There are some frank things that need to be said about the situation in Ukraine.
First, the Russians need to recognize that there is no military threat to their sovereignty. It’s a myth. Acknowledging this is the first step in the direction of the next wave of demobilization after World War II. That one-third of Russia’s expensive military machine is about as useful for the future as the Soviet military that hung on well after the Great Patriotic War was done. The bottom line remains that, “Analysis: Putin’s Dangerous Ukraine Brinksmanship Fantasy Needs to Stop”.
Second, both Europe and Russia need to recognize that economic opportunity is an asymmetric force to be dealt with that is more powerful than any army. In this regard, it is in the interest of Russia and the EU to see Ukraine not as a battleground of stubborn wills, but as an opportunity to testbed the integration of longstanding interests into something that will work across Eurasia.
In this regard, there is a case to be made for both sides to discuss a period of tension reduction experimentation with Ukraine being a positive beneficiary of process. The objective is to fill the donut hole of this hour with sweet filling instead of bitterness and anti-tank missiles. When spring comes, the land turns to wet bog, the troops on exercise return to their bases, and calmer heads have had time to assess what comes next, that’s when something productive can happen.
In the meantime, it’s okay to let the reflexive actions of the set-piece battles generals and politicians work themselves into a frenzy that ends with creating an outcome of “all quiet on the front.”
Third, Americans, not just government but ordinary people too, need to search our souls and ask: do we really want to be the ones that get blamed for turning Europe into a Forward Line of Troops (FLOT) that will have to give way to something where we are not needed, or wanted … again?
We Americans, and our bureaucrats, like the excitement of the moment. But, that may not actually be constructive to the long game.
When the National Gallery in London is flooded the Director, Quentin Lester, decides to transfer the entire collection to the Welsh caves where the collection was stored during World War II. The entire operation is supposed to be secret and the cover story is that they are a mining company looking to reopen the mines, good news to the economically depressed town nearby. It takes local school teacher, Angharad Stanner, all of a day however to learn what is really going on. She soon has the entire school at the site taking a tour but Quentin's refusal to open any of the packing crates leads to something of a falling out. Gradually, Quentin gets to know the locals, particularly the Hughes family. In the end, everyone benefits and learns from each other.
Last week, an Alabama police detective named Tanisha Pughsley was murdered. It isn’t just cops like Rivera and Mora, Arroyo, and Pughsley being shot – crime and particularly homicides have rocketed up. Why? Because criminals no longer fear that they will be prosecuted. Thieves now walk into stores, rob them, then walk out. Criminals like the man who killed Officers Mora and Rivera have been told that cops are the enemy – that cops are to be treated, not with respect, but with derision. Cops are to be resisted. You can lay some blame at the feet of high-profile personalities like LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, Al Sharpton, and Ben Crump who have created a myth — one that people have bought into.
LeBron James was quick with his fingers to tweet when a cop did his job and to call him out for “accountability” even when that cop saved a black life. When cops are murdered by cop-hating men? Silence. James has not tweeted about cops being murdered. It’s below his outrage line. Not a word from LeBron James on Officer Pughsley being murdered. She was a Black woman, but she wore blue.
The content advisory is on the wrong people — not the people who need to be questioned even more.
But the funny thing about those “content advisories.” When they originally started putting that stuff on music, it made people more interested in looking at it. If the powers that be don’t want you to see it, it tends to make you want to see it all the more. The controversy has made even more people look at Joe Rogan, then wonder what the heck the controversy is and doubt the media even more. So basically the left shot themselves in the foot with this effort and just made their effort to control the narrative more obvious.
Matthew Rosenberg
@AllMattNYT
Joe Rogan is what he is. We in the media might want to spend more time thinking about why so many people trust him instead of us.
3:36 PM · Jan 30, 2022
The American left’s sickening neo-racism as demonstrated in Biden’s use of race and sex to pick people for government leadership posts is completely anti-American. Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. believed and said they were working to make good on our nation’s founding affirmation of the great and universal truth that “all men are created equal.” Now our nation’s top leaders instead work to communicate the disgusting idea that “some men are created more equal than others” based on performance-indifferent personal characteristics people are born with and cannot change.
It’s shameful to see our president declare self righteously that he bestows government authority based on people’s skin color and sex. Joe Biden is a complete embarrassment and making major steps backward for our nation.
Our nation has worked very hard to get away from this poison. People died, were beaten by police, lost jobs, and made other huge personal sacrifices to bring about a United States in which “they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.” Is this what we’re going to do with what these Americans sacrificed to achieve?
What a slap in the face, by the way, to Breyer. Nothing says, “Thanks for your service!” like a president effectively deciding you’re unfit to fill the very post you just vacated because he believes it’s politically convenient to discriminate against the skin hue and gonads you were born with. But that’s what the left does. In two years, Breyer will have his namesakes and statues ripped down, just like Lincoln. That’s what they call progress. //
I call this disgustingly racist and sexist. It is not progress, it is retrogression. Americans should not tolerate social Jim Crow dynamics like these any more than we tolerated Jim Crow laws in the second half of the 20th century. I don’t want to go through another round of mass civil unrest to re-establish that American ideal, either. Neither should anyone else, but that’s what this kind of sex- and race-baiting will lead to if left unchecked.
In one week alone, President Biden eclipsed everything Donald Trump and his supporters said about the validity of the 2020 election. By framing his false claims of “voter suppression” and “election subversion” as Jim Crow 2.0, our commander in chief has guaranteed a divided America. The only remaining question is whether he has also guaranteed a violent America.
Yesterday, President Joe “The Uniter” Biden proclaimed on Twitter that “Jim Crow 2.0 is about two insidious things: voter suppression and election subversion. It’s about making it harder to vote, who gets to count the vote, and whether your vote counts at all.”
And what is Jim Crow 2.0? State election integrity laws in effect in every or nearly every state, which Biden and his fellow Democrats want to gut with the passage of the so-called “Freedom to Vote Act,” which President Biden promoted in the same tweet. //
What Biden just told the country and the world is this: that when Democrats lose in November 2022, or thereafter suffer defeat in the presidential election of 2024, it will be because of voter suppression and election subversion—it will be because black Americans were denied the right to vote.
Biden’s peremptory challenge to the election results far surpasses anything Trump said or did. At least, Trump made it about him, claiming the election was stolen from him. Biden cast the die about democracy, “domestic enemies,” and race, all while declaring his words fact and not hyperbole.
May God save our country if the people actually believe him.
Will Carter Page succeed in fending off dismissal of his case against the DOJ, FBI, and litany of Crossfire Hurricane agents?
Files deleted from a Mapped Drive are not saved to the Windows Recycle Bin by default. The following procedure will enable saving deleted files to the Recycle Bin for the [[network:drive_maps|Mapped Drives]].
Merge the following Registry File for each login/account on each computer (save and double-click, or right-click and select "Merge"). Save the file on the desktop; if using the copy saved on a mapped network drive, copy it to the desktop before merging.
Max Cap ~ 50Gb
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7000B058-2EF2-460E-B7DF-7670E541B077}]
"RelativePath"="Q:\\"
"Category"=dword:00000004
"Name"="QuickBooks"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\BitBucket\KnownFolder\{9B6961A5-6010-469B-9613-3A0190F34FFC}]
"MaxCapacity"=dword:0000c7eb
"NukeOnDelete"=dword:0000000032-bit programs won't respect that setting, so must add:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions{9147E464-33A6-48E2-A3C9-361EFD417DEF}]
"RelativePath"="X:\"
"Category"=dword:00000004
"Name"="XDrive"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\BitBucket\KnownFolder{9147E464-33A6-48E2-A3C9-361EFD417DEF}]
"MaxCapacity"=dword:0000c7eb
"NukeOnDelete"=dword:00000000
A “work made for hire” is—
(1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or
(2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.
The 20th-century was marked by competition between two Cold War adversaries, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States, to achieve superior spaceflight capability.
The space race led to great technological advances, but these innovations came at a high cost. For instance, during the 1960s NASA spent $28 billion to land astronauts on the moon, a cost today equating to about $288 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars.
In the last two decades, space startup companies have demonstrated they can compete against heavyweight aerospace contractors as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Today, a SpaceX rocket launching can be 97% cheaper than a Russian Soyuz ride cost in the ’60s.
The key to increasing cost efficiency?
SpaceX rocket boosters usually return to Earth in good enough condition that they’re able to be refurbished, which saves money and helps the company undercut competitors’ prices.
When I was last down at Edwards AFB, I also spent some time at what is now known as Armstrong Flight Research Center. Before the name change in 2014, it had been famously titled the Dryden Flight Research Center. During my time with the awesome public affairs team there, a photo on the wall grabbed my attention. It was an incredible image of one of NASA's two Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with the Orbiter Endeavor mated to its back as it flew over a gorgeous desert landscape. But what made the shot so amazing was how the perspective was from directly above, looking down.
I was told that the photo, taken in December of 2008 as Endeavor made its voyage back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was one of the most beloved in at the installation and that it was shot by one of NASA's most acclaimed photographers, Carla Thomas. If I remember correctly, the photo was planned ahead of time and executed perfectly from the back seat of Armstrong's F/A-18B. The aircraft had rolled inverted—or near inverted—to capture the unique angle of the loaded-up SCA.
The use of an IRCM system to protect NASA's prized shuttle-carrying 747s during its 1983 visit to the Paris Air Show and other stops along the way is certainly intriguing. What started out as a technical interest for us turned into something of a Cold War mystery. The big question remains: what intelligence led to such a drastic measure being taken and who supplied that intelligence to NASA?
“Our culture is a trap and makes women feel terrible about themselves,” she wrote in January 2021. “How our culture defines beauty makes it impossible to keep up with. Women are overly sexualized. I know from the worst kind of experience. … To this day I need to write reminders of why I’m worthy that have nothing to do with my physical appearance to convince myself that I’m enough.” //
But notice that, while Hefner’s turtleneck is certainly modest, it’s still striking and it certainly isn’t ugly. That’s because — as she seems to sense — the opposite of hypersexualization isn’t frumpiness, it’s beauty! //
True beauty has a confidence that doesn’t seek validation in naked sex appeal or in self-congratulatory ugliness. It’s dressed in the clothing equivalent of what Edmund Burke called the “decent drapery of life,” which renders beauty by both revealing and concealing. //
Not only is beauty real, it’s a good, desirable thing. Defined rightly, it’s part of the lovely vocation of womanhood and femininity. It’s something to be curated, not rejected (or injected). And that is empowering.
Intended to make carbon taxes more popular, the scheme doesn't make an impression.
Naturally, this move led to a huge outcry outside (and apparently inside) Google, and now, the company seems to be backing down from most of the harsher terms of the initial announcement. First, Google is launching a survey of affected G Suite users—apparently, the company is surprised by how many people this change affected. Second, it's promising a data-migration option (including your content purchases) to a consumer account before the shutdown hits.
Educational Materials
Dysautonomia International has prepared the following educational materials which you can print out and use to help raise awareness.
Dysautonomia In General
- 10 Facts About Dysautonomia
- What Is Dysautonomia? - two page flyer
- What is Dysautonomia? Newly Diagnosed Patient Brochure
- Diagram of the Autonomic Nervous System - If reproducing this image, please including the following credit to Dr. Aaron Vinik: Copyright (c) 2012 Vinik.
- Principles of Autonomic Medicine - This 709 page book was written by autonomic neurologist Dr. David Goldstein from the National Institutes of Health. It covers all forms of dysautonomia, testing, treatment and more.
POTS
- 10 Facts About POTS Flyer
- Summary of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome - four page summary with detailed information, including citations to peer-reviewed literature.
- Invisible Illness/POTS School Presentation Slides - created by a student living with POTS, Breanne Camberlin, these slides can be used or modified by students for use in school presentations introducing classmates and teachers to the concept of "invisible illness" and POTS.
- POTS Symptom Form - a two sided form that can be used to list symptoms and other important info for ER or office visits. This form also explains the basics of POTS for the doctor and explains where they can obtain more information.
- POTS Medical Accommodation Wallet Card
- Exercise Guide for Dysautonomia Patients
More than two-thirds of cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 are among people who have been reinfected with the virus, a new study said Wednesday.
Imperial College London researchers reported that around 3,582 people — or about 66% of participants in the study — who tested positive in January had already been infected with the virus, CNBC reported. //
In December, UK health officials also estimated that the risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant was about 5.4 times greater than with Delta.
“Maus” is an interesting work of art that uses cartoons and text to make a valid point. But as an avid reader and cartoonist, and as a parent who once had children in 8th grade, I don’t think “Maus” is the best literary source to tell the story of the Holocaust — whether as history or as language art. Would I have objected to its use as a parent? Probably not, but McMinn County made the call to remove it from one grade’s curriculum, as age inappropriate. That is all it did. It didn’t ban Spiegelman’s graphic novel.
But a good and useful lie was launched, and McMinn became a lightning-rod for the left and the “twitterverse.”
Never let a good lie go to waste.
Oil is the largest source of foreign income for Russia. Every dollar per barrel increase is a windfall Putin can spend on the Russian military and foreign adventures. In October 2020, with President Donald Trump’s energy independence policy, the price of crude was $39.90 a barrel. Today, with Biden’s anti-American energy policy, the price of crude has jumped to $85.43 a barrel.
So, despite Biden’s strong words about sanctions, the effect of his policies has been a $45.53 a barrel increase in profit (or 114.11 percent) for Putin to pay off his oligarchs, buy better military equipment, and engage in foreign adventures. Any supposed sanctions Biden imposed would have to overcome this windfall—and then go much deeper—for Putin to even feel it.
In some cases, producing one tonne of aluminum can result in 14 to 16 metric tons of CO2. //
In 2020, the World Bank released an oft-cited analysis called "Minerals for Climate Action: The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition.” In this report, the authors identified aluminum as one of the minerals that would need to have its production scale by a large amount for the world to meet its climate goals. “PV was a large contributor,” Lennon said. “[This] made me think about the problem a bit more.”
However, Lennon said that the World Bank report assumed an early International Energy Agency clean energy roadmap, which predicted that only 4 TW of photovoltaics would need to be installed by 2050. This is a small sum compared to what many updated roadmaps are now predicting.
In Lennon’s paper, she and her team used the target of 60 TW, set by the most recent International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics (ITRPV). This would mean that the world would need to produce 4.5 TW of additional capacity each year until 2050 to reach net-zero emissions and limit global warming to under 2°C. For context, by the end of 2020, just over 700 GW were installed. //
From this data analysis, the team was able to predict the amount of aluminum the world would need by 2050.
The total came to 486 million metric tons to be used for frames, mountings, and inverter casings. To put this number into context, the world bank had calculated around 100 million metric tons. “Our estimate is a lot larger than the World Bank’s estimates,” Lennon said. “The amount of aluminum we’re going to have to produce is going to have to increase an awful lot from what we have now.”
The problem is not that there’s not enough aluminum in the world—as it is both quite common and fairly easy to extract. Rather, the required extraction and production could lead to a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. Producing one tonne of aluminum from bauxite—a common source of the element—results in between 14 and 16 metric tons of CO2 or equivalent (the paper assumes the process is done in China), Lennon said. “That’s really high,” she said, adding that the smelting process can be quite energy-intensive. “If your electricity is sourced by coal-fired power or fossil fuels in general, the emissions intensity [can be] huge.”