i made the clutch move of ordering us pizza at 1 am

My dad was tortured by the Gestapo for 4 days and thrown in a concentration camp for being in the Norwegian Resistance. Growing up, he would tell me things he learned in the Resistance. I thought, I'm never going to need this stuff. Here's some things of those things #Thread

I’ve spent two decades studying how brains age. And I’ve never seen anything quite like this. In normal aging, some neurons die—but it’s gradual, region-specific, and the brain compensates remarkably well. Most of what we see is driven by loss of synaptic connections, not widespread neuron death. Behavioral changes tend to be slow, subtle, and mostly involve executive function. In neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, it’s different. These diseases kill neurons. The decline is faster, deeper, and more functionally disabling. What we’re seeing in young adults after SARS-CoV-2 infection doesn’t fit either pattern.
We’re seeing signs of early, widespread cognitive impairment—slowed thinking, weakened memory, executive dysfunction. Not just in one domain. Not just in one region. Almost every study that looks for brain damage post-infection finds it. This suggests accelerated neural de-differentiation—a breakdown in how specialized brain regions communicate and function. It's something we normally see decades later. Impairment doesn’t always mean permanent disability. But if neurons are dying, those cells aren’t coming back. And yes—cognitive disabilities have also spiked dramatically since 2020. There’s no other plausible explanation for the scale and timing of this trend. Meanwhile, self-styled truth-tellers with zero background in neuroscience or cognition keep minimizing the risks—spreading the idea that these impairments are rare, minor, or imagined. Speak up with evidence? You’re called an extremist.
Refuse to play along? You’re accused of fear-mongering. My biggest mistake? Thinking these folks were just misinformed.
They’re not. They’re propagandists. It’s 2025.
The damage is measurable.
The science is clear.
And the longer we pretend this is normal, the worse the outcomes will be.

Tapped this today, quite refreshing. Three gallons of Musselman's "fresh pressed" apple juice purchased at Walmart in like, god, 2019? Five pounds of pureed sweet cherries circa May 2024, six months in the keg.

i should call them

When people talk about the devastation from COVID, they usually cite the number of people who died (7 million, 20 million, 30 million) or the economic cost ($14 trillion, $35 trillion, etc) but this pales in comparison to the true cost, something most people do not understand or talk about:

RT @fakedansavage: So, after today… suck it up. Let the Trump supporters who come here to drink liberal tears die of thirst. Go to pieces w…

Always and forever.

if there were no subjunctive mood, you are my concubines

Farewell, My Concubine: I Have Social Media Now

laconic passive aggressive is the best flavor of passive aggressive.

The more I look at the numbers, the more I believe the 2024 House majority is going to be mainly decided in California. Yes, California. There are five "toss up" House districts in suburban pockets of California that can go either way. GET INVOLVED in these five races:

“I have to add … that she is a VERY good musician”

Around the world, politicians who admire Trump are fining, delegitimizing, and bankrupting independent media organizations into oblivion; these politicians are denying access, harassing, deporting, disappearing, and arresting independent journalists into unimportance. In the United States, some independent media executives and journalists are self-censuring criticism of Trump and overcriticizing Trump’s political opponents under the subjectivity of balance—of both sides—to escape a similar fate. But there may be no escaping a similar fate if Trump wins and these media executives and journalists want to maintain some independence to report the truth. To Trump, media organizations and journalists are *always* “enemies of the people” if they do not *always* broadcast Trump’s lies to the people.

RT @davetroy: 1/Uncomfortable truth: the election won't fix this. The gambit being waged by Musk, Putin, and friends is designed to destroy…

I've never heard a finer explanation. #ReparationsNow

I’m voting for Kamala Harris because when Donald Trump was President, he appointed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General and he released multiple police departments from consent decrees and cut the number of civil rights cases in the DOJ by 60%. That’s what he did for Black men.

Over the Garden Wall (2014)

brett and eddie noooo

impossible to describe the stranglehold this movie (waking life) had on being even a slightly intellectually inclined person from like 2001 - 2008. before social media and podcasts you could make a movie that was, functionally, the an artistic equivalent to "just scrolling"

I've been trying to make it make sense but it just doesn't. The mountains of North Carolina, places like Asheville, Swannanoa, Black Mountain, Boone, Chimney Rock, the list goes on; places and people I know well and have for over two decades...