Oxitec outbreak or opinionated offal?...

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Until recently probably 99.999% of the population didn't know knew about nor had heard of the Zika virus (first isolated in 1947 in the Zika Forest in Uganda, by scientists researching Yellow Fever [Wiki] ). There seems to be more than one conspiracy theory doing the rounds that the hub of a massive increase of a birth defect in Brazil confirmed to be associated with the virus could have been caused by the release in the same region of GM modified mosquitoes developed by pioneering UK biotech (environmentally friendly insect/ pest/ disease control) company Oxitec. This conspiracy theory has already produced at least one rebuttal but there is nothing theoretical about the new pandemic.



"Let us spray" [Link].

Oxitec outbreak or opinionated offal?...

---

Until recently probably 99.999% of the population didn't know knew about nor had heard of the Zika virus (first isolated in 1947 in the Zika Forest in Uganda, by scientists researching Yellow Fever [Wiki] ). There seems to be more than one conspiracy theory doing the rounds that the hub of a massive increase of a birth defect in Brazil confirmed to be associated with the virus could have been caused by the release in the same region of GM modified mosquitoes developed by pioneering UK biotech (environmentally friendly insect/ pest/ disease control) company Oxitec. This conspiracy theory has already produced at least one rebuttal but there is nothing theoretical about the new pandemic.

"Let us spray" [Link].

Obamacare overspend...

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"And The Biggest Contributor To U.S. Growth in 2015 Was.."? Answer: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), generally known as Obamacare (defined as a tax by the US Supreme Court). [Zero Hedge] The US is in a manufacturing recession but the 'services' half of the economy continues to grow (something the UK knows all about), by far the highest category for personal spending was healthcare:

Obamacare overspend...

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"And The Biggest Contributor To U.S. Growth in 2015 Was.."? Answer: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), generally known as Obamacare (defined as a tax by the US Supreme Court). [Zero Hedge] The US is in a manufacturing recession but the 'services' half of the economy continues to grow (something the UK knows all about), by far the highest category for personal spending was healthcare:

Offensive Oscar outrage or odious objicients...

---

Once again the natives are getting restless. Oops, can I say that? Another whitewash; another blackout (literally!). The lack of black faces for the 2016 Oscar nominations is again causing the racists to shout racist. Looking at the graph (left: click to enlarge) it seems to me that black actors are OVER represented in the award winners - maybe they were the best actors those years? The article for the graph - from The Economist - says "FOR the 20 actors nominated for an Oscar all to be white could at best be seen as a surprise. For that to be true two years running is, to many, a scandal." What? Why a surprise? And why 2 years a scandal? WTF? Looking at film roles the split is spot on and the Oscar win: Oscar nomination ratio is higher for black Americans; being 12.6% of the US population and 'only' 10% of Oscar nominations - presumably the only real thing any reasonable person possible complain about - is no reason to whinge although the racist race hustlers will always whinge.



HOWEVER, it's the Latinos etc who may have a case if they were so inclined to bitch about it. The Academy Awards host Chris Rock (being hounded to boycott) gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter last year (when the same thing happened) and he said some interesting things: "But forget whether Hollywood is black enough. A better question is: Is Hollywood Mexican enough? You're in L.A, you've got to try not to hire Mexicans."  He has a point. However he also says a load more things that aren't so easy to agree with: "[Hollywood is] a white industry. Just as the NBA is a black industry. I'm not even saying it's a bad thing. It just is." This is wrong: he may be right about the make-up of the industry grandees: of the Academy’s voting members, 94% are white (this reflects exactly the 'Behind the Camera Diversity' of the directors e.g. only 6.5% are black in this study: PDF); this does not mean they're racist SOBs who only vote for white actors; maybe it just means the black actors didn't deserve a nomination this year! FFS. Apparent 'nice-guy' Will Smith is boycotting but more sinister is the black-power racism oozing out of his wife's video message. I'm with Janet Hubert on this:

"I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living and has made millions and millions of dollars from the very people that you're talking about boycotting just because you didn't get a nomination, just because you didn't win?"...[**]  ..."That's not the way life works, baby." ...And y'all need to get over yourselves. You have a huge production company that you only produce your friends and family and yourself. So you are a part of Hollywood, you are part of the system that is unfair to other actors. So get real."

Anyway, all this fuss reminds me, I must write to the International Olympic Committee to do something about the outrageous and offensive over-representation of black runners in the 100m final.



** that first quoted sentence reminded me of the black-power, racists and hypocritical social justice warriors trying to change/erase history).

Offensive Oscar outrage or odious objicients...

---

Once again the natives are getting restless. Oops, can I say that? Another whitewash; another blackout (literally!). The lack of black faces for the 2016 Oscar nominations is again causing the racists to shout racist. Looking at the graph (left: click to enlarge) it seems to me that black actors are OVER represented in the award winners - maybe they were the best actors those years? The article for the graph - from The Economist - says "FOR the 20 actors nominated for an Oscar all to be white could at best be seen as a surprise. For that to be true two years running is, to many, a scandal." What? Why a surprise? And why 2 years a scandal? WTF? Looking at film roles the split is spot on and the Oscar win: Oscar nomination ratio is higher for black Americans; being 12.6% of the US population and 'only' 10% of Oscar nominations - presumably the only real thing any reasonable person possible complain about - is no reason to whinge although the racist race hustlers will always whinge.

HOWEVER, it's the Latinos etc who may have a case if they were so inclined to bitch about it. The Academy Awards host Chris Rock (being hounded to boycott) gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter last year (when the same thing happened) and he said some interesting things: "But forget whether Hollywood is black enough. A better question is: Is Hollywood Mexican enough? You're in L.A, you've got to try not to hire Mexicans."  He has a point. However he also says a load more things that aren't so easy to agree with: "[Hollywood is] a white industry. Just as the NBA is a black industry. I'm not even saying it's a bad thing. It just is." This is wrong: he may be right about the make-up of the industry grandees: of the Academy’s voting members, 94% are white (this reflects exactly the 'Behind the Camera Diversity' of the directors e.g. only 6.5% are black in this study: PDF); this does not mean they're racist SOBs who only vote for white actors; maybe it just means the black actors didn't deserve a nomination this year! FFS. Apparent 'nice-guy' Will Smith is boycotting but more sinister is the black-power racism oozing out of his wife's video message. I'm with Janet Hubert on this:

"I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living and has made millions and millions of dollars from the very people that you're talking about boycotting just because you didn't get a nomination, just because you didn't win?"...[**]  ..."That's not the way life works, baby." ...And y'all need to get over yourselves. You have a huge production company that you only produce your friends and family and yourself. So you are a part of Hollywood, you are part of the system that is unfair to other actors. So get real."

Anyway, all this fuss reminds me, I must write to the International Olympic Committee to do something about the outrageous and offensive over-representation of black runners in the 100m final.

** that first quoted sentence reminded me of the black-power, racists and hypocritical social justice warriors trying to change/erase history).

Observing others II...

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The image below is an interesting view of the world: Hong Kong huge (relatively), Greenland gone: with countries scaled based on their population there are some fascinating distortions.

Image created by Reddit user TeaDranks. Source: Word Economic Forum (weforum.org); hat-tip Zero Hedge. Not that much has changed in 10 years and Paul Breding’s 2005 version.

Observing others II...

---

The image below is an interesting view of the world: Hong Kong huge (relatively), Greenland gone: with countries scaled based on their population there are some fascinating distortions.

Image created by Reddit user TeaDranks. Source: Word Economic Forum (weforum.org); hat-tip Zero Hedge. Not that much has changed in 10 years and Paul Breding’s 2005 version.

Occasional online observance...

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From Britain Loves Wikipedia

Did anyone ever go to the library every day of the week? They do now and today it's such a 'quick' library: January 15th is the 15th birthday of that library, started in 2001.



Interestingly - well, it surprised me - only just over 13% of the articles are in English, "The English edition of Wikipedia has grown to 5,056,487 articles...Wikipedia has over 38 million articles". I always assumed most would be in English but didn't expect that percentage to be so low! Care to guess what the language with the 2nd highest amount of articles is? I bet you can't guess it right without cheating; and I'd also bet £1000 that you couldn't guess the Top 10 languages with the most articles: there's one or two surprises. 

Occasional online observance...

---

From Britain Loves Wikipedia

Did anyone ever go to the library every day of the week? They do now and today it's such a 'quick' library: January 15th is the 15th birthday of that library, started in 2001.

Interestingly - well, it surprised me - only just over 13% of the articles are in English, "The English edition of Wikipedia has grown to 5,056,487 articles...Wikipedia has over 38 million articles". I always assumed most would be in English but didn't expect that percentage to be so low! Care to guess what the language with the 2nd highest amount of articles is? I bet you can't guess it right without cheating; and I'd also bet £1000 that you couldn't guess the Top 10 languages with the most articles: there's one or two surprises. 

Obama's officious Oregon owners...

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BigThink - Strange Maps [Link]

Probably not making it onto many people's radar in current news was the take-over by ranchers in Oregon of a state wildlife protected area (Malheur); even if your read about it I bet nary an eyebrow was raised or you just thought a bunch of US hicks were restless. For me, having historical family farming connections both here and in the US (in England going back centuries) and being involved with cattle in one respect or another most of my life, it is of great interest; especially because if I had the money I'd retire to my own ranch! What many don't realise about this issue (not the first) is that the government owns most of the land (see map, click to enlarge): an average of over '47% of the 11 coterminous western states' (including 84.5% of Nevada!) and over 69% of Alaska. Now you know why Texas (only 1.9% federal owned) wants independence.



"The Obama administration has pushed our livelihood to the brink" [Keith Nantz in the WaPo]. You can sympathise when you realise that the Obama government does what governments do, especially and more religiously when it comes to the pointless and prejudice weight of regulations, usually following the modern Gods of 'green' and man-made climate change. Keith adds,"Most of the time, those regulations are written by people with no agriculture experience, and little understanding of what it takes to produce our nation’s food. The agencies that control these lands can add burdensome regulations at any time. Often, they will begin aggressively enforcing them before ranchers have a chance to adjust." If you're interested in the full story go HERE (it's a long one: pictures, maps and videos included).

The capacity for problems arising with the government is immense when - as mentioned above - you look at who owns the land; read Frank Jacobs: "Imbalance of Federal Land Ownership Sheds Light on Oregon Militia".



Update: more interesting reading and maps; How The Feds Got All That Western Land (and Why It's a Problem) [Link] by Ryan McMaken at Mises Institute and Nobody lives Here: "...4.61 million square kilometers were reported to have no population living inside them. Despite having a population of more than 310 million people, 47 percent of the USA remains unoccupied."

Obama's officious Oregon owners...

---

BigThink - Strange Maps [Link]

Probably not making it onto many people's radar in current news was the take-over by ranchers in Oregon of a state wildlife protected area (Malheur); even if your read about it I bet nary an eyebrow was raised or you just thought a bunch of US hicks were restless. For me, having historical family farming connections both here and in the US (in England going back centuries) and being involved with cattle in one respect or another most of my life, it is of great interest; especially because if I had the money I'd retire to my own ranch! What many don't realise about this issue (not the first) is that the government owns most of the land (see map, click to enlarge): an average of over '47% of the 11 coterminous western states' (including 84.5% of Nevada!) and over 69% of Alaska. Now you know why Texas (only 1.9% federal owned) wants independence.

"The Obama administration has pushed our livelihood to the brink" [Keith Nantz in the WaPo]. You can sympathise when you realise that the Obama government does what governments do, especially and more religiously when it comes to the pointless and prejudice weight of regulations, usually following the modern Gods of 'green' and man-made climate change. Keith adds,"Most of the time, those regulations are written by people with no agriculture experience, and little understanding of what it takes to produce our nation’s food. The agencies that control these lands can add burdensome regulations at any time. Often, they will begin aggressively enforcing them before ranchers have a chance to adjust." If you're interested in the full story go HERE (it's a long one: pictures, maps and videos included). The capacity for problems arising with the government is immense when - as mentioned above - you look at who owns the land; read Frank Jacobs: "Imbalance of Federal Land Ownership Sheds Light on Oregon Militia".

Update: more interesting reading and maps; How The Feds Got All That Western Land (and Why It's a Problem) [Link] by Ryan McMaken at Mises Institute and Nobody lives Here: "...4.61 million square kilometers were reported to have no population living inside them. Despite having a population of more than 310 million people, 47 percent of the USA remains unoccupied."

Obliteration of one...

---

"The political left is extremely forgiving as long as you remain on the left. There's no sexual, moral or financial sin or wrongdoing that is too great to overlook or to forgive entirely as long as you remain committed to the left."

Never a truer word written. It is part of Laura Rosen Cohen's 'bimbo card' blog-post saying 'Trump should go Full Lewinsky'. She links to Mark Steyn whose two recent articles (A Tale of Two Bills and a day later Predators for Hilary) highlight the blinkered hypocrisy that surrounds the Clintons; more specifically 'about the obliteration of one Bill [Crosby], and the rehabilitation of the other'. Laura goes on to write that Steyn suggests that this is inherently racist but, she says, "...more than a question of race, it's a question of politics. If you are a political liberal and abuse women, all is forgiven."



The image above is of Christopher Hitchen's Book from the turn of this century: "No One Left To Lie To: The Values of the Worst Family"; so clearly not all the critics of Bill Clinton are 'of the Right' although all are surely right.  One review of the book: "...mincing no words about the long record of sexual assaults and subsequent intimidation of the victims that trailed the President from Arkansas to the Oval Office. It remains the most remarkable feature of that horrific record that neither Bill Clinton, nor any of his hatchet men and women, could ever even muster the intestinal fortitude to deny that he raped Juanita Broaddrick. And it remains an indelible stain on the much splattered escutcheon of Congressional Democrats that not a single one of them ever examined the evidence gathered by the Independent Counsel's office".[Brothers Judd]



Lying, self-serving financial skulduggery and cronyism seem - unfortunately - natural for politicians of any hue, sexual controversies less so but by no means rare (although being a serial abuser and 'occasional date rapist' is taking it too far); the lying and deviousness clearly runs deep in the Clinton family; think email scandal, Benghazi etc. IMHO just for the Benghazi debacle Hillary shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office (and imagine having her husband [in name only?] back there!) but - going back to Laura's post - "Trump needs to blow this thing up."

Obliteration of one...

---

"The political left is extremely forgiving as long as you remain on the left. There's no sexual, moral or financial sin or wrongdoing that is too great to overlook or to forgive entirely as long as you remain committed to the left."

Never a truer word written. It is part of Laura Rosen Cohen's 'bimbo card' blog-post saying 'Trump should go Full Lewinsky'. She links to Mark Steyn whose two recent articles (A Tale of Two Bills and a day later Predators for Hilary) highlight the blinkered hypocrisy that surrounds the Clintons; more specifically 'about the obliteration of one Bill [Crosby], and the rehabilitation of the other'. Laura goes on to write that Steyn suggests that this is inherently racist but, she says, "...more than a question of race, it's a question of politics. If you are a political liberal and abuse women, all is forgiven."

The image above is of Christopher Hitchen's Book from the turn of this century: "No One Left To Lie To: The Values of the Worst Family"; so clearly not all the critics of Bill Clinton are 'of the Right' although all are surely right.  One review of the book: "...mincing no words about the long record of sexual assaults and subsequent intimidation of the victims that trailed the President from Arkansas to the Oval Office. It remains the most remarkable feature of that horrific record that neither Bill Clinton, nor any of his hatchet men and women, could ever even muster the intestinal fortitude to deny that he raped Juanita Broaddrick. And it remains an indelible stain on the much splattered escutcheon of Congressional Democrats that not a single one of them ever examined the evidence gathered by the Independent Counsel's office".[Brothers Judd]

Lying, self-serving financial skulduggery and cronyism seem - unfortunately - natural for politicians of any hue, sexual controversies less so but by no means rare (although being a serial abuser and 'occasional date rapist' is taking it too far); the lying and deviousness clearly runs deep in the Clinton family; think email scandal, Benghazi etc. IMHO just for the Benghazi debacle Hillary shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office (and imagine having her husband [in name only?] back there!) but - going back to Laura's post - "Trump needs to blow this thing up."