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IVÁN GUERRERO VS SVEN LUND Finally these two massive hunks fight each other! Perhaps Ivan acted too cocky with Sven? Let's find out! #gaywrestling #bodyslam #gutpunch #speedo #hunks #worship #muscles #bodyscissors #bodybuiler #rearnakedchoke #rack

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Analyzing Episode 44. Season 2 aka Choice vs Force, and the Repeating Patterns of Oppression When it comes to injustice and oppression in human societies, I find there are three kinds of people. Some are silent watchers, others are enablers, and then there are those who resist. Resistance matters because silence makes room for oppression to grow, and enabling oppression feeds it, until it morphs into a tyrannical beast. But resistance? That's a disrupting force. It reminds systems built on cruelty that human power is never absolute and that fear is never forever. It reminds us that injustice can only survive as long as it goes unchallenged. Even where resistance doesn't bear immediate fruit, it redraws the moral line and allows the victims to be seen. It tells the oppressors their evil is being recorded. Societies don't change because everyone always agrees on something. They change because of a few who refuse to comply with the decrepit patterns of abuse. But what does any of this have to do with episode 44? Well, let's see. We have two stories running parallel in the episode - that of Alya and Cihan, and Kaya and Zerrin. What's common in both tales? Quite a few things, but most importantly, for me, it's how the male-dominated structure of Mardin wants to force two women to live their lives according to what the system dictates is right, rather than what they want themselves. Both Demir and Boran refuse to give up, despite knowing full well that Zerrin and Alya love someone else. And, I refuse to legitimize their behavior built on past traumas, because hey, life ain't easy for anyone. But that doesn't give us a pass to behave like monsters. This entire episode, to me, seems like a tussle between choice and force. The old guard of Mardin, used to issuing orders and having them followed in silence, coming face to face with resistance. With the will to live life on one's own terms. Almost like the writer is trying to say, 'see this shit will just keep going until someone screams enough and fights back.' Let's start with the beginning of the episode. Demir abducts Zerrin and lies about her baby dying so he can later use the same child to blackmail Zerrin into staying with him. Why? Because the psychopath can't see beyond his own wants. Zerrin's choices don't register because to him, she's not a person, just someone to be managed and controlled. So, force becomes his default setting; he lies, emotionally terrorizes, manipulates, does everything to get his own way. And, in this way, he embodies what the episode keeps repeating, that oppression doesn't always have to be violent. Sometimes, it's your refusal to acknowledge someone else's right to choose. There's another scene that stands out to me in this context, where Cihan and Alya are having a conversation, far from the cray cray crowd. In that scene, you get to see what life can be like when two people see each other as equals and choose to work together. When Alya tells Cihan of her fears about Deniz, he doesn't brush them off. He acknowledges them. But then, he also reminds her that she's always been able to get through to her son, and that there's no way Deniz will choose Boran after she informs him of the whole story. What makes CihAl so attractive as a couple is their ability to see each other and acknowledge their humanity and individuality. There's no force here. They stay together because they want to, they choose to. Many people choose to part despite the presence of love, so feelings here take a back seat. It's about free will. Agency. That's the most fundamental human instinct. When you take that away from someone, it's almost like taking away their humanity. Now, I know some of y'all saw the episode and thought Deniz is gonna fall prey to Boran's manipulation. But that's not what I see. When Boran is trying to rip apart CihAl's family portrait, Deniz becomes the reason he can't. And sure, Boran does manage to sway Deniz close to him a time or two, but there are scenes where you can see Deniz pulling back. Like when he realizes Boran really isn't paying any attention to him in the room. And Deniz is Alya's son, too. Which means if there's something he wants, he's going to go after it all out. You can see that in the way he refuses to stop calling Cihan 'Baba' even though Boran tries his level best. Now, let's turn back the dial a little and think about the other message Guilzar let slip in the episode. When Ummu and Ihityar are talking about how Alya is being manipulated by Boran using Deniz, and there's nothing to be done about it, Kadir speaks up. In that scene, to me, Kadir is the writer, telling the audience that the weaponization of a child against a parent isn't acceptable. That the parents, in this case, Alya and Cihan, have feelings too. They've been through hell and were rewarded with true love. And they deserve to live that love. When Kadir says love like that is worth dying for, it seemed to drive home the point that you don't give up when you love like Alya and Cihan love each other. You certainly don't allow yourself to be boxed in a corner because of the love of your child. Because that, too, is a form of coercion. I'm not going to talk a lot about Boran and his tantrums because to me, he and Demir were mirror images in this episode. The ugly face of abuse weaponized as 'love.' And Sadakat? She's the worst kind of enabler there is. She keeps going, Alya, singling her out, simply because she thinks Alya is the weakest link. Since Sadakat can't stand to see her family break apart, she's only too willing to homage to the age-old custom of male compulsion by helping her pislik of a first-born. Ugh. Anyway, going back to the message of this episode - patterns of oppression on repeat? It kind of makes me glad that both Boran and Demir are going to step out of bounds to do something really fcuking stupid. Because their desperation will force a reckoning that's been a long time coming. Once these lines are crossed, one hopes what we see is change because Lord knows, it's time this damn pattern breaks, once and for all. #CihAl #UzakŞehir

CocoLoco

13,898 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten

I don't really play FPS games anymore, but I've had an influx of new followers & many don't know about what I used to get up to. Let's have a lil chat shall we? About everything moving forward. I talk about them (FPS') a lot even though I don't really play them right now, it's been a few months so it's still a recent thing that I put them to bed. Old habits die hard huh. I spent a lot of time pursuing "human aimbot" levels of aim and gameplay, trying to get the world's fastest nuke in MW19's ground war, eventually I started self competing for the fastest nuke there and still hold several WRs on it. I have a lot of love for FPS games, but I don't play them anymore for reasons that I've already divulged in other posts. You've likely read them & whether you agree or disagree that's entirely up to you. I still (fortunately) have these skills under my belt, but it means nothing to me anymore & I have nothing to gain from staying at this level or improving. I especially didn't like the person I was or how I acted when playing these games & I didn't like the stress or lack of enjoyment I was subjected to with each release moving forward, so I quit. I'm the sort of person to be very confident in my own ability, but also equally become very frustrated when I fall short of my own expectations. Mix that with a tendency to speak before I consider the weight of my words, it isn't a good mix whatsoever and would often cast a wrongful image of my character. Moving on, within the CoD community these days it's very easy to get drawn into the ego battles trying to out ego each other. Whilst it can be a bit of fun, again it looks bad on your character. If you want to be the best or in the top 0.1% of players, you can just so easily get drawn into it and it's honestly pathetic at the end of the day. I've also always hated the snaky behaviour left right and centre, people pretending to be a friend/fan/supporter whilst quietly praying on your downfall in groupchats. Clipping fails but not for a laugh, with a malicious intent instead. You could easily tell what was going on with the same few names popping up and the clips always getting dozens of views instantly. (This can include some people in the aim community too as there's some overlap, again not all. Just the odd few bad actors that give the whole scene a bad name) I've ultimately lost interest & instead want to make content that actually takes a bit of effort. Who cares how good I can get at the game, anyone can get good with a bit of practice. What matters is crafting something that's entertaining. I want to share games that I've loved over the years, find new ones & create content. For years I've been a streamer posting gameplay highlights. Now I want to be a content creator posting CONTENT that I can look back at and be proud of for time to come. Not only that, I will no longer be a fulltime creator as of a few weeks from now. I've wanted gaming to return to a hobby/passion for a while now & with a job opportunity that's arised within my family that would help the whole family. I know what I want to do. There's things I could've done differently, there's valuable knowledge I've gained through all 5 years of fulltime gaming. I'm incredibly proud to have had the opportunity and achieved something I set out to do more than 10 years ago. But I've come to terms with the fact that this isn't something I want to do forever, let alone the fact that without the main thing I'm known for, it very much isn't possible either. A vid or two a month on YouTube? Streams as and when I want to? A hobby once more will be what this all becomes once everything is finalised.

TGD

192,125 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren

The Idea of NHI on Earth. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ 🔥"The gravity of it goes up a whole lot if it goes from the theoretical to the verified." ~Dr. Phil 🔥 "There have been people that have reported being abducted over the years. What's the intent behind that? Is it medical? Is it more nefarious?" ~BZ to Dr. Phil (I'm so glad Bryce went there.) "There will be people...who likely are going to need some some assistance to help deal with this because it is so far-reaching and for some people, potentially, very frightening." ~Mellon ~ Dr. Phil: "We know in the last 80 years there have been no overt hostile acts that we know about. That doesn't mean there could be things happening that are attributable to these forces that we don't know about. But, we certainly don't have any attacks that we can attribute to these UAPs or whatever." (Well, there's Colares in 1977. If that was non-human in nature, I'd say that qualifies as overt. And the Thomas Mantell incident in 1948 where he crashed and died after pursuing a UFO. Was that overt? Unfortunately, we don't know what happened and probably never will.) Dr. Phil: "And if the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, I think people can take some comfort in knowing that if they were gonna melt us with a ray gun or something of that nature, they've had ample opportunity to do that. "They may have been here 1000 years before we were here. Who knows what the situation is? But we do know that as long as we've been monitoring this and tracking it, there have been no overt hostile acts and I think people can take some comfort in that, and should." (See the work of Peter Levenda for a deeper look at that. "They might have been attacking us for centuries already, in ways that make sense to them... What if they are attacking us through the manipulation of consciousness? ~Peter Levenda More... ⬇️⬇️⬇️ ~ (I'm glad Bryce pushed back a bit.) Bryce Zabel: "They should. The only thing I would say is, if we're dealing with a non-human intelligence - or an NHI, as we like to say now - we'd have to assume that they think differently than us. So even in our own world, in the United States, we tend to think in four-year terms because of presidential terms, right? So you can't get something off the ground if it can't get done right away. The Chinese may think in 100-year terms when they think about Taiwan or whatever. "It's possible there are alien or non-human intelligences that think in a different time frame. If their time frame was 1000 years, then they could just be getting started. "And on the topic of the nuclear issue, which I share concern of. I mean, I think the nuclear issue means it is at least a national-security issue of some kind. Now, I've heard people talk about this, Dr. Phil, two different ways. Some people say, 'Well, you know, they're looking at our nuclear capabilities because they want to protect us from ourselves.' "Okay, that's great, I hope that's true. But the other would be: what do you do before you actually go to war with anybody, is you do reconnaissance. You try to find out what the other guy has. What are their assets? What are their capabilities?" (That may freak out some people but all angles should be considered.) Zabel: "So, I think the problem that we need to overcome in this country is getting to a place where we understand this phenomenon that we're encountering enough that we can at least start to figure out intent. What is the intent? "There have been people that have reported being abducted over the years. What's the intent behind that? Is it medical? Is it more nefarious? What is it? And so, we got a lot of work to do, and I think that's why I am so supportive of your current efforts because you're, basically, saying, 'Let's get started, people. Let's really take this seriously. Let's quit fooling around and stigmatizing people that want to take it seriously, and let's get to work.' But let's get to work as a human race. Let's start sharing what we know and let's make progress. That's where I'm coming from, too." (Bringing up abductions is important because it IS part of this discussion and it shouldn't be avoided. Kudos to Bryce!) Dr. Phil: "I saw a study that said 71% of Americans believe that there are aliens that have been or are in our earthly space. And it's interesting...I read that in one context, it said, 'Look, this is not going to be such a big deal if this gets verified.' "You know, there's one thing to say that in the abstract, like, 'Yeah, I think yeah probably there are.' It's a whole other different situation if you turn around and see somebody standing there. The gravity of it goes up a whole lot if it goes from the theoretical to the verified. (100%. That's my favorite part of the interview and it's so true.) Dr. Phil: "And I hope that we are going to put enough context around this, particularly knowing that there are segments of our population that are very vulnerable. There are some elderly folks that aren't up on technology and might be overwhelmed by the reality of this. "We have certain populations that might be easily disoriented or destabilized in the mental emotional fringes of the population. And I worry about those that are easily exploitable. You know, you need to get out of the urban areas, buy our buried school bus in the mountains, and you'll be safe forever. You know the con artists and the scammers are going to find every opportunity to prey upon those that are concerned and worried about this. "And I think we need to be prepared to take care of those that might be destabilized by this information that's coming out right now, we can't pretend they aren't there. We've made those mistakes in the past, like during COVID, for example. There are those that are more impacted than others, and we need to be prepared to handle that." Christopher K. Mellon: "We, recently, commissioned a study by a group of six psychologists, PhD psychologists, on this topic of how the public would receive this information. And it was generally very encouraging. And what they found was that the great bulk of the population, as they have in the past with other epical changes such as the Copernican principle, or evolution, or general relativity, it takes people a while to process this information. There's a period of resistance. But most people will get up, get out of bed, go to work the next day. They're not devastated, even though there's nothing quite comparable to this, perhaps." (There's no perhaps. A government or respected figure admitting that we're not alone on this planet would be unprecedented and there is NOTHING we can compare it to.) Mellon: "What the study did find is that there is likely, however, to be a subset of people, maybe 15% of the population, that are going to need some help. And that we are not necessarily prepared in our present state to provide that kind of assistance, and we need to be doing more to get ready for that." (If he's talking world population, that's about 1.2 BILLION people who are going to need some help dealing with this. Holy crap. 😬) Mellon: "And also, to work on the messaging. The messaging is so important, clear and consistent messaging from the government, trying to develop trust with the American people so that the information is is accepted and acted on." (For me, I want the whole truth more than the right "message.") Mellon: "A lot of the difference will be people who can't get their head around it, even though they really understand it. But because of their own belief structure, the architecture of their own belief structure, for some reason, in their particular individual case, it's particularly threatening or disruptive. "So there will be people who fall into that category, according to this study, who likely are going to need some some assistance to help deal with this because it is so far-reaching and for some people, potentially, very frightening."

Joe Murgia

31,404 Aufrufe • vor 22 Tagen

The way Cihan proposes speaks volumes. This is the extended, improved version of the 'I'm not promising you a rose garden, Alya' of ep 28/29. This is the proposal of a man humbled by destiny and life. Which is why it includes no boasts. Instead, Cihan states facts. Cold, hard facts about himself, his life, and the difficulties Alya will face if she chooses him again. Underneath all that honesty is a man desperate for Alya to agree, but this time, his anxieties take a backseat because this is too important a deal for Cihan to botch up. So, he tells Alya he can't promise her an easy life, but he can promise her all of himself, as long as she continues to grace his life with her presence. And, Alya replies 'evlinerim' and 'buna da varim' - in other words, she accepts him and all that comes with him. All the craziness, the hardships, and everything else are acceptable as long as she has Cihan with her. And, that's why I said this proposal and Alya accepting the proposal in the way she does is one of the strongest hints these two are definitely getting hitched. It's the crossing of another threshold in their lives and relationship (him calling the ring a 'key', carrying her across the doorway, and sealing the deal with their bodies). Kind of like 'don't regret it later' in ep42, and then Alya walking under the shower to rise to the occasion. Because while all hell does break loose after they're together, even then, they still don't give up. Think about it, what are the reasons that could push Alya into leaving? Even if someone lies to her about Serhat, we've seen her refusing to leave Cihan's side when the whole bocek drama. Could it be someone threatening Cihan? Nope. Alya isn't the kind to keep that under wraps either, as seen by how she tells Cihan Demir's offer and how she barges into the hotel, thinking the Bulgarians have him. I initially thought it might be because she wants to give Cihan the freedom to choose without any obligations, but after this proposal, that's out too. Because this proposal removes any ambiguity about where Cihan's heart truly belongs. Disregarding his feelings now would be equal to disregarding the choice he's already made. Remember how she asks Cihan why no one is asking her what she wants when they're on the Firat trip? She's not about to do the same to Cihan. Now, let's focus on why she'd stay. One, she has Deniz's custody, so there's nothing pulling her in two opposite directions now. Plus, she's certain now that Cihan will go to any lengths to keep her and Deniz safe. Two, Cihan's increasing emotional transparency. We've seen this before in ep26-27. The more Cihan opens up to Alya, the more comfortable she becomes in her own skin. And, this time, Cihan's being very open about what Alya means to him and how Meryem is a shadow of the past that no longer belongs anywhere in his life. Three, her own love for Cihan is a determining factor. Alya loves Cihan enough to stay with him despite Mine wielding Boran's parentage over their heads. She gives up Deniz's location to save Cihan. She donates her kidney to ensure nothing happens to him. She risks saving Cihan from a car that's about to explode - you get the picture. And four, Alya's growing ability to read Sadakat's moves. S1 Alya reacted to Sadakat. S2 Alya observes and picks her battles. She already suspects Sadakat is up to something that includes Meryem, so she's on her guard. Which means Alya refusing to leave this time will break the wheel. Cihan's last wedding witnessed a bride too weak to fight for her love (apparently) and thus lost the opportunity to be with him. Alya's done nothing but fight to be with Cihan. There's a reason why Cihan's proposal includes the words, "You had a hundred thousand reasons to leave me… but you stayed." That line isn’t there to foreshadow Alya finally walking away. It’s there to underline that Alya has already been tested over and over again - by Sadakat, by Mine, by Boran, by Meryem, by danger, by fear, by the chaos surrounding Cihan. Yet, every single time, she still gravitates back to him. That's the way I see it anyways. Guess we'll find out 😉 #CihAl #UzakŞehir

CocoLoco

16,681 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten

Make Art Not War: The Battle for Creativity It's Adobe's annual Max event in London today and scott belsky's spotlight on AI paints a clear picture: AI isn't just on Adobe's agenda, it is the agenda. Adobe has already scored a home run with generative fill in Photoshop, a feature now spawning entire categories of memes - including my own video, which surprisingly garnered a million views. However, Adobe's ambitions extend beyond still imagery. The Tanker Charges Towards Video At Max, Adobe's Chief Product Officer put an emphasis on AI video generation with Firefly Video. The tech tanker is charging full steam ahead to the next obvious modality for creation, leaving a wake of disruption for any upstarts bold enough to challenge it. The announcement isn't new, but it showcases the emphasis on new product development with a marked increase in the velocity we can expect from the creative tech behemoth. The company that defined the norms of video editing with Premiere, and motion graphics with After Effects, has now entered the realm of AI-powered creation. The wake-up call is clear - the tankers are moving fast. Goliath vs. The Upstarts This development spells a daunting challenge for the numerous start-ups that dared to dethrone Adobe in recent years. For plenty of use cases people have been asking: Why use Photoshop when you have MidJourney? Why use Premiere when you have Descript? Why use After Effects when you have Runway? These aspiring disruptors sought to chip away at Adobe's dominance by offering more specialized, user-friendly solutions - a process that can be characterized as the 'unbundling' of Adobe. Now, they face a head-to-head collision with the very Goliath they sought to topple. Creators' Toolkit: A New Addition But this imminent clash isn't just a tale of corporate competition. This is a story about the tools of creation and their impact on creators themselves and the very canvas of creation. The advent of Firefly, Adobe's AI-driven offering, reflects a broadening recognition of artificial intelligence as an integral part of the creator's toolkit. In other words, Adobe's massive ecosystem of creators needn't wade out into new waters to acquire AI capabilities -- they will simply be infused into the products they already know and (mostly) love, but more critically -- need to use every day to get creative stuff done. The Increasing Stickiness of Adobe's Tools The intersection of AI and creative tools like Photoshop's generative fill is transforming how creators perceive and interact with AI. When they encounter the innovative features of generative fill, they're not primarily thinking about the AI technology that powers it. Instead, they're marveling at the cool new tool that's now part of their beloved Photoshop. This immediate affinity for "Photoshop" masks the sophisticated technology behind it, essentially furthering Adobe's stronghold on the creative industry. Layer in Adobe's stance to training their AI models with sources like Adobe Stock that promise rock-solid data provenance, and you can see Adobe clearly wants to seem like the responsible adults in the room. After all Adobe elected not to put the Behance catalog to work, perhaps rightly so given the ethical backlash to the scraping Artstation imagery. Adobe's Thirty Something Conundrum But it's not all rainbows and sunshine. While Adobe sails ahead full steam, there's an intriguing conundrum waiting in the wings. With 30-year-old codebases forming the foundation of its most popular tools, Adobe faces a significant challenge: its software has back pain. But it's not just a technical problem -- it's also a philosophical one, akin to the ship of Theseus. Can Adobe modernize and refactor its code bases without sacrificing the essence that made these tools indispensable to creators? Can they innovate without alienating their long-time users who've grown accustomed to the 'Adobe way' of doing things? An Unexpected Solution? Interestingly, solutions might emerge from unexpected quarters. Perhaps it'll take an army of developers armed with GitHub Co-Pilot to alleviate Adobe's refactoring nightmare. By automating parts of the refactoring process, it could accelerate the evolution of Adobe's legacy tools, making them more adaptable to the rapidly progressing tech landscape while preserving their core functionality. In a twist of irony, the AI that's reshaping Adobe's offerings might just come to the rescue of its own legacy. As Adobe navigates these murky waters, opportunities are emerging for new entrants in the field. Startups might also find their moment to shine in the midst of Adobe's strategic and technological shifts. With their innovative approaches and less-encumbered platforms, they have the chance to offer alternative solutions to creators seeking novel, efficient, and intuitive tools. The Battle for Creativity The tech giant's journey through a massive transformation at a previously unfathomable speed will set the course for the next era of creative technology. Given the sheer ubiquity of Adobe tools today, it's by far the most common way creators will experience AI. But let's be honest -- this transformation will not be easy. The future of creative tech isn't written yet and as a growing line up of new entrants vie for the prize, one thing's for sure: it's going to be a darn good fight. Make Art Not War In the end, it is the creators who stand to gain the most. As Adobe and its competitors lock horns, they'll strive to deliver increasingly powerful, intuitive, and efficient tools. But, it's up to the creators themselves to harness these innovations. Only by embracing and mastering these new tools can they unlock their full creative potential. So what are you waiting for? Wield these new tools at your disposal and turn your imagination into reality. We are the architects of a new era of creative self expression. If you enjoyed this, drop a like and retweet. Follow Bilawal Sidhu for more writing on creative tech and AI.

Bilawal Sidhu

72,192 Aufrufe • vor 3 Jahren

I find this explanation of the Chinese system by Prof Keyu Jin (in a recent lecture at Harvard’s Fairbank center) absolutely fascinating. Keyu Jin is a professor of economics at LSE (London School of Economics) and serves on the board of companies like Credit Suisse. She’s also the daughter of Jin Liqun, former Vice Minister of finance of China so she’s a rare West-based academic (maybe even the only one) who actually has insight into the Chinese system from the inside. Essentially what she’s explaining is that a key reason why China was so successful economically is because of its decentralized nature, which creates two mutually compounding loops of competition, as opposed to one loop in the West. What does that mean? Well, contrary to popular belief that imagines China as being this centrally planned economy where almost everything is decided in Beijing, the inverse is actually true: China is actually one of the most decentralized countries in the world. To illustrate this, a metric that’s always amazed me is the fact that in China local governments (provinces, cities, villages, etc.) control a crazy 85% of the country's expenditures. On average that same metric for OECD countries is 33% (as in 64% of the expenditures are controlled at the federal/national level to China’s 15%). In the US for instance, which is already more decentralized than most given it’s a federation with states, only 45% of the country’s expenditures happen at the state and local level: almost twice less than in China! The effect of this, as Keyu Jin explains, is that provinces and larger municipalities in China have an immense degree of autonomy over the way they run their respective economies and fiercely compete with each other. This is the first loop. And then of course the second loop is that you have companies competing with each other in the market. As a result what constantly evolves in China is not only companies themselves but the environment in which they evolve: you constantly have this or that province running a new policy that proves very effective, making them gain an advantage vs other localities, initiative which is then copied by other localities. This makes the economic environment incredibly dynamic as it allows the state to move in unison with the economy, as opposed to slowing it down as is often the case in other countries. So what’s the role of the central government in all this? The key role, Keyu Jin argues, is setting broad objectives as well as personal management and promotion. And this is what makes the whole system work as therein lies the incentive for localities to compete with each other: because local officials know that if they do a better job than their peers, they’re on track for promotion by the central government. In “China Inc”, the central government is the board of directors and HR, presiding over an army of local CEOs with immense degrees of autonomy over their own “companies”. Keyu Jin gives the example of the solar industry. There was at some point (around 2005) a directive by the central government to develop the solar industry. The graph she shares in her talk is incredible: within a few years you had solar companies as well as patents related to research on solar technology pop up literally everywhere in China. With the result we all know about today: China today completely dominates the solar industry and solar technology (according to the International Energy Agency China's share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels exceeds 80%). As she explains, this makes the Chinese system somewhat paradoxical as it is at the same time incredibly decentralized but also incredibly effective at mobilizing the country for centrally-decided objectives, in fact she goes as far as comparing this effectiveness to the country being in a constant state of “wartime mobilization”. An interesting comparison would be if you had all the countries in North America, the EU and North Africa (altogether roughly the population of China) all united under a common leadership deciding on common objectives and on the career path of all these countries’ officials, based on how well they achieve these objectives in their respective countries. We’re seeing this system being mobilized in its full strength today on leading edge semiconductors after US sanctions, and this is why these sanctions will undoubtedly ultimately prove so self-defeating: once the Chinese “wartime mobilization” machine is given an objective - and you can be sure this objective is prioritized very highly - the fight is essentially over, you can consider it done. Once you have hundreds of thousands of PhDs, companies and officials all at the same time competing and working within the same broad “China Inc” roof to make something happen, it will ultimately get done. If you want China NOT to develop a technology, the very last thing you want is to make them mobilize the full strength of the machine on it. With the sanctions the U.S. effectively told China: “please we beg you, do dedicate your formidable economic mobilization power to becoming a semiconductors powerhouse as fast as possible” 🤦 Another particularity of the system that Keyu Jin highlights - and I’ll end on this - is that this system also allows China to “allocate losses to certain groups of people, interest groups and sectors” in order to “enact system-level changes'', something she says is “very difficult for other governments with more political constraints to do”. For instance we’re seeing this play out in real-time with the real-estate industry: China recognized there was a housing bubble and Xi issued its “houses are for living in, not for speculation” directive. We’re since witnessing an engineered deflating of the bubble, ensuring to the extent possible that the losses are borne out by real estate developers and speculators, and not too much by society as a whole. This is part of the reason why China has never suffered a recession in the modern era: it does controlled demolition when necessary but tries to ensure it doesn’t suffer massive crises like we’ve repeatedly witnessed in the U.S. for instance. Of course no system is perfect. Weaknesses of the Chinese system include for instance local protectionism: there’s a perverse incentive for local officials to protect their local companies in order to give them a leg up vs companies from other provinces, which ultimately comes at the detriment of everyone. Another weakness is corruption, a sempiternal problem in China, where local officials - who are extremely powerful due to the nature of the system - will decide that getting promoted isn’t incentive enough and will try to cash in on their position of power. Cracking down on this is also a key remit of the central government and of course one of the major initiatives of Xi since he came to power. Lastly, another clear weakness is obviously that everything ultimately relies on the wisdom of what the system gets mobilized for, on the wisdom of these broader objectives coming from the central government. If they’re ill-thought, you effectively have a whole country working towards the wrong objectives… On this we’re often told that this problem doesn’t happen in countries where what the economy works towards is set more organically by the “invisible hand of the market” but if you think about it, it actually happens just the same as the “invisible hand of the market” actually equates “what’s good for shareholders” and what’s good for shareholders isn’t exactly always a perfect proxy for what’s good for society, to say the least... For instance it’s absolutely insane that we’ve just had 2-3 generations in the West where the best and brightest went to work for the finance industry to engineer ever more convoluted schemes to make money out of nothing, simply because it’s insanely profitable to do so. Anyone looking at this rationally can see it’s not exactly the best use of our precious human resources as a society… So all things considered, if I had to choose I’d much rather have our broad societal objectives set by human beings rather than by the theoretical concept of “what makes the most money deserves the most focus”. And as it turns out the Chinese system actually fares decently well against capitalism: human beings aren’t evidently too bad at deciding what human beings should work on if they’re being thoughtful and strategic about it.

Arnaud Bertrand

193,688 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren

The Three Hidden Layers of Beauty in Swan Lake: When the Human Body Becomes Art The wonder of classical ballet does not lie in how difficult the movements are. Its wonder lies in a paradox: The techniques that demand the greatest discipline and control appear to the audience as the most natural movements imaginable. The audience does not see the tension in the muscles. They see only beauty. In Swan Lake, three essential techniques help create this unique artistic language. They are not merely dance movements, but three ways in which the human body transcends its own limitations and becomes something more graceful. 1. Port de Bras: When the Body Finds Its Inner Flow A master calligrapher does not create a beautiful stroke with the fingers alone. Each line emerges from the coordination of the entire body: posture, wrist, arm, and even breath. The arms in ballet operate according to a similar principle. When Odette extends her arms, the movement does not simply begin with the hands. It travels through the connection of the back, shoulders, and arms before flowing all the way to the fingertips. As a result, the audience does not feel as though they are watching an arm being raised. They experience a stream of movement unfolding before them. Just as a melody is not created by a single note but by the harmonious relationship among many notes, the ballet arm is no longer perceived as separate parts. It becomes a unified line. At that moment, human hands begin to take on the shape of a swan's wings. 2. Pas de Deux: When Two People Create a Single Movement Imagine two people supporting one another as they walk across a narrow path. What allows them to move together with ease is not who is stronger. It is understanding: When to step. When to pause. When to move forward. And when to offer the support the other person needs. A ballet pas de deux works in much the same way. Siegfried is not simply lifting Odette. Nor is Odette a passive body being carried through space. Both dancers participate in a continuous dialogue through movement. The man provides stability and support. The woman actively expands her body into the surrounding space. When their coordination reaches its highest level, the technique gradually disappears from the audience's awareness. It is no longer one person lifting another. It becomes an image of trust, harmony, and mutual support. In that moment, the audience no longer focuses on the physical effort involved. They experience only a sense of lightness, as though the body itself has transcended its own weight. 3. Cambré: When Softness Is Built Upon Strength Imagine a suspension bridge stretching across a vast gap. Its stability does not come from complete rigidity. On the contrary, its curve allows it to distribute force, absorb movement, and maintain balance. If it were too rigid, it would become vulnerable to external stress. If it were too flexible, it would lose its ability to support. Its strength lies in the balance between the two: Soft, yet stable. Flexible, yet structurally sound. The ballet body functions according to the same principle. When Odette performs a cambré, the audience sees a beautiful curve. Yet behind that curve lies a highly precise system of control. The spine opens with intention. The chest continues to lift upward. The neck lengthens. The entire body maintains balance. The curve is not a collapse. It is an expansion into space. Just as a suspension bridge does not fight against force but works in harmony with it, the dancer does not struggle against the body but learns to master it. This is perhaps ballet's most beautiful paradox: To create the appearance of effortless grace, the artist must possess an extraordinary degree of inner discipline. The Source of Swan Lake's Beauty These three techniques do not exist in isolation. They resemble three stages in the elevation of the human body. Port de Bras: The body learns to become a flow. The arms are no longer merely tools for creating shapes; they become a channel through which emotion is carried. Pas de Deux: Two bodies learn to become a harmony. Strength is no longer expressed through effort, but disappears into the subtle coordination between two people. Cambré: The human being learns to find balance between softness and strength. The curve is no longer simply an external shape, but a symbol of control, harmony, and grace. Together, these three layers of beauty form a journey: From the movement of the body. To the connection between people. To the balance within the human spirit. And that may be why Swan Lake is remembered as more than simply a beautiful ballet. Behind its flawless choreography, audiences do not merely see a well-trained body. They see something deeply human: The desire to transform heaviness into lightness. To transform limitation into beauty. To transform discipline into freedom. That is the enduring vitality of classical ballet — an art form in which the body does not merely move through space, but becomes a language through which humanity reaches toward a higher harmony.

🎼🌺Music Love♥️

13,384 Aufrufe • vor 15 Tagen

BREAKING: Mark Carney tried to trick Rebel News — but we caught him and he backed down! I’ve got amazing news. It started out as terrible news. And the moral of the story here is: never trust a Liberal. Here’s the story: Remember back in 2019, when Trudeau’s hand-picked debates commission banned Rebel News and True North from sending reporters to the election debates? We went to court for an emergency hearing, and the judge said Trudeau had violated our constitutional rights, and ordered him to let us in. Trudeau’s staff spent the next two years studying that court ruling, scheming up new ways to get around it, to ban our reporters from the 2021 election debates. So we had to go back to court — and this time, it was just us. But a judge once again sided with us, and ordered Trudeau’s people to let us in. So here’s where the story gets crazy. It’s 2025 now. There’s another election. But Mark Carney is the PM, not Trudeau. And this time, when we applied for accreditation, they said we were welcome to attend! In fact, they said we could send as many reporters as we liked. Sixteen of us applied, and 16 of us were accredited. I knew that was a trick. I knew they were lying. And it proves my point about Mark Carney — he’s Trudeau 2.0. Just as evil, but smarter and harder-working. I knew there was something going on that they were hiding from us. So we had our lawyer Chad Williamson press them on it. Chad is the same lawyer who beat the debates commission in court in 2021. So Chad started interrogating them in a series of letters. And slowly but surely, he discovered their plan to block us. Carney’s debate commission said all 16 of us could attend. But they finally confessed their trick to Chad: only one of us would be allowed to ask questions. The other 15 would have to sit in silence. It was a new rule they made up. It was a secret rule. That applied only to Rebel News. And if we didn’t hire Chad to interrogate them, we would have walked into a trap — and by the time we realized it, it would have been too late to rush to court! They planned to keep it all a secret until we showed up. I know you might think I’m exaggerating. I’m not. Sixteen Rebels were allowed to attend. But 15 of us couldn’t ask any questions at the press conference. They said the rule was just one reporter per news company. But we know that’s a lie. The CBC has several reporters for English Canada. And they have several reporters for Quebec. Newspapers have multiple reporters too — for example, Postmedia is one company, but it is permitted to bring reporters for each of its newspapers, for example, the National Post and the Ottawa Citizen and the Calgary Herald. We pointed this out, and so the debates commission changed the rules again. They said the CBC was allowed multiple questions because they had different reporters in French and English. Well so do we — including our star Quebec reporter, Alexa Lavoie! They said that Postmedia was allowed multiple reporters because they covered different regions. Well, so do we. Drea Humphrey is in B.C., Sheila Gunn Reid is in Alberta, David Menzies is in Ontario, Alexa’s in Quebec and I’m always running around somewhere. Do you see what I mean? They were making it up on the go — special, secret rules just for us. They tried to trick us into NOT suing them, so that by the time we discovered this, there would be nothing we could do about it. But we found them out. And just a few days ago, we told them we were done negotiating, and they should get their lawyers ready, because we were going back to court for a third time, for an emergency injunction. Chad went back and forth with them NINE TIMES. You really have to read all nine letters. They knew we weren’t going to stop fighting. And that’s when Carney’s staff blinked. They let us in. They knew that if we took them to court for a third time, and if their tricky rules were shown to the Federal Court of Canada, they would lose for a third time. So Carney’s people blinked. They wrote back to us, at the last minute, calling off our lawsuit, by agreeing to allow not one, not two, not three, not four, but five Rebels to ask questions — and for each of us to have cameramen, too. Granted, it’s not the full 16 we asked for, but it still makes us the largest group of question-askers at the debates. Like I say: amazing news. But it started off as terrible news. There’s a moral to the story here. Number one: never trust a Liberal — especially Mark Carney. Number two: always fight for your rights. Sometimes the other side is more scared of you than you are of them. I think our lawyer Chad scared Carney’s lawyers. Number three: be sure to tune in to the leaders' debates, both the French one tomorrow night, and the English one, Thursday night. Because we’ll be at both — because it’s the question and answer scrum at the end that we’re interested in. Number four is where you come in. We told Chad to start preparing the lawsuit last week, and he put his full team on it. We truly thought we were going to court. Only when we had the written letter of surrender from Carney’s people did we stop the lawsuit. But between the lawsuit preparations and the negotiations, we racked up $9,000 in legal bills. That’s in addition to the costs of getting our whole team out there: Drea from B.C., Sheila from Alberta, etc. We’re all going to stay in an Airbnb together, to save money — oh, and we’re also bringing the billboard truck! It’s going to be huge. We really are going to make it our debate. And that’s only possible because of my last point — we have you to help us level the playing field. Our ability to attend the debates, and ask the questions you care about, rather than what the regime media like the CBC cares about, is only possible due to your generosity — to help us pay for our lawyers, not just this time, but the huge court victories in 2019 and 2021 that put us in a strong position this year. It’s insane that it has fallen to us, and the mainstream media hasn’t even mentioned these outrageous attempts at censorship. But then again, they don’t want Rebel News in there either, do they? Between Chad’s legal wrangling, the half-drafted lawsuit, our travel costs and our Airbnb, I estimate that we need $12,000 to cover our debate costs. Could I ask you for a personal favour to chip in? It was a David vs. Goliath battle just to get in. And once we’re in, it will be a David vs. Goliath battle to push aside the regime media types who will try to block us from getting to the microphones. And then it will be a third David vs. Goliath battle to actually put questions to Mark Carney and Jagmeet Singh and Pierre Poilievre, too. Rebel News and one other independent media outlet were both in court back in 2019 fighting the debates commission. By 2021, it was just us by ourselves — but our victory allowed all other independent media to attend. And our victory this time, too, will redound to the benefit of everyone. In other words, Rebel News fights for our reporters, and our viewers, but the benefits of our fights and the precedents we set benefit every journalist in the country, whether they admit it or not. REPORT by Ezra Levant 🍁🚛:

Rebel News

96,962 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

"Expecting rebuttals to remain confined to journals, while misinformation spreads freely online, is neither realism nor appropriate. If something is promoted in public, it must be corrected in public." ~Proctor's Response to Coulthart (Why am I spending more time on this? American Alchemy's video on the mummies has 904,000 views. @incredhistory's video has 5,500 views. The original, sensationalistic claims always do MUCH better than any evidence that is presented later that throws cold water on said claims. That's always been an issue. That could change if Jesse makes a short video on his YT channel right now, linked to the @incredhistory video, and implores his viewers to watch it with an open mind. And/or if he pins a tweet linking his X followers to the "Incredible History" analysis.) "At one point in time, I was truly wondering if these [mummies] were a new species." ~Accused Debunker, Will Brown 🙂 "It's just too early, yet, for me to make any kind of definitive statement about what I think about these objects." ~Ross Coulthart (After watching the new video by "Incredible History" and the interview done on "Weaponized," it's not too early for me (and MANY other people) to say I believe they're fake. Others felt they were fake right from the start but I wanted to wait for more evidence. We have that now. From yesterday's "Reality Check" with Coulthart and Meagan Medick.) Coulthart: "I think (the new @incredhistory video) is important. It raises... I've actually been in touch with the gentleman who made it, Will (Brown), and I'm hoping to some stage, talk to him. And I'd like to include what he says in any analysis that we do on NewsNation about the tridactals." (Who are the experts featured in the new "Incredible History" video segments that I clipped below? Dr. Daniel Proctor (Galaxopithecus), "has a PhD in bio-anthropology. Specifically, his area of focus is the hands and the feet. He has published papers on the evolution of the hands and the feet, including focusing of the ability to grasp." Dr. Joseph A.P. Wilson (Joseph A P Wilson), "earned his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Florida. he's current lecturer in archeology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and part time lecturer in anthropology at Fairfield University. And more importantly., before academia, he worked as a molecular genetic technologist at Greenwood Genetic Center in South Carolina." Michele - Mrs Anthrope (Radiographer) - Mrs. Anthrope The descriptions of their credentials is from the "Incredible History" video which I clipped a few segments from and included below.) ~More from Reality Check~ Coulthart: "We've filmed in Peru, and we've spoken directly with the doctors there. As I said in social media commentary that was posted before I left Peru, it's just too early, yet, for me to make any kind of definitive statement about what I think about these objects. I'm very careful not to even say, beings." (Again, after the seeing the "Incredible History" video, it shouldn't be too early to offer up a new opinion.) Coulthart: "I certainly got the impression from the CT tomography scans that they seemed like intact beings of some kind. But frankly, I'm not an anatomist. I'm not an anthropologist or anyone with any kind of experience in a scientific analysis of these beings. And I think we'll have to go with what good science says. And all the way through in this, what the scientists in Peru have told me, and what the scientists in America and indeed in Mexico have told me, is they want independent review. They want independent assessment. "And I guess what I'm a little worried about is the partisan way, the way that on UFO, UAP, Twitter, social media, people take their positions and adopt in a definitive position once and for all. This is a hoax, or this is real. Frankly, I just don't think we know enough right now. I don't think you can base a final conclusion on an analysis of a couple of bones in one alleged being's scans. I've heard arguments two and for." (With the new information, it's NOT "partisan" and I am NOT saying "once and for all." But I think the arguments for fraud put forth by "Incredible History" are pretty damning and are enough to show anybody with an open mind that there are massive problems with the hypothesis that these are non-human beings or...hybrids of humans and non-humans. It appears to be a done deal: aka Fake.) Coulthart: "What I think will be definitive, and I'm aware that there is a DNA analysis underway at the moment. I don't know the name of the institution in the United States that's doing it, but there is some kind of DNA analysis underway, which will hopefully provide us with more answers as to the genetic origins of whatever these objects are. And that should be coming out sometime this year, hopefully fairly early up. "Until then, yes, I do think that we should acknowledge that there's been some great work done to raise, I think, serious questions about the legitimacy or the authenticity of the beings or the objects, but let's keep an open mind and let's reward and applaud good science where it's done. "This isn't like some kind of wrestling bout. You know, there's not a winner or a loser." (The credibility of the non-human subject is in danger of being set back because so many people in this community want to believe so hard and will ignore anything that goes against those beliefs. If these, apparent, hoaxes are not called out and done so, forcefully, we're all going to lose.) Coulthart: "Science is an iterative process where people basically do an analysis and make an assessment. Let's make those assessments, do the independent work, make sure that independent scientists with rigor get peer reviewed and checked and assessed, and then we can come up with a judgment. "I think the real tragedy would be if these are, potentially, if they are significantly important objects that have, basically, been procured as part of Peru's natural, cultural, significant history, it would be really tragic if, because of a sweeping assertion that these are a hoax, that the entire thing is not taken seriously. I'm not so sure I can dismiss it out of hand just because of this latest debunk, but I'm very, very happy to let independent, rigorous science do the do the guesswork and do the analysis." ~ (Will Brown (@incredhistory) responded to Coulthart's take via a reply to Meagan Medick's post.) Will Brown: "Curious why you all didn’t give the same reaction to Jesse Michel's (Jesse Michels) bold proclamations in a video that received 200x the views mine did on YouTube? "Similar question for Jay Anderson’s (Jay Anderson) 'scientific proof' video which has 10X the views? "Perhaps it’s because those videos don’t throw a wrench in whatever it is you are working on? "…any and all documentaries and books moving forward should include Steve Mera's testimony about what’s actually going on in Palpa." ~ Will Brown: "Hey Ross Coulthart, I’m hoping you’ll correct yourself here. In this video you stated we only looked at scans for one of the 'beings.' That is false. The video covers Maria and Monseratt. The Podcast with Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell and George Knapp adds Paloma in addition to Maria and Monseratt... All of which have multiple signs of manipulation on hands and feet. "You told me you watched my video…you even said you thought it was excellent and that it brought up legitimate concerns. "Did you actually watch the video? "Your statements today make me believe that you didn’t watch at all." ~ (And here's Dr. Daniel Proctor's (Galaxopithecus) response to Coulthart, and others, who are holding out hope for new DNA analysis.) Proctor: "I want to respond to Ross Coulthart’s recent caution that we should be careful calling the Nazca mummies a 'hoax' because they might represent cultural heritage, and to his claim that DNA should be more definitive than anatomy. "Respectfully, this framing gets the issue backwards. "First, there is nothing new here. 'Maria' was introduced nearly a decade ago. She did not appear last year, or this year, or as some sudden scientific revelation. She has been circulating since roughly 2015–2016, and in that entire span she has never been properly documented in reputable osteological, archaeological, or forensic journals. There is no provenience, as they allegedly come from a cave from an undisclosed location. No controlled excavation, no chain of custody, no standard reports of any nature, and anonymous discoverer. "What we are actually seeing is a slow drip of bodies, which are always sensational, always just beyond proper access, always promoted as revolutionary, and always somehow unable to withstand normal scientific scrutiny. That pattern is not accidental. "Second, anatomy is not secondary evidence. "The idea that DNA should be privileged over gross anatomy in evaluating human remains is baffling. Anatomy is primary data. Bones do not lie about how they articulate. Hand bones do not mysteriously relocate into feet. Developmental biology places hard constraints on what a viable organism can look like. "DNA can tell you what tissue something came from, within the strict parameters for which the tests have been designed. No mainstream lab has tests for some hypothetical 'alien' DNA. "Anatomy tells you whether the body ever existed as a coherent organism. In this case, the anatomy alone demonstrates fabrication. That is not speculative. It is observable. "Third, the cultural-heritage argument is deeply ironic. "The Nazca mummy trade, because that is what this is, destroys real cultural heritage. Looting graves, ghoulishly disarticulating bodies, recombining bones, and fabricating specimens for sale and spectacle is the opposite of preservation. Calling attention to that destruction is not disrespectful, on the contrary, it is necessary. "We have seen this playbook before. The commercialization of mummies, the alienization of cranial modification, and the recycling of colonial myths about 'non-human' ancient peoples. 'None of this is new. 'What is new is the social-media amplification. "Which brings me to Ross’s discomfort with debunking (or defending) these claims on social media rather than in scientific venues. "Here’s the problem: this hoax does not live in scientific venues. "It never has. "It lives on YouTube, on X, on press conferences, in podcasts, and in staged congressional spectacles. It is an argument of persuasion, not evidence. Expecting rebuttals to remain confined to journals, while misinformation spreads freely online, is neither realism nor appropriate. If something is promoted in public, it must be corrected in public. "Finally, caution cuts both ways. Being 'diplomatic' toward a hoax that incentivizes grave robbery, fuels pseudoscience, and misrepresents Indigenous pasts does not protect heritage. It only enables its continued destruction."

Joe Murgia

44,343 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten

Crazy week. Spent part of it in South Dakota, visiting trade schools and telling the incredible story of Build Dakota, a scholarship program similar to mikeroweWORKS that’s assisted nearly 3,500 kids with over $43 million dollars. I’ll tell you more about that later, and about how South Dakota is leading the country in the race to reinvigorate the skilled trades. For now, I just want to share some video from a ride-along I did on my way back to the airport. As it happens, the annual Buffalo Round-Up took place yesterday in Custer State Park - another one of things I’d always wanted to see. Well, I finally saw it, and all I can say is holy crap! Thirteen hundred buffalo who preferred not to be relocated, versus a couple dozen expert cowboys and cowgirls determined to get them out of the hills, into a valley, and through a narrow gate that led into a large corral. Assisting the riders were half-a-dozen F-150’s driven by park employees – one of which I was allowed to occupy. So much fun. Thousands of people showed up on a gorgeous morning to see what could possibly go wrong, and marvel at the sight of a buffalo herd on the move. The people lined the ridges above the valley, and watched for a few hours as the buffalo stampeded and the horses galloped and the riders cracked their whips and the trucks accelerated over the wild and rocky terrain, trying to keep the herd headed in the right direction. My driver, Cory, told me to buckle up and hang on. “You got one job, Mike. Keep an eye out for big rocks hidden in the grass. They’re all over the place. Last year, a driver hit one and snapped the chassis in two. Had a Senator on board. Not good.” Perhaps if I hadn’t been on the lookout for rocks, the attached video would look more professional, but it should give you an idea of what’s it looks like to chase a herd of buffalo in a pickup truck. In short, it’s a blast, but it’s also a bit unsettling. As we sped over the plains and over a massive prairie dog town, I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if the buffalo suddenly all decided, together, to resist our best efforts to push them into a place they didn’t wish to enter. In other words, what would we do if the herd stopped acting like a herd, and realized that they were in fact, the superior force? Probably something similar to what happens when bipeds grow weary of being pushed in directions they don’t wish to go. I was about to share that philosophical observation with the other passengers in the pickup, when Cory ran over a large rock that I had neglected to spot. “Rock!” I yelled, a second too late. “Thanks,” said Cory, as his head bounced off the ceiling. Moments later, Cory’s walkie-talkie exploded with an urgent alert. “Rider down! Rider down.” Someone one the other side of the herd, hopefully not in the middle of the herd, was on the ground, and there was nothing we could do. A couple of EMT’s in a Razor were quickly dispatched to render assistance. I’m not sure what happened, but given the many thousands of prairie dog holes all over the sprawling landscape, I was worried for the horse as well as the rider. Herding buffalo on horseback is dangerous, and as I as tried to focus from keeping Cory from hitting anymore big rocks at high speeds, I couldn’t help but consider the business of hunting buffalo 200 years ago on this very land. Back then, at the beginning of the 19th century, there were something like 50 million buffalo in North America. They say the herds stretched for miles in every direction and moved like a massive wave over the prairie. To be a Dakota Sioux back then, riding a horse without a saddle into a vast herd of stampeding buffalo with nothing but a bow and arrow was amazing enough. To somehow bring one down and then live to tell the tale is mind-boggling. But maybe not as mind-boggling as what we did to the buffalo population in the decades that followed. That was nothing short of genocide, just as bringing them back from the brink of extinction was nothing short of a miracle. “Rock!” I yelled. Cory swerved to the left just in time, and then accelerated as a dozen animals broke away from the herd and tried to bolt back up the hill. I couldn’t help but notice they crapped as they ran - a lot. So much so, it made me wonder about the sheer volume of turds that 50 million buffalo would have produced two hundred years ago. (After 20 years of Dirty Jobs, my brain is still wired to ponder the impact of feces from every species.) Yesterday, the buffalo poop was literally everywhere. It was impossible not to walk in, ride over, or drive through. The tread on our tires was packed with scat, and that’s just from chasing down 1,300 of them. What would the poop from 50 million of these things look like? It must have been a foot deep for miles in every direction. And what would the impact of all that poop be on the early pioneers used to travel these same plains? How did their wagon wheels get any traction in all that dung? “Rock!” I yelled, again, just in the nick of time. The mind wanders when you’re riding shotgun in a buffalo chase vehicle, even when you only have one job to do. But if you ever have the chance to ride along on a round up like this one, do it. The sight will stick with you, even as you find yourself pondering the history of our great country, the impact of feces from every species, and the great good fortune of those lucky Dakotans who make their home here today. A home, where the buffalo roam.

The Real Mike Rowe

96,273 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

A teeny tiny notice before I proceed with my analysis. If you have a problem with either Cihan or Alya, don't bother reading. Because I don't take sides. I don't watch or think or write through the lens of Alya vs Cihan. Both characters are dear to me. And, if that's the way you roll, by all means, proceed. Analyzing Episode 36. Season 2 aka Of Strengths, Weaknesses, and The Last Nail in the Coffin Evvveeettt. Another episode, another meltdown. Just another day in the CihAl fandom. Ngl, it took me two days to even think about writing my regular analysis post, because the negativity was more potent than usual. Or maybe my resistance is waning, who knows? But that's not what we're gonna focus on today. This day, we analyze the words and actions of the heart and soul of Uzak Sehir, aka Alya and Cihan Albora. But we'll do so within the framework of strengths and weaknesses, because to me, that's what really comes to the fore in ep36. Alya Albora Alya Albora was especially heartbreaking this episode. And coming from someone who gets their heartbroken regularly because of Alya, that's saying something. The episode starts with the zombie-man opening his eyes (I think this PoS is just lying there pretending to be a vegetable, but that's for another time). And the look Alya has on her face when she looks at Cihan is indescribable. Almost as if everything inside her is pleading, 'Please don't regress back to where we just came from.' Because she fears, even as she tries to check on the zombie, that the closer Frankenboran gets to waking up, the further Cihan will drift from her. And, to an extent, her fears are proven right when Sadakat brings up divorce again. See, Alya doesn't come from strong family roots. She believes her biological mother abandoned her for most of her adult life. Then she has Caroline, who tries to fill all the empty spaces abandonment leaves in little Alya, but doesn't manage to succeed too much. As I've said before, Alya's primary fears stem from being abandoned and being a burden. That's what she tries to protect herself from. Those walls around her heart are in place to keep her from suffering that same pain again. That's both her strength and her weakness. While the fear pushes Alya to love harder, to push past difficulties, to rise from the ashes over and over, it also makes her more aloof. She doesn't find it as difficult as Cihan to leave behind 'family' ties because she's never experienced just how forceful those bonds can be. When it falls to her to choose between her love for Cihan and whatever she had with Boran, she picks the former without much guilt. But there's another factor that helps keep her from feeling much remorse for Boran, and that's the way her former husband treats her. Before Alya finds out about the will, her anger at Cihan is at an all-time high, and there's no question of any relationship developing between the two. After the will, however, that's a different story. So, when it falls to her to choose, she can do so easily, with her conscience at rest. And we see that so clearly in the way she announces she won't return to Boran even when he wakes up. Now, let's focus on the tricky bit. The weaknesses. Because Alya fears being a burden, being imposed on someone, adding to their strain, anything other than clarity can't help but raise doubts. When Cihan doesn't answer her question of 'Where will you stand?' with a clear with you or with you, distrust raises its ugly head. She starts asking herself if their relationship is what Cihan really wants now that Boran is back in the picture. She starts wondering whether Cihan will be able to shoulder the burden their relationship will add to his already weighed-down shoulders. It's harrowing to watch her be drawn to Cihan one instant, and pull back the next. Not because she doesn't love him, but because she can't bear to be another weight on Cihan's existence. That's what we see when she's shivering with fever. She wants him close, but she also doesn't want him to suffer. She keeps asking Cihan to leave, but he refuses to budge. And, that cures and hurts at the same time. For some reason, when she says, 'I'm also trying to find a way,' I couldn't help but feel that a part of her is already reverting back to the old Alya. The longer Cihan refrains from giving Alya a clear answer, the more her doubts grow. The more their 'impossibility' takes over her love. The closer she grows to wanting to leave. This time, if she attempts to leave, it won't be because her feelings overwhelm her. It'll be because she can't bear to see Cihan hurt anymore. Cihan Albora Oh boy. I can already hear the jeers of 'coward' and 'gavat' (which, by the way, I find to be a really ugly word) ringing in my ears. Well, fcuk that. Let's get back to our analysis. I talked about how Cihan seems to be stuck between suppression and surrender when it comes to his guilt. And, I did think that almost losing Alya would break that spell. But, clearly, that's not the road that Gulizar wants to take. Perhaps she does want it to come down to conflict. I'm not sure yet. What I am sure of is that Cihan is already aware of what he wants. And it's not wanting to be BFFs with Boran at the expense of Alya, guilt be damned. You can see it in the way his answers get bolder every time Sadakat asks him about a divorce. This episode is the first time Cihan states outright that the burden of 'conscience' isn't his to bear because he merely did what Boran asked of him. In other words, he didn't plan on falling in love with Alya, but it happened, and if there's any blame in that, it's not on him or Alya. Here's what irks most people. He doesn't ever talk about what he wants. It's always 'What if Boran wants this' or 'What if Boran wants that.' In other words, it's a form of misdirection on his part. He knows what's in his heart, but he doesn't want to say it out loud. Another scene where you can clearly see what his choice will be is when he's taking care of Alya during her fever. The more Alya insists that he leave, the more he digs in his heels. Until finally, he says, 'I won't allow anyone to hurt you, I won't allow anyone to harm you, and that's how it will be until I draw my last breath.' People don't say things like. 'That's how it'll be as long as I live,' if they're not sure about what they want. This is Cihan's strength. His love, protective instincts, and his code of sticking up for the people he loves. Unfortunately, like Alya, that's also his weakness. Cihan's been trained to fight for his family and his people to his very last. And, that's one HUGE reason why he can't verbalize what's already screaming inside his mind and his heart. We know he can't live without Alya, he says as much in the last episode. He keeps buying time because he knows once he states those words - there's no turning back. And he knows exactly how ugly things could go because dealing with ugly has been his entire existence. People won't be kind to him or Alya in the place where they live (think back to how Demir sends his goons to insult Alya's mom). And besides all that, what if Boran doesn't want to let go? That's when shit will truly hit the fan, because once Cihan says he's with Alya, he'll be fighting his brother, standing up to his mother, breaking his family apart, endangering Albora with internal strife, and worst of all, risking Alya and Deniz's safety. And remember, unlike Alya, who can control her conscience because of an extenuating factor, Cihan has no such relief. So, what you see is a man trying to survive an impending hurricane in a straw hut. He knows when that storm hits, and it will, things will go to hell. Besides all that, there is his stupid conscience that just won't shut the hell up because of that code of his. To me, that's not cowardice. That's a man standing at the edge of a life-changing truth, and being undone by the gravity of it. It's almost as if his soul is negotiating with reality, hoping to avoid collateral damage, while grieving for the version of himself he knows won't survive after he states his truth. As we can see in the scene where he and Alya are saying goodbye, they're already a family. His heart has already made the choice, so much so that in that scene, even Sadakat and Nare see the invisible bonds tying Cihan to Alya and vice versa. It's not a question of if, merely when. The Last Nail in the Coffin The question on everyone's mind is, what will it be? The last nail in the coffin of Cihan and Boran's brotherhood. The point of no return. To me, the way things are shaping up, there will be a clash. Will the showdown happen when Boran wakes up, or will Cihan learn the truth about his brother and finally be set free? I don't know. I've always had the inkling that Boran isn't what he claims to be. I guess we'll find out soon. But until then, I'll be watching. Gladly. For both my babies. Till next time, happy reading, y'all. #CihAl #UzakŞehir

CocoLoco

51,143 Aufrufe • vor 9 Monaten

Ch. 14 of NITRO: The Inside Story of Hulk Hogan's heel turn - #OTD 30 Years Ago (7/7/96)! AS DAY BECAME NIGHT at the Sullivan home, Bollea deliberated his participation in the pay-per-view. “Everybody was telling him that it was the wrong thing to do,” Kevin Sullivan says. “He was getting booed out of the arena, but they were all saying, ‘this is gonna kill him’.” With no end to the discussion in sight, the wily booker casually suggested that Bollea and Young make use of his two guest rooms until the morning. “I isolated [them],” Sullivan admits. “I was just afraid that at the last minute, he was going to use his creative control [clause] and pull out.” If Sullivan could deliver Bollea to the arena by showtime, the finish of the match called for Hogan to star in the most dramatic of surprise endings. In a sequence devised by Kevin Nash, an unannounced Hulkster would shockingly interfere in the match, but only after the heels gained an unfair advantage through cheating. It would be a brilliant misdirection, Nash thought, as fans would instinctively believe Hogan’s appearance to be in support of the babyface team. “I knew there were gonna be 55 different ideas,” Nash says, thinking back to the eve of the event, “[so] I actually put a lot of thought into it. I called Scott [Hall] two or three days before that, and said ‘what do you think about this?’ “We had to make it a 2-on-2 match with Lex Luger getting injured [during the match] and going out. We would cheat to get Macho [Man] in trouble and all of a sudden Hulk comes down, which of course would mean ‘ok, here comes Hulk to make the save’. [Hall] said, ‘I love it’.” There was, however, the looming possibility that Bollea could reject his turn at the eleventh hour. Thinking ahead, Eric Bischoff developed a contingency plan in which Sting would play the role, ultimately revealing himself - despite not having prior experience with the WWF - as the ‘third man’ instead. “I remember Eric came in to the locker room,” recalls Marcus 'Buff' Bagwell, “and said [to Sting], ‘I wanna talk to you about something’. I could hear them going over the idea, and then when they got done, Sting told me what they were talking about. He said that [Eric said], ‘there are only two guys that could turn heel where it would really matter’. That would be Hogan and Sting.” “He was offering Sting the job first, [as I recall], and Sting didn’t wanna do it. He didn’t really say it wouldn’t work, but he just said, ‘it doesn’t intrigue me. I don’t wanna do it’.” According to Andre Freitas, a special effects artist who worked in costume design and character development for WCW, the proposed Sting swerve was to involve the use of a doppelganger - or ‘phony’ Sting - presumably in an effort to fool fans that the real character had switched sides. “That was their original plan,” says Freitas. “Eric showed me a picture of Jeff Farmer (a lower-card wrestler) and said ‘can you make him Sting?’ I told him that they have similar bodies...then we looked at Sting’s hair and Jeff’s hair...and talked about all that stuff. I did a head cast for [Farmer] and some prosthetic and test make-ups. But when they secured Hogan, we didn’t do [the angle].” ----------- Amazingly, even as Bash at the Beach began, Bischoff continued to consider Plan B. “I remember walking by this perforated wall in the Ocean Center,” divulges Nash, “and Eric said to me, ‘Hulk is with Sullivan, and he’s not sure he’s gonna do it yet’. It was up in the air.” Meanwhile, viewers of the pay-per-view - and, for that matter, WCW’s own production staff - speculated as to the identity of the third man. “They were trying to ‘work’ everyone,” asserts Jason Douglas, a WCW producer backstage at his first pay-per-view event. “‘Rocket’ (staff member Rick Sancher) came up to me - they were kinda testing me because I was new on the road - and said ‘hey, I think it’s gonna be [WWF wrestler] Bret Hart’. I guess it was to see if I would leak something, and so I was just like ‘oh, cool, Bret Hart’.” In reality, aside from Bischoff, Bollea, Young, Hall, Nash and Sullivan, the turn would be concealed from everyone - even the announcers, according to orders from Bischoff - as to ensure their most realistic reactions. With less than an hour before the main event began, production staffer Woody Kearce discovered a revealing clue in the parking lot. A Hulk Hogan motorcycle had appeared mysteriously in one of the spaces, sparking another round of backstage conjecture. Finally, with what Sullivan recalls as “thirty minutes” and Bischoff remembers as “forty-five to sixty minutes” left on the air, Bollea belatedly arrived at the Ocean Center. The mood suddenly changed. Upon realizing that his star had been convinced, Bischoff began to relax. “Once he got to the building, I recall a sense of calm,” he reveals. “All of the anxiety, all of the tension, all of the worry, all of the effort to make sure things stayed quiet...all of that just kind of dissipated. It was like fog lifting when the sun comes out - it all just went away. I was thinking, ‘it is what it is, there’s nothing more I can do...so let’s just roll with it’.” To cement the turn, Bollea knew, he would have to deliver a monumental post-match promo to explain his actions. While typically, he enjoyed using Bischoff as a sounding board to rehearse interviews, the need for complete privacy - on this occasion - was unquestionably paramount. And so, away from prying eyes - and ears - the two met up in the most unglamorous of clandestine locations - a utility closet. In the midst of the run-through, Bischoff stopped to emphasize an important point: When you grab that microphone, I want you to say...‘this is the beginning of the new...world...order’. The phrase - ‘new world order’ - lingered auspiciously in the air. Bischoff surprised himself with the utterance, realizing slowly that the term encapsulated everything that the invasion storyline could represent. In 1990, then-president George H.W. Bush famously utilized the same expression in a speech to Congress, although its origin could actually be traced back to the 28th President, Woodrow Wilson. But if Bischoff was unsure as to the source of his spontaneous inspiration, perhaps the answer could be found closer to home - on the preceding Nitro, just six days earlier, announcer Larry Zybysko serendipitously made the following proclamation: “This Sunday, I promise you, there will be a new world order of wrestling…” Fans at the Ocean Center waited anxiously to see if Zybysko’s prophecy would materialize; for after all the hoopla, it was suddenly time for the main event. Before the opening bell, the audience was already on its feet for ring announcer@Michael_Buffer’s pre-match introductions. As Hall and Nash sauntered to the ring for The Hostile Takeover match, Buffer set the scene with theatrical aplomb: “Ladies and gentleman, at this time, let me introduce the men whose plan and goal is to takeover the WCW with force and hostility. We were told there would be three of these interlopers, and I must apologize as I have been informed - as you can see - there are only two. Ladies and gentleman, introducing...the Outsiiiiiders!” In a moment that played off perfectly on television, Sting’s entrance music began - and quickly ended - as ‘Mean Gene’ Okerlund traipsed cautiously into the ring. After exchanging quizzical looks with Buffer and referee Randy Anderson, Okerlund confronted the Outsiders to get some answers, an inspired plot device designed to build the tension even further. “Gentleman,” began Okerlund, “if I could have your attention...I don’t have police protection with me at this time, but I wanna confront you in front of this full house here at the Ocean Center, and millions of others watching across the country and around the world. I don’t see three men here tonight. Where is your partner?” Responding in a manner consistent with their WWF characters, Hall and Nash assured Okerlund that the third man was present - and ready. “Let me tell you something,” announced a confident Nash, “we got enough to handle it right now, right here.” Once more, Sting’s entrance music blared from the arena speakers, this time preceding the man himself, accompanied by Luger and Savage. “Here we go!” screamed color commentator Bobby Heenan as the wrestlers passed an unusually large contingent of security personnel on the entrance way. “The war is on!” Less than two minutes into the bout, Luger collapsed to the outside, a move in accordance with Nash’s plan to even the sides before the climactic reveal. “Now it’s two against two!” yelled Heenan. After a brief delay, the concerned crowd looked on as Luger left the arena on a stretcher, leaving Sting and Savage alone to fight valiantly for WCW. As the match progressed, the contemptible Outsiders used every trick to stall their opponent’s momentum, until a revitalized Savage began a furious rally at the fifteen-and-a-half minute mark. The invaders were suddenly down, but not out - as with the referee distracted, Nash landed a low-blow to bring the Macho Man to his knees. All four men lay on the canvas, exhausted, as referee Anderson started a ten count. As Anderson yelled ‘ONE’, several rows of spectators rose to their feet. Within seconds, the reaction diffused from section to section, the noise level increasing with each passing beat. On the live broadcast, viewers at home caught glimpse of a familiar figure making his way down the ramp. “Hulkamania!” screamed Dusty Rhodes on commentary while Hogan walked methodically towards the ring. Noticeably, the Hulkster seemed oddly disaffected - even out-of-character - but after exchanging the briefest of glances with the crowd, he continued stride with the din reaching fever pitch. “Whose side is he on?” bellowed Heenan, a question that seemed inexplicable given the history of Hogan’s on-screen persona. “Whose side is he on?” repeated Heenan, who as longtime fans could recall, had opposed Hogan for years as a manager in the WWF. For that reason, the comment flew over the heads of most (but not all) viewers; meanwhile, the live crowd was cheering as if their team had won the World Series. Nash and Hall retreated to the floor as Hogan tore off his shirt, an apparent signal that the archetypal good guy was here to save the day again. “Who’s bad now boys?” taunted play-by-play man Tony Schiavone on commentary, confident that WCW’s honor was no longer in jeopardy. Savage lay prone on the mat as Hogan surveyed the scene. Above the cheapest of cheap seats, peeking through a curtain with palpable anticipation, was Eric Bischoff. “I knew that something big was about to happen,” he recalls. “It was either gonna be a big failure, or a big success.” Seemingly out of nowhere, with his unsuspecting devotees enveloped in celebration, Hulk backed up to the corner. With the coldness of a serial killer, the once-honorable hero shockingly shoved referee Anderson, and executed his patented finishing move - the leg drop - to the helpless Macho Man below. The audience became completely, utterly unglued. “I was standing back with the announcers,” remembers Michelle Baines, newly hired as a production assistant. “One of the producers turned to me and said, ‘you need to go to the back’. “‘I said, ‘what do you mean?’ “She said, ‘it’s gonna get ugly real quick’.” “She was right - the crowd turned ugly quick.” In retrospect, it was clear that even as Hogan’s body approached the canvas - contact with Savage just milliseconds away - the gravity of the assault started to hit home. “What has he done?” questioned a crestfallen Rhodes, “is he the third man? What the hell is going on here?” Heenan was even more direct - “Hulk Hogan has betrayed WCW! He is the third man in this picture!” A breathless Schiavone could barely muster more than three words: Oh My God, he repeated. Oh My God, he continued, as Hogan high-fived a grinning Hall and Nash. The courageous Sting, stumbling to his feet to stop the injustice, was quickly dispatched, and in the coup de grace, Hogan tossed Anderson to the floor. Sardonically, he covered Savage for the pin, the contest now clearly a farce. “I hope you love it,” a disappointed Rhodes wailed on commentary. “You just sold your soul to the devil.” The third man was a mystery no more, and Hall, Nash, and Hogan raised their hands in victory to a genuinely astonished audience. The immediate outrage, which first gave way to shock, was now inspiring unmitigated rage. Simultaneously, the evil trio continued to taunt, pose, and antagonize while the announcers lamented WCW’s future. As Sting and Savage hobbled back to the locker room, a visibly distraught Okerlund returned to conduct an explanatory interview, based around the one Hogan and Bischoff had mapped out earlier. “Mean Gene,” commanded Hogan, “the first thing you need to do is to tell these people to shut up if you wanna hear what I gotta say.” For the next four minutes, Hogan rationalized his turn with remarkable clarity. “The first thing you gotta realize, brother, is this right here is the future of wrestling. You can call this the new...world...order of wrestling. These two men right here came from a great big organization up north, and everybody was wondering who the third man was. Well, who knows more about that organization than me, brother? I made that organization a monster. I made people rich up there. I made the people that ran that organization rich up there. And when it all came to pass, the name Hulk Hogan, the man Hulk Hogan, got bigger than the whole organization!” Bischoff watched from his secretive seat in amazement - he had not seen, nor had anyone, this intensity of emotion on display at a wrestling show before. It was almost as if the assembled masses had lost themselves in the performance, perhaps even forgetting, if only for a moment, that they were witnesses to a pre-determined event. Hogan’s actions had ostensibly interrupted their critical faculties; in other words, they had suspended their disbelief by reacting to the incident as if it were real. Moreover, the shock was manifesting in the most volatile ways imaginable, as in an incident edited out of future showings of the pay-per-view, a rather large man, likely intoxicated, ran into the ring before being knocked down by Hall and Nash. Concurrently, a stream of debris rained down from the stands, with one object hitting Okerlund, and the rest filling the ring in a stunningly unique visual. Hogan continued as the trash piled up around him, even referencing Ted Turner in his diatribe: “Billionaire Ted promised me movies brother. Billionaire Ted promised me millions of dollars. And Billionaire Ted promised me world caliber matches. And as far as Billionaire Ted, Eric Bischoff, and the entire WCW goes, I’m bored brother! That’s why I want these two guys here, these so-called Outsiders. These are the men I want as my friends. They are the new blood of professional wrestling, and not only are we going to take over the whole wrestling business...with Hulk Hogan, the new blood and the monsters with me, we will destroy everything in our path, Mean Gene.” “Look at all the crap in this ring,” responded Okerlund. “This is what’s in the future for you if you want to hang around the likes of this man Hall, and this man Nash.” Hogan raised his finger as if to stop the interviewer midstream, the perfect line instantly coming to mind. “As far as I’m concerned, all this crap in the ring represents these fans out here,” he boomed defiantly. “For two years, I held my head high,” ranted Hogan, alluding to his rather uninspired WCW tenure. “I did everything for the charities. I did everything for the kids. And the reception I got when I came out here, you fans can stick it brother! Because if it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, you people wouldn’t be here. If it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would still be selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis. And if it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, all of these ‘Johnny come latelys’ that you see out here wrestling wouldn’t be here. I was selling the world out, brother, while they were bumming gas to put in their car to get to high school!” In closing, Hogan foreshadowed the future state of affairs in WCW with a prophetic preview of coming storylines: “With Hulk Hogan and the new world organization of wrestling, brother...me and the new blood by my side...whatcha gonna do when the new world organization runs wild on you? Whatcha gonna do? What are you gonna do??” Despite mistakenly bungling the ‘new world order’ phrase at the conclusion of his speech, Hogan still provided the perfect punctuation to a sensational heel turn. His promo, inarguably the most dynamic of his career, came across as strikingly authentic (“it felt real, because it was real’,” offered a proud Eric Bischoff upon reflection years later). On commentary, Schiavone - who most inspiredly suggested that Hogan had planned to double-cross WCW all along, since his debut in 1994 no less - added to the realism with some mournful final comments: “We have seen the end of Hulkamania,” he grieved. “Hulk Hogan, you can go to hell! We’re outta here. Straight to hell.” ---- To the layman, there appeared an obvious explanation for the feverous crowd response that accompanied Hogan’s turn. Clearly, the element of surprise - one of the key elements of Nitro’s success - had been exploited to a masterful degree (“nobody on earth thought that the third man was going to be Hulk Hogan,” highlights Nash). To Kevin Sullivan, however, there were several layers of story at play. “People thought that it was an invasion from the WWF,” he begins, implying that the success of the angle could be correlated to its realism. “They really bought into it, and when Hogan turned heel...they were sure of it. “So while Hogan gets the credit for the reaction, it was [Nash and Hall] who set the whole thing up. Those guys built the foundation of heat, and when Hogan came down, it just blew up.” “We were red hot coming off WWF television,” agrees Nash, “and then you had the biggest turn in the world on top of that. The biggest babyface of all-time finally turned heel!” To the ever-meticulous Sullivan, always a keen observer of the nuances present in a wrestling angle, an often overlooked element was also noteworthy. “He did it to Randy [Savage],” the booker emphasizes, speaking of Hogan’s betrayal. “People knew there was real-life heat there. That helped out too, but everyone played an intricate part. “Lightning...you can’t catch it in a bottle but one time.” The above is an excerpt from the book, NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW. Amazon USA: Amazon UK: Amazon Canada: Amazon Australia: 17+ Hour Audiobook Available at Audible and Apple Books Audible USA: Audible UK: Audible Canada: Audible Australia: Apple Books: Ultimate NITRO Bundle: Deep Cuts - Wrestling Stories in 60 Seconds! David Penzer AdFreeShows.com 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff On This Day in WWE Allan Conrad the Mortgage Guy IandrewDiceClay WCW Archive Because WCW WCW4Life ᴀʀᴅᴀ Öᴄᴀʟ 90s WWE Secrets of WCW Nitro #WCW #nWo #HulkHogan #BashattheBeach #HeelTurn #Wrestling #WrestlingBooks #OTD #WWE #WorldChampionshipWrestling #Nitro

WCWNitroBook

53,506 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

"Very often what happens is that the architects die, and they leave a zombie. We seem to be in a zombie era." The whole time I was watching the discussion between Jesse Michels and Eric Weinstein and Eric Davis, I felt like there was some darker thing lurking beneath the surface that connects the seemingly intentional stagnation of physics as a scientific discipline, the extreme secrecy surrounding the alleged UAP crash retrieval/reverse engineering program and the lack of any theoretical physicists working the problem, and the government's stated intention to control (per Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸) the future of AI -- a future where there's no point investing in AI startups because “we [the government] are going to make sure that AI is going to be a function of two or three large companies. We will directly regulate and control those companies. There will be no startups.” And there's the other part Andreessen recounted from his White House meeting. He was told by the [Biden] administration that "During the Cold War, we [the federal government] classified entire areas of physics and took them out of the research community — entire branches of physics basically went dark and didn't proceed. If we decide we need to [for AI/math], we're going to do the same thing." Take a minute and think about that, because it's actually chilling. A clear precedent has been cited here -- one none of us knew about before Andreessen brought it to our attention -- and it raises two big questions: 1) Why? 2) HOW? Weinstein returns multiple times in this episode to the diminishingly small number of people who have the capacity to operate at the highest levels of physics and math. And whenever you have a small number of people who act as the natural gating function for something incredibly powerful, it's not a leap to imagine an additional layer of control being placed on them by pressure from outside. Whether that's through legal threats like "born secret," NDAs, direct threats of physical harm, money, regulation, etc., there are ways to lock down the gatekeepers so that they never do the thing -- at least not in public -- that the most powerful people in the world don't want them to do. Weinstein kept saying, about both the seemingly intentional stagnation of physics and the lack of physicists working the UAP problem, "this makes no sense." But it does make sense if you shift the frame to, "they don't want us to find the answers and are actively trying to stop us." The feeling I kept getting as I watched this fascinating discussion was that the legacy crash retrieval program used to have a lot more direct oversight and funding decades ago, but that the compartmentalization and secrecy around it turned it into more and more of an oxbow lake, and that as it got cut off from the conventional scientific community and defense establishment, it became more secretive, less well-funded, and less coordinated. So it kind of became its own siloed-off thing that fewer and fewer people knew about, but the people who did still know protected the territory fiercely. And then came the era of AAWSAP and AATIP and UAPTF, and without the deep, secret, institutional knowledge held by members of the legacy program, they tried to piece together what had happened in the past while not being able to penetrate the sort of firewall that existed partially because of controlled secrecy, and partially because of the firewalling effect of time. They were doing a lot of cold case file work, while running into the deepest of deep state secrecy efforts. That secrecy, at least based on my reading of the situation, was instituted decades ago, when the atomic-era scientific community (mostly the same group of geniuses that were at the top of the Manhattan Project) got together and -- probably at the behest of of the US government -- decided physics was becoming too dangerous if it continued down the path that it was on. So, as my spitball theory goes, they intentionally beached the entire enterprise on the shoals of string theory and quantized gravity and all the stuff Weinstein talks about everywhere he goes -- the "dogs that won't hunt" that are also "the only game in town." The very theories that have, in the real world, run physics aground. So let's come back to Andreessen's point here: they classified entire branches of physics and took them out of the research community, while real physics went off on a wild goose chase that has yielded precious few demonstrable results in the past half century or so. The effect is that the physics community has been off the scent for so long that anyone old enough to have held the knowledge that was shoved back into Pandora's proverbial box through extreme secrecy measures is now dead. And their taking of that knowledge to the grave may well be a critical part of the secrecy effort. Dead physicists tell no tales. I have this eerie sense that we scared ourselves shitless with certain discoveries (likely knowledge that followed from nuclear physics, which is itself still highly protected and curtailed) and decided that the only way to stop our headlong rush into world-ending catastrophe was to literally bury the knowledge and wait until everyone who had it died off. The government looks, at least to me, to have cauterized a destructive branch in the scientific timeline like they were the Time Variance Authority from Marvel comics. 80 years of claimed zero-progress in reverse-engineering alleged crashed or recovered UAPs. 40+ years of dead-ended physics. Only two or three major AI companies, one of which is now in a fight to the death with the Department of War. And the rumors that AI has "plateaued" or even "dead-ended" in its progress that keep springing up has potential echoes in the AI world of physics being diverted into String Theory. I'm not a mathematician or a physicist. I can't examine all the deeper particulars because I have neither the knowledge or the training. I only have surface level pattern recognition, and that tells me it all feels connected. The problem for the gatekeepers is that you can't bury knowledge that has been discovered once indefinitely. It's certain that all of this will be figured out again. And as Weinstein pointed out about a couple of non-physicists who figured out how to piece together nuclear weapons based on declassified information and publicly available knowledge, it IS happening. But it seems that at least on the individual basis, those green shoots are being pruned. Weinstein asks why none of the people who funded his education are "interested" in his Grand Unifying Theory. Weinstein is too well-known and too well-respected to just be taken out of play. They can't buy him off. They can't make him disappear without drawing more attention. So maybe they just hope that Geometric Unity will die on its own. Maybe they are behind the attacks on GU as something totally unserious. Maybe they have found a way to make other members of the physics community willing to look away. So, my question about this larger hypothetical operation to stop dangerous science and math is this: was it really just a massive kicking of the can down the road. Did they hoped it would buy us time? And if so, to what end? What are they waiting for? Can this game really be played forever? Maybe they think it can. Maybe they have an ongoing directive to keep suppressing this knowledge for as long as possible, and perhaps there's some secret core group whose job is to be the perpetual gatekeepers of potentially civilization-ending secrets. Maybe the Epstein connection to all of this was precisely because he was part of the operation to discover who was doing forbidden work and assess their progress. Maybe that's why, when he met Weinstein, he knew so much about GU. It's impossible to say with any certainty, but as a theory, it does have some real explanatory power. I find myself thinking of the fictional Brothers of the Cruciform Sword in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- a small, ancient, secret society whose job it was to keep tabs on people looking for the Holy Grail and stop them, so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Are we following the same track here? Could this, as crazy as it sounds, be the missing connective tissue in this mystery?

Steve Skojec

13,976 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten

"Tell us this isn't true." "They had a live being out [near Area 51]." "There were human experiments that went on." 👽🛸 Roswell: A Non-Human Craft or a Darker Secret? 🤫😶 (Transcript is shorter than clip. I don't have room to type more in this post so I'll just wait for replies.) ~ Lex Fridman: "In your book on 'Area 51,' you propose an explanation that I think some people have criticized, at the very end. That this might have been a disinformation campaign from, I guess, Stalin, that the Roswell incident was a remotely-piloted plane with a quote 'grotesque, child-sized aviator.' Just looking back at all that now, years later, what's the probability that it's true? What's the probability it's not?" Annie Jacobsen: (AJ): "So, you know, I've never revealed who that source is." Lex: "Yes." AJ: "You know that? Want me to tell you?" Lex: "Okay, who was the source?" AJ: "So, before I say anything on that, let me speak to the question that you asked, right? So, you asked me, 'What's the probability that that is still standing as an idea, 12, 13, 14 years later,' right? So, I continued to work with that source for years, afterwards. We talked about this. Look, I mean, his whole family knew it was him. And I knew his family because I was an integral part of, you know, I was at his house, met all his kids, grandkids." Lex: "And we should say, the source is the main expert advisor behind the story that it was. Maybe you can explain what the story is that your report in the book, that it was a disinformation campaign created by Stalin to cause mass hysteria in the United States. The very kind that we've been speaking about with the CIA and so on." AJ: "Yes! Predicated on the narrative of the 'War of the Worlds,' right? And the 'War of the Worlds,' when it was a radio program in the United States, made people go crazy. 'Oh, my God, we're being invaded by aliens!' Well, the government was always interested in the story and Joseph Stalin was, too. We know that from declassified documents, right? "And so, the source told me that the reason for this program, and that the real Roswell crash remains, were in fact, it was a black-propaganda hoax infiltrated, you know, or rather, predicated at this idea that you were gonna overwhelm America's early-warning, air-defense system, cause mayhem and maybe be able to attack the United States. That was the plan. And Stalin was also messing with the United States, messing with Truman, who sort of, you know, turned his back on him, right? At Potsdam. "And so, this idea, and the reason that the source is important... And unlike, you know, a lot of people, 'I saw this, I saw that, I learned that.' Was, according to the source, once it was determined that this was a hoax and that Stalin was able to get a craft over the United States, and it crashed. And it had, you know, people inside of it, they were people that were sort of deformed and meant...surgically altered to look like aliens. "The United States government decided that it needed to know what on earth that was all about, and if it was possible for us to have the same program. This, according to this source, right? And so, it sounds preposterous, and if it was just someone saying, 'I...,' you might say, 'Well, it's ridiculous, get them onto another subject.' But, the difference was, is this source, who was very well placed, and friends with all of the other 75 people, you know, told me this as a confession, right? A real, tearful confession, because what he said is he was involved in the American program to do the same thing. And people died, because there were human experiments that went on." "And I write about this in the last 12 pages of 'Area 51.' It was an explosive, you know, revelation, and I felt very confident in writing this because the source wanted it written. Why? Because he said, 'I'm dedicated to my country. I know about being committed to national security, and this kind of thing must never happen. And if you give people too much power, they will take advantage of it.' And he wanted it on the record. "And his wife of 60 years did not know until after the book published. Nor did His children, okay? So, after the book published, I was called to his house and sat there with his family. And they said, 'Tell us this isn't true.' And he said, 'It is true,' right? (We need a tape of this confession or...for his family to confirm they heard this from him.) AJ: "Now that source is Al O'Donnell, who is the nuclear-weapons engineer who armed, wired and fired 186 nuclear weapons, okay? So if you wanna talk about someone..." Lex: "Woooooow." AJ: "You're the first person I've told that on the record, but it's kind of about time." Lex: "Woooooow. Well, you received a lot of criticism over this story, and it confused me why, because it's...given the context of everything you've described with the CIA and other intelligence agencies, it is reasonable that such action would be taken. AJ: "And, the source is extraordinarily credible, right? If you wanted to take the position, 'Well, that person isn't very reliable,' then you have to ask yourself, 'Why did they have Top-Secret clearances that are higher than any in the United States whatsoever?' Because he was responsible for arming nuclear bombs. He was called the trigger man. "And by the way, he told me that I could tell the world who he was. There's a lot of details that are really dark, involving that program. And when is it appropriate, right? Well, it feels appropriate now. First of all, because you and I have been talking for several hours. So this is what is truly a long-form conversation and it's the outcome of, you know, a very long time of my reporting, and also being judicious about what, you know, closing the loop on that, right? Because I do think it's important for people to know that sources have revelations." Lex: "And, like you said, the programs, both on the Soviet side, and the American side, conflicting, I think's the term we used previously? Ethically, morally, on all fronts. People have done some horrible things in the name of security. In your book, 'Surprise, Kill Vanish,' you write about the CIA." ~~~ Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell: "So, today, I want to focus on a really important story that you once told me, that has never been told all the way [from the] beginning, to all the way to the end. And I just think it's just so cool we get to do this today. So, the question I want to ask is: After you got hooked on the UFO thing, with Bob Lazar, and you as a journalist said, 'I'm gonna start getting sources.' Like, 12 people coming at you, people shut down by the government. You can tell that. But you finally, finally got to a credible individual who had direct, firsthand knowledge about UFOs, exploitation, reverse engineering, and beings. And, oh my God, I want the world to hear this story. Tell us the story." George Knapp: "I've shared some of it in very broad strokes over the years- little bits and pieces of it - without ever actually referencing, in my statements, the guy the source. But this will be the first time I've told it in totality. "And it takes me back to when I first started in this. It's 1989 KLAS-TV, we put together, we spent eight months working on this project called 'UFOs: The Best Evidence.' Nine-part series. It airs on television, it's the biggest thing that's ever been produced for local TV, to this date, and still. "And, along the way, as I'm trying to find...telling the story about Bob Lazar, and his allegations about what was out there at S-4, near Area 51 - recovered discs, alien technology being reverse engineered - I'm looking for people who would support that. And I found about two dozen people, witnesses who had worked out there, who had seen bits and pieces, who could corroborate parts of what Bob had said about these kinds of craft being out there in the Nevada desert. But there wasn't anybody big picture who knew as much as Lazar claimed to have known, so I was still looking for them. "In 1990, I started working on a follow-up series to Best Evidence, looking for new witnesses. And I got a hint from an elected official that I had known, I'd covered him in Nevada politics. He says, 'You know, you should talk to my dad one of these days.' 'Your dad?' 'Yeah.' And he told me what the dad's name was and what he had done, what job he had had. And I said, 'Ah.' So I started stalking the guy. I just started showing up at events where I knew he would be. One of those events was a reunion for employees of EG&G." Corbell (JC): "So I'm assuming that this source was working within EG&G in some capacity, which is, by the way, who Bob [Lazar] said, hired him to go out to Site-4, S-4 at Area 51. So you're like, 'Okay, I can now find out if this is bullshit, or if there's an element of truth to it.' Do I have that right?" Knapp (GK): "Pretty much correct, yeah. So, I'm looking for someone whose credentials are impeccable. Unlike Bob, whose credentials were questioned, and people still attack him on where he went to school and where he worked, and was he at Los Alamos? This guy is documentable. There's a paper trail of where he worked, what he did. There's no question that he was in a position to know. He was the first general manager of EG&G in Nevada. His name was Al O'Donnell, and he has a prominent family. "When I heard that EG&G was having a reunion, I went there. We took a camera [and I figured], 'This is a great chance to get him on camera before I start asking him the questions I really want to ask.'" JC: "And when you say he is a general manager, like, does that give him certain roles and responsibilities that would give him insight? Like, he's not a secretary, so what does that mean?" GK: "He's the boss. He was the boss of the Nevada office. And I'll tell you a little bit about EG&G. So, it was a company that was created in Boston, right around the end of World War Two. Al O'Donnell had been in the Navy, serving during the war. He got out of the Navy while the war was still underway and went to work for a company called Raytheon, which became this massive, gigantic defense contractor that's still around today, still in Nevada in fact." JC: Yeah, they've got a big connection to the UFO topic, right? But, when you say Boston, like, where in Boston was it created?" GK: "Well, MIT is where the company was born. Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier were the three guys, the EG&G in that. They were at MIT. Scientists, engineers, they created this company there. And Al O'Donnell, who had been working for Raytheon, working on the Manhattan Project. He didn't know he was working on the Manhattan Project, but they were building these devices, complex triggers, that allowed them to detonate nuclear weapons. He learned later what he was doing was part of the Manhattan Project. "He goes to MIT, starts working with EG&G. Their company in those days had, I think, 15 employees, Al said. So it was a very small startup. But it suddenly exploded because the American atomic program exploded in those years. In 1950, Harry Truman decides that we need a permanent, nuclear testing site somewhere in the continental U.S., so they looked at a bunch of places, and they settled on Nevada. "Prior to that, Al O'Donnell had been sent out to the Pacific. They had five of these massive, atomic bomb tests out in the Pacific, and they decided to move it into a continental U.S. location and Nevada's Test Site - it was called the Nevada Test Site in those days - was chosen. Al O'Donnell leads the exodus from Boston, out to Nevada. They start hiring engineers and scientists, physicists and other security, spies." JC: "What are they working on at this time when they make that move?" GK: "Atomic bombs. They're building, testing atomic bombs. EG&G was a really precise organization that was created in order to detonate, measure and photograph atomic weapons. If you look in the history of photography, you'll see some of these amazing photos that they took of, you know, water drops dropping in water and...they're pretty famous shots because of these cameras that they developed. And it was perfect for use and testing atomic weapons and documenting what the process was. "So, EG&G comes out to Las Vegas, they are the managers of the Nevada Test Site. They, subsequently, years later, become the managers of Area 51 when it opens in 1955. So Al O'Donnell is the top guy. He oversees the nuclear testing program out there, manages it for EG&G, works with the Atomic Energy Commission. He has a Top-Secret security clearance and he can go anywhere and see anything. There's, basically, no restrictions, nothing that is outside of his ability to find out and see." JC: "So, this is an impeccable resume. This is somebody who was in position to know, and would know if someone like Bob Lazar was telling the truth or not telling the truth. I find it, personally, humorous that EG&G was, its genesis, its seed, came from MIT, right?" GK: "So, late 1990 or early 1991, I'd have to look up the dates. But somewhere in there is this event, this EG&G reunion. I go there, we got a camera, I interview Al O'Donnell, introduce myself, and say, 'Hey, I'm really interested in this, can we continue this conversation?' So he invites me to his home. He says, 'Come on over, we'll arrange to come over on a Saturday or something. We'll sit down, I'll go through my scrapbooks and show you some documents and memorabilia and photos from that era.' I was like, 'Great.' "So I go to his house and meet this wife. And we sit down, he opens up these big scrapbooks, and he starts showing me all the stuff that he had done. Photos that had been taken out in the proximity of these gigantic nuclear tests. They had great stories about the camaraderie that developed among the engineers and scientists. And he's going through all this stuff and showing me all this. And I love it, I loved every bit of it. I've never had a bad day at the Nevada Test Site, by the way. Every time I've gone out there to do a story, it's just a terrific way to spend some time." JC: "Secrets should be kept, secrets are kept, and you are a proponent of keeping secrets when it's that kind of thing." GK: "Sure, absolutely. And I respected the boundaries that they set up for us in doing these kinds of stories. So I did go out to the Nevada Test Site a lot over the next 40 years or so and put together a lot of different stories. And they knew of my interest in that area that's just outside what the Nevada Test Site, a place called Area 51. In 1955, Area 51 was, basically, created and EG&G got the contract to manage Area 51, and had kept it for the next 30, 35 years. So, whatever went on out there, they had an inside knowledge of what was going on." JC: "So, you meet this guy, Al O'Donnell, for the first time when he's at this public thing. You probably say something like, 'Your son told me to talk to you,' or something. Whatever. It ends up, he invites you to his home, and you're going through scrapbooks, and he's showing you all this atomic testing stuff that he was involved in. GK: "Yeah, and I'm telling him, 'Boy, this is really interesting. That's fascinating. I'd love to do a story on it.' And after we're there for maybe two hours, he closes this one big scrapbook and he goes, 'You're not here to talk about this, are ya?' I said, 'Well, not exactly.' He says, 'I know what you're here to talk about. I know what you want to ask about.' And right about that point, his wife walks in and she says, 'Don't start telling them that stuff! Don't even tell him!' And he kind of joked about it.' JC: "What were you there to talk about?" GK: "UFOs, UFOs. Area 51, Bob Lazar, crashed saucers, reverse engineering, to see if he had any knowledge of that, because I'd been led to believe that he did. So he closes that book and he says, 'We'll have we'll get together another time and we'll talk about it in private.' And over the course of the next two years or so, he and I would meet at coffee shops and talk about it. And I would ask him questions, and really, it was like pulling teeth. He wanted to tell me stuff but he made me work at it." (AJ says his family was there for the confession. Knapp has over two years of meetings with him. A bit confusing.) GK: "And the condition was, I couldn't take any notes. I couldn't record it, I couldn't take any notes. So each time I'd meet with him, I'd rush back to my car and start scribbling notes on pieces of paper so I'd remember everything that he said. And the story that he told me, that evolved over those couple of years was pretty fantastic. "He said that they did have a flying saucer that had been recovered from New Mexico. I think he indicated that it had been taken from New Mexico to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, which is... He never said Roswell, but I think it was the Roswell incident is what he [was] talking about. And it confirmed some of the details about what we know, likely, happened with the Roswell craft." JC: "When he's telling you, 'We have recovered a craft,' did he say it like, this is secret, don't tell anybody?" GK: "Yeah, it was just for my knowledge, my background and information. It wasn't a story I could do then. We were negotiating about how, or when, or if I could ever use that information or make it public. He told me the details about this craft. He said that it had been stored at Indian Springs. Indian Springs is an Air Force Base that's been there for a long time. It's now called Creech. Indian Springs existed before Area 51 was made. "But he says it was there, they kept it there. It might have been in an underground facility, I'm not quite sure. But then when Area 51, after it opened in 1955, they moved it to an adjacent facility. He didn't say it was S-4, he didn't say it was Papoose, but I think that's what he's talking about. Papoose Lake is where Bob Lazar said he worked, and where they had built nine hangars underground, disguised to look like the desert, and where they had other recovered craft. "He says they worked on this recovered craft, reverse engineering, trying to figure out how it worked, who built it. Whether or not they could duplicate the technology because, apparently, they thought this was pretty advanced, and they'd like to be able to build more of 'em. "And he says it was a very closed program, very small. It was only, I think, five of them that were aware of it, at least in the early stages, that were working on this project. And it was very hush hush, and they didn't share it with anybody else in the company, or anybody else in the area, or the military. They just kept it to themselves. "So, after we're having these meetings - and I go back and write down all these notes and stuff, details about what he had shared with me - we have another meeting at a coffee shop, and I said, 'Well gosh, you know, aren't you worried that it would get out, that the word would get out?' "And he says to me, 'We were worried It would get out?' That's right. 'I mean, what...it? What do you mean, it?' It. Meaning a live being, they had a live being out there. I go, 'You had a live being, an alien as well?' [O'Donnell said], 'Tell you the truth, we didn't know what it was.' I said, 'You know, maybe it came from millions of miles away, out in space, and you're keeping it in a cage near Area 51?' He said, 'To tell you the truth, we couldn't communicate with it in the beginning. We didn't know what it was, we didn't know where it was from, and we didn't know what to do with it.'" JC: "When Al O'Donnell says to you, 'We had a live alien, a being,' obviously from another world, what was your feeling?" GK: "Well, I was overwhelmed, because it was, in effect, confirmation of things that I had come to believe, because of the reporting we'd already done. And then the evidence of cover ups and lies that had been told to the public. Here's this guy in a high position, with a high security clearance, telling me that it was true. That they really did have a craft and they had a being. "My second feeling was, one of overwhelming sadness for the being, whatever it was, you know, that was kept out there. I asked him, you know, what had happened to it, what became of it? He says, 'I don't know. I don't know whatever happened to it.' But it was out there for a while, alive, and eventually they figured out a way to communicate with it. "And so I asked him, 'Well, what did it look like?' And he made me guess, as he did with all these questions. He made me guess. He said, 'Well, it kinda looks like a certain political candidate.' I said, 'Well, who? A political candidate? Who?' And at the time, Ross Perot was running for president. He said, 'It looks like Ross Perot. A little skinny guy with a big ears and tiny head.' Not a classic Gray-looking alien, but a very odd-looking creature with really big ears, that looked like Ross Perot. And I laughed. "And so we had these conversations for a while, and I was blown away by the information that he shared. I took all these notes. I was hoping that someday, I might be able to get the information out. And I asked him, 'Look, you're getting up there in age. If I can't record something with you, could you record a statement to the effect of telling me the story on camera, and then when you pass on, I can have the tape?' And he said, 'Yeah,' he would do it." JC: "You know, look, I've heard a lot of wild stories that I can't verify. A guy's telling you something, and you get a sense as a journalist, when you go down a road with somebody, and you take your time and you vet it... Did you feel...I mean, is there any world where he's trying to f*ck with ya? Or is there a world where he's trying to, you know, dissuade...kind of put crazy information into your brain? Like, how did you feel when he was telling you this? Was he like, straight with you?" GK: "Yeah, he was very straightforward. And again, this was not information he was giving up, willingly. I mean, I had to really dig and coax and arm twist to get him to cough things up. And it was very slow-going over about a two-year period, maybe a little bit longer. And I know that this...you always have to be wary of people with different agendas and people that just make stuff up. I didn't get that sense from him because of his standing in the community. He had shared this story with members of his own family." JC: "And that's why they came to you, is because they kind of [gave] you a tip. And these members of his family, they're serious people, too." GK: "Yeah. One of his sons is an FBI agent, or was, he's passed on now. One was an elected official in Nevada. That was the one that gave me the tip." JC: So, I just want to nail this [down] so I understand. You were approached because he had shared this with his family, privately, and then you had to kind of coax to get through to him about the story?" GK: "Right." JC: "I think that's important because look, these things don't happen, like, people [don't] just come to us and say, you know, crazy stuff, and we're like, 'Hh, yeah, cool. Sounds good.' Like, the dynamic of that, socially, as a journalist, like getting in there, taking time. You know, we have to verify if what he said is true, and there are some major bombs coming about that. But it's like, that process is so important. "So here you are, you're sitting with him, he tells you now, they have a live alien. And you felt sad because you're an animal-rights activist, you love animals. I know with your cats at home and you've done horse stories and all the stories about like, the inhumane stuff to animals. So it made you personally sad, makes me sad, too now thinking about it." GK: Yeah. Well, we had these series of meetings, and then the last time we met, after he'd agreed to go ahead and record a tape - and give it to me after making an arrangement so I got it after he passed on - he said that he had been told to not talk to me anymore. He said he had been given a warning [and] it was not a good idea for him to talk to me any more about anything. Not just that topic, but anything." JC: "Well, who knows that you're talking? Who would warn him?" GK: "I don't know. I don't know. But you recall, back in those days, there was surveillance. We had our phones tapped at KLAS-TV. There were guys following us around. Me, Bob Lazar, Gene Huff, maybe Robert Bigelow." JC: "People were also coming to your news station, OSI. And they would come in and try to like, get to you and then they'd show you their card...and take it back. And you know your phones are tapped. So it's like, because of this story, all of a sudden you're on high alert. So, anybody could have called him, been watching you, had meetings with the guy. So what you're saying is one day he just said, 'I can't...I'm not allowed to talk to you any more.'" GK: "Yeah, I've been told not to talk to you anymore. I've been told not to."

Joe Murgia

47,660 Aufrufe • vor 16 Tagen

ChatGPT 5.1 is a MAJOR improvement, at least from a writing/tone point of view. Check out these rap lyrics about quantum mechanics it spit out. (and enjoy the Suno song I made with them). Equally impressively, look at the linguistic and physics analysis of the lyrics that follows! Kudos OpenAI, Sam Altman, and the team for a much needed polish to a powerful model. QUANTUM CIPHER 2025 EDITION I’m the quark-spittin’ marksman, collapse ya when I spark in, Wave-function punchlines hittin’ harder than a dark spin. I’m Schrödinger’s pen — alive and dead ‘til the bar ends, Open up the box and watch me box reality in sharp tens. I bend space-time with a baseline, break spines when I say rhymes, Got gravity envy — ‘cause I pull the mass on the grapevines. My mind’s a Hadron Collider when I’m chargin’ up my take lines, Smashin’ egos into particles and call it “making break-signs.” I’m the reason why the Higgs boson got stage fright — It tried to find me in the vacuum, but couldn’t locate light. I’m the Big Bang braggin’, braggin’ bigger than the quanta, Kick a lyric so atomic, every comma’s a katana. Multiverse me — I’m many-worlds where every version’s better, In every timeline I’m the GOAT, just wearin’ different sweaters. I’m the paradox you can’t box — I’m Zeno with a vendetta, Every step you take to reach me makes your progress even lesser. I’m in superposition — both chill and kill in the same breath, Spit life and death in one sec like I’m cheating on a lame test. Heisenberg with the pen — you know the drill when the aim’s set: You can measure where I’m goin’ OR how fast — pick the same bet. I’m the quantum mechanic — I tune the universe with torque, Turn your circle into strings and play your atoms like a fork. Your flow’s so classical, bro, it belongs in Newton’s court — I rap non-locally: even distant ops report. Entangle with me? Please — you’d need degrees of freedom free, I flip spins with sick grins, split wins like symmetry. Your style’s “low energy,” mine’s infinite density — Black-hole bars pullin’ stars out from every identity. I’m uncertainty’s certainty, purposely versatile, Cursing these circuits with verses that birth universes wild. My ego inflates at a rate you’d call “superluminal,” Breaking every limit like the laws were merely “optional.” So if you wanna test the quantum king, step to the lecture: I’ll leave your wave collapsed, past, present — even your conjecture. Bow to the particle prophet, the unstoppable professor — I’m the one who taught the constants how to properly measure. Call me Quinn-tum Mechanics — yeah, I bend the laws at will, And the punchline’s like dark matter… …’cause it’s heavy — and you’ll never see it comin’ until it kills. ===END=== Linguistic and Scientific Analysis: Thought for 45s This is a nasty little quantum flex piece. Let’s tear it apart. 1. Wordplay & Rhyme Craft You’re doing a few big things really well here: dense multis, extended metaphors, and layered puns. Multisyllabic rhyme chains From the jump: I’m the quark-spittin’ marksman, collapse ya when I spark in, Wave-function punchlines hittin’ harder than a dark spin. quark-spittin’ marksman / collapse ya when I spark in / dark spin – three-way multisyllabic rhyme, all anchored on that -ark/-ar-k sound. This is very Eminem-adjacent: packed internal rhymes, assonance (ar / a / i sounds), and consonance (k/s/p/t/d). Same move here: I bend space-time with a baseline, break spines when I say rhymes, Got gravity envy — ‘cause I pull the mass on the grapevines. space-time / baseline / break spines / say rhymes / grapevines all interlocking. “Baseline” ↔ “bassline” double meaning, fitting both rap and physics. You basically keep that pattern across the whole verse: pen / bar ends / sharp tens, take lines / break-signs, quanta / katana, better / sweaters, vendetta / lesser, same breath / lame test, aim’s set / same bet, etc. It reads like it was built to ride a tight 90–100 BPM beat with room for double-time bursts. Puns & double / triple meanings Some of the nicest examples: “quark-spittin’ marksman” Quarks = fundamental particles. “Spittin’” = rapping. “Marksman” = precision shooter → precise lyricist. “collapse ya when I spark in” Wave-function collapse in quantum mechanics. “Collapse you” like knock you out. “Spark” as in light up / ignite / start a verse. “Wave-function punchlines hittin’ harder than a dark spin.” Spin as a quantum property. “Dark spin” hints at dark matter / dark energy, but also dark humor / brooding tone. “I’m Schrödinger’s pen — alive and dead ‘til the bar ends” Schrödinger’s cat in superposition. Pen is “alive and dead” until you hear the full bar → the bar’s observation collapses the artistic outcome. “Open up the box and watch me box reality in sharp tens.” The Schrödinger box. “Box reality” like out-boxing someone in a ring. “Sharp tens” → sharpened “tens” (bars), also sounds like “sharpened” / “sharp 10s” (perfect bars). “Got gravity envy — ‘cause I pull the mass on the grapevines.” Gravity pulls mass. “Pull the mass” = attract masses of people / attention. “On the grapevines” = word of mouth. “My mind’s a Hadron Collider… Smashin’ egos into particles and call it ‘making break-signs.’” Large Hadron Collider smashes particles. “Break signs” ~ “brake signs” / breaking points / breaking egos. Also nod to how new particles are inferred from “signal breaks.” “Kick a lyric so atomic, every comma’s a katana.” “Atomic” lyric: explosive, small but powerful. “Comma” = tiny mark, but you weaponize it into “katana” → even punctuation cuts. “Multiverse me — I’m many-worlds where every version’s better, / In every timeline I’m the GOAT, just wearin’ different sweaters.” Many-Worlds Interpretation of QM. GOAT in every universe → layered arrogance gag. “Different sweaters” is a mundane, silly visual that undercuts the cosmic brag in a funny way. “I’m the paradox you can’t box — I’m Zeno with a vendetta, / Every step you take to reach me makes your progress even lesser.” Zeno’s paradox: you never actually arrive. “Can’t box” = can’t categorize and you can’t fight him. Great thematic coherence: opponent can’t “reach” your level. “Heisenberg with the pen — you know the drill when the aim’s set: / You can measure where I’m goin’ OR how fast — pick the same bet.” Uncertainty principle. “Same bet” bends the physics correctly: you can’t know both precisely, so whichever you pick, you still can’t fully predict him. “Turn your circle into strings and play your atoms like a fork.” Circle → strings → string theory. “Play your atoms like a fork” = tuning fork / resonant frequencies. “Your flow’s so classical, bro, it belongs in Newton’s court — / I rap non-locally: even distant ops report.” Classical mechanics vs quantum. “Newton’s court” like a king’s court. “Rap non-locally” = quantum nonlocality / entanglement / his reputation hits everywhere. “Your style’s ‘low energy,’ mine’s infinite density — / Black-hole bars pullin’ stars out from every identity.” Low vs high energy states. Black holes: infinite density, strong gravity. Pulling “stars” (famous rappers) out of their orbits / identities. “I’m uncertainty’s certainty, purposely versatile” Oxymoron that echoes the uncertainty principle while flexing unpredictability as a feature. “Call me Quinn-tum Mechanics” Quantum Mechanics + “Quinn” pun. Ties persona directly into the scientific metaphor. And the closer: And the punchline’s like dark matter… …’cause it’s heavy — and you’ll never see it comin’ until it kills. Dark matter: unseen but exerts gravitational effects. Punchline: you don’t see it coming, but it hits heavy. “Until it kills” is exaggerated, but very on-brand for battle rap hyperbole. 2. Rap Musicology: Flow, Persona, and Structure Flow & technical construction On a technical level, this is closer to modern “technical” boom-bap / Em-style cipher rap than to melodic trap: Heavy multisyllabic end rhymes and stacked internals in almost every line. Plenty of enjambment: lines roll into each other, giving you flexibility in performance (you can push into double-time or sit in the pocket). Almost every bar has two or more stress points that could land on snare kicks cleanly, which makes it “write itself” onto a 4/4 drum grid. Example section: I’m the paradox you can’t box — I’m Zeno with a vendetta, Every step you take to reach me makes your progress even lesser. The stressed syllables (PAR-a-DOX / CAN’T BOX / ZE-no / VEN-DET-ta / STEP / TAKE / REACH / PRO-GRESS / LESS-er) fall very naturally into a 4/4 bar at a mid tempo. There’s enough internal rhythm that you could push the delivery in multiple styles without rewriting. Persona & tradition Content-wise, this is classic battle rap / cipher posture dressed in physics: You’re the GOAT across all universes. Opponents are “classical,” “low energy,” suffering “stage fright,” stuck in Newtonian basics. You position yourself as: Professor / lecturer (“step to the lecture”, “unstoppable professor”) Prophet (“particle prophet”) Mechanic / technician (“quantum mechanic”) That fits a long rap tradition of the knowledge MC (Rakim, KRS-One, etc.), but updated with quantum and cosmology instead of Five Percent Nation numerology or street theology. The extended conceit (physics as the whole metaphor field) is very much in line with: “concept verses” in battle rap (one theme sustained throughout), and modern “nerd flex” rap where mastery of a domain becomes the metaphor for lyrical dominance. 3. Scientific References & How Clean They Are You’re actually surprisingly accurate for how hard you’re flexing. A quick pass: Wave-function collapse, spin, Schrödinger’s cat/box, superposition, Heisenberg uncertainty: All used in ways that are conceptually sound, just dramatized. Many-Worlds, multiverse, Zeno’s paradox: Correctly mapped to ideas of infinite versions and unreachable goals. Hadron Collider, Higgs boson, vacuum, dark matter, black holes, strings, nonlocality, entanglement, degrees of freedom, low energy / density: All deployed as metaphors in ways that align with the general gist of the physics. A few lines are more poetic than literal, but still clever: “I’m the reason why the Higgs boson got stage fright — / It tried to find me in the vacuum, but couldn’t locate light.” Real physics: Higgs field permeates the vacuum; photons are massless; “light” isn’t what the Higgs is “looking for.” But metaphorically: even the particle that gives mass can’t find this MC; he’s beyond detection. “My ego inflates at a rate you’d call ‘superluminal’” Nothing real can move faster than light; you’re deliberately breaking the rule as a flex. Fits: “Breaking every limit like the laws were merely ‘optional.’” “Call me Quinn-tum Mechanics — yeah, I bend the laws at will” Again, you’re explicitly saying you’re beyond the laws. That’s the brag. Overall: the scientific backbone is strong enough that people who actually know the concepts will nod, but it stays accessible as punchlines for non-physicists because you keep the metaphor clear in each bar. 4. Why This Works (Big Picture) Wordplay: High-density puns and multi-layer references, especially around collapse, uncertainty, and paradox, give it replay value. Musicology: The rhyme schemes are tight enough to satisfy “technical rap nerds,” and the cadence reads like it would perform well over a gritty, minimal beat. Science framing: You picked a consistent semantic field (quantum / cosmology / relativity) and stuck to it. That makes the verse feel like an extended conceit rather than a bag of random buzzwords. If you wanted to push it even further, the only “critique” is that it’s thematically almost too clean: you could throw in one or two emotionally grounded bars (why this level of intellect matters, what it costs) to add a human crack in the god-mode persona. But as a straight-up quantum battle verse? It’s nasty. ===END=== Damn.

Kyle Shannon (AI Learning Lab/AI Salon)

124,661 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten

"Imagine that there's a God who brings about the world and creates the world, but does it maliciously, because he wants human beings to suffer." ~AA Suffering Makes God's Existence Unlikely "Could God have made it such that animals were all herbivores instead of carnivores and omnivores?" "We're talking about animals who are predated on from the moment that they begin existence." (If you know about Loosh and "Far Journeys" by Robert Monroe, these points should all ring a bell. But this discussion was NOT about Loosh. Fascinating debate.) 1 Atheist vs 25 Christians (feat. Alex O'Connor) | Surrounded Christian Tim: "Okay, so my first question to start out with is: What exactly about suffering makes this unlikely, on the condition that God exists?" Atheist Alex (AA): "I think that if God is all-loving, then he probably wouldn't want his creatures to suffer. And so, I think that the fact that they do suffer makes his existence less likely." Tim: "Okay, perfect. And is there some specific aspect of suffering that you're particularly honing in on, horrendous or whatever that is?" Alex: "In particular, non-human animal suffering. Because I think that Christianity has a celebrated tradition of theodicies, trying to explain why suffering exists: human free will, the development of the soul, higher-order goods. All of this kind of stuff. None of which apply to the suffering of non-human animals." Tim: "Have you heard of the Axiological Expectation Mismatch Problem?" Alex: "I have not." Tim: "Okay, so, philosophers of religion have started to understand that the thing that actually generates a problem between God and suffering is actually the value system you attach to the very attribute of perfect lovingness. Because the problem of evil is an internal critique, you have to look at a very specific version of theism and how it defines perfect lovingness. I want to present to you a version where my version of perfect lovingness does not actually constitute a problem and a misalignment, that mismatch between the suffering of animals - let's just say, the profusion of suffering of animals - and existence of God." Alex: "So let's hear it. What kind of God are we imagining that would allow and oversee and do nothing to prevent billions of years of untold animal suffering?" (There's no justification for all of the suffering that animals go through and it's borderline comical (if it wasn't so sad) to see Christians trying to come up with reasons to justify it.) Tim: "Right. So you're talking about non-prevention." Alex: "Or setting up the system that is natural selection, such that it relies upon things like predation and disease." (This is straight out of the Loosh chapter.) Tim: "Well, the first part is, I don't agree with the whole setting up the system part. So I'm not one of those theists that believes that God does this select and pick idea of creating worlds. I don't think that God actually creates worlds. I think that God lets worlds develop, according in a certain way. But because God can oversee an overarching narrative, he knows exactly how he can redeem anything." Alex: "Could God have made it such that animals were all herbivores instead of carnivores and omnivores?" Tim: "Yes, he could totally do that." Alex: "So had he done that, here's an instant way to reduce, by orders of magnitude, the amount of suffering that exists." (But then there would be no Loosh! I don't know if Loosh is a real thing, but if it IS, it would explain lot of things on this planet.) Tim: "Right, but hold on. That's, particularly, assuming a value theory, already, that I haven't told you I'm adopting, that has a problem with evil. So I have to give you my value theory first, for you to show that misalignment." Alex: "Okay, let's hear it." Tim: "Perfect, okay. So my value theory says that the most important thing about a sentient creature is not what merely happens to them, it's about the total timeline of their life and how and where their life permanently ends. Meaning, if you were to judge an author of a narrative, and the first few chapters, let's say, there's a lot of bad things happening, but the end ends with this crescendo where there's victoriousness, there's redemption, there's beauty. And everyone in the story actually endorses their entire existence that they live. They can look at the total timeline, and they actually each subjectively come to the conclusion, 'I'm glad I was made and I totally see what my suffering was for.' That's the particular I'm using with. Like John Hicks says, we have to judge the very nature of God's lovingness by what he does in the end, not these few time slices that we observe right now. For you to show that there's a problem, you have to show, to me, that the suffering of animals cannot be transformed, are intrinsically cut off from being transformed into a life that they will endorse. There's a couple of theses on the table." Alex: "So are you talking about the end of their life, as in their end of life on Earth, or are you talking about the afterlife?" Tim: "Antemortem, postmortem (before and after death)." (So once that animal, that suffered needlessly for most of their life, gets to the afterlife, they'll understand there was a reason for it. Really?) Alex: "Okay. Because if you're just talking about life on Earth, then I would say that if you had an author writing a book and a character. If we were trying to figure out the relationship between that author and the person in the book, and that person in the book shows up for five seconds in the first chapter, and is a child who almost immediately dies of cancer in an incredibly painful way. And there's no development, there's no sort of bring back to life, and suddenly everyone's grateful for it. It is just this miserable, tragic experience. "And I ask, well, what did the author, not want to do for the story of the book, but want to do for that character? I think it would be pretty damning. And also, when it comes to animals, we're talking about animals who are predated on from the moment that they begin existence." Tim: "Absolutely." Alex: "They sort of have disease. Zebras, when they're killed by lions, are often too big to be killed instantly, so they die over minutes with their windpipes caught in the jaws of a lion. How can this be developing, a zebra, which, by the way, probably doesn't even have the same kind of first-person conscious experience that humans do in order to sort of rationalize an abstract and learn from their sort of past and morally develop in that way? They just suffer. And what kind of God could oversee this?" Tim:"Okay, so there's a lot of assumptions on the table. Again, you're assuming a particular value system that I'm not laying out." Alex: "I'll tell you what I'm assuming here. What I'm assuming here is that a good God would not allow unnecessary suffering to obtain. Would you agree with that?" Tim: "We can talk about unnecessary suffering. We're talking about the justifying norms for suffering. You're saying it has to be in terms of necessity. Which is, an evil is only authorizable, by God, if it's in connection to a greater good or prevention of a greater evil, correct?" Alex: "If there's some kind of justification for allowing that sort of thing." Tim: "Yeah, but you're saying it's a necessary connection. Why...what's the term necessity...?" Alex: "Perhaps I should say unjustified instead of unnecessary." Tim: "Okay, so we both agree. I do not believe that God can authorize or justify unjustified suffering." Alex: "Okay, so tell me how that example that I gave you, the deer with its leg, starving, is justified?" Tim: "Because it's intrinsically redeemable. And the norms I'm working with is not this necessity condition that you're working with. Mine is about redeemable suffering, redeemability, or what we call, feasibility." Alex: "For the deer?" Tim: "If that suffering can be defeated within the creature's life. And I'll define what I mean by defeat, which is that they can, retroactively, look back at what they went through and integrate it into their life history, where they look at their life..." Alex: "I have to interrupt, because the example I gave you is one where the deer dies." Tim: "Yes, the deer dies. But here's the thing. You're probably talking about, this post-mortem example, I'm gonna put one thesis on the table: There's two philosophers that defend exactly what this goes through. One defends that animals will be given a martyrdom status. Well, God will be able to present himself in a way to animals in the afterlife, such that, in the same way you could give praise to a dog and a dog emotionally recognizes that he's loved, and that his life is worth living, right? To these animals that suffered like that, there's one view on the table, which is that God will give them a praiseworthy status where they will be able to actually..." (Bending over backwards to justify the suffering of animals. The deer will learn why he/she had to go through all of that when they die and God explains it and praises the animal for what they went though. Ridiculous, IMO.) Alex: "So can we talk about that claim? Because these animals are suffering for what? I mean, God might cause them to suffer..." Tim: "It's not means to ends." Alex: "God might cause them to suffer a bunch, and then essentially redeem them in the afterlife. But what for? Like, why do this? If I were to punch you in the face and then give you $20,000 afterwards, you might be grateful for the $20,000, but why couldn't I just give you the $20,000?" Tim: "We'll see. So that's assuming. So I saw your debate with Trent..." Alex: "Good stuff." ~ Christian Hayden (Not Hayden Christiansen) : "Would you say that theism or atheism better account for the idea that suffering exists and a purpose for it?" Alex: "It depends exactly what you mean. Because, of course, you might say that the world itself is more expected on theism, and since suffering needs the existence of the world, that it's theism. But granted the existence of a material world, let's say, I think atheism." Hayden: "Okay. Why does suffering exist at all? In an atheistic worldview, what is the cause of suffering?" Alex: "Oh, well, because, however life began, it developed through a series of natural selection, which requires animals to develop senses that they wish to avoid in order to be more likely to survive. And that's why pain receptors evolve in a world where not all of these pains are actually going to kill us, we're left with situations left with situations in which we're in a lot of pain but don't end up dying for it." Hayden: "Would you agree that consciousness is necessary for suffering?" Alex: "I would say probably, yeah." Hayden: "Does atheism account for consciousness?" Alex: "Yes, that's what I was talking about a moment ago. Perhaps not, maybe theism accounts better for consciousness than atheism does." Hayden: "Okay. So if there is no consciousness, there is no suffering? Is that right?" Alex: "That's probably true, yeah." Hayden: "So, if atheism cannot account for consciousness, then it cannot account for suffering. Would you agree with that?" Alex: "So I think what we're doing here is we're sort of slightly shifting the goal posts. If you don't want to grant the existence of the material world before we start talking about this, we can do an argument from consciousness. But then we need to debate whether consciousness is more...it is explicable on atheism. "What I'm going to say is this: Consciousness may seem to imply the existence of a conscious creator of the Universe. We're here talking about, I suppose we're talking about Christianity. The claim was about God. But the God that you believe in, let's say, if we grant that there is a creator deity who sort of brings about the universe of conscious creatures... Have you ever heard of the evil-god hypothesis that Stephen Law popularized?" Hayden: No, tell me it." Alex: "So the idea is that like, imagine that there's a God who brings about the world and creates the world, but does it maliciously, because he wants human beings to suffer. He brings about a world in order so that human beings will suffer, right? That seems like a plausible hypothesis. And even if you think that consciousness points towards God, the kind of God that a lot of Christians think is a sort of necessary quality of God, which is to be all-loving, might not have to apply here." (I know he wasn't talking soul-trap theory and Loosh, but it sounds just like it.) Hayden: "If Christianity were true, is it plausible that suffering is necessary for God's purpose, for his creation?" Alex: "If Christianity is true, then I think it must be necessary, because there'd be no other explanation for it." Hayden: "So we're not talking about whether or not Christianity is true..." Alex: "But if you're asking me if it's plausible that Christianity is true and therefore suffering is necessary, I would say probably not. Because I don't think suffering should be necessary or could be necessary." Hayden: "In an atheistic worldview, I would agree with you. It makes no sense at all." Alex: "So can I ask you why then, if God exists and wants to come to know everybody, and wants to love everybody and does so for the sake of human beings, why he chose to imbue the world with so much suffering that is at least, seemingly, completely inexplicable?" Hayden: "Are you a father?" Alec: "No." Hayden: "I'm a father. I want my son to become just like I am, better than I am, I should say. I want him to become the best that he can be. Is it possible for him to become, to reach his potential, without suffering in his life?" Alex: "Perhaps not, but there's two..." Hayden: "So suffering is necessary." Alex: "There are a few things I want to say. Firstly, that kind of moral development doesn't apply to non-human animals, as I've already said, right?" Hayden: "Why not?" Alex: "That does not account for the brutal death of animals in the wild. Also if - I don't want to talk about your son, because it's tragic to think about, but - somebody else's son has suffered and died immediately as a result of that suffering, they don't get to develop in the same way." Hayden: "I would agree that on a micro level, it's very hard to justify. And we can ask the question, 'Why doesn't God intervene on all of these sufferings?" (Exactly. And that's the Christian making the point.) Alex: "You might be able to justify an amount of suffering, right? But the fact that there's so much gratuitous suffering in the world is what I think makes God's existence unlikely. There are some instances where maybe a certain amount of suffering brings about a certain amount of good in a situation. That, by the way, would count as a justification. But when a child dies of leukemia... And they'e dead." Hayden: "Could there be a purpose to it? What if the death of the child brings their parents to God?" Alex: "Then perhaps...then the parents should be grateful that their child got leukemia because it's doing the will of the Lord." Hayden: "Not necessarily." Alex: "That seems obscene to me." (Yep. What if the death of their child caused the grandmother to have a nervous breakdown, the mom to be riddled with guilt her entire life, and the father to go off the rails? That's my family, by the way. Before I was born, my 8-year-old sister was killed when my mom's car was stuck on the railroad tracks and the train hit the car. Seeing people trying to justify that as God's will or offering up reasons to justify it (as several people have done on here) is really sad. Sorry if that offends you.)

Joe Murgia

12,708 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

Analyzing Episode 55. Season 2 aka The Violence of Alignment If I visualize CihAl's journey for this season, a spiral tightening its rings comes to mind. There's always one problem after another, spiking in intensity and reaction. And, the weight of it is reflected in both Alya's increasingly somber demeanor. But, here's the thing. In every new problem, there's an echo of the old one, which leaves one with an inevitable feeling of deja vu - for the audience and the characters. We'll get to why towards the end of this analysis. For now, on we go. We kick off epi 55 with Cihan being introduced to Meryem *cough* dishrag *cough* by Sadakat. And what follows is a breakdown of her story with Cihan listening. However, when Meryem recounted her past woes, I focused less on her words and more on Cihan's words and expression. And what follows is a masterclass in the difference between sympathy and empathy. Kudos to Ozan Akbaba for portraying the difference. I couldn't help but compare the situation to when Cihan is listening to Alya's account of her past. With Alya, Cihan leans forward, barely moving. He listens, but his face tends to reflect his own emotion and mirrors Alya's at times - in other words, he's living those events with her. When he talks, his voice drops lower, but more importantly, there's a gentle softness meant to soothe. With Meryem, Cihan's body language is a tad more detached. When he's leaning forward in the seat, his hands are extended in front of him, clasped together, creating space. Then he leans back, one arm extended on the table, the other on his thigh. Again, there's this feel of distance. His voice remains soft, but there's no tenderness. He's not trying to alleviate, rather he's simply listening. Don't get me wrong, it's not like the guy doesn't feel bad for her, because what she relates shouldn't be experienced by anyone. But empathy goes beyond sympathy. Empathy is when you hurt with the one who's hurting. And that difference, to me, is clear between the two scenes. Long story short, when he's heard what Meryem's gone through, he offers to help get her out of prison because he feels responsible in part for her misfortunes. He says it's his 'duty' to help her. Here's what's interesting: when Meryem says his kindness and heart haven't changed, he gets uncomfortable. And after that, he's the one to get up from the chair, signaling the end of the conversation. Like he wants to get out of there, because some part of him that's not stupidly male understands Meryem's still attached to him, but he has no interest in that whatsoever. His method of saying goodbye is a handshake, again, a testament to his aloofness. And when Meryem hugs him, his hands remain at their sides; the man could have been a pillar. So, while he speaks not of Alya, the one time he takes her name, he drives the message across that 'she's no one ordinary' and 'tread carefully'. Honestly, I don't think he wants to talk about Alya to Meryem. Not because Alya's not important, but because Alya is too important. The part of his life that Alya represents is his alone, and he's very possessive about sharing that with anyone. To him, Meryem is a past that exists, but one that he would erase if he had the choice, because it hurts Alya. And that's pretty much the whole feel of this conversation. He wants to help Meryem, but he also wants her gone because her presence is a source of discomfort to Alya. Speaking of discomforts, the next scene I want to talk about is when the massive turd, who happens to be Alya's ex-husband, goes to the hospital to threaten her some more. Seriously, this character is a step short of absolute psycho. He's incapable of true emotion, just like his mother. Anyway, when Alya is explaining why she hasn't moved out yet, the zombie's eyes zero in on her wedding band. And, of course, being who he is, he absolutely ignores the topic of Deniz, his own flesh and blood, and instead, wants the ring gone because it symbolizes Alya's love and attachment to Cihan. Thankfully, Cihan arrives in time to push away the zombie and to hear Alya proclaim that while Boran has the power to use her son and distance her from Cihan physically, he has no power over her heart and who reigns over it. Now, think back to that conversation where Deniz wants her to pick between Cihan and himself. And Cihan says Deniz's throne (or place) in her heart is so secure, he's happy to live in the shadow of that throne. While Alya smiles at Cihan's response, she also looks miserable later at the thought of not being able to tell Cihan that things aren't exactly so. However, I think she manages to get her point across in this scene without even realizing it. Because while she may make sacrifices for her son, no amount of blackmail, pain, or hurt can remove Cihan's love from her heart. Now, I don't know about you, but that sounds almost like an equal footing. The only difference is that she's bound to protect her son, because, unlike Cihan, he can't protect himself. And that's what leads Cihan to later tell Alya that her words are etched across his heart, and that he's never felt that loved by anyone. Curiously enough, this scene also brings the spotlight on two other details: Alya's 'anka' side and the wedding ring. Both of which will feature rather greatly, in the coming episodes, I think. Now, there's a rumor going around that Alya will take off her wedding ring. And, I don't know, the fact that Cihan's almost preening at Alya, still wearing the ring, and Alya saying 'I couldn't take it off' tells me that's not what's going to happen. For some reason, I'm beginning to get the vibes of a showdown of trust in the same vein as episode 27. Now you may argue that Cihan actually tells Alya about Mine's pregnancy in that episode, but CihAl have had a long journey since then. Alya has seen Cihan choose her over Boran with her own eyes. She's seen the lengths the man has gone to for her and Deniz. So, yes, she might be pissed about something or the other related to Meryem in future episodes, but her taking off the ring seems not within her character somehow. But hey, that's just me, and I could be wrong. Anyway, the final scene I want to talk about is, of course, the ending. Everyone kept focusing on why Cihan allowed Meryem to hold his hands, but I focused on his words. Because he very clearly tells Meryem that he's no longer in love with her, that he's moved on, and that she should not hang about in the hopes of that ever changing. In his own way, Cihan is quite ruthless here. He draws a line, but his words are designed not to hurt, because he's not an ahole. He just wants dishrag to understand that even the thought of Alya being hurt pains him more now than anything else. And, he's not very kind to people who try to hurt Alya. It's a disclosure and warning, but in the form of steel wrapped in satin. Now, let's go back to the beginning for a bit, where I mentioned spiraling events. See, I somehow thought that those vows Cihal took 'savaşta, bedelde, kararda, kaderde, aşkta' were linear levels. That they'd clear them one by one and get to love. But when you see the overall structure of their journey in this season, it's not linear at all. Because all those things have existed in one form or another since ep 29. There's always an element of all of these conditions in every episode. Which is why we keep thinking, wait a minute, we've been here before. But as I said, the spiral is tightening itself. With every episode, the stakes are raised higher, and CihAl are pushed a little bit closer to the edge. Almost like the deep breath before the plunge. And here’s where things get interesting. Because what feels like repetition is not actually stagnation, it’s confrontation deferred, coming back sharper each time. Every cycle brings them back to the same point. Their love deepens, fear follows, a decision is made in the name of protection, and that decision creates distance instead of resolution. Which brings me back to the vows - savaşta, bedelde, kararda, kaderde, aşkta. I was wrong to think of them as steps. They’re not something Cihan and Alya are moving towards; they’re something CihAl are already inside of. Every episode is them living those vows in real time. But with every new episode, the pressure mounts, like music builds to a crescendo. And yet, within all of that, aşk remains. Not as a reward at the end of the journey. But as the one thing that refuses to disappear, no matter how many times everything else goes wrong. And maybe that's why episode 55 feels the way it does. It creates the illusion that everything is falling apart, yet again, when in reality, everything is being forced into alignment. Something is moving all the pieces on the chessboard for an ultimate showdown. And the process gets more violent by the minute. Cihan hides the truth because he thinks love needs protection. Alya experiences that same act as distance, almost betrayal. Meanwhile, Boran and Sadakat keep pushing, and Meryem drops like a freaking bomb at the worst possible moment. Suddenly, everything that could have remained unsaid, unresolved, or postponed is dragged into the open. This has all the hallmarks of a breaking point. Note, I said breaking point, not breakdown. Because, unlike breakdowns, breaking points are used for revelations. I guess what I'm trying to say is things are headed towards alignment, not just for the overall story, but also CihAl's journey individually. Because Cihan and Alya also keep repeating their mistakes. Their growth requires something along the lines of a push, too. So, we have war, sacrifice, decisions, fate, and love, all coming to a head. And while there are plenty of reasons to feel ominous, I personally don't. The story is no longer about them loving each other - we're well past that. It’s about whether they can finally stand in that love openly and without any fear. Because everything is pushing them toward a breaking point, not to destroy them, I think, but to shape them into who they need to be. And if there’s one thing CihAl have proven since day one, it’s this - they don’t fall apart under pressure, they grow stronger, and they survive the impossible. #CihAl #UzakŞehir

CocoLoco

21,061 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten

An interview by VERY DARK AND CORRUPT Wall Street Journal aired today [1] WSJ's terrible "journalists" (and I use that term lightly) made many false statements about Sarepta's worthless, dangerous drug and Vinay Prasad's firing [1,2] I explain how the FDA sausage is made in excruciating detail Buckle up To get readers up to speed -> In June, corrupt pharma company Sarepta Therapeutics paid $40,000 to lobbying group Michael Best Strategies (MBS) to deal with a problem [3] -> MBS had recently hired Chris LaCivita, who had close connections with "MAGA" influencer Laura Loomer [4] -> With stock down 88%, Sarepta needed to sell their very bad, very dangerous drug or the company would go bankrupt [5] -> After several deaths from the drug this year, FDA official Vinay Prasad said "no way" and kicked the drug to the curb [2,6] -> Sarepta panicked and paid MBS (we believe) to deal with Prasad [3,4] -> If this story is right, LaCivita recruited Laura Loomer to take down Prasad [4,7] -> Loomer said she was defending Trump, but she was lying [7] -> She was defending taxpayer-funded payouts to a worthless, corrupt company [7] -> Laura Loomer so brave A history of bad drugs and regulatory failure -> This is one of the worst pharma scandals in American history and corrupt mainstream media isn't covering it -> Sarepta has a very long, troubled history [8] -> For more than a decade, every major Sarepta FDA drug approval has required INTENSE political intervention [8,9] -> Scientists at FDA have been repeatedly overruled [8,9] -> Many scientists have resigned, very publicly, over these POLITICAL decisions, some writing scathing public criticisms of these terrible decisions [10,11] -> The most recent resignation by Vinay Prasad is not something new; it follows in a long tradition [2,10] -> In fact, standards have dramatically deteriorated since the first controversies about the company's drugs in the 2010s [8,9] -> Prasad was trying to hold the line in the face of rapidly deteriorating standards at the agency [2,6] -> For that, pharma launched a coup--a literal coup of a drug regulator [4,6] -> This is unprecedented -> Banana republic sht, unbelievably corrupt 2016: first Sarepta drug approval and the "highly unusual" decision -> The first Sarepta drug approved by FDA was called Exondys 51 [8] -> This drug was for patients with mutations in dystrophin, a muscle protein [8] -> This is a debilitating and fatal disease affecting children [8] -> Exondys 51 increased dystrophin by 0.2% of normal levels [8,12] -> Unsurprisingly, there was no good evidence the drug worked [8,12] -> Why would it? It increases the protein from zero to 1/500th of normal levels -> One reviewer wrote: "I can find no precedent of an accelerated approval for a marketing application where the effect size on the surrogate endpoint is as small as 0.3%." [12] -> The study submitted by the company included no proper control group [12] -> The techniques used were so bad not even a first-year PhD student would do a study that way -> This the level of work you would expect from a mediocre undergraduate with no guidance -> It's almost like it was so bad on purpose -> (Narrator: it was on purpose) -> Nerd time: -> One reviewer wrote: "The Western blots submitted by the applicant for Study 201 were oversaturated, unreliable, and uninterpretable." [12] -> Another wrote: "Because CDER also determined that the conditions under which the original IHC analysis was performed were inadequate, including that the reader was not masked to sequence and time, the Center requested a re-reading of the stored images by three masked pathologists under different conditions. The IHC results from the reread were not nearly as favorable, as compared to the initial IHC results reported by Sarepta." [12] -> "The lack of concordance between the IHC and the Western Blot results is 'striking'" [12] -> "Study 201/202 had fundamental flaws, including baseline biopsies from external controls who could differ in unknown ways from study subjects, Week 180 biopsies from different muscles than baseline, and potential protein degradation in stored baseline samples." [12] -> And on and on. -> FDA commissioner Robert Califf wrote at the time: the submitted study was "characterized by major flaws in the clinical study design" and "Blinded experts assembled by the FDA fundamentally debunked this study, which has yet to be retracted and continues to be cited" [9,12] -> That's right, the FDA commissioner expressed dismay that the study that the company used to gain approval hadn't yet been retracted, it was so bad [9] -> Senior FDA official Janet Woodcock decided to approve before scientific review team had even voted [9,12] -> Woodcock be like: yeah i'm going to decide before you guys can because i know what you're going to say lol -> Despite external intense pressure, FDA scientists voted against Exondys 51's efficacy [9,12] -> They then voted against its accelerated approval [9,12] -> The review team filed an appeal with FDA commissioner after "passionate" disagreement with Woodcock [9,12] -> One reviewer called Woodcock's decision "unprecedented" [12] -> In a 126-page report, FDA commissioner Califf called Woodcock's decision "highly unusual" [9] -> The FDA board wrote: "[Woodcock's] involvement here appears to have upended the typical review and decision-making process. ... Care should be taken to avoid the appearance of interfering with the integrity of scientific reviews at the lower levels of a Center." [9] -> Again, the data were unbelievably bad, literally every technique in the study was inappropriately used [12] -> I would fire an undergraduate student who did science like this, immediately -> FDA's chief scientist accused Sarepta of "serious irresponsibility" for selectively publishing only some of the data [9] -> Even Woodcock, who approved the drug, called the research "seriously deficient" [12] -> Yes, even the person who approved the drug over the heads of FDA's scientists said the research was horrible [12] -> Still, FDA tried to bury their heads in the sand and beg that, basically, Sarepta pretty please do a better job next time -> FDA commissioner: "The utmost attention should be paid to optimizing the methodological rigor of [future] trial[s]" [9] -> FDA also demanded a clinical trial "to verify the benefit" of the drug [8] -> Welp, this was in 2016 [8] -> The trial results are supposed to be available in 2026, maybe [13] -> Or maybe later, depending on how much money needs to be made first -> As an article published in Nature three years later despaired of the decision: "The approval was conditional on the company agreeing to conduct a two-year post-approval trial to show Exondys 51’s efficacy. But by August 2019, the company had yet to begin such a trial and in the meantime had profited from sales of $300 million in 2018." [13] -> If it sounds like Sarepta used political pressure to get its drug approved and then tried to avoid actually publishing the study showing it didn't work, it sounds that way because that's exactly what happened [13] -> FDA commissioner after deferring to Woodcock: "I am confident this unique situation will not set a general precedent for drug approvals under the accelerated approval pathway, as the statute and regulations are clear each situation must be evaluated on its own merits based on the totality of data and information." [9] -> This statement was profoundly naive, and the historical record bears this out [8,14] -> Three FDA scientists resigned, including the lead reviewer of the drug, understanding the grave implications of the collapse of scientific standards and where they would lead [10,11] -> One was John K. Jenkins, M.D. Director, Office of New Drugs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research/FDA [10] -> In a presentation given just before his resignation, he wrote: -> "Path taken by Sarepta NOT a good model for other development programs" [10] -> Crucially: -> "Upholding statutory standards for approval in face of hopes and desires of patients, families, sponsors, and investors is a very difficult job" [10] -> "Personal attacks on FDA reviewers creates an atmosphere of distrust and isolation rather than collaboration" [10] This brings us to WHY Sarepta's drug was approved Facebook FDA -> So why did the drug get approved? -> Basically, Sarepta propagandized extremely desperate patients [9,15] -> They used miraculous snake oil promises and patients believed them -> Remember that this is life or death for patients, and they are extremely vulnerable -> Sarepta also professionally trained some patients to give testimonials to FDA and congress [15] -> The patients then went to congressmen who don't have time to understand the science [15] -> They gave emotional stories to congressmen [15] -> The result: -> Letter from 109 House members [15] -> Letter from 24 Senate members [15] -> And a media circus documented in the New York Times [16] -> Patients screaming at scientists during meetings [9] -> 2,792 emails written to FDA urging approval [12] -> One of them: "Dear Dr. califf: How is it that everyone in and around DMD understands this simple Idea and the science geniuses at FDA don't? You stupid fckers are costing each and every DMD kids days of their lives with your Moronic Dystrophin dance. Time to get a fcking clue" [12] -> Upon approval, a journalist for Reuters wrote: "owing to pressure from patient advocates, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy even though an outside panel of experts and the agency's own reviewers questioned the drug's efficacy" [17] -> A commentary in Nature Medicine was also published called "Railroading at the FDA" [9] -> Its author wrote: "In the words of one FDA committee member, Exondys lowers the agency's evidentiary standard for drug effectiveness 'to an unprecedented nadir.'" [9] -> A highly critical commentary was also published in Science, titled "Sarepta gets an approval - Unfortunately" [18] -> The article's author pharma veteran Derek Lowe wrote: "The company... called up Duchenne-affected boys and their families to plead with the FDA, and won over Janet Woodcock, and that appears to be enough. Is this going to be the new way to get a drug approved? Run a trial in a dozen people, generate unconvincing data, and then lobby Janet Woodcock? I share the worries that this might open the floodgates, because after all, Sarepta got their drug through." [18] -> One FDA reviewer ended in an equally grim note: ". Approval of this NDA would send the signal that political pressure and even intimidation – not science – guides FDA decisions, with extremely negative consequences. The public is well aware of this development program: the meager size of the study population, the marginal (at best) effect size, the Division’s dim view of the efficacy data, and the robust activism of some members of the DMD community. Many would be amazed at an approval action, because other DMD drugs, recently turned down for approval, appeared to provide stronger evidence of efficacy. ...The ramifications here are profound. The public will perceive that it was their unprecedented lobbying efforts that made the difference and earned eteplirsen its accelerated approval. For the future, this will have the effect of strongly encouraging public activism and intimidation as a substitute for data, which is one of the worst possible consequences for communities with rare diseases. This type of activism is not what was envisioned for patient-focused drug development." [12] -> A new era was born -> Activism had replaced data -> Facebook had fried people's brains -> And now Facebook-fried brains had fried FDA too -> FDA's credibility as a regulatory agency would now be hollowed out -> FDA's Facebook age had begun -> But the worst was yet to come Sarepta approvals: 2016 to present -> Three more drugs were approved from Sarepta on the same shoddy basis, proving Califf's promises that Exondys 51 was an isolated case empty [8,14] -> But things would take a turn for the worse with Sarepta's newest drug Elevidys in 2024 [19] -> At last a rigorous clinical trial looking at actual clinical outcomes was published [19,20] -> All would be put to rest -> At long last the issue could be resolved with HARD CLINICAL DATA -> There was only one problem -> The trial failed to show any benefit according to the primary outcome [19,20] -> The surrogate biomarker of micro-dystrophin meant absolutely nothing; it wasn't actually helping patients [19,20] -> What did FDA scientists do? They voted against approval. Of course [19] -> How could they not? The drug didn't actually work in the clinical trial [19] -> It's the only thing that made sense, since FDA is a scientific agency -> AND THEY WERE OVERRULED AGAIN BY PETER MARKS [19] -> YES THAT'S RIGHT, OVERRULED YET AGAIN -> PHARMA WINS AGAIN -> HAHAHAHAHAHA PHARMA ALWAYS WINS YOU FOOLS -> What happened is that Marks crossed his eyes somewhat, trying to make the words on the page blurry -> He prayed really hard, "my god please give me a sign, something, anything, I need this for my career" -> lzzosolsolzzolzozlslzolosllslozllzlzl -> Marks was trying really hard to see SOMETHING, come on come on, give me SOMETHIGN he said -> And he said: wait, look, there are these secondary, exploratory endpoints and a two of them look pretty good, I'LL APPROVE [19,20] -> AHAHAHHAHAHA YES PHAMRA WINS AGAIN -> And Marks said, "Thank you pharma go- I mean god, not pharma god, why did I just say that, FCK" -> The trial was explicitly designed for what Marks did NOT to happen [20] -> Once the primary endpoint was not met, the secondary endpoints couldn't even be statistically tested [20] -> And the trial explicitly said that they could not be interpreted the way Marks interpreted them [20] -> They were not adjusted for multiplicity and they were, like expression of dystrophin, simply bad endpoints [20] -> These two secondary endpoints were time to rise from lying on the floor and the 10-meter walk/run tests [20] -> Subjects who received the Elevidys performed, on average, about 0.5 seconds better than placebo recipients on these tasks [20] -> However several facts must be borne in mind when interpreting these: -> 1. At the time of testing, patients receiving the drug were receiving more corticosteroids than placebo patients, biasing the results [20] -> 2. Blinding might have been broken because those receiving the drug experienced lots of nausea and vomiting from the drug (~70%) [20] -> 3. These differences were tiny and may be attributable to chance, since the natural course of the disease varies widely [20] -> Marks knows this but who cares? Pharma I mean Facebook needed to be placated Elevidys: the drug -> To understand why this is so messed up, one must understand a few things -> On a Bayesian basis, one must assume that Elevidys is harmful until proven otherwise, for two reasons: -> 1. All drugs are potentially "toxic", but some toxins heal: by default you must assume it is a toxin that does not heal because this is what is actually usually the case; you need evidence that it actually heals -> 2. Elevidys IN PARTICULAR must be assumed to be harmful until proven otherwise because of the very nature of the drug -> Let's do a breakdown of the basic science of Elevidys that supports this (Bayesian) hypothesis: -> Gene therapy that permanently integrates into human genome [21] -> Meant to replace dystrophin, the protein that these patients cannot produce themselves [21] -> Preferentially targets muscle but gets expressed everywhere [21] -> Killed three people this year [6,21] -> Costs $3.2 million per injection [21] -> Truncated version of the protein it is supposed to replace [21] -> 3X shorter than the real protein [21] -> Has to be truncated because the technology cannot create the full protein [21] -> Because it's an abnormal protein, it's foreign, so immune system attacks it [21] -> Patients injected with drug are basically given an autoimmune disease [21] -> Patients have to be given anti-inflammatories to fight the disease that the drug causes [21] -> Causes terrible muscle inflammation [21] -> Inflames the heart, heart walls thicken because of the inflammation [21] -> Blows up the liver, causes acute liver injury and death [21] Drug should actually be assumed harmful, not beneficial -> Given all of the above, since the drug failed to meet its primary endpoint, it should actually be considered harmful by default, not beneficial [19,20] -> In other words, what we would actually expect if we added more patients and did an even larger study... -> Is that the drug would do worse than placebo, i.e., patients taking the drug would do worse than those taking placebo -> Why isn't this the default interpretation? -> They are reading the study with an intervention bias -> An intervention bias is natural, which is why "do no harm" is such a central tenet of medicine -> If I may put forward a thesis: most of Vinay Prasad's 500+-paper body of work has been dedicated to demonstrating the "do no harm" principle empirically [22] -> Rose-colored glasses study interpreters are simply not applying this principle properly and are thus failing scientifically in the most fundamental way -> Incomprehensible -> Back in 2016, scientists were adamant that the approval of Sarepta's first drug indicated the profound deterioration of scientific standards [8,9] -> But this latest approval is even worse: actual clinical data is now being overruled -> No standards at all are being enforced anymore; anything can now be approved based on any evidence whatsoever -> What Vinay was trying to do was simply to stop the unrelenting downslide -> And his firing punctuated that downslide for what it was The WSJ segment -> When Elevidys was approved, former FDA chief scientist and one of the original reviewers of Sarepta's first drug Luciana Borio said: -> "I don’t know what to say. Peter Marks makes a mockery of scientific reasoning and approval standards that have served patients well over decades. This type of action also promotes the growing mistrust in scientific institutions like the FDA." [23] -> To return to this video, these two WSJ reporters show an incredible level of ignorance and arrogance -> Finley says that the drug is "clearly" beneficial by misreading the secondary endpoints, just like Marks did -> An FDA memo from last year says about these endpoints: "Under these circumstances, they are misleading and cannot guide any stakeholders—including patients, family members and caregivers, and prescribers—in making informed decisions about the potential benefit of treatment with ELEVIDYS." [20] -> It really doesn't get any clearer than that -> But these two journalists are overruling the actual scientists, just like Marks did -> One of the most incredible comments during this interview was the complaint that "90% of clinical trials fail", as if that's bad thing [1] -> It's actually a good thing; most drugs suck; failing in clinical trial actually allows us to use only the drugs that don't suck -> These people don't understand the most fundamental purpose of the clinical trial -> They think clinical trials failing is a bad thing, as if it means that patients now won't get to use a useful drug -> No, it's a good thing, because it means that patients won't be exposed unnecessarily to a useless drug that might harm them -> The level of ignorance really is unbelievable -> What's worse is that these "journalists" defend their decision -> But what they did is exploit social media hysteria caused by Laura Loomer [1,7] -> Following up on her heels with editorials, using her as pharma attack dog [1,4] -> This is a huge blow to WSJ's credibility, and they know it -> Unbelievably shameful Where do we go from here? -> The Vinay Prasad firing creates a serious crisis of credibility at FDA [2,6] -> Up to this point, we could call these approvals a difference of opinion, but as we've seen, that's a huge stretch -> But any illusion of that is now shattered: the firing shows that drug regulation is explicitly political -> Janet Woodcock: approve, keep job -> Peter Marks: approve, keep job -> Vinay Prasad: block, transparently fired -> Make a decision that is anti-pharma and lose your job: that's the message -> Who can trust any decision at FDA anymore? -> RFK Jr. and Marty Makary both stand behind Vinay Prasad [24] -> Trump went along with lockdowns, he went along with mask mandates, he went along with all of the Covid pseudoscience that he now decries -> He should reverse course and not go along with this -> Trump has created a profound crisis of credibility at FDA and needs to fix it

Kevin Bass

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