Ember Joyfall

Churro Cheesecake Cookies Ingredients For the Cookie Dough 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt For the Cheesecake Filling 8 oz cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Cinnamon Sugar Coating 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon Instructions In a bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Freeze small spoonfuls of filling for 20–30 minutes. In a large bowl, cream butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt until a soft dough forms. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Scoop cookie dough and flatten slightly in your hand. Place frozen cheesecake filling in the center and wrap dough around it to seal. Roll each cookie ball in cinnamon sugar. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 12–15 minutes until golden around the edges. Let cool slightly before serving so the creamy cheesecake center sets. Warm, gooey, cinnamon-sugary perfection in every bite!

We are mammals. We have hair. Women are not unhygienic, gross or whatever other insult you use, simply because we may choose not to remove the same body hair that men have. If you think body hair on women is gross, please, for everyone’s sake, grow up.

🧵💊What antihistamines make the most sense to take for an acute COVID infection? You’ve probably seen at least some information floating around over the past few years that over-the-counter antihistamines could be a beneficial addition to COVID treatment protocols. The science behind H2 blockers is more robust, and picking a product is also a much easier task. There’s really only one on the market that makes sense, which is Famotidine/Pepcid. In 2022, we got this small randomized clinical trial suggesting that Famotidine during an acute infection can improve the rate of symptom resolution: gut.bmj.com/content/71/5/879 For H1 blockers (the more common antihistamines that you probably think of (eg. Benadryl)), there is also speculation that they may be beneficial in treating acute COVID, however, the choice of selecting a product is a lot more complicated, with close to a dozen potential options on the market. The theory that H1 blockers may be beneficial mainly stems from this 2024 paper, which demonstrates that the H1 histamine receptor can act as an alternative receptor for SARS-CoV-2 entry, in addition to ACE2: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128…. Therefore, an H1 blocker that competitively binds to H1 should theoretically work to prevent SARS2 entry. From what I’ve been able to identify, there are 3 options that likely stand out above the others: • Fexofenadine (Allegra) • Cetirizine (Zyrtec) • Levocetirizine (Xyzal), the active, purified component of cetirizine That 2024 paper also studied the IC50 of 11 different antihistamines, which is the concentration that would be required to inhibit SARS2 binding by 50%. Their choices of antihistamines, though, aren’t very helpful, because those 11 only included a couple of OTC options that would make sense for outpatient COVID treatment, like Benadryl and Claritin. However, the takeaway is still important - although there was some slight variation, the IC50 of all 11 antihistamines fell into the range of 1.6 to 3.6 micromolars (μM). For the sake of making a choice, since it’s the only thing that we can really do, we can assume that most available OTC antihistamines will also likely fall within that same range, or at least be similar. From that starting point, we can look at the Cmax of available OTC antihistamines, which is the maximum plasma concentration that they achieve in the body, and comparing them to the IC50 range that the study lays out. At the typical oral dose, these are the Cmax concentrations of some popular OTC options: • Fexofenadine (Allegra) - 0.98μM • Cetirizine (Zyrtec) - 0.80μM • Levocetirizine (Xyzal) - 0.69μM • Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) - 0.27μM • Dimenhydrinate (Dramamine) - 0.15μM • Chlorpheniramine - 0.055μM • Loratadine (Claritin) - 0.020μM As you can see, the 3 that I mentioned are the only options that come anywhere close to reaching the desired concentrations. Based solely on the mechanism, combined with the fact that none of the options actually do reach the required Cmax, I might not yet suggest H1 blocking antihistamines as a blanket treatment that everyone infected should automatically take. But it’s certainly a legitimate pathway to consider, and is fairly low-risk. So, if you do want to add an antihistamine, why not just select the best performing in Cmax, which is Fexofenadine (Allegra)? Well, there are some other individual characteristics to consider. Fexofenadine (Allegra) is the one option that comes with essentially no risk of drowsiness, while both Cetirizine (Zyrtec) and Levocetirizine (Xyzal) do both typically come with with at least slight drowsiness, the caveat being that they’re also slightly more potent at their job of H1 blockade. Allegra is more polar, meaning that it’s less “membrane sticky”, which means that it crosses the blood brain barrier less, which is why we get the benefit of no drowsiness. However, that relative lack of concentration at lipid membranes also means that it may not perform as well in the SARS2 cell entry context, since that area is where the viral entry is happening. This could theoretically increase the IC50 of Allegra, making it more similar (or even a slightly worse option) when compared to Zyrtec or Xyzal. Our best guess is that it probably wouldn’t increase the IC50 dramatically, but it’s still something that should be considered. So, my recommendation would be: • If you want the safest bet with an all-around favorable profile, and you don’t mind some drowsiness or plan to take it at bedtime, then the best options are either Cetirizine (Zyrtec) or Levocetirizine (Xyzal). • If you don’t tolerate drowsiness at all, or if you want the option that may perform better, but does have some question marks surrounding its mechanism for blocking SARS2 cell entry, then the best option is Fexofenadine (Allegra).

How do I go about setting up a pro-respirator mask, pro-clean air botfarm?

Cambridge University professor of Conservation Biology decided to attempt a Mesopotamian meal, as inscribed on a 3770 year-old recipe tablet containing humankind’s oldest surviving recipes. The tablet includes 25 recipes for stews, 21 meat stews and 4 vegetable stews. Now part of the collection of the Yale University Library... The translated recipes, found in Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks: Highlights of the Yale Babylonian Collection, were “astonishingly terse” and “perplexing,” leading to some guess work with regard to onions and garlic. In addition to 25 recipes, the book has photos and illustrations of various artifacts and essays that “present the ancient Near East in the light of present-day discussion of lived experiences, focusing on family life and love, education and scholarship, identity, crime and transgression, demons, and sickness.” Kind of like a cradle of civilization Martha Stewart Living, just a bit less user friendly with regard to things like measurements, temperature, and cooking times. Which is not to say the instructions aren’t step-by-step: Stew of Lamb Meat is used.  You prepare water.  You add fat.  You add fine-grained salt, barley cakes, onion, Persian shallot, and milk.  You crush and add leek and garlic. The meal, which required just a couple hours prep in Sutherland’s non-ancient kitchen sounds like something he might have ordered for delivery from one of  Cambridge’s Near Eastern restaurants. Only 2 of the 25 recipes in the collection are vegetarian (meat is not used). And even there, to be really authentic, you’d have to sauté everything in sheep fat. © Yale University #archaeohistories

There are other trees in London, but this one is the most important. Every year since WWII it is donated by Norway to UK in thanks for the help that the UK gave Norway in WWII and every year it is decorated the same way and unveiled the same way by every Mayor of London since.

Depressing reading the news this morning if you're a fairly immobile old person. Ocado are being attacked for using plastic bags for home delivery. It's literally the only way I can cope with unpacking the shopping 1)

If your HEPA filter isn't at least this black, you're probably throwing it out too early. Here's the data: quora.com/How-long-does-a-HE… @Quora @Clean_Air_Club_

Aranet4 HOME Giveaway! Want to get your hands on our best-seller? Enter now!🙌 Rules to enter: 1) Follow our account 👉 @aranet_home 2) Like this post ❤️ 3) Tag a a clean-air lover in the comments 🌬️💚 (unlimited entries) Good luck! *The giveaway ends on April 29th 00:00 PT and there will be one winner across all of our social media platforms. #aranet #iaq #giveaway #healthyhome