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Found — By An Amateur “Rock-Hound” — On Hart’s Range, In The Northern Territory Of Australia’s Outback… Amazing 4 Lbs. Of Elestial Quartz & Amethyst!

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Do go see the movies and stills, from a guy posting under the handle “crystals of australia“… on Instagram.

His boyish joy — at every new find… is simply infectious.

[Do see at right! That’s an amethyst crystal fused to the top of a very large piece of ancient mostly clear quartz… weighing in at over four pounds! It was under about a foot of reddish overburden… likely just resting there, on what was the bottom of a silty, muddy water basin, since long before… the time of the dinosaurs (that is, it is likely about 850 million years old!).]

And I must say, he’s struck my imagination — reigniting the geologist — and the miner, in me — all these decades later.

This is what’s best… about the wild, untamed internet, and the Aussie outback, too!

And we will (expansively) declare this as on topic — under the Earth Sciences Dept. of this property.

Grinning….

नमस्ते

Overnight, Hinderaker Deflects From Trump’s Seven Private Calls (As A Presidential CANDIDATE, No Less!), With A US Sanctioned Dictator, In Russia

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

Overnight, John Hinderaker belches up the specious claim that Kamala Harris is making lawless, specific threats against Tangerine’s safety. This is purely… poppycock.

And we all well know why he is lying, too.

He is deflecting. It is now confirmed by Vlad Putin that he had private phone conversations, on seven occasions, with the Don-OLD, while he was running for preznit, this cycle (2024).

I read somewhere… somewhere… Oh. Right….

It is in… 18 USC § 953, that private US citizens (on US soil) are to report person to person contacts with sanctioned country leaders through, and to, the US State Department. And unless the State Department authorized the contacts-back, there must be no additional conversations. But there were… at least seven of them. All clandestine.

This, I am 100% certain, Tangerine did not do. That is a three year prison stint, under 18 USC § 953. [You could look it up — I did.] Heh.

This is what Hinderaker wants the news cycle to… memory hole.

But that won’t happen. What did Trump promise Putin in those calls — and how much oligarch money, through dark pools and Super-Pacs… has been dumped into Tangerine’s coffers, in return?

We will likely never know.

But imagine the world learning that “Saint” Ronnie Raygun… was chatting up Soviet dictators, on the sneak, in 1980 (whilst a candidate, but not yet elected)?! [Or… Eisenhower, or JFK — decades earlier?!]

The world would have dumped him out on his ear, to a person. [And we real patriots will, to a person, dump Tangerine, in favor of the first Black Woman President, at right!]

D A M N A T I O N.

This guy is a real and present danger — to all nations espousing ordered liberty, across the globe, John.

Grow up.

Upcoming NASA / NCAR / NOAA Briefing, On The 2024 “Solar Max” Cycle — And Its Effects, So Far…

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As we mentioned back in November and December of 2023 — the peak solar activity cycle, called “Solar Max” — was likely to arrive early and be more intense this time around. That transpired almost precisely as expected — we’ve been in the max portion of the 11 year cycle since mid January of this year. And it has been one for the record books.

The helio-science crews at at least three agencies will now hold a press conference to describe learnings, and offer predictions, for the remainder of the max year or so to come. That will be a briefing worth hearing, since back in January, we saw likely the most intense coronal mass ejection, or CME — aimed directly at Earth, ever recorded (see lower left graphic).

[That particular CME burst largely meant the “end of days“, for the aging NEOWISE craft. It safely burned in on de-orbit shortly thereafter.]

Here’s the latest, from NASA | NCAR (in Boulder):

…NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will discuss the Sun’s activity and the progression of Solar Cycle 25 during a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, Oct. 15. Tracking the solar cycle is a key part of better understanding the Sun and mitigating its impacts on technology and infrastructure as humanity explores farther into space.

The Sun goes through regular cycles of activity lasting approximately 11 years. During the most active part of the cycle, known as solar maximum, the Sun can unleash immense explosions of light, energy, and solar radiation, all of which create conditions known as space weather. Space weather can affect satellites and astronauts in space, as well as communications systems such as radio and GPS — and power grids on Earth. When the Sun is most active, space weather events become more frequent. Solar activity, such as the storm in May 2024, has sparked displays of aurora and led to impacts on satellites and infrastructure in recent months….

During the teleconference, experts from NASA, NOAA, and the international Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel, which is co-sponsored by both agencies, will discuss recent solar cycle progress and the forecast for the rest of this cycle….

We will listen in, and likely offer a new post, outlining those learnings. Be excellent to one another — and check on your relatives in Florida — Milton is going to be a… monster, even if it weakens slightly during the afternoon today, into the night.

[Out, to a black tie charity dinner tonight, so will be no updates here, until near midnight.] Namaste, one and all….

नमस्ते

Merck Signs An Up To $1.9 Billion Deal, Involving “Bio-Bucks” — With Mestag Therapeutics, In Britain…

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This is certainly good news for the newer, smaller British biotech, and is of course immaterial to the behemoth at Rahway.

The company’s science program is quite well thought of though, with J&J’s Janssen unit also signing a biobucks deal a few years ago with the entity. Here is that bit of news from FierceBiotech, this morning:

…Details remain vague, with Mestag providing Merck with options to acquire licenses to develop and commercialize therapies against a “prespecified number of potential targets.” The exact upfront payment the British biotech will receive hasn’t been disclosed, either, but the company did say that combined with access fees, option fees and “downstream payments,” the total value of the deal could reach $1.9 billion.

Fibroblasts are a type of connective tissue cell that have long been studied in the areas of wound healing and fibrosis, or scarring, but were traditionally considered bit players when it came to tumors and inflammation. More recently, researchers have started to understand that fibroblasts play not just a supporting role but a central one in inflammation….

Merck also posted some nice head and neck cancer results for Keytruda today — but those are also immaterial, since so many oncologists are already using it in these and other cancers. Now you know. Onward!

नमस्ते

As Ron DeSantis Faces A Second Hurricane Wipe-Out, In Two Weeks, He Refuses To Take A “Federal Aid” Call… From Kamala?!

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Hinderaker tonight is so bugged, about free expression in Australia and the EU — that he neglects to grapple with the FACT that right here (under his nose) in red Florida, MAGA Gov. DeSantis refused to take calls from both Mr. Biden and Veep Harris today — calls offering federal aid for beleaguered Floridians, displaced by Helene — and millions more, about to be… wiped out by Milton.

These MAGA idiots are spreading lies about FEMA solely to politicize natural disasters. And Gov. DeSantis is going to literally kill dozens, if not hundreds of Floridians, with his malign political grandstanding.

Who ARE these churlish losers?! [We must note in passing that for over a decade both Florida and Texas have taken out far more in federal aid, than their taxpayers deposit by federal income taxes. Despite all their bluster, they are federal welfare states, unlike Colorado, and Vermont.]

But now, when Tangerine needs a wedge issue to lie about (never waste a natural disaster crisis!) — DeSantis claims he’s not for the welfare he’s long taken, and spent. In Florida.

Who, indeed are these goofs — they are… in sum, everything Hinderaker hopes for in political “leaders”: self-serving, egotistical sociopaths.

D A M N.

As Was True With Ebola In 2018-19, US CDC Will Screen Arriving Passengers From Rwanda For Marburg, On Entry To US — Starting Next Week… Safety First.

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Well — this should not be a big surprise. It is the best — and least intrusive — way, to keep a country with no cases of Marburg’s… free of the viral vector, in humans.

It is — to be fair — a bit of an imposition, on the travelers’ personal liberties, but the benefit of protecting the nation outweighs that smallish imposition. And as I say, the CDC had the same protocol, during the 2013-14 Ebola outbreak, as well as during the 2018 one, if memory serves.

Here’s that latest update, via CBS.com:

…In response to an unprecedented outbreak of Marburg virus in Rwanda, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now plan to screen arriving international travelers for their risk of bringing the deadly Ebola-like disease into the country.

The stepped-up screenings will start the week of Oct. 14 for arriving travelers who have been in Rwanda during the past three weeks, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday.

“To keep Americans safe, we are implementing additional precautions for a small, select group of travelers arriving in the United States from Rwanda, including additional public health entry screenings,” White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement Monday.

Savett said that passengers recently in Rwanda will be redirected “to certain U.S. airports for public health entry screening and follow up measures….”

Now you know. Onward, to a busy week, with various campaigns for “¡Si Pueda!” ahead!

नमस्ते

Update: Hurricane Milton Explodes To Cat. 5 — NASA Wisely Scrubs This Week’s Europa Clipper Launch From Cape Canaveral…

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It is oddly prophetic. . . that the name of the category five hurricane bearing down on the pan-handle (and the second — in two weeks!) is named… Milton. Odd… indeed.

In any event, the wise course is to move far inland, and batten-down all the property that you can, before bugging out — everywhere in central Florida. NASA is now doing the same. Here’s the latest — but it could be a few weeks before another launch date appears:

…NASA [is] standing down from the Thursday, Oct. 10, launch attempt of the agency’s Europa Clipper mission due to anticipated hurricane conditions in the area. Hurricane Milton is expected to move from the Gulf of Mexico this week moving east to the Space Coast. High winds and heavy rain are expected in the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island regions on Florida’s east coast. Launch teams have secured NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in… hangar at Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the severe weather, and the center began hurricane preparations Sunday.

“The safety of launch team personnel is our highest priority, and all precautions will be taken to protect the Europa Clipper spacecraft,” said Tim Dunn, senior launch director at NASA’s Launch Services Program….

While Europa Clipper’s launch period opens Oct. 10, the window provides launch opportunities until Wednesday, Nov. 6….

Onward, resolutely, while Milton’s own ample road — paved with stars… still lies ahead. Smile. [And I’ve excised all references to Elon Musk’s private space company above, as his odious repeated belching of deeply-racist lies — about the current presidential electoral cycle is… enough to label him… (like Martin Shkreli!) a deplorable. Now you know.]

नमस्ते

Good News: A Collaboration Clinical Trial, With ABL Bio’s ABL103, And Merck’s Keytruda®… But Immaterial Overall.

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To be certain, this is a piece of material good news — for ABL Bio — and a nice validation of the Grabody-T approach. We shall see how the clinical trial turns out, but it will be definitively immaterial, to Merck’s overall trajectory, up or down.

Here’s the scoop, from The PharmaLetter — and a bit:

…ABL Bio – whose shares rose 4% on the news -will conduct a phase Ib/II clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ABL103 in combination with Keytruda. In this combination study, MSD will supply Keytruda.

ABL103 is bispecific antibody that simultaneously targets B7-H4 and 4-1BB. ABL103 is one of the pipeline programs in which ABL Bio’s 4-1BB based bispecific antibody platform ‘Grabody-T’ has been applied. Grabody-T is designed to activate T cells only in the tumor microenvironment, reducing the liver toxicity of conventional 4-1BB monoclonal antibody and enhancing the antitumor activity….

Now you know — and onward to a big upset of K-State this Saturday night, in the cool Boulder air! Woot woot! Grinning… let it be so.

नमस्ते

The Mistreatment Of Children Seeking Asylum Outside San Diego… Continues. Awful.

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As regular readers only too well know, we have been covering all this for over a decade. And here, Democrats should shoulder some blame — but the culture of blatant lawlessness at the border, by federal agents was really created under Tangerine. And it largely persists.

Even so, no matter who is next in the White House — this is wrong. It violates our laws, and our international treaties — on the treatment of putative asylum-seekers. Especially as to children. The wholesale (and unchecked) violence has mostly ended — as has the shocking refusal to provide soap and blankets and toothbrushes — but at the temporary staging areas, like Whiskey 8, below — very disturbing conditions persist, in the hot Southern California summer months. See below.

We must do more — once Kamala is in charge, after November. [Sadly, it is unrealistic to expect Mr. Biden will do much of anything, now.]

Here is the full sworn statement — and a bit of it:

…Beginning on August 1, 2024, the water tank at Whiskey 8 toppled over when the base it rested on was crushed from the water tank’s weight, rendering it unusable. On approximately September 10, 2024, service workers replaced the water tank, but they did not repair or replace its base. On the evening of September 29, 2024, I noted that the water tank hoses were disconnected, and the tank has not been replaced and its base has yet to be replaced or repaired. When the water tank was operational, Border Patrol did not provide any drinking cups. Upon information and belief, the only water available to non-citizens detained at Whiskey 8 since August 1, 2024, was provided by volunteers, except for the short period in September 2024 when the water tank was replaced, but Border Patrol also did not provide water cups then. During the entire month of September 2024, I never once saw any person at Whiskey 8 drink water obtained from the water tank.

There is no shade or shelter at Whiskey 8 except for a small tarp attached to the border wall which has since been removed. Border Patrol did not provide this tarp. This small tarp is pictured on page 9 of the CBP Juvenile Coordinator’s September 6, 2024, Interim Report as Photograph 6 [Doc. # 1466-1].

Over the summer, temperatures at Whiskey 8 ranged from 75 to 90 degrees during the day. I often saw people, including children, trying to take cover from the sun in a 1-foot space between the secondary border wall and the base of the water tank. People also attempted to take cover under the small tarp that was attached to the border wall. I witnessed the parents crowding the children under the limited shade from the tarp….

[For example, on September 15, 2024] between 7:15 p.m. and 3 a.m., at least three other groups of noncitizens arrived. At approximately 3 a.m. on September 16, 2024 — over seven hours after the group first arrived at Whiskey 8—Border Patrol agents arrived to prepare approximately 39 people for transport. During the time between 7:15 p.m. and 3 a.m., Border Patrol drove by several times. On two separate times, Border Patrol parked with lights dimmed over 30 minutes on the road in front of the gate at Whiskey 8, close to the humanitarian aid station. At about 1 a.m., a Border Patrol agent instructed everyone to sit by the border wall, west of the gate, to wait for transport, which did not take place until 3 a.m. . . . During the time these groups waited at Whiskey 8, Border Patrol agents did not provide water, food, or shade. It is not their practice to provide any of these items while noncitizen children and adults are waiting to be transported. The only water and food provided to the people detained at Whiskey 8 was from volunteers….

To be certain, things have greatly improved since Tangerine lost in 2020. But there is much more work to do. And there is so much lying going on in MAGA/GOP circles, about what is actually going on — the task of righting it will be… monumental.

But we will move forward resolutely, next term. We will make it better — and more humane. That much is certain, under a Harris Administration. Out.

नमस्ते

Vaccinations Have Finally Begun, On The Ground, In Bas-Uélé Province, DRC: Mpox Update, Oct. ’24.

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We applaud the effort, but remain troubled that there was no “ready-reserve”, for WHO to deploy to DRC and other African nations, for this Mpox outbreak ordeal.

As we noted throughout last month, logistical delays (largely transport via cold storage means) have hampered delivery of even the vaccine stock hurriedly assembled and delivered to Kinshasa’s N’djili International Airport. In any event, here is the latest, out of Congo:

…Congolese authorities Saturday began vaccinations against mpox, nearly two months after the disease outbreak that spread from Congo to several African countries and beyond was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization.

The 265,000 doses donated to Congo by the European Union and the U.S. were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox.

Congo, with about 30,000 suspected mpox cases and 859 deaths, accounts for more than 80% of all the cases and 99% of all the deaths reported in Africa this year. All of the Central African nation’s 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases.

Although most mpox infections and deaths recorded in Congo are in children under age 15, the doses being administered are only meant for adults and will be given to at-risk populations and front-line workers, Health Minister Roger Kamba said this week….

Now you know — and onward, to post card writing and mailing for the campaign at left — into battleground state mailboxes by the thousands, now. Smile.

नमस्ते