We are currently witnessing a major epidemic caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The evolution of 2019-nCoV remains elusive. We found 4 insertions in the spike glycoprotein (S) which are unique to the 2019-nCoV and are not present in other coronaviruses.
Importantly, amino acid residues in all the 4 inserts have identity or similarity to those in the HIV1 gp120 or HIV-1 Gag. Interestingly, despite the inserts being discontinuous on the primary amino acid sequence, 3D-modelling of the 2019-nCoV suggests ...
that they converge to constitute the receptor binding site. The finding of 4 unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV, all of which have identity /similarity to amino acid residues in key structural proteins of HIV-1 is unlikely to be fortuitous in nature.
We shouldn't jump to conclusions, but it's interesting.
#3
From snakes, with the greatest of ease,
To the bat on his flying trapeze,
Whence, in only three links
It descends to the... [winks]
Such a naturally agile disease!
#8
Further evidence to support the claim this man made and the Chinese have been doing biological weapons development in Wuhan and this is an unintentional release?
#10
Gr(o)m, I missed your comment yesterday until today.
The thing is, it's not an either/or type of situation.
The virus could be a naturally transmitted one from bats and the Authorities (both in here and China) are incompetent to stop it.
OR
The virus could be a genetically engineered bioweapon AND the Authorities both in China and in the West are contemptuously lacking in the competence to deal with it.
There's simply bonus contempt for the think-they're-as-smart-as-medieval-mandarins people who built a weapon they couldn't manage.
As they say over at Ace's, Embrace The Healing Power of 'And'.
#16
a) As I said, either way, Winnie the Flu is stupid.
b) There's rabies, which is allegedly responsible for 7/10 human rabies cases in the US.
c) Which would also be a scary engineered-bioweapon scenario.
d) Which would also provide incentive for a bioweapons lab to 'practice' on making bat viruses more transmissible with humans.
The point I wasn't trying to make wasn't about the viruses. It's about the mandarinate-over-there, which is only smart compared to the mandarins-over-here, not the actual ancient mandarins.
MESA, AZ ( 3TV/CBS 5) - An Arizona woman is recovering from surgery after getting a sex toy stuck in her bladder. It's a case that stunned emergency room doctors and an OBGYN, and that woman spoke out to Arizona’s Family warning others about the product she used.
She’s asked we keep her name anonymous. Her pleasure turned to pain in an instant. "Every time it went off it was like my entire abdomen was vibrating," the Mesa woman said.
She was talking about her new Vesper Vibrator Necklace by the company Crave. She wore the sex toy around her neck out to dinner with her boyfriend, then used it with him when they got home earlier this month. She was only using it on the outside of her body as intended.
#1
Said Eve unto Adam, "Thou adder!
That bastid's got stuck in my bladder"
"Just how'd this occur?"
Asked the nurse. "It's a blur...
But I vaguely remember a ladder...
A big bowl of chocolate chip batter...
The pogo stick, of course..."
#5
"... the pogo stick, of course,
A horse is NOT just a horse
You're flat on your ass
No joy for girl or boy (alas!)
And on your stick you're impaling:
Hay-romps now equal hay-baling
And balling results in Man's (Unfortunate) Fall-ing!"
#11
I had one of those Vespers one time. It got good gas mileage. I don't see how you would get it stuck in your bladder unless you had a bad accident.
See this related article HT Insty
[USA Today] The Donald Trump administration declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a public health emergency in the United States on Friday, setting quarantines of Americans who have recently been to certain parts of China.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said it was the first quarantine order issued by the federal government in over 50 years. Marty Cetron, director of CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, said the last time a quarantine was used was in the 1960s for smallpox.
"The risk of infection for Americans remains low," said Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services and chairman of the coronavirus task force set up by Trump. "We are working to keep the risk low."
Azar described the new entry rules and quarantines as "prudent, targeted, and temporary." He said the United States is working to complement efforts by China and the World Health Organization to contain the deadly virus in China. Quarantines are imposed on people who may be exposed to an illness but are not yet sick, Cetron said.
U.S. citizens who have been in China's Hubei province during the past 14 days and are returning to the U.S. States will undergo health screenings and be monitored during mandatory quarantines of up to 14 days, officials said.
Azar also announced a temporary suspension of entry into the United States of foreign nationals who pose a risk for the transmission of the coronavirus.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Waiting for the Hawaiian judge's injuction.
It's racist to prevent vibrant Chinese viruses from coming to America.
They're facilitating the population control that American viruses won't do, after all.
[Insty Link] See this related article
BREAKING: Twitter suspends independent news outlet Zero Hedge. "The publication, which enjoyed a following of over 673,000 followers on Twitter, was unceremoniously nuked from the social media platform following its report that the origins of the deadly coronavirus (2019-nCoV) may have a man-made origin, in addition to reports that the Chinese government may be suppressing the total number of people infected by the deadly illness that is sweeping throughout Wuhan."
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Can't wait for the screaming when users log in to find basically 404 and they cry censorship.
BREAKING NEWS: 3 who have returned to Haneda from Wuhan on the first government charted flight have been confirmed with new #coronavirus--Japanese TV networks NHK, TV Asahi and Fuji TV flash.
Take a Chinese person there and they'll think it's inedible, overly sweet breaded crap mixed with rice, instead of the rice being served in a separate bowl like God intended.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/01/2020 3:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Herb, you're such a kidder! Next you'll be telling me they don't really serve panda.
#12
Sorry, SCIF, as a Warmongering NeoCon, laughing at bombing of innocent goatherders, and supporting the Mil-Industrial War Machine, I'm beneath dignity...
My apologies, Herb
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2020 10:36 Comments ||
Top||
#14
I'm used to being dogpiled by commenters. I'm usually right but unpopular. I have a strong contrary streak and don't like to give up. Commenting on Rantburg is like 3rd grade, the people here are terrible at arguing and frequently resort to hurling schoolyard insults.
And that overly sweet breaded meat mixed with rice is crap once you've had real Chinese food. Man, it's good. Hangzhou dongpo pork, OMG. Real Beijing duck is sublime. Lightly stir-fried lily bulbs and celery. Bowl of white rice to the side. Tsingtao. And no goddamn fortune cookies.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/01/2020 15:21 Comments ||
Top||
And Benihana doesn’t serve Japanese cuisine. I recall being told that in Tokyo it’s called “Benihana of New York”, but I don’t know if that is actually true, having never got farther than the Narita airport lounge as we changed for Hong Kong.
I wouldn’t dream of cruelly plunging us all into culinary depression by so much as mentioning Olive Garden.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The CDC estimates that so far this season in the US, there have been at least 19 million flu illnesses and 180,000 hospitalizations, and over 10,000 deaths.
Just for comparison.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
02/01/2020 22:05 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Thank you, Marilyn. I'd been wondering. Imagined it must be something in that range but was too lazy to look it up (and feeling damned guilty about it).
[American Mil News] A sheriff in California is being legally forced to release sensitive information about private citizens who have a concealed carry permit.
On Monday, Sutter County Sheriff Brandon Barnes alerted citizens who have a concealed carry permit that their name, permit number, date of permit issue and expiration, is being turned over to the San Francisco Chronicle due to a public record request issued on Jan. 10, CBS13 reported.
Barnes wrote in a Tuesday letter that he personally declined turning over the information, but the Office of County Counsel advised him that he is legally obligated to turn over the information.
"The San Francisco Chronicle has not indicated why they want the information or how they intend to use the information," Barnes added.
#2
the overall San Francisco, CA crime rate is 120% higher than the California average and is 141% higher than the national average. Looking at violent crime specifically, San Francisco, CA has a violent crime rate that is 54% higher than the California average and 82% higher than the national average. For property crime, San Francisco, CA is 132% higher than the California average and 152% higher than the national average. AreaVibes
While SF MSM goes after law abiding citizens, SF rep Pelosi goes after the President of the US, and the "sheriff" hides behind his desk, liberal SF continues to degenerate into another Tiajuana, Mexico by the Bay.
#3
It's crazy. Not that a newspaper doesn't have a right to go busybodying around wherever it likes, but Sutter is two or three counties away from the Bay Area. The county seat is roughly a hundred miles from SF, off on the other side of Sacramento. Roughly... I'm no native.
#5
I seriously doubt he'd prevail in court if he pushed it. Not in Mexifornia. However, he should also release everyone who works for the papers home address, pictures of them, their house and their cars license plates.
#6
#6 I seriously doubt he'd prevail in court if he pushed it. Not in Mexifornia. However, he should also release everyone who works for the papers home address, pictures of them, their house and their cars license plates.
Exactly. AFAIC anyone who works in any capacity for any media is by definition a public figure and we all have the right to know everything about them. Everything.
#7
Publishing their names worked well in NY, they stopped doing it after their names got published. Maybe some protests in front of their houses and kids schools.
#10
Perhaps they are building Red Flag lists for lawfare campaigns. If you can’t remove the 2A, make its exercise a punishment with court expenses. Step by step, it becomes extinct
#14
After all the Trump judge appointments that Mitch McConnell’s Senate approved, the Ninth Circuit is no longer grossly unbalanced. Perhaps it’s time to start some law suits headed toward the Supreme Court.
[Website history] In 1912 T F Watson, a Birmingham builder, patented a design for a folding sidecar that could be wheeled through through the narrow alleys between terraced houses, and established a company to make them.
When war broke out in 1914, Watsonian was kept busy building sidecar ambulances and once peace returned, new models for leisure, sport and tradesmen were produced. Disaster struck in 1930, when a spark from a passing train started a fire that burnt down the factory. Undeterred, Watsonian relocated to larger premises in Birmingham’s Greet district, and, as the economy recovered from the Great Depression, Watsonian introduced an exciting forward-looking range of sidecars.
From 1939-’45 plans were put on hold, with production given over to war work, but demand for affordable family transport in the austere post-war period sparked a sidecar boom. Watsonian was also developing revolutionary sports sidecars, winning every sidecar world championship from 1949-’53, paired with Norton motorcycles.
During the 1950s production peaked at 200 units per week, but as wages increased, and small cars, like the Mini, became affordable, sidecars fell out of fashion. By 1965 they accounted for just 20% of Watsonian’s output, with the majority of production switched to automotive bodywork.
In 1973 Squire entered the market with a radical new sports sidecar, designed for the latest generation of high performance Japanese superbikes, creating interest from a new breed of riders. Shortly after Watsonian’s 75th anniversary, the two companies merged, creating the UK’s largest manufacturer.
Appearances on film and television ‐ including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ‐ have helped to keep sidecars in the public eye. The retro revival has also stimulated interest from a younger audience and Watsonian responded by reviving classic models, like the Prescott. Today the skilled craftsmen and engineers at Watsonian continue to build sidecars the traditional way, developing fitting kits for an increasing range of motorcycles and supplying customers around the world.
[Jerusalem Post] CANVEY ISLAND, England ‐ This scruffy-looking town on the mouth of the Thames River is known for its oysters, sea breeze and the nativism of its residents.
It’s also home to one of Europe’s fastest-growing communities of haredi Orthodox Jews, who make up 1% of the local population just four years after the first families moved from London.
A whopping 72 percent of Canvey Island’s constituency of Castle Point voted for Brexit in the 2016 referendum ‐ 21 points above the national result and the third most pro-Brexit of the United Kingdom’s 650 constituencies.
Brexit, the United Kingdom’s anguished pullout from the European Union, is becoming reality this week. It has toppled two cabinets before its achievement became the core policy of the Conservative Party’s prime minister, Boris Johnson.
Brexit’s proponents say it will restore British sovereignty from the EU, which they perceive as increasingly encroaching on domestic issues. Opponents say it is both rooted in and amplifying xenophobia, as well as financially hazardous.
Wherever the truth lies, a pro-Brexit bastion like Canvey Island hardly seems like the most intuitive place for haredi Jews to settle down.
Yet that’s exactly what Joel Friedman, a 33-year-old father of seven from London, and a handful of his friends did in 2016, when they planted the seed for what has rapidly grown into a community of 76 families who could not afford the housing prices in nearby London.
When Friedman presented his plan to members of his community in the heavily haredi London neighborhood of Stamford Hill, the reactions he encountered ranged from dismissiveness to shock, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
h/t Instapundit
[BPR] - U.S. authorities have discovered the longest smuggling tunnel ever found on the U.S.-Mexico border, with the tunnel stretching nearly a mile between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Wednesday the discovery of an "astonishing" 4,068 feet smuggling tunnel that crosses the U.S. southern border, making it slightly more than three-quarters of a mile long. The finding smashes the record set by the now-second longest tunnel, which was uncovered in 2014 near San Diego and stretched 2,966 feet long. Eat your hearts out Gazooks!
[Washington Examiner] Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said China’s struggle to combat coronavirus could give businesses another reason to opt to move their companies to North America.
China has been fighting to contain the coronavirus, a highly contagious SARs-like illness, after an outbreak in the city of Wuhan. As global concern rises, some have suggested implementing a travel ban to China while others have halted all business travel to the region. During an interview on Fox Business, Ross, 82, claimed this outbreak gives businesses another reason to move production back to the United States or Mexico.
"First of all, every American’s heart has to go out to the victims of the coronavirus," Ross said. "So I don’t want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate, very malignant disease. But the fact is, it does give businesses yet another thing to consider when they go through their review of their supply chain."
He added, "And top of all the other things, because you had SARS, you have the African swine virus there, now you have this. It’s another risk factor that people need to take into account. So I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America, some to U.S., probably some to Mexico as well."
At least 7,711 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide. There have also been 170 deaths connected to the disease, though some claim that may be a low estimate by the Chinese government. Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, claimed the disease is actually "much worse" than what China has reported.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2020 4:18 Comments ||
Top||
#2
If there is one country in the world that could go it alone, its the US. It wouldn't be perfect or efficient, but it can muddle through better than anyone else, if it had the will.
#4
And our entangled economies have been growing farther apart in the past few years too, Besoeker. In 2003 China had much more of a manufacturing hold on us than it does now, but a lot of that has gone to countries near China with the ongoing trade and political spats we have had.
More separation is definitely needed and welcomed.
Pakistani govt has taken a little different approach to this. The Pakistani govt says it is not evacuating Pakistanis so as to stop the spread of virus into Pakistan as Pakistan is not equipped to even diagnose it. It's a tough decision to be honest. https://t.co/n0kK59mwKg
#3
Well if you spend the majority of the state resources on the military, you find yourself without proper medical infrastructure. In 2019, one third of all Federal revenue in Pakistan was spent on the military (excluding pensions). The other two thirds of revenue was spent on debt repayment. All other federal spending was met by further borrowing. The civilian pension budget is even used to pay military pensions with 76% of pensions going to former soldiers.
Posted by: John Frum ||
02/01/2020 15:15 Comments ||
Top||
[Mil.com] LAS VEGAS -- It may be an AR market, but a South Carolina gunmaker just introduced another version of the classic Israeli Galil rifle at SHOT Show 2020.
American Tactical Inc. showed off its new Galil short-barreled rifle (SBR) -- officially called the Galeo -- at range day, a year after unveiling the full-size variant of this short-lived, iconic Israeli battle rifle.
"We manufacture the receiver in house in Summerville, South Carolina; we source the barrel domestically and source the magazine domestically. Everything else is Israeli-made," Nick Contestabile, of American Tactical Inc., told Military.com.
"It's an exciting member of our catalog because it's not a very common firearm, even in our industry."
#1
As somebody who carried it in service, IMO, Galil is the bastard offspring of M16 and AK-47 - having the drawbacks of both parents and none of their advantages.
[Business Insider] A 13-foot (3-metre) crocodile has been swimming around Indonesia with a tyre around its neck for years - and now officials are offering a reward to anyone who can safely get it off.
According to Indonesia's state-run Antara news agency, the crocodile has had the tyre around its neck since at least 2016, though it's unknown how it got there.
Antara reported that the crocodile may be a Siamese crocodile, a species native to southeast Asia that's critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Fewer than 1,000 of the crocodiles are thought to be left in the wild.
[Decider] Well, that’s one way to leave an impression. On Wednesday, Wheel of Fortune contestant Marie Leo got a little mixed up during a bonus round and offered a NSFW answer on the family-friendly game show. Leo immediately knew her answer was wrong ‐ Pat Sajak’s silence made that clear ‐ but viewers at home didn’t seem to mind, as they quickly proclaimed her a Wheel of Fortune champion. "One of my all time favorite incorrect guesses," wrote one fan.
According to Yahoo, Leo, a 911 operator, advanced to Wednesday night’s bonus round with $13,950. Faced with three possible puzzles to complete, she chose "What Are You Doing?," a decision that would soon prove to be a grave mistake. Leo was asked to guess the phrase, which consisted of a seven-letter word followed by a four-letter word, based on just three letters, a task that is, by all objective accounts, very difficult.
With time running out, Leo had no choice but to just go for it. "Chasing Tail?" she asked, giggling. She immediately corrected herself, saying, "No," but it was too late. Time expired, and the correct, non-sexual answer was revealed: "Kicking Back."
"Aww, Kicking Back," she said. "I started to say ’K.'" But longtime Wheel of Fortune host Sajak definitely wasn’t saying "K." For a moment, he was speechless, and he mimed locking up his mouth and throwing away the key. "You left us with something to think about," said Sajak, after revealing that the gaffe cost Leo $45,000.
Leo may have lost $45,000, but she’s still a winner in the viewers’ eyes. Her NSFW Wheel of Fortune moment quickly went viral on Twitter, where fans proclaimed her a "hero" and praised her "amazing final guess." Wrote one viewer, "Pat Sajak almost had a stroke."
[Air Force Times] Hundreds of F-35s could have the wrong fasteners in "critical areas," according to the Defense Contract Management Agency. But F-35 builder Lockheed Martin says the problem may not need to be fixed.
"All aircraft produced prior to discovery of this [problem] have titanium fasteners incorrectly installed in locations where the design calls for Inconel," the F-35 Joint Program Office said in an email in response to a query from Air Force Magazine. "Because of this, the engineering safety analysis of the issue has assumed that each critical F-35 joint was assembled with the incorrect fasteners."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/01/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Titanium fasteners with aluminum rivets.
Bad mix.
#2
Well the program mismanagers were so concerned with their precious logistics software they weren’t performing proper quality assurance
Didn’t they have guys observing and walking the line and conducting audits?
Or were they all too busy concocting new add ons for the software?
Most of the cost overruns on this basically good airframe were software development costs
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Washington Examiner] Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said China’s struggle to combat coronavirus could give businesses another reason to opt to move their companies to North America.
[Decider] Well, that’s one way to leave an impression. On Wednesday, Wheel of Fortune contestant Marie Leo got a little mixed up during a bonus round and offered a NSFW answer on the family-friendly game show. Leo immediately knew her answer was wrong ‐ Pat Sajak’s silence made that clear ‐ but viewers at home didn’t seem to mind, as they quickly proclaimed her a Wheel of Fortune champion. "One of my all time favorite incorrect guesses," wrote one fan.
