Donate to save congress joke

 

Whale freakout - up close babysitting

Vancouver Island Whale Watch promised a free second trip if no whales showed up.  I was chuckling at the deal I was getting, two zodiac ocean tours for the price of one.  I had no idea what was coming next, a top moment of my life. 

We babysat a humpback whale while it's mother dove deep five times for about a quarter hour each time.  The baby "mugged us", splashed us on purpose, dove under the zodiac, circled and generally freaked us out wondrously.  We felt we belonged there as much as the baby from the deep who played with us.

Presenting calf, Marble, and briefly in the background, Slate (the mother with all black tail) just east of Valdez Island:

And an encore:

COVID LOCKDOWN: Possibly greatest peacetime failure in Canada's history.

“It is possible that lockdown will go down as one of the greatest peacetime policy failures in Canada’s history”, wrote Allen.    His actual PDF paper in full is linked here: "Covid Lockdown Cost/Benefits: A Critical Assessment of the Literature" (April 2021)

SFU professor, David Allen, reviewed 80 papers in the lockdown literature.
You'd expect lockdowns and masks would have some clear benefit.
They don't. (Summary at The Epoch Times, here).
There is no net correlation between the measure taken and the cases of covid in the 80 papers.

He also makes a stab at a cost/benefit analysis, estimating years of lost life caused against years of life saved by those measures.  Granted it's a very fuzzy number, but the first run through came up with over 200 to 1 times more evil done than good done.    (A caveat is that in lockdown settings, some were cheating and in non-lockdown settings, some were complying with the intent anyway.).

Making this worse, he notes that research and opinion counter to the government narrative is suppresssed.

This cost/benefit effort has a key place in Canadian constitutional law.   The constitution states:   "The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaramtees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribedby law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society"   As Brian Peckford points out, until the cost benefit analyses have been done to demonstrate a justification for temporary abrogation of citizen rights, the statements of politicians and their staff about lockdowns are extra-legal.  (Brian was premier of Newfoundland for 10 years and one of the original signatories of the Charter of Rights agreement with Justin's father, Pierre.  He has a powerful site updated daily.)

 

 

 

Drone camera goes everywhere fast before people realize they are being filmed

 Breathtaking drone video zooming through an Ozark resort and right through a restaurant around people unaware it was coming.    Think about it.  

Google is evil again: Climate orthodoxy is good. All else doxxed.

“Google and YouTube will soon prohibit advertisements on content that “contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change,” Google announced Thursday. The decision will prevent the creators of such content from earning ad revenue from Google. .. 
The advertisement ban, which will be implemented next month, targets “content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change,” Google said. The platforms will also ban ads that promote that type of content.”

Sourced here:

Compare Richard Feynman quote top right of this web page.

What if China goes for the northern Phillipines instead of Taiwan first?

 When the players don't play nice, expect shocks.   Taiwan has 22 divisions for China to overcome whereas northern Phillipines (Luzon) does not.  Either island mass, once captured, gives a defensible gateway to the open Pacific and the upper hand over Japan      Suggested by Wretchard the Cat.  (The redoubtable Richard Fernandez).  

"If China wants to take over the Pacific its obvious goal will be to knock Japan out of the Quad. From a purely strategic point of view Japan, not Taiwan, is the crown jewel. How best to neutralize Japan? Control Luzon or Taiwan."

One dynamic chart compares death and contagion ( Ro) by most known infections: Covid is no star.

For me, this interactive graph is a game changer.  Follow the link, not the picture below and hover over any disease for background data.  Left to right is the Ro factor.  Down to up is the percentage of expected deaths.  The various Sars viruses are in the lower left quadrant.  Think about it before surrendering one jot more of your freedom.   

The chart was created by information is beautiful and the link suggested by Dr Trozzi.

There are two kinds of sex - My unusual theory of personality

There are two kinds of sex, animal spirits sex and gender sex.

That’s because there are at least two operating systems in humans,

Both of them are emergent properties.

The first is animal spirits that keeps the organism alive: It’s the servant of the millions of cells, the many organs and even the millions of viruses and bacteria.  That is the DOS system that keeps the lights on and the plumbing running.  And it makes sure that all that DNA gets reproduced.

This is animal spirits and explains the male gaze will always at all times be evaluating breasts, hips, and other signals from females that could produce children.  That’s what it does and always will do.  It receives  its purpose by delegation upwards from the BINARY and HEXADECIMAL levels of life represented by cells, bacteria and so on.  Its purpose isn’t exactly compatible with the higher level of management, but they make do and accommodate each other. 

Personality is the senior emergent system, the WINDOWS operating system, emerging from the opportunity rich life of the human biome.    Personality is way more interesting and inventive than the animal spirits.   It is sort of piggy-backed onto the human biome while being embedded somewhat in animal spirits.   Personality wants to reproduce information and character and values but doesn’t need sex except as a support for the continuation of its own platform. Personality can handle any pronouns and any alphabet of character.   Being Bi or Trans is no more significant than being Furry or an Alien From Outer Space.

The human comedy is the uneasy truce between personality and animal spirits.  While I may want to benefit from your skills in bank reconciliation or legal analysis, the animal spirits will look at your breasts every minute or two to assess your reproductive value..    This is explained as the resultant of actions by two operating systems with different programs and doesn’t have to be integrated.   Just as we switch from dreaming life to waking life and immediately forget most of the life we just came from, but still make sense of our life, so we are simultaneously a DOS animal spirits operating system and a WINDOWS personality operating system, not exactly compatible, but with a few humorous tweaks, producing a workable narrative.

GMO is the only vegetable worth eating!

The original veggies don't look so good!

Are you sure you hate food that has been genetically modified?    BTW, every time a couple choose to have children together, they modify the genes.

 

Attention truckowners: You are being ordered about by people who never owned a pickup and don't even know anyone who does.

 F150, the F series, Ram trucks and the Silverado are the three top selling vehicles in America.  Guess what, the people telling you to wear a mask and get a covid passport don't own one and don't even know someone who does.

Having an intelligent conversation about covid stuff

 Where to begin?

The epidemiological data are hopelessly confused by the huge number of CCP flu tests done for sometimes ridiculous reasons, the terrible accuracy of the tests themselves (is it CCP flu or is it Memorex?), the use of positive tests as an indicator of disease, the inaccurate reporting of deaths, and the general politicization of the entire issue.

How can a conversation begin when the proofs are padded with fluff and indifference. 

From open thread at Instpundit. 

Can I love my country but loathe our government? The bowling secret police trigger a succinct answer. "Give up your rights so you can get your rights back. That equation never made sense."

"I don't know what to do.  The government has got me to the point where I question whether I even love my own country any more but one thing I know for certain, I loathe my government.  What do you do?"

"Give up your rights so you can get your rights back.  That equation never made sense." 

This cry from the heart started at a bowling alley where an 18 year old kid played the role of the secret police, asking for the man's papers as he stood there with four kids who wanted to bowl on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Is it just because I like to bowl too that this so strongly moved me?
He's vaccinated but defends his integrity.

Babylon Bee: Hackers Warn That If Demands Aren't Met They Will Reactivate Facebook

 

Facebook down: 2 data points UPDATE

 

Data point 1:  See chart for scope of Facebook outage.

Data point 2:  Facebook employees not able to badge their way into their own building.  This points to internal systems being down.

UPDATE:  Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at the network monitoring company Kentik, said someone at Facebook caused an update to be made to the company’s BGP records, which resulted in the company’s system taking away the map telling the world’s computers how to find its various online properties.    (Speculation follows:  Malicious or accidental internal mayhem?)

What's next, world? The unexpected.

So many cans have been kicked down the road that the unexpected is becoming the most likely next event.  As a pile of sand is built higher and higher, eventually a single grain of sand at an unpredicted location will trigger the landslide.

One of those kicked cans is massive public debt financed against the unborn's earning power. (Taxation without representation).

The focus on covid vaccinations will shift suddenly when "fuck Joe Biden"chants  or indifference to health authorities or an attack on Taiwan or a supreme court ruling or a sudden change of rulers in the US tips the balance.

Or consequences of hacking FACEBOOK and friends?    1.5 billion customers' data on offer for $5000.

Coffee: Ode and Odium

 From the preface to "Uncommon Grounds,:The History of Coffee and How it Trasnformed Our World"

"This is the beverage of the friends of God".

China wants U.S. out of play before tackling Taiwan. But it gets worse.

 From Richard Fernandez:

(China) lacks the amphibious capacity to land the 30-plus brigades it will need to overcome the island’s defense. China does not appear to be currently investing in the equipment likely required for a direct assault on Taiwan.   ..... to overcome 22 defending brigades, the buildup could not easily be concealed, and there should be no surprises. ... Beijing’s current naval build implies that the prerequisite for taking Taipei is neutralizing the U.S. navy. ... the CCP thinks Washington must “fall” before Taipei can be stormed. .. the key to encirclement’s success is Washington’s reaction. So, while 77 Chinese combat aircraft have provocatively intruded into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, their real purpose is to beat like rain on the windows of the Oval Office to attract the attention of the man within. ....Looming large over the scene is the perception that China is becoming more dangerous because it is a declining power. As the American Enterprise Institute put it, based on a recent piece in Foreign Policy, “The United States needs to prepare for a major war, not because its rival is rising but because of the opposite.” ..

Alex Lo of the South China Morning Post poses the question: “Suppose both China and the US are in decline …?     I ask our wise political scientists: if both superpowers are in decline or have peaked, are they more or less likely to go at each other’s throats? Well, judging by the aforementioned discussions, if both sides are in decline, wouldn’t both be the problem?

More significant detail and links are in the source article by Fernandez.
His "Wretchard the Cat"  twitter feed is rewarding to follow also.

UPDATE:  Over 150 military flights outside the 12 nautical miles line but within the Air Defense Identification zone have now taken place in October with 52 October 4th alone.  12 nautical miles is scarcely one minute of flying time for a warplane.

UPDATE: Chinese state media (Global TImes) call Taiwan "an evil force the mainland must crush" and defend the intrusions on Taiwanese air space as training to "familiarize itself with battlefield conditions". 

UPDATE:  Maybe Taiwan has nuclear weapons (neutron bombs).   This hasn't been in the news but would give Xi pause.

Does Taiwan have nuclear weapons?
While Taiwan has pursued several programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, there has never been public acknowledgement the island nation has such devices. Reportedly, Taiwan began working to build a nuclear weapon after China’s first nuclear test in 1964. Though it reportedly produced plutonium for the program during the 1970s, the official story line is that U.S. ultimately pressured Taipei to officially halt the research in 1976. Other reports indicate nuclear research continued in secret into the 1980s.
Still, many believe Taiwan has quietly built a stockpile of tactical nuclear warheads that, if used, would give China serious pause and could help repel a People’s Liberation Army seaborne invasion. The late Sam Cohen, the father of the neutron bomb, told journalists that Taiwan had a stockpile of such weapons and that he had personally briefed the Taiwan military staff on their use. The neutron bomb, developed in the 1970s and 80s, is a controversial device that disperses massive amounts of radiation in a limited target area without the blast of a traditional weapon.