HEALTHCARE: C-Sections, home births, and a sprinkle of medical correuption make for a complex decision

Monday, March 31, 2025

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2025/03/28/risks-of-c-sections.aspx?ui=f9839516412491bb1e06c9e47058c6fb81b9b9b6acedf03e65e93dfdb263c1b9&sd=20210317&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1ReadMore&cid=20250328_HL2&foDate=false&mid=DM1725282&rid=258510807

What They Don’t Tell You About C-Sections

Analysis by A Midwestern Doctor  —   March 28, 2025

*** begin quote ***

  •     For more than a century, there has been a push to medicalize childbirth and transform it from a natural life event to something requiring major interventions so nothing goes amiss
  •     Many of the standard procedures done during hospital births increase your risk of needing other invasive interventions, eventually cascading into requiring a cesarean section
  •     Like other major abdominal surgeries, C-sections expose mothers to significant risk, require a prolonged recovery, and leave large scars which can cause a wide range of chronic issues
  •     C-sections also expose infants to real risks and predispose them to a variety of chronic autoimmune and neurological issues
  •     This article will discuss the risks of C-sections, the situations where they are necessary, and some approaches that can be used to recover from them

Many traditions throughout history have come to view one’s birth as one of the most important moments in a human’s life as it sets the stage for all that follows. Unfortunately, much in the same way we desecrate the death process by over-medicalizing it (to the point research has found that doctors are less likely to seek end of life care at a medical facility1), the same issue also exists with childbirth.

Many physicians I know who are familiar with the hospital birthing process chose to skip it and give birth at home (along with many more doctors featured in a 2016 documentary2).

Conversely, a minority of childbirths do need advanced medical care. For those mothers, access to a hospital greatly benefits them, particularly if actions are taken to mitigate the most dangerous aspects of hospital birth.

As such, childbirth occupies a similar place as many other medical controversies; neither side of the issue is entirely correct. However, the data clearly shows the risk of routine C-sections outweighs their benefits so this article will attempt to expose what they aren’t tell you about them.

*** end quote ***

I was particularly interested in all the stats that were provided.  As well as the anecdotal evidence from the New Zealand Maoris, “getting a spark”, and the old practice of doctors would wack a baby’s soles to trigger a vigorous cry.  I thought it was a smack on the butt.  

In survival school, one of the mandatory lessons was about emergency child birth.  The essence was to do as little as possible until real help arrived.  Keep patient level, legs elevated, clean newspapers to keep the area as sterile as possible, get the baby crying (really), on mom’s chest, and don’t touch the cord.  And to ignore everything we’d seen on TV.  Laugh!

Came close twice, but no cigar.  In the closest case, commuting into NYC on a train, after the paramedics took her away, the old gent came up and complimented me on doing everything right.  Even mentioning the newspaper bedding and “sheets”.  He said he a was the head of obstetrics at Saint Vincents and would have intervened if I was doing anything wrong. His reticence was due to the malpractice law that rendered me immune but made him libel.  Dumb law.  I was almost pooping MY pants  that I might have to deliver.  Labor pains were a minute intervals.  But Saint Simeon the Holy Fool was with me that day.

Glad I never had to make any of these hard decisions as outlined in the article.

I would hope that the incentive structure for “health care” gets straightened out.

Argh!

—30—


ECONOMICS: Second corpoation puts reserves in ₿itcoin to avoid inflation

Sunday, March 30, 2025

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/bitcoin-for-corporations/gamestops-bitcoin-move-looks-bold-but-it-might-be-brilliant?_kx=pYguJkB4-5NWNPpHSMMFBEIA8mUlSirEDlJPaB68tH8lzIRLbKOSwm282F8TWY5D.RLfipm

GameStop’s Bitcoin Move Looks Bold—But It Might Be Brilliant

  • GameStop’s Bitcoin move left many scratching their heads. But behind the confusion is a clear, calculated strategy that more CFOs should be watching closely.

By Nick Ward  —  March 26, 2025

*** begin quote ***

This week, GameStop quietly updated its investment policy to include Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. With approximately $4.78 billion in cash—nearly 37% of its $12.9 billion market cap—this move marks more than just a diversification of reserves.

*** and ***

For companies with material cash holdings, the erosion of purchasing power is no longer theoretical—it’s measurable. Over the past decade, the U.S. dollar has declined in real terms by more than 25%, driven by inflation, expansionary monetary policy, and global fiscal uncertainty.

Bitcoin presents a compelling counterweight to this degradation, particularly for balance sheets with the flexibility to tolerate mark-to-market volatility in pursuit of long-term strategic payoff.

*** end quote ***

Now a corporation doing this can spend resources ensuring the security of its assets.  

However, the average consumer retail type needs to be extremely careful not to lose their “wallet”.

Considering the 25% loss of purchasing power over 5 years, that can put a hole in anyone savings.

It’s the same problem as Social Security “Insurance” (see my many rants about that  —  the prepaid Death Tax).  You pay in with “good” dollars say in 1970 and get out “bad” dollars that have lost 90+% of their purchasing power.

Given the state of Gooferment finances (i.e., the current 140T+ national debt and the guesstimated 200T+ in unfunded liabilities that our posterity will have to deal with) how does one preserve wealth in this disastrous era.

I, personally, have some savings, but not enough, in ₿itcoin, gold, silver, and Goldbacks.  As always YMMV.

How does the consumer, to use a military term, “get small in your hole”?  Where is your “underground bunker” for this “tornado”.  Everyone should have one.

In the pre-1913 era, you could save your gold dollars in jar or bury some in your back yard.  Then in your old age you’d find that the money had actually increased a little in purchasing power.  What can you do today?

—30—


RANT: Lotto tries to welch on a winning ticket

Saturday, March 29, 2025

https://nypost.com/2025/03/25/us-news/mystery-winner-of-83-5m-lottery-may-never-see-her-money/

Mystery winner of whopping $83.5M lottery may never see her money — due to a sudden technicality

By Isabel Keane   —  Published March 25, 2025, 9:53 a.m. ET

*** begin quote ***

A Texas woman with a winning $83.5 million lottery ticket may never get her mega payout because officials are investigating the app she used.

The woman, who has not been publicly identified, bought $20 worth of Texas Lotto tickets for the Feb. 17 drawing on the app Jackpocket — a lottery courier service state lawmakers are now trying to ban.

*** end quote ***

Why is the Gooferment involved in gambling in the first place?

And, if the “courier service” is a legal business now, what’s the problem?

Will the State refund all the tickets purchased thru the app?

I don’t think so.

And, economics experts have all pointed out that these State run games are a tax on the poor.  As well as provide lucrative “jobs” for Gooferment bureaucrats.

Like so many other things run by the Gooferment, the private sector could do it better and give the players a better prompter payout.

Argh!

—30—

 


DISCOURAGING: What can one say when stupidity results in a disaster?

Friday, March 28, 2025

https://nj1015.com/racing-car-with-4-brothers-from-nj-somersaulted-before-diving-from-overpass/?lh_aid=84349&lh_cid=ihudnz1r7o&di=ff7a74372a8025944d951624d55a7076

Racing car with 4 brothers from NJ somersaulted before diving from overpass

Dan Alexander  —  Published: March 24, 2025

*** begin quote ***

  • The Mazda was racing another vehicle on Route 95, police say
  • It overturned numerous times before crashing through the guide rail
  • 2 brothers and a puppy died after the crash

PHILADELPHIA — A New Jersey man who was behind the wheel of a car that crashed off a Route 95 overpass on Friday night remains hospitalized with one of his siblings after their two brothers died in the wreck.

*** end quote ***

What can one say when stupidity results in a disaster?

I guess that’s why the universe delivers 1.04 boys to 1.00 girls in population studies.

Only the puppy was “innocent”.

Sometimes the “Darwin Award” is funny like the man hitting the sleeping crocodile because he want to see some action.  In this case, it’s just sadly needless.

I feel for their parents and friends. 

Old enough to know better; now will never grow old.

Dona Nobis Pacem

—30—


ConspiracyTheories: Time to end the CIA! Can DJT47 do it?

Thursday, March 27, 2025

https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/deeply-intriguing-memo-in-jfk-file

Deeply Intriguing Memo In JFK File Dump

  • Gary Underhill publicly stated that “a small clique within the CIA was responsible for the assassination” and was then found shot to death less than six months later.

John Leake

Mar 19, 2025

*** begin quote ***

I am indebted to fellow Substack author, Jon Fleetwood, for drawing my attention to a deeply intriguing memo that was part of the JFK files that were just dumped. Fleetwood’s piece on the memo is linked below.

The CIA memo, dated 19th July 1967, opens with a long quotation from an article published in Ramparts, June 1967. 

*** and ***

The totality of circumstances—including the fact that the CIA insisted on keeping this memo top secret until now—suggests that Underhill knew what he was talking about and that his stated fear was well-founded.

To be sure, it’s possible that Underhill did not know—or chose not to disclose to his friends—the extent of the activity in which the “CIA Clique” was involved. It may have been more than just gun-running, narcotics, and other contraband.

Going pack <<sic>> to the Roman Praetorian Guard, the trouble with elite security services is that the secrecy they are granted almost inevitably tempts at least some of their members to engage in nefarious enterprises. Considering this, it strikes me as remarkable that the CIA hasn’t assassinated more than just one president. 

*** end quote ***

Now the Conspiracy Theorists are again being proven right. CIA, Israel Mossad, and the Mafia are involved. And the “lone gunman” is “Barbara Streisand”.

Argh!

Now what happens to the CIA that JFK wanted to shut down. Does DJT47 have enough juice to do it?

#disbandtheCIA

I expect more revealing facts as the various writer sort through the document dump.

—30—

—30—


ENCOURAGING: A movie about a fellow I never heard of who had great courage and faith

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

FROM PRIME MOVIES

*** begin quote ***

Escape From Germany

79 Missionaries are trapped inside German borders as Hitler races to invade Poland. The last one got out and into Denmark on August 31. The next day Germany invaded Poland and the war began.

*** end quote ***

Hard to believe that this is a true story, but it appears to be.

Not a Hollywood adaption but more of a documentary of one man’s faith.

Very impressive how they avoided and evaded the Nazi terror.

While not a Mormon, it is a testament to their faith. 

I found the movie very motivating.

—30—


ConspiracyTheories: Donald Trump assassination attempt at Butler PA needs an impartial investigation

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2025/03/17/many-questions-no-answers/

MANY QUESTIONS – NO ANSWERS

*** begin quote ***

Joe Rogan and Elon Musk point out the INSANE details surrounding the Butler, Pennsylvania Donald Trump assassination attempt shooter

– The assassins house was PROFESSIONALLY scrubbed

– His home was scrubbed so well there wasn’t even silverware left in the home

– No footprint on the internet

– No social media footprint (completely wiped)

{Extraneous Deleted}

– There was never a formal report

*** end quote ***

This stinks.  As a conspiracy, it appears obvious.  The only question is who was involved and how up the Gooferment hierarchy the rot goes.

Sorry but this needs a good airing. 

In the alternative, every one in the FBI and Secret Service need to be let go and COMPLETELY replaced.

—30—


ECONOMICS: … as a nation we have been collectively robbed by both inflation and currency debasement

Monday, March 24, 2025

https://survivalblog.com/2025/03/17/preparedness-notes-monday-march-17-2025/

Preparedness Notes for Monday — March 17, 2025

James Wesley Rawles 

*** begin quote ***

Here is another example: An Old Timer Schrade Two Blade Folding Knife, priced at $110, plus $15 postage. (Total of $125, divided by 24.7 = $5.06. When rounded down, that would be just $5.00 face value in 90% silver coins. So mailing us 20 silver quarters would buy you that knife.)

As you can see from that example, as a nation we have been collectively robbed by both inflation and currency debasement. The real tangible VALUE of a knife or a silver coin has not changed much since 1964. It is the overproduced Federal Reserve Note “dollars” (both paper and digital) that gradually have had less and less purchasing power.

*** end quote ***

Yeah, yeah, I rant on this all the time.  

Fiat (i.e., it has value because the Gooferment says so) has declined in value somewhere around 95%.  I’ve posted about: penny candy, nickel cigars, dime store novels, and 30¢ a gallon gas. Also, the minimum wage of five silver quarters per hour would be worth about $25 per hour today. 

Funny how that works but yet “We, The Sheeple” refuse to see Gooferment politicians and bureaucrats as the parasites and thieves that they are.

Imagine what the Dead Old White Guys would think of all this? 

#endthefed would be a policy not a hashtag.

Ron Paul was, and is, right.  When you cut out a cancer, what do you replace it with? Nothing!

—30—


RANT: “Climate change” is a ruse for Communist revolution

Sunday, March 23, 2025

https://mailchi.mp/tomwoods/extinction?e=39307912abhttps://mailchi.mp/tomwoods/extinction?e=39307912ab

FROM TOM WOODS’ EMAIL LETTER

*** begin quote ***

Here’s an insight you get as you grow older:

When revolutionary lunatics demand this or that crazy thing, they’re rarely motivated by this or that crazy thing. They’re motivated by a much bigger goal, and these lesser things are simply how they get there.

For instance:

The “climate change” people, who inanely blame every weather-related development on “climate change” (even when we have the charts showing that weather phenomenon X has actually been on the decline) and who demand radical changes to human life that will mean the decimation of the developing world and the impoverishment of the middle classes in the developed world, are not in fact motivated by climate change.

If they were, they’d say: we don’t care for the politics of Elon Musk, but his company is doing so much to help us reach our goal. So his good deeds in the private sector must in our calculus vastly outweigh the costs of what he does in government.

And yet, what a surprise: that isn’t what they say.

Matt Walsh is absolutely right [warning for delicate eyes: there’s a bad word in this paragraph]:

Elon Musk has done more than any single human on Earth to promote and propagate “green” alternatives. He has one of the largest electric vehicle companies on the planet. By the Left’s climate change logic, he has saved millions of lives and prevented untold number of hurricanes, tornadoes, and other catastrophes. If they took their climate change bullshit seriously at all, they would celebrate him as an environmental hero. They would happily overlook the MAGA stuff because he is — again, by their logic — doing more than anyone else to save the globe. But of course they don’t actually believe in any of that climate stuff or care about it at all, which is why they’re in the process of trying to destroy one of the greenest companies in the world.

I was especially struck by this recent testimony by a former member of Extinction Rebellion, a lunatic group founded in the UK:

I was in Extinction Rebellion for several years. I produced over 60 videos for them and helped with several protests.

I can tell you directly: It was never about the climate. It was about controlling you. 

Specifically, it was about mobilising 3.5% of the population into permanent revolutionary protest in order to trigger a Communist revolution. (Per Trotsky, Sharp, Hallam, Mao)

This was told to me directly by some of the leaders of the organisation. I tried to organise some programs to help businesses lower their carbon footprints without lowering profit margins or impacting the GDP, and I was told in no uncertain terms that *solutions* were counter to the goals of the movement and that I should stop.

It was then that I started to realise their true motives, and understand that perhaps I was being taken for a ride.

I learned that Communist countries have had some of the WORST environmental records in existence. What XR was proposing — degrowth, agitation, “decolonisation,” post-capitalism and every other agitprop buzzword — would effectively drop civilisation back to a pre-renewable era and force developing nations into a protracted industrial age, leading to ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more carbon emissions than the incremental improvements found by market innovations.

Population density is a critical function of renewable energy infrastructure. You don’t have a factory. You have a market ecosystem. That’s how technology works. It blew my mind that they didn’t understand this.

After years of pushing against fossil fuels, they were suddenly vehemently opposed to Elon Musk and his EVs. It was mind boggling to witness.

I realised that Musk had singlehandedly done more to reduce emissions than the entire climate activist movement combined. And it’s not close. Mentioning this, I was met with bewilderment and anger.

It was very hard to come away from that experience with much sympathy for the activist left movement. At their best they were devoid of ideas and completely incapable of making meaningful technological or engineering innovations. At their worst, they were actively working against their own stated goals in order to maximise agitation and mobilise discontent toward a destructive revolutionary movement that would ultimately lead to measurably worse outcomes.

Applying Occam’s Razor, it became apparent to me that the goal is Communist revolution, and all these random causes — climate, gender relativism, immigration, BLM, defunding police, Islamisation etc etc etc weren’t about triumphing over injustices, but about agitating blocs of useful idiots into a perpetual state of protest in order to seize power and control in the name of Marxist Revolution.

I thought they were creators and visionaries. I was wrong.

True change comes from the builders.

Yes there are problems on this earth, but they’ll only be solved by you tackling those problems, building useful things and helping to push the species forward.

If you’re smart enough to contribute, you belong amongst the builders.

Although the rest of it rings true, I’m skeptical of the “communist revolution” stuff. These are not the (equally idiotic) doctrines of Marx, which none of these alleged revolutionaries have read anyway. The causes these people champion would have been dismissed as bourgeois decadence by old-time communists. Try championing homosexuality within the US Communist Party during the Cold War, for example, and see what would have happened to you.

*** end quote ***

I was stunned when I read this.   “Climate change” is ruse to cover for the destruction of society,  Always knew it was “Barbara Streisand”  — bull <synonym for excrement>  —  but I thought, at first, it was just a bunch of folks who never studied history.  Then, when the fudging and distortion of measurement became common knowledge, I suspect it was just a cash grab from the various public treasuries and rich idiots.  This article made e believe that it is an organized communist rebellion to destroy society.  Now, I’ll still be polite to the useful idiots, but not so much to the “leaders” of this subterfuge.

—30—


HEALTH: Doctors know best? I’m not sure of that!

Saturday, March 22, 2025

https://bestlifeonline.com/common-mistake-taking-vitamins/

The #1 Mistake People Make When Taking Vitamins, Doctors Say

By Craig Kanalley  —  Mar 14, 2025

*** begin quote ***

 5 | Your doctor knows best.

As Harvard Health sums up, based on the Physicians’ Health Study II, the top consideration should always be: “Ask your doctor.” They’ll be able to determine if you need to take a multivitamin, if you have a vitamin deficiency, and how to go about it the right way.

Why chance it? Just have a conversation with your doctor so you can safely take vitamins, align with the right dosage, and live a healthier life.

*** end quote ***

It’s a well known fact that medical schools don’t teach nutrition.  

Further after Covid revelations, doctors have been compensated for getting a majority of their patients they see vaxed.

“Appeal to authority” is one of the many logical fallacies that philosophers warn us about.

I follow nutrition facts dot org, and Doc Gregor points out many scientific studies that defy current “wisdom”.  Plant based diets have a great track record.  (Ugandans eating their tradition vegitarian diets don’t get colorectal  until they move to the city and eat a western diet.)

Blue zone diets are mostly plant based and lead to long healthy lives.

So, don’t tell me the profession, that use to advertise cigaret smoking as healthy, is the “authorized fact source”.

—30— 


RANT: If Germany’s foreign intelligence agency knew that COVID-19 was from a lab leak, then the USA knew it too

Friday, March 21, 2025

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/germany-knew-covid-lab-leak-early-2020-hid-evidence-from-public/?utm_id=20250313

March 13, 2025 
Germany Knew About COVID Lab Leak Early in 2020 But Hid Evidence From Public

  • Germany’s foreign intelligence agency determined with 80%-95% certainty in 2020 that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic originated with a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China — but successive governments kept the information “under lock and key,” according to a German investigative report published Wednesday.

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. 

*** begin quote ***

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, determined with 80%-95% certainty in 2020 that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic originated with a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China — but successive governments kept the information “under lock and key,” according to a German investigative report.

The report, published jointly on Wednesday by Die Zeit and Süddeutsche Zeitung, was the result of an 18-month investigation.

The investigation found that in 2020, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel commissioned a BND operation code-named “Project Saaremaa” that targeted Chinese agencies and research institutions.

When the BND’s investigation concluded that a Wuhan lab leak was the most likely source of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Merkel government prohibited the spy agency from releasing its results to the public.

*** end quote ***

If Germany’s foreign intelligence agency knew that COVID-19 was from a lab leak, then the USA knew it too!

If so, then how can we believe ANYTHING they said.  And the whole “plandemic” with the “it’s not really a vaccine” by Big Pharma was a fraud.

Argh!

Some people and corporations should be held to account.

Argh!

—30— 


NEWJERSEY: Wouldn’t some “no left turn” signs been a lot cheaper?

Thursday, March 20, 2025

https://www.tapinto.net/towns/south-brunswick/sections/development/articles/traffic-signal-installation-begins-at-finnegans-lane-and-kory-drive-intersection?vgo_ee=%2BP0YWw5Y1hHgOs08JJwe8t0J0HKK8VFn8%2B%2BOR%2BiFc2rpcZ1uXZQ%3D%3APeYM%2BcWLXOwsHMjnNPbk86WZr9qPOTw0

Traffic Signal Installation Begins at Finnegans Lane and Kory Drive Intersection
By Jacob Turchi
Published March 12, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Last updated March 12, 2025 at 3:43 PM

*** begin quote ***

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ – Work has started to install a traffic signal at the intersection of Finnegans Lane and Kory Drive, according to the township. The county says installation is expected to be complete by September.

*** end quote ***

Wouldn’t some “no left turn” signs been a lot cheaper?

—30—


SURVIVAL: A bug out bag, and it’s cousin “get home”, is something that requires cultivation and updating often

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

https://www.popsci.com/gear/how-to-build-the-best-bug-out-bag/?ICID=ref_fark

How to build a bug-out bag (even if you’re not a prepper)

  • You don’t have to be a hardcore prepper to keep a well-stocked bugout bag ready for the next emergency.

By James Lynch
Posted Yesterday << EDITOR ADDED DATE 2025-03-12>>

*** begin quote ***

Prepare your bug-out bag well, and you will be ready to get up and go, regardless of the disaster. Remember, though, these are not permanent solutions; they are living solutions. Regularly update your forms, keys, and medications, and make sure you are not headed into your disaster with expired food, leaky containers, and moldy clothing.

*** end quote ***

One tip.  I keep my Get Out Of Doge bag medications up to date but rotating my pill caddy weekly.  I have two  —  one for that week and one for next week.  Next week’s is in the GOOD bag.

Duplicates of documents are there too.

Can’t be too ready.  Think of the NC floods and the CA fires.  Are you ready?

—30—


MEME: What to do with tax money?

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

—30—


INNOVATION: What stands in humanity’s way to live on Mars or elsewhere

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

https://radiofarside.substack.com/p/the-gingers

The Gingers   —   “Martians” sounds so retro
Radio Far Side
Mar 09, 2025

*** begin quote ***

Donald Trump’s recent address to the joint session of Congress (emphasis on “joint” and “con”), while entertaining at times, offered no real updates on anything of substance. He’s a showman, and it was a show, which the Democrats unwittingly participated in. However, like no-alcohol beer, it was all bubbles and no buzz.

Trump made one quick reference to his administration’s ambitions in space that got the old brain juice flowing. His exact statement was, “We are going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars, and even far beyond.”

*** and ***

Here’s just some of them:

  •     Spacecraft Reliability & Transport
  •     Radiation Protection
  •     Life Support Systems
  •     Habitat Construction
  •     Energy Generation Storage
  •     Communications Delay
  •     Autonomous Operations
  •     Resource Utilization
  •     Medical Capabilities
  •     Extreme Cold
  •     Thin Atmosphere
  •     Low Gravity
  •     Toxic Soil & Dust
  •     Global Dust Storms
  •     Lack of Liquid Water
  •     Planetary Protection

*** and ***

Here’s just some of the changes they would undergo:

  •     Lower Bone Density & Muscle Mass
  •     Taller, Leaner Bodies
  •     Altered Cardiovascular System
  •     Radiation Resistance
  •     Oxygen Adaptations 
  •     Increased Isolation Resilience
  •     Cognitive Divergence from Earth
  •     Different Circadian Rhythms 
  •     Martian Identity & Independence
  •     New Social Structures
  •     Technology-Driven Lifestyle
  •     New Ethical & Legal Systems 
  •     Speciation Possibility
  •     Reduced Immune Function
  •     Vision Changes

*** end quote ***

“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” George Bernard Shaw

That’s the first time I’ve see a comprehensive list of the “technical” and “human” problems that need to be overcome.

May not happen in my lifetime, but it will in someone’s.

As an afficiando of Sci Fi, especially Heinlein, I believe it can be done.

I remember JFK promising a man on the moon.  Impossible some said.  

“Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.” — Robert A. Heinlein

—30—


MEME: “… the poor of today can afford the things that affluent of yesterday could only dream about” — Thomas Sowell

Monday, March 17, 2025

[JR: Stunningly simple statement about human progress.]

—30—


BITCOIN: Why does the USA want or need a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

Monday, March 17, 2025

https://manage.kmail-lists.com/subscriptions/web-view?a=RLfipm&c=01HZQZ7P4XRM5XQMEEP6TE2D8R&k=236623793f7051989702ab4333096b92&m=01JNS8CVYW45M6PSCAY7A9XXER&r=01JNSDHS6WQ76EWT97ZNJZBNPB

March 07, 2025 | Block Height 879,567
Bitcoin Price Live | Bitcoin Magazine Pro
Hey Bitcoiner!

Check out today’s top Bitcoin news stories:

BREAKING: 🇺🇸 President Trump signs executive order officially creating a #Bitcoin Strategic Reserve.

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 The White House calls Bitcoin “digital gold” and says “there is a strategic advantage to being among the first nations to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.”

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 President Trump’s Crypto Czar David Sacks said “We’ve decided that Bitcoin is scarce, it’s valuable, and that is strategic for the United States to hold on to this as a long-term reserve asset.”

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Coinbase CEO says, “I expect many of the G20 to follow” the USA in establishing Strategic #Bitcoin Reserve

# – # – # – # – # 

Dear Usual Suspects:

I’m not sure why the USA or any Gooferment need a “strategic bitcoin reserve” (SBR)? I know I’m only fat old white guy retired injineer who’s a poor old senior citizen on a fixed income and not an Ekky-non-o-mist. I can understand an “oil reserve” like Biden drained, a strategic uranium reserve, or hell even a wildlife preserve. But crypto? If you have any insight I’d appreciate you sharing. To me, since the number of bitcoins is fixed, it can’t be inflated like fiat currencies. And there are several (good imho) understandable use cases: international transfers, wealth carried in the form of a twelve word wallet, wealth preservation in face of inflation, distributed commerce that can’t b e prevented by any Gooferment, and my favorite avoiding / evading estate taxes (i.e., the keys just disappear like the Lost Dutchman’s Mine). None of these seem to fit a Gooferment purpose.  

All an SBR will do is further restrict the supply of bitcoins available in the free market which will drive up the price. Since a bitcoin is infinitely divisible into smaller quantities it really doesn’t affect any of the use cases mentioned. And, unlike a gold or silver coin, you don’t have the problem of “making change” for a purchase.

Of all the Gooferment boondoggles of waste, fraud, and abuse, this seems the least harmful. After all, it won’t disappear like the gold in Fort Knox. Gotta love that indelible blockchain.

Anyway, I just thought I’d share some thoughts and see what anyone else thinks. Even if they really don’t care.

Remember “not your key; not your coin”!

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RANT: Politicians!

Sunday, March 16, 2025

O

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HEALTHCARE: EVERYONE needs a Patient Advocate

Sunday, March 16, 2025

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14470923/pennsylvania-mom-dad-son-rare-disease-gunnar-woodring.html

How mom and dad’s quick-thinking actions helped save son’s life from rare disease
By JAMES GORDON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Published: 20:35 EST, 6 March 2025 | Updated: 20:42 EST, 6 March 2025 

*** begin quote ***

The parents of a five-year-old boy from Pennsylvania are being praised for making the quick-thinking decision to return to hospital, despite being recently discharged.  

Gunnar Woodring was known to be a bright and lively child until early January when his health suddenly took a terrifying turn for the worse. 

Initially diagnosed with influenza, his condition rapidly deteriorated, alarming his mother, Katie Woodring.

‘I said, Gunnar, are you having a hard time breathing? And he nodded yes. And I said to my husband, I know we were just discharged, but we need to go back to the emergency room,’ Katie said. 

Her maternal instincts proving to be lifesaving.

*** and ***

Doctors credit Gunnar’s survival to his parents’ quick actions and their refusal to ignore their instincts.

‘Had they not recognized that this was more than just the flu, more than just a mild viral illness. 

‘They knew very early on that this child was quite ill and they did what great parents do: they advocated, and they said there’s something not right, so they saved their child’s life,’ Dr. Frank Maffei, Chair of Pediatrics and Chief of Pediatric Critical Care at Janet Weis Children’s Hospital, said.

*** end quote ***

EVERYONE needs a Patient Advocate. 

Not just a little child.  The patient is not is a position to see and hear everything that’s going on.  

As a PiA (Patient Advocate aka Giant Pain In The <synonym for donkey>) for my sainted wife, I keep my own chart and logs.  I documented every interaction that happened in the hospital.  And, I don’t take no <synonym for excrement> when the SHIF and she’s going into shock (low blood sugar) or coma (high blood sugar),  I understand that the nursing staff can’t stand by 24/7, but I could.  Once went 30 hours without a break during one tough interval. 

I often thought I should have written a book about advocating for your patient.  (Like the time I called the local Fire Department when there was an on-oxygen patient sneaking smokes in an overcrowded temporary ward in an old conference room. The Fire Chief personally thanked me after he shutdown the ER from accepting new patients.  The head of the hospital wasn’t as happy when she visited my wife the day after.  Like I cared.  Frau asked me if I did it; I proudly said “sure did and I’d do it faster next time.”  Never had the chance or need.)  I found that the “head docs” never were upset or rude to me when I put in my “advice”.  Their lesser team members were not as cordial.  I’d seen a “head doc” have a heated hallway conversation with a “little doc” on more tha one occasion.  Funny how much you can see when you are only focus on “your patient”.

I had all sorts of tricks to ingratiate myself to the staff (i.e., all ways thank and compliment the cleaning staff; box of donuts for the night nurses; never ask for a service I could do myself; never try to “help” the patient use the ladies room unless the nurse needed help).  You have to strictly observe the boundaries.  Remember you’re there to watch, record, and report.  Not get in the way.  The staff should barely know you are there.  Remembering their names is easy when you write them all down.

Laugh!  I could have take better notes if I had court reporter training.  But I used some self-generated forms that helped a lot.

Bottom line:  TL;DR. Always trust your instincts; docs and teams make mistakes.

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CORRUPTION: Must be a really small lab to fit in a Post Office Box

Saturday, March 15, 2025

https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/is-arpa-h-really-a-giant-biden-biotech?publication_id=1119676&post_id=158552758&isFreemail=true&r=3snn7d&triedRedirect=true

Is ARPA-H Really a Giant Biden Biotech Slush Fund?
Dr. McCullough with Liz MacDonald on Fox Business The Evening Edit
Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
Mar 07, 2025

*** begin quote ***

Senator Joni Ernst wrote Robert F. Kennedy a concerning letter about one ARPA-H check for $28 M to Vaccine Company, Inc, operating out of a PO Box in Maryland. Ernst’s cursory investigation revealed Vaccine Company, Inc, is brand new, has no physical plant or address, and yet received a generous $24M payment from ARPA-H. Ernst points out that ARPA-H received an additional $1.5B from the Biden administration in 2022.

*** end quote ***

Certainly seems suspect.

1.5B$?

Must be a really small lab to fit in a Post Office Box.

Where’s the new FBI?   The POB had to be paid for.  Follow the money and hand out immunity to the “little people” until you get to “the brains”.

Jail is too good for grifters.

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HEALTHCARE: BiVACOR’s Total Artificial Heart keeps heart failure patients alive until a donor heart is available

Friday, March 14, 2025

FROM 1440 https://join1440.com/

*** begin quote ***

Heart of Steel Titanium

An Australian man in his 40s lived for a record 105 days with a titanium heart before receiving a donor heart transplant March 6. Though five patients in the US had previously been implanted with BiVACOR’s Total Artificial Heart, he is the first to be discharged from the hospital with the device and has the longest survival period between implantation and transplantation.

The device uses magnetic levitation technology—like that used in high-speed trains—to suspend a single moving part, a rotor, which pumps blood through the body. An external system controls the device, adjusting blood flow based on the patient’s activity. Experts say it could be a solution for heart failure patients awaiting transplants and may become a permanent option for those ineligible for transplants due to age or other conditions, though further testing is required.

Approximately 6.7 million Americans over age 20 have heart failure, and around 4,600 heart transplants were performed in 2024. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved expanding the trial to include 15 more participants. 

*** end quote ***

Now that is a real boon to people whose heart is on its way to failure.  And death.

Soon maybe they won’t need donors or pigs.

Amazing.

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ENCOURAGING: Demonstration project shows improved yields, diversified crops, and boosted incomes

Friday, March 14, 2025

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/degraded-lands-transformed-into-productive-farms-with-science-we-can-create-wonders/

Degraded Lands Transformed into Productive Farms: With Science, We Can Create Wonders
By Andy Corbley – Mar 3, 202

*** begin quote ***

In a degraded and semi-arid farming area in India, simple science-driven changes to the landscape have colored the horizon, and a village’s fortunes, with green.

In the Latur district in the central western state of Maharashtra, 40 years of erratic rainfall, groundwater depletion, soil erosion, and crop failures have impoverished the local people.

In the village of Matephal, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) launched a project in 2023 that aimed at addressing these challenges through integrated landscape management and climate-smart farming practices.

*** and ***

“This ICRISAT project improved yields, diversified crops, and boosted incomes. It also spared women from walking over a kilometer for drinking water, now available in the village for people and animals,” said Mr. Govind Hinge of Matephal village.

*** end quote ***

Pretty amazing results.  Went from “dirt poor” with no water to abundant water and good soil.  

Unfortunately, the author doesn’t itemize the capital investment that went into creating this miracle.  While obviously significant, far beyond what a poor village could afford, one wonders what the ROI would be?  For example, the 30 tons of fish harvested might be a source of capital.  A 13 foot rise in the water table might be economically exploitable.  The extra acreage that become productive might be a source of capital to be used.

I wonder if the world’s engineering schools could be an educational resource?  Imagine instead of funding football teams with expansive coaches, Universities could complete for whose intervention produces the most results.  Funny?  No fill the stadium with two equally sized plots and see which produced the best tomatoes.  Yeah, now that is exciting. 

Listen to the 4 minute video and see if you’re not as impressed as I am. 

Interesting to me is that this intervention made a permanent positive change in peoples’ lives.

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Note: I learned that a hectare (symbol: ha) is a unit of area that is accepted in the International System of Units (SI). It is primarily used to measure land area. One hectare is equal to 10,000 square meters and is equivalent to approximately 2.471 acres.


INSPIRATIONAL: Maybe we should change the incentives?

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Found on XTwitter

Image

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Seems like a great idea!

As a gun owning pro-life pro-choice little L libertarian, I really objected when Gooferment bureaucrats made a big deal out of adoptions by “those people” (i.e., gay, lesbian, single parent).  I’d rather see those children adopted into a loving home than stuck in the “system”.  

https://reinkefaceslife.com/2018/05/05/kansas-oklahoma-approve-religious-veto-on-lgbt-adoptions/

If they are truly so concerned, then schedule follow up visits and such.

But the “system” is no place for children.

—30—


AI: Used AI to Beat Amazon’s Brutal Technical Interview

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

A Student Used AI to Beat Amazon’s Brutal Technical Interview. He Got an Offer and Someone Tattled to His University

https://gizmodo.com/a-student-used-ai-to-beat-amazons-brutal-technical-interview-he-got-an-offer-and-someone-tattled-to-his-university-2000571562

  • Roy Lee built an AI system that bypasses FAANG’s brutal technical interviews and says that the work of most programmers will be obsolete in two years.

By Matthew Gault Published March 4, 2025 

*** begin quote ***

Lee recorded his entire technical interview with Amazon and posted the whole thing, uncut, on YouTube. Then they made him an offer. He rejected it. For Lee, the point was proving that Interview Coder worked, not passing a technical interview and landing a position.

*** end quote ***

# – # – # – # – # 

Good for him.  Ethical shmethical.  Columbia is probably just pissed that they lost their market for over-priced computer science grads.  AMAZON just got embarrassed on YouTube.

​Looks like we old programmers got ours and got out before the robot uprising?

Wonder if AI does FORTRAN and COBOL?

I think my 360 Assembler experience is still unique. Too many ways to hide the methods in registers and absolute / relative addressing.  And no English language for AI to analyze.

Laugh!

P.S., The Gooferment and Big Banks still use COBOL.  Too much invested in it and too hard to recode.  I did a FORTRAN retrieval for one oil company that manage to misplace the FORTRAN source code for their refinery control code.  So there should still be work for us fat old white guy retired injineer who’s a poor old senior citizen on a fixed income to “save the day” as Mighty Mouse would say.

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DISCOURAGING: Animal left out in the cold by some callous individual

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

https://people.com/dog-found-abandoned-in-cold-looking-for-foster-home-11689843

Iowa Rescue Dog Dumped in a Cage and ‘Left Alone’ in 18-Degree Cold, Now in ‘Gentle Hands’

Rise, a 4-year-old dog left alone in a cage on Sunday, March 2, now has a name that “speaks to new beginnings,” per the Humane Society of Scott County

By Brenton Blanchet

Updated on March 3, 2025 04:40PM EST

*** begin quote ***

  •     A thin and scarred dog was found dumped outside the old location of an Iowa animal shelter on March 2
  •     A good Samaritan spotted the abandoned dog alone in the 18-degree cold and brought the canine to the Humane Society of Scott County
  •     The Humane Society of Scott County named the dog Rise to honor the pet’s resilience

A dog found abandoned in a cage in Iowa in 18-degree weather is ready to begin a warm and welcoming next chapter.

On Sunday, March 2, the Kings Harvest Pet Rescue No Kill Shelter in Davenport announced on Facebook that, earlier that morning, an unidentified person left a dog unattended in the cold outside of the shelter’s former location. 

*** end quote ***

Special place in Hell reserved for that person.  Only thing worse that that I can think of is: What if it was a child?

Would it have taken that much effort to bring it to the proper address that was on the sign where it was abandoned?

I find this very sad because all life is precious.

As Bob Barker always ended the Price Is Right tv show. “Remember to spay and neuter your pets.”  That advice should apply to some heartless people too.

—30—

 


HEROIC: 2.4 million babies saved by one humble man

Monday, March 10, 2025

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y4xqe60gyo?ICID=ref_fark

Australian whose blood saved 2.4 million babies dies
13 hours ago << EDITOR ADDED DATE 2025-03-03>>
Kelly Ng BBC News

*** begin quote ***

One of the world’s most prolific blood donors – whose plasma saved the lives of more than 2 million babies – has died.

James Harrison died in his sleep at a nursing home in New South Wales, Australia on 17 February, his family said on Monday. He was 88.

Known in Australia as the man with the golden arm, Harrison’s blood contained a rare antibody, Anti-D, which is used to make medication given to pregnant mothers whose blood is at risk of attacking their unborn babies.

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service who paid tribute to Harrison, said he had pledged to become a donor after receiving transfusions while undergoing a major chest surgery when he was 14.

He started donating his blood plasma when he was 18 and continued doing so every two weeks until he was 81.

*** end quote ***

We need more of these silent heroes.  Where do we get Anti-D?

I started donating blood in College.  I remember that the Christian Brothers really publicized the need.  Most were WWII and or Korean War vets and could really make us understand how important it was.  I remember one of them teaching “Engineering Measurements” saying that we were probably too dumb to be good engineers but probably smart enough to bleed correctly.  It was a big joke when we reported that we did “bleed well enough”.

Later in my life, when my sainted wife was mysteriously “loosing platelets”, she was getting four bags of them every week.  One of her last wishes was that I replace them.  I did and then some until I “aged out”.  Who knew that “old platelets” didn’t help those in need?

Anyway, I hope that everyone who can donates.  Maybe you might have the “golden arm”!

What a privilege to save lives.

—30—