Sunday, May 31, 2020

Whaddya think?

Will the "President" play golf today?

Breathing is Fundamental


Tuesday, May 26, 2020

COVID Roundup

WHO Halts Hydroxychloroquine Trial Over Safety Concerns

VA gave hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 to 1,300 veterans

Key nose cells identified as likely COVID-19 virus entry points
Two specific nose cell types have been identified as likely initial infection points for COVID-19 coronavirus. Scientists discovered that goblet and ciliated cells in the nose have high levels of the entry proteins that the COVID-19 virus uses to get into our cells, which could help explain the high rate of transmission. The study found cells in the eye and some other organs also contain the viral-entry proteins.

This Is How Alcohol Affects Your Immune System
Coping with the coronavirus pandemic often includes drinking, but how much alcohol increases your risk of getting sick?

The Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them

Licensed Pharmacist Charged With Hoarding And Price Gouging Of N95 Masks In Violation Of Defense Production Act

Dementia gene raises risk of severe COVID-19

The woman who discovered the first coronavirus

Article Roundup

Testosterone Makes Men Less Likely to Question Their Impulses
Say it ain't so.

Association of Porphyromonas gingivalis with high levels of stress-induced hormone cortisol in chronic periodontitis patients.
Oh this explains soooo much....

Mystery illnesses are on the rise with women, whom doctors are dismissing as "nervous Nellies"

I’m a Mom Who Nearly Died Of Sepsis Because I Didn’t ‘Have Time To Be Sick’

Harmful Bacteria Masquerade as Red Blood Cells to Evade the Immune System
Studying the stealthy strategy could help researchers develop new treatments for group A strep infections.

Is That Two-Week Course of Antibiotics Really Necessary?
Overuse of these drugs can be dangerous and contribute to bacterial resistance

Antibiotics: Even low use in children can have a negative impact on health

Tea drinkers live longer

Meat eaters tend to have better psychological health than vegetarians
You don't say.

Coffee linked to lower body fat in women
Oh really.

Brown, white and beige: understanding your body’s different fat cells could help with weight loss

Obesity not related to how close you live to fast food or gyms
Excellent documentation of the obvious.

Follow your gut: Newly identified digestive-brain axis controls food choice
A gut-to-brain circuit drives sugar preference and may explain sugar cravings.
Hmmm, I wonder what the neurotransmitter could be...

How exercise supports your mental fitness

Flickering light mobilizes brain chemistry that may fight Alzheimer's
Yo Gina.  we talked about this.... ages ago... campfire therapy...

Sleeping Brain Waves Draw a Healthy Bath for Neurons
An organized tide of brain waves, blood and spinal fluid pulsing through a sleeping brain may flush away neural toxins that cause Alzheimer’s and other diseases.


Here, take your mind off current events:

 Rheumatic diseases: The cost of survival during the Little Ice Age 

How Climate Helped Shape Your Nose
New research shows how the width of our nasal passages is literally shaped by the air we breathe

What Ear Infections Going Back 15,000 Years Tell Us About Human Health 

Africans and Europeans have genetically different immune systems

Londinium Romans’ blood lead levels so high they may have lowered birth rates

Dwale: an anaesthetic from old England

How glass drove scientific progress

Evidence of 10,000-Year-Old Crops Points to the Amazon as an Early Agricultural Hotspot

I am really getting into underwater coastal archaeology:
Early humans thrived in this drowned South African landscape
video:  How Doggerland sank below the waves

My new favorite person: Merryn Dinely.  "I have a number of academic publications about ancient and traditional malting and beer brewing, all of which are available to download."
This woman and her husband are the walking, talking embodiment of five hundred generations of dietary induced obsession.   I love her so freakin much... Here's a podcast with her.

This.  This.  This.
What if Competition Isn’t As “Natural” As We Think?
Scientists are slowly understanding collaboration’s role in biology.

Oops, forgot this one.  So cool.

Indiana Bones: The archaeologist dogs discovering ancient remains

Friday, May 22, 2020

Don't forget Vitamin D

*bumping back up top*

I am lucky that I live in Arizona and have a yard.   I can get as much sun as I need.

If you are stuck inside, please take vitamin D every day.     It's really crucial for a proper immune response.

Vitamin D levels appear to play role in COVID-19 mortality rates
Patients with severe deficiency are twice as likely to experience major complications

Effin Ay

Repeating the “F” word can improve threshold for pain during an ice water challenge
A recent study found that repeating the “F” word during an ice water experiment increased subjects’ tolerance and threshold for pain. However, reciting made-up swear words showed no such pain-reducing effects. 

This article makes me so incredibly happy.   
They are wrong in most of their conclusions, but the data is amazing.  (data are amazing?  whatever!)

I can't believe I'm not verbal ticcing...  finally all those years of observing my blurting and cursing comes in handy.  I have been meaning to write this up for a while:

Physical effects of spoken words have nothing to do with their meanings.   It is a result of the activation of certain cranial and cervical nerves via speech production...
This became obvious to me after I moved to Arizona and started saying "I hate you" as soon as I woke up in the morning.  Every. single. day.  I actually did not hate anyone at the time, and I knew it, and I said it anyway...
It was perplexing.   I thought about it for a long time.   Until it got so bad the answer was obvious.

The reason the work FUCK is so therapeutic is it activates certain muscles.
  -The initial F pushes the mandible forward and bites the lower lip, pinching the face and tightening the neck
  -The UH sound in the middle stimulates the diaphragm.
  -And the terminal hard K pulls in the abdominals.

The whole sequence expels your breath and tightens your core. Increases your endurance.
The word Shit is similar, but more staccato.  More diaphragm, less abdominal.
Their made-up words don't have the same effect.

Hard C/K sounds are very common in tics.  
I used to repeat "Corey, Corey, Corey" when stressed or tired.   Always in threes.  I wondered why for a decade after we broke up.   It did not make sense, I did not miss him, but I did it anyway.  Now I realize it was an involuntary breathing exercise...

I have repeated a number of other words for periods of time- most of them seem to have been a method of relieving various transient dental problems.   Certain words move the tongue, cheeks and lips more effectively than others.  ("I despise you" moves the upper lip, "I hate you" does not.)

For the record, this is my favorite hypothesis of mine.  The one that was the biggest mystery.
It took the last 7 years to figure out the physiological triggers, effects, and benefits of cursing like a drunken sailor..

Good Article

‘It’s something I have never seen’: How the Covid-19 virus hijacks cells

... They found that within three days of infection, the virus induces cells’ call-for-reinforcement genes to produce cytokines. But it blocks their call-to-arms genes — the interferons that dampen the virus’ replication.
The result is essentially no brakes on the virus’s replication, but a storm of inflammatory molecules in the lungs, which is what tenOever calls an “unique” and “aberrant” consequence of how SARS-CoV-2 manipulates the genome of its target.

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Menace to Society

In the midst of the biggest and most deadly pandemic in a century the Trump Administration has cut off all funding to the WHO.

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Uh huh

Fragile mask-ulinity!

(flat out stole that.   it's freakin perfect.)

Same as it ever was

Always remember: You can’t believe a fucking thing he says.

Right now his pals have 29 million doses they won't be using...

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Good to Know.

Don't spray disinfectants to kill coronavirus, WHO advises
Spraying disinfectants outside or across broad spaces indoors to try to kill coronavirus can do more harm than good, the World Health Organization advised Saturday.
And spraying people is a really bad idea, WHO said in an updated advisory on infection control.
WHO cited studies showing that trying to spray bleach or other chemicals over a wide area is ineffective. The same goes for ultraviolet light disinfecting, the agency said.

Cha Ching! Winner!

The ex-pharma exec leading Trump's COVID-19 vaccine program has $10 million in stock options for a company getting federal funding

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Ahem


This is not Rocket Surgery

Nursing homes need to start supplementing their residents' Vitamin D levels immediately.
They really should have been doing this all along, though...

Hey yeah, this goes for prisons too...

Think about this

As bad as COVID-19 is, it could be worse...

The longer the virus stays wild in the population, the more chances it has to replicate in different hosts, and the longer it goes on- THE MORE CHANCES IT HAS TO MUTATE INTO SOMETHING EVEN MORE DEADLY.

It's flat out a matter of percentages- more copies = more mistakes.

We are the incubators of it's existence and evolution.

WEAR A MASK!

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Dear Pigmented People

Vitamin D deficiency may explain some of your disproportionate susceptibility to COVID-19.
You have darker skin, and working or sheltering inside can cause your levels drop drastically low.

No Rocket Launcher Required

I really must rerun this article-

Let’s Talk About Protecting Our Families

Man: Hey God, I just want you to know I am committed to protecting my family at all costs.
God: Gosh, that’s great to hear. One of the main things I need you to do to protect your family is laundry. Tons of laundry.
You know kids — they’re so susceptible to infections and viruses. Pinworms, athlete’s foot, lice, strep throat, colds and flues. Pneumonia and diarrhea are serious killers of children under five. The list of possible sicknesses is endless. So you’re going to need to do laundry basically daily. Their socks and underwear, their sheets. and put their sneakers through the wash too.
I can’t emphasize this enough: protecting your family involves a lot of laundry.
Man: Oh. Um.
 
 

Monday, May 11, 2020

Everyone is expendable

"Four CEOs of food companies and the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation were told to remove their face masks before a meeting in Iowa Friday with Vice President Mike Pence.
The vice president walked in without a mask shortly after learning his press secretary had tested positive for COVID-19."

Don't be a crybaby


If 80% of Americans Wore Masks, COVID-19 Infections Would Plummet, New Study Says

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Pathetic

"A country that turned out eight combat aircraft every hour at the peak of World War II could not even produce enough 75-cent masks or simple cotton nasal swabs for testing in this pandemic."

 So, is this how the 1950's were, Papa?

Friday, May 8, 2020

Fuck All Y'all

I am sorry but I can’t take any more. I am done with Republicans. No more.

I have now been home for seven weeks to give the government time to procure tests and PPE and put policies in place that protect the health of the American people and prevent a worsening of the pandemic. On March 6th, Donald Trump said: “Anybody that wants a test can get a test.” It was a lie then, and it's still not true two months later. There isn’t even a national testing strategy. Nothing is really better than when we started, and there are tens of thousands of dead people, and thousands more dying every day.

Trump’s one and only goal is to loot the National Treasury. Always has been, always will be.
Every single response to this disaster has been delayed in order to insert Jared and make sure the First Family gets its tribute. Trump has not made one good faith effort to ameliorate the pain and suffering of Americans. He has even sabotaged the earnest effort of desperate governors and mayors- confiscating PPE and ventilators that they have acquired, only to hand them over to reckless red states like Florida and Arizona. Everything he does is for his own greed and self-glorification.

If hundreds of thousands of Americans drown in their own lungs while he makes his deals, he does not care. He has made that very clear.   He is just going to hide the death count instead.  He actually now wants less testing ...  unless it's in the White House, of course.

We sacrificed our time, money-and basic human interaction- to protect our families and communities, and he didn't use that interval for anything other than to lie to us about the exponentially increasing danger. And then he tells states to open everything back up like things are going to magically get better. Now we won’t ever be safe until there’s a vaccine…

If you still support the raging sociopath and his profiteering pals- you are a danger to yourself and the rest of humanity.
Please don’t be surprised when people avoid you like the plague.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Oh yay, now everyone can attend funerals.

Freedom!

Yo Diana

AZ health department tells university COVID-19 modeling team to stop work, limits data access

Fuck Doug Ducey.   And Fuck YOU for voting for him.

It has barely started killing people here... 
And we are literally the WORST state for testing.

State of the Insanity

Trump has given up.   We're on our own now.

We need more masks and gloves and isopropyl alcohol and aloe.     Boatloads more.  Stat.

Somebody get on that please....





Monday, May 4, 2020

New Hypothesis

Republicans make everything worse.
Their ultimate goal is wanton negligence without accountability.

Children of Men

Hey all you anti-science herd immunity freaks-

What makes you so sure that COVID-19 doesn't make you sterile?
That would be such a tragedy...