Crypto

Cryptococcal meningitis is a debilitating and lethal fungal disease that afflicts persons with compromised immune symptoms. Of the many neglected diseases, tropical and otherwise, it may be the most overlooked.

There is no day named for its awareness, no celebrity ambassador to champion its demise. The World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with addressing cryptococcal meningitis is a team of one.

That’s also the number of times cryptococcal meningitis is mentioned in the 500-plus pages of the latest UNAIDS report.

Not since 2009 has it been mentioned in The New York Times.

Immuno Mycologics in Norman, Okla. is developing an assay that can detect the disease while it’s still at treatable stages in its progress.

Patrick Adams has the report.

Quality

[Faber:] “Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You’d find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more ‘literary’ you are. That’s my definition, anyway. Telling detail. Freshdetail. The good writers touch life often.”

—Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

Holiday break projects

@mkramer likes to post lists of tasks that she has completed, large and small, required and optional. In that spirit, here’s what I accomplished over my holiday break:

  • Scrubbed coffee stains from my breakfast cup set.
  • Registered as a prospective host for my university’s externship program.
  • Snacked on a tasty (store-brought) Christmas stollen.
  • Updated my medical emergency/end-of-life instructions.
  • Replaced the battery in one device. (Thought there would be more.)
  • Cleaned out file folders of 20-year-old travel brochures and directions to birding hot spots.
  • Made some birthday arrangements for Leta.
  • Received a judgment: “Not eating at home brings good fortune.”
  • Restocked the food and water in my Go Box.
  • Cleaned out the closet of linens/bathroom stuff.
  • Tightened the buttons on one of my comfy shirts.
  • Remounted a wobbly toilet roll holder.
  • Straightened up the basement after October’s mini-flood.
  • Set up my script for my next show; set up my 2016 notebooks.
  • Watched two movies, in cinemas, like a grownup.
  • Mislaid the power adapter for my music keyboard. Again.
  • Cleaned up the cabinet of PC gear; organized the hall hat rack and closet.
  • Vinegared the coffeemaker.
  • Played Scrabble with Leta.
  • Went for a walk in Huntley Meadows Park.

Since I usually finish a bout of to-do checkoffs with more to-dos than I started, it’s nice to look back on what got done.

Upcoming: 45

Let the driving begin! My 2016 WATCH assignments are ready. Along with 4 TBD’s, I will adjudicate

  • Master Class, McNally
  • See How They Run, King
  • Little Women, Alcott et al.
  • Almost, Maine, Cariani
  • Unnecessary Farce, Smith
  • Shrek The Musical, Steig, Tesori, and Lindsay-Abaire

My year in hikes and field trips, 2015

Last roundup post of the season. Deeper exploring this year, not quite so much here at home.

And several trips to my home park, Huntley Meadows Park.

2014’s list. 2013’s list. 2012’s list. 2011’s list. 2010’s list. 2009’s list. 2008’s list.

The year in review, 2015

The first sentence (more or less) of the first post of each month from this blog:

  • 4 January: Definitely an oldie but a goodie: in a 1990 paper for Journal of Political Economy, Hugh Rockoff put together a marvelous reading of L. Frank Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) as an allegory of the pros and cons of bimetallism as a progressive-era monetary policy (caveat lector: there are some scannos in this copy of the paper).
  • 1 February: It was quite a pleasure to see a full evening’s program from Company E, after having seen this young modern-dance organization at the VelocityDC Dance Festival showcase.
  • 1 March: The team faced down the sleety weather this morning to start the rounds of checking nest boxes.
  • 1 April: Bob Neidt takes a quick photo tour of retro motel properties in northern Virginia.
  • 3 May: A strong production of this audience favorite, certainly a standard against which other productions can be judged.
  • 2 June: Ed Yong watches John Hutchinson and his team dissect a Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis), our 3-meter long monitor lizard.
  • 5 July: Dave Taft offers a splendid 24-hours sampler of the wildlife to be found within New York City, be it animal, vegetable, or fungal; native or alien invasive.
  • 1 August: Juicy views of the model board at NYC’s West Fourth Street control tower.
  • 1 September: From time to time I would remember a TV series from my childhood with a fairly simple premise: whatever the problem at hand might be, it could be solved by hopping into an airboat and zipping through the bayous to the other end of the county.
  • 4 October: Sheila Callaghan’s new play, a satire of gender roles and social expectations about mental and physical fitness, features some high-energy set pieces: white girls rapping about how to satisfy them, a dance club that morphs into a Paris boîte in the 1920s, a food fight with heads of lettuce.
  • 1 November: Andy Goldsworthy talks to Terry Gross.
  • 4 December: A couple of quick snaps from a short trip to Boston for training and meetings, with a visit to our Digital Services unit.

The year in review:

My year in contributions, 2015

The last-minute begging e-mails for the end of the year are still streaming in. Yet: please consider giving to one of the organizations below.

These are the groups and projects to which I gave coin (generally tax-deductible), property, and/or effort in 2015.

My year in cities, 2015

Mucho travel this year, even a trip for my job. Overnight stays in 2015: