Parabens tied to infertility

And here is another way to trim the family tree... the chemicals in our hygiene products are rendering some men infertile or making their children sick. Pretty scary stuff. You'd think Americans would be outraged. Why aren't we outraged?

Unregulated chemicals in everyday items such as toothpaste, soap, and deodorant could be causing fertility problems for men, a new study suggests. Parabens such as methylparaben and propylparaben are preservatives widely used in U.S. grooming products. To examine the effects of these chemicals on fertility, researchers in Poland studied the lab test results of 315 male fertility clinic patients, reports Reuters​.com. They found that those with higher concentrations of parabens in their saliva, blood, urine, and semen had lower testosterone levels and a larger proportion of sperm that was abnormally shaped or slow moving—factors that reduce the likelihood of fertilization. Parabens were also linked to DNA damage in men’s sperm. The researchers remain unsure why the chemicals may affect fertility, or at what levels they can be harmful—but urge caution all the same. Study leader Joanna Jurewicz says avoiding parabens altogether would be “very difficult, because they are widespread,” but suggests checking labels on personal care products to limit consumption where possible.

Taken from the September 8, 2017 The Week magazine.

Disinfectant and superbugs

This is very scary news. It continues to prey on my mind.

Triclosan, a widely used disinfectant, may be contributing to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, reports LiveScience.com. The antimicrobial agent has been banned from household soaps in the U.S. and European Union over concerns about its safety and effectiveness. But triclosan is still added to hospital soaps and many other household products, including toothpaste, cosmetics, and toys. When researchers at the University of Birmingham in England conducted lab tests on E. coli, they found that when the bacteria mutated to become resistant to powerful quinolone antibiotics, they also became more resistant to triclosan. “We think that bacteria are tricked into thinking they are always under attack and are then primed to deal with other threats, including triclosan,” says researcher Mark Webber. “The worry is that this might happen in reverse and triclosan exposure might encourage growth of antibiotic-resistant strains.”

Taken from the July 21, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

Merry Christmas!

Using Viruses to Kill Super-bacteria

I continue to be amazed and horrified by this development in our heath system. And I always think about this wonderful solution found in England using an ancient recipe.

In the intensifying fight against superbugs, researchers are turning to “phage therapy”—a century-old medical technique that predates antibiotics by 25 years. During World War I, microbiologists discovered the existence of viruses that essentially infect and destroy bacteria. While early experiments showed that these “bacteriophages” could be used to treat infections, they were quickly superseded by antibiotics in the 1940s. With the recent rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, however, scientists are giving phage therapy another look. Bacteriophages are ubiquitous—found everywhere from sewage to the human gut—and every type of bacteria is thought to be susceptible to at least one of them. The challenge is finding the right phage-bacteria combination. The process currently involves covering the target bacteria with different viruses, monitoring which parts of the bacteria die, and then cultivating the relevant phage. That currently takes five to 10 days, which would be too long to save many patients—but scientists believe it can be streamlined. The Food and Drug Administration has granted doctors permission to use phage therapy in at least four life-threatening infections. “We desperately need something to treat infections resistant to antibiotics,” bacteriophage expert Carl Merril tells The Washington Post. “We are turning back to these viruses, but with new knowledge and new technology.”

Taken from the July 21, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

When the Post Office was Cutting Edge

I have cut and pasted this very long article here because I have two great grandparents who worked for this fine institution. I have more information about Oliver Tree Lee than John Maher. (Here we have some information about one of his daughters Lillian.) The Post Office seems to be the reason that Oliver left NYC and moved to Troy where he met my great grandmother - so I have the post office to thank for my very existence. Eventually I will get back on to family research... I have been distracted recently.

For nearly 200 years, mail service in the United States was a hotbed of new ideas and innovation, said author and researcher Kevin Kosar. Where did it all go wrong?

A pneumatic mail tube in Brooklyn, 1899

In 1897, a year when mail was still largely delivered by horse and wagon, construction began on an innovative scheme beneath the streets of Philadelphia. Using an intricate network of compressors and metal pipes, the new system could shoot a capsule holding a few hundred letters across a city in several minutes, far faster than a postman could get it there. The investor in this new technology wasn’t some kind of delivery startup, the FedEx or UPS of its day. It was the U.S. Post Office.

Behind the experiment was Postmaster General John Wanamaker, who was inspired by Paris, London, and other European cities that were trying out pneumatic posts. It seemed a natural fit for America’s growing metropolises, where mail was hauled by horse cart and carried on foot. Wanamaker had the sense not to try to concoct such a system in-house, since the agency had no such expertise. So he did something clever: He called for private proposals to build pneumatic tube systems.

The Pneumatic Transit Co. of New Jersey was the winning bidder, and a public-private partnership was born. It agreed to pay to build the system, then to charge the Post Office for its use. The first tube could shoot a capsule of mail nearly three-fifths of a mile through a 6.5-inch tube from the city’s main post office to the East Chester Street post office. Soon, similar systems were installed in Boston, St. Louis, and Chicago. New York City’s system, the largest, could move 6 million pieces per day at 30 miles per hour from the Bronx to Manhattan and Brooklyn. Collectively, the Post Office’s pneumatic tube system ran more than 120 miles, with 130 postal “rocketeers” feeding mail into it every 15 seconds.

When Americans think about the most innovative agency in the government, they think about the Pentagon or NASA. But throughout much of its history, that title could just as easily have fallen to the Post Office, which was a hotbed of new, interesting, sometimes crazy ideas as it sought to accomplish a seemingly simple task: deliver mail quickly and cheaply. The Post Office experimented with everything from stagecoaches to airplanes—even pondered sending mail cross-country on a missile. For decades, the agency integrated new technologies and adapted to changing environments, underpinning its ability to deliver billions of pieces of mail every year, from the beaches of Miami to the banks of Alaska, for just cents per letter.

We think a lot about how innovation arises, but not enough about how it gets quashed. And the United States Postal Service is a great example of both. Today, what was once a locus of innovation has become a tired example of bureaucratic inertia and government mismanagement. But its descent into its current state was not foretold. A series of misguided rules and laws have clipped the Post Office’s wings, turning one of the great inventors of the government into yet another clunky bureaucracy.

A mail wagon in Boston around 1895

In a sense, innovation was baked into the Post Office from the beginning. America’s national postal service precedes the founding: It was born in July 1775, a year before the Declaration of Independence was ratified. During the American Revolution, the U.S. postal system’s duty was to deliver communications between Congress and the military commanders fighting the British. And for the first postmaster general, Congress appointed an inveterate tinkerer, Benjamin Franklin. He rigged up a system of contractors to haul mail by horse and on foot. It worked.

From the start, the Post Office Department, as it was called until 1970, had to be innovative. There was little money to fund the startup agency, and its task—delivering mail to anywhere in the country—was immense. In turn, Congress gave the agency a good amount of operational freedom. In 1785, Congress authorized the Post Office to hire private stagecoaches to deliver mail. It was a smart idea that leveraged private-sector investments in transportation but did not commit the agency itself to bearing the great cost of purchasing horses and hiring riders. Later, the Post Office would contract to have mail carried by steamboats, railroads, and private delivery companies.

The agency also had the authority to erect post offices, but at first it licensed tavern owners to provide postal services to thirsty customers instead. That changed during the 19th century, when the postal service expanded massively. In 1790, the nation had 75 post offices; by 1900, there were more than 76,000. Then came home delivery: Mail reached many city dwellers at home by the mid-1860s and expanded to farmhouses and remote houses in the 1880s. Henry Ford built his first car in 1901. Four years later, the Post Office was experimenting with mail delivery by automobile.

The first half of the 20th century was a dynamic time for the Post Office. It immensely improved delivery by adopting innovations from the private sector and abroad. Much like the pneumatic tubes, some of the schemes incorporated new technology we no longer even associate with mail. During World War II, the Post Office adopted V-Mail, an idea pioneered in England. Families wishing to correspond with soldiers overseas would write the letter on a V-Mail form, which was placed in a capsule and shipped to a facility where it was scanned to microfilm. The hundred-foot rolls of film, which could hold 1,700 letters, were carried overseas and unsealed, and then the letters were individually printed and delivered to GI recipients.

Overshadowing all the invention, however, was the creeping sclerosis of the Post Office as an institution. As a monopoly, it was insulated from competitive pressures, allowing inefficiency to creep into its operations and management. Worse, political interests had sunk deep, with Congress setting postage rates too low and too frequently trying to dictate the location of post offices and mail-sorting facilities.

Booming business, however, enabled the postal system to avert a crisis for decades. In 1900, 7 billion pieces of mail were delivered; by 1960, the agency was moving 63 billion letters and parcels. The department often ran a profit, and it sowed those profits into new mail-delivery technologies.

Things began to change in the 1960s. Postal workers unionized, and President John F. Kennedy authorized them to bargain collectively in 1962. Despite growing mail volume, the Post Office ran perennial deficits, and its investment in the guts of the system—mail receipt and sortation—lagged. The system broke down in Chicago in 1966, and 10 million pieces of mail were backlogged for days.

After a wildcat strike broke out in New York City in 1970, Congress abolished the Post Office Department and replaced it with the U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency. The Postal Reform Act removed some of the congressional involvement in its operations. In exchange, policymakers reduced the agency’s dependency on the U.S. Treasury and demanded it become self-sufficient.

This new-look postal system had been conceived by a Nixon-appointed corps of brain trusters and businessmen with the aim of turning the agency into a public corporation with minimal political interference. Instead, the plan infused the new agency’s DNA with some of the same clashing political interests that were hobbling the agency. Big mailers benefit from subsidies written into the law. Postal workers must be unionized and are entitled to bargain collectively. Folks in far-flung Alaska and Hawaii are entitled to the same postage rates and services as everyone else—no matter the cost—and Congress continues to insist that mail be delivered six days per week to appease certain big mailers, postal unions, and some rural residents.

Innovation at the agency flagged. Upgrades in mail-processing machinery were delayed over union objections that jobs would be lost. So, too, were attempts to contract out more postal work to private carriers or delivery companies. USPS operations became increasingly governmental as collaboration with private-sector companies flagged.

At the same time, technology was rapidly catching up to the Postal Service. The first threat was actually a miss: Although the electronic fax arrived in the early 1970s, it did not eat into the USPS’s business. So when cellular-phone technology arrived in the late 1980s and the internet erupted in the mid-1990s, USPS officials mostly shrugged. Annual revenues climbed, and the USPS’s employee cohort rose to nearly 800,000 before the end of the 20th century.

The USPS did upgrade some of its internal technology. Its letter-sorting machines have sensors with optical character recognition. Yet relative to the world around them, these improvements are nothing compared with the Post Office Department’s innovations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of the new sorting machines have not been reliable, and the agency’s parcel logistics lag behind those of private-sector companies like FedEx and UPS. It is as if the agency has given up on innovation and is utterly confident that mail volumes and revenues will grow forever.

Which has been a huge mistake. In 2008, the Great Recession’s teeth hit the mail business. Most mail is sent by big mailers, many of whom slashed their postal budgets and accelerated transferring their communications to less costly online means. Mail volume is down 25 percent since 2008, and the agency has hemorrhaged money. More of what USPS carries is advertising mail, which generates low profits. The mail-volume crash laid bare the cost of the USPS’s loss of innovation mojo. It is a labor-intensive, paper-toting company in a digital age, and USPS leadership has belatedly awakened to the reality that mail is not a growing business.

Private-sector companies may soon eat even more of the USPS’s lunch. Amazon is building a delivery network of its own, with lockers instead of post office boxes, and experimenting with drones. Uber also has nosed into the delivery business, and other companies are experimenting with autonomous delivery vehicles and robots.

USPS so far appears unable to innovate its way out of the mess it is in. The agency has $15 billion in debt and has shown little imagination to fundamentally transform the way it does business.

The agency has piloted a grocery-delivery business, despite the 2006 congressional prohibition on the agency entering new non-postal businesses. To date, the USPS has not released any financial results for this experiment, which seems doomed to fail. Why grocers would rather pay highly compensated letter carriers, rather than less costly bicycle delivery people or Uber drivers, is anything but obvious.

Nothing may sum up the Postal Service’s inability to innovate more than its failed partnership with Staples. A few years ago, the Postal Service agreed with Staples to expand consumer access to its shipping services. Upon entering select locations of the office-supply chain store, shoppers would “find a familiar-looking counter resembling a mini post office containing the most popular postal products and services,” the agency crowed. It was “one-stop shopping and shipping,” and Staples postal counters would be open seven days a week. The agency began piloting the Staples arrangement in November 2013 in Boston. More than 500 Staples stores nationwide had retail postal counters by the end of last year.

At first blush, the USPS-Staples partnership looked like a win-win arrangement. But the American Postal Workers Union did not see it that way. It decried the deal as an effort at union busting, because Staples personnel would man the postal counters.

Earlier this year, the National Labor Relations Board killed the USPS-Staples deal. Too weary to fight or fearful that it could not win in court, the USPS capitulated, and the Staples postal counters are being dismantled.

Pneumatic tubes didn’t survive, either: They became a victim both of their design and the Post Office’s success. Mail volumes grew fantastically over these decades, and the tubes could only carry so much. Ripping them out and replacing them with bigger tubes was deemed too pricey. Moving mail by truck would be more efficient. So the Post Office shut down its pneumatic mail tubes on Dec. 12, 1953.

That was an investment decision—the kind any company would have made, and one that allowed the Post Office to keep growing. The Staples deal, by contrast, drowned in a bureaucratic swamp, tangled up in politics and labor relations. Absent fundamental changes to these kinds of structural obstacles, the odds are long that the USPS will become the innovator it once was.

Excerpted from an article that originally appeared in Politico. Taken from the September 22, 2017 The Week Magazine.

Drink coffee, live longer

I don't know why I am as interested in coffee as I am, except I always associate coffee with my father. It's nice to see that coffee has healthy side-effects.

You can find the other references to coffee by typing coffee in the search box on the upper left of this blog.

People who rely on a cup of joe to wake up or power through the day could be adding years to their lives. Two sweeping new studies reveal that a coffee habit could boost longevity by reducing the risk of death from heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and kidney disease. “If you like to drink coffee, drink up,” researcher Veronica Setiawan of the University of Southern California tells ScienceDaily.com. “If you’re not a coffee drinker, then you need to consider if you should start.” Setiawan’s team examined data on nearly 186,000 adults of various races and ethnicities. The results showed mortality risk dropped 12 percent for those who drank just one cup of coffee each day while two to three cups brought even better odds—18 percent. Another study analyzed the link between coffee and prolonged life span among more than 500,000 Europeans who were followed for about 16 years. Men who drank the most coffee had a 12 percent lower risk of early death. For women, the risk dropped 7 percent. Coffee contains a complex mixture of powerful antioxidants, but it’s unclear what accounts for the drink’s benefits. Apparently it’s not the caffeine—in both studies, researchers found decaf just as effective.

Taken from the July 28th edition of The Week magazine.

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Hope you are having a wonderful day.
I am off for a meal with people who share a family name with someone with whom I share DNA. So even though I have not known them long, they may be a cousin of my cousin.
How's that for a happy coincidence?

Food Prices falling

Other than China buying Smithfield and sending all our chicken feet to China, I don't think I knew we were sending food to China. And why have we stopped in the last 19 months? And what does that mean for American farmers and ranchers? A couple years ago beef prices hit a 27 year high. And we also discussed the effects of raising beef cattle here. What does it mean for food deserts in our own country?

Food prices in the U.S. fell for 19 straight months through July, the longest streak of price declines since the 1950s. Prices for staples like beef and eggs have fallen dramatically over the past year and a half, thanks in part to cheaper fuel costs and China buying less food from the U.S.

Taken from the September 22, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

Perspective on the World

I started this post over a year ago. Not sure why it got caught in my drafts folder.

I have mentioned that I am reading Peter Frankopan's book entitled The Silk Roads and I have to say, he is thought-provoking.

A passage I read today in his chapter The Road of Gold made me think about perspective. Now, this probably isn't going to sound right and I don't mean any disrespect, it's just that perspective has been on my mind a lot as I read this book about world history (or at least history outside of my narrow focus of Western Europe.)

It did not take long before African rulers began to protest. The King of Kongo made a series of appeals to the King of Portugal decrying the impact of slaving. He protested about young men and women - including those from noble families - being kidnapped in broad daylight to be sold to European traders who then branded them with hot irons. He should stop complaining, the Portuguese sovereign replied. Kongo was a huge land that could afford to have some of its inhabitants shipped away; in any event, he went on, the Kingdom of Kongo benefited handsomely from the trade, including that of slaves.

Slavery is ugly; the result is ugly. But I had never heard of formal communications going on between the rulers of European nations and African nations. (This book alone is exposing my ignorance.) But from a DNA perspective, and we all know how interested I am in that, the King of Kongo has populated (is that the right word? probably not, conquered? that's not the right word either) lands far and wide. I am only talking about a DNA perspective here. All humankind sprang from the African continent; slavery and kidnapping is an ugly way to do it again, but it's a different perspective on populations of current nations, like Haiti, the Caribbean, Brazil... From a DNA perspective. If we think that cells are trying to reproduce to live to reproduce, the King of Kongo got the DNA from his kingdom over much of the planet - in an ugly way.... but from the perspective of a cell, domination. It make me think of Genghis Khan, too. There was a man who got his DNA all over Asia. Powerful from that perspective.

A much older human ancestor

If I had more patience I'd go through all my posts and see if I can place this article in chronology with all the others I have posted. Haven't we addressed this already? Haven't we been pushing our evolution and ancestors further and further back in time? Pretty amazing what scientists are learning.

A set of human-like footprints dating to 5.7 million years ago, discovered on the Greek island of Crete, challenge existing theories of how and when our species evolved. Prior to this discovery, the oldest confirmed hominin footprints were found in Tanzania and dated at a maximum of 3.65 million years. Anthropologists believed these ancient human relatives were isolated in Africa for several million years before spreading out to Europe and Asia. A new analysis of the prints found in Crete could complicate this evolutionary tale. “What makes this controversial is the age and location of the prints,” researcher Per Ahlberg tells ScienceDaily.com. At the time the prints were made, nearly 6 million years ago, Crete was still part of the Greek mainland and early human ancestors were theoretically still living in Africa and had ape-like feet. The fossils in Crete, however, have distinctly hominin-like features, including a predominant “big toe.” The animal didn’t have claws and walked upright on the soles of its feet—not its toes. “This discovery challenges the established narrative of early human evolution head-on and is likely to generate a lot of debate,” Ahlberg says.

How humans are still evolving

I should think this would be a no brainer... proving it, obviously, is the problem. But, animals with shorter life spans are obviously evolving, so why would we think humans would stop?

The findings below, though... It seems that there is so much more disease nowadays, that this seems incredible. And, sometimes human procreate before some of these negative traits are expressed... so how would that work? Unless a fertile female can smell it on a man....

Human evolution is often thought of as a process that ended millennia ago, when our ape-like ancestors morphed into Homo sapiens. But a new study has found that the process of natural selection continues, gradually weeding out life-shortening traits in modern humans, including genes that predispose people to heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and heavy smoking. Geneticists examined the genomes of 210,000 people of European descent in search of mutations associated with greater or lesser longevity. Natural selection—a basic mechanism of Darwin’s theory of evolution—is based on the principle that organisms best suited to their environments tend to survive longer, making it more likely that they’ll pass their genes on to future generations. The researchers found that the ApoE4 gene linked to Alzheimer’s is becoming less common, particularly among women. A gene mutation associated with a strong addiction to cigarette smoking in men is also on the decline, ScienceDaily​.com reports. “It may be that men who don’t carry these harmful mutations can have more children, or that men and women who live longer can help with their grandchildren, improving their chance of survival,” says the study’s co-author, Molly Przeworski. The analysis also reveals that genetic variants linked to heart disease, asthma, obesity, and high cholesterol all appear less frequently in people who live longer—an indication that humans may continue to adapt to a constantly changing environment.

Taken from the September 22, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

It wasn't all bad

If you watch the video on the Week's website, they state that the two haven't yet taken a blood test to confirm. But I'd suggest they look alike. But, Holy Cow! What an incredible coincidence!

Now it makes nosy me wonder how they got separated, especially given he, who stayed with his parent/s, is the older sibling... meaning, what was going on such that an older child didn't know his mother was pregnant, and what happened to that child. The story does not mention if there are other siblings, nor does it mention if the parents - adoptive and biological - knew one another.

In all cases, though, holy cow!

Philip Osborn never knew he had a sister until he moved in next door to her. After living in Florida for years, Osborn recently moved back to a Michigan retirement home to be closer to his family. His new neighbor, Marilyn Meyers, adopted at birth, had spent the past few decades searching for her biological family — so when she heard that someone with the last name Osborn had just moved in, she started investigating. After confirming small bits of family history, they were shocked to discover they were siblings. "I've always wanted to be an older brother," Osborn told Fox17. "It's divine intervention."

Taken from the September 22, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

Yoga’s brain boost

And yet another reason to do yoga and meditation. If only I could get off my butt. Yesterday I sent sewing, so no exercise and no steps... just back and forth between the sewing machine, the refrigerator and the toilet. Yikes.

Yoga and meditation are becoming increasingly mainstream activities in the U.S., and new research helps explain why. Daily sessions of either practice can have dramatic effects on brain function. Scientists asked 31 healthy people to engage in 25 minutes of hatha yoga, mindfulness meditation, and quiet reading in random order. Mental tasks completed before and after each session found that yoga and meditation led to greater improvements in the participants’ energy level, mood, executive function, and ability to control thoughts and emotions. “Hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation both focus the brain’s conscious processing power on a limited number of targets, like breathing and posing, and also reduce processing of nonessential information,” the study’s co-author, Peter Hall, tells ScienceDaily.com. That mental training, he said, apparently enables people “to focus more easily on what they choose to attend to in everyday life.”

Taken from the September 29, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

The extinction of parasites

This seemed like a worthwhile Halloween post... something to scare the shit out of us all. If you want to scare yourself, Google parasites in the images section. You will want to vomit. I therefore picked a photograph of parasite pancakes - some very creative person created the images of some parasites out of pancakes. (Is it real, or a picture, I don't know...)

In any event, all those unintended consequences of the things we do. But then again, I believe I heard there have been six major extinctions on the planet earth... so we'll be just one more as parasites either take over or allow other creatures to take over.

Humorous image taken from here.

Climate change could wipe out up to one-third of the Earth’s 3.5 million known parasite species over the next 53 years. That might sound like a good thing, but scientists warn that the extinction of pests such as tapeworms, fleas, and ticks could dramatically alter the delicate balance of ecosystems around the world, The New York Times reports. An international team of scientists mapped the global distribution and habitats of 457 different species of parasites and analyzed how climate change could affect them. Up to 30 percent of parasite species, they concluded, may be extinct by 2070. A mass die-off could produce many undesirable consequences: Where parasites help control their hosts’ populations, those populations could grow out of control, the way deer did when wolves left their habitats. Other parasites might flourish in the absence of competition. Still others could migrate to new ecosystems, invading new species. An example: the mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus spreading north into the U.S. Colin Carlson, lead author of the study, said parasites are “a huge and important part of ecosystems,” and warned that extinctions will have consequences we can’t foresee.

Taken from the same edition of The Week as yesterday - September 29, 2017.

A Viking Wonder Woman

I have Viking DNA... well, Scandinavian.... but given that most/much of my DNA is from Great Britain, it is assumed that my Scandinavian heritage is Viking.

Therefore, I can't help but think of Otzi, the prehistoric man found in the Alps. I mean, they did a DNA test on him and found 19 living descendants of his in the area. And he lived over 5,000 years ago. The woman below is from the 10th century. Wouldn't it be fun to find her living descendants? what a hoot. (And of course I want to be one of them!)

Historical accounts of female Viking warriors are often discounted as myths. But new DNA tests of a warrior buried in Sweden more than 1,000 years ago provide the first genetic evidence that some women held powerful, high-status positions in Viking culture. The 10th-century grave site, which was uncovered in the 1880s, contained a sword, arrows, a battle knife, a spear, shields, and two horses. The Viking, who stood 5-foot-6, was also buried with a set of game pieces—an indication of the deceased’s expertise in battle tactics. The archaeologists who uncovered the grave 130 years ago assumed it belonged to a high-ranking male warrior. “I think that’s a mistake that archaeologists make quite often,” archaeologist Becky Gowland tells The Guardian. “When we do that, we’re just reproducing the past in our image.” A recent DNA analysis revealed that the Viking leader lacked a Y chromosome—confirming that “he” was actually a “she.”

We also talk about Otzi here.

This article and photograph was taken from The Week Magazine, September 29, 2017 edition.

Zero Waste Daniel

This is the kind of thing I think about all the time. All those scraps from making clothing. I hate to throw anything away. I finally, after reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, started to throw the fabric scraps away, but this is a much better solution.

I saw the original video on Facebook. Now, I'm not saying I love all his stuff, but I think I would love what I create, because it would be from scraps of fabric I liked enough to buy. I always imagined skirts, because they are easier to make, but shirts are pretty cool. I also tend to use cottons rather than knits.

Check out the entire website here.

Diet soda and dementia

Ignore the bad background colors... seems to hard for me to figure out how to change the formatting, but we have discussed this subject here, Christmas 2015.

Sugar-free versions of soda may increase people’s risk of suffering a stroke or developing dementia, reports The Washington Post. Scientists at Boston University studied more than 4,000 people over a 10-year period. They found that those who consumed at least one artificially sweetened drink a day were almost three times more likely to have a stroke or be diagnosed with dementia than those who had one or fewer a week. To the researchers’ surprise, a parallel study of sugary drinks did not find a similar association. Matthew Pase, the study’s lead author, offered several caveats on the findings, most notably that the actual number of diagnoses was very low and that the results showed only correlation, not causation. He also urged people not to see the study as an incentive to switch to regular soda, noting that sugary drinks have been linked to obesity, poor memory, and accelerated brain aging. But Pase did say the findings suggested consumers should be “cautious” about their diet soda intake and switch to water or other unsweetened drinks.

Childfree women

Hmmm. what does this say about American women?

I just heard a story on the radio which I can't seem to find to link here about Japanese women who are forgoing sex altogether. They have decided they are happier on their own than teaming up with Japanese men.

I suppose that's an even stronger message to 'the powers that be'. I imagine that message is giving the negative birth-rate Japanese government conniption fits. And maybe that is why we are having reboots of movies like 'The Handmaids Tale'.

For the first time in recorded history, more than half (54 percent) of American women ages 25 to 29 are childless, according to the U.S. Census Fertility Report. A record 31 percent of women ages 30 to 34 also haven’t given birth.

Wait, why do you suppose they used the language 'childless' and then 'haven't given birth'? Those might be different things? Abortion... adoption... abstinence.... all of the above, I suppose.

And what does this do to the family tree? I guess I should know, being both a genealogist and childfree.

May 26, 2017 The Week Magazine

New fears over red meat

I don't know what to say? How about lamb and goat which are easier on the environment?

Once again researchers are raising a red flag over red meat. A National Cancer Institute study tracked nearly 537,000 adults between 50 and 71, monitoring their diet and health over the course of 16 years. They found those who routinely ate the most processed and unprocessed red meat, such as beef, lamb, and pork, had a 26 percent greater risk of dying from one of nine ailments: cancer, heart disease, lung disease, stroke, diabetes, infections, Alzheimer’s, kidney disease, and liver disease. On the other hand, replacing red meat with white meat, including fish and poultry, was linked with a 25 percent lower risk of death from most causes, The New York Times reports. The researchers speculate that iron and nitrates found in red and cured meats trigger an imbalance known as oxidative stress, which may explain the risk discrepancy, but emphasize that their findings are preliminary. “This is an observational study, and we can’t determine whether red meat is responsible for these associations,” says lead author Arash Etemadi, “But we have a 16-year follow-up.”

From the June 2, 2017 print edition of The Week Magazine.

How exercise slows aging

Rigorous exercise? Crap. So my newly resurrected 25 minutes on the treadmill with a book isn't going to cut it?

Man, and I learned this back in February 2016 and have done nothing really since then to improve my chances. In order to write this blog entry alone I am sitting at a desk and not exercising. Dang, my posts give me all the information I should need to get me exercising; here's another discussion.

If working out makes you feel younger, a new study suggests it’s no illusion—vigorous exercise can actually slow the aging process on a cellular level, turning back the clock nearly a decade. Researchers analyzed 6,000 adults based on their physical activity and biological markers of aging, Time.com reports. Most importantly, they used DNA samples to measure the length of participants’ telomeres, protein caps that protect chromosomes, like the plastic tips of shoelaces. Telomeres shrink with age—we lose bits of them every time a cell divides. “In general, people with shorter telomeres die sooner and are more likely to develop many of our chronic diseases,” says study author Larry Tucker. Taking into account risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and obesity, the researchers found people who exercised strenuously—say, running for 30 to 40 minutes five days per week—had longer telomeres. That gave them about a nine-year “biological aging advantage” over sedentary adults; those who exercised more moderately had a two-year edge. The researchers speculate physical activity could help preserve telomeres by reducing stress and inflammation. “We all know people who seem younger than their actual age,” Tucker says. “Exercise can help with that, and now we know that part of that may be because of its effect on our telomeres.”

June 2, 2017 The Week Magazine

A good week for:

Digging for treasure, after scientists at several U.S. universities revealed that eating boogers can improve dental hygiene and overall good health, thanks to their “rich reservoir” of good bacteria.

Ahhhhhhhh! Holy crap. The benefits of good bacteria, not to be overlooked, though if this becomes a health trend I am not jumping on that bandwagon.

And, ahhhh, several US Universities? Is this how we spend our research dollars? And how did they get several universities to join the studies? That doesn't make sense. I am sure it was all clinically done, but still.

Taken from the May 19, 2017 print edition of The Week Magazine.

Seed Vault under threat

Photo taken from here.

Ahhhhh, sounds like some of our calculations were off. Protect those seeds, but yet our own efforts were thwarted by our own behavior.

Unusually high Arctic temperatures caused permafrost to melt and seep into the “Doomsday” seed vault—a fail-safe trove intended to protect food supplies in case of a global calamity—it was revealed last week. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which is buried in a frozen mountain on a Norwegian island, stores some 500 million seeds from around the world. But late last year temperatures soared on Svalbard, pushing the permafrost around the vault above melting point. Water seeped into the entrance tunnel, but didn’t reach the seeds. “It was not in our plans to think that the permafrost would not be there,” said Norwegian official Hege Njaa Aschim.

Taken from the June 2, 2017 print edition of The Week Magazine.

Bad Week For:

A side of fries, after researchers in Italy revealed that study subjects who ate french fries two or more times per week were at double the risk of an early death compared with those who didn’t. “The frequent consumption of fried potatoes appears to be associated with an increased mortality risk,” the researchers concluded.

Found the information here (the Week, of course, June 30, 2017) and the image here.

Hope for a Heart Disease Vaccine

I wonder how much this would cost? And the follow up booster? Once you got the original vaccine at a give-away price would the booster price sky rocket? Hmmmm. Am I sounding cynical? Wouldn't it be nice if we could all eat well enough to make this unnecessary? But I know how hard that is, don't I?

A vaccine against heart ­disease has worked successfully in mice, raising the possibility that scientists will develop a breakthrough technique that could save millions of lives. Researchers in Europe tested the experimental vaccine on mice that were fed an unhealthy, high-fat Western diet, leaving them with high cholesterol and atherosclerosis, fatty buildup in the arteries that increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. The vaccine effectively lowered the total blood cholesterol level of the mice by 53 percent, The Guardian (U.K.) reports. It also reduced arterial damage linked to atherosclerosis by 64 percent and led to a 28 percent drop in markers of blood vessel inflammation. The vaccine works by triggering the production of antibodies that block an enzyme called PCSK9, which prevents the body from clearing LDL, or “bad” cholesterol from the blood. The antibodies produced by the vaccine remained at high levels throughout the entire 18-week study, suggesting the shot has long-term benefits, unlike daily cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, which can cause muscle pain, confusion, digestive issues, and other side effects. The vaccine is currently being tested on 72 people, with results of the Phase I clinical trial expected by the end of the year. “If these findings translate successfully into humans,” says Gunther Staffler, one of the vaccine’s developers, “we could develop a long-lasting therapy that, after the first vaccination, just needs an annual booster.”

Taken from the July 7, 2017 print edition of The Week Magazine.

Olive oil boosts the brain

Enough to negate this health scare?

I am always so concerned because they say not to cook with olive oil, so I cook with coconut oil, bacon fat, ghee or other saturated fats. I wonder what I am doing to myself. I guess I'll need to report in real time when and if I decline... or maybe my writing will be the proof of that.

Nutritionists have long touted the heart-healthy benefits of olive oil, but a new study suggests this “superfood” and its powerful antioxidants may also act to protect the brain from tumors. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh homed in on a key ingredient in olive oil, known as oleic acid. The team performed tests on living cells and human cell extracts to assess the effects of this fatty acid on a brain molecule, called microRNA-7, that helps stop the growth of tumors. They found that oleic acid prevents a protein, known as MSI2, from halting the production of microRNA-7. By indirectly supporting this tumor-blocking molecule, oleic acid may ultimately help prevent the growth and spread of cancer, reports NatureWorldNews.com. “Our findings do suggest that oleic acid can support the production of tumor-suppressing molecules in cells grown in the lab,” says lead author Gracjan Michlewski. “Further studies could help determine the role that olive oil might have in brain health.”

Taken from the June 30, 2017 rint edition of the Week Magazine.

Early Human Arrivals in North America

Not sure what that is a picture of.... Mastodon bones?

Reading the text, they don't sound so sure of themselves... so the Week is just reported that someone said this? Was this a slow week for news? Yet the editors highlighted the information.

Ah well.... sorta ties in with these previous posts here and here. More because of the work it takes to analyze this stuff.

A group of scientists has claimed that ancient humans may have settled in North America as long as 130,000 years ago—some 115,000 years earlier than previously thought. The controversial assertion, which is viewed with skepticism by most other paleontologists, is based on analysis of the fossilized remains of a mastodon, a long-extinct mammoth-like animal. Discovered beside a freeway near San Diego in 1992, the mastodon bones were scratched and broken into many pieces, surrounded by several large rocks that may have served as hammers and anvils. Researchers at the University of Michigan and elsewhere have concluded that the bones are 130,000 years old, and that they were opened when fresh by a Neanderthal or other ancient human relative using rocks to try to extract bone marrow. It’s widely accepted that Homo sapiens arrived in North America about 15,000 years ago, across a land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska; the mastodon findings, if confirmed, would indicate that another hominin species somehow reached this continent much earlier. If that hypothesis is true, it would rewrite the story of human migration. Skeptics argue that there are more-plausible explanations for the bone fractures and markings, such as pressure from the sediment on top of it. Paleontologist Thomas A. Deméré, a co-author of the study, acknowledged that the findings seem “impossible,’’ but said, “People have to be open to the possibility that humans were here this long ago.’’

I am going backwards through my stack of The Week Magazines... here we have something from the May 12, 2017 print edition.

Humanity’s surprisingly young cousin

Ahhhh, weren't we just talking about discoveries like this the other day? Lots of food for thought here. Wonder what the final conclusion is going to be.

Another thought... whose job is it to lay all the bones out like that to photograph? And what happens when it's time to clean it up and put it away?

A distant human relative once thought to have lived millions of years ago may in fact have wandered the earth much more recently—and lived alongside early Homo sapiens, reports The Washington Post. Remains of Homo naledi were first discovered in South Africa’s Rising Star cave system in 2013. The species had a small brain—the size of a gorilla’s—and an ape-like torso, but walked upright like a modern human and had dexterous wrists and hands that could have made and used tools. Paleoanthropologists initially believed that this hominin emerged some 2 million years ago, based on its unusual mix of modern and primitive characteristics, putting it near the base of the Homo family tree. But tests have revealed that the species was alive between 236,000 and 335,000 years ago—not long before early examples of our own species, Homo sapiens, emerged. Fifteen Homo naledi skeletons were found deep in the cave system, leading some researchers to speculate that the species may have purposely buried its dead, an advanced behavior that so far has been confirmed only among Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The findings suggest human evolution was a complex process, with species diverging and interbreeding—not a linear progression in which human ancestors developed bigger brains and walked more upright over time. John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist who helped lead the Rising Star expedition, says the next step is to “sort the relationship of these different species to each other and also their role in our process of becoming human.”

May 26, 2017 print edition of The Week Magazine.

A global obesity crisis

But it tastes so good....

And if we didn't have companies making and selling all this processed food what would people do for a living so they can buy more stuff/food? Farm? Guffaw! Don't be ridiculous. We'd be putting people out of jobs. We need this so that we can make more pharmaceuticals to be sold. If we got rid of that, then what would the people in the pharmaceutical industry do for money? It all spirals if we change this. Think of all that job loss.

I am so ready to get some land and try my hand at organic farming. Wish actually I knew what to do and had a strong back. But maybe I could have my llamas and their nutrient-rich poop.

Bringing Western food to the developing world has a major downside: More than 2 billion people across the globe are now overweight, and it’s taking a toll on their health, new research reveals. “Excess body weight is one of the most challenging public health problems of our time, affecting nearly 1 in 3 three people,” study author Ashkan Afshin tells The Guardian (U.K.). After analyzing data compiled on 68.5 million people in 195 countries, a 2,300-member research team found that obesity rates have doubled since 1980 in 73 countries. Today, 10 percent of all people are considered obese—meaning their body mass index, a height-weight ratio, is 30 or above. That includes nearly 13 percent of children in the U.S., up from 5 percent 37 years ago. Experts contend that poor diet is fueling the global obesity epidemic as more people around the world gain access to cheap, processed foods that are devoid of nutrients but loaded with chemicals and calories. Even if people are overweight (with a BMI between 25 and 29) but not officially obese, says researcher Azeem Majeed, that’s still associated with heart disease, cancer, and other chronic health issues. “The risk of death and diseases increases as your weight increases.”

From the June 30, 2017 print edition of the Week Magazine.

Origins of Humans

Honestly, I have no idea how scientists do it... study one little fossil like this jaw bone and extrapolate to certain conclusions. I would never have the patience, so God bless them and their willingness to study these fossils. Can you imagine what these scientists fantasies must be like? Dreaming for a discovery like this in order to advance the science? Wouldn't it be miraculous if DNA were discovered....? Maybe we cold have Jurassic Park for prehumans... and then we could see whose tree was the oldest. Kinda like when scientists did a DNA analysis on Otzi, the man found in the Alps.

Scientists have unveiled what they believe are the oldest Homo sapiens remains ever found, a major discovery that potentially upends our understanding of when and where our species evolved. The fossils—a skull, bones, and teeth from five ­individuals—were unearthed in a remote area of Morocco, in what was once a cave. After using advanced dating analysis on stone tools and a tooth found at the excavation site, researchers determined that the bones are between 300,000 and 350,000 years old—100,000 years older than any other known Homo sapiens fossils. The individuals had a mixture of modern and primitive characteristics, with a face and jutting jaw nearly identical to that of a modern human, and an elongated brain case characteristic of early humans. Until now, it was widely believed Homo sapiens evolved from earlier forms of the Homo genus in a small region of East Africa about 200,000 years ago, then spread out across the continent and the world. This discovery suggests our species arose much earlier, and that the process took place over a wider area. “We did not evolve from a single ‘cradle of mankind,’” paleoanthropologist Philipp Gunz, who co-authored the research, tells The New York Times. “We evolved on the African continent.” That conclusion remains controversial. With no universally accepted set of features that distinguishes modern humans from our older ancestors, some paleontologists say the new remains are merely an example of early humans just before they evolved into Homo sapiens.

Taken from the June 23rd print edition of The Week Magazine.

Drinking Speeds Mental Health Decline

And yet another reason to stop drinking.... I suspect I take after my maternal grandmother's family and both my grandmother and her mother suffered from dementia. You'd think my present self would be eager to look out for my future self.

Yet more bad news for drinkers: As little as one glass of wine or beer a night may accelerate mental deterioration later in life. Researchers analyzed data from a British study that tracked 550 men and women for 30 years. The subjects were tracked for alcohol intake and monitored for brain structure and function. The researchers found that those who drank moderately, consuming about five to eight drinks each week, were three times more likely than the nondrinkers to suffer from shrinkage in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory and learning. Shrinkage in this region is associated with dementia, and the more people drank, the worse their mental decline. The moderate drinkers also performed worse on verbal fluency tests used to assess language and executive function. “These findings raise a question mark over the safety of current U.S. alcohol guidelines,” study author Anya Topiwala tells CBSNews.com. “These are people who are drinking at levels that many consider social drinkers.”

Taken from the June 23, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

BBQ linked to breast cancer

I guess I am toast.

Women are more likely to die from breast cancer if they eat a lot of grilled, smoked, and barbecued meats, new research suggests. The study also found women who reported greater intake of these foods have a 23 percent greater risk of death from any cause. “There are many carcinogens found in grilled or smoked meats,” author Humberto Parada tells The Washington Post, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAH], which are formed when meat—particularly fatty meat—is subjected to very high heat. Researchers monitored 1,500 women with breast cancer for nearly two decades, and found that those who routinely ate large amounts of grilled, smoked, and barbecued meats were 31 percent more likely to die during the study period. Women who included substantial amounts of poultry and fish in their diet, however, were 45 percent less likely to die over the same period than those who didn’t eat these lean proteins.

Taken from the February 10, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

Meditation and inflammation

While a growing number of people swear by the power of mindfulness meditation to ease anxiety, skeptics question whether the practice offers real physiological benefits. But doubters may want to consider a new study showing that mindfulness has measurable effects on specific markers of stress and inflammation. Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center randomly assigned 89 people with generalized anxiety disorder to take either an eight-week mindfulness-meditation stress-reduction course, or general stress management classes that focused on wellness topics, like healthy eating and good sleep habits. After analyzing blood samples from each participant, the team found people who engaged in mindfulness meditation were better able to cope with stressful situations, ScienceDaily​.com reports. Those who learned to meditate had significantly lower levels of the stress hormone ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) and markers of inflammation, called pro-inflammatory cytokines, than the ones who didn’t. “Mindfulness-meditation training is a relatively inexpensive and low-stigma treatment approach,” says Georgetown psychiatrist Elizabeth Hoge. “These findings strengthen the case that it can improve resilience to stress.”

Decluttering my home of all these pieces of paper I have been saving for this blog has been anxiety reducing, too. Just saying.

Taken from the February 10, 2017 print edition of The Week Magazine.

Vitamin C targets cancer

Most people take vitamin C to fend off a cold, but new research suggests it could also be a possible weapon in the fight against cancer. A team of researchers at the University of Salford in England evaluated seven substances—vitamin C, two natural products, and four experimental cancer drugs—on their ability to block the growth of cancer stem cells, which inhibit chemotherapy and help tumors spread throughout the body. They found that vitamin C did block the growth of cancer cells; in fact, it was 10 times more effective than one of the pharmaceuticals, although it was outperformed by two experimental drugs. The finding adds to previous research indicating that high-dose vitamin C treatments could slow the growth of cancer cells in the prostate, liver, and colon. “Vitamin C is cheap, natural, nontoxic, and readily available,” study co-author Michael Lisanti tells Science​Daily​.com. “To have it as a potential weapon in the fight against cancer would be a significant step.”

Time to beef up my vitamin C intake.
Taken from the March 31, 2017 print edition of The Week Magazine.

Philadelphia Cemetery

I heard this NPR story on Mother's Day this year. Seemed appropriate for this blog.

Because it is the only green space for many folks in down town Philadelphia, they are enjoying and beautifying the 19th century Woodland cemetery on the grounds of the former William Hamilton estate, a botanist.




What caught my attention was that some (many?) of the headstones have eroded and the names can no longer be read. It makes me hope that fellow FAGs (Find-a-gravers) have recorded these interments for posterity. I pray that the paper records are intact and that they have been transcribed.

I was also interested in the discussion about the unmarried, former Civil War nurse. After doing some research on some of the people buried in the cemetery, the interviewee was speculating as to why she became a nurse and what was the role of her father, who lies buried next to her (or vice versa, as she lived until 70.) That is exactly the kind of thing that I want to do - imagine and write the stories of the child free women in my tree.

Take a listen here. It's only 3 minutes of your time.

Dental Plaque reveals Neanderthals' secret

Neanderthals are generally portrayed as simpleminded carnivores. But a groundbreaking new study of hominid teeth has found that some of them were dedicated vegetarians and may even have used certain plants as painkillers. Researchers analyzed DNA that had been preserved in dental plaque from three Neanderthals that lived between 42,000 and 50,000 years ago—two from El Sidrón Cave in Spain and one from Spy Cave in Belgium. They found that while the hominid from the grasslands of Spy ate mostly meat, including woolly rhino and wild sheep, some of the inhabitants of the dense forests of El Sidrón probably ate no meat at all, subsisting instead on moss, pine nuts, and fungi. “It is very indicative of a vegetarian diet,” study co-author Laura Weyrich, from the University of Adelaide, tells NPR.org. “Probably the true paleo diet.” The DNA analysis also suggested that one of the El Sidrón Neanderthals may have consumed poplar tree bark—which contains salicylic acid, one of the ingredients in aspirin—to treat pain from a diarrhea-inducing gut parasite and a tooth abscess. The same hominid’s dental plaque also contained traces of the mold used to make penicillin. Another surprising finding was that Neanderthals had mouth bacteria that was acquired from Homo sapiens, which suggests the species were either kissing or sharing food. The discovery, Weyrich says, indicates that relations between modern humans and Neanderthals were probably “much more friendly than anyone imagined.”

Taken from the March 31, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

Oaxacan Carpets

The other day when we were having tornado warnings here in New Orleans I decided to do some uncluttering, as I needed to unplug my computer (and other electronics). I sorted through some of the pieces of paper I have collected for this blog, but never gotten around to writing.

I confess I tossed a number of business cards and ephemera of other artists because they no longer spoke to me. Writing their stories no longer 'sparked joy', but not these cards... I still wanted to share these fiber artists with my readers.

I met the artists, Wence and Sandra Martinez, at the Smithsonian Craft show a couple years ago. On their web site they call that very show "the holy grail of juried national craft shows."

Their work reminded me of my time in Oaxaca because I bought myself a carpet while I was in Mexico.

Coincidentally that same afternoon, when turning my computer back on, I decided to unclutter some of my computer files, too, and came across some photos from my trip to Oaxaca back before 2008 or so. I swear, I did not go looking for them.

There was a confluence of images, which made me realize it was time to write this entry.

These images are poor quality because they were not taken digitally, they are photos that I scanned.

That's my rug, right there. The artists are finishing up my very carpet. (It's not like I commissioned the carpet... and it was a total impulse buy/souvenir.)



I love that you can see some of the other rugs they have in their studio. You can see, too, that I like bright colors... brighter than the more traditional colors. I love that carpet. It always makes me happy.



The town was very small. I hope all the weavers benefit from the success that the Martinez's are having.

PS - Happy birthday to both my Dad and my very good friend, Derek.

Emma Morano

This makes very sad to read:

The last surviving person born in the 19th century died at her home in northern Italy last week. Emma Morano, 117, was the world’s oldest person, and attributed her longevity to her genetics and her diet of three eggs a day—two of them raw—as well as her decision to stay single. Violet Brown, who was born in Jamaica on March 10, 1900, is now the oldest person on Earth.

I'm certainty glad I saw the blurb, though, letting me know of her passing. We met Emma here and here.

Rest in Peace, Emma.

I read this in the April 28th edition of The Week Magazine.

Small world, small world

I occasionally read a blog called Two Nerdy History Girls. These are a couple authors writing romance novels. I have never read any of their novels, but they do seem to enjoy the research. I occasionally contemplate writing novels with my family members as the protagonists, so these women are doing something very similar... and getting paid for their research, whereas my research is merely a hobby (dare I say passion?)

In any event, coincidentally, they mentioned the very same Morris family in their May 12th blog as I discussed in my May 12th blog entry! Ha! And they end their blog with "How small a place the 18thc world was!" Even today, with 6 billion people on the planet, we both mention the Morris family in our Blogger blogs! So, sometimes, still small.

Gouverneur Morris was the brother (or son?) of the signer of the Declaration of Independence. I created his tree is attempting to find my ancestor.

Can I mention another funny coincidence? I have been researching several Jerushas in my tree. Jerusha is clearly an old-fashioned woman's name. I find it exotic sounding. Here's the coincidence: watching this old house, episode 23 in their series on renovating a house in Detroit, their kitchen designer is Jerusha Kaffine. How many Jerushas have you met? I have never met a Jerusha. And then suddenly here she is. It's not like I am a regular viewer of This Old House - though I enjoy it tremendously. So, why did I watch it the night they introduced us to Jerusha?

Furry Pets, Healthier Babies

Catching up on my reading:

The therapeutic value of pets is well-known, but a new Canadian study takes it to another level, suggesting that women with animals have healthier babies. Researchers asked the mothers of more than 700 children about pets they owned during pregnancy and for three months after delivery. They found that babies exposed to furry animals—especially dogs—have significantly higher levels of Ruminococcus and Oscillospira, two beneficial gut bacteria associated with a lower risk for allergies and obesity, ScienceDaily​.com reports. The researchers explain that pet bacteria enhance a newborn’s resistance to those chronic health issues. Prenatal pet exposure also reduces the risk that mothers will pass vaginal group B strep (GBS)—linked to sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis—to children during delivery. Eventually, a “dog in a pill” may be developed to help confer these health benefits, predicts study author Anita Kozyrskyj. “It’s not far-fetched that the pharmaceutical industry will try to create a supplement of these microbiomes,” she says, “much like was done with probiotics.”

From the April 28th print edition of The Week Magazine.

Happy Mother's Day!

Morris Genealogy

Yesterday I mentioned that I went to my local library to see if they had a Morris Genealogy on their shelves.

They had two - both for the mid-west, so I essentially ignored them. (Maybe I should go and look more closely at the oldest generations in the books... It didn't cross my mind that perhaps there were clues there. I believe, however, that I wouldn't be so stupid not to have looked, but I don't recall the answer.)

Anyway, as I perused the shelves there was a book nearby entitled Moseley, Mosley etc. Families (Book 2 of 2): Genealogical Appendix: Apparently Non-Norfolk Lines & Raw Research Notes on Some Readily Available Records. Compiled by Warren L. "Tuck" Forsythe (1944-

Well, I have a Jerusha Moseley in my tree. The name Jerusha always interested me. The name seemed so exotic. And my grandmother never explored her tree.

Well....

When you plug that information in Ancestry.com, much is to be found.

Hahaha! And Dr. Isaac Moseley, with only one daughter, seems to have been a spy for the British! Hahaha!

I know this is the right tree/branch, because Jerusha's second son is named Isaac Moseley Danforth, her fourth son is John Merrick Danforth and her fifth daughter is Lucinda Lucretia Danforth. I think we can trust that Lucretia Merrick is her mother and Dr. Isaac Moseley is her father.

I guess I need to gather some more information on Dr. Isaac Moseley who seems to have been a duplicitous, greedy man. Ha! A good old skeleton in the closet!

Lewis Morris - a signer of the Declaration

Lewis Morris - taken from here.

I was scanning two file folders of my grandmother's genealogical information recently provided to me by my mother. In the files were many, many newspaper clippings of family marriages, engagements and birth announcements. What a treasure trove.

What caught my eye was a claim in the marriage announcement of one of my great uncles that he was descended from Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

My grandmother assembled a really nice book called "Our Heritage" which is broken down in to the four branches growing from her marriage to my grandfather. I never read in that privately published book that we had a Signer in the family. Given that the project was originally begun, I have often heard, to 'prove' that my great grandfather could be a member of the "Sons of the American Revolution", you would think that tidbit would be very important. As it is, that branch in the book ends with: 'no earlier trace of him can be found'.

So, I thought I'd approach the research two ways - build the signers tree and simultaneously see if in the internet age I can find 'a trace' of that missing father, William Morris. The clues I have are his name, Lewis Henry Morris, and the possibility that he was named after an uncle who was a captain sailing between Boston and the West Indies.

I haven't made a connection.

Though, in the signer's tree, there are many, many sons named Lewis Morris. Given my Lewis Morris ancestor was born in 1806/7 - he's probably not a direct descendant, maybe a nephew, though I have not found any connection as of yet. And I have not found anything about that William.

There is mention, though, of the Signer's family members being from Barbados. So maybe there is something there... I just haven't found it.

Here are the clues I do have:

William Morris was a sea captain in command of a vessel sailing between the West Indies and Boston, Massachusetts. It is believed that he came from the West Indies, as he named a son after a brother who was of the West Indies and who plied a ship for Robert Livingston of New York City. No earlier trace of him can be found. He married Margaret Jenkins, daughter of George and Mary (McHard) Jenkins, born May 7th, 1770, married June 7th, 1801.

So, maybe some time spent with Robert Livingston is necessary. Also, maybe a maritime museum or archive would be helpful.

Ok, wait, I took my own suggestion... Robert Livingston is associated with drafting the declaration.... This is a bigger investigation than I can address here.

What I do know, though, is that we have many people with the name Morris as a middle name - clearly nodding to that branch of the tree. (I hadn't really focused on that before; I guess I always thought it was just using the masculine name Morris.) I guess this question requires more investigation.

The source of my grandmother's information is Morris Genealogy and New England Genealogical Society, Boston, MA. My grandmother was not as helpful about where I can find this Morris Genealogy. (I already checked my local library, and nothing there.)

Goat Kids in Pajamas

I have no idea how to include the video, but it is a must-see. I found the video here on a Kansas City news station.

Baby goats are adorable regardless, but wearing pajamas is a hoot.

Photo taken from here.

I visited the website of Sunflower Farm Creamery. They are a small farm in Cumberland, Maine. Based on their web site they adore their animals. (When did they find the time to make the pajamas? And why? Maybe Maine is colder than they like.)

The farm is offering goat yoga, though! Hahaha. They have a woman standing in mountain pose (or something) holding a tiny goat above her head. I wonder if the goat wiggles or just rests there.

I guess I am reaching, but the pajamas are made of fiber...




PS - Happy Birthday, you know who you are!

Chicken Footstools

I have no idea when I picked up the card. I can visualize the chickens, but not where I met them.

I am amazed by people's imaginations. Where did this idea come from? I took this explanation from the website:

The chickens are handcrafted in Lyons, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri with care and delight, upholstered to function as footstools. Each is one-of-a-kind, unique in posture and personality. A turned wood egg-shaped core stands on bronze feet and is connected to a bronze beak. Feathers are handcrafted with traditional fiber art techniques- dyeing, felting, spinning, knitting- and are stitched by hand. And a surprise? Their heads bob.

I can't seem to grab a photo from the website to post here, so you must got see them here.  Aren't they the cutest things you have ever seen? I love the brightly colored ones. Not cheap, but delightful ($1,450 - $2,600 range). I just watched the videos, and I take it all back... worth every penny. They are amazing.

Wait, wait, found another way, taken from the Fort Worth Arts Festival web site:

Hmmm... I wonder if the knitters ever thought about getting themselves a foot stool to use while they knit sweaters for real chickens.