Category / NEWS OF INTEREST

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

‘Speedos’ swim bikini on male gets him ousted from high class hotel swimming pool

speedos swim bikini on male gets him ousted from high-class hotel swimming pool

HWH COMMENTARY: There’s a gay parade every year in Cleveland/Lakewood, and many young and old gay men wear jock straps, fast-dancing in the street, flipping their genitals at passersby.

Most people go to parades with their children, the same with hotels. I have to wonder why both gay men and straight women want to expose their stuff.

They must be nudists at heart or they feel they can get away with indecent exposure, because they’re covering up a bit or because they’re gay.

Strange, but I don’t see gay women doing the same that straight women do. They hang our their breasts for everyone to see, then call a guy a pervert for looking, when that’s what they wanted. It’s a power trip. It’s a rush – to get people to react to the way you look or your behavior. Women use it to throw men off-balance when interviewed for cable news shows. I see it all the time on television. Men don’t know where to look.

It’s like ‘safe bars’ where gays can have sex in restrooms without being harassed for it. They go into a predominantly straight place and bit by bit work to turn it into a gay place, where they feel comfortable to act out their gay behavior.

I think straight men have been wearing such suits in Europe for decades. So, it’s not just a gay behavior, because many gays are more modest; it’s a certain type of male and female who want to show their genitals or breasts to the world. Maybe that’s how they value themselves.

Shockers is what they are. They want attention and they know they’ll get it. Then they complain about it when they do. The best thing is to steer clear of exhibitionists. Nothing good will come from an interaction; don’t even act like you notice.

It’s like muslim women going into public swimming pools fully wrapped in robes and scarves. They want to shock people and see their response. I wonder how Yahoo even gets these stories. To me, they’re mostly staged.

Then, some people like to act in public like they act at home. If they have a right to do as they want, then others have a right not to like their behavior and to voice that view.

This whole notion, that only one side of a view deserves to be voiced or  heard, made popular by democrats making it part of their social engineering platform of anarchy within all systems is prejudicial and discriminatory. Only half the people get that privilege, however. The other half are told in no uncertain terms to stand down.

Some are calling this discrimination.

“I can do whatever I want to do and you can’t criticize me for it or make me abide by your rules in your hotel swimming pool.”  Now, that’s discrimination.

I live in a gay community. Gays are big participants in criticizing everything about everyone. Yet criticize them and their sky falls.

Get a room. Like everybody else.

Do gay men refuse to wear a jacket in a restaurant that requires it?

How about this guy? Think he dons a jacket when fine dining his date, because the restaurant requires a certain type of attire?

You bet he does.

 

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by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

How Zuckerberg Destroyed Facebook’s Brand 

The self-inflicted wounds that led to this week’s historic stock sell off

JOE ROMM  

On Thursday, Facebook suffered the biggest stock sell-off in U.S. history, $119 billion in one day — a sign investors no longer have faith in the company’s story or brand.

This sell-off came just a week after CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained to the mediathat he would not take down web sites with information known to be false, including Holocaust denial.

That kind of baffling blunder suggests a corporation and CEO that has lost its way entirely, that simply has no idea what its brand is.

How can Facebook stop climate misinformation when its ‘fact-checkers’ are deniers?

“This is pent-up anger, and the markets exploded at Facebook,” marketing professor Scott Galloway, author of a book on the tech giant, told Yahoo. “It’s deeper than a one-day sell-off. It’s like when your husband screams at you for leaving the garage door open. It’s not about the garage door. It’s about something else.”

  1. Facebook has never had a coherent brand story.
  2. Facebook isn’t in sync with its customers on the core value of privacy.
  3. Zuckerberg turned Facebook into the world’s biggest media company, but even to this day he refuses to accept the many responsibilities that role entails.

FINISH READING: How Zuckerberg Destroyed Facebook’s Brand – World News Report – EIN News

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

New Australian law requires verbal consent for sex

HWH NOTE: Saying NO didn’t work.

“I didn’t think she meant no”.

Did she say yes?

“Well I thought she was saying yes.”

Did you hear the word yes from her?

No.

The nuances of sexual consent have been on the table recently thanks to the #MeToo movement, and one state in Australia is trying to clarify what consent should actually look like.

The new law states, in effect, that if you want to have sex you must ask for it clearly, and then hear a verbal “yes” back, under new reforms announced by the New South Wales (NSW) government in Australia, the New York Post reports.

The state, which is on the east coast of Australia (Sydney is its capital), has placed sexual consent at the core of a strategy to battle sexual assault after a high-profile rape case seemed to show that the existing laws did not protect victims…

FINISH READING: New Australian law requires verbal consent for sex

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

June 25 2018, 8:00 a.m.

THE SECRETS ARE hidden behind fortified walls in cities across the United States, inside towering, windowless skyscrapers and fortress-like concrete structures that were built to withstand earthquakes and even nuclear attack. Thousands of people pass by the buildings each day and rarely give them a second glance, because their function is not publicly known. They are an integral part of one of the world’s largest telecommunications networks – and they are also linked to a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program.

Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. In each of these cities, The Intercept has identified an AT&T facility containing networking equipment that transports large quantities of internet traffic across the United States and the world. A body of evidence – including classified NSA documents, public records, and interviews with several former AT&T employees – indicates that the buildings are central to an NSA spying initiative that has for years monitored billions of emails, phone calls, and online chats passing across U.S. territory.

The NSA considers AT&T to be one of its most trusted partners and has lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” It is a collaboration that dates back decades. Little known, however, is that its scope is not restricted to AT&T’s customers. According to the NSA’s documents, it values AT&T not only because it “has access to information that transits the nation,” but also because it maintains unique relationships with other phone and internet providers. The NSA exploits these relationships for surveillance purposes, commandeering AT&T’s massive infrastructure and using it as a platform to covertly tap into communications processed by other companies…

Finish reading: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

FACEBOOKS STATS AND PROFILE

HWH COMMENT:

With more than one billion active users on Facebook worldwide, there is no active head of security or head of an advertising program and no mention of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) that conducts social experiments on Facebook.

Under each category of leadership there was no mention of advertisement nor security. Given that’s how Facebook makes its money, one might think those departments would be reflected in their prospectus. But neither are.

Would you want Mark Zuckerberg to be in charge of the security and privacy of over one billion people around the world, with no government oversight?

“More than one billion people are active on Facebook. More than 100 million people use Instagram every month. Facebook announces new data center in Altoona, Iowa. More than 100 million people use Facebook For Every Phone each month.”

Leadership

Mark Zuckerberg, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer

David Wehner, Chief Financial Officer

Mike Schroepfer, Chief Technology Officer

Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer

Headquarters

1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California 94025

Employees

25,105 employees as of December 31, 2017

Statistics

1.4 billion daily active users on average for December 2017

2.13 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2017

US offices

Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Miami, New York, Seattle, Washington D.C.

International offices

Amsterdam, Auckland, Bangkok, Bengaluru, Berlin, Bogota, Brasilia, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Dublin, Gurgaon, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Karlsruhe, Kuala Lumpur, London, Madrid, Manila, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Montreal, Mumbai, New Delhi, Oslo, Ottawa, Paris, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Taipei, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver, Warsaw

Data Centers

Prineville, Forest City, Luleå, Altoona, Fort Worth, Clonee, Los Lunas, Odense, Papillion, New Albany, Henrico, Newton

Board of Directors

Mark Zuckerberg Founder, Chairman and CEO, Facebook

Marc Andreessen Co-founder and General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

Susan Desmond-Hellmann CEO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Reed Hastings Chairman and CEO, Netflix

Erskine Bowles President Emeritus, the University of North Carolina

Peter Thiel Partner, Founders Fund

Sheryl Sandberg COO, Facebook

Jan Koum Founder and CEO, WhatsApp

Kenneth I. Chenault Chairman and Managing Director, General Catalyst

See for yourself: https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Ariz. Romaine Tied to Nationwide E. Coli Outbreak

By E.J. Mundell HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, April 13, 2018 (HealthDay News) — You may want to think twice about that Caesar salad.

As a recent outbreak of serious illness from the E. coli stomach bug continues to spread across the United States, experts say romaine lettuce grown in Arizona could be the culprit.

Since the last update on Tuesday, “18 more ill people have been reported, bringing the total to 35 ill people in 11 states,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a news release issued Friday.

Overall, 22 people have been hospitalized with the E. coli O157:H7 strain, across 11 states. No deaths have occurred, but in three cases patients developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome, the CDC said.

Illnesses include nine cases in Pennsylvania, eight cases in Idaho, seven cases in New Jersey, two cases each in Connecticut, New York and Ohio, and one case each in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia and Washington.

The CDC says that, based on its investigation, “chopped romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region could be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 and could make people sick.”…

Finish Reading: Ariz. Romaine Tied to Nationwide E. Coli Outbreak

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Barbara Bush

The world needs someone to love.

The world needs a mother.

Rest In Peace Barbara Bush.

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

ICE Raid At Meatpacking Plant Leads To 97 Immigrants Arrested

DEAD COWS

HWH SAYS:

THESE RHINOS ARE SO HAPPY ABOUT THE ‘MEATPACKERS GETTING BUSTED’ NEWS story THAT THEY’RE STACKING UP TO TAKE A LOOK – MAYBE THEY CAN JUMP THE FENCE TOO!! LOL (WHAT?!)

We thought they only picked fruits and vegetables. Now they’re packing animals too? They’re slaughtering them, then shipping them to PARTS UNKNOWN for Anthony Bourdain’s personal use? Now that’s a job everybody wants.

meatpacking – meat-processing. WHICH IS IT? WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Animal Processing and Animal Packing facilities are protected by the USA government.

Nobody knows what really goes on there. The public is not allowed an up close and personal view – you know, like school kids get to go to dairy plants (actually bottling plants) to see how milk is made, actually how milk is bottled (not made). There are no school trips to a slaughter house now called a meat – not animal – processing plant for the purpose of sanitizing the act for public approval. Kind of like enhanced interrogation isn’t called torture, and death by enhanced interrogation isn’t called slaughter, but it really is.

“A slaughter plant breaks down the whole carcass into cuts of meat, whereas a rendering facility produces a variety of by-products.

There are two types of rendering facilities – independent and integrated.

An independent plant is one that picks up grease, blood, feathers and offal (internal organs and entrails) for further processing and development.

Integrated facilities are physically connected to the slaughter plant and operate in conjunction with each other.

The by-products of slaughter are used to make several essential products that fall into two categories: edible and inedible.

Inedible: tallow and grease for livestock feed, blood meal, soap and fatty-acids.

Edible: these plants process fatty animal tissue into edible fats and proteins. The only material that goes into these products (which are USDA and FSIS inspected) are fats from the animals carcass. THERE IS NO BONE OR OTHER INEDIBLE MATERIAL THAT ENTERS THE EDIBLE FOOD SUPPLY…Source

 

Bureau Of Labor Statistics list those who work in the industry as of May 2016 as:

51-3023 Slaughterers and Meat Packers

Work in slaughtering, meat packing, or wholesale establishments performing precision functions involving the preparation of meat. Work may include specialized slaughtering tasks, cutting standard or premium cuts of meat for marketing, making sausage, or wrapping meats. Excludes “Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers” (51-3022) who perform routine meat cutting. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes513023.htm

So, these are government listed jobs with estimated hourly and yearly wages. Depending on state it could range from 18k to 33k annual income.

Yeah, so why are they hiding workers who aren’t plant-pickers? Looks like because they can. The slaughter industry is anything but transparent. What goes on there – what really goes on there – humans rarely see or even hear about. It’s a corrupt, evil environment that needs to see the light of sunshine.

For the activists who get in? and then report on it? They’re persecuted. Forever.

OPEN THE DOORS BOYS AND GIRLS.

Animal Processing COW Processing PANDA PROCESSING

Animal Rendering PIG Rendering REINDEER RENDERING

Animal Packing BIRD Rendering DOG PACKING

They’re Processing the LITHUANIAN for rendering and packing.

DEAD COWS

I can’t help but think of the families of all those enslaved, tortured, slaughtered, broken up, destroyed forever, by the Hand of Human Men & Women & Children who through their actions say, YOU DON’T MATTER BECAUSE WE DON’T CARE.

Newsweek SAYS:

ICE Raid At Meatpacking Plant Leads To 97 Immigrants Arrested

Maria Perez, Newsweek Sat, Apr 7 12:01 PM EDT

Ninety-seven people were taken into custody during a federal immigration raid at a Tennessee meat processing plant on Thursday, civil rights activists told the Associated Press.

The raid, which took place at Southeastern Provision, a meat processing plant in Bean Station in Tennessee, detained 86 people for being in the country illegally and 11 others based on criminal charges, spokeswoman Tammy Spicer for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency told the AP.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol, executed a federal criminal search warrant at Southeastern Provisions.

During that search, HSI encountered 97 individuals who are subject to removal from the United States,” Spicer said in a statement sent to Newsweek…

FINISH READING: ICE Raid At Meatpacking Plant Leads To 97 Immigrants Arrested

Thank you ICE workers For YOUR Service.  

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Great News – Marijuana’s effects on addicts’ relapse rates

Marijuana could reduce drug and alcohol relapses for addicts

Abby Haglage

Mon, Mar 26 8:59 PM EDT

The surprising way medical marijuana can actually help addicts.

Marijuana is now legal for medical use in 29 states, and it’s no longer a secret that the drug has medicinal benefits. It’s been shown to drastically reduce the number of seizures in children, diminish the effects of post traumatic stress disorder, and relieve nausea in cancer patients.

Marijuana provides several health benefits. Many of the drug’s benefits derive from cannabidiol (CBD), one of its more than 100 active components. Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that causes a high, cannabidiol does not have psychoactive effects — meaning that an individual can experience the medical benefits without having to experience the high.

CBD’s psychological and neurological benefits, like the ones mentioned above, have been known for some time. But this month, scientists may have found another, potentially groundbreaking advantage of the drug: a means of curb relapse rates in those suffering from addiction.

The findings appeared in a study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology that was conducted by a group of scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. To perform the preclinical trial, the scientists subjected rats to a daily intake of alcohol or cocaine that resulted in addictive behavior.

Once the animals showed signs of addiction, the researchers began to apply a gel containing cannabidiol onto the rats’ skin, once a day for a week. The addicted rats treated with CBD demonstrated not only less anxiety but also fewer relapses when confronted with situations found to trigger the addictive behavior as they recovered from addiction to either alcohol or cocaine. The researchers concluded that the treatment “effectively reduced relapse provoked by stress and drug cues” as well as “reduced anxiety and impulsivity.”

Friedbert Weiss, the lead author of the study and a professor in Scripps’s department of neuroscience, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the outcome the team has observed is promising. “The results provide proof of principle supporting the potential of CBD in relapse prevention along two dimensions: beneficial actions across several vulnerability states and long-lasting effects with only brief treatment.”

The length of time that the effects seem to last was particularly heartening. Although the CBD treatment was ended after seven days, the rats showed reduced relapse rates for five full months afterward — an outcome the researchers called “quite unexpected.”

If it can be shown to produce a similar effect in human trials, it could offer major benefits for the millions of people currently addicted to drugs in the United States…

FINISH READING: Marijuana’s effects on addicts’ relapse rates

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

McConnell looks to complete hemp’s comeback as crop

McConnell looks to complete hemp’s comeback as crop

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants a full pardon for hemp. The Kentucky Republican on Monday previewed legislation seeking to free the plant from its ties to marijuana and let it take root as a legitimate crop.

McConnell said Monday, March 26, 2018, that he’ll introduce legislation to legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity.

March 27, 2018 Hemp — marijuana’s non-intoxicating cousin — would be removed from the controlled substances list under the bill he’s offering, McConnell said. The result would legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity.

“We’re going to give it everything we’ve got to pull it off,” the Senate’s top leader told hemp advocates in his home state. The crop has been grown on an experimental basis in a number of states in recent years, and Kentucky has been at the forefront of hemp’s comeback. Kentucky agriculture officials have approved more than 12,000 acres (4,800 hectares) to be grown in the state this year, and 57 Kentucky processors are helping turn the raw product into a multitude of products.

Growing hemp without a federal permit has long been banned owing to its classification as a controlled substance related to marijuana. Hemp and marijuana are the same species, but hemp has a negligible amount of THC, the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high.

Hemp got a limited reprieve with the 2014 federal Farm Bill. McConnell helped push for the provision that allows state agriculture departments to designate hemp projects for research and development. Since then, 34 states have authorized hemp research, while actual production occurred in 19 states last year, said Eric Steenstra, president of the advocacy group Vote Hemp. Hemp production totaled about 25,500 acres (10,300 hectares) in 2017, more than double the 2016 output, he said.

Supporters said the bill would bring more certainty for farmers, agribusinesses and investors looking at the crop. “The goal of this new bill, should it become law, is to simply remove the roadblocks altogether,” McConnell said. “It would encourage innovation and development and support to domestic production of hemp.”

The crop, which once thrived in Kentucky, was historically used for rope, clothing and mulch from the fiber, hemp milk and cooking oil from the seeds, and soap and lotions. Other uses include building materials, animal bedding and biofuels.

Hemp advocates, who have fought for years to restore the crop’s legitimacy, praised McConnell for putting his political clout behind the effort. “This is a huge development for the hemp industry,” Steenstra said.

“Sen. McConnell’s support is critical to helping us move hemp from research and pilot programs to full commercial production.”…

FINISH READING: McConnell looks to complete hemp’s comeback as crop

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Hispanic vs. Latino: what’s the difference? 

HWH: If you’re confused over who is called Hispanic and who is  called Latino you have lots of company. Even those who are Hispanic and/or Latino can’t agree. The comments to this article will leave you even more confused.

Difference between Latin America and Central America

…South America is a geographical entity: the subcontinent or continent south of Central America.

Latin America is a cultural entity: countries in the Americas where a Latin language is spoken (Spanish, Portuguese, French). The geographical notion is very clear: South America ranges from the Panama Isthmus to Cape Horn.

Hispanic vs. Latino: what’s the difference?

AUGUST 7, 2013 by SANDRA FERNANDEZ

176 Comments

Many people use Hispanic and Latino as interchangeable words. They’re not. While there is a huge overlap between the two, they don’t mean the same thing and cannot be used as if they do. This is an easy mistake to make, and I do it myself every once in a while (often from laziness), but it’s important to note the differences.Hispanic refers to language.

Latino refers to geography.Basically, you are Hispanic if you and/or your ancestry come from a country where they speak Spanish. You are Latino if you and/or your ancestry come from a Latin American country.

But wait… isn’t that the same thing?

No, dear friend, it’s not.

Hispanic excludes the nearly 200 million Brazilians who, while accurately labelled Latinos, speak Portuguese. They are Latinos, they are not Hispanic.

Hispanic includes the nearly 50 million Spaniards (population of Spain) who could never be called Latinos.

When picking which one to use you have to know what you’re trying to say. For HispanicHouston.com we used language as the guide, and we ended up with Hispanic instead of Latino. A weird decision if you consider that we also decided not to have the site in Spanish. (But that’s another soapbox for another day.)

So, as a Mexican American, I am Hispanic and Latina. Brazilian Americans are Latinos but not Hispanic. And, Spanish Americans are Hispanic but not Latinos.

Is that clear as mud now?

Finish Reading: Hispanic vs. Latino: what’s the difference? – Hispanic Houston

Mexico is part of North America. Which is part of the Americas.

North America is comprised by:

• Canada

• United States

• Mexico

• Caribbean nations

Just because it has brown people and its poor doesn’t means it’s not in the same zone of the Americas as the United States.

There is no such thing as Middle America, it’s called Central America and it comprises:

• Belize

• Guatemala

• El Salvador

• Costa Rica

• Honuras

• Nicaragua

• Panama

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by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

UMICH team may have solved Cuba ‘sonic attack’ mystery 

BY NORA GÁMEZ TORRES

March 02, 2018 07:05 PM

Updated 8 hours 39 minutes ago

A team of computer scientists from the University of Michigan may have solved the mystery behind strange sounds heard by American diplomats in Havana, who later suffered a variety of medical disorders.

Professor Kevin Fu and members of the Security and Privacy Research Group at the University of Michigan say they have an explanation for what could have happened in Havana: two sources of ultrasound — such as listening devices — placed too close together could generate interference and provoke the intense sounds described by the victims.

And this may not have been done intentionally to harm diplomats, the scientists concluded in their study, first reported by the Daily Beast.

Those who have followed the case closely say the new theory makes sense. “This is a variation of what I have always thought,” James Cason, a former top U.S. diplomat in Havana, told el Nuevo Herald. “It explains the sonic part, that no one was spotted planting new devices inside the homes and doing it from the outside would require something huge.

”The health incidents — which took place between November 2016 and August 2017 at homes and two Havana hotels — were initially blamed on “sonic attacks.” The cause has perplexed the Department of State, the FBI and other U.S. agencies that have been trying to figure out just what made 24 intelligence officers, diplomats and relatives based in Havana ill. Many reported a variety of symptoms such as hearing loss, headaches, cognitive problems and other ailments that doctors said correlate with concussions…

FINISH READING: UMICH team may have solved Cuba ‘sonic attack’ mystery | Miami Herald

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Rare Yellow Cardinal Photographed in Alabaster, Alabama

By Elaina Zachos

PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 23, 2018

Looking out at her quaint Alabama backyard in late January, Charlie Stephenson noticed something unusual. A strange species of unfamiliar yellow bird was pecking at her hanging birdfeeder.

As a seasoned birdwatcher, Stephenson had seen scores of cardinals in the past. But with its mustard-color coat, this flier was different. So, she took a photo with her iPhone and posted it on Facebook.

Stephenson told AL.com she has seen albino and leucistic birds, the latter being animals that are mostly white but can produce some pigment. But this golden visitor is neither: it’s a male northern cardinal with a “one in a million” genetic mutation that made its red feathers yellow, according to Geoffrey Hill, a bird curator at Auburn University in Alabama.

In his 40 years of cardinal birdwatching, Hill has never seen a yellow bird like this in the wild. The unusually yellow cardinal is not to be confused with the yellow cardinal, an endangered South American species with black and white markings and the occasional green tinge…

FINISH READING: Rare Yellow Cardinal Photographed in Alabaster, Alabama

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Superagers’ youthful brains offer clues to keeping sharp

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s pretty extraordinary for people in their 80s and 90s to keep the same sharp memory as someone several decades younger, and now scientists are peeking into the brains of these “superagers” to uncover their secret.

The work is the flip side of the disappointing hunt for new drugs to fight or prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Instead, “why don’t we figure out what it is we might need to do to maximize our memory?” said neuroscientist Emily Rogalski, who leads the SuperAging study at Northwestern University in Chicago.Parts of the brain shrink with age, one of the reasons why most people experience a gradual slowing of at least some types of memory late in life, even if they avoid diseases like Alzheimer’s.But it turns out that superagers’ brains aren’t shrinking nearly as fast as their peers’. And autopsies of the first superagers to die during the study show they harbor a lot more of a special kind of nerve cell in a deep brain region that’s important for attention, Rogalski told a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

These elite elders are “more than just an oddity or a rarity,” said neuroscientist Molly Wagster of the National Institute on Aging, which helps fund the research. “There’s the potential for learning an enormous amount and applying it to the rest of us, and even to those who may be on a trajectory for some type of neurodegenerative disease.”…

FINISH READING: Superagers’ youthful brains offer clues to keeping sharp

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Researchers Halt The Development Of Alzheimer’s Disease And Partially Reverse Its Effects

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute have demonstrated that gradual reduction of an enzyme that contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s Disease can halt the disease’s development and reverse some its effects.

Their work was reported on February 14th in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.The buildup of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain is strongly associated with the development of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The plaques are primarily composed of beta-amyloid peptides. The enzyme BACE1 (also called β-secretase) plays an important role in creating these peptides, and the researchers found that gradually reducing BACE1 over time can result in both a decline in the formation of new plaques and the elimination of already-formed plaques in the brains of mice…

FINISH READING: Researchers Halt The Development Of Alzheimer’s Disease And Partially Reverse Its Effects

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Consumer products’ air quality impact ‘underestimated’ 

US research has found that chemicals from everyday household products now contribute as much to air pollution in cities worldwide as vehicle emissions.

The study, led from Colorado University, focussed on so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

These are contained in petroleum-based products such as cleaning fluids and paints, and when they get into the air can form particles that affect health. The scientists say the sources of non-vehicle VOCs have been underestimated.

This is a surprising result because by weight, we all use far more fuel than we do these other chemical products. About 95% of raw oil goes into the production of fuels, whereas roughly only 5% is refined for use in chemicals that are included in the likes of deodorants, pesticides, and adhesives.

Brian McDonald and colleagues pulled together a wide range of information for their study.They looked again at the statistics compiled by industries and regulatory agencies; they flew atmospheric sampling missions above Los Angeles to examine the air chemistry; and they also evaluated indoor air quality measurements made by other researchers.

The team concluded that in the US, the amount of VOCs emitted by consumer and industrial products is very probably two or three times greater than estimated by current air pollution inventories. They add that these inventories likely also overestimate the motor vehicle sources…

FINISH READING: Consumer products’ air quality impact ‘underestimated’ – BBC News

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

The search engines you’ll need for every type of question

The search engines you’ll need for every type of question.

Specific answers for specific needs.

By David Nield

Google isn’t the only search engine out there.

When most of us have a question we want to research online, we run to Google for the answer. But it’s not the only search engine out there. Venture off the beaten path, and you can find more specialized sites—like the self-proclaimed “computational search engine” Wolfram Alpha or the privacy-conscious DuckDuckGo—that will help you track down exactly what you’re looking for.

While the well-trained algorithms of Google or even Bing might be the best choice in some situations, to find what you’re seeking more quickly, it helps to know which search engine is best for which task…

FINISH READING: The search engines you’ll need for every type of question | Popular Science

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Does Coffee Contain a Carcinogen? Here’s What the Science Says

If a lawsuit in California is successful, Golden State stores that sell coffee will have to warn customers that drinking a cup of joe may be a cancer risk, according to news reports. But coffee companies argue that although coffee does contain a possible carcinogen — a chemical called acrylamide — it isn’t present in the drink in levels that are high enough to increase the risk of cancer in people.So, what does the science say? Can the acrylamide lurking in coffee increase a person’s odds of developing cancer?

What is acrylamide?

Although the lawsuit focuses on coffee, acrylamide is present in several types of cooked foods, as well as cigarette smoke. The chemical forms when foods, usually starchy ones — including coffee beans, french fries, potato chips, canned black olives, breakfast cereals and toast — are heated to high temperatures, Marji McCullough, strategic director of nutritional epidemiology at the American Cancer Society, told Live Science previously. McCullough is not involved in the California lawsuit, which was filed in 2010. A private mediation with some of the defendants is set for Feb. 8, CNN reported…

FINISH READING: Does Coffee Contain a Carcinogen? Here’s What the Science Says

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Cleveland Indians will remove Chief Wahoo logo in 2019

by CORKY SIEMASZKO

Chief Wahoo is history.The Cleveland Indians will remove the logo that many Native Americans find racist from its baseball caps and jerseys starting in the 2019 season, Major League Baseball announced Monday.

In a statement, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he told team owner Paul Dolan that it was time to mothball the cartoonish caricature that has appeared on Indians’ uniforms since 1948. “Over the past year, we encouraged dialogue with the Indians organization about the club’s use of the Chief Wahoo logo,” Manfred said. “During our constructive conversations, Paul Dolan made clear that there are fans who have a longstanding attachment to the logo and its place in the history of the team…

FINISH READING> Cleveland Indians will remove Chief Wahoo logo in 2019 – NBC News

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Efforts grow to help students evaluate what they see online

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Alarmed by the proliferation of false content online, state lawmakers around the country are pushing schools to put more emphasis on teaching students how to tell fact from fiction.

Lawmakers in several states have introduced or passed bills calling on public school systems to do more to teach media literacy skills that they say are critical to democracy. The effort has been bipartisan but has received little attention despite successful legislation in Washington state, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Mexico.

Several more states are expected to consider such bills in the coming year, including Arizona, New York and Hawaii.“

I don’t think it’s a partisan issue to appreciate the importance of good information and the teaching of tools for navigating the information environment,” said Hans Zeiger, a Republican state senator in Washington who co-sponsored a bill that passed in his state earlier this year. “There is such a thing as an objective source versus other kinds of sources, and that’s an appropriate thing for schools to be teaching.”

Advocates say the K-12 curriculum has not kept pace with rapid changes in technology. Studies show many children spend hours every day online but struggle to comprehend the content that comes at them.

For years, they have pushed schools to incorporate media literacy — including the ability to evaluate and analyze sources of information — into lesson plans in civics, language arts, science and other subjects.

Their efforts started getting traction after the 2016 presidential election, which highlighted how even many adults can be fooled by false and misleading content peddled by agenda-driven domestic and foreign sources….

READ ON > : Efforts grow to help students evaluate what they see online

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Researchers report novel complementary effects of estrogen treatment in multiple sclerosis

HWH COMMENT > Does this mean that all the vegans/vegetarians who think phytoestrogens in tofu (soy) are as harmful as estrogen not produced by the human body should begin eating tofu again to stave off multiple sclerosis? I’m on board as ridiculous as this all seems, it makes perfect sense to me.

So, an increase in estrogen protects the brain and associated nerves. Yet, some researchers have noted that phytoestrogens in plants are not the same as estrogens in humans – though previous tofu-eaters are staying clear of tofu based on their gut interpretation that the effects are the same.

So if their gut is right (that plant and animal estrogens act the same in nature) then bring on the tofu to prevent brain/nerve damage. Or, taking a stretch here, cure brain/nerve damage. It really doesn’t matter if disease or trauma or something else causes brain/nerve damage. Nerve damage is nerve damage. Fix it. How to.

Okay, fix the damage and you still have a disease that’s going to create more damage. Okay, so with trauma, the trauma ends rather quickly and you have damage. Fix the damage and you’re done. Not so fast. Trauma can become disease-like when a consequent syndrome is associated with it – whether conscious of it or not.

Oh, oh, I’m wondering why after a concussion I start craving tofu. It’s in the refrigerator now. I had some last night, the night before. Had it on Christmas – practically ate the whole plate at a Chinese restaurant, something I rarely do. Can’t stop thinking about what to do next with tofu. Why? When nobody wants it? I want it. I need it. I crave it. Now I’m free to not feel I’m doing my body bad by eating it.

It’s all about protection. If damaged by trauma, nerves are exposed, then something goes awry in the body to keep them from healing while simultaneously the body attacks the weak links to destroy them, thinking it’s helping not hurting, well, that is disease-like.

Keep your myelin sheaths intact.

Eat tofu.

Indulge your myelin sheaths.

Eat soy.

New question > What plants contain phytotestosterone? Why do people want to eat phyotestosterone foods but not phytoestrogen foods? Do I sense a prejudice here? Men don’t want plant estrogen, but women don’t want it either. Men want plant testosterone, but why is it not harmful to them, if plant estrogen is harmful to women? Lots of explaining to do.

December 28, 2017, University of California, Los Angeles

A study by UCLA researchers reveals the cellular basis for how the hormone estrogen protects against damage to the central nervous system in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The researchers found that estrogen treatment exerts positive effects on two types of cells during disease —immune cells in the brain and also cells called oligodendrocytes. Complementary actions on these two types provide protection from disease.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune, neurodegenerative disease marked by visual impairment, weakness and sensory loss, as well as cognitive decline. These symptoms emerge when inflammatory  destroy the  that surrounds nerve processes called axons. Loss of that protective insulation disrupts electrical communication between .

The third trimester of pregnancy has been previously shown to reduce relapse rates by approximately 70 percent as compared to before pregnancy, and other studies have shown benefit over the long term due to multiple pregnancies. An estrogen unique to pregnancy that is made by the fetus and placenta has been proposed by Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl and colleagues to mediate this pregnancy protection in both the MS mouse model as well as in two successfully completed clinical trials of estriol treatment in MS patients.

How that happens has remained a critical question. Voskuhl, who led the latest study, reported mouse studies showing that estrogen protected the  from damage by activating a protein called estrogen receptor beta (ERb). Her new research identifies which cells within the brain are mediating this protective effect…

READ ON > Researchers report novel complementary effects of estrogen treatment in multiple sclerosis

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

The UAE Is Paying Ex-CIA Officers to Build a Spy Empire in the Gulf

Deep Pockets, Deep Cover: The UAE Is Paying Ex-CIA Officers to Build a Spy Empire in the Gulf

They hired Americans to professionalize their intelligence service. But how far can former U.S. spies go?

BY JENNA MCLAUGHLIN

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Not far from the northeastern Zayed Port in Abu Dhabi, in a typical modern Gulf villa framed on one side by an elegant swimming pool, Westerners are teaching Emiratis the tools of modern spycraft.

The day starts with the basics: a 10 a.m. seminar on Sunday morning is titled “What is intelligence?” On Thursday, the recruits learn how to operate in four- to six-man surveillance teams. Over the course of the first week, they embark on scavenger hunts intended to hone their problem-solving skills. The following weeks get more advanced — students are schooled on creating cover identities to use when attending galas with diplomats, they are taught how to groom intelligence assets, and they watch skits about recruiting Libyan sources.

The Emirati recruits also train at another site about 30 minutes outside downtown Abu Dhabi called “The Academy” — complete with gun ranges, barracks, and driving courses — reminiscent of the CIA’s “Farm” at Camp Peary, a training facility located in southeastern Virginia.

The details of the training are contained in an official course schedule reviewed by Foreign Policy and were described by former U.S. intelligence officials who have been involved in the effort. The facilities and courses are part of the United Arab Emirates’ nascent efforts to create a professional intelligence cadre modeled after the West’s.

Former CIA and government officials were drawn to the Gulf nation by the promise of interesting work and, perhaps even more importantly, lucrative careers.

“The money was fantastic,” one former employee told FP. “It was $1,000 a day — you could live in a villa or in a five-star hotel in Abu Dhabi.”The key figure behind this growing intelligence training operation, according to multiple sources, is Larry Sanchez, a former intelligence officer who helped kickstart a controversial partnership between the CIA and the New York Police Department that tried to pre-empt the radicalization of potential terrorists by tracking people — many of them Muslims — in mosques, bookstores, and other places around New York. Sanchez, a veteran of the CIA clandestine services, has been working for the crown prince of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for the past six years to build large pieces of its intelligence services from the ground up, six sources with knowledge of the matter tell FP.

But Sanchez is just one of many former Western security professionals who has made his way to the Gulf nation to provide security training. Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, famously moved to the UAE to create a battalion of foreign troops serving the crown prince, details of which were first revealed by the New York Times in 2011. And Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism czar, is also a longtime top advisor to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi as the CEO of Good Harbor Security Risk Management.

The UAE’s reliance on foreigners to build its security institutions is not new, but the Gulf state has usually tried to keep the details of that help out of public view, and when it comes to training its nascent intelligence operations, details have been kept particularly quiet. However, the use of former U.S. intelligence employees to build up foreign nations’ spying capabilities is still treading into new territory.

Sanchez’s role in providing a blueprint for the UAE’s intelligence operation, making it from whole cloth, shows just how far private contractors have gone in selling skills acquired from decades spent working for the U.S. military and intelligence community. That sort of work is also now raising legal questions as the U.S. government struggles to decide how laws govern highly trained intelligence officials hawking their skills abroad.

Sanchez declined to comment on an extensive list of questions sent to him by FP.

Six former intelligence officials and contractors described the training operation to FP, but they requested anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence operations, to shield friends and associates still working in the UAE, and to protect their future employability…

Read On > https://world.einnews.com/article/422735911/RjhN0kOzoMuE3Z_t?lcf=ZX9dkeSQfK-5FADPuwjBkQ%3D%3D. The most comprehensive geo-political news service available on the Internet, covering over 263 countries and regions, all U.S. States and Industries.

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Road salt is actually pretty terrible for the planet – are beets the solution?

truck salting road

Jamie Summers and Robin Valleau/The Conversation

Road salt saves lives but can harm aquatic wildlife. Marshes, streams and lakes lie alongside many of the roads and highways that zigzag across North America. Plants and animals inhabit these water bodies and can be exposed to many of the substances we put on those roads, including road salt.

Rock salt helps keep roads safe when winter storms hit, reducing winter road accidents. But it can also have serious, negative effects on aquatic ecosystems. At high concentrations, salt can be fatal to some aquatic animals. Salt can also change the way the water mixes and lead to the formation of salty pockets near the bottom of lakes, creating biological dead zones.

When the weather takes a wintry turn, many cities and municipalities in North America rely on salt to deice their roads. This rock salt is similar to table salt, made up of sodium and chloride, but coarser. It dissolves quickly on the road, leaving the chloride to enter nearby waters through runoff and leaching. In fact, almost all chloride ions from the road salt eventually find their way into waterways downstream.

At low concentrations, chloride is relatively benign. But as concentrations rise, it can be toxic to aquatic wildlife, including the plankton and fish that inhabit inland lakes. These ecological changes affect water quality.

IN SALT WATER 

One study of North American lakes found that as little as one per cent of the land area within 500 metres of the lake had to be paved (or otherwise impervious) for there to be an increased risk of becoming saltier over the longterm. Basically, a little development can lead to a lot of salt entering a water body. About 27 percent of large lakes in the United States are at least one percent developed along their shores…

 …Some communities in North America are looking for environmentally safe alternatives to road salt.

Beet wastewater—left over from sugar beet processing—cheese brine, pickle juice, and potato juice are some of the unconventional deicers being tested.

The carbohydrates or sugars in beet wastewater make it more effective at lower temperatures than salt water or brine alone, lowering the melting point of the ice to below -20℃ from -10℃—and reducing the amount of chloride applied to the road.

But there are downsides. Some communities dislike the smell of the beet wastewater, which people have likened to soy sauce, molasses, or stale coffee. It also adds sugar to aquatic ecosystems, which may encourage bacterial growth. Instead of using salt and salt additives, some engineers are experimenting with roads that clear themselves of snow and ice. Early tests have suggested that solar panels could replace asphalt to melt ice and eliminate the need for road salt, by heating water in pipes embedded in the road…

 

READ ON > Road salt is actually pretty terrible for the planet

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

Scientists to investigate if cigar-shaped asteroid could be an alien spacecraft

HWH COMMENT > Looks like a flat elliptical rock to me – driftwood. Maybe from Mars!! Without the ears?! Incognito. Yup. That little bugger finally got out of it’s hole. Where’s she headed? Cleveland, Ohio? Seems I’ve seen this before. Is this old news?

Alex Lasker, AOL.com 16 hours ago

A team of researchers, including Stephen Hawking, is investigating whether the first known object from outside the solar system contains the first sign of life beyond our planet.

Using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, scientists with the 100 million dollar research project Breakthrough Listen will observe an asteroid named ‘Oumuamua for 10 hours on Wednesday.

According to the project’s website, ‘Oumuamua, the mysterious interloper recently spotted moving rapidly through the solar system, was discovered by the Pan-STARRS project at the University of Hawaii in October 2017 when it passed by Earth at about 85 times the distance to the Moon — a stone’s throw away in astronomical terms.

‘Oumuamua, formally known as 1I/2017 U1, is the first object discovered in the solar system that appears to originate from another star system. Its high speed – 196,000 mph at its peak – suggests it is not gravitationally bound to the Sun and that it will continue its voyage back into interstellar space.

The object sparked interest because it has a “highly unusual structure” for an asteroid, which tend to be round rather than long and thin. ‘Oumuamua’s shape is described as “an elongated cigar shape, hundreds of meters in length but with width and height perhaps only one tenth as long.”…

READ ON > Scientists to investigate if cigar-shaped asteroid could be an alien spacecraft

 

by Chef Sharon Davies-Tight

27% of California adolescents are gender nonconforming, study finds

A new UCLA study finds that 27 percent, or 796,000, of California’s youth, ages 12 to 17, report they are viewed by others as gender nonconforming at school.

The study also assessed differences in among nonconforming and gender conforming youth in the state, and found no significant difference in the rates of lifetime suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts between gender nonconforming youth and their gender conforming peers. However, gender nonconforming youth were more than twice as likely to have experienced psychological distress in the past year.

“The data show that more than one in four California youth express their gender in ways that go against the dominant stereotypes,” said lead author Bianca D.M. Wilson, the Rabbi Barbara Zacky Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute. “However, the heightened psychological distress we see among gender nonconforming youth indicates that we must continue to educate parents, schools and communities on the mental health needs of these young people and reduce known risk factors, such as bullying and bias.”

The study, released by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, analyzed data collected from nearly 1,600 California households in the 2015-2016 California Health Interview Survey. It is the first time this survey has included questions about gender expression among teens…

READ ON > 27% of California adolescents are gender nonconforming, study finds