samhexum

Oh yes it should have been. It was terrible; the only redeeming factor was lasting image it gave one of those 4 locked up for crimes against comedy in the finale, or rotating general annoyance during the run of the show.

I watched the show the whole time it aired, and liked it, but didn't love it (same thing is true for THE SOPRANOS) and have zero desire to ever re-watch it, or see new episodes. Even though I did enjoy the show, I found each of the characters annoying at some point, and it was rare that at least one of them didn't grate on my nerves over the course of a few episodes..

Former NBA center Dwight Howard has denied sexual assault and battery allegations stemming from a July 2021 incident at his Georgia residence with a man named Stephen Harper, according to a civil lawsuit obtained by The Post. An attorney for Howard, who currently plays in the Taiwanese pro basketball league, said his client is looking forward to “presenting the truth” in court. “What was a private consensual encounter was made public for profit and Mr. Howard looks forward to bringing the truth to light in a court of law,” an attorney for Howard, Justin Bailey, told ESPN. “The allegations against Mr. Howard are contested. Mr. Howard intends to present the truth…. “Despite being an easy target due to the subject matter and his status as a celebrity, Mr. Howard chose to trust in the justice system and will rely on all future court filings to speak for themselves.” Per the court documents, Howard said he engaged in “consensual sexual activity” with Harper, but denied causing any injury to Harper while they were at Howard’s home in July 2021. The encounter took place after Harper’s lawyers said in their initial filing that their client initiated communication with Howard over direct messages on Instagram in May 2021, according to ESPN. Howard also denied allegations of “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and “false imprisonment,” as stated in the civil lawsuit. Howard has asked the court to dismiss the civil lawsuit filed against him in July 2023 in Georgia. In a separate incident report obtained by ESPN, Harper went to the Gwinnett County Police Department in July 2022 — a year after the alleged incident — but no charges were filed. “This report was made following Mr. Harper being blocked on social media and after the first demand for payment was rejected,” Bailey told the outlet. Howard last played in the league in 2022 and continued his professional basketball career later that year with Taiwan’s Taoyuan Leopards. Ex-NBA star officiates wedding in Spain: ‘No better feeling’

The location was originally a movie theater; the 2nd floor is now going to be a gym. (no word on which chain) Man dies after choking on 'live octopus' dish with wriggling tentacles A South Korean man has died of a heart attack after choking on a “live octopus” dish with wriggling tentacles that was served as a local delicacy. The 82-year-old could not be revived after he choked on the dish known as san-nakji and suffered cardiac arrest Monday in the southern city of Gwangju, the Korea Herald reported. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Still-squirming octopus seasoned with salt and sesame oil is among the country’s most notorious delicacies, according to the outlet. International Food Expo coming to Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Park explore the science of cooking!

I shall forever hang my head in shame.

Will Pfaadt be Pfaabulous? Will Ranger be in danger? Who cares? The NBA season is starting tomorrow!

'Can't put this in the book!' Paul Newman's 'naughty' letters to Joanne Woodward discovered by daughter Paul Newman’s daughter Melissa Newman has written a new book, “Head Over Heels: Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman – A Love Affair in Words and Pictures.”

Isn't Michael Richards still 'cancelled'? But how do you REALLY feel?

If he took 2 steps forward, he'd fall off a cliff.

I admire this woman for what she accomplished. https://www.longislandpress.com/2023/10/18/victoria-schneps-yunis-building-officially-named/ The Garden City headquarters of Life’s WORC, a nonprofit organization that has fought for the rights of special needs individuals for 50 years, was renamed the Victoria Schneps-Yunis Building on Wednesday in honor of its founder. Schneps-Yunis is also the founding president of Schneps Media, the company that publishes Long Island Press, Dan’s Papers, amNew York Metro, the Queens Courier, Brooklyn Paper and more. She founded Life’s WORC in 1971 after finding out of the deteriorating conditions at the former Willowbrook State School on Staten Island, where her daughter Lara Schneps had been. The facility was shut down after Geraldo Rivera exposed the neglect at Willowbrook with a Peabody Award-winning series. Victoria Schneps-Yunis and Geraldo Rivera. “The woman for whom this building is named is a perfect symbol of what has happened,” Rivera said. “Taking the tragedy of Lara and making Lara’s story everybody’s story. The story of love, challenge, and loss. The counterpoint to that story is the positive story. Vicki has provided an avenue I wish could be replicated in all 50 states in every country. It is the way to bring humanity and opportunity. Vicki and Life’s WORC deliver equality and opportunity and optimism. And the happy ending is as happy as it can be for any citizen, any American.” A cornerstone of what Life’s WORC does includes the building of group homes for people with special needs. The organization has dozens of group homes that replaced the warehouse-like conditions of places like Willowbrook and assists thousands of families. Politicians were in attendance for the event as well, including Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, whose office is directly across the street at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building. “I will get to look out the window of my office every day and see Vicki’s name up there,” Blakeman said at the event. “Vicki Schneps is the queen of media. You all saw her entrance — we should throw rose petals next time. But I’m proud to have this institution right here in the center of Nassau County, because we have a very compassionate and kind county. We’re very proud to have Life’s WORC in Nassau County.” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone was also in attendance. “Vicki really is the epitome of that idea that literally one person can help change the world,” Bellone said. “She inspired others around her, who also wanted to make sure that their loved ones had every opportunity. She inspired them to believe that there was something more, something better that they and their loved ones deserved. And she inspired a young journalist who shined the light on this story.” New York City Mayor Eric Adams was a guest of honor — and like Rivera, is a longtime friend of Schneps-Yunis. “When I write my book, there’s going to be a chapter on what she did to get me to become the mayor,” Adams said. “How far back our relationship goes, and how many lives she has touched. Today, we’re celebrating the harvest of a seed that was planted many years ago with a documentary that was done by Geraldo Rivera and Vicki to finally plant that seed. Today we’re seeing the fruits of the harvest as we build the name of the building as it’s named after my friend.” Schneps-Yunis recalled the journey of both Life’s WORC and Schneps Media through the decades. “It all started actually because of Geraldo, his coverage and the difference he made, and because of my lovely, beautiful ladies who we started Life’s WORC with,” she said. “When we started our activism, we were knocking on air — until Geraldo came with his cameras. People listened and people were moved. So I said, ‘Gee, that’s the press, I think I’d like to do that one day.’ And so I started with one newspaper in my living room. And, of course, today we own 92 newspapers.” She also recalled the story of her daughter, Lara. “Lara was my firstborn child,” she said. “She was my gift from God. She turned out to be a gift to the world. She led me here, where we are today. She appeared helpless, because she was brain damaged when she was born, and was a 3 month old developmentally her whole life. So she appeared to be helpless. But her existence helped thousands of people have a better life.” Schneps-Yunis also acknowledged the work of her children, who were in attendance, and her late former husband Murray Schneps, an attorney who was a driving force behind the class-action federal lawsuit that closed Willowbrook and reformed mental health care. “You are the fruits of our labor, the fruits of our journey,” she said to her children. “And I couldn’t be here without your love and your warmth and support. But Murray was a warrior. And he saw that Willowbrook could never be right. I was an advocate. And you know, we needed both of us and we were a dynamite couple where he fought in the courts. And it was the Willowbrook consent decree that we won.” The ceremony was closed out with a toast to Schneps-Yunis by Lynne Koufakis, board chair of Life’s WORC. “We just want to keep going forward,” Koufakis said. ”As Vicki said before, there’s so much that needs to be done. And all of you here today. We know you’re all here for the same reasons, and we just have to keep working together. And I know we’ll make it better.” Donations to Life’s WORC can be made here. 1970s In 1971, Life's WORC Founder Victoria Schneps-Yunis organized volunteers to picket and fight for the rights of the more than 5,000 residents at the disgraced Willowbrook State School. Vicki's advocacy work was inspired by her daughter Lara, who was diagnosed with severe brain damage at an early age and had been a resident at Willowbrook. In 1972, investigative reporter Geraldo Rivera exposed the brutal living conditions inside the Staten Island-based school, which at the time was the largest institution in the country serving children with developmental disabilities. The story helped gain national media attention which ultimately led to the closing of the school, which had fallen into disrepair following state funding cuts. WORC, as the organization was once known, went on to purchase the first group home in Little Neck, Queens, which would later be named the Rivera residence in honor of Geraldo Rivera. The first people to live in the home were children who previously resided at Willowbrook.  1980s Continuing the Life's WORC mission, the organization opened group homes across Queens and Nassau County throughout the 1980s. These new homes included Rivera, William Road, Schneps, Springfield A and B, and Nubile A and B.  1990s In the 1990s Life’s WORC’s first Day Habilitation Program, Life Links I, opened in Queens. Designed to provide enriching activities, socialization, and skill-building opportunities for teens and adults with intellectual disabilities with varying levels of support needs, Day Habilitation programs filled an important gap in services . The 1990s were also busy for Life's WORC Residential Services, opening homes across Queens and Nassau County and expanding into Suffolk County. New homes included Antonioli, Lindenhurst, Conduit A & B, Foont, Butler, Manzo, Park Avenue, and Roberts residences.  2000s The early 2000s were an important time for Life's WORC. The agency moved to a new headquarters in Garden City and opened even more homes across Queens and Long Island. In addition, we expanded the Day Habilitation Programs to include six locations in the same areas. Some of the new homes included Rosedale, Filomena, Udall Road, Laurelton, St. Albans, Claremont, Abi Zeid, Queens Village, Borer, Dix Hills, Garden City Park, 51st Street, Hauppauge, Ozone Park, Drakeford, Duke Street, Valley Stream, Holliswood and Westbury. In 2006 Life’s WORC Trust Services was established to meet the financial needs of the people we support and their loved ones to protect their assets and secure their financial futures.  2010s As the need for programs and services for people with autism rose, Life's WORC opened The Family Center For Autism (FCA) to better serve this community. The FCA opened in April of 2015, introducing an inclusive environment where people of all ages and abilities can explore a variety of activities, classes, and programs for people with special needs and their loved ones.  2020s The current decade brought new and unexpected challenges to Life’s WORC, but through it all we have continued to provide safe, quality supports and services to the 2,000 people under our care. Despite the difficulties posed by the pandemic, the staffing crisis and inflation, Life’s WORC has continued its mission to innovate and expand to support the special needs community. In the same year we celebrated our 50thanniversary, the agency was also approved for five new residences, which will bring the total to 50 homes. In addition, our newest endeavor, WORC Force Community Center, is expected to open in 2024. WORC Force will bring new skills and training programs and increased vocational and employment opportunities to the people we support and community at large. In an effort to be more inclusive and accurately represent the offerings available to the community at large, in 2023 the FCA was renamed the Family Center for Achievement. This change reflected the fact that the FCA expertise extends beyond autism to support other disabilities, and expanded offerings to those without disabilities and the community.

How Deep Should You Plant Your Spring-Flowering Bulbs? The proper planting depth for spring-flowering bulbs is important for overall plant health as well as ensuring the bulbs will bloom. Different types of flowering bulbs need to be planted at different depths, but a good general rule of thumb is to plant the bulb at three times the height of the bulb. So, for example, if a bulb is two inches from tip to base, you'd plant it six inches deep. Read in The Spruce: https://apple.news/Az6ooalmxSsuZ6DlX4XxQzQ

WHOOPSIE!!! A homeowner is mulling the next step after a company mistakenly demolished a home she owned in south-west Atlanta. Susan Hodgson said in an interview Saturday with the Associated Press that she found a pile of rubble in place of what used to be her longtime family property when she returned from vacation last month. “I am furious,” Hodgson said. “I keep waking up thinking, ‘Is this all a joke or something?’ I’m just in shock.” She said a neighbor called her while she was away and asked if someone had been hired to tear down the vacant house. “I said ‘no’ and she said, ‘Well, there’s someone over here who just demolished the whole house and tore it all down,’” Hodgson recalled. When the neighbor confronted them, Hodgson said, the workers got nasty. “He told her to shut up and mind her own business,” Hodgson said. She sent a family member over to see what was going on and who asked to see a permit. When a person in charge at the site checked his permit, Hodgson said he admitted he was at the wrong address. “It’s been boarded up about 15 years, and we keep it boarded, covered, grass cut, and the yard is clean,” she said. “The taxes are paid and everything is up on it.” Hodgson said she’s filed a report with police and has talked with lawyers but that they remain in limbo so far. “We’re still in this process of figuring out what to do,” she said. “We keep pressing in different directions to see if something is going to happen.”

A Forest Hills before time Michael Perlman Forest Hills residents shop and dine on Austin Street, patronize the Midway Theatre, enjoy concerts at Forest Hills Stadium and may have been a Forest Hills High School graduate. These are some “landmarks” granting local character. Now one may be at a loss for words if they walked in the footsteps of our ancestors, just over a century ago. Encounter a land called “Whitepot,” prior to 1906. It was predominantly occupied by wood-frame farmhouses and fields of crops, with “landmarks” on a humble scale. In the early 20th century, some homes were up to 200 years of age, but today, there are none. In 1924, a survey was conducted by local resident Lucy Allen Smart. Colonial farmhouses were typically situated on large parcels of land and exhibited any combination of a porch, pitched roof and shutters. The Whitson Homestead, erected in 1800, still stood on Queens Boulevard, steps away from Backus Place. It became the residence of John E. Backus. The Whitson Homestead. Also along Queens Boulevard was the McCoun-Backus House, which was recognized as one of the best homes of Whitepot at 160 years old. It was demolished a decade earlier. The boulevard also featured the house of prominent Manhattan jeweler Horatio N. Squire (1821–1897). After 150 years, it was demolished in 1923. The McCoun-Backus House. The Judge Jonathan T. Furman House, dating to 1750, stood on Dry Harbor Road, which ended in a cluster of farms facing a large pond. Situated on the property of Cord Meyer Development Company was the Jarvis Jackson Homestead, erected a century earlier. Walking over to Tompkins Lane, a noteworthy site for the birth of landscape artist Clarence P. Tompkins (1862 – 1935) was the Joseph J. Tompkins House at 176 Queens Boulevard. A 200-year-old survivor was known as “The house on the Abram Furman Estate,” and was on the east side of what was called Yellowstone Avenue, formerly White Pot Road (renamed Yellowstone Boulevard). The Judge Jonathan T. Furman House, erected in 1750. The Jarvis Jackson Homestead. The Joseph J Tompkins house. In 1652, Newtown was settled by Englishmen from New England and Whitepot was one of its sections. An early 20th century debate was whether Forest Hills was originally known as Whitepot or Whiteput. If it was spelled “Whitepot,” it would bear relevance to the original purchase of the land from the Indians in exchange for three clay white pots. That was refuted by J.H. Innes, who told the publication “Ancient Landmarks of Queens Borough” that the authentic spelling was “Whiteput.” If correct, the land would be named in conjunction with the Dutch term “put” for a stream that became a hollow pit. Whitepot consisted of six major family farms, which were named after Ascan Backus, Casper-Joost Springsteen, Horatio N. Squire, Abram V.S. Lott, Sarah V. Bolmer and James Van Siclen. Backus (1814–1880) arrived in America from Germany without a dollar in 1829, but in 1849, purchased 40 acres of what was the Remsen estate. His acquisitions increased to 800 acres and with four wagons, he supplied the New York market with wheat, rye, Timothy grass, cabbage, peas, beets and horseradish. He was the “King Farmer of Long Island” and the largest commercial farmer in America. Today, Ascan Avenue bears homage to his name. The Horatio N Squire House The oldest living member of one of the first farming families was Frederick D. Backus (1850–1937), who told Historian Lucy Allen Smart (1877–1960) about Whitepot residents. “The neighbors were few when I was a boy, and some that lived a mile away, we called neighbors. The farmers raised hay, grain and vegetables to supply the New York markets,” Backus said. “Fruit and nuts were in abundance, and every farmer would take his apples to a cider mill, which was located on the Hempstead Swamp Road; now Yellowstone Avenue. The children attended the Whitepot School, but we all had to go to Newtown to church.” He also explained that since few homes had ice houses come summer, food was kept cool by hanging them in wells and tin pails. In the winter, oxen were driven through snow drifts along narrow roads. Whitepot had Dutch influences with the Springsteen family, who owned farmland which would encompass the south side of Queens Boulevard (formerly Hoffman Boulevard) between Ascan Avenue and 77th Avenue. The porch-fronted Springsteen homestead at 112 Queens Blvd. (now 108-36 Queens Blvd.) stood from 1898 until the late 1940s. David Springsteen (1849–1911) represented the ninth Springsteen generation to settle locally and was among the first families in Queens. In the mid-1600s, the family acquired the land under the authorization of a Dutch king. The David Springsteen residence on a Queens Blvd postcard. The area bounded by Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike was the Hopedale section of Whitepot. The Hopedale Railway Station stood near that intersection, and the architecturally distinct Hopedale Hall accommodated dining and dancing. In 1900, The New York Times reported Whitepot’s population as 30 residents, and consisted of German residents who planted potatoes and celery. In 1906, Cord Meyer Development Company purchased 600 acres in the Hopedale section, and renamed it “Forest Hills” after its high elevation on Long Island and proximity to Forest Park. In March 1931, George Meyer, son of the late Cord Meyer told The New York Times, “Roman Avenue between Queens Boulevard and Austin was the first street to be cut through, and on it, the company started its first building operations, ten two-family brick homes.” Today, only two Neo-Renaissance rowhouses stand proudly from 1906, and are reminiscent of the first signs of development of the newly named Forest Hills. Today, the only known remnant of Whitepot is the landmarked Remsen Cemetery between Trotting Course Lane and Alderton Street. (a block from Trader Joe's) The Remsen family, which immigrated in the 17th century from northern Germany, was among the area’s first settlers. Tombstones range from 1790 through 1819, and include Revolutionary War Veteran Colonel Jeromus Remsen. In 1699, the Remsen family erected a homestead on their farm, which stood adjacent to the cemetery until 1925.

He's extremely shy and unadventurous: https://justthegays.com/video/55047-jesse-santana-folsom-fun-with-rafael-alencar/

Daffodil Project brightens faces and places throughout NYC Narcissus, an Ancient Greek hunter, was so beautiful that when he saw his reflection in a pool of water, he fell in love with it. He spent day and night lying by his reflection until his death. In his place sprouted the Narcissus flower, with petals so brilliantly yellow — today, this flower is commonly referred to as the daffodil. If you’ve noticed these golden flowers appearing all around New York in the spring, chances are they’ve been planted in the fall by volunteers of the Daffodil Project, established in 2001 in the aftermath of 9/11, New York City’s largest annual volunteer program. The project has had more than 400,000 volunteers plant more than 9 million daffodil bulbs as a living memorial to honor New Yorkers lost to 9/11 and more recently, COVID-19. These yellow flowers popping up all over the city are becoming harder to miss by the year, as the number of daffodil bulbs planted in parks is expected to increase to 10 million by 2024. Ivette Vargas, a member of Drew Gardens — a community garden along the West Farms section of the Bronx River — has been volunteering with the Daffodil Project for two years. There are multiple ways in which one can volunteer — some volunteers distribute the bulbs free of charge to the public at the beginning of the fall, and others pick up the bulbs to subsequently plant them all around the city before the first frost. Vargas chooses the latter. This year, the Daffodil Project bulb distribution took place across the five boroughs — the Bronx held its giveaway on Oct. 8 at Mill Pond Park. Vargas and Julio Figueroa, the Drew Gardens manager, picked up four bags of bulbs there, which would amount to 800 bulbs given Vargas’ estimation of each sack having 200 bulbs, she told the Bronx Times. “It’s very peaceful for me to look at flowers, especially daffodils,” said Vargas, adding that she believed that visitors of the garden shared her sentiment. Along with planting daffodils, she has been particularly passionate about providing affordable, good-quality food for the public. “And it got me thinking … I really want to learn to grow my own food and be able to share that with the people who I know,” she said, explaining the origin of turning her passion into a reality. So she took time off of work and traveled to the Dominican Republic in 2016. She would work on a rural farm (“And when I say rural, I mean rural,” she added) for three months and learn about the ins and outs of gardening — permaculture, agriculture, hydroponics and so on. She ended up staying for twice as long as she had intended. Vargas eventually returned to the U.S. — but she had a problem: “I came back with that knowledge, but I didn’t have any place to practice the skills that I had learned,” she reflected. She spent the next few years hunting for a garden that she thought would be a good fit, until she ended up at Drew Gardens in March of 2020. Vargas’ conversation with the Bronx Times took an emotional turn when she revealed how her mother had been diagnosed with leukemia six or seven years ago — another reason behind why she would eventually dedicate herself to growing natural food products. “My mom was a hairstylist for, I don’t know, maybe two or three decades, and a lot of those chemicals, once you make contact with them, you know, most of it, I don’t know — eighty to ninety percent — goes straight into your bloodstream at a time,” she said. Her frustrations over such information being inaccessible to the public thus fueled her passion for educating people on food, and what’s safe and healthy. Beautifying the city If there’s one Bronxite to credit for lifting her neighbors’ spirits by improving natural spaces, it’s Jaleesa Franco, the Castle Hill resident who was affectionately dubbed the “flower girl” after planting 5,000 flowers through the Daffodil Project since 2021. “I want everyone in Castle Hill to be able to see something beautiful in their neighborhood,” Franco told the Bronx Times last year when her story went viral. “We have a lot of beautiful things that are easy to miss, but it’s hard to miss beautiful flowers everywhere.” And Franco is not alone in her vision to beautify her neighborhood. Another participant in the Daffodil Project is Rachel Daykin, a resident of Central Harlem. In 2017, Daykin was the beautification coordinator for her neighborhood block association. That year, upon hearing about the Daffodil Project from a friend, she put in an order for bulbs with the idea of “beautifying [her] block.” “I grew up in the country, so I’m always trying to bring bits of green into the city,” said Daykin, who grew up in Scotland where daffodils were a big part of her springtime. “So I guess there’s a nostalgia piece for me, but I love being able to get with my kids, with other people who might not have grown up with that.” According to Daykin, since 2017, the number of her fellow community members participating in the Daffodil Project since 2017 has increased from five to 35. “And everyone looks forward to it. You know, we make a big sort of community there,” she added. Daykin and her fellow volunteers will be planting hundreds of bulbs in the second weekend of November, and Vargas with the Drew Gardens this weekend, weather permitting — New Yorkers have not had the best of luck this fall, having to deal with persistently rainy weekends. According to Daykin “everyone feels better” once the daffodils are planted. “It always makes me happy to see the daffodils,” she said. Mayra Kalaora is an editorial intern at the Bronx Times.

How plants communicate with each other when in danger It sounds like fiction from “The Lord of the Rings.” An enemy begins attacking a tree. The tree fends it off and sends out a warning message. Nearby trees set up their own defenses. The forest is saved. But you don’t need a magical Ent from J.R.R. Tolkien’s world to conjure this scene. Real trees on our Earth can communicate and warn each other of danger — and a new study explains how. The study found injured plants emit certain chemical compounds, which can infiltrate a healthy plant’s inner tissues and activate defenses from within its cells. A better understanding of this mechanism could allow scientists and farmers to help fortify plants against insect attacks or drought long before they happen. The study marks the first time researchers have been able to “visualize plant-to-plant communication,” said Masatsugu Toyota, senior author of the study, which was published Tuesday [2023-10-17] in Nature Communications. “We can probably hijack this system to inform the entire plant to activate different stress responses against a future threat or environmental threats, such as drought.” The idea of “talking” trees started to take root in the 1980s. Two ecologists placed hundreds of caterpillars and webworms on the branches of willow and alder trees to observe how the trees would respond. They found the attacked trees began producing chemicals that made their leaves unappetizing and indigestible to deter insects. But even more curious, the scientists discovered healthy trees of the same species, located 30 or 40 meters away and with no root connections to the damaged trees, also put up the same chemical defenses to prepare against an insect invasion. Another pair of scientists around that time found similar results when studying damaged sugar maple and poplar trees. These early research teams had a budding thought: The trees sent chemical signals to one another through the air, known today as plant eavesdropping. Over the past four decades, scientists have observed this cell-to-cell communication in more than 30 plant species, including lima bean, tobacco, tomato, sage brush and flowering plants in the mustard family. But no one knew which compounds were important and how they were being sensed — until now. “There was this kind of controversy in the field,” said André Kessler, a plant ecologist who was not involved in the research. “First, how those compounds in general are taken up [by the plant], and then how they are able to change the plant’s metabolism in response to perceiving them.” This study, Kessler said, helped answer some of those long-standing questions. Plants obviously don’t have ears and eyes, but past research shows they communicate with their surroundings by emitting chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, which we can smell. But just as people can speak so many words, plants can produce an array of these compounds for different purposes. Some are used to attract pollinators or as defense against predators. However, one class of these compounds are emitted when a plant is injured: green leafy volatiles. These are emitted by, as the name suggests, pretty much every green plant with leaves, and are produced when a plant experiences physical damage. An example of this compound is the smell released from fresh-cut grass. In the new study, Toyota and his colleagues manually crushed leaves and placed caterpillars on Arabidopsis mustard or tomato plants to trigger the emission of various green leafy volatiles. Then, they spread individual fumes to healthy plants to see if the plants would react. To track the healthy plants’ responses, the team genetically modified the plants so calcium ions would fluoresce when activated inside individual cells. Calcium signaling is important for cellular functions in most living organisms on Earth, including humans. When an electrical signal is sent to our motor neurons, ion channels open and allow calcium to flood inside. This increase in calcium can trigger a neurotransmitter release, which results in a muscle contraction in a muscle cell. Calcium signaling, Toyota said, plays a similar role in plants. Depending on the plant, it can trigger messages to close its leaves or digest an insect. After testing many green leafy volatiles, the team found only two seemed to increase calcium ions inside cells. Additionally, they found calcium signaling first increased in guard cells forming the plant’s leaf pores, or stomata — an important finding, because it shows the compounds are absorbed into the plant’s inner tissues. “They cannot just seep through the surface of the plant easily,” said Kessler, a professor at Cornell University. “They have to go through the stomata, [which] allow the plant to actually breathe carbon dioxide in and oxygen out for photosynthesis.” The calcium signaling, Toyota said, is like a switch to turn on the defense responses from the plant. After signaling increased, the team found the plant increased the production of certain gene expressions for protection. For example, Toyota said the plant may start producing certain proteins to inhibit insects from munching on them, giving the insects diarrhea. “If the plant has lots of these genes, they are now very strong against the insect herbivory,” Toyota said. With this new understanding, researchers say plants could be immunized against threats and stressors before they even happen — the equivalent of giving a plant a vaccine. For instance, exposing healthy plants to insect-ridden plants or the associated green leafy volatiles could boost their genetic defenses, so farmers use less pesticides, Kessler said. The revelation could also help make plants more resilient during a drought, signaling the plants to retain more water. “If you have a plant early in its life exposed to drought, it will actually handle drought better than a plant that was not exposed to that,” Kessler said. “This is also a result of the plant’s metabolism totally changed.” The study has planted many seeds for future research, Toyota said. For instance, researchers “have no idea” why only two specific green leafy volatiles could enter the stomata and trigger the calcium signaling. The next step is to identify the various receptors in the plants, which may be specific to the chemical structure of the two compounds. In response to insect attacks, plants can also produce specific responses based on the species of the herbivore feeding on it, an impressive behavior that Kessler is further studying. “If that plant can mount an adaptive response … this is the definition of intelligence,” Kessler said. “If you understand these kinds of things and how plants do it, it gets you onto a level that questions how we understand the world.” Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/10/21/plants-talk-warning-danger/

Who is this ELLEN person and why is he wearing her underwear?

Meryl Streep, hubby been separated for ‘more than 6 years’: ‘They will always care for each other’

Kelly Ripa Admits On ‘Live’ That She Often Fakes Her Own Death To Avoid Sex With Mark Consuelos: “He Thinks I’m Dead Constantly!” I'd kill Kelly Ripa for real if I could have sex with Mark Consuelos. Killer, 70, of pregnant wife emerges from rainforest 22 years after escaping jail as statute of limitations ran out Not THAT old story again! NYPD, Sheriff’s Office raid illegal smoke shop across street from Astoria church I guess GAZOO wasn't so great after all...

Luckily, I'm poor, so I pay relatively little.

still free for Medicare recipients