Lysenko, Mann, Gore … peas in a pod

Trofim Lysenko 1898-1976) was a Russian scientist. Don’t be confused. Wikipedia calls him a “pseudo” scientist but in our day and age most science is pseudo, and yet we call our virologists, climatologists, geologists, physicists, and oncologists “scientists” nonetheless. So, I think it OK to refer to Trofim as a scientist as well.

Lysenko as responsible for the deaths of millions upon millions of Russian and Chinese peasants. He came up with new agricultural practices that were to revolutionize food production in both countries,  but instead set farming back decades.

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Your “crazy driver” is my premeditated risk

By: D. S. Klausler

I love to drive. Backing up a bit, my pal Mark over at PieceOfMindfulprompted this diatribe a while back. I’ll get to the specifics, but meanwhile know that driving in Chicagoland can be mentally challenging and is frequently infuriating. Traveling out on the big road has had its events, but the city mayhem is the driving (hah!) theme herein. In typical fashion, I’ll stay modest and brief. No, I am not in a hurry on the road, but…

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How to avoid jet lag …

I have long wondered how executives and politicians manage to travel great distances and yet always seem fresh on arrival. Their time tables have to be screwed up. Yet they manage to sit through meetings and do some public speaking as if they were fresh.

I cannot do that. I need at least two days on arrival (in this case France) from Denver, an eight hour time difference. We do our best to stay awake as long as possible once we get here. Last night that was until 7:30 PM, and when I awoke at 11:30 PM I took a couple of sleeping pills that got me through until now, almost 3 AM Geneva time. I feel rested and refreshed, but there is along day ahead and another night of fighting to stay awake into a normal schedule. It usually takes those two days to work my  way into the new time zone. Continue reading “How to avoid jet lag …” →

Our little journey

In the past, as my wife and I traveled, I made it a point not to make the blog a travelogue. I just let it rest, hoping other writers would chime in. I know I wrote now and then while in foreign places, most prominently in my mind in Buenos Aires, where I tripped on the crypt of Evita, or Eva Peron, said to have died young in 1952. Her crypt said she died at age 32, but actual birth records recorded her death at age 33  and voila!, I had uncovered another fake death.

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RFK Jr.: Potential fake assassination?

I was not sure for myself that the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 was fake until I studied the autopsy photos that were released in 1981 by David Lifton in his book Best Evidence. The premise behind the book was that the powerful Kennedy family could not stop release of the photos, even as they were in extreme bad taste. If you follow my link to my post, and if you look at those photos long enough, you will see JFK’s face superimposed on another body. It sometimes takes a while, but give it the time needed. The photo darkroom work is extremely good, as it had to be, but it is not perfect.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have been nine years old in November of 1963. Would he have been considered too young at that age to be let in on the secret? I do not know – but I would think they would want to spare him grief.

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Amazing photos of Kazakh hunters

This article, Kazakh Hunters and their Golden Eagles, has within it maybe a couple dozen amazing photographs taken by photographer Batzaya Choijiljav. They are simply stunning in their conception and execution.

Choijiljav used a five-pixel Canon Powershot A95, for photo buffs. I think it very likely that they are all copyrighted, and I do not want to violate his property rights, so I urge you take a journey over there to see these amazing people, their horses and birds.

Wikipedia and the art of lying

As a child growing up, I often did stupid things and looked for ways out of my messes. I contrived exotic lies, even thought about injuring myself to gain sympathy. I never did the self-abuse angle, but more importantly, I was never a good liar. As an adult, I learned that truth is always the best thing, as lying leads to more lying and even bigger messes.

Wikipedia lies about just about everything, but is considered a trusted source. I often consult it, as there are many matters where there is no point in lying, as with Taylor Swift’s birthday (12/13/89) or the dates of Woodstock (August 15-18, 1969). But note that there is far more to Taylor Swift, whom I suspect was trained her whole life to be famous and does not (or know how to) write her own music, or with Woodstock, an event organized to inculcate a whole generation in the culture of rock music and drugs, painting opposition to the Vietnam War as drug-addled hippies. Wikipedia can only tell us so much, and then either goes silent, or lies.

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Glacier alarmism in review

I am impressed by a group called Climate Discussion Nexus. I recently subscribed to its weekly newsletter, called the Wednesday Wakeup. That is where I came across the above very interesting video.  At 15 minutes, it is not a large tax on time, however, for the benefit of busy people who don’t want to drop everything just to watch something I liked, I will summarize below.

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Zooey time in the Montana legislature

Rep Zooey Zephyr

Far be it from me to align with Democrats on any matter, as I regard their positions on many issues, such as Climate Change, outlandish and unstudied. But there is a matter going on the the Montana House of Representatives where that party is in the right and where the Republican majority needs to get a grip.

Rep Zooey Zephyr* (D-Missoula) is a transgender female. She ran and was elected as such. She needs to be seated. Right now she has been expelled and prevented from attending to her duties inside the chamber, and must cast votes from the hallway outside. There has been no official censure.**

Zephyr has brought much of this on herself by joining in protests and chanting from the gallery with other protests. That short of behavior is unbecoming. Any member who behaved in this matter, no matter philosophical alignment, would likely be censured, maybe even expelled. Elected officials are there to debate issues in a rational and sane manner, and not to hold placards and yell and shut down the legislative process. .

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Laser reflectors on the Moon?

I just ran across some interesting calculations regarding measurement of the distance from Earth to the Moon. NASA claims that on three of the six missions where astronauts landed on the Moon, retro-reflectors were left on the surface for Earthbound scientists to bounce laser signals off.

I’d never really thought much about it but did know that laser signals had been bounced off the Moon prior to the Apollo program. In fact, as I learn, scientists at MIT was doing this as early as 1962.

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