Dr. Amber Straughn, Deputy Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.
On March 28, the US State Departmentdenied travel authorization for NASA scientist Dr. Amber Straughn to attend the Israel Physical Society's annual meeting at Bar-Ilan University where she was to be a keynote speaker. She was also scheduled to give a talk on Friday. This seems to confirm increasing tension between the current US administration and the Israeli government that has lapped over into scientific relations.
The US Army has decided that the threat of climate change is more dangerous than a battlefield opponent, as is explained here.So, in their general effort to turn taxpayer funds into bizarre equipment they have opened bidding on a next generation Light Tactical Vehicle. The current supplier plans onsubmitting a hybrid vehicle, ie. one that runs on more than one kind of fuel.
"The Army's recently released climate strategy said transitioning to more eco-friendly combat vehicles is a priority for the service."
Why would that be the case? Since the defeat of the native Americans in the latter part of the 19th century, over 122 years ago and when military vehicles traveled on land only via iron tracks, no real combat has taken place on US soil. (OK, we haven't forgotten Pearl Harbor.) There is a developed electrical infrastructure in the contiguous US but the American GIs don't fight anybody in Delaware or Nebraska. They are sent to hospitable locations like Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and so on. Places that don't have reliable electric service at the best of times. How are combat operations with electric vehicles going to work in a place like Afghanistan, where the lack of electricity means that no man is clean-shaven? And even if whatever 220 volt juice is available from an established system, if the sabotage of that system could be prevented there would be no need of the hybrid vehicles. The threat of of that sabotage would mean that fuel for the hybrid vehicles would need to be easily available, just as it would be for a fleet of internal combustion varieties. Two separate supply lines would be needed instead of one. In fact, probably more fuel for the generators.
Of course the US military has a history of bringing along services not directly related to blowing up the enemy's personnel and other assets. Soldiers can't be expected to dispense with radio, television and movies so those must be supplied. Chow halls and clubs are built and utilized because everybody needs a burger and a beer once in awhile. Gyms and bowling alleys allow rest and relaxation in the brief moments off duty. Independent electrical generation equipment will be needed to operate the beer coolers and pin setters and, more important, the vehicle battery chargers. Reliable electricity will be required for both the construction and operation of dormitories or even tents.
Army munitions are designed and built to take advantage of technological developments that will make them more effective at directed destruction. Nobody in the history of big arguments has ever worried about affecting the climate. Until now:
“The Army
must adapt across our entire enterprise and purposefully pursue
greenhouse gas mitigation strategies to reduce climate risks,” Secretary
of the Army
Christine Wormuth said in a statement. “If we do not take action across,
across our installations, acquisition and logistics and training, our
option to mitigate these risks will become more constrained with each
passing year.”
What do you suppose those climate risks might be? Would the lack of mitigation of these risks, whatever they might be, give an advantage to a potential opponent?
Christine Warmuth, Secretary of the Army. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from Williams College in Massachusetts and a master's degree in public policy from the University of Maryland. We're not sure if her level of expertise includes both climate science and armored warfare, one or neither.
These are the people that make decisions on the money and interest rates that affect everyUS citizen and, in fact, people all over the world. How well do you know them?
What else can it be called? Ferrets, ferrets of all things, are being subjected to "concussive head injuries" in order to prove the use of imaginary waves of some kind in producing the "Havana syndrome" that's debilitating US government personnel in widely separated foreign countries.
Two educational institutions are recipients of taxpayer funds to torture the ferrets in an effort to replicate the symptoms that have led to thousands of dollars being awarded to alleged victims. Will the Wolverine campus and its Warrior counterpart in suburban Detroit be the scene of demonstrations by students upset and disgusted with these experiments? A search of the archives of both the Michigan News and The South End, the student publications of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University, doesn't show any mention of Havana syndrome.
Numerous studies have failed to produce any kind of evidence that episodes of discomfort claimed by Havana syndrome victims are caused by anything in particular, much less directed energy rays from hostile governments.
The Havana syndrome affair looks a lot like the 1983 David Cronenberg cult classic movie "Videodrome", where television is used to change the focus of the human brain.
In fact, the Pentagon-financed study may very well be an effort to produce just such effects as the victims describe on enemies of the US. A successful study will result in that capability.
The
kind invitation I recieve from you on the part of the citizens of the
city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration of the
50th
anniversary of American independance; as one of the surviving signers
of an instrument, pregnant with our own, and the fate of the world, is
most flattering to myself, and heightened by the honorable accompaniment
proposal for the comfort of such a journey. it adds sensibly to the
sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by it of a personal participation
in the rejoicings of that day. but acquiescence is a duty, under
circumstances not placed among those we are permitted to controul. I
should indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there,
congratulations personally, with the small band, the remnant of that
host of worthies, who joined with us, on that day, in the bold and
doubtful election we were to make, for our country, between submission,
or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact that
our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity,
continue to approve the choice we made. may it be to the
world what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later,
but finally to all.) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains,
under which Monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to
bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self
government. the form which we have substituted restores the
free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion.
all eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man. the general spread
of the light of science has already laid open to every view the
palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born, with saddles
on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them
legitimately, by the grace of god. these are grounds of hope for
others. for ourselves let the annual return of this day, for ever refresh our recollections of these rights and an undiminished devotion to them.
I will ask permission here to address the pleasure with which I should
have met my ancient neighbors of the City of Washington and of it’s
vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social
intercourse; an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of the
public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in
my affections, as never to be forgotten. with my regret that ill health
forbids me the gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to recieve for
yourself and those for whom you write the assurance of my highest
respect and friendly attachments.
The system was rotten. This had been said over and over; yet the old hulk was immovable. When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent. The term is not a slur; it is a technical label. A decadent culture offers opportunities chiefly to the satirist.
UCI top-level women's cycling team EF Education-Tibco-SVB is in unknown territory since one of its primary sponsors, Silicon Valley Bank, has been declared insolvent. Cycling teams, both men and women, can't survive without sponsors and it appears the demise of SVB will put a serious cramp on these girls unless another sponsor can be found in the very near future.
The Ronde van Drenthe is a UCI women's cycling race held annually in Drenthe, a northern province of the Netherlands. Usually the one-day race is 152.7 km long but this year it has been shortened to 94 km because of the cold and snow.
On December 16, 2001 during the waning moments of a National Football League game in Cleveland, Ohio, a succession of odd and perhaps incorrect decisions by the officiating crew resulted in a genuine riot. Thousands of plastic beer bottles were thrown on the field by outraged fans, the game was suspended, then resumed and its outcome deemed official.
There is no event more sacred in the US of A than an NFL contest and the season of which it is a part. The league itself is an adjunct to community, state and the national government. Christian church services, once an all-day affair, come to an end before the first kick-off on Sunday. That this behavior, an assault on one of the country's most cherished rituals, should take place very near its birthplace, is nearly unthinkable and there should be serious repercussions to anyone who took part.
The several whose conduct was found to be most objectionable were denied access to Cleveland Browns games for the following four years.
The
dry details . . . give me an opportunity of introducing one of the
Mississippi’s oddest peculiarities---that of shortening its length
from time to time. If you will throw a long, pliant apple paring over
your shoulder, it will pretty fairly shape itself into an average
section of the Mississippi River, that is the nine or ten hundred
miles stretching from Cairo, Ill., southward to New Orleans, the same
being wonderfully crooked, with a brief straight bit here and there
at wide intervals . . .
* * *
At
some forgotten time in the past cutoffs were made. . . These
shortened the river, in the aggregate, seventy-seven miles.
Since
my own day on the Mississippi, cutoffs have been made at Hurricane
Island, at Island 100, at Napoleon, Ark., at Walnut Bend, and at
Council Bend. These shortened the river, in the aggregate,
sixty-seven miles. . .
Therefore
the Mississippi between Cairo and New Orleans was twelve hundred and
fifteen miles long one hundred and seventy-six years ago. It was
eleven hundred and eighty after the cutoff of 1722. . .
Consequently its length is only nine hundred and seventy-three miles
at present.
Now,
if I wanted to be one of those ponderous scientific people and “let
on” to prove what had occurred in the remote past, or what will
occur in the far future by what has occurred in late years, what an
opportunity is here! Geology never had such a chance, nor such exact
data to argue from! Nor “development of species” either! Glacial
epochs are great things, but they are vague—vague. Please observe:
In
the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi
has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an
average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore,
any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old
Oolitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the
Lower Mississippi River was upward of one million three hundred
thousand miles long and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a
fishing rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven
hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be
only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will
have joined their streets together and be plodding comfortably along
under a single
mayor and mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating
about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of
such a trifling investment of fact.
" Mills is part of the Great Feminization of the American university, an
epochal change whose consequences have yet to be recognized.
Seventy-five percent of Ivy League presidents are now female. Nearly
half of the 20 universities ranked highest by Forbes will have a
female president this fall, including MIT, Harvard, and Columbia. Of
course, feminist bean-counters in the media and advocacy world are not
impressed, noting that “only” 5 percent of the 130 top U.S. research
universities are headed by a black female and “only” 22 percent of those
federal grant-magnets have a non-intersectional (i.e., white) female
head."
The Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5)
defines delusions as fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change in
light of conflicting evidence.
Four
types of delusions outlined in the DSM-5 include:1
Bizarre delusions are implausible or impossible,
such as being abducted by aliens.
Non-bizarre delusions
could actually occur in reality, such as being cheated on, poisoned,
or stalked by an ex.
Mood-congruent delusions
are consistent with a depressive or manic state, such as delusions
of abandonment or persecution when depressed, and delusions of
superiority or fame when manic.
Mood-incongruent delusions are not affected
by the particular mood state. They may include delusions of nihilism
(e.g., the world is ending) and delusions of control (e.g., an
external force controls your thoughts or movements).
People with delusions may also
exhibit confusion, agitation, irritability, aggressiveness,
depression, and self-referential thinking.
A
bizarre delusion that has been noticed for centuries but is no longer
regarded as delusional is what is called gender dysphoria.
Gender dysphoria is the feeling of discomfort or distress that
might occur in people whose gender identity differs from their sex
assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics.
Transgender and gender-diverse people might experience gender
dysphoria at some point in their lives. However, some transgender and
gender-diverse people feel at ease with their bodies, with or without
medical intervention.
A
diagnosis for gender dysphoria is included in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The diagnosis was created to
help people with gender dysphoria get access to necessary health care
and effective treatment. The term focuses on discomfort as the
problem, rather than identity.
There
are many possible delusions that could have a significant effect on
an individual’s life. While gender dysphoria has been in the news
lately there are others. Temporal Dysphoria is when someone suffers
from a profound state of unease and dissatisfaction because they're
not comfortable in their current era and identifies with another in
the past. Most often accompanied by depression, anxiety and
agitation. Or perhaps it’s possible that they identify with an era
in the future. Why not? It’s all imaginary.
The
point is that temporal dysphoria has the same aspect of reality as
gender dysphoria. It’s certainly possible that a person who feels
that they are living in the 19th
century, for instance, has
as much validity as a man that feels that he is actually a woman.
This person might dress in Victorian clothing, read and enjoy the
books of William Makepeace Thackeray and Thomas Hardy, and prefer
working with horses to being around automobiles. They may well feel
lost and frustrated living and working in a confusing and frantic
world. There are perhaps thousands afflicted with this mental issue
without even realizing it.
The
culture and society with which they are familiar is a bygone one and
even more important the government that they currently live under is
far, far different than
the one of their delusion.
People
are willing to humor someone that displays this sort of temporal
dysphoria. A farmer that works his land with horses, doesn’t use
credit cards and doesn’t own a car won’t necessarily be a social
outcast. In a way, the Amish have community temporal dysphoria.
But
the state doesn’t recognize this particular variety of temporal
dysphoria. Individuals with gender dysphoria are the recipients of
favorable legislation meant to both protect and validate their
bizarre delusion. It seems only right that those with temporal
dysphoria receive similar consideration. The
state should establish relations with them that are recognizable as
normal by these people. In the case of those with 19th
century bizarre delusions they shouldn’t be obliged to pay income
taxes, for instance, and not be part of the social security system.
As
the psychiatric community examines temporal dysphoria more closely,
those suffering from the anxiety and fear can look forward to
treatment not to cure their delusion but to enable it.
President of the US Joe Biden seems to have a problem climbing up the portable stairway to Air Force One. At his age that doesn't seem so unusual. You have to wonder if he has handicapped plates on his Corvette.
What's really curious is the stairway that he has such difficulty ascending. No doubt the Secret Service and whoever else puts together the travel arrangements for the most powerful man earth is reluctant to allow the guy to emerge from a limo outside the terminal, wander through the boarding area and amble down the jetway to AF 1. Who knows what maniac reincarnation of John Wilkes Booth might emerge from a men's room and create a big problem?
Airports have jetways now so these stairways on wheels are no longer needed or even available at any but the most primitive facilities. The one that Biden is gamboling up has no doubt been brought to Poland in pieces from the US by a special crew of secret agents on a very large aircraft in advance of his trip and reassembled on site. The mechanism is under armed guard at all times.They may well have more than one of these large, heavy stairways spotted in other locations in anticipation of a later visit.
The question is: stairways are an anachronism in buildings now. A new two-story school wouldn't have just a stairway to even the second floor. It would have an elevator. In fact, it's required. Doesn't it seem reasonable that the super smart and efficient US government would have designed and built an easily transportable elevator that could lift the president from the tarmac to the doorway of AF 1 without the risk of the geezer tripping, falling and embarrassing himself and his country? But, maybe they have. And they don't wish to use it. Instead, the president walks up the stairway, by himself, you'll notice, without a doubt as a demonstration of his agility despite his advanced age. No one is attending him on his ascent, no other figures are visible. He is a solitary statesman, in control of himself and the precarious situation in which his country and the world finds itself. At least that was the plan. And everything is planned.
Obviously, the president is afflicted by neuropathy.
Los Angeles County has a reached a settlement with the involved parties over the aftermath of a helicopter crash in January, 2020. According to the news media the widow of basketball star Kobe Bryant will receive nearly $29 million to mollify the effects of first responders who used smart phones to capture images of Bryant and her daughter Gianna. Seven others died in the crash and are somehow a part of the settlement. In a separate settlement, retired NFL player Chris Chester was paid $20 million because electronic images were made of his own wife and daughter killed in the same incident.
Celebrated trial attorney Luis Li plead the case for Vanessa Bryant. His compensation, and that of his Los Angeles law firm,Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, has not been revealed. That must be a matter of attorney/client privilege. Perhaps the large percentage of settlements awarded to legal representation must also be used to subsidize the occasional failed efforts.
The images that caused so much anguish in the victims' families were taken by eight deputies at the scene and then allegedly distributed to others in the department and even to unrelated parties, including a bar tender. The captured images were deleted at the LA County offices, according to Sheriff Alex Villanueva, and no charges or discipline resulted.
orayet.com
Vanessa Bryant and attorney Luis Li
Attorney Li described the actions of the deputies as "grotesque conduct". While what they did or did not do may well have fit that definition, there does not appear, at this time anyway, that any violation of law occurred. In a country that's governed by the rule of law, this is a very exceptional and expensive incident. If grotesque conduct is an avenue that can lead to financial punishment within the legal process without evidence of tort, what will be the result?
The monetary award can't be viewed as compensation for the loss suffered by Mrs. Bryant, as devastating as it may have been. In fact, the wealth of the family enabled the transportation by helicopter of children within a city from one athletic venue to another, something that could only happen at this time in the US or perhaps some Middle Eastern sultanate. This incident is also an image of the incredible wealth and influence of professional athletes.
Capture of the images of any party is a constant of modern life. We are surrounded by cameras recording our every move, in C-stores, apartment hallways, residential entries, parking lots, retail businesses and shopping centers and government buildings. We have no idea who examines these images and for what purpose. If the image examiner finds nothing of interest in a recording he's not required to notify any of those in it that they were evaluated for whatever reason and then dismissed.
First responders are now required to wear "body cameras" to protect both themselves and others from exactly the results of this helicopter crash. It is the dissemination of the images that constitutes "grotesque conduct", which will probably be more and more broadly defined according to the whims of the day. The instantaneous nature of modern communications means that the fears of Mrs. Bryant and Mr.Chester were realized minutes after the images were digitalized. They are already wandering around the internet and at some point will be seen by anyone with curiosity. But millions of dollars will make them feel better.
amysmartgirls.com
