Europe Dominated By Queens

Posted: 1/31/2019

Feminism is a horrible and deeply flawed ideology. Unfortunately, too many gullible men have succumbed to feminism. Feminism is the battle of the sexes and women are winning and gaining in power at the expense of men, because men have always been weak chivalrous.

For some reason, I never realized to this day how many female monarchs dominated Europe during long periods of time.

Take Catherine de Medici and Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned almost simultaneously over France and United Kingdom.

Take Catherine the Great and Maria Theresa, who also reigned almost simultaneously over Russia and the Habsburg empire.

Then there was the long reign of Queen Victoria over the British Empire

I am sure, there are more influential queens in European history. I know there were other notable Queens in earlier history e.g. Queen Boudica. Is it possible that our perception of male dominated history is overly influenced by Roman and Greek history?

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_de'_Medici

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria

German Central Planners To Shut Down Coal Mining In Germany

Posted: 1/27/2019

Here is the Washington Post article: Climate fight: Germany sets 2038 deadline to end coal use (Notice WP uses the moronic expression “climate fight”)

The Iron Curtain fell in 1990 and central economic planning invaded Germany. A former communist party official (controversial) has been the chancellor of Germany for over the past 13 years. What an irony!

Under Merkel, massive, heavy handed, very costly energy policies in Germany are akin to a great socialist leap forward!

To use government coercion to shut down coal mining in Germany is ridiculous! If coal mining one day is not economically viable anymore, mining will cease by itself.

There are plenty of new energy supply options on the horizon: hydrogen; possibly nuclear fusion; biofuels produced by bacteria and/or plants; photosynthesis; superconductivity and so forth

This government mandated shut down does not make any sense whatsoever! German politicians and too many German citizens are out of their minds! Common sense need to be restored in the land of thinkers and poets!

The Phony Indictment Of Roger Stone

Posted: 1/25/2019  Revision/amended: 2/2/2019, 1/25/2019

Amendment Of 1/25/2019

When I hastily wrote this blog post on some hours ago, I had no idea who Roger Stone really was and I had neglected to do any background research on this man, because of time constraints. My ignorance comes to haunt me now :-)

Now, I know Roger Stone even wrote a book in which he asserted that that Lyndon B. Johnson was a serial psychopath, who allegedly had several persons murdered among them president John F. Kennedy. In this Reason Foundation article (Roger Stone Indictment Describes a Cover-Up of a Nonexistent Crime/The Trump adviser's legal problem is not what he did but what he said about what he did.), I found an interview YouTube video of Nick Gillespie with Roger Stone, where Mr. Stone discusses his book.

Here is a most recent post indictment interview with Roger Stone:

Stone on his indictment: This is about silencing me, criminalizing political expression with Tucker Carlson

The trial promises to be very interesting with Roger Stone. I have a feeling Robert Mueller will come out of this as a total fool if not worse! Mueller will likely rue the day he indicted Stone!

Original/Revised Post

Today (1/25/2019), the Wall Street Journal reported about the indictment of Roger Stone by the Mueller investigation. Roger Stone is a longtime advisor of Roger Stone.

There appears nothing in the indictment that has much substance or is of merit! The evidence presented is not convincing or so trivial as to be laughable

I have briefly perused the indictment against Roger Stone:

1. None of the criminal accusations have much to do with the possible Russian interference in the last U.S. presidential election
2. Basically all criminal accusations deal with whether Roger Stone communicated in written form with someone or not and whether he misrepresented about whether he had e-mail communications with these persons or not in public hearings
3. The witness tampering charges are weak
4. What Roger Stone, according to the indictment, did was to contact various persons to gather intelligence on political opponents. There were no Russians involved at all

The ongoing, now two year long, special counsel investigation by Robert Mueller has been for months becoming more and more a farce or travesty of justice. It is obviously a witch hunt against the incumbent president than anything else! What a waste of taxpayers money!

Sources:

1. Trump Adviser Stone Charged as Part of Mueller Investigation Roger Stone appears in federal court in Florida and is released on $250,000 bond
2. Full Roger Stone indictment

Lady Of The Bedchamber

Posted: 1/24/2019

Curiosities of history: Sometimes a mistress of a king would become the Lady of the Bedchamber (an official title at the British court).

Some of these ladies even became famous and powerful at court (see e.g. Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland or Source 2)

Motto: Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense

Credits: Just watching this great 2010 BBC documentary series Seven Ages by David Dimbleby. In episode 4 I learnt about the Windsor Beauties and more ...

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_the_Bedchamber
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Palmer,_1st_Duchess_of_Cleveland#Lady_of_the_Bedchamber

Jacquard Portrait Or The Beginnings Of Machine Learning

Posted: 1/23/2019

Portrait of Joseph Marie Jacquard of Lyon, France, woven in silk by a Jacquard loom using ca. 24,000 punch cards. Truly amazing! Just zoom into this picture and discover the astonishingly fine details. Grateful to a BBC documentary by Jim Al-Khalili about the science of information, who made me aware of this! (see Source 1)

The mechanized, power loom: Another invention not by one human, but by several humans in short order (See Sources 3, 4, and 5). Intellectual property rights need to be reformed.

Reportedly, Charles Babbage was inspired by this portrait and to come up with perforated cards for his analytical machine. As they say, the rest is history … (to paraphrase Paul Harvey)

Sources:

1. BBC Order And Disorder Episode 2 - Information  with Jim Al-Khalili
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basile_Bouchon
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Marie_Jacquard
5. http://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co44927/model-of-falcons-loom-looms

The Long Underestimated Human Cerebellum

Posted: 1/23/2019

Recently read: The Cerebellum Is Your "Little Brain"—and It Does Some Pretty Big Things A newly identified circuit connecting the cerebellum to the brain’s reward centers in mice could help scientists understand autism and addiction

Most shockingly we learn that scientists have neglected the human cerebellum (little brain) for about 200 hundred years. They sort of dismissed this part of the brain as “solely dedicated to the control of movement” although this part “contains approximately half of the brain’s neurons”.

According to this article (emphasis added):

1. “One of the strongest pieces of evidence for the cerebellum’s broader repertoire emerged around two decades ago, when ... described cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome after discovering behavioral changes such as impairments in abstract reasoning and regulating emotion in individuals whose cerebella had been damaged. Since then this line of study has expanded. There has been human neuroimaging work showing the cerebellum is involved in cognitive processing and emotional control—and investigations in animals have revealed, among other things, that the structure is important for the normal development of social and cognitive capacities. Researchers have also linked altered cerebellar function to addiction, autism and schizophrenia.”
2. “New research, published this week in Science, demonstrates that a pathway directly tying the cerebellum to the ventral tegmental area (VTA)—one of the brain’s key pleasure centers—can control these two processes. “This work helps lay out the circuitry connecting the cerebellum to social and reward processing,””

Science is not free of dogma, hubris, prejudice, and narrow mindedness! Also known as the pretense of knowledge!

Keep in mind Global Warming (a.k.a. Climate Change) is the greatest hoax of our age! And scientists helped to perpetrate and amplify it!

Endless Supply Of Biofuels Imminent?

Posted: 1/21/2019

Today, I read another article that describes scientific work leading to progress on programming plants to produce biofuels: How a Molecular Signal Helps Plant Cells Decide When to Make Oil Details of mechanism suggest new strategy for engineering plants to make more oil

I would estimate that within the next 5-10 years we are capable to produce any amount of biofuels.

Witch Hunt Against James Watson

Posted: 1/18/2019

A few days ago I blogged about the manufactured scandal against Richard Feynman

The persecution or witch hunt of accomplished white male scientists appears to be in open season!

This appears to have become  a very dangerous obsession by left wing fanatics to scandalize or attack scientists this way!

I became aware of this latest witch hunt, this time against Nobel prize winner James Watson (90 years old) by reading this hyperventilating article in what was once a leading, decent, conservative German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: KOMMENTAR ZUM GEN-RASSISMUS : Die letzten Reste einer Jahrhundert-legende (Commentary on gene racism: The last remains of a legend of a century)

Once you Google “james watson dna racism” you will quickly discover there are a number of articles out there published by the usual left wing culprits e.g.:

1. The father of DNA says he still believes in a link between race, intelligence. His lab just stripped him of his titles (Washington Post, 1/14/2019)
2. DNA pioneer stripped of honors over 'reprehensible' race comments (CNN, 1/14/2019)
3. DNA Pioneer James Watson Loses Honorary Titles Over Racist Comments The renowned scientist has a long history of controversial commentary on not only race, but issues spanning gender, religion and sexuality (Smithsonian magazine, 1/15/2019)

I did not have the time to research the details of the accusations against James Watson. However, even a cursory glance at the accusations reveals that they are blown out of proportion compared to the lifetime achievement of this scientist. These accusations are willfully amplified, presented out of context, and distorted to character assassinate this scientist.

Yes, it is probably true that James Watson made some controversial statements about genes and intelligence, religion, and sexuality, but this goes way too far!

These attacks on late Richard Feynman and now James Watson are clearly and unmistakably attempts by sanctimonious and self righteous fanatics to silence scientists who do not conform to dogmatic views!

This is very serious stuff and needs to be quickly disposed into the dustbin of history!

Mongol Female Warrior & Princess Khutulun

Posted: 1/12/2019

Just a few days ago I watched this incredible YouTube biography of Khutulun, who lived from 1260 to 1306 AD. Wikipedia describes her as a “... Mongol noblewoman and wrestler. The most famous daughter of Kaidu, a cousin of Kublai Khan, her father was "most pleased by her abilities", and she accompanied him on military campaigns”

“Marco Polo described Khutulun as a superb warrior, one who could ride into enemy ranks and snatch a captive as easily as a hawk snatches a chicken. She assisted her father in many battles, particularly against the Yuan Dynasty of her cousin the Great Khan – Kublai (r. 1260–94).

Khutulun insisted that any man who wished to marry her must defeat her in wrestling. Winning horses from competitions and the wagers of would-be suitors, it is said that she gathered a herd numbering ten thousand.” (Source 2; emphasis added)

Many men tried, but were defeated by her in wrestling.

Friedrich Schiller, Giacomo Puccini, and others memorialized this Mongol warrior in their works.

Apparently, there were other influential Mongol women in history (see Source 3).

By the way, this Biographies channel by host Simon Whistler on YouTube offers lots of great, concise biographies.

Sources:

1. Khutulun: The Mongol Warrior Princess
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khutulun
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_History_of_the_Mongol_Queens

Harvard University Produces & Promotes Junk Science

Posted: 1/12/2019

Just read this astonishing article in the Harvard Gazette: Researcher finds Coke’s fingerprints on health policy in China. This professor did not find any fingerprints!

Harvard University professor Susan Greenhalgh offers only scant/sketchy evidence to corroborate her allegations that Coca Cola engages in illegal activities to undermine government activities to combat rising pandemic obesity in China.

“A complex network of research funding, institutional ties, and personal influence allowed Coca-Cola, through connections with a nonprofit group, to exert substantial influence over obesity science and policy solutions in China, nudging government policy into alignment with the company’s corporate interests, a Harvard study has found.” (emphasis added)

Chinese communist party officials are probably laughing their ass off about this!

““There have been decades of work on how Big Pharma and Big Tobacco have tried to influence science and dictate policy, but the research on Big Food and Big Soda is just now emerging,” said Greenhalgh” (emphasis added)

Looks like this professor is a professional conspiracy theorist and draws liberal analogies!

““When I reviewed China’s policies, I could see them using the very same language Coke did,” she added. “For example, they talk about energy balance and making physical activity part of medical treatment or balancing eating and moving … their policy aligns very well with Coke’s interests, and it’s out of alignment with some of the policies advocated by the World Health Organization.”” (emphasis added)

Does the professor perhaps suffer from paranoia?

“Greenhalgh conducted extended interviews with obesity and public health experts in China to gauge their concern on possible industry bias. Most were unfazed.

“The vast majority said there was no conflict of interest,” she said. “There were a tiny handful who believed that whenever corporations are funding science it will inevitably be biased, but they were very much in the minority, and most asked me not to use their names because they were afraid of possible consequences … because the political culture in China is very business friendly and pro-West.” (emphasis added)

So the presumably leftist professor does not like when Chinese officials are pro free market?

To blame the serious obesity crisis in such a manner on Coca Cola, although a variety of factors have contributed to this crisis, is quite unprofessional.

Designing Interleukin-2 To Fight Cancer

Posted: 1/12/2019

Just read Researchers redesign a cancer-busting protein—without the side effects

Interleukin-2 seems to be particularly suited to fight aggressive kidney and skin cancers.

This seems to be a very promising approach! Researchers have removed the negative side effects caused by receptor IL-2α from interleukin-2.

For thirty years, researchers have tried to redesign this important immune protein, they finally succeeded. They even succeeded to build this protein from scratch and preserve the critical folding, because “IL-2 is unstable and stops working when it loses its normal 3D shape, and many mutations destabilize the structure”.

This approach of using a protein design software to build proteins from the bottom up is probably only the beginning …

Now the unnecessary lengthy and arcane drug approval process needs to be streamlined and modernized for the digital age!