FFS Friday 6/13/25-TNTC, aka too numerous to count

On a normal Friday I pick one top of mind issue that is not necessarily medical. And then I write a sweary post about it.

But this week…

This week the issues are literally TNTC.

For those not in the medical field, this means too numerous to count.

This is a lab value that indicates that there that the total number of bacterial colonies exceeds 200 on a 47 mm diameter membrane filter used for coliform detection. To translate, 47 mm is roughly 4 centimeters, or not quite 2 inches. And a coliform is a either a gram positive or gram negative bacillus. A bacillus is a rod shaped germ. These can only be seen under a microscope.

The point is that there are 200 bacterial colonies.

Damn. Let me sum up some more. A colony is a group of germs.

The point is there are at least 200 groups of germs in a less than 2 inch piece of membrane filter. This is literally too numerous to count. The germs are packed in so tightly because there are so many of them that they cannot be counted.

It can be guessed at. But the guess might be wrong.

This is like the “Guess the candy in a jar” party game. You can never really be certain how many germs there are.

Too many.

Too many is the correct answer.

I feel that way about politics these days.

There are too many fucking things to pay attention to.

Like an insane game of Whack-a-mole.

Here there is a plane crash in India that occurred shortly after take off. And someone survived the 600 foot drop and the fireball.

There is yet another bat-shit decision made by the DHHS secretary.

Oh, wait, there are more than one.

Over there is Israel bombing Iran.

Here there is a woman being dragged out of a police car by one ankle, the cop not seeming to care when her head is banged first against the car and then against the ground. Then the cop forces this woman’s head to the left while laying on her back and neck. And the second cop, hands hooked under the bullet proof vest, watching.

There is the deploying of the national guard to a state whose governor didn’t ask for them.

Over here is the deployment of Marines to the same city as the unasked for national guard.

Over there in Florida is the sheriff saying it is okay to kill protestors that are violent. And then he doesn’t define it. There are so many ways that shit can go wrong.

Over there is expansion of PEACEFUL protests across the country.

Over there is the video of a cop breaking their own windshield. Presumably to blame the peaceful protestors.

THERE a United States SENATOR was forced to the ground, while identifying himself and HANDCUFFED for asking an unwanted question about the thuggery going on in his state.

Add in various judicial orders that are gut churning on their own.

All of this since Sunday.

Google TNTC and look at the images. Especially if the image has the progression in a petri dish from no colonies to low colonies to medium colonies to high colonies to TNTC. The image I want to share is copyrighted so words will have to do. And use your imagination. Or Google.

Apparently I am able to share the picture. But not no picture here because I have yet to learn how but the picture will be used on Facebook and Instagram. Citation of the picture at the end of the post.

A petri dish is usually 2.4 inches in diameter. To put it into perspective.

No colonies is a completely empty petri dish.
Low colonies is less than 20 in a petri dish.
Medium colonies are 20-100 in a petri dish.
High colonies is 100-500 in a petri dish.
TNTC is more than 500 in a petri dish.

You get the idea. If it feels like we are in a blender with all this information coming at us and more and more and more and more, that’s because we are. They want everyday Americans to feel terror.

Because that makes us easier to control.

And it fucking sucks.

If you need me tomorrow I will be pocket book protesting and doing things that bring me joy.

Because joy is the antidote to terror.

*

Citation
Kallam, Brianne & Pettitt-Schieber, Christie & Owen, Medge & Asante, Rebecca & Darko, Elizabeth & Ramaswamy, Rohit. (2018). Implementation science in low-resource settings: using the interactive systems framework to improve hand hygiene in a tertiary hospital in Ghana. International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care. 30. 10.1093/intqhc/mzy111.