Coffee House Musing

Plus 5 freaking months!

OK, Plus 5 freaking months.Anticipation. Anticipation is making me late, is keeping me waiting. Carly SimonThese are the good old days.Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

Truth!

Tonight, I'll fix pasta with Pesto and bake a baguette to eat with butter and a 4-leaf balsamic vinegar.

If you leave out the pasta, garlic and salt and add in crushed chipotle you will have something...

I'm sure it would be something.

I think we have seen one or two of these people here. I know we've seen their effects on some of our more vocal crazies and if you go to social media, my god it's over run.Well, hold onto your pant legs cuz the bullshit, distortions and sinister evil lies are all about to get higher and deeper.The Russians have great cyber warfare capabilities (like this is something we didn't already know) and the rise of tensions in Ukraine makes it plausible that the Russians will invade, the west will muddle some kind of confrontation short of real confrontation and a major part of that level of confrontation will be cyber.But not so much on destroying or disrupting infrastructure as much as disrupting western societies in social media where the west is uniquely vulnerable.

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DISTRACT, DISTORT AND DIVIDE

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Americans can probably expect to see Russian-sponsored cyber activities working in tandem with propaganda campaigns. These activities are likely to be aimed at preventing a unified response to Russian aggression in Ukraine.

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The specific maneuvers aim to bolster narratives, people and groups that support Russian interests and undermine those that are counter to Russian interests. The maneuvers, which include dismissing and distorting information and undermining opinion leaders, are carried out in the press and on social media.

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Russian intelligence operatives are skilled at using technology, including amplifying misinformation through fake accounts on popular social media platforms. In effect, Russia uses social and other online media like a military-grade fog machine that confuses the U.S. population and encourages mistrust in the strength and validity of the U.S. government.

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The Russians are coming.Russian Cyberattacks against the U.S. Could Focus on Disinformation - Scientific American

QAnon Sex Trafficking Conspiracies Have Shut Down a Texas Butterfly CenterOn Thursday, QAnon conspiracy theories about the National Butterfly Center became real-world threats.

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A QAnon conspiracy theory that a butterfly sanctuary on the southern border of the U.S. is being used for sex trafficking has led to the center closing “due to credible threats” against its staff.

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The National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, is situated on the Rio Grande river less than half a mile from the U.S.-Mexico border, and has long been the focus of intense and completely baseless conspiracy theories pushed by the QAnon community.

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On Thursday, those theories became real-world threats and the center announced it was closing its doors for the weekend because of a MAGA-style conference taking place eight miles away in McAllen, Texas.

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“We are writing to let you know the National Butterfly Center will be closed Friday, Jan. 28 - Sunday, Jan. 30, due to credible threats we have received from a former state official, regarding activities planned by the ‘We Stand America’ event this weekend,” the center’s staff wrote in an email.

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The email went on to say that the former official had suggested the center’s director, Marianna Wright, should “be armed at all times or out of town this weekend because the ‘We Stand America’ events include a ‘Trump Train’-style, “caravan to the border” and that the National Butterfly Center would likely be a stop on this ‘take action tour.’”

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The “We Stand America” event is being organized by a number of pro-Trump groups, including Women Fighting for America, Veterans for America First, and Latinos for Trump. The event is being headlined by Trump’s disgraced former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, along with a number of QAnon influencers like Ann Vandersteel, Mel K, and Doug Billings as well as Mark Finchem, the QAnon-supporting Arizona lawmaker who’s running for secretary of state.

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The butterfly center has been a focus of pro-Trump groups for years, because it refused to make way for Trump’s border wall, which is still under construction on federally owned land just south of the center, the Daily Dot reported.

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The plan initially called for Trump’s wall to be built right through the center’s 100-acre sanctuary, but in 2020 a federal appeals court in Texas ruled that the work violated the center’s property rights. And it was the center’s refusal to make way for the border wall that has led to online conspiracy theories about its role in supposed child sex trafficking. But last week, those theories lead to a real world incident involving Wright.

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Yup.And McAllen just elected its first Republican Mayor in an area that has been traditionally liberal democratic.The entrance to the butterfly center is just a few miles from my house. We've been seeing more and more MGA car trains disrupting elections and local events over the last four years down here.But while a common characteristic of south Texas, particularly the Rio Grande Valley, is public sex near year-round it has always been only of the plant cults. Pollen allergy is a true pitch and I see no reason they can't just get a motel room.

Monumental Project Underway To Sequence the Genome of Every Complex Species on Earth

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The Earth Biogenome Project, a global consortium that aims to sequence the genomes of all complex life on earth (some 1.8 million described species) in ten years, is ramping up.

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The project’s origins, aims, and progress are detailed in two multi-authored papers published on January 18, 2022. Once complete, it will forever change the way biological research is done.

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Specifically, researchers will no longer be limited to a few “model species” and will be able to mine the DNA sequence database of any organism that shows interesting characteristics. This new information will help us understand how complex life evolved, how it functions, and how biodiversity can be protected.

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The aim of phase one is to sequence one genome from every taxonomic family on earth, some 9,400 of them. By the end of 2022, one-third of these species should be done. Phase two will see the sequencing of a representative from all 180,000 genera, and phase three will mark the completion of all the species.

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But why not save time and money by sequencing just key representative species?

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Well, the whole point of the Earth Biogenome Project is to exploit the variation between species to make comparisons, and also to capture remarkable innovations in outliers.

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There is also the fear of missing out. For instance, if we sequence only 69,999 of the 70,000 species of nematode, we might miss the one that could divulge the secrets of how nematodes can cause diseases in animals and plants.

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There are currently 44 affiliated institutions in 22 countries working on the Earth Biogenome Project. There are also 49 affiliated projects, including enormous projects such as the California Conservation Genomics Project, the Bird 10,000 Genomes Project and UK’s Darwin Tree of Life Project, as well as many projects on particular groups such as bats and butterflies.

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I have been part of a research team for a few years now who are working on sequencing the genomes of dragonflies. Early on we were looking at specific regions of the genome of several small families to work out their evolutionary relationships but as the sequencing technology and computer processing power has improved so rapidly we started working on whole genomes and looking at all the known species of dragonflies and damselflies..These are exciting times to be involved in biological evolution research.

Important work mate ! This is why scientists are in my experience almost always good, decent human beings. They want to make the world a better place for people - the majority of them, anyway. You are clearly in that majority, so on behalf of humanity, thank you :-)Edited by vimesey, : No reason given.

Wow! Those are really kind words. Thank you!

Not a problem :-)I've always found photos of dragonflies so beautiful - iridescent colours and amazing forms. (The big ones do scare the crap out of me on the odd occasion they've flown into a holiday home where I've been staying, though).

One of the great epicurean pleasures in life is the consumption of wine. All kinds of wine. Nectar. With a kick.One of the best treatments for what ails you is a daily glass of cabernet. Science confirms the benefits of moderate imbibing for your heart's sake.'Cept no it may not. It may be quite the opposite. New massive study from UK indicates that the original studies were in error. Based on bad statistical methods. The study calls it bad science.

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"The so-called J-shaped curve of the cardiovascular disease-alcohol consumption relationship suggesting health benefits from low to moderate alcohol consumption is the biggest myth since we were told smoking was good for us," says cardiovascular physiologist Rudolph Schutte from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU).

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Data From Over 350,000 People Have Really Bad News About 'Moderate' Drinking : ScienceAlertScience has taken away my pizza, beer, steak, spaghetti, burgers w/onion rings and my Häagen-Dazs along with every other wonderfully fat, carb and sugar filled delight on the freaking planet. Now it wants to take away my wine.I hate science.

These days I mostly like a few sips of a nice tawny port a couple times a month.In high school I built a small glass still and kept a lot of the guys in my junior and senior classes supplied with high proof apricot brandy. They supplied a 250ml bottle of Vick's Formula 44 cough syrup which I dumped and refilled with my brandy for $5.I still like a nice brandy or cordial a couple times a year.When I get together with my 4 dragonfly hunting pals on our annual field trip, we usually have one night of serious drinking and sampling interesting alcoholic drinks, last year was peanutbutter whiskey...interesting indeed. Ice cream has been the hardest for me to resist. Moderation is the key for all those pleasures.It turns out that cannabis helps relieve one of the worst effects of my COPD, thickening mucus in my lungs that is hard to cough up. THC loosens it up enough for me to cough it up. It's turned out to be the most effective treatment and has the added benefit of pleasant euphoria and other sensations and also aids in focus and concentration on my work. I know there are negative effects of cannabis as well, but I have personally rationalized that the benefits outweigh the harm, at this point in my life.