“Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be kind.”

[XPerceniol]

I use Binaural Beats when I meditate. 

[XPerceniol]

Also I have a "white noise" machine for night. 

[msfntor]

On 11/14/2022 at 9:37 PM, jumper said:

What is "Binaural Beats"? There was a tech question about it several years ago here on MSFN that went unanswered because no one understood what was being asked.

 

It's "a sound technology": The term “binaural” means “two sounds,”  "This sophisticated recording technique uses tiny differences in frequency to generate two close tones and a third, phantom tone."

- quotes from the article above...

[XPerceniol]

Anything is better and worth trying before dreaded medication. Let us know if it works for you.

I've been asleep on the sofa for 4 hours and I feel dazed.

[XPerceniol]

Please, though, use good quality headphones (Stereo, of course)

[XPerceniol]

 

[XPerceniol]

On 11/14/2022 at 2:53 PM, msfntor said:

IMMEDIATELY...

9:30 and am going to try this tonight and will let you know in the AM

Hope everyone is doing alright.

Good night

[msfntor]

On 11/16/2022 at 12:37 AM, XPerceniol said:

Anything is better and worth trying before dreaded medication. Let us know if it works for you.

I've been asleep on the sofa for 4 hours and I feel dazed.

Too much sleep during the day (naps..) is not good for our health!

Sleep during the night, action during the day!

Yesterday I was out walking for 3 hours, and afterwards I didn't feel tired!Action, action!

[msfntor]

On 11/16/2022 at 12:37 AM, XPerceniol said:

Please, though, use good quality headphones (Stereo, of course)

Of course, but now to me - better is hearing silence...

I always used the best quality headphones.

Once I had a bad experience with headphones: suddenly the volume went up to the max!... I didn't know what to do for a few seconds... I remember this to this day. It was horrible. to my ears.

[msfntor]

7 Fascinating Facts About the Tardigrade, the Only Animal That Can Survive in Space

All hail the toughest organism on Earth.

BY WILLIAM HERKEWITZ AND DAISY HERNANDEZ PUBLISHED: OCT 21, 2022

Co/Getty Images

Tardigrades are one of the most fascinating creatures on Earth—and the moon. In 2019, the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crashed on the moon, spilling thousands of the dehydrated tardigrades that scientists loaded onto the lander (along with human DNA samples).

The tardigrades were in “tun” form, a dormant state where they shrivel up into a ball, expel most of the water in their bodies, and lower their metabolism via cryptobiosis until they enter an environment better suited for sustaining life. They can exist like this for decades. They’re also pretty hardy and can endure even the harshest environments, including subzero temperatures—and, you know, lunar crash landings.

💫 The universe is amazing! Let’s nerd out over it together.

We talked to leading researchers to find out what makes these little “water bears” so amazing. Here are our seven favorite facts about tardigrades, according to the latest research.

1) Tardigrades are everywhere.

Tardigrades are a class of microscopic animals with eight limbs and strange, alien-like behavior. William Miller, a leading tardigrade researcher at Baker University, says they are remarkably abundant. Hundreds of species “are found across the seven continents; everywhere from the highest mountain to the lowest sea,” he says. “Many species of tardigrades live in water, but on land, you find them almost everywhere there’s moss or lichen.”

In 2007, scientists discovered these microscopic critters can survive an extended stay in the cold, irradiated vacuum of outer space. A European team of researchers sent a group of living tardigrades to orbit the earth on the outside of a FOTON-M3 rocket for 10 days. When the water bears returned to Earth, the scientists discovered that 68 percent lived through the ordeal.

Although tardigrades are unique in their ability to survive in space, Miller insists there is no reason to believe they evolved for this reason or—as a misleading VICE documentary has implied—that they are of extraterrestrial origin. Rather, the tardigrade’s space-surviving ability is the result of a strange response they’ve evolved to overcome an earthly life-threatening problem: a water shortage.

Land-dwelling tardigrades can be found in some of the driest places on Earth. “I’ve collected living tardigrades from under a rock in the Sinai desert, in a part of the desert that hadn't had any record of rain for the previous 25 years,” Miller says. Yet these are technically aquatic creatures, and require a thin layer of water to do pretty much anything, including eating, having sex, or moving around. Without water, they’re about as lively as a beached dolphin.

2) Tardigrades can pause their biological clock....

3) Tardigrades probably can’t see in color....

4) Tardigrades can survive the harshest atmospheres....

5) Even space radiation is no match for tardigrades....

6) Still, tardigrades aren’t completely invincible.

There might be one thing tardigrades are not so well-equipped to handle: high temperatures over a prolonged period of time, per a study published in Scientific Reports in January 2020. The study revealed that this temperature-based Achilles’ heel also extends to when tardigrades are in their protective tun states.

Researchers studied Ramazzottius varieornatus, a species of tardigrade, in tun state and noted nearly 50 percent of the tardigrades exposed to 181 degrees Fahrenheit over the course of an hour perished. Active tardigrades—that is, those not in tun state—fared even worse.

These temperature experiments show that, given time, most tardigrades can adjust to intense temperature fluctuations: The tardigrades who had an hour to acclimate to intense heat faced higher mortality rates, compared to those who had a full 24 hours.

“Tardigrades can survive pressures that are comparable to those created when asteroids strike Earth, so a small crash like this is nothing to them,” Lukasz Kaczmarek, an expert on tardigrades, told The Guardian.

So what does this mean for us? If humans could replicate cryptobiosis in the way tardigrades do, we’d live far longer than the average life expectancy. According to Kaczmarek, when a tardigrade enters the tun state, it doesn’t age. It becomes dormant at one month old and can wake up years later and still biologically be the same age.

“It may be that we can use this in the future if we plan missions to different planets, because we will need to be young when we get there,” said Kaczmarek.

7) Some tardigrades lay spiked eggs....

MORE: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a11137/tardigrades-water-bears/

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by msfntor
changed image to lighter: from .gif 1.59 MB to .jpg 30 KB!

[msfntor]

Musk Announces All Food In Twitter Cafeteria Will Cost $8

TECH·Nov 16, 2022 · BabylonBee.com

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday he would be opening an exclusive company cafeteria that would sell items for $8.00 each, reversing an earlier policy in which free delicacies were lovingly spooned directly into the mouths of employees by an on-call wait staff.

"Twitter is losing millions of dollars a day. We can't keep giving away food," Musk said in a company-wide e-mail. "Support your own paycheck by buying the new Musk Meatball Sub in the company cafeteria!"

Musk's message continued, "I know you can afford 8 bucks for lunch. That's exactly how much you've been paying for fancy coffee drinks every morning ever since I got rid of the barista."

Employees immediately took to Twitter to disparage the announcement. "He is literally asking us to starve to death," tweeted employee Janelle Misiqua (@manwoman). UPDATE:Janelle Misiqua has been fired.

"I'm afraid to try the salad," tweeted Client Account Manager Shelley Duvall (@xxxhotdogtown). "It could be anything!" UPDATE: Shelley Duvall has been fired.

Others have expressed confusion that every item on the menu costs the same. "Why am I paying 8 bucks for lima beans and a pasta dish? It doesn't make any sense," tweeted Director of Accounting Daryl Philbro. UPDATE: Daryl Philbro has been fired.

Network Admin David D'Angelo (@iamacat), however, posted a contrary opinion. "The Musk meatball sub is chef's kiss," he tweeted. "Well worth the 8 dollars. Would buy again."

At publishing time, Musk decided to scrap the new cafeteria in favor of watching Twitter employees battle each other for bread in the new Twitter Thunderdome.

Here: https://babylonbee.com/news/musk-announces-all-food-in-twitter-cafeteria-will-cost-8

[msfntor]

World Population Hits 8 Billion, Creating Many Challenges

People move through a market in Mumbai, India, Nov. 12, 2022.

 

The world's population is projected to hit an estimated 8 billion people on Tuesday, according to a United Nations projection, with much of the growth coming from developing nations in Africa.

Among them is Nigeria, where resources are already stretched to the limit. More than 15 million people in Lagos compete for everything from electricity to light their homes to spots on crowded buses, often for two-hour commutes each way in this sprawling megacity. Some Nigerian children set off for school as early as 5 a.m.

And over the next three decades, the West African nation's population is expected to soar even more: from 216 million this year to 375 million, the U.N. says. That will make Nigeria the fourth-most populous country in the world after India, China and the United States.

"We are already overstretching what we have — the housing, roads, the hospitals, schools. Everything is overstretched," said Gyang Dalyop, an urban planning and development consultant in Nigeria.

The U.N.'s Day of 8 Billion milestone Tuesday is more symbolic than precise, officials are careful to note in a wide-ranging report released over the summer that makes some staggering projections.

The upward trend threatens to leave even more people in developing countries further behind, as governments struggle to provide enough classrooms and jobs for a rapidly growing number of youth, and food insecurity becomes an even more urgent problem.

Nigeria is among eight countries the U.N says will account for more than half the world's population growth between now and 2050 — along with fellow African nations Congo, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

"The population in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to double between 2022 and 2050, putting additional pressure on already strained resources and challenging policies aimed to reduce poverty and inequalities," the U.N. report said.

 

It projected the world's population will reach around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.

Other countries rounding out the list with the fastest growing populations are Egypt, Pakistan, the Philippines and India, which is set to overtake China as the world's most populous nation next year.

In Congo's capital, Kinshasa, where more than 12 million people live, many families struggle to find affordable housing and pay school fees. While elementary pupils attend for free, older children's chances depend on their parents' incomes.

"My children took turns" going to school, said Luc Kyungu, a Kinshasa truck driver who has six children. "Two studied while others waited because of money. If I didn't have so many children, they would have finished their studies on time."

Rapid population growth also means more people vying for scarce water resources and leaves more families facing hunger as climate change increasingly impacts crop production in many parts of the world.

"There is also a greater pressure on the environment, increasing the challenges to food security that is also compounded by climate change," said Dr. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India. "Reducing inequality while focusing on adapting and mitigating climate change should be where our policy makers' focus should be."

Still, experts say the bigger threat to the environment is consumption, which is highest in developed countries not undergoing big population increases.

"Global evidence shows that a small portion of the world's people use most of the Earth's resources and produce most of its greenhouse gas emissions," said Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the Population Foundation of India. "Over the past 25 years, the richest 10% of the global population has been responsible for more than half of all carbon emissions."

According to the U.N., the population in sub-Saharan Africa is growing at 2.5% per year — more than three times the global average. Some of that can be attributed to people living longer, but family size remains the driving factor. Women in sub-Saharan Africa on average have 4.6 births, twice the current global average of 2.3.

Families become larger when women start having children early, and 4 out of 10 girls in Africa marry before they turn 18, according to U.N. figures. The rate of teen pregnancy on the continent is the highest in the world — about half of the children born last year to mothers under 20 worldwide were in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Still, any effort to reduce family size now would come too late to significantly slow the 2050 growth projections, the U.N. said. About two-thirds of it "will be driven by the momentum of past growth."

"Such growth would occur even if childbearing in today's high-fertility countries were to fall immediately to around two births per woman," the report found.

There are also important cultural reasons for large families. In sub-Saharan Africa, children are seen as a blessing and as a source of support for their elders — the more sons and daughters, the greater comfort in retirement.

Still, some large families "may not have what it takes to actually feed them," says Eunice Azimi, an insurance broker in Lagos and mother of three.

"In Nigeria, we believe that it is God that gives children," she said. "They see it as the more children you have, the more benefits. And you are actually overtaking your peers who cannot have as many children. It looks like a competition in villages."

Politics also have played a role in Tanzania, where former President John Magufuli, who ruled the East African country from 2015 until his death in 2021, discouraged birth control, saying that a large population was good for the economy.

He opposed family planning programs promoted by outside groups, and in a 2019 speech urged women not to "block ovaries." He even described users of contraceptives as "lazy" in a country he said was awash with cheap food. Under Magufuli, pregnant schoolgirls were even banned from returning to classrooms.

But his successor, Samia Suluhu Hassan, appeared to reverse government policy in comments last month when she said birth control was necessary in order not to overwhelm the country's public infrastructure.

Even as populations soar in some countries, the U.N. says rates are expected to drop by 1% or more in 61 nations.

The U.S. population is now around 333 million, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The population growth rate in 2021 was just 0.1%, the lowest since the country was founded.

"Going forward, we're going to have slower growth — the question is, how slow?" said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. "The real wild card for the U.S. and many other developed countries is immigration."

Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, says environmental concerns surrounding the 8 billion mark should focus on consumption, particularly in developed countries.

"Population is not the problem, the way we consume is the problem — let's change our consumption patterns," he said.

Here: https://www.voanews.com/a/world-population-hits-8-billion-creating-many-challenges/6834989.html

Edited November 17, 2022 by msfntor

[XPerceniol]

14 hours ago, msfntor said:

...Once I had a bad experience with headphones: suddenly the volume went up to the max!... I didn't know what to do for a few seconds... I remember this to this day. It was horrible. to my ears.

Oh no, I've had that happen once and it lasted for days ... glad you didn't suffer permanent damage.

Yeah, I have 5 headphones and only 2 (Emerson and JLab) are good ... the were some cheap ones and I NEVER use ear buds or put something in my ear canal.

Oddly enough, I use old HP desktop speakers from (maybe) 2004 that were a gift and they sound awesome; go figure.

[msfntor]

Birdy - People Help The People [Official Music Video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmLNs6zQIHo

Jéssica Valesca

1 year ago

Lyrics:

God knows what is hiding In those weak and drunken hearts

I guess you kissed the girls and made them cry

Those hardfaced queens of misadventure

God knows what is hiding In those weak and sunken eyes

A fiery throngs of muted angels Giving love but getting nothing back

Oh, people help the people And if you're homesick,

Give me your hand and I'll hold it People help the people

Nothing will drag you down Oh, and if I had a brain

Oh, and if I had a brain I'd be cold as a stone and rich as the fool

That turned all those good hearts away

God knows what is hiding In this world of little consequence

Behind the tears, inside the lies A thousand slowly dying sunsets

God knows what is hiding In those weak and drunken hearts

I guess that loneliness came knocking

No one needs to be alone, oh, save me

People help the people

And if you're homesick, Give me your hand and I'll hold it

People help the people Nothing will drag you down Oh, and if I had a brain, Oh, and if I had a brain, I'd be cold as a stone and rich as the fool

That turned all those good hearts away People help the people

And if you're homesick, Give me your hand and I'll hold it People help the people

Nothing will drag you down Oh, and if I had a brain, Oh, and if I had a brain, I'd be cold as a stone and rich as the fool

That turned all those good hearts away

___________________________________________

 

In This Together - Ellie Goulding & Steven Price - Lyric

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml9FNSWsp-U

[msfntor]

Scientists Recover a Rare Meteorite With Water Similar to That on Earth

Picked up within hours of falling to Earth, the Winchcombe meteorite can tell us more about what our planet was like in its infancy.

BY TIM NEWCOMB PUBLISHED: NOV 17, 2022

Jonathan E.Jackson / NHM Photo Unit

The Winchcombe meteorite is a rare find, with a similar hydrogen isotope ratio to the water on Earth.

Recovering a meteorite within 12 hours of arrival means it is as pristine a specimen as we can get without going to space.

Eleven percent of the meteorite’s weight comes from Earth-like water, intriguing scientists about the implications of Earth’s early composition.

Scooping up a meteorite within 12 hours of crashing turned out to be a scientific boon for researchers investigating the hydrogen makeup of this visitor from outer space. The one pound of carbonaceous chondriteplowed into the English town of Winchcombe in February 2021. Its most spectacular feature, according to the scientists? The rock’s hydrogenisotope ratio is strikingly similar to that of water on Earth.

“One of the biggest questions asked of the scientific community is how did we get here? This analysis on the Winchcombe meteorite gives insight into how the Earth came to have water, the source of so much life,” Luke Daly, University of Glasgow lecturer and and an author of the first paper on the meteorite published at Science Advances, says in a news release. “Researchers will continue to work on this specimen for years to come, unlocking more secrets into the origins of our solar system.”

Key to the research was the fact specialists from across the world could start investigating the Winchcombe meteorite within days of its fiery fall from the sky. Less than 12 hours after its entry into Earth’s atmosphere, pieces of the rock were plucked from a driveway and the surrounding area and taken to London’s Natural History Museum, away from any environmental effects that could change its analysis.

“The rapid retrieval and curation of Winchcombe make it one of the most pristine meteorites available for analysis, offering scientists a tantalizing glimpse back through time to the original composition of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago,” Ashley Key, Natural History Museum senior curator and the paper’s co-author, says in a news release. Estimates vary, but Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.

The meteorite offers a look at a rare carbonaceous chondrite, a high silicate rock containing approximately 2 percent carbon by weight. It is the first of its type to be discovered in the United Kingdom. After imaging and chemical analysis, researchers determined it contains 11 percent extraterrestrial water by weight. Most of the water is trapped in minerals created by chemical reactions between fluids and rocks on the asteroid the meteorite originated from—during what scientists believe to be the earliest formation of our solar system.

By measuring the ratio of hydrogen isotopes in the water, the team found it closely resembles the composition of water on Earth. It also contains extraterrestrial amino acids, or prebiotic molecules that are key for the creation of life. Because the meteorite was largely unmodified by Earth’s environment due to its quick retrieval, the researchers believe their findings bolster the theory that carbonaceous asteroids played a key role in bringing the ingredients of life—like water—to early Earth. This makes the Winchcombe meteorite notably different from the more common icy comets, which don’t have chemistry matching Earth’s water.

“Direct links between carbonaceous chondrites and their parent bodies in the solar system are rare,” according to the paper. “The Winchcombe meteorite is the most accurately recorded carbonaceous chondrite fall. Its pre-atmospheric orbit and cosmic-ray exposure age confirm that it arrived on Earth shortly after ejection from a primitive asteroid.”

By combining camera footage of its trajectory from the U.K. Fireball Alliance—which aims to recover fallen meteorites as soon as possible—with chemical analysis of the meteorite, researchers believe Winchcombe broke off the surface of an asteroid near Jupiter and traveled to Earth within the last million years.

“We’re still reeling from our good fortune to have such an important meteorite fall in the U.K.,” Natasha Almeida, curator of meteorites at the Natural History Museum and paper co-author, says in a news release. “The combination of such a quick recovery, careful collection, and our ongoing curation of Winchcombe in a nitrogen atmosphere means this incredibly fresh specimen will remain one of the most pristine meteorites in collections worldwide.”

Here: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/solar-system/a41994506/winchcombe-meteorite-contains-earth-like-water/