Fossil Fuel Imports Are Already Constrained

For many years, there has been a theory that imports of oil would become a problem before there was an overall shortage of fossil fuels. In fact, when I look at the data, it seems to be clear that oil imports are already constrained.

Figure 1. Interregional trade of fossil fuels based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

As I look at the data, it appears to me that coal and natural gas imports are becoming constrained, as well. There was evidence of this constrained supply in the spiking prices for these fuels in Europe in late 2021 and early 2022, starting well before the Ukraine conflict began.

Oil, coal, and natural gas are different enough from each other that we should expect somewhat different patterns. Oil is inexpensive to transport. It is especially important for the production of food and for transportation. Prices tend to be worldwide prices.

Coal and natural gas are both more expensive to transport than oil. They tend to be used in industry, in the heating and cooling of buildings, and in electricity production. Their prices tend to be local prices, rather than the worldwide price we expect for oil. Prices for importers of these fuels can jump very high if there are shortages.

In this post, I first look at the trends in the overall supply of these fuels, since a big part of the import problem is fossil fuel supply not growing quickly enough to keep pace with world population growth. I also give more background how the three fossil fuels differ.

After this introductory material, I provide charts and some analysis of fossil fuel imports and exports by region, based on data from the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy. Theoretically, the total of regional imports should be very close to the total of regional exports. This analysis gives a little more insight into what is going wrong and where.

[1] On a worldwide basis, total supplies of both oil and coal seem to be constrained.

Figure 2. World consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

Figure 2 shows that world supplies of all three fossil fuels follow the same general pattern: They tend to rise in close to parallel lines, with oil supply on top, coal next, and natural gas providing the least supply.

The total supply of fossil fuels needs to be shared by the world’s population. It therefore makes sense to look at supply on a per capita basis.

Figure 3. World per capita consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas, based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

On Figure 3, the top line, oil supply per capita, is almost perfectly level, suggesting that having a greater supply of oil enables having a larger world population. This relationship makes sense because oil is used to a significant extent in growing today’s food, and shipping it to market. Oil products also make herbicides, insecticides, and drugs for animals that enable the growing supply of food needed to feed today’s population. Oil products are also helpful in road making, and in providing lubrication for machinery of all kinds.

We might conclude that oil supply is essential to the growth of human population. It is only by way of a huge change in the economy, such as the one that took place in 2020, that there is a big dip in oil usage. Even now, some of the changes are “sticking.” Some people are continuing to work from home. Business travel is still low. People are still not buying fancy clothing as much as before 2020. All these things help reduce fossil fuel usage, particularly oil usage.

Figure 3 also shows that on a per capita basis, coal supply has fallen by 9% since its peak in 2011. This fact, plus the fact that coal prices have been spiking around the world in recent years, leads me to believe that coal supply is already constrained, even apart from the export issue.

[2] The share of oil traded interregionally is more than double the share of coal or natural gas traded interregionally.

The reason why oil is disproportionately high in Figure 1 compared to Figure 2 is because a little over 40% of oil is shipped between regions. In comparison, only about 18% of coal production is traded with other regions, and about 17% of natural gas production is shipped interregionally. Oil is much easier (and cheaper) to transport between regions than either coal or natural gas. Shipping costs tend to escalate rapidly, the farther either natural gas or coal is shipped.

Natural gas has a second problem over and above the high cost of shipping: It requires storage (which may be high cost) if it is not used immediately. Storage is needed for both natural gas and coal because both fuels are often used for heat in winter, either by direct burning or by creating electricity that can be used to heat buildings. Storage for coal is close to free because it can be stored in piles outside.

Besides heat in winter, coal is also used to provide electricity for air conditioning in summer, so its demand curve has peaks in both summer and winter. Natural gas is much more of a winter-heat fuel in the US, so it has a large peak corresponding to winter usage (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Coal and natural gas consumption by month based on data of the US Energy Information Administration.

Storage for natural gas needs to be available in every area where users expect to use it for winter heat. The cost of this storage will be low if there are depleted natural gas caverns that can be used for storage. It is likely to be high if above ground storage is required. Natural gas importing areas often do not have suitable caverns for storage. The easy approach is to try to get by with a bare minimum of storage, and hope that imports can somehow make up the difference.

The big question for any fuel is, “Can consumers afford to pay a high enough price to cover all the costs involved in getting the fuel from endpoint to endpoint, at the time it is needed?

Citizens become very unhappy if the cost of winter heat becomes extremely expensive. They demand subsidies and rebates from the government, in order to keep costs down. This is a sign that prices are too high for the consumer.

Both coal and natural gas are also heavily used in manufacturing. Their prices vary greatly from location to location and from time to time. If coal or natural gas prices rise in a particular location, the cost of manufactured goods from that location will also tend to rise. These higher prices will particularly hurt a manufacturing country, such as Germany, because its manufactured goods will become less competitive in the world marketplace. GDP growth will be reduced, and the profitably of manufacturers will tend to fall.

Because of these issues, long-distance trade in both coal and natural gas tend to hit barriers that may be difficult to see simply by looking at the trend in world production.

[3] Natural gas exports may already be becoming constrained, even though the total amount extracted still seems to be rising.

A huge amount of investment is needed to make long-distance sale of natural gas possible. Such investment includes:

  • The cost of developing a natural gas field for export use, usually over many years.
  • Pipelines covering every inch traveled by the natural gas, other than any portion of the trip for which transfer as liquefied natural gas (LNG) is planned.
  • Special ships to transport the LNG.
  • Facilities to chill natural gas, so it can be shipped overseas as LNG.
  • Regasification plants, to make the natural gas ready to ship by pipeline after it has been transferred as LNG.
  • Storage facilities, so that sufficient natural gas is available for winter.

Not all of these investments are made by the same organizations. They all need to provide an adequate return. Even if “only” very long-distance pipelines are used, the cost can be high.

Pipelines work best when there is no conflict among countries. They can be blown up by another country that seeks to raise natural gas prices, or that wants to retaliate for some perceived misdeed. For this reason, most growth in natural gas exports/imports in recent years has been as LNG.

Organizations investing in high-cost infrastructure for extracting and shipping natural gas would like long-term contracts at high prices in order to cover their costs. Without a stable long-term supply contract, natural gas purchase prices can be extremely variable. Japan has tended to buy LNG under such long-term contracts, but many other countries have taken a wait-and-see attitude toward prices, hoping that “spot” prices will be lower. They don’t want to lock themselves into a long-term high-priced contract.

There are two different things that tend to go wrong:

  • Spot prices bounce up above even what the long-term contract price would have been, creating a huge high-price problem for consumers.
  • Spot prices, on average, turn out to be too low for natural gas exporters. As a result, they cut back on investment, so that the amount of future exports can be expected to fall.

I believe that there is a significant chance that natural gas exports are now reaching a situation where prices cannot please all users simultaneously. Not all investors can get an adequate return on the huge investments that they have made in advance. Some investments that should have been made will be omitted. For example, there might be enough natural gas storage for a warm winter, but not for a very cold winter in Europe.

A prime characteristic of a fossil fuel (or any resource) that is not economic to extract is that the industry has difficulty paying its workers an adequate wage. Recently, there has been news about a union strike against Chevron at an Australian natural gas extraction site used to provide gas for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export. This suggests that natural gas may already be hitting long-distance export limits. Prices can’t stay high enough for producers to pay their workers an adequate wage.

[4] Oil imports by area suggest that the rapidly growing manufacturing parts of the world are squeezing out the imports desired by high-wage, service-oriented countries.

Because oil is so important in international trade, I looked at the amounts two ways. The first is based on trade flows, as reported by the Energy Institute:

Figure 5. Oil imports by area based on the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

The second is based upon a comparison of reported production and consumption for the same year, using the assumption that if consumption is higher than production, the difference must be attributable to imported oil. The problem with this later approach is that it can easily be distorted by changes in inventory levels. There may also be difficulties with my approach of netting out flows in two different directions, especially if the flows are partly of crude oil and partly of “oil products” of various types.

Figure 6. Oil imports based on production and consumption data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute. Amounts adjusted to include “Refinery Gain,” as reported by the US Energy Information Administration.

In both charts, imports for China, India, and Other Asia Pacific are clearly much higher in recent years, while imports for the US, Japan, and Europe are down. The peak year for imports (in total) was about 2016 or 2017. Imports were about 3.5 million barrels a day lower in 2022, compared to peak, with both approaches.

[5] Oil imports by area indicate that nearly all oil exporters around the globe are having difficulty maintaining export levels.

Here, again I show two indications, using the same methods as for oil imports. Since trade is two sided, I would expect total import indications to more or less equal the total of all amounts exported.

Figure 7. Oil exports by area using trade flows based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

On Figure 7, peak oil exports (in total) occur in 2016, with the runner up year being 2017. US oil exports are shown to be nearly zero, even in recent years, because US imports and US oil exports more or less cancel out.

Figure 8. Oil exports based on production and consumption data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute. Amounts adjusted to include “Refinery Gain,” as reported by the US Energy Information Administration.

The indications of Figure 8 show that apart from Canada, the amount of oil exported for all the other export groupings shown is lower in recent years than it was a few years ago. This is also evident in Figure 7, but not as clearly.

To some extent, the lower production in recent years is related to the cutbacks announced by OPEC+ (including what I call Russia+). While these cutbacks are “voluntary,” they reflect the fact that based on current oil prices, and based on investments made in recent years, these countries have made the decision to cut back production. No oil exporter would dare mention that it is running short of oil that can be extracted without considerably more investment.

On Figures 7 and 8, “Mexico+South” refers to all the oil being produced from Mexico southward. Besides Mexico, this includes Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador, and a number of other small producers. Most of them are experiencing falling production. Brazil is doing a bit better, but it does not seem to be experiencing much growth in exports.

Africa’s peak year for oil exports seems to have been in 2007 (both approaches), with recent exports at a much lower level.

With respect to Russia+, its exports seem to be down from their peak in 2017 or 2018, but not any more than for oil producers from the Middle East. The European Union oil embargo doesn’t seem to have had much of an impact.

The star performer seems to be Canada, with its rising production and exports from the Canadian Oil Sands.

In this analysis, I have “netted out” imports and exports. On this basis, the US hasn’t moved into significant oil exporter status yet. I am sure that there are some people hoping that the oil production of the US will continue to increase, but whether this will happen is unclear. The growth of US oil production in recent years has helped offset (and thus hide from view) the falling exports of many countries around the world.

[6] Coal exports appear to have peaked about 2016. Europe has reduced its imports of coal, leaving more for other importers.

Figure 9. Coal imports by area using trade flows based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

The peak in coal imports seems to have occurred about 2016. In particular, Europe’s imports of coal have fallen significantly since 2006. At the same time, coal imports have risen for many Asian countries, including China, India, South Korea, and Other Asia Pacific. Even Japan seems to have been able to obtain a fairly consistent level of coal imports for the 22-year period shown on Figure 9.

Figure 10. Coal exports by area based on trade flow data from the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

One thing that is striking about coal exports is that they are disproportionately from countries in the Far East. Even the coal exports of the US and Canada are from North America’s West Coast, across the Pacific. Russia’s coal exports tend to be from Siberia.

The coal exports of South Africa have declined significantly since 2018, and other African countries are eager for their imports. Today’s largest source of coal exports is Indonesia. Coal exports from Russia+, at least until 2021, have been been a source of coal export growth.

A major share of the delivered price of coal is transportation cost, which tends to be fueled by oil, particularly diesel. Overland transit is particularly expensive. The real reason for Europe’s decline in coal imports since 2006 (shown in Figure 9) may be that there are practically no affordable coal exports available to it because it is too geographically remote from major exporters. Of course, this is not a story politicians care to tell voters. They prefer to spin the story as Europe’s choice, to prevent climate change.

[7] Natural gas imports and exports have only recently started to become constrained.

Figure 11. Natural gas exports by area based primarily upon production and consumption data from the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

Figure 11 shows that natural gas exports from Russia+ (really Russia, with a little extra production from other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States) have stayed fairly level, except for a big drop-off in 2009 (probably recession related) and in 2022.

The overall level of natural gas exports has been rising because of contributions from several parts of the world. Africa was an early producer of natural gas exports, but its exports have been dropping off somewhat recently as local gas consumption rises.

More importantly, exports have increased in recent years from the Middle East, Australia, and North America. With this growing supply of exports, it has been possible for importers to increase their imports.

Figure 12. Natural gas imports by area based upon production and consumption data from the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

Europe was able to maintain a fairly stable level of natural gas imports between 1990 and 2018, and even to increase them by 2021. China was able to ramp up its natural gas imports. Even Japan was able to ramp up its natural gas imports until about 2014. It has tapered them back since then. India and Other Asia Pacific both have been able to add a small layer of imports, too.

[8] What lies ahead?

The countries that have the greatest advantage in using fossil fuel imports are the countries that don’t heat or cool their homes, and that don’t have large numbers of private citizens with private passenger automobiles. Because of their sparing use of fossil fuel imports, their economies can afford to pay higher prices to import these fossil fuel imports than other countries. Thus, they are likely to be winners in the competition for fossil fuel imports.

Europe stands out to be an early loser of imports. It is already losing oil and coal imports, and it also seems to be an early loser of natural gas imports. However, for all its talk about preventing climate change, the reduction in European imports of fossil fuels hasn’t made much of a dent in global carbon dioxide emissions (Figure 13).

Figure 13. CO2 emissions for Europe and the Rest of the World, based on data of the 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute.

I am afraid that no country will really come out ahead. In some sense, the United States is better off than many countries because it is producing slightly more fossil fuels than it consumes. But it still depends on China and other countries for many imported goods, including computers. Given this situation, the United States likely cannot continue business as usual for very long, either.

About Gail Tverberg

My name is Gail Tverberg. I am an actuary interested in finite world issues - oil depletion, natural gas depletion, water shortages, and climate change. Oil limits look very different from what most expect, with high prices leading to recession, and low prices leading to financial problems for oil producers and for oil exporting countries. We are really dealing with a physics problem that affects many parts of the economy at once, including wages and the financial system. I try to look at the overall problem.
This entry was posted in Energy policy, Financial Implications and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

3,123 Responses to Fossil Fuel Imports Are Already Constrained

  1. MG says:

    Limits to growth are accumulating:

    Czech Republic faces the comming shortage of the construction stone

    https://hnonline.sk/svet/96104802-v-cesku-su-v-ohrozeni-dialnice-trate-aj-nove-byty-stat-zacina-mat-nedostatok-kamena

    • Prag (not Praha), 1912

      • MG says:

        Such was the era of the coal.

        The Velvet Revolution of 1989 was basically about the adoption of the Western environmental standards.

        The West regulates the population via strict environmental standards, while China, India, Russia etc. are lagging behind in this area.

      • JMS says:

        Not an automobile in sight. Shocking!

    • Taking down old walls and structures used to be a source of stone, I believe. The Great Wall of China had some stones removed for this purpose, I understand.

      • Withnail says:

        The word for it is ‘spolia’. Many mediaeval buildings contain repurposed Roman stones.

        St Peters in Rome is full of marble removed from the imperial palace on the Palatine Hill. The Great Mosque of Cordoba in Spain has many columns salvaged from Roman buildings.

        Unfortunately a lot of marble was also removed from buildings and burned to create cement in the past. One can only imagine how splendid the original Roman buildings were.

  2. CTG says:

    Yes. Delusion rules. I am pretty surprised that many at OFW are still deluded. Perhaps teality is just too harsh. Delusion is very comforting but it does not hide reality.

    I am rather surprised that regulars arle OFW still talk about batteries and how it can improve over time. Firstly we dont have time. Secondly there is a limit imposed by Mr. Physics on the capability of batteries. It can never beat oil. Batteries do not allow planes to fly.

    Batteries is very heavy. Anyone cares about the efficiency of moving this battery? Anyone calculated the efficiencies of EV with the weight of batteries included?

    Charging time. Come on, dont be delusional. Until the time when one can run into a shop and buy a bucket of electrons and pours them into the battery in 10mins, no sane mind will wait for hours to recharge.

    Perhaps sanity has been eliminated by the simulation master. See how sanity of throw out when people lined up to take the untested vax. Not once but up to 4-5 times.

    Dont bother refuting what i say. No point. Delusion rules until it does not.

    • Dennis L. says:

      Totally agree, batteries are not the answer.

      Space is the answer, no friction, raw metals and no messing with ores, not a gravity well, endless energy for process.

      This reduces the energy load on earth and it reduces the rate of energy input into the ecosphere. We have only one spaceship earth and living as did our ancestors is not very comfortable.

      Dennis l.

      • CTG says:

        Space… just as delusional

        • Dennis L. says:

          CTG,

          This site is pretty negative, indeed almost zero percent chance of anything positive. It is a very safe bet, no downside.

          It will not be smooth, it will be bumpy; humans a tough, they will make it.

          Dennis L.

    • CTG says:

      “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad”

      Perhaps a long time ago when this proverb/saying was created, there was no word for “delusional” (at that point of time).

      Believing in skittles and unicorn are very comforting than thinking about reality (like barbariansls already at the gate or the Titanic was already sinking).

      Check out – during Iraq War, the minister was saying everything was fine when the American army was already at the gate of the palace.

      The last few posts of Gail, delusions rulez innthe comments section.

      • I AM THE MOB says:

        “Humans cannot live without illusions. For the men and women of today, an irrational faith in progress may be the only antidote to nihilism. Without the hope that the future will be better than the past, they could not go on.”

        ― John Gray

        • Dennis L. says:

          IATM,

          I see Amish, they are minimal progress, their faith is renewed every Sunday, it is a day of rest, hope, fellowship and yes, acknowledgement they are children of God.

          Around me, they are doing very, very well. When was the last time you purchased 80 acres for $1.2M cash? I have a good report it was done in the last thirty days and I regularly see new homes built on land with horses in front.

          Perhaps those without illusion are the ones who are blind to the fabric of the universe.

          Dennis L.

        • Fast Eddy says:

          delusions… is the preferred term

        • Fast Eddy says:

          Delusions… someone told me they are thinking about buying a Tesla… this person has to drive long distances to meet clients… I mentioned that finding charging stations is a huge problem … and that fast charging is very hard on the battery so you don’t want to be relying on that…

          His response was that he was sure there must be plenty of charging stations…

          He was excited about being able to write off the cost of the lease (25k per year hahaha) … I said you can write off the lease on an ICE car too — that will likely be half the 25k….

          I got that blank zombie stare. It’s the one where someone has been captured by cnnbbc and now believes something … and the facts and logic are irrelavent

    • Excess electricity needs to be stored as a liquid fuel, if it is to be stored at all. Hopefully, an energy dense liquid fuel that can be stored at room temperature.

      • Keith Henson says:

        “stored as a liquid fuel”

        That’s entirely possible, but the economics don’t work out well. The main problem is the cost of the hydrogen generators and that comes mostly from the cost of the platinum in them.

        There may be better approaches.

        • Vern Baker says:

          And just like LNG, then compressing hydrogen to liquid form costs 30% of the stored joules.

          None of the works very well. If we started with rails, as some kind of Steampunk alternate outcome, we would have been far better off.

    • Fast Eddy says:

      What amazes me .. is that after more than a decade of discussing the end of affordable energy …. and how that collapses BAU… and how that would result in starvation and epic suffering (

      There are those on OFW who reject any suggestion that rather than stand back and watch 8 billion tear themselves to pcs when the lights go out… the Elders might consider intervening to stop ROF… by putting us down.

      It was obvious to me within a month or so of Covid arriving … that this was all about exterminating us.. in fact I can put a date on it – it was when I spoke to the sub author of Great Barrington and he told me the deaths were no worse than that from a severe strain of flu.

  3. MikeJones says:

    Thxs Eddie..if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be studying space exploration…Im astonished by all the discoveries and breakthroughs..

    On Thursday (Sept. 14), scientists presented five new deep-space images captured in a variety of invisible-to-human wavelengths. It’s a stunning collection of visuals that reveal some absolutely riveting corners of the cosmos. Each portrait is constructed with data collected by powerful telescopes, including NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope, the iconic James Webb Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope (to name just some).

    Basically, these instruments are able to capture outflows of non-visible light radiation emanating from distant regions of space in such a way that scientists can take that information, overlay as necessary and turn it into images we can admire.

    Now that we know what we’re looking at, let’s go through the lot.

    The first image NASA highlights in a statement about the five pieces is titled the “Galactic Center.” Sitting about 26,000 light-years from Earth, this is literally the center of the Milky Way galaxy that we live in. It contains a supermassive black hole, superheated clouds of gas, neutron stars (which are stellar beings so dense a tablespoon of one would equal something like the weight of Mount Everest) and other trippy things.

    The reason it looks kind of blobby instead of swirly like you might imagine a galactic center to look is due to the fact that we are looking at it from within the galaxy. This internal perspective is actually one reason scientists with the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration selected M87*, the black hole in one of our neighboring galaxies, as the subject of humanity’s first black hole image instead of Sgr A*, the one in the center of the Milky Way. It was easier to inspect the center of a galaxy that we can see panoramically. (The EHT team did eventually manage to get an image of Sgr A*. That was humanity’s second black hole image).

    In this view of the Milky Way’s core, Chandra data leads the charge, its observations seen in orange, green, blue and purple.

    https://www.space.com/nasa-space-telescope-images-chandra-spitzer-james-webb

    It’s really a magical time to be alive…I’ve got to stop worrying so much and enjoy it more

  4. MikeJones says:

    Ground Control to Major Eddie take your protein pill ..

    HOMESPACE NEWS
    A Billion-Mile Journey: OSIRIS-REx’s Meteoric Return With a Space Rock Treasure
    OSIRIS-REx collected a half-pound sample from the surface of asteroid Bennu in October 2020. The mission’s sample return capsule will land with aid of a parachute – like the training model shown here in an August 30 test – on September 24 at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range in the desert outside Salt Lake City. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber

    NASA’s OSIRIS-REx will release an asteroid sample capsule this September, aiming for a landing in the Great Salt Lake Desert, with teams ready to address challenges during its descent and recovery.

    This September, after traveling billions of miles through our solar system, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will cruise past Earth with an extraordinary delivery. As it passes, it will release a mini-fridge size capsule containing a sample of primordial space rock collected from an asteroid located between the orbits of Earth and Mars.

    OSIRIS-REx — the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer — is the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. Scientists hope the pristine material it collected from asteroid Bennu in 2020 — about half a pound of rubble and dust from the asteroid’s surface — will provide a window into 4.5 billion years ago when the Sun and planets were forming.

    LOl…his Greatness claims it ain’t so…because it’s a fake picture

    • Fast Eddy says:

      What is amazing is that almost everyone reading this … will believe it is true.

      These are the same clowns who would be allowed to vote if we actually had democracy.

      Obviously that would quickly result in total disaster.

      Imagine a referendum on invading Iraq to get the oil… and keep BAU alive …

      KOOMbaya vote wins… the world ends… (or at least America ends hahaha)

      People are just dummmb. The odds of meeting a person who is even slightly switched on in real life… is so close to 0 … it is 0

      0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001

      Is ZERO

  5. I AM THE MOB says:

    GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise is back in the Capitol wearing a mask.

    Amid chemotherapy treatments, He notes that his “protocols” are going to be a little different going forward because of his immune system.

    https://twitter.com/politicongress/status/1702327583894102233

    I wonder who the next Republican will be to wear one?

  6. Student says:

    (Jerusalem Post)

    ”Netanyahu lands in California to meet Musk, eyeing AI DIRECTORATE.
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in California on Monday to meet with the controversial billionaire owner of X, Elon Musk. […] Netanyahu was eyeing the creation of an ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENTE DIRECTORATE that will be run out of his office as he headed to a meeting with Elon Musk, according to an Israeli source.”

    https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-759532

    • Fast Eddy says:

      Hahahaha… fake… he’s there to snort blow and bang hoo-kers of the highest quality .. have a fake press conference… then leave

  7. Hubbs says:

    An email from my brother who is a mechanical engineer with Ford Chrysler. Not sure if he is accurate about future battery technology hype on a practical large scale. For now, EV’s seem to be the equivalent of glorified golf carts -useful for driving around town locally and virtue signaling your concern about the environment and how much money you have to burn owning one of these things. As long as you make it back to your roost at night for charging. But the repair bills and insurance costs would make me very nervous.

    But an interesting insight on consumer behavior, or how hard wired we are to ICE. To wit:

    “The PHEV (Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicle) is misunderstood by customers. Feedback to Stellantis indicates customers think the engine is supposed to charge the battery. Nope. They are confusing the PHEV with a REEV – Range Extended Electric Vehicle. So they simply drive the car in ICE mode most/all of the time, forfeiting the benefits of electric drive mode because they’re too lazy to plug in the cord at night.

    Stellantis has plans to introduce a number of REEVs in the next 2-3 years, including one for the Ram pick-up truck. With REEVs, the engine’s sole purpose is to charge the battery. It can’t deliver propulsion directly to the wheels through a mechanical path as with PHEVs. On pick-ups current battery technology is incapable of enabling the truck to haul a loaded trailer at highway speed for more than 80-100 miles on a single charge. (This is the Achilles heel of the Ford 150 Lightning.) So our brilliant idea is to add an ICE to charge up the battery to extend the range. Sounds neat , but in just a few short years battery technology will improve such that the ICE charger will no longer make sense. So REEVs are only a short term stepping stone to a pure electric vehicle (EV). Or maybe the future is already here now? The Tesla Semi is able to haul a full load many hundreds of miles on a single charge without an ICE. Not sure if this is because Tesla has more advanced battery technology than Ford and Stellantis or what?

    So I predict a train wreck ahead when customers realize hybrids no longer make sense and manufacturers are saddled with inventory that can only be sold at a steep loss. “

    • Dennis L. says:

      Hubbs,

      I am on my second Toyota Camry Hybrid, I like them a lot except battery drains above 90 mph, a small in convenience. Old one is always >30mpg, new one >40mpg, entire tank average. Very comfortable, roomy.

      Battery vehicles are coming, just not the way one thinks. Battery bikes are here in Rochester, some are cargo bikes, most with very large tires. Some are even seen peddling to assist.

      A guess is trikes will be next with baskets on the rear. Money is tight, even here. People will adjust, living arrangements will adjust while others are planning.

      Dennis L.

      • Hubbs says:

        Yeah Dennis. I have been tinkering with the idea of getting a heavy frame battery powered cargo E-bike to use just to go to the market about 1 mile away to carry groceries. Fortunately, most of the trip is via a river front board walkway and some sidewalksat the end to the YMCA on my daily routine, so really my only risk of getting knocked off by some driver is when I have to use the the road for the last 50 yards beyond the YMCA before crossing it. to get to the grocery store. Checking out local farmers though and they are farther away.
        But then again with the risk of fires from the E-bikes being reported and the fact that they have to be kept indoors when not in use overnight because of theft, I wonder if I should just go with a conventional bike that is a little sturdier than the one I’m riding now. Low complexity. Low hassle. Currently have 1998 BMW Z3 and 2010 Lexus RX-350 that both run well, but I hardly use them. Maybe once a week tops 10 miles total, and every three months a longer 300 mile round trip haul to visit my daughter at college.

    • Vern Baker says:

      The Tesla Semi is not currently viable by the looks of it. But whats concerning, is that a fire on one of these platforms due to a battery puncture would be an absolute disaster if it happened to occur in a populated area. Until the battery technology catches up to what is considered safe, electric cars should be made with much less lithium.

      Its apparent there was no safety testing for car crashes and battery fires. If you breath in gaseous cobalt lithium, your life is basically done.

      As far as the REEV goes, THAT is the correct solution. I have a BMW i3, as well as a great big electric car, and hands down the i3 wins the “done it right” award. I prefer driving it. A small lithium pack that can drive all day if needed. It works just as well in cold weather for the reason that it has a gas engine on it.

      In fact, I see the electric car being ruined because we tried to recreate what we have now, instead of looking forward. They took its innovation away, and are making the exact sized car, ie bigger with the Rivian, F150 Lightening etc with similar but often peculiar styling as any other car. So, we have environmental nightmares instead of lightweight chassis cars with small battery packs, a Honda generator gas (charging as needed to keep it above 50% charge) engine and a top speed of 100km/h… in a three person sleek and small exterior… with a clever cargo moving add on… which could be rented.

      This didnt happen of course. Nope, cant be a little more future friendly of course. Its gotta be a full sized electric Hummer, or people is going to think we is not enviro-mentalists which is bad for business. So, now there is some hatred towards electric cars because they are rich oriented virtue signaling inconveniences which every so often turn into something resembling a terrorist attack. And just wait until an electric car fire chain reaction happen in an underground parking lot or on a ferry somewhere.

    • Fast Eddy says:

      Tell your brother they need to design an EV with a small trailer behind that carries a tank for diesel and a generator… this can be hooked to the car for trips of more than 100 miles…

      Did I mention the MOREON who installed solar (50k+) and during the winter (and most other months) charges the batteries using the 9pm to midnight free mains power…

      Did I mention that MOREONS are MOREONS… I suspect quite a few of them would be on board with that diesel trailer… they’d justify it by saying they only use it on long trips cuz charging stations are a problem… and that we are moving in the right direction … you gotta start somewhere

      Cockroaches are more intelligent

  8. Fast Eddy says:

    Mass D

    In a quest to be more “inclusive,” a Canadian school board in Mississauga, Ontario has decided to purge its library of all books published before the year 2008.

    Erindale Secondary School in Mississauga, Ontario, ‘burned’ roughly 50% of its library book, including Harry Potter and the Hunger Games series, as part of a new “equity-based book weeding” implemented by the Peel District School Board earlier this year, according to the CBC

    The board insists it was following a wider directive from the Minister of Education to make learning resources more inclusive and reflective of the community.. Arbitrarily removing 50% of their library in the name of inclusivity.

    Libraries in Australia look quite empty of books too .. Its very hard to find older books because they are removed for “hygiene reasons”, but this may be purging under a different name. Libraries are also the home of drag queen story-time and Aboriginal Voice propaganda. It is increasingly like child abuse to allow your kids to go to most public libraries.

    • Cromagnon says:

      The IQ of Canadians is in freefall. The psychopaths have taken control almost entirely and are gutting this dying culture. It really is terrifying to be aware of what is happening but to be utterly helpless in the face of it.

      I hope I am wrong about consciousness. The experience of dissolution is beyond unpleasant. Almost everyone seems blind to the abyss.

    • I AM THE MOB says:

      There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”

      – Joseph Brodsky

      • JMS says:

        Truth be told, most books are more valuable as firelighters than as food for the spirit. For example, Brodsky’s poetry books (his essays are good though)

    • Dennis L. says:

      Kids don’t read books anyhow, no sarcasm.

      I am again in school with them, math skills are very poor. Teacher told one kid he couldn’t read his writing.

      Dennis L.

  9. postkey says:

    “The cobweb model
    Main article: Cobweb model
    Nicholas Kaldor proposed a model of fluctuations in agricultural markets called the cobweb model, based on production lags and adaptive expectations. In his model, when prices are high, more investments are made. However, the effect of these investments is delayed due to the breeding time – the production lag. Eventually, the market becomes saturated, leading to a decline in prices. Production is thus decreased and again, this takes time to be noticed, leading to increased demand and again increased prices. The cycle continues to repeat, producing a supply-demand graph resembling a cobweb.”?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_cycle

    • Hubbs says:

      Kind of like phugoid oscillation in aviation. As the plane slows down, lift decreases until the nose has to point downward to allow it to gain airspeed thereby increasing lift at which point the airplanes nose angles back higher into a climb and then the speed decreases until the process repeats. What a perfectly trimmed aircraft at level flight avoids.

      But I like to keep things simple in agriculture. Half the waste ( if not more) is government induced.

      The Who had it right.

  10. Student says:

    (Medical News Today)

    Neanderthal genes can be both negative and positive for Covid.
    If one tells only partial side of the story can influence people’s understanding… (or better, misunderstanding).

    About the risk, it is interesting to know that Bangladesh people seems to be the one who could probably suffer more from statistical point of view.
    But that is probably related only with the ‘first’ kind of Covid.
    Neanderthal genes are present in European people and in Asian people (expecially south-east) and for that reason of course in American people.
    While those genes are almost not present in people living in Africa (meaning those who have never went out from the continent from a genetic point of view).
    Just for the news, another ‘interbreeding’ we humans had in the past, was with the Denisova man, who also developed outside Africa.
    I hope I explained myself correctly and I underline that this are only facts about DNA genes.
    For instance, it was interesting for me to know that red hair is a gene which comes from Neanderthal (present in another article).

    https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/neanderthal-genes-may-influence-covid-19-severity

    • Hubbs says:

      I wonder if the fact that once the Homo genus ( H erectus) or other species escaped from Africa, a whole new array of environmental stressors was encountered whereby the need for increased intelligence, tool making and design, recording language, abstract thought (cave paintings implying the concept of cross speciation, etc) arose. I’ve read that Neanderthal lacked language /communication skills and this maybe caused them to fall behind H sapiens even though H. neanderthaensis had larger cranial capacity. Meanwhile, the sub Saharan Africans were stranded genetically in the backwaters of the stable African savanna or tropic forests and could never benefit from these changes.

      Kind of like how in relatively stable environments like the oceans, there are many species like corals, coelacanths etc which have undergone very little change over the eons, simply because there were no environmental pressures to do so.

      • Fast Eddy says:

        So leaving Africa made humans stupid… sorry I mean intelligent…

        And that put us on the path to where we are now – on the verge of extinction.

        Me thinks we need to rewrite history and instead of celebrating ‘genius’… condemn it

      • Fast Eddy says:

        I understand that humans will have a hard time getting their minds around the ‘intelligence is stooopidity’ theme…

        But it makes 100% sense… there is no way to win an argument stating otherwise… absolutely no way.

        Anyone who disagrees… feel free to take this up with Fast Eddy… ya’ll will get your brains bashed in and the vultures will begin to circle.

        1500HP

  11. CTG says:

    Copied a comment

    Saudi Arabia has made a defence pact with Russia so does that count for anything? With Saudi oil being sold for Rubles or gold, will that create ructions in the currency markets, being that the petro-dollar will have nothing backing it at all, it’s promise of settlement with gold denied since August ’71? Won’t the dollar be just a piece of paper without any intrinsic commodity backing it? Who will accept treasuries as payment (an oxymoronic descriptor) without collateral backing at settlement? If the quadrillions of re-hypothicated derivatives are recognised as an empty glass, the false claim that they are, what happens to supply chains if a major default sets off a chain reaction? Little wonder that they’re scrambling to create as many distractions as they can muster. There is no white knight who can turn this around. It’s too big. Zimbabwe was just a tease, contained within Zimbabwe, creditors notwithstanding. This will unravel globally. The other currencies of the world, (carrying the illusion of wealth through their derivative ties to the Reserve status of the $US) will be seen to be of the same quality. This could unfold in a direction you don’t want to experience but it is one scenario we need to think about. Do we collectively have a plan B if it unfolds hellishly?

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/hits-just-keep-coming-china-suffers-biggest-fx-outflow-2016-amid-sudden-surge-capital

  12. Fast Eddy says:

    hahaha… https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/cowboys-coach-faints-on-sideline-during-game-against-jets/ar-AA1gRpdC

    never in my life have I heard of such a thing happening till the Rat Juice

  13. CTG says:

    Guys… I think we all need to revisit Korowicz’s work on inter connectivity.

    We are talking about moon, space faring, some countries collapse, some not.

    We are now going towards the part of “delusion” We are only kidding ourselves to say that Asia will do well if Europe goes down in flames because we have the factory, people, the resources, etc.

    • Cromagnon says:

      Agree completely. People want to believe there will be “somewhere” to hide, somewhere that we can escape consequences…..

      there is not…the reality engines are unstoppable and we are ALL on the bus that has gone off the cliff. The view just looks a bit different depending upon where you are sitting.

  14. Pingback: Correcto por las razones equivocadas -

  15. Ed says:

    The US government and IBM are aiding a Japanese company to ramp up to be a direct competitor of TSMC. Sorry do not remember the name I think it starts with a “S”.

  16. davidinamonthorayearoradecade says:

    https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Chinas-Refinery-Throughput-Jumps-To-Record-Highs.html

    “High margins on the export markets and peak domestic summer demand prompted China’s refiners to boost crude oil processing to a record-high 15.23 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, official Chinese data showed on Friday.”

    am I reading that right?

    15 mbpd.

    yes I think I am. 😉

    • The article says:

      China issued a larger-than-expected fuel export quota in the third batch of allocations this year as authorities look to incentivize refiners to sustain economic growth and sell more product abroad at a time when China’s 2023 fuel demand may have peaked.

      .

      So China is trying to push the economy along by getting refineries to work at closer to maximum output, even though China itself does not need the oil. This tends to push up oil prices now and reduce prices later, when too many oil products are dumped on the world oil market.

  17. Agamemnon says:

    Past is prologue, fiction is non?
    Star Trek episode Armageddon where war is simulated and casualties are carried out for real. Ukey war real? Collusion? Taiwan future pre planned?

    • davidinamonthorayearoradecade says:

      if you think “Ukey war” is not real, then you are in the small War-on Club with you-know-who.

      a club with one member, at least that’s what the evidence shows.

      (war-on is a portmanteau of war and moreon.)

      the club has free entry, just be a simpleton styrofoam brain and you can join immediately.

      please let me know your decision, so I can keep track of who’s who.

    • Ed says:

      It reminded me also of that Star Trek episode. There is a Russia commentator who keeps pushing for Russia to take the fight to US soil. To have Russia bomb Washington DC much like Nuland is bombing Moscow. To bomb the US factories that are making the weapons being used to kill Russians.

      So far Russia feels it gains more by not directly attacking the enemy. How that is is completely unseen by this observer. War now or war later what makes later better for Russia? The only thing in play is the US 2024 national election. There is a rumor that the US military will supervise the 2024 election. That is the only way Trump can win. After the last four years there is no end to the unexpected that may happen.

      I do wonder if Nigeria is in play. Can the US take 100% of Nigerian oil and leave EU to buy US liquefied NG?

      Can BRICS+ drive US out of Syria and its theft of Syrian oil? What nation does stolen oil prop up?

      Russia has to fight or just roll belly up and give all its land and nuclear weapons to the China; or to US.

      • Ed says:

        To paraphrase from Dr Strangelove Mandrakes line to Sargent Bat Guano “shoot man, shoot, with the nukes that what they are there for”.

      • davidinamonthorayearoradecade says:

        “There is a rumor that the US military will supervise the 2024 election. That is the only way Trump can win.”

        huh?

        Trump was a great president, partly because he was anti-war and was wanting to have a mutual relationship with Vlad the Great.

        I don’t see why the US military would want Trump back.

        what do you see there?

        • Ed says:

          The dream is that there are honest patriots still in the military. At this late date I am not holding my breathe.

  18. Fast Eddy says:

    “A new type of vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Chicago has shown in a lab setting that it can completely reverse autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes—all without shutting down the rest of the immune system.”

    https://pme.uchicago.edu/news/inverse-vaccine-shows-potential-treat-multiple-sclerosis-and-other-autoimmune-diseases

    hahahahahaha…. a vaccine that reverses disease… I don’t think that is the definition of a vaccine … and there’s that thing about too good to be true …

  19. Agamemnon says:

    Kulm: Gabby Princip?

  20. The Taiwan situation seems to be getting more worrisome:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/visualizing-military-imbalance-taiwan-strait-0

    China announced a “new path towards integrated development” with Taiwan on Tuesday, including encouraging the listing of Taiwanese companies on Chinese stock exchanges as well as facilitating Taiwanese people to live, study and work in China.

    But, as Statista’s Martin Armstrong reports, at the same time though, China has ramped up its military presence in the area, including a carrier strike group led by the aircraft carrier Shandong and an increase in airspace incursions. . .

    Even though the likelihood of China taking Taiwan by force remains unclear, the military balance in the Taiwan Strait is firmly in China’s favor.

    There is an infographic showing how badly Taiwan’s military is outnumbered:
    https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/3471.jpeg

  21. I AM THE MOB says:

    I have a friend I went to high school with that I ran into recently. His parents own a factory in my city. He told me that his parents are friends with some of the top executives at our downtown hospital. And they all got waxxed and ALL caught covid. And they’re all scratching their heads in disbelief.

    • adonis says:

      obviously they now know that vaccines are not good for you unfortunately the who will be forcing vaccines onto us very soon Former Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is in Geneva this week as part of a small team of prayer warriors interceding for the very serious situation in which the world finds itself.

      We are on the brink of a major historical event in which power is in the process of shifting from nation-states to international bodies affiliated with the United Nations.

      It’s that process and how to accomplish it that’s being discussed right now at the 76th annual World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

      Bachmann will be monitoring the proceedings regarding major amendments to the International Health Regulations (last amended in 2005) as well as an all-new ”pandemic’ accord’ that would shift massive amounts of power from national governments over to the United Nations World Health Organization and its ‘director general’…

    • Cromagnon says:

      I suspect the collective western IQ has fallen into the low 90s by now.

      I consider myself to be a relatively brave individual, I have faced off with the reaper on several occasions. This societal situation has me badly shook. No person with an IQ over 100 could possibly think that the jab is anything but a poison designed by malignant minds.

  22. In George Eliot’s book Silas Marner, Godfrey, the landowner, finds Eppie, who was raised by the milliner Silas Marner, is his only surviving child. He goes to fetch Eppie, who talks him back with American English, the English of lower class.

    Of course, in real life, Silas is hacked to death by someone under Godfrey’s payroll, and Eppie’s lower class boyfriend Aaron would be accused as the killer, and given a one way ticket to Afghanistan , which was at war with Britain even back then.

    But in that book Godfrey gives up in Eppie, whose American way of speech was considered to be beyond fixing.

    The very fact that American English, which was what the lower classes spoke during the days of Edward de Vere (the real ‘Shakespeare’, not the seed dealer who never learned to spell his name correctly) came to dominate the world shows a huge retrenchment of civilziation.

    • adonis says:

      death and suffering is an interesting subject kulm keep up the good work telling us your insights truly appreciate your input here one of the many resident geniuses on OFW.

  23. After Anna Karenina, Count Lev Tolstoy wrote a bunch of stories, now never read, teaching peasants how to behave. Misfortunes would happen to you but God will take an account so take all pain stoically.

    Anton Chekhov became a changed man after meeting Tolstoy. Chekhov, son of a serf, wanted to become a respectable man. he bought an estate, and played a landowner. He even got a trophy wife who only gave him mountains of trouble.

    Nevertheless, he wrote this masterpiece,Uncle Vanya, which made it to the Great Book of Western World, compiled by Britannica.

    Vanya was written in 1899. Vanya sacrifices everything for his famous brother in -law, covering all of the latter’s expenses and not accomplishing anything himself. The b-i-l dumps his daughter by Vanya’s sister to Vanya, and marries a much younger wife.

    The b-i-l and his new wife arrive on the estate, asking Vanya to sell it since they are rather short on money. This being the last of Vanya’s asset, Vanya resists and they leave for now, but Vanya’s mother, who believes in her famous former son-in-law, still insists Vanya to support them.

    At the end of the play, Vanya, with the realization that he will be stuck supporting the famous ex b-i-l for the rest of their lives, sighs while his niece, who is stuck on the estate and probably will die unmarried, ignored by her famous father and his new wife (who is sleeping with a local man, unknown to other characters) , consoles Vanya that one day both will die and God will take account of what they did.

    Clearly influenced by Tolstoy’s teachings, Chekhov justifies sacrificing everything for the winner’s sake, since they advance civilization while people like Vanya and his niece won’t so it is just that they sacrifice and not have anything in their lives, while a God, who would prove to be completely silent a couple decades later as the Bolsheviks slaughtered his followers en masse, would reward them in the afterlife.

    Alas, Chekhov died in 1904, just before the first Russian Revolution, and he was not around to teach the Russian people to sacrifice for the Greater Good during the Revolutionary days (his relatives all fled to Hollywood where they lived rather unhappy lives).

    Although fate was cruel for people like Vanya and his niece, Chekhov had a point. Those who are not destined for greatness have a moral, almost a divine, obligation to sacrifice themselves for the Greater Good, for a great advancement, and following their own disaster is a crime against Civilization.

  24. Fast Eddy says:

    VAIDS

    Details are scarce, but we’ve learned that Hot Rod editor emeritus and MotorTrend host Steve Magnante is suffering from a severe brain infection, according to a YouTube video posted by Rick Debruhl, Steve’s broadcast partner at Barrett-Jackson Auction Company. In the update, Debruhl states that Steve is not in a place where he can respond to calls or receive flowers or cards, and that his family has asked for privacy during this difficult time. Magnante has long been a fan-favorite with his deep subject knowledge of vintage cars. His ability to recall the most minute detail on demand is only rivaled by his affable demeanor and polite comportment even under the most pressing broadcast scenarios. Those who know Steve personally appreciate the fact that he is exactly the same in person as he is on your television screen, and he approaches the hot-rodding hobby with a childlike enthusiasm that many spend a lifetime trying to recapture. At this juncture, all we can do is wait for the outcome and hope for the best. An infection of the brain is considered a very serious illness and even in the best cases the course of treatment can take several weeks or months.

  25. Fast Eddy says:

    hahaha as if

    90% Of Ukrainians Who Joined Military Last Year Have Been Killed — Military Commissar

    The acting head of the Poltava regional military registration and enlistment office, Lieutenant Colonel Vitaly Berezhnoy, said that over the year, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost up to 90% of the personnel who joined the units last fall.

    “For example, out of 100 people who joined the units last fall, 10-20 remain,” the lieutenant colonel said.

    • Ed says:

      Evolution in action. How many were Jewish?

    • davidinamonthorayearoradecade says:

      it’s unreasonable to think the 80 to 90 % are all dead.

      not just deaths, but severe injuries/wounds/disabled.

      also there must be a portion who fled from the war zone after seeing how hopeless it was for U to be facing off against the most powerful army in the world.

      • Fast Eddy says:

        They might have been killed after being hit by flying styrofoam?

      • drb753 says:

        what kind of a comment is this? you can not escape the war zone. Azov battallion is deployed behind the lines and will shoot all deserters.

        • Tim Groves says:

          On rides a captain and three hundred soldier lads
          Out of the morning mist and through the silent snow
          Whistling gaily rides the captain at their head
          Behind him soldier boys sadly weeping go

          For when you took my gold and swore to follow me
          You sold away your lives and your liberty
          No more you’ll till the soil, no more you’ll work the land
          No more to the dance you’ll go and take girls by the hand

          O mother weep for your son
          He is gone to kill and die

          You’ll weep, you’ll die by the keen edge of the sword
          All alone by the muddy Danube shore
          He gave the order for the drummers to beat their drums
          That mothers all might know the life a soldier lives

          Unfurl your ragged banners and raise your pale young face
          You’ll all go in the fire, there’ll be no hiding place
          O mother hear that drumbeat in the village square
          O mother that drum’s for me to go for a soldier there

          Mothers, sisters, wives, weep for us
          Marked as Cain we die alone

  26. Fast Eddy says:

    Never upset the Elders and their minions https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/51362

    • He was playing with fire. The Elders do NOT tolerate those ridicule them. At the end of King Lear, the Fool is among those who are executed, while the soldier who killed Cordelia, speaking American English, the English of lower class during those days, gets promoted by the new King Albany for eliminating the last heir of Lear (who imagines he killed the killer of his last daughter while the audience knows he is just delusional).

    • MikeJones says:

      I, myself, was wondering when they would shut Russell Brand mouth up on YouTube channel….he attacks and exposes all TPTB. Wonder which had a reaction and dug up the dirt on his lurid past escapades with underaged girls.
      That will teach him ..
      Recent years have seen him take a new direction – particularly since the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020. Brand grew his following on YouTube as he discussed conspiracy theories surrounding the disease.

      Stepping away from the directors and production teams of his TV and movie career, Brand’s videos generally show him speaking directly to the camera in a single take, using his notable range of verbal dexterity to challenge the mainstream reporting of a range of subjects – and has also established himself as a wellness guru.

      He now commands a following of four million on Instagram, 2.2 million on TikTok and 6.59 million on YouTube, for his near daily polemics on a range of subjects

      Now his back is against the wall

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGr_PVUHn2I

      He got one thing right..never admit to something bad..even if you are caught red handed

      • Fast Eddy says:

        The thing is …

        If these people would only accept that UEP is NECESSARY. That it is a good thing.

        They would not end up like Russ…

        It’s ok to mock the Vaxxer MOREONS… the PR Team does not care… in fact they freely engage in such mockery themselves… I know for a fact when Pfizer admitted that they never even tested for transmission — and yet the MOREONS remained loyal to the Rat Juice and boost… the PR Team was in pieces up there in the Ministry of Truth building … they were laughing so hard they pissed themselves.

        And I quote ‘look at these dummmb f789s… how f789ing stoooopid … utter f789ing MOREONS… and look at the so-called smart ones… the lawyers the engineers the doctors hahaha… first in the queue to shoot more Rat Juice –hahaha … cockroaches’

        It’s ok to ridicule them … but to push back against UEP … oh no … that’s unacceptable… that gets you onto the radar…

        And they’ll f789 you real hard.

        Me – I Stay Safe by urging the Vaxxers to take more Rat Juice… the PR Team is aware that I am aware of their plan .. but they see FE as useful … HE posts it on SS and the usual reaction is ‘that’s insane – no way they’d do that – it’s about $$$’

        Fast Eddy in this way serves to keep the MOREONS away from the Truth.

        Fast Eddy regularly states that the PR Team is comprised of geniuses… FE admires the PR Team — and the PR Team enjoys the adulation from the GOAT… they like to be recognized for their work…

        In fact they sent FE a small bag of the very highest grade of Bolivian for acknowledging this brilliance

        https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/09/13/covid-may-have-permanently-damaged-peoples-immunity/

        Thank you my friends on the PR Team — no need to Russel Brand FE… our thoughts and interests are aligned… bravo.. bravo.. ENCORE!!!

        Notice how Geert does not cross the line… Geert knows he can only go so far….

  27. Fast Eddy says:

    norm .. take note https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/51358

  28. Fast Eddy says:

    hahahaha re tards https://t.me/leaklive/15980

  29. Fast Eddy says:

    The PR Team D-Moralization Unit members… is smilin https://t.me/c/1588731774/19602

  30. Fast Eddy says:

    Nipah virus is a relatively-new, high-fatality respiratory virus that first appeared in India back in 2001. It’s a nasty bug. It features a startling 40%-75% mortality rate, is rated for BSL-4, the highest biolab security requirement, and is a CDC designated “Bioterrorism Agent.” Articles describing the current two human deaths variously suggest a zoonotic (animal) origin for the virus either from pigs or, wait for it, fruit bats.

    It reportedly spreads through body fluids.

    Nipah virus is NOT airborne. Of course, that’s not stopping everybody in Kerala from maniacally wearing masks because, why would it? Masks can stop any kind of virus using their magical mask powers. You just have to make the right sacrifices to the mask gods, or something.

    Two deaths is not an outbreak. The official alarm seems to stem from the fact that the second guy who died was contact traced to the first victim. The second guy ran into the first guy at the hospital, which strongly suggests human-to-human transmission. And that’s what has everyone so excited.

    One case of human transmission.

    In spite of the fact that all post-pandemic studies of lockdowns concluded lockdowns don’t work, and cause enormous unintended harms, the article reported that India’s health ministry has already declared 45 Kerala wards as a “containment zone” after discovering the two Nipah deaths. The containment order imposed a useless lockdown, restricting access to the 45 wards, shuttering schools, prohibiting public gatherings, nixing “non-essential” businesses, mandating masks, requiring testing and tracing, and setting a 5pm curfew.

    It was not clear from the Hindustan Times article (or any of the other articles) how India’s ministry of health concluded that a lockdown was needed for a non-airborne virus. Apparently you don’t even need to explain it anymore.

    In case you are germaphobically fretting over this new viral threat, don’t worry! Just last year in July, Moderna and Fauci’s NIAID started a clinical trial for a new mRNA vaccine for … the Nipah virus! What good luck!

    https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/viral-go-round-sunday-september-17

    That state of fear continues…

  31. Fast Eddy says:

    The Horror… The Horror… of VAIDS>..

    Wanna bet they shoot him up with the new booster — for stay safe for effective etc…and yes of course – the flu shot hahaha

    That is the beauty of stooopidity .. during times like this — it cures itself hahahahahahahaahahahahahaha

    It’s like stomping on cockroaches

    Tennessee – A 14-year-old boy’s parents had to make the heart-wrenching decision to amputate all of their son’s hands and feet after his normal flu-like symptoms suddenly turned deadly. Mathias Uribe, of Tennessee, has been hospitalized at the Monroe Carrel Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt for more than two months after he was rushed to the hospital feeling deathly ill on June 30.

    He was diagnosed with pneumonia and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome and went into cardiac arrest, WSMV reported. Mathias was put on an ECMO [extracorporeal membrane oxygenation] machine, which kept the blood pumping throughout his body for two weeks, allowing his heart and lungs to rest. It saved his life, but enough blood wasn’t flowing to his extremities, forcing doctors to remove them, the teen’s father said. His hands were removed at the wrist and his legs were removed from below the knee.

    Mathias’ family hopes that their son, who ran cross country, played soccer and played piano, can soon leave the hospital with new prosthetic limbs. “I told him we are going to be your arms and legs until we figure all of this out,” his father, Edgar Uribe, told the outlet. Dr. Katie Boyle, an ICU pediatrician and the head of Mathias’ care team, said that there was nothing that Mathias’ parents could do to save their son’s hands and feet from amputation.

    “It’s extremely rare,” she said, of Mathias’ rapidly deteriorating condition. “Sometimes when you get the flu it does set you up for a bacterial infection. But even then, most kids don’t get nearly as sick as Mathias did.”

    Parents should get their children flu shots and check on them often while they are sick for symptoms like a high fever, trouble swallowing fluids, or inability to wake up from a deep sleep — which should trigger a trip to the hospital, Boyle said.

    • adonis says:

      the children are getting slaughtered by these vaxxes and the parents are clueless does anyone benefit in the long run maybe the elders do if they and their families did not take the vax they can be part of the ” purebloods” or ” the golden billion” the billion who did not get the mrna shots.

  32. Fast Eddy says:

    Covid may have permanently damaged people’s immunity

    Covid infections are putting people at higher risk of diabetes, strokes, heart disease and other long-term illnesses – but experts warn it may be decades before the full impact is known.

    Meanwhile, could Covid-19 also be blamed for the increased frequency and severity of colds and flu? Has it damaged our ability to fight off infections?

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/09/13/covid-may-have-permanently-damaged-peoples-immunity/

  33. Mirror on the wall says:

    This is my summary of the talk that Jeffrey Sach’s had on The Duran over the weekend.

    Jeffrey Sachs argues that global hegemony is transient; the torch passed from the British Empire to USA in 1945, USA was rivalled by USSR until 1992 and then had an unipolar moment in which it tried to tidy up its hegemony with wars against old Russian allies like Iraq, Syria, Libya, which largely failed and by expanding NATO/ EU into former Russian spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, potentially with a view to the break up of Russia itself. Meanwhile China was not seen as a potential rival but that has all now changed; Jeffrey argues that China cannot be ‘contained’ militarily, technologically, financially or in any other way as USA cannot maintain some monopoly, and the world is inevitably headed for a multipolar moment; the rest of the world is aware that comprises a transcendence of centuries-long European domination, which eventuality Adam Smith foresaw, and it will indeed be good for global development.

    Sach’s general argument seems to be that USA is trying to maintain its hegemony by containing the economic rise of China, just as it contained Japan in the 1980s, so by keeping others down so that they cannot overcome USA hegemony, while USA/ Europe continue to exploit under-developed regions like Africa, Latin America and Asia for the cheaper labour and natural resources; removing the lid off the development of others like China allows them to develop their global connections in Africa, Latin America, Asia and all over, it allows for the spread of affordable technology, and of successful development models around the world, which is necessary for the development of those regions, and everyone can rise through global trade and development rather than USA/ Europe trying to cap it all to maintain their own privileged position. BRICS and the global Belt and Road Initiative are important parts of that.

    Disregarding resource exploitation limits, he probably has a point, albeit he likely does give us a heads up of geopolitical shifts in the meantime anyway.

    > Jeffrey David Sachs is an SDG Advocate for United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 global goals adopted at a UN summit meeting in September 2015. From 2001 to 2018, Sachs served as Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General, and held the same position under the previous UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; he had first been appointed special adviser to the UN Secretary-General in 2002 during the term of Kofi Annan.

    • Thanks for your write up of Jeffrey Sachs talk. It is hard for me to find time to listen to all of the videos. Clearly, the US wants to maintain its hegemony. I am doubtful that “spread of affordable technology, and of successful development models around the world” can happen, without a lot of cheap oil supplies.

      I would think that consulting for the UN gives sort of a biased perspective on how the world economy works.

      • ivanislav says:

        Yes, they do not see that part of the story. But some semblance of BAU can continue a while longer in those countries that ally with BRICS, so long as Russia is willing to export its raw materials cheaply.

      • Mirror on the wall says:

        Apologies for the typo right in the first sentence lol, I was tired by the time that I added that but embarrassing even so lol.

        > Sachs

  34. MikeJones says:

    The future is NOW…and we worry about digital currency..
    https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/amazon-fort-lauderdale-airport-launch-store-with-check-out-free-tech/3113634/?amp=1 PS
    Amazon, Fort Lauderdale Airport launch store with “check-out free tech”
    The new store takes advantage of Amazon One’s technology to help passengers be more efficient while traveling.
    By Nicolas Garcia • Published September 16, 2023
    Passengers traveling via the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport will be able to enjoy “The Market at Las Olas” which is powered by Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” and “Amazon One” technologies, says the Broward County Commission.

    According to the Broward County Commission in a press release, the store will be the first location in a Florida airport to feature Amazon’s new checkout-free shopping platform.

    The store, located in Terminal 3 between Concourses E and F, after you pass security, will have sandwiches, chips, snacks, sports drinks, sodas for customers to just simply grab and go, the release said.

    The customers can enter using their credit card, or by hovering their palm over an Amazon One device in the entrance, and technology will detect what the shoppers take from or return to the shelves, the release said.

    Big Brother knows your every move…next he will know your every thought

    • Perhaps this works. Those who adopt it certainly hope so.

      I can imagine that the makers would hope to eliminate a lot of checkout (and bagging) workers in stores. This would save the stores money. But workers would need to find different jobs.

      • Leaves fewer people able to purchase things from these stores. A sort of “virtuous” cycle.

          • Dennis L. says:

            Assumed true story, second hand, reliable source, personal observation; I notice such things.

            Rochester, retired nurse, nice condo, $1500/mo mortgage, $300/mo association fees, having a hard time making it; divorced.
            Last seen at a dance with a skirt slit up the side just short of the waist. Coincidence?

            I see what it costs to live, everything recorded in Quicken, stuff has gone up, and up; personally go to my local pub after 10:00 PM, much cheaper, can still tip servers.

            The Amish way works, yesterday, Sunday was in a long line of buggies returning home from their service, also a long line of horse poop, its organic. A buggy goes 10 mph at a steady pace.

            For the insanity of the world the Amish having no TV, radio and no social media may be avoiding all the madness. Posted here earlier a recent purchase of 80 acres for $1.2m, cash by Amish per selling farmer. Something may not work with industrial agriculture, too much cash out, not enough cash in, it is the difference which counts.

            Dennis L.

  35. I read about the Golden Record which got into the Voyager probes.

    Although the Golden Record was the representation of human civilization to the space, surprisingly its selection was done haphazardly, done by Carl Sagan and his friends.

    A Swedish rep recited a poem by Harry Martinson. A poet no one outside of Sweden had ever heard about. The only thing he ever did in his life is awarding himself (and a friend of his) a Nobel Prize for Literature because he and his friend were in the selection committee. Such piece of trash will represent humanity in the space. Carl Sagan made his son Nick record a phrase in English so his mark would also remain in the universe too. (Fortunately Jimmy Carter had a longer passage in there)

    The music was also hardly representative, mostly coming from the discography of a friend of Sagan’s who had a world music store. For whatever reason Peru is represented twice. And two pieces by American blacks (Blind Johnson and Chuck E Berry) and one from an American native but not one from American whites. So based upon Sagan’s record US whites made no meaningful music which deserved to be recorded for the universe.

    Which shows why the US space program failed.

    Kulm the status quo has a way to reach a Type I Civilization.

    Get 1,000 of the world’s best minds, put them into one single compound, and tell them they won’t get out till we reach Type I Civ. It will get there.

    It is proven to work. Kim Jong Il assembled all of North Korea’s physicists, etc, and told them to come out with a nuclear weapon within 5 years, or all of them (and their families) would be sent to concentration camps. Voila, NK now had a nuclear weapon.

    • Jan says:

      I like your suggestions! They are intelligent, logical and resolute! It occurs to me though, that there is a tendency to delegate the critical points. That could lead to failure, couldn’t it?

      There are some interesting arguments, why nuclear bombs do not exist. If so, Kim’s method could not have been frutiful and would not be recommendable. Our time pulls the rug out from under us and throws us into thick fog.
      Captain needs a good seventh sense!

      I am not too deep into the matter, but I was impressed my Michel Palmer: Hiroshima revisited. To be found also on archive.org. There is a lot of factchecking to be found online, using the key “Hiroshima hoax”.

      https://mpalmer.heresy.is/webnotes/HR/

    • davidinamonthorayearoradecade says:

      “Get 1,000 of the world’s best minds, put them into one single compound, and tell them they won’t get out till we reach Type I Civ. It will get there.
      It is proven to work.”

      some of your historical applications seem to have some value, but this one is definitely one of the stooooopidest ideas that I’ve ever seen on the internet.

      anything comes close?

      well, Fast Henny said that a plane is just like a tin soda can so if a plane hit a skyscraper, it would crumple and fall to the ground.

      I can’t decide which one is worse. 😉

  36. MikeJones says:

    NASA hopes humanoid robots can help us explore the moon and Mars
    By John Loeffler published about 3 hours ago
    https://www.space.com/nasa-apptronik-humanoid-space-robots-moon-mars
    NASA is eyeing a privately built ‘Apollo’ space robot for continued investment — and future space missions.
    NASA has teamed up with a small robotics firm in Texas to continue the space agency’s decades of work developing humanoid robots. Soon, such robots may be sent to orbit, or even other planets, to help astronauts with their work.

    Texas-based Apptronik, Inc. has long collaborated with NASA under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts program to hone the capabilities of Apollo, a humanoid robot that the company is developing to handle terrestrial tasks like logistics, manufacturing, and home healthcare assistance. NASA, meanwhile, has taken a keen interest in adapting Apollo (and robots like it) to become assistants for astronauts living and working in orbit, as well as on the moon and even Mars.

    They might even one day function as remote-controlled “avatars” on other worlds for Earth-based human operators to pilot.

    Yes, the future is now..Keith is correct

    • A bonanza for the owner of Apptronik. Who doesn’t have to care about whether it will work since it pocketed government money

    • Ed says:

      SpaceX will send a Tesla Bot to the moon looooong before NASA does anything useful with a humanoid robot.

      • MikeJones says:

        Ed, click on the link to the article…think they pretty much there already

        • Dennis L. says:

          Of course, China working on a rover for the s. pole of the moon around 2024. Scientific interest only, or could they be looking for metals?

          Nah, impossible, can’t mine, collect metals in space, need to dig a deep, expensive hole in spaceship earth for that sort of thing. Most likely sight seeing.

          Dennis L.

      • Dennis L. says:

        Probably just a publicity stunt, or could they be looking for metals, not ores, but metals? Moon is a shallow gravity well.

        Dennis L.

        • Keith Henson says:

          Lunar regolith is around 1% asteroid iron that you can pull out with a magnet. Of course a metal asteroid is 100% asteroid iron.

          Relative to Earth, the moon is a shallow gravity well. It’s possible to launch stuff with a mass driver. But it is not clear if this is a good idea, the economics is questionable.

          • Fast Eddy says:

            How bout that indian lunar rover keith — discuss

            • davidinamonthorayearoradecade says:

              okay, Paul, let’s see, oh yes, you’re the only one on OFW who can’t understand the basic science of why humans don’t go flying off into space just because the Earth rotates at about 1,000 mph.

              do you know that centripetal force acts at a right angle to the forward direction of an orbiting object?

              no? you didn’t quite get that one, did you?

              how about your gem of a post a couple months back:

              you said planes are just like tin soda cans so if one hit a skyscraper it would crumble and fall to the ground.

              an all-time OFW classic of stooooopidity! 😉

              no shame in being who you are, we all have strengths and weaknesses, you have very low science aptitude, probably the equivalent of a sub 100 IQ.

              all in all, there is often very little reason to assent to your commentary about science-related topics.

              ps: I wish you good luck on moving to Oz!

  37. The 99.99% has to accept that

    1) There is nothing for them in the future if humankind reaches the next level of civ
    2) You will work till you die, will probably never afford a place where you could reproduce, and when you die they will show grief for maybe half a minute and go back to their lives since it is very harsh.

    Robert Frost wrote about the hard life people in the country side had.
    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44261/the-death-of-the-hired-man

    Silas, an old hired hand, leaves after Warren, the employer, offers a less than living wage. Warren justifies it because Silas has a brother who is a director of a bank and is rich. Later, Silas tries to return to Warren’s farm but falls dead on the way, and Warren speaks about this like it happened to someone living in Mars.

    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53087/out-out

    A boy loses his hand, and dies. And this is the response of the townspeople
    “No more to build on there. And they, since they
    Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs”

    No one cares. No memorials. The boy will be buried like a dead cow, and is less valuable since at least you could get fat from a less cow and feed its carcass to the dogs and cats (although usually people also ate it during these days).

    That is the life awaiting the 99.99% of humanity. When they die, they will be left aside like the Amazon employee who was covered with some tarp when he dropped dead. People will be too busy to keep their living to care about deaths around them, knowing they are no less disposable than the one who just died..

    • Dennis L. says:

      kul,

      I see the Amish up close, they have nice homes, their fields are well tended and within the last thirty days a parcel of 80 acres with a few buildings was purchased for $1.2m cash. They are doing something right and are not part of the class you mention.

      Not sarcastic, not disrespectful question. Do you personally own and manage any productive land?

      In days of old it is my understanding land owners sent the youngsters of the upper class to be knights, the yeoman farmers and their skills were too valuable to lose to a spear, etc.

      It is a tough world and not everything which has worked will work and not everything which is working will continue to work. My philosophy, “I’ll deal with it.” Adversity makes one a man, it is an interesting voyage; a benefit is finding a dance partner becomes much easier. Normally I don’t care for philosophers, we seek affirmation, not information so a quote more or less from someone I have forgotten, “The pain which does not kill you makes you strong.”

      Being rich can make life too pain free.

      Dennis L.

      • Any Amish land will be taken by force rather quickly like what the Monnonites found out when Makhno’s anarchists paid them a visit.

        This is about treating workers harshly. Nothing to do with managing an estate.

  38. MikeJones says:

    Theopetra Cave, located in the Meteora limestone rock formations of Thessaly, Central Greece, is likely to be the place of the oldest human construction on earth, as findings indicate that the cave was inhabited as early as 130,000 years ago.

    https://greekreporter.com/2023/09/17/theopetra-cave-greece-oldest-human-construction/PS

    According to archaeologists, evidence of human habitation in the cave can be traced without interruption from the Middle Palaeolithic to the end of the Neolithic period.

    Dr. Aikaterini Kyparissi-Apostolika, head of the Ephorate of Palaeoanthroplogy and Speleaography of Greece’s Ministry of Culture and Sports, specializing in prehistoric archaeology and spelaeology, was the head of the team which began excavations in Theopetra Cave in 1987. Her team’s research at the cave continued through 2007.

    ……The age of the wall has led researchers to assume that it had been built by the cave’s inhabitants to protect them from the cold. It has been claimed that this is the oldest known man-made structure in Greece, and possibly even in the world.

    Additionally, by conducting micromorphological analysis on sedimentary samples collected from each archaeological layer, scientists discovered that there had been hot and cold spells during the cave’s occupation.

    The cave’s population seemed to fluctuate over the years, relative to these changes in climate.

    Further finds of the researchers were hominid footprints imprinted onto the cave’s soft earthen floor.
    ……It has been speculated that these were made by several Neanderthal children, aged between two and four years old, who had lived in the cave during the Middle Palaeolithic period.

    Overall research in Theopetra Cave has allowed archaeologists to gain a better understanding of the transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic way of life in mainland Greece.

  39. Only keeping all the resources at the top and leaving virtually nothing to the 99.9% of population, who will have to live with a lot less, will save civilization.

    • ivanislav says:

      The Adam and Eve Story by Thomas Chan, a quick read. Perhaps we will be wiped out, to start again with a new set of resources once the earth’s crust is renewed, not so long from now – something to be hopeful about!

    • ‘fraid it isnt possible to keep 99.9% of resources for use by the top whatever

      our social/economic system is sustained by most of us, (including we great unwashed) consuming resources at an ever increasing rate.

      this, and only this, is what creates and sustains the wealth of the top minority.

      If you don’t ”get it”—imagine Bezos, with all the network of Amazon across the world

      Now think of all those warehouses lying empty, doing nothing. —which they would be, if most of us were paupers.

      Bezos would then be as poor as everyone else.

      Think of the oil billionaire—then imagine no one able to burn his oil—he too becomes a pauper.

      this is why there is no ”great reset” planned—grant our rich elite at least the same intelligence level as yours truly,—they know the reality of where wealth comes from.

      but i’ve pointed all this out before—still the ”rich elite” myth persists.

      • In the old days about 4% of all British population had maybe 90% plus of all income

        So the top 1-5% can do all the consumption while the rest live in tenements and just barely have enough to eat.

        It would have continued to this day if Gabby Princip didn’t think his stupid country should have a chance or if Chucky didn’t ‘do his duty’.

        • in the ”’old days”. 98% of the people produced the energy resources (from the land) that kept the other 2% in idleness —-agreed.

          but land was the only source of wealth.

          now we have a society where wealth derives from the activities of all of us. as i tried to make clear Bezos needs the rest of us to keep buying and using ‘stuff’.–that was my point, the top 2% cant ‘consume’

          emptying out a city to put all its inhabiants to work on a farm wouldnt work—not enough land, or enough skill

          its been tried before

          • Cromagnon says:

            In this Norman you are completely correct. Kulm does not understand that medieval economics and social organization does not translate into an social strategy for a Seneca collapse world.
            If we avoid extinction we will become tribal once again. The natural resource base for even medieval kingdoms is now gone for much of the biosphere.

      • “Every Store is Closed in Berkeley” (10 min. walking tour)

        • Berkeley is right across the bay from San Francisco. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the same problems are befalling it as are befalling San Francisco.

          • Yes, I believe there are links in the description to other surveys of SF neighborhoods. This just happened to be the link I recently came across. I was surprised to see how complete the exodus was.

            Norm wrote, above, about “all those warehouses lying empty, doing nothing” and I remembered this clip.

    • Yes and no. It seems to me that civilization is akin to the fruiting body of a fungus. The fungus can be in the process of gathering and maintaining energy and materials for decades, centuries, or even millennia… but the surface structures only appear given the right combination of external conditions.

      At any rate, I don’t think civilizations can be effectively planned. It’s hard for me to think of anything planned by moderns that has any real life, beauty, or compelling interest. The space stuff that appeals to you and Dennis is my absolute worst nightmare and I would rather die in a ditch than live in a pod.

      Civilizations themselves are a mixed bag, with beautiful aspects and ugly ones. For most people, civilization = good because the distribution of resources is broader and more systematized, and the surpluses that allow for civilization may afford some a greater degree of leisure and high-art creation. But it’s not as though civilization itself creates those conditions (imo).. I see it as a simultaneity. San Francisco, London, NYC, Paris, are still, by some dictionary definition, cities, but it is questionable the degree to which they may continue to represent a positive concept of “civilization” any longer.

      • Ed says:

        Big hard fast ugly cruel does not equal civilization. A nice little log home on a small lake with a hamlet within walking distance is more my idea of civilization.

        • Artleads says:

          And books and written music no doubt. But a life like that is (must inevitably be) underpinned by the huge surpluses (and ugliness) civilization brought about.

          • Keith Henson says:

            Exactly right. Advancing technology might reduce the scale of society needed for a comfortable life in a hamlet, but it is hard to say for sure. Economy of scale is a hard master.

            • Keith Henson says:

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballpoint_pen

              The common ballpoint pen is a product of mass production, with components produced separately on assembly lines.[52] Basic steps in the manufacturing process include the production of ink formulas, molding of metal and plastic components, and assembly.[4]

            • live in a hamlet by all means

              but you will still need the advanced sciences of healthcare etc

              unless you are prepared to put your faith in the local witchdoctor

            • Keith Henson says:

              “the local witchdoctor”

              I was thinking more in terms of nanotech based cell repair machines.

              I wrote about what should be possible a long time ago. From “The Clinic Seed.”

              K’rekou’s compressed genome, along with those of the rest of the tata inhabitants, had been sent through the network, and his embryonic development and growth to his present age had been simulated with otherwise idle computing capacity. What he should be like at this stage of his growth was a checkpoint in the medical database for the tata.

              The process of healing was primarily one of comparing what should be with what was, and reducing the differences. Most of the comparison was done outside the boy in computing nodes cooled with a flow of ultra pure cold water. Still, there was a lot of heat-releasing manipulation required that had to be done slowly. To carry away the waste heat, K’rekou’s blood was temporarily removed and replaced by a substitute solution pumped through him just above freezing.

              By 11:15 the parasites had been expunged, and the tissue around them reverted to normal. Enough damage had been done by the parasites to require temporary scaffolding in a few places. The scaffolding would release growth hormone until the cell proliferation filled in the gaps, and then it would dissolve. Other minor parasites were destroyed; ones that didn’t cause problems were left; a minor hernia was fixed; and cell repair machines restored fat by injecting lipids into the fat cells–a cell-at-a-time reversed version of liposuction. Then K’rekou’s blood was warmed up and put back. Finally the haze of nanomachines faded back into the table.

              By noon the boy, looking much healthier, woke up when his mother entered the clinic. His mother was astounded at the change. K’rekou wanted to go play with his friends. Suskulan, who had monitored the process rather than directed the fine details, was pleased. He sent off a report of his first case and received a number of congratulations from other clinics and humans.

        • Civilization by definition involves a city: a concentration of trade activity and a center of culture and political power. Backwaters and byways are all oriented (however remotely) and linked to their civilization centers. They can’t persist without the central organizing principle. When settlers went west during European civilizational expansion in the USA, they were not guaranteed a great deal of safety, but they generally had back-up from the US Army, sheriffs, etc. The civilizational process set up the boundaries, the laws, the taxes, that supported those civilizing forces, no?

  40. adonis says:

    Scientists from Russia’s Ministry of Health are warning in a secret report to Prime Minister Putin that they have discovered a ‘critical link’ between the H1N1 influenza (Swine Flu) virus and genetically modified amylopectin potatoes that are consumed in massive quantities nearly exclusively by Westerners and sold in fast food restaurants as French Fries.

    According to these reports, the protease enzyme genetically modified in the potatoes being sold through Western fast food restaurants as French Fries to protect against Potato virus X causes an “explosive” replication of the H1N1 influenza virus by increasing the acidic conditions of the endosome and causing the hemagglutinin protein to rapidly fuse the viral envelope with the vacuole’s membrane, then causing the M2 ion channel to allow protons to move through the viral envelope and acidify the core of the virus, which causes the core to dissemble and release the H1N1’s RNA and core proteins into the hosts cells.

    Evidence confirming these dire findings by top Russian scientists is also supported by the World Health Organization who in their reporting on the current Influenza Pandemic, clearly shows that the H1N1 virus is nearly totally confined to those Western Nations allowing their citizens to consume these genetically modified potatoes, and which include:

    The United States with over 17,000 cases being reported with 45 deaths

    Canada with 2,978 cases

    the United Kingdom with 1,226 cases

    Australia with 1,823 case

  41. adonis says:

    I believe that the elders discussed depletion back in 2005 and everything we are seeing is related to that realization lockdowns pandemics and what not collapse is baked in the cake but who knows when ” An American Bilderberger expressed concern over the sky-rocketing price of oil. One oil industry insider at the meeting remarked that growth is not possible without energy and that according to all indicators, world’s energy supply is coming to an end much faster than the world leaders have anticipated. According to sources, Bilderbergers estimate the extractable world’s oil supply to be at a maximum of 35 years under current economic development and population. However, one of the representatives of an oil cartel remarked that we must factor into the equation, both the population explosion and economic growth and demand for oil in China and India. Under the revised conditions, there is apparently only enough oil to last for 20 years. No oil spells the end of the world’s financial system. So much has already been acknowledged by The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, two periodicals who are regularly present at the annual Bilderberg conference.”

    • adonis says:

      Bilderberg Group
      Secret lobbying for

      Anti-Democratic European Superstate by Western Elite.
      Founded in 1954, the Bilderberg Group holds “by invitation only” annual meetings of the rich and powerful. About two-thirds of the attendees are European,

      the rest American.

      Informally named for the site of the group’s first meeting, the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands.

    • RationalLuddite says:

      What year was this quote from Adonis?

      Thanks

  42. Ravi Uppal says:

    Throughout 2023, the yields on Italian 10-year Treasury Bonds have been trading at above 4%. Only last summer, they were 0.6%. When they began approaching 4% last December, the financial markets thought that level would trigger a panic. Fast forward nine months and we’re still above that panic level.

    Currently the yields are just over 4.4% but they appear to be trending higher. Namely, since June, every pullback reversed from a higher trough. It’s hard to see how this trend could reverse, absent some miraculous outcome that isn’t even theoretically in the offing. The moment when the yields rally to new highs could mark the beginning of the unraveling of the eurozone. Italy’s fiscal collapse could destroy the ECB’s and EU’s credibility which, however diminished, is perhaps all that stands between the place where we are today and the abyss.

    Italy has been a good pupil of the IMF’s class of neoliberal economics: between 1992 and 2009, it implemented the most severe fiscal consolidation measures of all EU countries, including sharp spending cuts, liberalization of its labor markets and a clampdown of its labor unions. The cost of these reforms has not yet deterred successive governments in spite of the precipitous decline in the living standards. Italy is the only EU economy where real wages registered negative growth since 1990! In 2000, Italian living standards were comparable to those in Germany. Today, Italy’s per capita income is 20% below Germany’s. For a society that was very affluent a generation ago, it has deteriorated fast and today more than one in five Italians live in poverty. Nearly 10% of the population (5.6 million Italians, including 1.4 million children) now live in absolute poverty and the population has declined by nearly 2.5% since 2014 (from 60.346 million to 58.851 million today).

    Well, all that pain must have yielded some gain? Well, not so much. To begin with, Italy has surrendered its sovereignty to NATO and the EU (read, ECB). Its foreign policy is dictated by NATO and its economic policy is almost entirely in the hands of a convicted criminal, the ECB chief Christine Lagarde. A small digression: that’s the same Christine Lagarde who, in her position as the head of the IMF, helped orchestrate the 2014 coup in Ukraine and arranged IMF funding for the Kiev fascist junta, but only on condition that they step up their vicious anti-terrorist operation against the Donbass region. The puppet junta obliged and over the next two months killed at least 2,000 Ukrainians (according to Kiev’s official figures). Of course, Lagarde’s sterling leadership qualified her to head up the EU’s central bank.

    Now the EU’s economy too, is in the hands of the brightest and the best so we can look forward to EU and Italy following in the footsteps of Ukraine’s economic miracle. Here’s an example of how it’s done: Italy’s nonperforming loans collapsed from 17% of bank assets in 2016 to only 4% last year. How was that miracle accomplished? The regulator simply declared the bulk of those bad debts just awesome, approved them as “healthy” collateral for the REPO markets and swept them into the black hole of toxic junk that is Europe’s Target 2 rebalancing system. And we all lived happily ever after. Easy-peasy!

    By this time, the EU should consider adopting George Michael’s song “Freedom” as its official hymn:

    “All we have to do now,

    is take these lies and make them true…”

    But lies can’t be made true. Recall, the Eurozone nearly came apart in similar circumstances in 2010-2012. At the time, Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wanted to take Italy out of the Eurozone and bring back her national currency. But true to Europe’s democratical values, the ECB’s then chief, Mario Draghi quickly orchestrated Berlusconi’s ouster and sealed Italy’s fate on the sinking ship that is the EU. Oh, and then Draghi himself became Prime Minister in February 2021 because, freedom and democracy! Today’s cabinet led by Giorgia Meloni seems impotent at best, and completely subservient to Lagarde’s ECB whose policies Meloni’s coalition partner and former Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called “unbelievable, baffling, worrying.”

    The predictable result has been further suffocation of the Italian economy which registered a sharp decline in manufacturing output, a 0.4% negative GDP growth during the second quarter of 2023 and a rise in unemployment which is now at 7.6%. Neither Italy nor the rest of the EU are in any shape to sustain another 2008-style financial crisis. The EU little shop of horrors is due to turn up many “surprises” over the coming months. I believe that we’ll see sovereign bond yields shoot up higher and their prices tank along with the Euro. If the brightest and the best talent in charge of the economy prove unable to stem the gathering avalanche, the Eurozone, the EU and the NATO might all come crashing down like a house of cards. If only we could take all the lies and somehow make them true!

    Otherwise, the only alternative that’s been used by the democratical ruling parasite class since the days of the Roman Empire is to drum up the “enemies at the gates” alarm and orchestrate a big war. It’s just the kind of emergency that always helps the ruling establishment deflect the people’s anger away from their own mismanagement and toward an external enemy who could be blamed for all of their troubles. Luckily for Europe’s degenerate oligarchs, there’s an evil dictator in the east who might just fit the bill. To war!

    • Jan says:

      Thank you for this comprehensive depiction! For me it is interesting to get alternative and personal reports about other countries.

      I understand all subliminal emotions.

      From my point of view crude oil creates a productivity gain as it fuels machines and allows work, that otherwise had to be done by humans or wouldn’t be possible.

      To exploit resources, energy and technology have to be invested. As easy to gather resources are produced first these investments grow with progressing expoitation. These investments have to be subtracted from the productivity gains, they reduce the advantage of technization. There is a moment, when the investments eat up the advantage. That moment is called “peakoil”. In that moment, oil production would stop.

      There is no monitoring of these coherences. As a workaround we might look at the affordability of fossile products. Currently, a lot of them, that should fuel our economies, are subject to subsidies.

      Of course that leads to an impossible calculation! We cannot cut hair and design marketing tools to finance the fuel to process steel and fertilizer. That is beyond any imagination!

      The only possibility that we can pay these subsidies is by promising payments in the future – that will never be paid. This will work for some time until the markets cannot afford it any further. This might lead to very complicated financial turbulences.

      The powers that be have been extremely successful to extend these promises of future payments – and that seems to be the reason why people accept them.

      The alternative is, that we have to deal with a world without fossile fuels – and I am convinced, that their extraction is a question of all or nothing. I doubt it is possible to maintain the oil industry on half their level.

      The following point has in my view not sufficiently been argued on this blog. Is it possible, that a smaller region might keep up oil production longer than others? It is argued, that we have an intertwined global economy and decoupling is not possible. I agree to that for the long run but not for the short term. I guess the one that can still produce fossile fuels while others cannot is able to dominate the have-nots.

      I think, this is what we are seeing: a reaction to the declining energy availability, that shifts the powers and checks and balances.

      I agree that there are evil people and they currently they are coming out of the woodwork.

      But that is a distraction. People confuse the structural recession with a cyclical decline and believe if they have patience it will go up again. It won’t!

      Seeing this we should prepare for the inevitable to come! Unfortunately, we are not able to thematizise this subject to any larger group.

      And this means, the fall of BAU will be a harder than it needs to. This might be the fault of evil people – but it might as much be the fault of ourselves.

      • Ravi Uppal says:

        Jan , you ask ” The alternative is, that we have to deal with a world without fossil fuels – and I am convinced, that their extraction is a question of all or nothing. I doubt it is possible to maintain the oil industry on half their level ”

        On another blog ” I have long surrendered to the evidence. We cannot survive without oil. Which means that they cannot reduce the supply of oil, whatever the price. That is, they will extract every drop of oil to the maximum until the end. Only the geological part of oil extraction can stop the current system. Therefore, there is no intention to maximize the production of each deposit, but rather to extract the maximum at all times.

        Applied to shale oil, it means that they will do whatever is necessary to extract the maximum possible at all times, without optimizing the treatment of each basin, to hold the maximum in each reservoir. 15,000 foot laterals, polymers, refracking, you name it. Of course, this means that the normal decline that should be seen will not be such, but rather a complete collapse, when each area says enough is enough. In exchange, they will extend maximum production for a couple or maybe with luck four or five years and then it’s over.

        It’s not something strange either. Everywhere is doing the same thing, Grand Burgan in Kuwait is 80% depleted and producing an incredible 1.5 million b/d, despite being almost completely depleted. I imagine three quarters of the same in Ghawar.

        As for the fiduciary system, it has two possible ways of dying. Due to monetary inflation, if the CBs continue printing money in a context of uncontrolled inflation or alternatively in the form of a gold standard or basket of solid assets. The debt spiral has entered the point of no return, but it is daring to put an end date on it. I also don’t think we will reach 2030, so we will see an extraordinary financial crisis in this decade (independent of the oil market, but influenced by the price, if it gets out of hand).
        https://futurocienciaficcionymatrix.blogspot.com/2023/09/el-futuro-de-la-humanidad-se-decide-en.html#comments

      • Hubbs says:

        “The following point has in my view not sufficiently been argued on this blog. Is it possible, that a smaller region might keep up oil production longer than others? ”

        Indeed. This outcome is what I am wondering about. Will the world eventually be forced to Balkanize due to energy supply restrictions? And if so, oil and energy will be too expensive for a country to project war on others on a massive scale? If a country has natural hydrocarbon resources and the ability to distill them, then in the future it could indeed be more resilient to global hegemony as I suspect that NATO realizes the impracticality of launching full scale conventional wars against Russia or China and certainly not on both fronts simulateously, since they would be fought where Russia and China are in their own back yards where the short supply lines would give them an overwhelming logistical advantage, especially Russia who has the raw materials within its borders. China, it could be argued, could be more easily starved of energy by disrupting its supply lines. This supply disruption is a tactic of low tech resistance against a superior military force.

        So it’s nuclear war or else more continued saber rattling, and limited proxy wars until the energy/ natural resources dilemma forces the West to stand naked with no clothes. It’s just a waiting game for how long this will take to play out.

        • Ed says:

          Do not forget bio-weapons. They are virtually zero energy cost weapons. Just one person with a spray bottle walking around grocery stores.

      • I AM THE MOB says:

        Jan

        Great questions.

        “Yes, we can run the oil industry on half as much. We did it before, with much less know knowledge.” And OPEC will keep cutting as demand/price drops to stabilize the oil industry.

        And the question about debts and inflation.

        They will wipe the debts out just like after WW2. And inflation they will eliminate with digital currency.

    • Ed says:

      Ravi, thanks very informative.

      • Ravi Uppal says:

        I had earlier posted a comment from HHH at POB on the Yen situation . Here are two posts on interest rates and Europe .

        USA first .

        ” Let’s look at the US consumer. Or 70% of the US economy. Real wages have been negative for over 24 months. Put it on a chart there is really nothing to compare it to at anytime in the past.

        Savings are at extreme lows while credit card balances have exploded to all time highs. Overlaying these two in the same chart is down right scary.

        Student loans repayment kickback in the 1st of October.

        Since the stimulus money ran out more people have no choice but to get a job. Which has kept unemployment figures from rising. As long as unemployment numbers are low and oil prices are high FED will continue hiking rates.

        When the data starts coming in soft and unemployment start to rise. The FED goes from hawkish to neutral or a pause. Then to a rate cut.

        If you are bullish on oil prices when the FED starts to cut rates is when you should really be concerned. Because they will be cutting for a good reason which isn’t oil bullish.

        My analysis is spot on it just takes more time to play out than anyone on this blog can handle so they assume it’s just wrong.

        Europe and China next .

        ” Bank credit is also in contraction btw. Particularly in Europe. So while Europe importing oil at a record or near record might sound great it’s not a forward looking indicator to where demand is going.

        My guess is higher for longer interest rates only really last 2-3 months at best in Europe before they have to cut to support growth.

        And ultimately just because a central bank cuts rates doesn’t mean commercial banks are going to start making loans like crazy and jumpstart the economy into growth.

        Look over at China. Their central bank is cutting rates left and right and it doesn’t really matter. Unless demand from China’s two biggest customers the US and Europe is fixed then there is no fix for China.

        It’s in China’s best interests for the war in Ukraine to come to and end and trade relations between Russia and Europe to normalize. And for oil to flow at max volume everywhere to keep prices down.

        You can put money in the pockets of US consumers by getting oil prices down. China’s best interest and the rest of the BRICS members don’t really align.

        I mean really is Russia or anybody else capable of stepping in and providing end demand for China’s products? To keep hundreds of millions of Chinese employed.

        It’s in China’s best interests for the Saudi’s to reverse course and pump as much oil as possible. And if you’re receiving Chinese yuan as payment for oil you want those yuan to retain value. So technically it’s probably in Saudi’s best interest to keep oil prices down.

        If we keep going down this path. Demand for oil in China will fall off a cliff as unemployment goes through the roof there and the ability for the average person to pay nosebleed home prices/mortgage is impaired beyond repair. And we get to watch the largest single asset in the world take a huge haircut in price they can’t recover from. Which will have knock on effects for the rest of the global economy. ”
        Hope this will assist in understanding the connect between the energy and economy .

    • How the EU has stayed together this long is hard to believe. I can see why Italy would be quite unhappy about their falling standard of living. And rising interest rates have many ill effects, including causing problems for banks and for investors wanting to start new businesses.

      I saw this article on Zerohedge talking about another source of conflict among EU members:

      EU’s Ukraine Grain Policy Fractures Europe: Poland, Hungary & Slovakia Remain Defiant

      The European Union’s Friday announcement effectively ending its import ban on Ukrainian grain in five member states has once again put Brussels on a collision course with some key eastern and central European members. “Existing measures will expire today,” the European Commission stated, reportedly based on verbal promises that Kiev will control exports.

      Soon after the Russian invasion, the EU sought control measures by placing quotas and tariffs on Ukrainian foodstuffs; however, the flood of cheap Ukrainian grain into European markets threatened the survival of farmers in places like Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Some of these very countries – Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia – have now said they aren’t playing ball, and have announced in unison they will defy the EU decision and are extending the temporary ban.

      • Ravi Uppal says:

        Gail , the EU and the Euro are ” Hotel California ” . You can enter but never leave . I watched the stealth power grab by Brussels over 30 years and that is now complete . Nation state members of the EU are impotent . Those who want to leave were set an example by application of financial might in the case of Greece and political might in the case of Berlusconi . After this not a pip squeak from any member state . The EU commissioner decided to enter the war theatre in Ukraine by an announcement , no meeting or vote . There is of course NATO to keep the sheep in line . The non Euro area of the EU is helpless as they are depending on the income transfer of their citizens working in the Euro area . The EU will fall under it’s own weight ,just like the Soviet Union . Norman had written about this even in 2018 .
        https://medium.com/future-vision/the-european-union-was-a-construct-of-infinite-prosperity-7a401c225171

  43. Fast Eddy says:

    More photos from the moon mission – I wonder what is taking the photos???

    Watch the video hahaha

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/indias-chandrayaan-3-moon-mission-hibernates-to-see-out-a-long-lunar-night/ar-AA1gjgGo

    High tech stuff — right Moonies???

    https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1fGzNk.img?w=768&h=512&m=6

    F789 Yeah – go India Go!!

    • MikeJones says:

      Moon Landing Denial Fired an Early Antiscience Conspiracy Theory Shot
      Apollo moon landing conspiracy theories were early hints of the dangerous anti-vax, antiscience beliefs backed by politicians today

      By Phil Plait on September 14, 2023

      https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/moon-landing-hoax-early-antiscience-conspiracy-theory-shot/

      Eddie..seems you are NOT ALONE..

      “Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?” that aired in 2001. I chuckled when I saw it. I had received the tape in 2001, sent to me by my colleague Dan Vergano, who at the time wrote for USA Today (and who is now an Opinion editor here at Scientific American). He had phoned me a week earlier to ask me some astronomy questions, but as we chatted he asked if I had heard of the program, which threw doubt on the reality of the NASA Apollo moon landings, and was due to air the next week on Fox TV. I hadn’t, though coincidentally I had written a book with a chapter on people who believed the Apollo landings were faked, so he offered to send it to me.

      …….I sat down and wrote an article debunking the show point by point (warning: 1990s eye-straining Web layout at that hyperlink) and waited until after the show aired to post it online. The response was overwhelming: I received hundreds of emails, some supportive, many not so much (“crackpottery” is a term I prefer). I even heard from people at NASA thanking me, including from an Apollo astronaut who, I’ll note, actually had walked on the moon.

      ….Even at the time, when I gave my talks mocking the show and the conspiracy theory, I was careful to note that this type of antiscience thinking is dangerous. What if a politician—many of whom are not known for their grasp of science—were to buy into this nonsense and waste a vast amount of taxpayer money and NASA’s time investigating it?

      Phil Plait is a professional astronomer and science communicator in Colorado. He writes the Bad Astronomy Newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @BadAstronomer Credit: Nick Higgins

      Recent Articles by Phil Plait
      Can You Spot a Satellite?
      The Science of Shooting Stars
      What Color Is the Sun?

      How long is your conspiracy list Edwin?

      • Fast Eddy says:

        This is the best ever

        https://youtu.be/KpuKu3F0BvY

        • A little over 3.5 hour documentary on why the US moon landing had to have been fake.

          • all six moon landings?

            why did they stop at six fakes?

            why didnt they fake a reason why they had to put a moon base on the far side of the moon?

          • Keith Henson says:

            “moon landing had to have been fake.”

            I suppose this will persist even after there are guided tours to the landing sites.

            • i like that idea keith

              50 years from now, a hologram of eddy, (with an aitch stuck to his forehead) taking moontours around, pointing out how easy it is to fake footprints in moondust.

            • Tim Groves says:

              Keith and Norman, can either of you two believers prove anyone has walked on the moon?

              If it happened, it should be easy to prove. You are both highly intelligent, you were around at the time it’s alleged to have happened, and you’re both emotionally invested in the narrative here, so give it your best shot.

            • Tim Groves says:

              This could be your big chance to show up Eddy as an ignoramus, and get your revenge for all the times he’s tried to wind you up and put you down.

            • Keith Henson says:

              FE is just noise.

              I don’t consider I am invested in the moon landings more than I am in other historical events, like Valley Forge, Yorktown. the US civil war, ice ages, etc.

              But if the landing were faked, then the coverup goes on to this day. The landing sites have been viewed from a vehicle orbiting the moon. Latest was a shot of the Indian lander on the surface.

              Also, the landings left at least one reflector on the moon. People bounced laser beams off it for decades. All that data would have to be faked as well.

              It just doesn’t make any sense when you consider how hard it is to keep things secret. Consider the recent Discord leaks.

              The meta question is why people believe such nonsense. That is not well understood, but I make a case that it is a side effect of evolutionary selection for wars.

  44. Fast Eddy says:

    Massive Mortality Signal in Young Brits of July ’21 “Missed” by the “Authorities”

    https://metatron.substack.com/p/massive-mortality-signal-in-young

    The younger the better?

  45. Fast Eddy says:

    Many (myself included) believe one of the primary causes of all the chronic illnesses we see today are widespread deficiencies of vital nutrients. In turn, a good case can be made that this deficiency comes from any of the following:

    •Intensive chemical based farming has caused our soils to become demineralized, leading to plants no longer having the nutrients we need. Given the dramatic health benefits that have been repeatedly observed from remineralizing the soil, I feel this is a very valid concern.

    •Chemicals in the environment block our absorption of essential nutrients. For example, the widely used herbicide Roundup also happens to be a chelating agent which is well known for binding to essential minerals (e.g., manganese) and preventing them from entering the body.

    •The highly processed food diets we eat do not have many of the essential nutrients we need (e.g., fat soluble vitamins from animal fats and organs). Weston Price’s seminal research best demonstrated the importance of this, as he repeatedly observed societies that transitioned from their traditional diet to the modern processed one went on develop the wide range of degenerative conditions associated with modern life. Likewise, I have repeatedly seen patients develop significant improvement in their health once these nutritional deficiencies are addressed.

    •Nutritional absorption is impaired. While this can come from a variety of issues (e.g., dysfunctional neurological regulation of the GI tract), one of the most consequential causes is deficient stomach acid.

    https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/stomach-acid-is-good-for-you

  46. Fast Eddy says:

    Story at a Glance:

    •Many pharmaceuticals on the market are automatically given to large numbers of patients despite the harms of these medications often greatly outweighing their benefits.

    •One of the worst offenders are the acid suppressing medications, and their overprescription goes hand in hand with a widespread medical blindness to the critical functions of hydrochloric acid throughout the body and the actual causes of acid reflux.

    •A variety of safe and non-invasive approaches exist to address the wide range of (often unrecognized) complications from acid reflux and dysfunctional stomach acid production.

    Note: this article is a bit on the longer end, but since the stomach acid issues profoundly affect so many people, I felt I this article needed to be able to cover all the key points.

    https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/stomach-acid-is-good-for-you

  47. Fast Eddy says:

    hey norm … something for you

    Here I have to now call out the silence of the radiologists who began to see this on numerous imaging modalities at high frequency after the jab campaign roll-out, and like the Ob-Gyns, Neurologists, Cardiologists, Oncologists have been near uniformly silent in calling attention to the explosion in pathologies at incidences and ages they have never seen before.

    Let history remember the near uniform global silence of the world’s doctors (with notable and rare and swiftly attacked exceptions). One recent and unsurprising example comes from my colleague Andrea Stromezzi in Italy, an advocate for early treatment with repurposed drugs from the outset of the pandemic and who suffered attacks on his license despite treating 8,000 patients without a death.

    He sent me this article about a pathologist friend of his who dared to publicly comment on the sudden rise in autopsies he was performing on young people who died suddenly. His reward? Suspended for two months without pay as per this headline in Italian (can go here and use Google translate if you want to read the article in English):

    https://pierrekory.substack.com/p/the-symptom-burden-of-post-covid

  48. Fast Eddy says:

    NZ is a failing country … Ardern should be forced to work in a Bangkok whorehouse servicing fat bald drunks who reek of stale urine….

    Alex Holland Has Compiled A Comprehensive List
    Labour is attacking the person rather than playing the ball, maybe to distract from their achievements over the past 6 years:

    Multiple recessions under Labour in this term of government (2020 & 2023) and another forecast now for 2024.

    30,000 more people on surgery wait list than when Labour came into power.

    25,000 on Kāinga Ora’s wait list currently without a house, tripling in size since Labour came into power.

    Over the past 2 years, the average mortgage has increased by $1000 per month under this government.

    2023: 19,000 nurses have left the profession in the last 5 years under this Labour government. In 2017 it was under 3000 leaving compared to 5000 leaving in last year – a 60% increase in nurses leaving.

    In 2016, retail crime was 25,000 per year, in the 3 months to the end of April 2023, there were 45,046 retail crimes reported (equates to 180,000 per year) = a 620% increase. 70% of the crimes are not even being reported. In 2016, police attended 1 in every 2 crimes compared to only 1 in 10 now. In 2016 the arrests were 20 times higher, now the arrests are only 2.3% meaning that over 97% get away with it. Police retail crimes unit only has 8 staff.

    Labour introduced state funding of pre-sentencing reports to reduce criminal sentences.

    2023: NZ hospitals are short of 7136 full time workers, Auckland alone needs 1128.

    August 2023: The IMF now forecasts NZ will have the second worst economic growth in the world next year, just edging out Equatorial Guinea (which has been ripped apart by civil war).

    Labour keeps trumpeting low unemployment figures, however Carmel Sepuloni from Labour announced in parliament on 31/8/23 that since 2017 there are 52,404 more people on job seeker support and 34,872 on it for more than a year.

    NZ total net wealth has been falling for five successive quarters – having peaked in December 2021 at $2.43 trillion.

    Announced in 2017 the promise by Labour to build 100,000 homes – by September 2023 only 1834 built, or 1.8% of that promised. At this rate it would take Labour 332 years to hit their own target.

    This list goes on … and on … and on

    https://marcspring.com/index.php/2023/09/06/jacinda-ardern-should-lose-her-damehood/

    • Fred says:

      FE for Supreme Ruler of NZ!

      Mandatory triple jabs.

      Sell all farms to billionaires to build bunkers and windfarms.

      Move spent fuel ponds from around the globe to Stewart Island >> profits!!

      Take away all social benefits.

      Compulsory Globalist brainwashing.

      Eat bugs, die happy.

      There, problems fixed.

    • New Zealand is out in the middle of nowhere. It needs practically everything shipped in. It is not warm like Hawaii, which at least is warm year around.

      We have been talking about the “core” possibly lasting longer than the periphery. New Zealand is definitely periphery, especially if oil supplies are constrained.

  49. Fast Eddy says:

    Let’s begin. The three “core” symptoms of vaccine injury syndrome are as follows (I estimate 95% of my patients have all three, and when one is missing it is usually the brain fog which might spare 5% of my patients):

    Fatigue – daily, often debilitating, and new. Patients awaken with a physical sensation of not having the energy to do normal activities or they need to lie down frequently in order to feel OK. They feel best when doing very little and, at least initially, are often bed-bound for varying periods of time, sometimes prolonged.

    Post-exertional malaise (PEM) – this is when exertion or activity (often minimal) exacerbates their fatigue, but exertion can also worsen many other symptoms as well, causing “flares” of misery. Note that in many, shockingly little exertion is required to trigger suffering, such as going to the curb to pick up mail from the mailbox which then leads them to have to lie in bed for two hours after. Anytime they surpass their individual exertional limit it leads to a further reduction in functioning and an increase in suffering. Note this “limit” varies among patients and varies over time. Some can get through a work-day but then are “demolished” when they come home in a way they had never before experienced. Further, the triggering “exertions” can be physical, cognitive, orthostatic, emotional, or sensory (like loud, crowded environments). Patients often describe their experience of PEM as “having to pay for it” in terms of fatigue and suffering over the next day(s) and sometimes week (s) each time they over-exert. Another sad aspect of PEM is that, after weeks to months of being housebound or bed-bound, patients sometimes push themselves to go out and do social or physical activities just to experience a more stimulating and fulfilling life. Then they “pay the price” for days to weeks after. Yet they do it again because the alternative of staying in the house or bedroom chronically is so depressing.

    “Brain Fog” – new and varied cognitive deficits. In order below, from least bothersome to worst:

    New word-finding difficulties when speaking (sometimes leaving patients embarrassed in public conversations). For example if they want someone to pass them a cup, they will say “Can you pass me that “….” (i.e. they can’t find the word “cup” in their thoughts).

    Worsened short-term memory – forgetting where keys are, why they went into a room, forgetting an important step in a task or most disturbingly, completely forgetting something that was told to them earlier (especially by a spouse which is a no-no :).

    Impairment in execution of tasks – when emptying a dishwasher, they put things in the wrong place or forget what they are supposed to do in the middle of a multi-step task. One memorable anecdote is when a patient told me they were driving and suddenly stopped 40 feet before a red light crosswalk and did not know why. Perhaps this is why car accidents resulting from sudden medical episodes have been skyrocketing since Covid and the global vaccine campaign (here, here, and here).

    Inability to sustain focus or concentration, often further triggering post-exertional malaise in that exerting too much mental energy makes them tired or worsens their other symptoms (headache, vision disturbances, dizzyness, etc.) so much that they no longer dare to continue focusing on the task or on a screen.

    Disorientation to time/place/person, hallucinations etc. This kind of severity is rare and typically occurs more acutely and then resolves, however we have had patients where this persisted for some time.

    https://pierrekory.substack.com/p/the-symptom-burden-of-post-covid

Comments are closed.