The Rose Garden and White House happenings: Listening to voters’ concerns
We really need some informed discussion on this slug thing:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32815407/ Hirudotherapy is the modern name for the revived practice of leech therapy, currently used to reduce excess blood, inflammation, pain and toxins.
Your own New Yorker recently carried an article on ‘parasites’ used to benefit humans, including worms (I hope this opens) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/12/in-praise-of-parasites
Even maggots are frequently used in hospital therapies, to remove dead tissues:
I could go on (my sister is a bio-med librarian at a large university). Want me to??
joanne said:
We really need some informed discussion on this slug thing.
I could go on (my sister is a bio-med librarian at a large university). Want me to??
No, Joanne, “we” really do not need more “informed discussion” — or imagery — on the topic of slugs, historically or otherwise.
What was it Hamlet said about washing eyes or minds?
mtierney said:
joanne said:
We really need some informed discussion on this slug thing.
I could go on (my sister is a bio-med librarian at a large university). Want me to??
No, Joanne, “we” really do not need more “informed discussion” — or imagery — on the topic of slugs, historically or otherwise.
But you are the one who keeps posting about slugs.
If you don't want to talk about them, why do you keep posting about them?
joanne said:
We really need some informed discussion on this slug thing:
Even maggots are frequently used in hospital therapies, to remove dead tissues:
I could go on (my sister is a bio-med librarian at a large university). Want me to??
thank you, but we already have our resident librarian who can elaborate more. Slugs are good at removing dead tissue….
mtierney said:
joanne said:
We really need some informed discussion on this slug thing.
I could go on (my sister is a bio-med librarian at a large university). Want me to??
No, Joanne, “we” really do not need more “informed discussion” — or imagery — on the topic of slugs, historically or otherwise.
What was it Hamlet said about washing eyes or minds?
lol I think it was Laertes who said if thy heat cannot be stoode, stayeth out of thine kitchen.
mtierney said:
What was it Hamlet said about washing eyes or minds?
I have no idea.
And you’re welcome.
mtierney said:
What was it Hamlet said about washing eyes or minds?
maybe you're thinking of a Visine commercial?
GoSlugs said:
If you don't want to talk about them, why do you keep posting about them?
Coming from you, that is odd question to say the least.
DaveSchmidt said:
I have no idea.
And you’re welcome.
Methinks that Hamlet is in my thoughts since I was blessed, this month, with my second great-granddaughter— Orphelia! —
Edited: O my goodness! Her name is “Ophelia!!”
All of this fuss to avoid answering a simple question.
Given the well publicized Republican concerns (some might say hysteria) that the earlier balloon was some sort of bio-weapon, would you have been happier if Biden had shot it down over Bozeman, Montana?
I guess you really painted yourself into a corner.
mtierney said:
Methinks that Hamlet is in my thoughts since I was blessed, this month, with my second great-granddaughter— Orphelia!
Congrats.
GoSlugs said:
All of this fuss to avoid answering a simple question.
Given the well publicized Republican concerns (some might say hysteria) that the earlier balloon was some sort of bio-weapon, would you have been happier if Biden had shot it down over Bozeman, Montana?
I guess you really painted yourself into a corner.
no way to get ahead of a situation — ask your alter ego, Mr. K for guidance
mtierney said:
no way to get ahead of a situation
It's not a matter of "getting ahead" it's just an honest answer to an honest question.
At this point, though, I think your desperate evasions have already answered the question in full.
Mtierney, those articles are about modern and current medical use of leeches, worms and maggots. They were published within the last 2 years, most within the last 12 months.
The role of insects in cuisine will be interesting to track as the planet warms and people turn away from the insanity of using large animals for protein.
https://apple.news/AtO-x9V2lRH2rwi3wJaxLtA
Another balloon over Canada!
Hopefully the military figures out how to perforate these balloons with 20mm cannon fire so that they descend kind of slowly and can be recovered with less damage. Plus, Sidewinder missiles are kind of expensive.
To be more accurate, it is Biden 2, Trudeau 1, Trump 0.
I am sure the current NORAD offensive is making the Chinese nostalgic for the last Administration.
GoSlugs said:
The role of insects in cuisine will be interesting to track as the planet warms and people turn away from the insanity of using large animals for protein.
My understanding is that anti-biotics given to cattle have a negative effect on the cow"s gut health (specifically, the microbes that normally live in a cow's stomach). In turn, the poor gut health of such cows has been linked to significantly increased ( my recollection is eighty percent ("80%")) emissions of methane from their manure.
IOW: reduce antibiotics administered to cows/cattle >>>>
better bovine gut health >>>>>
less methane emissions from cow/cattle manure.
RealityForAll said:
My understanding is that anti-biotics given to cattle have a negative effect on the cow"s gut health (specifically, the microbes that normally live in a cow's stomach). In turn, the poor gut health of such cows has been linked to significantly increased ( my recollection is eighty percent ("80%")) emissions of methane from their manure.
IOW: reduce antibiotics administered to cows/cattle >>>>
better bovine gut health >>>>>
less methane emissions from cow/cattle manure.
Maybe. The fact remains that you can create more protein feeding a pound of grass to grasshoppers than you can feeding that same pound of grass to a cow. You still get a lot more protein if you take things a step further and feed those grasshoppers to a chicken.
Modern factory farming cannot be undertaken without the heavy use of antibiotics (no antibiotics means no feed lots). A world in which all beef is free range will be a world in which a very small portion of the population can afford beef.
For the language mavens here — from the Dispatch…
Latest news is another shoot out over Lake Huron!
Hello and happy Sunday. I don’t know about you but I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords. Okay, just kidding. I hope. I’d like to think there’s a more comprehensible—and terrestrial—explanation for why the U.S. has shot down two mysterious “objects,” one off the coast of Alaska on Friday and one one over Canada (the latter on orders from Justin Trudeau; NORAD carried out the operation). But I gotta say, the messaging hasn’t exactly been comforting. |
When news first broke that the first “object” had been shot down on Friday, everyone’s first instinct was that it was another balloon, coming so quickly on the heels of the Chinese spy balloon that floated over the United States the week before. But then we found out it was the size of a small car. And White House spokesman John Kirby told the media, “There’s no indication that it’s from a nation.” To be fair, he was following up on an earlier statement that, “We do not know who owns it, whether it’s a — whether it’s state owned or — or corporate owned, or privately owned.” But you can guess which soundbite made its way to Twitter. |
Twitter is also where I found an interview with Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who told viewers she’d just come out of a classified briefing and later said, “I understand that perhaps we might be dealing with different, uh, different entities here.” To be fair (again), she’d just been comparing Friday’s shootdown to the way the Biden administration handled the spy balloon, so she probably meant an “entity” other than China. |
But words matter! And we live in a time in which brief snippets are grabbed from longer conversations, stripping them of context, and sent out to go viral on social media. And everyone knows that the most sensational snippets are what everyone remembers. |
And this mystery raises plenty of questions even as an earthbound phenomenon. Take Kirby’s comment that we don’t know whether “it’s state owned or — or corporate owned, or privately owned.” We certainly have an eclectic group of billionaires in this country, but Elon Musk already has a government contract that allows him to launch things skyward and Peter Thiel’s weird ambition is to build cities that float on the ocean. And Mark Zuckerberg is busy trying to create a virtual world, not necessarily mess with the real world. Is there some modern-day Howard Hughes we don’t know about? |
The phrase “out of an abundance of caution” entered the lexicon in a big way during the pandemic. It’s clearly here to stay, because the Biden administration cited it as a reason to wait until the spy balloon was over the ocean to shoot it down and also to shoot down the object over Alaska within a day of being briefed by the Pentagon. |
We’re all tired of that phrase, but it would be nice if people in positions of power could keep it in mind before they utter statements that make us start humming the X-Files theme song. |
here is the story…
28 min ago
Pentagon confirms F-16 fighter jet shot down an airborne object over Lake Huron
From CNN's Haley Britzky
The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that an F-16 fighter jet shot down an airborne object over Lake Huron earlier in the day.
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the object was not assessed to be a military threat, but it was a flight hazard.
“We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more,” Ryder said in a statement.
Ryder also said the object was the same one that radar detected on Saturday over Montana that caused airspace to briefly close Saturday evening.
“North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the object Sunday morning and has maintained visual and radar tracking of it. Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites,” he said.
I'd think you would be congratulating the President for dealing with this threat which was, apparently, completely ignored by the previous Administration.
FWIW, many Aussies reckon the objects are a version of this (below), the oversized cherished innards of a cardboard wine cask. Such ‘balloon’ or ‘bag’ is known as a ‘goon bag’.
For all the men here…and the women who love them….
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/opinion/men-purpose-respect.html
Missed this bombshell yesterday! And aboun the NYT, yet!
https://thespectator.com/topic/russiagate-the-medias-vietnam-trump-steele-cjr/
from the link..
Written by:
Ashley Rindsberg
“The first two decades of the twenty-first century were tumultuous for the American press. From 9/11 and the war on terror and the explosion of the culture wars to the industry-transforming rise of the internet and social media, there was no shortage of challenges to established journalistic practices. But none of these storylines can compete with the intensity, ferocity and sheer ingenuity displayed by the media as it set out to demonstrate that Donald Trump had colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Over more than four years, Russiagate became more than a cause. It became the media’s raison d’être, so important that it forced some of the most reputed outlets in the country to openly disavow cherished journalistic values, like objectivity and neutrality, in favor of a crusade against one man.
“The August before the 2016 election, the New York Times ran a front-page story headlined “The challenges Trump poses to objectivity.” Its author, Jim Rutenberg, wrote, “Let’s face it: Balance has been on vacation since Mr. Trump stepped onto his golden Trump Tower escalator last year to announce his candidacy.” Among the questions Rutenberg said his colleagues in the media were asking themselves: “Do normal standards apply? And if they don’t, what should take their place?” What happened next would confirm that the answer to the first question was no. Four years later, the paper ran an op-ed by Pulitzer-winning journalist Wesley Lowery who called for the long-held ideal of objectivity to be replaced with a mission to pursue “moral clarity.” According to the column, which received high praise from the Times’s then-top editor Dean Baquet, journalism needs “to abandon the appearance of objectivity as the aspirational journalistic standards.”
“The Russiagate crusade was born of this relaxation of journalistic standards. And its costs to the media’s credibility were laid bare in a recent deep-dive into the sorry saga published by the Columbia Journalism Review. Titled “The press versus the president,” the 26,000-word-long investigative piece by former New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth methodically and devastatingly traces the seven-year-long effort by the American press corps to connect Trump to alleged (and largely unsubstantiated) Russian election meddling.
“TheCJR piece represents a turning point not just for Russiagate but for the American media. In fact, one of the many effects of the piece will be to redefine Russigate itself from a series of questionable interactions between Trump and the Kremlin to a protracted media effort to remove a sitting president from power. In the words of former Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerald Baker, reported in Gerth’s CJRpiece, Russiagate was “among the most disturbing, dishonest, and tendentious [media episodes] I’ve ever seen.”
“A reasonable expectation of its effect on the media ecosystem would be akin to a journalistic hydrogen bomb being detonated. This was, after all, the Columbia Journalism Review, the publication of the most revered journalism school in the country. If there is anything the media loves, it’s a journalistic retrospective that painstakingly picks part how a story came together — or fell apart. But in this case, the piece was met with a conspicuous silence.
“Perhaps the lack of a response is unsurprising. America’s prestige media outlets are not ready for the overdue reckoning Gerth’s piece makes clear is needed. The length and sheer complexity of the story should not obscure the stark takeaway that the most authoritative institution in American journalism, the same institution that awards the coveted Pulitzer Prize each year, had issued a damning verdict on the Russiagate affair.
“The charges in this case had long been made by the Republican Party, the conservative press and Trump himself. While the CJR piece stays well within the lines of sober journalistic convention, the picture that emerges from Gerth’s investigation is a morass of malfeasance on a breathtaking scale, greased by naked ambition and ideological buy-in, all of it orchestrated by a private investigation firm run by former journalists who would not be out of place among characters from Dante’s ring of hell reserved for Sowers of Discord.
“The press’s offenses are so voluminous, and so far outside the lanes of accepted journalistic practice, that they’re hard to keep track of. There is former New Republic editor and journalistic wunderkind Franklin Foer submitting drafts of his articles to FusionGPS, the intelligence-cum-PR shop pulling the levers of the anti-Trump campaign. (In a burst of on-the-nose-ism, Foer named the file containing one of his stories “Manchuriancandidate.Foer.”) There is the fact that “[h]undreds of emails were exchanged between Fusion employees and reporters for such outlets as ABC, the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo, the Washington Post, Slate, Reuters, and the Times during the last months of the campaign.” There is the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin opining, falsely, that Trump had “gutted” the GOP’s anti-Russian stance, when, in fact, Trump had strengthened that platform.”
anyone want to read the rest?
It's OK mtierney. I can see why you wouldn't want to answer that question honestly.
Honesty is to Republicans as salt is to slugs.