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A Cuban man celebrated his 111th birthday on Thursday by counting his monetary gifts and smoking a cigar. |
Ignacio Cubilla Banos enjoyed the festivities at his home in Havana surrounded by family. |
He has 11 children, 40 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. |
Ignacio Cubilla Banos celebrated his 111th birthday in Cuba on Thursday |
Banos was a sugar factory worker in his younger days |
Banos, a former sugar factory worker, took some celebratory puffs on a Cuban cigar and showed off a wad of cash a son who lives in Miami had sent as a present before digging into a huge cake. |
Born in 1900, Banos only missed seeing twelve days of the 1900s. |
Banos' age means he's already lived half a life longer than his average countryman. |
Banos spoke with a son who lives in Miami as his daughters gathered around him |
His son in Miami sent him money for his birthday gift |
According to the World Health Organization, the life expectancy for a male born in Cuba today is 76. |
But Mr Banos lags behind the world's oldest man, American Walter Breuning, by three-and-a-half years. |
Breuning is 114.<|endoftext|>how to make new female friends as an adult without admitting to feeling lonely |
Shit, I just admitted the L word. |
So, how can you make friends when you’re an adult? |
Check this out. Here are three humble and over simplified tips I’ve learned that have made it easier for me to make friends since college: |
Tell me in the comments, are you rocking it out making adult friends left and right or is it an uphill climb? And don't forget, you can come join the only app for women to make female friends with custom matching over here |
This whole minimalist lifestyle got me trippin. Once you strip away everything you clearly don't need, you start to see what you want is glaringly missing -. I haven't blogged in almost six months, but every time I return with a completely new life experience and evolution as a human being, you, my dear readers, are there with your incomparable thoughtfulness and comments and stories to share. It's got me thinking - I should return to this blog and never leave again. You know why? Because this shit show we call the internet is where most of us grown folk find friends. We find kindred spirits, we catch up from time to time, comment on each other's blogs, retweet funny tweets, like each other's pretty pictures, and go about life feeling quite content having never met that strange person in real life. What a phenomenon right? I mean, you don't even have my cell phone number girl. But I lovedddd that yellow dress you wore last week, plus that inspirational quote you keep touting is totally bomb. You're like my ride or die friend. Just not in real life. Ummmm.Think back to when you were little and made those first trips to the park or playground with your mama or papa. At first, you probably clung to mom’s or dad’s leg with sweaty little palms. Hiding behind them for a bit gave you time to get brave while peeking around at the kids having fun. For me, taking the first step to making friends was scary. Especially when you're a minority living in a certain town that doesn't expect you'd be living there. And, now that I’m an adult it’s even harder! With all of our life experiences and maturity, why is it so hard to make friends once we get past the college years?I’ve always been a bit shy, even though naturally I appear extremely outgoing and gregarious. I think a little introversion waned its way into my DNA by osmosis. When I was little, my three best friends were Bert, Ernie, and Big Bird. Screw barbie. She was for chumps. I’d spend hours laying in front of the television watching and singing along to PBS. I had the theme song memorized:“Come and playEverything's A-OKFriendly neighbors thereThat's where we meet”But, where were these friendly neighbors? How could I get to this magical, happy street? I didn’t know how to get there and I was lonely.After a few months of having the television monopolized by singing, dancing puppets, my mother got tired of me in the house. She shoved me out the front door into the sunlight of our front yard. I screamed and cried as if I was a vampire exposed to daylight. I banged on the screen door, but it was locked.With tears on my little cheeks, and a pit in my stomach, I turned around to face the world before me. Children were playing up and down Cimmarron Street where we lived. They were laughing, riding bikes, and having fun. It was a lot like Sesame Street. But, I couldn’t figure out how to take that first step to meet them.I don't know how you feel, but for me making friends as an adult is scarier than it was when I was five. I don’t have mom to give me that shove out the front door. I have to open the door and cross the threshold by myself and venture out into the scary world. This ain't your friendly neighborhood Sesame Street! Bitches be cray! And intimidating. And catty. And wayyyy too similar to Real Housewives. Can we go back to naive youth when having a bunch of males as your besties was totally politically correct? I did well with that.And, as an adult, I know I carry a lot of emotional baggage that can make it hard to make connections with others. This baggage is filled with rejections and self-doubt I’ve gathered through the years. I’m like an emotional hoarder. So, in the back of my mind an inner timid child voice says to me:The truth is, almost everyone feels the same way at one time or another. And that feeling is called lonely, no matter how much you deny it or allow the stigma to embarrass you. It doesn't mean you’re completely forever alone or weird and neither am I. Well, let me retract. You might be some kind of weird if all you care about is becoming a top blogger and getting free shit and mirroring the life of your "idols" while forgetting to live for yourself with actual morals and values and a 50year plan because blogs don't pay a pension or bring you genuine love. Now that's weird. Alas, I digress. Adults are just little kids in big bodies. We’ve become even more guarded over the years. We’ve forgotten how to just open up to and accept others. We judge and others judge us. We get just as scared. And when you start to think about it, what's the perfect playpen for freaked out adults with disposable time but no disposable courage? The goddamn internet. You little lurker you.Well, every person and situation is different. Making yourself available to the possibility of new friends is the key. Clearly you’re not going to make new friends if you never step foot outside your own home and comfort zone. New friends don’t usually just come knocking…and if they do, you should probably keep the door locked! (I mean honestly, does anyone ever use theline in real life) Shove yourself out the door, like my mom did to me. Lock that door behind you and take that first step as often as possible.Not all occasions or social settings are created equal. Don’t limit yourself to the same kind of friend-making opportunities, like bars and parties. That might have worked in college but it’s not as easy as you get older. Take advantage of settings where people are open, happy, and giving of themselves. Volunteer groups, book clubs, and sporting events can be great places to meet people who may be there to make friends too. And, with a common interest or goal to spark a conversation, you’re one step ahead.1.Don’t make yourself less approachable. Keeping your nose constantly in your cell phone may make YOU feel less awkward, but it makes it really difficult for people to talk to you or even believe that you're capable of having a conversation. And, if you're making progress in a game of Candy Crush, you're likely to come off annoyed if interrupted by a potential friend. Unless you’ve got some super amazing new phone that might be a conversation starter, keep it put away as much as possible. I know, I know. Easier said than done. As a social experiment I will walk into a busy Starbucks in the Village and time myself to see how long I can sip a cup of coffee and ...make...actual...eye contact with other humans! Wow, do they give away Nobel prizes for that? Talk about hard work.2.Be careful with the alcohol. This isn't a Jamie Foxx video doll. A little bit may relax you and make you less tense. But, one drink too many and people may avoid rather than approach you. And, when you're intoxicated, you aren't really getting to know the other person and they aren't getting to know the real you. You may be really disappointed in the friend choices the "drunk you" makes.3.Check out what your body language may be saying to others. Facial expressions and the way you carry yourself lets others know if you’re likely to reject them. And, no one wants to be rejected. Also, look out for whether you haveor the opposite. Of course, don't forget to breathe. Tensing up makes you look like you need to find a restroom rather than a friend!4.Don't try to be someone you're not. The adult person you are now is interesting enough to make and keep friends. If you're nervous, or think you'll be boring, plan ahead. Think of some interesting topics or stories that might fuel a conversation. Remember, "you is kind, you is smart, you is important". You will impress others just based on the real you.Finally, social media and the Internet are great tools for making or maintaining contact with friends. However, you're trying to break that cycle of staying at home. You want flesh and blood friends rather than virtual friends. Remember, Cyberworld is not your adult version of the playground. You need to meet people face to face and make those emotional, mental, and physical connections. Don't allow yourself to use the ability to hide behind your monitor as a crutch. I learned to make new friends after college and so can you. Get out there and give it a shot. Being an adult is hard enough and no one should have to do it all alone!<|endoftext|>It was one of the most mind-bending scientific reports in 2014: Injecting old mice with the plasma portion of blood from young mice seemed to improve the elderly rodents’ memory and ability to learn. Inspired by such findings, a startup company has now launched the first clinical trial in the United States to test the antiaging benefits of young blood in relatively healthy people. But there's a big caveat: It's a pay-to-participate trial, a type that has raised ethical concerns before, most recently in the stem cell field. |
The firm’s co-founder and trial principal investigator is a 31-year-old physician named Jesse Karmazin. His company, Ambrosia in Monterey, California, plans to charge participants $8000 for lab tests and a one-time treatment with young plasma. The volunteers don’t have to be sick or even particularly aged—the trial is open to anyone 35 and older. Karmazin notes that the study passed ethical review and argues that it’s not that unusual to charge people to participate in clinical trials. |
To some ethicists and researchers, however, the trial raises red flags, both for its cost to participants and for a design that they say is unlikely to deliver much science. “There's just no clinical evidence [that the treatment will be beneficial], and you're basically abusing people's trust and the public excitement around this,” says neuroscientist Tony Wyss-Coray of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who led the 2014 young plasma study in mice. |
Decades ago, so-called parabiosis studies, in which the circulation of old and young animals was connected so that their blood mingles, suggested that young blood can rejuvenate aging mice. A recent revival of the unusual approach has shown beneficial effects on muscle, the heart, brain, and other organs, and some researchers are scrutinizing young blood for specific factors that explain these observations. The 2014 study, however, suggested that repeated injections of plasma from young animals were an easy alternative to parabiosis. Wyss-Coray has since started a company, Alkahest, that, with Stanford, has launched a study of young plasma in 18 people with Alzheimer’s disease, evaluating its safety and monitoring whether the treatment relieves any cognitive problems or other symptoms. The company covers the participants’ costs. Wyss-Coray expects results by the end of this year. (Another trial at a research hospital in South Korea is examining whether cord blood or plasma can prevent frailty in the elderly.) |
In Ambrosia’s trial, 600 people age 35 and older would receive plasma from a donor under age 25, according to the description registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, the federal website intended to track human trials and their results. Karmazin says each person will receive roughly 1.5 liters over 2 days. Before the infusions and 1 month after, their blood will be tested for more than 100 biomarkers that may vary with age, from hemoglobin level to inflammation markers. The $8000 fee—not mentioned on ClinicalTrials.gov—will cover costs such as plasma from a blood bank, lab tests, the ethics review, insurance, and an administrative fee, Karmazin says. “It adds up fairly quickly.” |
Kamarzin became interested in aging as an undergraduate. In medical school at Stanford, where he rotated through labs focused on stem cells and aging, he took note of the young plasma mouse study and other parabiosis research. Karmazin was also intrigued by the story of a Russian physician named Alexander Bogdanov, who in the 1920s gave himself infusions of young human blood that he claimed boosted his energy level and bestowed a more youthful appearance. There are “overwhelming data” suggesting that young plasma will be beneficial to people, Karmazin says. |
Last year, Karmazin co-founded a company called xVitality Sciences that aimed to offer plasma treatments at clinics overseas. The venture didn’t pan out—Karmazin left, and the company is now apparently defunct. Karmazin then started Ambrosia with Craig Wright, a former chief scientific officer at a vaccine company, who now runs a clinic in Monterey. The company’s study, which was reviewed by a commercial ethics board used by some for-profit stem cell clinics, doesn’t need approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the pair says, because plasma transfusions are a well-established, standard treatment. Karmazin says he and Wright have now heard from about 20 prospective participants, and have enrolled three, all elderly. Wright will likely transfuse plasma into the first person in late August. |
To bioethicist Leigh Turner at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, the study brings to mind a growing number of scientifically dubious trials registered in ClinicalTrials.gov by private, for-profit stem cell clinics. The presence of such trials in the database confers “undeserved legitimacy,” he says. |
The scientific design of the trial is drawing concerns as well. “I don’t see how it will be in any way informative or convincing,” says aging biologist Matt Kaeberlein of the University of Washington, Seattle. The participants won’t necessarily be elderly, making it hard to see any effects, and there are no well-accepted biomarkers of aging in blood, he says. “If you’re interested in science,” Wyss-Coray adds, why doesn’t such a large trial include a placebo arm? Karmazin says he can’t expect people to pay knowing they may get a placebo. With physiological measurements taken before and after treatment, each person will serve as their own control, he explains. |
Doubts aside, Ambrosia’s trial has already attracted attention from the investment company of billionaire Peter Thiel, who is apparently interested in trying young plasma treatments himself, Inc. reported today. Karmazin says he’s filling a void, suggesting that most companies wouldn’t be interested in developing human plasma as an antiaging treatment. “It’s this extremely abundant therapeutic that's just sitting in blood banks,” he insists. |
*Correction, 2 August, 10:23 a.m.: This story has been corrected to clarify that it is the enrolled patients in the study who are elderly. |
View our related Science in the Classroom annotated research paper on rejuvenation of the aging mouse brain.<|endoftext|>The attorney general Eric Holder has become the first sitting member of a president's cabinet in US history to be held in contempt of Congress after Republicans vented their fury over a bungled gun-tracking investigation. |
Seventeen Democrats, under pressure from the pro-gun lobby the NRA, joined 238 Republicans to carry a criminal contempt resolution against Holder. A currently serving attorney general has never before been censured in this way. |
The criminal contempt resolution, passed by 255 to 67, with most Democrats walking out of the chamber en masse before the vote, related to Operation Fast and Furious, a federal investigation launched in Arizona designed to ensnare gun smugglers involved with the Mexican drug cartels. |
Thursday's vote was of symbolic value, pointing to the almost total collapse of trust between the two main parties in Congress. Republican anger has been fueled by a conspiracy theory that Fast and Furious was deliberately set up to fail by the Obama administration to pave the way for greater federal gun controls. |
Holder delivered an angry statement about 20 minutes after the contempt vote, accusing the Republican leadership of engaging in "election-year politics and gamesmanship". He said the charges against him were "unnecessary and unwarranted" and insisted that as soon as he learnt about flawed tactics of Fast and Furious he had taken action to stop it and make sure such methods were never used again. |
"That was my response to Fast and Furious, and any suggestion to the contrary is not consistent with the facts," he said, adding that the Republican leadership was advancing "truly absurd, truly absurd conspiracy theories". |
John Boehner, the speaker of the House, said: "I don't take this matter lightly. I hoped it would never come to this – but no justice department is above the law and the constitution." |
Democrats responded by accusing the Republican group in the House of engaging in political hystrionics. John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan who is a former board member of the NRA, accused the Republicans of engaging in a "partisan political witch-hunt with the attorney general as its target". |
In legal terms the vote is of doubtful practical significance as the contempt issue will now be handed to the US attorney for the District of Columbia – a prosecutor who, as an official within Holder's department of justice, is unlikely to proceed with a case against his own employer. |
In a second vote, the House passed a civil contempt resolution by 258 to 95. That too has limited practical implications. The civil contempt motion will allow the House to proceed to the courts to ask them to force Holder to release the disputed documents, but judges rarely agree to intervene in cases where the president has already invoked executive privilege. |
Operation Fast and Furious went awry after agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives practised a controversial technique known as "gun-walking", where low-level smugglers were allowed to traffic weapons in the hope that bigger fish could be caught further down the line. |
About 1,400 of the 2,000 guns involved went missing, and two were found at the scene of the killing of a US border agent, Brian Terry. During the debate leading up to the contempt vote, Republican speakers repeatedly referred to the wishes of the Terry family to seek the truth. |
The dramatic standoff between the Obama administration and the Republican-controlled House has been provoked by demands that the department of justice hands over thousands of official documents. The Republicans believe the files will show that Holder and other senior administration officials were complicit in the gun-walking and that they tried to cover it up. The DoJ has refused to hand over the documents, saying they are irrelevant to the operation and pointing out that they have already disclosed about 7,600 documents that do relate directly to Fast and Furious. |
Last week Obama invoked executive privilege to block the disclosure of the internal documents. |
In the runup to the vote, members of both parties from the House oversight and government affairs committee were shown emails to and from Holder relating to Fast and Furious. The correspondence dated from February 2011 – precisely the moment when the administration wrongfully told Congress that there had been no gun-walking to Mexico, a false statement that it retracted 10 months later. |
The newly disclosed emails, details of which were obtained by Associated Press, appeared to support the attorney general's insistence that at that time he was unaware that guns had been allowed to "walk" at the time. On 23 February, three weeks after the administration denial had been made, Holder wrote to his officials following new revelations in the media to say: "We need answers on this. Not defensive BS. Real answers." |
On 3 March, Holder's deputy, James Cole, sent an email to all his officials saying: "We obviously need to get to the bottom of this." |
• This article was amended on 29 June 2012. The original said that fifteen Democrats joined 238 Republicans to carry a criminal contempt resolution against Holder. This has been corrected.<|endoftext|>Last week, a coalition of 25 groups urged the Big 12 conference, which is looking to expand its current roster of 10 member schools, not to allow Brigham Young University to join because of the Utah school’s bigotry toward LGBT students. Among other things, BYU suspends or expels students who are openly gay and is exempt from Utah’s LGBT non-discrimination laws. |
Maybe there’s an argument to be made that BYU is a private school, so its faith-based policies should have no bearing on its Big 12 application. Maybe you could convince me of that. |
But conservative columnist Neal Larson didn’t make that case. Instead, he sees this whole controversy as overreach by LGBT activists who are basically trying to take over the world with their radical agenda. His essay was published in the Idaho State Journal: |
… this [LGBT] lobby is all for promoting tolerance, inclusion, and diversity — as long as it includes a back alley beating of the noncompliant. I wonder if the LGBT lobby would back down if BYU promises to use separate drinking fountains, or ride in the back of the bus en route to their games. The top radical leaders of the LGBT sector have become what they said all along they hated and fought against: bigoted thuggish cultural bullies. |
What the hell…? |
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