Now’s My Chance!
Wuhan Virology
The origin of SARScoV2 is obvious. Whether it started as a lab leak or an edible bat is an irrelevant factoid at this point. China royally fucked the response, any way you look at it. What matters in this case, is that China is dealt with accordingly. The lies and deceit have been tolerated long enough.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has suspended and potentially cut off funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology due to concerns about biosafety violations and non-compliance with US regulations. The institute has received over $1.4 million in federal awards since 2014 but has not obtained any new funding since July 2020.
It’s interesting to note how the far-right-leaning, factless twitchy article leading that list talks about nothing but politics. They continue dovetailing everything with politics regardless of the relationship. It’s how repugs build their talking points. Doesn’t matter what it’s about, as long as it’s a sensational topic everybody hears. Ron Paul accusing Dr. Fauci of supporting Chinese bio-weapon programs had to be the pinnacle of MAGA stupidity. It’s still alive and well in the good ‘ol USA today.
“On lab-leak, there’s no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab other than the coincidence of the Wuhan Institute of Virology being there,” Robertson told us.
Time to Change Horses
If there’s one thing we learned from Michael Hancock’s time in office, it’s that growth and prosperity can bring other less desirable, unintended consequences. But he got the job done in a commendable way, often unnoticed and sometimes unseen in local politics. We have another Mike on that job now. Johnston‘s got some shoes to fill…
Peak TV
Not exactly sure what they’re talking about here. Sounds like a cash flow problem. I stopped watching all broadcast and cable TV at least ten years ago. Well, except for sports and news. The entertainment industry ran it’s course with me last decade. The rest of the viewing public will take longer to catch up. Apparently Americans really do have too much time on their hands.
There is no doubt that the TV content landscape will be very different once the strike is settled. The work stoppage has set off a domino effect among delayed shooting schedules that will complicate the best-laid plans of networks and streamers for months, if not years. But even without the strike-induced disruption to the content pipeline, the volume of scripted series orders is expected to drop by double-digit percentages in the coming years.
No Sail Zone
Just a suggestion. We did it in the sky over Iraq. Establish the corridors, run the mine-layers up and down a couple times, set up the RC-135/Global Hawk orbits with CAP‘s, notify the Russians and any threat to civilian shipping in the Black Sea will be dealt with accordingly, insurance underwritten by NATO. I’m pretty sure all the Navy(s) will need to do is pick up survivors. Maybe warm up the SeaRAMs to knock down a Russian missile or two.
Fuck the Kansas Congressional Delegation
They can’t define woke, but I sure can define Kansas’ repug politicians: Cocksuckers who think they need more ICBMs to backfill the bankrupt farmers. I guess that pretty much sums up their economic outlook, from the non-woke perspective.
Fireflies
Craft Beer in America
I used to be a real beer-aholic, getting started while assigned to Leipheim, AB Germany. I was stunned when the first shirt took me to lunch the day after we arrived and ordered a beer. We lived across the street from the local brewery, did the Oktoberfest thing, etc. The Squadron hired a beer wagon for the 4th celebration one year and everybody was rolling watching the vice hitting on people’s wives. Some of the stuff I get at Costco here nowadays rivals anything I remember from Bavaria.
These beers were apparently flavorful and made with quality grains and hops—that is, until Prohibition hit. By the time those awful 13 years ended, American beer was completely dumbed down with corn and rice replacing the grains. Suddenly, these German lagers and Czech pilsners were now “lite” beers in aluminum cans, meant for pounding while eating a TV dinner and sitting on your La-Z-Boy.
Climate Anxiety
We had an unusually cool, wet spring and early summer here. Many parts of the country baked in record-high temps. Yeah, anxiety might be an issue…
Traitor Tuberville
She’s Really Pretty, But…
…the biggest thing since the Super Bowl? Really? That’s the buzz around town today.
Anybody reading this blog knows I’m pretty agnostic and dated when it comes to music. The main thing I like about Taylor Swift was how she stood up to that KYGO fuckwit. I don’t listen to her music, but she brought the misogyny topic home to Denver with a big bang. She’s OK with me.
Hollywood Shut Down?
Wait, what? You mean the entertainment industry exploits their workers just like all the rest? Whodathunkit?
I hear Tucker Carlson’s gonna start another Twitter™. You know that’s all this social media cr@p is, right? It’s just entertainment for the control freaks and extreme wackos who think their ideas rule, trying to make sure everybody knows about it – so they may profit handsomely, forthwith. Urban Dictionary should syndicate me.
Hollyweird just might be the OG social media.
Pond v10 – Early Summer
As mentioned previously, the plants are lagging due to late start, but that lily really took off. It seems to like deeper water, quite happy in it’s new location. Only issue still being worked is level management. Evaporation rates swing pretty wildly between cool nights and blistering hot sunny days. A needle valve modulates the water supply, with the smallest crack I can get being a bit too slow, and anything more a bit too much. It seems to use around 3GPH on average, and I can only get 2 or 4 out of the needle valve.
So the overall effect makes the sump either always slowly rising or falling. Ideally, it would be rising at night and falling during the day. Anybody know if there’s some sort of more accurate metering valve I could use?
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JWST #27: One Year On
It’s BIG – the universe, that is. Way bigger than we thought. So much so, Big Bang needs adjustment.
NATO Least of Putin’s Worries
Despite the bluster and bravado from Russian state media, pro-war bloggers and various FOX-type propaganda outlets, Putin’s problems are really close to home. What NATO does or doesn’t do is becoming less pertinent to what happens on the ground in Ukraine with each passing day. The Kremlin Killer‘s got things happening on his own ground to worry about.
Western reporting on the unfolding crisis is being hampered by Putin’s crackdown on the Russian press, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Many independent Russian journalists have been forced to flee the country; most Western journalists have also left Russia in the wake of the crackdown and the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on false spying charges. Russian state-run media has covered up the truth about the Ukraine war and now seems dazed about how to cover the Prigozhin coup.
The Online Cyber Situation
Sorry for all the tech stuff, but that is my lane, having been the uber geek for several decades. With Twitter™ teetering on the brink, other offerings including Meta’s new Threads™ are coming into focus.
As far as I can tell, none of Mastodon’s 14.5 million users were affected by the bad lines of code, which seem to have been unexploited. But the situation does raise some uncomfortable concerns, including how long the critical issues would have sat dormant had Mozilla not been interested in paying to see if Mastodon was secure. And whether a bad actor could have gotten to it first.
