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2 ISIS 'Beatles' transferred from Syrian prison to US military custody
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
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1 10:34 Lex [7] 
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4 12:43 Abu Uluque [1] 
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 6: Politix
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7 15:49 Rambler in Virginia [3]
14 15:23 JohnQC [2]
9 14:49 Lex [4]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Democrats' Fear of Durham About to Reach Panic Level
[PJ] The important news of the day--far beyond the inevitable tedious impeachment jousting--is that John Durham's investigation of the provenance of the FBI's counterintelligence investigation of possible Trump-Russia collusion has expanded, according to several administration officials.

Fox News previously reported that Durham would be reviewing the days leading up to the 2016 election and through the inauguration.

However, based on what he has been finding, Durham has expanded his investigation adding agents and resources, the senior administration officials said. The timeline has grown from the beginning of the probe through the election and now has included a post-election timeline through the spring of 2017, up to when Robert Mueller was named special counsel.

That's the same Robert Mueller who testified under oath he was "not familiar" with Fusion GPS after years investigating a supposed scandal instigated by that company. This eye-rolling lie is far more significant than anything he has prosecuted others for. This is the same Mueller who also lied, administration officials just informed us, in denying, again under oath, he interviewed for the FBI job before becoming special counsel.

Actually, it's worse. As the president's former lawyer John Dowd put it: "Capt. Robert Mueller, USMC, sits in front of his commander in chief being interviewed for FBI director knowing he is going to investigate the president and never says a word."

Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 06:22 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hope he has good security.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Capt. Mueller appeared a bit loopy while testifying in recent hearings. He may be having some mental problems for which I'm sorry. Could be a ploy as well to avoid legal problems. He got somewhat tarnished by being associated with Comey, the Clintons and Obama.

What Schiff, Nadler and Pelosi are doing in the House is an abomination. However, it does offer some transparency as to what they have done and what they are up to. They have reason to panic. IMO it will all come back to them in the near future and at the ballot box.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/10/2019 9:41 Comments || Top||

#3  IMO it will all come back to them in the near future and at the ballot box.

I'm sure they've methods to deal with these - see 2018 midterms.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 9:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Hopefully, election rigging has been closed down.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/10/2019 9:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Boomerang time
Posted by: Lex || 10/10/2019 10:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Hopefully, election rigging has been closed down.

I could believe it if I'd read about a lot of people going to jail.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 10:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Trump should recall Mueller to active duty, send him to Alaska and have him burn shit 16 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 10/10/2019 22:09 Comments || Top||


A New Book Targets NBC News and How Harvey Weinstein May Have Leveraged Matt Lauer
[Hollywood Reporter] In his first interview about the explosive 'Catch and Kill,' the journalist reveals fresh claims of secret payouts and how Lauer may have played a role in the network’s decision to kill his 2017 Harvey Weinstein exposé: "I'm very clear about the fact that Harvey was laying siege to NBC."

It was September 2017, and Harvey Weinstein was huddled at a corner table at New York's Loews Regency hotel alongside Dylan Howard, chief content officer of National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc. Weinstein had become increasingly alarmed about a story that Ronan Farrow ‐ then a correspondent for NBC News and most famous for being the son of Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra Woody Allen ‐ was vigorously pursuing about the powerful producer's long-rumored sexual predations. Weinstein had worked to suppress variations of that story for decades, and he was desperate for it to stay secret. But Farrow (along with a team at The New York Times) was closing in. Weinstein wanted to bully NBC News into killing the story. He needed leverage.

Howard pulled out several thick manila envelopes and laid out their contents on the table. The men huddled for hours, strategizing quietly. Weinstein had found a pressure point: Matt Lauer.

"Weinstein made it known to the network that he was aware of Lauer's behavior and capable of revealing it," Farrow writes in his long-awaited new book, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators (Little, Brown and Company, Oct. 15). Citing anonymous sources at NBC and AMI, Farrow, 31, claims that Weinstein was using the Enquirer's accumulated dirt on the Today show star's alleged workplace misconduct to pressure NBC executives to kill Farrow's long-gestating Weinstein exposé. (Farrow also includes a denial from NBC that a specific threat was ever communicated. And in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, the network says: "NBC News was never contacted by AMI, or made aware in any way of any threats from them, or from anyone else, for that matter. And the idea of NBC News taking a threat seriously from a tabloid company about Matt Lauer is especially preposterous, since they already covered him with great regularity.")

Related: Washington Insider - NBC probably fired Megyn Kelly for her Matt Lauer coverage

Related: NY Post - Brooke Nevils calls Lauer defense ‘a case study in victim shaming’
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 03:02 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We all fall ... down. "
Posted by: Lex || 10/10/2019 10:34 Comments || Top||


Jeffrey Epstein's former friend Jean-Luc Brunel ready to speak to prosecutors
Posted from our own JohnQC's comment on yesterday's burg.
[Telegraph] Jeffrey Want Some Candy, Little Girl? Epstein's
...A high class pimp financier who was alleged to maintain a stable of underage whores sex slaves who were paid big bucks to entertain the rich and/or famous. He is a registered sex offender and made att least 17 out-of-court settlements with former members of his stable, with some cases still ongoing. 2011 court docs reveal that 21 email addresses and phone numbers for Bill Clinton and an aide were found in Epstein's electronic black book, and that Clinton frequently flew with Epstein on his private plane between 2002 to 2005. But really, they were probably just discussing finance or politix or something. While getting massaged. Then things got serious, Jeff was tossed in the slammer in New York and then he killed himself. Really. That's what happened...
former close friend and business partner has insisted that he is "not on the run" and is willing to talk to prosecutors, despite not having been seen in public since Epstein’s death.

Jean-Luc Brunel, 74, is a model scout who is said to have "discovered" Jerry Hall, Angie Everhart and Christy Turlington.

The Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation in August into any possible Epstein victims in its territory, and Mr Brunel is of potential interest to investigators.

Last month police searched Karin Models, which Mr Brunel founded.

In court filings, Virginia Guiffre, a long-time accuser of Epstein, claimed teenage girls were brought to the US by Brunel and were "farmed out" by him to have sex with Epstein. Ms Guiffre also claims she was forced to have sex with Brunel several times. Brunel denies both allegations.

His lawyer Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt said Mr Brunel "firmly contests accusations in the press" and "will reserve his statements for justice officials."

On Monday Ms Dreyfus-Schmidt, said that her client has notified the Paris prosecutor's office that he is at the disposition of judicial officials.

He did so before French officials opened a full investigation into the Epstein case. Mr Brunel's whereabouts had been a mystery, with sightings of him in South America the only clue.

Epstein was found dead on August 10 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. Mr Brunel and Epstein appear to have first crossed paths in New York, where the French model scout was based having taken over Karin Models and in 1995 expanded into the US.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 18:49 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope the guy was smart enough to have already done so before this leaked. And video recorded all the conversations and stored teh video in separate safe locations.
Posted by: ruprecht || 10/10/2019 8:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Hope Jean-Luc has real ggod security and doesn't go for walks alone in secluded places......
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 10/10/2019 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Nexivm, Epstein, Buck. Some commonalities here.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/10/2019 9:58 Comments || Top||

#4  It would be interesting if Suicide by Cop was replaced by Suicide by Epstein connection.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/10/2019 17:07 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Tree-Huggers Coming for your Toilet Paper
You can have my Charmin when you pry it from my cold, dead cheeks
[CBSNews] More than 150 groups are pushing the maker of Charmin toiler paper and Bounty paper towels to use recycled materials in its products. Currently, neither of those products uses recycled paper, and about one-third of it is sourced from Canada's boreal forest — a large swath of virgin forest that rings the Arctic Circle and acts as a critical check on climate change.

P&G offers a simple reason for not using recycled wood pulp: It doesn't make for good toilet paper.

Toilet paper made from recycled fibers doesn't have the same qualities, causing people to use more tissue made directly from trees, the spokeswoman added. She also noted that P&G's experience making recycled tissue products shows that "a significant amount of recycled fibers ends up as solid waste sludge going to landfill."
Posted by: Mercutio || 10/10/2019 08:54 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Worse has been thought up, M.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/10/2019 16:44 Comments || Top||

#2  They are welcome to my used TP.
Posted by: Roth LaDoad || 10/10/2019 17:14 Comments || Top||

#3  I might buy some Charmin just to say "Sod Off swampy".
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/10/2019 17:15 Comments || Top||

#4  i make a point to ask for (banned) straws: take them back to my table, bend in half and leave them . unused but broken.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 10/10/2019 19:44 Comments || Top||

#5  I support this, as long as the replacement is made from the skin of tree-huggers.
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/10/2019 20:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Dang it Darth, that's what I was going to say:p You beat me to it.

Given none of these twits do actual work, their skin should be nice and soft.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 10/10/2019 21:50 Comments || Top||

#7  They can have all of it, just after I use it...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 10/10/2019 23:13 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
STDs are spreading like wildfire in the US
[BGR] Despite decades of sexual education and STD awareness campaigns, the rates at which new STD cases are reported continues to rise. A new bulletin by the CDC paints a particularly dire picture of sexual health in the United States, with some diseases reaching levels not seen for almost 20 years, and others reaching legitimate all-time highs.

The CDC’s report is based on data from 2017 to 2018, and it shows a shocking number of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia cases across the nation. The data reveals over 115,000 syphilis cases in that time period and over 580,000 cases of gonorrhea, neither of which have seen levels this high since 1991. Chlamydia? Well, that’s a whole other story.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 07:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Any mention of demographics or potential immigration impacts goes conveniently unmentioned in the BGR article or the CDC report.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 7:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Or sexual proclivities of the infected
Posted by: Frank G || 10/10/2019 7:19 Comments || Top||

#3  syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia...

They forgot debt.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/10/2019 7:58 Comments || Top||

#4  How's those LGQTDBDSYPHILUS rights workin out for ya?
Posted by: Phaick Uneretle6310 || 10/10/2019 8:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Statistics/graphic are alarming.

Farmers causing the problems?
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/10/2019 9:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Of course, you have to go to the actual tables in the report which disaggregate by ethnicity to get the numbers that reveal the real story - a sample:
SYPHILIS - Incidence per 100,000
Males in age brackets 20-24, 25-29, 30-34:
Whites........19.2......26.1......24.9
Hispanics....51.8.....62.3......50.3
Blacks.......118.5...152.7...123.2
Posted by: Lex || 10/10/2019 10:03 Comments || Top||

#7  What's the rate for gay males?
Too bad they didn't collect that data. Probably tells the other half (in addition to ethnicity) of the story.
Posted by: Lex || 10/10/2019 10:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Actually... given that the rate of infection for males in each age/ethnicity cohort is many times higher than for females in each cohort, the data released by CDC point to a good hypothesis as to what's driving this: unprotected sex among young black and Hispanic gay males.

Surprise, surprise.
Posted by: Lex || 10/10/2019 10:11 Comments || Top||

#9  One more thing those 18-26 year-olds still on the parents' health care plan are "contributing" to the economy.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 10/10/2019 10:12 Comments || Top||

#10  #7 - see my #2 comment. IIUC, the medical control of HIV and AIDS has led back to high-risk meth parties with bareback (unprotected) practices
Posted by: Frank G || 10/10/2019 10:31 Comments || Top||

#11  I remember the saying from the late 1960s or early 1970s: "If it feels good, do it."

Maybe not such a good idea; STDs, unwanted pregnancies and abortions.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/10/2019 10:58 Comments || Top||

#12 
Posted by: Hupuse Claigum8122 || 10/10/2019 12:07 Comments || Top||

#13  And here all those girls thought the pill was so liberating.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 10/10/2019 12:38 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Tragic B-17 Bomber Crash: What the News Isn't Saying
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 08:30 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Took a ride on that same B17 back around Memorial Day 2008 out of Livermore, CA. Wonderful gift from Mrs. Warthog.
Posted by: Warthog || 10/10/2019 9:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Readable version of this info?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 10/10/2019 11:01 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China + The Liberal Elite: Get A Room
[Townhall] The NBA can’t disrespect Americans enough for knowing which bathroom to use, or having guns, or not being sufficiently woke, but let the Chinese communists get fussy because some dude dunks the reds over oppression in Hong Kong ‐ you know, supporting freedom ‐ and the billionaire ballers can’t gimp it up fast enough for Mao’s heirs. We haven’t seen such pathetic, eager submission to the forces of evil since the last time some Bulwark scribbler got a chance to be on a CNN panel about Trump with Ana Navarro and a cross-dressing furry.

And it’s not just the rich schmucks who own the basketball teams. It’s our entire elite, the whole useless lot of them, who can’t wait to bow down to the Pinko Peril. You just sprinkle a few bucks around DC and NY and the whole sorry lot of those who presume to be our betters start chanting, "Thank you, comrade, may I have another."

Qatar did the same thing, buying our For Sale betters, except on a smaller scale and with less pork. And now the elite is outraged because Trump sees the scam and can’t be bought ‐ to them, he’s the worst of both worlds.

This latest craven capitulation to foreign potentates by our loser leaders just reaffirms what those of us who are conservawoke know ‐ that our elitists are not for us. They are for themselves, and that means they are for their overseas paymasters. They are for China, not only for that sweet, sweet commie cash, but because the Chinese Communist Party’s stranglehold on the Chinese people provides them with a template for doing the same thing to us. Think of it ‐ a country without accountability or restraint upon the anointed few. Wait a minute, that sounds like Washington, D.C. today ‐ at least if you’re a Democrat.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 01:42 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  May NBA games be as well attended as the NFL.
Posted by: Spirt Glans1838 || 10/10/2019 2:03 Comments || Top||

#2  The amazing thing to me is not that these people turned USA government into a business - it's that they're willing to run that business into the ground to maximize short term profits.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 2:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Include Google and Zuckerberg on that list.
What shitty little characters we have running our oligarchy.
Posted by: Lex || 10/10/2019 10:20 Comments || Top||

#4  The amazing thing to me is not that these people turned USA government into a business - it's that they're willing to run that business into the ground to maximize short term profits.

Well, yes. One thing they haven't yet learned from the Chinese is long term planning.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 10/10/2019 12:43 Comments || Top||


Economy
Markets cautiously optimistic as US-China trade talks resume
[France24] Investors are turning their attention to Washington, where a 13th round of trade talks are set to begin between the US and China. Also today: California's public safety power shutoff could have a massive economic impact. And France's EDF announces another budgetary overshoot at its nuclear power plant in Flamanville, which is already billions of euros over budget and a decade behind schedule.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 07:01 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Home Front: Politix
Book Promotion: Kim Strassel Tells It Like It Is
[Powerline] Kim Strassel is popular with readers of the Wall Street Journal, where she has been a member of the editorial board since 2005 and author of the Potomac Watch column since 2007. She has written two books, The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech, and Resistance (At All Costs): How Trump Haters Are Breaking America, which will be published next week.

Tonight Kim spoke at Center of the American Experiment’s Fall Briefing before a crowd of over 500 at the Ordway Theater in St. Paul. Her themes were drawn from the upcoming Resistance book, and in considerable part were ripped from the headlines. The hardest problem in writing a book about the Russia collusion hoax, the FBI/CIA scandal, and so on, is deciding when to stop and send the manuscript to the publisher. These stories and their sequels continue to dominate the news, and Strassel continues to write insightfully about them in the pages of the Journal. There is no better guide to the significance (or lack thereof) of today’s news stories.

Then Kim talked about the devastation the crazy left has wrought on public life in America. She repeatedly pointed out the absurd double standard whereby actions that constitute "scandals" when carried out by Republicans or conservatives are perfectly normal in a Democratic administration. She argued that the Trump administration has been mainstream in its policies, while the Democrats have violated just about every norm of civilized conduct. She ripped the press, pointing out that Americans hold the press in even lower esteem than Congress‐a bar that requires a limbo act to get under. And she provided a roadmap, as she has in her Wall Street Journal columns, to some of today’s scandals or faux scandals.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 06:34 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Masada On Mount Sinjar - A bit of Kurdish memory hole perspective
[Barely A Blog - 2014 article] The year was A.D. 70 Jerusalem had been sacked, the Temple destroyed. In revolt against the Romans, the Jewish Zealots fled to Masada, a fortress "located atop an isolated rock cliff at the western end of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea." From there they prepared to resist the Romans.

Masada, "a place of gaunt and majestic beauty," writes the Jewish Virtual Library, "has become one of the Jewish people’s greatest symbols as the place where the last Jewish stronghold against Roman invasion stood."

Remarkably, the Zealots held out for three years. But the 1,000 men, women and children were no match for the Roman legion, its battering rams and catapults. "It is still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom," said leader Elazar ben Yair, in a moving address to his people. The Jewish Zealots’ last stand was to kill one another; the last Jew standing fell on his sword.

The Zealots had spared themselves "a crueler fate." Fearing the same in 2014, the Iraqi Yazidis, by Foreign Policy’s telling, have on occasion thrown their children off the Sinjar Mountains or shot them. The sight of the Yazidis driven up the arid, exposed mountain range, chased by the militant Sunni of the Islamic State (ISIS), conjures Masada, where Jews chose to die on their own terms. We will "never be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than to God Himself." So spoke Elazar ben Yair in A.D. 73.

Ethnic Kurds, the Yazidis are members of an ancient sect whose beliefs and practices predate Masada, and can be traced to "Nineveh and Babylon." They fled their hardscrabble lives when "the Islamic State marched into northwestern Iraq, leaving a wake of bodies behind." According to FP’s Gerard Russell, ISIS had already "driven the Christians who live there out of their homes. It has destroyed the crosses on their churches and demanded that they pay a tax or face the penalty of death. It has in the meantime offered the Yazidis a simpler choice: Convert to Islam or die."

But mostly, the choice presented to the Yazidis has been to convert ... and die. For the Islamic State considers this non-Arabic people to be almost as bad infidels.

Purportedly, 40,000 refugees, among them 25,000 children, were said to be stranded on the parched terrains of the Sinjar, in scorching heat, without sustenance. That is until Barack Obama broke up the gathering. Overnight. "That’s enough, Yazidis. Go home, now. The crisis is over." Yes, the president and his minions have pronounced the catastrophe on the Sinjar Mountains over. However, just because the Obama machine declares it so, does not make it so. I would point BHO believers to Channel 4 veteran reporter Jonathan Rugman, who questions‐even mocks‐the administration’s rapid, fact-finding methodology:
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 02:36 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  administration’s rapid, fact-finding methodology:

Oh ho ho ho, that's generous. A cynic might think that the ISIS dog broke off McCain and Obama's leash and started raping and pillaging and rolling up the supposedly stable and US troops evicted Iraq - and here in the US covered for until it stank so bad with the Yzidis it couldn't be ignored. That gal who went to the Iraqi government probably saved thousands by simply bringing attention to the plight.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/10/2019 18:21 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Study finds evidence of genetic changes to prehistoric cranial development human stature
[PHYS.org] A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. has found that genetics played a large role in changes in height for Europeans over the past 38,000 years. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group explains their comparison of skeletal and DNA data from early Europeans.

Prior research has shown that genetics and environmental factors both contribute to height‐those whose parents pass on "tall" genes will likely grow tall, for example, unless they have inadequate nutrition. In this new effort, the researchers wondered whether genetics or environment played a role in the changes in average height that occurred in European people over the past 38,000 years. To find out, they looked at data describing height for 1,100 skeletal remains and compared it with DNA extracted from the remains of 1,071 individuals who once lived in Europe. More specifically, they looked at people living during known periods when there were clearly changes in height.

Prior research has shown that there was an average reduction in height between the Early Upper Paleolithic and the Mesolithic. The reverse occurred between the Mesolithic and Neolithic. Prior studies have also shown that changes in height are generally more pronounced in standing individuals than in those that are sitting, suggesting such changes are due more to leg length, than torso.

In their work, the researchers applied what they describe as polygenic risk (PRS) scores to describe genetic factors contributing to height. They note that such scores have been used to show that approximately 30 percent of variants in modern Europeans can be used to explain height averages. They report that they found that the changes in stature over the past 38,000 years were mostly due to genetic effects caused by population replacements, rather than environmental effects. They note that there were some periods when environment played a larger role, such as during the Bronze Age‐and that geography sometimes played a role, as well. Modern northern Europeans are on average taller than southern Europeans, for example.

Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 07:16 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. has found that genetics played a large role in changes in height for Europeans over the past 38,000 years.

BFO. Check the average height of Japanese pre and post-war. One thing the American occupiers were focused on was making food readily available breaking up the rice cartels and their power over the market. Make significant changes to the (market) environment* and things change. Mr. Darwin to the courtesy phone.

* now the socialists are working hard to reverse that diet advantage in this country. You think they're seeking to 'equalize' the opportunity for playing in the NBA?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/10/2019 9:52 Comments || Top||

#2  On the other hand, pygmies eat meat almost exclusively (once used this Japanese before/after and pygmies in a lecture on genes vs. enviro).
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 10:00 Comments || Top||

#3  (once used this Japanese before/after and pygmies in a lecture on genes vs. enviro).

Rantburg U ruuuuulz! :-D
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/10/2019 21:39 Comments || Top||


Humans will not 'migrate' to other planets, Nobel winner says
[Phys.org] Humans will never migrate to a planet outside of Earth's solar system because it would take far too long to get there, Swiss Nobel laureate Michel Mayor said Wednesday.

Mayor and his colleague Didier Queloz were on Tuesday awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their research refining techniques to detect so-called exoplanets.

"If we are talking about exoplanets, things should be clear: we will not migrate there," Mayor told AFP near Madrid on the sidelines of a conference when asked about the possibility of humans moving to other planets.

"These planets are much, much too far away. Even in the very optimistic case of a livable planet that is not too far, say a few dozen light years, which is not a lot, it's in the neighbourhood, the time to go there is considerable," he added.

"We are talking about hundreds of millions of days using the means we have available today. We must take care of our planet, it is very beautiful and still absolutely liveable."

The 77-year-old said he felt the need to "kill all the statements that say 'OK, we will go to a liveable planet if one day life is not possible on earth'."
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 07:12 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Abilene Paradox and the power of Group Think:

The term was introduced by management expert Jerry B. Harvey in his 1974 article "The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement".[3] The name of the phenomenon comes from an anecdote that Harvey uses in the article to elucidate the paradox:

On a hot afternoon visiting in Coleman, Texas, the family is comfortably playing dominoes on a porch, until the father-in-law suggests that they take a trip to Abilene [53 miles (85 km) north] for dinner. The wife says, "Sounds like a great idea." The husband, despite having reservations because the drive is long and hot, thinks that his preferences must be out-of-step with the group and says, "Sounds good to me. I just hope your mother wants to go." The mother-in-law then says, "Of course I want to go. I haven't been to Abilene in a long time."

The drive is hot, dusty, and long. When they arrive at the cafeteria, the food is as bad as the drive. They arrive back home four hours later, exhausted.

One of them dishonestly says, "It was a great trip, wasn't it?" The mother-in-law says that, actually, she would rather have stayed home, but went along since the other three were so enthusiastic. The husband says, "I wasn't delighted to be doing what we were doing. I only went to satisfy the rest of you." The wife says, "I just went along to keep you happy. I would have had to be crazy to want to go out in the heat like that." The father-in-law then says that he only suggested it because he thought the others might be bored.

The group sits back, perplexed that they together decided to take a trip which none of them wanted. They each would have preferred to sit comfortably, but did not admit to it when they still had time to enjoy the afternoon.

Ronald Sims writes that the Abilene paradox is similar to groupthink, but differs in significant ways, including that in groupthink individuals are not acting contrary to their conscious wishes and generally feel good about the decisions the group has reached.[4] According to Sims, in the Abilene paradox, the individuals acting contrary to their own wishes are more likely to have negative feelings about the outcome. In Sims' view, groupthink is a psychological phenomenon affecting clarity of thought, where in the Abilene paradox thought is unaffected.[5]

Like groupthink theories, the Abilene paradox theory is used to illustrate that groups not only have problems managing disagreements, but that agreements may also be a problem in a poorly functioning group.
[6]

Wiki
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 7:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Gawd only gave the earth to man to tend to and eat from OK, maybe dig oil wells in and race cars around and blow shit up too, but only earth. The planets are off limits until He says so.

Lest man endeavour to usurp the dominium of the Host, Gawd gave him the itch to organize everything into committees and governments and agencies. The spirit of confusion, as it were, inherent in the systems theory bases of every modern endeavour. Neatly arranged on paper, but everybody with their own jargon, their own perspectives, their own agendas and nothing much getting done properly. It's how Nimrod's self-licking ice cream came to naught, and it's how every major 'bigness' project ends. Forget the interplanetary consortiums of SciFi , people can't manage a fucking UN.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/10/2019 8:19 Comments || Top||

#3  I have seen dozens of prominent physicists "prove" that theory of evolution is false. In fact, in my experience - whenever any physicist expresses an opinion on any issue in biology, he's invariably wrong*. I came to the conclusion that Physics was the first of the exact sciences because it's the simplest - so simple that even some physicists understand it.

*Except Einstein who admitted that Biology is a lot more complicated than Physics.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 8:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Although no scientist, I can attest to the power of Physics applied to Biology. The result can change the Civics sometimes, and Economics in the long run.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/10/2019 8:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, you sure as fuck won't Michel Mayor.

Posted by: DarthVader || 10/10/2019 9:04 Comments || Top||

#6  #4 Tech not thinking. Whenever a physicist thinks of biological phenomena it's always along the lines of "Since everything important is taught in physics undergraduate courses, there gotta be a formula that describes (say) immune response in what I learned. Got it! It's the Bernoulli formula for a ball rolling down an inclined slope!"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 9:28 Comments || Top||

#7  The headline is deceptive. He is talking about planets around other stars, not Mars.

"If we are talking about exoplanets, things should be clear: we will not migrate there,"

Would it even be migrating if your grandkids were the ones who arrived?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/10/2019 17:06 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Tucker Carlson on the withdrawal of US troops from Syria
[Barley A Blog] Tucker Carson gets it mostly right. He’s wrong about who the Kurds are as a people; they are just about the only inspiring, proper nation in the region. But Tucker inches closer to the truth regarding the need for the Kurds to align with Syria (or, hint-hint, other regional powers).

There is no longer a mission in Syria, says Tucker. ISIS no longer controls major cities in Syria, which remains a dangerous place for Americans. Yet in Washington they declare it immoral and tantamount to a betrayal to leave Syria, because of the Kurds, about whom the cable cretins know nothing.

Republicans like Ben Sass, Pat Toomey, Mitch and Mitt united with the left‐and with professorial neocons like David Frum, Lindsey Graham, and Nikki Haley (who were all especially apoplectic)‐to hammer home the message: American troops belong in Syria in perpetuity.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 02:41 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMO, MME is for extensive time of troubles because population exceeds the carrying capacity by a considerable margin. When the dust settles, the population will a fraction of the current.
How many of us they drag down with them depends on how soon we replace virtue signaling with, well established, principles of population ecology in our approach to the problem.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 3:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Syrian Kurds should move into Turkey and tip the demographic balance.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/10/2019 13:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
NBA Now Requiring All Players To Stand For Chinese National Anthem
[Babylon Bee] NEW YORK, NY‐In an effort to salvage its relationship with China, the NBA is now requiring all players to stand for the Chinese national anthem at the beginning of every game.

The official song of the People's Republic of China, "March of the Volunteers," will be played at the start of all professional basketball games, whether at home or abroad. All players, fans, coaches, and employees will be required to stand and solemnly sing lyrics including the following:

Millions of but one heart we run towards the Communist tomorrow!
Build our homeland, guard our homeland, and fight gallantly.
March on! March on! March on!
We, for tens of thousands of generations to come,
Hold high the Flag of Mao Zedong, march on!


"We hope this gesture of goodwill will show China that we love them and there is no need for our multi-billion-dollar deal to fall through," said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. "March on, Mao!" Silver then performed a soft jazz rendition of the tune and bowed low to the ground to show President Xi Jinping that he is very sorry.

Anyone who doesn't comply will be shot, a beloved Chinese custom that should further smooth things over with the authoritarian regime.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 08:04 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Babylon Bee ... for now
Posted by: Warthog || 10/10/2019 9:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Who cares? Now if it was the hockey league ...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 9:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Muslim NBA players to be sent to reeducation camps.
Posted by: Chemp Elmart8332 || 10/10/2019 9:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Bee is brutal.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/10/2019 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  This was hilarious. I wish the woke could be made to read it.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/10/2019 10:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Ha! Caught you this time, you wily rascals.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/10/2019 10:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Classic!
But we can expect Life to imitate Bee very soon
Posted by: Lex || 10/10/2019 11:24 Comments || Top||

#8  The latest news from BeeSPN
Posted by: SteveS || 10/10/2019 12:03 Comments || Top||


VDH - Members of Previous Generations Now Seem Like Giants
[Townhall] Many of the stories about the gods and heroes of Greek mythology were compiled during Greek Dark Ages. Impoverished tribes passed down oral traditions that originated after the fall of the lost palatial civilizations of the Mycenaean Greeks.

Dark Age Greeks tried to make sense of the massive ruins of their forgotten forbearers' monumental palaces that were still standing around. As illiterates, they were curious about occasional clay tablets they plowed up in their fields with incomprehensible ancient Linear B inscriptions.

We of the 21st century are beginning to look back at our own lost epic times and wonder about these now-nameless giants who left behind monuments that we cannot replicate, but instead merely use or even mock.

Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years?

Californians tried to build a high-speed rail line. But after more than a decade of government incompetence, lawsuits, cost overruns and constant bureaucratic squabbling, they have all but given up. The result is a half-built overpass over the skyline of Fresno -- and not yet a foot of track laid.

Who were those giants of the 1960s responsible for building our interstate highway system?

California's roads now are mostly the same as we inherited them, although the state population has tripled. We have added little to our freeway network, either because we forgot how to build good roads or would prefer to spend the money on redistributive entitlements.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 02:31 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But they didn't have whatsapp, did they?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/10/2019 3:00 Comments || Top||

#2  That is not because the people of America have grown incompetent, or their ambitions have waned. It's only because instituted systems of semantic hypocrisy have hijacked what was meant to be a Govt of the people, for the people and by the people. Now it's a system of regulations selectively serving and denying the people; biased, captive and fickle. The people themselves are nowhere in the picture anymore. Those who are, are cogs, not people.

That's just what I think, observing from a distance and a great cultural divide though.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/10/2019 8:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Ref #2: It's only because instituted systems of semantic hypocrisy have hijacked what was meant to be a Govt of the people, for the people and by the people. Now it's a system of regulations selectively serving and denying the people; biased, captive and fickle.

Individual national sovereignty is an anathema to globalism.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/10/2019 8:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Follow the $$$: Globalism been berry, berry good to these creatures.

Look at how the idiot basketballers and their corporate minders are now falling over each other to suck up to the ChiComs.

This is just a cartoon version of the same sickening film we've seen replaced again and again by our elites in NY D.C. LA and SF over the last 30+ years.
Posted by: Lex || 10/10/2019 10:17 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2019-10-10
  2 ISIS 'Beatles' transferred from Syrian prison to US military custody
Wed 2019-10-09
  Possible terror attack with automatic guns in Halle (Germany)
Tue 2019-10-08
  Turkey starts bombing Kurds
Mon 2019-10-07
  Iraqi premier rejects resignation of seven ministers, Baghdad governor steps down
Sun 2019-10-06
  91 protesters killed by Iraqi police over week of demonstrations
Sat 2019-10-05
  Masked gunmen attack TV stations reporting the protests in Iraq
Fri 2019-10-04
  At least 35 Russian mercenaries killed fighting for Haftar in Libya
Thu 2019-10-03
  Breaking: Paris knife attacker kills 4 people at police headquarters
Wed 2019-10-02
  Soleimani claims he and Nasrallah barely escaped Israeli air raid in 2006
Tue 2019-10-01
  Uzbekistani militant among 64 killed, wounded in Faryab clashes
Mon 2019-09-30
  Yemeni army captured over '2000 troops', inflicted heavy casualties on Saudi army
Sun 2019-09-29
  Susan Rice: Obama Put Call Transcripts On Top Secret Server, Too
Sat 2019-09-28
  Egypt Armed Forces kills 118 takfiris in anti-terrorism operations in north, central Sinai; 10 army personnel killed, injured: Statement
Fri 2019-09-27
  US deploys air defense systems, troops to Saudi Arabia
Thu 2019-09-26
  Israeli woman stabbed near Modiin; 14-year-old Palestinian arrested


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