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  So why did folks think hydroxychloroquine would be effective against SARS-CoV-2? Turns out, it was based on a lab artifact. “The virus that causes SARS, SARS-CoV, uses either of two host protease enzymes to break in: TMPRSS2 (pronounced ‘tempress two’) or cathepsin L. TMPRSS2 is the faster route in, but SARS-CoV often enters instead through an endosome — a lipid-surrounded bubble — which relies on cathepsin L. When virions enter cells by this route, however, antiviral proteins can trap them. SARS-CoV-2 differs from SARS-CoV because it efficiently uses TMPRSS2, an enzyme found in high amounts on the outside of respiratory cells. First, TMPRSS2 cuts a site on the spike’s S2 subunit. That cut exposes a run of hydrophobic amino acids that rapidly buries itself in the closest membrane — that of the host cell. Next, the extended spike folds back onto itself, like a zipper, forcing the viral and cell membranes to fuse. The virus then ejects its genome directly into the cell. By invading...

  CRT is just the latest rage-mongering on the right to distract the middle and working class from the fact that they are being robbed and cheated. Blame teh swarthy people, the libs, the non-existent "socialists," the national debt, taxes, anything but don't discuss the real problems or how to to fix them. Just point and shout "squirrel!!" "So … . What was the House Un-American Activities Committee (1945-1975, with a few interesting precursors) really all about? Looking back through the lens of history, it was much about distracting the Nation’s attention from the racist atrocities being committed in southern states. Still today, all a red state Republican politician needs do is yell, “Communist!”, “Socialist!”, “Nancy Pelosi!” or “Hillary Clinton!” and their constituents forget to even think about whatever it is that is really wrong with their state; about whatever it really is that is ailing their neighborhoods, their livelihoods, and begin to focus on t...

  One of the good things that emerged from the pandemic is zoom. I hate phone calls and love email, but talking is easier and faster than typing. Yes, at an in-person meeting, you can easily interrupt and be recognized by holding up your hand, but you can’t easily slip away to the bathroom unnoticed. It saves time not having to schlep to and from another building or even another campus. It’s easier and cheaper to host seminar speakers and faculty candidates by zoom instead of flying them in, putting them in a hotel and entertaining them at restaurants. Many are probably happier to sleep in their own beds. I arranged a teaching gig with the Albany College of Pharmacy without having to leave the comfort of my own attic—my lecture content is all recorded on zoom. I’ve even canceled a zoom meeting, when I didn’t feel like there was a meaningful agenda. So this link below is funny, but his beefs with zoom don’t resonate with me. Of course, even at peak travel, I didn’t have nearly the ...

  Similarly dismayed is Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. Last summer, he watched cases in the United States spike, particularly in the Sun Belt, after what he felt was a premature end to spring restrictions. This summer, he is not surprised by the rise in infections across a country where many people haven’t gotten their shots and have returned to pre-pandemic behavior. “It’s like we’ve been to this movie several times in the last year and a half, and it doesn’t end well. Somehow, we’re running the tape again. It’s all predictable,” Collins said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/in-this-summer-of-covid-freedom-disease-experts-warn-the-world-needs-a-reality-check/2021/07/17/895be6e8-e58c-11eb-b722-89ea0dde7771_story.html?fbclid=IwAR3-v7f7h7BSwbXOQ57qwnZs3k8I7DauH6q0xWPE44EHzsMeyyAKB-zu9i0

  For those of us in the real world, anthropogenic climate change has been an acknowledged reality for at least a couple of decades. So far, climate change denialists have been the sand in the gears of responding to this reality. But recently, new drivers will compel responses: insurance and finance. "insurance companies will, no doubt, be playing an ever more important role in assessing the true cost of Climate Change, on bringing their assessment to bear in the marketplace. We’ve seen some action being taken by finance; we need to see a lot more. They have a lot at stake. They need to make the assessment as to what will be the cost of Climate Change to their firm’s, to the world’s, finances." https://angrybearblog.com/2021/07/florida#more-77923

  Here's the thing: there is no Constitutional process for secession. That's why the Confederacy was treason. Simply saying you secede doesn't make it true. A state unilaterally declaring secession is like these clowns claiming they are immune from federal law because they are "sovereign citizens." This is the political science of middle school boys. https://www.mediaite.com/politics/shock-poll-two-in-three-southern-republicans-want-to-secede-from-the-united-states/?fbclid=IwAR0QK3_3-nbYka_2rnVfT8L9jaCFT_8KwpZ2GPCBp9bVn0_ZURsGyQmyMkA

  When we were grad students in Chapel Hill, we lived in married student apartments. There was no central air. We ended up using a 5000 BTU window unit in tandem with a dehumidifier. The dehumidifier easily pulled a gallon or more of water out of the air each day, which allowed the air conditioner to keep up. Near the end of our time in Chapel Hill, we bought our first car, a baseline Mazda GLC. It had no air conditioning. We owned that car for about 15 years before it rusted out, but it was broiling hot in the summer. When we bought our little home on the prairie, air conditioning was two 20,000 BTU window units, one in the dining room on the ground floor and one in the master bedroom. They were horrifically noisy and there were hot and cold spots throughout the house. Eventually, we got central air, which is whisper quiet, and with the addition of rooftop solar, isn't that expensive. But even in the Northeast, where we're looking to move soon, air conditioning is no longer a ...

  I took a couple quarters of physics in college, as well as a quarter of intro biophysical chemistry. I can't say that it made me a better person or that I used any of it later in life. Every now and then, I run across an article like this, though, that makes me wish I understood more physics. I'm afraid those neurons died a long time ago. Kevin Drum is one of my favorite bloggers. He's a CalTech grad, and that shines through in his inordinate fondness for graphs and quantitative arguments. Here's a recent post on the mathematics of relativity. Read the comment thread, too. https://jabberwocking.com/heres-the-theory-of-relativity-in-500-words/?fbclid=IwAR1539-KJeOl4-gWef-hHZc85zMcXa8MhE3eoSNWzgGt8JhoUqjLISb4HME#comments

  "Our study shows that people who engage in more cognitively stimulating activities may be delaying the age at which they develop dementia," Wilson said in a statement. "It is important to note, after we accounted for late-life level of cognitive activity, neither education nor early-life cognitive activity were associated with the age at which a person developed Alzheimer's dementia," he continued. "Our research suggests that the link between cognitive activity and the age at which a person developed dementia is mainly driven by the activities you do later in life." https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/alzheimersdisease/93576?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2021-07-15&eun=g1700464d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Headlines%20Top%20Cat%20HeC%20%202021-07-15&utm_term=NL_Daily_DHE_dual-gmail-definition&fbclid=IwAR0W7KUZ6yyXNiaxTfAFGDJUu4LFyD0pjV4z6DtzsRc0LflYmymHUw2rSiY

  As a boomer, I grew up in a world that seemed to promise endless growth without cost. By the time I got to college, I learned that growth would not be endless and the cost was outrunning the benefits. That was before I understood global warming. With every passing day, we’re confronted with the reality that growth, to which capitalist economies are addicted, cannot continue. Worse, human ignorance of this reality will cost millions, if not billions of human lives, and is driving the next major planetary extinction. At this point, there’s nothing to prevent the horror that awaits our species, unless we can adapt carbon capture and/or geoengineering technology on a global scale. No “God” will save us. The climate change denialists are just lying humanity into oblivion. I’ll likely be dead by 2050. It is our children and grandchildren who will pay the cost of humanity’s indifference. I don’t say “ignorance,” because we have known enough to know and do better for decades. https://w...

  There’s a saying in research science: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Given what we know about the origins of nearly all viral pandemics—that they resulted from a virus jumping from an animal to a human host (zoonotic infection)—the null hypothesis for the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic should be and was zoonotic. The competing claim that the SARS-CoV-2 originated in a research lab at the Wuhan Institute for Virology (WIV) has been widely circulating on conspiracy theory web sites. Based on what we know about SARS-CoV-2 genome structure, comparative coronavirus genomics and viral epidemiology in general, it is fair to say that the burden of proof falls upon those who support the lab origin hypothesis. According to a recent preprint review, this burden has not been met, and the most parsimonious hypothesis is a zoonotic origin. The authors also underscore the importance of further research to define the origin of COVID-19 and the danger of distracting claims ...

  I got my genome sequenced at 30-50x coverage a couple years ago for $199. For another $100, I purchased my variant call file, so I can check about any new variants of interest. Of course, if you get your genome sequenced when you're in your '60s, you already know you don't have most inherited single-gene diseases. These typically manifest between birth and the third decade of life. But there are known risk factors that could be uncovered. A friend of mine (who annotated my variant call file for me) has the ApoE4 allele, which gives a greatly increased risk of hypercholesterolemia and Alzheimers. With this knowledge, he's on a statin and abstains from alcohol. But sequencing newborns offers much more opportunity to detect inherited diseases before they manifest and/or before waiting for the onset of pathology. As a public health measure, I think universal genome sequencing is a good idea. Of course, I think mitigating global warming through carbon capture and/or geoeng...

  The idea of separation of church and state, of course, derives from the European Enlightenment, which sought to dissolve the control of the state by religion. But imbedded in this separation was also the protection of religion from entanglement with the state. By the 1970s, though, right wing extremists in the GOP spotted a fundraising opportunity in seducing the religious right into politics. Until then, Protestants weren't concerned about abortion--it was a Catholic thing. But GOP fundraisers convinced Evangelicals to join hands with right-wing Catholics over Roe v Wade. And so the "Moral Majority" (which was neither) was born as a cynical money-making machine. It hasn't served Evangelical churches well, apparently. https://jabberwocking.com/white-evangelicals-continue-to-lose-members/?fbclid=IwAR3rVyDsC8Vpw3zxJyWSRtUB5cUSMwZfZxLzioOSOs7IndEt19KMdwWEkYk

  "The novel mutations in spike may contribute to increased transmissibility, and could result in greater reinfection rates or reduced vaccine efficacy, the researchers reported. Their analysis showed that Pfizer serum samples were about 3-fold more resistant to neutralization, and Moderna samples were about 2.3-fold more resistant. Convalescent plasma was about 3.3-fold more resistant, while Regeneron's monoclonal antibody combination had no loss of antibody titer, the group said. "The typical titer for someone who is vaccinated is 1:2,000," Landau told MedPage Today. "You can take that down to 1:500 and it will still kill the virus. ... Natural infection titers tend to be 1:200, on average, and that's still protective." "We've done this for Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and now Lambda," Landau added. "The results we see are very similar for all these variants. We're primarily looking at the mRNA vaccines, and vaccine-elicited antib...

  I’ve never been a fan of William F. Buckley, Jr. His faux patrician accent and his reliable tendency to confuse prolixity with erudition were just smoke screens to hide a pernicious political philosophy. That said, Buckley did drive the John Birch Society out of the GOP. And he even changed his mind on race. In 1957, in the pages of his newly launched National Review, he explicitly defended white supremacy. He believed violence in defense of white supremacy was justified. But a mere ten years later, Buckley changed his mind and acknowledged that government intervention on behalf of civil rights was necessary. “Today, the Republican Party lacks a Buckley figure to purge these “kooks.” During Barack Obama’s first term, for instance, only a few brave souls like Sen. John McCain stood up to criticize birthers—and McCain was seen as a “maverick.” The sitting speaker, John Boehner, wouldn’t repudiate the birthers, telling reporters that it wasn’t up to him “to tell them what to think.”...

  Fake news anti-vaxxers are bad enough, but when bad science is published in a refereed journal, it greatly magnifies the harm. The paper was retracted, but how it was allowed to pass peer review in the first place is a question for the journal editors. At the very least, they should be sure never to use those reviewers again. "In reality, about one in ten people experience side effects following the jab, but they are largely mild and manageable. The most common side effect is pain, redness, and swelling near the injection point, but some may also experience headaches, chills, fever, nausea, and a general sense of tiredness. More severe side effects are exceptionally rare. Even in regards to the much-talked-about issue of blood clots and the AstraZeneca shot, you are far more likely to get a deadly blood clot from a COVID-19 infection than the vaccine." https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/flawed-study-widely-cited-by-covidskeptics-retracted-after-experts-debunk-i...

  The word “conservative” has now become synonymous with right-wing extremism. It’s time to rescue conservatism from right-wing radicals. While I share many values with liberalism and progressivism, I also share many values of old-school conservatism. True conservatives want everyone to vote, want America to welcome refugees and immigrants, want Americans to be educated, want the nanny state out of our bedrooms and valorize science. • I believe in democracy. I support anything that encourages citizens to participate in democracy: same-day registration, mail-in ballots, making election days holidays. • I believe immigrants make America stronger. I support facilitating immigration and citizenship. • I believe that all citizens should have access to affordable education. I believe in public schools. I believe all student loans should be dischargeable through bankruptcy. • I believe the government should stay out of the personal decisions of adults as to what to do with their own bodie...

  "Dozens of big companies, citing their commitment to democracy, pledged to avoid donating money to the 147 lawmakers who objected to Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s victory on the false grounds that voting fraud stole the election from then-President Donald Trump. It was a striking gesture by some of the most familiar names in business but, as it turns out, it was largely an empty one. Six months later, many of those companies have resumed funneling cash to political action committees that benefit the election efforts of lawmakers whether they objected to the election certification or not. When it comes to seeking political influence through corporate giving, business as usual is back, if it ever left." https://www.huffpost.com/entry/6-months-after-attack-on-us-capitol-corporate-pledges-fall-flat_n_60e1b8a3e4b03f72964b4210

  Just finished reading “Razor Girl” by Carl Hiaasen. This was after slogging through a biography of Augustus Caesar, so I was ready for something light. Razor Girl certainly filled the bill. The title refers to one Merry (“like in Merry Christmas”) Mansfield, who deliberately rear-ends moving vehicles, and when the male driver confronts her sitting in the driver’s seat, her skirt is hiked up and she’s in the process of shaving . . . well, you can guess. She repeats this stunt at various points in the novel, which earns her top billing. The story is set in Florida, and is populated by a bunch of guys of the type who end up in articles that begin “Florida man . . . “ The various intertwining plots involve a reality show about fake chicken farmers called “Bayou Brethren,” a Mafioso nicknamed “Big Noogie,” a former police inspector who has been demoted to a restaurant health inspector, a crook who steals beach sand to sell to Miami beachfront hotels and an attorney who is organizing a...