Friday, December 19, 2025
Thursday, December 18, 2025
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Stanford study reveals why COVID vaccines cause rare heart inflammation
Myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart, occurs in about one in 140,000 people who receive the first dose of the vaccine and one in 32,000 after the second dose, according to a Stanford press release. Among males 30 and younger, that rises to one in 16,750.
Symptoms of the condition include chest pain, shortness of breath, fever and palpitations, which can occur just one to three days after vaccination. Another marker is heightened levels of cardiac troponin, which indicates that the heart muscle has been damaged.
They found that those with myocarditis had two proteins in their blood, CXCL10 and IFN-gamma, which are released by immune cells. Those proteins then activate more inflammation.
"We think these two are the major drivers of myocarditis," said Wu. "Your body needs these cytokines to ward off viruses. It's essential to immune response, but can become toxic in large amounts."
"One of the most striking findings was how much we could reduce heart damage in our models by specifically blocking these two cytokines, without shutting down the entire (desired) immune response to the vaccine," Wu told Fox News Digital, noting that a targeted, "fine‑tuning" immune approach might be enough to protect the heart.
"This points to a possible future way to prevent or treat myocarditis in people who are at the highest risk, while keeping the benefits of vaccination," he added.
The findings were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
"This is a very complex study," Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel told Fox News Digital. "Myocarditis is very rare, and the immune mechanism makes sense."
"Myocarditis is worse with COVID — much more common, and generally much more severe." Wu agreed, adding that COVID infection is about 10 times more likely to cause myocarditis compared to mRNA-based vaccines.
The researchers emphasized that COVID-19 vaccines have been "heavily scrutinized" for safety and have been shown to have an "excellent safety record."
In rare cases, however, severe heart inflammation can lead to hospitalizations, critical illness or death.
"mRNA vaccines remain a crucial tool against COVID‑19, and this research helps explain a rare side effect and suggests ways to make future vaccines even safer, rather than a reason to avoid vaccination," Wu said.
"The overall benefits of COVID‑19 vaccination still clearly outweigh the small risk of myocarditis for nearly all groups."
Symptoms of the condition include chest pain, shortness of breath, fever and palpitations, which can occur just one to three days after vaccination. Another marker is heightened levels of cardiac troponin, which indicates that the heart muscle has been damaged.
They found that those with myocarditis had two proteins in their blood, CXCL10 and IFN-gamma, which are released by immune cells. Those proteins then activate more inflammation.
"We think these two are the major drivers of myocarditis," said Wu. "Your body needs these cytokines to ward off viruses. It's essential to immune response, but can become toxic in large amounts."
"One of the most striking findings was how much we could reduce heart damage in our models by specifically blocking these two cytokines, without shutting down the entire (desired) immune response to the vaccine," Wu told Fox News Digital, noting that a targeted, "fine‑tuning" immune approach might be enough to protect the heart.
"This points to a possible future way to prevent or treat myocarditis in people who are at the highest risk, while keeping the benefits of vaccination," he added.
The findings were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
"This is a very complex study," Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel told Fox News Digital. "Myocarditis is very rare, and the immune mechanism makes sense."
"Myocarditis is worse with COVID — much more common, and generally much more severe." Wu agreed, adding that COVID infection is about 10 times more likely to cause myocarditis compared to mRNA-based vaccines.
The researchers emphasized that COVID-19 vaccines have been "heavily scrutinized" for safety and have been shown to have an "excellent safety record."
In rare cases, however, severe heart inflammation can lead to hospitalizations, critical illness or death.
"mRNA vaccines remain a crucial tool against COVID‑19, and this research helps explain a rare side effect and suggests ways to make future vaccines even safer, rather than a reason to avoid vaccination," Wu said.
"The overall benefits of COVID‑19 vaccination still clearly outweigh the small risk of myocarditis for nearly all groups."
Sunday, December 14, 2025
Saturday, December 13, 2025
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
At that moment...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJyYVwP99cA
Yes, most dinosaurs went extinct around 66 million years ago due to a massive asteroid impact, but birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs and are technically living dinosaurs, meaning dinosaurs as a group are not entirely gone, just the non-avian ones.
At two meters tall, this thing is a freaking dinosaur.
There has been much speculation about dinosaurs being multicolored, which wouldn't show up in the fossil record. Some dinosaurs had feathers for warmth.
Theropod dinosaurs are closely related to birds, and had traits in common with birds.
According to Google AI...
Friday, December 5, 2025
Grizzly Vs. Gorilla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQu5YnZ6b8E
I am more afraid of bears than any other animal, at least in North America. In North America, I'm not likely to run into a komodo dragon.
If you act passive and don't make eye contact with a gorilla, it is unlikely to attack you.
A former coworker was hiking in Yellowstone National Park when a bear followed him on the trail. He got off the trail and the bear continued on.
My late stepdad co-owned a small farm with some friends. They would mostly use it for get togethers. It was very close to Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge where a bear had been spotted. Bears are rare in Indiana, but this particular bear had been spotted multiple times, first swimming the Ohio River from Kentucky to Indiana. It covered much ground because it had been spotted in multiple places, including Salem, Indiana where I was born. It would have had to cross highways to cover this much ground.
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
The 1970s Cooling Scare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDdmQCneQA&t=139s
This has not changed. The Earth is halfway between its maximum tilt and its minimum tilt, which we will reach in roughly 11,000 years. A period of mass glaciation is inevitable, but we are not likely to see a change in our lifetime. Nevertheless, we should be in the cool-down period. Our warming of the Earth is temporary since we have limited fossil fuel reserves.
We could avoid the next period of mass glaciation by either increasing the CO2 level, by getting it from limestone, or we could find ways to destroy the advancing glaciers.
Monday, December 1, 2025
Whale swallows two Women in Kayak and then......
1 year ago
Marine biologist here: Baleen whales can't actually swallow anything larger than a softball. They take a huge mouthful of water into their mouths (usually full of tiny critters like krill, which are tiny versions of shrimp, and maybe some small fish), and use their tongues to push the water back out of their mouths while filtering out the krill with their baleen plates (they don't have teeth). Then they swallow all the krill that the baleen trapped. If they accidentally get larger animals in their mouths (like seals or such, which has been witnessed to happen), they reopen their mouths pretty quickly and let them out because they can't swallow them.
@rita1259-y5c
3 years ago
What bragging rights they had afterwards! You could say " Well, this day might be bad, but not as bad as the day I got swallowed by a whale!"
3 years ago
What bragging rights they had afterwards! You could say " Well, this day might be bad, but not as bad as the day I got swallowed by a whale!"
Saturday, November 29, 2025
Friday, November 28, 2025
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Sunday, November 23, 2025
Saturday, November 22, 2025
Friday, November 21, 2025
Infected
Although my forehead scanner never showed a fever, my temperature at the Doctor's office was 100. My normal is 97 and change.
I still feel sick. For now I don't feel as bad as the last two days. Two days ago I had intense shivering.
My doctor thinks that I am fighting a viral infection. Everybody tells me, "there is stuff going around." People have told me that either they or a family member have been sick.
I didn't trust the expired COVID tests that I used two days ago. One of the tests initially showed a solid color on the line that shows that you are infected, but then the line became clear. This is odd, and in my mind made the test invalid. This created some confusion on my part as to whether or not I have COVID.
Yesterday I bought a new COVID test that also tests for two kinds of flu. The results were negative for COVID and the flu.
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Sunday, November 16, 2025
How Does Bent Time Make Gravity?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_sI9agWmEw
I have a hard time accepting the concept of "space-time." To me, space and time seem like fundamentally different things. We can't move through time the same way we move through space.
The video says that time bends more than space. The time dilation we experience on the surface of planet Earth is around 0.00000001%. Is this insignificant bending of time enough to cause 1G acceleration?
General Relativity is a useful model. But if we follow it blindly, we might be ignoring other possible models.
Saturday, November 15, 2025
How Much Caffeine Is in Coffee?
https://www.consumerreports.org/health/caffeine/caffeine-in-coffee-a2519854957/
These figures are higher than I expected. Roughly 15 years ago I read that a large McDonalds coffee had 180 mg of caffeine, and the small had half of that. I have been using these figures for large and small coffees ever since. However, the article lists a large McDonalds coffee at 295 mg and the Dunkin Donuts large coffee is the same.
The values for instant coffee are more than I expected. I had read figures under 100 mg. I don't like the taste of instant coffee.
The trouble with calculating the content of home brewed coffee is that it depends upon how much coffee you use. The labels recommend using more than I actually use.
I twice quit caffeine by phasing it out very slowly. However, I enjoy drinking my 50% decaf in the morning. I like how it gives me a boost. I study chess in the morning, and the coffee gets my brain going.
New pressure method captures 99% of CO2 for just $26 per ton
"In each stage, more of the carbon dioxide bubbles out and can then be compressed for permanent storage in underground formations."
I strongly believe it's a shame to waste carbon dioxide. It's a valuable resource because it acts as plant food, boosts crop yields, and contributes to the greening of deserts. It also warms the planet slightly. Before that warming becomes a serious problem, we reportedly will likely run out of fossil fuels — in roughly 125 years. Most fossil fuels may be depleted by around 2100, and we have only about 50 years of oil reserves left.
Thursday, November 13, 2025
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Sunday, November 9, 2025
Shape of a photon
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Y_Z3vq3l5zU
It seemed questionable to me that photons would have a shape. Photons are electromagnetic waves. The picture describes the shape of the wave in a particular circumstance.
If I can make an analogy, the subatomic level is like the surface of a turbulent ocean. All matter behaves like waves. Most of what is going on we can't perceive, and we only see the big waves.
No, photons do not have a fixed, measurable volume because they are quantum particles that also behave as waves. While they can be confined to a specific region of space, they are not point-like objects with a defined surface. Instead, their "size" is better understood by their wavelength and frequency or as a probability distribution of where the photon is located.
Why photons don't have a volume
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Why Our Solar System Shouldn’t Exist…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZfLZ1EoRGk
Reportedly, gas giants can move toward their star in a process called planetary migration. This movement can disrupt the inner planets of a solar system, sometimes even flinging them away from the star. However, the theory is that this didn't happen with Jupiter because Saturn's gravitational pull counteracted its inward drift. As a result, Earth remained in its ideal position—and life was able to develop.
the wonderful things you learn in your school
Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations. All this is put in your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to your children.
- Albert Einstein
Monday, November 3, 2025
Saturday, November 1, 2025
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Monday, October 27, 2025
Honey - Mayo Clinic
Safety and side effects
Honey is likely safe for use as a natural sweetener, cough suppressant, and topical product for minor sores and wounds.
Avoid giving honey — even a tiny taste — to babies under the age of 1 year. Honey can cause a rare but serious gastrointestinal condition (infant botulism) caused by exposure to Clostridium botulinum spores. Bacteria from the spores can grow and multiply in a baby's intestines, producing a dangerous toxin.
Some people are sensitive or allergic to specific components in honey, particularly bee pollen. Although rare, bee pollen allergies can cause serious, and sometimes fatal, adverse reactions. Signs and symptoms of a reaction include:
Honey is likely safe for use as a natural sweetener, cough suppressant, and topical product for minor sores and wounds.
Avoid giving honey — even a tiny taste — to babies under the age of 1 year. Honey can cause a rare but serious gastrointestinal condition (infant botulism) caused by exposure to Clostridium botulinum spores. Bacteria from the spores can grow and multiply in a baby's intestines, producing a dangerous toxin.
Some people are sensitive or allergic to specific components in honey, particularly bee pollen. Although rare, bee pollen allergies can cause serious, and sometimes fatal, adverse reactions. Signs and symptoms of a reaction include:
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Friday, October 24, 2025
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