Random News not worthy of own thread

[Cpt.Jericho]

Magellan did proof that the Greek theory of a round Earth was true - not the calculation of its circumference.

Also, which vaccine do you mean? The vaccines against measles are pretty efficient - takes one shot to create immunity; polio needs refreshing every few years similar to tetanus; flu needs refreshers every year...

I also take it that you mean by "measurements" statistics and charts - I'm completly unaware of technical devices that can actually determine the grade of immunity to certain biological agents.

[Chips]

Magellan did proof that the Greek theory of a round Earth was true - not the calculation of its circumference.

Also, which vaccine do you mean? The vaccines against measles are pretty efficient - takes one shot to create immunity; polio needs refreshing every few years similar to tetanus; flu needs refreshers every year...

I also take it that you mean by "measurements" statistics and charts - I'm completly unaware of technical devices that can actually determine the grade of immunity to certain biological agents.

Except the earth was already proven round; 430BC or thereabouts, during lunar eclipse. Or 350BC with Aristotle. Or Eratosthenes 240BC. Magellan's voyage is just a different proof that's easier to understand "I went that way and appeared back here!" The same outcome could be achieved if the earth was a cylinder...

The vaccines against measles are pretty efficient - takes one shot to create immunity

Define immunity. (I realise the person who questions vaccines isn't yourself, it was Observe)

[Cpt.Jericho]

immunity, noun
: the quality or state of being immune
especially : a condition of being able to resist a particular disease especially through preventing development of a pathogenic microorganism or by counteracting the effects of its products

[Chips]

So you are aware that vaccines and statements of immunity are not implying 100% effectiveness. Good.

I am slightly confused why this became a point at all... what was the question over "which vaccine" for then (when I made a statement about how surprising it was people question that, compared to something that's completely non measurable, such as religion ). Seems very odd question to have asked as to what relevance it'd have.

[Cpt.Jericho]

I find it more surprising that people mock others for believing in religion because it can't be measured. It's not like the non-existense of the devine can be measured either.

[felter]

So you are aware that vaccines and statements of immunity are not implying 100% effectiveness. Good.

Some vaccines do, while some don't and others are just plain guess work, but at the end of the day is it not better to have some kind of protection against a disease than not. For example, measles was all but irradiated in America and this was done through the use of a vaccine, then some idiot made some false claims about it and as we know people are dumb believed it and now there is a massive spike in measles infections. I will not say that vaccines are 100% safe, but the chances of a kid catching measles in America right now for someone not vaccinated is pretty high, and they have a higher risk of dying from the infection than any kind of harm from the vaccine. So we have gone from nearly no measles infections with little to no deaths worldwide, to well over 100,000 deaths per annum due to a vaccine both being used leading to a lack of deaths, to not being used and a massive amount of deaths. Good or not?

[jlehtone]

I recall listening to (student) presentations. One described how signal molecule (glutamate) activated a neuron cell, i.e. the cell did "learn" something. Another, totally different research had observed how signal molecule triggered apoptosis (self-destruction) on neuron cells. The molecule in that latter case was glutamate ...

In one glutamate bounced on neuron cell. In the other glutamate bounced on neuron cell. However, those were very different situations, with quite opposite outcomes. All about context, magnitude, and severity.

[felter]

Once upon a time back in 1765 there was a new building, a farmhouse that was built in the UK, there was nothing special about this new farmhouse and like a lot of these building it changed from a farmhouse to a quiet little public house in 1830, and it was a happy little place where the locals could enjoy a quiet pint with friends and neighbours. In 1940 local mining caused the building to subside, and it was deemed to be unsafe and was heading towards being demolished until a brewery stepped in and shored up the end of the building making it safe again, this left the building leaning over like that tower in Pisa, though not as high. Though it gave the building some character, it made that pub special, it even earned itself the nickname of Britain's wonkiest pub, and it stayed that way for many years, attracting people from all over. Unfortunately like a lot of public houses nowadays it became out of fashion and was put up for sale in early 2023 and was soon sold, but it looked like it was no longer going to be that quaint special pub no more, as it was sold for an unspecified alternative use, now people were sad about this and started a petition demanding that the old pub would have to stay just that, an old public house. That was until Saturday, August 5th 2023 when the sad quaint public house caught fire, no one knew why it caught fire and when the fire brigade turned up to put the fire out they were surprised and shocked to find that all the entrances to the pub had been blocked with mounds of earth making it hard for them to get to the fire to put it out. Sadly, the building was gutted by the flames of the fire. The next day the council turned up to inspect the damage and deemed the good news that what was left was not damaged beyond repair, yes some of the structure would have to be demolished as it was unsafe but with time the building could be brought back to life once again, and they happily told the new owners. YAY, everyone thought, but the new owners didn't quite understand the message and thought, we'll just demolish it all. So first thing Monday morning just two days after the fire, one day after it was deemed saveable, they took a bulldozer and demolished the whole building turning it all to rubble.

To no one's surprise, the local police now suspect that the fire was intentional that it was an act of arson, I wonder who the culprits could be everyone thought.

[Cpt.Jericho]

ISIS? The Russians? Aquaman? All three together?

[burger1]

Metro 2033 author Dmitry Glukhovsky sentenced to 8 years in prison for criticizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine

https://www.pcgamer.com/metro-2033-auth ... f-ukraine/

From the article: Fortunately for Glukhovsky, he is not actually in Russia, and was sentenced in absentia. His current whereabouts are unknown.

[mr.WHO]

Thunderf00t busting LK-99 hype:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3hubvTsf3Y

[felter]

Russia has attacked the moon with a missile strike, and it has analysts stumped for the reason, as there does not seem to be any civilians in the vicinity.

[Cpt.Jericho]

Reading all those (conspiracy) theories about the death of that Wagner Chieftain I come only to one conclusion.

Was it an assasination or a simple accident - we'll never get to know the truth.
If he was assasinated, Kremlin and secret service will make sure it's all deposited in the darkest corner of the archives.
If it was just an accident, Western MSM and politicians will still call it an assasination - because, obviously, the Kremlin always lies and therefore the investigation was rigged.

[CBJ]

This is another one of those cases where pretty much every new word comes as a complete surprise as you read the headline.

Search for Coventry women in 1960s radioactive chapatis study

[Falcrack]

Reading all those (conspiracy) theories about the death of that Wagner Chieftain I come only to one conclusion.

Was it an assasination or a simple accident - we'll never get to know the truth.
If he was assasinated, Kremlin and secret service will make sure it's all deposited in the darkest corner of the archives.
If it was just an accident, Western MSM and politicians will still call it an assasination - because, obviously, the Kremlin always lies and therefore the investigation was rigged.

I put the odds of an assassination at 99.99999999999999999999936743%, so good enough for me to be certain it was an assassination.

[felter]

There are 4 possibilities for the plane incident:

1/ A surface-to-air missile.
2/ An air-to-air missile.
3/ A bomb on board the plane.
4 An aviation accident.

A look at all of them:

1 and 2/ There are no reports of sightings of a missile or any evidence of a missile or another plane in the vicinity at the time of the incident (at least I have not heard of any). Though this doesn't rule either of these out, it just makes them less likely to be what happened.
4/ The plane itself was torn apart, It looks like it lost a wing and possibly the tail section, the make of the type of plane is impressive when it comes to safety, since going into service it has only been involved in one other accident, a mid air collision with a 737 (I think it was) and even after that the plane managed to land safely. Not just that in the last 54 years or so there is only one report of an aircraft losing a wing in flight, and that was not even a modern aircraft at the time. Also, it happened while flying level at 28,000 feet, which is supposedly the safest time in the flight, if anything was going to happen it would have been when the plane was in ascent or descent, and its frame is being stressed out.
3/ There are reports of the sound of an explosion happening just before the plane fell out of the sky, meaning there was probably a bomb on board the aircraft, but then maybe something blew up on the plane that wasn't a bomb.

The chances of it being an accident are slim to none, but anything is possible. Personally, I'm leaning towards it being 3 a bomb on board.

[Cpt.Jericho]

The video that's been on and off the last days shows only the last seconds of the descent - maybe the last 6. or 8000 feet. It's hard to say if the wing broke off due to fatigue of some bolts, a bomb or simply during the way down.
If it was a bomb (and that's certainly an option) the question that arises (and that will probably not be answered) is who's done it? Being a mercenary isn't excatly an occupation where you make a lot friends. Could have been the Russian gouvernment (or parts of it), leader of some other mercenary group getting rid of competition or even the CIA to prevent Wagner group to establish a presence in NIger (where the USA have about 1100 troops fighting its war against terrorism).

As I said before, we won't know the truth and personally I can live with that. Prigoshin was the leader of a band of mercenaries (which is basically paid murderers). Being morally not totally corrupted I didn't wish him death - but I also don't shed a tear now it's happened. I certainly don't consider him a good man.

Edit: Another possibilty - call it 5. The pilot got a heart attack and the plane went out of control.

[felter]

I'm just curious on how it happened, the people that were on it apart from probably the pilots lived a life where that sort of death was pretty much inevitable in the end, so myself I couldn't care about them, they got what they sowed so to speak. One of the biggest issues is if it was intentionally destroyed, the main culprits are the exact same ones who are investigating it to determine the cause, so unless they turn around and say yeah we did it, you cannot believe anything they say, so probably the exact cause will never be known even if the Russians were to give a cause, so we can only ever speculate.

[Falcrack]

The video that's been on and off the last days shows only the last seconds of the descent - maybe the last 6. or 8000 feet. It's hard to say if the wing broke off due to fatigue of some bolts, a bomb or simply during the way down.
If it was a bomb (and that's certainly an option) the question that arises (and that will probably not be answered) is who's done it? Being a mercenary isn't excatly an occupation where you make a lot friends. Could have been the Russian gouvernment (or parts of it), leader of some other mercenary group getting rid of competition or even the CIA to prevent Wagner group to establish a presence in NIger (where the USA have about 1100 troops fighting its war against terrorism).

As I said before, we won't know the truth and personally I can live with that. Prigoshin was the leader of a band of mercenaries (which is basically paid murderers). Being morally not totally corrupted I didn't wish him death - but I also don't shed a tear now it's happened. I certainly don't consider him a good man.

Edit: Another possibilty - call it 5. The pilot got a heart attack and the plane went out of control.

I don't know why you keep carrying water for the Russians, you seem to go out of your way to entertain the patently absurd notion that this was anything other than an assassination, as if somehow there is some sort of question or the likelihood of an accident is equal to that of a targeted assassination. It's really quite simple, Putin order him killed to send a message to anyone else who dares to oppose him. He is a snake and a thug and cannot be trusted, except for trusting him to do whatever he thinks is necessary for him to stay in power, legal or not. I doubt Putin shed a tear or spared a thought for the pilots killed in this assassination of Wagner leadership.

[Cpt.Jericho]

First of all, I do not - as you say - carry water for anyone! No need for you to get personal.
There is not enough information around to exclude other reasons for the crash than an assassination at the moment. Just because the Russians have a certain reknown for getting rid of political opposition doesn't automatically makes them guilty. You present judgement based on assumptions and you personal oppinion, not on actual facts.