Monthly Archives: December 2020
Sandpiles & prophecy
Back in 1988, I began to come across both lay and professional works on self-organized criticality (SOC). This concerned a phenomenon in nature we probably all observed as children, namely how stacking rocks, pebbles, grains of rice or sand, or just about anything goes along smoothly until a “critical point” is reached in which the whole thing collapses (I often did the “stacking game” using small fossils I fished out of huge gravel piles at home construction sites close to the house where my family and I lived in Alexandria, Louisiana in the mid-1960s). A physicist, Dr. Per Bak, and two of his colleagues published a paper in 1987 which gave mathematical form and expression to this phenomenon, which like most successful explanatory works in science spread quickly and was applied to all kinds of “sandpiles” including neuronal networks in the human brain and the societies and civilization we have created. One academic, University of Melbourne professor of archeology, historical & philosophical studies Dr. Louise Hitchcock applied SOC to the collapse of societies and civilization. On 12-29-2020 an article came out titled Unprecedented’ new crisis coming: Covid-19 pandemic could be a warning for civilization – NZ Herald which looks at what lies ahead for us all in 2021 and beyond and includes input from Prof. Hitchcock.
Read the rest of this entryA false prophet calls out the master purveyor of falsehoods (File this under “Talk about the pot calling the kettle black”)
This is simply too good to pass up:
Read the rest of this entryYou know, with all his talent and the ability to be able to raise money and grow large crowds, the president still lives in an alternate reality,” Robertson said [Bolded emphasis mine]. “He really does. People say, ‘Well, he lies about this, that, and the other.’ But no, he isn’t lying; to him, that’s the truth.” He said Trump has “done a marvelous job for the economy, but at the same time he is very erratic, and he’s fired people and he’s fought people and he’s insulted people and he keeps going down the line.” With Trump, “it’s a mixed bag,” Robertson said, “and I think it would be well to say, ‘You’ve had your day and it’s time to move on.'”
Tax cuts for the rich didn’t trickle down, new study shows
Fifty Years of Tax Cuts for Rich Didn’t Trickle Down, Study Says – Bloomberg
By Craig Stirling December 15, 2020, 4:01 PM PST
- Paper looks at fiscal policies in 18 countries over 50 years
IS THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT OVER?🤔 | For Seekers & Other Heretics (wordpress.com)
Stem cell therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. Does it work?
Many people have approached me over the years concerning friends, family members or others with Alzheimer’s disease. They all ask a simple question: can an infusion of adult (nonembryonic) stem cells slow, halt or even reverse AD? The qualified answer is: in animal models of AD, yes. In very preliminary human use experiments, yes, but even so what I’ve observed in AD patients treated with various kinds of adult stem cells experience is that their improvements are transient (The AD disease process undoes any gains over time — sometimes in a relatively short span of time).
There are some interesting stem cell based interventional strategies for remediating AD, some of which are outlined in this August 2020 paper: Stem cell therapy for Alzheimer’s disease (nih.gov). This statement in the abstract is very telling: “….many steps still need to be taken before stem cell therapy becomes a clinically feasible treatment for human AD and related diseases. This paper reviews the pathophysiology of AD and the application prospects of related stem cells based on cell type”.
Read the rest of this entryCOVID-19: food compounds that inhibit a key enzyme in SARS-CoV-2 gene expression and replication
Link to the full paper: Frontiers | Docking Characterization and in vitro Inhibitory Activity of Flavan-3-ols and Dimeric Proanthocyanidins Against the Main Protease Activity of SARS-Cov-2 | Plant Science (frontiersin.org)
Although the study covered in the paper (link above) involved a combination of computer simulation & benchtop experiments, I know from decades of interaction with medical information & product consumers that some of you reading this will want to know “the bottom-line” — mainly so you can go out and buy the foods and/or food concentrates or extracts in question. OK then, here it is:
Most effective in inhibiting the SAR-Co-2 (Covid-19) Mpro enzyme activity were certain green tea compounds such as EGCG and extracts from two muscadine grape cultivars (grapes + skin & seeds).
Cocoa and raw chocolate compounds were the “runners up”.
From the paper: “Conclusion, both docking simulation and in vitro assay showed that (–)-catechin-3-O-gallate (7), (–)-epicatechin-3-O-gallate (8), (–)-gallocatechin-3-O-gallate (9), and (–)-epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (10), procyanidin B1 (11) and B2 (12) inhibited the Mpro activity of SARS-Cov-2. Moreover, these compound-rich extracts of green tea, muscadine grape, cacao, and dark chocolate also inhibited the Mpro activity.”
Green tea, muscadine, cacao and raw chocolate extracts, concentrates and such are sold all across cyber-land. Here are a few for you to check out (Note that I have no commercial, financial or other vested interest in these products):
Green tea extract capsules:
Vitacost Green Tea Extract – Standardized — 500 mg – 100 Capsules – Vitacost
Zhou Green Tea Extract 500 mg 120 Veg Caps – Swanson Health Products (swansonvitamins.com)
Epigallocatechin gallate (ECGC) capsules:
NOW Foods EGCg Green Tea Extract 400 mg 180 Veg Caps – Swanson Health Products (swansonvitamins.com)
Muscadine grape products
Vitacost Muscadine Grape Seed — 500 mg – 120 Capsules – Vitacost
VineLife Muscadine Grape Seed & Skin 650mg – 60 Veggie … (searchwellness.com)
Cacao & dark chocolate
VitaDigest.com Offer – Earth Circle Organics, Organic Raw 70% Dark Chocolate, 8.8 oz (250 g)
For Seekers & Other Heretics 