Dementia and cold water dips

Cold-water swimmers have long professed its benefits, from improving the mood to boosting the immune system. Now they have another incentive to brave the icy water: it may also protect the brain from dementia.

Scientists conducted tests on 40 people who made a practice of swimming daily in an unheated north London lido in winter, and found their blood had elevated levels of a brain protein called RBM3. Known as the “cold-shock” protein, because its production is triggered by a drop in core body temperature.

RBM3 plays a crucial role in restoring connections in the brains of animals coming out of hibernation. Its impact on human brains has never been tested, but in tests on mice bred to develop Alzheimer’s, those with raised levels of RBM3 experienced significantly less synapse and brain cell depletion than other mice.

Achieving a natural boost in RBM3 is not safe or easy: it requires the body to enter a hypothermic state. However, the researchers, at Cambridge University’s UK Dementia Research Institute, hope that if their findings are confirmed, it might be possible to develop a drug that mimics the protective effects of RBM3.

My comment:  Or move to the south coast of England and swim in the sea every morning in winter?  After the hospital deals with your hypothermia you will be in good shape.

Part 2. Prince Philip: God to the Vanuatu tribes! How and why?

Nobody is sure exactly how or why the Prince Philip cult movement began, though there are various theories. One idea is that villagers may have seen his picture along with the Queen’s on the walls of British colonial outposts when Vanuatu was still known as New Hebrides, a colony administered jointly by Britain and France.

Another interpretation is that it emerged as a “reaction to colonial presence, a way of re-appropriating and taking back colonial power by associating themselves with someone who sits at the right hand of the ruler of the Commonwealth”, pointing to the sometimes violent colonial history of Vanuatu.

What did Prince Philip make of it all? Publicly, he appeared to accept their reverence, sending several letters and photographs of himself to the tribesmen, who in turn have plied him with traditional gifts over the years.
One of their first presents was a ceremonial club called a nal-nal, given at a 1978 meeting convened by villagers. Subject: Prince Philip.

“So the British resident commissioner went down, made a presentation of photos of Prince Philip. Hundreds of these people were just waiting around, sitting or standing under the bushes. One of the chiefs then gave a club to pass to Prince Philip, asking for proof that he received it. It was sent all the way to the UK, where pictures of the duke holding the club were taken and sent back to the villagers. Those photos, among other memorabilia, are still treasured by the villagers to this day.

In 2007, several tribesmen met the duke in person. Flown to the UK for the Channel 4 reality television series Meet the Natives, five tribal leaders had an off-screen meeting with the duke at Windsor Castle where they presented gifts and asked when he would return to Tanna.

His reply, as reported by the tribesmen later, was cryptic – “when it turns warm, I will send a message” – but appeared to please them. Though Prince Philip was known for his frankness and has been criticised in the past for being culturally insensitive, on Tanna he appears to have been diplomatic.

Chief Yapa was one of several tribesmen who met Prince Philip in Britain in 2007 and took pictures with him. Prince Charles also visited Vanuatu in 2018 and drank the same kava his father did decades ago. He also received a walking stick on behalf of the duke from a Yaohnanen tribesman. (By Tessa Wong, BBC News).

My comment: So we assume that it one remote corner of the world Prince Charles is now a god, inheriting the title from his Dad. I can think of godlier candidates.

Prince Philip: God to the Vanuatu tribes! Part1

The Vanuatu tribes are mourning the death of their ‘god’: the late Prince Philip (of all people). For years two villages on the Vanuatuan island of Tanna (in the Pacific) have revered the Duke as a god-like spiritual figure.

“The connection between the people on the island of Tanna and the English people is very strong… We are sending condolence messages to the Royal Family and the people of England,” said tribal leader Chief Yapa.

For the next few weeks, villagers will periodically meet to conduct rites for the duke, who is seen as a “recycled descendant of a very powerful spirit or god that lives on one of their mountains”, says anthropologist Kirk Huffman who has studied the tribes since the 1970s.

After the Prince’s death they conducted a ritualistic dance, held a procession, and displayed memorabilia in his honour. For this final act of mourning a great deal of wealth was on display: yams, kava plants, and pigs, a primary source of protein. often killed at ceremonial events, under the giant banyan trees. There were speeches remembering the Prince, but also discussion about a possible successor. At sunset the men drank kava.

For half a century, the Prince Philip Movement thrived in the villages of Yakel and Yaohnanen – at its height, it had several thousand followers, though numbers are thought to have dwindled to a few hundred.
The villagers live in Tanna’s jungles and continue to practise their ancestral customs. Wearing traditional dress is still common, and while they maintain strong links with society, money and modern technology such as mobile phones are seldom used within their community.

Though they live only several kilometres from the nearest airport, “they just made an active choice to disavow the modern world. It’s not a physical distance, it’s a metaphysical distance. They’re just 3,000 years away,” an observer remarked.

The villagers’ centuries-old “kastom”, or culture and way of life, sees Tanna as the origin of the world.

The aim is to promote peace – and this is where Prince Philip has played a central role. Over time, the villagers have come to believe he is one of them – the fulfilment of a prophecy of a tribesman who has “left the island, in his original spiritual form, to find a powerful wife overseas. Ruling the UK with the help of the Queen, he was trying to bring peace and respect for tradition to England and other parts of the world. If he was successful, then he could return to Tanna – though one thing preventing him, as they saw it: white people’s stupidity, jealousy, greed and perpetual fighting.”
(Tessa Wong, BBC News)
Tomorrow: What accounts for this unusual story. (I have edited it for length somewhat, but thought it made a change from police gunfire.)

Arkansas lawmakers override veto of anti-trans law

Arkansas’ Republican-controlled state legislature on Tuesday voted to override Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of a bill barring physicians from providing gender-affirming procedures for transgender people under age 18. The vote came shortly after Hutchinson, a Republican, tried to block the legislation, calling it “vast government overreach.” The state House voted 71-24 to override the veto, and the Senate promptly followed with a 25-8 vote. Arkansas now will be the first state in the United States to prohibit doctors from providing such care as so-called cross-hormone therapy, a gender-affirming therapy that lets trans people make their physical appearance more consistent with their gender identity. LGBTQ supporters condemned the action by lawmakers, calling it harmful and vowing to challenge the law in court. [ABC News, CNN]

My comment: I have no horse in this race, but if a teenager regards him or herself as a member of the opposite sex, and if the parents approve of the intervention by a doctor, then it’s no damn business of busybody politicians, who are only too quick to spout religious doctrine and invoke individual rights in other contexts. Epicureans seek the happiness (preferably) of everyone, but this, being unachievable, at least are satisfied with the happiness of the greatest many.

Education

The British government has made a lot of noises about how important it is to teach kids media literacy. In 2019, for example, the education secretary announced guidance on teaching online safety in schools.

While that’s great in theory, “guidance” isn’t enough. You’ve got to put your money where your mouth is and actually invest in education. Ever since the Conservative-led coalition government took power in 2010, funding for education has ( of course!) declined significantly, and we’ve seen the largest cuts to school spending since the 1980s.

It’s no better in the US; underfunding there is so bad that about 94% of public school teachers report having to spend their own money on school supplies. While underfunding disproportionately hurts disadvantaged kids it has a ripple effect on society. There’s no problem in the world that can’t be improved by investing in education. Banning a few anti-vaxxers from Facebook may have short-term benefits but if we want to build healthy societies in the long-term we have to prioritise education and develop nerd immunity. (Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian, 3/31/2012)

My comments: An actual education (as opposed to taking in the rudiments of the culture with no ability to think for oneself and critically analyze) is singularly lacking, if you see how so many people, armed with the vote, cannot spot a politician lying for his own benefit and the power of his party rather than for the citizen. How some politicians can stand for office is a puzzlement, but how they get elected tells you much about the calibre of the voter.