rjshae

The bitter cold is mainly east of the Cascade mountains. To the west in the maritime zone we get a ton of cloudy weather, but that helps moderate the temperature. There is a coastal retirement community in WA called Sequim that lives in the rain shadow of the Olympics. They only get 15 inches of rain annually and have their own native cacti. (Compare to the Hoh Rain Forest which gets over 200 inches per year.)

They increase their ratings by focusing on issues that generate a strong emotional response. *gasp* I'm talking about the evening news, of course.

I have some hidden hearing loss myself. The worst though is speaking to some guy who is wearing a mask and doesn't enunciate well. It basically comes out as, "Blah-blah blah blabab and blah bah-lah. Okay?"

I wonder if they ever trolled him with Yakety Sax?

Some people get tetrachromacy, which gives them greater color sense. I wonder how long it would take your brain to adapt to the enhanced vision? Reminds me of At First Sight.

A Gene-Editing Experiment Let These Patients With Vision Loss See Color Again

A little nerd humor...

Now it's only 30 years away.

Guess where Trump won the election in 2016: the rust belt.

I think a lot of this is being driven by America's relative decline in power. Many of the people supporting the Trumpian faction have been hurt economically by the loss of manufacturing in the US. Unfortunately for them their central figure is not quite right in the head, or perhaps their movement would be more potent and effective. Trump isn't an effective strategist, at least not in terms of the national interests.

The actual number of civilian casualties in both conflicts can only be estimated, but those estimates are typically in the six figures: the estimates for Iraq are ~200,000 and for Syria are ~500,000. Typically the US uses more expensive precision weapons that limit damage to infrastructure, and probably to civilians to some degree. They're both horrific conflicts, comparable to the Spanish civil war. Iraq will probably bounce back better because of its extensive oil resources.

FDA authorizes bamlanivimab and etesevimab monoclonal antibody therapy for post-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) for COVID-19 Apparently the hydroxychloroquine/ivermectin/anti-vaxxer gang has latched onto this as the latest panacea treatment for COVID-19. The difference this time is this actually shows some (albeit preliminary) positive results by preventing a statistically significant portion of the infected from being hospitalized. The irony is that the same people raging against Big Pharma pursuing expensive treatments for COVID-19 have gravitated toward an expensive treatment from Big Pharma, rather than getting vaccinated. Strange logic. I suspect that this treatment will not be available to low income, uninsured people.

The doors will be locked as they fly by...

I have to suspect that, at the time, there was a lot of intense pressure on the military brass to stop another bombing, which led to hasty intel conclusions and targeting mistakes. All part of the fog of war. My sympathies for the family targeted.

I took my annual flu shot yesterday. Barely felt it go in and I've felt fine since. Maybe it was just water?