But also, the story of how penicillin came to be made in Japan, before the war was even over, is a curious tale in itself.

The headlines are still covering the cyclosporiasis outbreak from lettuce, but let's talk about a different summer, long ago. The headlines in Bavaria would have called it "summer diarrhea" & it was killing babies. Enter our hero, Professor Theodor Escherich of the Julius Hospital, Würzburg.

Covid-19 is on the increase again in the US. Growth in ED visits, expressed as the effective reproductive number R_eff, has caught up with the SSM*, meaning covid is growing about like it has the last 3 years at this time of year. 1/ *silly seasonal model, see quoted threads

Prof. Michael Fuhrer@michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social · 3mo ago

R_eff for Covid-19 in the USA is starting to show some divergence below the SSM*. This is really an unprecedented low in Covid-19 in USA: all surveillance metrics are at record lows (see next post), AND decreasing faster than normal for season. *silly seasonal model 1/

The US CDC has released provisional mortality totals for 2025. Pandemic excess mortality appears to now be significantly *negative* in the US. 1/

Happy slightly-more-accurate Pi Day!

I hadn't shared this photo before. The camera tells the truth, and the camera lies. Photograph was taken just after sunrise with full sun on the bird. Exposed for the bright white bird, the surroundings appear almost black. Yellow-billed Spoonbill at Western Treatment Plant, Victoria, Australia. 🪶

Trump has exposed and created the machinery for another authoritarian presidency down the line, and the next job is to shut that possibility down.

After Trump: Proposals for a Post-Authoritarian America

How Democrats can lead the charge for a new Reconstruction—if they can avoid becoming what they defeat.

lnk.thebulwark.com

HASSAN: If RFK ordered you to stop promoting flu vaccine during a deadly flu season, would you? S: We have to prioritize-- HASSAN: This isn't a hypothetical. RFK Jr in the middle of a deadly outbreak directed the CDC to do it. So would you? S: I don't speak in hypotheticals-- H: It happened!

Oh my god, who cares if it’s dark on the way to work. People want more sunlight *after* they are off the clock.

Holland Oates@phinsphan.bsky.social · 3w ago

People are gonna fucking hate this if it actually happens. Enjoy all these post 8am sunrises

"nobody knows how china is making due with less oil." Uh, no. You don't. www.taipeitimes.com/News/editori...

The mystery of China’s oil demand drop is no mystery - Taipei Times

Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan

taipeitimes.com

Banger quotes throughout the book: “The fact that there’s a low probability that an AI will be able to do your job doesn’t change the fact that there’s a high probability that an AI salesman will convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can’t do your job” (65).

Covid-19 is on the increase again in the US, after reaching the lowest levels of emergency dept visits and positivity since the beginning of the pandemic. US will see a summer wave once again. But coming off a trough an astounding 4X lower than last year, how big will the wave be? 1/

Exclusive: Three men who were alongside Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was killed in an immigration operation, said a federal officer fired at them almost immediately after exiting his vehicle and that at no point did the driver veer in his direction.

Migrants who saw man killed by ICE in Houston say he did not ram officers

Three men who were in the vehicle alongside Lorenzo Salgado Araujo are contesting the Department of Homeland Security’s account of the fatal shooting.

washingtonpost.com

MAINE CHARACTER SYNDROME

“Humanitarian group Red Crescent told ABC NEWS Verify that, generally speaking, it has observed an increase in online campaigns and entities claiming to conduct humanitarian work on the ground in Gaza.” Great reporting on an increasingly prevalent form of online scam www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07...

She claims to be helping children around the world, but is it real?

Receiving millions of views online, the Lily Jay Foundation claims to help children across the world. She was even given an award for her work. But what is real and what is AI-generated? ABC NEWS Veri...

abc.net.au

NEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...

Another quick thread on Tulsi Gabbard's documents, released on Thursday: There is finally a version of the May 2020 LLNL Z Division report. There are still redactions, but enough can be read to know it was baseless. ▫️1/5 www.dni.gov/files//docum... #covidorigin

Absolutely done with any and all of the excuses. If you have a genuine, real and material reason to be on that site then **your job is to stop that being a reason**, not to just passively succumb to it and do nothing at all Because otherwise: YOU JUST PROLONG THE HARM IT CAUSES

I've been a broken record on this for three years and I'll be a broken record for as long as that fucking website exists: X is a viciously racist far-right organising platform that ONLY WORKS because a huge number of centrists, lefties and progressivs cannot stop propping it up

Elon Musk accused of fuelling unrest after Belfast knife attack

The use of social media in planning violent protests over the Belfast knife attack has drawn condemnation, with Britain's ruling Labour Party accusing Elon Musk of stoking divisions. The tech billiona...

yahoo.com

Another fantastic preprint on BA.3.2's propensity for children, this time from Yunlong Cao & co. They not only confirm David Ho's lab findings (that kids have ~0 Ab response to BA.3.2) but dig into the details of exactly why kids are so vulnerable to BA.3.2. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/6

Lack of ancestral SARS-CoV-2 imprinting promotes BA.3.2.2 infection in children

The ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is heavily constrained by population-level immune imprinting. Recent genomic surveillance reveals an unexpected demographic shift: the highly mutated BA.3.2.2 subli...

biorxiv.org

Quite amazing charts here. Covid-19 outbreaks growing from very low levels to the highest peak surge levels, in just one week... 1/

This is good news and an excellent time fot covid cautious to relax somewhat- though I’ll still be getting my booster next winter and masking in health settings/ public transport open.substack.com/pub/christin...

Let's celebrate the lowest Covid levels recorded since the pandemic started

There is hardly any Covid in the community, hardly anyone is being hospitalised with Covid and thankfully it is contributing to very few deaths. This is a good thing.

open.substack.com

Which would you rather have for $65 m - a year of public transport cap of $20 a week, or 588 meters of motorway?

Michael Plank@michaelplanknz.bsky.social · 2mo ago

$5.8 bn in new funding for the *entirety* of the creaking health system. And nearly a third of that ($1.77 bn) for *sixteen kilometres* for one single road 🤔

Just want to say that this is absolutely crazy-pants misinfo, even for this account. Covid-19 is lower right now, *in those red counties*, than it was at any point in 2022 through 2025. The rate of emergency department visits with covid is 1 in 600. The idea that 1 in 30 have covid is nuts. 1/

An annual reminder for bands to get off Twitter. Why are you there?

Me: tries to login to RMS RMS: your ac is locked pls reset passwd Me: resets passwd, tries to login RMS: you need to install MFA app Me: installs app, tries to login RMS: your ac is locked cos you muffed up MFA, pls reset passwd Me: tries to reset passwd RMS: you can't reset passwd > once in 24 hrs

This is a very good thread and I would encourage reading all of it. I think the BA.3.2 "mystery" may be solved. The path to get there was quite circuitous, and often surprising! There are several important lessons here: 1/ bsky.app/profile/ryan...

Ryan Hisner@ryanhisner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Here you can see some more details from this preprint. 50 is the limit of detection (i.e. zero). Nearly all kids under 7 had no detectable nAbs to BA.3.2, despite robust nAb titers against NB.1.8.1 and XFG. Interestingly, most kids also had zero nAbs to the ancestral D614G or XBB.1.5. 3/

Here's what these gorgeous birds look like in flight. Laysan albatross seen at Ke'anu Point on Oahu, Hawaii 🪶

Prof. Michael Fuhrer@michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Find a partner you're as happy to see as these two are to see each other. Laysan albatross seen at Ke'anu Point on Oahu, Hawaii 🪶