It occurred to me that you could pluralize "baby Jesus" as "babies Jesus" and now I think if the opportunity to do so ever arises, I will.
Got the symptoms that make you Google "jellyfish born illnesses"
Anything come up?
I was surprised but yes, there’s something about jellyfish maybe transferring some bacteria to farmed salmon.
But also not really, I probably just have jellyfish stings and an unrelated cold
Typical early Dune chapter
Jeb saw a menacing eagle symbol etched in the glass of his bedroom window. His teacher, Jasper Isthmus, had told him the eagle sigil was used by the fat evil gay Echeverria family to represent the ancient enmity between their house and the noble Valerii. The presence of this warning indicated that the Echeverria would remain a significant threat to Jeb Valerius and his family. Jeb was frightened by this engraving because it showed the persistent danger the Echeverria posed to his safety.
At the tender age of 10, Jeb had been sent to the Adikha Hatha Academy. The Bene Gesserit could teach you to manipulate people. Mentat training let you manipulate data. The Guild could let you manipulate space. The Adikha Hatha taught how money directed all things, how all these experts were mere tools for those who would use them. Jeb was first among his peers in Econology, but also in Psychomechanics. He had learned to associate a person to their Myers-Briggs caste before they spoke a single word and he could navigate a commodity market blindfolded. But what he had learned from the Adikha Hatha was but a prelude to the symphony he knew he would develop.
Jeb Valerius recalled the time he spent working at his father's ornithopter dealership. In his education, he had learned all about deals and negotiation. But when he started selling ornithopters he transformed utterly. He no longer needed to know about deals, because he became deals. He saw a buyer and before he had even had time to consider the situation he perceived he was already closing.
"Knowledge is a rock. Grind until it becomes gravel, and then cement it with experience. The concrete you create will withstand everything fate can throw at you." -- Hustler Community College Blog, Jeb Valerius
Jeb had learned a lot from those two weeks, foremost that he did not want to deal ornithopters his whole life. His father had worked hard, coming to work before dawn and leaving after sunset most days, and he had been rewarded with considerable wealth, wealth which had secured a decent livelihood for the Valerius family. But Jeb Valerius felt he was destined for greater things than work at his father's ornithopter dealership. Jeb had a vision of hustle without end and unlimited passive income.
The first equation, once he had come up with it, was devastatingly simple. Work as a real estate agent to learn the lay of the land and earn seed capital. Mortgage the Arrakeen apartment his father had left for him to buy a rental property. Use the rent to pay the mortgage. Mortgage the rental property to buy another, and use the rent from that one to pay the second mortgage. The chain could continue forever, he could achieve perpetual growth. But the banks did not always appreciate the purity of his vision, and the hunt for properties took too much time.
The second equation was the true revelation. Filmbooks could be multiplied freely once composed. A little bit of work to start, a pearl of his hard-earned wisdom dispensed, and he had goods that could be sold without being spent. His first filmbook, about his Real Estate Equation, had now been viewed 20 times. He already had a dozen subscriber-disciples, men who awaited his every word, seeking revelation. If each of these disciples recruited two more, and then each of those continued the process, instead of constant growth he could have a constantly increasing rate of growth.
Magnus Echeverria sneered at the list of filmbooks that his Mentat, Bruno von Rotz, had recommended. Jeb Valerius! How could Bruno imagine that a scion of the Echeverria could be interested in such a worm? Perhaps Bruno had calculated that Jeb's latest pyramid scheme would be amusing to him. "Yes," he thought, "the Boys Symposium will love this one." That band of venal perverts were always on the hunt for some ambitious primitive from the Lower Houses to ridicule. Perhaps he could even add his own sarcastic commentary and republish the book. Yes, that could very well do numbers for his shadow self.
Magnus pondered his dual existence. Rising star Guild Banker under his official identity, Marxist-Kwartengist revolutionary propagandist under the nom de guerre of Onanism Enjoyer. A risky proposition, perhaps, but the intellectual and political rewards of bimentalism were worth it. His alter ego could conceive of thoughts that would be forbidden to a Guild Banker, and could cause his commercial rivals to be canceled by the MK conspiracy, while Magnus Echeverria was as close to untouchable as it was possible to be by virtue of his position, even for the Harkonnen governor. They could afford no more compassion for each other than they did for those around them. Some day one personality would kill the other. But in the meantime their sparring made both stronger.
Magnus Echeverria was taken aback by his newest assignment. Foreclosing was an unusual duty for a Guild Banker. Most loans were more profitable when brought to term, and the spice upkeep cost of the Risk Augurs paled in comparison to the profits the Guild accrued every day from its usury.
The Guild was cutting its losses, that much was obvious. There was no way this failing ornithopter dealership would sell for more than the remainder of the loan. The Guild did not take losses on investments lightly. Something terrible must have happened. Magnus recalled rumors floating around the Guild of a 'nexus', some occluding force that distorted navigator and augur visions. Apparently Arrakis was where it was strongest.
As leveraged as the Guild Bank assets were, it would only take a couple dozen more losses to sink the entire fund, and with it most of the galactic economy. Was it really possible that the Guild would fall? Had its full historically progressive force had been exhausted? Onanism Enjoyer would have to take a close look at the scriptures.
The Guild had not taken a loss on a trade in centuries prior to the Arrakis Crisis. In their arrogance, expected future money was as good as present money to them, and they spent it freely, taking no heed of structural risks. They did not think of the the risk they did not see, the unknown unknown.
The Arrakis Crisis in Econological Terms by the Princess Irulan
"Bruno, my dear, look up in the wiki how you put on these dreadful stillsuits," Magnus said. Curses upon this planet and its unaesthetic sartorial necessities, he thought. At least the loose outerwear fashion wears well on my prodigious frame.
The final outfit Magnus and Bruno von Rotz had settled on was a bright yellow silk shirt, crimson harem pants, and an ornamented sky-blue shawl. Finally, they added a golden shield belt. A shield could be useful if the owner resisted eviction.
Magnus began to worry. A shield was useful, but people in outlying settlements often preferred lasguns because Fremen raiders didn't carry shields. What if this petty bourgeois tries to shoot me with a lasgun holdout? In that situation a shield would only kill us both, as well as the foreclosed property and the town. He tore off a strip of spice gum and started chewing. He would need to use enhanced empathetic abilities for the coming contest, and the edge to his reflexes couldn't hurt if it came to it.
Magnus Echeverria strolled into the dealership like he owned the place. According to the document in his hand, he did, or at least the Guild Bank did, and Magnus was not the type to insist on the difference in this case. It was now Magnus's task to establish the supremacy of his document over the present situation on the ground, which is that Hank Valerius was sitting in the boss's office and had no intention of leaving.
Magnus spit his wad of spice gum onto the floor and switched his speech and thoughts into the commercial language bhantur, an ancient language built around the duality of soothing and menacing. He would need to tread carefully, at least as long as he was in visual range. Non-clairvoyant bankers often found themselves murdered or lynched by their debtors, and Magnus wasn't sure he could count on clairvoyance this time. Hopefully Hank didn't know Magnus had mockingly reviewed his son's scam pamphlet.
The timing of the next part was essential. Magnus knocked on the door twice in rapid succession, and before Hank had the time to react he had already opened the door. The initiative was his.
But what Hank lacked in reaction time he had gained in experience. He had let the banker get the first blow uncontested, and instead spent that time preparing the riposte, and he got in the first word. "Come in, sit down, just make yourself at home" Hank beamed.
Magnus had intended to do exactly that, assert ownership through relaxation. But he'd been preempted by Hank's unexpected familiarity, which projected more emotional control than expected. Or did he really not know what Magnus was here for? He would have to try a different tack. "Thank you, sir, but I'll stand, I'm sure we can wrap this up quickly," Magnus countered while switching into a rooted stance, baiting his opponent to overextend. Formality blanks familiarity.
Hank took the opportunity, the best he was likely to get, and started his offensive. "Well I'm sure you're here from the bank. This is a good business right here, whatever your metrics say. I can show you around, there's lots of potential and we've had more good years than bad. I know there's been some uncertainty here on Arrakis, though I suppose not for you boys? It'll blow over, and demand will bounce back, just you wait."
Nothing unexpected for Magnus all the way until the intimation about uncertainty. Did Hank know more than he was letting on? If he does, I need to compose myself, if he doesn't, I still need to compose myself, Magnus thought to himself. He analyzed his enemy's sequence of thrusts. He needed to find an opening and avoid the uncertainty question. A heartbeat later he had it. Time is money, and Hank was asking for a lot of time. Now it was just a matter of landing the death blow.
He stuck to the businesslike fashion and seized on the weak point of the apology. "We know you're dealing with some temporary liquidity issues and we're perfectly ready to provide emergency financing to cover your interest obligations until the situation improves so long as the business is sound. Here on this tablet we've had our mentats calculate the total accumulated debt as well as resulting monthly payments for the most likely durations of the Crisis. You'll understand that this loan would need to be... compensated... with some collateral, of course. The required value of that collateral is listed at the bottom of the page."
Hank knew that he didn't have any collateral left to put up. He knew that the banker knew he didn't have any collateral left. In truth, he had known for months that the dealership was lost, he just hadn't wanted to admit it to himself, hadn't wanted to admit it to Jeb. Now, it was time to take his loss like a man, and to salvage the rest of his honor. "Thank you, I'll look over these figures and see what I can scrounge up. It would be a shame to let such a nice shop go to waste." said Hank Valerius, knowing full well that the Guild had calculated the sum to be unachievable and the interest higher than his wildest dreams of profit. Now, he could only hope Jeb would redeem the legacy of his house.
Magnus sighed with relief and switched back from his fixed stance to his mobile stance. His opponent had played his hand well, but in the end Magnus had been the one holding all the cards. And now it was time to twist the knife. "Oh, one last detail, how's your son, the influencer boy? Does he know the Arrakeen apartment is owned by the dealership? I'd hate to see him evicted in the middle of a live stream to his fans." Magnus shouted as he left, hastily dropping into his waiting rickshaw before Hank could pull out the lasgun taped to the bottom of his desk and rush out the door. A job well done is its own reward.
Got the symptoms that make you Google “jellyfish born illnesses”
About the stupid “America’s Frontline Doctors” stupid COVID-denying video making the stupid rounds among stupid people on my stupid Facebook
(stolen from Facebook; FYI, any covid-denying commenters will be blocked without even a second thought, cuz I’m done arguing with The Stupid.)
“There have been some widespread conspiracy theories circulating about hydroxychloroquine being a cure for COVID and that the entire medical community is somehow conspiring to keep this from the general public in an attempt to prevent Trump from being re-elected.
Here is my take:
1. The Houston doctor spouting this misinformation is a fringe element that has promoted several conspiracy theories even prior to COVID, including but not limited to telling people masks don’t work, railing against “the gay agenda, secular humanism, Illuminati and the demonic new world order.” This woman is not credible. None of her claims are based in science.
2. The WHO, CDC, FDA and numerous studies have independently corroborated the fact that HCQ does NOT have any added benefit in the treatment of COVID and may in fact, in certain cases, cause harm. Quoting fringe right wing publications does NOT detract from the merits of these studies.
3. The FDA cannot and will not approve a drug that has a high risk to benefit ratio. You can take it at your own risk.
4. Not one physician I know takes HCQ “prophylactically” as these people claim. On a personal note, I told my otherwise healthy COVID+ family to immediately stop taking HCQ, because there is no benefit (spoiler alert: they are now cured and I am their savior ).
5. Physicians, Dr. Fauci, the CDC and WHO are not in some sort of international conspiracy. We are all tired and want this thing to go away as much as everyone else does. If there really was a cure, we would be shouting it from the rooftops, just as we have with chemotherapy, immunotherapy, vaccines and the many other medical advancements that we work tireless toward.
This is downright insulting to the entire profession. Science is true, whether you believe it or not.”
In light of the things WHO’s twitter account shat out yesterday, I give you this blast from the 2020 past I’ve had in my draft for over 3 years now.
It’s perfect: the dr House avatar, the capitalization of “The Stupid”, the “#stupidiots” tags, everyting is just… chef’s kiss
Not that it matters but I knew loads of doctors who took HCQ prophylactically. But even if I didn’t personally, like, obviously they exist. Its a low risk drug, doctors have easy access and the ability to actually weigh that risk, and theyre at extra high covid risk, of course they’d try, why wouldn’t they.
I am only just dipping my toes into the Parahumans fandom (online at least) and it's interesting to see where people fall on the characters. I am both a Taylor-hater and a Taylor-apologist, in that the things I hate Taylor for are not doing enough crimes and feeling bad about crime and also I think her crimes were good and she should have done more.
I was talking to non software people about the canonical ethics/safety in software example (therac-25) and fiance was like, yes it sounds bad but it's just a parable. And like. Wow somebody wasnt paying attention, no that happened in real life, real people died lol.
I love my ex tech bro fiance but man sometimes I wish he took being a tech bro more seriously
I was talking to non software people about the canonical ethics/safety in software example (therac-25) and fiance was like, yes it sounds bad but it’s just a parable. And like. Wow somebody wasnt paying attention, no that happened in real life, real people died lol.