Fluff

Israel's Unprecedented Statistics

They lost and then found a space tomato. Retail corporations lied about theft. The US FDA approved a new sickle cell treatment. The government of the US continues to support genocide in Gaza.

Endeavorance

11 Dec 2023 — 4 min read

DO NOT FEAR: They Found the Space Tomato

Okay well first, be in fear: they lost the space tomato. (Spoiler, they found it later)

ALRIGHT so basically there's space, right? And in space we have a space station (it is international as well) and on that space station, some space folk were like "hey, let's grow a tomato"

So here's what they did: they grew a tomato in space, and then they harvested it. And then it disappeared.

Aboard the station, an ongoing game of "who took the tomato?" was afoot. Many of the celestial denizens blamed Frank Rubio, an astronaut who harvested the tomato, put it in a bag, then claimed to have lost it after showing it off on a video feed for a public event with kids. His claim is that he placed it somewhere and it must have simply floated off.

Most of his crewmates assumed he ate the space tomato. Spacemato.

Anyway, they eventually found it. I wish there was more information, but they didn't really say much besides they have finally found the tomato. The prevailing assumption Earthside is that the tomato probably rotted away pretty dang fast into a red goop, making it a bit harder to find.

Shocking: Massive Retail Corporations Lied About Theft

surprised_pikachu.bmp

Massive retail chains such as Walmart and Target have been spinning a story that they've had to shut down locations and drive up prices due to unprecedented levels of organized theft, especially in "urban centers." These companies had the National Retail Federation––a lobbying organization working on their behalf—telling this story throughout the year to explain why stores are suddenly closing. Pay no attention to the stores that shut down where employees attempted to unionize. That has nothing to do with it. It's theft. Yep.

Nope. That was a literal lie.

Turns out, they have since been like "oh actually sike, that whole thing was based on our interpretation of an anecdote told by our former lobbyist president during a congressional testimony." They did not actually have a shred of data to back up their claim, and in fact organized theft has been dropping.

Also contrasting their story is the contents of what is being most often targeted in shoplifting efforts. Whereas they'd like you to believe people are just stealing extravagant valuables, the reality is that the highest targeted items are healthcare products, infant products and office supplies.

US FDA Approves Gene Editing Treatment for Sickle Cell Disease

I wanted to make a snazzy headline about this but this is actually pretty dope. Kinda. I'm optimistic.

The US FDA has approved a treatment for sickle cell disease, a rare disorder that affects people's production of compounds that help to move oxygen throughout the body. This results in a brutal lifelong illness with the only cure being an invasive bone marrow transplant procedure.

Now, things are looking up as a gene-editing solution has been approved for use in treating sickle cell disease. This is the first FDA-approved gene editing therapy, which you may have previously heard referred to as "CRISPR"

Basically what the treatment does (and to be clear, I am not a medical science boy, but here's my best effort) is they take some of your cells, throw them into a saucepan on medium-high heat, stir in some fixes, then make billions of those cells and put them back into your body where they found 'em. Those cells then help to produce the missing compound that makes your body do better.

Said another way: they take your cell, edit its genetics to fix the issue, then plop it back in you.

The treatment is still very invasive and prohibitively expensive. This is not the end of the road for sickle cell research. But its a massive step forward and another point for science people finding incredible ways to help reduce human suffering.

Content warning: Discussion of mass civilian killings / genocide

A study published by an Israeli newspaper found that as far as civilian deaths go, the current genocidal assault on Gaza at the hands of Israel is unprecedented. The study found that of data analyzed between October 7th and 26th, approximately 61% of those killed in Gaza by Israeli air strikes alone were civilians. Not just a majority, but a significant majority.

Any notion of restraint or care for civilians is just out the window. These are air strikes, not precision operations. Air strikes on civilian buildings. Air strikes on refugee encampments, even air strikes on places that civilians were told to seek shelter.

Israel is now moving their offensive efforts towards the south of Gaza, where civilians were told up until now to flee to. Millions of people have been attempting to seek refuge—at the instruction of those carrying out air strikes—in the area that is now the primary target.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is under fire for continuing to emphatically support this genocide. Just a few days ago, he was asking congress to approve the shipment of 45,000 tank shells to Israel. It has since come out that his administration decided they don't actually care what congress has to say, and they went ahead and sent over the tank shells without waiting on congress.

But don't worry: I have been told by many people that Joe Biden is, in fact, a very caring boy and the most progressive president ever, and so your criticism of his continued support of the destruction of an entire population is unacceptable, cuz he once almost kinda lowered student debt a little bit.

On This Day…

On this day in 2009, game developer Rovio released Angry Birds for the first time. The game would go on to become one of the most famous mobile games of all time, selling 12 million copies in the first year, expanding to other platforms, and eventually landing multiple movie deals, all driven by the sheer anger of these birds.

The moral of the story: stay mad.