Last call for a conversation I’m really looking forward to with Robin Ince.
Live
Free
8.30pm
On Substack

With his newly released poetry collection
Ice Cream For a Broken Tooth
Robin has been an endlessly creative and I think important voice across performance, broadcasting, writing…

How About Some Robin Ince & A Rather Sweet Ghost Story? But not that the some time...

here's a direct link to more info with the poster advert image I can't post (for some annoying reason!!!)
gavcross.substack.com/p/how-about-...

If you like geeky humour, science, creativity, independent book stores, radio 4, nice beards & more-- tomorrow the lovely
@gavcross.bsky.social will be chatting with the amazing
@robinince.bsky.social !

8:30pm UK time (that's 3:30pm Eastern & 12:30pm Pacific, USA)

tr.ee/GavCrossSubs...

When Harlow Shapley received a letter from Hubble containing the evidence that the spiral nebulae were separate "galaxies", he said: “This is the letter that destroyed my universe."

Shapley had believed the Universe contained just one "Big Galaxy" - our Milky Way. Now we know there are ~2 trillion!

Cat sitting on a keyboard.

And, on the piano….

Yungblud Forced to Cancel Show Due to Illness, Offers Free Beer to Apologize to Fans British musician Yungblud was forced to cancel his Philadelphia concert due to illness. He announced the disappointing news to fans via Instagram. The artist explained his condition and outlined plans...

Yungblud Forced to Cancel Show Due to Illness, Offers Free Beer to Apologize to Fans.

“I’ve been trying to get better for two days since New York but I literally can’t get off the floor and doctors have advised me that I have a virus that requires me to rest and take it seriously.”

Why isn’t school attendance policy reflecting the research in the Lancet on long covid? @ashleydaltonmp.bsky.social Children’s long term health should be the priority here!

Failure to rest, especially in girls, increases long Covid risks! Over 120k children in UK with long Covid now

#CleantheAir

I feel the priority in schools should be #CleanAir and allowing children to rest after sickness. Not 100% attendance. We should abandon school uniforms for warm clothing and move to a footing similar to that at the height of TB crisis. Safety of children’s long term health should be the priority!

Do masks work?
YES
This is physics
This is based on the laws of physics
N95 or ffp2 works
It reduces viral transmission
WE CAN END measles or reduce it (we did)
WE COULD end polio (we could)
The problem is scientific illiteracy.

I like the analogy of digital asbestos. Treated like a miracle product now, but it's going to be a huge pain to remove all the embedded AI slop in the future.

Studies show how common long COVID is globally and in teens

The two most commonly identified long-COVID symptoms were memory problems and muscle weakness,

www.cidrap.umn.edu/c...

🤣

Outbreak of Neisseria meningitidis Conjunctivitis ... This report describes 41 cases of Neisseria meningitidis conjunctivitis among military trainees living in a communal setting in Texas.

“Viral and allergic conjunctivitis are more common than bacterial conjunctivitis in healthy immunocompetent adults. Neisseria meningitidis is an uncommon cause of bacterial conjunctivitis.”

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes....

people act like it's not traumatic for the body to be infected with a virus but like. viruses infect your cell and proceed to replicate inside the host cell until the cell literally explodes, spreading more virus to other cells to do the very same thing.

of course that process would be oncogenic!!

🚨 Important message about this weekend’s alert system test if you have an emergency phone! Info below on how to silence and refuge.org also have useful information.

I wish I had a tenth the influence on my students’ minds that Farage froths at the mouth about…

Its really a drag that these tech cultists and con-men are just spraying buckshot and splattering spamming AI everywhere because if smart people had just focused surgically on its most discrete functions…

Instead of a capitalist feeding frenzy and surveillance state making the world shittier.

Clean the air in schools FFS

Tiny figure with large wings created with cogs and other metal small parts sitting on the end of a white real finger

'Steampunk fairy' by US artist Sue Beatrice who creates sculptures and jewellery out of recycled watch parts #WomensArt

I have another #buyastrangerabook day offer to tell you about.

@lancslass.bsky.social has sent me £15 so that I can buy someone a book.

So, if there's a particular book you'd like up to £15, get in touch!

UK only

How to be (and make others) sick less often No one enjoys being sick, not even with a common cold -- let alone with a serious flu, stomach bug, or COVID. No one wants to make others sick either. Fortunately, we have tools to fight viruses.

Since we're thinking about Nimbus (NB.1.8.1), I thought I'd re-share a couple of Substack pieces.

"How to be (and make others) sick less often"

open.substack.com/pub/tryangre...

1/2

10. I’m up shit creek without a paddle (English) 9. The clown has picked me up already (Spanish) 8. I’m in the woods without a dog (Brazilian Portuguese) 7. I am sitting in the mashed potatoes (Dutch) 6. I’m in tight little shoes (Flemish) 5. There is a devil in the fish-trap (Finnish) 4. I stepped sideways on the dicks (Turkish) 3. There is more trouble than butter (Hungarian) 2. Now we have the salad (Austrian German) 1. I’m fucked like in a Russian tank (Polish)

My favourite ways of saying “I’m in a spot of bother” from ten different languages…

FAFO👇

Data suggest COVID-19 reinfections less likely to cause long COVID

Here we go again. The *total* risk goes up with every infection, because math. Also, 1/20 risk with each subsequent infection is not great odds of you ask me.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/dat...

😍🍞🔪☠️🤣🎉🥰👍❤️

Read this thread and weep. Then act as if airborne viruses matter 😷

A nurse at work asked me why me and another nurse never get sick and I said it’s because I wear an N95 every day on shift. Shits pretty easy actually

Infectious disease minimizers in public health, media who continue promoting "immunity debt", and antivaxxers all own this.

As a retired academic, this doesn't surprise me a bit, except it applies to universities in general, not just Ivy League ones.