George Budd @Gbudd@social.cleverlibre.org

I'm not an immunologist, just a data guy. But my reading of the data reaches same conclusion: there is no actual "paxlovid rebound", just COVID rebound, which happens with or without paxlovid. Infection is often biphasic, with 2 distinct symptom periods.

https://www.acsh.org/news/2023/01/11/paxlovid-rebound-isnt-real-it-never-was-16796

“Why do I have to pay a full ER bill just to get ____ ?”

Because we as a society decided that ___ was not something we wanted the government to provide, and it isn’t profitable, so clinics don’t either, and ERs have to see you. ERs also have to, by law, provide a medical screening exam, which means a doc/PA/NP has to come see you, vital signs must be documented, and ER documentation must exist. That costs money. Y’all gotta decide — do you want public healthcare or not?

One of the creepier tech-related incidents I remember was many years ago when I wanted the Sam's Photofacts (a third-party creator of device specs and schematics, etc.) for a very old portable TV. Way out of date, but I was trying to help someone with it.

I mentioned to a friend that I was looking for old Photofacts, but I did not say anything about the TV. He scribbled an address on a scrap of paper, an address locally here in L.A. "Try him," he muttered.

I drive over. It's a small unmarked storefront. I go in, the bell on the door rings. Sitting inside, like the caterpillar in "Alice in Wonderland", is this little guy perched on a stool, with immense stacks of paper surrounding him everywhere. Total mayhem.

I walk up to him -- knowing that this was a waste of time and really wanting to get out of there -- and asked if he had the Sam's Photofacts for that specific very old TV model.

Without saying a word, he reached over to the pile of papers right next to him, took the TOP item off the pile, and silently handed it to me. It was the ancient one I needed. Stunned, I paid him the amount marked on the item, and left with it, not completely sure what had just happened.

When I drove by there a month later that storefront was something else entirely. He was gone.

Someone put a stick on all the dogs graves…❤️

Why it’s crucial to keep the humanity of our enemies firmly in our minds. (Hint: it’s not primarily for their sakes.)

Fantastic accomplishment!♥️👍🏿

https://19thnews.org/2023/07/chanda-prescod-weinstein-physicist-tenure-rare-feat/

And when she tried to join the Fediverse, she was greeted with a barrage of hate, sexism, racism, and anti-semitism that should have never been allowed to happen.

So now no one on Fediverse gets to interact with her directly about her work on here. Our loss. 😢

Which is why we'll make it so that this type of terrible welcome is unlikely to happen again. Allowing it to happen to her was a choice. We will make better ones.

#BlackMastodon

TIL: Under the UK Animals Act 1971 cats are legally classed as 'free spirits' meaning no claim of trespass or causing damage can be brought against the owner. I kinda love that cats are SO uncontrollable a whole new category had to be created for them under law.

For the third time this year a story about a cis girl seeing a trans woman naked in a YMCA locker room has fallen apart as more details became known.

Abbigail Wheeler saw two trans women sitting on a bench talking in their bathing suits, but never saw them change. She posted hateful signs targeting them and her family canceled their YMCA membership and pulled her from the swim team rather than allow her to face consequences for her behavior. #trans #news #journalism

https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/illinois-ymca-wheeler-protest-transgender

In 1992, Sinead O'Connor tore a picture of Pope John Paul II in half during a performance on SNL in protest against generations of abuse toward children within the Catholic church.

Bless you, Sinead.

Welcome to Heaven.

A rare sighting of the endangered rogue zuchini leading its young from their hatching vines at our current #uk housesit...

(This is where I confess I travel with a pack of googly eyes at all times because they're an essential #writing aid, honest!)

#garden #vegetables #gardeningmastodon #gardening

Happy Rotating Black Hole Day!

Roy Kerr submitted his breakthrough paper describing the spacetime around a rotating black hole #OTD in 1963.

Physicists had been searching for decades for this solution to the field equations of Einstein's theory of general relativity.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.11.237

In your responses to anyone anywhere, I would ask you to remember there is a difference between "I see your struggle and I want to be helpful to you" and "You're doing it wrong and I want to be the one to say that to you" and also a difference in how they will be taken in by others. If you don't know the difference between the two (or don't care), perhaps it would be best for you not to say anything at all.

Astronomer Vera Rubin was born #OTD in 1928.

Her work on galactic rotation curves became one of the main pieces of evidence for the existence of dark matter, and she deserved a Nobel Prize for it.

Image: Vassar College / Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

#FediHelp Boosts requested for maximum reach (much appreciative)

As some of you know, I recently retired from the military after 20 years (still technically in on "transitional leave") and I am hoping to connect to any professionals within the Counseling field, specifically within the Addiction Counseling concentration. Bonus points if you're in the NC area

The contact IS NOT for personal counseling; I want to ask questions as I am interested in pursuing a Master's of Arts in Counseling.

I will never not share this story whenever it crosses my feed. Never.