They say that just before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes. Thanks to Internet video streaming you can create a facsimile of that experience by watching whole TV series in a few day’s time that you once watched over a period of years. It won’t exactly be your life that flashes before your eyes, but it was your life that the show’s original broadcast punctuated.
Continue reading “Binge-watching TV Series”Category: Uncategorized
At least one reasonable LTE today
AZ audit report shows what we all knew
“It is not even believable the dishonesty of the Fake News Media on the Arizona Audit results, which shows incomprehensible Fraud at an Election Changing level, many times more votes than is needed,” Trump said.
What does the media have to do with the official ”audit” report? 6 months and millions of partisan dollars to pore over 2.1 million ballots in secret locations in Montana and the GOP is calling for another audit? Reminds me of a loser insisting on ”best 2 out of 3”, then losing again, ”best 3 out of 5”…
But, not to be outdone, Trump demands an audit in Texas which is apparently taking place. The GOP, a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump, Inc.
America will be destroyed from within, and we are witnessing the beginnings by Republicans.
IMHANEO😎
Whoopsie: NIH Finds Ivermectin Works
_Ivermectin used early works, who’d a thunk
“Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease. The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally.”
Not a miracle cure, not a magic bullet, but significantly better than no treatment, cheap, and very low in risk.
So, how much blood on the hands of the FDA this time?
A Democratic Dole for the Press
Full on Nazis now
Democrats block funding for Israel’s missile defense.
Well, there’s the final piece, virulent, unreasoning anti-Semitism. House Democrats now oppose anything connected to Israel.
The Iron Dome missile defense is purely defensive. Its presence and effectiveness allows Israel to moderate its response to the thousands of rockets fired at Israeli civilians. Make no mistake, were it not there, Israel would flatten Gaza and Palestinian settlements on the West Bank, and rightly so.
For the US, it is one of the few bargains we get in foreign aid. The real world testing of missile defense systems would cost us far more to simulate. What we learn is worth many times the cost.
But it saves Israeli lives, so the Democrats could not allow it. No doubt they are practicing their goose step for the parades.
Debunking Biden’s Claim We Must “Protect the Vaccinated from the Unvaccinated”
Before Covid-19 came along, it was never fashionable to accuse unvaccinated people of causing disease or social injustice. Sure, there were pro-vaxxers and anti-vaxxers who occasionally argued over esoteric subjects, such as whether the measles vaccine could be linked to autism or other side effects, but most people were reluctant to blame the unvaccinated for particular outbreaks.
There were practical reasons for this reluctance. It is standard practice with infectious disease to try to identify patient zero, but the best efforts to do so are fraught with uncertainty and the benefits of knowing patient zero (after the fact) don’t change what has already occurred. Hence, the moral default is simply to assume that infection is like an act of God.
Not so with Covid. Now it is fashionable to name the unvaccinated as the cause of various social problems. Even our president does it. The essay deflates three such claims.
Ivermectin: Boon or Bane?
A look at why Ivermectin has a following and what it’s based on.
Breaking with tradition, the FDA makes a rational decision
Boosters for those who need them not those who vote right
Finally, the FDA makes a decision that fits the data.
There simply is no data to support rushing boosters for 16 year olds. It makes more sense to wait and update the boosters to reflect variants for those whose resistance has not started to wane.
Thinking about Externalities
Because the concept of externalities came up in a recent Forum post I thought it might be useful to explore it. What I learned turned out to be fascinating.
To an economist, “an externality is a cost or benefit for a third party who did not agree to it” (Wikipedia). Most of us can easily think of examples; air pollution and public education come to mind.
Continue reading “Thinking about Externalities”