Vapymid

More on that 3 tanks saga, but still nothing conclusive...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Regards

Oh, joy..

15:24:

 

Iran, which is a majority Shia Muslim country, is so alarmed by the gains of the Sunni insurgents in Iraq that it may be willing to cooperate with Washington to help the Iraqi government fight back, a senior Iranian official tells Reuters.

Regards

Yes, isn't it wonderful?

These ISIS people are part of the rebels fighting Assad in Syria and are probably supported by Saudis.

They are considered too extreme by Al Qaeda (must be quite an achievement!).

To counter them the Iraqi federal government will probably need support of both Syria's Assad and of Iran, which will mean that the US will likely find itself having to support both (but what will they do about the Saudis?)

Already Iran and Turkey (hardly allies!) are finding themselves on the same side (enemy of my enemy etc.)

The Shia in Iraq will now have to take arms (they will be slaughtered if they won't) and the civil war has already begun.

Regards

I have to say this puzzled me a bit at first. I mean - three tanks. Why would Putin send three tanks? Three hundred would have been more like it...

Then I thought, maybe those were Ukrainians' own tanks, which got stranded and then mis-reported as Russian?

But it appears it is simpler than that:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27829773

A paramilitary in the rebel-held town of Snizhne, where the tanks were first sighted, told Reuters news agency: "We got them from a military warehouse."

 

Contrary to initial reports that the tanks are Russian-made T-72s, one of the most commonly used models in late Soviet times, rebels and bloggers have identified them as T-64s, an older model manufactured in Ukraine.

Of course, this may turn out to be something else entirely...

Regards

The complete history of sexual jealousy, pp.XVII-XXIV

Fc8_ioQUudk

Regards

3Fn36l_z3WY

Regards, ha haaaw

And, incidentally, Boston Dynamics has been bought by Goggle

Regards

P.S. There is a thread about their robots here...

To my perhaps naive eye:

"Canadian Government policies – such as publicly funded health care; higher and more progressive taxation; outlawing capital punishment; strong efforts to eliminate poverty; an emphasis on cultural diversity; strict gun control; and most recently, legalizing same-sex marriage" - all pretty much contrary to the American ways, especially the gun control

Seriously speaking, I think that the US is affected by one of the problems that was endemic to the USSR. There is a great difference between what the Establishment is saying about the country's values - equality, freedom, democracy etc and the what the situation really is. Equality is only as good as your bank balance and your family line. Freedom is fine, as long as you do as expected by the powers that be. Democracy is OK as long as you vote for the approved cause...

Regards

5 out of 1000 don't get ANYTHING from the vaccine.

In other words, 995 people out of 1000 develop immunity after full course of vaccination (initial + a booster shot) - pretty good odds to chance getting vaccinated, I'd say

Regards

Blaming the unvaccinated for the spread of diseases is like blaming people that don't use turn signals for all forms of car crashes.

I would not be so categorical on that. The thing is that the non-vaccinated people act as incubators for the virus. When they are infected, the virus multiplies and irritates the lungs and the throat, causing coughing, which then spreads the virus through the air.

In immunised people, the virus (if they become exposed) is immediately suppressed by their immune system and does not get to multiply, so they don't act as a vector for the infection.

I really don't understand where the opposition to immunisation is coming from... Is it because of automatic opposition to anything coming from the Goverment? Or are there religious reasons?

I know, the MMR problem was triggered by a falsified medical report, but still there has to be a fertile ground of people with negative confirmation bias for a public panic to spread...

Regards

Well, now we have it - there is no need for it to be in the wild. It can be stored in labs, to be used for research. In fact, I think it must be preserved, because it's needed for making the vaccine.

But, actually, I don't think measles pathogen is an endangered species - there is plenty of it around to survive, all we need is keep it sufficiently suppressed to avoid epidemics/outbreaks.

Regards

But this disease in the wild is still very bad, even if the organism that causes it can be useful in controlled conditions.

It's similar to Botox - you don't normally want to find it in your soup but lots of people are using it on regular basis for cosmetic treatment. Of snake venom, for example...

Regards

Well, in the UK it was.

In general, roughly 90% of immune population is needed to prevent a measles outbreak (this differs from disease to disease). The disease does not spread exponentially among the non-immune 10% because the remaining 90% act as dampers, breaking transmission from person to person. If the number of immune people falls down below that threshold the infection spreads (it's similar to controlling nuclear fission by neutron absorbers ).

But even when the disease spreads - only non-immune people are affected... According to the Wales health authorities data, the effectiveness of the MMR vaccine during the last year's outbreak was from 95% to 99%.

Regards

Oh, bugger... must be geographically locked on demand from Warner's.

A wind of change is in order...

UJ3HlmaOzbw

Regards

Bungle in the Jungle - Jethro Tull

Continuing the theme - 38 years later...

-BXIFROoQLY

Regards

Measles, easily preventable, is outbreaking in a lot of places recently. It might've been eradicated if not for the anti-vaccininators.

It wasn't because of them that it's spreading...

I think it is very clear that these outbreaks are happening purely because of incomplete vaccinations. Only non-immunised people are affected and they are happening in areas of low take up of vaccines.

No need for conspiracy or sudden mutations here...

Regards

From their latest album - The Road of Bones, released on the 3rd of May.

0hKVARLRvls

Regards

Hey, never mind the game - look at the ad just below the screen. U Fleku - the home of the best beer in the world! That alone requires a visit to Prague!

Regards

Saw them live yesterday in London, at the Royal Albert Hall.

Oh, my. They played 3 full albums back to back, with only a short break in the middle. Three hours of complex music and singing... An now they are on their European tour and are going to repeat that almost every day for 2 months and then go on the US tour in July-August.

Some pictures here

AXWTwBIqowk

This is a studio version but the live performance was equally great, with the new vocalist - Jon Davison - doing justice to the piece.

Seriously, if anyone is close to any date/venue when they are playing - I implore you to go see them. No matter if you like them or never heard of them, it will be worth it. The complete schedule is on their website - http://www.yesworld.com/

They will do Warsaw on June 2nd, btw (in case Ross or Princess are reading this...)

Regards

P.S. You can tell - it got me excited...

A great opener from IA's new album (out just two weeks ago).

jOCxHMoqodo

Regards

g8jZ2-Ov_Oc

Regards

OK, to round this up: over half of Americans doubt the Big Bang theory of the inception of the universe, and about four out of ten doubt evolution or that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old.

As the latest AP - GfK poll suggests

Regards

Also, today's news...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/21/world/eur ... ?hpt=hp_t2

I knew you would bring that up...

(CNN) -- Ukrainian officials say they have photographic proof that Russian forces are operating in eastern Ukraine.

 

A dossier obtained Monday by CNN shows what Ukrainian officials say are images of well-equipped gunmen operating in eastern Ukraine who look similar to photographs of Russian forces taken in Crimea, Russia and during Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia.

Of course there are Russian "advisers" there, just like there were (and probably still are) US "advisers" on Maidan. It's back to the Great Game now. It has [re]started.

The revelations follow reporting last week by CNN's Arwa Damon citing Ukrainian security officials as saying they had arrested a Russian military officer and a woman Ukrainian officials say is a Russian intelligence agent.

I read that in the local media earlier. Don't know about the officer - he is probably genuine. The girl though - looks like she is an overenthusiastic activist who believed in her own fantasies. Or maybe she was simply incompetent. She has tweeted the world + dog and had a FB page detailing her "special agent" activities and that's what alerted the police.

Last week, NATO commander Gen. Philip Breedlove wrote on the alliance's blog that what pro-Russian groups have described as an organic uprising is in reality a "well planned and organized" military operation orchestrated by Moscow.

Well, what do you expect the good General to say? And he is probably at least 50% right, too. However, it is clear that the locals are genuinely disturbed by the events in Kiev and want to do something about it. If it wasn't the case, no amount of foreign interference would have been enough to stir that much trouble.

But of course, when "Maidan" activists seize buildings in Kiev it is perfectly legal, according to Nuland, but when it happens in Donetsk - it's "orchestrated".

Regards

P.S. Well, BBC now thinks that the evidence "endorsed by the Obama administration" is a bit rubbish, actually:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27104904

Russia, Russia, UBER ALLES...

 

What do you mean by that?

 

Regards

 

Trying to make the Jews register? (Even if they're not doing so. because they think it's just provocation.) What do YOU think that suggests?

I see. The reason I asked was because you obviously alluded to the German national anthem but it could be interpreted in a number of ways - as a symbol of national unification idea (the original meaning), as reference to the Nazi Germany when it was still in use, or as a reference to the latent nationalism which it represents now (the stanza that is not officially sung aloud anymore but understood to still be there) as the same anthem is still being used by today's Germany...

OK, a comparison to Nazis it is then. Well, I don't think this prank has been sanctioned by Putin in any way. While there is undoubtedly some grass-root antisemitism in Russia (where isn't?), Putin has a strong support from pro-Jewish lobby, some of his closest friends are Jewish and his "national idea" (the ideology with which they are trying to replace the "scientific communism" and USSR) revolves all around the WWII and the struggle against Nazism.

In Ukraine? I think antisemitism is stronger there (historically), although, ironically, it is by far stronger in the West of the country, but also in the South, near Odessa. That thing in Donetsk region? - again, I doubt it was authorised even by the local insurgency as it looks too primitive and crude. In times of unrest, though, these nasties will crawl out in the open and to an extent one should expect things like that to appear on both sides of the lines. It would become much more worrying if there will appear any indications of official support of these lunatics from either side.

Regards

Russia, Russia, UBER ALLES...

What do you mean by that?

Regards