Final supermoon of 2021 captured by photographers around the world ??https://t.co/Ipk2Wnn5lj
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 25, 2021
What pressure? Simone Biles soars to lead at U.S. Olympic Trials.
by @willgravesap https://t.co/EdjtmEynnd
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) June 26, 2021
News we can use:
Finally, a nontoxic repellent that works against ticks, the cause of 10s of 1000s of U.S. cases of Lyme disease. The repellent is based on a grapefruit compound https://t.co/j0Wqw6rCDm pic.twitter.com/QmeTOPsHl3
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) June 25, 2021
… [T]he CDC is pushing hard to develop a completely natural insect repellent made from a chemical called nootkatone, which is found in Alaska yellow cedar trees and citrus fruit…
Nootkatone is also effective against ticks, and scientists think it will work against bed bugs, head lice and other insects, too.
Moreover, nootkatone is so nontoxic you could drink it. In fact, it’s already an approved food additive, officially classed as “Generally Considered Safe.” It’s also a natural ingredient in some foods.
“If you’ve had a grapefruit, you’ve consumed some nootkatone,” Dolan says, “or drank a Squirt, for instance.”
Dolan, who is leading a CDC team to develop nootkatone, says it could be put into soaps and sunscreens, so people wouldn’t have to apply a separate bug repellent.
But that’s not all — it turns out that nootkatone could be both a repellent and an environmentally friendly pesticide. That’s because it doesn’t just repel bugs — it kills them…
The CDC owns patents on nootkatone and has licensed them to two companies — one to develop a repellent, the other to work on insecticides. The agency isn’t looking to make much money; its interest is in seeing products get to market.
Right now nootkatone is expensive — $4,000 per kilogram for highly purified food-grade material, which is used in parts-per-million amounts as a flavoring agent. Repellents and insecticides would use a higher concentration — perhaps 2 percent. But it wouldn’t need to be as purified.
Dolan says efforts are under way to find cheaper sources of nootkatone, such as waste products from the citrus and forestry industries. In addition, a different form, called nootkatol, appears to be a lower-cost alternative for repellents. “Nootkatol is just a waste product,” he says. “Right now, that’s virtually free.”
Further details at the link.
These 85 guitars seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, including one purportedly autographed by Guns and Roses guitarist Slash, would have been worth nearly $260,000 — if only they were real https://t.co/XAS8VEQF5R
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 22, 2021
Political social media posts are twice as likely to go viral if they are negative, a study suggestshttps://t.co/NRZ826ctCf
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 21, 2021
every once in a while, you assign a story specifically as an excuse to run a hall-of-fame headline https://t.co/cymhNnLOJ6 pic.twitter.com/I1G3grhlQ1
— Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) June 22, 2021
Baud
I’d rather have Lyme disease.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
“Matt Gaetz, who we frequently disagree with, is being oppressed and shamed for his private sex life by neoliberal corporatist warmongering surveillance state Democrats.”
– by Glenn Greenwald, Michael Tracey and Matt Taibbi
debbie
I really hope nootkatone works on stink bugs too.
Lapassionara
That headline made me LOL. When the song first came out, I thought the line was “when the moon hits your eye like a big piece of pie,” as I had not yet even heard the word “pizza.” I’m sorry, I grew up in the south in a culinarily challenged home.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
drank a Squirt
What the hell is wrong with my brain that it always goes there? I can’t stop giggling….
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
debbie
Love this reply to the tweet about the headline.
trnc
@Lapassionara:
Wow! “Pizza” was one of my formative words growing in NC, but my parents were northerners.
New Deal democrat
Finally saw a frame by frame video of the Surfside condo collapse.
The collapse clearly did *not* start at roof level, so the work being done on the roof does not appear to be the culprit,
Rather, the collapse starts at ground level at the far rightmost section of the central structure. It works it’s way across the front of the central section, then rearward in two progressions, and also pulls down the inward portion of the structure on the right.
I am going to guess that the cause is ultimately going to be related to sea water infiltration of the foundation. Scary for lots of other high rise dwellers in coastal Florida.
OzarkHillbilly
Grapefruit, why’d it have to be grapefruit? You see, I love grapefruit. Would drink gf juice by the gallon if I could, BUT….
I’m on blood thinners now and am no longer allowed to drink gf juice. I just know, I mean I know, it’s because of the nootkatone, which I will no doubt absorb through my skin and die within hours of application. Because that is just how my life works.
s// or not
debbie
@trnc:
Pizza was a real treat when I was growing up. Not only delicious and cheesy, but no forks or knives!
Anne Laurie
Spousal Unit was raised in upper Lower Michigan. His first contact with a ‘foreign’ restaurant (according to him) was when he was 15, and the first pizza parlor reached his Traverse City suburb.
(His mom was born in Norway, so he didn’t count homemade dishes like lupscouse or lutefisk… )
germy
I use Repel lemon citronella spray to ward off ticks and mosquitoes.
I also spray Deep Woods Off on my clothes (not my skin).
Anne Laurie
@OzarkHillbilly: According to the FDA, there’s a *bunch* of drugs where you have to avoid grapefruit. (Statins. Blood pressure medications. Allegra!) But from that handout, it’s about interfering with gut absortion, so (I’m hoping!) smearing a 2% concentrate on your skin shouldn’t be a problem…
germy
@Anne Laurie:
Xanax is another one that doesn’t play well with grapefruit.
PST
The eel story has a photo caption that is as good as the headline:
OzarkHillbilly
Ah… That’s what it is, I take both. It’s hard to keep it all straight. There’s a bunch of stuff I’m supposed to avoid because of the blood thinners too. Asparagus and Brussels’s Sprouts to name 2, but you can have my Asparagus and Brussels’s Sprouts when you pry them from my cold dead hands.
germy
When the funny guy kids Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie – that’s a Morey.
Amir Khalid
China is so notorious a source of counterfeit guitars that fake Gibsons are known the world over as “Chibsons”.
trnc
A kid’s paradise! Also, it meant going out to a restaurant in the first town I lived in because there was no delivery there at the time. It was the kind of owner run Italian place that shows up in movies about the 60s. Sadly, our go-to place after we moved was Pizza Hut. It wasn’t so bad in the 70s, but that particular one stuck around way past the time it should have burned to the ground.
MagdaInBlack
@germy: I was sitting here trying to remember what I took that did not play well with grapefruit juice, which I love, and yup, the dreaded X word.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
I actually – finally – got my dad to agree to go to a gerontologist in order to deal with his polypharmacy issues (made an appointment behind their backs, because the internist was killing him by treating every single lab value with meds). They’ll take control and hopefully dump half of the skittle bag of pills he takes daily.
Wag
@New Deal democrat:
A report in the WaPo today tells of an engineering report from 2018 that described major issues with the reinforced concrete in the building. Unclear whether remedies were made.
germy
@MagdaInBlack:
What was your reaction? Drowsiness?
trnc
@germy: I made the mistake of putting Deep Woods Off directly on my face to ward off hordes of black flies when I was playing disc golf one time. My whole face turned numb, but it was still better than the fly bites.
raven
@Anne Laurie: Kumla?
Frankensteinbeck
So was DDT. That was a big reason for its popularity. Short-term toxicity to vertebrates is astonishingly low. The big problem was its also unprecedentedly long biodegradation time let it build up everywhere you didn’t want it. I’ll assume that has already been taken into account here. Fast degradation is something pesticides are selected for these days. If you spray something unspeakably deadly on your lettuce today, you want it to be harmless next week and nonexistent next month.
And on an Open Thread political side note, the NYT (behind a paywall, so I ain’t linking) said Trump wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act during the BLM protests, and his staff even drew it up, but the military told him flat No. This is no surprise to me. The US military does not play that shit, and the reason they started releasing public statements about it was to make sure everyone knew it. Same as when Trump told the border guards to shoot people.
MagdaInBlack
@germy: Incredible almost indescribable lethargy and trouble thinking. Shoulda read the label better.
We wont go in to how Dr’s handed it out like candy.
PST
@OzarkHillbilly: Anyone who really loves Brussels sprouts and who hasn’t made this recipe is in for a treat: Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta. The only downside is that it requires a food processor. Otherwise it is fast, easy, and easy to clean up after. I like it because other members of my household aren’t nearly as fond of the little cabbages as I am, but they still like this. It’s an Ina Garten recipe, although I don’t know how original it is. I like her. She seems to aim at people with my love of real food but low-to-moderate work ethic.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
“He’s an ephebophilia, not a pedophile. There’s a difference!”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Wag: Engineer Mr DAW says that over time both concrete and steel deteriorate with exposure to salt water. They should have been waterproofed but who knows
trnc
@Amir Khalid: My Epiphone Les Paul is either Korean or Chinese, but I slightly prefer it to my Nashville made Gibson LP. It’s a crap shoot, though. The thing about Chinese manufacturing isn’t that it’s all garbage, it’s that there’s little quality control so it really depends on who is on the assembly line and probably whether they managed to get a break during their 16 hour shift at 15 cents/hour.
OzarkHillbilly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Yeah, I’m only on a few meds right now but the way things are going their gonna start piling up and I’m gonna have to keep an eye on things. Or maybe just die, that would simplify everything.
Ken
@Anne Laurie: The chemicals in grapefruit juice that cause the drug problems (by interacting with an enzyme in your intestines) are bergamottin and derivatives, and not the same as this repellent nootkatone.
So even chugging the insect repellent shouldn’t cause problems with medication, although it is undoubtedly contraindicated for a host of other reasons which should be obvious to the non-bleach-drinking readers.
germy
@trnc:
Yes, the deep woods off is better when applied only to clothes, shoes, etc. I try to keep it off my skin.
My objection to all these repellents is all the perfumes and scents they add. Gives me a headache almost every time.
Geminid
The “bipartisan” infrastructure bill may be fraying, but bipartisanship is alive and well on the House Judiciary Commitee. Yesterday’s Washington Post had an article on a marathon mark-up session the Committee had for tech-related antitrust legislation. It took 29 hours, and the most consequential of the six bills was approved Thursday afternoon by a 21-20 vote. Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Jim Jordan (OH) were among those advocating for a more permissive approach to regulating tech gants like Apple and Google. Those on the side of tighter antitrust regulation included Pramila Jayapaul (WA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL).
The proposed antitrust reforms have been the focus of intense lobbying by the big tech companies. A Committee staffer commented that the lobbying had been pretty clumsy, and that he thought “the clearer the tech opposition to these bills, the easier it has been to make the case that they are exactly what we need.”
MomSense
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Your inner 12 year old craves more silly time.
germy
Stop listening to your insurance company when they give you advice like that.
trnc
@germy: It was one of the things that helped end my “I don’t need to read the instructions” phase.
OzarkHillbilly
@PST: That looks really good, especially since I make my own pancetta. Unfortunately our large food processor shot craps and all we have right now is a small one. It would probably work just fine taste wise but look wise not so much. I’m with you on simple recipes. I rarely make anything with more than 4 ingredients or 6 steps.
thanx for the tip
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: That advice comes from me.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
“In this 203 paragraph article, I shall endeavor to explain principles of attraction and why it is unfairly oppressive to shame and repress people for their preferences in partners by a neoliberal corporatist warmongering society that uses age just as a construct of control.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
“In this 203 paragraph article, I shall endeavor to explain principles of attraction and why it is unfairly oppressive to shame and repress people for their preferences in partners by a neoliberal corporatist warmongering society that uses age just as a construct of control.”
– By Glenn Greenwald
Geoduck
That’s A Moray!
NotMax
Something for a Saturday. Try to avoid reading the title, it telegraphs the joke.
zeecube
@PST: Recipe looks promising. Will try.
There go two miscreants
That’s my objection to a hell of a lot of products! The scent industry should DIAF! (The worst is whatever random soap they put in the dispenser in a restaurant bathroom — nothing like smelling some noxious scent while you are eating!)
Ken
…delivered as a series of unthreaded tweets…
germy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Amir Khalid
@trnc:
Legit made-in-China product is a quite different animal from counterfeit made-in-China product. With the former, any shortfall in quality arises from the foreign principal specifying lower-grade parts and/or build to meet a budget price point. The latter are fakes made by criminals.
Geminid
@Dorothy A. Winsor: My friend Debbie was wondering about that. She read that roof repairs had been done recently. If rebar at the top of a concrete member is exposed, water can seep down the steel and degrade it. She speculated that structural weakness plus subsidence may have caused the collapse.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
A lip-smacking Brussels sprouts preparation.
Just One More Canuck
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’m assuming that’s satire, but I can’t tell
Kristine
@PST: Bet that would be good over pasta.
I like Ina’s recipes, especially those for her cookies.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
That chyron on the embedded Carlson photo. ?
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Yep, suspect I stole that recipe from you.
Kay
@germy:
The graphic they use is a Democratic donkey and the text is “anti-white mania”. It stays up through the commentary just to better propagandize the audience. They don’t even have to listen to Tucker and Glenn- sound off works as well as sound on.
Adam Serwer
@AdamSerwer
·Jun 25
Tucker just doing updated neoconfederate “negro domination” propaganda from the 19th century every night.
Ken
I’m thinking that any “remedies” involved generous payments to the inspectors and city code authorities. I would love to be proved wrong, though.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Yup. Clearly (to use Glenn’s favorite weasel word) Glenn and Tucker are engaging in a high minded debate about the First Amendment. Just ignore the graphic and text propaganda displayed throughout the discussion.
Kay
southpaw
@nycsouthpaw
it was not until city officials released the 2018 report late Friday that the full nature of the concrete and rebar damage — most of it probably caused by years of exposure to the corrosive salt air along the South FL coast — became chillingly apparent.”
Oof. Those poor people.
NotMax
@Kay
“Let me be perfectly clear” was #1 on the Tricky Dick drinking game hit parade, also too.
Ohio Mom
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes @23:
Yeah, first you get a prescription for a good reason, then there are side effects to that med, so there is another prescription to deal with the side effects. You have to put your foot down before you are taking something for the side effects of the side effects med or it will never stop.
My favorite though is when you start taking something, have a weird side effect, look it up on google and see that you are in the 2% of patients with that reaction, report it back to the doctor and are told “that can’t be.” Grrr.
If there is no give and take with a doctor, I try very hard to replace them ASAP.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: The free market was supposed to fix it.
WereBear
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Not only is this common practice, it turns out many of the pills are simply for treating the side effects of the earlier pills…
Kay
@NotMax:
It’s such hackish lawyering – which is where he learned it- but people who aren’t familiar with that wouldn’t recognize it.
It’s a trick dumb lawyers rely on. “Clearly”, “therefore”, “this shows” – when none of it is “clear” and the conclusion isn’t “shown” by anything preceding it. I mean it’s fine! Hackish, whatever, do what you gotta do, but to present this mediocre crap as the groundbreaking work of a misunderstood genius is just too much to bear.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
The invisible hand is not immune to being balled into a fist.
rikyrah
See, they planned on BLM protesters being there.
1. To blame them for the phuckery
2. To use them to declare martial law ?
Raw Story (@RawStory) tweeted at 6:09 PM on Fri, Jun 25, 2021:
Trump aides prepared Insurrection Act order to be used against Black Lives Matter activists: report
https://t.co/xeYRkWQeU9
(https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1408563144335704066?s=03)
WaterGirl
@New Deal democrat: Surely you can’t mean to imply that climate change is… real?
PST
@OzarkHillbilly:
I chuckled a bit a your description of your food processor’s fate because my wife, who is in the funeral and cemetery business, almost invariably refers to dying as “throwing a seven.” I assume she doesn’t do that when she’s with a family. My food processor is a smallish one. I don’t think it matters much because you use the slicing disk. My mouth is watering at the thought of homemade pancetta.
stinger
@PST: I’d imagine that butter, olive oil, shallots, pancetta, and balsamic would make ANY vegetable taste good!
Kay
@rikyrah:
I love how people are “but the generals wouldn’t let them do it!”
That’s certainly comforting. Talk about a last line of defense. I hope we never get different generals, or one more general, or a loyalist general. Seems a rather slender reed to cling to. So this is basically a crap shoot, is what you’re saying?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@WereBear:
In his case, instead of stopping the Metformin when wrenching cramps and excessive weight loss were reported (which was prescribed only to address a mildly elevated lab value without other symptoms), the response was to go to timed release without further monitoring.
He went from 176 to 145 in the course of a year, and lost muscle mass he’ll never regain. He’s had bowel control problems, massive cramps and reflux, which also takes medication, and is depressed as hell.
When I intervened, Mom was trying to find a gastroenterologist to see about addressing the consequences of the Metformin.
mrmoshpotato
But can they still be used to play the best song in the world?
Leto
@OzarkHillbilly: @PST: @NotMax: something I’d heard from my parents, and other people of that experienced generation, was how bitter Brussels sprouts were. Then I heard this story, late 2019, and decided to give them a try.
From Culinary Dud To Stud: How Dutch Plant Breeders Built Our Brussels Sprouts Boom
It’s a pretty good story and got me to try them. They’re now a frequently requested item for me to make.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Hater.
Leto
@Kay: well I’m certainly glad the DoJ was able to resist… oh wait…
stinger
@Kay: “Clearly”, “naturally”, “obviously”, “as we all know” — I’ve recognized these as tricks of Republican/conservative types (not just bad lawyers) and am trying to remember to incorporate them into my own language when interacting with them.
Kay
The first overnight shift at the factory went fine for the youngest. He forgot to bring a meal so he had to eat from the vending machines and he wore a white short sleeved dress shirt with a collar which they teased him about but other than that he survived.
PST
@Kay: One of my favorite expressions after hearing an explanation like that, with mere slight of hand between the premises and the conclusion, is “I get it all but the ‘therefore.'” Don’t know where I first heard that, but it is often apt.
CaseyL
Hi to everyone from the Baking State of Washington! A friend and I are in Port Angeles, a weekend trip planned a couple of months ago. We thought we’d lucked out when the heat wave hit, as the Olympic Peninsula is generally much cooler than the Puget Sound area.
Well, the joke is on us. The Peninsula – hell, the entire state – is having an unprecedented heat wave. Here in Port Angeles, the highs are in the 90s. That’s still better than back in Seattle, where they expect triple digit highs through Monday, maybe Tuesday.
Yoiks!
Baud
@Kay:
Flashback to grade school.
Uncle Cosmo
From Atatürk to Erdogan the Turkish army and its generals considered themselves the guardians of the secular republic, and took that responsibility very seriously. (To the point of staging several coups when things were going off the rails in an Islamist direction, hanging a few politicians, and handing the government back to the politicians with admonitions to “play nice, now” as soon as they could.)
Erdogan changed all that. IIRC his thugs infiltrated the army’s plans to remove him, crushed the plot, retired (or shot) the generals and replaced them with reliable flunkies who guard his Islamofascism now…
I wonder how far the rot in the American military has spread. Last I heard the USAF was crawling with dominionist godbotherers at the highest levels…
Kay
@Leto:
Guffaw. So true. They were busy writing ass covering recitations of events and conversations and emailing them to each other. Make a record!
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: I am wondering if the viagra ad I’m now getting on this site, has anything to do with my having watched that video….
Ken
@Kay: Terry Pratchett once called them “wallpaper words”, because they’re used to hide the big cracks in the argument.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m on thinners, too. You need to avoid Vitamin K, which is in soy and dark, leafy vegetables and other stuff.
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
The irony of Gibson’s Slash signature Les Paul being counterfeited is that Slash’s own guitar was a fake: a luthier friend made it for him when he was poor and couldn’t afford a real Gibson Les Paul.
Baud
@Uncle Cosmo:
debbie
@trnc:
Take a look at the video here to see my pizza place. We could have eaten there, but my two idiot brothers made public dining difficult for my parents.
NotMax
@MagdaInBlack
Stranger things (pronounced with a guttural h) have happened….
;)
Kay
@Ken:
I’ve read them so often I erase them mentally. I will say “clearly” is so often used as an attempt to get you to stop thinking and accept what follows it’s almost a bad faith marker.
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
We dragged my mom to a doctor for the exact same issue. I typed up a list of her medications (she had been carting all the bottles in a shopping bag to her appointments). At nine-point type, it was a bit more than one page. I still remember seeing the doctor’s eyebrows shoot up when I handed him the list. She was much improved almost immediately afterwards.
satby
tl/dr: because I’m working at the market, but per my announcement about retiring yesterday, here’s a 20% off coupon for my store on Etsy.
Ok, will actually read the thread now…
Delk
The special assessment needed to fix that building had to be staggering.
germy
Scientists Announce Successful Experiment To Bankrupt Mouse That Can’t Afford Cancer Drug
Baud
“Clearly, Baud! 20XX!”
Short enough for a bumper sticker.
debbie
@PST:
Also great with bacon.
debbie
@Kay:
All coastline buildings should be suspect now. Salt is as corrosive in cold climates as it is in tropical ones.
Ken
@germy: I wonder if the Onion’s writers were at all inspired by the FDA approval of Aducanumab for Alzheimers? Derek Lowe has opinions, and some of his predictions came about within a few weeks. Not that it’s hard to predict how drug companies will react when the FDA approves a drug that has not had a successful trial.
I also followed a link to one of their “man on the street” pieces, on Giuliani’s suspension, and found this wonderful line:
Ken
@Baud: Or “Baud! 20XX! Obviously.”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@debbie:
Mom told me “but he’ll think that he’s having to go be a patient for an old people’s doctor.
I told her how to sell it: “Tell him that the gerontologist is like the pediatrician, dealing with his physiology as a unique whole because it is different, and that while lab values may indicate study or monitoring, that may not be the correct course.”
As I put it to her, you can’t treat an 82 year old the same way you treat a 50 year old for potential chronic conditions. While you might eke out some better years long term for the 50 year old, the same concerns don’t exist for the 82 year old.
Of course, this is the same woman who (together with my lazy as fuck maternal GM) took cigars, pipes and cured smoked pork from my maternal grandfather for the last couple of years of his life. I never figured out the point.
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
God forbid he should go to a doctor with more knowledge about the issue than his other doctor(s). //
ETA: I’d bet they were trying to turn back the clock and keep him around longer.
PST
@debbie: I recall that when Dad enrolled in hospice, they drastically reduced the number of medications he was taking and he perked right up. I suspect that is one reason many people have longer and better hospice stays than expected.
debbie
@PST:
It is amazing. You’d think doctors would try to coordinate care better. Or not.
WhatsMyNym
@WaterGirl:
It was built on infill of wetlands. They are on a barrier island, which tend to move. It would be a problem even without climate change.
germy
@Ken:
Same joke structure as this “American Voices” piece:
sab
@Ken: So why has nobody bothered to warn statin users not to drink earl grey tea?
germy
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@debbie:
I told Mom that the internist completely blew every standard of care and did irreversible damage – that if he loses 5-10 more pounds dad will be in either a nursing home or a box. She still won’t tell me the doc’s name, because the staff is nice and he got right back to her when I bullied her into communicating directly with probing questions. I think I am going to file a licensure complaint when I find out.
debbie
@sab:
I was told to avoid tea. Not Earl Grey specifically, but tea.
germy
(Ambrose Bierce)
PST
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: This is as pedantic as hell, so I mention it only to help others avoid the kind of snotty correction I received once. Gerontology is the study of aging, while geriatrics is the medical treatment of the aged. The difference between a gerontologist and a geriatrician is like the difference between a zoologist and a veterinarian.
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I have to say that kindness and quickly returned calls are priceless and rare. I can understand her hesitancy, but you are right.
Amy!
Am I missing something on the Nootkatone/Nootkatol story? It’s from 2011, unless for some reason they’ve put up a 2021 story with a significant typo in the date (and the in-story byline). Twenty years development as of 2011, ten more years now. If I go looking for nootkatone repellent, all that I seem to find are preparations (often marked ‘organic’) that don’t contain deet and usually contain essential oils of cedar and grapefruit. I suppose those essential oil preps could be effective, but after trying tons of them (I live next door to forty acres of deer hunting land on one side, and thirty acres of cow land on the other; I get hundreds of tick bites every year), I’ve never found one that performed any better than perfume.
Are there nootkatone-containing repellents? Because when I went looking for them, google isn’t helping (and amazon helpfully lists all of the repellents containing deet and permethrin and whatever else as well). It kinda looks like the attempt to make stuff available died the death of market indifference.
trnc
I know. That was a side comment about my 2 LPs.
PST
@debbie:
That is so true. I spent most of my legal career in medical malpractice defense. Responsiveness and courtesy have an enormous impact on the likelihood of malpractice claims. Medicine is full of judgment calls, many of which can be criticized or defended after the fact. Kind doctors get the benefit of the doubt far more often than jerks. Hospital systems have found that they can save money by developing metrics that let them monitor this, teaching the jerks better personal skills or weeding them out if they are incorrigible. I’ve seen these applied even to star doctors in a leadership role, something that once would have been unthinkable.
Kathleen
@debbie: My previous PCP (who’s in his 70’s) said the most undiagnosed issue elderly have is hypothyroidism. He said most docs don’t test them for thyroid and he thinks it contributes to a lot of their issues.
WhatsMyNym
@CaseyL: Come over to Port Townsend, we’re not supposed to hit the 90’s until Monday. We still catch a breeze in the afternoon and of course it’s cool at night.
trnc
@debbie: Oh, cool! Ms trnc is from Hilliard, so she’s probably eaten there. I’m pretty sure I remember driving by the place when visiting her parents.
ETA: That video is awesome.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: from the same people who shamed joebiden as a paedophile, glemm greemwald’s rocket to russia destroys the alleged nambla membership attached to matt gaetz.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: late reply, but here from Harvard Health:
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@debbie:
Oh, I get it, but I’m in the “doctors are fungible, 95% will provide you similar levels of care”. Being disinterested in a relationship with any of my providers, all I look for is prompt, courteous, competent service and transparent billing.
A Ghost to Most
@NotMax: We are lovers of brussel sprouts, and have 5 growing in the garden. Nothing beats broiled with bacon fat and bits, and a splash of balsamic vinegar for us.
opiejeanne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Metformin.
8 years ago I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes (very minimal) and the NP at the time prescribed 2000 mg of Metformin daily, and the consequences were hideously painful. So she had me work my way up from 500mg, still pretty bad. Then she left and the new doc cut it back to 1000, AND prescribed the timed release stuff. My husband figured out that everyone we knew at the time who had much worse A1C readings was on 500mg and was pissed off that no one had thought of prescribing the time-release version.
Then that doctor retired.
I now see a pharmacist/physician and she started me on daily insulin shots, reduced the amount of Metformin to 500 mg, and after a year of great readings switched me to a non-insulin injection once a week, and told me to stop taking the Metformin. All of the digestive issues disappeared, and I feel really good. And my A1C seems to have stabilized at 6.7, which used to be considered pre-diabetes. I wear a little gizmo on my arm that reads my blood sugar and I use an app on my phone to read. That started 18 months ago, when I started the insulin injections, so I could really see the effects of certain foods.
tl;dr: my new doctor has actually reduced the number of meds I take.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Meanwhile, in other hard hitting news, Hunter Biden is trading on his family name by creating and selling art.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bostonherald.com/2021/06/26/abcarian-hunter-biden-trading-on-the-family-name-again/amp/
Next thing you know, he’ll be exploiting his name to get a job as an assistant shift manager at a fantastic beachfront McDonald’s back in Delaware.
Another Scott
@mrmoshpotato: Zooks!
The things I’ve missed by not being plugged into popular culture…
Thanks!
Cheers,
Scott.
opiejeanne
@satby: Oh shit, Coumarin is part of that name. Don’t buy vanilla extract from Mexico. It ain’t vanilla, and it contains coumarin which is dangerous in general.
marklar
@satby: As a follow up, the enzymatic interaction occurs in the gut, so administration of statins (and assumably the furanocoumarins found in grapefruit) shouldn’t produce any contra-indications if administered differently.
Another Scott
@Amy!: Made me look.
This is the company with the CDC license:
It’s good they’re taking their time in approving it – one never knows if there are issues unless one checks. But it sounds like the process is continuing.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
Phys.org – Latest on Hubble’s computer issues:
Cheers,
Scott.
RaflW
Baud notwithstanding, Squirt is delish. Well, except that I virtually always eschew high fructose sweetener. I think I have about 3 servings a year of sugary pop.
On the more pressing matter of mosquitos, how many grapefruit per day do I need to eat to be systemically unappealing to the MN state bird? Kidding. But I am very much looking forward to the spray and soap.
I did some major weeding at the cabin this week, and later had the “Eghad I didn’t spray DEET, now it’ll be tick checks for days & watching for bullseye rashes” panic. I also love going up north, near the Boundary Waters, but I get so sick of the repellent smell and the greasy feeling on clothes and bedding. Ugh.
Gin & Tonic
Riding on socialist transport (Amtrak) right now. WiFi sucks, but the seats are roomy and comfortable and seems like 100% mask compliance.
Just Chuck
@New Deal democrat: “Controlled demolition! Inside job!”
Just Chuck
@mrmoshpotato: But that wasn’t the best song in the world — that was just a tribute!
laura
@Amir Khalid: more irony- Slash will sign a guitar if asked. He’s a lovely sweet man. He adored my late mother.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud:
rikyrah
@Kay:
Glad to hear it. If he makes it through, it will be an experience.
Is he going out of state for college?
Uncle Cosmo
@PST: FTR, any field of endeavor with -iatr- in its name pertains to medical treatment, since γιατρός (yiatros) is Greek for “physician.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
The final supermoon of 2021 was even captured by BillinGlendaleCA with the Moon rising over Forest Lawn Glendale.
J R in WV
Our family doctor is a board cert family practice doc, also board cert as a geriatrician, since soon after he started his practice he H that he hoped all those patients would eventually be elderly. He’s about Wife’s age, grew up a country boy, is also a professional musician and cantor in the local cathedral.
So while he does prescribe what I think is a lot of meds, I do have a lot of “issues” that those meds are intended to address. I don’t think the meds are interfering with one another, and I suspect he tests for everything, as I get blood drained quarterly.
Kirk Spencer
So here’s my concern with nooktatone, assuming it lives up to the hype.
Bees.
This stuff is allegedly better than DDT at not just denial but at elimination. But bees are apparently more susceptible to these sorts of things than mosquitos and ticks, so we’re having a problem in that we’re losing bees.
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Sweet ~!!~ Thanks again for sharing so many photos!
Brachiator
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
And I thought McAfee was nuts. What’s wrong with these people?
WhatsMyNym
@Kirk Spencer:
PST
@Uncle Cosmo: Thanks. In my medical malpractice world, that root mostly popped up in the form of iatrogenic illness, of which there is plenty, but I didn’t recognize it later in words like geriatrics. My favorite word was nosocomial, usually in the context of nosocomial infections, which which there are also plenty. From νοσοκομείο, Greek for hospital.
Ksmiami
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: one thing that’s so problematic in this country is that even the elderly are expected to have complete control and agency in our Byzantine financial and medical system and so often they end up victimized. And it feels like it will get worse
Elizabelle
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s beautiful.
Saw the supermoon 3 nights in a row, but nothing like that. So many trees in central VA; hard to see it close to the ground. (ie. Wednesday you could tell it was about to be a full moon.)
Elizabelle
@Brachiator: That was snark, B.
LiminalOwl
@germy: And a whole class of antidepressants—SSRI, so Prozac and others of that ilk.
(Xanax and the other benzodiazepines are also bad for other reasons, but are the most effective anti-anxiety meds available.)
Mary G
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:@opiejeanne: All my doctors ask me what meds I’m on at the beginning of every appointment, and the goal is always to cut the list down. My first rheumatologist told me that “more doesn’t mean better.”
TFG got me off hydroxychloroquine that I’d been on for 30-some years. Turned out it wasn’t doing me any good, so that is the one helpful action I credit those idiots with, and enjoy how painful it must be to have bought it all up and now be unable to sell it.
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
The question stands. What’s wrong with these people?
In other news, UK health minister Matt Hancock resigns. Didn’t even need another slam by Dominic Cummings to fall over.
A Ghost to Most
@Leto:
I grew up eating Brussels and broccoli with cider vinegar. It covers the bitterness.
Brachiator
@A Ghost to Most:
I just avoid Brussel sprouts. No problem with broccoli.
wkwv
What are the odds that Nootkatone will cause problems for someone who can’t tolerate Citrus cleaners? If they don’t give me asthma, they cause my skin an itchy rash. I was happier when my boss had us using ‘harsh chemicals’. Still, I’ve pick enough ticks off my guys to wish for an effective new tick spray.
Kay
@rikyrah:
He is. Michigan. I thought it was the best fit for him and I was able to keep my mouth shut and not say that because we weren’t getting along and he might have rejected it just to continue our battle.
Covid was horrible for him. He’s very social and he just withered at home alone. We argued nearly every day. His grades dropped last quarter too.
His last quarantine did him in. He went to school and returned 15 minutes later and announced “I’m quarantined again- I give up” and he sort of DID give up, which caused me to badger him approximately every 7 minutes for the next 3 months. What a disaster. He was quarantined 4 times.
So. We got thru it and I’m glad he has a job. Maybe now we can spend less time together :)
debbie
@A Ghost to Most:
Sprinkling red wine vinegar on them is also delicious.
satby
@marklar: exactly my impression too.
Brian
@Amir Khalid:
This. My backup bass to my two custom-made five strings is a Chinese-made SX 6 string, original price under $200 including shipping. With a change of pickups to match the ones in my other basses it plays and sounds almost as good for under $400. As all budget instruments do, it needed some setup work, which I do myself.
Chris T.
@satby: Much later reply, but I’ll put it here as a public service…
What this really means is that grapefruit juice increases the effective dosage of these drugs. You don’t metabolize them as fast as you should, so the circulating effect of the original drug goes up. In the case of statins, this increases the risk of rhabdomyolysis, which is something you really don’t want.