Today's Bonus blog is for our friends Sue and Jim who are warming in Florida! While here in New England we just got hit with a quick moving "Alberta Clipper" - WHAT IS A CLIPPER? A clipper system is a fast-moving cold front that occurs in winter and originates in Canada and sweeps east, bringing light, fluffy snow in its wake. They usually generate snow east of the Rocky Mountains (Colorado north into Canada) and all the way to the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic U.S.
Recently, Chris, the host of Forbidden Knowledge News talked w/Rob about Ghosts, Pets, Hauntings. You can see the 1 hour interview here! https://rumble.com/embed/v474cwh/?pub=4
OTHER PLATFORMS TO HEAR IT:
Recently, I connected with a talented animator named Md Shams who manages CrazyCreative. I had him create 11 short (10 to 20 second) animations for each of my 11 books and wanted a longer trailer for the new book, but he was drawn to my "Kindred Spirits: How a Spirit Befriended a Medium," book. Before I knew it, he scripted out a 60-second video and sent it to me for edits. The video in today's blog is an amazing result. See what you think!- Rob
New buzz about coffee genes: A more complete genome sequence of world's most popular variety
Scientists construct the most complete genomic map of the Arabica coffee bean, which accounts for close to 60% of global coffee production; findings may lead to more disease- and drought-resistant strains.
Like its flavor profile, the genome of Arabica coffee is large and complex. This makes breeding and genetic survey work more difficult, but this diverse genetic background may have contributed to bean's popularity, practicality, and commercial success.
A new study published in Nature Communications has generated a more complete genome sequence of the world's most popular coffee variety, suggesting that historic hybridization with Robusta coffee is the source of disease resistance within modern Arabica cultivars.
Commercial coffee is mainly produced from Coffea canephora and Coffea arabica, known as Robusta and Arabica coffee, respectively. Arabica coffee, the species responsible for about 60% of global coffee production, is derived from the hybridization between the ancestors of present-day Robusta coffee and another closely related coffee species, Coffea eugeniodes.
This hybridization resulted in Arabica's coffee flavor and its large and complex genome, which poses challenges for breeding and genetic studies. Several partial genome assemblies of Arabica coffee are currently available, but the mechanisms generating its genetic diversity are unclear.
Michele Morgante, Gabriele Di Gaspero and colleagues employed the latest sequencing technologies to generate a more complete genome assembly for Arabica coffee, allowing for a detailed analysis of the structure of its chromosomes.
When analyzing the genome, including previously inaccessible regions, such as those around centromeres, they found differences in the structure, function and evolution of the genomes contributed by its two progenitor species, especially for genes involved in caffeine biosynthesis.
The authors also analyzed the genomes of 174 samples collected from different species within the Coffea genus and noticed a very low level of genetic diversity within Arabica coffee. Diversity was found to increase in some Arabica coffee cultivars at specific genomic regions, due to two different sources of variation: chromosomal abnormalities and genetic segments donated by a Robusta-Arabica hybrid, known as the Timor Hybrid.
This hybrid has become the parental line of many modern cultivars that combine the disease resistance trait of Robusta coffee and the unique flavor of Arabica coffee.
The authors suggest that the genetic diversity of Arabica coffee is essential for its commercial success, and the findings may help develop new coffee varieties with desirable traits, such as disease resistance or different flavor profiles.
I've always loved Aquaman, and have even gone to Comic cons dressed up like the superhero. So, I bought DC Comics DC Showcase Presents Aquaman Volume 3 Trade Paperback. I liked most of the collection, but half the stories started to introduce space aliens, and it just got a little hokey. If you can get through those, it's a good collection!
The black and white 500 page volume reprints of Aquaman #24-39 of the 1960s. The book also a includes a Brave and the Bold #73 team-up with the Atom and a story from Jimmy Olsen #115. All of the Aqua family are in these stories: Aquaman, Mera, and Aqualad (Garth), Aqua girl and even Aqua baby.
My four books in the "Pets and the Afterlife" series are filled with readings and confirmations. Back in September, I was contacted by a woman who works in a veterinary clinic and whose dog had just passed. She wanted to talk with me about doing a lecture at the Veterinary Practice on how pets communicate from the afterlife. I've given countless lectures for rescues, veterinarians, and many other venues, so this is a common request. I agreed to do the lecture if wanted.
But since her dog passed and she didn't know how readings work, I did an "emergency" pet reading and didn't ask for my standard fee ($25) so she would get an idea of how my readings work and get comfort from her dog who passed.
She received the messages, understood them, and sent a nice thank you note. But, I didn't hear back about the lecture. However, I understand these events take time, planning, and a lot of approvals to organize. So, I forgot about it. It's easy to forget when I do hundreds of readings a year, and events or interviews every other weekend.
Then, last month, about 5 months after the reading, she sent me a note and a surprise payment of double what I usually charge for a reading. I was so taken aback by it. She wrote, "I am sending $50.00 for my dog's reading from September. I know you said I didn't have to but I wanted to. I hope you and the family are warm and well."
Today's lesson: No matter how long it takes, a nice note or even more, is always appreciated after a gesture of kindness. I was very touched and grateful.
Here's another reckless driving idiot! Usually idiots who decide to speed excessively wind up in fatal accidents, although some, like this week's idiot did not. This moron fled from the police, sped excessively, and fortunately, the state police stopped him at a toll booth before he killed someone.
(Caption: K9 Corporal Lucas Bellanceau and K9 Breezy. rescue pair of lost hikers in steep falls SOURCE: from Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife))
K9 Warden helps locate and rescue pair of lost hikers in Steep Falls
WMTW - TV, Portland, Maine, Dec 31, 2023
STANDISH, Maine — Two missing hikers were rescued in the woods of Steep Falls on Sunday afternoon by Game Wardens and a K9 after they got lost while on a hike.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife says 48-year-old Joseph Caroto of Limington and 55-year-old Stacey Gain of Baldwin were on a hike with another friend Saturday afternoon off of Mills Street in Steep Falls when they got turned around and could not find their way back.
After the three spent the night in the woods Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023, one of them was able to hike out and wander to a house to get help.
When authorities were alerted, K9 units from the Maine Warden Service and Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office started searching the large bog in the area.
Officials say around 3 p.m. Sunday, Warden K9 Breezy struck on a scent and led Warden Lucas Bellanceau to the stranded hikers, who were severely hypothermic, and unable to walk.
Game Wardens started a fire and gave the two food and warm drinks. Wardens and officials from other emergency response units were able to carry the hikers out through the bog.
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Warden since 2012, K9 Handler since 2016
Breezy will do anything for a ball (or anything she can retrieve) and would run all day long if Lucas let her. K9 Breezy is certified in tracking, evidence, hasty air scent search, and human remains detection (land and water). She is eager to please and very energetic when it is time to work.
Lucas has been the K9 Corporal since 2019. As one of the oldest conservation-related K9 units in the country, his vision is to continue the incredible work done by the handlers and K9s by improving training methods and working closely with other agencies and K9 organizations. He is determined for the team to have the most capable and highly trained K9s as possible to best serve the public and natural resources of Maine.
JANUARY 24, 2024 MORNING EDITION, NPR, Rob Stein
An experimental gene therapy tested in young children with an inherited form of deafness restored some hearing for most of them.
For the first time, gene therapy is showing promise for treating inherited deafness, researchers reported on Jan. 24, 2024.
A study involving six children born with a genetic defect that left them profoundly deaf found that an experimental form of gene therapy restored at least some hearing for five of them.
"We are absolutely thrilled," says Zheng-Yi Chen, an associate scientist at Mass Eye and Ear's Eaton-Peabody Laboratories and associate professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Chen led the research, which was published in the journal The Lancet.
"This is really the first time that hearing has been restored in any adult or children by a new approach — a gene therapy approach," Chen tells NPR in an interview.
He says the researchers plan to try the approach with other forms of genetic deafness, as well as possibly hearing loss caused by age and noise. "That's something we're really excited about," Chen says.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Restoring a protein needed for hearing: The study involved children born with rare genetic defect in a gene that produces otoferlin, a protein necessary for the transmission of the sound signals from the ear to the brain. The researchers modified a virus commonly used to ferry genes into the body known as an adeno-associated virus to carry a functioning form of the gene into the inner ear.
Within weeks, five of the six children, who were between the ages of 1 and 7, began to be able to hear and the oldest child has been able to say simple words, Chen says. The children were treated at the EYE & ENT Hospital of Fudan University in China.
"Before the treatment they couldn't hear a thing. You could put the loudest sound in the ear and they don't hear anything," Chen says. "And now they can hear."
The children's hearing isn't completely normal — they may still need hearing aids — but improved significantly, Chen says. The treatment appears safe. The children have been followed for between six months and a year so far.
"It worked as well as we imagined," Chen says. "This really was beyond our expectations."
Chen and his colleagues have continued to treat additional patients and will follow the study subjects in the hope that the improvement is permanent.
"This is a very big deal. It's a new dawn for hearing loss," Chen says.
A first for treatment of hereditary deafness Other researchers agreed.
Several other groups are pursuing similar gene therapies for genetic deafness and will report their findings Feb. 3 at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology.
NEW PODCAST!! PART 1: Paranormal NL Podcast host, Jennifer talks with Rob Gutro about his Pets and the Afterlife series and the science of the paranormal! (30 minutes) (Part 2 comes tomorrow)
