Thursday, August 05, 2021

Grasshopper with Basil (not intended as a recipe)


 

26 comments:

  1. A third of white-tailed deer tested in a survey had antibodies to the coronavirus. [Click] No indication yet of an animal reservoir developing, though.

    But roasted grasshoppers with basil *does* sound interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What good taste that grasshopper has! And if you don't believe me, ask the Chinese. . . . My rule of thumb there was it it had more than twenty legs I didn't have to eat it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The more he eats of it, the more he's gonna *taste* like it, Alan. Just making the job easy for the cook. . . .

    ReplyDelete
  4. None of the many legged thangs I ate in China were crisp. All were drowned well and good in sauces.

    ReplyDelete
  5. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x569MCaJA3Y

    ReplyDelete
  6. BTW, lest you think I am hopeless, The Good Wife, the entire series, seven years, is on its way. . . .

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lately it had looked like there was a bit of smoke visible on the horizon; it seems more so this morning. Air Quality Index not bad, though--51.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Texas GOP Official Dies from Covid [Click]

    Texas Covid Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths Rising at Fastest Rate Yet [Click] [Vaccinations are up, too. . .]

    Covid-19 cases now fall into 3 distinct categories [Click] “The pandemic — and people’s risk from Covid — has changed in this latest wave of cases.”

    Via TPM: Richard Trumka is dead at 72. Head of the AFL-CIO and a fixture of the American labor movement for decades. Heart attack appears to be the cause of death but that’s still supposition.

    As COVID Gallops Across Florida, DeSantis Lashes Out … At Biden [Click]

    ReplyDelete
  9. Not news: Climate crisis: Scientists spot warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse [Click] I have long speculated that if that should happen, the European powers would probably reconquer Africa while they still could.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. { !!!!!!!!! }

      No shock, but intense awe (as in awful)...!!!!!!!!

      Delete
  10. NYT: Alarmed Louisiana Residents Turn to Vaccines [Click] “HAMMOND, La. — Officials in Louisiana have been willing to try just about anything to jolt the state’s lagging Covid-19 vaccination rates, from a $1 million cash giveaway to a public service announcement featuring the recent 14-year-old national spelling bee champion. But when Madeline LeBlanc relented and got her first vaccine dose this week, she was motivated by something entirely different: fear.” “‘These are the darkest days of our pandemic,’ said Dr. Catherine O’Neal” It might be more accurate to say the darkest days so far, methinks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Replies
    1. "No one in this world, so far as I know ... has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."
      —-H.L. Mencken, "Notes on Journalism", Chicago Tribune, September 19, 1926.

      But the recent increase in vaccinations (too late for some, no doubt) does speak to the persuasive power of death.

      Delete
    2. Note that the recent increase in vaccinations is among those who had previously said they would "wait and see." Many of them have now seen anough. But the number sho say they "definitely would not" get the vaccine hasn't chaned.

      Delete
    3. I am impressed by the vaccine-resistant types who are adamant that they don't have the coronavirus even as they are prepped for intubation.

      Delete
  12. Egad. Even more today than yesterday.

    VERMONT 5 AUG 2021
    25,219-25,129 = 90 new cases
    (The math says 90; the official count is 62...?)
    689 active cases
    11 (+1) hospitalised, 6(+3) in ICU 😯
    786 Tested
    11 more Recovered
    Positivity rate up to 2.5%!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Deaniac Liane Allen wrote:

    Delta is different.

    The vaccine is VERY effective at keeping vaccinated people from ending up in the hospital. It is less effective at keeping people from catching the virus at all.

    Our bodies, when infected with an airborne virus generally allow it to continue for ~3 - 5 days before mounting a defense. If you're vaccinated, your body will do a good job recognizing and fighting the virus starting around the 5 day point, but you're going to feel like crap when it does, and you're going to be contagious starting around day 3 and continuing for a few days afterwards.

    If you're not vaccinated, then your body is going to start building immune cells in earnest around day 5.
    You know how you're not fully immunized until 2 weeks after being vaccinated? Well, that's because your immune system hasn't built a robust response until then. The same is going to be true if you're unvaccinated and catch COVID. Your body is going to be busy building the immune cells it needs to fight the virus at the same time that the virus is running around invading cells throughout your body.

    Being fully vaccinated makes it so the virus has less time to replicate and invade before your body can mount a solid defense. Being unvaccinated means you are likely very ill before your body can really start fighting.
    It doesn't matter how strong your immune system is. It matters how quickly it can bring cells with the right receptors into the fight. If it's pre-primed to recognize the virus, it already has the blueprint to build the immune response, and can quickly create the needed cells. If it's not pre-primed, it's going to take several days longer to create the blueprint and build the cells.

    If you aren't vaccinated, or aren't fully vaccinated, this is the time.

    Delta is different. It is slamming kids. It's up to us to stop it to protect them. Now is the time.

    ReplyDelete
  14. A fully vaccinated epidemiologist went to a party with 14 other fully vaccinated people. So far, 11 of the 14 got Covid. He makes some really good points here.
    https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-0804-breakthrough-covid-20210803-t32trfpiwzdf5okfar45f64whi-story.html

    ReplyDelete