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The king is dead, long live the king! |
Posted by: fwki - 03-27-2024, 04:17 AM - Forum: Introductions
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After decades enjoying all the conspiratorial activity at ATS, I would like to introduce myself to the membership here, the future of civil, informative lively discussion of the truth conspiring to control our minds and bodies. I'm an older Houstonian who believes oil is a gift from our creator to better the lives of all God 's children until we can figure out a way off of this planet to save our own asses before the next comet hits. Special thanks to DTOM who pointed me here and to all the admins and mods who make it work.
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Cows infected with bird flu (H5N1) in Texas and Kansas |
Posted by: Maxmars - 03-27-2024, 03:54 AM - Forum: Diseases & Pandemics
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From the NY Times: Bird Flu Spreads to Dairy Cows
Also, from NewScientist: Bird flu detected in US dairy cows – here’s what you need to know
Many cows in Texas, Kansas, and maybe New Mexico have somehow acquired the Bird Flu... this is the first time such a transmission to cattle has ever been detected. This subtype of bird flu is called H5N1, and it kills millions of birds each year.
In several cases, the virus was detected in unpasteurized samples of milk collected from sick cows. Pasteurization should inactivate the flu virus, experts said, and officials stressed that the milk supply was safe.
“At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health,” the agency said in a statement.
Outside experts agreed. “It has only been found in milk that is grossly abnormal,” said Dr. Jim Lowe, a veterinarian and influenza researcher at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
While this seems to be a mystery ... it is important to remember that pasteurization of milk is precisely to deal with these infectious agents... so fret not. Furthermore...
The worst-case scenario is the virus spread amongst the cows, but this is perhaps unlikely, he says. That is because we haven’t found evidence that bird flu can transmit between mammals.
While some cows seem to have fallen ill, none have died, reportedly.
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The defemation of Mary Magdalene |
Posted by: DISRAELI - 03-26-2024, 06:09 PM - Forum: Religion, Faith, & Theology
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Mary (or rather Miriam, after the sister of Moses) has always been a popular name amongst the Jews. A number of women of that name are found in the New Testament.
The specific information about Mary Magdalen is very limited.
We may guess that her surname is “place of origin”, probably deriving from Magdala, a fishing town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
We know (Luke ch8 v2) that she was one of the women who accompanied Jesus in his travels along with his other disciples, and that seven demons had been driven out of her.
We know from the Easter narratives that she was one of the small group of women who sought to attend Jesus after his burial, and we have the story of John ch20 about her encounter with him after his Resurrection.
However, a few other stories in the gospels have had an great effect on the way that she’s been perceived, even though they don’t mention her by name.
Matthew has an “anointing in Bethany” story (ch26 vv6-13). While he is eating at the house of Simon the leper, an unidentified woman pours oil on his head. The disciples complain that the ointment could have been sold to provide for the poor, but Jesus declares that she is preparing him for his burial. No other motive is suggested. The implication is that this is an acted-out prophecy.
Luke has his own anointing story (ch7 vv36-50), but the setting is in the middle of the Galilee mission. The most recent place-name mentioned is Nain. The women is identified as a sinner and she is weeping. Not just from repentance and a sense of guilt, let it be understood. She is weeping with gratitude, superimposed upon the repentance, because she already knows that her sins have been forgiven, though her faith. That is clear from the remarks of Jesus, who says the magnitude of her sin can be measured by the magnitude of her grateful love. She anoints his feet, in humility, instead of his head. Before the anointing she must dry the feet with her hair, because her tears are making them wet.
Luke also has the story (ch10 vv38-41) of the reception of Jesus at the home of the sisters Mary and Martha. The village is not named, but Jesus has already “set his face” (ch9 v51) for the eight-chapter journey towards Jerusalem. There is no suggestion that either of them is the woman in the anointing story.
We come now to the story of John ch12 vv1-8, which complicates matters greatly. In his version of events, the household of Mary and Martha is combined with the household of Lazarus in Bethany, who is their brother. The event that takes place that night is Matthew’s Bethany anointing, on the whole. That is, the woman who anoints him is identified as Mary. Judas is the disciple who complains about the waste. John’s version of the reply Jesus made is a little odd; “Let her keep it for my burial”. How can she keep it, when she has already used it? Perhaps the simplest answer is to refer it to her previous decision NOT to sell the oil. “It was right that she should keep it and not sell it, so that she could use it for this purpose today.” On that interpretation, John agrees with Matthew in treating the act as “anointing in advance”.
John complicates things further by adding detail from the anointing in Luke. The act is transferred from the head to the feet of Jesus, and Mary wipes them with her hair even though it is not necessary. She has not been weeping, so the feet are not wet. Nevertheless, there is no suggestion of the “repentance for sin” motive. He does not identify Mary of Bethany with the sinner. Nor does he identify Mary Magdalene with either of them.
No, church tradition, interpreting the New Testament, has been responsible for dragging the name of Mary Magdalene into these events. The quest for ways of harmonising the gospels would naturally lead to the assumption that all three anointing stories were the same story at heart, which would have the effect of identifying Mary of Bethany as a reformed sinner. Apparently it was Pope Gregory the Great who first identified Mary Magdalene as the sinful anointing woman and more specifically identified her sin as fornication. He depended heavily on the assumed connection between fornication and being possessed by demons, which doesn’t have direct Biblical backing. Perhaps also “keep it for my burial” encouraged the idea that Mary of Bethany must have been one of the women around the tomb.
I had it in my head that Mary Magdalene spent the Middle Ages as patron saint of prostitutes, but this role seems to have been informal rather than official. Certainly the Oxford English Dictionary defines “Magdalen” as “a reformed prostitute”. Her name was given to communities of nuns formed from reformed prostitutes and other institutions designed to shelter them. All because Pope Gregory decided to simplify the Biblical character list and give her name to somebody else.
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Propaganda and AI (the newest 'threat.) |
Posted by: Maxmars - 03-26-2024, 04:27 PM - Forum: Propaganda Mill
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Propaganda: What does it actually represent as an idea?
I have heard it said that the word "propaganda" has early roots in the Latin phrase "Congregatio de Propaganda Fide" meaning "Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith." That refers to a committee formed early in the Roman Catholic Church; their purpose was to spread church doctrine throughout the world.
"Propaganda" is a tool of persuasion. It is an approach to communications which prioritizes the "motivation" of speech or writing (or whatever) over the content (or information) itself. It manifests by taking the listener or audience on a speaker-controlled voyage...
"... Actors, preachers, teachers, politicians, editors, advertisers, salesman, reformers, authors, artists, parents, - our friends and even ourselves - practice the art of persuasion... acting in the ancient Roamn tradition of the word, we are all missionaries for our causes.
Propaganda, as we know it today, can be a nefarious as well as a noble art. For at one moment its techniques can be used to whip up racial hatred among groups of people; at another moment, it's methods can be employed to move persons to acts of warmth and kindness..." (From Lorne Green and Robert W. Allen in The Propaganda Game.)
In Allan and Green's short introduction they make an interesting, but important distinction.
"In a democratic society it is the role of every citizen to make decisions after evaluating many ideas. It is especially important then that a citizen be able to think clearly about the ideas that are daily presented to him (or her.) It is imperative that he be able to analyze and distinguish between the emotional aura surrounding the ideas, and the actual content of the ideas...."
And therein lies our first big hurdle... the standing question is that:
Are citizens actually "able" to make that distinction... can they detect when they are being subjected to persuasion?
Our education system certainly doesn't seem to value or pursue critical 'analysis' among students. Our media and political theater actively 'hides' deliberate efforts to persuade, preferring instead to engender a confidence in the audience to simply accept that they are being "informed" rather than "persuaded." Our social marketing is flooded with ideas where all judgement is removed, and the authors conclusions are presented as supported exclusively by impenetrable fact.
It has become so overt in practice that memes of the "stupidity" of people are all you can hear in the public voice. We have been conditioned (perhaps brainwashed) into thinking people MUST be "told" what to think, because they can't be trusted to learn "how" to. That embedded meme, or trope, is ever-present... it appears in theater, in media talking-head speech, in music, in think-tank 'pronouncements,' even in common parlance... Common humor exalts the "stupidity" of people, often marking it as the only way we can freely laugh (at other people.)
The term "propaganda" has been conflated and obfuscated by the propagandizers themselves. We hear words like "misinformation" and "disinformation," carefully defined in the most 'fuzzy' and insubstantial way. Often never even treated as propaganda they are seen as stand-alone 'products' - used exclusively by "those people... (you know who I mean.") Did you notice that? That's one of the many techniques one might face in persuasive argumentation.
I offer an example of the end game of "people are stupid."
From SecurityWeek: Preparing Society for AI-Driven Disinformation in the 2024 Election Cycle
Subtitled: The rapid evolution of AI and analytics engines will put campaign-year disinformation into hyperspeed in terms of false content creation, dissemination and impact.
The subtitle contains several "propaganda" techniques, as it "persuades" rather than informs. "AI" is currently "sold" to the population as an existing thing. It is not... technological advances have brought us close to the capabilities of AI, but it is not at all 'done and done.' "Campaign-year disinformation" is neither "new," nor has it ever been... it is what "campaigning" is about... persuasion at any cost to the information. "Hyper speed" is a technojargon term... meaning nothing, relatively speaking. Demanding that the prevalence of disinformation means it is "effective" is a false concept... disinformation itself is nothing unless the audience actually accepts it as true. Simply making 'disinformation' doesn't guarantee successful persuasion.
If you believe that the 2020 Presidential election in the United States represented the worst kind of campaign replete with lies, misstated facts and disinformation, I have some news for you. You haven’t seen anything yet.
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics engines will put campaign-year disinformation into hyperspeed in terms of false content creation, dissemination and impact. To prepare ourselves as a society to sift through falsehoods, deal with them appropriately and arrive at the truth, we need to understand how disinformation works in the age of AI.
This article describes the four steps of an AI-driven disinformation campaign and how to get ahead of them so that security teams can be more prepared to deal with – and seek the truth behind – advancing tactics of malicious actors.
I challenge the approach to this argument. Understanding how "disinformation works" is a misdirection. Disinformation is propaganda... propaganda doesn't 'work' on its own, it is used... implemented... with intent, motive, and design. Understanding it isn't as much about its existence, it's about discernment. The means to discern is not a matter of 'methodology' not a measure of metrics... it is a matter of observation and analysis.
The article lists 4 step (The 4-Steps of AI-Driven Disinformation Campaigns) which are intended to "give the audience to seek the truth behind malicious actors" (while causally associating the word "campaign" with the act.) "Malicious actors" also seems a biased term, since all governments, marketing or religious institutions, and other 'social' collectives practice propaganda (including misinformation) all the time... with none of it rejected as "malicious."
So, we see that this is to be a primer of just how one can rationalize 'labelling' anything against our preferences as "misinformation." Bravo.
Step one is labelled "Reconnaissance" ... in which "threat actors" features as the only people who make use of "disinformation." They use "big data" to determine what disinformation people will believe and react to. "It is literally akin to a professional marketing organization developing personas for persona-based marketing and sales." But that is definitely NOT called "misinformation," is it?
Step two relates to automation in content creation. Aside from the obvious, (save time = save money) it seems like a 'step' not requiring isolation - since it is the object of the discussion. "Misinformation" doesn't just spontaneously arise... by definition, it is made with the intent to deceive or mislead. Propaganda. I have to add, a machine whose function is to relay information, will do so... and AI is a machine (especially at this state of technology.) It will do as it is instructed to do, using data provided, not 'created.'
The tie-in to elections? Fake people voicing election opinions. Threat actors can instruct AI to sound like different types of Americans, across all segments of the population. For example, AI can easily create content to reflect the attitudes, opinions and vocabulary of a midwestern farmer if instructed to do so. It can then leverage the same data to create realistic content that would likely come from someone in Texas. AI is that flexible, and it can continue adjusting as it takes in more and more data, much of which people generate themselves on social media.
I suppose, given the effectiveness of the trope "people are stupid," it would stand to reason that they shouldn't be exposed to 'wrong' ideas, because they will simply adopt them... they will automatically believe them... As in "Fake people voicing election opinions." Because all it takes is hearing that opinion and all our reason is "lost" to the truth. That trope is tiresome.
But I don't believe that people are stupid in any general sense. I feel that people can, and will, most often be capable of holding their own opinion, and not simply passively waiting to be "told" what to think or feel. It seems to me that someone wants to take the next step in "stupid people brainwashing 101" by conditioning us in the present that we need to 'fear' opinions. Accept how feeble you are and let "us" tell you what is and isn't 'valid' ... that differences of opinions are 'offensive' and 'dangerous.' Any deviation from "our" opinion is the product of malice and bad intent... a battle cry against all we hold dear.
Step three is Amplification another questionable entry into the brotherhood of 'steps.' From the perspective of the listener, we are to assume that ignoring "some data" ("we'll tell you which") is the noble act of refusing to "amplify" the information. That now even listening to potentially "manufactured" content conveys guilt upon the listener... but of course.
Step four is Actualization. Which is something germane only to the executor, the sender of the 'false' message. Analyze the feedback and tweak the message again... over and over.
Most of this carries presumptive baggage. As it is now, AI is a tool... that is all. Perhaps someday it can actually achieve a sentient form, but it hasn't. Therefore, AI is no more of a threat to us than the internet is, or cars, or a hammer.
Any threat has to be 'inserted' by a human actor, not "perceived and interpreted" ...
Misinformation much?
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Another ATS migrant |
Posted by: Magesticesoteric - 03-26-2024, 03:59 PM - Forum: Introductions
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Hello all,
I’m not sure what took me so long to sign up here because it’s painfully obvious that ATS is likely on its last breath. It really is sad to see such a once great platform fizzle out the way it has been over the last five or six years.
Thank you so much DTOM for all your hard work as a Mod on ATS and for this new site you put together for everyone to resettle into… what you have accomplished is very admirable.
Many thanks to you!!!
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-@TH3WH17ERABB17- -Q- ---TIME TO SHOW THE WORLD--- |
Posted by: dashen - 03-26-2024, 03:58 PM - Forum: General Conspiracies
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Genesis 7:11, Genesis 8:4, תהלים 92:8 , תְּהִלִּים 27
-PART- - 44 -
HI AGAIN (again)(again) Y'ALL!!!
If youve been following since the beginning or if youre just joining us....
WE ARE TAKING BACK THE REPUBLIC
Some of you may be wondering,
"WTAF is going on here???"
THE STORY OF Q
On or around OCTOBER 31 2017 (possibly earlier) an anonymous poster calling themselves Q Clearance Patriot began dropping intel crumbs on a popular weeaboo image posting board.
Those initial drops began calling onto Question the entirety of the Global Power Structure. Questions were posed about Presidential use of Military Assets on US soil, MI, the National Guard, John McStain's alleged "health issues", who sits on the board of directors at the MAYO Clinic where he was receiving "treatment", how Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters have grandiose wealth far beyond what a public servant could possibly earn, and so on.
Once these initial crumbs were leaked that popular image posting board became suddenly and powerfully flooded by bots, shills, ddos attacks, temporary shutdows, firing and hiring of new moderators, unexplained dissapearances of threads, data and much much more. Soon the crumbs began to precede and coincide with Tweets by President Donald J Trump(4-10-20 +++) sparking renewed and redoubled efforts at both dissemination and decoding. Further "Q Clearance Patriot" drops about the absolutely unfettered power/abuse/control globally of the C . I . A (clowns in america, "clowns"for short) were met with further fury including subtle attacks against the NSA in the press. Nevertheless this crumb dropper(s) contiuned calling out alleged CIA/Cabal assets, fixers, and blackmailers such as GANNETT, TEGNA, Hugh Hefner, Heidi Fleiss, Rizvi Traverse, Prince ALwaleed Bin Talal+++, Past US Presidents, Escaped Nazis, Soros+, the Rothschild Family++, Loop Capital Markets, HUMA, the Awans, Podesta, Epstein, Abramovic, Rockerfellers, and on and on and on......
The endless torrent of disruptions this spurred on, forced the leaker by now known simply as "Q" to move and begin posting at an even skeevier image posting board. The shilling, DDOS attacks, disinfo, sliding, spamming, bots, splintering continued Ad-Nauseum unabated, yet Q persisted and the information (proof of CIA/CABAL/SEC.SOC. debauched crimes and unspeakable evil) was slowly but surely reaching the plebean masses(normies). Q made it very clear that it is up to US, THE PEOPLE, to make these sick wrongs known to ALL, so that evil should have no shadow of doubt to hide behind. The drops (including photos from AF1 over NK and Camp David) continued and coincided/predicted many major world events and presidential visits. NOW after months and months of slow-leaking "THE PLAN" it seems :
............. ... . They STILL Dont Know Who Q Is . ... .............
... ....... we are AWAKE ....... ...
...NOTHING CAN STOP WHAT IS COMING...
...TIME TO SHOW THE WORLD...
ENJOY THE SHOW
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Is the Eastern US going to have a "Cicada" Spring? |
Posted by: Maxmars - 03-25-2024, 08:12 PM - Forum: Current Events
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From ScienceLine: Don’t freak out, but the cicadas are coming — lots of them
Subtitled: Billions will likely emerge across the eastern half of the US this spring, but climate change is a wild card
Oh, I remember the last time! By coincidence, I moved back to the area where my entire life had been 'encrusted' with cicadas. Wherever you could cast your eyes, cicadas could be seen in abundance... literally like a wallpaper over the telephone poles, ann on every building surface. I kind of found it 'funny' until the noise nearly drove me mad.
Although the author treats us to the obligatory doctrine of these last few years, by opening with recipe ideas... there is some interesting information within NOT trying to 'sell' us on the 'joy' of eating bugs.
... for the first time since 1803, two broods of periodical cicadas will emerge at the same time in the Eastern U.S.
The broods, which are groups of cicadas in a particular region that emerge together, won’t overlap — except possibly in a small sliver in northern Illinois. But residents across much of the East can still expect to see “millions per acre” starting in late April or early May, says John Cooley, who studies cicadas at the University of Connecticut. “You won’t be able to avoid these,” he says.
Further on, the tell us that when the ground temperature reaches about 64 degrees (F) they will begin to tunnel upward from underground, where they have been maturing for a decade and a half or so.
The article has a particularly strong "save the Earth," "manmade climate change," and "bugs are great protein!" vibe. But despite that affliction it is worth reading.
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Another "No Dark matter" theory surfaces |
Posted by: Maxmars - 03-25-2024, 03:34 PM - Forum: Space
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I seem to be collecting these ... I promise I cannot say I actually agree (or disagree) since the math eludes me.
From ScienceDaily: New research suggests that our universe has no dark matter
A University of Ottawa study published today challenges the current model of the universe by showing that, in fact, it has no room for dark matter.
In cosmology, the term "dark matter" describes all that appears not to interact with light or the electromagnetic field, or that can only be explained through gravitational force. We can't see it, nor do we know what it's made of, but it helps us understand how galaxies, planets and stars behave.
The article makes a strangely unfamiliar point to me I had commonly heard the age of the universe to be some 13.8 billion years old... yet within this article is a quote that differs...
"The study's findings confirm that our previous work ("JWST early Universe observations and ΛCDM cosmology") about the age of the universe being 26.7 billion years has allowed us to discover that the universe does not require dark matter to exist," explains Gupta. "In standard cosmology, the accelerated expansion of the universe is said to be caused by dark energy but is in fact due to the weakening forces of nature as it expands, not due to dark energy."
(bold is mine)
When did I fall so far behind... 26.7 billion years? I thought that JWST information was rejected by scientists. I definitely missed something big... or is this just research 'tug of war?'
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Here's something to think about -Supreme Court |
Posted by: Ravenwatcher - 03-25-2024, 03:01 PM - Forum: Social Issues & Civil Unrest
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Nowadays there are so many fighting for equal rights , Or being woke and excepting everyone for who they are or want to be .
However I present to the supreme Court a case that represents out right oppression and unequal rights as Americans we have the right to be treated equal whether you are Men -Women-LGBTQRST or even want to pretend you are a dog .
But to this day any lady walking around with her boobs out will be sited or arrested and Men can do it at anytime day or night .
Take that case to the Supreme Court someone ! The ladies need reparations for all the anguish they have suffered from boob sweat having to cover up at all times .
I'm a Man you are a Women lets walk down the street together topless and see who gets arrested .
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AI researchers: "Two AIs talking to each other." |
Posted by: Maxmars - 03-25-2024, 03:00 PM - Forum: Current Events
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I thought the research article that appears in ScienceDaily: Two artificial intelligences talk to each other was very interesting.
A well-explained idea surfaces within it, one which featured some very accurate descriptions of what LLM (large language modelling) essentially is all about. Namely...
Performing a new task without prior training, on the sole basis of verbal or written instructions, is a unique human ability. What's more, once we have learned the task, we are able to describe it so that another person can reproduce it. This dual capacity distinguishes us from other species which, to learn a new task, need numerous trials accompanied by positive or negative reinforcement signals, without being able to communicate it to their congeners.
A sub-field of artificial intelligence (AI) -- Natural language processing -- seeks to recreate this human faculty, with machines that understand and respond to vocal or textual data...
(bold and underlining is mine)
While some are interested in making robots that can communicate instruction between them; it has significant application to approaching a 'true' intelligence, rather than the current "simulacra" that the media is trying brainwash us into believing is "AI".
The researcher and his team have succeeded in developing an artificial neuronal model with this dual capacity, albeit with prior training. ''We started with an existing model of artificial neurons, S-Bert, which has 300 million neurons and is pre-trained to understand language. We 'connected' it to another, simpler network of a few thousand neurons,'' explains Reidar Riveland, a PhD student in the Department of Basic Neurosciences at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, and first author of the study.
Fascinating stuff....
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My late hello |
Posted by: Hangedman13 - 03-25-2024, 01:51 PM - Forum: Introductions
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I joined up and did not do my due diligence. So, here we go. I am an immigrant from everyone's favorite site. Cryptids, anything paranormal and history are the topics that really excite me, but like many of us I fall into the political threads because of how conspiracy heavy its become. I'm hoping to see some good non political topics become "in" again.
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Pregnancy ... Aging forwards and THEN backwards! |
Posted by: Maxmars - 03-25-2024, 12:46 PM - Forum: Science & Technology
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An interesting pregnancy phenomenon has been studied and found to be remarkable.
As it turns out, when women are pregnant, a process known as DNA methylation causes the mother to undergo changes to her cells which are usually associated with aging. It seems to point to a stress on the mother which not only ages her by one to two years, but amazingly reverses itself after the pregnancy and if she breastfeeds, reverses itself and "undoes" the process, sometimes even beyond the pseudo-aging starting point.
From Science.org: Pregnancy may increase biological age by 2 years—though some people end up ‘younger’
Subtitled: Body’s cells appear to age faster during pregnancy, but they might recover—and even thrive—in the months after birth
Pregnancy is the ultimate stress test.
Nurturing a growing fetus requires a series of profound physical, hormonal, and chemical changes that may rewire every major organ in the body and can cause serious health complications such as hypertension and preeclampsia. But does being pregnant actually take years off your life?
According to the results of a new study, it just might. Today in Cell Metabolism, scientists report that the stress of pregnancy can cause a person’s biological age to increase by up to 2 years—a trend that may reverse itself in the months that follow. In some cases, the authors write, those who breastfeed their children after giving birth may end up biologically “younger” than during early pregnancy.
This article might be the highlight of my day. I had always wondered if the true 'meme" of pregnancy was ever rightfully characterized as "using up" the mother... but as it turns out, the nature of life is to balance everything. There is no doubt that childbearing is a tremendous burden on women... but it not a "destructive" burden by design.
Because pregnancy is so stressful on the body, it wasn’t too shocking to learn that it could also cause premature aging. But Gladyshev and his colleagues also found evidence that this effect partially reversed in the days following childbirth, when the body begins to recover.
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The discovery that biological aging isn’t necessarily a linear process “came as a real surprise,” says Kieran O’Donnell, a perinatal researcher at the Yale School of Medicine.
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But blood samples from 68 participants, collected 3 months after giving birth, revealed a dramatic about-face. Although being pregnant had initially aged their cells between 1 and 2 years, O’Donnell says, their biological age now appeared to be 3 to 8 years younger than it had been during early pregnancy—with different epigenetic clocks algorithms providing slightly bigger or smaller estimates. The effect appeared to be slightly muted in people who had a higher body weight prior to pregnancy, whereas it was enhanced in women who reported exclusively breastfeeding.
Let's hope this information can dissuade any who engender "fear" of pregnancy as a 'malignant' condition. That of course may never end due to the 'social' aspects of modern human life... but hey... it's a hope of mine.
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Amazon women of ancient Greece actually existed? |
Posted by: Maxmars - 03-25-2024, 12:29 PM - Forum: History
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I have long understood the idea of "Amazon warrior women" to be a mythological notion... but it appears there may have been some substance to the story.
From The Guardian: ‘Truth behind the myths’: Amazon warrior women of Greek legend may really have existed
Subtitled: Excavations of bronze age graves have found battle-scarred female archers, says the historian Bettany Hughes
In Greek legends, the Amazons were feared and formidable women warriors who lived on the edge of the known world. Hercules had to obtain the magic girdle of the Amazonian queen Hippolyte in one of his 12 labours, and Achilles killed another queen, Penthesilea, only to fall in love with her as her beautiful face emerged from her helmet.
These horseback-riding, bow-wielding nomads, who fought and hunted just like men, have long been shrouded in myth, but archaeologists are discovering increasing evidence that they really did exist.
Archeological evidence in the Caucuses and steppe, in Azerbaijan have yielded some evidence that such women did, in fact, exist. Other indicators seem consistent with historical accounts and records which might lead one to accept that a group of exclusively female warriors once existed. The finds consistently reflected that they were long-time users of bow and arrow weapons, rode horses, and did in fact engage in combat.
I find the notion of reliance on ranged weapons as reasonable. Women might generally avoid hand-to-hand combat, as might be expected, although maces figured prominently among the weapons found most frequently among remains.
There has been a settlement there since the bronze age, and some of its 2,000 residents tell her that, in ancient times, their women disguised themselves as men with scarves – stories handed down through their generations.
She raised ancient stories of Amazons with them: “They said, ‘all of our grandmothers fought. The men were all away with the herds. The women always used to cover their faces to fight’, which is exactly what the ancient sources said, so that people didn’t know whether they were women or men.”
Nothing new under the sun... as they say.
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Reducing Alzheimer's Risk with Viagra? |
Posted by: Maxmars - 03-25-2024, 11:49 AM - Forum: Science & Technology
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The onset and development of Alzheimer's can be a tragic and devastating thing to experience. The neurodegenerative disease has been said to cause brain shrinkage, brain cell death, and worsening dementia ... and it's no wonder we cringe inside when we know of the harm it has done to people everywhere.
A certain medication has surfaced in recent years, Viagra (Sildenafil) has been popularized because of the increasingly successful use in treatments of sexual disfunction (in both males and females.) But it is also useful with pulmonary arterial hypertension, Raynaud's Phenomenon (numbness in certain body parts,) and now maybe (hopefully) something further:
From ScienceAlert: Huge Study Confirms Viagra Cuts Alzheimer's Risk by Over 50%
An FDA-approved pharmaceutical used to treat erectile dysfunction could soon be recommended as a therapy for decreasing the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
By analyzing medical insurance data alongside a laboratory investigation on the genetic and neurological effects of sildenafil – a drug sold commonly under the brand name Viagra – researchers in the US have validated the medication's potential in keeping critical proteins in nerve cells from tangling into a deadly mess.
Studies have repeatedly demonstrated enzyme blockers called phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors not only have an ability to promote blood flow in the penis, but could prevent the neurodegeneration responsible for dementia.
Here's to hoping we can drastically reduce the onset of brain maladies with this new approach...
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Hashing out Shakespear's Bio |
Posted by: Maxmars - 03-25-2024, 11:35 AM - Forum: People
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I'm not much of a follower of the Shakespearean lifetime, nor am I inclined to the thespian hero of old; but I found this article very interesting.
From ScienceAlert: Mysterious Author of 'Dangerous' Shakespeare Family Confession Finally Revealed
The voice of a woman largely overlooked by history has been discovered in a "dangerous" declaration attributed to the father of famous playwright William Shakespeare.
It's known as the "Spiritual Testament", discovered in the rafters of Shakespeare House in Stratford-Upon-Avon in 1757, signed by one J. Shakespeare.
Historians have interpreted this J. Shakespeare to mean John Shakespeare, making the document a shocking one: in it, the author declares a devotion to the Catholic faith, and vows to die a Catholic death.
During John Shakespeare's life, under the Protestant queen Elizabeth I, this would have been a dangerous heresy. There is just one problem, according to literature professor Matthew Steggle of the University of Bristol. John didn't write it. Joan did.
That's Joan Shakespeare Hart, the sister of William, who outlived her brother by 30 years, occupying the Shakespeare house until her own death in 1646.
Apparently, there might have been some confusion over whether J. Shakespeare was "John" or "Joan" (regarding this risky admission of Catholicism.)
There existed, at the time of the writing, an almost universal disregard for women in matters of education and social standing, so it is quite possible that any of the "J. Shakespeare" would have been casually assumed to be either Shakespeare's father or himself.
"Virginia Woolf wrote a famous essay, 'Shakespeare's sister', about how a figure like her could never hope to be a writer or have her writing preserved, so she has become something of a symbol for all the lost voices of early modern women. There are hundreds of thousands of words surviving from her brother, and until now none at all, of any description, from her."
Studying the "Spiritual Testament" has been a problem almost since its discovery. It was studied and described by Shakespeare enthusiasts in 1784, and then again in 1789. Even back then, in his 1789 description, Shakespeare scholar Edmond Malone noted that the handwriting seemed at least 30 years more modern than John Shakespeare's death in 1601. He thought it might have been penned by an unknown son that John had named after himself.
I thought I would add this to our "people" forum... in case anyone might be researching the author, and the tremendous impact his work had on our society.
Enjoy!
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One explanation of where we are with COVID origin theories |
Posted by: Maxmars - 03-25-2024, 12:40 AM - Forum: Diseases & Pandemics
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I am not sure how much to accept the author's article regarding the latest take of the "COVID origin theory"...
But I think I'll leave the judgment up to you...
From Neuroamer.com: Latest on Covid Origins 14feb24.
A recent FOIA request by Right To Know’s Emily Kopp yielded new information about Project Defuse, a DARPA grant proposal from 2018 to study bat-borne Coronaviruses that included Wuhan Institute of Virology researcher Shi Zhengli.
The newly released documents, show collaborators’ internal notes on drafts of the grant proposal, which yielded two small revelations...
Of course, these revelations are extracted from a proposal submitted for a grant... which only serves to offer insight into the ultimate outcome.
- The grant proposal tried to downplay the involvement of the Chinese collaborators doing bioengineering work, because the scientists thought DARPA would be less likely to fund the project if they thought that work was occurring in China...
- The language originally listed work that could be performed at BSL-2 to save money compared to other viral models.
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The debate into Covid origins online has been poisoned by tribalism and conspiracy theorists, and I was hoping this debate would be a forum, where debaters could actually present and discuss the best arguments for Covid’s most likely origin.
I was sort of impressed by the treatment of the subject. I think if you are still focusing on the developments in this regard, it is well worth the read.
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Greetings - newly arrived |
Posted by: Justina - 03-24-2024, 07:36 PM - Forum: Introductions
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Previously known slightly on other forums of note, but mainly here to watch, listen, and learn. Thankful for another refuge, and for others who dare to question. Blessings.
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Is disclosure being brought to us by Netflix? |
Posted by: Raptured - 03-24-2024, 12:21 PM - Forum: Aliens & UFOs
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Just a quick thought regarding recent releases on Netflix that deal with first contact. 2 hit shows, "3 Body Problem" and "The Signal" both deal with first contact and society's reaction if such an event happens.
Now, maybe I'm just noticing the coincidence (there are no coincidences) based on the content I watch and what Netflix pushes to me but given the prevelance of "news" regarding UAPs, the working groups in the US Gov that deal with them and ther shift in social-stigma when it comes to discussing such subject matter, does anyone else notice the increase in content that deals with such things?
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Not at the feast |
Posted by: DISRAELI - 03-24-2024, 11:52 AM - Forum: Religion, Faith, & Theology
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According to many modern translations, the chief priests and scribes were anxious to arrest Jesus, but not “during the feast, lest there be a tumult of the people” (Mark ch14 v2, Matthew ch26 v5). The AV modifies it by adding a supplementary word; “on the feast day. These translations give the impression that they wanted to avoid action during a period of time. This in turn gives rise to the idea that they changed their minds when Judas showed them how the arrest could be made in the middle of this period.
However, I think this idea is a misunderstanding, based on a mistranslation.
The Greek expression translated as “during the feast” is EN TE HEORTE. But EN is the equivalent of the English “In” and has a wider range of meanings than “during”. That is why the AV translates “on” and is obliged to add “day” to make it more idiomatic in English speech. I’m going to suggest, though, that HEORTE is not a period of time but a location.
Let’s take a similar expression in modern English; “At the carnival”. The best-known carnival in the world is surely the Brazilian “Carnavale” (their spelling wanders further away from the Latin CARNI VALE, “farewell to flesh). The most recent Carnavale was held on February 9[sup]th[/sup]-14[sup]th[/sup] 2024. But can we say that something is happening “at the carnival” just because it is happening during that time period? Surely a man can’t truly say that he is “in the carnival” or “at the carnival” unless he’s out there on the streets. If he’s hiding out in a back street hotel room, then he’s evading the carnival, not being part of it. “At the carnival” is as much about location as it is about time.
So “not at the feast” could be understood as “not in the streets, in the middle of the crowds which have gathered for the feast”. And that’s exactly how Luke seems to take it. His paraphrase is that Judas offered them a chance to capture Jesus “in the absence of the multitude” (Luke ch22 v6). While in John, the chief priests and Pharisees are giving orders that “if anyone knew where [Jesus} was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him” (John ch11v57). This too is about “away from the crowds”.
So Judas was, in fact, offering the authorities what they had wanted from the beginning, namely a way to arrest Jesus without interference, because it would be “not in the middle of the feast-crowds”.
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