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Only slightly unrelated, but I've been thinking a lot lately about prion disease and whether or not you can still trust the meat you eat. Easily a food safety c
by ashleyn 2mo ago
Only slightly unrelated, but I've been thinking a lot lately about prion disease and whether or not you can still trust the meat you eat. Easily a food safety concern that is ten times worse than getting a little diarrhea from your salad, and the same institutional rot can contribute to it. And it would take 5-10 years to really see the damage done from it.
- jm4 2mo agoA guy gets a worm in his brain, somehow becomes secretary of health, loosens all the rules so the rest of us have a higher chance of getting a brain worm. This is comic book villain kind of stuff. Can we start a serious discussion about whether we might be living in a simulation with a troll teenager at the controls?
- voidfunc 2mo agoIf were living in a simulation then all of this is meaningless :)
- apsurd 2mo agoas opposed to the meaning of absolute reality? oh boy you’ve got so much reading and movie watching ahead that you’ll enjoy very much.
- Arodex 2mo agoCan we start a serious discussion about whether you might start taking responsibility of who you elect instead of wasting your time fantasizing? I mean, it is not as if RFK was the darling candidate of HN at one time?
- monkpit 2mo agoYes because everyone else on HN is one hivemind, other than you of course.
- SpicyLemonZest 2mo agoYou might benefit from looking up the Goomba Fallacy. As a former anti-anti-RFK guy, I absolutely have to take responsibility, I severely misunderstood the wellness movement and didn't realize that inflicting disease on people was their goal. But I don't know why you think the person you're responding to supported RFK.
- pstuart 2mo agoHe's definitely got the broken clock syndrome. And back in the day he was a strong defender of the environment. I've got a family member and ex friend (both trained in science) and they drank the koolaid hard. A funny story about them -- both had stayed at my home (different times) and I had taken to heating the water for my coffee in the microwave. Both of them were horrified by that and refused to use that water. Neither could give reason why, and artfully deflected when I pressed the matter. I think antivaxers caught a virus that melted their brains.
- jacobolus 2mo agoI think the worldwide disruption of the pandemic melted people's brains, and the recent surge in the anti-vax movement is a symptom. Along the lines of: if all this bad stuff happened and my life was significantly harmed, it must be someone's fault; all those doctors and scientists kept advising everyone on what they thought was happening and what to do, so they're probably the ones who caused the problem.
- noduerme 2mo agoI say this as a committed fan of RNA vaccines and masking, who believed we could have contained covid with more serious lockdowns very early in the pandemic: In point of fact, it was someone's fault, and the someones whose fault it was - the ones doing gain of function research - were the same people who took control of lockdown policy in the US. That would be enough to melt a lot of people's brains, even if it weren't for the psychological effects of lockdowns, remote schooling, and the consequent arrested development of an entire generation. At a bare minimum, the concealment by the CCP of what they knew of covid was an act of war. The cover-up itself killed millions of people and caused untold economic damage to their adversaries, with the collusion of health officials in the US government who had offshored illegal research there.
- epistasis 2mo agoI've been a long time foe of RFK Jr., spend way too much time here, and have never been under the impression that RFK Jr. was a darling here at all.
- Arodex 2mo agoFilter for dates around his presidential run: "he's not really anti Vax", "he's the only candidate talking about health"... With Dorsey and other SV actors boosting him. https://archive.is/kce6f https://archive.is/kce6f
- idiotsecant 2mo agoThis was never a majority opinion here
- lostlogin 2mo agoThere are plenty of topics here where you’ll find that statement untrue.
- pstuart 2mo agoWait, so techbros angling for influence represent the HN population? Sadly, there's enough MAGA here to share their downvotes but your "evidence" is pointing in a different direction.
- ZeroGravitas 2mo ago"Darling candidate" is overselling it but there's a solid chunk of anti-vax, covid-truthing, lab-leak is-proven-fact, JFK just wants better food nutballs on HN. They overlap with the climate deniers, the nukecels, libertarians and Trump fans. And it clearly goes to the top, since his vice-president and primary funded was a Google CEO ex-wife, and he had high level support even before he went back on his stated opinions and joined the Trump campaign. "Trump isn't Hitler, Hitler had policies" being one memorable zinger of his.
- 2mo ago
- rozap 2mo agoGoomba fallacy
- Waterluvian 2mo agoThe Americans have what’s basically a cultural trait at this point of deflecting ownership of their government’s actions with “not my president so not my failure” abdication of responsibility. I wish we could open trade talks with these people instead. But, alas, that’s not how it works.
- w0de0 2mo agoFine, it’s all my fault. Neither me nor my state voted that way, I’ve protested like hell, but nonetheless at your insistence I accept personal responsibility for the policy choices of the federal government. What do you propose I do? Or did you just want my permission to be personally angry at me? Not sure you needed it, but you’ve now got it.
- lovich 2mo ago>I mean, it is not as if RFK was the darling candidate of HN at one time? Wasn't my darling candidate. Mostly because I can read research papers and understand that drinking raw milk and avoiding vaccines doesn't make me healthier.
- ExoticPearTree 2mo agoFWIW raw milk is actually OK. Drank it “directly” from the cows, never got sick from it. *directly = cow milked into a cup.
- manarth 2mo agothe plural of anecdote is not data.
- inigyou 2mo agoYes, it is, actually. Especially in social sciences.
- lostlogin 2mo agoThere were a few times when I didn’t look as I crossed the road. It was fine.
- sjsdaiuasgdia 2mo ago"The objective of this review is to provide an integrated historical account of the complex, often convoluted events impacting milk hygiene and its resultant effect on infant mortality from 1875 to 1925. Heat pasteurization of cow's milk is necessary for rendering this important nutrient source safe for humans-particularly infants. Developed by Louis Pasteur in 1864, pasteurization evolved from the commercially important parboiling of wine and beer when the Industrial Revolution was effecting rapid societal change in Western societies. In European and American societies of the early and mid-19th century, infant mortality rates were 30- to 60-fold higher than the current rates of five or six deaths per 1,000 live births per year." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30234385/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30234385/ Not every pre-pasteurization child died, but far more died than post-pasteurization. Raw milk is just a bad idea at anything beyond incredibly tiny tightly controlled scale. Sure, you got lucky. It's still not a good way to feed a society.
- cyanydeez 2mo agothe republicans spent the last 50 years gerrymandering and disenfranchising. the "who you elect" is a specious argument. Everyone in California could elect democrarts forever, and 2 senators in Wyoming still have a larger sway per capita.
- analog31 2mo agoThey should stop calling themselves republicans, since they don't represent a republic.
- collingreen 2mo agoDon't get me started on the words being all used incorrectly or misunderstood! Liberal, conservative, democracy, socialism, communism, free market. These are core concepts to a lot of current political debate and yet the words are effectively meaningless the way people use them. It wouldn't matter except the gap in understanding is exploited to paper over a bunch of dishonesty and corruption.
- FireBeyond 2mo agoTangential but nonetheless, I always think of this quote from Lord of War: > Yuri Orlov: [Narrating] Every faction in Africa calls themselves by these noble names - Liberation this, Patriotic that, Democratic Republic of something-or-other... I guess they can't own up to what they usually are: the Federation of Worse Oppressors Than the Last Bunch of Oppressors. Often, the most barbaric atrocities occur when both combatants proclaim themselves Freedom Fighters.
- CalRobert 2mo agoReminiscent of the toxoplasmosis life cycle.
- sethammons 2mo agoInstead of making mice seek out cats, this one encourages poor public health policies in people.
- CalRobert 2mo agoIf it results in more and fitter offspring it will be selected for.
- eqvinox 2mo agoSounds like a nice topic for a PhD for someone 100 or 1000 generations down the line...
- ElProlactin 2mo agoI don't have a parasite in my brain so take everything I say with a grain of salt but at this pace I'm skeptical there will be 100 more generations.
- eqvinox 2mo agoWell I didn't say it would be generations of humans ;-)
- hogwasher 2mo agotoxoplasmosis doesn't actually do that to mice. It makes them less scared, but iirc, not even so much that they don't flee. it's one of those studies that got blown up into a worldwide news story sensation even though the actual paper didn't say what headlines claimed it did. I don't know if it was ever proven replicable or not, either.
- Dr_Incelheimer 2mo agoRead https://www.docdroid.net/MfW3sAr/parasite-pill-version-20-pdf https://www.docdroid.net/MfW3sAr/parasite-pill-version-20-pd... and be enlightened. I believe it was originally made by a 4chan user so obviously there are a lot of insane ramblings there but if the theory is true, the implications would be hilarious
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- tgv 2mo ago> Can we start a serious discussion about whether we might be living in a simulation with a troll teenager at the controls? Why? To skirt the fact that this is reality and needs to be changed? There is no simulation. There is no super-natural teenager interested in making your life a tiny bit worse (I mean: a human teenager would just let N.Korea send nukes, and it's not as if you're living in Sudan either). Your question seems to be either trolling itself or delusional, or the feeblest attempt at humor. Neither is helpful.
- ourmandave 2mo agoTwo things that got RFK nominated. He's the opposite of Fauci, who Trump hates for contradicting him. And MAGA hates because during the pandemic they saw mask mandates as government overreach. And he's the poster boy for conspiracy-loving anti-science halfwits like Trump and MAGA. And he got approved because GOP senators get primaried and death threats if they go against Dear Leader.
- dredmorbius 2mo agoThat's a large value of two.
- FireBeyond 2mo ago> And he's the poster boy for conspiracy-loving anti-science halfwits like Trump and MAGA. I mean this is the guy who as head of HHS has funded research in his government department to "figure out which other government department is doing chemtrails" (He named DARPA as his prime suspect on an episode of Dr Phil, ye gods). You can't make this shit up. If it wasn't for his family name and connections he'd be living somewhere in a trailer as a sovcit with a Don't Tread On Me Decal adorning the back of his pickup truck on blocks in the front yard while he barbecues armadillo roadkill.
- hammock 2mo agoWhat rules are you referring to that he loosened?
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- jm4 2mo agoMy comment is partially in jest. Off the top of my head, I'm not aware of any particular policies that make brain worms more prevalent, although the person I was replying to mentioned prions and I believe that's a real concern. In general, this administration has favored a looser regulatory environment. Specifically, there have been policy changes directly linked to cyclosporiasis. Last year CDC scaled back the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network from eight monitored pathogens to two. Cyclospora was one of the six dropped. The remaining two are Salmonella and E. coli. For what it's worth, there has also been an uptick in salmonella cases. Food policy experts have pushed back on the assertion that the policy change caused the outbreak, but concede that outbreak response programs are underfunded and the fact that cyclospora no longer being monitored makes it difficult to understand how it fits in with longer trends. What the food policy experts say really points to the broader issue - an overall decrease in response and monitoring capability - and that's a bigger concern than playing the blame game on one particular outbreak. It's reasonable to question how government agencies are making these decisions and one just yesterday on the peptide industry may be one of the best examples yet of how flawed the decision-making process is. The FDA's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee (PCAC) met and voted in favor of adding several peptides to the list of substances compounding pharmacies are allowed to produce. Eight members of the panel had been recently appointed under RFK, including six who run clinics that offer peptides, increasing the size of the panel from 6 to 14. The votes on the peptides were 8-6. So... back to my comic book villain theory. This is exactly how a comic book villain would do it and fool everyone with a veneer of legitimacy.
- customguy 2mo ago> Can we start a serious discussion about whether we might be living in a simulation with a troll teenager at the controls? Nah. Power centers consolidate and seek slavery, whatever other differences they may have there is consensus there, which we can tell by their practices. The "mission" of most people we recall by name is really just "knock out any pillars you can find, and cause chaos", they're given free hand and in that sense it's not planned or predictable, but overall it's no more random or silly than dead cows hurled via catapults. The cow has no name, no history, no meaning, it isn't hurled at a precise location in the exact right instant, but at a general location during the siege. And one thing is sure, it controls nothing.
- neumann 2mo agoMaybe it's the worm doing it?
- FlamingMoe 1mo agoI can't stop thinking about this comment.
- jdblair 2mo agoI'm still considered at-risk to BSE b/c I spent 10 months in the UK during the 1991-92 school year.
- laughing_man 2mo agoThat was a long time ago. Seems like if you were going to get it, you would have gotten it already. Besides, even in the UK the numbers aren't that high.
- jbaber 2mo agoRed Cross lets me give blood now. I had the total of more than six months in UK between 199x and 199y deferral for a long time. We're supposed to actually be experiencing symptoms by now.
- kevinlou 2mo agoThere's really nothing we can do about prion diseases, can we? What does the FDA (or any other regulatory or research institution) even have in the way of prion detection?
- SapporoChris 2mo agoJust because something can't be easily detected in a timely manner doesn't mean there's nothing to be done. Banning offal consumption. Banning blood donations from people who could have been exposed. Detecting the disease in postmortem examinations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_BSE_outbreak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_BSE_outbreak
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- Laurel1234 2mo agoWhy would offal be more dangerous to consume? The wiki seems to point to feeding offal to cows, which makes sense and I think has been widely banned.
- manarth 2mo agoThe prion accumulates in certain tissues: mainly brain and spinal column, but also (to a lesser extent) intestinal tissue and lymphatic system.
- mapmeld 2mo agoThere's a U. Minnesota spinoff company Priogen testing for chronic wasting disease. I saw them advertising on Reddit for hunters to test their deer meat. Here's a recent news story about the Pennsylvania Game Commission offering kits: https://www.fox43.com/article/news/local/pilot-project-chronic-wasting-diseasepa-game-commission-outdoor-people-animals-wildlife/521-99eff844-e659-4fed-bf11-dd16a6089208 https://www.fox43.com/article/news/local/pilot-project-chron...
- testfrequency 2mo agoMost foreigners I know are incredibly skeptical or opposed to the idea of consuming meat while in America, as it has a pretty bad global reputation for not being good quality and/or safe. I’m sure fans of BBQ will argue this, but I’d say the average person who is travelling just for BBQ is not really a standard foreigner. I’ve even had co-workers visit from Ireland and Germany who only trust McDonald’s while they visit, or a local pub.
- _zoltan_ 2mo agoI don't know who are these foreigners you speak of. I'm looking forward to eating some of the best steaks in the US. The beef in Switzerland is mediocre at best.
- testfrequency 2mo agoMy hot take on the American steak allure is more about the “cowboy” big portion fantasy that’s fairly engrained into pop culture globally. Otherwise, I wouldn’t say American cattle are superior in really any other way, and are not the best cuts globally either. Switzerland I cannot speak to, but having had meats from Australia, Britain, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Japan - a lot of places around the world have great and superior quality meats. Poultry isn’t even in the conversation here, American poultry is off putting by nearly any person you ask who didn’t grow up with it.
- ExoticPearTree 2mo agoJapanese and Australian beef are on a different level than anything else I have ever eaten in terms of beef steaks.
- FireBeyond 2mo ago> My hot take on the American steak allure is more about the “cowboy” big portion fantasy that’s fairly engrained into pop culture globally. I remember a conversation in a Dallas hotel bar with an increasingly crestfallen cowboy as we talked about how the King Ranch "wasn't a particularly large ranch, all things considered". Initially, confusion. "What do you mean, it's the largest ranch in the world?" No, the US. And then we talked about Australian cattle ranches, where Anna Station is over seven times bigger than King Ranch, bigger than Israel, and that if King Ranch was in Australia it'd be only be, at best, the 70th largest ranch in the country (and more likely only just scraping into the top 100). Everything is not always bigger in Texas. I despise American poultry - factory farming, copious saline injection, bleh.
- aaron695 2mo ago[dead]
- inigyou 2mo agoYou basically can't trust anything in capitalism. You have to verify. Almost every market is now a market for lemons.
- brookst 2mo agoWhat system allows you to blindly trust things?
- inigyou 2mo agoSystems with extensive consumer regulations.
- ndsipa_pomu 2mo agoAnd real consequences for breaking the law
- Cytobit 2mo agoUntil regulatory capture kicks in. Bad actors will always exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture
- inigyou 2mo agoAnd then it's no longer a system with extensive consumer protection regulations.
- eth0up 2mo agoBeen thinking about this one for decades. There is a lot not being discussed too. We have things neatly compartmentalized to avoid cohesive dialog, eg scrapie for sheep, chronic wasting for deer, CJD for humans, and BSE for cattle -- all similar enough to be in the same discussion, but somehow neatly isolated. We know with certainty that CWD is transmitted/passed through fecal (esp ingestion) in the wild, where animals eat droppings for the stored nutrients, and 20 years ago field biologists discovered prions were transmissible through intestinal routes. At this point it's in the soil, and has been. Though good luck finding all the old, previously available official literature on this. Remember the New Zealand farm where the sheep kept getting scrapie, so they slaughtered em all, then brought in new flocks, then watched them get re-infected, then finally said fuck it, and left the field alone, then essentially had to admit the land itself was infectious? There are many hard core highly demanding folks here who will scream for "the data" but won't mention that it's difficult to retain all this in memory over decades while the original sources become increasingly more obscure every year. In other words, no, I am not citing anything. If folks want to sneeze and giggle at prions and call me bad-man anti-data boy, go ahead. Research has been self contradicting on this subject for many years. One day it's solvable with a bit of bleach, and the next even an acetylene torch won't do. It's transmissible through intestinal routes, no it's not, yes it is. Somewhere in between, though, a real problem persists, and my advice is to keep thinking about it, because thinking about it is bad, and looking at what most now call good, it might be a safe-enough inversion to assume bad is good, on this one. Edit: I would also urge the question of where CWD originated. You will get speculation, but no certain answers. Wherever it came from originally, denying the intestinal route must have helped facilitate the spread.