The Crud

Tuesday, February 7

My wife and I have both come down with some kind of bug. She was running a fever of 100 degrees yesterday and feeling pretty miserable, so I suggested she might want to take a couple of aspirin or something. She declined, saying running a fever was beneficial. Now I was confused because I remember hearing both what she was telling me and recommendations to take drugs to reduce the fever, so I asked the Google and got this back:

Evidence shows that fever is beneficial to the healing process, triggering the immune response and preventing viruses and bacteria from replicating. One study showed that flu sufferers who suppressed their fevers with medications were sick for more than three days longer than those who took no medication.

So now I remember that it is high fevers that are dangerous, like 104 degrees. A piddly little 100 degree fever is nothing to worry about.

Wednesday, February 8

Suja Organic Immunity Defense Shot With Turmeric And Probiotics - 2 Fl. Oz.

Last night I was feeling pretty miserable. Osmany gave a little bottle of magic juice. Tasted yucky. Next morning I was feeling pretty good, but that only lasted for a few hours and then I got worse than ever. Next couple of days were pretty miserable. Took some Nyquil and got some sleep, not much mind you, just enough so that I thought I might survive.

Saturday, February 11

Feeling much better today. Still kind of weak, but well enough to shower and cook a batch of sausage patties.

We went to see a play at Portland Center Stage on Sunday. They want everyone to wear masks. On the way home my wife started feeling bad. Stupid. No one else except medical offices require masks. Did our wearing masks prevent anyone else in the theater from getting sick? I doubt it.

The worst part about wearing a mask, besides being stupid, is that no matter how I futz with it, they don't seal around my nose so I get a constant stream of warm air being directed at my eyes.

Was it COVID? I don't know and I don't care. What would knowing whether it was COVID or garden variety cold/flu have done for me? Nada. Same treatment regardless, rest and sugar water in several flavors. Intolerance for solid food makes my suspect it was the flu and not just a cold.

The Knack

Dilbert - The Knack full - YouTube.flv
sgispider

Yup, I'm the alien.

Via The Feral Irishman

Whole Lot of Slamming Going On

I open feedly like I often do and these were top three headlines:

• Report slams police as ‘unprofessional’ in Tyre Nichols beating
• Ukraine slams Roger Waters over UN Security Council speech
• Tucker Carlson Slams MSM Silence On Seymour Hersh Reporting: "We Were Attacked For Asking Questions"

Validated

Homesman Tommy Lee Jones final dance scene
Nicolas Närgrath
Zerohedge reports:

Nord Stream Sabotage Was CIA, US Navy Covert Op: Seymour Hersh Bombshell Prompts White House Response - Tyler Durden

If case you haven't heard FORMER New York Times reporter Seymour Hersh 

"has concluded the United States blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise."

If he wasn't a former reporter before now, he definitely is one now.

I claimed the same thing five months ago. Nice to have someone confirm my feelings, even if Seymour has been cast out from Biden's mafia.

P. S. Hersh's story on Substack. 

Don't know who Hersh is? I didn't. He's been a gadfly since I was knee high to the proverbial grasshopper.

Termination Shock - Notes Part 2

Notes on the book Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. The book is set in the not-too-distant future.

Part 2 - Louisiana

Part 1

There is some discussion about people in the mining business and the Paguna Mine in Bougainville comes up: "The place was famous for its hugeness and infamous for political reasons."

Paguna Mine, Bougainville
The central pit is over one mile across.

Excerpted from Wikipedia:

Panguna is one of the largest copper reserves  in the world, having an estimated reserve of one billion tonnes of ore copper and twelve million ounces of gold. The site was at one time the world's largest open-pit copper/gold mine. The mine caused devastating environmental issues on the island, and the company was responsible for poisoning the entire length of the Jaba River, causing birth defects, as well as the extinction of the flying fox on the island. Dissatisfaction with the company led to an uprising in 1988, led by Francis Ona, a Panguna landowner and commander of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army. The outcome of the uprising was the Bougainville conflict, between the BRA, who sought secession from PNG, and the Papua New Guinea Defence Force. The ten-year conflict resulted in over 20,000 deaths, as well as the eventual closure of the mine on 15 May 1989, and the complete withdrawal of BCL personnel by 24 March 1990. It has remained closed to this day.

There is also an extensive backstory about Willem, one the queen's aides. His family was in Indonesia when WW2 broke out and were imprisoned by the Japanese. Their troubles didn't end when the war did, now we have Sukarno mounting a campaign for independence which meant more chaos and more trouble for, especially for white Europeans.

Earthquake

GMV for mww 7.8 TURKEY

Acronyms:

• GMV stands for Ground Motion Visualization
• mww is a subtype of the moment magnitude scale (mw) derived from a centroid moment tensor inversion of the W-phase.

I don't understand exactly the description for mww, just that they are doing some number crunching on the data.

Via The Feral Irishman

Termination Shock - Notes Part 1

Notes on the book Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. The book is set in the not-too-distant future.

Part 1 - Texas

Part 2

Princess of Orange
Possible future queen of Holland

The Queen of Holland flies into Waco, piloting an aging private jet.

Dassault Falcon 900EX

They have flown from Amsterdam, a distance of 5,000 miles. There are numerous business jets that could make the trip, the Dassault Falcon is just one. It's been in production since 1984, so an old one is entirely possible. The current Dutch Airforce One is a 737.

Noordeinde Palace

Noordeinde Palace is where the future queen will have her office.

Waco Texas airport, dam, and confluence of the North Bosque and Brazos Rivers

Texas has a real problem with feral hogs. Rufus has made is his mission in life to kill as many of them as possible. He hunts them at night using a rifle with a night vision scope. Rufus is a character in the book, but his technique is real.


107 Hogs Down | Hog Hunting with Thermal Night Vision in Texas | Zeus Pro 640
Ultimate Night Vision
Feral hogs get onto the runway at Waco. The plane runs into them just as it is touching down and crashes. Everyone survives, the plane doesn't catch on fire, but the hogs are a problem, and then Rufus shows up and saves the day.