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Sorry William, No Conquering Now: EU Red Tape Prevents Construction Of A Replica Ship From 1066

Sorry William, No Conquering Now: EU Red Tape Prevents Construction Of A Replica Ship From 1066

Jan 02 2023 | comment(s)

In 1066, Duke William of Normandy left France on a fleet of ships to fight his cousin and competitor for the vacant English throne, Harold Godwinson, and at the Battle of Hastings, the matter was settled. Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon claimant, was dead, and a new age for England began.(1)

Had the EU existed then, he'd have never had the chance. Given current EU red tape, efforts to make a replica of La Mora, the ship Williams used to become The Conqueror, mean it may still not be ready for the 1,000 year anniversary. Unless Great Britain, having shucked off their two-decade experiment in the EU, build it for them.
CNN Joins ABC In Not Endorsing A Carcinogen On Its New Years Eve Telecast

CNN Joins ABC In Not Endorsing A Carcinogen On Its New Years Eve Telecast

Dec 28 2022 | comment(s)

Neither CNN nor ABC will have hosts like Ryan Seacrest and Anderson Cooper firing up cigarettes during this year's New Years Eve broadcasts, watched by millions across the U.S. 

Wait, they did that last year? Of course not(1) but another class 1 carcinogen - determined when the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) was still a legitimate epidemiology group and not the modern grift for ban-everything trial lawyers - was on the air last year.

That carcinogen is alcohol. 

It makes no sense that we fear cigarettes and the impact on young people if they even appear in movies but the next greatest lifestyle killer is promoted on CNN, basically being endorsed by news personalities like Anderson Cooper.
This Counterpunch Monsanto Conspiracy Theory Article Is Just A Veneer For Paid Gambling Sites

This Counterpunch Monsanto Conspiracy Theory Article Is Just A Veneer For Paid Gambling Sites

Dec 26 2022 | comment(s)

An account going by the name of Andy Hsieh, there is a lot of astroturf in the anti-science community so it's hard to know if it's even a real blogger, wrote one of those predictable screeds endorsing their political allies, this time against agriculture.

It could have been cell phones or vaccines or nuclear energy - 84% of the time if you see any of those you know every political and scientific position they hold(1) - and the conspiracy tale would be the same.

Genetically Rescued Organisms: My Comment To USDA On Restoring The American Chestnut Tree

Genetically Rescued Organisms: My Comment To USDA On Restoring The American Chestnut Tree

Dec 21 2022 | comment(s)

'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire' is in a popular Christmas song, but a lot less common now than when it was written. That is due to an invasive species from Asia. It was once common for environmentally woke people to introduce species from Asia in their opposition to chemicals, because they believed all nature is better than any science, but from California (Bradford pear) to Vermont (the American chestnut) what the science community warned them about doing came to pass. Devastation.
Christmas Trees Are The Definition Of Sustainable - Why Do Environmentalists Oppose Them?

Christmas Trees Are The Definition Of Sustainable - Why Do Environmentalists Oppose Them?

Dec 21 2022 | comment(s)

The pandemic must be over because activists are back to complaining about Christmas trees, which means they will also be back to being anti-vaccine as soon as Republicans stop being idiots and it is once again a safe space for progressives to own. Just like every year from 1998 to 2020.
The Playstation 5 Is Bipartisan - That's Probably Why It Is The Top Most Searched For Gift In The US

The Playstation 5 Is Bipartisan - That's Probably Why It Is The Top Most Searched For Gift In The US

Dec 16 2022 | comment(s)

In the mid-term elections, political pundits noted that if demographic shifts continue, minorities and the young will be less of a factor for Democrats while rural areas will decline for Republicans.

Maybe candidates need to start embracing Playstation culture. An analysis of search results by coupon site Rakuten reveals that Florida, California, and Texas can't agree on much except a Playstation 5 at Christmas (Since we are a nonprofit, Amazon Smile gives us a nickel or something if you use the links from here.) 

That's right, it is the top most searched for Christmas gift this year, from Pelosi-land to DeSantis-ville.
In 2014, A Voter Referendum Demanded New Water Storage - Government Has Done Nothing About It

In 2014, A Voter Referendum Demanded New Water Storage - Government Has Done Nothing About It

Dec 15 2022 | comment(s)

The California state legislature mostly exists to pass new regulations, but does very little for the public they claim to serve. Anything important instead has to go around government by way of voter referendum.
French Union Workers Exploit Cold Weather And Ukraine Situation To Get Paid - And That Means Using More Coal

French Union Workers Exploit Cold Weather And Ukraine Situation To Get Paid - And That Means Using More Coal

Dec 12 2022 | comment(s)

France is soon going to be asking for a bailout from coal power plants in England. You may be wondering why they need it, since energy is the only scientific area where France shows leadership. They continued to embrace nuclear energy after the U.S. and Germany caved in to progressive activists and ran it into the ground.

The problem is it's a government union, and just like government unions in the US use taxpayer money to hire lobbyists to get themselves raises from other people in government paid by taxes on the poor, French government workers knew with Russia causing high competition and a cold snap during winter, it was the perfect time to strike. Literally and figuratively.
Organic Farmers Quit When Sweden Began To Limit How Much Chemical Input Could Be Used

Organic Farmers Quit When Sweden Began To Limit How Much Chemical Input Could Be Used

Dec 04 2022 | comment(s)

You wouldn't know it by deceptive marketing practices but it takes far more chemicals per calorie using "organic" certified pesticides than it does using modern ones. 

The reason is simple; organic industry lobbyists picked an artificial point in time and declared anything before it was organic. Mutagenesis, for example, is a literal radiation and chemical bath to force mutations randomly, but thousands and thousands of products are not only on the market without protest, they are certified organic while far more precise modern genetic modification is not. 
If You Think Gaming Microtransactions Are Bad, Mercedes Charges You $1200 To Drive Fast

If You Think Gaming Microtransactions Are Bad, Mercedes Charges You $1200 To Drive Fast

Nov 26 2022 | comment(s)

Microtransactions in games don't really bother me. If it's taking away something tedious or just letting game players do something faster, no big deal. 

Yet imagine you paid a small fortune, probably at a premium since flag-waving capitalists running car companies make sure government won't let you buy a car without a dealer (car dealers love socialism when it makes them rich) only to find out your fancy electric car has features - like acceleration - that some grifter didn't tell you would cost another $1,200 per year. 

Welcome to Mercedes Microtransactions.
NASA Is Giddy Over Doing Something They Did Nearly 60 Years Ago

NASA Is Giddy Over Doing Something They Did Nearly 60 Years Ago

Nov 24 2022 | comment(s)

NASA is really excited they can fly a spacecraft near the moon. This seems odd, since they did a flyby nearly 60 years ago, as preparation for the moon landing in 1969.

Now, some people think the moon landing never happened, just like some people believe organic red wine is good for you or that solar power is a viable option source of energy for more than 0.6% of us.


In all cases they can point to strange government writings as circumstantial proof, and the moon hoax fringe has to be as giddy as NASA is about Artemis. 
Effective Altruism Is Mostly Only Effective For The Top Of The Pyramid Scheme

Effective Altruism Is Mostly Only Effective For The Top Of The Pyramid Scheme

Nov 23 2022 | comment(s)

Welcome to modern colonialism. Literally, the parents of a wealthy cryptocurrency grifter got handed an expensive residence in the Bahamas once inhabited by plantation owners. And now the two Stanford law professors are going to have to try to hide behind age and confusion as to why they didn't see anything wrong with that.

Like the guy who ran WeWork, Sam Bankman-Fried used all the right buzzwords when raising money, and there is no more effective term to make wealthy elites squee in 2022 than "effective altruism." Like "smurf", it can mean anything you want it to mean. Like $300 million in homes for friends and family while $10 billion in customer assets are in some fantasy universe.
Cholesterol Is Why Government Needs To Stop Making Policy Using Epidemiology

Cholesterol Is Why Government Needs To Stop Making Policy Using Epidemiology

Nov 23 2022 | comment(s)

A new study finds cholesterol makes no meaningful difference in your health. Who knew?
Well, everyone. Because it lacked a biological explanation, it was instead looking at a statistical risk factor for a risk factor and telling people to stop eating meat, butter, and eggs.

And yet government and doctors have abdicated critical thinking to epidemiology to such an extent they'll believe anything if someone declares statistical significance. Which they did here, and cost consumers a trillion dollars while doing...nothing.
Demographics: Young People With Six-Figure Incomes Are Leaving NY and California To Go Here

Demographics: Young People With Six-Figure Incomes Are Leaving NY and California To Go Here

Nov 21 2022 | comment(s)

It's no secret that California is having a crisis of confidence. Water is too expensive and too scarce but politicians jammed through the implosion of four more dams anyway, while energy costs are high due to solar and wind subsidies. The state refused to pay for schooling for poor kids but is saying that college graduates who get their student loans waived won't have to pay taxes. While the state has a $25 billion deficit this year. It turns out that people selling stocks in a bad economy and paying capital gains taxes is not a business mode.
Regenerative Ag 'Degree' Is A New Way For Maharishi To Bilk Money Out Of People

Regenerative Ag 'Degree' Is A New Way For Maharishi To Bilk Money Out Of People

Nov 21 2022 | comment(s)

The worst-kept secret in student loans is not that the same party now wanting to force the rest of us to pay them off put unlimited student loans into law in the first place, nor that wiping out loans will never survive court challenges and was always a political stunt, but that the biggest beneficiaries, proponents, and defenders are and have always been universities.

With loans unlimited, so are salaries and buildings and administrators. And grifts.
Light Causes Diabetes

Light Causes Diabetes

Nov 20 2022 | comment(s)

It is sort of forgivable if the wacky head of the Crossfit company claimed Coca-Cola causes diabetes because at least it has calories. And if you consume too many calories, be it in the form of Coca-Cola or salad, you will get fat. And being obese is the number one risk factor for Type 2 diabetes.

But light?

Welcome to epidemiology, where anything can be linked to anything and, if you can claim statistical significance, turn it into a paper you hope science will one day show to be true. 
Niels Bohr's House And The Carlsberg Beer Company

Niels Bohr's House And The Carlsberg Beer Company

Nov 19 2022 | comment(s)

It's no surprise that a lot of company heads are fans of science. Sinclair Oil's CEO loved paleontology, and they funded a lot of research. The term "fossil fuel", coined in 1759, was to note that it was natural, while that paleontology Sinclair loved said oil began to form during the Mesozoic era - when dinosaurs lived. So he made it their logo.

And so anti-science hippies somewhere along the way decided that all oil came from dinosaurs.

Now science knows coal developed long before that, and rather than being dinosaurs oil is overwhelmingly the result of bacteria, aquatic phytoplankton, and zooplankton.
No Dead Animals - Cultivated Chicken Gets The FDA Nod

No Dead Animals - Cultivated Chicken Gets The FDA Nod

Nov 18 2022 | comment(s)

Cultured Gallus gallus cells, with characteristics of myocytes and fibroblasts, don't sound delicious, but it one day soon could be.

It's chicken, except chicken without dreary activists going on about cages and without any heads being chopped off. And now it has FDA go-ahead. After looking at all of the data and the methodology, FDA has determined that it is as safe as chicken or other substitutes.

Given how it is created, it is likely far more safe. They call it 'cultivated' meat to distinguish it from its conventional counterpart and it is already approved in Singapore.

Panoquell-CA1 For Pancreatitis in Dogs Gets FDA Approval

Panoquell-CA1 For Pancreatitis in Dogs Gets FDA Approval

Nov 17 2022 | comment(s)

Inflammatory disease of the pancreas is a life-threatening condition for dogs that often occurs spontaneously and is more common in some breeds of dogs. It generally requires hospitalization.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given conditional approval to Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha Ltd for Panoquell-CA1 (fuzapladib sodium for injection) for acute onset of pancreatitis while the dog is hospitalized for treatment of the disease.

Fuzapladib sodium, the active ingredient in Panoquell, has been used in Japan since 2018 and FDA reviewed data from there as part of its assessment of the application for conditional approval.
By Removing More Hydroelectric Power, California Energy Costs Will Go From Highest To...Highest

By Removing More Hydroelectric Power, California Energy Costs Will Go From Highest To...Highest

Nov 17 2022 | comment(s)

Years ago, California asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to remove Klamath River dams that are currently part of a vast network of water and energy supply in the state.

What two things does California lack? Water and energy. And this will make it worse. But California invoked native tribes and environmental laws it helped push into existence as a reason to say the dams needed to be removed - at a cost of $500,000,000 and with very little study of the environmental impact of removing them.

Worst of all, a state that routinely has to ask EPA for permission to void all emissions regulations and run conventional fuel plants at full blast to avoid brownouts due to bizarre belief in solar and wind schemes now has even less clean energy.