Medicine
Potentially Good NewsNoninvasive blood test can detect cancer 4 years before conventional diagnosis methods https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/non-invasive-blood-test-can-detect-cancer-4-years-conventional-diagnosis-methods?utm_source=fiat-lux&utm_medium=internal-email&utm_campaign=article-general&utm_content=text
An international team of researchers has developed a noninvasive blood test that can detect whether an individual has one of five common types of cancers, four years before the condition can be diagnosed with current methods. The test detects stomach, esophageal, colorectal, lung and liver cancer.
This is big because early detection is a key factor in the survival of cancel patients. The test also detected clean samples 95% of the time, which means not too many false positives. Caveat
The researchers emphasize that the PanSeer assay is unlikely to predict which patients will later go on to develop cancer. Instead, it is most likely identifying patients who already have cancerous growths, but remain asymptomatic for current detection methods.
Who knows when it will be released into the wild or what it will cost, but good news overall. Useful InformationOlder adults who can really smell the roses may face lower likelihood of dementia https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/older-adults-who-can-really-smell-roses-may-face-lower-likelihood-dementia?utm_source=fiat-lux&utm_medium=internal-email&utm_campaign=article-general&utm_content=text
Seniors who can identify smells like roses, turpentine, paint-thinner and lemons, and have retained their senses of hearing, vision and touch, may have half the risk of developing dementia as their peers with marked sensory decline.
Impairment of any sense may be an indiucator, but the impairment of multiple senses is a greater indicator. Than said, the sense of smell may be a key indicator. Worth a Full Read
While multiple impairments were key to the researchers work, the authors acknowledged that a keen sense of smell, or olfaction, has a stronger association against dementia than touch, hearing or vision. Participants whose smell declined by 10 percent had a 19 percent higher chance of dementia, versus a 1-to-3-percent increased risk for corresponding declines in vision, hearing and touch. “The olfactory bulb, which is critical for smell, is affected fairly early on in the course of the disease,” said Brenowitz. “It’s thought that smell may be a preclinical indicator of dementia, while hearing and vision may have more of a role in promoting dementia.”
Bad News Barring some rapidly arising herd immunity or a rpidly developed fully effective vaccine, a decision by the corporate-govenmental symbiote to fund its production, distribution and administration for free, and a political willingness to force people to take it, the US plan for covid-19 appears t be "everybody except selected cautious oligarchs gets it at least once". This is bad because even where not immediately lethal, it is very, very bad ju-ju. Why? 78 of 100 recovered coronavirus patients have "lasting cardiovascular damage", that's why. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2768916 as reported in https://theweek.com/speedreads/927908/even-mild-coronavirus-cases-cause-lasting-cardiovascular-damage-study-shows as reported in https://boingboing.net/2020/07/29/78-of-100-recovered-coronaviru.html
A Belief in Meritocracy Is Not Only False: It’s Bad for You
It encourages selfishness and discrimination yet it continues to be instilled in the minds of many.
Aeon Clifton Mark https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-belief-in-meritocracy-is-not-only-false-it-s-bad-for-you meritocracy is commonly treated as the one, true, ultimate goal. Beyond that, great numbers believe it to be reality and many, believers or not, push it as a narrative to justify the oligarchy-plutocracy. The author deals with this and presents a short discourse on why it is wrong. IT is, but that argument needs lot of development if one wished to make its falsity the established narrative. Next, the author tells us:
In addition to being false, a growing body of research in psychology and neuroscience suggests that believing in meritocracy makes people more selfish, less self-critical and even more prone to acting in discriminatory ways. Meritocracy is not only wrong; it’s bad.
This is a biggie. It is also much better argued. All of the above needs to be made into the dominant narrative if we really wish to get anywhere vis-a-vis the plutocracy-oligarchy and the vast mis-distribution of wealth and income. It's also funny, because it conflicts with the main fallback narrative. When people are confronted with examples of the role played by luck, they talk of the risk taken, and how risk needs to be rewarded and even the econ 1A homily that "Reward is proportional to risk". If it were, then all risk takers would be rewarded, which is verifiably an absolute crock of shit. what it comes to is both narratives promote or propagandize for the status quo, even though it punishes most and benefits few. If people simply took an objective look around and judged the veracity of the rhetorical models by the measurable results, we could put these myths to rest, and if we did, then we could start to build something better.
Say What?
... Thank you for writing to share your concerns regarding facial recognition technology. I appreciate the time you took to write, and I welcome the opportunity to respond. I understand Americans are concerned about how their data is being collected and used, including data collected through facial recognition technology. You may be interested to know that on March 14, 2019, Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced the “Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act of 2019” (S. 847), which would prevent federal or local governments from using facial recognition technology to identify or track consumer information without obtaining the consent of the consumer. S. 847 currently awaits consideration by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, of which I am not member. ...
~ DiFi [ click ] So, off to da web for the bill's text: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/847/text
(3) COVERED ENTITY.—The term “covered entity”— (A) means any person, including corporate affiliates, that collects, stores, or processes facial recognition data; and (B) does not include— (i) the Federal Government or any State or local government; (ii) a law enforcement agency; (iii) a national security agency; or (iv) an intelligence agency.
Hmmm, imagine that.
Blue Lives "movement" uses slave labor
Prison labor in Massachusetts is used to manufacture Blue Lives Matter merchandise https://boingboing.net/2020/07/29/prison-labor-in-massachusetts.html you have to click the embedded twitter link: pic.twitter.com/jMx66uXRVF to see the detail, but prison labor is being used to make the Alt-Right invented "Blue Lives Matter" flags, a corrupted version of the US flag, similar flags for prison guards, and the like
Covid-19
Interesting Article, worth a read: How Italy Turned Around Its Coronavirus Calamity After a stumbling start, the country has gone from being a global pariah to a model — however imperfect — of viral containment that holds lessons for its neighbors and for the United States. (NY Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/world/europe/italy-coronavirus-reopening.html?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits The gist of it? Containment. Quarantines, lockdowns and lots of science.
Its government has been guided by scientific and technical committees. Local doctors, hospitals and health officials collect more than 20 indicators on the virus daily and send them to regional authorities, who then forward them to the National Institute of Health. The result is a weekly X-ray of the country’s health upon which policy decisions are based. ...
Sadly, this knowledge and "advice" cannot bnefit us, because our govenment will not do its job and we really cannot do it by ourselves.
De-Mock-racy: let's put the Mock in democracy to remind ourselves that calling this imperialist oligarchy a democracy is a mockery, as is our corporategovernmental symbiote claiming to support or promote democracy elsewhere in the world. Scare Quotes, at a minimum for most normal USA uses of that phrase, and/or italics. .
It's an open thread, so have at it. The floor is yours .
Cross posted from caucus99percent.com