#Ober Primary School

[wamathai]

M-Pesa Foundation renovates two schools in Western Kenya at a cost of Ksh. 75 Million

M-Pesa Foundation handed over an upgraded Kametho Primary School in Siaya County and broke ground on an extensive development project at Ober Primary School in Homa Bay County. The KES 75 million projects are part of the Foundation’s Citizens of the Future Programme, which aims to uplift school facilities and enhance learning environments across the country. In Kametho Primary School, the…

[foxtriestobiteandmaimandkilland]

I had a dream last night. That. Me and some other people were maybe ghost hunters ? I dont fully remember. And there was a big mansion house that we had to investigate bc the previous ghost hunters whod went inside hadnt been seen in weeks, and nobody even saw them leave. So like, me and my team of Vague Dream People That Were An Amalgamation Of People From Irl And People From Fiction went in and yknow it was a normal fuckin ghost house thing there were some spooks n scares but all in all just normal rlly. And then we found the group from before us and were like what the hell man how r u guys alive and they were like dudr tf wdym and we were like dudes its been weeks u dont have that kinda food ans they were like errr ur like mixing us up w someone else weve only been here an hour or 2 so then we were like. Ok what. And then left the house w that group who fucked off to go do their own thing bc my brain couldnt handle keeping track of a group over 4 people. But like when we left some ppl were like holy fuck ur alive. And we were like. Yea. Its only been like. 20 or 30 minutes. And they were like nah man its been days. And then i was like. Man r u serious that sucks ive wasted days of july what the fuck i love summer i dont wanna waste it man what the hell and like yeah i kinda ignored how. This house was like Magic Ooooo Time Moves Differently Inside bc i was too upset id gone from the 17th to the 20th. And then i was like suddenly in my grandmas attic and lookin out the window and it was like. It was like the attic wad attached to the rest of the scenes like a sorta. Set almost yknow. So like i chilled in my grandmas attic and then i knew i had to go to school? So i just left her attic through the fourth wall and went to the set of the big mansion and went in there for like 5 minutes and came out and id skipped school but accidentallt skipped too far and it was like late night. But ye i figured this house could b used 2 my advantage but probably also could fuck some things up. Bc i hadnt figured out the exact like time exchange that it was. Bc my brain hadnt come up w it solidly yet so like a couple hours meant a couple weeks and half an hour meant a couple days and 5 minutes meant like 12 hours but also sometimes a full day but also sometimes less. But yea idk i played around w that thing until is skipped like a week and then realised id missed my friends birthday which was apparently the day before the one i was at. So i Left the Set and walked home and went to my primary school bc apparently all my friends were there even tho we all went 2 different primary schools and i found my friend id missed the birthday of and i gave her a cat that materialized out of thin air and then turns out all my friends had their cats with them so we like. Pet a lot of cats outside this primary school. And then it was like. I was on the fuckin set of jrweek yknow the second one they had w the like boat thing. And i wasnjust fucking lookin at them but apparently they were recorsing like a 3 hour long episodr and it was episode like 140 or smth. But they were just recreating what id done the rest of the dream and i tried to ask them what the fuck was going on n why was i there but it was like i eas fuckin invisible or some shit n they just ignored me. And then they kept mentioning genloss like ober and iver and over and insinuating that charlie was the only one of them that WASNT in genloss and i was like. Erm. Okay. What. And they only THEN seemed to notice me and were like dude what the fuck ur being so cringe right now like literally stop it go watch our patreon nerd snd i was like. Dudes i already am subbed 2 ur patreon. And they were like. But u havent finished pd yet u fucking pussy and i was like ok this is just uncalled 4 and then i woke up to big bin truck outside bc id left my windoe open and it was loud as FUCK anyways ir was a weird dream and one of the only times over the past few days ive felt neutral abt my dream in comparison to irl. Anyways. Goodbye

[greatworldwar2]

• Witlod Pilecki

Witold Pilecki was a Polish cavalry officer, intelligence agent, and resistance leader who volunteered to be embedded in Auschwitz, among other exploits. Pilecki was also a co-founder of the Secret Polish Army resistance group and later a member of the Home Army. Pilecki was a Catholic and a Polish patriot who viewed his struggle as a moral and patriotic duty.

Witold Pilecki was born on May 13th, 1901 in the town of Olonets, Karelia, in the Russian Empire. He was a descendant of an aristocratic family (szlachta) originally from the Grodno region. His grandfather, Józef Pilecki h. Leliwa, was a member of the Polish landed gentry and a dedicated Polish nationalist. Józef Pilecki had been a supporter of the secessionist January Uprising of 1863–1864. Following the brutal defeat of the uprising by Russian forces, Józef Pilecki, like most Polish nobles who supported the rebellion, had his title revoked and estate and other properties were confiscated by the Russian government. After his release he and his family were forcibly resettled by Tsarist authorities to the remote territory of Karelia. Witold's father, Julian Pilecki, worked for the Russian civil service and eventually settled in the town of Olonets in Karelia where he married Ludwika Pilecki. Witold Pilecki was the fourth of the couple's five children. In 1910, Ludwika and the children left Karelia and relocated to the Northwestern Krai. After being joined by their father, the family settled in Wilno (now: Vilnius, Lithuania), where Pilecki completed primary school and became a member of the secret ZHP Scouts organization. During the First World War, Wilno was occupied by the German Army in September 1915 and was incorporated into Ober Ost, the German military administration. Pilecki and his family fled to Mogilev, Byelorussia. In 1916, Pilecki moved to the Russian city of Oryol, where he attended gymnasium and founded a local chapter of the ZHP group.

In 1918, following the outbreak of the Russian Revolution and the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, Pilecki returned to Wilno (now part of the newly independent Polish Second Republic) and joined a ZHP Scout section of the Lithuanian and Belarusian Self-Defense Militia, a paramilitary formation aligned with the White movement. The militia disarmed the retreating German troops and took up positions to defend the city from a looming attack by the Soviet Red Army. However, Wilno fell to Bolshevik forces on January 5th, 1919, and Pilecki and his unit resorted to partisan warfare behind Soviet lines. He and his comrades then retreated to Białystok where Pilecki enlisted as a szeregowy (private) in Poland's newly established volunteer army. He took part in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1921. He fought in the Kiev Offensive (1920) and as part of a cavalry unit defending the city of Grodno. On August 5th, 1920, Pilecki joined the 211th Uhlan Regiment and fought in the crucial Battle of Warsaw and in the Rudniki Forest. Following the conclusion of Polish-Soviet War in March 1921 Pilecki was transferred to the army reserves. He was promoted to the rank of plutonowy (corporal) and was designated as a non-commissioned officer. He went on to complete his secondary education (matura) later that same year. In 1922, Pilecki briefly attended the University of Poznań where he studied agriculture. He soon returned to Wilno and enrolled with the Faculty of Fine Arts at Stefan Batory University. Pilecki was forced to abandon his studies in 1924 due to both financial issues and the declining health of his father. He remained active in the military as a member of the army reserves and served as a military instructor in Nowe Święcice. Pilecki later underwent officer-training at the Cavalry Reserve Officers' Training School in Grudziądz. In September 1926, Pilecki became the owner of his family's ancestral estate, Sukurcze, in the Lida district of the Nowogródek Voivodeship. Pilecki rebuilt and modernized the property's manor house, which had been destroyed during World War I. On April 7th,1931, he married Maria Pilecka, a local school teacher originally from Kupa.

Pilecki developed a reputation as a community leader, a prominent social worker and amateur painter. He was also a vigorous advocate of rural development, founding an agricultural cooperative, heading the local fire brigade and also serving as chairman of a local milk-processing plant built in the district. In 1932, Pilecki established a cavalry training school in Lida. Shortly afterward he was appointed commander of the newly-established 1st Lidsky Squadron, a position he would hold until 1937, when this unit was absorbed into the Polish 19th Infantry Division. In 1938, Pilecki received the Silver Cross of Merit for his community activism. Pilecki was mobilized as a cavalry platoon commander in August 1939. He was assigned to the 19th Infantry Division under General Józef Kwaciszewski, part of the Polish Army Prusy, and his unit took part in heavy fighting against the advancing Germans during the invasion of Poland. The platoon was almost completely destroyed following a clash with the German forces on 10 September, and it withdrew to the southeast toward Lwów. It was incorporated into the 41st Infantry Division, in which Pilecki served as divisional second in command. He and his men destroyed seven German tanks, shot down one aircraft, and destroyed two more on the ground. After the fall of Warsaw on 27 September 1939, Pilecki and many of his men continued fighting as partisans. His division was disbanded on October 17th, with parts of it surrendering to the enemy.

Pilecki went into hiding in Warsaw with his commander Major Włodarkiewicz. On November 9th, 1939, the two men founded the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska, TAP), one of the first underground organizations in Poland. Włodarkiewicz became its leader, while Pilecki became organizational commander of TAP as it expanded to cover Warsaw, Siedlce, Radom, Lublin, and other major cities in central Poland. While Pilecki wanted to avert a religious mission so as not to alienate potential allies, Włodarkiewicz blamed Poland's defeat on its failure to create a Catholic nation; he wanted to remake the country by appealing to right-wing groups. In the spring of 1940, Pilecki saw that Włodarkiewicz was "flirting with anti-Semitic views". To stop him, Pilecki went to Colonel Stefan Rowecki, the chief of TAP's rival resistance group, the Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ), which called for equal rights for Jews and was focused on intelligence gathering of German atrocities and delivering it by courier missions to the Western Allies in an attempt to gain their involvement. The ZWZ had alerted the Polish Government in exile that the Germans were inciting Polish racial hatred as a diversion from their own crimes, and that a Polish Quisling could emerge as a result. In August, Włodarkiewicz announced at a TAP meeting that after all they would join the mainstream underground with Rowecki and that Pilecki had been nominated to go to Auschwitz. Włodarkiewicz said it was not an order but an invitation to volunteer, but Pilecki saw it as a punishment for refusing to back his ideology but nevertheless took up the challenge.

In 1940, Pilecki presented a plan to his superiors to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp at Oświęcim to gather intelligence on the camp from the inside and organize inmate resistance. Little was known about how the Germans ran the camp, and it was thought to be an internment camp or large prison rather than a death camp. His superiors approved the plan and provided him with a false identity card. He went out during a Warsaw street roundup on September 19th, 1940 and was caught by the Germans along with 2,000 civilians. He was detained for two days in the Light Horse Guards Barracks, where prisoners suffered beatings with rubber truncheons, then sent to Auschwitz where he was assigned inmate number 4859. Pilecki organized the underground Union of Military Organizations (ZOW) at Auschwitz while working in various kommandos and surviving pneumonia. Many smaller underground organizations at Auschwitz eventually merged with ZOW. ZOW's tasks were to improve inmate morale, provide news from outside, distribute extra food and clothing to members, set up intelligence networks, and train detachments to take over the camp in the event of a relief attack by the Home Army, arms airdrops, or an airborne landing by the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade based in Britain. ZOW provided the Polish underground with invaluable information about the camp; they sent reports to Warsaw from October 1940, and the reports were forwarded via the Polish resistance to the British government in London beginning in March 1941. In 1942, Pilecki's resistance movement was also broadcasting details on the number of arrivals and deaths in the camp and the inmates' conditions using a radio transmitter that was built by camp inmates. The secret radio station was built over seven months using smuggled parts. The radio was dismantled by Pilecki's men after concerns that the Germans might discover its location because of "one of our fellows' big mouth". These reports were a principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies. Pilecki hoped that either the Allies would drop arms or troops into the camp, or that the Home Army would organize an assault on it from outside.

Meanwhile, the Camp Gestapo under SS-Untersturmfuhrer Maximilian Grabner redoubled its efforts to ferret out ZOW members, killing many of them. Pilecki decided to break out of the camp with the hope of convincing Home Army leaders personally that a rescue attempt was a valid option. Pilecki was assigned to a night shift at a camp bakery outside the fence, and he and two comrades overpowered a guard, cut the phone line, and escaped on the night of April 27th, 1943, taking with them documents stolen from the Germans. The men fled on foot to the village of Alwernia where they were helped by a priest, and then on to Tyniec where locals assisted them. After that, they reached the Polish resistance safe house near Bochnia. At one point during the journey, German soldiers attempted to stop Pilecki, firing at him as he fled; several bullets passed through his clothing, while one struck him without hitting either bones or vital organs. After several days as a fugitive, Pilecki made contact with units of the Home Army. On August 25th, 1943, Pilecki reached Warsaw and was attached to Section II (intelligence and counter-intelligence) of the Home Army's regional headquarters. After losing several operatives reconnoitering the vicinity of Auschwitz, it was decided that the Home Army lacked sufficient strength to liberate the camp without Allied help. Pilecki's detailed report estimated that "By March 1943 the number of people gassed on arrival reached 1.5 million", which was remarkably accurate considering post-war estimates suggest 1.1 million people died in Auschwitz during the war. On November 11th, 1943, Pilecki was promoted to Rotmistrz (cavalry captain) and joined a secret anti-communist organization, NIE (both the Polish word for "no" and short for niepodległość "independence"), formed as a clandestine unit within the Home Army with the goal of preparing resistance against a possible Soviet occupation. The Soviet Red Army, despite being within attacking distance of the camp, showed no interest in a joint effort with the Home Army and the ZOW to free it. Until he became involved in the Warsaw Uprising, Pilecki remained in charge of coordinating ZOW and AK activities and provided what limited support he was able to offer to ZOW.

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1st, 1944, Pilecki volunteered for service with Kedyw's Chrobry II Battalion. At first, Pilecki served as a common soldier in the northern city center, without revealing his actual rank to his superiors. Later, after many officers were killed in the fierce fighting that occurred during the early days of the uprising, Pilecki disclosed his true identity to his superiors and accepted command of the 1st "Warszawianka" Company located in Śródmieście in downtown Warsaw. After the capitulation of the uprising, Pilecki hid a cache of weapons in a private apartment and surrendered to the Wehrmacht on October 5th, 1944. He was sent to Germany and imprisoned at Stalag VIII-B, a prisoner-of-war camp near Lamsdorf, Silesia. He was later transferred to Oflag VII-A in Murnau, Bavaria where he was eventually liberated by troops of the US 12th Armored Division on April 28th, 1945. In July 1945, Pilecki left Murnau and was reassigned to the military intelligence division of the Polish II Corps under General Władysław Anders in Ancona, Italy. While stationed there, Pilecki began writing a monograph on his experiences at Auschwitz.

In October 1945, as relations between the Polish government-in-exile and the Soviet-backed regime of Boleslaw Bierut deteriorated, Pilecki was ordered by General Anders and his intelligence chief, Lt. Colonel Stanislaw Kijak, to return to Poland and report on the prevailing military and political situation under Soviet-occupation. Pilecki arrived in Warsaw in December 1945 and proceeded to begin organizing an intelligence gathering network, which included several wartime associates from Auschwitz and the Secret Polish Army (TAP). To maintain his cover identity, Pilecki lived under various assumed names and changed jobs frequently. He would work as a jewelry salesman, a bottle label painter and as night manager of a construction warehouse. Nevertheless, Pilecki was informed in July 1946 that his actual identity had been uncovered by the MBP. He was ordered to leave the country, but he refused to do so. Pilecki was arrested by agents of the Ministry of Public Security in May 1947, and he was repeatedly tortured before going to trial. A fellow accused saw him with two collarbones broken and his hands hanging limply by his sides. A show trial took place on March 3rd, 1948, and testimony against Pilecki was presented by future Polish prime minister Józef Cyrankiewicz, himself an Auschwitz survivor. Pilecki was charged with illegal border crossing, use of forged documents, not enlisting with the military, carrying illegal arms, espionage for General Władysław Anders, espionage for "foreign imperialism" (government-in-exile), and planning to assassinate several officials of the Ministry of Public Security of Poland. Pilecki denied the assassination charges, as well as espionage, although he admitted to passing information to the 2nd Polish Corps, of which he considered himself an officer and thus claimed that he was not breaking any laws. He was sentenced to death on May 15th, with three of his comrades, and he was executed with a shot to the back of the head at the Mokotów Prison in Warsaw on May 25th, 1948. Pilecki was 47 when died. Pilecki's place of burial has never been found but is thought to be somewhere within Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery. In 2012, Powązki Cemetery was partially excavated in an effort to find his remains.

[beyondthecosmicvoid]

TERMINOLOGY OF THE IMPERIUM (A-D)

A ABA: loose robe worn by Fremen women; usually black. ACH: left turn: a worm steersman’s call. ADAB: the demanding memory that comes upon you of itself. AKARSO: a plant native to Sikun (of 70 Ophiuchi A) characterized by almost oblong leaves. Its green and white stripes indicate the constant multiple condition of parallel active and dormant chlorophyll regions. ALAM AL-MITHAL: the mystical world of similitudes where all physical limitations are removed. AL-LAT: mankind’s original sun; by usage: any planet’s primary. AMPOLIROS: the legendary “Flying Dutchman” of space. AMTAL or AMTAL RULE: a common rule on primitive worlds under which something is tested to determine its limits or defects. Commonly: testing to destruction. AQL: the test of reason. Originally, the “Seven Mystic Questions” beginning: “Who is it that thinks?” ARRAKEEN: first settlement on Arrakis; long-time seat of planetary government. ARRAKIS: the planet known as Dune; third planet of Canopus. ASSASSINS’ HANDBOOK: Third-century compilation of poisons commonly used in a War of Assassins. Later expanded to include those deadly devices permitted under the Guild Peace and Great Convention. AULIYA: In the Zensunni Wanderers’ religion, the female at the left hand of God; God’s handmaiden. AUMAS: poison administered in food. (Specifically: poison in solid food.) In some dialects: Chaumas. AYAT: the signs of life. (See Burhan.) B BAKKA: in Fremen legend, the weeper who mourns for all mankind. BAKLAWA: a heavy pastry made with date syrup. BALISET: a nine-stringed musical instrument, lineal descendant of the zithra, tuned to the Chusuk scale and played by strumming. Favorite instrument of Imperial troubadors. BARADYE PISTOL: a static-charge dust gun developed on Arrakis for laying down a large dye marker area on sand. BARAKA: a living holy man of magical powers. BASHAR (often Colonel Bashar): an officer of the Sardaukar a fractional point above Colonel in the standardized military classification. Rank created for military ruler of a planetary subdistrict. (Bashar of the Corps is a title reserved strictly for military use.) BATTLE LANGUAGE: any special language of restricted etymology developed for clear-speech communication in warfare. BEDWINE: see Ichwan Bedwine. BELA TEGEUSE: fifth planet of Kuentsing: third stopping place of the Zensunni (Fremen) forced migration. BENE GESSERIT: the ancient school of mental and physical training established primarily for female students after the Butlerian Jihad destroyed the so-called “thinking machines” and robots. B.G.: idiomatic for Bene Gesserit except when used with a date. With a date it signifies Before Guild and identifies the Imperial dating system based on the genesis of the Spacing Guild’s monopoly. BHOTANI JIB: see Chakobsa. BI-LA KAIFA: Amen. (Literally: “Nothing further need be explained.”) BINDU: relating to the human nervous system, especially to nerve training. Often expressed as Bindu-nervature. (See Prana.) BINDU SUSPENSION: a special form of catalepsis, self-induced. BLED: flat, open desert. BOURKA: insulated mantle worn by Fremen in the open desert. BURHAN: the proofs of life. (Commonly: the ayat and burhan of life. See Ayat.) BURSEG: a commanding general of the Sardaukar. BUTLERIAN JIHAD: see Jihad, Butlerian (also Great Revolt). C CAID: Sardaukar officer rank given to a military official whose duties call mostly for dealings with civilians; a military governorship over a full planetary district; above the rank of Bashar but not equal to a Burseg. CALADAN: third planet of Delta Pavonis; birthworld of Paul-Muad’Dib. CANTO and RESPONDU: an invocation rite, part of the panoplia propheticus of the Missionaria Protectiva. CARRYALL: a flying wing (commonly “wing”), the aerial workhorse of Arrakis, used to transport large spice mining, hunting, and refining equipment. CATCHPOCKET: any stillsuit pocket where filtered water is caught and stored. CHAKOBSA: the so-called “magnetic language” derived in part from the ancient Bhotani (Bhotani Jib—jib meaning dialect). A collection of ancient dialects modified by needs of secrecy, but chiefly the hunting language of the Bhotani, the hired assassins of the first Wars of Assassins. CHAUMAS: (Aumas in some dialects): poison in solid food as distinguished from poison administered in some other way. CHAUMURKY (Musky or Murky in some dialects): poison administered in a drink. CHEOPS: pyramid chess; nine-level chess with the double object of putting your queen at the apex and the opponent’s king in check. CHEREM: a brotherhood of hate (usually for revenge). CHOAM: acronym for Combine Honnete Ober Advancer y Mercantiles—the universal development corporation controlled by the Emperor and Great Houses with the Guild and Bene Gesserit as silent partners. CHUSUK: fourth planet of Theta y Shalish; the so-called “Music Planet” noted for the quality of its musical instruments. (See Varota.) CIELAGO: any modified Chiroptera of Arrakis adapted to carry distrans messages. CONE OF SILENCE: the field of a distorter that limits the carrying power of the voice or any other vibrator by damping the vibrations with an image-vibration 180 degrees out of phase. CORIOLIS STORM: any major sandstorm on Arrakis where winds across the open flatlands are amplified by the planet’s own revolutionary motion to reach speeds up to 700 kilometers per hour. CORRIN, BATTLE OF: the space battle from which the Imperial House Corrino took its name. The battle fought near Sigma Draconis in the year 88 B.G. settled the ascendancy of the ruling House from Salusa Secundus. COUSINES: blood relations beyond cousins. CRUSHERS: military space vessels composed of many smaller vessels locked together and designed to fall on an enemy position, crushing it. CRYSKNIFE: the sacred knife of the Fremen on Arrakis. It is manufactured in two forms from teeth taken from dead sandworms. The two forms are “fixed” and “unfixed.” An unfixed knife requires proximity to a human body’s electrical field to prevent disintegration. Fixed knives are treated for storage. All are about 20 centimeters long. CUTTERAY: short-range version of lasgun used mostly as a cutting tool and surgeon’s scalpel. D DAR AL-HIKMAN: school of religious translation or interpretation. DARK THINGS: idiomatic for the infectious superstitions taught by the Missionaria Protectiva to susceptible civilizations. DEATH TRIPOD: originally, the tripod upon which desert executioners hanged their victims. By usage: the three members of a Cherem sworn to the same revenge. DEMIBROTHERS: sons of concubines in the same household and certified as having the same father. DERCH: right turn; a worm steersman’s call. DEW COLLECTORS or DEW PRECIPITATORS: not to be confused with dew gatherers. Collectors or precipitators are egg-shaped devices about four centimeters on the long axis. They are made of chromoplastic that turns a reflecting white when subjected to light, and reverts to transparency in darkness. The collector forms a markedly cold surface upon which dawn dew will precipitate. They are used by Fremen to line concave planting depressions where they provide a small but reliable source of water. DEW GATHERERS: workers who reap dew from the plants of Arrakis, using a scythelike dew reaper. DICTUM FAMILIA: that rule of the Great Convention which prohibits the slaying of a royal person or member of a Great House by informal treachery. The rule sets up the formal outline and limits the means of assassination. DISTRANS: a device for producing a temporary neural imprint on the nervous system of Chiroptera or birds. The creature’s normal cry then carries the message imprint which can be sorted from that carrier wave by another distrans. DOORSEAL: a portable plastic hermetic seal used for moisture security in Fremen overday cave camps. DRUM SAND: impaction of sand in such a way that any sudden blow against its surface produces a distinct drum sound. DUMP BOXES: the general term for any cargo container of irregular shape and equipped with ablation surfaces and suspensor damping system. They are used to dump material from space onto a planet’s surface. DUNE MEN: idiomatic for open sand workers, spice hunters and the like on Arrakis. Sandworkers. Spiceworkers. DUST CHASM: any deep crevasse or depression on the desert of Arrakis that has been filled with dust not apparently different from the surrounding surface; a deadly trap because human or animal will sink in it and smother. (See Tidal Dust Basin.)

[xtruss]

Gene Discovery May Explain Why More Women Get Alzheimer's Disease

— By Sandee LaMotte, CNN | Thursday June 30, 2022

CNN)Scientists have identified a gene that appears to increase the risk of Alzheimer's in women, providing a potential new clue as to why more women than men are diagnosed with the disease.

The gene, O6-Methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase, or MGMT, plays an important role in how the body repairs damage to DNA in both men and women. But researchers did not find an association between MGMT and Alzheimer's in men.

"It's a female-specific finding -- perhaps one of the strongest associations of a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's in women," said senior study coauthor Lindsay Farrer, chief of biomedical genetics at Boston University School of Medicine.

Two-thirds of the 6.5 million Americans currently living with the devastating brain disease are women, according to the Alzheimer's Association. It's a trend that holds true worldwide.

"Women, due to unique genetic risk factors like APOE ε4 and MGMT, and sex-specific risk factors like the sudden reduction in estrogen during the peri-menopause transition, may be in the fast-lane toward the disease, while men are sitting in traffic," said Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

The APOE ε4 gene is considered the strongest risk factor for the future development of Alzheimer's in people over the age of 65, which is "especially true for women, who are more impacted by APOE ε4 than men," Isaacson said.

However, many women with APOE ε4 don't develop Alzheimer's, while women without the gene may still develop the disease.

"Perhaps MGMT is an important missing piece of the risk prediction puzzle for these women, but further studies are necessary," Isaacson said.

A Lucky Discovery

The discovery of the new gene's existence was made in two completely separate groups of people. A team of researchers from the University of Chicago were analyzing the genetic makeup of a small group of Hutterian Brethren women who live communally in rural Montana and South Dakota. Hutterites are a closed population who intermarry within their own ranks and keep extensive genealogical records, making them an excellent choice for genetic research.

"The relatively uniform environment and reduced genetic variation in Hutterites increases our power to find associations in smaller sample sizes than required for studies in the general population," said senior study coauthor Carole Ober, chair of human genetics at the University of Chicago, in a statement.

When the new association with MGMT popped up in her analysis, Ober reached out to Boston's Farrer to see if he might help replicate her findings.

Farrer, who was in the midst of a huge genetic analysis of over 10,000 women from the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium study, was surprised by the call.

"I told her we'd found the exact same gene in our analysis," Farrer said. "Two different studies started independently of one another find by serendipity the same gene, which to me adds a lot of confidence that the finding is robust."

The combined study was published Thursday in Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

A Risk Factor For Women Without APOE ε4

The research team compared the findings to autopsied male brain tissue, and found no association between the MGMT gene and Alzheimer's in men.

When they examined MGMT via epigenetics, which is what happens when a gene is switched on or off by behaviors and environmental factors, researchers found its expression in women was significantly associated with the development of beta amyloid and tau, two proteins that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

The association between MGMT and amyloid plaques and tau tangles was "most pronounced in women who don't have APOE ε4," Farrer said.

Considered an essential protein, a primary function of APOE is to "move cholesterol around in your body, and without that you'd be in trouble," Farrer said. However, studies have found that the APOE ε4 variation may result in depositing more fatty acid buildup than the other members of the APOE family, thus leading scientists to believe there is a cholesterol pathway to Alzheimer's.

In fact, a study by Farrer that published in March found having high cholesterol and blood sugar in your 30s may raise your risk for Alzheimer's disease decades later in life.

"There are many pathways to Alzheimer's disease. There's the lipid, or cholesterol pathway, which is now pretty well established in Alzheimer's, and APOE ε4 is a part of that," Farrer said.

"And there's the inflammatory pathway, which is common to all chronic disease. With MGMT, we may be looking at an additional pathway somehow related to DNA repair, or maybe MGMT participates in one of these other pathways and nobody knows yet how," Farrer added.

Personalized Medicine

Women should work with their doctors to try to identify which path they may be on, experts advise.

Interventions could include keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar in healthy ranges, while "considering hormone replacement therapy when indicated, and advocating for a brain healthy lifestyle, including regular exercise, a Mediterranean-style diet, adequate sleep and stress-reduction techniques," Isaacson said.

At some point soon, scientists will be able to offer more personalized medicine to women, said Dr. Kellyann Niotis, a neurologist at the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, who was not involved with the study.

"We will soon be able to offer women at risk more advanced assessments, like comprehensive genetic testing in a clinic setting, to more adequately assess their risk and develop personalized risk reduction plans for optimal brain protection," Niotis said.

[risingemini]

Hi, I'm starting to get more into astrology and would love your take on my combination. I'm a sagittarus sun, taurus moon and cancer rising. I also have my mercery and Venus in sag. Love your blog, keep up with the good content

Wowowow learning about the world of astrology is SUPER fun! I’m still learning more and more about it and I ABSOLUTELY love it and without a doubt you’ll come to fall deeper in love with it too! Now as for the placements you’ve given me, it gives off that quirky person-next-door kind persona, so let me explain!

Sun: So the sun is essentially the “ruler” of your natal chart positioning, I remember it because similar to how the Sun is circled by all the celestial bodies in our solar system. Our Sun sign is also at the epicenter of all our other placements; essentially it’s what we are supposed to identify as. Seeing that your Sun is Sagittarius, that’s fantastic! One of my closest friends is a Sagittarius! Being a fire elemental, it means that your perception of life is quite lively, you often see it as an adventure and one you appreciate being a part of. These people, to me, are sort of the Taurus of fire signs because like Taurus, they are quite adamant on their views to the point where they edge on ignorance. So my suggestion is to always be patient and understanding with people. Listening to other people’s paradigms does not necessarily mean you are agreeing with them. Sagittarius are also the “dominant” type not necessarily sexually (I’ll get into that with your Venus placement analysis) but in everyday scenes: conversations, school, parties. You may direct the topic of conversation, or raise your hand in class without being asked by the teacher. Overall, your Sagittarius Sun puts you in a position where you are determined as a willing inidvidual who appreciates the activities requiring an extroverted attitude.

Moon: TAURUS (sorry I get super excited when I see people with my imbalanced sign) but Taurus moon means your emotions are something to stay still, not run free. Anyone with a Taurus placement causes them to be creatures of habit, it all depends on which celestial body it lands upon. Because yours lands on the moon, one can surmise that you like keeping your emotions steady, predictable, and out of pain. Obviously this will go for ANY person regardless of lunar placement, but a Taurus will be exceptionally cautious, purposefully getting out of harm’s way in order to keep their feelings where they are, safe and sound. This desire for emotional security can translate into trust issues, a lacking longing for an intimate relationship, or something as simple as staying at the same restaurant and ordering the same thing every single time. One thing’s for sure, you plant yourself like a tree and when someone asks you to move, more often than not you will ask them to move instead. You can be set in your ways when it comes to how you feel about certain topics, but if you are convinced sufficiently to do something or to believe of something very few forces in this world can stop you. Taurus moon can be beneficial to someone, for it provides an increased probability of having emotional stability, but it can also be bad as it causes people to become unwilling to even listen to someone else’s opinion.

Rising: Your rising sign essentially is your social identity, the outermost shell of who you are which you express. This is the side people will see and think of you first, NOT your Sun. People often get the rising (or ascendant) sign’s purpose confused with the Sun, but it’s important to be able to distinguish the difference. Your rising is who you are socially, the actions which you take that create a consequence which is your reputation, while your Sun is your inert nature which you aim to fully realize as well as express effortlessly. Cancer is always a tricky sign for me, for they always have a multifaceted nature to them which causes them to be rather shy. Cancer Rising or Cancer Ascendant does not necessarily mean you’re a recluse however! Simply, you do not appreciate being the center of the crowd. You’re the kind to bud first into a wallflower, but slowly spread your vines away from the walls, eventually delving into the social arena that is the party. Cancer are definitely not the Leo type to always have an entourage to surround them, rather, you like talking to people one on one, then work your way up to a small group of friends. Close circles are something you appreciate, for you comprehend and agree with the idea that quality is more valuable than quantity. Cancer however are emotionally sensitive at time, which causes them to become introverted when asked about something they are unfamiliar about or uncomfortable with. This of course goes with any sign regardless of ascendant placement, but a Cancer, when seeing any sign of discomfort, will close ranks rather than simply laughing it off. Cancer are also very loyal, and this will become a positive influence on how you treat your relationships. This steadfast attitude can translate to lifelong friends, something everybody wants! One of Cancer Rising’s assets is the fact that they are very approachable. Cancer rising have a welcoming aura to them which makes it easy to talk to them. Rising signs, among others, are commonly liked!

Venus: Sagittarius in the planet of love means that you like the passionate kind of love, which has a constant need for a reassurance of affection. This may mean constant kissing, dates, or even sexual activity. However, Venus is not only the planet of love, but of desires in general, primarily love and material desire. Likely when you like someone it brings out different sides to you; a need to seem flirtatious and witty, and a desire to explore these feelings of love and desire for another person. In a relationship, Sagittarius are quite passionate as well as sensual. However, Sagittarius, being s fire sign, will not be like the earth signs which value a lasting relationship nearly as much. As a result they are likely to hop from one relationship to the next.

Mercury: Mercury is not as well acknolwedged as other placements (most people just go for Sun, Rising, and Moon) but like the God Mercury (or Hermes) this planet represents intelligence, communication, and the processing of information. Considering that your placement underneath this is Sagittarius, one can expect you to be the idealistic vanguard, the one to introduce big concepts into the light for discussion. They are often the forward thinkers in society, valuing ingenuity ober tradition. As regards to precision however, that is where they may be lacking. As a result, when communicating with a Sagittarius Mercury in an intellectual environment such as a socratic seminar, they may be able to talk eloquently and seem intelligent with their cutting-edge ideas, but they may not have the specific logistics and facts to back up their claims and concepts.

Overall: Honestly I’m really jealous of your placements! You have different signs in different planets, and it makes for a very unique and complex individual with a real four dimensional personality. I have an earth imbalance, with most of my signs being from Earth signs (Taurus, Capricorn, Virgo) but specifically in Taurus. You should also check your full natal chart, for it seems to me that your primary sign is Sagittarius since you have 3 placements in that one sign. Your placements cause you to be sociable, but not extroverted, analytical but not reclusive, and constant but not adamant. I hope this explains to you some of your placements! Thank you!

[itssportsbruh]

Visitor of the Day: 

Heather Obering /Northwestern University Athletics 

Heather Obering was very Interesting when talking about her athletics program at Northwestern. She talked about her fan services team and how they do so well. Her background was she interned for NU in 2008 for the women’s basketball team, she later applied and moved up to be there Director. She spoke about the new renovated arena, and how fan relationship is a primary focus to bringing new people into the Arena. 

Some points from her presentation are: 

Northwestern University’s  Fan Experience is focused into 4 levels. The levels are the fan services team, In-game experience, Post game surveys, and ticket sales, ticket operations and the client service team. These are used to evaluate the fan experience help develop areas where they might need help. 

The renovated arena is going to have new seats, wider concourses, new restrooms and concessions, premium seating, lobby expansion and ticket office. Its good that NU is renovating there arena because they haven’t had one in over a few years.

The amount of money going into transforming the University.

$400 million investment on new facilities. I think this is amazing because it shows how committed the school is to changing their athletic facilities.

[der-kleine-stern-in-tansani-blog]

Igongolo day 3 & 4

Am Tag drei in Igongolo habe ich an einer Sitzung teilgenommen, an der alle ober Evangelisten der Dörfer nach Igongolo gekommen sind. Sie haben über die Finazen diskutiert, was sie gerne weiterbringen würden in ihrem Ort und welche Probleme es so gibt. Nach drei Stunden hab ich mich dann etwas zum ausruhen hingelegt, da es mir vom Vortag noch nicht so gut ging. Am Abend hatte einer der Evangelisten dann nochmal darauf bestanden sich mit mir zu treffen, da er mir ein Geschenk überreichen wollte. Das Geschenk war eigentlich für meine Gemeinde, aber ich habe es symbolisch bekommen. Der Mann hatte vor einiger Zeit einen schweren Fahrradunfall, bei dem er sich seine Halswirbelsäule verletzt hat. Die Ärzte vor Ort konnten nicht viel ausrichten und als Ergebnis haben seine Arme und Beine Lähmungserscheinungen gezeigt und es wurde tagtäglich schlimmer. Deshalb hatte Pfarrer Kabelege in Deutschland gefragt ob wir helfen können. Am Ende kamen genügend Spenden zusammen, um ihm die teuren Operationen zu zahlen. Inzwischen kann er sogar wieder auf dem Feld arbeiten und hat mir als Dankeschön ein Huhn überreicht. Eigentlich hatte er darauf bestanden, dass ich das Huhn mit nach Morogoro nehme, wo ich aber dann meinte, dass das nicht geht. Als Ergebnis durfte ich das Huhn gleich zum Abendessen verspeisen... Naja man muss ja neue Erfahrungen sammeln. Das erste mal ein Huhn aufm Arm gehabt und gestreichelt und danach gleich verspeist... Am letzten Tag in Morogoro hatten wir volles Programm. Wir sind von einem Ort zum nächsten gefahren, mir wurden die Kirchengebäude gezeigt und alle anderen Gebäude, die mit Hilfe von Spenden gebaut worden sind. Der ganze Tag war so aufregend und es ist so viel passiert, dass ich einen drei Seiten Eintrag schreiben müsste um davon zu berichten. Deshalb erwähne ich jetzt nur die Schulen, die ich besucht habe. In einem Ort wollten sie mir unbedingt die Primary School zeigen, weil Deutschland dort wohl auch sehr viel unterstützt hat. Als wir in den Weg einfuhren, der zur Primary school führte, rannte uns die gesamte Schule singend entgegen. Wir stiegen aus dem Auto aus und liefen mit der tanzenden und singenden Menge zur Schule. Dort angekommen wurde ich von den Kinder herumgeführt und sie führten noch Tänze für mich auf und sangen für mich. In einem anderen Ort besuchte ich die Secondary school, die auch so ein großes Programm für mich hatten. Es war ein unglaublich schönes Erlebnis, aber gleichzeitig war es auch etwas schwierig für mich. Ich gehöre zwar der Gemeinde an, die Igongolo unterstützt, aber dennoch bin ich nur eine der Jugendlichen dort, die persönlich noch nichts großes bewirkt hat. Wodurch es sich auch falsch anfühlte, dass alle mich besonders behandelten. Am Abend gab es dann noch eine Abschiedsfeier in der Kirche in Igongolo, wo alle einzelnd noch einmal mit mir Sprachen, mir die Hand schüttelten und manche sogar noch Dankesgeschenke überreichten. Am Abend stellten wir fest das ich mit einem Rucksack angereist bin, aber mit noch drei zusätzlichen Taschen abreiste. Gut das ich das Hühnchen gegessen habe und nicht versprochen habe das ich es mitnehme.. ;D Am nächsten Morgen ging es in der früh noch im dunkeln los nach Makambako, wo sie mich zum Bus brachten und ich meine 7 Stunden fahrt nach Hause antrat. Das zu Igongolo. Bis bald Esther