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pscot's JournalIt Came From Something Awful by Dale Beran
"An insider's history of the website at the end of the world, which burst into politics and memed Donald Trump into the White House. The internet has transformed the ways we think and act, and by consequence, our politics. The most impactful recent political movements on the far left and right started with massive online collectives of teenagers. Strangely, both movements began on the same website: an anime imageboard called 4chan.org. It Came from Something Awful is the fascinating and bizarre story of 4chan and its profound effect on youth counterculture. Dale Beran has observed the website's shifting activities and interests since the beginning. 4chan is a microcosm of the internet itself--simultaneously at the vanguard of contemporary culture, politics, comedy and language, and a new low for all of the above. It was the original meme machine, mostly frequented by socially awkward and disenfranchised young men in search of a place to be alone together. During the recession of the late 2000's, the memes became political. 4chan was the online hub of a leftist hacker collective known as Anonymous and a prominent supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But within a few short years, the site's ideology spun on its axis; it became the birthplace and breeding ground of the alt-right. In It Came from Something Awful, Beran uses his insider's knowledge and natural storytelling ability to chronicle 4chan's strange journey from creating rage-comics to inciting riots to--according to some--memeing Donald Trump into the White House"-- Provided by publisher.
Here's a sneak preview of Rudy's rebuttal
At 2.54am on Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani texted Politico’s Darren Samuelsohn that the president’s “counter report” will come out at the same time as the redacted Mueller report and that it will be 34 or 35 pages. Originally, Rudy G had promised to deliver 140 pages of delicious, bodice-ripping, lib-owning content, but as this writer can tell you, there are only so many gifs, emojis and Venn diagrams you can put in a piece of writing before you start to look like you're just trying to fill the pages.
Speculation is wild about what will be in the Rudy Rebuttal but luckily for me, Julian Assange sent me an early copy on the condition that I publish it immediately (because that’s what you do when you're totally not a cut-out of the Russian government at all.)
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Part one of the Rudy Rebuttal is the origin story of how the Rudy Rebuttal came to pass in the first place. Confusingly, part one also includes copies of Rudy’s first three pre-nuptials. There is some truly breathtaking prose in part one and if you don’t have a pet pig, the cut-out on page seven is basically chicken soup for the conservative soul.
Part two of the Rudy Rebuttal is a wide-ranging defense of all of Trump’s sketchiest stuff, including several porn-star payoffs not previously known about. It also includes an early autobiographical poem written by a young Donald J Trump in iambic pentameter. But by far the most illuminating section is the Snapchat story of Tiffany playing golf at Trump National in Florida.
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Part five of the Rudy Rebuttal is a copy of Rudy’s online dating profile for Christian singles. It includes a long second about his personal turn-offs, which include not being at least tangentially related to him.
(more)
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mueller-report-rudy-giuliani-trump-julian-assange-russia-investigation-a8875326.html
It is hard to imagine how so much of life could have been killed,
https://phys.org/news/2012-05-million-years-recover-mass-extinction.html#jCpThe end-Permian crisis, by far the most dramatic biological crisis to affect life on Earth, was triggered by a number of physical environmental shocks - global warming, acid rain, ocean acidification and ocean anoxia. These were enough to kill off 90 per cent of living things on land and in the sea.
....
Current research shows that the grim conditions continued in bursts for some five to six million years after the initial crisis, with repeated carbon and oxygen crises, warming and other ill effects.
Some groups of animals on the sea and land did recover quickly and began to rebuild their ecosystems, but they suffered further setbacks. Life had not really recovered in these early phases because permanent ecosystems were not established.
Professor Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol, said: "Life seemed to be getting back to normal when another crisis hit and set it back again. The carbon crises were repeated many times, and then finally conditions became normal again after five million years or so."
Frequency Therapeutics Announces Positive Phase 1/2 Data for Drug Candidate for Hearing Restoration
It's still early days, but this seems pretty interesting
WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Frequency Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company, today announced positive results from a Phase 1/2 safety trial to evaluate FX-322, an investigational drug candidate designed to facilitate hearing restoration. The trial assessed the safety of a single dose of FX-322 given by intratympanic administration in adult patients with stable sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) who had a medical history consistent with either chronic noise exposure or idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss. In the Phase 1/2 study, FX-322 was safe and well tolerated following a single intratympanic injection with no serious adverse events. In addition, improvements in hearing function, including audiometry and word scores, were observed in multiple FX-322 treated patients.
Frequency is excited to announce positive results from our Phase 1/2 safety study of FX-322 in adults with sensorineural #hearingloss. All safety endpoints were met and signs of functional hearing improvement were observed in multiple patients.
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“Hearing loss affects millions of people and current treatments are unable to restore hearing once it is lost,” said Susan Marenda King, M.D., a Neurotologist at the Ear Medical Group in San Antonio, TX and lead enroller in the clinical trial. “The study results for FX-322, which show signs of functional hearing improvement, are very promising and represent an exciting step toward a potential treatment for patients.”
“While the focus of this study was safety, we are excited to see initial results in sensorineural hearing restoration as there are currently no treatments to restore hearing for these patients,” said David L. Lucchino, President, Co-founder and CEO of Frequency. “Furthermore, this data provides support for our small-molecule-driven regenerative medicine platform, which has the opportunity to address numerous degenerative diseases.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190409005363/en/Frequency-Therapeutics-Announces-Positive-Phase-12-Data
I just wanna say
'Climate grief': The growing emotional toll of climate change
When the U.N. released its latest climate report in October, it warned that without “unprecedented” action, catastrophic conditions could arrive by 2040. For Amy Jordan, 40, of Salt Lake City, a mother of three teenage children, the report caused a “crisis.”
“The emotional reaction of my kids was severe,” she told NBC News. “There was a lot of crying. They told me, 'We know what’s coming, and it’s going to be really rough.’ “
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The increasing visibility of climate change, combined with bleak scientific reports and rising carbon dioxide emissions, is taking a toll on mental health, especially among young people, who are increasingly losing hope for their future. Experts call it “climate grief,” depression, anxiety and mourning over climate change.
Last year, the American Psychological Association issued a report on climate change’s effect on mental health. The report primarily dealt with trauma from extreme weather but also recognized that “gradual, long-term changes in climate can also surface a number of different emotions, including fear, anger, feelings of powerlessness, or exhaustion.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/climate-grief-growing-emotional-toll-climate-change-n946751
From space, the ferocity of Queensland's bushfires is revealed
Rain forests will burn after all. Interesting graphics at the link
Professor Bowman, who has spent most of his career studying rainforest boundaries and fires, has visited all the stand-out fires events that have taken place in the world over the past few years.
What took place in Queensland, he believes, is entirely consistent with fires in other parts of the world, both in intensity and their links to a changing climate.
“It all ties together as being this signature of a warming, drying climate that makes vegetation burn but, more worryingly, burn in a way that is really outside our mainstream experience. So we’re on a learning curve.”
“This is the terrestrial equivalent of ice sheeting breaking up.”
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-08/from-space,-the-ferocity-of-queenslands-bushfires-is-revealed/10594662
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