Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Comment on The U.S. A 40% Fatherless Nation?

What a shoddy article published by the Heritage Foundation! Those kind of opinion pieces are not helpful! This article is actually so lousy that I strongly recommend retraction!

What is wrong:
  1. Unmarried does not mean fatherless! It is a lot more complicated!
  2. The author also only faintly hints at decades of government programs that promote and finance single mother households. Many rational acting citizens can be excused for a lot of dollars and sense to take advantage of these government programs by officially stating to be a single parent household!
Written by "Terence P. Jeffrey is the editor in chief of CNSNews.com."

A 40% Fatherless Nation?

Ukraine-Konflikt: Scholz stoppt Inbetriebnahme von Nord Stream 2

Zu spät, zu wenig! Das lavieren der Bundesregierung in der Sache Ukraine and russische Bedrohung ist so typisch für eine Bananenrepublik!

Wäre Olaf Scholz ein Mann mit Rückrat und Mut, hätte er schon längst den sofortigen Bau einer direkten Pipeline in die Ukraine verlangt!

Wann werden endlich wieder neue, moderne Kernkraftwerke in Deutschland gebaut zum Trotz der Klimawahns und Coronawahns! Die sog. Energiewende ist eine unglaubliche Schnapsidee die u.a. von der SED Kanzlerin Merkel gefördert wurde!

Ukraine-Konflikt: Scholz stoppt Inbetriebnahme von Nord Stream 2

Lindner korrigiert verfassungswidrigen Steuerzins

Es gibt auch gelegentlich Positives aus der Bananenrepublik zu berichten!

Wenn der neue Bundesfinanzminister es auch fertig bringen könnte die seit vielen Jahren unverschämt hohe Mehrwertsteuer dauerhaft und deutlich zu senken, würde er Geschichte machen! Die nur für wenige Monate wirksame Senkung von 19% auf 16% in 2020 war viel zu wenig!

Lindner korrigiert verfassungswidrigen Steuerzins Das Bundesverfassungsgericht hatte den Satz für verfassungswidrig erklärt. Im neuen Gesetzentwurf aus dem Bundesfinanzministerium sinkt er von 6 Prozent im Jahr auf 1,8 Prozent. Doch einige Anwendungsfelder bleiben unverändert.

Das Maß ist voll, dauernde Volksverdummung ist nicht hilfreich!

Habe das neue Buch von Peter Hahne (geboren 1952) nicht gelesen, in der Tendenz scheint der Autor aber richtig zu liegen!

Kann es sein das insbesondere Menschen der älteren Generation immer mehr realisieren was in der Bananenrepublik vor sich geht und dagegen protestieren?

JF-Buchdienst | Das Maß ist voll | Aktuelle Bücher zu Politik, Wirtschaft, Wissen und Geschichte Maskendeals mit Millionenprovision. Eine Lockdown-Politik, die Hundertausende Mittelständler in die Existenznot zwingt. Alte Menschen, die von Kirche und Gesellschaft beim Sterben allein gelassen werden. Und eine Sprachpolizei, die jedes Augenmaß verloren hat. Nicht erst seit Corona wird deutlich: Die Eliten in Deutschland haben den Draht zu den Bürgern verloren und betreiben eine schamlose Klientelpolitik. In alt bewährter Manier legt Peter Hahne den Finger in die Wunde und entlarvt die in Krisenzeiten besonders augenfällige Heuchelei und Selbstgerechtigkeit in unserem Land.

CIFAR: Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Does Not Come at the Expense of Research Excellence

This is the rubbish produced by a probably highly paid and superfluous employee (Head of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) of Canada's prestigious Canadian Institute for Advanced Research!

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Does Not Come at the Expense of Research Excellence - CIFAR

Digital currency has the potential to become a single global currency and legal tender

This is certainly something to look forward to! Digital currency also known as crypto currency!

If national governments and/or their international surrogates do not stand in the way, it will happen sooner than later! Authoritarian regimes/dictatorships  are another stumbling block!

How the citizens of the world will govern this new global currency is an open question.

Spontaneous order and free individuals can make it happen! Voluntary and by free choice!

Privatize money!

Israeli gas & oil exploration company in advanced talks for Morocco energy exploration licenses

Good news! Bravo to this mover and shaker CEO! Blessed are the peacemakers! The Abraham Accords keep on giving!

"... the company has identified Morocco as a country with huge potential both geologically and commercially. He added that Delek Drilling is in talks for licenses in both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean.
Abu said that as the son of Moroccan immigrants to Israel he had been very moved to receive a personal letter from Morocco's King Mohamed VI with an invitation to operate in the country. ..."

Delek in advanced talks for Morocco energy exploration licenses - Globes Delek Drilling CEO Yossi Abu said he received a personal letter from Morocco's King Mohamed, with an invitation to operate in the country.

Corona-Politik und Grundgesetz - Vom Geist der Verfassung und vom Ungeist der Zeit

In der Tat, eine sehr bedenkliche und gefährliche Entwicklung in vielen Westlichen Demokratien! In Canada wurde es mit der Berufung auf das Notstandsgesetz auf die Spitze getrieben!

Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Ronald Reagan: “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. 

It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. 

Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again.”


My main blog posts related to the Covid-19 global pandemic: Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease and why it became the biggest scandal of the 21st century!


Corona-Politik und Grundgesetz - Vom Geist der Verfassung und vom Ungeist der Zeit | Cicero Online (behind paywall) Versammlungsfreiheit, Meinungsfreiheit, Recht auf körperliche Unversehrtheit: Diese und andere Grundrechte wurden von den Vätern und Müttern des Grundgesetzes im Jahr 1949 als Abwehrrechte gegen den Staat verstanden. Heute gilt als Querdenker, wer sie auch in Pandemiezeiten hochhält. Die Intention des Grundgesetzes wird in ihr Gegenteil verkehrt.

Radikalisierte Klima-Proteste - „Wenn es irgendwo brennt, seid bitte nicht überrascht“

In der vom Klimawahn und Coronawahn geschüttelten Bananenrepublik Deutschland macht sich nun auch Grüne Kriminelle mit zunehmenden Terrorismus auf sich aufmerksam!

Das erinnert sehr an religiöse Fanatiker der Vergangenheit! Letzte Generation, wie lachhaft!

Radikalisierte Klima-Proteste - „Wenn es irgendwo brennt, seid bitte nicht überrascht“ | Cicero Online Aktivisten der Klima-Bewegung kündigen in Worten und Taten eine weitere Radikalisierung an. Manche von ihnen sprechen schon hoffnungsvoll von einer „grünen RAF“. Politik und Öffentlichkeit sollten dies endlich ernst nehmen und die Aktionen von „Fridays for Future“ & Co. nicht länger als jugendlichen Überschwang verharmlosen.



German elite like Claudia Kemfert responds to the Ukraine crisis: No nuclear and gas, but renewable energies!

Neues von der Elite der Bananenrepublik Deutschland!

Welche Naivität und Dummheit von einem "Professor of Energy Economics and Sustainability at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. She heads the Energy, Transportation, and Environment department at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin)." (Source)

Mal nebenbei gefragt: Ist sie eine Quotenfrau?

Claudia Kemfert 😷🏳️‍🌈 on Twitter: "No nuclear and gas! The only way out of the fossil energy crises, wars, climate crises, and economic crises is a consistent energy transition with energy-saving and renewable energies. my @FEPS_Europe article https://t.co/ofs9TnH7k6" / Twitter




On the SEC's Climate Disclosure Rules

More nonsense coming from the administration of the demented and senile 46th President!

In difficult times it is not advisable to burden the U.S. economy with more regulations and requirements! In particular, if the new rules are based on the pseudo science behind the Global Warming Hoax and Climate Change religion!

Unfortunately, President Trump overlooked to eliminate this SEC’s 2010 “Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change” and everything else related to it! 

"In September 2021, they sent comment letters to several companies across industries seeking more information about their climate-related disclosures (or lack of such disclosures) referencing the SEC’s 2010 “Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change”."

Climate Disclosure Poses Thorny Questions for SEC as Rules Weighed - WSJ Key sticking point is the counting and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by customers and suppliers

Advancing mathematics with AI

A match made in heaven! I have no doubt that applying AI and machine learning to mathematics hast tremendous potential to yield new insights and advances!

From the abstract:
"... Here we provide examples of new fundamental results in pure mathematics that have been discovered with the assistance of machine learning—demonstrating a method by which machine learning can aid mathematicians in discovering new conjectures and theorems. We propose a process of using machine learning to discover potential patterns and relations between mathematical objects, understanding them with attribution techniques and using these observations to guide intuition and propose conjectures. We outline this machine-learning-guided framework and demonstrate its successful application to current research questions in distinct areas of pure mathematics, in each case showing how it led to meaningful mathematical contributions on important open problems ..."

Advancing mathematics by guiding human intuition with AI | Nature (open access)

Machine Learning Becomes a Mathematical Collaborator Two recent collaborations between mathematicians and DeepMind demonstrate the potential of machine learning to help researchers generate new mathematical conjectures.

US relocates Ukraine embassy staff to Poland

The senile and demented 46th President is a coward too! Just what Putin the Terrible needs!

The official press release does not even mention if any staff of the U.S. embassy is still working in the capital of the Ukraine!

This is another reminder of the disastrous and hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan!

US relocates Ukraine embassy staff to Poland - Reader Mode

AfD: Erschreckend: Grünes Demokratieverständnis entlarvt!

Neues aus der Bananenrepublik Deutschland!
Dieser lächerliche Dummkopf von einem Bundestagsabgeordneten Herr Andreas Audretsch (MdB seit 2021) von Bündnis 90/Grünen hat auch noch einen Doktortitel! Ein Buch hat er auch mitverfasst!

Canada's violent crackdown on protesters

Snipers on rooftops, stun grenades, pepper spray, riot gear, horse mounted police ...
Tyrant Trudeau must go!

Can Tejas fighter plane become India's next biggest defence export to the world?

Recommendable! A giant awakens!

Monday, February 21, 2022

Paul Harvey - The Media Fear Machine

Wow, Paul Harvey already exposed the Global Warming hoax in the 1990s!

Great Art Explained: Botticelli's Birth of Venus

Very recommendable!

Woodrow Wilson: The Worst Great President?

Very recommendable! Indeed a very controversial president!

Putin the Terrible to recognize independence of two eastern Ukraine regions

I have already on 2/15/2022 speculated here that Russia may want to annex the Donets Basin (aka Donbas) next.

"Donets Basin, Ukrainian Donetskyy Baseyn, Russian Donetsky Basseyn, byname Donbas or Donbass, large mining and industrial region of southeastern Europe, notable for its large coal reserves. The coalfield lies in southeastern Ukraine and in the adjoining region of southwestern Russia. The principal exploited area of the field covers nearly 9,000 square miles (23,300 square km) south of the Donets River, but coal deposits also extend westward to the Dnieper River in the greater Donets Basin. ...
The area remains the largest single producing area of iron and steel in Ukraine and is one of the world’s major metallurgical and heavy-industrial complexes. ..." (Source)

Putin to recognize independence of two Ukraine regions, move considered pathway for invasion | Just The News

Cuba Is Intelligence Service Hub for Worldwide Totalitarian Movement

This article is behind a paywall and the source is not always reliable!
However, the headline is probably mostly correct!

How about cyber attacks? 

It has become somewhat quiet about Cuban military adventures in either Latin America or Africa. However, I have little doubt that Cuba is still active in those regions. 

Cuba Is Intelligence Service Hub for Worldwide Totalitarian Movement: Exiled Cuban Activist

The Jesse Owens They Don't Teach You about in History Class by Lawrence Reed

Very recommendable! I thought, I was quite familiar with the Jesse Owens story until now. E.g. I was not aware (or I forgot) that he wrote an autobiography. This is mind boggling!

"... “The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals,” he wrote in his 1970 book, Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man. “The struggles within yourself—the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us—that’s where it’s at. Life is the real Olympics.” ...
You’ll discover that a snub more disgraceful than anything Hitler could have done was “progressive” Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to invite only the white American Olympians to the White House [Indeed, FDR was not such a great president for other reasons as well!] and keep Jesse out. ...
He resisted what he disparaged as “blackthink,” the idea that all blacks should think alike and spend their days in bitter resentment. He was a rugged individualist, not a collectivist fool. He loved America and never condemned the nation for the sins of a few. He never wallowed in victimology. He lived his life according to the Golden Rule. ...
His name is still widely recognized but mostly for what he did in 1936, and not much for what he ever said. That’s unfortunate because Jesse said and wrote many things that deserve attention today. ...
“I’m no scholar in history but I don’t think you have to be a PhD to see the striking, disgusting similarity between all forms of tyranny. Suppressing the personal identity of the individual into some group, the end justifying the means, force instead of freedom. These are what make every despot and potential despot tick, whether it be a Hitler, a George Lincoln Rockwell, a KKK’er, or a black militant…I’ve seen the despotism of the spirit drive out almost everything else good in a man, day after day, sometimes hour by hour, until he’s a fanatic wooden stereotype.” ...
""... But prejudice isn’t violence. I’m not saying bigotry isn’t rotten. But the line between the man who pulls a gun on me and the bigot who pulls a prejudice on me is a thick line. And if we handle them both the same way, we’re trading liberty for the jungle. The man who thinks Negroes are inferior and won’t have anything to do with them is stupid, maybe sick. But in the United States he has the right to be those things as long as he doesn’t back up his ideas as the KKK or the blackthinkers have—with fists and fires and ropes.” ..."

The Jesse Owens They Don't Teach You about in History Class - Foundation for Economic Education In his 1970 book, "Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man," Jesse Owens showed he was more than an Olympic champion. He was an individualist.



The Covid-19 global pandemic was like the return of the Middle Ages

Totally overblown Hysteria and panic were constantly whipped up and ruled almost every day for over two years!

The elites in Western countries were gripped by massive superstition for over two years! Rational thinking and common sense were in very short supply during that period!

Non vaccinated citizens were stigmatized and treated like outcasts!

The response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Western countries between 2020-2022 has obviously demonstrated that the we humans today are not much smarter or better than our  ancestors who lived through the Middle Ages when it comes to plagues! It is a bit schocking having to recognize this in the 21st century!


My main blog posts related to the Covid-19 global pandemic: Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease and why it became the biggest scandal of the 21st century!


I have blogged here in 2018 about why human progress is so slow!


Sunday, February 20, 2022

Explained: The Russia-Ukraine crisis

Very recommendable! This is an excellent 5 minute long review of the history and relations between Ukraine and Russia!
One critical episode of the history of Ukraine is missing: The Holodomor of the 1930s. I blogged e.g. here about it.

One Way: Cutie Pie

Enjoy!

One Way: You Can Do It

Enjoy! Today, I briefly met a young black American woman wearing a t-shirt saying One Way. She did not remember this band.

The FDA Is Blocking gene therapy Treatment for terminally ill Children

Recommendable! 

A family raised a over $240,000 by donations to have their terminally ill daughter undergo a gene therapy treatment in Milan Italy, because the treatment was not available in the U.S. for bureaucratic reasons!

"... To that end, the family is advocating for legislation in Arizona (also backed by the Goldwater Institute) known as “Right to Try for Individualized Treatments.” The legislation aims to protect a patient’s right to access potentially lifesaving treatments, and it’s a bill other states could replicate as well. ..."

"That’s because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits gene therapy in its antiquated clinical trial system. As a result, the family had to raise half a million dollars to relocate to Italy (during a pandemic) to even attempt to save their daughter. ...
This is not the first time the practices of the federal government and specifically the FDA have gotten Americans killed. In recent memory, the FDA has also blocked the development of COVID tests, initially restricted TESLA from selling ventilators, and stalled access to treatments for AIDS.
This agency not only prevents people from accessing many treatments altogether, they also prevent medical innovations through their lengthy and expensive regulatory apparatus.
In their [1980] book, Free to Choose, economist Milton Friedman and his wife called attention to the ways FDA regulation did more to slow the introduction of new medicines than to prevent the spread of harmful ones. They wrote, “The effect on the rate of innovation of new drugs is dramatic: the number of ‘new chemical entities’ introduced each year has fallen by more than 50 percent since 1962. Equally important, it now takes much longer for a new drug to be approved and, partly as a result, the cost of developing a new drug has been multiplied manyfold. According to one estimate for the 1950s and early 1960s, it then cost about half a million dollars and took about twenty-five months to develop a new drug and bring it to market. Allowing for inflation since then would raise the cost to a little over $1 million.” By 1978, that cost was $54 million. Today, conservative estimates put that number at $985 million. ..."

The FDA Is Blocking Treatment for Children with Special Needs. Here’s How - Foundation for Economic Education The general public fails to see the hidden costs imposed by the FDA's red tape, in this case, the real loss of life when people cannot access experimental medicines.

218 Bundestagsabgeordnete bekennen sich zu einer Impfpflicht ab 18

Typisch Bananenrepublik Deutschland! Coronawahn und Klimawahn zeigen Wirkung!

My main blog posts related to the Covid-19 global pandemic: Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease and why it became the biggest scandal of the 21st century!


Wann wird die Bananenrepublik endlich die enorme Zahl von Überhangmandaten (über 100) im Bundestag korrigieren!!! Es ist einfach lachhaft und der Zustand hält seit dem Umzug des Bundestags von Bonn nach Berlin an!

Grüner Gesundheitspolitiker Dahmen: "dauerhafte Rückkehr zur Freiheit gibt es nur mit der Impfpflicht" 218 Bundestagsabgeordnete bekennen sich zu einer Impfpflicht ab 18. Der grüne Gesundheitspolitiker Janosch Dahmen behauptet, dass es ohne diese keine dauerhafte Rückkehr zur Freiheit gebe.

Orangutans make and use basic stone tools

Amazing stuff!

"Orangutans ... seem to be able to use a bunch of tools in the wild and even make complex choices about these tools. So a team of researchers ... wanted to test their stone tool-making ability. The researchers tested out their hypothesis on ... orangutans at [zoos] ...
despite being proficient tool users and using a variety of raw materials as tools, they do not use stone tools in the wild. ...
It’s the first time cutting behavior has been observed in untrained, unenculturated orangutans. ..."

From the abstract:
"... However, despite their importance, it is still unclear how these early lithic technologies emerged and which behaviours served as stepping-stones for the development of systematic lithic production in our lineage. ... To this end, we tested both the individual and the social learning abilities of five orangutans to make and use stone tools. Although the orangutans did not make sharp stone tools initially, three individuals spontaneously engaged in lithic percussion, and sharp stone pieces were produced under later experimental conditions. Furthermore, when provided with a human-made sharp stone, one orangutan spontaneously used it as a cutting tool. Contrary to previous experiments, social demonstrations did not considerably improve the stone tool making and using abilities of orangutans. Our study is the first to systematically investigate the stone tool making and using abilities of untrained, unenculturated orangutans showing that two proposed pre-requisites for the emergence of early lithic technologies–lithic percussion and the recognition of sharp-edged stones as cutting tools–are present in this species. ..."

Strangely, the headline of this article claims Orangutans act "instinctively"!

Orangutans instinctively make and use basic stone tools Orangutans display an ability that was once thought to be exclusively human: the ability to create tools.

Seattle and King county revoke mandatory bicycle helmet law for racial equity

The mandate to wear bicycle helmets in King county and Seattle was repealed for the wrong reasons!

What a waste of police resources to go after bicycle riders for not wearing a helmet!

So black bicycle riders may now risk their lives, because of race demagoguery without citation by police officers? This is so absurd!

Either bike riding is dangerous for your health as King county government claims and "bike helmets provide a 63-88% reduction in the risk of head and brain injuries for people who ride bikes. " or it is not.

Since 1993 were King county and since 2003 Seattle residents required to comply with this mandate. A case of government paternalism!

Should it not be left to individuals to decide whether they wear such a helmet or not?

Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Seattle revokes mandatory bicycle helmet law for racial equity - TheBlaze

Rick Steves Egypt: Yesterday and Today

Very recommendable!

Susan B. Anthony: Women's Suffrage Leader & Activist

Recommendable! What a courageous lady!

She grew up in and spent her entire life with her Quaker family. One more reason why religious freedom is so important!

She was home schooled by her father. She went to public schools first.

President Theodore Roosevelt meets with her, but fails to put forward or support a suffrage amendment!

Unfortunately, this video is mute on the friendship between her and Frederick Douglas (see e.g. here)


Saturday, February 19, 2022

Florida received 118 million domestic visitors in 2021

Incredible!

Here is a Florida state press release regarding this!


A life worthl living: Love, Truth, Justice, and Freedom

Did I miss something? If you live by these principles every day most of the times, you may have a very happy life!

Individual responsibility is included in all four principles! So is the The Golden Rule.

I have known these four principles for a long time, but more separately than joined. However, they are like a quadfecta.

These four principles are highly interdependent and inseparable!

You may develop wisdom learning how to understand and to successfully juggle these four principles on a daily basis! This is quite possibly life's most enduring challenge!

My inspiration came from the title of following 1972 article, which I have not read and, unfortunately, I do not remember how I came across this article as e.g. the author is unknown to me:
Reconstructing The Social Order: Truth, Justice, Love—And Freedom On Jstor an article written by Walter J. Burghardt (Wikipedia only has a German language entry for this man)

Moscow mocks West over Ukraine 'invasion date'

Best joke of the day, if not the week if the situation was not so serious!

I don't know whether this is a joke or disinformation. A quick search on the Internet did not come up with a proper citation or sourcing for this! 

As of 2/19/2022 10:15 (AZ time), it appears no major news outlet has covered the story. Although, this story is already three days old!

Why the demented and senile 46th President of the U.S. repeatedly insists, he knows the Russian invasion date is extremely disturbing!!!

Maria Zakharova is the Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Looks like Putin the Terrible has some good looking and smart ladies working for him! 😄

""I'd like to ask if US and British sources of disinformation ... could publish the schedule of our upcoming invasions for the year. I'd like to plan my holidays [other sources: vacation]," Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on social media [none of the articles I quickly perused properly reproduces the message and they do not name the social media]. ...
In a briefing with journalists later Wednesday [2/16/2020], Zakharova quipped that, "today, we celebrate another day of non-aggression against Ukraine, and another day that will bring us closer to some kind of war that everyone promised us"."

Moscow mocks West over Ukraine 'invasion date' | The Standard



CDC Director Walensky Admits COVID-19 is Not the Primary Cause of Death in 75 Percent of Cases

This is not really anything new for anyone who followed the Covid-19 pandemic! It is only more or less a confirmation what was known at least since about mid 2020.

My blogs related three blog posts: Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease and why it became the biggest scandal of the 21st century!


Wher did the demented and senile 46th President find these people like CDC Director Walensky!

"Remarking on a CDC study showing vaccines targeting COVID-19 and its variants have successfully prevented serious illness, Walensky said most deaths from COVID in vaccinated people occurred in individuals diagnosed with several other conditions or diseases, during an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America on January 7.

“The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75 percent, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities,” said Walensky. ...
Risk factors for severe outcomes identified in the study included being 65 years and older, immunosuppressed, and having one or more of six other underlying conditions. Indeed, all people with severe outcomes had at least one risk factor, while 78 percent of persons who died had at least four. ...
“Unfortunately, CDC long ago redefined its mission,” ... “It now acts as a Commissar of Health, claiming unlimited power to make individuals conform to whatever it defines as healthy behavior for the entire U.S. population. It defines behaviors that will reduce suicide, obesity, firearms violence, general violence, adolescent and school health, smoking, perinatal care, reproductive health (both U.S. and global, and only for women), depression, reducing ‘disparities,’ dental problems, drinking, sexual behavior, child-rearing, and lack of sleep. ..."

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky Admits COVID-19 is Not the Primary Cause of Death in 75 Percent of Cases

India & UAE sign historic trade deal, eye $100 billion in annual trade

This could be huge! A sleeping giant awakens! The largest diaspora of Indians lives in the UAE (over 3 million making up 38% of the UAE population)!

Friday, February 18, 2022

Robert Smalls: The incredible escape that turned a slave into an American hero

Recommendable! Impressive!

"... After the American Civil War he returned to Beaufort and became a politician, winning election as a Republican to the South Carolina Legislature and the United States House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era. Smalls authored state legislation providing for South Carolina to have the first free and compulsory public school system in the United States. He founded the Republican Party of South Carolina. Smalls was the last Republican to represent South Carolina's 5th congressional district until the election of Mick Mulvaney in 2011. ..." (Source)


Surprising superconductivity of graphene bilayer

Good news!

From the abstract:
"... report how a graphene bilayer becomes superconducting in the presence of suitably arranged electric and magnetic fields. Their experiments indicate a rarely found exotic state for the electrons, where superconductivity is particularly robust against large magnetic fields that usually destroy the effect. The discovery of superconductivity in as relatively simple a structure as a graphene bilayer opens an avenue for better understanding the phenomenon. ..."

Surprising superconductivity of graphene (no public access)

Israel Is The First Country To Approve Drones In Civilian Airspace

Good news! Hope, other countries will follow soon!

"Israel’s Ministry of Transport and Road Safety has officially approved the certification of an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) in civilian airspace for the first time ever. It becomes the first country in the world to do so, Israeli aerospace and defense company Elbit announced last week. ...
The Hermes Starliner UAS is a derivative of the Hermes 900 UAS, a drone used by militaries around the world that was modified to meet certain certification standards in order to comply with civil aviation requirements. These technologies include a terrain avoidance warning system, sensor and satellite data links, adverse weather capabilities, and more. ...
To date, Elbit Systems has been also been contracted by the Canadian Ministry of Transportation to supply the Hermes Starliner UAS as well as by a dozen additional countries to provide other variants of the Hermes 900 UAS."

Israel Is The First Country To Approve Drones In Civilian Airspace



Notes on De l'esprit by Helvetius

Facts and details are very important! However, if you live by the wrong principles or by no principles or you waver on critical principles, then facts and details do not matter much anymore!

“The knowledge of certain principles easily compensates the lack of knowledge of certain facts.”

"la connaissance de certains principes supplée facilement à la connoissance de certains faits.”"

Claude Adrien Helvétius. De l’esprit. 1759 (Source)

Wikipedia does not even have a separate entry for this book that was once condemned! You can actually not find any good summary on the Internet using Google search.
C'est dommage! Very regrettable!


George Washington and Cato

An example, why George Washington (together with his wife Martha) was called the indispensable man!

"In May 1778, Colonel William Bradford, Jr. wrote to his sister from Valley Forge: "The Camp could now afford you some entertainment: ... the Theatre is opened—Last Monday Cato was performed before a very numerous & splendid audience." At the end of the hard winter at Valley Forge, General George Washington defied a congressional ban on theatrical productions and entertained his men with a production of Joseph Addison's 1713 tragedy Cato.
Addison's play is a dramatization of the last days of the Roman Senator Marcus Porcius Cato (95-46 BCE), who for Addison served as an exemplar of republican virtue and opposition to tyranny. In the Roman Civil War that followed Caesar's famous crossing of the Rubicon in 49 BCE, the patrician Cato joined the senatorial opposition to Caesar's tyranny. After the defeat of Pompey in the Battle of Pharsalus (48 BCE), Cato continued to hold out against Caesar at Utica in northern Africa, where he found an ally in the Numidian King Juba I. After a decisive defeat in the Battle of Thapsus (46 BCE), Cato committed suicide, as was considered proper for an adherent of Stoic philosophy...."

Was George Washington's wife even present at this theatrical performance since she frequently visited him at his Winter encampments for extended periods. "... As the wife of the Commander-in-Chief, Martha Washington had more responsibility than the other wives. She was the General’s sounding board and closest confidant. She acted as his secretary and representative, copying letters and representing him at official functions. She comforted sick or wounded soldiers and sponsored social activities that brightened the darkness of the long winter days. Her presence not only fortified her husband but helped boost the morale of the entire camp. ..."

Cato · George Washington's Mount Vernon

Elvis Presley - Unchained Melody

Enjoy! 

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Bald Eagle Population Growth Rate Suppressed by Lead Poisoning, Study Suggests

Such or other scares about eagles have been repeated many times for several decades now.

Could it be for other reasons? E.g. loss of natural environment or lack of food etc.

From the abstract we do not learn how "lead poisoning" was measured or what standard was used. There is no public access to this article!

From the abstract:
"... We evaluated the lead exposure of 1210 bald and golden eagles from 38 US states across North America, including 620 live eagles. We detected unexpectedly high frequencies of lead poisoning of eagles, both chronic (46 to 47% of bald and golden eagles, as measured in bone) and acute (27 to 33% of bald eagles and 7 to 35% of golden eagles, as measured in liver, blood, and feathers). Frequency of lead poisoning was influenced by age and, for bald eagles, by region and season. ..."

Bald Eagle Population Growth Rate Suppressed by Lead Poisoning, Study Suggests - WSJ: Scientists flag the risks of toxic ammunition fragments in a new study that found signs of repeated lead exposure in almost half the birds sampled.

Prophy annoyances

Prophy is the European Union competitor to Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, and former Microsoft Academic.

To put it mildly it sucks:

  1. It is too slow compared with the above competitors
  2. It does not find articles, the competitors find easily unless you use a rather cumbersome way of entering the search term
  3. You are not logged in. You have 6 free search queries for today. (I got this message before even reaching 6 searches)

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Google use AI to control plasmas for nuclear fusion

This promises possibly spectacular results! Remember chess, Go, AlphaFold and much more where Google AI research has pushed the boundaries!

"EPFL's Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) has decades of experience in plasma physics and plasma control methods. DeepMind is a scientific discovery company acquired by Google in 2014 that's committed to "solving intelligence to advance science and humanity." Together, they have developed a new magnetic control method for plasmas based on deep reinforcement learning, and applied it to a real-world plasma for the first time in the SPC's tokamak research facility, TCV. Their study has just been published in Nature. ..."

EPFL and DeepMind use AI to control plasmas for nuclear fusion

Will the abused emergency powers in Canada lead to a bank run?

I hope so! This would be an ultimate test of the resolve of the Canadian people to resist dictator Justin Trudeau (see also my posts here, here)!

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ..."
Declaration of Independence

European Court of Justice dismisses the actions brought by Hungary and Poland

I did not have time to dig into the details of this case! However, I have a strong hunch that Brexit was not enough a clarion call for the masters of the ever more centralized and top down European Union!

The judges mention the "rule of law" 13 times in their statement! And breaches of the "common values on which the European Union is founded" is mentioned 3 times.

Unfortunately, the "rule of law" applies to thee, but not for me in the European Union. E.g. the egregious violations of the Maastricht Treaty of 1992!

The common values of Europe are great diversity and variety, far reaching federalism/decentralization, and general tolerance of your neighbor countries! This action by the court does not help!

Measures for the protection of the Union budget: the Court of Justice, sitting as a full Court, dismisses the actions brought by Hungary and Poland against the conditionality mechanism which makes the receipt of financing from the Union budget subject to the respect by the Member States for the principles of the rule of law

Legendary Warriors: The Dahomey Amazons

Recommendable! An unusual history!

As this story also exemplifies, Africa was not a peaceful continent, where everyone lived in harmony with each other. Africa was also not a slavery free continent before the European colonizers or Muslims! Au contraire!


A brie(f) history of cheese

Very recommendable! A history of cheese, but without the brie! 😄

You have to thank religious freedom for many of the delicious cheeses out there! Monks had all the time in their lives to refine cheeses and they did it! Many monks did not spoil the cheese!


Wednesday, February 16, 2022

The Aces up Putin’s Sleeve

Very recommendable!

DDoS attack was 'largest' ever in Ukraine, Russia suspected

Are these the Russian opening shots of a war between Russia and Ukraine?
Is Russia trying to soften up the Ukraine before invasion or annexation?
Putin the Terrible is playing with fire!

Or is this a provocation by a third party to trigger a such a war?

"The distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack Tuesday [2/15/2022] against military and financial institutions in Ukraine was the “largest DDoS attack in the country’s history,” a Ukrainian government agency said.
Ukraine “successfully stopped” the attack, the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine said in a statement posted online. The DDoS attack affected targets including the websites of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the web services of Privatbank and Oschadbank. ..."

DDoS attack was 'largest' ever in Ukraine, Russia suspected | VentureBeat

In study, a woman achieved cure from HIV and remission of acute myeloid leukemia

Good news! However, tainted by the ideology of racism!

According to Johns Hopkins University, CNN, and New York Times this had to be turned into an ideology of racism event: "A US woman of mixed race has gone into HIV remission after a stem cell transplant from umbilical cord blood—marking the third-ever time someone appears to have been cured of HIV, and the first using this approach ... Researchers said the method’s success has especially encouraging implications for people of more racially diverse backgrounds ..."
Very annoying!!! What the heck does this have to do with race!!!

"UCLA researchers presented today the first case of a U.S. woman living with HIV-1 that is in remission after she received a new combination of specialized stem cell transplants for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). ...
This woman has been in remission of AML for 4½ years and has had no HIV rebound in the 14 months since antiretroviral therapy was stopped ...
If HIV remission continues and she is determined to be cured, she would be only the third person to achieve cure and the first HIV remission to have been successfully engrafted with umbilical cord blood cells with a mutation that is protective against HIV-1 (CCR5-delta32/32 homozygous) combined with stem cells from an adult, haploidentical (“half-matched”) related donor. ...
The CCR5-delta32 mutation is rare, but cord blood banks may provide a previously untapped resource, according to the researchers, and the combination therapy would enable clinicians to take advantage of the unique benefits offered by each type of graft for more diverse populations. ..."

UCLA Health at CROI: Presenting the case of a woman with HIV-1 in remission following specialized stem cell transplantation for leukemia

E-Auto-Prämien wurden massenhaft für Exportgeschäfte missbraucht

Typisch Bananenrepublik Deutschland! Staatliche Subventionen für clevere  Geschäftsleute!

Das Staatssubventionen für teure Elektroautos i.d.R. sehr ungerecht sind, weil vornehmlich besser Verdienende davon profitieren, sollte nicht vergessen werden. Z.B. in den USA sind Teslas oft nur schicke Zweitwagen für höhere Einommenshaushalte in den Großstädten!

"... Offenbar wurden viele mit einer staatlichen Prämie (bis zu 9000 Euro) in Deutschland gekaufte E-Autos unmittelbar nach der vorgeschriebenen Mindesthaltedauer von sechs Monaten im Ausland weiterverkauft. ...
Die Forscher untersuchten dazu, wie viele neue E-Autos in Deutschland erstmals angemeldet wurden (Neuzulassungen) und wie viele E-Autos auf deutschen Straßen unterwegs sind (Fahrzeugbestand) – und dabei eine erhebliche Diskrepanz festgestellt: Während zwischen Januar und September 236.695 reine Elektrofahrzeuge neu zugelassen worden seien, habe sich die Elektroflotte in Deutschland nur um 207.435 Fahrzeuge erhöht. Fazit: „Entsprechend fehlen rund 29.260 Elektro-Pkw im Bestand."

E-Auto-Prämien wurden massenhaft für Exportgeschäfte missbraucht Die Bundesregierung hat mit ihren Prämien für den Erwerb von E-Autos die Elektromobilität im Ausland gefördert: Viele Tausend geförderte Autos wurden direkt nach der kurzen Mindesthaltedauer gewinnbringend ins Ausland verkauft. Erst eine Studie bringt das Wirtschaftsministerium zur Korrektur.

Dänische Gesundheitsbehörde mit Faktenchecks gegen Corona-Panikmache

Empfehlenswert! Bravo Dänemark! Man vergleiche bitte mit dem grassierenden Coronawahn in der Bananenrepublik Deutschland!

Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease and why it became the biggest scandal of the 21st century!


Dänische Gesundheitsbehörde mit Faktenchecks gegen Corona-Panikmache – Ende der Massenimpfungen angekündigt Das dänische Pendant zum RKI faktencheckt übertriebene Darstellungen der Gefahr von Corona. Die Regierung will das Thema offenbar nachhaltig hinter sich lassen. Jetzt soll die nationale Impfkampagne beendet und die Infrastruktur für Massenimpfungen abgebaut werden.

Routine eye scans could provide cost-effective screening for heart disease

Sounds like a good idea to me!

"Retinal imaging is routinely performed by opticians to diagnose and monitor eye diseases and disorders. But retinal scans can reveal a lot more: retinal microvascular abnormalities may be indicative of broader vascular disease, including problems with the heart. An international, interdisciplinary research team ... has now developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can automatically analyse these routine eye scans and identify individuals at risk of a future heart attack. ..."

"In ophthalmologic practice, retinal images are routinely obtained to diagnose and monitor primary eye diseases and systemic conditions affecting the eye, such as diabetic retinopathy. Recent studies have shown that biomarkers on retinal images, for example, retinal blood vessel density or tortuosity, are associated with cardiac function and may identify patients at risk of coronary artery disease. In this work we investigate the use of retinal images, alongside relevant patient metadata, to estimate left ventricular mass and left ventricular end-diastolic volume, and subsequently, predict incident myocardial infarction. We trained a multichannel variational autoencoder and a deep regressor model to estimate left ventricular mass (4.4 (–32.30, 41.1) g) and left ventricular end-diastolic volume (3.02 (–53.45, 59.49) ml) and predict risk of myocardial infarction (AUC = 0.80 ± 0.02, sensitivity = 0.74 ± 0.02, specificity = 0.71 ± 0.03) using just the retinal images and demographic data. Our results indicate that one could identify patients at high risk of future myocardial infarction from retinal imaging available in every optician and eye clinic."

Routine eye scans could provide cost-effective screening for heart disease – Physics World

Myth: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer!

One of those widespread, surviving myth that should have been totally debunked a long time ago as far as free market economies are concerned!

Attributed to a English Romantic period poet Percy Bysshe Shelley! What do poets and romantics know about the economy? Often, very little!

I recently encountered the repeated use of this myth in a machine learning related comprehensive survey paper. Even PhDs are not immune to this myth!

Those who are rich and poor do not stay the same over time at least not in free market economies.

The definition of rich and poor people is in the eye of the beholder. E.g. is it the top 5% or 10% etc.

What if the group of the people in the middle gets bigger and richer?

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer - Wikipedia

Gene-edited wheat resists dreaded fungus without pesticides

Good news! This could be a game changer! Hopefully, more gene editing improvements to come!

"Powdery mildew certainly sounds unappealing, but for wheat farmers the fungus can mean a serious hit to the pocketbook. It infects crops, yellowing leaves and stunting growth. In countries where the blight is common, like China, the microbe can destroy up to 40% of a field, making it one of the most damaging and costly pathogens for wheat farmers. ...
If the yields are confirmed by further research, “this really could be a game changer” for wheat breeders ...
a gene, called MLO [Mildew resistance locus O], that when mutated somehow prevents the fungus from infecting the barley, apparently in part by quickly thickening cell walls when spores try to penetrate and having other nearby cells self-destruct. ...
Digging deeper into the genome of the modified plants, Gao and colleagues showed the editing had accidentally removed not only part of an MLO gene, but also a large stretch of DNA on one chromosome. This resulted in a nearby gene called TMT3 becoming more active, and this is what somehow keeps the plant growth normal.  ..."

From the abstract:
"... Here we describe Tamlo-R32, a mutant with a 304-kilobase pair targeted deletion in the MLO-B1 locus of wheat that retains crop growth and yields while conferring robust powdery mildew resistance. We show that this deletion results in an altered local chromatin landscape, leading to the ectopic activation of Tonoplast monosaccharide transporter 3 (TaTMT3B), and that this activation alleviates growth and yield penalties associated with MLO disruption. Notably, the function of TMT3 is conserved in other plant species such as Arabidopsis thaliana. Moreover, precision genome editing facilitates the rapid introduction of this mlo resistance allele (Tamlo-R32) into elite wheat varieties. This work demonstrates the ability to stack genetic changes to rescue growth defects caused by recessive alleles, which is critical for developing high-yielding crop varieties with robust and durable disease resistance."

Gene-edited wheat resists dreaded fungus without pesticides | Science | AAAS New strain survives powdery mildew, a costly disease, without side effects

More YouTube Annoyances

Recently, I am seeing more of these messages:


Despite the fact that I have subscribed to these channels and I have in the past been able to watch the several videos offered by these channels!

Very annoying!

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Tucker Carlson: The media played a starring role in the death of Canadian democracy

Very recommendable!

Will Putin the Terrible annex the Donets Basin of the Ukraine?

After Putin the Terrible annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, this might be a more likely scenario. I bet, he is salivating for it and if it is only to distract from the dire economic situation in Russia.

The entire Ukraine is probably to large a territory to swallow and an invasion could end up in a military quagmire for Putin the Terrible!

Stalin used salami tactics against Hungary! I am sure the former KGB officer is aware of this!

Donbas - Wikipedia

U.S. Representative Zeldin nominates Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz for Nobel Peace Prize for work on Abraham Accords

Does not former President Trump deserve this honor? The Abraham Accords are certainly a worthy cause for a Nobel Peace Prize!

"Lee Zeldin, one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress, nominated Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz for the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab countries.

“The Abraham Accords, signed in 2020, represent the most significant diplomatic breakthrough between Israel and Arab nations in decades,” Zeldin wrote in his nomination, according to the New York Post. Zeldin, a Long Island congressman, is running for governor of the state. ..."

Lee Zeldin nominates Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz for Nobel Peace Prize for work on Abraham Accords - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

In a first for an Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett visits Bahrain

Good news! Blessed are the peacemakers! The Abraham Accords keep on giving!

"Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett landed in Bahrain for meetings with its rulers, the second such trip to a Gulf Arab country since the launch of the Abraham Accords. ...
Bahrain and Israel have formalized commercial ties and have launched defense cooperation. As part of Bennett’s visit, Israel said it would station a defense official in Manama. ..."

In a first for an Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett visits Bahrain - Jewish Telegraphic Agency



Ungarische Ministerpräsident Orban Rede zur Jahresbilanz 2021 und zu Europa

Empfehlenswert! Auszuege aus der Rede von Victor Orban zur Jahresbilanz 2021 im Parlament!

Orban hat deutlich an die Stärke Europas erinnert: Die Vielfalt und Föderalismus der historisch gewachsenen vielen Kulturen und Lebensumstände und der politischer Strukturen. Die meisten anderen Regionen der Welt sind deutlich homogener als Europa.

"... nach meiner persönlichen Beobachtung verbirgt sich hinter all diesen Differenzen, dass wir das Ende des Kalten Krieges vollkommen anders erlebt haben als die westlichen Länder und auch Amerika, die nicht von den Sowjets besetzt waren. Hier liegt der Hund begraben. Sie haben nicht in einer Diktatur gelebt, und die Freiheit war ihr Erbe, wie Sándor Márai einmal sagte. Wir jedoch haben in der Diktatur gelebt, und die Freiheit haben wir nicht geschenkt bekommen, wir haben für sie gekämpft. ...
Wir meinen, dass die Nation die Klasse besiegt hat, der Gottesglaube den Atheismus und das Privateigentum das sozialistische Staatseigentum. Sie jedoch glauben, dass ihre liberale Demokratie den Kommunismus besiegt habe. Sie denken nicht in Nationalstaaten, sondern in Kategorien der globalen Welt, die von globalen Organisationen, Institutionen und Netzwerken gelenkt und durch globale Netzwerke des Handels und der Kommunikation zusammengeknüpft wird. ...
Die wichtigste Frage ist, ob wir zusammenbleiben wollen. Insbesondere hier in Europa, weil die Europäische Union nur dann eine Zukunft hat, wenn wir es schaffen, trotz der immer stärkeren kulturellen Entfremdung zusammenzubleiben. Was uns betrifft, wir möchten die EU zusammenhalten. ... Es gibt keine andere Lösung als die Toleranz. ..."

Ungarn: Wie die dpa Fake News erfindet – und (fast) alle abschreiben