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If biological ageing can be slowed, halted or rewound, are the machine-learning algorithms the best way to measure it? Some experts are unconvinced.

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Nerves in a healthy spine transmit signals from the brain to the legs. But after an injury to the spine, those signals are weak or nonexistent. The muscles in the legs may be healthy enough to walk, but without the brain signaling them to move, they remain immobile.

The new implant can help patients walk again by acting as a signal booster. A computer carried by the patient triggers the electrical impulses.

Read it.

have created a material that “is stronger and tougher than some types of bone, and harder than typical aluminum alloys,” the university announced.

The researchers hope their compound could lead to better, more sustainable plastics in the future. Currently, the material shrinks while drying, making printing anything large out of it difficult.

So, as it turns out, it’s actually a plant-based plastic, so the headline is a lie. That’s ‘journalism’ for you.

Joel Kotkin considers the long-term effects of the Pandemic Panic.

Personally, I think that the greatest achievement of the Panic was to underscore the separation between people who work with their fingers from people who work with their hands, a gap that will have serious effects on down the road. On the other hand, it demonstrated that people who work with their hands are the ones who make the rest of the machine chug along, so maybe they will be more likely to get the respect that they deserve. (No, I’m not holding my breath.)

Read it.

With all the frightening things that are happening in the world right now, we thought we would focus on something truly magical: Namely, fungi. Last summer, we wrote about the use of psilocybin to treat depression in The Growth of the Psychedelic Industry. While an effective treatment for something that causes so much pain to so many is awfully exciting, it turns out that mushrooms are good for a whole lot more. Aside from aiding mental health, those tasty little pizza toppers are being used to create environmentally safe packaging and construction products, consumer goods, and even cleaning up one of the biggest messes humans have ever made.

Now, we aren’t saying that we’ll be getting a shipment of MeUndies inside a portobello mushroom, but rather what can be done with mycelium, which is the root structure of mushrooms. It consists of a network of branching, interconnected fine threads which can be grown into any shape and has no size limit. The Armillaria ostoyae mycelial network in Oregon occupies around 2,400 acres or roughly 1,665 football fields and is the world’s largest known organism.

San Francisco Bay Area dethroned as most unaffordable housing market in America, report says (S.F. Gate)

NBC reporter insists Biden canceling Keystone Pipeline made no difference on US dependence on foreign oil

Republicans, energy experts say Keystone XL cancelled by Biden would have helped lessen need for Russian oil

Progressive policies lose steam amid primary wins (The Hill)

Media coverage of Ukraine shows it’s time to rethink what we know about Africa (CNN)

Illinois Democrat Michael Madigan indicted on federal racketeering, bribery charges

MRC, Allies Warn Governors About Biased NewsGuard’s Pact with Teachers Union

Noah Yawns As Abrams Absurdly Compares Herself to Zelenskyy  If Zelensky were a morbidly obese ugly black female.

Former Top Democrat In Illinois Charged With Public Corruption

Iowa Bans Male-Born Athletes From Participating In Female Sports At Schools

Maskless Dems Take Flight

Climate change must be adapted to as well as opposed (The Economist)

All Floridians will find their lives changed by rising and warming seas (Gainesville Sun)

Rising seas: Florida farmers, vulnerable to salt, should seek sustainable methods (Palm Beach Post)

UN report paints dire picture of the Gulf of Mexico’s future (Associated Press) When did a U.N. report ever NOT paint a dire picture?

Environmental groups sue TotalEnergies over climate marketing claims (Reuters) Good times to be a lawyer.

TotalEnergies target of lawsuit to test ‘greenwashing’ in advertising (Financial Times)

The Climatistas Are Lying Again

NY Times Front Page Fear-Mongers a ‘Harrowing Future’ Without Climate Action

BARF: Jamie Lee Curtis Writes Climate Change Comic Book About ‘Mother Nature’ Seeking Revenge Against Humanity

Misinformation about Sea Level Rise

The Pause Lengthens Again: No Global Warming for 7 Years 5 Months

The cold hard truth about electric vehicles in winter

Bald Eagle ‘Takings’: Biden’s Interior Department Protects Big Wind

Donald Trump Could Face Criminal Charges After Explosive John Eastman Emails Revealed (Newsweek) We hope, we hope, we hope….

Joy Behar suffers dramatic fall on ‘The View,’ face-plants in front of audience  Life imitates art.

WaPo’s Jennifer Rubin roasted for complete flip-flop on Rubio’s State of the Union response: ‘Shameless’

Donald Trump cuts off his nose to spite his face in Arizona (CNN) Chris Cillizza indulges in some wishful thinking.

Former AG Barr said Trump became enraged after being told election fraud claims were nonsense’  (NBC) This is news?

Son testifies about texting with his father after January 6 and turning him in to the FBI (CNN) Just like in the old Soviet Union.

Jon Stewart rips ‘dishonest propagandist’ Tucker Carlson for Putin comments (The Hill) Like being called ugly by a frog.

Twitch has a new policy that will ban ‘harmful misinformation superspreaders’ (The Verge)

How the Hell Is Trump 43-0 vs. Campaign Finance Watchdogs? (Daily Beast) Perhaps because there’s no there, there.

Hillary Clinton “Disappointed” Crypto Exchanges Aren’t Banning Russians  Because Hillary’s all about banning people.

J6 Committee Accuses Trump Of Committing Federal Crime

Twitter Locks Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s Account for Defending Women’s Sports

Watch: Man Ordered To Leave Televised Q&A For Expressing ‘Wrongthink’ On Russia

ABC’s ‘The Conners’ Disparages Responsible Gun Owner and Pushes Anti-Gun Agenda

“Resounding Win”: Judge Blocks New York Attorney General’s Attempt To Dissolve NRA

Parsippany’s Hindu Service Society Celebrates Black History Month You, too, can pretend to be black.

“I Have The Biggest D**k In Chicago”: Mayor Lightfoot Accused Of Berating Staff  Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that she IS the biggest d–k in Chicago. (BRAAAAAAAINS!)

Reid: Tucker Is Racist for Asking to See Judge Jackson’s Test Scores

Washington Post: Black History Month Is Over, and I Can Finally Breathe

Read it.

The following Italian article discusses a phenomenon that the media normally shy away from: the increase in Jew-hatred fueled largely the by the growing Muslim population in Western countries.

Yet another reminder that Islam is an oppressive totalitarian ideology with which no co-existence is possible.

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As Russia’s invading forces pivot to siege warfare around Ukraine’s big cities, Moscow is likely to resort to scorched-earth tactics previously unleashed on the cities of Aleppo in Syria and Grozny in Chechnya.

In those conflicts, Russia deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure—including hospitals, schools, public markets, power plants, and water supplies—to deprive the armed opposition of popular support and to push refugees into neighboring countries.

The Russian bombing campaign in Syria—which began after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2015 military intervention to prop up the regime of Syria’s Bashar Assad—pulverized Aleppo, a stronghold of anti-Assad resistance.

Read it.

I wonder if that would work for the United States.

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A man was killed on Sunday night after the Tesla he was driving stopped in the middle of I-70 in Independence, Missouri, causing two vehicles to crash into it, police said. Police still are not certain what caused the vehicle to come to a stop in the center lane.

Hammer tech.

The Other McCain is on the case.

Say hello to Frank Abrokwa, 37, who has been arrested in New York City more than 20 times since 1999 and those of my readers who are good at math will immediately realize that this means this perpetrator has been perpetrating at least one crime a year since he was 14. Other of my readers may be wondering, “What kind of name is Abrokwa?”

The answer is Ghanaian. There is apparently a shortage of career criminals in New York, so they’re importing them, and turning them loose to terrorize the citizenry. But I don’t feel sorry for the citizens of New York, because they voted for these policies.

Read it.

The war between Ukraine and Russia will make the world’s hunger crisis even tougher to fight. The countries – one of which has traditionally been called Europe’s bread basket – are two of the world’s major suppliers of staple grains like wheat, and a protracted crisis increases the likelihood of supply interruptions and higher food prices for many people — including those who can least afford them.

Gallup data offer insight into the populations most likely to suffer from a prolonged disruption: People in countries reliant on wheat from Ukraine or Russia, where large segments of their populations were also struggling to afford food before the war broke out. Many of the countries on this list, including Egypt, Turkey and Kenya, are also dealing with political instability and conflict, situations only made worse when populations go hungry.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Turd World is that they breed until they can no longer feed themselves, and then come crying to more intelligent nations about their ‘humanitarian crisis’.

A wise man once said that a ‘humanitarian crisis’ is only a crisis for humanitarians, so they ought to be obliged to pay for fixing it.

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Ceuta and Melilla are two Spanish enclaves on the North African coast that share a border with Morocco. Both of them experience repeated attempts by large groups of migrants to force the border fence and gain access to Spain, and thus to the European Union.

For the last few days Melilla has seen thousands of migrants attempting to cross the fence, and hundreds of them have succeeded in getting through.

I guess the Spanish don’t have any machine guns. Perhaps the Ukrainians could spare one or two.

Or they could just give give the two ‘enclaves’  back to Morocco. Just a suggestion.

Read it.

The Russians reportedly have launched multiple assassination attempts against Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. So far none has succeeded.

Movie of the Week: The Hitman’s Bodyguard, with Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds.  Highly recommended.

Check it out.

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I like the fact that they can do that sort of thing pretty easily these days.

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When I was growing up, the USSR and Communist China formed the original Axis of Evil. Then, in later years, the “Sino-Soviet split” changed the geopolitical calculus. Now, it seems that a Russian-Chinese alliance may be re-forming.

Sarah Hoyt.

There are many descriptions for politics, one of them being that it’s what people do, instead of smashing each other’s skulls open with a club.

For the record, I’m instinctively the club (wooden, heavy) kind. Partly because I hate and despise mean girls and their cliques. I think life would be much easier if people who have trouble with other people got in a fist fight.

I’m also aware that’s not the way to run a society, unless you have a codified way to go about fist fights, and their resolution, afterwards. Which societies used to, mind you. But that too is politics.

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According to Vladimir Putin, there are Nazis lurking in the Ukrainian government. This, says Putin, is why Russia must invade: to “strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.” It is an outlandish claim, intended to justify Putin’s raw aggression. Anyone who attempts to frustrate his designs is, in Putin’s twisted account, a Nazi.

Watching this effrontery from Europe and America, observers are astonished that a rapacious autocrat would lie openly while enacting territorial conquest. Westerners think Putin is acting just like—guess who?—Hitler. And so images of the Russian president with the trademark moustache have been all over Twitter. So has the hashtag #putinhilter. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky encouraged the comparison when a Russian strike hit the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial in Kyiv: “what is the point of saying «never again» for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating…”

Read it.

Western Society has reached a level of absurdity beyond comprehension. A University in Scotland has put a warning label on Ernest Hemingway’s great short novel, The Old Man and the Sea.

Read it.

The Israeli manufacturer of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is suing the company because he says it cut off his 35-year contract after he refused to participate in its “illegal” Israel boycott.

Avi Zinger, an ice cream maker who has produced and distributed Ben & Jerry’s in Israel since 1987, filed the lawsuit against Ben & Jerry’s and its parent corporation, Unilever, in U.S. federal court on Thursday, alleging breach of contract and wrongful termination.

Zinger’s legal complaint outlines a decade-long pressure campaign by anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) activists against Ben & Jerry’s that he says led to the company’s decision to cut ties with him.

Kamala Harris mocked for offering ‘word salad’ explanation for buying Russian oil

‘Drop In the Bucket’: NBC Pours Cold Water on Biden Energy Plan

Veep thoughts by Kamala Harris

Chesa Boudin takes swipes at San Francisco Mayor London Breed in New York Times interview (S.F. Gate)

Why I couldn’t wait for Black History Month to end (Washington Post)

Utah lawmakers try to bring back pre-Civil War America (Salt Lake Tribune)

Florida is already seeing climate change. New global report says it could worsen (Miami Herald)

Climate change is already displacing people in Oregon. A UN report warns of more to come (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

End drilling in California waters to protect the coast and climate (L.A. Times)

UN: Droughts, less water in Europe as warming wrecks crops (Associated Press)

UN: Climate change to uproot millions, especially in Asia (Associated Press)

Why are Republicans fighting to pollute the air we breathe? (The Hill) Well, as it happens, they’re not.

What the UN climate report predicts for NYC (Gothamist)

‘Rising Risk’ special reexamines alarming NYC flood predictions, climate change (WABC-TV)

The Great Climate Change Debate – Karoly vs Happer

Shellenberger: The West’s Green Delusions Empowered Putin

Climate Prediction: Australia will become Drier but with More Rain

Wouldn’t Nuclear Winter Stymie Global Warming?

Ukraine Is in an Environmental Crisis Too  (Wired ‘Science’)

‘It’s Un-American’: DC Business Owners Suffer From 2 Years of Emergency Mandates

A highly changed coronavirus variant was found in deer after nearly a year in hiding, researchers suggest (CNN)

COVID-19 toes might not be a COVID symptom after all (Deseret News) But it doesn’t matter, just so long as you PANIC!

Here’s proof the pandemic culture wars were never about the pandemic (Seattle Times)

Ron DeSantis just yelled at high school students for wearing masks (CNN) The swine!

CBS, NBC Lie About Ron DeSantis ‘Admonishing’ Kids to Take Off Masks

How should you decide whether to keep wearing a mask? Our expert weighs in (CNN)

Media’s ‘weapon’ Fauci no longer politically useful in Democrats’ tough reelection bids: Sexton

China Considers Possibility Of Abandoning “Zero COVID” Policy

Early COVID-19 Treatment Sacrificed to Promote Vaccine, Dr. Peter McCullough Says

Human toxicity from Covid-19 rapid home test kits

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On Tuesday, prolific author Brandon Sanderson surprised fans like me by announcing that he had written 4 extra books (beyond his normal publishing obligations) during the pandemic. Even more of a surprise was the Kickstarter campaign he launched for those books, which has raised over $18 million in less than 48 hours.

Can’t say he isn’t worth it.

Read it.

If and when they work. I’m not holding my breath.

Read it.

Too bad it’s going to be an electric car. Otherwise I’d be tempted to buy one. Even a hybrid would tempt me, but a totally electric car is not in my future.

Read it.

The February 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine is revealing to the rest of the world problems the Russian military has suffered from for over a century. It’s all about conscription and, since 1917, the Russian government not trusting their troops and Russians now going to extremes to avoid being conscripted. This widespread opposition to peacetime conscription was unique to Russia. Other European nations adopted conscription as early as the 1800s, but none had as much popular dislike of conscription and some very real reasons to avoid conscript service.

Read it.

Replacing them with titanium would be pretty cool, but probably too expensive.

Putinism is breeding in the heart of the Republican party (The Guardian) Robert Reich has finally met an -ism he doesn’t like, even though it’s imaginary.

Trigger warning: this column contains reporting of rightwing stupidity (The Guardian) Never any mention of left-wing stupidity in The Guardian, of course.,

‘Multiple’ Jan. 6 calls between Trump and lawyer on Texas election lawsuit, panel reveals (Politico)  Calling a lawyer! Highly nefarious!

Congress’ Jan. 6 Panel Wants to Hear From Six More Trump Allies (The Hill) The witch-hunt continues.

Lansing Brewing Company cancels ‘MAGA Mixer’ after public backlash

Cracking under immense public pressure, Cristiano Ronaldo forcibly sold his 9 bedroom luxury apartment at the Trump Tower NYC for a staggering loss of $10 million.

Trump can’t stop praising Putin (CNN) And CNN can’t stop smearing Trump.

House’s Last Pro-Life Democrat Is on the Ropes

CNN Hopes To Return To Round The Clock Coverage Of Jan 6 Committee Soon  Babylon Bee.

CBS Questions, Debates Absence of January 6 from Biden’s SOTU

‘Delay means death’: We’re running out of ways to adapt to the climate crisis, new report shows. Here are the key takeaways (CNN)

Investigate Russia’s covert funding of US anti-fossil fuel groups (The Hill)

US supreme court signals it may restrict EPA’s ability to fight climate crisis (The Guardian)

Deforestation emissions far higher than previously thought, study finds (The Guardian)

New IPCC report: we are not prepared for what is coming (Greenpeace)

How one of Florida’s most beloved animals may be close to climate extinction (The Guardian)

Germany Weighs Extending Nuclear Plants Lifespans In Major Russia-Inspired Reversal

Offshore Wind Turbines Could Mess With Ships’ Radar Signals

The New Climate Strike – What a Good Idea

Senate takes up ‘Anti-Racism Act’ right after House’s ‘Anti-Stereotyping Act’ expired (West Virginia Metro News)

Asian-Americans fight back against school discrimination

A Racist Virginia School Board and Principal Get Called Out

GOP ‘Gerrymandering’ Is ‘Racist’ — Obama-mandering Is Just Politics

This Week in Racism

Infamous Race Hustler Uses Ukraine War to — You Guessed It — Hustle Race

PRIORITIES: CBS, NBC Worry Putin Will Upstage Biden during SOTU Speech

Zuckerberg Election Funds Violated Wisconsin Bribery Laws, Special Counsel Finds

Yale professor teaches the secret of happiness to the masses Becoming a Yale Professor is a good first step.

China Buys 700K Barrels of Iranian Oil Every Day, Violating US Sanctions

Defending Freedom And Democracy Sure Requires An Awful Lot Of Censorship

MSNBC WH Correspondents Battle GOP Rep. With Dem Talking Points on Economy, COVID

‘Womynx?’ University Torched for Woke Version of Women’s History Month

‘I’m Really Jogging My Brain Here’: Dem Senate Candidate Can’t Name His Climate Policy Accomplishments

The ‘science’ behind lifting of Capitol mask mandate ahead of State of the Union called into question  A convenient excuse to back away from a restriction that was growing increasingly stupid-looking.

Pfizer Covid vaccine was just 12% effective against omicron in kids 5 to 11, study finds (CNBC) But we still need to recommend it for kids officially in order to trigger Pfizer’s immunity from liability for the ‘vaccine’.

Is it safe to lift indoor mask rules at California schools? Here’s what health experts say (L.A. Times) They say we need to PANIC!

Despite lifting NYC restaurant requirements, Mayor Adams keeps vaccination mandate for workers (N.Y. Daily News)

Death of a 13-Year-Old in Linz

Trump Voters Hold a More Favorable View of Putin Than They Do Biden: Poll (Newsweek) A low bar.

Kamala Harris mocked for ‘terrifying’ explanation of Ukraine crisis: ‘A real inability to talk normally’

Kamala Harris mocked for child-like explanation of Russia-Ukraine war

Why Democracy’s in Such Trouble: A Crisis in Public Trust of Government (Politico)

Pelosi suggests Biden’s approval rating low because Americans uninformed

Pelosi sparks new SOTU meme during Biden ‘burn pits’ moment

Growing list of Republicans will not attend SOTU over testing mandate Why attend this stupid speech if yo can watch it in comfort on TV?

Half Of Biden’s 500 Million Free COVID-19 Tests Unclaimed: Officials  Who can waste the most of your money? Democrats can!

A Tense America Watches To See If Biden Makes It Through State Of The Union Before Adderall Wears Off  Babylon Bee.

MSNBC Bemoans Biden Not Attacking GOP on Support of Putin, Jan 6  Maybe he forgot.

Biden’s Biggest State of the Union Blunders

Biden’s Supreme Court Pick Shielded Top Clinton Aide Amid Email Scandal  One hand washes the other.

Media Fret Over Joe Manchin’s Seat Location at State of the Union: Oh No! He Sat With GOP

Colbert Praises Biden’s Speech as ‘Roller Coaster Ride of Reasonableness’ The moving tongue licks, and having licked, moves on.

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Gee, I wonder why?

Perhaps they are tired of being hectored about their ‘privilege’ in the government re-education camps.

Read it.

The Frankfurt School of social theory began about a century ago, in the Weimar Republic. It consisted in the main of a group of rather anti-capitalist, Marxist-light gentlemen who embraced oikophobia (the hatred or dislike of one’s own cultural home), and who were understandably disillusioned by the carnage of World War I. Our interest today is mainly historical; of its earlier members, such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, and Theodor Adorno, really only Adorno is still read with a measure of seriousness outside of academia.

The Frankfurt School popularized historicism—the belief that reflection itself is a part of history, which is to say that earlier thoughts are historically conditioned by the circumstances in which the thinkers lived, and should be seen in that light; and that what passes for “knowledge” is marred by the historical time and place in which that knowledge appeared. (This idea was present already in the second part of The Communist Manifesto.) The insights that a more positivist outlook claims to be certain, based on sensory data, historicism will consider uncertain and necessarily bound by subjective value judgments. A part of this view is the concern—and the French postmodernists will pick up this point—to identify, isolate, and thereby exorcise every sort of domination that any group might have held over any other group.

One wonders how these folks would react to REAL oppression.

Read it.

Amazon.com Inc said on Wednesday it plans to close all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, pop ups and shops carrying toys and home goods in the United States and United Kingdom, ending some of its longest-running retail experiments.

Guess the Pandemic Panic underlined how vulnerable to political meddling brick-and-mortar operations increasingly are.

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Israeli sources say both Western coalition and Russian forces have recently bolstered their presence as proxy tensions come into renewed focus.

The Russians are now involved in two ‘conflicts’ at once. There is some doubt that they can handle it.

Read it.

A fun read, if you have any interest at all in Latin.

And of you don’t … well, the angels will weep for you.

Read it.

Can a pair of unique spectacles banish nearsightedness without surgical intervention? Japan’s Kubota Pharmaceutical Holdings says its wearable device can do just that, and it plans to start releasing the product in Asia, where many people grapple with myopia.

The device, which the company calls Kubota Glasses or smart glasses, is still being tested. It projects an image from the lens of the unit onto the wearer’s retina to correct the refractive error that causes nearsightedness. Wearing the device 60 to 90 minutes a day corrects myopia according to the Japanese company.

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Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. intelligence had predicted a blistering assault by Moscow that would quickly mobilize the vast Russian air power that its military assembled in order to dominate Ukraine’s skies.

But the first six days have confounded those expectations and instead seen Moscow act far more delicately with its air power, so much so that U.S. officials can’t exactly explain what’s driving Russia’s apparent risk-averse behavior.

“They’re not necessarily willing to take high risks with their own aircraft and their own pilots,” a senior U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Vastly outmatched by Russia’s military, in terms of raw numbers and firepower, Ukraine’s own air force is still flying and its air defenses are still deemed to be viable – a fact that is baffling military experts.

UPDATE: Inside the Ring: Lack of Russian air power in Ukraine a mystery