Nick Castro, the owner of Nick’s Extreme Pest Control in California, has been in the pest control industry for over 20 years.
He has seen many bizarre things in his career, but recently he came across a discovery that left him stunned.
Castro was called to a house to deal with a woodpecker that was causing damage to the siding by storing acorns in the holes it created.
When he cut into the wall to remove the acorns, he was met with a never-ending stream of acorns pouring out.
“They just kept coming and coming, non-stop,” Castro told The Dodo.
“Acorns were thought to be only about a quarter of the way up the wall. Turned out, they were piled high up to the attic of the house.”
Castro opened more holes around the house, but the acorns kept spilling out, totaling around 700 pounds, which filled eight large rubbish bags.
Nick Castro, the owner of Nick’s Extreme Pest Control in California, was called to a house to deal with a woodpecker that was causing damage.Facebook
According to the pest controller, the bird had stored acorns all over the house, creating clear woodpecker holes everywhere.
“You would think this bird had stored food all over,” Castro said.
“The bird had completely destroyed the exterior of the house with the holes it had made. Acorns were stored all over siding and trim.”
Castro said that the bird was “crazy.”
The woodpecker had holes all over the house where it would drop the acorns into the walls.Facebook
“We actually saw him there when we were there putting more in the holes he created,” he said.’
The bird had put acorns through the chimney stack after making hundreds of holes in the wood siding surrounding it, and then it came through the attic ventilation port holes.
“Acorns were piled from the lower floor to about 20 feet up into the attic,” Castro said.
At Nick’s Extreme Pest Control, “All animals are handled humanely and never euthanized,” and this case was no exception.
Despite the damage caused, the bird wasn’t harmed. Facebook
The woodpecker was left alone, and the homeowners simply patched the holes outside the house.
It was hoped that adding new vinyl siding would encourage the bird to find a new place to store its food, which would ultimately be best for the bird, whose hard work finding acorns was going to waste.
“I never saw anything like that before,” Castro said.
February is Black History Month, making it a timely moment to look at some inspiring black entrepreneurs in and around New York City.
Ahead, we put the spotlight on local movers and shakers, who also share their wisdom for other aspiring small business owners.
Khadejha (“Dejha B”) Brunner
Dejha B Coloring is a coloring book brand geared towards reducing stress and helping people harness their inner whimsy.
“Lingering coronavirus trauma and mental health issues among the Black community gave me an opportunity to create a business idea for transformational change,” said Brunner, who developed the brand from her home in The Bronx during the pandemic.
“As a recording artist I couldn’t make music, due to all recording studios being closed. My friend suggested coloring books. I picked up my son’s, and instantly felt relaxed.”
After searching for adult coloring books and unable to find any that were inspirational and featuring women of color, she created her first book, “Color Your Dreams Into Reality.”
Khadejha Brunner saw an opportunity to help the Black community with lingering mental health issues following the pandemic.Briana G Photography
Her advice: “Whenever you are collaborating or seeking advice, do your homework so you can get the best advice, or prices, for your business,” she said.
Renee Bishop
Bishop is founder and creative director of Deity New York, a ready-to-wear luxury womenswear brand that creates “timeless garments derived from European tradition and influences of city life.”
So far, the label has made six collections and made three New York Fashion Week appearances — not too shabby for a brand that was launched in 2020 out of the founder’s personal frustration with not finding luxury garments that worked with her curvy body type, which led her to designing for herself. After great feedback from friends and family, Bishop created Deity New York.
Renee Bishop’s brand has created six womenswear collections and made three New York Fashion Week appearances.Diety New York
Her advice: “Stay true to yourself and your vision. You will hear so many opinions and how you should do certain things. You will never be able to move forward with anything in your business if you try to listen to everyone,” she said.
Marcos Martinez
Martinez is the force behind the Manhattan-based Black, gay lifestyle blog, Men Who Brunch. As one of a handful of Black, gay bloggers in the area, he covers everything from the best, yes, Gay-friendly brunch restaurants in NYC to LGBTQ web series you should watch. He also produces events for the Black LGBT community. “The reason I started my business is to create a community and safe space for black gay men,” he said.
Marcos Martinez runs the lifestyle blog, Men Who Brunch.Epic Lenz
His advice: “Be passionate about your business and not focus on income. Passion will keep you motivated to run your business even when you go through your downfalls,” said Martinez.
Irene Smalls
After publishing 15 books with major publishers, Smalls, based in Harlem, was frustrated that she couldn’t publish the books that she felt Black children and the community needed. “So I started my own publishing company, Literacise, LLC,” said the CEO about her minority and women-owned business.
Smalls shared that her focus is children’s books with involving storylines and appealing imagery that also strive to improve black lives with actionable information. “At 73, I am black history — to have seen the seismic changes over the years.”
Irene Smalls started her own publishing company to release the books that she felt Black children and the community needed.Lynn McCann
Her advice: “Make sure you are filling a market need and not your own ego. Have a unique point of difference to your product or service,” she said.
Shaun Evans
Based in Westwood, NJ, Evans’ Envy Wrapz business wraps vehicles in paint protection film (PPF) to keep them from getting chipped or damaged. A car enthusiast, he started looking into PPF for his own vehicles. “I realized that I could get certified myself rather than paying someone else to do it,” he said.
Shaun Evans realized he could learn to wrap his own car instead of paying someone else to do it.Clarissa Evans
His advice: “Start your business now, even if you don’t feel ready. You will never be 100% prepared, but starting and making mistakes, then learning and moving forward is better than never starting at all,” said Evans.
Monique Glover
This Bronx native currently residing in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, created LaMonique Cosmetics to bring luxurious, affordable mineral-based cosmetic products without harmful ingredients to market. The recipient of the 2022 Meta small business Thought Starters award, her paraben-, gluten- and cruelty-free brand was also featured on Season 2 of BET’s Urban Beauty TV.
Monique Glover’s brand brings paraben-, gluten- and cruelty-free mineral-based cosmetics to the market.Tommy B. Glover Jr.
Her advice: “Know and understand your consumer base. You can spend hundreds on marketing but if you are marketing to the wrong people it can be useless,” she said.
Jessica Spaulding
Brownstone bars, Bodega Dreams, Across 110th Street bonbons? Don’t mind if we do. Harlem Chocolate Factory, helmed by Spaulding, creates edible versions of beloved Harlem destinations and historical sites. Visit the shop in-person, or order online or for local delivery via UberEats.
(Left to right) Jessica Spaulding with her business partner Asha Dixon. Clay Williams
Harlem Chocolate Factory creates edible versions of beloved Harlem destinations and historical sites. Clay Williams
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Her advice: “Ground yourself in your numbers. You don’t have to cost less because you’re black-owned; make sure you’ve accounted for your profit. Take care of your people and yourself but never lose sight of your products and services being profitable,” she said.
Nicole Alesi
Like many founders, Nicole Alesi was driven to build her empire after seeing a hole in the market: She wasn’t seeing BIPOC and LGBTQ+ representation in the greeting cards market, so she started making her own.
The Upper East Side resident created Nicole Marie Paperie with her first card in 2013. Now, it’s a full-time business with an e-commerce storefront.
Nicole Alesi was driven to build her business after wasn’t seeing BIPOC and LGBTQ+ representation in the greeting cards market.Nicole Marie Paperie
Her advice: “Mistakes happen when running a small business. What’s important is to take a pause and learn from these mistakes so you don’t repeat them again.”
An NYC native is garnering major eyeballs online due to her preternaturally huge peepers — which have earned her comparisons to Gollum from “Lord Of The Rings.”
A now-viral video compilation of the optically-endowed woman bug-eyeing the camera has racked up over 22 million views on TikTok.
“People say all kinds of crazy things about who or what I look like,” said Samantha McNab, 21, of her large lenses. “I’ve gotten everything from Tim Burton characters, bugs, Nicole Richie, Mr Bean, Gollum, cartoon characters… there’s almost nothing I haven’t heard before.”
The born New Yorker, who currently resides in Florida, even claims gawkers think she suffers from thyroid problems such as Graves disease — in which an overproduction of thyroid hormones causes the sufferer’s eyes to swell until they bulge out of their head.
However, she insists that her enormous orbs are 100% natural. “I’ve gotten tested in the past, big eyes are just in my genes and run in my family,” declares McNab.
“A lot of my comments are usually people thinking that I have thyroid problems or Grave’s disease – which I don’t,” said Samantha McNab. “I’ve gotten tested in the past, big eyes are just in my genes and run in my family.” Jam Press Vid/@sam.mcnab
McNab has learned to embrace her ocular anomalies. Jam Press/@sam.mcnab
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McNab says she was born with plus-size peepers. Jam Press/@sam.mcnab
“People say all kinds of crazy things about who or what I look like,” said McNab. Jam Press/@sam.mcnab
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Like Dumbo with his oversize ears, the burgeoning social media sensation has learned to embrace her colossal corneas, which she frequently uploads videos for the viewing pleasure of her more 270,000 followers on TikTok.
McNab’s most viral clip to date entails a montage of her bugging her eyes out to full mast like Judge Doom from “Roger Rabbit.”
Needless to say, gawkers were awestruck by over the gal’s supersize assets with one commenter writing: “Real life Tim Burton character — I’m jealous.”
“It‘s giving that one short horror film,” said another, while one viewer wrote, “The last one is terrifying.”
“This is how my mom used to look at me when I’d act up in public,” quipped one TikTok wit of McNab’s ocular anomalies.
Another joked that it reminded them of themselves trying to “stay awake in class.”
McNab claims she’s inspired many big-eyed women to embrace their condition.Jam Press Vid/@sam.mcnab “I find a lot of comments pretty funny,” said McNab.Jam Press Vid/@sam.mcnab
Meanwhile, other commenters compared the influencer to the bug-eyed titular character from the Pixar flick “Rango.”
McNab has learned to take the verbal eye pokes in stride, claiming that she now finds “a lot of the comments pretty funny.
“I mean even I think the things that I can do with my eyes and the way I look can be weird and kind of scary, but people love it,” the human tarsier declared.
Source inspiration: Gollum (voiced by actor Andy Serkis) in “The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King.” Everett Collection/Warner Bros.
Thankfully, not all the commentary has been negative. “I’ve gotten so many direct messages and comments from young girls saying how they have big eyes and have always been made fun of or bullied for it but my videos help give them the confidence they need,” McNab gushed. “That to me is the most rewarding.”
She summed up the experience like this: “I tell them that I love having this unique thing about me that allows me to stand out from other people in a good way – so why not embrace it?”
“People say all kinds of crazy things about who or what I look like – I’ve gotten everything from Tim Burton characters, bugs, Nicole Richie, Mr Bean, Gollum, cartoon characters… there’s almost nothing I haven’t heard before,” said McNab.Jam Press/@sam.mcnab
McNab’s not the first to turn her anomalous appearance to her advantage on social media.
Connecticut’s Samantha Ramsdell, who holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest mouth, has garnered over 3.5 million followers on TikTok by posting videos of herself consuming everything from sandwiches to marshmallows using her jumbo jaws.
ALBANY, Western Australia – Three men hoping for a rescue after their boat capsized Wednesday in the choppy Indian Ocean found an ice chest floating and clung to it to keep their heads above water and stay together.
The trio was fishing about 10 miles off the coast of Albany when their boat started taking on water. The men were forced to grab life jackets as the ship disappeared under the surface.
The swells were almost 7 feet high, according to SeaTemperature.info. The fully clothed fisherman were floating in 68-degree water for over 2 hours. While that might sound warm, water robs the body of heat 25 times faster than air, according to the CDC. Exhaustion or unconsciousness can set in within 2 to 7 hours.
Thankfully the trio had an EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon). The battery-powered device transmitted a continuous distress call which the Australia Maritime Safety Authority picked up around 1 p.m.
The fishermen had no other communication with authorities or other boats, so they just waited and hoped someone would find them.
Three fishermen flagging down a rescue helicopter after 2 hours clinging to a cooler.AMSA via Storyful
The video shows a rescue helicopter approach the men, who had huddled together for warmth and clung to the blue cooler. One fisherman is trying to flag down the aircraft while clutching the EPIRB. Ocean swells tower over their heads.
Officials rescued the three men and none suffered serious injuries. In a statement, the AMSA focused on the importance of boating with life jackets and a registered emergency beacon.
She wore itsy bitsy teeny weeny denim shorts that give her wedgies.
A Shein shopper has exposed the Chinese retailer’s latest clothing disaster online: jean shorts that show way more than booty cheeks.
“This picture is chafing me,” Twitter user Katherine Sliter tweeted.
And these jean shorts are not your average bottoms. Marketed as “Low Rise Booty Denim Shorts,” the denim garment looks more like a skimpy thong that barely covers nether regions.
The scandalous $12.99 shorts caused a frenzy on Twitter, with users stunned by such barely-there knickers.
“My crotch would never recover,” tweeted one person.
“That’s not enough fabric to cover the goods. I doubt those shorts would pass a public decency test,” wrote another.
Other Twitter users were confused, wondering how their dump truck would even fit inside the fun-size shorts — which didn’t even have a model wearing them in the listing.
“How do you fit anything in there?!” and “where does everything else go?” concerned shoppers commented.
Shein’s “Low Rise Booty Denim Shorts” have raised eyebrows.Shein The bottoms look like skimpy underwear instead of denim shorts. Jam Press
Although many people are dismayed over the shorts, some bold fashionistas wanted to experience “wedgie city” themselves.
“Omg, I look like a busted can of biscuits in Spanx!” one declared.
“Very cute, can’t wait to wear it to pole class,” added another.
“My husband loves these!” chimed in a bold fashionista.
Even with mixed reviews, the scanty bottoms are still available on Shein’s website in sizes 4 to 14 in four different colors.
It’s not the first time Shein was roasted for selling provocative clothing pieces.
Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest premium smartphones on Wednesday, in a test of its brand power as the market for mobiles undergoes unprecedented contraction.
The Galaxy S23 smartphone series has better cameras and faster chips than its predecessor, but analysts said early sales would face weak demand as consumers spent less on discretionary goods amid surging inflation.
The top-line S23 Ultra has Samsung’s first-ever 200-megapixel camera sensor, offering clearer photos after enlargement, and the series has adopted Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile processor, which is faster than chips used in the S22.
The S23 is the first Samsung phone to use Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card for games with heavy processor demands and for live-streaming playability. Many consumers judge a phone’s quality based on those functions.
Galaxy S23 Ultra phone AP
Galaxy S23 Plus phone AP
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The S23 is the first Samsung phone to use Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card for games AP
The base Galaxy S23 will be priced from $799. AP
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Samsung is working with companies such as Epic Games to optimize gaming experience on the phone.
In the United States, the base Galaxy S23 will be priced from $799 and two higher-specification versions, the S23 Plus and S23 Ultra, from $999 and $1,199, respectively. Samsung kept the prices at the same level as for last year’s model despite rises in component costs.
But global smartphone shipments showed the largest-ever decline in a single quarter in the October-December period, when they were down 18.3% on a year earlier at 300.3 million units, according to data issued by research firm IDC last month. The figures cast doubt on forecasts for modest recovery in the market for mobiles this year.
In that tough environment, analysts said Samsung’s mobile strategy would center on profitability through premium offerings, including the S series and foldables.
“Samsung can’t afford to focus on expanding volume anymore,” said Liz Lee, associate director at research firm Counterpoint.
“It must boldly simplify low- and mid-range products, the parts of the market where Chinese competitors have caught up a lot.”
Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360AP
Samsung said Tuesday that a decline in low- and mid-range smartphone sales in the fourth quarter had been greater than expected.
With the launch of the S23, the company is also improving interconnectivity of its devices to lock customers into using Samsung products rather than deserting to devices from Apple and other rivals. Analysts say Samsung has far to go in interconnectivity, however.
The company said that, in an industry first, the mouse cursor of its recent Galaxy Book laptop could move directly into a Samsung phone screen to click on things. Users would have to upgrade their phone’s software to use that feature, it said.
Trying to recall your own experiences at preschool or as a primary schooler are probably just hazy images, if that.
It’s totally normal and understandable and is a well-recognized phenomenon, known as “childhood amnesia.”
But one mom has revealed that she actually doesn’t remember her own kid’s childhoods, or rather — them as young children.
“They’re like separate entities”
They’re now much older and after recently looking at old photos of them as toddlers, she was left confused as she had difficulty reconciling the difference in ages.
Her children seemed like strangers to her.
In a viral post on Mumsnet yesterday, the mom, user EmpressOFTheSofa, shared a post titled, “I can’t remember my children.”
A mom went viral for a post about not being able to remember her children as babies.Getty Images/iStockphoto
She later admits that she knows that it sounds dramatic, but that’s honestly what’s happened.
The woman begins by saying, “I’ve just had a FB memory of my youngest doing something cute as a toddler. And watching it feels like watching my own cute baby but they have no relevance to the pre-teen I see now.”
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The mum ensures readers that she has a strong relationship with her kids, but for some reason, she can’t see any cohesion when she looks at pictures and videos of them then, versus now.
It’s like they’re different people, or “separate identities,” as she puts it.
“Is this weird?” she asks, before continuing to explain, “I can see pictures of my younger siblings and join that together with the adults they are now but with my kids, I seem to have a strange disconnect between who they were as infants and who they are as older children.”
The OP then admits that she’s finding it quite “disturbing”.
“It’s like ‘remember that toddler we used to know’ and ‘look at this funny child laughing at his own farts’. Love them, but they seem like completely different entities.
“Has anyone else experienced this or am I losing it?” she asks at the end of her post.
“I thought I was a monster”
Well, the response has been varied. Some say it could actually be a sign of an underlying mental issue and others say they’ve had similar experiences.
One person said, “I’d say it’s a cognitive issue if you look at photos of your kids but can’t remember them, sorry.”
A different user wrote, “I don’t think it’s that you can’t remember your kids, they’ve just changed a lot. Personality wise and looks.”
Another shared: “It’s not just you OP! It’s like adolescence comes along and steals your little children away and they morph into the same but different people. Also, I think you are so busy ‘doing’ when you are raising young children that it’s hard to stop and just savor the moment.
“I sometimes think there is some mechanism in our minds that makes us forget each stage to be honest.”
A different person added to this idea, musing, “The loss of memory of the details of your child’s early years could be seen as nature’s way of putting you in the present.”
This mama empathized, saying, “Absolutely can relate and I was actually thinking about posting something similar just recently. It’s as if the young children simply don’t exist anymore. I find looking at photos a very bittersweet experience.”
Someone else wrote, “I think this feeling is becoming more common since we started viewing life through our phones and social media. I’m making a conscious effort to be more in the moment now.”
Others put it down to tiredness and sleep deprivation. “I was so f—king knackered all the time when my kids were little that I think my brain just didn’t retain much of it.”
The OP posted a follow-up post after reading the comments: “I am so glad I posted this! I was feeling very low in general and particularly low about my big kids living away. The FB memory of my gorgeous toddler pretty much tipped me over as I couldn’t reconcile him with the farty little 10-year-old monster.
“I thought I was the monster because I couldn’t remember my babies as babies.
“Thank you, Mumsnet. 20 years here and you are still making my life better even though they aren’t babies any more.”
She’s got a green thumb — but it’s nothing to brag about.
A woman was left horrified after she appeared to grow mold under her acrylics, realizing she was the victim of a common manicure mistake.
Rings of fungus now decorate her bare nails, she shared in a viral TikTok, which has grown to over 248,000 views since it was posted last week.
“Your sign not to keep infilling and just give your nails a break,” the user, who goes by @cleancookfun, wrote on the clip.
Acrylic nails are applied with nail adhesive — if done with faux tip extensions to lengthen the nail — and powder, which is sealed onto the nail.
Improper application, or lifts and cracks in the acrylic, can lead to a nasty fungal infection if moisture becomes trapped between the product and the natural nail.
Skipping regular soak-offs and receiving continuous fills for acrylics — or not taking the product entirely off every few weeks and just re-applying it on top when the nail has grown out — can give way to moisture-loving fungi.
Acrylic nail fungal infections typically occur when water is trapped between the product and the nail.Twitter/@cleancookfun
Heathline recommends at-home treatments for mild cases, while more advanced infections might require a doctor’s prescription.
“Feel so manky,” the TikToker captioned the clip as she showed off her green-tinged natural nails.
Other manicure enthusiasts filled the comments section with remedies and advice, with some disparaging the unnamed nail technician who performed the work.
“Should have had more regular maintenance,” one user scolded.
“You don’t have a good nail tech, this happens when moisture gets under the acrylic. So they should have filled any cracked/split acrylic down,” another agreed.
“Use Tea Tree oil! Works wonders,” someone else suggested.
“This happens from leaving it too long between fills, nail tech not prepping right or nail tech not soaking off after the 2nd fill,” declared another.
“If your set ever happens to lift again and you can’t make an appointment for some reason blow dry the lifted area on cool to help prevent!” recommended one user.
“I got this off a pedicure as well, get some treatment asap!! it’s deff the salons fault not because u haven’t had a break,” another confessed.
Others assured the TikToker they also suffered from a nail fungal infection.
A Missouri family has seen some strange things prowl on their farmland in the Ozark Mountains, but discovering a wild African cat was a first.
The Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, received an email on Jan. 17 from a farmer in Ava, Missouri, that he had caught an African serval in a live trap. He told the sanctuary that the cat had been meandering on his property for about 6 months.
“Whenever it was little, I came home late one night, and it runs across the road … I thought, ‘wow, that was a crazy-looking cat,’” the farmer’s son said in a video posted by the sanctuary on its Facebook page.
Refuge president Tanya Smith said the cat escaped somewhere or was let go near the farm.
“They had taken it to the vet and tried to find if it had a microchip in it, and it didn’t,” she said. “There was no identification for this little this African serval.”
The 30-pound cat is estimated to be about 6 years old. African servals are typically found south of the Sahara Desert.
The serval was captured in Missouri ad a wildlife refuge from Arkansas picked it up. Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge: YouTube
‘Nobody knew where this cat had come from’
The captured African serval had been successful at hunting and was able to find birds to eat, which was evident from the feathers scattered in her lair between some hay bales.
“It’s probably what saved it through this last big storm we had,” Smith said.
After traveling about 2 hours north to Ava, Smith and her team were able to transfer the animal from the live trap into a pet carrier. They brought her back to the sanctuary and put her in their veterinary clinic quarantine area. She was full of parasites and worms.
“Nobody knew where this cat had come from,” Smith said. “She was full of fleas and had some other issues going on with some frostbite on her tail.”
On Friday, Smith said she took two calls from people who thought it was their cat.
“How many are out there? Crazy!,” she said.
The cat escaped somewhere or was let go near the farm.Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge: YouTube
Looking for a lifetime of love
It can be a rough life in the wild for African servals. Even though they’re not completely domesticated, they haven’t really been taught to hunt like they were raised by their mother.
“Who knows how long she was out there,” Smith said. “If we hadn’t rescued her, I’m afraid that she wouldn’t have lived more than a couple more weeks because of the infection in her paw was pretty significant.”
The African cat species is not used to Ozark winters. Even at the Arkansas sanctuary, caregivers provide heated buildings for these animals because they are indigenous to Africa.
Smith said there’s a problem with these types of animals being let loose. This was the third over the years that ended up at the sanctuary after it was released into the wild environment.
Today, the cat is doing well. As she recovers, the sanctuary is looking for somebody to sponsor her care. The non-profit is looking for anyone that wants to commit for the cat’s lifetime – which could be up to 20 years of age.
“This was an emergency rescue. We weren’t really prepared for bringing another African serval in,” Smith said. “We do have nine already at the refuge, but we have decided to keep her here, and we have made room for her.”
After a medical checkup, the serval was placed in a recovery cage and monitored by staff at the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge.Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge: Facebook
African servals make terrible pets
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge was founded by Smith’s family in 1992. The nearly 500-acre ranch was started after a black-market breeder showed up on a woman’s doorstep with 42 lions and tigers in three cattle trailers. The breeder was on the run from the law in Texas and desperately needed to find a home for the cats.
A friend of the woman’s family lived on a ranch in Eureka Springs and offered temporary refuge for the cats. The ranch, known today as Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, has rescued more than 400 big cats and 100 other animals over the last 31 years.
The sanctuary was also instrumental in getting the Big Cat Public Safety Act passed last year. Signed by President Joe Biden on Dec. 20, it officially ends the dangerous trade in pet big cats. It also helps ensure that no more cubs are ripped from their mothers at birth to be traumatized for profit, according to the Animal Welfare Institute.
While the law stops people from speed breeding big cats, the smaller cats, like African servals, caracals, and Savannah cats aren’t part of that same legislation. Smith said she continues to get calls on these smaller breed exotic animals from people thinking they are going to make a good pet. However, they soon discover that they can’t train it right and stop feeding on raw meat.
“It’s not going to be fine in your house,” Smith said. “It’s going to eat your other pets or attack your children or pee in your house, because they’re very territorial.”
Alzheimer’s disease could be diagnosed 3.5 years earlier, thanks to a simple blood test.
A study conducted by researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College in London found a blood test that can potentially predict the risk of developing the deliberating disease years before a clinical diagnosis is made.
The study, published in the journal Brain, suggests there are parts of blood in humans that can influence the generation of neurons from neural stem cells in the brain. Called neurogenesis, this takes place in the hippocampus, the area of the brain that controls learning and memory.
In its early stages, Alzheimer’s disease affects the formation of new brain cells in the hippocampus.
The study was conducted over several years with researchers collecting blood samples and observing 56 people who had been diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), which symptoms involve a decline in memory, language or judgment, and can sometimes lead to Alzheimer’s disease.
The study could lead to an earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Getty Images/Image Source
Those diagnosed with MCI develop Alzheimer’s disease at a much higher rate than those who do not, and of the 56 participants in the study, 36 were later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Previously, researchers have only been able to study neurogenesis in Alzheimer’s sufferers post-mortem.
When the study looked at blood samples of participants in the earlier stages of developing Alzheimer’s disease, they found that the changes in neurogenesis occurred 3.5 years prior to a clinical diagnosis.
Researcher’s from King’s College London established a blood-based test that could predict the risk of Alzheimer’s.Getty Images
The study’s authors said the research may have found the first evidence in humans suggesting how the body’s circulatory system can effect the brain’s ability to form new cells, giving a timeline to the development of Alzheimer’s.
“In our study, we aimed to use this model to understand the process of neurogenesis and to use changes in this process to predict Alzheimer’s disease,” Professor Sandrine Thuret, the study’s lead author, said.
Thuret noted previous studies conducted on young mice showed their blood has a rejuvenating effect on the awareness of older mice by improving hippocampal neurogenesis.
“This gave us the idea of modeling the process of neurogenesis in a dish using human brain cells and human blood,” she continued. “In our study, we aimed to use this model to understand the process of neurogenesis and to use changes in this process to predict Alzheimer’s disease, and found the first evidence in humans that the body’s circulatory system can have an effect on the brain’s ability to form new cells.”
The findings could potentially allow the prediction of Alzheimer’s in a non-invasive way, as well as help to understand more of what the brain goes through during the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
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The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
