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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Saturday, June 26, 2021

26 June - Blogs I'm Following - 4 of 5

 10 pm MDT

Komando.com16 hours ago
12 ways to lower your monthly internet, cable and streaming bills
Spending a fortune on internet, cable and streaming services? Try these tips to lower costs. read more
musingsofanoldfart16 hours ago
I’ve Loved these Days – a tribute to Billy Joel (encore)
Our friend Jill just highlighted Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” yesterday. It got me reminiscing about an old post that I will repost today. The following highlights some of Joel’s lesser known songs. So before we end and then beginWe’ll drink … Continue reading → read more
Komando.com17 hours ago
Revealed: See how much your browser tracks and sells your data
Which browsers protect your privacy most? Here's our comparison of the most popular options. read more
Komando.com18 hours ago
No one likes stinky feet! I scored you a great deal on my favorite socks
Take a look at your sock drawer. Need an upgrade? I have just the thing. read more
Komando.com18 hours ago
What is an authenticator app and why should you use one?
Why you should be using an authenticator app to protect your digital life. read more
Biden’s American Rescue Plan: Just Another Round of "Stimulus Checks"?
*Ethen Kim Lieser* *Stimulus, United States* Do take note that another part of Biden’s legislation is targeting parents and guardians who pay out of pocket for child care services—as these individuals can now collect those related expenses in the form of tax credits of $8,000 for one child and up to $16,000 for two or more children. *Here's What You Need To Know:* In what has been already tabbed as another round of coronavirus “stimulus” checks, millions of financially struggling parents stand to benefit from the expanded child tax credits under President Joe Biden’s American Res... read more
'Stimulus Checks' Forever? Biden Wants to Extend the Child Tax Credit
*Trevor Filseth* *Child Tax Credit, United States* The increase laid out in the American Rescue Plan Act is temporary; it is set to expire at the end of the current filing period, next April. However, Biden has included the same increases in his American Families Plan. Three months ago, on March 11, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law. The $1.9 trillion spending bill, intended to initiate Biden’s coronavirus economic recovery plan, included several groundbreaking measures—the largest and most important of which was the $450 billion stimulus measure, s... read more
The Chances of a Fourth Stimulus Payment are THIS Small
*Trevor Filseth* *Stimulus Payment, * It has now been more than three months since the beginning of the third round of checks. *Here's What You Need to Remember: *While President Biden has remained lukewarm on the idea of a fourth stimulus measure, he has provided generous assistance in other ways – for instance, continuing to pay federal unemployment benefits of up to $300 per week to those who need them, even after local opposition. The debate over a fourth stimulus check continues to rage on Capitol Hill. But it has ended almost everywhere else. So far, Americans making unde... read more
History Is Wrong: World War I Didn’t End in 1918
*Sebastien Roblin* *World War I, * The supposed world peace brought about by Armistice Day was anything but universal. *Here's What You Need to Remember: *The tragic and prolonged conflicts that raged after World War I “ended” serve as a cautionary tale as to how historical narratives are so often over-tidily trimmed of inconvenient details—and how cynicism and idealism alike can sabotage the quest for peace. Countless history books record that “on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918, the calamitous Great War finally came to an end. Indeed, no... read more
Two violent tornadoes hit China, destroying homes and claiming at least 8 lives
At least two large and violent tornadoes touched down in China on June 25, 2021, destroying homes, tossing cars, and leaving at least 8 people dead. Local authorities fear the death toll will continue to rise. Survey teams are on the scene today. The first violent...... Read more » read more
Could Biden Pass a Fourth Stimulus Check?
*Stephen Silver* *Biden Stimulus, * The study concluded that material hardship in U.S. households “fell sharply following the passage of the COVID-19 relief bill in late December 2020, and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in March 2021.” *Here's What You Need to Remember: *“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government used a flexible, broad-based, quickly deployed, cash-based safety net to respond to the greatest economic crisis in modern times. The evidence suggests that doing so went a long way in preventing widespread hardship,” the study concluded. “The success of ... read more
Saturday Snippet: The Battle of Waterloo, as told by a participant
In his memoir "Captain of the 95th (Rifles): An Officer of Wellington's Sharpshooters During the Peninsular, South of France and Waterloo Campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars", Captain (later Lieutenant-Colonel) Jonathan Leach gives personal impressions of almost the whole of the Peninsular War and subsequent battles in which he was involved. Many people forget that Waterloo was actually the final, climactic battle in a multi-day clash of armies from several nations. Col. Leach describes it over the course of almost a week, culminating in the fateful day itself, which he ended ... read more
Electroverse19 hours ago
Another Bogus Climate Report blames Global ‘Cooling’ on Global ‘Warming’
In a perfect example of what George Orwell called 'Doublethink' the AGW party is claiming that global 'warming' can also mean global 'cooling' -- i.e. that your CO2 emissions (i.e. your existence) are responsible for ALL things climate; even the stark cooling we've witnessed since 2016. The post Another Bogus Climate Report blames Global ‘Cooling’ on Global ‘Warming’ appeared first on Electroverse. read more
Weekend reads: ‘The obesity wars and the education of a researcher’; zombie research; hijacked journals
Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Pulp fiction: Japanese university revokes two dentistry PhDs in case … Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘The obesity wars and the education of a researcher’; zombie research; hijacked journals read more
How Far Can Civilization Go?
[image: Story 446487673] *Robert H. Gray, author of The Elusive Wow: Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, has searched for radio signals from other worlds using the Very Large Array and other radio telescopes. You’ll find numerous links to his work in the archives here. In today’s essay, Gray takes a look at a classic benchmark for assessing the energy use of civilizations, introducing his own take on Earth’s position in the hierarchy and how these calculations affect the ongoing SETI effort. His article on the extended Kardashev scale appeared in The Astronomical Journal ... read more
A Chronological Look at a Transiting Earth
[image: Story 446487672] Call it the Earth Transit Zone, that region of space from which putative astronomers on an exoplanet could see the Earth transit the Sun. Lisa Kaltenegger (Cornell University) is director of the Carl Sagan Institute and the author of a 2020 paper with Joshua Pepper (LeHigh University) that examined the stars within the ETZ (see Seeing Earth as a Transiting World). While Kaltengger and Pepper identified 1004 main sequence stars within 100 parsecs that would see Earth as a transiting planet, Kaltenegger reminds us that stars are ever in motion. Given the abun... read more
Mixing and Growth in the Sun’s Protoplanetary Disk
[image: Story 446487671] The Allende meteorite is the largest carbonaceous chondrite meteorite ever discovered. Falling over Mexico’s state of Chihuahua in 1969 and breaking up in the atmosphere, the object yielded over two tons of material that have provided fodder for scientists interested in the early days of the Solar System. The meteorite contains numerous calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs), which are considered to be the first kind of solids formed in the system 4.5 billion years ago. Samples of the Allende meteorite are considered ‘primitive,’ which in this parlance me... read more
Email Subscribers Take Note
[image: Story 446487670] Google will no longer be supporting its email distribution service as of July 1, and I am preparing for this through the work of my friend Frank Taylor, who is fine-tuning a replacement. However, I’ve had a few reports already of emails not being delivered. So if you are an email subscriber to *Centauri Dreams*, please bear with us as Frank gets the new service up and running. This may take a few more days. There will be no need to re-subscribe, as the existing subscription list will be transferred to the new feed. [image: tzf_img_post] read more
An AI Toolbox for Space Research
[image: Story 446487669] Let’s take a brief break from research results and observational approaches to consider the broader context of how we do space science. In particular, what can we do to cut across barriers between different disciplines as well as widely differing venues? Working on a highly directed commercial product is a different process than doing academic research within the confines of a publicly supported research lab. And then there is the question of how to incorporate ever more vigorous citizen science. SpaceML is an online toolbox that tackles these issues with a... read more
Finding the Missing Link: How We Could Discover Interstellar Quantum Communications
[image: Story 446487668] *Six decades of SETI have yet to produce a detection. Are there strategies we have missed? In today’s essay, Michael Hippke takes us into the realm of quantum communication, explaining how phenomena like ‘squeezed light’ can flag an artificial signal with no ambiguity. Quantum coherence, he argues, can be maintained over interstellar distances, and quantum methods offer advantages in efficiency and security that are compelling. Moreover, techniques exist with commercially available equipment to search for such communications. Hippke is a familiar face on Ce... read more
Mapping the Boundary of the Heliosphere
[image: Story 446487667] Between the Solar System and interstellar space is a boundary layer called the heliosheath. Or maybe I should define this boundary as being between the inner, planetary part of the Solar System and interstellar space. After all, we consider the Oort Cloud as part of our own system, yet it begins much further out. Both Voyagers have crossed the region where the Sun’s heliosphere ends and interstellar space begins, while they won’t reach the Oort, by some estimates, for another 300 years. The broader region is called the heliopause, a place where the outflowi... read more
Brown Dwarfs & Rogue Planets as JWST Targets
[image: Story 446487666] About 1,000 light years away in the constellation Perseus, the stellar nursery designated NGC 1333 is emerging as a priority target for astronomers planning to use the James Webb Space Telescope. Brown dwarfs come into play in the planned work, as do the free-floating ‘rogue’ planets we discussed recently. For NGC 1333 is a compact, relatively nearby target, positioned at the edge of a star-forming molecular cloud. It’s packed with hundreds of young stars, many of them hidden from view by dust, a venue in which to observe star formation in action. Hoping t... read more
NEO Surveyor: Proposed Asteroid Surveillance Mission
[image: Story 446487665] Near-Earth Object Surveyor is a proposed space telescope working at infrared wavelengths, an instrument that just completed a successful mission review and now moves on to the next phase of mission development. In NASA parlance, the upcoming Key Decision Point-B moves into Preliminary Design territory. Getting a spacecraft from concept to flight is a long process, but let’s back out to the broader picture. Planetary defense is all about finding objects that could impact the Earth with serious consequences. That means setting size targets, and on that score... read more
A Visualization of Galactic Settlement
[image: Story 446487664] When the question of technosignatures at Alpha Centauri came up at the recent Breakthrough Discuss conference, the natural response was to question the likelihood of a civilization emerging around the nearest stars to our own. We kicked that around in Alpha Centauri and the Search for Technosignatures, focusing on ideas presented by Brian Lacki (UC-Berkeley) at the meeting. But as we saw in that discussion, we don’t have to assume that abiogenesis has to occur in order to find a technosignature around any particular star. Ask Jason Wright (Penn State) and ... read more
How the Casablancas-class Aircraft Carriers Shook Up World War II
*Sebastien Roblin* *Aircraft Carriers, * While armed services often crave “gold-plated” weapon systems, Kaiser’s cheap jeep carriers showed how simple, affordable and numerous platforms well-suited to operational requirements can prove to be of greater value. *Here's What You Need to Remember: *The *Casablanca* class’ finest hour came in the Battle of Samar, when sixteen CVEs and their escorts covering the amphibious landing at Leyte Gulf single-handedly took on a Japanese battlefleet consisting of four battleships and nineteen cruisers and destroyers. In a frantic few hours, the... read more
AGE OF AUTISM17 hours ago
Reader, Reader What Do You See? Tie Dye!
That's my oldest daughter. She has worn a magenta top and blue jeans during the day for as long as I can remember. At least a decade. It's her choice. And she gets to make some decisions for herself --... read more
naked capitalism18 hours ago
Blackout Risk And Electricity Prices Are Spiking In California
California energy tsuris are set to get worse. read more
naked capitalism18 hours ago
Musical Interlude (“On the Path of Decent Groove”): Country
A country music sampler for a weekend break from your routine. read more
The F-22 Raptor Can Defeat Any Threat... Except This
*Sebastien Roblin* *F-22, * Hopefully, the costly experience at Tyndall airbase will inspire the Pentagon to think about how it can maximize the long-term survivability of valuable assets while considering the likely effects of climate change and the potential havoc it may wreak on coastal bases. *Here's What You Need to Remember: *Repairing the damaged F-22s will likely take years and hundreds of millions of dollars. When Japan similarly lost a fifth of its F-2 force (eighteen fighters) to a tsunami in 2011, it had to spend seven years and the equivalent of $800 million to resto... read more
Why the T-72 Remains Russia’s Primary Main Battle Tank
*Sebastien Roblin* *Russia, Eurasia* Russian tank enthusiasts are quick to point out that the Soviet Union did not export to Iraq its more advanced 125-millimeter armor-piercing sabot shells. *Here’s What You Need to Remember: *The Soviet Union’s huge tank fleet was a cornerstone of its power during the Cold War. However, events in the 1991 Gulf War called its superiority into question. On February 26, 1991, a cavalry troop of nine M1 Abrams tanks and twelve Bradley fighting vehicles bumped into an armored brigade of Iraqi T-72 tanks of the elite Tawakalna Republican Guard divi... read more
Virtual Mirage19 hours ago
Over a Barrel
Angels, Devils, and Bourbon In the Making of a bourbon barrel, even after burning/charring, the barrels aren’t waterproof, but they are water resistant. In addition to adding smoky bourbon flavors, the charring helps the wood absorb some of the liquid being stored in it, causing the wood to swell, which does make the barrel […] The post Over a Barrel appeared first on Virtual Mirage. read more
SOMEONE SOMEWHERE19 hours ago
Management of Hypertriglyceridemia – American Family Physician
Management of Hypertriglyceridemia – American Family Physician https://www.aafp.org/afp/2007/0501/p1365.html read more
SOMEONE SOMEWHERE19 hours ago
Triglycerides: Why do they matter?
Triglycerides: Why do they matter? – Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/triglycerides/art-20048186 read more
Violent hailstorm hits Požega, leaving massive damage, Croatia
A severe thunderstorm accompanied by very strong winds and up to baseball-sized hail hit the city of Požega, Croatia and neighboring towns and villages on June 25, 2021, downing trees and causing massive damage to homes, crops, and vehicles. Elderly citizens say...... Read more » read more
Criminally futile lockdowns: Delta will spread in Australia like fire
Several countries or regions have had some (temporary) "success" in avoiding any substantial Covid wave. Most of them are gone; there is no "almost Covid-free" country in Europe. In late October, I was comparing Brazil and Argentina and a Koen worshiped Uruguay that was almost Covid-free. I told him good luck, I don't think it's sustainable, and of course, I was right. In April and May, Covid exploded in Uruguay which became one of the most Covid-active countries in the world – simply due to the lack of natural immunity from the previous infections – and headlines e.g. in Nature cur... read more
Komando.com20 hours ago
Warning: Scammers are sending out fake gadgets to steal your money
How to protect your cryptocurrency from scammers trying to rip you off. read more
Hey, Teacher! Indigenous School Wrongs Are Global
I have followed this story all my life and today we are in the end game of full disclosure of all the bad things hidden away. I am not sympathetic at all. My own ancestry includes clansmen and serfs rumbled out of europe to avoid the inconveniece of starving to death. none of them spoke a dialect of English. or were particularly literate. A century ago governments worldwide faced the reality that local language blocked the path to introducing modernity and without modernity indigenous populations would continue to be starved to death by economic depression as they fell furt... read more
Crop Circle architecture may provide anti-viral information against international pandemic????
Of course i have understood that the crop circle phenom is produced by the Space force using their large gravity ships and their microwave lasers since around 1980. We have collected ample evidence and even eye witness reports to support this MEME. These are all human beings on long term contract who pass out after their memory is scrubbed. Nice eh? glad they missed me. They have just used this comm in order to direct research onto the correct path to end COV 19. *Crop Circle architecture may provide anti-viral information against international pandemic????* *2020, Jeff ... read more
Compost improves apple orchard sustainability
Our whole orchard industry suffers from an unnatural bias toward maximizing the number of trees per acre. This optimizes adverse efrects of soil depletion and insect assault. It is my contention trhat we can do much better. At least we want to widen the row spacing which still creates a continous monoculture within the row itself, but creates a real break between rows.. This sets the stage for a center row crop or even a center grass land strip loaded with wild flowers and deep rooted grasses on which cattle can feed. This also allows a soil dressing zone next to the rows on e... read more
Real-Life 'Pale Crawler Humanoid' Encounters & Sightings
Once again we have a slew of reports and these conform to our expected female Giant Sloths whose male countderparts are known now as Dogman The observer sees arms that reminds her of T Rex. That means three extended claws to accomadate tree climbing. Good confirmation of the Giant Sloth MEME. Yet another paint stroke confirming all this We have wonderfully blocked out the male and know that the female will be quite different. The arms and legs are for climbing a lot. They do not have the broad shoulders and likely lack the canine jaws. Again go back to those stone statu... read more
‘Miscalculation’ in Russian Cat And Mouse Game Could Lead to Full Blown War, Warns British Army Chief
Who are the pathological liars?? Mostly the Anglo-American western Illuminati! Warning shots were fired by the Russians. See video bottom of post. – ‘Miscalculation’ in Russian Cat And Mouse Game Could Lead to Full Blown War, Warns British Army Chief by Jack Hardy, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/, via https://finance.yahoo.com/ A “miscalculation” in the cat and mouse game with … read more
British PM Boris Johnson Personally Ordered Warship into Crimean Waters, Ignoring Warnings of His Foreign Secretary – Media Report
It looks like the “limited nuclear WW3” in Eastern Europe could be ON. Exercise Sea Breeze 2021 begins next week. – U.S. Sixth Fleet announces Sea Breeze 2021 participation by http://www.navy.mil/ From U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth Fleet Public Affairs U.S. Sixth Fleet formally announces participation in the upcoming annually held Exercise Sea Breeze 2021 … read more
Anticipated UFO Report Opens More Questions
NBC News The Pentagon released the anticipated UFO report, but with not many answers as to what the aerial phenomena are. Government officials continue to examine their reports. end read more
Kim Jong-un’s COVID-19 Policy Could Lead to Mass Starvation
*Sojin Lim* *North Korea, Asia* Kim Jong-un’s COVID-19 border closures have caused a food shortage in North Korea, reminiscent of the “arduous march” of the 1990s. North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has stated publicly that the country is facing a food shortage, a rare admission for the country’s leader, who blamed the pandemic and a recent typhoon. Last year, speaking at an anniversary event of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim urged his people to “remain firm in the face of ‘tremendous challenges’ posed by the pandemic”. One such challenge Kim has warned of is the potential for a famine... read more
What Russia, North Korea and China Have In Common: Millions of These Machine Guns
*Sebastien Roblin* *Machine Guns, * An unbridled killer. *Here's What You Need to Remember: *Designer Georgy Shpagin took the PPD design to the chopping block, trimming away several components and innovating through the use of a stamped-metal body and perforated barrel jacket to speed production. The PPsH-41 submachinegun undoubtedly reigns as an icon of the Soviet war machine in World War II, immortalized in combat photographs and in films such as *Cross of Iron *and *The Tin Drum. *Like the T-34 tank and the Il-2 Shturmovik attack plane, the “Pepsha” or “Papasha” (“Daddy”) wa... read more
Is Being the Biggest Military on the Planet Enough to Defeat America?
*Sebastien Roblin* *China, * Beijing wants to know. *Here's What You Need to Remember:* The balance of power between nations will likely play a role alongside diplomacy—a fleet that is never used in war may still prevent one, for example, by deterring possible opponents. Two superpowers eye each other uneasily across the Pacific—one well established after decades of Cold War conflict, the other a rising power eager to reclaim regional hegemony. Fortunately, despite profoundly different political systems, China and the United States are not as intrinsically hostile to each other ... read more
Thanks Germany: How Israel Became an Underwater Nuclear Superpower
*Sebastien Roblin* *Israel, * Though Israel is the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, Tel Aviv is preoccupied by the fear that an adversary might one day attempt a first strike to destroy its nuclear missiles and strike planes on the ground before they can retaliate. *Here's What You Need to Remember: * Israel has never officially admitted to possessing nuclear weapons. Unofficially, Tel Aviv wants everyone to know it has them, and doesn’t hesitate to make thinly-veiled references to its willingness to use them if confronted by an existential threat. Estimates on the s... read more
CFACT19 hours ago
Biden uses prairie chicken as pretext to throttle U.S. energy
Groups well schooled in the art of using the ESA to snuff out any natural resources development have been trying to get the prairie chicken added to the endangered species list for years. The post Biden uses prairie chicken as pretext to throttle U.S. energy appeared first on CFACT. read more
naked capitalism20 hours ago
Hamid Dabashi: U.S. Sanctions Strengthen Iranian Theocracy
Aggressive and hypocritical sanctions by the U.S. bolster the Iranian theocracy whose only mission is defense of their own power and state. read more
You're Under No Obligation To Be.....The Wisdom of Alan Watts
*During his lifetime, Alan Watts wrote 25 books on the topics of philosophy, the psychology of religion, and mystical experience. He also wrote more than a dozen booklets, and contributed chapters to a plethora of books.* *I will add that you could not be the same person you were five minutes ago even if you wished to.* read more

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