Tolerance Proteins

photog Current Events, Science, Science Fiction / Fantasy

In 2024 I’ve resolved to do my best not to belabor things that have already been said.  Therefore, going forward, I will attempt to confine myself to original content.  So, what can I talk about?  Breaking news?  Well, there was a major earthquake in Japan.

But there’s always a major earthquake in Japan.  Hauling out terms like temblor and Richter scale and seismic this, that and the other or going on and on about aftershocks and tsunamis is hardly original.  Pass!

Obviously, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are just grinding along in a predictably gruesome fashion.  Nope.

Well, I could conceive of nothing less original than the ball-dropping ceremony in Times Square and its attendant gathering of aging and uninteresting entertainment celebrities.  Chah!

So, no breaking news worth discussing.

How about tardigrades?

You know, water bears.  Those barely visible invertebrates that can be exposed to the hard vacuum and near absolute zero of outer space, to hard radiation, or desiccated in a desert for years and even frozen in ice and boiled in geysers and still wake up decades later and resume feeding on moss or dandruff or whatever is available and seem completely unphased.

Finally, something interesting to talk about.

Ever since I first heard about these bizarre and strangely endearing little creatures, I’ve wondered whether there was something unique about their survival abilities.  And it turns out there is.

“Stress-dependent cell stiffening by tardigrade tolerance proteins that reversibly form a filamentous network and gel”

As you know I’m no longer a big fan of tolerance.  It’s bitten me in the butt too many times over the years.  But apparently tolerance proteins are a very useful thing to have when you find yourself submerged in freezing liquid or exposed to outer space.

“Tardigrades are able to tolerate almost complete dehydration by entering a reversible ametabolic state called anhydrobiosis and resume their animation upon rehydration. Dehydrated tardigrades are exceptionally stable and withstand various physical extremes.”

…

“In the present study, we first postulated the presence of tolerance proteins that form protective condensates via phase separation in a stress-dependent manner and searched for tardigrade proteins that reversibly form condensates upon dehydration-like stress.”

…

CAHS proteins increased cell stiffness in a hyperosmotic stress-dependent manner and counteract the cell shrinkage caused by osmotic pressure, and even improved the survival against hyperosmotic stress.

…

On the basis of these results, we propose that CAHS proteins are novel cytoskeleton-like proteins that form filamentous networks and undergo gel-transition in a stress-dependent manner to provide on-demand physical stabilization of cell integrity against deformative forces during dehydration and could contribute to the exceptional physical stability in a dehydrated state.

I heard about a Chinese study that inserted genes from a tardigrade into a human cell line that gave it protection from radiation associated DNA damage.  It was posited that this would be a valuable addition to the creation of human super soldiers.  Well duh!  Anyone who has watched Captain America knows that tardigrade-style ability to tolerate the radiation from a tesseract plus the ability to be frozen for a century or so in the Arctic Ocean is very handy for a super soldier.

My takeaway from all this is that adding tardigrade tolerance proteins will allow humans to be placed in a long term reversible ametabolic state called anhydrobiosis from which they will be able to emerge after millennia in order to serve as my laborers once I emerge from long sleep in some far away galaxy.  As their emperor I will be able to call on their immunity to radiation to have them wage nuclear war against my enemies the beetle men of Krrrrlll 3,

while I attend to more important concerns like my ongoing work on thorium doped decorative ceramics (a definitive study).

Can You Top This?

photog Current Events, Trump ,

In 2020 the Democrats had to beat a popular incumbent president.  What they came up with was a race war and a lame bioweapon release to justify massive election fraud.  So, for 2024, with Joe Biden as popular as a prostate exam how will the CIA and FBI top their last effort?

Since Joe is the incumbent, they can’t make the country vote for him with another race war.  And I think we’re through with pandemics.  The only thing I can think of is a false flag attack.  Or rather, a real attack that the feds allow to happen.  And with all the millions of illegal aliens marching up out of Mexico it’s a cinch that it will be easy enough to orchestrate.  The only question is who will they attack?

One possibility is the Palestinians, or some Islamists that sympathize with them, attack a symbolic target in New York or even Washington DC.  So, if they blow up the Freedom Tower or the White House what is supposed to happen?  Would we rally round the flag?  Would we vote to appropriate ten trillion dollars to get Raytheon to build a billion drones and blow up some more third world villages?  And then what?  Import whoever was left in the Middle East to come live in Michigan and Minnesota?  And is that to punish them or us or both?  I don’t know.  It seems stale.

Another possibility is some Ukrainians pass themselves as Russians and attack a civilian target that will produce mass casualties.  Maybe they’ll attack a business district at lunch time.  Unfortunately, all the city downtowns have already been emptied out by remote work practices.  If they attacked San Francisco at noon the only ones at risk are the homeless encampments and, honestly, I don’t think anyone would notice or care.

So, this is a conundrum for the Deep State’s best and brightest.  If I could make a suggestion, maybe they could have their proxies attack Martha’s Vineyard.  They could emulate what Hamas did in Southern Israel and slaughter the inhabitants in an orgy of sadistic violence.  And after their paroxysm of mayhem had eliminated most of the managerial elite and their families, Americans would rise up to avenge them.  Wouldn’t they?  Surely the military recruiting stations in Cambridge MA and Berkley CA and Williamsburg Brooklyn would be inundated by trust fund babies lining up to enlist and get revenge for all those billionaires massacred on the sand dunes and along the bike paths of Martha’s Vineyard.  And even if they didn’t, surely, it’s worth a try.

Seriously, no one knows what the powers that be will come up with for 2024.  One thing they’re desperately attempting is to revive the economy.  Every hour on the hour the talking heads on tv tell us just how wonderful the economy is.  We’re assured that the rise in the cost of living is more than compensated for by the incredible increases in salaries.  And anyone who says otherwise is a stooge for Putin.  But unfortunately, Putin must be paying off something like two hundred million stooges because that’s about the proportion of Americans who want to fire Joe Biden for turning us all into paupers.

After all that buildup, will 2024 be free from fireworks?  I guess it’s possible.  My only thought is be a little more careful than you think you need to be.  There are a lot of really sick people who may react to bad news by doing crazy things.  Some of those sick people may live in your area.  Don’t volunteer to set them off.  In the new year attend to your business.  Do what you need to do to live a better life.  Protect your family and make sure they have what they need to thrive.  Get involved in your local politics.  Everything else is just the sideshow that’s outside of your control.  Watch that from a distance and act according to how it plays out.

Welcome to 2024.

Weaponized Cuteness

photog Life in Dunwich, Music Reviews, photog's Corner, Reviews , , ,

My five year old granddaughter, Princess Sack of Potatoes, learned “Feliz Navidad” in kindergarten.  While she was visiting I went to YouTube to play the Jose Feliciano version as an historical record for her, but opened this one by accident.

She was fascinated by this pint-sized crooner.  And so it goes for every generation.  Well, no harm done.  Her mother and her grandmother and her great grandmother had their crooners too, whether it was Frank Sinatra or Paul McCartney or whatever singer was out there.  But so soon?

 

Happy New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2024!

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner

I begin this New Year’s Eve post with a public service message.

Ryan Seacrest will be hosting the 52nd (wow) annual installment of ‘Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest’ on your local ABC affiliate.  The idea of such luminaries as LL COOL J & Cardi B joining the lineup of performers including Rita Ora, Megan Thee Stallion, Jelly Roll, Sabrina Carpenter, Tyla, Multihyphenate Sebastian Maniscalco, Aqua, Doechii, Ellie Goulding, Green Day, Janelle Monáe, Loud Luxury x Two Friends with Bebe Rexha, Ludacris, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Paul Russell, Reneé Rapp with Coco Jones, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Post Malone, who has sold over 80 million records and earned numerous awards, including 10 Billboard Music Awards, and will perform “Chemical” and finally K-Pop group NewJeans performing “Super Shy” and “ETA” all appearing on one five hour show literally takes my breath away.  But I’ve steeled myself to miss this epochal event.  I notice that Mariah Carey isn’t on the schedule.  A few years back she had a situation where her costume exploded off of her while she was being hoisted onto the roof of some building in Times Square to sing “All I Want for Christmas is You.”  They mercifully cut away in time but apparently, she never recovered.  I had also hoped that they could have released Madonna from her crypt for one last mummified rendition of “Like a Virgin” but I guess they couldn’t find enough formaldehyde to pull it off.  I also don’t see Lionel Ritchie’s name on the list which leads me to believe either he has passed away or the last of his fans has.  Ah, the changing of the guard.

I’ve decided to step in and recommend that all my readers deny themselves this pleasure.  Combining Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and Ludacris all in one sitting might be just too much musical talent for anyone to endure.  It would be like Mozart and Bach joining Taylor Swift on stage at the Bellagio in Vegas.  Just too much magnificence.

I don’t do New Year’s Eve parties.  And it’s probably the result of several factors.  First off, I don’t drink.  Secondly, I find loud bars or other party venues difficult to hear over.  And this despite relatively good hearing.  So, the typical large New Year’s Eve gathering doesn’t have much to offer for me.  And as far as family gatherings, it’s really not a great night to be driving home from a late party.  Usually around here, the weather is awful for driving and there are more drunks on the road that night than any other.  When the kids were still young, we’d do some kind of midnight celebration with noise makers and calling up relatives to wish them a happy New Year and then we’d have some food.  Root beer floats were the favorite of my kids.

But New Year’s Eve is a great time of the year for course correction.  Taking stock and making changes.  I was talking to Camera Girl about this and she said, “I like to call it a time for reflection.”  I then mocked her ruthlessly, “What a fabulously original way of stating it.  Do you mind if I quote you?”  She was unconcerned.  Her poise while mouthing platitudes is remarkable.

Next year will be a busy time for me.  There will be a large increase in my commitments to several annoying tasks.  March, April, October and November will be extremely unpleasant.  And I have to figure out whether I should alter my format for the website.  There will be a number of interesting stories to follow this year but as far as the daily posts a lot of what can be said, has been said and in excruciating detail.  Maybe I’ll decide to limit my output to discussion of breaking events.  This would allow me to move forward with my fiction writing which I’m embarrassed to say ground to a halt in the second half of 2023.

I think what that means for me is that I will need to create that most hated and least successful of all documents, the “life schedule.”  As an engineer I was often responsible for making and updating and reporting on a project schedule.  Usually it was done on Microsoft Project, a powerful but highly annoying program.  Of course, I have no plan to plot my life on MS Project.  Camera Girl would not stand for it.  Me trying to regiment her free-wheeling method of running her house would madden her and probably lead to my demise by any one of several domestic weapons.  Although death by deli meats is my best guess.

So, I hope to spend the next few days attempting to take stock of how I spend my time and, in some sense, “mending my ways.”  And I don’t think of this as a negative.  The environment around us is constantly shifting and for this we need to adjust.  Once a year is hardly too often for this very important activity.  Probably seasonally is the correct frequency.  Spring cleaning and fall stowing away is pretty common but I’m much too lazy for that much organization.  So New Year’s resolutions it is.

But for those so inclined have a Happy New Year’s Eve with champagne and dancing till morning.