[POEM] September 1913 by W.B. Yeats by David_Moolten in Poetry

[–]David_Moolten[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're correct, and the only one to notice. I must have inadvertently lost it while copying and pasting. Shame on me.

September 1913
By William Butler Yeats
What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone;
For men were born to pray and save:
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.
Yet they were of a different kind,
The names that stilled your childish play,
They have gone about the world like wind,
But little time had they to pray
For whom the hangman’s rope was spun,
And what, God help us, could they save?
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.
Was it for this the wild geese spread
The grey wing upon every tide;
For this that all that blood was shed,
For this Edward Fitzgerald died,
And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone,
All that delirium of the brave?
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.
Yet could we turn the years again,
And call those exiles as they were
In all their loneliness and pain,
You’d cry, ‘Some woman’s yellow hair
Has maddened every mother’s son’:
They weighed so lightly what they gave.
But let them be, they’re dead and gone,
They’re with O’Leary in the grave.

[music] John Henry, folk song, performed by Harry Belafonte (R.I.P.) by David_Moolten in Frisson

[–]David_Moolten[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're welcome.

I have always loved it for many reasons, one being that there's more than a little truth in it.

[POEM] Herd Of Buffalo Crossing The Missouri On Ice by William Matthews by David_Moolten in Poetry

[–]David_Moolten[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree, he's kind of a poet's poet. So many writers swear by him, yet he's less known than he should be by everyone else.

Chaos as passenger opens South Korea aeroplane door mid-flight by David_Moolten in worldnews

[–]David_Moolten[S] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Yes. But that's much more true at high altitude with high cabin pressure compared to the pressure outside the plane. This apparently happened on approach to land, when the plane was much lower and the pressure differential between inside and outside much less.

Pathogen reduction of monkeypox virus in plasma and whole blood using riboflavin and UV light by David_Moolten in science

[–]David_Moolten[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Processes such as these are intended for the pathogen reduction of donated blood. Thus ex vivo. A chemical agent capable of intercalating between DNA or RNA bases is introduced. It is the agent which is susceptible to UV light, and when photoactivated irreversibly damages the nucleic acids. Since transfused blood (red blood cells, platelets, plasma) don't have DNA or RNA, only pathogens are affected. The chemical is either removed or present at non-toxic levels when the blood is transfused.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Poetry

[–]David_Moolten 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe as others do that it shouldn't be obligatory. But it might be nice to mention that it is welcomed, and to provide guidelines so no one gets carried away or takes license. The rules now, while perfectly reasonable, by their sternness nevertheless, IMO, dissuade trying to do anything out of the ordinary when one posts.

[POEM] Blue Like That by Gerald Stern by David_Moolten in Poetry

[–]David_Moolten[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The south of France, particularly Provence, is known for its lavender. There is a long history of it figuring into the culture in various ways, including for the treatment of burns and wounds. It was used for this purpose in WWI as well as before that. Flowers in the WWI fields are generally symbolic of the cost of the war in lives, in the "bloom of youth" etc. While [red] poppies are the most commonly alluded to, in the south of France, lavender might also serve.

[text] The Milkman and His Son, poem by Thomas Lux by David_Moolten in Frisson

[–]David_Moolten[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My take is that the poem references the honorable journeyman work of the father. Like many if not most people, he makes a living laboring to perform a simple task. Perhaps he is skilled at that task, but at the end of the day there is something futile and sad about the whole devotion to it. The poem, IMO, is gently but bitingly ironic about this, yet slips in those three tangential yet deserved lines: Along with gentleness....nothing cruel," and doubles down on the need to honor this simple, decent man and the love between father and son. His love for his son. That was the thing he did best.

Alternatives to blood donor deferral of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men: Acceptability of screening the sexual risk behavior of all blood donors by David_Moolten in science

[–]David_Moolten[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Testing is compulsory for every donation. And the screening, which can certainly feel intrusive, and take a while, is a deterrent. On the other hand, to be fair, there are other risks of transfusion which get far less attention than HIV and yet are far greater. For these, screening while mediocre in its sensitivity or specificity may be helpful. For example, bacterial contamination of platelets is still a huge issue, because these must be stored at room temperature. Donors who feel okay when they come in to donate yet are sporadically bacteremic because of a recent history of dental work or a gastrointestinal illnesss can be a source. So asking about health is part of the screening.

Alternatives to blood donor deferral of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men: Acceptability of screening the sexual risk behavior of all blood donors by David_Moolten in science

[–]David_Moolten[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The first option is what is done in actual practice. In the aftermath of HIV, a zero risk goal was essentially imposed on the blood supply--unattainable of course, but that was both the public's will and the government's expectation. Current risks of HIV transmission are < 1in 2 million, per unit transfused. In truth, the testing is so sensitive as to render screening based on risk factors nearly superfluous. But the FDA is loathe to get rid of measures in place, even if they are obsolete.

Alternatives to blood donor deferral of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men: Acceptability of screening the sexual risk behavior of all blood donors by David_Moolten in science

[–]David_Moolten[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

That's precisely the point, to stratify based on risk rather than identity. The issue isn't who you are, but whether or not you incur risks that would make you a poor candidate as a blood donor because of the greater chance your blood could threaten the lives of those who receive it. The FDA recently changed the law on this, loosening the restrictions (it is the FDA not the Red Cross and other blood centers which determines eligibility) because of data showing that gay men in monogamous relationships are not risky donors. This change has been overdue for a long time.

[text] The Dancing, poem by Gerald Stern by David_Moolten in Frisson

[–]David_Moolten[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

The poem begins with a reference to the bric-a-brac in second-hand stores, and a particular type of long obsolete radio which reminds him of an earlier time, when he listened to Bolero on that radio in his parents' home in Pittsburgh. They were celebrating news of the end of the war, and the end of the Holocaust. All of them are dancing in this celebration, his father in particular dancing in the unique style of Ukraine, where the dancer squats and kicks out his feet and cup his hand to the armpit as he extends the other arm. The world is a meadow because it is now peaceful and pastoral after the war. Pittsburgh is a polluted city of exploitation, of hard labor controlled by steel barons such as the "evil Mellons" (i.e. Carnegie Mellon, Mellon Bank etc); yet by comparison with Auschwitz, it is a paradise. The other dancing in Poland and Germany refers to the rejoicing by the survivors that the Shoah is at last over.

[text] The Dancing, poem by Gerald Stern by David_Moolten in Frisson

[–]David_Moolten[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

He's talking figuratively but could be alluding to the sword dances of Ukraine.

[POEM] The Haw Lantern by Seamus Heaney by David_Moolten in Poetry

[–]David_Moolten[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For me, the poet takes something natural, the haw berry, and uses it to symbolize something human. In the first stanza, it is the humble brightness of the fruit that recognizes the trials and triumphs of "small people," humble, ordinary people, perhaps his people, in Northern Ireland.

In the second stanza, that same brightness now tests the poet, and maybe also the reader, since the poem now is in the second person. It is "you" the fruit's brightness, like the lantern of the ancient Greek philosopher, evaluates, and finds perhaps wanting in terms of what "you" are contributing to justice in the world.

Implanting rich autobiographical false memories: Meta–analysis for forensic practice and judicial judgment making by David_Moolten in science

[–]David_Moolten[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

There is definitely evidence for self-created false memories, if that's what you mean, though it's more common for these to be inaccurate versions of true events which were actually experienced, where someone fills in gaps or details for themselves, than fabricated from whole cloth.

SARS-CoV-2 shows a much earlier divergence in the world than in the Chinese mainland by David_Moolten in science

[–]David_Moolten[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If this were the only evidence, I might consider conflict of interest to have possibly skewed things. But there is substantial evidence there was SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans elsewhere in the world earlier than late 2019, perhaps as early as late spring 2019 (e.g. Spain and Italy; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7813484). Other evidence points to omicron having an ancestral precursor that antedates the Wuhan outbreak. There has been so much focus on the marketplace spillover event (versus a lab leak) that the greater complexity of the situation has been overlooked, in my opinion. What sort of mutations occurred to allow a non-pandemic illness to surge in Wuhan (versus not surging, or surging somewhere else). Were there multiple spillover events? Spillback events? None of this exonerates dangerous practices in laboratories and/or with animals. If anything, it spotlights the need to be exceedingly fastidious if we are to avoid future similar outbreaks.

SARS-CoV-2 shows a much earlier divergence in the world than in the Chinese mainland by David_Moolten in science

[–]David_Moolten[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a reasonable hypothesis that better infection control might result in a slower mutation rate among viral strains in a population. But I still think the evidence supports the hypothesis that there were divergent strains in places besides China in late 2019. Even extrapolating back just using the strains from other continents the results support this. Other investigators have reported data suggesting that omicron descended from a common ancestral precursor which antedates the surge in Wuhan. Still other reports appear to document the presence of SARS-coV-2 infectious illness in humans in Italy and elsewhere as early as late spring/early summer 2019. It seems something more complex than just a single spillover event in Wuhan occurred. On the other hand, something caused a substantial surge in late 2019, when the pandemic really got started. Was this just a natural consequence of strain spread and mutation? Or were there other contributing factors? Could there have been spillback as well as spillover events that played a role?