Interim Post Office now open in old K-Mart

Haven't been there myself, but saw it in the paper. Including, of course, a picture and short interview with good old Fred, everybody's favorite south Minneapolis postal clerk.

Ah, found the article that quotes Fred. It's from the Southwest Journal (which is tragically shutting down at the end of the year, but still has a few more issues left in it).

Dept of Unintended Consequences

Because Trump has always preferred campaigning to governing, he has set aside his post-election funk to charge into action in Georgia, vowing to campaign tirelessly for the Republican incumbents in those oh-so-important Senate runoff elections. The Georgia Republican party is not nearly as excited about this as he is, since having Trump on the ticket did not work out well for them in the national election, but seems resigned to accepting his "help." But it was particularly amusing to see evidence that all the work Trump has already done in attacking the Georgia election process and (Republican) election officials has convinced a lot of his supporters that there is no point in voting at all. 

Gosh, who could have seen that coming?  *heh*

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In other satisfying election news, the latest stinging judicial dismissal of the Trump campaign's baseless lawsuits was delivered by a judge who was not just a Republican but a Trump appointee. 

“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” 3rd Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote for the three-judge panel, all appointed by Republican presidents.

There's not a lot of glimmers of cheer these days, but you have to admit that was kind of delicious. 

This is so amazingly cool!!

Hadn't heard of this until I saw it in the Science section of the Sunday paper, and it is kind of breathtaking. There doesn't even seem to be a shorthand term for what this is. It's a completely different route to inoculation that is not a method of stimulating antibody production and is not even a synthetic antibody. For now they are just calling it "machine-made molecules" or "mini-binders."  They're gonna have to come up with a better term for it. It's sort of a vaccine, but sort of not. We may have to rethink exactly what the definition of "vaccine" is to even discuss it. But it is way cool. And it seems to work on hamsters.

If I understand this correctly, it's a decoy molecule that lures in marauding coronavirus with a very specific molecular bait, then grabs onto it and renders it harmless. If it works out, this substance could be cheaply manufactured, easily stored, and possibly self-administered as a nasal spray. Better yet, if the concept works on this virus, it would probably work on others. Maybe we are finally on the track of a cure to the common cold! 

Hmm. "ACE-2 decoy" is kind of a snappy name. I vote for that. Mini-binders sounds like an office supply product, and machine-made molecules just sounds scary. Branding is important, y'all.