Monthly Archives: January 2017

Todays new revelation: Trump vs asbestos

Political - thoughts, Rants, Ultimate order, the cell

QUOTING FROM the UC E-Health News today,we find Trump defending himself as a landowner against the science that proves asbestos is dangerous.

More in a series of very very serious evidence that this man makes his own reality.

Federal health agencies have mostly ignored the well-documented risk from asbestos-containing products for years, regardless who sat in the Oval Office.

Trump has often said that the danger of asbestos is overblown. Aside from his pro-business, anti-environment cabinet appointments, the 45th president brought with him a well-documented history of defending asbestos as safe.

Testifying as a New York landlord and developer, Trump touted the safety of the “miracle fiber” to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
2005.

He hammered home his belief in numerous speeches, tweets, and in his 1997 book “The Art of Making a Comeback.”

“I believe that the movement against asbestos was led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal,” Trump wrote in that book. “Great pressure was put on politicians, and as usual, the politicians relented. Millions of truckloads of this incredible fire-proofing material were taken to special ‘dump sites’ and asbestos was replaced by materials that were supposedly safe but couldn’t hold a candle to asbestos in limiting the ravages of fire.”

However, the Centers for Disease Control and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration insist that there is no safe level of exposure to any asbestos fiber.

Expressing concern about Trump’s defense of asbestos and the disdain his nominee to head the EPA has for the agency’s laws, Monforton said it was irresponsible for EPA to not issue a warning before the change of administration.

SO MY TAKE ON THIS… is far deeper than the comment by Trump in bold above… it speaks to the values of this man.  That people get asbestosis, mesothelioma, and other respiratory diseases from this material had NO MENTION in the rant, rather it was about “waste” and “conspiracy” and “property”   — this is a sad commentary.

Secondly, and at least as sad, apparently when this man doesn’t understand the science behind the decisions he just blurts out nonsense, mainly an attempt at creating a smoke screen for his ignorance.  Many of the most awesome scientists I have ever met are fully comfortable with not knowing “everything”, it is honest and truthful, but I have also met those who will pull this same kind of smoke screen to cover their ignorance.  How frustrating for people who want to know the real facts… to be fed “alternative facts”

Food: rules of thumb

Health - opinions, Rants

the food rules of thumb  —  ha ha just thinking out loud here

if it was picked 2 weeks, months or years ago it was green and may be tasteless
if your orange is very orange, it was probably dyed
if you tomato is very red, it was probably ripened with ethylene oxide
if it doesn’t rot, its not going to be that nutritious
if mice and rats won’t eat it, its not food
if it turns brown it has lost its antioxidant value
if it is a fruit, after being picked it cannot ripen, it can only rot
if it is a root or tuber, it very well may improve with age
if it is stressed, it will give you less than optimal nutrition (veggie fruit or meat)
if it is white, it has few polyphenols and phytonutrients
if it is purple, it probably has lots of phytonutrients
if you peel it, in many cases you lose the valuable parts
if you burn it, you create carcinogens
if you boil it, sometimes you make it better (carrots) sometimes worse
if you eat it alone you miss other nutrients that help with digestion and absorption
if you eat a very small variety of food you will be minimally nourished
if it makes you sick, or itchy, don’t eat it again
if you take a vitamin — don’t be fooled into thinking you are nourished
if you calculate gut surface area, food is your largest environmental interface
if you eat anything, you are feeding your microbiome
if you are kind to your microbiome, you will be healthier

100 nm square = alveolar type II cell granule pattern

Electron microgaphs of lung, Layered intracisternal protein granules in mammalian lung, Ultimate order, the cell

A summary and diagram – two years in the making (not so LOL)

A protein granule exists in the rough endoplasmic reticulum of alveolar type II cells of some species which has remained relatively obscure. It has characteristics of a highly self-associated protein with a predictable repeating substructure and displays at least 8 prominent patterns:

1) most commonly it appears as a layered sheet about 100 nm thick
2) which upon cross section comprises two dense outer layers, 100 nm apart, a less dense central layer which can have up to 3 faint layers on either side. This pattern forms one period
3) the layered sheet (100 nm-thick period) can also be stacked many times creating a granule with a length and height of many microns
4) whether single or highly stacked, ribosomes only lie on growing ends of the granule and in opportune cuts a single period has 4 ribosomes, 1 at each dense layer and one on either side of the central layer
5) the perimeter of the granule could be linear, or rounded, with sheets (layers) arranged in patterns reminiscent of flow extrusion, where each of the 4 ribosomes equates to a die, and as if the rate of protein translation/modification, and the shape, size and press capacity of the ER determined if the granule would be gently curved or U shape, looped or folded-back, concentric, or branched. Some granules were a mixture of all these forms, even rarely intersecting
6) Both the outer dense, and less dense central layers appeared to be continuous on perpendicular cuts, but clearly punctate when cut tangentially
7) Outer dense bands showed a periodicity of about 4 per 100 nm, while less dense central bands showed a periodicity of about 5-7 per 100 nm, possibly lined up in a staggered format
8)  A faint vertical tie was also seen at about 4 per 100 nm beginning typically at one of the densities

Measurements have been made but these are approximations derived from hundreds of micrographs and numerous publications. Similarly, measurements by numerous reports on the size and structure of surfactant protein A have shown that it is likely to be an 18-mer with a spread of the CRD at the top of the bouquet of something on the order of 25 nm. It doesn’t take a big leap to put four 18-mers together vertically and copy them side to side to come out with a pretty awesome banding pattern that fits the 100 nm dimensions.

most_up_2_date_type_II_cell_granule_diagram

LEST YOU boast, scoff, disparage, discourage, undermine, or ridicule!!! REMEMBER this, someone else knows more than you.

Rants

LEST YOU boast, scoff, disparage, discourage, undermine, or ridicule!!! REMEMBER this, someone else knows more than you.

It is certainly an unbelievably awesome universe (I digress and guess multiverse is a thought now defunct — wikipedia says thus: In Dublin in 1952, Erwin Schrödinger (likely the same Schroedinger made famous by “big bang theory” in Schodinger’s box – with the cat) gave a lecture in which he jocularly warned his audience that what he was about to say might “seem lunatic.” He said that, when his Nobel equations seemed to describe several different histories, these were “not alternatives, but all really happen simultaneously.” This is the earliest known reference to the multiverse. The American philosopher and psychologist William James used the term multiverse in 1895, but in a different context.)

I am reminded every day all day that there is soooo much information, vast amounts not even dreamed yet, eons from being discovered. It is at once illuminating and frightening. Consider that you (and I) walk out the door of our homes each day not even knowing the plants, the visible animals let alone those not readily seen, the molecules in our air and food and water, those elements and man made compounds that make up the vehicles we drive, put on our backs, use for daily communication  — I dare any of you to say that you could put together a cell phone from scratch, let alone the towers and networks scattered above and beyond and below.  Each of us knows soooooo little, yet so much, and it is sooooo unrelated to what our best friends, family and colleagues know that it is astounding that any of us can communicate.  Enough said.pseudo_multiverse

 

Polyethylene glycol, propylene glycol, ethylene glycol, glycerol: people! wake up!

Environment and contaminants, Rants

Humectants, cosmetics, antifreeze, frostings, hair products, but not good for some animals.

I don’t have to be scared to death more than about once to make a change in my behavior.  Go back about 6 years, when i had 3 dogs, all very different. One a yellow lab mix, one a husky mix, one a black brown and white generic mix.  I purchased some rawhide chews from a national chain pet store, one afternoon, and fed one to each dog.  About 11 at night, one dog was throwing up blood, the other in huge gastric distress with diarrhea and vomiting.  Hello…  this was not coincidence. The vet bill was about 300 dollars. I took the treats back to the store, the disavowed any relationship.  I never bought another chew (and assumed it was part of the melamine scandal, in retrospect, maybe it was a glycol).

January 21 2017, I visited that same pet store (under different ownership now, bought out by PetCo), and I purchased what I THOUGHT was a bleached bone. I got home and it had “peanut butter flavor” some gooey stuff in it… I knew better, but I scraped it all out, and busted the bone into pieces (sanding down the edges a tiny bit so they weren’t sharp) and fed to my two current dogs (one weimaraner and one black brown white generic mix).  One hour later, the weimaraner is kicking and jumping around then on the ground excessive salivation, in obvious gastric distress (or perhaps a petit mal seizues), i try to comfort him, we head off for the emergency room vet, where we wait for 45 minutes.  Lucky me, he recovered sufficiently to be walking around and curious and no longer in any distress (at least by outward appearance). So we left the vet, he has since been fine.  BUT I AM NOT FINE.

Next morning i called PetCo in Cincinnati and asked them to read the ingredients that match the UPC on my receipt…  fourth or fifth ingredient (AFTER WATER no less) is propylene glycol.  My weimaraner has the agouti gene, he doesn’t have the same panel of liver enzymes that other dogs do, there is much variation in this, and the human food and pet food industries are completely “clueless” about genetics.  There should be NOTHING in food that the sensitive population of individuals should not be warned of.  OF course there are food allergies, for humans and pets, but they are lacing products with non-nutritional ingredients, unnecessarily exposing humans and pets and the only reason is PROFIT.  Shameful.

The FDA claims that propylene glycol is GRAS  (generally regarded as safe)  TO ME THIS MEANS NOTHING MORE THAN — WE ARE NOT GOING TO TACKLE BIG FOOD INDUSTRIES — unless we have to.  After all, they fund us.  So sad.

Here is a newsletter so long ago about the glycols, people died. People as in human beings. Check your meds – labels.Interface_Issue_32I don’t know about you….  but it is crystal clear to me: READ THE LABEL, IF YOU CANT PRONOUNCE IT (by the way, the clerk in PetCo could not pronounce tocopherol (yes yes i know that is vitamin E… no complaints)… ha ha..let alone propylene glycol — so the people who sell this stuff are not the best sources of information. )

Here are some sites to visit.  THE BOTTOM line is NOT that all things we cant pronounce are bad, but there is “risk” in every environmental “chemical”, some naturally occurring, some artificial, some worse than others, some so toxic that nanogram quantities can end life.  The BOTTOM line is — think about WHY an additive is present, decide if it is necessary for food taste, nutrition, or if it is there for profit and shelf life.  Always recognize that we are not all created equally, except under god, but under biology all 7 billion, and counting, are unique). Find your (and your pets) uniquenesses, and be open to observation, be informed (the internet is only a good place for information if one is willing to weed out the hype), and sometimes just restrain yourself from using products full of additives.  It is dangerous enough to eat what nature has concocted by evolution in the last 14 billion years, let alone what man adds for shelf-life.

SCIENCE DIRECT

Food_safety_news_logo

BussFeed_logo

 

And from our own betty crocker…. a cake with propylene glycol just behind oil in the ingredient list… ha ha

betty_crocker_logo

 

So here is my theory:  bone is dry, peanut butter flavor gew is wet, polyethylene glycol goes to the dry bone – after all it is used to “soften and hydrate”, and is present there even though I scrape out the peanut butter flavor stuff, in just sufficient quantities to cause gastric upset.  I rule out the peanut butter allergy, because the dog has been fed natural peanut butter many times without incident.  Of course the peanut butter flavor gew is not really peanut butter.  I don’t know if the sugars, salt also seep into the bone from the filling.  Probably.

 

Single period alveolar type II cell granule: end-on

Electron microgaphs of lung, Layered intracisternal protein granules in mammalian lung, The cell: images, Ultimate order, the cell

Electron micrograph of an alveolar type Ii cell which is overrun with surfactant protein granules and an isolated part of a larger granule shows this profile which is so symmetrical as to look like the spokes of a wheel. Micrograph on left is unretouched, micrograph on the right is burned in the areas of periodicity of the molecules of surfactant protein, and dodged in the areas between, just slightly to highlight what I saw.

The purpose of the study is still to determine which of the surfactant proteins is responsible for forming the granules. So here is such a single period of a granule which has a ribosome marked for approximate size (red dot=27 nm) red bar=100 nm superimposed on an electron micrograph (unretouched). Right hand image has emphasized image, and a circumference of the round less-dense inner band of the period (central dense dot represents the “outer dense band” seen in linear profiles. The inner dots have been counted in linear granules at closer to 5-6 per 100 nm but here there are 11 or 12 dots of the less dense central band under the circumference, which is about 330 nm, or a little less, and in this photo the dots measure about 15-17 nm (consistent with previous measurements, then are spaced at about 25 nm apart. Not everything lines up exactly with previous posts on this subject in the linear profiles, but clearly they are analogous and match pretty well.  The spoke appearance likely corresponds to the vertical lineup of molecules seen in granules that have a linear arrangement. (just as an aside, there is something spooky about the fact that I have found several times now that the space between these molecules in the central less dense band are spaced apart the same distance as a ribosome…. that is just uncanny, and I bet it will end up meaning something about protein synthesis in general–just a heads up).  see this post and this post

6758_17082_gpig_301_single_circle

Where does the alveolar type II cell granule exit the cell?

Ultimate order, the cell

Where does the alveolar type II cell granule exit the cell? This is problematic, as I have not actually seen a granule exit the cell at the apical plasma lemma or anywhere, for that matter, on the lateral or basal plasmalemma. This phot is probably a glimpse of the closest encounter between a granule and the apical membrane that I have noticed, to date. This is still not definitive. Wavy lines=apical membrane, arrow points to the cytoplasm between the alveolar space and the granule, which is smeared by the tangential orientation. Close, but not proof.  guinea pig, probably animal 301.

guess_guinea_pig_301

Desmosomal – mitochondrial associations

Electron microgaphs of lung, Ultimate order, the cell

For at least three decades I have seen these associations, some more clearly defined, others not so clearly defined (like this example) of mitochondria that show cytoplasmic filaments adjacent, and in very close proximity to the plasmalemma, and to that of an adjacent cell.

This particular mitochondrion (M) is in an alveolar type II cell from a guinea pig lung and the desmosome is very indistinct but still clearly visible and the cell adjacent is very likely an alveolar type I cell due to its thinness.

I reported these in an obscure journal sometime in the 1980s, desmosome-mitochondria-associations as a cursory report, and then never did anything with it.  (aside: I do remember contacting some pathologist for information and to see if he had seen anything like this reported before…three months later, before i finished this paper, i saw his publication on this topic…. i learned a valuable lesson from this, not a negative one, but if one has to protect one’s ideas, then that must show that one doesn’t have that many.. i just accepted this theft).  So now I am returning to many micrographs (about 20k) and gradually finding examples of all the desomosomal – mitochondrial associations like this, to assess the frequency, the reason, and just add some general knowledge on the complex.

Red dot=approximate diameter of a ribosome to translate into 27 nm as a scale marker, M=mitochondrion, the very faint dotted circle has within the increased density between the mitochondrion and the very faint desmosome.  Photo has not been enhanced to show the desmosomal-mitochondrial connection.  10236 M8060 guinea pig alveolar type II cells.

10236_M8060_gpig_type_II_des-mit

Facebook: an online mob

Rants

People! Please understand the mechanics of facebook if you use it. It is an instrument, a medium, tool, just like dynamite and antibiotics.  You can use it for good and for evil. You can unknowingly use it for good, and unknowingly use it for evil.

Facebook is like a child, it craves attention. You can reward good behavior (like and friend people who make a positive contribution), you can reward bad behavior (unfriend the post, report it), whichever one you choose, YOU are an accomplice.  If you repost terror, abuse, destruction, cruelty, then you are an accomplice to those acts because you give them voice, and validity. If you punish a child, you still reward them… the behaviors become set.  If you repost goodness, honest reporting, facts (not just fake facts), then you are helping humanity.

Legally, if you stand by a friend while he/she shoots and kills someone, you are an accomplice, you can be tried and convicted. if you watch on facebook, cruelty and abuse, then you become an accomplice by rewarding inhumanity. (Too bad you can’t be held accountable)(yet).

Be responsible.  It is a mob of thoughtless and unconscious reposting and fake news that has the potential to engender much evil and hatred.  Facebook is no different than a stoning mob or a lynch mob for evil… it is mob behavior, fueled by anxiety, and depravity.  It can be a mob for good, a march and a crusade, fueled by love and by caring and by the desire to make the world a better place.

Margin of a cisternal body and a lamellar body in an alveolar type II cell

Ultimate order, the cell

Margin of a cisternal body (RER granule) and a lamellar body in an alveolar type II cell gets blurred in this electron micrograph. There is a transition area right at the point of blending (LB, lamellar body; CB, cisternal body (or granule with what I hope is surfactant protein A all oligomerized in a long protein extruded order).  The view at the transition does contain a lot of hexagonal structures, which have a reasonably good fit for the 26 nm given to the bouquet top of surfactant protein A and a nearby measured ribosome (mammalian ribosome about 27 nm)…  there is some kind of linear alignment too, right at the interface between the two organelles….  any speculations. Top figure (unretouched) shows ribosome for size comparison and a 100 nm bar marker, a granule with three periods pointing from the lamellar body to the upper right corner of the micrograph. The linear interface lines are interesting, but one can see the ribosomes (burned in photoshop in figure 2 (middle figure) as well as a burning in the hexagonal pattern which occurrs just ad the interface of the lamellar body and the granule. Box in middle figure denotes inset as bottom figure, where the hexagonal pattern is more clearly seen (as I enhanced this with the burn tool in photoshop.  9856_17085_guinea_pig_#301.

CB-LB1CB-LB2CB-LB3