GOOD NEWS! Researchers have made a HUGE breakthrough towards a UNIVERSAL antiviral. By targeting sugar molecules found on the surface of many viruses that SHARE structural similarities, they identified FOUR compounds that successfully BLOCKED infections from SEVEN different viruses.

While waiting for the Applesauce bake, we’ll start the Bran muffins going

Groceries done and laundry is in process, so it’s time to start baking with Applesauce Spice Cake.

We’re switching things up today, as Awesome Auntie is out of town. So big meal prep will be today, along with other chores, and we’ll pick up some Cheesecake Factory for an early dinner with Nana tomorrow.

Good 🧵 on the right-wing attack on universities and recent events that brought us here.

Fitzgerald said: “I thought that childhood was a game that I had to win, so I’ve been doggedly copying everyone around me. Now, everyone thinks I’m normal, except they all still seem to hate me a little bit, for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on.”

Smoke detectors should know what time of day it is so if they’re running low on batteries they can think, “that’s more of a mid-morning problem.”

Your occasional reminder that Russ Vought, who is claiming the right to fire civil servants for whatever reason he sees it, once refused to quit a political appointment position even after Trump had lost.

Ah, here comes the crappy, uninformed discourse about my research area again.

Hey authors, the official list of Anthropic works is available for searching. secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

Crockett: "What assurances do we have if we entered into an agreement with these Republicans that they wouldn't go back on their word and just say, 'Oh yeah, we'll sign off on a rescissions package'"

The compact would require colleges to…cap the enrollment of international students + commit to strict definitions of gender…universities would also be required to change their governance structures to prohibit anything that would ‘punish, belittle + even spark violence against conservative ideas.’”

Packing a salad for lunch

"When reporters feel compelled to add 'experts say' to basic mathematical facts or treat war crimes as matters of legitimate debate, they’re not being neutral — they’re actively misleading their audience into believing basic facts are up for debate among 'experts.'" www.techdirt.com/2025/09/30/t...

Right wingers in 2017: Dumb libs think words are violence Right wingers in 2025: Words are violence and we're going to throw you in jail for saying the wrong ones, which is terrorism bsky.app/profile/atru...

This is simultaneously not an especially radical theological belief and, politically speaking (especially in the U.S. context), quite a thing for Pope Leo to say. www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/266859/...

Pritzker: "In any other country, if federal agents fired upon journalists & protesters when unprovoked what would we call it? If officials marched down streets harassing civilians & demanding their papers, what would we say? I don't think we'd have trouble calling it what it is: authoritarianism"

Miya Wilkes, 34, insists on being conscientious about giving everyone their dues – except for herself, because everything she does is garbage and anyone could do it, if you think about it.

I may have found my defining quote. Pair this with my pinned post and you will see what I mean!

Cocoa found a friend during our morning walk

While I’m at it: You guys know what to do!! youtu.be/jPCJIB1f7jk?...

Met an abomination at the cheese counter yesterday. Sorry to yuck your yum, but this isn’t it for me.

We’re doing experiments for Sunday Dinner tonight! Sheet pan bacon and onion sausages with shallots and apple, quinoa baked with apples, pecans, and blue cheese, and a bacon ranch salad. Tart cherry torte for dessert.

This is all @floregonian.com’s fault 😁

Local grocery store is offering Fall seafood boils from noon to six on weekends. Highly seasoned, boiled, then sold by the lb. We got sausage, corn on the cob, red potatoes, snow crab cluster, and two types of peel and eat shrimp. Very tasty!

Breads almost ready to come out and cherry torte just going in. Glad they’re both at 350F.

Starting prep on Sunday Dinner’s dessert. The NYT Plum Torte went over so well a couple weeks ago that I decided to do it again, this time with cherries. No ripe fresh cherries in the grocery store anymore, so we’ll experiment with tart pie cherries.

I’ve got a drive to work and typically listen to podcasts to keep me company. I’ve been catching up on The Sporkful, and I just heard the episode with Bea Ojakangas. In it she talk about how she came second in the Pillsbury Bake-Off with her recipe for Chunk-o-cheese bread. Going to try that today.

🚨🚨 NEW DOCUMENTS FROM EPSTEIN'S ESTATE DETAILING HIS DAILY SCHEDULE: They show meetings with Steve Bannon, Peter Thiel, and a potential visit to Epstein’s Island for Elon Musk. Prince Andrew is listed as a passenger on Epstein’s jet. DOJ must release the Epstein files NOW.

Great 🧵 with some suggestions for targets for an anti-corruption campaign for Dems

Damn this is good. History, politics, emotion, hope, CHANGE.

Don’t forget to vote for the chonky bears! explore.org/fat-bear-week

Probably no man bears more individual responsibility for electing Trump the first time, and this is also transparent bullshit bsky.app/profile/phil...

Looks like they’re looking for a new editor for a journal I’ve regularly published in, but somehow haven’t managed to get an acceptance in since the most recent editor was hired Surely the lack of acceptance isn’t because the current editor and I have had previous problems in a different journal.

OBAMA: It's fair to say that 80% of the world's problems involve old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance, and they won't let go. They build pyramids, and they put their names on everything. They get very anxious about it.

Compare this with Kavanaugh's baby-brain concurrence

I don’t know what constitutes a power user per se, but as someone on here a lot, I think we maybe need an option for “No, I don’t actually WANT that, but part of me says “MAYBE THEN SOMEONE WILL LEARN!” We’re not all rational actors here. We have very frustrated depths.

Yes, we have some (baby) bananas!

"Yeah, it was clearly illegal, but what are going to do?" becoming the defining legal mantra of the Trump era. All of this conditioned by SCOTUS refusing to act with any sort of urgency until the damage is done *except* when Trump asks them to jump in to facilitate the damage.

The gap between teacher pay and other college graduates’ pay is the highest it’s been in over four decades. Is there a “teacher shortage,” or a shortage of jobs that treat educators with the pay, dignity, and support they deserve?

GOOD NEWS! For the first time ever, Huntington's disease has been successfully treated. A groundbreaking new miRNA treatment, AMT-130, slowed the progression of the disease by 75%. These results are likely to support the first approval of a genetic treatment for the rare neurodegenerative condition.

First thing I thought of as well

“Healthcare personnel often do not realize that in the U.S., HPV-related mortality far surpasses the mortality from tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis & meningococcal disease combined. Each year, about 4,000 deaths are the result of cervical cancer; most are preventable through pre-exposure vaccination”

Relevant for #MedEd #MedSky: Rural hospitals & the communities they serve are heavily reliant on H-1B workers (esp in the Midwest, Northeast, & the South), & this new rule would likely make it harder for recent grads to get H-1B visas & qualify for residency slots pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40696225/

History doesn’t exactly repeat, but it sure seems to play the same tunes. A 🧵

Whenever people ask me how vaccines can cause autism I refer them to this scientific research howdovaccinescauseautism.com

Truth Social has a hilarious way to glitch

Turned on home computer this morning only to be greeted by one (of two) screens, with some interesting flickering of the functional screen when I moved the mouse pointer to the second screen. Both screens were functioning properly when plugged into the onboard hdmi, but not on the graphics card.