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Entry tags:

work

feelings are weird

I logged in on my work computer this afternoon long enough to apply for a promotion at my current job, becoming more of a Lead support technician. I was on the proverbial fence for several days. The money would be a few thousand more per year than I make now. Money never hurts, but it's not enough to make a huge difference. Money seems so meaningless these days, and it doesn't go far. I'm not motivated by money anyway, or prestige.

What finally tipped my decision in favor was more consideration of what my supervisor said during our biweekly 1-on-1 meetings this week. They're considering the possibility of creating an A.I. subject expert on our team to coordinate answers we give from across departments to our users. They were curious if I'd be interested, "even though that role usually goes to leads". Subtle. Very subtle. Yes, of course, I'm interested in that. LOL.

I applied to the job. I don't have strong feelings about it, though, which seems weird. I've applied to other jobs in the past that I wanted very much more than this one.

I'm also experiencing an odd emotional state about tomorrow's holiday in the USA. It's not the feelings I usually associate with the day.

Rebuilding journal search again

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

Entry tags:

just how tired?

Ever since starting this job, I've commented about how exhausting it is. It's hard to quantify it. Just how tiring is it? Yesterday was unusually busy for a Saturday. No common thread to the issues, just an unusual amount of everything. I avoided yard work afterward (as usual) and just watched television until bedtime instead.

Last night, there was a Minneapolis tornado warning. I didn't know until I woke up this morning and saw the news headlines. I saw on Reddit how people reacted to the phone alert, some local electrical outages, the thunder-rattled windows, some video of the lightning (even this plane), and especially this commemorative t-shirt ("I survived the 1am tornado scare").

I slept through it. I didn't hear the tornado sirens blare. I didn't hear the phone alarm beeps. I didn't hear the thunder. I just slept through it all. That's how brain-tired I was.

Entry tags:

how would you write the Constitutional law?

A serious problem that I saw in Trump's first term was the significant delay (even when he was no longer President) in filing prosecution for illegal acts seen committed over the 4 previous years. Delay almost 4 more years while Biden was President, then finally send things to court shortly before the next election. What? Why wait? Even the Mueller report about Trump obstruction of justice during the first presidency was basically just a document saying, "Somebody should do something about this, but it won't be me."

Trial is supposed to be speedy, which means two things need to happen.

Click to read my thoughts and the example of my kin...

1) Charges must be filed, and 2) Defense must be given opportunity to collect their own evidence. Delays in either process can harm the potential for actual justice to happen. With each delay, evidence is lost to simple entropy or willful destruction, and witnesses forget details... or worse, construct inaccurate history. For #1, we have the statute of limitations. I don't always agree with the numbers, but at least they are clear and impartial. For #2, however, things are murky, and I desire clarity.

I think about it now because of this particular case:

A relative of mine is held in county jail, accused of murdering another relative of mine. (search jail records with Booking # "57369-2024" here, and news story here).
The deceased was killed on 2023 December 27.
Jail records show the defendant was booked on 2024 Feb 06.
It is now almost 1.5 years later, but the defendant is still in county jail.

I wonder, because my own short 1.5 days in county jail brought me zero knowledge of how I was even supposed to contact a lawyer while I was there, and my cat needed water and food back home. What is the justification for delay of trial? Not justification in the sense of reasonable explanation of logistics, I mean justification as in ethical cause for incarcerating an innocent-until-proven-guilty citizen? Even for murder, even for murder of my own distant kin, I tend to think that the government should just drop charges if they cannot make their case within a year. Yes, a whole lot of criminals would go free and crimes go unpunished. On the whole, though, isn't that better than some innocent people losing portions of their short lifespans to government process? There are innocent-until-proven-guilty people awaiting trial from jail because they cannot afford bond, and some people eventually are judged innocent of the accusation against them. In addition (unrelated to pre-trial in discussion here) some people were wrongfully convicted and sitting in prison, and they number more than a few. All of them are held behind bars, and we should have a good reason for it. That's a product of our authority, government acting on our behalf.

I've tried to read about it. This legal case, for example, is eye-opening. That murder case took 7 years to bring to trial. I understand that the Sixth Amendment grants right to speedy trial in federal cases, and I understand that the Fourteenth Amendment extends that right to state prosecutions as part of "due process". That Sixth Amendment, though, is short. What does "speedy" mean in practice?

The devil is in the details, as they say. I don't know how I would write the code that determines justice in the courts. Do you have any thoughts?

Entry tags:

epidemics,
moodday

remember SARS-CoV-2?

I haven't written much about SARS-CoV-2 this year. It's still out there, despite the television news not really mentioning much of anything any more. Today, I wanted to share some tidbits that are interesting or worrying, while simultaneously avoiding my Doom Bingo 2025 topics. I'm also avoiding a lot of old 2022 studies that showed persistent infection in the brain and various kinds of physical damage in the brain after infection. I tried to keep these links a lot more "fresh" and recent.

Click to see a little of the bad news in no particular order...

Long Covid is, of course, very real.
"1 in 5 COVID survivors still have symptoms 3 years after severe infection, analysis estimates" (UMN CIDRAP)

A monoclonal antibody trial (double-blinded, placebo-controlled, and randomized) is expected to complete in a few more weeks. Early word on Reddit is that it produced no significant difference in any outcomes or biomarkers. That's disappointing. I hope to catch official results soon, though, since the researchers will be more accurate in their summary than armchair observers on the internet... like me.
https://clinicaltrials.ucsf.edu/trial/NCT05877508 (UCSF)

The New York Times published this article about long-lasting effects of infection on the lungs, gut, brain, heart, and circulatory system. It doesn't mention viral persistence or damage to the immune system. The Wall Street Journal published this article about cognitive decline due to Covid. It's good that news sources this widely read are still writing about it.
"A Clearer Picture of Covid’s Lasting Effects on the Body" (NYT, free archive copy)
"Is Covid Rewriting the Rules of Aging? Brain Decline Alarms Doctors" (WSJ, free archive copy)

And children? Yeah, they're humans too, so they're subject to consequences, just like the rest of us.
"First-Of-Its-Kind Study Reveals How Long COVID Looks Different In Young Children" (IFLScience)
"Why Are So Many Children Getting Long COVID?" (Newsweek)
"Long COVID is Now the Number One Chronic Illness in Children" (The Gauntlet)

Researchers let the virus mutate repeatedly in a lab to see what would happen. What they found contradicts popular theory that it's just like a flu and will become commonplace and mild. Nope. " 'We gave the virus optimal conditions to keep developing and wanted to see whether it would eventually attenuate—basically weaken—over time. It didn’t,' Dr Foster said."
"The virus that won’t quit: new research reveals how SARS-CoV-2 evolves" (UNSW)

The good news? There is some.

Click to read the proverbial silver lining...

This pre-print makes some interesting claims. Researchers found damage to the brainstem and cerebellum that might explain a variety of Long Covid symptoms. Notably, "While viral genetic material was detectable, infected neurons were not observed." This observation gives hope that we can become infected and sometimes not develop persistence within the brain. It might be imported from other areas of the body instead, maybe tissue without immune privilege, so the ongoing infection could eventually be cured. Within the downloaded PDF of the full article, they suggest that the virus damages the immune system, resulting in auto-immune problems that affect these outcomes in the brain, although these details are well above my level of understanding.
"Brainstem Reduction and Deformation in the 4th Ventricle Cerebellar Peduncles in Long COVID Patients: Insights into Neuroinflammatory Sequelae and “Broken Bridge Syndrome”

This study offers another kind of hope. "Here we demonstrate extensive endothelial cell (EC) death in the microvasculature of COVID-19 organs. Notably, EC death was not associated with fibrin formation or platelet deposition, but was linked to microvascular red blood cell (RBC) haemolysis." As I interpret it, red blood cells are "jumping on a live grenade" to save you from circulatory system damage, and these kinds of clots might respond to new drugs that current blood thinning drugs don't help. That's good news too, despite the macabre horror of it.
"Ischaemic endothelial necroptosis induces haemolysis and COVID-19 angiopathy"

This study notes that "SARS-CoV-2 infection is known to cause changes in the T cell compartment, including differences in expression of receptors associated with exhaustion. While immune responses to infection and vaccination are not equivalent, in the eyes of the public, this concern of immune exhaustion after infection can carry over to vaccination." They found that repeat vaccination does not lead to T-cell exhaustion. That finding is good news. I've mentioned before that spike protein (whether virus or vaccine) carries its own dangers, but at least immune system reduction doesn't seem to result from vaccination, just infection.
"No evidence of immune exhaustion after repeated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in vulnerable and healthy populations"

Sorry, that's a lot of information, even after I deleted half a dozen articles that I included on the first draft. :(

I still mask around other people. No matter how many times you've had COVID, it's better not to get it even one more time. Stay safe out there.