SARS II: Respiratory Boogaloo

So the anti-GMO idiots will soon be trying to block treatments for COVID.

One less Trumpista voter!

Looks like he bred three more though.

It's possible that seeing their dad die of a preventable illness because he was a regressive idiot might change their world view.

Possible, if not likely.

In short, he tried saying he wouldn't isolate as he would try a new pilot scheme where he would be tested daily. Until there was outcry that no other British workers get to do this, and that this would be seen as "one rule for them, another for us".

Boris doesn't USUALLY give a shit about lording his special treatment over us plebs, but I guess - having been telling us that when the lockdown rules are relaxed we still have to use personal responsibility and common sense - he can't afford to set a bad example in this instance.

Shame he's a fucking terrible example in all instances.

Ooh, ooh! Is that where I finally get my zombie apocalypse?

No, because it was taxpayer funded research.

You want your Libertarian utopia, you create your own damn zombie virus with some chemicals from Home Bargains and a bucket, like Ayn Rand intended.

At some point I really should read up on Ayn Rand...

Save yourself the time and just hit your skull with a brick.

It was a good read for a pre-teen. Heinlein too. They didn't warp me.

Look what it did to federal farmer.

Expand the quote block before you continue reading this post.

Nearly everything in here is opinion (strikethrough), wildly draw-the-rest-of-the-fucking-owlistic (bold), or not new (underlined). Literally the only novel bit is that they tested CRISPR on SARS-CoV-2. Big deal. There's no reason to think it wouldn't work. Bacteria have been using CRISPR as an antiviral for millions or billions of years.

EDIT: the speed at which they can reprogram it might actually be notable too. Still, it's incredibly far off from an antiviral pill as to be not worth paying attention to in the context of the pandemic.

The big reason for all the bold, is that we have no way of getting CRISPR into all the cells that need it (which is why it's basically useless outside of the context of a very small embryo or a very confined, small locality of cells, like a retina, at the moment). The pill is entirely wishful thinking at this point.

What this doctor is actually saying is, "This doesn't work yet, the whole 'treatment with an antiviral' approach doesn't work yet for COVID." If there wasn't subsequently an exhortation to get the vaccine that wasn't quoted, I'd be surprised.

Meh. As you point out the big question is if it can be used to develop an effective treatment. I'm excited for the possibility, not so much because it could be used to treat COVID, but because as we expand the use of CRISPR, it makes the case against it look just that much dumber than it already is. Even if the worst fears of the anti-GMO folks some how manage to come true, the fact that it only costs $75 to use the process means that we're never give up on it, just find more and better ways to use it.

I always got the feeling that Heinlein wouldn't be offended if someone wanted to argue intelligently with him about some of his writing. For me it's all over the map: some of it is nearly unreadable ("I Will Fear No Evil) others are solid, thought provoking reading ("If This Goes On), some is up there with the best of the genre (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), some is very serviceable entertainment (his "juvenile" books) and then others are wildly polarizing (Time Enough for Love, Stranger in a Strange Land).
Ayn Rand...masturbatory fantasy for the Uncle Albert types who believe they can live better without an organized society, even though they choose to live in an organized society.

There's two works that I know of where Heinlein talks about his process of writing. One is Expanded Universe and the other is Grumbles From the Grave (and seeing the price for that, I need to see if I can find my copy and sell it). There are absolutely points where one could have an intelligent discussion with him about his writing, as indicated by what's in those books. In other places, however, you quickly grasp that Heinlein didn't recognize what a lot of his obvious limitations were and he'd no doubt have become enraged with even the mildest criticism of some of his works. One of his inspirations, believe it or not, for writing The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was his rage at not being able to understand James Joyce's use of stream-of-consciousness writing. He makes some rather scathing comments about it in Grumbles From the Grave, and it is patently obvious that he didn't get what Joyce was going for in his works. I realize that a lot of people miss what Joyce was about, but he was, as Finnigan's Wake demonstrated, a "writer's writer." Joyce, very clearly, was trying desperately to ensure that people drew the connotations from his work that he wanted them to, and not to slap some silly interpretation that has no connection to reality (which is often the case in literature studies for some reason).

This is somewhat ironic since Heinlein would often rail against the fact that people seemed to think that the point of Starship Troopers was that only ex-military people should have the right to vote. If you read Expanded Universe (or pay attention to what he wrote in Starship Troopers) you realize that this wasn't his point at all. (Had Heinlein been a better writer, he could have carried this off, but that's another matter.) He's actually trying to make a good point with his novel (that people who vote should recognize what their investment in society is and that the life of the average person in the military is pretty rough), but because he tries to throw in a bunch of things, without the necessary skills to pull it off, the work comes off as being fascist, even though that wasn't at all what Heinlein intended.

Those who call Heinlein fascist (not putting you in that category) should also read his essay from "Revolt in 2100" called "On Stories Never Written" and "If This Goes On." His cautionary tale of a takeover of the country by an evangelical dictator is eerily relevant to the Trump phenomenon. Put those two together and the claim that Heinlein was a fascist becomes dubious at best. I wasn't aware of Heinlein's problems with James Joyce. If that was his inspiration for "TMIAHM" then I would say it was a fortuitous problem. While his premise that a Lunar penal colony could evolve into a libertarian paradise might be a bit far-fetched, it’s certainly plausible (note the word "plausible", which I use in the sense of being convincing enough to allow the reader to suspend enough of their disbelief to enjoy the story) than anything Rand ever came up with.

Yeah, Heinlein was more complex than most people think, and despite his anti-government stance was more than willing to admit that there were certain things governments were the best vehicle for accomplishing. I think that he had the problem a lot of famous people have in that they just can’t understand what life is like for people outside of the bubble they lived in. Another theme that TMIAHM addressed and most people don’t pick up on is that it was staunchly anti-colonialism.

So the French have gone bugfuck.

Unless you're a teenager like FF, you will get absolutely nothing from Ayn Rand.

Don't do it.

I loved Heinlein. He was a god. Found Rocket Ship Galileo in the school library when I was in the 3rd grade and I was hooked.

I started viewing him differently when I read the unedited version of Stranger in a Strange Land. He had good editors that toned down his misogynistic bullshit.

Farnham's Freehold was a bit much even with editors, but I suppose he was trying to make a point.

Knowledge is power. Before @spot261 can successfully argue against Ayn Rand type arguments, then yes, he would want to read it first - if for not other reason than to show where the other side has gone wrong.

Exactly.

Who knows, I may even like what I see?

Until then though I will keep on refraining from commenting on this and particle physics.

Also stonemasonry.

Not just the French...
Dutch Antivaxxers\Qanon supporters compare the government Covid-19 rules and regulations to Nazi occupation...
Comparing being in Quarantine to being in a concentration camp...

OMFG I almost ended up in a Karen video today at golden coral. It was one of grandma's bad days where her Karen filter was set to off. She normally understands keep the karen comments for family alone time, but not today. The place has not been like this for over a year since covid began.

We walk in and there is a group of phillipinos (Darker asians) and there is a line and this frustrates her Karen within because she specifically hates waiting and god forbid she has to wait for the others. Right away she has to start asking them questions to test if they speak english. I know my grandmother, and this is what she does when people are speaking another language with their family. She has to insert herself right into their family conversation because they are speaking another language. Then loud enough for them to hear she says don't sit near them.

It is Karen sign like electric bolts across the sands of dune.

Then, we go to sit down and there is one table where some regulars sit, and it is open but in the middle of three large brown families. Just in case the regulars show up she has to sit at their table in the middle of everyone even though she hates having people right next to her, especially brown foreigners with kids. I tried to grab her and point her to an open table with no one around and nope, she is off to ruin everyone's day and stew in the middle of all of them and give them the evil eye.

So she pulls out the tip right away, and start complaining to me about not leaving it alone because someone is going to steal it. This is all a fucking show because she always loves to give it right to the waitress she likes. Now she has got to put it out on the table as a trap, and because all the people did not stop what they were doing and instantly start scheming on how to get the 3 dollar bills she has got to get loud and accusatory.

So I snapped at her like she was five and I told her if she keeps it up we are leaving and never coming back. I hope the shitty mood did not wear off on any of the people having fun around us.The nice thing is she has no short term memory left, and she will forget about this shit and be on better behavior next time. meanwhile I am like paul riding a giant karen worm through the tables of Golden Coral hoping not to destroy anyone's day.

Same.