So wait… does he still think Ukraine started the war? I’m so confused. Did Putin turn him down for a loan or something?

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. It’s a term that’s typically used to refer to blue-blood old money New England types.

The Samurai Trilogy is great. It’s a fictionalized telling of Musashi Miyamoto’s life based on a serial published in a Japanese newspaper between 1935 and 1939 (and was later released as the novel “Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era”). It was directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, and stars Toshiro Mifune as Miyamoto. I re-watch the trilogy once every couple of years. It’s pretty solid.

I was using some facsimile of “comedic effect” in an attempt to make a joke.

How recently was he hanging out with Elon Musk?

Way better shape. The police actually arrested the traitors on the day they did the treason. What a novel fucking concept.

That was way better than it had any right to be.

I’m conflicted on this. On the one hand, I love the idea of a stupid tax. On the other, I hate the idea of Trump getting all the money the stupid tax generates.

I’ve been waiting for this joke! It’s about fucking time!!!

No - this is something completely different, unfortunately. Allergen response is mediated by T-helper type 2 (T_H2) cells, while autoimmune disorders like diabetes occur through a T-helper type 1 (T_H1) pathway.

With allergens, the foreign body will bind to antigen receptors on professional antigen presenting cells (usually dendritic cells), which will then present the bound antigen to T_H2 cells. These will then release a particular type of chemical called cytokines that will signal the B cells to produce a shit load of IgE antibodies tailored for the particular molecular pattern identified. The IgE will bind to the antigen and also to basophils and mast cells, which will secrete a bunch of chemicals, including histamines. This is what causes you to get all itchy. It’s also what causes swelling (such as when someone with a peanut allergy feels their throat closing up when they find out their snack had peanuts in it).

With Type 1 Diabetes, T_H1 cells will recognize patterns on the surface of your islet cells, and will then release a different set of cytokines that will attract cytotoxic T cells (T_C) to the area. These will bind to the surface of the islet cells, and will release a cocktail of chemicals that will kill the cell.

The mechanism by which allergen immunotherapy works is that it slowly trains your immune system to shift from a T_H2-dominated response to a T_H1-dominated response for that particular molecular pattern. This means that your body will treat the foreign substance as more of an invading pathogen (like a bacteria, for example) than an allergen, so there will not be the huge release of IgE antibodies, and consequently, far fewer mast cells and basophils releasing histamines. The precise mechanism of how this works is too complicated for this discussion, but suffice it to say we’re dealing with a completely different biological pathway than with self / non-self recognition, like what’s going on with autoimmune disorders.

Well… it’s not a cure. Not really. People with type I diabetes have a disorder where their immune system attacks their islet cells in their pancreas. These cells are what produce insulin. This therapy replaces some of the cells that they’ve lost, but it doesn’t stop their bodies from attacking those cells again. The way they’re doing that is by having the patients take immune-suppressing drugs forever, basically.

The problem with this is that there’s currently no way to target immune-suppressing drugs to say: “Hey, just stop attacking your own cells, but continue doing everything else an immune system is supposed to do.” By suppressing the immune system with these drugs, the patients are at an elevated risk of disease and cancer. And that’s forever. Or, at least until we figure out a better way to do it.

Still, it is a really cool therapy, in that they were able to direct the maturation of stem cells into insulin-producing islet cells, and they were able to successfully home those to the correct location. It’s huge progress, even if it isn’t actually a cure.

This kills the human.

It’s like saying that H. H. Holmes has without doubt broken some laws.

God damn, I hate these fucking nazis.

Fuck NBC for labeling their protest as “pro Gaza” instead of the much more accurate “anti-genocide”. I realize that our media is almost entirely owned by like 12 billionaires, but it still chafes.

“Well in that case, he needs to learn better coping skills.”

To which the old man replies: “Man, what the fuck is up with all of you people coming up here to ask me what the meaning of life is? I moved to the top of the tallest mountain I could find to get away from you all!”

I’m going to throw a trigger warning on this next part just in case:

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The removal and the police brutality are two separate conversations.

Yeah, that was more my point with my initial post. I understand escorting someone from the premises if they are causing a huge scene, but these cops violently wrestled these people out of there, even employing a potentially lethal weapon on two occasions. Many people have died over the years from being tased, and so to see it being used so wantonly is incredibly disturbing.