11th October 2022
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After working in the Trump administration, Hope Harvard moved home to South Carolina unsure of what the future held. After a night of crying out to God for direction in her life, she awakened with the idea to start a makeup line inspired by the women of the Bible, and Hope Beauty was born.
I am not making this up.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on One Woman’s Journey From White House to Launching a Makeup Brand Inspired by Women of the Bible
11th October 2022
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In case you haven’t seen or heard of digital plates from Reviver before, know that they use a monochromatic HD display that can be swapped between light or dark modes (black or white background). They’re battery-powered — Reviver claims a five-year battery life — but if you’re a commercial customer, Reviver offers a hardwired solution that uses power from the vehicle’s 12-volt battery.
See how many of the ways this is a bad idea that you can come up with.
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11th October 2022
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The lacustrine landscape of Mexico Valley was covered with five big lakes: Texcoco, Xaltocan, Zumpango, Chalco and Xochimilco, and very small boggy islands.
To solve their land crisis, archaeological evidence as well as narratives of Spanish colonial writers tell us that the Aztecs came up with a genius plan: the chinampas. They artificially constructed these long, narrow strips of land over shallow lakes by piling earth on reeds and sedges and raising them to the required height. The islands were then anchored to the lake floor by a fence of ahuejote, a native willow tree.
While the Aztecs built Tenochtitlan’s city centre by connecting existing islands via bridges and boardwalks, in areas further from the city centre, such as the Xochimilco lake basin, they used chinampas to create floating gardens that could be used for agriculture, animal rearing, hunting and foraging. The ingenious technique of farming on water allowed the Aztecs to sustain their growing empire.
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11th October 2022
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The novel cement-free process will help remove 330 lbs (150 kgs) of Co2 for every ton of concrete produced.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on World’s First Carbon-Eating Concrete Blocks Are Weeks Away From Commercial Use
11th October 2022
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Just a couple of years ago, it seemed that space mining was inevitable. Analysts, tech visionaries and even renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson predicted that space mining was going to be big business.
Space mining companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, backed by the likes of Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, cropped up to take advantage of the predicted payoff.
Fast forward to 2022, and both Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries have been acquired by companies that have nothing to do with space mining. Humanity has yet to commercially mine even a single asteroid. So what’s taking so long?
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on The First Crop of Space Mining Companies Didn’t Work Out, But a New Generation Is Trying Again
10th October 2022
Joel Kotkin reveals that he is a socialist after all.
The implications of the current land grab are profound, threatening the future of democratic institutions and the middle class. These trends are distressingly common across the higher income countries. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported in Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle-Class that the future of the middle-class is threatened by house prices that have been growing “three times faster than household median income over the last two decades.” The pandemic drove prices even further, and, in the U.S., housing affordability is at the lowest level since 1989.
The use of the smear ‘land grab’ is illuminating. Apparently, buying land that you can afford and that other people are willing to sell you (without coercion) is a ‘grab’. Purer class-warfare sentiments are hard to imagine.
There is nothing about rich people owning land that ‘threatens the future of democratic institutions’; the right to vote, last time I looked, did not depend on land ownership. Whether or not the ‘middle class’ it threatened by it is an assertion for which neither evidence nor argument is presented–he just says it as if it were an Obviously Bad Thing, a traditional progressive practice. (Ask Dave Ramsay some time about the typical ‘middle class’ 30-year mortgage … and Stand Back.)
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Rent Forever and Love It
10th October 2022
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— The IRS has stockpiled 4,500 guns and 5 million rounds of ammunition in recent years, including 621 shotguns, 539 long-barrel rifles, and 15 submachine guns. If true, an explanation is needed so that conspiracy theories don’t multiply.
— The Veterans Administration purchased 11 million rounds of ammunition (equivalent to 2,800 rounds for each of its officers), along with camouflage uniforms, riot helmets and shields, specialized image enhancement devices, and tactical lighting. That’s ironic since many veterans used weapons to defend the nation. Are they now seen as potential enemies of the government many of them fought for?
— The Department of Health and Human Services acquired 4 million rounds of ammunition, in addition to 1,300 guns, including five submachine guns and 189 automatic firearms for its Office of Inspector General.
— According to an in-depth Rutherford Institute report on “The Militarization of the U.S. Executive Agencies,” the Social Security Administration secured 800,000 rounds of ammunition for its special agents, as well as armor and guns. Seniors beware!
— The Environmental Protection Agency owns 600 guns. And the Smithsonian Institution now employs 620-armed “special agents.” You’d better not get near those dinosaurs, or litter the highway, or else.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Guns of Washington: 5 Agencies With Gun Stockpiles
10th October 2022
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A Saudi court sentenced three members of the Howeitat, a tribe forcibly ejected to make way for the $500 bn Neom megacity, to death earlier this month for resisting displacement, a UK-based rights group has reported.
Shadli, Atallah, and Ibrahim al-Howeiti were arrested in 2020 for opposing the eviction of their tribe for the project and were handed down death sentences on 2 October by Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court, according to UK-based rights group Alqst.
“We condemn the sentences and call for their release,” Alqst said in a tweet.
Shadli al-Huweiti is the brother of Abdul Rahim al-Howeiti, a 43-year-old Tabuk resident who was shot dead by Saudi special forces in April 2020 after protesting the government’s eviction orders, including in videos he regularly posted to YouTube.
The men’s death sentences are only the latest in a series of extreme rulings recently handed down by Saudi courts to those who have expressed dissent.
I don’t even have to say anything, do I?
The Howeitat are the tribe of Auda Abu Tayi, of Lawrence of Arabia fame, and their support of the Hashemites, hereditary enemies of the Ibn Saud rulers of Saudi Arabia, no doubt had something to so with the severity of the sentences.
Posted in Living with Islam: The world's most intolerant—and intolerable—religion | Comments Off on Saudi Arabia Sentences Tribesmen to Death for Resisting Displacement
10th October 2022
Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #523
Work therapy: can a climate campaigner help a coworking space go green? (The Guardian)
‘Steam loops’ under many cities could be a climate change solution (NPR) Uh-huh. The two I know about run on burning coal.
A small Fairbanks company wants to build Alaska’s biggest wind farms (Anchorage Daily News) Using the same technology as what crapped out during the February Freeze in Texas? What a brilliant idea!
“Jaw-Dropping” New Clues to Future Ice Sheet Change From Ancient Ice Age Valleys (SciTechDaily)
Fed Up British Drivers Unglue Climate Protestors the Hard Way
New Push to De-Platform Climate Dissent Fueled by JunkScience Tweets
Cities Need More Native Bees—Lots and Lots of Them (Wired ‘Science’) Apparently urban bees are needed for urban gardens, and urban gardens are needed so that we ALL DON’T DIE from global warming.
Hurricane Hype, Lies, Censorship – and Reality
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10th October 2022
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10th October 2022
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10th October 2022
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10th October 2022
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10th October 2022
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10th October 2022
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A Bloods gang beef may have prompted the shooting outside the Long Island home of gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, police sources said Monday — as troubling new details about the broad-daylight gunplay surfaced.
Neighbors described the pandemonium that broke out — including how one of the victims cried and screamed, “Oh, my God!’ as bullets flew on the typically bucolic Shirley street around 2:20 p.m. Sunday, injuring two teens.
A third teen targeted in the gang-related drive-by shooting, a local high-school sophomore, escaped unharmed, running home in a panic after his near-miss, his brother said.
Time to leave.
UPDATE: CRIME WAVE: Nets Bury Shooting Outside NY GOP Governor Candidate’s House
UPDATE: Chilling New Details of Shooting Outside Zeldin’s Home
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10th October 2022
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Foreign ownership of American farmland has raised bipartisan concern from all levels of government, from governors like Ron DeSantis of Florida to senators such as Iowa’s Chuck Grassley and Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow. Foreign ownership of American farmland went from 1 percent in 2000 to 2.9 percent in 2020, a 290 percent increase over the past twenty years.
With the rise in foreign ownership in American cropland come new security risks. Recently, Chinese companies have been buying agricultural land close to American military bases, raising concerns about their intentions.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on This Land Is Beijing’s Land
10th October 2022
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The Supreme Court will hear “the bacon case” on Oct. 11. National Pork Producers Council v. Ross challenges California’s Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, also known as Proposition 12. It’s an ill-conceived and unconstitutional 2018 law that attempts to use the Golden State’s enormous market power as leverage to regulate pig farming nationwide.
California lawmakers often presume they know what’s best—in this case for pigs and pig farmers across the country.
State regulators are currently training inspectors to disperse across the nation to enforce California’s rules. Out-of-state farmers must certify that their products are compliant with Proposition 12 to be sold in California.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on California vs Ohio Pig Farmers, the Supreme Court Will Hear the Case
10th October 2022
Axios.
Nearly four out of 10 Republicans and one in four Democrats say they’ll blame election fraud if their party doesn’t win control of Congress in November, in the latest wave of the Axios-Ipsos Two Americas Index.
My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Two Americas Index: Must Be Fraud
10th October 2022
Steve Sailer points and laughs.
Ever since the first half of 2020, when pandemic fears and the racial reckoning led to the releasing of prisoners and the decline of policing, dangerous lunatics have been running amok. This has led to calls to finally rebuild the asylum system that long ago removed vicious crazy men from the streets.
One of the many reformers to come out of Massachusetts in the 1840s was Dorothea Dix. She made her cause better treatment of lunatics, whose triumph led to the construction of publicly-funded insane asylums, typically in restful surroundings.
For example, Los Angeles’s mentally ill were served by the Camarillo State Mental Hospital in a serene location in a superb climate a few miles from the Pacific. After his 1946 drug freakout led to him spending six months at Camarillo, Charlie Parker did not at all appreciate his record company naming his comeback track “Relaxin’ at Camarillo.” But still …
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on NYT: Shutting the Insane Asylums Didn’t Fail, It Just Wasn’t Tried Hard Enough
10th October 2022

So young, and already an insurrectionist.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
9th October 2022
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9th October 2022
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9th October 2022
Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Today in BIPOC Privilege
9th October 2022
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You can’t make this stuff up.
I’m waiting for someone to discover that smoking pot cures COVID.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on A Modified Herpes Virus Completely Wiped Out a Terminal Cancer
9th October 2022
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When Emmi Conley first heard in September about a rash of hoax calls reporting active shooters in schools, she dismissed it. Conley, an extremism researcher who studies groups and people behind public displays of violence, said she found no indication that these calls were connected to fringe online spaces where these pranks often originate.
But as the number of these reports swelled over time, Conley said she began to discern some very strange patterns — including the possibility that the calls may have come from overseas, and perhaps specifically from Africa.
“The scale and the timeline of the events is highly, highly unusual,” she said. “The calls are consistent. They are coordinated. They are grouped state-by-state and district-by-district, and they’re also sustained. So somebody is putting significant effort to keep these going.”
Gee, maybe it’s an organization wanting to make people think that there are more ‘active shooter’ situations than are really happening. I wonder what sort of an organization would want to do that….
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on False Calls About Active School Shooters Are Rising. Behind Them Is a Strange Pattern.
9th October 2022
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
9th October 2022
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The Minnesota State College and University System (“MnSCU”) includes 37 colleges and universities around the state, and trains a large majority of Minnesota’s law enforcement officers. Only you can’t call them “law enforcement” anymore.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on The Profession That Dare Not Speak Its Name
9th October 2022
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Central to Vladimir Putin’s claim that Ukraine is historically part of some greater Russia, and the staged plebiscites recently in the Russian-occupied territory, it is worth looking back on the actual votes cast in Ukraine back in 1991 when it had a referendum on the question of independence from the post-Soviet Union. Only in Crimea was there any serious sentiment in favor of remaining with Russia, and even there not a majority. I suspect most Ukrainians still have long memories of their treatment at the hands of Russia over the centuries.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on The Daily Chart: The Ukrainian Vote
9th October 2022
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A gay Palestinian man who was living under asylum in Israel was allegedly kidnapped and brought to the West Bank, where he was beheaded Wednesday, according to Israeli media reports.
Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, 25, had reportedly been living in Israel for two years and seeking resettlement to Canada because of threats to his life over his sexual orientation. But on Wednesday, Abu Murkhiyeh was beheaded in the West Bank city of Hebron. The victim’s friends told media outlets he was kidnapped from Israel and taken to the Palestinian city, though his family said he regularly visited them in Hebron.
Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
A Muslim waits there
To try to kill you.
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9th October 2022
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Trump Derangement Syndrome
9th October 2022
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Markets, we are told, are rebelling against the government’s irresponsible fiscal policy, not least the now-abandoned plan to abolish the 45p tax rate. If that is what they are doing, it marks a sharp change in their behaviour. For most of the past decade they have whooped with delight whenever a fantastically expensive stimulus package has been announced and gone into a sulk whenever there have been rumours that the punch bowl is about to be withdrawn.
In this Alice in Wonderland world, good news became bad and bad news became good. Why? Because bad news means greater likelihood of a stimulus package; good news means stimulus is likely to be withdrawn. And of course, the extra billions pumped into the economy through stimulus – whether it be quantitative-easing or Joe Biden’s blatant helicopter money – had a tendency to be sucked into inflated asset prices.
Maybe like a reformed gambler, global markets have finally come to the realisation that this really can’t go on. You can’t go on creating money out of thin air forever after and expect it not to end up with serious inflation. They are giving the global bookmakers – i.e. central banks – a message: save us, before we all end up broke. If markets have told us anything over the past month it is: governments and central banks, get your fiscal and monetary houses in order.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Why the Economy Can’t Get Real
8th October 2022
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8th October 2022
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8th October 2022
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8th October 2022
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8th October 2022
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8th October 2022
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8th October 2022
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8th October 2022
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A specter haunts the Western world today and it is not that of fascism, semi- or otherwise, as President Biden among others demagogically claims. Fascism is a circumscribed historical phenomenon, most distinctive to Italy in the period 1922 to 1945. It combined authoritarianism marked by the cult of the Duce or leader, radical nationalism and neo-pagan idolatry, militarism, and economic corporatism. In blustery speeches in the late 1920s, Benito Mussolini proclaimed the necessity of a “totalitarian” party-state, although in practice he was forced to tolerate both the existence of the Italian monarchy and a Catholic Church under Pope Pius XI (the Roman pontiff from 1922 until 1939) that vigorously challenged the totalitarian pretensions of the fascist state.
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7th October 2022
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7th October 2022
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7th October 2022
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7th October 2022
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7th October 2022
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7th October 2022
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7th October 2022
Scott Johnson at Power Line.
The Hunter Biden case is not the Hunter Biden case. It’s the Joe Biden case. All the rest is the saga of a corrupt and degraded reprobate.
Yesterday someone somewhere leaked to the Washington Post that the years-long investigation of Hunter may warrant a prosecution on tax and gun charges. He may even have to pay a fine.
It is impossible to be too cynical about the Post story. Reading between the lines, one can only see the coverup of the Biden family corruption at work.
Posted in Democrats: Party of Plundering and Blundering | Comments Off on The Hunter Biden Coverup
7th October 2022

Avoid the red areas. Don’t go there. Don’t eat their food. Don’t buy their products. Don’t adopt their politics. Just … don’t. THERE’S A REASON PEOPLE ARE LEAVING. THEY KNOW SOMETHING YOU DON’T.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day