We All Have Time To Bake

Posted on April 23, 2020 by marcia

Forget Sourdough! How to Make 10 of the World’s Easiest Breads

Keen to bake for your family or housemates, but put off by previous attempts? Here are delicious options – including some that don’t require yeast, and one that doesn’t even need an oven.

Dale Berning Sawa

Focaccia … ‘rarely fails’. Photography by Paula Thomas / Getty Images.

In times of great uncertainty, knowing how to make your own bread and thereby feed your family, is palpably reassuring. The very act of kneading dough is calming, like Play-Doh for adults. So, of course, newbie bakers are all over social media, obsessing about “bubbling mothers” (AKA sourdough starters).

Look a little closer, though, and they’re not very happy. “We are all baking bread and some of us are not so good at it,” tweeted one journalist, dejectedly. That’s because sourdough is high-maintenance baking. People write memoirs about mastering the technique. By contrast, watching Noji Gaylard making South African steamed bread (see below) is like hugging a baby. Three minutes and 30 seconds of pure calm. Her recipe, alongside the others included in our 10 basic breads, is easy enough for even the most inexperienced baker.

But first a note about yeast. As Adrian Chiles has noted, it appears to have been stockpiled right off all the shelves. So, if you do have any, set aside a portion of whatever leavened dough you make to leaven the next (variously called old dough and pâte fermentée; you’ll find plenty of instructions for this online). And, if you don’t, you could try making your own yeast. Lisa Bedford, the self-styled Survival Mom, has written a really thorough how-to. I appreciate that making your own yeast somewhat negates the premise of this piece, but you’ve got to admit it’s awesome that you can.

Also, reserve any pasta or potato cooking water for your bread baking. As Nigella tweeted: “It will help the bread’s texture and rise.”

Flatbreads

At its simplest, a flatbread is flour and water mixed into a dough, rolled into balls, rested, flattened and griddled. Dan Lepard tweeted the basic ratio: 500g of any wheat flour (white, wholemeal, self-raising, plain) to 300g cold water. Add some form of oil to the mix, and you get everything from chapatis and rotis (Meera Sodha fills hers with coconut, raisins and almonds) to tortillas and lavash. Jamie Oliver switches things up a bit, using yoghurt, self-raising flour and a little baking powder, and cooks with griddle pan over a high heat. Elsewhere, his coconut flatbreads are made with just coconut milk and self-raising flour and fried in butter.

Quick Bread

AKA batter bread, this is the base recipe used in such things as apple bread, banana bread and the French savoury cake studded with everything from bacon and olives. You mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) with wet ingredients (milk/buttermilk/yoghurt, oil and eggs) and flavour it any way you like. Kristin “Baker Bettie” Hoffmann gives you every option thinkable: sweet, savoury, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan and without baking powder (she separates the eggs, and whips the whites to get the rise needed). Texture-wise, this is more on the muffin/cake side of things, so if that’s not what you’re after, read on.

Soda Bread

The original no-kneader, and as Chiles put it last week, a gift to the yeastless. The rise comes from bicarb, so that ingredient is a must, but flour-wise it’s flexible: wholemeal, oatmeal, rolled oats, plain, self-raising, rye or whatever mixture you can manage. Liquid-wise, milk, yoghurt, buttermilk, Nigella’s pasta water: they’ll all work, too. You’ll want a dollop of salt and sweetness (honey, soft brown sugar); Chiles flavours his with treacle and Marmite, and nothing has ever endeared a columnist to me more. And there’s nothing to say you can’t jazz it up further: Oliver puts dark chocolate and hazelnuts in his.

No-Knead Crusty Loaf

The New York Times calls this the world’s easiest yeasted loaf; a step-up from the already groundbreaking easy method devised by Jim Lahey (if you’re a budding bread person, I recommend his books). You mix plain flour with yeast, salt and lukewarm water into a loose dough, cover and let rise for two to five hours. Then you shape it and bake it. The crustiness comes from having a broiling panful of water – or a few ice cubes – in the bottom of the oven to steam the loaf while it cooks.

Pitta

Putting yeast in a wheaten flatbread essentially means it can puff up while baking, to create those soft pockets so perfect for picnics. Yotam Ottolenghi puts sugar in his dough and seven spices in his chicken filling, and, well, what more could you want? Although it is technically possible to make them completely lean, Felicity Cloake doesn’t recommend it: the fat contributes to flavour and shelf-life.

Hard Dough Bread

A Jamaican speciality, this is a plain-flour yeasted dough, enriched with butter and sugar. It takes a short knead (you want the dough nice and elastic) and a 45-minute rest. You then roll it out flat with a rolling pin and – to give it that moist, dense crumb – roll it right back up again into a tight log, tucking the ends in (DaJen Eat’s Jen and her grandmother Cynthia will show you how). Then, after a short rest, it is baked golden brown in a loaf pan.

Steamed Bread

The one loaf you don’t need an oven for. This South African beauty involves mixing a very sticky batter of plain flour, salt, sugar, yeast (no oil) and lukewarm water in a bowl with a wooden spoon. (Gaylard’s demo is quite possibly the most mesmerising cooking video I’ve ever come across. It’s now my lockdown backdrop.) Cover with a lid to let it rest, then beat it once more and let it rest again. Pour into a buttered bowl and place in a large pot for which you have a lid, with enough boiling water to come halfway up the side of your bowl, adding water when necessary to keep the steam going. It is cooked when, as with a cake, a knife stuck into the centre comes out clean.

Maple Oat Breakfast Bread

This takes a couple more ingredients (maple syrup and rolled oats) and an overnight rest (eight hours or more), but it makes, as Food52 notes, darn good toast. Much like in soda bread, the oats impart a welcome bite. As with the no-knead crusty loaf, you’ll need an oven-safe heavy-based pot with a lid to achieve consistent, high heat and a good seal so the moisture doesn’t escape.

Focaccia

Nigel Slater once said that he thought focaccia was the bread to attempt first, before any trad white loaf. “A batch rarely fails.” Now most recipes will ask for strong white bread flour and/or 00 flour (used for making pasta). But Marcella Hazan makes hers with plain flour, and she’s not someone to mess with. You’ll need a good amount of olive oil (River Cottage uses 150ml), some flaky salt and something like a baking stone – a heavy cookie sheet will do.

Bagels

Surprisingly easy to make at home, as Jennifer Garner demos in episode 15 of her aptly named Pretend Cooking show. Sure, there is the extra step of poaching before you bake, but you can use plain flour and honey for the dough (or strong bread flour and malt syrup, if you want to be fancy). Food52’s Kenzi Wilbur says the hardest part is waiting an excruciating 30 minutes once you have removed them from the oven. But I’ve never known anyone able to resist freshly baked anything, so why would you even attempt to do that here? Butter at the ready …

Dale Berning Sawa is a French-South-African freelance writer based in London, covering culture, food, health, tech and work.

from: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/forget-sourdough-how-to-make-10-of-the-world-s-easiest-breads?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Tornadoes – Gaia Roars

Posted on April 23, 2020 by marcia

At least 5 dead as tornadoes touch down in Oklahoma, Texas

A sixth person died in Louisiana floodwaters.

By Mark Osborne and William Mansell

April 23, 2020,

An outbreak of reported tornadoes across Oklahoma and Texas on Wednesday night has killed at least three people.

An official with Marshall County Emergency Management confirms that at least two people were killed and several others injured when a tornado struck in Madill, OK. It hit as people were getting off of work in two manufacturing facilities and were in cars. He could not confirm if the two dead were in cars or in buildings.

There are at least three people dead in Polk County, Texas, following severe weather Wednesday. The hardest hit area was in Onalaska, Texas.

At this time, search and rescue is ongoing, and Polk County Emergency Management officials said there are at least 20-30 injuries.

Video showed a massive tornado in Madill, flinging sheet metal and debris into the air Wednesday afternoon.

Madill is in far southern Oklahoma, about 10 miles from the Texas border.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed there was tornado damage in Polk County, in eastern Texas. There was a “large and extremely dangerous” tornado near Sebastopol at about 5:45 p.m. local time, according to the NWS.

“My office, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and other state agencies are working with local officials to provide immediate support to the areas devastated by this tornado,” Abbott said in a statement. “The state has already deployed response teams and medical resources to help Texans in need and to provide assistance to these communities. Our hearts are with our fellow Texans tonight and the state will continue to do everything it can to support those affected by this severe weather.”

MORE: At least 34 dead, half a million without power after storms, tornadoes batter South

Polk County issued a disaster declaration, saying there has been significant damage to residential and commercial structures, and to public infrastructure.

There was also a confirmed tornado on the ground in Jasper, Texas, near the Louisiana border.

Officials in Louisiana said a man died after getting caught in floodwaters.

Deputy Mark Pierce, a spokesman for DeSoto Parish Sheriff’s Office, told ABC News a male victim somehow got caught in a drain/ditch and was swept away by floodwater in Mansfield, Louisiana.

“Mansfield PD received a call in reference to an individual that was seen trying to get a trash can from some flooded water,” Sheriff Jayson Richardson told ABC affiliate KTBS. “He ended up getting swept into that water. We, ultimately, found him 50 to 60 yards downstream.”

As of 7 a.m. Eastern time Thursday, there had been 24 tornadoes reported across Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana.

There are still tornado watches in effect until 2 p.m. for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

At least 34 people were killed in an outbreak of tornadoes earlier this month in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

ABC News’ Marilyn Heck, Melissa Griffin and Cammeron Parrish contributed to this report.

from: https://abcnews.go.com/US/dead-tornadoes-touch-oklahoma-texas/story?id=70299741

Would You Trust This Guy?

Posted on April 23, 2020 by marcia

Bill Gates Continues To Push ‘Immunity Passports’ And Tech-Enabled Surveillance State To Combat COVID

Bill Gates has inserted himself into the national dialogue as a self-proclaimed coronavirus sage who will lead the world out of dark times through a digitally-assisted brave new world of testing, contact tracing, and of course – a vaccine.

Of course, some of this might not be such a bad idea if it wasn’t coming from Gates, who’s written an op-ed in the Washington Post to elaborate on his thoughts – which makes the whole thing seem even more nefarious.

‘Sure, my Dad was on the board of planed parenthood – an organization founded by a eugenecist, and yes, I’ve talked about the need for population reduction for years. And sure, I want you to take my vaccines and get chipped. And ok, maybe India kicked us out after our immunization campaign was blamed for paralyzing 490,000 kids. And yeah, there was that whole ‘coronavirus pandemic‘ simulation my foundation spearheaded late last year which modeled 65 million dead. BUT, hear me out…‘

All jokes aside, here’s what Gates proposes in his WaPo Op-Ed in order to ‘reopen the economy.’

Widespread, at-home testing – “We can’t defeat an enemy if we don’t know where it is,” says Gates, who advocates home testing kits which “produces results that are just as accurate” as nasal swabs performed by healthcare professionals. Ok, not evil. Probably a good idea.

Choosing who to test – Essential workers and symptomatic people, or those who have been in contact with someone who tested positive, should be prioritized, otherwise “we’re wasting a precious resources and potentially missing big reserves of the virus.” Asymptomatic people who aren’t in the above categories should not be tested until there are enough tests, according to Gates. Again, not a terrible idea.

Using technology to enable a surveillance state – ah, here we go. Gates says the United States needs to follow Germany’s example; “interview everyone who has tested positive and use a database to ensure someone follows up with all their contacts.” And how to ensure accuracy? Digital big brother tools!

An even better solution would be the broad, voluntary adoption of digital tools. For example, there are apps that will help you remember where you have been; if you ever test positive, you can review the history or choose to share it with whoever comes to interview you about your contacts. And some people have proposed allowing phones to detect other phones that are near them by using Bluetooth and emitting sounds that humans can’t hear. If someone tested positive, their phone would send a message to the other phones, and their owners could get tested. If most people chose to install this kind of application, it would probably help some. -Bill Gates

Gates suggests this would be voluntary, unlike South Korea – which forces COVID-19 positive patients to self-isolate and install a tracking app on their smartphones which will alert authorities when an infected person has left their home, while warning them to return immediately. Admittedly, South Korea – which also employed widespread testing and the use of face masks, has had just under 11,000 confirmed cases and 240 deaths.

Treatment options – Gates notes that while Hydroxychloroquine has ‘received a lot of attention,’ his foundation is funding a clinical trial which will determine if it works on COVID-19 by the end of May, and that “it appears the benefits will be modest at best,” despite overwhelming anecdotal evidence of its efficacy by doctors using it in the field.

We’re guessing Gates’ trial doesn’t include the use of zinc, much like most of the other studies which are ‘proving’ that the anti-malaria drug doesn’t work. This is disingenuous science, as HCQ acts as an ‘iononpore‘ which allows zinc into infected cells, disrupting virus replication. On its own, HCQ only allows low levels of zinc to enter cells, vs. the high-dose cocktail employed by doctors such as Vladimir Zelenko, who claims he’s cured over 700 patients with the combination.

Gates, meanwhile, is promoting the use of plasma therapy, which involves “drawing blood from patients who have recovered from covid-19, making sure it is free of the coronavirus and other infections, and giving the plasma (and the antibodies it contains) to sick people. Several major companies are working together to see whether this succeeds.”

If you want to get back to large gatherings, we need a vaccine! Perhaps, but immeasurably more creepy coming from Gates considering his history.

Every additional month that it takes to produce a vaccine is a month in which the economy cannot completely return to normal.

The new approach I’m most excited about is known as an RNA vaccine. (The first covid-19 vaccine to start human trials is an RNA vaccine.) Unlike a flu shot, which contains fragments of the influenza virus so your immune system can learn to attack them, an RNA vaccine gives your body the genetic code needed to produce viral fragments on its own. When the immune system sees these fragments, it learns how to attack them. An RNA vaccine essentially turns your body into its own vaccine manufacturing unit. -Bill Gates

Gates then says that distributing vaccines will be the next hurdle – and that governments which fund vaccine development, countries which test the vaccines, and hardest-hit regions “will all have a good case that they should receive priority,” and that “Ideally, there would be a global agreement about who should get the vaccine first.”

In short – get tracked, don’t trust hydroxychloroquine, and take the shot.

from: https://www.zerohedge.com/health/bill-gates-continues-push-immunity-passports-and-tech-enabled-surveillance-state-combat

The Stuff of … Nightmares

Posted on April 23, 2020 by marcia

NOW THEY WANT TO TWEAK YOUR DREAMS

April 23, 2020 25 Comments

NOW THEY WANT TO TWEAK YOUR DREAMS…

This article was spotted by D.W. who sent it along, and it’s a stunner, because I’ve blogged a lot on this site, and even written a book (Microcosm and Medium) about mind manipulation and the techniques and technologies about mind control.

But this one is a stunner, not only because MIT is behind it – think about Bill Hates’ implantable vaccine technology that is supposedly in development with MIT – but also for what it portends:

MIT Scientists Are Building Devices to Hack Your Dreams

The concept here is simple enough: a “glove” that uses various prompts to “tweak” or “control” the subjects of one’s dreams:

A team of researchers at MIT’s Dream Lab, which launched in 2017, are working on an open source wearable device that can track and interact with dreams in a number of ways — including, hopefully, giving you new control over the content of your dreams.

The team’s radical goal is to prove once and for all that dreams aren’t just meaningless gibberish — but can be “hacked, augmented, and swayed” to our benefit, according to OneZero.

Think “Inception,” in other words, but with a Nintendo Power Glove.

“People don’t know that a third of their life is a third where they could change or structure or better themselves,” Adam Horowitz, PhD student at MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group and a Dream Lab researcher, told OneZero.

“Whether you’re talking about memory augmentation or creativity augmentation or improving mood the next day or improving test performance, there’s all these things you can do at night that are practically important,” Horowitz added.

To be sure, as I pointed out in Microcosm and Medium, dream states, hypnotic states, and so on, were the subject of much experimentation around the world, and particularly in the former Soviet bloc, and there was much success in enhancing people’s performance and creativity. But there’s a downside to this, as is suggested by this statement:

But the Dream Lab might be on to something with its Dormio glove. For instance, in a 50-person experiment, the speaking glove was able to insert a tiger into people’s sleep by having the glove say a prerecorded message that simply said “tiger.”

And at the end of the article, there’s this:

“The unconscious, it’s another kind of intelligence,” Rubin Naiman, sleep and dream expert at the University of Arizona, told OneZero. “We can learn from it. We can be in dialogue with it rather than dominate it, rather than ‘tap in’ and try to steer it in directions we want.”

For the purposes of today’s high octane speculation, let’s take that last statement first and then deal with the statement about inserting “tigers” into people’s dreams by means of the simple prompt of saying the word “tiger”. In the case of the second statement, we’re being asked to be in “dialogue” with our unconscious mind. Well, for the record, the word “dialogue” is one of my hot buttons, because usually when people say that they want a “dialogue” these days, that usually means that they don’t want a discussion, but rather, a pseudo-conversation designed to wear you down until you agree with them. That makes me doubly anxious about having “dialogues” with the unconscious. Anyone who’s read a bit of Freud or Jung will immediately be made aware of how deep that pool is, and if I may so put it, “here lurk demons.” Whatever one makes of their theories or for that matter of psychiatry or psychology in general, they did not formulate them in a vacuum, but over a long period of observation of their patients. It is a bizarre world. And that brings me to a point: in the spiritual tradition to which I attempt to adhere, there is constant caution about engaging in “dialogue” with such things for the simple reason that that part of the human mind is open to all sorts of influences, and hence, in that tradition, one prays for protection from them during sleep, the “time of least resistance” to their influences.

Which brings me to the “tiger” statement, because this I found most chilling, for it indicates an ability to insert a meme or topic by the mere mention of a word, into someone’s dreams. If one may thus influence someone’s creativity for the better, one might, equally, damp it or extinguish it altogether.

In other words, they now not only want the ability to manipulate your conscious thought, now they want your dreams as well.

See you on the flip side…

from: https://gizadeathstar.com/2020/04/now-they-want-to-tweak-your-dreams/

Looks Like the Restaurants are being Taken Out

Posted on April 21, 2020 by marcia

The Next Major Battle Pits Restaurants Against Insurers

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

A big lobbyist fight is underway in Congress. It pits restaurants against insurers.

Hard-hit restaurants press business-interruption claims even on policies that excluded pandemics.

For example, Wolfgang Puck does not have a pandemic policy.

It expects Congress to take care of it.

The Wall Street Journal reports Restaurants vs. Insurers Shapes Up as Main Event In D.C. Lobbying Fight

Restaurants and their allies are lobbying President Trump and Congress to press insurance companies to cover “business interruption” claims stemming from the coronavirus, even where restaurants have policies that exclude losses from pandemics.

While insurers do offer coverage, those policies are significantly more expensive than standard business-interruption policies, and few restaurants carry them, industry representatives said. But restaurants and some U.S. lawmakers say the business-shutdown orders in states and cities should constitute business interruptions under their existing policies.

Insurers are pushing back hard with the help of some Republican senators and conservative groups, saying retroactive changes to coverage policies and threats of lawsuits from restaurants could undermine the nation’s insurance system.

“Big” Bedfellows

Cheatsheet reports Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has joined fellow renowned chefs Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Dominique Crenn to form BIG, (Business Interruption Group), a new national legal, political, and communications campaign launched in partnership with an industry-savvy insurance attorney.

The group has spoken by phone to President Trump for his assistance in communicating with insurance companies, who have, for the most part, denied restaurants assistance during the pandemic. Specifically, they are requesting the U.S. president to step in on their behalf. And it looks like Mr. Trump is sympathetic.

Puck said, “We were encouraged by our conversation with the president about the urgent need to help the restaurant industry. All of us paid business interruption insurance for years to protect the livelihood of our employees. If the restaurant industry collapses, it has a massive effect on the entire economy. . .”

Understanding the Legal Battle

Those with no business interruption policy have no claim.

Restaurants that do have business interruption policies ought to be covered unless the policy specifically excludes pandemics.
Policies cannot be changed after the fact by Congress or anyone else, except by universal agreement of all of those who the policy covers.

The disagreement is whether the shutdown is pandemic-related or government-related.

Lobbyists have taken sides.

I believe this should be up to a court of law with the decision depending on specific policy language.

It should not be up to Congress to interpret law, nor to make businesses whole for those companies with inadequate insurance, nor insurance companies who got burnt by offering pandemic insurance.

from: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/next-major-battle-pits-restaurants-against-insurers

When Will States Reopen?

Posted on April 21, 2020 by marcia

Here’s Where All 50 States Stand On Reopening Their Economies

As the debate about when, where and how to reopen the American economy rages on, here’s where all 50 states stand on reopening their economies, now that the White House has released its ‘guidelines’ and delegated ultimate authority to the governors of each state.

Here’s an (alphabetical) roundup of states’ plans:

Alabama

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s stay at home order is set to expire on April 30. The state’s Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth is in charge of a task force to decide when to reopen the state’s economy. The task force is expected to deliver a report on its findings later this week.

Ivey said April 14 she intends to work with other states and the Trump administration, but that “what works in Alabama works in Alabama.”

When the economy starts to reopen, Ivey said during a press briefing it will be a slow process over time, “segment by segment or region by region.”

Alaska

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered residents to stay at home until at least April 21. Dunleavy has said that Alaskans will be allowed to schedule elective surgeries on or after May 4; that also applies to doctors visits for non-urgent needs.

Arkansas

Arkansas is one of a handful of states that never faced a stay at home order. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has closed schools for the rest of the academic term, while fitness centers, bars, restaurants and other public spaces have been closed (though the media likes to treat these states as virtually free of any constraints).

Hutchinson told reporters on April 16 that he wants to bring back elective surgeries. “We want to get (hospitals) back to doing the important health-care delivery that is important in our communities,” he said.

California

Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first governor in the nation to issue a stay-at-home order, which he did more than a month ago, on March 19. It had no set expiration date.

Last week, Newsom announced during a joint briefing with Western States that Cali had formed a pact with Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Washington Governor Jay Inslee, promising that “health outcomes and science – not politics – will guide these decisions” to reopen the states.

Moving ahead to this week, Newsom outlined a framework for reopening the economy in California that he said was predicated on the state’s ability to do six things: expand testing to identify and isolate the infected, maintain vigilance to protect seniors and high risk individuals, meet future surges in hospital demand and continuing work on therapies and treatments, redrawing regulations to continue social distancing at businesses and schools and develop new enforcement mechanisms. How long that might take is anybodies’ guess.

Colorado

Gov. Jared Polis extended the state’s stay-at-home order to April 26 (it ends Sunday night).

Polis added on April 15 that the key information state officials needed to determine when parts of the economy can be reopened is likely to come within the next five days.

The governor warned that restrictions won’t all be lifted at the same time, and life will be different for some time. “The virus will be with us,” Polis said. “We have to find a sustainable way that will be adapted in real time to how we live with it.”

Connecticut

During an interview on “Squawk Box” Tuesday morning, Gov. Lamont said that May 20 is a line in the sand: He has promised that schools and businesses likely won’t start to reopen before then. “The presidential guidelines were pretty responsible,” Lamont said, adding that they gave the state “a yellow light” to start opening things up. “My instinct is we’re going to first focus on big manufacturing and outside construction – which Connecticut never closed down by the way – before we move on to retail, and opening them up on a limited basis.”

“The things that come later are the things that Georgia opened up first…those things that have close personal contact…bars, barber shops…there I think we’re going to have to wait until we have a little more testing, and more masks,” he said.

Delaware

Gov. John Carney issued a statewide stay-at-home order that will remain until May 15 or until the “public health threat is eliminated.”
Delaware has joined a coalition of six Northeastern states to coordinate the reopening of the regional economy.

The governor said April 17 that even after the state reopens, social distancing, face coverings in public, washing hands, limited gatherings and vulnerable populations sheltering in place will remain.

Washington DC

Mayor Muriel Bowser has extended the state’s lockdown until May 15.

Florida

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a stay-at-home order for Floridians until April 30 and plans to announce plans for reopening next week. He has already allowed some beaches in the state to reopen, a controversial move that was widely criticized by the NYT and MSNBC, among others.

Southeast Florida, the epicenter of the state’s outbreak, might reopen more slowly than the rest of the state.

Georgia

As we noted last night, Gov. Brian Kemp, who issued a statewide shelter-in-place order until April 30 and set a public emergency for schools in the state until May 13, announced plans for reopening the state by this time next week.

Hawaii

Gov. David Ige issued a stay-at-home order until at least April 30. He said last week that the state isn’t close to meeting the reopening criteria, and it’s not clear when that will happen.

Idaho

Gov. Brad Little amended his order April 15 to allow for some businesses and facilities to reopen for curbside pickup, drive-in and drive-thru service and for mailed or delivery services. It is now effective through the end of the month. As of now, the state’s “order to self-isolate” will expire on April 30, unless extended.

Little says the measures are working and Idaho is “truly seeing a flattening of the curve.”

Illinois

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order in effect through the end of the month unless extended.

Pritzker said during a media briefing Monday that he believes the current state in Illinois has been enough to slowly start lifting shelter-in-place orders so that some industry workers can go back to work, although he hasn’t laid out a clear timeline.

Indiana

Gov. Eric Holcomb extended his state’s stay-at-home order through May 1 to give it more time to look into what “the best way is to reopen sectors of the economy.”

He said he would work with the state hospital association to see when elective surgeries could resume. The state is also part of that “midwestern coalition” we have mentioned.

Iowa

Gov. Kim Reynolds has not declared a stay-at-home order, though she did issue a “State of Public Health Disaster Emergency” on March 17, which was tantamount to a closure order, forcing ‘nonessential’ businesses to close until the end of the month. She also formed a task force to look into how to reopen schools and the economy. Reynolds on April 16 announced that residents of the state’s hottest hot spot won’t be allowed to congregate at least until next month.

Kansas

Gov. Laura Kelly has extended the closure order until May 3, with the state’s “peak” expected by the end of April.

Kentucky

Gov. Andy Beshear issued a “Healthy at Home” order March 25 with no end date. Oddly, Kentucky is actually part of the coalition of midwestern states working to reopen their economies together.

Louisiana

Gov. John Bel Edwards extended the state’s stay-at-home order through April 30. Residents will soon be able to start getting non-emergency surgeries.

Maine

Gov. Janet Mills issued a “Stay Healthy at Home” executive order through at least April 30, and has extended a civil state of emergency until May 15.

“We are in the midst of one of the greatest public health crises this world has seen in more than a century,” Mills said in a news release. “This virus will continue to sicken people across our state; our cases will only grow, and more people will die. I say this to be direct, to be as honest with you as I can. Because saving lives will depend on us.”

Maryland

Gov. Larry Hogan issued a statewide stay-at-home order on March 30. There is no current potential end date.
The governor said during his appearance on CNN Newsroom on April 13 that the state is discussing ways to safely reopen the state with health officials.

Massachusetts

Governor Charlie Baker has issued an emergency order requiring all nonessential businesses to remain closed until May 4. Mass is also part of the northeastern coalition.

Michigan

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said she “hopes” to start reopening May 1 despite her state being one of the hardest hit outside New York.

Minnesota

Gov. Tim Walz extended the state’s stay-at-home order through May 3, while extending a peacetime emergency for an additional 30 days until May 13.

Mississippi

Gov. Tate Reeves has extended a shelter-in-place order to April 27, but said some non-essential businesses could reopen by offering services via drive-thru, delivery or ‘outside’ shopping.

Missouri

Gov. Mike Parson on April 16 extended the stay-at-home order through May 3 and pledged to work with businesses and health-care providers on the reopening plan.

“Our reopening efforts will be careful, deliberate, and done in phases,” he said.

Montana

Bullock’s stay at home order for the state will expire on Friday, and the governor has said that the federal guidelines will allow it to reopen “sooner rather than later.”

Nebraska

Gov. Pete Ricketts issued the “21 Days to Stay Home and Stay Healthy” campaign on April 10, ordering all hair salons, tattoo parlors and strip clubs be closed through April 30. Nebraska is one of the states that has not issued a stay-at-home order.

Nevada

Gov. Steve Sisolak issued a stay-at-home order that expires April 30.

When asked about how he’d make his decision to reopen the economy, Sisolak said “positive testing is important but it’s not my number one parameter,” adding that “basis hospitalizations” are seen as an important metric for him.

New Hampshire

Gov. Chris Sununu issued a stay-at-home order until May 4, and told reporters that he’ll decide whether to extend it before it expires.

New Jersey

Gov. Phil Murphy issued a stay-at-home order on March 21 that has no specific end date. His state is part of the northeastern alliance.

New Mexico

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham extended the state’s emergency order to April 30, and said Thursday that her state is evaluating the federal guidelines but couldn’t risk putting “the cart before the horse” and are still working on developing a plan.

New York

Gov Cuomo’s “PAUSE” order is currently set to keep schools and businesses closed until at least May 15.

North Carolina

Gov. Roy Cooper issued a stay-at-home order for the state effective until April 29.

North Dakota

Gov. Doug Burgum is one of the governors who never issued a stay at home order, and has said he would like to reopen by May 1.

Ohio

Mike DeWine has said he hopes to start reopening on May 1.

Oklahoma

Gov. Kevin Stitt said April 15 that he is working on a plan to reopen the state’s economy, possibly as early as April 30.

Oregon

Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order directing Oregonians to stay at home that “remains in effect until ended by the governor.”

Pennsylvania

Gov. Tom Wolf issued stay-at-home orders across the state until April 30. It is part of the coalition of northeastern states.

Rhode Island

Gov. Gina Raimondo’s emergency order to keep the state closed is set to expire May 8.

South Carolina

The state’s governor said earlier he would push to start reopening by next Tuesday.

South Dakota

Gov. Kirsti Noem hasn’t issued a stay at home order.

Tennessee

Gov Bill Lee has said he plans to start reopening businesses as soon as Monday.

Texas

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered all Texans to stay home through April 30.

Utah

Gov. Gary Herbert extended the state’s “Stay Safe, Stay Home” directive through May 1. Schools will be closed for the remainder of the year.

Vermont

Gov. Phil Scott issued a “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order that has been extended until May 15.

Scott on April 17 outlined a five-point plan to reopen the state while continuing to fight the spread of the coronavirus during a news conference.

Virginia

Gov. Ralph Northam issued a stay-at-home order effective until June 10.

Washington

Gov. Jay Inslee extended Washignton’s stay-at-home order until May 4, saying “We are yet to see the full toll of this virus in our state and the modeling we’ve seen could be much worse if we don’t continue what we’re doing to slow the spread.”

West Virginia

Gov. Jim Justice issued a stay-at-home order until further notice.

“That curve is the curve we’re looking for to be able to look at the possibility of backing things off and going forward. We’re not there yet,” Justice said on April 13.

Wisconsin

Gov. Tony Evers’ stay at home order will expire May 26, making his one of the latest dates in the country, along with Connecticut and the states that haven’t set a date.

Wyoming

Wyoming doesn’t have a stay at home order, and has been relatively unscathed by the outbreak. It was the last state to receive a federal disaster declaration.

from: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/heres-where-all-50-states-stand-reopening-their-economies

And So Fall Oil Prices

Posted on April 21, 2020 by marcia

What just happened to the price of oil?

April 21, 2020 3.58am EDT

Authors

We have just witnessed an oil price crash like never before taking prices of West Texas Intermediate into deeply negative territory.

The spot price of West Texas, the US benchmark, reached minus US$40.32 a barrel and the May futures price (which is deliverable in a physical form) went to minus US$37.63 a barrel, the lowest price in the history of oil futures contracts.

There has been no better indicator of the extent of the economic impacts of coronavirus. With borders closed and much of the world’s population being urged to stay at home, transport has come to a near halt.

How can a price turn negative?

Oklahoma’s Cushing oil storage facility, the largest in the world. Crude Oil Daily

The industry has not been able to slow production fast enough to counter the drop in demand. The other mechanism that normally stabilises prices, US oil storage, appears to be nearing capacity.

West Texas Intermediate is typically stored at the Cushing facility in Oklahoma which is on the way to being full.

Cushing is said to be able to hold 62 million barrels of oil – enough to fill all the tanks of half the cars in United States.

That’s why prices have gone negative. Traders with contracts to take delivery of oil in May fear they won’t be able to store it. They are willing to pay not to have to take it and have nowhere to put it.

Not all oil contracts went negative. West Texas Intermediate contracts for June and subsequent months are still positive, reflecting a feeling that the supply and demand imbalance will soon be corrected.

Brent, the international price benchmark, remained positive, dropping to US$25.57 – a fall of about 9%. Unlike West Texas Intermediate, Brent deliveries can be put on ships and transported to storage facilities anywhere in the world.

Not confined to the US

There is no guarantee the problems of storage evident in the US won’t spread to other markets.

This is despite the decision of OPEC-Plus (the mainly Middle Eastern member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia and other former Soviet states) to respond to the free fall by cutting output by 9.7 million barrels per day, ending the recent duel over production levels between OPEC and Russia

Adding another element to the COVID-19 story, on March 9, the day of the Black Monday stock market crash, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange reported a new daily record for West Texas Intermediate trading, reaching 4.8 million contracts, surpassing the 4.3 million recorded on September 2019 following the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities.The future does not look good. With rising unemployment, stuttering economies, and collapsing financial markets the prospects for substantial recovery in the oil markets seems far away

The US, these days an exporter itself through shale oil, will suffer in the same way as traditional exporters in the Middle East.

Historically, oil markets have been considered good at predicting recessions, although in this case the causation might go the other way.

At this point the industry might be starting to consider that the best place to store oil is a natural one – leaving it in the ground.

from: https://theconversation.com/what-just-happened-to-the-price-of-oil-136842

Curious Dolphin Traits

Posted on April 21, 2020 by marcia

9 mind-boggling dolphin facts

Dolphins are exceptionally smart — and a little quirky, too.

Never underestimate the intelligence or abilities of dolphins. (Photo: Matt9122/Shutterstock)

Dolphins never cease to amaze. As researchers delve into the underwater world of these brilliant cetaceans, we’re learning how full of surprises these creatures are, from their intricate social lives to their intelligence. Here are just some of the ways dolphins are exceptional, both physically and mentally.

1. Dolphins evolved from land-based animals

Dolphins didn’t always live in the water. They are what’s called reentrants. Millions of years ago, the ancestors of dolphins roamed across land. The dolphins we know today are evolved from even-toed ungulates, which had hoof-like toes at the end of each foot. But around 50 million years ago, these ancestor animals decided the ocean was a better place to live. They eventually returned to the water and evolved into the dolphins that we know today.

The evidence for this evolutionary history can still be seen in dolphins today. Adult dolphins and whales have remnant finger bones in their flippers, as well as vestigial leg bones. (For a quick refresher on homologous structures, the structures found in different species that originated from a common ancestor, read 8 uncanny examples of convergent evolution.)

2. Dolphins stay awake for weeks on end

A female dolphin with her calf. Neither of them are getting much sleep! (Photo: Jman78/iStockPhoto)

Recent research has shown the surprising capability of dolphins to stay awake for days or weeks on end — or possibly indefinitely.

On the one hand, the ability makes perfect sense. Dolphins need to go to the ocean’s surface to breathe, so they can’t simply breathe automatically like humans do. They have to stay constantly awake to take a breath and avoid drowning. How do they do this? By resting just one half of their brain at a time, a process called unihemispheric sleep.

Brian Branstetter, a marine biologist with the National Marine Mammal Foundation, and fellow researchers conducted a test with two dolphins, seeing how long they could stay alert. According to Live Science:

The scientists found these dolphins could successfully use echolocation with near-perfect accuracy and no sign of deteriorating performance for up to 15 days. The researchers did not test how much longer the dolphins could have continued. “Dolphins can continue to swim and think for days without rest or sleep, possibly indefinitely,” Branstetter said. These findings suggest that dolphins evolved to sleep with only half their brains not only to keep from drowning, but also to remain vigilant.

Breathing and not being eaten are two excellent reasons to keep at least half of the brain active at all times. But what about baby dolphins? Turns out, they don’t sleep either. For as long as a month after birth, dolphin calves don’t catch a wink of sleep. Researchers think this is an advantage, helping the calf to better escape predators, keeping the body temperature up while the body accumulates blubber, and even encouraging brain growth.

3. Most dolphins don’t chew

Dolphin do have teeth, but they aren’t used for chewing. (Photo: Alicia Chelini/Shutterstock)

If you’ve ever watched a dolphin eat, you may have noticed that they seem to gulp down their food. That’s because dolphins can’t chew. Instead, their teeth are used to grip prey, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Sometimes, they’ll shake their food or rub it on the ocean floor to tear it into more manageable pieces. One theory for why they’ve evolved to do away with chewing is because they need to quickly consume fish before dinner can swim away. Skipping the process of chewing ensures their meal doesn’t escape.

4. Dolphins have worked for the Navy since the 1960s

A Navy-trained dolphin wears a locating pinger as it performs mine clearance work in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War. (Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Brien Aho [public domain]/Wikimedia Commons)

The idea of dolphins being employed by the military to scan harbors for enemy swimmers or pinpoint the location of underwater mines may seem like the plot of a B-rated movie, but it’s true — and has been for decades.

Since the 1960s, the U.S. Navy has been utilizing dolphins and training them to detect underwater mines. Much the same way bomb-detecting dogs work by using smell, dolphins work by using echolocation. Their superior ability to scan an area for particular objects allows them to zero in on mines and drop a marker at the spot. The Navy can then go in and disarm the mine. The echolocation abilities of dolphins far outstrip any technology people have come up with to do the same job.

Dolphins are also used to alert the Navy to the presence of enemies in harbors. There has also been much speculation about other uses of dolphins for the military, including claims they train them to kill people or plant explosives on ships. None of this has been confirmed by the military. Still, animal activists have long opposed the use of dolphins for military purposes.

5. Dolphins teach their young how to use tools

Dolphins possess several behaviors that are passed down from one generation to the next. (Photo: Joost van Uffelen/Shutterstock)

Researchers discovered that a population of dolphins living in Shark Bay, Australia, use tools, and they pass that knowledge down from mother to daughter. The behavior is called “sponging,” and the researchers found it was not only the first instance of tool use in cetaceans, but it was also evidence of culture among non-humans, according to research published by Eric M. Patterson and Janet Mann in the journal PLOS ONE.

Individuals in this small group of dolphins search for several minutes to find cone-shaped sea sponges. They tear this sea sponge free of the ocean floor, then carry it on their beaks to a hunting ground where they use it to probe the sand for hiding fish. The researchers think this helps protect their sensitive snouts while they hunt.

6. Dolphins form friendships through shared interests

This particular group of dolphins in Shark Bay have been keeping researchers busy over the years, revealing information about group culture and social habits.

Researchers from the universities of Bristol, Zurich and Western Australia discovered that the Shark Bay dolphins form friendships based on a shared interest — in this case, the sponge-hunting habit. This tool-using characteristic was found primarily in female dolphins, but by studying the behavior of the few male dolphins that exhibited the behavior, the researchers saw something new: relationships formed over shared tool technique.

“Foraging with a sponge is a time-consuming and largely solitary activity so it was long thought incompatible with the needs of male dolphins in Shark Bay — to invest time in forming close alliances with other males. This study suggests that, like their female counterparts and indeed like humans, male dolphins form social bonds based on shared interests,” Dr. Simon Allen, a co-author of the study and senior research associate at Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, told Phys.org.

The researchers. findings were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

7. Dolphins call each other by name

When dolphins hear their names, they respond. (Photo: Tory Kallman/Shutterstock)

We know dolphins communicate, but we’re learning more about how they do this all the time.

Dolphins have names and respond when called. Dolphins within pods have their own “signature whistle,” just like a name, and other dolphins can use that special whistle to get the attention of their pod mates. Considering dolphins are a highly social species with the need to stay in touch over distances, it makes sense they would have evolved to use “names” much the same way people do.

According to the BBC, researchers followed a group of wild bottlenose dolphins, recording their signature whistles and then playing the calls back to the dolphins.

“The researchers found that individuals only responded to their own calls, by sounding their whistle back. The team believes the dolphins are acting like humans: when they hear their name, they answer.”

What’s more, they don’t respond when the signature whistles of dolphins from strange pods are played, showing that they’re looking for and responding to specific information within whistles. The research opens up whole new questions about the extent of dolphin vocabulary, and it also could reveal clues about the evolution of our own language skills.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

8. Dolphins work together as a team

Male dolphins synchronize their calls when they work together as a team, a behavior once thought to be unique to humans. (Photo: bluehand/Shutterstock)

More recent research takes this idea of cooperative communication even further. A team of researchers from Bristol University found that male dolphins don’t just synchronize their calls; they work together as a team, and attribute previously thought to unique to humans.

In describing the behavior of male dolphins as they work together to herd female dolphins, the researchers saw cooperative rather than competitive behavior, which is especially unusual in terms of finding a mate.

“The males aren’t attracting a female here, they have her, they are herding her,” Dr. Stephanie King, co-author of the study, told The Guardian. The team’s findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

9. Dolphins get high on fish toxins

We know that pufferfish have strong toxins. Apparently dolphins know this too, and they use this for recreational benefit.

Normally, pufferfish toxin is deadly. However, in small doses the toxin acts like a narcotic. BBC filmed dolphins gently playing with a pufferfish, passing it between pod members for 20 to 30 minutes, then hanging around at the surface seemingly mesmerized by their own reflections.

Rob Pilley, a zoologist who also worked as a producer on the series, was quoted in The Independent: “This was a case of young dolphins purposely experimenting with something we know to be intoxicating … It reminded us of that craze a few years ago when people started licking toads to get a buzz, especially the way they hung there in a daze afterwards. It was the most extraordinary thing to see.”

Apparently humans aren’t the only species to knowingly dabble in strange substances to achieve an altered state of mind.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with new information since it was first published in June 2016.

from: https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/7-mind-boggling-dolphin-facts

A Little Tonic & Zinc

Posted on April 21, 2020 by marcia

Professor Didier Raoult Publishes Results of a Hydroxychloroquine Treatment Study on 1061 Patients

By Arjun Walia

In Brief

The Facts:Professor Didier Raoult has published his early results for Hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for moderate to severe COVID-19 patients. 973 patients out of 1063, according to him, have shown “a good clinical outcome.”
Reflect On:Why is there always so much controversy and politicization of science and treatments? Why are these treatments controversial within the mainstream, but vaccines cannot even be questioned?

In a new study performed at IHU Méditerranée Infection, Marseille, France a cohort of 1061 COVID-19 patients were treated for 3 days with the Hydroxychloroquine-Azithromycin (HCQ-AZ) combination. A follow-up of at least 9 days was investigated and the study found that no cardiac toxicity was observed. According to the abstract which was recently released:

“A good clinical outcome and virological cure was obtained in 973 (out of 1061) patients within 10 days (91.7%)…A poor outcome was observed for 46 patients (4.3 %); 10 were transferred to intensive care units, 5 patients died (0.47%) (74-95 years old) and 31 required 10 days of hospitalization or more…The HCQ-AZ combination, when started immediately after diagnosis, is a safe and efficient treatment for COVID-19, with a mortality rate of 0.5%, in elderly patients. It avoids worsening and clears virus persistence and contagiosity in most cases.”

The original abstract can be accessed here.

Also, the researchers made this table available.

I came across this information via the Physicians For Informed Consent.

It’s not clear when the complete study will be made available. But there is another side to this story, Sciencemg points out that:

The popular faith in hydroxychloroquine stands in stark contrast to the weakness of the data. Several studies of its efficacy against COVID-19 have delivered an equivocal or negative verdict, and it can have significant side effects, including heart arrhythmias. Raoult’s positive studies have been widely criticized for their limitations and methodological issues. The first included only 42 patients, and Raoult chose who received the drug or a placebo, a no-no in clinical research; the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy has distanced itself from the paper, published in the society’s International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. The second study, published as a preprint without peer review, didn’t have a control group at all.

They go on to mention that:

Raoult has dismissed the criticism and complained about the “dictatorship of the methodologists” who insist on randomization and control groups in clinical trials. In his hospital, every patient diagnosed with COVID-19 receives hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin, an antibiotic. Raoult claims this has resulted in a very low death rate, which he says he will document soon in a publication.

Raoult has also found some high-level support in the medical world. An online petition in support of hydroxychloroquine was started by cardiologist and former Minister of Health Philippe Douste-Blazy—France’s candidate to lead the World Health Organization in 2017—and Christian Perronne, head of infectious diseases at the renowned Raymond Poincaré University Hospital in Garches, near Paris. Ten other prominent figures from the medical community, including two members of the Academy of Medicine, have also co-signed the petition, which demands hydroxychloroquine be authorized in hospital settings.

This has become a highly controversial topic that’s been politicized, as with most other medications and drugs. Profit and corporate interests are at stake, and therefore mass perceptions of it are controlled using various tactics and media. Sometimes it can be hard to decipher truth.

These findings also correlate with others that have been gaining attention as well.

For example, Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a board-certified family practitioner in New York, said in a video interview that a cocktail of Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc Sulfate and Azithromycin are showing phenomenon results with 900 coronavirus patients treated. (source)

In that video he stated that he believes it’s very important to “get this information out to the American people and to the world.”

Dr. Anthony Cardillo, an ER specialist and the CEO of Mend Urgent Care, has been prescribing the zinc and hydroxychloroquine combination on patients experiencing severe symptoms associated with COVID-19. In an interview with KABC-TV, Cardillo stated:

“Every patient I’ve prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free, […] So, clinically I am seeing a resolution.”

“We have to be cautious and mindful that we don’t prescribe it for patients who have COVID who are well,” he said. “It should be reserved for people who are really sick, in the hospital or at home very sick, who need that medication. Otherwise we’re going to blow through our supply for patients that take it regularly for other disease processes.”

According to Cardillo, it’s the combination of zinc and hydroxychloroquine that does the job. “[Hydrocychloroquine] opens the zinc channel” allowing the zinc to enter the cell, which then “blocks the replication of cellular machinery.”

President Donald Trump has also been quite outspoken about this treatment in some of his recent press conferences. We’ve seen many mainstream media publications, however, downplay the potential of this treatment which may be confusing people.

Cardillo added that the drug should only be prescribed to patients who are on the more severe side when it comes to symptoms. This will help keep the limited supply of the drug ready for those who truly need it.

In New Jersey, Physicians have called for more autonomy in treatment of COVID-19

“An additional group of doctors has contacted a New Jersey State Senator calling on the State to lift restrictions on the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for the therapeutic treatment and prophylactic early treatment of COVID-19. The doctors are echoing Senator Pennacchio’s appeal for New Jersey to accumulate a stockpile of the medication….Pennacchio also wants the State to immediately compile a priority list for the HCQ distribution, ensuring enough medication for those currently prescribed for maladies including Lupus and RA, distribution to patients who have developed COVID-19, and for citizens as a preventive treatment. ‘I am optimistic these measures would decrease the severity and duration of the disease,’ said Pennacchio. ‘The goal must be breaking the pandemic so people can be allowed to return to their normal lives.’ ‘Allow doctors to be doctors. Remove the State’s unnecessary shackles, and let them save lives,’ Pennacchio urged.” (source)

In France, a large study indicates combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin to be effective in treating COVID-19

“In 80 in-patients receiving a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, the team found a clinical improvement in all but one 86 year-old patient who died, and one 74-year old patient still in intensive care unit. The team also found that, by administering hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin, they were able to observe an improvement in all cases, except in one patient who arrived with an advanced form…The team went on to say: ‘Thus, in addition to its direct therapeutic role, this association can play a role in controlling the disease epidemic by limiting the duration of virus shedding, which can last for several weeks in the absence of specific treatment.’” (source)

All of this, of course, continues to raise the question: why is there such a strong push for a vaccine, and perhaps a mandated one, when there are other options available now? Why is the world listening to Bill Gates and his calls for further lockdown until the vaccine is ready? Is there something else going on here? Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed that things won’t go back to ‘normal’ until a COVID-19 vaccine is developed.” You can read more about that here.

Not only are the above treatments literally ignored by mainstream and not really well known about as they should be, Vitamin C is also being ignored. An article published by LiveScience, a mainstream science website, states that “Vitamin C is extremely unlikely to help people fight off the new coronavirus.” But how come Medicine in Drug Discovery, of Elsevier, a major scientific publishing house, recently published an article on early and high-dose IVC in the treatment and prevention of Covid-19. In the article, he states the following:

High-dose intravenous VC has also been successfully used in the treatment of 50 moderate to severe COVID-19 patients in China. The doses used varied between 2 g and 10 g per day, given over a period of 8–10 h. Additional VC bolus may be required among patients in critical conditions. The oxygenation index was improving in real time and all the patients eventually cured and were discharged. In fact, high-dose VC has been clinically used for several decades and a recent NIH expert panel document states clearly that this regimen (1.5 g/kg body weight) is safe and without major adverse events.

Again, all of this information should really raise some red flags and questions about what’s going on within governments, and their connection to pharmaceutical companies. They’re the largest lobbying entity in Washington D.C. They have more lobbyists in Washington D.C. than there are congressman and senators combined. They give twice to Congress what the next largest lobbying entity is, which is oil and gas… Imagine the power they exercise over both republicans and democrats. You can read more about that here.

Why do we continue to turn to and rely on federal health regulatory agencies and companies that don’t make health a priority, and put profits ahead of health?

from: https://www.collective-evolution.com/2020/04/14/professor-didier-raoult-publishes-results-of-a-hydroxychloroquine-treatment-study-on-1061-patients/

Not Wantin’ Your Stinkin’ Vaccine, Billy

Posted on April 21, 2020 by marcia

BILL GATES’ LATEST INSTAGRAM POST HAS BEEN BOMBARDED WITH ACCUSATIONS & COMMENTS AGAINST VACCINES

by Arjun Walla

In Brief

The Facts:Bill Gates’ latest instagram post has been littered with comments accusing him of crimes against humanity and other accusations, expressing concerns about vaccinations and more. Many comments seem to continually get deleted.
Reflect On:Is humanity waking up? Are there more people who are questioning, doing their own research and thinking for themselves instead of letting big corporations/philanthropists think for them and telling them what is necessary?

Special note to readers: This is the most comprehensive investigation into both sides of the vaccine debate. Researchers, medical professionals and scientists, come together to bring you the information you need to know in order to make educated decisions about vaccines. The global viewing event for The Truth About Vaccines begins April 22.

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Click To Watch For Free

“HOLY CRAP! Just went to @BillGates Instagram. How is no journalist reporting that millions of people from around the world are in his comments saying they want nothing to do with his corruption. Japan, Morocco, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Africa…” This is a tweet from Candace Owens published a couple of days ago, as soon as I saw it I rushed over to Bill Gates’ latest instagram post, the one where he is holding up a sign that reads “Thank you health care workers.” I was not surprised to see that Owens was correct, except for the “millions of people part,” from what I see so far there are nearly three hundred thousand comments, with many people expressing the fact that a lot of them are continuously being deleted, so perhaps Owens was right. Regardless, the number of comments that seem to question, call out, and down right accuse Bill Gates of crimes against humanity is overwhelming and interesting to say the least.

I was disappointed to see so much hate and judgement, that’s never at all needed and only reinforces what we are trying to ‘fight’ against. Every action certain people and governments take seems to spark more critical questioning within people. So instead of dwelling in fear, we now have tools that will further the awakening of humanity into empowerment and autonomy. What’s happening right now is a positive thing, various governments and those who they’re connected to will take actions, but how we respond to it is up to us.

Apart from the everyday Joe like you and me, there are multiple ‘influencers’ with millions of followers who have also left criticisms. I am looking through the comment feed right now. Candace Owens, for example, writes “Wow. Looks like your #coronavirus fame has backfired, hardcore. Going to have to pass on any vaccines you’re cooking up as well – but I do wish you well.”

Many of the people with blue check marks have millions of followers.

Many of the comments emphasize that people will not be taking a coronavirus vaccine. Perhaps this comes in response to the fact that Gates, in a recent interview on Fox News, as well as with other networks, stated that “It is fair to say that things won’t go back to truly normal until we have a vaccine that we’ve gotten out to basically the entire world.” He is funding most of those efforts. You can watch that interview and read more about it here, and why those comments are being questioned by many, including myself.

The comments on his instagram post are also calling for the arrest of Bill Gates, and many commenters are constantly asking why he’s deleted his comments, and if he pays somebody to delete them. Again, the majority of the comments deal with vaccines, and people’s desire not to take them and constantly explaining how they should not be mandatory.

This is not a surprise, in fact, vaccine hesitancy is at an all time high . In fact, many scientists presented facts about vaccines and vaccine safety at the recent Global Health Vaccine Safety summit hosted by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. One of those facts was that more scientists and doctors are becoming hesitant about vaccine safety as well. You can read more about that here.

Ask yourself, why is this happening? Is it because vaccines are actually not as safe and effective as they’re marketed to be? Why does the vaccine hesitancy movement continue to grow, and do health authorities have the right to impose mandatory vaccination measures? Organizations like the Physicians For Informed Consent, and a growing number of people around the world would say no.

Another large group of commentators also raised their voice against a supposed tracking system that is able to somehow easily be able to detect and identify who has been vaccinated, and who hasn’t been.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently posted the following statement in his latest instagram post:

A New York Times reporter asked me yesterday about the “conspiracy theory” that #BillGates is developing injectable chip to store vaccine records. Here are the facts:

The Bill and Melinda #GatesFoundation invested more than $21 million to perfect a “microneedle technology” that embeds, under the skin, a vaccination record visible by infrared light that can be read by a “minimally-adopted smartphone technology.” The technology will allow health officials to scan U.S. citizens to detect their vaccination compliance.

A study funded by the Bill and Melinda #Gates Foundation and published in December 2019 by researchers from MIT, the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Gates-funded Intellectual Ventures Laboratory in Bellevue, WA, describes how “near-infrared quantum dots” will be implanted under the skin along with a vaccine to encode information for “decentralized data storage and bio-sensing.” Gates’ technology uses a tattoo-like mechanism to inject invisible nanoparticles subcutaneously. Gates’ researchers are now testing the implant with a vaccine against the #COVID-19 virus.

The Gates-funded report boasts that the chip system will allow “house-to-house” compliance searches to be conducted by government enforcement teams with “minimal training,” and will “open up new avenues for decentralized data storage and biosensing.” The #MIT paper is titled “Biocompatible near-infrared quantum dots delivered to the skin by microneedle patches to record vaccination.” Gates began funding implantable tracking chips and ratio biotechnology in 2011 with a grant to TransDerm Inc. Gates is currently making multiple investments to develop different versions, including grants to Vaxxas Pty Ltd, Micron Biomedical Inc, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Vaxess Technologies Inc.

I urge you to contact Bill Gates on his social media. Gently explain that tagging and tracking humans may appeal to his government cronies in totalitarian China, but those activities are inconsistent with American values and traditions.

Kevin McHugh, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice put this illustration out with the following explanation:

A pattern of 1.5-millimeter microneedles that contain vaccine and fluorescent quantum dots are applied as a patch. The needles dissolve under the skin, leaving the encapsulated quantum dots. Their pattern can be read to identify the vaccine that was administered. The project was co-led by Rice University bioengineer Kevin McHugh during his time at MIT. (Credit: Second Bay Studios) (source)

Then McHugh told Reuters that,“The quantum dot dye technology is not a microchip or human-implantable capsule and to my knowledge there are no plans to use this for coronavirus.” (source)

This type of digital identification, like Gate’s ID2020 initiative, is still vague, unclear and confusing to many.

Fact-Check.org recently put out a piece titled, “Conspiracy Theory Misinterprets Goals of Gates Foundation.” In that piece, the Gates foundation told the fact checking organization that there is no truth to a system that tracks peoples movements or one that related to COVID-19. It does mention research that was funded by the Gates Foundation and published in December. In an effort to address the problem of poor record-keeping in “low-resource settings,” such as developing countries, that research proposed keeping a record of vaccination on a patient’s skin. It tested an invisible dye that could last up to five years and be read with a specially adapted smartphone. McHugh, told Fact-Check.org by email that the ink couldn’t be used as a tracking device.

The Comments on Gates’ Instagram Is One of Many Examples of Where Human Consciousness Is At

At the end of the day, there are many examples showing that a large portion of the citizenry simply do not agree with the measures that powerful philanthropists like Bill Gates are going to in the name of ‘good will’ and for ‘the sake of humanity’ as well as ‘the greater good.’ These people have unlimited amounts of power and continually try to impose their will upon the human populace, while at the same time manufacturing our consent to these measures and ridiculing and suppressing any narrative that voices any concern, or provides evidence for concern.

In today’s day in age, regardless of what narrative is constantly beamed out to the masses, we have to ask ourselves, where is human consciousness at with certain things, like vaccines, for example, and why are we here? Is it because people are misinformed, or is it because humanity is waking up to many different things and becoming aware of information that they were once not aware of? Is it because we feel like our rights and freedoms are being slowly taken away, bit by bit, under the guise of good will? Why are authority figures now censoring information and opinions on vaccines and other topics? What’s going on here? The more authoritarian measures that are put in place both in the real world as well as digitally, the more questions and concern it raises for the citizenry.

With many issues, our thoughts and perceptions are completely programmed into us and they’re not even our own, so it’s encouraging to start seeing so many people think for themselves and judging by most of the comments from Bill Gates’ instagram, this is happening with a lot of people. This kind of ‘awakening’ will only increase as we move forward, and major events like coronavirus, just like 9/11, will only contribute to humanities great awakening. It’s great to see humanity questioning in general and no longer simply following and doing what they are told to do. We are living in a special time and the more this critical questioning continues, the more those who don’t like it and are threatened by our questioning will continue to try and push measures upon us under the guise of good will.

There is no need for hate, judgement and criticism. Those are things the world needs to leave behind, and when we are commenting on these posts and creating awareness, there’s no point in using the same tactics as those who we are trying to question do. Operating from a place of peace is always crucial and necessary, and planting seeds that inspire critical questioning as to what we are really doing here on planet Earth is key.

from: https://www.collective-evolution.com/2020/04/17/bill-gates-latest-instagram-post-has-been-bombarded-with-accusations-comments-against-vaccines/