• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

World News Center

Everything you want to know about anything that's meaningful

  • News
  • Reviews
  • About
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Search for "cancer"

Search Results for: cancer

Some Surprising Things That Won’t Kill You

September 16, 2015 by

Okay, Grim Reaper, you can take me now.
Okay, Grim Reaper, you can take me now.

Before I get to today’s topic I’d like to address some things that can kill you. Stuff that you see in your email every fucking day that will do way more harm than good. Pomegranate juice has been touted as a cure for everything from skin cancer to depression. While it is a fine source of anti-oxidants and has been shown to slow one type of cancer, prostrate in men, it is not a cure for anything. People who avoid medical treatment to just use this as a cure, and they are legion, tend to die in short order. Faith healers. Sorry, I don’t care which god you endorse, if this shit worked these asshats would be in hospitals and not on TV begging for your money. African Mango Diet Pills, Garcinia Cambogia Extract, Wholemega Diet Pills, or Green Coffee Bean Extract, or the Raspberry Ketone Diet. Usually attributed to “a scientific study done by Men’s Health” these things can do everything from nothing at all to causing severe gastrointestinal problems. Bonus? Well, you get two here; (1) Men’s Health doesn’t endorse any diet aids, and; (2) the only weight you’ll lose will come from being hospitalized with all sorts of bizarre aliments. Marijuana cures cancer. No, it doesn’t. Processed Canabanoids, an ingredient of marijuana, have shown promise in that regard and can be very effective at controlling seizures, but most modern pot, a/k/a Cheech and Chong Therapies, are low in that regard and high in THC. In other words, you’ll feel great for a few hours but you’re still going to die.

There are more but allow me to give you a helpful hint to avoid being conned. If you read anything that contains the phrase “Big Pharma doesn’t make cures, they make customers” or anything similar, it’s full of shit.

Just FYI, if you ever are full of shit two, non-menthol, cigarettes a day will clear that right up. That is true. Downside? Well, you’ll start smoking and increase your chances of catching cancer and dying.

Okay, back to Big Pharma. First off there is no such thing. There are several large pharmaceutical companies, true, but they compete against each other for profits and killing people is bad for business. Also, there are these little things called facts and history. When cures have become available, such as the polio vaccine, they have been pushed to market to help as many people as quickly as possible.

Are drug prices in America too high? That’s a common complaint and one that bears looking into. Yes, American’s pay more for prescription drugs than any other nation. But, and this is important, other nations subsidize medicine and the U.S. doesn’t. This is done to “prevent the spread of socialism” but, in reality, just causes people to die needlessly or go hopelessly into debt.

Ask any licensed medical professional and they’ll tell you that this country should be strengthening the Affordable Care Act, not gutting it. Go ahead, do that. I’ll wait.

Cool. Welcome back.

Now, let’s get you healthy.

To start, just for fun, I’m going to inject you with lethal wasp venom.

NO! WAIT! COME BACK! It’s fine. As Caroline Reid, over at IFL Science, reports, Brazilian wasp venom kills cancer cells.

Wasps get their fair share of bad press.

They have painful stingers, and they’re not as useful to us (or as cute) as bees. Their time to step in the spotlight, however, may be just around the corner: Their venom has been shown to attack cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.

The cancer-targeting toxin in the wasp is called MP1 (Polybia-MP1), and until now, how it selectively eliminates cancer cells was unknown.

According to new research, it exploits the atypical arrangement of fats, or lipids, in cancer-cell membranes. Their abnormal distribution creates weak points where the toxin can interact with the lipids, which ultimately pokes gaping holes in the membrane.

These are sufficiently large for essential molecules to start leaking out, including proteins, which the cell cannot function without.

The wasp responsible for producing this toxin is the Polybia paulista. The toxin has so far been tested on model membranes and examined using a broad range of imaging techniques.

You can see the team’s research results in the Biophysical Journal.

Aren’t you glad you kept reading? Okay, how about if I told you I was going to take cells from Alzheimer’s’ patients and inject them into your brain?

You’re trying to run away again, aren’t you?

Well, as Justine Alford rightly points out, you shouldn’t. This could be the best way to save your brain should the need arise.

While an extremely useful technique, its potential therapeutic applications have been limited by the fact that it often necessitates the introduction of transgenes, which carries a cancer risk should they end up in an off-target location and switch on genes that can cause cell replication to go awry. Using small chemical molecules to achieve the same outcome, however, attempts to overcome this issue and offers numerous advantages.

Namely, avoiding genetic manipulation and the need to pass through a stem cell phase reduces some safety concerns, and because the molecules can slide through the cell’s membranes to reach the DNA, they don’t require the use of viruses for delivery. Furthermore, they’re cheaper, easy to synthesize and produce reversible effects.

The first of the two studies to probe the potential of these molecules involved adding a chemical cocktail to skin cells derived from healthy patients and individuals with Alzheimer’s. By adding them in two different stages, the researchers were able to dampen skin cell-specific genes and then drive expression of native neuronal transcription factors. In just a few weeks, the cells assumed a new neuronal identity, looking and behaving like neurons produced using the transgenic approach.

In the second, researchers achieved the same feat with mouse skin cells, but using a different combination of small molecules. Impressively, in just 16 days, 90% of the initial cell population was positive for a neuron-specific protein called TUJ1. Furthermore, the cells could generate action potentials that are critical to neuronal firing, and they formed functional junctions with one another across which information can be transmitted.

While the researchers need to fine-tune the processes, the proof-of-concept work is certainly encouraging. If researchers are able to generate personalized batches of cells, it may be possible to graft them into patients as a means of disease treatment. Furthermore, using patients who already suffer neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, researchers may be able to learn more about these conditions by studying their cells in the lab.

See? That wasn’t so bad.

Back on July 8th I wrote about how a teenager, Jack Andraka, had found a way to detect pancreatic cancer in its early stages. That’s important because pancreatic cancer rarely has symptoms until you have six months or less to live.

Now, according to Josh Davis science has found the perfect way to turn that death induced frown upside down; science can make pancreatic cells revert to healthy cells if they find them.

A new study has, however, shown that pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells can be coaxed to revert back to normal cells — a discovery that could possibly lead to new treatment therapies. The research was carried out in a collaborative effort between Sanford-Burnham, UC San Diego, and Purdue University, and published last week in the journal Pancreas.

“For the first time, we have shown that overexpression of a single gene can reduce the tumor-promoting potential of pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells and reprogram them toward their original cell type,” said Pamela Itkin-Ansari, an adjunct professor at Sanford-Burnham and author of the study. “Thus, pancreatic cancer cells retain a ‘genetic memory’ which we hope to exploit.”

The team started off by growing human pancreatic cancer cells in the lab, and then inducing them to produce more of a protein called E47. This protein binds to a specific sequence of DNA that controls the genes involved in growth and differentiation. As a result, the cells stalled in their growth phase and began to revert back to non-cancerous cells. They were then able to take the reprogrammed cancer cells and introduce them into mice, where their ability to form tumors was greatly reduced.

Okay, so we’re curing cancer like a bunch of sciencey motherfuckers here today, and that’s a good thing, so let’s tackle one more health nightmare.

Full disclosure here. Back in 1967 my aunt Ginger, an Elizabeth Montgomery look-alike, came down with Multiple Sclerosis. Within a year she was dead. So, let’s just say, this next article held my interest.

Your athlete’s foot and itchy skin may help cure MS.

Our pal Caroline Reid says I’m not crazy.

The team, who published the study in Nature, wanted to find a drug that would encourage stem cells in the brain and spinal cord to become the type of cell that produces myelin, which are called oligodendrocytes. With more myelinating cells on board, the damage to nerve cells should slow down, and hopefully further damage will also be prevented. Ideally, the candidate drug would even start to reverse paralysis in multiple sclerosis sufferers.

The two drugs used in the trial were miconazole, which is found in over-the-counter antifungal treatments such as athlete’s foot, and clobetasol, which is used to treat skin conditions such as eczema. These might seem like unlikely candidates to coax stem cells to become the important myelin cells in the brain but, of course, there is method behind the madness. The team tested the effects of different drugs (727 to be precise), which all had a history of use in patients, on laboratory-grown stem cells called ‘oligodendrocyte progenitor cells,’ or OPCs for short. Out of all the drugs investigated, the two drugs selected—miconazole and clobetasol—were best at stimulating the conversion of these blank stem cells into myelinating cells.

The effect of these versatile drugs on restoring myelin in the brains of mice with multiple sclerosis-like disease was remarkable. As Robert Miller, a neuroscientist at Case Western Reserve, said: “It was a striking reversal of disease severity in the mice.”

Whilst this was very promising with mice, it will be more difficult to evaluate in humans. It is extremely difficult to assess the reversal of brain damage and restoration of myelin reliably in living humans. Another hindrance in the evaluation of recovery is that progress takes a long time. It could take years, not months, to see the effects of myelin restoration, which means that trial studies will take a while and results won’t be quick. However, the team is enthusiastic that they can develop optimized versions of these drugs in the future.

The public are advised not to take the current versions of these drugs to alleviate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. The forms of drugs being tested have not been refined for the purpose of remylenation yet.

The additional emphasis is mine. Promising is not the same as cured. But for all those who have suffered, or will in the future, here’s hoping they figure it out.

In case you’re new here you’ll note that every claim made has been, or is being, backed up with research and that research has been, or is being, vetted by disinterested professionals. This is how science works. The fact that something helped your Aunt Gertie back in 1987 is not science. It could be luck, a combination of facts that Gertie forgot, or any number of things. Whatever it is it ain’t science.

That’s why many of these alleged cures are dangerous. No one really knows what they can or cannot do.

Night Nurse from Cascada on Vimeo.

Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG (FOX! Sports) every Friday around 9:10 AM.
Visit us on Rebel Mouse for even more fun!
contact Bill McCormick
Your Ad Can Be Here Now!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Super Cool Groovy Stuff

September 4, 2015 by

Sadly, there are no plans for a Lady Death movie.
Sadly, there are no plans for a Lady Death movie.
Okay, let’s take a break from all the “end of the world” stuff to catch back up with all of our fantasies. No, not those, you perv. I’m talking about the cinematic ones. And, no, Foreskin Gump doesn’t count as real cinema. Geez, what is in your browsing history? No, I’m talking about the plethora of super hero movies that will soon festoon our screens. While Stephen Spielberg recently predicted that this genre will go the way of the western, and I tend to agree, I would like to note that westerns had a three decade run of dominance. That’s not a bad little run. If you’d like to see a list of all the scheduled films coming your way just click here and have fun. There’s a ton of them.

A couple, Ant-Man & Fantastic Four, are already out. So let’s take a quick look at them. Ant-Man is a fun introduction to the character whom they can now use in multiple, Avengers related, movies. His fight with the Falcon is a thing of comic book joy as each has very different skills and each uses them to their advantage. The bad guy is really bad, the good guys are just bad enough to be interesting and there’s a token love interest that won’t make you squeamish. I’d give it two and a half out of four stars and admit I enjoyed it. As to Fantastic Four, let’s just say it’s a clinic on how to fuck up an easy movie. Things appear, become important, and then are never seen again. Reed Richards, the stretchy Mr. Fantastic, turns out to have the cool ability to change his facial features. He does this once and no more and it’s never explained how he learned to do it anyway. Dr. Doom attacks earth and no one knows why. For the most part he seemed to like everyone. The biggest sign you’re in trouble? Halfway through the film a lobby card pops up, just like in the old silent movies, that says One Year Later. This is a mess of a movie. I’d give it negative stars if I could.

Ah hell, I will; -3.5.

In fact, click here and just go watch the animated porn version of Fantastic Four. It’s got better plot and character development than this train wreck. Also better effects, if you know what I mean.

Moving on. In TV-Land the company that brought you Arrow and The Flash is now bringing you Supergirl and The Legends of Tomorrow. I’ve written about both extensively so I won’t rehash things here. Both look promising and the casts of both have been having fun with fans. Always a good sign.

In other TV news, the wonderful world of Daredevil will be adding the Punisher this season and a/k/a Jessica Jones will be introducing Luke Cage (Hero for Hire). All of these Netflix releases will be leading up to a team that features all of the principals. But not until each of them has, at least, two seasons under their belts as solo acts. People who’ve seen footage all say that if you liked Daredevil Season One you’re going to love what they’re up to now.

In other news the nice people making Deadpool (NSFW) released an R-rated trailer for the upcoming R-rated film that will explore light hearted topics such as terminal cancer, prostitution and contract killing. You know, just like the stories mom told you as a kid. If you know what Deadpool is all about then you’re pretty stoked right now. If not, click the link, make sure no one is around, and learn. Unless you’re easily offended. Then don’t do that. Don’t even think about it. It’s got Stan Lee as an M.C. in a strip club for Christ’s sake. It will ruin your childhood.

Speaking of ruining chilhoods, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is coming to DVD, etc., next month and has been rated R. Why? I do not know. Is there some bizarre sex scene that Peter Jackson insists on …. ahem … inserting? Was the hyper-realistic violence not hyper-realistic enough? All of the above? Oh well, if you really need to know they are also releasing the extended versions of all three films in 500 theaters nationwide. The total running time, should you wish to see all the Hobbit films back to back to back, is just under ten hours. That’s a lot of time to dedicate to a seventy page book.

In other R rated news that won’t ruin your childhood, Suicide Squad has finally wrapped up shooting. This may get cut down to a PG-13 film since it has the kid friendly Will Smith in it. Even if it does there’s a lot of room in a PG-13 film to give folks nightmares. In the cartoon version of Suicide Squad’s origin, Batman: Assault on Arkham, there’s sex and extreme violence. Harley’s a horn-dog and Deadshot is a willing, if reluctant, partner. Yes, that link will take you to the full movie. Obviously this film won’t go that far. But it will be interesting to see how far they do go.

Speaking of nightmares, imagine these two having a kid.

deadsquat

I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself.

Since both movies were shooting at the same time in Toronto the casts from Deadpool and Suicide Squad spent as much time as they could interacting with each other and with their fans. Given the insanely tight security surrounding most films these days this was kind of refreshing. Of course Deadpool and Suicide Squad owe their existence to fans so this makes sense.

One film that is not being all that fan friendly, Batman -vs- Superman: Dawn of Justice (what is with all the colons lately?), accidentally released their entire plot synopsis online. Yes, you can click the link to read it if you want. If you’re one of the three people on the planet who hasn’t seen the trailer just click here to catch up. With a plot involving Batman, Superman, Lex Luthor, Doomsday, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and a brief appearance by The Flash, this movie looks, superficially, to be a hot mess. But, from all accounts, it appears to be shaping up fine. It’s why Warner signed Ben Afflek to do three more Batman films, plus another Justice League and rushed him to Toronto to be in Suicide Squad. Originally he was just mentioned in the script.

One insider told me that the rough cut, minus a ton of effects, music, etc., recently shown to Warner Execs was “fucking astonishing.” That’s a much better review than I was able to get from anyone on Fantastic Four. The best I got there was “well, they paid for the sequel.”

Besides all the cool Netflix shows, Marvel is also gearing up for Captain America: Civil War. More colons. Anyway, as it stands right now, this will be the film they use to introduce Spiderman back into the Marvel cinematic universe. It will also not feature the Hulk. I’m not sure what they’re planning for that character but a cameo in a battle movie isn’t it. Nor is the Planet Hulk story line. Which makes me happy since I think that story was horribly overrated. But you can always click the link to check it out for yourself.

Shooting started a while back on X-Men Apocalypse but Marvel hasn’t released anything yet. They did show a brief trailer at Comicon but it was a little rough so we’ll just wait for something better. Don’t get me wrong, it looked cool, it was just rough.

The nice thing about catching up this way is that I was finally able to get all the links to everything all in one blog. Truly your one stop shopping destination.

And, just to ruin your good mood, keep in mind that Fox has every intention of releasing Fantastic Four II. Whether you want them to or not.

Superhero Boudoir – Promo for Home By Midnight / Boggio Studios from FX Media on Vimeo.

Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG (FOX! Sports) every Friday around 9:10 AM.
Visit us on Rebel Mouse for even more fun!
contact Bill McCormick
Your Ad Can Be Here Now!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Let’s Make a Better World

August 20, 2015 by

Frolicking is fun!
Frolicking is fun!

Before we get started here today I thought I’d take a moment to point out how important communication is. The people who create The Flash comic book were so impressed by the success of the TV series that, as an homage, they changed the character’s costume to reflect the one on the show. Simultaneously, as it turns out, the creators of the TV show were so impressed with the direction the comic book was taking that they changed the costume of their character to match the comic book. Since both are well into production that state of affairs is going to remain for a bit. I’m sure that, sooner rather than later, someone will buy someone else a beer and they’ll pick one. But, for now, that’s kind of funny.

Since we’re on the subject of communication and since books provide an oasis in a desert of ignorance and conformity, let’s talk about a book you can drink.

No, I’m not drunk.

Thomas Mukoya has the story.

Teri Dankovich, from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, who has been leading the research on what she calls “the drinkable book” said in one trial, they tested a ditch contaminated with sewage that contained millions of bacteria. “Even with highly contaminated water sources like that one, we can achieve 99.9% purity with our silver-and copper-nanoparticle paper, bringing bacteria levels comparable to those of US drinking water,” she said.

Each page is embedded with silver and copper nano-particles. The pages contain instructions in English and the local language; water is poured and filtered through the pages themselves. One page can purify up to 100 liters (about 26 gallons) of water and one book can supply one person’s drinking water needs for about four years, the researchers said.

That is also good news for drought ravaged areas (HI CALIFORNIA!) and for areas where infrastructure is a rumor (HI MISSISSIPPI!). You may think I’m kidding but I’m not. There are growing sections of the United States which, for a variety of intertwined religious and political reasons, are drifting back into the Middle Ages. In Kentucky, for example, roads and access to medical care are so scant that supplies have to be regularly airlifted in to some villages or people will die.

Ironically, the reasons cited by the residents of these blighted areas for refusing to accept access to modern conveniences are EXACTLY the same as the ones spouted by ISIS and their ilk. Well, it’s ironic to us. I’m not sure they know what the word means.

And part of that growing ignorance is a return to hex signs and herbalists. Emma Smith, over at I Fucking Love Science, takes a look at the proven risks.

Many treatments for cancer and other diseases were originally derived from naturally-occurring substances. The chemotherapy drug Taxol, created from a compound found in yew leaves, is a prime example.

Conversely, some of the most poisonous substances in the world – ricin, cyanide, arsenic, hemlock, snake venoms and mercury to name but a few – are all entirely natural.

Furthermore, alternative ‘natural’ therapies are not guaranteed to be safe. Examples include a serious risk of cyanide poisoning from laetrile, permanent scarring or disfigurement from cancer salves, and bowel damage, blood salt imbalances or even life-threatening septicaemia caused by coffee enemas.

– A N D –

Cancer is a complex disease, and without access to detailed medical records – which are confidential – it is impossible to paint a fully accurate picture of an individual’s cancer journey and whether alternative therapies played any role in their recovery.

More worryingly, there are some cases where evidence points towards a murkier interpretation of ‘truth’ and fact.

For example, Australian blogger Belle Gibson built a large media profile and business around the story of having apparently ‘healed herself’ of a brain tumour through diet and lifestyle changes, but has now admitted that she never actually had cancer at all.

People pushing alternative therapies frequently wheel out stories from ‘survivors’ who are apparently alive due to their treatments, yet without providing solid evidence to prove it is true. This raises false hope and unrealistic expectations that there is a hidden miracle cure that can be unlocked for the right price, or by eating exactly the right foods.

Steve Jobs believed cancer could be cured using the methods above. Had he simply gotten traditional treatments the odds are greatly in favor of him still being alive. Instead he’s very dead and never going to get better.

This is not to say that all natural remedies are bad. They most certainly are not. This is to say they need to be rigorously tested before being foisted on the general public. One such wonderful example is a mixture of cow puke and garlic that can cure styes and severe skin infections.

Clare Wilson, over at New Scientist, fills us in.

The project was born when Freya Harrison, a microbiologist at the University of Nottingham, UK, got talking to Christina Lee, an Anglo-Saxon scholar. They decided to test a recipe from an Old English medical compendium called Bald’s Leechbook, housed in the British Library.

Some of the ingredients, such as copper from the brass vessel, kill bacteria grown in a dish – but it was unknown if they would work on a real infection or how they would combine.

Sourcing authentic ingredients was a major challenge, says Harrison. They had to hope for the best with the leeks and garlic because modern crop varieties are likely to be quite different to ancient ones – even those branded as heritage. For the wine they used an organic vintage from a historic English vineyard.

As “brass vessels” would be hard to sterilise – and expensive – they used glass bottles with squares of brass sheet immersed in the mixture. Bullocks gall was easy, though, as cow’s bile salts are sold as a supplement for people who have had their gall bladders removed.

After nine days of stewing, the potion had killed all the soil bacteria introduced by the leek and garlic. “It was self-sterilising,” says Harrison. “That was the first inkling that this crazy idea just might have some use.”

A side effect was that it made the lab smell of garlic. “It was not unpleasant,” says Harrison. “It’s all edible stuff. Everyone thought we were making lunch.”

The potion was tested on scraps of skin taken from mice infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This is an antibiotic-resistant version of the bacteria that causes styes, more commonly known as the hospital superbug MRSA. The potion killed 90 per cent of the bacteria. Vancomycin, the antibiotic generally used for MRSA, killed about the same proportion when it was added to the skin scraps.

You’ll note that she mentions “sourcing the ingredients.” That’s because foods that existed 100 or 200 years ago are now almost all gone forever. As Megan Kelly reported, a variety of economic and aesthetic reasons have led to the demise of thousands of fruits and vegetables.

Some were too big or small for commercial sale so farmers stopped growing them.

Still, back in May of this year, I wrote about a tree that can grow 40 or more types of fruit at once. And it can do so with just a single sapling from a forgotten plant. There are many people who keep one form or another on their home properties (actual heirloom fruits) and scientists have been hunting them down. It’s not Frankenfood, it’s organic splicing and it’s saving many fruits you otherwise would have never been allowed to taste.

And because it’s organic – really, all you need is a sharp knife, tape, access to a variety of saplings and a lot of patience – this technique can be used to diversify the fruit supply in blighted regions. Also, as a bonus, different fruits bloom at different times so the tree produces year round. Extra bonus? One tree uses far less water than an orchard and can still feed quite a few people.

Okay, I’m boring you. You need your share of excitement or you’ll wander off to the midget porn carnival on Vimeo. Okay, I understand.

So here’s an article from Caroline Reid about a robot drone that shoots trees into the ground.

BioCarbon Engineering, the brainchild of former NASA engineer Lauren Fletcher, has proposed a solution: Industrial reforestation with robot drones. Could reforestation get any more awesome?

The drones would plant an estimated 1 billion trees a year, saving people from having to do it by hand. This would make reforestation quicker and cheaper. However, Fletcher doesn’t say that this new method of reforestation is necessarily better than planting trees by hand, just cheaper. If put into full effect, the drone method of planting trees could cut the price of traditional practices down to 15% of the original cost.

The drones won’t indiscriminately fire seeds anywhere they happen to fly over. Instead, the machines will first gather terrain data and information on the local fauna, reporting back on the region’s “restoration potential.”

When the restoration potential is approved, and the region is ready to support new seeds, a planting route is mapped for the drones to follow. The drones then fire the ground with germinated seed pellets at a rate of 10 seeds per minute.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that deforestation is so bad on our planet that we need a method to plant a billion trees a year quickly. Another problem is that old growth trees, like Oak and Redwood, take too long to grow so they are being eliminated in favor of faster growing trees like birch and pine.

Another problem facing us, as noted above, is drought. One solution – that works but creates mountains fo dry salt which pollutes the ground – is desalination. Tony Perry, from the LA Times, says those worries may be a thing of the past.

Thousands of desalination and water recycling plants have been built around the world, with some of the biggest in the Middle East, North Africa and the Caribbean. The Carlsbad plant, set to begin operation by Thanksgiving, is making its debut just as drought has become a crisis across California and the West.

For Poseidon Water, the Boston company building the plant — and for the international desalination industry — it presents an opportunity to try to disprove the criticism that dogs such projects: that they are exorbitantly expensive, hog energy and damage the environment.

“Carlsbad is going to change the way we see water in California for decades,” said Peter MacLaggan, a Poseidon Water vice president. “It’s not a silver bullet to solve all our water problems, but it’s going to be another tool in the toolbox.”

Though it might be lost on some of this summer’s convention-goers, San Diego has a long history with desalination.

The region took it as a clarion call when, in 1961, President Kennedy declared: “If we could ever, competitively, at a cheap rate, get fresh water from saltwater that would be in the long-range interests of humanity [and] really dwarf any other scientific accomplishments.”

The federal government built a plant for the Navy on Point Loma. (It was dismantled in 1964 and taken to the Guantanamo Bay naval base when Fidel Castro threatened to cut off its water supply. It operated well into the 1980s.)

General Atomics in La Jolla did pioneering work on developing the membrane technology that cleans salt and other impurities from seawater through a process called reverse osmosis. One of the pioneers, Don Bray, spun off his own company.

It was the beginning of making San Diego County what industry veteran Doug Eisberg calls “the Silicon Valley of desalination.” Dozens of companies employ 3,000 workers to provide the delicate, complex membranes needed for the world’s plants that specialize in desalination and water reuse.

Of course if the water’s too polluted in the first place none of this matters. Which is why Renee Lewis over at Al Jazeera is so excited to tell about a new way to clean up, literally, oceans’ worth of trash.

The world’s first system designed to rid the oceans of plastic pollution will be deployed near Japan in 2016, with the aim of eventually capturing half of the plastic found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a large concentration of marine debris located between Hawaii and California.

Boyan Slat, the 20-year-old Dutch CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, an organization dedicated to cleaning the world’s oceans, designed the system dubbed The Ocean Cleanup Array.

“I’ve always been interested in technology, and I was launching rockets at 12 years old,” Slat said. “Eventually I started studying aerospace engineering, but I dropped out to try to develop this ocean clean up idea.”

He said his inspiration for the organization came after a diving holiday in Greece where he realized he was coming across more plastic bags than fish.

“I wondered, ‘Why can’t we clean this up?’” Slat said.

Plastic debris, most of it in the form of tiny beads known as microplastics, can be found on up to 88 percent of the surface of all five oceans, according to a recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Because of swirling ocean currents, known as gyres, this plastic pollution has become concentrated in certain areas.

In other cases, ocean currents send plastic pollution toward certain islands or coastal areas in greater concentration than others. One such area is the Japanese island of Tsushima.

“The reason we picked that location is because the current and wave conditions are very favorable for our tests, and there really is a lot of plastic,” Slat said. “The island where we performed the test sees 30,000 cubic meters of trash wash ashore per year.”

30,000 cubic meters is over 1,000,000 cubic feet. Or, to simplify, over 333,333 feet wide (i.e., 3,333 or so football fields) and the same amount long and high.

That’s a lot of fucking trash and that’s just one island. Where does all that shit come from? Cruise ships, airliners, and you.

All is not lost. 3D printers are being modified to use natural materials like dirt and trash to create modern living facilities. I mean the kind wherein you can have electric and plumbing, not just some glorified Adobe structure. Wind farms are moving to using turbine styled systems instead of blades so they take up less space, can create more power, and don’t kill birds. Several wind collectors also can collect water from the air and save it into cisterns which people can easily access. In impoverished parts of South America these are already in use. Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) trains and vehicles are now faster, safer, and cheaper to operate than the traditional rail system we have here. That means that commerce and travel are both cheaper in areas where infrastructure has been updated.

In other words it can be done, it can be beneficial and it doesn’t require hex signs.

If you want to help take a moment to talk quietly, and without recrimination, to those who eschew progress and explain to them that the world is progressing anyway. And it is doing so for the better. All of this means that people can be healthier, live longer and more productive lives and not be a drain on others. Those are all good things.

It all starts with roads and doctors but it does have to get started soon or this country will be no better than a third world country of 20 years ago. I specify since there are now countries in Africa and Asia that are surpassing us in many ways.

NATURE ZONES NUDIST MUSIC VIDEO from TON DOU on Vimeo.

Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG (FOX! Sports) every Friday around 9:10 AM.
Visit us on Rebel Mouse for even more fun!
contact Bill McCormick
Your Ad Can Be Here Now!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

The Real Teen Titans

July 8, 2015 by

Making the world a safer place one super deed at a time.
Making the world a safer place one super deed at a time.
Kids These Days, besides being the name of a great band who unfortunately disbanded when they grew up to become Adults These Days, is also one of those easily dismissive terms that gets tossed in the direction of our youth. It is both belittling and degrading. It assumes that the young are not worthy of our attention in any regard. And it is a uniquely American phenomena. While almost all cultures have a “respect your elders” custom which is enforced to varying degrees, none actually treat their young as third class citizens. Less worthy of respect than even their drunken uncle Elmo. Slowly, and against much resistance, that is changing. And, if we’re to have any hope for a future, it needs to finally go the way of the Dodo. Look, let’s be honest, if we can handle interracial couples, two dudes kissing, and an Olympic gold medalist having a sex change on prime time television we can certainly withstand the shock of a few smart kids. If we can’t we should just stop having them. We’re doing no one or no thing any worthy service otherwise.

A guy I know says that the worst thing that ever happened was the character Abby on NCIS. It made his daughters all uppity and shit and now, instead of being baby factories, they are both graduate students at major universities. He feels betrayed by the Marines. A fact I find funny since he was also a draft dodger. Oh well, life goes on. He’s the withering past and they are the shining future.

In honor of them allow me to introduce you to some other kids that can give us all hope. None are older than seventeen. The youngest is fourteen.

Anya Pogharian

After poring over online dialysis machine owner’s manuals, she developed a new prototype using simple technology.

While machines currently cost about $30,000, hers would cost just $500 — making it more affordable for people to buy and have at home.

Pogharian was inspired by volunteering at a hospital dialysis unit. When she was assigned a high school science project, she chose to work on a new kind of dialysis unit. She spent 300 hours on her invention — well above and beyond the mandatory 10 hours.

Dialysis is the process of cleaning waste from the blood. It’s typically used for people who have kidney disease. The treatment takes about four hours a couple times per week.

Anya Pogharian said she was inspired to find a better solution for patients who need dialysis after volunteering at a hospital. (CBC)

Pogharian said she wanted to find a way to improve the procedure, which can be hard on patients.

“It takes a lot of energy out of them,” said Pogharian. “They’re very tired after a dialysis treatment.”

“You wouldn’t have to make your way to the hospital, which is a problem for a lot of patients. It’s not necessarily easy to make your way to the hospital three times a week, especially it you have limited mobility,” she said.

She is beginning testing on human blood under the oversight of the scientists at Héma-Québec. If successful it will bring treatment to millions around the world who otherwise would just die.

Katharine Wu

Wu is a finalist in the 2014 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge thanks to her entry for an ingenious device designed to detect and prevent drowsy driving. What’s equally impressive: she submitted her video entry to the challenge, which awards prizes for scientific solutions to everyday problems, last spring while still in middle school.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driving while fatigued causes at least 100,000 crashes a year — and the agency says that drowsiness is widely underreported. To combat this problem, Wu created the “driver’s companion.”

The companion prototype consists of a Bluetooth-connected headset linked to a Raspberry Pi, a tiny credit card-sized computer. Wu programmed the companion to track body changes via electroencephalography, or EEG, which monitors the electrical activity of the brain. As Wu explains in the video, if the device detects slower EEG waves and increased blinking — both of which indicate a lack of alertness — it sends audiovisual wake up calls before the driver begins to drift off.

Distracted or drowsy driving kills thousands of people every year. And the hundreds of thousands of crashes that could be averted, thus avoiding injuries and untold property damage, could make that issue a thing of the past.

Samuel Burrow

Ridding the Earth of pollution may sound like an impossible task to most. But not to 16-year-old UK whiz-kid Samuel Burrow, who was recently named one of 18 finalists in the 2014 Google Science Fair. Burrow believes the key to reducing pollution could lie in a material found in pencils and sunscreen.

… (T)he innovative teen proposes his idea to improve on a current pollution fighter: “self-cleaning” paints, which contain a chemical that dissolves air pollution. If you apply a layer of this paint to the outside of buildings, it literally can “eat smog.”

Currently, these paints are expensive and not totally effective. Burrow found that graphene oxide, a material found in pencils and sunscreen, could make the paint more potent. Bonus: It can even be used to sanitize water in Third World countries.

Actually, given the drought we are facing on our west coast water sanitation is a big thing. Plus, his discovery will bring the costs down immensely making global implementation affordable and practical.

Jack Andraka

“In the next 10, 20, 30 years, my vision for medical diagnostics and cancer diagnostics would be … a shift from symptom-based diagnosis,” Jack explained. “That’s my test. That’s really going to be the future of medicine because you really want definitive, quantitative results.”

According to BBC, a reason pancreatic cancer has a low survival rate is because there are very few symptoms. Because of this, doctors aren’t likely to suggest taking a diagnostic test. Jack’s extensive research on pancreatic cancer aims to change this. He created a urine and blood test that is 28 times cheaper and faster than the tests that already exist. His new test is also 100 times more sensitive and has a 90 percent accuracy rate.

Jack was fifteen when he won first place at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. His invention will allow doctors to get well ahead of the curve on cancer diagnoses and help save countless lives.

Catherine Wong

(She) has ideas that “flatten the earth,” yet remains grounded. Maybe it’s the mismatched socks.

Whatever her secret, the 17-year-old Morristown High School senior from Morris Township remained humble despite all the attention presented her Thursday afternoon when she was honored by school officials for being named a finalist in the 2013 Intel Science Talent Search.

She joins 39 other finalists — out of nearly 2,000 applicants nationwide — who will compete in March in Washington, D.C. for $630,000 in prizes and present their research at the National Geographic Society. Winners will be announced at an award ceremony on March 12.

Wong’s research project, “A Novel Design for Wireless Low-Cost Cardiac Examination Over the Mobile Phone Platform: Telemedicine for the Developing World,” provides the mechanism for real-time transmission of medical data through a cell phone, providing access to health care to nearly two-billion people in remote or underdeveloped areas of the world. Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist at the Scripps Research Institute in California remarked that Wong’s project “is the kind of technology that ‘flattens the earth’ for better medical care.”

Think about this one for a minute. No matter who you are or where you’re at you can send real time information about your health to a medical professional and get an accurate diagnosis based on facts and not uncle Elmo’s strongly held beliefs in corn fritters.

Janelle Tam

We’ve seen teens devise potential cures for cancer, build nuclear reactors and use musical instruments as inspiration for the creation of low-cost landmind detectors — all before receiving their high school diplomas. And now, the latest in a line of unbelievable teen scientists has made another major breakthrough. Sixteen-year-old Janelle Tam has discovered that cellulose, a material found in trees that helps them stand up straight, is an antioxidant with potent anti-aging properties.

Tam’s study of minute particles in tree pulp known as nano-crystalline cellulose (NCC) led to an “a-ha”! moment for the young innovator — she had unearthed a super-durable material that had the power to fight disease and prevent aging. This unbelievable discovery won Tam the 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada, a national competition for young scientists.

NCC is similar to antioxidants Vitamin C and Vitamin E in terms of its ability to fight damaging free-radicals, but it may even be superior insofar as it is more stable and therefore potentially longer-lasting.

“It would be really nice to commercialise this,” Tam told AFP. “I envision it more as an ingredient that would be added to existing formulations, so it could be added to tablets or bandaids for a wound dressing or it could be added to cosmetic cream.”

Her game-changing innovation — which could literally shape the face of the anti-aging product industry — earned Tam a a $5,000 award from the National Research Council of Canada.

It will also earn her one of those jobs where she can earn a Ferrari by her twenty-fifth birthday. A fact that I’m fine with. This stuff would be like Neosporin on amyl nitrate. Wounds could heal exponentially faster. Which means less stress on the immune system which means longer lives for everyone.

So the next time you hear someone moan “kids these days” make sure you tell them “And thank God for them.”

Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG (FOX! Sports) every Friday around 9:10 AM.
Visit us on Rebel Mouse for even more fun!
contact Bill McCormick
Your Ad Can Be Here Now!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

From Then ’til Then

June 20, 2015 by

Pay attention, I'm about to drop  some knowledge on you.
Pay attention, I’m about to drop some knowledge on you.

Sorry that I haven’t posted in a while. The WNC Super Computer took a giant crap two weeks ago and set off a chain of events that made me think I might be better off with a stone tablet. And there were other times that I worried that that solution was too high tech. Sadly, one cannot do proper web design or graphics or write blogs on such crude devices. So I have a new (slightly used) computer adorned with Hello Kitty stickers. Which is fine by me. I wanted a Hello Kitty band aid when I had my surgery 3 weeks ago. Instead I was given a flesh colored one, said color only applying to about 9% of the human race as far as I can tell, and sent merrily on my way. The good news is that after a decade of excruciating pain I can now amble about with the best of you and do so pain free. Sans Hello Kitty band aid, but I can live with that. During my down time I used my phone for research. I learned a lot doing that. For example, I can only have sixteen tabs open at one time. I also learned that I hate texting with a passion.

But above and beyond that I learned some stuff that I’m going to share with you here today. I’ll start with a simple one. According to Aamna Mohdin you and spiders, yes, you, have something very important in common. Your insulin and spider’s venom are pretty much the same thing.

Spider and centipede venom contain a terrifying cocktail of chemicals that are used to devour prey and defend themselves from predators. Some, like the funnel-web spider’s venom, are able to instantly paralyze its victims. Now, a new study has revealed the origin of their venom, and oddly enough, not only did this powerful weapon evolve from insulin-like hormones, but this evolution occurred in arachnids as well as centipedes.

Researchers first looked for similarities between the proteins in the venom and other molecules in hormones. After analyzing these protein sequences, researchers were unable to find any genetic similarities, but did discover that they had similar molecular shapes.

“If you take the sequence of the spider toxin and you do a BLAST search, the hormone is so different now that you don’t pull it out,” said study senior author Glenn King, from University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, in a statement. “But when we did a structural search and it pulled up the hormone, that’s what really surprised us—the sequence didn’t tell us where the toxins evolved from, but the structure did pretty clearly.”

The venoms evolved from a hormone that once helped regulate sugar, similar to what insulin does for humans. Venoms aren’t all bad as they can provide researchers with the opportunity to study different chemicals, and these natural resources can be broken down. By getting a clearer picture of the origin and structure of these venoms, researchers hope to develop new pharmaceuticals and bioinsecticides by altering their chemical structure. Some of these products include analgesics and blood pressure drugs.

Other products, that use actual venom, include blood thinners that are far more reactive and controllable. While still in the early test stages these drugs could save the lives of millions of stroke victims.

Oh well, as long as we’re injecting you with lethal compounds, let’s have some fun and inject you with cancer.

As Gwennaëlle Monnot points out, it’s for your own good.

(B)acteria are not the only micro-organism we can use against cancer. Some viruses have oncolytic properties (where it specifically infects and kills cancer cells), and additionally they can be easily made from scratch in the laboratory, thus allowing for easy genetic modification.

Viruses are a highly evolved type of infectious agent. When they enter a cell, they inject their genetic information into it – or in the case of the herpes virus, blasting in its DNA. The cell then uses that genetic information like its own, and produces the viral proteins it encodes for. This leads to the cell unknowingly making more and more viral particles, until it bursts. The newly made viruses can then go and infect a neighbouring cell.

Fortunately, our cells have evolved to “sense” viral entry into their cytoplasm and to react by either blocking their production of proteins, or committing suicide. This is a tightly regulated function called “programmed cell death”, which prevents the further spread of the virus.

The interesting thing when it comes to cancer is that the malignant cells have lost, through many genetic mutations, the ability to protect themselves against viruses, as well as to undergo programmed cell death. Their inability to die when they should is actually at the core of their malignancy. So using viruses can be a way to specifically target tumour cells, while healthy cells remain unharmed.

In the recent phase III clinical trial, talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) was used, which is a genetically modified herpes simplex virus (HSV). Normal HSV is highly evolved and has learned to hide from our cells’ viral sensors. But this therapeutic HSV has been genetically dulled to be efficiently controlled by healthy cells, but still able to infect tumour cells. Its ability to replicate, however, is not compromised – which means that a small dose of virus can keep infecting new targets until all tumours cells are gone. Moreover, it induces the expression of GM-CSF in the tumour cells, which is a factor that recruits immune cells to the tumour site. The effect of T-VEC is hence double: directly destroying the tumour cells, as well as attracting immune cells on site to finish up the job.

In comparison to the previous examples, this treatment was generally safer, with no treatment-related death, and few patients discontinuing therapy because of discomfort (4%). Moreover, the efficacy was unprecedented for this kind of therapy, as 16.3% of patients achieved remission for at least six months, compared to 2.1% receiving the control treatment. Interestingly, the benefits were even increased in the patients who had a milder severity of melanoma, as well as in the patients for whom it was the first line of treatment.

These data demonstrate the potential of microbial infection to enhance the immunotherapy of cancer, and pave the way for the development of new therapies in the field of oncology.

Any medical researcher will tell you that any time you can get the body to heal itself the better off you are. I have written before how there are now several lines of research following that train of thought. Some are further along than others but all look promising on their own and may, when used in conjunction, actually provide a cure.

What about in non-medical news? Anything cool happening there? Why yes, there is, if by “cool” you mean that you think watching animals starting to evolve in new and strange ways that could spell our extinction is cool.

Then, yeah. I’ve got some hellaciously cool shit for you.

Robert Evans & Fernando Ramirez happily inform us that suicidal squirrels are gleefully dismantling the U.S. power grid.

There is an army trying to take down the world’s power grid, right now, as we speak. They are dedicated, they are numerous, and they are willing to die. They’re also very small and furry.

They are squirrels.

They run up power lines, chew anything that looks like it carries more than 1,000 volts of electricity, and die. Other times, they acrobatically stretch to grab both the power line and the transformer to try their hand at being a conduit for high-voltage electricity flow, and die. It’s like there’s a specific bloodline of squirrels whose only purpose in the universe is to knock out the power while you’re right in the middle of a Supernatural marathon.

It isn’t a small problem, either. Squirrels cause thousands of blackouts every year. A company in Nebraska found that squirrels cause more power outages per year than lightning. In Austin, where squirrels cause 300 power outages a year, Austin Energy is spending more than $100,000 annually to install technology to protect their grid from squirrels (“technology” here meaning “giant hunks of squirrel-deflecting metal”), which seems like an unnecessary amount of money until you consider that the squirrels caused an estimated $2 million worth of damage to their grid in a single year. There have been terrorist cells that were less effective in disrupting government infrastructure.

It’s an adorable jihad against your ability to use Spotify.

When you multiply those amounts by the number of grid stations scattered across the country you end up looking at hundreds of millions of dollars in damage every year. So when your libertarian friend says “we don’t need no infrastructure” just have him/her grab their Hello Kitty assault rifle, park their happy ass down by the nearest power lines, and keep America safe.

One cute squirrel at a time.

I’m sure that will go well.

In other related news, while some were out denying evolution, monkeys started to evolve and develop the ability to use complex tools.

I mentioned this on my last radio show and received the following email from a nice man named Jason in Aurora.

“What the actual fuck was that? You can’t just say fucking chimps are learning to use tools. I saw Planet of the Apes you asshole, I know what that means.”

He’s right. Further elucidation is in order and Josh L. Davis is here to provide it.

In the region where the researchers were studying the chimps, local people harvest the palm wine by making wedge-shaped cuts into the tree’s trunk, allowing the sugary sap that seeps out to gather in large containers. The villagers then collect the fermented sweet liquid in the mornings and evenings, as the alcohol concentration rises too high if left any longer.

This gives the cheeky chimps plenty of time during the day to raid the bar. Despite being watched round the clock, the researchers found that the apes were exclusive day drinkers, sleeping off the buzz at night. Although we don’t know whether they experience the same savage hangovers as humans, it seems they may experience restlessness at night like us. The main boozer of the group, for example, is reported to have acted agitated whilst trying to catch some Z’s and would take an extra hour to settle down after the sun had set.

The team, a collaboration of researchers from different institutions, looked over observations of the community of chimps from the past 20 years. They found evidence of 51 wine-drinking events within the group of 26 apes. Whilst they can’t be certain that the chimps actually got drunk, they consumed enough alcohol to equate to around 8.5 UK units—equivalent to around 1 bottle of wine—and showed signs of drunken behavior.

They use leaves as scoops and sponges to get the hootch and use rude levers to keep the tree open so they can keep the alcohol flowing.

Chimps already create spears and clubs which they use for hunting. As one scientist noted, all they need to do is harness fire to take the next evolutionary leap.

We’ll get back to that in a moment.

Let’s now move on to a larger animal that seems to have developed a new form of refrigeration. Thanks to global warming, yes, it is so a thing, polar bears have fewer and fewer seals to hunt. So they’ve started killing dolphins that get caught up in the warmer currents and end up out of their comfort zone.

Since the bears literally have no idea where their next meal is coming from they’ve started to store food. Juts like you do after a visit to CostCo.

Janet Fang has the story.

In Raudfjorden on April 23, 2014, during an annual bear capture-recapture expedition, Norwegian Polar Institute’s Jon Aars and colleagues encountered a male polar bear with the carcass of a mostly intact white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) on the sea ice about 5 meters from shore. It was only missing some of the fat layer on its dorsal side. Another dolphin – rather the spine, ribcage, and skull of a dolphin – was on land 50 meters south. Tracks in the snow indicated that the same polar bear fed on both.

About a meter away from the intact dolphin was a small hole covered with ice slush (pictured above). It appeared to be a breathing hole kept open by dolphins trapped in the ice. After all, the surrounding sea ice is 20 centimeters thick, and this was the only spot on the fjord without solid ice. White-beaked dolphins are frequent visitors to Norwegian High Arctic waters in the summer, but they don’t usually go so far north in early spring. That winter, however, the area was ice-free, and they were swimming in open ocean until strong northerly winds packed drift ice into the fjords from April 17 to 18, trapping the dolphins. They were likely killed when they surfaced for air.

No meat had been taken from the more-or-less intact dolphin yet, and when the team chanced upon him, the bear was in the process of covering it with snow. This probably keeps foxes, gulls, and other scavengers away, though caching is a rare behavior in polar bears. They typically digest the fat that they consume from carcasses within a day, so the time that they’d need to keep competitors away is brief.

“We think he caught the second dolphin because he could, and then had extra food later,” Aars tells New Scientist. The bear was temporarily immobilized, and based on his teeth, he’s 16 to 20 years old. And while his ribs were clearly showing, he did have a rather full belly.

The concept of storing food is one of the core foundations of developing a civilization. And since bears are, by nature, nasty killers, that might be worth paying attention to.

David Tormsen is doing just that. He took a look at ten post-human entities that could end our reign.

Cancer cure or no. I’ll share one of them here and strongly suggest that you click on his link to read the rest. It’s well researched and entirely fascinating.

Uplifted Animals
The idea of raising animal species to human intelligence is an old one that dates back to H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr Moreau. Cordwainer Smith imagined uplifted animals as an oppressed underclass fighting for their rights, while David Brin’s Uplift series presented a universe where almost all intelligent creatures owed their sapiency to patron species, with humanity exploring the universe with intelligent apes and dolphins at its side.

Some theorists, such as George Dvorsky, argue that we have a moral imperative to raise other species to our level of intelligence once we possess the technological means to do so. Dvorsky points to modern efforts to have great apes be granted the legal right of “personhood,” and he asserts that the natural next step would be to give non-human animals the cognitive faculties for self-determination and participation in a society of sentient creatures. The human monopoly on sentient thought gives us an unfair and unjust advantage over our animal neighbors, and if the means exist to allow non-humans like apes, dolphins, and elephants to achieve the cognitive means of political participation, it is our moral duty to extend it to them.

Others disagree. Alex Knapp believes that the costs in terms of animal life would be too high to justify it. In order to uplift a species, it would be necessary to make changes to the DNA on an embryonic level, leading to inevitable failed attempts before we got it right. Then there is the question of how to ensure that a successfully uplifted embryo would be gestated. Such experimentation would be morally wrong, with the potential for intelligent animals suffering physical abnormalities and early death due to human meddling. Even if successful, human beings would have no way to cope with the social and emotional needs a sapient chimpanzee, bonobo, or parrot would have. In other words, uplifted animals could be left emotionally traumatized due to ham-handed attempts by humans to raise them.

Some also worry that problematic aspects of certain species’ natures, such as chimpanzees’ violence and dolphins’ inclination for rape, would carry on into their intelligent forms. Some argue that intelligent self-awareness is an ecological niche that can only sustainably hold a single species, explaining why the Neanderthals and our other human cousins were wiped out and assimilated. Creating intelligent animals could create evolutionary competition for humanity by potentially traumatized creatures with mental processes and value systems that we may not even be able to comprehend.

As David noted, while cute as all get out, dolphins are big into rape. Also, let’s say that we did imbue them with total sentience, how would such creatures view the world around them. They would have none of the cultural step stones that we had. Moreover, in their point of view, we could easily be seen to be a threat and something that needs to be eliminated. Keep in mind that those cute as all get out fish can kill sharks three times their size.

And let’s not forget our simian cousins. As David correctly noted they can be just as violent as us. They have already developed the rudimentary tools required for killing; both food and each other. They have found out how to cultivate booze and their social structure is decidedly different from ours as it relies on polyamory.

What happens when they become aware and truly see us for the first time?

Or, better yet, just in case you don’t have enough nightmares already, what if it already has?

Bryan Nelson says that quantum physicists have come up with an interesting idea.

Every comic book fan knows about the theory of the multi-verse. The idea that there exists numerous, possibly infinite, versions of you. The nice thing is that science says that we can’t get from one to another.

Now science says, “not so fast there buckaroo.”

“The idea of parallel universes in quantum mechanics has been around since 1957,” explained Howard Wiseman, a physicist at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, and one of the physicists to come up with MIW. “In the well-known ‘Many-Worlds Interpretation’, each universe branches into a bunch of new universes every time a quantum measurement is made. All possibilities are therefore realised – in some universes the dinosaur-killing asteroid missed Earth. In others, Australia was colonised by the Portuguese.”

“But critics question the reality of these other universes, since they do not influence our universe at all,” he added. “On this score, our “Many Interacting Worlds” approach is completely different, as its name implies.”

Wiseman and colleagues have proposed that there exists “a universal force of repulsion between ‘nearby’ (i.e. similar) worlds, which tends to make them more dissimilar.” Quantum effects can be explained by factoring in this force, they propose.

Whether or not the math holds true will be the ultimate test for this theory. Does it or does it not properly predict quantum effects mathematically? But the theory is certain to provide plenty of fodder for the imagination.

For instance, when asked about whether their theory might entail the possibility that humans could someday interact with other worlds, Wiseman said: “It’s not part of our theory. But the idea of [human] interactions with other universes is no longer pure fantasy.”

What might your life look like if you made different choices? Maybe one day you’ll be able to look into one of these alternative worlds and find out.

And if there’s another you it could just as well be the pet of a simian who has a jihadist squirrel as a partner.

Sweet dreams.

Evolution from Alex Glawion on Vimeo.

Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG (FOX! Sports) every Friday around 9:10 AM.
Visit us on Rebel Mouse for even more fun!
contact Bill McCormick
Your Ad Can Be Here Now!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to page 6
  • Go to page 7
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 15
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Archives

  • October 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • December 2021
  • October 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • November 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in