RSS- The Wondrous Oak
- Three Seas Summit: Vilnius 2024
- Tit for tat until it all goes boom
- Deadly H5N1 avian influenza strain detected on mainland Antarctica
- “BYD is launching its next-gen Blade EV battery soon with more range and even lower cost”
- Iran launches air attacks on Israel
- ISW on the developing Ukrainian defense industrial base and Russias strikes on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure
- Britain? Kaput! By Walrus.
- Declaration “Dignitas Infinita” on Human Dignity
- The situation and some possible courses of action … A Pat Lang post reposted from 26 February 2022
I have been a big fan of Isaac Azimov, the polymath genius, since childhood. I like all of his work, Two of my favorites are his commentaries on Shakespeare’s opus and another on Gilbert and Sullivan. I read the “Foundation” books as they were published. I love them. So, I watched the first three episodes of Apple TeeVee’s series, “Foundation.” I will try not to watch any more of it. It is not to my taste but I would like to read the opinion of others.
Haven’t read the “Foundation” books, nor will I see the TV series. I refuse to pay for cable or streaming services. The idea of setting up scientific foundations to save civilization reminds me of what the Soviet Academy of Sciences did when the USSR collapsed. They called on scientific institutes around the world, like Germany’s Garching Institutes, to take in their scientists so they could continue their work and wait for conditions to improve back in Russia. It was a golden time to be a case officer.
TTG
There are public libraries.
I use our public library a lot. I just don’t read a lot of science fiction beyond Douglas Adams and William Gibson. Some, but not much more.
TTG
Ah, what a learned man you are.
Colonel,
Paul Krugman is also a big fan of the Foundation trilogy:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/dec/04/paul-krugman-asimov-economics
I was a very big fan of Krugman when he was young. I think he was a very smart guy. At this point he would do well to retire.
I think that science fiction is an underrated genre of literature. The very best of it, like the Foundation trilogy, addresses the biggest questions.
James et al
My remaining eyesight is such that I no longer read books, but but it remains my belief that “A Canticle for Leibowitz” is the finest sci-fi story ever written. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz
I read this book because of your suggestion. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve recommended it to a bunch of folks.
RM
Which book?
Thank you for the recommendation, Colonel.
When Silicon Valley was rising (1970’s), there arose also endless novel legal issues that had never been confronted – was software development a service or a product – who owned it, what parts were proprietary, which parts were intellectual property. Etc. etc. There was little tangible in this field that traded hands in former contractual terms.
Lawyers eager for a new field to break into and seeing the amount of money starting to be unleashed on Silicon Valley wanted to cultivate new skills that would get them into the ground floor this emerging and highly technical field, where their poli sci degrees and law training offered them little critical background understanding this brave new world.
Some who had made inroads, in turn taught legal continuing education classes So of course the biggest questions was how can liberal arts grads to start thinking like techie engineers when seeking out these novel legal issues this new field was producing.
One presenter said the best way to make this intellectual transition was to start reading “science fiction”. Sorry, I can’t remember the recommended authors – was Ray Bradbury one of them?
To was a surprise of his audience of lawyers, trained to seek facts and balance legal analysis; not go wandering off into the land of pure and unprovable fantasy.
I suspect the advice was offered for those exact reasons – literal legal training needed to deconstruct its predictable weighing and balancing of “two sides” and break into thinking where there are no limits and nothing is predictable.
So science fiction it was. I wonder if the same advice is given to lawyers today. Or have all the MIT and CalTech grads now gone on to law school themselves, if they did not first get picked off by Wall Street venture capitalists and hedge funds.
Those who’ve read the source material for just about any production are often disappointed with the results, and this series is no exception. Most reviewers on the IMDB website who pan it are ardent Asimov fans and point to its lack of fidelity to his work and vision, plus others also criticize the usual incorporation these days of wokeness/political correctness, as aspects that ruin it for them. However, sci-fi fans in general – and even some of those who’ve read the books – enjoy the show. It seems as though production values are rated highly. I’ll have to wait until it’s available on another venue than Apple TV since I’m not a subscriber. As it is, I pay a small fortune every month for TV and refuse to pay even more!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804484/reviews?sort=submissionDate&dir=desc&ratingFilter=0
It looks like the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve was trading on insider information immediately before the Chair (Powel) announced policy. Are there any honest people left at the top of any of our federal agencies?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/clarida-traded-stocks-eve-powell-234129078.html
After watching the first two episodes I decided that to give it a fair try I have to forget that it is supposed to be based on Asimov’s work, cause it is pretty far for it.
*Spoilers ahead*
Just watched the third episode and it makes very little sense. Building a colony close to an unknown object, emitting unknown and dangerous radiation is a pretty interesting choice of location. It is not like they didn’t have the whole planet to themselves.
As far as scifi series based on novels go, I think the Expanse did a pretty good job.
I ended up buying the M&P Sport II AR-15. I find it fascinating that even in the Civil War Confederate Sharpshooters could kill a man from a 1,000 yards researching effective target distance. I would be curious to know what you guys think the effective range of an AR-15 is? In particular, the M&P Sport II AR-15 if you have specific knowledge.
General Sedgwick – ” “Why are you dodging like this? They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” He was shot by a Whitworth rifle moments later under the left eye and mortally wounded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sedgwick
Harlan Easley
Recounted in one of my novels. More like 500 feet in Uncle John Sedgewick’s case. I have walked the ground.
Colonel,
Thanks for the clarification.
The military shooting competition teams sometimes have Service Rifle competitions using issued rifles and ammunition. (Standing 200 yards Slow Fire, kneeling 200 yards Rapid Fire, prone 300 yards Rapid Fire, prone 600 yard Slow Fire) Scores are obviously lower than when using match grade rifles and ammunition but few shots are off the targets.
ARs have shot well at 1000 yards with long loaded heavy bullets loaded one at a time in match conditioned rifles. http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2013/08/back-from-afghanistan-guardsman-wins-porter-trophy-match/
I really like this interview with USAR Captain Freeman about shooting High Power with issued rifles. Cpt Freeman was issued a M4 instead of a M16 and quickly figured out how to get the best performance from it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tv61Uqh16M
The USAMU has a lot of material showing the performance differences between issued gear/ammunition and match gear/ammunition. The issued stuff usually prints on the targets while the match stuff groups in the higher scoring rings. Wonderful people to learn from as they have so much experience and research behind them.
One of my favorite USAMU armorer’s observations was, compared to civilians looking for the one rifle load that worked best in their rifle, that a really good rifle barrel shoots everything well. Can you imagine how much testing and experience got to that opinion?
All
Once again. We and the Canadian could hit things a hell of a long way off. That does not mean the Taliban goat f–kers could.
LOL
For my two cents on the range of a 5.56×40. If you are trying to hit anything further out that 250 yards on a routine basis, you had better find another weapon.
5.56 was adopted because it is accurate in the ranges that most folk are accurate. Much beyond 300 yards and the characteristics of the round make it iffy.
Some folks will tell you different, but those are my thoughts.
Long range shooting takes a heavy bullet. 7.62 is the minimum. The whitworth was a 45 cal and pretty heavy. That is the requirement for long range.
Degringolade,
I was reading a forum yesterday where they indicated in Afghanistan they found out that the M16 rifle was ineffective due to the enemy normally engaging our troops at 600 yards or out.
The units changed to the 7.62 ammo and appropriate rifle for many in the unit. These designated rifles along with the mortars were consider combat effective but still 81% of the infantry unit was considered combat ineffective due to the lack of effective target distance for the M-16.
I can’t find the source anymore. The link in the forum for the military was Page 404.
Harlan Easley
Taliban hitting you at 600+ yards. Sounds like BS.
There are a lot of accounts of firefights well beyond 400 yards and even out to 600+ yards. That way you avoid the M-4 fire. If you use more PKs and even RPKs, you can put a lot of lead on target. The terrain will dictate.
TTG
I would have to see it myself. I was pretty good at 500 yards with a match grade M1 Garand, iron sights, and match ammunition in the offhand position. I was at Camp Perry one year
Colonel,
I found the study on the WayBack Archive website.
https://web.archive.org/web/20201214135632/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a512331.pdf
Page 3 and 4
“Combat in Afghanistan has shown several trends. The enemy takes advantage of the terrain and engages patrols or convoys from high ground. He also combines this advantage with heavy weapons systems and mortars from a distance, typically beyond 300 meters.[6]
From the infantryman’s perspective,
he attempts to fix the enemy, since his equipment limits his ability to maneuver, and attempts to kill the enemy through close air support (CAS), close combat attack, (CCA) or indirect fire.
The infantryman’s ability to fix or kill the enemy with organic weapon systems at distances
beyond 200 meters is limited by his equipment and training. The incapacitation mechanism of small caliber bullets, such as the 5.56-mm, comes primarily from bullet fragmentation.[7]
Bullet fragmentation occurs only at a sufficiently high velocity. All 5.56-mm weapons are most effective when employed within 200 meters due to velocity limitations. Once contact is made, the fight is limited to machine
gunners, mortars and designated marksmen. In the table of organization for a light infantry company8
only the six –M240B 7.62-mm machineguns, two- 60-mm mortars and nine designated marksman armed
with either 7.62-mm M14 rifles or accurized 5.56-mm M16A4’s rifles are able to effectively engage the enemy. These weapons systems represent 19 percent of the company’s firepower. This means that 81 percent of the company has little effect on the fight. This is unacceptable.”
Granted it is one Majors observation
As you mentioned it appears the story of General John Sedgwick was embellished. He appears to be a well-liked man.
“His death was met by universal sorrow; even Robert E. Lee expressed his sadness over the fate of an old friend. George G. Meade wept at the news. Meade had recently quarreled with Sedgwick for being over-reliant on fellow corps commander Gouverneur Warren for advice, and said of him “I wish we could have parted on better terms.” Ulysses S. Grant characterized Sedgwick as one who “was never at fault when serious work was to be done” and he told his staff that the loss for him was worse than that of an entire division.”
Harlan Easley
My great grandfather served in his corps and said it was so.
Harlan,
The US military has a new 62 grain 5.56 round. It’s designated M855A1. It has an improved aerodynamic shape that allows it carry, accurately, at much greater distance that the original M855 (“green tip”) or it’s predecessor the 55 grain M193 ball used in VN. It is what is issued these days.
Additionally, the military, like SOF, have been using 77 grain 5.56 match rounds, which are very effective at range.
Lots of flavors to chose from these days in 5.56. The 77 grainers and the M855A1 remain very lethal past 300 year because they are less dependent on velocity for tumbling and fragmenting inside the enemy.
That said, even with the optics that many military rifles/carbines sport, I’m skeptical of troops – or anyone – really doing anything more than suppressive fire past 300 yards. Just too many variables involved. Combat is not the KD range. Similarly, The Ts might pop off at US troops from 600 yards, but they aren’t hitting anyone.
One more point, though, at the elevations typically found in Afghanistan, the air is thinner and rounds carry much farther than at sea level. Velocity is maintained at greater range, but, again, hitting a human target that is using cover, moving, shooting back, past 300 yards isn’t the same as a stationary bullseye under ideal circumstances. Why would you even need to do that? Troops have CAS/arty and you, as civilian,really can’t justify a 500 yard shot as self-defense.
EN
We are supposed to be talking about Taliban capabilities.
Col Lang,
The Taliban’s capabilities? How many casualties did they inflict via long range rifle or MG fire in 20 years of war and countless such engagements?
EN
Very few.
Sir,
Yep
The lack of casualties due to long range fire is not the issue. The long range fire would amount area fire from PKs at best. It’s still a long range firefight. From the time of flintlock jezails the Afghans engaged in long range fire. The Russians found the Afghans’ use of old Lee Enfields outranged their AK-47s. That doesn’t mean they were good at these long range firefights, but they didn’t have to be good at it. They just continued to harass the hell out of their enemies until they left.
Back in the late 70s, during joint training exercises I saw RAR infantry using M-60 MGs with mortar sights and aiming stakes for indirect MG fire support. It was surprisingly effective in providing long range suppressive fire from covered positions. I doubt the Taliban did this, but it can be done.
World super powers’ modern militaries can be driven out of empire and sent home tail between legs by goat f***ers’ long range harassing fire that results in very few casualties?
Please inform Joe Biden et al. They don’t seem to understand that. IMO, Deplorables are better shots than the goat lovers.
I was more of a Heinlein and Clarke fan rather than Asimov. But I did read many of Asimov’s novels. ISTM that his [Asimov’s] work was not, and is not, amenable to filming. Even his “I, Robot” series, a great read, was bad film only saved by special effects. Much of SyFy is too complicated for Hollywood’s pretentiousness plus the ongoing wars between the studio accountants and the directors.
Any readers who have cybersecurity skills may wish to review the claims made by
https://t.me/s/mcafeeafterlife
This Telegram account is apparently being run by someone who wants to present himself as a friend of the late John McAfee. On Sep 30, some cybersecurity experts pointed me to it but said that they believed it might be intended to circulate Windows malware. Its September 30 posts include many files in Windows formats such as .xls and .docx; the concern was that those Office documents might contain malware. The files have titles like:
Perkins_Coie_Marc_E_Elias_memo_on_surrogates_and_paying_for_house.pdf
master-spreadsheet-pac-contributions.xls
PLOT_TO_TAKE_OUT_THE_DQN.rtf
HRC_SEC_OF_STATE_LAPTOP_LEAK.rtf
BIG_DONORS_POS.xls
2015-year-in-review-memo.docx
clinton-foundation-investments-final.docx
pelosi_carroll-event-memo.doc
pelosi-fd-exit-memo-smith.docx
POS_DNC.xlsx
publication-passwords.doc
recent-immigration-reform-proposals.docx
10k-2013-2-18-16-email-suprression-list.xlsx
10k-ghost-donor-email.xlsx
Any relevant opinions from cybersecurity experts would interest me.
When it comes to dubious files, open them in a VM on a Linux laptop that is not connected to your network. Save the file to a USB stick and open it in a VM on the laptop (or old desktop). Never connect this machine to your main computer or network. Nothing is 100% safe, but this method is pretty close.
Murky AVAAZ steps into the fray again – supports a petition to prosecute Fauci and Bill Gates for “covid genocide”:
https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/en/humanity_prosecute_gates_fauci/
Former AVAAZ/Covid link was a married AVAAZ London director and her lover breaking covid lockdown, who just happened to be head of London’s Imperial College of Medicine. He used an out-dated and unsupported computer model which started the entire global “covid” panic you are all gonna die from covid porn.
AVAAZ has some association with Soros money – his wife’s donations? The discredited Imperial College of Medicine head was forced to step down due to being the first “expert” caught not doing what he was telling everyone else to do.
“Covid” had very disreputable origins. And now AVAAZ uses its “clicktivists” platform t to put Gates and Fauci on the hot seat?
Looking back: Social media’s role spending global “covid” hysteria:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7557800/
Most vulnerable to Sars CoV2, we’re told:
0] elderly with co morbidities
then,
1] elderly; and 2] all those with co morbidities
What is VE, VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS, for elderly with co morbidities?
Recall that as of Sept. 17. 2021, the CDC said: 652,871 USA death “involving” COVID-19.
And the CDC says: “For over 5% of these deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned on the death certificate.”
That would equal 32,644 deaths the CDC is saying are surely DUE TO the disease.
And 620,227 otherwise.
The CDC said, of the 620,227: an average of four co morbidity — among these deaths “involving” COVID-19
The agency said: “For over 5% of these deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned on the death certificate. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 4.0 additional conditions or causes per death.”
It would seem data on the VE, VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS, for elderly with co morbidities would be: at the top of the list — in terms of any serious and rational attempt to address the most vulnerable and at risk population, yes? This would mean science and medicine are genuinely being practiced, yes?
Be that as it may, ten months after covid shots began in USA, this is what the CDC just said last week on this matter:
[[VE against symptomatic infection. . . No information on co-morbidities, prior infection, risk behaviors]]
Go to page 8 and see for yourself, at
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2021-09-22/04-COVID-Link-Gelles-508.pdf
There are 42 pages of slides in the CDC presentation. Most of this dirt-bag effort is to make believe VE is OK.
But this sham BS, is all sham BS when there is “No information on co-morbidities, prior infection, risk behaviors”. Information on “prior infection” would alert one to the fact that that individual already has immunity, natural immunity; and SHOULD NOT be counted in measuring the covid shot VE!
The CDC is collecting data from healthy people, and pretending this means VE is OK, when in fact, the straight answer would be: I D K. . . W T F. . . the VE actually is.
Or, VE = ZERO for those with “on average, 4.0 additional conditions or causes per death”
This CDC document includes, on page 36, VE data on “Prospective cohort of over 4,000 healthcare personnel, first responders, and other frontline workers in 8 U.S.
locations”
In these
VE = “62% female”
VE = “72% aged 18–49 years”
And:
VE = “31% with ≥1 [one or more] underlying medical condition”
In sum: CDC has no idea what VE is for elderly with one or more comorbidities, and has no idea for what VE would be in cases of one comorbidity, two, three, four. . . . ten or more comorbidity. This by their own admission. And CDC has no idea, by their own admission, of who has already obtained natural immunity.
This is complete and utter medical buffoonery.
This report is not a serious effort, it is a disgusting insult to the American People.
The CDC is allocated billions of dollars to advertise and propagandize for folks to get the shot.
And this bitter crap, of junk science, is what they are giving us!
Ten months on and they can’t tell us the VE! Neither can these dirt bags hide their gross incompetence.
Put another way: they are, without thinking we will notice. . . admitting that they are measuring VE by collecting data [and creating junk ‘estimation’ models] collecting data from healthy people, and using this to pretend to measure actual VE.
And this would explain the need to mandate shots to all healthy people and all those that now possess long lasting and perhaps permanent natural immunity: to make it “appear” as though VE is OK.
If VE = ZERO with those with . . . on average, four or more co moribidities, then what in hell in gods name are we doing?
The whole point was supposed to be to protect the most vulnerable! And this poison is worse than worthless to the most vulnerable: it is killing them, the shots themselves are killing them, maiming them, destroying their lives, etc.
All this, another political decision, to put in mildly.
-30-
Thank you for this potent collection of CDC data.
Just this morning’s local paper letter to the editor made the unqualified statement – “lost over 690,000 citizens to covid and millions have suffered its effects”. While pitching unqualified support for more injections – demanding without irony “do anti-vaxxers have the right to infect others?”
Covidiots cannot outrun the data, but they are certainly trying.
Jim – “complete and utter medical buffoonery”. Rather than buffoonery, is it not an example of medical malfeasance?
What is not generally understood nor appreciated on a wide scale is that science, the scientific method, reason, rationality, logic, education: these have all been interrupted.
Perfect corollary: medical doctors, both of the “resistance” and those bought and paid by government, are, most of them in both camps. . . . They are Vaccine Dogmatists. Or vaccine fanatics if that sound better.
These vaccine fanatics in both camps [Dr. Robert Malone, MD, most obvious example in resistance camp], are in fact, now: on issue of pushing shots for elderly with comorbidity — walking, talking charlatans.
Or if Shaman sound better they are that too, call them zealots, call them buffoons, call them mass murders, at this point I don’t care what to call them.
They are in the dark ages, the middle ages, they are operating on basis of faith based pre-enlightenment “thought.”
And their symptoms of incompetence include Fragmented Consciousness.
As wonderfully tragic an example of this majestic failure of the life of man in western civilization from an Israeli paper published Sept. 30, 2021.
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2100822#html_fulltext
[[[[Conclusion: This nosocomial outbreak exemplifies the high transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant among twice vaccinated and masked individuals. This suggests some waning of immunity, albeit still providing protection for individuals without comorbidities. However, a third vaccine dose may be needed, particularly in individuals with risk factors for severe COVID-19. Appropriate use of masks, especially in high-risk settings is advised.]]]]
[still providing protection for individuals without comorbidities] — I am looking at you Dr. Malone.
[ high transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant among twice vaccinated andvaccinated and masked individuals . . . [[[BUT]]] Appropriate use of masks. . . is advised]
How can a rational person respond to this acute level of fragmented consciousness? Until Vaccine Dogma as the ruling principal in western medicine; and the Dogmatic fanatics — until these “scientists” and “MDs” actually open their eyes and ears and brains: and see, and conceive and perceive and conceptualize —- the horrifying and deadly errors of their ways, where to from here?
[This suggests some waning of immunity] — this one, simple to translate: VE = ZERO!
Healthy folks get the shot, recover, VE=ZERO.
Elderly with comorbidity get the shot, dead, VE=ZERO.
[However, a third vaccine dose may be needed, particularly in individuals with risk factors for severe COVID-19]
Just S T F U.
And briefly, the recent 42 page CDC paper at
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2021-09-22/04-COVID-Link-Gelles-508.pdf
A grotesque error in this is conflating the VE — which has always been a measure of how well or not INFECTION IS OR IS NOT PREVENTED; conflating the meaning of VE with how well covid shots prevent hospitalization! I have never read such nonsense.
This is just pure unadulterated mind-f**ckery]; VE is a function of disease prevention, —specifically involving Vaccine— and its Effectiveness: a measure of efficacy of a vaccine, period, by definition — to prevent infection, period.
The CDC one would have expected to discuss VE and Prophylactics, two distinct and until 18 months, very well understood concepts.
Prophylactic: A preventive measure. The word comes from the Greek for “an advance guard,” an apt term for a measure taken to fend off a disease or another unwanted consequence. A prophylactic is a medication or a treatment designed and used to prevent a disease from occurring.
Prophylactic are to prevent a virus from becoming a disease that can kill or harm someone.
Now that our wonderful CDC cannot even tell difference between VE and prophylactic effectiveness [PE], what do we do?
The CDC conflates these concepts — and worse, in this paper presented publicly last week: takes PE to mean the same as VE.
They said VE measured to prevent virus and measured to prevent hospitalization!
This is sick, sicker, sickest.
Billions spent to create Moderna and Pfizer shots, and obtain Emergency Use Authorization [EUA]. Nothing or next to nothing to explore . . . prophylactics.
There would have been no legal, no legal ability for this EUA were prophylactics available to prevent disease. But prophylactics were known and being used in January 2020 going forward: they just were not permitted in this part of the world.
Why?
And recent spectacle of the FDA — the FDA quite sinister, pontificating about Ivermectim as a horse de-wormer.
Of all the disgusting things and moral turpitude post January 2020, this ranks at or near the top, this sickening and intentional depravity by our FDA.
https://twitter.com/us_fda/status/1429050070243192839
“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”
And this:
“The most effective ways to limit the spread of COVID-19 include getting a COVID-19 vaccine when it is available to you and following current CDC guidance.
Talk to your health care provider about available COVID-19 vaccines and treatment options. Your provider can help determine the best option for you, based on your health history.”
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/why-you-should-not-use-ivermectin-treat-or-prevent-covid-19
-30-
Have any of you, ladies and gentlemen, read The Shadow of Saganami by David Weber?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_of_Saganami
I would also like your opinion on it.
It seems to have become very actual indeed…even when, still, at Earth level…
The Honor Harrington Series is what I refer to as “superb trash”. It isn’t high fiction, it doesn’t pretend to be “literature”, it is just an excellent way to spend a Saturday drinking beer.
My favorite along these lines is “The Last Centurion” by John Ringo. As good a wonderful piece of trash you could ever hope for.
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/1416555536/1416555536.htm.
How can you go wrong when these are the headers for the first chapter
BOOK ONE
In a Time of Suckage
Chapter One
Days of Wine and Song
There is a website https://www.virustotal.com/ that will run a submitted file through 30 or so antivirus engines. If the file is a known malware at the time the chances are it will be detected.
Before this analysis takes place, the site will first generate a file hash and search through its database of scans to check if such a file has already been checked in the past. If it has been checked before, the site will present the date and results of that antimalware check.
I’ve checked a few of these files and they have first been checked in 2016. I’m no cybersecurity expert but for what is worth the files (at least those I checked) are 5 years old and contain no malware. At least not computer malware.
Late McAffee was a pretty shady character, making some very outrageous claims and giving questionable advice.
That’s a handy service, especially if you can point it to a file before downloading it. I don’t know if this is just another AV service, but it seems useful. I also wouldn’t trust anything McAffee is affiliated with lately. He definitely went off the deep end.
Yes, virustotal is a nice service. It has been around for many years and a lot of tools have been built around it.
However, since it relies on AV engines for detection, new or zero day threats can go undetected.
For added protection it is best used in combination with a separate system, for example on a bootable DVD/USB, or even better a virtual machine, so the chance of infecting a home PC or network is further reduced.
Why are people still complaining about being banned from FB and Twitter. Of course they are going to ban you. That’s the whole point of communism. They take all the freedom for themselves and leave you with none. There is an old video of Zuckerberg out there (if not deleted) of him in the early days of FB telling his staff FB was on the path of world domination. They all cheered. Once I saw that I knew where this was going. Straight to hell.
Babeltuap
I cross post material from Turcopolier.com onto my FB page. I have invited FB to ban me for the material whenever they have made noises indicating an inclination to do so. So far …
I don’t get why you call them commies. All I see is a bunch of rich guys, who took over the governments of the West a long time ago, trying to squeeze still more money and power out of the system. Nothing to do with Chuck Marx, just good old-fashioned greed; lords and frightened serfs.
Well, you’re close to how it all works but I’d thought that was only part of it, and a small part at that.
The “Lords” – the predators who’ve made it or just those who’ve lucked out – aren’t going to stay wealthy or powerful for long unless backed up. And the back-up isn’t only motivated by his own lesser attempts to achieve money and power. Unless he’s pretty weird he’s not going to be motivated by a burning ambition to see the man above him get money and power either. There’s ideology in the mix and in a big way.
I’d prefer to see it all as emergent behaviour of elites interacting with an increasingly fierce religious war. Or ideological war in modern terms. The Jihadi giving it all he’s got or the woke academic fighting for his ideals, they might not be averse to money and power but that’s an incidental. They are serving their respective Gods. You are serving your God in writing your articles and the fact that money or prestige might be involved is irrelevant.
Arriving at the nature and meaning of our respective Gods is an ideological or religious matter. Fighting those who have arrived at a different nature and meaning from ours is religious war.
We are in one hell of a religious war in this age. I see that as more significant than the admittedly stupendous winnings of the predators.
The obituary for vibrant young mother, who died three days after feeling forced to submit to a “covid” injection, was deemed by Twitter to be “misleading”: – the face of evil.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/10/pure-evil-twitter-slaps-misleading-label-familys-obituary-young-37-year-old-mother-died-covid-vaccine/
https://twitter.com/jimiuorio/status/1444722203434569729?s=21
There continues to be no rigorous evidence that lockdowns work. Let’s call it what it really is – authoritarianism.
https://brownstone.org/articles/hospitals-should-hire-not-fire-nurses-with-natural-immunity/
A great article by Harvard epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff. Denying natural immunity is an example of cult behavior by the Vax Uber Alles crowd. None of this is about public health. This is about how much authoritarianism they can impose. Covid fear porn is a test example of how much they can get away with.
https://brownstone.org/articles/hurting-children-to-protect-them/
https://brownstone.org/articles/hurting-children-to-protect-them/
The harms to school kids through closure of in-person learning and now mask fetishization is incalculable. The one thing about covid public health policy is that it never included societal harms in the cost-benefit analysis. Right from the start the number of projected covid deaths were hyped. None of which turned out to be true. Yet the authorities have pursued failed policies with a cultish zeal.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10052689/Government-condemned-refusing-release-details-key-email-conversations-Covid-origins.html
Exactly. What are they hiding? We now know thanks to DRASTIC and their efforts that Peter Daszak and the Wuhan lab were gung-ho about engineering coronaviruses to become more infectious to humans.
The Last Domino..?? How long before Winkin….Blinkin ..and Nod…Convince Brokeback Biden to Surrender Our Embassy in Iraq..??
https://twitter.com/breaking911/status/1444738950761943040?s=21
Yeah. Greater Good! What “greater good” was Tony thinking about when he partnered with Peter Daszak and the Bat Lady of Wuhan to engineer a coronavirus to become more infectious to humans?
Tony should be testifying to a grand jury investigating genocide not lecturing us and creating authoritarian policies to allegedly “suppress” the pandemic he unleashed.
Sam
That short video of Fauci’s neatly encapsulates the essence of what is at stake. Fauci and his fellow believers consider that society should be ruled by a priestly class of Platonic philosopher kings made up of people like themselves. This enlightened group will define an abstract concept called “the greater good” and the rest of us must simply trust them and get over the old fashioned notions that individual rights and choice and are essential to a free society. The concept is necessarily Utopian in outlook as it ignores the two truism that people are flawed to start with and that power corrupts.
I will remain implacably opposed to such people until the day I die. The retention of my individual right to make my own decisions is for the greater good of society. It is the very essence of a free society. All political philosophies which try and persuade us otherwise are malignant, anti-human and will inevitably lead to dystopia. The Framers were wise enough to recognize this and did not condition the Bill of Rights on the arrival of events like pandemics.
Public health interests are of course merely the latest excuse to get us to surrender our hard fought freedoms. The wannabe architects of our Brave New World seem to have read Huxley’s eponymous book, not as a satirical condemnation of H. G. Wells’ Utopian delusions, but as an instruction manual. Fauci clearly empathizes with Mustapha Mond, one of the Ten World Controllers. My sympathies lie with John “the Savage”:
I claim the right to be unhappy, as without that right the concept of happiness itself is imperiled.
https://twitter.com/drkellyvictory/status/1444858746778243077?s=21
The fact that such discrimination is promoted by governments should be all the indication one needs that vax is not about public health. Apartheid is all about control.
Sir,
I have read all the ‘Foundation’ as well as ‘Robot’ novels written by Isaac Asimov.
I’m a fan of your blog.
The Sci-fi series by Douglas Adams ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, is most interesting and entertaining, with close similarities to the present world. What with it’s dull, mindless bureaucracy and a Global President who has two brains, one of which he has mortgaged.
Sudhi
I’m a big fan to Douglas Adams too. If you know just a little about quantum physics (Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle) the Infinite Improbability Drive concept is very funny. Douglas employs reductio ad absurdum in many amusing ways. My particular favorite is the notion of the Encyclopedia Galactica becoming so large that it underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole. And of course “42” being Deep Thought’s answer to life the universe and everything. This was a very sharp & witty juxtaposition of Man’s limitless capacity for invention (AI) versus the very finite limits of human wisdom. The Very Clever People who really need to understand Douglas’ warning in that parable are of course not wise enough to do so.
As per the student who invented the Infinite Improbability Drive, the ‘infinite improbability field’ needed for such a machine is a virtual impossibility, then it must logically be a finite improbability. The Drive was then generated out of thin air.
I didn’t know that ’42’, Deep Thought’s answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything, was a “juxtaposition of Man’s limitless capacity for invention (AI) versus the very finite limits of human wisdom”, thank you for the explanation.
To find the Ultimate Question an even bigger computer had to be built called ‘Earth’. God forbid, it’s not mindlessly demolished by the Vogons, as in the novel, and humanity loses all hope of discovering a meaning for life.
Sudhi
Just my humble interpretation. I would say the question posed and Deep Thought’s supremely laconic answer is one of the close similarities to the present world you commented on. In our present world there are plenty of folk who believe a computer, or more generally science, can solve all our problems. Even more incredibly, they also seem to think that via the application of enough technology the human condition can somehow be ‘cured’. Adams was commenting on the elevation of scientism to a religion IMO. And here we are today with the “trust the science” mantra forced down out throats at every turn.
I’d forgotten that Earth was built to determine the Ultimate Question. Of course this makes its destruction at the hands of the thuggish Vogons, to build a hyperspace bypass as I recall, even more comically ironic.
Bozos to Mars
The two richest men in the world fantasize about colonizing space, going to Mars: a lifeless, colorless, sterile, toxic planet, where low gravity would deteriorate bones, weaken muscles, and cause human hearts to change shape. Not to mention a slew of other problems.
What is wrong with these clueless twerps? They’re not in tune with the beauty and exceptionalism of this planet. Disconnected from the rhythms of the earth. Same as it was in the ’70s, with the space colonization fantasy — a hare-brained nerd scheme.
When we got to the moon in the ’60s, a barren, desolate landscape, what did we see when we looked back at the earth? A vision of beauty, a cloud-wreathed planet with oceans and mountains, valleys and rivers, topsoil, and life.
The Marvel of It All
Flammarion, wood engraving, 1888
I stepped outside the other night to toss the night’s dishwater in the garden. It was a quarter moon, Venus was shining and there was a red glow at sunset. I was awed by the beauty of it all — the planet was still functioning, with all the forces now seeming to conspire against it. Covid, drought, fires, floods, migration, political toxicity, Trump festering on the outskirts…
The moon, stars, waterfalls, hummingbirds, waves are still here, places to turn for solace in these heavily troubled times. Hey billionaire rocket-riders, take a walk on the beach!
Lloyd Kahn