The first part of the headline reads:
From that, most people will probably go “woo.” But then they read the rest of the headline:
And the story is promptly buried under a mountain of well-deserved skepticism.
Emphasis on *may:*
In short, bacteria, algae and other simple organisms were trapped in brine which eventually was encases within halite (“rock salt”) in Australia 830 million years ago, back when a few algal cells clumping together was the height of complexity. These simple organisms are of course dried out… but that drying may (*MAY*) have preserved them stably enough that some might (*MGHT*) be revivable.
It is a valid question: “Ummm… should we be reviving critters what been dead nearly a billion years?” One argument would be “sure, what the hell,” because we’ve had 830 million years to evolve way past any threat they might pose. The other point of view is “Have you never watched any science fiction?!?!” and assume that 830 million years may well have evolved us so far away from them that there’s essentially no link, and no remaining understanding of how to combat them.
Quoting the paper:
Are microorganisms in Browne Formation halite alive? Some halophilic microorganisms, such as Dunaliella algae, shrink and greatly reduce biological activity when host waters become too saline; these algal cells may be revived during later flooding events (Oren, 2005). Survival of bacteria and archaea in primary fluid inclusions in 97 and 150 ka halite have been described (Mormile et al., 2003; Lowenstein et al., 2011). The oldest known halite from which living prokaryotes have been extracted and cultured is Permian (ca. 250 Ma; Vreeland et al., 2000). Therefore, it is plausible that microorganisms from the Neoproterozoic Browne Formation are extant.
Possible survival of microorganisms over geologic time scales is not fully understood. It has been suggested that radiation would destroy organic matter over long time periods, yet Nicastro et al. (2002) found that buried 250 Ma halite was exposed to only negligible amounts of radiation. Additionally, microorganisms may survive in fluid inclusions by metabolic changes, including starvation survival and cyst stages, and coexistence with organic compounds or dead cells that could serve as nutrient sources (e.g., McGenity et al., 2000; Schubert et al., 2009a, 2010; Stan-Lotter and Fendrihan, 2015). One such organic compound, glycerol, produced by the cellular breakdown of some algae, may provide energy for longevity of coexisting prokaryotes (Schubert et al., 2010; Lowenstein et al., 2011). Furthermore, both non–spore-forming and spore-forming prokaryotes may have advantages for long-term survival in fluid inclusions. Non–spore-forming prokaryotes are continually, but minimally, metabolically active, so they are able to repair DNA should it be necessary (Johnson et al., 2007). Alternately, spores formed by prokaryotes may provide another way of longterm survival in a dormant state (Vreeland et al., 2000; Lowenstein et al., 2011).
Personally, I fully support an effort to revive these critters and study them. They’d be a fascinating look into the incredibly ancient past and at how life evolved. Of course, the best place for this research would be in the underground Wildfire facility a few miles west of Clavius Base.
One of the “lesser” news incidents in the last day or two was the mass shooting at the Laguna Woods church, lesser because the shooting was not carried out by a politically exploitable person based on a politically exploitable ideology. Still, it appears that this was a political act, which surprised me… I figured based on minimal initial evidence that this was a case of someone disgruntled at either his church or family or something. But it seems to be more interesting: the church was filled with Taiwanese people, while the shooter was an import from Communist China, and reporting now is that he was P.O.ed at the Taiwanese for political reasons and had no links to this church… he chose them simply because they were Taiwanese. Was the shooter a good and faithful Commie? Was he annoyed that Taiwan refuses to knuckle under to the CCP? If so… expect this little detail to vanish like a fart in the wind. A trivial number of “far right” extremists, why, that’s a threat to national security of the highest order, while *millions* of actual communists? Pah. Piffle. Nothing to see here, move along.
“Playmobil” toys aren’t my thing, not even waaaaaaay back when I was the target demographic. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the effort that went into the Playmobil Enterprise, not least because they went with the *real* Enterprise, not one of the nutrek Fakeprises. Makes sense: the JJprise has largely faded from the public conscience, and the STD/SNW Enterprise has, at least so far, virtually no traction, and has a *lot* of negativity to overcome. Go with the Enterprise that people actually *like.*
That said: at nearly $400, (note: it originally came out at about $500; Amazon lists it at about $380 on their site, but it seems to be $340 on the link below, a discrepancy I can’t explain) it’s a safe bet that this “toy” isn’t going to be given to too many five-year-olds, who likely aren’t going to be all that familiar with NCC-1701 anyway.
They’re selling off all their assets in Russia, and will “de-Arch” all their sites, meaning that under international law the McDonalds logos and whatnot will not be allowed to be used for any business in Russia. Given Russia’s dubious relationship with intellectual property and copyright laws, I kinda expect McDonalds to *seem* to still be in business, many of the existing locations being bought out and re-opened by some Kremlin-crony using the existing hardware and much of the staff. I *assume* that the bulk of their food ingredients were sourced from Russian providers; I would imagine that producing virtually identical menu items to what they made as McDonalds should be fairly straightforward.
It should prove interesting to see how McDonalds iconography gets mutated into Russian propaganda.
It’s in basic human nature to hold contradictory views from time to time. But where politics are concerned, this cognitive dissonance can be taken to a high degree of professionalism. Witness:
Much of this NPR interview with a New York Times reporter who penned a hit piece on Tucker Carlson focuses on Tucker’s repeated discussion of the “Great Replacement.” This is the notion that Democrats are importing large numbers of third worlders in order to change American demographics, as immigrants from the third world are much more likely to vote for free goodies, i.e. for Democrats. (This NPR piece aired a few days *before* the Buffalo mass shooting, so expect them to revisit it in light of their new opportunity to dance on graves.)
The reporter several times refers to “Great Replacement” as a “conspiracy theory” and “factually wrong.” And yet…
“…it harkens back to an earlier era, Carlson’s childhood and mine, when America was not just majority white but disproportionately and overwhelmingly composed of white citizens.”
“Disproportionately.” How can a nations natural population be “disproportionate?” Is Japan disproportionately Japanese? Is Quebec disproportionately packed with French speakers? No. The fact that the author believes that it was wrong for the US to have once had the demographics that it did – and now no longer does – does in fact point to a belief on the authors part that replacing, to some degree or another, the existing population with another one is a good thing.
As with virtually every other PC media piece that mentions “Great Replacement,” it is called racist… but it’s never explained *how* it’s racist, or explained why the facts about it are wrong. And how can they, when they gloat that, regardless of the motive, the end result is exactly what the “Great Replacement” theory says it would be? This “Replacement is a conspiracy theory, and it’s wonderful” ranks up there with “the Holocaust never happened, and it was a great thing” often touted by actual neo-Nazis.
… ordered by intensity. You didn’t know you needed this. But you do.
Here are the best “AI translation software app” commercials you are likely to see today.
I suspect that these are not legit Korean commercials… but I *really* hope that they are.
Since yesterday’s mass shooting in Buffalo, NY, plays directly into The Narrative, there’s little point in my going on about it: the media will blat on about this for *weeks.* Still, the shooters manifesto has been found and published online several places, such as HERE. It is one hundred and eighty pages. It is bad news: the ghouls in the media and the political class will eat this up. The shooter is a straight up neo-Nazi white supremacist. A lot of his complaints are fact-based, a lot are garbage; his conclusions are nuts.
Something that immediately leaps out when your eyes glaze over at the sheer scale of his jibberjabber is how much effort he put into planning… and in documenting his plans and thoughts and whatnot. He has a long section on the weapons he planned to use: the primary one was a legally purchased AR-platform rifle that he illegally modified. He goes into detail on where he got it, how he modified it, opinions on the relative quality of various manufacturers, blah, blah, blah. It’s the sort of document that would be described as “autistic” in its detail.
While I can’t imagine the level of nuttery that would cause someone to decide that shooting up a grocery store is any kind of good idea, I also cannot imagine the thought process behind documenting the whole thing… or the reasoning that concludes that this act will cause a whole bunch of like-minded folks to rise up and wipe out millions of people they don’t like. All it will end up doing is shutting down valid debate and eroding rights a little more. And driving up the cost of guns, magazines and ammo, which you can now expect yet another run on. Even though he did this with an illegal gun (and specifically targeted a New York store, due to the 10-round limit and low number of legal concealed carriers), expect New York to decide that a new round of laws are needed to prevent this sort of thing. Laws that won’t do diddly to quash the less newsworthy and far more voluminous homicides that take place regularly.
ADDITIONAL: Ruined Leon’s video on the subject is worthy of a view.
If you are going to insult someone, it’s generally most effective if the insult actually sounds like an insult, or the satire is clear. The least effective kinds of insults are the ones where the insulted person wears the insult as a source of pride. Remember “box of deplorables? How’d that work out?
I haven’t done months of polling, but with gas prices at a record high, inflation back to 70’s levels, the threat of nuclear war *closer* than the horizon, baby formula vanishing from the shelves… “Make America Great Again” seems like it aught to be a pretty appealing notion just now.
If you do a Google Image Search on “ultra MAGA,” the first things that pop up are a row of “Ultra MAGA” T-shirts. Who do yo think would be buying and wearing these? Democrats hoping to stick it to the Trump voters? Amazon is already loaded with “Ultra MAGA” T-shirts and hats and other products. If you want to see a bunch of them, click HERE (and if you buy from that or the following links, some of that Ultra MAGA money trickles down to me. So, you know… spend baby spend!).
And then there’s this. It’s not an Ultra MAGA shirt, but the message is a good one: