conspiracy theories? Or secret histories? oh my

What

and am I the only one who sees the fraud and corruption in institutions/NGOs supposed to be helping people the equivalent of the corrupt monasteries that were shut down not just by Protestant princes in Germany and England, but By one of the Catholic monarchs in Austria/Hungry empire?

as for invading churches: 

This reminds me of an incident in Africa, when one of our priests (a holy, humble priest but a bit of a nerd) had his mass interupted by a semi naked woman shouting and cursing and trying to hit people. He approached her and shouted for the demon to leave her, at which point she fainted, and when she came to, she was normal. Later he asked me if this might have been demon possession or a medical problem. Myself I thougt it sounded like hysteria reaction, which his order interrupted the fugue state and so she recovered, but hey it might have been a demon....So I wonder what would have happened if the minister had ordered Satan to leave when Don Lemon and his friends came into a church to terrorize the congregation. 

Probably nothing, since they were radicals following orders, not in a fugue state.

Well, anyway, it is not hysterical radicals that are the problem, but crazies with weapons, which alas happens too when crazy people pick up vibest and think acting out hatred by aggression against the one they hate is okay.

Oh well

but to change the subject: Here is what was going on under Biden when fundies and trad Catholics were made the enemy of the state:

Somalia vs Somaliland

....

a comment on FReeREpublic explains:

Because of the wretched Ilhan Omar, Tim Walz and the Democrats 3rd-world import welfare scam, we’ve all been forced to learn Somali tribal politics.

 Jacob Frey actually won his recent election against Omar Fateh, because he made a point of getting the tribal vote of Somaliland Isaaq tribe migrants in MSP. Somaliland Isaaq tribesmen hate the Ilhan Omar clan - and her in particular, given her father’s connections to the dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, who tried to wipe Somaliland its tribe off the map. Recognizing Somaliland also helps Israel create a wedge against the influence of Omar in the United States too

more background from this Indian news program from five months ago: 

  

I also am waiting for the press to recognize that many of the Somali resettled in Maine are not Somali tribal members but descended from their Bantu Slaves whose ancestors were kidnapped in the 19th century to work on their farms. 

Wikipedia article about them.

 

animal stories

......

and then you have man's best friend:

...

 and a more recent story: Cats in the Ukraine war:

  

and don't forget the lowly pigeon

the next pandemic

China claims a drug used for covid might help patients.

several articles admit some cases are asymptomaticB

Wikipedia article here.

Human contraction of the virus may lead to asymptomatic infection, acute respiratory infection or fatal encephalitis. Clinical signs typically manifest within 3–14 days which include fever and headache, often accompanied by a cough, throat soreness, difficulty breathing, and other common signs of respiratory illness.[1] Patients may also initially present with symptoms of myalgia and vomiting.[2] This can be followed by dizziness, drowsiness, altered consciousness, and neurological signs that indicate acute encephalitis. Some people can also experience atypical pneumonia and severe respiratory problems, including acute respiratory distress. Encephalitis and seizures occur in severe cases, progressing to coma within 24 to 48 hours. 

several articles insist there is a high rate of death and complications including long term brain problems. But what percentage of people have mild infections that don't go to hospital? 

 The mortality rate ranged from 7.7% (1/13 NiV patients) in Singapore (Chew et al. 2000) to 92% (11/12 patients) in Bangladesh 

 could this be because of better nourishment in Singapore, or because they tested more people and found those with mild infections?

In poor countries, a lot of sick people don't see doctors unless they are reallu really sick so mild cases won't get diagnosed. 

 ironically what was found is that those in contact with patients might develop the virus but most don't. 

And there are drugs to use that stop it, especially if you start it early (and will keep you from getting it if you are in contact with a case). so no, unless someone stupidly does Gain of function research and increases it's ability to transmit to others easier, the disease won't be the next pandemic problem. 

 Alas, because of the question of which variation of the virus is most dangerous, there is a suspicion that gain of function research will be done anyway, claiming they need to investigate which mutations will become more lethal. Which is what Dr. C is worried about.

......

https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/biological-incident-federal-pathogen-lab-shines-light-trump-admin

they died for your cellphone

...

a couple months ago, the US/Marco Rubio and Qatar made a peace deal between Rwandan rebel gangs and the DRC.

Alas it didn't work. and one reason is....money.

Vauable minerals are mined in this area of eastern DRC Congo.

AlJazeerah has the background here.

Rubaya produces about 15 percent of the world’s coltan, which is processed into tantalum, a heat-resistant metal that is in high demand by makers of mobile phones, computers, aerospace components and gas turbines.Coltan is used primarily for the production of tantalum capacitors, used in mobile phones and almost every kind of electronic device ....

The mine, where locals dig manually for a few dollars per day, has been under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group since 2024, after previously changing hands between the DRC government and rebel groups. The heavily-armed M23 rebels, whose stated aim is to overthrow the DRC government in the capital Kinshasa, captured even more mineral-rich territory in the east of the country during a lightning advance last year. The United Nations has accused M23 rebels of plundering Rubaya’s resources to help fund their rebellion, backed by Rwanda, an allegation that the government in Kigali denies.

the wikipedia article on Coltan has a lot of information on where you can find it and where it is used.

The problem is that often it is mined in poorly regulated mines, where there are no safety precautions.

One wonders who was buying this mineral from a poorly dug mine under a rebel group who doesn't care about locals. And the locals are so poor that they are willing to risk their lives.

from AlJ:

Despite the DRC’s exceptional mineral wealth, more than 70 percent of Congolese live on less than $2.15 a day

this video is from two years ago:

crossposted to mh africablog

The background of an X star

 I took ASL when I was working at an institution for the mentally disabled, and there are some schools which specialize with these students, including the school in Rochester where my brother got his degree.in engineering.

ASL is not just used for the deaf but children with speech impediments (for example, those with Down's syndrome) can learn it more easily to communicate.

And although I have forgotten most of my signing, I still use it when a kid is noisy or afraid of me: I sign to them and they are intrigued.

But there are other ways to communicate, and so DataRepublican's mom has an X post about how they raised their daughter.

I posted the tweet but blogger ate it and didn't publish it even though it is still there in my html. So here is the address: Copy and paste: https://t.co/yqJuy5SqDV

 I should note that she lost her hearing from meningitis at age 2, so already had the template of her brain wired with speech, so this might have been easier for her to learn than a kid who never was able to hear.

they put signs up on objects then increased the signs to include vocabulary. So she could read then lip read and did learn to sign later in life.

The writer Walker Percy had a daughter born deaf and they used a similar method to teach her to communicate. Discussion about this HERE.

 The ASL community is like other minorities and support each other, and resent those who don't want to join them. But now with cochlear implants, the controverxy is getting sharper.

You might prefer to raise your child is in your deaf culture, but if you get cochlear implants, they no longer are in that culture. This article from an Australian news site discusses.

The mother of DataRepublican (small R) chose to integrate her child into the wide world because her family was a hearing family, and as I noted, she already had the developmental part of her brain wired for speech. Nevertheless, it was a struggle.

Update: Blogger is now allowing me to post the X link

https://t.co/yqJuy5SqDV

— MOMof DataRepublican (@data_republican) January 26, 2026

....

and if you don't know who DataRepublican(small r) is: Shame on you. I know her from X but her website is here.