H'lulu - Butterfly Mask

Shuho Hananofu, Ikebana master

“My life work is flower offering. I always “do flowers” live, but am unfailing in making preparations by consistently following a commitment to determinate regularity. I often experience or witness surreal phenomena which surpass human conceivability, or events which appear to me as if the Mother Nature were favoring me. One day, when I was about to complete a flower presentation, the light of the setting sun suddenly reflected off a nearby building into our room, glided onto the presentation’s mizugiwa like a spotlight which then projected a dramatic silhouette of the flowers and vase on an alcove’s wall. I recall that those who were present at the site were profoundly moved by nature’s unexpected rendition. Flowers, light and shadow are all nature’s creations, and lest we may forget, humans are also part of this natural order as are all living creatures progressing toward the end of our lives. Harmony is the most crucial element of ikebana. One can only recognize light and shadow when, as flowers, you and I become one.”

Light and Shadow in “Doing Flowers”

In all this there was a strangeness that attracted and enchanted me.

Mary Shelley, from 'Matilda'

And speaking of Sophia Tolstoy, her diaries are just so depressing. 

“I am to gratify his pleasure and nurse his child, I am a piece of household furniture, I am a woman. I try to suppress all human feelings. When the machine is working properly it heats the milk, knits a blanket, makes little requests and bustles about trying not to think […].“

She wrote this when she was 19, one year into her marriage to Leo and as she was pregnant with the first of his 13 children.

A few years later, when she was 25 or so:

“I am so often alone with my thoughts that the need to write in my diary comes quite naturally … Now I am well again and not pregnant—it terrifies me how often I have been in that condition. He said that for him being young meant “I can achieve anything”. For me […] reason tells me that there is nothing I either want or can do beyond nursing, eating, drinking, sleeping, and loving and caring for my husband and babies, all of which I know is happiness of a kind, but why do I feel so woeful all the time, and weep as I did yesterday? I am writing this now with the pleasantly exciting sense that nobody will ever read it, so I can be quite frank with myself […].“

During her 12th pregnancy she wrote about taking scalding baths and jumping from high pieces of furniture to try and miscarry.  And at one point while reading her husband’s diary (which he told her to read) she found the sentence “There is no such thing as love, only the physical need for intercourse and the practical need for a life companion.” In her own diary she wrote “They ebb and flow like waves, these times when I realise how lonely I am and want only to cry…”

A few years before her husband’s death, she published a cycle of prose poems titled “Groans”, under the pseudonym “A Tired Woman”.

National Deer Association |

The Guts of Predatory Cats Can Destroy CWD Prions

The prions that cause chronic wasting disease in deer are nearly indestructible. So it's good news to learn cat guts are their mortal enemy.

Okay. So. You know how some people want to finish exterminating all large predatory mammals so they have less competition for deer and so they don't occasionally lose livestock? And you know how native deer species in North America have been hit increasingly hard with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the past couple of decades due to overpopulation thanks to the eradication of large predatory mammals that normally keep them in check?

We already have evidence that reintroducing predatory mammals to their native ranges not only knocks deer populations back to a healthier level, and now we've discovered that apparently the digestive systems of cougars and bobcats are lethal to CWD prions. Prions are among the most difficult pathogens* to eliminate; you have to heat them up to about 1,800 degrees F in order to thoroughly destroy them. And prion diseases like CWD are almost universally fatal.

So to find that these wild cats can safely eat CWD-infected animals AND significantly reduce the chances that the prions will be spread to other deer is a pretty big deal, especially since some other animals like coyotes and crows do pass prions undamaged through their digestive systems. And it's just one more example of why an ecosystem needs all of the species that have evolved in it over thousands of years, not just those are convenient for humans to have around. The spread of CWD is directly related to the overpopulation of deer, and it's likely that continuing to reintroduce large predatory mammals to their native range will help quell this awful prion disease.

Futurity

Could a drug offer the benefits of exercise?

A drug led obese mice to lose weight by convincing the body's muscles that they're exercising more than they really are, say researchers.

New research with mice shows promising results that could lead to the development of a weight-loss drug that mimics exercise. As reported in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the compound led obese mice to lose weight by convincing the body’s muscles that they are exercising more than they really are, boosting metabolism. It also increased endurance, helping mice run nearly 50% further than they could before. All without the mice lifting a paw. The drug belongs to a class known as “exercise mimetics,” which provide some of the benefits of exercise without increasing physical activity. The new treatment, currently in the early stages of development, could one day be tested in people to treat diseases like obesity, diabetes, and age-related muscle loss. The research comes as drugs like Ozempic have provided a breakthrough in reducing appetite, helping treat these metabolic diseases. But the new drug, SLU-PP-332, doesn’t affect appetite or food intake. Nor does it cause mice to exercise more. Instead, the drug boosts a natural metabolic pathway that typically responds to exercise. In effect, the drug makes the body act like it is training for a marathon, leading to increased energy expenditure and faster metabolism of fat in the body.

Continue Reading.

Bucephalus - Loved companion of Alexander the Great, believed to be the most famous horse from classical antiquity, and lived to be about 30 years of age.

Staff Sergeant Reckless - Known for holding official rank in the US military, and quickly learning supply routes, so much so that she could make entire trips without a handler. She was given multiple awards and decorations, including two Purple Hearts and the Dickin Medal.

Deer skulls with carved eyeholes dating to 11,000 years ago have been discovered at Star Carr Mesolithic archaeological site about five miles (8.0 km) south of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. [948x526]

although i myself lack the attention required for mathematic philosophy i do respect the field and its practitioners so entirely - in my experience the people who are philosophers and mathematicians both always have such a beautiful perspective on existence and the universe