#and again IT WAS ONE BILLIONTH OF A GRAM

[youreamonocoque]

"how could the atp just sweep this under the rug-" IT WAS ONE BILLIONTH OF A GRAM! ONE BILLIONTH. IT HAD NO EFFECT.

[endzithefangirl]

Scandals

Authors note: So, let's talk the Sinner doping thing first. I think the story is legit, it was one billionth of a gram. But, I do think that if Jannik wasn't no. 1 and from Italy he would have been suspended until the investigation ended. Still found innocent, but he'd be benched for a few months at least. As for Carlos smashing rackets... Honestly it was hot. At least to me... I was shocked because he never does stuff like that but I think the Olympic final was still in his mind and he just lost it. Anyway, enjoy these crappy shot fics!

Summary: Two short stories in which our two talented young tennis players, who have recently been in 'scandals', need a little reassurance

Warnings: English isn't my first language, no use of Y/N, gender not specified, everything stated in the Autors note is my opinion and I do not ask everyone to agree!

Word count: 711

Carlos Alcaraz x Reader

"Hey," you say as you enter Carlos' hotel room. "You okay?"

"Mmmmh, come here," he replies, looking you up and down. You walk over and hug him, smoothing out his messy hair. He wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you in close, nuzzling his face into the crook of your neck and taking a deep breath. You hold him tight. "What was that about, hm?" you ask cautiously, referring to his anger at the court. He leans his forehead against yours, sighing.

"I just lose myself sometimes. I get too in my own head, too competitive, too hard on myself." He presses closer against you.

"You broke a racket; we were all so shocked..."

Carlos huffs, slightly embarrassed. "I know, I lost my temper... again. I should have done better, but I just couldn't keep it together."

"It's okay," you say, trying to calm him down. "It's okay, baby. Everyone has off days. You weren't feeling great, and Monfils just decided to play his best."

He exhales loudly. "I know, I know, but it's just so irritating. I wanted to win so badly, needed to win so badly... but I just kept screwing up and making stupid errors and—" He stops talking and rests his forehead against your shoulder.

"It's okay. Now you need to relax, get back into the headspace for the US Open. Okay?"

He wraps his arms around your neck, his body pressed tight against yours. "Will you help me? Help me relax?"

"What do you want me to do, baby?" you ask, looking gently into his eyes. Carlos' grip around you tightens, and a vulnerable look enters his eyes. He lets out a deep sigh as he lays his head on your chest. Your touch is soothing as his arms wrap around you, his eyes closing, melting into your embrace.

"You better, baby?"

He nods, nuzzling his face against you. "...Much better…" He pulls you tighter against him, almost like he doesn’t want to let go. Carlos stays there, listening to your heartbeat, feeling the steady rise and fall of your chest. He presses gentle kisses against your collarbone and shoulder, feeling a little clingy.

"Mmm, you wanna stay like this for a bit?"

He nods, slightly embarrassed by the clinginess but too tired to care. "...Just a little longer..."

Jannik Sinner x Reader

"Damn, they really booed you," you say as Jannik comes back from his first-round match. Jannik sighs in annoyance. He walks to his locker and grabs a towel. With a hint of irritation, he responds, "That’s nothing new."

He takes off his sweat-soaked shirt. "Yeah, but... they were really booing. It's because of the doping scandal—" He pulls out a clean shirt and starts getting dressed. "I don’t know why they still think I’m cheating..."

"...Well, you did get off better than most people would have..."

Jannik closes his locker a bit too hard. He runs a hand through his curly red hair and looks at you. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, if you weren't world number one, and you didn't have the fancy lawyers, and if it wasn't one billionth of a gram—"

He cuts you off, getting closer to you. The annoyance is evident in his voice. He looks you in the eyes, his tone low and serious. "You think I’m protected because I’m world number one and have money for fancy lawyers?"

"Do you think that if it was me, they would have let me play before I defended my case?"

He's silent for a moment, thinking about what you just said. His face slowly relaxes, and he looks away. "No, probably not…" he says, his voice calmer now.

"Look, I know you're innocent," you say, standing up and wrapping your arms around his bare shoulders. "But you need to know that you got the absolute best-case scenario that most people wouldn't get."

Jannik's face is now completely relaxed too. A few beads of sweat run down his bare chest. He puts his sweaty arms around your waist and looks into your eyes again. He doesn't argue with you anymore because he knows you are right. "I didn’t really see it like that before…"

"You're not a bad person, Jannik. You're just so fucking lucky it's annoying."

[sports-talk]

*ೃ༄ jannik sinner wada case .ೃ࿐

of course, it is know known that wada (world anti doping agency) haa decided to appeal against the decision to clear jannik sinner of blame after two positive tests for a banned substance.

to add some context, wada believes last months ruling to find the italian at no fault or negligence was ‘not correct under applicable rules’. it has appealed to cas (court of arbitration for sport), and expressed that sinner deserves a ban for ‘between one and two years’.

jannik sinner was found to have traces of clostebol in his system, a banned anabolic steroid but one that is available over the counter in italy. his defence was that his physio, giacomo naldi, used the spray to treat a cut on his own finger, then proceeded to administer massages to sinners legs and feet, enabling very small amounts of the substance into sinners system.

now, it is rather clear wada don’t believe sinner has doped. it seems they are appealing on the basis that he may have been negligent, but, in my personal opinion, i simply don’t know how they are going to prove that sinner could have done more to prevent the contamination from happening.

some are thankful for the appeal, and believe he was treated more ‘fairly’. sinner had access to a good legal team to help him get through the case faster. to me, a ban of up to two years is ridiculous. it’s an absolute joy to watch him play, and he’s a wonderful character and role model. it would be beyond disappointing to be deprived of that for such a long while, especially considering he has done no wrong.

i feel for jannik. after months of trying to prove his innocence, then successfully doing so, you’d hope the situation could just be water under the bridge. but he now has to go through it all again.

sinner wouldn’t have risked the destruction of his career for a quantity of (less than) one billionth of a gram. good luck to wada is all i can say.

[sharpzulfiqar]

Here is a short except I wrote based on the first prompt written by @dumplingsjinson. The prompt is "exploring abandoned train tracks together; taking those aesthetic Pinterest photos for the gram". Please credit me if you wish to repost this. If there is any spelling or grammatical errors, please ignore.

This wasn't going to be your average Halloween night. Our October 31st's were usually spent devouring the chocolate candy from the convenience store while watching Casey Becker getting killed for the fourth billionth time. But, Jason wanted to do something different. He always had a taste for the macabre. He always saw Halloween as an opportunity to keep things exciting in our love life, so he made a plan to do a photoshoot....on an abandoned train track. I was completely fine watching Sidney Prescott being a final girl, but I guess change is good sometimes.

At 8:00 pm, Jason made his way to my doorstep. When I opened the door, all I saw was the love of my life cosplaying as an LA influencer tripod and all. "Why the hell are you wearing a white tank top and gym shorts in October weather?", I said. He showed off his biceps as he uttered "I have to show these off somehow". "My god, someone is delusional today", I said as I left the door wearing a reasonable all black outfit. That bitch was delusional as hell, but I didn't mind staring at his hard work. We entered my car, I typed the location on Google Maps, and we made our way to the "photoshoot location".

“Fuck! Why the hell did have to be so cold today?” Jason whined as he was getting ready for the camera. “Well, why didn’t you bring a jacket? It isn’t summer anymore” I screamed behind the camera. God, why did the love of my life have to be such a stubborn asshole. After a couple of minutes, I asked if he was ready. “Whenever you’re ready, Avedon” Jason replied. With each pose, Jason made sure to emphasize his body in a way where it was hard to ignore how hot he was. These pictures could easily serve as promo for an onlyfans if he wanted to. I’m surprised he never made an account.

All of a sudden, a horn blared in the distance. Jason turned around behind him to see a white circular light penetrating the darkness. “What the hell is that?” Jason questioned. “Um, Jason you made sure that this train track was abandoned right?” I asked. Jason waited for a minute before responding “Well, no train was supposed to come today”. “Jason, are these train tracks abandoned are not” I yelled. I didn’t need an answer from him as the horn sound blared louder. Soon, the white light expanded as the train’s silhouette became clear for the both of us. “Jason! Run!!!” I screamed in the distance. We both ran way just in time to watch the train pass us by to the side. Afterwards, we bolted to the car, and before I started the car, I had a few words for him.

“We are never doing that again, okay. Next time, I’m making the date plans”. “Fine. At least we had a memorable Halloween right?” Jason winked. “Let’s get our ass back home” I responded. He was right about one thing at least.

excerpt written by @sharpzulfiqar

List of “date ideas but make it a little more… out there. unconventional. possibly illegal” prompts 

Exploring abandoned train tracks together; taking those aesthetic Pinterest photos for the gram. 

Exploring actual haunted houses, with the full gear equipped.

Cemetery hopping.

Painting the walls with your bag of spray cans, in the narrow alleyways and where people won’t see you guys having a blast. (They call it graffiti, you call it art.)

Going to a thrift shop and buying clothes for each other (set a budget), going off on what you think their style would be, and only revealing what you bought to your date when you’ve purchased the articles of clothing and are out of the shop. Do a bit of a fashion show for each other!

Exploring abandoned properties together. (Beware: no trespassing if you want to up the thrill of it.)

Go to IKEA and pretend you guys are an actual couple; start an argument with each other over those tables that are put there for decoration. Or… Make it more tame. Pretend you’re shopping for your dream home, together. 

Going to a rage room together to fuck shit up and relieve some stress.

Ghost tours!

Sneaking into the movies without paying. On top of that, sneak in snacks from your local supermarket chain instead of paying for the ones at the cinemas/theatres. Tip: Don’t get caught.

[leianaberrie]

In chapter 3 of Long Shadows when Kai is dragging the Scooby doo gang for being murderers that Bonnie enables I was just clapping and nodding my head. Ugh I WISH. SO. BAD. WE. SAW. THAT. ON. TV.

I would love to see a conversation where Kai is all “you were hellbent on trapping me only to let a man-pain serial killer out.” I would’ve love to see Bonnie snap out of her servitude role to the salvatores/gilberts/forbes. I would love her to really sit and reflect on her choices and to grow from that and become a person that doesn’t bail their idiotic asses out of every mess they get themselves into.

Honestly when Bonnie came back from 1994. She came back to a mess. With Steroline having their humanity off. Which in turn made damon harass her about letting mama rippah out. And it’s just one of those things that I just…. I sigh deeply and facepalm every time i think about it.

Bonnie’s reaction to no-humanity steroline should’ve been livid. Her reaction to damon attacking her cause she “put herself first” should’ve been livid. She should’ve been so over the scooby gang at this point. After watching her father get killed, her grams get tortured by spirits, being the anchor, she had to deal with all that alone. No humanity switch cop out for Bonnie. She should’ve just rolled her eyes at stefan turning off his humanity for the billionth time. And then the fact she helped a ripper like Lily out is also never addressed. She never questions why this info was withheld from her. Better yet the writers make it so that Bonnie doesn’t even ask why Lily is in there in the first place.

For some reason Kai is the only one who has to pay (Which is fine that’s part of why I liked him). But these other characters continue to get enabled.

Anyway this was a really long way to say thank you for bringing this up in your fic. LOL

Long Shadows was such a big wish-fulfilment trip for me because I got to put everything in it that canon refused to give us.

I feel that Julie set up Bonnie as Damon's best friend just as Elena and Jeremy were being written off, to tie Bonnie to the Salvatores. For the past seasons, Bonnie had helped them and tolerated them because of their connection to Elena. With her gone, Julie was ensuring that Bonnie's loyalty, and therefore her agency and her magic, would belong to Damon. There's a servitude/slavery metaphor in there that is just too ugly for me to go into details now.

Bonnie was a wreck when she returned from 1994 and the show doesn't deal with this. We're supposed to believe that locking Kai away solves this, and that's, frankly, bullshit. Bonnie's mess didn't start from the 1994 Prison World. It started earlier when she was an Anchor for almost a year, and suffered debilitating agony everytime a supernatural died and passed through her. Before that, she was a ghost for the entire summer. She died before she graduated, and her dead body hugged her father. Before that, she almost lost her mind due to Expression. Before that, she lost her magic and actually died, trying to restore Elena's humanity. She found her mother, only to lose her again when Damon turned her into a vampire. Bonnie's trauma has been happening for a long time, but because the show never delves into accountability, especially when it comes to the protagonists and how their actions affect Bonnie, and will never allow Bonnie to self-examine how she keeps making choices that endanger and harm her for people who don't do the same for her... We get the storyline where all of Bonnie's trauma is because of Kai and once she gets her vengeance on him, she's healed.

In reality, and this is what I tried to do with Long Shadows - Kai is just an unlucky (for him) mixture of being the last straw in the long line of traumatic events and being a convenient scapegoat for Bonnie to project her feelings of damage and betrayal on, because the alternative would be to turn her anger on her friends.

Damon manipulated Bonnie and Kai into getting Lily out, and the show never deals with that. :(

[asscrackcreed]

Hope you know I have multiple hate copypastas 😘😘

An average human body has about 38 trillion cells. In each of these cells there is a spiral helix of DNA that, if stretched to its maximum, is about two meters long. DNA is one of the densest stores of information on the planet: a single gram of DNA stores about 700 terabytes of information. If we stretched out the 76 trillion meters of DNA in my body and recorded, character by character, the word "Hate" over and over and over again, this pile of information could not store the tiniest fraction of a trillionth of the hatred that I feel for you right now. Every drop of blood in my body cries out for your death. My very soul writhes in disgust. Your mere existence is a blasphemy and an affront to every possible virtue and quality that any rational being can possess. You are a deception to Satan himself.

HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT. FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.

I really hate your comment, it filled me with rage. I can't believe you even think it. I'm so mad and infuriated and filled with vengeance because of it, and now my wife left me because of the rage i cannot let go. Your internet opinion was so important to me i spent all day drinking because of it and now i lost my kids. I wish i never read it, and you are the worst person ever in the history of the world. Why did you do this to me, you sick freak.

[mischief-bleppers]

Things unfortunately went as I thought they would. I assumed the little mass in Haku's ear was a tumor or, at best, a benign clump of cells. Due to the bleeding and the fact it's actually adhered to the ear canal, I figured it had to be a tumor of some kind with mild hemorrhaging, and our vet confirmed this. He matches everything on the list for a squamous cell carcinoma... SCC tumors are usually hyper aggressive facial tumors on rats, more often than not. I nor the vet have come across one actually within the ear canal... He definitely has a mild ear infection, which may be due to the mass, or totally unrelated, but we have pain medication just in case his ear begins to bother him, ear drops, and more doxy and baytril. Due to Haku's rapid breathing and respiratory distress, even with nebulizer treatments daily/or weekly, and his age, it's unlikely he would pull through full anesthesia. He would need a full lateral opening and large removal of possibly the ear, and a chunk of his jaw/base of ear if he were to be operated on, and we would be preffered to Texas A&M, because our vet does not perform this particular surgery. She recommended we go through with the drops and continue antibiotics, see where we are, and consider at minimum, coterizing the small masses at the opening of the ear to prevent any more bleeding, and just keep our little beefy boy comfortable. He did however, gain 25 grams! He isn't wanting to eat solids [other than yogies and puffies 🙃] but is frequently being fed baby food, baby cereal, baby oatmeal, and soft treats throughout the day. He is still super active, eager for soft foods, and as loving as always. Although SCC are known to be very aggressive in short periods of time, we are hoping this one just remains rather dormant and doesn't cause discomfort and we have more time with our lil bean ❤ Down side on top of all of this: I have strep, again. For the billionth time. So tonsil removal is in my near future because I'm over this 🙅‍♂️ so rat dad is doing the rat care for the next 48 hours. https://www.instagram.com/p/BwDLtqABLjQ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=euhvmnut308q

[botoxliflip]

An Overview Of Best Botox Lip Flip

If you are contemplating getting Botox but nevertheless haven't done so because you only don't understand how botox works, then this short article is for you. If you are done, you will understand how Botox works, what Botox does, and what botox can't do. Botox is actually a protein. Actually, it's a minor quantity of a highly purified protein. You will find simply no bacteria in a vial of Botox, none. The confusion has to do with how Botox is made. The illness, Botulism, is caused by bacteria that create huge quantities of seven different proteins simultaneously. When Botox is created, the A protein is extracted, purified, and precisely measured. A vial of Botox has about five billionths of a gram of this highly purified protein. When the doctor gets the vial of Botox, it really looks empty. Water is put into the vial so that the protein can be drawn right into a syringe and injected. The Botox spreads about one cm.

Any spread beyond one cm is indeed tiny that it has very little chance of accomplishing anything at all. The protein is then absorbed in to the nerves that are within 1 cm of the injection site. Over the following fifteen minutes, the Botox protein, now in the nerve, finds another protein, attaches to it, and dissolves it. In the act of doing so, the Botox itself dissolves. In other words, after fifteen minutes, the Botox is gone. The skeletal muscle is perfectly fine, but it's not getting any messages from the nerve. So, they both just sit there and do nothing. It will take about 90 days for the nerve to produce new proteins. That is why Botox appears to last for about three months. Remember, the Botox disappears in about minutes. The duration of the effect is founded on the length of time it will take for anyone nerves to make new proteins.

Notice that you didn't even mention skin or wrinkles when speaking about how Botox works. That's because Botox does nothing to the skin. Botox only works on the muscles underneath skin, not skin itself. That is why Botox will not get rid of deep wrinkles in your skin. It relaxes the muscles, so the skin is not being moved around as much. The wrinkles that appear whenever you move muscle tissue will disappear quickly. In the event that you keep getting retreated with the Botox without letting it wear off between treatments, even the deep wrinkles will begin to progress because the skin isn't being folded over and over again. In conclusion, Botox is just a protein that dissolves another protein that exists within the nerves. Having less proteins prevents the nerve from talking to the muscles, which causes the muscles to relax. The wrinkle reduction is as a result of muscles not moving around normal. The Botox itself does nothing to the skin.

[billion-heartbeats]

The world has gone viral Corona virus overview. Be cautious.there is nothing to  panic.

The world has gone viral

 Coronavirus Overview

 Types of Viruses in the world- 1,670,000

631,000 to 827,000 can infect Humans----Nature Journal

 The frequency of crossing over from animals to Humans has increased 2to 3 times in the last 40 yrs. on a cycle of about three yrs.

SARS- 2002

Bird flu- 2005

Swine flu- 2009

MERS- 2012

Ebola- 2014

SARS n COV- 2019

There have been 6 new epidemics in the last 18 yrs.

The corona virus is about 120 metronomes across, and looks like a ball with spikes coming out of it. The spikes, seen on an electron microscope, look a little like the sun’s corona, seen during an eclipse, which why the family was called corona viruses. The genome size of corona viruses ranges from approximately 26 to 32 kilobases, one of the largest among RNA viruses. Approximately, 20,000,000viruses can fit on the head of a pin. Trust me just about a gram of this virus has probably caused the pandemic!

Corona virus disease -COVID-19- a cousin of the SARS virus is an infectious disease caused by the newly discovered corona virus. Corona viruses are a large family of viruses that are common in people and many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats.

COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in November 2019. Over the next few months, the illness spread to almost every country. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO on March 11, 2020.

Corona viruses have been causing problems for humanity for a long time. Several versions are known to trigger common colds and more recently two types have set off outbreaks of deadly illnesses- severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). But by and large their impact has been mild.

The corona virus that is causing the Covid-19 pandemic has caused havoc globally and has spread to nearly 200 countries! That is an extraordinary performance for a spiky ball of genetic material coated in fatty chemicals called lipids, and which measures 80 billionths of a metre in diameter. Humanity has been brought on its knees by what looks a very humble assailant.

 Patho-physiology

 This was an organism unknown to science five months ago. Today it is the subject of study on an unprecedented scale. Vaccine projects proliferate, antiviral drug trials have been launched and new diagnostic tests are appearing.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus almost certainly originated in Bats. These are known to replicate faster. the bat is transformed into a reservoir of rapidly reproducing and highly transmissible viruses.  when these bat viruses move into humans who lack a fast-response immune system, the viruses quickly spread into their new hosts. As to the transmission of Sars-CoV-2, that occurs when droplets of water containing the virus are expelled by an infected person in a fit of cough or sneeze.

Virus-ridden particles are inhaled by others and come into contact with cells lining the throat and larynx. These cells have large numbers of receptors – known as Ace-2 receptors – on their surfaces. This virus has a surface protein that is primed to lock on that receptor and slip its RNA into the cell.

 Once inside, that RNA inserts itself into the cell’s own replication machinery and makes multiple copies of the virus. These burst out of the cell, and the infection spreads. Antibodies generated by the body’s immune system eventually target the virus and, in most cases, halt its progress.

 A Covid-19 infection is generally mild, and that really is the secret of the virus’s success. Many people don’t even notice they have got an infection and so go around their work, homes and supermarkets infecting others.

 Symptoms

The viruses can make people sick, usually with a mild to moderate upper respiratory tract illness, similar to a common cold. Coronavirus symptoms include a runny nose, cough, sore throat, possibly a headache and maybe a fever, which can last for a couple of days.

For those with a weak immune system, the elderly and the very young, there's a chance the virus could cause a lower, and much more serious, respiratory tract illness like a pneumonia or bronchitis.

The Wuhan coronavirus is currently thought to be milder than SARS and MERS and takes longer to develop symptoms. Patients to date have typically experienced a mild cough for a week followed by shortness of breath, causing them to visit the hospital. Around 15% to 20% of cases have become severe requiring treatment in ICU. 5% are critical requiring, ventilatory support and treatment in ICU.

Corona virus treatment

There is no specific treatment, but research is underway. Most of the time, symptoms will go away on their own and experts advise seeking care early. If symptoms feel worse than a standard cold, see your doctor.

Doctors can relieve symptoms by prescribing a pain or fever medication, a hot shower, a warm drink with some herbs, can help ones with a sore throat or cough. Don’t panic! Remain calm.

Drink plenty of fluids, get rest and sleep as much as possible.

 Prognosis

A large study found that about 80% of confirmed cases had fairly mild symptoms -defined as no significant infection in the lungs. About 15% have had moderately severe symptoms that caused significant shortness of breath, low blood oxygen or other lung problems that needs institutional treatment. 5% of cases are critical, featuring respiratory failure, septic shock or multiple organ problems.

Mortality

 The Wuhan coronavirus fatality rate is lower than for SARS and MERS. In India statistical analysis shows that it is 2.8%. The World Health Organization gave out a figure of, 3.4%.

Why does the virus sometimes cause death?

Occasionally, however, the virus can cause severe problems. This happens when it moves down the respiratory tract and infects the lungs, which are even richer in cells with Ace-2 receptors. Many of these cells are destroyed, and lungs become congested with bits of broken cells. In these cases, patients will require treatment in intensive care. This is known as a cytokine storm.

 In the body, immune responses are being mounted against Covid-19 in infected people. And the antibodies created by that response will provide protection against future infections – but we should note that it is unlikely this protection will be for life. The protection will not be there for mutated strains but slows down the virulence. The virus will be with us for some time.

When will we get a vaccine?

The journal - Nature reported that 78 vaccine projects had been launched round the globe – with a further 37 in development. Among them is a vaccine programme that is now in phase-one trials at Oxford University, two others at US biotechnology corporations and three more at Chinese scientific groups. Many other vaccine developers say they plan to start human testing this year.

This raises hopes that a Covid-19 vaccine could be developed in a fairly short time. However, vaccines require large-scale safety and efficacy studies.

  What are we doing?

Mere lock down cannot hide you from the virus!

While many of us watched the corona virus spread across the globe with disinterest for months. Now many have finally realized that it will disrupt our way of life. We can make things better; it’s not too late. But we have to be willing to act.

Of course, we are doing something. We’re closing schools and businesses and committing to social and physical distancing. This isn’t enough. Even after we do these things, it is predicted that a significant number of infections will occur, that more people will need care than we can possibly provide in our hospitals.

We in India are engaged in suppression and not in mitigation. The Suppression refers to a campaign to reduce the infectivity of a pandemic, what experts call R-0 should be less than one!  Unchecked, the R- 0 of COVID-19 is between 2 and 3, meaning that every infected person infects, on average, two to three others. An R- 0 less than 1 indicates that each infected person results in fewer than one new infection. When this happens, the outbreak will slowly grind to a halt.

 Be cautious. Don’t panic!

 The mood of the country has shifted in the last few weeks, from dismissal to one of fear and concern. That’s appropriate. This is a serious pandemic, and it’s still very likely that the rate of infection will overwhelm the surge capacity in our country. We have seen this happen in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmadabad and Chennai!

If we commit to social distancing, however, at some point in the next few months the rate of spread will slow. We’ll be able to catch our breath. We’ll be able to ease restrictions, as some early hit countries are doing. We can move toward some semblance of normalcy.

 Hope for the best. Be prepared for the worst.

The worst is yet to be!

The temptation then will be to think we have made it past the worst. We cannot give in to that temptation. This is the time to redouble our efforts. We will need to prepare for the coming storm. We’ll need to build up our stockpiles, create strategies, and get ready.

We will need to massively strengthen our medical infrastructure. We will need to build ventilators and add hospital beds. We will need to train and redistribute physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists to where they are most needed. We will need to focus our factories on turning out the protective equipment—masks, gloves, gowns, and so forth—to ensure we keep our health-care workforce safe.

 Some are in denial, and others are in despair. Both are understandable. We all have a choice to make. we can work together to get through it with as little damage as possible. This country has faced massive threats before and risen to the challenge; we can do it again. We just need to decide to make it happen.

[tempestshakes01]

3/24/19

Here’s another entry in this embarrassing public online diary (I love it.):

Health: 4/10 

The weird cough is still lingering, but now it’s gotten a bit worse in the daytime. I’m still hacking up mucus until I vomit (or moan and cry to NOT vomit because I just ate and I’d rather NOT throw up a bacon burger, thanks) and it’s fuckin miserable. I’m worried that if this lasts, I’ll have to fly like this and my flight is an overnighter--prime cough/nausea/vomit hours. UGH. 

Other than the cough and my persistent jaw acne, I’m the perfect picture of health. I feel great. 

Well, no. My ass has a massive bruise because yesterday I slipped down Leah’s stairs (wood laminate is slippery as hell in socks!) running to the bathroom to...ugh...puke up a glob of mucus and bits of burger. 

But other than that! 

Work: 7/10

I still feel like I did something wrong and no one is telling me. I’m friendlier and peppier now that the winter blues (read: depression) are slipping away with the sunny skies and warmer weather (all that snow--16 inches on the ground at the start of the month--melting), but I think the damage is done. 

Except, other than not being super chatty, I’m not sure what the damage is. The only admin that’s normal is the principal. We’re getting along great! A few colleagues are still the same including Mr. Married Lumberjack whom I had a crush on.  

I’m probably paranoid though. I’m also bored out of my mind. Things are smooth for 85% of the time and that’s...great, but also...it’s too smooth and I feel judged doing more because Veronica is gone. 

Okay, so that most likely makes no sense, but it’s how I feel. 

Home: 9.5/10

Things are superb with my parents. I’m headed to D.C. with my mom next week (along with every 8th grader in America...I’m so stupid...) and we’re going to try to keep it as civil as possible when it comes to politics. My dad is texting, but not smothering me with attention. In fact, I should call him more.

My sister seems to be doing...the same. Lots of astrology posts on the gram, but no mention of Paris (her potentially mentally-ill ex) so that’s a relief. The kids are doing great as well. Nick and I are texting more often. He even asked my advice about our parents which was new. I want to ask him about Alyssa because I’m still utterly curious about that situation, but I know he’s still hurting over it and the fact that he had a “quarter-life” crisis when he was working 50+ hours, going to school full time, and interning at the church. He’s decided to graduate as quickly as possible, quit the preacher path, and stay in the coffee game. 

Apparently, he got a promotion and a raise, so he’s making really great money. Plus, he’s like...super passionate about coffee. More passionate than he ever seemed about Jesus or school. 

We’re currently fighting about NCAA brackets and our current favorite music, and it’s great. 

Friends: 6/10

Reconnecting with Jack and Nicol is super nice. I just don’t know how to proceed and how quickly and if I’m an annoyance. I also want Nicol without Jack as well, but I don’t want to offend either of them (not that I think it would! but the chance makes me hesitate...) and they’re such a partnership that I wonder if it IS a big request to separate them. 

We went to see Us today and I didn’t like it very much. We’re going to see Back to the Future on Tuesday at the old theater. They invited me to the former; I invited them to the latter. I trust this will all work out.

Gosh, and I don’t trust Leah at ALL which is wild because I probably hang out with her the most out of anyone, but yeah. There’s something about that girl that I don’t trust. 

Went on Facebook and saw a photo of my childhood best friends (we were a trio: Valerie, Kristina, and I). They were on a backpacking trip together in Alaska. They live entirely different lives, but they still maintained a great friendship over the years. God, and they went into chemical engineering so they’re both making BANK, but they’re the most down-to-earth women. 

I don’t know...I guess it makes me think...for the billionth time...how different my life would be if we’d never moved from El Paso. 

El Paso was idyllic. My childhood consisted of bike rides out into the desert, street games with a plethora of neighborhood boys, summer secrets and stars, theme parks and athletics, best friends who were boys that I knew I could fall in love with, best friends who were girls and I knew I could trust with my whole heart. I lived a good life there. 

When I left, things started to peel apart, but it sort of seemed--for the most part--most of the El Paso crew grew up in the same way they had been...in that easy, perfect sunset sort of way. Most everyone I grew up with went Homecoming and Prom and did senior sunrise and went to good schools where they did the greek life and then got jobs in the sciences or medicine or moved out to Hollywood. They’re utterly normal and successful now in a very...the way they tell you things will go in life. 

Anyway, that childhood best friend I thought I could fall in love with? Went through a long-haired rave phase circa 2012/13, but is currently dating a white girl who wears cowboy boots, no makeup, and studies sports medicine in the same grad program as him. It’s the way things were supposed to be and it’s just weird to see their lives (through the filter and lens of social media) go so simply. Also, his hairline is going and he looks bloated, so the white-half is coming for him in the aging process, ha. His Mexican mom still looks BOMB, so poor guy for inheriting his dad’s hair follicles. 

And anyway, that childhood best friend I could trust with my whole heart? Dating a republican future politician named John Smith and traveling South American for the next couple weeks working in various hospital and women’s health care. She’s a nurse and probably a damn good one. She got her boobs done a couple years ago and I sometimes wonder if we’d still get along. 

Media: 5/10

This is a bullshit category just to give a VM hot-takes, but I’ll play into my own bullshit. 

I’m not watching any TV except B99. I watch about 3 movies a week and I try to make 1 a classic or a “difficult” title. I watch mostly youtube, to be honest. I like Hot Ones, Bon Appetit, Jenna Marbles, theTryGuys, Tasty, Brave Wilderness, Millenium Dance Complex ‘n’ adjacent choreographers’ channels, and various media video essays. 

I’m reading a lot of books...but they’re all YA. Which isn’t bad! I’m just laughing that it took me reading Airborn by Kenneth Oppel (my favorite adventure YA book) out loud to the students to remind my dumb reading brain how fun books could be. Apparently, I’m a fantastic reader and I do wonderful voice and I make the story seem like a movie. We’re on the sequel and I’m about to start the His Dark Materials series.  

That Worlds podium? TRASH. Justice for S/B. 

Yeah, so I’m on a VM cleanse, right? Cause with the winter and all the crazy, it was just an unhealthy piece of media in my life. I miss the GC though, but that’s about it, lol. Oh, and with the new content (I tried to resist!) it’s clear that I did miss them doing their thing and I need to unload some of the thoughts whirling in my head. 

Ugh, I have thoughts about the whole timeline of events because I see people questioning or backtracking, and I’m like? We seriously went through an awful series of events that made all the previous weirdness make sense (but left lingering brand-new weirdness). Except that’ll just bring back old feelings that I’m trying to move on from. 

Geez, I can’t believe I’m about to talk about them in a gossip-y way again, but uh, I’m glad that they seem to be repairing their friendship and that Scott legit looked happy. The vibes are definitely friendship so far, or like, 2015-vibes. Which who knows where that will lead in the future? Will they do things messy like last Fall/Winter? Do they think they can try again or are they now afraid of fucking this up so badly they can’t come back from it? Are they going to accept each other as only friends and maintain those boundaries? You love me, real or not real? WHO KNOWS. I hate this ride.

Also, I’m aware of some of the gossip because I’m fool who caves from time to time for a few minutes and I remember (god, again, I hate that I’m still invested even with this time off) that J was selling her Coachella tickets, and now it’s been announced that VM are doing that show in Korea which takes place the same days as a Coachella weekend. So. Yeah. I’m putting my money on J being in Korea because why sell the tickets (just take a friend), but I’m also still wondering if this is all going to end up like Klawes-era. 

Literally, I wake up believing 100% that J’s gonna be the one Scott’s going to marry because it’s just that time. Then, I go to sleep 98% believing that no matter what, somehow, someway, Tessa and Scott are going to end up together. 

inTERSTIngLY, I have neglected to message Tinder matches the past couple weeks and I believe 50% of the time that I’m going to end up alone because I’m not even trying. (Cut me some slack though. I haven’t had an acne flare-up this bad in years and it’s wrecking my confidence.) 

Music: 10/10

I take hour drives out of town and find obscure trails and I hike for an hour...and let me tell you my Spotify is killing it. 

Current favorite songs:

How Do You Know - CALIPH (you know what I’m thinking) 

Stone Street - MS. WHITE (fun)

anything from Oliver Tree (his music speaks to me as does his fucking stupid meme humor)

Wow. - POST MALONE (sue me)

anything from Duckrth (so much fun) 

Charms - ABEL KORZENIOWSKI (don’t imagine VM dancing to this)

The Cheek of Night - ABEL KORZENIOWSKI

Sucks - ANGELO MOTA (dark and atmospheric hip hop that makes me wish I could dance cause it’s calling to me to choreograph something to it)

bury a friend - BILLIE EILISH (lol I can’t dance, but I’m learning Kodish choreo for this as a workout) 

Beverly Blues - OPIA (a summer jam)

[atlanticcanada]

DNA analysis leads the conversation at Dennis Oland murder trial

The Dennis Oland murder trial continued in Saint John on Tuesday.

In the early morning hours of the murder investigation, Saint John police collected dozens of items that would require DNA analysis. The analysis was performed at RCMP forensic labs, at the time, in Halifax and Ottawa.

Among the samples seized by police were DNA specimens from Dennis Oland, from his father Richard Oland’s body, and from clippings taken out of a brown sports jacket which police found in Dennis Oland’s bedroom closet.

Joy Kearsey, who testified at the first Oland trial, was a DNA specialist at the Halifax lab. Kearsey says whenever two objects come into contact, a transfer of DNA will occur.

“The ideal amount of DNA that’s needed to analysis is one nanogram, which is one-billionth of a gram,” said Kearsey. “If a blood stain has been laundered or diluted, it may not be concentrated enough to give a positive result.”

The Crown has heard evidence that the brown jacket had been dry-cleaned prior to being seized by police.

The judge is expected to hear the results of the DNA analysis on Thursday, three months after the trail began.

There are only a few Crown witnesses left for the judge to hear, and the Crown says it could wrap up its case against Dennis Oland this week.

This will be followed by the defense presenting their evidence. The defense also said at the beginning of the trial, Dennis Oland will be taking the stand to once again to proclaim his innocence.

50-year-old Dennis Oland is charged with the second degree murder of his father, Richard Oland, on July 6, 2011.

With files from  CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron.

from CTV News - Atlantic http://bit.ly/2twOaT2

[ericfruits]

Nasty chemicals abound in what was thought an untouched environment

NOT far off the coast of Guam lies the deepest point on Earth’s surface, the Mariana trench. Its floor is 10,994 metres below sea level. If Mount Everest were flipped upside down into it, there would still be more than 2km of clear water between the mountain’s base and the top of the ocean. Such isolation has led many to assume that it and similar seabed trenches will be among the few remaining pristine places on the planet. However, a study led by Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University, in England, has shown that nothing could be further from the truth. As Dr Jamieson and his colleagues report this week in Nature Ecology and Evolution, trenches are actually loaded with pollutants.

Despite the cold, the darkness and the high pressure, ocean trenches are home to ecosystems similar in many ways to those found on other parts of the planet. In one important respect, though, they are different. This is the source of the energy that powers them. In most ecosystems, sunlight fuels the growth of plants, which are then consumed by animals. In a few shallower parts of the ocean, hydrothermal vents provide energy-rich chemicals that form the basis of local food chains. No vents are known to exist below 5,000 metres, though, and no sunlight penetrates a trench. The organisms found in them thus depend entirely on dead organic material raining down upon them from far above.

Since these nutrients, having once flowed into a trench, never make their way out again, Dr Jamieson found the notion that trenches have somehow remained untouched by human activities questionable. He suspected that long-lived pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (which were once used widely in electrical equipment) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (employed in the past as flame retardants) might have made their way into the bodies of organisms living in trenches.

To test this idea out, he and his colleagues sent an unmanned lander to the bottom of the Mariana trench and also to the bottom of the Kermadec trench, near New Zealand. This lander fell to the seabed and spent between eight and 12 hours there, capturing amphipods (a type of crustacean, pictured) using funnel traps baited with mackerel. At the end of its mission it jettisoned some ballast and floated back to the surface with its prey.

In total, the lander collected specimens from ten sites in the two trenches. The shallowest site sampled was 7,227 metres down in the Kermadec trench. The deepest, in the Mariana, was 10,250 metres. When the team looked for pollutants in the captured amphipods, they found that polybrominated diphenyl ethers were indeed present, but at moderate concentrations. Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, however, were almost off the scale.

In animals collected from clean coastal environments, polychlorinated-biphenyl levels do not normally exceed one nanogram (billionth of a gram) per gram of tissue. In grossly polluted areas, like the Liao river in China, that level may rise a bit above 100 nanograms. In the Mariana trench, Dr Jamieson found, amphipods dwelling at 10,250 metres yielded 495 nanograms per gram of the pollutant. Those 8,942 metres down yielded 800 nanograms. And at 7,841 metres he and his colleagues discovered the staggering level of 1,900 nanograms per gram of amphipod tissue analysed. Values from the Kermadec trench were more modest, but still pretty high—ranging from 50 nanograms to 250 nanograms per gram.

Precisely why the Mariana trench has such elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls remains unclear. Dr Jamieson suspects it has to do with the trench’s proximity to the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a whirlpool hundreds of kilometres across that has amassed enormous quantities of plastics over the years, and which has the potential to send the pollutants that bind to those plastics deep into the ocean as the plastics degrade and descend.

What consequences all this has for the Mariana’s organisms is unclear. Polychlorinated biphenyls disrupt the hormone systems of some animals that dwell nearer the surface, and can also cause cancer, so the news is unlikely to be good. But what Dr Jamieson’s work shows beyond peradventure is that no part of Earth’s surface is safe from the activities of Man.

http://ift.tt/2kWv8SO

[theupsidedownunderblog-blog]

VEGEMITE COME TOO! - AN AUSTRALIAN ICON

Vegemite is arguably THE one single iconic word that epitomizes Australian culture. Vegemite was invented in Melbourne in 1922 when Australian food manufacturer Fred Walker asked chemist CP Callister to create a product similar to British Marmite. Made from brewer’s yeast, Vegemite was initially slow to catch on, but sales improved in 1930 when Walker secured the Australian rights to Kraft’s processed cheese and co-marketed it with Vegemite. During the Second World War, Vegemite captured the Australian market. Marmite was unobtainable and the Australian Army supplied Vegemite to its troops. In the 1950s and 60s, despite acquisition by the American company Kraft, Vegemite became a distinctively ‘Australian’ food, featuring in songs, and on souvenirs and other popular culture ephemera. As overseas travel increased, Vegemite was carried around the world by Australians as a way to reaffirm their connection to home.

Kids Enjoying Vegemite

VEGEMITE HISTORY

In 1919, following the disruption of British Marmite imports after World War I and prior to the introduction of Vegemite, Callister's employer, the Australian company Fred Walker & Co., gave him the task of developing a spread from the used yeast being dumped by breweries. Callister had been hired by the chairman Fred Walker. Vegemite was registered as a trademark in Australia that same year. Callister used autolysis to break down the yeast cells from waste obtained from the Carlton & United brewery. Concentrating the clear liquid extract and blending with salt, celery and onion extracts formed a sticky black paste.

Fred Walker Following a nationwide competition with a prize of £50 (2010:$3,527) to find a name for the new spread, the name "Vegemite" was selected out of a hat by Fred Walker's daughter, Sheilah. The winners, local sisters Hilda and Laurel Armstrong (aged 18 and 20 at the time) of Albert Park, Victoria entered the winning name and were known as "The Vegemite Girls" for the rest of their long lives. Vegemite first appeared on the market in 1923 with advertising emphasising the value of Vegemite to children's health but failed to sell very well. Faced with growing competition from Marmite, from 1928 to 1935 the product was renamed as "Parwill" to make use of the advertising slogan "Marmite but Parwill", a convoluted pun on the new name and that of its competitor; "If Ma might... then Pa will." This attempt to expand market share was unsuccessful and the name was changed back to Vegemite; but did not recover lost market share. In 1925, Walker had established the Kraft Walker Cheese Co. as a joint venture company with J.L. Kraft & Bros to market processed cheese and, following the failure of Parwill, in 1935 he used the success of Kraft Walker Cheese to promote Vegemite. In a two-year campaign to promote sales, Vegemite was given away free with Kraft Walker cheese products (with a coupon redemption) and this was followed by poetry competitions with imported American Pontiac cars being offered as prizes.Sales responded and in 1939 Vegemite was officially endorsed by the British Medical Association as a rich source of B vitamins. Rationed in Australia during World War II, Vegemite was included in Australian Army rations and by the late 1940s was used in nine out of ten Australian homes. In April 1984, a 115-gram jar of vegemite became the first product in Australia to be electronically scanned at a checkout. Vegemite is produced in Australia at Mondelez's Port Melbourne manufacturing facility which produces more than 22 million jars per year. Virtually unchanged from Callister's original recipe, Vegemite now far outsells Marmite and other similar spreads in Australia. The billionth jar of Vegemite was produced in October 2008. Vegemite was also produced in New Zealand for over fifty years, but as of August 2006 New Zealand production had ceased.

HOW TO EAT VEGEMITE:

  https://youtu.be/0yA98MujNeM

GOOD NEWS:

VEGEMITE will be Australian-owned once again after Bega Cheese agreed to buy the iconic spread and other well-known brands for $460 million. Checkout this link for more information: http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/vegemite-back-in-australian-hands-after-bega-cheese-strikes-460-million-deal/news-story/a77efb34159bc06bbdae8dbcce393f6f Sources: www.vegemite.com.au http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/symbols_of_australia/vegemite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite http://www.soinlovewithmelbourne.com/2016/03/5-facts-about-vegemite.html http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/vegemite-turns-90-heres-10-cool-things-it-can-do-besides-making-toast-delicious/news-story/11cdb9d3734c65ecb72379081781f90a http://www.wikihow.com/Enjoy-Vegemite     Click to Post