FASTER, PLEASE: Can we delay ageing?

Quietly, over the past few decades, remarkable discoveries have been made about the biology of ageing. Since we all get older, it might seem that ageing “just happens” and can’t really be changed. In contrast, age-related disease does not seem inevitable, since not everyone gets cancer, heart disease or dementia. Accordingly, much research funding has been directed towards individual diseases, whereas very little has been directed towards ageing itself.

This is regrettable, since ageing is the greatest risk factor for many diseases; far greater than, say, smoking. If we could gain control over the ageing process, we should be able to maintain health and youthfulness for longer, and increase our resistance to age-related disease.

Ageing is a natural progressive decline that affects all organ systems and coincides with an increased risk of death. Many processes in biology, like the formation of muscles in an embryo, are governed by key “regulatory genes”, genes that can co-ordinate an entire programme of events. Evolutionary biologists long argued that regulatory genes for ageing would not exist. Ageing happens after reproduction, they argued, so a gene controlling ageing should have no effect on reproductive fitness, and so would have no way to arise by natural selection.

Thus it was surprising to discover that the rate of ageing of an entire animal could be changed dramatically by altering single genes. . . .

So far, we do have life-extending drugs for mice. Rapamycin, which targets a stress sensor called TOR, extends the average lifespan of mice by about 25 per cent, and experiments with pet dogs are under way, co-ordinated by scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle. But rapamycin can have side effects in humans (where it is used to modulate the immune system following organ transplants), so its usefulness may be limited for now.

The lifespan of a mouse can also be increased by feeding it nicotinamide riboside (NR), a nutraceutical that raises energy levels (but buyer beware: clinical trials have not been carried out). On the other, more pessimistic, hand, it is possible that we humans, with our long lifespans, have an already-active cell-protection system. Like small dogs and bats, we live longer than expected for our body size. (Among most species of mammals, a larger body size correlates with longer lifespan.)

Right now, many researchers, even those not thinking about ageing, are trying to make drugs that boost this cell-protective network. Their motivation stems from the fact that this network not only counteracts ageing, it also counteracts age-related disease. For example, elevating the levels of FGF21, a hormone normally made in response to starvation, has beneficial effects on overweight mice fed a “western diet”, and thus might counteract diseases associated with obesity, such as diabetes. Activating this cell-protection system suppresses many types of cancer in laboratory mice, and several of its components are targets for cancer interventions. Activating the system can also improve the weakened response that elderly people have to flu vaccinations. So the wheel is turning and, before too long, we should learn whether humans are broadly susceptible to the pro-longevity, healthful effects of this system.

Faster, please. I take the nicotinamide riboside, in the form of Niagen. Does it work? Ask me in 20 years.

SO MUCH WINNING: FP: Trump administration may cut UN funding by 50%.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Stop Auto-Play Videos from Annoying You in Your Browser on macOS.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Preet Bharara Proves Trump Right.

Related: Politico: The Canonization of Preet Bharara: Let’s not turn the publicity-hogging New York prosecutor into a martyr just because President Trump fired him. “The Times dutifully describes his kicking and screaming as ‘defiance,’ a flattering word that belongs to genuine rebels, not prosecutors playing a media game with the president they can’t win. That’s the charitable view of Preet Bharara. The uncharitable one is that he’s been a U.S. attorney for so long he’s started to believe his own clips.”

THE STUPIDEST STATUE. At Commentary, Noah Rothman writes:

Last week, an idol was erected in the streets of Manhattan: a bronze statue of a defiant young girl standing rigid and resolute in the face of the iconic Wall Street bull. It seems we are to be bludgeoned by expressions of cultural fealty to the statue until our will to resist is broken.

The statue’s alleged purpose—both stated by its sponsors and plainly evident in the figure’s demeanor—is to present a challenge to orthodoxy. It is a call to address the perception that there are not enough women amid the rarefied ranks of Fortune 500 boards. This audacious assault on the staid prejudices of the gatekeepers of wealth and power in America was sponsored by the exclusive Boston-based investment services company State Street Global Advisors and approved by the New York City Parks Department. If the aim of this artistic display was to challenge intractable conventions and change minds, they chose an audience that has been uniquely receptive to their message.

As PJM’s own Roger Kimball noted a decade ago at his publication the New Criterion, PC England once again led the way; the American left is only now just catching up:

Trafalgar is full of lessons. When my wife and I visited London last September, we took our young son, a fervent admirer of Nelson, to Trafalgar Square to see Nelson’s column. We were surprised to see that it had company. On one of the plinths behind the famous memorial sat a huge sculpture of white marble. This, I knew, was one of the benefactions that Ken Livingstone, the Communist mayor of London, had bestowed on his grateful constituency: public art on Trafalgar Square that was more in keeping with cool Britannia’s new image than statues of warriors. From a distance, the white blob looked liked a gigantic marshmallow in need of an air pump. But on closer inspection, it turned out to be a sculpture of an armless and mostly legless woman, with swollen breasts and distended belly. In fact, it was a sculpture by Marc Quinn of one Alison Lapper, made when she was eight months pregnant. Ms. Lapper, who was born with those horrible handicaps, is herself an artist. Asked how she felt about the sculpture, Ms. Lapper said that she was glad that at last Trafalgar Square recognized someone who was not a white male murderer. It is worth noting, as one journalist pointed out, that the architects of Trafalgar Square were ahead of their time in at least one sense, for the sculpture of Ms. Lapper represented the second commemoration of a seriously disabled person. After all, there is Nelson on his column, missing his right arm and an eye.

According to the Boston Globe last week, “Sculptor Arturo Di Modica installed the bull without permits one night near the New York Stock Exchange as a tribute to the country’s recovery from the 1987 stock market crash, the Times reported. It was moved to its current location a few days later.”

As with the last decade’s “improvements” to Trafalgar, courtesy of London’s then-Mayor “Red” Ken Livingstone, I assume this latest ode to grrrl power will be up for quite some time as well, both to the delight of CNN, amazed that an inert bronze statue can remain upright when snow falls on it, to Trump supporters who have placed red MAGA hats on it – to those who have performed rather cruder gestures involving the statue.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 10 Self-Defense Tips From Boxer Jack Dempsey, Circa 1950.

CLAUDIA ROSSETT: What America Really Needs to Do About the UN.

Repurpose its Le Corbusier-inspired 39-story building in Turtle Bay as another mixed-use Trump skyscraper?

AMERICAN OFFICIAL ABDUCTED IN CONGO:

An American UN official has been kidnapped by militia while travelling through the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Michael Sharp, 34, was among a team riding through the central African country by motorcycle on Sunday when they were abducted by the Kamwina Nsapu militia group, according to officials.

Fellow UN official Zaida Catalan, of Swedish nationality, and four Congolese were also taken near the near the village of Ngombe in the Kasai Central province.

‘The ambush took place in a bush where there is neither the police nor the army,’ said Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, deputy prime minister in charge of the Interior, according to Jeune Afrique.

The Democratic Republic of Congo isn’t democratic and it isn’t a republic. It is a very dangerous place.

BACKGROUND: StrategyPage’s latest Congo update, titled “My Way Or Else.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Sacramento Elementary School Ends Father-Daughter Dance Tradition After A Few Parents Say It’s Not “Inclusive.”

TOM COTTON: ‘There is no three-step plan” to repeal ObamaCare.

Proponents of the American Health Care Act claim that full repeal of Obamacare cannot be accomplished in one bill due to limitations imposed by the budget reconciliation process. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. made this point at length in a press conference held last week. Republican leadership in the House of Representatives insists that the best way to move forward on repeal is in a three-step process.

Step one is to use budget reconciliation to repeal Obamacare taxes, eliminate the individual and employer mandates, tweak the subsidies, and repeal some minor regulations. Step two is to let Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price take administrative action to repeal the rest of the regulations and administer free-market reforms via agency promulgation. Step three is for Congress to legislate further reforms that cannot be included in reconciliation.

To some, GOP leadership’s proposals may seem reasonable on the surface. Sen. Tom Cotton warns that these are all lies.

“There is no three-phase process. There is no three-step plan. That is just political talk,” Sen. Cotton told radio host Hewitt Tuesday morning. “It’s just politicians engaging in spin.”

Instapundit readers were warned of this early last week.

PRIORITIES: At Southern Border, Nancy Pelosi Visits Immigrants, Ted Cruz Visits Law Enforcement.

WHO MADE THIS MONTAGE: CNN or DNC? “In virtually any given week during the Obama administration, CNN could have put a similarly negative pastiche. Anyone remember the network doing it?”

Just think of CNN as Democrat operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Should You Still Be Concerned About Zika?

HEAT, KITCHEN: ‘Stranger Fruit’ Filmmaker Melts Down on Fox News.

IN THE FUTURE, EVERYONE WILL BE HITLER FOR 15 MINUTES: ‘How does it feel to work for a fascist?’: Spicer gets confronted in Apple store.

Gosh, wait ‘til she learns what Steve Jobs’ critics called him over the years.

SLATE: There’s nothing outrageous about stamping out bigoted speech.

There must be a “stuff I don’t like” exception in the First Amendment somewhere.

IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN THEY DO IT: From China With Love.

Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign received millions of dollars in illegal contributions from Chinese donor that were channeled through the Democratic National Committee, according to a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Reform.

Johnny Chung, a businessman born in Taiwan, had a partner, Liu Chaoying, a high-ranking military leader and intelligence officer in China. Liu wired hundreds of thousands of dollars, which illegally went to the DNC. The duo also sent campaign funds to U.S. Sen. John Kerry for his reelection bid to the Senate. Liu’s father was one of Mao’s fellow travelers.

Chung visited the White House nearly 50 times—most of them authorized by Hillary Clinton. In one visit, Hillary met with Chung and his visiting delegation of Chinese businessmen from state-run companies. After another visit, Chung paid the DNC $50,000. In exchange, Chung was allowed to bring some of his investoCrs to see the president deliver one of his radio addresses.

Another operative for the Clintons was John Huang, who raised millions of dollars for Dollar Bill in the Asian-American community. In 1996, Huang bundled $3.4 million for the DNC—much of which was returned after a Senate investigation found that the contributions were illegal.

Charlie Trie owned a restaurant in Little Rock that was frequented by his friend then-Governor Clinton. After Clinton won the presidency, Trie went to Washington to cash in on their friendship. He thought his association could help him develop more business contacts in Asia. One of them was Hong Kong businessman Ng Lap Seng. Seng would wire a million dollars to Trie. From 1994 to 1996, Trie directly sent $200,000 to the DNC. Trie provided the rest of the money to other people who later sent that money to the DNC. Trie also helped raised another $640,000 for Bill Clinton’s Legal Defense Fund.

According to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, 94 people were called to testify about the illegal campaign contributions to the 1996 Clinton campaign and the DNC. Of nearly 100 people called before the committee, 57 invoked the Fifth Amendment, 18 fled the country and 19 foreign witnesses refused to testify.

But the China connection to the Clintons didn’t end there.

Read the whole thing.

The Clinton saga is largely forgotten because, hey, Clintons, and also in part because there was no way the Republicans were going to unseat a popular president presiding over a booming economy. Clinton didn’t need Chinese money to beat Bob Dole — he just reflexively took it because, hey, Clintons.

And give Bill credit where it’s due: He was an honest enough politician to stay bought.

‘HUNK OF METAL REMAINS IMMOBILE:’ CNN gets roasted for ‘Fearless Girl’ statue in the snow headline.

BOMBSHELL: Fox News Sources Say Obama Used Brits To Spy On Donald Trump.

JAMES TARANTO ALREADY PREDICTED THIS WITH THE “ROE EFFECT,” YOU KNOW: Atheists at risk of dying out due to belief in contraception, study claims. Religious people are having more babies.

So even if you’re a total rationalist, you might want to include a be-fruitful-and-multiply component to your meme complex, simply to ensure that it survives.

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