** Of the places I've visited on the mainland. Ireland, England, Scotland, Holland, Germany, Austria, Czechia... wait, I do remember that my hotel in Paris didn't have AC, and I was utterly miserable there. Czechia and Austria were in the winter / early spring so one wouldn't notice. But I'd think I'd remember if the others had it or didn't...

It's weird that I can't remember the AC status of the places on the mainland. I can say that here in Iceland AC is rarely used, usually only ventilation systems (if that) on large buildings, while homes and apartments usually just open windows.

French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher countered that large-scale air conditioning would heat streets with exhaust, worsening heat waves.

"HEAT FLOW DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!"

(For anyone who's unclear: all the heat that you're pumping out of houses is basically perfectly offbalanced by the heat penetrating into them. Only the energy to run the AC creates new heat, same as running any electrical appliance, but vs. the sun which - when overhead on a clear day - deposits about 1kW of energy per square meter, it's an utter irrelevance)

just because you "got over" a disease, it doesn't mean you're "better". Not all damage just goes away. It seems every month brings a new discovery about some disease is brought about or greatly increased in likelihood from past infection. For example, my mother suffers greatly from Sjögren's (incl. neuropathy where it feels like her skin is on fire). There's now increasing evidence pointing to it and related diseases as being at least in part triggered by Epstein-Barr, and my mother has strong diagnostic indicators of EBV reactivation. Even Alzheimers' research is pointing at past infection (combined with genetic susceptibility) as being a potential case, as amyloid beta and tau appear to be part of the brain's innate immune system, with accumulation as a result of inflammatory processes in the CNS.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is frankly nonsense. What doesn't kill you can leave you crippled, brain-damaged, with cancer, or any number of other things. Sequelae and postviral illnesses aren't some sort of a joke. I think one of the main lessons of COVID is to take sequelae and postviral illnesses in general more seriously - COVID brought them to attention because so many people got sick from a new virus at once, many severely ill (vs. say influenza, where only 5-15% contract it per year, and more often mild cases), but in no way is COVID unique to causing sequelae and postviral illnesses.

... but even not infected brain slowing down anyway. It seems just typical aging, ...

You sure proved them.

I'll personally never get over how surprised people are to hear that COVID affects the cardiovascular system. The spike protein literally targets ACE2. That's its point of entry. ACE2 is a blood-pressure regulatory surface protein (Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 - angiotensin is a vasoconstrictor), expressed by cells that need to modulate the cardiovascular system. Pulmonary-related deaths were the #1 cause of death from COVID, but cardiovascular-related deaths were #2 or #3 (depending on whether you count respiratory or multi-organ failure in the same category), not a trivial fraction, and with much greater potential for having been missed (as the pulmonary-related conditions were so characteristic and readily diagnosed, as well as being so much better known). Corresponding with the clinical data from known COVID cases, general-case cardiovascular deaths also spiked during COVID waves.

It's IMHO quite the irony that all the antivaxxers were freaking out about typically mild myocarditis from vaccines when COVID itself causes a much more severe myocarditis progression, much more often, and that's just a lesser one of its many cardiovascular complications.

A quick AI-deepsearch doublecheck suggests that this isn't at all pseudoscience, so care you defend your argument?

An analysis of scientific and medical research largely supports the provided statement, with some nuances. Here's a breakdown of the fact-checked claims:

Heparin Use in Severe COVID-19

The statement claims that heparin, a blood thinner, was used for more severe Covid-19 infections because the smallest arteries, including those in the brain, tended to become clogged.

This is largely accurate. Severe COVID-19 is associated with hypercoagulability, a state of increased tendency for blood clotting[1]. This led to a higher incidence of thrombotic events, or blood clots[1][2]. As a result, anticoagulants like heparin were recommended for hospitalized patients to prevent and treat these clots[2][3][4]. Studies have shown that heparin can improve outcomes for severely ill COVID-19 patients, particularly those with high D-dimer levels, which is a marker for blood clotting[1][5]. While the statement's wording "clogged with products of the virus' effects" is a simplification, the core idea that heparin was used to combat blood clots in severe COVID-19 is correct.

COVID-19's Effect on Small Blood Vessels in the Brain

The statement posits that COVID-19 affects small blood vessels in the brain.

This is well-supported by evidence. Research indicates that COVID-19 can cause damage to the brain's small blood vessels[6][7][8]. Studies have shown evidence of inflammation and damage to the walls of these vessels, leading to leakage of proteins like fibrinogen into the brain[6][8]. This microvascular injury is considered a likely cause of neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19, such as "brain fog" and cognitive issues[6][7]. Some studies suggest this damage is a result of the body's inflammatory response to the virus rather than the virus directly infecting the brain's nerve cells[8].

Gender Differences in Blood Vessel Problems

The statement asserts that blood vessel problems are more common in males.

This is a more complex issue with some supporting evidence. Generally, men are at a greater risk for cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and high blood pressure, for a significant portion of their lives[9]. However, after menopause, the incidence of cardiovascular disease in women increases and can even out[9]. Some research also suggests that women's blood vessels may age faster than men's[10][11]. Furthermore, women are more likely to develop blockages in the heart's smallest blood vessels, while men tend to have them in the largest arteries[12]. Therefore, while there are gender differences, the claim that blood vessel problems are broadly "more common in males" is a simplification of a nuanced biological reality.

Arterial Disease as a Risk Factor for Brain "Aging" and Dementia

The statement claims that arterial blood vessel disease is a known risk factor for brain "aging," cognitive impairment, and dementia.

This is well-established. Vascular pathology is a significant contributor to age-related dementia[13][14]. Conditions like arterial stiffness and atherosclerosis are considered risk factors for cerebrovascular disease and dementia[13][15]. The health of blood vessels is crucial for brain function, and impairments in blood flow can lead to cognitive decline[14][16]. The link is so strong that controlling vascular risk factors is considered a key strategy in mitigating the impact of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias[13][14].

The Hypothesis: COVID-19's "Aging" Effects on the Brain are Mediated by Small Blood Vessel Effects

The statement concludes with the hypothesis that the "aging" effects of Covid-19 on the brain are mediated by the virus's impact on small blood vessels.

This is a plausible and actively researched hypothesis. Studies have shown that severe COVID-19 can induce molecular signatures of aging in the human brain[17]. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that the pandemic itself, even without infection, may have accelerated brain aging[18][19][20]. Given the known damage to small blood vessels in the brain caused by COVID-19 and the established link between vascular health and brain aging, it is a logical conclusion that the virus's impact on these vessels contributes to the observed accelerated brain aging and cognitive decline. Research points to neurovascular injury and inflammation as key mechanisms of COVID-19's effect on the brain[21][22].

Sources
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nih.gov
scispace.com
mdpi.com
mdpi.com
nih.gov
defense.gov
sciencealert.com
drugtargetreview.com
cas.cz
vascular.org
news-medical.net
brighamandwomens.org
jacc.org
nih.gov
alzheimers.net
aginganddisease.org
nih.gov
time.com
nottingham.ac.uk
dw.com
news-medical.net
nih.gov

It's a Prisoner's Dilemma. It's to an individual organization's best interests to pay, but it's to the government as a whole's best interests that nobody can pay, to reduce the incentive to infect their systems in the first place.

Offline backups are of course a very good thing, but even some simple things would greatly reduce your need to ever have to use them. For example, having your fileserver use a snapshotting filesystem and not run any remote-access tools (such as SSH), so snapshots can only be deleted in-person. Unless the hacker has a zero-day exploit for e.g. NFS or the server's operating system, that's a pretty safe setup.

Again, you still want offline (and off-site!) backups on top of that, but that's really something that you never want to have to resort to.

IMHO, we could basically reduce ransomware to near-zero if motherboards shipped with a fully-independent on-board snapshotting fileserver (with its own (minimal) compute hardware/memory, and with a physical button to switch between administering the filesystem and the main OS), and the main OS just mounted drives from the on-board fileserver. The best an attacker could do would be to fill up your drives in hopes that you'll just delete snapshots without checking why it's filled up, or to try to social engineer you into doing so.

How did the stock market get into this discussion?

And the list concept concerns me. Are these lists appealable? If not, then they're abusable.

Also, the line between "AI generated" and "non-AI generated" is ever more fuzzy. AI is used for upscaling. AI is used in cameras to enhance images taken. AI is used to make the sort of minor edits that are done the world over in Photoshop. Etc. There's also the fact that this is done with image fingerprinting, which is fuzzy, so then any images that have minor modifications done with AI which get added to the list will get the raw images flagged as well. The thing people want to stop is "fake images", and in particular, "fake images that mislead about the topic at hand". But then that's not "AI" that's the problem in specific, that's image fakery in general (AI just makes it faster / easier).

And re: fingerprinting, take for example, the famous case of the content-spam creator who took a photo of a woodcarving of a German Shepard, flipped it horizontally, ran it through an AI engine to make trivial tweaks to the image, and then listed it as his own. I'd think any decent fingerprinting software would catch both versions. And if it's not flexible enough to catch that, then I have to wonder how useful it is at all, since images constantly change as they move around the internet, even accidentally, let alone deliberately.

WHAT is right there on video? That is NOT one of Zelensky's bodyguards. That's a random soldier from the 25th Separate Secheslav Airborne Brigade, which recaptured Izyum, during Zelensky's visit to celebrate the victory. Do you think bodyguards spend all their time taking selfies with the person they're protecting? Grow some common sense circuits in your brain. And it's not like Zelensky was handing the man an award with the patch prominently featured in front of the camera while he received it or anything. The Russian volunteer ranks are absolutely littered with Nazis.

What, you mean like the Russian governor of occupied Donetsk outright giving an award to a guy with a Totenkopf patch? Or all of the numerous Russian officials who have praised or given awards to the puppy-eating, unabashed Nazi, Milchakov?

Also, contrary to the misinfo sites you read, that was not a photo of "one of Zelensky's bodyguards". That was from his visit to Izyum where he was posing with random soldiers from the 25th Separate Secheslav Airborne Brigade to celebrate the retaking of the city from the Russians. That's why everyone has their phone out to take selfies.

Stalin was perfectly happy to ally with Hitler for the conquest of eastern Europe. The USSR only turned "anti-Nazi", not for ideological reasons, but because the Nazis betrayed them. Today in Russia, "Nazi" is used as a general insult for any external perceived enemy of the state, with any actual connection to Nazism not being at all required. Yet actual support for the actual principles of fascism within Russia is well tolerated. For example, Putin's good friend Dmitri Rogozin, now governor of occupied Zaporozhye Oblast, is absolutely a fascist, including speaking at a far-rally surrounded by people doing Nazi salutes under a only slightly modified Nazi flag, among so, SO many other things.

In most countries, the saying with respect to WWII is "Never Again". In Russia, it's "We Can Repeat It!" (Mozhem povtorit!).

I guess it depends on who you were. If you were Jewish, the Nazi occupation was definitely worse. Stalin was more of an equal-opportunity atrocity-committer.

It is kind of darkly funny how similarly Hitler and Stalin thought, though. For example, Hitler cited positively the Holodomor and the collectivization of Ukraine, and planned to use the Holodomor as a role model for resource extraction during scarcity, and to maintain the collectivization of Ukrainians set in place by the Soviets. He likewise viewed Ukrainians as a "colonial peoples", in the sort of Africanizing terms common among imperial powers of the time, and just planned to switch which foreign colonial master ruled them, arguing that ultimately Ukrainians would prefer the German yoke to the "Jewish"** (Soviet) one.

** How the whole Nazi view of the USSR as a "Jewish Empire" played out was I guess predictable. Because if the Wehrmacht rolls into your town, and you're some low-level communist functionary, and there's a bunch of soldiers knocking on your door who want to kill communists, but who also believe communists = jews = communists, what's your response? For most, it was along the lines of, "Yes, yes, you're right, communists ARE Jews, absolutely! And look, I'm not a Jew, I can prove it! But THAT GUY over there, HE is Jewish, that's the guy you're looking for!".