Sen. #Booker now decrying cuts to NIH funding, repeating the oft-cited statistic that $1 in basic biomedical research funding leads to $5 in economic gains.
Compares the decimation of US research to Chinese cultural revolution.
On a day when a volcano resumed erupting, we get news that the Hawaii Volcano Observatory - relied on by residents of Hawaii Island to stay safe from lava and vog - will have its HQ closed by Elon fucking Musk.
I get so incensed at all of the security theater for fucking banks, medical providers and the like when these monopolistic corporations are constantly hemorrhaging our data.
Oh, the burden is on me to jump through these hoops..make new passwords... type in fucking 12 digit 2-factor codes...endless catpchas....& when THEIR TERRIBLE FUCKING SECURITY leads to terabytes of personal data getting posted for LULZ & profit, I will get $22, which was my share of the Equifax settlement.
@atomicpoet In Nov. '22 I saw many people on the fediverse tell journalists to leave and several servers de-federated from journo.host. Journalists who tried it here took the hint and most did leave as far as I can tell.
Physicians may be surprised to learn that there have been *dozens* of potential biomarkers (blood tests, saliva tests, etc, basically) identified for ME/CFS and #LongCovid. These never get turned into working, widely-available tests because no one funds the studies needed to validate them in large cohorts. Here's a new story from The Sick Times & a page from MEPedia that lists many potential biomarkers.
Interent search has become so useless...try googling "The X-Files season 12" and see what you get. It's impossible to tell from the first few pages of results if there will be a season 12 or not.
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.
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.
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…"
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.
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 😂.
Occasional science reporter at The Washington Post and elsewhere. Disabled by complex chronic post-viral illness. Living on #Kauai #Hawaii. Sometimes SCUBA diver.