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This Quarentine has been hell for me..
I know these are tough times for all of us but for me its been literal hell. My naracasstic mother and her dysfunctional sisters all tag teamed against me because my mom told them lies about me threatning to harm her when I simply did none of the sort…long story short is an emotional maniupltive person and thinks shes always the victim and whenever I try to say my side of the story, my own so called family members don’t believe me and think i’m the evil person even though they know my mother has always been this way and is getting worse but since she’s the mother, clearly she can’t do any wrong…as she is ALWAYS right.
I am cutting ties with everyone as I am officially convinced I have no family.
I’m sorry for not posting recently..it’s mainly because of the endless drama i have at home and not being able to escape it as drove me to escape to animal crossing for 12+ hours a day because i have nowhere else to go.
If possible, please support me on ko-fi or patreon or even my online store if you have the funds to do so…I understand alot of people are going through tough times so only do so if you’re able so i can save up to find some place to live:
Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/cosmicfunnies
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cosmicfunnies
My Online Store: https://www.cosmicfunnies.com
My portfolio site in case u wish to hire me: https://jackiemoliner.myportfolio.com
I hope your time indoors is better than my situation. I am hoping to find someplace to go but things have been impossible for me..I feel trapped..I hope you’re all doing better than I am..
Have a good weekend.
It’s only getting worse at home, every friday my mother just starts some kind of huge arguement and it’s killing me…if you can help me with anything i’d appreciate it, i’m trying to save every once of money to escape this place.
I’m seriously low on funds and food again. If anyone can help me by supporting me on Patreon or Kofi..or even my online shop, I’d appreciate it. I’m sorry to ask but these difficult times have killed my motivation to work on new comics. I am trying to work on a script today so I can work on a comic tonight. Hopefully I can work on something…
Please pass this around to people…I am going through hard times and it’s thanks to you guys that I am able to buy water and food. If you know anyone who is hiring for a designer, please pass this along to them as well. Thanks.
Mom is stressing me out to pay bills, please help me out..thanks for your support…
Please support me and help me find a job because now my mom is threatening to kick me out and I have nowhere to go. I’m honestly wondering why I haven’t offed myself for all this time because the feeling is so strong. I don’t know what to do anymore I feel like my life isn’t worth it.
Mom is being difficult and I worry she may want money for bills when I am struggling to pay my own cellphone bill. If you can, please help support me via kofi or patreon. You can even purchase cute books and apparel on my online store cosmicfunnies.com
Thank you for your support and have a great week. I hope to have a comic this week. I am so sorry for not being able to post recently.
If you know anyone that is looking to hire a virtual assistant or freelance graphic designer, please send them my way….it’s been 2 years and a half and still no one wishes to hire me. It doesn’t help that we’re still in the middle of a pandemic as well..
Thanks for your support. I’m slowly finishing the 2021 planner which is why you guys haven’t seen me. I hope to have it up on the shop by August 1st just in time for your back to school shopping.
Have a nice day.
I’m dangerously low on funds and it would be appreciated if you guys can help me via Kofi so I can buy food..
Thank you for your support.
Mother is being abusive and decided to not buy me food and water and let me starve all because I stood up for myself. If you can, please help me via ko-fi.
Please help me..mom is at it again…
I can never have peace with this woman… If you guys can help me out via kofi or buying items in my shop, I’d greatly appreciate it..
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(Image caption: Neurons from 19-month-old mice (bottom row) show much higher rates of oxidative stress than neurons from 9-week-old mice (top row). Lipofuscin, a molecule associated with aging-related oxidative stress, appears red. Credit: Hyeseung Lee)
Biologists discover an unusual hallmark of aging in neurons
As we age, neurons in our brains can become damaged by free radicals. MIT biologists have now discovered that this type of damage, known as oxidative stress, produces an unusual pileup of short snippets of RNA in some neurons.
This RNA buildup, which the researchers believe may be a marker of neurodegenerative diseases, can reduce protein production. The researchers observed this phenomenon in both mouse and human brains, especially in a part of the brain called the striatum — a site involved in diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s.
“The brain is very metabolically active, and over time, that causes oxidative damage, but it affects some neurons more than others,” says Christopher Burge, an MIT professor of biology. “This phenomenon appears to be a previously unrecognized consequence of oxidative stress, which impacts hundreds of genes and may influence translation and RNA regulation globally.”
Burge and Myriam Heiman, the Latham Family Career Development Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, are the senior authors of the paper, which appears in the Nov. 27 issue of Cell Reports. Peter Sudmant, a former MIT postdoc, is the lead author of the paper, and postdoc Hyeseung Lee and former postdoc Daniel Dominguez are also authors.
A mysterious finding
For this study, the researchers used a technique developed by Heiman that allows them to isolate and sequence messenger RNA from specific types of cells. Messenger RNA carries protein-building instructions to cell organelles called ribosomes, which read the mRNA and translate the instructions into proteins by stringing together amino acids in the correct sequence.
Heiman’s technique involves tagging ribosomes from a specific type of cells with green fluorescent protein, so that when a tissue sample is analyzed, researchers can use the fluorescent tag to isolate and sequence RNA from only those cells. This allows them to determine which proteins are being produced by different types of cells.
“This is particularly useful in the nervous system where you’ve got different types of neurons and glia closely intertwined together, if you want to isolate the mRNAs from one particular cell type,” Burge says.
In separate groups of mice, the researchers tagged ribosomes from either D1 or D2 spiny projection neurons, which make up 95 percent of the neurons found in the striatum. They labeled these cells in younger mice (6 weeks old) and 2-year-old mice, which are roughly equivalent to humans in their 70s or 80s.
The researchers had planned to look for gene expression differences between those two cell types, and to explore how they were affected by age. “These two types of neurons are implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases that are aging-related, so it is important to understand how normal aging changes their cellular and molecular properties,” says Heiman, who is a member of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
To the researchers’ surprise, a mysterious result emerged — in D1 neurons from aged mice (but not neurons from young mice or D2 neurons from aged mice), they found hundreds of genes that expressed only a short fragment of the original mRNA sequence. These snippets, known as 3’ untranslated regions (UTRs), were stuck to ribosomes, preventing the ribosomes from assembling normal proteins. “While these RNAs have been observed before, the magnitude and age-associated cell-type specificity was really unprecedented,” says Sudmant.
The 3’ UTR snippets appeared to originate from about 400 genes with a wide variety of functions. Meanwhile, many other genes were totally unaffected.
“There are some genes that are completely normal, even in aged D1 neurons. There’s a gene-specific aspect to this phenomenon that is quite interesting and mysterious,” Burge says.
The findings led the researchers to explore a possible role for oxidative stress in this 3’ UTR accumulation. Neurons burn a great deal of energy, which can produce free radicals as byproducts. Unlike many other cell types, neurons do not get replaced, so they are believed to be susceptible to accumulated damage from these radicals over time.
The MIT team found that the activation of oxidative stress response pathways was higher in D1 neurons compared to D2 neurons, suggesting that they are indeed undergoing more oxidative damage. The researchers propose a model for the production of isolated 3’ UTRs involving an enzyme called ABCE1, which normally separates ribosomes from mRNA after translation is finished. This enzyme contains iron-sulfur clusters that can be damaged by free radicals, making it less effective at removing ribosomes, which then get stuck on the mRNA. This leads to cleavage of the RNA by a mechanism that operates upstream of stalled ribosomes.
“Sending neural signals takes a lot of energy,” Burge says. “Over time, that causes oxidative damage, and in our model one of the proteins that eventually gets damaged is ABCE1, and that triggers the production of 3’ UTRs.”
RNA buildup
The researchers also found the same accumulation in most parts of the human brain, including the frontal cortex, which is very metabolically active. They did not see it in most other types of human tissue, with the exception of liver tissue, which is exposed to high levels of potentially toxic molecules.
In human brain tissue, the researchers found that the amount of 3’ UTRs gradually increased with age, which fits their proposed model of gradual damage by oxidative stress. The researchers’ findings and model suggest that the production of these 3’ UTRs involves the destruction of normal mRNAs, reducing the amount of protein produced from the affected genes. This buildup of 3’ UTRs with ribosomes stuck to them can also block ribosomes from producing other proteins.
It remains to be seen exactly what effect this would have on those neurons, Burge says, but it is possible that this kind of cellular damage could combine with genetic and environmental factors to produce a general decline in cognitive ability or even neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. In future studies, the researchers hope to further explore the causes and consequences of the accumulation of 3’ UTRs.
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Why screen time can disrupt sleep
For most, the time spent staring at screens—on computers, phones, iPads—constitutes many hours and can often disrupt sleep. Now, Salk Institute researchers have pinpointed how certain cells in the eye process ambient light and reset our internal clocks, the daily cycles of physiological processes known as the circadian rhythm. When these cells are exposed to artificial light late into the night, our internal clocks can get confused, resulting in a host of health issues.
The results, published November 27, 2018, in Cell Reports, may help lead to new treatments for migraines, insomnia, jet lag and circadian rhythm disorders, which have been tied to cognitive dysfunction, cancer, obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and more.
“We are continuously exposed to artificial light, whether from screen time, spending the day indoors or staying awake late at night,” says Salk Professor Satchidananda Panda, senior author of the study. “This lifestyle causes disruptions to our circadian rhythms and has deleterious consequences on health.”
The backs of our eyes contain a sensory membrane called the retina, whose innermost layer contains a tiny subpopulation of light-sensitive cells that operate like pixels in a digital camera. When these cells are exposed to ongoing light, a protein called melanopsin continually regenerates within them, signaling levels of ambient light directly to the brain to regulate consciousness, sleep and alertness. Melanopsin plays a pivotal role in synchronizing our internal clock after 10 minutes of illumination and, under bright light, suppresses the hormone melatonin, responsible for regulating sleep.
“Compared to other light-sensing cells in the eye, melanopsin cells respond as long as the light lasts, or even a few seconds longer,” says Ludovic Mure, staff scientist and first author of the paper. “That’s critical, because our circadian clocks are designed to respond only to prolonged illumination.”
In the new work, the Salk researchers used molecular tools to turn on production of melanopsin in retinal cells in mice. They discovered that some of these cells have the ability to sustain light responses when exposed to repeated long pulses of light, while others become desensitized.
Conventional wisdom has held that proteins called arrestins, which stop the activity of certain receptors, should halt cells’ photosensitive response within seconds of lights coming on. The researchers were surprised to find that arrestins are in fact necessary for melanopsin to continue responding to prolonged illumination.
In mice lacking either version of the arrestin protein (beta arrestin 1 and beta arrestin 2), the melanopsin-producing retinal cells failed to sustain their sensitivity to light under prolonged illumination. The reason, it turns out, is that arrestin helps melanopsin regenerate in the retinal cells.
“Our study suggests the two arrestins accomplish regeneration of melanopsin in a peculiar way,” Panda says. “One arrestin does its conventional job of arresting the response, and the other helps the melanopsin protein reload its retinal light-sensing co-factor. When these two steps are done in quick succession, the cell appears to respond continuously to light.”
By better understanding the interactions of melanopsin in the body and how the eyes react to light, Panda hopes to find new targets to counter skewed circadian rhythms due to, for example, artificial illumination. Previously, Panda’s research team discovered that chemicals called opsinamides could block melanopsin’s activity in mice without affecting their vision, offering a potential therapeutic avenue to address hypersensitivity to light experienced by migraine sufferers. Next, the researchers aim to find ways to influence melanopsin to reset the internal clocks and help with insomnia.
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Chandra X-Ray Observatory, We Appreciate You
nasa:
On July 23, 1999, the Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center carrying the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In the two decades that have passed, Chandra’s powerful and unique X-ray eyes have contributed to a revolution in our understanding of the cosmos.
Since its launch 20 years ago, Chandra’s unrivaled X-ray vision has changed the way we see the universe.
Chandra has captured galaxy clusters – the largest gravitationally bound objects in the universe – in the process of merging.
Chandra has shown us the powerful wind and shock fronts that rumble through star-forming systems.
And a star school, so to speak – home to thousands of the Milky Way’s biggest and brightest.
Carl Sagan said, “We are made of star-stuff.“ It’s true. Most of the elements necessary for life are forged inside stars and blasted into interstellar space by supernovas. Chandra has tracked them.
Thank you Chandra X-Ray! To more adventures with you!
Check out Chandra’s 20th anniversary page to see how they are celebrating.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
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Regarding the JY case:
I’m not saying her name because there is literally a publication ban, but I’ve seen a flare of activity around a Canadian trans woman being accused of some horrendous shit.
As far as I can tell, no credible source has mentioned any recent developments in this case. No credible source is mentioning anything about any victim, or a change in the status of that publication ban.
The ban was enacted because TERFs have been actively trying to destroy this woman’s life by making sure these accusations are the top association with her name.
Please, please, please tread very carefully around this. Please think twice before publishing her name in connection with these accusations.
We’re back to the Bad Old Days, folks. Please stand with us.
Cis people can and should spread this.
We’re gonna be seeing this tactic a lot more, because it works so damn well. Truth or proof don’t need to get involved, and defending against it just makes it worse.
Hope the publication ban works.
When One Person’s Right Is Another’s Obligation - The Economist, October 25th 2018
proving again and forever that stopping pedophilia and punishing sexual assault/harrassment is terf’s work because everyone else is too concerned with protecting the assaulter
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Heres what I need in terms of supplies:
- Money (prolly not until I get to the point that more people have signed up tho)
- 3 megaphones
- Defense items for the front line
- Toothpaste toothbrushes and soap
- Kids books (spanish and english)
- Places where these kids can temporarily stay until we get in touch with their parents
Obviously not all of these are 100% necessary but it would all make our goals a lot easier
Heres what you can do if you cant provide resources:
- Show up!
- Reblog or spread the Facebook event
- Tell your friends and family
- Join the discord
- Become a co-organizer (DM me)
- Send emails to different left wing organizations, protest organizations, and/or immigration focused organizations (DM me first)
- Drive, offer carpools (DM me)
- Spanish translators (DM me)
- Help me contact parents (DM me)
- Help fundraise (DM me)
- Offer whatever forms of help you can think of (DM me)
- Bring the weed for your car. I’m just kidding obviously… unless… lmao nah… or??? 😏🤨🤔😎
- Bring your best attitude! Be ready for anything.
Reblogging this to here because I have an OKAY amount of followers here. Please don’t scroll past and reblog to help if you aren’t able to do much /: I know it sucks feeling useless with this stuff, but spreading it so people show up is important
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Gut bacteria may control movement
A new study puts a fresh spin on what it means to “go with your gut.” The findings, published in Nature, suggest that gut bacteria may control movement in fruit flies and identify the neurons involved in this response. The study was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health.
“This study provides additional evidence for a connection between the gut and the brain, and in particular outlines how gut bacteria may influence behavior, including movement,” said Margaret Sutherland, Ph.D., program director at NINDS.
Researchers led by Sarkis K. Mazmanian, Ph.D., professor of microbiology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and graduate student Catherine E. Schretter, observed that germ-free flies, which did not carry bacteria, were hyperactive. For instance, they walked faster, over greater distances, and took shorter rests than flies that had normal levels of microbes. Dr. Mazmanian and his team investigated ways in which gut bacteria may affect behavior in fruit flies.
“Locomotion is important for a number of activities such as mating and searching for food. It turns out that gut bacteria may be critical for fundamental behaviors in animals,” said Dr. Mazmanian.
Fruit flies carry between five and 20 different species of bacteria and Dr. Mazmanian’s team treated the germ-free animals with individual strains of those microbes. When the flies received Lactobacillus brevis, their movements slowed down to normal speed. L. brevis was one of only two species of bacteria that restored normal behavior in the germ-free flies.
Dr. Mazmanian’s group also discovered that the molecule xylose isomerase (Xi), a protein that breaks down sugar and is found in L. brevis, may be critical to this process. Isolating the molecule and treating germ-free flies with it was sufficient to slow down the speedwalkers.
Additional experiments showed that Xi may regulate movement by fine-tuning levels of certain carbohydrates, such as trehalose, which is the main sugar found in flies and is similar to mammalian glucose. Flies that were given Xi had lower levels of trehalose than did untreated germ-free flies. When Xi-treated flies, which showed normal behavior, were given trehalose alone, they resumed fast movements suggesting that the sugar was able to reverse the effects of Xi.
Next, the researchers looked into the flies’ nervous system to see what cells were involved in bacteria-directed movement. When Dr. Mazmanian’s team turned on neurons that produce the chemical octopamine, that activation canceled out the effect of L. brevis on the germ-free flies. As a result, the flies, which had previously slowed down after receiving the bacterium or Xi, resumed their speedwalking behavior. Turning on octopamine-producing nerve cells in flies with normal levels of bacteria also caused them to move faster. However, activating neurons that produce other brain chemicals did not influence the flies’ movements.
According to Dr. Mazmanian, Schretter and their colleagues, Xi may be monitoring the flies’ metabolic state, including levels of nutrients, and then signaling to octopamine neurons whether they should turn on or off, resulting in changes in behavior.
Instead of octopamine, mammals produce a comparable chemical called noradrenaline, which has been shown to control movement.
“Gut bacteria may play a similar role in mammalian locomotion, and even in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease,” said Dr. Mazmanian.
More research is needed to see whether bacteria control movement in other species, including mammals. In addition, future studies will further investigate how Xi is involved in these behaviors.
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Things keep getting worse and worse..
One thing I haven’t mentioned to you all is that I have an abusive mother that I live with because I have no income. However, because I don’t have a job she becomes very aggresive, says horrible things to me and calls me stupid and slow and that I can’t hear right. Then when I defend myself, she punishes me for standing up to myself…in the form not cooking any dinner tomorrow knowing very well I have no money on me.
So basically I’m going to starve today. So I broke down crying and wondering if I should just end it because I am tired of bad things happening to me left and right each day is getting worse whenever I start to feel hopeful. I just don’t know what to do..
If anyone can help me buy something to eat tommrow, that will be great since I only have a few dollars in my bank account which isn’t enough to even buy one meal.
https://ko-fi.com/cosmicfunnies - For anyone who just wants to help and not buy.
https://cosmicstickies.bigcartel.com
https://www.cosmicfunnies.com/starry-shop/natural-earth-foil-planner-sticker-set
https://www.cosmicfunnies.com/starry-shop
If you do buy something, please use PayPal instead of stripe. Stripe takes over a week for me to get funds and it won’t help me since I’m in dire need at this moment.
I don’t like asking for help because I don’t want to seem needy but I can’t be proud. Sometimes you have to be humble.
Thanks again for your time..
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In her essay Tik Tok the great philosopher Ke$ha declared that ‘the party don’t start till I walk in.’ which is clearly meant to convey that any recreational gathering is not truly a party until Ke$ha herself arrives.
But what if Ke$ha were to leave the party for some period of time only to then walk in again? This paradoxical scenario in which a party must simultaneously already exist and not exist yet is known as Ke$ha’s Quantum Party and has stumped theoretical physicists for decades.
Ke$ha clearly states that “when I leave for the night I ain’t comin’ back” (Animal 2.4), and furthermore, that “Tonight, Imma fight/‘Til we see the sunlight” (2.13-14), implying that she will neither depart nor desist from celebration until the following solar recurrence; moreover, she asserts in the refrain that “…the party don’t stop, no” (2.16), sagely reassuring us that no spacetime-rending event will occur.
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let’s go on a date and by date I mean lay in bed and make out for 3 hours
I married the girl I wrote this about and if that isn’t hope for you almost 1 milllion thirsty motherfuckers idk what is
Wait did this
Did this really happen
Facts
