unicorn

I feel a joke coming on...

Yikes. What a gruesome way to die. A reminder not to wear metal near an MRI scanner... https://people.com/man-killed-in-freak-mri-accident-wife-recalls-watching-machine-snatch-him-11775514?did=18645084-20250720&hid=089247988732f9a900151e1f8c73f2c531df3c3a&lctg=089247988732f9a900151e1f8c73f2c531df3c3a&lr_input=3911d0b923e8d92c50f8b74007080afa59d66697825b8a1e414be8db883b8062#comments And the decedent wasn't even the person whose MRI was getting done! "...Recalling the incident that led to his death, the grieving wife said that after an MRI on her knee, she asked the technician to retrieve her husband to help her get up. She said he was let into the room, despite the fact that he was wearing a 20-lb. chain on his neck. “In that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in, and he hit the MRI," she told News 12 Long Island of the tragedy. Both Jones-McAllister and the technician tried to pull her husband off of the machine, to no avail. Through tears, she recalled: “I was saying, ‘Could you turn off the machine? Call 911. Do something. Turn this damn thing off!’ "Patients are typically asked to remove any metal and electrical objects from their person before undergoing an MRI. According to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, MRI machines use powerful magnets to scan bodies for diseases and ailments while producing images of “non-bony parts or soft tissues.”...".

I must respectfully disagree with the view that the bombings of German cities wasn't justified. As the son of a Belgian resistance private, and grandson of a Belgian resistance colonel, I will attest that they also witnessed the indiscriminate bombings of civilians by the Nazis. As my father said, "It was important for the Germans to understand that war isn't simply about reading stories in the newspaper of foreigners getting killed." If the Germans were going to raze the allies' cities and kill civilians, it was also important that they, too, understand that the same could happen to them. This may be part of the problem in the Russia/Ukraine war. The typical Russian probably reads in Izvestia about the hundreds of civilians being killed in Ukrainian food markets (or sees it on TV), and thinks "That's nice. Good thing we're in no danger." When one's opponent repeatedly targets the civilian population and its structures, rather than military ones, they should perhaps be given one warning, then expect the same in return. That's probably the only way to change the minds of those who support tyrants. At a certain point, one has to stand up to bullies.

I never thought of it as a great way to get people to shut up before the overture. Yeah, you're right--that makes sense. As a friend of a professional opera tenor, I assure you that the singers greatly appreciate applause after a successful aria. I think that most of the rebuilding of Dresden came in the first 15 years after re-unification. I went there once in the late 80s when they were part of the DDR, then another time about 10 years ago. It was like an entirely different city. Until re-unification, the church was just a pile of bricks left at the site, labeled as a so-called "memorial to imperialism."

Am I alone in thinking it's a bit silly when the audience claps as the conductor enters the orchestra pit, or when the curtains rise at the start of a play, musical, or opera? I certainly clap after a piece is played, or after a well-sung aria, and so on. But should just showing up for work merit applause? Occasionally, I will applaud as the curtains are raised, when I see an impressive set. But then I'm applauding the set designer(s)/production crew, whose work is on display, rather than the actors or singers, who haven't started working yet.

Hey, I just realized that the man in the center was the man at the party I threw last month whose tattoos I was discussing in another string. He has more tattoos now (including some in foreign scripts). I'm throwing another party in 3 weeks, and I hope to see him there. He did seem to be having fun at my first summer party.

Apparently it was the Captain, not the co-pilot who switched off the fuel. I guess that goes into explaining the 10-second delay. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/air-india-cockpit-recording-suggests-captain-cut-fuel-engines-before-crash-2025-07-18/ "A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month supports the view that the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines, said a source briefed on U.S. officials' early assessment of evidence. The first officer was at the controls of the Boeing 787, and asked the captain why he moved the fuel switches into a position that starved the engines of fuel and requested that he restore the fuel flow, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation...". It's hard to imagine anyone could be such an asshole, but it looks as though that's what happened.

I guess that one can always make a fortune telling people things they want to hear. So many people will welcome the message even if all common sense points to chicanery. Just look at those who'll buy sugar lotions to put on their scalp because they want to believe it works, science be damned. 🙄 Of course, one could say the same about religion in general...

What I don't understand is: to where do the people who send money to these charlatans think the money is going? Do people who describe themselves as Christians honestly not know that the apostles repeatedly quoted Jesus as saying “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”? (Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25, Luke 18:25), or Luke 6:24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort." Luke 16:13 "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

You could have said "Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps." 😉But, seriously, epidemiology is not even designed to show associations, much less causation. Epidemiology can only serve as a starting point for ideas of "real" research. The next steps are case-control studies, in which populations are followed and controlled for known factors. Those studies still can only show associations, not causation. To show causation, one has to randomize a given population and give some the intervention (such as jellyfish extract), and the other a placebo, then follow them over time. Ultimately, causation is accepted when multiple RCT (randomized controlled trials) are pooled together in a meta-analysis.

No, according to the report the 10 seconds included the time the one pilot asked the other why he cut off the fuel, as well as the mendacious response that he did not. You may believe that you would have immediately reached over and flipped the switches back, asking the question later. However, the fact of the matter is that this is not what happened. Had the sane pilot known that the insane one was suicidal/homicidal, he might have figured things out more quickly. He couldn't have suspected the other pilot was intent on killing him and everyone else on the plane. I don't think this method has been used before to crash a plane intentionally. I suspect that if someone tries this again, the time to switch the fuel back on will be quicker. Additionally, there may have been a struggle.

When the fuel is cut at altitude, the plane doesn't simply drop like a lead cannonball. It's when the plane is taking off that the most fuel is needed, and immediately. The other pilot (they haven't said whether it was the captain or co-pilot) would have almost no time to react when the fuel is cut off during take-off. The 10-second delay is explained in this video. I suspect that the non-suicidal pilot simply didn't catch on immediately that the guilty pilot was intent on killing himself and everyone else on board. I don't think anyone else has used this method to commit murder and suicide. I don't understand why people who want to off themselves don't just blow their brains out or jump from a very high place. I suppose that in many jurisdictions, perhaps most, it's very difficult to buy a gun. I guess some nut-cases feel they need to go in a "spectacular" way, or want to make sure their name is remembered by as many people as possible. 😒

I feel a song coming on. @vinapu hit it on the nose.

Just for kicks, I checked the prices on Amazon for the deoxyribose and for the minoxidil solutions. The minoxidil, which has actually been proven effective in humans, generally come out with a better price (and I can get it even more cheaply at CVS).

In hindsight, it shouldn't have taken that long, but as the captain explained, it's not as if alarms would have gone off immediately. He asked "Why did you switch the fuel cut-off levers?", then the other replied "I didn't switch the fuel cut-off." Then a few seconds to realize what was going on. Or maybe the suicidal pilot kind off fought him off. We now have a good feeling of what happened, but at the time it probably wasn't immediately obvious.

Captain Steeeve feels convinced that the switching of the fuel cutoff switches must have been intentional and neither due to accident nor negligence:

Wow. Trump is now threatening to revoke Rosie O'Donnell's citizenship (she's US-born), as if he had that authority... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-rosie-odonnell-u-s-citizenship-revoke-threat/ "President Trump says he is considering "taking away" the U.S. citizenship of a longtime rival, actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell, despite a decades-old Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits such an action by the government. "Because of the fact that Rosie O'Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship," Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday...".

Well, there are some men who stay hot even as they become senior citizens. 64 year-old Christopher Atkins has a spread in Playgirl magazine this month, 45 years after he first became a heart-throb in the movie Blue Lagoon (I guess he was 19 at the time). I must admit I don't have the killer looks I had 45 years ago...

Well, I guess some people have made a fortune by claiming jellyfish extracts improve memory. https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2017/01/prevagens-fishy-brainpower-claims "...The FTC and the New York Attorney General’s Office sued the marketers of Prevagen for allegedly making false claims that the dietary supplement can improve memory loss and support brain health in older adults. Marketers say Prevagen’s active ingredient — derived from a species of jellyfish — can get rid of excess calcium that builds up in the brain as we age... As a result, estimated gross revenues for Prevagen are roughly $165 million – the amount the FTC is seeking to return to people who bought the product...".

Most analysts now agree that it was something that one of the pilots did. Whether it was serious negligence or deliberate (murder-suicide) is not known, and may never be known.

Well, I doubt the evidence will ever be is iron-clad as the German Wings case, in which the evidence of murder-suicide was overwhelming. That being said, two fuel cut-off switches were flipped over, one right after the other. The other pilot became alarmed and switched them back, but too late. Any theory as to the ultimate cause has to take those facts into account. I suspect that the pilots' recent events/activities will now be researched. Murder-suicide was also postulated in that infamous Malaysian Airlines disappearance. Also from the CNN article: "...On the 787, the fuel cutoff switches are between the two pilots’ seats, immediately behind the plane’s throttle levers. They are protected on the sides by a metal bar and have a locking mechanism designed to prevent accidental cutoff...". So it's hard to imagine that the flipping of both fuel cut-off switches was accidental.