arcanetrivia

[arcanetrivia]

When it comes to Star Wars memes, I was thinking this

but yeah

It really is 2003 again Jesus Tapdancing Christ.

Like, all Republicans did was replace Iraq and gay people with Iran and trans people.

[arcanetrivia]

"A cure for HIV could be a step closer after researchers found a new way to force the virus out of hiding inside human cells.

The virus’s ability to conceal itself inside certain white blood cells has been one of the main challenges for scientists looking for a cure. It means there is a reservoir of the HIV in the body, capable of reactivation, that neither the immune system nor drugs can tackle.

Now researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, have demonstrated a way to make the virus visible, paving the way to fully clear it from the body.

It is based on mRNA technology, which came to prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic when it was used in vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, the researchers have shown for the first time that mRNA can be delivered into the cells where HIV is hiding, by encasing it in a tiny, specially formulated fat bubble. The mRNA then instructs the cells to reveal the virus.

Globally, there are almost 40 million people living with HIV, who must take medication for the rest of their lives in order to suppress the virus and ensure they do not develop symptoms or transmit it. For many it remains deadly, with UNAids figures suggesting one person died of HIV every minute in 2023.

It was “previously thought impossible” to deliver mRNA to the type of white blood cell that is home to HIV, said Dr Paula Cevaal, research fellow at the Doherty Institute and co-first author of the study, because those cells did not take up the fat bubbles, or lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), used to carry it.

The team have developed a new type of LNP that those cells will accept, known as LNP X. She said: “Our hope is that this new nanoparticle design could be a new pathway to an HIV cure.”

When a colleague first presented test results at the lab’s weekly meeting, Cevaal said, they seemed too good to be true.

“We sent her back into the lab to repeat it, and she came back the next week with results that were equally good. So we had to believe it. And of course, since then, we’ve repeated it many, many, many more times.

“We were overwhelmed by how [much of a] night and day difference it was – from not working before, and then all of a sudden it was working. And all of us were just sitting gasping like, ‘wow’.”

Further research will be needed to determine whether revealing the virus is enough to allow the body’s immune system to deal with it, or whether the technology will need to be combined with other therapies to eliminate HIV from the body.

The study is laboratory based and was carried out in cells donated by HIV patients. The path to using the technology as part of a cure for patients is long, and would require successful tests in animals followed by safety trials in humans, likely to take years, before efficacy trials could even begin.

“In the field of biomedicine, many things eventually don’t make it into the clinic – that is the unfortunate truth; I don’t want to paint a prettier picture than what is the reality,” stressed Cevaal. “But in terms of specifically the field of HIV cure, we have never seen anything close to as good as what we are seeing, in terms of how well we are able to reveal this virus.

“So from that point of view, we’re very hopeful that we are also able to see this type of response in an animal, and that we could eventually do this in humans.”

Dr Michael Roche of the University of Melbourne and co-senior author of the research, said the discovery could have broader implications beyond HIV, with the relevant white blood cells also involved in other diseases including cancers.

Dr Jonathan Stoye, a retrovirologist and emeritus scientist at the Francis Crick Institute, who was not involved in the study, said the approach taken by the Melbourne team appeared be a major advance on existing strategies to force the virus out of hiding, but further studies would be needed to determine how best to kill it after that.

He added: “Ultimately, one big unknown remains. Do you need to eliminate the entire reservoir for success or just the major part? If just 10% of the latent reservoir survives will that be sufficient to seed new infection? Only time will tell.

“However, that does not detract from the significance of the current study, which represents a major potential advance in delivery of mRNA for therapeutic purposes to blood cells.”"

-via The Guardian, June 5, 2025

[arcanetrivia]

LeChuck sketch by Matt Nelson on Instagram

(@mattwnelson is deactivated)

[arcanetrivia]

I am forever grateful to an archivist mentor I worked with in grad school for some resume advice she gave me and thought maybe others would also benefit from it.

Keep a Master Resume.

This is not the resume you send out. This is a detailed resume of every job (with dates and location, supervisor and location phone number are a bonus) and as many skills/duties/accomplishments you can possibly think of for each and every one of the jobs and education programs you can think of.

She showed me hers, it was about 25 pages long, and formatted exactly like a regular resume for ease. Every time she would learn a new program/skill, she'd add it. Change in title or duties, add it. Complete something big/special/complicated/new to her/professionally significant, she would add it. This way when she went up for a promotion or raise, she had a detailed record of highlights to pick from to show she deserved it. There was no "when was that? Did I submit that last round of reviews?"

Applying to a new job? Pick and choose items from your Master Resume to plug in to the resume or CV you will be sending based on the job posting. You don't need to rewrite it, just cut and paste relevant details.

[arcanetrivia]

It's a beetle!! With a knife!

KNIFEBEETLE is a curated webring of webcomics, so if you are looking for something to read, please check it out! Namesake is on it.

knifebeetle.neocities.org

[arcanetrivia]

[Image description: A two-panel comic featuring LeChuck and Largo LaGrande from Monkey Island. They're drawn in very quick, loose, sketchy lines and filled in with completely flat color, LeChuck in red and Largo in green. In the first panel LeChuck says to Largo, "It's pride month, Largo. You know what that means." Largo replies flatly, "Huh. What." In the second panel, LeChuck turns away, leaving Largo confused. Largo says, "Do you want me to like. Beat up gay people? What."]

a quick redraw of this

[arcanetrivia]

I'd say don't feel super pressured to comment on every single chapter (although that's nice), but dropping in now and again is good. Or at least, if you did the first, do the last! They certainly want to know that you actually stayed with them to the end and finished the story.

AO3 Comments are SO SO SOOOOOOO important because you can only leave Kudos ONCE. You add to the hit count ONCE (every 24 hours).

So whenever someone updates their fic, the ONLY way an author knows who their regular readers are is if they comment on each chapter. And we WANT to know who's still reading.

Believe it or not, some of us think about the name that pops up constantly in the comments and go "omg I can't wait to see what they think of THIS SPECIFIC SCENE cuz I KNOW they'll say something about it!!!"

[arcanetrivia]

[Image description: An animated gif of a sphere of colored sparkles repeatedly contracting and expanding. /end description]

"ventilate"

<3

[arcanetrivia]

For a while there in 2020-2021 I had some hope that wearing masks for any kind of illness was going to get more normalized here in the US.

...Welp.

I know I'm preaching to the choir but like. You know you can wear masks for other sicknesses. Not just covid. If you have the flu or a cold or a stomach bug you can still wear a mask to help prevent the spread of it to others if you insist on going out! I just think it's the polite thing to do

[arcanetrivia]

whaaaaaaaaaat lol

I totally didn't buy a ticket for that nosirree

I’M HOSTING A VIRTUAL PANEL FOR DASHCON.

Pray for me. I’m clearly brain rotted by the hellsite. I don’t think I can escape.

[arcanetrivia]

As , the United States, potentially heads into another forever war I can only think of this quote.

[arcanetrivia]

Inktober Day 5: Map by joeshortart on Instagram

[arcanetrivia]

[Image description: Screenshot of a pair of tweets. User @.DanCrenshawTX posts on January 30, 2022, "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich." User Lee Carter @.carterforva replies, "First of all, yes you can. And second, that sounds like a challenge." /end description]

[arcanetrivia]

I'm not sure we needed another color at all (get me, suddenly I'm some kind of M&M conservative?) but if so, while normally I'm for purple in most things, blue makes the most sense to me as a continuation of the red-orange-yellow-green thing. Although apparently, the tan had itself replaced violet in 1941! (TIL.) so purple would have been more "roots". and purple did make it in a few years after this in a limited-time release.

(did this really happen when I was in high school? wow.)

While I compile the results, let's talk about what might have been.

[arcanetrivia]

[Image description: A set of animated gifs from the film Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.

Crow, wearing a World War 1 era helmet, is digging through the metal floor of the Satellite of Love with a pickaxe. He says, "Come, come, boys, we must confound Jerry at every turn!" Mike comes down a ladder and says "Crow, no! You'll breach the hull!"

The next strike of Crow's axe does in fact breach the hull, and debris starts flying as air rushes out the hole. Crow shouts, "I didn't expect this!"

Servo says, "Gaining maximum R.P.M. Adjust pitch and yaw thrusters! Stabilize! There! That should do it."

Mike barely catches Servo by one hand as he flies past. Servo, now upside-down, says, "Wow, this is confusing!"

Crow says, "Mike, you wanna hand me my calculations?" A gust of air blows a piece of paper right into Crow's beak. He says, "Thank you."

Crow continues, "Well, look at that. Breach hull, all die. Even had it underlined." /end description]

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) // Dir. Jim Mallon

[arcanetrivia]

This is gonna be one of those tournaments where I have no idea who 90% of the comptetitors are, isn't it?

this particular matchup doesn't even make any sense lol

ROUND 1 - STAN vs EMAILS IN MY INBOX TRYING TO SELL ME THINGS

Will Stan be able to sell all the emails in my inbox used pirate ships, used coffins, and/or life insurance in exchange for money?

OR will all the advertisement emails in my inbox be able to sell Stan whatever it is they are trying to sell me?

Neither of them have any propaganda

[arcanetrivia]

Stained glass ao3 logo :P