Read it.

Statists always use crises (‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’) to attempt to accrue more power to government, especially government that they control.

As the Democrats trend more and more socialist, expect more and more of their proglodyte fringe elected officials to make proposals like this.

Read it.

The COVID-19 outbreak is giving new meaning to those “sustainable” shopping bags that politicians and environmentalists have been so eager to impose on the public. These reusable tote bags can sustain the COVID-19 and flu viruses—and spread the viruses throughout the store.

Researchers have been warning for years about the risks of these bags spreading deadly viral and bacterial diseases, but public officials have ignored their concerns, determined to eliminate single-use bags and other plastic products despite their obvious advantages in reducing the spread of pathogens. In New York State, a new law took effect this month banning single-use plastic bags in most retail businesses, and this week Democratic state legislators advanced a bill that would force coffee shops to accept consumers’ reusable cups—a practice that Starbucks and other chains have wisely suspended to avoid spreading the COVID-19 virus.

There is no ‘political’ position in existence that its opponents cannot plausibly characterize as potentially causing the end of the world.

Read it.

Viruses aren’t considered to be alive in the technical sense, but are more like nano-robot warheads that operate strictly by mechanical-chemical operation — once they bump up against a target cell, something on the outside of the virus binds to something on the outside of the cell and this event triggers the remaining processes that proceed automatically.

If you look at the diagram accompanying this article, you’ll see that the ‘payload’ of the virus is contained in a ‘lipid membrane’. Apparently hand-washing and other cleaning methods are effective against the coronavirus because soaps and other surfactants destroy this ‘lipid membrane’ and cause the virus to disintegrate. (It doesn’t ‘kill’ the virus, which isn’t really alive, but the effect is much the same.)

UPDATE: SARS-CoV-2 Point of Entry Into Cells Captured by Cryo-EM

UPDATE: How Long Does the Coronavirus Last on Surfaces?

UPDATE: A human monoclonal 1 antibody blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection

Read it.

Ask yourself why it never went anywhere.

I subscribe to a collection of news feeds from British sources. A lot of what they publish, as with American sources, is trash. Since almost every article is accompanied by a picture, I’ve developed a simple method of triage that I’d like to share with you.

I ignore any article accompanied by a picture of:

1. Any member of a royal family, British or otherwise. (Yes, I know a lot of these people by sight. Don’t ask.)
2. Any British politician that I recognize. (Far too many. Again, don’t ask.)
3. Any athletic event or participant, including coaches and Russian oligarchs. (There’s a story behind that — but it’s just as boring.)
4. Food items. For some reason British news sources are big on these, and they’re all disgusting.

This eliminates about 90% of it, and saves an immense quantity of time. Highly recommended.

Steve Sailer is not afraid to ask the hard questions.

This fellow theorizes that the Chinese love of meat, with the more types of animals the better, is a big source of infectious germs. In contrast, Hindu vegetarianism lessens transmissions from other animals.

John Hinderaker at Power Line jerks back the curtain.

The Democratic Party press is openly trying to turn coronavirus into President Trump’s Hurricane Katrina. In that context, much of what reporters say is too stupid to be worth rebutting. For example, when the Dow dropped 1,000 points after Trump gave a coronavirus speech a few days ago, the echo chamber told us that Wall Street has no faith in the incompetent Trump. Then, when Trump began to deliver this afternoon’s speech that declared a national emergency and announced various anti-virus measures, there was a brief drop in the Dow, about which many liberals tweeted, blaming Trump. But then the Dow soared 2,000 points, and lots of those tweets were deleted.

Read it.

It begins with the proprietary SeaQuantum Skate silyl acrylate-based coating being applied to the ship’s hull. While this resists biofouling all on its own, it’s also designed to not be damaged by the HullSkater robot, which is the system’s other main component.

That robot stays aboard the ship full-time, in a portable station that includes a launch and recovery ramp. An internet-based system – which monitors the ship’s status and location, along with marine conditions – lets the crew know when hull-cleanings should be performed. The ship has to be anchored or docked at the time.

Once launched, the HullSkater clings to the underside of the vessel using its four magnetized wheels. Motors in each of those wheels proceed to move it along, while a rotating brush on its front end preemptively scours away the “biofilm” that forms in advance of outright biofouling.

Not quite a Roomba for the ship’s hull, but close.

Read it.

Speed the day.

On PBS, Amanpour Finds Environmental ‘Silver Lining’ in Coronavirus Epidemic

Planet is ‘way off track’ in dealing with climate change, U.N. report says

Rhode Island Official Admits State’s Climate Lawsuit Is Meant To Wring Money Out Of Big Oil: Court Docs

Ten minutes at the teleprompter: Inside Trump’s failed attempt to calm coronavirus fears  Washington Post. What is the likelihood that the Post would say ‘Yeah, Trump did a good job’?

Trump’s coronavirus ban on travel from the EU is backfiring already  The Guardian.

New York Times Wishful Thinking: Coronavirus Could Damage Trump Reelection Chances  They’re certainly doing what they can to move it along.

‘The Five’ Panel Explodes After Juan Williams Refuses To Give Trump Credit For Chinese Travel Ban

Without Evidence, Politico Suggests Trump Intentionally Exempted His Resorts From Travel Restrictions

Blumenthal ‘Appalled’ That The U.S. Lost 2 Months In Dealing With Coronavirus — His Party Spent Some Of That Time Impeaching Trump

New Orleans Saints Star Takes Mocks Trump and His Supporters: Duped by MAGA

Fauci Rejects ABC’s Attempt to Bait Him to Blame Trump: Not Here to ‘Play Monday Morning Quarterback’

‘Dismantling Civilization’: Hollywood Pins Pandemic on ‘Worst Human’ Trump  Yeah, we always take our political advice from people who make their living pretending to be someone else.

NY Times Angry at Trump’s ‘America First’ Attacks on Allies, Blaming China for Virus

Former New York Times “Reporter” Jim Roberts Tweets, “The Dow Has Fallen 300 points Since Trump Started Speaking,” Then Stealth-Deletes as Down Rises Nearly 10%, Nearly 2000 Points

Google-Funded Think Tank Chief Resigns After Wishing Coronavirus Would Kill Trump

CBS to Trump at Press Conference: ‘Are You Being Selfish?’

Read it.

‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’ The coronavirus has nothing to do with guns, but statists never pass up an opportunity to invade people’s rights under color of any emergency.

Read it.

It doesn’t really matter. He was always the Deep State in a Clever Plastic Disguise.

Read it.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has released a set of “religious directives” for terrorists to follow to avoid spreading the coronavirus, The Daily Mail reports.

The list, which was recently released in the group’s newspaper al-Naba, advises ISIS members to “stay away from sick people… wash your hands before eating,” and “avoid travel to affected areas.”

Read it.

One of the major concerns of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is that artificial intelligence and automation – robots – will eliminate jobs, both blue-collar and white-collar roles across a variety of sectors.

While C-3PO and WALL-E might be good at processing algorithms, they can never replace living, breathing, thinking humans entirely in the workplace. From the auto factory producing a fine-tuned machine where safety and functionality are of utmost importance, to the commodities trading floor where high-value transactions must take into account complex, rapidly changing geopolitical movements, businesses of all kinds still require human intelligence.

Axe Attack in Schwabing

Large Scale US Airstrikes Underway Against Iran-Backed Militias In Iraq

Pentagon Threatening Retaliatory Strike After Attack in Iraq  Don’t threaten, do it.

Two US And One British Soldiers Killed In Rocket Attack On Tajj Military Base In Iraq

US Troops Killed, Injured in Iraq Attack

10 Rockets Fired At Iraqi Base Holding US Troops: Officials

DoD Linguist Arrested, Charged With Espionage For Sharing Identities Of US Spies With Hezbollah

Shia chaos

Hating Israel Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

Twin Suicide Bombings Target US Embassy In Tunisia 

The Utrecht Tram Mujahid: Prosecutors Recommend Life in Prison

Get Off This Bus And Across That Border!

For Turkey, a war and a new refugee crisis

Swedish Democrat Leader Tells Migrants “Sweden Is Full!” In Turkey

Expect Up To 40% Of Tehran’s Population To Be Infected In 2 Weeks: Iranian Health Official

Echoes of Isil as armed groups loot priceless artefacts across Sahel

Iranian Regime Blames Coronavirus On Antisemetic “Zionist Conspiracy”  Uh, sure….

Erdogan: The Migrant Horde is Islam’s Last Army

Islam Creeps Into Quebec Schools Behind the Veil

Defense Contractor’s Arrest Exposes Another Element in Hizballah’s U.S. Infrastructure

The Tram Trial

The Muslim Brotherhood Sinks a Taproot Into the Netherlands

Imam Who Spoke At Bernie Sanders Rally Has Said ISIS Was ‘Somehow Connected’ To Israel, That Homosexuality Is A ‘Disorder’

A Shisha Bar Brawl in Saarlouis

Islamists hurl stones and shoes at Women’s Day marchers in Pakistan

Findings on ISIS Refugees Further Complicate Europe’s Dilemma

Major Publications Appear To Ignore Pro-Bernie Imam’s ‘Offensive And Toxic’ Remarks

Refugees Flee in Panic From Lombardy

“It’s Their Interpretation of Islam”

Islamic Scholar Who Said Coronavirus Was “Allah’s Punishment” Gets Coronavirus

All to Bash Trump on Virus: In 24 Hours CBS Does 180 on Travel Ban

Babylon Bee.

NPR did a segment the other day on the terrible burden that closing the schools will be on parents who depend on the government free school meal programs to feed their kids.

Peggy Noonan joins the chorus of fear-mongering.

No matter what the situation, ‘Don’t panic’ is ALWAYS good advice.

Read it.

The threat of Covid-19 hate crimes across the country is surging this week as Asian Americans in San Gabriel Valley, a region east of Los Angeles, are loading up on weapons as concerns they could be targeted.

So tell us about these ‘virus-related attacks’…?

We noted on Monday that the first possible coronavirus-related hate crime in America, where an Asian man was stabbed numerous times, all caught on camera, occurred on a Brooklyn, New York street.

Ah. ONE attack. In New York. On the other side of the country.

Climate change could threaten sea snails in mid-Atlantic waters  Forget coronavirus, let’s get back to worrying about the real stuff.

Trump address sparks chaos as coronavirus crisis deepens  CNN. Chaos? Seriously?

White House ‘100 Percent’ Denies Claim Trump Waiting For Jared Kushner’s Sign Off To Declare Coronavirus Emergency

CBS: Trump’s Address Is ‘Damage Control,’ Needs More Than ‘Just Words’

Acosta Declares Trump’s Coronavirus Address Was ‘Smacking of Xenophobia’

MSNBC TRASHES Trump’s Coronavirus Speech as a ‘Distraction,’ ‘Strange,’ ‘Weird,’ ‘Worrying’

‘I Can’t Talk?!’: Don Lemon Flips Out On John Kasich For Not Bashing Trump’s Coronavirus Address

Pathetic: Joy Reid Spends Hour Lying, Fear-Mongering, Trashing Trump on Coronavirus

Lemon Loses His Mind, Shouts Down Kasich for NOT Bashing Trump’s Address

Democrats Reject Trump’s Call For Unity To Fight Pandemic  ‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’

Trump’s Coronavirus Policies Don’t Tackle the Pandemic  Wired ‘Science’.

‘Unconscionable’; MSNBC Pans Trump on Coronavirus as ‘Failure,’ Claims Feds Will Shirk Role

Saxo: “Trump’s Address To The Nation Failed Abysmally In Calming Sentiment”  Not surprising with all of the LameStream media devoted to pushing panic.

CNN’s Jim Acosta: Trump Calling Coronavirus ‘Foreign’ Is Xenophobic

The Speech Was a Disaster  Noah Rothman punches right for Commentary. So much for the Never Trumpers.

Joe Scarborough Suggests Widespread Belief That Coronavirus Is ‘A Hoax’ Due To Trump ‘Misinformation’  No, due to media disinformation.

Debate Moderator Jorge Ramos: Bernie Sanders Pitchman and Trump Resistor

An Abundance of Caution and an Incautious President  Noah Rothman polishes his NeverTrumper cred for Commentary magazine.

CBS: ‘America-First’ Trump Trying to ‘Make Virus’ ‘an Outsiders Problem’

NBC Demands Pence Predict ‘Millions’ Will Be Infected

Joy Behar Says She’s ‘A Little More Confident’ That Pence Can Handle Coronavirus Response Over Trump  That’s very white of her.

‘Xenophobia’: Joe Biden Criticizes Trump For Calling Coronavirus A ‘Foreign Virus’  Which it is.

Joy Behar Declares Trump’s Presidency Is Over: ‘Time for Him to Resign’

POLITICIZING: MSNBC Declares Coronavirus to Be Trump’s Chernobyl  They hope, they hope, they hope….

Comedy Central Uses Deceptive Editing to Mock Trump in ‘Pandumbic’ Trailer

House and Senate Democrats Are So Serious About the Coronavirus Threat… That They Want to Take Away The President’s Ability to Impose Travel Restrictions During Epidemics  Nothing must be allowed to reduce the flow of diseased foreigners over our border.

Ace of Spades goes there.

Via Derek Hunter’s Daily Daily Caller Podcast. In today’s podcast, he starts with a warning that he’s going to curse in this show, because he can’t restrain himself from doing so talking about the media’s “evil” opportunism in deliberately trying to start a panic.

He also goes balls deep into Non-Binary Ben and the rest of the NeverTrumper Twitter Parrots for repeating the same talking points of their leftwing Twitter buddies.

He also notes that CNN featured “reporter” Jim Acosta to discuss Trump’s speech, and Acosta immediately leapt to the left’s newest Speech Patrol Initiative, that you can no longer identify diseases by their place of origin (if they’re place of origin is majority non-white).

But Jim Acosta called it “Wuhan Coronavirus” fifty days ago….

Read it.

And the quest for Pokemon Victim Points continues.

I’m a victim, you’re a victim, he’s a victim, she’s a victim, wouldn’t you like to be a victim too?

Read it.

Such is the laudable, primary goal of Musk’s venture: to help those with brain injuries, abnormalities, and degenerative conditions. Two great technological breakthroughs in this effort are the amazing miniaturization of the implanted computer chips and the minimization of the ill effects of implantation via a precision robotic inserting device that looks like a slightly menacing sewing machine. It will make implantation as easy and quick as LASIK surgery, with no need for a neurosurgeon.

What could possibly go wrong?

Hammer tech.

Read it.

There’s almost always at least one signature spacecraft for any of these space-based sci-fi shows, and I was realizing that they design of the ships, while varying wildly from movie to movie, seemed to be remarkably consistent for a given sub-genre of space sci-fi.

You could look at one ship and immediately know that, say, the show would take place in the relatively near future, and have a pretty good gorunding in science, or look at another and immediately know nobody gave two shits about physics, but it’ll be a fun ride.

Victor Davis Hanson.

One way of understanding California is simply to invert traditional morality. What for centuries would be considered selfish, callous, and greedy is now recalibrated as caring, empathetic, and generous. The current ethos of evaluating someone by his or her superficial appearance—gender or race—has returned to the premodern values of 19th-century California when race and gender calibrated careers. We don’t pay medieval priests for indulgences of our past and ongoing sin, but we do tweet out displays of our goodness as the penance price of acting amoral.

Read it.

Plastics are a victim of their own success, so inexpensive, easy to use and versatile that the world is awash in plastic waste. Now researchers from the University of Houston have reported a new method of producing polyolefins — made from hydrocarbons and the most common building block of plastics — structured to address one of the biggest stumbling blocks to plastics recycling.

The process also would allow plastics to be produced from food oils and other natural substances.

Read it.

Photosynthesis is the process through which plants use the energy of the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose. Scientists have been trying for years to replicate the process, with the end result being electricity rather than glucose, and they have made some notable successes albeit all contained in the lab.

John Hinderaker at Power Line peeks behind the curtain.

I think there are several reasons for this, beyond legitimate concerns about spreading the disease.

First, a fear of liability that is probably misplaced. If other schools send their students home, and you don’t, and coronavirus makes some of your students sick, might they sue you for negligence? It would be a lousy case, but since anyone can sue anyone for anything, the fear of litigation is not wholly misplaced.

Second, many want to create a crisis that they can blame on Donald Trump in hopes of electing a Democratic president. This one doesn’t need any explanation.

The third reason is most interesting to me: I think many people are using coronavirus as an excuse for not doing things they didn’t want to do in the first place.

Read it.

Can’t see how this is ‘news’. I’d do the same if I were rich. That’s kinda what they’re for.

REPORT: DNC Asked Twitter To Label Trump Campaign’s Video ‘Manipulated Media’ On Behalf Of Biden Team

Twisted Strategy: CNN Fantasizes How Virus Can Help Dems Win 2020

MSNBC: ‘Carter-Like’ Trump’s Coronavirus Response Could Trigger ‘Crisis of Governance’  In their dreams.

Carville Predicts Trump Will Lose in November  My, what a surprise.

NY Gov. Cuomo: US Coronavirus Testing Delayed Too Long

Liberal Comic on MSNBC Insists Coronavirus ‘Is Political’: Trump ‘Doesn’t Care About Us’ or Science!

ABC’s Dowd Linked Violence to Trump ‘Rhetoric,’ But Cheers Biden’s Unhinged Outburst

‘Fact Checkers’ Freak Out at Trump (Not Biden) for ‘Deceptively Edited’ Video

Bob Geldof Says Trump Re-Election Will Be ‘Like Fall Of Roman Empire’

Watch: CNN Envisions How Covid-19 Can Help Democrats Win

Stephen Colbert Castigates Trump: ‘You’re a Monster’

Would Trump Coronavirus Death Be ‘Poetic Justice’? Asks TechFreedom Pres. Berin Szóka  No, but Colbert’s would be.

Double-Woke Seven: Daniel Craig Whines That They Tried to Keep Trump and Brexit Out of Our New James Bond Fantasy Film, But They Sadly Failed

Wishful Joy Behar: Trump Won’t Get Re-Elected Because of Coronavirus

Jim Acosta Tells Trump ‘People’ Don’t Think He’s Taking Coronavirus ‘Seriously Enough’ — Trump Calls CNN ‘Fake News’

The Ballarat company making amazing things with recycled plastic

Bloom Energy blew through billions promising cheap, green tech that falls short

It’s Easy to be Fooled by a Climate Alarmist

GMA Guilt-Trips, ‘Do the Right Thing’ on Climate or No More Baby Seals

Oregon’s Dem Governor Signs A Climate Executive Order After GOP Lawmakers Flee For Idaho

Steve Sailer reads this stuff so you don’t have to.

Well, at least she isn’t complaining about her hair this time.

UPDATE: NYT Editorial Board Member Nailed Again By Critics After Blaming Bloomberg Math Mistake Backlash On ‘Racist Twitter Mob’

Read it.

I’ll refrain from making the obvious joke.

Read it.

If, of course, that’s important to you.

I must admit that I find the thought of ‘unnatural peanut butter’ somewhat disturbing.

Read it.

It’s actually not a Molotov cocktail, but it was an attempted bombing.

Read it.

Maybe Putin is planning to scoop up the Dem nomination in a brokered convention.

Read it.

Scraaaaaaape that barrell….

Read it.

This is an awful lot of work to read a few hundred words about how the Mets are—I am not spoiling anything here—currently being cheap and lazy and unaccountable and weird in the same ways that they’ve been for the last couple of decades. It is also the utterly normal experience of visiting a great many pages on the internet.

There are a few sites that look and work better—the ones that people pay for, generally, or ones built with the luxurious snowdrift margins of Medium—but mostly there are sites like this one and others that are even worse.

Even on the websites of august institutions ads interrupt the text every two paragraphs; ads follow you down the sides of the page like store security; ads pop up in boxes that resist being closed, the elusive little x evading your cursor.

The Safari browser has a feature called Reader that can get around a lot of this. But not everywhere.

In the last half-decade, ads have rapidly migrated from the sides and top of the page into the actual text. This is the result of pressures created by the transition from desktop computers to mobile devices. The ads need to get seen on a screen with no margins.

The ads that stalk you down the page reflect advertisers’ demands that their ads remain “in view.” And all the clammy unbidden video stuff is exactly as desperate as it looks. Not many people will watch video ads if given any choice in the matter. Taking choice out of the equation helps a lot.

Some sites have deliberately made the experience of reading them for free more assaultive, in order to bully readers into buying subscriptions. For the price of a small monthly indulgence on your end, it can all go back to normal and your laptop’s fan can finally turn off.

Or, you can just not read these sites. That’s my solution.

Read it.

Researchers from Canterbury Christ Church University have confirmed that human remains kept in a southeastern English church are almost certainly those of St Eanswythe. Dating back to the seventh-century, these are the earliest verified remains of a medieval English Saint.

Read it.

Never mind prevention or vaccines; the big question is “who can we sue after this blows over to rake in millions of dollars?” Yes, this is pathetic, tragic, perverse and evil, but that’s reality in a hyper-litigious society like the U.S.

Many people are struck by the apparent over-reaction of Corporate America to the Covid-19 threat, but this is the only rational response in a hyper-litigious society: the number one priority in a hyper-litigious society is to limit liability. Everything–and yes, we mean everything–flows from this obsessive concern with limiting future liability.

Read it.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Valley Authority have signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate a new generation of flexible, cost-effective advanced nuclear reactors.

Under the agreement, ORNL and TVA will collaborate on ways to improve the economic feasibility of potentially licensing, building, operating and maintaining one or more advanced nuclear reactors, such as a small modular reactor, at TVA’s 935-acre Clinch River site in East Tennessee. Such advanced reactors offer the potential of lower-cost carbon-free energy through reduced construction times and greater operational flexibility. TVA has not made a decision to build and would first need approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a specific design.

Read it.

People of Color behaving badly — what are the odds?

Hannity: Media using coronavirus coverage as political weapon

Texas Dems Announce Statewide Voter Drive to Unseat Trump  Good luck with that in Texas.

CBS Spends Segment Blasting Trump, Insisting He’s Not Hygienic

Did Nicolle Wallace Forget They Don’t Have Elections in China?

WashPost’s Costa Wrongly Says Conservatives Called Coronavirus a Hoax Until CPAC

Head Of Koch-Linked Think Tank Hopes Trump Will Die From Coronavirus

Yahoo: ‘Mental Health Professionals’ Say Biden’s Fine, Trump Endangers the Human Race  Quacks, quacks everywhere….

Biden: Trump ‘Imploding in the Process’ on Coronavirus

Obama Calls Trump a ‘Fascist’ and 5 Other Lowlights from Hulu’s ‘Hillary’ Documentary

GAFFE: NeverTrumper Rick Wilson Shares ‘Fake’ Trump ‘Dow Joans’ Tweet

SURABIAN: Facebook Says It’s Censoring Trump Ads To Protect Americans From Their Own Stupidity

Nicolle Wallace Touts Coronavirus ‘Shaking the Confidence’ of Trump’s Base for 2020

Nancy Pelosi On Trump After Reporter Asks About Coronavirus: ‘I’ve Thought He Should Be Tested For A Long Time Now’

Racist Washngton Post Reporter Circles Face of Trump’s Chinese Secret Service Agent, Noting Trump Was on Way to Coronavirus Briefing; Then He (Of Course) Lies About the Strange Racist Joke He Was Making

Guardian Climate Crisis: Coal Use is Not Falling Fast Enough

Environmental Activists Are Blocking The Clean-Up Of A Polluted Mining Site In Idaho

Climate change at Mount Rainier to increase ‘mismatch’ between visitors, wildflowers

Babylon Bee.

Self-quarantined before quarantine was cool.