tingilinde

a historian on a rather dramatic day

Heather Cox Richardson on yesterday's J6 hearings

 

making a propeller

patsy mink

A video on Representative Patsy Mink and Title IX

 

pushback against cryptocurrency miners

Excessive energy use is driving some unwelcome signs.  Hopefully coin values will continue to collapse and put the miners out of business.

 

goats vs fires

Rent 400 goats to create a fire barrier.

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

teaching anti-science

Rightwing and corporate interests deciding what "science" is taught.

This piece focuses on the fossil fuel industry, but already pushes to teach creationism are sneaking back into public schools.

 

 

biology vs gender in sport

World Athletics may follow the recent lead of swimming ..  fairness should trump inclusivity.  

I support transgendered people in most areas, but not in sport - it's blatantly unfair to women.  There's been an enormous amount of harassment of women who have spoken up on this coupled with some outdated bad science.  The credible work shows that, past puberty, the advantage of a biological males doesn't fade much with testosterone reduction.  The muscle mass, bone structure and size has already been built.  The advantage over females reduces by about 20 to 30%.  The proposal for an open class makes sense.

Sport scientist Ross Tucker has written and podcast extensively on the subject as part of his work with rugby...  here's a short sample

 

explaining vacuum energy

Something that is poorly handled in most of the popular science press.  Here's a clear explanation assuming you've  had had a bit of physics.

on covid and nasal sprays

The next big development?  An interview with Akiko Isawaki

 

snip

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Would nasal spray vaccines be as effective as the intramuscular vaccines currently being used to battle the virus?

I would think that it will be more effective. We still have to test it in humans, but because the spray vaccine establishes local immunity where the virus enters the body, people may not get infected from the pathogen, which is very different from the intramuscular vaccines where we’re preventing severe disease. If you don’t get infected, of course, you avoid any downstream consequences, like long Covid.

Another advantage is that it’s a nasal spray, so you don’t necessarily rely on health care personnel to deliver it. You may just get it from your local pharmacy and administer it yourself. That also expands the scope to other countries that may not have the workforce to deliver intramuscular vaccine but may have the capacity to deliver nasal spray. It’s also very easy to produce: It’s just a recombinant protein that can be stored in the fridge for a few months.

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when it rains, it pours

The history of one of the longest running ad campaigns.

snip

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Remember the Morton Salt Girl? Of course you do, Morton table salt still puts that girl (and her umbrella) on every package of their truly iconic salt. Their slogan also goes way back. The old saying, “When it rains, it pours,” sounds like wise wisdom from Confucius or the Bible or even the moral of an Aesop’s Fable. In reality, this saying is one of the earliest and most successful advertising slogans of all time, which makes it actually... not that old. The now-popular, but generally-modern adage comes to us from the Morton Salt Company itself, and, when paired with the Morton Salt Girl, it forms the basis for one of the longest running marketing campaigns of all time.

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