Category: Uncategorized

Update: Now Brazil Becomes The Fifth Non-African Nation With Reported Mpox Cases…

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This latest case is a single air passenger arriving at the main airport in Sao Paulo. This makes five nations outside of Africa — with Sweden, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand rounding out the other four.

DNA testing is presently underway to determine for certain, but it is likely a Clade Ib case, with traveller arriving from sub-Saharan Africa. [Clade Ib is the more serious strain.] Here’s the latest, from Reuters South American desk:

…SAO PAULO, Aug 26 (Reuters) — The Brazilian health sanitary agency Anvisa has been informed of a suspected case of mpox at the country’s main international airport near Sao Paulo, it said in a statement on Monday….

Now you know. Let us all be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Let’s get those vaccine pallets to the planes, already. Geez. Out.

नमस्ते

Scott Johnson’s Own Candidate “Wouldn’t Leave Afghanistan” — But Takes Credit For It.

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And so, pop-pop here suggests that my Madame President saying, in 2021 that she supported pulling our troops is somehow, inexplicably, her fault for how the Army handled the pull-out.

Yeh — okay, Boomer.

The boys really are out of ammo. They know Titanic/Tangerine 2.0 has left Irish waters… and the night is falling. The iceberg awaits them all. Hilarious.

[U] Surprising… NO ONE, Tangerine Is Likely To Ditch The Agreed Sept. Debate Date…

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Updated @ 7 PM EDT: Hinderaker now weighs in to confirm that Tangerine’s campaign needs the debate; Madame President and the Democrats do not. So, if Tangerine ditches it he will fall more than 7 points behind. Perfect.

End update.

He only now claims he “must” be allowed to be seated, with notes at his desk — and use a hot mic, even when Kamala is speaking.

[He hated not being able to talk over Mr. Biden, as he had done to HRC in 2016.]

But his campaign already agreed that mics for both would be shut off during the other’s speaking time.

We all well knew he would invent an excuse NOT to debate, since it will be a thousand times worse for him, than when he showed up in Chicago at the NABJ.

He saw what happens when someone who’s smart, and not willing to “soft-focus” his lies — and offers him some hard-edged reality, rather than nodding along… takes him apart, piece by piece.

And Kamala will do a much more efficient job of it, if he is stupid enough to show up for the debate.

So my best guess is that his bone spurs (or something!) will prevent his appearance at any debate before election day 2024.

Doesn’t matter — Madame President now holds a solid 7 point lead, nationwide.

He will lose. She will sweep at least five of the seven swing states (garnering about 297 EC votes nationwide), and… he will lose (at around 241). She only needs 270 to win.

Out.

Japan (JAXA) Shares With US (NASA); NASA Shares With JAXA — This Is Solid Space Science!

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There were two recent missions that collected samples from asteroids. And the NASA version brought home more than double the expected weight — so much, that the sample/cargo door wouldn’t initially fully close. But all that got sorted out, and both NASA and JAXA returned pristine samples to Earth.

The two agencies, and thus countries, are now sharing the bounties they brought home. Here’s that latest story, even as OSIRIS-REx heads on back out, to deep space — in an extended mission.

…The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft delivered 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) of material from Bennu, more than double the mission’s mass requirement, as well as 24 steel Velcro® pads containing dust from the contact with Bennu. As part of the agreement, the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston transferred to JAXA 0.023 ounces (0.66 grams) of the Bennu sample, equaling 0.55% of the total sample mass, and one of the 24 contact pads.

Hayabusa2 collected 0.19 ounces (5.4 grams) of Ryugu between two samples and, in 2021, JAXA provided NASA with 23 millimeter-sized grains plus aggregate sample material from Ryugu, enabling both countries to get the most out of the samples and share the responsibility of sample curation….

Asteroids are debris left over from the dawn of the solar system. The Sun and its planets formed from a cloud of dust and gas about 4.6 billion years ago, and asteroids are thought to date back to the first few million years of our solar system’s history. Sample return missions like OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 help provide new data on how the solar system’s evolution unfolded.

Initial analysis of the Bennu samples has revealed dust rich in carbon and nitrogen. Members of the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team have also found evidence of organic molecules and minerals bearing phosphorous and water, which together could indicate the building blocks essential for life.

Both the Bennu sample and the asteroid Ryugu sample delivered by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission appear to have come from an ancient parent object formed beyond the current orbit of Saturn that was broken up and transported into the inner solar system. The differences between these asteroids are emerging as the detailed chemistry is analyzed….

Now you know — and here’s our backgrounder from last December on the extended OSIRIS-REx mission. Be excellent to one another.

नमस्ते

“Oh! The Humanities!” — Overnight Nonsense, From Mirengoff.

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R-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ght.

The “Jews” (apparently a monolithic, single-vision group, to Paul) had to seek “shelter” at the DNC.

Uh-huh.

See, Paul, what happens at a major-party nominating convention is… that various affinity groups hold private “caucus” meetings — to help craft (or more precisely, influence) party-wide platforms. That is also something conventions did, historically (but not the RNC in the age of Trumpism — it simply lets pop pop say whatever he wants).

So, at the DNC — it seems there were some very radical pro-Zionists who felt unsafe around a more nuanced view of the Middle East — and Gaza particularly.

Y A W N.

There is literally no there, there — unless he is willing to torch Candace Owens’ growing of a full Hitler moustache and comb-over — of late.

In sum, clean your own closet, buddy — before complaining about the most pluralistic party in American history — the 2024 Democratic Party.

Out.

We Wish Dr. Fauci A Speedy And Complete Recovery, From Relatively-Rare Case Of Mosquito-Born West Nile Virus…

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This has to be a stunning coincidence — in his mind. What are the odds, given how out of the main this virus is, here in the US — even during hot, wet summers (like this one)?

In any event, this fine man is one of our life-science heroes — so this is simply and mostly a get well card, from us. To be sure though, there is no vaccine — so the trick is never to get it in the first place. Here’s the story:

…Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a longtime public health official who headed up the United States’ response to the coronavirus pandemic, was hospitalized about ten days ago, he said Saturday. At the time, he was suffering from fever, chills and severe fatigue.

Fauci said he left the hospital three days ago and is expected to make a full recovery at home.

The West Nile virus is primarily spread by mosquitoes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention….

There are no vaccines to prevent West Nile virus or medicines to treat its symptoms, but most people infected with the disease do not feel sick, according to the CDC. About one in five people infected develop a fever and other symptoms. About one in 150 infected people develop a “serious, sometimes fatal, illness,” the CDC said….

Even so, with the even rarer EEE virus now turning up in New England, and causing at least a few small towns to impose curfews, from dusk to dawn — since they cannot afford a municipal mosquito spraying programs. . . we should all be careful — and do wear repellant, as at least some protection — when venturing into the deeper boggy woods. Onward.

नमस्ते

[U! Rigby Adds!] Weird Sh!t “Pop-Pop” Johnson Said, Volume 698…

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This… is weird.

UPDATED — Rigby hits it out of the park, thus:

It’s impossible for me to believe that Scott has so egregiously misunderstood Walz’s joke here. Walz isn’t making fun of J.D. Vance for having gone to Yale (well, maybe a little); he’s making fun of Republicans for their hypocritical and silly disdain for Yale as a bastion of leftist dogma, indoctrinating its students with its nefarious liberal agenda.

In other words, Scott, like the babysitter in “When a Stranger Calls,” needs to heed the terrifying warning: “The call is coming from inside the house!”

See, for example, Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho, whose idiotic and performative refusal to hire Yale Law graduates was celebrated by Scott himself. So, when Scott writes in this post, ” I never understood [going to Yale] was something to be ashamed of,” he’s lying through his teeth. He’s expressed the exact same level of derision towards Yale as Walz did at the DNC.

That’s the joke, you maroon…. End, updated portion.

Scott wrote it all Saturday morning, weirdly, to allow him to mention how many Ivy degrees he, and his high school classmates amassed. [Funny he doesn’t bother to mention any of his co-blog authors’ Ivies.]

Weird.

[Perhaps he wrote it all to project/protect his imagined-persona as an “intellectual” — even though he has helped nominate a man who can barely read, to again hold office at 1600 Penn. This is the THIRD time he has chosen an illiterate reprobate as his nominee. Yikes.]

That’s all this is — some weird sh!t “pop pop” (again) said.

Out.

Tonight, Hinderaker Claims It Is Primarily Rich DemocratsThat “Bleed” Govt. Programs. Hah!

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So… as to hypocrisy — John Hinderaker has few peers.

Tonight he blames Michelle Obama for making an admittedly fine retirement nest egg, with the sweat of her own brow.

That is fact. Not fiction. Her parents were working class Chicagoans. Hers were also saddled with the discrimination of the 1940s and 1960s. Barack’s too.

John fails to mention that his father was a very wealthy Dakota bank lawyer. Owned nearly the largest law firm in the Dakotas in the 1960s. His family may have even owned several banks there when he was growing up.

Yet as we documented, after he made his own millions in Big Law, in Minneapolis, he had his think tank take over $200,000 in PPP loans he never paid back.

During Covid. Federal money meant to help struggling blue collar small businesses — not elite hard right PAC-fronting propaganda non-profits.

That too is a fact.

John himself is in fact a welfare queen / loser and a fraud.

What a stupid liar he is.

Out.

[U] Breaking: NASA Just Said Suni And Butch Will Come Home In February ’25 — In A SpaceX Ride…

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This means Boeing will fly the Starliner back on auto-pilot — to see if it holds together, on de-orbit.

Now the press conference is over — so, here’s the update, in full:

…NASA will return Boeing’s Starliner to Earth without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard the spacecraft, the agency announced Saturday. The uncrewed return allows NASA and Boeing to continue gathering testing data on Starliner during its upcoming flight home, while also not accepting more risk than necessary for its crew.

Wilmore and Williams, who flew to the International Space Station in June aboard NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, have been busy supporting station research, maintenance, and Starliner system testing and data analysis, among other activities.

“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “I’m grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work.”

Wilmore and Williams will continue their work formally as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew through February 2025….

Space is hard, man. It does not cooperate. Onward, still. So it goes.

नमस्ते

Moving Mpox Vaccine Stock Into DRC And Burundi: A Series Of Regulatory And Logistical Hurdles… And Some Bureaucratic Delays.

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The time is now. Past now, actually (the vials could have been purchased and delivered over a year ago).

We must move very large boluses of palletized doses of the vaccine (however we do it) into sub-Saharan Africa, right now. Four nations so far… and we need about 3 million doses, immediately — probably about 10 million within a year. Here’s a bit from Reuters’ (free) reporting (the NYT also has a piece behind its paywall):

…Among the hurdles: It took the World Health Organization (WHO) until this month to start officially the process needed to give poor countries easy access to large quantities of vaccine via international agencies.

In response to Reuters questions about the delays in vaccine deployment, the U.N. health agency said on Friday it would relax some of its procedures on this occasion in an effort to now accelerate poor countries’ access to the mpox shots.

Buying the expensive vaccines directly is out of reach for many low-income countries. There are two key mpox shots, made by Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic and Japan’s KM Biologics. Bavarian Nordic’s costs $100 a dose; the price of KM Biologics’ is unknown….

The long wait for WHO approval for international agencies to buy and distribute the vaccine has forced individual African governments and the continent’s public health agency – the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – to instead request donations of shots from rich countries. That cumbersome process can collapse, as it has before, if donors feel they should keep the vaccine to protect their own people….

[N]o shots have been available in Africa outside clinical trials. A key reason: Vaccines needed to be greenlit by the WHO before they could be bought by public healthcare groups including Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Gavi helps poorer countries buy shots, supplying childhood vaccines in this way routinely. It administered a global scheme for all vaccines during COVID-19 and has up to $500 million to spend on mpox vaccines and logistics….

To be certain, this is no COVID style event — and nothing like ebola (at only 10% lethal compared to about 85%). Still, it could in time be a much larger problem — if we don’t get aggressive with funding and manufacturing reserves, even at MSD Europe, for example — as a contract manufacturer, very quickly (as I suggested at the head of the week).

We all — collectively — must do better. People’s lives are dependent upon… us. Onward.

नमस्ते