I do understand. These countries cannot economically withstand a perhaps six month “no travel” order. The mining and tourism industries will suffer… and suffer immensely. And no such order has issued from any other nation, thus far.
But it seems a less than credible proposition — that these local public health ministers would refute lab tests independently conducted by the WHO. What interest might WHO have in lying here? None. So (while we will report it, for a complete record) do take this with a truckload of salt. The latest, from the Beeb:
…Tanzania has dismissed a World Health Organisation (WHO) report of a suspected new outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in the north-west of the country. On Tuesday, the global health agency said a total of nine suspected cases were reported over the last five days in the Kagera region, including eight deaths.
But in a statement, Tanzania’s Health Minister Jenista Mhagama said after samples were analysed, all suspected cases were found negative for Marburg virus. She said that the country had strengthened its surveillance systems and disease monitoring….
Again, I do well-understand the fear factor, and the crippling economic impact a multi-district outbreak of lethal Marburg will have on the already struggling nation. But — as ever — for the sake of future traveling parties, and to avoid perhaps thousands more hosts / patients / fatalities (and the safety of that nation’s people), we must tell the truth. Onward.
InnerCityPress reports on X-itter (from inside Foley Square!) that Rudy is MIA. Only the junior associate from Cammarata’s firm is in court. Hizzoner was to be the first witness at trial on the Florida condo, the DiMaggio jersey and of course the World Series rings.
InnerCityPress reports on X-itter (from inside Foley Square!) that Rudy is MIA. Only the junior associate from Cammarata’s firm is in court. Hizzoner was to be the first witness at trial on the Florida condo, the DiMaggio jersey and of course the World Series rings.
Update No. 3 — The Rudy Giuliani trial, which never began amid his no-show, has been “adjourned” until 1 pm – then something on the record (about his absence, four hours by then?) – watch this feed.
Update of 11:27 am – nothing was put on that record at 11 am – now Judge has summoned those lawyers present back into his chambers or robing room. Waiting for them to emerge. Rudy still not here.
[Updated @ 10:54 am] Rudy Update: We’re told to expect Judge Liman at 11 am to take the bench and put something on the record (about Giuliani’s absence, two hours by then) –
watch this feed….
….[Earlier] innercitypress 20 minutes ago:
Update: Rudy Giuliani still a no-show at 10:06 am. At Rudy’s / defense table, only an associate of Rudy’s lawyer Cammarata. Cammarata has not been seen yet this morning: now 1 hour late and counting….
[U 2X — SNARK, Matthew is] working on the lyrics now : )
Even the deluded Hinderaker has foresworn any objective argument that these are “good” (let alone “the best”!) candidates for their respective roles — nor could he.
This is an “Island of Misfit Toys”, exclusively — after Tangerine 1.0 torched every single competent hire.
The sad fact is… even among the hard right GOP… almost no one with any smarts or savvy… would have signed on, for the 2.0 version.
So honestly — all John tells us… is that they will be pure MAGA loyalists. Until Tangerine turns on them — for largely imaginary offenses.
To be clear, food manufacturers will have until early 2027 to sell off stock containing erythrosine (more commonly known as Red No. 3), and source alternate supplies of red food coloring agents.
And lest anyone get too terribly alarmed, the level of Red No. 3 in foodstuffs is only a very tiny fraction of what was once in cosmetics (parts per 500,000, compared to parts per 10,000 in old cosmetics) — which were banned in 1990, under the so-called Delaney Clause. I would like to believe that we will continue to see aggressive reviews like this one as to our food supplies, but my concern is that Tangerine 2.0 may well work to undo even these modest changes.
Still, it is true that the concentration of dye in most people’s diets would be, over a life-time, less than 1/100,000th of what old cosmetics delivered in just about a ten year span of daily use. [And the substance was shown to cause cancer only in rats that ate it as over 5% of their diet — in a pure form. Not in humans, ever.]
Even so, I just hope all the current FDA Commissioners resolve to keep their seats until 2.0’s clock runs out — whenever that may be — even if it is all the way to 2028. Here’s the latest, from PBS:
…The agency said it was taking the action as a “matter of law” because some studies have found that the dye caused cancer in lab rats. Officials cited a statute known as the Delaney Clause, which requires FDA to ban any additive found to cause cancer in people or animals.
The dye is known as erythrosine, FD&C Red No. 3 or Red 3. The ban removes it from the list of approved color additives in foods, dietary supplements and oral medicines, such as cough syrups. More than three decades ago, the FDA declined to authorize use of Red 3 in cosmetics and externally applied drugs because a study showed it caused cancer when eaten by rats. Food manufacturers will have until January 2027 to remove the dye from their products, while makers of ingested drugs have until January 2028 to do the same….
Now you know. Onward to another Rudy grilling tomorrow! Smile.
This is hard news. Less than a month after Rwanda was able to arrest its own late 2024 outbreak of Marburg — a very lethal remote cousin of Ebola… we now see a geographically-dispersed pattern of at least eight Marburg deaths, in a remote mountainous part of Tanzania.
The fact that this outbreak crosses distinct geographies, makes it of particularly grave concern: there are probably more than two index cases, and it would seem more than one of them has… traveled — endangering multiple communities. [Sadly, we should expect the death toll will rise for a few weeks, at least.] Here’s the latest, from The [UK] Guardian:
…A suspected outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) in Tanzania has killed eight people and poses a high risk to the country and its neighbours, global health leaders have said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said nine suspected cases of the Ebola-like virus had been reported as of 11 January, in two districts of the Kagera region in the north of the country, including the eight deaths.
While the global risk from the outbreak is considered low, officials said the risk in Tanzania and the region was considered high….
In a statement, the WHO said: “The reporting of suspected MVD cases from two districts suggests geographic spread. The delayed detection and isolation of cases, coupled with ongoing contact tracing, indicates lack of full information of the current outbreak. More cases are expected to be identified.”
It also emphasised the high death rate of 89%, and the fact that healthcare workers are among suspected cases, potentially indicating spread within health facilities.
Kagera borders Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, with significant cross-border movement of people, and the WHO said there was “the potential for spread into neighbouring countries….”
I wish it were better news… but there you have it. Another role for an experimental vaccine — and a monoclonal antibody therapeutic. Prevention would plainly be the better medicine, but we must meet the virus where and when it finds a host. Onward.
There will be portions of Mr. Giuliani’s (and son’s) IRS Form 1040 Schedules made public documents, in the able USDC Judge Liman’s Manhattan courtroom, tomorrow. Woot!
The cogent Judge just denied Rudy’s motion to seal the pre-trial order exhibits. The people have a right to see the evidence in this case — it is plainly a matter of substantial public and political concern. He is trying to duck paying a $148 million libel verdict, related to his dangerous lies about the 2020 election outcome in Georgia.
And the fact that he filed no tax return listing the supposed “gifts” — for the 20218 tax year (the year they claim the gifts were fianlized), and his son didn’t, either. . . can only be understood to mean that (if the gifts really happened), (i) they both lied to the IRS and didn’t pay taxes on the rings, or (ii) they made the whole thing up in under-oath documents and testimony (see page 19 here) in a federal court. . . to (iii) achieve a “fraudulent conveyance” — against judgment creditors, under NY law, at some point — in 2024.
In open court, the lawyers for the election workers will also show the bankruptcy papers Rudy filed last year, listing the rings (one of which is imaged at upper right) as “his own property”. These plainly untrue statements, along with the ones related to the Florida condo and that Lauren Bacall blue Mercedes… mean he is going to lose — and be hit with perhaps another $2 million in legal fees, expended by the other side in running his lies to ground. Damn.
Updated: As of January 14, 2025, NASA has offered much more interstellar “spacey-science” (and many more graphics, and animations, below!) — on what is going on here — after much more data analysis, and imagery transmission, from JWST. Do go read it all — but what a cool pattern it forms, across a few light-years. Almost like a spider’s web — on a vast scale. End, update.
[Originally published 10.15.2022] Back in early September, we mentioned what we thought might be an enduring open question: what physics might be at work to create the strange, sort of rectangular wavelets, at right spinning off of Wolf-Rayet 140 (near Gaia).
It turns out that the mystery was solved in under a month, with the power of our new [name redacted] space telescope, out at L2.
Having a new, and very powerful tool… makes all the difference. It turns out that two stars (one very large, and massive; the other very small and now dying) are revolving tightly around each other, at about once every eight years, and as they draw closest in each orbital cycle the stellar winds compress into each other, creating something not unlike a set of rings, in a tree’s cross-section. Do watch the YouTube explainer at bottom, as the compression force creates a regular series of more opaque (carbon dust) bands, and those propagate out at a regular interval / steady speed, over time. So each ring represents about eight years’ time, on Earth.
It remains unclear, to me, at least — why the wave pattern isn’t more circular / elliptical… but instead seems to most-nearly resemble a “rectangular boxed” shape. I guess that is for future study / observations. It also turns out (via the video, at one minute and twenty seconds!) that because the duo’s orbits are so highly-elliptical, each of the close approaches causes a flattened curve to be propagated outward, in bands of carbon filled dust… thus explaining why it looks flat on two sides. Wild!
…A new image shows at least 17 dust rings created by a rare type of star and its companion locked in a celestial dance….
A new image from NASA’s [Redacted] Space Telescope reveals a remarkable cosmic sight: at least 17 concentric dust rings emanating from a pair of stars. Located just over 5,000 light-years from Earth, the duo is collectively known as Wolf-Rayet 140.
Each ring was created when the two stars came close together and their stellar winds (streams of gas they blow into space) met, compressing the gas and forming dust. The stars’ orbits bring them together about once every eight years; like the growth of rings of a tree’s trunk, the dust loops mark the passage of time.
“We’re looking at over a century of dust production from this system,” said Ryan Lau, an astronomer at NSF’s NOIRLab and lead author of a new study about the system, published today in the journal Nature Astronomy. “The image also illustrates just how sensitive this telescope is. Before, we were only able to see two dust rings, using ground-based telescopes. Now we see at least 17 of them….”
This truly is a phenomenal time to be alive, and able to witness the progress of all scientific endeavors — but especially interstellar space science:
He will lose come this Thurday, in his bench trial before the able USDC Judge Liman in Manhattan. That is all but certain.
His right to offer evidence has been largely curtailed via his own lies and omissions, as we’ve repeatedly noted.
And here is the order setting ground rules, well-reasoned. Here’s that opinion in full — and a bit:
…In deciding whether to exclude a witness from testifying as a sanction for a violation of Rule 26, the court considers the Softel factors: “(1) the party’s explanation for the failure to comply with the [disclosure requirement]; (2) the importance of the testimony of the precluded witness[es]; (3) the prejudice suffered by the opposing party as a result of having to prepare to meet the new testimony; and (4) the possibility of a continuance.” Patterson v. Balsamico, 440 F.3d 104, 117 (2d Cir. 2006) (quoting Softel, Inc. v. Dragon Med. & Scientific Commc’ns, Inc., 118 F.3d 955, 961 (2d Cir. 1997)). “Preclusion is considered ‘a drastic remedy’ that is generally disfavored within the District.” Rosado v. Soriano, 2021 WL 4192863, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 6, 2021) (quoting Rivera v. United Parcel Serv., 325 F.R.D. 542, 548 (S.D.N.Y. 2018)). “Before the extreme sanction of preclusion may be used by the district court, a judge should inquire more fully into the actual difficulties which the violation causes, and must consider less drastic responses.” Outley v. City of New York, 837 F.2d 587, 591 (2d Cir. 1988). There is no serious dispute that Defendant violated Rule 26(a)(1)….
Defendant failed to include the Third-Party Witnesses in the initial disclosures and failed to amend those disclosures to include Placa’s name until December 23, 2024 (and failed to ever name Goodman). He also failed to include telephone numbers as required by Rule 26(a)(1)(A)(i). His failures were not substantially justified or harmless. Defendant offers no justification or explanation for the failure to identify Ryan, Placa, or Goodman. Defendant proposes to offer Ryan and Placa to testify to his alleged relocation from New York City to Palm Beach. Dkt. No. 157. But he does not offer any reason why, if those persons have relevant information, he would not have known the information and have formed the view that they might be used as witnesses at the time of the November 4 initial disclosures…
What a… putz.
[“Hizzoner” has filed what he calls an “interlocutory appeal”, from this evidence non-admission opinion, to the Second Circuit. But trial will occur this week And he will lose in both courts — evidentiary matters are to be appealed only after judgment.] Onward, to Thursday — and his shellacking.
He loses the Florida condo, is my experienced bet.
In part in an effort to “find” the so-called “missing mass” of the then known Universe (such that the Universe doesn’t forever just fly apart into an infinite time period), but eventually collapses back into a closed system / singularity — to restart, from another “big bang”, JPL operated a space-based ‘scope for ten months in 1983, looking at the whole sky, in infrared.
This ultimately led to a ground-based telescope studies, in the last few years, in which hundreds of initial targets were sorted.
Some of them turned out to be not heavily obscured black holes but galaxies with high rates of star formation that emit a similar infrared glow. So the authors of the new study used visible-light telescopes to identify those galaxies and separate them from the hidden black holes. The result confirms that at least one third of these super massive giants are never going to emit visible wavelength light, as their torus shaped dust clouds blot them out, when viewed edge on. Here’s the latest — but incrementally increases the chances that the math works for the Universe to be a closed system, in a potentially endless series of expansion / collapse epochs:
…To confirm edge-on, heavily obscured black holes, the researchers relied on NASA’s NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), an X-ray observatory also managed by JPL. X-rays are radiated by some of the hottest material around the black hole. Lower-energy X-rays are absorbed by the surrounding clouds of gas and dust, while the higher-energy X-rays observed by NuSTAR can penetrate and scatter off the clouds. Detecting these X-rays can take hours of observation, so scientists working with NuSTAR first need a telescope like IRAS to tell them where to look….
The new study published in the Astrophysical Journal found that about 35% of supermassive black holes are heavily obscured, meaning the surrounding clouds of gas and dust are so thick they block even low-energy X-ray light.
Comparable searches have previously found less than 15% of supermassive black holes are so obscured. Scientists think the true split should be closer to 50/50 based on models of how galaxies grow….
Onward — smiling into the chilly sunshine, after a new one inch dusting of fluffy snows overnight (twice at around 7:15 am local)… be excellent to one another. And I cannot resist noting that Jack Smith confirmed what we all knew — and Pete Hegseth shows himself to be the lil’ troll he is, at hearings today. Ugh.
I do understand. These countries cannot economically withstand a perhaps six month “no travel” order. The mining and tourism industries will suffer… and suffer immensely. And no such order has issued from any other nation, thus far.
Powerline Lies... 