Unintended Consequences

Not too long ago, my wife suggested that we put handles on the vanity in our bathroom because our fingerprints made when opening the doors were tarnishing the coating...  and our cleaning was not removing those stains...  so, one weekend we went to Lowes purchased a bunch of handles that we liked with all the appropriate hardware and in a few hours, all the handles were installed exactly where we wanted them.

Since neither of us was a  carpenter or skilled as a handyperson, it took us longer than normal to complete this weekend project.

A few weeks later, my wife made the comment one morning while we were both watching the news that the cords to her electrical devices that she uses to fix her hair are now getting tangled up in the handles of the drawers to the vanity and it has gotten to the point where it is very annoying...

I acknowledged her comment and her frustration but had the common sense not to say anything...  after she got the frustration out of her system, there has been no more comments...  but, I am sure that she continues to experience the tangling of cords whenever she decides to fix her hair.

As I began to reflect upon this experience, it dawned on me that this was a perfect example of unintended consequences...

Most of the time, we cannot nor do we want to predict the future outcomes of our actions today.  If we did, we may not do some of the things that we have done in the past...  We just don't live this way...  but, maybe we should.

Harp

 

China Could Easily Invade Taiwan

The invasion of Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), has been considered by Chinese military planners for decades but only under President Xi Jinping have observers worried this might be increasingly likely.

Taiwan, formerly the island of Formosa, was the last bastion that held out against Mao Zedong’s victorious Communist army after elements of the defeated nationalist Kuomintang military retreated to the eastern island in 1949.

Threats of military action against the self-ruled island have escalated during times when some Taiwanese political parties have debated whether to declare independence. Taiwan has had no seat at the United Nations for 50 years.

President Xi’s rise, with his focus on centralised control and a new, professionally-run, modern military, has set off alarm bells around the world.

This, combined with explicit rhetoric from China’s president that “Taiwanese independence separatism” was “the most serious hidden danger to national rejuvenation” has refocused global attention on the possibility of China using force to take the island. The aggressive patrolling and overflights of Taiwanese airspace by aircraft from the Chinese air force have added a sense of urgency that this could very well happen in the near future.

But how difficult would it be for China to successfully invade Taiwan?  READ MORE...

Fighting a Bear

 

The Hunter Biden Scandal

Attacks from the mainstream media and an investigative DOJ probe comprise the latest chatter surrounding Hunter Biden's email scandal, but as former deniers arrive at the consensus that Biden's dealings with China warrant skepticism, Fox Nation digs deeper.

A new live episode from Fox Nation hosted by Fox News commentator and legal analyst Gregg Jarrett succeeds the four-part "Who is Hunter Biden?" series which shaped the backstory and the scandals plaguing President Biden's son.

This time, Jarrett dives into the latest bombshell developments surrounding Hunter Biden and hosts a discussion surrounding the potential ethical violations associated with his dealings with China – violations the mainstream media, for months, labeled as "Russian disinformation."

"Why has The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN now reluctantly, begrudgingly and belatedly – 16, 17 months later – come out and said ‘oops, the laptop’s real, it's authentic, yes, there are incriminating emails contained therein?'" Jarrett asked during the episode's panel segment.

Jarrett theorized two possible reasons mainstream outlets elected to ignore the steaming Hunter Biden scandal until it reached an overboil.  READ MORE...

SWAT Squad

 

The China Russia Pact

MALIBU, Calif. – As the Russia-Ukraine war wages on, we asked Professor Robert Kaufman of Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy for his in-depth views. Kaufman specializes in American foreign policy, national security and international relations. He has written several books on these subjects.

What follows is a Q&A that has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. We strongly encourage you to watch the accompanying video so you may hear Kaufman in his own words.

Q: What is the significance of the Feb. 4, 2022, pact that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

A: On Feb. 4, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, announced that China and Russia had signed an extensive security pact – 5,000 words, very detailed – with each side pledging to the other that they would support mutual efforts to supplant the United States as the world's primary power and make the world safe for the survival of Russian and Chinese tyranny.

This is a hugely significant development, and it signals that we are at a major negative inflection point in international relations that is a long time in coming. For years, with honorable exceptions, there's been a wide consensus operating on the delusion that Russia is a partner for peace, and China seeks to become part of our system … This pact should be a warning call that this is not the case and that the free world, and the United States in particular, will have to take seriously the imperative of vigilance across the board, dealing with this threat.

We've already seen manifestations of it already. China is enabling Putin's invasion of Ukraine, blunting the effects of sanctions. And Putin, likewise, has embraced China's implacable determination to subjugate Taiwan. This is in many ways a 21st century version of a dangerous gangster pact known as the Nazi-Soviet Pact, consummated between two rogue regimes in August of 1939.     READ MORE...

Muscle Arm

Flying South

Oldest Sun Observatory

Long before the Incas rose to power in Peru and began to celebrate their sun god, a little known civilization was building the earliest known astronomical observatory in the Americas.


While not quite as old as sites like Stonehenge, these ancient ruins, known as Chankillo, are considered a "masterpiece of human creative genius", holding unique features not seen anywhere else in the world.


Based in the coastal desert of Peru, the archaeological site famously contains a row of 13 stone towers, which together trace the horizon of a hill, north to south, like a toothy bottom grin.

The Thirteen Towers of Chankillo. (David Edgar/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0)

Apart from this remarkable structure, known as the Thirteen Towers, the ruins of the observatory also include a triple-walled hilltop complex called the Fortified Temple and two building complexes called the Observatory and the Administrative Center.


Completed over 2,300 years ago and abandoned in the first century of the common era, the site has remained a mystery to travelers for centuries.


Only when official excavations began at the turn of the 21st century, did archaeologists realize what they were looking at.  READ MORE...

Pig Fan

 

Saving an Old Laptop

It’s not pleasant seeing a once-beloved laptop (or desktop) computer slowly slide into obsolescence as it gets too old and tired to keep up with the demands of modern-day computing, but Google has now provided an option for these ailing machines in the form of Chrome OS Flex.


Chrome OS Flex is the standard Chrome OS that runs on Chromebooks, in a form that you can install on computers that aren’t Chromebooks. The idea is that the lightweight operating system won’t weigh your old device down to the same extent as Windows or macOS. It’s essentially just a web browser, and hey presto, your laptop or desktop has a new lease on life.


We should warn you that this project is in its very, very early stages: Google says it’s in “early access” mode and is “still unstable” at this point. As a result, you should expect some weird behavior and bugs—at the moment, this is really something to attempt on laptops that you’re otherwise going to get rid of.


That said, you can try it. Google has a list of computer models that it plans to eventually certify for Chrome OS Flex. It has also published some minimum requirements for the operating system: An Intel or AMD x86-64-bit compatible device, with at least 4GB of RAM and 16GB of storage space, with the ability to boot from a USB drive.  READ MORE...

Climbing Down

 

Unlocking One's Pleasure Centers

JAMIE WHEAL: How many of us are just suffering micro-PTSD all day, every day, that is just accumulating from the stuck in traffic or the held on customer support, or the family squabbles, or the social media flame wars, social injustice, or relentless news feeds of people suffering around the world. The sheer grind of it, the repetitiveness of it, and the questionable point. If we're only stuck down in the world, then the mundane will crush us. 

We need tools to mend our trauma, tools to reconnect with inspiration, why we're here and what it all means, and tools to better connect with each other. Well, how would we do that? Start with our own bodies and brains. On the one hand, it seems very low-tech, and on the other hand, leads us right to the doorstep of some of the most potent, controversial, taboo-laden, and powerful psycho technologies that humans have ever assembled.

I'm Jamie Wheal, Founder of the Flow Genome Project and author of "Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost Its Mind".

The collapse in meaning that I think you can at least argue we're in the midst of right now is complex and multivariable. Things are likely to get harder before they get better. Give me some sense that there is something more in this mortal coil beyond life's a bitch and then I die. If you want to do things that everybody has access to that are effective and zero to low-cost, start with our own bodies and brains, because our own bodies and brains shape our ability to access inspiration, healing, and connection, like breathing. 

We are all strongly, strongly, strongly encoded to breathe. In our nervous systems, there is all sorts of reinforcement of respiratory rate, rhythm depth, and it has a profound impact on our consciousness. We can alleviate stress. We can affect depression. We can even remove or lessen PTSD all just by teaching people how to breathe better. That's amazing. So respiration is one example.  READ MORE...

Up Ya Go

 

Freedom Fighter

Psychedelics and Consciousness

SOURCE:  Johns Hopkins Medicine 

Psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, an ingredient found in so-called magic mushrooms, have shown promise in treating a range of addictions and mental health disorders. Yet, there’s something mysterious and almost mystical about their effects, and they are commonly believed to provide unique insights into the nature of consciousness.

Now, a new study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers addresses the question of whether psychedelics might change the attribution of consciousness to a range of living and nonliving things.

The findings, published March 28 in Frontiers in Psychology, reveal that higher ratings of mystical type experiences, which often include a sense that everything is alive, were associated with greater increases in the attribution of consciousness.

“This study demonstrates that when beliefs change following a psychedelic experience, attributions of consciousness to various entities tend to increase,” says Sandeep Nayak, M.D., postdoctoral research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research and one of the researchers involved in the study.

“It’s not clear why, whether that might be an innate drug effect, cultural factors, or whether psychedelics might somehow expose innate cognitive biases that attribute features of the mind to the world.”

For the study, the researchers analyzed data gathered between August 2020 and January 2021 on 1,606 people who had had a belief-changing psychedelic experience. Participants averaged 35 years of age and were predominately white (89%), male (67%) and from the United States (69%).  READ MORE...

Turning Around

 

Native Americans Reacquire Land

The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced on Friday the return of more than 400 acres of land to an indigenous tribe in Virginia.

About 465 acres at Fones Cliffs on the eastern side of the Rappahannock River was returned to the Rappahannock Tribe, which regards the sacred site as its ancestral homeland, according to a press release from the DOI.

The Rappahannock Tribe will own and maintain the land, but the site, within the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge, will be available to the public. The tribe plans to create trails and a replica 16th-century village at the site to educate visitors.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) also holds a permanent conservation easement on the land, which was donated to them by environmental organization Chesapeake Conservancy.

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, said she was “honored to join the Rappahannock Tribe in co-stewardship of this portion of their ancestral homeland.”

“This historic reacquisition underscores how Tribes, private landowners, and other stakeholders all play a central role in this Administration’s work to ensure our conservation efforts are locally led and support communities’ health and well-being,” Haaland said in a statement.

The Biden administration has been working to support indigenous people and tribes through an array of methods, including building out physical infrastructure and financially supporting tribal nations, according to a White House fact sheet released in November.   READ MORE...

Arm Wrestling