Feb 182021
 
 February 18, 2021  Posted by at 9:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Ansel Adams Church, Taos, Pueblo 1942

 

Masked Drivers Banned From Wearing Sunglasses & Hats in Saxony (RT)
Facebook Blocks News From Australia – Yes, The Entire Country (CTH)
The Deplatforming Of Australia (Mark Pesce)
Hong Kong Aiming For Legislation To Ban Insulting Public Officials (ZH)
Vaccine Rollout Will Trigger New Covid Variants, Oxford Scientist Warns (RT)
Many Top NBA Players Hesitant To Promote Coronavirus Vaccines (ESPN)
Waitress Fired From NYC Eatery For Not Getting Covid Vaccine (DM)
How Well You Fared With Covid19 Might Be Down To Neanderthal Genes (RT)
Cuomo-gate: A Nixonian Scandal Is Engulfing New York (DP)
Texas Governor Blames Power Outages on Wind, Solar (CD)
Subzero Rates Are Coming to the US and the UK (Lacalle)
Twenty Days Of Infamy: The January 2017 Red Flags The FBI Blew Past (JTN)
VP Harris Gets Two Pinocchios For ‘Starting From Scratch’ Comment (JTN)
‘A Love As Real As Climate Change’: Tucker Carlson About Joe & Jill Biden (RT)

 

 

Perfectly in line with today’s news. Insanity rules. Just find someone to hate.

 

 

Ha ha ha. Brilliant. What people think of. “… general facial features” of the driver must still be visible to the road safety cameras…

Masked Drivers Banned From Wearing Sunglasses & Hats in Saxony (RT)

Drivers must still be identifiable by traffic cameras, even when they follow existing health protocols and wear masks, a new rule in Germany’s eastern region says. According to the Bild newspaper, Saxony became the first region in Germany to ban hats and sunglasses on masked drivers. “Wearing a hat and sunglasses in addition to a mask that covers the face and mouth makes [the driver] unrecognizable. So that’s not allowed,” Saxony’s Interior Minister Roland Woller said. Woller explained that “general facial features” of the driver must still be visible to the road safety cameras.


He added that officials responsible for handing out fines to drivers were advised to handle the new rule on a case-by-case basis. Starting from Monday, people are required to wear masks in vehicles in Saxony if members of more than two households are traveling together. Last month, Germans were mandated to wear medical-grade respirator-type masks on public transport and when going to supermarkets. Simple cloth or homemade masks are not allowed in such cases.

Read more …

Will this wake up more politicians?

Facebook Blocks News From Australia – Yes, The Entire Country (CTH)

Australian officials are pushing back against the totalitarian grip of Big Tech. {Go Deep} As a result of investigations into Google and Facebook the Australian government is set to establish fines against tech companies for anti-trust violations. However, some officials are now discussing taking actions that are beyond civil lawsuits, and are now advocating for arrest of company officers for unlawful conduct. The battle lines are being drawn, and in response to the Australian government position on anti-trust Facebook (feeling they are elite and above the law) has now decided to block all news articles from the entire country from their social media platform.


FACEBOOK ANNOUNCEMENT – […] this means people and news organisations in Australia are now restricted from posting news links and sharing or viewing Australian and international news content on Facebook. Globally, posting and sharing news links from Australian publishers is also restricted. To do this, we are using a combination of technologies to restrict news content and we will have processes to review any content that was inadvertently removed.

Read more …

“Does Facebook truly believe that their actions will change the political outcome? Or are they sending a signal to other sovereign powers—such as the EU, India and the USA—that Facebook is itself a sovereign power..”

The Deplatforming Of Australia (Mark Pesce)

Can a whole country be deplatformed? That question confronts all of Australia today, as Facebook (for Facebook, read Mark Zuckerberg, who autocratically controls the social media giant) suddenly went nuclear, blocking all postings from news sites by its Australian users, and blocking those same users from seeing news postings from any source, anywhere in the world. All of this seemingly in response to a law that hasn’t even passed through Parliament. It feels like a dummy spit for the ages, the kind of moment that historians will simply chuckle over—and it is. But there’s much more here: never before in history has any technology firm gone head-to-head with the legitimate democratic apparatus of a highly advanced state. Australia is neither an economic backwater nor new to the Internet. That’s what makes this all a bit terrifying.

The cheek of it: a trillion-dollar social media firm twists a few dials, drops in some barely-functioning algorithms—that blocked NASA and The Betoota Advocate along with the ABC, News, Seven and Nine—and voila! the entire media landscape alters, bringing the nation’s focus to a foreign technology firm that appears to be acting to interrupt the legislative workings of a democratic sovereign power. If Facebook had acted after the bill had passed through Parliament, after the Governor General had given the law royal assent, then, perhaps, it would have seemed somewhat proportionate—just a protection of business interests. Happening now—in the middle of the political process, and seemingly designed to derail that process—it feels a bit more like the Capitol Insurrection: a bit of violent theatre designed to derail another political process.

Does Facebook truly believe that their actions will change the political outcome? Or are they sending a signal to other sovereign powers—such as the EU, India and the USA—that Facebook is itself a sovereign power, and will use that power to assert its own interests? Both of these alternatives feel like a scenario from dystopian science fiction. Yet this is the problem we now find ourselves in with Big Tech. We’ve nurtured these firms with our attention and our dollars, both of which they’ve converted to raw power. And now, when that power has been turned against us, we recognise the true cost of our addictions to our newsfeeds, our community groups—even those status updates from our families. All of it fed a monster, now unleashed, wreaking havoc with Australia’s democratic interests.

Read more …

Facebook, Hong Kong, the vaccine industry, what’s the difference?

Hong Kong Aiming For Legislation To Ban Insulting Public Officials (ZH)

Hong Kong’s government is currently in the process of introducing legislation that would prohibit insulting public officials. We can only imagine the insults that were muttered when local citizens read the news from local media. Hong Kong’s Security Bureau is in the midst of leading a study on how the legislation could work and how it would be overseen, according to Bloomberg. Local outlets said, citing Civil Service Secretary Patrick Nip, that the issue was under examination. The legislation would be part of a broader agenda by China to “erode basic freedoms” in Hong Kong. The move would be the biggest to censor free speech in Hong Kong since China’s institution of a law that has been used to combat mass protests in Hong Kong.


Beijing has also implemented a “patriotism test” to weed out pro-Democracy lawmakers. The test prompted mass resignations from opposition members in the Legislative Council last November, Bloomberg notes. Bloomberg also noted that Hong Kong judges and law enforcement are unlikely to challenge any new legislation from Beijing: Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s top court ordered that media tycoon and democracy activist Jimmy Lai remain in jail ahead of his trial on foreign collusion charges, a victory for Beijing that suggested Hong Kong judges were unlikely to challenge the security law. Hong Kong police also separately arrested Lai for assisting in an activist’s attempt to flee to Taiwan, the Oriental Daily reported on Wednesday, without citing anyone. Recall, back in June 2020, Hong Kong passed a law banning insults to China’s National Anthem.

Read more …

There are thousands already. If you boost your immune system, that is much less scary.

Vaccine Rollout Will Trigger New Covid Variants, Oxford Scientist Warns (RT)

A senior scientist at Oxford University has warned the global rollout of Covid-19 vaccines will prompt the virus to mutate, driven by “immunological selection” rather than the adaptations we have seen so far. Speaking to the UK Commons Science and Technology Committee on Wednesday, Professor Sir John Bell, Oxford’s regius professor of medicine, said that the Covid-19 mutations observed so far are a result of the virus adapting to be more effective in its new hosts, humans. “Most of the variants we have seen so far represent that kind of adaptation to a new species; it’s a bit like moving into a new apartment, you are shuffling the sofa around and making sure the TV is in the right place,” Bell told colleagues and lawmakers.


“What we will see between now and the end of the year is a number of variants which are driven by immunological selection, largely by the vaccines, and that will add another layer of complexity.” Bell added that a number of variants that currently exist have already demonstrated some “quite profound resistance” to existing immunity, either from previous Covid-19 infection or vaccines, citing people who have been reinfected by the Brazilian and South African strains. Despite this, Bell said there was good news in the fight against Covid-19, in that current vaccines do appear to have an impact on existing variants and are capable of stopping severe disease. “We need to be conscious of the new variants, we need to be ready to make new vaccines if we need them, but I am pretty clear our existing vaccines are going to work to some extent [against known variants],” the Oxford scientist stated.

Read more …

“Player apprehensions about receiving the vaccine are consistent with those that also exist in Black communities..”

Many Top NBA Players Hesitant To Promote Coronavirus Vaccines (ESPN)

Many of the NBA’s top players are expressing apprehension about accepting invitations to participate in league-sponsored public service announcements to bolster broader acceptance of the coronavirus vaccine, sources told ESPN. The NBA’s outreach to the agents of many of the league’s elite players — with hopes of getting stars to participate in PSAs to promote the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine — has been met with a tepid response, sources said. Player apprehensions about receiving the vaccine are consistent with those that also exist in Black communities throughout the country, agents and players told ESPN.

Sources describe a number of factors contributing to many players’ reluctance to participate, including uncertainty about taking the vaccine themselves, reluctance to advocate its use for others and resistance to extending favors to a league amid the largely unpopular plans for an All-Star Game. On a call with league general managers on Tuesday, commissioner Adam Silver continued to tell top team executives that the league wouldn’t “jump the line” of the general public to get vaccines, but he suggested an optimistic timeline that included the possibility of late March and early April for the start of player vaccinations, sources said. Nevertheless, that’s considered a fluid timeline, largely meant to reaffirm to teams the need to be prepared for whenever the opportunity to vaccinate players comes from public health officials, sources said.

The NBA shared with teams an expectation of 70 million to 100 million vaccine doses likely distributed by mid-March. In the hours after the call with the league’s GMs, Dr. Anthony Fauci — the nation’s leading infectious disease expert — told CNN that his original hope of April as a target for widespread vaccine availability for those outside of priority groups could be pushed back. “That timeline will probably be prolonged into mid- to late May and early June,” Fauci told CNN.

Read more …

“The way I see it, getting the vaccine is for me. It protects me. If I am not getting it, it’s my choice, and I’d only be hurting myself,” she said. The coronavirus vaccines available haven’t been tested on pregnant women, but also haven’t been shown to affect pregnancy and are viewed as generally safe. [..] The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that getting vaccinated is “a personal choice for people who are pregnant..”

Waitress Fired From NYC Eatery For Not Getting Covid Vaccine (DM)

A New York waitress was fired from her job on Monday after she told her bosses at a tavern that she wanted to wait to get the COVID-19 vaccine until she could learn more about its side effects on women who are pregnant. Bonnie Jacobson, 34, said she is not an ‘anti-vaxxer’ but wanted to wait for more research as she recently starting trying to get pregnant with her husband, she told DailyMail.com. Jacobson, who started working at the Red Hook Tavern in August, said the restaurant first sent out an email on February 8 which said: ‘If you choose to get vaccinated, here’s what you need to know.’ That email, reviewed by DailyMail.com, did not tell employees that vaccinations were required.

Jacobson said she told her manager during a staff meeting that she wanted more time to research the vaccine and said her manager initially understood her concerns, telling her she would not be required to get the shot. But the Brooklyn tavern changed its mind days later on February 12 and sent workers and email noting the vaccines were mandatory. Please be advised that we will require that all employees receive the vaccination,’ notes the email. This will be mandatory for all existing employees and any new hires. The exception to this policy will be if your own personal health or disability prohibits you from obtaining this vaccination. We encourage you to consult your healthcare professional to determine if getting a vaccine is right for you.’

Jacobson then emailed her employers on Saturday and said that she did not yet want to get the vaccine, which she said she ‘fully supports.’ ‘I am choosing not to get the vaccine because there just isn’t enough data or research at this point on its effects on fertility,’ she wrote to her boss.

Read more …

How do I find out?

How Well You Fared With Covid19 Might Be Down To Neanderthal Genes (RT)

Has Covid-19 floored you? Or did you only suffer mild symptoms? The answer to how your body responds to coronavirus could very well be influenced by the Neanderthal genes you carry, according to researchers in Germany. Svante Paabo and Hugo Zeberg of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have been looking to the genes inherited from our Neanderthal ancestors – and the pair’s studies suggest that our modern-day responses to Covid-19 are part of a genetic lottery played out over 40,000 years. Their latest study suggests that a genetic mutation in genes linked to our ancestral Neanderthal relatives might reduce the risk of severe infection by about 22 percent.

The mutation, which helps fight off RNA viruses, has been found in all Neanderthal DNA samples tested and is present in about 30 percent of samples from people with European and Asian backgrounds today. In September, the pair co-authored another study that looked at a different set of Neanderthal genes found in some 50 percent of Asians and 16 percent of Europeans. People that carried that particular gene sequence were found to be more susceptible to developing serious respiratory problems after contracting Covid-19. Neanderthals are known to have lived alongside – and interbred with – modern humans in Europe and Asia before becoming extinct some 40,000 years ago.

Paabo and Zeberg compared DNA samples from 2,200 people with samples taken from four ancient humans – a 70,000-year-old Neanderthal from Siberia, a 50,000-year-old Neanderthal from Croatia, and two separates samples from Denisova Cave in Siberia, to reach their findings for the most recent study. Previously, they had looked at samples from some 3,000 people for the study published in Nature.

Read more …

How is he still in office?

Cuomo-gate: A Nixonian Scandal Is Engulfing New York (DP)

The biggest political scandal in America right now is playing out in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in a lot of trouble — and rightly so. The Democratic governor did not merely wildly mismanage his state’s response to the COVID emergency, while netting himself a lucrative book deal and an Emmy. He did something worse. In the middle of a public health emergency, he used his office to help one of his largest political donors shield itself from legal consequences as 15,000 nursing home residents died from COVID — and then he and his administration underreported that death toll, helping the same donor. The Daily Poster had been covering the story for months before it exploded this week. The scandal is a cautionary tale of hubris, megalomania, and corruption that left a literal mountain of preventable COVID deaths in its wake.

Now we are about to see whether a blue state’s democratic institutions can hold wrongdoers accountable, or whether America’s culture of impunity can once again protect the powerful from facing any consequences at all. Amid a cacophony of demands for Cuomo to resign, the governor and his aides are frantically trying to cover up the basic facts of what happened, and that includes launching a Nixonian campaign of intimidation and retribution against Democratic lawmakers who have for months been sounding the alarm. Two national news outlets today detailed Cuomo’s new campaign of retribution against one lawmaker in his own party who dared to ask questions about constituents and family members who died under Cuomo’s nursing home policies.

Cuomo held a press conference to publicly berate the same Democrat, while another New York news outlet reported that other lawmakers are now facing threats. For months, these legislators’ questions were ignored by a national media that has seemed far more interested in valorizing Cuomo than in reporting inconvenient facts. But those facts are worth reviewing, because they illustrate the direct link between the underreporting of nursing home deaths and the push for corporate immunity. They also spotlight the very real human carnage that can result when an imperious, out-of-control politician is unwilling to engage in any contrition, self-reflection, or reform.

Read more …

Whether it’s Cuomo or Abbott, it’s clear that crises expose incompetence.

Texas Governor Blames Power Outages on Wind, Solar (CD)

As millions of Texans struggled desperately to keep warm amid power outages stemming from the devastating winter storm sweeping the nation, the state’s Republican governor late Tuesday blamed solar and wind for the blackouts—despite the fact that Texas relies overwhelmingly on fossil fuels—and claimed the crisis shows that the Green New Deal would be a “deadly deal” for the United States. “Texas is blessed with multiple sources of energy, such natural gas and oil and nuclear, as well as solar and wind,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in an appearance on “Hannity” Tuesday night. “Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10% of our power grid. And that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power in a statewide basis.”

Abbott was far from the first Republican to deploy such blatantly false talking points in response to the ongoing crisis in Texas, which has left at least 10 people dead. But the governor’s decision to appear on Fox News and attack a policy that has not even been implemented as Texans resorted to burning their belongings to keep their children warm was viewed as yet another example of his failed leadership. “Five million Texans are without power tonight and temperatures are below freezing. People will most certainly die tonight because of it,” said Sawyer Hackett, senior adviser to Julián Castro. “But Gov. Abbott had time to go on Sean Hannity to blame the Green New Deal.” Citing an official with the state’s Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT), The Texas Tribune reported that as of Tuesday afternoon “16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, was offline. Nearly double that, 30 gigawatts, had been lost from thermal sources, which includes gas, coal and nuclear energy.”

“Texas is a gas state,” Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Tribune. “Gas is failing in the most spectacular fashion right now.” But that hasn’t stopped Texas Republicans like Abbott and Rep. Dan Crenshaw from attempting to blame frozen wind turbines for outages that could continue for days, endangering lives and coronavirus vaccines. In response to Abbott’s “Hannity” interview, Texas voting rights advocate Charlie Bonner tweeted, “He is lying. People are dying, and he is on Fox News lying to you. We are living in fear and Greg Abbott is playing politics with our lives.” “Greg Abbott doesn’t care if you live or die tonight so take care of each other, my friends,” Bonner added. “We’re living in a failed state.”

Read more …

“The financial repression of central banks begins with a misdiagnosis assuming that low growth and below-target inflation is a problem of demand, not of the previous excess..”

Subzero Rates Are Coming to the US and the UK (Lacalle)

Negative rates are the destruction of money, an economic aberration based on the mistakes of many central banks and some of their economists, who all start from a wrong diagnosis: the idea that economic agents do not take more credit or invest more because they choose to save too much and therefore saving must be penalized to stimulate the economy. Excuse the bluntness, but it is a ludicrous idea. Inflation and growth are not low due to excess savings, but because of excess debt, which perpetuates overcapacity with low rates and high liquidity and zombifies the economy by subsidizing the low-productivity and highly indebted sectors and penalizing high productivity with rising and confiscatory taxation.

Historical evidence of negative rates shows that they do not help reduce debt, they incentivize it. They do not strengthen the credit capacity of families: the prices of nonreplicable assets (real estate, etc.) skyrocket because of monetary excess and because the lower cost of debt does not compensate for the greater risk. Investment and credit growth are not subdued because economic agents are ignorant or saving too much, but because they don’t have amnesia. Families and businesses are more cautious in their investment and spending decisions, because they perceive, correctly, that the reality of the economy they see each day does not correspond to the cost and the quantity of money.

It is completely incorrect to think that families and businesses are not investing or spending. They are only spending less than what central planners would want. However, that is not a mistake from the private sector side, but a typical case of central planners’ misguided estimates, which come from using 2001–07 as “base case” of investment and credit demand instead of what those years really were: a bubble. The argument of the central planners is based on an inconsistency: that rates are negative because markets demand them, not because they are imposed by the central bank. If that is the case and the result would be the same, why don’t they let rates float freely? Because it is false.

Think for a moment what type of investment, company, or financial decision is profitable with rates at –0.5 percent but unviable with rates at 1 percent. A time bomb. It is no surprise that investment in bubble-prone sectors is rising with negative rates and that nonreplicable and financial assets are skyrocketing. Instead of strengthening economies, negative rates make governments more dependent on cheap debt. Public debt trades at artificially low yields, and politicians abandon any reformist impulse, preferring to accumulate more debt. The financial repression of central banks begins with a misdiagnosis assuming that low growth and below-target inflation is a problem of demand, not of the previous excess, and ends up perpetuating the bubbles that it sought to solve.

Read more …

“Between Jan. 4, 2017 and Jan. 24, 2017, nearly every major assumption of the FBI’s Russia collusion theory was gutted..”

Twenty Days Of Infamy: The January 2017 Red Flags The FBI Blew Past (JTN)

From its earliest moments, the FBI’s Russia collusion probe was always fraught with warning signs. Agents were told Christopher Steele provided faulty information, had likely been compromised by Russian intel disinformation, wanted to defeat Donald Trump, had leaked to the media and was being paid by Hillary Clinton, who herself might be carrying out an epic dirty political trick to vilify Trump with false information to distract from her own scandals. Those intelligence reports alone should have given agents pause. The fact that Steele had been terminated by the FBI as an informant for leaking also should have weighed heavily.

But if ever there were red lights screaming for the FBI to end the counterintelligence probe, they were flashing during a harrowing 20-day window in January 2017 as Barack Obama was leaving office and Trump was coming in. Between Jan. 4, 2017 and Jan. 24, 2017, nearly every major assumption of the FBI’s Russia collusion theory was gutted, according to recently declassified evidence reviewed by Just the News. Months of investigating Trump adviser Mike Flynn had turned up “no derogatory information,” and agents recommended shutting down that part of the inquiry after concluding Flynn wasn’t aiding Moscow. Two separate informant recordings of Trump adviser Carter Page — the target of an ongoing FISA warrant — produced stunning evidence of innocence.

U.S. intelligence had concluded a key allegation in the Steele dossier was Russian disinformation. And Steele’s primary sub-source — whom the FBI assessed was likely tied to Russian intelligence — discounted much of the information attributed to him in the dossier. Even Director James Comey was telling colleagues there wasn’t much corroborated in the dossier. And yet somehow, some way, the FBI accelerated the investigation even though overwhelming evidence showed — as lead investigative agent Peter Strzok would later text his colleague — there was “no big there, there.”

Read more …

It doesn’t matter. She will be believed by her fans, and that’s all that counts.

VP Harris Gets Two Pinocchios For ‘Starting From Scratch’ Comment (JTN)

A Washington Post fact check has given a statement made recently by Vice President Kamala Harris a rating of two Pinocchios. “There was no national strategy or plan for vaccinations. We were leaving it to the states and local leaders to try and figure it out. And so in many ways, we’re starting from scratch on something that’s been raging for almost an entire year,” Harris said during an interview with Axios. In the Post fact checking piece Glenn Kessler writes that Harris “gets into trouble when she says ‘we’re starting from scratch.’ The Biden administration appears to have had to fill in the blanks of the Trump plan and certainly did speed up the tempo of what the Trump administration envisioned. It has added a federal component and pushed for funding for states,” Kessler wrote.


“Biden administration officials may be proud of what they have accomplished, but they shouldn’t suggest that nothing was in place when they walked in the door. They have built on an existing structure left behind by the Trump team. Harris modified her comment by saying ‘in many ways,’ but that’s not quite enough to avoid Pinocchios,” he wrote. Two Pinocchios is like a rating of “half-true,” according to the Post’s explanation of the Pinocchio Test ratings. “Significant omissions and/or exaggerations. Some factual error may be involved but not necessarily. A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing with words and using legalistic language that means little to ordinary people,” the Post says about the two Pinocchio rating.

Read more …

Ha ha ha. “His latest comments quickly sparked a liberal uproar on social media, with critics calling the Fox News host “bitter,”“offensive,” and “deranged.”

‘A Love As Real As Climate Change’: Tucker Carlson About Joe & Jill Biden (RT)

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has outraged Democrats once again after he appeared to suggest President Joe Biden’s relationship with his wife is a carefully-devised PR campaign, mockingly saying it is “as real as climate change.” Reacting to the glowing coverage celebrating Biden’s public displays of affection with his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, and glee over a supposed return to ‘normalcy’ following chilly public interactions between former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania, Carlson put his own spin on the situation. “Not since Antony dined with Cleopatra at downtown Antioch, before they killed themselves obviously, has a country witnessed a love story as moving and poignant as Jill and Joe’s,” said Carlson sarcastically on his Tuesday show.


“No, ladies and gentlemen, Jill Biden is not Joe’s caretaker. She isn’t his nurse. She’s his fully-equal romantic partner. Together they are like besotted teens, yet at the same time they are the wise and knowing parents of a nation,” he continued. He then implied the public displays of affection were “part of a slick PR campaign devised by cynical consultants,” designed to “hide the president’s senility,” adding that in his view, their love is “as real as climate change.” Carlson has previously shot down concerns about climate change, calling it “systemic racism in the sky” – “You can’t see it, but rest assured it’s everywhere and it’s deadly.” His latest comments quickly sparked a liberal uproar on social media, with critics calling the Fox News host “bitter,”“offensive,” and “deranged.”

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle February 18 2021

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 42 total)
  • Author
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  • #69876

    Ansel Adams Church, Taos, Pueblo 1942   • Masked Drivers Banned From Wearing Sunglasses & Hats in Saxony (RT) • Facebook Blocks News From Aus
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 18 2021]

    #69877
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Ansel Adams Church, Taos, Pueblo 1942

    IMO that photo’s composition is flawless…
    A veritable feast for mine eyes………………

    #69878
    Polder Dweller
    Participant

    More nose sprays

    An anti-covid nose spray for ferrets

    Translated:
    A nasal spray containing a newly developed antiviral protects ferrets against infection with the corona virus for 24 hours. Scientists from Erasmus MC in Science, among others, write this. They are now preparing studies in humans.

    This is a small study with a handful of ferrets. “So we are not talking about a drug that will be on the market next week”, emphasizes virologist Rory de Vries of Erasmus MC. “We are in the early development phase and now want to investigate whether this also works in humans.”

    Deliberately infect

    The researchers first deliberately infected three ferrets with the corona virus. All three were put in their own cage. Six ferrets were then given the nasal spray with the antiviral agent and six other ferrets were given a placebo nasal spray. The twelve ferrets were distributed in the cages and spent 24 hours with their infected congeners.

    Afterwards, it was found that the ferrets who received the placebo nasal spray all developed a corona infection. The ferrets that received the antiviral were not infected. Three weeks later it was also found that the placebo ferrets had produced antibodies against the virus and the ferrets that had received the antiviral drug had not.

    Invade cells

    The agent works by preventing the coronavirus from entering cells. In order to get into the cell, the virus must first attach to the cell with its so-called spike protein. Then the spike protein has to change shape so that the virus and the cell fuse together.

    Precisely before that last step, the antiviral means a stop. “To change shape, two pieces of the spike protein have to zip together, as it were,” says virologist De Vries. “Our agent blocks one of the two pieces of zipper, so that it no longer works and the virus does not enter the cell.”

    Step to the human

    “This is interesting research,” says medical virologist Mariet Feltkamp of the LUMC. “It really prevents ferrets from getting infected. I would certainly invest in further research if I had the opportunity.”

    Still, Feltkamp keeps a blow to the arm. “Ferrets are not people. So the first question is whether this also works in humans. If so, does it have side effects? I am also curious how often you can use such a drug. Imagine you are on the train every day and are a little scared, can you use a nasal spray like that every day? And will it become a spray, or maybe a puff will work better? ”

    Immunologist Dimitri Diavatopoulos from Radboudumc is also enthusiastic. “This has a lot of potential. If the drug also works in humans, it can help to prevent infections until there are enough vaccines. The advantage is also that it is accessible and easy to use.”

    #69879

    Still, Feltkamp keeps a blow to the arm.

    That is funny. Google translate is far from perfect.

    #69880
    Polder Dweller
    Participant

    Yes, Google has not in the holes when he makes a mistake translating idiom.

    #69881
    Basseterre Kitona
    Participant

    According to the Bild newspaper, Saxony became the first region in Germany to ban hats and sunglasses on masked drivers. “Wearing a hat and sunglasses in addition to a mask that covers the face and mouth makes [the driver] unrecognizable. So that’s not allowed,”

    The fashion police need to end. Now.

    It doesn’t matter. She [Kamala Harris] will be believed by her fans, and that’s all that counts.

    What fans? Kamala got less than 1% support in the Democrat primary.

    #69882
    zerosum
    Participant

    Right on.
    “Whether it’s Cuomo or Abbott, it’s clear that crises expose incompetence.

    https://commons.commondreams.org/t/he-is-lying-people-are-dying-calls-for-texas-governor-to-resign-as-he-blames-power-outages-on-wind-and-solar/87838
    ‘He Is Lying. People Are Dying’: Calls for Texas Governor to Resign as He Blames Power Outages on Wind and Solar
    Wednesday, February 17, 2021
    byCommon Dreams
    byJake Johnson, staff writer
    (check out the replies – 127 replies)

    (Blame is not being properly assigned. Both, republicans/capitalists, and democrats/socialists, hide their incompetence by lying.)
    ———-
    V. Arnold
    Problem # 1
    “My guess is that the average person has no understanding that one way or another, the piper will be paid.
    The true cost will be widespread poverty and early deaths from myriad causes; all leading back to a government out of control sinking into the abyss of its unpayable debt.

    I can’t see it leading anywhere but into world war…
    The Average person has flawed critical thinking. There are other solutions.

    Problem # 2
    Boil water advisory
    Where is the water? No water available
    No money. No electricity. No natural gas. No source of heat.
    No critical thinking. No solution
    ———
    • Twenty Days Of Infamy: The January 2017 Red Flags The FBI Blew Past (JTN)
    Now that we know the facts, and the lies
    Results,Today, nobody changed their mind?

    Does the past matter?
    Or
    Will the pass, ( that you did not know existed), change the future?
    Hillary on benghazi – What does it matter!

    #69883
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Airport frisks from almost two decades ago were just rough ground clearing for the paved road that “story” about NY waitress is about, or better yet this entire “Covid story”. There was a reason that note that she was give did not explicitly demand that vaccine was mandatory. “They” want us to come to that “conclusion” by ourselves.
    Invoking declaration 217A – article 5 (from 12-10-1948) that prohibits anyone to even touch another person without that person’s consent is useless to memorize. Dr Mengele is is rolling in his grave with: “What the f**k I was prosecuted for?”.

    Food for thought for the lovers of “isms” (that they have no say or control about):
    No young woman in the poorest corners of the world, clearly not being able to buy decent clothes or make up, would have had that mental construct in her head like in Twitter caption above.

    #69885
    Dr. D
    Participant

    ” Vaccine Rollout Will Trigger New Covid Variants, Oxford Scientist Warns (RT)”

    Vaccines don’t work. Got it. But that’s okay, even last week when you said they worked, we still had to wear masks and mail all our money in small, unmarked bills, to Wm. Gates and Jeffery Bezos, if we ever want to see our economy alive again.

    “Many Top NBA Players Hesitant to Promote Coronavirus Vaccines (ESPN)”

    Now why would this be since medicine has never not been lying to them in all American history?
    Tuskegee much? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study

    “The way I see it, getting the vaccine is for me. It protects me. If I am not getting it, it’s my choice,”

    I hate to say it, but “my body my choice”? It makes it crabby and political, but really, can someone explain to me, or has everyone gone crazy?

    “genes inherited from our Neanderthal ancestors”

    I wouldn’t give a nickel the science of “Neanderthal genes” is even a real thing. How would you know? Just last year epigenetics were totally fake, conspiracy pseudo-science and we see how that turned out. The PCR is a “genetic” test in a way and they’re almost completely fake. Same with the FBI DNA forensics lab. Should I go on? If they said it, it’s false.

    “Cuomo-gate: A Nixonian Scandal Is Engulfing New York (DP)”

    Andrew has now killed more New Yorkers than any New Yorker in history, ever. I’m shocked he’s being investigated though. I thought they liked this kind of thing. Fauci said he was the best in the world, a model for all states. He won an Emmy. Killin’ some 13,000 folks: what’s not to like? It’s no wonder he was in line to be President. If you don’t kill at least 5 figures, or steal 10 figures, you’re not eligible.

    P.S. when do we arrest Fauci as an active accessory? A: Never. We approve of him too.

    Dan Crenshaw from attempting to blame frozen wind turbines”

    There are like 5 things broken and out at once. Everyone is just picking their favorite. It’s not YOUR of 5 that broke it and all others contributed, it’s ALL of 5.

    So…they are outlawing petrol and going all-electric, like Jaguar. I’ll say again: anybody double the grid for this, where they claim we’ll be all electric by 2025?

    I guess not.

    And you wonder why vile, bitter, vitriol is the only thing out of my mouth for these people. And I say – now for decades – “They are going to kill everyone.” Dope-de-dope, “No they won’t, you’re just ___fill in dumb, irrelevant objection here___.”

    They only thing they are building, the only thing they are engineering right now, is MASS DEATH. Can Texas wake us up to that fact? Or are we going to just keep blaming and not changing? Not THEM, not the other guy, not “government”: YOU.

    But we don’t even have a functioning government, at any level, as we’ve just proven in 20 different ways, so I’m having a great time. I think it’s awesome. Couldn’t be happier. Maybe people will start to join me in taking responsibility for themselves for a change and cut off the hog-trough coming out of D.C. and every level of government down to the dog shelter. Have you noticed they’re not going to help you? Have you seen their every action make things worse, even in Texas? Just like Social Security, Retirement, Stock Market, Education, and now Health Care. Reverse Midas:

    “Everything government touches turns to crap.” –Ringo Starr

    ““You can’t see it, but rest assured it’s everywhere and it’s deadly.”

    You could add this about every subject in the news: every noun, verb, pronoun, and adjective. None of them are real, none of them can be seen, and all of them are more deadly than super-deadly extra-novochok Russian-bot herpes ebola. And yet no one dies. There is no death rate. Violent crime was falling for decades.

    100% of everything said is fake. So be very, VERY afraid. You’ll all die without us. Without our “helping”. Vote for Burr, and keep that money comin’!!!

    Here’s an invisible thing about to kill you: the economy is about to re-set. The dollar will be taken out. Just like ’08 when the Fed came out and said “the banks are fine”. Why did you say that? Do you come out and say “The sky is blue?” Cramer screams “Buy Bear Stearns! BuyBuyBuy!!!” The Fed says, “No we don’t care about Bitcoin, it’s no problem to us and is just fair pricing.” …As everyone prints money to buy Bitcoin. That’s called a “Currency swap”, where one money loses confidence and moves into another money, and it’s highly disruptive, and those disruptions are fatal. Like food trucks don’t run. Without dollars, new gas-frack wells aren’t run. Wood stoves aren’t shipped from China.

    You’re on your own. The government is so scared, so unconfident, so certain it’s about to go bad RIGHT NOW, they ring-fenced themselves in. But can’t even save themselves, and won’t. Say again: You’re on your own. Proceed accordingly.

    #69886
    John Day
    Participant

    Wood stoves, cont. from last night:

    @Michael
    Reid: That Kitchen Queen is a LOT of cook stove, more than we will be able to properly use in central Texas, though it looks like a fine product.
    @V.Arnold: They say the old USA Ashley’s had some problems and the new ones are made in China, like most or all of what US Stove Company sells.
    @Dr.D: Jotul prices are not listed, so I assume they are high.
    In this process I did discover that Home Depot carries wood stoves(Inc. Ashley).
    I like Home Depot’s return policy pretty well, and shipping is free to store..

    #69889
    John Day
    Participant

    Texas’ only nuclear power plant, STNP, is not powering 2 million homes today, because Winter. It was never winterized, because that doesn’t happen very often on the Gulf Coast, so it’s not worth it. Dick Cheney’s company made this power plant. It was supposed to be 3 reactors, but 2 silos had such bad voids in the concrete that they had to give up on them.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/texas-failed-winterize-nuclear-plant-leading-reactor-shut-down

    #69890
    John Day
    Participant

    So, Governor Abbott, it’s solar, wind, natural gas and nuclear to blame, brother.
    Also Winter.
    Hydroelectric is hangin’ in there, though.

    #69891
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    “A senior scientist at Oxford University has warned the global rollout of Covid-19 vaccines will prompt the virus to mutate, driven by “immunological selection” rather than the adaptations we have seen so far.”

    Before, fears of rna vaccines were more theoretical and oriented on long-term aspects: we’re messing with the genome, and that can turn things inside out. Feral DNA running amok like something from a Michael Chrichton novel. But this is a practical aspect affecting people in the more or less immediate future while also demonstrating why the genomic distortion fears are wise to consider.

    Immunological selection sounds is far more efficient a means for a bug to grow fangs than mere random mutation, jah?

    %^&

    @ Raul:

    “How is he still in office?”

    Passivity, hypnotic compliance, social conditioning… that is rapidly unraveling and will at some point end, we fear, with guys like Cuomo hanging from the lamp posts while we fight among ourselves for what can be had.

    %^&

    @ Basseterre Kitona

    “What fans? Kamala got less than 1% support in the Democrat primary.”

    But she is now annointed. I have spoken with intelligent, reasonably informed quote/unquote liberals who think “we’ll be just fine” (verbatim quote) now that Joe and Kamala are in charge. This was said after I mentioned Harris’ enthusiasm not just for prison-for-profit schames, but corrupt sentencing to keep said slave labor at work.

    It’s not about “being fans” of Harris or Biden, it’s about shielding their cognitive dissonance from distrubing facts.

    %^&

    Sub-zero interest rates amid a financial climate where a major inflationary front is colliding with a major deflation front. By the time this is over, money will be falling from the skies like snow… that evaporates upon touching the ground.

    #69892
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ Dr. D

    “100% of everything said is fake. So be very, VERY afraid.”

    While it’s true that virtually everyone is a chronic liar including you and me, sir, it’s also true that we tell the truth a good bit of the time as well. Are you masochistic? Do you enjoy making an illogical ass while also demonstrating that you are obviously highly intelligent, deeply/widely informed, and capable of deep rumination?

    Do you want us to laugh, applaud, throw rotten tomatoes, or all these and more? Or just be very VERY afraid? (In which case you would be more f a sadist than masochist. I enjoy poetic license as much and much more than the average hausfrau, but not as a replacement for accuracy and honesty.

    I don’t mind a bit of hysteria, a bit of paranoia, a bit of whining. But mix all 3 together without distinction and what brews is a crock of shit despite the use of otherwise mostly excellent ingredients.

    It’s fascinating to watch.

    #69893
    John Day
    Participant

    Vitamin-D good, even for Neanderthal great-grandkids.

    #69894
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ John Day

    You might consider
    Kitchen Queen Grand Comfort 550 for heating area 800 – 1500 sq feet

    Or the older design Kitchen Queen 380 similar to the 480 but smaller and similar sized to the grand comfort

    http://www.kitchenqueenstoves.com/home/22-grand-comfort-550-wood-cook-stove.html

    #69896
    zerosum
    Participant

    Texan turtle freezing on the beaches.
    Zoo keepers finding animals frozen to death.
    Only the toughest of Neanderthal are walking around in shorts.

    #69897
    John Day
    Participant

    https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/02/real-threats-in-fake-world.html

    Opening The CIAs Can of Worms, Edward Curtain Thanks Wiggs [attacks and deplatforming on RFK Jr, self-limiting journalistic dissenters]
    ​T​he CIA and the media are part of the same criminal conspiracy,” wrote Douglas Valentine in his important book, The CIA As Organized Crime.​..We have long been subjected to this “information warfare,” whose purpose is to win the hearts and minds of the American people and pacify them into victims of their own complicity, just as it was practiced long ago by the CIA in Vietnam and by The New York Times, CBS, etc. on the American people then and over the years as the American warfare state waged endless wars, coups, false flag operations, and assassinations at home and abroad.
    ​ ​Another way of putting this is to say for all practical purposes when it comes to matters that bear on important foreign and domestic matters, the CIA and the corporate mainstream media cannot be distinguished.
    ​ ​For those who read and study history, it has long been known that the CIA has placed their operatives throughout every agency of the U.S. government, as explained by Fletcher Prouty in The Secret Team; that CIA officers Cord Myer and Frank Wisner operated secret programs to get some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom among intellectuals, journalists, and writers to be their voices for unfreedom and censorship, as explained by Frances Stonor Saunders in The Cultural Cold War and Joel Whitney in Finks, among others; that Cord Myer was especially focused on and successful in “courting the Compatible Left” since right wingers were already in the Agency’s pocket.

    Opening the CIA’s Can of Worms

    ​After being deplatformed on Instagram, and libeled by the New York Time:
    Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Chairman of Children’s Health Defense, said:
    “Every statement I put on Instagram was sourced from a government database, from peer-reviewed publications and from carefully confirmed news stories. None of my posts were false. Facebook, the pharmaceutical industry and its captive regulators use the term ‘vaccine misinformation’ as a euphemism for any factual assertion that departs from official pronouncements about vaccine health and safety, whether true or not. This kind of censorship is counterproductive if our objective is a safe and effective vaccine supply.

    RFK, Jr. Responds to Instagram’s Removal of His Account

    ​ ​Conspiracies for good and for evil do exist now, as they have from time immemorial, Matthew Ehret writes. The only question is which intention do you want to devote your life towards?
    ​ ​If you are starting to feel like forces controlling the governments of the west are out to get you, then it is likely that you are either a paranoid nut job, or a stubborn realist.
    ​ ​Either way, it means that you have some major problems on your hands.​..
    Nancy Pelosi’s official biographer Molly Ball, recently penned a scandalous Time Magazine article entitled
    ‘The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign that Saved the 2020 Elections’ which admitted to this conspiracy saying:
    ​ ​“Even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream- a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information.” (Lest you think that this was a subversion of democracy, Ball informs us that “they were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it.”)
    ​ ​Another conclusion you might come to is that many of the political figures whom you believed were serving those who elected them into office, actually serve the interests of a clique of technocrats and billionaires lusting over the deconstruction of western civilization under something called “a Great Reset”.

    How Conspiracy Theorizing May Soon Get You Labelled a ‘Domestic Terrorist’

    ​ The “incompetence defense”; (These guys/gals just do as they are told, and are comfortable saying their lines with straight faces, no matter how inane.)​ Thanks Wiggs, and Our Girl Helen of DesTroy
    America’s future is in the hands of woefully inept cretins at a time when creativity and innovation are needed more than ever
    ​ ​The US’ future looks grim indeed in the face of a ‘Great Reset’ proposed by the same powers that steered it into a deadly economic quagmire. Why are Americans allowing those who broke their world the privilege of ‘fixing’ it?
    ​ ​Americans with more power and connections than sense have rushed forward over the last year, attempting to seize the right to ‘fix’ a society broken by shockingly stupid responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Entire generations are being rendered suicidally depressed, unemployable, hopelessly alienated, and worse, while the likelihood that the current generation of children will mature into functional adults is rapidly shrinking. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for such a heterogenous population, and this moment calls for an unprecedented degree of creativity and imagination if we are to survive as a society.
    https://www.rt.com/op-ed/515745-wef-biden-failures-future-destruction/

    ​It’s about time, time to get finished with COVID-phobia.
    The cheap, generic anti-parasite drug Ivermectin finally is to undergo rigorous clinical trials in a first-world nation for use in fighting COVID-19. Japan has been hit with a second wave of COVID cases, and as a result, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (population: 13.8 million) is looking for approaches that could minimize stress on available hospital beds.​..
    ​ The Tokyo government hopes to support the trials using some beds at metropolitan and public hospitals. Ivermectin will be given to patients with mild symptoms, comparing their response with those receiving a placebo…
    ​ ​Japan has a large and thriving pharmaceutical industry as well as a respected medical research capability. In fact, Ivermectin was developed in Japan by Kitasato University professor emeritus Satoshi Omura, who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his feat.
    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/02/tokyo_metropolitan_government_plans_clinical_testing_of_ivermectin_for_covid_therapy.html

    ​Brad and Jeremy bith sent versions of this molecular biology analysis of plausible effects of the COVID-19 spike protein, and also the m-RNA based “vaccines” designed to stimulate immune response against the virus. Spike protein​ segments are the critical factor. They seem to be able to cause abnormal folding of intracellular proteins into “prion” configurations. “Prions”, abnormally folded proteins, are what cause “Mad Cow Disease” and the Jacob-Kreuzfeld human equivalent. These configurations cause other pieces of the same protein to also fold abnormally, and this shows up as protein clogs , “amyloid plaques” building up, and making nerve cells and regions of the nervous system malfunction and gradually worsen, as in Alzheimers.
    I am not endorsing this hypothesis, but merely considering it, keeping it in mind.
    The initial binding could be between spike proteins on the surface of the cell transfected by the vaccine and ACE2 on the surface of an adjacent cell. The resulting complex may become internalized. Alternatively, the interaction could initially take place in the cytoplasm of a cell that makes ACE2 and has been transfected with the vaccine RNA coding for the spike protein. The interaction is quite concerning given the belief that the virus causing COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, is a bioweapon [10,11] and it is possible that the viral spike protein may have been designed to cause prion disease​…
    ​ ​Finally, others working in the field have published additional support that COVID-19 vaccines could potentially induce prion disease. Authors [18] found prion related sequences in the COVID-19 spike protein which were not found in related coronaviruses. Others [19] have reported a case of prion disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, initially occurring in a man with COVID-19.
    https://scivisionpub.com/pdfs/covid19-rna-based-vaccines-and-the-risk-of-prion-disease-1503.pdf

    #69900
    Farmer McGregor
    Participant

    @madamski from yesterday: I certainly would not argue that climate change poses a significant problem to humanity, especially over the long term. It is my opinion that resource depletion — which includes potential economic collapse halting industrial production and crippling the fossil fuel industry — is a larger and more imminent problem.

    Your response yesterday was all very well said. I particularly liked this: “James Kuntsler is weird about many things but he is right about this: abandon modernity while you still can…” Years ago I adopted an operative motto from the Archdruid: “Collapse now and avoid the rush”.

    #69901
    John Day
    Participant

    @Michael Reid: Thanks for the additional Kitchen Queen research/advice. Wood stoves in Texas were usually an outdoor kitchen thing, due to excess heat. What we need to do is get something compact, just for winter heating, like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Englander-2-000-sq-ft-EPA-Certified-Wood-Burning-Stove-15-W03/312643309
    We may use heat about half of the days from November through February, maybe a few in March.
    It’s usually a lot warmer here.

    #69902
    zerosum
    Participant

    John Day

    Nice stove.
    Keep a pot of water on the stove to give humidity.(hot water when needed)
    A celling fan will spread the heat faster.

    #69903
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    The latest Excess Mortality estimates for Europe (Week 6, 2021) are less than the corresponding 2019 numbers for all ages.

    https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps#excess-mortality
    (click on “Weekly” instead of “Cumulated”)

    #69904
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ Farmer McGregor

    ““Collapse now and avoid the rush”.”

    Let’s put a ‘c’ at the start of “rush”. 😉 (I want to invoke a Sampson metaphor here, but I wince at the name Sampsonella that my gender would require. Sounds wrong. 😉 )

    I agree that resource depletion is always the primary problem for critters whose existence is based on regular and reliable consumption of what the planet provides. That’s a given. Not enough equals dead. Not to mention that anthropogenic global climate disruption (AGCD) is caused exactly by our extravagant hyper-use of fossil fuels.

    That said, it doesn’t matter if one is killed by a neutron bomb or a mere sliver infection. Dead is dead. Too much bad weather is probably what will finally crush us, imo (barring the unpredictable yet probably inevitable event of a major thermonuclear exchange). The weather disruption will go on for many many decades, long after we’ve run out of fossil energy, and will continue to place overwhelming survival pressure on us in a mostly random and unpredictable way.

    Another way of looking at it: if we had fossil energy abundant enough to last another century at the current consumptiion rate, AGCD would be that much worse and cause even more disruption. (This is not to disagree that running out of energy isn’t by far our most immediately pressing problem. It’s just to say that the cold rain only gets worse where fossil fuels end.)

    It is not a matter of resource availability. That is a primary requirement but a secondary attribute. The primary attribute is human social cooperative behavior, a primary resource that has been in insufficient supply since our mythical forebears ate of the forbidden fruit and Pandora opened that box. You could give us cheap clean unlimited power and we still wouldn’t avoid global catastrophe.

    We are not fit to govern our powers to alter reality. We’re clever but deranged monkeys who look in the mirrors we’ve made and see gods. Intelligence is great fun but not a viable long-term species survival rate for us. ‘scuse the quasi-pun, but all intelligence does with us is go to our heads. ouch

    It’s enough to make a person pray for some kind of answer or help. It’s like a bunch of blind men wearing super-loud bright suits so they can find their way through their darkness.

    Watch Over Us

    #69905
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “Pandora opened that box… It’s enough to make a person pray for some kind of answer or help.”

    Reminds me that “Hope” (or expectation) was in Pandora’s jar of evils, as if Hope was one of the evils. Or maybe not. Prometheus not only gave fire to humanity, he gave hope.

    Prometheus – I stopped mortals from foreseeing their fate.
    Chorus – What kind of cure did you discover for this sickness?
    Prometheus – I established in them blind hopes.

    (from Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus)

    https://reasonandmeaning.com/2017/03/11/hope-and-pandoras-box/

    #69906
    Farmer McGregor
    Participant

    @madamski
    Brilliant discussion. “The weather disruption will go on for many many decades, long after we’ve run out of fossil energy, and will continue to place overwhelming survival pressure on us in a mostly random and unpredictable way.” Agreed. Hence my use of the phrase “over the long term”.

    My grandkids will suffer this far more than myself; I expect to experience the slow-motion train wreck of industrial society breaking down around me — I already see this in subtle ways that very few people comprehend, present company excluded of course! (The $hite is hitting the fan in dribbles — if you watch closely you will see the color of the walls slowly changing.) My endeavor is to provide something of a refuge for my offspring in the years to come.

    Interesting that John Day and Michael Reid have been discussing wood stoves; I have been shopping wood cook stoves and will be ordering a Kitchen Queen in the next few days.

    #69907
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ Farner McGregor

    “…the slow-motion train wreck of industrial society breaking down around me — I already see this in subtle ways that very few people comprehend, present company excluded of course! (The $hite is hitting the fan in dribbles — if you watch closely you will see the color of the walls slowly changing.) ”

    Indeed.

    #69908
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    Texas is freezing. Questions from an outsider: when was the last time that Texas had it this cold for this long? Any ideas how long until the next big freeze?

    In Australia’s south-east, we get red-hot summers about every 8 years, but their frequency is increasing. This summer has been cool and mild, great for personal comfort but not good for ripening fruits and vegetables.

    It all comes under the heading of Instability. Hard to prepare for or against.

    #69909
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ Doc Robinson

    “Reminds me that “Hope” (or expectation) was in Pandora’s jar of evils, as if Hope was one of the evils.”

    The Box surely contained not just evil. Hope is that match in the dark. It requires Despait to exist, Hope, but Despair exists, hence Hope.

    The Box contained wonderful good things… but not in our hands.

    “In Hesiodic scholarship, the interpretive crux has endured:[20] Is the hope imprisoned within a jar full of evils to be considered a benefit for humanity, or a further curse? A number of mythology textbooks echo the sentiments of M. L. West: “[Hope’s retention in the jar] is comforting, and we are to be thankful for this antidote to our present ills.”[21] Some scholars such as Mark Griffith, however, take the opposite view: “[Hope] seems to be a blessing withheld from men so that their life should be the more dreary and depressing.”[22] The interpretation hangs on two related questions: First, how is elpis to be rendered, the Greek word usually translated as “hope”? Second, does the jar preserve elpis for men, or keep it away from men?

    “As with most ancient Greek words, elpis can be translated a number of ways. A number of scholars prefer the neutral translation of “expectation.” Classical authors use the word elpis to mean “expectation of bad,” as well as “expectation of good.” Statistical analysis demonstrates that the latter sense appears five times more than the former in all of extant ancient Greek literature.[23] Others hold the minority view that elpis should be rendered “expectation of evil” (vel sim).[24]”

    Expectation is the prequisite for disappointment. I suppose it depends on where one points that thing.

    #69910
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    ” Intelligence is great fun but not a viable long-term species survival rate for us. ”

    Trait not rate.

    #69911
    WES
    Participant

    We are not likely to run out of fossil fuels anytime soon. We have hundreds if not thousands of years of fossil fuels left.

    The problem is the costs to obtain these fuels. The only time that real practical limits are imposed is when it takes more energy to extract a lessor amount of energy. You normally wouldn’t extract 1 btu of energy if it took 1.1 btu of energy to do it. Still some of this exists. Printing paper money can only cover this type of energy waste (like most shale) for only so long.

    As the costs of fossil fuel extraction rises other forms of energy can sort of begin to compete. Governments of course use taxpayer subsidies to hurry new energy production that uses more energy to produce less energy. Only wealthy countries can afford to do this. Poor countries can’t.

    #69912
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Wes
    We are not likely to run out of fossil fuels anytime soon. We have hundreds if not thousands of years of fossil fuels left.

    Agrees with my information as well.
    EROI — energy return on investment-the ratio of energy received to spent, energy profitability) in physics, economic and environmental energy — the ratio of the amount of usable (useful) energy…

    #69913
    WES
    Participant

    So Australia has been canceled! That is O.K. as the water in their toilets circles down the drain in the wrong direction! Facebook said so!

    Jill loves the money joe brings in. Since she is a doctor, joe is in good hands even if joe doesn’t know it!

    As for the US having “nominal” negative interest rates (NIRP), that isn’t going to happen. If the world’s major reserve currency were to go “nominally” NIRP, then all of the world’s commodity markets would instantly go into permament “backwardation”!

    To get around that problem, the Fed is aiming instead for negative “real” interest rates. This is a world where inflation is higher than the “nominal” slightly positive interest rate.

    We are right now running at least minus 2% real interest rates. The Fed is hoping to drive the real interest rates much more negative soon. It is the only way for the government to avoid having to pay back the debt!

    #69914
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Since she is a doctor, joe is in good hands even if joe doesn’t know it!

    Jill is a Phd.; not an MD… 😉

    #69915
    WES
    Participant

    John Day:

    I have two types of wood stoves. New & Old.

    The house has an EPA stove with an electric blower fan. It burns wood quite efficiently (slowly). It has a feature that circulates unburnt wood gases back towards the front to be burned. It also has fire brick lining inside the fire box.

    The cottage however has a 50 year old wood stove that is basically just a round metal cylinder with a door on the front and a stove pipe coming out the top of the other end. Very simple. The door has an adjustable slider vent opening to help control the burn rate (slower or faster). Also in the stove pipe, above the ood stove, is a butterfly dampener.

    Conclusion: The cottage stove easily burns twice the wood for less heat! Obtaining and cutting enough dried firewood is a big job so don’t under estimate this aspect!

    #69916
    WES
    Participant

    V. Arnold:

    I guess I should have put a “/sarc” at the end of the sentence! Nothing slips by your eyes!

    Yes, I know she has a PhD in basket weaving!

    Unfortunately most Americans think she is an MD! The media always pretends she is.

    P.S. Guess you don’t have any need of wood stoves!

    #69917
    WES
    Participant

    V. Arnold:

    Besides green energy having a negative EROI, there are other examples too.

    One of these is created by the huge price differentials between a btu of natural gas and a btu of oil.

    For example tar sand oil is extracted by using natural gas to heat the tar sands. I have to wonder if this process requires more btus than is produced?

    The same may also apply to making plastics or fertilizers? I am sure there are other examples of negative EROIs that exist. Germans did this to produce oil from coal during WW2.

    #69918
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    P.S. Guess you don’t have any need of wood stoves!

    LOL, not any more. I did heat with wood exclusively for about 10 years. Lived on the western slope of the Cascades, on Squaw Mountain (last house) on the road, at 2500 ft.
    Used 10 cords a year and cut every bit myself with my trusty 041 Stihl and an 8lb. axe eye splitting maul.
    Fond memories, but now far behind me… 😉

    #69919
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Yes, I know she has a PhD in basket weaving!

    Jill has been criticised for insisting to be called, Dr. Jill Biden.
    A bit pretentious, IMO…and maybe a bit insecure?…

    #69920
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ WES

    I said “run out of fossil fuel energy” not run out of fossil fuel.

    @ V. Arnold

    “Jill has been criticised for insisting to be called, Dr. Jill Biden.
    A bit pretentious, IMO…and maybe a bit insecure?…”

    More likely, I think, is that she’s pandering to that annoying U Go GRRL feminist crowd.

    #69921
    WES
    Participant

    V. Arnold:

    One time when I was working in western Wyoming coal mine and had a long weekend, I traveled to Pocotello Idaho then up to Spokane, Washington, then down to Yakima on I82 then to i84 to Pendleton, Oregon and then Le Grande then to Boisie, Idaho then back to Pocotello and then Wyoming.

    Would I have gone anywhere near Squaw Mountain where you lived?

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