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The annual StJohn PB Christmas Crossword (est 2007) – politicalbetting.com
The annual StJohn PB Christmas Crossword (est 2007) – politicalbetting.com
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The annual StJohn PB Christmas Crossword (est 2007) – politicalbetting.com
Across
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Merry Christmas to all PBers 🎄
Just flicking through the reporting of Brexit deal, seems nobody can write an article without using phrase "thin deal"...I have no idea what that actually means. I suspect it is like hard Brexit, a vacuous term with an ever changing meaning.
On COVID Hong Kong has extended quarantine to 21 days:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-hongkong-idUKKBN28Z04R
Merry Christmas to all, and best wishes to Mrs @Gardenwalker and Gardenwalker Jr for a mild illness and a speedy recovery.
13 across not bid and 1 down not ride.
10 across. Embargo. Yes. Traffic light signals are Amber and Go. Exchange A and E leads to Embar + go = Embargo. Ban = Embargo.
10a erased Reds + AE
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1341992652179447808
https://twitter.com/AngryScotland/status/1342306216299679748?s=20
Effective also in the rUK.
https://twitter.com/WelshGovernment/status/1338078761108070401
Along with 'you two faced son of a bitch' of course.
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-major-uk-testing-lab-suffers-coronavirus-outbreak-after-claims-of-safety-breaches-12172290
As someone whose family benefited, and who acted as a host, I think UK's withdrawal is dreadful.
Hope you all get delightful presents.
Cheers for the crossword, Saint John. I appreciate the diversity of literary creations, after the Gospel.
28a - Rona
May we all look forward to a much better 2021 and the vaccination of all our Country
Wuh(an or)iginally. The whole clue acts as the definition. Called an "&lit" clue in cryptic crossword land.
10 miles S of Suffolk, it's just above freezing, but the sky's clear.
The beginning of a permanent change ; or the beginning of a road back - all is yet to be revealed ; but the next year or two will play a big part in deciding that.
I am, however, slightly concerned that in my new game of Stellaris everyone in the galaxy except those with whom I'm allied have declared war with me. I'm currently in three separate wars with six other galactic powers. Spinning those plates is going to be tricky...
No more.
Originally = anagram indicator. The letters are arranged originally or in a new way. Anagram “meant as” = namaste. Namaste is a respectful greeting that is given at a social distance.
Still Merry Christmas! Any chance of leaving the politicking to tomorrow, it's not going away. Concentrate on the crossword, not the cross words? No? OK then.
It is even harder to stomach when our magnificent leader continues with his wartime allusions. Did I ever think Turing would annoy me? No.
Grandpa regularly (alternate letters of) = rnp. Upset = anagram indicator. Direction = E(ast). Anagram of “A magic rnp” over or around the letter E = Campaign(E)r. Activist = Campaigner.
I suppose there are more people here than usual because of the ban on Christmas.
Philby initially (first letter) = P. Sent, (as in transported) = anagram indicator. "Note Kim P" anagrammed = Potemkin. Important Russian = Potemkin.
A man joins a monastery and takes a vow of silence: he's allowed to say two words every seven years.
After the first seven years, the elders bring him in and ask for his two words. "Cold floors," he says. They nod and send him away.
Seven more years pass. They bring him back in and ask for his two words. He clears his throat and says, "Bad food." They nod and send him away.
Seven more years pass. They bring him back in and ask for his two words. He clears his throat and says, "I quit."
They nod and say: "Understood, you've been doing nothing but complain ever since you got here!"
Enjoy and have a Happy Christmas everyone!
Society is abbreviated to S. This person’s = this person is = I am = I’m. (This person here refers to the crossword setter). S restricted by I’m = I(s)m. Belief = “Ism”.
The Japanese recently discovered a possible mechanism for ADE (antibody dependant enhancement) in Covid.
An infectivity-enhancing site on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is targeted by COVID-19 patient antibodies
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.18.423358v1.full.pdf
SARS-CoV-2 infection causes severe symptoms in a subset of patients, suggesting the presence of certain unknown risk factors. Although antibodies against the receptor- binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike have been shown prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, the effects of antibodies against other spike protein domains are largely unknown. Here, we screened a series of anti-spike monoclonal antibodies from COVID- 19 patients, and found that some of antibodies against the N-terminal domain (NTD) dramatically enhanced the binding capacity of the spike protein to ACE2, and thus increased SARS-CoV2 infectivity. Surprisingly, mutational analysis revealed that all the infectivity-enhancing antibodies recognized a specific site on the surface of the NTD. The antibodies against this infectivity-enhancing site were detected in all samples of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the study. However, the ratio of infectivity-enhancing antibodies to neutralizing antibodies differed among patients. Furthermore, the antibodies against the infectivity-enhancing site were detected in 3 out of 48 uninfected donors, albeit at low levels. These findings suggest that the production of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 infectivity-enhancing site could be considered as a possible exacerbating factors for COVID-19 and that a spike protein lacking such antibody epitopes may be required for safe vaccine development, especially for individuals with pre-existing enhancing antibodies.
It works very well told out loud.
Happy Xmas back at you !
Wasted ages on Pipe Man!
Call = name. University = MIT. Up regarding means read the letters upwards. Name MIT read upwards = Time Man. Former annual award = Time Man of the Year. Now it’s Time Person.
Merry Christmas one and all. May the coming year bring you a vaccine.
But don’t forget that every individual when infected makes many different antibodies to the virus all at once, and as the paper notes, the amount of this specific one varies greatly, and the significance of its negative effect is for now uncertain.
One of the things that has become clear to me this year is that there is an awful lot we still just don’t know about the immensely complicated details of immune response to viruses.
Revolution = circle = “O”. Pinochet = Augusto. August(o) ignoring “O” = August. Respected = august.
5 down. Treaties. Yes.
Pleasure = treat. European = E. Is securing E = I(E)s. Treat + I(e)s = Treaties. Agreements = Treaties.
Wins = carries, as in carries the vote or the day. My backing (reversing) = YM. Off = anagram indicator as in spoiled or rotten. Nods “off” = onds. Carries +ym + onds = Carrie Symonds. Along with Boris and Wilfred she is currently residing at Number 11 Downing Street.
But from the efficacy data (certainly for the mRNA ones) it would seem not all that much. And recall that alongside their efficacy at preventing infection, there have also been very few if any cases of severe disease.
It’s quite possible that for most people the effect of the ‘bad’ antibody is entirely drowned out by all the others.
If we end up needing to tweak them (as has been talked about for the current mutation), then it would certainly seem to make sense to remove this bit of the spike from the vaccine redesign.
Relative = Nan (grandma). Activist = (Martin Luther) King. Nan + King = Nanking. There was an historical massacre at Nanking. Now Nanjing - which would have been harder to clue!
And the realisation that there are lots of terrible puns in there adds to the appeal
Though there's little to be festive about, I confess to being fairly happy that I am girding my loins to cook for two today, rather than the normal eight. It will be a more relaxing if less joyous day. Indeed, it was only listening to Cliff Richard on Desert Island Discs that drove me to get up and see if anybody on here was around.
A US state = Philly (Philadelphia). A US man = buster. A US statesman = Philly buster. Reportedly = sounds like. Sounds like Philly buster = Filibuster. Political tactic = Filibuster.
1 down. Mogg. Yes.
Short time = mo(ment). Horse = GG (gee-gee, a child’s word for a horse). Mo on GG = Mogg. Tory Rees-Mogg with half the letters cut = Mogg
Call me a cynic but I thought it was all going tits up!
What's the chances of Francois and co producing an uber critical appraisal?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news
If the AZN vaccine gets approved, that really would be a Christmas to celebrate.
9 EU member states with a smaller population than Scotland have a legal veto on this #BrexitDeal but Scotland's Government has no say whatsoever.
Torn out the EU against our will and a Power Grab Bill foisted upon us.
It’s a tragic day for Scotland.