The Nasty Truth About ‘Poo Plumes’ — And How To Protect Yourself From Them

Posted on by
Reply

A wise philosopher once noted, “everybody poops,” and if you live in the United States and many other parts of the world, you’re probably using a toilet when you do.

So just how germy are they? And what can we do to keep our toilets, our bathrooms, and ourselves as faecal-matter-free as possible?

That’s what we — Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, hosts of HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast — asked microbiologist Jason Tetro, aka “The Germ Guy,” when he recently chatted with us about the grossest parts of our bathrooms and how to vanquish the bad germs that might be thriving in them.

Listen to the full episode by pressing play:

“There are trillions and trillions and trillions of microbes that are essentially part of you,” Tetro, the author of “The Germ Files” and “The Germ Code,” told us. “The majority of them happen to be in your gastrointestinal system … As you might expect then, the majority of germs that we’re going to encounter in any household happen to be in the toilet.”

Many of those microbes are harmless, but some can make us sick. Even though our toilets do a great job of capturing and eliminating our waste, rogue “poo particles” (a decidedly non-scientific term Michelson used) can still escape the bowl — especially if we don’t shut the lid when we flush.

“This first started [to be studied in 1976], and the whole idea was, is there something that’s coming out of the toilet when you flush it if you don’t keep the lid down?” Tetro said. “[Back then we called it] a ‘plume.’ So it’s not ‘poo particles,’ it’s a plume of droplets in the air.”

Scientists placed petri dishes around a toilet, flushed it multiple times, and looked to see if anything sprouted.

“Sure enough, within six feet of that toilet, you had microbes that were growing because that’s the droplets’ span,” Tetro said.

“Let’s jump to today, because we now have had the ‘Austin Powers’ movies, and as a result of that, what are we going to use to be able to identify poo droplets? A freakin’ laser,” he said laughing.

After using lasers to map toilet plumes, scientists confirmed that they can launch as high as six feet in the air and the spray can land as far as six feet from the bowl.

“Within six feet of your toilet is usually your toothbrush,” Tetro noted. “When you think of it from that perspective, then you start to begin to realise that if you’re not closing the lid, then what ends up happening is that plume of droplets that contains your poo particles are getting onto things that are going to be touching your face and going inside of your mouth.”

That’s bad news because, as Tetro explained, “those fecal microbes can potentially cause infection and other problems.”

Though a partial plume could still escape from the sides of the seat even with the lid down, Tetro assured us most of the spray would be contained.

“If you keep the lid closed and you do end up with a little bit of a plume coming out of the sides, it’s just essentially gonna drop,” he said. ”[Just] make sure that you’re cleaning the floor around your toilet.”

What about cleaning the toilet itself?

“If you were to be able to swab a [toilet bowl] and then run that on a petri dish, you’re probably going to get a bunch of bacteria, but most of those are going to be environmental because it’s from the water,” Tetro said. “The reason for that is because toilets do what they’re supposed to do, which is to remove whatever is in the bowl — other than the plume — and take it down into the drain. So, in that sense, you really don’t need to worry too too much about contamination and growth and all that stuff.”

What we do need to worry about are biofilms, which are caused by bacteria in the water and often form as rings in our toilet bowls (and other places like our bathtubs and shower heads).

“They become very sticky and that’s where the poo bacteria can essentially start to accumulate,” Tetro said. “So what you want to do is try and prevent any of these biofilms from forming. It takes about three days to start creating a biofilm that isn’t visible, but could start being sticky. So if you really wanna be clean about it, then you want to be cleaning about every three days.”

However, Tetro said that it takes about seven days before “any of that stickiness could lead to poo sticking around,” so he advised cleaning our toilets once a week.

“The only time that I would say that you would want to do it more than that is if someone does have a gastrointestinal infection,” he added. “We’ve seen Salmonella survive in a toilet bowl up to seven weeks… [so] if you have any GI issues, then you really should be cleaning up later on that same day.”

We also chatted about the parts of our bathrooms with the most germs (they probably aren’t the spots you’d guess), how often we should be washing our towels (and the gross reason they start to smell), and much more.

So listen to the full episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Make sure to subscribe to “Am I Doing It Wrong?” so you don’t miss a single episode, including our investigations of the ins and outs of tipping, how to apologise or vanquish your credit card debt, how to find love online or overcome anxiety, tips for online shopping, taking care of your teeth and pooping like a pro, secrets to booking and staying in a hotel, how to deal with an angry person, cooking tips from celebrity chef Jet Tila, shocking laundry secrets, the tips and tricks for cleaner dishes, getting your best workout and more.

For more from Jason Tetro, visit his website here.

Need some help with something you’ve been doing wrong? Email us at AmIDoingItWrong@HuffPost.com, and we might investigate the topic in an upcoming episode.

Share Button

New Nevada experiments will improve monitoring of nuclear explosions

Posted on by
Reply

On an October morning in 2023, a chemical explosion detonated in a tunnel under the Nevada desert was the launch of the next set of experiments by the National Nuclear Security Administration, with the goal to improve detection of low-yield nuclear explosions around the world.

Physics Experiment 1-A (PE1-A) is the first in a series of non-nuclear experiments that will compare computer simulations with high-resolution seismic, tracer gas, acoustic and electromagnetic data gleaned from underground explosions and atmospheric experiments, said Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher Stephen Myers at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting.

The 18 October explosion — the equivalent of 16.3 tons of TNT — took place in Aqueduct Mesa “P Tunnel” at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). Seismic, acoustic and electromagnetic waves from the shock were recorded by instruments near the explosion and with regional seismic networks, while gas tracers and chemical byproducts released into the resulting cavity and boreholes also were sampled by a dense instrument array. Seismic signals were recorded at least 250 kilometers away from the explosion.

“All of this is to help further our goal of monitoring nuclear explosions better and understanding the source physics of how those explosions generate seismic waves,” Myers said.

Physics Experiment 1 (PE1) is the latest research program at NNSS, where atmospheric nuclear tests took place between 1951 and 1962, and underground testing occurred between 1961 and 1992. More recently, programs like the Source Physics Experiment looked at a range of non-nuclear chemical explosions in different rock environments, collecting data to learn more about explosion physics.

The seven new experiments planned as part of PE1 include more underground chemical explosions under different emplacement conditions, as well as atmospheric experiments that attempt to track underground and atmospheric transport of gases produced in these types of explosions. The program will also use a large electromagnetic coil, about four meters wide, to generate pulses of electromagnetic energy inside the tunnel that can be measured at the ground surface, to determine how much of the electromagnetic signal from an underground nuclear test would be affected by traveling through the earth.

“There’s no one experiment that can generate all the signals that are produced by a nuclear shot, so we’re doing this series of seven to try to piece together all of those signals,” Myers explained, “so that we can validate our full physics codes that we use to simulate what all of those signals would be like from a nuclear explosion.”

Significant improvements in high-performance computing have allowed researchers like Myers to create increasingly realistic and complex explosion simulations, but “then the question is, ‘are they correct?’ And the only way we can be confident about that is to compare them to these high-resolution data sets from the experiments,” he said.

The new experiments are more heavily instrumented than older NNSS experiments, he noted, which helps to validate the computer code simulations.

Atmospheric simulations, for example, must account for complex variables such as temperature changes and air turbulence under different topographic conditions. With the experiments, Myers said, “we’re trying to get an idea if tracers came out of the ground after a nuclear test, exactly what some of these very local conditions, topography and other aspects, would affect the transport of those radionuclides and other telltale gases that could be released by an underground test.”

Myers said the seismic and acoustic data from PE1 will be released to a public seismic database after two years. “We want this to be a resource for the community as a whole.”

Share Button

New study challenges one-size-fits-all approach to vitamin D supplementation guidelines

Posted on by
Reply

A new study from Trinity College Dublin scientists, sheds light on the complexities of achieving optimal vitamin D status across diverse populations. Despite substantial research on the determinants of vitamin D, levels of vitamin D deficiency remain high. The study was recently published in the journal Clinical Nutrition.

Dr Margaret M. Brennan, Research Assistant, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, School of Medicine, Trinity College and first author, said:

“We hope this work can highlight the significant differences in vitamin D levels among different ethnic groups at northern latitudes and contribute to efforts to address the long-standing population health issue of vitamin D deficiency.”

The authors analysed data from half a million participants from the United Kingdom (UK,) and for each person, they calculated the individualized estimate of ambient ultraviolet-B (UVB) level, which is the wavelength of sunlight that induces vitamin D synthesis in the skin.

A comprehensive analysis of key determinants of vitamin D and their interactions revealed novel insights. The first key insight is that ambient UVB emerges as a critical predictor of vitamin D status, even in a place like the UK, which receives relatively little sunlight. The second is that age, sex, body mass index (BMI), cholesterol level, and vitamin D supplementation significantly influence how individuals respond to UVB. For example, as BMI and age increase, the amount of vitamin D produced in response to UVB decreases.

Professor Lina Zgaga, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, School of Medicine, Trinity College and the principal investigator, said:

“We believe our findings have significant implications for the development of tailored recommendations for vitamin D supplementation. Our study underscores the need to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach towards personalized strategies for optimizing vitamin D status.”

Rasha Shraim, PhD candidate, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, School of Medicine, Trinity College, and co-principal investigator on this study said:

“Our study also highlights the effect that natural environmental factors, like sunlight, can have on our health. We hope that our approach encourages future researchers and public health bodies to integrate these factors into their health and disease work.”

The authors hope that their manuscript will contribute to the ongoing discourse on vitamin D supplementation guidelines.

Share Button

New eco-friendly lubricant additives protect turbine equipment, waterways

Posted on by
Reply

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed lubricant additives that protect both water turbine equipment and the surrounding environment.

Each year, roughly 2.47 billion gallons of lubricating oil are consumed in the United States alone for engines and industrial machinery, according to DOE, with about half eventually finding its way into the environment.

While environmentally acceptable lubricants are available, they are not optimized with additives that can greatly improve performance while posing minimal environmental impact if accidentally released. To create nontoxic, biodegradable and high-performing lubricant additives for water power turbines, researchers turned to ionic liquids, or ILs: organic liquid salts that mix well with oil, reduce friction between bearings and gears, and are stable in a range of temperatures.

A team of materials and environmental scientists at ORNL worked together to design, synthesize and test top-candidate ILs of ammonium phosphate and phosphonium phosphate that provide a good mix of properties.

When added to base oils, the ILs demonstrated 50% less friction and a tenfold decrease in equipment wear compared to a commercially available gear oil, while meeting federal standards for environmental toxicity and biodegradability, as described in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

The project builds on more than 20 years of IL research at ORNL, including the development of lubricant additives designed to reduce engine wear and boost fuel economy in vehicles.

“Our previous work showed us that you could dramatically increase the performance of lubricants with the addition of just 1% or even a half-percent of ILs,” said ORNL’s Jun Qu, who leads the project and the Surface Engineering and Tribology group at ORNL.

This time around, scientists sought to create a nontoxic additive for use in turbines installed in aquatic environments, generating electricity using waves, tides, ocean and river currents. Although ILs are generally considered less toxic than conventional lubricant ingredients, their impact on the environment has not been closely studied.

“On the environmental side, there are three main factors we care about with these lubricants,” said Teresa Mathews, lead for the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health group at ORNL. “They have to be highly performing, we don’t want them to be toxic to any aquatic organisms, and if there’s a spill, we don’t want the lubricants to be compounds that last in the environment. We want them to degrade very rapidly.”

Pursuing a cleaner formula

The team first sought to eliminate potential toxic elements such as fluorine and chlorine and metals such as zinc and iron from the candidate ILs. They also focused on creating ILs made up of shorter hydrocarbon chains — chains containing fewer than six carbon atoms — which are generally considered to be less toxic.

“We found a four-carbon chain to be the sweet spot,” Qu said. Going shorter than four carbons resulted in an IL that didn’t mix well with oil and was less thermally stable, he added.

Friction testing was accomplished with metal pieces simulating turbine gears and bearings coated with a lubricant containing the IL. Resulting surface wear of the pieces was characterized using electron microscopy at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science user facility at ORNL.

These particular ILs are fairly straightforward to produce and can be easily scaled up for commercialization, said Huimin Luo, a chemist in ORNL’s Manufacturing Science Division who led the chemical synthesis work.

To determine the additives’ environmental impact, ORNL ecotoxicologist Louise Stevenson conducted toxicity and biodegradability tests in ORNL’s Environmental Toxicology Laboratory, where assessments are routinely conducted for DOE, the Department of Defense and other agencies. Following Environmental Protection Agency protocols, the toxicity tests used Ceriodaphnia, tiny planktonic crustaceans commonly known as water fleas that sit at the bottom of the food chain, have a short life cycle and rapid reproduction rate, and are highly sensitive to environmental conditions.

Tiny plankton provide big insights

The organisms “are like canaries in a coal mine for aquatic toxicity because they are filter feeders and interact with a lot of water,” Stevenson said. “In a seven-day test, we’ll get three to four rounds of reproduction with daily hatching, so we can look for both lethal effects and sublethal effects such as reproductive and growth impacts that have an effect on population survival.”

While the environmentally acceptable lubricant base oils had no effect on the crustaceans, the commercial lubricant additives and two early IL compounds were found to be extremely toxic to the organisms, resulting in 100% mortality within one to three days after exposure. The team’s ultimate designs for short-chain ammonium phosphate and phosphonium phosphate IL additives resulted in 90-100% survival rates after seven days.

The final, top-performing IL-enhanced lubricants were also found to be highly biodegradable compared to standard lubricant additives. Testing involved exposing the compounds to aquatic microbes and then measuring the rate of carbon dioxide production as the microbes broke down the materials.

High-performing, environmentally friendly lubricants designed specifically for marine energy turbines are important for other reasons, including equipment durability. Lubricant technology currently in use for marine turbines was borrowed from wind turbines, which are serviced every six to 18 months, Qu said. But tidal turbines installed in the ocean or rivers are typically designed for service every six years and operate under much harsher conditions.

The project is expected to next focus on further development of IL lubricant additives specifically for use in tidal turbines operating in the ocean and exposed to potential seawater contamination and pressure and temperature extremes.

Share Button

Online clinic gave teen dangerous hormone dose

Posted on by
Reply

The 15-year-old was prescribed the medication without having spoken to a doctor, a court ruling says.

Share Button

Kwasi Kwarteng Lashes Out At Liz Truss Over His ‘Trumpian’ Sacking

Posted on by
Reply

Liz Truss’s spurned former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has taken aim at the ex-PM for sacking him in a “kind of Trumpian” manner.

Truss appointed Kwarteng as her chancellor as soon as she was elected – but she gave him the boot just 43 days later, blaming him for the chaos of their mini-budget of £45m of unfunded tax cuts.

Not that this decision saved the ex-PM’s skin. Six days after that, Truss was forced to resign herself and had to to hand the reins over to her Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak.

Still, more than a year later, Kwarteng has said his rapid departure from government was “one of the things that I feel bad about” because Truss reacted so quickly to the pressure to remove him.

Speaking to the One Decision podcast, Kwarteng compared his sacking to the way ex-US president Donald Trump famously fired his own members of staff while in the White House.

He explained that he was returning from a meeting in Washington with the International Monetary Fund when he scrolled through social media – and saw messages about his own future in politics.

He said: “I was sacked, essentially on Twitter. So, kind of Trumpian.”

Kwarteng continued: “I was due back on the Saturday morning, and I came back on the Friday morning and I was driven to Downing Street and I was essentially sacked.

“But on the way to Downing Street, I could see on Twitter, I think it was Steve Swinford of the Times had said… ‘The chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, sacked’ [or] ‘was sacked’ or ‘has been sacked’ – I don’t know what tense it was but the message was clear.”

The ex-chancellor said his meeting with the then prime minister after that was “definitive”.

While Truss did not actually tweet that she was going to fire Kwarteng before she announced it to him (like Trump), the ex-chancellor did still find out via social media.

The two were close allies, having both entered parliament as new Tory MPs in 2010 and rising through the ranks of government together.

It seems they were destined to leave government together, too – as Kwarteng told the podcast, “it was obvious to me that once I’d been sacked it was over for her”.

The ex-chancellor has mostly avoided the spotlight since then, and has announced he will be stepping down as an MP at the next general election.

Truss, meanwhile, has been focused on appealing to a more right-wing audience, reforming her image and promoting her new book Ten Years To Save The West.

She has also endorsed Trump to be the next US president.

Both have refused to take responsibility for the chaos of their mini-budget, suggesting it was more the speed at which they introduced the reforms rather than the reforms themselves.

Share Button

How Tory Mayors Are Pretending Not To Be Tories In A Desperate Bid To Avoid Defeat

Posted on by
Reply

Tory mayors have distanced themselves from their party and Rishi Sunak in a desperate attempt to get re-elected.

Ben Houchen and Andy Street face major fights to hang onto their jobs when voters go to the polls in Tees Valley and the West Midlands.

With the Conservatives trailing well behind Labour in the national opinion polls, both men have gone out of their way to avoid admitting they are actually Tories.

Street’s website has no Tory branding and is mainly coloured green rather than the traditional Conservative blue.

Meanwhile, his 300-word biography contains no mention at all of the party he represents.

Andy Street's website has no Tory bradfing.
Andy Street’s website has no Tory bradfing.

Andy Street

Houchen’s website does describe him as “the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley”, but during his election campaign he has at times gone out of his way to play down his party affiliation.

In a video posted on Facebook, he said: “I’m less interested in national politics, I am the mayor of Tees Valley. My priority is always the people of Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool.”

And campaign leaflets put through doors in his area also fail to mention the party he represents.

A Ben Houchen campaign leaflet.
A Ben Houchen campaign leaflet.

Ben Houchen

In a further snub for Sunak, both Street and Houchen were happy to receive the endorsement of Boris Johnson rather than the PM yesterday.

Johnson sent a letter to voters in the West Midlands urging them to vote for Street, while he also recorded a video for Houchen.

A Labour source told HuffPost UK: “Rishi Sunak chickened out of calling a general election and now his mayoral candidates are too scared to even acknowledge him.

“It seems they’ve concluded the only way they can win is to distance themselves from the failed Tory Party and pretend they’ve never heard of their beleaguered prime minister.”

Share Button

Prince William Shares First Update On Kate Middleton After Her Cancer Diagnosis

Posted on by
Reply

Prince William assured royal followers during an outing on Tuesday that all is well at home.

During a surprise walkabout after an engagement in Newcastle upon Tyne, the Prince of Wales spoke with a concerned fan who asked how he and his family were doing.

“Do you mind if I ask how you and the children are?” a woman in a Union Jack hat and cape asked the prince.

“All doing well ― thank you. Yes, we’re doing well,” William answered in a clip captured by the Daily Mail, as the woman asked about William’s wife, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales.

“We’re all doing well,” William reiterated, before complimenting the woman’s companion on part of her patriotic outfit.

It was the first update William has shared since Kate announced her cancer diagnosis in a March video, following months of speculation about her health.

“In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time, it was thought that my condition was noncancerous,” Kate said in the video, adding that her surgery was “successful.”

“However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present,” she explained. “My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy, and I am now in the early stages of that treatment.”

Prince William speaks to the public as he visits James' Place Newcastle on April 30 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
Prince William speaks to the public as he visits James’ Place Newcastle on April 30 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

Ian Forsyth via Getty Images

Kate began chemotherapy in February. She did not specify what kind of cancer she has, or its severity.

The palace said at the time that it would provide no further updates on Kate’s health.

“The Princess has a right to medical privacy, as we all do,” a spokesperson said.

William and Kate recently celebrated a happy milestone together, marking their 13th wedding anniversary on Monday with a never-before-seen photo.

The black-and-white portrait was taken by photographer Millie Pilkington.

“13 years ago today!” the couple captured their photo.

Share Button

What’s So Unique About CGC Year 8?

Posted on by

Does this list represent what you’d like to experience this year?

  • New Explorations
  • High Trust
  • Open-Mindedness
  • Open-Heartedness
  • Spirit Energy
  • Stimulating Growth
  • Fiery Wisdom
  • Curiosity
  • Surprise
  • Purpose
  • Intuitive Knowing
  • Alignment
  • Balance
  • Playfulness & Fun
  • Full-Range Friendships
  • Courageous Steps
  • Powerful Shifts
  • Honesty
  • Feeling Nurtured
  • Feeling Protected
  • Intentionality
  • Imagination
  • Variety
  • Uniqueness & Originality
  • Depth & Intimacy
  • Flexibility

These vibes are all part of Conscious Growth Club Year 8, which is starting today, May 1st.

There are 59 people already enrolled for this fresh new CGC year as I’m writing this. If history is an indication, there will be a notable surge in sign-ups by the end of the day. You can see the current count at the top of the CGC invite page. Check it as often as you want. When you join us, it will go up by one.

Here’s what’s different about CGC Year 8 relative to previous years in the club:

Much Lower Price – $1111

One of the biggest changes is that the price for a full year is CGC is now $1111. In all previous years it was $1997. That’s a 44.4% reduction. A whole year in CGC is now only $3 per day, yet the invitation has more juiciness packed into it than ever, including access to our full library of courses and recorded events. That said, we’ve also gone further in seeking to filter for strong matches. That’s one reason the invitation page is long and detailed. It’s intended to deflect mismatches who don’t belong in CGC, while strong matches will make it through and recognize that CGC is so right for them this year.

More Members

We’ve already surpassed last year’s membership numbers by 23%, and it’s likely to be a lot more than that by the end of the day. If you’ve been waiting for a bigger CGC year with more members and more energy, this is it.

More Returning Members

This year we’re seeing a higher than usual sign-up rate from members from previous CGC years returning, so if you were involved in CGC or some of the live courses or events in the past, you’re bound to see some familiar faces inside. There’s a lovely reunion energy flowing through the club today as we begin this new CGC year together.

More Divergent Variety Than Ever

During years 1-6 we had essentially one Zoom call format: the coaching calls. In Year 7 we replaced the coaching calls with a variety of different formats, and we’ve gone much further in that direction with an even wider scope of calls for Year 8. We now host a whopping 14 very unique and different formats (each with different vibes and a different growth-oriented purpose). It’s an ideal match for people who love to learn in non-linear, exploratory, experiential, richly varied ways.

More Exploration

CGC is no longer a coaching program. We dropped that model at the end of Year 6. CGC has evolved into a thriving group of self-development co-explorers. If you want to hire a coach on the side, that’s up to you, but in CGC we explore and experience together.

Experiential Learning

My role (Steve) is no longer to play the role of coach. Now my focus is on crafting and hosting unique growth experiences that we go through together, which is so much more engaging for myself and others in the club. For instance, on yesterday’s Courage Forge call, our theme was “Center of Attention.” Some members served as focal points while we invited them to be the center of attention for a while and to experience what that was like. Then we discussed what came up for them – from nervousness and anxiety to playfulness and love. Even when you’re not the one doing the experiencing, it’s way more interesting to watch and explore with people who are having real growth experiences right in front of you instead of just talking about problems and potential solutions.

Unrecorded Calls

During years 1-6 in CGC, we recorded every coaching call. In year 7 we tested having unrecorded calls except for a few event-style formats that we did record. This worked very well – we saw a marked increase in call attendance and participation. This year we’re continuing with unrecorded calls for 13 of the 14 formats. So there’s a strong focus on the one-time-only live experience, not on amassing an archive of recordings. Year 7 was the test; Year 8 is the commitment to this change because it works. This also nudges out some overly passive energy from people who only want to watch recordings, thereby creating a more active and engaging vibe in the club. That’s really good for those of us who want more action and engagement. CGC is just not a place for passive learners.

Advance Scheduling

In recent CGC years, the group calls were scheduled one month at a time. Now they’re scheduled one calendar quarter (3 months) at a time. Moreover, major events for the new CGC year are already prescheduled with dates and times all the way through March 2025. These are all listed on the CGC Year 8 invite page too. So you can see if they mesh with your calendar. The major events will be recorded, so you don’t have to attend those live.

New Bucket List Experiences

New for this CGC year, we’re inviting members to participate in a “bucket list” walkthrough 3 times during the CGC Year. We’ll guide you through picking and choosing a new experience you’d love to have and then support you in advancing it towards the inevitability of actually doing it. Some members may wish to team up and have one or more of these experiences together, so we’ll provide support for that too.

Greater Service Alignment

For this new CGC year, we’ve been seeking (and apparently doing a very good job of) attracting members who care about service, contribution, and purpose. We’ve made this year’s invitation deliberately less appealing to members who aren’t interested in creating positive ripples that serve the greater good. Do you want to instantly fill your life with more people like this?

Even More Intentionality

It’s been so beneficial to give a lot of attention to intentionality. In Year 7 we added monthly Intention Infusion calls, where we all set individual and group intentions for the upcoming month. Then we use the CGC forums to share related experiences as we go. We’re continuing that practice this year. On this morning’s call, our group intention was Fresh New Growth. Do you want to join us and align with this intention?

Direct Vibrational Practice

One of our new call formats this year is called Good Vibrations. On these calls you’ll get to directly practice shifting, expanding, and intensifying your vibe in different ways. Our first Good Vibrations call is on May 9. Imagining practicing this with other open-minded people, so you can intensify the feelings and get a clearer sense of what different vibes and energy patterns feel like and look like.

Consistent Start Time for Calls: 11:11 AM Pacific

For CGC Year 8 we’ve set a standard start time for our regular calls. Each call begins at 11:11 AM Pacific Time. That makes it easy for you to prioritize being available at this time if you want to attend lots of calls. All calls are on weekdays only, so you’ve got all your weekends free. This approach is fabulously good at deflecting members who choose to prioritize something else ahead of their self-development work. We make it extremely easy for excuse-makers to excuse themselves from joining. Consider what kinds of people make it into CGC then – yes, they’re more committed and more flexible. That’s what we want. This is very good for us.

More Group Calls Than Ever

By CGC Year 6 we had settled on hosting 33 coaching calls per year. In Year 7 we hosted about 80 calls, none of them with the old coaching call format. For Year 8 we’re aiming to host about 100 calls with vastly more variety than in any previous year. You can attend as many or as few calls as you want. Most weeks we have 1-3 calls, and there are some weeks that are call-free breaks during the year as well.

Envision Your Future Path

We have a new call type this year called Pure Imagination and another called Story Lab to help you further develop your imagination and cooperatively advance your unfolding life story. And for developing your character too, we have Stature Sculptor calls. In CGC you’re invited to work on yourself from many different angles. This is way, way beyond what you’ll get to experience anywhere else.

More Heart & Spirit Energy

I wouldn’t exactly use the label “spiritual” for this year in CGC, but I do like the word spirited. Heart alignment has always been a big part of CGC. In the past year, I’ve released my blocks to accepting that I want to invite more spirit-level interactions and engagement within CGC. We gradually transitioned further in this direction throughout Year 7, and with the start of Year 8, this is a strong commitment from me. I’ve lost interest in working with stuck-in-their-head types who prefer over-objectified models of reality, so I’m leaving them behind because their rigidity makes them too slow to change. So I’ve invited that misalignment to purge itself from CGC, so we’re no longer tethered to it going forward. You’ll see this shift playing out in my YouTubing this year as well. Pay special attention to the new Spirit Spire calls in CGC this year. If you want to take your life in a more spirited direction with many others who vibe with this too, I think you’ll really love this year in the club.

Flexible Engagement

CGC has always been good at offering flexible engagement with no parts of it considered mandatory to attend. This year we’ve added even more flexibility. For instance, on calls that have an experiential aspect, you have the option to be in the experiential “splash zone” where you can be an active participant, or you can be in observer mode, knowing that you’re free to just watch. You can even switch modes back and forth during a call if you want. So you can really dial in the kind of experience to match your energy in the moment. If you feel like being less engaged, you can still show up and learn from those who are having immersive growth experiences. And if you want to be part of the fun, you have the option to join them in the splash zone. Some CGC calls are a bit like shamanic journeys, where we all go through experiences together, but not with everyone at the same level of intensity. One member has a growth experience this way, we all partake in the gains.

More Friendship

Because CGC’s calls are more participatory, it’s easier for members to make friends and connect with each other because there’s more social interaction. Additionally, since we’ve been going for a full 7 years now, there’s been a lot more time for renewing members to connect and bond with each other. CGC is still immensely friendly and open towards new members though. We really haven’t see issues with cliquishness in recent years. The atmosphere inside is nice and cooperative and really not competitive. We seem to have developed a really good ethos of compersion inside, where members genuinely feel good about each other’s gains and successes and also comfort each other during setbacks and tough situations. There’s such a beautiful “we’re all in this together” vibe that permeates the club. Obviously we want to keep that going.

More Nurturing

Need to lick your wounds and just be comforted for a while without being pushed? Join our new Bear Care calls this year, where we give extra attention not just to self-care but to the community investing in caring for its own. Do you enjoy nurturing people who are receptive to and would appreciate some extra kindness, caring, compassion, and unconditional love? We’d love for you to join us on these calls to help us hold this space and fill it with gentle, nurturing, caring, and supportive vibes for those who could really use it.

Intuition & Trust

Another energy we really want to strengthen in CGC this year is self-trust – your ability to trust your own best intuition and wisdom and to make decisions that feel aligned to you. There’s a difference between sensing your intuition and trusting it enough to powerfully act on it, especially when you can’t see exactly where it will lead. Would you like to be able to trust yourself more? Let’s work on that together this year.

Amplify Your Uniqueness

Another key aspect of this CGC year is to help you accept and further develop what makes you so unique, original, and different. Even as we work together and support each other, we know that we all have different individual paths, no two of them the same. We don’t push the tired old concept of “modeling” in CGC, whereby you try to copy someone else’s supposed success formula or “proven” techniques. Rather we want to help you unearth and fully leverage your unique inner brilliance, which only you can apply to its fullest extent. In January 2025 we have a 4-day event called Rogue, which is about accepting and aligning with your unique path in life.

Balance

If you find juggling different interests and priorities challenging, this is a great year to join CGC, so you can go through our 4-day Bases Loaded event in July, where I’ll walk you through a process of rebalancing your priorities. I’ve made some really key advancements in understanding how to create a nicely balanced life, even with a lot going on, and I’m happy to walk through this. I think this alone will be worth the cost of your membership.

Fire Energy

Our Year 8 theme in CGC is Fire Infusion. This means inviting powerful transformational energy into your life to release the misaligned and to consciously invite what’s ready to emerge next. Burn off the old misalignments, and fire yourself up for new directions and experiences. You get to control the intensity though – from a microdose to a minidose to a heroic dose – by choosing how you want to engage with this infusion of fire energy that we’re inviting to dance with us in CGC Year 8. I can tell you now that some new members have joined this year specifically because this energy is really calling to them now. Is that you too?

Psychedelic Energy

If you’re open-minded enough to handle it, I invite you to attend our new Alien Popcorn calls this year. On these calls we’ll invite members who have the relevant experience to help open connections to psychedelic energy networks for us, which are among the most powerful we can collectively access. If you attended last year’s Spirt of Money or Power of Spirit calls with me – the recordings of both are included as part of your CGC membership – you’ve seen some of these energies in action. Our Alien Popcorn calls are intended for more advanced transformational work as well as helping to release and move stuck or stubborn energy. They may also help to open up creative thinking in fresh, divergent new directions. For those who are aligned with doing so, I invite you to join us and help us to channel these powerful energies for the greater good of all involved and for the positive ripples that may flow from such work.

So just a wee bit of improvement there, yes. 😉

This is the ultimate self-development experience for this community that took 7 years to evolve to this point – and it’s just $3 a day. Even the $1111 price is exactly what it has to be. That was chosen very deliberately. It’s both a both a filter and beacon for the right people who are meant to be a part of this.

There is a spirit-level aspect to CGC that really seems to guide us at each step, and this year it clearly wants to shift gears. If you’ve read through everything above, I imagine that it’s pretty obvious that this is no ordinary year in the club. Even on day 1 of this new CGC year, I can tell you it feels very different inside. I’ve said yes to playing my part. Now it’s your time to decide.

Here are are all the relevant links you need:

It’s okay to feel a little scared and still join us. This is meant to stretch you. It’s doing that to all of us.

This is one of the most important invitations you’ll ever receive in your life. Make the best decision you can. Trust yourself. Does your spirit want you in the club this year?

Share Button

Therapy to kill hypervirulent bacteria developed

Posted on by
Reply

University of Central Florida College of Medicine researcher Renee Fleeman is on a mission to kill drug-resistant bacteria, and her latest study has identified a therapy that can penetrate the slime that such infections use to protect themselves from antibiotics.

In a study published recently in Cell Reports Physical Science, Fleeman showed that an antimicrobial peptide from cows has potential for treating incurable infections from the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae. The bacteria, commonly found in the intestines, is usually harmless. It becomes a health hazard when it enters other parts of the body and can cause pneumonia, urinary tract and wound infections. Those at highest risk include seniors and patients with other health problems such as diabetes, cancer, kidney failure and liver disease. However, younger adults and people without additional health problems can acquire urinary tract and wound infections from the bacteria that cannot be treated by antibiotics available today.

The CDC reports that antibiotic resistant bacteria are a growing global health threat. A 2019 study found that nearly 5 million people died worldwide that year from drug-resistant infections. A large portion of those deaths are attributable to K. pneumoniae because it has a 50% death rate without antibiotic therapy.

These bacteria are more resistant to drugs when they live in a biofilm — microorganisms that stick together and are embedded in a protective slime. Recent studies have shown that 60-80% of infections are associated with bacteria biofilms, which increase their drug resistance.

“It’s Iike a coat that bacteria put around itself,” Fleeman says.

Her research is examining ways to remove the protective coat and expose the bacteria so it can be killed by the body’s immune system or antibiotics that currently cannot pass through the biofilm. Through that research, Fleeman discovered how the peptides made by cows can quickly kill K. pneumoniae.

She determined that the peptides interact with sugar connections that keep the slime intact. She likened the process to cutting into a chain-linked fence. Once multiple chains are cut, the integrity of the slime structure is damaged, and the peptide can enter and destroy the bacteria that are no longer protected.

“Our research has shown polyproline peptide can penetrate and begin to break the slime barrier down in as little as an hour after treatment,” says Fleeman.

The peptide has another advantage — once it breaks through the protective slime barrier, tests showed it killed the bacteria better than antibiotics used as a last resort to treat incurable infections. Peptides kill the bacteria by punching holes in their cell membrane, causing death quickly compared to other antibiotics that inhibit growth from inside the cell.

The peptide could also be used as a topical treatment for a wide range of uses, especially for the military, to treat open wounds in the field. “Bacteria divide every 30 minutes, so you have to act fast,” Fleeman says.

The next phase of her research will seek to understand the biology behind the peptide’s efficacy and if combinations of other drugs would aid in its application.

Her research is funded through a three-year National Institutes of Health funding Pathway to Independence R00 grant and is in its second year. Her study initially started as a K99 award at University of Texas at Austin, where she worked before joining UCF in September of 2022.

Fleeman says research into resistant infections must continue because they pose such a threat to health.

“It is estimated that by 2050, antibiotic resistant bacterial infections will be the number one cause of human deaths,” she says. “Our work is focused on preparing for this post-antibiotic era battle, where common antibiotics that we take for granted will no longer be effective, jeopardizing cancer therapy, organ transplants, and any modern medical advancement that relies on effective antibiotic therapies.”

Share Button