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Originally Posted by Baby Lee:
As we speak, those don't exist.
This kind of stuff continues to blow my mind. I read an article (maybe you did too) that said the blast from a nearby supernova is about to blow all that gas away, as we see it now as well as in the next thousand years or so.
Of course, this already happened thousands of years ago. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chefsos:
This kind of stuff continues to blow my mind. I read an article (maybe you did too) that said the blast from a nearby supernova is about to blow all that gas away, as we see it now as well as in the next thousand years or so.
Of course, this already happened thousands of years ago.
If there's been a nearby supernova then all bets are off. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Dave Lane:
They exist. They are probably slightly altered. They are very very close in cosmic term and are unlikely to have varied much.
I like my universe to be pretty stable, so I'm okay with that. [Reply]
Natural remedies that claim to “boost your immune system” don’t work, and it’s a good thing they don’t.
Browse the cold and flu aisle at the pharmacy or watch certain famous doctors on TV, and you'll encounter a number of products claiming to boost your immunity, “naturally.” Research on these products shows that they are expensive placebos. However, many people remain convinced that these potions can keep them healthy. Millions of people are taken in by the seemingly friendly—but ultimately cynical—marketing of these products, and they happily fork over their money for what overwhelmingly amounts to snake oil. For all you believers (and for skeptics looking for some new arguments), consider this: Boosting your immunity is actually a pretty bad idea. Even if these remedy and prevention products did what they purport to, you wouldn't want them to.
We have two complementary immune systems: innate and acquired. Innate immunity is the body’s natural, knee-jerk reaction to an unknown infection. Innate immunity is fast, broad, and incredibly nonspecific. When it gets activated, you know the feeling all too well—fever, cough, runny nose, and body aches. In short: inflammation. You can already see why you might not want to “boost” this part of the immune system.
Like it or not, as soon as a virus enters your body, innate immunity kicks in. And when it does, the symptoms are pretty similar, regardless of which of the several hundred typical cold viruses it happens to be. Before your body has determined the precise identity of the new invader, your innate immunity mounts a fever to try to cook the microbes and produces cough and phlegm to try to flush those critters out. These haphazard responses are mildly helpful, supremely annoying, but—and this is crucial—are not what actually defeats an infection.
The real work of neutralizing an infection is the purview of acquired immunity, the targeted branch of your immunologic military that is built up over your lifetime. The acquired immune system contains B and T cells that produce and interact with proteins called antibodies that can attack an unbelievable number of specific infections. While a small percentage of antibodies are passed from mother to child, the majority are produced when a person first encounters a particular infection. The resulting antibodies are analogous to weapon caches our bodies keep in storage for decades in the event of a future invasion: It’s the ultimate Cold War. If the body has been previously exposed to an infectious pathogen (or vaccinated against it), the acquired immune system “remembers” it and is able to quickly recognize it in the event of future reinfection. Once reactivated, the acquired immune system synthesizes only the correct antibodies, with astonishing precision and efficiency. Most common and mild viruses are cleared quite trivially in this way, usually within days. It is evolution at its finest. New viruses are dealt with in a similar way. The only difference is that the immune system has no memory of novel viruses, so it takes longer to produce just the right antibodies.
Meanwhile, the innate immune system rages on for much longer than necessary. While the acquired immune system’s antibodies have already fought and won the real battle, the innate branch just doesn’t get the communiqué, so it fights on unwittingly. As we all know, coughs and runny noses can linger for weeks, even after the mildest of viral infections.
This is why boosting your immunity seems like such a bad idea. Over-the-counter alternative-remedy products can’t boost your acquired immunity. Even magical thinkers would have to acknowledge that the only way to do that is through vaccination—something that too many alternative-remedy users seem to shun—or a bone marrow transplant, a dangerous but often necessary treatment in certain blood cancers that also increases immune system cells. That leaves innate immunity as the only target of these over-the-counter remedies that claim to enhance your natural immunity. But who would actually want that? Last I checked, no one wants fever or a runny nose.
The mainstay of treatment for symptomatic cold viruses is to suppress, not boost, our crude and clunky innate immune responses. That’s why we take fever reducers and antihistamines. Even if a natural immunity boost were possible, the very notion of this is misguided. In extreme cases, overreacting to infections can even cause changes in our vascular system, leading to sepsis and shock—our blood vessels become too flimsy in response to inflammation initiated by, you guessed it, our natural innate immune responses.
In general, extremes are bad. Too much immunity (for example, autoimmune responses) can lead to allergies, tissue damage, and even anaphylaxis. Too little immunity, say from chemotherapy or HIV/AIDS, and you're at risk of deadly infections that most people clear with ease. Our bodies have evolved toward a balance, but sometimes innate immunity is overzealous and needs curbing.
So, the next time you feel a cold coming on, maybe what you really want is just a little teensy bit of innate immune suppression, not an immunity boost. Over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen and antihistamines should help you feel better. Meanwhile, sit back while your acquired B and T cells do the rest. And if you aren't yet sick, stay up-to-date on your vaccines, including the yearly influenza vaccine. Most importantly, practice vigorous hand washing—after all, the skin is also a component of your natural defenses and one that actually can be enhanced by good hygiene. Take care of yourself by keeping a balanced diet, maintaining good sleep habits, and minimizing stress. These are interventions that have been shown to help keep your immune system at its best. These alone can "boost" your odds of staving off an infection this cold season.
Jeremy Samuel Faust, M.D., M.S., M.A., is an emergency medicine resident physician at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and is co-host of FOAMcast. [Reply]
Ive been on a huge immune system kick lately. So many questions..
I've read that a large amount of your immune system is found in the good bacteria in your stomach. They say antibiotics kill bacteria indiscriminately. So is it really worth it to be taking antibiotics all willy nilly?
Also, as far as I'm aware I've never had the flu but I've been alive for 25 years. My body has to have come in contact with it at some point. So did just a small enough amount make its way into my body so that my immune system was able to deal with it before 1) the virus took over or 2) my innate immune response started flipping its shit?
And how in balls' name can you randomly develop an allergy to something?
Originally Posted by ThaVirus:
Ive been on a huge immune system kick lately. So many questions..
I've read that a large amount of your immune system is found in the good bacteria in your stomach. They say antibiotics kill bacteria indiscriminately. So is it really worth it to be taking antibiotics all willy nilly?
Also, as far as I'm aware I've never had the flu but I've been alive for 25 years. My body has to have come in contact with it at some point. So did just a small enough amount make its way into my body so that my immune system was able to deal with it before 1) the virus took over or 2) my innate immune response started flipping its shit?
And how in balls' name can you randomly develop an allergy to something?
I need all da ansuhs, bruh.
1) Antibiotics target certain types of bacteria (usually) focusing either on the composition of their cell wall or protein synthesis. If you take antibiotics, you will nuke the good bacteria in your gut, too.
2) Influenza is a highly dynamic class of viruses. Every flu every year is genetically different than the previous year's strain. Thus, even if you had the previous year's strain, you aren't going to be protected from the strain next year, in all likelihood.
3) I haven't taken enough cell bio/physio to give you more than a cursory opinion.
Allergies are a result of an inflammatory process in your body, treating a specific substance as an invader, often a protein. Sometimes that's a good thing, but you also don't want peanut dust to throw you into shock. [Reply]
Scientists have designed an algorithm that analyzes your Facebook likes, and it's strikingly accurate
It’s no secret that Facebook knows a lot about us. The social network is constantly collecting data about our lives, tracking our likes, locations and friendships.
But a new study shows just how intimately Facebook knows us. In the study, published Monday, scientists presented the first computer model to accurately predict a subject’s personality based solely on his or her Facebook likes. The researchers say their algorithm is often better at predicting your character traits than your co-workers, friends and even family members.
“Computers do better than human beings in most cases,” says Youyou Wu, a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and co-author of the study. “In some cases, the computer’s judgment can even describe real-life behaviors better than self-ratings.”
The researchers fed personality data and Facebook likes from over 85,000 volunteers into their computer model. The data consisted of a 100-item questionnaire via the myPersonality app, which focuses on the Big Five personality traits in psychology: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
Do you like Buddhism, Salvador Dali or The Daily Show on Facebook? If so, Wu says, you are probably liberal and artistic. How about the U.S. Navy, the novel Kite Runner or motorcycles? You should be well-organized. Silence of the Lambs, Nicki Minaj or The Urge to Kick Little Kids? Competitive.
“We basically asked our computer model to look at the association between likes and personalities,” says Wu. “We asked the computer to make a judgment for these people, based on their self-ratings.” (David Stillwell, one of the authors of the paper, reports that he received some revenue as owner of the myPersonality application.)
The researchers also asked some of the participants’ families and friends to weigh in on the assessment with a shorter questionnaire. Wu and her team found that the computer could predict a subject’s personality more accurately than a co-worker after analyzing only 10 likes, a friend or roommate after only 70 likes and a family member after only 150 likes.
Spouses generally beat the computer, but only by a hair.
The notion that Facebook likes could be powerful predictors of personality is nothing new. A few months ago, a similar paper published in PNAS concluded that intimate personality traits could theoretically be deduced from Facebook likes—and, in all likelihood, from “digital footprints” left behind on other social networks, too.
Wu envisions computer algorithms ultimately playing an active role within dating websites and career centers, helping employers find like-minded employees—or suggesting romantic partners who share each other’s interests and inclinations. “We can imagine that, in the near future, we will be able to trust computers with a lot of important decisions,” Wu says.
In short... Facebook is watching you in new and even scarier ways than before, so glad I dont give a shit about all of that look at me nonsense.
Pretty soon Zuckerbergs minions will just assign people a program to keep them happy like in "Her". [Reply]
WARNING: There is NSFW material (including pictures) in this post. Please view with discretion.
Snakes and lizards have what is called hemipenes, which is essentially a two-headed penis. Two penises on one organism might sound pretty wild, but did you know it can occur on humans as well? About 1 in 5.5 million American men will be affected by a condition known as diphallia, resulting in two penises.Though diphallia is fairly rare on its own, actually finding someone who has the condition is made even more difficult by the fact that it usually accompanies highly deleterious congenital conditions, such as other duplicated organs or spina bifida. When the condition is severe, these defects are insurmountable.
The condition isn’t genetic, but could be caused by irregular homeobox gene expression during the 4th week of fetal development. This change in expression is brought upon by mutations in the genes or environmental factors.
The degree of the penises’ functionality is entirely dependent on the individual. Some have two penises that are of normal shape, size, and function, while others can have genitalia that is small, malformed, and unable to urinate or ejaculate.
One man who has two fully-functional penises goes by DiphallicDude (or DoubleDickDude, which morphed into DDD), as he is committed to keeping his real identity private. He is an American man in his mid-20s, living out on the East Coast. Beyond that, not much is known about who he really is.
About a year ago, he did an AMA on Reddit, that turned out to be one of the most popular of all time. He even submitted pictures as proof (obviously NSFW), if you’d like to see what diphallia actually looks like. When he said “Ask Me Anything,” Redditors did not hold back, dying to know what it is like living with that condition. It was revealed that DiphallicDude is bisexual, and has had sex with over 1000 people. While he didn’t go into too explicit of detail about his sexual experiences, he was able to confirm or deny most of the questions he was asked about the mechanics of everything.
His book, Double Header: My Life with Two Penises, was released on Christmas Day. It has been holding the title of #1 Bestseller for Kindle in 3 different categories. Upon the book’s release, he has done a series of interviews for radio and web. All of the sexy details left out of the AMA have been described in the book, in addition to all of the other ways diphallia has affected his life.
Recently, he gave an interview with BBC Newsbeat, discussing what it was like growing up. His parents cautioned him to keep his condition private and not tell other children. He said that he first thought to keep the secret so he didn’t make other boys feel bad for only having one, and it wasn’t until he was a teenager that he realized that he might have been the one getting ridiculed for being different. When he was in high school, he actually considered having one of the penises removed. He ultimately decided against surgery when he realized that it was something he always had, and it didn’t bother him.
Originally Posted by ThaVirus:
Ive been on a huge immune system kick lately. So many questions..
I've read that a large amount of your immune system is found in the good bacteria in your stomach. They say antibiotics kill bacteria indiscriminately. So is it really worth it to be taking antibiotics all willy nilly?
Also, as far as I'm aware I've never had the flu but I've been alive for 25 years. My body has to have come in contact with it at some point. So did just a small enough amount make its way into my body so that my immune system was able to deal with it before 1) the virus took over or 2) my innate immune response started flipping its shit?
And how in balls' name can you randomly develop an allergy to something?
I need all da ansuhs, bruh.
Re: allergies.
Most of the time the allergy is there by the time kids are 10 or so, but the type and extent of the response can change over time. So while it may seem like people develop allergies, it is , ore likely that the response has intensified.
DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert, I've just been seeing doctors for allergies my whole life. [Reply]
In a galaxy far, far away, a pair of supermassive black holes appear to be spiraling together toward a cosmic collision of unimaginable scale, astronomers said.
The final act of this mating dance, perhaps a mere million years from now, could release as much energy as 100 million of the violent supernova explosions in which stars end their lives, and wreck the galaxy it is in, said S. George Djorgovski of the California Institute of Technology.
Most of that energy would go into gravitational waves, the violent ripples of space-time that are predicted but not yet directly detected by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Djorgovski said. And there could be electromagnetic fireworks as well.
According to the theory, he said, the interactions of the black holes would drive nearby stars away, like shingles in a tornado. “However, I think that the nature is never so neat.”
Djorgovski is one of the authors of a paper published in the journal Nature. The lead author is Matthew Graham, a computational scientist at Caltech’s Center for Data-Driven Discovery.
The merging black holes manifested as a regular flicker in a quasar — a mass of light and energy — in a remote galaxy known as PG 1302-102. The most logical explanation, Graham and his colleagues wrote, is a pair of black holes circling each other less than a light-year apart.
If it holds up under scrutiny, the system could be a bonanza for the young field of gravitational wave astronomy. It would also provide a preview of what will happen in our own Milky Way galaxy in a few billion years when it collides with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by displacedinMN: Two black holes to collide!
In a galaxy far, far away, a pair of supermassive black holes appear to be spiraling together toward a cosmic collision of unimaginable scale, astronomers said.
The final act of this mating dance, perhaps a mere million years from now, could release as much energy as 100 million of the violent supernova explosions in which stars end their lives, and wreck the galaxy it is in, said S. George Djorgovski of the California Institute of Technology.
Most of that energy would go into gravitational waves, the violent ripples of space-time that are predicted but not yet directly detected by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Djorgovski said. And there could be electromagnetic fireworks as well.
According to the theory, he said, the interactions of the black holes would drive nearby stars away, like shingles in a tornado. “However, I think that the nature is never so neat.”
Djorgovski is one of the authors of a paper published in the journal Nature. The lead author is Matthew Graham, a computational scientist at Caltech’s Center for Data-Driven Discovery.
The merging black holes manifested as a regular flicker in a quasar — a mass of light and energy — in a remote galaxy known as PG 1302-102. The most logical explanation, Graham and his colleagues wrote, is a pair of black holes circling each other less than a light-year apart.
If it holds up under scrutiny, the system could be a bonanza for the young field of gravitational wave astronomy. It would also provide a preview of what will happen in our own Milky Way galaxy in a few billion years when it collides with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy.
Originally Posted by chefsos:
This kind of stuff continues to blow my mind. I read an article (maybe you did too) that said the blast from a nearby supernova is about to blow all that gas away, as we see it now as well as in the next thousand years or so.
Of course, this already happened thousands of years ago.
Wait until we learn to bend time/space.
Humans will be able travel light years in an instant, and look back at Earth's history.
Future humans might be observing us from afar as we speak. [Reply]
