Like Salt and Pepper Shakers aren’t they? All flavor, no nutrition.

In the first two weeks of March 2022 providers billed my medical plan $22,000.

I started watching Picard, Season 2. To do this I subscribed to Paramount streaming.
Once there I discovered Star Trek Discovery has 4 seasons now, and I had only seen the first two. So I may binge Discovery first.

I do not care much for Discovery. It has too many stupid factors. But its pure fun entertainment.

And I started Halo, Episode #1. That is fun too.


On the book side, I am almost done with Off Armaggddon
Reef, by David Weber. It is surprisingly pleasurable and rather addicting. I do need a detailed map of Safehold, however.


Taking a break from Safehold, my next audio book will be the first in the Web Shifters series by Julie Czerneda.

Beholder’s Eye

Book 1

United in their natural form they are one, sharing all their memories, experiences, and lives. Apart they are six, the only existing members of their ancient race, a species with the ability to assume any form once they understand its essence.

Their continued survival in a universe filled with races ready to destroy anyone perceived as different is based on the Rules. And first among those Rules is: Never reveal your true nature to another being. But when the youngest among them, Esen-alit-Quar, receives her first independent assignment to a world considered safe to explore, she stumbles into a trap no one could have anticipated.

Her only means of escape lies in violating the First Rule. She reveals herself to a fellow captive―a human being/ While this mistake might not ordinarily prove fatal, the timing of the event could not be worse. For something new has finally made its way into the Universe, the Enemy of the Web, bringer of death to all forms of life. And the hunt it about to begin.

Book 2 Changing Vision

Caught in a web of her own making Esen-alit-Quar had violated the First Rule of her species when she revealed her existence to a human named Paul Ragem. And though both Paul and Esen had survived, others of Esen’s Web had not been so fortunate.

Es could hardly believe that fifty years had passed since the terrifying events which had nearly cost her her life and which had forced Paul to give up everything a human treasured―family, friends, even his own identity―to protect the secret of her continued survival. In that time they had built a new life together out on the Fringe.

They had a successful export company, friends and associates. Esen, now known as Esolesy Ki and wearing the form of a Lishcyn―a species rare enough in the Commonwealth and never seen in the Fringe―was perfectly content to remain on the world of Minas XII, leaving it to Paul to travel the starways on company business.

Meanwhile she used their vast information resources to search for any signs that others of her kind had found their galaxy. What neither Es nor Paul could foresee was that a simple “vacation” trip would plunge the two of them into the heart of a diplomatic nightmare―and threaten to expose both Es and Paul to the hunters who had never been convinced of their destruction.

Hidden in Sight

Book 3

Picco’s moon was where it all began for Esen-alit-Quar, Youngest of Ersh’s Web. It was here where Ersh, the Oldest, had chosen to make her home; here, too, where Esen received her early training as a shapeshifter and a member of the Web.

When Ersh’s Web was destroyed, Esen and her human friend Paul survived, and together they founded Esen’s Web, a group composed initially of the two of them but one which expanded slowly to include a chosen few selected by Paul. For in their universe there were all too many species ready to destroy Esen, should they discover her true nature.

Still, despite the need for concealment, life had been good to Esen and Paul. They now had well-established identities, a thriving business, and numerous friends. It seemed as though they’d finally created a safe haven for themselves. At least until they received word that someone was mining Picco’s Moon, desecrating Ersh’s Mountain.

Esen and Paul had no choice. They had to go to Picco’s Moon and put a stop to the situation. But before they could even set out, they found themselves under attack on every front. Their carefully built haven gone, and loyal friends suddenly transformed into vengeful enemies, was there anywhere Esen and Paul could run, anyone they could turn to for help, any way to defeat a foe they couldn’t identify?

Invictus is latin for unconquerable and was the title of a poem.

INVICTUS

BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Out of the night that covers me,

      Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

      I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

      Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul.

Why I blocked Landzek

Thats apparently OK with Landzek. The Ultimate Narcissist.

Ivermectin had no clinical benefit against COVID-19 in largest study to date – WSJ

A group of researchers evaluating the effect of repurposed drugs against COVID-19 found that oral antiparasitic medication ivermectin did not improve patient outcomes in the largest trial of its kind to date, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Ivermectin marketed by Merck (NYSE:MRK) as Stromectol for parasitic infestations sparked controversy during the pandemic prompting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue warnings against its excessive use.

“There was no indication that ivermectin is clinically useful,” said Edward Mills, a lead investigator of the trial and a professor of health sciences at Canada’s McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

The findings have been accepted for publication in a major peer-reviewed medical journal, and on Friday, Dr. Mills is scheduled to present the data at an event sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

The latest trial conducted in Brazil involved 1,358 adults with COVID-19 symptoms. All study participants were at risk of developing the severe form of the disease with a history of pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, or lung disease. Half of them received Ivermectin pills for three days, and the other half received a placebo.

Dr. Mills and the team looked at their hospitalizations rates within 28 days. In addition, they gathered data on how fast the patients cleared the virus, how soon their symptoms improved, whether they were in hospital or were relying on ventilators for less time, and the differences in death rates.

For accuracy, they analyzed data in three different ways, and in each scenario, ivermectin was found to have no impact on the improvement of patient outcomes.

Last year, the FDA authorized oral COVID-19 pills, Paxlovid and molnupiravir, developed by Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Merck (MRK)/ Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, respectively, for at-home use.

I am working on patience this week. I won’t say why. There is only one person who knows WHY I am working on patience in particular (giggle) but it has aleady had an unexpected side effect totally unrelated to original intended purpose.

Western. Educated. Industrial. Rich. Democratic. According to Jonathon Haight, expert in evolutionary moral psychology. Prager is on to something here too. Working people don’t get bored, says Prager. They have too much work to do.

I was going to quip “Affluence + Secular + Boredom = Wind Power”.

A blogger writes:

CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata, live from Kyiv, couldn’t help himself when it “slipped out.”

“Now with the Russians marching in, it’s changed the calculus entirely. Tens of thousands of people have tried to flee the city. There will be many more; people are hiding in bomb shelters. But this isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that have seen conflict raging for decades. This a relatively civilized, relatively European place where you wouldn’t expect… that it’s going to happen.”

She writes:

An Al Jazeera reporter similarly showed his true colors:

“What is compelling about these people is how they’re dressed; they are prosperous, middle-class people who obviously are not refugees.”

So, CBS and Al Jazeera are both racist. That is what she is saying. Isnt Al Jazerra a middle eastern muslim news organization? And CBS a secular leftist western news organization?

Are muslims racists? Are russians racists? Are western secular leftists racists?

What do secular westerners have in common with muslims?
They are not WOKE.

According to woke culture everybody on earth who has cultural values different that the woke are by definition racists. Despicable, beneath contempt, we, the woke, must brainwash them to be like us.

Next they will go to Japan and tell the Japanese they must start “properly respecting” the Phillipinos. In other words, nobody is allowed to have their own culture, their own groups, their own cultural beliefs. the woke must rule everyone.

What about tolerance? What set of absolutes do these people actually go by, anyway?

A film on Our Gang and the life and death of Alfalfa:

Jim Widener

1 year agoAlfie was a close family friend. The day he died he arranged to go on a bear hunt with my Dad (Jimmie Widener) then left our house and went off and ran into Jack Piott. That previous Christmas was one of my all time favorites, because of him joining us He gave me a kids drum kit, and my Dad a limb off a pine tree with no pine needles mounted to a board. Hanging from the limb was a string holding a used 30-30 rifle shell. My Dad asked him what it was. and Alfie said it was ” a cartridge in a bare tree” Then I went to bed and while my Dad explained that I had to go to sleep or Santa wouldn’t come. Alfie snuck outside, climbed on the roof and stomped around so I would think Santa waqs landing. RIP Alfie.

Waste of space.