Lobotero’s Info Ink

The good news just keeps coming.  First, coffee puts lead in your pencil and increases the endurance factor and now there is good news about another fav of mine.  At my age, we look for all the help we can get.

Watermelons contain an ingredient called citrulline that can trigger production of a compound that helps relax the body’s blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra, said scientists in Texas, one of the nation’s top producers of the seedless variety.

Found in the flesh and rind of watermelons, citrulline reacts with the body’s enzymes when consumed in large quantities and is changed into arginine, an amino acid that benefits the heart and the circulatory and immune systems.

“Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it,” said Bhimu Patil, a researcher and director of Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center. “Watermelon may not be as organ-specific as Viagra, but it’s a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side effects.”

The relationship between citrulline and arginine might also prove helpful to those who are obese or suffer from type-2 diabetes. The beneficial effects — among them the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does — are beginning to be revealed in research.

Citrulline is present in other curcubits, like cucumbers and cantaloupe, at very low levels, and in the milk protein casein. The highest concentrations of citrulline are found in walnut seedlings, Perkins-Veazie said.

Scientists have discovered that Martian soil is rich in nutrients.

NASA researchers want to determine whether the planet could support, or ever has supported, life. The nutrients are among a few positive indicators they have gleaned since the Phoenix Mars Lander began collecting and testing soil samples last month. Early findings, including ice crystals and nutrients, point toward water — the chemical basis for life.

NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander began its first wet chemistry experiment on Martian soil this week. NASA said the experiment went “flawlessly” and produced data that, for Phoenix scientists, “was like winning the lottery.” On Friday, some work remained before the first wet-chemical analysis was complete. This is the first such experiment done on any planet other than Earth would be complete, according to Phoenix co-investigator Sam Kounaves of Tufts University, who serves as the science lead for the wet chemistry research.

Kounaves said the soil appears similar to that found in Antarctica’s dry upper valleys and the salts it contains are another indication of the presence of water.

The soil about one-inch into the surface layer is alkaline, with a pH between eight and nine, and it appears to contain magnesium, sodium, potassium, and chloride, according to Kouvanes.

ut exactly what is the technology?

The cleanest coal plant in North America is operated by Tampa Electric, in the middle of rural Florida. They call it clean because they don’t burn coal exactly - they mix it with water and oxygen and convert it into a gas.

According to company president John Ramil, gasifying coal allows the company to remove pollutants like sulphur, nitrogen and soot, which virtually eliminates acid rain.

“And you can do it much cleaner than with the conventional coal technology,” says Ramil.

That’s the good news. But here’s the problem.

“There is no such thing as clean coal,” says James Hansen, NASA’s expert on global warming, who says all coal plants, even TECO’s, still emit millions of tons of carbon dioxide - the most threatening greenhouse gas.

“There is no coal plant that captures the carbon dioxide and that’s the major long-term pollutant,” says Hansen.

But if carbon dioxide pollution is the problem with clean coal, many scientists believe there is a solution. They believe it’s possible to recover most of the carbon dioxide and store it underground.
The idea is called “capture and sequester,” and a global race is on to learn how it should be done. One Norwegian firm is storing tons of carbon dioxide in rock caves beneath the North Sea. America’s efforts to sequester carbon have stalled. The Department of Energy planned to fund a plant, but pulled all funding when the price grew too high.

Here is an idea whose time has come and long since gone.  STOP IT!

The spacecraft Phoenix landed safely on Mars yesterday, making a hazardous soft landing on the planet’s far north with all its scientific systems apparently intact and ready to begin an intensive new search for life beyond Earth.

Like the Viking landers, Phoenix is designed to look for organic material and other signs that life has existed on Mars, or could exist on the planet. Unlike the two rovers that have been exploring the Martian surface for nearly five years, Phoenix is built to stay in one place and use its robotic arm to dig into the soil and ice. The vehicle is equipped with several miniature chemistry labs to analyze the material it digs up.

The lander touched down further north on Mars than any previous lander. NASA scientists think the frozen water on or near the surface may tell them whether the minerals and organic compounds needed for life as we know it exist, or have ever existed, on the planet.

All scientific eyes will be watching.  For what?  God only knows for sure, but they will be watching and waiting…maybe now the world will get back to the exploration of space.

we have all seen the new bulbs, those squiggly things that are butt ugly…..by a few years the bulbs that you use now will no longer be sold and we all will be forced to use the squiggly thingys.  So I thought I would get a jump on the mandatory use “law” and start buying them now…..GE should be happy they will make a butt load of money off of these…..I was gonna replace a bulb and open my new package and read the label……Do any of you realize that these bulbs contain mercury and that there is a warning label on the package?

What is my point?  After thinking it over, I wondered once the bulbs are mandatory and they will be showing up in masse in landfills, how long will it be until the mercury makes it to the water table?  How long will it take before the fish and wildlife are poisoned?  Then eventuall, how long before the neurological effects show up in humans, especially newborns?

My daughter ask me what the catch was when they first started pushing these new tyoes of bulbs…..at that time i did not have an answer….but now her question has been answered.

I keep hearing the political pundits say that Hillary is just a tough political figure. I do not agree. IMO, she is just as arrogant as her husband. Her toughness is just an facade to her arrogance. Her feeling that she somehow has a birthright to the nomination. It is her destiny to be the Democratic nominee. The nomination is hers because she is a Clinton and because she wants it and that should be enough for the voter. Her attitude toward the voter is amazing. Her husband basically threatens the voters and she tries to swoon them with diatribes that are anything but true. Her speeches are about her, not about the people. She can bring change, she can lead, she can…….even at the commemoration of the King assassination was about her and her campaign. Sorry, but I do not believe in the “God given right” to be president.

Last year about 30% of the bee population of the US disappeared and they say it may be worse this year.  Bees are necessary for crops to produce.  As much as 35% of all produce is because of bees.  Without them there will be no cucumbers or whatever you like to eat.  Bees account for about $15 billion of produce a year.

Many theories are being floated out there, but no real evidence of their demise can be found.  It will be a problem that we could have a famine, because there is no way to replace the work that bees do.  Bad enough that fuel costs are making food too expensive and now if the bees are gone, we will truly be hungry for produce.

The good news is—-there is NO good news!

Intelligent design.  HUH?  When did creationism become intelligent design?  I guess I was standing on the dock and that boat just past be by.

Let me see if I have it about right–God created man in his image about 5000years ago.  He did not evelve from ooze from a bog into man over millions of years.  Ok, this elderly gent made man in his image and then a woman from a rib–and this is basically, intelligent design, I realize this a simplistic look at tghe theory, but to go further, I would be dead and gone by its completion.

So this benevolent being with a wealth of intelligence formed this being known as man. 

Does anything about man show any intelligence?  NO!  It shows an extreme lack of intelligence.  Would an intelligent being make another being that would have kids kill kids over shoes or kids having babies and then leaving them in a dumpster or a man that uses a stun gun on a 19 month baby?  Hopefully the answer is NO!

If there is an intelligent being watching over the world, then I would suggest that he flush this toilet and try again, this experiment is a total failure.  It does not deserve to continue.  Of course, we could always blame Satan for the failure, but that would just be looking for someone to blame other than ourselves. 

God gave man a brain and in doing so gave the decision making to him, so man can only blame himself for any of the ridiculous occurrances in his life.  It is a shame God did not give man the intelligence to fix his own problems and in doing so man is a worthless lump of proto-plasm that serves no necessary functions, other than destroying everything he touches.

I say again–GOD PLEASE FLUSH THIS TOILET!