penicillin starting in the last week of pregnancy or during nursing were more susceptible to obesity and metabolic abnormalities than mice exposed to the antibiotic later in life.

Most intriguing, in a complementary group of experiments, mice given low doses of penicillin only during late pregnancy through nursing gained just as much weight as mice exposed to the antibiotic throughout their lives.

"We found that when you perturb gut microbes early in life among mice and then stop the antibiotics, the microbes normalize but the effects on host metabolism are permanent," says senior author Martin Blaser, MD, the Muriel G. and George W. Singer Professor of Translational Medicine, director of the NYU Human Microbiome Program, and professor of microbiology at NYU School of Medicine. "This supports the idea of a developmental window in which microbes participate. It's a novel concept, and we're providing direct evidence for it."

The researchers stress that more evidence is needed before it can be determined whether antibiotics lead to obesity in humans, and the present study should not deter doctors from prescribing antibiotics to children when they are necessary. "The antibiotic doses used in this study don't mirror what children get," says Laura M. Cox, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Blaser's laboratory and the lead author of the study. "But it has identified an early window in which microbes can influence metabolism, and so further studies are clearly warranted."...

Fascinating. The gut bacteria return to normal species and quantities post-AB withdrawal, but the metabolic changes seem permanently altered. The bacterial species seems to be the important bit.

The researchers are looking for the mechanistic clues. Here, I will not speculate as my knowledgebase on the topic is not full enough to venture anything like a thoughtful guess.

However, one might wonder if the trace amounts of ABX that are found in meats just might be a contributing factor to obesity in the general populace. Of course our generally sedentary lifestyles are the main component, but it seems to beg the question. Humankind certainly creates the future for humans. Our collective history screams that we do an awful job in this regard.

If I am the only one that makes this admittedly specious link, so be it. I have to speculate something in nearly every entry. It is science after all, and questions need be raised!

Sometimes Home Ownership Is Just Work...and Other Observances.

As the title suggests, home ownership isn't all fun. On days like today, it is simply drudgery. My neighbors do not care about their landscapes. Due to their lack of caring I have to almost continually hack and slash at non-native invasive species of flora. Today's exercise in futility included Japanese Knotweed(Fallopia japonica) treatment; which anyone that knows about this evil thing, knows it is a many year struggle to eradicate. I also did battle with the nearly as nasty Japanese honeysuckle(Lonicera japonica). As much as am loathe to use glyphosate herbicide, both of these species require it for effective control. I also got rid of some Virginia creeper(Parthenocissus quinquefolia), which is a native species here, but there seem no natural controls that hinder its growth.

It all seems a thankless job, but the 0.75 acres that I have staked out for weed control look better every year. I have nine gardens in this area, so I need to protect my precious plants that I have nurtured as well. Enough about that..

I did find a very odd bit about a member of the pant kingdom. Somehow I can usually segue a personal anecdote into something a lot more interesting. This may be unique in the kingdom of flora. There is a parasitic vine that not only performs the more typical 'behaviors' to its host--wrapping round it, and scoring nutrients and water from its host, but Strangleweed(Cuscuta pentagona) tranfers mRNA with its various host species.

Of course my gentle reader knows that no proteins are formed--in eukaryotes at any rate--without messenger RNA(mRNA). Sure genes code for proteins--and perform other neat tricks--but genes do not make proteins. Here is good summary of how one goes from a gene sequence to actually building the protein for which the gene is coded.

I find it fascinating that a parasitic plant has a sort of symbiotic relationship with its host at the sub-cellular level.

Now why has C. pentagona adapted do this?

Well, it is certainly not via process of thought. It is my blog so I will speculate. (Here's where I spill out some bullshit)

My opinion is that the exchange process turns off the host's defenses. Since most plants aren't really mobile, the defenses are typically chemical weapons. Yes, yes, I know that some plants have insect protectors as well, but these are unusual examples. By co-opting, and transferring mRNA with the host, it seems likely that the host would not recognize the parasite as an alternate form of life. The host reads the mRNA being transferred and there is no state of emergency declared as it 'believes' it to be its very own. I know that my speculation is at odds with what researcher James Westwood(study co-author) told Live Science, but message interception to gather data about the "host plant's growth and development" seems too anthropomorphic to me. Of course we could both be right, and/or wrong.

This really seems like a case of evolutionary convergence, as bacteria swap genetic genetic material across species, and viruses are dormant until they enter a host's cell. Curiouser and curiouser.

That's all I have that is both new and unusual. Plus, it has brevity in its favor :)

It's summer, so wear sunblock!

This entry isn't about tanning. Well, it is and it isn't. I should note that tans are the body's way to attempt to halt further damage to the dermis due to UV-A, and UV-B exposure. Tanning itself--which involves changes in melanin production--is really the body's flaregun signaling dermal distress. Beautiful? Maybe, but too much can age a person in many, many different ways. Don't tan is always good advice.

Now onto today's UV stuff..

Record surface UV-B levels found in Andes. Some people might think that one of the various ozone holes would would certainly claim top honors on surface UV irradiance, but Sol doesn't provide the arctic zones with much energy compared to equatorial regions.

Add in less atmosphere due to elevation, clear skies due to lack of suspended aerosols, and naturally mountainous equatorial regions would seem likely places to find UV records.

In this part of the world, we might see a UV Index of 8 or 9 on a midsummer day. I try and stay indoors on those days. The research team at SETI/NASA recorded a UV Index of 43.3! For reference, a UV Index of 11 is considered extreme. Things may get worse before they get better. Current models predict further ozone thinning in the near-intermediate term(scale of a human lifetime) time scale. While this event resulted in perhaps an almost perfect confluence of several events, the events themselves are anything but rare. No doubt teams of number crunchers are scouring data looking for even higher UV spikes.

I have thought quite a lot about the worldwide collapse of amphibian populations, and while the jury is still out as to the 'whys,' excessive UV radiation does harm the eggs of amphibians. Among other detrimental effects of UV radiation are DNA damage, altering of the photosynthetic process, and changes to larvae...particularly those of an aquatic nature. The outlook is really quite grim.

Weed OD?

Unlike most marijuana evangelists, I make no claim that smoking and/or ingesting delta-9-THC is harmless. There are a couple of interesting studies that illustrate some commonalities between the brains of young, frequent pot smokers and schizophrenics. It's a memory issue. I must have missed having memory and/or cognitive issues from smoking MJ, due only to lack of frequency of use.

Enough about that. This is about the lawsuit against the a pot dispensary over a marijuana/THC overdose.

The plaintiff claims hat he was repeatedly told that there was no MJ/THC in the chocolate he consumed. I have no reason to doubt his claim. He claims he was "projectile vomiting" and "hallucinating" among other things. Being 'slipped a mickey' like that could have had far more dire consequences.

I know this from a single experience of marijuana intake via the oral route. I once ate roughly 7 gm of moderately good quality pot. In roughly 90 mins. I was blitzed, and just getting higher. The really heavy effects lasted perhaps 2 hours. The whole experience lasted perhaps 6 hours. If I did not know that I was likely in for a pretty rough ride, I would have been pretty freaked out.

Dosing someone with any intoxicant is plainly irresponsible, and potentially very dangerous. At this early stage I am inclined to side firmly with the plaintiff, as unknown "free theater tickets" are a recipe for disaster. It will happen at some point. Unsecured edible marijuana products are going to result in deaths by negligence. I strongly suspect that these deaths will be due to 'accidents,' and that makes it all seem worse. Potent pot unknowingly given to the uninitiated can be pretty scary indeed.
I hope that Coloradans get better control on what could be a real crisis. Stoned people aren't generally the most responsible with their stash; and that was before it was legal. One can easily see heads getting very loose with their weed. Someone will pay. No drug is without consequences. Cannabis is likely the most likely to cause harm when used responsibly. Colorado and Coloradans need a good dose of responsibility. Then they should be able to better dispense cannabis products.

When it comes to what you or me wish to put into our own bodies, I am very liberally minded. The WoD(War on drugs) continues to be an abject failure. However, if even cannabis users cannot abide by simple rules, that doesn't peak well of the larger sphere of intoxicant users. You alcohol and tobacco users know what I am talking about.

Another "Supermoon?"

One would think that full moon being a "Super" should denote something wondrous. Oh, it will be really Super tomorrow night(08.10.2014). But it really won't be that super. Any full moon that occurs during the top ten percent of perigee(closest to earth in this case). The gag is on the media. This full moon is barely outside the 90th percentile. Why label something when you do not possess enough knowledge to use the label?

Of course humans have to catalog everything. I will not be watching..although we are predicted to have a very good sky for viewing. Go and read the space.com article. It is good for elucidation and a few chuckles.

We will likely never see a real Supermoon--unless the earth-moon system destabilizes due to some cosmic impactor, or at least a close call--but the Supermoons I would find wondrous would be those early moon passes of, say, 4 billions years ago. The earth-moon system was at pretty roughly 0.5 its current mean distance.

Now we can get sort of sciencey. According to Newton's Law of Gravitation(inverse square of the distance between mass centers) the earth-moon system should be stable, but there is another factor in play. Tidal forces. Both of the terrestrial and oceanic types. This generates friction between the two masses. Why? Because the earth is not precisely elastic, and that transfers angular momentum from the earth to the moon, resulting in both the moon's recession over time and the slowing of its speed relative to the earth..which is slowing down as well. Those full moons would have been something to see.

The moon will be biggish, but let us not call it "Super" as it does not technically meet the criteria.

I should note here that the above explanation of the history of the earth-moon system is really lacking in detail. I think that anymore detail would result in seizures and irritable bowels.

Tick Vector Meat Allergies and Ebola

Hey, it is Happy Friday!

The first bit I have known about for some time. The link between some tick bites and an allergic reaction to red meats is not new, but the mechanism now seems understood. Read on, gentle reader:

Few patients seem aware of the risk, and even doctors are slow to recognize it. As one allergist who has seen 200 cases on New York's Long Island said, "Why would someone think they're allergic to meat when they've been eating it their whole life?"

The culprit is the Lone Star tick, named for Texas, a state famous for meaty barbecues. The tick is now found throughout the South and the eastern half of the United States.

Researchers think some other types of ticks also might cause meat allergies; cases have been reported in Australia, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Japan and Korea.

Here's how it happens: The bugs harbor a sugar that humans don't have, called alpha-gal. The sugar is also is found in red meat - beef, pork, venison, rabbit - and even some dairy products. It's usually fine when people encounter it through food that gets digested.

But a tick bite triggers an immune system response, and in that high-alert state, the body perceives the sugar the tick transmitted to the victim's bloodstream and skin as a foreign substance, and makes antibodies to it. That sets the stage for an allergic reaction the next time the person eats red meat and encounters the sugar.

The mote that the medical community finds out about ticks, the worse the prognosis if one gets bitten. Here is where the Lone Star Tick is found in the US.

There is so little that is really known about tick-vector illnesses, that--as in NH--anyone bitten should get at least a big loading dose of doxycycline. I fully understand that it will not help the alpha-gal allergic reaction, but it does provide prophylaxis against most other bacterial and parasitic illnesses.

Now on to ebola..

Current ebola outbreak possibly far worse than we know. This hardly qualifies as news. Underreporting of ebola is likely the norm. That the official figures could be 50% lower than actual cases is eyebrow raising, but not entirely unexpected.

Read the reader comments by the armchair scientific and/or medical experts. I fear for the present of my country. Fear, uncertainty and doubt, reign supreme in the USofA. We are so fearful, we cannot--as a populace--ever get anything done on the really big issues. Yes, Virginia, fear of job loss is indeed a fear.

I see the only true hope for humanity is far less humans inhabiting this tiny blue slightly oblate sphere. No, I am not advocating any draconian measures to wipe out a few billions of people. But we could start by not replacing the fallen. Nah. That's far too reasonable to be considered. We are almost certainly doomed as 'functioning' societies. We are burning things up at many levels.

See! I told you it is Happy Friday! Have fun, and play safe!

Tom Petty

Okay, this is neither news, nor sciencey. I bought TP and The Heartbreakers newest, Hypnotic Eye. I see(no pun intended) that it is Tom and the boys' first No. 1 album. That's hard to believe. I would have thought that Damn the Torpedoes was a No. 1 album.

Initial thoughts on Hypnotic Eye...

It is not my favorite TP offering. Wildflowers snags that honor. Of course The Heartbreakers played on Wildflowers but aren't mentioned in the liner notes..if memory serves.

Damn The Torpedoes is perhaps my favorite TP effort that acknowledges The Heartbreakers. This is a very close race. There are lots of albums in the running here. 1989's Full Moon Fever and 1991's Into The Great Wide Open are perennial favorites as well.

Where does Hypnotic Eye stand? Too early to tell. I like it very much. I listened to an interview with Tom about the upcoming album..he called it "a straight-up rocker." It does have some heavier stuff, but it is more bluesy overall; and dare I say jazz influenced? I do.

One last thing..the track Forgotten Man pays huge homage to American Girl. That is a very good thing.

I am certain to give this one a lot of time, but it didn't give me the instant chills that Wildflowers did.

Anyone that commonly works with Dylan, and is a member of Traveling Wilbury's just has to make special music. This one will not disappoint.

A prediction: there will be four singles issued from Hypnotic Eye.

Ebola! It just keeps getting worse

See the latest CDC info here.

With case deaths approaching one thousand, this is the worst ebola outbreak to effect humans known to this date.

The CDC has now raised its response level to 'Level One', the highest alert status.

I am trying to find a graph that is as current as today, but cannot find one. If this graph is accurate--and I strongly suspect that it is, as the current outbreak was believed contained in May--then the curve has yet to flatten. Given the somewhat long(up to roughly 22 days) incubation period, it looks like things will get worse before they get better.

Maybe far worse.

As I reported sometime earlier, this ebola strain was first reported to be "Ebola Zaire." Then it was reported to be 97% equivalent to Ebola Zaire. Now I will go on record as stating that this ebola strain indeed seems a newly discovered strain. In addition, it now appears likely that this strain has been cycling in nature in a host or hosts in West Africa until the massive outbreak this year. Of course the likelihood that we will ever determine "patient zero" is quite nearly zero.

One has to wonder about transmissibility of this new strain. Is there an aerosol component in this strain that has been lacking up till now? Or have other natural reservoirs been co-opted by the strain that humans are much more likely to come into contact with? Some of both? Something entirely unexpected? No doubt researchers are working on these--and other--questions even as I type.

This outbreak is certainly different from those since 1976. One would think that in the intervening decades that containment would--all other things being equal--far better today. That is why I have speculated that something about this strain is different. I hope that the answers are fast in coming.

Antibiotic resistant bacteria, and why I stockpile but do not use

This is a year old piece about an AB resistant bacterial strain. Oddly, it is referred to as an opinion piece.

There are more current reports that simply verify and expand the findings a bit.

Here in tick-vector-illness-central the medical community had to be dragged kicking and screaming to write scripts for agents effective against Lyme and other bacteria transmitted via tick bites. This has proven to be very unwise. Now, all tick bites are treated with a one day course of doxycycline as prophylaxis. If a person goes on to present with Lyme--or other bacterial illness--the standard course is a 21 day treatment.

This CRE issue is evolution in overdrive. The selective pressure being resistance to common and uncommon antibiotics.

This is why I have ABX on hand, but have never given myself a course of any antibiotic. In my 53 years of life, I have been on two courses of ABX. The first was back in 1980 when I was given erythromycin for a non-specific urinary tract infection(yes, I know how disturbing that reads), and the last was doxycycline to treat Lyme. I am very cautious about laissez-faire use of ABX. If only the bovine and chicken husbandry industries would follow suit. Don't expect change anytime soon. These are powerful industries, and 'Mericans want their cheap animal products. It is a matter of 'having choices' after all. No one dare do anything that is scientifically sound if it interferes with individual choices. *huge eyeroll*

It is likely the case in other New World countries with the possible exception of Canada.

If highly therapy resistant bacterial strains become the norm, then going to a hospital could be a dangerous thing to do.

One needs to be cognizant that evolution does not work on time scales, but generational scales. Fast growing bacteria can multiply in as little as 20 minutes. Let us perform a worst case thought experiment for humankind, and a best case scenario for out bacterial foes.

Let us use 1948 as a starting point. Penicillin was--by then--widely available and used. The possible doublings--and hence chances for errors in replication which could lead to resistance--is roughly 174,155,117 generations. The entire genome of a fast growing bacterial species could be replaced several times over given the geometric progression under ideal circumstances. That is really quite sobering.

Some researchers are predicting a 'post-antibiotic' future. Almost surely some microbes will defeat current medicine while others will not.

Even now, lack of exposures is by far the best weapon. Sure bacteria are ubiquitous, but thankfully, most are not pathogenic to humans.

Hand washing beats hand wringing every time.

Be informed, but don't succumb to irrational fears. Yes, I know how odd that may seem coming from me, but I do not fear pathogens--in fact, I rarely fear things which might ACTUALLY kill me--but I do believe in being prepared.

I am fully aware of my awfully clipped sentence structure that pervades this post. This post is also lacking proper linkages and segues between topics. I am simply too fatigued to care. It has been a hell of a weekend, and my brain is full. I would like to be excused now. I have the Sword of Damocles still over my head. It is not yet known if and what manner my eye issues are going to take. I have a mere eight days to get my ocular pressures into an acceptable area. One eye is really close, the other not nearly so. I'm coming to terms with the whole mess, but it still troubles.

Spacely Space Sprockets..and other tricks

NASA finds unusual effect.

If you read the article it strikes me as odd that the writer claims that "a microwave thruster system that requires no propellant does indeed generate a small amount of thrust" and then goes on to state that "solar power can be used to produce the microwaves"(which ostensibly provide propulsion). Solar energy is the initiating propellant. At any rate, it all seems very odd indeed as all things involving quantum mechanics are.

A truly geeky quote:

"Test results indicate that the RF [radio frequency] resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and, therefore, is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma..."

Those darned virtual particles, now you can measure something about them, now you cannot. I need a multiverse expert to chime in and expain to me just where that virtual stuff comes from and where it goes. I suspect that it is another dimension or universe that we cannot hope to enter save for mathematically.

The measured effects are still really small. Two separate teams are off by a factor of ten. But, as proof of concept, it seems to pass muster. One has to wonder just how to scale things up to power spacecraft. Will it be simple scaling? Will it be process refinement? Will it be some of both? I would wager that the answer--if it is going to be forthcoming--will involve both scale and process.

It never ceases to amaze me that applications of quantum mechanics are thought impossible when the various predictions of quantum mechanics have been experimentally confirmed to the absolute limit of our current means to test those predictions.

I would be really impressed if we could actually warp space-time or open up wormholes on a scale large enough to be useful for something. Only really massive objects can appreciably warp space-time..might some form of virtual gravity also be able to illicit such an effect? Wormholes--at least as I am familiar with the concept--potentially take far too much energy in this universe to be technologically feasible. Might some variation of quantum mechanics be able to exploit the virtual particle/energy(vacuum fluctuation) or multiverse theory overcome what might not be a true law of nature, and more of a local ordinance?

I do not profess to even know enough about such matters as to venture a guess. The universe we all claim to know is weirder than we know. Other universes are almost certainly going to seem weirder still to those that do not inhabit them. Of course the last sentence is pure speculation. The sentence preceding that one is proving a much tougher nut to crack. This is why I live for science. We live in a wonderfully weird place. A place where out simian brains are not especially well equipped to handle problems very far above that of surviving on the savannah.

I am still fascinated that Newton's work preceded that of Darwin's and Wallace's by a couple of hundred years. Humanity must have had blinders on. I fear that we do still.

Life'll Kill Ya.*

*(Apologies to Warren Zevon..I was fortunate to talk to The Excitable Boy after a concert he played in Concord, NH.)

Okay gentle reader, I am not going to wade into the deep end of the pool today, for danger lurks in the warm shallows, and that is where our story comes from today.

Bacteria rarely get their due. Flesh eating bacteria, now that is news! I am not excited over necrotizing bacteria lurking in warm, shallow brackish and/or salt water.
However, here is another case where the broad spectrum antibiotic doxycycline(combined with a second AB is a first line treatment)

I recently finished a 21 day course of doxycycline for Lyme(Borreliosis). I would never advocate prophylactic use of ANY drug. However, given that I am sometimes away from the realistic possibility of proper medical treatment I think it prudent to have two different agents on hand before wandering way off the grid. My insurance paid a princely sum for my course of doxycycline. There are simple ways to obtain a good broad spectrum topical AB--say chlorhexidine hyclate, for instance--and easy ways to obtain doxycycline and perhaps ampicillin and/or amoxycillin WITH clavulanic acid to increase potency against treatment resistant bacterial strains.

Of course these things would be the last things to add to your 'end of the world' first-aid kit.

I asked my favorite pharmacist about different combinations of meds for going way off the grid, and she said that these might all prove useful.

The reason for two--or even three--broad spectrum antibiotics(ABX) is due to modes of action. If you do not know why this is an important consideration, you should not search out any ABX. Honestly. Although these particular ABX are chosen for wide effectiveness against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, without knowing modes of action--and the various types of microbial targets--you are likely to do the wrong thing.

There is no way that I would ever attempt to procure anti-virals. The only AV class that I am even remotely familiar with are acyclovir and its derivatives. Palliative care and POSSIBLE prophylactic use of ABX are the limit of my knowledgebase concerning how to treat viral conditions in the middle of nowhere.

This post does not specify what to use for any bacterial or parasitic infection. You have to do your own research on what you are likely to confront in your area of the wild world. I am most likely a lot less ready than I think I am. Let us hope that I will never have to put any of my remedial first-aid skills to the test...again. I did save a fellow that concussed himself while riding a motocrosser way off the track. That was an easy one. Happy Thursday all! Be safe, and be prepared!

On edit: The reasons for this odd post can be found here, where I blather on about vector-borne illness, here, where I get downright evangelical about vector illnesses, and finally here, where I was tick bitten, but Lyme(borreliosis) had not yet been confirmed. All of those things comprise the impetus for today's ramble. Sorry to put you through that again.