HMM: Scientists unveil first-ever ‘atlas’ describing links between fungi, cancers.

UNEXPECTEDLY! The grotesque politicization of Hurricane Ian.

Hurricane Ian ravaged Florida this week and caused enormous suffering. Hundreds have possibly died, a tragic toll that will most likely continue to grow. Millions are without power. The scope and scale of property destruction are impossible to put into words. And while many are stepping up to provide aid and support charitable efforts , much of the country is descending into political squabbles and partisan combat over it all.

The grotesque politicization of Hurricane Ian has come in two primary forms.

The first is a concentrated effort to exploit the natural disaster to push a Green-New-Deal-esque climate change agenda. The most prominent example of this blatant politicization is a now-viral interview in which CNN host Don Lemon repeatedly attempts to get an expert to blame Hurricane Ian on climate change.

When the expert calmly explains that no single disaster can be directly blamed on climate change, Lemon doesn’t accept this answer and asks again. (Now, another guest will apparently be going on to provide a more politically satisfying version of the “science.”)

Time to dust off the Katrina playbook, which the DNC-MSM can easily update to the catastrophe du jour:

● Chuck Todd: Coronavirus Can Be to Trump Like Iran Hostages Were to Carter.

● ‘She’s actually smiling:’ MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace and guest discuss coronavirus that could become ‘Trump’s Katrina.’

Which dovetails nicely with this quote from Mickey Kaus in 2005: “In short, Katrina gives them a way to talk about Iraq without talking about Iraq. No wonder Gwen Ifill smiles the ‘inner smile.’”

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.

HMM: Weight-loss surgery may raise risk of developing epilepsy.

REMIXED REVOLVER TO REVEAL NEW LAYERS OF THE BEATLES’ EXTRAORDINARY MUSICAL POWERS. Kenneth Womack, the author of Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles, writes:

As with Giles Martin’s previous efforts, the remixed “Revolver” clearly benefited from his interest in breathing new life into the original, highly compressed mixes propounded by his father in the 1960s. Using new technologies, Martin has succeeded in establishing greater separation among the Beatles’ instrumentation. The result is a musical palette that reveals the extraordinary power of the Beatles’ musicianship in all of its attendant beauty.

Martin chalks up much of his capacity for increasing the band’s instrumental separation to the groundbreaking work of director Peter Jackson’s team at Park Road Post Production in New Zealand. In a jaw-dropping demonstration, Martin played the remixed instrumental track for the “Revolver” track “Taxman,” slowly dropping one instrument after another from the mix until we were left with the sound of Ringo Starr’s snare drum. It was really quite something to behold, rendered even more impressive by the instruments’ stunning clarity and utter lack of generational loss.

I spoke with Beatles historian Jason Kruppa, the host of the popular “Producing the Beatles” podcast, who attributed to the Park Road team’s technological strides to “deep machine learning — basically teaching the machine to hear the difference between certain instruments and voices.” For Martin’s work on “Revolver,” technology has made a stunning difference in our abilities for remixing highly compressed albums.

As Kruppa points out, “There are currently several online tools based on a source code library called Spleeter, the algorithms of which have been trained to do the same thing and some, like Dmucs, are very effective, but they don’t allow the user to do any training. If you upload a file, you’re simply using the tool in its current state. At least one difference with Park Road, as I understand it, is that they are teaching their machine the sound of specific instruments, and even the difference between each of the Beatles’ voices. So it’s much more targeted, and they have much more control.”

The express result of all of that machine learning, of course, is the ability to disaggregate and isolate a particular sound pattern as precise as Ringo’s snare drum on a 56-year-old recording. It’s quite a feat — all but unimaginable even a few short years ago. The pristine, shimmering results of Martin and Okell’s “Revolver” remix underscore the technology’s tremendous potential. I, for one, am excited about what the future portends.

Meanwhile, Analog Plant interviews Giles Martin himself, who says:

The stereo is the original four-track tape, transferred digitally. I’d been working with the Peter Jackson [de-mixing] team in New Zealand about seeing whether we could take elements off that tape so we could create a new stereo mix, which we were doing. It’s a huge, laborious process, but incredibly effective — incredibly effective. It’s like, I can take the “Taxman” drums, bass, and guitar, and the drums sound like drums, the bass sounds like bass, and the guitar sounds like guitar — and they completely phase-cancel. If I put them back together again and play them against the original and switch to phase, there’s no transients, no noise — nothing. So, I know that I’m not taking or adding anything to that, and it just gives you a bit more impact on the mix. I can now de-mix the drums, and have the kick drum and the snare drum separately as well.

If Jackson’s technology can deliver remixes with little or no artifacts, then remix technology has come a long way from what is available to the public via the Spleeter/Dmucs remixing technology, which I’ve used, and I hope this software eventually passes down to the “prosumer” level.

THE PRUDES RUN EVERYTHING NOW.

EUROPE’S DESCENT INTO DEINDUSTRIALIZATION:

The rapid economic collapse that Britain is facing is simply an accelerated version of what the whole of Europe is about to go through; unsustainable borrowing to fund the gap between high energy prices and what households can actually afford. With the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, there is now no feasible way back. Europe can no longer physically import Russian gas – prices will remain high until Europe builds more energy capacity, which could take years.

What is likely to come of this? High energy prices will render European manufacturing uncompetitive. European manufacturers will be forced to pass through the higher energy costs in the form of higher prices and consumers will find it cheaper to buy products from countries with normal energy prices. The only logical European response to the threat of widespread deindustrialisation is to raise tariffs. This is the only way to equalise prices between more expensive European goods and cheaper foreign goods, therefore artificially supporting European manufacturing. This strategy will lower living standards, depriving Europeans of cheaper goods, but it will at least preserve some manufacturing jobs.

This process looks remarkably like the start of the Great Depression. In the 1920s, due to lopsided financial arrangements initiated in the Treaty of Versailles, western economies accumulated enormous amounts of debt. In 1929, the collapse of the American stock market removed one of the key remaining props and the western economies collapsed. Europe went first and, as trade dried up, America followed it down the hole.

Modern western economies have been accumulating debt for decades. But since the lockdowns in early 2020, this debt accumulation has gone into overdrive. In 2019, Eurozone government debt-to-GDP was 83.8 per cent. In 2020, after the lockdown bailouts were unveiled it shot up to 97.2 per cent. In the same period, Britain’s debt-to-GDP ratio went from 83.8 per cent to 93.9 per cent. These are the largest single increases in history. The run-up in debt during the lockdown was probably unavoidable. But it certainly triggered the beginning of the inflationary pressures we now see everywhere, especially because the lockdowns themselves completely demolished supply chains. So, more money chasing fewer goods. But what has happened since the start of this year is something else entirely.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered an energy price war in Europe that is forcing even higher levels of government borrowing to cover energy costs. Unlike the lockdowns, these energy price increases are putting direct pressure on both prices and the trade balance between countries. Higher energy prices mean that Europe must send more euros and pounds abroad to get energy and so the value of imports rises and these higher import costs are fed through to consumers as businesses try to offset rising energy costs by raising prices. The situation is no longer remotely sustainable. This is almost certainly our 1929 moment.

And here we go! Shocked by gas bills, thrifty Dutch stockpile coal, wood for winter.

The budget-conscious Dutch, who enjoyed abundant cheap gas for half a century to heat their homes, are turning to more traditional heating methods as cold weather reaches the Netherlands.

Sales of coal, wood and pellets for heating stoves have jumped as consumers seek cheaper energy alternatives to counter sky-rocketing gas bills in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

Customers visiting the warehouse of coal merchant Wim van Beek in the central Dutch town of Veenendaal this week were primarily looking to trim spending on heating, the merchant told Reuters.

They were also worried about the security of commercial energy supplies amid the escalating confrontation between the West and Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said, adding that sales volumes were as high as in the 1980s.

Customers were driven by the belief that “if I have coal in my shed I will be warm this winter. Then if Putin goes nuts or three more gas pipelines get sabotaged, I have my heating sorted”, Van Beek said.

Coming to America? The Coming Green Electricity Nightmare.

TRANS TREATMENTS ARE THE NEW LOBOTOMY:

Schizophrenia, depression, chronic headaches, and children with behavior problems are all real and obviously it’s important to address the problem. Scrambling people’s brains is not the correct way to do so. Yet tens of thousands of people went through the procedure because it had a stamp of approval from doctors and the establishment.

That’s a lot of preface to the point I now want to make: the current transing fad is due to a social contagion and the treatments being used are barbaric. Transitioning to something else is a “thing;” it allows people to gain attention and sympathy. It gives people an explanation for why things aren’t going as they like. It elevates social standing. It helps people create a community of people who share something with you.

And it’s incredibly destructive. People who are suffering are getting quack treatments. Sometimes they’re suffering something serious and real, in which case the treatment should be intense and appropriate to the condition; other times it is the result of a teenage phase and should be seen as a teen experimenting with Goth culture. Instead, we are medicalizing the problem and literally sterilizing children and surgically altering their bodies. For profit.

And the trans trend is not limited to gender anymore. People are building up support groups for such things as–I kid you not–transitioning into trans-abled conditions such as autism.

Read the whole thing.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Merrell Men’s Moab 2 Vent Hiking Shoes. #CommissionEarned

SKIN IN THE GAME: Bill would force universities to repay portion of student loan default.

A U.S. senator has introduced legislation that seeks to require colleges and universities to pay 50 percent of student loan balances that go into default.

Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley introduced the “Make the Universities Pay Act” on Sept. 21 in the wake of President Joe Biden’s announcement that taxpayers will absorb student loan debt to the tune of at least $400 billion, estimated to cost individual American taxpayers $2,500 each.

“For decades, universities have amassed billion-dollar endowments while teaching nonsense like men can get pregnant. All while charging extortionary tuition,” Senator Hawley stated in a news release.

“Now Joe Biden wants to give away another $1 trillion to prop up the system. That’s wrong. Instead, it’s time to put universities on the hook and give students the information they need to make informed decisions.”

The bill would also qualify student loan debt to be discharged in bankruptcy. Currently, the only debts that are dischargeable include credit card balances, medical bills, personal loans, unpaid utilities and phone bills.

I’ve been arguing for this approach for years.

EQUITY: Female athletes are victimized by trans athletes, lawsuit argues.

AND WHEN IT COMES, THE PEOPLE WHO CAUSED IT WILL PRETEND IT JUST SORT OF HAPPENED, SOMEHOW: The Coming Green Electricity Nightmare.

Related: The Thinnest Veneer of Civilization. “We talk grandly about the globalized Great Reset. We blindly accept the faddish Green New Deal. We virtue signal about defunding the police. We merely shrug at open borders. And we brag about banning fertilizers and pesticides, outlawing the internal combustion engine, and discounting Armageddon in the nuclear age — as if on autopilot we have already reached utopia. But meanwhile, Westerners are systematically destroying the very elements of our civilization that permitted such fantasies in the first place.”

YA THINK? White House Report Card: ‘Where’s Jackie’ is a problem.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Russell Athletic Men’s Cotton Performance Short Sleeve T-Shirt. #CommissionEarned

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Warnock Fundraises With Steyer After Voting for Legislation That Poured Billions Into Green Energy.

A LOSS FOR AMERICA’S MOST CELEBRATED ELECTION DENIER: Stacey Abrams loses Georgia voting rights lawsuit on all counts.

JONATHAN TURLEY: Want to stop Yale’s wokery? Target the alumni, not the students. “Graduates must be willing to withhold contributions from these schools. Yale is at the virtual bottom of free speech rankings with other schools like Georgetown, Penn, and Columbia. That disgraceful distinction has not produced even a scintilla of concern at the school because faculty are insulated from any backlash. Indeed, they benefit on some levels from the viewpoint intolerance or limitations. It is only money that might motivate administrators to reconsider this trend as alumni refuse to subsidize orthodoxy.”

I’m not sure. Yale is so rich already that this may not matter. And most of the problems stem from a rather vicious minority of the student body bullying others. The faculty goes along, and administrators even encourage it, but I’m not sure that alumni pressure will work. Which is no reason not to apply it too.

FROM SARAH A. HOYT:  Darkship Renegades.

A crisis can stress the best of systems. Eden, a secret colony created by a people who accept no ruler and now laws, finds its energy supply blocked by Earth. Which allows a would-be savior
to rise to power. In this science fiction adventure, between two worlds,can Athena Hera Sinistra, Earth expatriate, and her husband Kit find the long-lost tech that will allow Eden to be free once more?
And can they do so while fighting one of the ancient rulers of Earth who threatens to kill Kit by high-tech biological means?
As they battle hostile forces with the help of unreliable allies, only one thing is certain: Kit and Thena will fight every power, risk every danger and counter any attack in order to return to Eden and freedom.

JOSH BLACKMAN: Giving Yale Law School the Heave-Ho.

A federal clerkship is a coveted position. Judges wield vast amounts of power in selecting their clerks–so vast that fear of reprisals have forced many clerks to stay quiet in the face of abuse. I even proposed eliminating clerkships as a way to eliminate this imbalance of power. But so long as federal clerkships remain, judges will still exercise nearly-unfettered discretion over who they hire. . . .

Yes, bestowing a clerkship on a candidate can be the key or his or her success. It opens up so many doors, including access to a clerk alumni network.

This background brings me to Judge Ho’s plan to stop hiring graduates from Yale Law School. Judge Ho offered a host of reasons that support his decision, which I won’t address here. Rather, I will offer another way of understanding this boycott.

Imagine you are a senior in college. You were accepted to Yale Law School, as well as several other top-tier schools. Mazal tov! Now you have a choice. How do you choose between Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Chicago, and Virginia? Perhaps there are financial constraints–some schools may give more aid than others. There may also be personal constraints, such as the need to be close to family. More likely than not, neither of these factors would tip in favor of Yale. I doubt that YLS gives substantially more generous financial aid packages, and New Haven is a pain to get to. Instead, I think an applicant would choose Yale over those other schools because of prestige. Yale is the number-one ranked law school. It looks like Hogwarts. It has the top-ranked scholars. It pumps out circuit and SCOTUS clerks at a really high rate. Many applicants have a glide-path into academia. Your classmates will go on the highest ranks of government. And so on.

Now, imagine you are a right-of-center senior in college. More likely than not, you are familiar with recent episodes on campus, including the “Traphouse” imbroglio. And even if you are not familiar with it, you will find out. How? I am reliably informed that the Harvard Law School admissions office is working with the HLS FedSoc chapter to identify conservative applicants, and persuade them to choose Harvard over Yale. And others outside of Yale are giving similar messages.

YLS Dean Heather Gerken has got herself into a pretty pickle.

THERE ARE MORE THINGS IN HEAVEN AND EARTH, HORATIO, THAN ARE DREAMT OF IN YOUR PHILOSOPHY:  Viral video about why pen caps have a hole stuns some on social media.

ASKING FOR A FRIEND?  NYC resident asked for tips to rid home of dead body smell — many came to the rescue.

BUT HOPEFULLY EXCEEDINGLY FINE:  Part 3: Against the COVID liars and their strong-arm edicts the wheels of justice are grinding forward slowly.

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT:   Students walk out in protest over woke assistant principal who told staff to use their ‘straight, white privilege’ to back new gender-neutral homecoming royalty – after prom king and queen titles were axed.

Or if you prefer, Tom Knighton’s pithy analysis:  Only the woke don’t know they’re over.

WE FIGURED:  Thanks for nothing, John Durham.

WELL, OF COURSE THEY DID:  Glazov Gang: CDC & White House Colluded to Silence Naomi Wolf.

RED FASCISM OR BLACK FASCISM, IT’S ALL THE SAME:  Weighing evil: Soviets and Nazis.

The soviets had better propaganda and appealed to people who couldn’t think of second order consequences.