Thursday, December 23, 2021

Woman pleads guilty in Boston manslaughter-by-text case, can’t profit from story

Women kill too, but differently! Another Me Too!

"The woman charged with pushing her boyfriend to kill himself in Boston has pleaded guilty, but can avoid jail — though she won’t be allowed to profit from her bizarre story."

Inyoung You pleads guilty in Boston manslaughter-by-text case (behind paywall)

Secrets of the Cosmic Microwave Background

Very recommendable!

Quanta Magazine: 2021's Breakthroughs in Neuroscience and Other Biology

Recommendable! Among other subjects it cover sleep.

Quanta Magazine: 2021's Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics

Very recommendable! Amazing stuff! Well done video!

U.S. Army’s Vaccine Could Protect Against All Coronavirus Variants

Recommendable! This appears to be a bombshell (no pun intended), a game changer!

Looks like the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research developed a very powerful and potent vaccine against SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19!

Can we finally go back to fairly normal life like before the pandemic! The pandemic is under control latest since the beginning of 2021 if not earlier!

Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.


US Army Creates Single Vaccine Against All COVID & SARS Variants, Researchers Say Within weeks, Walter Reed researchers expect to announce that human trials show success against Omicron—and even future strains.

Series of preclinical studies supports the Army’s pan-coronavirus vaccine development strategy A series of recently published preclinical study results show that the Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle (SpFN) COVID-19 vaccine developed by researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) not only elicits a potent immune response but may also provide broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern as well as other coronaviruses.




Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Watch Waymo’s Self-Driving Taxis Put Urban Terrain to the Test

Recommendable! In combination with e.g. more home office work this has the potential to reduce individual car ownership significantly in the near future.

India's ancient martial art feared by the British Raj

Very recommendable! This is about Sikhism!

4 Great Ideas From Hinduism

Very recommendable! From eternal rebirth to sex as being one with the universe. Food for thought and soul!

New EPA Emissions Standards Will Reduce Pollution, Cut Costs, and Improve Lives

What an expensive nonsense in the name of the Global Warming hoax and Climate Change religion! This is pure propaganda and demagoguery!

One can only hope that the next U.S. administration will cancel this nonsense!

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: New EPA Emissions Standards Will Reduce Pollution, Cut Costs, and Improve Lives | US EPA On Monday, December 20, EPA finalized the most ambitious federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for passenger cars and light trucks ever. The final standards will reduce billions of tons of climate pollution, improve public health, and save drivers money at the pump. At the same time, the standards set a strong foundation for continued momentum toward an all-electric, zero-emissions transportation future.

Leaders from across business and labor, advocacy and public health groups, and government are praising the final standards. (??? really!!!)

Akuter Strom-Mangel im europäischen Netz

Wer auf sog. erneuerbare Energien wie Wind und Sonne setzt ist verlassen und nicht ganz klar bei Verstand! Aber in der Bananenrepublik herrscht Klimawahn und Coronawahn vom Feinsten!

"... Die Meldung besagt, dass eine zu niedrige Netzfrequenz zu einer Abweichung der Netzzeit von 60 Sekunden zur Normalzeit geführt hat. Ihrer Uhr an der Mikrowelle oder dem Backofen sollten Sie also nicht mehr blind vertrauen ... Dieser Verzug ist Ergebnis einer über längere Zeit unterschrittenen Sollfrequenz von 50 Hertz im europäischen Netz.

Üblicherweise hebt man zum Ausgleich der „Verspätung“ den Sollwert auf 50,01 Hertz an (Quartärregelung) und schafft so den Ausgleich. Dies wird seit dem 6. Dezember versucht, allerdings ohne Erfolg.

Was sind die Ursachen? In Frankreich gingen kurzfristig vier Kernkraftwerke mit etwa sechs Gigawatt Leistung zu Überprüfungen und Reparaturen vom Netz. Sparsames Aufkommen von Sonne und Wind und fehlende regelbare Kraftwerksreserven offenbaren ein System, dass am Rand seiner Leistungsfähigkeit steht. ..."

Akuter Strom-Mangel im europäischen Netz Die Frequenz im europaweiten Stromnetz sinkt heute bedenklich – durch hohe Last und geringes Angebot. Das merkt man auch an allen Uhren, die direkt über die Netzfrequenz gesteuert werden. In dieser Lage Kraftwerke abzuschalten, wie es die Bundesregierung vorhat, ist übermutig.

Ausgerechnet zwei Merkelianer stärken in Europa die Atomkraft

Wäre sehr zu Wünschen wenn Ursula von der Leyen mal zur Abwechslung etwas richtig macht!

Ausgerechnet zwei Merkelianer stärken in Europa die Atomkraft Zwei Zöglinge der Atomaussteigerin Merkel befürworten nun, dass die Kernenergie in der EU nicht verdammt, sondern gefördert wird. Kommissionspräsidentin Ursula von der Leyen und EVP-Fraktionschef Manfred Weber markieren damit womöglich einen entscheidenden Wendepunkt für die Nach-Merkel-Zeit.

FDA authorized first COVID-19 antiviral pill in US

Good news! However, it is also approved for mild symptoms and for children as young as 12 under a rushed Emergency Use Authorization????

SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 has been under control since the beginning of 2021 or earlier. Long overdue and high time to return to fairly normal life like before the pandemic!

Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.


"... The Pfizer pill, Paxlovid, will be prescribed for use in adults and children 12 (????) and older who have mild to moderate virus symptom (????) and at risk for severe disease or hospitalization, according to a Food and Drug Administration ..."

FDA authorized first COVID-19 antiviral pill in US | Just The News

Poll: 93% of Palestinian Arabs in Jerusalem Prefer Israeli to Palestinian Rule

I have little doubt that most Arabs (non Israeli citizens) living in Israel would prefer Israeli over so called Palestinian rule!

"... That dose of reality comes from a public opinion poll, taken by a Palestinian media outlet, the “Shfa news outlet,” in Jerusalem. Here is the report on that poll: “Report: 93% of Polled Arab Residents of Jerusalem Prefer Israeli Rule to Palestinian Authority,” ...
The poll conducted by the Shfa news outlet asked 1,200 Arab Jerusalemites — none of them Israeli citizens — regarding their preference for living under Israeli or Palestinian rule in the future.

1,116 of the respondents said they prefer for Israel to continue to rule Jerusalem. 84 said they preferred the Palestinian Authority, but 79 of those said they would not give up their current identity card. ..."

Poll: 93% of Palestinian Arabs in Jerusalem Prefer Israeli to Palestinian Rule | Frontpagemag

Anthony Fauci: The American Mengele

I did not read the whole article, but I like the headline with some qualifications! To call Fauci an American Mengele is certainly over the top. 

In case you are not familiar with Josef Mengele, he was a doctor and the so called Angel of Death of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.

It may well be that Anthony Fauci is Jewish (see e.g. here). From this perspective, such a headline is a grave offense.

I have blogged about this fanatic clown and charlatan Anthony Fauci several times here, just click on the label nearby. He certainly deserves a place in history as a very dubious doctor and top federal bureaucrat!
Let's not forget, this doctor financed gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology by circumventing and in contravention of U.S. restrictions on such research! For this reason alone, he should be fired ASAP!

The article seems to suggest that Dr. Anthony Fauci was also involved in dubious practices in decades past.

American Mengele | Frontpagemag Inside the haunting world of Fauci's cruel experiments on children.



Arizona company Western Rare Earths seeks to open mine in La Paz County as China's shadow looms

Good news!

"One Arizona company, Western Rare Earths, is trying to narrow that gap by exploring the possibility of opening a rare earth element mine in La Paz County, which would be the first in the state. ...
Western Rare Earths broke ground at the La Paz site in March 2021, but the company is still in the exploration phase; It will takes years before a mine opens at the site."

Arizona company Western Rare Earths seeks to open mine in La Paz County as China's shadow looms - Phoenix Business Journal

Israel was involved in Iranian Quds Force Major-General Soleimani assassination, ex-IDF intel chief says

I am surprised that this was leaked by a former IDF intelligence chief. Usually, Israeli officials are smart enough to keep a secret when necessary

Israel was involved in Soleimani assassination, ex-IDF intel chief says - The Jerusalem Post This is the first time a top Israeli official has confirmed a role in the operation in 2020 to assassinate Iran’s top commander Qasem Soleimani.

Rauchmelder hört mit: Warnung der Bundesnetzagentur

Sind wir umgeben von Spionen?

Rauchmelder hört mit: Warnung der Bundesnetzagentur Harmlos wirkende Spielzeuge und Haushaltsgeräte haben oft Hintertüren. Verbraucher sollten auf verborgene Kameras und Mikros achten. 4600 Produkte wurden dieses Jahr schon aus dem Verkehr gezogen.

Mexican cartels teaming with Chinese organized crime to ramp up meth and fentanyl production

Signs of asymmetric or unconventional warfare? The Communist Party of China is fueling drug addiction in the United States. The more Americans are addicted the weaker the country! This is serious and very concerning stuff!

I wish there was more information widely provided on the extent of this activity.
 
"A new report released Monday from the Mexican Defense Department indicates that Mexican drug cartels are turning to bigger labs to produce larger quantities of synthetic drugs like meth and fentanyl, and that organized crime elements in China are central to their operations ...

Mexican Defense Secretary General Luis Cresencio Sandoval González claims that the rise in the demand for synthetic drugs comes from many cartels' decision to shift from naturally grown drugs like opium and marijuana, the popularities of which are on the decline due to crop seizures and eradication.

Sandoval González said that seizures of fentanyl had seen a dramatic increase of 525%, according to Mexican government statistics compared to years prior. Law enforcement seized 1,232 pounds (559 kilograms) of fentanyl in 2016-2018 and 7,710 pounds (3,497 kilograms) in 2019-2021."

Mexican cartels teaming with Chinese organized crime to ramp up meth and fentanyl production - TheBlaze

FDP-Mitglieder beantragen Mitglieder-Entscheid gegen Impfpflicht

Habe wenig Vertrauen, dass was Gescheites oder Nennenswertes dabei rauskommt! Aber man soll ja nicht aufgeben. Manchmal geschehen ja auch Wunder! 😄

Eine Partei, die seit Jahrzehnten einen lebenslangen Berufspolitiker und Witzfigur wie Christian Lindner an der Spitze hat, glauben Sie da kommt was dabei raus?

Lindner war ja anscheinend auch Geschäftsführer von 2000-2001 einer gescheiterten Firma.

FDP-Mitglieder beantragen Mitglieder-Entscheid gegen Impfpflicht An der Parteibasis der FDP herrscht Unmut über die Hinnahme der Impfpflicht-Pläne durch die FDP-Minister in der Ampel-Koalition. Nun könnte es zu einem Mitglieder-Entscheid kommen. Wir dokumentieren die Argumentation der drei Initiatoren.

Silicon Valley startup has big plans for its first vertical farming facility in Phoenix metro

Good news!

"Sam Bertram, co-founder of Silicon Valley-based OnePointOne, was recently named one of Forbes 30 under 30. Find out what he's planning for the company's largest vertical farming facility to date being built in the West Valley ..."

Silicon Valley-based OnePointOne plans to use upcoming Avondale facility as a 'model' for vertical farm operations - Phoenix Business Journal

Japan hangs three men on death row for first time since 2019

I did not know that Japan continuous to carry out capital punishments and that it is besides the U.S. the only Western country to do so. What is perhaps unusual that the inmate will not know until the day of execution that he or she will die on this day.

A Alphonse Karr (he is famous for this quote: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”):
“Si l'on veut abolir la peine de mort en ce cas, que MM. les assassins commencent: qu'ils ne tuent pas, on ne les tuera pas.
(If one wants to abolish the death penalty in this case, Messrs. murderers should take the first step: they do not kill, we will not kill them.” (Source)

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Thomas Sowell: A history of Ireland

Very recommendable! Less than 10 minutes long!

Finnland eröffnet neuen Atomreaktor in Olkiluoto

Am deutschen Unwesen wird die Welt nicht genesen! Während die Bananenrepublik Deutschland tief im Klimawahn und Coronawahn versunken ist ...

Vor ein paar Tagen habe ich hier über den Ausbau der Kernenergie in den Niederlanden gebloggt.

Finnland eröffnet neuen Atomreaktor in Olkiluoto Während in Deutschland der Atomausstieg inzwischen tatsächlich beschlossene Sache ist, setzt beispielsweise Finnland weiter auf Atomkraft. Dort gibt es nun einen neuen Reaktor – und bald wohl auch ein Endlager.

Bride Surprises Blind Groom With a Tactile Wedding Dress: ‘I Felt Like His Queen’

And they lived happily together ever after! What an inspiring headline!

A line from Virgil's Eclogues X.69, Omnia Vincit Amor et nos cedamus amori ("Love conquers all; let us all yield to love!").

Bride Surprises Blind Groom With a Tactile Wedding Dress: ‘I Felt Like His Queen’



Washington DC radio station took $4.4 million from Chinese Communist Party to broadcast propaganda

This is most likely only the tip of the iceberg on how the Communist Party of China is subversively attempting to influence public opinion in Western countries.

I suspect that many of the very divisive and controversial subjects permeating the daily discourse in Western countries are also promoted by the CPC (and other authoritarian enemies) to fuel the flames of division in free, open societies. Or how do you explain e.g. the many fellow travelers and useful idiots in Western societies. Are they just naive or are they being handsomely paid for by our authoritarian enemies. 

DC radio station took $4.4 million from Chinese Communist Party to broadcast propaganda - TheBlaze

Biden Administration to Combat Omicron By Distributing 500 Million free At-Home Covid-19 Test Kits

Again, the demented 46th President is wasting tax payer money big time! At home test kits are not cheap! Such a test cost can cost more than a vaccination! Just assume one such tests costs at least $5-10. (Source) 

This is a case of blind actionism for busybodies!

We ought to be returning to a fairly normal life like before the pandemic!

Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.


"The Biden administration is preparing to distribute 500 million free at-home Covid-19 testing kits to Americans and deploy military doctors and nurses to overburdened hospitals this winter, as the Omicron variant becomes the dominant form of the virus in the U.S. ..."

Biden Administration to Combat Omicron By Distributing 500 Million At-Home Covid-19 Test Kits - WSJ President Biden says, ‘We have to do more. We have to do better—and we will’ in fighting the fast-spreading variant

Is eradication of SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 the goal of Western governments?

If so, this would be really bad! We have not even eradicated the common cold (also caused by coronaviruses among other viruses), common flu, nor e.g. HIV/AIDS and quite a few other diseases!

This ridiculous goal would well explain why we have still not returned a fairly normal life two years after the pandemic began to spread.

I have previously speculated here that some Western governments want to prolong the draconian and broad based measures to meet Climate Change religion goals. 

Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.

A new journal: Transactions on Machine Learning Research

Exciting good news! The first editors and founders of this new journal will be the well known and highly cited researchers Hugo Larochelle, Raia Hadsell, and Kyunghyun Cho.

I am looking forward to the first edition!

Motivation for another journal: "The field of machine learning has grown exponentially over the last decade, and we [the three editors/founders] have observed firsthand the pains that come with such growth. Some of these pains are practical, manifested in the crashing review platforms or overcrowded poster halls. But others strike deeper, revealing themselves through disenchantment with the exclusivity of our top conferences, or criticisms that conferences don’t seem to be sufficiently successful at highlighting the most impactful work, have slow turnaround from submission to decision, create high-stakes pressure and stress around a handful of fixed deadlines, and are perceived to be diminishing in the quality of the peer review process."

Aims of the new journal: "This journal is a sister journal of the existing, well-known Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR), along with the Proceedings of Machine Learning Research (PMLR) and JMLR Machine Learning Open Source Software (MLOSS). However it departs from JMLR in a few key ways, which we hope will complement our community’s publication needs. Notably, TMLR’s review process will be hosted by OpenReview, and therefore will be open and transparent to the community. Another differentiation from JMLR will be the use of double blind reviewing, the consequence being that the submission of previously published research, even with extension, will not be allowed. Finally, we intend to work hard on establishing a fast-turnaround review process, focusing in particular on shorter-form submissions that are common at machine learning conferences. ...
Certifications This will be a unique feature of TMLR, which is aimed at separating editorial statements on submitted work from their claim-based scientific assessment. An accepted paper will have the opportunity of being tagged with certifications, which are distinctions meant to highlight submissions with additional merit."


Journal of Machine Learning Research/TMLR

Special Prosecutor Releases Full Report on Investigation of Soros-Backed Prosecutor in Jussie Smollett Case

I guess, I missed those troubling aspects of this case before. Admittedly, I was not following this Smollett case very close anyway!

As a side note, the article below and my brief Google search for the special prosecutor's final report came up only with a PDF file that was poorly done. In both sources, the document was scanned as an image,so one can not easily copy and past text passages of interest! This is lousy!

However, this is schocking how blind justice was turned into racially motivated justice! When prosecutors follow political instructions, justice is denied!

"There was suspicion of political interference, after Tina Tchen, a former aide to First Lady Michelle Obama, reached out to the prosecution on behalf of the Smollett family. Judge Michael Toomin ordered a special prosecutor to intervene, both to take up the Smollett case and to investigate Foxx and her subordinates at the Cook County State Attorney’s Office.
Last year, a 12-page summary of the summary was released, in which Webb revealed that while there were abuses of discretion and possible ethical breaches by Foxx and her office, especially in misleading the public about key facts like Smollett’s past criminal record, there had been no criminal violations and Tchen’s intervention had not been decisive.

The full 60-page summary provides the evidentiary basis for the shorter 12-page version. It includes details of interviews with Foxx and Tchen, as well as others involved, and refers to text messages and other bases for the report’s conclusions. ...
Some of the additional details include confirmation of earlier reports that Foxx’s office declined to notify Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson that it was dropping charges against Smollett. Johnson had been vocal in public about his disgust with Smollett’s evident attempt to fake a hate crime, wasting resources and diminishing real racism.

The full report also provides further detail about Foxx’s false statements that Smollett had no prior criminal record — when, as the 12-page report said, “a prior misdemeanor conviction out of California from September 22, 2007 for DUI, driving without a license, and giving false information to the police, for which he was placed on 24 months of probation.” The full 60-page report adds that false statements about Smollett’s record were “particularly troubling” because his prior conviction “related, in part, to making a false statement to police,” and was therefore similar to the present case in Chicago. ..."

Special Prosecutor Releases Full Report on Investigation of Soros-Backed Prosecutor in Jussie Smollett Case The office of Special Prosecutor Dan Webb released its full 60-page “summary report” Monday afternoon of its investigation into the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx over her improper handling of the Jussie Smollett case in 2019.

Renewing the relationship: Putin’s visit to India

Recommendable!

"The end of 2021 may prove to be an important milestone in the evolution of strategic relations between Russia and India. On 6 December, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew into New Delhi on a one-day state visit. The one-on-one meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which lasted three and a half hours, was aimed at restoring confidence between the two powers as time-proven and trusted strategic partners.

For Putin, the trip to India was only his second overseas visit since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic (the other was the first meeting with his US counterpart Joe Biden in Geneva). That fact alone signifies the importance of India to the Kremlin and the desire to keep relations close. But Putin’s brief visit to New Delhi was just part of broader high-level bilateral talks, which included an impressive entourage representing both countries. ...
They also signed another 10-year agreement on joint military–technical cooperation until 2031 and agreed to expand and deepen bilateral defence cooperation. Adding to that, Russia has reaffirmed its position as one of the principal providers of advanced military technology to the Indian military. Since 1991, India has acquired a comprehensive suite of weapons and platforms for all its fighting services worth some US$70 billion. The current value of India’s defence contracts with Russia is approximately US$15 billion.

The target of US$30 billion in annual trade by 2025, which was set in 2019, was confirmed. ..."

Renewing the relationship: Putin’s visit to India | The Strategist

The 1970s Cooling Scare or Another Ice Age Was Real

Recommendable! In the 1970s, the global cooling hoax was the propaganda and demagoguery of the day. I remember it well.

Inside the South African Lab With the First Omicron Findings

Don't buy into the new hysteria and panic about the latest variant!
Yes, it is more infectious and perhaps more transmissible, but it is also relative harmless like the variants that came before!

Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.


It is long high time to return to normal life like before the Covid-19 pandemic!



Dirty Harry IV - Too much sugar is bad for you

Does anyone believe you can still make such movies in our time! You are fooling yourself!

Monday, December 20, 2021

The murder of ancient Alexandria's great scholar Hypatia

Very recommendable! She was murdered in the streets of this famous city by religious fanatics!

Texas unveils first stretch of border wall funded by the state

Bravo Texas! Other border states ought to follow this example!

Charlamagne Tha God asks Kamala Harris ‘who the real president’ is

Incredible! VP Harris appears more demented than the 46th President. And she has or worse she needs a minder, who interrupted the interview to give Ms. Harris time to prepare an answer!
This is better than any episode of Saturday Night Life or any other comedy show!
The world is laughing!

Donald Trump's attorney on his lawsuit against New York AG Letitia James

Bravo President Trump! Go after this phony, fraudulent, and partisan prosecutor!
Her JD from Harvard University should be rescinded!
She should be debarred by the American Bar Association ASAP!

Christie’s Sells $7.1 Billion in Art, the Highest in Five Years

Hedging against inflation by driving up prices of art pieces!

"All three of the world’s chief auction houses have recently reported strong sales, citing, among other factors, millennial collectors who showed up during the pandemic eager to splurge."

Christie’s Sells $7.1 Billion in Art, the Highest in Five Years - WSJ (behind paywall) Meanwhile, Phillips reports $1.2 billion in sales as major auction houses credit influx of millennials and first-time buyers with propelling art sales

Leftist populist Gabriel Boric Wins Chile’s Presidential Election at Age 35

Will one of the most successful countries in terms of its economy go down the drain? Chile developed probably the best private free market economy of any of the large Latin American countries, but democracy is no guarantee to maintain such progress! The Miracle of Chile no more?

Too bad, Chile might follow down the wrong path of Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina!

Will the next wave of refugees from Chile not be fleeing a military junta, but a leftist tyranny causing poverty.

"He received 56% of the votes, handily defeating conservative rival José Antonio Kast, an immigration hardliner and ally of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Boric, a former student-protest leader, pledges to raise taxes to expand social services and dismantle a private pension system in Latin America’s richest nation"

Gabriel Boric Wins Chile’s Presidential Election at Age 35 - WSJ The leftist and former student protest leader pledges to raise taxes and dismantle a private pension system in Latin America’s richest nation

Flies Navigate Using Complex Mental Math

Amazing stuff!

"... Both teams showed that two types of brain cells (called PFNd and PFNv cells) track a fly’s heading (which way it’s facing) and its velocity (speed) as it walks. Since a fly has a nearly 360-degree field of vision ... to watch flies navigate in a 360-degree virtual reality environment. She improved on existing spherical treadmills for flies by adding an immersive virtual reality environment and placing the entire contraption in a clear plastic bubble, so that a camera underneath could record fly movement. By tracking neural activity as the fly navigated, the Wilson team found that both cell types are involved in making geometric calculations.

The neurons keep track of sideways and backward movements and register the compass direction in which the fly is moving. An animal could be facing north and walking forward, or facing west and walking to the right, Wilson says, and the brain would know that in both cases, the animal is actually moving in the same direction: northward.

That ability to adjust one’s orientation relative to both the body and the outside world is crucial for dead reckoning ...
discovered that the fly’s brain uses PFNd and PFNv cells to do this vector arithmetic. As the scientists report, a neural circuit in the fly brain can rotate, scale, and add the four vectors represented by different PFNd and PFNv populations to track the fly’s direction of travel relative to its body orientation.

To visualize this computation during flight, the researchers tethered flies to a platform in the center of a miniature arena and imaged their brains. Starlike dots displayed on the arena’s walls made the flies feel like they were traveling in various directions.

Inside the fly brain, activity patterns from PFNd and PFNv cell groups formed a sine wave, a type of regular, repeating wave that shows up often in physics and mathematics. The height and position of the waves vary depending on which way the fly was traveling, the team discovered. By adding the PFNd and PFNv waves, the fly was able to mathematically calculate if it was moving northward, eastward, etc. ..."

From the abstract of the 2nd paper:
"Many behavioural tasks require the manipulation of mathematical vectors, but, outside of computational models it is not known how brains perform vector operations. Here we show how the Drosophila central complex, a region implicated in goal-directed navigation, performs vector arithmetic. First, we describe a neural signal in the fan-shaped body that explicitly tracks the allocentric travelling angle of a fly, that is, the travelling angle in reference to external cues. Past work has identified neurons in Drosophila and mammals that track the heading angle of an animal referenced to external cues (for example, head direction cells), but this new signal illuminates how the sense of space is properly updated when travelling and heading angles differ (for example, when walking sideways). We then characterize a neuronal circuit that performs an egocentric-to-allocentric (that is, body-centred to world-centred) coordinate transformation and vector addition to compute the allocentric travelling direction. This circuit operates by mapping two-dimensional vectors onto sinusoidal patterns of activity across distinct neuronal populations, with the amplitude of the sinusoid representing the length of the vector and its phase representing the angle of the vector. ..."


Flies Navigate Using Complex Mental Math | HHMI For the first time, scientists have shown exactly how a fly brain creates a mental map of the body’s movement through the world.

Woman says she was virtually 'groped' in Facebook's VR metaverse, investigation launched

Crimes are committed in the real world and hither world! Why should virtual reality be any different? Such is human nature! Very difficult to escape!

Or is this part of a get rich quick scheme? Ah, human nature again! 😄

Facebook Meta company metaverse investigation into groping - TheBlaze

Will New York Times, Washington Post Return Pulitzer for Misleading Russia Collusion Stories?

Recommendable! Nice reminder that the history of print news media is littered with consequential fake stories! Unfortunately, the author of this article mentions only one such egregious historical fake story!

"In 1931, The New York Times published 13 articles by its Moscow reporter and Communist sympathizer, Walter Duranty, praising the Soviet Union and dictator Joseph Stalin’s government. These articles relied solely on official Soviet communist sources, ignored the evidence contradicting the government’s propaganda, and covered up the genocide Stalin was committing in the Ukraine."

Will New York Times, Washington Post Return Pulitzer for Misleading Russia Collusion Stories? | The Heritage Foundation

81 year old Anthony Fauci compares COVID-19 fight to World War II

Former President Trump made a huge mistake not to fire or retire this clown and charlatan Anthony Fauci!

Now we learn that this man is also delusional or suffers from a compulsive obsessive disorder! This man is crazy on a mission! Lord, have mercy with this fanatic!

The only thing the Faucian Bargain is correct about is that the draconian and largely unjustified broad measures taken by paternalistic Western governments are similar to those taken during war times!

Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.


"... "There's no way I’m going to walk away from this until we get this under control," Fauci responded. "We're in a war, John. It's kind of like we're halfway through World War II, and you decide, ‘I think I’ve had enough of this. I’m walking away.’ You can’t do that. You've gotta finish it. And we're gonna finish this and get back to normal." ..."

Fauci compares COVID-19 fight to World War II | Just The News

So called $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill U.S. Congress passed last month requires drunk driving prevention technology in all vehicles by 2026

Another bad idea by Big Government! This was also included in the so called infrastructure bill? How phony is that! Who voted for this!!!

This will surely make new vehicles more expensive beginning in 2026!
This is another foolish one size fits all measure! Many millions of drivers, who never or rarely drive while intoxicated have to pay for it! 
Is this technology even fool proof or reliable!
Lousy politics!

Such a measure should be targeted at drivers caught driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs!

What about other drugs that impair driving? Will such preventative measures be next?

The attempt to compare this preventative measure with the introduction of mandatory airbags in 1991 is ridiculous! First of all this should not have been made mandatory (another Big Government measure to protect you from yourself). Second, airbags are so useful that most people would have voluntarily paid extra to have them installed in their car. 

"... The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Congress passed last month requires drunk and impaired driving prevention technology as standard technology in vehicles as early as 2026. President Biden has signed the bill into law."

"... If successful, the law predicts, it could ultimately eliminate some 9,400 of the more than 10,000 drunken-driving deaths in the U.S. each year. ..."

Virginia testing in-car drunk driving prevention tech, could serve as national model | Just The News

Harvard moves to remote learning for three weeks in January, citing COVID-19

Why not online learning for a whole year in the digital age? Who needs all these traditional, legacy universities anymore?

Online learning would be a lot cheaper! Perhaps also less indoctrination with the leftist ideologies du jour!

"Harvard has a 97% vaccination rate, but school is still starting late in the spring, and students are required to receive booster vaccines."
Harvard moves to remote learning for three weeks in January, citing COVID-19 | Just The News

Janis Joplin - One Night Stand

Enjoy! Not sure I ever heard this song of her before. This video comes also with a nice selection of photos of her! 

Was that an early expression of Me Too? Quite possible!

When I am on the road playing in a town without a name ... catch me if you can

George Benson - Turn Your Love Around

Enjoy!

Teddy Pendergrass: Love T.K.O.

Enjoy! I think, I better let it go!

Teddy Pendergrass: Close the Door

Enjoy!

Tonight Is The Night - Betty Wright (1978)

Enjoy! I have not heard this song in a long time!

Sunday, December 19, 2021

Antonio Vivaldi CBC Documentary Steven Staryk Corey Cerovsek Ida Haendel

Very recommendable! I wish this video was remastered! A little bit odd is that the famous Four Seasons were not mentioned.

When scientists infected over a 1,000 dubiously selected people hepatitis for over 30 years

Some of the darker sides of science! The history of science is often inconvenient! In the name of science many terrible experiments were conducted over millennia!

Blind faith in science is wrong! Vigilance towards science is required at all times!

The current SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 pandemic also taught us a few things: E.g. despite the fact that the disease is relatively harmless and severely affects mainly only a minority of people, the elderly and the immune compromised, governments now imposes vaccinations on children and young adults, the least affected! The cure has been worse than the disease!

The Global Warming hoax and the Climate Change religion is too a large part based on pseudo science!

"In 1942, in the grip of the Second World War, the US military faced an existential threat from within. A hepatitis outbreak was suspected to have infected hundreds of thousands of personnel.

There were no animal or cell-culture models for studying the viral liver disease. Desperate to find the source of the outbreak and learn how to contain it, the military joined forces with biomedical researchers, including some from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, to launch human experiments that continued for decades after the war.

During the 30-year programme — meticulously chronicled in Dangerous Medicine — researchers infected more than 1,000 people, including over 150 children, with viruses that cause hepatitis. The people enrolled were prison inmates, disabled children, people with severe mental illnesses, and conscientious objectors performing community service in lieu of fighting, relates historical sociologist Sydney Halpern. ..."

When scientists gave 1,000 vulnerable people hepatitis over 30 years What sort of system nurtures a decades-long programme of deliberately infecting children and prisoners with a dangerous disease?

Genetic Variant Discovered in Amish Protects from Heart Disease

Perhaps the antiquated lifestyle of the Amish people is good for your heart? (Just kidding)

Genetic Variant Discovered in Amish Protects from Heart Disease | The Scientist Magazine® Researchers link a missense mutation in the B4GALT1 gene to lower levels of LDL cholesterol and the blood clotting factor fibrinogen.

FDA Allows Women to Get Abortion Pill by Mail

In an effort to undermine the growing success of the pro life movement and e.g. restrictive legislation like in Texas!

It is already bad enough that delivery by mail of abortion pills has picked up after the Texas bill was passed according to news reports.

However, the the demented and senile 78 years old lifetime career politician, pseudo catholic, and chronic liar for decades, the 46th President of the U.S., who is probably also seriously compromised as far as his or his family’s dealings with Russia and China are concerned, has no scruples! Reckless and irresponsible policies by a demented president!

"The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it will significantly weaken longstanding safety protocols that have applied to dangerous chemical abortion pills for more than 20 years, opening the door to widespread telemedicine abortion and abortion pill-by-mail distribution. ...
The chemical abortion pill regimen is a two-part process. The first pill, mifepristone (also known as RU-486 or its brand name, Mifeprex), causes the death of the unborn child by cutting off the hormone progesterone, which is required to sustain a pregnancy.

The second pill, misoprostol (brand name Cytotec), causes contractions to empty the uterus. The regimen is approved to be used for up to 70 days (10 weeks) into pregnancy.

The rate of chemical abortion has increased by 120% in the past decade, with roughly half of abortions today being chemical rather than surgical. ...
Since the Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone in 2000, the drug has been associated with 26 deaths, thousands of serious adverse events, and more than 500 life-threatening complications (that we know of, due to lackluster state and federal reporting requirements)."

" ... The Food and Drug Administration decision to allow patients to get the drug mifepristone, sold under the brand name Mifeprex and sometimes known as RU-486, without a visit to a hospital or doctor will help pave the way for the drug to be available for ordering online and delivery by mail, according to groups that support abortion access. ..."

FDA Allows Women to Get Abortion Pill by Mail - WSJ (Behind paywall) The decision lifted a restriction requiring women to go to a medical office or hospital to pick up the mifepristone pills

Some Mammals have infrared antenna-like structures to detect predators

Amazing stuff!

"... The new research, published last week (December 8) ... builds on a body of unpublished evidence collected not by a biologist, but by a physicist, Ian Baker, who develops infrared sensors for a British defense company.
Baker has long brought his work home with him ... using infrared cameras containing his sensors to scan the fields and woods near his house in Southampton, England, for animals. A series of anecdotal observations—such as the fact that cats seem to “stack” their bodies behind their cold nose when hunting, along with a similar twisting behavior in swooping owls—led Baker to hypothesize that perhaps these predators “have to conceal their infrared to be able to catch a mouse,” in effect “hiding their heat.” ..."

From the abstract:
"Many small animals, including shrews, most rodents and some marsupials, have fur composed of at least four types of hair, all with distinctive and complex anatomy. A ubiquitous and unexplained feature is periodic, internal banding with spacing in the 6–12 µm range that hints at an underlying infrared function. One bristle-like form, called guard hair, has the correct shape and internal periodic patterns to function as an infrared antenna. Optical analysis of guard hair from a wide range of species shows precise tuning to the optimum wavelength for thermal imaging. For heavily predated, nocturnal animals the ability to sense local infrared sources has a clear survival advantage. The tuned antennae, spectral filters and waveguides present in guard hair, all operating at a scale similar to the infrared wavelength, could be a rich source of bio-inspiration in the field of photonics. The tools developed in this work may enable us to understand the other hair types and their evolution. ..."

Some Mammals May Use Specialized Hairs to Detect Predators' Heat | The Scientist Magazine® When observed under a microscope, guard hairs from mice resemble optical sensors used in thermal cameras to detect heat, according to a new study.

Tausende protestieren gegen Corona-Regeln in Deutschland

Update 21.12.2021:
Corona-Proteste reißen nicht ab: Zehntausende demonstrieren in Nürnberg, Saarbrücken und Thüringen Nachdem bereits über 10.000 Menschen in Hamburg demonstrierten, standen am Sonntag ebenso viele in Nürnberg auf den Straßen. Die Proteste erreichen immer mehr Menschen auch aus der Mitte der Gesellschaft. Von Jonas Aston


Wenn die Zahlen der Protestierer nicht so gering wären, würde ich fast sagen es tut sich ja mal was Positives in der Bananenrepublik!

Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.


Tausende protestieren gegen Corona-Regeln Im ganzen Land gehen Demonstranten auf die Straße, die sich an den Corona-Maßnahmen stören. Vielerorts formiert sich Gegenprotest.

Die Niederlande kehren zur Kernenergie zurück

Wird die Bananenrepublik etwas lernen von dem Nachbarland? Oder steckt die Bananenrepublik zu tief im Klimawahn, in der Kernenergie Psychose, und im Coronawahn?

Die Niederlande kehren zur Kernenergie zurück Die niederländische Regierung plant, zwei neue Atomkraftwerke zu bauen und das einzige bestehende länger in Betrieb zu halten. Als Grund gibt die neue Koalition unter Ministerpräsident Rutte den Klimawandel und die Versorgungssicherheit an.

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Facebook Admits ‘Fact Checks’ Are Actually ‘Opinion’

It only confirms what we knew all along from the beginning! So called fact checkers have been a propaganda tool, charade and phony!

"We now know that Facebook’s so-called “independent fact-checkers” are nothing of the sort. And we know this because Facebook admitted so in a response to Stossel’s defamation lawsuit.

According to Facebook, Stossel cannot sue the company for defamation because, “The labels themselves are neither false nor defamatory; to the contrary, they constitute protected opinion.” ..."

Facebook Admits ‘Fact Checks’ Are Actually ‘Opinion’ – RedState Outspoken libertarian journalist John Stossel, former ABC News correspondent, has become quite the thorn in the side of Facebook.

Hydrogen Fueled Life’s Origins

Amazing stuff!

"... But the metabolism of the planet’s first organisms may not have required an external source of energy. Under the conditions present in a hydrothermal vent, a core set of metabolic reactions unfolds spontaneously in line with the laws of thermodynamics ...
Hydrothermal vents, hot springs near fault lines on the ocean floor, were discovered 40 years ago, and soon after became recognized as environments conducive to the origin of life, as they are warm, rich with minerals, and contain physical and chemical gradients that facilitate reactions. In 2020, Martin and his group showed experimentally that, if kept in water in the presence of the nickel iron alloy awaruite overnight at 100°C, hydrogen gas (which is abundant in hydrothermal vents) will combine with carbon dioxide to form formate, acetate and pyruvate—the latter of which is one of the most central compounds of metabolism. Awaruite catalyzes the formation of pyruvate from hydrogen and carbon dioxide by acting as a reducing agent, allowing it to stand in for the suite of enzymes that usually construct the molecule stepwise in organisms. ...
Martin and his team had previously identified a core set of more than 400 metabolic reactions which would likely have been present in the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA), the organism that gave rise to all extant life on Earth, and are needed to generate amino acids, nucleotides, and other essential cellular molecules. They next asked whether these reactions would have required an external energy source to proceed. 
To find out, the team calculated the Gibbs free energy for each reaction—a thermodynamic measure of the energy needed for or released from a chemical reaction, assuming the surrounding temperature and pressure are kept stable and there are no external inputs. It turns out that under the conditions present in hydrothermal vents, “almost all of the reactions in the metabolism of the last universal common ancestor are downhill,” says Martin—97 percent, to be exact. “That means there’s a natural tendency of metabolism to unfold all by itself, under the right conditions from the elements,” ... “You don’t have to add any energy. ..."

From the abstract:
"Though all theories for the origin of life require a source of energy to promote primordial chemical reactions, the nature of energy that drove the emergence of metabolism at origins is still debated. We reasoned that evidence for the nature of energy at origins should be preserved in the biochemical reactions of life itself, whereby changes in free energy, ΔG ... By calculating values of ΔG across the conserved and universal core of 402 individual reactions that synthesize amino acids, nucleotides and cofactors from H2, CO2, NH3, H2S and phosphate in modern cells, we find that 95–97% of these reactions are exergonic (ΔG ≤ 0 kJ⋅mol−1) at pH 7-10 and 80-100°C under nonequilibrium conditions with H2 replacing biochemical reductants. While 23% of the core’s reactions involve ATP hydrolysis, 77% are ATP-independent, thermodynamically driven by ΔG of reactions involving carbon bonds. We identified 174 reactions that are exergonic by –20 to –300 kJ⋅mol−1 at pH 9 and 80°C and that fall into ten reaction types: six pterin dependent alkyl or acyl transfers, ten S-adenosylmethionine dependent alkyl transfers, four acyl phosphate hydrolyses, 14 thioester hydrolyses, 30 decarboxylations, 35 ring closure reactions, 31 aromatic ring formations, and 44 carbon reductions by reduced nicotinamide, flavins, ferredoxin, or formate. The 402 reactions of the biosynthetic core trace to the last universal common ancestor (LUCA), and reveal that synthesis of LUCA’s chemical constituents required no external energy inputs such as electric discharge, UV-light or phosphide minerals. The biosynthetic reactions of LUCA uncover a natural thermodynamic tendency of metabolism to unfold from energy released by reactions of H2, CO2, NH3, H2S, and phosphate."

Hydrogen Fueled Life’s Origins: Study | The Scientist Magazine® A thermodynamic analysis of more than 400 chemical reactions that likely took place in the ancestor of all life finds most would spontaneously occur at hydrothermal vents, thanks to the hydrogen these geological formations emit.

Ex-FDA officials, medical experts flog feds for politicizing COVID, misrepresenting evidence

Recommendable! A long list of recent federal government failures regarding Covid-19!

No wonder with a clown and charlatan like Anthony Fauci and others at the helm! See also my blog about this creme de la creme of the U.S. medical establishment!

Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.


Ex-FDA officials, medical experts flog feds for politicizing COVID, misrepresenting evidence | Just The News

Research finds potential mechanism linking autism, intestinal inflammation

Good news! A long and comprehensive article! This research is all based on mouse models.


"Though many people with autism spectrum disorders also experience unusual gastrointestinal inflammation, scientists have not established how those conditions might be linked. Now MIT and Harvard Medical School researchers, working with mouse models, may have found the connection: When a mother experiences an infection during pregnancy and her immune system produces elevated levels of the molecule Interleukin-17a (IL-17a), this can not only alter brain development in her fetus, but also alter her microbiome such that after birth the newborn’s immune system can become primed for future inflammatory attacks. ..."

From the abstract:
"Children with autism spectrum disorders often display dysregulated immune responses and related gastrointestinal symptoms. However, the underlying mechanisms leading to the development of both phenotypes have not been elucidated. Here, we show that mouse offspring exhibiting autism-like phenotypes due to prenatal exposure to maternal inflammation were more susceptible to developing intestinal inflammation following challenges later in life. In contrast to its prenatal role in neurodevelopmental phenotypes, interleukin-17A (IL-17A) generated immune-primed phenotypes in offspring through changes in the maternal gut microbiota that led to postnatal alterations in the chromatin landscape of naive CD4+ T cells. The transfer of stool samples from pregnant mice with enhanced IL-17A responses into germ-free dams produced immune-primed phenotypes in offspring. Our study provides mechanistic insights into why children exposed to heightened inflammation in the womb might have an increased risk of developing inflammatory diseases in addition to neurodevelopmental disorders."

Research finds potential mechanism linking autism, intestinal inflammation | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Infection during pregnancy with elevated levels of the cytokine IL-17a may yield microbiome alterations that prime offspring for aberrant immune responses, mouse study suggests.