Pasta News Network - New Zealand

There is no longer any doubt about the challenge that China, Russia, and other authoritarian regimes pose to international rule of law, respect for sovereignty, democratic principles, and free people. These threats have grown as China and Russia have harnessed new technologies to surveil populations, manipulate information, and control data flows. They are setting an example for how authoritarians can further clamp down on freedom of thought, expression, and association. China’s draconian zero-COVID measures may yet test that control, but its use of technologies like drones to monitor quarantine adherence represent a new era of digital repression.

Rising geopolitical tensions have coincided with growing encroachments by disruptive technologies into all aspects of public and private life. The implications for 2023 and beyond are clear: the technology platforms of the future are the new terrain of strategic competition. The United States therefore has a core interest in making sure that these technologies are designed, built, fielded, and governed by democracies.

Mentioning "United States" and "Democracy" in the same paragraph is becoming the oxymoron of our time.

"Accuse your enemy of what you are doing, as you are doing it to create confusion." - Karl Marx

In 1984, 61 percent of the population were living in 86 locally declared nuclear-weapons-free zones. Academic activists came together to form Scientists Against Nuclear Arms (SANA) and Engineers for Social Responsibility (ESR - this group now focuses on the climate disruption). The medical fraternity formed a local branch of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).

Much of the information which fuelled the work of all these groups was brought to light by the extraordinary sleuthing talent of one man. Owen Wilkes is described as “….the intellect behind New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance” in a recent book, Peacemonger: Owen Wilkes international peace researcher, published by Raekaihau Press in association with Steele Roberts Aotearoa.

Opening is too long but has some interesting tidbits, apart from that an interesting piece on Kiwi history.

Some people catch fish. Others like Tim Riley catch cell phones, rusty nails, 100 year old drill bits, coins and whatever else is metal and lurking on the bottom of the river.

Christchurch based Riley and his young sons are magnet fishermen, and they love going out in the evenings after work and school to see what they can pull up from the murky depths of the Avon and Heathcote Rivers.

It was so much fun and so interesting, Riley said he had ordered a magnet 14 times more powerful than the one he was using now to hunt deeper in the silty depths.

Good family fun.

Beijing has begun purchases of three types of Arctic crude previously destined for the EU, Bloomberg reports.

China has ramped up imports of a wider variety of Russian crude oil, including Arctic grades with a rare, dense and highly sulfurous Arco, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing oil-flow tracking data from Vortexa and Kpler.

Sanctions, mean, nothing.

In the final days of 2022, Goldman's economists predicted that "the biggest political risk" of 2023 will be the Congressional showdown over America's favorite periodic drama: the debt limit.

This is what the bank's chief economist Jan Hatzius said then: "The debt limit likely poses the greatest political risk next year, and we expect it to rival the 2011 episode in its disruption to financial markets and the economy. That said, we do not expect Congress to enact major fiscal changes. Republicans might press for spending cuts in a debt limit deal, but we do not expect substantial cuts next year. The White House might press for increased fiscal support, but this also looks unlikely as we believe a soft landing is more likely and a divided Congress would have difficulty responding to a recession even if one occurs."

"The bill comes due." - Baron Mordo

We, the antivaxxers, have been disappointed and angry at Moderna for about two or three years based on mountains of data we unearthed, some of which the FDA tried to hide for 75 years. So, may we ask, what disappointed the FDA advisers so late in the game?

It turns out that the FDA advisers approved Moderna booster shots based on “antibody counting,” a quack medicine approach called immunobridging.

The reason immunobridging is medical quackery is pointed at by the “laughing emoji” above. Despite having “more antibodies,” MORE people in the bivalent group caught Covid compared to people in the monovalent (old booster) group.

The same FDA that rubber-stamped a "tested on 8 mice" Pfizer product for approval.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Naturally, this has led to some renewed discussion of both that film, its sequels, and its predecessor, The Terminator (1984), which famously starred Arnold Schwarzennegger as a villainous killer robot from the future.

Having rewatched both movies recently, I’ve decided to post some thoughts, primarily in regard to how the films both know when to reveal and when to hold back narrative information in order to maximize its impact on the viewer.

Excellent write up, worth it if you hold the first 2 Terminator films in high regard.

Terminator 1 for 80s aesthetics, Terminator 2 for 90s action fun.

Still better then Avatar.

Intro: Research has demonstrated the association between vaginal orgasm and better mental health. Some theories of psychotherapy assert a link between muscle blocks and disturbances of both character and sexual function. In Functional–Sexological therapy, one focus of treatment is amelioration of voluntary movement. The present study examines the association of general everyday body movement with history of vaginal orgasm.

Conclusion: The discerning observer may infer women's experience of vaginal orgasm from a gait that comprises fluidity, energy, sensuality, freedom, and absence of both flaccid and locked muscles. Results are discussed with regard to previous research on gait, the effect of the musculature on sexual function, the special nature of vaginal orgasm, and implications for sexual therapy.

The curious kind of science.

Many species synchronize reproductive behavior with a particular phase of the lunar cycle to increase reproductive success. In humans, a lunar influence on reproductive behavior remains controversial, although the human menstrual cycle has a period close to that of the lunar cycle. Here, we analyzed long-term menstrual recordings of individual women with distinct methods for biological rhythm analysis. We show that women’s menstrual cycles with a period longer than 27 days were intermittently synchronous with the Moon’s luminance and/or gravimetric cycles. With age and upon exposure to artificial nocturnal light, menstrual cycles shortened and lost this synchrony. We hypothesize that in ancient times, human reproductive behavior was synchronous with the Moon but that our modern lifestyles have changed reproductive physiology and behavior.

I was reminded of this when I prepared the other paper's post today.