08:28 – The good news is that an effective vaccine against Ebola may be available in the next few months. It’s unclear to me whether this vaccine is prophylactic, therapeutic, or both.
Building more science kits continues, as does work on the prepping book, as does work on the new Earth Science and AP Chemistry kits. When I get tired of working on one thing, I always have several others that I can switch to.
Necessity is the mother of invention. I wonder when these vaccines would have come to market if this recent Ebola outbreak had never happened?
Probably never. Ebola just isn’t (or wasn’t) a big enough killer to rate the research and development money that it takes to find a vaccine/cure. See Derek Lowe’s article that I linked to a couple weeks ago.
Even now, the pharmaceutical companies that are working on the vaccine are likely to lose their shirts on the deal unless first-world countries stock up on the vaccine and are willing to pay reasonable prices for it. One thing is for sure. WHO isn’t going to cough up anything near what it’ll cost to develop the vaccine, and those countries in West Africa sure don’t have the money to pay for it. Presumably some of the money being collected from national governments will be transferred to the pharma companies, but of course most of that will ultimately come from US taxpayers.
Better the CDC should spend a chunk of its budget for vaccines to wipe out Ebola in Africa before we have an out of control outbreak here than to spend it on gun control or browbeating us about the evils of soda and fat.
Damn…we had a huge storm last night, 90mph winds with lots of rain. The end wall of one room in the basement is sopping wet.
Most of the wall is taken up with two windows (house in on a slope, so that wall is exposed), installed less than a month ago. Did the new windows leak? Maybe, but then they leaked not only down, but also up and sideways. The other possibility: there is a patio on top of the room, and it could have sprung a leak. But the patio was completely redone a few years ago, and anyway, how would a leak from above get the wall wet underneath the windows?
I reckon I’ll blame the windows, which are under guarantee, and let them prove me wrong if they think it’s the patio…
Sorry to hear that. Actually, it sounds like you lucked out. Few windows would stand up to what amounted to a Category 1 hurricane.
The computists here may be interested in this blog post on and discussion of the history of women in computing.
Wow, there’s so much wrong with that NPR article that it’s hard to know where to begin. As Buffy says, their logic is not Earth logic.
You boyz need to get a clue and study history. Doncha know that wimmenz ruled the world 50,000 years ago and all was peaceful and happy times then, no wars, and filthy man-creatures were kept in their places, tilling the soil, hunting, fishing and mining precious metals for the wunnerful womyn rulers.
Later, they transferred all their high-tech and humane letters knowledge and skillz to Africa, where mighty civilized empires were built and lasted for thousands of years, until filthy Greek homos stole it all from them and then took over the world, which is why it’s in the terrible trouble it is now.
Get a clue.
In the early 90s the large IT department in which I worked was at least 50% female and climbing so quickly that I seriously thought about finding a job in which I wouldn’t be in the minority. The ratio eventually leveled out at about 50-50 and remained there, as did I.
Well, I guess Ferguson will explode at any minute:
Activate Baiter: Sharpless
Activate Baiter: Jackwagon
Was there any doubt the cop would not be indicted? Time for the peeps to burn their own neighborhood down in protest. Don’t forget the local Walmart where 90% of the peeps shop. Burn it down first (after the looting, of course).
Easy-ass solution for the Ferguson caper: shit-can the current chief and appoint an African American female immediately. End of story.
Also, there is a special location being arranged, I have it on Good Authority, for race-baiting riot-inciters like Sharpless and Jackwagon. Even Farakkhan doesn’t pull this kind of chit, and he would actually be a leader other secessionist groups could work with after The Dystopian Nightmare and breakup occurs. But as fah as I know, neither the Latinos or First Nations peoples have a leader of that stature currently.
Oh wait–we don’t, either.
Oh wait–we don’t, either.
Let’s wait and see if The Great White Dope ™ Romney runs, Mr. OFD.
“Climate change PROVED to be ‘nothing but a lie’, claims top meteorologist”
http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/526191/Climate-change-is-a-lie-global-warming-not-real-claims-weather-channel-founder
“There has been no warming over 18 years.”
“The US, along with the UK and other developed countries, is expected to pledge further actions on climate change early next year.”
I predict rising energy costs and severe job losses in the USA, UK and other developed countries.
“Let’s wait and see if The Great White Dope ™ Romney runs, Mr. OFD.”
Oh gee whiz, I hope so! He’s got clips on the Toob of him makin’ fun of Barry, which are just a tremendous hoot! But wait–we don’t need comedians in the WH…or do we? Fine, let’s resurrect Joan Rivers! Is Phyllis Diller available? I know–Richard Pryor!
“I predict rising energy costs and severe job losses in the USA, UK and other developed countries.”
Shame on you, Mr. Lynn; like shooting fish in a barrel.
Shame on you, Mr. Lynn; like shooting fish in a barrel.
Hey, someone had to do it. Plus, one of my pet theories is that the CDC and other critical governmental agencies (NASA, DOE, DOD, etc) are spending incredible amounts of money on global warming XXXXXXXXX climate change XXXXXXXXXX climate disruption XXXXXXXXXXX who the heck knows what next.
I am talking about tens of billions of dollars. Maybe even a hundred billion dollars, it is very hard to know. This is with and without the permission of congress, the complicit patsy’s that they are. If one legitimately wants to study a phenomenon, then one funds all sides of the investigation, not just the side that gives the answer that the critters want.
But, the problem here is that the CDC should, and was funded to, study Ebola and other dangerous diseases. And to store up materials (suits, sterile containers, etc) for a pandemic. Instead, the CDC, DOE, EPA, NASA, IRS and many other agencies have been politicized and used as play toys for the children in charge. There is much to answer for here but I doubt that Obola will be called to task on it.
I repeat, much time and materials have been wasted. In real life, one rarely gets do-overs before something bad happens. The hospital in Dallas should have had a major task force of infectious disease specialists show up with lots of materials within twelve hours when they got a legitimate Ebola patient. Instead, the hospital got a email from a doctor with huge political leanings.
And yes, I have a beef with the CDC. My daughter has chronic lyme disease which the CDC insists does not exist. Yet, it is the second fastest growing disease in the USA. Reminds me of the 1980s all over again (AIDS). They, the CDC, have cost me quite a few dollars fighting with my insurance over treatments for a non-existent disease.
I can’t help but wonder if those morons in Ferguson are going to demand the federal government do something about it when all the store owners get tired of rebuilding and restocking, throw up their hands and move to another city.
Those idiots all be so shocked when the nearest pawn shop, grocery store, gas station, fast food joint, electronics store, and Nike store and are all 15-20 miles away instead of within walking distance.
They’ll declare it must be racial bias, since the personal safety of the store owners and their livelihood and employees is totally irrelevant.
Demanding that private businesses move back to Ferguson will be a good excuse for yet another riot.
The computists here may be interested in this blog post on and discussion of the history of women in computing.
The big change was twofold: interactive computers and spreadsheets. People used to have both programmers and keypunchers to create software. I started in IT as a keypuncher when I was 15. The keypunchers went away when we got interactive computers.
And the second major change was spreadsheets. Suddenly you had this interactive and flexible number cruncher program so the need for small dedicated computer programs was greatly reduced. Now most of the dedicated computer software is huge and requiring large teams of programmers.
The hospital in Dallas should have had a
major taskminor Pentagon controlled military strike force ofinfectious disease specialistssoldiers show up with lots ofmaterialsweapons withintwelve hours3 days when they got a legitimate Ebola patient.Fixed that for ya, Lynn. Wouldn’t want the President to think his strike team was superfluous and their herculean efforts at a fast and timely response were unappreciated by the general public.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-19/pentagon-will-use-30-person-quick-strike-team-deal-domestic-ebola-patients
More workplace violence?
Obola can go stuff it. Sending soldiers to an infectious disease breakout zone is a freaking disaster. They might as well just send an MOAB.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-43/B_Massive_Ordnance_Air_Blast
Lynn, I agree about sending in soldiers to combat a disease.
However, I still have this nagging mental voice that says, “What if this strain of ebola is laboratory rather than jungle grown?”
Why can I not make that nagging little voice go away?
1.) Our POTUS as CIC is deploying soldiers to Africa to combat a virus. He is also talking about vioalting the long-standing Posse Comitatus regulations to deploy active-duty military within our own borders.
2.) I am having a very difficult time finding any reports of even a whimper of protest from any of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about either sending soldiers to do a doctor’s job or sending an active duty task force to invade our own country.
When Occam’s Razor is applied, I keep getting one of two equally probable simple answers:
Answer #1 is that our Joint Chiefs want to become a military junta and take control of the country.
Answer #2 is that this virus is either a purposely released or an escaped lab rat.
If answer #1 applies, we are going to have some extremely rough years ahead of us as a nation.
If answer #2 applies, perhaps sending suicide squads from Fort Detrick to clean up the mess they have created might be the best response.
Unfortunately, if either of the above answers apply, it means ceding control of our country to the military.
I really, really, really wish I could make that nagging little voice in my head go away.
That nagging little voice in your head for me is a loudspeaker with the volume at 10 and has been for a few years now.
I hope to hell I’m wrong and getting auditory hallucinations or sumthin, left over from years of acid tripping in the late 60s and very early 70s.
I am generally now going by Occam’s Razor and that page from the SteveF playbook.
@medium wave:
Not to make a joke of the entire incident, but the line in that article that said
‘We’re still in the process of clearing Parliament Hill,’ he said. ‘It is a slow and methodical process.’
caused my irreverent streak to conjure up this mental image of huge exhaust fans and janitorial teams in full biohazard gear scrubbing the Parliamentary chambers clean of masses of human fecal matter left behind by the politicians who had run home to change their clothes.
So, if wimminz have dropped out of computer science why do you think that is?
When I retired last year there were lots of wimminz in my area, around 50% I should think. That’s more than in 1980. The difference is that in 1980 all of the wimminz and most of the guys were young – in their twenties. Now they’re all old… 🙂
“‘It is a slow and methodical process.’”
It will no doubt be likewise at some point in Mordor; we’ll have to keep greasing the guillotines in between the endless interrogations, trials and sentences passed.
Speaking of guillotines, and the necessity of them…
“Don’t you find it strange that while the government itself was gearing up for an October disaster, the public wasn’t told a thing about any of this?”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/paul-craig-roberts/the-immigration-of-ebola-2/
OFD, one of the links on the sidebar caught my attention. It was a thought-provoking read, also.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/call-the-suicide-prevention-hotline-get-shot-by-a-swat-team/
It appears to be a how-to on committing suicide the right way, so that you don’t screw up and cost the tax payers any money for hospitalization, rehab, etc.
Just pick up the phone and ask for help.
But, hey, on the bright side, if former elections had gone differently, instead of the “let them eat cauliflower” attitude of the Barry “I’ll slip them some M&Ms when she’s not looking” http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/09/17/schoolkids-grill-obama-on-civil-war-mms/ and Michelle Antoinette
royalfirst family, we could have been enjoying the Saturday Night Fights starring the whole Palin clan!Monty Python couldn’t have done it any better than these Palins did it!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2802290/palin-family-brawl-photos-guests-open-wounds-raw-knuckles-blood-soaked-pavement-just-moments-family-got-drunken-fight-alaskan-birthday-party.html
Where’s my beer and potato chips?
I know I’d really be devastated if I couldn’t wear my sunglasses at night…
“Just pick up the phone and ask for help.”
A well-known and older variation of this caper is “suicide-by-cop,” wherein the perp deliberately provokes the police into blowing his ass away. I saw that story, too; William Grigg is a true American patriot and has done yeoman work for many years now exposing “law enforcement” thuggery and outright atrocities. He was around long before any of the “CopBlock” groups and sites. Also see Radley Balko’s recent book on the history of police in this country and how they’ve gotten to the present state.
“…starring the whole Palin clan!”
What’s both frightening and sad is that a McNutter-Palin regime may well have got us into World War IV (III was the endless so-called Cold War, which included Korea to the Balkans and Mideast). Say what we will about Barry Soetero and the Mooch and their current handlers, they haven’t YET got us into a thermonuclear exchange and so far Kashmir hasn’t blown sky-high and the Norks are fairly quiet. The chief Nork has disappeared, last I heard, too. Maybe the generals got rid of him and we’ll see some new pudgy bastard running that show.
Bishop Mittens is another chickenhawk S.O.B.; he thinks it’s smart to keep poking the Russian bear in the eye and for the life of me I can’t imagine a more stupid play, unless it’s doing the same thing to the Persians. Why cain’t we all jes git along? Saves on tax money and body bags.
Just saw your Palin Family Brawl link; a lotta hooey over nuthin’. We’ve seen better stuff across the street here.
The JCS wanting to take over? Nah…
I was never more than a senior O3 (I got my promotion to O4 in the mail after I left, how weird is that?). In the various officer schools, we were repeatedly told that we had the serious responsibility to disobey illegal orders.
Of course, doing that brings certain risks. The only case I ever heard of was some poor 1Lt who stood on his principles over something or other. After seriously thinking about a court martial, the service just shuffled him out with a general discharge. Now lost in the dustbins of history, even though this was certainly something of huge importance to the 1Lt involved.
And yet: how often have we ever heard of the JCS falling on their swords, even though they are the officers best placed to do so? In the past 50-60 years there have been thousands of illegal orders from the White House. Various undeclared wars, various military interventions, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo…nothing, not a peep.
I always marvelled at the apparent transformation that happened between O5 (Lt. Col) and O7 (the lowest of the generals). At O5, officers were mission oriented, at O7 they were political animals. Just how this transformation happens – I supposed it is a kind of selection process – is a mystery. In any case, by the time someone is on the JCS, they are politically pliant creatures who will do whatever their political masters require of them. I don’t believe the JCS has any ambitions of its own.
Yeah, gotta agree that jabbing ol’ Boris in the ribs is bad juju.
At the same time, I’ve gotta have some sympathy for the Ukrainians and what Uncle Boris is doing to them, even though it’s kind of a karmic pay-back for the Ukraine to be treated the same way they used to treat the peasants along their western border.
One of the things my grandmother was glad to be done with from the old country was the uncertainty of citizenship.
Their village was in extreme eastern Poland, and everyone in their hearts considered themselves Polish, but because the area kept changing hands so much, they had to wait until the tax collector showed up to find out if they Polish or Ukrainian that year.
“find out if they were Polish or Ukrainian that year.”
fixed it…
Heh, Brad. I wasn’t eligible for promotion to major: I was in the Individual Ready Reserve, meaning (for the benefit of non-US-military people reading, as is most of what I’m about to type) that I wasn’t associated with any reserve units, but could get training and in theory could be called up for war. Now, after making captain you have to be promoted to major within X years or you’re booted. “Up or out”, they call it. In order to be promoted, you have to attend Officer Advanced Course in your specialty, consisting of two resident phases and a correspondence course. I went to the first several-week training phase and the did the correspondence course, but there was no money budgeted for IRR officers to go to resident phases by the time I needed the second. The personnel officer told me that once I reached the “up or out” decision point they’d see I hadn’t completed the training and send me a letter saying I was out. A few years later, that’s what happened.
As for refusing illegal orders, I did that as a 1LT. In the grand scheme of things it was nothing major — I was assigned to do a Report of Survey to investigate some stolen equipment and the battalion commander ordered me to change my findings. I refused and was threatened with court martial. Now, once I’ve decided something, nothing on earth will force me to change my mind, so I refused again. The threat was just bluff, of course, but that piece of shit sure showed me: when my direct boss, a captain, wrote my Officer Evaluation Report, the LTC ordered him to change it because “that son of a bitch isn’t that good”. The captain, West Pointer who was technically competent but had no strength of character, caved and my official OER that year was lackluster, to say the least. (Contrasted with the rest of my OERs on active duty, which were pretty much “walks on water promote him now”, even considering the endemic inflation in OERs.)
Speaking of Monty Python…
My favourite scene from The Meaning of Life
If I am ever to be executed by the new order this would be my choice… 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24DWK42u5gE
Miles, I figure when they come for me, since I try to look on the bright side, I’ll follow this advice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ
Of course, I’m also liable to yell “I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!” at them.
Of course, we had the wrong Palin running for president.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf1y9s73Nos
There was an Ebola outbreak in Nigeria but it got squashed quickly and effectively:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-did-nigeria-quash-its-ebola-outbreak-so-quickly/?WT.mc_id=SA_HLTH_20141021
During WWII my aunt was a computer. She sat at a desk with a slide rule at a desk and computed ballistic tables.
As for refusing illegal orders, I did that as a 1LT.
When I was at AFMPC (the personnel HQ for the USAF) we were working on a project to convert the entire personnel system. We had a meeting with the colonel in charge of the process to inform him that what he wanted to do would not work for some serious technical reasons. He refused to listen. Our group leader, a captain, told the colonel that he was could not, and would not, do the project the way the colonel wanted. The colonel through everyone at attention and issued a direct order to the captain, a couple of high ranking NCO’s and about five of us junior NCO’s. The captain was told if he did not do the project the colonel’s way that that captain would be brought up on charges that would warrant a court martial.
So the captain, in order to preserve his career, complied. We did the project the way the colonel wanted. Come implementation day the project did not work and would never work. My group along with the colonel were summoned into a two star general’s office, the commander of AFMPC. The general asked why the project did not work. The captain started to speak but was halted by the colonel. The colonel then through the captain under the bus by informing the general that the captain was told to NOT do the project that way and was the cause of all the problems.
We were stunned. We started to speak out in support of the captain but the colonel ordered us to attention and told us not to speak until requested. So we stood and listened to this colonel spew his lies and there was nothing we could do about it. The captain was allowed to present his side of the story which the colonel denied was true.
We were then excused from the office. A few minutes later the captain emerged and by the look on his face we knew the outcome. The captain’s career was finished. The colonel came out smelling like a rose as was evidenced by his promotion a few months later to 1-star.
The captain resigned a few weeks later and left the service to pursue a more lucrative career. My decision was made to leave the service when my enlistment was up. I no longer felt the need to serve an organization where truth was determined by rank, not by facts.
The project was redone the way the captain wanted and the project worked. But it required a massive effort from the people and constant scrounging for computer time at various bases around the area to complete the project. Many long nights spent in cold computer rooms. When it was completed the colonel took credit for getting the project completed correctly.
Better the CDC should spend a chunk of its budget for vaccines to wipe out Ebola in Africa before we have an out of control outbreak here
No way to wipe it out like smallpox, since it has animal reservoirs. The best we can do is contain it like the flu.
Yep, and we don’t even know what all the animal reservoirs are yet. Monkeys and bats, of course, but we also know that dogs can be asymptomatic carriers. It’s even possible that all mammals can be infected but only primates develop symptoms.
I did read an interesting article months ago that several diseases made the leap from animals to humans because some Africans reliance on bushmeat. Even worse, their failure to prepare and cook it safely (get the blood on their hands, in open wounds, touch their face, don’t cook the meat long enough or choose to eat it raw, etc. etc.).
Of course, I’ve also heard there are a number of STDs that only exist because of bestiality. Never bothered checking into it, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
I predict that when the animal reservoir for Ebola is found it will a protected/endangered species and if not already it will be declared one, that is just the way our no-account bureaucrats work.
Maybe this is an over simplistic view, but as I look at history it is the bureaucrats that facilitated/contributed greatly to the downfall of great governments/empires.
Chad wrote:
“…I’ve also heard there are a number of STDs that only exist because of bestiality. Never bothered checking into it, but I wouldn’t be surprised.”
You could ask Ray. I’m sure he doesn’t participate but I think that sort of thing is very popular in eastern TN. Or next time you’re in New Zealand you could do a bit of hands-on research. The sheep there are quite tame and used to it, so I’m told.
There was a guy in eastern Iowa that was arrested for bestiality with a sheep. Apparently, he dressed it up in a blue nightie before performing the act. I’m not sure what’s more disturbing. The face that he had intercourse with a sheep or that he put a blue nightie on the sheep. Disturbing.
I’ve seen several video clips on the comedy shows that specialize in Internet videos (Tosh.0, Ridiculousness, The Soup, et al) that show adolescents in the Middle East having their way with the livestock. Not that those shows represent a scientific sampling, but it seems to be quite common in the region. I guess that’s what happens when you criminalize premarital sex and pornography.