When you can't live without bananas

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Saturday, April 20, 2024

Links - 20th April 2024 (3 - Drugs)

Hilarious moment drug gang's GUARD DOG lays down on the ground alongside crooks in Brazil - "This is the hilarious moment a drug gang's guard dog laid down on the ground alongside the criminal as they were arrested in Brazil during a drugs bust.    Narcotics cops arrested three men on a ranch in Hortolandia, Sao Paulo state, on Thursday and footage of the raid shows them lying face-down on the floor with their hands cuffed behind their backs.   And the gang's massive Rottweiler decided to surrender too and flopped down beside the three suspects."

Limited psychological and social effects of lifetime cannabis use frequency: Evidence from a 30-year community study of 4,078 twins. - "This study suggests that lifetime exposure to cannabis has few persistent effects on mental health and other psychosocial outcomes. The notable exceptions are cannabis use disorder, tobacco frequency, and illicit drug use, for which lifetime cannabis frequency causes small increases"

The Other Side of the Drug Crime Incarceration Debate - "most crime was not a direct result of the drug trade, but of “male drama”... Professor David Kennedy, who worked on the ground with the police implementing anti-crime programs, noted in his book Don’t Shoot that most killings were not related to the drug business... Now 20 percent of the killings being related to drugs is not something we should belittle. But it also means that drug legalization is not going to be some magic cure to the problems of the ghetto.  And there are actually ways drug legalization could make things worse.  Jill Leovy explains that sometimes drug crimes are used as “proxy crimes” for more violent offenses. The police prosecute the proxy crimes because they cannot get witnesses to talk about the other offenses... If we take away drug arrests as a tool for police, what would we have Officer Coughlin do instead? What is the plan for getting illegal guns off the street, for taking down violent gangs that have scared all the witnesses into silence?  Bloomberg journalist Megan McArdle says that she came to a similar conclusion about drug prosecutions after observing court cases... When President Obama commuted the sentences for a batch of prisoners in federal prison, 25% had gun crimes on their record... If there are so many people in federal prison for petty drug dealing, why cannot Obama find any of them to release, instead of releasing those trafficking drugs while armed with a weapon?  I also think that we may have the problem of drug enforcement backwards – rather than the predominantly black ghettos being policed too harshly, they may be policed too lightly.  In my white suburban town growing up, if a group of young men were to set up an open air drug market on our police corner, they would be reported, shut down, and sent to juvenile court within days, probably hours. It would be unthinkable that open air dealing would be tolerated.  Yet in many ghettos, these markets are in fact tolerated, with minimal punishment, for long times... David Kennedy noted in Don’t Shoot that the lack of enforcement means that the people on the street lose respect for the police... Kennedy notes that even the drug dealers are miffed that the police allow them to exist. They are so miffed that they actually think the cops are conspiring against the community for their own dark ends... when Corey Booker was elected mayor of Newark (a black man in a majority black city) he promised residents that he would clean up the disorder. After his election officials credited the first homicide-free month in 44 years to ‘large-scale’ drug sweeps... the drug arrests were used as a way to take down a hot spot of violence and crime. The reason why black men are getting arrested for drug crime (as opposed to white, Wall Street cocaine dealers), is not because white America is racist against black people. It is because open-air dealing in the ghetto is associated with shootings and crime and because mothers do not want their kids walking by drug dealers. The black residents and black mayors often want the police to arrest the dealers and get them off the street.   Remember the infamous 1986 Act that imposed much harsher penalties for crack dealing? “Representatives Charles Rangel and Major Owens, two black liberal Democrats from New York not known for their reluctance to play the race card, led the fight to impose the differential…11 of the 21 black lawmakers serving in Congress in 1986 supported the new law.” (source) They wanted the penalties because crack was ravaging black neighborhoods... The paradox is that lax law enforcement can actually create more incarceration. If you allow crime to fester, it becomes more serious, and you ultimately have to put more people in prison, for longer. By nipping things in the bud, you can ultimately have less total punishment. Unfortunately, our public discourse on this seems to be headed the wrong direction, and I fear we will continue to make the problem worse, not better...   It is also insane that a drug dealer (like Jaquay Milhouse metioned earlier) can get five convictions that convey no jail time but that prevent him from getting a job. Thus as a result of getting caught dealing drugs, he gets no punishment, he just gets a scarlet letter preventing him from doing something other than dealing drugs. This is bonkers. It would make much more sense to have a stiffer up front penalty, but then expunge the record entirely, and enable him to enter legitimate workforce."
This ties in with the myth of people being in prison for non-violent drug offences - they're really in there for more serious things: just recorded as being in for drugs (this also explains the "racist" result that white people who supposedly use drugs at a similar rate to black people aren't imprisoned for it like the latter)

Morning Update: B.C. police seizures of medical opioids on the rise, causing concerns safer-supply pills are being diverted - The Globe and Mail

Adam Zivo: B.C. drug policies are 'a joke,' says Indigenous chief who isn't laughing - "Ronnie Chickite, chief of the We Wai Kai Nation, is upset — with good reason. In February, approximately 3,500 diverted safer supply hydromorphone pills were discovered in a drug bust on one his nation’s reserves near Campbell River, B.C. Chickite says although he had previously been aware of safer supply diversion, the discovery of so many pills in his community invoked “shocking disbelief.”... Unlike some Indigenous communities, the We Wai Kai Nation has minimized alcohol and drug abuse among its members with relative success. Rather than “destigmatizing” drugs, the nation’s leadership has invested in recovery-oriented services while restricting the local supply of illicit substances. Gates block access to the main reserves and, although most members are given unique buzzer codes to let themselves or others in, known drug dealers are given a single access card instead, limiting their ability to invite “guests.” After this system was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chickite saw an immediate impact —  the number of cars making daily visits to a local drug house dropped from over 20 to about one. But while the community has found inventive ways to undermine drug dealers, shutting them down entirely has proven onerous. Chickite said it took three years for the RCMP to investigate and raid the house featured in the recent safer supply bust, where fentanyl and meth were also discovered, even though the police were called “tons of times.” And despite herculean efforts, it appears that the community’s addiction issues are slowly deteriorating. Diverted pharmaceutical opioids have been a “huge, huge issue,” Chickite said. For as long as he can remember, some community members have faked illnesses to secure and resell prescription drugs. But while diversion may not be a new problem, safer supply has increased the amount of opioids that can be funnelled into the black market. Discovering 3,500 pills in one house , as happened last month, was previously unheard of. Chickite, who strongly disagrees with politicians and activists who portray pharmaceutical opioids as “safe,” describes B.C.’s drug policies as “a joke.” Members of the We Wai Kai Nation have developed serious addictions due to such pills and, once hooked, many have escalated to using stronger substances, sometimes with fatal results... Community members, including his own daughter, have also told him that youth are increasingly accessing diverted pharmaceutical drugs, including safer supply. It appears that children as young as 12 are using (and overdosing on) diverted opioids, and there are now 16-year-olds in dire need of rehab... The normalization of open drug use has also been difficult to handle. Chickite noted that, when he was younger, adults would drive their kids all the way to downtown Vancouver to show them the horrible effects of drug addiction. “Now I can simply drive right down the bottom of the hill from my house.” “To me,” he said, “it’s kind of crappy that you can get charged for holding an open can of beer, but now you can literally smoke whatever kind of illicit drug you want and you’re OK.”"
Clearly, the problem is "stigma" and we need to provide even more free drugs and even less judgment

‘Absolutely frustrating’: B.C. minister disappointed with drug use injunction extension - “It is absolutely frustrating. It is unbelievable that courts can say, ‘We can regulate tobacco, we can regulate cannabis, we can regulate alcohol, but we can’t regulate where hard drugs are used,’ that’s just nuts and, in my view, completely out of touch with the general public”

Why B.C. ruled doing drugs in playgrounds is a Constitutional right - "the entire decision was premised on Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In essence, Hinkson ruled that B.C.’s attempt to restrict open drug use in public areas was a violation of “the right to life, liberty and security of the person.”  This, in turn, was premised on Hinkson accepting the assertion by the plaintiff — the Harm Reduction Nurses Association — that any restriction on drug use in public areas would prompt “lone drug use” and increase the number of British Columbians dying from fatal overdoses... Kelowna led a public lobbying campaign for its playgrounds and parks to still remain subject to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The 30 members of the Lower Mainland Local Government Association passed a resolution calling on the province to pair its decriminalization plans with a ban on open drug use. Port Coquitlam rushed through an updated bylaw banning drug use in public places. But a B.C. government bill encoding the amendment — passed in November — was notably lenient in how it enforced the ban on drugs in child-centred areas.  If a police officer thought someone was “consuming an illegal substance” in a playground or other prohibited area, they were instructed to “direct the person” to either “cease consuming” the drug, or to “leave the area or place.”  Only if this direction was ignored could the officer arrest the user or destroy the drug — although the offender still wouldn’t be slapped with criminal charges."

Rob Henderson on X - "humans...have a fundamental need for status/esteem...stimulant drugs have the capacity to promote feelings of confidence, high self-esteem, and power that arguably are attractive subjective states because of their role in signaling high social status"
The Oxford Handbook of Evolution and the Emotions

B.C. to give 'safe' fentanyl to minors. And parents won't have a say - "In what constitutes a clear trampling of parental rights, British Columbia recently authorized the provision of “safer supply” fentanyl to youth across the province, regardless if parents are informed of, or agree to, this measure...  the new protocols are full of red flags, including a jarring near-absence of safeguarding measures when giving fentanyl to minors, to say nothing of the obvious ethical issues around underage consent... A number of addiction experts have criticized this as deeply inadequate. Dr. Leonora Regenstreif, a Hamilton-based addiction physician, said she found it hard to imagine that two doctors or nurses working in the same clinic would significantly challenge each others’ prescribing decisions. The protocols do not provide a minimum age for when youth can receive recreational fentanyl. When I asked the BCCSU whether a minimum existed, they did not reply.  The documents also make absolutely no mention of the rights and roles of parents of drug-addicted minors... The BCCSU did not respond to these queries, despite generally answering other emails of mine over the past year. If the province is going to dole out recreational fentanyl to minors, it should probably have strong evidence backing this decision — but apparently it doesn’t.  The protocols clearly state that, “To date, there is no evidence available supporting this intervention, safety data, or established best practices for when and how to provide it.” In fact, “a discussion of the absence of evidence supporting this approach” is actually required for securing informed consent from patients. It seems that parents will actually be powerless to stop the government from supplying their children with fentanyl, as safer supply technically counts as a health-care intervention and youth have substantial control over their own medical decisions in Canada... it is hard to imagine any scenario where a drug-addicted minor would be capable of providing informed consent for safer supply fentanyl, given that addiction hijacks the brain and inhibits rational decision-making. While adults have extensive rights to personal self-determination, which permits them to make impaired or self-destructive decisions if they so choose, it is hard to see why this same freedom should be extended to youth when it comes to using hard drugs. It is true that many drug-addicted youth are in foster care or estranged from their parents, and that, for them, securing parental consent is near-impossible. Yet making an exception for this subpopulation, and permitting them to receive free fentanyl, could incentivize other underage drug users to cut ties with their families and run away from home to secure free drugs.  As parents are often a youth’s greatest asset for recovery, any safer supply system that undermines child-parent relationships is harmful. In a sad twist, the same laws that allow the government to give recreational fentanyl to kids without parental consent also prohibit parents from sending their children to involuntary addiction treatment — in other words, the government won’t help you force your kid to get clean, but they will give them unlimited “safe” drugs against your will. As I argued in my MLI report, “By reframing the provision of unlimited recreational fentanyl as medical care, the provincial government may inadvertently turn itself into a parent’s worst nightmare — an unstoppable drug dealer with endless supply and unrestricted access to their child.”"
It started with trans mania, but it won't end there

B.C. injunction against law banning public drug use disappointing, say police chiefs - "The Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act was passed by the legislature in November, allowing fines and imprisonment for refusal to comply with police orders not to consume drugs in places including parks, beaches, sports fields and near business entrances and bus stops.  It had yet to come into effect when the injunction was imposed last week by Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson."

Conservatives overwhelmingly embrace the ‘Alberta model’ of tackling addiction - "The Alberta model is often presented in sharp contrast to the B.C. government’s approach, which has embraced “safe supply” policies to help combat the province’s long-standing and deteriorating rate of addiction. While “safe supply” has been praised by the B.C. government and federal Liberals as a viable strategy, the rate of addiction and drug-related deaths in the province has only increased since “safe supply” policies were enacted... In 2022, B.C. once again broke its record for annual drug-related deaths, after already breaking that record in 2021. Other cities like Toronto and Edmonton have been experiencing their own cases of rising homelessness and often fatal addiction."

Former drug addict begs government to stop safer supply - "Concerns about safer supply were recently outlined in an open letter to Ya’ara Saks, the federal minister of mental health and addictions, from 17 Canadian addiction experts. Diverted hydromorphone has been “flooding our streets,” leading to rising addiction, the letter stated. “We are regularly seeing and hearing in our practices that diverted hydromorphone is causing harm to both adults and children.” The addiction specialists are calling upon the government to either supervise the consumption of safer supply hydromorphone or cancel the programs altogether.  Mark’s experiences were consistent with these physicians’ observations, and with reports from over 25 other addiction experts I have interviewed in the past year."

Pointers From Portugal on Addiction and the Drug War - The New York Times - "Many people point to Portugal as an example for the United States to emulate in dealing with illicit drugs.  But Portugal’s experience is often misunderstood. Although it decriminalized the use of all illicit drugs in small amounts in 2001, including heroin and cocaine, that’s different from making them legal. And it did not decriminalize drug trafficking, which would typically involve larger quantities.  Portugal’s law removed incarceration, but people caught possessing or using illicit drugs may be penalized by regional panels made up of social workers, medical professionals and drug experts. The panels can refer people to drug treatment programs, hand out fines or impose community service. A lot of the benefits over the years from Portugal’s policy shift have come not from decriminalization per se, but in the expansion of substance-use disorder treatment... It’s important to note that we don’t know what would have happened in Portugal had the 2001 drug reforms not occurred, so findings should be taken with a grain of salt. Some of the observed changes could result from trends predating the change in laws"
So much for "stigma" being the problem. Of course, in the US they keep talking about "harm reduction" and ending "stigma", but what they mean by this is just enabling drug use, e.g. in San Francisco

How Europe’s heroin capital solved its overdose crisis - "One of Portugal's most important innovations has been its network of "dissuasion commissions."  Anyone caught with a “personal” amount of drugs — up to 10 days’ worth of a substance — can be ordered to appear before a health department official like Nuno Capaz. He's the sociologist who heads up the Lisbon commission...   In Portugal, every health district in the country has outreach teams that visit addicts every day and get to know their stories and needs... While Lisbon still has places users frequent to buy and use drugs, the open drug market that once characterized parts of the city is gone. And the worst neighbourhoods that had the highest death rates no longer see many drug fatalities.  Vancouver, meanwhile, has struggled to reduce overdose deaths for more than 20 years."
No doubt, being visited by a team increases "stigma"

Julian Somers: Our study found ‘safe supply’ isn’t safe. We were smeared for our work - "Fifteen of the 19 papers we identified were from B.C.. Previous reviewers reported in 2020 that they found no evidence demonstrating either the safety or effectiveness of “safe supply.” Our results reached the same conclusion: ‘safe supply’ wasn’t safe or effective. We introduced the term “Public Supply of Addictive Drugs” (PSAD) to avoid implying evidence of safety.  Our review summarized alternative interventions that have helped people at high risk for drug poisoning, including results from high-quality randomized trials demonstrating large reductions in crime and medical emergencies. We raised basic questions regarding PSAD’s risks and benefits, including potential adverse reactions, drug diversion, estimated costs, expected duration and exit strategy. Recovery from addiction is achievable and should be the clear and obvious end point of any plan to intervene. Otherwise we are simply building a bigger and more expensive revolving door as Portland, Vancouver and other places grimly illustrate.   Days following our review’s submission to the Alberta government, the B.C. Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) issued a letter to media claiming that our work was flawed and should be disregarded “primarily due to its problematic search strategy.” The letter’s signatories didn’t mention that they were the authors of the papers we reviewed or that they received funding linked to PSAD. Crucially, they agreed with our primary finding that no evidence supported PSAD. They attempted to minimize the importance of this fact...   Remarkably, the BCCSU then wrote to conference organizers urging them to uninvite me from planned keynote addresses. Some of the recipients of those messages contacted me, shocked by such blatant attempts at censorship. Funders withdrew over $500,000 in annual support for our work advancing recovery from addiction, citing the need to steer clear of conflict with the province.  By accepting the BCCSU’s attacks at face value, media contributed to the impression that criticism of PSAD is political rather than substantive and that few alternatives exist... Policy makers and researchers must explain why evidence from randomized trials is essential before introducing drugs including vaccines, but not for the off-label dispensing of addictive drugs to people who are homeless, unemployed and mentally unwell. And Canadians need to consider that the drug mortality crisis is perpetuated by continuously replacing people who are at risk."

Drug harm reduction programs bringing plenty of harms to neighbours | Toronto Sun

Rationalizing Modern Drug Prejudices - "Depending on which weights are changed in the sensitivity analysis, alcohol, heroin, crack cocaine and tobacco all vie with each other in the position of overall most harmful drug. But some familiar patterns appear to be constant across all sensitivity analyses. No matter how many variations in weighting procedures were used by these scientists, alcohol always came out as significantly more harmful than marijuana, and staggeringly more harmful than LSD and magic mushrooms. While it’s probably not a large surprise to many that marijuana isn’t considered as harmful as alcohol, the nearly non-existent harm score attributed to the psychedelics LSD and magic mushrooms is an eyebrow raiser. Years of misreporting by the mainstream media have imprinted a particularly negative image of these drugs that has little correspondence to reality... a medical review in Neuroscience & Therapeutics found no example of an LSD overdose death in recorded medical history. When one follows up on stories like this reported in the mainstream media, very often you will find the injury attributed to psychedelics is actually the result of some other factor or a mixture of factors... the medical literature stresses that no case of toxicity poisoning has ever been recorded from magic mushrooms and that it would be almost humanely impossible to consume enough mushrooms (17kg in fact) to reach toxicity... scientists agree on four basic things about psychedelic drugs that seem to hold outside of extreme circumstances: you cannot die of an overdose of them, they cause no physical damage to bodily organs, they are not addictive, and they do not seem to attend any net deterioration in mental health in a population of users (they perhaps attend an improvement). On all four of these measures, alcohol towers above the psychedelics as an addictive, lethal chemical that attends overdose, cancer, organ failure, heart attack, stroke, psychological damage and death via withdrawal (delirium tremens). And that’s only half the picture: alcohol’s negative impact in road fatalities, violence, emotional abuse and community breakdown are unparalleled in the drug world. For these reasons, scientists carrying out the multi-criteria analysis give magic mushrooms one-tenth the harm score of alcohol. In the United States... possibly the safest of all psychoactive drugs is classified as the most severely punishable while one of the most dangerous drugs available is not even scheduled (the other drugs are spread throughout the scheduling system in a seemingly random fashion). While some people see conspiracy theories at play to explain this paradoxical situation, the question that most peaks my curiosity is how defenders of the status quo could attempt to defend drug laws as they currently stand, which seem like historical artifacts rather than the product of a well thought through process... Some people simply refuse to accept that the relative risks of psychedelics or marijuana are not as harmful as other drugs. The DEA implicitly takes this approach by pretending that the question of relativity is incoherent and ignoring politicians who raise it, while others explicitly reject the notion of a relative assessment of harms. Psychiatrist Edward Gogek takes the explicit approach... Nothing on earth is “completely safe.” People have been killed by exploding lava lamps and whipped cream cans, impaled on beach umbrellas, lit on fire by sodium covered seashells and had their skulls crushed by rocks thrown by animals in zoos. No study on anything, anywhere in the world, ought to describe of anything as being completely safe and healthy. But since when did “completely safe” become a sensible criterion for being permitted to carry out some activity in any society? Wouldn’t that obviously cripple a society? And why doesn’t this formula apply to alcohol or tobacco? The question of inconsistency remains open... some harm reduction advocates might bite the bullet and openly assert that anything as dangerous as illicit drugs ought to be banned too. Peter Hitchens for instance has supported the prohibition of alcohol in theory... When asked about the relative danger between drugs and motorbikes Hitchens also confided, “If motorbikes were banned I might well oppose a campaign to legalize them.” Aside from motorbikes, plenty of other activities seem to rival marijuana and psychedelics in terms of risk of injury and death, including football, horse riding, swimming, quad biking, boxing, skydiving, and scuba diving. Believe it or not, there are people who would prohibit these dangerous activities too. “American football is too dangerous and it should be abolished,” wrote The Guardian’s Dave Bry in 2016. “Pools need to be banned. They are way too dangerous,” argues the Australian writer Joe Abi. These harm reduction totalitarians are dead-set serious about banning everything under the sun, and so we can naturally understand why they would also support prohibiting all drugs. While most of us would choose to flee from their bubble wrapped dystopia, here is a group of people with a consistent, straightforward harm reduction policy."
Time for Singapore to ban alcohol, swimming pools and football  

SOUND OFF: NDP endorses drug use in our hospitals in leaked memo - "RECENTLY, WE UNCOVERED A SHOCKING MEMO sent to nurses that permits the use of drugs and weapons in hospital rooms. The entire memo is outrageous – under the NDP, illicit drug use and even drug trafficking in hospitals are not just tolerated but endorsed. Bravely, nurses are coming forward with horrifying stories of daily encounters with meth, cocaine, and fentanyl use. One report highlights meth being smoked in a unit just hours after the birth of a newborn. We’ve also heard about a nurse who, just back from maternity leave, was exposed to someone smoking illicit drugs. The exposure was so severe she needed emergency care and was advised to stop breastfeeding because of the risk to her newborn... Under the NDP government, once-safe public spaces like hospitals, Tim Hortons, and public transit have become hotspots for open drug use... We only have to look across the U.S. border to Oregon who recognized the chaos decriminalization was causing and has recently moved to re-criminalize drug possession. Oregon has been cited multiple times by David Eby as a model for the pilot in British Columbia. Yet, he chooses to stick with decriminalization that’s been cancelled in Oregon and is failing British Columbians."    

B.C. hospital memo raises safety concerns over patients' drug use - "A leaked memo from a hospital in the Northern Health region advising nurses not to impede patients using illicit drugs raised a firestorm in the B.C. Legislature... A Ministry of Health spokesperson said in a statement that the policy outlined in the memo has since been superseded, and smoking or vaping any substance indoors is prohibited."

Studies on B.C. safer supply emerge, finding different answers to different questions - "One found the program was associated with a reduced risk of death from overdose and other causes among opioid-using participants, while the other concluded the strategy was associated with a significant increase in opioid overdose hospitalizations across the community... there could be multiple explanations, including the diversion of safe-supply drugs onto the illicit market, which the study says could occur "for various reasons, including to purchase unregulated fentanyl.""

Qubits vs Trans People

From Controversial Political Memes for Anti-Establishment Human Beings, a reliable source for left wing nonsense (not to mention a key study in irony, given that the left is the establishment):


"Instead of using binary bits, quantum computers use qubits (quantum bits) to solve mathematical problems and to prepare datasets. The traditional bit is based on binary code. A bit can have only
one of two states: 1 or 0. Qubits, on the other hand, are non-binary and can have both states at the same time: 1 and 0.

MAGA people: 'Hnnnngggh stop making Science WOKE! It's binary and it will stay binary none of this Disney movie crap ... MAGA is God !'

'And that's how you destroy the right wing garbage agenda ladies and gentlemen'"


Comment 1: "Nice! Just a few things. A qubit is “non-binary” in that it can inhabit multiple states at once. The existence of a qubit relies on the fact that the “on” state (1) and “off” state (0) are definite states that exist in physical space as with a classical bit.

When the qubit exhibits both “on” and “off” this is called a superposition. This superposition can be described by a linear equation as can be seen in the picture below. The alpha and Beta variables (α, β) are “complex” numbers (or imaginary numbers in math).

The equation itself represents the probability that the qubit will be in one state or the other and then when it is measured, the probability wave collapses into one of the “real” states.

Conversely, the “non-binary” “gender” has a different definition to anyone who uses it. It has no rules other than “not being inside the gender binary.” It is based on a gender-abolitionist theory that critically claims that gender itself isn’t real as we know it and is nothing but a collectively constructed fiction.

This is quite literally the opposite of what non-binary means in quantum mechanics because a superposition by definition means that both states HAVE to exist. QM shows they exist SO much that something outside our ability to fully measure in our four dimensional time space can only manifest in this reality as a probability wave of both and literally nothing else we observe.

TLDR; Not only is this post implicitly calling the “non-binary gender” mostly reliant on imaginary parts, it’s affirming a definition that there are only two genders.
Conservatives absolutely.. OWNED…??

To be fair though, if you ignore 100% of every single thing about quantum mechanics, qubits, and linear algebra this post is based on, the post makes complete sense!!
Cheers!!"


Comment 2: "as someone who has a masters in Quantum Computing. I will try to explain this a little easier.

This post oversimplifies quantum mechanics by using the "if not observed, it has multiple states" argument to losely justify a weird claim that conservatives fear spectrums. Not only does it incorrectly interpret quantum mechanics - which I don't blame them! It's difficult! - quantum computing uses binary choices to determine an action. It is still 1s and 0s when directly observed. It's simply based on probability that it is either a 1 or a 0. Biological sex supports this same ideology. You have a probability of being a woman or a man when you're born, based on a list of biological and genetic factors.

TLDR; This isn't the "gotcha" that you think it is."

Links - 20th April 2024 (2)

Jagmeet Singh is Canada's most expensive MP, Poilievre is the cheapest - "NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is currently topping out as the highest-spending individual member of Parliament in the House of Commons, while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre ranks as the lowest. The latest figures on MP expenses were released in late March, and they show that for the first three quarters of the last fiscal year (April 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2023), Singh expensed $533,533 in his capacity as the MP for Burnaby South.  In that same time period, Poilievre claimed $143,201 in expenses related to his role as the MP for riding of Carleton, roughly a fourth of Singh’s total.  Poilievre was also one of only a handful of MPs whose constituency expenses didn’t include a single dollar for “travel” or “hospitality.”... As for the expenses of the prime minister, while Justin Trudeau is famed for his sky-high travel expenses, the latest figures do show that his Montreal constituency office also ranks as one of the cheapest in the country to operate. In one quarter, Trudeau’s Papineau riding even stood out as one of the only offices aside from Carleton to rack up zero travel or hospitality expenses... But when it came to “hospitality” expenses, the clear champion was the Bloc Québécois.  Despite representing less than 10 per cent of the House of Commons, all three quarters analyzed by the National Post found that a Bloc MP was consistently among the top five spenders on hospitality."

Meme - sinisterpixel: "If you think 256 is an "oddly specific" number, you *probably* shouldn't be writing tech articles"
peachezprogramming: "Yikes"
"WhatsApp increases group chat size limit to 256 people. It's not clear why WhatsApp settled on such an oddly specific number"

Meme - "Anybody remember when Ottawa was named the most unloyal city inb the world because it had the highest amount of Ashley Madison users (meet ups for infidelity) it was found that dating a girl in Ottawa means she's most likely cheating on you with 2 other people"
Hennyeggsbenny: "Normie NPC? Ottawa has one the highest reddit user base per capita. We're anything but normies."
">thousands of Ottawans posting about how their pets can't sleep
>not single person saying their baby was up crying all night
Curious"

Meme - "And this is why we were asked to leave the museum *re-enacting dramatic Deposition*"

Death of Common Sense Will Spell the End of Free Societies - "I gently asked her whether she genuinely believed the postmodernist foundational tenet that there are no universal truths. The astute reader might notice the logical problem here, as the latter tenet is itself construed as a universal truth! Setting aside this embarrassing conundrum, she retorted with complete assuredness that indeed all knowledge is relative. Surely, I replied there must be some universals otherwise the pursuit of scientific truths is an utter illusion... I asked her whether it was a universal truth that within the human species it is only women who bear children. Surely this is an absolute fact, no? After rolling her eyes in utter disgust and taking a few huffs and puffs, she replied that she was amazed at how sexist my example had been. At this point, my doctoral student, my wife, and I were truly baffled. The feminist explained that in the spiritual narrative of a particular group of Japanese people, it is the men who bear the children! Hence, by purposely restricting childbearing to the physical/biological realm, I was being sexist. Sure, in the biological realm, it is the women who give birth but in the spiritual arena, it is wholly conceivable for men to be the child bearers. Whereas I was well aware of the nonsensical babble of postmodernists, I must admit that this was a new height of delusional thinking. I composed myself and decided to provide one additional and final example... I asked her whether it was indeed a universal truth that from any vantage point on Earth, the sun rises in the East and sets in the West... she used the tools of deconstructionism to "tease apart" my latest universal. Deconstructionism argues that reality is a linguistic creation. Hence, there is no objective truth to speak of, as all information is constrained within subjective linguistic bounds. She proposed that I was putting labels on things, and she refused to play such games. She did not know what I meant by "East" or "West." These were arbitrary labels. What did I mean by "sun"? That which I called the sun, she might refer to as "dancing hyena" (her actual words!), to which I wryly replied: OK, the dancing hyena rises in the East and sets in the West. Better yet, the dancing hyena gives me a dancing hyena burn on my fat stomach if I lay out too long without any dancing hyena protection!  If you think that this is an isolated incident that is otherwise unrepresentative of postmodernists, academic feminists, or deconstructionists, you'd be wrong. These anti-science movements have spent the greater part of the past four decades polluting the minds not only of bright academics but also of generations of students who were otherwise impressed by the obscurantism and fake profundity of these intellectual charlatans. The concerted efforts of several exemplary scientists have managed to slowly eviscerate the influence of anti-science movements on university campuses. For example, the physicist Alan Sokal purposely submitted a nonsensical postmodernist paper containing pseudo-randomly generated passages to Social Text, one of the elite journals in the field. After it being accepted, Sokal confessed his ruse albeit this did not seem to embarrass the editors. After all, since all meaning is relative, the editors construed his randomly generated nonsensical paper as meaningful! These anti-science movements coupled with cultural relativism, political correctness, and an ethos of self-guilt regarding all geopolitical realities will prove the demise of Western civilization. It is such babble that caused nearly all of the American news media to offer hallucinatory explanations regarding the recent Times Square incident including that the alleged terrorist did this because he had defaulted on his mortgage payment, and hence was facing great financial strain. Both the media and Obama officials are under a strict edict to avoid uttering the most obvious of geopolitical facts"

A Movie Star, Some Player Pianos, and Torpedoes - "Actress Hedy Lamarr... was an inventor...  she and Antheil began work on one of Lamarr’s invention ideas—a radio-guided torpedo with synchronized anti-jamming frequency hopping."

Volkswagen Italy mocked over unfortunate Instagram handle - "Volkswagen’s Italian branch — which goes by Volkswagen Italia — was mocked by social media users after the car dealership launched its Instagram handle “@volkswagenitalia.”...   The unfortunate handle also brought back a slew of awkward spellings such as the hashtag “#susanalbumparty” which went viral in 2012 when then-icon Susan Boyle released her first album."

Does Anyone Know What 'Populism' Means? - The Atlantic - "The way populism is often applied suggests that its use is more for effect rather than explanation"

The Bizarre Social History of Beds - "For most of human history, people thought nothing of crowding family members or friends into the same bed.  The 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys often slept with male friends and rated their conversation skills. One of his favorites was the “merry Mr. Creed,” who provided “excellent company.” In September 1776, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin famously shared a bed in a New Jersey inn with only one small window. Adams kept it shut, but Franklin wanted it open, complaining that he would suffocate without fresh air. Adams won the battle.  Travelers often slept with strangers. In China and Mongolia, kangs – heated stone platforms – were used in inns as early as 5000 B.C. Guests supplied the bedding and slept with fellow tourists.  Bedding down with strangers could lead to some awkwardness. The 16th-century English poet Andrew Buckley complained of bedmates who “buck and babble, some commeth drunk to bed.”  Then there was the Great Bed of Ware – a massive bed kept in an inn in a small town in entral England. Built with richly decorated oak around 1590, the four-post bed is about the size of two modern double beds. Twenty-six butchers and their wives – a total of 52 people – are said to have spent a night in the Great Bed in 1689...  why go to an office when you can rule from the bedroom? Each morning, Louis XIV of France would sit in his bed, bolstered by pillows, and preside over elaborate gatherings. Surrounded by courtiers like the gossipy Lord Saint-Simon, he composed decrees and consulted with high officials. During the 19th century, beds and bedrooms gradually became private spheres. A major impetus was rapid urbanization during the Industrial Revolution. In cities, compact row houses were constructed with small rooms, each with a specific purpose, one of which was sleeping. Another reason was religion. The Victorian era was a devout age, and Evangelical Christianity was pervasive by the 1830s. Such beliefs placed great emphasis on marriage, chastity, the family, and the bond between parent and child; allowing strangers or friends under the covers was no longer kosher. By 1875, Architect magazine had published an essay declaring that a bedroom used for anything other than sleeping was unwholesome and immoral... A 2019 survey found that 80 percent of teens brought their mobile devices into their bedrooms at night; nearly one-third slept with them.  In a way, technology has reverted the bed to its earlier role: a place to socialize – chatting with friends, maybe even strangers – late into the night. And we can only wonder how many tweets President Trump has composed while burrowed under his blankets... participants who banished smartphones from the bedroom reported being happier and having a better quality of life. Maybe that’s because these devices eat into our sleep."
See also, Richard I and Philip II sharing a bed. Clearly, according to Queer History and LGBT History, homosexuality has been pervasive in history

20 Slang Terms From World War I - "Basket Case
Blimp
Booby-Trap
Cooties
Dingbat
Flap
Kiwi
Strafe"

Religion Is About Emotion Regulation, and It’s Very Good at It

Boost your immunity: Cold and flu treatments suppress innate immune system. - "Boosting your immunity is actually a pretty bad idea. Even if these remedy and prevention products did what they purport to, you wouldn’t want them to.  We have two complementary immune systems: innate and acquired. Innate immunity is the body’s natural, knee-jerk reaction to an unknown infection. Innate immunity is fast, broad, and incredibly nonspecific. When it gets activated, you know the feeling all too well—fever, cough, runny nose, and body aches. In short: inflammation. You can already see why you might not want to “boost” this part of the immune system... The real work of neutralizing an infection is the purview of acquired immunity, the targeted branch of your immunologic military that is built up over your lifetime... the innate immune system rages on for much longer than necessary. While the acquired immune system’s antibodies have already fought and won the real battle, the innate branch just doesn’t get the communiqué, so it fights on unwittingly. As we all know, coughs and runny noses can linger for weeks, even after the mildest of viral infections.  This is why boosting your immunity seems like such a bad idea. Over-the-counter alternative-remedy products can’t boost your acquired immunity. Even magical thinkers would have to acknowledge that the only way to do that is through vaccination—something that too many alternative-remedy users seem to shun—or a bone marrow transplant, a dangerous but often necessary treatment in certain blood cancers that also increases immune system cells. That leaves innate immunity as the only target of these over-the-counter remedies that claim to enhance your natural immunity. But who would actually want that? Last I checked, no one wants fever or a runny nose. The mainstay of treatment for symptomatic cold viruses is to suppress, not boost, our crude and clunky innate immune responses...   In general, extremes are bad. Too much immunity (for example, autoimmune responses) can lead to allergies, tissue damage, and even anaphylaxis. Too little immunity, say from chemotherapy or HIV/AIDS, and you’re at risk of deadly infections that most people clear with ease. Our bodies have evolved toward a balance, but sometimes innate immunity is overzealous and needs curbing."

Eric Weinstein on X - "Q: How do you know that String Theory isn’t working as physics despite expert assurances to the contrary?
A: No one at all is in any way worried about the Iranians, Russians or Chinese getting their hands on our cutting edge String Theory."

Who is/was the genuinely toughest actor in Hollywood movies? - Cinema - Quora - "At the age of eighteen, Sessue Hayakawa was the young son of a noble Japanese family. His ancestors were samurai. Like many youths his age, Hayakawa dreamed of one day having a glorious army career, fighting for the Imperial Navy and kicking some foreign butt in the name of the Emperor. However, a day before he would enroll, he was dared by his friends to dive to the bottom of a deep lagoon. An excellent swimmer, he managed, but when he came up, he had a terrible headache. A doctor told him he had ruptured his eardrums. As a result, he failed his Navy physical… Having disappointed his samurai father, young Sessue went home to his parents and locked himself in his room. Alerted by the frantic barking of the loyal family dog, his father knocked on his son’s door. Silence. Without a moments doubt, he kicked in the locked and barricaded door. Inside he found a gruesome sight… Sessue was stabbing himself, attempting to commit seppuku, ritual suicide. By the time his father managed to wrestle the dagger from his hands, he had stabbed himself a staggering thirty times… Carrying him in his arms, as fast as he could, he rushed the young man to the nearest hospital where, miraculously, his son survived.  It took some time for him to recover from his gruesome injuries. When finally he did, he was sent by his family to America under the guise of studies. In reality, it was to distract him and give him a sense of purpose again. Now that he could no longer find the glory he was after in the Navy, maybe he could find glory elsewhere?...   The public found him broodingly handsome, devilishly attractive. He emitted a sense of danger that the female audience in particular could not get enough of. However, Hayakawa was still an Asian male. And as a non-white man, his on-screen and off-screen success was seen as a threat by many white men. Especially when he played, at times, a romantic lead rather than a villain. He carried himself with the air of an actual aristocrat, as he was an actual aristocrat. And it made him into the Asian equivalent of Rudolph Valentino. No one could stare at a girl more menacingly, more sexily. Or simply light a cigarette with the same class and nonchalance. His success carried on off-screen as well… Sessue got a lot of attention from female admirers. And he slept with a lot of beautiful Hollywood starlets, showgirls and actresses, extras… producers wives… you name it, he got it! At some point his Japanese wife and him even adopted some kids he fathered by Irish showgirls — he was particularly fond of Irish showgirls. He made no secret of the fact that two of his three children he fathered by white women, causing quite a scandal in his day and age of rampant racism and xenophobia.
Weird how when sexually threatened by Asian men, American men desexualised them, but when sexually threatened by Black men, American men hypersexualised them

Meme - "Is it just me or has Mcdonald's gone from a happy child to a depressed middle- aged adult? *bright coloured building with unique shaped roof vs dull grey square building*"

Meme - "Most people at parties: *kissing*
Me: If you stab a man in winter, steam will rise up from the wounds."

bea's bad blog - "every millennial who was online from 2000-2008 has a specific phrase from a YTP that will activate them like a “manchurian candidate” sleeper agent, causing them to spout gibberish for 40 straight seconds"

Taking the bull by the horns - "The item in the Good Oil said: "New laws in Australia next year may spell the end of the traditional bull bar, the heavy-duty protection fitted to the front of vehicles. Supporters say bull bars protect the vehicle's radiator and headlights from damage when it hits an animal such as a kangaroo. Opponents see bull bars as weapons against everything else on the road and cite surveys that say they are involved in up to 20 per cent of annual pedestrian fatalities. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says about 90 people - pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, drivers and passengers - die in collisions with bull bar-equipped vehicles each year...  The Federal Government in Australia will next year introduce a law governing vehicle frontal protection systems, popularly known as bull bars, 'roo bars, or nudge bars.  There are already guidelines in place - such as the banning of non-certified bull bars on vehicles made after 1996 - but some current designs will be outlawed as a result of the new laws.  The legislation is expected to ban sharp-edged bull bars as well as add-ons such as fishing-rod holders, CB radio aerials or clamps for spotlights... Supporters on both sides of the Tasman say bull bars save lives and help to prevent damage to a vehicle's headlights and radiator when it hits an animal. This is more likely in Australia, where there are an estimated 20,000 kangaroo/vehicle collisions each year.  Opponents say bull bars serve little purpose, are intrusive in a collision with another vehicle, contribute to pedestrian deaths and are little more than a fashion item in cities.  Even the most ardent supporters of bull bars question their usefulness in cities.   A study done in 1998 by the University of Adelaide found that the damage to a child's head when struck by a Toyota Prado equipped with a small-diameter steel bull bar was 10 to 15 times worse than the damage inflicted without one."
Aka roo bars

Useful Information for Foreign Tourists in Sapporo: Sand scattered over the icy roads. - "If you visit Sapporo in the winter, you may notice that sand is scattered over the frozen surface of slippery roads. This sand is an anti-slip agent that is used on winter streets so that pedestrians can walk safely. Grit bins, usually installed near intersections, contain bags or plastic bottles filled with sand and are available for use at all times. Since anyone is free to scatter this sand, Sapporo locals often take the initiative for the benefit of others who walk after them. Spread the sand in a zig-zag pattern over sections of the pavement you feel are too slippery. This is just one example of snow country altruism. The grit bins are equipped with a storage space where emptied bags and plastic bottles can be returned. This is not a trash bin, so take care not to leave regular garbage there."

Meme - "NEVER GIVE UP *miner giving up just before hitting the seam of gems* *miner continuing and going to hit the seam of gems*
Tristan @TristanGHill: thank you minecraft, after I saw this I went to the casino and lost absolutely everything."

Meme - "Wilma Dickfit is with Barry McCockiner.
Married Barry McCockiner"

Meme - "Ezra Miller. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Miller at 2017 San Diego Comic Con
See also
List of messiah claimants
List of people claimed to be Jesus
List of solved missing person cases"

Amagasaki derailment - Wikipedia - "Investigators speculate that the driver may have been trying to make up this lost time by increasing the train's speed beyond customary limits. Many reports from surviving passengers indicate that the train was traveling at a faster than normal speed. Furthermore, it is speculated that the driver may have felt stressed because he would have been punished for the two infractions... Drivers for JR West face financial penalties for lateness as well as being forced into harsh and humiliating retraining programs known as nikkin kyōiku (日勤教育, "dayshift education"), which include weeding and grass-cutting duties during the day. The final report officially concluded that the retraining system was one probable cause of the crash. This program consisted of severe verbal abuse, forcing the employees to repent by writing extensive reports. Many experts saw the process of nikkin kyoiku as a punishment and psychological torture, not retraining. The driver had also received a non-essential phone call from the general control station at the time he was rounding the bend... It has been speculated that the driver was so stressed about the inevitability of going back to nikkin kyoiku due to the prior infractions from that morning that he did not notice that the train was going too fast. When the driver did notice it, four seconds before the derailment, he used the service brake instead of the emergency brake, presumably to avoid another infraction, since the use of the emergency brake had to be justified."

Dangerously Right of Marx | Facebook - "Apparently Kotaku's owners have switched to a focus on "tips and guides" and given its remaining 7 writers the unreasonable task of "50 guides per week".  The speculation is that they want the rest of the staff to quit or else fire them for not reaching the new strenuous deadline (thus not being owed severance).  The editor in chief resigned."

Meme - Kaguya's Top Gal @hayasaka...: "The writers for Kotaku are literal prostitutes"
Alyssa Mercante @alyssa_merc: "I'm just gonna go back to sex work because at least then when get fucked a lot I'll get paid well for it"

Meme - "APES! RIDE WITH ME AND WE WILL DEFEAT THE HUMANS AND RULE THIS WoRLD!"
"UH... CAESAR? MY HORSE BROKE."
"UGH... AGAIN? WELL, QUICKLY Toss IT AWAY AND GRAB A FRESH ONE!"
"RISE of the DAWN of the PLANET of the HORSES"

Meme - Woman to baby: "You're going to hate me when you're a teenager. But I love you so much! I'm scared! It's Not fair! I'll be a cool mom, you can do drugs if you want. A little cocaine"
Man: "Give me that baby"

Meme - Dumbledore: "ONLY A PERSON WHO WANTED TO FIND THE STONE, BUT NOT USE IT, WOULD BE ABLE TO GET IT"
Harry Potter: "SO IF I'D JUST STAYED IN MY ROOM, VOLDEMORT WOULD HAVE HAD NO CHANCE OF GETTING IT?"
Dumbledore: "YES, IDIOT CHILD"
Comment: "Here's where I really love the SuperCarlinBrothers theory about this being part of Dumbledore's big plan. Basically this was an initial litmus test to see if Harry would have the underlying fortitude to take on challenges such as these. As Dumbles says here, the stone was never really in danger, and if he were *really* trying to protect it, he wouldn't leave a bunch of challenges that could be solved by first years."

Meme - Doctor preparing for prostate exam: "Ok Steve, try not to get aroused."
Patient: "My name is Paul..."
Doctor: "I know. I am Steve."

Meme - This is the best thing I've seen in at least 6 or 7 minutes: "it's time to end cars forever!"
I still see left wingers claim that it's a conspiracy theory to say that some people want to ban cars

Meme - Cody: "You didn't stop. You were stopped"
@AyishaMuhamad: "We should never have stopped."
Readers added context: "Muslims have not stopped their conquest of their own volition as this post implies; but rather the numerous attempts to forcefully expand Islam were stopped, often at great cost, by various defending powers over the centuries."

Meme - "TELL ME THE TRUTH PETER. I'M READY."
"MRS INCREDIBLE ISN'T NATURALLY THICC. SHE INFLATED HER ASS TO MAKE IT LOOK THICC."
"*SOBS* YOU'RE LYING. TAKE IT BACK! *SOBS*"

Meme - "NO Smoking *Arabic*
Don't speak French *Arabic*"

Meme - Storm to sad Rogue: "AW HELL NAW KAREN! KEEP your BLAND ASS POTATO SALAD TO YOURSELF."

Meme - Law B-Day @SlyPerformer: "If like the Anime version of it enough, I'll actually try Cp, i honestly never gave it a fair shot cause of how controversial it was."
Poe's Law 3.33 You can (not) redo: "HAAAANK! HAAAANK! HANK, DON'T ABBREVIATE CYBERPUNK."

Meme - "Thank me later *fleshlight made of ground beef*
Great success *fleshlight with bigger hole*"

Meme - "The future is dangerous. Don't go any further Please.
Hotel Balmoral Karuizawa"

Moral disapproval and 'hate'

From "Philip Powell OP" on Facebook (from the screenshot I saw):

Person: I want to do "X."
Catholic Church: You are free to do it.
Person: But you think "X" is wrong.
Catholic Church: Yes.
Person: Because you want to control me?
Catholic Church: No. You are free to do what you want.
Person: But you think "X" is wrong.
Catholic Church: Yes. But only because I want your ultimate good.
Person: But I want to do "X."
Catholic Church: You are free to do it.
Person: But I want you to say that "X" is good.
Catholic Church: I cannot say that.
Person: Why do you hate me?

Clearly, if you tell an alcoholic that alcohol is bad for him, you hate him.

Links - 20th April 2024 (1 - Palestine/Middle East Peace)

What would building an 'army of Palestine’ look like? - "A feature in The Washington Post this week warned that the Palestinian Authority’s security forces are not yet big enough or powerful enough for the Palestinian state that the Biden Administration is now advocating. The PA forces are “underfunded and widely unpopular [and] ill-equipped to take on the massive responsibilities that their Western backers are envisioning.” So what will the Palestine statehood crowd prescribe as the solution? Give them more funds and more weapons, of course. Build them into a full-fledged army, disguised as a “security force.” The excuse will be that the PA needs the money and guns to fight terrorism. Everyone seems to have forgotten that the PA was supposed to have been fighting terrorism since it was created back in the 1990s by the Oslo Accords – but it never has done the job. The first Oslo Agreement, in 1993, stipulated that the Palestinian Arabs would have “a strong police force” (Article VII). It didn’t say anything about the formation of an army. But the Palestinian Authority quickly exploited the opportunity. The original 12,000-man “security force” ballooned to 60,000 – and the international community didn’t say a word. Then came Oslo II, in 1995, which spelled out more specifically that the PA security forces are obligated to “apprehend, investigate, and prosecute perpetrators and all other persons directly or indirectly involved in acts of terrorism, violence and incitement” (Annex I, Article II, 3-c).  Not only has the PA never undertaken any serious effort to apprehend terrorists or inciters, but many members of its security forces have been directly involved in deadly terrorist activities. As recently as February 29 of this year, a junior officer in the PA security forces murdered two Israeli civilians – one of them a teenager – near the town of Eli. Again, international silence. In fact, it’s worse than silence. Despite the involvement of PA security force members in terrorism, America’s CIA continues to provide training for their de facto army. EVER WONDER which countries have the largest per-capita security forces? It’s no mystery – the World Atlas lists them. Not surprisingly, the largest ones are those with the tiniest populations, thus making the size of their security forces (law enforcement) disproportionately large, such as the Vatican, Pitcairn Islands, and Monaco. But guess who’s also up near the top of the list, even though it has a population of several million? The Palestinian Authority. The PA has the sixth-largest security force per capita in the world, with a whopping 1,250 police officers per 100,000 people... “by late 1998, the PA security services… had in almost every regard violated the letter of the agreements reached with Israel,” turning the PA-governed areas into “one of the most heavily policed territories in the world. “A proliferation of weapons was occurring, both in quantity and quality, well beyond that stipulated in Oslo II,” according to the Washington Institute report. “By one estimate, there were at least 40,000 more weapons than allowed in the agreement, including RPGs, mortars, mines, grenade launchers, and sniper rifles; also being developed was a small-scale indigenous manufacturing capacity for hand grenades and other ammunition.” And that was many years ago. One can only imagine what the PA has stockpiled in its arsenal by now."

Palestinian leader condemns IDF operation, justifies Nazi Holocaust - "Fatah Official Yasser Aby Sido appeared on Egypt’s Sada Al-Balad TV on February 23, where he claimed that the Holocaust was a necessary action because the “Jews planned to control Germany"... “They planned to take over Germany. They started to bring down Germany in terms of the economy and moral values. Hitler reacted by making the Jews go on the streets and lick the sidewalks. They know this very well. Kristallnacht [the night of broken glass] is well known in Jewish history, but so is the Night of the Long Knives, when Jews were ordered to put Stars of Davids on their breasts, and they were called ‘filthy Jews.’  “Let me say this loud and clear - the Jews distorted many verses in the Torah in order to make them more agreeable for them. I do not want to cite examples because some might consider me an antisemite, although it is us Arabs who are Semites - not them.”   The Fatah official failed to mention that Nazi forces had attempted to genocide Jews across the entire European continent and offered a revised account of the Holocaust which promotes the idea that Hitler had attempted to relocate Jewish populations."
Nothing to see here. This is just "anti-Zionism"

3 Palestinians Arrested In Italy On Terrorist Plot Suspicion - "Italian police arrested three Palestinians suspected in plotting terrorist attacks, including a suicide attack, against civilian and military targets "on a foreign soil."  The suspects are believed to be a part of 'Rapid response group - Tulkarem Brigades' of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, designated a terrorist organization by the European Union."
Damn Zionists! Resistance is not optional!

Imtiaz Mahmood on X - "It’s been widely accepted that most Nazis who fled Germany after World War Two fled to South America, mainly to Argentina and Paraguay, and even Venezuela. But what many don’t realize, and it’s a verifiable fact, is that many of the worst Nazis who were senior members of the SS and Eichmann henchmen fled to and lived in the Middle East, bringing the Nazi ideologies and their hatred of Jews to the region where they ingrained their hatred into local society.   Alois Brunner is one such famous one. He fled to Damascus in Syria and became an adviser to the Assad regime. Another I’ve mentioned before was Johannes von Leers, a close aide to Goebbels, who initially fled to Brazil before moving to Egypt. In Egypt, he changed his name to Omar Amin, converted to Islam, and became Minister of Education where he created the curriculum for all schools teaching kids about the evil Jews and Zionists and indoctrinating generations of hatred during the Sadat era.   In fact, thousands of Nazis relocated to the Middle East, mostly in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and even the British Mandate of Palestine where they worked with the local Arabs to kill the Jews in the region. Many Nazis were advisors to the Arab countries who waged war against fledgling Israel in 1948.   So when you hear Israelis calling Hamas and other terrorists in the region Nazis, it’s because they actually are. The Nazis who fled to the Middle East were welcomed as the Arabs had already established strong relations during the Hitler regime and they shared the common goal of exterminating all the Jews.   One last interesting little titbit… dozens of senior Nazis who fled Germany had their names changed by various governments sympathetic to them, and ended up joining a new organization shortly after the war. That organization was… the United Nations.   Interesting how things begin to fall into place when you actually understand and research history.  ~ Cheryl E 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱 @CherylWroteIt"
The left love Nazis and Nazi ideas when it helps their agenda

Hillel Fuld on X - " Let’s clear this up once and for all.
1- Criticize the Israeli government? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Deny Israel’s right to exist? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
2- Care about innocent Palestinians? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Claiming Israel is indiscriminately and even intentionally killing innocent civilians? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
3- Calling for an end to violence? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Asking Israel to unilaterally cease fire while Hamas continues to fire rockets and commit terrorism against Israelis? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
4- Wishing for the self determination of the Palestinians after their educational system is reformed and stops spreading Jew hatred? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Chanting about the erasure of Israel from the map (that’s what ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ means. No Israel.)? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
5- Investigating the events of October 7th? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Denying Hamas’ October 7th crimes and sexual violence against innocent Jews? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
6- Protesting against Israeli policy? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Attacking Jews or Jewish institutions including synagogues? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
The line between legitimate criticism and full blown Jew hatred is a fine one, but a good litmus test is to ask yourself “Is what I am demanding from the Jewish state something I demand from other nations/countries or is this opinion of mine only applicable to the Jews?” Antisemitism is a very real and a very painful thing for Jews worldwide. All of the above forms of antisemitism might seem harmless to you, but I assure you, every one of those things leads directly to verbal and physical violence against Jews. Words matter and when you use your words to spread hate, hate spreads. Let’s not confuse valid constructive criticism with the hatred of Jews. Kapeesh? Oh; and more thing. Don’t kid yourself that antisemites are all low life criminals. As always, they also sit at the highest levels in society and mask their Jew hatred with sophistication. They did it in Germany and they’re doing it today. Today, some of the smartest and most successful people out there have proudly removed their masks and revealed their true face, a face of a person who thinks calling for genocide of the Jewish people is totally ok. It’s not ok. Never was and never will be."

99 Percent of "Palestine Refugees" Are Fake - "denying UNRWA money does not get to the heart of the problem, which lies not in its sponsored activities but in its perpetuating and expanding population of "Palestine refugees" in three unique, even bizarre ways: allowing this status to be transferred without limit from generation to generation; maintaining the status after refugees have acquired a nationality (such as the Jordanian); and assigning the status to residents of the West Bank and Gaza, who live in the putative Palestinian homeland. These tricks allowed UNRWA artificially to expand the refugee population from 600,000 in 1949 to 5.3 million now; an accurate count of real refugees now alive numbers around 20,000... the "Palestine refugee" status. Denying this to all but those who meet the U.S. government's normal definition of a refugee (in this case, being at least 69 years old, stateless, and living outside the West Bank or Gaza), diminishes the irredentist dagger at Israel's throat by over 99 percent. It also puts the "Palestine refugee" status into play, permits millions of Palestinians to live more healthily, addresses the dank heart of Arab anti-Zionism, and helps resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict."
From 2018

Anti-Jew Text in Trilogy - "The Trilogy spends a lot of time on the Jews. In Mecca, their mention is generally favorable. However, in Medina, Jews became the enemy of Islam because they denied that Mohammed was the last and final prophet in the Jewish line of prophets. In the data on the Jews in the Trilogy, notice that these texts have more Jew hatred than Mein Kampf."
Jihad - "There are four ways that jihad is practiced. Jihad can be by the sword, with writing, with speech and with money.  A common defense of jihad is that it has two forms. There is the greater jihad which is the inner struggle overcoming bad habits. Then there is the lesser jihad of war. Bukhari’s Hadith has about 1400 hadiths about jihad. Only 2% of those 1400 are about jihad as a religious effort. So 98% of the jihad hadiths are about jihad as war."
Trilogy Text Devoted to Jihad - "Political Islam states that the whole world must submit to Islam; Kafirs are the enemy because they do not follow the words of Allah and the perfect pattern of Mohammed.  Violence and terror are made sacred by the Koran. Peace comes only with submission. Political Islam and its accompanying struggle to dominate the Kafir, or jihad, is universal and eternal.  This data includes jihad of the sword, pen, tongue and money."
Amount of Text Devoted to the Kafir - "Much of the Islamic doctrinal texts relates to the Kafir. The majority (64%) of the Koran refers to them, and nearly all of the Sira (81%) is about Mohammed’s struggle with the Kafir. 37% of the Hadith of Bukhari concerns them. Overall, the Trilogy devotes 51% of its content to the Kafir."

Netanyahu and Israel did not prop up Hamas - "Israel is not the one that strengthened Hamas. Even before and during the Oslo process, Israeli governments acted against the terrorist group, among other things, by expelling its leadership and eliminating its senior officials. During the Second Intifada, Israel’s policy of assassinations against the Hamas leaders was intensified, and as a result, the leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and other senior officials such as Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, Ibrahim al-Makadmeh and Salah Shehade were killed. In practice, until the current war, it was Netanyahu who, as prime minister, led Israel to three of the four military confrontations with Hamas since the latter took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 – conflicts that caused great damage to Hamas’s military capability and led to its weakening. When searching for the cause of the strengthening of Hamas and the weakening of the Palestinian Authority, the finger of blame must be pointed at two central players in the Middle East region. The first is the PA itself. Despite the claim that Netanyahu did everything he could to weaken the authority and its leader by avoiding conducting a peace process with them to resolve the conflict, it is the refusal of PA leaders Yasser Arafat and later Mahmoud Abbas that prevented an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. In addition to Arafat’s refusal to accept the Israeli proposal during the Ehud Barak government at the Camp David conference and even the Clinton outline in 2000, Abbas himself refused a more generous proposal from Ehud Olmert in 2008, which guaranteed a Palestinian state on 100% of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with east Jerusalem as its capital... Despite the massive investment by the US and the West in the PA’s security forces, they were found to lack any capabilities in the face of Hamas’s military wing, which took control of the Gaza Strip with ease in June 2007. Another factor that should be mentioned in helping to strengthen Hamas is the many countries in the Arab world. It is not just countries that consciously acted to strengthen Hamas and weaken the Palestinian Authority, such as Qatar, Turkey, and Iran, the latter having embraced the terrorist group since its establishment and considering it part of the “Axis of Resistance” under its leadership (except for a short period when there was a crisis between them due to Hamas’s lack of support for the Assad regime during the Syrian civil war). Countries that share interests with Israel in regional issues, such as the Iranian nuclear threat, including Egypt, have also had a complex relationship with Hamas that has granted it international recognition as sovereign over the Gaza Strip, which deepened the internal Palestinian division and weakened the Palestinian Authority."
Using terrorism supporters' logic that even a small bit of support/benign neglect means that Israel founded and is responsible for Hamas, Arabs are responsible for the establishment of the state of Israel, since in their telling of history (which ignores all the pogroms), Arabs welcomed and lived peacefully with Jews in the early 20th century

Portuguese festival: 'Zionism has no place on a dancefloor' - "Portuguese festival Waking Life said that Zionism shouldn't be allowed on dancefloors and compared it to racism, homophobia, and sexism"
The left shoves politics into everything

Meme - "Opinion of Jews in Islamic countries from a 2010 Pew survey.
Opinions of Jews
Unfav
Egypt 95%
Jordan 97%
Lebanon 98%
Palest. ter. 97%
Turkey 73%
Israel 11%
Israel Jew 6%
Indonesia 74%
Pakistan 78%
Nigeria 44%
Nigeria Muslim 60%"
They didn't get the memo that they were anti-Zionist, not anti-Semitic. Of course, the cope is that Israel is responsible for anti-Semitism, but good luck blaming Islamic countries for Islamophobia

Meme - Left winger with Communist badge, Black Power fist, Pride flag and Trans flag: "but i have been tweeting "i stand with Palestine""
Hamas Member: "DIG THE FUCKING HOLE!"

Brianna Wu on X - "I’m despondent about education helping at all.   I posted a bluntly factual list of times that Palestinians have rejected their own state yesterday. It’s simply true, you can’t argue with it because it’s just reality.   And watching the disinformation, alternative history and what aboutism is shocking. It doesn’t matter what fact you present, an internal logic is prepared to dismiss it.   I’ve just never experienced anything at the scale"

Gad Saad on X - "Now that ISIS has apparently taken credit for the Moscow terror attack, let's remember:
1) To redouble our efforts to combat Islamophobia;
2) To recognize that ISIS has absolutely nothing to do with Islam; its leader who held a PhD in Islamic Studies completely misunderstood the Noble Faith;
3) To reaffirm that the true culprit is Zionism."
This was satire, but terrorism supporters do indeed believe this

Richard Hanania on X - "The secret to the success of the Muslim world is its high human capital."
Meme - @HadiNasrallah Hadi Nasrallah: "We know who was really behind the Moscow attacks. ISIS is just the tool."
Meme - Sadat Afreen @s_afreen7: "The CIA or Mossad?? #Moscow #Russia Multiple armed men opened fire"
Meme - Saif Ali Bhatti @Saif_AliBhatti: "News Alert: Why would ISIS attack #Russia when Russia is the only global power that helps Minor nations around the world? Obvious bullshit, especially since ISIS is Everyone knows it's not ISIS but mosad. #Moscow #crocs_attack #CIA #RussiaisATerroistState"
Meme - Abu Hafsah @AbuHafsah1: "Who thinks Mossad is behind the attack in Moscow? Hmmm mixed responses. Seems like more and more people aren't buying the usual narrative. Anyway since it's Ramadan, help me feed 1000 families in disaster stricken areas across the world. 100% donation policy."
Ironic. The usual narrative by Muslims is that it's the Mossad behind ISIS, so

Meme - ""She was h-holding a." *sobbing*
Therapist: "It's ok, your in a safe place. Take a deep breath and try to describe what happened."
"She was holding a cup of Starbucks coffee!""
"Reverse Canary Mission: Kim Jisoo. Shared a Instagram story holding a Starbucks coffee cup in December 2023 amidst the conflict."

Al Berko's answer to How are Palestinian children treated in Israel and Palestine? - Quora - "I was hiking in the Judean mountains overseeing the Dead Sea: And passed an IDF military base... I came closer and meet a bunch of Bedouin kids... my fellow explained that they watch TikTok on their smartphone (!).
- “In the middle of the desert?” - I exclaimed
- “Yes, thanks to the nearby IDF camp.”
- “Oh, I see, you really enjoy the “occupation”
- “Enjoy? Two months ago they saved my little sister’s life: she had acute appendicitis, and my father had a choice to take her to Jericho to the Palestinian Authority, or to the IDF camp. He chose the IDF. The soldiers rushed her to the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem and her life was saved!”."

Swann Marcus on X - "It's so fucking funny how progressives purity test everyone except on the issue of Palestine where you can be a viciously homophobic anti-abortion zealot who thinks women don't belong in the workplace and they'll be like "well nobody's perfect""

Meme - "WHO DOES THE HOLY LAND BELONG TO? ISRAEL OR PALESTINE?"
"ROME"

Meme - scar @scarlettrabe: "Palestine is every single issue in one issue. It's feminism. It's reproductive justice. It's social justice. It's climate crisis. It's stop cop cities. etc etc etc etc it's not just one issue, it's ALL THE ISSUES IN ONE AND BIDEN ADMIN IS FAILING"
Swann Marcus on X - "We've reached a new level of intersectionality-brain where people are now arguing Palestine and police training facilities in Atlanta are somehow connected... I knew someone was going to bring up this dumbass leftist obsession. Some US police commissioners spend like 2 weeks on an Israeli vacation once every 5 years and you guys think this means "Cop City" and Israel have a deep connection. What a pathetic joke."

Kamel Amin Thaabet on X- "The Palestinians have faced a fundamental choice for nearly a century:  to strategically accept independent Jewish nationhood on land between the Jordan and Mediterranean, or to reject it.    The day they accept it -strategically and not tactically as with Oslo- there will be peace.  Actual peace, not a "Hudybiya" peace.  And conditions for Palestinians will improve greatly, including the achievement of many positive national aspirations.  If they reject it, there are two possibilities:
-The status quo of Palestinian suffering and societal malaise, while pining for the "imminent" destruction of Israel.
-The actual destruction of Israel, whether by force of arms or otherwise.
Israel's enemies *do* reject independent Jewish nationhood.  And since 1948, they have sought the latter possibility.  Only to get the former again and again.  Continued demonization of Israel feeds the persistent fantasy that the latter is achievable.  As does the ever-kindled rage borne of humiliation and defeat.  The destruction of Israel is not possible.   Notwithstanding geopolitical trends, even American foreign policy impotence and domestic malaise.  Even in the face of an ascendant Iran.  I do not even address here whether it is right or wrong.  It is not possible!  It is not a spider web, but a web of iron.  And it will so remain.  To bet otherwise is to perpetuate one of the gravest series of strategic errors of the last century.  The cost of this error is generations of broken dreams, misdirected efforts, and rivers of blood.    Again and again, the bet is concentrated on a single black tile.  And yet the entire roulette wheel runs red.
Look at Israel in 1948, and look at Israel today.  Look at what was achieved.  Look at the condition of the Arabs of Gaza from 1948 to today.    And look at the condition of the Arabs of Haifa from 1948 today.  For "friends" of the Palestinians to encourage not a strategic pivot, but a strategic doubling down, and a stoking of hatreds, is not the act of a friend.    It is to consign Palestinians to suffering without end.
PS - criticism of Israel is of course acceptable, and welcome when deserved. As with any other state. But when uncoupled from recognition of the Palestinian strategic blunder I have described, in its more strident manifestations it harms Palestinians no less than Israelis."
When you hate the Jews so much you rather die than accept Israel

Palestinians Raise Nazi Flag With Swastika Near Hebron, Soldiers Shoot It Down
Palestinians fly swastika kite with petrol bomb across Gaza border into Israel - "April 20 was Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s birthday."
Of course, the terrorism supporters still claim that Israel are the Nazis

David Eby sorry after social media error on Holocaust Remembrance Day - "Andrew Reeve, press secretary for B.C. United Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon, shared a screenshot of the initial post from Eby’s account, which said: “We stand with the Muslim community throughout Canada on this sorrowful day of remembrance.”"

Palestinians Lack Faith in Biden, Two-State Solution - "In the months and weeks leading up to the Oct. 7 attack, about one in four Palestinians (24%) living in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem said they supported a two-state solution to the conflict, with an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel. Support for a two-state solution among Palestinians has more than halved since 2012, when nearly six in 10 (59%) endorsed the idea."
From 2023, pre-attack. Clear proof the "Zionists" reject a two state solution and are monsters because they don't want to live in peace

Dr. Einat Wilf on X - "“Palestinians are adults”. Of all the ideas I have discussed over the years, in books, essays, talks, meetings, I found that this one idea represents the mental barrier that few are able to cross. Left or right, American, European, Israeli - somehow, the idea that Palestinians are adults, that they can speak for themselves, that they know what they are fighting for, that they have clearly articulated goals that they are singularly pursuing with tenacity, seems to be a step too far.  Whether I call it Westplaining, or simply appeal to American and European policy makers to just listen to Palestinians and give them the respect of taking them at their words - that is, treat Palestinians like adults - again and again I come across what appears an impenetrable barrier.
As I present all the evidence on one side - that Palestinians, in words and deeds, have made it clear that their century long battle is against the very existence of the Jewish state in any borders - and as I share my journey to finding hardly a single Palestinian voice on the other side calling to live in peace side by side the Jewish state (so no “Right of Return”) - I still find my interlocutors struggling to make excuses: “But they must live in fear” (Yes? So why do no Palestinians in New York or LA and only one in London speak up? Why did Palestinians have no fear in criticizing Arafat and Abu-Mazen for daring to negotiate with Israel, but there was zero criticism when they walked away from clear and concrete opportunities for statehood?). Sometime my interlocutors - serious, seasoned policy makers - will just make it into an article of faith “I don’t believe you, these Palestinians must exist” - and leave it at that, even as I challenge them to find these Palestinians (and not the 3 1/2 I already know by name).
Recently, when I asked a recent senior European official to just simply listen to what Palestinians say about UNRWA - that to them it’s not an aid organization, but a political one, the “guarantor of the Right of Return” - she responded with the shockingly neo-colonial “They don’t get to decide” (to which I could not but quietly respond, “but they very much do…”).   Somehow, it never crosses the minds of American, European, sometimes Israeli officials, to treat Palestinians as adults and simply tell them, “until you demonstrate to us that Hamas doesn’t represent you, in word and deed, we will assume that it does”, or “until you make it clear in word and deed, that you want to live next to the Jewish state of Israel, rather than instead of it, we will assume it remains your goal”. When I suggest adopting this attitude and place the burden of proof on Palestinians, given that they are very much capable to meeting it, if they ever so wanted, those officials find the so shocking, as if I had just asked them to defy the laws of nature, that I cannot but begin to suspect that there is a deep, perhaps dark, psychology at work.
 What is it? What makes it so impossible for Westerners, including many Israelis, to simply treat Palestinians as adults, take them at their word, stop making excuses for them, place the burden of proof on them, and make demands of them with a real expectation that they shall be met?   We are never going to forge any other positive future if Palestinians will not be treated as adults."
When you show that you're unable to accept reality like adults, people treat you like children

Friday, April 19, 2024

Links - 19th April 2024 (3 [including Russia ISIS Attack])

Meme - Egypt: "WHEN WE STACk Rocks iN A BiG TRIANGLE SHAPE, THEY USUALLY DONT Fall OVER... "
Mexico: "WHEN WE STACk Rocks iN A BiG TRIANGLE SHAPE, THEY USUALLY DONT Fall OVER... "
Cambodia: "WHEN WE STACk Rocks iN A BiG TRIANGLE SHAPE, THEY USUALLY DONT Fall OVER... "
"Ancient Aliens!" *Coincidence? Chariots of the Gods? Magic! Atlantis!*

Toronto swaps sand for cobblestones at popular Humber Bay beach. Locals are not happy - "Part of the project necessitated resurfacing the beach on Humber Bay Park East, something residents have recently taken issue with. In photos provided by residents, the beach was filled with what looks like sand. It has since been resurfaced with cobblestones, according to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), which is doing the construction on behalf of the city. Local resident Aman Somal said he understands erosion protection is necessary but is frustrated a balance couldn't be found between that work and preserving the previous state of the beach... "We live in small condos here, we don't have backyard gardens, we don't have backyard pools. So the park is our backyard and the beaches are our pools. We want to protect it."... "If you walk on the beach, [it] means that you've got to put on running shoes," Persaud said. Fellow resident Marie Braz agreed. "I can't imagine walking on that, never mind plopping a chair down and, you know, a picnic basket," she said."
"Sustainability" reduces quality of life

Massive bank glitch lets people withdraw millions from their accounts - "People across Ethiopia have managed to withdraw large sums of money from their bank accounts after a system glitch. More than £31million was withdrawn mainly by students from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) after they found out they could take out more money than they had in their bank accounts"

Author Takano says Japan has become ‘outlying zone’ in the world - "In Takano’s opinion, inbound visitors from China and South Korea are flocking to Japan because they see the Asian neighbor as a declining country.  “Seeking to take temporary refuge from harsh competition in their societies, tourists wish to come into contact with natural surroundings, smiles and traditional lifestyles that have been lost in their own countries due to rapid development and urbanization,” he said.  Takano believes foreign sightseers are coming to Japan en masse today for the same reason Japanese once visited other Asian nations as well as Africa in search of “backwardness” that had disappeared in Japan due to economic growth.   Presenting his view on the action Tokyo should take from now, Takano said Japan should promote itself as “an ancient capital of the globe given its deteriorated politics, economy and technology.”  “Japan’s value basically lies in its history, cuisine and scenery,” he said."

Meme - "Fantasy is when Karl Urban has long hair and sci-fi is when Karl Urban has short hair" *Lord of the Rings* *Pathfinder* *Star Trek* *Doom*

Meme - "Friday Night. Spaghetti Wrestling *2 bikini women*
Saturday Morning. All the Spaghetti You Can Eat. $1.00"

Meme - "If you put a fleshlight up your ass, leaving pussy side out, and a guy fucks the fleshlight is it technically no homo? I mean the dick isn't touching your ass and the other guy is fucking a pussy right...?"
"Gay to Straight Adapter"

Meme - Tomi Lahren: ""Don't be afraid" is written in the Bible 365 times- a daily reminder from God to live everyday fearlessly."
"The word "kill" is written 419 times. I'm not sure I want to use the same logic."

About the fish doorbell - visdeurbel - "Every spring, fish swim right through Utrecht, looking for a place to spawn and reproduce. Some swim all the way to Germany. There is a problem, however: they often have to wait a long time at the Weerdsluis lock on the west side of the inner city, as the lock rarely opens in spring. We have come up with a solution: the fish doorbell! An underwater camera has been set up at the lock, and the live feed is streamed to the homepage. If you see a fish, press the digital fish doorbell. The lock operator is sent a signal and can open the lock if there are enough fish. Now you can help fish make it through the canals of Utrecht. Pressing the fish doorbell notifies the lock operator that there are fish waiting to pass. The operator can decide whether or not to open the lock. The lock seldom opens in spring, but can now be opened daily, if necessary. The fish doorbell allows us to work together to ensure that fish do not have to wait as long at the Weerdsluis lock. This is good news, because it means they are less likely to be eaten by other animals, such as grebes and cormorants."

Personality changes following heart transplantation: The role of cellular memory - "Personality changes following heart transplantation, which have been reported for decades, include accounts of recipients acquiring the personality characteristics of their donor. Four categories of personality changes are discussed in this article: (1) changes in preferences, (2) alterations in emotions/temperament, (3) modifications of identity, and (4) memories from the donor’s life. The acquisition of donor personality characteristics by recipients following heart transplantation is hypothesized to occur via the transfer of cellular memory, and four types of cellular memory are presented: (1) epigenetic memory, (2) DNA memory, (3) RNA memory, and (4) protein memory. Other possibilities, such as the transfer of memory via intracardiac neurological memory and energetic memory, are discussed as well. Implications for the future of heart transplantation are explored including the importance of reexamining our current definition of death, studying how the transfer of memories might affect the integration of a donated heart, determining whether memories can be transferred via the transplantation of other organs, and investigating which types of information can be transferred via heart transplantation. Further research is recommended."

Thailand revokes visas for New Zealand tourists arrested for attacking police officer - "Immigration authorities banned brothers Hamish Day, 36, and Oscar Day, 38, from ever returning to Thailand. Thai news outlet Bangkok Post reported that the brothers have been charged with offences including robbery, causing physical harm to an on-duty officer, attempted bribery, and driving a motorcycle without a licence... Video of the incident has gone viral online, where onlookers can be heard shouting at them to stop. Both brothers have denied all charges and the police said on Monday they would ask the court for permission to deny their release on bail."

Student Persuaded by Friend to Amputate Legs for $1.3M Insurance Scam - "A university student in Taiwan who had his legs amputated in hopes of receiving a $1.3 million insurance payout has been arrested on suspicion of fraud, local prosecutors say.  The 23-year-old, identified only by his last name, Zhang, plunged his feet in a bucket of dry ice for more than 10 hours to get them so badly frostbitten that he would need a double amputation... The bureau said a friend of Zhang's from high school, identified only as Liao, persuaded him to carry out the insurance scam.  Liao, also 23, suffered losses from trading cryptocurrency, and he tricked Zhang into signing a legal note obligating him to pay about $800,000... Liao and Zhang rode around Taipei on a motorbike at night, wanting to present the claim that Zhang was afflicted with frostbite while riding the vehicle in the late evening, investigators said.  Just days before, Zhang bought several expensive policies for life insurance, travel insurance, and accident insurance... His legs bore no shoe or sock marks, and his injuries appeared symmetrical, which were inconsistent with a naturally occurring frostbite injury, investigators said.  The weather on the night of January 26 was also nowhere close to below freezing, with its coldest temperature at about 42 degrees Fahrenheit... "As Taiwan is a subtropical region, cases of severe frostbite requiring amputation are unheard of due to natural climatic conditions"... When police investigated Zhang and Liao in November, they found the plastic bucket used to freeze Zhang's feet, insurance documents, a white polystyrene box for dry ice, eight mobile phones, and a tablet computer"

New Zealand set to scrap world-first tobacco ban - "New Zealand will repeal on Tuesday a world-first law banning tobacco sales for future generations, the government said, even while researchers and campaigners warned of the risk that people could die as a result. Set to take effect from July, the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the world would have banned sales to those born after Jan. 1, 2009, cut nicotine content in smoked tobacco products and reduced the number of tobacco retailers by more than 90%... The decision, heavily criticised over its likely impact on health outcomes in New Zealand, has also drawn flak because of fears it could have a greater impact on Maori and Pasifika populations, groups with higher smoking rates. Repeal flies in the face of robust research evidence, ignores measures strongly supported by Maori leaders and will preserve health inequities, said Otago University researcher Janet Hoek. "Large-scale clinical trials and modelling studies show the legislation would have rapidly increased the rates of quitting among smokers and made it much harder for young people to take up smoking," said Hoek, co-director of a group studying ways to reduce smoking."
Paternalism towards indigenous groups is anti racist

St. John's woman notes every step of a new flight scam on social media - "She publicly tweeted at Air Canada, asking for a resolution — and received responses from nine different accounts claiming to be Air Canada agents.  "They had the Air Canada logo ... saying they were supervisors, [but] they didn't have any followers. So that triggered some alarm bells for me," she said. So, she ignored the messages and went directly to the company's website.  A few days later, she noticed she kept getting messages from agents saying they could resolve her issues.  "Curiosity got the best of me," she said. "So I played along." They asked for her booking reference number and, using that, obtained her phone number. They then contacted her via the messaging app WhatsApp. She says she was concerned about how they were able to get her number as it wasn't in any email or booking reference.  Then they asked her to download an app called Remitly — an international money transfer app.  "There was no Canada-to-Canada ability to transfer funds," she said, noting she could only make transfers to countries like Kenya. That triggered more alarm bells, she said.  The person on the other side of the screen assured her they would reimburse her money in Kenyan dollars: all they needed was her bank account number."

Adam Rossi on X - “Kids who nibbled their nails were less likely to get allergies and had stronger immune systems overall. Nail biting allowed bacteria and pollen trapped under the kids' fingernails to get into their mouths, boosting their immune system.”
Thumb-Sucking, Nail-Biting, and Atopic Sensitization, Asthma, and Hay Fever - "Children who suck their thumbs or bite their nails are less likely to have atopic sensitization in childhood and adulthood."
More evidence for the hygiene hypothesis

Jake on X - "Universities are funny. Hey what if we took a medieval institution for training priests and aristocrats and combined it w a hedge fund, sports franchise and resort for teenagers  Oh and it'll be the backbone for fundamental research for our entire civilization"

Actual Fact Bot: Revived | Facebook - "When Steve Madden was convicted of fraud and forced to resign as CEO of his own company, he created a new position for himself that paid $700,000 per year while he was in prison."

Meme - "Looks like your mom bought herself a van
B.J. Champion"

Dating app billboard criticised by Korat women's right group - "The leader of a women’s rights protection group in Thailand’s Nakhon Ratchasima province has described a dating app’s advertisement as being disrespectful to women.  “The word ‘delicious’ should only be used about food, but the ad used it about women. That is not appropriate. I personally think that the ad disrespects women,” said Chanyanut Surachat.  Several billboards promoting the Tinder dating app have popped up in the Muang district of Nakhon Ratchasima, known locally as Korat.  On the billboards, a question is asked: ‘What is delicious in Korat?’ There were two choices: ‘Fried Korat Noodles’ or ‘Korat ladies’. There was a checkmark next to ‘Korat Ladies’ and a cross next to ‘Fried Korat Noodles’.  Chanyanut added that the ad also implies that fried Korat noodles are not delicious, clearly belittling the signature dish of Korat.  She said that the noodles are also mentioned in the province’s motto, which features the province as the ‘Land of brave women, excellent silk, fried Korat noodles, Phimai Historical Park, and Dan Kwian pottery’."

I used vibrators to relieve a tortoise's constipation - "“This is actually a very normal and often used technique,” Emily Cehrs, a vet at the Safari West wildlife preserve in Santa Rosa, told Caters News Agency of her unlikely scat extraction technique... the US Food and Drug Administration recently approved the use of Vibrant, a vibrating pill that achieves the same affect in humans sans the need of a dancing dildo... Unfortunately, while high-tech, stool-propelling vibrators might sound like an innovative constipation remedy, they’re not often used due to the stigma of using a sex toy as a laxative"

WOMAN ORDERS AND CANCELS FOODPANDA DELIVERIES REPEATEDLY - "A Foodpanda rider shared his experience with an unruly customer on Facebook. The rider, Bryen Yap, is also the owner of the restaurant that received the order from the woman... "Guess what, I have your gate access, it is linked to my phone. I also have your lift lobby access key, I even have your house key..  If you are not happy about it… You can move out of the house end of this month.  Because the person who cooks your food, the person who sent your food and the person who owns the place you currently live in-  Is your landlord.”"

Meme - Circle K: "If you are buying slushies and videoing for TikTok - in our store OR parking lot, the police will be called. Thank You"

Cookie Monster on X - "Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller. 😔"
Frank Oz on X - "@MeCookieMonster I'm shocked to see a news article on Cookie Monster talking about "shrinkflation". Jim would NEVER have allowed this. The SS Muppets need to live in their own pure world. Not our world. What has happened to the integrity of the character and the integrity of Sesame Workshop?"
Frank Oz on X - "I realize now what happened.  My head and heart are still in the Sesame Street that existed when Joan Cooney was active in it and when Jim and Jon Stone were alive, and when I was still performing on it.  But I have not kept up with it for years. I guess it's changed."
Frank Oz on X - "I understand what you're pointing out. Yes, the real world needs to come to Sesame Street. But that doesn't mean that The Muppet characters need to react in a real-world way.  The Muppet characters' reactions need to rise from their own naive and pure world."
Frank Oz on X - "To clear something up, the real world does indeed need to come to Sesame Street. But that doesn't mean that The Muppet characters need to react in the same real-world way.  The Muppet characters' reactions need to rise from their own naive and pure world."
Frank Oz on X - "No, Cookie Monster would react by having no idea what shrinkflation means. If he was told that it caused his cookies to be smaller he would be aghast. But he would not connect it to a concept. He would just be upset about the smaller cookies. He is a monster, not an adult human"
Clearly, Frank Oz is just an ignorant boomer who doesn't know anything about the muppets
From his other tweets he's a left winger, so this is about artistic purity, not politics

Meme - "When you both fucked the shit out of each other and you're just laying there trying to recuperate *wrestling scene with 2 wrestlers lying on ring floor*
I got no more in me"

Meme - "me, as my laptop fan suddenly becomes louder: what is it?? what program?? who is doing this to you????
*opening task manager* Who do I need to kill?"

Explaining Elections in Singapore: Dominant Party Resilience and Valence Politics - "The People's Action Party (PAP) of Singapore is one of the world's longest ruling dominant parties, having won every general election since the country's independence in 1965. Why do Singaporeans consistently vote for the PAP, contrary to the expectations of theories of democratization? We argue that valence considerations---specifically, perceptions of party credibility---are the dominant factor in the voting behavior of Singapore's electorate and a critical piece to the puzzle of the PAP's resilience. Furthermore, we argue that the primacy of valence politics arose in part by design, as the PAP has used its control of Singapore's high-capacity state to reshape society and thereby reshape voter preferences towards its comparative advantages. We use a multi-methods approach to demonstrate evidence in support of our argument through a within-case, historical analysis; a qualitative analysis of contemporary party competition and voter behavior; and a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the 2011 and 2015 general elections. Ultimately, our findings suggest that a focus on valence politics can increase the resilience of dominant parties, but that such a strategy also faces natural limits to the advantages it confers."
Cherian George - "This sober analysis by two political scientists attributes the PAP's electoral dominance mainly to its perceived capability in delivering generally desired outcomes – so-called "valence issues". Challenging the view that voters are driven by fear or by strategic motives, the authors argue that support for the PAP is sincerely motivated, by not just economic considerations but also the desire for social stability, national sovereignty, and efficient  delivery of grassroots services.  The PAP has benefited from the fact that a high-capacity dominant state can, over time, reshape society and bring voter preferences into alignment with the dominant party's comparative advantages, the authors argue. "The long-term reshaping of voter preferences, in short, constitutes an additional channel through which to entrench this 'self-reinforcing authoritarian equilibrium'.""

Meme - "When you ask a 1st grade class to write letters to people in a nursing home...
*hourglass with sand running out* times allmast up"

The Cultural Tutor on X - "Setting is a big part of any film, but how do you get the right place? You can use CGI, build a set — or find the perfect location. So from Star Wars to The Grand Budapest Hotel, here are some real places you might recognise from fictional worlds..."

U.S. Warned Russia Before Moscow Attack That Killed at Least 60 - "U.S. officials said they believed Islamic State was responsible for the attack. The group claimed responsibility in a statement issued by the Islamic State-affiliated news agency Amaq... On March 7, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a cryptic warning to American citizens to avoid concert venues. The U.S. had information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow potentially targeting large gatherings—including concerts—which prompted the State Department to issue a public advisory, White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement Friday night. “The U.S. government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy,” Watson added.  This week, Russian state news agency TASS said Putin described U.S. warnings about a possible terrorist attack as “provocative” statements that resemble “outright blackmail and an intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.” He called on the Federal Security Service and other law-enforcement bodies to step up efforts at preventing terrorist attacks... The intelligence was considered “actionable,” potentially providing Russian authorities with enough time to mitigate an attack, officials said... The shooting carries echoes of terrorist attacks on the capital by Chechen insurgents in the 2000s and undermines the image of invincibility Putin had sought to portray"
Clearly, the US knew about it because they were behind it!

Monday briefing: Why Vladimir Putin won’t link Islamic State to Moscow terror attack - “Shaun Walker, Pjotr Sauer and Andrew Roth set out signs of “a catastrophic security failure on the part of Russian authorities”. They note a slow police response to the attack and claims that the FSB, the federal security service, has been largely focused on domestic opposition and potential threats from Kyiv, with thousands of security officials sent to occupied Ukraine. Another factor they cite is a view that the threat from Islamist terrorism had subsided in recent years. It is unlikely that these concerns will be aired in Russia in the coming days. Andrei Soldatov, senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, argues in this piece that this is part of a deeply ingrained culture, instigated by Putin, of protecting the security agencies at all costs and ensuring the FSB is “completely immune to any criticism”. The FSB is expert at “killing and torture” and “investigating attacks after the event”, he writes. “But these are not the qualities that help to prevent attacks happening, and time and again, the FSB has failed.””

Lukashenko undermines Putin’s Ukraine claim on Moscow concert hall attack - “ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre, which killed at least 139 people, and released graphic footage of the incident, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested, without evidence, that Ukraine had helped orchestrate it. Putin on Saturday claimed that a “window” had been prepared for the attackers to escape to Ukraine, which Kyiv has denied. But Lukashenko, one of Putin’s most loyal allies, on Tuesday appeared to contradict the Kremlin’s claims, saying that the attackers initially intended to enter Belarus rather than Ukraine… Putin on Monday conceded the attack had been carried out by “radical Islamists,” but still tried to pin ultimate responsibility on Ukraine… Ukraine has vehemently denied involvement in the attack and called the Kremlin’s claims “absurd.” Others have speculated why the attackers would try to flee through a heavily militarized section of the border, with a large Russian troop presence.”

Russian defector sheds light on Putin paranoia and his secret train network - “A senior Russian security officer who defected last year has given rare insight into the paranoid lifestyle of Vladimir Putin, confirming details of a secret train network, identical offices in different cities, a strict personal quarantine and escalating security protocols. Gleb Karakulov, who served as a captain in the Federal Protection Service (FSO), a powerful body tasked with protecting Russia’s highest-ranking officials, said the measures were designed to mask the whereabouts of the Russian president, whom he described as “pathologically afraid for his life”. The 36-year-old said the train was used because it “cannot be tracked on any information resource. It’s done for stealth purposes.”… Karakulov described a virtual state within a state that includes firefighters, food testers and other engineers who travel with Putin on his trips abroad, providing a rare first-hand insight into the levels of paranoia and sheltered lifestyle of the Russian president. “They call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms,” he said… He confirmed that Putin relies heavily for information on reports provided by his security services. Putin did not use a mobile phone or the internet, Karakulov said, and did not even bring an internet specialist with him on foreign trips. “He only receives information from his closest circle, which means that he lives in an information vacuum,” he said. Putin is still in quarantine and requires all staff working in the same room as him to also undergo a two-week quarantine, severely limiting the number of people who have personal contact with him. Karakulov said Putin used identical offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo, and that the secret services used fake motorcades and decoy planes to pretend he was leaving. “This is a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence, in the first place, and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life,” he said. He said Putin’s behaviour and lifestyle had altered significantly since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when the president retreated from most travel and public appearances. “He has shut himself off from the world,” Karakulov said. “His take on reality has become distorted.””

Meme - "I call for an immediate ceasefire between Russia and ISIS. Russia should be restrained, have a proportional response and operate according to international law. For their conflict to be over, there should be an independent ISIS state established next to Russia. I urge Russians to provide humanitarian aid to ISIS, including food, water, medicine electricity. FREE ISIS."

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