Of all the effects from hanging an erection might be the last thing you think of. Sure death is the intention. But giving the convicted a good time is not.

Why and how this occurs is an irony of the human body.

In fact it is the human body behaving exactly how it should but in a very wrong situation.

Angel’s lust is a product of the human body’s stress response. The process of being hanged is, unsurprisingly, stressful. This stressful situation starts the process of a death erection.

The first thing that happens is the release of hormones. Mostly adrenaline. The adrenaline binds to adrenoceptors. The alpha adrenoceptors cause vasoconstriction in the centre of the body. The GI tract and other non essential tissues for tan emergency.

The Adrenalien also binds to beta adrenoceptors to cause vasodilation. Dilation specifically around one region low in the abdomen. The consequences of dilating these blood vessels leads to a singular event that frat boys find useful.

Since the end result of an execution by hanging is the neck breaking if everything goes well the signal to stop this is blocked. That is because the brain loses its direct, spine, connection tot he rest of the body. Since it can not know what is happening below.

Since the brain ignorant or more accurately unable to know what is happening it does not send a signal to countermand the vasodilation and vasoconstriction. This means the end result remains in place until the body runs out of ATP and muscles relax.

This process can take many hours. It is for all intents and purposes and very localised version of rigor mortis.

If you spend enough time online you will inevitably come across religion. This leads to creationists. Creationists argue that humanity started from just 2 people. These being Adam and Eve.

This idea is ‘interesting’.

Creationist substitute the fable of Adam and Eve for evolution. Fundamentally skipping millennia or more of evolution and jumping straight to the naked ape.

This is the crux od much online debate. Often spirited debate.

If you know anything about populations, breeding and the complications that occur when the population is too ‘close’.

To show how problematic the idea of biblical life is we modelled the growth in simple charts. That is what happens each generation.

The population according tot he bible should explode. The number of children. The number of their children and so on. It just grows at a crazy rate.

Before long it more than the number of current humans alive let alone to ever live. This is a problem.

That same problem only gets worse as you try and make the model work. This is true even when you add in mortality. This only pushes the time until more human s exist than ever by a short way.

In short it doesn’t work.

Relevant links:

Human Population Dynamics Revisited with the Logistic Model: How Much Can Be Modeled and Predicted?
https://phe.rockefeller.edu/publication/poppies/

How Populations Grow: The Exponential and Logistic Equations
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/how-populations-grow-the-exponential-and-logistic-13240157/

Population over time
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Annual-World-Population-since-10-thousand-BCE-1-768x724.png

This weeks news items can be found at the following time stamps:

00:00 Intro
01:55 Australia has the most expensive tobacco
03:40 Fasting, GI micro biome and weight loss
05:36 Stem cells for spinal injuries
07:03 Novel mechanism for damage caused by asthma
09:49 Soldier exposure to grenades may cause leaky gut
12:17 Nano scale anti virus spike material
14:23 Schistosoma parasite vaccine
18:04 Novel antibiotic for gram negative bacteria
20:28 Hong Kong man infected with monkey herpes
21:55 Gene control causes limbs to grow where genitals should
23:33 Juraasic fossils give clues about where mammal ears came from
24:42 Javan tiger may not be extinct
27:34 Guide to grafting fruit trees
29:15 Claims maths homework is bad for education
32:26 City planners should use cancer models to plan cities
35:48 IVF embryo selection controversy
39:00 Direct observation of Wigner crystals
40:52 Putting poo on graphene makes it a better!
42:32 3 body problem, fermi paradox and alien contact
43:51 Gen Z and full stop punctuation anxiety
44:30 Claims the solar eclipse cost 700 million dollars

Relevant links:

Australian government is raising the average cost of a pack of cigarettes to nearly $50
https://www.unilad.com/news/australian-is-raising-the-average-cost-of-a-pack-of-cigarettes-103734-20230503

Dynamical alterations of brain function and gut microbiome in weight loss
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2023.1269548/full

Intrathecal delivery of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in traumatic spinal cord injury: Phase I trial
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46259-y

Bronchoconstriction damages airway epithelia by crowding-induced excess cell extrusion
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk2758

Association of Blast Exposure in Military Breaching with Intestinal Permeability Blood Biomarkers Associated with Leaky Gut
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/25/6/3549

Piercing of the Human Parainfluenza Virus by Nanostructured Surfaces
https://pubs...

Pectin is a component of plant matter. Plant matter makes up a major part of brewing ingredients. Even if it is partially processed.

Although present in just about all plant matter is more of a concern with some than it is in others. The most significant contributors of pectin are fruit skin and seeds, cambium and similar.

This is one reason many fruits are pressed. The juice is low in pectin. The skin, flesh and seeds are rich in pectin.

You might wonder why we have written about pectin so much. The reason is that it can be a major factor in brewing.

The source of pectin will directly relate to the amount present. This means the source of sugar, and pectin, will relate to the risk of pectin leading to unwanted contaminants. Unwanted contaminants like methanol.

Not just is the presence of pectin important. It is the ways your fermentation processes it. Pectin must be altered before it can be fermented into alcohol.

The role of pectin in beer, wine and more has been measured in different ways. In fact the preference, utilisation and products from pectin can be reliably and effectively described.

The role of pectin goes beyond just brewing. It is used as gelling agent in ting like jams, jellies and more.

Relevant links and further reading:

Biochemical Prospects of Various Microbial Pectinase and Pectin: An Approachable Concept in Pharmaceutical Bioprocessing
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7424017/

Fermentation properties and prebiotic potential of different pectins and their corresponding enzymatic hydrolysates
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0268005X23004241#sec3

Valorisation of pectin-rich agro-industrial residues by yeasts: potential and challenges
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7347521/

Time-dependent fermentation of different structural units of commercial pectins with intestinal bacteria
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36813335/

n vitro fermentation properties of pectins and enzymatic-modi..

Home brewing has a very poor reputation in public. It is more than less prohibition moonshine distillers. People who make alcohol that turns you blind. While not a common truth today it is not without historical merit.

It is because of methanol that bootleggers have a poor reputation. There fermentation and distillation led to to the presence of too much methanol. Methanol causes blindness.

The key is too much methanol. No matter what you do there will be trace amounts present. Not enough to cause problems but enough to be detected with delicate tests.

The important thing is that it is made anyway. You don;y need to get the fermentation wrong or poorly distil the resulting wash.

When you do get these wrong the methanol concentration goes up. Distilling can remove some but not enough when done poorly.

The question is how does yeast make methanol. More so since it is so dangerous. Surely if methanol is bad for humans it would be bad for yeast and therefore not something yeast would make.

This contradiction is well understood in modern biology and microbiology.

The process involves pectin. A common part of many fruits, grains and more. Common ingredients for brewing. Therefore the resulting products include methanol.

The way you go from pectin to methanol is rather straightforward. The pectin is methylated. The methyl esterase breaks it free from the pectin. This leads to pectin and methanol.

This weeks news has severely undermined our confidence in humanity. The leading reason is a demonstration of how stupid people can be. The top candidate for this being the person who thinks methylene blue will detox them.

Methylene blue is a very good way to cause asphyxia. That is because it causes methemoglobinemia.

On the other end of frustration and disappointment we have a range of genetic modifications. There are developments in trees, textiles, paper and more.

This weeks news items can be found at the following time stamps:

00:00 Intro
01:30 Death during and after sex is oddly common
03:48 Type 3 diabetes!?
06:47 COVID19 vaccine lowers severe inflammatory syndrome in kids
09:06 Idiot takes methylene blue to detox
10:04 Kombucha and metabolism
11:53 THC does not work for chronic pain
14:44 CBD products have poor quality control
16:10 Hand sanitiser and Alzheimer's disease
19:09 Tardigrade protein to help water not freeze
21:37 Humans are a viral vector
23:29 New Zealand sees mass eel die off, again
24:25 Self colouring cellulose fabric from GMO bacteria
26:37 GMO trees to better make paper
27:55 History of popcorn goes back to WW2
29:02 Quantum noise, tunnelling and magnetic fields
30:56 ISS part crashes into Florida house
31:17 Solar eclipse visible in USA

Relevant links:

Death during sex isn’t just something that happens to middle-aged men, new study finds
https://theconversation.com/death-during-sex-isnt-just-something-that-happens-to-middle-aged-men-new-study-finds-175293

What Is Type 3 Diabetes?
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/what-is-type-3-diabetes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-is-type-3-diabetes

COVID19 Vaccination Significantly Reduces Risk of Severe Inflammatory Syndrome in Kids
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/covid-19-vaccination-significantly-reduces-risk-of-severe-inflammatory-syndrome-in-kids/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=covid-19-vaccination-significantly-reduces-risk-of-severe-inflare-infla..

What is in an average? Is it the most common value? The sum of all values divided by the the number of values? It is just the middle most value?

It is all of these.

The trick is which average you use in which context.

There are three averages in common use:

Mean
Median
Mode

The mean is the average of all values. It the sum of all numbers divided by the number of values. A useful option when you are comparing groups, have large data sets and more.

The median is the most middle number in a dataset. That is if you listed them all in a hierarchy and split them in half the value on this line would be the median. Good if you have lot of fairly wide spread and data for frequency.

The mode is the most common value. That is the value you see most frequently. Think of the price of a common good and if there is much difference between prices. That similar price is what more than less the mode.

The use of average sis important for this reason. Each is different and therefore using the wrong average in the wrong way can cause all kinds of misunderstandings.

That is because there can be a substantial and significant difference between the average depending on if it was the mean, mode or median.

In fact this difference can be a very useful tool. It tells you a lot about the skew of data. Skew being if it more biased to one side or another of the data.

For example is a class full of tall or short people. It will be more or less positively or negatively skewed.

Generally, if the distribution of data is skewed to the left, the mean is less than the median, which is often less than the mode. If the distribution of data is skewed to the right, the mode is often less than the median, which is less than the mean.

That also means if the mean is misconstrued it can alter the meaning of the data.

Muscles are needed for you to live, engage with the world and in respond to it. Despite this all of the most fundamental aspects of life rely on a relatively simple yet complex mechanism.

That is your muscles fundamentally rely on just 2 structures to work. Myosin and actin. Together these 2 units make your muscle contract and when disengaged relax.

Although the mechanism itself is simple ensuring it works reliably, is controllable and fine tuned is not so simple. This is where myosin and actin become more complicated.

Without fine control you would never be able to ensure that you can pick up a pen or egg. The strength used would break anything not strong enough o resist your full grip strength. At the same time your heat would contract with full force all the time. The problems would be wide ranging and serious.

In fact we can observe this exact phenomena when some dies. Rigor mortis shows you what happens when the body can not control muscle contractions.

The process of a muscle contracting is a good example of how the human body uses active transport to shuttle the right things to the right places at the right time. Then how it recovers that same material to recycle and reuse.

Further to make these changes in chemical position happen another layer of regulation exists. Not quite turtles all the way down but enough that muscles can not just contract randomly. A lay of control is needed to ensure the seemingly simple mechanism works as and when intended.

Of course nothing can work without the nervous system. That is because the nerves send a signal to initiate the whole process of a muscle contracting. Without this nothing happens.

Relevant links:

Myosin Structures in Muscle
https://bio.libretexts.org/Courses/Ouachita_Baptist_University/Reyna_Cell_Biology/07%3A_(T3)_Cytoskeleton/7.07%3A_Actin_-_Myosin_Structures_in_Muscle

Actin, Myosin, and Cell Movement
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9961/

This weeks news items show a range of events. The news brings concern, annoyance and confusion.

In concerning news the increasing number of legionnaires disease cases, cows infected with avian influenza and that we may have inadvertently made global warming worse.

In annoying news organic farming may be harming conventional farms located nearby. Day might be getting longer for a weird reason. Chess is being gas lighted as a sexist activity.

In confusing news how nature has made a superconductor. Why whales figured out explosive diarrhoea is a viable defensive tactic.

These and other news items are covered in this weeks what were they thinking.

This weeks news items can be found at the following time stamps:

00:00 Intro
01:26 Anxiety medication causing increasing deaths in UK
03:31 Cows in USA infected with avian influenza
06:08 Planting trees in the wrong place increases climate change
08:20 Sperm whales use diarrhoea to protect themselves from orcas
10:11 Mexico unable to find alternative to glyphosate delaying ban
12:10 Novel accessible CRISPR for plants
14:20 Organic farming harms conventional farms
17:48 Legionnaires disease increasing in the USA
20:35 Why men dominate in chess?
28:54 Melting glaciers make an earth day longer
30:35 Naturally occurring superconductor

Relevant links:

Anxiety drug pregabalin linked to rising number of deaths – here’s what you should know
https://theconversation.com/anxiety-drug-pregabalin-linked-to-rising-number-of-deaths-heres-what-you-should-know-225024

Federal and State Veterinary, Public Health Agencies Share Update on HPAI Detection in Kansas, Texas Dairy Herds
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/newsroom/news/sa_by_date/sa-2024/hpai-cattle

Accounting for albedo change to identify climate-positive tree cover restoration
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46577-1

Sperm whales drop 'bubble of poo' off WA to prevent orca attack in rarely recorded encounter
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-21/sperm-whales..

Collecting yamadori is a great way to get extremely advanced bonsai stock. Of course this good news but nothing god comes without a demerit. In this case collecting yamadori involves preparation.

This is not to say you can not collect yamadori without preparation. It is to say your experience will be better with some preparation.

We can broadly separate the process into 3 pars:
Before collection
During Collections
After collection

The before collections process are mostly administrative. That might sound odd but it covers you and prevents unwanted drama later.

Of course there is having the right tools for the right job. Not just digging and cutting. We also means paperwork. The most important item you can have is a permit or agreement to let you dig a yamadori.

During the collection everything is much more straightforward. You can either jump straight into collecting your future bonsai by digging or preparing to collect them in the future.

The first thing to consider is if you can delay collecting the specimen. If the answer is yes you can cut, prune and work the trees now but not dig them out of the ground for transplant. Don’t forget to mark the trees with something bright or take a photo with geolocation enabled.

This also helps you plan future trips. You know where you have been and where you should wait to visit again.

A single year between preparation and collection can yield major results. Not just in successful collection rate but in how well the collected yamadori respond or develop after collection.

If you are going to dig them out of the ground right away things are only slightly different. The difference is when you are heading out to collect your bonsai. We explain the timing in this video https://youtu.be/qLYDAS1PErc

The last part is what happens after you collect your yamadori. Taking notes of what you found. This is not for the current year or collection but for future years and trips to collect yamadori.

Taking note of what you fo..

There are many ways to get a stunning bonsai. You can start styling a bonsai grown from seed. Buy nursery stock. Buy a bonsai starter from a dedicated bonsai nursery. Or you can go to the source; yamadori bonsai.

Yamdori bonsai are wild bonsai growing in nature without any control.

The benefit of yamadori is that they are well developed. They have a nice nebari. The tree, shrub or vine is generally free.

By comparison to a bonsai nursery tree, a developed nursery tree and ore these have all kinds of benefits. The only downside is that you collect yamadori for yourself.

Collecting a yamadori can be challenging. Not because the collection is hard in some many words but because collecting the yamadori and keeping it alive is hard.

The first an d biggest challenge is when you collect your yamadori bonsai or at least bonsai to be. Harvesting your yamadori at the wrong time will create problem. It will likely kill your collected tree.

You should plan to collect yamadori in either early spring or mid to late winter. These 2 periods are important. Each will give certain species the best chance of surviving collection.

The timing is key. The right time takes advantage of the traits of a species that you are collecting. Some will not notice that you have been digging it up, pruning and potting. Others will very quickly grow back and compensate for the damage that occurs during collection.

The timing is not something that is extremely specific. You do have a period of weeks and possibly months. This means you can be flexible in when you collect yamadori.

That is flexible for those species suited to that time frame. Unfortunately the timing is important. Collecting trees outside the right time drastically reduces the success rate.

This weeks news is a combination of news and the obvious.

The obvious is that America is sad. Something anyone can tell you.

In newsworthy items we have GMOs. GMO pigs for kidney transplants. GMO cows for insulin filled milk.

This weeks news items can be found at the following time stamps:

00:00 Intro
02:05 Ubuiquitin for autoimmune diseases
05:13 How sperm lock other sperm out of ovum
07:44 T cell antibody brain cancer therapy
11:10 Preliminary RSV vaccine results
12:52 COVID19 vaccine drastically cut rates of clots, myocarditis and more
15:46 COVID19 lowers IQ and more
17:09 Insulin from cows milk?
19:30 GMO pig kidney transplanted
21:49 Wild yeast stops pathogenic yeast infection
23:25 Tape worm in Florida man’s brain
24:48 Polio survivor dies after 70 years in iron lung
26:09 Screen time and erectile dysfunction
28:20 US happiness score plummets
29:49 Orcas using new hunting methods
31:47 Able prize for maths winner
33:21 Scourge of badly spelled cell line names in academia
36:27 See a supernova for yourself

Relevant links:

The CRL5 SPSB3 ubiquitin ligase targets nuclear cGAS for degradation
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07112-w

ZP2 cleavage blocks polyspermy by modulating the architecture of the egg coat
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)00179-X?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS009286742400179X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Intraventricular CARv3 TEAM E T Cells in Recurrent Glioblastoma
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2314390

Some Good, But Preliminary Real World Data on Those Baby RSV Shots
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/some-good-but-preliminary-real-world-data-on-those-baby-rsv-shots/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=some-good-but-preliminary-real-world-data-on-those-baby-rsv-shots

Vaccines cut risk of post COVID heart failure, blood clots for at least 6 months, data suggest
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/vaccines-cut-risk-post-covid-heart-failure-blood-c..

Not all meat is necessarily edible in a nice way right away. This is generally meat around the joints of an animal. It is worked, stretched and full of connective tissues.

One way to use this kind of meat is to incorporate it into a processed meat product. Basically modify and mix it with other ingredients to turn it into a product greater than the sum of it parts.

The other benefit of this approach is that it can make the salami sausage store for longer. It stays safe to eat due to be dried, fermented and from some of the ingredients.

An example of this is salami. A sausage like product. Where salami differs from a sausage is how it is a fermented or cured product. This is similar to ham, prosciutto, sauerkraut and more.

The benefit of salami being cure dis how it adds flavour and complexity. The downside is that it is made using a culture. This a collection of bacteria that cause the salami to ferment and cure.

The bacterial culture is called a cure. It contains bacteria but also several ingredients that make it hard for pathogenic bacteria to grow. A home made salami can and generally will use this but may not.

When you combine the meat, culture and flavours you get the salami filling. The meat part you will eat.

Since it is a filling there must be a container. This is in the form of a casing. Generally you can use any sausage casing but you will probably want a larger size casing.

For this video we used both a 65mm or 2.5 inch and 100mm or 4 inch casing.

The ingredients we used included:

35 percent lean pork
35 percent lean beef
30 percent pork fat

The flavouring was:

50 grams salt
20 grams black pepper
A salami cure

the equipment needed:

Meat grinder
Freezer and fridge
Sausage filler or adaptor for meat grinder
String

After you have made your salami as per this video you will need to wait. The curing process can take at least 2 weeks if not longer. It is practically impossible to tell from the outside when it is done. Instead you want ..

Bacon is a food that gets a lot of attention. Sometimes weird, sometimes good and sometimes bad. All of this despite the fact a surprisingly large part of society does not eat bacon.

Perhaps it is why bacon is relatively cheap and accessible. In order to be cheap and accessible some of the best parts of bacon are lost.

Although the most affordable options do not have the depth and breadth of flavour you can can still buy such great bacon. You must pay a lot for this.

These are your 2 readily available options but a third exists. This third option is slower, requires work and produces something better than the expensive commercial options for much less.

This third option is to make your own bacon.

In order to make bacon you will need time, will, equipment and ingredients.

For this example we used a single piece of pork belly but you could also use loin.

The pork belly was divided into two equal halves so we can show the dry curing method and wet curing method.

Both use 5 percent salt, 5 percent sugar and 0.1 percent black pepper by weight of the pork.

The wet method add these ingredients to the water and makes a brine. The pork is added to this brine in a zip lock bag.

The dry method rubs this mixture into the pork belly. The pork belly is than put in a zip lock bag.

The bacon then rests in the fridge for a week. Each day it is taken out and the the bacon is massaged to reapply the dry rub or shake the brine.

At the end of this the bacon should be firm.

While it is home made the bacon is much better than what you can but. It can be cheaper when done well or if you have the chance to buy bacon belly or loin at a discount.

This method produces a much more flavourful bacon. Not the bad kind of flavourful either. At least with this recipe it is a subtle flavour but you can make which recipe you find suitable and to your taste.

This weeks news starts with the dumb and stupid.

It is the rising number of leprosy cases. A disease that doesn’t really show up in anything but biblical tales. Despite this it is still in up to 120 countries. Or at least at a level of concern.

This should not be happening in the USA where leprosy is easily treated. Despite this the number go up an dup.

While leprosy rates increase there is a trend to rely on Tik Tok for health advice. The current advice is for parasite cleanses. Cleanses based on random and unrelated symptoms.

Rather than get an accurate and reliable diagnosis people rely on TikTok. This is why we are doomed as a species.

Good news has seen the processing power of ARM processors double. Not just double but at half the power consumption. This could be a big achievement for laptops, tablets and phones.

This weeks news items can be found at the following time stamps:

00:00 Intro
01:23 Leprosy rising in the USA
04:08 COVID19 lowered global life span by years
06:31 Parasite cleans fad
09:23 Don’t trust experts out of context
12:12 Ranchers in gaol for tampering with rain gauges
13:29 Giant whale fossil found in Peru
16:07 Australia’s CSIRO to make library of published research for domestic open access
19:19 Fourier’s law exception with light and heat
21:41 Doubling the processing power of ARM processors
25:22 Meteor landing site mistaken due to truck seismic activity

Relevant links:

Leprosy cases are rising in the US – what is the ancient disease and why is it spreading now?
https://theconversation.com/leprosy-cases-are-rising-in-the-us-what-is-the-ancient-disease-and-why-is-it-spreading-now-221836

Global age-sex-specific mortality, life expectancy, and population estimates in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1950 2021, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)0047..

There are many cultural and religious taboos. Eating with your left hand, belching and farting to name just a few. Only one is somewhat universal; eating pork.

Why are pigs so unloved despite a historically favourable view.

The answers are a mixture of cultural, religious and economical reasons. The religious reasons are largely covered by Judaic texts. Culture is from anthropology. Economy by archaeology.

That is not to say these different reasons do not have overlap. Religion tends to have a very long history. Because it is old it also overlaps with the archaeological and anthropology findings.

On top of these reasons there some others that are evidenced but not as well substantiated. This covers diseases and parasites associated with pork.

Relevant links:

Judaism vs. Islam: The Real Reasons Behind the Prohibition of Pork
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/harmonizingbodyandmind/2023/03/judaism-vs-islam-the-real-reasons-behind-the-prohibition-of-pork/

People Ate Pork in the Middle East Until 1,000 B.C.—What Changed?
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/people-ate-pork-middle-east-until-1000-bcwhat-changed-180954614/

The starship troopers universe is old. Not 90s old but even further back. The original book is from 1959.

Although old the in universe creatures as we see them today are surprisingly realistic. There is no gamma radiation super powers. There are no 100m, 300 foot, robots. It is very much people with guns and , admittedly giant, arachnids.

Despite the realism there are some very obvious problems.

The biggest issue is and remains the arrachnids. If you scroll through YouTube for long you will find videos describign their species before long. We even have our own ,https://youtu.be/X1rqmoJtRMk.

The problem with these and others is not the species as a whole. We have lready shown how this could be possible. Rather it is the basic specification of the lowest of castes. The warrior bug.

The warrior has a range fo features that beggar belief. Everything from tank like armour to the ability to travel in space. Things that you might at first think require the average audience member to suspend their disbelief.

This bring us back tot he original point. Despite being so old and re imagined several times the warrior is actually surprisingly realistic. We go through what is possible base don current knowledge.

We also go through what is not so realistic or possible.

Relevant links:

Studies on extraction methods of chitin from crab shell and investigation of its mechanical properties
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Stress-Strain-curves-for-isolated-crab-chitin-failed-in-tension-43_fig1_315837008

Understanding the structural diversity of chitins as a versatile biomaterial
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8326827/

How do ants breathe?
https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/how-do-ants-breathe

Do Ants Have a Heart to Pump Blood?
https://www.animalwised.com/do-ants-have-a-heart-to-pump-blood-4898.html

How do ants get around? Ultra-sensitive machines measure their every step
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140701193249.htm

7.62×51mm NA..

This weeks news items can be found at the following time stamps:

00:00 Description
01:50 German man gets 217 COVID19 vaccines
03:22 Large scale ivermectin studies shows it does nothing
04:24 Cannabis treated melanoma
07:48 Gender affirming service leaked documents controversy
10:34 7 day fasting diet effectiveness
12:43 Does dieting cause cancer?
16:42 Light and sound breakdown amyloid bundles
18:19 Conspiracy theorists go unchecked
20:34 Organoids grown from amniotic fluid
22:53 Boiling tap water isn’t enough to remove microplastics
25:17 Smelling unknown female mice reduced longevity and fertility
27:55 Closer to a universal antivenom
30:18 We can now make chilli tomatoes
31:44 Ultra processed food has harmful effect on health?
34:50 Nematodes at Chernobyl not mutated
36:39 Proposal to build giant curtain to protect glaciers
38:42 Legal aid grant for science whistle blowers
41:31 First kind test for graphene danger to humans
43:38 Water based battery
45:33 OpenAI and Elon Musk
48:11 AI better at maths when asked to respond like a trekkie
49:13 ISS springs another leak
49:55 Could we have colonised the moon with water bears

Have you ever wondered why water is used in chemistry? Perhaps you go tot he obvious answer that it is the most prevalent solvent. Others might simply say convenience. The answers are likely the same.

The problem is what if you don’t want to use water.

That question will have made you think why would you not want to use water. A chemist would tell you about polarity, solvency, and more. One thing that might not come up straight away is hydrolysis.

Hydrolysis is the process of breaking bigger chemicals into smaller chemicals via the effect of water. The process involves adding water to your chemical. The water causes the molecule to break.

The molecule breaks by the addition of a hydrogen. The hydrogen comes from the hater being made from 2 hydrogens and one oxygen. This does leave the product and a hydroxyl molecule or a hydrogen and oxygen molecule to spare.

Of course water is not thew only way to facilitate hydrolysis. There are other mechanisms but all cause the same outcome. A bigger molecule broken into a smaller molecule.

Have you ever wondered why it is that giants creatures don’t exist? Why are there no dinosaurs, kaiju or any other gigantic creature?

Sure we have whales and elephants but these are by far and away the exceptions. They make up such a tiny minority of life as to be non-existent in the big picture. The vast majority of life is microscopic.

This brings us back to the first question. Why?

The reason can be simply summarised as the square cube law. A mathematical principle that describes the relationship between volume and area. That is how big and how much volume an organism takes up.

It might seem odd but this principle is very important to explain why we don’t really see many if any gigantic creatures.

This week has some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is an example of someone screwing up in a small but spectacular way. They published a peer reviewed article without going through the peer review process. Fortunately it was fixed.

In better news the disaster that was the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima has had unexpected positive results.

Small beads of glass like material are related to the bombing. These beads are from the heat and pressure. These went through a process similar to what earth went through during planetary creation.

This weeks news items can be found at the following time stamps:

00:00 Intro
01:30 Somatic therapy debunk
03:17 The smell of fruit stops cancer?
05:11 Pregnant women may have dicamba in their urine from spraying
08:15 Treatment for childhood food allergies
10:41 Microplastics in human placenta
13:34 Y chromosome disappearing
15:42 Article retracted after publisher skips peer review step
17:13 Gay humpback whales
18:03 New species of Anaconda?
20:12 Rwanda embraces GMO potatoes
22:14 Nuking Hiroshima has benefits at long last
25:22 AI replaces 700 employees
27:09 Water predicts formation of planets
28:27 Clouds and solar eclipses
31:11 Why leap years?
33:34 Odysseus lunar lander falls over on moon

Relevant links:

What Is Somatic Therapy?
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/what-is-somatic-therapy/

Plasticity of gene expression in the nervous system by exposure to environmental odorants that inhibit HDACs
https://elifesciences.org/articles/86823#s2

Pregnant women in Indiana show fourfold increase in toxic weedkiller in urine – study
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/16/indiana-pregnant-women-weedkiller-exposure

Dicamba and 2,4-D in the Urine of Pregnant Women in the Midwest: Comparison of Two Cohorts https://www.mdpi.com/2813-3145/3/1/5

Omalizumab for the Treatment of Multiple Food Allergies
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2312382

Quantitation and identification of microplastics accumulation in ..

Pruning bonsai is generally done in spring. This is a result of how bonsai grow.

Of course some work can not be done in spring. This is means work is done in winter. That work often involves removing large branches.

This is a result of the way trees either become dormant or enter a state of greatly reduced activity.

As the tree is less active if not formant it does not notice the work. This means you can do a lot of pruning or remove many larger branches. Work that at any other time would lead to the bonsai experiencing shock, die back or excessive growth.

The reduced activity of the bonsai winter means none of this happens. Admittedly in spring that is not the case. It will instead start to slowly replace and repair what you did over winter.

Of course this adds to the ramification of your bonsai. When you take the branch back to just 2 branches it has to make up for the pruning. This si done by growing lots more branches and leaves. Branches you keep in check during spring by cutting the new growth short.

Summer can be a very dangerous time for bonsai. It is a time of heat and little rain. This means your bonsai can suffer greatly if not die.

In ideal conditions this would not be a problem but most people rarely have a perfect arrangement.

That is where this video will hopefully be of use.

It goes through the ways you can keep your bonsai in good health, growing and most importantly alive.

There are 3 main problems in Summer.

1. Water
2. Heat
3. Exposure

There are various scams in the world. Some are more obvious than others.

The Nigerian price needing to escape with their wealth by your help. Obviously a scam.

An Amazon package needs personal details. Scam.

Stickers made with the same technology as NASA EVAs. Scam.

Bottled water? This is not always clear.

There are many kinds of water. Some are more clearly a problem than others. In the case of structured water it is definitively a scam.

Structured water is supposed to be water that instead of the typical H2O format is instead H3O2. That is 2 water molecules joined together but they have lost 1 hydrogen molecule.

Just this information alone raises some red flags.

Things like where does that hydrogen go? How do you join the water molecules together? Why do they not break?

In more definitive terms we have real world science that produced hard data. The findings are that any of these structured water molecules snap back to normal water.

This raises some questions about why people fall for this scam. Most of it comes down to health claims. Things like it is better for your body or works better with your body.

Among the most egregious claims is that structured water is able to shift body or blood pH to the acidic or alkali. A process known as acidosis and alkalosis.

Relevant links:

Structured water: effects on animals
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8153701/

Don’t fall for the snake oil claims of ‘structured water’. A chemist explains why it’s nonsense
https://theconversation.com/dont-fall-for-the-snake-oil-claims-of-structured-water-a-chemist-explains-why-its-nonsense-188159

What Is Structured Water: The Best Water for Muscular, Skin & Mood Disorders?
https://draxe.com/nutrition/structured-water/

We heard you like mystery diseases. So we decided to add mystery illnesses to you mystery illness. This led to Alaskapox.

If that is not going to set you on edge what about the relationship between penis size and IQ. The bigger you are the less smart you are. Conversely the smaller you are the bigger you are. “exceptions may apply”.

Bad jokes a side what about the change in behaviour of ibex. They now willingly risk the predation of wolves to avoid the heat of day time.

This weeks news items can be found at the following time stamps:

00:00 Introduction
01:33 AlaskaPox
03:57 Ribosomal antibiotic
06:23 Herpes and dementia risk
08:44 Brain implant stimulates memories
11:20 Genetic analysis of Beethoven
12:38 Penis size and IQ
14:07 AI generated scientific image causes controversy
16:07 1,700 year old egg from Romans
17:27 Ibex risk wolves to avoid heat during the day
19:42 Norway approves GMO canola for salmon farming
21:45 Bad chlormequat in food study
27:53 Seeing electrons move in water
29:03 Confidence in scientists largely running high in surveys
31:05 Surviving lightening in rain: wet or dry?
33:13 Air Canada's chat bot liability.
35:47 First ever decimal point use
37:03 3D optical disk to increase storage
40:24 NASA’s recruiting for year long Mar’s colony trial
41:40 Private lunar lander success
43:17 Where is planet 9 or is that planet X?

Relevant links:

Alaskapox virus
https://health.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/Alaskapox.aspx

An antibiotic preorganized for ribosomal binding overcomes antimicrobial resistance
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk8013

Herpes Simplex Viral Infection Doubles the Risk of Dementia in a Contemporary Cohort of Older Adults: A Prospective Study
https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad230718#ref018%20ref019%20ref020

Developing a hippocampal neural prosthetic to facilitate human memory encoding and recall of stimulus features and categories
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.338..