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<title>13 September, 2023</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Effects of Chatting Styles on Sharers’ Emotions During Online Conversations</strong> -
<div>
Prior social sharing research suggests that cueing sharers to focus on recounting emotionally arousing details of a negative experience often increases negative affect, while cueing them to reconstrue the experience leads to emotional recovery. Extending these findings, we tested whether interpersonal encouragement of reconstrual was consistently more effective than that of recounting in improving emotions induced by different kinds of negative experiences (interpersonal conflicts vs. COVID-19 news in Study 1; regretful vs. angry conflicts in Study 2). In addition, Study 2 compared effects of two different forms of reconstrual (stimulus-reappraisal and perspective-taking) in online settings. Results showed that reconstrual generally had more beneficial effects than recounting and that the benefits of different forms of reconstrual depended on the kind of emotional experiences sharers had. Specifically, perspective-taking was especially effective in regulating anger whereas stimulus-reappraisal appeared to be more suited for improving feelings about regretful events.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/exbnz/" target="_blank">Effects of Chatting Styles on Sharers’ Emotions During Online Conversations</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Validation of Real-World Case Definitions for COVID-19 Diagnosis and Severe COVID-19 Illness Among Patients Infected with SARS-CoV-2: Translation of Clinical Trial Definitions to Real-World Settings</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Purpose: This study assessed the performance of International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) diagnostic code U07.1 against polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results (Objective 1), and electronic medical record (EMR)-based codified algorithm for severe COVID-19 illness based on endpoints used in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine trial against chart review (Objective 2). Methods: This retrospective, longitudinal cohort study used EMR data from the Mass General Brigham COVID-19 Data Mart (3/1/2020-11/19/2020) for adult patients with ≥1 PCR test, antigen test, or code U07.1 (Objective 1) and adult patients with a positive PCR test hospitalized with COVID-19 (Objective 2). Results: Among 354,124 patients in Objective 1, 96% had ≥1 PCR test (including 6% with ≥1 positive PCR test; 11% with ≥1 code U07.1). Code U07.1 had low sensitivity (54%) and positive predictive value (PPV; 63%) but high specificity (97%) against the PCR test. Among 300 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 randomly sampled for chart review in Objective 2, the EMR-based case definition for severe COVID-19 illness had high PPV (&gt;95%), showing better performance than severe/critical COVID-19 endpoints defined by the World Health Organization (PPV: 79%). Conclusions: COVID-19 diagnosis based on ICD-10-CM code U07.1 had inadequate sensitivity and requires confirmation by PCR testing. The EMR-based case definition showed high PPV and can be used to identify cases of severe COVID-19 illness in real-world datasets. These findings highlight the importance of validating outcomes in real-world data, and can guide researchers analyzing COVID-19 data when PCR tests are not readily available.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.23295441v1" target="_blank">Validation of Real-World Case Definitions for COVID-19 Diagnosis and Severe COVID-19 Illness Among Patients Infected with SARS-CoV-2: Translation of Clinical Trial Definitions to Real-World Settings</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Determinants of de novo B cell responses to drifted epitopes in post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infections</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Vaccine-induced immunity may impact subsequent de novo responses to drifted epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 variants, but this has been difficult to quantify due to the challenges in recruiting unvaccinated control groups whose first exposure to SARS-CoV-2 is a primary infection. Through local, statewide, and national SARS-CoV-2 testing programs, we were able to recruit cohorts of individuals who had recovered from either primary or post-vaccination infections by either the Delta or Omicron BA.1 variants. Regardless of variant, we observed greater Spike-specific and neutralizing antibody responses in post-vaccination infections than in those who were infected without prior vaccination. Through analysis of variant-specific memory B cells as markers of de novo responses, we observed that Delta and Omicron BA.1 infections led to a marked shift in immunodominance in which some drifted epitopes elicited minimal responses, even in primary infections. Prior immunity through vaccination had a small negative impact on these de novo responses, but this did not correlate with cross-reactive memory B cells, arguing against competitive inhibition of naive B cells. We conclude that dampened de novo B cell responses against drifted epitopes are mostly a function of altered immunodominance hierarchies that are apparent even in primary infections, with a more modest contribution from pre-existing immunity, perhaps due to accelerated antigen clearance.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.23295384v1" target="_blank">Determinants of de novo B cell responses to drifted epitopes in post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infections</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Prevalence of Long COVID-associated symptoms in adults with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection in Germany: Results of the population-based study: Corona Monitoring Nationwide 2021/22 (RKI-SOEP-2)</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Controlled population-based studies on long-term health sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 can help to identify clinical signs specific to Long COVID and to evaluate this emerging public health challenge. Aim To examine prevalence differences of Long COVID-associated symptoms among adults with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection in Germany. Methods This population-based, retrospective study (11/2021-2/2022) included 7,683 working aged adults (18-65 years), a subset of the Corona Monitoring Nationwide study in Germany. Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection was defined based on self-reported PCR-confirmed infections and IgG-antibody dried blood spot testing. Participants answered a questionnaire including 19 common symptoms of Long COVID experienced in the six months preceding the survey. We estimated population-weighted prevalence of (1) individual symptoms, and (2) ≥1 symptom, with and without impact on work ability, by infection status within strata of sex, age group, income and comorbidity. We calculated model-adjusted prevalence differences and the probability that symptoms among infected are attributable to infection. Results 12 of 19 symptoms showed a significantly higher prevalence in infected than non-infected participants, including fatigue (27.5% versus 18.3%; p&lt;0.001), concentration problems (22.2% vs. 13.1%; p&lt;0.001), shortness of breath (15.6% vs. 7.5%; p&lt;0.001), and smell and taste disorder (10% vs. 1.2%; p&lt;0.001). ≥1 symptom with impact on work ability was more prevalent following infection (16.0% vs. 12.2%; p=0.06) with a model-adjusted prevalence difference of 3.8% (95%-CI -0.5-8.0). Conclusion We observed a rather small excess prevalence attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the absolute number of persons places great demands on the health care system and may affect economic productivity.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.23295426v1" target="_blank">Prevalence of Long COVID-associated symptoms in adults with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection in Germany: Results of the population-based study: Corona Monitoring Nationwide 2021/22 (RKI-SOEP-2)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Digital holo-tomographic 3D maps of COVID-19 microclots in blood to assess disease severity</strong> -
<div>
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has impacted health globally. Cumulative evidence points to long-term effects of COVID-19 such as cardiovascular and cognitive disorders diagnosed in patients even after the recovery period. In particular, micrometer-sized blood clots and hyperactivated platelets have been identified as potential indicators of long COVID. Here we resolve individual microclot structures in platelet-rich plasma of donors with different subphenotypes of COVID-19 in a label-free manner, using 3D digital holo-tomographic microscopy (DHTM). Based on 3D refractive index (RI) tomograms, the size, dry mass, and prevalence of microclot composites were quantified and then parametrically differentiated from fibrin-rich microclots and platelet aggregates in the plasma of COVID-19 donors. Importantly, fewer microclots and platelet aggregates were detected in the plasma of healthy controls when compared to COVID-19 donors. Our work highlights the utility of integrating DHTM in clinical settings that may allow the detection of individuals at risk of developing microvascular thrombotic disorders and for monitoring the efficiency of prescribed treatments by screening plasma samples.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.557318v1" target="_blank">Digital holo-tomographic 3D maps of COVID-19 microclots in blood to assess disease severity</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Compartmentalized SARS-CoV-2 replication in upper versus lower respiratory tract after intranasal inoculation or aerosol exposure</strong> -
<div>
Non-human primate models are essential for the development of vaccines and antivirals against infectious diseases. Rhesus macaques are a widely utilized infection model for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We compared cellular tropism and virus replication in rhesus macaques inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 via the intranasal route, or via exposure to aerosols. Intranasal inoculation results in replication in the upper respiratory tract and limited lower respiratory tract involvement, whereas exposure to aerosols results in infection throughout the respiratory tract. In comparison to multi-route inoculation, the intranasal and aerosol inoculation routes result in reduced SARS-CoV-2 replication in the respiratory tract.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.557190v1" target="_blank">Compartmentalized SARS-CoV-2 replication in upper versus lower respiratory tract after intranasal inoculation or aerosol exposure</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Immune Evasion, Infectivity, and Fusogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2.86 and FLip Variants</strong> -
<div>
Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 requires the reassessment of current vaccine measures. Here, we characterized BA.2.86 and the XBB-lineage variant FLip by investigating their neutralization alongside D614G, BA.1, BA.2, BA.4/5, XBB.1.5, and EG.5.1 by sera from 3-dose vaccinated and bivalent vaccinated healthcare workers, XBB.1.5-wave infected first responders, and monoclonal antibody (mAb) S309. We assessed the biology of the variant Spikes by measuring viral infectivity and membrane fusogenicity. BA.2.86 is less immune evasive compared to FLip and other XBB variants, consistent with antigenic distances. Importantly, distinct from XBB variants, mAb S309 was unable to neutralize BA.2.86, likely due to a D339H mutation based on modeling. BA.2.86 had relatively high fusogenicity and infectivity in CaLu-3 cells but low fusion and infectivity in 293T-ACE2 cells compared to some XBB variants, suggesting a potentially differences conformational stability of BA.2.86 Spike. Overall, our study underscores the importance of SARS-CoV-2 variant surveillance and the need for updated COVID-19 vaccines.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.557206v1" target="_blank">Immune Evasion, Infectivity, and Fusogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2.86 and FLip Variants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Dual inhibition of coronavirus Mpro and PLpro enzymes by phenothiazines and their antiviral activity</strong> -
<div>
Coronavirus (CoV) replication requires efficient cleavage of viral polyproteins into an array of non-structural proteins involved in viral replication, organelle formation, viral RNA synthesis, and host shutoff. Human CoVs (HCoVs) encode two viral cysteine proteases, main protease (Mpro) and papain-like protease (PLpro), that mediate polyprotein cleavage. Using a structure-guided approach, a phenothiazine urea derivative that inhibits both SARS-CoV-2 Mpro and PLpro protease activity in vitro was identified. In silico docking studies also predicted binding of the phenothiazine to the active sites of Mpro and PLpro from distantly related alphacoronavirus, HCoV-229E (229E) and the betacoronavirus, HCoV-OC43 (OC43). The lead phenothiazine urea derivative displayed broad antiviral activity against all three HCoVs tested in cell culture infection models. It was further demonstrated that the compound inhibited 229E and OC43 at an early stage of viral replication, with diminished formation of viral replication organelles and the RNAs that are made within them, as expected following viral protease inhibition. These observations suggest that the phenothiazine urea derivative inhibits viral replication and may broadly inhibit proteases of diverse coronaviruses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.557219v1" target="_blank">Dual inhibition of coronavirus Mpro and PLpro enzymes by phenothiazines and their antiviral activity</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>WELPCR: Low-cost polymerase chain reaction (PCR) thermal cycler for nucleic acid amplification and sensing</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for sensitive and cost-effective diagnostics. The gold standard test to diagnose infectious diseases such as COVID-19 is quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Although there have been multiple advances in nucleic acid testing, PCR thermocyclers are expensive and typically not affordable for offering hands-on training to PCR in instructional laboratory courses in undergraduate colleges. We introduce a low-cost, portable, and automated real-time PCR device designed at the Wadhwani Electronics Lab (WEL) at IIT Bombay, christened WELPCR. WELPCR is an open-source design, and capable of reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) for complementary DNA synthesis, as well as end-point PCR of small amount of DNA in a test sample. The WELPCR design enables ramp rate up to 2{degrees}C/s, weighs less than 2kg, and is easy to assemble. The built-in LED display and keypad provides an intuitive and seamless user interface to configure and set up WELPCR. With bill of materials (BOM) cost less than INR Rs. 10,000, WELPCR is an attractive solution for bringing PCR technology to instructional and research laboratories in a cost-effective manner.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.557292v1" target="_blank">WELPCR: Low-cost polymerase chain reaction (PCR) thermal cycler for nucleic acid amplification and sensing</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparative Analysis of Association Networks Using Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Data Reveals Perturbation-Relevant Gene Signatures</strong> -
<div>
Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data has elevated our understanding of systemic perturbations to organismal physiology at the individual cell level. However, despite the rich information content of scRNA-seq data, the relevance of genes to a perturbation is still commonly assessed through differential expression analysis. This approach provides a one-dimensional perspective of the transcriptomic landscape, risking the oversight of tightly controlled genes characterized by modest changes in expression but with profound downstream effects. We present GENIX (Gene Expression Network Importance eXamination), a novel platform for constructing gene association networks, equipped with an innovative network-based comparative model to uncover condition-relevant genes. To demonstrate the effectiveness of GENIX, we analyze influenza vaccine-induced immune responses in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) collected from recovered COVID-19 patients, shedding light on the mechanistic underpinnings of gender differences. Our methodology offers a promising avenue to identify genes relevant to perturbation responses in biological systems, expanding the scope of response signature discovery beyond differential gene expression analysis.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.556872v1" target="_blank">Comparative Analysis of Association Networks Using Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Data Reveals Perturbation-Relevant Gene Signatures</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Expression Level Analysis of ACE2 Receptor Gene in African-American and Non-African-American COVID-19 Patients</strong> -
<div>
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has spread rapidly across the continents. While the incidence of COVID-19 has been reported to be higher among African-American individuals, the rate of mortality has been lower compared to that of non-African-Americans. ACE2 is involved in COVID-19 as SARS-CoV-2 uses the ACE2 enzyme to enter host cells. Although the difference in COVID-19 incidence can be explained by many factors such as low accessibility of health insurance among the African-American community, little is known about ACE2 expression in African-American COVID-19 patients compared to non-African-American COVID-19 patients. The variable expression of genes can contribute to this observed phenomenon. Methodology: In this study, transcriptomes from African-American and non-African-American COVID-19 patients were retrieved from the sequence read archive and analyzed for ACE2 gene expression. HISAT2 was used to align the reads to the human reference genome, and HTseq-count was used to get raw gene counts. EdgeR was utilized for differential gene expression analysis, and enrichR was employed for gene enrichment analysis. Results: The datasets included 14 and 33 transcriptome sequences from COVID-19 patients of African-American and non-African-American descent, respectively. There were 24,092 differentially expressed genes, with 7,718 upregulated (log fold change &gt; 1 and FDR 0.05) and 16,374 downregulated (log fold change -1 and FDR 0.05). The ACE2 mRNA level was found to be considerably downregulated in the African-American cohort (p-value = 0.0242, p-adjusted value = 0.038). Conclusion: The downregulation of ACE2 in the African-American cohort could indicate a correlation to the low COVID-19 severity observed among the African-American community.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.557129v1" target="_blank">Expression Level Analysis of ACE2 Receptor Gene in African-American and Non-African-American COVID-19 Patients</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Deep mutational scans of XBB.1.5 and BQ.1.1 reveal ongoing epistatic drift during SARS-CoV-2 evolution</strong> -
<div>
Substitutions that fix between SARS-CoV-2 variants can transform the mutational landscape of future evolution via epistasis. For example, large epistatic shifts in mutational effects caused by N501Y underlied the original emergence of Omicron variants, but whether such large epistatic saltations continue to define ongoing SARS-CoV-2 evolution remains unclear. We conducted deep mutational scans to measure the impacts of all single amino acid mutations and single-codon deletions in the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) on ACE2-binding affinity and protein expression in the recent Omicron BQ.1.1 and XBB.1.5 variants, and we compared mutational patterns to earlier viral strains that we have previously profiled. As with previous RBD deep mutational scans, we find many mutations that are tolerated or even enhance binding to ACE2 receptor. The tolerance of sites to single-codon deletion largely conforms with tolerance to amino acid mutation. Though deletions in the RBD have not yet been seen in dominant lineages, we observe many tolerated deletions including at positions that exhibit indel variation across broader sarbecovirus evolution and in emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest, most notably the well-tolerated {Delta}483 deletion in BA.2.86. The substitutions that distinguish recent viral variants have not induced as dramatic of epistatic perturbations as N501Y, but we identify ongoing epistatic drift in SARS-CoV-2 variants, including interaction between R493Q reversions and mutations at positions 453, 455, and 456, including mutations like F456L that define the newly emerging EG.5 lineage. Our results highlight ongoing drift in the effects of mutations due to epistasis, which may continue to direct SARS-CoV-2 evolution into new regions of sequence space.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.557279v1" target="_blank">Deep mutational scans of XBB.1.5 and BQ.1.1 reveal ongoing epistatic drift during SARS-CoV-2 evolution</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Concurrent administration of COVID-19 and influenza vaccines enhances Spike-specific antibody responses</strong> -
<div>
The bivalent COVID-19 mRNA boosters became available in fall 2022 and were recommended alongside the seasonal influenza vaccine. However, the immunogenicity of concurrent versus separate administration of these vaccines remains unclear. Here, we analyzed antibody responses in healthcare workers who received the bivalent COVID-19 booster and the influenza vaccine on the same day or different days. IgG1 responses to SARS-CoV-2 Spike were higher at peak immunogenicity and 6 months following concurrent administration compared with separate administration of the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines. These data suggest that concurrent administration of these vaccines may yield higher and more durable SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.557347v1" target="_blank">Concurrent administration of COVID-19 and influenza vaccines enhances Spike-specific antibody responses</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Impact of vaccinations, boosters and lockdowns on COVID-19 waves in French Polynesia</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Estimation of the impact of vaccination and non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on COVID-19 incidence is complicated by several factors, including the successive emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and changing population immunity resulting from vaccination and previous infection. We developed an age-structured multi-strain COVID-19 transmission model and inference framework that could estimate the impact of vaccination and NPIs while accounting for these factors. We applied this framework to French Polynesia, which experienced multiple large COVID-19 waves from multiple variants over the course of the pandemic, interspersed with periods of elimination. We estimated that the vaccination programme averted 49.6% (95% credible interval (CI) 48.7-50.5%) of the 5830 hospitalisations and 64.2% (95% CI 63.1-65.3%) of the 1540 hospital deaths that would have occurred in a baseline scenario without any vaccination up to May 2022. Vaccination also averted an estimated 34.8% (95% CI 34.5-35.2%) of 223,000 symptomatic cases in the baseline scenario. We estimated the booster campaign contributed 4.5%, 1.9% and 0.4% to overall reductions in cases, hospitalisations and hospital deaths respectively. Our results suggested that removing, or altering the timings of, the lockdowns during the first two waves had non-linear effects on overall incidence owing to the resulting effect on accumulation of population immunity. Our estimates of vaccination and booster impact differ from those for other countries due to differences in age structure, previous exposure levels and timing of variant introduction relative to vaccination, emphasising the importance of detailed analysis that accounts for these factors.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.29.23287906v2" target="_blank">Impact of vaccinations, boosters and lockdowns on COVID-19 waves in French Polynesia</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Childhood maltreatment and subsequent risk of hospitalization or death due to COVID-19: a cohort study in the UK Biobank</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Childhood maltreatment has been associated with some infection-related outcomes, yet its potential role in severe COVID-19 outcomes has not been addressed. Therefore, leveraging longitudinal data from the population-based UK Biobank (N=151,427), our study aimed to explore the association between childhood maltreatment and severe COVID-19 outcomes (i.e., hospitalization or death due to COVID-19) and its underlying mechanisms. Our results suggest that childhood maltreatment, particularly physical neglect, is associated with a 54.0% increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes (i.e., hospitalization or death due to COVID-19), which was not modified by genetic predisposition to severe COVID-19 outcomes. We found that 50.9% of this association was mediated by suboptimal socioeconomic status, lifestyle and prepandemic somatic diseases or psychiatric disorders. These findings highlight the role of early life adversities in severe health consequences across the lifespan and call for increased clinical surveillance of people exposed to childhood maltreatment in COVID-19 outbreaks and future pandemics.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.23295354v1" target="_blank">Childhood maltreatment and subsequent risk of hospitalization or death due to COVID-19: a cohort study in the UK Biobank</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A 2nd Generation E1/E2B/E3-Deleted Adenoviral COVID-19 Vaccine: The TCELLVACCINE TRIAL</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: hAd5-S-Fusion+N-ETSD;   Biological: Placebo (0.9% (w/v) saline)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   ImmunityBio, Inc.<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Additional Recombinant COVID-19 Humoral and Cell-Mediated Immunogenicity in Immunosuppressed Populations</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Immunosuppression;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: NVX-CoV2372<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Wisconsin, Madison;   Novavax<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Comparative Immunogenicity of Concomitant vs Sequential mRNA COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccinations</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Influenza;   COVID-19;   Influenza Immunogencity;   COVID-19 Immunogenicity<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Simultaneous Vaccination (Influenza Vaccine and mRNA COVID booster);   Biological: Sequential Vaccination (Influenza vaccine then mRNA COVID booster);   Biological: Sequential Vaccination (mRNA COVID booster then Influenza vaccine)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Duke University;   Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;   Arizona State University;   University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center;   University of Pittsburgh;   Washington University School of Medicine;   Valleywise Health;   VA Northeast Ohio Health Care;   Senders Pediatrics<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bronchoalveolar Lavage in Recovered From COVID-19 Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Bronchoalveolar Lavage<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Bronchoalveolar Lavage<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Mohamed Abd Elmoniem Mohamed;   Marwa Salah Abdelrazek Ghanem;   Mohammad Khairy El-Badrawy;   Tamer Ali Elhadidy;   Dalia Abdellateif Abdelghany<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase 1 Study to Assess the Safety, Reactogenicity, and Immunogenicity of a SARS-CoV-2 Booster Vaccine (LEM-mR203) in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Infection;   COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Reaction<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: LEM-mR203;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Lemonex<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase I Safety Study of B/HPIV3/S-6P Vaccine Via Nasal Spray in Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: B/HPIV3/S-6P<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID);   Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health;   National Institutes of Health (NIH)<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Determine the Tolerability of Intranasal LMN-301</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: LMN-301<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Lumen Bioscience, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Effectiveness of Natural Resources for Reducing Stress</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Distress, Emotional;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Combination Product: Balneotherapy plus complex;   Combination Product: Combined nature resources treatment;   Other: Nature therapy procedure<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Klaipėda University;   Research Council of Lithuania<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Long COVID Immune Profiling</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Long COVID;   POTS - Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome;   Autonomic Dysfunction<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Diagnostic Test: IL-6;   Diagnostic Test: cytokines (IL-17, and IFN-ɣ);   Behavioral: Compass 31<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Vanderbilt University Medical Center;   American Heart Association<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study of Healthy Microbiome, Healthy Mind</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Critical Illness;   COVID-19;   PICS;   Cognitive Impairment;   Mental Health Impairment;   Weakness, Muscle;   Dysbiosis<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Fermented Food Diet<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Mayo Clinic<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>MICROVASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL ACTIVATION/DYSFUNCTION AND DYSREGULATION OF THE ANGIOPOIETIN-TIE2 SYSTEM IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF LIFE-THREATENING INFECTIONS</strong> - Microvascular endothelial activation/dysfunction has emerged as an important mechanistic pathophysiological process in the development of morbidity and mortality in life-threatening infections. The angiopoietin-Tie2 system plays an integral role in the regulation of microvascular endothelial integrity. Angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1), produced by platelets and pericytes, is the cognate agonistic ligand for Tie2, promoting endothelial quiescence and inhibiting microvascular leak. Angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2),…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Prime editor-mediated functional reshaping of <em>ACE2</em> prevents the entry of multiple human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> - The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 hijacks the host angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to meditate its entry and is the primary target for vaccine development. Nevertheless, SARS-CoV-2 keeps evolving and the latest Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and XBB have gained exceptional immune evasion potential through mutations in their spike proteins, leading to sharply reduced efficacy of current spike-focused vaccines and therapeutics. Compared with the fast-evolving spike protein, targeting host ACE2…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Targeting host calcium channels and viroporins: a promising strategy for SARS-CoV-2 therapy</strong> - Despite passing the pandemic phase of the COVID-19, researchers are still investigating various drugs. Previous evidence suggests that blocking the calcium channels may be a suitable treatment option. Ca^(2+) is required to enhance the fusion process of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Also, some important inflammatory factors during SARS-CoV-2 infection are dependent on Ca^(2+) level. On the other hand, viroporins have emerged as attractive targets for antiviral…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Identification of new drugs to counteract anti-spike IgG-induced hyperinflammation in severe COVID-19</strong> - Previously, we and others have shown that SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific IgG antibodies play a major role in disease severity in COVID-19 by triggering macrophage hyperactivation, disrupting endothelial barrier integrity, and inducing thrombus formation. This hyperinflammation is dependent on high levels of anti-spike IgG with aberrant Fc tail glycosylation, leading to Fcγ receptor hyperactivation. For development of immune-regulatory therapeutics, drug specificity is crucial to counteract excessive…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Immunogenicity of the BNT162b2 Vaccine Coadministered with Seasonal Inactivated Influenza Vaccine in Adults</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: BNT162b2 coadministered with SIIV elicited immune responses that were noninferior to those elicited by BNT162b2 alone and SIIV alone, and BNT162b2 had an acceptable safety profile when coadministered with SIIV. The results of this study support the coadministration of BNT162b2 and SIIV in adults.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Farnesoid X receptor enhances epithelial ACE2 expression and inhibits viral-induced IL-6 secretion: implications for intestinal symptoms of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - CONCLUSION: By virtue of its ability to modulate epithelial ACE2 expression and inhibit virus-mediated pro-inflammatory cytokine release, FXR represents a promising target for development of new approaches to prevent intestinal manifestations of SARS-CoV-2.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Targeting spike glycans to inhibit SARS-CoV2 viral entry</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 spike harbors glycans which function as ligands for lectins. Therefore, it should be possible to exploit lectins to target SARS-CoV-2 and inhibit cellular entry by binding glycans on the spike protein. Burkholderia oklahomensis agglutinin (BOA) is an antiviral lectin that interacts with viral glycoproteins via N-linked high mannose glycans. Here, we show that BOA binds to the spike protein and is a potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 viral entry at nanomolar concentrations. Using a variety…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PARP12 is required to repress the replication of a Mac1 mutant coronavirus in a cell- and tissue-specific manner</strong> - ADP-ribosyltransferases (ARTs) mediate the transfer of ADP-ribose from NAD^(+) to protein or nucleic acid substrates. This modification can be removed by several different types of proteins, including macrodomains. Several ARTs, also known as PARPs, are stimulated by interferon indicating ADP-ribosylation is an important aspect of the innate immune response. All coronaviruses (CoVs) encode for a highly conserved macrodomain (Mac1) that is critical for CoVs to replicate and cause disease,…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy and safety evaluation of Azvudine in the prospective treatment of COVID-19 based on four phase III clinical trials</strong> - Azvudine (FNC) is a synthetic nucleoside analog used to treat adult patients living with human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infection with high viral load. After phosphorylation, Azvudine inhibits RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, leading to the discontinuation of RNA chain synthesis in viruses. In addition, Azvudine is the first dual-target nucleoside oral drug worldwide to simultaneously target reverse transcriptase and viral infectivity factors in the treatment of HIV infection. On 9 August…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Altered DNA methylation underlies monocyte dysregulation and innate exhaustion memory in sepsis</strong> - Innate immune memory is the process by which pathogen exposure elicits cell-intrinsic states to alter the strength of future immune challenges. Such altered memory states drive monocyte dysregulation during sepsis, promoting pathogenic behavior characterized by pro-inflammatory, immunosuppressive gene expression in concert with emergency hematopoiesis. Epigenetic changes, notably in the form of histone modifications, have been shown to underlie innate immune memory, but the contribution of DNA…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In Vivo Antiviral Efficacy of LCTG-002, a Pooled, Purified Human Milk Secretory IgA product, Against SARS-CoV-2 in a Murine Model of COVID-19</strong> - Immunoglobulin A (IgA) is the most abundant antibody (Ab) in human mucosal compartments including the respiratory tract, with the secretory form of IgA (sIgA) being dominant and uniquely stable in these environments. sIgA is naturally found in human milk, which could be considered a global resource for this biologic, justifying the development of human milk sIgA as a dedicated airway therapeutic for respiratory infections such as SARS-CoV-2. In the present study, methods were therefore developed…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cationic Chitosan Derivatives for the Inactivation of HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 Enveloped Viruses</strong> - Cationic chitosan derivatives have been widely studied as potential antimicrobial agents. However, very little is known about their antiviral activity and mode of action against enveloped viruses. We investigated the ability of hydroxypropanoic acid-grafted chitosan (HPA-CS) and N-(2-hydroxypropyl)-3-trimethylammonium chitosan chloride (HTCC) to inactivate enveloped viruses like the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Preventive treatment of coronavirus disease-2019 virus using coronavirus disease-2019-receptor-binding domain 1C aptamer by suppress the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor</strong> - The cause of the worldwide coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is known to employ the same entry portal as SARS-CoV, which is the type 1 transmembrane angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) is located on the spike S-protein’s S1 subunit of the spike glycoprotein. The most important and effective therapy method is inhibiting the interaction between the ACE2 receptor and the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Natural PAK1 inhibitors: potent anti-inflammatory effectors for prevention of pulmonary fibrosis in COVID-19 therapy</strong> - One of the main efforts of scientists to study drug development is the discovery of novel antiviral agents that could be beneficial in the struggle against viruses that cause diseases in humans. Natural products are complex metabolites that are designed and synthesised by different sources in an attempt to optimise nature. Recently, natural products are still a source of biologically active molecules, facilitating drug discovery. A p21-activating kinase PAK1 is a key regulator of cytoskeletal…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir-induced elevation of blood tacrolimus levels in a patient in the maintenance phase post liver transplantation</strong> - Nirmatrelvir is an orally administered anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug used in combination with ritonavir, the drug-metabolizing cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A inhibitor, to evade metabolism and extend bioavailability. Meanwhile, the immunosuppressant tacrolimus is a CYP3A4/5 substrate, and CYP3A inhibition results in drug-drug interactions. Herein, we report the case of a coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) patient in the maintenance phase post liver transplantation, receiving tacrolimus treatment, with a marked…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The U.A.W. Strike Threat Poses a Tricky Political Challenge for Biden</strong> - As the negotiating deadline approaches, the issues at stake go beyond wages and benefits to whether the union’s members will benefit or suffer from the transition to electric vehicles. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-uaw-strike-threat-poses-a-tricky-political-challenge-for-biden">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Real Stakes of the Google Antitrust Trial</strong> - The case, centering on Google’s dominance in the search-engine industry, will have implications that ripple throughout the tech world, and beyond. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-real-stakes-of-the-google-antitrust-trial">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Wisconsin G.O.P.’s Looming Judicial Attack</strong> - A state Supreme Court justice—recently elected in a landslide—may be impeached before she ever hears a case. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-wisconsin-gops-looming-judicial-attack">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How a Culture War Over Race Engulfed a School District</strong> - After a ten-year-old took her own life, residents battled over whether her death was a tragic but isolated incident, or caused by a pattern of racist bullying. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/how-a-culture-war-over-race-engulfed-a-school-district">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>David Grann on Turning Best-Sellers Into Movies</strong> - The author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Wager” on his reporting process and adapting his work to the screen. Plus, Richard Brody makes the case for keeping your DVDs. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/david-grann-on-turning-best-sellers-into-movies">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>How Hulu’s The Other Black Girl uses style to frame Black women’s ambition</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ay0Rv9JeED8JdsTZHYgzbe2UW4g=/0x0:2667x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72641871/tobg_109_wh_00182r_3k.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Ashleigh Murray as Hazel in The Other Black Girl. | Wilford Harwood/Hulu
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The new show’s hair and wardrobe team explain the significance of these seemingly small choices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FTObHF">
Hulu’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21365986/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_other%2520black"><em>The Other Black Girl</em></a>, premiering September 13, is a show whose themes are inextricably tied to its styling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JgnsTx">
Its main characters drift chameleon-like across the screen, switching off hair and outfits and signature lipstick as the plot, which plays with the ideas of Black womanhood, respectability, and performance, evolves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KFKr2S">
Rare is the TV show where hair product is a major plot point. The hair in such a show had better live up to its star billing — along with the makeup and the clothes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6UBHc3">
Based on <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22526612/the-other-black-girl-zakiya-dalila-harris-review">the 2021 novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris</a>, <em>The Other Black Girl</em> works like a <em>Stepford Wives</em> for Black women. On one side of the aisle are the non-robots: people like main character Nella, who, as the show begins, wears Peter Pan collars and sensible cardigans, a baby Afro and face bare of makeup. On the other side are the people who aren’t quite robots but who do seem too cool to be normal people: like Hazel, the new girl at Nella’s office, who wears her hair in long dramatic locs and sports floral blazers in editorial shapes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FY8RJY">
At first, Nella is relieved to see another Black girl at the tony all-white publishing office where she works. She thinks Hazel’s clothes are unspeakably cool, and she’s more than happy to join Hazel in promising that they’ll look out for each other in the microaggression-strewn landscape of publishing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a7PfQV">
Gradually, though, Nella starts to suspect that there might be something a little off about Hazel. Every time the opportunity comes to stand up against the white gatekeepers of cultural power, Hazel backs off. She tells Nella she thinks they can be more effective working within the system than outside it — and she seems weirdly insistent that Nella should think so too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XR7b3b">
Hazel and Nella are performing different versions of Black womanhood. As the show goes on, their performances evolve, too. On <em>The Other Black Girl</em>, a big style change signifies a big change in both personality and politics. On this show, the people who dress the coolest are also the most conformist.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5ZdXRYOOaLk64EboiMBU--rplU8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24913785/tobg_101_wh_01368r_3k.jpg"/> <cite>Wilford Harwood/Hulu</cite>
<figcaption>
Ashleigh Murray as Hazel, left, and Sinclair Daniel as Nella, right, on Hulu’s <em>The Other Black Girl</em>.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OSpXL8">
For the show’s costume designer Kairo Courts, Nella’s style journey echoes the evolution of an archetypal professional Black woman. “For a lot of us, that’s the evolution of how you start,” says Courts. “In corporate America, you try to emulate, you try to fit in. You know you don’t want to ruffle the waters. That’s what Nella is doing.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rs84Mp">
Nella starts to change her mind about her style, however, after she lets Hazel dress her up for a big networking event, in a sharp plaid blazer and bold red lip.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BBE6w8">
“You made me look like you,” Nella says, staring at her reflection with mingled delight and trepidation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cKiQm0">
“You’re welcome,” Hazel sing-songs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="miz8oV">
After her first makeover, Nella is “looking up to other women who are more bold than she is,” explains Courts. Hazel is one of a group of chic and accomplished professional Black women, and Nella finds their confidence and style deeply alluring.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KvZZkp">
Courts imagines Hazel’s style as looking like Nella’s might if she weren’t trying to blend in at all times. “What would it look like if we didn’t have that blockage where we have to play the part in business settings?” she asks. “What would it look like if you brought your culture and your style to the full front, and it showed up in all the spaces that you are? Because a lot of times, that’s not allowed for Black women. What would that look like, if we were able to get people out of their inhibitions?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yREhpD">
Hazel flourishes without inhibitions. She also sabotages and casually backstabs. She’s willing to rep for her culture, but also to betray it if it serves her purposes. Nella, meanwhile, seems to have drawn the conclusion that she’ll only be able to advocate for Black people at work if she disguises herself, cosplaying in the blandest and most conformist clothes she can think of.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oxFnWC">
Hazel’s style is also supposed to look like Nella’s aspirational style goals for slightly darker reasons. “A lot of Hazel’s looks were based on people she wanted to, let’s say, recruit,” explains hair department head Pamela Hall.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5V9M5P">
To target cosmopolitan Nella, Hazel wears her hair in locs. In flashbacks, though, we see her with natural curls, in a silk press, and even with flat-ironed hair. Hazel’s style isn’t about expressing herself and her ambition and culture unapologetically. It’s about how she thinks her targets want to look, themselves. She doesn’t seem to have a real sense of her own to express.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WvrZNH">
The audience, though, has to find Hazel’s style just as alluring as Nella does to understand why Nella is so drawn to her. Essie Cha, head of the makeup department, says she gets the appeal of Hazel and her entourage completely. “They’re gorgeous women and smart and elegant and successful,” Cha jokes. “I would take [their secret] by the bucketful.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l8nk6c">
Wouldn’t we all? Everyone seems to find Hazel more appealing than Nella, including Nella’s coworkers. Hazel is easy to like. She’s uninhibited enough to showcase the casually chic style <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15327086211029357">white women are always appropriating from Black women</a>. She gives her white coworkers ample opportunity to perform their own cultural tolerance, bringing in cake from Harlem to share around and lying that her grandparents ate the same cake on their wedding night. But Hazel’s Blackness comes without any meaningful challenge to the status quo. The fantasy of the fully uninhibited professional Black woman remains, in the end, a fantasy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zcEL4g">
The Other Black Girl <em>premieres September 13 on Hulu</em>.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Is the future of energy … pouring water on hot rocks in the ground?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An enhanced geothermal project in Nevada." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bPICdgEKXrZZZakjUfQMTS6oJ4s=/113x0:1936x1367/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72641734/Fervo_Energy_Project_Red_Rig_2_2048x1367.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Fervo’s test well in Nevada. | <a class="ql-link" href="https://fervoenergy.com/fervo-energy-announces-technology-breakthrough-in-next-generation-geothermal/" target="_blank">Fervo Energy</a>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Geothermal’s “breakthrough,” and the challenges ahead, explained.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2TaIYg">
If you read about the energy industry in the ’00s and ’10s, you probably caught some excited, hopeful stories about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/climate/geothermal-energy-projects.html">geothermal</a>, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/renewable-energy">renewable energy</a> source that harnesses heat hundreds of meters below the earth’s surface. “Enhanced geothermal” — a novel approach in which fluids are poured deep underground, heat up, and then are recovered for their steam heat and used to generate electricity — got particular attention, because it promised a geothermal technique that could work most places on earth, not just in volcanic areas like Iceland or Indonesia.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r9BRAb">
Enhanced geothermal is “increasingly being eyed as an enormous potential source of pollution-free energy,” <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/deep_geothermal_the_untapped_energy_source">science journalist David Biello</a> wrote all the way back in 2008. Enhanced geothermal has “often been touted as the answer to the tepid growth of the geothermal industry,” reporter <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2014/08/geothermal-energy-has-success-in-nevada-may-spread-to-the-rest-of-the-west/">Megan Geuss wrote in Ars Technica</a> in 2014, already with a bit of jaded weariness that the promises were yet unfulfilled. Startups like <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/enhanced-geothermal-systems-technology-advances">AltaRock Energy</a> got press for their promises of a <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy">clean energy</a> source, deployable in any geography, that still worked when the sun wasn’t shining and the wind wasn’t blowing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="00KbLh">
But as of 2022, a mere 0.4 percent of <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&amp;t=3">US electricity generation</a> came from geothermal. That’s some eight times less than solar, 25 times less than wind, and 45 times less than nuclear. If that weren’t depressing enough, consider those numbers still meant <a href="https://mc-cd8320d4-36a1-40ac-83cc-3389-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2023/Jul/IRENA_Renewable_energy_statistics_2023.pdf#page=101">the US produced more geothermal electricity</a> than any other country that year, even surpassing heavily volcanic Indonesia.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2kNmBs">
But some significant breakthroughs have recently earned geothermal renewed attention. Fervo Energy, an enhanced geothermal company, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-18/fervo-energy-says-it-has-achieved-geothermal-energy-tech-breakthrough?in_source=embedded-checkout-banner&amp;sref=qYiz2hd0">announced that it was able to build and run a well in Nevada for 30 days</a>, generating 3.5 megawatts of power. That’s not a lot (a <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38312">typical natural gas power block</a> produces over 800 megawatts), and it’s still much more expensive to produce than solar or gas power, but it’s the furthest an enhanced geothermal project has gotten to date. Last year, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced a major initiative promising to <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-launches-new-energy-earthshot-slash-cost-geothermal-power">slash the cost of geothermal generation</a> by 90 percent by 2035. That announcement put the current cost at about $450 per megawatt-hour, compared to around <a href="https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/pdf/electricity_generation.pdf#page=9">$30 to $50 for onshore wind and solar</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oLXFtG">
On one reading, geothermal is finally getting the private finance, the technical progress, and the government support it needs to thrive. But having read the old press, I had a more pessimistic reaction. Is this turning point for geothermal for real, or just more hype? And if it is for real, what took so long? We have known for decades that geothermal has the potential to provide carbon-free energy that, unlike rapidly growing wind and solar, is constantly available, which we desperately need. Why, then, is its market share still stuck at 0.4 percent? What went wrong, and how can we fix it?
</p>
<h3 id="Y3jq5s">
Why enhanced geothermal is promising, and why it hasn’t happened yet
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4xDJJt">
The crust of the earth (the outer layer on top of which we all live) contains a lot of heat, ultimately generated by the radioactive decay of elements in the mantle, which sits below the crust. So beneath us, at all times, are deep rock formations with regular temperatures far hotter than those above ground. In certain locations, these rock formations also contain considerable amounts of fluid (mostly water with some salts in it). When these boiling fluid reservoirs burst through the surface, they appear as hot springs.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Large pillars with steam coming out of them. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iMoFAxfoZxcj_dTQwnVsZqgQMbI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24913772/1370363030.jpg"/> <cite>Franco Origlia/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A geothermal plant in Larderello, Italy, the first place such a power plant was ever constructed.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j3xra7">
Those sources have provided heat for centuries, and in <a href="https://www.power-technology.com/features/oldest-geothermal-plant-larderello/">1904 the first successful effort</a> to use this liquid to spin a turbine for electrical generation occurred in Italy. A key limitation, though, is that most areas of the earth do not have easily accessible and/or sufficiently large reservoirs for this kind of “hydrothermal” system to work. Iceland <a href="https://www.government.is/topics/business-and-industry/energy/">runs largely on geothermal</a>, but it’s very much the exception, and a beneficiary of an unusual geology that <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/services/transport/aviation/regulated/vaac/iceland#:~:text=The%20interval%20between%20individual%20volcanic,remain%20alert%20to%20the%20threat.">leads to a volcanic eruption</a> every five years on average.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x1Lbbt">
This has provoked a search for geothermal methods that are not limited to places with existing, accessible reservoirs of water underground. Perhaps the most famous is “enhanced geothermal” (EGS), which Fervo and other companies are pursuing. The idea here is to drill deep into the earth, pour in a liquid to be heated by the hot rocks down there, and then provide a way for steam or very hot water to exit, either to use directly for heat or to spin a turbine.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IHVWxP">
If successful, this approach would mean that geothermal plants could be built in a wide range of areas, with many different geologies. That would provide a useful source of low-carbon “base load” power: a source, like hydroelectric dams or nuclear plants or most coal plants, that produces a consistent electric output all the time. That would be invaluable in moments when intermittent sources like solar and wind are insufficient to meet energy demand.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tZi49Y">
In the mid-’00s, experts believed that we had the technical tools to vastly scale up enhanced geothermal. A <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070127233713/http://geothermal.inel.gov/publications/future_of_geothermal_energy.pdf">panel report released in 2006</a> by an MIT-led team concluded, “Most of the key technical requirements to make EGS work economically over a wide area of the country are in effect, with remaining goals easily within reach.” But in the 17 subsequent years, surprisingly little progress has been made.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aHKZpG">
Jefferson Tester, then a professor at MIT and now at Cornell, chaired the panel behind that report. When I asked him what happened, he pointed me to the report’s recommendations: accelerated permitting and licensing for geothermal projects, loan guarantees for businesses, tax credits and portfolio standards like those that benefit wind and solar, large investment from the Department of Energy (DOE) in setting up demonstrations in a large number of locations. Very little of that actually happened — and the problem is that very little isn’t enough to get geothermal going.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gdhN3M">
“The scale of geothermal is such you can’t do it just by putting up a solar collector or one wind turbine somewhere,” he explains. “You have to do it at a reasonably higher scale, which means there has to be more net money put in at the front end to drill holes and to evaluate that resource.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QjcLvw">
Compare geothermal to <a href="https://www.vox.com/solar-energy">solar power</a>. A solar plant is just an array of individual solar panels, each of which might cost a few thousand dollars. It’s totally doable for a small company without much capital to build out a single panel and show that it works — which is precisely what’s happened, as solar generation <a href="https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/the-rise-of-solar-two-decades-of-sustainable-energy-solution">grew globally</a> from around 1 TWh in 2000 to nearly 1,300 TWh in 2022.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hPRlyo">
Geothermal drilling operations, by contrast, are massive, much more expensive endeavors. The largest federally supported demonstration, the FORGE project in Utah, has an initial <a href="https://www.price.utah.edu/2023/07/12/forge-breakthrough-makes-headlines">budget of $220 million</a>, with <a href="https://utahstories.com/2022/12/forge-energy-new-renewable-energy-project-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-in-utah-to-benefit-the-entire-world/">another $115 million in funding</a> expected. That is well outside the budget of most energy startups, and the kind of thing where government support is usually necessary. Part of why Fervo’s breakthrough raised so many eyebrows is that, according to company claims, most of its funding is private. CEO Tim Latimer says the company has <a href="https://twitter.com/TimMLatimer/status/1681304513695862787">raised over $200 million to date</a>, only a <a href="https://utahforge.com/2021/02/24/utah-forge-announces-17-project-selectees-for-negotiations-for-solicitation-2020-1/">small share</a> of it from DOE. Getting that level of funding for a geothermal endeavor is highly unusual.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HUAzyt">
There have been occasional bursts of federal interest in supporting the technology, but they’ve been partial and abortive. The 2009 Obama stimulus included <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/geothermal/american-recovery-and-reinvestment-act">$368.2 million earmarked for the Geothermal Technologies Office at DOE</a>, but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/business/a-us-backed-geothermal-plant-in-nevada-struggles.html">negative headlines</a> followed when some supported projects struggled. Although the loan guarantees actually <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/doe-loans/exclusive-controversial-u-s-energy-loan-program-has-wiped-out-losses-idINL2N0T21W320141113">wound up being profitable</a>, they earned <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/17/energy-department-loan-guarantees-476719">huge Republican opposition in Congress</a> that prevented the program from continuing. Throughout the 2010s, the <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10479">investment tax credit (ITC)</a> included in the corporate income tax as a subsidy to clean energy offset 30 percent of the cost of solar and wind projects, but only 10 percent for geothermal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5M3eVU">
“By the early 2010s, natural gas prices got really cheap, solar prices got really cheap, and the market support for geothermal basically evaporated,” Latimer told me. “The irony is that tech for drilling got really good by the early 2010s,” as fracking transformed the oil and gas sector, helping drive those cheap natural gas prices. “But there was no investment or market demand for geothermal. It was this cool technology that just had nowhere to go.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sqlBIh">
The typical tools used for supporting renewable energy also might not work as well with geothermal. The loan guarantee program, for example, is primarily for projects ready for commercialization, with minimal technical progress needed — just add money. “What they fund meets a certain threshold of proven commercial viability,” Arnab Datta, a senior counsel at Employ America who has studied policy barriers to geothermal, tells me. That doesn’t describe most enhanced geothermal, where commercial viability hasn’t yet been shown.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yPRNo5">
Equity investments — which provide more upside for investors if a project succeeds while minimizing risk for companies should they fail — might work well, but government accounting rules <a href="https://www.employamerica.org/researchreports/accounting-for-industrial-policy-how-an-obscure-rule-is-holding-back-us-led-commercialization-of-smrs-2/">treat such investments as grants and assume they will never make back any money</a>. Normally, government budgeting operates on a <a href="https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/cash-flow-basis-of-accounting#:~:text=The%20Cash%20Flow%20Basis%20of,cash%20outflows)%20to%20replace%20asset.">cash flow basis</a>, and in an equity investment, the only cash flow at the time of investment is from the government to the firm in which the government bought equity. But the effect is that even government offices authorized to make such investments are hesitant to do so, knowing they will never be credited, either politically or in their future budgets, for any money earned.
</p>
<h3 id="7dNUyb">
Is geothermal finally turning around?
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="The World’s Dippest Geothermal Drill Started In Poland" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IdfX4Gz7fhyy1kMIrNIOWmWrgDw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24915887/1625034830.jpg"/> <cite>Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A geothermal drill tower in Szaflary, Poland, which is aiming to make the deepest geothermal borehole in the world.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DRJCnB">
Fervo’s bet is that progress in drilling technology due to the fracking revolution in oil and gas has changed the dynamics that have historically held geothermal back. Historically, geothermal projects have involved drilling vertically downward. But fracking has made horizontal drilling cheaper, which enabled a different approach Fervo is using: drilling vertical wells several hundred meters apart, and connecting them underground through horizontal drilling. They argue this lets them move fluid along a larger segment of rock underground, producing more steam and making the well more efficient.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K46Qze">
Fervo claims its system is ready for commercialization: It just needs to scale up the test well that it’s already shown works, and it’ll be in business.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MDcdh8">
Still, there are hang-ups. Geothermal drilling, unlike some oil and gas projects, is <a href="https://progress.institute/geothermal-energy-needs-permitting-reform/">subject to challenge under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)</a>, which can lead to years-long regulatory delays in getting projects off the ground. (Yes, you’ve read that right — it’s legally easier to permit an oil or gas well that will add further greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than it is to drill geothermal wells that can provide near-zero-carbon electricity.) Adding in a “categorical exclusion” for geothermal, similar to that for oil and gas, could help a bit. So too would directing some of the resources in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/8/8/23296951/inflation-reduction-act-biden-democrats-climate-change">Inflation Reduction Act</a> and the 2022 infrastructure law toward geothermal projects in the stage between speculative R&amp;D and full-scale commercialization.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PQDoFM">
“Theoretically, the place that should be doing this is the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, which has about $25 billion,” Datta says. “But that doesn’t have the authority yet to fund exactly this type of thing.” It would need more direct authority from Congress to deploy that money for large-scale geothermal demonstrations. Even before that, though, it could offer the kinds of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2023/07/05/the-economics-of-demand-side-support-for-the-department-of-energys-clean-hydrogen-hubs/">creative funding mechanisms it has used to promote the hydrogen industry</a>, which are already authorized, to geothermal companies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LiPzZ9">
Some critics are also worried that enhanced geothermal is not as ready for primetime as boosters like Latimer claim. “I think Fervo has done an incredible job of raising money, getting customers, raising awareness, etc.,” <a href="https://austinvernon.site/blog/">Austin Vernon</a>, an engineer who writes extensively on geothermal, told me in an email. “But if you read their paper they were losing 10-20 percent of the fluid they circulated. The cost of that water would be more than the electricity is worth in most wholesale markets.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LpptGW">
Worse, he claims, “if you are losing that much fluid in the granite you are almost certainly going to induce seismicity on longer time horizons.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rslRhE">
This is not a theoretical concern. In 2017, a <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2019/05/23/lessons-south-korea-solving-geothermals-earthquake-problem/">geothermal project in South Korea caused a 5.5 magnitude earthquake</a>, which luckily did not kill anyone but did cause dozens of injuries. A sizable enough earthquake problem could not only doom specific geothermal pilots but also lead to a perception of the whole technology as dangerous.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ktUUmP">
Fervo, naturally, disputes these critiques. The 10 to 20 percent figure, Fervo’s Latimer tells me, “is actually a positive result and good news for project viability as the number will only decline from there.” He disputes the notion that this “leakoff” will result in increased seismic risk, because Fervo’s projects “bring injected fluid back to the surface, limiting stress state changes.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yiEA58">
Vernon is more optimistic about “closed loop” systems, like the one the company <a href="https://www.eavor.com/blog/eavor-has-broken-ground-on-the-first-commercial-eavor-loop-project-in-germany/">Eavor is building in Germany</a>, in which horizontal drilling is used to place an enclosed pipe that runs from one well to another. That way, the fluid is never released directly into the rock, meaning you don’t need to worry about losing it or it causing earthquake problems; he notes that Fervo itself could easily pivot to this kind of system. Even without liquid concerns, Vernon argues that geothermal’s niche will be in providing hot water directly to heat buildings (like a massive underground radiator) or provide steam to factories, rather than producing electricity, <a href="https://austinvernon.site/blog/geothermalnextsteps.html">given the efficiency losses involved in converting steam to electricity</a>. Useful, but not exactly world-changing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="owDVRl">
The ultimate dream is <a href="https://www.catf.us/resource/superhot-rock-energy-a-vision-for-firm-global-zero-carbon-energy/">“superhot rock energy.”</a> wherein geothermal firms would drill 4 kilometers or even deeper into the earth’s crust, to the point where the surrounding rocks exceed 400 degrees Celsius (752º F). At this temperature, and sufficient pressures, water goes “supercritical”: Liquid water and steam become indistinguishable and hold more energy, which enables turbines to operate much more efficiently. That could make electricity generation much more viable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K6uDNy">
“Imagine if you could drill down next to a coal plant and get steam that’s hot enough to power that plant’s turbines,” the CEO of <a href="https://www.quaise.energy/">Quaise</a>, a startup attempting to develop this technology, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/climate/geothermal-energy-projects.html">told the New York Times’s Brad Plumer</a>. (The reason coal plants burn coal, after all, is to generate steam to power electric turbines, which is why coal and natural gas and, for that matter, nuclear plants are all known as thermal power plants.) “Replacing coal at thousands of coal plants around the world. That’s the level of geothermal we’re trying to unlock.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QDoWrn">
This vision is incredibly exciting, because it offers the promise of ultra-low-cost, ultra-abundant zero-carbon energy basically anywhere on earth, a form that could seamlessly fit into existing energy infrastructure. It would mean not just cleaner energy, but <em>more </em>energy<em>.</em> Vernon and analyst Eli Dourado wrote a <a href="https://www.thecgo.org/research/energy-superabundance/">report laying out what the economy could look like with ultra-abundant geothermal, nuclear, or solar power</a>: It includes things like vertical farming (enabling massive food production on a tiny land footprint), intercontinental travel via rocket, and mass desalination to end water scarcity around the world. It’s all very sci-fi.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tEXTOu">
For the time being, the “fi” part still applies: We simply do not have the technology to drill deep enough to access this geothermal resource right now at a reasonable cost. (The deepest hole ever drilled in the earth, the 7.6 mile/12.2km <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190503-the-deepest-hole-we-have-ever-dug">Kola Superdeep Borehole</a> in the Russian Arctic, took decades before ultimately being abandoned.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FPdNnW">
What super-deep drilling, Fervo’s enhanced geothermal project, Eavor’s “closed loop” project, and every other next-gen geothermal project have in common is a need for patient capital investment, perhaps through government subsidy. There are major steps needed to make that happen, but they tend to be fairly technocratic: empowering more equity investments from the Energy Department, offering a categorical exclusion to geothermal projects, empowering the Office of Clean Energy Demonstration to spend big on geothermal. They seem, in other words, like the kinds of things that even a divided Congress might be able to make happen, not ridiculous pie-in-the-sky aspirations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YGjtaC">
If the economics can be made to work, geothermal would provide a renewable energy source that’s always on, and that <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/where-to-find-the-energy-to-save-the-world-geothermal-texas/">employs plenty of ex-oil and gas workers, to boot</a>. That has been its promise for decades. Maybe the 2020s will end up being the time that promise is finally fulfilled.
</p></li>
<li><strong>There is no end to disaster season anymore</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="One person walks up the porch stairs to a house while holding one end of a kayak, and another person holds the other end of the raft, still standing in the flooded water where a front lawn would be." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4oCmUTZ7iHlBqxmeOKdopRU6bBI=/211x0:3000x2092/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72641692/GettyImages_1648506039.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Residents of Tarpon Springs, Florida, handle the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia in late August. | Joe Raedle, Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An extraordinary autumn is expected after a record-smashing summer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H6H8PY">
The wave of unusual disasters this summer now includes Hurricane Lee, a storm that swelled from Category 1 to Category 5 in just 24 hours as it barreled toward Canada. It’s a prime example of <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2022/9/28/23376761/hurricane-ian-rapid-intensification-climate-change">rapid intensification</a> made worse by warming ocean temperatures.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EA12Gv">
It will add to what’s already been an exceptional year of extreme weather. The US has set a new record for the number of billion-dollar disasters in a year — <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/us-saw-its-9th-warmest-august-on-record">23 so far</a> — in its history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). And this doesn’t even include the costs from <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/2023/8/22/23840233/hurricane-hilary-tropical-storm-california-flood-rain-drought">Tropical Storm Hilary</a> in California or from the <a href="https://www.drought.gov/national">ongoing drought</a> in the South and Midwest, because those costs have yet to be fully calculated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OsDaiT">
“Seemingly no part of the country has been left unscathed,” Ko Barrett, NOAA’s climate adviser, told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x8zg62">
Globally, it’s a similar picture. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/european-union">European Union</a>’s Copernicus Climate Change Service <a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/summer-2023-hottest-record">recently determined</a> that it’s been the hottest summer since records began, beating the last record set in 2019 by a significant margin. The group reported that both July and August reached global average temperatures around 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than preindustrial times. These are the same average temperature increases that scientists have warned will mean irreversible, widespread crises around the planet.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3y1P00">
This summer has seen a rising number of “compound events,” disasters occurring simultaneously or hitting one after another, according to climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. In some cases, one event might accelerate another. A heat wave, drought, and wildfire can conceivably all hit the same area, for example, and even raise the risks of flooding if a storm finally comes, because the ground is too parched to absorb the influx of water.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Q368C">
And there may be worse to come. Disaster season — or at least, what we’ve historically thought of as disaster season — is hardly over yet. Summer and fall are typically prime times for extremes, but this year we also have <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23738846/el-nino-2023-weather-heat-wave-climate-change-disaster-flood-rain">El Niño</a>, the natural cycle when Pacific waters reach higher-than-average <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23738846/el-nino-2023-weather-heat-wave-climate-change-disaster-flood-rain">temperatures</a>, which is just starting to ramp up. This is why meteorologists expect an extraordinary fall to follow the unprecedented summer, likely filled with active <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-forecasters-increase-atlantic-hurricane-season-prediction-to-above-normal">hurricanes</a> and warmer weather through the winter.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u3Dpdu">
With El Niño amplifying the effects of climate change, what we can expect from seasons is rapidly changing. Instead of a singular type of disaster any given region must prepare for, but places all over the world can expect multiple events at once. That means our traditional idea of disaster season no longer holds. What we now have is an extended practically year-round calendar of disasters, which often all hit at once.
</p>
<h3 id="0CTE1G">
This summer, extreme weather became more personal
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I0DkBJ">
That disasters are becoming more extreme is obviously a problem, but the fact that they’re also compounding so they seem to be everywhere at once is arguably worse. It’s a particular challenge, because compound events can strain first responders and supplies. It’s also brought the destructive effects of climate change to billions of people globally.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4SViIq">
In August alone, Hurricane Idalia overwhelmed southeastern Florida’s shores with a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/30/hurricane-idalia-florida-landfall">record-breaking storm surge</a> of up to 16 feet, wildfires scorched an unusually dry Hawaii and Louisiana, and southern California saw <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tropical-storm-hilary-los-angeles-california-mexico-flooding-25c75cba2dc7aea316056effdf913817">mudslides and flooded roads</a> from heavy rainfall (as well as an unusual tropical storm warning for Hurricane Hilary). A record number of Americans have also been exposed to more smoke in just the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/americans-have-breathed-more-wildfire-smoke-in-eight-months-than-in-entire-years1/">first eight months this year</a> than they typically inhale in an entire year.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Hurricane Lee in the ocean, seen from space. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VY7H0J5XML6p0AwUo0H3NsMPRqM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24916615/GettyImages_1653668379.jpg"/> <cite>NOAA via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Hurricane Lee grew to a Category 5 storm overnight, before weakening again as it heads toward Canada.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e7MUkF">
Meanwhile, this summer has been one of the hottest ever recorded. In the US in July, a third of the entire population faced <a href="https://qz.com/a-third-of-the-us-population-is-under-a-heat-alert-1850636074">heat alerts at once</a>. The science nonprofit <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/">Climate Central</a> found <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/global-review-June-August-2023">almost half the world’s population</a> experienced unusual heat attributable to climate change this summer — precisely, at least 30 days of hotter temperatures. And the poorest countries were three times more likely to be exposed to warmer-than-average temperatures than richer countries, meaning the people who contribute the least to the causes of warming are bearing worse impacts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WeHp8t">
“In every country we could analyze, including the southern hemisphere where this is the coolest time of year, we saw temperatures that would be difficult — and in some cases nearly impossible — without human-caused climate change,” said Andrew Pershing, Climate Central’s vice president for science.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TYgK59">
While temperature fluctuations are a normal feature of the Earth’s climate, there’s ample evidence greenhouse gas emissions from burning <a href="https://www.vox.com/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a> are fueling these new extremes. And this summer is just a taste of what’s to come as crises multiply and seasons shift.
</p>
<h3 id="1tnDQ4">
Extreme weather is shifting geographically and in timing
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LT0ngd">
September is supposed to be the start of the climatological fall, but the first couple weeks so far have ushered some of the hottest weather yet for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/09/05/heatwave-midwest-northeast-midatlantic-records/">parts of the US</a>. Other kinds of extreme events, like wildfires and hurricanes, operate on a slightly different schedule. Hurricane season, as defined by NOAA, lasts from the beginning of June through November 30, and wildfire season can reach its peak in the fall, making September more of a mid-way point.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E4oDi4">
All this is shifting, though. It helps to think of extreme weather as requiring a set of conditions that come together for a powerful result. In certain seasons, you’re likely to have all the ingredients — high heat, dry soils, high ocean temperatures, and so on — ready to fuel frequent, major disasters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CLxYMy">
Even without climate change, you can get the <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL012021_Ana.pdf">occasional May</a> hurricane or disastrous <a href="https://assets.bouldercounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/marshall-fire-investigative-summary.pdf">winter wildfire</a>. But climate change is cranking up the heat, making it more likely that all these ingredients can come together and do so outside of expected seasons. Warmer temperatures can create the perfect conditions for extreme weather at unusual times of the year. Indeed, the start of the hurricane season is actually trending earlier: Eight of the last nine years saw a tropical storm before the traditional June 1 start to the season.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="An overhead shot of destroyed buildings." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o_OABepFx_gRLOI5RP-m-TH8CN8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24916613/GettyImages_1622172404.jpg"/> <cite>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
The devastation after a wildfire devoured Maui. More than 100 people died in the deadliest fire in over a century.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EadBI0">
Wildfires have an even less predictable season than heat waves and hurricanes, but they have been more frequent throughout the year, burning <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-wildfires">more area in the past 20 years</a> than in the decades that came before. And the smoke from these fires is having an even wider impact. Canada’s worst wildfire season on record, particularly in the eastern part of the country, has blanketed the Northeast and Midwest with smoke for parts of the summer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YFT8j2">
“Extreme drought across Canada led to one of the worst wildfire seasons on record, with lots of fuel and prolonged dryness contributing to this set of events,” Barret said. “All of which is associated with our warming planet. When combined with the right atmospheric set-up, a rarely seen extreme can occur.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KJCqmk">
The atmospheric conditions this fall are still ripe for disaster — and the possibility that disaster season will linger long past its usual deadline. El Niño is also a multiyear event, scientists worry that next year may be even hotter. And with El Niño exacerbating the warming the world has already experienced, everyone should expect even more extreme weather.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QqiRwB">
“El Niño is just ramping up,” Hayhoe said. “It’s like we’re a frog in a pot of slowly boiling water and somebody just poured a kettle full of more boiling water into the pot.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IT4dhe">
When the El Niño cycle eventually ends, the world can’t expect a return to normalcy. We’re on a path for more extremes that will accelerate for decades to come.
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India likely to field weakened football team in Asian games as ISL clubs refuse to release players</strong> - Sunil Chhetri, Sandesh Jhingan and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu - all three senior players of the squad are set to miss the Hangzhou Games as their clubs are reluctant to forego their services for the first few games of the ISL</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dancing Queen, Wind Symbol, Dark Son and Spectacle shine</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Auspicious Queen, Saigon, Wild Emperor and Norwegian Wood please</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Shubman Gill attains career-best second spot in ODI batters chart; Rohit, Kohli also in top-10</strong> - Among bowlers, Kuldeep Yadav has gained five places to reach seventh position after grabbing nine wickets in two Asia Cup matches; Hardik Pandya is up four places to sixth among all-rounders</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Asia Cup 2023: A tweak in action works wonders for Kuldeep Yadav</strong> - Kuldeep 2.0 has been attacking the stumps more, with minor technical adjustments, and this has resulted in his emerging as India’s premier spinner in limited overs cricket</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kerala activist ‘GROW’ Vasu acquitted</strong> - Prosecution cannot prove charges levelled against the 93-year-old</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>1.30 lakh primary school teachers on mass leave in Odisha for better pay</strong> - Education affected in more than 50,000 schools across the State as teachers ask for ‘respectable’ salary, end to contractual appointments</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>46-lakh Kudumbashree women to go ‘Back to school’</strong> - The ‘Back to School’ campaign, organised with support of the General Education department, will see the Kudumbashree neighbourhood group members return to classrooms on holidays from October 1 to December 10.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai is a massive, one-of-its-kind, data driven scheme’</strong> - Our government believes in the Dravidian model of governance, which is founded on the principles of development and social justice for all; the KNMUT will make a significant impact on the lives of every eligible woman household: Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>4.47 lakh traffic challans among 24.36 lakh cases settled in Lok Adalats in Karnataka</strong> - Justice K. Somashekar, a judge of the High Court and Chairman of High Court Legal Services Committee, said traffic violators paid around ₹12.6 crore in penalties while availing the 50% rebate offered by the State Government</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Three reasons Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin might want to be friends</strong> - From shared enemies to a reliance on China, Russia and North Korea have a few things in common.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine launches missile attack on Crimea</strong> - Ten missiles and three unmanned boats were used to attack the home of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, Moscow says.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Austrian ex-minister Karin Kneissl moves to Russia with her ponies</strong> - Karin Kneissl is known for her links to Russia, including dancing with Vladimir Putin at her wedding.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russian aid reaches beleaguered enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh</strong> - Nine months into an effective blockade, a humanitarian aid lorry enters Nagorno-Karabakh.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Switzerland: Hundreds of sex abuse cases ‘tip of the iceberg’, say researchers</strong> - A report commissioned by Catholic Church uncovers nearly 1,000 cases dating back to the 1950s.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What would it take to build a self-sustaining astronaut ecosystem on Mars?</strong> - We’re getting closer to bioregenerative life support systems for astronauts. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1967156">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Coca-Cola embraces controversial AI image generator with new “Y3000” flavor</strong> - Tie-in Coca-Cola mobile app uses Stable Diffusion to modify your photos. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1967928">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The physics of saltwater taffy</strong> - Air bubbles, oil droplets are the primary factors, plus emulsifiers for extra chewiness - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1967089">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Everyone should get a COVID booster this fall, CDC says</strong> - Not everyone is at the same risk, but advisors called for simplicity and equity. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1968004">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>RIP to the Microsoft Surface Duo’s support window, an unmitigated disaster</strong> - The $1,400 device never ran a current version of Android. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1967377">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The other night I was invited out for a night with “the girls.” I told my husband that I would be home by midnight. “I promise!” Well, the hours passed and the margaritas went down way too easy. Around 3 a.m., a bit blitzed, I headed for home.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Just as I got in the door, the cuckoo clock in the hall started up and cuckooed 3 times. Quickly realizing my husband would probably wake up, I cuckooed another 9 times. I was really proud of myself for coming up with such a quick-witted solution (even when totally smashed), in order to escape a possible conflict with him. The next morning my husband asked me what time I got in, and I told him midnight. He didn’t seem disturbed at all. (Whew! Got away with that one!). Then he said, “We need a new cuckoo clock.” When I asked him why, he said, “Well, last night our clock cuckooed 3 times, then said,”Oh, crap," cuckooed 4 more times, cleared its throat, cuckooed another 3 times, giggled, cuckooed twice more, and then tripped over the cat and farted."
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16hk7js/the_other_night_i_was_invited_out_for_a_night/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16hk7js/the_other_night_i_was_invited_out_for_a_night/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I was having dinner with my boss and his wife said, ‘How many potatoes would you like?’. I said ‘Ooh, I’ll just have one please.’ She said ‘It’s OK, you don’t have to be polite.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
‘Alright,’ I said, ‘I’ll just have one then, you stupid cow
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/EastlyGod1"> /u/EastlyGod1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16h6aee/i_was_having_dinner_with_my_boss_and_his_wife/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16h6aee/i_was_having_dinner_with_my_boss_and_his_wife/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Three rough-looking bikers stomp into a truck stop.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They see a grizzled old-timer having breakfast.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
One of the bikers extinguishes his cigarette in the old guy’s pancakes. The second biker spits a wad of chewing tobacco into his coffee. The third biker dumps the whole plate onto the floor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Without a word of protest, the old guy pays his bill and leaves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Not much of a man, was he?” says one of the bikers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Not much of a driver, either,” says the waitress. “He just backed his truck over three motorcycles.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/brother_p"> /u/brother_p </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16h6f6r/three_roughlooking_bikers_stomp_into_a_truck_stop/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16h6f6r/three_roughlooking_bikers_stomp_into_a_truck_stop/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The US president asked for estimates from contractors from different countries to paint the White House.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The US president asked for estimates from contractors from different countries to paint the White House.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Chinese contractor estimates three million dollars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
And the European contractor said the cost was seven million dollars
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
And then the Pakistani contractor made an estimate of ten million dollars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The president asked the Chinese contractor, how did you estimate three million dollars? The contractor replied that 1 million for paint for 1 million for labor and 1 million for profit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The president asked the European contractor for seven million He replied three million in paint, two million in labor, two million in profit
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The president asked the Pakistani how you estimated ten million The Pakistani contractor said four million for you, three million for me, the remaining three million will be given to the Chinese to paint.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
And the Pakistani contractor got the contract.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mhassib"> /u/mhassib </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16gsxck/the_us_president_asked_for_estimates_from/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16gsxck/the_us_president_asked_for_estimates_from/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Q. What’s the difference between an Indian and an African elephant?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A. One of them is an elephant.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/DoorbellEndoscopy"> /u/DoorbellEndoscopy </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16hgkjt/q_whats_the_difference_between_an_indian_and_an/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16hgkjt/q_whats_the_difference_between_an_indian_and_an/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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