Archive for 2024

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: Willow Bark Extract: A Revolutionary Antiviral From Nature. “In Finland, researchers have recently discovered that willow bark extract, a plant known for yielding various medicinal compounds including the basis for contemporary aspirin, exhibits a wide-ranging antiviral effect in laboratory cell studies. The extract worked both on enveloped coronaviruses, which cause colds as well as COVID-19, and non-enveloped enteroviruses, which cause infections such as flu and meningitis. There are no clinically approved drugs that work against enteroviruses directly, so this extract could be a future game-changer.”

MATT TAIBBI: More Lunatic Legal Coverage: Media reports say Donald Trump’s attorney claimed presidential immunity would “extend to political assassinations.” Here’s what he really said. “Again, you can agree or disagree with the immunity argument, but just from a press perspective: the “SEAL Team Six” moment not only didn’t come from Trump’s team, it was never really argued at all. What actually happened was [Judge] Pan spent a ton of time fishing for that sound bite, didn’t get it, and finally moved on.”

Should judges be fishing for sound bites?

WE ARE GOVERNED BY A MIXTURE OF THE EVIL AND THE BRAINDEAD:

https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1745900473524122008

With some overlap.

UPDATE: Lol, no. Is President Biden a Super-Ager? “It’s no secret that at 81, President Biden is the oldest sitting president in U.S. history. And whether the current frontrunners for either party win the election later this year, Biden or Donald Trump would be the oldest president on record. Many people have raised concerns about the candidates’ ages and whether they are too old to run for president. However, a recent op-ed published in The Hillopens in a new tab or window weighed in on whether President Biden is actually a super-ager — someone generally older than 80 who has cognitive and physical function higher than their peers, more akin to people decades younger — and argued that framing Biden in particular as ‘too old’ is both ageist and politically motivated.”

Puhleez. You know what’s politically motivated? This sort of interference-running by alleged scientists. And people wonder why science has lost trust with the public.

UPDATE (From Ed): I’m not sure why the above tweet was deleted, but for now, here’s the video it references: Watch: Biden Tells Voters ‘I Work for the Government in the Senate.’

(Updated and bumped.)

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY: Here’s the Best Reason Never to Do Fentanyl. “It’s your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week we have the dirtiest grandpa, golF cart mayhem, and how not to join the mile-high club.”

A CENSORSHIP ADVOCATE SPREADING MISINFORMATION? SHOCKING. Jesse Singal: There Are Major Factual Issues With Jonathan M. Katz’s ‘Atlantic’ Article, “Substack Has A Nazi Problem.” “It turns out Katz almost entirely fabricated what is perhaps his most damning anecdote about Substack’s approach to extremism.”

What will the Atlantic do? There must be accountability.

Plus: “Katz, who had a Substack himself until he announced his departure today, is apparently a well-regarded author. But he is also, in my brief and exceptionally unpleasant interactions with him, an erratic and toxic individual, at least when it comes to hunting down and attempting to punish his perceived enemies of justice. My most memorable run-in with Katz occurred when he screenshotted a tweet of someone saying that my death should be toasted with champagne, and described it as ‘one of the truest things ever written’ on Twitter.”

HOW THE AHA KILLED VIEWPOINT-NEUTRAL HISTORY TEACHING. Yes, perfect neutrality is impossible. That’s no excuse for not even bothering to try. Most of my teachers and profs did at least explain the opposing view when there was controversy. That’s not too much to ask.

PRIORITIES: FHP arrest man accused of using spray paint to cover up pro-Palestinian graffiti on I-95.

According to the arrest report, on Jan. 2, Florida Highway Patrol Troopers were dispatched to the scene on Interstate-95, near Marina Mile Boulevard, after receiving reports of “possible vandalism.”

Once at the scene, troopers found Maimon holding a spray paint can. A trooper then pulled out a taser and ordered Maimon to put the can down.

According to Maimon, he told troopers that he is from Israel and was trying to cover up the pro-Palestinian messages.

“I have family in Israel. I don’t like to see it,” he said. “It is a terrorist organization. They kidnap and kill people every day.”

Maimon painted over the words with gray spray paint, which he thought was the same color as the wall.

After FHP arrived, he was then cuffed, book and taken to the Broward County jail were he spent nine hours.

“They put the handcuff on my leg and on my hand,” Maimon said. “Then they asked me questions and I tell them I just covered the ‘Free Palestine,’ like nothing wrong, just ‘Free the Palestine,’ and they took me to the jail.”

Maimon’s boss, Eran Hazan, said that the troopers actions towards his employee were “very unfair” and humiliating. He said they should have given him a warning because Maimon wasn’t causing extra damage and was using the gray spray paint to match the rest of the wall.

Both Maimon and Hazan work at an organization called Yedidim USA, which does charity work in the South Florida Jewish community. The organization fed first responders after the Surfside collapse condo in 2021 and has sent humanitarian aid to Israel during its war with Hamas.

“Yoni has been working at our organization for four and a half years. This guy is an angel,” Hazan said. “He helps out families from the moment he wakes up in the morning until he goes to sleep.”

No arrests seem to have been made for the actual graffiti.

THE SPACE INDUSTRY AND THE DANGERS OF OVERREGULATION. “There was a time when visionaries and dreamers alone imagined humanity could find great knowledge, riches and adventure in outer space—and were routinely belittled by mundane society for doing so. Now that entrepreneurs are making space more accessible and tapping into its potential, everybody seems to want a piece of the action. Government agencies are elbowing themselves to the head of the crowd to manage a burgeoning industry they once neglected, even benignly.”

Benign neglect is ideal.