Posts Tagged ‘covid 19’

Gimmie that old time Science It’s good enough for me

Posted: March 28, 2024 by datechguy in culture, medicine
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Matthew Harrison Brady: Does right have no meaning to you, sir?
Henry Drummond: Realizing that I may prejudice the case of my client, I must tell you that right has no meaning for me whatsoever. But truth has meaning… as a direction!

Inherit the Wind 1960

One of the most perverse attacks that the left in general and the Biden administration in general have made on people these days has been claiming that people who opposed them were “anti-science” and “science deniers”. For me this type of thing is the ultimate end in the rush to redefine words and meanings to serve an agenda. While I may no longer work in an engineering field one of the things about being having a Computer Science degree from the 1980’s in the days before “woke” entered everything was the idea of evidence driving conclusions.

Thus the famous quote from Feynman

It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.

Richard P Feynman

There was a time when the left and even Hollywood believed this and in fact the most celebrated episode of the entire Star Trek TNG franchise celebrated Science as it was

Picard (as Kanin): Hey, that’s my hobby. Find your own.
Meribor: You’re the one who taught me. Don’t complain if you’ve turned me into a scientist.
Picard (as Kanin): And what has the scientist been up to today?
Meribor: Analyzing soil samples. There isn’t any anaerobic bacteria. The soil is dead. This isn’t just a very long drought, is it, Father? I have entries in my log that go back ten years. You have data preceding that for fifteen years. You’ve reached the same conclusion, I know you have.
Picard (as Kanin): I haven’t reached any conclusion. A good scientist doesn’t function by conjecture.
Meribor: A good scientist functions by hypothesizing and then proving or disproving that hypothesis. That’s what I did.

Star Trek The Next Generation The Inner Light 1992

Note that he doesn’t prioritize if the data confirms to some “woke’ theme or advances a social standard, it’s observation, experimentation and deduction. You go where the evidence takes you no matter how much China or a particular industry might want to pay. Why? To serve the truth:

Meribor: You’ve taught me to pursue the truth, no matter how painful it is. It’s too late to back off now. This planet is dying.
Picard (as Kanin): Perhaps I should have filled your head with trivial concerns. Games and toys and clothes.
Meribor: I don’t think you mean that.
Picard (as Kanin): No, I don’t. It just saddens me to see you burdened with the knowledge things you can’t change.

It’s practically impossible to think of an episode of Star Trek advancing such a line now in an age where everyone has their own “truth” which can be whatever it is. Today science must serve the cause or it must be suppressed.

Thus when a black Harvard professor, a winner of the MacArthur Genius Fellowship, the author of dozens of papers studied interactions with the police and came to a conclusion contrary to THE NARRATIVETM and his own expectations It and he must be attacked

“All hell broke loose” immediately after the 104-page economics paper with a 150-page appendix was published, according to Fryer.

Within four minutes of publishing the paper, Fryer received an email that read: “You’re full of s**t.”

He explained, “I had colleagues take me to the side and say, ‘Don’t publish this. You’ll ruin your career.'”

The hostilities toward Fryer were so intense that he required police protection for about a month, including his then-7-day-old daughter.

“I was going to the grocery store to get diapers with the armed guard. It was crazy. It was really, truly crazy,” Fryer said during a recent episode of “Honestly with Bari Weiss.”

Mind you he was surprised at his own results but unlike people who trusted “The ScienceTM” he took steps to confirm they were not mistaken:

Fryer said he was surprised by the results because he “expected” to see racial bias towards blacks in police shootings.

He hired eight fresh researchers to ensure the results were correct, and the results remained the same.

Richard Feynman would have been proud but he’s been dead for 36 years plus he’s a white guy so obviously today his opinion wouldn’t count.

I bring all this up because of a story I saw today about a study out of Japan that is rather troubling:

A team of researchers in Japan say that, based on the volume of evidence that has come to light about post-vaccination harms, medical professionals worldwide should be alerted to potential dangers in using blood derived from people who have had the jab, as well as from those suffering persistent symptoms from covid itself (‘long covid’). They say methods to identify and remove the contaminants are urgently needed, and propose a range of specific tests and regulations to deal with the risks.

Again this was not the expected result:

Contrary to initial expectations, the genes and proteins are now known to persist in the blood for prolonged periods, and post-vaccination syndrome, or ‘spikeopathy’, has become a major global problem, the researchers say. The jabs should have been regarded as biomedicine, but because they were classified as vaccines, huge numbers of people were inoculated and many areas of medicine are beginning to become involved with the consequences. ‘This has never happened before in the history of biomedicine, and consequently it is highly suspected that blood products for transfusion have been affected.’

Now as this is from the pre-print of the paper and is yet to be peer reviewed so it’s a tad early to have an opinion it but I predict we will see two different methods of dealing with this study by the media

  1. Ignore it
  2. Attack it

However I being a believer in actual science rather than THE SCIENCETM I’m going to do what an engineer or a scientist of the old school, of the Feynman school would do: Take in the evidence given while awaiting the peer review of this paper before I make any final conclusions. Because that is how the old time science works.

It’s good enough for me.

Tent Cities and COVID Vaccines Both Subsidized Profit Centers

Posted: September 18, 2023 by datechguy in culture
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Dr. Cartwright: [Referring to the South Derbyshire council] Virtually all the children can read and write, even though they’ve had a progressive education, oh yes and they have the smallest establishment of social workers in the U(nited)K(ingdom)

Minster James Hacker: And that’s supposed to be a good thing?

Dr. Cartwright: Oh yes, sign of efficiency, Parkenson’s Law of social work you see. It’s well known that social problems increase to occupy the total number of social workers available to deal with them

Yes Minister: The Skeleton in the Cupboard 1982

Today Don Surber noted something important about the various non-profits that service the homeless;

“The camps are managed by Urban Alchemy, the San Francisco-based nonprofit that has rapidly grown into a multimillion-dollar street services enterprise and embodies an elastic philosophy of shelter. Urban Alchemy calls them “safe sleep villages.”

So, the homeless get to live in bigger tents while Urban Alchemy gets another fat city grant. Taking care of the homeless is quite lucrative. Down in Paragraph 20, the LA Times story reported these tents cost $44,000.

44 grand per tent plus the city paying $3 mil for 24/7 food means that somebody is getting a whole lot of bucks which makes the homeless a profit center.

“But DaTechGuy,”, you ask, “Aren’t these are non-profits?”

A “Non-Profit” is a tax status, it doesn’t mean that the people working for them do not make a ton of bucks working for them.

Basically there is no profit for these non-profits which are getting giant grants to actually solve these problems because once these problems are solved there are no multi million dollar grants to pay the activists who are basically on the government dole on a grand scale with ego massaging virtue signaling titles.

It’s no different that the COVID vaccine racket.

You see the reason why Ivermectin had to be discredited publicly is that if you a treatment that can stop COVID for pennies a dose you can’t get an emergency rule with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars without liability through the government.

It’s not about solving a problem, it’s about getting well off or with luck even generational wealth.

That’s why thousands had to die from COVID vaccine side effects or from the disease and hundreds of thousands of mentally ill drug addicted homeless must continue to suffer, so that others might become rich.

They had better hope that they are right about the Christianity they have rejected, because I wouldn’t want to face St. Peter in this state without the mercy of Christ to fall back on.

No 20-mph default speed limit in Chicago: Stop the tyranny of the cyclists now

Posted: September 10, 2023 by John Ruberry in hobbies, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Last week, during a run on the North Branch Trail at Harms Woods in Skokie, Illinois, a speeding cyclist came close to running me over and causing enormous physical harm to me.

And that got me thinking.

Chicagoans voted for a handful when they elected Brandon Johnson as mayor. He’s a leftist whose candidacy was pretty much paid for by the Chicago Teachers Union. 

In July, his transition team released “A Blueprint for Creating a More Just and Vibrant City for All,” their gameplan for America’s third-largest city. In it you’ll find a recommendation that Chicago should “lower the default citywide speed limit to 20 mph generally and 10 mph on residential streets.” Currently, unless otherwise posted, the statewide urban default speed limit, when no signs are posted, is 30 miles per hour. 

That means for what you might call a through street, or an arterial street, such as Cicero Avenue or 111th Street, unless posted differently–and yes, possibly higher–the speed limit is 30-mph. Expressways have a 55-mph speed limits in Chicago.

Residential streets, or what Chicagoans have always called side streets, appear to also have a 30-mph speed limit too. Although, common sense–there are pockets of it here and there in the city–compels most drivers to motor along around 20-mph. The many stop signs on Chicago side streets, as well as the numerous but not-so-clearly marked speed bumps, which are tall enough to scrape the bottoms of most sedans and SUVs if you are driving too fast–are another form of discipline. And believe it or not, many drivers keep an eye out for pedestrians and cyclists. I do.

An aside: A Southwest Side man, fed up with an alley speed bump damaging his car, removed it. He was fined $500.

These proposed lower speed limits are another bad idea from Chicago, which seems destined to be passed in population soon by Houston. It’s another utopian parlor game idea brought to the mainstream. Most people, even those who don’t drive cars, probably agree with me. Our economy and our society are auto-centric and will remain so indefinitely. Disclosure: I work in the automotive industry. People like their cars. And if people don’t own one, often they wish they did.

In 2014, New York City recently lowered its default speed limit to 25-mph. Residents are fleeing New York too.

That’s not to say that bike riders have a legitimate beef about idiotic and reckless drivers. Many cyclists are severely injured and killed by cars. While running, I’ve been nearly hit by an automobile a few times. But bikers aren’t all angels either. More on that in a bit.

Now one thing conservatives and moderates don’t do, is yell and scream when liberals present fringe ideas. “That’ll never happen,” is a typical response they offer.

Abolishment of cash bail is one of those “loony” ideas that no one took seriously ten years ago. Well, liberals kept pushing, albeit slowly at first, but next week the SAFE-T Act takes effect in Illinois–it abolishes cash bail. The defund the police movement–and some municipal police departments, not in Illinois, did see cuts in funding. Defund the police was another left-wing parlor game dream concept. Thankfully there has been some pushback lately. The left’s war on popular home appliances, such as natural gas stoves, dishwashers, and even ceiling fans, has begun.

One can view the low default speed limit movement as a secondary front of government’s war on internal combustion engine automobiles. But Chicago drivers, few of whom drive EVs, also have to cope with seemingly omnipresent red-light cameras as well as speed cameras that spew out tickets to motorists for driving just 6-mph over the speed limit. A 20-mph arterial street speed limit offers a new revenue stream for Chicago, which, because of unfunded pension mandates, is functionally bankrupt.

Why aren’t more Chicagoans going full “Howard Beale?” He was the tormented antihero in the Network movie. You know, sticking your head out of the window of your home and screaming, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” Watch the clip in the link. And the Howard Beale reaction works much better in cities.

Oh, let me return to those bicycle riders. Presumably, the proposed default 20-mph speed limit in Chicago would also apply to them. Or would it? What I call the cyclist lobby possesses the imperiousness of the green movement and the aggressiveness of a testosterone rush after a brutal workout. 

Prior to the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, I saw many senior-citizen regulars on the North Branch Trail during my runs. But lockdown queen Lori Lightfoot, Johnson’s predecessor as mayor, closed Chicago’s Lakefront Bike Trail. 

Where did the cyclists go? 

Some brought their bikes, or rode them, to the North Branch Trail. Several cyclists nearly ran me over in 2020. My guess is that they were speeding along well over 30 mph. Did I say speeding? Harms Woods is part of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, and the speed limit on paved and dirt trails is 15 miles per hour. I suspect there were many complaints about these Tour de France wannabes, because in 2021 I noticed newly posted 15 mph speed limit signs on these trails. A year or so later, all of those signs were gone. Likely there were more complaints, but not from the same people. And not only were those speed limit signs gone, but so were those elderly trail walkers. Those hiking regulars never returned.

Wait, there’s more! 

Many of these speeding trail cyclists ride three abreast on a very narrow trail. And it’s now a rarity when I hear a bell ring, horn honk, or an “on your left” shout out from cyclists passing me during a run. 

The photograph at the top of this post is of the North Branch Trail during the 2020 lockdown.

When I pass a walker or a runner on a path, I always say, “On your left.” My parents taught me manners.

Oh, until the running and cyclist paths were separated on Chicago’s Lakefront Trail, I experienced numerous close collision calls with cyclists while running there. Just as when there is a crash between cyclist and a car the “winner” of that collision is obvious, so it is when a bicyclist plows over a runner, particularly one like me, who is nearing retirement age. But don’t feel sorry for me. When it’s between me and a cyclist racing up an elevated bridge on the North Branch Trail over a busy street, I usually prevail.

Northeast of where I live is Sheridan Road, which bisects some of the wealthiest communities in America. Sometimes I see packs of bicyclists of more than a dozen, zooming in and out of traffic, seemingly oblivious to cars. 

While I don’t see those bike packs within Chicago’s city limits, with a 20-mph default speed limit, will emboldened cyclists misbehave recklessly in the same manner?

As for myself, I can take solace knowing that in three months the North Branch Trail will be nearly bike rider-free. Winter will be here, and the cyclists will retreat into hibernation. As they will in Chicago, whether there is a 20-mph speed limit or not.

While I see fewer runners on the trails on rainy days, particularly cold ones, I almost never see cyclists. 

Say what you will about automobiles, but they have roofs and windshield wipers, as well as heating and air conditioning.  Unless your car’s A/C is broken, unlike a cyclist commuting to work on a hot summer day, you won’t need to shower when you arrive at your jobsite to remove newly acquired body odor.

Oh, on occasion, I do ride a bicycle. And yes, I’m one of the good ones.

UPDATE September 12:

They’re not all gone! During this morning run, I saw a 15 mph “Share the Trail” sign in Harms Woods just north of Golf Road. I also saw many cyclists–and one jerk on a motorized bike–going much faster.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

A Full Employment Program for Unvaccinated Pilots

Posted: January 19, 2023 by datechguy in News/opinion
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This was quite a revealing story:

In the October 2022 version of the FAA Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners, the FAA quietly widened the EKG parameters beyond the normal range (from a PR max of .2 to unlimited). And they didn’t widen the range by a little. They widened it by a lot. It was done after the vaccine rollout.

This is extraordinary. They did it hoping nobody would notice. It worked for a while. Nobody caught it.

But you can’t hide these things for long.

Well they managed to hide it for 3 months and keep it from being released before the election.

So just how much was the range lifted?

The PR (a measure of heart function) used to be in the range of .12 to .2.

It is now: .12 to .3 and potentially even higher.

This is a very wide range; it accommodates people who have cardiac injury.

That’s a 50% increase in the upper range. To put it in perspective. To be a member of the dancing crew the Rockettes the upper weight is 140 lbs. this is the equivalent to raising that upper limit to 210 lbs

Now if this was just a few pilots there would be no need for this change but the FAA sudden decision to do this and to do it quietly suggests that not only has the vaccine caused heart damage to people but it’s caused damage to such a large proportion of people that you had to increase the range to keep US airlines flying.

This story is a big deal but what really clinches it is another story

The chief of an organization of pilots assembled to battle corporate demands for COVID shots says now the elites from around the world are demanding their charter jet flight crews NOT be vaccinated.

Let’s go to the video:

Let me point out that despite the header of this tweet he referred to “wealthy businessmen” not specifically to WEF folks

That’s the thing about reality. It doesn’t care what your meme is, what your political party is or what the desired message of the day is. Reality is what it is and people who deal with reality particularly the reality of having a private jet certified for a single pilot rather than two, don’t want their pilot “dying suddenly” with them in the plane.

So my advice to people who have lost their jobs due to vaccine mandates or those young people who remain unvaccinated against COVID.

Get a pilots license, you’ll be able to write your own ticket for the rest of your life. If I wasn’t pushing 60 that’s what I’d do.

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