Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@qoto.org

'I’ve had a similar feeling while messing around with dall-e, the Surrealist-named A.I. system that translates text descriptions into glassy images. It’s miraculous, and boring in its miracles—the ease with which the technology vomits up content exactly mirrors the ease with which I get weary of it. Maybe I’m ungrateful, or maybe the id gets tedious when invited to speak too freely. Call this the deepest paradox of Surrealism: the voice of the unconscious, whether babbling away in comments sections, ads, or Presidential debates, is the dullest one on the planet.'
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/the-bad-dream-of-surrealism

'Mechanistically, ILC2-derived LIF induces the production of the chemokine CCL21 from lymphatic endothelial cells lining the pulmonary lymphatic vessels, thus licensing the homing of CCR7+ immune cells (including dendritic cells) to LNs. Consequently, ILC2-derived LIF dictates the egress of immune cells from the lungs to regulate tissue-localized versus systemic immunity and the balance between allergen and viral responsiveness in the lungs.'
#Immunology
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07746-w

'The outbreaks on American dairy farms began this March and the first human case in the United States since then was identified in April, which means that it has now been more than three full months since a pathogen long identified as among the most worrisome potential sources of a new pandemic infected an American this year. There is still nothing like a serious plan to even properly monitor the spread.'
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/07/opinion/bird-flu-covid.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

"Male sex has long been recognized as a potent nonmodifiable risk factor for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). AAA is approximately four to six times more prevalent in men than in women (7), but females experience faster rates of aneurysm growth, and their aneurysms tend to rupture at smaller sizes (...)
In this issue of the JCI, Mu and colleagues present compelling evidence that androgens exacerbate AA by suppressing programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) in mice"
#Immunology

https://www.jci.org/articles/view/182554

'It is disorienting at first to see a reference that does not contain a journal title, because this bucks a deeply ingrained practice. But journal names are too often used as a proxy for research excellence or quality. I want people reading my CV to consider what I wrote, not where it was published, which I know is sometimes attributable to luck as much as substance.'
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02596-y

'Classic cancer genes such as KRAS and TP53 increase cellular plasticity, providing the nonheritable phenotypic variability that drives cancer.
Evolutionary theory predicts that recombination of different developmental plasticity programs often creates the novelty that generates new traits.'
https://www.cell.com/trends/cancer/abstract/S2405-8033(24)00145-6

'But, as with other big issues facing the continent, one sticking point is how much money will be spent on an issue primarily affecting half the bloc. While the north will also face increasingly deadly heat, floods, fires and the spread of communicable disease, the hammer is falling first and hardest in the south.'

https://www.politico.eu/article/kyriakos-mitsonakis-teresa-ribera-ursula-von-der-leyen-europe-south-climate-change/

Etymology:

"Plato was an outstanding wrestler (Plato was a nickname conferred on him by his wrestling coach; it means “broad-shouldered”), and at least three of the Socratic dialogues—Theaetetus, Charmides, Lysis—take place in wrestling rooms (palaestrae)."

https://thepointmag.com/politics/wrestling-in-paris/?ref=thebrowser.com