New Things

֎ “Flesh-eating” bacteria that live in the ocean may be spreading to previously unaffected beach waters thanks to climate change, according to a new report.

In the report authors described five cases of severe flesh-eating bacterial infections in people who were exposed to water or seafood from the Delaware Bay, which sits between Delaware and New Jersey. Such infections have historically been rare in the Delaware Bay, as the bacterium responsible for the disease, called Vibrio vulnificus, prefers warmer waters, such as those in the Gulf of Mexico.

But with rising ocean temperatures due to climate change, V. vulnificus may be moving farther north, making these infections in areas previously off-limits, the authors said. [Livescience.com]

֎ Also from Livescience.com, Scientists Develop New Laser That Can Find and Destroy Cancer Cells in the Blood.

Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood. And now, researchers have developed a new kind of laser that can find and zap those tumor cells from the outside of the skin.

Though it may some time before becoming a commercial diagnostic tool, the laser is up to 1,000 times more sensitive than current methods used to detect tumor cells in blood, the researchers reported June 12 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

News programs have been announcing that Facebook will have its own digital currency, largely circumventing traditional banks. In Africa Senegal has had such an arrangement since 2011. The reason Senegal moved to independent digital cash is because there are very few banks in Senegal. Virtually all cash transactions are made between special smartphones called E-Wallets. This device-to-device method has its good side in that it is difficult to track an individual’s transactions without a credit card that is tracked by banks who leverage financial information to other sources and, of course, it is more convenient than writing checks or carrying cash.

The downside is Facebook. If every cell in one’s body had a unique name, Facebook would know the names and sell them to anyone. The same is true of personal likes, dislikes, friends, family, possessions, religion, politics, daily habits, cuisine – and now where one spends their money, how much they have and the state of their finances.

Soon there will be as many types of cryptocurrency as there are paper currencies. Be prepared. Cryptocurrency is here to stay and will be an independent adjunct to every large corporation’s products. Just watch Walmart and Amazon as they incorporate their own version of cryptocurrency. Paypal has a great future as a blockchain.

By the way, does anyone have a real quarter? This pinball machine still requires cash.

Ancient Mariner

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