Notices by Brian Vastag (brianvastag@sciencemastodon.com)

If your company tries to disinvest its retirement plans from oil & gas, a GOP judge will tell you that's illegal.

#climate

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/american-airlines-held-liable-for-esg-investing-in-401k-plan?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Cartoonist Ann Telnaes leaves WaPo after someone above her killed a cartoon - the first that's happened in 16 years, she says.

The cartoon shows a bunch of oligarchs kneeling before and handing sacks of money to #Trump

#news #media

https://anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-quitting-the-washington-post

This looks like an interesting alternative hypothesis to dark energy to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe we observe.

The 'timescape' model posits that what we're really seeing is time moving faster in empty space vs inside galaxies. This would mean the cosmic voids are spreading apart more rapidly.

Theorists in New Zealand who came up with it say current and future space telescopes can test their idea.

#physics #cosmology

https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/dark-energy-doesnt-exist-so-cant-be-pushing-lumpy-universe-apart

Thank goodness for Ted Goia, who suspected Spotify was spiking playlists with musak, essentially, and now an investigation has proven him correct. Fake artists who produce cheap tracks and give up all rights to it are now proliferating. He calls it war on the music biz.

#music

https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-ugly-truth-about-spotify-is-finally

I want to highlight this interview with the lawyer who won my #disability case against Prudential. Barbara Comerford has been taking on the insurance industry for a long time. @tomkindlon brought to my attention this interview by Betsy Ladyzhets for The Sick Times.

Excerpts: "And I can tell you that 38 years ago, these [disability claims] were not problem cases. I used to do them for free for my litigation clients…"

https://thesicktimes.org/2024/12/03/we-talked-to-a-veteran-lawyer-about-applying-for-disability-insurance-with-long-covid-and-me

1/

Here's my experience with Medicare, which is single-payer health insurance in the US for seniors and disabled people: I got diagnosed with a condition that has expensive immunotherapy on the Medicare formulary as the first-line treatment.

My doc prescribed it and Medicare pays for it.

That's it.

The propaganda against Medicare is so strong because UHC and the like make tens of billions of dollars denying care like mine.

#healthcare #insurance #UHC

@hannu_ikonen That was/is such an important article. It should've gotten so much more attention.

Two days ago I planted this endangered hibiscus (species Hibiscus clayi) for Beth, my partner who died last December. The species is part of a 'genetic lifeboat' program run by the university & some federal agencies & nonprofits.

Today it is showing its first blossom.

Being a green thumb in Hawaii is like level 1 stuff 😂.

#bloomscrolling

Disabled people have been relying on each for a long, long time. In the chronic illness spaces, all we have is each other huddling against a largely hostile world. It is true mutual aid, bi- and omnidirectional, not just one-way requests for donations (which is fine but I don't consider that mutual aid because what part of it is mutual?).

Example from @meactnet is the Canary Corps. https://www.meaction.net/canary-corps/

Learn from us.

#disability #ChronicIllness

Just looked at granular #Wisconsin data.

30,000 votes. Trump won the state by less than half of Lambeau Field's capacity.

Fucking hell.

#USpol #election2024

Seen on Kauai.

@onan

This news was broken by people who follow the #UAP issue months ago and now the WSJ has decided that DOD not being able to ID objects flying over a big Air Force facility is a story.

I think it is too...I'd like our military to know who or what is evading air defenses and buzzing bases.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/drones-military-pentagon-defense-331871f4

Nothing's shocking anymore except this chart.

#healthcare #medicine

A Trumper just yelled at me to go back to California, which I find endlessly funny as #Hawaii went for Biden at 64% and we are far more liberal than California on just about every policy. We have universal healthcare, for crissakes.

#USpol

Some people who describe themselves as pro-Palenstinian took down and breached the Internet Archive because....it's in the United States and the U.S. is responsible for genocide donchta know.

Absolute brain worms.

https://gizmodo.com/hacktivists-claim-responsibility-for-taking-down-the-internet-archive-2000510339

Vance's idea to group chronically ill people into high-risk pools so insurers can shun & gouge us was something that used to happen pre-ACA. So yes, he wants to go backwards. Fuck this guy and his terrible ideas.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/09/20/vance-health-care-affordable-care-act/

Convicted felons cannot serve on the DC city council but they can sit behind the Resolute Desk and sign bills denying DC budget autonomy.

Nice country we have here.

#USpol

https://wapo.st/47kEJs9

Do you want to know a secret about ice cream? It has air in it. In the biz it's called 'overrun.' Cheap ice cream has 100% overrun, meaning the volume has been doubled with air.

Premium brands like Ben & Jerry's and Haagen Dazs typically have 20-30% overrun. Less air, denser ice cream.

My dad worked for Good Humor/Breyer's. :)

Follow me for more ice cream insights. 🍦🍨

Pharma company BioVie announces phase 2 trial of investigational new drug for #LongCovid. The drug candidate, bezesterim, is also being tested in patients with Alzheimer's & Parkinson's diseases. The company says it crosses the blood-brain barrier & reduces neuroinflammation, which is often seen in long covid.

It's being funded by DOD.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/biovie-announces-fda-authorization-investigational-120000163.html

@mackayim2022 I think with proper diagnosis, we could do away with "long covid": Some people have post-viral fatigue syndrome; if it lasts 6+ months it typically converts to a dx of ME/CFS; some people have POTS & other autonomic dysfunction; some have lung damage; some have kidney damage; myocarditis; etc.

I follow the literature fairly closely & I don't think there's anything new with post-covid conditions that has not been seen before.