OPEN THREAD: Saturday night’s all right for threading, get a little action in.

AT AMAZON: Katadyn Hiker Pro Hand Pump Water Filter for Backpacking, Camping, Emergency Survival.

FLASHBACK:

Kamala Harris along with Menendez & few other Dems sent letter urging Senate Appros to reduce funding for Trump admins “reckless immigration enforcement operations”
Saying an increase in Border Patrol/ICE agents/beds & wall funding pose threats to Dreamers https://t.co/8BYvdhIjgb

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) July 27, 2024

PROFESSOR CARRINGTON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Sun blasts out most powerful flare of current solar cycle, sends massive coronal mass ejection into space. “On Tuesday (July 23), Europe’s Solar Orbiter (SolO) spacecraft witnessed an extremely powerful X14 class solar flare erupt from the far side of the sun. Although it was not the most powerful flare ever recorded, which was estimated at roughly a X45 back in 2003, solar flares of this magnitude can result in longer-lived radiation storms and even world-wide blackouts if they are directed at Earth. The X-class are the leaders on the classification scale, and blast out energy 10 times more powerful than M class flares, which is second on the list.”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Paris is hit by a ‘power outage’ – hours after city was battered by rain and transport system was brought to its knees by protesters…while backlash grows over opening ceremony.

Well.

UPDATE: When did France become a Third World country? “Food has become a major issue in the Olympic Village as the Paris Games are underway. Adequate food supply and uncooked meat are among the concerns.” Plus: “One British athlete told the Times that the food situation is chaotic compared to the well organized facilities in Tokyo.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: A friend writes: “Food is like, the one thing people expect the French to do well.” They used to be pretty good at electricity, too.

MORE: Maybe it’s the hand of God. Maybe it’s a backup generator. But the Lord helps those who help themselves, so maybe that’s a distinction without a difference.

PARIS OUTAGE

Light only at the Sacre Coeur church.

We cannot make this up! pic.twitter.com/30dzTf3Z7s

— Art & Absolutism (@GalahadofMalta) July 28, 2024

WELL, GOOD: Surprise Hair Loss Breakthrough: Sugar Gel Triggers Robust Regrowth.

SPACE SUBMARINE TIME: New Calculations Uncover a Vast Ocean Beneath Pluto’s Ice.

OKAY: Experts warn against hype for deriving green hydrogen from direct seawater electrolysis.

NOBODY’S PERFECT: Toyota to Replace Every Single Engine in 100,000 Tundra Pickups and Lexus SUVs.

SELF-DEFENSE: So What’s Next? A defensive firearms training class is just the beginning.

AIRBRUSHES IN ACTION: Suddenly IOC and French Nervous About Those Opening Ceremony Videos. “Perhaps the reaction to their edgy wokeness is not what they were anticipating eh? When I went back through my X feed this morning after reading this, there are a lot of blank tweets where they’ve already taken down the most offensive snippets from last night’s performances, many of them European broadcast clips.”

Well, the pushback isn’t just coming from “conservative groups” as the press suggests:

We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics.

— C Spire (@CSpire) July 27, 2024

IS THAT THE WORRY? THE “RISK OF ESCALATION?” Deadly Soccer Field Attack in Israel Raises Risk of Escalation Between Israel and Hezbollah.

PROTEST AS UPPER-CLASS COSPLAY:

It’s almost always working class men (of color) who have to clean up behind the graffiti of liberal elites: climate change, Gaza protests on college campuses, etc. Put that in the slow cooker… pic.twitter.com/BV6VQjpOo7

— Anthony Bradley (@drantbradley) July 26, 2024

FASTER, PLEASE: New study shows ‘dancing molecules’ can regenerate cartilage in 3 days.

AT AMAZON, Coleman Triton 2-Burner Propane Camping Stove.

AMONG OTHER THINGS: Athletes can expect high ozone, pollen levels at Paris Olympics.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: South Korean resort island looks to become home to space industry.

WELL, IF IT DOESN’T PEAK BEFORE THE ELECTION WE PROBABLY WON’T HEAR MUCH ABOUT IT: There Are No Good Options Left With Bird Flu. “Even with the spate of farmworker infections, the threat of bird flu to humans is, at the moment, considered low. Researchers are keeping an eye out for two red flags. The bigger one would be the virus’s ability to spread between people. All of the people who have tested positive in the U.S. were infected by exposure to sick cows or poultry, and they have not seemed to pass the virus along to anyone else. Symptoms have generally been mild, including respiratory issues, though several people have developed serious cases of conjunctivitis, or pink eye. (No one in the U.S., or globally, has died from this variant of H5N1.)”

We should hope it’s mild because the abuse of public trust by health authorities under Covid means that there will be much less public cooperation in the future. Of course, since the measures under Covid were mostly destructive and/or ineffective, maybe that’s not a bug, but a feature.

ERIC COWPERTHWAITE: Stop Turning The Other Cheek: Too many on the Right think we should not fight back.

ORWELLIANISM SCIENCE: NIH kicks out scholars critical of gender identity from ‘sex and gender’ event.

DEI CANDIDATE SLAMS DEI OPPONENTS: FLASHBACK: Kamala Harris slammed DEI opponents in Florida speech: ‘You know what they’re up to.’

WELL, THE INSTA-WIFE GAINED ALMOST AN INCH IN HEIGHT AFTER STARTING BARRE AND PILATES: Does Dementia Make You Taller?

NOT BY ACCIDENT: Why Were the DC Protests So Out of Control? There Were Only 29 Police!

OF COURSE SHE DOES: Kamala Harris wants to keep Hamas in power.

Vice President Kamala Harris has made it clear that she wants to protect Hamas in ways that essentially would keep the terrorist organization in power in Gaza and that she will continue President Joe Biden’s policies that embolden and empower terrorists.

Harris offered a condemnation of sorts of Hamas after her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a bit of throat-clearing before she articulated her actual position that Hamas should be allowed to remain in power.

“I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done,” Harris said of a ceasefire, which would allow Hamas to remain in power after the terrorist organization has promised to carry out more massacres like the Oct. 7, 2023, one that started this war.

She then pivoted to shaming Israel. “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” Harris said. “The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.”

It is clear what the implications of Harris’s position are.

Well, she needs the support of Dearbornistan in Michigan, and Little Somalia in Minnesota.

WORDS HAVE MEANINGS AND THAT’S WHY THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO BE ABLE TO USE INCONVENIENT ONES: Kamala the Language Cop: Harris Urges End to Terms ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism,’ ‘Illegal Alien.’ ‘Words have meaning,’ Harris told crowd at Islamic Center of Southern California.