Monthly Archives: September 2021

China massively overfishing American waters

By all accounts, the Humboldt squid — named for the nutrient-rich current found off the southwest coast of South America — is one of the most abundant marine species. Some scientists believe their numbers may even be thriving as the oceans warm and their natural predators, sharks, and tuna, are fished out of existence.

But biologists say the squid have never faced a threat like the explosion of industrial Chinese fishing off South America. The number of Chinese-flagged vessels in the south Pacific has surged 10-fold from 54 active vessels in 2009 to 557 in 2020, according to the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization, or SPRFMO, an inter-governmental group of 15 members charged with ensuring the conservation and sustainable fishing of the species. Meanwhile, the size of its catch has grown from 70,000 tons in 2009 to 358,000 tons last year.

Fishing takes place almost exclusively at night when each ship turns on hundreds of lights as powerful as anything at a stadium to attract swarms of the fast-flying squid. The concentration of lights is so intense it can be seen from space on satellite images that show the massive fleet shining as brightly as major cities hundreds of miles away on land.

Info:  shpr.fyi/chinasquid

Europeans demand Apple iPhones use standard charging connector

The European Union announced plans Thursday to require the smartphone industry to adopt a uniform charging cord for mobile devices, a push that could eliminate the all-too-familiar experience of rummaging through a drawer full of tangled cables to find the right one.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, proposed legislation that would mandate USB-C cables for charging, technology that many device makers have already adopted. The main holdout is Apple, which said it was concerned the new rules would limit innovation, and that would end up hurting consumers. iPhones come with the company’s own Lightning charging port, though the newest models come with cables that can be plugged into a USB-C socket.

Some 420 million mobile phones or portable electronic devices were sold in EU last year.

Info:  shpr.fyi/appleusbc

A little brown bat with white-nose syndrome. Credit: Marvin Moriarty/USFWS

Bat-killing fungus found near Rimrock Lake

An invasive fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats continues to spread in Washington, with the fungus detected in late spring near Rimrock Lake.

During spring and summer field work this year, scientists with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service detected the fungus or disease in Yakima, Chelan and Mason counties, according to a news release.

WDFW scientists collected guano samples in late spring 2021 from a bat colony showing no signs of disease on Forest Service land near Rimrock Lake. Testing confirmed the presence of the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. The bat genus was Myotis, but the specific species is unknown.

“These recent confirmations of white-nose syndrome and the causative fungus in new areas of Washington are very concerning, as they provide evidence that the disease is spreading,” said Abby Tobin, white-nose syndrome coordinator for WDFW, in the release. “This eventually may lead to population declines in several bat species critically needed for eastern Washington agriculture.”

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease that affects hibernating bats and is caused by a fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or Pd for short. Sometimes Pd looks like a white fuzz on bats’ faces, which is how the disease got its name. Pd grows in cold, dark and damp places. It attacks the bare skin of bats while they’re hibernating in a relatively inactive state. As it grows, Pd causes changes in bats that make them become active more than usual and burn up fat they need to survive the winter. Bats with white-nose syndrome may do strange things like fly outside in the daytime in the winter. The fungus is harmless to humans.

White-nose syndrome has been in North America at least since 2006. Pd was unknown to science until it was found on North American bats. After that, researchers began looking for it elsewhere and found it on bats in Europe and Asia (where bats strangely do not appear to get as sick from the fungus as they do in North America.)

There’s an old saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.” We rarely see bats, so it can be easy to forget about them or believe they aren’t important. You may think bats don’t affect you, but you may not realize all the ways that bats make our lives better. Do you avoid mosquito bites? Each bat may eat a thousand mosquitos each night.

White-nose syndrome is a serious threat to hibernating bats in North America. Since 2006, it has steadily spread south and west from New York State. Millions of bats, up to 100 percent of some populations, have died due to this fungal disease.

We don’t know how Pd got here or where it’s from. Pd spores can last a long time on surfaces such as clothes, shoes and outdoor gear, so even though people do not get white-nose syndrome, we can unknowingly move the fungus from one place to another – the most likely way that Pd found its way to North America.

We care about bats and white-nose syndrome for many reasons:

• Bats eat insects. A lot of insects. Bats are the most significant predators of night-flying insects. There are at least 40 different kinds of bats in the U.S. that eat nothing but insects.  A single little brown bat, weighing 5-9 grams with a body smaller than an adult human’s thumb, can eat 4 to 8 grams, about its body weight, the weight of two grapes, of insects each night. Although this may not sound like much, it adds up—the loss of the millions of bats in the Northeast has probably resulted in between 660 and 1320 metric tons of insects no longer being eaten each year by bats. In fact, bats contribute about $3.7 billion worth of insect control for farmers in the US each year. So, when white-nose syndrome wipes out populations of bats, they can no longer eat insects that harm agricultural crops, which then requires more pesticide use.
• Bats help keep natural areas healthy. Bats are important species wherever they live. When they die, other parts of the web of life are affected. Other living things in caves depend on bats because bat guano (droppings) provides them nutrients.
• Bats are cool! Bats are the only mammals that fly, and they are masters of “seeing” obstacles using echolocation, reflections of sound from their ultra-high-frequency voices. Bats only have 1-3 pups (babies) per year, and many live together in colonies, hibernating through the winter. These nocturnal animals are simply fascinating and very valuable.
• We can help bats and slow the spread of white-nose syndrome. Those of us who like to explore caves can help. Our actions matter! We can clean and disinfect clothes and gear after each trip to prevent spreading the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome into other caves.

Info:  shpr.fyi/batwhitenose

Dave Bunting, Sept. 27, 2021

See these columns on my blog: daverant.com

Friday the 13th turned out to be a lucky day for Hannah Truscott, 15, who caught al-most 400 pounds of catfish in 1 day

Hannah went on to catch five more catfish that day, which brought the total weight of her haul to nearly 400 pounds, SWNS reported. Truscott told SWNS he and Hannah first went fishing together when she was around 6 years old. Since then, he said, she’s become a specialist in catching catfish. “I’ve left her to it and said, ‘I’m not go-ing to help you,’ and over time she’s just mastered it,” Truscott told SWNS. “She’s learnt how to hang on, she’s spot on at playing them.”
Info: shpr.fyi/900cat

Fishermen found $1.5M worth of whale vomit
Thirty-five men reeled in the deceased whale under the suspicion that the whale contained ambergris based on its smell, one of the fishermen explained in a video interview with the BBC. Over in Yemen the fishermen have sold their catch and have bought cars, homes and boats while also making charitable donations to their village, according to the BBC.
The material is created when a sperm whale can’t digest beaks from squid and cuttlefish, ac-cording to recent theories that believe ambergris is regurgitated as a protective mechanism following intestinal irritation. The 280 pounds of ambergris was reportedly sold for $1.5 million to a trader in the United Arab Emirates, according to The India Times.
Collection and sale of amber-gris is illegal in the U.S. due to it being a byproduct from an endangered species per policies set in place by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Info: shpr.fyi/whalevomit

Shopper Backing off controversial subjects
Under pressure against both the Shopper business and Shop-per employees, I, Editor Dave, am backing off controversial subjects.
As I go quieter, I suggest:

• The Marxist (“Progressive”) threat against Americans is extremely serious and will succeed in ending American liberty immediately if the $3.5 trillion bill establishing socialism is passed. Their progress toward Marxism has already curtailed our rule of law and many of the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution: 1) Religion, 2) Keep and Bear Arms, 3) Speech, 4) Press, 5) Assembly, 6) Secure in Person, House, Papers, Effects, 7) Search and Seizure, 8) Imprisonment without Trial, 9) Equal Protection under the law.
• Global Warming is no longer in doubt. The massive wildfires, fast melting of glaciers, rise in sea levels and the record hot temperatures now leave no doubt. Catastrophic warming effects within five years may progress to significant limitation on human life and will very soon exceed the damage to human life caused by Marxism. By 2030, gasoline and diesel cars and trucks as well as coal and gas electric generation may be prohibited, with replacement electric power requiring emergency construction of hundreds of nuclear power plants.
• COVID is limiting human life by separating us from each other and by preventing production by millions of workers. Lack of success against COVID based on vaccination reluctance is enhancing Marxism’s advancement which depends on large unemployment and civil instability.
• Afghanistan Abandonment continues to depress millions of Americans, reducing our ability to fight attacks on us such as by the Marxists or other nations.
• International Threats are leading us and the world closer to nuclear war. The threats of China against Taiwan, North Korea against South Korea, Iraq against Israel, Russia against Ukraine, China against Hawaii and China against Japan have become very much more serious in view of Biden’s inability or unwillingness to defend the United States or our allies as he demonstrated in Afghanistan.
  
• Threat Level Rumblings
  • A Chinese state-run newspaper claims warships could ‘soon’ near Hawaii following claims that the US Navy challenged international waters near Beijing.
  • Russia, China and others demand UN punish the US for war crimes in Afghanistan.
  • A report to the Sept. 15 National Security Summit indicates that al-Qaeda could be fully rebuilt in Afghanistan within ‘one to two years’ and states that members are already returning to the country.
  • Al-Zawahiri who replaced Bin Laden as Al-Qaeda’s leader appeared in a Sept. 11 video commemorating 20 years since the 9-11 attacks. He was thought to have been killed months ago.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelendsky on Sept. 12 warned Russia of a “full scale war.”
  • UK (England) in March decided to increase their nuclear warheads from 160 to 240, the first increase by a major western nation since the cold war.
  • Japanese military on Sept. 13 spotted a Chinese submarine North of Okinawa in Japan’s contiguous zone.
  • The South China Sea has been a hotbed of naval activity this week, with a British aircraft carrier strike group, an American surface action group, and forces from China’s People’s Liberation Army all staging exercises.
  • Japan conducts nationwide exercises involving 100,000 troops in a huge show of force, the first on this scale since 1993.
  • North Korea has resumed its nuclear weapon development and carried out successful tests of both new ballistic missiles and a new long- range nuclear-capable cruise missile, all in violation of its promises.
  • China is using social media to convince the world that COVID was originated in the US by U.S. military.
  • Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke for the first time since February last week with reports of the call from both mentioning “confrontation.”
  • Havana Syndrome is the worst challenge ever for US military intelligence. Agents’ fear of it is obstructing important US foreign diplomacy and intelligence.
  • A third of Washington State Patrol officers polled say they will accept termination instead of vaccination. Similar proportions of medical and fire officers are reported saying the same.
  • A federal judge temporarily blocked a New York state order Tuesday requiring medical workers to get vaccinated.
  
• Get out of the cave!
  “I soon realized that almost half my patients were struggling with leaving the cave and that it was a syndrome,” the doctor tells me. “The lightbulb came on, and I decided to call this behavior ‘cave syndrome.’”
  Cave syndrome isn’t an official medical diagnosis, but rather a casual moniker for a set of symptoms that many are experiencing as we slowly emerge from quarantine. These symptoms can include general anxiety about COVID and its variants, over-washing of hands, obsessing about germs, resistance to leaving the house, depression from the long-term isolation and “all the pressures of navigating through a new normal and how to re-enter society without get-ting sick,” Bregman says.
  Vaccinated or not, many of Bregman’s patients have begged him for a doctor’s note to get them out of returning to the office—a trend that’s made him genuinely concerned for their careers. But instead of doing so—or immediately prescribing medication — Bregman believes the best treatment for this affliction is all in the name:
  Get out of the cave!
  Info: shpr.fyi/outcave

210915SciDig

Space Junk and Solar Flares’ Threats

University of Warwick (UK) is looking at ways to protect our critical satellites that provide our communication, navigation and weather from space junk and solar flares.

New ways of tackling the threat that space junk in our skies poses are being explored by Uni- versity of Warwick scientists, as they pioneer new research that could help the UK fulfill its am- bition to become a responsible spacefaring nation.

Scientists at a new Center for Space Domain Awareness are to focus attention on threats to the technology filling the skies above our heads in anticipation of a huge expansion in the number of satellites that provide vital services such as communications, navigation and defense.

The University of Warwick is launching the Center for Space Domain Awareness to create a critical mass of research that tackles the growing threats to technology in Earth orbit.

From the space junk that could collide with orbiting satellites, to the solar winds that could inter- fere with their electronics, the researchers at the new Center will pioneer new work to understand and characterize the near-Earth environment to support scientific, commercial, governmental and military applications.

Info: shpr.fyi/spacejunk

We are always very vulnerable to a once-per- century solar storm

The sun is always showering Earth with a mist of magnetized particles known as solar wind. For the most part, our planet’s magnetic shield blocks this electric wind from doing any real damage to Earth or its inhabitants, instead sending those particles skittering toward the poles and leaving behind a pleasant aurorain their wake.

But sometimes, every century or so, that wind escalates into a full-blown solar storm — and, as new research presented at the SIGCOMM 2021 data communication conference warns, the re- sults of such extreme space weather could be catastrophic to our modern way of life.

In short, a severe solar storm could plunge the world into an “internet apocalypse” that keeps large swaths of society including food and fuel delivery offline for weeks or months at a time.

Info: shpr.fyi/solarstorm

World Security Items:

• Al Qaeda leader al-Zawa- hiri appeared in a Sept. 11 video commemorating 20 years since the 9-11 attacks. He was thought to have been killed months ago.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelendsky on Sept. 12 warned Russia of a ‘full scale war’ indirectly while speaking at the Yalta security forum in Kyiv.

• UK in March, 2021, decided to increase their nuclear warheads from 160 to 240, the first increase by a major western nation since the cold war.

• Japanese military on Sept. 13 spotted a Chinese submarine North of Okinawa in Japan’s con- tiguous zone.

• Both Erbil and Harir airports in Iraq, which have US air bases, have reportedly been attacked by two explosive drones.

• North Korea carried out successful tests of a new long- range nuclear-capable cruise missile over the weekend.

• China is using social media to convince the world that COVID was originated in the US by U.S. military.

• Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke for the first time since February last week with reports of the call from both mentioning “confrontation.”

• Havana Syndrome is the worst challenge ever for US military intelligence. Agents’ fear of it is obstructing US foreign diplomacy and intelligence.

• A third of Washington State Patrol officers polled say they will accept termination instead of vaccination.

Will COVID end?

Almost 90 percent of immunologists, infectious-disease researchers, and virologists working on the coronavirus surveyed by Nature in February concluded the virus that causes COVID-19 was “likely” to become endemic, permanently infecting us.

This does not mean we are destined for a grim future of continually crowded hospitals, quar- antines, restrictions, social-distancing, masks, and avoiding crowds. According to Nature, “Influenza and the four human coronaviruses that cause common colds are also endemic but a combination of annual vaccines and acquired immunity means that societies tolerate the sea- sonal deaths and illnesses they bring.”

The only “end” of COVID will happen when we reach herd immunity with somewhere near 80% immune. Essentially all the increase from 50% of Americans immune now to 80% must occur among the unvaccinated.

If SARS-CoV-2 becomes like other coronaviruses, it will become a virus that most future children will encounter early on in life, fight off, and develop a lasting ability to fight off with minimal symptoms.

In other words, someday, COVID won’t end but will become a public-health nuisance.

Info: shpr.fyi/covidnoend

Governments partly to blame for deepening of anti-vaxers’ resolve

On Sept. 9 Biden said, “Based on available data from the summer, only one of out of every 160,000 fully vaccinated Americans was hospitalized for COVID per day,” he said. “Recent data indicates there is only one confirmed positive case per 5,000 fully vaccinated Americans per day.”

Yet he says vaccinated people continue to be at high risk from the unvaccinated.

The vaccinated are not at much risk from COVID.

The high risk is to the unvaccinated.

Many ask, “If I’ll still be at risk after vaccination, why should I get vaccinated?”

He said, “The bottom line: We’re going to protect you vaccinated workers from the enemy, unvaccinated co-workers.”

Info: shpr.fyi/govttoblame

Biden is framing the unvaccinated as the enemy.

The progressives have built such “power (??)” as they have by demonizing us Republicans (“deplorables”) for the last four- plus years.

We are not deplorable.

We proved in the 2020 election that we were then half of Americans. Biden’s shameful debacle in Afghanistan, his opposition to the rule of law and his dictatorial mandating of vaccinations have turned most Americans against him so we are now the majority. As the majority we can’t be demonized and executed as was done infamously to a minority during WWII.

Now he is continuing to galvanize his supporters by demonizing the 80 million unvaccinated as the terrorist enemy.

Dave Personal re: vaccinations:

I believe in the vaccinations and have been vaccinated.

We MUST slow the new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths which are almost entirely among the unvaccinated. COVID hospitalizations are overwhelming our hospitals. Lewis County COVID infections rate is three times the Washington State average.

But governments’ dictatorial vaccination and masking mandates are very hard for me and all free Americans to accept.

All of us veterans continue to be depressed after the shameful Afghanistan debacle and our remembrance of 9-11.

One veteran says he is, “…troubled with the nation I have fought for and profoundly angry with its leaders.”

All of us– be kind to our veterans!

Dave Bunting, Sept. 13, 2021

See my blog: daverant.com

The progressives are now spinning their untruths even more emphatically to divert our attention away from their atrocious abandonment of Afghanistan.

Don’t let them do it! Truth is still Truth!

I’ve had many close Democratic friends who were good honest people. Where are the good Democrats now?

The FOUR TACTICS they’re using:

1: “Ghostlighting” is repeating untruth again and again and again and again. “The U.S. is racist” is one of their primary ghostlighting lies.

Certainly we’re not perfect on racism and we must always improve but we can be proud of our progress against racism- we’ve come a very long way from Civil War Jim Crow to 2008 when we elected a black president. Very sadly in the last fifteen years they are intentionally increasing racism to divide us.

Remember that, in the 2020 election, even in the face of their mad four-years-long hatred of Trump, we proved we were half of Americans.  They are not our majority rulers.

Recognize these and other of their ghostlighted lies and call them lies!

2. “Astroturfing” is saying or implying that “everyone” agrees with an untruth when it is believed by only a few.

The large majority of Americans disagree with their insulting ideas of who we Americans are.

3. Accusing everyone who disagrees of racism, to silence our objections.

We all want equal respect, rights and opportunity for all Americans regardless of race, color, creed, sex or national origin!

They lie when they call us racist!

Accusing anyone of racism is deeply hurtful, an incredibly effective weapon.

Don’t refrain from speaking up for fear of being called racist. We are not racist!

4. Separating us, using exaggerated fears of COVID, to prevent us from being assured of our long-held truths by each other in personal contact.

Don’t continue separation from your friends! Get together! Talk to each other in person, by phone or online. Share your feelings!

Especially veterans– get together and push yourself to share your feelings openly! We’re all hurting about Biden’s dishonorable abandonment of Afghanistan. Show our feelings to each other! We’re all crying!

Perhaps it seems impossible that such simple and obvious tactics as these four tactics to promote untruth could be successful– but they are being very successful!

Millions of our fellow Americans believe their untruths.

When someone we’ve known well and trusted tells us something, we believe it, are assured and are confident in its truth far beyond most things seen on social platforms.

Social media doesn’t replace face-to-face conversation because social media is so often not truth.

Watch for these four tactics being used against us on the media and identify the tactic being used by name. Recognize and name each time the untruth that is being promoted.

Civil Order

Civil Order is basic communal behavior in which we have rules- laws adopted by us or by our elected representatives, that we all agree to abide by, with anyone including ourselves who breaks the rules being discouraged and, if necessary, punished (the police function), so all abide by the rules we’ve all adopted.

Civil Order is all of us agreeing to follow the rules-laws WE have adopted.

The progressives advocate the abandonment of our civil order allowing themselves and their friends to break our laws.

Immigration

Part of the Progressives’ anti-Civil Order agenda is opening our nation to free immigration by anyone who wants to come here.

Our basic Civil Order also includes private property ownership.

The property we own includes not only our physical property such as land or money but also American privileges such as freedoms, education and health care we’ve earned as a nation through our hard work and great successes and defense in wars.

It is also abandonment of Civil Order to end respect for private property,

They want us to abandon Private Ownership Rights and Civil Order.

Ask them, “Do you lock your door when you leave your home?”

If they truly advocated open borders, they would open their homes to all to come and enjoy and take what they wished.

We must now work to rebuild our friendships.

The COVID separations, declining religious involvement, lower marriage rates, and changes in the workplace have caused us to see our friends less.

After a prolonged period of social isolation, Americans are dusting off their social calendars. But as Americans try to rebuild and reconnect, a new survey conducted by the Survey Center on American Life finds that the social landscape is far less favorable than it once was.

The number of close friends Americans have has plummeted.

This friendship recession is particularly bad for men. The percentage of men with at least six close friends fell by half since 1990, from 55 percent to 27 percent. The study also found the percentage of men without any close friends jumped from 3 percent to 15 percent, a fivefold increase.

Single men fare the worst. One in five American men who are unmarried and not in a romantic relationship report not having any close friends.

Active close friendships assure us that the truths we’ve always known are still true.

Close personal friendships assure us the anti-truths promoted by some groups are not true.

Each of us must work and move to regain and resume our personal friendships in such groups as::

1. Churches.
2. Civic/community activities.
3. Volunteer work.
4. Work friendships.
5. Sports.
6. Men’s/women’s groups.

Dave Bunting, Sept. 6, 2021
See these columns on my blog: daverant.com