Launch Control Center personnel rise to watch through a window
as Apollo 11 lifts off from the pad, 3½ miles away
JoAnn Hardin Morgan(born December 4, 1940) is an American aerospace engineer who was the first female engineer at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center and the first woman to serve as a senior executive at Kennedy Space Center.
For her work at NASA, Morgan was honored by U.S. President Bill Clinton as a Meritorious Executive in 1995 and 1998. Prior to her retirement in 2003, she held various leadership positions over 40 years in the human space flight programs at NASA.
Morgan served as the director of the External Relations and Business Development during her final years at the space center.
It's not just something you came up with based on a couple of videos that sparked a random thought.
A theory is a series of observations, rigorously tested and debated, leading to conclusions that stay consistent as the tests and their outcomes are independently replicated.
Young women now have 'close to zero' risk of cervical cancer death after HPV jab 3 days ago
Children vaccinated at age 12–13 against HPV (human papillomavirus) have close to zero risk of dying from cervical cancer before the age of 30, landmark new research reveals.
The first study of its kind shows deaths have fallen sharply since school-age girls began being offered it in 2008, and around 200 lives have been saved in England so far thanks to the vaccine.
Between 2020 and 2024, no cervical cancer deaths were recorded in women aged 20 to 24 - the first time that had happened over a five-year period.
Without vaccination, around 23 deaths would have been expected.
"It's incredible to think that a single jab can almost eliminate a particular type of cancer," said Prof Peter Sasieni, the lead researcher at Queen Mary University of London.
Overall, cervical cancer is still the 14th most common cancer among females in the UK, with 3,300 people diagnosed every year.
It is thought HPV, a virus which is spread through close skin-to-skin contact, causes 99% of those cases.
Most HPV infections clear up without any problems, but some cause abnormal cell changes and can lead to cancer years later.
The report's authors expect the numbers dying from the disease to continue to fall as more are given a HPV jab and vaccinated people grow older.
Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, described the findings as an "incredible milestone" but warned that vaccination rates in England were running below recommended levels.
"We know the HPV vaccine is extremely effective at stopping cervical cancer before it starts and for the first time these findings show it is saving lives," said the organisation's chief executive Michelle Mitchell.
'I'm a real advocate for this vaccine'
Alexandra Legg left school just before the HPV vaccine was introduced in England.
In 2021, just as she was planning her wedding, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer aged 30.
"I remember hearing the words and I just couldn't really breathe very well," she says.
"I was so upset - everything went through my head, it was so hard."
Her treatment involved the removal of lymph nodes in her abdomen, although surgeons were able to preserve a small part of her cervix, giving her a chance of becoming pregnant.
Alexandra and her three-year-old daughter Ivy, who was born after she had cervical cancer Just a year later, Ivy was born. Her middle name is Marvella - meaning "miracle".
"Those nine months were so scary because I was at such risk of losing her at any point," she says.
Alexandra says her life could have been far less traumatic if she had been offered the HPV vaccine and urged those eligible to get it.
"I'm a real advocate for this vaccine and when Ivy is old enough, she'll be first in the queue," she adds.
Reduction in deaths 'tip of the iceberg'
Prof Sasieni, who specialises in cancer epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London, describes the reduction in deaths since the introduction of the vaccine as the "tip of the iceberg".
"As vaccinated generations grow older, we'll see many more lives saved from cervical cancer," he adds.
"New research shows just how vital it is to keep HPV vaccination levels high so more people are protected."
The UK government has pledged to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2040.
But the latest data shows vaccination rates across the country have fallen below recommended levels.
Data from the UK Health Security Agency shows that 76% of girls in England were vaccinated by the age of 15 in 2024-25, well below the 90% that the World Health Organization (WHO) says is needed to eliminate cervical cancer.
"It's essential that the UK Government and health systems urgently address this with targeted action to reach communities where uptake is the lowest," says Michelle Mitchell at Cancer Research UK.
Dr Sharif Ismail from the UK Health Security Agency urged young people to come forward if they had missed being vaccinated.
Despite the rollout of the HPV vaccine, women aged 25 to 64 are still advised to attend cervical screening (formerly known as a smear test).
Boys have also been given the HPV vaccine since 2019, which helps to protect them against anal, penis, throat and mouth cancers, and reduces the risk of them passing the virus on to girls.
The Department of Health and Social Care in England said the study showed the "extraordinary impact of the HPV vaccination".
"We are boosting vaccine uptake so that more young people benefit from this life-saving protection - including rolling out catch-up HPV vaccination campaigns via community pharmacies," said a spokesman.
HPV self-testing kits are also being sent out to women who have not yet come forward for screening, he added.
A screwworm larva is a parasitic, flesh-eating maggot of the screwworm fly (most notably the New World screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax). Unlike regular maggots that only eat dead tissue, screwworm larvae burrow into living flesh to feed. This causes severe, foul-smelling wounds that can be fatal to humans, pets, and livestock if left untreated.
So glad Elon took a nine pound sledge hammer to all the agencies that have kept us - and the whole fuckin' world - quite a bit safer than it used to be.
So glad we can look forward to years of remediating preventable shit, and more years of rebuilding the safeguards that put people in place who actually knew what the fuck they were doing.
The institutions and agencies that study things like New World Screwworms, aren't there as bullshit make-work opportunities for the nerds - they're there to help people stay healthy, and to keep the economy from imploding every time there's some weird shit that pops up and threatens some aspect of a very complex system.
there
are
no
simple
10-word
answers
to
the
important
questions
Flesh-eating screwworm returns to U.S. after 60 years, threatening cattle herd
The case of New World screwworm was confirmed in a 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said late Wednesday.
A flesh-eating parasite that had been kept out of U.S. livestock for decades has been detected in Texas, threatening the nation’s cattle industry and food supply at a time when prices are already high.
The case of New World screwworm was confirmed in a 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, near the U.S.-Mexico border, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said late Wednesday.
The parasitic fly’s larvae feed exclusively on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals.
While the fly is capable of infecting humans and pets, such cases are rare and pose little risk to the broader public, according to experts.
The parasite does not pose a food safety threat, but a wider outbreak could still cost the livestock industry billions of dollars and put additional pressure on beef prices that are already at record highs.
The case is the first confirmed detection of New World screwworm in Texas since 1966, and is the only confirmed case identified in the country so far, said Rollins.
It follows months of warnings from U.S. and Texas agriculture officials and cattle industry leaders, as the pest steadily moved north through Mexico toward the American border.
“For months, the screwworm has advanced rapidly through Mexico in spite of the USDA’s existing gameplan,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said Wednesday, adding that “instead of using every available tool, USDA moved too slowly and relied solely on a partial solution that takes years to fully implement.”
Miller has also called on President Donald Trump to take direct control of the government’s response, and “throw every available federal resource at this threat before it becomes a full-blown agricultural disaster.”
Screwworm Livestock
The primary weapon against screwworm is a decades-old technique that has eliminated the parasite from the U.S. in the past — releasing sterilized male flies into affected areas. Since female flies generally mate only once, those that pair with sterile males are unable to produce offspring.
In a bid to contain the spread of the parasite, USDA said it has begun releasing sterile flies in the area and is investing heavily in new sterile flies production facilities in Texas.
It has also established a roughly 12-mile quarantine zone around the site and restricted the movement of warm-blooded animals, including livestock and pets to further strengthen the response.
State veterinarians are urging ranchers and pet owners inside the quarantine zone to follow movement restrictions while eradication efforts continue.
Rollins said the USDA is confident enough in its preparations that it believes “there is no threat of mass infestation.”
“Protecting our livestock industry is a national security issue of the utmost importance, and USDA is wasting no time in taking action,” said Dudley Hoskins, a USDA under secretary. “USDA invested heavily in the tools needed to eliminate NWS ever since cases started increasing in Central America and Mexico. The United States has defeated this pest before, and we will do it again.”
Unlike contagious livestock diseases, screwworm does not spread directly from animal to animal. Instead, female flies lay eggs in open wounds or body openings.
Once the eggs hatch, the larvae burrow into living flesh and feed on tissue, potentially causing severe infections and death of livestock if left untreated.
The U.S. cattle herd is already at its lowest level in 75 years, with a major screwworm outbreak threatening to further reduce supplies and increase costs for ranchers and consumers alike.
The most recent human screwworm case in the U.S. was identified in Maryland last year after a traveler returned from El Salvador.
The person recovered, and federal health officials found no evidence that the parasite had spread to others.
BKjr's dumbass claims about "mercury" in vaccines have been thoroughly disproved, so he has to crash around in search of another scary-sounding thing he can use to terrorize the rubes.
I hate thinking I'm falling into a stream of thought that follows a pattern that may well be valid, but may certainly be just a product of several thousand generations of evolutionary training to look for those patterns, and to assume they're the real deal.
Here's a story of the Chaco Canyon civilization which concludes that high-handed theocratic rulers will become literal cannibals in order to impose their will on the people they rule.
And also maybe too - the leaders ate people thinking they could absorb the essence of their victims so they can extend their own lives as well as the power they hold over their subjects. (Nothing new about that, BTW)
At the end of this piece, try not to think about the grisly possibility that American plutocrats may actually have butchered young children, and eaten parts of them, or used parts of them to concoct some stupidly contrived tonic - or serum - or some goddamned thing.
OK, so first it makes my head hurt, but that goes away after a bit, and then I get the buzz.
Happy now?
Look, it's good to get a Physics For Dummies explanation, but I'm the guy who struggles with a credit card statement, so all the math and science stuff always ends in "it's wonderment".
I'm just glad to know there are people in the world who are working on it for me.
From a while ago - not sure if I've posted this before, but it seems pretty important.
It'd be nice if I could count on my government to put my money where it helps, instead of always making sure it goes to parasite billionaires and vampire corporations.
Google AI summary:
As of early 2026, MIT faces significant funding reductions due to federal cuts, particularly with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) slashing support for university research. These cuts, which include a 15% cap on indirect costs, could reduce MIT’s funding by $30–$35 million annually, threatening research into cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases.
Key Impacts on MIT Cancer Research:Reduced Funding:
The NIH, under the second Trump administration, has targeted reductions in indirect costs—essential for lab infrastructure, safety, and operational costs.
Impact on Research and Staff:
The funding cuts are disrupting ongoing projects and creating a potential, significant impact on scientific output.
Broader Context:
These cuts are part of a broader federal push to reduce NIH funding by roughly 40% in fiscal year 2026.
Massachusetts Impact:
Massachusetts, which receives the largest share of NIH funding per capita, is seeing major reductions, with around 5,783 projects potentially affected. Proposed Cuts & Opposition: While the administration has proposed drastic budget cuts to science agencies, some legislative efforts are exploring alternative funding levels.
These reductions pose a risk to the ongoing cancer research, which has been crucial in advancing treatments.
Further Exploration:
Read an in-depth analysis of the impact of these cuts on cancer research from The ASCO Post.
View a detailed report on the federal funding cuts and their impact on research in Massachusetts from STAT.
See a comprehensive overview of the proposed science funding cuts in the second Trump administration from Wikipedia.
Like practically all of Felon47's cabinet, BKjr is a clear and present danger.
I had this really annoying pain in my left side - kinda down low on my belly - so I Googled it, and found this guy on Reddit (I think he said he's a plumber) who has some great opinions, and snappy comebacks in the comments section, and his cousin's roommate's sister-in-law says what I need is to find the best chiropractor in town and talk to him about how to relieve the tension in my upper back and neck - it'll fix me right up. Cuz those egghead doctors are all just a buncha pill-pushers who make bank by keeping you sick and raking in the cash for a global cabal of Jewish bankers.
C'mon, people, get your Crown Chakra out of your Root Chakra and have a conversation with somebody who actually knows their shit, like - oh I dunno - an actual fuckin' doctor.
We have to have this kinda thing going on. I don't know if there was much government funding, but it's McGill University in Montreal, so yeah, probably. Canadians are still pretty normal, in that they're willing to do it right, letting the nerds do what they need to do to get us good and useful stuff.
We've been looking for life in places other than Earth for over 60 years. If we imagine the Milky Way galaxy as the oceans on our planet, we've searched approximately one 12-ounce glassful.
If we were looking for fish, how many fish would we find in that 12 ounces of sea water?
I can't even spell half the shit this woman knows like the back of her hand.
And to think a drugged up roids ranger with a dead worm in his brain has been put in charge of our national health policy.
Stay home, try to eat right, and get some exercise. This ridiculous charade will pass, and we have to be ready for the massive rebuilding effort we'll have to make on the other side of it.
Congratulations to Dr. Mary Brunkow on receiving the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this week in Stockholm.
In her acceptance speech on Wednesday, Dr. Brunkow reflected: "As a woman in science I especially want to acknowledge those role models who gave me the courage and incentive to persevere. My hope is that I in turn can be that role model for my own daughters, who are just now launching out into the world, as well as for other young women who are excited about science."
Dr. Brunkow was honored for groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance, which prevents our immune system from attacking the body's own tissues. She identified the gene that controls regulatory T cells -- a previously unknown class of immune cells that act as security guards to keep harmful immune responses in check.
The American scientist shared the prize with Fred Ramsdell, also from the United States, and Shimon Sakaguchi from Japan, who made complementary contributions to understanding peripheral immune tolerance. The discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of research and spurred the development of treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer. As Olle Kämpe, chair of the Nobel Committee, explained, their research has "been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases."
Brunkow received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1991 in molecular biology and is currently a senior researcher at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Her Ph.D. adviser, former Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman, described her as "incredibly bright" and "bold," noting that as a student, Brunkow was one of the first brave enough to tackle the mysterious H19 gene, which other scientists had dismissed as junk.
Brunkow and Ramsdell conducted their prize-winning research together at Celltech Chiroscience in 2001, when they identified a mutation in the FOXP3 gene in a mouse strain suffering from lethal autoimmunity. They explained why this specific type of mouse was particularly vulnerable to autoimmune diseases and showed that mutations in the human equivalent of this gene cause IPEX syndrome, a serious autoimmune disease. In 2003, Sakaguchi linked their findings to his earlier discovery of regulatory T cells from the 1990s, proving that the FOXP3 gene governs the development of these crucial immune regulators. Brunkow, who is now the fourteenth woman to have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, described the regulatory T cells as "rare, but powerful, and they're critical for sort of dampening an immune response". She explained that these cells function as a braking system that prevents the body's immune system from tipping over into attacking itself. Their discoveries have led to potential treatments now in clinical trials for autoimmune diseases, cancer, and stem cell transplant complications.
