Latest Posts by mydickneedscpr - Page 2

“Keeping the internet open is critical for us. It powers social movements, and provides a global platform for people of color, LGBTQ folks and the most marginalized communities to tell their own stories, run their own businesses and route around powerful gatekeepers.”—Candace Clement, Free Press Action Fund Campaign Director via @fight4future​

Starting today, June 11, U.S. internet providers will be legally allowed to censor and block websites and apps, and force you to pay extra fees to to access your favorite places online. Your internet sanctuaries, the communities you are part of, the ones you have help build up, could be decimated.

Will it happen today? No. Next week? Probably not. The changes will not be swift. They will come piece by piece. A slow, tempered death to the free and open internet we love.

It doesn’t have to be this way. You can still make a difference, Tumblr. We need the House of Representatives to sign a discharge petition in support of the Congressional Review Act that would force a vote on the floor.

Contact your reps—let them know you support net neutrality.

It’s so easy. Just go to BattleForTheNet.com, fill out the form, and follow their directions from there.

They have an updated widget for you to throw on your websites to urge others to make a difference. You can put it on your Tumblr. Let your followers know what you stand for, encourage them to do the same. It’s so easy to do. Just copy and paste their small line of code right into the customize theme page on the web.

Go, go, go, go. We know you have that passion in you. We’re fighting right alongside you.

them: if you don’t like a corporation just don’t buy from them me:

me: I could go on if you want me to

Learning to Love Yourself

We tend to focus on looking for love, hoping for love, and waiting for love. Yet if we look to others to meet that basic need then we’ll always be empty and unfulfilled.

That is, for others to love us in a healthy way, we must first be able to nurture ourselves … and to love and honour who we truly are. The steps below can help you work towards this goal.

1. Decide to treat others with love and respect: As you seek to bring joy into others’ lives you’ll find that they repay you with kindness and love.

2. Practice random acts of kindness: “Play it forward” by doing random thoughtful things. That will turn you into someone you respect yourself – and you’ll also find that others are more generous to you.

3. Let go of the past: What happened in the past is merely history now. Today is a new day, and you are starting a new page. Let go of disappointments, hurts and any grievances you hold against yourself, other people – or the world!

4. Forgive yourself: We all make mistakes, or we regret some bad decisions. Don’t ridicule, berate or criticise yourself for that. Instead, forgive whatever happened, and give yourself a break. It simply means you’re human – and are not infallible.

5. Practice positive self-talk: Write down and repeat affirming statements and truths … like “I am gifted” … or “I’m a true and loyal friend”. Post these statements on the mirror and repeat them to yourself.

6. Think through what you really want in life – You can carve out your own path and you choose your own destiny. Your life is a gift and you can choose what you will do.

7. Be persistent: Work wholeheartedly at loving yourself. If you’ve suffered in the past then be compassionate. Be ready to acknowledge and work through your pain. You deserve that respect – and it will help to set you free.

8. Celebrate your accomplishments: It’s easy to ignore or to downplay what we have done – but don’t be blind to your successes and accomplishments. They ought to be acknowledged as they’re part of who you are.

9. Think of someone you want to be like and emulate them: Doing that will build those qualities into your life as well – so it is easier to like, love and accept yourself.

10. Be yourself and trust yourself: Be true to yourself – and don’t care what others think. Learn to trust your instincts and to follow your own heart. Also, learn it’s OK to say “no” and to do your own thing … And you don’t have to feel guilty for not pleasing everyone.

11. Don’t compare yourself to others: Every person on the planet is different and unique. We all have different talents and different histories. Discover who YOU are and then invest in being you!

12. Work on receiving love: When someone pays you a compliment or tries to show you love, don’t quickly brush it off – but try and see it as a gift. That is, a gift that shows you’ve value and are loved, and loveable.

Personal growth becomes so addictive once you realize that it’s always possible to improve your experience of being.

DIYbio’s growth spurt is, in part, thanks to powerful molecular biology tools becoming cheaper and simpler to use. Second-hand DNA amplifying machines are increasingly available over eBay, with some vintage models costing less than $100. Biohackers have even made an open-source version that, in true DIY fashion, allows amateur biologists to assemble the machines on their own.

Similar to sophisticated home chefs, amateur scientists no longer require specialized lab training. Want to transfer a gene from plant A to plant B? Simply purchase off-the-shelf, ready-made kits from an online supplier of your choice, follow the instructions, and within a few months (if you’re good) you’ve cooked up something entirely new to nature.

According to DIYbio pioneer Rob Carlson, what drives the movement is the belief that “biology is technology”: like computer software, DNA is fundamentally a form of code that can be manipulated to engineer biological traits and devices. At its core, much of the DIYbio movement is about exploring the creative potential of rewriting genes.

‘Why We Should Embrace – Not Fear – the Biohacker Uprising’ (SingularityHub)

Curious about biohacking and biological engineering? Visit http://genspace.org/

Human Physical Immortality Roadmap by Maria Konovalenko. You can see more at her blog: http://mariakonovalenko.wordpress.com/tag/ai-will-become-a-doctor-and-a-scientist/

In April 2015, a paper by Chinese scientists about their attempts to edit the DNA of a human embryo rocked the scientific world and set off a furious debate. Leading scientists warned that altering the human germ line without studying the consequences could have horrific consequences. Geneticists with good intentions could mistakenly engineer changes in DNA that generate dangerous mutations and cause painful deaths. Scientists — and countries — with less noble intentions could again try to build a race of superhumans.

Researchers created a tomato that contains Resveratrol - One tomato is equivalent to about 50 bottles of red wine

Given the opportunity to drink fifty bottles of wine or eat one tomato, which would you choose?

Scientists at the John Innes Centre have found a way to produce industrial quantities of useful natural compounds efficiently, by growing them in tomatoes.

The compounds are phenylpropanoids like Resveratrol, the compound found in wine which has been reported to extend lifespan in animal studies, and Genistein, the compound found in soybean which has been suggested to play a role in prevention of steroid-hormone related cancers, particularly breast cancer.

READ MORE ON JOHN INNES CENTRE

Ref: Multi-level engineering facilitates the production of phenylpropanoid compounds in tomato. Nature Communications (26 October 2015) | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9635

(Image caption: A bundle of neurons: A bioengineering team at Brown University can grow “mini-brains” of neurons and supporting cells that form networks and are electrically active. Credit: Hoffman-Kim lab/Brown University)

An accessible approach to making a mini-brain

If you need a working miniature brain — say for drug testing, to test neural tissue transplants, or to experiment with how stem cells work — a new paper describes how to build one with what the Brown University authors say is relative ease and low expense. The little balls of brain aren’t performing any cogitation, but they produce electrical signals and form their own neural connections — synapses — making them readily producible testbeds for neuroscience research, the authors said.

“We think of this as a way to have a better in vitro [lab] model that can maybe reduce animal use,” said graduate student Molly Boutin, co-lead author of the new paper in the journal Tissue Engineering: Part C. “A lot of the work that’s done right now is in two-dimensional culture, but this is an alternative that is much more relevant to the in vivo [living] scenario.”

Just a small sample of living tissue from a single rodent can make thousands of mini-brains, the researchers said. The recipe involves isolating and concentrating the desired cells with some centrifuge steps and using that refined sample to seed the cell culture in medium in an agarose spherical mold.

The mini-brains, about a third of a millimeter in diameter, are not the first or the most sophisticated working cell cultures of a central nervous system, the researchers acknowledged, but they require fewer steps to make and they use more readily available materials.

“The materials are easy to get and the mini-brains are simple to make,” said co-lead author Yu-Ting Dingle, who earned her Ph.D. at Brown in May 2015. She compared them to retail 3-D printers which have proliferated in recent years, bringing that once-rare technology to more of a mass market. “We could allow all kinds of labs to do this research.”

The spheres of brain tissue begin to form within a day after the cultures are seeded and have formed complex 3-D neural networks within two to three weeks, the paper shows.

25-cent mini-brains

There are fixed costs, of course, but an approximate cost for each new mini-brain is on the order of $0.25, said study senior author Diane Hoffman-Kim, associate professor of molecular pharmacology, physiology and biotechnology and associate professor of engineering at Brown.

“We knew it was a relatively high-throughput system, but even we were surprised at the low cost per mini-brain when we computed it,” Hoffman-Kim said.

Hoffman-Kim’s lab collaborated with fellow biologists and bioengineers at Brown — faculty colleagues Julie Kauer, Jeffrey Morgan, and Eric Darling are all co-authors — to build the mini-brains. She wanted to develop a testbed for her lab’s basic biomedical research. She was interested, for example, in developing a model to test aspects of neural cell transplantation, as has been proposed to treat Parkinson’s disease. Boutin was interested in building working 3-D cell cultures to study how adult neural stem cells develop.

Morgan’s Providence startup company, MicroTissues Inc., makes the 3-D tissue engineering molds used in the study.

The method they developed yields mini-brains with several important properties:

Diverse cell types: The cultures contain both inhibitory and excitatory neurons and several varieties of essential neural support cells called glia.

Electrically active: the neurons fire and spike and form synaptic connections, producing complex networks.

3-D: Cells connect and communicate within a realistic geometry, rather than merely across a flat plane as in a 2-D culture.

Natural density: Experiments showed that the mini-brains have a density of a few hundred thousand cells per cubic millimeter, which is similar to a natural rodent brain.

Physical structure: Cells in the mini-brain produce their own extracellular matrix, producing a tissue with the same mechanical properties (squishiness) as natural tissue. The cultures also don’t rely on foreign materials such as scaffolds of collagen.

Longevity: In testing, cultured tissues live for at least a month.

Hoffman-Kim, who is affiliated with the Brown Institute for Brain Science and the Center for Biomedical Engineering, said she hopes the mini-brains might proliferate to many different labs, including those of researchers who have questions about neural tissue but not necessarily the degree of neuroscience and cell culture equipment required of other methods.

“If you are that person in that lab, we think you shouldn’t have to equip yourself with a microelectronics facility, and you shouldn’t have to do embryonic dissections in order to generate an in vitro model of the brain,” Hoffman-Kim said.

HEAVEN ON EARTH MARKS THE END OF ‘EGO SUPREMACY’

“The real cause of human suffering lies in the lack of education (social awareness) about the ‘ego’ and how it controls our perception (without being detected).” -Anon I mus (Spiritually Anonymous)

THE EGO

“From the time that we were little children, we began to form mental images of who we think we are; a fictional identity based on our personal and cultural conditioning. When we identify with this phantom self (body-mind entity), we are in ‘ego mode’. None of us are born with an ‘ego’ (social mask), it is learned; an artificial construct that is built into the fabric of how we see, think, speak, feel and behave. The real cause of human suffering is holding onto false narratives that we are powerless, defective, worthless, fearful, limited and disconnected beings from each other and the universe as a whole. To protect our distorted self-image, we unconsciously think and act out behaviors that are the exact opposite of what we internalized in order to ‘compensate’ for our lack. To transcend the prison of our egoic programming is to be aware of how it functions inside us and remove our personal identification and attachment with it (as witnessing presence).”  ~Anon I mus (Spiritually Anonymous)

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EGO:

The ego attaches and identifies with your personal story and world history * it resents change * it needs to control through dominance * it wants approval from others (external validation through recognition, attention and praise) * it craves more power over people and/or circumstances * it lives in constant comparison to others * it feels the need to be right (mental standpoint) * it thinks it is the personal doer of actions * it believes itself to be the mind-body entity only * it is conditional * it promotes separation/exclusivity * it feels a sense of lack, craving more and more (for its needs are never satisfied) * it is insecure * it feels a sense of entitlement * it feels guilt * it gossips * it worries * it is shallow * it holds grudges * it unconsciously seeks out drama (to feel important) * it focuses on past/future (at the expense of the present) * it is emotionally reactive * it depends on the opinions of others for a sense of self * it does not trust * it is defensive (taking things personally) * it is co-dependent on people * it represses * it cannot love unconditionally * it is possessive * it accumulates * it projects expectations onto others (expecting others to meet its standards or wishes) * it creates resistance to what really is * it seeks meaning and happiness from external things * its envious * it lives in the dark (confusion) * it labels and judges people and things * it plays victim role or perpetrator * it projects blame * it complains * it is unconscious of itself*    

~Anon I mus (Spiritually Anonymous)

*for more information on this subject visit

http://egoawarenessmovement.org/

http://spiritualenlightenment4nobodies.com/

https://wikisearcheranonimus.wordpress.com/about/

https://www.youtube.com/user/SpirituallyAnonImus

“You do not become who you really are, it is simply the discovery that you are Consciousness prior to any image, thought, label or belief.”   ~Anon I mus (Spiritually Anonymous)

Court Rules in Favour of Case Against Fluoride

Today we talk to Dr. Paul Connett of the Fluoride Action Network (fluoridealert.org) about Food & Water Watch Inc., et al. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, a lawsuit that could bring an end to the practice of water fluoridation in the United States. We discuss the Toxic Substances Control Act under which the suit is being filed, how recent court rulings have allowed the case to…

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Stay safe while marching today, everyone! 🕯️📢💪🏿 #MarchForOurLives #Right2Protest

Suffering is Always ‘Optional‘

“Suffering stems from unconsciously reacting to a ‘believed in’ story (imagined, personal narrative) strongly held in the mind that takes you out of the Now.”  ~Anon I mus (Spiritually Anonymous)

Alzheimer’s May Not Originate in the Brain

Authored by Kenny Walter, Digital Reporter, R&D Magazine

The long assumption that Alzheimer’s disease originates in the brain may not be true after all— as new findings indicate the disease could be triggered by breakdowns elsewhere in the body.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) believe that the new discovery could lead to new drug therapies that may be able to stop or slow the disease down without acting directly on the brain, an often complex, sensitive and hard-to-reach target.

Read more: https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/11/alzheimers-may-not-originate-brain

Energy Converters Absorb Power of Waves

Authored by Kenny Walter, Digital Reporter, R&D Magazine

Researchers may have found a new way to capture wave energy that can be used to make electricity.

A team from Sandia National Laboratories are working on designing, modeling and testing a new control system that may double the amount of power a wave energy converter can absorb from ocean waves by applying a classical control theory, robotics and aerospace engineering design principles to improve the converter’s efficiency.

Read more: https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/10/energy-converters-absorb-power-waves

Using a Solar Reactor to Make Water and Oxygen on the Moon

Authored by Kenny Walter, Digital Reporter, R&D Magazine

A new device powered by a thermal solar reactor could make enough oxygen and water for six to eight astronauts on the Moon.

The device—created by Aerospace Engineer Thorsten Denk— is ideal for the conditions of the Moon.

Read more: https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/10/using-solar-reactor-make-water-and-oxygen-moon

Scientists Find Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Early Detection

Authored by Kenny Walter, Digital Reporter, R&D Magazine

A new early test for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may soon be on the way.

Researchers from the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have found a peptide in mice that could pave the way for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease for humans.

Read more: https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/11/scientists-find-biomarker-alzheimers-early-detection

Researchers Discover Possible Key to Rejuvenating Aging Cells

Authored by Kenny Walter, Digital Reporter, R&D Magazine

In what could be breakthrough research on human aging, researchers have found a way to rejuvenate inactive senescent cells.

Scientists from the University of Exeter have discovered a new  treatment which, within hours, caused older cells to start dividing and grow longer telomeres—the caps on the chromosomes that shorten as humans age.

Read more: https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/11/researchers-discover-possible-key-rejuvenating-aging-cells

Amid Global Electric Car Buzz, Toyota Bullish on Hydrogen

Authored by the Associated Press

At a car factory in this city named after Toyota, the usual robots with their swinging arms are missing. Instead, workers intently fit parts into place by hand with craftsmanship-like care.

The big moment on the assembly line comes when two bulbous yellow tanks of hydrogen are rolled over and delicately fitted into each car’s underside.

Read more: https://www.rdmag.com/news/2017/11/amid-global-electric-car-buzz-toyota-bullish-hydrogen

US Scientists Try First Gene Editing in the Body

Authored by Associated Press

Scientists for the first time have tried editing a gene inside the body in a bold attempt to permanently change a person’s DNA to try to cure a disease.

The experiment was done Monday in California on 44-year-old Brian Madeux. Through an IV, he received billions of copies of a corrective gene and a genetic tool to cut his DNA in a precise spot.

Read more: https://www.dddmag.com/news/2017/11/us-scientists-try-first-gene-editing-body

Duckweed Helps Remove Contaminants from Lakes

Authored by Kenny Walter, Digital Reporter, R&D Magazine

Duckweed might hold the key to removing contaminants from ponds and other bodies of water that could be harvested into animal feed.

Researchers from South Dakota State University believe the small aquatic plant could be a viable option to help remove several contaminants from lakes, ponds and streams including phosphorus, nitrates, nitrites and heavy metals that eventually could be incorporated into animal feed.

Read more: https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/11/duckweed-helps-remove-contaminants-lakes

Rare Nitrogen Molecules Provide Insight into Life-Supporting Planets

Authored by Kenny Walter, Digital Reporter, R&D Magazine

The presence of rare nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere may shed light on the makeup of life-supporting planets.

Researchers from UCLA have measured the amount of a rare and heavy form of nitrogen gas (15N15N) in the air and discovered that the gas is significantly more abundant than the scientists expected.

Read more: https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/12/rare-nitrogen-molecules-provide-insight-life-supporting-planets

Reinventing the Wheel

Planning a trip to the Moon? Mars? You’re going to need good tires…

Exploration requires mobility. And whether you’re on Earth or as far away as the Moon or Mars, you need good tires to get your vehicle from one place to another. Our decades-long work developing tires for space exploration has led to new game-changing designs and materials. Yes, we’re reinventing the wheel—here’s why.

Wheels on the Moon

Early tire designs were focused on moving hardware and astronauts across the lunar surface. The last NASA vehicle to visit the Moon was the Lunar Roving Vehicle during our Apollo missions. The vehicle used four large flexible wire mesh wheels with stiff inner frames. We used these Apollo era tires as the inspiration for new designs using newer materials and technology to better function on a lunar surface.

Up springs a new idea

During the mid-2000s, we worked with industry partner Goodyear to develop the Spring Tire, an airless compliant tire that consists of several hundred coiled steel wires woven into a flexible mesh, giving the tires the ability to support high loads while also conforming to the terrain. The Spring Tire has been proven to generate very good traction and durability in soft sand and on rocks.

Spring Tires for Mars

A little over a year after the Mars Curiosity Rover landed on Mars, engineers began to notice significant wheel damage in 2013 due to the unexpectedly harsh terrain. That’s when engineers began developing new Spring Tire prototypes to determine if they would be a new and better solution for exploration rovers on Mars.

In order for Spring Tires to go the distance on Martian terrain, new materials were required. Enter nickel titanium, a shape memory alloy with amazing capabilities that allow the tire to deform down to the axle and return to its original shape.

These tires can take a lickin’

After building the shape memory alloy tire, Glenn engineers sent it to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Life Test Facility. It performed impressively on the punishing track.

Why reinvent the wheel? It’s worth it.

New, high performing tires would allow lunar and Mars rovers to explore greater regions of the surface than currently possible. They conform to the terrain and do not sink as much as rigid wheels, allowing them to carry heavier payloads for the same given mass and volume. Also, because they absorb energy from impacts at moderate to high speeds, there is potential for use on crewed exploration vehicles which are expected to move at speeds significantly higher than the current Mars rovers.

Airless tires on Earth

Maybe. Recently, engineers and materials scientists have been testing a spinoff tire version that would work on cars and trucks on Earth. Stay tuned as we continue to push the boundaries on traditional concepts for exploring our world and beyond.  

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.  

Gene Variant that Protects Against Alzheimer’s Identified

Authored by Kenny Walter, Digital Reporter, R&D Magazine

Scientists have identified a gene variant that, if reduced, may decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers from Brigham Young University (BYU) have discovered a rare genetic variant that provides a protective effect for high-risk individuals, including elderly people who carry known genetic risk for Alzheimer’s but never acquire the disease.

Read more: https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/11/gene-variant-protects-against-alzheimers-identified