More than a dozen hurt in industrial blast outside Cleveland

Source: NBC News

More than a dozen people were injured, at least one critically, in an industrial plant explosion outside Cleveland on Monday, NBC affiliate WKYC of Cleveland reported.

The late-morning blast at the I Schumann & Co. metal alloy manufacturer in Oakwood Village southeast of Cleveland was described by a captain with the Oakwood Fire Department as a "large explosion."

The official said at least one person was flown by helicopter to a hospital. The subsequent fire was under control Monday afternoon, but crews were still working on hot spots, the captain said.

The blast sent debris across the street, produced a crater in a building, and created a smoke plume that could be seen for miles, according to social media video reviewed by NBC News and as seen in affiliate footage from the scene.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dozen-injured-industrial-blast-cleveland-rcna71518

'Bond villain' DNA could transform cancer treatment, scientists say

Guardian

Scientists have pinpointed pieces of DNA which, they say, act like Bond villains in the way they help cancers spread. These microscopic agents have also been shown to be responsible for helping tumours gain resistance to anti-cancer drugs.

The discovery of these bits of genetic material – known as extrachromosomal DNA or ecDNA – could revolutionise the treatments of some of the most aggressive tumours that affect people today, add the researchers.

“The discovery of how these bits of DNA behave inside our bodies is a gamechanger,” said Professor Paul Mischel of California’s Stanford university, one of the leaders of the programme. “We believe they are responsible for a large number of the more advanced, most serious cancers affecting people today. If we can block their activities, we can block the spread of these cancers.”

Made up of tiny loops of DNA, these genetic villains survive outside the chromosomes which are our cells’ main repositories of genetic material and which direct the growth of our bodies and determine our individual characteristics. The existence of these smaller units was revealed years ago but their importance in cancer has only now been uncovered.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/18/bond-villain-dna-could-transform-cancer-treatment-scientists-say

Discovery of 'superhighways' suggests early Mayan civilization was more advanced than previously tho

Discovery of ‘superhighways’ suggests early Mayan civilization was more advanced than previously thought

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN

With the thick vegetation of the northern Guatemala rainforests hiding its 2,000-year-old remnants, the full extent of the early Mayan way of life was once impossible to see. But laser technology has helped researchers discover a previously unknown 650-square-mile (1,683-square-kilometer) Maya site that offers startling new insights about ancient Mesoamericans and their civilization.

The researchers detected the vast site within the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin of northern Guatemala by using LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology, a laser mapping system that allows for structures to be detected below the thick tree canopies. The resulting map showed an area composed of 964 settlements broken down into 417 interconnected Mayan cities, towns and villages.

A 110-mile (177-kilometer) network of raised stone trails, or causeways, that linked the communities reveals that the early civilization was home to an even more complex society than previously thought, according to a recent analysis on the architecture groupings, published in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica.

“They’re the world’s first superhighway system that we have,” said lead study author Richard Hansen, a professor of anthropology at Idaho State University. “What’s amazing about (the causeways) is that they unite all these cities together like a spiderweb … which forms one of the earliest and first state societies in the Western Hemisphere.”

More:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/world/maya-civilization-causeways-lidar-discovery-scn

Ann Coulter tells Nikki Haley to 'go back to your own country' in racist rant

NBC News
By Sakshi Venkatraman

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is under fire for a racist tirade against new Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

In an appearance on the "The Mark Simone Show" podcast this week, Coulter made several xenophobic comments about Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who was born in the U.S. to Indian immigrant parents. "Why don't you go back to your own country?" Coulter said.

Coulter, known for her racist and anti-immigrant stances, attacked India, as well.

"Her candidacy did remind me that I need to immigrate to India so I can demand they start taking down parts of their history," she said. "What's with the worshipping of the cows? They're all starving over there. Did you know they have a rat temple, where they worship rats?"

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/ann-coulter-tells-nikki-haley-go-back-country-racist-rant-new-gop-pres-rcna71119

Biden remains 'healthy, vigorous,' doctor says after physical exam

Source: Washington Post

President Biden remains “a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute duties of the presidency,” his physician wrote in a memo released hours after the president underwent a routine annual physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Thursday morning.

Kevin O’Connor — who has been Biden’s primary care doctor since 2009 — wrote that the most notable update from Biden’s last physical in November 2021 was his covid-19 infection over the summer, but said the president has not experienced any lingering symptoms that could be characterized as “long covid.”

As part of the physical, Biden underwent routine skin cancer surveillance. O’Connor said one “small lesion” on the president’s chest was excised on Thursday and sent for traditional biopsy and that the results are pending. O’Connor noted that Biden spent a “good deal of time” in the sun when he was young and that he had several non-melanoma skin cancers removed before assuming the presidency.

Biden, who at age 80 is the first octogenarian president in American history, has faced repeated questions about his physical and mental fitness — inquiries that have intensified as he prepares for an expected reelection bid. He would be 82 at the start of a second term, and 86 at the end of eight years in the White House.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/16/biden-physical-exam/

Florida toddler shoots, kills himself with parents' gun

Local10.com News

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida toddler has died after deputies said he found a handgun in his parent’s nightstand and shot and killed himself.

Volusia County Sheriff’s deputies said the boy found the nine-millimeter firearm in the nightstand on Wednesday night.

the parents reportedly kept the firearm there after their lock box stopped working.

The Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the parents were out grocery shopping at the time of the incident.

https://www.local10.com/news/florida/2023/02/16/florida-toddler-shoots-kills-himself-with-parents-gun/


NBC News: Florida 3-year-old dies after shooting himself with a handgun, officials say

The father, a Florida state corrections officer, told deputies that his firearms were normally kept in a safe in the bedroom, but the safe's electronic lock function had stopped working and he instead placed one on top of the fridge and the other in his nightstand.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-3-year-old-dies-shooting-self-handgun-officials-say-rcna71049

How pesticides impair our senses

Long article but worth reading

BBC Future
By Claudia Lee
15th February 2023

Fifteen years ago, Tim Parton, a farm manager at Brewood Park Farm in Staffordshire in the UK, decided to take a leap and start to experiment with biological farming. Instead of using synthetic pesticides and fertilisers, he applies self-brewed biologically active natural inputs, such as trichoderma, a type of fungus, onto his crops, to help them both grow and fix nitrogen and phosphorus into the soil.

Parton is part of a growing farming community practising regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture is an approach to farming that prioritises soil and environmental health by minimising synthetic inputs.

He switched to using biologically active inputs after experiencing headaches and skin rashes from using pesticides. After sheep dipping, which involves immersing sheep in insecticide and pesticide mixtures to eliminate parasites, lumps would often show up on his arms. The reaction would stay for several days. "I would be a mess, but if I went to the doctors, they would say 'you've just had a reaction' and would not take it seriously," he says.

Since adopting a biological farming method, Parton has not experienced any negative health impacts. He has not had to use any phosphorus and potassium fertilisers on his crops for over 10 years. "I try to keep the plant as nutritionally balanced as I can, and if the plant has got all the correct nutrition, it doesn't get ill," he says.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230215-how-pesticides-harm-human-health

Record-breaking footprint found on England's 'Dinosaur Coast'

BRADFORD, England — The brooding landscape of the English county of Yorkshire has perhaps been best known as the home of the gothic novels “Wuthering Heights” and “Jane Eyre” by the Brontë sisters.

But long before they put pen to paper, giant carnivorous dinosaurs roamed the area that locals refer to as “God’s own country” and one left a footprint that experts Thursday confirmed was the largest ever discovered in Yorkshire.

More than 3 feet long, the footprint was made by a meat-eating theropod dinosaur almost 166 million years ago from the Jurassic Period, according to the authors of a study published in the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society journal.

They added that they thought the dinosaur was squatting or resting when it left the three-toed footprint in the Cleveland Basin area, which is now the east coast of Yorkshire.

More

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/record-breaking-footprint-found-englands-dinosaur-coast-rcna70948

Thankyouforthe hearts!!!

Youngkin opposes effort to shield menstrual data from law enforcement

Washington Post
By Laura Vozzella and Gregory S. Schneider
February 14, 2023 at 6:24 p.m. EST

RICHMOND — The administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) helped defeat a bill this week to put menstrual data stored on period-tracking apps beyond the reach of law enforcement, blocking what supporters pitched as a basic privacy measure.

Millions of women use mobile apps to track their cycles, a practice that has occasionally raised data-security worries because the apps are not bound by HIPAA, the federal health privacy law. New concerns arose after the Supreme Court gave states the right to ban abortion in June, with some abortion rights groups warning that the information could be used to prosecute women or doctors who violate a state’s restrictions on the procedure.

S.B. 852, proposed by Sen. Barbara A. Favola (D-Arlington), would have prohibited search warrants from being issued for menstrual data stored on computers or other electronic devices. The measure sailed out of the Democratic-led Senate last week on a 31-9 vote, with every Democrat and half of the chamber’s 18 Republicans in support.

But a Republican-led House subcommittee voted along party lines Monday to “table” the bill — essentially killing it — after Maggie Cleary, Youngkin’s deputy secretary of public safety and homeland security, detailed the administration’s concerns that the measure could restrict subpoena powers.

(paywall)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/02/14/youngkin-menstrual-data-abortion-virginia/