“I’m sick to death of people saying we’ve made 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we’ve made 12 albums that sound exactly the same.”
Angus Young AC/DC
Why Lockdowns Worked in March and Why Lockdowns No Longer Work
The researchers found that after one day of total isolation, the sight of people having fun together activates the same brain region that lights up when someone who hasn’t eaten all day sees a picture of a plate of cheesy pasta.
“People who are forced to be isolated crave social interactions similarly to the way a hungry person craves food. Our finding fits the intuitive idea that positive social interactions are a basic human need, and acute loneliness is an aversive state that motivates people to repair what is lacking, similar to hunger,” says Rebecca Saxe, the John W. Jarve Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and the senior author of the study.
The research team collected the data for this study in 2018 and 2019, long before the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdowns. Their new findings, described today in Nature Neuroscience, are part of a larger research program focusing on how social stress affects people’s behavior and motivation.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “A hunger for social contact: Neuroscientists find that isolation provokes brain activity similar to that seen during hunger cravings.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201123120724.htm (accessed November 23, 2020).
Taxpayers Face $435 Billion in Student-Loan Losses
Taxpayers face a loss of $435 billion on the $1.37 trillion in student loans on the government’s financial statement at the beginning of this year, even if no additional loans are issued going forward, according to an internal study by the Department of Education, reported by the Wall Street Journal which reviewed the documents. Most of the losses would come from the already established income-based repayment programs and the debt forgiveness at the end of their term.
But who ultimately got this money, since students were just the conduit? The educational-financial-industrial complex, of course, the entities that have lined up to clean out the taxpayer via these student loans. Billionaires have been printed in the process, enabled and encouraged by the government since 2009. Any solution to the student-loan crisis needs to include measures that shut down that money-transfer and return the government’s role in student loans to where it had been before 2009.
Taxpayers Face $435 Billion in Student-Loan Losses, Already Baked in: Leaked Education-Department Study — https://wolfstreet.com/2020/11/22/taxpayers-face-435-billion-in-student-loan-losses-already-baked-in-department-of-education-study/
And let’s not forget who The Great Enabler was behind the college leaders’ lack of caring for their students College Presidents Fail to Protect Students from Covid-19 – College Clusterfuck Update 11.22.20. Politicians, of course.
We. Are. Doomed.
Oxford vaccine shows 90% efficacy in Phase-3 trial — Science Chronicle
Interim data analysis of Phase-3 trial of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 candidate vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-2019) showed different efficacies in preventing COVID-19 disease. In the case of the regimen where a halved dose was used as a prime (first dose) followed by a standard dose of booster, the efficacy was 90%. However, when full doses (standard doses) were […]
Oxford vaccine shows 90% efficacy in Phase-3 trial — Science Chronicle
College Presidents Fail to Protect Students from Covid-19 – College Clusterfuck Update 11.22.20
In fact, university Presidents — leaders, let us remember — did not mobilize to protect students from Covid. Frankly, I never thought they did, because I do try to pay attention to these things, but to prove it to myself, I went through 33 pages of headlines for the Coronavirus tag in the Chronicle of Higher Education, all the way back to the first entry on February 24 (“Coronavirus-Themed Party at Albany Draws Criticism“)…
As it turns out, protecting students from Covid was never a top priority for University Presidents. The American Council on Education (“a membership organization that mobilizes [ha] the higher education community to shape effective public policy and foster innovative, high-quality practice”) has published periodic surveys on what University Presidents consider pressing issues.
College Presidents Fail to Mobilize to Protect Students from Covid-19 — https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/11/university-administrators-fail-to-mobilize-protect-students-covid-19.html
The author of this article doesn’t attempt to hide his bias or contempt for the so-called leaders of our colleges and universities. I’ve made no attempt to hide my disdain either (sharp eyed readers will note my title above deletes two words from the original article title). The college clusterfuck has been one of my recurring themes:
Colleges’ Opening Fueled 3,000 COVID Cases a Day (College Clusterfuck Update)
“I slept on the floor, and woke up to ants crawling on my bed.”
College Clusterfuck 2.0 – “It’s a Dystopian Hell” – Updated
The full article contains some pretty sorrid stuff. Enjoy!
Online education will become the standard operating model for higher education. Thousands of colleges and universities will go belly up. Professor Galloway at NYU says it’s simple math. See Galloway’s comments here: Post Pandemic Changes in Consumer Behavior
MMR Vaccine Study Shows Possible Protection Against Covid-19
More research is needed but if this study findings hold up we have a game changer.
“We found a statistically significant inverse correlation between mumps titer levels and COVID-19 severity in people under age 42 who have had MMR II vaccinations,” said lead study author Jeffrey E. Gold, president of World Organization, in Watkinsville, Georgia. “This adds to other associations demonstrating that the MMR vaccine may be protective against COVID-19. It also may explain why children have a much lower COVID-19 case rate than adults, as well as a much lower death rate. The majority of children get their first MMR vaccination around 12 to 15 months of age and a second one from 4 to 6 years of age.”
American Society for Microbiology. “MMR vaccine could protect against COVID-19, study shows.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201120091157.htm (accessed November 22, 2020).
The Main Thing Art Does Is To Let You Know You’re Not Alone
“We don’t need to generalize, we don’t need to say let me explain the whole world to you as an artist. You don’t have to do that. Just tell the truth about your own life, what you’re experiencing, what you’re seeing and dig into it. Don’t be afraid of it, confront it. Let’s see where it comes out. Let’s describe our most intimate relationships with the hopes that other people can see themselves in our work.”
Steven Van Zandt — https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebaltin/2020/10/18/qa-e-streets-steve-van-zandt-and-nils-lofgren-on-the-making-of-the-new-bruce-springsteen-masterpiece-letter-to-you/#7bc47c7877e3
Diets Don’t Work so Why Are More Teens Dieting?
Well, my first thought was Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) — https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/related-illnesses/other-related-conditions/body-dysmorphic-disorder-bdd. But this is merely an educated guess from an insurance guy who has lost 200 pounds and not a trained licensed practicing clinical psychiatrist.
In 2015, 42% of 14-year-old girls and boys said they currently were trying to lose weight, compared to 30% in 2005.
Lead author Dr Francesca Solmi (UCL Psychiatry) said: “Our findings show how the way we talk about weight, health and appearance can have profound impacts on young people’s mental health, and efforts to tackle rising obesity rates may have unintended consequences.
“An increase in dieting among young people is concerning because experimental studies have found that dieting is generally ineffective in the long term at reducing body weight in adolescents, but can instead have greater impacts on mental health. We know, for instance, that dieting is a strong risk factor in the development of eating disorders.”
University College London. “Dieting and weight worries on rise in teens.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201116112855.htm (accessed November 21, 2020). — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201116112855.htm
And in case you made it this far on this blog post my estimated BMI at age 20 was 53.1. My current BMI is 25.1.
An Early-Onset Subgroup of Type 2 Diabetes: A Multigenerational, Prospective Analysis in the Framingham Heart Study
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To assess the relation of type 2 diabetes occurring earlier (age <55 years) versus later in life to the risk of cardiovascular death and to diabetes in offspring.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In the Framingham Heart Study, a community-based prospective cohort study, glycemic status was ascertained at serial examinations over six decades among 5,571 first- and second-generation participants with mortality data and 2,123 second-generation participants who initially did not have diabetes with data on parental diabetes status. We assessed cause of death in a case (cardiovascular death)–control (noncardiovascular death) design and incident diabetes in offspring in relation to parental early-onset diabetes.
RESULTS Among the participants in two generations (N = 5,571), there were 1,822 cardiovascular deaths (including 961 coronary deaths). The odds of cardiovascular versus noncardiovascular death increased with decreasing age of diabetes onset (P < 0.001 trend). Compared with never developing diabetes, early-onset diabetes conferred a 1.81-fold odds (95% CI 1.10–2.97, P = 0.02) of cardiovascular death and 1.75-fold odds (0.96–3.21, P = 0.07) of coronary death, whereas later-onset diabetes was not associated with greater risk for either (P = 0.09 for cardiovascular death; P = 0.51 for coronary death). In second-generation participants, having a parent with early-onset diabetes increased diabetes risk by 3.24-fold (1.73–6.07), whereas having one or both parents with late-onset diabetes increased diabetes risk by 2.19-fold (1.50–3.19).
CONCLUSIONS Our findings provide evidence for a diabetes subgroup with an early onset, a stronger association with cardiovascular death, and higher transgenerational transmission.
Diabetes Care 2020 Dec; 43(12): 3086-3093. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc19-1758
Translation – The earlier you develop diabetes your risk of CVD and coronary death is higher. An if one or both of your parents developed either early onset or late onset diabetes you’re screwed.
Meanwhile in Oklahoma – Follow the Science
With a mask mandate in place since spring, free drive-through testing, hospitals well-stocked with PPE, and a small army of public health officers fully supported by their chief, the Cherokee Nation has been able to curtail its Covid-19 case and death rates even as those numbers surge in surrounding Oklahoma, where the White House coronavirus task force says spread is unyielding.
The Cherokee Nation, with about 140,000 citizens on its reservation in northeastern Oklahoma, has reported just over 4,000 cases and 33 deaths.
“It’s dire, but what in the world would it look like if we weren’t doing this work?’” said Lisa Pivec, senior director of public health for Cherokee Nation Health Services. Pivec leads a team that jumped into action in late February, holding coronavirus task force meetings twice a day, instituting procedures to screen thousands of employees, stockpiling PPE, protecting elders, ensuring food security, and educating residents in both English and Cherokee language. With no guidance on contact tracing available from the CDC early in the pandemic, Pivec researched the World Health Organization’s Ebola response to set up tracing protocols; after the first case appeared on the reservation March 24, she made many of the contact tracing calls herself.
‘They’ve been following the science’: How the Covid-19 pandemic has been curtailed in Cherokee Nation — https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/17/how-covid19-has-been-curtailed-in-cherokee-nation/
Take a few minutes and read the full article. You will be impressed as I was.
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