25 Comments

I see you were a naughty youth, a bit like me and I suspect many. I did many dangerous experiments, at one point that could have burnt down the house but fortunately just a huge burn hole in a carpet. A lot of surplus kit came onto the market after WW2 and I bought many items of electronics, setting up with a friend a pair of transmitters & receivers so that we could communicate, illegally as we had no licence.

I find your political musings valuable thought provokers. I have book-marked both https://collabfund.com/blog/think/ and https://arnoldkling.substack.com/p/where-did-you-get-your-political for more careful reading but a skim through Morgan Housel’s article resonates with a lot of my own thinking. If I have to label myself I would say liberal-left though I am conservative on many issues. In the UK I don’t find either major political party attractive, and were I a US voter I would certainly not vote for Biden. In Britain after WW2 and in India (the other country I know well) after Independence there were leaders who had, so to say, been through the fire and wanted to improve the country for the many. Of course there were mistakes and it takes time, and everyone has frailties but the will was there. Now we have professional politicians for whom it seems like a game (with no rules) with a focus on feathering the nest. There is a political writer, Matthew Parris, who had been a Conservative MP. In one of his columns he asked, suppose there was a new government minister who came into her office and asked for a list of problems, started on one and got it fixed then another … how would you feel about her? Just as you are indicating I would feel hope.

I haven’t had RSV but I do use nebulized 0.2% H2O2 for any respiratory infection and find it works like magic.

On low carb, I would say the positive results are due to hormones working in tune at ‘correct’ levels.

Fauci on "distortion, outright lying, conspiracy theories” – he should know, con-man in chief!

I skimmed the Tamar Haspal article. As soon as I saw:

1. Saturated fat raises LDL (a.k.a. “bad”) cholesterol.

2. LDL cholesterol increases heart disease risk.

I realised I was in flat earth territory. "if raising LDL does indeed raise heart disease risk, and everyone I spoke with agrees that it does" – maybe this fits Kling’s hypothesis on tribes.

Dear Mike, get well soon (we need you)

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The Haspal sentence you quoted reminds me of the same kind of thing said by Pauline Kael, the legendary film critic for the New Yorker. After Nixon beat Humphrey in the 1968 presidential election, Kael was surprised. She said she didn't understand it because "no one she knew voted for Nixon."

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There's none so blind as those who will not see. I picked up the term 'Ontological Shock' from Robert Malone. After my ontological shock from the last three years nothing surprises me now.

Shakespeare's irony is apt :

‘Oh wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! Oh brave new world,

That has such people in’t.’

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I kind of picked up on ontological shock from the context, but didn't know its exact meaning. I looked it up. Yes, ontological shock is what we've all been experiencing the last three years. In too many ways to count.

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The sky diving story brings back memories. I did my first jump at Lake Elsinore as well. Probably 10+ years after yours. At that time they didn’t issue helmets or boots. They didn’t use the radio either; you were simply instructed to use your toggles to face into the wind as you came close to landing. However, sounds like they used the same plane. I remember well the horror of trying to maneuver out on the struts. I didn’t realize until after I did several jumps at a different location as to what a terrible set up that was, especially for first timers. My subsequent jumps were just a matter of sticking your legs out the open door and simply easing out - oh so much easier (and safer). But boy once that chute pops open the drama eased, with the sensation of slowly floating towards the ground. That is until you get close to the ground, and realize you falling faster than you thought. Thanks for story.

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Yes, the floating earthward with an intact chute was the best part for me, too.

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I heard that Portland lets homeless people vote, since they live there, right? “They’re residents! They deserve a say in “their” city! Right! Right?”

I mean it sounds nice, but maybe voting should be more of a privilege and less of a right? These progressive politics are so naive.

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Mike

Doctors at NIH may make oodles of bucks, but other government workers do not. I know I don’t.

Also, while a user can delete an email from their account there is a database of emails that the user cannot delete. This is the case for DoD, and I assume elsewhere in the government.

Regards, George B.

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I did my first skydive in 1982 in Oregon during school at OSU, out in farm country (coincidentally, I've seen plenty of the skydiving activity at Elsinore, having flown hang gliders there some years back).

Anyway, the training wasn't that much different by then from what you did, all the same Army surplus gear, too.

The difference for me is that on my 3rd jump, I had a cannon-ball malfunction. I obviously got the reserve out, the jarring of which—at terminal velocity by then—dislodged the main chute completely. There was no cutaway capability. But, also, since the descent velocity had been squelched, the main chute was just wafting around, and it wasn't too difficult to keep it from tangling the reserve.

In all, my what-was-to-be a 3-mimute ride down from about 3,000 AGL took about 30 seconds until I landed hard (2 panels blew out of the reserve). Luckily, landed on a hill with a decent grade to dissipate a bit of the force angular-wise.

For insult, I was about a half-mile from the airfield, had now 2 chutes to carry, and bobbed-wire cattle fences to cross. But they'd told me what to do. You toss the chutes over the fence first, then crawl your way through.

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I have no clue what a cannon-ball malfunction is. Couldn't find it online. Tried all kinds of word combinations including parachute cannon-ball and learned all about parachute ball stretchers, which I didn't know existed. You never know what you might learn when you start googling.

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I just looked myself. Perhaps it was just what the guys descriptively called it. The instructor could see what went down from the jump plane (a C-180 tail dagger). Anyway, it's like a streamer or candle, but short, and a wad or ball, about the size of a bowling ball.

Once the reserve was open (I had to punch it twice pretty hard) and everything slowed down, then the air pressure was off the ball and everything else in the main, so it began to inflate, but was still wadded up pretty tight. So I'm trying to reel it in (it's off to one side), but doing so increases the airflow just enough to make it inflate more, so I end up just holding it out with my arm at 90 degrees and that worked well enough; again, obviously.

So, whatever the official name for a wad of bunched up parachute about the size of a bowling or cannon ball is, that's what it was.

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The place was Sheridan Sky Sports, the owner of which was eventually convicted of negligent homicide over 2 specific deaths, but likely the history of the place weighed in.

13 killed in 22 years of operation, a rate of more than 1 every 6 months.

Of course, as college dorm mates, we didn't look into anything.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/may/19/man-sentenced-in-deaths-of-two-parachuters-former/

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Is there a typo here? "13 killed in 22 years of operation, a rate of more than 1 every 6 months."

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That's a polite way of putting can't multiply or divide properly. ;)

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Mike, what a shame I didn't read this Arrow until a week later. I was in Portland last week, first time since 2019. I was worried because it was rapidly going downhill in 2019, but to my surprise, it actually looks better now in 2023. People are fed up. I saw just one BLM sign, the tents lining either side of I5 are gone and there were barely any panhandlers milling around. I think downtown Pittsburgh has more. 30% commercial vacancy rate downtown but just 2% residential. People moved out of Multnomah County to Clackamas County where it's normal. Ditto the restaurants. The burbs look great. Wine country looks great. What does not look great are the people. Fat, inflamed, and you add blue hair and tatted up, place looks like it's been invaded by zombies.

So, I tend to think much of the news is actually some fictionalized tv show. Total bs. I went there thinking it was time to sell my rental property because the city was entering a death spiral but I think not anymore. It's not nearly as bad as everyone says it is. Have to do your own research. What I don't understand is why the lib media would make an apocalyptic Portland TV show. Was it to drive away conservatives? Very weird. I am looking for logic but when dealing with irrational people, I am likely wasting my time. Maybe ignoring them rather than always reacting to them is the better way.

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I've been following Donald K. Layman on protein--spent his entire career researching protein.

His most important rule is to get at least 30 grams of protein for the first meal, regardless of gender or body size, but about 42 to 45 grams is often better. This addresses cannibalization of our muscles during sleep by the heart, diaphragm, liver, etc.

If you eat three meals, then he's essentially recommending a bolus of protein with the first and third meals. If you want you can reduce the second meal down to ten grams of protein because he's found that blood leucine remains high until the third meal. Or you can bolus protein for all three meals.

(There's also age-diminished growth hormone levels to consider which might raise the overall daily protein amount. And adding collagen/gelatin powders as part of my own daily protein has improved my own health.)

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Don is a friend of mine. He is the protein guy, that's for sure. I always listen closely to what he says.

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Foghorn Express is having some problems using Substack. New subscribers are being denied by two credit card companies because Foghorn is a "political organization".

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This is a troubling development. Just about the time you think you can't get canceled, someone, somewhere figures out a way. As Nigel Farage is discovering right now.

I haven't heard of anyone else having this problem. I wonder if it is unique to Foghorn Express?

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Dr. Lee Merritt was cancelled on Substack for writing about EMF.

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What may be unique to Foghorn is Reinette Senum's Stop US Geoengineering lawsuit. Maybe it got the attention of the cancellers.

VISA is actually calling Substack itself a "political organization".

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Unfortunately, it's unlikely that I'll ever run into MD, so I hope you'll write about the panhandler story when you're feeling better.

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Mike - one thing you probably need to fix soon is the following:

The link in this sentence: "Here is the ignorant column in full from the Washington Post," doesn't go to the saturated fat column but to one about the guy who uses gmail to escape FOIA searches. That said, the link inside Nina's critique does go to the WAPO column.

so sorry to hear about your RSV -- couldn't find a vaccine for it? I'm sure there'll be a dozen in no time. You, however, won't have to worry since you'll have immunity, no? (Probably not, at least not according to the alphabet soup agencies . . . )

Portland's demise - awful to read more about - is the reason Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying moved to San Juan island. Bret's picture of the Portland Police Station with plywood on many windows a year or so after their destruction is just sickening - as were the rest of their tales about the city along with these. Why on earth can't people see what's wrong? Do you suppose our conflation with what we see in real life and what we see on tv and in the movies has confused us? After all, for how long (in human evolutionary terms) have we been only able to see what was going on in real life versus movies and tv?

Your tale of parachuting - truly impressive and terrifying for parents; the video of Fauci talking about the end of democracy because of lying? "putz" is too kind; but that Pharma video? The best!!

For the rest - thanks again for all you do - even with a rotten cold/virus;the following are just a few things that aren't all that difficult for readers to figure out but could be fixed:

a few things left hanging

need a period after hanging.

I’ll probably me migrating The Arrow to.

. . .be migrating The Arrow to.

the new provided won’t

the new provider

A couple of days she posted

A couple of days ago?

we enjoyed the art, the museum,

enjoyed . . . the museums ? (since you don't specify which one)

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Thanks for pointing out the bad link. All fixed now. Can't figure out how I screwed that up, but I certainly did. All typos fixed as well.

I did not realize Bret and Heather had moved. She keeps writing about the San Juan Islands, but, for whatever reason, I thought maybe they had a 2nd home there as any people do who live in the Northwest.

"Putz" was the only word I could come up with on short notice.

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You came up with beaucoup great words on short notice - and, I suspect, a foggy brain. Words I was thinking about re Fauci wouldn't be fit to print.

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