Author Archive
Lowering blood LDL-C
Wednesday, June 11th, 2025Effects of various treatments on human LDL-C levels.
Statins — can lower LDL-C 50% at highest doses.
Low dose statin lowers LDL-C < 30%.
Phytosterols at dose of 1g – 3g / day lowers LDL-C by 6% – 12%.
Phytosterol-Enriched Dietary Supplements for Lowering Plasma LDL-Cholesterol: Yes or No?.
Similar results with resveratrol (a polyphenol), 10 mg – 100 mg/day, lowers LDL-C by 5%.
The Effect of Resveratrol on Blood Lipid Profile: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Dietary fiber supplement (psyllium, viscous soluble fiber), 10g / day lowers LDL-C by 5%.
Links for June 2025
Sunday, June 8th, 2025Lightwriters Neon Chicago, $250-540, 4222 N. Ravenswood Ave.
Four Decades of Waltzing the Blue Danube – Elite at 40 by Sasha McAuliffe
Katie Casey was base ball mad.
Had the fever and had it bad;
Just to root for the home town crew,
Ev’ry sou Katie blew.
On a Saturday, her young beau
Called to see if she’d like to go,
To see a show but Miss Kate said,
“No, I’ll tell you what you can do.”
Links for May 2025
Tuesday, May 13th, 2025No, a New “Study” Doesn’t Prove COVID Vaccines are Unsafe. by Rebecca Watson
The white rural reckoning Trump is betraying the very voters who put him back in power. by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman
TeleMessage customers include DC Police, Andreessen Horowitz, JP Morgan, and hundreds more. by Micah Lee
Links for April 2025
Monday, April 14th, 2025On The Question of Rebranding by driftglass
Their Bionic Eyes Are Now Obsolete and Unsupported. Second Sight left users of its retinal implants in the dark by Eliza Strickl and Mark Harris
The Party Should Throw Them a Party. A proposal for how to build a more durable Democratic coalition. by Ned Resnikoff
Another unheeded warning from Cassandra Krugman by Xpostfactoid
Fake Jobs and Fake Facts. By Misrepresenting Constitutional Law, Muskawamy Prove Brandolini’s Law by Don Moynihan
Miss Fire Rocket Kit, $250. Level 1 and Level 2 certification kit.
Fringe science, Junk science
A Short History of Psi Research by Robert Todd Carroll
The Telepathy Tapes by Ky Dickens. Credulous podcaster touts telepathy.
How I Get The News. The Firehose Is Your Friend. by Oliver Willis
Exclusive: A Stronger Playbook For House Resistance. An internal memo shows Senate Democrats aren’t the only ones who can gum up the works. by Brian Beutler
Roche SBX deep dive into the real specs. What is hidden behind the numbers presented by Roche?
Colossal didn’t bring back dire wolves
Tuesday, April 8th, 2025Let’s be generous and say that 20 of the 20,000 genes have been made dire wolfish, and they didn’t miss any important enhancer elements. They still have 99.9% of the genes to convert! Let’s be generous–maybe only a subset of the genes are different, they should have a crude estimate from sequence analysis. So maybe they only need to change 1000 genes to capture the main dire wolf traits, so 2% done!
Though closely related, studies on their genes have found dire wolves split from other canids around 5.7 million years ago, with no sign of an exchange of genes with North America’s gray wolf ancestral populations.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/de-extinction-company-announces-that-the-dire-wolf-is-back/
To create these pups, scientists at Colossal used past genetic sequencing studies to make just 20 unique precision edits among the 2.5 billion base pairs in gray wolf germline cells. They then used surrogate dog mothers to give birth to the genetically engineered gray wolf pups.
Colossal hasn’t claimed an intention to make a genetically precise dire wolf. But even if they are trying to create a wolf that looks and behaves like they think a dire wolf would, Austin says that would still probably require tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of critical genetic changes.
Five of the 20 gene edits made to the gray wolves were apparently associated with light coat color alone, according to New Scientist’s interview with Shapiro.
Ridiculous times
Saturday, April 5th, 2025Thursday Trump declared a fake emergency and is using it to apply emergency tariffs to nearly every country in the world (Russia gets a pass!). The tariffs were, best anyone can tell designed by interns using ChatGPT, and set tariffs at ruinous levels. Ruinous to the US! Thursday and Friday the markets had record falls, the worst days since the COVID and the 2008 bank runs.
After announcing the tariffs, Trump ran out of the White House and to his Doral golf resort to play in the LIV tournament. Why is Doral hosting this Saudi funded tournament? With it, the Saudis give Trump millions in bribes. To top off the dark comedy, Trump is playing in the tournament, and as he does, is cheating his way to a win in the Senior Club Championship. This will be his third golf championship ‘win’ this year.
Republicans impose largest tax increase in US history
Thursday, April 3rd, 2025Yesterday, Trump imposed tariffs on pretty much all imported goods, the largest tax increase in US history. This will drive up inflation and trigger a recession that will cause high unemployment. Trump is using a tariff authority meant for emergencies that Congress gave Presidents. Republicans could fix this today by passing a law removing the tariffs and removing Trump’s authority to impose them. The Republican party is choosing this huge tax increase and crashing the economy.
Step 2: collect bribes from companies that want tariff exemptions.
Trump demands millions’ for 15-minute meetings as execs scramble to stay on his good side
The Republican party’s “Tesla Shield”
Monday, March 31st, 2025- MAGA
- Proud Boys
- Armed Militias
- And a guy dressed as Hitler

Batman lived in a better America
Sunday, March 30th, 2025Back when only 1/3 of Americans were taken in by propaganda, and that 1/3 were split among different types of crazy. Fox news is the one ring that united them all.