Akuchimoya

From the article:

The answer to how I became sick may lie in what’s called secondary vaccine failure, which happens when a vaccinated person’s immunity decreases over time until they are no longer protected. This can take place when an immune system doesn’t receive the “boost” it needs from encountering the virus.

“There is evidence to suggest that in the absence of these boosts, the immune response that is induced by the vaccine isn’t lasting as long,” said Janna Shapiro, a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases in Toronto. That means even those who were fully vaccinated as kids can lose their immunity.

This was me. I was at the doctor and he was having me get some bloodwork done. I asked him to check my measles immunity status, too, because I'd previously seen online of the possibility mentinoed above. My parents did have me immunized when I was a child, but I thought why not check? The results: I had no immunity.

It was free (to me, the patient) to get the shots. My doctor had to order them in. It's two shots a month apart, and then another blood draw another month later to check. I'll be honest, it was the second most painful vaccination I've ever had (the first was shingles), but totally worth it. Ask your doctor to check the next time you're getting bloodwork done.

I watched all of Discovery. It is, by far, the worst of all Star Treks. (Disclosure: I have not seen TAS.)

The reason is simple: Discovery is really the Michael Burnham show. She is the Mariest Sue who ever Mary Sued. Discovery could have been a really great show if it had been an ensemble show because it has a lot of very interesting characters whom we never explore.

Instead, everything centres around Burnham. She is the reason for the war at the start of the show. She is the magical, fated solution. She is Spock's (adopted) sister and had immeasurable impact on his life. Even through timey-wimey things, her (biological) mother comes to save her and the universe.

And on top of all that is the crying. Oh, gosh, everything is so emotional on this show. There is a time and place for emotions, but Discovery was too much of it, including inappropriate times. Burnham and her maybe-broken-up-boyfriend stop in the middle of an infiltration in a hostile station to talk about their relationship.

Even the really great characters, Saru and (Emperor Georgiou) centre around Burnham. She is like a sister to Saru, she saved his life, he gives up being a Captain to continue serving under her captaincy. Burnham is Georgiou's daughter (not actually), and Georgiou's love for her (as much as she can love) changes her.

No one has a story unless its actually about Burnham. Or they get a story and then get killed off.

The best thing about Discovery is it brought Trek back on TV and it gave us the rest of this era of shows.

I'm by no means against reduction or modification of service to match the reality of less mail being sent and delivered. Reduction of service and tax funding are not mutually exclusive.

But a legal mandate to serve all Canadians and a mandate for "solvency" based solely on postage are mutually exclusive in a country as geographically large as Canada with all our small, rural and remote (i.e. Unprofitable) communities.

Why should Canada Post be "solvent"? It's mandated to serve every Canadian address. Have you considered what that means? It means it has to send mail to the furthest reaches of Grise Fiord (look for it on Google Maps). A business would never deliver there, and they don't because it's not profitable. A non-discriminatory mail service is not a profit business, it's a public service of the government. Firehalls ans library systems have budgets, but no one expects them to be solvent because they're services supported by public funds (taxes), not businesses.

All assignments are submitted electronically now, and if he's in philosophy, he will also have to follow formatting requirements like font, font size, margins, and spacing. Practically, he's doing as much as he is allowed off-computer.

If they had, they'd know there was a 13th disciple named Matthias. I'm not even kidding, it's in the Book of Acts. He was selected to replace Judas, and is described as having been with them since the beginning.

"Cut. Spend."? I'm no financial analyst, but you have to cut in one area in order to spend in another. Maybe we disagree on what is cut and what gets spent on and those choices could be matters of argument and debate, but trying to call out the fact of it itself like some gotcha is either bad faith or stupid.

Truly, without sarcasm, I invite you to read the gospels and actually get to now about Jesus. The shortest is Mark and can be read through in one evening.

The story progression was predictable and the pacing was not the best. Still, I appreciated the focus on Ortegas and Navia's acting. In this interview she alludes to not being able to dance when others are; I presume she's talking about the death of her partner late 2021 (which was after the worst of covid restrictions, but not so long after them). When it came to the rescue scene and La'an killed the Gorn, Ortegas' only friend in a lonely time and place, it made me sad to think Navia was probably going back to that loss.

But this episode was really made to retcon people not knowing the Gorn in TOS. The writers needed to make up a reason for people to forget a species they've now encountered several times, including medical breakthroughs (Batel). Still, more Ortegas, please. And still more range, please.

Since La'an doesn't make it to TOS, my guess is she dies by the end of the show and the pain of losing her drives Spock to push his humanity aside. I was expecting that to happen with the Chapel break-up, but then they brought La'an into things, so I transferred the theory onto her instead 😂

I previously worked at an insurance company some years ago. Back then the company was complaining that flood maps were something like decades out of date, and that was irresponsible to let developers build and sell homes to unsuspecting homeowners who had no reason, or even a way, to know they were in a flood plain.

I suspect nothing has changed in the intervening years.

People believe themselves to be part of the in-circle as "one of the good ones". My father is a Trump-supporting anti-immigrant immigrant. But when he says "immigrant", he really means Hispanics and blacks, not Asians like himself.

I even know an Afghan guy who loves Trump. He grew up under the Mujahideen and then the Taliban, so he hates Islam. When Trump says Muslim countries are bad, this guy 100% agrees. He thinks he and Trump are on the same side, because he's no longer Muslim. Trump, or course, would have him arrested and deported on sight for being brown.