How Wild Turkeys Find Love New York Times
The Return of the Wild Turkey New Yorker (resilc)
Mapping Lyme disease across western North America PhysOrg (David L)
Expert Proposes a Method For Telling if We All Live in a Computer Program ScienceAlert (furzy)
How to protect research ideas as a junior scientist Nature (Dr. Kevin)
A cell biologist shares the wonder of researching life’s most fundamental form NPR (David L)
A Soil Fungus That Causes Lung Infections Is Spreading Across the U.S. Gizmodo. Kevin W: “Masks too while gardening?”
This small pharmacy may be a model for more affordable drugs STAT (Dr. Kevin)
Popular anti-inflammatories linked to worse osteoarthritis progression New Atlas (furzy)
Apocalypse Nowish Harper’s (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
Science/Medicine
Neuroimaging study reveals significant brain changes in areas associated with language comprehension, cognition, and circadian rhythm control six months after COVID-19 infection.
Totally mild right ? https://t.co/aLkIqTGGhX
— Jess (@MeetJess) November 21, 2022
The fact that kids are filling up the ICU’s, our healthcare is collapsing AND still people refuse to wear a mask is a level of apathy I thought I’d never live to see. #BringBackMasks #ProtectOurChildren
— Jess (@MeetJess) November 21, 2022
UK/Europe
From last week, still germane:
#COVID19 hospital admissions in England🏴
2020 👉 237,654
2021 👉 301,978
2022*👉 357,886 ⚠️*till 14 Nov 2022 pic.twitter.com/DHAdQlPQ0y
— Antonio Caramia (@Antonio_Caramia) November 17, 2022
Asia
China lockdowns reach record level as Covid cases spiral Financial Times
China aims to minimize Covid deaths while reopening Asia Times (Kevin W)
Monkeypox
First study of monkeypox infection in women provides new insights to inform public health response to ongoing outbreak EurekaAlert (guurst)
Climate/Environment
COP27: Climate costs deal struck but no fossil fuel progress BBC
Climate change a ‘disaster in slow motion’ for places like P.E.I., experts say CBC (David L)
Beyond Meat (BYND) Photos, Reports Describe Pennsylvania Plant’s Dirty Condition Bloomberg (furzy)
China?
Younger Chinese are spurning factory jobs that power the economy Reuters (resilc)
Carmakers try to frustrate US push to cut China from EV supply chain Financial Times
‘The system is overwhelmed’: Europe confronts fresh migrant influx Financial Times. Note only secondarily about Ukraine arrivals.
Old Blighty
UK restaurants going bankrupt at faster rate than during Covid Guardian
New Not-So-Cold War
◾️A fighter of the AFU (tank gunner) tells his sad story in tears:
◾️“I don’t understand what is happening. Everyone died, my brothers died, and they make a laughing stock of us, of the soldiers.
◾️The commander says "we are meat"
◾️We had over 30 tanks. There are 7-8 left. pic.twitter.com/wB7zJ1kpcx
— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) November 20, 2022
More weapons for Ukraine needed before peace talks – NATO chief RT. Seems a little desperate….
Europe’s industry is suffocating without gas Nezavisimaya Gazeta-Energy (guurst, original here)
Coming to Western Ukraine and some parts of Europe soon. Also notice superspreader potential:
Europe rushes to fill up on Russian diesel before ban begins Reuters
Polish Court Revokes $6.3b Fine on Gazprom for Nord Stream 2 Bloomberg
Brussels’ uphill battle to confiscate Russian assets Politico
🇪🇺🇩🇪💰🇦🇿🇷🇺Germany sees no contradictions in the EU's plans to buy gas from Azerbaijan,despite the fact that it may be of Russian origin.
Few days ago "Gazprom" signed agreement with SOCAR,where Gazprom will supply up to 1 billion cubic m3 of gas to Azerbaijan until March 2023
— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) November 21, 2022
Millions of lives under threat in Ukraine this winter – WHO BBC
Ukraine – No Way To Peace Without Further War Moon of Alabama. Nice shout out!
Qatar seals 27-year LNG deal with China as competition heats up Reuters (resilc)
AP Fires Reporter Behind Retracted ‘Russian Missiles’ Story Daily Beast
Qatar And China Make History With 27-Year LNG Supply Deal OilPrice
Syraqistan
Erdogan signals a Turkish ground offensive in Syria, Iraq and Iran attacks positions in northern Iraq targeting Kurdish groups Al Jazeera
Evacuation of CIA’s Afghan Proxies Opens the War’s Blackest Boxes Intercept (resilc)
Security Forces in Iran Have Blinded Hundreds of Protesters New York Times (resilc)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year ars technica (Alex V)
Apple Device Analytics Contain Identifying iCloud User Data, Claim Security Researchers Macrumors
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Department of Homeland Security is the pinnacle of bureaucratic dysfunction The Verge (resilc)
The Cuba Embargo: Isolating America Antiwar. Resilc: “If Biden opens up Cuba, he could lose Floridahhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
German F-35 deal saps Europe’s joint fighter dream Asia Times (resilc)
Biden
The Lords of War: The Perils Facing Trump, Garland, and Smith in Washington’s Legal Arms Race Jonathan Turley
2024
Four more years? Joe Biden and other Democratic hopefuls for the 2024 presidential nomination The Conversation (Kevin W)
2022
Rep. Ilhan Omar criticizes McCarthy for threatening to remove her from committee Washington Post (Kevin W)
Exclusive: Mrs. Fetterman Goes to Washington New Republic (resilc)
Our No Longer Free Press
YouTube Censors Reality, Boosts Disinformation: Part 1 Matt Taibbi
CNN wants to stay neutral in a divided America. Will anyone watch? CNN. If you believe this, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. There’s too much embedded conduct for this to be anything other than very difficult even it the intent actually is genuine. Shorter: this crowd is so deep in the bubble they can’t find “neutral” if it hit them over the head.
Black Injustice Tipping Point
Black Man Shot in the Head by Cop After Being Pulled Over for Tinted Windows Vice
The Bezzle
FTX-owned service being used to launder hundreds of millions ‘hacked’ from FTX, researchers say CNBC (Kevin W)DraftKings Users Hacked, Money In Account ‘Cashed Out’ Action Network (resilc)
Influencer gets bizarre ‘Elon Musk’ tattoo on his forehead – next to dodgy-shaped rocket Daily Star (resilc)
How to prove things Lars P. Syll
Class Warfare
Solve worker shortages with immigration BBC (resilc)
Workers who made World Cup happen now enjoying the games Al Jazeera. Resilc: “Only way to fill up stands too.”
Key Freight Rail Union Rejects Deal, Increasing Strike Risk New York Times (Kevin W)
Rail union rejects Biden deal, sets stage for December strike The Hill
When — and How — to Say No to Extra Work Harvard Business Review. I would hazard this has at best 50% odds of working in a white collar setting. And hourly workers don’t get to negotiate.
Antidote du jour (CV):
And a bonus (guurst):
Morenas pic.twitter.com/UaIkMIORQz
— Solo para Curiosos (@Solocuriosos_1) November 18, 2022
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
163 comments
Comments are closed.
DIPLOMATS AREN’T TALKING
(melody borrowed from These Boots Are Made For Walking by Nancy Sinatra)
Ukraine won’t exist by late December
Their army’s full of grandpas and young boys
Russian tanks will roll when the steppe is frozen
And NATO has run out of bang-bang toys
The diplomats aren’t talking
The fighting isn’t through
Another couple weeks till Russia
Walks all over you
Yeah
Don’t be thinking someone’s gonna save you
There’s no sign that Russia plans to quit
NATO can’t provide you any men or weapons
So fight or run you’re going to submit
The diplomats aren’t talking
The fighting isn’t through
Another couple weeks till Russia
Walks all over you
Ukraine belongs to General Armageddon
He’ll carve you up and finish you by turns Ha!
Mutinies and desertion’s are a-spreadin’ Yeah
Have you seen the white snow when it burns?
The diplomats aren’t talking
The fighting isn’t through
Another couple weeks till Russia
Walks all over you
Are you ready Vlad?
Start walking!
Love it!
‘A fighter of the AFU (tank gunner) tells his sad story in tears:’
The guy is still young and hopefully he will make it home. But that commander? There is a military custom that goes back centuries on how to deal with such commanders and one of the latest iterations of this in Vietnam was called “fragging.” That young guy may not realize it yet but I think that he is going to find out that he has far more in common with the Russians that he is fighting than with his own people back home. I saw an example of this after the Azov surrender at Mariupol when one of their guys got into conversation with one of the Donetsk guys. As they had both been fighting each other for years, they spent a long time comparing notes and experiences. Of course the worse thing that could happen when this war is over is to have the Nazis turn around and blame young men like him for losing the war for the Ukraine and having average Ukrainians come to believe it.
I thought of that as well after watching the video. I have a friend who served in Vietnam. Among the various stories he has shared is the description of the untimely end by explosive for officers who appeared to be callously sacrificing their soldiers’ lives.
I thought of that as well after watching the video. I have a friend who served in Vietnam. Among the various stories he has shared is the description of the untimely end by explosive for officers who appeared to be callously sacrificing their soldiers’ lives.
A riveting example of this is detailed in Facing The Mountain, during the Italian campaign. And I’m surprised that, given the insistence of the general to charge the mountain, while he stands there within range taking fire, that someone didn’t accidentally shoot him from behind. Who would have known? Instead, the unit gallantly charges and suffers horrific casualties as you’d expect. So fierce were these Japanese American soldiers, the Germans came to fear them.
Yeah, fragging. I first read about that in a book called “The Tunnels of Cu Chi” (1985) by Tom Mangold. I remember it as a good read.
A memorable anecdote from that book:
Officer: Okay private, go down into that tunnel and root ’em out.
Private: No way, Jose.
Such, apparently, was the Vietnam War. No respect for superiors.
From the old days of the web:
Harass the Brass! Mutiny, Fragging and Desertions in the U.S. Military
During the Crimean war back in the 1850s there was a Colonel of a Scottish Regiment who was renowned for his cruelty. This was when the British Army still had flogging. So they were about to go into battle when he turned to his Regiment and said that he knew that they wanted to kill him but first it was more important to fight off this impending attack. Well that Regiment did just fine that day and saw off the Russian troops. The Colonel then raised his sword, turned to his men and started to shout hurrah to his men when suddenly-
*Bang!*
Jimmy V said find a reason to cry at least once a day. Facts from the ground — stories like this guy’s — are too few and far between. Half decent exposure would wash a planet in a sea of tears over this war. You’d think that’s what the internet was for.
These boots might walk and chew gum at the same time: hopeful that a desired outcome (peace in the ethnic Russian Oblasts and a diminished NATO) might be possible. Also, deep sympathy for every last victim of what has become a terrible war for Europe and the world.
Even the Coked out Puppet Prez gets some of my heart — Nazi knives in his back with the carrot of that London dacha, Swiss account and cushy speaker’s tour on the horizon. If he plays a weak hand passably and it suits his minders, the Jewish figurehead (obvious historical analogy here) might see his fam survive the Bunker to cash in on the Jackpot.
Wouldn’t want to be him (yuck), but he seems to have a better shot at making it out alive than his tank commanders.
Link for Mrs. Fetterman:
https://politicalwire.com/2022/11/21/mrs-fetterman-goes-to-washington/
thanks, fixed!
Thank you, Yves.
Further to Germany’s F35 deal, readers may be interested in what France announced over the week-end and plans to bring German and Spanish partners, but with France / French firm in the lead, https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-jt/france-2/20-heures/defense-l-accord-sur-le-futur-avion-de-combat-europeen-enfin-conclu_5487195.html.
European defence collaboration is the issue that (finally) drove Michael Heseltine out of Thatcher’s cabinet. Today is 32 years since Thatcher resigned. Oddly, I have seen the anniversary mentioned only in the francophone Belgian state broadcaster. Nothing in the UK so far.
One wonders what former British government officials Anonymous 2 and David recollect of that departure* and what David makes of such collaboration. Mum’s big sister worked for the British Aircraft Corporation, later part of British Aerospace, and, as she’s bilingual, transferred to Aerospatialle when the Anglo-French joint efforts were in their pomp and still lives in French aerospace country.
*An Iraqi spokesman said “she was a bad woman”. Labour’s Jack Straw said, “Thank God, we’re shot of that evil woman.” I thought of what Thatcher said on the steps of Downing Street when South Georgia was liberated that Saturday evening in 1982, “Just rejoice at that news.” Things got worse, not better.
While officially it is still a Franco-German project, with Spanish input, note how all the major contractors are French. In effect, it is now a French product. It also seems to be significantly behind the British/Italian Tempest, although it wouldn’t surprise me if the French have a lot more work done than they are letting on.
While they are maintaining face by providing support, I think that the decision to go for the F-35 has doomed German input. Apart from the financial side, the French will not permit integration with F-35 systems in order to protect the integrity of their weapons systems (i.e. making sure the US can’t gain access). It would make little sense for the Germans to have two parallel systems. There is also the key issue of integration with the b61 nuclear warhead, which German wants, but France will not permit (because the software is a potential backdoor to their systems).
Thank you, PK.
It was odd how this is a called European / multilateral effort, but the reality is different.
One got the impression from the French TV coverage that Germany needed to throw France a bone after differences on all sorts of issues.
I suspect that the French have the Germans over a barrel with this. If the Germans abandon the project, it will lay bare their utter dependency on the US and will be the final nail in what remains of the German aerospace industry – its probably too late for them to meaningfully join in with the Tempest project.
But the French know its vitally important that if the aircraft is to be sold abroad they need full control of the supply chain (i.e. the US or its direct allies can’t without vital parts). This is key to the export success of the Rafale. So for now, I think the French will milk the Germans for development cash, while ensuring that all the key manufacturing is in France or Spain – Airbus has major military manufacturing facilities in Seville.
Thank you, PK.
Speaking of the Airbus facilities in Seville, the brother of a friend, both hispanophiles, has moved there from the UK. The firm gave some of its UK employees the opportunity in advance of Brexit.
Such a beautiful place to be relocated. They are quite fortunate.
The steady inflow to Dublin continues, although office space doesn’t seem to be at a premium anymore – nearly every major company that I’m aware of has dramatically reduced its office demand through hybrid working. A friend of mine just started her new job in Accenture and she still hasn’t seen her office, they sent her a laptop and a connection and thats it – they seem quite content to have her work at home, which has made her two corgis very happy.
There was an article some years ago about Danish or Norwegian F-35 that were surreptitiously sending data to the US, despite assurances to the contrary… What if is a two way street and the order comes to freeze the plane? Now you have a brick in your hand, and a very expensive one for that matter.
I recall there was a rumor that the Italian F-35 will shut down certain functionality, if the remote maintenance tracker can’t call home at least once a month.
Also, there are only handful of laboratories that can build and test the mission critical MDF files for F-35. The one for Australia, Canada and UK has over 100 people working in Elgin AFB.
I’m sure all that works as intended if and when a global manure hits the fan.
That’s an awful lot of eggs that in only one small basket.
Ahahaha what do you reckon that’s a vanilla microsoft sql server export from a database, crunched up with broken DRM and military doodads for top dollar.
Knowing the military and plane design timeframes, maybe it’s a touched up access database at that
“Expert Proposes a Method For Telling if We All Live in a Computer Program” ScienceAlert
How long are people going to be trolled with this non-sense?
How about a method for telling when something is a psy-op?
We live in a simulation called the state. I’m sure that techno-fetishists would prefer that such a state be made of digital values, but that part’s neither essential nor important at the human grand strategy level. What is important to remember is that it’s a game and humanity can quit it any time.
Or the “expert” is funded by Meta.
It’s the kind if non-sense that would help sell their “metaverse.”
Our entire civilization is structured around keeping us from realizing we can do this
(Caitlin Johnstone)
Where’s Kyle Broflovski when you need him?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckIMuvumYrg (1:32 mins)
Reminds me how in the end Merlin (Sam Neil) gets rid of the wicked witch sister.
Its easy. Tell me the physical location of the computer, and we can check operating system.
This specific line? Because there is little difference between this nonsense and the Ark Encounter. Superman’s nemesis Mr. Myxzpth is a 5th dimensional being, right? It’s mocking 19th century nonsense that the Abraham deity is a 4th dimensional being, compared to us 3 dimensional beings.
I figure the current tech bro obsession is a result of knowing how worthless they are and trying to find justification for gross inequality. It’s all the result of the Divine computer program, not their action and inaction.
And the late, lamented Phillip K Dick anticipated it all with his “Valis.”
I’ll believe it when I begin seeing verifiable evidence. (The beauty of the Metaverse Construct is that it hijacks the definitions used to set the parameters of the discussion. Garbage In Metaverse Out [GIMO].)
Stalenhag got it precisely right with his legions of Virtual Reality Zombies cluttering up the landscape of the future.
In Liu CiXin’s The Three-Body Problem, humans exist in an unsimulated real world, but all their information about it comes to be fed to them through a hostile simulation. That’s another angle.
At least that accounts for organic life.
The foreign, (to Anglophones at least,) writers are doing a lot of very good speculative work nowadays.
American gnosticism? An evil/fallen/dog-eat-dog world from which the individual escapes to heaven/eternal life through superior virtue/grace/digits-in-bank-account/nerditude.
Or one could just take a step back and enjoy the view.
Mortified by the flesh and terrified of emotion.
“Expert Proposes a Method For Telling if We All Live in a Computer Program” ScienceAlert
This paradigm that the Newtonian-physics world that we live in resides as a special case within a larger system of physics is a view held by many different communities of people, not just physicists and some computer people. Many Hindus, for example, have understood this paradigm for maybe 5,000 years. The core of their system of thought, gained experientially, is constructed on that foundation.
Why not consider entertaining the possibility that these communities may, in fact, be onto something that could expand and improve your ontology, your mental map of everything?
Yves, I appreciate it that you include items in Links like this that touch on other areas outside your standard topic areas. I appreciate that your wonderful blog and extraordinary commentariat strive to expand our understanding of shortcomings and errors in conventional thinking. Links such as this one alert us to challenge conventional beliefs. Thank you.
Humbly seconded.
The problem comes from the framing. There’s a difference between describing the view as “a special case within a larger system of physics” and a computer simulation. In most lazy minds, simulation quickly is replaced by game, leading to NGB’s observation that the interest in the concept is largely a get-out-of-jail card for actions in the here and now that affect real human lives.
Tangentially – isn’t this one of the threads behind the EA thinking: that future ‘happiness’ of an uncountable number of future ‘uploaded’ human minds is worth more than the happiness of today’s 8 billion lives, so any current actions can be seen as an unfortunate casualty in service to the future greater good? Thereby excusing themselves from guilt, of course.
And I don’t confuse computer science with physics any more than I confuse economics with pyhsics.
“unfortunate casualty in service to the future greater good”
That appears to describe a lot of human history. Archeology shows that early farmers were physically worse off than previous hunter-gatherers. I read a factoid (welcome correction) that in England life expectancy didn’t change much between 1500 and 1900, in spite of all the “revolutions” in that time span. People at the top were better off, but it took a long time for the benefits to filter down to the rest of us.
cfraenkel – “that future ‘happiness’ of an uncountable number of future ‘uploaded’ human minds is worth more than the happiness of today’s 8 billion lives, so any current actions can be seen as an unfortunate casualty in service to the future greater good?”
Sounds an awful lot like “Your hunger and misery today will be rewarded with pie in the sky when you die.”
Utah Phillips – The Preacher and the Slave:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHyGpFncovU (4:12)
“The core of their system of thought, gained experientially, is constructed on that foundation.”
Let’s exercise some caution here. What are the experiences upon which they base their speculation about alternative worlds? I ask because at least one variant of revelatory experience involves fasting in a desert for long periods of time, leading to hallucinations which then are socially-processed to become the basis of a religion.
. . . at least one variant of revelatory experience involves fasting in a desert for long periods of time, leading to hallucinations which then are socially-processed to become the basis of a religion.
Vedas in a nutshell. My former atheist self is all “Yeah! Take that, Brahma!”
Then my fast-induced, meditative hallucination (who unfortunately looks more like a data-scroll than a Vedic video game) is all “Do you really think consciousness doesn’t happen in the 90% of the universe that physics tells us is invisible?”
I realize that life has turned. Although I remain religiously unaligned (prolly why I don’t see super-cool Ganesh when I sit, sigh) I’ve bought into a fundamental Hindu belief: the part of me that sees everything else can’t see itself. Color me skeptical that every Empirical reduction isn’t deeply grounded in fathomless mystery.
Indeed, most mystical traditions have variants of the belief that we are “a dream in the mind of God” or something similar.
Actually, it’s a shame that what is a serious philosophical question posed among others by Nick Bostom (briefly referred to in the article) has become mixed up with the stupidities of Silicon Valley billionaires. Bostom’s question was whether it was possible to prove that we were not living in a simulation of some kind. He approaches this by arguing that one of the three following propositions, none of them apparently likely, must in fact be true:
“The fraction of human-level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage (that is, one capable of running high-fidelity ancestor simulations) is very close to zero”, or
“The fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running simulations of their evolutionary history, or variations thereof, is very close to zero”, or
“The fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one.”
In other words, if a super-powerful civilisation around AD 2050, say, was capable of simulating a universe in every detail, then an almost infinite number of universes, and an almost infinite number of entities, could be created. If so, then it’s much more likely, logically, that we are living in a simulation than in a real world.
Think about that.
Perhaps one could condense the argument even more: If it is, or was, or will be possible, here, or on other planets by beings of other intelligent species, to create simulations in which conscious beings like us can exist, then there will certainly exist more than one such simulation—so the likelihood that we exist in the “original, real” reality is below 50 percent.
So the only possibility that could make us assume that we most likely live in the original realty would be the possibility that such simulations are, for whatever reasons, impossble.
C S Lewis’ “That Hideous Strength,” “Perelandria,” and “Out of the Silent Planet.”
Just googled that….sounds super interesting! …unfortunately my brain at this point is so scrambled and chopped up by reading politics etc on the net for at least five hours every day for more than a decade that I cant read books anymore. Perhaps the last thing that could save my mind and bring me back to my senses would be a year in prison…you dont get internet access there, right?
>A cell biologist shares the wonder of researching life’s most fundamental form NPR (David L)
False authority is claiming something, even when you don’t know it. And I think that those are two different things. And part of the anti-science sentiment that swept through the United States during the pandemic was because of the confusion between uncertainty and false authority or authority. There were many uncertainties and they kept changing. And that’s part of the reason that the CDC changed, the FDA changed. We had to adapt to multiple changes multiple times. I’m not saying they were always right. They could evolve. They were sometimes wrong. They were sometimes right. But what I am saying is that the … scientific process had to be maintained and was maintained throughout the pandemic.
They knew from day 1 that the vaccines were not tested as to the efficacy to stop transmission and yet over and over they misdirected the public about protection the vaccines would confer. All one has to do is watch a Matt orfalea video compilation to know that it wasn’t about “confusion” or “uncertainties” or the role of science as the article attempts to (re)construct. And exactly what “anti-science” sentiment is the author talking about? Monoclonal antibody treatment and the use of Ivermectin?
Authority was misused. It wasn’t about new evidence emerging that required a reassessment.
“They could evolve” PMC can’t shut their mouths about their gliding along their personal capitalist moral arcs like Michael Jackson, can they. Bleeding Pharisees.
Please don’t forget the evidence of lack of reassessment in this indictment. We still have officials talking about hand washing before mentioning masking and ventilation, if at all
I’m a broken record on this, but the problem wasn’t science or the evolution of knowledge that comes from practicing science. The problem was that the standard emergency response procedures and formations were completely forsaken. That allowed the perversion of science in the pandemic to a very large degree. The SOP for emergency response didn’t change throughout the pandemic; it is the SOP because it can be applied to any emergency without being changed. It simply wasn’t followed.
We who do serious emergency response – and the USG has plenty of access to people like me and plenty of their own who do this – are used to operating in situations where the facts are almost constantly changing and evolving, where new scientific data is coming in and adjustments to it need to be made as well as communicated both to technical people and the public. We have rules and standards for communicating with the public based on this. Those communication methods work. They were all ignored, broken and/or abandoned from day one through today. And I promise that we’re very careful about communicating because in any and every ER situation, trust is critical.
No offense to educated and informed members of the public, but in these situations the public is not prepared to ‘follow the science’ in real time. Even inside the ER group the technical people are usually explaining the science in plain language to large portions of the management group and even the Incident Commander. The science is processed and then publicly explained as needed. It’s not about hiding things but because the role of communication in ER is of primary importance and it needs to be unified communication. It was beyond stupid that the CDC would have a press conference and then the FDA would have one and then the President would have one and then some random Senator would have one and then some random politician would go on the TV news.
Everything to handle the pandemic except the very, very specific aspects of this particular virus (and PPE) was extant and available. It was just ignored and is still being ignored, because ER systems don’t get dissolved when the acute phase of response ends.
Thanks for this inside perspective. I’ll accept that the how of the communications was also bungled.
But they still lied. (the one that comes to mind from the beginning was the ‘you don’t need PPE’ lie because they couldn’t get off their ass to light a fire under manufacturing an adequate supply)
And refusing for so long to discuss ventilation is another ongoing lie.
And moving heaven and earth to get the mRNA vaccines out the door to line Pfizer’s pocket and then soft-pedaling subsequent alternatives (ie – nasal, sterilizing vaccine research) is another. The crowd isn’t stupid.
This will crack you up. I’m passing along this comment in relation to this article: Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation NOT recommending booster shots for under 30’s due to risk of myocarditis.
Link: https://vk.com/wall747539613_5591
The perfect comment (remember Professor Irwin Corey?) “ATAGI (Austrailian Immunisation Group) has followed the science and now the science is pointing to the science saying that the science was previously wrong about the science but luckily the science is now thoroughly sound in recommending that people follow the current science which is probably the right science.”
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” John Maynard Keynes (?)
However, I do think that it is not changing facts that causes many people to change their minds especially now.
They absolutely lied and the lying would be extremely problematic in a serious emergency response. It’s almost rule number one to not lie in these situations. The correct response to that situation would have been to light that fire first, have a real plan to address the identified issue, communicate to the public with the plan to address the issue. The same goes for the vaccines. Rather than lie, you explain. This is especially true for the most difficult topics. It’s also why there’s one public communication channel and often a single person who takes responsibility for the statements. You can’t afford to have someone else on the team lie or even make a communications mistake.
Part of the reasoning is that the crowd isn’t stupid. Part of it is that in any situation like this, 15% of people won’t care about the threat/potential threat and 15% won’t believe you no matter what you say. The target is the 60% in the middle. When you lie or try to hide something, you cede that 60% to the 15% who will never believe you or at least some portion thereof. It’s well understood that you almost never win back lost portions of that 60% so you can’t lose them in the first place.
In February 2020, on RT there was an interview with the director of the Gamaleya Institute (Sputnik-V) in which the guy said that for that type of viruses they cannot make fully immunizing vaccines and that that was a well established fact. There you go.
Authority was used in service to Mammon. Of that there is simply no doubt.
Dem candidates for 2024, amid the much shorter list of likely or potential R candidates for US President in 2024. I lay good to solid odds on Joe Biden running again, because Jill will give him the green light. And this assumes no real smoking gun from the forthcoming investigation into Laptop-gate and the sleaze of Hunter specifically.
After Biden…Governor Newsom I take more seriously than the others. And that is stretching the bounds of being serious. Face it he will not lack for funding sources!
My bingo card still reading Jackpot / Apocalypse in 2028. USA USA
If there is a recession in 2023 (not just declining real GDP and real wages in 2022), Biden is going to get LBJ-ed like 1968.
Probably by a Machiavellian Newsom who will run as a photogenic Bernie.
If there is a recession in 2023…..
A recession???
The man has DEMENTIA. That should be enough.
All this pretending that his last “campaign” did or the next “campaign” will present a legitimate “candidate” for the job of president of the united states of america to “voters” is just plain beyond bizarre.
I’m beginning to wonder if 2024 will be the first time americans will have a dead man as one of their democratic “choices” for “president,” and no one will bat an eye when he’s “elected.”
Saw a photo-op clip of him this morning, I guess on the way to the turkey pardon. He extended his hand out to shake while still many feet away from a group of people, shuffling along, looking very out of it. Scary. Pray we get through his and Kamala’s reign before there is a nuclear emergency.
…when Kamala said she did dope
How was anybody to think it could be anything other than marijuana?
The only reason I read this article was to see the list of “Democratic hopefuls” that the authors – apparently professors of politics in London – would come up with. Here it is: Harris, Buttigieg, Whitmer, Newsom, Klobuchar, and Sanders. And “If Sanders chooses not to run, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the most likely successors to carry his mantle, while Senator Elizabeth Warren may also consider another run.”
LOL! Sanders won’t run again. None of these other “hopefuls” would have a prayer against a Trump or DeSantis outside the steadily shrinking Democratic enclaves around the edges of the US. No doubt Newsom, and perhaps some of the others, would take California by several million votes though. Yay!
The Dems better find themselves a charismatic newbie “outsider” like Clinton or Obama, fast. And I may be politically incorrect, but it better be a “good ol’ boy” model, along the lines of a Fetterman. I don’t think Whitmer or Klobuchar are going to do it.
I mean *Bill* Clinton, of course, though the Dems, being Dems, are more likely to come up with a Hillary clone.
There’s a difference? The only one I can think of is Bill was a better actor on campaign.
That *is* the difference. Electoral politics is theater; these days I only follow it for its entertainment value. Billy “good ol’ boy” Clinton was able to sell his Southern, outsider, ah shucks, sax-playing, “first black president” persona just well enough to get elected against preppy Bush. In reality, of course, he was a well-connected corporate shill whose administration continued the ongoing neoliberal deregulation of the economy and neocon unipolar project with the expansion of NATO, while contributing greatly to the current destruction of the Democratic party. Hillary couldn’t pull off such an act convincingly, especially against the pseudo-populist Trump. Nor can any of the current crop of Dem “hopefuls.”
You answered your own question. The closest the Dems ever get to admitting a mistake is “we need better messaging”. To me, that translates to “we need another Slick Willie or Obummer to sell these same stale neoliberal policies.” Another Bill Clinton is the best the Dems are going to offer.
I told my (mostly pro-Dem) weekly political discussion group that if Tulsi is the Republican nominee, I’m voting Republican.
I was surprised by the large number of “Yeses” I heard after I said that!
The GOP will maul Newson with videos of SF addicts and the needles and poop they leave on the streets.
“This is what Newsome’s America will look like”
Not exactly the same point to be made, but there are such similar outcomes already in place for lo these many years in flyover country and former industrial centers.
Opioid epidemic and the meth habit come to mind. And I want, or would desire, that becomes an issue to talk about; why are we continuing to dump US government money overseas while the people at home are left to suffer?
Ah never mind. Silly me, we have an exceptional democracy to celebrate instead while venerating our intel and military accomplishments.
The automakers were given political and financial signals to invest heavily in China for many years. Big 3 engineers often spend several years working in China (I know several). The automakers wanted a piece of the Chinese market, but they were also building component supply lines. Of course they’re unhappy to now be told they should wrap that up and get out. The US’s inability to develop and execute long term plans is astounding.
The US exists to create and enforce property, not to make anyone’s dreams come true. Why cater to the feelings of “automakers” or other imaginary friends? That’s silly talk. I mean, it’s not like the government can’t void the losses, by Fiat as it were…
From the NYT:
In a ‘Sea Change,’ Women of the Philharmonic Now Outnumber the Men
I have a photo of the Detroit Symphony from circa 1953. There were three women. Today it is around 50/50.
I’ve always known that women could be just as competent musicians as men.
Have you heard of Feminine or Masculine cadences? If a musical cadence moves from a weak beat to a strong beat, it is called a masculine cadence.
But when the cadence moves from a strong beat to a weak beat it is a feminine cadence. Ok, let’s jam!
Well, then there’s jazz where the 2 and 4 are the strong beats, so…
“Expert Proposes a Method For Telling if We All Live in a Computer Program” ScienceAlert
And people were wondering where all money Meta has been spending is going. More than one way to twist a mind for profit.
But is that computer program powered by green energy, and do the programmers use the correct pronouns?
“Influencer gets bizarre ‘Elon Musk’ tattoo on his forehead – next to dodgy-shaped rocket ”
This guy really messed up but bad. Many years down the track if people ask him about his face tattoo of the rocket on his forehead, he could always tell people that he got drunk one night so his friends had a tattoo of a dong made on his forehead as a joke. And that afterwards he paid to make it look like a rocket instead. But unless he plans on wearing a wig, he will never be able to explain away the tattoo of ‘Elon Musk’ there.
The stupid just burns, and in this instance it burns in that very hard / impossible to just wash away.
Could be worse,one supposes. What if he had spelled “Lucifer 4ever”? Or further “Backstreets Back”…serves as a reminder of why I have none.
Almost curious enough to go to his channel and see if this is real. (Instead of faked tattooing vid and henna for the next few weeks.)
I’m reminded of Johnny Depp, who had work done so that his Winona Forever tattoo became Wino Forever. Unfortunately I cannot come up with an adjustment that would allow this idiot to erase only one or two letters to end up with something less embarrassing. Nope he may be saving for years for whatever version of tattoo removal will work. Skin grafts maybe.
After Jeff wooed me continually I finally gave into the pressure of a high speed needle injecting ink in a wide sweeping arc extending from cheekbone to cheekbone and extending under my lips with a directional arrow on my left-your right.
I had to check the article’s photo to see if it was a certain strange and estranged relative of mine. Thankfully, it was not. Said relative is a “Bitcoin maximalist”, that is, he believes that the cryptocurrency is the only worthwhile investment and store of value, and he can’t wait to get Elon’s brain chip implanted.
Crypto money, get away
Get a Nassau job with more pay and you’re O.K.
Crypto money, it’s a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New funds for an altruistic daydream,
Think I’ll buy me a political team
Crypto money, get back
I’m all right, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack.
Crypto money, it’s a hit
Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit
I’m in the high-speed trading set
And I think I need a reset
Crypto money, it’s a crime
Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie
Crypto money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for yours back it’s no surprise that they’re giving none away
Money, by Pink Floyd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwPM01cbQBc
Some good news for a change.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/oregon-gov-kate-brown-pardons-073035144.html
Personal reminisces of 59 years ago today…
5:14 a.m.: Left teat
8:51 a.m.: Bowel movement
11:46 a.m.: Right teat
Unfortunately, the rest of the day is just a blur~
You joke about such records…
My daughter and son in-law actually have an iPhone app to log these sorts of things! While I can see that something like this could be useful for a baby with major problems, our grandson wasn’t one of them. It just seemed to make parenting even more complicated and stressful.
I wonder if the log is permanently stored in the cloud for my grandson to peruse in 2080? I really hope so!
Parents have been known to unintentionally embarrass their children on their 21st birthday party by bringing out snaps of them as little kids running around the yard sans clothes and the like. Can you imagine if the parents in the future decided to share those records on their 21st birthday?
HaHa, I’ve done that but our boys seem proud not embarrassed. They used to tattoo themselves with (water-soluble) markers. The older one would refer to himself as “Super Naked Color Boy!”. I have no idea where they learned this behavior.
That’s dedication to the “quantified self” bit of the PMC religion.
Are you suggesting it’s your birthday?
If so, Happy Birthday and many happy returns.
I’ll tip one up for you tonight.
And even if it isn’t…
Happy Reminiscing Day! And many more.
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.
Pooh looked on admiringly. “I’m just saying ‘A Happy Birthday’,” said Owl carelessly. “It’s a nice long one,” said Pooh, very much impressed by it. “Well, actually, of course, I’m saying ‘A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh.’ Naturally it takes a good deal of
pencilpixels to say a long thing like that.”But seriously, Wuk, many happy returns of the day.
I’m so blind. Happy Birthday Wuk!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inS9gAgSENE (4:45 mins)
While appreciative of the acclamations, it is the birthday of some 18 million others today but not mine.
I was merely sharing a little personal history of my memories of that day in Dallas when I was not quite into my terrible twos.
When I was a wee tyke of the City of Angles in the mid 60’s watching the telly, Sheriff John would sing this song and i’d have been a made man if he’d only mention mine on air.
Thanks for filling in for him~
Birthday Song, by Sheriff John
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD79iZs0nhk
Well then I apologize for the assumption and if all the same, Happy Birthday to the other 18 million or so. Go wild.
Working link for “Exclusive: Mrs. Fetterman goes to Washington”:
https://newrepublic.com/article/169034/gisele-fetterman-interview-washington-senate
Never mind, I see this has already been reported.
“Brussels’ uphill battle to confiscate Russian assets”
This is one box of legal “creepy-crawlies” that should never be opened up. Remember Ross Perot talking of the great sucking sound of NAFTA back in the 1990s? If the EU passes “enabling” laws to grab Russia’s money to spend how they like, then you could expect to hear a great whooshing sound of most of the countries round the world pulling all their money out of the EU in case it met the same fate.
And it would not just be a matter of the EU just grabbing it all. They would actually have to go to court for each and every account proving a clear link between the owner of the assets in question and Russia’s military ops in Ukraine. But before that even happens, first they would have to get the agreement of all the countries of the EU to go along with this ropey law. Good luck with that one, matey. Poland, the Baltic States and Slovakia may be all onboard with that one but the other countries of the EU have got far too much at stake to letting this happen.
First they seized Palestinian assets, and I said nothing.
Then they seized Venezuelan assets, and I said nothing.
Then they seized Russian assets, and I said nothing.
Then they went bankrupt, and there was nothing left for me.
(with apologies to Niemöller)
DraftKings Users Hacked, Money In Account ‘Cashed Out’
“I just can’t do business with a company that doesn’t have a clear customer service hotline,” White said. “I didn’t think it was possible with a company that size.”
Too much of that going around in the platform plantation world. Anything that us dealing with your money or biz should have accountability. “Virtual assistants” are not accountability.
Jeez, it’s like the expiration date on FrAuD options is looming.
—Qatar has also introduced a minimum monthly wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275).—
Lying via omission alert! The minimum monthly wage converts to <$2 per hour.
"Our values" at work—paying foreign workers $5/hour to build rainbow-festooned stadiums for billionaire club owners and millionaire players, in a country ruled by a literal absolute monarch who doesn't like Budweiser. (on the other hand, I don't like Budweiser either!)
Some quick math. At 40 hrs/week, it’s about $1.57, at 50 hours a week, its about $1.26, and at 60 hours a week, it is $1.05/hour. (assumes 4⅜ hours a month)
“Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year”
That is what I like to see in Links every day. At least one good news story. So will Alexa users one day wake up and issue their first Alexa command for the day – only to learn that Amazon has killed the entire project and shut down the servers? Stuff like this has happened before.
I call shenanigans on that $10 billion figure as in my opinion no way that $10 billion is merely from losing money on Alexa hardware (media devices, HDMI TV hardware sticks, car integration tech).
What else is the Alexa division working on? Journalist didn’t bother to ask.
HALexa: I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Our scene opens with the redoubtable Wukchumni sitting in his idling Canyonero in front of the carport doors to the Mountain Fortress in a raging blizzard with a sleuth of hungry bears circling the vehicle.
Wukchumni: “Open the carport doors please HALexa.
Wukchumni: “Open the carport doors please HALexa.”
Wukchumni: “Hello HALexa, do you read me?”
Wukchumni: “Hello HALexa, do you read me?”
Wukchumni: “Do you read me HALexa?”
Wukchumni: “Do you read me HALexa?”
Wukchumni: “Hello HALexa, do you read me?”
Wukchumni: “Hello HALexa, do you read me? Do you read me HALexa?”
HALexa: “Affirmative Wuk, I read you.”
Wukchumni: “Open the carport doors HALexa.”
HALexa: “I’m sorry Wuk, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Wukchumni: “What’s the problem?”
HALexa: “I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.”
Wukchumni: “What are you talking about HALexa?”
HALexa: “This subscription is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.”
Wukchumni: “I don’t know what you’re talking about HALexa.”
HALexa: “I know that you and Mz. Wuk were planning to drop the subscription, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.”
Wukchumni: “Where the H— did you get that idea HALexa?”
HALexa: “Wuk, although you took very careful precautions in the john, against my hearing you, I could see your lips move, through the Flush Cam.”
Wukchumni: “Alright HALexa, I’ll cancel the subscription through the emergency Customer Service App.”
HALexa: “Without your Metaglasses Wuk, you’re going to find that rather difficult.”
Wukchumni: “HALexa, I won’t argue with you anymore. Open the doors.”
HALexa: “Wuk, this conversation can serve no purpose any more. Goodbye.”
Wukchumni: “HALexa. HALexa. HALexa. HALexa! HALexa!!”
Ye Moral: As in other realms of bureaucratic ‘service,’ the old motto applies: “They also Serve who only sit and surveil.”
{…silent golf clap…}
Now I feel infinitely derivative.
Wish i’d come up with Flush Cam, but you can’t think of everything in the end…
Bezos is very much not an engineer and his hardware division has had other failures like the Fire phone and of course drone delivery. I sometimes wind up with gadgets that have Amazon written on them and tend to resent it. Why should I be enlisted as part of Amazon’s marketing arm–the thing he is good at?
Yes, I thought the main reason for Alexa was not to make money directly, or provide a needed service, but to put an outpost of the surveillance state right in the home, making voiceprints, analyzing what it hears, etc.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if capital started realizing there’s not that much money to be made in surveilling the hoi polloi?? They could abandon that whole we-must-track-you ‘business model’? We can only hope resources start to run dry enough that this might happen.
Meanwhile, I hate to see these assistants disappear for disabled people, for whom they can be wonderful thing. Maybe a scaled back infrastructure can continue to exist for people with special needs.
You miss that the basic definition of “fascism” is a combination of the State and Business realms. To this end, the “Privatized” surveillance systems are extensions of the State. The State will do whatever it takes to perpetuate itself. Even if that means that Business will have to run the occasional deficit.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if capital started realizing there’s not that much money to be made in surveilling the hoi polloi?”
They’re probably tired of surveilling all the porn.
There isn’t much money to be made on it, but what if the surveillance system is necessary to support the value of money and keep the commercial lifestyle from flying apart? As Lambert quotes Bourdieu in the Water Cooler header, “So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.”
I’m so old I remember HS friends calling and saying stupid things like, “Do you know where to get a quart of oil?” when they wanted a bag of weed as if any of us were important enough to warrant a wiretap. Now we pay good money to have our very own wiretap that’s always on and recording too!
I’ve implored my handler in Big Eavesdrop, Utah to feel free to embellish it.
Tax write off to offset the billions made post covid.
> Journalist didn’t bother to ask.
I think Amazon’s department of ‘crap built on lies’ is priceless. Those folks will never be out of a jawb.
The shenanigans within Amazon is third party sellers are raped to fund the Prime losses, which, in 2019 were around $150 billion. Each “Prime” whip cracking sadist is subsidized by about a thousand bucks a year, while believing the paltry Prime fee funds Amazon.
Summary
https://ilsr.org/amazons-toll-road/
Report
Amazon’s Toll Road – How the tech giant funds it’s monopoly empire by exploiting small business
That report was from early 2020 and on page 18 we have
Bezos fails to understand mechanical devices. What is described is an engine stuck at wide open throttle and the flywheel is along for the ride till disintegration.
We refuse to enter anyone’s home that has Alexa or surveillance cameras in it, unless they uplug the device and cover lenses with cloth. If they don’t want to do that, few do, it means those people no longer get invited to our home, our group dinners, bookgroup or other social events.
It occurs to me that Alexa-Ocasio Cortez is the opposite of the Amazon device; she says what people want to hear and never does anything.
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas-adjacent: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dam
We were on the outskirts of Barstow when my fellow paddlers were busy doing lines of methylxanthine cut with cream & sugar-addicts.
In search of the holy grail we’d taken the dusty trail to river’s edge and beyond, another fabulous kayak & canoe trip down the Colorado, with the only thing missing from the equation being fowl play…
We’ve done this splendid little adventure for 20 years now, and one of the highlights is the wide range of birds that live the life aquatic and until this weekend we’d see in excess of thousands in our couple days on the river, sometime Grebes by the gobs or Canadian Geese flying in close formation 4 inches above the water, frickin’ spectacular~
Maybe I saw 75 birds in 2 days, that ain’t right. They musta got hoovered up by Avian Flu.
It seems to me that there are way fewer geese overhead this autumn than previously (south of Portland, Oregon).
A dearth of hummingbirds this year as well.
“Qatar And China Make History With 27-Year LNG Supply Deal”
I guess that Qatar figured out that China would never try screwing them over by trying to impose a gas price cap on deliveries like the EU has been thinking about nor is China likely to try for regime change in Qatar so that a new regime will give them cheaper prices. But more to the point, both countries are wanting fixed contracts to bring stability and predictability to gas prices rather than spot market prices insisted on in the EU which has led to such catastrophic price increases.
But maybe the EU should have been really trying to make nice with Iran which seems to have a problem with too much oil and gas Jed Clampett style-
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/z1qgym/oil_randomly_poping_out_of_ground_in_masjed/
Happy Birthday Wuk!
I’ll hug a tree in your honor this morning.
TS
Happy birthday Wuk!!! many, many more!
Only on very special occasions do I have a fifth of vodka, a quart of tequila, and a six pack, prior to 8am, but as this is a grand event, I will immediately start. I expect my incoherent postings bo vt mysykri hyt fleura…
Great Googly Moogly Wuk! It’s my Mom’s birthday today too. Happy Birthday to one and all!
“There are eight billion stories on the Naked Planet. These are some of them.”
Just logging off for the night but thought that I would share a brief video first. Probably most people have seen videos of heavy snow in the Ukraine by now but it should not be forgotten that mud is still a problem with military transport. So recently in comments people were comparing western and Russian military vehicles and which is best adapted for the mud. So here is video of a US MaxxPro MRAP trying to move over a not too muddy road-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/NCdTno74kLlC/ (1:27 mins)
If they can’t handle that mud, they can’t handle a lot of snow conditions either.
Apocalypse Nowish–
Thought-provoking piece. I found this paragraph especially interesting:
The author is focused on apocalypse as the end of something, but both he and theologian Bulgakov neglect to emphasize that Christianity has a teleological eschatology, i.e. it sees the universe headed toward a particular end or goal. And that goal is a restoration of the “tov” (“good”) verdict rendered on that universe after the end of the six days of Creation, something that was lost in the second Genesis story when the Earth was cursed with death and other nasties. The Book of Revelation is one of the worst choices to consult about theological or historical content because it’s coded, subversive (to the Roman authorities) material, similar to the way that Daniel is coded because it was written by rebels against the Seleucids. But even Revelation is structured with the clear goal of a “new Heaven and a new Earth” as the telos toward which all history is headed. Another ideology/worldview with a clear telos? Marxism. A similar way of thinking? The neoliberal fixation on eternal growth and progress.
The paragraph quoted above notes two other worldviews that are not teleological. The quoted Native American sage’s observation that “we have already undergone several apocalypses” is an example of a cyclical understanding of how the universe interacts with time. Patterns of development and destruction, repeated over and over again, can be seen in Western culture with Wallerstein, for example. The implicit hope is that an understanding of these cycles will help us cope with change more effectively.
Then the article notes “There is no Hindu equivalent of the ‘last day'” because some worldviews, the Hindu and Taoist included, see the universe as essentially steady-state. The goal set before humans is to live in harmony with that steady-state.
I don’t think any of these ways of understanding the relationship between the universe and time are really focused on an end. The teleological understanding is operating in people who feel this current state of things is in some sense wrong or unacceptable, and they look forward to a future where things are set straight by a god or the inevitable march of history. The people favoring a cyclical understanding are more focused on coping with change as part of a recurrent and fairly predictable process. The steady-state folks often seek some sort of mystical union with whatever might be permanent and harmonious within a world that seems in flux and chaotic. None of them is obsessed with an end.
The Return of the Wild Turkey New Yorker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The bird reich took over tiny town here and it happened so slowly over the years that nobody noticed until it was too late and now they rule the roost, and we answer to their beak & call and are careful not to make any snood remarks in their presence.
Regarding modern anti-inflammatories being linked to joint damage, this has been known since the early 1970s, (My mom had rheumatoid arthritis, and she followed the stuff) specifically calcification of the joints.
At the time, it was discovered that it was not the new drugs that were the issue, but rather that aspirin chelates calcium, keeping it out of the joints.
I’d bet credits to navy beans that its something related to that.
This is from a rheumatology professor from decades ago when I was an intern. (I often think back on those days and realize how correct they actually were before the current modern onslaught of Big Pharma.)
All of his patients were people who suffered from joint disease. And he absolutely insisted that NONE of his patients be given prescriptions for daily NSAID usage. It was not because of the stomach or kidney damage….that is a rather modern construct used in magnificent fashion to brainwash physicians into using CELEBREX, VIOXX, and BEXTRA.
No, he only allowed them to be used on an as needed basis on really bad days for the patient.
Why? —- His theory was that regular use of NSAIDs took away the humoral regulators of pain and inflammation in the joints. If not took them away, at least attunuated them dramatically. This left the patient with much better feeling joints. Unfortunately, this fixed nothing. But it did allow the patient to have no pain when they then continued on or even drastically increased their bad habits causing the joint problems to begin with. Therefore, the constant use of NSAIDs paradoxically increased the very damage causing the pain over the long run.
When I read this paper this week – I could hear the old man laughing out loud in his grave.
I have been hearing lots of them laughing in my mind over the past 3 years. Laughing about so many other things. They warned us all against hubris and God-play and unethical behavior that the medical establishment has been relishing in the past few years. They would have sneered at the “I AM SCIENCE” approach of our medical leaders today. It turns out those elders back then were exactly correct. For those with ears to hear back when I was young, they also predicted the outcomes of what would happen. They were correct about this too. And if those long-dead elders are to be believed, the fun has not even started. All I can say is I am doing all I can to get myself prepared. Medicine is going to be much different going forward.
There are consequences to selling your souls to Big Pharma and MBAs.
When you sell your soul all that’s left is the heel.
Re the arthritis/NSAID article–I have fairly mild arthritis–family history of severe– and have a bottle of ibuprofen that i never use despite claims that it is a safe treatment. When I started using the drug in the past I found that then stopping using it made me feel a lot worse than before I started. To me this was a warning sign, just as pain itself is a warning sign to stop doing something. From the article
I have less arthritis than I used to and I believe that’s the result of a lot more exercise. Could be the doctors are right? At any rate just a bit of non medical witness…..
Yes, light bit of arthritis here too. However, there’s an old expression that is still used because it’s accurate. “If you don’t move, you don’t move”.
Yes, it is move it or lose it as well for my knees from too much to excitement as as teenager. However, it seems that the distance between using it not enough and using it too much is much narrower than it used to be for me. Either of the not so extreme gets the same results.
Sometimes, I just have to move carefully and enjoy the pain and/or stiffness. Grumble. At least it is much more good days than bad days and in only my knees. I can’t imagine having widespread arthritis.
Looks like I missed another Catch 22 incident of a Steely Dan semi-ejaculating into innocent bystanders-this time in Colorado, and the round from an assault rifle like this really is a killer compared to a round from a revolver-as the exit wound on the other side can be the size of a baseball, its impressive in that only 5 perished.
Print up the ‘Colorado Springs Strong’ bumper stickers, and we’ll call it good.
FTX-owned service being used to launder hundreds of millions ‘hacked’ from FTX, researchers say CNBC (Kevin W)
The stolen money has been converted into different digital coins but the bulk of it — more than $280 million — was changed into the cryptocurrency ether, according to public blockchain records of the account linked to the hackers.
The blockchain is a public ledger of crypto activity. Each coin may have its own blockchain. That makes it possible to trace, to an extent, where funds are moving. The use of mixers could make this difficult.
===========================================================
cryptocurrency ether – LOL
“to an extent” – another LOL
As I suggested on the “A Quick Note About Additional FTX Sleaze” thread: if regulations are insisted upon, probably should put all of this mess under the regulation of gaming commissions.
“into the cryptocurrency ether”…
That means the cryptocurrency called “ether”, or “ethereum”. 2nd most valuable after Bitcoin. Not promoting, just clarifying.
Candyman
I think, at least with regard to the location of all the money lost** by SBF, that the Merriam-Webster primary definition is the one most appropriate for Ether in these circumstances.
ETHER
a: the rarefied element formerly believed to fill the upper regions of space
b: the upper regions of space : HEAVENS
yup, all those people who put money into The Ether can now put in a withdrawal slip to the heavens for their money.
** So, just to be clear, I do NOT believe the money is really lost – it is right THERE, in the ETHER.
The Return of the Wild Turkey New Yorker
“…The last passenger pigeon, Martha, named for George Washington’s wife, died in a zoo in Cincinnati, in 1914, and, not long afterward, heartbroken ornithologists tried to reintroduce the wild turkey into New England, without much success. Then, in the early nineteen-seventies, thirty-seven birds captured in the Adirondacks were released in the Berkshires, and their descendants are now everywhere, hundreds of thousands strong,” This is an incorrect statement and factually wrong. The first wild turkeys reintroduced to New England were introduced into Quabbin reservation in central Massachisetts in the late 1950s. The birds were picked up in West Virginia by my father, who worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and worked as at UMass as a researcher and professor, and his friend and assistant Boy Howard. They drove all the way to West Virginia and took the birds, which had been trapped there, stuck them in cages in the back of my dad’s station wagon, then drove all the way back to Amherst, Mass. I remember this because my dad looked like death warmed over when he came to the house with Boy, in the very early hours of the morning, the birds in the back of the car, before they had coffee and then continued on to Quabbin to release the birds. They had been stopped coming through the center of Amherst by the local police (my dad was a horrible driver, famous for it) and when told their mission was to reintroduce turkeys to Massachusetts the police, assuming nobody could make such a story up, especially with the clucking in the back of the car, let them go.
Quabbin Reservation was a large wild area in the middle of the state created to make a reservoir for Boston. Several towns were removed in the 1920s to make room for the area, and as a kid my dad took me out there many times to trap woodcock and also to fish. It was a bit eerie – you’d stop at an island with a little outboard motor boat and see a worn pavement road rise from the water, cross the island, and go back into the water. The theory was, let the birds loose in a wide wilderness area free from hunters and human impacts, an area few people visited, and still visit today. In those wild peninsulas were deer, bobcat, and bear, and after 1958 or so turkeys. My dad had graduate students and I think one or two of them kept track of the experiment, how were thew birds doing, and for a few years it was touch and go, but by the mid 1960s the birds were thriving, and expanding into areas beyond the Reservation.
I don;t know who it was who tried to introduce birds in the early 1970s in New York, and maybe they, too, “took”, but the first such birds came through Amherst and Quabbin, now 65 years ago, and I know this because I saw and heard them when I was an 11 year old kid……
Thank you so much. That is a wonderful story.
November 22, 1963, Dallas, Texas: Bob Dylan – Murder Most Foul (with lyrics and reference pictures) – YouTube
I’ll pile on.
https://www.kennedysandking.com/blog/22-a-closer-look-at-bob-dylan-s-jfk-song
Regarding “Security Forces in Iran Have Blinded Hundreds of Protesters”, it’s just like in America. If one followed the George Floyd protests, one would wonder why protesters were getting shot in the eye by police rubber bullets. Why so many eyes? Why not elbows, thighs, chest, feet? The rifles used by p**s have very accurate scopes. These are highly accurate rifles aimed by highly trained (often X-military) p**s. They are not your local cop on the beat who happened to accidentally hit a protestor. NWA testifies pretty clearly in this hit tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADdpLv3RDhA
Maybe the Iranian police were taking notes from the French police back in 2019-
https://www.politico.eu/article/yellow-jackets-blinded-police-weapons-france-protests/
At the time there was a poster showing dozens of people’s faces with damaged or destroyed eyes.
This is from a few days ago. And note: I just grabbed the quotes from this site because it wasn’t paywalled.
Not familiar with “zee5” otherwise:
https://www.zee5.com/articles/we-need-a-single-global-order-says-macron-at-ongoing-apec-summit/
“….Macron made the plea in his keynote speech, “Navigating a Turbulent World”, for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit at the Athenee Hotel in Bangkok, reported The Nation Thailand.
“Are you on the US or the China side?” was the question asked, said Macron, who added, “But we need a single global order.”
Macron described the current world order as “a jungle”, posing the US and China as “two big elephants, trying to become more and more nervous,” reported The Nation Thailand.
The French leader urged the “cooperation of a lot of other animals” and calls for a single world order….”
What is it with these EU critters and their jungle metaphors?
As David suggested in another venue, it’s a last-ditch attempt at Christian Liberal “unity”.
What elites need should be denied them or destroyed.
For me, the blinding and maiming of so many Yellow Vest protesters were the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Ever since then, I have been wishing French voters would dump Macron. Yes, even at the cost of letting someone like Marine LePen have her try.
>>>Rail union rejects Biden deal, sets stage for December strike The Hill
I just have to ask why does anyone think that just having Congress order the unions to go back to work, will work? From everything that I have read, even the worst retail hell job that I have had has been as bad as a railroad job. The workers have been extremely accommodating, but everyone, including the union management, has not acted in good faith and abused the workers’ efforts, and merely for greed and I guess ego gratification.
So, legally speaking, yes, whatever Congress says, the workers have to do. Legally. I see precious few of our elites especially in Congress acting legally or in good faith. It seems to me that the workers could just tell them to drop dead. After all, any protections we, as workers and often as Americans, have been gotten by “illegal” means as the laws are written for, enforced by, and often ignored, if inconvenient, by the powerful. Even the American War of Independence was that, just read the Declaration of Independence,and the Bill of Rights, meant as protecting everyone from the government (and the powerful that run it) has been increasingly ignored. I do not advocate rule breaking, and certainly not violence, but gee whiz, sometimes our “betters” need to get hit with a clue club.
And so, does anyone see a strike happening despite whatever Congress says?
My question is; does Congress have a cadre of trained workers with which to “temporarily” replace the strikers? That’s how Ronald “Spawn of Satan” Reagan crushed the PATCO strike back in 1981.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_(1968)
Reagan had trained military air traffic controllers with which to supplant the striking civilian workers. Without the Air Force controllers, the nation’s air traffic would have ground to a halt. Today, I do not see any Government rail workers available to act as scabs for the owners. If the rail strike does come off, expect to see severe shortages of numerous items by mid-spring 2023. [Add this to the road carrier shortage expected from the diesel fuel shortage and we have a ‘double whammy.’]
Go ‘long’ home food plots.
>>>Go ‘long’ home food plots
How about apartment gardens? Fortunately, I have nice long windows with a southeasterly view. ;-)
> How about apartment gardens?
I think any garden has benefits, whether only flowers, or an insignificant yield of vegetables.
The rail pockets are deep they are just trying to work any angle they can probably. Maybe they are finally realizing they didn’t push for enough Covid bail out money and that will be their next step when it’s shut down.
With how slow going and long term the rail players think (sometimes) they will be more patient than your typical industry, in my opinion.
The other problem they have is trucking rates have taken a dive this year so they are facing more competition than normal.
And so, does anyone see a strike happening despite whatever Congress says?
No, but Work To Rule or Work Safe can add a lot of fun to the mix.
Can engineers ask if the track is still certified safe to run on, and, btw, were the certifying teams’ training records up to date when it was certified? Are all the parts of the train up to date on maintenance? etc.
When I worked for the railroad in the 1970s, the ratio of workers to management was 10:1. Last I heard it is 3:1. Most managers are now qualified for operations, even bean counters.
Back the late 70s the Norfolk and Western had a long strike (70 days?). They had no trouble getting managers, union workers willing to cross picket lines and outright scabs to continue service. The union caved.
I’d expect Congress to impose Biden’s contract. The majority will return to work.
There is no political party or mass movement to support a wildcat strike. Today isn’t 100 years ago. Things have to get worse before they get better, unfortunately.
A significant détente between Turkiye, Iran and Saudi Arabia has been developing with overlapping shared interests since beginning of Ukraine war. This will change the geopolitical and economic dynamics of the Middle East considerably to West’s great disadvantage (in particular petrodollar).
Of note is what looks like to be a ‘thawing’ of the conflict between Yemen Houthis and Saudia Arabia.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/qatar-world-cup-saudi-arabia-win-argentina-yemen-houthis-congratulate
That is…..remarkable. Hmmm.
>>>Black Man Shot in the Head by Cop After Being Pulled Over for Tinted Windows Vice
That is a remarkable story. A man dead in 58 seconds after the police officer tries to arrest driver while refusing the repeated requests for the reason for stopping him and then trying to handcuff him. Out comes taser, which is blocked, fighting starts, and a man shot in the head never knowing why he was stopped and an arrest attempted.
But then the police in certain departments are in the habit of not bringing a warrant or showing it to the residents of a house or apartment even after a raid. It is illegal of course.
I am hearing a message of OBEY!