Air Grate
BMW Concept CS - Look at those lines! Apparently, this may hearken the return of the 8 series.
I think I’m going to see the movie Hot Fuzz this evening. I’m pretty excited, it’s from “the guys who watched every action movie ever made and brought you Shaun of the Dead,” and it looks pretty funny. Metacritic shows that most reviewers like the movie, rating it an 80, which places it right between Volver and Little Miss Sunshine. Oh, and there’s this scene where the more portly cop crashes through a fence while trying to take a shortcut. I’m a sucker for physical comedy. I’m also a sucker for cool graphic design, and the logo-type thing for the movie is fantastic.
Through the peephole.
As the human body ages, certain immune system organs actually shrink. For example, there’s the thymus: here, T cells (one of the primary components of the immune system’s ability to recognize and eliminate foreign antigen) are converted from naïve to mature. If you look at a picture of the thymus of a teen next to one of an 80 year old, the difference is striking. It’s not like the color and texture difference between a cancerous lung and a normal lung—there’s actually hardly any thymus left in the 80 year old’s picture. Why the geriatric thymus continues to function effectively is the topic of another post. But the fact remains: there’s a definite change in the immune system with the passage of time.
So, the other day we were talking about birdflu (specifically, H5N1) in Immunology. We learned an interesting point: the potency of the immune response in young’ins is normally an advantage in fighting off infection. However, it is thought that in H5N1 (birdflu) infections, this immune response is a liability, not an asset. Compounds called cytokines, commonly observed in an immune response, are released in tremendous quantities in a positive feedback loop, eventually resulting in an immune response so strong that the victim dies. So, here’s the point Dr. Manske brought up: only young people have immune systems powerful enough to generate a killer cytokine storm.
The take-home message? Current trends indicate that H5N1 has characteristics that may make it disproportionately threatening to the young and healthy. If H5N1 does become an epidemic and a vaccine (and distribution method for it) aren’t found quickly, it could be extremely serious (yes, this bad). That fact got me thinking about a tremendous potential premise for novel of fiction: imagine a world where there aren’t any people between 5 and 80 years old.
If it sounds hollow at first, keep thinking. Someone who is 80 years old lived through World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War. The year they were born, Lindbergh was flying across the Atlantic … but if they were on a farm, they were probably still pulling some things with horses. 80 years takes you from electricity to the internet. Radios to HBO. Cars to the moon, and beyond. Rise and fall of the Soviet Union. Would a generation united in its old age and extended perspective on humanity’s recurring errors take the unique opportunity of their overwhelming majority to enact laws or (more importantly) societal changes that would promote a more forward-thinking, compassionate society? Would we see a coordinated effort towards projects like efficient collection of energy from the sun, a (NON-POLITICIZED) focus on preserving the planet, an effort at a global government, or even ideas like the Clock of the Long Now? Or would we simply end up with a world full of bowling alleys, nursing homes, and Lawrence Welk Show reruns?
Crises like massive, deadly flu epidemics unite people—but they can also destabilize governments and societies by creating warring factions of rebels. I think writing about this “accidental geriatric revolution” would be an interesting way to explore the great potential of sudden global changes in the absence of such barriers like violence. After all, if you’re 80 and faced with raising a generation of little ones and stabilizing a disease ravaged planet, neither you nor your hips have time for war.
I’ve often thought that Gangsta Rap singers have done the inner cities load of good by teaching urban punks that holding the gun sideways is “cool.” That has to have gone a long way in reducing shooting fatalities in the hood by making it impossible to aim the gun properly. Plus, it should increase the number of incapacitating but non-fatal arm/shoulder wounds and save lives.
The chemistry faculty presented us with round bottom flasks filled with treats - plus, we got to keep the flasks! Glassware like this is pretty expensive, so the gesture was very nice. Unfortunately, mine cracked when I tried to remove the candy from it …
Chappelle pulls all-nighter - This Dave Chappelle guy, I think there’s more than meets the eye.
Anyone who bought a ticket to the Laugh Factory on Sunday night ended up getting two surprises.
The first came when Dave Chappelle appeared onstage at 10:36 p.m. for an unannounced set. The second shocker: Chappelle kept telling jokes until 4:43 the next morning—making his entire set a whopping six hours and seven minutes.
That’s the longest performance by any comedian in the the 28-year history of the Laugh Factory, according to founder Jamie Masada.
And the guy wasn’t talking to an empty room.
Indeed, Masada said only about a dozen of the 150-plus original members of the audience left the club before Chappelle wrapped his set. “The audience was with him 100 percent,” he said.
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