Phages are pretty cool, but bacteria do develop phage resistance as well. Phages also can evolve to evade those resistances, in a co-evolutionary battle, but also Phages can still be seen as antigens to our own body.

A recent case-study: https://www.upmc.com/media/news/021424-phage-therapy

To avoid reading the whole article: Antibiotics no-longer worked for a patient in 2020 that developed an infection after needing immunosuppression for treatment of an autoimmune condition, so they tried phage therapy.

quote from the phage treatment section:

Within 24 hours of receiving phage therapy, the patient’s blood infection had resolved and she could go home, where she continued the phage and antibiotic combination. She developed a few short-lived breakthrough infections, which indicated the bacteria was getting around the therapy, so the researchers found an additional phage that targeted her bacteria.

With the addition of the new phage, the patient was blood infection-free for four months and able to travel out of state for a for a family beach vacation.

However, just over six months after starting phage therapy, the blood infection returned, and the phage-antibiotic combination was thought to be no longer effective. The patient died in 2022.

In order to learn why the infections recurred despite the combination being previously effective, laboratory testing revealed that the patient’s immune system had likely activated in a way that blocked the phages from attacking the bacteria.

I’m not disagreeing with the benefits of Phage Therapy, just that it isn’t likely a magic solution all on it’s own, and can still suffer similar resistance issues as antibiotics have. I’m a fan of multipronged attack vectors, to reduce the chance of developing progressive resistances (ie. wipe out the whole colony), and the more tools we have for that, the better.

Unless the homosexuals are sexing it up in public, it sounds a lot like their classification of ‘sexual conduct’ would also include displays of heterosexuality.

Sounds like a puritan style ban on all forms of PDA; should either be equally applied to all sexuality, or struck from the books (in this case, seems to overly violate individual freedom, unless the locals overwhelmingly consider PDA to be indecent…). I wouldn’t go for the former option though… equality in enforcement would be a constant concern.

While there are many other pressing issues about our democracy (from an American perspective), this is the strongest issue I take.

I can’t see things turning out well with Trump as a wartime president, particularly if he just keeps America out of important matters on the world stage (or worse yet, panders and sides with those who seek harm to America and the ‘West’. Let your allies weaken enough/succumb to your ‘enemies’, and it ultimately weakens oneself.

I do feel many of these nations should just straight up rent ports and such to China instead of taking the loans, in exchange for a lump sum payment, with restrictions for military use/limitations, and usage in support of war.

Might not get quite as much money, but seems far more favorable than the outcomes of belt-and-road loans (not just in the unlikelihood of debt repayment, but how the funding is used [vendor/company restrictions]).

Hopefully this will be helpful (to understanding this type of debt):

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/09/27/american-creditors-say-china-should-honour-pre-communist-debts

Not saying it will be repaid, but at least the article goes into how debt is handled when governments change hands.

I love 3D movies.

That said, I refuse to go to a movie theater now days.

I’d rather just buy the movie on Streaming and watch any time I want, as many times as I want.

But I don’t have 3D at home, or a home theater type setup, so, it is just something I go without. Would of course love a home theater with 3D capability, but that ain’t happening, so, life goes on.

If you are an adult, and clearly an adult, then it’s probably too old.

I’ll still give you candy if I answer the door, but that is probably where you might creep some people out, or they give creeper vibes and don’t trust answering the door.

That said, in my own experience, you are too old to trick or treat once you pass about 5’6" (~165 cm).

I remember finding out I was too old. After an event, some friends wanted to go trick or treating. I was in high school still, but just shy of 6 feet. Female friend the same age was just over 5’, and another female friend that was a few years older was about 4’9".

Anyways, they trick or treated fine, and I got stares, and clearly treated differently. Clearly trick or treating is not about age, but perceived age. (and effort. If you’re short and all covered up in your costume, no one will know or care… long as your voice isn’t boss baby)

Privacy.com links to your bank account, and creates individual virtual credit cards that locks to the merchant upon use, or can be single use. You can put a limit based on: per transaction, per month, or cumulative total; you can also pause, or close the card any time.

More banks are beginning to offer virtual credit cards as well, but I don’t know how common they actually are.

Beware that some vendors do not accept privacy credit cards, and privacy may block some merchants that are known to generate a large number of declines (like shady porn subs, or onlyfans).

Also, some in person vendors will not accept a virtual card, and will require physically swiping a card in person. So, this would be more in a situation that the vendor offers online registration of some kind where swiping is not available.

(My auto insurance company had no problem just reading the card information off my phone, but my local car wash insisted they needed the card (but accepted if I registered online instead))

Edit: (this post is entirely from a USA perspective) but also be aware of terms of contract. you may still be liable for additional fees, even if you stop paying, if your contract term is not up, and you signed for a specific term, or have early cancellation fees. They can still legally collect on the contract, just they will have to seek payment by another method. Also, be aware of your state laws; some states limit contract terms, such as California:

“The duration of the contract may not exceed three years, and the contract may not require payments for longer than the term of the contract.5 That means that a four-year contract would be unlawful, and that a two-year contract requiring payments for longer than two years also would be unlawful. It also means that “lifetime contracts” are prohibited. The contract must state the length of the contract term in a size equal to at least 14-point type, above the place for your signature.6”

Source: https://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/legal_guides/w_10.shtml

The author explicitely states on his site that all of his books are available for free on:

https://greenteapress.com/

The Green Tea Press page for this book links to OP’s link on GitHub Pages to read online, but I’ll provide it below anyway, if anyone wants to go searching for his other books:

https://greenteapress.com/wp/data-structures-and-information-retrieval-in-python/

Oh yeah, Release Candidate is here. Does that mean they’ve fixed the heating issues of the Beta (Original PS5)?

In all seriousness, it’s essentially the same console, just a little smaller. Nothing to be excited about, as if it’s the PS5 Pro. Not only is it a little smaller, but it also is more expensive. Might be better in some aspects, might not, I don’t know that at this point in time.

I guess if anything, it has slightly more storage… but I’ve already paid for a faster and larger capacity M.2 upgrade, so kind of a moot point?

Really? I primarily hear about American, Chinese, and English tourists behaving badly.

I don’t actually travel, or encounter a lot of German people; what exactly is it that German tourists do that portray them so poorly?

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