My_IFAKs___gone

As a bonus for contracting measles, you’ll get all your previous vaccines and earned immunities deleted by the measles virus attacking your immune cells dedicated to remembering how to effectively fight past pathogens.

So you can think of measles as THE antivaccine. No wonder the antivaxxers love it so much!

Shutdowns really suck if you’re employed by the federal government. Nothing makes you feel more powerless than either being told you’re not allowed to do your job because your employer can’t figure out its shit or you’re told you have to work, but you aren’t guaranteed your next scheduled paycheck until the shutdown ends, and in 2018-19, it was really unclear when it would end. And if you’re furloughed and get back-pay for not working, you’re viewed poorly by the public for getting paid not to work, even though it wasn’t your fault. I could definitely see Democrats being blamed for all the bad things resulting from a shutdown, even though it’s provisions in the GOP bill that are ultimately causing it to happen. Holding federal employees’ paychecks and government services to the public hostage is absolutely the shittiest way to conduct political business.

This reminds me I need to go back and finish Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World because he masterfully eviscerates pseudoscience in it.

I also loved how Philipp Dettmer tactfully addressed the Hygiene Hypothesis in Immune, which I believe everyone in the general population should read. It was profoundly eye-opening to learn about the principle mechanisms by which the immune system so delicately does its thing on the daily. It’s almost beyond my comprehension to appreciate how such an intricate and balanced dance performed by incomprehensible numbers of players can occur with only Brownian motion as the motivating driver (and, you know, many millions of years of fine-tuning through a relentless microbiological arms race for resources).

Gut by Enders and her explanation of the colon’s microbial constituents is another wonderful introduction for the lay person that really could supplant silly-ass homeopathy with something that is actually happening and no less amazing than the otherwise absurd concept of “molecular memory” or an alternative bond angle in water molecules.

I know someone who did this in the moments immediately following waking up in the morning.

…it was difficult to look them in the eye after that.

Also, they’re okay now, but yeah, it was a scary day for them.

In his wilted psyche, he thinks he’s still campaigning against Biden. Hasn’t realized yet that Biden is no longer a threat to him. Eventually he’ll be back to full-on Obamabashing.

Believe it or not, I think the Christian Science Monitor puts out good articles. I’m not religious. I’m also not in the current US conservative camp. It’s too bad it’s paywalled. But the few articles I’ve read actually seemed nicely nuanced, pretty balanced, and interesting.

The Things We Make by Bill Hammack is engaging and talks about the history of engineering as its own pioneering thing (and not just a practical application of scientific discoveries).

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn is pretty engaging.

1491 by Mann is a particular favorite of mine.

I guess I believe in quantum mechanics in the immediate nanoscopic realm and diffusive entropic dominance in the long-term gigantosphere. Hard to say which side Gravity will favor…

I always liked this Faye Wong song. Not hard enough to be metal, but I think it’s still edgy and kind of haunting.