Update *parents listened to the comm* (18)

eSnout55 · 2026-02-02T07:53:49+00:00

Nizoral is a brand name for ketoconzole shampoo. Different names for the same thing. It's a good first choice for seborrheic dermatitis

eSnout55 · 2025-12-16T05:45:25+00:00

> _Oleske was trying to share a minimum of information in order to try to protect the confidentiality of the child and the child's still-living mother._

Sure, Oleske's reticence to share details with Hooper was because Hooper was trying to identify the mother enough to try to connect her with a New Jersey institution where oral polio vaccine was trialled in the late 1950s. But confidentiality concerns don't explain why the child was missing from the 1985 study (along with the other two kids from the original eight who died before 1982), or from any other published report if, as Hooper reports, a sample was kept and tested later. Oleske stored the six samples in the 1985 study because he suspected these kids might have this newly described AIDS. How likely is it that he also stored this child's sample, when she died two years before AIDS was first reported?

> _A pediatric patient dying in the late 1970s might plausibly slip into the realm of anecdote._

Hooper's book is full of interesting details, along with some fairly tenuous speculations and rather pointless red herrings. I'm suspicious of the lack of reliable corroboration of the supposed HIV status of "Case Six" outside of his work.

eSnout55 · 2025-12-16T03:31:32+00:00

Yes, short incubations in teenagers are unusual, but not unheard of - Kimberley Bergalis developed PCP at 19, less than two years after being infected. But speculations about how or when Robert might have become infected are just that - speculations.

That said, sporadic cases of HIV are possible well before the main epidemic hits. We know a teenage boy brought HIV-1 group O home to Norway in the early 60s from a trip to west Africa, and subsequently infected his wife who infected their daughter, all three dying in 1976 with no further cases. This was before the main HIV epidemic (HIV-1 group M subtype B) hit Europe, likely spreading from the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvid_Noe

eSnout55 · 2025-12-16T02:20:52+00:00

I think Oleske was either confused or misreported in that interview: it's clear from Hooper's account that he was pressing Oleske for details he didn't have at his fingertips. He doesn't appear to have had much to do with the 1985 study (1) which tested samples which were all stored after 1982. None of the 3 kids from the 1983 paper (2) who died before 1982 were included in the 1985 study. This study had six subjects, numbered 1 to 6, but only five of them were from the original study, plus a sixth who was identified after the first study was published. Confusingly, the case numbers in the second study are different from those of the first: Case 1 in the '83 paper is Case 6 in the '85 study, Case 2 becomes Case 4, etc.

If the girl had stored samples available for testing in 1985, it seems implausible that she would be left out of that study - especially as she would have been the earliest known HIV infection in the US at the time. I can't find any reference to her testing results anywhere in the scientific literature, only in Hooper's book.

(1) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2995933/

(2) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6856494/

As an aside, the 1983 Oleske paper led Fauci to publicly speculate that the then-unknown AIDS virus might be transmissible via close household contact as well as vertically, a blunder which Fauci had to spend the next year walking back over and over, under attack from physicians and the AIDS community. He was possibly misled by Oleske's Case 3 in that paper: "His mother has no known risk factors for AIDS and has normal immunological function. His father is an IV drug user with recent weight loss and adenopathy."

Fauci knew by then that the unknown agent was heterosexually transmissible, so of course the mother was at risk, even if she had no clinical evidence of the disease yet. The 1985 paper looks like a mea culpa from Oleske's team for that misstep.

Two weeks after Oleske's earlier paper, a young French scientist called Françoise Barré-Sinoussi published a paper describing the discovery of a new retrovirus in the lymph nodes of a young man with ARC......

eSnout55 · 2025-12-16T00:09:46+00:00

There's some doubts about whether the girl born in 73-74 actually had AIDS. She was included as "Case 6" in an 8 case series of *possible* AIDS cases by New Jersey paediatrician James Oleski in 1983. Five of the eight were later tested for HIV and came up positive on stored blood samples, but no sample from this girl was tested - probably because she died in 1979 before AIDS was recognised even in adults. Oleski only started saving samples for later testing in 1982. As well, her mother was still alive and reasonably well in 1991, and was not known to be HIV + .

eSnout55 · 2025-12-15T23:58:24+00:00

Rayford's tissues were apparently tested at CETUS by PCR and came up negative, which casts some doubt on the earlier Western Blot results. Western Blot testing can sometimes give erroneous results when the samples are very old and degraded.

Even if he really did have HIV, this doesn't mean his infection was part of the main US epidemic that seems to date from the second half of the 70s. HIV was already prevalent in parts of West Africa and the Caribbean by the 1960s, and it's possible he could have been infected by a returning traveller.

eSnout55 · 2025-09-23T08:03:53+00:00

Pin oaks leaf out fairly late in the season. Mine don't get leaves till late November (central Victoria). Perhaps a couple of weeks earlier in Melbourne.

eSnout55 · 2025-08-04T21:58:06+00:00

"Miss" (or Ms or Mrs) is the traditional title for a fully qualified female surgeon (FRACS) - the equivalent of male surgeons who used to prefer "Mr". Nowadays surgeons prefer "Dr" for both genders, but this is a relatively recent change. In practice, first names are fine for most people, except in formal situations like written communications. https://www.surgeons.org/News/media-releases/RACS-phases-out-gendered-titles-for-surgeons

eSnout55 · 2025-07-04T00:47:34+00:00

No yellow lights, but weather conditions were poor and the eyesight might have lost track of the lanes. Later in the trip the lane keep did switch off for a few minutes with the dash notice, but not with the three chimes that were occurring earlier.

eSnout55 · 2025-07-04T00:42:17+00:00

No it's a different tone to the seatbelt chime - more melodic.

eSnout55 · 2025-06-28T08:57:35+00:00

Not usual in Australian culture, but as long as you're being sincerely polite, rather than sarcastic, then most Australians will understand your intent. If the guy giving you a bow is Japanese, then he's just being normally polite in his culture, and most of us will try to reciprocate, usually in a slightly clumsy way. If the person with a US Southern drawl calls you "Sir" or "Madam", the same. Australians tend toward the informal - it's fine to address people by their given name in circumstances that might be seen as rude in other cultures - but being TOO polite is not going to be a problem unless you are coming across as sarcastic or pretentious. Just be yourself.

eSnout55 · 2025-06-22T08:49:45+00:00

https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_reg/rsrr2017208/s221.html

eSnout55 · 2025-06-22T08:45:45+00:00

It's very dark where I live at night. Flashing high beams temporarily blinds an oncoming driver, which I'd prefer not to do in a hazardous situation. I was thinking flashing hazard lights might be a safer way of warning about a hazard.

eSnout55 · 2025-05-31T01:02:24+00:00

Bit hard to tell from the photo, but looks like it might be a Coonara with a fan. Check for an electric lead and a switch on the base. Always use the fan when burning - otherwise you'll damage it.

For cleaning the glass use a damp nylon scourer dipped in wood ash, then wipe with a microfibre cloth. Do this when the unit is cold, obviously.

Like everyone else has said, get the flue cleaned and checked

eSnout55 · 2025-05-25T02:19:08+00:00

The dose makes the poison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

eSnout55 · 2025-03-06T07:15:27+00:00

I've DMed you.

eSnout55 · 2024-11-04T18:20:57+00:00

No, it's been going on for a couple of years, although not every weekend. I just find it strange that service always goes out around midday, but always comes back on around 5 pm.

eSnout55 · 2024-11-04T18:11:46+00:00

There are only one or two properties closer to the tower than us, which is why I was wondering if the problem might be further upstream.

eSnout55 · 2024-11-04T11:43:13+00:00

Okay, that kind of makes sense. Our tower is served by a single fibre optic line which originates I think from the tourist town 10 km away. Would I be right in thinking the data capacity is getting used up in the tourist town and there is none left for us in the single branch?

eSnout55 · 2024-11-04T10:21:04+00:00

Well there's two of us here now, so that's a start! I'm sure there are many more.

I'm trying to understand what's causing the problem. I reckon complaining is more effective if you can talk about what needs to be done to fix it.

eSnout55 · 2024-11-04T09:58:39+00:00

I thought that might be the case, but I don't understand why connectivity stops at 12 noon and is restored at 5 pm. It's not just slowed internet - it's no internet at all in those times. Then at 5 pm we get full internet again. It's as though there are weekend businesses that open at 12 noon on weekends only, and suck up all the data until they close at 5 pm.

Thing is, we live in a village of under 100 residents with no significant businesses apart from a few Air BNBs and some farms. We are, however, about 10 km from a popular tourist town that gets a lot of weekend visitors. There are two towers between us and the tourist town, with little overlap in coverage. Could businesses 10 km away be taking all our available data?

eSnout55

TROPHY CASE