Fri - 20 Years of Alzheimer's Research Based on Fraud

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Today's Worst Joke in the World

She was only a moonshiner's daughter, but I miss her still.
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Two Decades of Alzheimer's Research May be Based on Deliberate Fraud that has Cost Millions of Lives

Last month, drug company Genentech reported on the first clinical trials of the drug crenezumab, a drug targeting amyloid proteins that form sticky plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients. The drug had been particularly effective in animal models, and the trial results were eagerly awaited as one of the most promising treatments in years. It did not work. “Crenezumab did not slow or prevent cognitive decline” in people with a predisposition toward Alzheimer’s.

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) narrowly approved the use of Aduhelm, a new drug from Biogen that the company has priced so highly that it’s expected to drive up the price of Medicare for everyone in America, even those who never need this drug. Aduhelm was the first drug to be approved that fights the accumulation of those "amyloid plaques" in the brain. What makes the approval of the $56,000-a-dose drug so controversial is that while it does decrease plaques, it doesn’t actually slow Alzheimer’s. In fact, clinical trials were suspended in 2019 after the treatment showed “no clinical benefits.” (Which did not keep Biogen from seeking the drug’s approval or pricing it astronomically.)

Over the last two decades, Alzheimer’s drugs have been notable mostly for having a 99% failure rate in human trials. It’s not unusual for drugs that are effective in vitro and in animal models to turn out to be less than successful when used in humans, but Alzheimer’s has a record that makes the batting average in other areas look like Hall of Fame material.

And now we have a good idea of why. Because it looks like the original paper that established the amyloid plaque model as the foundation of Alzheimer’s research over the last 16 years might not just be wrong, but a deliberate fraud.

The suspicion that something was more than a little wrong with the model that is getting almost all Alzheimer’s research funding ($1.6 billion in the last year alone) began with a fight over the drug Simufilam. The drug was being pushed into trials by its manufacturer, Cassava Sciences, but a group of scientists who reviewed the drug maker’s claims about Simufilam believed that it was exaggerating the potential. So they did what any reasonable person would do: They purchased short sell positions in Cassava Sciences stock, filed a letter with the FDA calling for a review before allowing the drug to go to trial, and hired an investigator to provide some support for this position.

As Science reports, it was that investigator, Vanderbilt University neuroscientist and junior professor Matthew Schrag, who tipped over the whole applecart to discover that it wasn’t just that Cassava’s drug was ineffective. There’s good evidence that for the last 16 years, almost everyone has had the wrong idea about the cause of Alzheimer’s. Because of a fraud.

Two decades of Alzheimer's research may be based on deliberate fraud that has cost millions of lives
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

The University Was Ute-Less

A trove of documents released by the University of Utah on Tuesday reveals a series of failures leading up to the death of a Chinese student, allegedly at the hands of her ex-boyfriend.

Salt Lake City police found international student Zhifan Dong, 19, dead in an off-campus motel room on Feb. 11, when they responded to reports from the University of Utah police department that a man was threatening to kill his girlfriend, officials said. Dong’s former boyfriend, Haoyu Wang, 26, was also in the room when police arrived and claimed he had killed Dong before trying to take his own life with drugs, according to the report. Wang has been charged with murder and will face a competency hearing on Aug. 8, according to court documents.

For weeks before Dong’s death, the university knew she was in a dangerous intimate partner violence situation, according to a timeline released by the university. On Jan. 14, Dong reported Wang’s suicidal ideations to housing staff and made them aware that her boyfriend had been arrested by police two days earlier after an altercation with her, the timeline notes. She was issued a temporary protective order by police after the incident. The university added in the timeline that there is currently “no process or regulation requiring local police departments to notify colleges or universities of arrests or protective orders involving students.”

Bailey McGartland, Dong’s roommate who is also a student at the school, told the campus newspaper she helped Dong file reports of domestic violence and requests for wellness checks.

“I felt so angry,” McGartland told the Daily Utah Chronicle. “It was absolutely preventable.”

The documents, which were made public after The Salt Lake City Tribune pushed for public records on the case to be released, describe how former campus-housing employees delayed notifying the university’s police department about reports of intimate partner violence. They also provide evidence of “insufficient and unprofessional internal communication,” University President Taylor Randall said, as well as “processes, procedures and trainings in housing that needed to be clarified and improved.”

“Although the university made extensive efforts to support and ensure the safety of Dong and provide assistance to Wang, our self-evaluation revealed shortcomings,” Randall said.

Don't Run a Stop Sign in Tennessee

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has opened a probe into the brutal arrest of a Black man who was chased into a home, where a loved one recorded as he was beaten and shocked with a Taser after alleged traffic violations.

The video begins when officers follow a man into a home in the town of Oakland, Tennessee, about 40 miles east of Memphis. One Oakland Police Department officer is swinging a baton, while another has a gun drawn, the video shows.

A woman inside the home can be heard screaming: "Stop, stop, Brandon, Brandon, stop! Stop hitting him!"

The officers chase the man upstairs into a den and begin to shock him with a Taser.

"Why are you chasing and hitting him?" the woman asks. "He has no weapons." A woman can also be heard saying: "I need to call my mom. I need to call his mom."

After a third law enforcement officer arrives, all three try to detain the man in a room. When he exits the room, his face is bloodied.

Officers tried to pull over Brandon Calloway, 25, after he drove through a stop sign, according to a police affidavit.

Calloway, who was in a gray Chevrolet Camaro, "sped away," driving 32 mph in a 20 mph zone, the affidavit said. When he did not stop, officers activated their lights, according to the document.

The officers followed Calloway to a home, where he stopped the vehicle and ran inside. "This is my ... house and I did stop for the sign," Calloway yelled as he ran, using an expletive, according to police.

Run Forest Josh, Run.  (The Possibilities Are Endless )







Josh Hawley is Worse Than a Joke


Handing the Media a Win??


They Don't Need to Be Popular.  They Are SCOTUS!


Did You Know Mike Pence Caused the Black Death and Irish Potato Famine?


The QOP Loves Women ... As Long As They Are Having Babies

In the past week alone, House Republicans have overwhelmingly voted against a woman’s right to travel for abortion care, to access birth control and to marry someone they love.

Each of these votes was appalling in its own right.

When the House voted last week to ensure that women are able to travel across state lines for an abortion, 205 Republicans voted no. When the House voted Tuesday to codify same-sex marriage, 157 Republicans voted no. On Thursday, when the House voted to protect women’s right to access birth control and other contraception, 195 Republicans voted no.

Taken together, the broader message that Republicans are sending with these votes is even more horrifying: Women should be viewed as little more than baby incubators.

House Democratic leaders lined up votes on all of these bills in direct response to the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade last month, breaking from 50 years of precedent to deny women a constitutional right to an abortion.

Republicans in Congress argued that none of these bills are necessary because the right to birth control and the right to same-sex marriage are safe.

The Musk Effect

Twitter surprised Wall Street on Friday when it reported a loss of more than $200 million in the second quarter of 2022, a three-month period that saw billionaire Elon Musk agree to buy the social platform and then back out of the deal.

The social media giant's earnings report showed a $270 million loss between April and June, a decline that saw Twitter stock decline 8 cents per share. The company also said revenue slid 1% to $1.18 billion, compared to Q2 in 2021.

The report said that during the quarter, however, daily Twitter users actually increased by almost 17% to 238 million.

The quarterly loss caught Wall Street by surprise, as most analysts expected the report would show a profit of 14 cents per share on $1.32 billion in revenue.

Where is the QOP Climate Plan?

When Joe Manchin announced an abrupt end to Senate negotiations over major climate legislation last week, activists and even fellow Democrats expressed outrage against the West Virginia lawmaker. Manchin was attacked as a “modern-day villain” who had delivered “nothing short of a death sentence” to a rapidly heating planet.

Some Democratic leaders, however, including Joe Biden, have since attempted to redirect that anger toward congressional Republicans instead.

“Not a single Republican in Congress stepped up to support my climate plan. Not one,” Biden said, speaking at a coal turned wind power plant in Massachusetts on Wednesday. “So let me be clear: climate change is an emergency.”

Although congressional Republicans have refused to embrace Biden’s policy ideas, the party has largely abandoned its past climate denialism. But climate experts and activists say the ideas Republicans have proposed are insufficient or misguided and fail to address the magnitude and urgency of this crisis.

Republicans have not generally been viewed as champions when it comes to combating the climate crisis at the federal level. Donald Trump famously withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement, and his administration rolled back nearly 100 environmental rules during his presidency, eliminating important regulations for the fossil fuel industry.

The Hearings Seem to Even Have an Effect on the QOP

Trump has not officially confirmed that he plans to seek another presidential term but has repeatedly hinted at the idea as a strong possibility. While polls have generally shown the former president as the clear frontrunner for the Republican Party's nomination, his viability might be taking a hit as the January 6 hearings feature what many view as damning testimony by his own former administration officials and other Republicans.

Polling data by Reuters/Ipsos released on Thursday shows that Trump is losing support among GOP voters for a 2024 presidential run. Survey data collected from July 20 to 21 showed that about one-third (32 percent) of Republicans "strongly" or "somewhat" agreed with the statement that Trump "should NOT run for president again in 2024." That was an increase from about one-quarter (26 percent) who said the same just six weeks ago.

Additionally, in the previous early-June poll, 51 percent of Republicans "strongly" disagreed with the statement that Trump shouldn't seek another term. That level of strong disapproval with the statement dipped 10 points to 41 percent in the latest survey.

Relatedly, the level of Republicans who believe Trump is at least partially responsible for January 6 has increased as well. In June, one-third (33 percent) "strongly" or "somewhat" agreed with the statement that the former president is at least "partly to blame for starting" the Capitol riot. In July, that amount has increased to 40 percent.

Among GOP respondents to the July survey, 9 percent said Trump was "fully" responsible for January 6, while 15 percent said "largely" and 29 percent said "partially." At the same time, a majority of Republicans still expressed belief in Trump's misinformation, with 55 percent saying that they "strongly" or "somewhat" agree that the 2020 election was stolen. However, that level has gone down 11 points in six weeks.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

She's a Real Tough Cookie With a Long History

Pat Benatar says she won't be singing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" on her current tour out of respect for the victims of the spate of mass shootings all around the country.

"We’re not doing 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' and fans are having a heart attack and I’m like, I’m sorry, in deference to the victims of the families of these mass shootings, I’m not singing it," the rock singer told USA Today. "I tell them, if you want to hear the song, go home and listen to it."

The song, which included the lyrics "fire away" in the chorus "is tongue-in-cheek" Benatar said. "But you have to draw the line."

Benatar, who is touring through September, said she's unable to sing the words with a smile on her face anymore.

This Makes Too Much Sense for the QOP to Support It

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats in the chamber announced a long-awaited bill Thursday to lift the federal ban on cannabis products ― something that’s hugely popular with the American people but unlikely to succeed in Congress right now.

The New York senator’s Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act has been in the works since last year, when he released a draft with Senate Finance Committee chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). If passed, it would decriminalize weed on the federal level and officially allow states to create their own marijuana laws.

“As Senate Majority Leader, I say that it is past time to end the federal cannabis prohibition,” Schumer said in a statement. “And the bill we’re introducing today will update our cannabis laws and help reverse decades of harm inflicted by the War on Drugs, especially on communities of color.”

Schumer’s proposed law would also expunge weed-related federal crimes from people’s records, create law enforcement teams to crack down on illegal cannabis production and establish grant programs to help people in communities disproportionately affected by drug laws to operate small cannabis businesses.

Even though the federal government bans the use, sale and possession of cannabis, 37 states, four U.S. territories and the District of Columbia have all legalized its medical use. Twenty-two of them have legalized the drug for recreational uses. There is no record of anyone ever dying of a marijuana overdose.

Those states’ laws exist in defiance of the 1970 federal ban, which categorizes weed as a Schedule I drug with a high potential for abuse ― alongside heroin, which claimed more than 13,000 lives in the U.S. in 2020. The federal government currently considers weed to be more dangerous than cocaine and methamphetamine, which combined were linked to more than 50,000 American deaths in 2021.
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Invasions Have Consequences

Day 149

Fighting

Russia’s military is likely to start an operational pause of some kind in Ukraine in the coming weeks, giving Kyiv a key opportunity to strike back, Britain’s spy chief said.

Russian forces appear to be closing in on Ukraine’s second biggest power plant at Vuhlehirska, 50km (31 miles) northeast of Donetsk, aiming to seize critical infrastructure and the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, British intelligence said.

One of the most densely populated areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, was shelled, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram. The regional prosecutor’s office said three people had been killed and 23 wounded. Russia denies targeting civilians.

The United States estimates some 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded, CIA Director William Burns said, adding that Ukraine has also endured significant casualties.

Diplomacy

Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will sign a deal on Friday to resume Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said, adding, it is “critically important for global food security”.

Russia’s foreign ministry said the latest round of European Union sanctions were illegitimate and would have “devastating consequences” for security and parts of the global economy.

Hungary’s foreign minister Peter Szijjarto will meet his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak in Moscow to talk about ensuring gas supplies for his country and finding a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Moscow, Kyiv and the latter’s Western allies must all agree to halt the war in Ukraine to avoid the “abyss of nuclear war”.

Economy

Gas flows from Russia to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline resumed at about 40 percent capacity, the German regulator said, affecting Germany’s targets for replenishing its gas storage and the transfer of gas to countries including France, Austria and the Czech Republic.

The Kremlin said all difficulties with the supply of Russian natural gas to Europe were caused by Western restrictions.

A European Union proposal that member countries cut gas use by 15 percent to prepare for possible supply cuts from Russia is facing resistance from governments, throwing into doubt whether they will approve the emergency plan.

Ukraine’s central bank devalued the hryvnia currency by 25 percent against the US dollar and has asked its creditors for a two-year payment freeze on its international bonds to focus its dwindling financial resources on repelling Russia.

US:  Russians Are Getting Dumber

The US assesses Ukraine “has taken out more than a hundred high-value targets,” according to a senior US defense official. Most of the targets have been in the east in recent weeks as the Ukrainians have been able to improve their precision targeting with the use of US provided artillery.

“These strikes are steadily degrading the Russian ability to supply their troops, command and control of their forces, and carry out their illegal war of aggression,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters on Wednesday.

The Ukrainians are “attacking Russian command posts, ammunition depots, air-defense sites, radar and communications nodes, and long-range artillery positions,” the official said. This is contributing to the broader assessment that Ukraine has been able to make progress against Russian forces. However, the US also assesses that Russia still is launching “tens of thousands” of artillery rounds per day.

“They can’t keep it up forever,” the Russians “have expended a lot of smarter munitions …their capabilities are getting dumber,” the official noted, adding that Russia has not taken out a single HIMARS system yet, but it is likely they will “get lucky” and do so at some point.

UK:  Russians Are Running Out of Steam

The head of Britain’s secret intelligence unit MI6 said Russia is struggling to maintain its military campaign in Ukraine, and that President Vladimir Putin will soon be forced to temporarily halt his invasion, potentially giving Ukraine the opportunity to hit back.

Richard Moore, in a rare public appearance at the Aspen Security Forum, said Russia has experienced “epic fails” in achieving its initial goal of removing Ukrainian President Zelensky from his post, capturing Kyiv, and sowing disunity in the West.

The intelligence service views Russia’s military gains to be “tiny” and noted the country was “about to run out of steam,” which could allow Ukrainian forces to strike back.

"Our assessment is that the Russians will increasingly find it difficult to find manpower and materiel over the next few weeks," Moore told the conference of the top foreign policy experts and White House officials in Colorado, adding, "they will have to pause in some way and that will give the Ukrainians the opportunity to strike back."

Russia has seen ‘epic fails’ and is ‘running out of steam,’ says top U.K. spy chief

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

You have to go back to July 6 to find any notable Russian advance. (No Ukrainian advances have been recorded in that time, either. Ukrainian General Staff has clamped down on any information about its activities at the front.)

Russia has now stalled for over two weeks, with dwindling sign of life. Is this the culmination we’ve all been waiting for, the point when Russia runs out of steam and is forced to shift from offensive to defensive operations? We won’t know for sure for a few more weeks, but it sure does look that way.

It is eerie just how quiet the Donbas front has gotten, particularly on that approach toward Sivers’k. For now, most of the action is happening down in Kherson area, and a great deal of it behind the front lines.

When the Weapons Keep Rolling In



M109 are self-propelled guns, superior to the towed M777s the Americans have delivered. Norway already donated 22 of theirs to Ukraine. Interestingly, the U.K. doesn’t field the M109, so I think they're buying decommissioned units from Belgium to then send to Ukraine.

This package is worth around £1 billion ($1.2 billion) and includes “sophisticated air defence systems, uncrewed aerial vehicles, innovative new electronic warfare equipment and thousands of pieces of vital kit for Ukrainian soldiers.” Helmets and body armor aren’t sexy, yet are among the most necessary kit Ukraine needs. It physically hurts me anytime I see a video of a Ukrainian under fire without a helmet.

The U.K. is also training thousands of Ukrainian soldiers in a crash course lasting “several” weeks.
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Hurry Up and Eat Your Tea Before the World Ends

When a pink glow lit up the evening sky above an Australian town on Wednesday, local woman Tammy Szumowski wondered if the apocalypse had arrived.

"I was just being a cool, calm mum, telling the kids: 'There's nothing to worry about,'" she told the BBC.

"But in my head I'm like, what the hell is that?"

It turned out to be light emanating from a cannabis farm just outside the town of Mildura, in northern Victoria.

But like other stunned locals, Ms Szumowski's mind initially went elsewhere - was it an alien invasion? An asteroid?

"Mum's on the phone and Dad's in the background going: 'I better hurry up and eat my tea because the world's ending.'"

Few cannabis growing facilities exist and their locations are top secret for security reasons - but the cat's out of the bag for this farm.

Reddish-tinged lights are used to help the crop grow. Usually, blackout blinds come down at dusk.

On Wednesday they didn't work, a spokesman for manufacturer Cann Group revealed.

And because it was a cloudy night, the lights created a "sunset on steroids" that could be spotted almost an hour from the facility.

"I cracked up laughing... it could have been something so much cooler, but was just medical marijuana grow lights basically," Ms Champion said.

Ms Szumowski said they had also "had a good laugh".

Despite the initial panic, she was struck by the beauty of
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Most Elaborate Marriage Ceremonies Seem Like a Waste of Money, But This?

Though she is dressed aptly as a newlywed, she is different from other brides. Because Kshama Bindu has not married a man, or a woman – she has married herself.

“People look weirdly at me. Like I have committed a crime,” she told Al Jazeera.

Bindu’s “sologamy” – a marriage with self – was conducted last month in an elaborate Indian wedding setup, making her an overnight internet sensation and the first Indian ever to engage in such a practice.

Bindu says she came up with the idea of sologamy only three months before her wedding after watching the Netflix show, Anne With An E, a coming-of-age story of a young orphaned girl who endured abuse as a child.

Taking the line from the show – “I want to be a bride but not a wife” – to another level, she finally tied the knot with herself on June 8.

Since then, from travelling for work to going out for shopping in the western Indian state of Gujarat, the 24-year-old has been earning disapproving looks from strangers.

But she could not be happier. The day of her wedding was the best day of her life, she said, adding, “I was in awe of myself when I looked into the mirror. I had no worries of a normal Indian bride. I felt like I was enough for myself.”

The best part about her marriage to self, she says, is that not much has changed since the wedding.

“I don’t need anybody else’s validation. I don’t have to think about moving to a different city because my partner has to move. I can think just about myself,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that no one but herself can give her greater love.

Did She Dance With Herself?  What Did She Do on the Wedding Night?  If She Later Marries Someone Else, It It Bigamy?
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Water, Water, Everywhere, But Not a Drop For the US Southwest

Pituffik, Greenland (CNN)The water off the coast of northwest Greenland is a glass-like calm, but the puddles accumulating on the region's icebergs are a sign that a transformation is underway higher on the ice sheet.

Several days of unusually warm weather in northern Greenland have triggered rapid melting, made visible by the rivers of meltwater rushing into the ocean. Temperatures have been running around 60 degrees Fahrenheit -- 10 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year, scientists told CNN.

The amount of ice that melted in Greenland between July 15 and 17 alone -- 6 billion tons of water per day -- would be enough to fill 7.2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Put another way, it was enough to cover the entire state of West Virginia with a foot of water.

"The northern melt this past week is not normal, looking at 30 to 40 years of climate averages," said Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. "But melting has been on the increase, and this event was a spike in melt."
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It's Back!  What Will the QOP Say About These Vaccines

The first case of polio reported in the U.S. in nearly a decade was detected in New York state, health officials said Thursday.

The case is in a resident of Rockland County, the state health department said.

State health officials said sequencing determined that the newly detected case is an instance of vaccine-derived polio. The oral polio vaccine contains a weakened version of the polio virus that can be excreted in stool and transmitted.

That vaccine has not been administered in the U.S. since 2000, suggesting that the virus may have originated somewhere outside the U.S., health officials said.

The Rockland County polio patient is a young adult whose symptoms began a month ago, according to public health officials in Rockland County. The person is no longer contagious but has suffered some paralysis. It is unknown whether that will be permanent.
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