samhexum

origaminithologist

Dear Abby: My grandmother and I have lived together for the past 22 years. She raised me from the age of 3. We used to be best friends. However, over the last few years, things have changed. We don’t agree on a lot, and we have very different opinions on almost everything. We argue and fight with name-calling, threats and a lot of disrespect. I have suggested we go to counseling a couple of times, but she’s never shown any interest. I know I have an anger problem, which I take full responsibility for. I also know the best thing to do in these situations is probably to turn around and walk away, but sometimes she pushes my buttons and I can’t help but fight back. I understand this is a problem that needs to be fixed, and I want to, but I don’t know how to start. I know you’ve written a booklet about anger. What can I do short of moving out? — Out of Control in Colorado Dear Out of Control: By admitting you have an anger problem, you have already taken a significant first step in dealing with it. You and your grandmother aren’t the only people experiencing heightened emotions these days. We live in increasingly stressful times that have affected most of us in one way or another. Because you are now an adult, the nature of your relationship with your grandmother may have changed. As adults, you are entitled to your own opinions. However, reasonable adults don’t try to inflict their opinions on the people they love. Recognizing what causes these flare-ups can help you avoid taking anger out on each other. It takes self-control and maturity to react calmly instead of exploding. Saying, “We both feel strongly about this. Can we discuss this another time?” and then going for a walk can help to maintain a calmer perspective. My Anger Booklet contains many suggestions for managing and expressing anger appropriately in various situations. This is a skill that will prove increasingly important as you grow older. It can be ordered by sending your name and address, plus a check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds) to Dear Abby Anger Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mt. Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price. We live in a time in our society when anger and divisiveness have reached new heights. As we have seen in the media, explosive anger is the most dangerous of all. Perhaps anger management should be taught in schools to help people more effectively communicate in a healthy manner. IGNORE MY BLATANT CASH-GRAB, KILL THE BITCH, AND SAVE YOURSELF A FEW BUCKS. Dear Abby: I have been dating this girl for eight months. She tells me she and her ex-boyfriend remain good friends, and that he is her best friend. She sees him regularly and says she has gotten over him. I plan to marry her, but she wants to invite him to our wedding. The ex gives my girlfriend money. She says no sex is involved. Should I drop her over this? — Alarmed in Texas Dear Alarmed: Probably, because accepting money from her ex-boyfriend indicates she is not independent of him A WHORE.

This isn't a pun; it just cracked me up:

Dear Abby: My girlfriend is the loveliest, smartest, most compassionate and supportive person I know. We have been together for a year and a half. When we first met, we hung out a few times. When I told her my feelings toward her, she responded that she was in an open relationship, so I backed away. Months later, we met up again. I helped her with a carpentry project, and she said she was done with the open relationship stuff and wanted a monogamous relationship. I agreed. We have a caring, supportive relationship that means the world to me. Multiple ex-boyfriends call her and want to hang out, and she wants that, too. What bothers me is worrying the exes’ intentions may not be good, yet she feeds into it and tells me I need to trust her. I struggle with jealousy, anger and distrust when this happens, and I have shared those feelings with her, but she can’t let these folks move on. She says I’m stealing her freedom and controlling her by asking her to ignore them. This is the biggest problem in our relationship, but everything else is great. Are my emotions wrong? — Insecure in New Hampshire Dear Insecure: Your emotions are not “wrong.” Your emotions are your emotions. Sometimes there is sacrifice involved when we form new relationships. Your girlfriend may have many fine qualities, but if she can’t understand that you feel these former lovers are a threat to your relationship, rather than attempt to “control her,” realize she isn’t the girl for you. IS A THOUGHTLESS, SELFISH, INSECURE SLUT. Sorry! Dear Abby: I have developed several serious health conditions that won’t get better. I am at high risk for respiratory illnesses. Even a common cold can have a serious impact on my life. My family just doesn’t get it. My husband does not understand my situation and my needs. His social life puts me at risk, yet he continues to attend large gatherings and events such as concerts. I have had COVID twice, and avoiding hospitalization is crucial. I’m currently on oxygen and will be until I die. There are places I would like to visit, and things I would like to do while I still can. But my husband balks, especially if his plans need to be changed. I can’t do these things or travel without assistance. I NEED him now. With every “not now” and “we will see,” I grow increasingly frustrated and depressed. What can I do? — Bucket List in Kansas Dear Bucket List: Recognize the person you married is selfish and self-centered. “Not now” and “we will see” mean NO. (What a guy!) His refusal should not mean you mustn’t enjoy the activities you dream about. You may, however, have to become creative and arrange for someone other than your husband to accompany you. He may not like it, but please consider it. KILL THE BASTARD, COLLECT THE INSURANCE $, AND HIRE SOMEBODY YOUNG, STRONG, HEALTHY, & HOT TO ACCOMPANY YOU (& do other things for and to you) ON YOUR BUCKET LIST EXCURSIONS.

Resilient NY bull rider returns to compete at MSG a year after tearing his groin off at 'Unleash the Beast' event there are no words...

There is a weird sale this week-- random items are 75% off. Stop and Shop has ridiculously helpful customer service. They would no doubt refund me the cost if the date was unacceptable. I once got a gallon of milk only 3 days before the sell-by date & called them and said there is no way I could use it all in time. I got a full refund. Meanwhile, I keep my fridge quite cool & can usually use milk up to a week past the date. I wound up using that entire free gallon. Also, by ordering 2, I got my cart over $100, taking $6.95 off the $9.95 delivery fee. I want the 2 anyway, but if the date is off and I get a refund (or they are out of stock) I still get the $6.95 off.*** Believe me, I have a doctorate in online grocery ordering. It takes me an hour to go through the circular every Friday, but that's the 'price' of being poor. ***For about a year, I would order a pound of the store-brand roast beef for $13 with every order. I always wanted it, but it was only in stock a couple of times. I was happy if it came, but if it didn't, it meant that I got the $6.95 off for spending (just over) $87. Sadly, they finally took it off the delivery webpage.

Scientists in Switzerland have announced the discovery of a new class of antibiotics shown to be effective against deadly, drug-resistant bacteria. The antibiotic, called zosurabalpin, works by blocking a bacterial molecule called lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which is responsible for creating the outer membrane that protects a harmful bacteria, Acinetobacter baumannii. Acinetobacter is a “gram-negative” bacteria, which means it is resistant to most antibiotics and other drugs. It can cause infections in the blood, lungs, urinary tract and other parts of the body, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In animal studies, zosurabalpin successfully killed drug-resistant strains of Acinetobacter. The research, conducted at Roche Pharma Research & Early Development in Switzerland, was published in the journal Nature on Jan. 3. “This new class of antibiotics prevents bacteria from creating their outer membrane, which provide structure to the bacteria and help them survive in harsh environments and cause infection,” Kenneth Bradley, the Switzerland-based global head of infectious disease discovery at Roche, told Fox News Digital via email. Without the ability to transport LPS — the bacteria die. “The new molecule overcomes the existing drug-resistance mechanisms that the currently available antibiotics are failing to address,” Bradley said. This is the first time in over 50 years that a new class of antibiotic has been identified to treat infections by gram-negative bacteria, he noted. Zosurabalpin specifically targets Acinetobacter. “The specificity of zosurabalpin is due to the unique way in which it binds to the drug target in these bacteria,” Bradley said. “Discovery of the mode of action of zosurabalpin in Acinetobacter may enable the identification of other drugs that work in the same way in other antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” Bradley said. The finding is especially significant, given that resistance to antibiotics has been on the rise in various gram-negative bacteria for several decades, he said. “Any new antibiotic class that has the ability to treat infections caused by multi-drug-resistant bacteria such as carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) would be a significant breakthrough,” he added. Michael Lobritz, the Switzerland-based head of infectious diseases at Roche, referred in a press release to antimicrobial resistance as a “silent pandemic.” “Over the next 30 years, it is projected to claim more lives than those taken by cancer today, according to the report of the economist Jim O’Neill,” Lobritz said. Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, agreed that the growing resistance of gram-negative bacteria is a “huge problem.” “Our last line of defense for decades now in the hospital has been the carbapenem drugs, specifically Imipenem and Mirapenem,” he told Fox News Digital. “But now there is an increase of carbapenem-resistant strains — including carbapenem-resistant Acinobacter baumannii, or CRAB — which are very difficult to treat.” Siegel also acknowledged the importance of the newly discovered zosurabalpin. “It interferes with a lipid transport mechanism at the surface of the bacteria,” he said. “This is very important, as there are now millions of deaths a year worldwide due to antibiotic resistance.” Zosurabalpin has only been tested in animals so far, Siegel noted, with human trials underway. Acinetobacter infections are most commonly seen in hospital patients, mainly affecting those who are on ventilators, have surgical wounds, are in intensive care units or have catheters, according to the CDC. Those with lung disease, diabetes or weakened immune systems are at a higher risk of infection. The bacteria can spread from person to person or via contact with contaminated surfaces. Acinetobacter baumannii, along with other gram-negative bacteria, is tracked by the CDC as part of its Emerging Infections Program. Looking ahead, Siegel said he expects that artificial intelligence will help speed up the process of developing new antibiotics and make it “more effective and streamlined. Zosurabalpin is currently in a phase 1 clinical trial, which will evaluate the “safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics” of the molecule, according to the researcher. “These data, as well as data from future pivotal phase 3 clinical studies, would be needed to determine the safety and efficacy profile of the molecule,” he added. The discovery of zosurabalpin, which Bradley calls a “scientific breakthrough,” will help researchers learn more about the construction of bacterial membranes, knowledge that could enable new drugs to kill bacteria. The hope is that this finding could help eventually to fight other drug-resistant bacteria. https://nypost.com/2024/01/06/lifestyle/new-antibiotic-kills-deadly-drug-resistant-bacteria-in-scientific-breakthrough/

It tugged on his heartstrings, but now he can’t loosen his purse strings. Kevin Smith, who bought his childhood movie theater last year, is struggling to keep it in business. So he’s hosting a memorabilia sale there to raise funds to keep it afloat. “Theatrical exhibition is in the toilet,” Smith, 53, told NJ Advance Media. “We’re selling stuff to stay alive until May.” The Red Bank, New Jersey, native, who was raised in Highlands, bought the Atlantic Moviehouse in Atlantic Highlands with his wife, Jen Schwalbach, and business partners in the fall of 2022. He renamed the five-screen theater, which dates to the early 1920s, SModcastle Cinemas, a nod to his podcast network. On Saturday, the “Clerks” director hosted the SMauction, an auction of movie items such as props, costumes and objects autographed by celebrities, in an effort to raise money for the troubled theater. After the auction ends, Smith is hosting a 15th anniversary screening of his 2008 sex comedy “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” which stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. Smith purchased the movie house from Frederick Rast, the former mayor of Atlantic Highlands, for an undisclosed amount. The theater and adjacent building Rast owned were listed for $2.6 million, according to the Asbury Park Press. “Suddenly you’re not just buying a movie theater, you’re buying real estate, two buildings on First Avenue, which feels very, very grown-up,” Smith told the outlet at the time. “And thankfully I can offset that forced maturity with some fun immaturity in the theater itself.”

I can't wait for his DEAR ABBY vs ANN LANDERS. What a role that will be for some actress!

These Ants Can Diagnose and Treat Their Comrades’ Infected Wounds Matabele ants in sub-Saharan Africa often sustain injuries while hunting termites—and their survival strategy may help humans fight infections, too https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-ants-can-diagnose-and-treat-their-comrades-infected-wounds-180983526/ When humans get injured, doctors often prescribe antibiotics to help ward off infection. But humans aren’t the only creatures to provide such sophisticated medical care to each other—some ants do, too. Matabele ants can identify and treat infected wounds with antibiotics they produce and secrete, scientists report in a paper published last week in the journal Nature Communications. This finding could one day lead to the development of new antibiotics for humans, according to the researchers. Matabele ants (Megaponera analis) live in massive colonies throughout sub-Saharan Africa. They only eat termites, which are plentiful in the region—but the ants’ narrow diet is not without consequences. Termites live in heavily guarded colonies. When Matabele ants approach, termite troops go on the defensive and use their powerful jaws to fend off the attackers. This often results in grievous injuries to the ants during hunting missions—up to 22 percent of foraging Matabele ants have lost a leg or two during raids. Previous research found that uninjured Matabele ants often carry their injured comrades back to their nests, where they lick their nest-mates’ wounds for several minutes. But researchers didn’t know why the ants did this—they wondered if the behavior helped remove dirt from the site, for instance. Now, they think they’ve solved this mystery. In the new study, scientists compared the chemicals produced by ants with infected and uninfected wounds. When a wound was infected, the hydrocarbon profile of the ant’s exoskeleton changed—and fellow ants seemed able to pick up on this difference. Not only did ants distinguish between infected and uninfected wounds, but they also targeted the infected wounds with self-made treatment. Matabele ants produced a substance from their metapleural glands, which are located on their backs, and applied it to their peers’ infected wounds. That substance contained more than 50 different components with antimicrobial or wound-healing properties, the researchers discovered. The treatment was effective, too: When researchers isolated infected ants from their colony of healers, 90 percent of them died within 36 hours. In contrast, mortality was only 22 percent for infected ants that the scientists kept with the colony. “With the exception of humans, I know of no other living creature that can carry out such sophisticated medical wound treatments,” says study co-author Erik Frank, an animal ecologist at the University of Würzburg in Germany, in a statement. The ants’ life-saving antibiotics make sense in the context of their dangerous hunting expeditions. If all injured ants died from infection, Matabele ant colonies would have a tough time surviving. “The workforce would diminish too quickly without this medical treatment,” Ken Cheng, an animal behaviorist at Macquarie University in Australia who was not involved in the research, said to New Scientist’s Alice Klein in 2022, before the study had been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scientists still want to learn more about Matabele ants’ wound care. But they’re hopeful that insights gleaned from the insects could someday lead to the development of new antibiotics for humans. One of the main pathogens that infect injured Matabele ants, called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, also infects human wounds—and, in humans, several strains of the bacteria are resistant to existing antibiotics. Components found in the ants’ healing secretions may one day be useful for helping sick humans fight off Pseudomonas aeruginosa, too.

Australian Rack of Lamb Frenched All Natural Fresh 1.5 - 2 lb | $4.32 /lb Sale Price$7.56 Original Price$30.26 75% OFF!!! I've ordered two.

Years ago, some friends and I got tickets to Cap Day at Yankee Stadium. An hour before leaving, I got the idea to make a baked ziti to bring along. I put up a large pot of water to boil (told my roommate to keep an eye on it), quickly drove a few blocks to a supermarket for supplies, then threw it all together in a lasagna pan. It was ready just as it was time to go. The pan was piping hot, so I put it on a cutting board, and took it out to the car. I'd bought paper plates & plastic silverware and brought along a ladle to serve it with. I was too cheap to pay for parking, so I parked two blocks away, and trudged with this heavy package to the stadium (I use A LOT of cheese in my ziti). This was long enough ago that they actually let me in with it, & off I went... to the upper deck, of course. There were 5 or 6 of us total (we didn't all travel together), and fortunately, we were in the front row, so we had a little ledge to balance the plates on. My friends all laughed when they realized what I'd brought, as did the people around us. Then, around mid-game, they did the 'guess the attendance' game on the scoreboard, and when the actual figure was posted, a guy behind us said "Great... 50,000 people and they bring ONE pan of ziti!" I was mortified...

European supermarket chain Carrefour is removing PepsiCo products from store shelves due to what it says are “unacceptable” price hikes. It’s a problem that other major companies in the industry have taken issue with as well. According to multiple reports, the chain, which has over 12,000 stores worldwide, started clearing PepsiCo’s Pepsi and 7 Up sodas, Lipton tea and Quaker foods, as well as its Doritos and Lays chips from shelves in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium. A spokesperson for the supermarket chain told The Wall Street Journal that it added warning notes on its shelves explaining the reason behind the change. Carrefour already issued concerns about the cost of food products and added price warnings in September to pressure manufacturers to reduce their costs. The company added labels to the products that said: “This product has seen its volume or weight fall and the effective price by the supplier rise.” In a recent LinkedIn post, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, the CEO of rival supermarket chain E. Leclerc, also issued public grievances over the price hikes from suppliers. “We must therefore convince in the coming month all these major suppliers who made the mistake of increasing their prices too much, to lower them now, or to moderate them,” Leclerc said, according to an English translation of his post. “We must return to more reasonable, more transparent, and better spread out impacts of their costs.” The company told the Journal that it has been in talks with Carrefour for several months and is engaging in “good faith” to try and ensure that its products remain available. PepsiCo did not respond to a request for comment.

The acting legends are dying right & left these days. Glynis Johns yesterday, David Soul today. They just don't make stars like that anymore.

Now Fresno is losing its TGIFridays. What are local gourmets to do?

What a cheesy submission. I'm suddenly craving a pizza...

Who would called about a canned ham product?

I am always grateful when folks with superior educations than mine use their knowledge to make my life easier to navigate.

I just got an email from my medical group about an upcoming virtual cardiology seminar. It will be led by Dr. Hartman. Big marketing fail on his part, not changing the spelling of his last name at the start of his career...