Play Nice Random Chat Thread IV

[Asifhe Givashe]

A fully-haired Hank was in Beverly Hills Cop too I think.

Edit: may have been Lethal Weapon.

Edit: it was Lethal Weapon 2.

Hank’s also in The Firm.

Has anyone else noticed the rain in Melbourne is dirty today?

Yes my pool looks like the Yarra.

I had a double take this morning. FMD.

 

[Orange Peanut]

Yes my pool looks like the Yarra.

I had a double take this morning. FMD.

People buying flocc by the carton at my local pool shop, said at 9.15 he'd be out of stock by 10.

 

[Snake_Baker]

FFS, all over a bit of dirt.

 

[The Warlord]

Corona virus.

Something Xi Jinping won't be able to control.

Interesting watching their reaction, the are far more open and transparent about it than with SARS.

 

[gokangas]

Corona virus? I don’t mind the beer but will leave it alone for a while to be safe.

 

[Hojuman]

mudstorm?

Mudflood ?

 

[Snake_Baker]

Corona virus? I don’t mind the beer but will leave it alone for a while to be safe.

Apparently you can cure it with a slice of lemon.

 

[ferball]

Immune discovery 'may treat all cancer'

By James Gallagher, Health and science correspondent
20 January 2020

A newly-discovered part of our immune system could be harnessed to treat all cancers, say scientists. The Cardiff University team discovered a method of killing prostate, breast, lung and other cancers in lab tests. The findings, published in Nature Immunology, have not been tested in patients, but the researchers say they have "enormous potential". Experts said that although the work was still at an early stage, it was very exciting.

What have they found?

Our immune system is our body's natural defence against infection, but it also attacks cancerous cells. The scientists were looking for "unconventional" and previously undiscovered ways the immune system naturally attacks tumours. What they found was a T-cell inside people's blood. This is an immune cell that can scan the body to assess whether there is a threat that needs to be eliminated. The difference is this one could attack a wide range of cancers.
"There's a chance here to treat every patient," researcher Prof Andrew Sewell told the BBC. He added: "Previously nobody believed this could be possible. "It raises the prospect of a 'one-size-fits-all' cancer treatment, a single type of T-cell that could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers across the population."

How does it work?

T-cells have "receptors" on their surface that allow them to "see" at a chemical level. The Cardiff team discovered a T-cell and its receptor that could find and kill a wide range of cancerous cells in the lab including lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bone, prostate, ovarian, kidney and cervical cancer cells. Crucially, it left normal tissues untouched.

Exactly how it does this is still being explored. This particular T-cell receptor interacts with a molecule called MR1, which is on the surface of every cell in the human body. It is thought MR1 is flagging the distorted metabolism going on inside a cancerous cell to the immune system. "We are the first to describe a T-cell that finds MR1 in cancer cells - that hasn't been done before, this is the first of its kind," research fellow Garry Dolton told the BBC.

Why is this significant?

T-cell cancer therapies already exist and the development of cancer immunotherapy has been one of the most exciting advances in the field. The most famous example is CAR-T - a living drug made by genetically engineering a patient's T-cells to seek out and destroy cancer. CAR-T can have dramatic results that transform some patients from being terminally ill to being in complete remission. However, the approach is highly specific and works in only a limited number of cancers where there is a clear target to train the T-cells to spot. And it has struggled to have any success in "solid cancers" - those that form tumours rather than blood cancers such as leukaemia. The researchers say their T-cell receptor could lead to a "universal" cancer treatment.

So how would it work in practice?

The idea is that a blood sample would be taken from a cancer patient. Their T-cells would be extracted and then genetically modified so they were reprogrammed to make the cancer-finding receptor.

The upgraded cells would be grown in vast quantities in the laboratory and then put back into the patient. It is the same process used to make CAR-T therapies. However, the research has been tested only in animals and on cells in the laboratory, and more safety checks would be needed before human trials could start.

What do the experts say?

Lucia Mori and Gennaro De Libero, from University of Basel in Switzerland, said the research had "great potential" but was at too early a stage to say it would work in all cancers. "We are very excited about the immunological functions of this new T-cell population and the potential use of their TCRs in tumour cell therapy," they said. Daniel Davis, a professor of immunology at the University of Manchester, said: "At the moment, this is very basic research and not close to actual medicines for patients. "There is no question that it's a very exciting discovery, both for advancing our basic knowledge about the immune system and for the possibility of future new medicines."

The upgraded cells would be grown in vast quantities in the laboratory and then put back into the patient. It is the same process used to make CAR-T therapies. However, the research has been tested only in animals and on cells in the laboratory, and more safety checks would be needed before human trials could start.

This is amazing.

I think I mentioned I dropped out of a science degree in third year studying immunology (cos I was working long night shifts and turning up to twelve hr pracs in no state to be playing with live viruses.) We used to talk about this stuff in tutes specifcally the beginning of the CAR-T treatment. I still remember the first time we talked about. It was like a light bulb went off above everyone in the room about where this could go.

Fantastic to see the way it's turning out.

 

[Hojuman]

Interesting watching their reaction, the are far more open and transparent about it than with SARS.

Maybe a bit more worried ?

 

[The Warlord]

This is amazing.

I think I mentioned I dropped out of a science degree in third year studying immunology (cos I was working long night shifts and turning up to twelve hr pracs in no state to be playing with live viruses.) We used to talk about this stuff in tutes specifcally the beginning of the CAR-T treatment. I still remember the first time we talked about. It was like a light bulb went off above everyone in the room about where this could go.

Fantastic to see the way it's turning out.

Who was it above who said government has no role in healthcare or education ffs?

 

[ferball]

Chemistry

I think it's Physics actually.

The dust chunks form cloud condensation nuclei, water condenses on them then rain falls with dust in it.

 

[ferball]

Not so much form ccn as are ccn.

 

[gokangas]

Apparently you can cure it with a slice of lemon.

Lime FFS - when I was in Mexico never saw it served with lemon - always lime.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Lime FFS - when I was in Mexico never saw it served with lemon - always lime.

Why the * would anyone put calcium hydroxide in beer?

 

[Hojuman]

Why the fu** would anyone put calcium hydroxide in beer?

Miller and Coors put horse piss in there.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Miller and Coors put horse piss in there.

This would explain the taste.

 

[Asifhe Givashe]

People buying flocc by the carton at my local pool shop, said at 9.15 he'd be out of stock by 10.

Interesting. I’m gonna drain the bastard and have it scrubbed and then fill it up again.

Missed the hail so can’t complain, I suppose

 

[The Warlord]

“If you’re in the Peninsula, right off highway 101 there’s an exit called Willow Road. And on Willow Road you’ll find the Facebook headquarters. And at Facebook, there are neuroscientists currently being paid a lot of money quite literally to addict our children to their applications. And not far from the Facebook headquarters, there are neuroscientists working on how to cure dementia, and how to cure some of the most intractable diseases that affect our society. The people who are working at Facebook addicting our children to their applications make much more money than the people who are attempting to cure our society of its worst diseases, and I think this question about whether we should have an industrial policy ultimately reduces to the question of, Do you think our politics should have an answer about whether it is more valuable to cure our grandchildren than to addict them to terrible applications? And I think the answer is obviously yes.”

Trumpism After Trump, by Thomas Meaney

Will the movement outlive the man?

harpers.org

 

[The Warlord]

The above also talks to how intimately science and politics have become entwined.

Did folks see the ad Dominic Cummings put up for staff at Number Ten?

‘Two hands are a lot’ — we’re hiring data scientists, project managers, policy experts, assorted weirdos…

‘This is possibly the single largest design flaw contributing to the bad Nash equilibrium in which … many governments are stuck. Every individual high-functioning competent person knows they …

dominiccummings.com

 

[Val Keating]

“If you’re in the Peninsula, right off highway 101 there’s an exit called Willow Road. And on Willow Road you’ll find the Facebook headquarters. And at Facebook, there are neuroscientists currently being paid a lot of money quite literally to addict our children to their applications. And not far from the Facebook headquarters, there are neuroscientists working on how to cure dementia, and how to cure some of the most intractable diseases that affect our society. The people who are working at Facebook addicting our children to their applications make much more money than the people who are attempting to cure our society of its worst diseases, and I think this question about whether we should have an industrial policy ultimately reduces to the question of, Do you think our politics should have an answer about whether it is more valuable to cure our grandchildren than to addict them to terrible applications? And I think the answer is obviously yes.”

Trumpism After Trump, by Thomas Meaney

Will the movement outlive the man?

harpers.org

It’s not Trumpisim it’s capitalism

 

[The Warlord]

It’s not Trumpisim it’s capitalism

Yeah, but what Trump has done in some respects is break away from heterodox neo-liberal capitalism, especially with the tariffs.

 

[Val Keating]

Yeah, but what Trump has done in some respects is break away from heterodox neo-liberal capitalism, especially with the tariffs.

Then I spose the answer to the question of weather or not Trumpisim will continue post Trump is who gets in. I could see someone like Sanders winding back a lot of that stuff. Much to the disgust Neo-Cons like Mitch McConnell and Pence.

 

[Gasometer]

People buying flocc by the carton at my local pool shop, said at 9.15 he'd be out of stock by 10.

Pool? They have all turned into Dams up here. Mine is wrecked. Mate around the corners is wrecked. Storm came through about 9pm and it was just raining dust.

 

[Gasometer]

Interesting. I’m gonna drain the bastard and have it scrubbed and then fill it up again.

Missed the hail so can’t complain, I suppose

How many litres?
I am 40k litres.
Couldn’t do it up here

 

[The Warlord]

Then I spose the answer to the question of weather or not Trumpisim will continue post Trump is who gets in. I could see someone like Sanders winding back a lot of that stuff. Much to the disgust Neo-Cons like Mitch McConnell and Pence.

The piece I linked is looong but well worth the read, goes into exactly those issues.

Especially the idea that right and left wing Anmericans have lots more in common if they agree on a nationalist rather than global outlook and cvould form an effective alliance against the neo-cons in the Republican party and the Wall Street Democrats.