[Zbignieww]

Scientists Discover Strange Creature in a Seemingly Inhospitable Ecosystem


A live male specimen of the new species of deep-sea worm, named Pectinereis strickrotti after the lead Alvin pilot, Bruce Strickrott of WHOI who helped discover it. Its feathery appendages are called parapodia and carry the worm’s gills. Credit: Ekin Tilic

The discovery of this creature increases the total count of new species identified by researchers exploring these seemingly inhospitable ecosystems to 48.
Greg Rouse, a marine biologist at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and other researchers have identified a previously unknown species of deep-sea worm residing near a methane seep located approximately 50 kilometers (30 miles) away from Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. Rouse, curator of the Scripps Benthic Invertebrate Collection, co-authored a study describing the new species in the journal PLOS ONE.

The worm, named Pectinereis strickrotti, has an elongated body that is flanked by a row of feathery, gill-tipped appendages called parapodia on either side, and Rouse said its sinuous swimming reminded him of a snake. The species was named after Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Bruce Strickrott, lead pilot for the famed deep-sea submersible Alvin, who Rouse said was instrumental in the effort to locate and collect the creature. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

Exploring Costa Rican Methane Seeps
Rouse and his colleagues have encountered roughly 450 species at the Costa Rican methane seeps since 2009, with this latest discovery bringing the number of those species that were new to science to 48. These impressive stats underscore how much more there is left to learn about these ecosystems as well as their biological importance, said Rouse.

Methane seeps are parts of the seafloor where the powerful greenhouse gas methane escapes from rocks or sediment on the seafloor in the form of bubbles. Unlike deep-sea hydrothermal vents, methane seeps are typically not hotter than the surrounding water. But like hydrothermal vents, methane seep ecosystems are fueled by chemical energy rather than sunlight. This is because some microbes have evolved the ability to consume methane. The microbes that can make methane into food create the base of a food web that at the Costa Rican seeps is dominated by mussels, crabs, and soft-bodied polychaete worms like this new species, said Rouse.

The Discovery Journey
Strickrott and Rouse first encountered the new species in 2009 at a depth of around 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) during a dive in the Alvin human-occupied submersible, which is operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and owned by the U.S. Navy.

“We saw two worms near each other about a sub’s length away swimming just off the bottom,” said Strickrott. “We couldn’t see them well and tried to creep in for a closer look, but it’s hard to creep in a submarine and we spooked them.”

Finally, in 2018 the team was able to return to Costa Rica’s methane seeps with Alvin. On a dive to the same spot the worm was first sighted, known as Mound 12, Strickrott was astounded to encounter six or more individuals of the unidentified species they first saw there nearly a decade earlier. For some reason, the worms were much less skittish than they were in 2009 and, using a five-chambered vacuum canister device on Alvin that Strickrott calls the “slurp gun,” they carefully collected several specimens as well as images and video – enough to formally describe what proved to be a new species.

“The way this thing moved was so graceful, I thought it looked like a living magic carpet,” said Strickrott. “I’m honored that Greg [Rouse] saw fit to name this species after me, it means a lot.”

Unique Characteristics of Pectinereis strickrotti
Pectinereis strickrotti is a 10-centimeter-long (4-inch) member of the ragworm family (Nereididae). Ragworms are a group of around 500 species of segmented, mostly-marine worms that look a bit like a cross between a centipede and an earthworm. They have elongated bodies with rows of bristled parapodia on their sides and a hidden set of pincer-shaped jaws that can be extruded for feeding. Many species of ragworm also have two distinct life stages: atoke and epitoke. In these species, the worm spends most of its life on the seafloor, often in a burrow, as a sexually immature atoke, but in their life’s final act, they transform into sexually mature epitokes that swim up off the bottom into the water column to find mates and spawn.

The team was able to collect three male Pectinereis strickrotti epitokes and part of one female. Following their successful collection, the team used the specimens to conduct anatomical analysis and to study the worm’s DNA to establish its evolutionary relationships within the ragworm family. The specimens now reside in Scripps’ Benthic Invertebrate Collection and the Museo de Zoología at the Universidad de Costa Rica.

Compared to most ragworms, Pectinereis strickrotti is unusual in several ways. First, it lives in the deep sea, while the majority of its evolutionary kin inhabit shallower waters. Second, its parapodia are covered in gills, while most ragworms absorb oxygen through their parapodia without the aid of true gills. The males had large spines at the end of their tails, which Rouse said might have something to do with reproduction but would require further study. Finally, owing to the total darkness at 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) under the sea, the new species is blind. Rouse said the worms probably have keen senses of smell and touch to help them navigate their inky world.

Pectinereis strickrotti has robust, even fearsome-looking jaws, but Rouse said their diet is still unknown and that the species could just as easily be feeding on bacteria as larger fare like other worms. Though its coloration would be a moot point in life, given its pitch-black habitat, Rouse said the worm appeared rosy under Alvin’s lights, and that this was probably due to the color of its blood.

“We’ve spent years trying to name and describe the biodiversity of the deep sea,” said Rouse. “At this point, we have found more new species than we have time to name and describe. It just shows how much undiscovered biodiversity is out there. We need to keep exploring the deep sea and to protect it.”

Rouse and other Scripps researchers will be heading back out to sea later this year in hopes of making even more deep-sea discoveries at methane seeps off the coasts of Alaska and Chile.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-dis ... ecosystem/

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
THURSDAY MARCH 28
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Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
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IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

Firefighters in New Jersey come to the rescue of a yellow Labrador stuck in a spare tire

It was a long 40 minutes for an 11-month-old yellow Labrador named Daisy who found her head stuck in a tire before South Jersey firefighters were able to set her free last Thursday.



That’s when members of the Franklinville Volunteer Fire Company in Gloucester County geared up and headed to an emergency call where they found Daisy in a driveway with her neck deep in the middle of a spare tire rim.

“This one is an odd one,” Lt. Brandon Volpe recalls thinking. “We’ve never seen this before.”

The first step, he said, was to keep Daisy calm as the firefighters looked for a solution.

Lt. Brandon Volpe told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the crew first used dish soap and water but couldn't free the dog, who was “pretty stuck in there.” They then tried vegetable oil and when that didn't work they put plastic wrap around her neck, hoping the oil and soap would make it slippery enough for her to slide down. But that didn’t work either.



“Her head got in there, it has to come out somehow,” Volpe thought. Then he remembered he had plasma cutters at his home. They’re used for cutting steel and metal, so he knew a tire would be no match for the machine. So the crew put Daisy on a red wagon and headed to Volpe’s garage.

Volpe recalls the dog “panicked a little bit,” but a fire blanket was put around her head and neck for protection. After putting a fire blanket around her head and neck for protection, he began cutting the tire’s rubber and metal. Within five minutes, Daisy was free.



Daisy has since gone back to visit the station and, her owner, Austin Delano, may even join as a volunteer, Volpe said.

To avoid anyone’s pups getting into a similar situation,Volpe issued a reminder: “Keep an eye on them because they can get into pretty bad situations very easily.”

[HogwartsExpress]

Watch: Harry Potter cast reunite at convention for first time since 2022 documentary




Members of the Harry Potter cast played a chaotic round of “pass the phone” as they reunited at a Dream It convention in France.

It was the first time they have been reunited since the 2022 HBO documentary Return to Hogwarts, which celebrated 20 years of the films.

The “pass the phone” TikTok trend, which went viral a couple of years ago, sees people record themselves making a shady comment about someone they’re with before passing the phone over to them.

Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the films, started the video before bringing in Devon Murray, Matthew Lewis and twins James and Oliver Phelps.

src: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/w ... r-BB1kGNMG

[rflash8]

Arthritis linked to tryptophan in new study — here’s what to eat instead



It’s hard to be a fan of tryptophan these days.

The essential amino acid oft-blamed for inducing sleepiness after Thanksgiving dinner has given us another reason to say no thanks to meats, dairy, nuts, grains and legumes — and yes to Mediterranean diet staples.

University of Colorado researchers have found a link between arthritis and tryptophan, calling their findings the first to describe how the chemical breaks down in the body and causes inflammation.

Tryptophan is used by the body to build proteins, muscles, enzymes and neurotransmitters. What’s left, the study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation revealed, may be broken down to produce an inflammatory chemical that facilitates the development of rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease affecting the joints.

Tests on lab mice showed that tryptophan is broken down into indole — a molecule closely associated with feces — which activates autoreactive inflammatory T-cells in their body.

When tryptophan hits our gut bacteria break it down into byproducts, but what they become depends on where they’re used. “If tryptophan hits our body’s cells, it tends to go get broken down into anti-inflammatory products versus when it hits the bacterial cells and goes more inflammatory,” explained Dr. Kristin Kuhn, associate professor and head of the CU Division of Rheumatology.

Some readers may also be inspired to swap their T-Day turkey for Greek-style branzino as study authors have claimed their results suggest that the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes plant-based dishes and lean marine proteins, seems to avoid the immune-triggering effects of tryptophan.

The diet voted best in the world by doctors and diners alike “seems to push the microbiome into a healthier state, so that you are getting the anti-inflammatory properties of tryptophan, whereas the typical western diet seems to go more toward the inflammatory pathway,” the study co-author claimed.



Researchers hope to uncover other simple changes that could prevent arthritis from setting in.

“We have started to understand the at-risk stage, where we can actually identify people who are likely to progress to rheumatoid arthritis within the next few years based on blood markers,” said Kuhn, who’s pushed for more research to explore the best way to go about it. “We’re not quite sure yet what are the right ways to intervene.”

[Alessa9]

A striking new image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy has revealed the strong magnetic field that surrounds it, twisting and turning like a spiral.


The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has captured a new view of the black hole at the center of our galaxy.

It’s a never-before-seen view of Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A*), the immense black hole at the Milky Way’s core that gobbles up nearby light and matter.

The image suggests there are structural similarities between this black hole and one at the heart of a galaxy called M87. That black hole — the first ever imaged — is more than 1,000 times larger than Sagittarius A*, but both appear to have powerful, organized magnetic fields.

It’s a clue that the pattern may be common to many or all black holes, according to the scientists behind the image, whose findings were published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“We’ve learned that strong and ordered magnetic fields are critical to how black holes interact with the gas and matter around them,” a co-leader of the research, Sara Issaoun, the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program’s Einstein fellow, said in a statement.

To conduct the research, Issaoun collaborated with an international team of astronomers known as the Event Horizon Telescope; the group is made up of more than 300 scientists from 80 institutions around the world.

The same research collaboration captured the first direct visual evidence of Sagittarius A* in 2022, and the team has also studied the M87 galaxy, which is around 53 million light-years from Earth.

The magnetic field surrounding the behemoth black hole at that galaxy's center, known as M87*, is thought to play a key role in its dramatic behavior: The black hole launches a powerful jet of electrons and other subatomic particles into space at nearly the speed of light.

Such an outburst of activity has never been detected within Sagittarius A*, but the similarities between the two black holes may suggest that a hidden jet could yet be found coming from it, according to the researchers behind the new image.


Left: the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A*, seen in polarized light. The visible lines indicate the orientation of polarization, which is related to the magnetic field around the black hole. Center: the polarized emission from the center of the Milky Way, as captured by NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. Back right: the Planck Collaboration mapped polarized emission from dust across the Milky Way.

Sagittarius A*, which is about 27,000 light-years away from Earth, is 4 million times more massive than the sun.

The new image of the twisted magnetic field around it was released in polarized light. The human eye cannot differentiate polarized light from what we consider “normal” light; the term refers to waves of light that oscillate in a particular way. The orientation of those vibrations enables scientists to pick out vivid details of magnetic field lines and map their characteristics.

“By imaging polarized light from hot glowing gas near black holes, we are directly inferring the structure and strength of the magnetic fields that thread the flow of gas and matter that the black hole feeds on and ejects,” Angelo Ricarte, a Harvard Black Hole Initiative Fellow who co-led the new research, said in a statement.

[PennySerenade]

Can money buy happiness? Income may boost emotional well-being more than we thought



Money does indeed buy happiness, and it increases with a bigger paycheque more than economists previously believed, a recent analysis has found.

Widely reported findings by two Nobel Prize-winning economists in 2010 cemented the idea that money could buy happiness only to a certain point — and that point was said to be about $75,000 at the time.

"The [Daniel] Kahneman and [Angus] Deaton paper in 2010 found that the relationship between income and happiness, or emotional well-being, flattens out at around $75,000," said Kostadin Kushlev, a happiness researcher and assistant professor at Georgetown University's department of psychology in Washington, D.C.

Now one of those researchers says he was wrong about the $75,000 part — and not just because everything is so expensive these days.

A paper Kahneman co-authored with Matthew Killingsworth and Barbara Mellers in 2023 concluded that the 2010 research had overstated the plateau effect because it used an unreliable method of measuring happiness from a Gallup survey, which asked study subjects to recall if they smiled the previous day.

The newer conclusions are based on a more continuous measure of happiness, Kushlev told Cost of Living. The researchers would ping their subjects' phones randomly during the day to ask them, "How do you feel right now?" — rating their mood on a scale from "very bad" to "very good."

"So when you use this measure, there seems to be a linear relationship between income and happiness that does not level off at $75,000," Kushlev said.

The 2023 paper found that most subjects reported increased emotional well-being all the way up to $500,000 in annual income.

In an interview with NBC, Killingsworth said that's because as people earn more money, they feel more in control of their lives.

"If you have more money, you can see organic raspberries in the grocery store and that's what you are in the mood for, so you buy it instead of buying a box of dry pasta," he said. "Or maybe if you're working in a job that you think is kind of unfulfilling, you can quit your job and you have sort of a financial cushion."

3 pillars of happiness
Kushlev said when researchers talk about happiness, they tend to use a term called "subjective well-being," which has three components.

"One component is how we look at our lives overall, and that's what we call life satisfaction. And generally speaking, when we talk about income and happiness, income does relate to greater life satisfaction."

But Kushlev said what's less clear from research is how money affects the other two pillars of emotional well-being: frequent positive feelings and relatively infrequent negative feelings.

"Income might have this protective effect against experiencing certain negative emotions, but it doesn't necessarily bring us joy on a day-to-day basis," he said.

The 2023 study also found that among the least happy 15 per cent of people studied, happiness was unmovable beyond about $100,000 in annual income.

"This income threshold may represent the point beyond which the miseries that remain are not alleviated by high income," the authors wrote. "Heartbreak, bereavement and clinical depression may be examples of such miseries."

'Investing in relationships and people'
Peter Drummond has experienced both living in poverty and making it big as an entrepreneur.

Growing up in the United States, his family would go through real boom-and-bust cycles. As a result, they would live large at some times and sleep in the car at others.

"It's hard to be happy when you're hungry."
- Peter Drummond

"The biggest problem with poverty is, for me anyway, was a lack of food. Being hungry sucks. It's hard to be happy when you're hungry," he said.

Drummond moved north to Vancouver when he was 17 and got a job going door-to-door selling credit card machines to businesses. That started him on a career in financial technology, including getting a percentage of the profit when one company he worked for sold for $120 million.

As a young man making roughly $300,000 a year, he said there were years when he used his money just for "partying, drinking and engaging in hedonistic nihilism." He'd also do things like drop $5,000 or $10,000 at Holt Renfew on nice shoes and clothes.

Those thrills quickly wore off, he said. But as he grew a little older and wiser, Drummond said he started to use his wealth in more meaningful ways. "And then my happiness skyrocketed. So not investing in material things; investing in relationships and people."

For Drummond, that has meant helping his parents and in-laws retire, taking his parents on vacations, mentoring young people to create their own wealth and choosing work that he finds rewarding.

"So now you're just significantly more constructive in the architecture of your life," he said.

Money provides freedom to choose
On the other side of the income spectrum, even a modest improvement in financial circumstances can contribute to a feeling of being more in control of your life.

Back in 2017, Jessie Golem, a photographer and videographer from Hamilton, was working four precarious jobs, including one for a volunteer organization that she hoped would open some doors.

"I just didn't have any free time because I was constantly going from one job to the other to the other," she said.

She said it was satisfying to see her efforts on the business "turning into real-world money," and it helped that she was no longer in a constant state of worry about what she'd do if the car or computer she uses for work broke down.

Evan Hu said he didn't realize his family was living in poverty when he was growing up in the 1960s. But as a first-generation Canadian whose immigrant father was supporting family back home in China, he said there was only enough money for the very basics.

So when he landed his first entry-level engineering job in Calgary, making about $30,000 a year in 1988, he was "happy as a clam."

Eventually, Hu was part of a successful startup that significantly improved his circumstances and launched his lucrative career in software engineering. "I was all of a sudden in a situation where I was drawing significantly more income, like, four or five times what a basic engineer [earns]."

To Hu, the bigger paycheque meant security.

"My backside's covered. I don't have to worry.... We could go to a restaurant now. We can buy a new car. We can take a vacation and not, you know, slum it, right?"

The financial freedom has meant that he's been able to spend the last 15 years choosing the work he finds interesting and spending a lot of time volunteering.

Hu said he's seen a lot of people who are really driven by status, "always chasing the next carrot," and that it hasn't really made them happy.

That observation fits with what happiness researcher Kostadin Kushlev said has been shown to be much more critical to health and happiness than money and material possessions: strong relationships with other people.

"So can money buy happiness? I would say yes, it can. But it's better to focus on other things that we know really bring you happiness — such as the people that are important in our lives."

[Fatima99]

‘A beautiful idea’: This French Town Is Making its Cemetery a Source of Solar Energy



A community on the Loire in France has come up with a solar-powered idea that will clear two hurdles in a single leap.

The town of Saint-Joachim is located near the Brière marsh, a peat bog that becomes easily inundated with water. The local graveyard rests at 0 feet above sea level and standing water has become a major problem.

The mayor eventually proposed covering the graveyard to divert the rainwater into catch tanks to water the grass around the cemetery and nearby sporting complex in the dry summer months.

Solar panels—clear, see-through ones, were also proposed for the otherwise basic overhead covering, with each resident receiving a letter explaining the proposal and asking for their opinion on the idea.

97% of Saint-Joachim’s residents liked the concept and a power-sharing scheme was quickly determined whereby each resident would pay €5.00 for a share of the power generated there, which might be enough to supply around 1,000 people with enough solar power to save a couple hundred euro every year on their electric bills.

The power company in charge of the project designed an algorithm that gathers data on energy usage and determines how much each home needs to meet a fixed percentile of their overall consumption. That way everyone, from a supermarket to the hairdresser to a single-family home, receives the same energy savings from the cemetery solar power.

The municipality will fully finance the €3.35 million ($3.6 million), 1.2-acre installation, using a 7% property tax increase.

“I think it is a beautiful idea,” Éric Broquaire, local resident and president of Brier’energie, told Euronews. “The purpose was to make it simple, to avoid someone saying ‘why don’t I have electricity for free’. Everybody, even companies, will have the same level.”

[Misstee]

Wiggins woman rescues “Spider-Lamb,” a lamb with five legs

By Destiny Polster






HARRISON COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) - One Wiggins woman is adding to her number of rescued animals. However, this one is not like the others.

Spider-Lamb is what Natalie Renot has named her new pet, a five-legged lamb.

Fur Babies Veterinary Hospital is no stranger to saving the lives of animals with abnormalities, although a five-legged lamb is a first for the clinic.

“Spider-Lamb is definitely one of a kind for sure,” Dr. Jason Gulas said.

Renot brought the lamb to the vet Monday after rescuing him from another farm. She says thousands of maggots were eating him alive.

“He’s already improved so much overnight. I feel like last night was probably the most critical considering how bad he was.”

Dr. Jason Gulas says lambs begin to walk almost 15 minutes after birth. At less than a week old, Spider-Lamb is working on gaining strength and balance to stand.

“He definitely has some abnormalities. He might not be normal compared to other lambs, but I think that he will live a normal-for-him life,” Dr. Gulas says.

“A lot of the animals people would’ve given up on, make recoveries. Animals make remarkable recoveries,” Dr. Alice Xenachis adds.

Renot says being able to rescue animals is a privilege, and it’s more the animals doing good for her, than it is her doing good for them.

The veterinarians suggest that Spider-Lamb is not in a life-threatening condition as of Tuesday.

Renot says anyone wanting to donate to the lamb’s upcoming hernia surgeries at the end of April can call Fur Babies Veterinary Hospital at 228-967-7709.

Woman Given New 3D-Printed Windpipe in World First


T&R Biofab’s special 3D printer. Provided to GNN by T&R Biofab

A biotech company has established a stunning milestone for prosthetics as their firm became the first and only one in the world to produce a bio-3D-printed windpipe that was successfully transplanted into a human body.

Nasal stem cells and cartilage cells were obtained from other patients who underwent other procedures, and these were replicated and combined with polycaprolactone (PCL) for structural support as well as a special ink made from living cells to make the windpipe, or trachea.

The transplant procedure was performed at St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul on a woman in her 50s who lost part of her own trachea during thyroid removal surgery. The one-of-a-kind 3D printer, designed with over a decade of research and testing, was provided by the company T&R Biofab.

The hospital and T&R both hope that the artificial trachea will allow her to live a relatively normal life until its expiration date five years from now, at which point the hypothesis is that her body will have regenerated her own.

According to the BBC, the patient did not require any immunosuppressants, a medicine used to prevent the body from rejecting the new organ. Additionally, six months after the operation, the windpipe is not only healing well but new blood vessels are starting to form.

The dimensions for the trachea had to be exact, as you might imagine. MRIs and CT scans were undertaken to ensure there would be no problems with the ‘fit’.

T&R Biofab designed the printer to specialize in printing hollow tubular structures with high-precision technology, and the BBC said that the earliest work was done in 2004 to devise this miracle machine which the company says had to work in perfect harmony with the servers of St. Mary’s Hospital, and as such can’t be taken to other hospitals.

“While it’s too soon to say that 3D-bioprinting could be the solution for the current shortage of organs for transplantation, it definitely increases the hopes to partially solve the issue for some organs or some specific indications, or at least fill the gap between classic medical devices and organ transplants,” Dr. Paulo Marinho, head of scientific strategy at T&R Biofab, told BBC Science Focus.

Tracheotoemies are typically performed in the causes of trauma to the windpipe, thyroid cancer, or congenital anomalies.

[goldie0608]

Couple Orders a Cake Replica of Their Dog But it Was So Realistic They Couldn’t Cut it



A couple who ordered a cake replica of their dog found that it was so realistic they couldn’t bring themselves to cut it.

Anna Railton and Chris Smowton bought an edible version of their pet Arthur for a joint birthday celebration.

But when the life-sized whippet dessert arrived, the English pair described it as “uncanny”, and had to get someone else to take a knife to it.

“It was literally the same size and weight as my dog—twice the size of what I thought it was going to be!” recalls Anna

“It came in this genuinely ridiculous huge box and I was thinking ‘my god, what have I done!”

The impressive cake was made by designers at The Cake Shop in the Oxford Covered Market.

“I have ordered cakes from them before and they are massive legends who enjoy doing non-standard cakes.”

The cake was set to feed 30 to 40 people, and Anna sent over various images of her beloved eight-year-old pooch, but she presumed it would be just a normal cake size.

“It was so shockingly realistic.

“Someone else had to cut up the face. That I was not down for, and glad I didn’t have to do that.”

There’s no word about whether Arthur got a taste of his doppelganger dessert.

An Expert Unwraps Chocolate's Surprising Health Benefits


(Eva-Katalin/Canva Pro)

Although it always makes me scoff slightly to see Easter eggs making their first appearance in supermarkets at the end of December, there are few people who aren't delighted to receive a bit of chocolate every year.

It makes sense that too much chocolate would be bad for you because of the high fat and sugar content in most products. But what should we make of common claims that eating some chocolate is actually good for you?

Happily, there is a fair amount of evidence that shows, in the right circumstances, chocolate may be both beneficial for your heart and good for your mental state.

In fact, chocolate – or more specifically cacao, the raw, unrefined bean – is a medicinal wonder. It contains many different active compounds which can evoke pharmacological effects within the body, like medicines or drugs.

Compounds that lead to neurological effects in the brain have to be able to cross the blood-brain barrier, the protective shield which prevents harmful substances – like toxins and bacteria – entering the delicate nervous tissue.

One of these is the compound theobromine, which is also found in tea and contributes towards its bitter taste. Tea and chocolate also contain caffeine, which theobromine is related to as part of the purine family of chemicals.

These chemicals, among others, contribute to chocolate's addictive nature. They have the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, where they can influence the nervous system. They are therefore known as psychoactive chemicals.

What effects can chocolate have on mood? Well, a systematic review looked at a group of studies which examined the feelings and emotions associated with consuming chocolate. Most demonstrated improvements in mood, anxiety, energy and states of arousal.

Some noted the feeling of guilt, which is perhaps something we've all felt after one too many Dairy Milks.

Health benefits of cocoa

There are other organs, aside from the brain, that might benefit from the medicinal effects of cocoa. For centuries, chocolate has been used as a medicine to treat a long list of diseases including anaemia, tuberculosis, gout and even low libido.

These might be spurious claims but there is evidence to suggest that eating cacao has a positive effect on the cardiovascular system. First, it can prevent endothelial dysfunction. This is the process through which arteries harden and get laden down with fatty plaques, which can in turn lead to heart attacks and strokes.

Eating dark chocolate may also reduce blood pressure, which is another risk factor for developing arterial disease, and prevent formation of clots which block up blood vessels.

Some studies have suggested that dark chocolate might be useful in adjusting ratios of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which can help protect the heart.

Others have examined insulin resistance, the phenomenon associated with Type 2 diabetes and weight gain. They suggest that the polyphenols – chemical compounds present in plants – found in foodstuffs like chocolate may also lead to improved control of blood sugars.

Chocolate toxicity

As much as chocolate might be considered a medicine for some, it can be a poison for others.

It's well documented that the ingestion of caffeine and theobromine is highly toxic for domestic animals. Dogs are particularly affected because of their often voracious appetites and generally unfussy natures.

The culprit is often dark chocolate, which can provoke symptoms of agitation, rigid muscles and even seizures. In certain cases, if ingested in high enough quantities, it can lead to comas and abnormal, even fatal heart rhythms.

Some of the compounds found in chocolate have also been found to have potentially negative effects in humans. Chocolate is a source of oxalate which, along with calcium, is one of the main components of kidney stones.

Some clinical groups have advised against consuming oxalate rich foods, such as spinach and rhubarb – and chocolate, for those who suffer from recurrent kidney stones.

So, what should all this mean for our chocolate consumption habits? Science points in the direction of chocolate that has as high a cocoa solid content as possible, and the minimum of extras. The potentially harmful effects of chocolate are more related to fat and sugar, and may counteract any possible benefits.

A daily dose of 20g-30g of plain or dark chocolate with cocoa solids above 70% – rather than milk chocolate, which contains fewer solids and white chocolate, which contains none – could lead to a greater health benefit, as well as a greater high.

But whatever chocolate you go for, please don't share it with the dog.

Dan Baumgardt, Senior Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

[lush]

Family Moves into Hotel Suite Permanently to Save Money
011124*

A Chinese family has sparked a debate on social media after moving into a luxury hotel suite permanently because it’s cheaper and more convenient than renting or owning a home.

The family of eight has been living in a luxury hotel in Nanyang, China’s Henan Province, for 229 days and has no plans to move out anytime soon. After getting a special rate (1,000 yuan or $140 per day) for a luxury suite with two bedrooms and a large living room based on the length of their stay, the family now plans to remain in the hotel indefinitely. Because the daily price of the suite also includes electricity, heating, water, and parking, the unnamed family claims that they actually save money by living in a hotel and their life is much more comfortable.



“We feel happy living here, so we plan to live in a hotel for the rest of our lives,” Mu Xue, a member of the family said in a viral video. “The room costs 1,000 yuan per day. Our family of eight lives very well. I never thought this way of living would help save money. I just feel that it makes everything convenient.”

According to a Star Video clip, Mu Xue’s family is in good financial standing, they own at least six properties, but they just prefer to live in a hotel. To prove that they have been living in the Nanyang Hotel for over 200 days, the family showed several deposits to the hotel for hundreds of thousands of yuan.



This story sparked a heated debate on Chinese social media. A lot of people declared themselves captivated by the family’s way of life, adding that they too would live in a hotel full-time if they could afford it, others wondered how comfortable a hotel suite actually was for a family of eight.

[Zbignieww]

Record-Breaking Most Precise Clock Would Lose One Second In 40 Billion Years
The team who created the most precise known clock has broken their own record.



Precision time-keeping has a new record. Researchers have created a clock with an uncertainty of about 8 parts per tenth of a billionth of a billionth. This level of precision is so incredibly small that it would take the clock slightly less than three times the age of the universe to lose a single second – 39.15 billion years to be exact.

The sun could live and die four times and this clock would still just lose a single second. The device is known as an optical lattice clock, described in a pre-print paper that has yet to undergo peer review, and uses 40,000 strontium atoms trapped in a one-dimensional lattice. The atoms are kept at just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero and the ticking of this clock is a transition between specific energy levels for the electrons in this atom.

The team has been developing optical atomic clocks for years already, reaching precision that is impossible with regular atomic clocks that use cesium atoms. Still, over the last several years, the team has progressed in constraining uncertainties and systematic effects to further improve the precision of this device.

“We’re playing a bunch of tricks to make it the most accurate clock we possibly can,” lead author Alexander Aeppli, from the University of Colorado Boulder, told New Scientist.

You might ask how more precise can you get than that. Well, the team thinks they can go even further. They hope to reach 10 times more precise measurements, and could maybe even reach levels 100 times more precise. They have been able to improve their precision by a factor of 10 in just a few years, so it seems that their confidence is well-placed.

These clocks are expected to bring forth a new definition of the second, no longer based on the best atomic clock but on one of these devices. But this is not the only scientific use for these devices – with incredible precision, discoveries well beyond time-keeping await.

“There will be very interesting discoveries that are waiting for us if we get to the times that are sensitive to the very small space-time curvature,” senior author Professor Jun Ye told IFLScience when it was announced he had won the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

Atomic clocks are already sensitive to relativistic effects, but the sensitivity of optical lattice clocks is 1,000 times higher which means that they can be used to measure gravity like never before as well as testing our theory of gravity – general relativity – to a more stringent limit. If this wasn’t already very cool, these clocks could be used to study dark matter.

A paper describing these results was published on Arxiv ahead of peer review.

https://www.iflscience.com/record-break ... ears-73591

[midgemental]

Help, help... Robots, please save the people!
Robots are taking over NYC — replacing humans in spas and doctors’ offices



The robot will see you now!

At this NYC spa, the “hands” of the masseuse giving you a rubdown may not be pumping with blood but filled with data.

Aescape has created the first commercially available fully automated AI masseuse that’s a bit more advanced than your average mall massage chair — and works faster than your favorite masseuse.

For $60, anyone who downloads the Aescape app can book a 30-minute session. It’s expected to be available to the public at 10 Equinox locations across the Big Apple this spring — and no, you don’t have to be an Equinox member.

The Aescape AI-enhanced massage tables use two robotic “arms” to scan the user’s body — clothed in friction-free clothing provided by the company upon arrival — in order to generate over 1.1 million 3D data points to map the body. From there, it can identify key anatomical points to guide the “hands” to perform a targeted massage, which can be controlled from a touchscreen directly under the headrest.

“Our robots move in a way that feels very familiar. That’s what’s really important,” Eric Litman, founder and CEO of Aescape, told The Post. “This had to feel like something that you already understand. But at the same time, we really wanted to empower the capabilities that could be delivered only through technology.”

The Aescape massage robot has two “hands” — which are heated and modeled after human hands, replicating their shape and strength — that move simultaneously and apply equal pressure doing twice the work in half the time a human could.

“We think of physical touch being from another person because that’s what it’s always been. But when you come in our environment, you very quickly get a sense that touch in and of itself is an important thing, and the idea that it’s technological or human just kind of melts away.”

These robot masseuses will be available on demand for an affordable, consistent and personalized massage — once Aescape is available to roll out all of its planned features.

“It’s important that you can lean into this and feel instantly at home, but that we’re also delivering on all the ways that only technology could enable,” Litman explained.

People have become accustomed to adopting high-tech gadgets into most aspects of our lives with the click of a button. And now, robots are becoming the norm in the health and wellness industry, taking on the roles of masseuses, nail technicians and even doctors.

But massages aren’t the only service that’s been automated in NYC.

AI-powered robots can do anything from giving you a manicure for $10 in 10 minutes — at Rockefeller Center, Hudson Yards and JFK Airport — to being your grandma’s high-tech helper.

For a state-of-the-art manicure, stylistas in a hurry can insert a nail color cartridge — like loading a pod into a Nespresso machine — into a Clockwork machine, which uses both AI and 3D technology to outline the nail and fill in a professional-looking polish change in less time it takes some to choose a nail color.

To combat the loneliness epidemic, New York state officials have even distributed robots to hundreds of elderly residents that can remind them to take their medication, help contact loved ones, book an Uber ride and even engage in small talk and crack jokes.

Robots have also infiltrated medical spaces, acting as doctors doling out preventative medicine advice. Prenuvo — which has been touted by celebrities like Kim Kardashian but questioned by experts — claims to offer MRI body scans ranging from $999 to $2,499 for early detection of various health conditions such as disc herniation,

Another health tech company, Forward, is set to revamp the medical industry as it plans to roll out CarePod “the world’s first AI doctor’s office,” which the company claims works as a self-service cube where patients can be screened for issues relevant to diabetes, hypertension, and depression and anxiety.

The service is slated to begin taking patients in New York and other major US cities later this year — for a mere $99 a month.

Robots around the world are even been created to do your eyelash extensions and inject your Botox.

Aescape chose New York to launch its innovative robot masseuse since it’s “filled with motivated people who really want the most out of life” with quick target services.

“Today, there’s a broad awareness that we’re living longer,” Litman said. “We have an opportunity to live better, longer if we take care of ourselves, starting at an earlier point in life.”

https://nypost.com/2024/03/28/tech/robo ... s-offices/