MaxRedline

Live In A City?

Want to know just how badly polluted the air we're breathing is getting? It can be as harmful for your lungs as a pack of cigarettes a day, new research has revealed. The new data might explain why more non-smokers are getting lung problems traditionally associated with smoking.

Researchers found that higher levels of pollutants in city air – ozone in particular – could cause emphysema to progress as quickly as would be expected from smoking an entire pack of cigarettes every day. "Rates of chronic lung disease in this country are going up and increasingly it is recognised that this disease occurs in non-smokers," says physician-epidemiologist Joel Kaufman, from the University of Washington.

Add to that the relatively high rate of smoking seen in many city-dwellers, and they're basically doubling their health risks.

In a ten-year period, just breathing in city air was found to be roughly equivalent to smoking a pack a day for 29 years.

Next thing you know, they'll be prescribing gas-masks for city dwellers, which would really put a crimp in the whole dating scene....

 

NASA Mission Control Has Been Restored

Half a century after the Apollo Missions, the facilities at Johnson Space Center are alive again. Everything looks like it did back when it was active.

Friday’s grand opening — just three weeks shy of the 50th anniversary of humanity’s first otherworldly footsteps — culminates years of work and millions in donations. It opens to the public Monday.

The goal was “to capture the look and feel of July of ’69,” said NASA’s restoration project manager Jim Thornton. “The place is designated a National Historic Landmark,” he said. “It’s not for the brick and mortar of the building, it’s for the amazing feats that happened inside of the building.”

With the International Space Station’s Mission Control running 24/7 one floor down and work for future moonshots going on all around, Thornton said it was challenging to create a museum. But the painstaking work paid off. Some Apollo flight controllers were so moved at seeing the restored room that they teared up.

Seems that Thornton's team did some really good work, there.

 

Skywatching

Jupiter is at its biggest and brightest this month, rising at dusk and remaining visible all night. The solar system's largest planet is a brilliant jewel to the naked eye, but looks fantastic through binoculars or a small telescope, which will allow you to spot the four largest moons, and maybe even glimpse a hint of the banded clouds that encircle the planet.

If you line in the Portland area (or probably anywhere in the Pacific Northwest), however, you won't see it tonight - we're socked in with thick clouds and heavy rain today. Monday should be clear, though, so grab the binoculars and head outside.

 

Meth Actually Can Benefit, Depending On Dose

Ask your doctor about methamphetamine. It's not a phrase you'll ever hear on TV or the radio, but here's a secret: Meth is an incredible medicine. Even the Drug Enforcement Administration admits it, and doctors are known to prescribe it for narcolepsy, obesity, and ADHD. Historically, meth has been used to reverse barbiturate overdoses and even raise blood pressure during surgery. Some preliminary research suggests that meth can be neuroprotective against stroke and traumatic brain injury, even stimulating the growth of brain cells.

Who knew?

If you ask most people, including policymakers, you'll hear that meth is a scourge that can do no good.

But if you've ever used something like Vicks VapoInhaler, you've experienced the healing benefits of meth firsthand. That's because the over-the-counter nasal decongestant contains levomethamphetamine, the levorotary form—or "mirror image"—of the same stuff from Breaking Bad. Procter & Gamble tries to obscure this fact by spelling the active ingredient "levmetamfetamine." Selegiline, a drug for treating Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, also metabolizes into levomethamphetamine.

Interesting read, well worth the visit.

 

 

Misnomer, As There Is No Dark Side Of The Moon

"The Dark Side Of The Moon" is the seventh studio LP to be released by Pink Floyd. It was recorded at Abbey Road
Studios in London England and released in 1973.

From Earth, we always see the same face of the Moon; from the Moon, the Earth stands still in the sky. That's due to a phenomenon referred to as tidal locking.

All sides of the moon experience night and day just like we do here on Earth. All sides have equal amounts of day and night over the course of a single month. A lunar day lasts about two Earth weeks.

"Buzz" Aldrin on the near side of the moon.

The far side may not be dark, but it is "radio silent", which might make it a great candidate for eventual installation of a radio telescope.

Much less electromagnetic interference from Earth-based broadcasts.

 

Brains

We know we are dead when we die because our brains keep working to make us aware of what's happening around us, haunting new research suggests.

Explaining when a patient is officially declared dead, he said: "It's all based on the moment when the heart stops.

"Technically speaking, that's how you get the time of death." This means you are essentially 'trapped' inside your dead body with your brain still working, if only for a short time.

In related news:

US scientists have partially revived pig brains four hours after the animals were slaughtered.

Chew on that with your BLT or Easter ham.

 

Just One Piece

Will kill you:

Eating even a moderate amount of red or processed meat is linked with an increased risk of colorectal (bowel) cancer, according to a new study published Wednesday.

Apparently, you need to go vegetarian now, before it's too late.

Your dog wants steak.

 

Bring Back Our Childhood Diseases

WILLIAMSBURG, Brooklyn — New York City declared a public health emergency Tuesday over a measles outbreak centered in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and ordered mandatory vaccinations in the neighborhood.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the unusual order amid what he said was a measles crisis in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section, where more than 250 people have gotten measles since September. Officials blamed the outbreak on "anti-vaxxers" spreading false information.

The order applies to anyone living, working or going to school in four ZIP codes in the neighborhood and requires all unvaccinated people at risk of exposure to the virus to get the vaccine, including children over 6 months old.

Failure to vaccinate exposes you not only to the disease, but to a $1000 fine.

Fine by me.

 

Got A Kid With Autism?

A shit transplant may cure it. I shit you not.

 

Gone Fishin'

Fish slime could be key to the development of new antibiotics, researchers say. Now researchers say new antibiotics might be found in the layer of mucus that coats the outer surface of young fish. “We believe the microbes in the mucus add chemistry to the antiseptic power of the mucus and that new bioactive compounds might be discovered from the fish microbiome,” said Dr Sandra Loesgen, the head of the research group behind the work at Oregon State University.

And all this time, you've just been wiping the stuff on your jeans after reeling them in....