Another "CBD prevents COVID" study.

  Well, it seems some guys out there are pretty brave. A new clinical study, this time of CBD oil taken orally, having a protective effect against COVID-19.(Sorry, this one was on Vice, but I'll link to the study as well.)

Cannabidiol—the non-psychoactive cannabis compound better known as CBD—is a potent blocker of SARS-CoV-2 replication in human cells, new research shows. Not only that, but a survey of real-world patients taking prescribed CBD found a "significant" negative relationship between CBD consumption and COVID-19 infection. 

As detailed in a paper published Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances by a team of 33 researchers at the University of Chicago and University of Louisville, a survey of 1,212 U.S. patients taking prescribed CBD found that people taking 100 milligrams-per-milliliter oral doses of CBD returned positive COVID-19 tests at much lower rates than control groups with similar medical backgrounds who did not take CBD.

What's interesting to me here is not the actual science. But here's the abstract anyway.

The spread of SARS-CoV-2 and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for new treatments. Here we report that cannabidiol (CBD) inhibits infection of SARS-CoV-2 in cells and mice. CBD and its metabolite 7-OH-CBD, but not THC or other congeneric cannabinoids tested, potently block SARS-CoV-2 replication in lung epithelial cells. CBD acts after viral entry, inhibiting viral gene expression and reversing many effects of SARS-CoV-2 on host gene transcription. CBD inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication in part by up-regulating the host IRE1 RNase endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response and interferon signaling pathways. In matched groups of human patients from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative, CBD (100 mg/ml oral solution per medical records) had a significant negative association with positive SARS-CoV-2 tests. This study highlights CBD as a potential preventative agent for early-stage SARS-CoV-2 infection and merits future clinical trials. We caution against use of non-medical formula-tions including edibles, inhalants or topicals as a preventative or treatment therapy at the present time.

What's interesting is the political reception to this new research. Similar papers and also proper clinical trials were done to show positive clinical results and low risk of side effects for several other drugs, including plain old Vitamin D. The political reception for that research in Ontario is the CPSO (College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario) is investigating 40 (forty!) doctors for talking about it on social media. In the media, we hear stories about horse paste and fish tank cleaner.

So far, apart from the clown shows on late-night network television, we're not hearing anything from the media about "dangerous off-brand use of cannabinoids" and "Stoner dies of COVID." Almost as if there were some kind of vested interest the government has in the weed industry, and they've told the media to shut up about it.

Does CBD really prevent COVID? Eh, maybe? It seems to prevent other types of infections, if you read the literature. It certainly knocks down all sorts of inflammatory processes that don't respond well to anything else, and it does seem to be pretty safe generally speaking. If it wasn't there'd be a ton of research showing the harm, that's for sure.

Should you run out and buy CBD to prevent COVID? Maybe not? It's just another study, right? So maybe do your own research, as I keep saying.

One thing I can say for sure, don't bother asking your doctor about it. They will not tell you their opinion of CBD vs. COVID. They will tell you -nothing-. Because the CPSO is investigating 40 doctors for having an opinion in public. That's why.

CDC says cloth masks don't work on Covid.

 

The Mask Narrative.

Well, it appears there will be some red faces out there today. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control in the USA, for all you read-until-offended types) has finally admitted (on January 14th 2022) that cloth masks do not prevent COVID-190 infections. From their website right at the top (emphasis mine):

Summary of Recent Changes

• Added information to present similar content for masks and respirators
• Clarified that people can choose respirators such as N95s and KN95s, including removing concerns related to supply shortages for N95s
• Clarified that "surgical N95s" are a specific type of respirator that should be reserved for healthcare settings
• Clarified that some types of masks and respirators provide more protection to the wearer than others

Oh? Some are better than others? Tell me more, CDC.

Key Messages:

• Masking is a critical public health tool for preventing spread of COVID-19, and it is important to remember that any mask is better than no mask.
• To protect yourself and others from COVID-19, CDC continues to recommend that you wear the most protective mask you can that fits well and that you will wear consistently.
• Masks and respirators are effective at reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, when worn consistently and correctly.
• Some masks and respirators offer higher levels of protection than others, and some may be harder to tolerate or wear consistently than others. It is most important to wear a well-fitted mask or respirator correctly that is comfortable for you and that provides good protection.
• While all masks and respirators provide some level of protection, properly fitted respirators provide the highest level of protection. Wearing a highly protective mask or respirator may be most important for certain higher risk situations, or by some people at increased risk for severe disease.
• CDC's mask recommendations provide information that people can use to improve how well their masks protect them.

Don't beat about the bush, Lucy, just say what you mean!

Choosing a Mask or Respirator for Different Situations

Masks and respirators (i.e., specialized filtering masks such as "N95s") can provide different levels of protection depending on the type of mask and how they are used. Loosely woven cloth products provide the least protection, layered finely woven products offer more protection, well-fitting disposable surgical masks and KN95s offer even more protection, and well-fitting NIOSH-approved respirators (including N95s) offer the highest level of protection.

Whatever product you choose, it should provide a good fit (i.e., fitting closely on the face without any gaps along the edges or around the nose) and be comfortable enough when worn properly (covering your nose and mouth) so that you can keep it on when you need to. Learn how to improve how well your mask protects you by visiting CDC's Improve How Your Mask Protects You page.

A respirator has better filtration, and if worn properly the whole time it is in use, can provide a higher level of protection than a cloth or procedural mask. A mask or respirator will be less effective if it fits poorly or if you wear it improperly or take it off frequently. A respirator may be considered in certain situations and by certain people when greater protection is needed or desired.

Okay then. The cloth mask has long been targeted as essentially useless, suitable only for making sure you don't accidentally spit on anyone. They only block most droplets of water when you are "speaking moistly" as the Prime Minister once said. They can't filter aerosols at all. The COVID-19 virus transmits as an aerosol, not just droplets.

Let's say that one again.  The COVID-19 virus transmits as an aerosol, not just droplets. That's the link to the NIH (National Institutes of Health in the USA) article for doctors and so forth. Here's what it says:

4. Airborne aerosols and respiratory viruses transmission

Respiratory viruses may be transmitted through indirect contact, direct contact person-to-person, large droplet spray, airborne aerosol, or a combination of all of these. Disease-carrying aerosols contain substances < 5 μm, while infectious disease physicians traditionally consider large droplet sprays to contain substances > 5 μm at close range (6.6 feet or < 2 m). It is generally believed that droplets and aerosols >5 μm settle within 6 feet away from the infected person who produces them, due to gravity (Duguid, 1946; Morawska et al., 2009; Asadi et al., 2019). Nevertheless, the use of 5 μm as a definite for these definitions is not supported by novel aerosol science, and the creation of a false dichotomy between what is considered an aerosol and what has considered a droplet undermines the notion of transmission (Klompas et al., 2020; Prather et al., 2020). The route of virus exposure is crucial to understanding transmission. Aerosols and droplets sprayed on the body and its mucous membranes, a kind of contact transmitter, while aerosols particles are inhaled by the respiratory system (Dhand and Li, 2020). This distinction now follows disease severity, infectious dose, and control strategies. At a close range, both inhalation and contact transmission pathways are possible, but in a longer range, when the droplets have settled rapidly transmission through the inhalation pathway is important. According to aerosol science, the aerosol size is not 5 μm, so an aerosol > 5 μm is inhalable and extends over 6 feet. Also, the aerosols may be formed through the resuspension of static aerosols or settled dust (Duguid, 1946; Prather et al., 2020). The virus is found in saliva or respiratory fluid, which varies in size from aerosols and droplets from 0.2 μm to 100 μm. In general, these aerosols particles and drops are produced through breathing, speaking, and talking with aerosols, coughing, and rapid drops accompanied by coughing (Dhand and Li, 2020; Heyder et al., 1986).

Translation: Your cloth mask doesn't do shit.
The CDC finally, on January 14th 2022, admitted it. 

 

So, what does this mean? Will the CDC finally back off the mask bullshit and admit it was all theater? Of course not! Don't be silly. No, what they're going to do is double and triple down, and start specifying N-95 respirators for toddlers and everybody else. You can see it in their recommendations sheet.

 

Full disclosure, The Phantom was a fan of masks back in March 2020. Let's activate the Wayback Machine and remember this:

Lately we've seen the various cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister out there on TV saying that wearing a mask is the wrong idea. The reason they state for this claim is that the mask "gives people a false sense of security."

Translated from Official Speak: You people are too stupid to live. This is all far too complicated for your feeble minds to comprehend. Just shut up and do what you're told.

And this one too.

While the federal government is telling us we are a bunch of racists and we shouldn't wear masks to curb the spread of COVID-19, otherwise known as the Kung Flu, the Wuhan Flu, the Chinese Communist BioWeapon Flu, the Bat Flu, and etc... the Premiere of Ontario is saying we need to be making masks right here in Ontario instead of begging China for them.

Unfortunately, Doug Ford's promise to make masks in Ontario came to nothing. 2022 and we still import everything from China.

Unfortunately, I was right at the time and Health Canada was lying. What we knew at the time was A) the virus was spread like the flu, in droplet form and B) might randomly kill you. Some people died, some people didn't even get sick. Also C) you could catch it again and again, because it was a novel disease and our immune systems couldn't fight it. Everybody remember that? "Fatal disease! You might die! Stay home!" But the message from Health Canada was don't wear a mask for this potential fatal droplet borne disease, because we don't have enough masks.

But then they made masks mandatory, as I predicted at the time. And they did it right about the time that "The Science" was saying that the COVID-19 transmission was aerosol, and cloth masks, procedure masks etc. wouldn't work. N-95 at a minimum to prevent airborne transmission. So yes, lying first that masks wouldn't work, then doing a 180 and lying that they would.

But then they've been lying that the "vax" would work, and they've been lying that other medicines won't work when we've SEEN them work in India, Japan, South America, and etc.

Consistent lying is the connecting thread, as far as I can see. So all you Karens out there, doing your little best to enforce every single government policy on all us unwashed, uncooperative peasants, just know that Big Brother does not have your back. You are swinging in the breeze, baby.

Update: The cost of mask mandates, illustrated.

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1483997718217326592

 Welcoming the removal of face coverings in schools, political commentator Sophie Corcoran breaks down as she recalls her experience of wearing a mask in the classroom.

This girl is -pissed- about what they did to her in school. If faced with a public health official, I think she might take a swing.

Upperdate: Via Blazing Cat Fur, Global News has the Ontario Health Minister on TV DEMANDING that the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPSO) make doctors shut the fuck up about vaccines and alternative treatments of COVID-19.

CPSO replies that they are currently "investigating" 40 physicians with an eye to making them STFU.

More than 40 physicians are currently being investigated by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) for promoting unproven treatments for COVID-19 or sharing unverified information about its vaccines, Global News can reveal.

The revelation comes after Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott publicly urged the CPSO to crack down on a group of doctors accused of spreading unverified medical information about the vaccines, after the situation was brought to light in a Global News investigation.

During a press conference on Wednesday morning to update Ontarians on the province’s fight against the Omicron variant, Elliott labelled the reports “extremely concerning.”

“At a time when it’s never been more important for Ontarians to have confidence in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, this is unacceptable,” she said.

In other news, the federal government is looking at a vaccine mandate while from around the world the evidence piles up that the vaccines are ineffective at best, they are possibly worse than useless, and the side-effects reporting is massively fudged. Also, the majority of people in hospital this week with COVID-19, including ICU, are double-vaxed. Just so we're all clear what's going on.

Uppity Upperdate January 25th, 2022 five days later: Bari Weiss on the Bill Mahar show basically reads my blog post on national TV. The Normies are restless.

Karen attacks!

What happens when your doctor or nurse, or anybody really, has an opinion different from the Current Narrative? Karen attacks.

Karen attacks nurses:

Three Ontario nurses who have faced discipline for their stances on the pandemic are suing the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) and a media outlet in British Columbia, with the libel suit seeking $1 million.

Kristen Nagle of London, Kristal Pitter of Tillsonburg and Sara Choujounian of Toronto have been investigated by the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) for sharing their controversial views about the pandemic on social media.

Karen attacks doctors: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article257335847.html

A doctor with decades of experience can't practice medicine after her license was temporarily suspended over complaints that she shared coronavirus misinformation, according to a Maine licensing board. The board has ordered her to undergo a neuropsychological evaluation, it said.

Karen attacks restaurants:

Tasty video of restaurant owner kicking the COVID Cops out of her establishment. They'll come back later with guns and shut her down, but the cheering does not bode well for The Narrative.

Karen attacks those evil evil eeeeeevile Anti-Vaxxers! [boo, hisss!]

Novak Djokovic left Australia on Sunday evening after losing his final bid to avoid deportation and play in the Australian Open despite being unvaccinated for COVID-19. A court earlier unanimously dismissed the No. 1-ranked tennis player's challenge to cancel his visa.

Karen TAXES those anti-vaxxers!

In a Canadian first, Quebec Premier François Legault announced on Tuesday that a new "health contribution" will have to be paid by residents who haven't received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine for non-medical reasons.

And finally, Karen attacks you:

Since January 1, the New Cases by Vaccination Status table has shown a significant number of new cases as unvaccinated. This data is not accurate. This table is no longer featured on the dashboard until a review of the information is complete and the data rectified.

Because you can't handle the truth. Your feeble mind cannot comprehend how much Karen cares for you, and how hard Karen works to keep you safe. Obey!

Karen attacks you some more:

Customer in an Etobicoke Costco is arrested and hauled away by cops for not wearing a mask despite having a medical exemption. Allegedly one of the managers of the store is detaining the man alongside police.

Karen is becoming a problem, you ask me.

So, what to do about Karen? I vote we fire the bitch.

Glenn Youngkin, Virginia's first Republican Governor in more than a decade, wasted no time addressing his campaign pledges, signing nine executive orders and two executive directives. Within hours of being sworn in, Youngkin:

1. Banned the use of CRT and other inherently divisive concepts in schools;
2. Ended school mask mandates;
3. Terminated the entire Parole Board of the Commonwealth of Virginia (all were Democratic appointees);
4. Initiated an investigation into Loudoun County;
5. Established the position of Chief Transformation Officer to review all government agencies, beginning with the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Virginia Employment Commission;
6. Declared Virginia open for business and initiated a review of burdensome Covid regulations;
7. Established a commission prevent human trafficking and provide support to survivors;
8. Established a commission to combat antisemitism;
9. Withdrew from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI);
10. Directed all Executive Branch entities to reduce job-killing regulations by at least 25 percent;
11. Rescinded the vaccine mandate for all state employees.

@Maximus_4EVR adds:

"Meanwhile, new Attorney General Jason Miyares (who was also just sworn in) has terminated the entire Civil Rights Division of the AG's Office (many of them Soros backed lawyers). YOWZA!

That was a MASS firing within a few moments of being sworn in. The MSM are calling it 'insane' and 'mean.'

That's what I'm talking about, right there. Just fucking fire them all. Every single one.

Capitalism treats socialism as damage and routes around it.

Case in point, gun control. Pushed to the extreme, gun control causes people to make their own. 

Yes you read that right. Defense distributed has taken their Ghost Gunner desktop CNC to the next level. They are now offering jigs and code to mill a zero percent receiver (raw billet blank aka brick of aluminum) into a lower receiver. Life finds a way to be ungovernable.

They're talking about the lower receiver for an AR-15, one of the most overly-complicated poodle shooters ever constructed. (I've never been a fan. Sorry, Arms Chest Denizens.) Requiring a bunch of complicated machining done on a CNC mill. A mill that usually costs thousands of dollars, requires a lot of learning and fiddling about, and is generally not something to be undertaken lightly.

Until a bunch of wise-asses decided they could make a cheap CNC that sits on a desktop and works off programs downloaded off the internet. A CNC machine that Joe Average can make out of stuff you buy at Fome Pepot and WallyMart. You can make the whole thing yourself, or buy one already made. And then start making AR-15 lower receivers out of aluminum, or carbon reinforced plastics, or any exotic material you'd care to come up with. As many as you want. Forever.

Coincidentally, the only part of an AR-15 that is controlled and serial numbered in the USA is the lower receiver. The rest of it you can get by mail-order. If the government changes those rules, gee whiz boys, the CNC can make uppers too.

I've talked about this before.There are easier things to make than an AR-15. I'm not going to list them here because Lucy is watching, but a little look at history shows all sorts of things an enterprising lad could make out of aluminum, plastic and steel. If guys can do it by hand in a busted-ass hut in Pakistan, guys can do it in North America with power tools.

Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants

Some poor brave bastards released a study showing that two cannabinoids block COVID-19 from messing with your cells.

Abstract

As a complement to vaccines, small-molecule therapeutic agents are needed to treat or prevent infections by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants, which cause COVID-19. Affinity selection-mass spectrometry was used for the discovery of botanical ligands to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Cannabinoid acids from hemp (Cannabis sativa) were found to be allosteric as well as orthosteric ligands with micromolar affinity for the spike protein. In follow-up virus neutralization assays, cannabigerolic acid and cannabidiolic acid prevented infection of human epithelial cells by a pseudovirus expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and prevented entry of live SARS-CoV-2 into cells. Importantly, cannabigerolic acid and cannabidiolic acid were equally effective against the SARS-CoV-2 alpha variant B.1.1.7 and the beta variant B.1.351. Orally bioavailable and with a long history of safe human use, these cannabinoids, isolated or in hemp extracts, have the potential to prevent as well as treat infection by SARS-CoV-2.

Given the juicy nature of this study for juvenile-minded journalists [ha ha, stoners can't catch the 'Rona, ha ha!!!] it will be interesting to see them pass hard on reporting about this result. I prophesy there will be no mention of it anywhere. I found it at Slashdot, not exactly mainstream.

 

Update: Well, this is interesting. It appears I was wrong, and the Left has learned nothing from Barbara Streisand. 

 

 

Who would have thought this movie would be the real future?

 

Slate article poo-poohing the study. New York Times reports on Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert mocking the study on their evening shows. Clever bastards on Twitter are posting Star Wars memes about bong resin. I swear this gets more like the fucking Hunger Games every day.

I will post a further update when CBDA and CBGA are banned by the Canadian government along with Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine. If the media run with this thing, it won't be long.

Uppity Upperdate: Some have questioned why the the cannabis study guys are "poor brave bastards" for daring to release this study right now.

 

Well, here's why. This is what happens to physicians who refuse to bow down to the Narrative. 

A doctor with decades of experience can’t practice medicine after her license was temporarily suspended over complaints that she shared coronavirus misinformation, according to a Maine licensing board. The board has ordered her to undergo a neuropsychological evaluation, it said. Dr. Meryl J. Nass, who got a license to practice medicine in Maine in 1997, had her license “immediately” suspended for 30 days after a board investigation and review of complaints against her on Jan. 12, according to a suspension order from the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine.

The letter gets very smeary along the way:

“The information received by the Board demonstrates that Dr. Nass is or may be unable to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety to her patients by reason of mental illness, alcohol intemperance, excessive use of drugs, narcotics, or as a result of a mental or physical condition interfering with the competent practice of medicine,” the evaluation order states. The complaints against Nass include how the board was told she engaged in “public dissemination of ‘misinformation’” about COVID-19 and vaccinations “via a video interview and on her website,” the board said about the October 26, 2021 complaint. It lists several comments Nass made that were subject to the board’s investigation.

Sounds like a Karen complained about a social media post, right? Here's the important part:

Other grounds for her suspension include how Nass treated COVID-19 patients with Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, according to the board.

Now, of note, it does not seem like any of Dr. Nass's actual patients are complaining that  the good doctor made them sick with her crazy horse paste witchcraft and fish tank cleaner voodoo. This is activists complaining to the board, and the board coming down on her for making them look bad.

 

This exact thing is happening broadly in Canada right now. Physicians have closed ranks and are not talking, after a few outspoken guys got their credentials revoked. Doctors and nurses have filed lawsuits against the provinces and against the federal government over this, but you never hear about it. 

In this environment, the cannabis guys are brave maniacs. Shine on, you crazy diamonds!

And now for some metal...

If this doesn't make you scream and bang your head, you're turning to stone. Loosen up and play it again, louder.

If that doesn't work, this one will. Turn it up to 11 this time.

A public service from The Phantom. You're welcome.

Magic Mushrooms the next legalization push?

 

woo, trippy...

 

A British study shows that magic mushrooms pose "no short or long-term detrimental effects" when taken under controlled circumstances.

The trial is the first of its kind to thoroughly investigate the simultaneous administration of psilocybin. 89 healthy participants with no recent (within 1 year) use of psilocybin were recruited. 60 individuals were randomly picked to receive either a 10mg or 25mg dose of psilocybin in a controlled environment. In addition, all participants were provided with one-to-one support from trained psychotherapists. The remaining 29 participants acted as the control group and received a placebo, also with psychological support. Participants were closely monitored for six to eight hours following administration of psilocybin and then followed up for 12 weeks. During this time, they were assessed for a number of possible changes, including sustained attention, memory, and planning, as well as their ability to process emotions. Throughout the study, there were no instances of anyone withdrawing from the study due to an adverse event, and no consistent trends to suggest that either of the psilocybin doses had any short- or long-term detrimental effects on participants.

Important note, I am not saying that psilocybin mushrooms are "safe" for people to take. Alright? Let's not have any "read until offended" idiots saying that. THE STUDY said it was safe, not me. My personal opinion is that I'm not a freakin' doctor, and my personal opinion in this matter is underinformed. Go and read, my friends.

On the whole, these little studies are unconvincing. Small sample size, 12 week follow, it doesn't really show much. About the only thing we know is that 10mg or 25mg of psilocybin is too low a dose to make people immediately sick. Okay, nice to know, but not an earth-shaking revelation. What happens at two years out? How about 5 years? Probably nothing, but again it would be nice to know, right?

What's significant here, after the success in getting cannabis legalized in Canada, parts of Europe and many US states, is that the medical establishment is signaling openness to innovation. Whereas ten years ago this trial would never have been allowed, now it is.

I fully expect a bunch more cheap little studies like this will be done in the next couple of years, and then we will see places like Holland and Canada quietly make magic mushrooms legal for medicinal purposes. Industry will pop up, and eventually the Americans will make it legal too so they can grab some cash.

You thought drug laws were there to keep you safe? Bless your little heart.

E.O. Wilson, passed at 92.

On Dec. 26th Edward O. Wilson died at age 92.

"E.O. Wilson was called 'Darwin's natural heir,' and was known affectionately as 'the ant man' for his pioneering work as an entomologist," the foundation wrote. It did not cite a cause of death but said a tribute to his life was planned for 2022.

In addition to groundbreaking work in evolution and entomology, in his later years Wilson spearheaded a campaign to unite the scientific and religious communities in an odd-couple pairing he felt presented the best chance to preserve Earth.

Here we are in 2021, soon to be 2022, and the workings of the Woke History Machine can be seen in this great man's obituary. And he was great. According to the article he discovered 400 species of ants, and discovered how ants communicate by scent trails. An amazing body of work.

The Woke part comes here:

Among Wilson's most controversial works was 1975's "Sociobiology: The New Synthesis" in which he wrote that all human behavior was a product of genetic predetermination, not learned experiences. By coming out in favor of human nature over nurture, he set off a firestorm of criticism, with his harshest opponents accusing him of being racist and sexist.

One protester threw water on Wilson while he was speaking at a conference as others chanted, "Wilson, you're all wet." It was, Wilson said later, a matter of pride for him that he was willing to pursue scientific truth despite such attacks.

This was the first real occurence of the Cancel Culture really asserting itself in the universities. Leftists love the blank slate idea of humanity, the "Tabula Rasa" upon which anything can be written. Because they want to write Communism on it, of course. "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted." —Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Wilson threatened their narrative with some inconvenient facts, so they tried (and failed) to make him shut up by calling him a racist.

Some appalling dickhead at Reuters decided that Wilson was all-in with the racists, which is a pernicious lie. Once upon a time in my youth I wrote a monograph on "Sociobiology: The New Synthesis". Which among other things means I read the book. None of these "Wilson was a RAAAACIST!!!" assholes have read it, I can tell you that.

What Wilson did was go through the animal kingdom and show that at all levels, from invertebrates to mammals, animals have a set of behaviors that they use to succeed in nature. What he said was that Humans clearly have behaviors that are genetically determined. As in, there is a Human nature. Not that all of human behavior is genetic programming, making us meat robots. That is what a collection of Leftist idiots accused him of saying.

As Roger Penrose went on to demonstrate mathematically in "The Emperor's New Mind", all of human behavior cannot be predetermined. It is impossible. Humans constantly do things that exceed what predetermined algorithms are capable of. Ants and bees, as Wilson brilliantly showed, do things by genetically transmitted programs. Humans also have those programs, but humans can often exceed them and skip right to the end to find the prize. (Some people do this more than others, witness the NPCs slavishly following the Party line.)

So, all things considered, you're going to read a lot of crap about E.O. Wilson that is simply not true. Because lying liars lie.

Merry Christmas!

 

WorldCon: get Woke, go broke, Schadenfreude Edition.

It is revealed at the wretched hive of scum and villainy  that is China Mike's Vile 666, that defaming author Jon Del Arroz a racist has cost the World Convention of Science Fiction over $100,000 in court costs, payments to the plaintiff and legal fees. Today, special one-time-only deal, I'm including links to the wretched hive. This is just too juicy.

Worldcon 76's financial report to the DisCon III business meeting agenda shows that the 2018 Worldcon incurred another $91,565.00 of legal fees this past year defending the suit brought by author Jon Del Arroz. And the cumulative cost? "Counsel has recommended we not go into deep money talk about the case, but I can say we spent well over $100K," says Chair Kevin Roche.

Worldcon 76 and Del Arroz announced in June 2021 they had settled the suit shortly before it was scheduled to go to trial. Del Arroz had sued San Francisco Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon 76) for banning him from the 2018 convention held in San Jose, and for statements made in the public announcement of that decision. An earlier court decision had disposed of all grounds for the suit except one. "At the end, the only claim which would have gone forward to trial was the 'defamation as racist' claim," said Roche.

They settled because of the likelihood that their claim of racism would not be found supported by the evidence. Jon Del Arroz may be many things, but a racist is not one of them.

So there you go, Wokesters. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

In other news of the Vile, we discover that WorldCon is welcoming lots of new members from Communist China.

China: 2 attending, 802 supporting, 19 virtual, 823 total.

For contrast, Australia has 107 total members and Canada, which people can actually drive to the convention from, has 249. The USA only has 4437.

Which is interesting to me, because given the unholy uproar around the Sad Puppies Campaigns where the WorldCon assholes actually changed the voting rules to keep Conservatives out (not to mention blowing $100 grand on legal fees to keep Jon Del Arroz out), China Mike and company seem pretty happy to have new members from the totalitarian slavery-and-murder state of Communist China.

To wit (names changed to protect me from idiots, go look for yourself if you want to see):

Comment from K- 800+ late supporting memberships from China will very, very likely carry the day for Chengdu.

Comment from RL- If China wins, do we expect another Chinese bid for 2025?

Comment from China Mike- RL: When did you become the inventor of conspiracy theories?

Comment from RL- Hi Mike. It's a fair question, actually. If a Chinese bid can win a Worldcon bid in North America, winning another while they're also hosting would seem easy peasy. If you really think that's a conspiracy theory then you're flat out wrong.

Comment from China Mike: RL: Stop making stuff up.

The comments continue in that vein, two people mentioning that the PRC is a totalitarian slave state and more people ganging up to shout them down.

Important side note, Chengdu, which has a WorldCon hosting bid in for 2023 happens to be the site of one of those forced labor slave sites that the People's Republic is runnninng these days.

So there you go. We Puppy-Adjacent types call him China Mike because he outed himself as getting most of his traffic from China, we all assumed those were Chinese web crawler bots. Could be they were all PRC officials running a sock-puppet operation. Time will tell, I'd say.

As far as WorldCon goes, it's been a shambling Leftist political zombie for a long time. If I'm charitable since the mid-1990s, arguably since the 1970s. Watching it be swallowed whole by the Chinese Communist Party with the active connivance of its own members and leadership is going to be pretty interesting, in a Hindenberg sort of way. It's horrible, but you can't help enjoying the sight of those swastikas burning.

Surprise, CBC mentions Port Dover police shooting again.

The CBC has noticed the cops killed somebody outside Ottawa or Toronto. They're actually updating the story!

The Toronto police officer who shot gunsmith Rodger Kotanko nearly a month ago won't talk to Ontario's police watchdog.

Special Investigations Unit (SIU) spokesperson Kristy Denette told CBC Hamilton on Tuesday morning, the subject officer also "declined to release his notes, as is his legal right."

Well gee, the CBC seems surprised that a cop who shot somebody won't talk to the cops about it. Making a big deal about it.

That's good, because this is a big deal. No-knock warrants, no coordination with OPP, the raided family doesn't get a copy of the warrant, four rounds into an old geezer, it's a big deal.

As to why the cop won't talk, that's because lawyers always tell you it is a mistake to talk to the police. Even cops don't talk to the cops.

We continue to hear nothing of any substance, and can look forward to hearing nothing for the foreseeable future. Welcome to Canada, where perps have rights and victims don't.

FBI raids homeschooling CRT critic.

Well, it looks like the FBI have fully jumped the shark ladies and gentlemen.

An FBI SWAT team raided the home of an activist mother of four in Colorado on Tuesday, Nov. 16, knocking down her door, bursting into the house with guns and handcuffing her while she was homeschooling her children.

This is the first known case of the federal government making good on its promise to not only intimidate but actually carry out a raid on a mom who was involved in her local school board politics, said Brannon Howse, who interviewed Sherronna Bishop at Lindell TV Wednesday night.

It pays to take government guys at their word. If they say they're going to do something, you should believe them.

The U.S. Department of Justice and Attorney General Merrick Garland issued an Oct. 4 memorandum directing federal, state and local law enforcement to look for parents to prosecute nationwide who may have made "threats" and made "harassing" phone calls to school board members nationwide, equating such parents to domestic terrorists.

Now a mother, Sherronna Bishop of Grand Junction, Colorado, has felt the brute force of the FBI's heavily armed SWAT unit used against her family. 

FBI SWAT team kicked in her door, forcibly took her and the kids into custody and cuffed them at gun point, tossed the place looking for "things", then fucked off without charging her with anything.

Her crime?

Besides being a frequent attendee at her local school board meetings, Bishop has also been active in the voter integrity movement in her state and locality. She runs the website Americasmom.net, and on that site she features an article and video under the title We the Parents: How Did We Get Here?

She said she has not been guilty of anything but speaking her mind in accordance with her First Amendment rights.

Yep. She runs a web site critical of the local school board. They sent the SWAT team in and did a dynamic entry raid on a mom and three kids. For. Real.

Looks like all those people that were being made fun of for leaving Colorado in a hurry were more right than they knew.

Science: recruiting Camp Guards

Couple things today remind us that we are now living in 1936 Germany.

This is my favorite right here: Special mask compliance guards at the hockey game. That would be the hockey game at the arena that you have to show proof of vax to get in the door.

You wanted to know where concentration camps get their guards? Now you know. They are regular Normies. Makes me glad to be abnormal, let me tell you.

Scientist can't get a grant to hire an assistant because he won't promise to hire a POC/disabled/indigenous/approved victim group person. He wants somebody who knows what the hell they're doing, and that's racist. The super racist dude is a physicist, Patanjali Kambhampat. Okay?

From actual Germany, there's a news article that really takes the cake. Anyone wishing to be euthanized now has to present proof of vaccination. That's the 2G rule. Rapid test and vax.

Google translated:

Euthanasia and the preparatory examination of the free responsibility of our dying members require human proximity. Human proximity, however, is a prerequisite and breeding ground for coronavirus transmission. From today, the 2G rule applies in our association, supplemented by situation-related measures, such as rapid tests before encounters in closed rooms. Dr. Martin Goßmann, the head of our medical team, is at our side in an advisory capacity in the difficult task of bringing the protection of our members, employees, doctors and physicians into a reasonable balance with the practicable organization of our everyday club life. More details can be found in our Ethical Principles.

Yes, you read that right.
A) There is an official Euthenasia Association of Germany. They have doctors and nurses who will kill you if you ask nicely.
B) They won't kill you unless you've gotten the mad science shot.

Science: You're pissing off the Normies.

The last couple of days have seen riots with 10,000 people in them in Holland over the latest Covid-19 lockdown. In Rotterdam, two people were shot by police. And I'm not talking about rubber bullets or paintballs here, they fired on the crowd with live ammunition. Two people are seriously wounded, by which I mean maimed for life as the best outcome they can expect.

Yesterday there was another big demonstration in Toronto. I mention this today because of two things.

First, the only place I've seen that news get any play is the Epoch Times and the usual blogs. Not a mainstream outlet. There's a youtube video of the event, which shows that an awful lot of people showed up for this thing. They had speeches, they had a march down Yonge Street, it was a big deal.

Crickets. That's what I hear on CBC/CTV/Global/CityTV/and so forth. Fucking. Crickets.

Here's the Google search for "World Wide Rally Toronto November 20, 2021" done today, 11/21/2021. First page, no stories from Big Media.

Second, looking at the video of the crowd I see nothing but Normies. A sea of soccer-moms and hockey-dads. Hand made signs. No uproar, no cars getting flipped, no broken windows.

Look at all those Normies.

 

This is a very, very bad sign for the government.

The people attending the rally are all the normal people who never pay any attention to politics. They never pick up a newspaper except to check the sports scores. They don't care about conservative vs. socialist. They're not Woke, and they're not Green. These are the people who normally form the audience that activists play to. They don't demonstrate. Until now.

Now they're pissed.

I've been pissed off about the government and Covid-19 since March 2020, but I'm what you'd call an outlier. A weirdo who pays attention to boring shit on the internet and gets upset about mask mandates etc. The Normies didn't notice at first. They went along, like they always do. That going-along thing is what makes them Normies. They don't get upset. They comply, they adapt, they don't care what's going on in government or society because it doesn't impinge on them. They don't pay attention unless something punches them in the face. Usually it takes two or three times before they actually pay attention.

The government has been punching Normies in the face for a year now. People who have never paid attention in their entire fucking vacuous Normie lives are now paying attention. More than that, they are angry and passively resisting. Pretty soon they will move. And when the Normies move, they will ALL move.

My plans for that time are to be elsewhere. If I get stuck in it I'll find a nice basement to hide in until the Normies work it out of their systems. I've been Cassandra with this shit for 30 years, y'all Normies can suck it. I'll drop by with a broom and a dustpan for cleanup.

That's my opinion today, for what it's worth. That and six bucks will get you a Starbucks. Inflation, baby.

Dutch police shoot rioters!

Well, well, well. Now we know what it takes for policemen to actually do their jobs and protect a city from arson and rioting.

Two people were being treated in hospital in Rotterdam on Saturday after they were seriously injured when police fired shots during a demonstration against Covid-19 restrictions.

In what the Dutch city's mayor described as an "orgy of violence", crowds of several hundred rioters torched cars, set off fireworks and threw rocks at police during the protests on Friday evening. Police responded with warning shots and water cannon.

Police said on Twitter on Saturday that 51 people had been arrested, about half of whom were under 18.

"Two rioters where wounded when they were hit by bullets. They remain in hospital," police said.

The mayor, Ahmed Aboutaleb, told reporters in the early hours of Saturday morning that "on a number of occasions the police felt it necessary to draw their weapons to defend themselves" as rioters rampaged through the shopping district, starting fires and throwing stones and fireworks at officers.

"They shot at protesters. People were injured," Aboutaleb said.

Yep. They won't fire on rioters UNLESS the riot is about Corona. They could, but they won't. The authorities seem to be promoting riots for anything about race, but they're willing to kill you if it's a riot about taxes, corona lockdowns or the wrong flavor of politics.

You'd think they would learn, having seen this shit before in 1936, but they never seem to. Coming soon to a Canadian lockdown demonstration near you.

Police kill gunsmith in Port Dover.

More information on the shooting last week of a 70 year old man in Port Dover Ontario by Toronto police.

Toronto Police Service said that day at noon — in broad daylight — its officers carried out a search warrant on the property. It's unclear what information they had and how many officers were at the scene, but the service said it was looking for guns. Family said no warrant was left behind. 

Quentin Dixon, Rodger's longtime friend, said officers bearing assault rifles had Jessie at gunpoint while she was unloading groceries from the vehicle.

Some officers were wearing plain clothes while others wore tactical gear, according to family, friends, neighbours and Michael Smitiuch, the family's lawyer, all of whom CBC spoke with this week. 

They say Toronto police brought their own ambulance and paramedics with them when they first arrived, a move Toronto defence lawyer Kim Schofield, who has worked on numerous cases involving the SIU, said was "very unusual." 

Schofield said officers are also usually required to give the family a copy of the search warrant.

"This is craziness," she said upon hearing about the case. 

And as crazy as that shit is, it gets crazier.

Friends and family also say Rodger was with an apparent customer in his workshop when police arrived. They separately shared the same details of what they say occurred. 

"The group of police officers moved over to the shop door entrance and nothing was said ...  within seconds, four gunshots rang out," Dixon said.

Fraser Pringle, Rodger's next door neighbour, said he heard two of those shots.

"I came out here and they were rolling him out on a gurney, threw him in an ambulance and took him," he said.

"His wife was standing on the porch crying."

 They shot the old man FOUR TIMES.

This is a 70 year old fat guy, wheezy and slow-moving from his picture. A guy who regularly works with officers from the OPP, he's got a squeaky clean police record. They needed to shoot him four fucking times with an assult rifle? Two or three wasn't enough? In my experience around rifles, and based on what I've seen in hospitals and in the literature, two rounds of .223 would stop a 6 foot lunatic on PCP. For a really gross example, there's a picture of attempted murderer Gaige Grosskreutz getting shot in the forearm by .223 circulating on the internet. They fired four.

I'd give a lot to know what the cadence of those shots was. Did it go 1234 really fast? Did it go 1/2, 3/4 like two guys double-tapping him? Or was it more like 1, 2, 3, 4 like the time they shot Sammy Yatim in the streetcar?

I've known about this shooting for a few days, previously it was my suspicion that one of the cops had an accidental discharge and the guy died of the gunshot. But this is different. You don't shoot a guy four times by accident. Unless an idiot had his rifle set to full-auto and let off a burst. From what the neighbor said, that seems extremely unlikely. They also brought their own ambulance and paramedics, all the way from Toronto. Is that normal for a warrant service? The article says not. Does ETF normally do warrant services with plainclothes guys? Does Toronto police usually do warrant service in OPP jurisdiction without telling the OPP what they're doing?

Seems sketchy.

So now I am very interested indeed to find out why Metro Toronto Police felt the need to kill this guy, felt the need to get a secret warrant  to go outside their jurisdiction to do it, and why they have concealed said warrant by not leaving a copy with the homeowner, as they are fucking well required to do by law, precedent and common practice.

Let the Rittenhouse Riots begin.

 Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty of all five charges today by a jury of his peers. 

This despite obvious and I would say heinous prosecutorial misconduct before and during the trial.

Now, since anyone who looked at the video freely available in the internet knew the kid acted in legitimate self defense, the propaganda war will go completely wild. I expect to see pantifa out there burning shit today and all the rest of this week.

Spokescreatures for #BLM were seen on the steps of the courthouse calling down fire and brimstone as soon as the verdict was announced, so they'll be doubling and trippling down on their bullshit for another month before they finally find something else to be outraged about.

Good opportunity for some quality mockery, ladies and gentlemen. Let the popcorn flow freely.

Math breakthrough: boundary layer turbulence.

This is a pretty big deal.

Mathematicians have been trying for a century or more to understand the turbulence that arises when a flow interacts with a boundary, but a formulation has proven elusive.

Now an international team of mathematicians, led by UC Santa Barbara professor Björn Birnir and the University of Oslo professor Luiza Angheluta, has published a complete description of boundary layer turbulence. The paper appears in Physical Review Research, and synthesizes decades of work on the topic. The theory unites empirical observations with the Navier-Stokes equation — the mathematical foundation of fluid dynamics — into a mathematical formula.

So what, you say? Well, every liquid or gas that flows over, around or through anything is affected by boundary layer turbulence. Airplane wings, windmill blades, fuel injection and engine intake manifolds, any sort of pipe or container, anything from helium to treacle, all experience the energy-robbing phenomenon of turbulence at their surface. It is the thing that creates friction and the detaching of laminar flow.

If you have a complete mathematical model of it, you can accurately simulate it with a digital computer. You don't need a wind tunnel to do experiments, which means you can start doing things like applying machine learning and evolutionary modeling to your optimization efforts. Run ten million examples of your pipe elbow to find the minimum drag version.

Which means you don't have to be Boeing anymore. Compute power is cheap, you can optimize laminar flow on a PC and build it in your shop with CNC machinery and 3D printing.

That is what we call a breakthrough.

We remember.

#Poopypants now trending.

I've been predicting that #MisterSniffer would have an episode of incontinence live on TV.

I did not predict he'd shit himself in the Vatican in front of the Pope. That's friggin' comedy gold.

Inevitable: Superman is now gay.

 

It looks good just before it starts to nose over and dive.

 

As the drip, drip drip of woke from Marvel Comics and DC Comics continues, DC decided to spin the valve wide open and go flat out.

Clark Kent and Lois Lane have a gay super-son. He's the new Superman. Yay.

That same-sex relationship is just one of the ways that Jonathan Kent, who goes by Jon, is proving to be a different Superman than his famous father. Since his new series, Superman: Son of Kal-El, began in July, Jon has combated wildfires caused by climate change, thwarted a high school shooting and protested the deportation of refugees in Metropolis.

"The idea of replacing Clark Kent with another straight white savior felt like a missed opportunity," Tom Taylor, who writes the series, said in an interview. He said that a "new Superman had to have new fights — real world problems — that he could stand up to as one of the most powerful people in the world."

 
It was only a matter of time, I suppose. I note from the " replacing Clark Kent with another straight white savior felt like a missed opportunity" quote that this is not merely part of the "story" as it were. This is another deliberate action by the publisher to piss off the squares. The latest in a long line of deliberate provocations against "straight white America" that goes back to Marvel in late 1980s and early 1990s, Northstar in the Alpha Flight comic. I actually have all those comics, the Northstar-is-gay thing was not a big plus for the story arc. It was shoved in to piss off the squares, and obviously so.

Fast forward to 2021, DC is desperate to do anything that will lift their moribund sales out of the gutter, so they go Full Woke. Here's a comment from a "comics expert" on Full Woke:

Though Superman is not the first L.G.B.T.Q. hero, and will not be the last, comics experts said that there was something particularly momentous about Superman coming out.

"It is not Northstar, who your aunt has never heard of," said Glen Weldon, the author of "Superman: The Unauthorized Biography," and the co-host of the Pop Culture Happy Hour on N.P.R. "It's not Hulkling. It's not Wiccan. It's not Fire and Ice. It's not Tasmanian Devil. It is Superman. That counts for something — just in terms of visibility, just in terms of the fact that this is going to attract attention."

Yes, this is not a new thing. Yes, this is what Marvel and DC have been doing since their overall sales went Thelma and Louise in 1992. Yes, they did this to piss off your Aunt Effie, who has heard of Superman and will not be thrilled to be told Superman is now a gay dude planning his trip to Bear Week. They're hoping that the kidz will love that Aunt Effie disapproves and will buy this comic to hide under their mattresses.

Notice that fall-off-the-cliff in 1991-1994?

They've been hoping that stunts like this will give them a sales pop for thirty years. They've been wrong every single time, for thirty years. No one buys the Woke. The proof is their sales numbers. In the toilet since 1991.

 

Science: What is this "Vaccine" you speak of?

It has come to my attention that there are people who have forgotten, or never knew, how a vaccine works.

From a correspondent, Ted Nugent has some words of wisdom for y'all.

That was entertaining but not particularly informative. I will now expand on what the estimable Mr. Nugent has said.

First, let's talk about what the Mad Science Genetic Modification Experiment actually, really, physically is. It is literally genetic modification technology. It is not in any way, shape or form, a vaccine. It has not been approved by the normal methods used to approve all other actual vaccines, it is still experimental.

What they actually do is inject you with a live virus. News to you, right?

The technology uses a "benign" viral organism to inject RNA into your cells. The RNA instructions reprogram YOUR CELLS. Okay? That's what the thing actually does. The reprogrammed cells of your body, instead of producing copies of the "benign" virus like they normally would in a viral infection, start producing a protein structure. The structure they make is a copy of the spike protein found on the outer shell of the Covid-19 virus. That's what's actually happening. It is not a vaccine, it is a live virus.

Some alarming things they don't tell you before you get the shot.

First, and most important, there is no "off switch" here. Those cells that get infected by the "benign" vector virus just keep right on producing that spike protein until they die. That's usually a few weeks to a couple of months. Except for nerve cells in the brain and spinal column, those last a lifetime. Remember that part, there's a test later.

Which leads us to the second thing. Contrary to the usual thing that happens with actual vaccines, the virus they shoot into you DOES NOT STAY in the injection location. It is supposed to, and  they thought that it did, but it doesn't. It goes to all the organ systems of the body. Including the brain, where those life-long nerve cells live. Lungs, liver, gut, skin, eyes, and et cetera, it goes everywhere. And stays there for the life of the cells in that organ.

So if nerve cells in your brain get infected by the "benign" viral vector and start producing spike protein, they will never, ever, stop.

Third thing they don't tell you, those spike proteins are cytotoxic. That means they're bad for you. And they don't stay stuck to the cells making them like the designers of the technology thought they would. They enter the blood and circulate through the body. There have been a lot of media "fact checkers" claiming that's not true, so make sure to go do your own research to see if you agree or not. Don't just sit there and believe whatever bullshit I and other people serve up, I could be wrong. Go and check.

Now, all of the above being said, the numbers we're seeing to date show that this is not really that big a deal so far. For example, we don't see cases of myocarditis in lots and lots of otherwise healthy young people following the shot. We see it in rare cases. We don't commonly see strokes and Bell's Palsy in older people after the shot. We see it in rare cases.

But Sweden just suspended the use of Moderna WuFlu shots for the under-30 set because of complications in young people, which tells me it isn't as rare a complication as the Canadian government would like to pretend. And I know of a case where a 70 year old dropped dead of a stroke a week after taking the WuFlu shot here in Canada, and that person did not have much risk of stroke other than age. So shit's going on and we're not being told.

Furthermore, -nobody- knows what the 5, 10, 20 year risk of this technology is. What happens to a nerve cell that's been sitting there making spike protein for 20 years? Where do all those spike proteins go? Do they get re-absorbed immediately, or do they pile up somewhere? Do they stay seperate, or do they clump? They don't know that. Nobody knows that. This is what testing is supposed to find out, BEFORE they roll it out.

This is why they call it a "vaccine". So they don't have to explain all that. Nobody would take it if they knew all that, and also knew that this is an EXPERIMENT. And that's why Ted Nugent is making sheep noises at y'all.

Long term, as far as I can see it'll probably be okay because the people who make it are not monsters. They tried hard to get it right. The government assholes forcing people to get it and terrifying us all with fear-porn on TV 24/7, they -are- monsters. We need to fix that.

Now then, on to the next subject, how do vaccines actually work?

When a person gets a vaccine for chickenpox, the net result is that their immune system is now armed and dangerous to defeat the chickenpox virus. If you are immunised against chickenpox, you can go hang out with people who have chickenpox and you will not get sick. They can have the biggest case of chickenpox ever, and you'll be okay. That's what the word immunized means. You're now immune to chickenpox. You can't catch it, you can't carry it. You won't get sick, nobody else will get sick from you.

When people get the mad science shot for Covid-19, their immune system is now supposed to be able to defeat the Covid-19 virus. That's the point of it. They're immunized. They (theoretically) can't catch the WuFlu from somebody else. So, if the shot does what it is supposed to do, they're safe from Covid-19. They can't catch it, they can't spread it. It does not matter to the immunized what anyone else's immunization status is.

But that's not what we're being told by government public health. We're being told that the non-immunized pose a threat of infection to the immunized. We're being told that if 100% of the population is immunized, we will be protected. If even 1% don't get it, no one is safe. The "pandemic of the unvaccinated" is the term I'm seeing lately.

Imagine my surprise to find that medically educated people actually believe that "pandemic of the unvaccinated" horse shit. Holy. Crap. What's really going on is that A) the "vaccine" you kids put all your faith in doesn't work as advertised and B) The Covid-19 virus is behaving like every other coronavirus we ever heard of and mutating to make new strains. That's why we need a new flu vaccine every year. There's a new strain of the flu.

Covid-19 is a FLU VIRUS. IT MUTATES. There's never going to be a vaccine that covers every variant, because the thing evolves to defeat the vaccines. Duh. The chickenpox vaccine works because the chickenpox virus doesn't mutate easily. It pretty much stays the way it is.

On the bright side, and contrary to what the media keeps saying, flu viruses mutate in the direction of being less destructive and more infectious. More people catch it, less people get really sick, until it is one of those 24 hour flu things you catch and shake off in a day or two. The reason you can shake it off is that your immune system is very well trained to kill corona viruses because of all the colds and flu you've had in your life.

Okay? So everybody take a fucking breath please, and don't let the media herd you like sheep. Use your heads, do some research, and when somebody tells you something, go find out if it's true or not.

University, 2021. Whole new ballgame.

Two things here with this. First, Wilfrid Laurier University says it will not allow students who normally learn in-person to take part in online courses this fall if they have not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Yes, you read that right, people taking online courses will have to be fully vaccinated or they're not allowed to register. Remotely, let's not forget.

When asked for a statement, a spokesperson said the university is following the directive of Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health in creating a vaccination policy for the institution.

No further explanation was provided for why students learning remotely would have to be fully vaccinated.

"In consultation with public health experts, we believe that vaccines are critical to the health of our campus community," a spokesperson for the university said in a statement. "In addition to vaccines, other public health and university health and safety measures such as masking and adhering to gathering limits, will go a long way to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 with will allow us to move forward as a community."

Translation: "Fuck off, anti-vaxers! No school for you!"

Okay then. Message received.

Here's the other thing.

A large gathering of McMaster University students attending an event dubbed 'Fake Homecoming,' or 'FOCO' over the weekend, has drawn criticism.

McMaster Vice-Chancellor David Farrar says that "several thousand" students attended the event in the Ainslie Woods area of Hamilton and that "disruption [and] disrespect of property" occurred.

Hamilton Regional Police (HRP) were called to attend the event just after 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 2. According to police, by 2 p.m., the crowd had grown to over 5,000 attendees.

Over the course of the day, police arrested and charged two individuals for Liquor Licence Act Offences, as well as five individuals for Breach of the Peace/Cause Disturbance.

This heinous act of violence and horrifying horror was the -annual- Dalewood House Party. On one section of Dalewood Avenue north of Main Street there are a bunch of student rental houses next to each other. Every year, including last year despite what the Hamilton Spectator says, the kids have a party after the first football game of the year. They sit on the lawn and drink beer, while the cops walk up and down the sidewalk daring them to try drinking that beer on the street. It's traditional.

Except this year 5,000 kids showed up, and filled the street. Many beer cans were thrown at the cops this year, as they fucked around enforcing pissant liquor laws in the middle of a huge crowd of pissed-off kids who weren't having it this time.

Why did 5,000 kids show up to a street party that is lucky to have 500 every other year? Could it be two years worth of Covid-Nazi bullshit from their university? Could be, because the same thing has been happening at Queens, Guelph and Western. Laurier had some kind of #BLM eruption last year, 2020, but that was a put-up astroturf job and nobody showed up for it.

Something else that has been happening the last couple of years are impromptu car shows/drift races in intersections and parking lots all over the Golden Horseshoe area from St. Catharines to Ajax. Thousands of kids descend on a parking lot at night, act the fool  until the cops show up and then run away. Usually. Late 2020 and all this year, they've started fighting the cops. Like, weekly. So much so that the Ontario government changed the Highway Traffic Act to include heavy fines for "stunt driving" on private property. Meaning if you're doing wheelies in your own driveway like I do on my trials bike, or climbing over logs in your own backyard as I also do, or learning how to drift in the snow in an empty parking lot as every male Canadian has done since there were cars and parking lots... you can be fined and/or arrested and/or they take your vehicle at the officer's discretion.

Kids forming spontaneous mobs and fighting with the cops has never been a thing in Canada until 2020. It's a response to government actions around Covid-19. Straight up.