SCENE:  Avery LIBRELLE is riding a recumbent bike through the Minneapolis skyway when Mitch BERG happens across the path. 

LIBRELLE: Merg!

BERG:  Er, hey, Avery.  What are doing riding a bike through the skyway…

LIBRELLE: Shut up.   Do you remember these?

BERG:  They were a little before my time, but I know what they are…

LIBRELLE:  You have never seen one because VACCINES!  But your party wants to abolish vaccines!

BERG:  First, no we don’t.  Second, I’m not an anti-vaxxer.  But the vaccines we take for granted today – Measles, Rubella, Mumps and all of those – had years of testing before the public got anywhere near them. 

I didn’t trust the first round of Covid vaccines, because there’s no way the pharmaceutical industry can produce something that complicated, that fast, without some teething problems.  

LIBRELLE:  Hah.  You might as well be a faith-healer! Trust the experts!

BERG:  I mean, I mentioned testing, right?

In April 1955 more than 200 000 children in five Western and mid-Western USA states received a polio vaccine in which the process of inactivating the live virus proved to be defective. Within days there were reports of paralysis and within a month the first mass vaccination programme against polio had to be abandoned. Subsequent investigations revealed that the vaccine, manufactured by the California-based family firm of Cutter Laboratories, had caused 40 000 cases of polio, leaving 200 children with varying degrees of paralysis and killing 10.

Paul Offit, paediatrician and prominent advocate of vaccination, sets the `Cutter incident’ in the context of the struggle of medical science against polio and other infectious diseases over the course of the 20th century. He reminds us that, within a decade of Karl Landsteiner’s identification of the polio virus in 1908, an epidemic in New York killed 2400 people (mostly children) and left thousands more with a life-long disability. In the 1950s, summer outbreaks in the USA caused tens of thousands of cases, leaving hundreds paralysed or dead. `Second only to the atomic bomb’, polio was `the thing that Americans feared the most’.

 

(But LIBRELLE has already cycled away, looking for underutilized recycling bins).

And SCENE. 

Remember 2020?

No. 

Never forget 2020.

The Cathedral of Saint Paul seats 3000 people.

Governor Klink arbitrarily limited to 10 people. No singing.

The 617 bar in White Bear Lake seats 37 people

Bars were limited to 50. No matter how many they started with.

This is governance by “the party of science“. Never forget.

(Via former representative Matt Dean.)

…a lot of things in the 21st century.  Flying cars, food replicators, houses in the sky.

Most of it crapped out.

But this…

…is certainly getting closer.

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

President Biden blamed Hurricane Helene on climate change and said anybody who disagreed must be brain dead.

Formerly, hurricane were “acts of God” which Were Not covered under ordinary insurance, special  coverage was required, whereas damage resulting from actions of other people Were covered.

So .  .  .  does this mean all our insurance premiums are going up, because hurricanes are now torts? 

Joe Doakes, no longer in Como Park

Uh…lawyers?

To:  Amanda Taylor, Candidate for the Missouri House
From:  Mitch Berg, Peasant
Re:  SCIENCE!!!

Ms. Taylor,

Your bio claims you’re both a biochemist and running for the Missouri House 

Last week, you dropped an “Ack-Shyu-Ally” bomb on someone:

So,  question for Ms. Taylor:

Let’s ignore for a moment that Karyotypes aren’t, themselves, “sexes”, rather than medical conditions that don’t actually kill a fetus. 

Let’s say for purposes of argument that there are six actual first-class sexes. 

How many of those six sexes are precipitated by the subject’s emotional attitude, psychological condition or fervent belief?

Thanks for your prompt attention to this matter.

That is all.

Bill Glahn at the Center of the American Experiment tracked energy usage in MInnesota for one hot ugly day, this past Monday:

“Renewables” provide 8% of the energy.

Somehow, though, they’ll be ready to take the entire load (and all those mandated EVs) by 2040?

Reminds me of this classic discourse on solving difficult problems:

I’m going to guess the “miracle”, in this case, will be that everyone involved in setting the policy will be out of government and cashing fat non-profit or lobbying checks by the time energy becomes unaffordable to proles.

British climate protesters who blocked the London beltway get seriously slammed in court:

Obstructing a highway is not simple political expression, and it is far from “peaceful protest.” It involves the physical obstruction of others’ freedom of movement. It is also disruptive and potentially tortious conduct that can have severe consequences. In this case, those seeking to “just stop oil” have done little to advance their cause (traffic congestion results in worse fuel economy and increases emissions), but and managed to cause significant harm to others. From the BBC report:

The action resulted in chaos on the M25 over four successive days, causing nearly 51,000 hours of driver delays, the court heard. The protests closed parts of the motorway in Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire.

People missed flights, medical appointments and exams. Two lorries collided, and a police motorcyclist came off his bike during one of the protests on 9 November 2022 while trying to bring traffic to a halt in a “rolling road block”.

Prosecutors alleged the protests led to an economic cost of at least £765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was put at more than £1.1m.

The activsits and their allies also sought to disrupt the trial, but to no avail.

Wonder if Mary Moriarty is paying attention?

As I noted a couple of years ago, I lost my mother to Alzheimers.

There was no treatment that seemed to do anything useful. She went from first really noticeable symptoms to gone in about six years.

Research on the disease has been heavily focused on exploring brain-protein anomalies noted in a paper led by a U of M researcher 18 years ago.

The paper has been retracted – perhaps the most-cited research paper ever to have been completely retracted:

Authors of a landmark Alzheimer’s disease research paper published in Nature in 2006 have agreed to retract the study in response to allegations of image manipulation. University of Minnesota (UMN) Twin Cities neuroscientist Karen Ashe, the paper’s senior author, acknowledged in a post on the journal discussion site PubPeer that the paper contains doctored images. The study has been cited nearly 2500 times, and would be the most cited paper ever to be retracted, according to Retraction Watch data.

“Although I had no knowledge of any image manipulations in the published paper until it was brought to my attention two years ago,” Ashe wrote on PubPeer, “it is clear that several of the figures in Lesné et al. (2006) have been manipulated … for which I as the senior and corresponding author take ultimate responsibility.”

David Strom at HotAir is covering this:

What makes this retraction so significant is that it has driven research into Alzheimer’s treatments for nearly two decades, and treatment approaches based on its conclusions have failed to yield results. 

If the hypothesis that amyloid protein buildups cause Alzheimer’s symptoms is wrong, Lesné is responsible for perhaps billions of wasted research dollars and two decades of scientists following a false lead. 

Scientific research makes mistakes; lobotomies and phrenology were “settled science” once upon a time, before they weren’t. The application of science goes down rabbit holes, sometimes with perfectly good intentions.

But fraud?

That’s what Science magazine is asking about:

Lesné, who did not reply to requests for comment, remains a UMN professor and receives National Institutes of Health funding. The university has been investigating his work since June 2022. A spokesperson says UMN recently told Nature it had reviewed two images in question, and “has closed this review with no findings of research misconduct pertaining to these figures.” The statement did not reference several other questioned figures in the same paper. UMN did not comment on whether it had reached conclusions about other Lesné papers with apparently doctored images.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Strib or MPRNews cover this, and how. Both outlets seem to feel a vested interest in helping the U uphold the Ski-U-Mah Curtain.

Coming in the wake of the celebrations of the 90th anniversary of D-Day, it’d be easy to get hypoerbolic about this.

But in today’s academic culture, making an announcement like this is a little like running off a Higgins boat with a BAR and running toward the muzzle flashes:

“But they’re a small conservative group! They’re not the big pediatrics group!”

Abolitionists were a tiny minority too.

And if you want to go on from there and say the national healthcare authorities of the UK, Norway, Germany and – this is kinda big – Sweden are “little conservative groups”, we need to talk.

I’m predicting the entire “transing kids” social contagion ends in a tsunami of medical malpractice cases.

I’m no expert, but this seems like an important step.

I may not have advanced the science of astrophysics in any meaningful way.

I’ll take the “L” there.

But I think I’ve got one thing on Steven Hawking:

Since he isn’t reiterating this theory to us in person today, it’s clear his theory is at least half-wrong.

Metro Transit and the Strib have put out a “climate conscious newcomers guide to using Metro Transit”.

It’s tempting to snark “they figure out who the real problem is”:

Familiarize yourself with Metro Transit’s code of conduct, a lengthy and often-ignored rule book that mandates such things as keeping non-service animals in carriers, one seat per rider (no manspreading!), and no eating on board.

Those darn Manspreaders! [1].

But later on, they note:

Let’s talk about crime and nuisance behavior aboard transit, particularly the Blue and Green light-rail lines. This usually involves drug use, smoking, harassing, creepy, gross or criminal behavior. Metro Transit says it’s putting more police, private security and “transit rider assistance program” agents on buses and trains. Frequent transit users say they’re noticing these people, but it’s too early to say whether it’s helping.

Oooh, they drive a hard bargain.

I think I’ll help the environment more by staying home.

And not taking a dump on a bus seat while in a drunken stupor.

[1] For whatever reason, I hold anyone who unironically puts “Man-” in front of a verb to create a derogatory term in sneering contempt.

Sunny Hostin on The View: Climate Change caused the eclipse, has brought out the cicadas:

I wonder what “intellectual self-defense” looks like, legally? Because this woman is an immediate danger of destroying or gravely injuring the national intellect.

One of the moments that made me realize my old former friend known to all of you as “Dog Gone” had slipped the surly bonds of reason was their claim that gender reassignment surgery altered the patient’s biological makeup at the DNA level – that it changed gender-related chromosomes [1]

I told myself “nobody can possibly be this deluded”…

…even while knowing deep in my soul that there’s always someone more delusional out there.

And sure enough:

Part of me wants to say “someday we’ll look back on this whole period of Western history and shudder”. But I realize that’s optimistic.

[1] Side issue – if they did have surgery or medication that altered the human body’s entire chromosomal makeup, it occurs to me that curing cancer would be a pretty trivial matter, wouldn’t it?.

SCENE: Mitch BERG is cleaning out his garden boxes. Busy hauling stalks to the truck, he doesn’t notice Avery LIBRELLE, patrolling the alley, looking for over-filled recycling bins to report to the city.

LIBRELLE: Merg!

BERG: Hey, Avery…

LIBRELLE: Shut up. The GOP’s new Speaker of the House is anti-science. I have proof!

BERG: Huh. So since the Speaker’s job has nothing to do with developing theories, formulating hypotheses, designing and conducting experiments and documenting results, much less trying to figure out how the universe “really” formed, what difference does it make?

LIBRELLE: Who wants our leaders to believe fairy tales?

BERG: Let’s ignore for a moment that theology, like mathematics, logic, physics, even history, are different ways of analyzing different evidence about the universe. Let’s say that you have a brain tumor, and you need brain surgery, or you’re going to die, but quick. So you go to the world’s leading brain surgeon – the one person who can save your life. So far so good?

LIBRELLE: OK…?

BERG: That person has got to be a person of impeccable scientific credentials, right?

LIBRELLE: Of course.

BERG: So you meet that surgeon, and he explains his record – overwhelmingly successful – and his technique, his reasoning, and his plan. And everything sounds right. So far, so good?

LIBRELLE: Right…?

BERG: Then he tells you he believes the universe is 6,000 years old and was created in six days by an imnipotent God.

LIBRELLE: Oh, I’d cancel the surgery instantly!

BERG: Why?

LIBRELLE: He clearly doesn’t believe in science! But why are you wasting time with a hypothetical example?

BERG: Nothing hypothetical about it.

LIBRELLE: When I know more about science than the world’s leading brain surgeon…

BERG: Your degree was in what?

LIBRELLE: Grievance studies with a minor in Sociology!

BERG: Right. Hey, look (points down the alley) I think the Gruenbergs mixed green glass in their clear glass…

LIBRELLE: (Looks down the alley. BERG makes his escape. LIBRELLE doesn’t notice, heading down the alley and getting his…er, her…er, a smart phone camera ready to go…).

And SCENE.

The part of me that works with engineers knows that for every decision where engineering meets design, there is an elaborately calculated rationale.

And the other part of me thinks that the eighth-grade prankster in so many engineers has just pulled the prank of a lifetime.

“Don’t Create False Idols” is a Biblical commandment; essentially saying don’t turn God into a token object.

It is important enough to the Christian faith to rate as one of the ten standing orders for the faithful.

And, really, it’s great advice for life in general.

For example – I’m not one who creates an artificial separation between faith and science.

But if you do? If you claim to exalt reason over “blind” faith, and adulation of physical objects or people over empirical rigor?

It’s still good advice.

No – not the Canadian Football League. That still exists, believe it or not.

No – does a nyone out there remember the “compact fluorescent light”, or CFL?It seems like just yesterday when the green mafia wheedled the government into mandating the replacement of the incandescent bulb with the CFL – a miniature fluorescent tube that screws into a light socket and resembles the “poop“ emoji.

People resisted them. They were much more expensive than incandescent bulbs, the light (being a fluorescent tube), gave people, headaches, and they were hazardous to dispose of in landfills.

It wasn’t long after that the free market came up with the “LED bulb“ – an adaptation of “light emitting diode“ technology that had been around for decades. it used very little power, it created a much more pleasant brand of light, and it wasn’t toxic waste.

The federal mandate was apparently forgotten. As has been, near as I can tell, the compact fluorescent.

I’m reminded of that when I see how clumsy and ill thought out the governments, current mandate Ridge, the electric vehicle“ is, compared with a potentially much more palatable option, the hydrogen powered car.

Government may have learned something from the CFL fiasco, of course; and that “something“ is most likely not “listen to the free market“. As the Covid lockdowns show us, “strong arming the media and big tech into helping jam acquiescence down” also works.

Speaking for myself?

I”d go back and try to show…

…well, not “the idiots who shut down nuclear power”, so much as the mushy minds that believed them, how much trouble and misery they would eventually cause around the world.

Of course, destroying cornucopia in general is a goal of the totalitarian left. Poor people don’t solve problems – but they do demand strongmen to solve the problems for them.

Minnesota Enviromaists: “We’ve never had a summer like this! This is proof the climate is…

History:

Minnesota Enviromaoists: “Why are you such a racist?”

Spanish environment minister Teresa Ribera…:

1. Took a private jet to a climate conference – her 17th private jet trip of 2023.
2. Took a limousine downtown to get to the conference
3. Stopped a block away from the conference, took out a bike…
4. And rode the last 1-200 yards, as her entourage followed in their government issue “impress the peasants” rides.

It seems to be all the rage among the “progressive” “elites” these days:

Big day for Greta on the blog today, huh?

Sweden has ditched the Greens “100% Renewable” goal, doubled down on nukes:

More than 40 years after the country voted to phase out nuclear power, Sweden is now looking to build more nuclear reactors after its parliament formally abandoned its 100% renewable energy target to meet net-zero by 2045.

“Living close to Russia focuses the mind, and the Swedish people not only wish to join NATO, but also to ground their economy in an energy source, nuclear, that is physically sound and secure, unlike renewables which are neither,” said Dr. John Constable, NZW’s energy director.

This follows close on the utterly unrelated move to bar “Gender-Affirming Care” for minors in Sweden…

…and the Minnesota DFL’s uncritical mad dash to embrace unicorn power and allowing people who can’t buy vape, rent a car, consent to sex, buy a beer or sign a contract to commit to

Some people are hopping up and down about Greta Thunberg’s prediction from five years ago:

Me? I say we’re still on borrowed time from the Ozone Layer, the hole in which (we were told by noted physicist Ted Danson, was going to kill us in 10 years.

Starting in 1988.

Whackjob environmentalist protesters crash a Swedish TV dance show.

Robocam operator scores a two-fer:

Consider my week made.

The University of Helsinki gives climate activist Greta Thunberg an honorary PhD in Theology .

The Babylon Bee should sue for trademark infringement.

Is there anything “climate change” (TM) can’t do?

Like, spawn a zombie apocalypse?

No, it’s no the Babylon Bee:

Of course it’s Berg’s Seventh Law in effect; most adherents to the Religion of Climate are pretty much the Walking Intellectual Dead already.