Pi Day

Some crank in Indiana introduced a bill in 1897 to redefine the value of Pi as 3.2. It passed the state's house of representatives, but, as the ridicule began to pile up, the state senate killed it.

Perseverance Mars Rover

Touchdown on Mars confirmed!

First pictures are coming in.

A Giant Goes West

Millie Hughes-Fulford, astronaut and UCSF scientist, dies at 75.

She was the first scientist to do biomedical research in space. Among other things, she was a leading researcher in the problem of bone loss during extended spaceflight.

If humanity ever flies to Mars, it will be standing on the shoulders of the research done b Dr. Hughes-Fulford.

Catnip is Bug Repellant?

Apparently it is. That's the link to a scientific paper about it. The Times has a more readable article.

It's fascinating how these sort of things can develop.

Rand Paul Self-Identifies as a White Supremacist

"If you read his speech and listen to it carefully, much of it is thinly-veiled innuendo calling us white supremacists, calling us racists, calling us every name in the book, calling us people that don't tell the truth," he said.

If what you took away from the speech, Rand, is that you're racist and a liar, well, maybe you are. For it clear to any dispassionate observer that all of those adjectives applied to the Trump Administration.

And then there is this, which should come as no surprise to anyone with a functioning cortex:[1]

Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s top public health experts, signaled that he feels free to speak honestly about Covid-19 now that former President Donald Trump is out of office.

In his first news briefing since President Joe Biden was sworn in, Fauci said that the new administration was committed to being "completely transparent, open and honest," a sharp break from the Trump White House when Fauci said he often felt there would be repercussions for speaking honestly about the pandemic.

"It was very clear that there were things said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based in scientific fact," Fauci told reporters of the Trump administration.

"The idea that you can get up and talk about what you know, what the evidence is, what the science is," Fauci continued, "it is somewhat of a liberating feeling."

Getting information about the pandemic that hasn't been filtered by Trumpist politruks will be a nice change. So will be opening the morning paper and not steeling oneself to read about what stupid or racist shit our previous president had done the day before.
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1. Which exempts regular viewers of Sean Hannity, Tucker Carleson, the Newsmax network, or the Onan network.

Earth Dodged a Bullet 112 Years Ago

The Tunguska Event in 1908 may not have been an exploding comet. It may have been a very near miss from an iron asteroid, which went over 400 miles through the atmosphere over Siberia and then continued on its way.

That asteroid was/is nowhere near as large as the Chicxulub impactor. Even so, it it had smacked dead-on, it would have been a very bad day for almost everyone.

Will a COVID Vaccine Even Work?

I've been subscribing to Scientific American for a very long time. The current issue has an article titled What We Learned From AIDS (which is behind a paywall) by William Haseltine, who founded the cancer and HIV/AIDS research departments at Hahvahd Medical School and who wrote A Family Guide to Covid

Haseltine distinguishes between viruses that if you get either the virus or are immunized, your body clears it with a long lasting immunological response (polio, measles); ones that if you get it, you have it forever (HIV), and ones that if you get them, your body clears it and then forgets about them, which are viruses like the common cold.

The common cold is a coronavirus.

Will this also happen with Covid-19? The fact is that nobody knows and won't know for several years. Maybe these vaccines will work. But there is a possibility that they won't, that herd immunity[1] will be ineffective and we may be dealing with this for a very long time.

Don't touch that dial.
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[1] Trump calls it "herd mentality".

Take Trump's Vaccine At Your Own Risk

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the White House may not approve tougher FDA guidelines for authorizing the emergency use of any coronavirus vaccines.

"That has to be approved by the White House," Trump said. "We may or may not approve it."

We all know that if somebody told Trump that a vaccine composed of hydroxychloroquine and sodium hypocholrite in a suspension of dihydrogen monoxide would work, Trump would issue an order approving it without any testing.

One would have to be seriously brain-addled to take any medication that Donald "shine a UV light up your ass" Trump has promoted, let alone had a hand in its authorization.

More Great News on the Coronavirus

Scientists in Houston on Wednesday released a study of more than 5,000 genetic sequences of the coronavirus that reveals the virus’s continual accumulation of mutations, one of which may have made it more contagious.
...
David Morens, a virologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reviewed the new study and said the findings point to the strong possibility that the virus, as it has moved through the population, has become more transmissible, and that this “may have implications for our ability to control it.”

Morens noted that this is a single study, and “you don’t want to over-interpret what this means.” But the virus, he said, could potentially be responding — through random mutations — to such interventions as mask-wearing and social distancing, Morens said Wednesday.

“Wearing masks, washing our hands, all those things are barriers to transmissibility, or contagion, but as the virus becomes more contagious it statistically is better at getting around those barriers,” said Morens, senior adviser to Anthony S. Fauci, the director of NIAID.

There's a possibility that the virus might also become less lethal. Or if it starts mutating a lot, a vaccine will be less than effective.

Scientists keep learning more and more about this subject. Too bad our president is one who doesn't believe in science and book larnin'.

CDC Bangs a Uey on Testing

 The CDC has reversed the testing advice that was inserted by the Trumpist appointees who were more concerned with following the diktats of their Orange Overlord than recommending what was grounded in medicine and science.

This comes after the New York Times story dropped about how the political appointees, including, apparently, a certain nutbag, changed the guidance.  The story went on to describe how the Trumpanzees at the Department of Health and Human Services have basically been vandalizing the CDC's website to ensure that it is in accord with Trump's propaganda, rather than disfavored things such as "science" and "facts". 

It's gotten to the point that all I can muster the energy to do is point out the stupidity of the Trump Administration and its evil machinations.  Outrage will have to be presumed.

Speaking of outrage, the AP has identified who ICE's Dr. Mengele is.

I Will Not Take Trump's Vaccine. Not Until There is an Ocean of Proof That It's Safe

This is why:

Political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services have repeatedly asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to revise, delay and even scuttle weekly reports on the coronavirus that they believed were unflattering to President Trump.

Current and former senior health officials with direct knowledge of phone calls, emails and other communication between the agencies said on Saturday that meddling from Washington was turning widely followed and otherwise apolitical guidance on infectious disease, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, into a political loyalty test, with career scientists framed as adversaries of the administration.

The Trumpanzees in senior positions are cooking the books so that Trump doesn't look as bad as he really does. They've brought in some quack from Canada to try and push Trumpifying the science through.

You can tell that HHS spokesweasel Michael Caputo is operating with less than a full cortex when he says this like this:

Caputo doubled down in a statement to Politico by insisting that the HHS was reviewing CDC reports to “make sure that evidence, science-based data drives policy through this pandemic — not ulterior deep state motives in the bowels of CDC.”

Anyone who babbles about "the deep state" should be tossed into a locked ward and put on a heavy dosage of lithium. (Yes, that includes The Donald.)

There's just no way, now, be be certain that any vaccine approved this year hasn't been rammed through the process by a Trumpist bureaucrat, who views his or her job as serving Trump, not the American people.

Party of Trump: 2,977 Dead is a Tragedy, 183,000 Dead is a Statistic

When you compare the death tolls from the 9-11 attacks and the coronavirus pandemic, that's the only conclusion that one can reach.

Self-styled conservatives, the limited government people, clamored for the creation of the Orwellian-named Department of Homeland Security. They cheer on every restriction in freedom and movement put in place by DHS. As conservatives have always done, they egg on profiling people by their nationality, by the faith and by their skin color. Few have any problems with the creeping security state, the proliferation of CCTV cameras, the existence of license-plate readers. They don't mind one whit, because it's all put out there, as the purveyors say, to keep us safe.

Oh, they'll put up with that, but wear a mask to limit the spread of the virus? That's an impingement on their freedom to do what, exactly?

What's the difference? That they can't see a virus particle, but they can see a terrorist? That viruses have no identifiable religion or ideology?

By the end of the year, about 300,000 Americans will have died from the coronavirus. That's 100 times, or two orders of magnitude, more Americans who will have died in this pandemic than died from a terrorist attack.

We are still living with intrusive security measures to make it harder to carry out a terrorist attack. We still have airborne mall cops, riding airplanes. But we've hollowed out the public health system and continue to do so, because somehow, infectious diseases are less of a threat than terrorism.

Funny how, when it comes to infectious diseases, government is evil, but when it comes to terrorist, more government intrustion is a good things. The death toll would imply the reverse.

Conclusion: This country is led by morons.

Did Beeltejuice Sneeze?

Apparently a star can sneeze.

That is what happened to Betelgeuse, the red supergiant star that marks the armpit of Orion the Hunter, according to Andrea Dupree, associate director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She and an international team of astronomers described that conclusion in a paper published this week in Astrophysical Journal.

This is a fascinating universe that we live in.

The Serious Seven

The seven places where you're most likely to get the virus: Weddings, funerals, faith-based activities, bars, gyms, house gatherings and other small events.

That's based on some strange concept called "science".

(H/T)

A SAR-CoV-2 Primer

This is a pretty good primer on the virus.

There is an indication that there are other coronaviruses out there that also would have the ability to trigger another pandemic. As the article explains, the common cold coronaviruses attack the upper respiratory tract. SARS (SARS-Cov) and MERS attack the lungs. SARS-CoV-2 attacks both places.

This is all why Trump's dismantling of the pandemic response planning teams, which were created by the two previous administrations, is so insidious. When Trump says "nobody could have known that there would a pandemic", the truth of the matter is that you'd have to search far and wide to find an infectious disease scientist, or, for that matter, anyone who had spent an afternoon looking into the subject, who would agree with Trump. In Trump's feeble mind, if he doesn't know a fact, nobody knows it. Remember, this is the guy who didn't realize that "the party of Lincoln" referred to Abraham Lincoln.[1]

Trump's aggressive ignorance is why we're going to have a hundred thousand or more people die from this shit.

Republicans are going to follow Trump right off the cliff. None of them seem to have an ounce of integrity.
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[1] He probably thinks that "the party of Lincoln" means that they have a sponsorship deal with the Ford Motor Co.

Except by the Wingnuts, That Is.

Today, there is widespread recognition the novel coronavirus is far more unpredictable than a simple respiratory virus, one with the potential to attack from the brain to the toes. Many doctors are focused on treating the inflammatory reactions it triggers and its capacity to cause blood clots as they struggle to help their patients breathe.

The "it's just a bad flu" crowd are made up of those who have drunk so much right-wing Kool-aid that that poisonous juice has replaced blood in their veins. No wonder that they can drink bleach and survive.

But it's not "just the flu":

More than four months of clinical experience across Asia, Europe and North America has shown the pathogen does much more than invade the lungs. “No one was expecting a disease that would not fit the pattern of pneumonia and respiratory illness,” said David Reich, a cardiac anesthesiologist and president of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

It attacks the heart, weakening its muscles and disrupting its critical rhythm. It savages kidneys so badly some hospitals have run short of dialysis equipment. It crawls along the nervous system, destroying taste and smell and occasionally reaching the brain. It creates blood clots that can kill with sudden efficiency and inflames blood vessels throughout the body.

Yep, not the flu.

But you'll not convince the "ah, let them fucking die" caucus. Which, until now, has included Donald Trump. But that may change.

Vice President Mike Pence is self-isolating after an aide tested positive for the coronavirus last week, joining three of the nation’s top scientists in taking protective steps after possible exposure, in another stark reminder that not even one of the nation’s most secure buildings is immune from the virus.

John Oliver on Coronavirus

I have nothing to add to this:

Because Controlling Information About Trump Flu Worked So Well For China, Pence Will Clear All Statements (and Pray Away the Pandemic)

The White House on Thursday directed the government’s health officials and scientists to clear all coronavirus statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, one of the country’s leading experts on viruses and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance.

Because medical and scientific information has to be spun politically.

Because a Wingnut politician who applies his political bent to responses to health emergencies is the best guy for the job.

Keep in mind that Pence is a clown who denied that smoking was harmful, thinks that condoms don't deter STDs, thinks evolution is a fraud and he thinks praying cures being gay. About the only good thing that one can say about Pence's knowledge of science is that he might not be a Flat-Earther. But don't be shocked if he is.

This is the guy who is in charge of American response to the Trump Flu?

We are so screwed, people.

I Feel So Much Better About Preparations for the Trump Flu

President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that the U.S. is “very, very ready” for whatever the coronavirus threat brings, and he put his vice president in charge of overseeing the nation’s response.

Yep, putting Bible Boy, who has a degree in history, in charge of coordinating a response to a pandemic makes only a little more sense than putting Jared the Boy Wonder (degree in government) in charge of it. But hey, if your idea of a response to a medical emergency is to try and pray it out of existence, Pence is your guy to fight the Pence Plague.

After the Fridge is Nuked, You Can Still Drink the Beer

Yes, beer can survive a nuclear attack. So can soft drinks. The flavor might be a bit off, so there is finally a good reason to have some Coors Light on hand-- it can hardly taste much worse.

Basically, some scientists figured out how to be able to buy and drink beer on the government's dime and time. I have no idea if Brett Kavanaugh's dad was involved in the project.