LaceyLou

My guess is that most people don't realize how many jobs are supported by NIH funding-not just researchers but their technicians, admin staff-even doctors and nurses when the organization is a healthcare provider as well as a research institute.

My guess is that funding will come with more conditions... certain types of research will be banned if it doesn't fit the current regime's agenda in some way. We've already seen scopes of research become narrower since about the mid 90s (must study acute forms of disease, etc) but we might see (I hope I'm wrong) certain types of study banned or given strict limits on what they can or can't do. If I were another country's government, I'd be looking to take advantage of this-by recruiting talented scientists and their studies/discoveries that might otherwise have worked in the US.

"All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others."

Same.

He doesn't believe in it anyway, so not a surprise if true.

Truth often hurts.

One quote I heard recently that will stick with me (credited both to Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr but the quote is still good) is that, upon hearing that somebody else was making considerably more: "I have something he doesn't have-I have enough." It's a paraphrase, actually but you get the drift. People like Drumpf, Elon, et al will never be satisfied with what they have, and most likely can never truly enjoy it.

Debating is definitely a skill that's hard to find... especially the ability to debate calmly. It's far more common for 'debaters' to try to 'win' by shouting each other down. It's a shame because I really do love a good debate.

Working with customers is often not fun, especially the general public.

This makes me think of a cartoon I saw many years ago when a man is complaining about how stressful his job is, and the reason he gives for being unhappy is "All day long I have to be NICE to people!"

Definitely.

I know a fair number of liberals who own guns already... and they're excellent shots.

Some of the transit accounts I follow/ed on twitter have joined Bluesky, and a few metro transit systems have stopped posting updates on twitter. My hope is that they all make the move completely to Bluesky at some point-I see MBTA alerts on Bluesky but not general posts as of now.

I try not to feed them... I still get caught into it sometimes though.

Gotta love how things like smoke detectors tend to fail in the middle of the night-and naturally on a weekend and naturally when my electrician boyfriend is out of town. Luckily I have another one so I just disabled it until I can get somebody to look at it. I have a bad feeling that it keeps getting dusty.

Exactly. Also he's wrong. Who was it who said on another thread that having rituals is a good thing? Honoring a President in this way is a good thing, and it can serve as a reminder that it is a privilege and an honor-but also a responsibility to hold the office.

I have a couple of online groups where there are people online all the time if I need moral support... but since they're scattered across the country they can't drop on by in the case of an emergency. I do have a brother and my boyfriend in the area, and a lot of acquaintances that I'm friendly with-sometimes I wish I had somebody who would enjoy the concerts and shows I enjoy. I'd also like a bowling league or something like that, but that's another story. Another issue that I've noticed is that I have trouble sitting around and doing nothing. So I end up on a phone or a tablet rereading the same posts or repeating the same searches even though I know there's nothing new. And when I'm with people we're also all looking at screens. It's harder to focus on things for longer than a minute or two, or to even stay away from screens when watching tv. Some of it might be age, I guess. Still, I wonder if the more connected we are, the less connected we are, if that makes sense.

2025 😉 Other than that, spot on.

True, but I still find it funny. One of my brothers is a lifelong 49ers fan... so I'm used to hearing them defended. My family definitely had interesting times on Sundays.

The funny thing is that the team in general donates more to Ds than Rs.

Not unlikely at all. Unfortunately suicide by veterans/active military is quite common. We've been failing in mental health issues for as long as I can remember, and that seems even worse for those that serve their country. It's disgraceful.

Cats can get it also-the virus has been found in some raw food chicken diets and at least one cat has died from it. So be careful about buying raw diets for pets, or 'human grade' food.

Not to mention that people with backwards beliefs on women are getting closer and closer to those in power-including people who think it was a mistake to give women the right to vote. I believe we heard some of that rhetoric during the campaign, but sadly people chose either to ignore it or not believe it.

Not a big surprise of course, from somebody who benefited from apartheid.

Evidently this means that flags will fly at half staff on Inauguration Day. Seems fitting. While Carter was far from perfect, I learned while researching my master's thesis that a lot of great research in agriculture and pest control was done during his presidency.