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  • Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post

    The Colonel is going to be neighbors with DJT Jr. I bet there will be a scotch shortage in Florida soon
    Nah, he’d never move that close to Ms Dion.
    Trust me?
    I'm an economist!

    Comment


    • Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post
      The Colonel is going to be neighbors with DJT Jr. I bet there will be a scotch shortage in Florida soon
      Celine lives near the GS?!?!?!?! Hehehehehehahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! *** wiping a tear from my eye *** Hehehehehehahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

      Looks like we will see how well a USMC GS can tolerate noise torture. Hehehehehehahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
      Chimo

      Comment


      • Originally posted by Officer of Engineers View Post
        Celine lives near the GS?!?!?!?! Hehehehehehahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! *** wiping a tear from my eye *** Hehehehehehahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

        Looks like we will see how well a USMC GS can tolerate noise torture. Hehehehehehahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
        I just turn my hearing aids off

        Comment


        • Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post

          I just turn my hearing aids off
          Voila, quiet. LOL!

          Comment


          • Originally posted by ETCG1

            Where Do Stolen Catalytic Converters Go?



            http:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpuAv0sTh-w.

            ETCG1
            Published on 05 April 2021

            After the catalytic converter was stolen from my 2005 Honda Element, I decided to so some research on where these stolen catalytic converters end up. I learned some interesting things.

            In addition to discussing where catalytic converters go after they are stolen, I also talk about why catalytic converters are being stolen in the first place. You might be surprised about how much they’re really worth.

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            ...

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            • Originally posted by AP_News

              Bunny snatched: Record-holding giant rabbit stolen in UK

              LONDON (AP) — Police say one of the world’s biggest bunnies has been stolen from its home in central England.

              Darius, a Continental Giant rabbit, disappeared from his enclosure in a backyard in the village of Stoulton over the weekend, the West Mercia Police force said. They did not elaborate on why they thought it was a theft instead of an escape.

              The force appealed for any information about or sightings of Darius, who is gray-brown and 129 centimeters (4 feet, 3 inches) long at full stretch. He holds the Guinness World Records citation for the world’s longest rabbit. Rabbits of his type are known to weigh about 15 to 20 pounds (7 to 9 kilograms).

              Owner Annette Edwards, a large-rabbit breeder and model, urged the culprit or culprits to return Darius to his home 160 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of London, saying it was a “very sad day.”

              She initially offered a 1,000 pound ($1,370) reward, but tweeted Tuesday: “Please Please I am so upset Can you bring my Darius back I am putting the reward up to 2,000 pounds ($2,748).”

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              Last edited by JRT; 13 Apr 21,, 18:44.
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              • In the movie trailer, the narrator says that it was 'H.G.Wells most terrifying creation...'


                That was a work of science fiction, but researchers have successfully crossed thresholds that significantly reduce the fictional aspect of the underlying notions in that.

                Originally posted by BBC_News

                Human cells grown in monkey embryos spark ethical debate

                by Helen Briggs
                Science correspondent, BBC News
                15 April 2021

                Monkey embryos containing human cells have been made in a laboratory, a study has confirmed.

                The research, by a US-Chinese team, has sparked fresh debate into the ethics of such experiments.

                The scientists injected human stem cells - cells that have the ability to develop into many different body tissues - into macaque embryos.

                The developing embryos were studied for up to 20 days.

                Other so-called mixed-species embryos, or chimeras, have been produced in the past, with human cells implanted into sheep and pig embryos.

                The scientists were led by Prof Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte of the Salk Institute in the US, who, in 2017, helped make the first human-pig hybrid.

                Their work could pave the way in addressing the severe shortage in transplantable organs as well as help understand more about early human development, disease progression and ageing, he said.

                "These chimeric approaches could be really very useful for advancing biomedical research not just at the very earliest stage of life, but also the latest stage of life."

                He maintained that the study, published in the journal Cell, had met the current ethical and legal guidelines.

                "Ultimately, we conduct these studies to understand and improve human health," he said.

                'Ethical challenges'

                Some scientists have, however, raised concerns about the experiment, arguing that while the embryos in this case were destroyed at 20 days, others could try to take the work further.

                They are calling for public debate over the implications of creating part human/part nonhuman chimeras.

                Commenting on the research, Dr Anna Smajdor, lecturer and researcher in biomedical ethics at the University of East Anglia's Norwich Medical School, said it posed "significant ethical and legal challenges".

                She added: "The scientists behind this research state that these chimeric embryos offer new opportunities, because 'we are unable to conduct certain types of experiments in humans'. But whether these embryos are human or not is open to question."

                Prof Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and co-director of the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, University of Oxford, said the research "opens Pandora's box to human-nonhuman chimeras".

                He added: "These embryos were destroyed at 20 days of development but it is only a matter of time before human-nonhuman chimeras are successfully developed, perhaps as a source of organs for humans. That is one of the long-term goals of this research."

                Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Educational Trust, said that while "substantial advances" are being made in embryo and stem cell research, which could bring equally substantial benefits, "there is a clear need for public discussion and debate about the ethical and regulatory challenges raised".

                .
                Originally posted by BBC_News

                Human-pig 'chimera embryos' detailed

                by James Gallagher
                Health and science reporter, BBC News
                26 January 2017

                Embryos that are less than 0.001% human - and the rest pig - have been made and analysed by scientists.

                It is the first proof chimeras - named after the mythical lion-goat-serpent monster - can be made by combining material from humans and animals.

                However, the scientific report in the journal Cell shows the process is challenging and the aim of growing human organs in animals is distant.

                It was described as an "exciting publication" by other researchers.

                To create a chimera, human stem cells - the type that can develop into any tissue - are injected into a pig embryo. The embryo - now a mix of human and pig - is then implanted into a sow for up to one month.

                The process appears very inefficient - of the 2,075 embryos implanted only 186 continued to develop up to the 28-day stage.

                But crucially there were signs that human cells were functioning - albeit as a tiny fraction of the total tissue - as part of a human-pig chimera.

                "This is the first time that human cells are seen growing inside a large animal," Prof Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, from the Salk Institute, told the BBC News website.

                Human and pig cells

                Commenting on the inefficiency, Prof Belmonte said: "Humans and pigs are separated by a long time in evolution."

                Development in the womb is also much faster in pigs - pregnancy lasts less than four months compared with about nine in people.

                "It is like a freeway with one car going much faster than another - you're more likely to have an accident," Prof Belmonte said.

                He added there was a "long distance" between now and growing animals with human organs - such as a heart, pancreas or liver, that can be transplanted.

                "Even at this early stage [28-days], billions of cells in the embryo would have millions of human cells, then testing would be meaningful and practical."

                There was no evidence that human cells were integrating into the early form of brain tissue.

                Organ breakthrough

                On Wednesday, a study in the journal Nature showed how organs could be grown in one species for use in another: by making some room.

                Rats were genetically modified so they could not produce a pancreas - the organ crucial for controlling blood sugar levels.

                Mouse stem cells were injected in the deficient rat embryos, promptly took advantage of the missing pancreas and grew a mouse one there instead.

                This was then transplanted back into mice to treat diabetes.

                The work to try this in humans and pigs is already under way.

                How gene editing works

                Although in the long term cows look likely to be a better host for human organs as both cow and human pregnancies last about nine months.

                The field is also ethically charged, the US National Institutes of Health at one point imposed a moratorium on funding the experiments.

                The researchers have done only research that is legal, but they are aware of the controversy.

                Prof Belmonte said: "We are restricting development to one month in the pig, the reason is this is enough for us now to understand how cells mix, differentiate and integrate.

                "One possibility is to let these animals be born, but that is not something we should allow to happen at this point.

                "Not everything that science can do we should do, we are not living in a niche in lab, we live with other people - and society needs to decide what can be done.

                Dr Wu said: "When the public hears the world chimera it is always associated with Greek mythology, there is always this associated fear.

                "But angels are chimeras, it can be a positive image and hopefully help with a worldwide shortage of organs, not create a monster."

                Prof Bruce Whitelaw, the interim director of the Roslin Institute where Dolly the sheep was cloned, said: "This is an exciting publication.

                "It clearly demonstrates that human stem cells introduced into the early pig embryo can form a human-pig chimera.

                "This is the first scientific publication to achieve this result.

                "This is a first in the development of chimeric animal production and paves the way for significant advances in our understanding of development in the embryo and hints towards future novel biotech applications."

                Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Francis Crick Institute, said: "An ability to make interspecies chimeras would be valuable in terms of providing basic understanding of species differences in embryo development and organ function.

                "It would also offer the possibility of growing human tissues or organs in animals for transplants - although this is still a long way off.

                "The goals of this study are therefore highly laudable."

                .
                Originally posted by BBC_News

                First 'mixed embryo' monkeys born

                By Paul Rincon
                Science editor, BBC News
                5 January 2012

                For the first time, scientists have produced monkeys composed of cells taken from separate embryos.

                The animals were born after researchers combined cells from different embryos and implanted them into female monkeys.

                Such animals, which contain genetically distinct groups of cells from more than one organism, are called "chimeras".

                A US team, which has reported its work in the journal Cell, says the advance could have "enormous" importance for medical research.

                Chimeras are important for studying embryonic development, but research has largely been restricted to mice.

                The three rhesus monkeys, named Chimero, Roku and Hex, are said to be normal and healthy. They have tissues made up of a mixture of cells representing as many as six distinct embryos.

                "The cells never fuse, but they stay together and work together to form tissues and organs," said co-author Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, US.

                Early decisions

                Initial efforts by Dr Mitalipov's team to produce living monkey chimeras by introducing cultured embryonic stem cells into monkey embryos - a well-established means for generating chimeric mice - failed.

                Stem cells are the "master cells" that can transform into a variety of more specialised cells required in the body.

                The embryonic stem cells the team tried and failed with were at a developmental stage known as "pluripotency". This means they can transform into any tissue type in the body, but cannot turn into the placenta or an entire animal.

                The researchers were only able to make monkey chimeras when they mixed cells from very early stage embryos, in which each individual embryonic cell was "totipotent".

                These totipotent cells are capable of giving rise to a whole animal as well as the placenta and other life-sustaining tissues.

                Dr Mitalipov said it appeared that primate embryos prevented cultured embryonic stem cells from becoming integrated as they do in mice.

                The study also suggests that cultured primate and human embryonic stem cells, some of which have been maintained in labs for as long as two decades, may not be as potent as those found inside a living embryo.

                Monkey embryo

                Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, from the UK National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, called the advance "very important".

                The researcher, who was not involved in the study, told BBC News: "Assumptions about the way human embryos develop have always been based on the mouse."

                But he added that this could be a "dangerous assumption".

                Chimeras can be used to understand the role of specific genes in the development of embryos as well as for studying the overall mechanisms of development.

                For example, if studying a genetic mutation that causes cells to die, it is much more useful if the embryo is rescued by normal cells that allow the scientists to continue their work.

                Chimeric monkeys

                Prof Lovell-Badge said there had been a growing feeling for some time that pluripotent stem cells from humans and monkeys were different from those in mice.

                The latest research suggests the biological pathways to restrict cells in their ability to form different tissue types are passed earlier in monkeys than they are in mice.

                "We cannot model everything in the mouse," Dr Mitalipov explained. "If we want to move stem cell therapies from the lab to clinics and from the mouse to humans, we need to understand what these primate cells can and can't do.

                "We need to study them in humans, including human embryos."

                But he stressed there was no practical use for producing human chimeras.

                Stem cell therapies hold promise for replacing damaged nerve cells in those who have been paralysed due to a spinal cord injury and, for example, the brain cells lost in Parkinson's Disease.

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                Last edited by JRT; 17 Apr 21,, 00:29.
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                • Is it safe to come out now?
                  Is it all, finally, over?

                  Wal*Mart has hand sanitizer on sale, row after row of it ...
                  Trust me?
                  I'm an economist!

                  Comment


                  • There was a obituary in my local newspaper for Napoleon Bonaparte yesterday, due to the 200-year anniversary of his death.

                    Comment


                    • Decided I want to try out Aussie wine and checked out the selection in the shop. After examining a few bottles i noticed something odd. They all came with screwcaps.

                      The storekeeper said that's how the Aussies do their wine bottles...

                      Now, this confounded me given my attitude (and prejudice) about this subject were shaped by the French.

                      If it comes in a screwcap then its plonk. Only drinkable wine comes with corks. Said the French.

                      Australia's wine screwcap revolution | SMH | Jun 28 2017

                      Turns out the Ausie vinters were tired of being second in line for quality cork which led to spoilage of countless batches.

                      So they experimented with screwcaps and the result is a decade later the bulk of Aussie wine comes packed that way.

                      The storekeeper was right after all
                      Last edited by Double Edge; 20 May 21,, 20:55.

                      Comment


                      • Originally posted by Double Edge View Post
                        Decided I want to try out Aussie wine and checked out the selection in the shop. After examining a few bottles i noticed something odd. They all came with screwcaps.

                        The storekeeper said that's how the Aussies do their wine bottles...

                        Now, this confounded me given my attitude (and prejudice) about this subject were shaped by the French.

                        If it comes in a screwcap then its plonk. Only drinkable wine comes with corks. Said the French.

                        Australia's wine screwcap revolution | SMH | Jun 28 2017

                        Turns out the Ausie vinters were tired of being second in line for quality cork which led to spoilage of countless batches.

                        So they experimented with screwcaps and the result is a decade later the bulk of Aussie wine comes packed that way.

                        The storekeeper was right after all
                        Yes, it depends on the wine of course but they found the benefits outweighed the costs. Firstly there is the reliability issue i.e. less spoilage due to bad corks. This can happen at random on a 'one off' basis with all cork no matter how good the quality but a batch of sub par cork can ruin an entire production run - and the wineries relationship with its regular customers. We had it happen to us one year. Went to a vineyard we liked and bought some champagne - lovely. Next year went back and lost a lot of our purchases to a run of bad corks - half the bottles were as flat as a tack. The vineyard in question got bombarded with demands for replacements and often they were flat too!

                        Secondly most people don't have the space (or budget) for serious cellaring so their purchases tend get consumed within 4-5 years max. Over that kind of time any of the benefits of corks (real or imagined) don't really manifest so screw tops work fine.

                        Thirdly - cost.
                        If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by Monash View Post

                          Yes, it depends on the wine of course but they found the benefits outweighed the costs. Firstly there is the reliability issue i.e. less spoilage due to bad corks. This can happen at random on a 'one off' basis with all cork no matter how good the quality but a batch of sub par cork can ruin an entire production run - and the wineries relationship with its regular customers. We had it happen to us one year. Went to a vineyard we liked and bought some champagne - lovely. Next year went back and lost a lot of our purchases to a run of bad corks - half the bottles were as flat as a tack. The vineyard in question got bombarded with demands for replacements and often they were flat too!

                          Secondly most people don't have the space (or budget) for serious cellaring so their purchases tend get consumed within 4-5 years max. Over that kind of time any of the benefits of corks (real or imagined) don't really manifest so screw tops work fine.

                          Thirdly - cost.
                          It's been this way for at least 15 years, with the exception of very top end wines like Hill of Grace.
                          The people I talked to said they could easily lose a bottle out of every other case (1/24).
                          Trust me?
                          I'm an economist!

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by Monash View Post

                            Yes, it depends on the wine of course but they found the benefits outweighed the costs.
                            Thirdly - cost.
                            Wow I thought Australia was an advanced nation. We had that figured out back in the 70s

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                            • Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post

                              Wow I thought Australia was an advanced nation. We had that figured out back in the 70s

                              Click image for larger version

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                              We are an advanced nation, which is why we don't drink the cordial flavored cleaning products apparently favored by our less discerning US cousins.
                              If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by DOR View Post

                                It's been this way for at least 15 years, with the exception of very top end wines like Hill of Grace.
                                The people I talked to said they could easily lose a bottle out of every other case (1/24).
                                Yep, same here. All but the very top brands are switching over and even then they reserve corks for their premier drops using screw tops for the cheaper ranges..
                                If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

                                Comment

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