WTF-Beta

Watch snowflakes form in time lapse through a microscope

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/snowflakes-forming-microscope-time-lapse?ref=readtangle.com

Disguised and in danger: How a Nobel Peace Prize winner escaped Venezuela

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/disguised-and-in-danger-how-a-nobel-peace-prize-winner-escaped-venezuela/ar-AA1S6LII

There might be something of interest to WTF crafters in this review of a book called Patchwork: A Sewist's Diary. Also had some links to other books that I'm putting on my "to read" list.

https://www.cleavermagazine.com/patchwork-a-sewists-diary-by-maddie-ballard-reviewed-by-ellen-prentiss-campbell/

I Thought My Colleague Was a Traitor for Teaching Students to Use AI. Then We Talked

The one thing we agree on? Every part of our job has changed

https://thewalrus.ca/teaching-students-to-use-ai/

What time is dinner on Christmas Day? Asking for a friend....

@ShiroKuro said in [FAILED - feel free to ignore] Major Maintenance -- major OS upgrade ...:

Thank you for all the time you put into keeping this place up and running!!

Yup. @axtremus is the best!!

I don't usually watch a lot of videos, but I'm glad I caught this one.

30 authors on the books they give as gifts.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/dec/13/this-extraordinary-story-never-goes-out-of-fashion-30-authors-on-the-books-they-give-to-everyone

He made it!

There's an American Masters segment about Van Dyke on PBS. Link is good till early January:

https://www.thirteen.org/programs/american-masters/starring-dick-van-dyke-vuwz7y/

https://www.pnj.com/picture-gallery/news/local/pensacola/2025/11/27/pensacola-man-saved-by-shrimp-basket-employees/87414219007/

@ShiroKuro You didn't really miss it. I edited the (deleted) post so the photo showed up but forgot to restore it so everyone could see it! Like I said, the greying out of a deleted post is subtle....

@ShiroKuro check out Loki, too !

A man ate at the same Florida restaurant every day for a decade. When he stopped showing up, the chef went looking for him.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shrimp-basket-pensacola-florida-restaurant-regular-rescued-chef/

@Mary-Anna Yes, it took a few months to completely recover but all is well now.

I'm interested in how COVID (the disease and/or the vaccine) affects our bodies, especially in light of my own reaction to the vaccine. When I saw the results of this admittedly early study it just brought home once again how complex and how individual our responses are to various pathogens and treatments (vaccines, medications, etc.). The tofu remark was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I did wonder if there might come a day when someone could front load with tofu (probably in a pill rather than a stir fry) before getting a COVID vaccine, so they could get the benefits of the vaccine without possible negative effects..

@Mary-Anna I fixed the photo. And it actually was deleted. On this forum the original poster and people with superpowers can still see the deleted post. It is greyed out but it’s pretty subtle so it may look like it is still there. Everyone else sees "This post has been deleted".

It can also be restored by the OP and admin people.

How to post photos (and other tips) in this thread:

https://wtf.coffee-room.com/topic/22/tips-tricks-and-how-tos?_=1765566586441

Wow. Great music.

The Mavericks on Austin City Limits:

Myocarditis is a possible side effect of both COVID and the COVID vaccine. A compound found in soybeans seems to reverse the effects of the cytokines that respond to the COVID virus. Article is a bit geeky but of interest to me as I had this reaction to the COVID vaccine.

“Medical scientists are quite aware that COVID itself can cause myocarditis,” Wu said. “To a lesser extent, so can the mRNA vaccines. The question is, why?”

“Two proteins, named CXCL10 and IFN-gamma, popped up. We think these two are the major drivers of myocarditis,” Wu said. They operate like a tag team.

CXCL10 and IFN-gamma both belong to a class of proteins called cytokines: signaling substances that immune cells secrete to carry on chemical conversations with one another.

Wu had a hunch that a common dietary supplement could help prevent such damage. Given higher myocarditis rates among males and estrogen’s known anti-inflammatory properties, he revisited a compound he’d studied a few years earlier.

In a 2022 paper published in Cell, Wu’s team had identified genistein, a mild estrogen-like substance derived from soybeans, as having anti-inflammatory activity and the ability to counter marijuana-induced damage to blood vessels and heart tissue.

“Genistein is only weakly absorbed when taken orally,” Wu said. “Nobody ever overdosed on tofu.”

Wu and his colleagues conducted a series of experiments closely paralleling those described above, pre-treating cells, cardiac spheres and mice (the latter by oral administration of large quantities) with genistein. Doing this prevented much of the deleterious effects of mRNA vaccines or the CXCL10/IFN-gamma combo to heart cells and tissue.

Importantly...

“Your body needs these cytokines to ward off viruses. It’s essential to immune response but can become toxic in large amounts,” he said. IFN-gamma secreted in large amounts, however lofty its purpose, can trigger myocarditis-like symptoms and degradation of structural heart muscle proteins.

That risk probably extends beyond mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines.

“Other vaccines can cause myocarditis and inflammatory problems, but the symptoms tend to be more diffuse,” Wu said. “Plus, mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines’ risks have received intense public scrutiny and media coverage. If you get chest pains from a COVID vaccine you go to the hospital to get checked out, and if the serum troponin is positive, then you get diagnosed with myocarditis. If you get achy muscles or joints from a flu vaccine, you just blow it off.”

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/12/myocarditis-vaccine-covid.html

Behind the scenes in Indiana, why they rejected Trump's demand to redraw the map.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/trump-gop-redistricting-push-indiana-backfired-rcna247832