Got a prompt about some Thelyss brothers shenanigans and... Had to make that FMA running gag

Researchers have revealed the regulatory mechanism of a specific protein that plays a key role in balancing the immune response triggered by viral infections in mammal cells. These findings could help drive the development of antiviral therapies and nucleic acid medicines to treat genetic disorders. The research is published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. For cells to protect themselves from viral infections, a series of immune responses typically occur, including programmed cell death called apoptosis and interferon signaling. While apoptosis is a normal process, that occurs with or without the presence of viral molecules, following a cascade of steps to end with the death of a cell—which might not sound advantageous to the host—it can help prevent the reproduction of abnormal cells, including those infected by viruses, and eliminate them from the body.

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I recently had surgery, and at the time I came home, I had both my cat and one of my grandma's cats staying with me.

- Within hours of surgery, I wake up from a nap to my cat gently sniffing at my incisions with great alarm.

- I was not allowed to shower the first day after surgery, and the cats, seeing that The Large Cat is not observing its cleaning ritual, decided I must be gravely disabled and compensated by licking all the exposed skin on my arms, face, and legs.

- I currently have to sleep with a pillow over my abdomen because my cat insists on climbing on top of me and covering my incisions with her body while I sleep (which is very sweet but not exactly comfortable without the pillow). She also lays across me facing my bedroom door, presumably on guard for attackers who may try to harm me while I'm sleeping and injured.

That's love. 🐈‍⬛🐈❤️

I regret to inform you that Discord's new Terms of Service includes an arbitration clause. You can find it here https://discord.com/terms/#16. This clause includes an opt-out, which I have transcribed here:

You can decline this agreement to arbitrate by emailing an opt-out notice to [email protected] within 30 days of April 15, 2024 or when you first register your Discord account, whichever is later; otherwise, you shall be bound to arbitrate disputes in accordance with the terms of these paragraphs. If you opt out of these arbitration provisions, Discord also will not be bound by them.

These clauses are underhanded ways that corporations seek to deprive you of your right to participate in class-action lawsuits and your right to a jury trial. (This does only apply to us users ,other people still spread the word though )

come get your man he's not doing anything wrong he just misses you

I’m going to continue on my Essek and Food mind track a little more. Just because the inherent hilarity of the Nein getting a very normal view of Essek and his eating habits because he’s too shy and anxious early on to mention anything odd or gross or foreign. He’ll try anything once as long as it looks like it won’t actively poison him. And then they know him for a while and he starts to say things. For the longest time, it was just he likes soups and stews and is a bit finicky about eating food that is stale or past date. And then-

Essek brings up how he’s desperately craving Cave Fisher. He’d kill for rice noodles with herbs and steamed Cave Fisher Claw Meat.

Essek will quote, “get over the fact that they found Ice Worm for Verin’s ceremonial dinner, but for me they had to purchase domesticated Purple Worm because the hunters came up empty. The absolute indignity-“

He’s feeling nostalgic for Darkmantle Calamari, it was a festival food and it’s been years.

It’s been too long since he’s had some good snake steak.

And so on and so forth. And it comes so far out of left field for the Nein because Essek is a blue-blood, why has he eaten so many monsters and insects??? He craves them. He starts actively requesting fried crickets to put on his summer salad and what the fuck is even going on?

The Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) protein mediates signaling from several cytokine receptors in the regulation of hematopoiesis and immune responses. Somatic mutations in human JAK2 lead to constitutive activation and cytokine-independent signaling and underlie several hematological malignancies from myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) to acute leukemia and lymphomas. JAK2 contains an active kinase domain and an inactive pseudokinase domain. Interestingly, pathogenic mutations mainly occur in the regulatory pseudokinase domain. Due to its critical pathogenic role, JAK2 has become an important therapeutic target. The four currently approved JAK2 inhibitors relieve symptoms but do not heal the patient or affect survival. These drugs target the highly conserved kinase domain and affect both normal and mutated JAK2 and, due to side effects, carry a black box warning that limits their use in elderly, cardiac and cancer patients. The selective inhibition of pathogenic JAK2 is a key pending goal in drug discovery that requires a precise mechanistic understanding of the regulation of JAK2 activation.

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Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.  Every year, researchers try to predict the four influenza strains that are most likely to be prevalent during the upcoming flu season. And every year, people line up to get their updated vaccine, hoping the researchers formulated the shot correctly. The same is true of COVID vaccines, which have been reformulated to target sub-variants of the most prevalent strains circulating in the U.S. This new strategy would eliminate the need to create all these different shots, because it targets a part of the viral genome that is common to all strains of a virus. The vaccine, how it works, and a demonstration of its efficacy in mice is described in a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  “What I want to emphasize about this vaccine strategy is that it is broad,” said UCR virologist and paper author Rong Hai. “It is broadly applicable to any number of viruses, broadly effective against any variant of a virus, and safe for a broad spectrum of people. This could be the universal vaccine that we have been looking for.”

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unbelievable that its 4/20 and absolutely nobody has put the objectively best rage comic on my dash yet. i have to do everything around here

Do you have a favorite diagram from the manuscripts you’ve read?

Yes! Sir Issac Newton's model of the philosophers stone!

This image was from his personal notes, which have been in a private collection for years. But back in 2016, the manuscripts were put up for auction. They contain a vast amount of writing on contemporary alchemical theory, including this particular diagram, which depicts a theoretical structure of the philosophers stone.

Its an image from one of those wonderful cusps of history. Alchemy was still kinda the leader of the pack, and modern chemistry still had to prove its chops. It was an era when people regarded as serious philosophers and scientists had to contend with ideas we now consider nigh-magical and irrelevant.

You can see in the diagram how newton attempts to square the alchemical idea of the planetary metals as primary metaphysical forces, with the actual physical substances themselves, along with echoes of the theory of Jabirian equilibrium. You can tell Newton thinks of The Stone as this perfectly internally balanced substance, baring all natures and qualities. Like, if the world worked by alchemical laws, this is a damn good theory.

This diagram represents one of the brightest minds in human history giving deep and serious attention to an idea we now know to be entirely wrong. I find it intellectually humbling.

so. bad news. we have to keep going tomorrow. good news is that I’ll keep going with you

Watterson pulled no punches

I can only ever hear "tranny faggot" in scooby doo's voice

This was the top of my inbox first thing in the morning and it made me laugh so hard I started coughing and it freaked out my cat