Links for you. Science:
Avian flu confirmed in three grizzly bears euthanized in Montana
The Globus INK (1967) is a remarkable piece of Soviet spacecraft equipment. Its rotating globe showed cosmonauts the position of their Soyuz spacecraft. An electromechanical analog computer, it used gears, cams, and differentials to compute the position.
Scientists petition UCLA to reverse ecologist’s suspension
Do bivalent boosters work against XBB.1.5? Vaccine questions, answered. New CDC data shows updated boosters are cutting risk of getting sick from covid-19 by about half
Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 in University Setting
The DataHarmonizer: a tool for faster data harmonization, validation, aggregation and analysis of pathogen genomics contextual information
Other:
Can Anything Be Done to Assuage Rural Rage?
Virology under the Microscope—a Call for Rational Discourse
Secret Agent Man: The Mysterious Charlie McGonigal
In Affordable Housing v. Parking Lot, a Judge Chooses the Lot
What’s Ours Won’t Be Mine(d), as Interior Keeps Minerals in the Ground in Minnesota
Supreme Court did not disclose financial relationship with expert brought in to review leak probe (why would anyone listen to Michael Fucking Chertoff about anything, let alone COVID-19 protocols?)
The time has come for a major reset at the CDC (they sort of bump into CDC’s silolization problem, but that’s a key problem)
How Barr’s Quest to Find Flaws in the Russia Inquiry Unraveled: The review by John Durham at one point veered into a criminal investigation related to Donald Trump himself, even as it failed to find wrongdoing in the origins of the Russia inquiry.
The Government Has a Classified-Document Problem
Documents show how 19 ‘Cop City’ activists got charged with terrorism
Did the Music Business Just Kill the Vinyl Revival?
Defund The Police
CNET found errors in more than half of its AI-written stories
Anti-Abortion ‘Abolitionists’ Want to Charge Abortion Patients Like Murderers Now
The Sacred Lies of Virginia Thomas
Britain’s Cautionary Tale of Self-Destruction
Slammer 20 Years After
The Trump Enablers Dance On
Lobbyists for Washington Gas Tried to Neuter a Major Clean Energy Bill. They Failed.
Is D.C. Really Reducing Penalties For Violent Crimes? It’s Complicated.
Metro To Improve Train Frequency During Busiest Weekdays, Times
What tracking one Walmart store’s prices for years taught us about the economy
Fatal heart attacks have surged in Australia. Here’s why
What new questions will I be asked when I donate blood?
Disabled people were Holocaust victims, too: they were excluded from German society and murdered by Nazi programs
i am moderately skeptical of that cdc data on the bivalent boosters… their monovalent-only reference group is roughly 50% monovalent-boostered + 50% no boosters at all, and the bivalent-boostered group is 100% boostered.
it would be nice if someone could take that data and do a better matchup of the groups – leave out the 2-shot people entirely, and compare the 2 monovalent primary series + 1 monovalent booster group to the 2 monovalent primary series + 1 bivalent booster group, and compare the 2 monovalent primary series + 2 monovalent boosters group to the 2 monovalent primary series + 1 monovalent booster + 1 bivalent booster group, etc.
on the bright side, the fact that the bivalent booster group is doing only somewhat better than the 50% no boosters at all group makes me happy i didn’t wait for the bivalent booster last fall.
i’ll definitely try to get the updated version for my next booster, but i live in desantistan so i’m going to stop worrying about it and follow dr fauci’s advice from early on – “the best shot is the one that’s available.”