SACRAMENTO

California’s capital emerges from a lengthy stretch of small stature to become a spotlight city where the gold nuggets aren’t hard to mine.

California’s capital city has long lived in the shadows of its flashier neighbors. Sandwiched between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, “Sac”, as the locals call it, is often underestimated and overlooked as a small and sleepy cow town – a rest stop on the way to greener and glitzier pastures. But thanks to the downtown revitalization and the rousing success of “Lady Bird” – Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated homage to her home town – Sacramento has suddenly, and rightfully, thrust into the spotlight.

In general, you can never be too old to donate blood. Though you can be too young or too thin.

The American Association of Blood Banks used to bar people over 65 from donating blood, but it scrapped the rule in 1978 after studies found that older people who stored their own blood prior to surgery did well, said Dr. Steven Kleinman, the association’s senior medical adviser. Now most blood banks are happy to accept blood from older volunteers.

“We found over time that individuals who are older do just fine donating blood, as long as they don’t have certain medical conditions that make them ineligible,” said Dr. Ross Herron, the chief medical officer of the West division of the American Red Cross, which collects 40 percent of the blood supply in the United States. (…)

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Russian jet intercepts US Navy plane

A Russian Su-27 fighter jet performed an "unprofessional" intercept of a US Navy P-8 surveillance plane while it was flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea Tuesday, two defense officials told CNN.

The Russian jet came within about 20 feet of the US aircraft, one official said, adding that the encounter lasted about nine minutes.

The intercept was described by officials as safe but unprofessional, though a US Navy official told CNN that the Navy does not officially classify aerial encounters that way. The Navy classifies aviation intercepts simply as either safe or unsafe.

Lt. Cdr. Zach Harrell, a spokesman for US Naval Forces Europe, declined to comment on the specific incident, saying, "US Navy ships and aircraft routinely interact with military units from other countries.". He added that the Navy would provide information on unsafe interactions.

The last unsafe intercept of a US Navy aircraft by a Russian jet occurred in January when a Russian Su-27 jet flew within five feet of a US Navy EP-3, forcing the Navy plane to fly through its jet wash. The US Navy deemed that intercept unsafe and unprofessional.

Following that incident, the US State Department issued a statement accusing the Russians of "flagrantly violating existing agreements and international law.".

TEXTO:

“These days, there’s such a focus on protein and
healthy fats and avoiding carbs at all costs (including
sugar, which is, of course, a carb). However,
carbohydrates are actually good—and necessary!—
[5] if you exercise regularly, particularly for endurance
workouts,” says Melissa Majumdar, who specializes
in sports nutrition.
Whether you’re eating a complex carb (like
brown rice) or a simple one (the honey on your Greek
[10] yogurt), your body breaks it down into glucose—and
that liquid sugar coursing through your veins is the
preferred fuel source for your muscles (and brain, and
everything else for that matter). “Think of it as the
energy that powers the building,” Majumdar says.
[15] “Your body can use fat and protein as fuel, but they’re
not nearly as efficient and readily available as
carbohydrates.”

Stephen Hawking recently said he knows what happened before the Big Bang. Other times, he blew our minds.

Famed physicist Stephen Hawking definitively answered one of humankind's grandest questions last week — What was around before the Big Bang? "Nothing was around," Hawking told astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson March 10 on his show StarTalk.
Saying he uses a "Euclidean approach to quantum gravity to describe the beginning of the universe," Hawking goes deep into what that actually means. A degree in astrophysics will help you understand, but he makes a concise point about the Big Bang, which happened nearly 14 billion years ago.
"The Euclidean space-time is a closed surface without end, like the surface of the Earth," he said. "One can regard imaginary and real time as beginning at the South Pole, which is a smooth point of space-time where the normal laws of physics hold. There is nothing south of the South Pole so there was nothing around before the Big Bang."
Hawking would regularly blow our minds with his theories on what happened and what's to come in our universe. Last year, he explained how we humans may have about 100 years left on Earth. Then there was his prediction Earth would become a "ball of fire" within about 600 years.
From: https://goo.gl/S4bQP2. Accessed on 04/25/2018

What the World Needs Now

Lyrics by Hall David

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of

What the world needs now is love, sweet love,

No not just for some but for everyone.

Lord, we don’t need another mountain,

There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb

There are oceans and rivers enough to cross,

Enough to last till the end of time.

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England’s Mental Health Experiment: No-Cost Talk Therapy

England is in the midst of a unique national experiment, the world’s most ambitious effort to treat depression, anxiety and other common mental illnesses. The rapidly growing initiative, which has gotten little publicity outside the country, offers virtually open-ended talk therapy free of charge at clinics throughout the country: in remote farming villages, industrial suburbs and isolated immigrant communities. The goal is to eventually create a system of primary care for mental health for all of Britain.
At a time when many nations are debating large-scale reforms to mental health care, researchers and policy makers are looking hard at England’s experience, observing both its popularity and its limitations. Mental health care systems vary widely across the Western world, but none have gone nearly so far to provide unlimited access to talk therapies backed by hard evidence. Experts say the English program is the first broad real-world test of treatments that have been studied mostly in carefully controlled lab conditions.

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A French art expert believes a charcoal drawing kept in a collection for more than 150 years may be a preparatory sketch made by Leonardo da Vinci of the Mona Lisa.
The black-and-white drawing of a woman, nude from the waist up, known as the Monna Vanna, was previously attributed to Leonardo’s studio, suggesting it was done in his style by a pupil or follower, not by the master himself.
But after preliminary tests at the Louvre Museum, experts believe the sketch may well have been drawn by Leonardo.
Among the signs, according to curator Mathieu Deldicque, are the fact the drawing was made during the same period as the
Mona Lisa, the paper is from the same region of Italy, and the technique is very similar to that of the Mona Lisa.
“We know the drawing was made during the lifetime of Leonardo da Vinci, we know that the paper was made in Italy, between Venice and Florence, and the third discovery is the high quality of this drawing in the face of the Monna Vanna and in her arms,” Deldicque told reporters.
“That’s very interesting because the arms are the same as the Mona Lisa‘s.” Leonardo, who lived from 1452 to 1519, was an engineer, scientist, inventor and sculptor, as well as one of the finest artists of the Italian Renaissance.
He painted the Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda and regarded as the world’s most valuable artwork, at the beginning of the 16th century. It is believed to depict Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a successful merchant.
EXCITING
The charcoal portrait, in which the woman is holding a similar pose to the Mona Lisa but with her body more side-on and her head turned further over her left shoulder, has been held in a collection at the Conde Museum at the Palace of Chantilly, north of Paris, since 1862.
The Mona Lisa and Monna Vanna hold their hands in very similar ways, the right hand across the left and resting on the forearm, the fingers gently extended. Deldicque said that while it was exciting to think the charcoal drawing was created by Leonardo, there were more tests to be done.
“We have one more month of analysis and then a very slow process of history of art with a collection of analysts and advice by specialists,” he said.
It is possible that process will determine that the authorship is the same. But it may also be inconclusive, he said, adding: “Maybe the mystery will remain.”