Onward!

It looks as though the USA Democrats have concluded their Iowa balloting. Congratulations to all candidates. 

The Bernie Sanders campaign has proven they are not locally successful by their achievements in Iowa. Many have stated he was a New England candidate and nothing more. That has changed tonight.

The Hillary Clinton campaign can breath a sigh of relief they had a good turnout. Her campaign has proven they can dig in and turn an election around by their dedication in Iowa.

The Martin O'Malley campaign learned they have a standard one percent in most polling and now that has been confirmed in Iowa. Governor O'Malley served to bring about a productive dialogue. 

I have a suggestion. 

Governor O'Malley needs to go forward with political ambitions, even if not the presidency. However, in the future he has to work on being sincere and current. He has a style of politics that scream establishment and sometimes in the worst sense. He should consider leading a PAC regarding police brutality and mass incarceration. It would prove to be helpful and productive so our minorities understand sincere justice does exist and life equity comes to all in the USA. 

The mass incarceration of our minorities has caused many, many inequalities to these men and women. Depending on the length of their incarceration they have little to no Social Security trust funds. 

There is much work to be done with our minorities and I can't think of a better issue for Governor O'Malley. These are real Americans that have been treated unjustly and they need an advocate dedicated to not just changing sentencing laws, but, turning their lives around.

I have always been proud of the Democrats that ran for the presidency. Bernie Sanders is a real solace to many Americans. Hillary Clinton is our hero of decades. We look forward to New Hampshire.

If Zika has been a benign virus would it not be a blank slate for experimentation?

See what bothers me the most about Zika is that the fetus is effected so heinously it almost appears to be engineered. It is ultimately fatal to human populations if an entire generation are born microcephalics.

But. for the sake of productive dialogue there is a great deal about a more casual relationship with the fetal genetics.

Week 5 (click here)

• Week 5 is the start of the "embryonic period." This is when all the baby's major systems and structures develop.
• The embryo's cells multiply and start to take on specific functions. This is called differentiation.
• Blood cells, kidney cells, and nerve cells all develop.
• The embryo grows rapidly, and the baby's external features begin to form.
• Your baby's brain, spinal cord, and heart begin to develop.
• Baby's gastrointestinal tract starts to form.
• It's during this time in the first trimester that the baby is most at risk for damage from things that may cause birth defects. This includes certain medications, illegal drug use, heavy alcohol use, infections such as rubella, and other factors.

While the fifth week is the time when the embryo begins to develop differentiated tissue, it doesn't mean the embryo hasn't already been effected. If the embryonic tissue is deformed before the fifth week, the microcephalic brain may be already determined.

If the chromosomes are the issue what comes into question is the father's 23 chromosomes in the balance as well?

We cannot afford to miss the mark on this. I am sure mutation of virus can become very specific and of course virus experience many hundreds or thousands of generations of mutation in the life of one human being. I think a virus can be this specific, but, there is no history in human existence of something this specific. HIV was acquired, not genetic due to acquiring a virus. The born infant may have never been effected by the virus directly and that is something that needs to be defined without question.

The beginnings of the first exposure is also from a strange place.

Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus closely related to dengue virus. It was first isolated from a rhesus monkey in Zika forest, Uganda in 1947, in mosquitoes (Aedes africanus) in the same forest in 1948 and in humans in Nigeria in 1954. Zika virus is endemic in parts of Africa and Asia and was first identified in the South Pacific after an outbreak on Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia in 2007.

Uganda is a country without compassion and vendettas unlike others, especially it's past.

...In 1947, however, (click here) the forest was a focal point for global disease research, with scientists testing wildlife and insects for signs of yellow fever. By accident, they came across a different and apparently harmless virus transmitted by mosquitoes to monkeys. They named it Zika.

Today the Zika forest is far smaller. Its position between Kampala and the country’s main international airport, as well as striking views of Lake Victoria, has made it a popular location for real estate. The Zika virus also attracted little attention until recently. In the last 70 years, there have only been two recorded cases of Zika in humans in Uganda — although it is very possible that many cases went undetected because the virus’ symptoms in Africa are very mild....

I sincerely hope all those involved with Zika have the records of this activity in Uganda.

What has to be determined very early on is the invasive percentage of Zika in the global community. At some point in time, and this is really heartless but needs to be said. At some point in time women that may have permanent genetic viral changes have to consider sterilization simply because of the ever growing burden of a society unable to care for more and more microcephalic infants. At some point in time, the security of the global community comes into question. 

Religious leaders would need to be involved and I would estimate from this time forward,

The other global scenario is that money finally has no meaning. Missions to Mars are not about money and wealth, that is an Earthly commodity. Same is true with life on Earth when the needs of the majority outweigh the existence of the few super-wealthy. Poverty by design has to be fought or surrendered to 'service to humanity.' Zika has the potential to be exactly that dynamic.

It absolutely is a global emergency.

Here is a question for the American media, which candidate had the best answer for the global emergency of Zika? Oh, forgot to ask, huh? Typical, there may be Democratic candidates that might actually have the answer, other than, "It is up to the WHO."

Democrats are never suppose to win the presidency of the USA. They might actually have the answers for the majority of Americans and that would not do at all.

We all start out our lives with some mutations. (click here) These mutations inherited from your parents are called germ-line mutations. However, you can also acquire mutations during your lifetime. Some mutations happen during cell division, when DNA gets duplicated. Still other mutations are caused when DNA gets damaged by environmental factors, including UV radiation, chemicals, and viruses.

Few mutations are bad for you. In fact, some mutations can be beneficial. Over time, genetic mutations create genetic diversity, which keeps populations healthy. Many mutations have no effect at all. These are called silent mutations.

But the mutations we hear about most often are the ones that cause disease. Some well-known inherited genetic disorders include cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Tay-Sachs disease, phenylketonuria and color-blindness, among many others. All of these disorders are caused by the mutation of a single gene.

These are some scary questions, but, how much do we know about this virus in the way of permanent genetic damage? What is causing the microcephalic manifestation in pregnancy? Is it a one time occurrence, possibly due to fevers, etc? If this virus is able to reach into the genetics of a fetus, is it due to damage to the fetus or the genome in the ovum? Are women giving birth to microcephalic infants permanently damaged in a way that will result in all pregnancies of the same nature at birth? That needs to be determined for many reasons.

February 1, 2016
By Ryan Grenoble, Anna Almendraia and Erin Schumaker

The World Health Organization (click here) declared a "public health emergency of international concern" on Monday morning due to the clusters of microcephaly and other neurological abnormalities that may be caused by Zika virus.

This designation, also known as PHEIC, has only been applied to three other illnesses in the past -- most recently to Ebola during the 2014 to 2015 outbreak in West Africa. 

The determination is intended to mobilize an international response to combat mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has spread throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean and is suspected to be the cause of a sharp rise in birth defects in Brazil.

The WHO reserves the PHEIC designation for “extraordinary” events that “constitute a public health risk to other states through the international spread of disease” such that they require “a coordinated international response.”

With the announcement, the WHO has said it will scale up its surveillance of Zika in countries battling the virus, and in other countries it may spread to next....

Good turnout illustrates what is wrong with Iowa.

The good people of Iowa illustrate what is "W"rong with the Republican party. Anyone with no chance to win the national election, win in Iowa, the one state that does not separate church and state.

The ideologues ran so hard this election they even closed out Senator Rand Paul. Amazing. 

To the best of my knowledge the courts in Iowa still administer the law and not the Bible or Sharia.

Congratulations to everyone, the Republican ideologues have had their day. Boring.


February 1, 2016

...Iowans (click here) headed to statewide caucuses on Monday night with the assignment of rendering an initial verdict of the 2016 presidential campaign. The caucuses started at 7 p.m. Central time, with the first vote totals from the roughly 1,700 precincts arriving less than an hour later.

Early reports indicated high turnout. Long lines were reported for both Democratic and Republican caucuses at a church in West Des Moines and there were not enough chairs at a Republican caucus site in Van Meter, in Dallas County. At Iowa State University in Ames, precinct workers checking in voters ran out of registration forms and had to get more printed....

This was reported at 6:44 AM today.

This is a report about Colorado.

February 1, 2016
By Kirk Mitchell and Katy Canada

..."It's not over," Bowen said. (click here) "It just hasn't started. It looks like the evening will be pretty nasty."
Denver is poised to receive anywhere from 8to 12 inches by Tuesday.
Bowen urged drivers to allow for extra time during their commutes home from work Monday afternoon.
Bob Wilson, a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said the concern right now is preparing for the afternoon commutes around the state....

I am skeptical about the turn out in Iowa. The weather really isn't good. Iowa is right on the ridge between cold and warm temperatures. They are in for some nasty weather.

I think those that are used to the kind of weather one finds on the open plains would think twice about going out to the polls. 

Personally, being told the weather will turn mean after the polls close is not reassuring.

The storm is currently moving into the western border of Iowa.

UNISYS Enhanced Infrared satellite of USA (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)

February 1, 2016
2130.19z

The storm is quite dangerous. High winds, blizzard and near blizzard conditions, limited visibility. Don't be disappointed if the caucus turnouts are  low. It was not for the effort. It is just a bad night for Iowa. I have to wonder if the state organization might rethink it's caucusing tonight. Once it gets started, it is difficult to change direction. Either it is on or off and postponed for a different date.

This raises all kinds of questions, including, the e-environments of social media.

We know depression can result with avid users of social media. Is that level of metabolic dysfunction going to result in genetic changes? 

We already know depression can run in families. If depression were defeated in familial dynamics, would the chromosomes show change that brings normality to new members of that family. It is worth pursuing. I have to wonder, on a global scale, what genomes manifest less depression.

Is terrorism a result of poverty. Yes, we know that for a fact. Is depression reinforcing it? What do you think?

February 1, 2016

...Psychologist Steve Cole, (click here) who studies how social environments affect gene expression, says researchers have known for years that lonely people are at greater risk for heart attacks, metastatic cancer, Alzheimer's and other ills. "But we haven't understood why," he said.

Then last year, Cole and his colleagues at the UCLA School of Medicine, along with collaborators at the University of California at Davis and the University of Chicago, uncovered complex immune system responses at work in lonely people. They found that social isolation turned up the activity of genes responsible for inflammation and turned down the activity of genes that produce antibodies to fight infection.

The abnormalities were discovered in monocytes, a type of white blood cell, produced in the bone marrow, that is dramatically changed in people who are socially isolated. Monocytes play a special immunological role and are one of the body's first lines of defense against infection. However, immature monocytes cause inflammation and reduce antibody protection. And they are what proliferates in the blood of lonely people....

Does the global community use the same standards for defining depression? When I look at European countries with higher than expected rates, it is accompanied by higher number of Psychiatrists. Depression in countries such as the Netherlands is more widely reported.

Higher levels of incidence without accompany Psychiatrists means there is lack of treatment that overwhelms the country. 

A global view of the burden caused by depression. (click here)

12 November 2014

Depression is a major human blight. Globally, it is responsible for more ‘years lost’ to disability than any other condition. This is largely because so many people suffer from it — some 350 million, according to the World Health Organization — and the fact that it lasts for many years. (When ranked by disability and death combined, depression comes ninth behind prolific killers such as heart disease, stroke and HIV.) Yet depression is widely undiagnosed and untreated because of stigma, lack of effective therapies and inadequate mental-health resources. Almost half of the world’s population lives in a country with only two psychiatrists per 100,000 people....

Afghanistan is deeply mired in depression among it's people. No surprise there. For all the monies poured into the war machine there is still no relief for the people. Something is very wrong in the priorities of countries insisting war will solve all problems. War is not solving the problems of the people of Afghanistan. Nor is it solving the problem of The West. 

If I had my choice of headlines, would it be a hemispheric tornado and the current danger to Americans or Iowa's hot air.

There is no decision there to make for me.

It looks like a hemispheric tornado. It acts like one, too.

February 1, 2016
1030.17z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of west and north hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)

January 31, 2016
By Rong-Gong Lin and Alice Walton

A Powerful storm (click here) moved into Southern California on Sunday, bringing unusually strong winds of up to 70 mph to Los Angeles and Ventura counties. 

Officials warned that the storm is forecast to bring heavy rain and a risk of flash floods, especially in recently burned areas that could see mud flow down hillsides.

Strong winds were expected to cause flight problems at Los Angeles International Airport, and forecasters said there was enough instability aloft that there could be a 36% chance of thunderstorms in parts of the L.A. area. Waterspouts and even weak tornadoes are possible.

“The winds may well turn out to be the defining feature of this system,” the National Weather Service said Sunday morning.

January 31, 2016
Photographer states: Allied Gardens saw several large downed trees today. Downed Tree, Waring Rd.
San Diego, California

There are dust storms reported of dust storms near Phoenix, Arizona. There is snow in Reno, Nevada.

There are rainbows and double rainbows along the west coast due to high water vapor content.

January 31, 2016

Gorman, California

Photographer states: I-5 south near Gorman.

Rapidly changing temperatures are expected across the country today.

Forecast for Temperature Departure from normal on Monday, February 1, 2016.

By Sunday afternoon, the storm had dropped moderate rain -- a little more than one inch in Beverly Hills and less than half an inch in downtown L.A. But the winds were another story. Wind gusts topped 115 mph at Whitaker Peak (located north of Castaic along Interstate 5), 69 in Porter Ranch, 65 mph in Malibu Canyon, 61 in Beverly Hills and 50 in the Whittier Hills. It was more than strong enough to knock down trees, down power lines and even push over a light standard....

High winds and surf in Hawaii. There is a weather system on the west coast that extends from Hawaii to Southern California.

It is a street of vortexes that continues past the west coast into the country.

There are gail warnings and small craft advisories across Alaska.

This is no minor endorsement. Michael Moore shares the sentiments of a constituency.

My Dear Friends,

When I was a child, (click here) they said there was no way this majority-Protestant country of ours would ever elect a Catholic as president. And then John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected president.

The next decade, they said America would not elect a president from the Deep South. The last person to do that on his own (not as a v-p) was Zachary Taylor in 1849. And then we elected President Jimmy Carter.
In 1980, they said voters would never elect a president who had been divorced and remarried. Way too religious of a country for that, they said. Welcome, President Ronald Reagan, 1981-89.
They said you could not get elected president if you had not served in the military. No one could remember when someone who hadn’t served had been elected Commander-in-Chief. Or who had confessed to trying (but not inhaling!) Illegal drugs. President Bill Clinton, 1993-2001.
And then finally “they” saId that there’s NO WAY the Democrats were going to win if they nominated a BLACK man for president — a black man who’s middle name was Hussein! America was still too racist for that. “Don’t do it!”, people quietly warned each other....
...So, what is democratic socialism? It’s having a true democracy where everyone has a seat at the table, where everyone has a voice, not just the rich....
...I first endorsed Bernie Sanders for public office in 1990 when he, as mayor of Burlington, VT, asked me to come up there and hold a rally for him in his run to become Vermont’s congressman. I guess not many were willing to go stump for an avowed democratic socialist at the time. Probably someone is his hippie-filled campaign office said, “I’ll bet Michael Moore will do it!” They were right. I trucked up into the middle of nowhere and did my best to explain why we needed Bernie Sanders in the U.S. Congress. He won, I’ve been a supporter of his ever since, and he’s never given me reason to not continue that support. I honestly thought I’d never see the day come where I would write to you and get to say these words: “Please vote for Senator Bernie Sanders to be our next President of the United States of America.”
I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t think we really, truly needed him. And we do. More than we probably know.

Sincerely yours,
Michael Moore 

"Good Night, Moon"

Quarter Moon

22,2 days old

49.8 percent lit

Not fiction to induce fear. Simply fact.

Acute Respiratory Disease Due to Methane Inhalation

Tuberc Respir Dis (Seoul). 2013 Mar; 74(3): 120–123.

Published online 2013 Mar 29. doi:  10.4046/trd.2013.74.3.120

Jun Yeon Jo, M.D., Yong Sik Kwon, M.D., Jin Wook Lee, M.D.,1 Jae Seok Park, M.D., Byung Hak Rho, M.D., and Won-Il Choi, M.D., Ph.D.

Inhalation of toxic gases (click here) can lead to pneumonitis. It has been known that methane gas intoxication causes loss of consciousness or asphyxia. There is, however, a paucity of information about acute pulmonary toxicity from methane gas inhalation. A 21-year-old man was presented with respiratory distress after an accidental exposure to methane gas for one minute. He came in with a drowsy mentality and hypoxemia. Mechanical ventilation was applied immediately. The patient's symptoms and chest radiographic findings were consistent with acute pneumonitis. He recovered spontaneously and was discharged after 5 days without other specific treatment. His pulmonary function test, 4 days after methane gas exposure, revealed a restrictive ventilatory defect. In conclusion, acute pulmonary injury can occur with a restrictive ventilator defect after a short exposure to methane gas. The lung injury was spontaneously resolved without any significant sequela.