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At 3.7 Square Miles a Fungus in Eastern Oregon is the Largest Living Organism on Earth

The Key to Life: Evolution of Fungi

Directed by Pete Kelly (2022)

Film Review

According to microscopic fossil evidence,* filaments from fungi mycellium have been present on Earth for roughly half its four billion year existence. Micro-fossils with mycellial structures in 2.4 billion year-old South African lava are either fungi or fungi precursors.

Other fossil evidence suggests fungi moved from the sea to land around the same time algae did (538 million to one billion years ago) feeding on decaying algae and bacteria.

Genetic studies indicate that the immense underground mycellium networks found in forests belong to a genetically unique single organism. Some fungal networks are as large as 3.7 square miles, making them the largest organisms on earth. One giant fungus in Eastern Oregon has been carbon dated as 2,400 years old.

The hyphae (filaments) that grow outward from the mycellium contain potent enzymes enabling fungi to break down wood, rocks, asphalt and even keflar. Mycellia also exhibit a rapid communication network (similar to the electrical signaling in our nervous system) along the filaments, memory and limited problem solving ability. When tested in specially designed mazes, fungal hyphae nearly always find the fastest route to the end.

Mycellial networks form an intricate relationship with the root systems of trees and other plants that facilitates absorption of nutrients, as well a warning system alerting them to  potential threats from insects and other plant predators. Fungal networks also play some role in moving carbon from carbon-dense areas to more depleted areas.

Fungi have long been important to human health, with Neanderthal, ancient Egyptian and Australian aboriginal skeletons showing evidence of grinding penicillin mold into their teeth (for dental problems).

Human beings have long used other fungi for their psychodelic properties. Historical examples include the Aztecs, who used psylocibin mushrooms to commune with their serpent god Queztel. The Greek philosopher Plato is believed to have been a participant in the secret, cult-like Eleusinian Mysteries based on the hallucinogenic ergot fungus (from which LSD was first synthesized).

Some anthropologists attribute the great cognitive leap Homo sapiens made 11,500 years ago (resulting in the agricultural revolution) to their discovery of mind expanding fungal hallucinogens.

The film also reports on fungi thriving in Chernobyl’s contaminated zone that seem to derive energy from ionizing radiation, and a process known as “lichenization.” LIchens form when fungal cells pair up with specific algae in a mutually beneficial relationship.

*When treated with special stains, fungal filaments test positive for chitin, a tough polysaccharide polymer that is also found in the exoskeletons of insects and arthropods.

**Myceliium is the root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae.

 

Four Reasons the Official COVID Narrative Is Falling Apart

By By Rob Verkerk, Ph.D.

It’s becoming ever more clear that the major, most influential health authorities around the world are now blatantly lying to the public, given the current status of scientific and medical information.

 It’s becoming ever more clear that the major, most influential health authorities around the world are now blatantly lying to the public, given the current status of scientific and medical information.

Why do I say this?

The answer is simple: because the most influential health authorities are communicating to the public, both in words and in actions, the view that COVID-19 “vaccines” are “safe and effective” when the totality of available evidence suggests otherwise.

Let me explain.

Shouting from the webpage of what is the world’s largest “health system,” the U.K.’s National Health Service, is the statement below, in bold text, declaring the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 “vaccines.”

The following screengrab was taken Oct. 27:

Image credit: NHS. Red oval highlight added for emphasis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, like so many others, parrots the same information, using bold text for emphasis in the new, lockstep tradition.

The following screengrab was also taken Oct. 27:

Image credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Red oval highlight added for emphasis.

It is widely acknowledged that the proportion of proven cases of injury from COVID-19 vaccines is currently very small compared with the total number of doses administered. But this metric is not sufficient to declare a product as safe.

After all, society seems quite happy to deem a children’s toy unsafe even if there is just a theoretical risk of injury — let alone a demonstrated one that has led to death or permanent injury.

[…]

Sadly and to confuse the wider picture — quite probably deliberately — some of the clinical trials have not been conducted with saline controls, but rather with other vaccines or with mixtures of adjuvants.

This aside, let’s look at two pieces of relatively recent evidence from available data that any court would likely find hard to ignore, that demonstrate the COVID-19 “vaccines” should not and cannot be regarded as safe based on clear-cut differences between treatment and placebo arm results.

Study 1: Haas et al., Journal of the American Medical Association (January 2022)

The first is a comprehensive meta-analysis of 12 clinical trials published in January this year in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study was led by Julia Haas from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and among the 8 author-strong team was senior author, Ted Kaptchuk, from Harvard Medical School. This is not a marginalized journal, nor a marginalized or discredited authorship.

The findings show a clear and pronounced, statistically significant elevation in severity and number of adverse events in those receiving the COVID-19 vaccines (mRNA, adenoviral vector and protein subunit types), compared with those receiving controls — especially after the second of two doses included in the trials.

That’s it — it should be GAME OVER for any claim that the COVID-19 vaccines are “safe.”

A second study in a major high-impact journal should make it not just GAME OVER but a SLAM DUNK. Turns out there is at least one. In fact, there are many more; I have simply been selective in providing two composite studies (meta-analyses) that in turn include many other studies.

Study 2: Fraiman et al., Vaccine (September 2022)

The authorship of the second study I’ve selected is equally star-studded, including leading researchers from UCLA, Stanford and the University of Maryland, the latter including as its senior (last) author, Peter Doshi, also a senior editor at The BMJ.

What these authors did was painfully tease apart available data from the phase 3 trials that Pfizer and Moderna used to gain their emergency use authorizations (EUAs).

The authors found a consistent trend for significantly greater risks for serious adverse events in the COVID-19 “vaccine” arms compared with placebos, the risk ratios being between 1.36 and 1.57 times greater in the “vaccine” arms for those adverse events defined as being of “special interest.”

These include criteria developed specifically for COVID-19 vaccines by the Brighton Collaboration, and have been agreed upon by the World Health Organization.

The common clotting and heart health issues we see around us today were actually concealed in the data reviewed by the likes of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the European Medicines Agency at the time the EUAs were issued.

They were just ignored by the regulators. That includes the coagulation disorders, acute cardiac injuries and the myocarditis/pericarditis issues that all jumped off the journal pages.

Joseph Fraiman and colleagues, the authors of the study, had difficulty getting to the bottom of the data in these trials given that both Pfizer and Moderna kept protocols secret and failed to make public individual participant data.

They decided to publish the letter they sent to Albert Bourla and Stéphane Bancel, the respective CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna, in a Rapid Response to The BMJ in August, raising their concerns over non-transparency. We drew attention to this major problem in 2020, here and here.

Damning stuff — yet not even a squeak from the vaccine confidence brigade. Punch in (as I just have) “Doshi” in the search bar of The Vaccine Confidence Project and you’ll find zero hits.

Then follow this by plugging in “Offit,” as in Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, also a long-term vaccine protagonist, albeit one who has been voicing caution over COVID-19 vaccines to healthy youngsters.

You’ll find multiple pages of hits when you use Offit’s name. Have they not worked out that it’s this kind of illogic and imbalance that adds to our lack of confidence?

What was concealed from view in the Phase 3 trials, is the disturbing picture of the spectrum of neurological injury that we are now witnessing from the real-world, population-wide roll-out that appears to be linked to COVID-19 vaccines, albeit not commonly, but predictably uncommonly.

Then there are suggestions of increasing cancer incidence, this inevitably clouded by cancer cases among those who didn’t receive standard care during the lockdowns as well as emerging evidence of natural killer and T cell exhaustion following repeat COVID-19 “vaccination.”

Even more challenging will be deconstruction of the long-term complications caused by this new technology that will inevitably be delayed in time post-vaccination and become ever more difficult to unwrap as people get exposed to more shots while the virus continues to circulate and infect people.

High on the watch list are fertility, autoimmune conditions and the smorgasbord of chronic, degenerative diseases associated with aging populations, especially in industrialized countries.

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/official-covid-narrative-falling-apart/

Anti-Russian Alliance Fractures After Japan Decides To Stay In Russia’s Sakhalin-1 Energy Project

Zero Hedge

While Europe continues the unvarnished hypocrisy of pretending it is imposing draconian sanctions against Russian oil and gas, when instead it is merely buying the country’s natural resources via such middlemen as India and China (an exercise in virtue signaling that costs it a 20% mark-up to Russian prices), less than a year since the start of the Ukraine war, some countries have had enough of pretending.

Today, the Japanese government decided to officially screw the sanctions, and remain involved in the (formerly Exxon-led) Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in Russia, as it seeks a stable supply of energy (who doesn’t) despite international sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, the Nikkei reported.

ExxonMobil, which held a 30% stake in Sakhalin-1, announced in March that it would withdraw from the project. But after vacillating for more than half a year, Japan decided not to follow in Exxon’s footsteps.

Meanwhile, Russia set up a new company to take over the project under a presidential decree that has in effect forced investors to choose sides. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is a stakeholder in Tokyo-based Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development — which owns 30% of Sakhalin-1’s current operator – along with other investors including Itochu, Japan Petroleum Exploration and Marubeni.

The Japanese consortium will make a final decision on whether to stay invested in the project after discussions with other stakeholders.

Why does this matter? Well, back in may, the G-7 nations decided to ban imports of Russian crude oil. Although the G-7 did not decide on a time frame, saying only that the ban will be enforced in a “timely and orderly fashion,” Japan’s continued participation in Sakhalin-1 would go against the consensus among fellow G-7 members.

In short, Japan would be the first “western” nation to officially breach the anti-Russia alliance.

Of course, there are reason: Japan relies on the Middle East for 95% of its crude imports, and sees ownership in Russian projects as essential to ensuring a stable supply of energy. But then again, one can say the same of most of the developed world, and certainly all of Europe, where Russian energy commodities serve as the basis for comfortable, modern life.

On October 7, Vladimir Putin signed a decree transferring Sakhalin-1 to a newly established company, which was registered on Oct. 14. Stakeholders in the project were given one month to decide whether to invest in the new company, and relevant Japanese agencies, including the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, have been considering their options. They have now decided.

A unit of Russian state oil company Rosneft is expected to operate Sakhalin-1 after ExxonMobil. Rosneft and India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. each previously held 20% of the project.

As a result of the chaos, operations at Sakhalin-1 have been virtually shut down, and Japan has imported no oil originating from the project recently, so losing its stake will not have an immediate impact on the country’s fuel supply.

Russia has transferred operations of the Sakhalin-2 natural gas project to a new company as well. Japanese investors Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. decided to retain their stakes in the project, and their continued investment has been approved by the Russian government.

Translation: the upcoming G-20 will be rather awkward as Japan’s PM Fumio Kushida, an anchor pillar of the G7 in Asia, may decide to sit at the table next the Xi and Putin.

[…]

Via https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/anti-russian-alliance-fractures-after-japan-decides-stay-russias-sakhalin-1-energy-project

Slow Motion Economic Train Wreck; Nearly 40% of small US businesses failed to pay rent in October

World Hal Turner

Small businesses in various states are struggling to pay their rent, a new report shows, with rent delinquency at nearly 40 percent this month.

The findings, published Tuesday by Boston-based business tracker Alignable, are raising more than eyebrows, as they illustrate the stark effect inflation is having on everyday Americans.

The survey of 4,789 randomly selected small business owners saw more than half of respondents say their rent is at least 10 percent higher than six months ago.

If you go back seven months, the majority said their rents had increased by at least 20 percent.

Moreover, the study found that roughly 37 percent of small businesses – almost half of all Americans working in the private sector – were left unable to pay rent in October.

Compounding concerns is the fact that several states, including New York and California, are well over the already-high national average.

Offering an explanation for the phenomenon, study author Chuck Casto wrote that small business owners are steadfast, but that their incomes are ‘basically being eaten away by inflationary pressures’ as grim figures continue to rock financial markets.

Alignable discerned that one-third of businesses are at risk of closing if revenue does not ‘ramp up’ significantly in the coming months, as consumers shy away from spending amid fears of an impending recession.

As to the reasons for the short funds, poll-takers blamed higher rents, the impact of more than a year of high inflation, steeper-than-usual gas prices, increases in supply chain costs, rising labor expenses and shortages, and reduced consumer spending.

Worse, about 49 percent of restaurants were unable to pay their rent this month, up from 36, in September, while an identical 49 percent of car dealership and repair shop owners defaulted on their October rent.

Via https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/slow-motion-economic-train-wreck-nearly-40-of-small-businesses-in-the-us-failed-to-pay-rent-in-october

Debunking Myths about China’s Social Credit System

By Land Destroyer

Western government & the Western media have deliberately lied about China operating a central “social credit score” system driven by political and ideological criteria.

However the same Western sources admit upon further examination that this is a myth, that no such system exists, and the multitude of systems China does use are for tracking and punishing what would be considered serious offenses anywhere [eg criminal behavior].

There is also no such thing as the CCP. The correct name for China’s Communist party is the CPC (the Chinese Party of China). Assume any article referring to the CCP originates from US intelligence propagandists until proven otherwise.

Although some private Chinese companies use systems similar to “social credit” to rate private employees, the Chinese government has no centralized “social credit” system rating antisocial behavior.

References:

Business Insider – China’s ‘social credit’ system ranks citizens and punishes them with throttled internet speeds and flight bans if the Communist Party deems them untrustworthy: https://www.businessinsider.com/china…

WIRED – The complicated truth about China’s social credit system: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china…

Guardian – China bans 23m from buying travel tickets as part of ‘social credit’ system: https://www.theguardian.com/world/201…

SCMP – What is China’s social credit system and why is it controversial?: https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-ec…

ASPI – Sponsors: https://www.aspi.org.au/sponsors ASPI – Funding: https://www.aspi.org.au/about-aspi/fu…

Foreign Policy – China’s Social Credit System Is Actually Quite Boring: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/15/…

Foreign Policy – China’s Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn’t Real: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/…

Musk Neuters Twitter ‘Ministry of Truth’ Ahead of Midterms

Photo via Latestfinancenews

Zero Hedge

Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation may recall the episode where extra-dimensional dickhead “Q” is stripped of his powers for spreading chaos throughout the universe.

Well, Elon Musk just did that to Twitter’s content moderation thought police with just weeks to go before midterms – cutting the number of employees who can access censorship tools from hundreds to around 15 people last week, and reducing their ability to influence discussion on the platform.

According to Bloomberg, Musk and his ‘war cabinet‘ have frozen some employee access to internal tools used for content moderation and the enforcement of other policies, neutering staff’s abilities to ‘alter or penalize accounts that break rules around misleading information, offensive posts and hate speech.’

They also won’t be able to banish highly credentialed doctors and researchers posting divergent Covid-19 narratives.

All but the most ‘high-impact violations set for manual review’ will remain on the platform, according to people familiar with the matter.

Twitter staff use dashboards, known as agent tools, to carry out actions like banning or suspending an account that is deemed to have breached policy. Detection of policy breaches can either be flagged by other Twitter users or detected automatically, but taking action on them requires human input and access to the dashboard tools. Those tools have been suspended since last week, the people said.

This restriction is part of a broader plan to freeze Twitter’s software code to keep employees from pushing changes to the app during the transition to new ownership. Typically this level of access is given to a group of people numbering in the hundreds, and that was initially reduced to about 15 people last week, according to two of the people, who asked not to be named discussing internal decisions. Musk completed his $44 billion deal to take the company private on Oct. 27. -Bloomberg

On Sunday,Twitter employees had limited access to the internal tools to police Brazil’s presidential election.

Meanwhile, the company is still using automated enforcement technology as well as third-party contractors.

The restricted ability to restrict free speech has given Twitter’s Trust and Safety Team the vapors – with employees worried that the company will be short-handed during the runup to the Nov. 8 midterm election. Recall the Trust and Safety Team was headed by now-fired Vijaya Gadde – who would have had a large role (perhaps even the final decision) to ban ZeroHedge in February, 2020 for suggesting that Covid-19 was the result of a lab leak (and that we ‘doxxed’ a Wuhan lab employee using publicly available data – aka not doxxing).

Internally, employees say, Musk has raised questions about a number of the policies, and has zeroed in on a few specific rules that he wants the team to review. The first is Twitter’s general misinformation policy, which penalizes posts that include falsehoods about topics like election outcomes and Covid-19. Musk wants the policy to be more specific, according to people familiar with the matter.

Musk has also asked the team to review Twitter’s hateful conduct policy, according to the people, specifically a section that says users can be penalized for “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.” -Bloomberg

On Monday, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, tweeted on Monday that the company was addressing an increase in offensive posts.

“Since Saturday, we’ve been focused on addressing the surge in hateful conduct on Twitter. We’ve made measurable progress, removing more than 1500 accounts and reducing impressions on this content to nearly zero,” he wrote, adding “We’re primarily dealing with a focused, short-term trolling campaign.”

[…]

Via https://www.zerohedge.com/political/musk-neuters-twitter-ministry-truth-ahead-midterms

Pfizer’s Lack of Transparency, Accountability ‘Creates a New Tyranny’

By  Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.

Comedian and political commentator Russell Brand asks his audience why Pfizer can’t release unredacted copies of its COVID-19 vaccine contracts with the EU, when the drugmaker plans to charge 10,000% above the cost of production for the vaccine.

Pfizer executive Angela Lukin on Oct. 20 said the drugmaker plans to raise the price of its COVID-19 vaccines by about 400%, to $110 to $130 per dose, after the U.S. government’s purchase program expires — even though new estimates suggest the vaccines can be produced for as little as $1.18 a dose.

“Pfizer had their most profitable year and they’ve just jacked up the prices of their vaccine by 10,000%,” Russell Brand said in his latest video. “So we’re asking, how much profit do they need before they’ll release those bloody redacted pages?”

The comedian and political commentator was referring to a request by the European Parliament’s COVID-19 committee to see Pfizer’s contract with the EU for its COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer handed over the documents — but with many pages completely redacted.

Not only that, but Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla, Ph.D., who was due to testify Oct. 10 before the committee, pulled out of the appointment, effectively refusing to answer any of the committee’s questions.

When the committee requested to review Pfizer’s contract with the EU for the COVID-19 vaccine, Bourla’s representative told the committee, “They can’t fully disclose these contracts because they have some ‘commercial secrets’ over there and they have to ‘protect their interests,’” member of the European Parliament (MEP) Cristian Terhes said on Oct. 12.

“Now I’m asking you: ‘What about the interests of our people?’” asked Terhes, who is also a human rights activist.

Terhes showed page after page of heavy redactions from Pfizer’s contracts that it handed over to the committee.

Brand made fun of Pfizer for bothering to share the heavily redacted documents with the public because they were “black as night” and showed no information. “What’s the point?” Brand asked.

“Just say, ‘We’re not going to show you.’ It’ll save your photocopier,” he added.

Brand also pointed out that according to a September 2021 report by Investigate Europe, negotiations between the EU and pharmaceutical companies for the COVID-19 vaccine happened behind closed doors.

“Why is this stuff all so shady?” Brand asked. “Why is it the contract has to be blacked out? Why are the deals happening in secret? This is supposed to be democracy.”

The report also stated that “new variants, international competition and darkness around manufacturing costs” allowed Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to “increase the bill for European taxpayers.”

“So this ‘darkness’ — these redactions, this lack of transparency,” Brand said, “increases their ability to glean profit without transparency.”

Lack of transparency and accountability to taxpayers creates a new tyranny, he said.

“They’re doing whatever they want to do and even this dude — an elected MEP— ain’t even able to get a straight answer.”

Brand added:

“Where’s the real power if an MEP can’t compel a CEO to turn up and offer an account after a global pandemic that’s seen record expenditure, record suffering and record profits?”

Watch the video here:

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pfizer-eu-covid-vaccine-contracts/

Moderna patented 19-nucleotide sequence in 2013 that matches most infectious sequence of SARS-CoV-2

Dr Eddy Betterman

In the quest to uncover the origins for SARS-CoV-2, scientists did not have to look very far. For years, the National Institutes of Health, in cooperation with EcoHealth Alliance and the University of North Carolina conducted gain-of-function research specifically on coronaviruses. Much of this controversial work was off-shored to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, due to moratoriums on gain-of-function virology research in the US.

Some of the most notorious authoritarians in public health (Anthony Fauci) were directly involved in funding and overseeing coronavirus research, so it’s rather suspicious, to say the least, that Fauci himself would denounce any laboratory origins of SARS-CoV-2 as “conspiracy theory” as early as March 2020. If anyone should be more transparent, it should be him.

Scientists also did not have to look far to find out that Moderna (one of the covid-19 vaccine profiteers) patented a 19-nucleotide sequence in 2013, that somehow, randomly appeared in the Furin cleavage site of the covid-19 spike protein.

Moderna has been preparing for covid-19 mRNA vaccine experiments for years

In the leadup to 2020, a little-known biotech company called Moderna was granted up to $100 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop new vaccine candidates using mRNA technology. From this platform, Moderna received hundreds of millions of dollars in new investments and even secured $1 billion from taxpayers in 2020 (Operation Warp Speed) for research and development into a vaccine for covid-19.

As far back as 2013, Moderna had already filed for a coronavirus patent, containing a 19-nucleotide sequence. This precise nucleotide sequence randomly appeared in the Furin cleavage site of the covid-19 spike protein. The genetic sequences of this spike protein (the alleged causative agent for covid-19) were ultimately used as a basis to develop an experimental mRNA vaccine through none other than — Moderna. The technology was also shared with Pfizer; however, Moderna is currently initiating legal challenges to secure their property rights over their patents on the mRNA and the spike protein sequences. Eventually, Moderna would receive another $1.525 billion from taxpayers, in an agreement that would ship 100 million doses of its mRNA vaccine candidate to pharmacies nationwide.

Scientists link Moderna’s patents to the most pathogenic part of SARS-CoV-2

Scientists from India, Switzerland, Italy and the US published an important paper titled, “MSH3 Homology and Potential Recombination Link to SARS-CoV-2 Furin Cleavage Site.” The 19-nucleotide sequence (patented by Moderna) randomly appeared in the furin cleavage site of the spike protein (SARS-CoV-2). The scientists calculated the random chance of that happening as 1 in 3 trillion!

The scientists used the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool to search for the gene sequence, in a database that includes every gene sequence in nature known to man. They searched for the gene sequence, its reverse gene sequence and the complimentary gene sequence and its reverse sequence. They found the sequence in Moderna’s patents, in reverse compliment form: CTACGTGCCCGCCGAGGAG.

This precise gene letter sequence was the only nucleotide sequence in SARS-CoV-2 that had more than 3 nucleotides. Its closest natural relative was Bat Coronavirus RaTG13. It was included on the furin cleavage site, which is the part of the spike protein most associated with viral attachment and pathogenic potential. If the coronavirus spike protein was enhanced in a lab, then the furin cleavage site would be the best location to enhance its pathogenic potential. As the genetic evidence shows, Moderna was part of the planning and implementation of covid-19, gain-of-function experimentation, and vaccine profiteering.

Here are the patents:
US9149506B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding septin-4 – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.
Inventor: Tirtha Chakraborty, Antonin de Fougerolles

US9216205B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding granulysin – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.

US9255129B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding SIAH E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 1 – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.

US9301993B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding apoptosis inducing factor 1 – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.

US9587003B2: Modified polynucleotides for the production of oncology-related proteins and peptides – 2016-02-04 Application filed by ModernaTx Inc.

Inventor: Stephane Bancel, Tirtha Chakraborty, Antonin de Fougerolles, Sayda M. Elbashir, Matthias John, Atanu Roy, Susan Whoriskey, Kristy M. Wood, Paul Hatala, Jason P. Schrum, Kenechi Ejebe, Jeff Lynn Ellsworth, Justin Guild

[…]

Via https://dreddymd.com/2022/11/01/moderna-patented-19-nucleotide-sequence-2013-matches-most-infectious-sequence-sars-cov-2/

US diesel shortage worsens

© Getty Images / George Frey

RT

Supplies of the fuel are at a 14-year low amid a ban on imports from Russia, portending further price spikes.

US diesel shortages are spreading along the East Coast amid a ban on imports from Russia, raising fears of further surges in prices for the fuel as consumers brace for the winter heating season.

Mansfield Energy, one of the nation’s major fuel distributors, instituted emergency measures on Tuesday and warned its customers that carriers were being forced to visit multiple terminals in some cases to find supplies, delaying deliveries. With shortages spreading from the Northeast to the Southeast, the company advised customers to give 72-hour notice for their orders to avoid having to pay above-market prices.

“In many areas, actual fuel prices are currently 30-80 cents higher than the posted market average because supply is tight,” said Mansfield, which delivers over three billion gallons of oil products annually. With the relatively low-cost suppliers running out of diesel, distributors are forced to draw from higher-cost sources, resulting in unusually wide spreads in pricing.

Mansfield’s advisory came just six days after US National Economic Council director Brian Deese told Bloomberg News that diesel supplies were “unacceptably low” and that President Joe Biden’s administration had “all options” on the table to reduce prices. However, as Bloomberg and other media outlets have noted, it’s not clear how those options would provide long-term relief.

Diesel supplies in New England, the US region most reliant on distillate fuels for heating, have reportedly dwindled to about one-third of normal levels for this time of year. Nationwide, the US has only 25 days’ worth of diesel supplies, the lowest level since 2008.

Deese told Bloomberg that the US could tap its Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, which holds one million barrels of diesel for emergency use. But, as the Washington Post noted, demand for the fuel is so high in the Northeast that those reserves would be depleted in fewer than six hours. The White House has also considered banning or restricting exports of refined fuels – a strategy that industry trade groups claimed would backfire.

“Banning or limiting the export of refined products would likely decrease inventory levels, reduce domestic refining capacity, put upward pressure on consumer fuel prices, and alienate US allies during a time of war,” the American Petroleum Institute and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers said earlier this month in a letter to US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.

The shortages also put the US at risk of further spikes in prices if there’s a supply disruption, such as a refinery breakdown. Higher prices for the fuel would ripple through the US economy because 18-wheelers and other diesel-powered vehicles carry about 70% of the nation’s freight tonnage.

Diesel prices are currently averaging nearly $5.32 per gallon nationwide, down 8.6% from the all-time high set in June, according to the AAA auto club. By comparison, the average gasoline price has dropped 25% from its record high to $3.76 per gallon. Diesel prices are up 47% from a year ago.

[…]

Via https://www.rt.com/news/565399-us-diesel-shortage-spreads/

The Powerful Role of Women in Vietnamese History

Episode 31: Southeast Asia – Vietnam

Foundations of Eastern Civilization

Dr Craig Benjamin (2013)

Film Review

In this lecture, Benjamin explores the history of Vietnam and its troubled relationship with China. Genetic and archeological evidence indicates the Nam Viet (People of the South) were ethnically distinct from the Chinese. Intermarrying with people of Khmer and Thai ethnicity, they preferred to live in nuclear families, rather than extended families like the Chinese. Owing to the absence of Confucian influence, Vietnamese women had a much stronger presence in public life.

For many centuries Vietnam controlled the Red River Valley, presently part of southern China. Despite periodic raids in which Chinese armies took control of isolated Vietnam villages, China met strong resistance in its efforts to colonize the country. Yet the close contact increased China-Vietnam trade and adoption of Chinese inventions by Vietnamese elites. The Nam Viet traded ivory, tortoise shell and aromatic wood for Chinese silk.

The Han emperor Wudi eventually conquered Vietnam (and Korea) in the 3rd century BC. By introducing irrigation to Vietnam, the Han Dynasty made Vietnam the most productive region in Asia. When direct political control gave way to a tributary relationship in 111 BC, Vietnamese elites continued traveling to China to study Confucianism and learning to read and write Chinese. Many converted to Buddhism.

Vietnamese peasants eventually revolted against their rulers for the barbaric treatment they received under Chinese domination. Vietnamese women, who had controlled Vietnamese markets for centuries, especially opposed the Confucian family system that subjected them to the authority of men. The Trung sisters, famous for leading the peasant army on war elephants, led one of the most famous revolts.

In 939 AD, the Vietnam finally won their independence after a 30-year war. Following independence, Vietnamese rulers adopted a Confucian-style civil service exam and a Confucian bureaucracy that allowed significant autonomy for village government. Given their high status, women frequently held political power.

Both the Ming dynasty and the Mongols failed in their efforts to reconquer Vietnam.  Between the 11th and 18th century, Vietnam drove the Cham,** their new adversaries, into the highlands and took over their territory on the coastal plans and Mekong Delta (in modern day Cambodia). Due to intermarriage of South Vietnamese with Cham and Khmer, there began to be important cultural differences between North and South Vietnamese.

During the 17th century, French missionaries rebuffed by Japan began to visit Vietnam, where they were initially welcomed. During the 18th century French-backed Nguyen warlords unified Vietnam for the first time in centuries. When the Vietnamese tried to oust the French missionaries, Napoleon III launched a 30-year naval campaign  (1858-1885) that brought the entire country under French control.

*Heavy Confucian influence and respect for elders led Chinese tradition to favor extended families and subject women to patriarchal control.

**The original Cham are believed to have arrived in Vietnam from Taiwan and Borneo in the first millennium BC.

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