The Fire Rises

Mar 24, 2021

The Supreme Dark Lord:

One step. One breath. One dive into the waters of conflict. That's all it takes to begin the transformation. That's all it takes to belatedly discover that you weren't created to be a penguin waddling about the sterile ice in squawking confusion, you were created to be a killer whale, roving the seas as part of a fearsome pack.

Yes!

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Kill Them All

Mar 13, 2021

Here they come to ruin the day:

Southeast Australia has been overrun by an ongoing plague of mice, which have attacked livestock, invaded residential homes and depleted supplies of mouse-killing accessories. [,,,]

Skin-crawling footage — taken at night — exposes a biblical swarm of rodents scurrying across a road like a furry flash flood. Meanwhile, one family reported culling as many as 200 in less than two days.

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No harpoon for you!

Feb 21, 2021

Fatty McFatty is not happy with the world:

Nina Navajas Pertegás, assistant professor and researcher at the UV Department of Social Work and Social Services, has carried out a study on the consequences of fatphobia and the cultural imposition of thinness through her own experience, with a body itinerary that ranges from her childhood to adulthood.

This part is gold:

Her intention with this work is clear: "to contribute to making other lives possible and to naturalize the idea that you can live being fat, because our lives are also interwoven with affection, enjoyment, beauty and happiness."

"You can live being fat." Sure. Just subtract a couple of decades from the average.

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Just a little husky

Feb 18, 2021

A BMI of over 40 is classified as very severely obese. Liam Thorp holds the world record:

A man in his 30s with no underlying health conditions was offered a Covid vaccine after an NHS error mistakenly listed him as just 6.2cm in height.

Liam Thorp was told he qualified for the jab because his measurements gave him a body mass index of 28,000.

Their system accepts absurd data and spits out the results. Strange that there's no red flag when an extreme value shows up. Apparently, it's not just the NHS in England.

The BMI calculator at Diabetes Canada.
Weight: 500 lbs.
Height: 1 cm.
BMI: 2267737.4.
Their conclusion is quite apt: "This is considered obese."

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How not to get vaccinated

Jan 26, 2021

If true, then Rodney Baker is officially the dumbest rich guy in Canada:

A Canadian casino mogul and his actress wife were accused of posing as motel workers in order to receive COVID-19 vaccines meant for Indigenous residents of a remote Yukon community.

Rodney Baker, 55, and his 32-year-old wife, Ekaterina Baker, allegedly chartered a private plane to Beaver Creek on Jan. 21 to get doses of the Moderna shot, the CBC reported.

There is unfortunately no cure for stupid:

The wealthy couple allegedly lied to workers at the clinic about where they lived and worked, according to the Yukon News.

But the pair raised suspicions when they asked for a ride to the airport after receiving their shots, Streicker said.

This multimillionaire didn't have the resources to simply buy a couple of vaccine shots in the area where he lives?

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Control your mind

Jan 11, 2021

If your children are well-behaved, do they stand a greater chance of having healthy, happy lives as adults?

A new study says yes.

After tracking just over 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to the age of 45, investigators found that kids who were goal-oriented and better able to restrain their thoughts, behavior and emotions turned out to have healthier bodies and brains by the time they hit middle age.

Makes sense.

"So many behaviors that contribute to poor health are the result of a relative inability to delay gratification," said Maddux, meaning the inability to forgo smaller, short-term rewards in favor of more substantial long-term rewards.

Examples of short-term indulgences, he noted, could include smoking, binge drinking, overeating, unsafe sex and going to parties in the midst of a pandemic.

Lung cancer, drunk driving, diabetes, STDs, COVID-19 -- such calamities can be mostly avoided with a large dose of willpower.

Just look at the biggest issue: food. Almost 75% of Americans are overweight or obese. Instead of getting proper nutrition, these people are basically poisoning themselves with junk food. Unless they drastically change their habits, they won't even make it to old age.

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Don't be a slave

Oct 02, 2020

It's so perplexing to see so many people volunteer to be not free by continuing in the absurd status rat race.

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A future champion?

Sep 21, 2020

In a viral video of a 6U football team in Texas, an abnormally large 6-year-old absolutely dominated his opponents, running through anyone who got in his way and delivering mean stiff-arms until he crossed into the end zone at the other end of the field.

Incredible genetics was my first thought.

His name is Aiden Smith and, at the age of 6, he is already 5 feet 1 and 130 pounds. His father, Kirk Smith, played quarterback and has thoroughly enjoyed watching all the attention his son has received.

Yup. He has got the genetics and the training. Alloy that with health and ambition and he could be asking for millions from sports teams in a decade.

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Sweet poison

Sep 17, 2020

Yeah, that insane level of sugar is normal in too many parts of the world. It's cheap and lazy; the sweet cereal, chips, and biscuits can sit on the counter for weeks and months without spoiling. The most essential component -- proteins -- is utterly absent. Eggs and milk is what those kids need.

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Painful survival

Jul 10, 2020

Mounting evidence shows that even if Covid-19 kills less than 1% of patients, it doesn’t necessarily leave the others it infects unharmed. Even those who have “recovered” may have long-term impacts from it. [...]

All these early reports point to the possibility that Covid-19 causes acute infection, but also long-term inflammatory damage. Inflammatory diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. If Covid-19 worsens these conditions — or causes its own long-term inflammatory damage — the result could be millions of additional deaths from heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and the like, especially in already vulnerable populations. These effects of the disease may not be apparent for years or decades.

Only time will tell us the true cost: how many millions will survive but suffer in the coming months and years?

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Disintegrating over Tokyo

Jul 07, 2020

The skies over Tokyo were lit up by an explosive extraterrestrial object early Thursday morning that also came with a sonic boom, according to some reports. [...]

"We were able to calculate a source energy of the entering asteroid of about (165 tons or 150 metric tonnes) of TNT," reads an IMO blog post.

It was really fast with a speed of 15 km/s. The Japanese are lucky that it wasn't large enough to survive and hit Tokyo.

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Shocking deterioration

Jul 06, 2020

COVID-19 almost killed this athlete:

Although he was once a 215-pound chiseled, muscled man, his tone had deflated. “I woke up and looked at my arms, my legs, and my muscles were gone. I was kind of freaking out, like where are my legs? Where did my legs go?” he tells CNN. He weighed 153 pounds when he woke up.

That is some serious damage. Ayyad survived but his lifespan definitely took a hit.

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Belly flop

Jul 06, 2020

“Pakistan has 860 active pilots, which includes PIA, Serene Air and Air Blue pilots as well. The inquiry which was initiated in February 2019 showed that 262 pilots did not give the exam themselves and asked someone else to sit for exam on their behalf,” the minister said. He said they have found out during the investigations that pilots with ‘fake’ licences did not even have proper flying experience. The 40 per cent 'fake' licence holders also include hundreds of pilots who are not 'active flyers.'

Sarwar further revealed: “Pilots were also appointed on political basis, unfortunately. Merit was ignored while appointing pilots,” he added. He said that degrees of at least four PIA pilots had also been found to be fake, Pakistan media reported.

When the fake pilots inevitably fail, people die:

In his provisional report, the minister held pilots and the air control tower responsible for causing the PIA plane crash in Karachi. The PIA flight PK8303, carrying 99 people including eight crew members, crashed into a densely populated residential area near Karachi airport on May 22.

The Pakistanis should be more worried if the pilots here had real licences.

The EU is not interested in belly landings:

The European Union's aviation safety agency said Tuesday that Pakistan's national airline will not be allowed to fly into Europe for at least six months after the country's aviation minister claimed last week that nearly a third of Pakistani pilots had cheated on their pilot's exam.

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High lethality

Apr 29, 2020

That's almost 21,000 excess deaths in 46 days in NYC. The worst flu season of the last decade killed an estimated 80,000 people in the entire Unites States. It's quite possible that Corona will end up killing more people than that in NYC before the year is over.

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A holy month to remember

Apr 26, 2020

Life in the largest Muslim country:

THOUSANDS of Muslim men are seen attending a packed Friday prayer service despite concerns of the new coronavirus outbreak.

Faithful Muslims flocked to the Lhokseumawe mosque in the religiously conservative province of Aceh, Indonesia, to mark the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

We've been reliably told that the coronavirus only infects infidels. Muslims are totally safe. No need to worry. Science!

There are currently 8,211 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Indonesia and 869 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Experts anticipate with no coherent lockdown plans, the numbers will escalate.

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Assault on the body

Apr 25, 2020

One month ago when the country went into lockdown to prepare for the first wave of coronavirus cases, many doctors felt confident they knew what they were dealing with. Based on early reports, covid-19 appeared to be a standard variety respiratory virus, albeit a contagious and lethal one with no vaccine and no treatment. They’ve since seen how covid-19 attacks not only the lungs, but also the kidneys, heart, intestines, liver and brain.

This novel coronavirus is vicious:

Lewis Kaplan, a University of Pennsylvania physician and head of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, said every year doctors treat people with clotting complications, from those with cancer to victims of severe trauma, “and they don’t clot like this.”

“The problem we are having is that while we understand that there is a clot, we don’t yet understand why there is a clot,” Kaplan said. “We don’t know. And therefore, we are scared.” [...]

Although there was no consensus on the biology of why this was happening and what could be done about it, many came to believe the clots might be responsible for a significant share of U.S. deaths from covid-19 — possibly explaining why so many people are dying at home.

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She couldn't resist the apple

Apr 24, 2020

Yup. Men usually don't buy stuff because it's sooo delicious, sooo cute, or it was 50% off! That's why the marketing is geared towards women.

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Damaged survivors

Apr 23, 2020

Yeah, it's scary. You'll most likely recover if you get the virus but you'll also have complications. Just how serious? Well, we'll be learning that the hard way. That's the nature of a novel coronavirus.

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Deadly weekend in Nova Scotia

Apr 20, 2020

One man went full psycho and murdered over a dozen people:

RCMP say 17 people are dead, including one of their officers, after a man who at one point wore a police uniform and drove a mock-up cruiser went on a rampage across northern Nova Scotia in one of the deadliest killing sprees in Canadian history.

Police said Sunday night the suspected shooter, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, was killed after being intercepted by officers in Enfield, N.S.

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Diversity is strength!

Apr 18, 2020

Sweden is dealing with higher cases of Corona from immigrants:

Immigrants from Somalia and some parts of the Middle East are heavily over-represented among those infected by COVID-19 in Sweden, according to the Public Health Authority.

During its recent press conference, the agency said that this particularly applied to Somalis, but also immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Finland, Turkey, Iran, the former Yugoslavia, and Eritrea.

“We have an over-representation of people born abroad”, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said, singling out those with Somalia and Iraq as the country of origin.

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Just like the flu

Apr 17, 2020

Many have made asinine comparisons to the flu. See, the flu killed X last year whereas Corona has killed less than X. Therefore, not as bad as the flu!

What they don't notice is that a) the Corono R0 is extremely high, and b) Corona just made its debut; it needs a few weeks to warm up:

A few concrete numbers from NYC:

New York had 4,749 deaths as a result of influenza and pneumonia in 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control (statistics for 2019 were not available). The New York City Department of Health said that roughly 2,000 of those deaths happen within the five boroughs every year.

If divided equally over the course of a year, slightly under 400 New Yorkers died each month in 2018 from the flu or pneumonia, around 167 of whom were in the city. It is consistently one of the top five causes of death in the state and NYC.

Total deaths from the flu in NYC in 2018: 2,000

Deaths, so far, from the Coronavirus in NYC in 2020: 11,477

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Math is very hard

Apr 12, 2020

These people don't understand the basic reproduction number: R0. So, of course, they don't get that reducing that number, even by a small amount, has HUGE benefits. Let's take a simple example in which a virus spreads very quickly every day. Let's say a person returns from travel with this virus. He spreads it into the local community by visiting family, friends, and various markets. In this case, R0 is 3. After one week, a staggering 2,187 people would be infected.

Days after infection R0 = 2 R0 = 3
1 2 3
2 4 9
3 8 27
4 16 81
5 32 243
6 64 729
7 128 2,187

Now, let's say, a similar city a few hours away implements a mask protocol. The masks reduce the risk of transmission by only 33%. Then, the R0 would be 2. One infected person who visits that city would end up infecting only 128 people after one week.

So, a 33% reduction in R0 improves the situation by 94% in ONE WEEK. A month or a year later, the reductions would be even more staggering.

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More pain ahead

Apr 03, 2020

National Post:

The COVID-19 modelling released by Ontario officials on Friday shows a best-case scenario where thousands more deaths can be prevented, but it means implementing even further distancing measures than what’s already in place.

This includes closing more businesses, keeping a so-called “ring of steel” around vulnerable centres such as long-term care homes, and making increased use of technology such as cell phone alerts.

It also requires building up a “small army” of staff to do contact tracing, the resource-intensive work of tracking down all the recent contacts of someone who’s tested positive for the virus.

“We need to bear down heavily on this disease now, because it will save lives,” said Peter Donnelly, president and CEO of Ontario Public Health. “It will allow our healthcare system to cope. And ultimately, it will be the best way to help our economy bounce back.”

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Where are the women?

Mar 31, 2020

Work outside in harsh conditions!? Not going to happen. It's easier to bitch and moan and demand vagina quotas in boardrooms.

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