My grandmother's sister had a Cadillac her husband bought her. It was North Carolina in the mid-century. It was kind of a big deal. I remember as a child the FM radio was always tuned to an elevator music station. I remember many things about her car. The music was one of them. It seemed like a good soundtrack for riding in her car.

I missed this announcement from a few months ago. Vaccine experts are perplexed by a project the Trump administration has launched to develop a universal flu vaccine, which has long been a goal, though an elusive one, in medical research. Dubbed Generation Gold Standard, the project is aimed at creating a flu shot that doesn't have to be updated every year to match the latest strains of the virus. The project also aims to produce a vaccine that could protect people against other respiratory viruses that could cause a pandemic, such as bird flu and coronaviruses. "Generation Gold Standard is a paradigm shift," said National Institutes of Heath Director Jay Bhattacharya in a statement announcing the project. "It extends vaccine protection beyond strain-specific limits and prepares for flu viral threats — not just today's, but tomorrow's as well — using traditional vaccine technology brought into the 21st century." The announcement surprised vaccine researchers, given the anti-vaccine stance of health officials like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "I'm glad to see that this administration is still wanting to invest in developing next-generation influenza vaccines or respiratory vaccines in general," says Ted Ross, director of Global Vaccine Development at the Cleveland Clinic. An old vaccine technology back in the spotlight But Ross and other outside vaccine experts are mystified by many aspects of Generation Gold Standard. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/05/13/nx-s1-5384934/trump-universal-flu-vaccine There was this assessment in Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/gold-standard-or-appalling-hhs-s-500-million-vaccine-bet-inactivated-viruses-puzzles

Thanks, all! It was a great birthday, with My Favorite Redhead and lots of family.

People will bet on anything.

@wtg Good story. Thanks

@Bernard I am glad that I could introduce you to this channel. I'll take a look at it.

Not satisfied with destroying the next generation of scientists and scientific discovery, the Trump administration takes aim at current science. We will need to rebuild lots of scientific infrastructure in 2029, human and physical. I would suggest a confiscatory billionaire tax of, oh, maybe 25% of all individually owned (including tax avoidance trusts) exceeding one billion dollars. Would help with the wealth distribution while enabling the nation to recover from the wanton destruction the GOP is deliberately wreaking.

I hesitate to give my thoughts on this because I'm going to sound like a grumpy old man, again. I've been misdiagnosed and not diagnosed to this day and the common denominator has always been money and specifically greed at the end of the day. I'm grumpy because I have a lot of reasons to be grumpy. This has been a time of transition (and still is) and from last winter to this summer has been no walk in the park. But to the point, I'll have the ability to have a medical examination independent of my PCP, imaging of my left knee, and imaging of my right hip. My PCP (a Board certified internist, fwiw) has some kind of formal disincentive from making referrals to specialists because the insurance industry has made this clear to him and after six years this has become clear to me if unspoken. You won't image the knee of a 57 year old patient when it's been bad for 15 years? This kind of situation isn't right and I'm going to fix it after I get settled. Insurance companies were exempted from anti-trust law in the '40's. This is what happened for some reason. We shouldn't forget, either, that Trump just defunded healthcare by almost a (edit) trillion dollars. The insurance system, the private aspect, and the neo-liberal take over of government health insurance, is definitely the problem.

I have to comment that my father, who fought the Japanese through Burma & Malaysia (in The 14th under General Slim), showed no qualms regarding this action by the USA. Of the very few things he ever said regarding his war experiences, the vast number of allied lives the two bombs saved (including his) was something he repeated every time the Hiroshima horrors were shown. He hinted of seeing fanatical brutal Japanese soldiers in action, lost comrades, seen the Changi POW. The idea of having allied soldiers fight on and on to walls of the Emperors Palace must have been a nightmare for Churchill and Truman.

It's total bullshit, like everything that comes out of this administration.

Some of us could still find a coding job: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Jobs/Remote-Cobol-Programmer

@rustyfingers said in [Hallway; DIY milestone] @AndyD "I've just put on the second coat on Osmo antislip satin oil." Ooh, what's that? We have hardwood floors on our two flights and stained plywood on the flight to the basement. As we age, I'm more and more worried about slipping. We added carpet treads on one flight because our elderly dog (now deceased) kept slipping, but the others are bare. [image: 1754887623257-20250811_054600-resized.jpg] Same here. My Dad and an Uncle both slipped, fell and died on carpeted stairs. I've had fit relatives fall and break a hip on a single step in an open plan bungalow living space. I didn't want carpet. Cork replacement appears unavailable. My inlaws in Malaysia have beautiful wooden stairs, no accidents reported, they usually have bare feet. Osmo oil - was highly recommended as a wood finish by my carpenter cousin, and checking online I discovered antislip versions widely available, for decking, stairs, in satin or mat. It ain't cheap but the reviews were all excellent. B&Q. £106 for 2.5litres It works. Clear satin finish (3089/R11) First coat darkens the wood nicely as expected. Second coat makes the wood feel covered effectively. Think... very fine grit sandpaper. The oil has some grit in it, that simple. We wander about in bare feet, socks, and slippers and it is a perfect finish to the stair treads. Apparently there is advice about taking care using oils on ply or even doors that are not solid wood. Maybe apply a lot and it could affect the glue? In my ignorance I've oiled all our doors multiple times with teak oil without any problems.

Kinda like the one Musk had developed?

@wtg said in Yes or No?: Definite no. Heck, I have trouble with the escalators at IKEA! I get claustrophobic there. It’s not a store, it’s a giant escape room.

When I was younger I would have done this! Now I just want to relax when I travel. But in retirement I would love to live in this type of community. I’m assuming my sewing skills would serve me well!

Huh? Vice President JD Vance on Sunday accused the Biden administration of refusing to release files on Jeffrey Epstein because of the financier’s connections to Democrats. “We know that Jeffrey Epstein had a lot of connections with left-wing politicians and left-wing billionaires … Democrat billionaires and Democrat political leaders went to Epstein island all the time. Who knows what they did,” said Vance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.” “I laugh at the Democrats who are now, all of a sudden, so interested in the Epstein files. For four years, Joe Biden and the Democrats did absolutely nothing about this story,” he continued. https://thehill.com/homenews/5445539-vance-accuses-biden-epstein-files/

Here's the Noah Smith piece that Zakaria references: https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/globalization-did-not-hollow-out