Wednesday, May 18, 2022

The self-destructing female octopus

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS  "Hunter On The Table"  went up Monday.


dinner


 

The birds and the bees.  Its always an interesting talk.  I've had it with my parents when I was a child and, as a parent, I've had it with my three kids.  And I'm not an expert and that becomes obvious very often like today when I learned about the sex life of the octopus.  Stephanie Pappas (LIVE SCIENCE) reports:


Many animal species die after they reproduce. But in octopus mothers, this decline is particularly alarming: In most species, as an octopus mother's eggs get close to hatching, she stops eating. She then leaves her protective huddle over her brood and becomes bent on self-destruction. She might beat herself against a rock, tear at her own skin, even eat pieces of her own arms. 

Now, researchers have discovered the chemicals that seem to control this fatal frenzy. After an octopus lays eggs, she undergoes changes in the production and use of cholesterol in her body, which in turn increases her production of steroid hormones — a biochemical shift that will doom her. Some of the changes may hint at processes that explain longevity in invertebrates more generally, said Z. Yan Wang, an assistant professor of psychology and biology at the University of Washington. 


THE SMITHSONIAN adds:

Scientists have known that the animal’s optic glands are responsible for this behavior. When the glands are removed, the octopuses resume eating and live months longer. But just how these glands trigger the animal’s gruesome death has been a mystery. 

Now, in a new study published in Current Biology, researchers describe changes to a series of biochemical pathways that happen after mating and may be responsible for the animal’s self-destruction. One of these changes leads to an increase in 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC), a precursor to cholesterol. 

“We know cholesterol is important from a dietary perspective, and within different signaling systems in the body too,” says Z. Yan Wang, a professor of psychology and biology at the University of Washington and lead author of the study, in a statement. “It’s involved in everything from the flexibility of cell membranes to production of stress hormones, but it was a big surprise to see it play a part in this life cycle process as well.”

The authors examined optic glands and optic lobes in both mated and unmated female California blue-spot octopuses, writes Christa Lesté-Lasserre for New Scientist. In their paper, the scientists describe three chemical pathways that increase steroid hormones after reproduction. The first pathway produces pregnancy hormones. The other two produce 7-DHC and bile acid intermediates, neither of which were previously known to be involved in semelparity—the reproductive strategy in which an animal has just one reproductive episode before dying. 


Mike did a science post so be sure to read "The Denisovans" -- good job.  And please read Ava and C.I.'s "TV: THE KIDS IN THE HALL try to return
 

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

 Wednesday, May 18, 2022.  Efforts to punish and terrorize Julian Assange continue, efforts by US President Joe Biden, and muhc more.


US President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange for the 'crime' of journalism.  Julian exposed War Crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.  For him to publish the truth about them, Chelsea Maning had to leak the truth to him.  The US government tried to destroy Chelsea before she ever arrived in court.  She was stripped naked and forced to stay that way in an effort to humiliate her.  zthe US government -- Joe was Vice President at this time -- insisted it was for her safety.  They were afraid she would kill herself, they insisted, so she couldn't have scrubs.  the lapdog media -- looking especially at you fake ass Jane Meyer who pretended to care about theses issues when Bully Boy bush occupied the White House -- played cumb and it was left to us to point out that scrubs don't have to be cloth, they also make paper scrubs.


This was part of an effort to destroy the person they had imprisoned.  They will come up with similar excuses to torture Julian should they get their hands on him.  XINHUA reports:



Hundreds of people gathered in front of the British Home Office on Tuesday to protest against the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US, denouncing it as politically motivated and a grave threat to freedom of press.

After Assange waged several rounds of appeal battle spanning months, Britain's Westminster Magistrate's Court issued a formal order in April to extradite him to the US to face espionage charges.

The case is now at the hands of British Home Secretary Priti Patel, who will decide whether to approve the extradition. Assange's legal team can make submissions before Wednesday to Patel explaining why Assange shouldn't be extradited.

On Tuesday, Assange's wife Stella Assange said on Twitter that a representation had been filed to Patel to block his extradition to the US.


Alan Jones n via YAHOO NEWS adds:


A human rights expert is urging the Government not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, warning it would have a “chilling effect” on media freedom.

Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, has written to Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is now considering whether the extradition can go ahead.

The commissioner said the wider human rights implications of extradition had not been adequately considered, adding that the indictment by the US raised important questions about the protection of those that publish classified information in the public interest.


From the Council of Europe website:


In a letter, published today, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, called on UK Home Secretary Priti Patel not to extradite Julian Assange.

Writing in view of the impending decision on Mr Assange’s extradition, the Commissioner noted that the wider human rights implications of doing so had not yet been adequately considered in the extradition proceedings. She particularly highlighted that the indictment by the United States against Mr Assange raised important questions about the protection of those that publish classified information in the public interest, including information that exposes human rights violations. She concluded that allowing Mr Assange’s extradition on this basis would have a chilling effect on media freedom, and could ultimately hamper the press in performing its task as purveyor of information and public watchdog in democratic societies.



Joe Biden and the US government cannot be trusted to act in any humane manner.  Humane people don't try to terrorize journalists.  

The government that repeatedly sees so many prisoners die in custody cannot be trusted.  Along with the abuse they aimed at Chelsea Manning, there is the fact that they ran Abu Ghraib in Iraq.  Joe Bden was a sitting US senator at the time.


Are we really to trust that Joe won't torture Julian?  This is the man who said, when the torture at the US-run prison Abu Ghraib was exposed “probably would have done less damage to our image, and our legitimacy, and our motive had Iraqi prisoners been shot, like Saddam and other despots in that region do.”

That is the voice of someone to trust with another person's life?


Remember that Joe Biden postured and pretended on Abu Ghraidb.  And then he turned around, years later after blaiming it on Bully Boy Bush, and put a medal on Bully Boy Bush, made a point to publicly honor him.


We're going to trust that person?




Yesterday, Isaiah posted three THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS comics -- "Amber Under Cross," "Equal Time For Classy Amber" and and "Joe Biden Likes Some White Supremacists."  -- here's that last one.





Joe postures and preens and he has no problem with that.  He wants to stand in front of the cameras in Buffalo and pretend to care about people of color but he's given over $40 billion to Ukraine ?  The racism doesn't matter there?





I had an e-mail saying that I "just think you are so right about Ukraine.  You may not be.."  I may not be.  I am often wrong.  I do however make a point to listen to my gut.  It's not wrong.  Ukraine is a racist government and it's a Nazi government.  And it is so wrong for the US government to be supporting this and I can say that and be fine with that.  I know in my gut it's true.  And I know Ill be slammed for it.  I can live with that.  I know history is on my side.


Rebecca's "about a 'woke' warrior" was very amusing to read.    So the guy who tried to attack an ddestroy me in college is a 'woke warrior' today?  Not back in college, of course.  I called out his bad writing and his support for the araprtheid regime.  I called out his opinion expressed as fact that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.


Today, he's a Woke Warrior for the left.  I wonder for how long?  I kept journalis -- I still do.  I have the piece he wrote and I have the letters he got people to write attacking me .  I've got a lot written and pasted in those journals.


I have nothing to lose today.  I stood up for Mandela, I stood up for equality.


He's the AOC buddy presenting himself as a woke warrior.


I wasn't afraid to call out apartheid and didn't regret it even though it resulted in an organized trashing of me that lasted a full semester.  


You think I'm afraid to take an opinion that's unpopular?  Nope.  It'ss the right opinion.  Don't say you support diversity and equality when your actions say you don't.  If you support people of color then you should be demanding that US tax dollars stop going to support a racist and homophobic government in Ukraine.




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