Yay Science

Picking The Scab Works

A possible leap forward in the fight against COVID has been discovered. Also, watch out for dangerous kids having fun playing music, Drew Barrymore did an about face, the US Military lost a literal fighter jet, and a reminder that "compromise" is not inherently moral.

Endeavorance

Sep 18, 2023 — 3 min read

What If We Just Killed COVID?

Scientists at UC Riverside may have discovered a major weapon for us to use in the ongoing fight against COVID-19.

What they discovered is essentially a protein in humans that the virus uses to replicate itself. Without access to said protein, the virus is just kinda up shit creek, and our immune systems should have a better shot at knocking the virus out cold.

Now, to be clear, this is super early research and is mostly a proof of concept. This is not an announcement of a new medication or treatment option that is available immediately. But, if the optimistic path plays out, there is a potential future where we have medicine which can essentially render COVID inert after infection.

Dangerous Roving Bands of Bands

A high school band director was violently arrested and tased by cops because he did not comply with their order to have him stop his marching band from playing music after a high school football game.

According to reports, after the game had ended, the rival school bands were having a back-and-forth for funsies. Cops then began trying to clear out the arena (which, idk why the hell that is a thing), and were upset that spectators were sticking around to watch the students have fun doing a drum line battle. WILD that people would want to continue engaging in a community event.

So the cops asked the band director for one of the schools to stop his band, to which he refused. From there, according to the cops, the band director got into a scuffle with them, "resisted arrest" and so they hit him with a taser and cuffed him. He was taken to a hospital and then booked into jail for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Picking at the Scab

Drew Barrymore has ultimately decided to not bring her show back on air, after originally digging in her heels in the face of overwhelming criticism for her decision to break the strike line and return her show to air in the midst of a writer strike.

The announcement came after a massive amount of (very, very deeply earned) criticism over her decision to be a fucking scab. Notably, she first tried to put out a statement which amounted to "I'm aware you're mad but I'm gonna do it anyway," which did not help her case much in the court of public opinion.

So now she has put out a statement being like "oopsie doodles, I guess I made people upset, I'll pause the show until the strike is over."

Just wanna be clear. She knew the whole time. She just didn't expect people to actually hold her accountable. So much so that she dug in her heels.

Turns out, picking on the rich is an option. Let's do that more.

Finders Keepers

The US Military is asking for people to lend a pair of hands in the search for a lost toy: an F-35 fighter jet.

According to the military, a "mishap" occurred over North Charleston, South Carolina (lol) and resulted in the pilot of an F-35 ejecting from the craft as the craft went down… somewhere. They lost signal or whatever.

So they're now saying it is probably somewhere in either Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion.

If you find it, I guess… call the military?? Or just take it home and hang it on the wall as a trophy. Up to you.

On This day…

On this day in 1850, the US passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, as a part of a "compromise" between the states that believed you could own people and the states that didn't.

The law required that northern states officials and citizens cooperate in the capture and return of escaped slaves.

We then fought a war against the people who thought owning humans was cool and good and they lost.