S-O-B Story

Celebration Marks Completion of $1.2 Billion NBAF Lab for Studying Animal-to-Human Pathogens
kansasreflector.com | 5/24/2023 | Tim Carpenter

One-of-a-kind U.S. research facility to advance

(what they laughingly call)

testing, vaccines against global threats

But first, before getting to the news, a long sob story before we tell you how the government’s going to create and release the next version of Covid:

MANHATTAN — National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility researcher Lisa Hensley’s career took her from laboratory to laboratory and country to country to study the alphabet soup of ghastly pathogens such as SARs, monkeypox, MERs and Marburg.

[which they probably also released]

But she said an Ebola outbreak in the West Africa country of Liberia brought home what it meant to be in a country with a health-care system overwhelmed by a disease carrying a high mortality rate, without readily available treatment and vaccination options, and complicated by distorted public attitudes about the threat.

[sob]

“Their reactions were across the board,” Hensley said. “There were a lot of people who just didn’t even believe in Ebola.

Science deniers! Do you have their names?

Thought it was something the government was doing. When I went to set up the lab, I remember the people didn’t ever want to take anything from my hands. There was this fear.”

[sob]

She said the lone treatment facility in Liberia’s capitol couldn’t keep pace with the sick and dying. People driving the ill to a hospital or burying the dead became targets of infection. In other parts of the nation, treatment centers were attacked by skeptics who didn’t believe the virus was naturally occurring.

Insert boilerplate from last 5,000 years of interviews with teachers:

“I love teaching. I love educating. I love the opportunity to explain to the public the great potential we have to have positive impact,” Hensley said in an interview. “There’s just growing recognition of how vulnerable we are on the ag side. What excites me, what brings me joy, is making a difference.”

[sniff]

The disease agents stored at Plum Island will be gradually transported to Manhattan by methods that officials said couldn’t be disclosed publicly. A range of inspections based on federal and international standards must be completed to assure systems protecting public health functioned properly before operating NBAF a full power perhaps in late 2024, Clavijo said.

I feel all reassured and fuzzy and running a bit of a fever.

Top. Men.

In advance of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, NBAF researchers offered reporters a tour of laboratories packed with equipment, animal holding areas void of livestock

Yup — sounds just like a government project.

… as well as sophisticated facilities relied upon to protect the public from pathogens.

Uh-huh. Don’t question our sophistication or our reliance, or our reliance on sophistication! Sophistication-reliance-deniers!

Livestock used in experiments — such as Holstein steers — would be moved inside a facility that resembled more of a hospital than a barn.

They’re absolutely loving the care and treatment they’re given!

Animals …

… like dissenters —

… would temporarily reside in containment rooms until euthanized.

Oh.

Air pressure controls in laboratories and hallways help seal work spaces from the outside world, a football field of filter equipment scrubs indoor air and carcasses of animals used in research undergo sterilization in autoclaves before

— in Dr. Strangelove’s voice —

incinerated. There are a series of fluid decontamination tanks, or pressure cookers, to deal with liquid waste from laboratories. Watery fluids also would undergo treatment by the city.

Tell me more about those “watery fluids.”

And is “treatment by the city” like the treatment that black teens get from the city of Chicago, or that sidewalks get from the city of San Francisco?

And now, to piss off you greenies:

Electrical power to NBAF comes from seven 2,000 megawatt generators with sufficient power to serve 15,000 homes. Enough paint was used on the NBAF project to cover 69 acres of ground. Electric wire at NBAF could stretch 850 miles to New Orleans. The concrete poured during construction could shape a sidewalk covering the 300 miles from Manhattan to Oklahoma City.

Portions of the federal research structure were designed to withstand an EF-5 tornado or equivalent of a car flying into the building at 92 mph.

They have flying cars?

Driven by any particular fanatical sect?

What Graduation March Do They Play? “Pump and Dump and Circumstances”?

Texas high school forced to postpone graduation ceremony after just FIVE of 33 students were eligible: Teachers blame poor attendance and grades
Daily Mail UK | May 25, 2023 | Hope Sloop

A high school located in Texas has been forced to postpone its commencement after just 15 percent of the senior class reached the requirements to graduate.

In a letter sent to parents and families, Marlin ISD Superintendent Darryl Henson said most seniors did not make the cut due to low grades and attendance records.

District officials have postponed the ceremony to June in order to give students the time to catch up and hopefully check the boxes needed to obtain their diplomas.

‘As a school district, we really want to make sure we’re making the best decision in the interest of all children,’ Henson told KCEN News.

A little late for that, Henson?

I don’t know which is more humiliating: that the UK is laughing at us, or that Hope Sloop is.

Bear News

Man Who Crashed Into Bear While Biking in Canada ‘Glad To Be Alive’
NY Post ^ | 05/21/2023 | Isabel Keane

A Canadian man T-boned a black bear while biking through a conservation reserve — suffering a fractured scapula, cardiac contusion and bruised ribs, among other injuries.

Kevin Milner, 30, of North Vancouver, British Columbia, was rounding a corner and heading downhill in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve there Tuesday when he spotted the bear — and tried to cruise around him.

“The second I made that decision, he decided to run and he ran right across the road, right in front of me and I smashed into him right behind his shoulder blade,” Milner told North Shore News.

“I did a flip over him. I pretty much kissed the bear and then I guess I flew through the air.”

Milner landed hard on his side, while the bear took off through the woods.

Passing cyclists immediately stopped and helped him. Two women cyclists concerned about his condition rode toward the edge of the reserve to get enough cell reception to call 911, while a third bystander who had been riding an e-bike stayed with Milner.

But the next arrival wasn’t an ambulance or EMS — it was the same bear Milner had just plowed into.

Smell the Ass of a Porcupine

One of the most pressing questions of our time:

Will Surgery Relieve Bo Jackson’s Chronic Hiccups?
MEDPAGETODAY | May 15, 2023 | Rachael Robertson

— After nearly a year of having hiccups, the athlete is seeking treatment

Former baseball and football star Bo Jackson has had the hiccups for nearly a year and is undergoing a medical procedure this week to treat the unexplained phenomenon.

“I’m busy at the hospital having shine lights down my throat and probing me every way they can to find out why I have these hiccups,” the former professional football and baseball player told the hosts of the radio show “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning” on WJOX 94.5 FM.

I don’t know now. Looked like a legitimate news source, but that radio station name . . .

“I have done everything — scare me, drink water upside down, smell the ass of a porcupine — it doesn’t work!”

C’mon, man. Am I being played?

Chronic hiccups are rare, but unfortunately for Jackson, they are largely a medical mystery.

Josh Silverman MD, PhD, an otolaryngologist . . .

Isn’t it “otolaryncologist”? Spellcheck says no, but it always was when I was growing up. I thought.

. . . at Northwell Health in New York, has only seen six to eight cases of the maddening condition in the decade that he’s been practicing medicine.

So Bo is mad, too?

Possible root causes for chronic hiccups could be tumors in the brain, chest, or lungs that press on the diaphragm. “A fair amount of time when someone is having hiccuping episodes for a while, it’s the body telling that person that something is going on either in the chest, lungs, or abdomen,” Silverman said.

“It’s something that’s been with humans for a long time and puzzling doctors forever,” Silverman said. “The fact that Jackson is having a procedure means that this is truly debilitating for him and that essentially all other root causes have been ruled out.”

After someone has had the hiccups for a few days without relief, most people end up going to the emergency department, Silverman said. At this point, people have already tried the common tricks of holding their breath or getting scared, both of which alter the respiratory pattern and hopefully stop the contractions. The ED usually checks labs, looking for electrolyte imbalance, and often does ultrasounds, CT scans, or MRIs to see if any tumors or other conditions could be causing the hiccups.

But if those all turn up negative, the patient is referred to a specialist — often an otolaryngologist like Silverman.

Specialists can treat patients with hiccups using medicines ranging from pills designed to treat gastrointestinal issues to those for anti-anxiety or psychiatric purposes. Silverman said the dopamine receptor antagonist metoclopramide (Reglan) is one possible treatment.

The last resort is surgery. One surgical option involves placing Botox . . .

Heh: Bo tox.

. . . on the top of the esophagus or voice box. Another involves stopping the vagus nerve from overstimulating.

What happens in Vagus stays in Vagus.

The most common surgery, phrenic nerve ablation, comes with a price, Silverman said.

Which probably varies with fame and ability to pay.

“When you ablate that nerve, you hopefully stop the process of hiccuping but you’re also paralyzing half of your diaphragm. That’s a big deal from a breathing perspective,” he said. “Especially since Jackson is an athlete, that’s an extreme scenario.”

About two-thirds of people respond to one of the surgeries, Silverman said.

He noted that chronic hiccups can wreck a patient’s life. One of his own family members had chronic hiccups for months following a brain tumor.

“When I see these patients who have had this for multiple months, they are distraught,” he said. “They’re afraid to go in public, they’re embarrassed, it’s painful because of the muscle contractions, and yet we don’t truly understand what causes it or how to fix it.”

In the radio interview, Jackson expressed similar frustrations at how his hiccups interfered with his ability to live his life as usual, even preventing him from attending events.

Photo Essay: My Graduation

It was a lovely day: very touching. And Blondie was looking great, all tucked in:

I danced like a maniac:

Word was, though, Miss Karple was a maniac in detention:

. . . That wasn’t cider. She had about eight of them. And then the Principal whispered something to her:

He reached for something:

Now that I think of it, what in the hell was going on?

Old Hat

Far from a new meme. It’s been on the internet for years and years and years.

But (as I yelled out to Walrus, forgetting that he was gone) maybe one of these guys or gals on IMAO might have a comment on this that I want to see.

Prove me wrong.

Only One Girl Showers Him With Praise

Oh, So That’s Who Americans Will Blame for a Debt Default
Townhall | 05/25/2023 | Spencer Brown

In continuing bad news for Biden as he looks toward 2024, Fox News’ poll also found that

44 percent of Americans view the president as “corrupt,”

53 percent say he “doesn’t care” about Americans, and

57 percent say he is not “honest and trustworthy.”

When it comes to his job in general,

59 percent of Americans say Biden lacks the “judgment to serve as president effectively” and

60 percent believe Biden does not have “the mental soundness” to be commander in chief.

Joe Biden Celebrates Memorial Day Weekend with Second-Lowest Approval Rating of His Presidency
Breitbart | 05/27/2023 | Wendell Husebo

President Joe Biden will celebrate Memorial Day weekend with the second-lowest approval rating of his presidency, according to Gallup polling from Friday.

Amid pressure to raise the debt ceiling during budget negotiations, just 39 percent of Americans approve of Biden, only two percentage points higher than his personal low recorded last month and in March of last year, when just 37 percent approved.

OK, I’ve Officially Got To Stop Clicking on “News From Belgium”

Police Recover 1.5 Tonnes of Contraband Eels After International Investigation

The Independent | May 14, 2023

Police have seized 1.5 tonnes of contraband eels in an almost two-year long international investigation into fraudulent exports.

Twenty-seven people were arrested after authorities discovered that four tonnes of eels had been fraudulently exported between 2021 and 2023 for a profit estimated at more than €1m.

Suspects in Spain, France, Belgium, and Portugal were arrested after a cooperative investigation by authorities from France, Spain, Europol, Eurojust and the European Anti-Fraud Office.

The European eel is classified as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, meaning that its fishing is regulated and subject to strict quotas.

I find an eel in my immediate vicinity, it is going to stay on the critically endangered list.

RV Share

I just saw a spam email in my inbox, entitled “RV Share.

I deleted it without reading it.

But if there were a list of things I would never do in any conceivable universe — for multiple reasons — renting a shared RV would rank very high on the list. Higher, even, than using a shared bathrobe. Or wife-swapping. Or ordering Bud Light in a biker bar.