VIPER ON APPROACH: A USMC AH-1Z Viper approaches the amphibious landing dock USS Somerset while training in the eastern Pacific. Good photo of the attack helicopter’s weapon systems. This Warplanes update from 2017 has background on the AH-1Z helicopter, which is a remanufactured and upgraded AH-1T/W attack helicopter. The AH-1T/W was an upgrade of the Vietnam era AH-1 Cobra. This photo shows two Vipers maneuvering on a target during training at Twentynine Palms, California.
Archive for 2020
July 29, 2020
FIRING ON ALL EIGHT CYLINDERS BUT WITHOUT ANY CYLINDERS: Tesla is 2 years ahead of the industry in critical areas, Audi CEO says.
THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT CONTINUES TO MAKE ITSELF LOOK FOOLISH: Drudge linked this study, which purports to show that “recovered” Covid patients have high rates of heart issues as detected via imaging. I read the study and I saw a lot of problems, the most glaring of which is the way the authors define “recovered.” Recovered means that the subject tested negative for Covid after previously testing positive. The subjects may have just tested negative the day before they were imaged. In other words, while they no longer had Covid, their bodies did not have time to heal/recover from whatever damage Covid wrought.
I thought to myself that perhaps, though I do teach scientific evidence and thus know how to read a study, surely I’m missing or misunderstanding something. But then I read the accompanying editorial comment, which states, “There are important residual questions about potential selection bias and generalizability and not all of the patients may have recovered…”
What? You can’t (well, you obviously can, but shouldn’t) publish a paper that purports to be about “recovered” Covid patients when you, the editor, has doubts about whether (or how many of) the subjects were actually recovered!
THAT SEEMS ABOUT RIGHT: Tom Cotton: Never believe China, ‘they consistently and routinely lie.’ As a Hong Kong protester famously said, don’t trust China, China is asshole.
VITAMIN D UPDATE: Vitamin D helps the body fight coronavirus, major Israeli study claims.
Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern of Bar Ilan University told The Times of Israel on Sunday that vitamin D is “like a steroid,” after publishing what she says is the world’s largest population-based study of its kind.
She embarked on the joint study with Leumit Health Services to probe whether there is a basis to suggestions — heard throughout the pandemic — that vitamin D may prove helpful.
Her team studied a 7,807-strong sample of Israelis who were tested for the coronavirus. It found that the average vitamin D level for people who screened negative was in the internationally-accepted “adequate” range, while the average for those who tested positive fell in the “inadequate” category.
Vitamin D levels of less than 20 nanograms per milliliter of blood are considered inadequate.
Frenkel-Morgenstern said that people in her sample who tested negative were, on average, within the adequate range, showing a mean vitamin D count of 21 nanograms per milliliter. Those who tested positive were, on average, under the adequate level, with a mean vitamin D count of 19 nanograms per milliliter.
People who went on to be hospitalized after their test had a lower mean vitamin D count: 17 nanograms per milliliter.
Related: More evidence that lack of Vitamin D is linked to Covid 19 severity.
Also: Northwestern Univ.: Vitamin D appears to play role in COVID-19 mortality rates.
Plus: Patterns of COVID-19 Mortality and Vitamin D: An Indonesian Study. A Facebook friend’s succinct summary of the findings in this study: “Just under half (49.7%) of cases had normal vitamin D status, and only 4% of them died. Just over a quarter (27%) had insufficient vitamin D status, and most of them (88%) died. Just under a quarter (23%) had deficient vitamin D status, and almost all of them (99%) died.”
The study calls anything over 30 ng/ml as normal Vitamin D; my doctor prefers in the neighborhood of 60.
And, as the researcher says, this calls into question policies of closing beaches and parks and encouraging people to stay indoors. I’d suggest that President Trump recommend that people supplement vitamin D and spend time outdoors, but I’m sure if he did the press would tell us that it’s deadly poison, and that even a few minutes of direct sunlight will cause your body to spontaneously combust.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: US Marines to get ‘Alpha’ exoskeleton for super strength.
LIFE IN THE BLUE ZONES: Full bladders, closed bathrooms. Strategies for peeing while out during coronavirus.
DECOUPLING: Popular TikTok stars to leave platform for rival app over data privacy concerns.
When Josh Richards first began posting lip-syncing videos as a high school freshman four years ago, he never imagined he would one day become a huge TikTok star. Since then, Richards, 18, has amassed more than 20 million followers on the popular video streaming app.
But now Richards has decided to leave the platform that made him a star, citing growing concerns about TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance and how it manages user data.
The Studio City influencer, along with other TikTok creators, announced Tuesday they are moving to a rival app, L.A.-based Triller, and will encourage their millions of fans to join them there.
I can’t think of a good reason to use software from Communist China, and certainly not any data-hoovering social media apps.
HOW IT’S DONE: Colorado Reporter Puts on a Clinic in How to Accurately Report on Violent Rioters (Video). “There are a lot of people who would watch that and say ‘What’s the big deal? He reported on what was going on.’ But that is precisely why it is a big deal.”
PROFILES IN COURAGE: ‘Squad’ Member Tlaib Won’t Endorse Biden. “I don’t want to get into a debate with my residents.”
SPOILER: IT’S THE “PROGRESSIVE” LEFT THAT INSISTS THAT THE GOVERNMENT FORCE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCHERS TO USE TOTALLY UNSCIENTIFIC “RACIAL” CATEGORIES: Two Decades Ago, The FDA and NIH Mandated the Use of Race to Categorize Subjects and Report Results in Medical and Scientific Research They Oversee. It was a Huge Mistake. If you don’t have time to read the link, just consider this. The FDA and NIH require researchers to break down their results by various categories, including “Hispanics.” Putting aside the dubious scientific salience of ‘race,’ Hispanics can be of European, Indian, Asian, or African origin, or any combination of those. What possible scientific rationale could there be to report the results of, for example, a drug trial by Hispanic status? But that’s exactly the sort of voodoo that the government requires.
BARR OUTMANEUVERS THE DEMOCRATS:
Attacks on federal property and personnel have been going on for weeks. The need for action is plain. Mr. Barr was unflappable, but blunt. One highlight came when he was being questioned by Congressman Steve Chabot, a Republican of Ohio. “Federal courts are under attack,” Mr. Barr said, before exclaiming: “Since when is it okay to try and burn down a federal court?”
That a U.S. attorney general has to make that point to Congress is itself amazing, and Mr. Barr marked it well. “This is the first time in my memory,” he said at one point, “that the leaders of one of our great two political parties — the Democratic Party — are not coming out and condemning mob violence and the attack on federal courts. Why can’t we just say, you know, violence against federal courts has to stop? Can we hear like that?”
No answer was forthcoming.
Read the whole thing.
YOU PUNCH MY BACK I’LL PUNCH YOURS: More Than 100 Police Agencies Pull Out Of Security For the DNC Convention.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Colleges Face Historic Summer Admissions Melt Of 25% Or More, With Higher Rates For Students Of Color.
The Dems hope that the coronavirus will cost Trump the presidency, but it’s leaving a swath of destruction through all their key institutions, from education (high and low) to Hollywood, to the woke sports leagues, to the bureaucracy, which nobody on the left or right trusts now. Another circling torpedo.
And if I were a freshman, I’d be strongly inclined to take a gap year. Between the virus and the campus madness, why go?
I HUMBLY SUGGEST YOU DON’T HAVE TO BUY INTO THE LEFT’S NARRATIVE. SURE, THEY’D LIKE YOU TO. BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO. IT’S NOT MANDATORY. IT’S ALSO LOOKING AT THINGS THE WRONG WAY AROUND. I KNOW THE US IS THE FIRST MATRIARCHY TO CLAIM THAT WOMEN NEED LIBERATION. BUT THIS IDEA THAT THE LEFT IS STARTING A REVOLUTION AGAINST…. THEMSELVES IS TRULY BIZARRE: We’re Seeing the Death Rattle of the Revolution, Not Its Birth.
D*MN IT BABYLON BEE! IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE AMERICA’S PAPER OF RECORD, STOP ACTING LIKE YOU ARE: ‘The Violent Riots Are A Myth,’ Says Rep. Nadler As Antifa Sets Fire To Congressional Hearing Room.
NBA HARDEST HIT: People over 6 feet tall are more likely to contract coronavirus.
THAT’S NOTHING. ONE OF MY BEST BUDDIES THINKS HE’S A TANK. AND AFTER ASSOCIATING WITH HIM FOR A WHILE YOU START SUSPECTING HE’S RIGHT: Depression caused a woman to believe she was a chicken.
NO. NOT CORONA VIRUS, WHICH IS… WELL, A CORONA VIRUS AND LOOKS MORE AVERAGE EVERY DAY. WHAT IS DESTROYING AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS, FROM SCHOOLS TO MUSEUMS IS STUPID LEFTIST POLICY, TRYING TO TANK THE ECONOMY AND GET RID OF ORANGEMANBAD BY HURTING EVERYONE. THAT AND THESE INSTITUTIONS SUPINE COMPLIANCE AND FALLING ON THEIR SWORDS ZU BEFEHL. AT THIS POINT CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS NEED TO GROW A PAIR AND TELL DICTATORIAL AND IRRATIONAL GOVERNORS AND MAYORS TO TAKE A FLYING LEAP, THEY’RE RETURNING TO NORMAL NOW. (AND YES, THAT MEANS POLIS TOO AND HIS BUDDY THE DENVER MAYOR:) Coronavirus may close one-third of America’s museums for good, directors say.
If you’re a willing collaborationist in destroying America over a totally unjustified virus panic, you deserve what’s coming to you. And yes, that means most mainline churches as well. Grow a moral spine or die. The choice is yours. As Heinlein put it, (paraphrased as I don’t remember the exact wording) It’s always better to be a live lion than a dead sheep. It’s also usually easier.
THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE: COVID-19: Bad policy rules!