Catholic trivia: Remembering Leponto

 Having Hamas (NOT Palestinians but Iran's proxies) attack Israel on their high holy days is not new. 

these terrorist groups tend to chose anniversaries to inspire them to kill their enemies.

Sigh. 

Israel last week was condemned for attacks on houses in Gaza where the missiles and weapons were stored, and widely condemned, because of course theweapons hide them among civilians, better to have dead children to show for propaganda purposes.

But obviously the Israelis missed some. Hmmm... 5000 missiles must have cost a lot of money. Wonder where they got it? Maybe from Iran, and maybe from diverting millions sent from the USA or the EU to help civilians of course.

So what can we do about this before WWIII starts?

and what about the Ukraine, Taiwan, Azerbaijan, or a dozen wars in Africa that are causing millions of refugees?

Send money? And how much of it will be stolen or diverted into weapons?

Or we can pray.

I am religious enough to pray but I am secular enough to wonder if it matters. But once in awhile, you know, prayer does change things. Or it can inspire people to act to change things.

Hamas attack of course occured on the high holy days of the Jewish people. Coincidence?

But the Catholic blogs remember: because we have feast days to commemorate these things.

 Oct 7 is the anniversary of the Battle of Leponto. Feast of our Lady of the Rosary (pre Vatican II name: Our Lady of Victory). The Naval battle that stopped a Turkish invasion of Europe.

And it might not be a coincidence that the 911 attack occured on the day before the anniversary of the lifting of the seige of Vienna. (pre Vatican II feast day: Holy Name of Mary).

both of these days are remembered every year with feast days to Mary. because both times the laypeople were encouraged to pray against the invaders by saying the rosary (in the days of illiteracy, the rosary was an easy prayer to lift one's mind and heart to God in praise and thanksgiving).

This is not, of course, the only time that prayer stopped bad things from happening. 

Here in the Philippines, the People Power revolution was led by Cardinal Sin (! yes that's his name: it's Chinese). by people praying the rosary and singing hymns.

And even earlier the Battle Of Manila against British/Dutch invaders was also believed to be repelled by a combined Spanish/Filipino force under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary.

In recent history, many attributed the fall of the Iron curtain to people praying for the conversion of Russia. There is a complicated conspiracy theory about how the Vision of Mary in Fatima Portugal fortold this, and how prophecies from that vision inspired John Paul II to have people pray and overthrow the government of Poland peacefully, and soon the entire Iron curtain fell. 

another aside: our town's patron is La Divina Pastora, showing Mary as a shepherdess with a sheep. This is actually a Spanish title for Mary and I assumed the divine part was merely Spanish hyperbole, on the order of "the Divine Miss M' or St John the Divine. 

But the crazy Jeremiah, Ann Barnhart (NSFW), had an essay about the title last week, and corrects me: it is not Mary the divine lady who happens to be a shepherdess, but Mary the mother who is shepherdess of the Divine: i.e. the Lamb of God.

she wears a wide brimmed hat, similar to the straw hats worn by farmers here. The only major miracle is one that supposedly they took the statue out to stop a flood, and it worked.

In the secular USA, such things are scoffed at, so although the lay folk have backyard shrines to Mary all over the place (aka Bathtub madonna) it is usually mocked as a lower class custom. True, but don't mock those who put them up: Our next door neighbor in Pennsylvania had one, and he and his five burley sons were coal miners and might not appreciate your mockery.

the closest thing to a miracle of prayer in the US was when the Union and Confederate armies were looking for each other in Northern Virginia near the border of Pennsylvania. Mother Seton's sisters prayed that the battle would not occur in Emmitsburg where they had a school and motherhouse...the armies did fight, but not in Maryland but further north, in a more isolated farm area where five roads met: Gettysburg. Two days after the battle, the Sisters traveled north to nurse the wounded.

all of these stories are folk tales, and rarely get into history. But they show the popular stories behind the staid dry history told in history books. And ironically it is an agnostic, Jordan Peterson, who defends these stories as myths that are a way of memory of the lessons of humanity and how such lessons are remembered by ordinary folk.

These tales and rumors (and visions) and stories and paintings that eerily prophecy things that later occur tend to pop up when ordinary people sense trouble is coming... and right now, there are a lot of these rumors perculating around the social media...

So say a prayer/ not just for the world, where war is threatening many, but for the church that is facing a revolt of the elite against ordinary believers.

It might help, and even if it doesn't help, it will give you strength to face the future troubles calmly, and like the sisters at Emmitsburg, give you the strength to go out and help the innocent caught in these diabolic wars.

Nobel Prize might have gotten this one right

Narges Mohammadi, a jailed Iranian women’s rights advocate, has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

🟡 LIVE updates: https://t.co/bdY8sx5NQO pic.twitter.com/chladtVrBn

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 6, 2023

Health care workers, risking their lives to save others

Afghan health professionals, thousands of females among them are defying daily challenges to provide critical care https://t.co/CVXopGVLMP pic.twitter.com/Wg8Yi27Fqc

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 6, 2023

.............

LINK

Every day, millions face the grim reality of living with poor or no access to healthcare and food, putting them at risk of malnutrition and disease outbreaks. Women and girls bear a heavier burden as the rollback of their rights limits their access to healthcare, education and freedom of movement.

Yet, despite the ongoing crisis, Afghan health professionals – thousands of female workers among them – defy daily challenges to provide critical healthcare. With support from humanitarian agencies and donor partners, doctors, nurses, midwives, community health workers, vaccinators and others, the health workers bring life-saving care to millions of Afghans.

when the wise men are worried, maybe you should listen

 Several cardinals have sent a letter to the Pope asking about his possible remarks that disagree with traditional Catholic teachings.

 The first anwer they got was gobbly gook and confusing, and obviously not written by the Pope so they asked him again: yes or no.

These guys are not MAGA types, nor are they white supremicists.

The two I am most familiar with are Cardinal Robert Sarah, whose books about the need for holiness are something the church needs badly. And he fought the communist regime in his home country.

The other one is Cardinal Zen, of Hong Kong, who is a beloved leader of Chinese Christianity and also a supporter of human rights in that country.

the synod being held is a packed court, planned to change things according to the reformers who are mainly Europeans and especially Germans.

But will those from the third world agree to this, or will they stand in the way of actions that will destroy the church? The Anglican lessons of PC stuff destroying the church and the pushback from their African bishops should be a warning or what is coming.

the meeting is supposed to be secret, but we know what that means: the PC will leak stuff to influence the press and those attending the meeting.

Sigh. Where is James O'Keefe when you need him?

---------------------------

update:

...............

at minute number 38 they discuss about how groups can be manipulated... yup. reminds me of the encounter groups I was forced to attend in medical school/residency. They were manipulating our opinion, pressuring those of us who opposed their ideas were pressured to submit, be silenced, or face ridicule....

Malaria vaccine: Hype or hope?

The WHO has recommended a second malaria vaccine for children which is already approved for use in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria https://t.co/YsWvRE8BRe pic.twitter.com/Rii4hXGgHj

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 2, 2023

AlJ article:

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a second malaria vaccine, a decision that could offer countries a cheaper and a more readily available option than the world’s first shot against the parasitic disease. The R21/Matrix-M, developed by Britain’s Oxford University, can be used to curb the life-threatening disease spread to humans by some mosquitoes, the WHO said on Monday.

Oxford University developed the new three-dose vaccine with help from the Serum Institute of India. Research has suggested it is more than 75 percent effective and protection is maintained for at least another year with a booster.

wow. 75 percent effective with a shot...or a series of shots. 

But when I checked the article about the vaccine in Lancet, I have questions:

Lancet article Sept 2022:

vaccine efficacy against clinical malaria was 36% in infants aged 5–17 months and 26% in infants aged 6–12 weeks after four doses of the vaccine.

italics mine. 

I posted more from the Lancet article on my medical blog.

given the problem of resistance of the Falciparum malaria to drugs, and the problem of cerebral malaria which kills children, it is a start.

But the vaccine should be considered as still experimental. The numbers in the study used to approve of the vaccine were low (400). 

And the vaccine is imperfect in it's prevention of malaria, (some of those getting the vaccine did get malaria anyway, but a lot fewer of them got Malaria, and they had fewer episodes of disease than those who got placebo).

the problem? If your kid got all those shots, but came down with Malaria anyway, parents might come to the conclusion it doesn't work at all. 

And of course, the lesson we learned in the Philippines after the Dengue Vaccine debacle in the Philippines, is if parents see a problem with the vaccine they might stop getting any vaccine for their kids, and kids will die of ordinary childhood diseases that are prevented with these vaccines that have been around for 50 years or even longer and essentially eliminated diseases like measles, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, but which popped up to kill kids here in the Philippines after their parents stopped getting shots for their kids.

so if I lived in west Africa, would I have my kids get the vaccines? Yes. I saw cases of children dying of cerebral malaria and many sick from malaria when I worked there. And despite being on preventive medicine, I came down with a case of FMalaria, which even then was developing resistance to medicines.

questions no one dares to ask:

 

Buffalo Guy Kicking Himself For Not Just Pulling Fire Alarm To Evacuate Congress https://t.co/VUgF3ppRuB via @TheBabylonBee

— tioedong (@tioedong) October 2, 2023

link

Is it paranoia or is it reality?

Why listen to conspiracy theories?  Because they often take an overlooked problem and inflate it to an evil conspiracy. But if you don't note what they are saying, you might miss they do point out something that does need to be noticed.

For example, years ago, some conspiracy theorists noted that Soros backed organizations were funding the campaigns for big city district attorneys: in order to reform the racist criminal courts.

So we now see the problem of good intentions that ignore reality:

Trump said to just shoot these criminal gangs... Uh, I don't think so. 

But you know that worked here under Duterte. But too many killed were not kingpins but minor criminals.

|

For example, once while doing business downtown, shots rang out and we were told to go inside for safety, and when I came out, there was a dead young lady lying on the street: she and a friend tried to rob a local pharmacy and were shot at by the security guard. ...

Sigh. Were they criminals, or just poor people trying to make money to eat? or (more likely) people using shabu who needed money to pay for drugs?

But even here, before Duterte, a lot of crime was sociopaths figuring they could get away with robbing, but after he made the possible price for crime go up, they decided maybe to stop robbing and work for a living and stay alive....

So do you mourn low level criminals who are shot for minor crimes, or do you mourn those killed by these criminals? We did have several neighbors killed in home invasion robberies. 

 So whose rights come first?

Sigh.

================

the NWO is going on alive and well. 

the Pope is joining with the Clinton foundation to make a nice new world of love and peace.

Because the honesty of the Clintons ia above suspicion.

much of it is about wanting peace in our time (cue Miss Congeniality satire of this)

).

But of course despite all his nice words, which I support, the dirty little secret is that the Pope says one thing here and another thing there and his actions often don't fit the idea of niceness to all.

 the Pope is busy openly presecuting the trad catholics and is now going after the mainstream Catholics as in EWTN and many of the US Catholic bishops who still believe in what the church has taught for the last 2000 years.

Sigh

......................

 Julian Assange was persecuted (he bonked a girl and she claims it was rape).

And now we read one after another person being hit to silence them.

I mean, Rumble is full of nonsense, but now there are people saying advertisers should refuse to monitize anyone on Rumble because... Russell Brand is on Rumble,

This has nothing to do with his recent work criticizing the establishment point of view: The press and the UK government just noticed that he bonked the wrong woman 15 years ago, when he was being touted in the tabloids as a bigshot boinker in the UK (and back then that was a compliment). But apparently he said something wrong, so eliminate him

But there are other ways to hide information: put a lot of stuff in your search engine search so what you want to find is now number 290 and you have to really keep loading the pages to find it.

of course, soon the google search will be passe: CHat stuff will look for you and tell you the truth.

ChatGPT can now search for data on the internet https://t.co/sZ0Aul550V

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) September 30, 2023

.......................

In other news: the complicated problem of people wanting jobs , and the failure to implement giving them visas legally.... and the exploitation of these people by criminals out for money and who also smuggle ciminals, drugs and do human trarfficking on the side.

and AlJ notes a lot of the danger to migrants is not the US racism but criminal gangs:They note: 

Migrants and asylum seekers are sometimes shot if their smuggler is working for a rival gang or if they haven’t paid passage rights. Migrants and asylum seekers are also often robbed by roving gangs of thieves and kidnappers in border areas.

The incident underscores ongoing risks for migrants and asylum seekers in border areas that criminal gangs control. https://t.co/YwD9VRiHSi

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 30, 2023

and don't forget this:

Watch out lol https://t.co/nkYELGoHKH

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 29, 2023

will WHO rule the world?

History of cold weather

 I remember one winter when we actually broke out snow blower and had to be picked up by one of the other doctors with a 4wd to go a quarter mile to work (since the cars and our smaller 4wd were snowed inside the garage).

So heavy snows and very low temperatures are a problem, which is why I prefer to live in the Philippines instead of northern Minnesota.

the Heroes of History blog has this essay on the winter of 1880 that paralyzed the midwest (and note that several other severe storms happened in that decade).

The Dakota Territory settlers were a hardy bunch and adapted to the freezing temperatures and continuous snowstorms until their food ran low. The threat of starvation loomed heavy over the towns as day after day the supply trains failed to arrive. Businessmen formed committees to ration out food and fuel, so everyone had their fair share. Families moved in together to share heat and chores. In my research, a diary entry from a town’s woman said that after blowing snow had covered her windows, and the lamp oil had run out, sitting in the near dark day after day became the most distressing and depressing part of the Hard Winter...

Ranchers lost livestock and farmers lost crops, but there are very few reports of human deaths. This is a testament to the hardiness and comradery of the settlers.

A lot of people only know about this storm from the Little house on the Praries series. But of course, these memoirs are fiction and often are sugar coated about what was going on and what  people faced. 

The History guy describes this winter:

the storms continued for the next decade, and some wonder why: from With a Bang not a Whimper: discusses this cold winter and the later blizzards of 1888...

Since that fateful season (i.e. 1887-88), the area continued to experience intermittent episodes of severe winter weather, one of the worst of which was the winter of 1935-1936.

Nor was the winter of 1887-88 without parallel during the years prior to the onset of the Little Ice Age (e.g. winters at least as severe and as memorable as any of the winters of the 1880's occurred in 1842-1843, 1856-1857 and 1874-1875).

... The last months of 1887and the first months of 1888 are unique , rather, because, as noted, they marked the end of an unbroken six year reign of abnormally cold, miserable and ruinous winter weather.

but ironically this cold spell was preceeded by a warm winter: 

The first of this series of winters, 1882-1883, was, ironically, preceded by one of the warmest winters (1881-82: average December-February temperature, 26F) on record in the Twin Cities area (and by inference probably in much of the upper Midwest as well).

more here.

and although the "year without a summer"was caused by volcanic cooling by the eruption of Mt Tambora, this episode can't be blamed on Krakatoa, a similar severe volcanic eruption that  didn't occur until in 1883.

and of course, volcanic eruptions like Mt Pinatubo did cause a temporary lowering of the global temperature.

however, most of the effects from Volcanoes are probably local weather changes.

Religious persecution in China

 AlJezeerah has an article about the pressure on various religions in China being pressured to become loyal to the regime.The AlJ article essentially quotes people saying the Vatican was a fool to believe the Chinese would keep the promises in the Vatican/Chinese govt agreement.

The first time the Chinese leader publicly spoke of it was at a conference in Beijing in 2015, during which he also declared “that the Communist Party could give active guidance to religions so that they could adapt themselves to socialist society, adhere to the direction of sinicised religion, and increase the standard of the regulations controlling religion”...

 

“The current wave of sinicisation is driven by the party-state as it seeks to change religion in China, so it aligns with the Communist Party’s and Xi Jinping’s interpretation of dominant Chinese culture and socialist core values,” Stroup said.

 

It manifests in the demolition of domes, crosses and minarets and their replacement by Chinese-styled tiled roofs and Buddhist-styled pagodas. It involves mandatory patriotic education for Buddhist, Christian and Muslim clergy and it entails party-approved sermons and prayers.

not the first time: 

Four persecutions of Buddhism occured from the fifth to tenth century.

and during the third persecution everyone was harassed:

In 845, Taoist Emperor Wuzong of the Tang dynasty initiated the "Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution" in an effort to appropriate war funds by stripping Buddhism of its financial wealth and to drive "foreign" influences from Tang China. Wuzong forced all Buddhist clergy into lay life or into hiding and confiscated their property. During this time, followers of Christianity, Judaism,[5] Manichaeanism and Zoroastrianism[6] were persecuted as well.

the history of China is one of trying to unify the country by making everyone obedient to the emperor. Confucian law encourages this idea, and given the history of civil wars, one can understand this. But the history shows these civil wars were often a reaction against persecution or corruption.

various religions promised an alternative answer to societal problems and often undermined the regimes (and here I include communism as a millenial religion). 

the Uighar Muslim persecution is well known but less well known is the persecution of the Hui Muslims. LINK.

and don't forget the Falun gong persecution: worse than the reeducation of other faiths.

practicing for war

 

UPDATE: three of the Bo Hai ferries: Bo Hai Cui Zhu, Heng Da, and Bao Zhu; are now at what appears to be an industrial wharf in Xiamen, across the Strait from Taiwan. My guess is they're doing on-load/off-load ops for a PLA operation/exercise of some sort. https://t.co/wpStve7VH7 pic.twitter.com/lJOkuEpH4s

— Tom Shugart (@tshugart3) September 24, 2023

 

...........................

UPDATE: three of the Bo Hai ferries: Bo Hai Cui Zhu, Heng Da, and Bao Zhu; are now at what appears to be an industrial wharf in Xiamen, across the Strait from Taiwan. My guess is they're doing on-load/off-load ops for a PLA operation/exercise of some sort. https://t.co/wpStve7VH7 pic.twitter.com/lJOkuEpH4s

— Tom Shugart (@tshugart3) September 24, 2023

............

“More than 900 miles from the Chinese mainland, in an area of the South China Sea that an international tribunal has unequivocally determined does not belong to China, cellphones pinged with a message: “Welcome to China.””https://t.co/sQj2i26u2S

— Tom Shugart (@tshugart3) September 23, 2023

..........

this area is only 124 nmiles off of Luzon, i.e. within the international economic zone of the Philippines.

in the meanwhile, Chinese aggression against the Philippines continues unchecked. The latest? Putting floating barriers to keep Philippine fishermen out of their traditional fishing areas.,

and they actually caught it on camera:

“The most important incident that we monitored with this maritime patrol… is that we captured on camera that the Chinese coast guard deployed their three rigid hull inflatable boats together with the service boat of one of the Chinese maritime militia vessel in installing floating barriers” in Bajo de Masinloc, PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela said in a press briefing.

China's activities are also destroying the ecosystem and coral there... notice few of the eco crazies are protsting this?

-----------------

update. 

The Philippine Coast Guard has been implementing “strategic deployment” of their vessels around the Scarborough Shoal, also known as Panatag Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc. | @JEMendozaINQ https://t.co/aUh6OS0GY8

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) September 26, 2023

One wonders if they did this when China first started to grab these islets, they would have backed down. Obama pressured PNoy not to do this but go to court, and China refuses to obey the court decree.

But you know, most of the American MSM writes as this is an equal fight and about America vs China. No, it is China vs it's neighbors (the Philippines, VietNam, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, India). 

Child abduction data

 a link to a govt report on non family abductions of children.(2002)

Summary:

During the study year, there were an estimated 115 stereotypical kidnappings, defined as abductions perpetrated by a stranger or slight acquaintance and involving a child who was transported 50 or more miles, detained overnight, held for ransom or with the intent to keep the child permanently, or killed.

In 40 percent of stereotypical kidnappings, the child was killed, and in another 4 percent, the child was not recovered.40 percent of them were killed.... 

 italics mine.

then you come down to this: if you broaden the criteria, a lot more children are at risk (if you read the report, most are teenagers).

There were an estimated 58,200 child victims of nonfamily abduction, defined more broadly to include all nonfamily perpetrators (friends and acquaintances as well as strangers) and crimes involving lesser amounts of forced movement or detention in addition to the more serious crimes entailed in stereotypical kidnappings.

 

■ Fifty-seven percent of children abducted by a nonfamily perpetrator were missing from caretakers for at least 1 hour, and police were contacted to help locate 21 percent of the abducted children.

■ Teenagers were by far the most frequent victims of both stereotypical kidnappings and nonfamily abductions.

■ Nearly half of all child victims of stereotypical kidnappings and nonfamily abductions were sexually assaulted by the perpetrator.

again, italics mine. 

so maybe it is a problem.

the victims are all sorts, but black teenage girls are the most common victim, and the perpetrator tends to be young men. 

The majority of the ones doing the abduction were not complete strangers and usually the victim was returned to caregiver after a short time. 

but this is disturbing:

For 53 percent of all nonfamily abduction victims, police were not contacted about the episode for any reason, not even to report the crime (table 8). The reasons for not reporting suggest that some portion of these nonfamily abductions were not thought to involve serious threats to the child.

this is bad but alas understandable. 

My patients who were abused said the court case was more traumatic than the actual incident, especially being accused on the stand of being a liar....and if the perpetrator was known, he would say that she did it voluntarily so it wasn't a crime. 

 

but the actual number of sexually abused children and teenagers is even higher.

not included: Various risk surveys of teenagers who said they were forced to have sex, have sex below age 13, or faced physical or mental violence in schools. 

Sigh.

 

Stuff you need in your tool chest

everyone who fixes things knows this:

so here did these wonderful things come from?

don't leave home without it...even if you are going to the moon, it could save your life.

and of course you also need WD 40.

and it does more than lubricate and remove bubble gum from your toddler's hair..

The sour fruit of Teilhard's evolutionary ideas

 

 a recent article in the New Yorker discussing the Pope who in Mongolia revealed he love Teilhard's philosophy, and that this might be the tipping point for the coming synod

As it turns out, Teilhard’s theology of cosmic spiritual progress is a useful way to understand the challenges that Francis is currently facing

what is left out of that is Jesus.

...His written work, a sustained effort to reconcile Christian theology with the theory of evolution, placed him in the vanguard of twentieth-century theology...

which only shows the problem of theologians who no longer believe all that stuff about Jesus. 

Teilhard’s notion that the earth would someday be surrounded by a complex information system powered by human consciousness has been seen as anticipating the Internet...

 and don't forget his ideas of evolving intelligence is similar to transhumanist ideas, of ubermensch who live forever via genetic engineering or via being linked to computers. 

But Teilhard’s most memorable concept is the notion that “tout ce qui monte, converge,” or “everything that rises must converge”that the various forces of natural evolution and human civilization are all ascending in a pattern of spiritual progress and will converge in a “Point Omega” at the end of time.

But he posited spontaneous evolution, not evolution via labs and CRISPR and computer implants that merge your brain with a computer.

And behind all of this shiny brave new world are the lessons of history.

one of the backstories of war and conquest going back to the ancient world is the logic of conquerers: that they are superior in some way and you peons are inferior, so obey us or die.

 the idea that some people are justified in conquering inferior races can be seen not just in European colonialism and in Rome's history, but in Chinese history, Japanese conquering Korea, the Mongul invasion of India, Genghis Khan, or Shaka Zulu among others.

So the fruits of Teilhard's evolution leads to what? A universe of love, or history repeating itself as the egotitical use his theory to insist science gave them the right to take over the world? and this time, the argument will be it's science so shut up.

(sound familiar?)

Then you have the ideas that Teilhard's ideas rconcile science and evolution with the faith: something was behind evolution and man will evolve to an omega point and voila paradise.

Theologically that has a lot of holes in it that no one wants to talk about.

 uh, Jesus?

Because at a time when Rome was proud to have conquered the world and imposed order and peace on it's minions (just ignore the slaves and massacres of course), God pulled one of his tricks and came to earth as a little baby born in a working class family in a remote area of the empire, and brought another idea: that the creator of the universe loves and cares for those who are least important in the eyes of the world.
that all men are created equal in God's eyes and that we serve him in caring for others....

which brings me back to the Pope and his fake synodality meeting that are prescripted so that everyone approves of his "reforms", which stress global warming, ecology, and sexual liberation for all, and the idea that the church should be an NGO cooperating with the global effort toward peace and a sustainable world, not a church dedicated to preaching Jesus.

This has geopolitical implications...

But the US press which hates conservatives prefers to frame the story in good liberals vs bad conservatives (who are of course white racists)...And I can only shake my head over their racist assumption that only white European and American opinions matter...(Just ignore all these African bishops, who actually believe in Jesus. As the Anglican church can tell you, they aren't exactly going to go along with the modern heresies).

which brings us to another problem with Teilhard: a willingness to tolrate scientific fraud in the Piltdown hoax to support his belief in evolution,  and his ability to ignore the racist assumptions behind the Piltdown hoax... 

Teilhard was involved in the Piltdown man hoax: maybe not behind it but very close, and he never opened his mouth to question it.

And the Piltdown man was pushed by British establishment that loved eugenics and evolution and used the Piltdown man to prove the Brits were the first true humans (i.e. inferior races evolved later and were inferior. see argument here).

Osborn studied the intelligence and physical attributes of modern humans to reveal their distinct racial and evolutionary journeys. He judged the black race to be the oldest and, by implication, the least evolved;

italics mine 

the white race had made the greatest advances. As with Dawn Man, environment did the heavy lifting in shaping the evolution of the races.....

Proof of inherent biological and evolutionary difference between Europeans, Africans, and Asians was of acute importance to Osborn because he believed strongly in keeping these group separate. ...

He co-founded the Galton Society in 1918 and American Eugenics Society in 1922, both dedicated to the advancement of the white race through eugenics. These groups sponsored “Fitter Family” contests, anti-miscegenation laws, and sterilization drives for unfit groups and “inferior” races.

Buck vs Bell, anyone? 

and other ideas morphed from this small seed: and alas every conservative site echoes this type of racism against immigration:

Osborn was also very politically active, passionately lobbying for the Immigration Act of 1924 that drastically limited immigration from Asia and Southern and Eastern Europe.

ah, but what about now, when we can make designer babies? Back then, "Nature had shaped each human race into an evolutionary form suited to its specific environment" was the idea, but in today's world we actually can do it ourselves.

CRISPR an;yone? 

A recent book about Teilhard work with the Peking man (not discovered by him) seems to say it was this discovery that gave him the idea of evolution of man. But his involvement with the Piltdown hoax suggests he already had that idea and merely wanted evidence to support his preconceived idea. Fast forward to Peking man.

A spectacular example of erectus was discovered in 1929 by Chardin and the David crew in China’s Zhoukoudian caves. There they unearthed the fossil dubbed Peking Man—“as typical a link between man and the apes as one could wish for,” the priest wrote exultantly. (This vital find, along with many other fossils, vanished in 1941 during the Japanese occupation of China.)

how convenient.

Smithsonian magazine discusses the PIltdown hoax

and this article notes discusses Teilhard's part in the hoax.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French Jesuit paleontologist, priest, and philosopher. In the figures published in articles in 1943 and 1951, he attempted to draw a "plausible schematic reconstruction of the natural connections between fossil men" and a "phyletic composition of the human group".

 

I draw attention to Teilhard's reference to Eoanthropus ("Piltdown Man") in small print in his figure that was first printed in 1943. Most suspiciously, there is no reference to this (supposedly important) genus in the associated text, nor is there any reference whatsoever to "Piltdown Man" in the article published in 1951.

 

Even as early as January 1913, Teilhard may have been aware that "Piltdown Man" was a hoax or joke, artificially associating a human cranium with a modified orangutan mandible. A new suspect is Edgar Willett (rather than Charles Dawson). Teilhard may have been an advisory accomplice in a joke that went seriously wrong.

so it was a joke? so it's okay?

Science magazine has more about Teilhard's involement and continues to say it was a joke, because of course, one can not be forgiven to be involved in lying in science, but hey, a joke can be forgiven.

Dawson's calculated chicanery underscores why studying Piltdown Man is still important to modern science, De Groote says. Although such a brazen hoax is unlikely to occur again in physical anthropology because of the sophistication of modern analytical techniques, she says, there's still a danger of being too quick to accept interpretations that adhere to what scientists expect to find.. ...

sound familiar?  

"Piltdown Man sets a good example of the need for us to take a step back and look at the evidence for what it is," she says, "and not for whether it conforms to our preconceived ideas."

So the debate about Teilhard and the Piltdown hoax also could be discussed in the distortions about covid (or global warming) where scientists who go against the shaky science are silenced, not just by their collegues but in scientific journals... 

and like the Piltdown man hoax, this is not about science per se but about censoring ideas 

Chop Suey!

 This clueless tweet caught my eye.

Filipino and Indian restaurants are only a small portion of Asian restaurants in the US even though the communities’ populations account for nearly 40 percent of Asians in the US combined (via @InquirerUSA) https://t.co/iFVB7VZLuX

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) September 19, 2023

 

...................

original article here,

quick what's wrong with this article?

Uh, they seem to think that only ethnic communities eat at their own ethnic restaurants. And they leave out the history of Chinese restaurants in the USA.

because of prejudice, many jobs were closed to the Chinese. True, they worked on the rail road etc. but were often banned from other good paying jobs like mining.

From scholars.org:

The vast majority of Chinese originally came to the United States from a small cluster of counties in Southern China, whose economic fortunes became tied to opportunities in North America after the 1849 Gold Rush in California. Young men went to the United States to work, sent money back to relatives in China, and periodically made temporary trips home. But this cycle of work and visits became much harder to execute after the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. ...Owners of particular businesses could obtain “merchant status,” which enabled them to enter the United States and sponsor relatives. After a 1915 court case granted these special immigration privileges to Chinese restaurant owners, entrepreneurial people in the United States and China opened restaurants as a way to bypass restrictions in U.S. immigration law. Flows of newcomers from China were diverted into the restaurant industry.

The number of Chinese restaurants in the United States exploded during the early twentieth-century. Between 1910 and 1920 the number of Chinese restaurants in New York City nearly quadrupled, and then more than doubled again over the next ten years.

what also helped? That the restaurants sold cheap food that was popular with non Chinese people in the area.

For example: wikipedia on the history of Chop Suey:

which tells of several myths of how this food was invented:

One account claims that it was invented by Chinese American cooks working on the transcontinental railroad in the 19th century. Another tale is that it was created during Qing Dynasty premier Li Hongzhang's visit to the United States in 1896 by his chef, who tried to create a meal suitable for both Chinese and American palates. Another story is that Li wandered to a local Chinese restaurant after the hotel kitchen had closed, where the chef, embarrassed that he had nothing ready to offer, came up with the new dish using scraps of leftovers.

so essentially it was a Chinese dish that was altered to American taste

as described in the song here:

 

That is from Flower Drum Song: 

Flower Drum Song became the first major Hollywood feature film to have a majority Asian-American cast in a contemporary Asian-American story.

of course, some of these Chinese in the movie were Japanese, but hey who can tell the difference? (/sarcasm)... 

and you might recognize the woman singing the song:

She is same woman who played Bloody Mary in South Pacific, Juanita Hall: an African American woman.

full movie here:

child trafficking: Not a new problem

 Librivox posted an audiobook about the problem of human trafficking... published in 1910.

Ebook here.

So no it isn't a q conspiracy.

and yes a lot of saints fought slavery, not just of women into prostitution but ransoming captives of the Muslim slave trade.

Trivia: St Nicholas heard about three young daughters who had no dowry so could not marry, and so when the father died, would have no other way to support themselves but prostitution. So he threw three bags of gold into their house at night, to fund the dowry.

Drones and killer robots, part two and don't forget the germs

 a follow up of a previous blog post.about drone warfare.

a nice raptor could stop an ordinary drone.

But how do you stop a swarm of killer drones? (Aug 2021)

ub, maybe by using an EMP, electromagnetic pulse to mess up their electronics?

podcast at mindmatters discusses this....transcript...

The worry about EMP (electromagnetic pulse) being used in warfare is not a new idea: I first read about it in pre internet days back in the 1980s, when it was posited that a single nuke over Omaha could wipe out the entire defense network communications system. Since then, the military has "hardened" those computers etc. but still, it is a worry, especially at a time when an increase in the sunspot cycle could result in another Carrington event.

but it's not just killer drones: Imagine killer robots.

Hmm...

all of this is, of course, high tech. And I haven't even started investigating articles on microwave weapons...

Such articles not only inform you of what they are proposing to make, but a way to scare you to be willing to fund them with oodles of money to do so. (since I am not a believer in "peace in our time", this is an observation, not a criticism).

but of course, there are a lot of articles out there warning if then Ukraine with the help of the US/NATO etc. push Putin too far, he might use nukes.

But of course, why use a nuke that has a fingerprint that can be traced back to him, when he can just follow the tried and true tactic of sending smallpox infected blankets to the Indians?

Last time I checked, Russia still has smallpox and other lethal pathogens in their labs. And the advantage of biowarfare is that they can always blame it on the US Biolabs in the Ukraine.

again, I am just pointing these things out: Because, as the UKGuardian in a March 2022 article notes: 

Most of the work of the Ukraine labs today, Gronvall said, involves surveillance of diseases in animals and people as an early-warning system for illnesses such as African swine fever, which is endemic in the region.

yes. one does need such labs. For example, when some local pigs got sick of presumed blue eardisease, the DOAgriculture found a US biolab to investigate it, and they figured out some pigs had Ebola Reston, and even gave mild cases of it to their handlers.

But lab leaks, especially in times of war (or disasters such as earthquakes or floods) are a danger.

so the WHO told the Ukraine to destroy all of their pathogens just in case.

because lab leaks do occur: no, I am not discussing covid, but the Brucellosis that leaked from a Chinese lab back in 2019 and infected 10 thousand locals.

and indeed, the UKGuardian article notes:

(WH press secretary Psaki) warned that Moscow’s claim of a secret biological weapons programme in Ukraine could in fact be laying the foundations for a Russian chemical or biological weapons assault.

 Sigh.

Who is responsible for vaccine side effects?

ManilaStandard reports: Some of those responsible for the premature use of an experimental Dengue vaccine might finally go to trial

The best analysis of this controversy is at SciAmerica, but Wikipedia also has a shorter summary. I have a longer discussion of this on my medical blog.

But the controversy comes down to: IF a vaccine will save many lives, but a few who get it will die, do you give the vaccine?

This has been argued for over a century, when prominent people like GBShaw were anti smallpox vaccine. But smallpox vaccine kills less than 1 percent, but the disease kills at least 30 percent. 

A newer vaccine safety profile shows even fewer problems, but enough that it is used only for the military or those who might be in contact with smallpox: or more recently, for those at risk for being infected with monkeypox.

 The UN wiped out smallpox by vaccinating everyone, even in dangerous areas. So now the only smallpox virus around is in a few biological laboratories... The main worry is that some crazy will release it as bioterrorism. 

But fast forward to today.

Dengue fever is a problem and a growing one.

The main problem: The first episode is minor but a repeat episode might give you a complicated case of Dengue (been there, done that). And if you never had dengue, the vaccine itself will increase your chance of having a complicated case.

A lot of parents here became anti all vaccines after the deaths of some children after the Dengue vaccine (and some of these deaths, but not all, were from complications of teh vaccine). The end result was lack of trust in all vaccines, so childred ended up dying of measles. etc.

Sigh.

But dengue vaccine is not the only one where the harm from the vaccine might be worse than the disease: 

Dr. C discusses the FDA wanting everyone even kids to get the new covid shot (and notes in the UK it is only recommended for elders and high risk folks).

And wonders why.

Sigh.

Admiral Yi, Call your office Logistics is important

 logistics is important in wars, but rarely discussed in high school history classes.

I was discussing the Battle of Salimas with my stepson, and noted that although the Spartans were known for their military, it was the Athenian navy who destroyed their ships so they lost the ability to get supplies to sustain their huge army, and there wasn't a lot of local food for them to loot so they had to bring in supplies.

a similar tactic is one reason that the Japanese invasion of Korea (on the way to conquer China) got into trouble. And that is why in K dramas, you see statues of Admiral Yi but few westerners are aware of that war.

to destroy the Japanese supply ships, he used new technology (armoured "turtle ships") and more importantly, the knowledge of the tides. Fast forward to ten minutes for the sea battles.

such history is important, because if China invades Taiwan, they will have to face logistical problems: because it would further allow China to block shipping through the strait between Taiwan and the Philippines.

as this article on StrategyPage notes: they could use civilian on/off ferries to transport huge number of invading troops. But what if Taiwan opposed them?

in the meanwhile, close to Taiwan is the Philippines. Duterte tried to make nice with China but they screwed him, and of course now Marcos is president and is getting mad at China's continued aggression against the Philippines within our EEZ and other areas.

So now we read that the government might allow more Yanks to use our military bases. 

The first five Edca locations were Basa Air Base in Pampanga, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro, Antonio Bautista Air Base in Palawan, and Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu. The sites added this year included three in the northern Philippines—Camilo Osias Naval Base and Lal-lo Airport both in Cagayan, and Camp Melchor dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela. The fourth is on Balabac Island in the West Philippine Sea, close to the Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, which the Chinese seized in 1995 and turned into one of its biggest artificial islands within the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone.

most of the news reports frame the story as if it is about America vs China. But it is Chinese aggression against the Philippines (and VietNam) in the West Philippine sea that started this. Obama pressured PNoy not to fight but try peaceful resolution via courts, and the Philippines won, but that didn't stop China. Then Duterte tried to make nice, and China screwed him and didn't keep the aid agreements.

So now Marcos is cooperating with the US to try to stop the aggression... and since the sealanes (and internet cables) in the West Philippine sea are at stake if China is allowed unchecked to stop freedom of naviagation in the area, Japan and Korea are helping too... 

But of course, much of the economy is run by ethnic Chinese families. So will they cooperate with China, or will they recognize their Filipino roots? and what about all those Chinese working in casinos or here illegally? How many are stealth PLA personnel?

Developing.

will the internet discussions change the way US elections are fought?

 Usually in the morning, I listen to youtube music or talks or headlines.

Yes, talks. 

You know I did not watch the debates of Republican candidates, mainly because I am a Democrat. But there are rumors of independents and Democrats also wanting to run, but don't expect the headlines to get into what they say.

So anyway, this talk popped up on my video stream today

...hmm.... He actually sounds like he knows what he is talking about.

and he is discussing how as governor he fought the teachers union to try to improve the very lousy schools in New Jersey, and notes he supports school choice.

left out: that when the Catholic immigrants were denied a decent education and taught protestantism in the public schools, the bishops started an idependent school system: many prominent Catholics were educated at these schools, and not just Catholics: Bill Clinton comes to mind.

so school choice for parents who want to teach their children their values in schools, and to have an alternative to public schools is not a new issue. 

but then he discusses the problems of the Ukraine war in some details, and I was delighted that he noted the Chinese connection here (backing down in the Ukaine, especially after leaving Afghanistan, sends a message that they can steal the fishing and petroleum assets from the Philippines in the West Philippine sea, not to mention that if they stop freedom of navigation in this area they can pressure other countries by blocking the sea lanes, and the internet while they are at it).

Well, anyway, in past elections usually the so called news just pushed cliches and reported it as a horse race, spending more time reporting on polls than about issues.

So will things change?

Well, this talk is with Canadian Jordan Peterson, but there are other influential people who do this: Joe Rogan's interview almost single handedly upset the monopoly of information about problems with the covid shots.

Since I live in the Philippines I don't especially follow this stuff, but I am glad that ordinary folk can listen to these nuanced talks, especially since mainstream media places like the NYT, WaPo, Atlantic etc. are behind pay walls, and on my small pension there is no way that I can read this nuanced information.