Author: condor

Katla — Now Come To Life — In Iceland, Tonight.

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This is one of those times… when I wish the geologists hadn’t been right.

The nearby infrastructure in southern Iceland, as well as Grindavík’s homes (the closest town)… are in significant peril of being buried several feet of under gray ash, or swallowed entirely, by lava flows. The large scale eruption is here — but it is likely just beginning. Here’s the latest:

…Thousands of earthquakes had been detected in Iceland since late October, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office. In November, with homes and roads being damaged, the authorities declared a state of emergency and evacuated Grindavík, a town of more than 3,000 people near the volcano.

In just the past two years, there have been three eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland’s most populated corner and home to its capital. When Grindavík was ordered evacuated on Nov. 11, the authorities said in a statement that the country was “highly prepared for such events.”

“Iceland has one of the world’s most effective volcanic preparedness measures,” it said on its website….

The scale of it is hard to convey… but it is nearly the worst case scenario, based on the earlier predictive data we mentioned just a month ago:

Let us hope that… dopplegangers don’t start emerging from the deep gray ash… in the night. Smile….

नमस्ते

A New Paper, From Texas Biomed, Establishes That Ebola Does In Fact Travel Via Nanotubes… As HIV-1 Is Known To Do — Cell To Cell.

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It has been well-known in the literature that the Ebola virus may linger undetected in the eyes / ocular fluid (for example) of a patient — up to a year after s/he is no longer ill.

Researchers suspected a mechanism, like that seen decades ago, in some influenza strains, and in HIV-1 — by which viral protein segments from Ebola (or HIV-1) traverse “nanotubes” (some over 200 microns in length) to find a new host cell, and convert the cell into a factory for replicating the malignant virus, in full.

That suspicion… is now… fact, as to Ebola — as it is, with HIV. Here’s the latest — and a bit:

“…When we launched this project a couple of years ago, we thought the general model of spread of Ebola virus infection — where a viral particle infects a cell, replication begins, new virus particles are made and released into the body to infect neighboring cells — was a bit too simplistic,” says Dr. Shtanko.

Using state-of-the-art technology with live scanning electron and high-resolution 3D-microscopy, Dr. Shtanko and her team showed that Ebola virus infection in cells enhanced the formation of tunneling nanotubes containing viral particles. The tunneling nanotubes then promoted the transfer of these particles to other cells. Notably, the full virus was not required to trigger nanotube formation; only small sections of the virus coding for individual proteins were needed….

This happened even in the presence of treatments meant to stop the Ebola virus.

“Importantly, we observed that Ebola virus infection could spread in cultures treated with virus entry inhibitors or therapeutic treatments that stop viruses from entering a cell,” Dr. Shtanko explains….

[Editorial aside: I bash Texas politicians quite a bit here — so I think it is important — for me to highlight that there are lots of real scientists, doing real work — of vital import — inside that state, as well. Leadership there — based on any science — by Texas politicians? MIA.]

It is hoped that this deepening understanding will suggest new pathways for therapeutic agents, and more thoroughly clear a given patient’s body of the virus… permanently. We shall see — but this is why pursuing basic bio-science is so vitally important: without the knowledge gained from fighting AIDS, we might not have known to look for a a nanotube mechanism… in Ebola.

Onward, smiling in spite of myself….

नमस्ते

Puzzling: Trevor Milton Gets Away… With Only Four Years?! Hmmm.

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I’ll confess, I didn’t follow his criminal case very closely.

And he certainly had top notch defense lawyers. [They did an excellent job of constantly saying “no malignant intent — he’s just an eternally sunny optimist; nuthin’ more!”]

But four… seems a tad light, in view of Martin Shkreli’s nearly eight, and Elizabeth’s… 11 plus.

Even so, I think SBF should be thinking two decades or more.

Me? I’m just glad I didn’t run a betting pool on Trevor’s sentence — I’d have been closer to triple what he ended up getting, here.

Wow.

More “Fallout” — From This Intense, New “Solar Max” Cycle: NEOWISE Will Have To Burn In, Sometime In 2024-25…

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The space ‘scope did a decade’s worth of fine work. But now, without coolant, and without any adequate means to shield itself from the onslaught of the CMEs burping off the Sun in this Solar Max cycle (as we’ve last mentioned here)… NASA is planning for a safe de-orbit of the craft, to let it burn up completely, and/or have a few smaller pieces fall into the deep central Pacific Ocean.

The likely time-line is mid to late 2024, or early 2025… but the over-riding goal is to not have it fall on any houses(!)….

Of course, it won’t — but the NEOWISE team has very limited options to maneuver it, other than by increasing its drag a bit (rotating it out to an odd angle, relative to the direction of travel), and/or by burning its last bit of fuel to speed it up or slow it down.

So. . . it will be a while, but this too — is a concrete effect of very strong Solar activity — we have to de-commission space ‘scopes/crafts — with safety as a prime objective:

…NASA’s NEOWISE has had a busy decade. Since its reactivated mission began on Dec. 13, 2013, the space telescope has discovered a once-in-a-lifetime comet, observed more than 3,000 near-Earth objects, bolstered international planetary defense strategies, and supported another NASA mission’s rendezvous with a distant asteroid. And that’s just a partial list of accomplishments.

But all good things must come to an end: Solar activity is causing NEOWISE – short for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer – to fall out of orbit. By early 2025, the spacecraft is expected to drop low enough into Earth’s atmosphere that it will become unusable. Eventually, it will reenter our atmosphere, entirely burning up.

About every 11 years, the Sun experiences a cycle of increased activity that peaks during a period called solar maximum. Explosive events, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, become more frequent and heat up our planet’s atmosphere, causing it to expand. Atmospheric gases increase drag on satellites orbiting Earth, slowing them down. With the Sun currently approaching its next maximum, NEOWISE will no longer be able to maintain its orbit above our atmosphere….

Now you know — and I will hit my personal solar max event, by later on Thursday, of this week — in the Sonoran desert (for about four weeks)… yup, with whole fam gathering — can’t wait!

नमस्ते

While Scott Johnson Makes Insipid Jokes, Bill Otis Goes All “Concern Troll” About Joe Biden.

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First, the worst of it: Scott Johnson decided that a crash involving a private citizen’s car bumping into the Presidential motorcade (clearly no threat intent, according to Secret Service), yesterday… was a good launching point for his insipid, off-putting jokes — about Mr. Biden. How deeply blue patriotic of him. Not.

Then, later this morning, Bill Otis decided (probably because he knows Biden beats Tangerine, head to head again in 2024!) that he must act for the good of the Democratic Party, and offered advice on a replacement of Mr. Biden at the top of the ticket, on the party he OPPOSES.

Charming — a “concern troll posting”, if ever I saw one.

Do take a seat Mr. Otis. We are not fooled — by cheap parlor tricks.

[Obviously, if he thought Trump could beat Mr. Biden, he’d be as silent as the grave, here. And he’s come to agree — no one in the GOP has the courage to replace Tangerine in 2024.

So the GOP will go down, in flames — mostly on the move to take women’s right to bodily autonomy… away. That’s the whole story here, down ticket. At the top, the story will be… don’t run a felon for 1600 Penn.]

H I L A R I O U S.

The Nationwide Merck / Zetia® Antitrust MDL — In The USDC For Eastern Virginia — Is Settled, And Closed, As Of Last Thursday.

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My understanding is that there are a precious few remaining plaintiffs who’ve decided to continue on their own (people and organizations that claim they were overcharged — via a monopolists’ scheme, for what turned out to be a “very expensive cholesterol management placebo“) — in local courts dotting the nation, but the nearly $1 billion has been deposited — for all others, by Merck.

And so this closes out about 15 years of our coverage of Zetia® — and the legacy of one “Fast” Fred Hassan, in shilling for it. Here’s the final order:

…Having entered a Suggestion of Remand on November 29, 2023, recommending the termination of this MDL following the remand of the remaining member cases to their home districts, and having received notice from JPML that the remaining member cases have been transferred to their home districts…

IT IS on this 14th day of December 2023…

ORDERED that this MDL is CLOSED….

Now you know — onward, grinning — escaping the cold and snow, and happily trading it for… cacti… by Thursday evening. Woot!

नमस्ते

Why Is Hinderaker So Threatened — By Any Party He’s Not Invited To?!

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This is… perplexing — and… steeped in irony.

For at least four decades (through to this afternoon) Hinderaker has socialized, and attended holiday galas (no doubt!) at private country clubs — ones that intentionally limit who may join or even attend as a guest of a member.

So… it is silly, that here in his dotage… he’s offended — when people of color might exclude… him.

[Not that he’d ever have the courage to enter an all Black club, mind you.]

His belching on Australian Sky network is just… silly.

Out.

Silent — For 20 Years…?!

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Well. Billingsley is correct, directionally, about Section 702 of the so-called Patriot Act.

It needs to go. It has been a vehicle for abuse, since about 2004. He’s right.

It is… a VP Dick Cheney creation. [Billingspuss was silent.]

Back then it was mostly used to spy on good US citizens who happened to follow Islam.

A religion. [Billingspuss was silent.]

It was used to spy without warrants on US citizens, in the US — and outside our borders. [Billingspuss was silent.] The late Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, John Conyers (D, MI) was right.

That “inside our borders” application / portion is per force unconstitutional.

And it was the GOP that blocked — over and over — Chairman Conyers and other Democratic Senators (including Patrick Leahy) from amending Sections 702 and 215 of the Bush43 monstrosity called the Patriot Act. [Billingspuss was silent — for 20 years.]

Yet he only now complains — in 2023: as Mr. Biden has the power to wield it against the violent MAGA offshoots (whyte supremacists).

Honestly, I don’t think the DoJ or DHS needed warrantless surveillance as to J6-ers. They were so stupid — much of the evidence was in open text and email and video. Selfies at the crime scene, for example. Walking into public buildings with signs that say “you are being recorded”.

These MAGA guys are… dunces.

Even so… Gee — the wording of Section 702 is what it was in 2003 — but he waited 20 years to complain.

I wonder… why.

Out.

Scott Johnson, Still In The Grips Of His Personal PTSD, Reads Vast Nonsense Into One Small Poll Of… Kids (18-24).

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Again, I have been allowing a fairly wide berth to the boys, since each of them, in differing ways — is expressing some post-traumatic stress related irrationality (and especially so, in writing about Gaza / Israel). The one most afflicted — and most often — has seemed to be… Paul Mirengoff.

But now Scott Johnson launches a mostly loony burp-fest about how the youngest voters in America are now “Generation H[amas]“. Yikes. This wild eyed and nationwide conclusion, he draws from a small sample of east coast college age kids. And from a survey that was primarily plumbing ECONOMIC dissatisfaction in that co-hort.

Whatever.

I seem to recall that both Hinderaker and Johnson have confessed to being “Communists” (whatever they thought that then meant, in 1969) when at the age of these survey respondents, and in fact, forcibly took over various Dartmouth campus admin offices — demanding an end to the Vietnam war. [Those were not just answers to a telephone survey boys — those were offenses for which you were both jailed, momentarily.]

And yet… now nearly a half century later… America is very much an entirely stable economy, and steady in its political / international stances (for better, or worse). Especially so, in its relationships with, and protection of… Israel. [Indeed, both of you graduated on time with honors, had your records wiped — and went on to law school — and careers amassing millions in the US capitalist version of America.]

Nope. No purported “Communist” collective ending property rights, nor repealing our Constitutional Democracy.

So… yes, based on your own lived experiences, guys — I do think this generation will grow up, and figure it out, Scott (and John, Steve and even Paul). All without engaging in Hinderaker’s calls for eradication of the the Palestinian peoples.

Onward.

On The Costs, Of Speaking Truth To Power — Even When The Jury Confirms A $148 Million Verdict In Your Favor…

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Let’s be clear: this is a civil rights story — not just a defamation/legal one.

Yes, Rudy is a national public figure (and reprobate). But as EW and many others have said since last night — this is about a mother and daughter who’ve had to change their names, move carefully, and more than once — into hiding. They essentially live as though they are in a witness protection program (due to relentless and often racially-tinged death threats, from MAGAts). [And yes, this means that Scott Johnson’s missed the mark, on the story — and missed it badly.]

All because the guy leaking dark brown goo from his head (formerly a US Attorney, and formerly, the Mayor of New York), under the TV lights — targeted them. Yet… and still… they… rise. Here’s a bit:

…Good evening everyone. I am Lady Ruby. Today’s a good day. A jury stood witness to what Rudy Giuliani did to me and my daughter and held him accountable. And for that I’m thankful. Today is not the end of the road. We still have work to do.

Rudy Giuliani was not the only one who spread lies about us, and others must be held accountable too. But that is tomorrow’s work. For now, I want people to understand this. Money will never solve all of my problems. I can never move back to the house that I called home.

I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I choose to share my name with. I miss my home, I miss my neighbors, and I miss my name….

This — this courage, under fire — should be the central narrative arc, out of Rudy’s complete loss. Please share this wherever you can. Onward.

नमस्ते