Brian Vastag

Former science reporter at The Washington Post and elsewhere. Disabled by complex chronic post-viral illness. Living on #Kauai #Hawaii. Grew up in Wisconsin. Occasional SCUBA diver.

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npub1c6dr99s0tdv8v94pz7p7f29wae0ck8sx0lj2zmc9r98l8uhlzfcsrv4fy5

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brianvastag_at_sciencemastodon.com@mostr.pub

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Last Notes

2024-09-19 16:57:31

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@npub1l8m…rrp2 God I hated doing that skill and have never had to do it for realsies.

2024-09-16 01:34:31

All I want AI to do is add punctuation to the trillions of run-on paragraphs that pollute social media.

2024-09-13 20:17:28

The target audience for this one is NERDS.
(It's a Baldur's Gate 3 meme.)
#gaming
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/113/132/084/983/891/375/original/f76383bbf4d0565e.png

2024-09-11 21:49:29

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@npub1t95…zup6 I wasn't expecting Kauai to be at the forefront of AI-generated news. Because we don't have much of it out here.

2024-09-10 21:03:50

Today the WHO marks suicide prevention day. I lost my partner to suicide in December. She was ashamed of her depression and didn't talk about it. But there's nothing shameful about being depressed...talking about it is usually helpful & I encourage everyone struggling with mental health issues to find ways to open up about it.
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-suicide-prevention-day/world-suicide-prevention-day-2024

2024-09-06 17:42:38

#Cats are self-pedestaling.
#catsofmastodon
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/113/091/839/853/579/711/original/2af2efe1d38b8c73.jpg

2024-09-06 01:56:24

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@npub1ezn…5el5 They ship from the mainland. Young Brothers has interisland shipping all to themselves.

2024-09-06 01:27:45

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I thought I had found an 'alternate shipper' today but they just use the Young Brothers badges anyway. Lol.

2024-09-06 01:26:30

Very excited about the new (used) EV I bought on Oahu last weekend. It's a low-mileage '22 Kia Niro SUV.
But it's stuck on Oahu until Halloween because the #Hawaii Mafia, AKA Young Brothers shipping, has the monopoly on inter-island shipping and they DGAF.
They're a private company parading as a public utility. Yeehaw. So I get to make two months of payments before I can drive it.
#cars #transportation #EVs

2024-09-05 23:35:34

I am so glad the Post saw fit to publish this wonderful obituary for @npub12ez…uyf6. He deserves it.
(Gift link)
https://wapo.st/4d1K3lC
#journalism #autism #music

2024-08-28 01:33:06

Excited about my new e-bike, obtained today. Very comfy. I qualify for a #Hawaii state rebate of around $400 and in my little town should be able to do about 90% of my errands with it. It's also an accessibility vehicle...I can ride a regular bike about a mile before I'm done.
#cycling #ebike #bicycles
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/113/037/064/931/851/661/original/d9ac0fa5db0343dd.jpg

2024-08-25 22:49:27

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@npub18zz…rd6u It's also a skill they practice and like any skill it can be improved.

2024-08-15 18:14:45

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I see a lot of virologists and other researchers very skeptical of some of the long COVID prevalence numbers.
But if someone can now handle 10-20% less brain work than they used to, that's a huge impact even if it's not being fully disabled. And it can be very tricky to capture with standard cognitive testing unless that person for some reason completed such testing pre-covid.

2024-08-15 18:05:50

Just met up with an long-time friend I haven't seen for a while who had #covid in 2022 and says she now has occasional spells of horrible fatigue and that her "brain doesn't work like it used to." She's cut back on the amount of work she does. And she does not tell many people about this or identify as a #longcovid patient. But she is.
So when you see stats showing a substantial % of people having long COVID & are skeptical think of her - so much of it is invisible.

2024-08-15 01:03:45

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@npub1j8c…8026 Lotta airtime and cloud drives need to be filled.

2024-08-15 00:06:58

This former WaPo reporter has stopped paying attention to like 99% of all political analysis. None on tv, very little in print, sometimes a bit on a podcast. Almost all of it is cynical and it does very lttle to inform me.
#USpol #election2024

2024-08-13 00:35:10

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@npub1esg…qfua I say we abandon it to the UFOs. They can have it.

2024-08-11 00:28:00

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Remember how in 2016 every US news outlets ran stolen Clinton emails?
Don't expect to see any of this internal Trump stuff because they've decided stolen materials are bad now.

2024-08-11 00:26:12

Hey why didn't the hackers send the #Trump stuff they stole to #Wikileaks, which eagerly published stolen material from the Clinton campaign?
Maybe it's because Wikileaks is a Trump/Putin-loving fascism enabler that would never hurt MAGA? I dunno possibly.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/10/trump-campaign-hack-00173503

2024-08-10 00:03:29

Leaked video of JD waiting for his mom to leave the house.
#couchfucker
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/934/792/229/046/512/original/62ff61c6fb449c0d.mp4

2024-08-08 01:51:07

The reason you didn't hear a bunch of bitching & whining about Battlestar Galactica's 'The Last Supper' shot is because it happened *before social media* was more than a niche, you old fucks. (I'm an old fuck too.)
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/923/890/830/767/978/original/ec7fdcb84ba57c63.png

2024-08-05 21:01:47

This France-Egypt soccer semi-final is a lot of fun as it heads into extra time. 1-1.
#Olympics #Paris2024

2024-08-04 03:24:44

Met this one-eyed porcupine pufferfish of unusual size (ok not that unusual I guess) the last time I went #scuba diving.
Is it congenital or did...did the eye pop out when the poor thing got frigthened by a shark and over-inflated? I'm just spitballing here.
#fish #fishes #reef #Hawaii #MarineBiology
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/901/606/813/475/999/original/39203ccf778b8256.png

2024-08-01 05:43:59

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@npub1rmg…v68m yes, they're not making it any easier

2024-07-28 18:33:28

Hearing from my friends in #Wisconsin that this GOP amendment to strip more power from the Democratic governor is so obscurely written that it's very difficult to understand what it means.
Confusing voters is just more GOP BS because they know they can't win on merits.
#uspol
https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-constitutional-amendment-governor-power-def171c6fdeb1f6be63c09202dd8eed6

2024-07-17 00:46:21

Yesterday there was a brush fire on #Kauai on our dry west side that consumed 1100 acres, but the county & the electric utility turned off the power and responded quickly.
Maybe some lessons were learned from last summer's tragedy on Maui. Good to see some competence. No homes lost.
https://www.facebook.com/100064597935841/posts/866618105501446/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

2024-07-14 18:40:00

I am replacing an outdoor shower light and this dude is really trying to be helpful but has no opposable thumbs for the screws.
#lizards
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/786/300/576/030/559/original/5ee292d2e8285d2f.jpg

2024-07-12 22:17:20

Trump punished states that didn't vote for him.
Biden just quickly promised aid to Texas after Hurricane Beryl.
But it's not breaking norms or exciting so I doubt any political editors will take a second glance at it and few people will learn about it.
#USpol #journalism

2024-07-10 23:03:17

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@npub1gag…cu2j yes beryl set records for earliest cat 5

2024-07-08 18:17:07

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@npub1ztj…vflw Love the dragons. I've only seen them at one spot on Kauai.

2024-07-08 01:25:29

I went for a #scuba dive today for the first time since March and met this large frogfish specimen right at the turnaround point in the dive.
I love their confidence in the camoflauge; they don't spook & swim or move at all. They are just happy being there.
This is a GoPro frame grabbed and cropped so resolution isn't great.
#fish #ocean #reef
https://cdn.masto.host/sciencemastodoncom/media_attachments/files/112/748/258/535/860/566/original/6606fd09fc97285c.png

2024-07-06 03:37:43

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@npub18lz…pldz The rules say someone had to win otherwise no one would've.

2024-07-03 22:10:00

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@npub1lzz…jhl3 Garland needs to slap superceding indictments on Orange Felon at the national security rocket docket in Eastern Virginia.

2024-07-03 19:06:45

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Also, Copa America has been an absolute shitshow of cosmically biased reffing, endless players tackling from behind while others flop, sweltering temps and laggard play, long stoppages, inadequate stoppage time, and a general lack of entertainment. In other words: FUTBOL.

2024-06-30 21:04:42

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@npub1qqu…tjp4 Do adults not understand that voting for president also means voting for an administration, a party, federal judges and Supreme Court appointments? Because a lot of people seem kind of dumb about it.

2024-06-28 00:38:52

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@npub1h93…rjpx Yes that US-Panama soccer game there was atrocious.

2024-06-27 20:29:34

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@npub1c2n…4ge3 Um, don't watch?

2024-06-27 18:18:01

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@npub18xd…ruae Yes, it has been proven effective for PTSD.

2024-06-23 19:09:54

Big #futbol day for us couch potatos.
Germany: Switzerland on now as well as Scotland:Hungary
USA:Bolivia in a few hours.
I like that we're scheduled against the weakest team in South America fk start the tournament.
#soccer #sports

2024-06-22 18:53:58

This little doofus (who enjoys warm piles of clean laundry) tortures the poor lizards & ignores the giant cockroaches. She'll watch a roach saunter by and not lift a paw, while the anole lizards drop their tails (which twicth like crazy for about a minute) in terror and try to escape, usually unsucessfully. I had to clean up an eviserated lizard yesterday. :(
#cats #catsofmastodon #caturday

2024-06-21 21:10:37

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'The Hui Kawaihau name was based on a nickname for an American missionary woman in town who preferred iced water (‘Kawaihau’) over some of the alcoholic libations the others were enjoying.'

2024-06-19 01:20:44

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@npub1nux…hzfs Somehow 'tick, tick...boom' did not get into that

2024-06-18 00:25:16

Really enjoying this young German jazz/fusion musician Joshua Milo, who Spotify served up to me. Sometimes the algorithm finds good stuff.
#music #jazz
https://youtu.be/KQyaBICRzmw?si=Kg-qnTEekSpYDBS4

2024-06-14 19:30:17

The Pentagon ran a disinformation campaign to dissuade Filipinos from using Chinese masks & vaccines against #COVID in 2020. What absolute shitbags.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/

2024-06-11 17:23:55

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NAS defintion of long covid does *not* require a positive home or laboratory test for SARS-CoV-2, given the high prevlence of false negatives.
Requires 3+ months of symptoms.

2024-06-11 17:16:01

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Chair of the NAS committee Harvey Fineberg: Defintion of long covid says the condition can be continuous, relapsing-remitting, or progressive.
I feel like I haven't heard many people talk about *progressive* long covid.

2024-06-06 18:22:14

‘Unusual’ cancers emerged after the pandemic. Doctors ask if covid is to blame.
"Patel shared that he’d just seen a patient in his 40s with cholangiocarcinoma...a lethal cancer of the bile ducts that typically strikes people in their 70s and 80s. Initially, there was silence, and then one colleague after another said they’d recently treated patients who had similar diagnoses. Within a year of that meeting, the office had recorded seven such cases."
https://wapo.st/3Kvhb9d
#covid #medicine

2024-05-04 00:38:19

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@npub1f4p…u5dl When I worked at WaPo a decade ago I was so grateful the editors kept us reporters largely shielded from metrics. If it was top read, we'd see it on listed, otherwise pretty much nada.

2023-08-25 02:04:23

Attendance at Kentucky school district dropped 80% after school started so now they're closed due to infectious diseases.
US: A public health failed state.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kentucky-school-district-cancels-classes-covid-flu-strep-rcna101511

2023-08-03 22:40:41

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@npub153s…cvd9 This is not your Slackers Austin anymore.

2023-08-03 22:37:39

The professor & former Times journalist Texas A&M tried to hire to restart its #journalism department before some rank racists derailed the appointment gets a $1 million settlement from A&M. She gets to stay in Austin at UT, a much cooler town anyway.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/texas-a-m-dr-kathleen-mcelroy-18277541.php