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Repeat after me: ‘We Don’t Believe You’.

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Long time coming, but not unexpected.

UPDATE: Google Shuttering Google+ for Consumers After Undisclosed Data Breach

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Scientists have hailed the results of the world’s first gene therapy trial for blindness after 14 patients with one of the most common inherited forms of the disease experienced “significant” gains or arrested deterioration of their vision.

Oxford University researchers, working with the NHS, injected a virus containing a missing gene into the rear of the eyes of patients suffering from choroideremia.

Of the 12 who received the treatment without suffering any complications, all have demonstrated improved or maintained vision since having the injection, some as long as five years ago.

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In 2000, the FDA approved a new version of tissue adhesive for human use, sold as Dermabond. This new composition, octyl-cyanoacrylate, is a longer chain, still more flexible, and possess the yet-unexplained ability to inhibit bacterial growth — a godsend in surgery. It’s strong enough that it will likely replace a lot of suturing altogether someday. Small quantities of octyl-cyanoacrylate are sold to non-medicals for “research purposes” — it’s the genuine stuff, only in dispensers that aren’t sterilized, and therefore not approved for human use (only animal use).

To use any cyanoacrylate on a wound, keep it on the surface layer of skin, not down in the well of the wound – imagine you are taping the top of the wound together. The glue sloughs off by itself in time.

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Let that be a lesson to us all.

Think of it as evolution in action.

Note to self: Avoid Brazil.

UPDATE: Botched Brazilian bum-lifts inspired by Kim Kardashian costing NHS hundreds of thousands to put right 

How about that GREAT government-provided healthcare?

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And rightly so.

A poll by, of all people, National Public Radio shows that the Democrat smear campaign against Judge Brett Kavanaugh has motivated Republican voters ahead of next month’s midterm elections. In July, according to NPR’s polling, Democrats enjoyed a 10-point advantage — 78% to 68% — on the question, of whether the elections are “very important.” In a poll conducted this week, however, 80% of Republicans say the elections are “very important,” compared to 82% of Democrats. In other words, the GOP’s voter intensity has increased by 12 percentage points in less than three months, and only the Kavanaugh confirmation circus can explain this. “The result of hearings, at least in the short run, is the Republican base was awakened,” pollster Lee Miringoff told NPR.

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Sounds like a win-win. Go for it.

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Thank you, minimum wage.

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Over the past few months, The Heritage Foundation team has been traveling the country to explain the benefits of tax reform. Below, we answer the most frequently asked questions about last year’s tax cut and the effort to pass Tax Reform 2.0.

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I know it’s around here somewhere….

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I’ll risk it.

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For over a decade the Chinese army has been stressing accurate shooting in general. That means more time in basic training is devoted to shooting and rifle use in general. That is one reason China recently increased army basic training from three months to six. The three month course proved inadequate for many recruits. By doubling the basic training a lot of problems are solved. For one thing, no one graduates from the six month course without being physically fit and competent in basic military skills (including how to “act and look like a soldier.”) That last item has been an issue in China and the West were too many volunteers show up overweight and out of shape.

Don’t know how long basic training for infantry is in the U.S. these days but when I went through Navy boot camp in 1968 it was eight weeks. We got to fire a .22 rifle a few times and watched an instructor fire a .45.

UPDATE: Why do snipers open their mouth when about to shoot?

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But you have to bear in mind that Trump has accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING during his term in office.

Just remember that.

Absolutely nothing.

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Funny, I don’t see a flamethrower here….

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Will the Usual Suspects stop complaining? No, they will not.

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I sure would like to put Maxine Waters on ice. She could use some serious cooling down.

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Incredibly useful stuff.

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Don’t know about you, but this creeps me out.

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Tell the truth:We’ve all wanted to do that.

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If you shoot things for fun, these are invaluable.

If you get shot at, of course, and shoot back, you rarely get the opportunity to use earmuffs. Not many people appreciate that.

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Yet another reason I refuse to fly. Pay money to be locked in a steel tube with crazy people? No thanks.

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I’ll bet you didn’t know that.

I have a vision of something like a large ostrich with one of those ridiculous ‘We’re No. 1!’ foam fingers over its head.

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Women and minorities hardest hit, etc.

Think of it as evolution in action.

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What’s French for ‘fed up’?

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Just in case Democrats actually succeed in destroying civilization.

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This school district is starting competency-based education (CBE). The U.S. Department of Education described this education as “allowing students to demonstrate mastery of academic content regardless of time.” Students will have a chance to do more job shadows and internships, according to hechingerreport.org.

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Not something you see every day.

Check it out.

On cue, the fridge’s door slowly swung open, spreading a fan of milky light across the linoleum floor. From where one expected to see racks and crispers, two wide-eyed teenagers emerged. Behind them, down the refrigerated rabbit hole, a glowing white corridor plunged into the unknown.

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Why not? We’ve already got the Borg wandering among us.

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No worries, cobber.

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Now here is the mildly — let’s call it annoying — news: The publication date is March 5, 2019. So you are going to have to wait to get your hands on the tome (which, VDH tells Yours Truly, is going to be a sizeable work), counting the days while reminding yourself that all good things come to those who wait….

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Traditionally, elastic fei chang fen noodles are made of sweet-potato starch reserved in a steaming-hot broth with pig intestines. The resulting noodle soup is then garnished with bean sprouts, scallions, peanuts, chili oil, and vinegar.

It is the unique preparation, however, by which the street vendor creates his noodles that caught our attention. By combining starch and liquid, he creates a non-Newtonian fluid: a liquid that does not flow with constant viscosity but with a viscosity that changes in response to shear forces, which are forces that push in opposite directions along two distinct parallel lines. Simply put, non-Newtonian fluids can behave as both a liquid and solid. When you apply shear forces to non-Newtonian fluids, you’re met with resistance—try punching such mixtures, and you might come away with a bruise or two. In contrast, Newtonian fluids (like water) have a relatively constant viscosity, despite shear forces and flow rates, which allow them to flow in predictable ways.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that.

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Her first opponent will no doubt be Brett Kavanaugh.

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Cartoons suggest that rabbits can happily survive on a diet of carrots alone. But in the wild, rabbits don’t eat root vegetables—they’d much rather munch on greens like weeds, grasses, and clovers. That doesn’t mean you can’t give your pet some carrots as a snack from time to time, but don’t overdo it: Carrots are high in sugar and contribute to tooth decay in 11 percent of pet bunnies.

No wonder Bugs was so hyper.

All of my illusions, shattered.

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Some things don’t quite add up about hedge fund manager Seth Klarman’s interview with the New York Times in which he discloses that he will spend between $18 million and $20 million this election cycle on helping Democrats “because I think democracy is at stake.”

Democrats: Party of the Rich. You heard it here first.

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You know, as you do.

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I’ll bet you didn’t know that.

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It was the second time a Japanese ship armed with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system was able to intercept a ballistic missile, the first being in February 2017. A second test in June of last year failed, but the Navy blamed sailor error for that miss after the interceptor blew up in flight.

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If you’re really into knots, there’s a cellphone app called Knots 3D that will walk you through any knot you want via animation.

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Everything you know is wrong.

Hausmann’s study drew several conclusions about body temperature: for example, women have higher temperatures than men, and it is natural for an individual’s body temperature to increase throughout the day, according to Wired.

And science is sexist.

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Which is, of course, important to us all.

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I’ll bet you didn’t know that.

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I didn’t even know that there was a ‘Dyson award’.

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Babies born with LCA have poor eyesight and are extra sensitive to light. In most cases, people with the “rare genetic eye disorder” go completely blind by age 40, according to a press release from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

LCA is caused by a mutated gene. The scientists figured out a way to transfer a corrected version of the gene to patients via innocuous viruses. They received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s first approval of a gene therapy for a congenital disorder in December 2017, according to the press release.

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The team demonstrated the system’s potential by searching around 1,000 reactions using combinations of 18 different starting chemicals.

After exploring only around 100 of the possible reactions, the robot was able to predict with over 80 per cent accuracy which combinations of starting chemicals should be explored to create new reactions and molecules.

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Except in California, of course, which will have eliminated plastic waste by then.

I’m sure in San Francisco they’re working on methane generation based on human waste.

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News of Kim Jong-Nam’s death was quickly picked up in Japan not by one of the country’s giant media conglomerates, but by a small startup. JX Press Corp., a news technology venture founded in 2008 by Katsuhiro Yoneshige while he was still a freshman in college, reported the incident more than half an hour faster than the big names, according to one observer. It did so even though it has no journalists, let alone any international bureaus.

“NewsDigest got the scoop at 19:52, and TV stations had it about 20:30,” sociologist Noritoshi Furuichi wrote on Twitter after reports of Kim’s death. “Television has succumbed to being a slow media.”

JX Press’s secret, it turns out, is a combination of social media and artificial intelligence. Yoneshige and his team have developed a tool, using machine learning, for finding breaking news in social media posts and writing it up as news reports. Essentially, it’s a newsroom staffed by engineers.

And, I suspect, it didn’t have the proglodyte slant so pervasive at major news outlets.

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The newest neuron has been named the “rosehip neuron,” thanks to its bushy appearance. The brain cell, with its unique gene expressions, distinctive shape and diverse connections with other neurons, has not been described before and, what’s more, it isn’t present in neuroscientists’ favorite subject: mice.

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Whaddaya know, the E.U. may actually be good for something.

Of course, this is the Guardian, so you’ll want to confirm that from a reliable source.

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I’ll bet you didn’t know that.