Life: Kickstarter project update from Ukraine (2/25/2022)

 There is a Kickstarter project I backed in 2021, which seems to have been in trouble.

They presented a "geeky cool" watch with Nixie tube. For $400, it looked like a decent item and I liked it. The creator ran successful campaign previously, and placed all pieces in place as a manufacture. The project looked like a sure thing. 

The fund was successfully raised on July 2021. Promised delivery date was Sept 2021.

Later on, their updates were indicating some kind of bank transfer issues. Reading the updates were like pulling teeth, not communicating what was exactly going on effectively. But apparently, the money kickstarter collected was sent to a bank in USA-LA area that was specified by the creator as destination, through a money transfer service called Stripe.

Then, the transaction triggered fraud department investigation in the bank. The bank closed the creator's account, and holding the money until their investigation is complete.

For the situation, Kickstarter (and Stripe) did not help. They are a platform business, but do not seem to be willing to get involved in any sort of trouble in the projects. For their 6% cut, they seem quite irresponsible. I'll take this into account in the future.

Naturally, the creator was unhappy. Without the bulk of the money, they were unable to proceed to manufacture the watches for backers. Some backers felt suspicious and started calling the creator fraud.

The creator found a US lawyer, and sued the bank for the money to be released. That was Jan 26, 2022. A best scenario for the creator and backers was for the bank to settle the case outside court and release the money. But the bank appears to have chosen to go to court. The court proceeding is scheduled in mid-year 2022.

This morning (2/25/2022) I got a project update email from the creator.

They are located in Ukraine.

"We lived peacefully and the war came to our houses!

February 24 at 5 am Russia invaded the territory of Ukraine without warning. We do not know what will happen next, how long the war will last, what restrictions and consequences will be in connection with this. For our part, we have made every effort in our power to secure our project. The lamps that we purchased, we hid in the bomb shelter and all our equipment. For now, we just have to wait and hope that soon this will stop and we can freely and safely produce all the watches and complete this project. We share our hopes and prayers with you. 

And there is also news from our lawyer.

[the US bank] has hired attorneys and they have removed the case to Federal Court, Case No.:[ xxxxxxxxx].  Lawsuits in the U.S. take time and my attorney is doing everything he can to get the money back.   Again, I am sorry this has happened and am fighting to get the money back, so the watches can be made.   

Thank you for your patience."

Certainly this is a dramatic turn of events for the creator. I wish them best.

Invasion and war make many civilian activities look trivial. Don't you hate it?

We can see many old tricks from war playbook. But in case you are confused, usually, invaders are the bad guys.

PS

I thought I'd write about a welcome party at Cattlemen's steakhouse last Sunday. It was the first "proper" restaurant outing after a long time due to covid. But maybe later.

Science: senolytic drugs and cancer drugs

 There is a class of drugs called senolytic drugs. They are dubbed as drugs that specifically target senescent (aged) cells.

Removing senescent cells from the body can make animals "younger". This (surprising?) result was initially shown in early 2010's with mice with genetic tricks that allow conditional elimination of senescent cells from the body.

Encouraged by the result, senescent cells-targeting drugs were sought, with hopes of applying the drug to actually eliminate senescent cells from the body. The drugs are mainly investigated in aging research field, but also of interest of cosmetic industry (no surprise).

 

In this past a few years, reports on senolytic drugs are rapidly accumulating. 

Examples of senolytic drugs are; curcumin (a compound in Turmeric), quercetin (found in onion skin), fisetin (a bioflavonoid), and Dasatinib (an anti-cancer drug that targets growth signaling).

Here is a review article with historical recount from their viewpoint that I found well-presented.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7405395/

From the eyes of cancer prevention researchers, the senolytic drugs look strangely familiar. Because they are cancer prevention drugs and cancer drugs.

Even after decades of studies, targets of established (read: proven effective in lab and in clinic) cancer drugs are relatively limited, including DNA metabolism, mitotic spindle, growth signaling, and immune checkpoint.

In addition, for cancer prevention, compounds affecting microenvironment, oxidative stress, inflammation, etc, are proven effective. 

Science can be driven by hypothesis. At the same time, something "that works but we have no idea why"-kind of things can give us scientists an important clue about background biology in medicine. Many of dietary compounds belonged to the latter. A branch of cancer prevention studies has been about dietary compounds that indeed can prevent cancer development.

Then, back to the statement; 

"Many senolytic drug are, actually, cancer drugs, or cancer prevention drugs." 

I found this interesting, and running some research on it. 

As a professional scientist, the research better be more serious and better stand up against academic scrutiny, than the "research" by amateur "experts" in covid era.

Got to hold my research standard high.

[Curcumin as a dietary supplement]

(not meant to be an endorsement or anything)