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If you are a cancer survivor or have friends/family who have

I am intrigued by the research of this... Like many of you, I have many friends who are either currently or have gone through cancer treatment.. Radiation and chemo.. Many times, the drugs they use have some of the same base elements the military used in the mustard gases for the war in Vietnam. Ultra poisonous stuff that there are side effects.

About 10 years ago, I was intrigued by a special I watched in the area of cancer cure called ANGIOGENESIS INHIBITORS. The definition is in the etymology of the words itself, like most medical terminology.. ANGIO(blood vessel); GENESIS(beginning); inhibitors(prevention from). Put it together and it is the prevention of the beginning of blood vessels.. It was started by an ultra talented doctor originally from Ohio but ended his career at Harvard as a distinguished professor, Dr. Judah Folkman.. If you want to read a tremendously interesting story, read about this guy. He has inspired some of the best cancer researchers in the world today.. I was a few months from going to see one of his lectures as a representative of some friends who struggled with cancer. He died in the Denver airport on the way to a lecture in Seattle, 8 years ago.. A very sad day for me.

The idea, in a nutshell, is to promote factors the body already has, to prevent tumors from growing or metastasizing through the recruitment of blood vessels. Simply, when a tumor starts, it is a living organism that recruits blood vessels from the body to feed the tumor.. Not only that, but as pathways to change location in the body and start new colonies of tumors(metastasis). The body produces growth factors that actually protect the tumor as it grows, so that is the reason you want to catch it early. The body also has things that PREVENT the body from having cancerous tumors.. The truth is ALL of us have cancerous cells that normally divide and die, on a daily basis.. For the ones that stick, we call it "HAVING CANCER". They recruit blood vessels that look like a city highway system under a microscope. The vessels become leaky, which causes the indicators of cancer(ex: blood in the stool - rectal cancer; blood in the sputum - throat cancer, etc.).

The theory behind the treatment is since the body already has these inhibitors, it protects the bone marrow(white blood cells) when used, DOES NOT CAUSE PEOPLE TO LOSE THEIR HAIR OR HAVE THE DEBILITATING NAUSEA. Though the other things are more important, the nausea and vomiting from the treatment makes life miserable for the patient. Angiogenesis inhibitors would reduce or eliminate that. If angiogenesis inhibitors would consistently work, none of those things would be a problem. You would take a pill and the situation would either leave a tumor in a spot where it would not affect the body(would not metastasize or grow) and there would not be the nasty side effects.

The problem was, a few years ago, AVASTIN was supposed to be the wonder drug.. It DID NOT 'hit it out of the park' in scientific terms.. There are other anti-angiogenesis drugs like endostatin that have been around and used in combination with other treatments.....Dr Folkman died before he got to see the fruition of some of his bigger experiments.. I call Harvard from time to time, and the research is still going full bore... There has been compassion approval by the FDA to use some of these drugs as alternative treatments, with success.. Compassion approval is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO GET and insurance companies are not necessarily eager to pay for those treatments.......I AM WONDERING IF ANYONE ELSE HAS USED THIS TREATMENT, EITHER IN COMBINATION WITH OTHER TREATMENTS, OR AS A STAND ALONE TREATMENT?? If you ahve, can you share how much success there has been???
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RJ basketball ? (It's a serious ?)

I haven't been watching basketball (I'll be honest I only watch when they're good and games are meaningful but I don't watch any other basketball either). It has been reported here, other places and a lot on Twitter that William Arena has a lot of empty seats each home game. My question is, are the seats sold and no one sitting in them or are the empty seats not generating any revenue?

Positives as we finish up the class

  • Checked around last night and there are no current commits who are trying to be pulled away other than the ones we've already discussed
  • It's been a great class so far, even if the last few targets have been misses
  • There are two Minnesotans going to other power five schools who received basically no attention from the Gophers because of how full and good our class already was
  • The team's adding more instant contributors than most classes: Jackson, Calhoun, Wright, probably McCrary, Coughlin, etc.
  • This class seems to be closer knit than previous classes, in terms of having a group text, a nickname, etc
  • There are more early enrollees than there have been in a while
This list could keep going...

My pet's head is securely on. It is frustrating when you're second or third place for several targets down the stretch, but let's not forget the bigger picture. There are many good things to the class, and it's definitely not a class you should look at and be disappointed with.

North Star Cup

Well, with football having an underwhelming season, and basketball historically bad, all of my attention has shifted to the blue line.

Hockey had under-performed horribly to start the season, but are currently on a nice 5 game winning streak. This weekend is the big North Star Cup where they'll play Bemidji St then either Kato or St Cloud. This is their last non-big10 games of the year, and will be HUGE for the Pairwise, and trying to make the NCAA without winning the big10 tourney. It would be a shame to miss the tourney, especially since the X is the site for the west regional s.

With the citypages garbage article, it could either validate their crap agenda, or throw it in their face after this weekend. GO GOPHERS! #PrideOnIce!
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concussions

Speaking of concussions did anybody read the article about how medical folks are studying woodpeckers to see how they can avoid brain damage when they bang their heads all day long? I think it said they have muscles in their necks that constrict blood flow to the brain and then the brain doesn't bounce around so much. I have lots of woodpeckers around my house and they really do bang their heads hard when they are hunting insects. And you ought to see the pileated woordpeckers feed their fledglings. Talk about ramming the food down their throats.
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Minnesota at Michigan Game Thread

Here is my preview. I talked a lot today.

https://minnesota.n.rivals.com/news/michigan-pregame-1

I was asked some Qs from the Michigan site and here are those answers in addition to what I wrote for this site

What are the primary reasons behind Minnesota’s struggles so far this season?

Minnesota is a young team who has recently been starting three freshman and two sophomores. One of those starters (Ahmad Gilbert) is out 3-4 weeks with a hand injury so the Gophers will try yet another new line-up tonight. Minnesota's issue is that they are young and playing a lot of inexperienced players, they have only three upperclassmen and two of them don't play like matured upperclassmen, plus the entire team struggles defensively regardless if the team is in man to man or playing zone. Quality wings have been putting up big numbers on Minnesota all season long. When they play with energy they compete well (like they did at home against Michigan State and Indiana), when they play without energy and confidence they get beat like they did at home against Northwestern and on the road at Nebraska.
What are the strengths of this Gopher team?

Minnesota's strengths.

They have some young talent. Freshman power forward Jordan Murphy is a regular double-double guy, sophomore point guard Nate Mason is a controlled playmaker, freshman shooting guard Dupree McBrayer and sophomore center Bakary Konate are starting to become more consistent, and senior Joey King is one of three players in the nation (along with Oklahoma's Buddy Hield and Gonzaga's Kyle Wiltjer) who are shooting 90 percent or above from the foul line and 40 plus percent from the arc. King has been inconsistent lately but is always a three point threat.


Who are some perhaps under the radar players Michigan fans should watch out for?

With Minnesota being young and struggling, they are all pretty much under the radar. Dupree McBrayer is a guy that is starting to turn the corner. He is a freshman that had a terrible start to the year shooting but now he's starting and has been shooting a lot more consistently plus his court IQ on both ends of the floor is way higher than expected as a first year player. Freshman Jordan Murphy is a quick leaping, explosive finishing frosh that has Minnesota excited for the future. He's a double double guy when he is out of foul trouble.


Minnesota will pull off the upset if…

They play with the same energy they had against Indiana on Saturday and if they find a rhythm offensively which would include few turnovers and even fewer bad shots plus they will need Joey King to have another big game (17-22 points) and for Murphy to stay out of foul trouble. And they would need some luck.


Michigan will win the game if…

They simply come out and compete with energy and don't overlook the Gophers. If the Wolverines start the game with a focus, compete as a team like they have been most of the year, they will eventually break a young and fragile Gopher squad.

Will Evans update

Aquinas (Ga.) defensive end Will Evans, who was recently offered, told me this: "I'm not considering [Minnesota] because they are so far away." So what's next? Well, the Gophers are working hard on Watts and Fant, and Moye just visited. Louisiana Tech commit Eric Kendzior has heard from Minnesota a little bit as has South Alabama commit Bryce Huff. I'm working to find out more defensive lineman targets right now.

Official Visitor 1/24 Update

I am hearing conflicting things from very good sources. After I was told I could release the names of the visitors, someone else told me later that day that Gilliam did not have his official set up yet. I was told again yesterday that Gilliam was not on campus this weekend, and that's the last update I've received. However, AZJ's source is adamant that Gilliam was on campus this weekend. So there's a lot of ambiguity with Gilliam right now.

4:06 Update: I'm told for a third time that Gilliam did not visit, and I'll now take that for fact. Tobias Gilliam did not visit Minnesota this weekend.

  • Poll
Poll: Does posting on here affect recruiting?


Of course overall numbers of fans could affect recruiting. But in the case of the Gophers and GI, this is what I want to do a poll of. Do you think that if a few more posters get 'negative'....or post some 'questionable' stuff....do you think that could affect recruiting?

I say 'no'. The way my popularity has been lately, this might prompt some to vote 'yes' lol. But seriously, tell me what you really think.

Southern Miss head coach Monken takes Bucs job

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Southern Miss head coach Todd Monken has joined the Bucs as offensive coordinator / wide receivers coach, as first reported by the Tampa Bay Times. Read more here.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Vanderbilt cornerbacks Brett Maxie will join the Bucs staff as a defensive backs coach, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Maxie has spent the past two years at Vanderbilt and spent the previous 16 as an NFL assistant.

Both southern miss and Vandy schools we recruit against.
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