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rederiswrites · 3 months ago

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I wrote this out for FB and then thought I might as well share it here as well. So if you have ADHD, are a late-diagnosed adult with ADHD, and most particular if you are a person with a uterus and/or have children, this one might be for you.

...

Last couple of days have been a little...weird. Let's start at the beginning. Buckle up and learn something.

As many of you already know, I have ADHD. It's a condition with a PR problem--a lot of people, often even medical professionals, have a very distorted idea of what it does, and a very limited one. For starters, it's not about parenting, or lead paint, or lack of discipline. It's genetic, *highly* heritable, starts in childhood and persists throughout life, and is a sufficiently severe disability that it comes with a decrease in life expectancy of up to 13 years. It is a visible difference that can be perceived in brain scans. These are all, at this point, well established and thoroughly attested in the scientific literature. ADHD affects up to 5% of the population and appears across cultures. It is very common.

It's not just about lack of attention--in fact, plenty of medical professionals think the name should be changed, as in fact the problem isn't the volume of attention but the way we struggle to direct it. We are motivated by interest, and struggle to properly weight future goals and consequences, specifically because they are in the future. If the robin outside the window is more immediately rewarding to our brain, we will watch that, and not the teacher. Our ability to properly weigh the consequences of that choice is negatively impacted by our own biochemistry.

We struggle with many of what are termed the "executive functions", the self management systems of the brain. Degree and presentation varies from person to person, but initiating tasks, completing tasks, staying ON task, restraining impulses, emotional regulation, and working memory are among the things impacted. My working memory is notoriously horrible. When they send you those activation codes on your phone? I often have to go back and read them out several times to enter a six digit number. I have to stop and remind myself what I'm doing between every step of my morning bathroom routine, or making tacos. Sometimes I take off my glasses to put on my contacts, reset, and reach for my pill bottles while I still can't see. My long-term memory is also affected, with my husband de facto serving as the memory-holder of the family.

Another common symptom I personally experience is "time blindness", which can mean both that you have no "internal clock" that has a clear idea of the passage of time, and that our ability to properly weight the importance of things in the future is impacted. So, for example, I can know intellectually what's coming, but it takes some really complex and exhausting antics to actually focus and work on those things if they're more than a week or sometimes even a couple days away.

Without externally imposed controls, many ADHD people flounder and fail to meet social markers of success. Estimates of how many ADHD people manage to complete college range from 5% to 15%. Again: 5% to 15%! I have failed twice myself. WITH externally imposed controls, ADHD people often have to work far harder to make their brains do what is required, and either fail and develop an image of themselves as failures (usually with plenty of external help), or keep fighting and suffer crippling burnout.

To that point, ADHD is HIGHLY comorbid with a whole range of knock-on conditions, some of which stem from the same brain patterns that give rise to the ADHD itself, and others from the trauma of living with a disability, but they include very high rates of depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia, social isolation, and addiction. I have dealt with depression, anxiety, and fibromyalgia my entire adult life. I have never ended up in the trap of self-medication but let's be real, that's partly about having supports and a healthy social environment. It's not some accomplishment I praise myself for, nor is addiction a sin I shame anyone for.

And anxiety has a very different texture to it when what you're really anxious about is the next time you fail in some catastrophic way. Lock your keys in the car. Completely space on a doctor's appointment. Go to pay for groceries and find that your wallet is next to your computer at home. Because the anxiety is not irrational fear of some generalized bad thing. These things do and will happen, regularly. Sometimes it feels like the only fix is getting good at recovering. Because no matter how many times you manage not to blow it, there's always another chance.

So, the struggle to be a reliable person, to be a consistent parent, to be a dependable life partner, is continuous. And it is so so so hard and it sometimes feels like you're not actually making any progress at all. I have tried therapy. I have tried three (or four??) different non-stimulant medications that sometimes help people. One of them DID help. ALL of them had catastrophic side effects. There were times as I was trialing these medications when I needed to be minded because I wasn't capable of taking care of anything, not even myself. Without Jacob, I don't know where I'd be. Not here. Probably in poverty, which is where he found me.

I have tried probably most organizational tools you know of. I have tried imposing schedules, all of which turned to dust and ash when the next fibromyalgia flareup or the next major life disruption happened. I don't think a new schedule has ever lasted a month before.

I HAVE felt like I'm made progress lately. I learned things that really helped my fibromyalgia, which gave me the space to work on other things--just like getting the borders of a puzzle finished. Enough things were spiraling upwards, and I think I might be cementing some gains. I have felt optimistic.

But in the meantime, I asked my doctor if, now that no less than three cardiologists have insisted my heart is Perfectly Healthy, I could finally try stimulant medications. After decades of use, Adderall, Ritalin, and a couple related stimulant drugs are still the gold standard for ADHD treatment and improve outcomes substantially for many people. And stimulants are in serious international shortage. Have been for many months. The only one she thought she could get me was Adderall. And she didn't dare try anything but the standard 30mg because nonstandard dosages would be even less attainable.

So now I'm taking Adderall. One week on 30mg, which I stopped when it was clear my function was being seriously impaired rather than improved. Reassessed with the doctor, now trying 60mg, because that's two of the pills I've already managed to obtain. It is....too much. And in some ways it fixes problems I wasn't working on, while so far making my executive function, my initiation or even *contemplation* of tasks, virtually nonexistant. Which was, of course, the thing I was trying to fix.

So yeah. When you have the context, I figure you can understand the substance of my frustration yourself. If you have children, I don't think you need my help to imagine what it would be like to know that you are unpredictable, or to see that your children are used to to you undergoing events that make you act strangely and erratically. I think just knowing that often, new medications introduce themselves by giving me a migraine, and I know this is possible when I take that first pill, is fairly self-explanatory. And so I expect you can imagine what it would be like, with all of this as a backdrop, to experience worsening of your symptoms, probably because of age-related hormonal changes. To in desperation try something you'd previously been denied. And to learn that it probably won't help.

In a week, I will either give up on Adderall for now or find a way to make it work. I'll put together the pieces yet again--at this point, possibly my strongest personal skill--and continue that upward climb as far as I can get. I'm incredibly fortunate in that regardless, I will be fed and dry and warm and loved. But right now, I feel justified in some serious dismay.

#ADHD

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covid-safer-hotties · 3 months ago

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Also preserved on our archive

A lot of good sources linked in the original article!

By Bruce Mirken

As the dangers of Long COVID become more recognized, the country's going backwards on preventing new infections.

While I’m far from the only person worried about Long COVID and our society’s general inclination to look away and pretend it’s not there, people like me certainly feel badly outnumbered. It’s beginning to feel reminiscent of how people with AIDS and their loved ones felt circa 1986—and maybe it’s time for the same kind of response.

For those of you lucky enough not to have lived through that era, by the end of 1986, AIDS had killed nearly 25,000 Americans, but president Ronald Reagan had yet to speak the word “AIDS.” His press secretary had joked about it and the White House press corps laughed. While individual scientists were doing important work, the bureaucracies running the NIH and FDA seemed very much to be in business-as-usual mode. Because the casualties had largely been gay men and injection drug users, it seemed like no one with any power cared whether we lived or died.

So, a group of New Yorkers – mostly gay men – decided it was time to start raising hell. Calling themselves ACT UP, they disrupted the New York Stock Exchange and, as chapters sprang up nationwide, they staged protests that shut down the FDA and NIH. Eventually, people like Anthony Fauci began to see they had a point. I joined the Los Angeles ACT UP chapter in 1988 and ended up getting arrested half a dozen times in protests at the LA federal building, the County Board of Supervisors and the U.S. Capitol, among others. We won major improvements in HIV/AIDS care in the Los Angeles County health system, which cared for thousands of people with AIDS who had no health insurance. When I landed in San Francisco in 1993, I connected with ACT UP Golden Gate.

Here I am (with my late boyfriend Tim at the left) at one of the protests in that L.A County healthcare campaign. Most of my closest friends from that era have been dead for decades.

I get that COVID has played out very differently than HIV/AIDS. AIDS ramped up slowly and seemed not to affect “normal” people until it killed closeted gay movie and TV star Rock Hudson in 1985, and even then officials largely looked the other way. Only scientific breakthroughs in the 1990s finally stemmed the tide of death. In contrast, the much more highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 virus came on fast and furious, turning Americans’ lives upside-down almost immediately.

But now, we’ve arrived at what seems in some ways like an eerily similar place. When needed precautions to curb a highly infectious airborne virus spurred frustration and political pushback, officials largely threw up their hands and gave up. Even measures that don’t involve mandates or restrictions on behavior have mostly either been dropped or never happened in the first place.

LONG COVID’S GROWING TOLL

Unfortunately, the virus hasn’t gone away, even if the initial wave of mass death has receded. In August, as a summer surge peaked, US COVID-19 deaths exceeded 1,000 per week, though the latest September data suggests the numbers have begun declining toward pre-surge levels, when deaths were generally in the 300-400 per week range. That’s still equal to a 9/11 every eight to 10 days. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracking of SARS-CoV-2 levels in wastewater—probably the best data on US viral prevalence now that cases aren’t being reliably tracked—showed 15 states with “very high” levels and another 19 rated as “high” as of Sept. 19.

But COVID is not just a matter of cases and deaths. The disease’s long-term effects have disabled millions of Americans, and the numbers keep growing with each new wave of infection. An updated review published in Nature Medicine puts the current global number of Long COVID sufferers at 400 million and estimates the worldwide economic impact at a staggering $1 trillion.

We now have plenty of people experiencing repeated SARS-CoV-2 infections. The good news, if you can call it that, is that these reinfections may produce fewer new cases of Long Covid than a person’s first infection – but they absolutely produce some, and the Omicron variants circulating in the last year or two seem to produce more Long Covid than earlier viral varieties. Every time you get COVID, you roll the dice with your health – maybe for the rest of your life.

If I sound alarmed, well, I am. As longtime readers may know, I have some first-hand experience with Long COVID, though in milder form than many experience. My January 2022 infection left me with peripheral neuropathy—painful nerve damage—in my legs and feet. It’s incurable and nearly impossible to treat, as conventional pain drugs don’t help. I will likely never live another day without pain and walking more than six or seven blocks at a stretch is a struggle. I used to enjoy hiking, but will probably never do it again. Still, I don’t have the more debilitating symptoms like crushing fatigue or dysautonomia—disruption of the part of the nervous system that controls automatic functions like heartbeat, blood pressure, digestion and breathing—that afflict some Long COVID sufferers. Lots of people have it way worse than I do.

We know that COVID can have lasting impacts on many parts of the body, including the brain. A recent study of 52 COVID survivors—about half with mild to moderate initial illness and half with more severe disease—found that compared to healthy controls, both groups “had a significantly higher score of cognitive complaints involving cognitive failure and mental fatigue” 27 months after their original illness, with no significant difference based on the severity of that initial illness. On a series of tests, researchers found “changes in brain function” that may explain the reported problems.

Just as scary, a study of people aged 65 and up just published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease reports that “people with COVID were at significantly increased risk for new diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease within 360 days after the initial COVID diagnosis.” This review of the medical records of over six million patients found that the risk escalated with advancing age. As with many of these long-term impacts, the mechanisms involved remain unclear.

Survivors of an initial SARS-CoV-2 infection also have increased rates of high blood pressure, now documented in multiple studies. High blood pressure increases your risk of deadly cardiovascular complications like heart attack and stroke.

I can’t help but wonder whether these issues have affected me, but there’s no way to be sure. My blood pressure, well-controlled for a dozen years with a very low dose of medication, began ratcheting upward about a year and a half ago, necessitating three medication adjustments since then. I’m also definitely more forgetful than I was, mostly little things like walking into a room and forgetting why I went there. But those things can happen to older people with or without COVID, and it’s hard to know cause-and-effect in a given individual.

But I sure as hell know I don’t want to get this virus again and risk these and other issues getting worse. Unfortunately, avoiding it is getting harder by the day, and neither government at any level nor public health authorities seem to care.

PREVENTION? WHAT PREVENTION?

While there’s some evidence that the antiviral drug Paxlovid can reduce the likelihood of Long COVID if administered early enough, the results so far are mixed and not overwhelming. The best way to avoid Long COVID is to not get infected in the first place. As a society, we’ve pretty much stopped trying.

The government is still encouraging vaccination, as it should. But it’s been clear for some time that while the vaccines are very good at reducing the chance of severe illness and death if you get infected, they offer only limited protection against getting infected in the first place. “Vax and relax” can prevent mass death, but it can’t prevent mass infection and an ever-growing number of cases of Long COVID, even if most people get vaccinated. And vaccination rates have been declining for a while, with a new Ohio State University survey reporting that only 43% of U.S. adults have gotten or plan to get the new COVID-19 shot.

And in a bit of absolute madness, Florida’s Ron DeSantis-appointed Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has actually advised against use of the newly updated mRNA vaccines. In a post on Mastodon, Yale epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves called this “beyond irresponsible. It is malpractice.”

Ladapo is an outlier, but even his saner colleagues around the country downplay the fact that we don’t have to limit ourselves to vaccination. It’s an airborne virus, so there are two main ways to stop it from spreading: 1) Get the virus out of the air, or at least reduce its concentration to a very low level, and 2) Protect yourself from breathing in any virus that’s in the air around you. We know how to do both.

Masking works, but the type of mask matters. As the Mayo Clinic notes, “Respirators such as nonsurgical N95s give the most protection. KN95s and medical masks provide the next highest level of protection. Cloth masks provide less protection.” Two and a half years ago, a CDC study found that those who reported regularly wearing an N95 or KN95 respirator in indoor public settings had an 86% lower risk of catching COVID-19.

Recently, during my first return visit to San Francisco after moving in early 2022, I met my nieces for lunch at the Ferry Plaza. It was a Saturday, Farmers Market day, and the place was jammed. In three-plus hours I saw no more than half a dozen people wearing any sort of mask, and only a couple were N95s. In my new hometown of Hilo, masking is only slightly more common. At the supermarket, I see barely 10% of customers and staff in some sort of mask. In some venues, it’s less.

A recent Ipsos survey found that half of Americans believe they’ll never get COVID again. Only 20% described themselves as “trying to stay as safe as possible.”

None of this is a surprise—people are simply responding to the messages they get from the people supposedly leading on health issues. The CDC promotes vaccination but barely talks about masking anymore; it acknowledges the value of indoor air quality but doesn’t seem to be doing much about it. In interviews, CDC Director Mandy Cohen regularly urges vaccination but almost never brings up masking or air quality and says little about Long Covid. Political leaders mostly talk about COVID in the past tense and pat themselves on the back for a job well done in prior years. The result is what you’d expect: Most Americans now treat COVID like a common cold, disregarding most precautions and not bothering to test when they get sick.

Back in 2022, when public policy on COVID was still relatively sane, the Biden administration published indoor air quality guidance and made congressionally-approved funds available that “that can be used in schools, public buildings, and other settings to improve indoor air quality.” It’s unclear exactly how much of that money has been used and for what, although some school systems have definitely made HVAC upgrades. But we’ve never had either enforceable indoor air standards or a coordinated plan to implement them. As Science noted in July, “The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly shown the vulnerability of society to the spread of infectious diseases. At the same time, with frequent outbreaks in elder care facilities and school classrooms, it became clear that it was a fatal mistake to largely neglect the recommendations of scientists and engineers regarding minimum standards for ventilation and indoor air quality.”

In any case, those federal dollars were aimed at schools and public buildings. It’s been left entirely to the private sector to do, or not do, anything to reduce airborne pathogens in supermarkets, theaters, clubs, malls and other privately owned spaces. Local groups like Chicago’s Clean Air Club and Austin’s Clear the Air ATX have tried to fill the gap by lending HEPA filters and other clean air equipment to arts and performance venues and other gathering places.

A RADICAL IDEA: DO WHAT WORKS

We know what to do. As Clean Air Club founder Emily Dupree and co-author Shelby Speier wrote in Sick Times in May, “We possess the technology to make public spaces safer. Studies show HEPA air purification and far-UVC lamps drastically reduce the number of airborne pathogens in a room and therefore lessen the likelihood of COVID-19 transmission. When combined with other layers of protection, these tools have the potential to finally make our shared spaces more accessible during an airborne pandemic.”

A key word here is accessible. Failure to address indoor air quality and other prevention measures makes public spaces seriously dangerous for those at highest risk, including the elderly, the immunocompromised and those with long-term health issues, including Long Covid.

Such simple, factual messages are rarely heard in official statements about COVID. “What I find the most frustrating about official handling of COVID and prevention is the lack of care, education, and honoring the science around COVID,” comments Clear the Air ATX founder and Long Covid activist Katie Drackert. “Telling people to ‘stay home when they feel sick’ for a virus that spreads asymptomatically? Well, they are just straight up ignoring science.”

Admirable as they are, the small, volunteer-driven efforts of groups like Drackert’s and Dupree’s are not remotely comparable to the scale of the problem. For now, people must take matters into their own hands. “In the year 2024, people still need to be wearing a well fitted KN95 or above for optimal communal and individual protection,” Drackert says. In the absence of reliable information about air quality in indoor spaces, she suggests getting a portable air quality monitor, which can be reasonably affordable. “High CO₂ levels indicate poor ventilation, which may lead to higher concentrations of aerosols that could contain the virus,” she explains. “Some air quality monitors track particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), which are small airborne particles. While COVID is smaller than these particles, high PM levels may indicate poor indoor air quality.”

Most of us can’t entirely avoid being in spaces with poor air quality, and that leaves us with masking, which the country has largely abandoned. Worse, we’re starting to see bans on face coverings in public spaces being enacted—for example, in Nassau County, New York, and North Carolina.

These laws typically contain exceptions for people masking for health reasons, but, as New Jersey’s Star-Ledger noted in a recent editorial opposing a proposed mask ban, “t leaves it up to the cops to decide whether someone has a legitimate medical reason for wearing a mask at a public gathering. “How will they know that? It’s subjective. And based on past experience, we know what that means: Police will disproportionately stop and question Black and brown people, who have also been the most likely to continue wearing masks to protect against COVID-19.” It’s hard to imagine a more demented public policy than making disease prevention illegal. And it’s not hard at all to imagine a COVID-19 prevention framework that would make a meaningful difference without causing a nationwide freakout: Encourage masking. Even if mask mandates are a political non-starter, there’s still plenty we can do. First, officials can talk about it and actively encourage people to wear high-quality protection like N-95s when in busy, indoor spaces. They can remind people of its importance—that COVID is not over, not just a cold, and that even a “mild” case can change your life forever. Federal, state and local governments could distribute N-95s or KN-95s free or at minimal cost. Get serious about indoor air purification. Build on what the Biden administration started a few years ago: Develop medically informed, enforceable indoor air quality standards and create a verification system so that people know when a building they enter meets them. Start with public buildings and the largest, busiest private venues, like sports arenas, concert halls and theaters, and move on from there. Give business owners generous technical and financial support in meeting those standards, and a reasonable amount of time in which to do it. While this program is ramping up, fund the local organizations now struggling with limited resources to fill the gap. None of this is that difficult. It’s not even that expensive when you consider that the federal government is in the process of spending $634 billion to upgrade nuclear weapons that with any luck will never be used. What’s missing is political will, and that won’t be there until people scream bloody murder. That’s why I think it may be time for a new version of ACT UP focused on COVID-19. The issues are somewhat different, but less so than you might think. While the original ACT UP focused a lot on research, treatment and care, it also addressed prevention. ACT UP chapters around the country started syringe exchange programs, handed out condoms at high schools, and sometimes succeeded in shaming the system into doing the right thing. And of course, there are issues to tackle around Long Covid research that I haven’t addressed here, but which I will try to cover in a future piece. The fundamental problem is much the same as people with AIDS faced in 1986: a system stuck in neutral, politicians stuck in denial, and a public closing their eyes, covering their ears and shouting, “I don’t hear you!” The first task must be to break the system–and the broader population, as much as possible–out of its present inertia, complacency and denial. I honestly don’t know whether ACT UP tactics like occupying the CDC and disrupting state and local health commission meetings will have the same effect they did decades ago, but at this point I don’t know what else to try. Nothing good lies at the end of our current path.

#mask up #covid #pandemic #covid 19 #wear a mask #public health #coronavirus #sars cov 2 #still coviding #wear a respirator #long covid #covid conscious #act up

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ghelgheli · 9 months ago

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According to Marx, metabolic rift appears in three different levels and forms. First and most fundamentally, metabolic rift is the material disruption of cyclical processes in natural metabolism under the regime of capital. Marx’s favourite example is the exhaustion of the soil by modern agriculture. Modern large-scale, industrial agriculture makes plants absorb soil nutrition as much as and as fast as possible so that they can be sold to customers in large cities even beyond national borders. It was Justus von Liebig’s Agricultural Chemistry (1862) and his theory of metabolism that prompted Marx to integrate an analysis of the ‘robbery’ system of agriculture into Capital. [...]

Liebig harshly criticized modern ‘robbery agriculture’ (Raubbau), which only aims at the maximization of short-term profit and lets plants absorb as many nutrients from the soil as possible without replenishing them. Market competition drives farmers to large-scale agriculture, intensifying land usage without sufficient management and care. As a consequence, modern capitalist agriculture created a dangerous disruption in the metabolic cycle of soil nutrients. [...]

Marx formulated the problem of soil exhaustion as a contradiction created by capitalist production in the metabolism between humans and nature. Insofar as value cannot fully take the metabolism between humans and nature into account and capitalist production prioritizes the infinite accumulation of value, the realization of sustainable production within capitalism faces insurmountable barriers.

This fundamental level of metabolic rift in the form of the disruption of material flow cannot occur without being supplemented and reinforced by two further dimensions. The second dimension of metabolic rift is the spatial rift. Marx highly valued Liebig in Capital because his Agricultural Chemistry provided a scientific foundation for his earlier critical analysis of the social division of labour, which he conceptualized as the ‘contradiction between town and country’ in The German Ideology. Liebig lamented that those crops that are sold in modern large cities do not return to the original soil after they are consumed by the workers. Instead, they flow into the rivers as sewage via water closets, only strengthening the tendency towards soil exhaustion.

This antagonistic spatial relationship between town and country – it can be called ‘spatial rift’ – is founded upon a violent process of so-called primitive accumulation accompanied by depeasantization and massive urban growth of the working-class population concentrated in large cities. This not only necessitates the long-distance transport of products but also significantly increases the demand for agricultural products in large cities, leading to continuous cropping without fallowing under large-scale agriculture, which is intensified even more through market competition. In other words, robbery agriculture does not exist without the social division of labour unique to capitalist production, which is based upon the concentration of the working class in large cities and the corresponding necessity for the constant transport of their food from the countryside. [...]

The third dimension of metabolic rift is the temporal rift. As is obvious from the slow formation of soil nutrients and fossil fuels and the accelerating circulation of capital, there emerges a rift between nature’s time and capital’s time. Capital constantly attempts to shorten its turnover time and maximize valorization in a given time – the shortening of turnover time is an effective way of increasing the quantity of profit in the face of the decreasing rate of profit. This process is accompanied by increasing demands for floating capital in the form of cheap and abundant raw and auxiliary materials. Furthermore, capital constantly revolutionizes the production process, augmenting productive forces with an unprecedented speed compared with precapitalist societies. Productive forces can double or triple with the introduction of new machines, but nature cannot change its formation processes of phosphor or fossil fuel, so ‘it was likely that productivity in the production of raw materials would tend not to increase as rapidly as productivity in general (and, accordingly, the growing requirements for raw materials)’ (Lebowitz 2009: 138). This tendency can never be fully suspended because natural cycles exist independently of capital’s demands. Capital cannot produce without nature, but it also wishes that nature would vanish. [...]

The contradiction of capitalist accumulation is that increases in the social productivity are accompanied by a decrease in natural productivity due to robbery [... i]t is thus essential for capital to secure stable access to cheap resources, energy and food. [...]

The exploration of the earth and the invention of new technologies cannot repair the rift. The rift remains ‘irreparable’ in capitalism. This is because capital attempts to overcome rifts without recognizing its own absolute limits, which it cannot do. Instead, it simply attempts to relativize the absolute. This is what Marx meant when he wrote ‘every limit appears a barrier to overcome’ (Grundrisse: 408). Capital constantly invents new technologies, develops means of transportation, discovers new use-values and expands markets to overcome natural limits. [...]

Corresponding to the three dimensions of metabolic rifts, there are also three ways of shifting them. First, there is technological shift. Although Liebig warned about the collapse of European civilization due to robbery agriculture in the 19th century, his prediction apparently did not come true. This is largely thanks to Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, who invented the so-called Haber-Bosch process in 1906 that enabled the industrial mass production of ammonia (NH3) by fixing nitrogen from the air, and thus of chemical fertilizer to maintain soil fertility. Historically speaking, the problem of soil exhaustion due to a lack of inorganic substances was largely resolved thanks to this invention. Nevertheless, the Haber-Bosch process did not heal the rift but only shifted, generating other problems on a larger scale.

The production of NH3 uses a massive amount of natural gas as a source of hydrogen (H). In other words, it squanders another limited resource in order to produce ammonia as a remedy to soil exhaustion, but it is also quite energy intensive, producing a lot of carbon dioxide (CO2) (responsible for 1 per cent of the total carbon emission in the world). Furthermore, excessive applications of chemical fertilizer leach into the environment, causing eutrophication and red tide, while nitrogen oxide pollutes water. Overdependence on chemical fertilizer disrupts soil ecology, so that it results in soil erosion, low water- and nutrient-holding capacity, and increased vulnerability to diseases and insects. Consequently, more frequent irrigation, a larger amount of fertilizer and more powerful equipment become necessary, together with pesticides. This kind of industrial agriculture consumes not just water but large quantities of oil also, which makes agriculture a serious driver of climate change. [...]

[T]here remains a constant need to shift the rift under capitalism, which continues to bring about new problems. This contradiction becomes more discernible in considering the second type of shifting the metabolic rift – that is, spatial shift, which expands the antagonism of the city and the countryside to a global scale in favour of the Global North. Spatial shift creates externality by a geographic displacement of ecological burdens to another social group living somewhere else. Again, Marx discussed this issue in relation to soil exhaustion in core capitalist countries in the 19th century. On the coast of Peru there were small islands consisting of the excrement of seabirds called guano that had accumulated over many years to form ‘guano islands’. [...]

In the 19th century, guano became ‘necessary’ to sustain soil fertility in Europe. Millions of tons of guano were dug up and continuously exported to Europe, resulting in its rapid exhaustion. Extractivism was accompanied by the brutal oppression of Indigenous people and the severe exploitation of thousands of Chinese ‘c**lies’ working under cruel conditions. Ultimately, the exhaustion of guano reserves provoked the Guano War (1865–6) and the Saltpetre War (1879–84) in the battle for the remaining guano reserves. As John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark (2009) argue, such a solution in favour of the Global North resulted in ‘ecological imperialism’. Although ecological imperialism shifts the rift to the peripheries and makes its imminent violence invisible in the centre, the metabolic rift only deepens on a global scale through long-distance trade, and the nutrient cycle becomes even more severely disrupted.

The third dimension of metabolic shift is the temporal shift. The discrepancy between nature’s time and capital’s time does not immediately bring about an ecological disaster because nature possesses ‘elasticity’. Its limits are not static but modifiable to a great extent. Climate crisis is a representative case of this metabolic shift. Massive CO2 emissions due to the excessive usage of fossil fuels is an apparent cause of climate change, but the emission of greenhouse gas does not immediately crystallize as climate breakdown. Capital exploits the opportunities opened up by this time lag to secure more profits from previous investments in drills and pipelines. Since capital reflects the voice of current shareholders, but not that of future generations, the costs are shifted onto the latter. As a result, future generations suffer from consequences for which they are not responsible. Marx characterized such an attitude inherent to capitalist development with the slogan ‘Après moi le déluge!’ (Capital I: 381).

This time lag generated by a temporal shift also induces a hope that it would be possible to invent new epoch-making technologies to combat against the ecological crisis in the future. In fact, one may think that it is better to continue economic growth which promotes technological development, rather than over-reducing carbon dioxide emissions and adversely affecting the economy. However, even if new negative emission technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) are invented, it will take a long time for them to spread throughout society and replace the old ones. In the meantime, the environmental crisis will continue to worsen due to our current inaction. As a result, the expected effects of the new technology can be cancelled out.

Kohei Saito, Marx in the Anthropocene

#reading #kohei saito #as promised #long post

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monkeyssalad-blog · 3 months ago

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X-15 Launch from B-52 Mothership by NASA on The Commons Via Flickr: This photo illustrates how the X-15 rocket-powered aircraft was taken aloft under the wing of a B-52. Because of the large fuel consumption, the X-15 was air launched from a B-52 aircraft at 45,000 ft and a speed of about 500 mph. This was one of the early powered flights using a pair of XLR-11 engines (until the XLR-99 became available). The X-15 was a rocket-powered aircraft 50 ft long with a wingspan of 22 ft. It was a missile-shaped vehicle with an unusual wedge-shaped vertical tail, thin stubby wings, and unique fairings that extended along the side of the fuselage. The X-15 weighed about 14,000 lb empty and approximately 34,000 lb at launch. The XLR-99 rocket engine, manufactured by Thiokol Chemical Corp., was pilot controlled and was capable of developing 57,000 lb of rated thrust (actual thrust reportedly climbed to 60,000 lb). North American Aviation built three X-15 aircraft for the program. The X-15 research aircraft was developed to provide in-flight information and data on aerodynamics, structures, flight controls, and the physiological aspects of high-speed, high-altitude flight. A follow-on program used the aircraft as a testbed to carry various scientific experiments beyond the Earth's atmosphere on a repeated basis. For flight in the dense air of the usable atmosphere, the X-15 used conventional aerodynamic controls such as rudder surfaces on the vertical stabilizers to control yaw and canted horizontal surfaces on the tail to control pitch when moving in synchronization or roll when moved differentially. For flight in the thin air outside of the appreciable Earth's atmosphere, the X-15 used a reaction control system. Hydrogen peroxide thrust rockets located on the nose of the aircraft provided pitch and yaw control. Those on the wings provided roll control. Because of the large fuel consumption, the X-15 was air launched from a B-52 aircraft at 45,000 ft and a speed of about 500 mph. Depending on the mission, the rocket engine provided thrust for the first 80 to 120 sec of flight. The remainder of the normal 10 to 11 min. flight was powerless and ended with a 200-mph glide landing. Generally, one of two types of X-15 flight profiles was used: a high-altitude flight plan that called for the pilot to maintain a steep rate of climb, or a speed profile that called for the pilot to push over and maintain a level altitude. The X-15 was flown over a period of nearly 10 years--June 1959 to Oct. 1968--and set the world's unofficial speed and altitude records of 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7) and 354,200 ft (over 67 mi) in a program to investigate all aspects of piloted hypersonic flight. Information gained from the highly successful X-15 program contributed to the development of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo manned spaceflight programs, and also the Space Shuttle program. The X-15s made a total of 199 flights and were manufactured by North American Aviation. X-15-1, serial number 56-6670, is now located at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC. NASA Media Usage Guidelines Credit: NASA Image Number: E-4942 Date: 1959

#x-15 #Mothership #North American Aviation X-15 #B-52 #flickr

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old-school-butch · 1 year ago

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Age identity

I have found that racial identity is highly political concept that many people hesitate to argue around when they are making argument about gender identity. I’ve made more progress using age as a foundational argument and thought I'd share some of the parallels that can be made.

I begin with the request that my birth certificate should be amended to reflect my trans-age and not chrono-age. My reasons:

I have extreme dysphoria about growing old. It gives me panic attacks, it creates a morbid obsession about my impending mortality and I need emotional relief. I might kill myself if my aging continues. Many, many studies demonstrate that suicide rates jump in middle age. Age dysphoria a significant mental health risk. Discrimination against older people in the workforce is also systemic and significant. It hurts my employment prospects to force me to continue conforming to an oppressive and arbitrary system of temporal measurement.

I’m not alone in my views. Our movement has been ignored in order to exploit our oppression. Rates of age dysphoria among the chrono-elderly are near universal and increase with chrono-age. The vast market of botox, anti-aging creams, surgeries and other treatments are witness to the pain and suffering of age dysphoria, but we are forced to bear the costs out of our own pockets, harming every trans-age person and creating barriers to those unable to access age-euphoric treatment. It’s time that we recognize ageism and age dysphoria as the next important social movement, and you should be on the right side of history.

The mere existence of adult babies is not a fetish, but part of age identity has existed for centuries. It is a severe form of age dysphoria that is accommodated only during the extremes of chrono-age (the very young and very old), but diaper-wearing may be a source of age-euphoria at any chrono-age. Other trans-aged people might feel more comfortable in a post-toddler range, and there’s no reason to prevent them from enrolling in elementary schools or competing in those sports teams. Again, once we acknowledge that ‘age identity’ is an arbitrary measurement, you will agree that some chrono-aged 8 year olds can run faster than trans-aged 8 year olds and therefore there’s no conclusive evidence that so-called ‘adults’ differ in any systemic way from ‘children’ and that age-identity is more of a spectrum than scientific reality.

Age identity is a culturally determined construct, where in reality one day merges into the next with no clear universal progression or timeline for development. Progeria, ‘old souls’ and emotional ‘immaturity’ co-exist without regard to commonly-held age identities. Widely held beliefs like ‘middle-age’ persist even through it’s impossible to identity without knowing your ultimate time of death. Even my doctor says I have the heart of a 30 year old . In fact, I’m more fit than many people younger than me. I’m healthier than I was at 45 now that I’ve fully recovered from cancer. Why can’t I return to the age of 39, which I feel best expresses how I feel on the inside? Sports competitions grouped by chrono-age should be inclusive of the trans-aged since there is no clear definition of the impact of age-identity on the human body.

Additionally, it should be obvious that ‘age of consent’ laws are discriminatory and not inclusive of trans-aged individuals. They should be repealed.

I’d also like to point out that trans-aged people do not all skew in a reductive temporal direction. There are many chrono-young but trans-aged people who feel they would be treated more in line with their age identity that is older than their chrono-years would imply. Again, workplace discrimination, dating discrimination and even fundamental civic rights are denied to many trans-aged individuals.

As a tiny ask, I would like to be referred to as ‘young miss’ in my interactions. That’s how I was addressed when I was chrono-young and I’d like to return to those happier days. I might kill myself if this request is ignored, so please check your age-privileged attitudes. Once age dysphoria is fully acknowledged, hate speech against the trans-aged will constitute a hate crime.

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pinesfamilyguidetotheweird · 4 months ago

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Ha...I just love to some up with more angsty stuff...

Remember how I started to headcanon that Ford has a cybernetic spine?

Well...remember how the nervous system is structured?

Yeah...

So, the cybernetic spine, while made for humanoids, wasn't exactly made with humans in mind.

In fact, humans were viewed as 'basic' for most alien races. And with this thought process, some of them view humans as the perfect test subject for their experiments. Either out of scientific advancements...or out of curiosity.

Once the implant is placed, the cybernetic spine will get to work by connecting itself to the disconnected nerves.

This would be the first phase of the implantation as it becomes a waiting game to see if the host's body can take the implant.

If the connection is completed, then phase two begins.

Within the cybernetic spine's spinal fluid is a series of cells. Alien cells. Cells that belonged to the [REDACTED]. Highly volatile and causes mutagenic changes in the host.

The effects vary, depending on the species.

Of all the humanoid species, humans have the highest mortality rate, as they experience a wide variety of transformations because of the invading cells that resulted in their deaths.

With Ford probably one of the only humans who lives after the implant.

Doesn't spare him from pain as the spine gets to work to change his body from the inside. He is given medication to regulate the changes as he's given more tests (because he's a rarity in the eyes of the scientists) and his body develops its own unique cells until all he needed was painkillers.

Even now, changes happen every now and again, as his unique cells sometimes revert to the aggressive cells, causing Ford to experience pain as his body regularly fights against the aggressive cells and change them back.

And, of course, Ford hates the thing despite all of its boons. It very nature made him feel less human.

I love angst.

#gravity falls #stanford pines #ford pines #grunkle ford #ford pines headcanons #gravity falls headcanons #angst

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tanadrin · 1 year ago

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Rating scales should be compact. A rating of a work is usually going to be useful just to convey a general impression of quality. The difference between a 71/100 or a 72/100 is meaningless without an elaborate rubric, and such a rubric is probably pointless outside very niche applications.

A rating system should be parsimonious. That is, it should use the whole scale. If you never (or only very rarely) score anything less than a 50/100, you are really using a 50-point scale, not a 100-point scale. You should also avoid fractions; a 6.4/10 is equivalent to a 64/100, in the amount of information its specificity conveys (very little!).

Rating scales should acknowledge their subjectivity. The ideal rating system is actually just a review, because a numerical score for something as subjective as a work of art or piece of media can at best just convey the general attitude of the reviewer to that work on some sliding scale of "I don't recommend this at all" to "I recommend this highly." But insofar as a single numeric rating can assist in quickly comparing reviews, aid in skimming a review, or help compare heterogeneous works when someone is deciding what to spend their time on, it's not a totally silly idea. But my ideal rating system is probably binary: "This is worth your time" vs "this isn't worth your time."

Of course, most people want to express (and hear) an opinion with a little more subtlety than that, so most rating systems are more complicated. But reviewers and review publications should strongly resist the urge to falsely imitate some kind of scientific precision, or to inflate scores to the high end of the scale.

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 3 months ago

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Reinventing the clock: NASA's new tech for space timekeeping

Here on Earth, it might not matter if your wristwatch runs a few seconds slow. But crucial spacecraft functions need accuracy down to one billionth of a second or less. Navigating with GPS, for example, relies on precise timing signals from satellites to pinpoint locations. Three teams at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, are at work to push timekeeping for space exploration to new levels of precision.

One team develops highly precise quantum clock synchronization techniques to aid essential spacecraft communication and navigation.

Another Goddard team is working to employ the technique of clock synchronization in space-based platforms to enable telescopes to function as one enormous observatory.

The third team is developing an atomic clock for spacecraft based on strontium, a metallic chemical element, to enable scientific observations not possible with current technology.

The need for increasingly accurate timekeeping is why the teams at NASA Goddard, supported by the center's Internal Research and Development program, hone clock precision and synchronization with innovative technologies like quantum and optical communications.

Syncing up across the solar system

"Society requires clock synchronization for many crucial functions like power grid management, stock market openings, financial transactions, and much more," said Alejandro Rodriguez Perez, a NASA Goddard researcher. "NASA uses clock synchronization to determine the position of spacecraft and set navigation parameters."

If you line up two clocks and sync them together, you might expect that they will tick at the same rate forever. In reality, the more time passes, the more out of sync the clocks become, especially if those clocks are on spacecraft traveling at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Rodriguez Perez seeks to develop a new way of precisely synchronizing such clocks and keeping them synced using quantum technology.

In quantum physics, two particles are entangled when they behave like a single object and occupy two states at once. For clocks, applying quantum protocols to entangled photons could allow for a precise and secure way to sync clocks across long distances.

The heart of the synchronization protocol is called spontaneous parametric down conversion, which is when one photon breaks apart and two new photons form. Two detectors will each analyze when the new photons appear, and the devices will apply mathematical functions to determine the offset in time between the two photons, thus synchronizing the clocks.

While clock synchronization is currently done using GPS, this protocol could make it possible to precisely synchronize clocks in places where GPS access is limited, like the moon or deep space.

Syncing clocks, linking telescopes to see more than ever before

When it comes to astronomy, the usual rule of thumb is the bigger the telescope, the better its imagery.

"If we could hypothetically have a telescope as big as Earth, we would have incredibly high-resolution images of space, but that's obviously not practical," said Guan Yang, an optical physicist at NASA Goddard.

"What we can do, however, is have multiple telescopes in various locations and have each telescope record the signal with high time precision. Then we can stitch their observations together and produce an ultra-high-res image."

The idea of linking together the observations of a network of smaller telescopes to affect the power of a larger one is called very long baseline interferometry, or VLBI.

For VLBI to produce a whole greater than the sum of its parts, the telescopes need high-precision clocks. The telescopes record data alongside timestamps of when the data was recorded. High-powered computers assemble all the data together into one complete observation with greater detail than any one of the telescopes could achieve on its own. This technique is what allowed the Event Horizon Telescope's network of observatories to produce the first image of a black hole at the center of our galaxy.

Yang's team is developing a clock technology that could be useful for missions looking to take the technique from Earth into space which could unlock many more discoveries.

An optical atomic clock built for space travel

Spacecraft navigation systems currently rely on onboard atomic clocks to obtain the most accurate time possible. Holly Leopardi, a physicist at NASA Goddard, is researching optical atomic clocks, a more precise type of atomic clock.

While optical atomic clocks exist in laboratory settings, Leopardi and her team seek to develop a spacecraft-ready version that will provide more precision.

The team works on OASIC, which stands for Optical Atomic Strontium Ion Clock. While current spacecraft utilize microwave frequencies, OASIC uses optical frequencies.

The idea of linking together the observations of a network of smaller telescopes to affect the power of a larger one is called very long baseline interferometry, or VLBI.

Yang's team is developing a clock technology that could be useful for missions looking to take the technique from Earth into space which could unlock many more discoveries.

An optical atomic clock built for space travel

While optical atomic clocks exist in laboratory settings, Leopardi and her team seek to develop a spacecraft-ready version that will provide more precision.

The team works on OASIC, which stands for Optical Atomic Strontium Ion Clock. While current spacecraft utilize microwave frequencies, OASIC uses optical frequencies.

"Optical frequencies oscillate much faster than microwave frequencies, so we can have a much finer resolution of counts and more precise timekeeping," Leopardi said.

The OASIC technology is about 100 times more precise than the previous state-of-the-art in spacecraft atomic clocks. The enhanced accuracy could enable new types of science that were not previously possible.

"When you use these ultra-high precision clocks, you can start looking at the fundamental physics changes that occur in space," Leopardi said, "and that can help us better understand the mechanisms of our universe."

The timekeeping technologies unlocked by these teams, could enable new discoveries in our solar system and beyond.

TOP IMAGE: Work on the quantum clock synchronization protocol takes place in this NASA Goddard lab. Credit: NASA/Matthew Kaufman

LOWER IMAGE: The Optical Atomic Strontium Ion Clock (OASIC) is a higher-precsion atomic clock that is small enough to fit on a spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Matthew Kaufman

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #nasa #astrophysics

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diakrino-xx · 28 days ago

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uhh Nr.26 /~ 1600words essay please. (Distraction)

**Why Aliens Are Real: A Compelling Case for Extraterrestrial Life**

The question of whether we are alone in the universe has captivated humanity for centuries. Despite the countless myths, legends, and speculative fiction surrounding extraterrestrial life, the possibility that aliens exist is now considered not just a subject for science fiction, but a serious scientific hypothesis. In this essay, we will explore the compelling evidence and arguments that suggest that alien life is not just possible, but highly probable, considering the vastness of the universe, scientific discoveries, and the ongoing search for life beyond Earth.

### The Scale of the Universe

To understand why aliens are likely to exist, we must first grasp the sheer scale of the universe. The observable universe is vast—estimated to contain over 100 billion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars. It is virtually impossible to imagine such an immense cosmos and believe that Earth is the only planet that harbors life. The probability that Earth is the only place in the universe where life has evolved seems increasingly improbable given these staggering numbers.

If we assume that life can emerge under the right conditions, the odds become much more favorable. Scientists use the **Drake Equation**, developed by astrophysicist Frank Drake in 1961, to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. The equation incorporates factors such as the rate of star formation, the fraction of stars that have planets, the number of planets that could potentially support life, and the likelihood that life on those planets will evolve into intelligent civilizations. While the values for some of these variables remain speculative, the sheer number of planets in habitable zones around stars means that even conservative estimates point to the existence of a significant number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy alone.

### The Discovery of Exoplanets

One of the most groundbreaking developments in the search for extraterrestrial life has been the discovery of **exoplanets**—planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. As of 2024, over 5,500 exoplanets have been confirmed, with thousands more candidates awaiting confirmation. Many of these exoplanets lie in the "habitable zone" of their respective stars, the region where conditions are right for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface. Water, as we know, is a key ingredient for life.

The discovery of **Earth-like exoplanets** has given scientists renewed optimism about the possibility of life beyond Earth. Some of these planets are located in star systems that are billions of years older than our own, potentially providing a window into the past of civilizations that could have evolved long before humanity even existed. The Kepler Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have revolutionized our understanding of planetary systems and have shown that Earth-like planets are not rare outliers but rather a common feature of the galaxy.

### Extremophiles: Life in Extreme Environments

On Earth, scientists have discovered that life can thrive in some of the most extreme environments imaginable. Organisms known as **extremophiles** have been found in places once thought to be inhospitable to life, such as deep ocean vents, acidic hot springs, and even inside the Earth’s crust. These discoveries have expanded our understanding of the types of environments in which life can survive, suggesting that life may not require the familiar conditions of Earth but could exist in a variety of forms and under a range of conditions.

The existence of extremophiles on Earth leads scientists to consider that life elsewhere in the universe could be equally resilient, surviving in environments previously considered too harsh for biological processes. For example, the surface of Venus, once thought to be too hot and acidic to support life, has been re-examined following the discovery of potential biosignatures in its atmosphere. Similarly, the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn—such as Europa and Enceladus—are believed to have subsurface oceans beneath their frozen crusts, which could harbor microbial life.

In addition to extremophiles, life on Earth also provides valuable lessons in the adaptability and diversity of biological forms. It is not unthinkable that life on other planets could take forms radically different from anything we’ve encountered, evolving in ways that don’t necessarily rely on carbon-based chemistry or the presence of oxygen. This further broadens the scope of potential alien life.

### The Fermi Paradox and the Search for Alien Signals

Given the high probability of extraterrestrial life, one of the most intriguing questions is why we have not yet made contact with aliens. This is known as the **Fermi Paradox**, named after physicist Enrico Fermi, who famously asked, “Where is everybody?” Despite the vastness of the universe and the potential for billions of habitable planets, we have yet to detect definitive evidence of alien civilizations.

There are several possible explanations for this paradox, which do not necessarily negate the existence of extraterrestrial life:

1. **They are too far away**: Even if extraterrestrial civilizations exist, the distances between us and them are so vast that it may take thousands or even millions of years for a signal to travel from one civilization to another. Current space exploration technology is inadequate for interstellar travel, meaning that even if there are aliens out there, they may be unreachable with our current methods.

2. **They are not using detectable technology**: Alien civilizations might be using technology that is fundamentally different from our own, making it difficult for us to detect their signals. They might communicate in ways that we cannot even conceive of, or their technology could be based on principles of physics that we don’t yet understand.

3. **They are avoiding us**: Another possibility is that extraterrestrial civilizations are aware of us but have chosen not to make contact. This idea is encapsulated in the **zoo hypothesis**, which suggests that advanced aliens might be deliberately avoiding interference with less-developed civilizations like ours, similar to how humans avoid disturbing wildlife reserves.

4. **We are not listening in the right way**: Our search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) primarily focuses on detecting electromagnetic signals, such as radio waves, which are based on our own technological understanding. However, it’s possible that extraterrestrial civilizations may use other methods of communication, or their signals may be in forms we have yet to discover.

### UFO Phenomena and Government Disclosure

The question of alien existence has also been fueled by reports of **unidentified flying objects** (UFOs), now referred to as **UAPs** (unidentified aerial phenomena). In recent years, the U.S. government has declassified numerous military reports documenting sightings of mysterious aerial objects that exhibit flight capabilities beyond the reach of current human technology. In 2020, the Pentagon officially released footage of UAPs taken by Navy pilots, further igniting public interest and speculation about the existence of alien life.

While the government has not confirmed that these UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin, the fact that they are unexplained by current scientific and military knowledge has led many to question the possibility that they may be related to advanced alien technology. The acknowledgment of UAPs by government agencies signals a growing recognition that the phenomenon is real and worthy of serious scientific inquiry.

While it is tempting to link UFO sightings directly to extraterrestrial life, we must remain cautious. There are many potential explanations for the phenomena, including classified human technologies, natural atmospheric phenomena, and optical illusions. However, the undeniable fact that military and scientific institutions are now giving serious attention to the issue is an indication that alien life is no longer considered a fringe topic but a legitimate area of study.

### The Scientific Search for Life

NASA’s astrobiology program and other scientific initiatives continue to investigate the possibility of life beyond Earth. One of the primary methods of searching for alien life is through the study of **biosignatures**—chemical or physical markers that indicate the presence of life. Missions like the Mars rovers, which are examining the Martian surface for signs of past or present microbial life, represent some of humanity’s most ambitious efforts in this search.

In addition to exploring planets within our solar system, scientists are also investigating the potential for life on exoplanets, as mentioned earlier. Instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which was launched in 2021, are capable of analyzing the atmospheres of exoplanets for the presence of gases like oxygen, methane, and carbon dioxide—gases that are often associated with biological processes on Earth.

The discovery of even microbial life on another planet or moon would be a monumental breakthrough, confirming that life is not unique to Earth but rather a cosmic phenomenon. Such a discovery would challenge our understanding of biology, chemistry, and the very nature of life itself.

### Conclusion: The Likelihood of Alien Life

While we have yet to find definitive proof of alien life, the scientific evidence and reasoning support the conclusion that aliens are likely real. The vastness of the universe, the discovery of thousands of potentially habitable exoplanets, the existence of extremophiles on Earth, and the ongoing search for biosignatures all point toward the high probability of extraterrestrial life. Moreover, the increasing acknowledgment of unexplained phenomena by government and scientific bodies suggests that the question of alien existence is becoming more mainstream and deserving of serious investigation.

The search for life beyond Earth is not just about answering a single question; it is about understanding our place in the universe, expanding our knowledge of biology, and embracing the possibility of a broader cosmic community. In the end, the question may not be "Are aliens real?" but rather, "How will we respond when we find them?" The evidence is mounting, and the day may soon come when we can answer that question definitively.

****chatgpt wrote this and I read not a single word of it thank you

#ask

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dresden-syndrome · 1 year ago

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Tell us a bit about your original whumpy world! What is it like?

-- @whumperofworlds

✨Thank you for asking!! Sorry for the long response, I really appreciate your curiosity!🥰

❇️After Germany lost the WW2, it was split to four occupation zones, with three of them governed by countries of the West and the fourth given to the USSR. The country spent a few years in poverty and uncertainty while the victorious superpower nations argued over its future, until in October 1949 the fate of Germany's Soviet part was sealed.

✳️Using their political powers and status, the USSR made it into a communist satellite state - German Democratic Republic. From that point, the alternative history timeline begins.

❇️The Soviets promoted their chosen candidate, Klaus Weninger, to rule the newly found state. Being an orthodox Soviet Marxist-Leninist with a tyrannical side, Weninger proudly considered himself "Comrade Stalin's first disciple", determined to rebuild East Germany by the Soviet dictator's views.

✳️As more Eastern European states started turning Communist by that time, he decided to take matter in his own hands. Suffering from USSR's pressure, these states were more eager to unite on European lands rather than stay under Kremlin's direct control. With Stalin's approval, Weninger's party began the unification process, and by the end of 1950 six countries formed their own communist state governed by East Germany: the EESU.

❇️Klaus Weninger aimed for a fast effective country restoration in his radical order. The EESU government was quick to estabilish the ideological basis. The ECP (European Communist Party) dominated over the state, declaring all opposing political parties illegal.

✳️Open displays of propaganda backed by material support became a common thing. With raising quality and stability of life, the people were worried yet quite supportive at first. But by the time the political tyranny started to show its claws, it was already too late.

❇️The first obstacle in the new state's life was the divided capital, Berlin. After lots of conflicts, with the help of the USSR and China Berlin was fully united by the end of 1953. There wasn't such thing as the Berlin wall in EESU - their infamous Cold War wall was way larger. A wall on the EESU - West Germany border, building since 1957. The Great Wall of Germany.

✳️The EESU's relationships with the West were extremely difficult, often balancing on the verge of an armed conflict. It led to a constant threat of the next World War both in the government and common folks' life.

❇️Children learned the basic military skills and evacuation plans from a young age, military bases and bunkers emerged near every town, calls for peace and bread were shouted alongside with "war to the West".

✳️EESU often imposed martial law in regions or the country as a whole, most of the times without fully informing citizens of the reasons behind, doubling down on terror, propaganda and surveillance for all the population affected. More often than not it became either cause or consequence of civil unrest.

❇️Science, healthcare and technological progress were one of the EESU's priorities. Careers in STEM and medical fields were highly respected and encouraged, lots of young scientists from EESU, USSR and China contributed to the country's advance, new hospitals and research facilities appeared at the record rate. By mid 1960s EESU was already recognized as having one of the most efficient healthcare systems in the world.

✳️Their dirty little secret? Advanced State Research. The strictly confidential country-wide program specifically for human experiments, obtaining the subjects from State Security prisons. With those regarded irredeemable (class 4) any tests, scientific or not, were justified by the government with no legal repercussions.

❇️Ah yes, human rights. Officially the EESU had a constitution, guaranteeing everyone's rights, duties, freedom and dignity. It's only that the ideology was above all laws. And it didn't worked during the martial law. And "everyone" there meant "every politically loyal one". And nobody was safe from being accused of political crimes. Not to mention the EESU political criminal classification in which the "irredeemable" offenders were legally deprived of the human status itself. A true democracy.

💫Sorry it turned out so long! If you've read it so far, treat yourself with something tasty for endurance, you deserved it!💫

#whump #whump community #whumpblr #historical whump #military whump #whump ask #ask answered #count it as an endurance test lmao

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didanawisgi · 4 months ago

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"I have previously expressed my amazement at the remarkable resilience of complex biological systems, such as the mammalian immune system, in mitigating and/or postponing the severe consequences of C-19 vaccine-induced viral immune escape on human health (https://www.voiceforscienceandsolidarity.org/scientific-blog/to-whom-it-may-concern). This resilience seems particularly applicable to viral immune escape mechanisms that threaten the survival of the host species. I have proposed that mutations in the glycosylation pattern of SARS-CoV-2 could eventually drive viral evolution toward enhanced virulence, potentially resulting in rapid death (https://www.voiceforscienceandsolidarity.org/scientific-blog/predictions-gvb-on-evolution-c-19-pandemic). It is, therefore, reasonable to investigate whether evolutionary changes in the virus’s glycosylation profile could also contribute to attenuating viral virulence and/or delaying an explosion in mortality rates in highly C-19 vaccinated populations.

Based on the literature on viral glycosylation, as cited in one of my previous contributions on this topic (https://www.voiceforscienceandsolidarity.org/scientific-blog/predictions-gvb-on-evolution-c-19-pandemic), it seems highly likely that changes in viral glycosylation can lead to increased viral virulence. In the following discussion, and as an addition to a previous contribution, I explain why such changes could take longer to be selected under immune pressure compared to amino acid changes that directly enhance viral infectivity.

Glycosylation refers to the attachment of sugar molecules (glycans) to proteins or lipids. Glycans can either be N-linked or O-linked[1]. In viruses, glycosylation often occurs on surface proteins, such as the spike protein of coronaviruses or the hemagglutinin of influenza viruses. Glycans can shield critical viral epitopes and thereby mask these epitopes from antibody recognition, allowing the virus to evade immune detection and neutralization. This evasion can lead to higher virulence when glycosylation promotes viral infection or replication in an immunologically naïve population, or when it facilitates the transinfection of the virus to target tissues in immunologically experienced populations that remain susceptible to breakthrough infections. This is plausible, as glycosylation is known to modulate receptor binding affinity and specificity, potentially modifying the binding of antibodies to cell surface-expressed binding sites and altering the susceptibility of certain tissue cells.

While amino acid mutations in surface proteins responsible for viral infectivity can readily increase viral infectiousness and transmissibility (e.g., by preventing neutralizing antibodies from binding to the receptor-binding site on the ‘infectious’ viral protein) and confer an immediate fitness benefit, the selection of glycosylation changes may occur more slowly. This is because glycosylation involves both the protein sequence and the host's glycosylation machinery, adding complexity to the selection dynamics and how changes manifest. Since glycosylation changes can compromise viral fitness by reducing the efficiency of host cell entry or decreasing viral replication rates (e.g., due to alteration of protein folding, structural stability, or function), the natural selection of ‘beneficial’ immune escape mutations in the virus’s glycosylation pattern of surface proteins might require a distinct and sustained immune selection pressure, targeted at different viral epitopes that are not involved in mediating intrinsic viral infectiousness. This is because viral glycosylation patterns are often a balance between immune evasion and maintaining efficient host cell entry and replication.

In summary, it is reasonable to state that, compared to direct amino acid changes, the evolutionary dynamics of viral glycosylation reflect a more intricate and context-dependent process that shapes viral adaptation under immune pressure, affecting their ability to persist and spread in host populations. Variants of SARS-CoV-2 are just one example of viruses that have exhibited mutations affecting their glycosylation (specifically, of the spike protein) when placed under sustained immune pressure[2]. The emergence of new immune escape variants endowed with beneficial glycosylation changes therefore likely requires selection over longer evolutionary periods.

Unfortunately, despite numerous precedents (e.g., Influenza virus, HIV-1, Human Rhinovirus, and Hepatitis C virus) and extensive documentation in virology textbooks, the significance of glycosylation mutations in SARS-CoV-2 and their potential impact on the outcome of the pandemic when selected under strong and sustained immune pressure is poorly understood and certainly underestimated."

[1] N-linked Glycosylation: The glycan/ sugar is attached to the nitrogen atom (N) of the side chain of the amino acid asparagine (Asn). O-linked Glycosylation: The glycan/ sugar is attached to the oxygen atom (O) of the hydroxyl group of the side chains of the amino acids serine (Ser) or threonine (Thr).

[2] For example, the emergence of variants like Delta and Omicron involved changes in the glycosylation pattern of the spike protein, contributing to altered immune responses and vaccine effectiveness.

#covid-19 vaccine #covid-19 #Geert Vanden Bossche #glycans #immune escape

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wearebabygroot · 7 months ago

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To Boost Memory and Brainpower, Ignore Brain Supplements And Harness Brain Plasticity The Right Way

Traditional scientific ideas cast the human brain as a fixed and essentially limited system that only degrades with age. By contrast, we have now come to appreciate that the human brain is actually a highly dynamic and constantly reorganizing system, capable of being shaped and reshaped across the entire lifespan. The click here to learn more central concept in this new approach is brain plasticity, the brain's lifelong capacity to change and rewire itself in response to the stimulation of learning and experience. This includes both the lifelong ability to create new neurons - neurogenesis - and to create new connections between neurons - synaptogenesis.

In a young brain, brain plasticity allows for fast learning, as well as for potentially faster repair. As we age, the rate of brain plasticity declines, but does not come to a halt.

Lifelong neuroplasticity has major consequences. It means that our lifestyles and actions play a meaningful role in how our brains physically change throughout life. More specifically, neuroplasticity gives us the power to resist the effects of decline or disease by supporting our ability to accumulate knowledge and experiences, i.e., to learn. Learning helps to increase the so-called brain reserve and strengthen the brain against age-related decline and potential dementia pathology by increasing the connections between neurons, increasing cellular metabolism, and increasing the production of nerve growth factor, a substance produced by the body to help maintain and repair neurons.

Furthermore, neuroplasticity not only enables us to prevent future cognitive decline but also provides a basis for a more optimistic outlook when it comes to our ability to address existing deficits, such as learning difficulties and recovery after traumatic brain injury or stroke. By practicing a skill, one can repeatedly stimulate the same area of the brain, which strengthens existing neural connections and creates new ones. Over time, the brain can become more efficient, requiring less effort to do the same job.

A key contributor to our growing understanding of large-scale neuroplasticity was the development of high-level brain imaging technologies. By allowing scientists to produce images of the brain that show its structure, as well as where activity spikes as it is engages in various cognitive activities, these neuroimaging methods have revolutionized neuroscience in the same way that the telescope revolutionized astronomy.

Evidence of brain plasticity gleaned from brain imaging has come mostly from the brains of individuals who became experts in a particular skill. Why? Because, as you might have guessed, changes associated with learning occur massively when we become expert in a specific function or domain.

For example, several fascinating studies shows that London taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus than London bus drivers. This is explained by the fact that the hippocampus is important for forming and accessing complex memories, including the spatial memories necessary for efficient navigation. Taxi drivers have to navigate around London whereas bus drivers follow a limited set of routes. Thus, the hippocampus of a taxi driver is particularly stimulated and changes over time as a result.

Plasticity can also be observed in the brains of bilinguals. It looks like learning a second language is directly associated with structural changes in the brain: a region called the left inferior parietal cortex is larger in bilingual brains than in monolingual brains. Plastic changes have also been found to occur in musicians' brains (compared to non-musicians), with areas involved in playing music (motor regions, anterior superior parietal areas, and inferior temporal areas) showing increased volume.

#youtube

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taterturnspages · 2 years ago

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THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS BY ALI HAZELWOOD BOOK REVIEW

Genre(s): Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

No Spoilers

STAR RATING: 4.5/5

SPICE RATING: 2/5

SYNOPSIS:

Olive Smith, Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University, doesn’t date. Her relationship with science far outweighs any romance. Olive decides to give in and goes on a few dates with Jeremy…which were less than stellar to say the least. Olive and Jeremy did not last, but Olive’s best friend, Ahn, is interested in Jeremy, but refuses to pursue him because…girl code…duh. Olive convinces Ahn that she is dating other people, which is great…except she isn’t dating other people. Olive promises Ahn she is on a date, but she runs into Ahn late at night in the biology lab. So, Olive scrambles and starts kissing the first man she sees. That man is Dr. Adam Carlsen, a young professor known for his stern personality and tough-as-nails teaching style.

Olive and Adam agree to enter a fake relationship that will benefit Olive’s friendship and Adam’s career. Olive starts to learn that Dr. Carlsen isn’t quite what people paint him out to be. And after a disastrous science conference, Olive learns all about what Adam is really like. I mean…ALL about…

Olive discovers that her “relationship” with Adam is far more complicated that her scientific relationship. But, what will she do about it?

READ THIS IF YOU:

Want to giggle and swing your feet like a FOOL

Enjoy sarcastic banter between MMC and FMC

Love the pining and yearning between characters

Just read it. Trust me.

TROPES:

Grumpy x Sunshine

Fake-dating

Professor x Student

CHARACTERS:

Olive Smith:

I have a major soft spot for Olive. She’s had a tough life, yet still ended up in a Ph.D. program at a highly-regarded university with a solid future ahead of her. She’s diligent, selfless, strong-willed, and extremely intelligent. Her sense of humor is so nerdy and adorable, yet sarcastic and hard-hitting. I don’t say this about book characters often, but I found Olive to be relatable, especially to someone who has spent time in the academic system. I was rooting for her every step of the way during this book, and I think it’s hard to not like her. She’s such a sweet and kind soul that would do anything for the people she cares about, despite having the Earth weighing down on her shoulders in her academic career.

Adam Carlsen:

First of all, I am in deep love with this man. He is the perfect MMC, in my opinion. Let’s rattle through his qualifications, shall we? Tall; a professor; grumpy; sarcastic; knows exactly what to say and when to say it; mysterious; HOT; protective; and passionate about things he cares about. The amount of quotes from him that I annotated in my physical copy is probably embarrassing. He is single-handedly the reason that I smiled like a middle-school girl going through my first crush while reading this book. He is a man of very little words, but the small amount of words pack a giant punch.

PRAISES, CRITIQUES, AND MY THOUGHTS:

As always, I’ll start with the criticism first. Don’t worry, there isn’t much. The biggest issue that I had with this book is that Olive lied a couple more times than necessary. I can’t decide if it was an intentional lie, or if she just feared healthy communication. In either scenario, I can’t get on board with it. One of my biggest frustrations with romance novels is when the characters miscommunicate. There wasn’t a ton of miscommunication here, though, which is why I only knocked off half of a star. I was also hoping for a little more spice in this book, and I was kind of disappointed with how little there was. Additionally, the plot was pretty predictable. I know that romance novels typically have a predictable ending, but I personally prefer a plot that surprises me. Otherwise, what keeps a reader engaged? Again, this is personal preference. Clearly, the praises far outweigh the critiques considering I only deducted half of a star.

So now, onto the praises. I loved the way that Ali Hazelwood wrote this book. I always want an author to show me what’s going on versus tell me what’s going on. There was enough description that you could picture the scene, but not too much description so you can still let your imagination personalize the experience a little. I think the characters worked seamlessly together and I firmly believe that if the characters were written ANY differently at all, this review would be drastically different. Ali Hazelwood knows chemistry (you didn’t think that you’d get through this entire review without a science pun, did you?).

I haven’t been head over heels for an MMC in a LONG time, so it says a lot that Adam Carlsen has me in my feelings. I rated this book so high purely because of his demeanor. Since this is a spoiler-free review, I don’t want to go further in detail about that, but the description of his character above should give you a good idea on what I mean.

Lastly, I didn’t learn until after I finished this book that The Love Hypothesis is a well-known Adam Driver fanfic???? I don’t know how to feel about that, haha. It makes perfect sense now that I know, but I had no idea while reading this that Adam Driver was the blueprint for Dr. Carlsen’s character. I honestly didn’t picture Adam Driver at all when I was reading this, so I guess if you aren’t a fan of him, then it’s not a huge deal. But, if you are a fan of him, then it should be easy to connect the dots while you read this.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you’re a fake-dating fanatic. I think the trope was written excellently by the author and it’s far better than most fake-dating novels that I’ve read.

#the love hypothesis #adam carlsen #ali hazelwood #book review #book journal #digital journal #bookstagram #books and reading #romance books #book blogger

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roguetelepaths · 2 years ago

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vague ramblings on how Vorta training generally works in my Dominion fanworks. feel free to use this, but it would be nice to have credit if you do. putting them under a cut because, you know, ✨dystopia✨

childhood exists for Vorta, but only for the first of a line. first iterations are typically activated with about the same physical and mental development as your average nine year old human. they age quickly after that, but not nearly as quickly as a Jem'Hadar, think two or three years for every one human year. aging slows down to around 1:1 with human aging rates around six years after activation. (future iterations in a line are, of course, activated as adults.) during these six years, Vorta are known as aspirants.

the fundamentals— reverence for the Founders, Dominion hierarchy and how to interact with others relative to it, all languages a particular Vorta line may need to know, how to read and write and perform basic mathematics, etc— are implanted before activation. quite a bit of this knowledge is forgotten by design upon activation so as to not overwhelm the newly activated Vorta, and its recovery is tied to various trigger phrases.

the first few days or weeks after activation are composed largely of various tests. the first of these tests is a formal naming ceremony (conducted ideally by a Founder, but more often, conducted by the one in charge of the new line's education). emergent or defective traits are very strictly monitored for during every stage of training, but never quite as strictly as immediately after activation.

aspirants stay in the cloning facility they were activated in for the first six years, never leaving it. it's incredibly unlikely that any Dominion civilian has ever seen a Vorta aspirant in person.

they're activated in batches of between four and eight, and generally, only one or two from each batch will make it to the end of training. the first two years of training are meant to encourage the natural Vorta pack bonding instinct, but the remaining four create an atmosphere of ruthless competition during which aspirants are encouraged (read: highly pressured) to do anything possible to gain an advantage, from reporting each other's defects or missteps (even if none actually occurred) to straight up assassination. this has the effect of sowing mistrust between Vorta, and discouraging future pack-bonds.

at the end of the six-year training period, aspirants are elevated and given their first field assignments. for Vorta who will be working alone (personal attendants, field supervisors, etc), this takes the form of a one-on-one mentorship with another of the same specialization. for those who will be working in larger diplomatic, scientific, military, or religious installations, this takes the form of a "buddy system" type of situation in which two of the same specialization are paired together and expected to keep one another accountable while reporting to the same direct superior.

#ds9 #vorta #the dominion #dominion worldbuilding

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kevinsreviewcatalogue · 5 months ago

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Review Double Feature: Twister (1996) and Twisters (2024)

Making this another double feature. This weekend, I went back and rewatched the original Twister, an old nostalgic favorite of mine, just in time for the release of its years-later nostalgic sequel Twisters. Does the original hold up, and does the sequel live up to it?

Twister (1996)

Rated PG-13 for intense depiction of very bad weather

Score: 4 out of 5

One of the films that, together with Independence Day a couple of months later, helped revive the disaster movie genre after it had seemingly died with disco at the end of the '70s, Twister is as wild a movie as the namesake weather phenomena it's named for and which serve as the centerpieces of its action. It's a movie that, while not science fiction, has the thumbprints of Michael Crichton, the sci-fi writer who co-wrote it with his wife Anne-Marie Martin and produced it, all over it in its depiction of scientists as heroic working men and women in a way that I, somebody who's had his fair share of experience with what scientific and medical work are actually like, readily appreciated. (Even if Crichton, over the course of his career, had a fairly mixed track record when it came to how his novels and screenplays presented scientific subjects, but that's another matter entirely.) It may have had problems when it came to telling a coherent story, especially when it came to Cary Elwes' character, but it was easy enough to place those problems in the back of my mind when the movie was busy thrilling me with intense, well-shot action and an interesting cast of characters that together dropped me right into the thick of it with them. There's a reason why, even long after the second wave of disaster movies in the Y2K era burned out, people of my generation still fondly remember Twister as a gem of that time.

The film revolves around a group of stormchasers in Oklahoma, led by Jo Harding, a scientist who entered meteorology after watching her father die during a tornado when she was a little girl. They do exactly what their name sounds like, chasing tornadoes in order to track and research them for scientific purposes, specifically with the intention of designing more effective early warning systems that might give people more of a chance to survive when these wicked storms touch down. Our viewpoint characters are Jo's estranged husband Bill Harding, a former stormchaser turned TV weatherman who's come back in order to get her signature on their divorce papers and formally end their marriage, and his new fiancé Melissa Reeves, a therapist from the city who's completely out of her depth in the wild world of stormchasers.

Right away, I fell in love with most of this cast, filled with a who's who of talented actors like Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, and Philip Seymour Hoffman giving it their all. It's a highly glamorized depiction of meteorology that makes it look like a career that combines the advanced scientific work of crunching data with the gritty, hands-on work of actually collecting that data, depicting Jo and her team of scientists as operating highly advanced equipment, at least some of which (most notably the "Dorothy" units they're trying to send into the storms to measure them up close) they designed themselves, out of the backs of trucks, vans, and station wagons covered in dirt and mud. It makes for a very funny contrast with Melissa, the film's comic relief character and audience stand-in who's trying to take calls from her patients even as she's being dragged head-first into the path of a tornado. They may not have been the deepest characters, with Jo's history with tornadoes and her, Bill, and Melissa's rom-com love triangle being just about the only development they get, but I loved them anyway. If I had to pick favorites, they'd probably be Hoffman as Dusty Davies, the very hammy and excitable dude on Jo's team who explains a lot of weather-related concepts, and Lois Smith as Jo's aunt Meg, a little old lady who seemingly can't be put down even after a tornado trashes her house and leaves her injured. Above all else, this is a movie that knows how to make scientists look good, and I'm not surprised that there were a lot of people in the late '90s who got very interested in meteorology after this came out.

And if the cast and the writing did the work in crafting a great cast of characters for me to root for, then Jan de Bont's direction did the work in throwing them into peril and dragging me right along with them. The film takes the opposite tack of Independence Day when it comes to showing large-scale destruction on screen, focusing less on the grand spectacle of seeing cities and monuments get blown up and more on the people running for cover as the houses, farms, tractor-trailers, and drive-in theaters around them get shredded by wicked winds. It's a very ground-level perspective on a disaster flick that still makes it stand out today, when epic-scale scenes of destruction have become the norm for Hollywood blockbusters, much like how Cloverfield used a similar perspective to make a giant monster movie scary. A few shots may not hold up so well today (especially that early shot of a weather satellite that looks like a prerendered cutscene from an early '00s video game), but on the whole, its mix of practical effects work and CGI still looks amazing when it comes time to showing buildings getting torn apart and cars getting tossed around.

Watching and, more importantly, hearing the storms on screen also made me realize how underappreciated sound design is in so many modern movies. All too often, we've seen a trend in action movies especially that I like to call "Nolanization" after one of the filmmakers who helped popularize it, an emphasis on making sound mixing more "realistic" for the sake of realism that, in effect, winds up causing it to turn into a wash where you can barely understand what the characters are saying or where the explosions and gunfire are coming from. If you've ever wondered why you have to turn on the subtitles to make out the dialogue in a lot of movies made in the last ten years, especially movies that were made for streaming, this is why. I had no such complaints here, with the sound of the twisters, often compared in real life to freight trains and jet engines, embellished for effect here but very much drilling into me exactly the mix of awe and terror that the film wanted me to experience. It's repeated throughout the film that tornadoes are not to be trifled with, and as I watched, I very much felt that in my bones. The score by Mark Mancina also injected a ton of energy into the film, especially with its guitars blending almost seamlessly with the rock and country songs on the soundtrack, livening up the film's downtime when the characters are planning or heading out but then falling back during the action scenes and letting the roaring winds take center stage.

The plot of the movie is pretty paper-thin, more or less following a couple of very exciting days in the lives of a team of stormchasers. I liked these characters more because they were played by great actors and had a lot of very cool, funny, and entertaining chemistry and dialogue together, not because they really had any depth. Had the film just been about them, I probably wouldn't have minded. The problem came with Cary Elwes' character Jonah Miller, a guy leading a rival team of stormchasers who we're told are the bad guys because they have corporate backing and are only in it for the money, not the science. When it came to fleshing out its human villain, the film's thin writing and plotting hurt it, not least of all because, despite Elwes doing everything he can to make Jonah into a despicable jackass, the writing never really gives me a sense that he's a bad guy as opposed to just a foil to Jo and Bill. There are ways this movie could've gone about to make me hate Jonah as a proper villain, such as having him not just rip off the design of Jo's Dorothy units but actively sabotage her career for his own gain, having him be the reason Bill left stormchasing and wound up estranged from Jo, or fleshing out the other members of his own team (especially Jake Busey as his sidekick) and having him put them in harm's way because he's a dumbass and a glory hound. The film leans in those directions, but it never really fleshes them out, instead just having Jonah recur throughout the film as a guy who annoys the protagonists only to vanish again. It really needed more Cary Elwes, is what I'm saying.

The Bottom Line

Twister isn't exactly known as a movie with a great story, but there's a reason why a key part of its enduring legacy was an attraction at Universal Studios Orlando that lasted until 2015. This is a two-hour thrill ride that still holds up watching it again nearly thirty years later, and one I'd firmly recommend to anyone who wants to watch a pure, straightforward disaster movie.

----------

And now, for the sequel...

Twisters (2024)

Rated PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language and injury images

Score: 4 out of 5

While Twisters has been billed as a sequel to Twister, what it really feels like is more of a remake in all but name, which is what they were by all accounts originally planning to make. It features no returning characters and only a few minor continuity nods to remind you that the two films are set in the same universe, otherwise following a brand new cast that loosely fits into the archetypes of the first movie but does its own thing with them. More than that, however, it's a movie that recognizes how and why the original still works as well as it does. Like its predecessor, it's a more up-close-and-personal take on the disaster movie that demonstrates how to make this genre work in 2024, in a world where scenes of epic, spectacle-filled destruction enabled with the latest and greatest in special effects have become routine: focus on the people, be they those caught in harm's way or the ones running into it for either science or glory. It's a movie whose real heart and soul underneath the awe-inspiring action set pieces is its cast of characters, played by a host of rising stars who I can see riding this movie to much greater heights of fame and fortune, enough to make up for the fact that it doesn't quite fix the biggest problem I had with the original. There really isn't much to say here other than that it's about as good as the original and the kind of film that's made to be seen on a big screen, one that I'd firmly recommend.

Just like last time, we're back in Oklahoma following two rival teams of stormchasers. Our protagonist Kate Carter, who had been chasing storms when she was a college student, left that way of life behind five years ago and took a job with NOAA in New York City (where a little EF1 tornado that hit Brooklyn recently was considered big news) after a bad judgment call she made got most of her team killed. Her friend Javier "Javi" Rivera, the one other surviving member of her team, convinces her to come back to Oklahoma and work with his new team Storm-Par, a corporate outfit that's employing advanced radar technology that Javi worked with in his time in the military to track storms more accurately than before. While they're down there, Kate and Javi cross paths with Tyler Owens, a stormchaser and YouTuber who's become a minor celebrity as the "Tornado Wrangler" filming himself and his team performing death-defying stunts in and around tornadoes. While Tyler's initially presented as a fame-seeking gloryhound with more followers than sense, Kate eventually warms up to him as they cross paths and she realizes he's not the dumbass he comes off as at first glance, while she and Javi start to question Storm-Par's mission as they do some more digging on Marshall Riggs, the local real estate tycoon who's funding them.

Just as the first movie had a who's who of '90s stars at the top of their game, so too is this one filled with a bunch of modern-day rising stars who, if their performances here are any indication, are probably going places after this. Daisy Edgar-Jones does her best Helen Hunt impression as Kate and does it well, making for a likable heroine with her own tornado-related tragedy in her past for her to overcome, while Anthony Ramos' Javi made for a nice twist on Jonah from the first movie, a version of him who seems to realize what a jackass he's becoming and the kind of person he's working for but also knows that he needs Riggs' money to keep doing his work at the level he's doing it at. The real breakout star here, however, is undoubtedly going to be Glen Powell as Tyler Owens. A guy with a name like a country singer and a truck and wardrobe to match, Tyler is something like a cowboy MrBeast, a YouTuber who makes no bones about the fact that fame and fortune are perks of the job but also, as we see later in the film, seeks to use his platform to do good for the people whose lives are destroyed by the tornadoes he chases. He's initially presented in a fashion similar to Jonah from the first film, quite ironically given how the aesthetics of his team more resemble those of that film's scrappy protagonists, but the more we learn about him, the more Powell gets to lay on his rugged-yet-funny charm and get me to root for him. This is the kind of role that they would've cast Chris Pratt in ten years ago, and Powell brings a very similar energy to this part. Movie nerds have been waiting for Powell to get his big break after years of well-received roles in smaller movies and TV shows, and if this is any indication, he's almost certainly a star in the making.

The basic meat and potatoes of this movie isn't that different from the first. What made that movie work is still in play here, this being a film where, while the scenes of tornadoes ripping apart a highway, wind turbines, a rodeo ground, a motel, an oil refinery, and a small town Main Street are exciting, well-shot, and brought to life with outstanding special effects, they aren't the most intense scenes in it. I've seen other reviews, both positive and negative, call this a movie shot in close-up, with the focus placed less on the action and more on the characters running for their lives and hanging on for dear life as tornadoes roar around them. I've always felt that this is the way to do a disaster movie right nowadays, in a time when most viewers will look at even the biggest action spectacle and quote one of the musicians featured on this movie country-heavy soundtrack ("that don't impress me much!), and director Lee Isaac Chung proved my point by making the action feel about as intimate as you can get when there are tornadoes roaring right behind the main characters. The result was that, even when the camera wasn't focused squarely on the mayhem, it felt more impactful than a lot of comparable effects-driven blockbusters.

Unfortunately, it also has a very similar problem to the first movie: the script, and most notably the villains. Marshall Riggs is given a lot of attention as a background villain who's running Storm-Par as part of his scheme to buy up ruined homes in tornado country and then flip them for profit at the expense of the often desperate people who live in them, a scheme that drives a wedge between Kate and Javi and forces the latter to think about why he's doing this job. The problem is, as despicable as this guy's actions are, he's only in the movie for one scene early on and then completely vanishes, with Javi's co-worker Scott, himself a fairly minor character, serving as the main representative of his villainy. Once again, the film tries to shoehorn in a human villain, in this case a timely representative of gentrification and corporate greed, without really doing anything with him and giving him a real presence in the film. Like with the first movie, I would've either dropped this subplot entirely or made things personal between him and the protagonists. Maybe have Kate's mom, played in one scene by Maura Tierney, know some people who've lost their homes and farms to Riggs and may very well lose hers? Or have him cut costs on Storm-Par's equipment and training, putting them in harm's way? Or have him find out about Kate and Javi's plan to disrupt tornadoes and try to sabotage it because it would mean fewer distressed properties for him to buy up and redevelop? The least this movie could've done is give him a satisfying death, preferably one involving a tornado eating a rich douchebag's mansion or him trying to get the hell out of Dodge in a rhinestone-encrusted Cadillac only to get one of his own billboards dropped on his head. As it stands, it's the same pitfall that ensnared the first movie from a writing perspective, playing out a bit differently in the details but otherwise having more or less the same effect.

The Bottom Line

Twisters is a very well-made throwback to '90s disaster movies that, while suffering from many of the same problems as the original, is also blessed with many of the same things that made it so much fun to watch, especially in a crowded IMAX theater. If you're just looking for a good-time, empty-calorie popcorn blockbuster that hits the spot, this is your ticket.

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