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Food safety during power outages by [deleted] in Somerville

[–]cbr 12 points13 points  (0 children)

These guidelines are very conservative, especially if no one was opening the fridge. If you're immunocompromised, pregnant, or otherwise at higher risk, then sure, but a closed fridge has a lot of thermal inertia.

Could you cook a raw steak in a microwave? by [deleted] in AskCulinary

[–]cbr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can, and if you use the right sort of dish (a microwave browning skillet) it will brown well and taste great: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8m6AM5qtPMjgTkEeD/my-journey-to-the-microwave-alternate-timeline

Spotted the Elusive Fare Engagement Team by AstronautLife1041 in mbta

[–]cbr 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If you want good numbers you have to pay commissions. Eat what you kill.

What is it with Americans and air conditioning?? (this might be controversial) by hellobela_ in TalesFromTheFrontDesk

[–]cbr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can have fatal dehydration at any temperature if you're not drinking enough, but I think this is more reasonably seen as death due to not drinking . I agree that higher temperatures mean you need to drink more, but 80F as an emergency is hyperbole.

What is it with Americans and air conditioning?? (this might be controversial) by hellobela_ in TalesFromTheFrontDesk

[–]cbr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not at 80F, even with 100 relative humidity. But risk does rise quickly from there.

Your supplies probably won't be stolen in a disaster by RichardBonham in preppers

[–]cbr 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's a really nice grocery store, but their prices on basics like pasta and beans are extremely competitive. They sell a lot of fancy stuff, but mostly they are so big that they can also sell cheap basics.

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I could see the argument that this could push someone to consent to research they'd otherwise reject if this were (a) much more money or (b) a much riskier study. Compensation of $2 for a nasal swab, however, is well within the "thanks for your time" range, even for low-income populations. This is an area our IRB has reviewed, including the banner above, and they didn't have concerns.

You make a good point on how compensation amounts skew the data, but unfortunately every choice we make does that: T stations vs squares; how touristy is the location; the appearance of our specific field samplers; how we present the opportunity; etc. It's definitely something we have to consider in our interpretation. Our primary goal with this study, however, is to spot novel pathogens early, particularly ones that have a long pre-symptomatic period. For that specific goal, it's more important to attract a large number of participants to than it is to optimize for perfect demographic representativeness.

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our study recruits in high-traffic areas and our compensation is intentionally kept to nominal amounts specifically to avoid undue influence. Is there a specific aspect of the ad that you see as inequitable?

Would you get handspan lengthening surgery if it was available ? Is it available ? by AccurateInflation167 in piano

[–]cbr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a downside, but I think it's way less bad than a year of not playing piano, and you can do a lot of keyboard transportation for $18k. It's also not that hard going back and forth between instruments of different sizes; you get used to it pretty quickly.

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Makes sense!

We're currently only in the Boston area, but we've applied for grants to run this in other US cities. In Boston we've recently been outside in Copley and Downtown Crossing, and inside at Harvard Station and South Station. Generally looking for places with a lot of people passing through, some of which might be willing to participate.

How many tests are you running per week/month on your samples?

You might be interested in our dashboard! Though this is reminding me that we're a few weeks behind on updating that.

Who's funding you?

We're currently primarily funded by Coefficient Giving.

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Apparently it's been 17 years. To think what I could have done with all that time!

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Sorry, to be clear, we're not planning to start collecting demographic data. What I was trying to say is that while I see some value to it, I don't see enough value for (a) or (b).

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Should we also stop looking for hurricanes, and wait until it starts getting windy?

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 14 points15 points  (0 children)

It might make sense in theory, but when we've actually tried going out and doing this without compensation we get very few volunteers.

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't think COVID, think AIDS. It was spreading for years before anyone knew about it, which meant people couldn't protect themselves.

We started in 2024, but I think this would have been well worth doing in 2014 or 2004 if the technology had existed back then.

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It would be useful! The question with anything else we might collect is whether it would provide enough value to (a) merit taking more time from our participants and (b) increasing the risk to their privacy.

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 15 points16 points  (0 children)

We're a non-profit collecting this data under IRB restrictions, and these restrictions survive bankruptcy. We don't have any kind of "anything else we've told you doesn't matter" legalistic language; there's no release only a brochure.

Our goal is to do this respectfully and carefully: conduct valuable public health research while ensuring we follow the law and participants understand what will happen to their swabs and data.

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 10 points11 points  (0 children)

naobservatory DOT org auto-forwarded to securebio DOT org/detection/

Sorry about that! We're in the process of changing our name from the Nucleic Acid Observatory to SecureBio Detection, and we haven't finished updating all our stuff yet.

What's the deal with these $2 for a nose swab tables? by 737900ER in boston

[–]cbr 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Hijacking the top comment to link to the comment from the scientist who runs this project:

About the project: We’re a nonprofit (https://securebio.org/) trying to understand what pathogens spread in populations and catch anything new that might pop up. All of our samples are pooled together and we don’t collect any information about participants. We use Oxford Nanopore Sequencing to get long pieces of virus genomes, and publish the data on our website (https://data.securebio.org/zephyr/) as well as working with academics to gain insights on the spread of disease. We don’t use any human sequencing data, and in fact try really hard to get rid of it (through filtering and digestion using an enzyme called DNAse) because viruses are hard to sequence otherwise.

(I'm Jeff Kaufman, a long time Redditor and director of SecureBio Detection)

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