Category: Uncategorized

A Small Disappointment, In Certain Head And Neck Cancers — But The Lenvima® + Keytruda® Combo Has Worked Well In Others…

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Well… given the complexities of human biological science, it is to be expected, I guess, that there would be some cancers that won’t respond well to the above combo. And that is the case, it seems, this morning. Overall survival improvement is the gold standard, here. But as our graphic at right indicates, the combo is already FDA approved in certain uterine and kidney cancers.

The form of head and neck cancer that this trial “missed” on is a variant most common in Southeast Asia, though it is expected that there will be 60,000 new cases of this type in the US, by year end 2023. So it is a high burden cancer, and one well worth chasing for a cure, or at least remission. Here is the news, out of Easai this morning:

…Eisai’s Lenvima® [in combination with Merck’s Keytruda®] failed to show statistical significance in extending overall survival, one of the three main goals of the study, the companies said.

The companies were testing the combination for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma — a cancer that develops in the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose and throat — in patients with recurrent or metastatic form of the disease and whose tumors contain a protein called PD-L1.

This type of cancer is especially common in parts of Southeast Asia, and the companies estimate it to lead to more than 66,000 new diagnoses in the United States this year….

Now you know. Onward, with about 25 degree cooler temps here today, as a Canadian front falls on us (35, if one considers heat index figures — far less humid now!). A welcome relief, indeed. Smile… as ever, be excellent to one another.

नमस्ते

[U] In A Few Weeks, The Entity Created To Hold / Finance Tangerine’s Truth Social… Faces Dissolution: SEC Filings.

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Updated on 09.24.2023, Late night: So Tangerine posted his Fulton County booking photo on X, tonight (that’s the “artist” f/k/a… Twitter). No MSM is saying it yet… but he may already know that the DWAC shareholders (see below) prefer to get a partial refund of their money, and let “Truth” just die off. [He previously said he’d NOT return to Twitter, citing contractual obligations to DWAC/Truth.]

I think it’s clear DWAC management doesn’t have the votes to keep kicking the can down the alley, in the vain hopes that all four separate felony indictments fall apart (i.e., not likely!).

And so, investors may well see the money in DWAC as “dead” (non performing), and want to redeploy what is left… to functioning, cash flow and EPS generating businesses. End update.

Could NOT happen to a nicer guy. [The holdco is called “DWAC”.]

His vaunted plans for a public offering have hit a two year series of self-inflicted delays, led to investigations of “front running” by his team (that’s a particularly insidious form of insider trading), and lately, rampant executive defections, after wildly missed equity raise targets…

And a network that is still about 1/100,000 the reach of Twitter (now X).

So it is… that his vehicle for “truth” faces a mandatory liquidation, and pro rata return of what’s left in the pot, to all the original round investors — on September 8, 2023 (via his SEC disclosures):

“…EVERY VOTE IS NEEDED BY SEPTEMBER 5, 2023 TO PREVENT LIQUIDATION ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2023!…”

That’s his own presser, tonight.

His world is collapsing in on itself — of its own corrupt weight.

Out. Smoke that, John and Bits….

Parker Has Now Ripped Past Venus, Again — Heading Into The September Close Pass, Next To… Sol: Johns Hopkins Reports

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The sling-shot / speed gathering maneuver has gone off without a hitch — so now it sprints toward our local star, for a 19th close dip… with more data gathering ahead.

Here’s the latest, from JHAPL’s blog:

…At just before 8:03 a.m. EDT, moving approximately 15 miles (more than 24 kilometers) per second, Parker Solar Probe passed 2,487 miles (4,003 kilometers) above the Venusian surface as it curved around the planet toward the inner solar system.

The mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, kept in contact with the spacecraft during the flyby through NASA’s Deep Space Network – except for an expected 8 minutes at closest approach, when Venus was between Earth and Parker — and determined the spacecraft was on course and operating normally….

My most recent backgrounder on this may be found here. Speaking of hot rides, now — do stay cool, locally here in middle America — as we approach 115 degrees on the heat index here, this afternoon… yikes! Time for more lemon water ice, tonight, freshly shaved — grinning.

नमस्ते

Success! This Morning (US Time), India Becomes Only Fourth Nation To Ever Soft-Land On The Lunar Surface…

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To be sure, India had great success in its Mars science program for seven years, as we previously reported.

But the Moon is a formidable challenge, to handle the micro-gravity / physics of controlled, powered descent… with no pilot on the stick — all by software, pre-loaded. [As we’ve also mentioned, Russia, Japan and Israel have all failed / missed “sticking the landing” — in separate attempts, in the last three years.] But here is all the good lunar south pole ice exploring good news:

…India has landed its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon, becoming only the fourth nation ever to accomplish such a feat.

The mission could cement India’s status as a global superpower in space. Previously, only the United States, China and the former Soviet Union have completed soft landings on the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-3’s landing site is also closer to the moon’s south pole than any other spacecraft in history has ventured. The south pole region is considered an area of key scientific and strategic interest for spacefaring nations, as scientists believe the region to be home to water ice deposits….

Now you know — well done, my friends!

The hope is that the mission will accurately estimate the “potentially potable” water ice at the bottom of these permanently shaded craters — although as I’ve long written, humans on the Moon seems both overly expensive for the science dividend… and relatively speaking… pretty dangerous, to the humans.

In any event, onward; ever onward — scorcher here — and south of here, this afternoon, as well! May call for some lemon-flavored water ice… grin.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Liked Tangerine Tariffs Just Fine 2017-21. What Gives?!

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Man is this guy ever… fully… senile, now.

Hinderaker defended tariffs, 2017 to 2021. But now that he sees Trump is killing the GOP, only now… will he admit what all of us who actually understand macro-economics have long said:

Trump will impose vast new taxes, in the form of a “base layer of 10%” tariffs (on all imported goods, he said tonight on Fox) — if by some dark miracle, 2024 finds him in charge again (not likely!). That tax/tariff will be paid solely by the US business owners, farmers and consumers who will pay 10% higher retail prices in the USA. Or, they’ll drive to Canada or Mexico and buy the stuff there, and gut domestic companies of the revenue.

Trump: MORON! And… Hinderaker: fecklessly fabulist. Again.

Out.

Now Hinderaker — Again, Without Evidence — Blames “Blacks” For Dick’s Inventory Shrinkage. But. Dick’s. Management. Did. Not.

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Proving once again… that… racists gonna’ racist.

He did it before — about Target.

Tonight, he does it again, about Dick’s:

“…I think an important element of the chains’ motivation is fear of being called racist, since those engaged in organized retail theft are mostly black….”

Those are John’s words, in orange. Of course, Dick’s said the opposite — as Target did, in later 2022. Hinderaker: racists’ racist.

Internet, do what you do.

Out.

Update: USDC Judge Ezra Reserves On Rio Grande Floating Razor Wire Ruling; Both Sides To Submit Final Arguments By Friday In Austin, TX

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The hearing concluded before lunch today, in West Texas.

Here’s a bit from a local Midland paper, which had a reporter sitting in the federal courtroom today:

…[USDC Judge] Ezra questioned why Texas would have moved the barrier if it was already on the U.S. side and whether the currents of the river were causing the buoys to drift.

“If it were in a position Texas was comfortable with, they wouldn’t have done that,” Ezra said….

Ezra ordered both sides to submit written closing arguments by Friday as the Biden administration [seeks court authorization, under the Rivers and Harbors Act § 10, 33 USC § 403] for the immediate removal of the buoys….

So — we wait probably until Monday, six days out, for a decision — after the Friday final filings. And when Abbott loses (as he will) — expect an appeal, but also expect that the US agencies will have the right to immediately remove the razor-wire, during appeals.

In fact, two asylum seekers have already died, after being tangled in them.

Onward.

As Crude Oil Is Depleted, Liberating It Becomes MORE Costly, Not Less John. Damn.

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Because Cargill is a large client of his former law firm, Hinderaker is very taciturn in his critique of that company, tonight.

But his bleating about using sail power widely misunderstands the economics of extracting finite resources. Resources like copper, oil, moly and gold or lithium.

As supplies run thin, more expensive (not less!) extraction methods are required, to yield a given barrel of crude, or a metric ton of… copper.

That’s an immutable… fact.

So, everything after that first glaring error in John’s analysis… simply falls of its own weight.

But nice try Johnny. Nice try. Out.

With Only One Half-Hour Of TOTAL Argument Time… It Seems The Sixth Circuit Panel Thinks The Question On Appeal Admits Of A Pretty Clear Answer…

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While one hour arguments are not the norm, they are seen in ambiguous, weighty, or ground-breaking appeals on the law, in the Sixth Circuit. Here the panel has only alloted fifteen minutes per side.

Given that this is a law restricting medical care to only one sub-class of one gender classification — while endorsing full care for all other classes… I’ll venture the guess that even in the conservative Sixth in Ohio, this rings in as a violation of the civil rights of litigants, “on the basis of… sex.”

And, in a case called Bostock, one decided around two years ago, a majority of the Supremes essentially said such laws… must fall.

Add to it that it invades doctor / patient privacy, in violating federal law, by requiring providers to turn over confidential treatment records to the government of Tennessee… I’d say GOP Gov. Lee is… cooked here.

For his part, despite seeing a close family friend (one he had dinner with, in his home not three days prior) gunned down in the Covenant mass murder / school shooting, Gov. Lee looks unlikely to be able to get HIS OWN SUPER-MAJORITY GOP party to pass meaningful measures to combat… AR-15 shootings in schools. And unlikely to get more mental health dollars, either. This conundrum… smells like a failed democracy: a rogue band of brown-shirts, defying the party leader — on an essential public safety measure. And it may be even worse, on the ultra-local level, thus:

About four weeks ago, I saw a very cogent Atlantic article that suggested, at least in Sumner County, Tennessee (county seat, Hendersonville) we are witnessing a “failed” democracy. One party (GOP) super-majorities there have essentially eliminated the county elections board. They’ve done so, to get rid of the required by law BI-PARTISAN makeup of the board. The now neutered board… is just supposed to count, not “politic“. So the Sumner County Hard Right MAGA GOP… relegated the whole of the board… to a flooded basement closet, as its sole “offices”.

The message is crystal clear: only GOP/MAGA votes count in the county. Fewer than 15% of eligible voters in Sumner County ever cast ballots, at all, anymore — having decided it is… a largely futile act.

Now you know. Disgusting.

नमस्ते