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Topic: Today's Bad News (Read 116714 times)

 

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #51
I finally got rid of the Ask Toolbar in Google Chrome, so this isn't bad news at all.

To uninstall you can click on the three gray bars in the top right corner of the browser and navigate to the Settings link. Then click on the Extensions section and find PopularScreensavers, the extension can be deleted by clicking on the trash can.


Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #53
From The Sydney Morning Herald





Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #55
Of drugs and rink probs?
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #56
Let’s face it: I want it all— just like you and everybody else. It may not be in the cards, but the prospect is so dazzling that I have to try.
Lauren Bacall
A matter of attitude.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #57
Not into personality cults especially the Hollywood razzmatazz but many comedians do have a problem with depression which they try to hie. Williams was in that bracket and a good entertainer. Lauren was another outstanding actress and especially with Humphrey Bogart (was sad she lost him such a long time ago). Seems to me that today's actors are less endowed than previously in Boart and her time and depend on great blowing ups, destruction and deaths whereas previously actors had more depth.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #58
Two recent SlashDot posts:
New Research Suggests Cancer May Be an Intrinsic Property of Cells; and
Scientists Baffled By Unknown Source of Ozone-Depleting Chemical


I don't think these belong in the "Scientists Say" thread. And I was torn between posting them here, rather than in the Good News thread — because advancements in our understanding of natural phenomena are, to me, inherently of value…
But, perhaps, that's just me? Maybe only partisan "pick a side" judgements need apply? (Sorry: Sometimes I just can't help myself…)


But chocolate is still good! No matter what anyone says! (I stand with my Sisters! On the important issues…)
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #59

New Research Suggests Cancer May Be an Intrinsic Property of Cells;


I don't think there has been much doubt about that in modern times. That's one of the challenges of having multi-cellular organisms. Basically we get cancer when all the fail-safes we have fail. Perhaps the most dramatic one is that body cells are programmed to commit suicide (apoptosis) unless the neighbouring cells continuously tell them not to die, that they have an important life to live.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #60
But chocolate is still good! No matter what anyone says! (I stand with my Sisters! On the important issues…)

Define chocolate. Me, I like to eat a raw cocoa bean mixed with some 85% chocolate. (The raw cocoa bean is just a bit much even for me all by itself.) :) The bad part of chocolate is mostly sugar.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #61
I don't think there has been much doubt about that in modern times.

If you view modern times as very recent…
Quote from: Wiki
Research in and around apoptosis has increased substantially since the early 1990s. In addition to its importance as a biological phenomenon, defective apoptotic processes have been implicated in an extensive variety of diseases. Excessive apoptosis causes atrophy, whereas an insufficient amount results in uncontrolled cell proliferation, such as cancer.
The paper's abstract reads
Quote
The molecular nature of tumours is well studied in vertebrates, although their evolutionary origin remains unknown. In particular, there is no evidence for naturally occurring tumours in pre-bilaterian animals, such as sponges and cnidarians. This is somewhat surprising given that recent computational studies have predicted that most metazoans might be prone to develop tumours. Here we provide first evidence for naturally occurring tumours in two species of Hydra. Histological, cellular and molecular data reveal that these tumours are transplantable and might originate by differentiation arrest of female gametes. Growth of tumour cells is independent from the cellular environment. Tumour-bearing polyps have significantly reduced fitness. In addition,Hydra tumours show a greatly altered transcriptome that mimics expression shifts in vertebrate cancers. Therefore, this study shows that spontaneous tumours have deep evolutionary roots and that early branching animals may be informative in revealing the fundamental mechanisms of tumorigenesis.


(source)
There is news there, no?
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #62
I would consider anything before 1990 in this field as medieval, but I think the claim in the headline, "Cancer May Be an Intrinsic Property of Cells", wouldn't be too controversial back in those days either, even if they wouldn't know just how repressed somatic cells really are.

It was mostly an unfortunate headline that didn't quite capture the exciting part. We are starting to reap benefits from the projects started in the late Middle Ages, whatever we find expressed in one organism we can see where it pops up in a range of other organisms. That indeed is good/scientific news.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #63
It was mostly an unfortunate headline that didn't quite capture the exciting part.

Another example for the "Scientists Say" thread? :)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)


Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #65
@Smiley: Yup! That's my take, too. But it doesn't necessarily minimize environmental factors… Still, it kinda becomes like searching for the Fountain of Youth: Everyone gets old; some don't want to and believe there's some magic that will arrest or reverse the process.

I await the evolutionary biologists' "explanations"…
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)


Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #67
Apparently it has become necessary to point out to a world full of mourners  that it is  Sir Richard, not his little brother Sir David, who has died.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #68

Apparently it has become necessary to point out to a world full of mourners  that it is  Sir Richard, not his little brother Sir David, who has died.


In other news I've heard that Robbie Williams died recently as well.

So, if I read it correctly, resources would better serve finding a cure for after the fact, rather than a preventative vaccination prior to it raising it's ugly head?


You might be more comfortable with the picture of the body as a maximum security prison where each cell has a dangerous prisoner handcuffed and in foot chains with three live-in armed guards.

Unfortunately the liberal government doesn't fund new guards, so as time goes on the guards get weaker and older or killed by the hostile environment, and the constraints get chafed upon and might break. Sooner or later one of the prisoners can overcome the guards and start a prison break. This will normally trigger an alarm and a SWAT team will rush in with orders to shoot to kill. If the prisoner can manage to avoid triggering the alarm or create a riot big enough to overwhelm the SWAT team they need to break into the supply room so as not to starve to death. If they manage that they probably will be able to take over the prison.

Unfortunately they are not clever enough to actually break out of the prison, so it will end tragically with everyone dead, the rioters, the guards, the law-abiding cells.

Unless they were from the Henrietta Lacks prison. Some of the rioters there were taken to top security medical facility where they live without guards, are fed and performed experiments upon, and stay there to this day, 94 years of age. They may no longer be human, but neither will they die.




No, there will not be a vaccine against dangerous prisoners as we are the prisons and depend upon our prisoners for our survival. But we can reduce the attacks on the guards, the carcinogenics, that will expose all of us to cancer if we just live long enough to get it. Very speculatively we could give the guards reinforcement or even stop them from weakening. More immediately we can detect prison breaks at an earlier stage. We can more selectively kill those prisoners, now we are bombing the prison, so more peaceful and productive prisoners are killed than rioters, which harms and eventually can destroy the prison economy. We can prevent the rioters from reaching the supply room. We can send in agents selectively killing prisoners before they become too much trouble. We can create a new supply of productive prisoners to replace the rioters.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #69
Two things ya can't beat........Death & Income Taxes.

Well, that's not all true......I no longer pay any Income Taxes (Federal, State, or Local), so it's me & the Reaper next up...And somehow, I ain't none too sure she's any to impressed.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #70
Frans Bruggen has died. He, and his "Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century" specialised in spare, clean performances on original instruments. Their interpretation of Beethoven's First Symphony is electrifying. Bruggen was unique.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #71
I'd agree, tt92! But "unique" over-states the case: My favorite recording of the Brandenburg Concertos remains, to this day, Otto Klemperer's… In the worlds of music, art, and literature (including poetry!) there will always be what might be called purists. But they're really just very knowledgable and uncompromising practitioners of their art!
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #72
I know I'm not unique and you probably aren't unique either, but Bruggen really was one of a kind. At least, if there is anyone his like, I haven't got any of his CDs.
His recording of Beethoven's First is clearly of the eighteenth century but bursting at the seams with foretastes of the nineteenth. No doubt as Beethoven intended, but not smothered with the luscious unction that most twentieth century orchestras ladled on anything by Mozart, Hayden, or Beethoven.
He played a mean recorder, too.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #73
I readily confess that I rely more on my own tastes than any doctrinaire determinations… Call it an imperfection character or a lack of proper education, but there it is.

Are you familiar with Fritz Reiner's recording of the Brahms' 4th Symphony with Chicago's Symphony Orchestra? (The Brahms 1st Symphony is ruined by just about everyone…because they play the 1st movement too slowly.) The 2nd Piano Concerto, with the same and Cliburn, is almost perfect!

Many years ago, I recommended Haydn to my son, when he wanted to study beyond piano music; I told him he would hear almost every theme Beethoven wrote, in Haydn's Symphonies! (I was only partly joking…)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #74