RECOMMENDED: The Electronic Frontier Foundation gets my financial support

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

This is a friendly message from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

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Membership Update

Dear Ferdinand,

Thanks to you, EFF championed aggressive efforts to protect user rights and secured significant victories in the last year. We wanted to let you know that your annual Sustaining Donor contribution is scheduled to be charged next week. Thanks for continuing your support for the coming year!

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We can’t express how much we appreciate your commitment to supporting digital civil liberties and human rights. Sustaining donors help EFF continue to spot and thwart threats to online freedom wherever they arise, and it’s only possible with your ongoing support.

Thanks again, 

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EFF Membership Team

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I put my money where my mouth is.  Not a huge amount, but every little bit helps to steer the ship.

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HEALTH: if “nearly all the PE reports in VAERS are associated with the COVID vaccine”, then what do you conclude?

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

https://kirschsubstack.com/p/the-pulmonary-embolism-reality-gap?publication_id=548354&post_id=147282572&isFreemail=true&r=onvra&triedRedirect=true

The pulmonary embolism “reality gap”

  • According to the peer-reviewed medical literature, COVID vaccination reduces your risk of pulmonary embolism. According to the doctors, nurses, and pathologists I know, it does the opposite.

Steve Kirsch  — Aug 02, 2024

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Pulmonary embolism (PE) as a side effect of the COVID vaccine is a perfect example of what I’ll call the “reality gap” between mainstream medicine and direct observations of people.

The medical community estimates, using large data that is kept hidden from public view and both partial and fully adjusted hazard ratios (HRs), that the COVID vaccines reduce your risk of pulmonary embolism by around 20%. The proposed mechanism of action for that miracle is that the vaccine reduces your risk of getting COVID (which can elevate PE levels).

On the other hand, all the medical experts I regularly communicate with believe the reverse is true.

And we have other supporting data as well: nearly all the PE reports in VAERS are associated with the COVID vaccine and there are over 15,000 reports. Since VAERS is at least 50X under-reported, this suggests around 650,000 PE’s associated with the COVID vaccine. That’s a train wreck. In addition, I did a survey of my followers on X, 80% of whom did not take the COVID vaccine, and the results were consistent with the safety signal in VAERS: 85% of all the PE cases people observed after 2021 were associated with the COVID vaccine.

Someone is not telling you the truth. This article looks at the arguments on both sides.

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Someone is lying.  To protect Big Pharma, the politicians, and the bureaucrats?

Once I read that Big Pharma was immune to damage claims in US Courts, I knew the fix was in.

Didn’t India refuse to agree to that?  Wonder what their results look like.

And, another “dead giveaway” (no pun intended) is that “the data” is hidden.

We need some Nuremberg (2.0) trials to expose “the Truth”.

“Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.” Colonel Jessep in A Few Good Men played by Jack Nicholson

We need some hangings and life sentences to ensure this never happens again!

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POLITICAL: SIX fatal secrets about Harris’s dirty past, her lies and hypocrisy

Monday, August 5, 2024

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13695051/Kamala-Harris-Trump-election-MAUREEN-CALLAHAN.html

Kamala is basking in the post-Joe glow – and Trump is panicking… but now MAUREEN CALLAHAN reveals the SIX fatal secrets about Harris’s dirty past, her lies and hypocrisy that she’ll wish you didn’t know
By Maureen Callahan For DailyMail.Com
Published: 16:17 EDT, 31 July 2024 | Updated: 17:44 EDT, 31 July 2024 

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No.1: Harris owns the border

No.2: She has repeatedly vouched for Biden’s physical and cognitive health

No.3: She’s an alleged bully

No.4: Even for a politician, she’s particularly craven

No.5: Zero foreign policy experience and zero backbone

No.6: No stated premise or philosophy

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For me, I think she has some character flaws that I can’t overlook:

No.7: She has “Lewinsky-ed” herself to the top in the Pepuls Republik of Kaliforkneeah

No.8: She harshly prosecuted minor offenders when it was politically valuable and now she bails out BLM rioters’

No.9: She is wrong on a bunch of issues  — abortion, climate change, defund the police, just to name a few

No.10: She appears not to be a “native born citizen” since her parents were never more than “legal visitors

So she has a lot of strikes against her; not that DJT is any exemplar of greatness.  RFK Jr has some bad points to.  And, the libertarian candidate Chase is just absurd.  

Maybe this time, I just may sit it out.

Argh!

To quote from the movie “The Far Side of the World” Master and Commander Capt. Jack Aubrey: “There! I have you! You’re completely dished. … one must always choose the lesser of two weevils?”

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INTERESTING: New use for K9 — reverse tracking

Sunday, August 4, 2024

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/after-rescuing-non-verbal-child-k9-officer-follows-the-boys-scent-in-reserve-to-find-his-home/

K9 Officer Rescues Lost Non-Verbal Child by Following the Boy’s Scent in Reverse to Find His Home
By Andy Corbley –  Jul 25, 202

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In North Carolina, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office received a call that a child was wandering alone on the road on July 7th.

Dispatching an officer to the Waxhaw Indian Trail Road, the child was located and secured, but being autistic and non-verbal, the officer had no idea where the boy had wandered away from.

Being that the responder was a K-9 Unit, and was working alongside his trusty 1-year-old bloodhound Remi, Deputy B. Belk utilized the dog’s incredible sense of smell to “reverse” the normal scent tracking process to find the boy’s home.

“Normally, [scent dogs] track from where a person left to try to find where that person is currently. This time we were doing it reverse,” said Lieutenant Public Information Officer James Maye to CNN.

*** and ***

Lieutenet Maye explained the technique of reverse tracking would now be implemented in the training curriculum for K-9 officers.

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Excellent work.

I can almost hear the dog’s thoughts now  — “Yeah, I smell the scent and the person is right over there now.  What exactly do you want me to find?  Him?  He’s over there.”

I don’t know how they communicated to the dog they wanted him to back track.

As a fellow with a six year old, I can COMPLETELY understand how a child can “disappear” in a heartbeat.  Just recently I had mine “disappear” into the basement.  Argh!  

I can recommend Angel Sense tracking device as a service to make sure you know where the child is.

https://www.angelsense.com/

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INTERESTING: If I was an impala, I’d be called “Lunch” or maybe, if lucky, “Lurch”

Saturday, August 3, 2024

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240724-what-olympic-athletes-can-learn-about-running-from-cheetahs?ICID=ref_fark

What Olympic runners can learn from cheetahs
Sophie Hardach

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Cheetahs are famous for being the fastest land animals – but research suggests there’s much more to their athleticism than just speed.

Imagine you are an impala, racing across the African savannah to try and escape a cheetah – the world’s fastest land animal, which can reach a running speed of more than 100 km/h (62 mph). It may seem like a hopeless effort, but in real life, impalas do sometimes manage to get away. Which running strategy do you think would give you the best chance of beating the cheetah?

A. Fast and in a straight line

B. Fast and zig-zag

C. Slow and in a straight line

D. Slow and zig-zag

A growing body of research on wild cheetahs and their prey not only reveals the answer to this quiz – more on this below – but also offers wider insights into why exactly cheetahs are so fast, and what we might learn from them to help our own athletic pursuits.

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If it was me, I’d have to fight.  No change for this fat old white guy injineer to run or doge.  Of course, YMMV and faiwwypfi (Free Advice Is Worth What You Pay For It! ?zero?) ! ! ! 

I found this very interesting and well written.  I needed a choice “E. None of the Above”.  Which we should also have in elections, imho.

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SURVIVAL: Lucky to be alive despite wandering around

Friday, August 2, 2024

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13674497/mISSING-HIKER-ALIVE-SIERRA-NEVADA.html

Miracle as missing hiker, 70, is found alive after five days in the blistering Sierra Nevada – as he reveals the mistake got him lost and the trick he used to survive
By Bethan Sexton, Dailymail.Com
Published: 23:56 EDT, 25 July 2024 | Updated: 09:23 EDT, 26 July 2024

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A missing 70-year-old hiker who was miraculously been found alive after getting lost for five days in the blistering heat of the Sierra Nevada mountains has revealed how he managed to survive.

Warren Elliott disappeared last week after setting out on a stroll from his campsite in Rubicon Springs.

The experienced hiker made a wrong turn at around 3pm on Friday and ended up getting lost as the mercury soared to 90F, drinking from the nearby river and snacking on berries to survive.

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​Of course, the article doesn’t reveal the “mistake” or the “trick”.

(I don’t consider “making a wrong turn”, that might kill you, as a mere “mistake”.  It’s a “mistake” when you put ketchup on your hot dog instead of mustard.  Nor do I consider “drinking from a river and snacking on berries ” as a “trick”.)

He was lucky to survive.

Where was his daypack and at least his EDC (Every Day Carry)?  When you’re lost, it’s drilled into stop moving and stay put, so you can be found.  Nine crow miles away is obviously not staying put.  At least, when you “found” the river, make camp and build a smoky fire.  That’s a “trick” to get found. 

And, with all of these “rescues”, I always ask “who pays”? We know it’s the Taxpayer.

Argh!

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HEALTH: An avocado a day keeps the doctor away.?

Thursday, August 1, 2024

https://nypost.com/2024/07/20/lifestyle/eating-this-one-fruit-every-day-leads-to-better-sleep-heart-health-new-research/

Eating this one fruit every day leads to better sleep, heart health: new research
By Brooke Kato
Published July 20, 2024, 2:36 p.m. ET

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An avocado a day keeps the doctor away.

New research has found that eating one avocado every single day is associated with health benefits, including improved sleep and diet quality.

“We do know from prior work that avocado intake is linked to lowered risk of cardiovascular disease,” Penn State University postdoctoral scholar Dr. Janhavi J. Damani, who was involved in the study, told Healio.

The research, presented recently at the conference Nutrition 2024 in Chicago, builds upon past studies that examined the health benefits of avocado, suggesting that avocadoes can “improve cardiovascular risk factors by reducing total cholesterol and LDL-C without adversely affecting body weight,” according to Damani.

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Throw in an “apple a day” and cover all the bases.

Who knows they may be correct?

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DISCOURAGING: Recently John Oliver overstated how little “migrant crime” there is

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

https://sharylattkisson.com/2024/07/2-men-charged-in-horrific-rape-murder-of-12-year-old-houston-girl-are-illegal-immigrants/?vgo_ee=AIlxHOmQLFml4478dVXBXZGm2JHSZ7d3H5Bb26gTfJs%3D%3Ap4ixypWsJWLZpF%2BdyZkqyJVxXPgOZ2e9

2 men charged in horrific rape, murder of 12-year old Houston girl are illegal immigrants
By Sharyl Attkisson | July 24, 2024

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A horrific rape and strangulation death of a child is being linked to two illegal immigrants from Venezuela.

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I think John Oliver recently overstated how little “migrant crime” there is. Maybe, just maybe, the R’s are hyping it too much.

I’m not a fan of either the D’s or the R’s.

But I do think “crime” is a much bigger problem overall and “migrant crime” is a component of it. Native USA-ers at WalMart, shoplifting, and flash mobs are another significant component of the perception.

Until the police and “justice bureaucrats” get tough and back to work, it’ll continue to be a problem. Some more traffic tickets would be helpful too. Argh!

In the mean time, cracking down on illegal immigration is a prudent strategy to “migrant crime”.  You can’t be unconcerned at the military age Chinese and Middle Eastern men in the crowds at the border.

And, we really can’t have “open borders” when we have a “welfare state”.   Never mind that we can’t afford the “warfare state” either!

Don’t get me started on the corrupt state or the MIC (Military Industrial Congressional) complex.

Argh!

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ENGINEERING: Who does installs directly into production? Only incomptent sys admins and sys engineers!

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

https://www.fark.com/comments/13328522/171781856?f=FbVk9IcbaK0iiRpoC_GZuxx7kiD-pW7W485gx#c171781856

xrayspx [TotalFark]  

Smartest (114) Funniest (6)  

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No matter how hard I try, I can’t blame Crowdstrike for this being a “Global Outage”. I blame “Crappy Sysadmins”. The fact that 911 systems, hospitals and other “life & death” essential services chose to auto-install untested vendor updates with no internal vetting whatsoever makes me pretty mad. To say nothing of airlines, banks, schools, govt. and everyone else who should goddamn know better.

My company runs Crowdstrike and this didn’t impact us because of exactly that, we push updates in a controlled fashion through Test before releasing anything to Production which could take us down. We do this with MS Updates, Linux updates, Oracle, etc. etc., why would I ever allow Crowdstrike to auto-update on my systems?

/old man yells at cloud
//kids these days
///so over this nonsense 

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I swear to God that this is exactly what I thought when all these “production” environments went down from one update.  For heaven’s sake, didn’t anyone think that this could happen.  Disaster Recovery?  Information Security? Uninterruptible Service?  Life ’n’ safety critical?

If I was a CEO or CFO, them I’d fire the CIO and CTO in a heartbeat.

Argh!

Thanks FARK for making me think I am NOT the crazy one.

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INTERESTING: Can pets can sense when we’re in pain or dying? Seems possible

Monday, July 29, 2024

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13664877/pets-sense-pain-dying-hundreds-miles-away-ex-Cambridge-academic-dr-rupert-sheldrake.html

Our pets can sense when we’re in pain or dying – even from hundreds of miles away: I’m an ex-Cambridge academic and these startling, inexplicable stories convinced me..
By Dr Rupert Sheldrake
Published: 21:21 EDT, 23 July 2024 | Updated: 22:11 EDT, 23 July 2024 

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For more than 30 years I have been collecting case evidence of animals that appear to know by intuition or telepathy when the humans they love have suffered a serious, sometimes fatal, accident.

The existence of so many independent reports is persuasive, writes Dr Sheldrake, who has been collecting evidence of animal intuition or telepathy for more than 30 years 

The bond between owner and animal is indeed a real connection, linking them together invisibly, even over thousands of miles

This isn’t a subject that lends itself to experimental investigation. Evidence can only come from chance events, not laboratory tests, since it is obviously impossible to stage dangerous incidents. But in my files I now have more than 100 accounts of dogs appearing to respond to distant injuries or deaths of their human companions, and about half as many cases involving cats.

The existence of so many independent reports persuades me that this is a real phenomenon, even though it is not possible to do experiments. Further research is needed through the collection of more well- documented stories.

My theory is simple: the bond between person and animal is indeed a real connection, linking them together invisibly, even over thousands of miles. Death and danger disrupt this bond.

To take a simple analogy, if two people are connected by a stretched elastic band, and one of them shakes it or lets it go, the other feels a difference. Even if they do not know exactly what is happening to the other person involved, they know something is happening.

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Based on anecdotal evidence, his theory seems to have some basis in fact.  I haven’t formed a “reasoned belief” to any degree of certainty, but it certainly seems possible.  I’ve read many stories about “loyal dogs”, graveside visits, and such.  We know that dogs can smell disease, so why can’t they have some type of ESP.  We have seen anecdotal evidence about the connection of human twins.  Why can’t there be more to the physical world than we know right now?

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