Happier Talk

Ugh. The news is way too heavy for me this Friday.

So, I thought a look back to "yesterdays" might help me ferret out happier times.

Failing to find even one, I decided to look to Mr. Berkeley Breathed's  Bloom County for a flicker of lightness. Here's what I uncovered:

Well, this explains everything in a totally inappropriate way, don't you agree?

And, now a word from our sponsor:

South Pacific - Happy Talk - 1949

Wrong Talkin’

The facts speak for themselves, historically, of course.

Saying the “wrong words” about the ills of our society to those with a tiny bit of authority has always brought punishment down upon the speaker.

In the '60s and '70s disputing the illegal war in Vietnam, or the unfair and illegal actions of the local draft board, resulted in either jail time or forced enlistment in the Army.

For those protesting LA policing practices, not one iota has changed, save perhaps, a tour in ‘Nam.

Speak too long or too forcefully and you get arrested and hauled out of the LA Police Commission meeting. Now, if a proposed ordinance is passed, perhaps the same will be in store for California citizens at a LA City Council meeting, too.

“If passed, the ordinance will make it ‘an arrestable offense to violate any posted rules of public facilities’ and would empower law enforcement to make criminal trespass charges, tighten restrictions on speaking time and shut down criticism at meetings,” explained the ACLU of Southern California.

For those empowered few, Wrong Talkin’ is too much challenge and way too hard to accept.

Often, the Wrong Talkin’ change agents end up in jail because they are the challengers of those currently benefiting from corruption, immoral, unconstitutional "laws", racism, classism, or religious dominance. Those want-to-be (s), the empowered few, apply the “law” in order to maintain their privileged position over the less-than-them, aka - the common riffraff.

Sadly, the LA Police Commissioners are examples of the U.S. version of "useful fools", to whom Vladimir Lenin referred - those whom his country had successfully manipulated. They will never achieve the life style of the .0001%, silver-spooned, moneyed elite, to which they aspire to ascend.

They will always be “less-thans”, no matter how despicably and dishonorably they treat their fellow, Wrong Talkin’ riffraffs.

What are the Wrong Talkin’ rules in your hometown?

Please go here for the whole story:
Los Angeles Police Are Arresting People For Speaking 20 Seconds Over Their Allotted Time at City Meetings, Emily C. Bell, AlterNet, 25 Oct. 2017.

Arrest of 82-Year-Old Tut Hayes for Speaking at #LAPD Police Commission Meeting on November 22, 2016

Born in the U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen - 1984

Somethin’ Is Out of Whack

Michigan snow storms, terrible wind storms, tornadoes and otherwise yucky weather, all have at least one thing in common - a tendency to mess with power lines and such.

It's been my experience, at least, that bad weather conspires to leave people without electricity for a while, sometimes a long while.

But, when that happens, in addition to local DTE workers, we usually see a bunch of out-of-state trucks, loaded with linemen from other utilities, working to restore downed power lines and blown transformers. So, in short order, repairs are completed, and things start goin’ back to normal.

Seems that whole reciprocity thing is not working in Puerto Rico. And, most of the people of Puerto Rico are still without life-sustaining electricity.

And, to top it off, why has an unknown, two-man outfit from Montana “won” a $300 million , no-bid, contact to rebuild Puerto Rico’s hurricane-ravaged power grid?

Indeed. Somethin’ is royally out of whack.

Here’s the story:
Small Montana firm lands Puerto Rico’s biggest contract to get the power back on, Steven Mufson, Jack Gillum, Aaron C. Davis and Arelis R. Hernández, The Washington Post, 23 Oct 2017.

“For the sprawling effort to restore Puerto Rico’s crippled electrical grid, the territory’s state-owned utility has turned to a two-year-old company from Montana that had just two full-time employees on the day Hurricane Maria made landfall.”

“The company, Whitefish Energy, said last week that it had signed a $300 million contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to repair and reconstruct large portions of the island’s electrical infrastructure. The contract is the biggest yet issued in the troubled relief effort.”

“Whitefish said Monday that it has 280 workers in the territory, using linemen from across the country, most of them as subcontractors, and that the number grows on average from 10 to 20 people a day. It said it was close to completing infrastructure work that will energize some of the key industrial facilities that are critical to restarting the local economy.”

“The power authority, also known as PREPA, opted to hire Whitefish rather than activate the “mutual aid” arrangements it has with other utilities. For many years, such agreements have helped U.S. utilities — including those in Florida and Texas recently — to recover quickly after natural disasters.”

“The unusual decision to instead hire a tiny for-profit company is drawing scrutiny from Congress and comes amid concerns about bankrupt Puerto Rico’s spending as it seeks to provide relief to its 3.4 million residents, the great majority of whom remain without power a month after the storm.”

“The fact that there are so many utilities with experience in this and a huge track record of helping each other out, it is at least odd why [the utility] would go to Whitefish,” said Susan F. Tierney, a former senior official at the Energy Department and state regulatory agencies. “I’m scratching my head wondering how it all adds up.” - more -

Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman

Heaven's Little Girl

How Amber Got Her Name

One spring day when the flowers were blooming and the sky was blue, Mr. Breeze was gently caressing the leaves and Mrs. Sun was shining, warming Mrs. Earth.

Mrs. Tree was so happy that she shed a tear of happiness and caught a ray of sunshine.

Mrs. Sun left a beautiful ray of sunshine in Mrs. Tree’s happy tear to hold your name so Mom would fall in love with it and then give it to you. Only you.

On that beautiful day, Mrs. Tree left Amber –  her drop of sunshine – for your Mom to find and give to you.

And, so she did.

Mom found Amber, happy and smiling –  looking for Mom to see her.

And, so she did.

And, that’s how Amber, heaven's little girl, got her name. - RB

Heavenly Joy - (Amber)

Mind-Bending Tech Advances

Here are just three of the bazillion mind-bending technological advances underway right now:

5G

I don’t mean $5,000. This 5G is the next wireless network generation. Of course, it’s faster, smarter, etc.

“CSS Insights predicts 1 billion people will be using 5G connections by 2023, with China accounting for half of all 5G users as early as 2022.”

“The creation and subsequent adoption of 5G is seemingly inevitable, and like 4G, it will eventually become the leading mobile connection. That said, when the next generation of mobile technology arrives, it won’t be the U.S. or Japan leading the world in 5G users. It will be China.”

“The mobile industry analysts predict that 1 billion people will be using 5G connections by 2023, with China accounting for more than half of all 5G users as early as 2022. The country is expected to maintain a sizable hold until 2025, when it may still represent 40 percent of global 5G connections.”

Here’s the story… I guess… as of this moment.

Precision Autonomous Flight Without GPS

Yes, flying without GPS and still not running into assorted obstacles, is possible. Some really smart people have ciphered it all out.

A Breath of Air to Help Power the Grid

Photo credit: Courtesy of the researchers. Felice Frankel.

I breathe. You breathe. We all breathe together… now, so do our batteries.

Why? Because the MIT-developed “air-breathing” battery could “store electricity for very long durations for about one-fifth the cost of current technologies, with minimal location restraints and zero emissions.”

Of course, I knew that!!

O.K. Really, I didn’t.

But the MIT-really-really-smart people figured it all out.

Making renewable power more viable for the grid, Rob Matheson, MIT News Office, 11 Oct 2017.

We Need to Talk. Now.

Really. It's Time.

Who Rides the First Bomb?

Dr. Strangelove (7/8) Movie CLIP - Kong Rides the Bomb (1964) HD

With two U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Groups, loaded with nuclear weapons, located in the waters close to North Korea and a third close by, plus B-1 bombers flying about and a plethora of other U.S. assets close by, the chances of someone making a miscalculation is extremely high.

Have we forgotten? Or, perhaps we've always been deluded.

So, let me remind you of an important fact: there is no such thing as limited nuclear war.

If the blast does not kill us, the radiation will - followed closely by the nuclear winter for millennia to come.

We will surely all perish together.

The only remaining question is:

Will President Trump ride the first bomb down on North Korea?

Tom Lehrer  - We will all go together when we go - 1959

Sen. McCain… Man of Courage & Honor

Congratulations Sen McCain, for the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal honor.

Thank you, Senator McCain for the man you are. For your courage in the face of overwhelming odds. For your strength. And, for remaining with your fellow POWs at the North Vietnamese Hỏa Lò Prison, known as “The Hanoi Hilton”, until you and your fellow POWs could come home together.

I have no doubt that Col. Richard “Pop” Keirn, USAF, would agree.

Richard Keirn, my mother’s first cousin, was held for 7 years and 7 months in the Hanoi Hilton and came home with Sen McCain.

When Will WE Have Eyes that See... Ears That Hear?

What will it take for Americans to recover their souls and challenge the Trump Administration's everyday reality distortion?

“The mayors have come to us and they say ‘Mira (Look) Yulín, we have no food, no water, no one has gone to see us,’” she said. “What am I supposed to do? Just say, ‘Oh, go on your merry way because what I have is for San Juan’? Whatever San Juan gets, we make sure to service our people but we make sure that we have enough to share with other people.”

“Rather than dying from a horrendous act of nature, we’re dying from the horrendous inaction of men and women ― of one particular man — because I’ve seen the FEMA people who are out on the field,” she said. “Their hearts go out. They want to do more.”

In response, Cruz Soto said she’s asked the United Nations to stand by Puerto Rico.

San Juan Mayor: It May Be Easy To Disregard Puerto Rico Because We’re A US Colony, Carolina Moreno, Huffington Post, 16 Oct 2017.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico ― A month after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, many of the 3.4 million citizens on the island are desperate for aid as they struggle daily to find basic necessities like food, drinking water, medicine and consistent forms of communication.

The island’s capital, San Juan, has fared better than the other 77 municipalities.  But just outside the metropolitan areas, impoverished communities in towns like Canóvanas and Loíza are still impatiently waiting for FEMA or any government aid to arrive four weeks after the storm.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto, 54, says she has visited towns like Loíza and Comerío outside of her municipality and witnessed bleak scenes, and has called the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the hurricane inefficient and bureaucratic. She’s also criticized President Donald Trump’s leadership during the current crisis in Puerto Rico.

During a sit-down interview on Sunday, Cruz Soto told HuffPost she has “theories” about why federal aid has been slow to arrive to towns no more than than 30 minutes from the capital. She also painted a picture of the stark conditions Puerto Ricans are facing in the metropolitan area and beyond.

“I have learned in this disaster of a situation many things,” Cruz Soto said. “One is that we will no longer be able to hide our poverty and our inequality with palm trees and piña coladas; and two, that the dialogue, the discourse and what you’re seeing have to go hand in hand.”

“Before you could go somewhere and all these green trees and palms trees would be literally hiding away the more disadvantaged areas of San Juan and of Puerto Rico,” she said. “They are raw there [now] for us to see.”

In San Juan, like on the rest of the island, most residents lead their lives under the sweltering Caribbean heat with no electricity to run air conditioning or fans. Many gather inside some of the small number of businesses with generators but head home as soon as the midnight curfew kicks in. Cell service is spotty at best, but phones are only useful if you’re able to find a place to charge them.

At least 84 percent of the metropolitan area has running water, according to the Puerto Rico government website. But that doesn’t mean much for those living in high-rise buildings.

Please go here for video and the rest of the story.

Want to Help? Please consider: Oxfam Puerto Rico Hurricane Maria Response

Hurricane Maria has had a devastating effect on Puerto Rico. In the days following the storm, clean water, food, fuel, electricity, and health care are in desperately short supply. Despite possessing more than enough resources, the United States has struggled to mobilize a swift and robust emergency response.

Oxfam plans to support local efforts to meet Puerto Ricans' most urgent needs in this disaster as well as advocate in Washington for more and better resources for rebuilding.

Donate now to help us meet the most critical needs. 100% of funds designated for hurricane response will be used to support relief and recovery efforts for affected areas.

What? Puerto Rico a U.S.colony??

More understanding: Please check this New York Times review of Stephen Kinzer's
THE TRUE FLAG, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire. You might consider reading the book, too.

Suffering, LIVE... New Trump / FEMA TV Show

People need food and water, Mr. FEMA, not endless paperwork. For some reason, I actually thought it your job to do the distribution and delivery. Obviously, the Trump administration must find some morbid entertainment value in watching the helpless suffer. 

Oh, now I get it. It's the new Trump / FEMA TV show.

Please go here for the video report:
FEMA: Not our job to distribute food and water in Puerto Rico

Rachel Maddow reports on the situation in Aibonito, Puerto Rico, which has not received any FEMA aid despite multiple visits from FEMA representatives who helped victims with paperwork. FEMA says its the mayor's job to distribute food and water.

We Need You!

Years ago, I went to see a man seeking his help.

He was famous for his tough, but even-handed demeanor. He was the executive editor of my hometown newspaper and I knew I’d have absolutely no way to help save a national youth program without his help and stewardship. After all, I was all of 25 years old and knew nothing of local politics.

He knew how things got done, especially when the odds were decidedly stacked against success.

All I had was a dream for the future and a connection to our past. I knew the importance of the program to thousands of children and their parents throughout the nation. And, having grown-up only a mile away from Derby Downs, I also knew the importance of the program to our community’s psyche.

The one-year operators of this venerable program, the local Chamber of Commerce, had botched the management of the All-American Soap Box Derby, allowing a scandal to rage out of hand. Then in an embarrassing hissy-fit, the Chamber Executive Director declared it dead, a victim of the evil Watergate Era.

Along with other Akron Area Jaycees, I understood that if it were to remain abandoned and left to die, well then, the people of my hometown would lose again. It would be another blow to their self-respect, perhaps even worse than the loss of thousands of jobs, all gone to the union-free south and starvation-level-wage paying Mexico and Asia.

So as chairman of the the Akron Jaycee Save the Soap Box Derby Committee, I began organizing and reaching out for support and the rights to run the national event the following year. Without a dime in the bank (the Chamber refused to grant us the operating monies donated by Akron businesses and individual supporters) I quit my job at Goodyear.

I called Ben Maidenburg. Yes, he did pick-up his own phone. I asked for his help and support. He agreed to help us. Later that same day, Maidenburg introduced me to publisher John S. Knight.

Knowing we had their support, our committee fought to secure the rights to the program, reorganized it as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and began the arduous task of reinventing it and creating a self-sustaining foundation of financial support.

All this came flooding into my mind this morning as I read ProPublica’s call to news reporters and editors: Join ProPublica’s New Project to Work With Local Newsrooms.

“With support from a new three-year grant, we will pay salary plus an allowance for benefits for one full-time reporter dedicated to investigative work throughout 2018 at each of up to six partner news organizations in cities with population below 1 million. The reporter will still work in and report to their home newsroom, but they will receive extensive guidance and support from ProPublica. Their work will be published or broadcast by their home newsroom and simultaneously by ProPublica as well.”

More than anytime in the history of our nation, We Need You. 

Your community needs your mind, your drive, and above all, your skill at ferreting out truth. 

As I see it, you’d be helping your community, seeking the facts and presenting them in the best Maidenburg tradition. - RB

Thank God for the US Military

Sailors embarked aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), along with Puerto Rican medical professionals, transfer a patient from Menonita Hospital in Caguas, Puerto Rico, via an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the “Sea Knights” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 22. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ernest R. Scott/U.S. Navy

Dear Mr. President,

Sir, your words and more importantly, your actions - save one - betray your lack of understanding of your duty to your people and the obligations you swore to uphold when you assumed the office of the President of the United States.

Words are important, especially when disaster prevails. They can either inspire to greatness, above and beyond, or they can inject fear into the veins of strong men and women, promoting hopelessness and robbing them of their will to live.

Your words, sir, border on the latter.

But, your lone action, ordering the U.S. military to aid the people of Puerto Rico and appointing U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jeff Buchanan, commander of Joint Task Force Puerto Rico, well, that is helping our people.

Thank God for the U.S. military. No One Left Behind.

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jeff Buchanan, commander of Joint Task Force Puerto Rico, and soldiers from the Puerto Rico National Guard unload a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter carrying critical supplies in Jayuya, Puerto Rico on Oct. 11, 2017. DoD photo

Please go here for the story:

Trump Warns Military, FEMA Could Be Pulled From Puerto Rico, Richard Sisk, Military.com, 12 Oct 2017.

"In a series of Tweets on Thursday, President Donald Trump suggested that Defense Department and FEMA relief efforts in Puerto Rico might be coming to an end -- even as the military expanded its response on the island, which has been battered recently by Hurricanes Irma and Maria."

"Trump renewed his criticism of the island's government for the parlous state of infrastructure before the storms hit and said, "We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!"

"About 90 percent of Puerto Rico's 3.4 million U.S. citizens lack electricity, and only about 64 percent have access to potable water, according to the DoD, but Trump said in his Tweets, "Electric and all infrastructure was disaster before hurricanes."

"He again referred to Puerto Rico's debt of more than $70 billion to bondholders and said Congress must "decide how much to spend" on a bailout."

"At a White House briefing later, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, sought to clarify Trump's remarks.

"Kelly said an immediate pullout of the military and the Federal Emergency Management Agency from Puerto Rico is not under consideration.

"He said Trump's Tweet was "exactly accurate" that the relief effort is not open-ended but added, "This country, our country, will stand with those American citizens in Puerto Rico until the job is done."

"Kelly put no timeline on how much longer the relief effort will continue, but said traditionally in the military, "You are trying very hard to work yourself out of a job."

"He said he is hopeful that a withdrawal could come "sooner rather than later."

"House and Senate Democrats immediately condemned Trump's remarks.

"Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, tweeted a question to the president: "Why do you continue to treat Puerto Ricans differently than other Americans when it comes to natural disasters?"

"FEMA needs to stay until the job is done and right now, it's not even close to done," Schumer said. "There is still devastation, Americans are still dying."

"Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello said in a Tweet, "U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are requesting the support that any of our fellow citizens would receive across our Nation."

"As of Tuesday, three weeks after Hurricane Maria hit the island as a Category 4 storm, the death toll stood at 43, according to island officials."

"The DoD said 13,420 active-duty and National Guard personnel are now involved in the military's response on and offshore, and 92 rotary aircraft and 14 fixed-wing aircraft are operating on the island."

"Their efforts are focused on power restoration; distribution of power generators and food, fuel and water; medical support, route clearance, and aviation support; and continuing work by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in shoring up the badly eroded Guajataca Dam in the island's northeast, the DoD said."

"Of the 69 hospitals on the island, 36 are back on the power grid and the rest are struggling to operate on generators, the DoD said."

"Twenty-nine of 51 wastewater treatment plants are operational and running on generator power, and 78 percent of Puerto Rico's gas stations are now open, it said."

"The hospital ship USNS Comfort is involved in medical support in Aguadilla on Puerto Rico's western tip, and elements of the14th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) are arriving and expected to begin operations in Humacao, west of San Juan, next week."

"U.S. Transportation Command also is keeping assets in San Juan for the possible evacuation of patients to the continental U.S., the DoD said."

"Last week, the Pentagon said the military's commitments, particularly of air assets, in responding to a quick succession of hurricanes in the U.S. and across the Caribbean will have an impact on worldwide deployments into next year."

"At a Pentagon briefing last week, Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the Joint Staff director, said there will be a delay in the planned deployment of additional troops to Afghanistan."

Soldiers with 6th Battalion, 101st General Support Battalion, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) deliver food and water October 3, 2016 to Orocovis, Puerto Rico.Photo by Sgt. Marcus Floyd, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade/U.S. Army

A U.S. Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter with Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron (HM) 14, embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1), prepares to transport concrete barriers to help repair the Guajataca Dam in Quebradillas, Puerto Rico, Oct. 7, 2017. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Levingston Lewis/U.S. Navy

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Wesley LaPrarie, assigned to the 821st Contingency Response Squadron, spots a K-loader at Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, Oct. 3, 2017. Photo by Staff Sgt. Robert Hicks/U.S. Air Force

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Kenneth Krowel drops a box of MRE’s to locals from a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter Oct. 3, 2017, near Utuado, Puerto Rico. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric D. Woodall/U.S. Coast Guard

Newly Discovered... in Your Head

"Learning and discovering is forever," a professor once said to me.
She was right...

Scientists Somehow Just Discovered a New System of Vessels in Our Brains, James Hamblin, The Atlantic, 7 Oct 2017.

"The lymph vessels probably escaped detection because they’re  inside a thick membrane, the dura mater, which is the consistency of leather. They run alongside blood vessels that are much larger, and on MRI the signal that creates the images is dominated by the blood vessels."

Daniel Reich, (Senior investigator, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke), adds the other obvious but important factor: “And, I mean, no one was looking for them.”

"The assumption was never that the brain doesn’t drain waste. The major pathway taught in medical school is that waste around cells goes into cerebrospinal fluid—the clear fluid that bathes the brain and spinal cord—and from there gets absorbed directly into the blood through structures called arachnoid granulations. Reich also explained that some fluid is understood to drain through tiny pores in our skulls, mostly at the top of our noses, and then get absorbed into the lymphatic system through the mucous membranes of the nose, and then, from there, go down into the lymph nodes of the neck."

"It now seems clear that there is a third pathway through which byproducts get out of the brain—and it may be the most important—through these specialized vessels in the dura mater."

“Looking back, those other two really seem insufficient,” said Reich.

"It remains a mystery exactly how that lymph fluid gets into these vessels. There are a lot of open questions that show how far we are from fully understanding many neurologic disorders—or even basic day-to-day functioning of the nervous system."

"But this pathway appears crucial to life and health. A 2013 study in Science found that glymphatic flow seems to increase by almost double during sleep (in mice). Sleep disturbances are a common feature in Alzheimer’s and other neurologic disorders, and it’s possible that inadequate clearing of the brain’s waste products is related to exacerbating or even causing the disease. In a 2016 study, also in mice, glymphatic dysfunction appeared to cause accumulation of Alzheimer-related amyloid proteins."

"The flow of glymphatic fluid can change based on a person’s intake of omega-3 fatty acids, a study showed earlier this year. Preliminary findings like these together suggest a pathway through which nutrition and sleep can be related to neurologic disorders. Optimizing this glymphatic flow could become a central theme for the future of neurologic health."

Please go here for the whole story.

Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now - 1972

Suicide is Painless- for the Healthy Cells

Good News!

Some way-smarter-than-most-of-us people have discovered a way to help cancer cells commit suicide - while leaving nearby healthy cells alone. And no Dr. Kevorkian is required.

I don't know about you, but I'm O.K. with that.

Here's the story from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine:

Novel treatment causes cancer to self-destruct without affecting healthy cells, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 9 Oct 2017.

BRONX, NY--Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have discovered the first compound that directly makes cancer cells commit suicide while sparing healthy cells. The new treatment approach, described in today's issue of Cancer Cell, was directed against acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells but may also have potential for attacking other types of cancers.

"We're hopeful that the targeted compounds we're developing will prove more effective than current anti-cancer therapies by directly causing cancer cells to self-destruct," says Evripidis Gavathiotis, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and of medicine and senior author of the study. "Ideally, our compounds would be combined with other treatments to kill cancer cells faster and more efficiently--and with fewer adverse effects, which are an all-too-common problem with standard chemotherapies."

AML accounts for nearly one-third of all new leukemia cases and kills more than 10,000 Americans each year. The survival rate for patients has remained at about 30 percent for several decades, so better treatments are urgently needed.

The newly discovered compound combats cancer by triggering apoptosis--an important process that rids the body of unwanted or malfunctioning cells. Apoptosis trims excess tissue during embryonic development, for example, and some chemotherapy drugs indirectly induce apoptosis by damaging DNA in cancer cells.

Apoptosis occurs when BAX--the "executioner protein" in cells--is activated by "pro-apoptotic" proteins in the cell. Once activated, BAX molecules home in on and punch lethal holes in mitochondria, the parts of cells that produce energy. But all too often, cancer cells manage to prevent BAX from killing them. They ensure their survival by producing copious amounts of "anti-apoptotic" proteins that suppress BAX and the proteins that activate it.

"Our novel compound revives suppressed BAX molecules in cancer cells by binding with high affinity to BAX's activation site," says Dr. Gavathiotis. "BAX can then swing into action, killing cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unscathed."

Please go here for more.


M A S H Opening Theme Song - 1970 -legendada

Legacy... Bet You Want One

A great future.
Bet you want one for your children and the grandkids filled with health and happiness.
Or, will you leave a world chock-full of something else?
What will be your legacy for them?
Please go here for more: www.legacygrandkids.info

David Phelps - Legacy of Love - 2005

One Good Man Without a Gun

Many support unlimited gun control saying, "one good man with a gun can make the difference between life or death", perhaps saving the lives of the innocent and ending the life of the bad guy during a robbery, shootout, or some other crime.

Security guard Jesus Campos is proof that one good man without a gun can make the difference, causing the bad guy to redirect his murderous fire away from the defenseless.

Thank you, Mr. Campos. And, thank the hundreds of unacknowledged heroes, those with and those without guns, who stood in harm’s way to help their fellow humans. You are my heroes.

"Las Vegas police commend the Mandalay Bay security guard who was dispatched to a door alarm and struck by a bullet from the gun of Stephen Paddock."

"Jesus Campos, the unarmed hotel security guard shot by the Las Vegas gunman during the massacre at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, is being hailed as a hero."

"Las Vegas under-sheriff  Kevin McMahill spoke of  Campos’ actions in a press conference Friday afternoon."

Please go here for video and the story:
Hotel security guard Jesus Campos hailed as a hero following Las Vegas shooting,
Rebecca Joseph, Global News, 6 Oct 2017.

Somebody Knew

 Mathematician Dr Daniel Mansfield with the Plimpton 322 tablet.
Photograph: UNSW/Andrew Kelly

This just in to the Somebody Knew Department©… from the University of New South Wales in Sydney:

Some really smart people lived a bazillion years ago and they gifted us a tablet with some smart stuff inscribed on it. We don’t know much at all about them, but some really smart people from our time, led by Australian mathematician Dr Daniel Mansfield, have ciphered out what the ancient ones left for us to discover.

Dr. Mansfield explained, “The tablet not only contains the world’s oldest trigonometric table; it is also the only completely accurate trigonometric table, because of the very different Babylonian approach to arithmetic and geometry. This means it has great relevance for our modern world. Babylonian mathematics may have been out of fashion for more than 3,000 years, but it has possible practical applications in surveying, computer graphics and education. This is a rare example of the ancient world teaching us something new.”

“The tablet also long predates the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, traditionally regarded as the father of trigonometry.”

Please go here for the whole story.

Mathematical secrets of ancient tablet unlocked after nearly a century of study, Maev Kennedy, The Guardian,24 Aug 2017.

Base 60 & Base 10
Ancient Babylonian tablet - world's first trig table

UNSWTV

Aug 24, 2017

UNSW Sydney scientists have discovered the purpose of a famous 3700-year old Babylonian clay tablet, revealing it is the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table, most likely used by ancient mathematical scribes to calculate how to construct palaces, temples and stepped pyramids. 

Who Are You - The Who - 1978

Courage to Do Right

Colbert To Trump: 'Doing Nothing Is Cowardice'

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2 Oct 2017


Stephen Colbert commends the victims and first responders of the tragic Las Vegas shooting for their immeasurable courage. Now we need courage from the President of the United States.


Sen. John McCain has the courage to do the right thing. Please take a few minutes to view this video: John McCain Receives the Profile in Courage Award

JFK Library
28 Aug 2008

Senator John McCain's acceptance speech at the May 24, 1999 Profile in Courage Awards.