This little pupster is a man of many voices. Speakers up for this one!
“Bruce (a Boston Terrier) is a silly dog and he makes silly noises. He loves other animals and this is how he acts when he sees one, but can’t go play with it,” says YouTuber MorbidAngela.
These BFFs look like lifelong buddies, don’t they? Sort of reminds ya of Fum and Gebra from spring of 2013.
THEN:
NOW:
[Man, did I have a terr-i-buhl night last night. I must STILL be out of it- look what I wake up to. Bad craziness.]
“This is Niko, the French Bulldog who was featured here before when he got his very first taste of peanut butter. Well, he’s older now (10 months old!) and is still ABSOLUTELY ASTOUNDED by the world’s awesomeness, as personified by his favorite chicken toy!” -Katie M.
Look out the window
See the big beautiful world
You want to explore
Sully the Saint Bernard loves his hoomin. He REALLY does. And to prove it, he’s gonna smother him with slobber.
“This is our Quaker Parrot, Shrimp! She is absolutely the greatest pet ever,” says Sender-Inner Natalie.
“She loves to be on our shoulder as often as possible, enjoys road trips, raisins and peanuts, playing with her toys and giving lots of kisses and snuggles.”
“She loves everyone and is just starting to talk!”
“She is very tech savvy.”
“Always wanting to sit on the iPhone or iPad and boss us around.”
I must say in all candor I’d not heard that word before, so I had to look it up: (figured it was a cross between ‘chill out’ and ‘relax,’ but still.) And I must say, this BEBEH PIGSTER is doing just that, is he not?
“No? Is that what you’re saying? Not today? OK, dear.”
“These are photos are of our Cavalier/Maltese Belle. She is allowed on the couch (sofa) on her blanket but not on the cushions. The cushions ended up on the floor, so Belle took full opportunity to make use of the technicality that if they are on the floor they are surely intended for her. But the side-eye look of guilt says it all.” Cheers, Sharon B-C (Western Australia.)
People, take a look. Artist Lili Chen has created these doggeh drawings grouped by country. Head over to My Modern Met to learn how you can buy these!
[But I heard about Cat Fishing 2 and...I just hadda have it. It's even better after a couple of Red Bulls. Now 'scuse me while I pound the blazes outta your iPad.]
Whoa, that is one withering look of disapproval in the above photo! What’s the story here, Karen M.? “My dog, Misty, found a little bird that had flown into our window.”
“I held it for a while to warm it up and allow it to get its wits back together. It seemed to appreciate the attention and after about 5 minutes, it was able to fly away.”
A new study shows that how people perceive and taste alcohol varies as a result of genetics. The scientists focused on three chemosensory genes—two bitter-taste receptor genes known as TAS2R13 and TAS2R38 and a burn receptor gene, TRPV1.
The research is the first to consider whether variation in the burn receptor gene might influence alcohol sensations, which has not previously been linked to alcohol consumption.
People may differ in the sensations they experience from a food or beverage, and these perceptual differences have a biological basis, explains John Hayes, assistant professor of food science and director of Penn State’s Sensory Evaluation Center.
He notes that prior work done in his laboratory has shown that some people experience more bitterness and less sweetness from an alcoholic beverage, such as beer.
“In general, greater bitterness relates to lower liking, and because we generally tend to avoid eating or drinking things we don’t like, lower liking for alcoholic beverages associates with lower intake,” he says.
“The burn receptor gene TRPV1 has not previously been linked to differences in intake, but we reasoned that this gene might be important as alcohol causes burning sensations in addition to bitterness.
“In our research, we show that when people taste alcohol in the laboratory, the amount of bitterness they experience differs, and these differences are related to which version of a bitter receptor gene the individual has.”
To determine which variant of the receptor genes study participants possess, DNA was collected via saliva samples for genetic analysis.
The results will appear in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. One hundred thirty people of various races, age 18 to 45, completed all four of the study’s tasting sessions.
People are hard-wired by evolution to like sweetness and dislike bitterness, and this influences the food and beverage choices we make every day, points out lead researcher Alissa Allen, a doctoral candidate in food science advised by Hayes.
Allen adds that it is also well established that individuals differ in the amount of bitterness they perceive from some foods or beverages, and this variation can be attributed to genetic differences.
Normally, sweet and bitter sensations suppress each other, so in foods and beverages, genetic differences in bitter perception can also influence perceived sweetness.
“Prior work suggests greater bitterness and less sweetness each influence the liking of alcohol beverages, which influences intake,” Allen says.
“Here we show that the bitterness of sampled ethanol varies with genetic differences in bitter taste receptor genes, which suggests a likely mechanism to explain previously reported relationships between these gene variants and alcohol intake.”
The researchers concede that the relationship between burn and intake is more complicated, at least for foods, as personality traits also play a role. Some people enjoy the burn of chili peppers, for example.
“Still, anecdote suggests that many individuals find the burn of ethanol aversive,” Hayes says. “Accordingly, greater burn would presumably reduce liking and thus intake, although this needs to be confirmed.”
Allen and Hayes’ study only used ethanol cut with water, so it is unclear how the results apply to alcoholic beverages because almost all contain other sensory-active compounds that may enhance or suppress bitterness.
For example, the sugar in flavored malt beverages will presumably reduce or eliminate the bitterness of ethanol while the addition of hops to beer will add bitterness that may be perceived through other receptors.
Hayes suggests that chemosensory variation probably plays little or no role in predicting alcohol intake once an individual is dependent. However, he says that genetic variation in chemosensation may be underappreciated as a risk factor when an individual is initially exposed to alcohol, and is still learning to consume alcohol.
Prior studies by Hayes’ laboratory group and others have repeatedly associated bitter receptor gene variants with alcohol intake, a relationship that was presumably mediated via perceptual differences and thus differential liking.
Data from this study begin to fill in the gaps in this chain by showing the sensations evoked by ethanol differ across people as a function of genetic variation.
“Additional work is needed to see if these variants can prospectively predict alcohol use behaviors in naïve individuals,” he says. “But biology is not destiny. That is, food choice remains that, a choice.
“Some individuals may learn to overcome their innate aversions to bitterness and consume excessive amounts of alcohol, while others who do not experience heightened bitterness may still choose not to consume alcohol for many reasons unrelated to taste.”
The National Institutes of Health supported this research.
Source: Penn State
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When doctors talk to teens about sex, only about three percent of them do so in a way that encourages LGBT teens to discuss their sexuality, a new study reports.
“Physicians are making their best efforts, but they are missing opportunities to create safe environments for teenagers to discuss sexuality and their health,” says lead investigator Stewart C. Alexander, an associate professor of consumer science at Purdue University who focuses on health communication.
“What the doctor asks or brings up about sexuality sets the tone, and gay and lesbian youth are very good about reading adults to determine who is safe to confide in. They ask themselves, ‘Can I disclose this information to this adult?'”
Physicians are encouraged to discuss teenage sexuality during wellness visits per the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations.
But researchers say these conversations need to be more than a simple phrase and doctors should consider the whole conversation. Physicians can undo any good if they aren’t inclusive.
“Open, inclusive conversations can help youths realize there is no threat, and this can be a great start for building trust with the physician who is someone they are likely to see year after year,” says co-investigator Cleveland Shields, associate professor of human development and family studies.
“These adolescents, especially the younger ones, may not have established a sexual identity, their sexuality is in flux, or they may be romantically involved with someone of the same gender but not identify themselves as gay or lesbian.”
For the study, published in LGBT Health, researchers looked at patterns in physicians’ conversations about sex when speaking to patients ages 12-17. The data was collected at 11 clinics in the Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, area as part of the Duke Teen CHAT project.
The analysis is based on recorded conversations between 49 physicians and 293 adolescents during annual wellness checks. Of all the visits that contained sexuality talk, physicians were able to maintain open and inclusive talk only 3 percent of the time.
“The physicians I know want to do a good job, so we’re trying to identify best practices, and hopefully these examples will provide them additional context for strengthening these conversations,” Shields says.
The study offers suggestions for inclusive conversation tactics, which have not been tested clinically:
While maintaining an inclusive conversation can be challenging at first, it allows doctors to reinforce the notion of multiple attractions and identities and emphasize non-judgment, the researchers say.
Another technique to maintain inclusive conversations is leaving the door open for future conversations, such as, “If things change, or if along the way you decide something else is right for you, I want you to let me know.”
The idea of setting the tone for the years to come is very important,” Alexander says. “This may not be the big conversation for the 12-year-olds—that may take place in four years—but the tone needs to be set at age 12 so that when the time comes the child is comfortable and knows the doctor is a safe contact.
This approach also reinforces the adolescent as an emerging adult. We want to provide them with autonomy so they can be a consumer of their own health.”
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute funded the research. Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine, Duke University, and University of Michigan collaborated on the study.
Source: Purdue University
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LeahgatesWhatever it is a goat can eat it pretty much
Field tests support the use of herbivores, not herbicides, to rout out an invasive plant threatening East Coast salt marshes.
Phragmites australis, or the common reed, is a rapid colonizer that has overrun many coastal wetlands from New England to the Southeast.
A non-native perennial, it can form dense stands of grass up to 10 feet high that block valuable shoreline views of the water, kill off native grasses, and alter marsh function.
Land managers traditionally have used chemical herbicides to slow phragmites’ spread but with only limited and temporary success.
Now, field experiments have identified a more sustainable, low-cost alternative: goats.
“We find that allowing controlled grazing by goats or other livestock in severely affected marshes can reduce the stem density of phragmites cover by about half in around three weeks,” says Brian R. Silliman, lead author of the new study and associate professor of marine conservation biology at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
“The goats are likely to provide an effective, sustainable, and much more affordable way of mowing down the invasive grass and helping restore lost ocean views,” he says.
In fenced-in test plots at the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, Silliman and his colleagues found that a pair of the hungry herbivores could reduce phragmites cover from 94 percent to 21 percent, on average, by the end of the study.
Separate trials showed that horses and cows would also readily eat the invasive grass.
In addition to restoring views, the controlled grazing allowed native plant species to re-establish themselves in the test plots over time. The native species diversity index increased five-fold.
“For more than two decades, we’ve declared major chemical and physical warfare on this grass, using all the latest manmade weapons,” Silliman says. “We’ve used helicopters to spray it with herbicides and bulldozers to remove its roots. More often than not, however, it returns.
“In this study, we show that sustainable, low-cost rotational livestock grazing can suppress the unwanted tall grass and favor a more diverse native plant system,” he says.
Silliman says the re-emergence of native marsh plants could happen even faster and be more sustained if managers combine grazing with the selective use of herbicides to eradicate any remaining phragmites and then re-plant native species in its place.
The research findings appear this week in the online journal PeerJ.
“This could be a win-win-win-win situation,” Silliman says. Marshes win because native diversity and function is largely restored. Farmers benefit because they receive payment for providing the livestock and they gain access to free pasture land. Managers win because control costs are reduced. Communities and property owners win because valuable and pleasing water views are brought back.
The approach has been used for nearly 6,000 years in parts of Europe and recently has been successfully tested on small patches of heavily phragmites-invaded marshes in New York, he notes. “Now, it just has to be tested on a larger spatial scale.”
The only drawback, he adds, is that “people have to be okay with having goats in their marsh for a few weeks or few months in some years. It seems like a fair trade-off to me.”
Funding for the study came from the Netherland Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station.
The study included researchers from Bryn Mawr College; the University of Florida; the University of Maryland; the University of Groningen, Netherlands; PUCCIMAR Ecological Research and Consultancy; and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.
Source: Duke University
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People with Alzheimer’s disease can feel lingering emotions after an event even though they may not remember it.
Researchers showed individuals with Alzheimer’s disease clips of sad and happy movies. Despite not being able to remember the movies, they experiences sustained states of sadness and happiness.
“This confirms that the emotional life of an Alzheimer’s patient is alive and well,” says lead author Edmarie Guzmán-Vélez, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at University of Iowa.
“Our findings should empower caregivers by showing them that their actions toward patients really do matter,” Guzmán-Vélez says.
Guzmán-Vélez conducted the study with Daniel Tranel, professor of neurology and psychology, and Justin Feinstein, assistant professor at the University of Tulsa and the Laureate Institute for Brain Research.
Earlier research predicted the importance of attending to the emotional needs of people with Alzheimer’s, which is expected to affect as many as 16 million people in the United States by 2050 and cost an estimated $1.2 trillion.
“It’s extremely important to see data that support our previous prediction,” says Daniel Tranel, professor of neurology and psychology. “Edmarie’s research has immediate implications for how we treat patients and how we teach caregivers.”
Despite the considerable amount of research aimed at finding new treatments for Alzheimer’s, no drug has succeeded at either preventing or substantially influencing the disease’s progression. Results of the new study highlight the need to develop new caregiving techniques aimed at improving the well-being and minimizing the suffering for the millions of individuals afflicted with Alzheimer’s.
For the study, published in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 17 patients with Alzheimer’s disease and 17 healthy comparison participants watched 20 minutes of sad and then happy movies. The movie clips triggered the expected emotion: sorrow and tears during the sad films and laughter during the happy ones.
About five minutes after watching the movies, the participants were tested to see if they could recall what they had just seen. As expected, the patients with Alzheimer’s disease retained significantly less information about both the sad and happy films than the healthy people. In fact, four patients were unable to recall any factual information about the films, and one patient didn’t even remember watching any movies.
Before and after seeing the films, participants answered questions to gauge their feelings. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease reported elevated levels of either sadness or happiness for up to 30 minutes after viewing the films despite having little or no recollection of the movies.
Surprisingly, the less the patients remembered about the films, the longer their sadness lasted. While sadness tended to last a little longer than happiness, both emotions far outlasted the memory of the films.
The fact that forgotten events can continue to exert a profound influence on a patient’s emotional life highlights the need for caregivers to avoid causing negative feelings and to try to induce positive ones.
“Our findings should empower caregivers by showing them that their actions toward patients really do matter,” Guzmán-Vélez says. “Frequent visits and social interactions, exercise, music, dance, jokes, and serving patients their favorite foods are all simple things that can have a lasting emotional impact on a patient’s quality of life and subjective well-being.”
Justin Feinstein, assistant professor at the University of Tulsa, is a coauthor of the study.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship awarded to Guzmán-Vélez, Kiwanis International, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, an American Psychological Association of Graduate Students Basic Psychological Research Grant, and the William K. Warren Foundation supported the research.
Source: University of Iowa
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To design a better drone, scientists could learn a thing or two from birds’ ability to maneuver through narrow spaces.
Budgerigars can fly between gaps almost as narrow as their outstretched wingspan rather than taking evasive measures such as tucking in their wings.
Previous research has shown that humans unnecessarily turn their shoulders to pass through doorways narrower than 130 percent of their body width. Birds are far more precise.
“We were quite surprised by the birds’ accuracy—they can judge their wingspan within 106 percent of their width when it comes to flying through gaps,” says Ingo Schiffner, researcher at the University of Queensland Brain Institute.
“When you think about the cluttered environments they fly through, such as forests, they need to develop this level of accuracy.
“When they encounter a narrow gap, they either lift their wings up vertically or tuck them in completely, minimizing their width to that of their torso,” he says.
The researchers wanted to know precisely how birds judge gaps between obstacles before engaging in evasive maneuvers.
In testing, budgies flew down corridors with variable widths between obstacles, and their flights were recorded with high-speed cameras for analysis.
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology, will be applied to robotics work at the Queensland Brain Institute’s Neuroscience of Vision and Aerial Robotics laboratory, Schiffner says.
“If we can understand how birds avoid obstacles, we might be able to develop algorithms for aircraft to avoid obstacles as well.
“For instance, urban drones used for deliveries would need to fly through complex environments such as tight alleyways or between trees at the front of homes.
“For us, it isn’t the ability to tuck in wings that is of interest if we are talking about fixed-wing or rotor aircraft, but whether we can replicate what happens neurologically in birds as they navigate.”
To judge airspeed, budgies use optic flow—the rate visual cues pass by the eyes. They don’t see three-dimensionally like humans, due to the lateral placement of their eyes and lack of binocular overlap.
“Seeing in three dimensions requires two eyes or cameras with sufficient visual overlap, so using optic flow with just one camera would be very useful, saving weight and keeping autonomous vehicles small.”
Source: University of Queensland
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A new report about the lingering effects of the Great Recession finds that about 20 percent of Americans who lost their job during the last five years are still unemployed and looking for work.
Approximately half of the laid-off workers who found work were paid less in their new positions; one in four say their new job was only temporary.
“While the worst effects of the Great Recession are over for most Americans, the brutal realities of diminished living standards endure for the three million American workers who remain jobless years after they were laid off,” says Carl Van Horn, a professor at Rutgers who co-authored the study with Professor Cliff Zukin.
“These long-term unemployed workers have been left behind to fend for themselves as they struggle to pull their lives back together.”
As of last August, 3 million Americans—nearly one in three unemployed workers—have been unemployed for more than six months, and more than 2 million Americans have been out of work for more than a year, the researchers say.
While the percentage of the long-term unemployed (workers who have been unemployed for more than six months) has declined from 46 percent in 2010, it is still above the 26 percent level experienced in the worst previous recession in 1983.
The national study found that only one in five of the long-term unemployed received help from a government agency when looking for a job; only 22 percent enrolled in a training program to develop skills for a new job; and 60 percent received no government assistance beyond unemployment benefits.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans support increasing funds for long-term education and training programs, and greater spending on roads and highways in order to assist unemployed workers.
For the survey, the Heldrich Center interviewed a representative sample of 1,153 Americans, including 394 unemployed workers looking for work, 389 Americans who have been unemployed for more than six months or who were unemployed for a period of more than six months at some point in the last five years, and 463 individuals who currently have jobs.
Source: Rutgers
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When making the transition to high school, teens may be particularly vulnerable to depression. But a low-cost, one-time intervention that sends the message that it’s possible for people to change may prevent depression from setting in.
“When teens are excluded or bullied, it can be reasonable to wonder if they are ‘losers’ or ‘not likable,'” says David Yeager, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and author of a new study published online in Clinical Psychological Science. “We asked: Could teaching teens that people can change reduce those thoughts? And if so, could it even prevent overall symptoms of depression?”
To find out, researchers conducted a longitudinal intervention study with about 600 ninth-graders at three high schools. At the beginning of the school year, students were randomly assigned to participate in the treatment intervention or a similar control activity, though they were not aware of the group assignment.
Both activities took place during a normal class period and required only paper or a computer. No one at the school knew the messages or reinforced them.
Students assigned to the treatment intervention read a passage describing how individuals’ personalities are subject to change. The passage emphasized that being bullied is not the result of a fixed, personal deficiency, nor are bullies essentially “bad” people.
An article about brain plasticity and endorsements from older students accompanied the passage. After reading the materials, the students were asked to write their own narrative about how personalities can change, to be shared with future ninth-graders.
Students in the control group read a passage that focused on the malleability of a trait not related to personality: athletic ability.
A follow-up nine months later showed that rates of clinically significant depressive symptoms rose by roughly 39 percent among students in the control group, in line with previous research on depression in adolescence.
Students who learned about the malleability of personality, on the other hand, showed no such increase in depressive symptoms, even if they were bullied. The data reveal that the intervention specifically affected depressive symptoms of negative mood, feelings of ineffectiveness, and low self-esteem.
These findings are especially promising given the relatively small investment of time and effort required to carry out the intervention, Yeager says.
Further research is needed to answer a number of questions about the long- and short-term results, such as potential negative side effects, how and where the messages should be administered, and which symptoms are most and least affected.
Adriana Sum Miu, a graduate student at Emory University, is a coauthor of the study.
Source: University of Texas at Austin
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Babies learn about their limbs and how to use them from twitches they make during REM sleep—movements that are very different from those made while awake.
“Every time we move while awake, there is a mechanism in our brain that allows us to understand that it is we who made the movement,” says Alexandre Tiriac, a graduate student in psychology at the University of Iowa and first author of a study published in the journal Current Biology.
“But twitches seem to be different in that the brain is unaware that they are self-generated. And this difference between sleep and wake movements may be critical for how twitches, which are most frequent in early infancy, contribute to brain development.”
This latest discovery is further evidence that sleep twitches—whether in dogs, cats, or humans—are connected to brain development, not dreams, says senior author Mark Blumberg, professor of psychology.
“Because twitches are so different from wake movements,” he says, “these data put another nail in the coffin of the ‘chasing rabbits’ interpretation of twitches.”
For the study, researchers looked at the brain activity of unanesthetized rats between 8 and 10 days of age. They measured the brain activity while the animals were awake and moving and again while the rats were in REM sleep and twitching.
What they discovered was puzzling, at first.
“We noticed there was a lot of brain activity during sleep movements but not when these animals were awake and moving,” Tiriac says.
The researchers theorized that sensations coming back from twitching limbs during REM sleep were being processed differently in the brain than awake movements because they lacked what is known as “corollary discharge.”
First introduced by researchers in 1950, corollary discharge is a split-second message sent to the brain that allows animals—including rats, crickets, humans and more—to recognize and filter out sensations generated from their own actions. This filtering of sensations is what allows animals to distinguish between sensations arising from their own movements and those from stimuli in the outside world.
So, when researchers noticed an increase in brain activity while the newborn rats were twitching during REM sleep but not when the animals were awake and moving, they conducted several follow-up experiments to determine whether sleep twitching is a unique self-generated movement that is processed as if it lacks corollary discharge.
The experiments were consistent in supporting the idea that sensations arising from twitches are not filtered: And without the filtering provided by corollary discharge, the sensations generated by twitching limbs are free to activate the brain and teach the newborn brain about the structure and function of the limbs.
“If twitches were like wake movements, the signals arising from twitching limbs would be filtered out,” Blumberg says. “That they are not filtered out suggests again that twitches are special—perhaps special because they are needed to activate developing brain circuits.”
The researchers were initially surprised to find the filtering system functioning so early in development, Blumberg says.
“But what surprised us even more was that corollary discharge appears to be suspended during sleep in association with twitching, a possibility that—to our knowledge—has never before been entertained.”
Source: University of Iowa
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LeahgatesKristian why did I think you would like this deep and extensive meditation on what religious people think about aliens
A new book by David Weintraub, an astronomy professor at Vanderbilt University, takes a closer look at what the world’s major religions have to say about extraterrestrial life.
“When I did a library search, I found only half a dozen books and they were all written about the question of extraterrestrial life and Christianity, and mostly about Roman Catholicism, so I decided to take a broader look,” Weintraub says.
The book, Religions and Extraterrestrial Life, describes what religious leaders and theologians have to say about extraterrestrial life in more than two dozen major religions, including Judaism, Roman Catholicism, the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, several mainline Protestant sects, the Southern Baptist Convention and other evangelical and fundamentalist Christian denominations, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Seventh Day Adventism and Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Islam and several major Asian religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Bahá’í Faith.
“Very few among us have spent much time thinking hard about what actual knowledge about extraterrestrial life, whether viruses or single-celled creatures or bipeds piloting intergalactic spaceships, might mean for our personal beliefs [and] our relationships with the divine,” Weintraub writes.
The remarkable progress astronomers have made at detecting exoplanets gives the issue of extraterrestrial life a new sense of immediacy.
In 2000, astronomers had detected 50 planets orbiting other stars. Today, the number has grown to more than 1,000. If the rate of discovery keeps up its current pace, astronomers will have identified more than a million exoplanets by the year 2045.
“If even one exoplanet shows signs of biological activity–and those signs should not be hard to detect, if living things are present–then we will know Earth is not the only place in the universe where life exists,” Weintraub points out.
“Although it is impossible to prove a negative, if we have not found any signs of life after a million exoplanets have been studied, then we will know that life in the universe is, at best, exceedingly rare.”
Public opinion polling indicates that about one fifth to one third of the American public believes that extraterrestrials exist, Weintraub reports. However, this varies considerably with religious affiliation.
Of the Christians, more than one third of the Eastern Orthodox faithful (41 percent), Roman Catholics (37 percent), Methodists (37 percent), and Lutherans (35 percent) professed belief in extraterrestrial life. Only the Baptists (29 percent) fell below the one-third threshold.
Asian religions would have the least difficulty in accepting the discovery of extraterrestrial life, Weintraub concludes. Some Hindu thinkers have speculated that humans may be reincarnated as aliens, and vice versa, while Buddhist cosmology includes thousands of inhabited worlds.
Weintraub quotes passages in the Qur’an that appear to support the idea that spiritual beings exist on other planets, but notes that these beings may not practice Islam as it is practiced on Earth.
“Islam, like other faiths, has fundamentalist and conservative traditions. All Muslims, however, likely would agree that the prophetically revealed religion of Islam is a set of practices designed only for humans on earth,” Weintraub writes.
Weintraub found very little in Judaic scriptures or rabbinical writings that bear on the question. The few Talmudic and Kabbalistic commentaries on the subject do assert that space is infinite and contains a potentially infinite number of worlds and that nothing can deny the existence of extraterrestrial life.
At the same time, Jews don’t believe the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence would have much effect on them. He quotes a Jewish anthropologist and scholar who has addressed this issue and concluded that the relationship between Jews and God would not be affected in the slightest by “the existence of other life forms, newly discovered scientific realities or pan-human behavioral changes.”
Among Christian religions, the Roman Catholics have done the most thinking about the possibility of life on other worlds, the astronomer discovered. In fact, they have had an on-again, off-again theological debate that has gone on for a thousand years.
The crux of the matter is original sin. If intelligent aliens are not descended from Adam and Eve, do they suffer from original sin? Do they need to be saved?
If they do, then did Christ visit them and was he crucified and resurrected on other planets?
“From a Roman Catholic perspective, if sentient extraterrestrials exist some but perhaps not all such species may suffer original sin and will require redemption,” according to Weintraub.
The inherent diversity of Protestant denominations, where individuals are encouraged to interpret scripture independently, has led to many conflicting approaches to the question of extraterrestrial intelligence. Weintraub determined that the views of Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich appear to represent a viable consensus.
Tillich argued that the need for salvation is universal and the “saving power” of God must be everywhere. At the same time, he maintained that God’s plan for human life need not be the same as his plan for aliens.
Evangelical and fundamental Christians are most likely to have difficulty accepting the discovery of extraterrestrial life, the astronomer’s research indicates. ” . . . most evangelical and fundamentalist Christian leaders argue quite forcefully that the Bible makes clear that extraterrestrial life does not exist.
From this perspective, the only living, God-worshipping beings in the entire universe are humans, created by God, who live on Earth.” Southern Baptist evangelist Billy Graham was a prominent exception who stated that he firmly believes “there are intelligent beings like us far away in space who worship God.”
Weintraub also identifies two religions–Mormonism and Seventh-day Adventism–whose theology embraces extraterrestrials.
In Mormonism, God helps exalt lesser souls so they can achieve immortality and live as gods on other worlds.
And, Ellen White, who co-founded Seventh-Day Adventism, wrote that God had given her a view of other worlds where the people are “noble, majestic, and lovely” because they live in strict obedience to God’s commandments.
Source: Vanderbilt University
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LeahgatesWHAT
Scientists are using pulsed light to remove allergens from peanuts in the hope that most people will be able to eat them safely.
If allergens can be cut from 150 milligrams of protein per peanut to below 1.5 milligrams, 95 percent of people with peanut allergies would be safe, researchers say.
Eliminating all peanut allergens is a challenge, because doing so may risk affecting texture, color, flavor, and nutrition.
The work was conducted in a laboratory setting, says Wade Yang, assistant professor of food science at University of Florida. He hopes to eventually conduct clinical trials on animals and humans.
Researchers will next see if the allergic antibody in the serum of peanut allergy patients will still bind with the residual allergy protein from the refined peanut products and see if the refined peanut extract elicits skin-test reactions in peanut allergy patients.
Finally, researchers will conduct a double blind, placebo-controlled test to see if patients develop allergy symptoms after eating the refined products.
“I am pleased to see their work is progressing well,” says Shih-Wen Huang, professor emeritus of pediatrics and head of the Pediatric Allergy Clinic at University of Florida. “However, more challenges are waiting until the final products are accepted from the public, especially the patients with peanut allergies.”
Two years ago, Yang used the pulsed light technique to remove up to 90 percent of the allergic potential from peanut protein extracts. He’s now testing the process on the peanut itself.
“This process proves that pulsed light can inactivate the peanut allergenic proteins and indicates that pulsed light has a great potential in peanut allergen mitigation,” he says.
About 1.9 million people, or 0.06 percent of US residents, are allergic to peanuts, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Reactions can range from skin rashes to anaphylaxis, which can be fatal. Currently, the best way for those allergic to peanuts to stay safe is to avoid them. Many people carry epinephrine injectors that help offset their allergy symptoms until they reach a hospital.
In the latest study, published in the journal Food and Bioprocess Technology, Yang and his colleagues applied the pulsed ultraviolet light technology to whole peanuts.
Peanut processing usually starts from whole-peanut roasting, and roasted peanuts are then packaged to sell as whole peanuts or made into peanut butter. “The latest study moves one step closer to the actual production,” Yang says.
Yang used the pulsating light system—two lamps filled with xenon, two cooling blowers, one treatment chamber with a conveyor belt, and a control module—to direct concentrated bursts of light to modify the peanut allergenic proteins. That way, human antibodies can’t recognize them as allergens and begin to release histamines.
Histamines create allergy symptoms such as itching, rashes, and wheezing. The pulsing light reduces the allergenic potential of the major peanut proteins Ara h1-h3.
Source: University of Florida
The post UV light removes 80% of allergens from peanuts appeared first on Futurity.
Last week, we brought you the story of Rica, the baby Southern Three-Banded Armadillo born at Edinburgh Zoo. Rica was only the size of a golf ball when she was born August 24, but she is progressing and developing, as she should, and now weighs in at 16 ounces (450g)!
Photo Credits: Edinburgh Zoo
One-month-old Rica posed for new pics a few days ago, and she is beginning to show even more of a resemblance to her healthy mother, Rio. Rica’s parents, Rio and Rodar, arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in March 2014.
Southern Three-Banded Armadillos are native to South America. They are found in parts of northern Argentina, southwestern Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. This armadillo and the other member of the genus ‘Tolypeutes’, the Brazilian Three-Banded Armadillo, are the only species of armadillos capable of rolling into a complete ball to defend themselves. The three characteristic bands that cover the back of the animal allow it enough flexibility to fit its tail and head together, allowing protection from predators. They are currently classified as ‘Near Threatened” on the IUCN Red List .
The young Asian Small-Clawed Otters, at Zoo Berlin, have been entertaining visitors with their undeniable cuteness and their playful antics. Recently, swimming lessons were the preferred activity, and their parents were close by to supervise.
Photo Credits: Zoo Berlin
The Asian Small-Clawed Otter is the smallest otter species in the world. They are native to the mangrove swamps and freshwater wetlands of Bangladesh, Burma, India, southern China, Taiwan, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Their paws and claws are a distinctive feature and give the animal a high degree of manual dexterity for feeding on mollusks, crabs and other small aquatic creatures.
The Asian Small-Clawed Otter is currently classified as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List. The threat to the Small-Clawed Otter is similar to that of Smooth-Coated and Eurasian Otters. Throughout Asia the potential threat to its continued survival is destruction of its habitats due to changing land use pattern in the form of developmental activities. In many parts of Asia, the habitats have been reduced due to reclamation of peat swamp forests and mangroves, aquaculture activities along the intertidal wetlands, and loss of hill streams. In India, the primary threats are loss of habitats due to tea and coffee plantations along the hills, loss of mangroves due to aquaculture, increased human settlements, and siltation of smaller hill streams due to deforestation. Increased influx of pesticides into the streams from the plantations reduces the quality of the habitats.
Learn more about the otter, below the fold!
Aside from the intervention of accredited zoos throughout the world, concerted efforts have been implemented to ensure the species survival in the wild. It is a protected species in almost all the range countries which prohibits its killing. The Asian Small-Clawed Otter was once common in the streams and wetlands of south and south east Asia, but it is now restricted to a few Protected Areas. The creation of networks of Protected Areas, and the identification of sites as wetland of national and International importance under the Ramsar Convention, has to some extent halted the degradation of its habitat.
Over the years the Otter Specialist Group has developed a cadre of biologist across Asia to conduct field surveys, and it has popularized otter conservation by promoting the otter as ambassador of the wetlands. However, for the long term survival of the species, policy based action, research on factors affecting its survival, habitat based action and communication, and awareness building actions are needed.
In some corners of the rape denial universe it is popular to say that this doesn’t happen, that all reports of drugged drinks are merely voluntary overconsumption. There are two kinds of people who say that: (1) those who have chosen to believe it, because they don’t believe anything women say anyway and because it’s convenient for them to believe it; and (2) those who know first-hand that it isn’t true, but want to protect those who deliberately and involuntarily intoxicate others.
When people say, “rape culture,” some people say that there isn’t one. Even some people who should know better say that. Everyone agrees that rape is bad, right? But they don’t. In the comments and threats that assail women who speak out about rape on the internet, when the trolls know people are unlikely to uncover their identities, they say what they really think. They approve of rape.
These allegations admit of no possibility of accident or miscommunication. Instead, this required a conspiracy of the bartender and the doorman, at a minimum, and probably at least the silent complicity of several members. Someone said, “let’s roofie a bunch of girls …” and someone else thought it was a great idea. As it became clear that someone wasn’t joking, but was actually planning and preparing, nobody, nobody, said, “no, actually that would be a felony and we cannot do that.” If you want to know what “rape culture” is, it’s a culture where someone could raise this idea and instead of a chill falling over the whole room, the other people either strain to pretend it’s a joke or gleefully join in. If you want to know what “social license to operate” is it’s that the idea that women at fraternity parties are targets to be intoxicated and sexually molested is so powerful that the guy that thought this up not only had friends willing to defend his idea, they agreed to help, and they believed that they would get away with it.
As a general moral proposition, to hell with loyalty. If you are ever so loyal to any person that, when that person says, “let’s rape someone,” it even occurs to you that going along with it is a viable option, your moral compass is shot and you need to cut all ties with every single person you know, pack up and walk as far as you can get into the most desolate wilderness until the ruinous effects of your social environment wear off and you once again develop the ability to hear your conscience. You. If you’re reading this now, and you’re thinking, “well, I don’t know, I might …” Stop. Stop, turn off the computer, and pick a spot on the map where nobody is, and go there. Until you do, you’re a danger to us all.
Taronga Western Plains Zoo is excited to announce the birth of a Hippo calf – the first in more than 10 years – on September 11 to mother Cuddles and father Mana.
Photo Credit: Anthony Dorian
Because this birth is the first for Cuddles and Mana, the calf represents a new genetic bloodline for the species and will be important for the zoo-managed population of Hippos.
The calf weighs an estimated 88 pounds (40 kg). It is yet to be named and keepers have not determined the calf's gender, becuase Cuddles is being very protective.
“Hippos nurse their young underwater and whilst we haven’t seen this behaviour, from everything we have witnessed the pair is bonding really well,” said Hippo Keeper Carolene Magner.
Hippos most of their days in the water, feeding on vegetation. For now, the calf stays close to its mother’s side.
Guests staying on the zoo’s Zoofari Lodge were able to see the calf just a few minutes after its birth.
Hippos once ranged throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but are now restricted to smaller, more fragmented habitats. They are listed as Vulnerable to Extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
See more photos of the Hippo calf below.
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There is even more good news from Dublin Zoo with the announcement of the arrival of a third Asian Elephant calf! The healthy female calf was born to mother Bernhardine at 11.45 pm on September 17th, weighing in at 68kg (150 lbs).
Photo Credits: Patrick Bolger
This is the third elephant calf to be born at Dublin Zoo within a 10 week period. The first calf, Kavi, was born to mother Yasmin on July 17th, followed closely by Ashoka, named after one of India’s greatest emperors, born to mother Anak on August 19th.
Paul O’Donoghue, Assistant Director at Dublin Zoo said, “Our latest arrival is a wonderful addition to our breeding herd of Asian Elephants. It was a very quick and calm birth and Bernhardine’s daughter Asha (7 years old) stayed with her throughout. The calf was standing within ten minutes and has been suckling really well. Bernhardine is the oldest female and the herd’s matriarch. She is an experienced mother, and this is her fourth calf. It is just incredible for us to be announcing the birth of three Asian Elephants in the space of ten weeks. It is an extraordinary achievement for the animal care team here at Dublin Zoo who is very proud of the expanding herd and of the significance of these births for the future of endangered Asian Elephants”.
The Asian Elephant is currently classified as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List. The pre-eminent threats to Asian Elephants today are loss, degradation and fragmentation of habitat, leading in turn to increasing conflicts between humans and elephants. They are poached for ivory and a variety of other products including meat and leather.
A naming competition will be hosted on Dublin Zoo’s Facebook page, and the Zoo is calling on the public to suggest a name for the latest arrival based on its Asian origins.
More great photos below the fold!
Edinburgh Zoo is proud to introduce, Rica, a baby Southern Three-Banded Armadillo! She was born to mother, Rio, and father, Rodar, on August 24th.
Photo Credits: Edinburgh Zoo
Although, Rica was a mere 81 grams (less than 3 oz) at birth, and was around the size of a golf ball, she has already quadrupled in weight during the first month of life.
Both parents arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in March 2014. Given the short length of time the two have been at the Zoo, it is an amazing achievement and testament to the specialist skills of their keepers, that both Rio and Rodar felt comfortable enough to make a family in their new home.
Southern Three-Banded Armadillos are native to South America. They are found in parts of northern Argentina, southwestern Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. This armadillo and the other member of the genus ‘Tolypeutes’, the Brazilian Three-Banded Armadillo, are the only species of armadillos capable of rolling into a complete ball to defend themselves. The three characteristic bands that cover the back of the animal allow it enough flexibility to fit its tail and head together, allowing protection from predators. They are currently classified as ‘Near Threatened” on the IUCN Red List.
See more great pics below the fold!
