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Inside the brick lab, Jerry Ritchey, a veterinary pathologist who was interim director at the time, was thinking about numbers. The tests would be run in the molecular diagnostics section headed by Ramachandran, which already had FDA-approved machines capable of running up to 2,000 coronavirus tests a day. “Previously it was used for animals, and now it’s being used for a different kind of animal,” Ritchey said. “A coronavirus at the end of a nasal swab, it doesn’t really matter if it came from a cow, a pig or a person — it’s going to be tested the exact same way.” Link:  This veterinary lab is the linchpin in one state’s coronavirus testing approach

El disco de Kehlani It Was Good Until It Wasn’t fue el que más disfruté de los nuevos lanzamientos surgidos durante el fin de semana. The singer grew up in the social media age. She’s incredibly aware of how all her actions — what she says, does, likes, wears, whom she dates, befriends, and tweets — will be either applauded and celebrated, or judged and mocked. “That’s why when people do that whole, ‘These new girls, they need to be like Beyoncé and Aaliyah. Aaliyah would never be on Instagram, commenting back.’ It's like, ‘Bro, Aaliyah didn’t have an Instagram! It didn’t exist. Beyoncé was a whole grown adult before Instagram came out.’ You can’t compare us. We grew up getting dissected.” Link:  Kehlani Gets Real About Social Media and Celebrity Culture

Diría que David Bowie, el artista previamente conocido como Prince y Juan Gabriel (quienes se nos fueron en 2016), aprendieron de Little Richard. Gender-fluid fashion, men’s makeup, and personal style are basically mainstream in fashion now. But getting to that place required pioneers to shock audiences by doing and wearing the truly weird. Little Richard held both the value of personal expression and the alienation of being bizarre in the highest regard: He was a great beauty, and a real freak. He had beautiful cheekbones, the kind that launch a lifelong modeling career, and bedroom eyes that he electrified into something maniacally provocative—“Ooh, you like that!” From the beginning, when his colorful suits fit lean and a little baggy, and he’d throw his leg up on his piano while pounding the keys, style was part of what he did, in this art form that launched not simply on radio but also on late-night television. Link:  Little Richard Made Male Vanity Look Like the Coolest Thing...

Escuché el disco de Hayley Williams "Petals for Armor" durante el fin de semana pero ahora entiendo que no soy su público meta. The album is a release in multiple senses of the word for Williams. It’s her first record without the band that made her famous when she was still a teenager (though her bandmates, Taylor York and Joey Howard, worked with her on the writing and recording of the album, this project stands apart from their work as a unit). Emotionally and lyrically explicit, Petals for Armor touches on raw nerve after raw nerve: the breakdown of her marriage, her grandmother’s declining health, and the inherited trauma that has been passed down through the women in her family. “Every woman in my family on my mom’s side... they’ve all been abused in almost every sense of the word,” she told The New York Times. She began writing the album after entering intensive therapy for the first time, and being diagnosed with depression and PTSD. Trauma echoes through the lyrics, w...

Link: Twitter

Por medio de la siguiente secuencia puedo explicar el argumento de la película china "Ash is the Purest White" (2018).

Un fármaco similar a los efectos benéficos que proporciona el remdesivir es empleado para tratar un coronavirus felinos.  ¿Yay? Olvidaba decir que el antiviral está prohibido para su uso. Sólo se consigue en el mercado negro de proveedores chinos. [A] remarkable thing is that GS-441524 is almost identical to a much buzzed-about human drug: remdesivir, the antiviral currently our best hope for treating COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Although early data suggest that the drug shortens recovery time at best, Anthony Fauci has touted remdesivir from the White House. The Food and Drug Administration has authorized it for emergency use. And Gilead Sciences, the company that makes remdesivir, is donating 1.5 million doses of the drug amidst the pandemic. Gilead invented and patented GS-441524, too. Its scientists co-authored the UC Davis studies showing effectiveness against FIP. But the company has refused to license GS-441524 for animal use, out of fear that ...

Después de terminar de leer la información de este gráfico, pensé que ante todo era un ensayo. Versa sobre la inequidad en Estados Unidos, la cual se puede extrapolar con el resto del mundo. Un pixel representa mil dólares. Un modesto cuadro, un millón. El bloque de un billón (o lo que conocemos en español como mil millones) es un poco más impresionante pero manejable. Luego viene la fortuna de Jeff Bezos. 139 billones de dólares. La monotonía del espacio es propicia para un ensayo. Luego viene la riqueza de los 400 ultramillonarios de Estados Unidos. Los trillones son un mar de monotonía e indignación Link:  Wealth shown to scale. Inequality in the United States is out of control. Here we visualize the issue in a unique way

El ser humano ha buscado, de una forma u otra, herramientas que le sirvan para describir el tiempo.  Este es un timeline sobre el entendimiento de esta naturaleza a través de la cultura, la biología, la física y sus artefactos mecánicos para registrarlo. Link: Arrows of Time

El software se llama AR Cut & Paste y se puede descargar de GitHub. Say goodbye to the tedious process of taking a photo, importing it, and placing it in its final position. The Paris-based designer and artist Cyril Diagne recently launched a new image editing program that circumvents the traditional method using a single app. Link:  Cut and Paste Your Surroundings into Photoshop with Amazing New AR Prototype

“If you’re getting into adult entertainment right now, make sure that you’re not going to talk shit about it in two months. If it paid your rent for these times, at least have some level of respect for it and yourself,” said Romi Rain, during a webinar organized by the Free Speech Coalition. Link:  Everyone Is Making Porn At Home Now. Will The Porn Industry Survive?

El camino natural de las estrellas virales en TikTok es Hollywood. Fame comes fast and furious on TikTok, which uses a powerful algorithm to excavate someone from anonymity and turn them into an overnight sensation. A year ago, D'Amelio had yet to post her first TikTok video. Now, she has the potential to earn millions and a team of agents, managers and lawyers working tirelessly behind the scenes. Though the nature of internet virality is that it can disappear as quickly as it arrives, there's evidence to suggest — and a growing faction in Hollywood who are mobilizing to ensure — that TikTok stars like D'Amelio won't be fleeting. "There's something happening here," says D'Amelio's agent, Ali Berman, who as co-head of digital talent at UTA has spent the better part of the past decade molding the careers of the internet famous. "This is definitely a place to discover new talent." Link:  TikTok Boom! How the Exploding Social Media App Is Go...

Alrededor de 15 casos presentados tienen similitudes con la enfermedad de Kawasaki. At first it was a handful of puzzling cases, Jane Newburger recalled. Other doctors had contacted her describing children with covid-19 coming into emergency rooms in bad shape with a kind of inflammatory shock syndrome affecting multiple organs. Some were screaming from stomach pain. Others had bubbles, or swelling, in the arteries of their hearts. By Saturday night — when Newburger and 1,800 other worried pediatric specialists, including representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, convened on a Zoom call to discuss the phenomenon — hospitals worldwide had identified about 100 similar cases. About half are in the United States. “Not in my lifetime have I seen anything remotely similar to what’s going on right now,” said Newburger, medical director of the cardiac neurodevelopment program at Boston Children’s Hospital. Link:  Children are...

A pesar de un siglo de progreso en la ciencia, el 2020 se parece mucho a 1918. Physicians, though, didn’t always know what they were doing. Medical journals at the time describe a rash of unusual treatments, some in the league of Trump’s amateur theories about disinfectant, blasts of lights and an unapproved drug that has both potential benefits and risks. One 1918-era doctor recommended that people sniff a boric acid and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) powder to rinse out nasal passages. Others prescribed quinine, strychnine and a poisonous garden plant called Digitalis to help circulation, as well as drugs derived from iodine for “internal disinfection,” according to Laura Spinney, who wrote the 2017 book “Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World.” Popular theories spread that warming your feet would prevent infection, or gobbling brown sugar, or getting the onion rubdown. A “clean heart” was one supposed preventive, though it is not clear whether that meant ...

Scott Schuman ha fotografiado el estilo de los neoyorkinos por más de 15 años. Desde la primera encarnación de este blog, he seguido el trabajo de Scott. Incluso recuerdo haber tenido conversaciones sobre él con amigos a partir del blog. Prácticamente leer esta entrevista es como tener un reencuentro con él.  Link:  The Sartorialist on the Unbreakable Spirit of New York City

Como he dicho, el documental de Michael Jordan "The last dance", en colaboración con ESPN y Netflix, es must-see TV.  Pero también la serie me ha servido para estimular recuerdos de inicios de la década de los noventas. En aquel entonces, los documentales sobre basketbol existían. Y eran muy visto. Solo que había que rentarlos primero en VHS.  En uno de esos 'docs' había una balada que acompañaba unos highlights de Jordan. Hace poco me volví a acordar.  Era raro. La música no iba con la energía que imprimía Mike en las clavadas.  Esta semana leí en el New York Times la explicación: aunque aquella época surgía el rap como fuerza cultural, no se podían emplear las canciones porque estaban en disputa en los tribunales por derechos de autor. Remixin' & DJ'ing.  “N.B.A. Superstars,” a 1990 VHS release that set highlights of then-active stars to popular music, syncs a montage of Jordan soaring through the air to Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” primarily known as...

Como dice el artículo de CNN, ha pasado antes. "There are some viruses that we still do not have vaccines against," says Dr. David Nabarro, a professor of global health at Imperial College London, who also serves as a special envoy to the World Health Organization on Covid-19. "We can't make an absolute assumption that a vaccine will appear at all, or if it does appear, whether it will pass all the tests of efficacy and safety. Como por ejemplo, el VIH o el Ébola. He empezado a llamar al covid-19 como Ébola Jr . Links:  We May Never Get a COVID-19 Vaccine |  What happens if a coronavirus vaccine is never developed? It has happened before

Link:  An Unnerving New Film by Paul Trillo Imagines Earth Moments Before It’s Sucked into a Black Hole  

Empecé a verla como "oh, es tipo Euphoria (HBO)". Chicos teniendo sexo.   Quien se roba la serie para mí es Emma Mackey, quien interpreta a Maeve Wiley. Me da unos 'vibes' tipo Gillian Jacobs.  

Link:  Luminescent Zip-Tie Formations Are Shaped into Futuristic Organic Life by Artist Elisabeth Picard

Track lanzado el sábado en tributo a Tony Allen, baterista nigeriano, quien murió la semana pasada por complicaciones del coronavirus.

Mi aportación es que el tiempo es contingente. Un epifenómeno dentro de la segunda Ley de la Termodinámica. Those in attendance wrestled with several questions: the distinction between past, present and future; why time appears to move in only one direction; and whether time is fundamental or emergent. Most of those issues, not surprisingly, remained unresolved. But for four days, participants listened attentively to the latest proposals for tackling these questions — and, especially, to the ways in which we might reconcile our perception of time’s passage with a static, seemingly timeless universe. Para este encuentro faltó la presencia de Plotino y Boecio. Link:  A Debate Over the Physics of Time

Le he dicho a mis amistades que The Last Dance es must-see TV . Eso es indiscutible. Aborda el último año de los Bulls de Chicago y Michael Jordan en 1998 antes de que se desintegrara la emblemática dinastía del basketball en los noventas. No obstante yo me encuentro dentro de la minoría que no disfruta del documental.  La semana pasada me topé un artículo en que mencionan que el documentalista Ken Burns se lanza contra The Last Dance porque no es buen periodismo. Como documental debería serlo. ¿O es un infomercial? La crítica que yo hago de mi parte a The Last Dance es que es muy fragmentario. Va de un momento y se retrotrae en el tiempo. ¿La mención de Kobe? Es breve. Al inicio del capítulo 5 cuando abre con el "In loving memory of Kobe Bryant" parece dar la expectativa de que se concentrarán en Kobe durante el capítulo. Eso no pasa.  También el documental aborda "valientemente" el gusto de Jordan por las apuestas. No su problema de apuestas, sino su gusto. No se...

Annihilation me atrapó de inicio por la relación de los actores Natalie Portman y Oscar Isaac. Luego fue tomando forma el hecho de que es una película de ciencia ficción. Tiene un tono disparejo en el uso de recursos CGI y es ahí donde el espectador le puede perder un poco de respeto a la cinta. Pero es un sólido título dentro de serie B de pelis de ciencia ficción.  Al investigar sobre esta película para hacerles este breve comentario, me doy cuenta que fue una película de culto en su momento. Aunque también por su momento histórico, prefiero Arrival .  Links:  Annihilation is the most thoughtful science fiction movie since Arrival  |  The Best Theories About Annihilation's Wild Ending

Alimento para el alma: The British Museum Collection Online makes millions of objects accessible to the citizens of the world, wherever they might be. Whether you are a student, an artist, a scholar or are a lover of history and culture, this is an unparalleled resource to explore the richness, diversity and complexity of human history contained in the British Museum’s collection. It is also a platform where we can share the latest knowledge and research. We are delighted to be able to unveil this major revamp early, and hope that these important objects can provide inspiration, reflection or even just quiet moments of distraction during this difficult time. Link:  The British Museum Puts 1.9 Million Images Online for Public Use

Hay una aparente contradicción: de acuerdo a  las teorías cosmológicas más aceptadas, el Universo que conocemos tiene una edad de 13 mil millones de años. El "espacio" conocible abarca 40 mil años luz. Alongside early dark energy, theorists have put forward other exotic forms of dark energy — such as quintessence and phantom dark energy — that also change as the universe ages. While these extensions to the standard model relieve the Hubble tension, they are regarded by many cosmologists as fine-tuned — opportune mathematical additions that have no clear justification. Link:  What Might Be Speeding Up the Universe’s Expansion?

Es la primera vez en muchos años que me digno a escuchar algo de banda. Descubro que es más una balada.

(Actualización: Ahora en video) Kevin Kelly es una figura venerada en el Internet. Considerado un filósofo, también fue editor fundador de la revista Wired. Con motivo de su cumpleaños 68, publicó una serie de 68 consejos para la vida.  When you are young spend at least 6 months to one year living as poor as you can, owning as little as you possibly can, eating beans and rice in a tiny room or tent, to experience what your “worst” lifestyle might be. That way any time you have to risk something in the future you won’t be afraid of the worst case scenario. Vale la pena consultar la variedad de ideas. También el consejo de no iniciar una guerra en Asia continental es indispensable para la vida. Link:  68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice