MicroB
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Posts posted by MicroB
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On 6/27/2025 at 6:25 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:
No... they found:
"...a zoonotic origin with spillover from animals to humans is currently considered the best supported hypothesis by the available scientific data, until requests for further information are met or more scientific data becomes available..."
107 years after, we still don't really know where Spanish Flu came from. There is circumstantial evidence for various theories.
One of the more recent theories, and probably the most likely, is that the strain emerged in China during 1916-17. This was in a region that France and Britain recruited coolies from. A unit transected Canada into Kansas in 1917. They likely infected American troops gathering for deployment to Europe. It might have remained just another flu strain but for timing. It reached the Western Front in the winter of 1918. The long war had come to an end. Casualty clearinng stations on both sides were filled to capacity with wounded men, but also men with trench foot, blood infection.
At the end of the War, the inclination was to clear the hospitals ASAP, leaving relatively fit healthy men in trenches, in encampments. The virus ran through this group, resulting in reinfections, essentially training a superbug. Then you have mass movement of refugees going home in multiple directions.
Nearly every pandemic in human history is associated with some change in human behaviour. COVID-19 will probably end up being the Globalisation Pandemic; a Pandemic enabled by rapid mass ransportation, and corporate links between a fairly obscure Chinese provincial city and the European car and textile industries. The virus did a number in Wuhan, but didn't become a broader China issue until later. But it really got out of hand when it hit Italy (a more virulant version hit Europe than hit the US West coast; the US West coast strain was essentially due to movements of Chinese diaspora. But in Europe, it was industry executives in Italy and Germany, coupled by the ski season. Many of the early cases in the UK were associated with a medical conference in Singapore, where some of the attendees afterwards returned to the UK after a cheeky ski holiday with mates in Austria.
I've worked in BSL-2 through BSL-4 labs since 1988, so I am very aware of their construction and operation. I'm aware of the physical controls that are on top of process controls used in BSL-4 lab.
The Zoonitic origin is still the most plausible. You can never rule any theory out for anything, unless you have evidence to discount that theory. But you can rank likelihood based on a range of factors. The second most likely theory is a lab leak, but not from the research labs. The Wuhan Institute was also a reference lab. Reference labs serve to validate the findings of hospital labs, but are also involved in routine disease surveillance. Reference labs don't seek to propagate pathogen. Consequently these labs might be BSL 2 or 2+. They would be receiving thousands of specimens per day for further investigation. Its worth remembering that every city on the planet has at least one hospital, and that one hospital will have a pathology laboratory, also handling thousands of patient specimens a day. Two of the UK's BSL4 high containment labs are in central London. If lab leaks were as easy as some suppose, then we would be knee deep in outbreaks; there are far worse operated path labs in other countries besides China, eg some of the Ebola labs in West Africa were pretty grim.
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On 7/7/2025 at 11:18 AM, merck said:
Guardian slant on the event - Victims of it all were not those injured.
‘We are in a dangerous place’: British Muslims on the fallout from 7/7 attack 20 years on
Many feel counter-terrorism policies and brazen Islamophobia have increased hostility and isolation experience by community"The emotional and social toll of 7/7 on Muslim communities was profound and is felt by many to this day,” said the imam Qari Asim.
ctd
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/06/7-7-london-bombings-british-muslims-counter-terrorism-islamophobiaThe Irish community in Great Britain also suffered following IRA attacks. ie Maguire 7, Guildford 4.
Your opening senetence is deliberately misleading, in order to sew discord, and pursue your own agenda.
You should have stated;
QuoteGuardian slant on the event - Victims of it all were not just those injured or killed.
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Found dead in his Tesla....... Stories circulating that he was found before he was sacked.
But why are top Russians still driving American Teslas. Musk surely has the means to brick every single one, preferebly about 8am local time, on a cold wet November. Plus Tesla will have a full record of owners.
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On 7/4/2025 at 7:56 AM, Yellowtail said:
The truth often is. Democrats are the party of slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow laws and segregation.
Wizardry.
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On 7/5/2025 at 11:40 AM, riclag said:
Eric Adams demands Columbia U , release Mamdani admission records!
Do ya think Adams can burst Mamdani’s bubble?
Glad you are hugely supportive of politicians being completely transparent about their educational records.
https://time.com/5540152/donald-trump-michael-cohen-academic-records/
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27 minutes ago, Quentin Zen said:
Do a worldwide prison tour. Venezuela, Honduras, Columbia, Egypt, Thailand, Laos, Myaanmar, Phillipines, Russia, Nigeria, South Africa....I'm sure most prisons are terrible. Most.
Terrible prisons should absolutely be a deterrent to go to another country and break the law. The last thing we want is to give them steak PLUS all the free health care, unemployment, housing, etc....we already gave them.
Anders Behring Breivik, the loon who killed those kids because of his politics, complained about the miserable state of his prison cell in Norway. Norway has a very low rate of crime.
There is a balance to be struck. Regimes with the most terrible prison conditions still have crime, usually lots of crime. Saudi Arabia has been executing people in incredible numbers. I had the misfortune to watch one of these executions. You're driven to some random street corner, hauled out of the truck, crowd gathers, off with your head, hopefully in one swipe. Yet people still smuggle paltry amounts of cannabis into the country.
Incarceration yes, state mandated cruelty no.
My late father was a hang 'em high type. As part of his civic duty, he became a Independent Custody Visitor. He changed his views. The voluntary role involves members of the public going into police stations and doing a welfare check. He was ex-military, and expected the station to be run to a military standard. ie those in the cells would be treated firmly but fair. Te loss of liberty and a bare cell should be enough for most to ruminate on what he did.
He found the cells at full capacity with basically children. The Courts Service was unable to process them, and the syp. The system was backed up. However the sergeants in charge of the custody suites still have a job to do, and standards to enforce. He found kids left in cells in feces encrusted clothes. Being handed urine soaked blankets, or no blankets, in winter. No hot food, no hot drinks. He spoke to some of these boys, and realised what a subclass they came from. It was difficult to not have some sympathy for them. Remembering his army days, he shared a ciggie with some of them, and they seemed grateful. He bollocked the duty sergeant for not doing his job. There was no excuse. Seemed to work, because the next time he visited, the cops had sorted things out.
We had hundreds of years of prison reform, for good reason. Turning back the clock is retrograde and will simply worsen crime.
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On 7/6/2025 at 2:20 PM, save the frogs said:
Don't forget Putin's previous career as a topless male model.
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17 hours ago, Mavideol said:
and another one that was not in line with Putin, first he fired him then he got "rid" of him for good
Russian transport minister found dead hours after being fired by Putin
The cause of death will no doubt be announced that unfortunately he fell on his bullet while accidently falling from his apartment window, into his Tesla.
Some interesting insight and speclation
He was dead before he was fired. He was part of a massive corruption. Speculation from the Russian Blogosphere that Putin has lost control.
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On 7/5/2025 at 9:21 PM, howlee101 said:
ah ok, definitely a libtard....when all else fails, start with the insults. Stay in your "mummy's" basement while President Trump Makes America Great Again. If that triggers you, then ask your mummy to bring you some tissues for crying.
Well no, retard. I posted a response. You had two choices.
1. Ignore it.
2. Read it, respond, either by agreeing with the points made, or disagreeing.
But no, you went for the retard option number 3, by googling for an Internet Acronym used commonly in veiled insults and threats, to earn Forum Likes and Cred. You are the one who threw out the insult first, acting like a child rather than an adult. I treated you like a child considering you responded in a manner akin to a 12 year old.
If you lack the ability, through a medical condition, to read more than 1 paragraph at a time, fair enough. The current US Health Secretary is launching an urgent investigation into why America alone has seen an explosion of diagnosed ADHD and Autism cases. FAS is a common cause when the condition is diagnosed in adults. I think he's misunderstanding the data though. Autism is at the same rate as its always been, but now its diagnosed more frequently. Before, there was no diagnosis.
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Supporters of the President losing their minds
Aged like milk
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6 hours ago, novacova said:
What world do you live in? The world of Diptera larvae?
Its an accidental misspell of an increasingly common homophone, MAGATs. Internet analysis shows interest or usage of the term in a political context started in July 2024.
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6 hours ago, annotator said:
Agriculture secretary pledges quick action on farm labor
The legislation proposes that undocumented farmworkers without criminal records be allowed to become “certified agricultural workers” and eventually a “lawful permanent resident.”
https://capitalpress.com/2025/07/07/agriculture-secretary-pledges-quick-action-on-farm-labor/
If they in the USA illegally, that makes them criminals.
An interesting turn of words.
Most countries in the developed world issue seasonal agriculture worker visas. The history behind these isn't to pull in cheap labour at the expense of local labour. Its about a reality that fruit etc needs to be picked within a narrow time frame, otherwise its worthless (rots in the fields), but there is a difficulty finding year around work for these "surge" agriculture workers. When economies were more agarian, this was a pretty normal set of circumstances; jobbing farm labourers moving around the country. In my family history, if I go back 2-300 years, thats all they were. And in Thailand, thats how many people, especially from the North, live their lives.
Doesn't work so well in an industrialised society, because now you have permanent, salaried jobs, and actual careers.
It was a tradition in the UK, following WW2, for such visas to be issued to Poles. Typically they were young people, attending agricultural college, and so a summer in UK, picking strawberries, hops etc would be considered a bit of their training.
But such workers would never be "permanent". Sounds like they are creating some new category, akin to indentured workers, where they are not working out of choice, and tied to a single employer no matter what.
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4 hours ago, annotator said:
Really? When did you stop believing that illegals weren't criminals? So now America is going to reward them by legalizing them? I thought that's what MAGA was all about being against? But now it's OK? And what makes it worse is that President Trump wants the criminals who hire these criminals, to have a say in the process. I'm referring to the farmers who hire them. They should be jailed!
There is some talk that "undocumented" (illegal) workers will not be legalised. They might have a status more like indentured workers, which is one step away from being a slave. They'll get paid, so they have to pay taxes. I suspect a charge will be levied for their "room" (shared facilties) and transport (prison bus), which more or less leaves them with nothing. And no straightforward way to go home.
DHS is looking at the arrangements, which means this isn't a INS task to stamp passports (presuming they have passports). Its about ICE coordinating with the farmers and hoteliers to ensure surge demand (the harvest, holiday seasons) is met. Heaven forbid they don't want undocumented but "vouched for" Pablo and Miguel deciding to switch farms, so I guess they will be bussed in from the Federal but not Free accomodation, on Federal transport, the cost of which will be doc'd from their wage packet.
Denials by the Agriculture Secretary means nothing, because I suspect the left cheek doesn't know what the right cheek is doing. The Agriculture Secretary is probably in a bit of a panic, and party to crop data that might be alarming, and so is going through the motions of doing something and appearing tough.
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20 hours ago, Jim Blue said:
You missed out the word ' fabricated'
before conditions .
Well, if they lied when applying for refugee status, no doubt an ICE goon will come a knockin'.
They might well still have refugee status into the next Presidency, and who knows what will happen then.
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21 hours ago, Yagoda said:
Who constructed Ukraine then?
So can Russias. Show us a distinct independent Ukraine.
Facts. where are the facts. Thats a conclusion. Show us the long history of Ukrainian statehood.
Baba Yar.
Kruschev was Ukrainian, so was Kaganovich...oh thats right he was Jewish they dont count
Got it. Conclusions that ignores facts.
Your diatribe sets forth no facts to dispute the OP
Your response indicates a lack of comprehension.
Tankie, go back to studying your favourite books on Marx and Mao, and believing the Commies.
You were the Original Poster. You, tellingly, offered no personal analysis of the article when your handlers, mates, told you to post this on every forum you could find.
I asked you for your own analysis of the analysis, indicating that you had some understanding of it, and a brief explanation why you are enjoying reading the writings of a Bolshevik who believed Russia runs America now.
If you declined, then you were the opposite of someone you called "manly" (your homoerotic choice of words), aka a BGB. You declined.
Show me a distinct independant USA that existed before 1776.
I will decline to further respond to your Soviet-esque attacks until you can tell me when you stopped being a Communist,
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10 hours ago, simple1 said:
One would assume that if Musk puts enough effort into this new party will damage MAGA, hopefully enough that they will not get into power. The downside is the circuitous route correcting all the policy errors under Trump at great cost and effort.
What happens to MAGA when Trump croaks? Its a personality cult, and his sons, all of them, have no personality. Vance lacks charisma. MTG?
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7 hours ago, Hummin said:
Better to play your cards right for the future now!
Can happen, historical seen, most likely because of several coincidentally happenings the last few years, but things can also smoothening out for awhile before more tensions escalates.
China demands their place in the world society and their economy will need more territory and more resources so they do not collapse, same as Usa with allies
Hence the Little Pink accounts in China have become noticeably more noisy about reclaiming lost territory from.......Russia. They have Vladivostok in their sights.
https://www.newsweek.com/china-russia-vladivostok-lesson-far-east-backfires-1869327
This isn't Chinese government policy, even though there was a bit of a border shift recently. Xi is attempting to keep control in China, and that might be weakening with these nationalists, fired up about movies depicting mighty imperial China. Perhaps Xi's fear of a Russian loss is related to if that would inevitably trigger a collapse in the Moscow government, 1918 style, and a final dissolution of the Russian Empire, feeding the expansionist instincts of the Little Pinks and others. One thing Xi wants is stability and "harmony" (on Chinese terms). He wants a predictable world, not a half wit in the White House and a speed-fueled Putin, plus the Fat Boy in Korea getting ideas. It seem the stars have aligned in a really bad way.
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54 minutes ago, FlorC said:
al-Qaeda's head is now accepted as legitimate Syrian leader.
No he isn't.
The leader of Al Qaeda is Colonel Mohamed Salah al-Din al-Halim Zaidan, aka Saif al-Adel, who was last heard of being under house arrest in Iran. He is a former Commando in Sadat's military.
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15 hours ago, AndreasHG said:
Tesla, however, is one of the most widely held stocks by retail investors and Elon Musk has an almost cult following.
I assume he will take it from there, and from the "Proud Boys", from the "Oath Keepers" and from other neo-nazis groups like them. Those groups are always in search for a messianic leader to kill and die for and Musk fits the bill perfectly.
That doesn't really align, considering he might be in talks with Anthony Scaramucci, who is decidedly not afiliated with any of those groups.
A policy "wonk" fits with Musk's Technocracy beliefs. The Mooch also comes from very working class roots. Interesting, if it amounts to anything.
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15 hours ago, AndreasHG said:
I don’t know how Democrats may be voting for Musk. He is seen as a right-wing extremist, which is not surprising given his white South African upbringing, at the time when apartheid went into crisis.
His upbringing was not ideologically conventional. His Grandfather in Canada was a leader in the Technocracy movement, and emigrated to South Africa when it started passing race laws.
Musk's father was active in South African politics, and was a member of the Progressive Federal Party, which was the official opposition in Apartheid South Africa, advocating the abolition of Apartheid. It held liberal political positions. Later, he joined the New Republic Party which was more centrist. While Musk's parents divorced, Musk chose to live with his father. Musk's mother was Canadian born, of American descent. Musk's father is of solidly English descent, and not an Afrikaaner.
So I would not assume Musk was brought up believing in white supremicist principles.
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10 hours ago, Sir Dude said:
A little rich coming from the Mexicans, who export thousands of their people to the US yearly only for them to remit their earnings back to Mexico, which keeps it afloat
That seems likely to stop, following the new Agri-Hospitality policy announced in Iowa; Mexicans will be working, but not sending any money home, because they won't be getting any money, but will be getting free (shared) room and board.
Is Trump completely losing the plot?
in Political Soapbox
Posted
It was a meme that appeared during his first term. Quite old.