Back pain is such a problem that the subreddit /r/backpain is one of the top 3% communities on Reddit. I could be a member; I’ve been suffering from severe sciatic pain ever since my first pregnancy almost fifteen years ago (!). Although it’s not as bad as the time I had a bulging disc, it’s consistent and virtually nothing helps. I’ve tried.

It doesn’t surprise me that the CEO shooter known by some as The Adjuster may have been radicalized by his back pain. (Scientific American)

Mangione was reportedly not taking any medication for his back pain. But he had posted in spondylolisthesis-related Reddit threads and talked on the site Goodreads about reading books on back pain, according to CNN. He told a friend in Honolulu, where he had been living the year before the shooting, that he needed back surgery. In the summer of 2023, his friend texted him to ask how the surgery went, and Mangione sent back x-ray scans of his spine. The friend told CNN that the images “looked heinous” and that he fell out of touch with Mangione after that.

It’s not clear if or how Mangione’s back condition or surgery may have been connected to the UHC CEO’s shooting death on a street in Manhattan last week. When police arrested Mangione, he was reportedly carrying a handwritten manifesto that mentioned UHC and accused health insurance companies of “[abusing] our country for immense profit.”

Reading about this is reminding me of how cold and judgmental the dude who worked on my back was. He was so smug that I gave myself a bulging disc by doing good mornings without a sufficiently strong posterior chain. It was so upsetting. Medicine in America is so upsetting.

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Some generally interesting scientific news without commentary:

E-tattoos could make mobile EEGs a reality (Ars Technica)

For Orcas, Dead Salmon Hats Are Back in Fashion (Scientific American)

These Endangered Wolves Have a Sweet Tooth—and It Might Make Them Rare Carnivorous Pollinators (Smithsonian Mag)

Living without mental imagery may shield against trauma’s impact (Psyche)

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I’m homeschooling my 14yo. Usually we’re doing age-appropriate math or reading literature, but sometimes I print off articles to share. This was the latest:

All Life on Earth Today Descended From a Single Cell. Meet LUCA. (Quanta Magazine)

LUCA does not represent the origin of life, the instance whereby some chemical alchemy snapped molecules into a form that allowed self-replication and all the mechanisms of evolution. Rather, it’s the moment when life as we know it took off. LUCA is the furthest point in evolutionary history that we can glimpse by working backward from what’s alive today. It’s the most recent ancestor shared by all modern life‚ our collective lineage traced back to a single ancient cellular population or organism.

“It’s not the first cell, it’s not the first microbe, it’s not the first anything, really,” said Greg Fournier (opens a new tab), an evolutionary biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “In a way, it is the end of the story of the origin of life.”

The main takeaway we got from this article is that LUCA coexisted with viruses; LUCA needed to have a rudimentary immune system.

I’ve been thinking a lot about LUCA since we read it. There were other cells around at the time that didn’t result in the life we know now. It makes me reflect on the different human species that no longer distinctively exist, like Neanderthal and the Denisovans.

There are so many paths untaken throughout history, mostly by total happenstance.

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Some entertainment news without commentary~

The Power of Positive Fandoms: A Reminder That Not Everything Is Terrible (tsfka Tor dot com)

‘Watson’ First Look Explores What Happens to the Sidekick After Sherlock Holmes’ Death (Variety)

A Must-Read Sapphic Take on COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (Bookriot)

The queen of suspense: how Ann Radcliffe inspired Dickens and Austen – then got written out of the canon (The Guardian)

I’ve been watching *so* many movies lately, but I haven’t been writing longer reviews for them. I’ve been too busy doing the actual work required in fulfilling a Kickstarter, launching a new horror novel, and editing another book of mine…while trying not to burn out. That means aggressively allocating time to Normal Life as well as Work and Work-like Things. That means fewer reviews!

Still, I am watching lots of new-to-me favorites! I loved the original Night of the Living Dead. Although it wasn’t as good as the first one, Scream 2 was a hoot that made me want to watch the rest of the franchise. And I can’t stop thinking about Rec!

Also on my list of worky stuff: trying to get a TikTok account to the size that I can actually put links in my bio.

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There’s a new 4K restoration of Tarsem Singh’s The Fall that we need to watch. (The Film Stage)

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Apparently Cape fur seals have an outbreak of rabies. (AJE) This is kinda scary to read. The seals bit five people before they identified them as rabies-infected. Luckily, no humans contracted rabies from the bites, but still.

The interaction between diseases in animals and diseases in humans is generally scary. Smithsonian Mag notes that infant mortality is higher in places where bats have white nose syndrome.

Also, someone caught H5-type bird flu without animal contact in Missouri. (Ars Technica) Bird flu has reached California dairies. (Ars Technica)

And salmonella has been found in some eggs (NPR), but not in Nevada, so I’m still eating raw cookie dough.

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A study suggests that vaping screws up your lungs just as much as smoking. (The Guardian)

As a piece of total anecdata, I definitely found this was true for me. Sometimes vaping was way worse for my lungs. Kinda depends on the vape.

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“Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” almost stayed on the cutting room floor of the Lion King. (Variety) It’s bananas to consider we almost didn’t have the sequence with the horny lioness gaze.

Other strange cinema history: The sexy piano scene with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in Pretty Woman was improvised. (Vanity Fair)

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Selena Gomez is a billionaire so we gotta eat her too. (Variety)

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We might as well note that The Graveyard Book has been delayed (Variety) because of allegations against Neil Gaiman because I predict there will actually be no long-term consequences for his predatory behavior.

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Bad news for publishing. Apple Books has had one of the best teams in the industry, but Apple failed to recognize it and laid off a bunch of staff. (Ars Technica)

This is my second favorite time of year. Shifting from winter to spring is the biggest relief (by end of winter, I am dying), but shifting from summer to autumn is downright magical. There’s fruit everywhere for me to pick and eat. The days are finally cooling off so I can be out in sunlight again, not just walking at night (although that’s nice too).

I think spring and fall might be when I injure myself most often, too. I’m outside having way too much fun. Bruises abound. I’m kind of a mess today after going flying off my scooter yesterday. Guess it’s nice to feel alive?

A couple years back, I had a *much* worse fall just walking around on my own two feet. My knee was injured for a full year. This time, I think I’m just very bruised. I’ll take it. I’m not sure if I’ll be back in the gym until my wrist feels better, though.

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I’m not surprised to hear that the Cybertruck is the bestselling vehicle in its price range. (Jalopnik) Like they say, bad press is still press. It’s basically a viral car. All this attention can’t be beat as far as marketing goes.

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This is the kind of news I care about: there was a groundhog in a toy claw game. There’s pictures. (The Guardian)

Colonel Custard was returned safely to the Pennsylvania wilderness.

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California state IDs can go in Apple Wallet now. (Engadget) I actually…don’t like this? I know it’s really convenient. But if you hand a law enforcement officer your unlocked phone, they can look through it. I don’t really want CHiPs able to check out my nudes just because I was going 80 in a 70.

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I’ve been thinking about this Psyche article on “opposite action” quite a lot since reading it. It’s specific to getting over feelings for your ex, but it’s using a dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) concept that can be applied more broadly.

Basically, if you’re feeling something undesirable for the moment, how could you act in a way that would be opposite to that feeling?

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It’s a low-selling year for Burning Man. (The Guardian) Honestly, pandemic and climate change have been kind of a gift for Burning Man. It got out of hand. All the classic Burners would much rather have the big organization vacate the playa permanently and just have an old-style camping trip.

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In fun disease news, mpox is a global health emergency (AJE) and I’m keeping an eye now on oropouche (NPR) as climate change allows it to leave its usual stomping grounds. Slapped cheek virus is also spreading. (Ars Technica) I actually know someone online whose family dealt with this, and it sounds nasty.

Mpox requires intimate contact to spread; oropouche is spread by insects. We don’t need to be alarmed about either just yet.

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The clustercluck of Starliner continues. (Quartz)

Experts are now concerned that any attempt to bring the craft back to Earth before the thrusters are fixed could result in it spinning out of control and hitting the ISS.

I wonder if NASA’s gonna keep working with Boeing? I’m sure they have a contract that says whether they have to do that or not, so it’s not really a rhetorical question.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is planning to do a couple orbits to conduct observations on Earth’s polar regions. (Scientific American) I wish they would suck a little less so I could feel more supportive. They’re polluting the heck out of Texas. (Quartz)

I also keep hearing that there’s a lot of liquid water under Mars’s surface. (AJE) We just can’t access it.

It’s the end of summer break for my kiddos. Looking back, I had a lot of fun. I also completely drowned under it. Being full-time mom while trying to work and do…basically anything…completely blew me out of all my rhythms.

I didn’t really have rhythms, though. I’ve been struggling and scraping by without motivation, purpose, or desire for quite a while. Every time it seems I’m going to get traction on something again, I slip. It’s like 2020 absolutely ruined me.

Summer was especially messy, but it wasn’t *that* different from my psychological state these past few years.

I’m nothing if not stubborn though. I’m going to make good use of the time my kid is in school. I’m going to get stuff done, honest.

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Biden has been talking about dropping out of the race. (The Guardian) I don’t like authority figures in general, nor do I like presidents, but in a sort of neutral way I think the mythology of Joseph R Biden is interesting. He worked next to America’s first Black president and seemed to take a lot of pride in supporting him. He also chose a Black running mate for 2020 and helped usher in the first mixed race VP. By stepping aside, he’s also made Harris a contender as the first woman president — a Black woman, an Indian woman, from a migrant family.

I say this is his mythology because there are political machinations behind all of this. There are cynical, pragmatic reasons supporting and overwhelming the sentimental ones. Yet many presidents (none other than him) have chosen to have this mythology as their narrative. He’s the first to have committed to this kind of allyship. It says something that he wanted it, on some level.

Likewise, from the article:

Biden became emotional as he recalled a promise he made to his late son Beau about remaining in politics. “He said, ‘I know when it happens, you’re gonna want to quit. You’re not gonna stay engaged. Look at me. Look at me, Dad. Give me your word as a Biden. When I go, you’ll stay engaged. Give me your word.’ And I did.”

Biden and his team also chose this noble, family- and grief-driven narrative for his story as president. Essentially, Biden didn’t go for the strong-arm president, the wartime president, the anti-terrorism president, the “business leader in politics” president. He went for a particular American narrative I’ve always found least unappealing. The idea that we are, idealogically, a country aspiring to be a “more perfect” union. A pluralist society that can overcome its systemic apartheid-like biases within its borders.

Not everyone is willing to do this, so it does matter that this is what he chose…even while America does a lot of its usual nastiness everywhere else.

Just something I’m thinking about.

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No matter who gets elected in November, both main presidential candidates have promised to stop taxing tips. (The Guardian)

Which means it will no longer be illegal to pretend you didn’t get tipped, the way most people do.

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The fact Deadpool & Wolverine has done so well (to the tune of a billion dollarbucks) (Variety) reminds me of the way Iron Man 1 did well for Robert Downey Jr. In both cases, the movies were partially based around redemption arcs *outside* the movie.

Deadpool redeems the MCU by being honest about its massive flaws ad limitations.

Iron Man redeems RDJ by giving the Tony Stark character a redemption arc akin to RDJ’s, giving us the feeling of a shitty drunk dude stepping up to be a hero.

MCU seems to do well when it monetizes a sense of honesty, whether or not that honesty is authentic. It doesn’t do as well when it gets its head up its own butt about its mythology. They’re probably learning from this for a few projects, but they’ll get their heads firmly back up their butts in no time.

In generally terrible news for the movie industry, theaters are now just for people willing to pay a premium (Quartz). Less people are going overall. Those who do are paying more. In case you thought that anyone in the industry was in it for the art, let this be a reminder that overall, this is about investment.

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Smithsonian Mag talks about geoengineering Mars to make it more habitable. This time, it’s talking about putting more metals into the atmosphere to reduce the extreme temperatures.

This idea is meant to emulate global warming on Earth, but for benevolent reasons. As a storyteller, not a scientist, this sounds like a real bad idea.

Related to Earth’s climate change (not Mars), Utah has lost one of its famous interesting geographic features because of it. The “Double Arch” has collapsed. (The Guardian)

The popular arch in the Glen Canyon national recreation area fell on Thursday, and park rangers suspect changing water levels and erosion from waves in Lake Powell contributed to its demise.

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Psychedelic therapies have been on the rise in popularity, but the FDA has smacked down clinical use of MDMA for now. (NPR)

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Nothing gold can stay. Warner Bros reign of terror continues by demolishing the Cartoon Network website (Engadget), where kids could enjoy free episodes of shows. Everyone’s gotta go on Max now.

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I haven’t been posting Sara Reads the Feed lately, yet the Starliner saga continues. Astronauts remain stuck on ISS because Starliner isn’t safe to come down. (Quartz) Worse, it’s probably bricking one of the docking ports on ISS because Boeing removed its autonomous docking software.

So are you surprised to hear Boeing’s rockets are being built by an unqualified workforce? (Ars Technica)

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It has long been an issue that pain isn’t taken seriously for babies, nonwhite folks, and women. The fact that the CDC is only *just* recommending pain relief for IUD insertions (The Cut) is another reminder that we’re still dealing with these Victorian ideas in the year of our glorb 2024.

Several studies found that doctors underestimate the pain associated with getting an IUD. One study of 200 women found that while most women said the pain was about a 65 on a scale of 100, most physicians ranked it as a 35.

Woof.