Haiku – Content

Fire of Moods

Softy falling snow Blanket for the sleeping bulbs Dreaming of the spring Thank you for reading Richard Richard M. Ankers Author of the brand new steampunk extravaganza Britannia Unleashed. Also Available: The Eternals Series: The Eternals / Hunter Hunted / Into Eternity

Haiku – Content

#El_Magnifico_Tm

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After a short hiatus

NANMYKEL.COM

What does a hiatus mean?  It sounds sort of formal.  I’m sufficiently old=fashioned to still use a paperbound dictionary:  I was right!  There are several more meanings than I mean–[see also yawn]–Including things related to passage in an organ, two vowel sounds without pause, herniating through the esophageal….

Now that I’ve lost my readership crowd, I’ll tell you all about it:  It all started with my printer not working. After a helper tried to fix it, I lost my internet connection.  (I had already lost my phone accessibility because I couldn’t figure out how to use it.)  See what I mean about planned obsolescense being evil?  A couple or so years ago I had a great phone that looked like a small flip phone, and it didn’t pretend to be anything else.  Then the battery went dead and a new battery was as expensive as a new phone. Not imagining…

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Why do bat viruses keep infecting people?

Grey-headed flying-foxes roosting in a tree Food stress

Specifically, the researchers found that clusters of Hendra virus spillovers occur following years in which the bats experience food stress. And these food shortages typically follow years with a strong El Niño, a climatic phenomenon in the tropical Pacific Ocean that is often associated with drought along eastern Australia. But if the trees the bats rely on for food during the winter have a large flowering event the year after there’s been a food shortage, there are no spillovers. Unfortunately, the problem is that “there’s hardly any winter habitat left”, says Raina Plowright, a disease ecologist and study co-author at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

The study is “absolutely fantastic”, says Sarah Cleaveland, a veterinarian and infectious-disease ecologist at the University of Glasgow, UK. “What’s so exciting about it is that it has led directly to solutions.” Cleaveland says the study’s approach of looking at the impact of climate, environment, nutritional stress and bat ecology together could bring new insights to the study of other pathogens, including Nipah and Ebola, and their viral families. The study provides “a much clearer understanding of drivers of this issue, with broad relevance to pandemics elsewhere”, says Alice Hughes, a conservation biologist at the University of Hong Kong. “The paper underscores the enhanced risk we are likely to see” with climate change and increasing habitat loss, she says.

Source: Why do bat viruses keep infecting people?

Politics and Public Health

CRAIN'S COMMENTS

It’s amazing the extent to which people can look at the same data and draw radically different conclusions. In a sense, I suppose, it’s the old story of a glass being half full or half empty, but it’s also playing Russian Roulette with your health.

China is heavily criticized for what is seen as an “extreme” approach to Covid and other infectious diseases, with lockdowns of large cities to prevent spread. To the extent that Americans are aware of what happens in other countries, and many aren’t, China is seen as an outlier. It’s not.

Triggered by the G20 meetings in Indonesia this week, Medscape has provided a summary of the approach to disease taken by each of the G20 countries.(1) My request is that you scan the summary, excerpts of which are below, and then think about what is best for yourself. Not what the media is saying, not…

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Senate passes resolution to end national emergency over covid | The Kansas City Star (Me: Two scoops of stupid – one dip Covid and one dip no student loan waivers!)

Sen. Roger Marshall’s resolution to end the national emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic passed the Senate 62-36 on Tuesday, picking up bipartisan support on an effort that would effectively spike President Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan.

Source: Senate passes resolution to end national emergency over covid | The Kansas City Star

Risk of seizures is higher after COVID-19 than after influenza, study finds — ScienceDaily (Me: Get vaccinated for both!)

People who have a COVID-19 infection are more likely to develop seizures or epilepsy within the next six months than people who have an influenza infection, according to a new study. Source: Risk of seizures is higher after COVID-19 than after influenza, study finds — ScienceDaily

♫ Just To See Her ♫ — Filosofa’s Word

Tonight, I am in the mood for some Motown!  I haven’t played this one since 2018, so you probably don’t remember that I played it four years ago, right?  Heck, most of you probably didn’t know I existed four years ago.  Anyway, let’s kick back and love us some Smokey Robinson! The song written by […]

♫ Just To See Her ♫ — Filosofa’s Word