"I think misogyny plays a really big part in this... That a man will be a better woman than someone who was born a woman." Germaine Greer, 2015 pic.twitter.com/ChOvf9IBSF Women's Voices (@WomenReadWomen) August 29, 2022

Posie Parker AKA Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull is currently pulling her anti-transgender bandwagon through this sunburnt country: sweeping plains, ragged mountain ranges, drought and flooding rains, the lot. But rather than undertake, say, A provocative journey through the dark history Continue reading

<p>&

Its a desperate run to get everyone locked in.</p> <p>The post <a href= "https://gumshoenews.com/maria-zeee-on-digital-id/" rel= "nofollow">Maria Zeee on Digital ID</a> appeared first on <a href= "https://gumshoenews.com" rel="nofollow">Gumshoe News</a>.</p>

Australia does have a Public Interest Disclosure law that requires that we be told the truth about the COVID-19 casualties that occur each day.

POSTING  SHORT LINK: https://wp.me/p1n8TZ-389

...

Nine Entertainment-owned papers have been talking up the prospects of Australia going to war with China while failing to declare that Nine chairman Peter Costello has made $millions in recent years lobbying []

KYIV, Ukraine Tetiana Vlaiko feels like an idiot. She is ashamed to speak to WhoWhatWhy about how the Russians took her 11-year-old daughter Lilia to Russian-occupied Crimea. She says that last October, the teachers at her daughters school in Kherson convinced her to send Lilia to what they called a summer camp.

It turned out to be a Russian re-education facility.

All the mothers at the school signed up. Probably, I could have said no, but the teachers kept saying that all kids are going, it is for free, and she will come back in two weeks, said 36-year-old Vlaiko.

Vlaiko said that she initially thought it would be good for her daughter to get away from Kherson for a short period. At the time, the city was under Russian control, and the Ukrainians were fighting to get the city back. Life there was dangerous. Vlaiko says there were rumors of Russian brutality and rape of people on the streets and a constant risk of shelling.  

Crimea was (and still is) also under Russian control, but it was safer than Kherson.

Lilia was supposed to be home on October 21. She didnt show up, and neither did any of her classmates.

I called the teachers when I realized she wasnt returning. I tried to find out what was happening, but they didnt answer, said Vlaiko, who explained that some teachers picked up the phone at the beginning and said they didnt know when or if the kids would return.

She told WhoWhatWhy that the school closed for good after the kids were taken.

At one point in late October, Vlaiko and other parents found the schools director, who told them the kids werent returning. She recalls him saying there was nothing he could do about it and that he was planning to leave Kherson and go to another Russian-controlled area. Vlaiko told WhoWhatWhy that he seemed very pro-Russian.

It became clear that they never intended to send my daughter back. I got crazy hysterical and was full of guilt, said Vlaiko.I should never have told her she could go. 

She didnt see her daughter again for almost four months.

Today, pregnant women are regularly asked about their mental wellbeing during their medical checkups, and such questioning continues during their postnatal visits to their pediatricians. The quickest assessment relies on the Whooley questions, a depression screening tool devised by Pfizer in 1993 shortly after its launch of Zoloft. It has just two questions:

During the past month, have you often been bothered by feeling down, depressed or hopeless?

During the past month, have you often been bothered by little interest, or pleasure in doing things?

An answer of yes to one of the two questions yields a positive result requiring further evaluation. If a subsequent assessment determines that the woman is depressed, she may be treated for the condition, even though prior to the screening she might not have self-identified as suffering in this way.

In the United States, such perinatal screening is widely recommended. The American Psychiatric Association (APA), the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG), the United States Preventative Services Task Force, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) all promote it as an evidence-based practice.

According to the AHRQ, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, it provides a proven benefit: Depression during pregnancy can raise the risk of having a lowbirthweight baby and premature birth. Screening pregnant women for depression enables health professionals to initiate services that can prevent later problems for both the mother and baby.

However, other national task forces, most notably in Canada and the U.K., have come to an opposite conclusion about the merits of perinatal screening. The U.K. National Screening Committee concluded in its 2019 review that there was not enough evidence that such screening programmes were of benefit to women and children, and that, in fact, they could do harm. False positives could lead to unnecessary treatment, and even if the screening correctly identified [women] with mental health problems, it could prove harmful to the majority, the committee wrote.......

by Brittany Freeman, Rocky Mountain PBS, data analysis by Sophie Chou, ProPublica

This article was produced for ProPublicas Local Reporting Network in partnership with Rocky Mountain PBS. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

Karl Paymah was on the clock.

A certified letter from the Rock Ridge Condominium Association in the Denver suburb of Aurora said he had 30 days to pay $1,515.45 in unpaid homeowners association dues and penalties or face foreclosure.

After receiving the letter on Dec. 23, 2021, Paymah said he tried to pay the balance through the HOAs website, as he had done in the past. But his account had been locked because it was turned over to the HOAs collections attorney, Tammy Alcock. Next, he called Rock Ridges management company, which he said told him to discuss the matter with Alcock. But there was no answer when he called her office three times that afternoon. The office of Alcock Law Group was closed for the holiday.

I cant pay. I cant pay through the portal. I cant pay with the management company. I cant pay with this attorney that theyre telling me to go through, Paymah, a retired NFL cornerback, recalled thinking. So Im just sitting there.

Watch Rocky Mountain PBSs Report (Jeremy Moore/Rocky Mountain PBS)

Turning the account over to Alcock meant that the association was asserting its right under Colorado law to charge him for the attorney fees it was incurring, causing his debt to grow rapidly.

By early February, when Rock Ridge began moving forward with foreclosure, the legal process of taking the home from its owner, Paymahs debt had more than tripled to about $5,000, mostly because of legal costs.

Paymahs experience is a case study in how even a small dispute can quickly escalate into an expensive legal fight in Colorado, where state law empowers HOAs to initiate foreclosure proceedings against homeowners who owe money to them. As Rocky Mountain PBS and ProPublica have reported,...

 https://brownstone.org/articles/freedom-is-the-answer/

Always the preferred method.

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic three years ago today, but experts disagree about how and when pandemics end.

Its been three years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. So we know when the pandemic officially began. But what must happen for it to officially end? Who even makes the call?

Read Full Story

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Senator Price makes a good point. https://fb.watch/jbBXn7gTCg/?mibextid=qC1gEa Penny Wong - still a mean piece of work.

Jill sees all! Albanese takes hypocrisy to a whole new level. #YouJustCouldntMakeThisStuffup #TopDumb *ping @mpsmithnews pic.twitter.com/4OpyWyyFhI JILL (@1Swinging_Voter) March 10, 2023

Albo and his photo ops #auspol pic.twitter.com/j5jGDUNALU KELLIEI SEE DUMB PEOPLE (@kelliekelly23) March 9, 2023

Ive written about B before. Shes a homeless woman I knew through my project. But heres a little reminder of her backstory:

B lost both her legs in a subway accident. When I met her, she was living in a medical homeless shelter and panhandling daily in a wheelchair. B has four kids who, for a while, were living with her ex. It was not a good scenario. Very long story short: The State eventually took the kids away from him and temporarily placed them with Bs mother.

As I got to know B, I genuinely cared for her as a friend. We both looked forward to chatting whenever Id bring packages full of supplies geared to fit her specific needs. I bore witness to Bs journey and encouraged her as she dealt with mean-spirited passers-by and with a mountain of obstacles, e.g. housing, child services, medical bureaucracy, lawyers, etc.

Theres one story about her I havent yet shared, so here goes

In a major expansion and overhaul of its navy, Australia is planning to buy up to five US Virginia class nuclear powered submarines beginning in the next decade, Reuters and others are reporting. US as well as European officials have disclosed the future deal as part of a "landmark defense agreement between Washington, Canberra and London, four U.S. officials said on Wednesday, in a deal that would present a new challenge to China." Comment: Well, it's not so much a 'challenge' to China as it is a provocation, and further confirmation that the West is pathological in its plans to 'contain' the country. The impending agreement is seen as central to the relatively new AUKUS partnership, and the major sub deal is expected to be announced when President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meet in San Diego Monday.

by G5

The next time you are fed, Russia is losing in Ukraine: start here.

NATO-US have suffered massive losses of both personnel and material. They are losing at the rate of twenty to one. As I have previously written concerning individual theatres and engagements.

When CIA Zelensky was shouting for tanks, he had already lost over 2,000 in the first few weeks of engagement in 2022.

Now...

Photo from Christianity.com

by Mary W Maxwell, LLB

I am here to propose a Jubilee Year in 2026. We have thirty-three months to get it ready the rest of 2023, plus 24, and 25. Not long enough, but it will keep us focused on the positive.

A biblical jubilee year is one that occurs every 49 years and has to do with preserving the land. Thats not what Im proposing, though I did get my idea from that tradition.

What I want us to do is to focus on the future.  At the moment, its only an intellectual exercise. Lets inventory the good possibilities for human life. Sure, the bad stuff will also come into focus, as the counterpoint. But the project is intended to be positive. We are tired of horrors.

Searching

I dare nominate only my home country, the US, for a jubilee.  But its patent that this country interacts with many others. I shall make it a rule that the jubilee search for a better life in US cannot include taking advantage of other nations.

In the 1960s, when in college, I read Ruth Benedicts 1934 book, Patterns of Culture. She was in the pioneering group of anthropologists who visited primitive societies. When asked which societies are happy, she said the ones in which the reward for a...

4 months ago on the 9th November, there were 15,808 reported COVID-19 deaths, but as of the 3rd March 2023, i.e., 8 days ago, the last reported COVID-19 death toll was 19,459, which is an increase of 3,651 in the last 4 months.

What are workers? Are they human beings? Do they have only a bundle of muscles but, no brains? How do they feel and how do they think? Do they think at all? What do they face in their life in factories, in foundries and other shops, in assembly lines, in unions?

Workers answers to the questions above differ from the response the workers masters present. The factor that draws the delineating line is, in short, class position, which is often blurred while discussing issues of life and work, be it related to workplace or economic program, politics or social initiatives, charity, cooperative, ideology or culture.

Michael D. Yates, a labor organizer, discusses this issue in the chapter 1, Take this job and of his recently released book Work Work Work: Labor, Alienation, and Class Struggle (Monthly Review Press, New York, 2022). The professor of labor economics begins the chapter with a statement, simple or complicated:

It would be astonishing if the more than 150 million child laborers in the world were happily employed. Or if the 800 million farmworkers globally were content with their circumstances.

The mainstream investigates: Child laborers happiness with employment? Isnt it an invalid question? The system takes away happiness of childhood from millions of children, and then, searches whether or not the child workers are happy? The system shackles millions of farmworkers into bondage, and then, searches whether or not the farmworkers are happy? The system enslaves millions of workers into a life without humane condition, and then, surveys whether or not the workers are content with their life? Isnt it a mockery by the system and its scholarship? Isnt it a crude trick to hide the systems cruelty and its scholarships identity in the payroll of the system?

Michael Yates tells about two workers: his father and Ben Hamper, author of Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line (Warner Books, New York, 1991): Both spent good portions of their lives as factory workers, my father in a glassworks and Ben Hamper in an auto plant.

The description goes further: Both became factory workers because it was almost predetermined that they would. All their relatives and friends were factory hands.

Predetermined the powerful process or factor that determines the lives of millions of toilers in the world system of...

I find the Daily Telegraph's 'Lockdown Files' revelations about Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages simultaneously reassuring and disturbing. Reassuring, because over the many months I analysed Covid related data for Lockdown Sceptics (as this site was then called) I often had periods of self-doubt. Official announcements by politicians and senior civil servants were so discordant with publicly available information, I assumed I must be missing something, or misinterpreting the figures. Worse, I worried about inadvertently misleading our readership. Recent revelations suggest that my analyses were roughly correct - I'm not claiming any credit because the answers were hiding in plain sight. Anyone with a modicum of common sense and a basic training in biological sciences could have seen it - and many did. On the other hand, the message trails are disturbing for what they tell us about the nature of decision making in government. It is easy to be misled by taking Hancock's adolescent...

Greg Brockman, cofounder of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, talks with Fast Company about criticisms over political bias, and the most exciting developments in AI.

Its been four months since OpenAI debuted its chatbot, ChatGPT, and so far the hype train shows no sign of slowing down. These days everyone from teachers to journalists to HR departments are experimenting with generative AI. But theres also been a wave of criticism over the tech, including some calling out the chatbot for generating answers with political biases.

Read Full Story

I have known Julian Assange since I first interviewed him in London in 2010. I immediately liked his dry, dark sense of humour, often dispensed with an infectious giggle. He is a proud outsider: sharp and thoughtful. We have become friends, and I have sat in many courtrooms listening to the tribunes of the state try to silence him and his moral revolution in journalism.

My own high point was when a judge in the Royal Courts of Justice leaned across his bench and growled at me: You are just a peripatetic Australian like Assange. My name was on a list of volunteers to stand bail for Julian, and this judge spotted me as the one who had reported his role in the notorious case of the expelled Chagos Islanders. Unintentionally, he delivered me a compliment.

I saw Julian in Belmarsh not long ago. We talked about books and the oppressive idiocy of the prison: the happy-clappy slogans on the walls, the petty punishments; they still wont let him use the gym. He must exercise alone in a cage-like area where there is sign that warns about keeping off the grass. But there is no grass. We laughed; for a brief moment, some things didnt seem too bad.

The laughter is a shield, of course. When the prison guards began to jangle their keys, as they like to do, indicating our time was up, he fell quiet. As I left the room he held his fist high and clenched as he always does. He is the embodiment of courage.

Those who are the antithesis of Julian: in whom courage is unheard of, along with principle and honour, stand between him and freedom. I am not referring to the Mafia regime in Washington whose pursuit of a good man is meant as a warning to us all, but rather to those who still claim to run a just democracy in Australia.

Anthony Albanese was mouthing his favourite platitude, enough is enough long before he was elected prime minister of Australia last year. He gave many of us precious hope, including Julians family. As prime minister he added weasel words about not sympathising with what Julian had done. Apparently we had to understand his need to cover his appropriated posteria in case Washington called him to order.

We knew it would take exceptional political if not moral courage for Albanese to stand up in the Australian Parliament the same Parliament that will disport itself before Joe Biden in May and say:

As prime minister, it is my governments responsibility to bring home an Australian citizen who is clearly the victim of a great, vindictive injustice: a man who has been persecuted for the kind of journalism that is a true public service, a man who has not lied, or deceived like so many of his counterfeit in the media, but has told people the truth about how the world is run.

I call on the United States, a courageous and moral Prime Minister Albanese might say, to wi...

A battle over how to protect the planet from overheating is heating up.

Academics are coming out of the woodwork, forming coalitions, issuing declarations. A subdued debate over the merits versus demerits of solar geoengineering (SRM) has been ongoing for years. Now battle lines are forming.

The SRM controversy is coming to a head, in part, because of a small two-person startup company named Make Sunsets launching weather balloons filled with reflective sulfur particles off the coast of Baja, California with the bold idea of testing whether it is realistic to reflect sun radiation back to outer space and thus help prevent overheating of the planet. Interestingly, they expect to profit by selling credits. As such, Make Sunsets has become a bit of a renegade actor serving as an unwelcomed catalyst for academics to come to grips with the issue. But looked at from another angle, its a welcomed catalyst for an issue that must be sorted out as soon as possible, regardless of Make Sunsets presence.

After all, the White House has already directed a study of SRM (solar radiation management). On October 13, 2022 the White House announced funding of a five-year research plan: One of the most controversial plans to fight climate change, utilizing technology to artificially modify the planets climate or in plain English geo-engineering by spraying fine aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away.

The White House Request for Input to a Five-Year Plan for Research on Climate Intervention itemized, as follows: The report shall include: (1) the definition of goals in relevant areas of scientific research; (2) capabilities required to model, analyze, observe, and monitor atmospheric composition; (3) climate impacts and the Earths radiation budget; and (4) the coordination of Federal research and investments to deliver this assessment to manage near-term climate risk and research in climate intervention.

Obviously, Make Sunsets has jumped the gun and rattled several significant cages, especially in the face of unanswered questions about the risks of artificially tinkering with the climate system. But, then again, is geo-engineering a by-product of fossil fuel CO₂ emissions, even if not by design? If yes, it implies that fossil fuel CO₂ unintentional geo-engineering should be viewed as the direct opposite of SRM. CO₂ traps heat. SRM reflects heat. This would mean that fossil fuel-generated CO₂ emissions demonstrate what geo-engineering can accomplish, which is an enormous planetary headache, if misdirected.

In 2021, in Sweden, Harvard Universitys outdoor Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment was halted on the spot by opposition forces. Their experiment was only aiming to test the behavior of stratospheric aerosols. Harvards failed attempt is a prime example of SRMs steep uphill battle to establish credibility.

Within the past se.......

Die AfD wollte in einer kleinen Anfrage wissen, wieviel Honorare die Regierung und Bundesbehrden an Journalisten gezahlt haben. Money Quote:

Nicht enthalten in der Aufstellung sind nach Angaben der Bundesregierung aus Grnden des Staatswohls Honorare, die der Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) an Journalisten gezahlt hat, weil die Kooperationen des BND besonders schtzenswert seien.

*Tusch*

Update: Hier gibt es ein PDF mit einer Liste.

Update: Nur dass wir uns richtig verstehen: Die kleinen Anfragen der AfD sind immer irrefhrende Kackscheie. Hier wollen sie offensichtlich suggerieren, dass alle ffentlich-rechtlichen Journalisten in der Tasche der Bundesregierung stecken. Das ist natrlich vllig absurd angesichts der Zahlen. Das fhlt sich vielleicht beim Rberscrollen viel an, weil es mehrere Seiten sind, aber da sind ja schon auf einer einzelnen Pressekonferenz des Innenministeriums mehr Journalisten im Raum. Wenn man wenigstens annehmen knnte, dass hier halt besonders einflussreiche Journalisten gekauft wrden, aber dafr sehe ich keine Anzeichen.

Dazu kommt, dass typische Journalisten (im Gegensatz zur rbb-Intendanz!) nur knapp ber der Obdachlosigkeit bezahlt werden. Wieso wrde man die bestechen mssen, damit sie die Hand nicht abbeien, die sie am Leben hlt? Das ergibt alles keinen Sinn, lasst euch da mal nicht verarschen.

Die kleinen Anfragen der AfD sind alle so. Lcherliches Brechstangen-Framing von irgendwelchen ideologischen Vorannahmen.

New in PJ Media: Mitch McConnell has fallen at a hotel in Washington and is currently in the hospital. Two questions immediately spring to mind, neither of which have answers at this point: is this the end of the dreary McConnell era of establishment Republican Me-Tooism? And is there some karmic relationship between Mitchs fall []

READ MORE AT TOTT NEWS 

Australias central bank intends to analyse 14 different Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) use cases in collaboration with our Big Four banks.

Read More

Photo-op Albo. International man of predictability.

Read More

Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic has been called to withdraw a statement in the Senate after describing Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the little fella from Ukraine, followed by anyway, who cares. For more SBS News videos, visit: https://t.co/92PmLUnWIz pic.twitter.com/lKAgEmWxGp SBS News (@SBSNews) March 10, 2023

.... well.... finally! T.M. spotted this one and passed it along, and it's another one of those articles I've got to blog about and bring

The post PEER-REVIEWED AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF THE JABS: THEYRE NOT SAFE appeared first on The Giza Death Star.

Families of the victims have called for a renewed search after the findings of a US-based marine robotics company emerged. Malaysian authorities are being asked to launch a new search for flight MH370, nine years after it disappeared from radars over the South China Sea. The request comes after US marine robotics company Ocean Infinity claimed to have found new evidence of the plane's possible location. The Boeing 777 was en route from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing with 239 passengers on board on March 8, 2014, when it vanished from the grid less than an hour into its journey. For three years, Malaysia, China, and Australia searched for the plane in the Indian Ocean, where it was believed to have crashed, only to come up empty-handed. The search was officially called off in January 2017, with no conclusion made about what could have happened to the mystery flight.

Equality is no longer enough. Today, on International Womens Day, we need to take it a step further and embrace equity. This means not just giving women the same opportunities but exactly what they need to succeed. We support #IWD by striking the #EmbraceEquity pose. pic.twitter.com/9D7QjoQhJN European Central Bank...

There are many myths about arrest warrants, including when they can be issued and what you should do if you have been issued with one.

So heres some information that may assist if you suspect police could be knocking on your door sometime soon.

What Is an Arrest Warrant?

An arrest warrant is an order issued by a magistrate or a judge which empowers law enforcement agents such as police to lawfully arrest you and bring you before a court.

There are several circumstances in which an arrest warrant may be issued, including when you:

• Are charged with a criminal offence but cannot be located,

• Fail to attend court as required by law (in which case, a bench warrant may be issued),
• Have breached a condition of bail or an apprehended violence order,
• Have been convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment but cannot be located,
• Have breached a condition of a sentence, such as one contained in a community correction order or intensive correction order, or 
• Have breached a condition of parole. 

How Do I Know Theres a Warrant for My Arrest?

There is no nationwide, or even state or territory-wide, register of outstanding arrest warrants in Australia. And a national police check will not necessarily reveal the existence of a warrant.

If you believe a warrant may have been issued by a certain court or police station, it is a good...

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...

Here, for your Friday afternoon entertainment, is a listicle germinated in the fetid bowels of the Murdoch press.

Men who murdered women. Men who raped women. Men who raped children. More than twenty of them, complete with photos and salacious details of their crimes, often against multiple victims.

Sex pests. Thats what the Murdoch goblins call men who rape children and kill women.

Even without the abhorrent headline, this article would contaminate the bottom of a kitty litter tray.

HERES A LIST OF ALL THE PLACES WOMEN SHOULDNT GO!!!! but of course we dont include all the places that sell Murdoch papers or serve Murdochs orc-infested empire.

HERES A COLLAGE OF RAPISTS THAT LOOKS LIKE A MOIVE PROMOTION!!!! hasnt this rapist got lovely blue eyes! Lets put him right in the middle. Aww. Cute.

HERES A SUMMARY OF ALL THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN HE RAPED!!! look at us jernalisming like a bought one.

I need a shower, a bucket of bleach, and a world that has smashed Murdoch and all his malevolent buffoons into a thousand tiny pieces and flushed them into the sewer of history.

THIRD GENERATION Liverpool Plains farmer Rosemary Nankivell has been active for more than a decade trying to save the top NSW food bowl, the Liverpool Plains, and the surrounding Pilliga nature reserve and State Forest, from coal and coal seam gas mining. The campaign united farmers, environmentalists and the Gomeroi people to successfully stop proposed []

PRESIDENT BIDEN: "MAGA Republicans are threatening to default on the national debt." pic.twitter.com/BHGvC3nv18 Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 9, 2023

Its a shame some people dont receive psychiatric treatment. pic.twitter.com/YiHjQnCnqE Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis (@DrLoupis) March 9, 2023

The magnificent old trees in a grove known as the Gully of the Giants are still standing this morning. They might not be so lucky tomorrow. The trees are part of Doubleduke State Forest, west of Evans Head, being logged under the auspices of the NSW Governments Forestry Corporation.

Logging couldnt go ahead this morning because yesterday, Save Banyabbas Koalas Valerie Thompson, bought teh Gully Giants a reprieve. Logging was unable to commence due to the logging machinery having been captured by the ropes suspending Valeries tree platform.

I relish the opportunity to spend the night in the forest. Im hoping I will hear a forest owl or the screech of a yellow-bellied glider, or maybe the bellow of a koala, said Valerie. 

These animals are why Im here. They depend on the hollows in these old trees to survive. When the trees go, the animals will go...

THE very first objects taken from Australia by the British are finally coming home.

When James Cook and his crew first made contact with Aboriginal people in 1770, the British soldiers took dozens of spears from their camps at Botany Bay. 

More than 250 years later, only four of those spears remain and they will soon be permanently returned to the Aboriginal community of La Perouse. 

The historic announcement was made last Thursday at Bare Island in Botany Bay, which is known as Kamay in the local Indigenous language. 

La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council chairwoman Noeleen Timbery described the return of the artefacts as unimaginable. 

These spears are the markers of when our shared history began, she said. 

Theyre important objects for all Australians, because they tell the story of what happened

TRADITIONAL Owners from Murujuga on Western Australias Burrup Peninsular have travelled across the continent to protest outside the Sydney office of Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. 

The protest follows a community campaign launch held in Redfern on February 26 where Murujuga Traditional Owners teamed up with Gadigal Traditional Owners to escalate their fight for better protection of sacred Murujuga rock art from ongoing industrial threats. 

Murujuga Traditional Custodians, along with local supporters and allies, addressed the media outside Ms Pliberseks office on March 2. 

We are here this morning on Gadigal Country to stand with Traditional custodians around the country in opposition to the Federal Government continuing to allow industry to desecrate our culture, our communities and our Country, Mardudhunera woman and former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation Raelene Cooper said. 

The minister has just made international headlines announcing the World Heritage values of our sacred Murujuga rock art, but shes allowing Woodsides Burrup Hub to continue pumping out massive emissions

ABORIGINAL communities, service providers, public servants, elected officials, philanthropists, business leaders, activists, inspiration thinkers, academics and local community came together last week for ChangeFest 2023 in Lutruwita (Tasmania). 

More than 500 people attended. 

Ideas, inspiration and real examples of making positive social change, as well as obstacles and challenges were discussed during the three days. 

ChangeFest is dubbed a movement. It has grown from four Logan (southeast Queensland) organisations banding together to assist community-driven social change, celebrating grassroots leadership and practical partnerships. 

ChangeFest organisers observed the discomfort of First Nations leaders at the 2018 gathering and so, in a statement, agreed on the importance of putting First Nations first. 

There is now a strong emphasis on empowering First Nations people, and the gatherings are attracting lots of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation. 

National gatherings have since been held in

ALICE Springs Town Council has made the extraordinary decision to ban an annual community club Aussie rules football competition. 

The council last week was presented with a motion to follow- through on the proposal, which passed despite strong opposition raised by two other councillors. 

The successful motion means Alice Springs Town Council will withdraw its support for the Community Cup competition which has teams from remote Aboriginal communities in and around Central Australia travelling to Alice Springs for games each weekend during the football season. The council said its decision was based on the town experiencing high levels of social unrest. 

The move will impact the senior mens Alice Springs-based Central Australian Football League. The five teams in the CAFL rely on players from those communities which are now banned. 

The Community Cup is played on Sundays with the CAFL on Saturdays. Community footballers are permitted to play for their community teams while also playing in the CAFL

Lions mane mushrooms (Hericium erinaceus) have a long history in traditional medicine. A 2023 study¹ from the University of Queensland found an extract from the mushroom demonstrates the ability to promote neuron projections and connect those to other neurons.²

Lions mane mushrooms are named for their unique white and shaggy appearance that resembles a lion's mane. They are also known by several other names, including bearded tooth, monkey's head, bearded hedgehog, satyrs beard and pom pom mushroom.³ The mushroom traditionally grows on hardwood trees and has played a role in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Asian culture for centuries.

According to TCM practitioners, lions mane supports the liver, spleen, heart, kidney and lung function.⁴ Buddhist monks traditionally used lion's mane mushroom tea to enhance brain function and heighten focus. The Chinese began cultivating lion's mane mushrooms in 1988 to meet demand. Today it's becoming a popular functional food in Western cultures.

Lion's mane mushrooms tend to grow in a single clump of dangling spines.⁵ In the wild, the mushrooms appear in late summer and early fall on dead and dying hardwood trees. The young mushrooms are pure white and tend to turn yellow and brown as they age.

Lions Mane Mushrooms Dramatically Improve Brain Cell Growth

In recent years, fungi have attracted scientific exploration for the potential to improve cognitive function. Lions mane mushrooms have had a long reputation for mental health benefits, prompting a research team from the University of Queensland to delve deeper into how extracts from the mushroom may improve nerve growth and enhance memory.⁶

The researchers acknowledged the mushroom's ability to enhance peripheral nerve regeneration by targeting nerve growth factors. The hope was to identify bioactive compounds that could help regulate the growth of neurons.⁷ In the lab, the researchers purified biologically active compounds and tested them against cultured brain cells in a Petri dish. The cells were then evaluated under a super-resolution microscope.

According to study scientist Frdric Meunier, Ph.D., we found the mushroom extract and its active components largely increase the size of growth cones, which are particularly important for brain cells to sense their environment and establish new connections with other neurons...

Contributed by Joe Montero

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has flown off to India, presumably to talk up trade, and then going to the United States to talk with President Jo Biden and the British Prime Minister, who will also be there.

This could have been a good opportunity to raise some issues of serious concern back here in Australia. They wont be raised, because this will be a meeting between those who command and those who obey. Such is the political clout held over Australian government by Washington.

The meeting is about what is next for AUKUS, the military alliance that Australia has entered with the other two parties. So, we might as well start talking about this.

AUKUS is not an agreement between equals. It is an extension of the presence of the United States Military into Australia and our region, commanded from Washington, with some input from London.

Photo by David Glotzbach/ US Navy parade in Darwin during the closing ceremony of the eighth U.S. and Australian exercise Talisman Sabre in 2019

Part of the deal is to station nuclear submarines here. There is a pretence that they will be Australian submarines. They wont be. The real command will remain with the Pentagon. Australia gets the privilege of paying for them. Billions of Australian taxpayers dollars will go to American arms manufacturers. This is in line with Washingtons  policy of passing on some of the costs of its military to its allies.

The cost is not only about dollars. Australia loses sovereignty, that is, the right to make our own decisions and act independently. By being a cog in superpower military machine, Australia gets to be seen as a puppet, aiding hostile ac...

...

What do we do if the lights go out in our community? Margaret Killjoy says the answer is simple. The Left must embrace preparedness culture.

A new study led by chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that wildfire smoke particles, which can remain in the stratosphere for a year, can cause chemical reactions that deplete the protective ozone layer. The findings occurred during the megafire in Australia in December 2019 to January 2020.

The study, published in the journal Nature, analyzed the atmospheric chemical composition over the Southern Hemisphere at mid-latitudes, including regions over Australia and New Zealand and parts of Africa and South America. 

The researchers noted that the wildfire smoke particles created chemical reactions in the stratosphere. They estimated that these reactions caused the megafire to contribute to a 3% to 5% depletion in the ozone in the area studied.

The study model also estimated that the wildfires impacted the ozone layer over Antarctica, widening the hole over the Antarctic by 2.5 million square kilometers by the end of 2020, or widening by 10% of its area in comparison to 2019.

The Australian fires of 2020 were really a wake-up call for the science community, Susan Solomon, study author and professor of environmental studies at M.I.T., said in a statement. The effect of wildfires was not previously accounted for in [projections of] ozone recovery. And I think that effect may depend on whether fires become more frequent and intense as the planet warms.

The wildfires analyzed in the study were the worst ever recorded in Australia, burning tens of millions of acres and emitting 1 million tons of smoke into the atmosphere, as M.I.T. reported.

Solomon and her colleagues previously identified a chemical reaction between chlorine-containing compounds, typically chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and fire aerosols that produced chlorine monoxide, which is known to deplete ozone. So the researchers came back to analyze molecules in the stratosphere following the megafire in Australia.

While the team found that wildfire smoke reactions with hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the stratosphere could deplete ozone, they suspect wildfire smoke could react to other chlorine-containing compounds in the atmosphere, especially wh...

PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.

 

Newly Discovered Enzyme Turns Air Into Electricity, Providing Clean Source of Energy (Maria)

The author writes, Australian scientists have discovered an enzyme that converts air into energy. The finding, published [yesterday] in the journal Nature, reveals that this enzyme uses the low amounts of the hydrogen in the atmosphere to create an electrical current. This finding opens the way to create devices that literally make energy from thin air. The research team, led by Dr. Rhys Grinter, Ph.D. student Ashleigh Kropp, and Professor Chris Greening from the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute in Melbourne, Australia, produced and analyzed a hydrogen-consuming enzyme from a common soil bacterium.

 

Trumps Threat of a Third-Party Run Is Undercut by Sore Loser Laws (Reader Steve)

The author writes, Donald Trump hates losing so much that he has suggested he will mount a third-party campaign if he doesnt win the Republican presidential nomination. But he cant win that way either, thanks to sore loser laws in six states he would need to return to the White House. Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, as well as Arkansas and Alabama, have laws that bar a candidate defeated in a major-party primary from running as an independent or on a third-party ticket in the general election. That would put Trump at the general-election starting gate with a deficit of 91 electoral votes of the 270 required to capture the White House.

 

Inside the Private and Confidential Conservative Group That Promises to Crush Liberal Dominance (Gerry)

The authors write, Leonard Leo, a.....

This article was funded by paid subscribers of The Dissenter Newsletter, a project of Shadowproof. Become a monthly paid subscriber to help us publish more independent journalism on whistleblowing.

To further their nationwide efforts to restrict access to transgender health care, Republicans in the state of Missouri have deployed a former case worker at Washington Universitys Transgender Center at St. Louis Childrens Hospital, who they claim is a whistleblower.

There is no shortage of activists, journalists, academics, and people of conscience who have some story to share about the impact of the Collateral Murder video.

The U.S. military footage of an Apache helicopter crew shooting indiscriminately at a dozen Iraqi civilians including Reuters journalists Namir Noor Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh, and two young children is widely recognized for exposing the true nature of the United States war in Iraq and for making WikiLeaks and Julian Assange household names.

Three years before WikiLeaks made it possible for the public to watch this video, Dean Yates, Reuters bureau chief in Iraq, learned of its existence. Yates testified about the impact of the video at the Belmarsh Tribunal in Sydney, Australia on March 4, 2023.

Later in the Tribunal, another delegate, Australian lawyer Bernard Collaery, called Yates testimony admissible evidence, which could serve as witness testimony in defense of Assange. (In fact, a statement from Yates was submitted to a British court during Assanges extradition trial.)

It has now been nearly 13 years since WikiLeaks published the video, and nearly 16 years since the attack took place. No one responsible for the attack or the invasion of Iraq has faced even a modicum of accountability.

In contrast, Assange is languishing in Belmarsh Prison under torturous conditions. He sits in legal limbo while the United States continues to pursue his extradition under Espionage Act charges, in a case which poses an unprecedented threat to press freedom.

While WikiLeaks publication of military documents from Iraq and Afghanistan are at the heart of the case, the Collateral Murder video is absent from the 18-count indictment that spans 37 pages.

The U.S. military usually didnt investigate civilian casualties in Iraq. It did in this case because Namir and Saeed worked for a major international news organization, Yates said as he started his speech.

I was shownwithout advance warningless than three minutes of footage from the gun-camera of Crazy Horse 1-8, up...

An estimated 26.9 million people of all ages (8.2% of the U.S. population) have been diagnosed with diabetes. A further 7.3 million adults ages 18 years or older (21.4 percent of adults) are estimated to have diabetes but are undiagnosed. For people with diabetes, insulin is essential for them to live but in the US, insulin prices have been much higher than elsewhere in the world resulting in crippling costs for users, so much so that some people cannot afford to buy the drug.

One of the major achievements of Democrats and the Biden administration in passing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) at the end of last year was that it allowed Medicare to negotiate down the price of insulin for those over 65.

Effective January 1, 2023, out-of-pocket costs for insulin are capped at $35 per monthly prescription among Medicare Part D enrollees under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). A similar cap takes effect in Medicare Part B on July 1, 2023. An estimated 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries who use insulin would have saved $734 million in Part D and $27 million in Part B if these caps had been in effect in 2020.

Thanks to the pressure exerted on prices by that move, one of the major manufacturers of the drug has announced that they will reduce the price of the drug for everyone.

High insulin prices have not earned any U.S. manufacturer many friends, with list prices increasing 54% from 2014 to 2019.

Most troublingly, an estimated 1.3 million uninsured people with diabetes and patients with inadequate insurance have resorted to rationing their insulin. Skipping doses because of high insulin prices has sometimes had tragic and even deadly consequences.

Part of the problem with the existing system is that some patients, especially if theyre uninsured or have high deductibles, end up paying the list price which can mean spending $1,000 or more a month on insulin. This can be a crushing financial burden.

Lillys new $35 out-of-pocket cap means that privately insured patients and those without insurance requiring insulin will spend no more than that monthly for copays. Its 70% reduction in the list price of two popular name brand insulins, Humalog and Humulin, will bring some financial relief. And the company has also reduced its generic lispros list price to $25 a vial, down from $126.

Lilly has put pressure on its biggest competitors, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, to follow suit.

These lower prices could also make Lillys insulins affordable to cash-paying patients. As a result, these...

......

Peter writes in to ask how we should respond to the Bank of England's rigged survey about CBDCs. James answers by describing the Delphi method and how to anti-Delphi in real life.

QUESTION: The sales pitch seems to be that there is this $2 quadrillion in global debt that overhangs everything. Paper assets, therefore, will all implode!  They seem to be saying that everything has risen due to this debt bubble and it was all created with Zero interest rates. Now that they are going up, the debt bubble will burst and everything will decline. The story seems to be that this decades-long Boom Bust cycle was created over and over by the Federal Reserve. 

This seems to be like you have said, they try to reduce everything to a single cause and effect.

What really happens?

PCJ

ANSWER: These people seem to keep preaching the same story b...

March 04 2023 At Russias Valdai Club meeting the easts answer to Davos intellectuals and influencers gathered to frame West Asias current and future developments. By Pepe Escobar The 12th Middle East Conference at the Valdai Club in Moscow offered a more than welcome cornucopia of views on interconnected troubles and tribulations affecting the region. []

<p><div class= "field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item even"> <p><strong>Were on the path to war. How can we stop it? Implications of the government reports on AUKUS, nuclear submarines, war powers reform & the Defence Strategic Review. National Zoom Meeting, Sunday 26 March, 6.30pm AEDT. Free registration details inside.

  <strong>National Zoom Meeting</strong><br>  <strong>Sunday 26th March, 6.30pm AEDT</strong></p> <p><a class="twitter-timeline-link" href= "https://rlexye.clicks.mlsend2.com/te/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjMyOTM0MCxcImxcIjo4MjEyNzg3NTU0OTk1NjAwNCxcInJcIjo4MjEyNzg3NjMwNTk3OTI4Mn0iLCJzIjoiYjljYmNkNGZjMjU4MjQ1MCJ9" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Register here</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Speakers</p> <p><strong>Dr Alison Broinowski AM:</strong> President, Australians for War Powers Reform. Formerly an Australian diplomat, Alison is the author or editor of 14 books about Australias dealings with the world, Asian countries in particular. Her PhD is in Asian Studies at ANU. She has researched and taught there, at Macquarie University, and at the University of Wollongong.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Dr Alison Boinowski</strong> will speak on the implications of the Inquiry into War Powers Reform</p> <p><strong>Brian Toohey</strong> was a columnist with the <em>Australian Financial Review</em> who has also written for <em>The Nikkei Asia Review, The West Australian, The Sunday Age</em> and other publications. He was editor of <em>The</em> <em>National Times</em> and a Canberra and Washington correspondent for <em>AFR</em>. He is the author or co-author of four books: <em>Oyster: The Story of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service</em>;<em> Tumbling Dice: The Story of Modern Economic Policy</em>;<em> The Book of Leaks</em> and <em>The Winchester Scandal</em>. Among other subjects, he has written extensively about national security policy since 1973. Brian currently writes for The Saturday Paper and Pearls & Irritations.

Brian Toohey </strong>will speak on the implications of the report on Aukus and the Nuclear Submarines</p> <p><strong>Dr Vince Scappatura</strong> teaches Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University. He has a recently published...</p> </div> </div> </div></strong></p>

Up to $9billion worth of gold that the Perth Mint sold to China could be recalled after it was discovered some bars were diluted with other metals. The WA government-owned mint, which is the largest refiner of newly mined gold in the world, started 'doping' its gold in 2018 - a process which involves mixing in silver or copper while still keeping the purity above 99.99 per cent. While the product met widely accepted standards on the global gold market, up to 100 tonnes of bullion shipped to China potentially falls short of the more stringent standards of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE). Some of the gold the SGE tested from Perth Mint exceeded the allowable silver content.

The UK can build a reliable, secure and cost-effective electricity system that is decarbonised by 2035, says the governments advisory Climate Change Committee (CCC).

The CCCs new report is based on new hour-by-hour modelling of the countrys electricity system out to 2035, which includes stress-tests of how it could ride out extended wind droughts.

In effect, the report is a 131-page answer to the question often posed by those sceptical of climate action: But what about when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine?

The CCC sees cheap  but variable  wind and solar meeting 70% of demand. While nuclear and biomass might meet another 20%, they are relatively inflexible. Therefore, the final 10% is key.

This 10% will largely come from flexible low-carbon solutions, such as batteries, compressed air storage and responsive demand. Crucially, however, gaps lasting days to weeks at a time will be filled by gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS) and/or hydrogen power.

As an additional source of security, the committee endorses a small remaining role for unabated gas power in 2035. This would meet up to around 2% of annual demand, down from 40% today.

The importance of hydrogen is clear, as nearly one-quarter of the report is given over to its role. 

However, the committee stresses the risks of medium-term scarcity in hydrogen supply, which would be even larger if the government prioritises using hydrogen to heat homes.

Overall, the CCC says the flexible, secure and decarbonised electricity grid of 2035 is within sight, but only with urgent reform.

Its 25 recommendations for government include easing the planning and regulatory regimes, so that energy infrastructure can be built at the speed necessary.

These reforms are required to unlock hundreds of billions in investment needed to build a reliable, decarbonised grid by 2035, the CCC says.

• What will power the UKs electricity system in 2035?
• What modelling did the CCC commission?
• Where will the UK get electricity when it is not windy?
• How will the UK use hydrogen in 2035?
• What needs to change to decarbonise UK electricity by 2035?
• .....

<p><p>Welcome to <a href= "https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/daily-wrap-up/" rel= "nofollow noopener" style="color: #ff0000;" title= "This link will take you away from steemit.com">The Daily Wrap Up</a>, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (3/8/23).<br> As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth is, or claiming they have the answer, is likely leading you astray, for one reason or another. Stay Vigilant.<br> (<a href= "https://www.rokfin.com/TLAVagabond">https://www.rokfin.com/TLAVagabond</a>)(<a href="https://www.bitchute.com/channel/24yVcta8zEjY/">https://www.bitchute.com/channel/24yVcta8zEjY/</a>)<br> https://rumble.com/embed/v29p1qw/?pub=2q643<br> <br> <br> Video Source Links (In Chronological Order)<br> <br> <a href= "https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/tn-anti-trans-bill-independent-palestine-testing-contradicts-epa-lab-leak-last-resort/"> TN "Anti-Trans Bill", Independent E. Palestine Testing Contradicts EPA & The Lab "Leak" Last Resort
(30) The Vigilant Fox on Twitter: "Dr. Robert Redfield: "There's No Doubt That NIH Funded Gain-of-Function Research" Ms. Malliotakis: "Is it likely that American tax dollars funded the gain-of-function research that created this virus?" Dr. Redfield: "I think it did not only from NIH but from the State https://t.co/OqsTsb1hFg" / Twitter</a><br> <a href="">New Tab</a><br> <a href= "https://twitter.com/remarks/status/1633269275019423744?s=12&t=QZjhwQnW81iyM5uOBlF0HQ"> (31) Remarks on Twitter: "JUST IN: Maryland Democrats seek to prohibit anyone under the age of 25 from being charged with felony murder, citing that 'their brains arent fully developed.'" / Twitter</a><br> <a href= "https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/debate-continues-on-bill-preventing-youth-under-25-from-facing-1st-degree-murder-charge"> Debate continues on bill preventing youth under 25 from facing 1st degree murder charge | WBFF</a><br> <a href= "https://www.cf.org/news/democrat-lawmakers-introduce-bill-preventing-anyone-25-under-from-being-charged-with-felony-murder/"> Democrat Lawmakers Introduce Bill Preventing Anyone 25 Under from Being Charged with Felony Murder</a><br> <a href= "https://marylandreporter.com/2021/03/16/carter-proposes-legislation-that-would-prohibit-minors-from-being-convicted-of-felony-murder/"> Carter proposes legislation that would prohibit minors from being convicted of felony murder - MarylandReporter.com</a><br> <a href= "https://twitter.com/TLAVagabond/status/1633513002900103168">(35) LastAmericanVagabond on Twitter: "So if a pe...

From Aeon: When I was studying philosophy years ago, I had what felt like a nervous breakdown. I wasnt able to think clearly or articulate my thoughts, and sometimes stuttered. I thought something had gone wrong in my brain. I went for brain scans but found no answers. I ended up with a psychologist who turned out to be a relational psychoanalyst. That term didnt mean too much to me at the time, but it was life-defining. Through my therapy, I came to realise that there was, in fact, nothing wrong with my brain. It was in my relationships, especially early ones, where the issue lay. As my mind gradually came back to me, I trained to be a relational psychotherapist myself, and became fascinated by the ideas and theories behind it. What I found was nothing short of revolutionary.

Id already been deeply interested in the limitations of Western models of mind, especially in terms of the enduring influence of Ren Descartess dualism between mind and body, mind and world, which set the West into modernity in the 17th century. But this had been a very academic and abstract pursuit. In relational theory, however, I found not only the answers to the problems that our dualistic heritage bestowed upon us, but also to my own suffering, and the roots of much psychological and emotional distress in general.

Prior to Descartess time, mind and world had been understood as entangled, interpenetrating, open to each other. But in the inexorable march of the physical sciences and the mechanistic explanation of the world during the scientific revolution, mind (and soul) were mortally threatened. This led Descartes to split the mind off from the world (and the body that was unarguably part of the world) in order to save it from reduction to physical mechanism. All experience, meaning and purpose once of mind and world both  were withdrawn from the world and put solely into Descartess new mind-substance, something that had not existed before.

When the new scientific discipline of psychology separated off from philosophy in the mid- to late 19th century, it adopted an essentially the present day, certainly in mainstream psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy. Instead of seeing mind as a separate substance, this neo-Cartesian perspective assumes that the mind is somehow identifiable with the brain, brain states and brain functioning. Much like Descartes, however, it maintains the very same vision of mind as an experientially private interior, categorically cut off from the world and others outside.

For Descartes and for modern neo-Cartesian models alike, our experience of the world and others occurs on the inside in our individual minds or brains. For modern psychology, this meant that mental life could be studied and measured in isolation, lending itself to empirical and qu........

 

The 15-Minute City: a term to describe compact, mixed-use neighborhoods, has become a political football, where critics believe the idea could result in an infringement on personal freedoms. 

On this Upzoned podcast, host Abby Kinney and special guest Kevin Klinkenberg, talk about this contentious topic and answer the question: Are the concerns people have about 15 minute cities warranted, or is this something that we should all be rolling our eyes at and moving on from? 

ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES

• The 15 Minute City - Where Urban Planning Meets Conspiracy Theories, by Chris Standford, The New York Times (March, 2023)

• The Messy City Podcast by Kevin Klinkenberg.

• Abby Kinney (Twitter)

• Kevin Klinkenberg (Twitter)

• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom

  
  Cover image source: Irina Iriser/Pexels

 

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<p><blockquote> <h5><a href= "https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="color: #003366;">By John & Nisha Whitehead | The Rutherford Institute | March 7, 2023

There was a time when the census was just a head count.

That is no longer the case.

The <a href= "https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/legal_features/constitutional_qa_american_community_survey">American Community Survey</a> (ACS), sent to about 3.5 million homes every year, is the byproduct of a government that believes it has the right to know all of your personal business.</p> <p>If you havent already received an ACS, its just a matter of time.</p> <p>A far cry from the traditional census, which is limited to ascertaining the number of persons living in each dwelling, their ages and ethnicities, the ownership of the dwelling and telephone numbers, the ACS contains some of the most detailed and intrusive questions ever put forth in a census questionnaire.</p> <p>At 28 pages (with an additional 16-page instruction packet), these questions concern matters that the government simply has no business knowing, including questions relating to respondents bathing habits, home utility costs, fertility, marital history, work commute, mortgage, and health insurance, among other highly personal and private matters.</p> <p>For instance, the ACS asks how many persons live in your home, along with their names and detailed information about them such as their relationship to you, marital status, race and their physical, mental and emotional problems, etc. The survey also asks how many bedrooms and bathrooms you have in your house, along with the fuel used to heat your home, the cost of electricity, what type of mortgage you have and monthly mortgage payments, property taxes and so on.</p> <p>And then the survey drills down even deeper.</p> <p>The survey demands to know how many days you were sick last year, how many automobiles you own and the number of miles driven, whether you have trouble getting up the stairs, and what time you leave for work every morning, along with highly detailed inquiries about your financial affairs. And the survey demands that you violate the privacy of others by supplying the names and addresses of your friends, relatives and employer.</p> <p>The questionnaire also demands that you give other information on the people in your home, such as their educational levels, how many years of school were completed, what languages they speak and when they last worked at a job, among other things.</p> <p>Individuals who receive the ACS must complete it or be subject to monetary penalties.</p> <p>Although no reports have surfaced of individuals actually being penalized for refusing to answer the survey, the pot...</p>

Dozens of countries condemn interference in Beirut blast probe

MEE staff Wed, 03/08/2023 - 19:55

Does it matter if countries meet their existing climate pledges, even if they currently arent enough to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels?

For the UK, the answer is definitely yes, according to a new study from the University of Bristol and flood risk modeler Fathom. The researchers found that flood damage in the country could be limited to less than five percent above recent levels if the nations of the world met their COP26 climate promises through 2030 as well longer-term net zero pledges. 

For the first time this flood model gives us a more accurate and detailed picture of the impact of climate change on the risk of flooding in the future across the UK, study lead author, University of Bristol Professor of Hydrology and Fathom Chairman Paul Bates said in a university press release. The results are a timely warning to the countrys political leaders and business sector that global commitments to significantly reduce carbon emissions must be taken very seriously, and ultimately take effect, in order to mitigate increased losses due to flooding.

New research shows annual damage caused by flooding in the UK could rise by more than a fifth over the next century unless all international pledges to reduce carbon emissions are met.

Find out more https://t.co/Hft0SuEac1#flooding #COP26 #NetZero pic.twitter.com/4t9EIX4jQ3

University of Bristol (@BristolUni) March 7, 2023

Flooding is considered the UKs No. 1 environmental hazard, according to the study published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Science Tuesday. The research team looked at potential flood damage in...

 My new podcast (see information below) not only talks about the current weather situation but answers a question many of you are asking:

Has Global Warming/Climate Change contributed to increased numbers and intensity of cold waves...and particularly cold waves over the western U.S.?

The answer is definitively no, something noted by statistics provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a number of peer-reviewed articles (see EPA graphic below).

And then there is the current chilly situation.  Unbelievably, forecast models show two situations with the potential for light lowland snow (with little accumulation).

The accumulated SNOWFALL through 10 AM Thursday is shown below.  Nothing major, but southwest Washington and northeast Oregon may get some flakes. Light snow over the eastern slopes of the WA Cascades.

...

"We are seeing emissions from the shockwaves in the largest structures in the universe." Scientists have discovered the first evidence of shockwaves rippling through the "cosmic web," a massive network of interweaving filaments that represents the largest structure in the universe. The discovery represents tantalizing evidence of magnetic fields weaving through the gas, dust, and dark matter tendrils which link galaxies together. Scientists first began to think that on the largest scales, the universe is ordered in a web-like pattern with filaments that cross vast voids in space and pull galaxies into clusters in the 1960s. Two decades later using computer modeling, researchers were able to determine what this vast universal network might look like for the first time. Astronomers have since mapped the cosmic web with actual observations in the process answering questions about its structure. One element has remained frustratingly shrouded in mystery, however: The magnetic fields...

A new Lightning partnership will let Perth Heat fans scan QR codes after stolen bases and home runs, rewarding them with bitcoin instantly.

The Perth Heat, the Australian Baseball Leagues most successful baseball team, has announced a new partnership that rewards fans in bitcoin every time a player from Perth Heat steals a base or hits a home run.

The partnership with Bitrefill, Wallet of Satoshi and IBEX will allow fans to Steal Sats by scanning a QR code displayed on the game stream or on the team's social media channels when a player makes an impressive play. Fans will receive their reward instantly after scanning the code with a Lightning-enabled wallet, introducing a novel fan interaction system that brings further excitement to thrilling moments in games.

"We are thrilled to be launching Stealing Sats in partnership with Bitrefill, Wallet of Satoshi, and IBEX," Steven Nelkovski, CEO of the Perth Heat, said in a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine. "This is an innovative way to engage with our fans and offer them something new and exciting. We believe this program will further enhance the fan experience and incentivize our players to push themselves to achieve their best on the field."

The baseball team made headlines in 2021 when they adopted a Bitcoin standard and integrated Lightning, becoming the first professional sports team to do so. Afterwards, the Heat proved their desire to further integrate Bitcoin, widely introducing Lightning services to their stadium and fan experiences. The team then announced sats4stats, which is a way to boost fans favorite players through the Lightning Network.

The latest introduction of Stealing Sats is simply another innovation for the team using Bitcoin and Lightning.

Ry Sterling, business development at IBEX, described how they seek to play a role in revolutionizing fan engagement, saying, At IBEX our focus is spreading innovation via the Lightning network and with the lead from Perth Heat, #stealingsats and #satsforstats has opened our eyes to a whole new market of global fandom that we had not considered before.

Chris Pavlesic, Bitrefills Australia manager, said that "With Stealing Sats, fans can now participate in the game in a whole new way, and we are excited to see how this will continue to evolve over time."

Daniel Alexiuc, CEO at Wallet of Satoshi added, "The whole team at Wallet of Satoshi is really excited about Stealing Sats with Perth Heat It's such an innovative way to demonstrate that Bitcoin is easy and it is for everybody.

How long is the present? The answer, Cornell researchers suggest in a new study, depends on your heart. They found that our momentary perception of time is not continuous but may stretch or shrink with each heartbeat. The research builds evidence that the heart is one of the brain's important timekeepers and plays a fundamental role in our sense of time passing - an idea contemplated since ancient times, said Adam K. Anderson, professor in the Department of Psychology and in the College of Human Ecology (CHE). "Time is a dimension of the universe and a core basis for our experience of self," Anderson said. "Our research shows that the moment-to-moment experience of time is synchronized with, and changes with, the length of a heartbeat." Saeedeh Sadeghi, M.S. '19, a doctoral student in the field of psychology, is the lead author of "Wrinkles in Subsecond Time Perception are Synchronized to the Heart," published March 2 in the journal Psychophysiology. Anderson is a co-author with...

The global history of fiat money and U.S. world reserve status has incentivized many countries to abandon their own cultures and sovereignty.

This is an opinion editorial by Jimmy Song, a Bitcoin developer, educator and entrepreneur and programmer with over 20 years of experience.

In the first three parts of this series, I examined the different ways that fiat money has led to terrible incentives at the individual, corporate and national levels. We are more isolated than ever, we are less satisfied with our work and we work under tyrannical, authoritarian governments as a result of fiat money. In this article, I go through the ways the entire world is incentivized by fiat money.

The previous articles spoke more generally about how individuals, companies and nations are affected by fiat money. This article will be a lot more specific as there's only the one world we live in and we don't need to speak generally. Thus, I will start this article with some historical context as that will give us a better understanding of why the financial incentives in the world are the way they are.

Bretton Woods

We start the analysis of global fiat money incentives with one of the major historical events that precipitated the world we live in today and that's the Bretton Woods Agreement from 1944.

Bretton Woods is a small town in New Hampshire where government bureaucrats from all over the world came to establish what they called "a new monetary world order." If that sounds ominous and sinister, that's because it is.

The idea of the conference was to fix the problems from World War I (WWI), where reparation payments and loopholes around the then re-established gold standard wreaked havoc over so many economies and eventually led to World War II (WWII). Returning to the pre-WWI gold standard was too difficult to square with the central banking monetary control that every country had gotten used to, so the conference was a way to figure out how to establish some other monetary order.

The main problems were that every country wanted the legitimacy of gold but also the stealth taxation of central bank fiat money. The solution they came up with was to add a level of indirection to gold redemption.

Prior to WWI, gold was convertible directly at banks. In the U.S., you could exchange $20.67 for one ounce of gold. In the U.K., you could exchange 4.25 for one ounce......

It was dj vu last month when a university in Belgium stripped Egyptian physician Hatem Abu Hashim of his doctorate after he was found to have fabricated data in his thesis. 

Just weeks earlier, another Egyptian doctor, Ahmed Badawy, lost the PhD degree he had earned at a Dutch university in 2008. Abu Hashim and Badawy are both professors in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Mansoura University in Egypt.

According to an investigation by the Vrije Universeit Brussel (VUB), which awarded Abu Hashim his PhD in 2013, the researcher was in serious violation of scientific integrity based on overwhelming evidence of fabrication of statistical outcomes and clear lack of statistical proficiency. 

Ben Mol of Monash University in Australia, a researcher turned data sleuth who alerted VUB and Utrecht University to problems with Abu Hashim and Badawy s research in 2021 and 2020, respectively, told Retraction Watch by email, The good news is obviously that there is a firm conclusion from both universities after a robust process independent of the complaint. 

Mol also laid out his concerns in a study published wit...

The unencumbered realist concludes that there are no solutions within a status quo structure that is itself the problem.

Realists who question received wisdom and conclude the status quo is untenable are quickly labeled pessimistsbecause the zeitgeist expects a solution is always at hand--preferably a technocratic one that requires zero sacrifice and doesn't upset the status quo apple cart.

Realists ask "what if" without selecting the "solution" first. The conventional approach is to select the "answer/solution" first and then design the question and cherry-pick the evidence to support the pre-selected "solution."

What if all the status quo "solutions" don't actually address the real problems? This line of inquiry is strictly verboten, for there must be a solution that solves everything in one fell swoop.

Examples of this approach abound: a one-size fits all solution that resolves all the systemic problems by itself. All we have to do is implement it.

Replacing fiat currencies is one example that I have explored:

You Want Truly "Sound Money"? A Thought Experiment

Contrarian Thoughts on the Petro-Yuan and Gold-Backed Currencies

I've also explored how real change works: it takes many years (or even decades) of sacrifices and high costs with none of the immediate payoff we now expect as a birthright. Real change pits those benefiting from the status quo against those finally grasp that the status quo is the problem, not the solution, and these political/social battles are endless and brutal because any gains come at somebody else's expense.

The Forgotten History of the 1970s

The 1970s: From Rotting Carcasses Floating in the River to Kayak Races

Fiat currencies contain the seeds of their own self-destruction, but establishing a gold or bitcoin standard creates its own problems. As I explained in the essays listed above, trade imbalances are inherent in a world of scarcity and so exporters of essentials will end up with all the gold / bitcoin and the importers of essentials will end up with no gold or bitcoin, and no means to buy exports. Since the exporting economies are mercantilist by nature, they cannot import enough from their customers to balance trade asymmetries.

The other problem with the gold / bitcoin standard is there is nothing inherently decentralized, equitable or democratic about these standards. In other words, any standard based on wealth distributed by scarcity is inherently neo.....