We all know Trump is in the Epstein investigation but I don't want to believe that of the thousand or so FBI people they had combing through the files to look for names, not one of them would turn whistleblower immediately if they found something in there substantiating and corroborating the claims that Trump raped Epstein/Maxwell's trafficked girls. There's no way that out of all the people who've seen these files by now, not one of them would have blown that whistle, especially after living through the total subversion and humiliation of the agency.

"In the heart of Illinois, while researching wildlife disease, I made a discovery that stunned me: More than half of the raccoons I sampled were infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease. Most Americans have never heard of it. But this neglected tropical disease is no longer confined to the tropics. It’s here, in the United States, spreading silently in wildlife." #PublicHealth #parasites #disease

STAT

A ‘tropical’ disease is spreading in American wildlife

This neglected tropical disease is no longer confined to the tropics. It’s here, in the United States, spreading silently in wildlife.

Archive: https://archive.is/0r4gd

I have seen multiple accounts on Bluesky posting this exact wording in the past few days: "Several times this year, I’ve had coffee with fellow immigrants who grew up in corrupt third-world countries, and we all share the same sentiment: Americans have no idea how bad things are about to get." Two of the accounts come from allchronology dot com. I think the third one that I saw a couple of days ago was from a well known account. I suspect allchronology dot com has inauthentic accounts on it

Neuroscientists analyzed the brain tissue of people with Alzheimer’s disease and found that the sticky plaques of amyloid protein that are a hallmark of the disease had high concentrations of lithium, while it was depleted in the rest of the brain. The researchers hypothesized that lithium naturally exists in our bodies as part of a carefully calibrated ecosystem of metal ions. In Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid plaques sequester this freely available lithium, preventing it from being used in various neural processes. This process could lead to downstream symptoms of Alzheimer’s, like memory loss and cognitive decline. Researchers then identified a compound called lithium orotate that can bolster natural levels of lithium without getting trapped by amyloid plaques. In studies of adult mice engineered to have Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, adding a low dose of lithium orotate to their drinking water prevented the development of plaques and completely reversed memory loss in mice. “It seems to somehow turn back the clock,” the paper’s senior author, Bruce Yankner, told The Boston Globe. Scientists hope that this paper will breathe new life into the search for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease and open up new questions about the role of lithium in the brain. “[Lithium] powers our phones, laptops, and electric vehicles,” Yankner tells Science. “My guess is the brain might have utilized this unique electrochemistry before we did.” #alzheimers #lithium #neuroscience #medicine Paywall https://www.science.org/content/article/could-lithium-stave-alzheimer-s-disease Paywall https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/06/metro/alzheimers-treatment-harvard-lithium-deficiency-plaques/ Paywall https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02471-4 No paywall https://archive.is/LB5Ps

I checked in with my friend who has been working at DHS for ~15 years. She speaks Vietnamese and her job was originally to work with asylum seekers on their applications, then a couple of years ago they promoted her to a supervisory position. I hated to ask what they have her asylum processing section doing now, so I didn't. She is very progressive and very demoralized to see the pictures of fascists on the wall every day. She had recently bought a house in Richmond, since the department policy allowed telework, but the Trump regime took away that policy for anyone in a radius of 75 miles as the crow flies from the DC HQ. Anyone outside that radius was told to move or be fired. It's hard for someone in military or Fed gov to quit a job when they have 15 year of sunk costs. That would be a huge lost investment of time toward retirement. She is trying to survive the regime. Once again I'm thankful to have retired a couple of years before the Trumpers came roaring back to destroy the country.

Live and learn. I bought one of these, it's a generic even feed "walking" foot used for quilting or sewing certain types of fabrics. The instructions said attach it with the presser foot screw and you're in business. I didn't understand what the lever bar was for so I didn't pay it any attention. The instructions said nothing about it. It was in the down position, not up as shown. Well my machine wouldn't sew at all. I couldn't figure out what the problem was, I thought the needle might be hitting something on the bottom of the foot. So I returned it and got the name brand Janome even feed foot instead. And it was basically the same, a little different because it came with a guide bar, but the big difference was the instructions, which stated to attach the foot with the lever bar ON TOP of the needle screw. And so once correctly installed I could see how the lever moves up and down when the needle does, which makes the whole thing work! Cripes. Instructions, people! I paid like 3x as much in order to get one extra line in the instructions. The other one probably would have worked fine. #sewing #quilting

I heard this Lana Del Rey song that said "since my baby went away, it's been the blackest day, it's been the blackest day" and yes in a few days it'll be 17 years since my baby went away and it's all been the blackest day. Lana, you don't know what the blackest day is.

Here's a fun thread about how Tom Lehrer played a prank on the NSA that wasn't discovered for 60 years

Bluesky Social

Opal (@opalescentopal.bsky.social)

With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went un...

“They’re starting to resist more now,” to which an officer replies: “We’re going to end up shooting some of them.” #fascism #ICE

the Guardian

Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest

Video from Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, puts fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used to reach the Trump administration’s ambitious enforcement tar...

“I was threatened with being referred to the FBI... They also threatened to stain my record so I would never get a job again. They also threatened with an extended detention if I didn’t give them the passwords to the student information or to my district files." #fascism

WMTW

Vermont school superintendent detained after trip to Nicaragua

Wilmer Chavarria, the superintendent of the Winooski School District, was held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while returning to the country...