fiat_lux

1 patient, T2 since mid-30s and now 59, had kidney transplant 2017 after end-stage diabetic nephropathy and fucked glucose control since 2019. The successful cells were endoderm stem cells from him cultivated by mice they injected with his PBMCs that they then made diabetic. So not from cadavers (except mouse cadaver i guess), which is the actual new part here. Intrahepatic implant, and cells from unrelated donor failed that were embedded at the same time. His personalised mouse-donor cells worked well enough to take him off insulin 3 months later.

Wu, J., Li, T., Guo, M. et al. Treating a type 2 diabetic patient with impaired pancreatic islet function by personalized endoderm stem cell-derived islet tissue. Cell Discov 10, 45 (2024).

It’s good news, but you’re entirely correct that the article missed the point entirely. Thanks for the crash course in islet cell therapy!

Looming? Sudan is past the looming stage. When do known verified atrocities reach “current reality” status?

I once looked at a job listing for something with very specialist technical knowledge in specific programming areas, for a Japanese company based in Tokyo (pre-covid so remote wasn’t really a thing yet). Pretty niche stuff and needed at least basic Japanese language skills too, so I assumed it would pay ok - even if it wasn’t good or great in comparison with jobs where i was.

After conversion it worked out to be around USD$40k a year, which is probably just over 1/3 of what it would pay at minimum elsewhere. More like 1/4 or less for Silicon Valley type locations, but the rent for a tiny Tokyo shoebox is about the same price even if food is a cheaper. There was no way I was applying for that.

It isn’t just about a weak yen, it’s much more about hugely underpaying people.

Sounds like we had the same programmers. I feel you, Kairos.

The centerpoints of major waterways and roads are often the places with the most conflict, especially when it’s good fertile land that someone might want to live in. Different religious sects have had major presences in the region, some even established there - the first Christian Roman Emperor was born nearby. They’re also positioned directly in the path of many cultures, both ancient and modern, attempting to increase the size of their own Empires.

The land was built on conflict.

While humans continue to choose competition instead of collaboration with other slightly different humans, it will remain in conflict - much like other strategic arable accessible locations we see in the headlines.

Climate change will slowly increase the amount of land affected by conflict, when resource shortages become more severe from natural disasters; but the flashpoints are places like the Balkans.

I’m pleasantly surprised they didn’t start up again sooner. But, like, in the tiniest glimmer of silver lining kind of way.

Edit: tl;dr We all live in a shitty Civilization game but with less predictable players.

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In places that were invaded, resistance were thrown from the top of buildings after they were interrogated, their bodies were left there to be collected by whoever dared. At night all you could hear were their screams while they were being tortured in cellars by the Gestapo. Dissidents were hanged from lampposts in the main street and left as warnings. The concentration camps were often in the middle of the town, not placed at a distance to avoid offending the locals.

And the next generation in those places grew up right next to those concentration camps and mass graves. They were raised by physically and psychologically scarred people, in places that were not funded by the Marshall Plan reconstruction funds that even West Germany received. Decades later there was still rubble and half destroyed buildings.

I appreciate there is much trauma involved in losing any family, friends or community members to war, or to experiencing the bombs being dropped around you. But, I think the level of cruelty and fear experienced by invaded regions was next level. And I don’t think Germans generally understand the details of what life was like for the places that were occupied - but that is only my suspicion. I can’t understand how else the AfD could discuss deportations or receive such a huge proportion of the vote.

Neither Axis aligned country tesidents nor the invaded would cherish reliving it, but they have had and continue to have very very different experiences as a consequence of the war.

There’s nothing more human than killing each other to stop war, either.

The human species’ best creations have been through collaboration on new ideas and projects, but we keep going back to the old competitive methods that have clearly demonstrated that they don’t make good long term solutions. We just don’t learn.

Thanks for standing up to Nazis. It gives those of us who had family experience the horrors wrought by fascists in WW2 hope that Germans haven’t been won over again by the same poisonous ideas.

The word “fossil” could have made an appearance in this article title, and yet it is noticeably and somewhat misleadingly absent.

It seems to me that if we’re talking about addressing starvation, war and political instability, then allowing the demographic who largely are responsible for food production and family health to lead and participate in a single (probably 1 hour long weekly) conversation on TV about those issues might be a key step to better understanding the core problems facing them and increasing democracy by ensuring 50% of the population is heard. Problems can’t be properly addressed until they are accurately identified, and missing 50% of the the population’s voices about problems won’t help.

Also, for just 6 people to address a huge communication gap on a national scale in multiple media formats that can reach a population that is largely illiterate? That sounds like a hugely impactful and solid strategy for organizing important community projects and initiatives that increase stability.

What specific projects would you suggest to these 6 women that address the problems you have identified and make a larger positive impact than their current efforts?

Is it possible that people with lived experience might have a better knowledge of their needs and the next steps in fixing their own problems than you?

More important things to worry about than journalism on issues that affect (at least half) the entire population? Issues that have never been acknowledged institutionally due to women being denied employment and education? In a country that ranks fourth lowest for gender equality globally, maternal and infant mortality rates? Do you really think Somali women have nothing to add to these conversations that hasn’t already been covered?

Adding to this: Bilan’s self introduction video (1 min 41 sec, hardcoded English subtitles). Sorry, no transcript for those who rely on real text. I wanted to watch this but I was left with no information in the article on how or if English speakers even could.

The entire Western media’s approach to African nation reporting also enrages me. The continual insistence of media (especially UK based) on choosing photos to remind us that black Africans are poor and “backwards” is shameful racism. It’s no wonder that African nations are distancing themselves economically and ideologically from the West when their colonizers allies’ media machines continue to treat them this way.

“Before the war, I used to play with my friends,” he said. “I can’t play because of my injury. I can’t play, and I don’t have friends, and I don’t have anything.”

Acquired disability is a problem that will exponentially increase with climate change and industrial pollution. Wildfires create smoke that triggers heart and lung problems. War creates amputations and trauma. Drought increases food prices and creates malnutrition. Floods spread malaria and infection and other poisons. The stress on the body from any of those can in turn trigger other underlying health conditions and other genetic inefficiencies.

If we don’t stop spending all our resources on killing each other and start spending them on helping each other, more people won’t have anything. Just like this 12 year old child.

Funny that the Pope loves the rule of law when the Vatican refuses to cooperate in international lawsuits against them, which they can easily do because they can deny warrants as a sovereign entity.

Return the Nazi loot, Vatican. Then maybe you can look a little less hypocritical when asking others to cooperate in international justice systems.

“Most of Israeli society will say: ‘Why not? It’s a nice place, let’s make the desert bloom, it doesn’t come at anyone’s expense’.”

Extremists Jews have become what they swore to destroy. The holocaust was the core justification for the creation of Israel, and while I never expected peace in the Middle East, I didn’t expect them to start committing the same atrocities within living memory while using the same fertile land propaganda metaphors.

The UN fucked up hard when it formed the country and the Security Council voting system needs to be reformed based on this awful lesson. The world is less safe than ever, and nuclear weapon proliferation is accelerating rapidly, so the UN SC is just not achieving their own goals either.

This is what a failing civilization and species looks like and I’m not enjoying being on the sinking ship. Happy new year.

It has the bonus effect of removing evidence that Judaism was a religion made up of previous culture’s stories and legends. The guy who lost his shit at a statue in a museum was international news, and there will only be more evidence undermining Judaism’s claims to originality and truth buried in coastal areas. The Israeli government has long been stalling any archaeological work in Israel/Palestine, much to the dismay of historians. This makes sure nothing can be identified even long after the current fighting and reinforces the power of the ruling class.

For sure. I’d be first in line to complain if I worked there… assuming my mobility impairment didn’t get in the way of that 😅

Chinese company. No idea what disability discrimination laws they have in place, if any.

Sure. I just think most people can be less hypocritical in calling it out because we’re not the head of state of a country and top representative for a religion with extensive history of the same acts. I don’t have the power to direct an entire economy’s resources or have the adoring audience of millions globally, but he does. So he ought to be reminded of his own abilities, and the rest of us shouldn’t just let the Vatican forget its own self-declared immoral actions.

He can make geopolitical statements and direct his flock as he pleases, and I will continue to call him out on his bullshit. My position on the core truth of his statement does not alter my position on calling out hypocrisy.