Caffeine is Very, Very Strange...
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Yes alkaloids are common insect poisons in plants. They are bitter to the taste, because we evolved to sense poisons as having a bad taste. I think much of the reason people drink caffeine is because we live an unnatural lifestyle where we can't nap during the heat of the day because of work, so we have to do things to stay awake.
Another interesting case is producing estrogen-like chemicals, or chemicals which affect estrogen levels. This is done to effectively put herbivores on "birth control" to keep their numbers down so they don't eat the plants.
"Plants have physical and chemical mechanisms for defense from attack by animals. Phytochemical defenses that protect plants from attack by insects include antifeedants, insecticides, and insect growth regulators. Phytochemical options exist by which plants can modulate the fertility of the other major group of plant predators, vertebrate herbivores, and thereby reduce cumulative attacks by those herbivores. The success of such a defense depends upon phytochemical mimicry of vertebrate reproductive hormones. Phytoestrogens do mimic reproductive hormones and are proposed to be defensive substances produced by plants to modulate the fertility of herbivores."
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1474615/
I first heard about this years ago when it was advised not to use, Vitamin E I think it was, or D, derived from wheat germ, as it contained estrogen or estrogen-like chemicals which the plant made to reduce fertility in herbivores. It was better to use synthetic vitamins.
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The US is not the only country slipping into instability due to a shrinking middle class.
A wave of protests in Indonesia turned violent last week after footage showed elite paramilitary police running over 21-year-old delivery driver Affan Kurniawan.
At least eight people have died, hundreds injured and more than 1,240 people have been arrested in the capital, Jakarta, since Thursday โ and at least 20 people are missing, according to the KontraS rights group.
The military was deployed across Jakarta on Monday as hundreds gathered outside parliament and clashes were reported in several other cities. Troops were also stationed along major streets in Surabaya, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Makassar, local reports said.
Mounting economic hardship, policies perceived as indifferent to the struggles of ordinary citizens and a political elite seen as lacking empathy have all converged to fuel public anger.
World Bank data shows that about 60% of Indonesia's workforce still depends on the informal sector, without stable income or social protection.
This has been worsened by a shrinking middle class: millions slipping into lower-income brackets or outright poverty.
According to figures from the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS), nearly 10 million Indonesians experienced downward mobility in the past five years.
What is behind Indonesia's deadly protests?
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Oh yeah shorts don't embed. I usually take the video code Example: Yx11aZx0zWU and paste that in a normal Youtube link.
As such
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What do you mean a normal youtube link? I used the video embed green icon with play arrow as always.
Click Edit under my post and you'll see. The tags are there.l i t t l es t e p h e r sNote
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Magnรบs: - I have fans of all ages and I don't think it's weird when older people like LazyTown. LazyTown appeals to people for many different reasons: dancing, acrobatics, etc.Note
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Well getting educated about youtube links at least in this classroom....
Let me try
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Thanksl i t t l es t e p h e r sNote
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The normal youtube link without the shorts in the url.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx11aZx0zWU
As opposed to using https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Yx11aZx0zWU
In the insert video clip url
I've posted what should be shorts in the listening thread every now and again but using the standard Youtube URL
not with the shorts in the URL.Note
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Earth's many quasi moons
Also, that new interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, is expected to become visible and be observable in the morning sky in early December 2025.
Something to look forward to. I hope I don't forget.
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Giant cucumbers are attackingl i t t l es t e p h e r sNote
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Million-year-old skull rewrites human evolution, scientists claim
Includes a 45 second video summarizing the impact.
"The white skulls are the original, distorted fossils and the grey ones are replicas that have been computer corrected"
grey 3-D printed skulls
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