DaveRant

Journalism schools teach that correct news reporting must answer: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How- the five W’s and one H.
News Coverage includes unbiased and neutral facts as different from Opinion or Commentary which gives the writer’s biased opinion. Nearly all News organizations and reporters claim to report unbiased facts from a neutral viewpoint.
My Shopper Science and Digital Briefs column– when reporting just science and technology– has always been simple facts without bias—there’s not any way to bias scientific facts.
But I, Dave the Shopper Editor, too wish I could claim my recent columns, even the ones moving heavily into politics, are unbiased, just facts.
But I know in politics my columns have been very biased. I admit that I am biased, a Christian, a Conservative and a Republican (even though some call me a RINO, “Republican in Name Only,” because I advocate vaccination and believe in global warming.
The Covering Both Sides articles below are the opinions of real (unlike me) journalists about the challenges in being unbiased.

Covering both sides
From National Review by Judson Berger, October 22, 2021:
“This is J school 101: You get the five W’s, maybe the H if you’re dog-tired, avoided libeling anyone, avoided copying anyone and favored inverted-pyramid style and presented both sides.
“’Did you reach out for comment?’ It’s a question this recovering newsie has been asked countless times by editors and anxious in-house lawyers. The answer damn well better be yes.
“But the media’s task of covering both sides is one that’s being progressively abandoned in some influential quarters, on issues as genuinely contested as congressional spending and voting laws. Some would reduce coverage — not commentary, but news coverage — of these issues to battles of right versus wrong. That’s not how this is supposed to work.
“Earlier this week, NR’s Brittany Bernstein and Isaac Schorr highlighted the latest out-in-the-open push to advocate journalism elevating one side over the other. A Los Angeles Times column, cheered on in the Twittersphere, voiced con-cern that journalists and pundits would “focus critically on President Biden and Democrats” without highlighting “Republicans’ obstructions.” (Obstruction magically be-comes less of a crisis when power changes hands.)
“Jackie Calmes wrote: ‘Democrats can’t be expected to deal with these guys like they’re on the level. Nor should journalists cover them as if they are.’
“Well, then. It was one of those quiet-part-out-loud moments. Another came when House speaker Nancy Pelosi openly scolded the media for not doing a good-enough job ‘selling’ the reconciliation bill.
“Here at National Review, we’re comfortable saying the loud part loud: We’re an ideological organization. You know that. But we don’t let it blind us as we go about our coverage or our commentary. We’ll call balls and strikes on the Republican side (see here and here), and we’ll do the same when news outlets start asserting opinion and sometimes just-plain falsities as fact, in service of one side. See here.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-weekend-jolt/both-sides-matter/

Covering both sides II
Here from The Media Institute, posted way back on August 15, 2013 by Patrick Maines
“Opinion Journalism vs. Objective News Reporting
“The rise of opinion journal-ism, not just among cable and the newer media but elements of the legacy media as well, magnifies the problem of the dearth of objective news reporting. About five years ago even the Associated Press announced a turn to-ward opinion, euphemistically referred to as ‘accountability journalism,’ while the Washing-ton Post and the New York Times have for years now been foundering in the stuff.
“Makes one wonder where to turn (outside, perhaps, of the business and financial journals) for investigative and feature news that is not in service to some political party, ideology, or special interest.
“And what a loss! At the very moment that this country desperately needs an independent, credible, and objective press to describe and chronicle the country’s manifest economic problems, there’s practically nobody in the Fourth Estate who commands widespread trust and re-spect.”

https://www.mediacompolicy.org/2013/08/15/opinion-journalism-vs-objective-news-reporting/

Covering both sides III
Here by- again- Judson Berger of National Review one week later on October 29, 2021.
“We can see the casual disregard for freedom of speech seep-ing into American life, not just in polls but in the recent DOJ letter warning of an FBI crack-down on protesting parents. Andrew McCarthy asked on these pages last weekend whether we have freedom of speech to the degree we thought.
“’Whether freedom of speech truly exists is a cultural question, not a legal one. It hinges on the society’s commitment to liberty as something that is lived, not merely spoken of,’ he wrote, making that same observation above about freedoms reflecting values.
“What does our culture value? One recent survey found that a majority of college students support shouting down speakers with whom they disagree; 23 percent supported the use of violence toward this end. At some colleges, the percentage supporting such violence crept into the 40s.
“That is not a culture that values free speech.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-weekend-jolt/what-happens-when-free-speech-dies/

We can help train NASA’s rovers to better explore Mars
We can identify non-random shapes in thousands of fine-resolution Mars photos to help NASA see shapes that might need further investigation.
Members of the public can help teach an artificial intelligence algorithm to recognize scientific features in images taken by NASA’s Perseverance.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, has enormous potential to change the way NASA’s space-craft study the universe. But because all machine learning algorithms require training from humans, a recent project asks members of the public to label features of scientific interest in imagery taken by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.
The project is the continuation of one launched last year that resulted in an algorithm that could identify these features correctly nearly 98% of the time.

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-nasa-rovers-explore-mars.html

Dave Bunting, Nov. 1, 2021
References in links below items.
See these columns on my blog: daverant.com

Spiritual Help for Caregivers

Whether asked overtly or not, profound questions about meaning, value, and relationship are posed by illness and death, questions that are transcendent, stretching beyond what can be known empirically.7 Patients struggle with these questions, but so do Health Care Providers.
They ask, “Why must my patients experience such pain, struggle to breathe, and die in isolation?” “How can I preserve their dignity in such catastrophic circumstances?” “Why do I experience real grief whenever any patient dies?” These questions could aptly be described as spiritual, regardless of whether a person believes there is a deity or a transcendent answer to these questions.
Although death cannot be avoided, human desire and hope may reach deeper than death. Ultimate hope is not a prediction but the conviction that events will make sense, no matter what the outcome. The opposite of hope is despair, but despair is just another word for meaninglessness.2 The hope that there is a meaning beyond the disease, pain, and distress they confront daily among patients may permit HCPs to continue their task of caring for patients with advanced disease and those who are dying.
Health care requires clinicians to accompany people as they experience pain, distress, functional impairment, doubt and death that result from illness and injury. Clinicians do so well when they provide care with empathy and compassion. Healing requires acknowledgment of what the patient is experiencing, along with empathy for him or her, and compassionate action, reminding patients of their intrinsic dignity, meaning, and value in the midst of dependency and fear.4
Healing in its deepest sense is a restoration of all the relationships that disease and illness disrupt, not only biological ones involving the patient’s body but also those between persons who have illness and their families, their communities, the natural order, and, for believers, their God.2
One of the deepest human fears is of dying alone. HCPs can help patients to regain their own humanity by establishing compassionate relationships with them. It is through genuine relationships with patients that HCPs reach their own humanity and identity, finding meaning in their profession along the way.

It is crucial, however, that HCPs be given opportunities for spiritual support as well.
Health care professionals have a duty to take care of themselves, take time alone, regenerate, and (re)construct themselves. It is precisely when time seems lacking and fatigue hampers motivation that HCPs must do something for their own well-being.
Social activity, association with others who share the HCP’s beliefs about life and death, provides strong support for such beliefs.
Worship in church, meeting and sharing with fellow believers, is the primary way Christians reaffirm our beliefs. Simply being with other believers reassures us of our beliefs.
As recently as 2018, Pew Research found seven in ten Americans say they are Christian so Christian doctors and nurses need not fear objection on gently mentioning their faith to patients.
A Christian doctor or nurse is often able to convey to patients their own confident and fearless view of death, greatly comforting the patient.
Although others can help, the choice to seek help or to help oneself is up to each HCP. An individual’s spiritual well-being is always a personal quest.

Info:  shpr.fyi/spiritualhealth

Tiny church leads online personal faith vaccination resistance

(Reuters) – From the outside, First Harvest Ministries in Waveland, Mississippi, could almost be mistaken for a storage shed were it not for the steeple.
From the modest building however, Shane Vaughn, the Pentecostal church’s pastor, has helped spearhead an online movement promoting personal faith as a way around workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
He posts form letters for U.S. workers seeking religious exemptions that have been downloaded from his website around 40,000 times, according to a screen shot of web traffic he shared with Reuters.
“This is the only way out,” said Vaughn, 48, of the letters, which he makes available for free, that mix Biblical scripture with warnings to employers of legal fallout if they are disregarded.
As the Biden administration prepares a federal vaccine mandate and more states and companies impose them to help accelerate the pandemic’s end, letter-writing efforts by religious leaders are being reinforced by legal advocacy groups such as Liberty Counsel.

Info:  shpr.fyi/religiousapply

Container ship afire 8 miles off Victoria

Fire is in hazardous chemical containers, 40 of which fell off and are afloat off Washington coast. Fire is said to be “contained” on Oct. 24. Gale winds are forecast.

Info:  shpr.fyi/containerfire

Amazon offering 500 jobs at Fife

Amazon is hiring more than 500 positions starting at $18/hr ahead of the launch of its 520,000 square-foot sort center in Fife. The facility will open later in October, in partnership with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and Marine View Ventures, the tribe’s economic development entity.

Info:  shpr.fyi/fifejobs

Boosters available of Pfizer, Moderna & Johnson & Johnson

Booster is suggested to be different vaccine than your initial dose(s).
Eligible: Age 65 and older,
Residents of long-term care facilities, Ages 18-64 with underlying medical conditions or who are at increased risk.
Find vaccination at:
https://vaccinelocator.doh.wa.gov/locations/98356
Info:  shpr.fyi/boosters

Electric vehicles mean loss of 4.7 million jobs.

“Anybody who thinks this transition is going to go smoothly is fooling themselves,” said Michael Robinet, executive director of automotive advisory services for consulting firm IHS Markit.
Making, selling and servicing vehicles employ an estimated 4.7 million people in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Info:  shpr.fyi/electriccarjobs

First it was toilet paper.

Then it was processors and other silicon. Now it’s cardboard. (And there’s a whole lot of other stuff in between.)
The latest kink in the planet’s ever-gnarled supply chain is one that is sending retailers, shippers, and consumers all scrambling. Cardboard supplies are unreliable, as are those for other packing materials like paper and plastic. And what is available costs more.
Info:  shpr.fyi/cardboardshort
 
Dave Bunting, Oct. 25, 2021
References in links below items.
See these columns on my blog: daverant.com

Union Gap landslide slowing down

Measurements taken in August show the slab is moving less than 2 inches each week. In 2020, the slab was sliding 2 to 3 inches each week. The slab is imagined continuing sliding south into a nearby quarry.
Info:  shpr.fyi/uniongapslide

Over-65 booster recommended

The FDA said last month that people 65 years and older and others at high risk of severe COVID-19 should seek a booster shot.
Info:  shpr.fyi/boosterover65

Mix, rather than match, COVID-19 booster dose

The study also shows mixing different kinds of vaccines appears to spur the body to make higher levels of virus-blocking antibodies than they would have gotten by boosting with a dose of the vaccine the person already had.
If regulators endorse the study findings, it should make getting a COVID-19 booster as easy as getting a yearly influenza vaccine.
Info:  shpr.fyi/mixbooster

Nobel Prize in Physics goes to climate predictors

Climate modelers deserved the physics award because they’ve been proved right again and again.
Climate prediction requires a mix of complexity and emergent behavior that shows up in many other systems involving aggregate human behavior, as well as in areas of physics, chemistry, and biology. This year’s Nobel in Physics is split evenly between two aspects of studying these systems. Half of the award goes to Giorgio Parisi, who helped find methods for understanding complex systems that can be applied more generally. And the other half is split between two climate modelers, Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann, who helped develop systems that we now use to understand how the climate’s behavior emerges from the complicated interaction of its components and influences—including the growing influence of greenhouse gases.
This award couldn’t be timelier, as the most recent IPCC report, based on state-of-the-art climate models, states unequivocally that humans are already influencing many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe.
Info:  shpr.fyi/nobelclimate

China tests nuclear & U.S. capable missile

China startled the U.S. military last week by successfully testing a hypersonic mach-five nuclear-capable orbit-to-cruise missile capable of hitting anywhere in U.S. The cruise stage missile flies low, often below radar, and so fast that current defenses couldn’t see and identify it quickly enough to attack it.
Info:  shpr.fyi/chinesemissile

Goose Prairie solar project planned near Moxee

OneEnergy’s plans call for building an 80-megawatt solar energy collection system with battery storage on 625 acres about 8 miles east of Moxee. The site is near State Route 24, Den Beste Road and Desmarais Road.
Info:  shpr.fyi/moxeesolar

China threatens US with nuclear attack if we defend Taiwan

China’s large ongoing military invasion exercises across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan has invasion-ready forces 110-miles from Taiwan’s shores. China last week threatened the U.S. with nuclear attack with ICBMs if it tries to defend Taiwan.
Info:  shpr.fyi/taiwanthreat

New Yorkers still banging pots and pans for healthcare workers

 They yelled their thanks to healthcare workers and first responders for saving a city ravaged by COVID-19.
But as the pandemic wore on, and many succumbed to crisis fatigue, the whoops and hollers for the healthcare workers slowed, replaced by the usual noise of honking cars and pedestrians.
But 18 months later, some of the faithful are still saluting these heroes.
This nightly ritual has continued in neighborhoods throughout the city, including nightly renditions of “God Bless America” on the Upper West Side and noise-making minutes in Hell’s Kitchen, a New York City neighborhood that bore much of the brunt of the pandemic.
Info:  shpr.fyi/stillbanging

Johnson & Johnson booster recommended

A US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee on Friday voted 19-0 to authorize second doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
Info:  shpr.fyi/jjbooster

Canadian had meteorite land on her pillow.

 
Ruth Hamilton, a resident of Golden, British Columbia, was asleep in her bed on the night of Oct. 3 when she was jolted awake by a fist-size 2.8-lb meteorite plummeting through the roof and landing right next to her head.
Info:  shpr.fyi/meteoritepillow

Most COVID-19 survivors experience long-haul illness

Most COVID survivors have functional mobility impairments, pulmonary abnormalities or mental health disorders for six months or more, often disabling them for work.
Info:  shpr.fyi/covidlong

China sends 150 planes into Taiwan airspace.

Over four dozen Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s air defense zone on Monday, Oct. 4, in the latest round in a weekend of provocation that has seen nearly 150 sorties since Friday– as Chinese state media issued threats to Australia.
Info:  shpr.fyi/china150planes

Have your kids learn Chinese?

Nicolas Chaillan, the Pentagon’s first chief software officer who resigned in protest against the slow pace of technological transformation in the U.S. military, said the failure to respond was putting the United States at risk.
“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion,” he told the newspaper. “Whether it takes a war or not is kind of anecdotal.”
He says China has already won the artificial intelligence battle and is likely to dominate also:
•  cyberdefense
• synthetic biology
•  genetics
•  media narratives
•  geopolitics
Chinese companies, Chaillan said, were obliged to work with their government and were making “massive investment” in AI without regard to ethics.
Among AI’s capabilities are creation of fake but very real-appearing videos with real people saying untruths that they would never say. China is already using such methods to convince world populations that COVID was developed and loosed by the U.S. military.
Info:  shpr.fyi/chinawin

Dave Bunting, Oct. 18, 2021
See these columns on my blog: daverant.com

Vaccination Doubt

Though very harshly buried by government and media (including by me,) there continue to rise to visibility serious questions from reliable sources concerning adverse results from the vaccination such as this report of patients over 65 dying two-thirds as often from vaccination adverse effects as from catching COVID preventable by the vaccination:

“Thus, for 6 (95% CI 2–11) deaths prevented by vaccination, there were approximately 4 deaths reported… that occurred after vaccination, yielding a potential risk/benefit ratio of 2:3.”

Above is from a reference provided in August 2021 in Medscape, a totally reliable medical source and website:

Info:  shpr.fyi/vaccdoubt

Info:  shpr.fyi/vaccdoubt2

Such serious questions about the vaccination cause peoples’ intelligent refusal of vaccination.

Government firing them is illogical, unjustified and travesty of justice but then twisting the knife by denying them unemployment is cruel despotism!

Liberals hate us wrongly assuming we are ignorant, deplorable Trump supporters. Will they ever recognize the truth that we are not?

Merck’s New COVID Pill

This new pill molnupiravir doesn’t cure or prevent COVID but, taken immediately by those already infected, does cut in half the chances of hospitalization or death.

“This anticipated drug has gotten a little more hype than it deserves,” says William Schaffner, MD, professor of preventive medicine and infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Many suggest a reality check.

“It’s not exactly a home run, like penicillin for strep throat,” agrees Carl Fichtenbaum, MD, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

“But it is encouraging,” he said. “It will probably be an incremental improvement on treatment we have, and anything we can do to keep people from getting sicker is a good thing.”

“The data in this higher risk group show molnupiravir reduces the risk of advancing to severe disease by 50%,” Schaffner said. That’s a clear benefit for half, but nothing for the other half, he said.

Info:  shpr.fyi/merckpill

Energy

Linked below is an excellent and very exhaustive library of charts issued in March 2021, by our U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The chart above is one of the charts. Here’s my reading of the numbers off the chart:

U.S. Energy Consumption
Quadrillions of BTU

• Fuel               Current     2050
• BioFuels               2          2
• Hydro                  3          3
• Nuclear                8          7
• Wind&Solar          8         18
• Coal                     9          7
• Natural Gas         32         37
• Oil,Gasoline,etc    34         39
• Total                  96       113

Thus, according to DOE, we are now using CO2-producing energy for 77 QBTU (80%) and non-CO2-producing energy for 19 QBTU (20%) of our total 96 QBTU. By 2050 if their forecast is accurate, we will still be using CO2-producing energy for 85 QBTU (75%) and non-CO2-producing energy for 28 QBTU (25%) of our total use of 113 QBTU.

This is very bad news for our hopes to reduce our CO2 production greatly and quickly.

With the auto industry turning very strongly and quickly toward electric cars & trucks, my belief is that we must quickly build huge additional electric generation in non-CO2-producing sources. Though we will build more wind and solar farms, I believe our new electric sources must be primarily hundreds of new nuclear power plants to supply the huge coming increase in demand caused by massive change to electric vehicles.

Serious issues in our change to electric vehicles will be:

1. Charging stations, expensive, largely in homes, and with large multi-car stations along highways.
2. Vehicle range reductions, now typically maximum 200 or 300 miles between full charges.
3. Charging times, 30 minutes for each short drive, but 8 to 17 hours after a 300-mile drive.

There will need to be restaurants, RV campgrounds and motels near every highway public charging station for people while they wait during their charge.

CO2-producing liquid fuels, gasoline, diesel, aircraft fuels will continue to be required for some cars and trucks, locomotives and aircraft because they allow carrying the very high energy fuel in the vehicle.

Info:  shpr.fyi/energycharts

Electric Car Charging

One gallon of gasoline has about 120,000 BTU equalling 35 KWH of energy. To charge a car with electric energy equal to one gallon of gasoline on the typical small home 2 KW charger takes 18 hours, or with the large 7 KW home charger takes 5 hours.

Electric cars include a plug-in charger for home use. California already has over 17,000 public charging stands.

Electric car full-charge ranges are mostly from 200 to 300 miles, with some more expensive models going up to 400, even up to 550 miles.

Average electric cars “burn” about 0.34 KWH per mile with the best fuel-mileage achieved being 0.24KWH per mile in a Tesla 3.

A 20-mile trip in the average car takes 5.5 KWH and a 100-mile trip takes 34 KWH. A 300-mile trip takes 100 KWH.

Charging time on a 120VAC 2KW home charger for the 20-mile trip is about 3 hours and for the 100-mile trip is about 17 hours.

Charging time on a larger home 240VAC 7KW charger, the highest-power charger many cars accept, for the 20-mile trip is about 45 minutes, for the 100-mile trip is about 3 ½ hours and for the 300-mile trip is about 8 hours.

There are also larger 240VAC 11KW chargers and 480VAC 3-phase units outputting up to and over 50KW but few currently produced electric cars will accept these larger chargers.

BTU is British Thermal Unit, a worldwide standard unit of energy.

KWH is Kilowatt Hour, another unit of energy, use of one thousand watts or one kilowatt of power for one hour.

Consumer Reports recommends hybrid cars for now above full electric- the gasoline engine for long range with the electric motor for cost saving on our short around-town trips.

Their top recommendation today Oct. 9 is Toyota RAV4 Prime AWD Plug-in Hybrid in XSE version for better seats, price range $38,350 – $41,675.

They were unable to test the 2021 Ford Escape SE Plug-in Hybrid SUV at Base $33,075 which has similar characteristics and also received a major model upgrade in 2020 that much improved its reliability over 2019 and earlier models.

Dave Bunting, Oct. 11, 2021

See these columns on my blog: daverant.com

Millions of Android Phones Attacked

Google has taken increasingly sophisticated steps to keep malicious apps out of Google Play. But a new round of takedowns involving about 200 apps and more than 10 million potential victims shows that this longtime problem remains far from solved—and in this case, potentially cost users hundreds of millions of dollars.

Most non-Apple phones use the Android operating system.

Researchers from the mobile security firm Zimperium say the massive scamming campaign has plagued Android since November 2020. As is often the case, the attackers were able to sneak benign-looking apps like “Handy Translator Pro,” “Heart Rate and Pulse Tracker,” and “Bus – Metrolis 2021” into Google Play as fronts for something more sinister. After downloading one of the malicious apps, a victim would receive a flood of notifications, five an hour, that prompted them to “confirm” their phone number to claim a prize. The “prize” claim page loaded through an in-app browser, a common technique for keeping malicious indicators out of the code of the app itself. Once a user entered their digits, the attackers signed them up for a monthly recurring charge of about $42 through the premium SMS services feature of wireless bills. It’s a mechanism that normally lets you pay for digital services or, say, send money to a charity via text message. In this case, it went directly to crooks.

Info:  shpr.fyi/androidattack

NSA Mobile Device Best Practices

Users of mobile devices desire to take full advantage of the features available on those devices. Many of the features provide convenience and capability but sacrifice security. This best practices guide outlines steps the users can take to better protect personal devices and information. The information contained in this document was developed in the course of NSA’s Cybersecurity mission.

Threats to mobile devices are more prevalent and increasing in scope and complexity.

DO NOT install new apps offered to you. If you want a new app, search for its developer and install from there.

Disable location services when not needed.

DO NOT bring the device with you to sensitive locations. Power the device off and on weekly.

DO NOT have sensitive conversations on personal devices, even if you think the content is generic.

DO NOT open unknown email attachments and links. Even legitimate senders can pass on malicious content accidently or as a result of being compromised or impersonated by a malicious actor. Unexpected pop-ups like this are usually malicious. If one appears, forcibly close all applications.

Only use original charging cords or charging accessories purchased from a trusted manufacturer.

DO NOT use public USB charging stations.

Never connect personal devices to government computers whether via physical connection, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth®.

Update the device software and applications as soon as possible.

Consider using Biometrics (e.g., fingerprint, face) authentication for convenience to protect data of minimal sensitivity.

Use strong lock-screen pins/passwords: a 6-digit PIN is sufficient if the device wipes itself after 10 incorrect password attempts. PINs containing both numbers and letters, allowed on many phones, are very much more secure.

Set the device to lock automatically after 5 minutes.

Install a minimal number of applications and only ones from official application stores. Be cautious of the personal data entered into applications.

Close applications when not using.

DO NOT install TikTok.

DO NOT jailbreak or root the device.

Disable Bluetooth® when you are not using it. Airplane mode does not always disable Bluetooth®.

DO NOT connect to public Wi-Fi networks. Use your much safer 4G data connection instead.

Disable Wi-Fi when unneeded.

Delete unused Wi-Fi networks.

Maintain physical control of the device.

Avoid connecting to unknown removable media. Never connect a flash drive you find discarded.

Cover the camera when not using. Your camera may still be watching you.

DO NOT have sensitive conversations in the vicinity of mobile devices. Your microphone is often still listening.

Install Malwarebytes or Lookout security in your device.

Info:  shpr.fyi/mobilebestnsa

Havana Syndrome: CIA attacked again

Havana syndrome first emerged in Cuba in 2016. The first cases were CIA officers, which meant they were kept secret. But eventually, word got out and anxiety spread. Twenty-six personnel and family members would report a wide variety of symptoms. There were whispers that some colleagues thought sufferers were crazy and it was “all in the mind”.  

The mystery of Havana syndrome could be its real power. The ambiguity and fear it spreads act as a multiplier, making more and more people wonder if they are suffering, and making it harder for spies and diplomats to operate overseas. Five years on, reports now number in the hundreds and, the BBC has been told, span every continent, leaving a real impact on the US’s ability to operate overseas.  

Uncovering the truth has now become a top US national security priority – one that an official has described as the most difficult intelligence challenge they have ever faced.  

A member of CIA Director Bill Burns’ team experienced symptoms consistent with the elusive Havana Syndrome in a September 2021 trip to India.

The CIA has not commented on the incident, but sources familiar with the event said it was the second time in a month that a U.S. official exhibited symptoms related to the mysterious ailment. 

The official traveling with Burns received immediate medical attention upon returning to the U.S., first reported CNN.

Last month, a trip to Vietnam for Vice President Kamala Harris was delayed after two U.S. personnel were believed to have experienced symptoms consistent with Havana Syndrome.

The condition first emerged in 2016 when 26 diplomats and their families in Havana, Cuba, reported unusual cases of dizziness, headache, fatigue, nausea, anxiety, cognitive difficulties, memory loss and even brain damage. 

In the five years since the first reported cases, more than 200 incidents have been reported among diplomats and defense officials. 

Cases have been also reported in Russia, China, Austria and Germany.

Both Russia and Vietnam have denied involvement in perpetuating the ailment.

The CIA launched a task force in December to investigate the cause of Havana Syndrome after scientists for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identified “directed, pulsed radio frequency (RF) energy” as the most likely cause of the mysterious condition. 

The undercover official tapped with spearheading the agency’s search for Usama bin Laden will now lead the CIA’s effort in locating whether an individual or group is behind the ailment targeting U.S. officials abroad.

Info:  shpr.fyi/havanasynd

Info:  shpr.fyi/havanasynd2

Dave Bunting, Oct. 4, 2021

See these columns on my blog: daverant.com

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