#C. diff. history

[jack-kellys]

everyone hold your fucking fire i swear to god

[queenwille]

Hey, as a non Jewish person I have found your blog rly educational on the conflict and rly appreciate it! I've seen a lot of diff debunking posts related to Hamas and the war but not a lot on the whole Israel stopping aid or Israel supposedly being the ones to violate the ceasefire thing. Do you know a) if there's any merit to those claims b) if they're being misconstrued and/or c) if they're based in antisemitism at all that I should be calling out? Ty!

hey there, missed this amongst all the spam. sorry. i guess you’re no longer here, but i’ll answer anyways, just in case.

i’m glad you’re finding it useful and i appreciate you letting me know, it means a lot! 🫶🏽

a) well, it depends on how you look at it. for example, hamas didn’t go through with literally one of the hostages exchange as agreed. obviously literally no one, but israel, cared and israel was expected to be the bigger man and just “let it go”, as if it didn’t matter and didn’t have real significance to its people. well… israel did consider it as a ceasefire violation each and every time and ,ofc, per usual it was frowned upon by the woke west when israel very carefully reacted to it (worried to lose the remaining hostages of phase A, not of what the west thought, even though it felt ridiculous each time to see them turn the blind eye). then phase A ended and as we all feared, they went into another “yeah ofc we want a deal” and nothing happened for a long while and both sides kept teasing each other until yep, israel officially broke the ceasefire and cut the aid. the israeli government claims that pressuring hamas with military and aid, will force them to take a deal quicker. as an israeli, i do find it extremely important to add that the renewal of the war happened during nighttime (local time) and we literally woke up to the news and were as horrified to learn it. a very large portion of israelis are against what’s happening due to how dangerous it is to our 59 hostages, many of them struggling to stay alive 556 days today. we do believe that a deal is the only way to go.

b) well, the short answer is yes. as i said, some of it is true, but just not accurate. for example, food trucks not reaching in certain parts of gaza due to hamas soldiers taking over the aid trucks once they entered the strip, there were literal videos of it. israel was still blamed for how much aid it lets in, even though it literally didn’t matter bc armed men would stand on it and shoot anyone who’d get anywhere near it. the narrative is so messed up at this point that i’m not sure if they bother trying to check for the truth. what i find amazing is that they usually think we’re uninformed or indifferent over what’s happening over the other side of the border, which is incorrect, but they simply never bother asking for our opinions.

c) idk if it’s rooted in antisemitism, but they sure use it all the time. when they use jewish rhetoric or jewish history such as the holocaust and nazis to offend us, it’s antisemitic. when they cancel jewish history and mock it, it’s antisemitic. when they cancel mizrahi, spharadi, ethiopian, shomroni & other jews by calling all jews europeans its… can you guess what? i could go on, but i guess you get my point.

hope i stayed on topic and didn’t let my adhd take me away, thanks for asking 💙

[transmutationisms]

hello caden do you have any tips for approaching history texts (both primary and secondary) as someone not in the history field? also how does one widen their general knowhow regarding the histories of diff countries? it seems like the type of thing one shld work on if they want to do largescale analyses but ive only really ever known my own country's history and america's history

these are some guiding questions i wrote out in regards to evaluating sources, and some more general tips for reading academic texts. i would also honestly recommend this extract from david bloor's strong programme in the sociology of knowledge—this pertains specifically to scientific knowledge so may not be entirely relevant to you, but is worth glancing over anyway as the general positions on symmetrical analysis are really critical to absorb imo. i would also say a key to reading historical texts regardless of what field you're in or not is that you absolutely must be willing to call bullshit when somebody is just peddling reactionary or liberal frameworks LOL. these are texts that may have useful data or anecdotes in them but whose explanatory narratives are flawed off the bat and you can, should, and must say so. :-)

in regards to breadth of knowledge, i think it's easy to be intimidated, but the truth is most historians do not have a lot of facts memorised about the entire world either. to some extent breadth and depth will always have some conflict with each other, and most historical methodology these days leans more toward developing deeper knowledge of a few countries or regions (usually even more specifically identified by a research area focussed on some particular topic and time period!) than toward a narrative of world-history. a text that purports to accomplish that tends to be bad, honestly, because there's a necessary lack of specificity, elision of very different cases into one another, &c. that said i obviously do recommend digging into any and all topics you do have an interest in; try to read widely and critically, and over time you will usually find that you start to orient yourself in the particular history you're looking at. i don't think you're ever past a point where you can start this process and i think the skills that comprise historical study can always be learned and honed.

[mariacallous]

Parasites take an enormous toll on human and veterinary health. But researchers may have found a way for patients with brain disorders and a common brain parasite to become frenemies.

A new study published in Nature Microbiology has pioneered the use of a single-cell parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, to inject therapeutic proteins into brain cells. The brain is very picky about what it lets in, including many drugs, which limits treatment options for neurological conditions.

As a professor of microbiology, I’ve dedicated my career to finding ways to kill dangerous parasites such as Toxoplasma. I’m fascinated by the prospect that we may be able to use their weaponry to instead treat other maladies.

Microbes as Medicine

Ever since scientists realized that microscopic organisms can cause illness—what’s called the 19th-century germ theory of disease—humanity has been on a quest to keep infectious agents out of our bodies. Many people’s understandable aversion to germs may make the idea of adapting these microbial adversaries for therapeutic purposes seem counterintuitive.

But preventing and treating disease by co-opting the very microbes that threaten us has a history that long predates germ theory. As early as the 1500s, people in the Middle East and Asia noted that those lucky enough to survive smallpox never got infected again. These observations led to the practice of purposefully exposing an uninfected person to the material from an infected person’s pus-filled sores—which unbeknownst to them contained weakened smallpox virus—to protect them from severe disease.

This concept of inoculation has yielded a plethora of vaccines that have saved countless lives.

Viruses, bacteria, and parasites have also evolved many tricks to penetrate organs such as the brain and could be retooled to deliver drugs into the body. Such uses could include viruses for gene therapy and intestinal bacteria to treat a gut infection known as C. diff.

Why Can’t We Just Take a Pill for Brain Diseases?

Pills offer a convenient and effective way to get medicine into the body. Chemical drugs such as aspirin or penicillin are small and easily absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream.

Biologic drugs such as insulin or semaglutide, on the other hand, are large and complex molecules that are vulnerable to breaking down in the stomach before they can be absorbed. They are also too big to pass through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream.

All drugs, especially biologics, have great difficulty penetrating the brain due to the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is a layer of cells lining the brain’s blood vessels that acts like a gatekeeper to block germs and other unwanted substances from gaining access to neurons.

Toxoplasma Offers Delivery Service to Brain Cells

Toxoplasma parasites infect all animals, including humans. Infection can occur in multiple ways, including ingesting spores released in the stool of infected cats or consuming contaminated meat or water. Toxoplasmosis in otherwise healthy people produces only mild symptoms but can be serious in immunocompromised people and to gestating fetuses.

Unlike most pathogens, Toxoplasma can cross the blood-brain barrier and invade brain cells. Once inside neurons, the parasite releases a suite of proteins that alter gene expression in its host, which may be a factor in the behavioral changes it causes in infected animals and people.

In a new study, a global team of researchers hijacked the system Toxoplasma uses to secrete proteins into its host cell. The team genetically engineered Toxoplasma to make a hybrid protein, fusing one of its secreted proteins to a protein called MECP2, which regulates gene activity in the brain—in effect, giving the MECP2 a piggyback ride into neurons. Researchers found that the parasites secreted the MECP2 protein hybrid into neurons grown in a petri dish as well as in the brains of infected mice.

A genetic deficiency in MECP2 causes a rare brain development disorder called Rett syndrome. Gene therapy trials using viruses to deliver the MECP2 protein to treat Rett syndrome are underway. If Toxoplasma can deliver a form of MECP2 protein into brain cells, it may provide another option to treat this currently incurable condition. It also may offer another treatment option for other neurological problems that arise from errant proteins, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

The Long Road Ahead

The road from laboratory bench to bedside is long and filled with obstacles, so don’t expect to see engineered Toxoplasma in the clinic anytime soon.

The obvious complication in using Toxoplasma for medical purposes is that it can produce a serious, lifelong infection that is currently incurable. Infecting someone with Toxoplasma can damage critical organ systems, including the brain, eyes, and heart.

However, up to one-third of people worldwide currently carry Toxoplasma in their brain, apparently without incident. Emerging studies have correlated infection with increased risk of schizophrenia, rage disorder, and recklessness, hinting that this quiet infection may be predisposing some people to serious neurological problems.

The widespread prevalence of Toxoplasma infections may also be another complication, as it disqualifies many people from using it for treatment. Since the billions of people who already carry the parasite have developed immunity against future infection, therapeutic forms of Toxoplasma would be rapidly destroyed by their immune systems once injected.

In some cases, the benefits of using Toxoplasma as a drug delivery system may outweigh the risks. Engineering benign forms of this parasite could produce the proteins patients need without harming the organ—the brain—that defines who we are.

[solifloris]

Yap anon here again!! Also don't worry about the timing of the reply, just go with your pace 🫶

ALSO AAAAAH??? I TOTALLY MISSED THAT DESCRIPTION OF FACIAL EXPRESSION. DAMMIT MC I'M JEALOUS TOO AAAAAAAAAAH PLEASE JUST ONE CHANCE D E S C R I B E THEIR FACES!!! though I do also enjoy the mysteriousness behind it aodklaks I can't choose but I'll eat any crumbs of the twins and face reveal would be very MUCH welcomed

Also!! I'm not sure have you known about this already but my Luke and Kieran brainrot has reached me checking all of their names in diff language so here it is!!

Luke

JP: アキラ Akira

KR: 서준 Seojun

CN: 薛明 Xueming

Kieran

JP: カゲト Kageto

KR: 서훈 Seohun/Seohoon

CN: 薛影 Xueying

AND LIKE AAA? I don't know the deeper meaning between their KR names, but their JP AND CN NAME!!! Now I don't actually know CN as a language, but I do know JP AND!!! THEIR NAME!!! LUKE'S MEANT LIGHT AND KIERAN'S MEANT SHADOW!! And because I'm able to read kanji, I notice the "明(ming)" in Xueming name is the kanji of Bright/Light while the "影(ying)" in Xueying is the kanji of Shadow/Phantom and I've just been crying ever since??? 😭😭😭

Pretty late to the brainrot but lastly I did do a quick google of their EN name and the name Luke means "light-giving." While Kieran means “little dark one” or “black-haired.” and I'm just 🥲🥲🥲🥲 Your honor I love them

I genuinely wonder are these names something they made themselves, something Sylus came up with, a genuine name or a code name, or is it the names their parents give or something like AAAAA SO MANY POSSIBILITIES??? 😭😭😭

Another brainrot I've been having is THE TWINS AS YOUR BATTLE COMPANION...... It's impossible but we could always dream

LIKE IMAGINE BATTLING ALONGSIDE WITH THEM??? EITHER BOTH OF THEM TOGETHER SO WE CREATE A TRIO OR INDIVIDUALLY WITH JUST ONE OF THEM ALDKLAKDKAKS????

THE TWINS RESONATING WITH US?? THE TWINS SHIELDING AN ATTACK FROM US?? THE TWINS DIALOGUES WHILE BATTLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING

"Watch your step, Miss Hunter"

"Boss will be mad if we're this sloppy"

"Why are you so far? Are we playing cat and the mouse?"

"We'll give you the honor of the last hit"

Like ALDJALDJSJAHHAHA I would've faint.

Also yes I'm very much looking forward to the Luke and Kieran bit in your kinktober like 🥹🥹🥹

WAAHHH I LOVE THIS SO MUCH I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT THEIR JAPANESE NAMES AT ALL... BUT I WAS TOTALLY THINKING THEIR CN NAMES FIT THEM SO WELL 😭😭😭 the direct comparison between luke being light and kieran being darkness... it's so INTERESTING!!!!! it's also so oddly attuned to the way they act, and the fact that luke is the older one??? like that's INSANE and it feels like SO much thought was put into their names throughout all dubs, which. it makes me so curious why that is..... definitely the possibility of them not even being their real names is suler viable, i want to know so badlyyyyy the history they have with sylus !! it's never felt , not even once, that their loyalty is out of just fear over how powerful sylus is.... there's so much more there waaagh i'm so curious,, me it's me, i totally put "more luke and kieran content please" in the survey's suggestion box ✋✋✋✋

and anonie i'm. i will CRY BC I CAN HEAR THEM SAYING THOSE LINES SO CLEARLY IN MY HEAD HFJSNGBSKGJS IVE NEVER NEEDED SOMETHING SO BAD IN MY LIFE......... the resonating, the shield actions... THE LINES OF CONCERN THAT BORDERLINE TEASING HHFJSNGNJSKF im gonna sob and think about this everyday now

[remediosthinks]

Theory that only makes sense cus this bitch (me) is in too many fandoms

ok so, sorry for this, but this post might go between diff perspectives (1st, 2nd, 3rd) but anything i say unless specifically stated otherwise is about me. He/they pronouns for me and ill refer to myself as Fox.

Ok, so i was out in my backyard, swinging, listening to music and thinking about my Watcher!Grian / Hermit!TommyInnit AU and I was coming up with a whole plotline which is too long to say here.

anyway, it was a... crack treated seriously, ig. technically. and it had a line where Xisuma says: "How did you know he (Tommy) was here (Grian's base. The Hermits were all at spawn for a meeting, so he shouldn'tve.)?" and Grian just said: "I saw."

now, i am a HUGE fan of the c!DSMP characters and plot, especially Las Nevadas, so naturally, when Fox said "I saw" out loud (he thinks out loud, ok? 😭) they immediately though of c!Slimecicle.

Now, he already had an AU which connects SCU (Slimecicle Cinematic Universe) and Epic SMP (the server that Charlie and Ted were basically slaves for Schlatt /rp) to DSMP. What they had made the AU as was that the explosion of Bungerburg was why Slime was, well, slime. It (Slime) had PTA (Post-Traumatic Amnesia) because of the explosion and that's why it can't remember anything before the DSMP. The explosion also caused it to become slime. Don't ask me how, I don't know either.

anyway, since you were thinking about Watchers and hermitcraft/evo lore, you thought of a really interesting au where the reason Slime doesn't remember and is slimy, is because of the Watchers.

what you thought could be a good plotline/fic idea was this:

Charlie fucking explodes Bungerburg and dies. The Watchers "save" him from losing his second life by kidnapping him for like a hundred years. They change his name to the [Language] word for slime and, rather than giving him wings and shit, they make him made out of slime - able to sneak into cracks easily and goop around. He then hides in the wall of the restaurant in Las Nevadas and the rest is history.

What do you readers think of this idea???

[tianshiisdead]

💣

💣: ship that pisses me off

Funny answer: Ca/nCh/u bc as a chinese canadian my mommyland would NEVER touch c*nada

Serious answer that’s annoying and lecture-y feel free to stop reading here:

Disclaimer: some of my mutuals/followers/etcetc ship this and that is okay i support you go live your best life kings and queens

I don’t much like any white x Japan ship I’m sorry </3 like especially white man x Japan but white woman x Japan also makes me side eye… I’m sure people can ship it normally but I’ve seen too many weird takes and too many possessive orientalist weebs. there’s so often something weird whether its feminizing Japan through a western (tbh American neocolonial lense) or fetishizing the concept of soft East Asian masculinity in service of the white female protagonist, often at the cost of his relations with other ESEA nations that have a longer history with Japan, basically flattening him down to a white person’s fantasy. I’m sorry that doesn’t sit right with me!! I dislike excessive softening of Japan in general (like even compared to canon where he has a bit of an edge and can be rude/mean…) and white x Japan ships often seem to do it, and that’s not getting into how a lot of these ships play heavily into orientalist tropes. My dislike wrt softening Japan is twofold, first of all the way softening his edges plays into the whitewashing of Japan’s global image, and secondly how it infantilizes and objectifies Easianness, and specifically Japaneseness which is so often fetishized in the west due to a mix of American military occupation in Japan and the general power imbalance, Japanese pop culture’s global popularity, and the perceived accessibility of Japan compared to the rest of Asia. I’m not saying all the white/Japan inherently play into these tropes, they are just ships, but that enough of the content surrounding these ships play into it that I’ve grown to dislike them.

a note: I feel quite similar about white x China ships and the few white x Korea ships that do exist haha although I think it’s not quite as bad bc China and Korea aren’t at the forefront of weeb fetishization (wrt China it can be bad for a completely diff reason…), people who’ve been here for a while know I used to ship quite a few China x white ships but I’ve basically completely gravitated away from them after getting tired of a lot of the aforementioned orientalist tropes and also just general changes in taste.

[ludcake]

tbh mostly academic discourse here but I've always struggled with the wide use of genocide as a buzzword in modern discourse in so far as it is used to describe processes of colonial domination and imperial ventures - as a scholar in IR, there's a fundamental disconnect with the idea of describing something as a genocide without taking into account the origin of the world, which was, to quote its creator, " a crime without name".

It's difficult to be respectful to the study of Raphael Lemkin and the baggage behind it whilst also widely applying the term; it was created specifically in the context of Lemkin as a Jewish and Polish refugee to describe the process of Nazi extermination of minorities, which he differentiated later from ethnocide (which is specifically the destruction of the cutural heritage of a people) and which he drew specifically as a shared link between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, and his later work in analysing French colonial policy in Algeria and Soviet policy in Ukraine.

Genocide has become a really easy word to use, same as "fascist", but it carries a unique weight to it that makes it hard for me to use it without careful consideration; because genocide isn't just the extermination of a group of people, it's not just mass murder, it's not just ethnocide, it's not a secondary consideration. It is the combination of all these factors - and ultimately, a crime committed with intent and purpose. It's become a buzzword since the 1990s and its use to describe the Hutu-Tutsi conflicts in Rwanda, and with its popularity there came an overuse of it to describe bad things in general - the United States is committing a genocide, the Portuguese committed genocides, Russia commits genocide, it becomes so ubiquitous that its characteristic, founding itself as a "crime without name", loses entirely the weight of its origin.

What word can describe the intentional extermination and destruction of a people so that they would become a relic of history, targeted with the full intent of industrialising a machine of slaughter, if genocide now no longer manages to encompass the specific cruelty of those circumstances?

The United Nations, following Lemkin's guidance, created a convention on genocide. It codified it as such;

"genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Yet that definition does not encompass Lemkin's original definition either, in his work Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, as follows;

New conceptions require new terms. By "genocide" we mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group. This new word, coined by the author to denote an old practice in its modern development, is made from the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin cide (killing), thus corresponding in its formation to such words as tyrannicide, homocide, infanticide, etc. Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group.

The following illustration will suffice. The confiscation of property of nationals of an occupied area on the ground that they have left the country may be considered simply as a deprivation of their individual property rights. However, if the confiscations are ordered against individuals solely because they are Poles, Jews, or Czechs, then the same confiscations tend in effect to weaken the national entities of which those persons are members.

Genocide has two phases: one, destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group; the other, the imposition of the national pattern of the oppressor. This imposition, in turn, may be made upon the oppressed population which is allowed to remain or upon the territory alone, after removal of the population and the colonization by the oppressor's own nationals.

Denationalization was the word used in the past to describe the destruction of a national pattern. The author believes, however, that this word is inadequate because: 1.) it does not connote the destruction of the biological structure; 2.) in connoting the destruction of one national pattern it does not connote the imposition of the national pattern of the oppressor; and 3.) denationalization is used by some authors to mean only deprivation of citizenship."

Here, then, the fundamental thesis of genocide is the nation; and that is also something that is difficult for me to reckon with, because I am not a nationalist. I do not believe in the utility or use of the bio-cultural nationhood to define geopolitical terms, and think that as people, we have closer kinship between each other by our shared material reality than we do due to national kinship. How can we better understand the gross material reality of death for death's sake - because that, to me, is the true crime behind it, the killing for the sake of elimination, the completely and wholly negative act of complete destruction engineered by the methods of capital industrialism and powered by the murderous intent of ideology - and yet reckon with it? To put it in other terms, how can we reckon with genocide, when the word is so thoroughly stigmatised that it is used as a generic negative, rather than as the thoroughly specific, legal term that brought it to genesis?

At what point do we understand that key word - objective, intent - and at what point does death no longer mean a statement upon nationhood, and at what point do we define nationhood to a group? The UN definition would see us define nationhood as an abstract, by which religious groups constitute a nation whole, yet on the flipside we do not understand political affiliation, or personal belief or philosophy, to warrant such protection. What is the inception of a nation that makes it liable to be genocided? Is there a word to describe solely the uniquely destructive ideology of genocide, or a word to describe it in service to other goals, is there a word that would differentiate Soviet policy in Ukraine to British policy in Wales to French policy in Occitania to German policy in Bavaria? Is there a word that would differentiate the colonial enterprise of Britain in India to its enterprise in the Americas? To the Spanish enterprise in the Andes, to Portuguese enterprise in Mozambique and Angola, to the Brazilian enterprise within its own territory, to the American enterprise in Liberia and the American enterprise in Mexico? Do we accept that genocide is such a widely occurring act that there is no fundamental differentiation between the clash of Hutu and Tutsi peoples to the Belgian domination of Rwanda? No difference between the starvation of India and the treatment of Bangladesh by Pakistan? At what point is there not another "crime without name", then? When do we require new words to define these concepts, at a time when there is such a clear interest in redefining and expanding the word genocide so that all peoples have a claim to it, to a point wherein it becomes so commonplace that again we're left with no words to describe the unique evil of enterprises such as Nazi Germany, Manifest Destiny, Manchukuo and the CUP? How do we differentiate these from apartheid, and from colonialism, and wars of extermination?

Is there, again, a crime without name?

[vintagercfreak]

Mercedes-Benz C11 1990: #TAM47484

A few weeks ago I saw a YT video about this kit and instantly got rememmbered about the older days. This was back then one of my favorit kits in the Tamiya catalog.

Since I was a child back then I couldn't afford it and my parents refused to buy it. In addition there wasn't an "on road" track nearby to drive it properly. So it remained a dream.

But now it's time to make this dream become reality :-)

Racecar history:

Whenever Group C sportscars are shown nowadays the're well known for their pure insanity and a lot of people well remember cars like the C11, hte 787B from Mazda and the XJR-11 from Jaguar.

The car had its race debut in 1990 at Monza and scorred a pos 1 / 2 with well known drivers like Karl Wendlinger, Jean-Louis Schlesser, Jochen Mass and Maro Baldi. During the 1990 season of the World Sports-Prototype Championship the car managed to win a total of 7 races. However the C11 didn't take part of the famous 24hrs of LeMans. Sauber decied to not defend their victory in 1989 since the 1990 24hrs of LeMans didn't count for the Sports-Prototype Championship.

Most of the other Sports-Prototype drivers, including Martin Brundle in his XJR-11, sayd, that it would have been nearly impossible to follow the car since it was way easier to drive, had more power and more efficient aerodynamics than other group c racecars back then.

In 1991 the successor was the Sauber C-291 but due to some techincal issues in the early season Sauber decided to run the C11 along the successor.

More details can be found in this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_C11

RC kit history:

In 1990 Tamiya first released the Sauber C11 as kit with item-Nr 58088. 14 Years after its initial release there was a second kit with Item-Nr 58351. While tha chassis itself stayed more or less the same the newer kit included an allready painted and finished body.

The box cover changed in 2009 when they released a second batch / version from the Tamiya specific white box art to a black box art.

In 2022...18 Years after the last release...Tamiya decided to bring it back to customers not with the item-nr 47484 and again with a black art box cover.

While the chassis remained almost the same the newest releases all contain a clear polycarbonate body (1mm) and a sports tuned motor as well as high grip foam sponge tyres.

More details about the dimmensions and a detailled parts list are available here https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/110-f-1gtindy-cars/rc-1990-mercedes-benz-c11/ and here https://tamiyabase.com/tamiya-models/47484-47484#original

The build:

I found the kit at a nearby hobby shop in Switzerland for about 150$ https://www.scamora.ch/pi/RC-MODELLE/Auto-Modelle/Elektro-On-Road/Bausatz-Modelle/rc-kit-tamiya-sauber-mercedes-benz-c11-1990-110.html

Compared to other vinatge kits and re-releases this is a rather easy one to find.

The kit is easy to build and it's quite fast since the manual only consits of 20 build steps with additional 6 for the painting and livery.

Since I first saw a build clip on YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4oZGuvd84o I got hooked to the few hop up options and decided to add them as well.

Hop-up parts:

Unfortunately the YT clip isn't listing a detailled hop-up parts list. So it was a bit of fiddeling around with "pause" and "zoom" into the clip to get all the parts together. I doubt they do have much of an impact but if you can go with blue alloy tuning parts there's no doubt you should do :-) Here's a list of the used tuning / hop-up parts:

TAM42375 - 1280 Sealed Ball Bearings (2)

TAM54158 - Full alloy diff (F104)

TAM54240 - F104 Clamp Type Wheel Hub

TAM53008 - Kugellager 11x5x4mm (4)

TAM53901 - TRF Damper F013/F103GT/F104

Since there are no official hop-up parts for these vintage kits they need a bit of adjustments and I had to design and print some parts on my 3D printer to made them fit perfectly. But it's no big deal and you might find "fitting" parts in other kits out of the box.

If I find some time I'll publish the printable *.stl files on Thingiverse later on.

And like every other tuned rc car with hop-up parts from Tamiya this one looks great even if you don't see them with the body on.

[fromdevcom]

Code Like a Pro: 10 Must-Have VS Code Extensions for 2025 Visual Studio Code (VS Code) continues to dominate the development world in 2025 as one of the most flexible and feature-rich code editors available. Its real strength lies in its extensions, allowing developers to tailor their workspace for maximum productivity. In this article, we’re highlighting the 10 essential VS Code extensions for developers in 2025, curated to enhance your coding experience across web, backend, DevOps, and cloud-based development. Criteria for Selection The extensions featured in this article were chosen based on: Popularity & Ratings on the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. Practical Functionality that streamlines everyday development tasks. Community Support & Updates ensuring long-term reliability. Impact on Productivity, including faster debugging, better code quality, and easier collaboration. This list is curated for a broad range of developers: web developers, full-stack engineers, DevOps professionals, and beyond. Top 10 Essential VS Code Extensions for Developers in 2025 1. Prettier – Code Formatter Primary Functionality: Automatic code formatting. Key Features: Supports multiple languages (JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, HTML, JSON, etc.). Enforces consistent style across your team. Integrates with Git hooks. Use Cases: Automatically format your code on save to keep it clean. Install & Use: Search for “Prettier - Code formatter” in the Extensions tab or install it via Prettier Marketplace Page. Configuration Tips: Add a .prettierrc config file for project-wide formatting rules. 2. ESLint Primary Functionality: JavaScript and TypeScript linting. Key Features: Detects syntax and style issues. Auto-fix functionality for many issues. Customizable rulesets. Use Cases: Ensure clean, consistent code in large projects. Install & Use: Install via ESLint Marketplace Page. Configuration Tips: Use eslint --init to generate your config file quickly. 3. Live Server Primary Functionality: Launch a local development server with live reload. Key Features: Auto-refreshes the browser when you save changes. Supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript. Use Cases: Ideal for frontend developers working with static files. Install & Use: Install from Live Server Marketplace Page and click "Go Live" in the status bar. Configuration Tips: Customize the default port and browser in settings.json. 4. GitLens – Git Supercharged Primary Functionality: Enhances Git capabilities in VS Code. Key Features: Inline blame annotations. History and commit navigation. Side-by-side diffs and visual file history. Use Cases: Great for tracking changes and understanding code evolution. Install & Use: Available on GitLens Marketplace Page. Configuration Tips: Enable code lens for inline author info at the top of functions. 5. Bracket Pair Colorizer 2 Primary Functionality: Colorizes matching brackets. Key Features: Nested brackets get unique colors. Enhances code readability in deeply nested code. Use Cases: Especially useful in languages like Python, JavaScript, and C++. Install & Use: Get it from the Marketplace Page. Configuration Tips: Customize color settings in settings.json for better visibility. 6. Auto Rename Tag Primary Functionality: Automatically renames matching HTML/XML tags. Key Features: Saves time editing HTML, JSX, and XML. Use Cases: Quickly update tags in large HTML files. Install & Use: Install from Auto Rename Tag Marketplace Page. Configuration Tips: Works seamlessly with HTML and JSX files out of the box. 7. Code Spell Checker Primary Functionality: Highlights spelling errors in code comments, strings, and documentation. Key Features: Multi-language support. Personal dictionary feature.

Use Cases: Prevent embarrassing typos in documentation and comments. Install & Use: Find it on the Marketplace Page. Configuration Tips: Add common project terms to .cspell.json. 8. Docker Primary Functionality: Manage Docker containers, images, and registries. Key Features: Build and run containers directly from VS Code. Visual UI for managing Docker assets. Use Cases: Perfect for DevOps and containerized development. Install & Use: Get it via the Docker Extension Marketplace Page. Configuration Tips: Integrate with Docker Compose for advanced workflows. 9. Remote – SSH Primary Functionality: Develop on remote machines over SSH. Key Features: Seamlessly code on remote Linux servers. Works with local VS Code UI. Use Cases: Great for working with cloud-based dev environments. Install & Use: Install from Remote - SSH Marketplace Page. Configuration Tips: Store SSH targets in ~/.ssh/config for quick access. 10. IntelliSense for Specific Languages (e.g., Python, Java, C++) Primary Functionality: Smart code completions based on language semantics. Key Features: Offers autocompletion, method suggestions, and parameter hints. Integrates with language servers (e.g., PyLance for Python). Use Cases: Enhances coding experience for language-specific tasks. Install & Use: Example: Python Extension, C++ Extension. Configuration Tips: Enable IntelliSense features like auto-imports in settings.json. Benefits of Using VS Code Extensions VS Code extensions offer numerous benefits, including: Increased Productivity: Automate repetitive tasks and get more done in less time. Improved Code Quality: Catch errors and enforce coding standards with linters and formatters. Streamlined Workflows: Integrate with tools like Git, Docker, and SSH directly in your editor. Enhanced Collaboration: Consistent formatting and intelligent annotations improve team workflows. Staying Updated with Extensions To keep your extensions updated: Go to the Extensions view, and click the "Update" button if visible. Use Ctrl+Shift+P → "Extensions: Check for Updates". Explore trending extensions from the VS Code Marketplace. Conclusion With the right VS Code extensions, your development environment becomes more powerful, responsive, and tailored to your workflow. The 10 extensions listed above are tried-and-tested tools that can dramatically boost your coding productivity in 2024. Explore, experiment, and customize your setup to match your development style. And don't forget to share your favorite VS Code extensions with the developer community! Suggested External Links: VS Code Marketplace Official VS Code Documentation ✅ Note: All extensions listed are actively maintained and compatible with the latest VS Code 2025 version.

[jamroses]

fun history ramble about the first ever c-section (that we know of since its recorded in court docs) ! (i literally posted this in 5 diff gcs on discord alr but i wanted to share it with yall)

so back in the day c-sections were not like. a thing. but one day there was this lady who had a rich family, and she was busy giving birth.. BUT THE BABY the baby omg it wouldnt come out bc it was rotated !! and the midwife is trying everything to help the baby, and the wife is screaming in pain and agony bc its the old dyas and they didnt have painkillers :/. BUT heres the thing.. if she died ad the baby still lives before she dies, then the husband inherits all her money (it was quite a lot), but if the baby dies before she dies then her family inherits all the money!! so back to the baby that wont get outt, the midwife is like, GET A DOCTOR in here bc i dont think this is gonna work. so the husband gets a doctor in and hes like 'cant u js. cut her out?' and the doctor is like, yeah, but the wife will die. and the midwife is NONOOO bc shes there for the wife as well right. so the husband is trying to convince the midwife to give the ok to the doctor to let him cut the wife open. and meanwhile, the wife is still screaming her lungs out bc of the pain!! and then. she stops. bc shes DEADD. and the other 3 r still arguing…… so eventually the midwife is convinced and they cut the baby out. but the baby was also dead at that point bc without its mother giving it oxygen or wtv it wont survive. but they thought "OH lets put it by the FIRE BC itll warm up and come back alive again." but it didnt. and then the husband and the dead wives family had to go to court to settle who got the money and eventually the family won

[ezrajteboul]

Book available for preorder

"Modular Synthesis: Patching Machines and People" is available for preorder. The release date is April 30th, and it will be available in pdf, paperback and hardback.

Introduction - Andreas Kitzmann and Einar Engström

Preface (All Patched Up: A Material and Discursive History of Modularity and Control Voltages) - Ezra J. Teboul

1. The Buchla Music Easel: From Cyberculture to Market Culture

Theodore Gordon

2. Modular Synthesizers as Conceptual Models

Jonathan De Souza

3. A Time-Warped Assemblage as a Musical Instrument: Flexibility and Constauration of Modular Synthesis in Willem Twee Studio 1 

Hannah Bosma

4. Interview

Dani Dobkin

5. Gordon Mumma’s Sound-Modifier Console

Michael Johnsen

6. Artist Statement: Switchboard Modulars – Vacant Levels and Intercept Tones

Lori Napoleon

7. Eurorack to VCV Rack: Modular Synthesis as Compositional Performance

Justin Randell and Hillegonda C. Rietveld

8. Strange Play: Parametric Design and Modular Learning

Kurt Thumlert, Jason Nolan, Melanie McBride, and Heidi Chan

9. Grid Culture

Arseni Troitski and Eliot Bates

10. Modular Ecologies

Bana Haffar

11. Ourorack: Altered States of Consciousness and Auto-Experimentation with Electronic Sound

William J. Turkel 

12. Patching Possibilities: Resisting Normative Logics in Modular Interfaces

Asha Tamirisa

13. Draft/Patch/Weave: Interfacing the Modular Synthesizer with the Floor Loom

Jacob Weinberg and Anna Bockrath

14. Composing Autonomy in Thresholds and Fragile States

David Dunn and David Kant

15. Virtual Materiality: Simulated Mediation in the Eurorack Synthesizer Format

Ryan Page

16. Interview: Designing Instruments as Designing Problems

Meng Qi

17. Interviews with Four Toronto-based Modular Designers

Heidi Chan

18. Interview

Dave Rossum

19. Interview

Paulo Santos

20. Interview

Corry Banks

21. Modular Synthesis in the Era of Control Societies

Sparkles Stanford

22. Randomness, Chaos, and Communication

Naomi Mitchell

23. Interview

Andrew Fitch

24. From "What If?" to "What Diff?" And Back Again

Michael Palumbo and Graham Wakefield

25. Interview: The Mycelia of Does-Nothing Objects

Brian Crabtree

[mythoughtsverbatim]

Watch "1958 Foreign exchange: Thailand, Malaya, Philippines, Iceland, Turkey, Greece. Subject: Prejudice" on YouTube

Main point:

Humans everywhere in the earth have something from history against their immediate neighbours or against colonizers coming from far.

Reasons could arise from

Religion based food habits differences

Skin color based intelligence, entrepreneurial assumptions

....

Examples tried to write as I was listening

Malay prejudices against

Siamese, Japanese, Chinese= diff reasons

Bcuz country invaded many times,

M Did not eat pork while C did

Chinese took all the businesses. So Philippine

Philippine prejudices root for Spaniard

Only allowed to live in slump area

Had to pay higher taxes

[whentherewerebicycles]

ughhh fuuuuuck I’m starting two new units tomorrow and I don’t have a solid lesson plan or really even a sense of what’s going to happen in either unit FUUUUCK

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Monopolizing turds

Update 31 May 2023: an earlier edition of this article identified the price of Rebyota as $20,000; this was the rumored price prior to Rebyota’s release in December  2022, when Stephen Skolnick wrote the article I referenced. When Rebyota was actually released in 2023, the average wholesale price (AWP) was $10,800. Thanks to Benjamin Jolley for catching this error, and to Stephen Skolnick for getting to the bottom of it.

It’s been ten years — to the day! — since I first started writing about the bizarre, amazing world of turd transplants, in which a sick person receives a microbiotic infusion in the form of some processed poop from a healthy person:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130608030455/http://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/2013/05/29/why-diy-fecal-transplants-are-a-thing-and-the-fda-is-only-part-of-the-reason/

Gut biomes are one of those understudied, poorly understood medical areas that are both very promising and also full of sketchy medical claims from “supplement” companies, influencers, quacks and grifters. But in the decade since I first started tracking turd transplants (formally called “Fecal Microbiota Transplants” or FMTs), a growing body of sound science has emerged on the subject.

One thing that’s increasingly undeniable is that the composition of your microbial nation is related in significant ways to both your physical and mental health. What’s more, as antibiotic resistant “super bugs” proliferate, FMTs are becoming increasingly central to treating dangerous gut infections that otherwise stand a high chance of killing you.

“Eat Shit and Prosper” is Stephen Skolnick’s delightfully named newsletter about poop and health science. Skolnick is a physicist by training, but has a long history of collaboration with Openbiome, a nonprofit that coordinates between doctors, patients and donors to provide safe FMTs:

https://stephenskolnick.substack.com/

In an edition of Eat Shit from last December, Skolnick recounts the amazing history and dismaying future of FMTs. In 2013, the FDA announced it would regulate FMTs as “Investigational New Drugs,” which could only be administered as part of a registered clinical trial:

https://stephenskolnick.substack.com/p/a-monopoly-on-poop

At that point, FMTs were already in widespread use by docs to treat otherwise untreatable cases of Clostridioides difficile (C. diff), an antibiotic resistant bacterial infection that literally makes you shit yourself to death. These doctors were in no position to run registered clinical trials, which meant that they would have to stop using the most effective therapy they had for a potentially lethal infection.

Doctors and patients kicked up a fuss, and the FDA walked back its guidance, announcing that it would exercise “discretion” in enforcing its Investigational New Drug rule, giving a pass to docs who were treating C. diff with FMTs:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2013/07/18/2013-17223/guidance-for-industry-enforcement-policy-regarding-investigational-new-drug-requirements-for-use-of

That’s where things have stood for the past decade or so. The “discretion” rule means that patients could still get FMTs, but their insurance wouldn’t cover it. But even if you had cash to pay for an FMT, your doc probably wouldn’t administer it for anything except a C. diff infection, despite the promising signs that FMT can help treat other conditions, and despite the generally safe nature of FMTs.

If your doc did give you an FMT, chances are good that they sourced their poop from Openbiome. Openbiome recruits very healthy people, gets them to poop in a bag, then processes the poop — removing nonbacterial solids, testing it for pathogens, freezing it, portioning it, and sending it to docs. All this is done at cost, and it’s not cheap: $1–2k/treatment, mostly due to cold-chain logistics (the poop is shipped at -80C).

Despite the cost, and despite the limitations on treatment, the Openbiome method has proved very reliable. Indeed, FMTs as a whole are pretty darned safe, with the most common side-effects being transient gas and bloating. In the past decade, there’ve been a total of six “adverse effects” associated with Openbiome’s 5,000+ procedures, all in severely immunocompromised people, and none conclusively linked to the treatment:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016508522003511/pdf

A decade into this system, the FDA has taken the next step forward — only it’s actually a step backwards.

During this intervening decade, a pharma company called Ferring has conducted clinical trials on FMTs and received approval for an FMT product called Rebyota. The process for making Rebyota is effectively identical to the process used by Openbiome: collect poop, remove solids, test for pathogens, add glycerol, freeze and ship.

The main difference between Rebyota and Openbiome’s poop is price. While Openbiome charges $1–2k per treatment, Rebyota charges $10,800

That’s some expensive shit!

Fine. Getting Rebyota through clinical trials means that insurers might start covering it, and perhaps some patients will prefer brand-name poop to open-source poop. But as part of the FDA’s approval of Rebyota, the agency also rescinded its “discretionary enforcement” guidance, making it illegal for docs to source their poop from Openbiome:

https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/enforcement-policy-regarding-investigational-new-drug-requirements-use-fecal-microbiota

For Ferring, this is a monopoly on shit, one that lets them charge patients $10.8k for poop that costs $1–2k to process. The FDA does not claim that this is being done in the name of safety. Instead, an FDA official told Skonick that the goal was to “incentivize innovation without creating an access crisis.”

That is, the FDA changed its guidance and put nonprofit stool banks out of business because it wants to incentivize pharma companies to perform expensive clinical trials, and it believes that these companies won’t pay for trials if they have to compete with the likes of Openbiome, which would make it impossible to charge 900% markups on poop.

Trials are important! Evidence-based medicine is important! But Ferring’s clinical trials didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. FMTs were already the best therapy we had for C. diff. Testing Rebyota against a placebo didn’t tell us anything new — unlike testing Rebyota against the existing therapies, e.g. product from open stool banks.

Such a trial might have given rise to a very different regulatory outcome, because the cure rate reported by Rebyota is much lower than the cure rate from Openbiome’s own interventions:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40265-022-01797-x

That is, using the $1k poop from Openbiome seems to be much more effective than using the $10.8k poop from Ferring. But Openbiome, a nonprofit, hasn’t been able to perform the kind of rigorous — and expensive — clinical trial that Ferring funded.

This points to a significant problem with the FDA’s model. The agency wants good clinical data for the medicines it regulates, as it should, It presumes that the only way to get that data is through granting commercial exclusivity to a for-profit, which ends up costing patients vast sums, and locking many patients out altogether.

This creates all kinds of new dangers. 150,000 people/year in the US contract Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection (RCdI). FMT increases the cure rate by 20% relative to antibiotics alone. That means that if everyone with RCdI gets a poop transplant, 30,000 extra people will get better. That’s a big number!

For well insured people, Rebyota probably represents a cash-savings — if your insurance covers the $10,800 procedure, you might pay $500 out of pocket, which is far less than the $1–2K you’d pay to get an Openbiome poop transplant. But if you’re uninsured or underinsured, the FDA’s new enforcement rules mean that you’re now on the hook for $10,800.

The FDA did carve out a loophole: if your doc or their hospital are willing to prepare the poop transplant themselves, they can administer that. On the one hand, preparing a poop transplant isn’t that hard — some people do them at home, on their own:

https://web.archive.org/web/20211015060558/https://thepowerofpoop.com/epatients/fecal-transplant-instructions/

But on the other hand, there’s been exactly one death conclusively linked to FMT, and it was from one of these hospital-prepared transplants (the patient had just had a marrow transplant for cancer that wiped out their immune system, and the donor had a novel pathogen that the hospital failed to test for).

So the FDA has created a situation where, if you can’t afford a $10,800 proprietary formulation, your only option is to convince your doc or hospital to prepare their own poop transplant, which will cost less than the $10.8k for Rebyota, but more than the $1–2k from Openbiome, which has all kinds of economies of scale. And if you do manage it, you’ll be getting a procedure that has a much worse safety track-record than the Openbiome process that the FDA just killed.

The FDA has an important role to play here, but as with so many policy questions, how the FDA plays that role depends on things that are far upstream from the agency and its decisions. The choice to fund medical trials through the promise of exclusivity — and with it, extremely high margins — puts the FDA in the position of choosing winners in the marketplace: Ferring wins, Openbiome loses.

Ironically, this is the thing that exclusivity is supposed to prevent. By using profit to incentivize medical research, the FDA is supposed to be recruiting the Invisible Hand as its partner in regulation. But exclusivity is incompatible with the idea of medicine as a public good. The tens (hundreds) of millions that Americans will pay for $10.8k poop transplants from Ferring will add up to far more than it would cost to underwrite clinical trials for an open process like Openbiome’s.

The result: both Americans’ wallets and Americans’ guts suffer.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Hay-on-Wye, Oxford, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/29/oh-shit/#rebyota

[Image ID: A poop emoji wearing a top hat and a monocle, posed against a backdrop of e coli bacteria seen through a high-resolution microscope.]

[insomniactalks]

I understand why Ricky and Gina shippers are convinced S3 will be a romantic exploration for their ship b/c so many of the newest sneak peeks may suggest this (and the fact they've been content starved since 2.06. I get it. I do😅). However, I can't stop thinking about this moment:

Do y'all see how happy and playful Ricky is with EJ here? If you told S1 EJ and Ricky they'd be having a pillow fight someday they would have laughed in your face!😂 I just love how far they've come from where they started on the show. I would never claim that Ricky and EJ are the best of friends, because I don't believe that to be true, but you can't deny that they certainly started to really become friends by S2, esp 2.10 when Ricky tried to be there for EJ by helping him solve his problem. EJ seems to be wearing the same jacket from the trailer when he and Gina have what looks like another heart to heart (where he says he's "freaking out"). I believe that's 3.03, where Ricky and Gina go on a “spooky adventure” (or something like that). The very fact that Ricky is behaving this playfully with someone who he used to consider an enemy is major. In S1, Ricky very obviously tried to put a wedge between Nini and EJ b/c he wanted Ejini to break up so that he could get back t/g with her. Two seasons later, and what looks like could be the most fun he's had in a long time, I get the feeling Ricky isn't gonna try to cause intentional drama for Portwell. I actually think the fictional Corbin Bleu's character is going to cause more intentional drama this season for the Wildcats, including PW in 3.04/3.05 (I think those are the episodes):

Do you see how satisfied Corbin looks at whatever drama is unfolding? I think he really wants his documentary to be juicy and drama-filled, hence Ricky seemingly storming off out of rehearsals, and EJ following after him while Ashlyn looks worried about what she's seeing. Channing is clearly following all the drama with his camera, which makes me think Corbin intentionally pushed some buttons for Gina, EJ, and Ricky, but again, it's not Ricky intentionally trying to come between PW. I think this scene may follow the above:

You see how EJ initially looks happy as he approaches Ricky, then his smile drops when he sees Gicky playing around with that paper? I think it's possible he walked out after Ricky to try to comfort him after some drama Corbin started, but then he sees this scene play out in front of him, and maybe something (an insecurity, for example🤔) Corbin touched on earlier in the rehearsal space affects EJ in this moment. I think this might be Ricky just continuing to have fun during his summer, not trying to cause problems b/t PW. He and Gina are friends again, which puts them in a good place (which I was hoping for after S2😔). This might be Ricky just having fun with his friends, like with EJ in that pillow fight LOL 🤣but EJ misinterprets what he sees. Again, his girlfriend and the guy she used to have feelings for are playing romantic leads. EJ might be afraid history will repeat itself, but I doubt it. I feel S3 will have a diff outcome...*cough cough* Portwell Love Confession *cough cough*😉

Also, let’s stop acting like EJ will do anything to ruin his relationship with Gina (jealousy rising or otherwise). 🤦🏽‍♀️Did we forget what Gina said about him in 2.08? Let me remind you:

Y'all really going to tell me this don't sound like foreshadowing for their journey in S3? Just like Mitchie in Camp Rock 2 and Troy in HSM2, I guarantee you EJ will lose sight of what's really important to him for a bit, before coming back around at the end of the season by doing what's right and remembering his priorities (like his promise for this to be the "best summer ever" in 3.01)). Mitchie and Troy made similar promises at the beginning of their summers to Shane and Gabriella, before conflict rises mid way, then settles/gets resolved again by the end of their summers. That’s my prediction anyway. 🤷🏽‍♀️

(I should be writing up the 6 reports I have due soon, yet here I am. The power of Portwell. 😅 )