“The usefulness of the cup is in its emptiness” is a popular quote by Bruce Lee. I have always thought of this as a reference to a Buddhist saying, however, it appears to come from the Taoist philosophy, the Ole Chinese "Yin-Yang".



I also have related it to the classic optimist/pessimist ideology questioning, "Is a glass half empty or half full?" because the usefulness of the cup is in its emptiness.



It is, of course, much deeper than that.

Quote:”Spokes are connected to make a wheel;
yet it is the hole within the hub that moves the wagon.
Clay is molded to shape into pot;
yet it is the emptiness within that makes it an utensil.
Doors and windows are cut to make a room;
yet it is the inner space within that makes it livable.
Therefore, advantage comes from what is;
usefulness comes from what is not.”
Tao Te Ching Chapter 11

Quote:A cup is useful for its emptiness.
Without the emptiness, there is no space to hold the drink, making the cup useless as a cup.
So while physical existence of the cup is what we see, it is its emptiness that makes the cup useful.

A house is useful for its emptiness.
Without the space, no one can live in there, and the house is useless as a house.
While the walls and pillars are what we see, emptiness is the purpose of the house’s physical existence.

Emptiness is the non-being, the intangible. In contrast, being is the physical presence of a thing, the tangible. Being is ‘something’ or ‘have’. Nonbeing is ‘nothing’ or ‘have not’.
They are the yang and yin of existence.
They are the whats and whys of the things you see.
Although the cup – or the something — is what you own, it is the emptiness – the nothing – that you use.  You own the being — the cup — for the non-being — the space.

Quote:

You may be wondering why I've put a blog about an article that, in turn, is about a radiation-eating fungus and mold under the heading of "Cosmic War," but patience, we'll get back to that.  I knew, however, when I saw this article that was shared by T.S. (with out gratitude), that I'd be blogging about it.  In fact, I even created a special temporary folder just for the email from T.S. that contained the article, because I wanted to be sure to remember to blog about it.  It concerns a radiation-eating fungus being studied by Ukrainian bio-physicists in the burned out reactors from the Chernobyl disaster. Needless to say, there are quite a few implications to this story, and those implications will be spelled out in today's high octane speculation. But first, the story itself:

Eating gamma radiation for breakfast

The story begins with the discovery that mold was not only actually growing in high high radiation environment of the Chernobyl reactors, but that it was thriving in that environment:

Quote:In the late 1980s Ukrainian scientists studying the dark, dangerous interior of Chernobyl’s destroyed Reactor 4 found that a black, mould-like fungus was growing across the walls and in pools of radioactive water. The fungus was not just surviving the immense radiation levels in the reactor building, but seemed to be thriving – even growing towards the very highest levels of gamma radiation.


Over the next 15 years thousands of strains of hundreds of different species of microfungi were isolated from in and around the Chernobyl disaster site[1]. In tests many of them grew towards strong sources of ionising radiation and some even appeared able to digest so-called ‘hot particles’ – immensely radioactive graphite from the reactor core itself.

Now hold on to your hats, because this is where it gets extremely intriguing. Scientists investigating the phenomenon figured out that what was enabling this bizarre behavior was a change in metabolism brought about by melanin, the pigment found in various types of skin, including in black people:

Quote:After the initial observational studies by Ukrainian scientists, Professor Ekaterina Dadachova and colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York decided to investigate these remarkable fungal species in more detail in a series of laboratory experiments. They found that cells of fungi such as Wangiella dermatitidis (now Exophiala dermatitidis) and Cryptococcus neoformans grew significantly faster and accumulated more biomass during exposure to high levels of radiation than when exposed to background levels of radiation[2]. The fungi’s transcriptome and metabolism were significantly altered under the high-radiation conditions[3].

The key to it all seemed to be melanin – the ubiquitous group of pigments found in many types of eukaryote that protect against UV radiation. Dadachova and her colleagues found that when the radiotrophic fungal strains were engineered to have no or little melanin (known as albino mutants) they did not grow better in the presence of ionising radiation.

Now here's the kicker:

Quote:In the species found in the Chernobyl reactors, the heavy pigment forms multiple concentric layers that build into a dark spherical shell. Eroding the other cell material away with strong chemicals leaves dark melanin ‘ghosts’ in the shape of the parent cell[4].

Dadachova and colleagues found that strong ionising radiation changes the electrochemical structure of fungal melanin, increasing its ability to act as a reducing agent[3] and transfer electrons. They began to theorise that melanin was acting not just as a radioprotective shield, but as an energy transducer that could sense and perhaps even harness the energy from the ionising radiation in the same way photosynthetic pigments help harness the energy of sunlight.

“What’s important to say is that when you give a fungus its favourite nutritious media, it has no need to turn on these mechanisms,” says Dadachova. “It will just eat what you give it and it will not start using the ionising radiation – we tested that many times. But if the fungus finds itself in nutrient-deficient conditions – for example, right inside the Chernobyl reactor where there is no rotting vegetation to process – that’s when they switch on that mechanism.”

...Heavily melanised fungi have been found growing on the outside surfaces of the Mir and ISS space stations, which are battered by huge levels of solar radiation.

What all of this means is that there are possible applications not only for space use, but food and energy production, and even medicine, and all of these applications have, as I will attempt to show, a "down" side:

Quote:A better understanding of the properties of fungal melanin could lead to interesting applications in a number of areas. Some groups are looking to make synthetic melanins for use as protectorants against UV or other forms of radiation. Others think fungi could find a use in the bioremediation of radioactive waste. Dadachova is particularly interested in how melanin could be used to help protect patients undergoing radiation therapies. She is also working on a collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and scientists from the Brookhaven National Laboratory on melanin-based spacesuits that could protect astronauts from the effects of radiation in space. (The work has so far involved making tiny melanin helmets to protect the brains of mice.)

Then there is the possibility that radiotrophic fungi could help us develop new sources of renewable energy and biomaterials. “There are many places on our planet that experience very [little rain] and where plants are difficult to grow. Could you replace them with plants or fungi that use melanin instead of chlorophyll? Those guys don’t mind being in very dry conditions. And they will probably make the same useful sugars and other things that we take from green plants currently,” says Dadachova. More speculative ideas imagine that these fungi could help protect or even feed space colonists – for example, forming a self-replicating radioprotective building material for a Martian base. (emphases added)

The implications of such a fungal-melanin technology are evident in the article's own speculations about potential space applications, applications that would appear to be confirmed by the presence on the Mir space station of such fungus on the outside of the station, in the high radiation environment of space.  Soviet and Japanese scientists for many years were working in the arcane field of plant utilization of radiation that would otherwise prove lethal to most organisms, and made several intriguing but little-known discoveries about how such plants are able to transmute such radiation via low-energy biological processes into harmless material, an alchemical enterprise if ever there was one.

But it's the implication itself, together with Dadachova's own statement that she wants to investigate the uses of such a bio-technology to protect cancer-radiation patients.

Let the implications of that one sink in for a moment.

Imagine the perfecting of such a technology to the point that a simple injection would not only shield an individual from high radiation, but perhaps even be able to reverse - in conjunction with cellular-repairing nano-technoologies -  the effects of otherwise lethal doses of radiation. It would mean that radiation sickness itself would no longer be a death sentence.

But it would also mean that the dangers associated with the use of nuclear weapons - even the "dirtiest ones" - were no longer so significant. Even in the case of radioactive elements with long half-lives such as strontium or cobalt, all that would be necessary would be to "unleash the fungus" and gobble it up.

The bad news is, this radiation-gobbling fungus at Chernobyl has been known since the 1980s, and this article is itself proof of the fact that this fungus has been under close study and observation since then. What this means is, in turn, that we are looking at only the public version of this research, the stuff that it's "ok for us common folk to know."

And that implies that somewhere in the hidden laboratories of the world, they may have brought all the high octane speculations concerning this phenomenon into some state of reality already.  Indeed, there have been persistent rumors to this effect every now and then, and for some years.

The real question thus becomes, was the existence and capabilities of this fungus only noticed after the Chernobyl incident? Or was it discovered even earlier than that?

My money is on earlier...

See you on the flip side..

Quote:The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) is a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and part of the Biosciences Area.

Our vision: To lead genomic innovation for a sustainable bioeconomy.

Our mission: As a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility, we provide advanced genomic capabilities, large-scale data, and professional expertise to support the global research community in studies of complex biological and environmental systems. We optimize our service to the community through responsibly managing our people and resources.

Joint Genome Institute

Hi Folks,

I received an email during the night, from an old pal over at ATS, who informed me that Nightstar was not expected to see out the night.
Now unfortunately confirmed - Nightstar has passed, following a period of ill health.
Nightstar (Lorraine) was one of the founder members (and longtime hostess) of "The Shed" series of threads on ATS.

My understanding is that she has not been in the best of health for some time now, but I don't have any further details at this time. I have asked my friend to keep us posted, and will update the thread if I hear anything further.
As ATS itself is down just now, I am unable to seek clarification or further details from there.

For those who don't know... "The Shed" is/was a magical place where many friends were made and many tales and adventures were shared. It was an odd mix of collaborative fantasy story-telling, and real-life friendship & chat.
Lorraine was a shining light there, always lending an ear to anyone who needed someone to talk to.
Her kind heart and caring nature will live with me, and many other Shed-dwellers who were touched by her kind soul, for a very long time to come.

I would ask that you, as fellow Rogues and kindred spirits, spare a kind wish, a prayer, or positive thought for my friend Nightstar at this time.

'Raine - you are in my thoughts now and forever. I shall be raising a glass in your honour tonight.
Safe journey if it is indeed your time to pass. I'll see you on the other side (as we often joked about!)

Gx

Anyone else experience this ?

Quote:In December of 2024, A strange fog appeared over Los Angeles. But this wasn't normal fog - it had a chemical smell like fireworks and left behind a strange purple residue. So when reports of identical phenomena started pouring in from around the world, people knew something wasn't right. But as humans and animals began showing mysterious symptoms, the truth became clear - this was something far more sinister than weather. So now the question wasn't just what this fog was, but who or what was behind it, and why it was happening. The mystery would prove to be more terrifying than anyone expected.

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/mary...priorities

 A joint resolution was introduced on the first day of the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session to exonerate settlers accused of witchcraft nearly 400 years ago.
Del. Heather Bagnall, D-Anne Arundel County, is the sole resolution sponsor that would require the state government to formally apologize to colonists who faced witch trials prior to the nation’s independence.

Quote:[i]At least seven individuals were accused of or indicted for the crime of witchcraft, at least two individuals were convicted, and at least one individual was executed in the Providence of Maryland prior to the American Revolution,” the resolution says.[/i]

This is the latest Why Files with a topic of Quantum computer capabilities. Skip to the 3:40 mark to miss the Advertisement.. Current encryption will be useless soon.

Quote:The Quantum Apocalypse: All Your Secrets Revealed A mysterious data transfer lights up NSA monitors at 3 AM. Within hours, hospital records flash across Times Square billboards. Dating app messages spill onto every screen in the city. Bank accounts vanish. Traffic lights freeze. Autonomous vehicles crash through shopping malls. Intelligence agencies scramble as decades of encrypted messages suddenly unlock. Someone has broken the unbreakable - the mathematical foundations that protect everything from banking passwords to nuclear launch codes. The quantum apocalypse arrives years ahead of schedule. But as chaos spreads, patterns start to surface. The timing seems too perfect, the targets too precise. Deep beneath the Pentagon, analysts notice something strange: some messages were decrypted months ago. The chaos isn't random - it's cover for something bigger.

There are a few saying it is over for ATS however I think I would wait a day or so before making that claim... So much history gone if it is truly gone..

One of the better videos on the world population crash...Interesting possible causes

The song formerly known as The Most Mysterious Song On The Internet! has finally been identified & authenticated after a 17-year-long search...

German band, FEX - Subways of your Mind (Like The Wind) (original cassette DEMO version) [1983]




Professor of Rock tells the amazing story:

Good bedtime story.

Why Would A Lieutenant Remove All of His Own Teeth...