Saturday, 7 May 2022

I finished reading #viral today.

I rather suspect that the for a while at least the #CCP (Chinese Communist Party), are phewing and wiping the sweat from their brows while silently thanking whatever deity you pray to from a foxhole, that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and took any residual attention in the west away from the very high likelihood that the #WIV in #Wuhan had a minor Captain Trips moment with some #SARSCoV2 specimens ... possibly cleaning rags, probably just simple carelessness.

There is a saying "that if it quacks like a duck it's probably a smoking gun" ... or something.


To paraphrase Monty Python `You Lucky ... Lucky Bastards"


Everyone should read this book or chunks of it, even if it's just the timelines and then the list of citations and links (very useful for the Kindle user).


Viral, Alina Chan & Matt Ridley

Monday, 2 May 2022

Gut Micrbiome

 This article popped up in my feed courtesy of Neal Asher's Facebook page.

 

Slowing the effects of ageing by eating well and feeding the good gut bacteria.

fightaging.org calorie-restriction-slows-immune-aging-in-part-via-gut-microbiome-alterations

In response to the post, I commented as below. My last paragraph is conspiracy theorist crap, based on the premise: that one should never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be attributed to stupidity (or in this case the likelihood that there are great removes between the various parties involved in potential solutions, so the attribute is ignorance by dint of separation).

My comment.

I have been banging this particular drum for a while. From the evidence that the gut has a sympathetic nervous system akin to a brain with all the associated neurons and synapses. The relationship, this activity has regarding gut chemistry and enzyme activity, and the potential as described in a fair bit of scientific literature that; there is indeed the case to be argued that an abundance of one particular form of bacteria dominating the gut could indeed lead to parasitism of the gut microbiome, leading to the host unconsciously feeding the parasite, to the detriment of the host in time.

Scholarly articles linked below.

Is eating behaviour manipulated by the gastrointestinal microbiota? Evolutionary pressures and potential mechanisms. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 

The gut microbiome in neurological disorders. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 

Regulation of Neurotransmitters by the Gut Microbiota and Effects on Cognition in Neurological Disorders. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 

A simplified blog post from John Hopkins Medicine. Hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-brain-gut-connection

At a tangent. An interesting thing caught my ear this morning on Radio 4’s Today programme. They were talking about the lack of activity in adults and children in the wake of the post Olympics get Britain moving campaign. And of course, the bloke from the NGO blamed the government and said it was the government's job to put more money into the process and the government should be pushing people toward healthier lifestyles. I was amused (unpleasantly) at the simplicity of the solution, and the lack of depth of understanding of `lurking variables’.

We have a population that lives off processed food with one of the highest consumption rates of sugar on the planet.

www.worldatlas.com top sugar consuming nations in the world

I am not suggesting that we as a species aren’t to blame for our own health and consumption. But it would be remiss to discount the possibility that there is a feedback loop that hampers efforts to get people off sugar, off processed foods and more active.

And then all of a sudden we are into geopolitics, big food, big pharma and according to the NGO, the need for more big government. Clearly, the co-morbidities of the pandemic which accounted for most of the non-age related deaths have an almost one to one relationship with the health of the nation and the diet of the nation. 

If a no-one, with no scientific background from the arse-end of the world, can see something approaching a correlation, it begs the question. Is anyone actually interested in resolving the underlying issue? Or is the study of the field just a useful tool for developing novel pharmacological treatments to treat for a food industry that is quite happy to feed the pharmacological industry new clients?

Sunday, 24 April 2022

Mixed up Memes

There is no common theme today, just a random selection.

Semi topical Dune related meme. Bless his cottons sacks he's an angry ballbag of a man. 


Pertinent to a video I will share in another post.


How did Data cope.


I almost feel sorry for the bloke in the lower panel who has had his picture purloined to poke fun at hipstrs.


We have all been there.


Some uncomfortable truth. You are a long time dead, and no one on their death bed is going to be thinking ... "I wish I spent more time at work."


This is the way...


THE ARGUMENT FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY


Ginger Economics

 Things people don't necessarily think of when they shop for those special fresh ingredients.

For instance, 75gm frozen Root Ginger from one of the big four is £1.50 (from £7.92/kg). Or 300gm Fresh root Ginger, £1.58 (£5.25/kg) ... clearly you do the leg work when it comes to chopping it and storing it.



Sunday, 10 April 2022

Memes again ... but that's memetics.

I often wonder if people actually know what memetics is as a subject. People throw the word meme about left right and centre, but of course, memes follow memetics. `Meme' wasn't a new word when memes found their feet on social media. 

Ask a meme poster what memetics is? I reckon 90% or more will tell you it's posting funnies on Facebook or the like.

Memetics, Wikipedia

Anyway on with the show.

Nerd meme, explains itself. Context ... literally anything that fits.


Self-Explanatory and especially useful for checking your ego at the door


I don't agree with all the Atlas Society says or posts, but as a general rule, Thomas Sowell quotes never fail to hit the spot.


A memetic innuendo punarama 


Oh Dear ... didn't take long did it. I've had this one saved for over a month, I reckon this popped up three maybe four days after the invasion of Ukraine


Yoda it is .... hmmmm


Anyway, that's enough of that. I shall bid you, fare well (as in being excellent to yourself and others, and in doing so fare well). And also, goodnight ... though in the context of the reader, goodnight may be a relative term. However, whenever you read this, wherever you are around the world and the clock, when the time comes sentiment still applies, it is timeless.



Joe Rogan, Siddharth Kara: Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.

Ok, so this isn’t my usual fare (and hello … I have been absent, it happens, I’m a very busy man all of a sudden). Below is an economist Edi...