In todays news...

[demographic]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-65453874

I had trouble reading that, it made me feel pretty anxious, it's quite possibly my worst nightmare.

You'd think it wouldn't be a problem in a man built environment above ground.

The people who go underground to do it are mentalists of the highest order, imho.

From what I heard he climbed up the climbing wall then fall down the back of it, no caves involved but its often a very tight space with bad access.

[Screwdriver]

But I do not go that far. I merely report that despite the years of subterfuge, denials and media backed lies, SAR-CoV-2 it transpires was most likely a weaponised virus, developed in a lab in Wuhan with American financial backing. Todays "news" is the most likely circumstance being the black market re-selling of diseased bats after they had been experimented on.

If SAR-CoV-2 has been 'weaponised' they have done a piss-poor job of it. Most people survive, many just suffer mild annoying discomfort for a few days. And do you seriously think you could smuggle live bats out of a secure virus lab?

I say "weaponised" they call it "gain of function". What "function" do you suppose they are researching and why do you suppose the USA conduct this sort of activity in China (and as it turns out Ukraine).

A professor admitted to the practice which was apparently widespread. If you can get gold out of Fort Knox, you can get a dead bat out of a lab, it is merely a question of authority and in the case of Wuhan, corruption. Dead or alive, bat is a valuable delicacy.

Apparently, the professor is now also a bit dead.

[Mr. Dazzle]

From 2015, back when Bird Flu was gonna kill us all.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK285579/

The field of virology, and to some extent the broader field of microbiology, widely relies on studies that involve gain or loss of function. In order to understand the role of such studies in virology, Dr. Kanta Subbarao from the Laboratory of Infectious Disease at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) gave an overview of the current scientific and technical approaches to the research on pandemic strains of influenza and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronaviruses (CoV). As discussed in greater detail later in this chapter, many participants argued that the word choice of “gain-of-function” to describe the limited type of experiments covered by the U.S. deliberative process, particularly when coupled with a pause on even a smaller number of research projects, had generated concern that the policy would affect much broader areas of virology research.

Subbarao explained that routine virological methods involve experiments that aim to produce a gain of a desired function, such as higher yields for vaccine strains, but often also lead to loss of function, such as loss of the ability for a virus to replicate well, as a consequence. In other words, any selection process involving an alteration of genotypes and their resulting phenotypes is considered a type of Gain-of-Function (GoF) research, even if the U.S. policy is intended to apply to only a small subset of such work.

[Horse]

But "you will own nothing and you will be happy" is the mantra from our new egalitarian masters.

'New'?

Truck was the practice of paying employees in goods rather than money, or compelling them to spend their wages at a store the employer either owned or was interested in financially. ... by the 1890s workers had become more concerned about other practices that prevented them from receiving the full value of their wages. These included employers taking heavy deductions from wages for disciplinary fines, for damaged work, for the rental of tools and materials, and for providing heat, light or standing room in the workplace.

Or

The 1831 Truck Act made it illegal to pay certain artificers in anything but the current coin of the realm. ... The 1887 Truck Amendment Act expanded these protections to nearly all manual workers

Or

The practice has been documented as recently as 2019. On September 4, 2008, the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice ruled that Walmart de Mexico, the Mexican subsidiary of Walmart, must cease paying its employees in part with vouchers redeemable only at Walmart stores.

[Screwdriver]

From 2015, back when Bird Flu was gonna kill us all.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK285579/

I don't recall it ever being that dangerous to humans per se. Of course, it is but one of a number of viruses emerging from China. We digress.

Despite the positive spin and obvious euphemisms in that piece, a virus present only in bats since the beginning of time was modified to infect humans.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Fact remains that they are only able to be rich and powerful by exploiting the efforts of everyone else. I don't think I'd be any different BTW, in fact I know I'm not.

You can tell its true because we have to have laws to force us all to share and be nice.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Despite the positive spin and obvious euphemisms in that piece, a virus present only in bats since the beginning of time was modified to infect humans.

Point is, the term "gain of function" entered the popular lexicon at the same time as the word "Coronavirus" but in fact both had been knocking around for years before hand*. Gain of function just sounds nice an evil, but it's a dry term invented a decade before it made it into pod casts. Doesn't prove anyone was weaponizing anything.

*Dettol were advertising that their spray cleaner works on Coronaviruses long before SAR-CoV-2

[Screwdriver]

The rich and powerful have always got to be rich and powerful by standing on the backs of everyone else.

Maybe (most certainly) they were just smarter.

I don't know how true that is. A PhD student in particle physics or mathematics is going to be "smarter" than most but isn't necessarily going to become a multi-millionaire. I think the "secret" is an obsession with money above all else.

I once went out with a girl who was p.a. to one of this worlds super rich (he was/is a nice chap incidentally). Got myself invited to a Christmas dinner event thing. Without naming the asset management company themselves though you will never have heard of them, I'll call it "Bauche, Lomb and Parker", I found myself sitting right next to the venerable Mr. Parker. He was so old he looked like a mummy but with the unmistakable air of solid wealth emanating from his beautifully preserved parchment skin.

Around the table would have been half a dozen of the richest people I have ever met, massive farmstead like victorian properties somehow smuggled into the heart of London, equally decadent properties in Davos, Monaco, New York etc., each probably owned more properties than we've had bikes. So I asked them, once you get to a certain level though, what do you need all the extra money for...

By extraordinary coincidence one of those tumbleweeds actually blew past the table during the moment of silence before the various polite conversations continued as if the question had never been asked. I think they do it because they collect money. The more they have the more they want. Just for its own sake. I know for certain that having multiple dwellings is a right pain in the arse, so many fiddly problems with planing consent, utilities, security, multiply that by throwing in a super yacht and a private jet or two and even with staff looking after it all, the mind numbing tediousness of keeping that lifestyle going just gets worse (imho).

It is like stamp collecting for them. It is the very focus of their lives, they don't know why they do it but the more wealth they accumulate, the easier it is to make more and the more they need to "keep up" with their peers. Sad part is, I met a nice chap at his barbecue event, kids party; massive house, great family, amazing lifestyle on the face of it but this was probably one of his few "days off" (though they were of course talking business non stop). I have little doubt he worked every hour of the day, every day of the week on his quest to generate a fortune, without ever really knowing how fortunate he was. I learned some time later he dropped dead from cancer. Not sure if he ever reached forty.

Fact remains that they are only able to be rich and powerful by exploiting the efforts of everyone else. I don't think I'd be any different BTW, in fact I know I'm not.

You can tell its true because we have to have laws to force us all to share and be nice.

That's harsh. Some people are driven towards the lifestyle they want for themselves and their family, not the mere love of money but what they can do with it. Most organisations are pyramids and while those vast numbers of semi skilled workers are at the bottom, they are no "worse" than the better paid "management" (let's say) at the top who are more able or better suited to the onerous task of maintaining the industrial process that is generating employment for those at the bottom.

I couldn't do it. Not because I am stupid or those managerial types are so much smarter but simply because that world doesn't interest me. We all find ourselves gravitating towards our interests which reward us commensurate with our relative abilities to perform our chosen task.

Faceless unelected global corporations are exploiting this otherwise innocuous feature of our care free capitalist society by leveraging the massive wealth they can accumulate from the toils of humanity to increase their abilities to acquire even more of it! You're not obsessed with money, fine we'll take it all then. You'll own nothing and be happy.

[Screwdriver]

Despite the positive spin and obvious euphemisms in that piece, a virus present only in bats since the beginning of time was modified to infect humans.

Point is, the term "gain of function" entered the popular lexicon at the same time as the word "Coronavirus" but in fact both had been knocking around for years before hand*. Gain of function just sounds nice an evil, but it's a dry term invented a decade before it made it into pod casts. Doesn't prove anyone was weaponizing anything.

*Dettol were advertising that their spray cleaner works on Coronaviruses long before SAR-CoV-2

I call it "weaponising" because that is how I choose to describe a process which takes a harmless virus and creates a version of it deadly to humans.

Call it what you like. Fluffy bunny fun cuddles. They still "researched" a dangerous virus exclusive to one species and made it infectious to ours and what's more, they're still doing it...

[Yorick]

All this shit should be in the arguing the toss thread.

This is TODAY'S news.


Sorry if that's too difficult to understand.

This was a fun thread. Stop poisoning it.

[Screwdriver]

What colour sandals are you wearing TODAY?

I'm sure everyone will be interested to know.

[Felix]

What colour sandals are you wearing TODAY?

I'm sure everyone will be interested to know.

You are on the extensive list.

[ZRX61]

If SAR-CoV-2 has been 'weaponised' they have done a piss-poor job of it. Most people survive, many just suffer mild annoying discomfort for a few days. And do you seriously think you could smuggle live bats out of a secure virus lab?

That was the test run to see how easily it spread...The next one will be the 95% fatal version.

[Ant]

Despite the positive spin and obvious euphemisms in that piece, a virus present only in bats since the beginning of time was modified to infect humans.

Point is, the term "gain of function" entered the popular lexicon at the same time as the word "Coronavirus" but in fact both had been knocking around for years before hand*. Gain of function just sounds nice an evil, but it's a dry term invented a decade before it made it into pod casts. Doesn't prove anyone was weaponizing anything.

*Dettol were advertising that their spray cleaner works on Coronaviruses long before SAR-CoV-2

I call it "weaponising" because that is how I choose to describe a process which takes a harmless virus and creates a version of it deadly to humans.

Call it what you like. Fluffy bunny fun cuddles. They still "researched" a dangerous virus exclusive to one species and made it infectious to ours and what's more, they're still doing it...

I like the sound of fluffy bunny fun cuddles

[Taipan]

Lol, I like how she made her point!

[Cousin Jack]

If SAR-CoV-2 has been 'weaponised' they have done a piss-poor job of it. Most people survive, many just suffer mild annoying discomfort for a few days. And do you seriously think you could smuggle live bats out of a secure virus lab?

That was the test run to see how easily it spread...The next one will be the 95% fatal version.

The point about mucking around with a virus is that when you make it more of something you almost invariably change something else as well. Make it spread more and it will probably be less dangerous, and vice versa. And if you do get the holy grail of something that spreads like wildfire and kills lots of people, best make sure you have a vaccine first or it will come back and bite you.

[Screwdriver]

Incredible, but true:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalz ... good-idea/

Mind you, the newly improved deadly coronavirus is only 80% effective. Slackers. I'm sure they'll nail it eventually.

[Noggin]

I don't know how true that is. A PhD student in particle physics or mathematics is going to be "smarter" than most but isn't necessarily going to become a multi-millionaire. I think the "secret" is an obsession with money above all else.

Smart isn't really the same as intelligent tho, is it? Or at least, that's not how I saw it in that context.

[Hoonercat]

It is of course the concept of "ownership" that this Brave New World is forged from.

But "you will own nothing and you will be happy" is the mantra from our new egalitarian masters.

Historically, the world has never been "owned" by a fucking chemist shop or so tightly controlled by news media, also owned by the same global corporate gods.

I literally own everything in my possession. And while I'm not a fan of all-out capitalism, I'd be a liar if I denied that capitalism and my corporate masters hadn't played a huge role in that.

[Pirahna]

What colour sandals are you wearing TODAY?

I'm sure everyone will be interested to know.

At the moment I'm wearing a pair of green plastic Birkenstocks.