Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

BRANDON GIL elegantly destroys "reproductive rights" gal, Jessica Waters.

The abortion Advocate and Reproductive Rights and laws expert, Jessica Waters.

SAMA HOOLE: Marco Polo arrives at Kublai Khan's court in 1275 expecting silk and spice and exotica. What he documents is the most extensive dairy culture in human history

Does the brain shrink at higher altitudes, like at 5280 in Denver, CO?

AI, the Neurosurgeon?

Yes, there is some evidence suggesting that exposure to high altitudes can lead to changes in brain structure, including potential shrinking or volume loss, especially if the altitude is sustained over a long period or involves significant hypoxia (low oxygen levels).

High altitude effects: At elevations like Denver (~5,280 feet or 1,600 meters), the oxygen levels are lower than at sea level.  While most people can adapt without significant issues, prolonged exposure to hypoxia can have some effects on brain tissue.

Research findings: Studies have indicated that chronic exposure to high altitude may lead to brain volume reduction or shrinkage in certain areas, possibly due to reduced oxygen supply affecting brain tissue health.

Acute vs. chronic: Short-term exposure (days to weeks) typically doesn't cause significant brain shrinkage in healthy individuals. However, long-term residence at high altitude, especially without proper acclimatization, can lead to structural changes.

Altitude sickness: Severe altitude sickness and related conditions (like high-altitude cerebral edema) involve swelling or other brain changes, but these are acute and severe, not typical of everyday life at Denver's altitude.

SUMMARY

While brief exposure at Denver's altitude is unlikely to cause noticeable brain shrinkage, long-term residence at higher altitudes may be associated with some degree of brain volume change or adaptation, especially if oxygen levels are substantially lower or if there are underlying health issues.

Would you like more detailed scientific references or explanations?

I asked about other organs.  Ai adds

Other organs' response:

Many organs, such as the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys, also adapt to high altitude through physiological changes:

Lungs: Increase in lung capacity and efficiency.

Heart: Enlarges (cardiac hypertrophy) to pump blood more effectively.

Blood: Increased production of red blood cells for better oxygen transport.

Slow at first, then all at once.

US PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP: “Their veins ran with Anglo-Saxon courage.”

"Honoring the British King might seem an ironic beginning to our celebration of 250 years of American independence — but in fact, no tribute could be more appropriate. Long before Americans had a nation or Constitution, we first had a culture, a character, and a creed. Before we ever proclaimed our independence, Americans carried within us the rarest of gifts: moral courage, and it came from a small but mighty kingdom from across the sea." --President Trump

CHASE HUGHES: With a SIGNIFICANCE-driven person, you might see super tight fitting shirts or like crazy outlandish things, like adding to themselves, like my hair is way bright neon color.


The 6 human needs are significance, acceptance, and approval, intelligence, pity, and strength.  

SIGNIFICANCE
So if you're in a conversation just one-on-one with a person within three to five minutes they're going to start revealing a lot of those things.  Not just through their clothing.  And you might see super tight fitting shirts or like crazy outlandish things, like adding to themselves, like my hair is way bright neon color.  I've got some weird shirt on.  So we know that person from 100 yards away.  We know that person is significance driven.  They need to feel significant and that has to be reflected by other people.  And you'll also hear them say how they've managed lots of teams, how they've mentored lots of people, how they're in charge of hundreds of people at the company they work for, or how everybody kind of seeks them out for advice.

ACCEPTANCE
Then we have the acceptance people.  And the acceptance people are typically used terms like "we," "us," "our." They'll talk about groups and membership.  They'll talk about being at a company and talking about like all the sales team there, everybody goes out on Thursday nights.  We had a great time.  We all get along together.  So they'll talk about teams and groups.

APPROVAL
And then we get into approval.  And approval people are more likely to seek permission.  So they're more likely to seek some kind of reassurance from you.  They might say something like I've got to give a speech on Thursday but I know, I just know I'm going to suck at it.  I know everybody's going to hate it, just so like you Francesca you'd be like, "Oh, no, no. You're going to do great.  You did great last time and everybody loves it when you speak on stage.  You're great."  And that would be more the approval.

INTELLIGENCE
And then we have intelligence.  You see people wearing the Harvard University t-shirts and sweatpants, all these things that convey . . . .  Or, in a conversation, they'll say I published a bunch of papers on that.  You're going to hear them say like, "I remember when I was at X University," or "I'm a professor of X," or "I got my degree in X as an expert in X, Y, and Z."   You'll hear a lot of that.

PITY (OR HERO'S JOURNEY)
And pity.  We think that pity really wants us to hear them complain.  And pity is where we make a lot of mistakes. We hear people complaining about their life and traffic and all this, like our friends bitching about sitting in traffic for an hour or two.  And our instinct is to say like, "Oh, you know it's not that bad.  You know, like you put on a good audiobook, or do something that benefits you during all this traffic."  They don't want to hear that at all.  They want us to understand how bad they've had it and what they've been through.  So it's Journey.  Everybody wants us to comment and recognize their own Hero's Journey.  That's basically what needs are those needs are.

STRENGTH
And then the strength.  We have people that are posturing, puffing up the chest, and we have all manner of behavior that we could do from this.  And we all have one of these six, and the moment that we learn the predominant needs that someone has its usually two of the six.  If I know it's a significance person, I automatically understand that they're insecurity is feeling insignificant. Instantly.  And this is 3 minutes I know more about their deep insecurities than their friends and family.  In 3 minutes just from listening to basic phrases, and this is the preschool level of this and it's still more advanced than most programs out there.  If I know that it's acceptance, and that's their primary social need, I instantly understand that the hidden insecurities that that person has is about being rejected, being outcast, being kind of exiled from a tribe, and feeling not belonging.  So a lot of what we're really looking at here are what was the needs or typically what's missing in childhood and that's kind of what we're seeing when it comes to a person. 

J. MICHAEL WALLER: Grand jury indicts former FBI Director Comey.

I don't know.  It certainly seems to me that the U.S., if not the world, is healing. 

MASSIMO: A recent study has demonstrated that continuous exposure to rose essential oil through inhalation can lead to measurable increases in gray matter volume in the human brain.

Monday, April 27, 2026

PETER GIRNUS: What I cannot tell you is how 147 of those bottles left the building during an active shooter evacuation.

I am a senior coordinating producer for the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. I have worked eleven of these. I was backstage at the Washington Hilton when the shots were fired. The first thing I heard was not the gunfire. It was glass. A champagne flute hit the floor of the International Ballroom at approximately 9:47 PM. Then a second. Then the sound that I have since been told was a 12-gauge shotgun, which from inside the ballroom sounded like a heavy door slamming in a parking garage. Then the Secret Service moved. They moved the President, the Vice President, the First Lady through the east corridor in under ninety seconds, which is protocol, which is practiced, which is the one part of the evening that worked exactly as it was designed. Everything else was improvised. I know this because I ordered the wine. 94 tables. Two bottles per table. 188 bottles of a Willamette Valley pinot noir that the Association selected in February after a tasting committee spent three meetings debating between Oregon and Burgundy. Oregon won. The budget was $14,200. I signed the invoice. I can tell you the vintage. I can tell you the distributor. I can tell you the per-bottle cost because I negotiated it down from $89 to $76. What I cannot tell you is how 147 of those bottles left the building during an active shooter evacuation. I can tell you what I saw. A correspondent from a network I will not name picked up two bottles on her way to the east exit. Full bottles. One in each hand. She was wearing heels and she did not spill. A man in a tuxedo tucked one inside his jacket the way you'd shoplift a paperback at an airport bookstore. A woman picked up a bottle, looked at the label, put it back, and took a different one. She checked the vintage. During an evacuation. That's editorial judgment under pressure. The theme of the dinner was "A Free Press for a Free People." The banners were still hanging when the evacuation began. I know because I hung them. Twenty-three banners, navy blue, gold serif lettering, $11,400 for the set. They were still hanging when 2,600 guests were directed to the exits by Secret Service agents, one of whom had just taken a shotgun round in his ballistic vest and walked to the ambulance on his own feet. The agent's vest costs approximately $800. The wine that left the building was worth $11,172 at Association cost. At restaurant markup, roughly $29,000. The guests saved more in wine than the vest that saved the agent. That's priority. The video went viral by 10:15 PM. Not the video of the evacuation. Not the Secret Service response. The wine. Three guests in formalwear grabbing bottles off white tablecloths while being told to move toward the exits, while a man with a shotgun stood in the same motor entrance where John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan 45 years ago. A woman near the service entrance was crying. She said "I just wanna go home." She was not holding wine. She was holding her phone. She was the only person I saw that night who looked afraid rather than inconvenienced. That's the distinction. The rest of the ballroom did not look afraid. They looked interrupted. An active shooter at the WHCD is a logistical problem. The dinner was disrupted. The timeline was off. The after-party at the French Ambassador's residence would need to be rescheduled. These are contingency matters. Contingency matters have solutions. Fear is for people who attend events without security details. I have produced eleven of these dinners. I have managed seating charts that require diplomatic-grade negotiations. I have handled comedians, cabinet secretaries, network anchors, and the editor of a major newspaper who once threatened to leave because his table was behind a column.

I have never, in eleven years, seen a guest leave a $76 bottle on the table during an evacuation. I have also never seen a guest check the label first. Both observations are consistent. The bottle is worth taking. The evacuation is worth surviving. The instinct is to do both simultaneously.

188 bottles placed. 41 recovered. 147 unaccounted for. One agent shot. Zero guests injured. Zero bottles broken. A free press for a free people. The press is free. The wine was $76 a bottle. They took it anyway.

Brazilian scientist Tatiana Sampaio discovers a protein, Polylaminin, that can regenerate spinal cord.