Corruption at the top of the health care industry

 

Yesterday we looked at how vaccine manufacturers may be vulnerable to lawsuits, even perhaps criminal charges, following the publication of the Medicare billing database last weekend.  That's not the only example of potential high-level corruption coming out of the COVID debacle.

Eaton Rapids Joe reminds us:

Slowly, ever so slowly, it is starting to leak out that scientists and researchers knew back in 2020 before the vaccines were released that aspirin was the Covid super-drug. Yes, plain, old, garden-variety, low-dose aspirin.

If fact, they knew back in 2007 that aspirin was THE GO TO drug for SARS. SARS is also a corona virus and is a kissing-cousin to Covid-19. 

. . .

The "problem" is that aspirin is a commodity with very, very low profit margins. 

The other "problem" was that emergency certification of vaccines are not allowed if there are other approved therapies. Powerful people had patents for modified-RNA based vaccines. It was in their economic best-interest to squash alternative therapies. It is also likely that they enjoyed basking in the glory of being called "Savior".

This is one of the reasons why I have a very low level of trust in the Deep State. 

There's more at the link.  Recommended reading.

There's more to it than just aspirin.  The health authorities also cracked down heavily on the prescribing and dispensing of ivermectin (IVM) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat COVID.  In fact, they tried to prevent them being distributed at all, withdrawing stocks and sequestering them - despite both drugs being proven, effective remedies for COVID-like diseases for many years.

As Eaton Rapids Joe points out, the problem was that emergency certification of COVID vaccines was only permissible if there were no other approved, effective treatments.  Given the money to be made from the vaccines, the solution was simple:  remove other effective treatments from the market.  That way, emergency certification could be (and was) given - and the vaccine manufacturers, health authorities, and other beneficiaries earned literally billions of dollars.  The fact that thousands died or suffered ongoing health problems from the vaccines bothered them not at all.

I knew about this at first hand, because I was born and raised in Africa, where IVM and HCQ have been in daily use by millions of people for decades.  The developers of IVM were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2015, and both it and HCQ are on the World Health Organization's Model List of Essential Medicines.  IVM is a remedy for many parasites and fungal infections, while HCQ was developed as an anti-malarial drug;  but both have proven effective against congestive diseases such as SARS or COVID.  In addition, HCQ has proven effective against certain forms of arthritis (I use it to treat spinal arthritis).

Don't be fooled by claims that neither has been proved to be effective against COVID.  That propaganda was hurriedly poured out in torrents by the medical industry during the COVID scare, because they didn't want to upset the money rolling in from their new vaccines.  I'll give you the clearest possible evidence that both worked.  Where are the reports of massive COVID infections and mortalities in Africa?  Even at the height of the scare, there were no such reports, because COVID never spread wildly in Africa.  Why not?  My opinion is that it's because so many Africans - millions of them - were already taking IVM and/or HCQ on a regular basis to treat common infections and diseases on that continent.  They had already built up a "pre-resistance" to COVID because of that, and so did not succumb to it.  Effectively, COVID was stopped before it could get a foothold.  That's my opinion, of course, but I know at first hand how effective those drugs were (and still are) in Africa.  I took them myself for many years.  If there's another explanation, let's hear it.  I'm waiting.

I still keep supplies of IVM and HCQ on hand, because they still work against a wide variety of congestive diseases, viruses, etc.  My wife and I have both felt the beginnings of the current flu bug, or whatever it is, during the past few weeks.  We have a simple solution:  the moment we feel the crud coming on, we take one tablet of IVM and one of HCQ right away, and then alternate them daily until the problem is past.  Neither of us developed full-blown crud, and neither of us felt (light) symptoms for more than 24-48 hours.  We've been doing that for a long time.  I know that "correlation is not causation", but after years of using both drugs in Africa, I'm in no doubt about how useful they are.

There you have it, friends.  If you can't get your hands on IVM or HCQ locally (and the US medical establishment is still pretty firmly against them, for obvious reasons) then I suggest you consider other means of doing so.  Some go to Mexico and patronize local pharmacies, who have no such reservations and don't even require prescriptions.  Some buy online from pharmacies in other countries, which is illegal under US law, so I'm not going to recommend you do that.  Of course not.  IVM can be had in veterinary form in this country (derided by the authorities as "horse dewormer" - but what horse dewormer has won a Nobel Prize?).  The horse dewormer version still works on humans.

Thanks to Eaton Rapids Joe for mentioning aspirin and COVID.  It's a worthwhile reminder.

Peter

Not just an open-source treasure hunt, but a COVID vaccine problem supersource

 

By now I'm sure readers are aware that last weekend, the Department of Health and Human Services released an open-source 11GB file containing every single Medicare claim from 2018 to 2024 - not individual patient diagnoses and private information, but every charge claimed against Medicare for every procedure by every provider.  It's a gold mine of information that may lead to literal gold mines for those who find evidence of fraud and abuse in the data.  As Jeff Childers pointed out:

This is clearly not just a DOGE project. It is a coordinated effort across the Trump Administration. For example, timed with the release of the data, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a related new program. Not only have they open-sourced the research, but they have gamified it. Bessent said Treasury was setting up a website for people to report Medicare fraud— and they’ll get up to 30% of whatever’s fined and recovered.

If the $1 trillion fraud estimate is even half right, the government just turned fraud detection into the world’s largest treasure hunt. Some kid in a bedroom with a laptop, a chatbot, and a case of energy drinks might make more money this year than most hedge fund managers. Dog the Bounty Hunter: Fraud Edition is coming soon, to a laptop near you.

Social media quickly began lighting up across the board. Within hours of the data release, citizen analysts had started flagging facilities billing for physically impossible numbers of procedures, clinics with addresses at residential apartments diagnosing hundreds of children with autism per month, and at least one provider that seems to have performed more Medicaid services than there are actual humans in its zip code.

However, the biggest aspect of this data treasure trove might be the unveiling, at long last, of the problems caused by COVID vaccines.

While most folks were off and running hunting for fraud bounties, the covid warriors instantly saw the other, riper fruit hanging higher up in the HHS data’s branches ... And now they have AI to help crunch the numbers, build spreadsheets, put up websites, and suggest, “Would you like me to draft the lawsuit?”

Since the agency was birthed by progressive geniuses in the Carter Administration, HHS has diligently protected the privacy of Big Pharma by keeping a death-grip on Americans’ health data. Even though, during the exact same period, we got fatter by the minute, our health got worse and worse, and we spent more and more trillions on healthcare. It’s none of your business because privacy. Science! Trust the experts! Shut up!

Now, taking the corporate media, pharma, and the political establishment completely by surprise, the data is suddenly out there. The VAERS data looked awful, but they wriggled out of that trap by sneering that the adverse event-reporting system —the system they created— was unreliable. But now we have a second data set— and it includes vaccination records.

What happens when the HHS data confirms the VAERS data? What will they say then?

I don’t say this lightly: this historic HHS data release could be even bigger than the Epstein files.

There's more at the link.

I think he's spot on.  Anyone and everyone who's been affected by problems after receiving the COVID vaccine, or who's lost a relative or friend to vaccine-related issues, can now find out for certain whether there's any correlation between that vaccination and subsequent medical issues, as revealed by what care was billed, when, and for how long.  With that information on hand, lawsuits for medical negligence and/or malfeasance of any kind by the vaccine manufacturers become more than just a theoretical possibility.  They become almost a certainty.

Cue the vaccine manufacturers suddenly lobbying Congress to pass a law granting them retroactive immunity from lawsuits over negligence and malfeasance - immunity they do not have under the existing vaccine legislation.

I wonder how many ambulance chasers lawyers are suddenly rubbing their hands together with glee as they cue up their legal AI systems and turn them loose on the new data?

Peter

The recoil must have been spectacular!!!

 

I've known of the Colt 1855 Sidehammer revolver shotgun for years.  It was used (in the rifle version) by some sharpshooter units early in the Civil War, and sold reasonably well on the frontier and out West.  What I didn't know is that some unknown pioneer or trooper decided he wanted his Sidehammer to be somewhat more portable and accessible.  Well, "portable" is relative for a gun well over a foot long and weighing more than 6 pounds . . . but I'd say he succeeded.

If he tried to fire that beast one-handed from the back of a galloping horse, I suspect it would have been really hard to hold onto it.  The recoil must have been pretty snappy, to put it mildly!  Nevertheless, given the opportunity to modify a modern replica Sidehammer into that configuration, I'd kinda like to try it.  Typical 10ga. shotguns of the period used up to 1.5 to 2 drams of powder behind up to 1.5 ounces of lead shot.  The Sidehammer's chambers were shorter than sporting guns, so I daresay it wouldn't have used the top end of those ranges, but even so, I suspect it had a real kick on both ends.

Peter

More useful information about your home in extreme cold

 

Karl Denninger has written extensively about the effect of extreme cold on your home's plumbing, heating problems, and related issues.  His article is too long to excerpt here, so click over to his place and read it for yourself.  Very interesting and useful information.

Stay warm, friends.

Peter

Population collapse threatens China - perhaps much more, and much sooner, than we think

 

A few days ago, the New York Post published an article headlined "China is facing a demographic bomb— and it could handcuff Beijing’s ambitions".  Here's an excerpt.

Last week, Beijing’s release of China’s national birth count for 2025 left demographers stunned.

The national birth total plummeted by over 17% from 2024 to 2025, the PRC disclosed.

That sort of precipitous drop is almost never seen in stable modern societies, where births tend to inch up or down from one year to the next.

A decline of this magnitude qualifies as a demographic shock of the sort typically associated with dire calamities like famine or plague — a sign that a disaster or convulsion is taking place.

And these are only the latest readings from the astonishing birth crash that’s commenced under Xi Jinping’s rule: a drop by over half in just eight years that shows no sign as yet of abating.

Tumbling birth rates have already thrown China into depopulation, with over four deaths for every three births in 2025.

With fewer than 8 million new babies in 2025, China is not only down to the lowest level of natality since the Communists took power in 1949.

It’s actually back to birth levels last seen three centuries ago, in the early 1700s, when the national population may have been no more than 225 million — less than a sixth of China’s current 1.4 billion.

. . .

If this continues, the next generation of Chinese will be only be 44% as large as their parents’ cohort — and the following generation will be smaller still.

There's more at the link.  It's worth reading the article in full.

That news was bad enough, from China's perspective.  However, it may be a whole lot worse.  Yesterday I came across a Web site called "Lei's Real Talk".  She's a Chinese lady living in the USA who analyzes events and developments in China, and has developed quite a large following.  I know nothing more about her than what she says on her Web site, but she presents carefully thought out and cogent analysis of China's real population in the video clip below.  The kicker?

She thinks China's population might already be a third to a half less than what it officially claims.

If that's true, it makes the warnings in the article above even more ominous.  See for yourself.  This is well worth watching, and listening carefully.

If Lei's claims are true, they provide an entirely new perspective on China's aggressive words and policies directed against other countries and alliances.  They might be no more than bluff and bluster, demographically speaking . . . might.  We won't know for sure unless and until Lei's calculations can be confirmed in some way.

Nevertheless, it's enough to make one think, isn't it?

Peter

Where did the water go?

 

I was interested (and somewhat amused) to read that the biggest reforestation project in the world has had some - wait for it - unintended consequences.  Say it ain't so!

China’s massive tree-planting push has long been hailed as a climate win. But new research shows the country’s ambitious effort to slow land degradation, and fight climate change, has also reshaped its water supply in surprising, and sometimes uneven, ways.

When China dramatically expanded forests and restored grasslands under its "Great Green Wall" initiative, it didn’t just change what the land looked like, it changed how water moves between the ground and the atmosphere.

. . .

“They’ve actually increased forest cover by 15% over the last five decades,” [meteorologist Jennifer] Gray explained. “If you think about the amount of moisture that those forests are releasing into the atmosphere, it is just an incredible amount.”

. . .

What surprised researchers most wasn’t that water moved, it was where it ended up. “What’s so remarkable about this study is the scale of it and the unintended consequences,” Gray said. “The rain was distributed in completely different ways and in completely different places.”

The reason lies in the atmosphere itself.

“The atmosphere and the winds can actually transport moisture more than 4,000 miles,” Gray explained. “So if you plant trees in one area that doesn’t mean that that’s exactly where it’s going to rain.”

. . .

That’s why Gray says climate solutions can’t stop at planting trees. “It puts an exclamation mark on the importance of having city planners get involved, water management folks get involved as well,” she said, “so this can be carefully thought out as to where the water is going to be distributed once you do something like this.”

There's more at the link.

This is fascinating to me.  I've never figured out how bureaucrats and political functionaries can dictate to Nature - "We are going to do this, to force you to do that" - without any real understanding of how Nature works, the interplay of forces and influences that mold and shape the world we live in.  It seems ridiculous on the face of it;  what my father would call "farting against thunder".  The power of natural forces is so enormously greater than anything of which we can conceive that it makes fools of the bureaucrats who think that way.  Perhaps this is yet another example of the folly that led to Mao's megalomaniac "Great Leap Forward", which led directly to the "Great Chinese Famine" and caused tens of millions of deaths.

I think it's a laudable ambition to halt desertification by reforestation . . . but just reforesting thousands of square miles doesn't mean they'll be transformed into the microclimate you want them to have.  I'll be watching the progress of similar projects with great interest.  Ethiopia is planting 50 billion trees;  there's the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel;  and India has The Great Green Wall of Aravalli.  I wonder if they'll all run into the same problem?

(There's also the colonial-era Great Hedge of India, designed to prevent unwanted border crossing in either direction.  Perhaps the Border Patrol might like to investigate that project?)

Peter

Lessons learned from the snowstorm - reader questions answered

 

As we gently "melt out" from the snow and ice of the past few days, a number of readers e-mailed me to describe problems they'd encountered, and to ask about aspects of emergency preparation in such weather.  Of particular importance to them was solutions that will work in extreme cold, when the power's out for an indeterminate period.

Let's start with light.  The simplest, easiest and cheapest way to light your home for a few hours, or days, or even weeks, are the pull-up camping lanterns available under various brand names (but probably all made in the same Chinese factory).  This is the cheapest 4-pack on Amazon at the time of writing:

They run on 3 AA batteries, which give several hours' bright light.  They're very lightweight, too, and one can use the handle to hang them from any convenient hook or branch, or stand them on a firm surface.  To use them, just pull the top up (or partway up if you want less light).  I've used them for years.  Some may not work very long, because they're Chinesium, and quality is an afterthought for many such products;  but at the price, it's hard to complain.  I keep half a dozen handy for emergency use.  You should also keep a few flashlights on hand to carry around as needed.  Candles, tea-lights, etc. are useful if you have a safe place to burn them, but they do add to the fire danger, and you leave them unattended at your own risk.

What about generators?  Very useful, but also very noisy, and thirsty for fuel if power remains out for several days.  They also have to run outdoors, for safety reasons (carbon monoxide from their exhaust will kill you deader than dead if you run them indoors).  I have a smallish, lower-cost model, which I'll use mostly to charge up my battery power banks if and when necessary.  It doesn't produce enough power to run all our electrical appliances.  (If you can afford it, you can by all means consider a whole-house generator and a dedicated fuel tank to run it for a week or more, but they're usually very expensive.)

Another problem with generators is theft.  They're in high demand during weather emergencies.  There are those who travel around in such conditions, listening for the sound of generators or evidence of their presence such as lights at night, and then steal them from wherever you've put them.  It happened to a friend of mine not far from here a couple of years ago, not 48 hours after he bought the unit.  The thieves waited until the small hours of the morning, when the generator wasn't in use, then cut the chain he'd used to fasten it to a pillar and carried it off.  He was not a happy camper, to put it mildly!

If you rely on a fuelled generator, make sure you have one powerful enough to run all the appliances you want to use:  then calculate its fuel consumption under load (not just idling).  A lot of manufacturers won't give you that information in their sales brochure, so you might have to dig around to find it, or establish it by trial and error.  Once you know what it is, store enough gasoline or propane to run the generator for however long you might need it.  That adds up very quickly, by the way:  for a large generator, you may need up to 10-15 gallons per day.  Smaller ones are rather more economical.  (Don't forget oil:  if you have a new generator, you'll normally be expected to change its lubricant after 20-30 hours of operation, and at regular intervals thereafter.  Spark plugs of the right size, plus spare air and oil filters, are also worth keeping in stock.  A trickle charger to keep the generator battery topped up isn't a bad idea, either.)

Finally, run the generator regularly to make sure it's in good working order.  Some recommend every month;  others, every quarter.  If it won't start when you desperately need it, you aren't going to be very happy (and even less so when your family finds out)!

My preferred solution for electric power is to use one or more electric power banks, which are sometimes referred to as power generators or solar generators.  They usually offer a more expensive solution than generators (at least, at today's prices), but they're also much more convenient, can be carried to wherever you need them, can be easily recharged by even a small generator, and don't smell of exhaust fumes or drip fuel and oil on your floor!  There are many models, some of which you'll find at the link above, but I'd divide them into three size categories based on likely use.

The first are small power banks up to 1KW (kilowatt - 1,000 watts) in power and a similar storage capacity in KWh (kilowatt-hours - the energy used to produce one kilowatt of power for one hour).  These can't run anything very big in power draw, but for lightweight use (portable lights with LED bulbs, charging cellphones or tablets, game consoles, etc.) they can be very convenient.  I know some families who keep a couple on hand to let their kids use them while Mom and Dad use a larger power bank for larger power needs (e.g. TV, DVD player, computer, etc.)  Small units are also useful to power low-draw appliances such as a CPAP machine or oxygen generating device, which are often important for home health care.  Check the appliance's power draw and make sure the battery bank you buy has adequate power and storage capacity to cope with its needs.

The next category is what I'll call medium power banks, 1.5-4KW in power and a similar storage capacity in KWh.  These are general-purpose workhorses, usually portable, and with enough stored energy to be useful for several hours before needing to be recharged.  My personal favorite at present is the Bluetti Elite 400, for two reasons:  one, its capacities are 2.6KW power and 3.84KWh storage capacity, which meet most of our needs, and two, it's on wheels with an extendable handle.  Being a larger, heavier unit (about 85 pounds), and because my wife and I both have health issues restricting us from lifting heavy loads, the Elite 400 is much easier for us to move around the house if necessary.  There are, of course, many competitors to the Bluetti.  Shop around and see which you prefer.  Also, don't forget extension cords so you can plug in your fridge, freezer(s), etc. to the power bank, no matter where it is.

Finally, there are whole-house battery banks, some from providers such as Bluetti, some permanent installations such as the Tesla Powerwall.  Such banks are much larger than portable units, and many require professional installation, usually along with solar power panels to keep them charged when grid power is shut off for any reason.  They're an excellent solution, but very expensive;  the least you can expect to pay for all components (batteries, solar panels, wiring, plus installation) is usually $25,000 or more.  On the other hand, they tend to work very well, and give owners peace of mind.  (For example, you can read Divemedic's blog posts on his Florida installation at this link, from most recent to oldest.)

I find battery banks' convenience and ease of use to be head and shoulders above any other low- to medium-cost solution.  We have the equivalent of about 14KWh stored across a few units, charged and ready to go, which should be enough to get us through two to three days before we have to run a generator to recharge them.  With judicious use and not wasting power, I think we could go several weeks without electricity from the grid, if we had to.

What about heat?  If the HVAC system goes out, we're reduced to what we can power using our battery banks and/or generator.  In both cases, in extreme temperatures, we'd move into one or two rooms and heat or cool only them.  For heating indoors, a fireplace is a very desirable option, and/or a wood-burning stove:  if you don't have one, but can fit one to your home at an affordable price, I highly recommend it.  Otherwise, I use and recommend the Mr. Buddy propane indoor-safe heaters, which utilize the familiar green Coleman fuel cylinders and can be fitted with an adapter to run them off conventional propane cylinders.  (With any fire or propane heater, remember the danger from carbon monoxide, and take appropriate precautions!)

There are electric options if you don't like fire or other fuel.  Given a suitable size of power bank, you can buy low-power electric heaters from 400W up to about 900W.  A medium-size power bank can run a 400-500W heater all night long.  They're not very hot, but will warm a 10x10 foot bedroom, which will do nicely in freezing weather.  Larger rooms, not so much - but then, in an emergency, one has to compensate by adjusting one's lifestyle.  If you have an electric blanket, a medium-size power bank will also run that all night long, making things very snug.

What if it's summer, and you want to keep things cool?  Air-conditioning units are power hogs, to put it mildly.  Even the smallest window or stand-alone unit will drain an average power bank in a couple of hours.  I'd suggest using fans instead of air-conditioners, and venting the hot air inside through windows and doors as the day cools down.  Only a whole-house power backup system will allow you to run your HVAC as usual, even without incoming power from the grid.

Cooking?  Use camping gear such as butane or propane stoves.  They're simple, relatively cheap, and work on almost any surface.  You won't (I hope!) burn them long enough to pose a carbon monoxide hazard:  if that worries you, use them on a table in your garage.  I'd suggest having two burners, because a single burner might limit what dishes you can cook (and get extra fuel cartridges for them).  The good old Coleman 2-burner camping stove has been around for decades, and still works well, but it's a lot more expensive than it used to be.  Buying two single-burner butane stoves can often be much cheaper.  Make sure to clean the stove(s) and cooking utensils thoroughly;  sanitary cooking conditions are important for your family's health.

I won't speak to needs such as food, clothing, warm blankets, etc.  We've addressed those subjects several times in the past, and many Web sites have done likewise.  You pays your money and you takes your choice.  However, there are a few things you'll do well to remember.

1. If your kids need to be entertained, have a stock of board games, coloring books and crayons, etc. on hand.  Game consoles, etc. are not useful if you can't switch them on!  TV's can be a problem because of their power consumption.  If you want to use one, get an extra power bank for the purpose.
2. Batteries, batteries, BATTERIES!!!  Make a note of what size of battery (AAA, AA, C-cell, D-cell, 9V, etc.) your toys and small appliances need, and then stock up on them (and rotate your stocks frequently, so you always have fresh supplies when you need them).  I keep at least 50 AAA and 50 AA cells on hand, and I try to buy only small battery appliances that use that size.  I have a dozen C- and D-cells, and 9V as well, just in case.  For a larger family, I'd say 100 of each important size is not unreasonable.
3. If it's going to freeze, get your emergency supplies into the house and out of the worst cold before the storm hits, if possible.  It's no fun to have a week's water in reserve, in case your taps and/or pipes freeze up - only to find that your reserve water containers are also frozen!
4. Have plenty of paper plates and bowls, and plastic drinking cups, available.  That way, you won't have to waste water and time washing up dishes.  You can simply throw it all away.
5. For your vehicles, have windscreen de-icing fluid, ice scrapers, show brushes, etc. on hand, and use them regularly so you can drive if you have to.  It may be better not to, but if you have to get a family member to a doctor or hospital quickly, or evacuate to a hotel if your home becomes uninhabitable for some reason, you want to be able to move quickly.
6. Keep in touch with friends and family nearby.  Make sure everybody's OK.  You could save lives that way.

That's a quick pass through most of the questions I was asked.  If you have something I haven't addressed, please ask it in Comments:  and readers, please feel free to answer such questions, or contribute ideas from your own experience.  We can all learn from each other.

Stay safe out there!

Peter

Not so fast, buddy...

 

It's been claimed that China is "sending thousands of future military pilots posing as civilians to the United States to learn how to fly".  It's not quite as simple as that.  I'm sure some of the Chinese pilots training in the USA are, indeed, going to fly with the Peoples' Liberation Army Air Force, but not all of them.  Many are here for a different reason altogether.

All over the world, nations set their own standards as to what qualifications their civilian pilots should hold.  Many of them are so lax in their enforcement of training standards (for example, most African nations) that their pilots aren't allowed to fly in more advanced aviation environments (such as most First World countries).  A pilot's certificate from one of the low-standard nations is effectively a local qualification only, and I wouldn't feel safe flying with such a pilot.  Indeed, many qualifications are fraudulently obtained:  for example, in 2022 Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) found that 457 of its staff had fake degrees or pilot certificates.  An earlier investigation revealed that"more than 260 of [Pakistan's] 860 active pilots had either fake licences or had cheated in their exams."  (Remind me never, ever to fly PIA!)

There are other nations, usually in the First World, who insist on pilot training and standards similar to, or close to, those in the USA.  Pilots with those licenses can usually fly aircraft in, to and from such countries and others their aviation authorities trust.  For example, any pilot licensed by the European Union can fly to other EU nations, and also internationally to most other countries.  However, the US pilot license and other advanced aviation qualifications are the only ones that are valid worldwide (except for North Korea and Iran, which don't like us at all!  AFAIK, they're the only nations on earth that don't recognize our flying qualifications.)  Basically, apart from those two countries, if you have a US pilot qualification of appropriate skill and seniority, you can fly in all other nations and get an aviation job there, if you wish.

That means there are a very large number of foreign pilots who come to this country every year, from all over the world, to get a US pilot qualification.  They often have to start from the very beginning, despite some of them having thousands of hours in the air on very large airliners, because the Federal Aviation Administration (on the basis of bitter experience) refuses to recognize almost all foreign flying qualifications.  I'm sure the students find that demeaning, but it is what it is.  They have to go through the whole process:  Student Pilot, Private Pilot, Instrument, Commercial, and on through Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) if they want to fly for the airlines.  It can take as little as nine months for an experienced student, or a year or three for someone less experienced (or a complete beginner who has to build up enough hours in the air to qualify to take each successive level of licensing).  Once they have their US qualifications, even if they can't get a resident visa here, they can still go almost anywhere else in the world and be hired as a pilot, at a salary usually rather more than an entry-level pilot without US certification would earn.

That's where many, perhaps most, of those Chinese pilots come in.  They are often pilots already, flying for Chinese or Far Eastern airlines.  They save up vacation hours and their dollars, do what studying they can in advance, then come over here to knock out one or two licenses over a month to six weeks.  Two or three trips like that and they can qualify as a US ATP.  After that, the world is their oyster.  They can leave China, go anywhere else they can get a visa, and be reasonably sure of getting an aviation-related job.  (I know about this from a source in the pilot training industry, who's spoken highly of their perseverance and determination.)

So, yes, I'm sure some Chinese military pilots are coming over here to get civilian pilot training, because the standards of training here remain the highest and most demanding in the world.  However, I'll be surprised if the numbers are as great as claimed;  and I don't think the majority of them are, or will become, military pilots.

Peter

Autofocus spectacles?

 

I was intrigued to learn of a new optical technology that allows spectacles to autofocus from near to far vision.

The glasses contain eye-tracking sensors as well as liquid crystals in the lenses, which are used to change the prescription instantaneously. The result, according to the company, is an improvement on current bifocal or varifocal lenses, both of which are meant for people who need assistance seeing both far and close distances, but come with drawbacks.

. . .

By using a dynamic lens, IXI does away with fixed magnification areas: “Modern varifocals have this narrow viewing channel because they’re mixing basically three different lenses,” said Niko Eiden, CEO of IXI. “There is far sight, intermediate and short distance, and you can’t seamlessly blend these lenses. So, there are areas of distortion, the sides of the lenses are quite useless for the user, and then you really have to manage which part of this viewing channel you’re looking at.”

The IXI glasses, Eiden said, will have a much larger “reading” area for close-up vision — although still not as large as the entire lens — and it will also be positioned “in a more optimal place,” based on the user’s standard eye exam. But the biggest plus, Eiden added, is that most of the time, the reading area simply disappears, leaving the main prescription for long distance on the entire lens.

“For seeing far, the difference is really striking, because with varifocals you have to look at the top part of the lens in order to see far. With ours, you have the full lens area to see far — as you were used to when you were slightly younger,” Eden explained, referring to people who had glasses for distance vision from their teens or early adulthood, before starting to also need reading glasses, like most people as they get older.

There's more at the link.

I use reading and computer glasses, with different prescriptions, but don't yet need longer-range lenses.  It would be handy to have a single pair that will autofocus from near (book) to slightly longer (computer) distances on demand.

However, I have questions.

1. How are these glasses powered?  There must be a battery somewhere, and a means to carry the power to the lenses themselves.  What's the life of the battery?  How is it recharged and/or replaced when needed?
2. Can these lenses be incorporated/blended with existing technology that darkens the lens in bright light, and lightens it in darker areas, so that one doesn't need a separate pair of sunglasses?
3. How do the lenses perform in the rain?  Will they be able to compensate for drops of rain on their surface, and still provide clear vision?
4. How secure are they against dust, being dropped, and other hazards?  If scratched, as so many spectacle lenses so often are, can they continue in use, or would they have to be replaced?
5. What will they cost?  I imagine that at first, they'll be a premium product.  I won't be able to buy them online from discount vendors, I'm sure.

All that said, this sounds like a very useful development.

Peter

Boxing Day

 

The day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day in Britain and most Commonwealth nations.  I've had a few questions from American friends about why it's named that.  Wikipedia supplies a simple answer:

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest attestation from Britain in 1743, defining it as "the day after Christmas day", and saying "traditionally on this day tradespeople, employees, etc., would receive presents or gratuities (a 'Christmas box') from their customers or employers."

The term "Christmas box" dates back to the 17th century, and among other things meant:

A present or gratuity given at Christmas: In Great Britain, usually confined to gratuities given to those who are supposed to have a vague claim upon the donor for services rendered to him as one of the general public by whom they are employed and paid, or as a customer of their legal employer; the undefined theory being that as they have done offices for this person, for which he has not directly paid them, some direct acknowledgement is becoming at Christmas.

In Britain, it was a custom for tradesmen to collect "Christmas boxes" of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service throughout the year. This is mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary entry for 19 December 1663. This custom is linked to an older British tradition in which the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families since they would have had to serve their masters on Christmas Day. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts, bonuses, and sometimes leftover food. Until the late 20th century, there continued to be a tradition among many in the UK to give a Christmas gift, usually cash, to vendors, although not on Boxing Day, as many would not work on that day.

There's more at the link.

As a child in South Africa, I remember my parents putting together "Christmas boxes" (usually envelopes) for the workers who delivered mail, bottles of milk, and other services to our home.  They'd give them to the workers a couple of days before Christmas, rather than the day after, because so many of them would be hung over after Christmas and might not make it to work that day!

With the passing of the "servant era" in Western society, the concept of Boxing Day has died away, too.  I think that's a pity.  It's worth remembering those on whose service we rely every day of the year, and acknowledging that in some practical way.

Peter

An interesting conundrum

 

From Eaton Rapids Joe:

Are more people carrying "crazy-genes" then they did in the past?

The short answer is "yes".

As recently as 1900 in developed countries like Ireland, England and Germany, if your mother was crazy you were probably not going to live to see your first birthday ... In total, crazy-genes had a high probability of "dead-ending". In those days the pool of crazy people resulted from random meetings of recessive genes or in new mutations.

Flash-forward to the permissive, Welfare-State.

... back when "crazy-genes" self-extinguished we experienced a rate of approximately 5% seriously crazy people. Now the crazy-people genes are subsidized rather than exposed to Darwinian selection and the numbers are growing much faster (due to high risk behaviors) than the numbers of not-crazy people.

There's more at the link, including examples.  Recommended reading.

I hadn't made the connection in genetic terms.  Like almost everybody, I've noted the increase in the number of crazy-behaving "street people":  talking to themselves, gesticulating wildly even though they're not talking to anybody, behaving very oddly and sometimes self-destructively, and so on.  However, without thinking about it much, I'd assumed that much of this was due to the lack of mental health care (after the closure of most sanatoriums and institutional mental health care facilities).  I hadn't thought about the fact that the sheer survival rate of everyone, on average, also meant that more "crazy-genes" were also surviving, and therefore slowly increasing in proportion to the rest of the population.

So . . . if that's the case, how are we going to deal with the problem?  We can't very well simply execute those with "crazy-genes" - not and still regard ourselves as human beings.  On the other hand, we do them (and ourselves, and our society) no favors by allowing them to increasingly take over our streets.  What next?

Peter

I did not know this

 

I was fascinated to read an account of the development of the term "bulldozer" and the machine known by that name.  The thing is, in our politically-correct society, I found it hard to believe the article's explanation of where, when and how the word originated.  Here's an excerpt.

According to an 1881 obituary in a Louisiana newspaper, the word “bulldozer” was coined by a German immigrant named Louis Albert Wagner, who later committed suicide by taking a hefty dose of opium dissolved in alcohol. Little else is recorded about Wagner, but his term became a viral sensation in late 1800s America, going from street slang to dictionary entry in just one year. It likely originated from a shortening of “bullwhip,” the braided tool used to intimidate and control cattle, combined with “dose,” as in quantity, with a “z” thrown in for good measure. To bulldoze was to unleash a dose of coercive violence.

If, like gods, we aspire to create machines in our own image, then it’s fitting that the original bulldozers were humans. Leading up to the corrupted U.S. election of 1876, as the Southern states were being reconstructed following the Civil War, terrorist gangs of predominantly white Democrats roamed about, threatening or attacking Black men who they thought might vote for the Republican Party. The men were the bulldozers, and the acts they carried out were bulldozing.

. . .

“The good people have been cowed down, brow-beaten, insidiously threatened, forced to silence or worse, the countenancing of outrages, blackmailed and their contributions made the lever for future extortions, their tongues muzzled, their hands tied, their steps dogged, their business jeopardized and themselves living in continual fear of offending the ‘bulldozers,’” read an article in the New Orleans Republican in June. By the following year, the association of “bulldozer” with rampant voter suppression during the election made it a common term across the U.S. for any use of brutal force to intimidate or coerce a person into doing what the aggressor desired.

It’s hard to trace when the word first became a label for machines. For decades, it floated around the language tree, resting a while on branches where some instance of terrific violence needed a novel and evocative label. A handful of arms manufacturers marketed various “bulldozer” and “bulldog” pistols in these years. As the 19th century came to a close, it popped up in a Kentucky newspaper as a term for a towboat used to smash through heavy ice and in an Illinois court case to describe a manufacturing machine that had ripped off a worker’s left arm.

The bulldozer we know today took shape in the first quarter of the 20th century. In 1917, the Russell Grader Manufacturing Company advertised a bulldozer in their catalog: a huge metal blade pulled by mules that could cut into the earth and flatten the land. Other manufacturers like Holt, Caterpillar and R. G. LeTourneau were working on similar devices, technological descendants of scraping tools developed in the American West and associated with Mormon farmers. In time, animals were replaced with tractors (on wheels or continuous tracks) powered first by steam, then gasoline and eventually diesel. The word, which at first referred only to the blade itself, started to mean the entire machine, one that was unrivaled in its ability to rip, shift and level earth.

There's more at the link.  It makes very interesting reading.  A tip o' the hat to Ted Gioia for including it in his list of the best online articles of 2025.

I decided to investigate further.  One of the meanings of the word "bulldozer" given in the Collins English Dictionary is "a person who intimidates or coerces".  Until I read the article above, I'd never heard the word used to mean that - but then, I learned to speak English-English (actually, colonial-English) rather than American-English, so it's not surprising I'd never heard of the historical American roots of the word.

Wikipedia (hardly a trustworthy source, I know) does not list that meaning under its disambiguation entry for "Bulldozer".  However, its sister site Wiktionary does list it:

3.  (historical, chiefly in the plural) A member of a self-identified group of white US Southerners who colluded to influence outcomes of post-Reconstruction elections by intimidating, coercing and bullying black voters and legislators, including burning down houses and churches, flogging and murdering opponents.

4.  (by extension) A bully; an overbearing individual.

Again, more at the link.

So, unlikely though it sounded to me, I guess the article is accurate.  I learned something new today.

Peter

Catching a Russian spy through her... cat???

 

This illustrates how many ways our online history can be used to track us - or, in this case, track a Russian spy.  A tip o' the hat to Larry Lambert for mentioning this video clip on his blog.

I wonder what her Russian bosses had to say about that?  And did they take out their frustrations on the cat?  A longer clip about the investigation is due soon, and I'll be looking for it on the author's YouTube channel.  It should be a fascinating detective story.

Peter

"The Higher Education Bubble That Everyone Forgot About"

 

That's the headline to Jared Dillian's analysis of higher education in the USA at present.  Here are a few excerpts.

My generation, Generation X, the smallest generation, hatched an even smaller generation, Gen Z. The number of students going to college peaked around 5–7 years ago, has been going down ever since, and will continue to go down. Many colleges and universities simply won’t be able to survive. They’re businesses, like anything else, and the schools that have something to offer will continue to thrive, and others will simply wither and blow away. We’ll have far fewer institutions of higher education 10 years from now, and while that is regrettable in a sense, it is probably a good thing.

. . .

Demographers use “demographic cliff” to describe the sharp drop in the population of 18‑ to 24‑year‑olds that began after the Great Recession and is projected to continue into the 2030s. Because this age group makes up the majority of undergraduates, fewer young people almost automatically translates into fewer traditional college students, unless college‑going rates rise a lot.​

. . .

The question is: Will schools be competing on amenities, or will they be competing on the quality of education, or will they be competing on price? My guess is all three. Yes, for the first time in history, schools will have to compete on price. I think we’ve reached the apex of college tuition, and we’re headed downward from here. Not materially, but even if the cost of college remains constant, it will decline in real terms as incomes rise. Same goes for textbooks and room and board and everything else.

. . .

Given declining birth rates generally, 50 years from now, we could have half of the colleges that we have today. Nobody is thinking this far ahead, and nobody is preparing for it. If I were a university president, this would be top of mind—how to financially prepare a university for the day that enrollment is cut in half, building up financial reserves, and not building the indoor practice field.

There's more at the link.

I suspect he's right on the money.  When I look at how many administrators colleges and universities have hired over the past couple of decades (as opposed to lecturers and professors), I'm immediately struck by the huge increase in the former versus the relative (as a proportion of the higher education workforce) decrease in the latter.  All those administrative staff are leeching off the higher education budget without contributing anything, in education terms, to the purpose of that function.  When the only purpose of a function is education, and the demand for education goes down instead of up, what's going to happen to those who aren't contributing anything educational to that sector?  That's right . . . they're going to find themselves out of work.

There's also the question of how much instruction and teaching can be handled by computers and artificial intelligence systems, versus the old lecture style of learning.  High school students have already found they can learn far faster (and get a higher quality of education) through AI systems than through teachers.  Will that translate to higher education as well?  In many areas, I see no reason why not.

I'm currently reading "The Preparation:  How To Become Competent, Confident, and Dangerous", by Doug Casey and Matt and Maxim Smith.

The blurb reads:

Skip the debt. Build the man. What if you could trade four stagnant years in lecture halls for four years of adventure—emerging as a debt‑free EMT, pilot, welder, web/app builder, rancher, and entrepreneur all in one? The Preparation is the field manual for young men (and the parents who love them) who know the old college formula is broken and want a roadmap that actually forges competence, confidence, and real‑world value.

Written by three generations—legendary investor and bestselling author Doug Casey, entrepreneur Matt Smith, and twenty‑year‑old “beta tester” Maxim Smith—this book distills their hard‑won wisdom into a four‑year, 16‑cycle program you can start tomorrow.

• 16 themed cycles—Medic, Cowboy, Pilot, Fighter, Hacker, Maker, and more—each built around a hands‑on “Anchor Course” that forces you to learn by doing, not by cramming.
• Earn‑while‑you‑learn design shows you exactly how to pay your way through each cycle and graduate debt‑free.
• Cost: roughly one year of tuition – yet delivers four years of marketable skills, global travel, and a network of do‑ers, not talkers.
• Foundational philosophy rooted in Stoicism and Renaissance thinking so you don’t just master tasks—you master yourself.
• Bullet‑proof curriculum: step‑by‑step schedules, book lists, online courses, and locations for every skill so you’re never guessing what to do next.
• Battle‑tested results—Maxim used the program to rack up EMT shifts on Oregon wildfires, fly solo over the Rockies, ranch in Uruguay, and sail the Strait of Magellan before he turned twenty.

The Problem: College now averages $140,000+ and often delivers little more than ideology, debt, and obsolete credentials.

The Preparation: compresses that money and time into a crucible that turns raw potential into a modern‑day Renaissance Man—one who can protect, build, heal, sell, and lead in a world being up‑ended by AI and economic turmoil.

If I were a young person today, looking at making my way in life but not yet certain what I wanted to do, something like "The Preparation" as an alternative to college would be very intriguing.  If I had a son or daughter, I'd certainly be making sure they read it, and considered it as a viable alternative to the current higher education grind.  At the very least, it would turn out someone far better prepared for whatever life could throw at them as the typical college or university student.  Remember Robert Heinlein's timeless advice:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

We won't get that from today's universities!

Peter

OK, I have to try making this!

 

I've never thought of "Thanksgiving" and "pizza" in the same breath . . . but after reading this news report, that's changed.

Pino’s Pizza of Deer Park has something savory to be thankful for this Turkey Day — their viral Thanksgiving pizza pie, which is served with sliced roasted turkey breast, gravy, sausage and apple cornbread stuffing and topped off with cranberry sauce.

Barbieri has since expanded his Thanksgiving-themed offerings to include calzones, stromboli and empanadas — all stuffed with the same ingredients.

There's more at the link.

Here's a video report on the gastronomic monstrosity.

I'm hungry just looking at that thing!  It seems Americans will put anything on a pizza . . . and in this case, it looks like a winner.

What strange or alternative pizzas have you made and/or eaten, dear readers?  Surprise us with your stories and recipes in Comments.

Peter

A new twist on personal security and defense of your property

 

Big Country Expat is experimenting with a couple of low-cost entry-level quadcopter drones.  He suggests it's a good idea for everyone to get to know at least the basics of how to operate them.

The Scout is a good practice drone, and small enough to get in and around the interior of the house (or any house for that matter) for recon pretty well.

The problem is that it’s so lightweight, ANY and ALL breezes affect its flight. One time I was working on going room-to-room in the house, and the Central Air Conditioning kicked on, and the bird ‘lurched’ across the room in the draft of the AC blowing out of the vent.

So I’m not sure of the utility of it outside in real crosswinds.

This is a standard problem for the cheap ‘practice’ drones if you will. No real weight. One of my early $30 Amazon Chinesium drones I actually lost when practicing outside with the Redhead Nukular Gran. If you recall while I was flying it, I had a BIG gust of wind show up unexpectedly, and grab it, and last I saw of it, it was headed due south towards the Publix a quarter mile away…

Never did find out what happened to that ‘un LOL.

It literally faded to a teeny-tiny dot and then >poof<

So tonight, I tried to to fly this new quad inside BUT had a minor issue. Or maybe not minor per se…

The doggos.

Chili AND Stella both seem to think that the quadcopter is something they need to ‘fetch’ out of the air… I tried to get them to leave it alone, but nope. They weren’t listening at all. In fact Stella got too close while lunging at it, and the rotor blade caught her on the nose. She yelped pretty loudly as it must have hurt, but did that stop her?

She’s a ****ing rockheaded Pittie…

What do you think?

Riiiiiiiight.

Now it’s a challenge apparently.

Must. Snatch. The. Flying. Thing.

So this means in the future, I’ll have to either practice in the bedroom for the initial ‘tuning’ of it and getting a feel for the flight characteristics, or take it down to the park at the elementary school we used to take the Grans to after school or on a Saturday and give it a try there.

When I say ‘tuning’ I mean that the controls and servos need to be dialed in for accuracy, otherwise it might have drift already in the settings, and I need to make sure that it does a steady hover, and do some other things, to include getting the 4k Cameras ‘dialed in’ as well.

Seeing that drones are the future and at least trying to learn how to use them is a good and necessary thing. Better to learn on the short $$$ models than to spend a grand on a nice DJI Drone like the Ivans and Krainians use and have that get wrecked?

I’d rather burn through a half a dozen ‘practice drones’ learning how to ‘fly’ a drone rather than buying a $$$$$Mondo-Expensivo$$$$$ one and wasting/crashing/destroying it by accident.

There's more at the link, including pictures.

I think he makes a very good point.  While cheap entry-level quadcopters are still freely available, I think it's an excellent idea to learn to use them.  They may not be Predator- or Reaper-class weaponized drones, but one can use them to fly around one's property, or up and down the street, and see what's going on in the neighborhood.  If there are reports of rioting or unrest nearby, one can keep an eye on the situation, and if one sees "undesirables" heading in one's direction, one can be proactive in responding to them, either by "getting out of Dodge" before they arrive, or getting together with neighbors to greet them, in full readiness to protect one's loved ones and property, when they arrive.

I think I have a new project for the next few weeks . . .  Finding a low-cost drone that can cope with North Texas winds might be a challenge, but I'll do my best.  If anyone sees a drone heading for the wild blue yonder, coming from my general direction, let me know, will you, please?

Peter

Another perspective on the job market

 

Mike Rowe, who's spent much of his life trying to revive interest in the skilled trades and related jobs, spoke with Ford's CEO the other day.  In the light of our discussion about jobs yesterday, I've taken the liberty of reproducing most of his interview here.

I just had a great conversation with Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford Motor Company, which will air Sunday night at 10pm on One Nation. (That’s Kilmeade’s show on Fox.) Jim told me that as of yesterday morning, Ford Service Departments around the country had 6,000 empty bays. Not because people’s cars and trucks didn’t need fixing, but because the shortage of technicians has become that profound.

Ford isn’t alone. Every single automotive company in America is struggling to hire technicians, and the problem – (in spite of what you’ll likely read in the comments,) has nothing to do with the pay, the benefits, or the working conditions. These jobs offer a clear path to a six-figure career, with little to no college debt. In part, the problem is mathematical – this year, 37,000 new techs were hired across the country. Unfortunately, 76,000 retired. That’s a 2:1 ration, which is actually pretty good, compared to the 5:2 ratio in most of the construction trades. But along with a lack of warm bodies, there’s a lack of interest in the work itself. A will gap, in other words, combined with a skill gap. Happily, I think that’s about to change. Unfortunately, at the expense of a colossal upheaval.

I know I’m a broken record on this, but I think our workforce is about to undergo a truly seismic change. Amazon is eliminating 14,000 corporate roles, citing both economic concerns and the impact of artificial intelligence on how the company operates. Some say the actual number will be closer to 30,000. UPS is cutting 34,000 operations roles, driven by automation. Target, Intel, Paramount, American Airlines, Starbucks…every week, another big corporation lays off thousands of people whose particular skill sets are no longer relevant. And yet, not a week goes by when some industry leader like Jim Farley doesn’t tell me about the extraordinary, unprecedented difficulty of getting skilled workers into the pipeline, and onto the jobsite.

I’ve never seen it like this. I’ve spent seventeen years trying to reinvigorate the skilled trades, by making a more persuasive case for the opportunities at hand. Typically, I’ve focused my efforts on young men and women starting their careers by offering scholarships to trade schools, and this year, I’ll redouble my efforts in that regard. But as of today, I’ll also be thinking about the hundreds of thousands of white-collar workers who are either going to retire prematurely, or hit the reset button, and learn a skill that’s in demand. Because many of those people simply don’t understand the other side of the workforce, and the myriad opportunities that exist today.

Last month, for instance, in Plano, Texas, I toured a Data Center. It was overwhelming, and in some ways, a little unsettling. But I met with a few electricians while I was there, who told me they’d all been poached from different companies at least three times in the last two years. These guys were all under 30, and all making well over $200K a year. They constantly get offers from the competition for ever-increasing salaries, because the need for electricians is acute, and their jobs are not threatened by robots or AI. (Not yet, anyway. And probably not in our lifetimes.) The same is true of welders, HVAC techs, plumbers, and so forth.

Apologies, if I sound glib. I can only imagine how scary it is for a middle-manager in a white-collar job, or a paralegal, or a coder, or a stock broker, or a graphic artist, to be told it’s time to “hit the reset button.” I know how absurd it might sound to a person in that position to be told that the ship building industry has 200,000 openings, or the energy industry has 300,000 openings, or the construction industry has 250,000 openings, or that Ford has 6,000 empty bays as of this morning.

But that’s where we are. Your jobs are not being eliminated; your industries are being eliminated. That doesn’t mean your only option is to learn a skilled trade. But the option is there, nevertheless.

I admire Mike Rowe for his tireless efforts to improve the image of skilled trades in the eyes of the average American, and highlight how critically important they are to our economy as a whole.  If I were starting over, I'd look very hard at a trade instead of the usual university-to-white-collar route that I followed.  I think I'd have a lot more fun, and I'd probably make more money, too.

Trouble is, so many First World economies have de-emphasized skilled trades as a career path that it's hard to find good training and education in the field.  In South Africa, we had so-called "technikons" as a parallel education path to universities.  One could study for a "technical degree" as easily as an "academic degree", and go all the way to a doctorate in many fields (somewhat similar to the German system of technical education, culminating in the "Dr. Ing." qualification).  Unfortunately, as part of the reorganization of South African institutions that followed the advent of democracy in 1994, the technical universities were folded into the academic system, so that today one can no longer choose which "stream" to follow.  I thought at the time that was a mistake, and I've seen nothing to make me change my mind.

Mike Rowe is doing an outstanding jobs with his Foundation to encourage and sponsor technical training.  More power to him!

Peter

An unforeseen danger in a sleep supplement

 

I've used a melatonin supplement as a sleep aid for over a year.  I take one tablet at night before going to bed, and have found it helps me sleep more regularly, with less waking up in the middle of the night.

Unfortunately, I may have to stop that.  A new report says melatonin can be a two-edged sword.

New research has linked long-term melatonin use with a significantly increased risk of heart failure, hospitalization and death.

An observational study from the American Heart Association (AHA) examined five years of health records of 130,828 adults with insomnia, half of whom used melatonin for at least one year. The other half did not take the supplement.

People who were prescribed other sleep medications or already had confirmed heart failure were excluded from the analysis.

The researchers found that long-term melatonin use in those with chronic insomnia was linked to a 90% increased chance of incident heart failure compared to non-users.

Additionally, participants who filled at least two melatonin prescriptions at least 90 days apart had an 82% higher risk of developing heart failure compared with those who did not use melatonin, according to the observational study.

A secondary analysis revealed that participants who took melatonin were nearly 3.5 times as likely to be hospitalized for heart failure and twice as likely to die.

There's more at the link.

What I found particularly depressing was that this study deliberately excluded people who "already had confirmed heart failure".  That would include me, after two heart attacks.  If melatonin increased cardiac risks to the extent reported in people with healthy hearts, what about folks like me with unhealthy ones?

I know a number of people who use melatonin as I do - some of them recommended it to me.  It does work as a sleep aid, in my experience.  However, no matter how effective it may be in the latter capacity, if it's going to add to the stress on my heart, I'm going to have to stop using it.

Have any readers had experiences that might bear out this report?  If so, please tell us about them in Comments.

Peter

Temporary tags being misused? Say it ain't so...

 

I noted this report with cynical amusement.

The general manager of a DeLand car dealership was arrested Oct. 7 on a warrant after failing to appear in court in September on charges he did not register temporary tags on vehicles he was selling, court documents show.

. . .

Florida troopers started investigating the dealership's temporary tags after an unregistered one was found on a vehicle during a traffic stop March 3.

The report states that the driver of the Ford Escape stopped by a trooper said she bought the vehicle with the unregistered temporary tag from DeLand Reliable Cars and Trucks.

The driver of the Ford Escape was cited for not having a vehicle registration.

Troopers said the temporary tag was not registered and the Department of Motor Vehicles did not have any information on file for the tag attached to the Ford Escape.

Troopers towed the Ford Escape and requested an audit be done on DeLand Reliable Cars and Trucks, according to court documents.

. . .

Investigators discovered that the dealership had issued four different unregistered temporary tags to the driver of the Ford Escape, an arrest report shows.

Investigators said they also found 20 temporary tag numbers issued to DeLand Reliable Cars and Trucks that were never registered to a person or vehicle but were found attached to cars at the dealership.

"(The vehicles) were driven on public roadways throughout the state of Florida," investigators noted in their report.

There's more at the link.

It reminded me of multiple incidents after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  I reported at the time:

I've ... heard reports from Texas, Alabama and Tennessee of brand-new high-end motor vehicles (e.g. Cadillacs, Lincolns, BMW's, etc.), with New Orleans dealer tags, being driven through various towns on their way North and West. The drivers were described as "gang-bangers" (and sundry less complimentary terms). However, there have been no reports of stolen vehicles from New Orleans, because there are no workers to check out dealer lots, or report thefts, and no working computers to enter VIN's, etc. into the NICS database of stolen vehicles - so officers have had no choice but to let these vehicles proceed. Draw your own conclusions.

Many of those vehicles turned out to have been stolen, but in the absence of any way to check on the validity (or otherwise) of their temporary tags, they couldn't be detained by local cops as they were ferried to whatever their final destination might be.  I understand many ended up being sold on the West Coast or in the Midwest.  Still others, I'm sure, found their way to Mexico and points south.

Do I believe the dealer's manager when he protested his innocence about the misuse of dealer tags?  Like hell I do!  It's a common tactic when a dealer - even an employee at a dealer who has access to the tags - makes a deal with criminals.  If they have 24 to 48 hours to get a head start, they can evade or avoid detection and pursuit until they and their stolen vehicles are safely out of the original jurisdiction.  In the case of Florida, a 48-hour period without questions being asked will allow the thieves to drive the vehicles all the way to Mexico - and once they're across that border, say goodbye to them for good.

Another problem is that if such vehicles are involved in accidents, they frequently have no insurance coverage at all.  If you're in a fender-bender with a car with a temporary tag, make sure to call a cop to the scene, and ask them to verify the tag number and insurance status.  If the other driver does his best to stop you doing that, be very suspicious.  If you fail to do that, your own insurance company might say that you're partly to blame for the costs of repairing your own vehicle, because you didn't check that the other driver's information was valid.

Something useful to file away in the old memory banks . . .

Peter

The fascinating history of string and rope

 

A very interesting article in Hakai magazine tells the story.

In his 1956 book The Marlinspike Sailor, marine illustrator Hervey Garrett Smith wrote that rope is “probably the most remarkable product known to mankind.” On its own, a stray thread cannot accomplish much. But when several fibers are twisted into yarn, and yarn into strands, and strands into string or rope, a once feeble thing becomes both strong and flexible—a hybrid material of limitless possibility. A string can cut, choke, and trip; it can also link, bandage, and reel. String makes it possible to sew, to shoot an arrow, to strum a chord. It’s difficult to think of an aspect of human culture that is not laced through with some form of string or rope; it has helped us develop shelter, clothing, agriculture, weaponry, art, mathematics, and oral hygiene. Without string, our ancestors could not have domesticated horses and cattle or efficiently plowed the earth to grow crops. If not for rope, the great stone monuments of the world—Stonehenge, the Pyramids at Giza, the moai of Easter Island—would still be recumbent. In a fiberless world, the age of naval exploration would never have happened; early light bulbs would have lacked suitable filaments; the pendulum would never have inspired advances in physics and timekeeping; and there would be no Golden Gate Bridge, no tennis shoes, no Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

“Everybody knows about fire and the wheel, but string is one of the most powerful tools and really the most overlooked,” says Saskia Wolsak, an ethnobotanist at the University of British Columbia who recently began a PhD on the cultural history of string. “It’s relatively invisible until you start looking for it. Then you see it everywhere.”

Precisely when people began to twine, loop, and knot is unknowable, but we can say with reasonable confidence that string and rope are some of the most ancient materials used by humankind. At first, our ancestors likely harvested nature’s ready-made threads and cordage, such as vines, reeds, grass, and roots. If traditional medicine and existing Indigenous cultures are any clue, early humans may have even used spider silk to catch fish and bandage wounds. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of years ago, people realized they could extract fibers from the hair and tissues of animals, as well as from the husks, leaves, and innards of certain sinewy, pulpy, or pliant plants, such as agave, cannabis, coconut, cotton, and jute. By twisting these natural fibers around one another again and again, they formed a material of superb resilience and versatility.

. . .

Although string and rope began to take shape on land, it was the ocean that unleashed the full potential of cordage. The earliest watercraft were probably rafts lashed together from branches or bamboo, and dugout canoes carved from logs, such as the 10,000-year-old Pesse canoe discovered in 1955 during motorway construction in the Netherlands. At first, the only means of propulsion were oars, poles, and the whim of the currents. Sailing required a critical insight: that the wind, like a wild animal, could be caught, tamed, and harnessed. A mast and sail, which is really just a tightly knit sheet of string, could trap the wind; long coils of sturdy rope could hoist and pivot the sail. String transformed seagoing vessels from floating lumber to elegant marionettes, animated by the wind and maneuvered by human will.

There's much more at the link.

Most of us are never exposed to the intricacies of complex string and rope work, but sailors - particularly those on ships still powered by sail, rather than engines - deal with it every day.  I recall when I first went aboard a racing yacht in South Africa, and saw the skipper - a salty seaman indeed, the living definition of the term - splicing two lines together, not just as a simple joint, but one so carefully crafted that it could fit through a block without jamming it.  I didn't even know that was possible.

I've also read many books about how string and rope were vital in historic vessels.  Tim Severin's voyages of exploration, Thor Heyerdahl's adventures with Kon-Tiki and the Ra expeditions, and many others caught and have kept my imagination for decades.  After reading this article, they'll be even more interesting to me.

Peter