oh my god, you all. I have great guest posts waiting to be posted.
We're swapping bedrooms around and our house is such a state of chaos and I no longer have my Covid office. I just can't figure out where to sit and work from. I'm going back to work these days, but I'm trying to only go in MWF over the summer. I finally got to the library just now, which is why I'm finally saying hi. Hi. Let me get a real post up.
Just bought a plane ticket to visit my brother and my sobrinos in Florida and holy shit, it cost almost as much from NY to FLA as it did from Arrakis to NY.
2: really? I'm very curious (I work on Google Flights). FLL? MCO? MIA? None of those look hideously expensive....
If you make Google money, they aren't.
Ah, OK, ISP is small enough to be trouble. Looks like Frontier is a lot cheaper for nonstops on that route, but I don't know if the times work for you. And at those Southwest prices I'd be looking at trekking in to JFK.
I like this new concierge feature where Flights employees do searches for you and recommend routes.
And thus did Google reinvent the travel agent.
So I guess I should switch from Orbitz?
11: given that it was discontinued in 1998, I'm guessing all bottles are past the expiration date by now
I just want to sleep and sleep
OT: If one of you knows someone who works for Microsoft, tell them they need to make it easier i get rid of that little weather-news shit they added to the Taskbar. Everytime the sun comes out, I get startled out of concentration.
Alive and well. My wife and I are on week 3 of the meal kit, and still enjoying preparing food together. I appreciate her stepping up to do more unprompted.
Plus, after many many diversions, she finally got in for a CT scan, which seems to preliminarily match the symptoms she's experiencing instead of the diversions that her doctors have thrown up instead. Unfortunately, the scan result is showing back issues, which won't be quick or simple to solve -- but at least it's not timewasting kidney stone or constipation "humor the doctor so he'll prescribe an actual test that might diagnose the problem" testing.
Hope she gets better soon.
Also, I got rid of the weather thing.
For what little it's worth - I miss you guys sometimes. And pandemic sucks.
How can you miss us if we don't go away?
If that's what you want to call it.
Continuing from before:
[Roc] FDA will allow Phase II results to be analyzed via immunobridging, an approach which uses the immune responses measured in clinical trial participants to infer the vaccine's overall level of protection. According to the FDA, the analysis must be based on samples of serum neutralizing antibodies taken 28 days after participants in a Phase II clinical trial of over 3,000 people received their second vaccine dose. For the vaccine to be approved, the samples must have a neutralizing antibody geometric mean titer ratio (which refers to antibody concentration) of at least 0.67 and a sero-response rate (which refers to potency of response) of at least 50 percent, the FDA said.
At its press conference, Medigen said the participants in its study had a GMT Titer of 662, equivalent to a GMT ratio of 163, and a seroconversion rate of 99.8 percent. Among participants aged 20-64, the GMT Titer rose to 733, equivalent to a GMT ratio of 180, while the seroconversion rate was 99.9 percent, the company said.
https://www.vpap.org/electionresults/20210608/election-4/
Charlottesville election result, 42%
Ah. Too bad. Not that bad against the incumbent for a first try I'd say (knowing nothing about the real issues or the local politics). The local judicial candidate I sort of help here has not gotten there in mutiple tries.
My son is bitching mightily about the reaction to his second vaccine dose. Apparently, "Nobody really ill can complain so much" isn't supportive.
Why do (nearly) all my children vocalize their breathing when they're concentrating? They'll be reading or solving the Rubik's Cube and just rhythmically going "hrm...hrm...hrm..." with their exhales.
Did the Big Ten go out of its way to staff the athletic departments with child molesters compared to other conferences or are the others still hidden?
Everytime the sun comes out, I get startled out of concentration.
Gives you time to get safely into your coffin until it darkens again. Next you'll be complaining about the iMoat around your house.
I just spent thousands to put the underground stream that wants to use my basement back under the ground.
Still here. Bored a lot. In theory, work is overwhelming. In practice, for 90 percent of tasks, no one cares what we actually get done except my immediate boss and she's aware of just how much we depend on inputs weren't not getting. So she's frustrated but probably mostly not at us, and I'm constantly a tiny bit nervous that we'll start getting what we need to do our job. This sounds dysfunctional.
My main hobby is World of Warcraft. It's boring these days too, partly because it's been a while since they've added anything new to the game. Pandemic delays are the likely reason. I might take up another hobby, but anything other than reading or replacing one computer game with another seems problematic since we're still stuck with lots of pandemic restrictions. (Lots of things have reopened by now, but school still isn't and I'm still working from home full-time, so it's hard to get out of the house on weekdays.) We'll spend most of the summer out of town with my and Cassandane's parents. I'm looking forward to it even though it won't help with this stuff directly.
26: "stop breathing so much" is advanced stir-craziness.
Condolences to 23, but second 24.
Right back atcha to 17.
My stepdaughter used to ask me fairly frequently, "Why are you breathing?" If I was in the right mood I would respond as if she was asking me to die.
My main hobby is World of Warcraft.
I have mostly spent the pandemic playing Civilization 6 and Pokemon Go. I'm approaching a quarter-million Pokemon caught.
I'm on the final climb to Level 50. 500 excellent throws and 23M XP left to go.
Yesterday was the twins' birthday, so we ordered pizza and watched Detective Pikachu. It's pretty good for what it is, but the emotional heft it seemed to be going for didn't really land for me because the Pokemon stuff was so goofy. Maybe it's different if you come in with more background knowledge.
I never played Civ5; skipped from 4 to 6. But I feel like I have more or less mastered 6 now and am ready for 7 to get released already.
38: The best part was when it turned out that the one sister who posed for nude photos shot the semi-estranged husband of the other sister.
31. Rumor has it that the next WoW release (9.1?) will show up in about a month. I alternate among WoW, reading, and bad TV for spare-time activities. Here in MA things are opening up fairly quickly, though.
Here in MA things are opening up fairly quickly, though.
Lots of things are opened up around here too, but if I'm working from home, then there's no stopping at a happy hour on the way home from work. The kid's school used to have an after-care option until as late as 6, which gave us plenty of time for fun or errands before picking her up, but now the pod ends at 4, so that's less time. The last time we went to the movies or a concert we got a babysitter for her, but I don't know if anyone's doing that any more and by now she's old enough to resent the term.
I realize complaining about this is getting pretty silly, but the point is, life is far from back to normal even though businesses are open.
Kid's summer camp just announced that kids can be unmasked while outdoors (which is to say, almost all the time). This is provoking a wave of anxiety, especially after one of the newspapers ran a (cherry-picked, but still) story of some youngish healthy adult, vaccinated, whose kid got sick and then they got sick and acquired "long COVID" symptoms. So we're busily working on worst-case scenarios.
44: If it's an outdoor day camp, I think you're probably fine. These are hard calculations, but one has to weigh the vanishingly small chance of breakthrough COVID caught from a kid at summer camp against the kids' interests, mental health, and so forth. We haven't been doing masks outdoors but wear masks at indoor events/locations.
Everytime the sun comes out, I get startled out of concentration.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/forum/bing_apps-bing_install-bing_appdev_win8/remove-news-feed-from-task-bar/6ec30157-33a8-4908-9363-a25e74bf0677
We just cycled 95km to Norwich cathedral. A differently boring experience. Don't believe people who tell you Norfolk is flat.
50: Write some unlucky support staffer an angry email threatening to buy a Mac. That totally worked when Dropbox wanted me to do free training data for google.
In contrast, a protein subunit vaccine is made of merely one protein, the spike protein. "It is purer but could trigger a weaker immunoreaction," Lai said "Different vaccine production methods have different advantages and disadvantages. One cannot be compared with another,"
...
It could take several years for a domestic vaccine to go through Phase 3 trials, and in Taiwan's current situation, "it should opt for second best," Lai contended, even though major vaccines have obtained enough efficacy data in Phase 3 trials in a matter of months to get EUA approval.
...
"If Taiwan continues to see delays in vaccine shipments and a continuous rise in COVID-19 outbreaks, why not opt for the domestic vaccine when its geometric mean titer (GMT, which refers to antibody concentration) looks to be no worse than AZ's?" Ho argued.
...
seroconversion rate ... of 99.8 percent ... participants had an average GMT of 662, and an increase in titers ... of 163 against a baseline that Medigen did not identify. Among participants aged 20-64, the GMT rose to 733, the geometric mean fold rise was 180, and the seroconversion rate was 99.9 percent, the company said. According to experts, a GMT of between 600 and 700 is a relatively good result, but for the FDA safety evaluation, the data has to be compared with that of the AZ vaccine
...
Lu noted, however, that there is no international consensus on how high the GMT level has to be to indicate a level of protection. Moreover, no uniform, globally-accepted method for verifying antibody concentrations exists, meaning that existing vaccines have a wide range of GMTs from as low as just over 100 to above 3,000.
...
Shih also cautioned that it was still too early to say whether Medigen had successfully developed a COVID-19 vaccine based on the trial results released Friday because nobody knows how high the neutralizing antibody concentration needs to be for the Medigen vaccine to be effective, she said.
It sounds like the money would be better spent buying earlier access to imported vaccines, if that's possible.
It isn't. Purchases were locked in 18 months ago; exports from India are halted until October at least; AZ production in Thailand is hitting problems and delays. Alternatively, negotiations to produce AZ in Taiwan fell through because apparently AZ wanted a minimum 300m doses produced and TW thought they could only do 100m. Of which neither position makes any sense to me, and sounds soluble.
Like 200 million and sell the extra to Guatemala.
Or, put their money where their mouth is and donate them.
Request that in return they upgrade to "The Republic of China."
I'm going to be flying with a guy in a shirt reading:
Control
Oppress
Victimize
Isolate
Divide
I hope I'm not sitting next to him.
62 was me. Moby is much more tasteful.
We're waiting for a flight attendant who they say is arriving on another flight but is probably pooping.
It was two of them, so maybe they really did have a flight delay.
FDA unveils standards for EUA of local vaccines
To determine the appropriate level, the FDA is to commission Ministry of Health and Welfare hospitals to conduct studies comparing the effect of domestic vaccines with that of foreign vaccines, Wu said. Researchers are to put together a control group of 200 Taiwanese who have received both doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine since rollout began in March, she said. If the neutralizing antibody titer among subjects who received the domestic vaccine are at least as high as that of the control group, then the vaccine would be considered effective, she added.
I'm constantly amazed at how my folks have been so totally propagandized by right wing media. I went golfing with my dad this morning (I don't otherwise golf but it's something we can share together). We were partnered with a mother and her son, the son was about to start a residence in radiology. My father mentions a family friend whose son was a radiologist, I mention our former neighbors growing up, who had a son my age who became an oncological radiologist (and is at one of the most prestigious NYC hospitals). My dad starts going on about why he went into that specialty the reason being according to him is that the neighbor's son heard that there was going to be a lot of government interference with doctors but for some reason not with that specialty (this doesn't even make sense), it was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes and saying no, the reason he went into that is that he wanted to make a fuckton of money and doctors in that specialty make more money than anyone.
So much money. It's hard to believe.
Reading an older Swedish mystery book. They receive a letter from "Detective Lieutenant Elmer B. Kafka, Homicide Squad, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA." Which is just so very close to not absurd.
I've already texted everyone who would listen, so you guys are next -- I just successfully committed plumbing.
My dishwasher was clogged and wasn't draining, and the super wasn't going to look at it until Monday. So I got the hose unhooked from under the sink, figured out where the clog had to be, poured in baking soda, vinegar, and boiling water until things seemed to be draining through a little, hooked it back up and it's cleared.
As a non-handy person, I am stupidly pleased with myself.
68: Wow. That's quite an approach. I continue to be vaguely shocked at the upending of norms.
75: that's for a brand new vaccine, right? But an immuno bridging study would be ok if it were an update for a variant? Isn't that semi similar to what we do with the flu shot every year?
Some fucking toe rag nicked the catalytic converter from under Ume's Prius last night. Disturbed by a neighbour, otherwise he'd probably have got to mine as well.
It will take at least a month for the replacement to arrive and I am now officially on team Bring back hanging for car thieves. Hashtag what's wrong with Norman game laws?
It's been a while since I've heard of that happening to someone here. I guess Brexit raised the local price of metals.
Hawaii's friend had to postpone plans till tomorrow because her parents "have a bid DnD meeting" and Hawaii finished it by grumbling, "I wish you and Dad were that cool."
If you have tears to shed -- ah, keep them for a day the garden needs it: from a WSJ story about a vulture fund manager who crashed in the pandemic:
Staying at his Long Island home because of the pandemic, he worked in a cramped bedroom that he had converted into an office. A puppy once relieved himself on Mr. Kamensky's foot during a business call. Sometimes, after working late into the night, Mr. Kamensky slept in the same room.
83:. My initial reaction was to weep for the poor, neglected puppy, but after taking the time to find and read the article, I can't believe this guy is going to prison. What a crazy system!
Well, no: because he got into a position where he was meant to be getting the best deal for the remains of Niemann Marcus as a seller, and also for his own fund, as a buyer. He thought he had stitched the whole thing up with a price advantageous to both or his interests, then a third party came in with a higher bid.
This was excellent for the sellers (represented by Mr Puppy Pee) and really bad news for the vulture fund Mr PP ran. So he phoned up the third party and begged them not to bid. Then he realised what he'd done, and phoned again to say that he hadn't meant a word of it and please to forget the whole thing.
The third party, also being a vulture fund manager, quite naturally shopped him, with tapes, to the SEC.
78: But perhaps it should be. I bet if the umpires at test matches were allowed to punish players with summary castration it would do wonders for the five day game.
"No ball!"
86:. Sure, he messed up badly, and he should be fined heavily and lose his financial advisor license, but jail?
Upon further reflection, I am still more concerned about the puppy. What was it doing in his office, anyway?
22, 52, 68- I don't really have enough expertise in trial design, and certainly not for vaccines, to second guess people actually trained in it. The description in 52 is roughly what I said in the other thread for what I expected- there are vaccines with demonstrated efficacy, so if you match immune response of a new vaccine to those it seems like a reasonable dataset for an EUA. We know there's more to immune response than just antibody titer and neutralization but I think all the other immune memory and cell response correlates pretty well.
The point about protein antigen may be true. Some of the big players failed in their vaccine design and IIRC at least one of those was a protein+adjuvant approach. I don't think it's a general feature of that class of vaccines though- certainly it's worked for other diseases (HBV, pneumonococcus)
Heh.
The Justice Department announced it recovered most of the $4.4 million ransom Colonial Pipeline paid to cybercriminal group Darkside after an attack on the pipeline's systems last month, according to the New York Times. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the department recovered the money by hacking Darkside and seizing 63.7 Bitcoins, now valued at $2.3 million. This recovery is the first of its kind by the department and comes as hackers who once focused on stealing corporate secrets are now attempting to disrupt critical infrastructure.
Good Novavax results today, which is the most similar to the Medigen of those with positive phase III results.
I guess in 1965 Sweden it made sense that the sexually liberated woman would be from Nebraska and it would be a repressed, local boy to kill her for it?
Anyway, it's Wallander without the good cheer.
About to catch my first film in a movie theater (Ousmane Sembène's Mandabi) and in a year and a half and I'm in tears
About to catch my first film in a movie theater (Ousmane Sembène's Mandabi) and in a year and a half and I'm in tears
I'm watching The Crown. I know Anthony Eden doesn't have a particularly good historical reputation, but oh my God does the show hate him.
Swedish detective fiction hates everyone.
Or at least seems disappointed with them.
I'm getting my second jab tomorrow. (I am absurdly excited!).
105:. Congratulations! The immunity is nice, but the magnetism is the best.
Oh, mobes, Sjöwall/Wahlöö were a couple of really serious communists -- in fact the whole series jumped the shark entirely around book eight or nine when a Ronald Reagan surrogate visits Stockholm and the Olof Palme figure is assassinated as a traitor to the workers (in about 1975). They are constantly dystopian about everything in the country. Only behind the Iron Curtain is true happiness to be found. In fact there is quite a good book about Sweden which discusses them at length, hem hem.
But they did set the pattern for all subsequent lefty Swedish crime fiction, and established the central conventions: that the murderer is always the richest suspect, all Christians are Nazis, all the goodies have the most sex -- and that enlightened topless Sweden is the most miserable country in the whole history of the world.
He's in Budapest now, but doesn't seem happy and turned down sex because it was a pretty obvious attempt to get him to back off.
84, 89
86:. Sure, he messed up badly, and he should be fined heavily and lose his financial advisor license, but jail?
Yeeeesss? I'm confused about the confusion. Why shouldn't a hedge fund manager be in jail?
I can put up a thread on the front page, one sec.
But I'm not done with the old one.