I work in clinical (and preclinical) trials. And I have celiac disease. I’m hopeful but not optimistic that I’ll be able to eat pasta within the next decade.

There are immunotherapy treatments for cancer already. Infections and cancer use the immune system the correct way: “tag” the problem cell/virus part with an antibody, make a lot more antibody and flood your body with it to clear the problem cell/virus.

This is the process a vaccine uses. The old vaccine method is to take a bunch of dead bacteria or inactivated virus and put that in your body. Your body should identify it and begin making antibodies against it. If you do get exposed to the disease, your body is full of antibodies which can immediately clear it, rather than letting the infection/cancer work for a few days without much of an immune response.

An autoimmune disease, a body “tags” its own cells. Then the immune system invades the person’s own tissue.

I have celiac disease. If I eat gluten, the enzymes I use to digest gluten become tagged. Unfortunately, humans make one gluten enzyme (TG2) that’s found everywhere in the body. A third of celiacs will have their thyroid tissue affected if they consume gluten.

One particular antibody, IgE, is known for extreme reactions to antigens. These are the ones known for the immediate and life-threatening allergies (peanuts, shellfish, bees, wheat).

This new stuff appears to be a way to tag antibodies or antigens or memory T cells (they hold the “blueprints” to make antibodies really quickly after your natural antibodies go away) and have the immune system “re-evaluate” the antigen. I’m guessing from the post above and a little of the article. I haven’t heard of this process in the body before.

Cancer itself is not autoimmune (autoimmune inflammation can make it more likely to happen, but tumors don’t form directly through autoimmune mechanisms). So the first pathway used for normal vaccination is what’s needed. The difficulty lies in knowing something in each specific cancer that would make a good antibody target. It is a person’s own cells and DNA, so a lot of care has to be taken to find an appropriate antigen. Immunotherapy treatments that exist are really specific to certain types of cancer. They have much less severe side effects than radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The US laws on bumpers has been refined in blood over the years. At least 20% of the people I know in my area have damaged their car by hitting a deer.

How will this truck fare if hitting a 90 kg deer? It’s different enough that it might be substantially different (better or worse) than a more conventional truck.

I’m also reminded of a famous car made of paneled stainless steel. It was a terrible car and ruined the company that made it. It’s only remembered fondly because of a popular movie series.

I don’t like Musk, and I’m not a fan of Tesla in general, but I kind of dig the design. Completely understand why it’s controversial and how others could perceive it as ugly, but I like it.

Then again, I liked the PT Cruiser when it came out (compared to all the other cars of the era), but within a year it became the car that was falling apart and owners hated it, and within 5 years it looked really dated.

I still like the Chevy HHR and Plymouth Prowler designs. They are truly “bold” designs in that they make decisions that a large percentage of people disliked. Not the marketing “bold design” which means “we slightly exaggerated a popular design feature that’s in style right now so no one will object to it”.

We’re used to viruses that have narrow cell types they can infect. Rhinoviruses can infect mucus membranes in the head and maybe throat. Influenza can infect the same plus lung tissue.

These coronaviruses can infect so many cell types. Because it’s spread via the air, it almost always infects mucus membranes of the head first, then moves to lungs (or maybe it infects lungs first in some people). So we think of it as a respiratory virus at first.

Now we know it can infect tissues of the gut, fat, T cells, and the testes. There was a wave of orchitis/epididymitis that was discovered to be coronavirus caused. I’m not sure if it’s considered COVID, I think COVID is the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus, but not sure about other diseases. Similar to how the varicella virus causes two diseases: chicken pox and shingles.

When people in the US talk about a classist system, it’s more of the structure than the cost. There are state IDs that are inexpensive in most states, but the Motor Vehicles branch (or whatever the state calls their department) that issues the ID are frequently difficult to travel to in lower income areas. Occasionally, the branches are understaffed and information about what can be used as proof of ID isn’t communicated clearly. Combine this with the US’s poor labor laws, and it means that it’s risky for someone to take off work, spend significant time getting to a DMV branch, waiting in line a long time because of understaffing, then be told they need more proof of ID and to do it all over again.

It’s frustrating for me and I have a driver’s license and a white-collar job so I can drive myself to the DMV easily and not worry about losing my job or losing a half-day’s pay.

It’s still kind of messy also because proof of birth by birth certificate wasn’t required until relatively recently. My grandad was never issued a birth certificate. As far as the government is concerned, he didn’t exist until he joined the army. We all have to take his word on when he was born and his name. He told it to the army and had no legal proof before then. So my state establishes identification without using birth certificates, which takes more paperwork and complications.

It’s an older platform that no longer exists. You’re thinking of X. Which is newer than Mastodon but still hasn’t implemented activitypub.

Usually the speed of time is one second per second in any reference frame.

My utility company uses Twitter, and keeps it updated with better information than they do via text message alerts. I wish they would get a mastodon account. During tornado season or ice storms, it’s nice to know if power will be back on in an hour or in three days. And once the boil water notice appeared on Twitter a couple of hours before being sent out by text.

I do this on the side, buy bulk low cycle lithium ion cells, spot weld them together into banks, and make larger packs.

What is the biggest safety problem seen with these?

My packs are 64P, right now 4s but hopefully 7s soon.

My main safety features are per-cell 5A fuses, 100A fuse on each bank under the battery wrap (not removable without cutting the wrap), and keeping the cells and nickel strips under a layer of kapton tape, followed by an ABS plate I designed and printed, then all the wiring, taped to the ABS with kapton tape. Which is then inside of the battery wrap. I use a lower current circuit breaker on the whole circuit.

My layman research suggests that loose wires are the main reason for fires, so all wires are taped down, and the nickel strips are protected from stress. A cell shorting out should blow the 5A fuse. And if I’m careless and bump the two terminals to a conductor while moving it, there’s always a 100A limit. I also only use low-cycled matched cells and currently am charging to 4V and discharging to 3V.

Any other things I can do to make it safer?