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Brian Vastag
@brianvastag@mas.to
mastodon 4.7.2Former science reporter. Occasional SCUBA diver. East side, Kaua‘i
1981 Followers
1478 Following
50 Posts
Joined June 29, 2025
Remembering Beth Mazur (1976-2023):
May 2020: Coronavirus may cause post-viral syndrome:
She wrote to a scientist about her fatigue. It inspired a breakthrough:
Hating on governments is fashionable (often for good reason) but I am so, so, so pleased and impressed with the County of Kaua'i's response to Hurricane Lowell.
The twice-daily updates are full of important and useful information. The county has knocked down pervasive and malicious rumors. They have kept everyone posted on restoration of power and water. They've clearly stated what is and isn't open.
Our mayor, Derek Kawakami, will soon be Hawaii's Lt. Governor and will be in line to run for governor after that if he wants to. He's been fantastic, just as he was throughout the early pandemic.
Community response has been great too. I rode the east side bike path yesterday for the first time since the storm and all 5 miles had already been cleared of downed trees.
#Lowell #Hawaii #Kauai
Hurricane Lowell knocked a million avocados off trees in Kaua'i so we need help eating them all.
https://kauainownews.com/2026/09/19/kaua%CA%BBi-has-been-seeing-green-after-hurricane-lowell-knocked-down-thousands-of-avocados-trees/
Just replied to a post from 344 days ago because what is time anyway.
Wally Funk dies at 87. She should've been among the first women in space, but sexism stopped her & others. Funk did get a suborbital flight in 2021. Amazing life spent above the clouds, and here she gets a well-deserved detailed obituary.
#aviation #space #obituaryhttps://wapo.st/4f1TggE (gift link)
Guy who was arrested for playing the Imperial March at National Guard in DC gets a payout for 1st Amendment violation.
https://wapo.st/3SpuPlP
One of my friends with long covid is trying to find a lower stress job. Another is struggling to work from home for a state agency. A third is contemplating early retirement. And I know a few who seem to have had their symptoms resolve.
So much of the cost of it is hidden...here some researchers try to put real numbers of it. Since covid began, we in the chronic illness community have talked about how using diagnostic codes to estimate prevalence will lead to a huge undercount.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2849452
I thought this neighborhood tom with a creaky meow was everywhere but it turns out instead he has a body double!
#cats
This cat at the sanctuary where I volunteer is just back from the front lines and is eager for pets.
Bad wildfires in Ontario north of Thunder Bay. I've been fishing up that way (years ago) and it's beautiful country with gorgeous lakes. Hard to imagine it all burning.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/wildfires-thunder-bay-9.7269683
#climate #Canada #wildfires
Kind of a niche post, but if any #scuba divers are looking into diving Kaua'i, the famous Tunnels dive is now off-limits to commerical operations. This is a fairly recent change inside Haena State Park; no more permits for any commercial activity. Divers can still dive there but tours and paid guides are not allowed. A local guide just confirmed this to me.
I would NOT recommend swimming or diving into the maze of lava tubes without an experienced guide. It's...a complicated system of interconnected tubes, dammit.
#scuba #Hawaii #Kauai #diving
In Phoenix for a family event and the dearth of rooftop photovoltaic arrays is sad. On the bright side, there's no way this blighted city survives another 30 years.
Replying to
@patc@pdx.social Yes I like to listen to my electric bill as a podcast. Lots of great banter about kWh.
I didn't register my ebike with my county because they require a check or money order. Straight to jail, I suppose.
Replying to
With no warning, Infantino sprang a plan to start a new private company to control the men's & women's World Cups & he said Thrive Capital, led by Jared Kushner's brother, would be the lead investor.
Now it looks like he consulted with *no one* inside FIFA before doing this.
The European confederation of 55 nations pushed back hard yesterday and said Europe will boycott all FIFA competitions until this proposal is shelved forever. Removing Europe from the men's & women's World Cups would make the events laughable, as many soccer powers are European. The North/Central American confederation also pushed back, but not as hard.
And today we learn Infantino's top advisor, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned. Cordeiro is from the US, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented the football body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, who attended Trump-Infantino meetings. So his resignation is huge.
2/
Replying to
'“I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,” Cordeiro wrote in a statement. The former US Soccer Federation president said he was not included in talks about the plan backed by a New York investment fund created by Joshua Kushner.'
FIFA's chief operating officer is also speaking out against the plan. Kevin 'Lamour wrote that staff were “deceived” by Infantino’s lack of openness in planning the sale over recent months and “deserve better than contempt and intimidation.”'
https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/7/31/fifas-lamour-says-staff-deceived-over-infantinos-world-cup-sell-off-plan
3/
Replying to
A short post-script: I enjoy international soccer/futbol and do NOT want to see these tournaments that bring together fans and teams from the world to celebrate the sport sold off to the worst crime family the US has ever seen. It looks like Infantino tried a Trump-like power move and is currently getting slapped pretty hard for it. It's hard to see how he can continue to lead FIFA.
I don't have a ton of money invested in stocks (well, I guess it depends on perspective, to a 20-year-old me it's a lot) but I just moved half of it out of the market and into safer things. No one knows when the house of cards will collapse but...
No shame. Right on the front steps. (I assume this is mating...)
Replying to
Re: Hank Green admits to submitting AI content : https://www.reddit.com/r/youtubedrama/comments/1vc5s5l/hank_green_admits_to_submitting_ai_content/
Replying to
So it looks like Infantino cooked up a plan to sell the World Cup to the Trump-Kushner crime family without consulting anyone, and now FIFA's member nations & top staff are pushing back very hard. If Infantino's proposal somehow succeeds, it will fracture international soccer/futbol and future World Cups will look a whole lot different. Europe may go it alone.
Six of the eight finalists in this year's men's World Cup were European.
The Women's World Cup is next year in Brazil and qualifying matches are scheduled for September. If this proposal is still on the table, the European confederation says their teams will not participate.
/end
State of Hawaii: Here's an email reminding you to check your voter registration.
Also State of Hawaii: j/k, our voter registration website is down.
'murica, we are soooo free here it's amazeballs, I can feel the freedumb on my credit card bill
#healthcare #medicine #FREEDUMB
Diabetes researchers criticizing the Trump admin cuts to science were escorted out of a conference by security. Trump's NIH director was speaking at the conference.
I've attended hundreds of medical & scientific conferences and have never heard of anything like this. Is it fascism yet?
https://wapo.st/49EYInR (gift link)
Southern Exposure
I live in rural Hawaii (defined here as everything outside Honolulu) and I like it although I'd understand why a new med school graduate might not want to make a 5-year commitment.
Hard to keep docs here so we need this program.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2026/06/will-doctors-trade-5-years-in-rural-hawaii-for-free-med-school/
Looking at reddit on a browser on my phone now stops scrolling and pops up a demand to use their app.
Pass.
Somehow the regime hasn't scrubbed every government website of climate info. This NASA page is still up that summarizes the evidence for fossil fuel-driven climate destabalization:
https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/
#climate
I wonder how many 18-25 year olds bothered to vote in the California primary.
Wait lemme guess...8% of them? Maybe 12.
The people will the most to win/lose in elections tend to vote the least...I don't know the answer but it's been a big problem for a long time.
I hope this company does well...I'll give it a 50/50 chance. I hear people saying they want a basic, inexpensive EV but how many will take the offer? There are a lot of tradeoffs here...shorter range, not much for an entertainment system, etc. And yes some people care deeply about data privacy but most Americans really don't.
My last boost was a news article in Science magazine examining AI in astronomy. It does a great job of relating the struggles of astronomers as their field is being upended. Lots of people trying to grapple with a new reality. Great reporting.
So this is interesting. I recently got a router from Gl.iNet that has AdGuard as an option. I turned it on for my entire home network and now when I watch Tubi...there are no ads. After about 90 minutes into a movie it threw up a warning about digital rights or something and stopped playback. I restarted the app and finished the movie just fine.
Replying to
@kims@mas.to With enough purity tests, no one would have anyone left in their life. Does ANYONE live a pure life? Never shops at an evil corporation, never listens to anything by someone with wonky opinions, never clicks on a site that does harm? Purity tests divide people.
Replying to
Here's what a $100k beach sandbag project looks like in progress. The contractor told me he thought the owners were buying another 4-5 years before the ocean touched the house. Supposedly they had all the right permits...whatever they may be. Ocean level rise...yee-haw!
I like supporting PBS through their Passport streaming service but...I can't find any info on changing the credit card I use except to email my local PBS station. Seems a bit...inefficient.
Cool opportunity for musicians: $100,000 grants for developing music-based therapies for brain diseases. The Foundation for the NIH is teaming up with Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead & Renee Fleming, a soprano.
#music #medicine #researchhttps://fnih.org/press-release/fnih-renee-fleming-mickey-hart-and-jim-weiss-launch-neuroscience-initiative-music-as-medicine/
got an alert my gmail password was exposed on the dark web. gimme a url or whatever, where was it exposed, and was it arrested for indecent exposure?
I'm utterly shocked that FIFA admitted they made a huge mistake by giving a red card to the US's leading scorer, whose suspension for Monday's game has been lifted. This is an extremely rare reversal.
#WorldCup #MastodonFChttps://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/folarin-balogun-usmnt-world-cup-belgium-fifa-lifts-suspension/
Saw The Odyssey last night at our island's last remaining theater, a 1930s art deco building now run by a local non-profit. Pretty much a full house for the last of five showings over a week.
I enjoyed it although...during bright scenes I wanted to walk up to the screen and smooth the wrinkles.
Also: "Dad!" seemed...a tad informal for the palace and it made me snort a piece of popcorn up my nose.
#TheOdyssey #film #movies
Replying to
@koantig@mamot.fr @josephcox@infosec.exchange Lots of use cases for urban planners, real estate developers, etc. Google is not adding random shit to the Google Earth data set, it's a screenshot. Yes it can be abused just as every AI imaging generation tool can be abused.
How long will it take the State of Hawaii to mail me a new handicapped parking placard? It's already been two weeks.
Croatia can blame NASA for that loss. Adidas sent an experiment to the ISS while developing the technology that led to the offsides call that negated the tying goal.
#WorldCup #MastodonFC #NASA #spacehttps://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/nasa-sent-fifa-world-cup-160000220.html