Displaying posts published in

March 2019

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Why Do Renewable Energy Sources Need Government Subsidies? Francis Menton

By on March 10th, 2019

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2019-3-8-why-do-renewable-energy-sourc

If you read the progressive press, or even a little of it, with an interest in matters of energy policy, then surely you know by now that it has become cheaper to produce electricity using the wind and sun than using fossil fuels. You know that because you have read it over and over again, in authoritative articles written by, and quoting, people who seem to know what they are talking about, and with no one ever raising any skeptical questions.

Here are some of the articles that may be among what you have read on this subject:

There was the Financial Times on November 8, 2018, in a piece titled “New wind and solar generation costs fall below existing coal plants.” The Financial Times — now there are people who really know what they are talking about. The article mainly relies on a study then just out from investment bank Lazard, reporting on what is called the “Levelized Cost of Energy” for various sources of generation: “The cost of new wind and solar power generation has fallen below the cost of running existing coal-fired plants in many parts of the US . . . New estimates published on Thursday by Lazard, the investment bank, show that it can often be profitable for US generation companies to shut working coal plants and replace their output with wind and solar power.”

Or perhaps you read the piece from CBS News on November 16, mostly relying on the same Lazard study, and titled “It’s now cheaper to build a new wind farm than to keep a coal plant running.” “The cost of building a new utility-scale solar or wind farm has now dropped below the cost of operating an existing coal plant, according to an analysis by the investment bank Lazard. . . . ‘There are some scenarios, in some parts of the U.S., where it is cheaper to build and operate wind and solar than keep a coal plant running,’ said a Lazard banker who was involved in the report.”

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Fed-Up House Republican Releases Bruce Ohr Testimony Showing Major Conflict of Interest By Debra Heine

By on March 10th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/fed-up-house-republican-releases-bruce-ohr-testimony-showing-major-conflict-of-interest/

In a surprise move Friday, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, unilaterally released the 268-page transcript of an August 2018 interview with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.

Collins explained that his patience with the Justice Department “has grown thin.” He took to the House floor and asked that the full, unredacted transcript be put on the record.

In his testimony, Ohr revealed that former British spy Christopher Steele was simultaneously paid by both the FBI and the Democrat opposition research firm Fusion GPS during the 2016 election.

The transcript also shows claims conflicting with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson on several key points, including the timing of their meeting to discuss the Steele dossier.

Additionally, Ohr testified that Simpson provided false information to federal officials regarding Cleta Mitchell, a Republican campaign finance attorney who used to work for the NRA.

Continue reading →
EDUCATION Comments turned off

Yet another hate crime hoax at yet another expensive college By Thomas Lifson

By on March 10th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/03/yet_another_the_crime_hoax_at_yet_another_expensive_college.html

Another hate crime hoax has convulsed an expensive private college and yielded a mass demonstration by “more than 100” black students (out of a student body of 1,450), and the predictable list of seven demands, including race-based hiring favoring blacks and brainwashing (AKA mandatory “cultural competency” training).

So far as I can tell, no national media have picked up the story of the arrest of Ajani Arthur, a black student at Goucher College (tuition: $43,440) who allegedly created graffiti that “depicted swastikas, the letters ‘KKK’ and appeared to include the last names of four black students, including Arthur.” A previous incident last November, one floor below where the current graffiti were found and attributed to Arthur, said, “all ‘n——‘ on campus would be killed.”

The U.K. Daily Mail is doing the job that the American national media refuse to do, with the most extensive coverage of the fraud (though local media, including the Baltimore Sun, Washington Times, and the alleged perp’s hometown paper, along with the College Fix, managed to take notice). A Google search for Goucher College yields no note of the incident at all:

Continue reading →
EDUCATION Comments turned off

Race and Gender Hustlers in the Classics Departments By Peter Wood

By on March 10th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/classics-departments-threatened-race-gender-politics/

A professional association rebukes a scholar for suggesting that a colleague got his job because of his merit, not his race.

What would Livy think? The ancient historian had a high regard for facts. The field in which Livy now lives, however — classics — is finding facts more and more of a nuisance.

In January, a classicist named Mary Frances Williams stood up at the annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies and asked about the strange views that several panelists had promulgated on “the future of Classics.” One of the panelists, Dan-el Padilla Peralta, an assistant professor at Princeton’s classics departments, inveighed that the whole discipline was guilty of “the systemic marginalization of people of color in the credentialed and accredited knowledge production of the discipline.” Professor Padilla said much more in this patois of “critical race theory” all to the effect that white people should shut up and get out of the way.

Williams, an independent scholar with a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, decided to speak up for the merit of teaching students works by the great authors of the past. Thrown off stride by one of the panelists, Williams responded, pointing to Padilla, “You may have got your job because you’re black, but I’d prefer to think you got your job because of merit.”

It was a maladroit sentence, though perhaps not a great deal more maladroit than Padilla’s response, “I hope the field dies, that you’ve outlined [sic], dies, and that it dies as swiftly as possible!”

The outcome of this exchange is that Williams was ejected from the meeting and the Association of Ancient Historians fired her as an editor of its newsletter. Padilla, by contrast, received a public “affirmation of his value to our department and the future of classics” from the chairman of the Princeton department.

Continue reading →
BOOKS Comments turned off

The Swamp Fights Back By Victor Davis Hanson

By on March 10th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/trump-fights-deep-state-swamp-fights-back/

Never before in the history of the presidency had a commander-in-chief earned the antipathy of so many — and lived to tell the tale.

Editor’s Note: The following excerpt is adapted from Victor Davis Hanson’s new book, The Case for Trump. It appears here with permission.

T rump was warned by friends, enemies, and neutrals that his fight against the deep state was suicidal. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, just a few days before Trump’s inauguration, cheerfully forecast (in a precursor to Samantha Power’s later admonition) what might happen to Trump once he attacked the intelligence services: “Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”

Former administrative-state careerists were not shy about warning Trump of what was ahead. The counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd, who had worked in the CIA and the FBI under Robert Mueller, warned CNN host Jake Tapper in August 2017 that “the government is going to kill” President Donald Trump. Kill? And what was the reason the melodramatic Mudd adduced for his astounding prediction? “Because he doesn’t support them.” Mudd then elaborated: “Let me give you one bottom line as a former government official. The government is going to kill this guy. The government is going to kill this guy because he doesn’t support them.” Mudd further clarified his assassination metaphor: “What I’m saying is government — people talk about the deep state — when you disrespect government officials who’ve done 30 years, they’re going to say, ‘Really?’”

It was difficult to ascertain to what degree Mudd was serious or exaggerating the depth of deep-state loathing of Trump.

A writer for the London Review of Books, Adam Schatz, seemed even more direct. He reported a supposed conversation that he had with an American political scientist knowledgeable of the Washington permanent caste. He purportedly had assured Schatz that if Trump were elected, he would likely not survive his full term: “He will have to be removed from power by the deep state, or be assassinated.”

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Paul Manafort Was an Agent of Ukraine, Not Russia By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on March 10th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/paul-manafort-worked-for-ukraine-not-russia/

He is a scoundrel, but he was never a Kremlin operative.

Paul Manafort, the clandestine agent of Russia at the heart of the Trump campaign’s “collusion” scand — oh, wait.

Have you ever noticed what Paul Manafort’s major crime was? After two years of investigation, after the predawn raid in which his wife was held at gunpoint, after months of solitary confinement that have left him a shell of his former self, have you noticed what drew the militant attention of the Obama Justice Department, the FBI, and, ultimately, a special counsel who made him the centerpiece of Russia-gate?

According to the indictment Robert Mueller filed against him, Manafort was an unregistered “agent of the Government of Ukraine.” He also functioned as an agent of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s president from 2010 to 2014, and of two political parties, the Party of Regions and its successor, the Opposition Bloc.

Manafort was not an unregistered agent of Russia. Mueller never alleged that Manafort was a clandestine operative of the Kremlin. He worked for Ukraine, not Putin. Indeed, for much of his time in Ukraine, he pushed his clients against Putin’s interests.

Continue reading →
POLITICS Comments turned off

If there is silence, Jew and Israel hatred grows with amazing speed Victor Sharpe

By on March 10th, 2019

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/23552

There are some 11 Jewish Democrats in the House. If they remain without vigorously and effectively protesting the filth that spews from Omar’s mouth, then they shall be forever condemned by history.Rabbi Meir Kahane – he was a great man and is deeply missed, although maligned by many – once wrote that. “Turning the other cheek has never worked.”

He was correct, and as Jews we were never meant to practice such a Christian belief, which ironically was nearly always absent during the centuries of internecine warfare which racked Europe’s Christian nation states. But too often, Israeli responses to Palestinian Arab aggression have been just that.

Bombing empty buildings in Gaza. Warning the hate-filled Arab terrorists, who call themselves Palestinians, to remove themselves to safety from buildings before bombing them. Enduring the most unspeakable and relentless Palestinian Arab terror and responding to it with velvet gloved hands. None of this works and must end. And so it is when dealing with anti-Semitism. If there is silence and weak response, Jew and Israel hatred grows with amazing speed.

Continue reading →
ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

SELLING SOCIALISM TO AMERICA: LINDA GOUDSMIT

By on March 10th, 2019

http://goudsmit.pundicity.com/22437/selling-socialism-to-america

Socialism is a tough sell to Americans who evaluate ideas based on facts and a remarkably easy sell to Americans who evaluate ideas based on feelings. The adult world of facts is a foreign land to the infantilized world of feelings where low-info millennial voters currently dwell. The heated political battle between Americanism and Socialism parallels the battle between parents and their children who refuse to grow up emotionally and leave the nest.

Becoming an emotional adult requires embracing a fact based cause-and-effect view of the world that rejects the fantasies of childhood. “No Johnny, you cannot fly like a bird even though you really really really want to.” What happens if Johnny insists that he can fly and takes a confident leap from a tall building?

Socialism and Johnny have a lot in common – both insist they can do what objective reality proves they cannot do.

So, what is the problem?

America is being challenged by a Peter Pan generation that refuses to grow up and lives in a world of subjective reality where feelings rather than facts determine public policy. Their fragile selves require enforced political correctness and safe spaces to protect them from unwelcome facts and opposing ideas. Johnny climbs to the top of a tall building because he “feels” like a bird – he refuses to accept the fact that he is a human being and cannot fly. Human beings have limitations just like Socialism does.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

Growing global interest in Israel’s hightech Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

By on March 10th, 2019

https://bit.ly/2SPKEgZ

1. The growing interest, by global hightech companies, in Israeli technologies, is represented by the Pennsylvania-based Qlik, acquiring Israel’s data-integration Attunity for $560MN (Globes Business Daily, February 25, 2019). In January, 2019, Thoma Bravo private equity, which owns Qlik, acquired Israel’s cybersecurity Imperva for $2.1BN.

2. The Silicon Valley-based global cybersecurity leader, Palo Alto networks, acquired Israel’s automated security solutions, Demisto, for $560MN (Tech Crunch, February 19). In April, 2018, Palo Alto acquired Israel’s endpoint detection and response, Secdo, for $100MN.

3. Google acquired Israel’s cloud migration, Alooma, for $100MN. In January, 2019, Amazon acquired Israel’s Cloud Endure for $250MN (Globes, February 21).

4. Intel (which employs 13,000 Israelis, exporting $4BN from Israel) intends to invest $11BN in constructing a new fab in Israel – in addition to last year’s investment of $5BN – asking Israel for a 10% grant (Globes, January 29).

5. According to Bloomberg, February 12, 2019, “big carmakers are flocking Israel… dealing not with sales, but with research and development…. Volkswagen, Renault, Hundai, Skoda and Seat are a few of the companies that have opened such innovation centers… investing and collaborating with local startups…. Only two international carmakers have full-fledged R&D centers in Israel: General Motors (since 2008; 300 employees) and Daimlers, the parent company of Mercedes (since 2018)…. The user interface installed in the Bolt, Chevrolet’s electric car, and in many late-model Cadillacs was developed in Israel… which is a center for smart transportation…. Israeli startup entrepreneurs come with experience from the Israel Defense Forces hightech units….”

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on March 10th, 2019

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Freezing bladder tumors. Israeli startup Vessi Medical has developed unique bladder-specific cryotherapy technology for treating surface cancer on the inside lining of the bladder. Existing therapies are invasive and have a high recurrence rate. Vessi has conducted clinical trials and hopes to begin human trials shortly.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-startup-seeks-to-freeze-bladder-tumors-after-seeing-success-in-pigs/

A computer in your heart. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported 3 years ago (see here) when Israel’s Vectorious Medical raised funds to trial its V-LAPTM microcomputer that monitors for imminent heart failure. The device has just been successfully implanted in the first human trials in a six-minute procedure, under local anesthesia. It is said to be the world’s first digital, wireless, battery-less device that can communicate from deep within the body.
http://nocamels.com/2019/02/vectorious-1st-human-trial-wireless-heart-monitor-implant/
http://vectoriousmedtech.com/

ReWalk’s soft suit completes trials. I reported previously (see here) about ReStore, the soft suit exoskeleton from Israel’s ReWalk that enables stroke patients to walk. ReStore recently completed successful trials at five US rehabilitation centers and ReWalk has now applied for US FDA and European CE approval.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3756695,00.html

Treatment for refractory seizures. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Teva has launched a generic version of Sabril (vigabatrin) in the US for the treatment of refractory Complex Partial Seizures (CPS). It is meant for adults and children over 10 with this form of epilepsy who have failed to respond to several alternative treatments.
https://www.tevapharm.com/news/teva_announces_u_s_launch_of_a_generic_version_of_sabril_vigabatrin_02_19.aspx

Unique way to mend a broken heart. A 29-year-old Israeli staggered into Sheba Medical Center with a left ventricle aneurysm (ruptured heart artery). Cardiologist Professor Victor Guetta performed a “first in the world” procedure using a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) occlude (normally used to open arteries) to plug the hole.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-israeli-doctor-plugs-heart-bleed-with-innovative-procedure/

Lab-grown bone patient competes in triathlon. Danny Yaakobson suffered a serious leg injury in a car accident and risked losing his leg. He was the first patient to receive a transplant using bone grown from his own fat cells by Israel’s Bonus Bio. Danny completed the 112-mile cycle race of Eilat’s 2019 Israman triathlon.
http://nocamels.com/2019/02/world-1st-patient-lab-grown-bone-implant-israman-triathlon/

Predicting the spread of melanoma. Scientists at Ben Gurion University, working with others at the University of Texas, have used microscopic cameras to film live cancer cells. They then used artificial intelligence to identify cells with metastatic potential that were likely to spread to other parts of the body.
http://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/ai_melanoma.aspx
https://www.the-scientist.com/image-of-the-day/image-of-the-day–bad-behavior-65202

Finding the cause of genetic diseases. Israeli biotech Emedgene has developed a platform that can pinpoint the genetic mutation(s) responsible for rare genetic diseases. Emedgene gets cases from healthcare organizations and uses Artificial Intelligence and information databases to help geneticists uncover the underlying problem.
https://emedgene.com/emedgene-raises-6-million-to-scale-genomics-based-care-with-ai/

Hope for safer skin grafts. It’s early days, but Shahar Ben-Shaul from Israel’s Technion Institute looks to have improved the success rate for skin grafts. In laboratory trials, she and her team were able to connect blood vessels faster and safer using more mature (14-day-old) cells grown in the lab, in combination with real skin.
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-study-shows-more-successful-method-for-skin-grafts/
https://www.pnas.org/content/116/8/2955

Continue reading →